jen’s book thoughts – Pop Culture Nerd

Nerdy Special List February 2013

What is happening to February? It’s more than half over?! Better post this month’s Nerdy Special List, then.

Jen at Jen’s Book Thoughts read two standout February releases:

Birthdays for the Dead (Harper Paperback, Feb. 19) is the new standalone from Stuart Macbride. Detective Ash Henderson is part of the task force trying to catch the Birthday Boy, a psychotic killer who is abducting girls just before their 13th birthday, torturing them to death, and then sending their parents birthday cards every year on the girl’s birthday—cards that contain progressive pictures of the girl’s torture. Henderson has a piece of information the rest of the team lacks, though. The Birthday Boy kidnapped and killed Henderson’s daughter. This is a deliciously dark psychological thriller. Whether you’ve read Macbride before or not, if dark and haunting is your kind of thriller, Birthdays for the Dead is a must!

The Day Is Dark (St. Martin’s Griffin, Feb. 26), by Icelandic crime fiction writer Yrsa Sigurdardóttir, continues her Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series. Thóra travels to Greenland to help investigate the disappearance of two men working on a mining research project. The local inhabitants believe the location of the project is cursed and the more Thóra investigates, the more the curse looks possible. The juxtaposition of science and myth makes this mystery thought-provoking and intriguing. The writing may seem clunky at times, but this may likely be due to the translation. The underlying story is complex and the supporting characters are as rich and developed as the protagonist herself.

Danielle at There’s a Book has two recommendations as well, but in different categories:

Young Adult:

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys (Philomel Books, Feb. 12) is the follow-up to her very successful debut novel, Between Shades of Gray, and she proves she’s here to stay. Easy tells the story of Josie, a young girl trapped in New Orleans during the 1950s due to her mother’s profession as a prostitute. Josie’s determination to get out and make a life for herself is thwarted by the death of a visitor she can’t seem to distance herself from. Out of the Easy is rich and full of all of the mystery you could hope for in a setting such as New Orleans. Despite this being a young adult novel, I could easily see adult readers falling in love with this world and Ruta Sepetys’s brilliant storytelling yet again.

Picture Book:

Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle (Chronicle Books, Feb. 5) is one of the most beautiful and entertaining picture books created to date. Idle’s illustrations, which include strategically placed flaps that lift, tell the story of an uncoordinated aspiring ballerina and a graceful flamingo who attempts to teach the little girl how to dance. It’s a wordless picture book that captures the true meaning of grace, beauty, and friendship. Not only is it a favorite of my four-year-old daughter, but Flora and the Flamingo is quite possibly my favorite picture book to date.

PCN’s recommendation:

Since Tuesday, February 19, marks the 71st anniversary of the issuance of Executive Order 9066, which sent Japanese-Americans to internment camps during World War II, it seems fitting that this month’s standout book for me was Sophie Littlefield’s Garden of Stones (Harlequin MIRA, Feb. 26). It shredded me and left me wanting to weep for days. Jen asked me to mention that she also recommends this book.

The story begins with a killing in 1978, and Lucy Takeda is a suspect after a witness reports seeing her at the scene. The tale then travels back and forth between 1978 and the early 1940s, when a teenage Lucy and her beautiful mother, Miyako, are forced out of their Los Angeles home in the days following the Pearl Harbor attack and sent to Manzanar. Littlefield creates a sense of unrelenting dread as each day passes for Miyako and Lucy at the camp, with readers knowing the women are headed for experiences that would alter them forever, but feeling as helpless as the internees in doing anything about it.

Apparently, during the book’s proposal stage, Littlefield’s editor had to defend her qualification to write this book. The author, after thorough research, shows she’s definitely up to the task, telling the story in a convincing narrative voice, giving us a glimpse of how innocent Japanese-Americans must have felt during an ugly time in US history.

Littlefield steers clear of being manipulative and sensational, depicting horror with subtlety, which is more effective because our imagination fills in the rest. There are heartbreaking details about daily life in the camp, with Miyako and Lucy striving for dignity and grace even in the most degrading conditions, but there’s beauty, too, as represented by the titular object, and Lucy’s seed of hope that grows no matter how many times others try to kill it.

What books have you enjoyed so far this month? Which February releases are you looking forward to?

6 Comments

The Nerdy Special List

Every month, indie booksellers release something called the Indie Next List, which contains their recommendations of titles being published that month. It is a great resource for finding new, noteworthy books, and has been responsible for me adding more height to my TBR tower.

This inspired me recently to create my own list by polling a few blogger pals to see what their recommendations are, and the Nerdy Special List was born. My friend Lauren helped me brainstorm the name, which I thought was appropriate since each blogger is a specialist in a certain genre, except for Jenn at The Picky Girl, who will cover anything that satisfies her eclectic pickiness. The other participants are Jen at Jen’s Book Thoughts, spotlighting crime fiction titles, and Danielle at There’s a Book, who will alternate between children’s, middle grade (MG), and YA recommendations. I will round out the list, most likely with a crime fiction selection, but I might deviate as my mood dictates.

Jen, Jenn, and Danielle probably need no introductions to fans of the genres they cover, as all are established, smart, passionate bloggers. I’m thrilled they agreed to do this with me. Each month, we’ll choose one book as our favorite new release and hopefully give you exciting titles to look forward to.

I present to you the inaugural Nerdy Special List, with our September selections, in alphabetical order of blog name:

Jen at Jen’s Book Thoughts recommends: A Death in Valencia by Jason Webster (Minotaur Books, Sept. 18)

In his second crime novel featuring Detective Max Camara, Webster pokes at a volatile issue: abortion rights. A paella chef is found murdered, an abortionist is kidnapped, the pope visits Valencia and Camara finds himself homeless. Cámara is the archetypal detective—a loner with baggage and disdain for authority but ultimately doing what he does for all the right reasons. It’s a dark, complex plot in a fascinating locale.

Jenn at The Picky Girl recommends: The Cocktail Waitress by James M. Cain (Hard Case Crime, Sept. 18)

If you’ve mourned the loss of truly good pulp fiction, I’ve got good news for you: James M. Cain’s previously lost final novel, The Cocktail Waitress, doesn’t shortchange in atmosphere, story, or a sensual femme fatale. Ron Medford, abusive and alcoholic, pounded on his small son one last time before leaving and crashing his car into a culvert. A rookie cop has it in his head that Ron’s wife, Joan, helped him on his way. Broke, scared, and desperate to tear her son from the clutches of her derisive sister-in-law, Joan takes a job as a cocktail waitress and meets two men—one, a broke idealist who tempts her; the other, wealthy but older, who is tempted by her. But is Joan looking for a better life for her son, or is she just spinning her web yet again? For fans of Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice, Cain’s final novel is an unexpected delight.

Danielle at There’s a Book recommends: In a Glass Grimmly (A Tale Dark & Grimm #2) by Adam Gidwitz (Dutton Juvenile, Sept. 27)

“Once upon a time, fairy tales were horrible,” begins In a Glass Grimmly, a dark adventure for all readers but especially those looking for superb writing at any reading level. Adam Gidwitz has proven again that a story is never fully complete if a talented writer, such as himself, doesn’t want it to be. A grim narrator with an even darker tale, a luscious new world, a nonstop adventure, and strong characters make In A Glass Grimmly my favorite read for September, hands down.

PCN’s recommendation: Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham (Delacorte Press, Sept. 25).

I got tingles while reading this book, which happens when I discover an exciting new writer and series character. Harry Bingham, in his debut novel, introduces crime fans to Detective Constable Fiona Griffiths, a woman who’s exceptionally good at her job in a South Wales police department, but is emotionally and socially disconnected due to a rare condition that I found myself looking up after finishing the book. She has difficulty translating physical signs into emotions—does increased heart rate mean fear, excitement, or love? Fi is tough and witty, even if she doesn’t mean to be, and the puzzle of her own past might be as complex as any case she encounters.

Many thanks to Jen, Jenn, and Danielle!

Hope you find many great reads this month. Anything you’re really looking forward to? (See other lists here.)

7 Comments

Mysterious Allure of Greece and the Greek Detective

When Jen over at Jen’s Book Thoughts invited bloggers to participate in her Detectives Around the World theme week, I knew I wanted to write about someone from the Greek islands. Never mind that I’d never read or heard of any fictional detectives from there; I was determined to spotlight the most beautiful places I’d ever visited and I’ve been to Arkansas so that’s saying a lot.

My initial Internet research turned up several novels that took place in the years Before Christ. Pass. I wouldn’t know anything about Greek settings in those times and don’t have any pictures of ancient bath houses or the Parthenon when it was new.

Luckily, I finally discovered Anne Zouroudi‘s series about a mysterious Greek detective named Hermes Diaktoros, named after the Greek messenger god with the golden winged sandals (AKA the FTD logo). Though the first three books are already available in the U.K., with a fourth coming out this summer (Zouroudi plans seven books for the series, each covering one of the Deadly Sins), the first installment, The Messenger of Athens, doesn’t arrive in the U.S. until July from Reagan Arthur Books. It’s about time, because this unique series is a welcome addition to crime fiction.

Messenger takes place on the imaginary island of Thiminos and begins with a young woman’s battered body being found at the bottom of a cliff. The chief of police is quick to label it a suicide, but Diaktoros, an investigator from Athens who’s referred to as “the fat man,” arrives to dig more deeply into the case. No one knows who sent him, what his end game is, how he knows people’s secrets, or why he’s compulsive about keeping his tennis shoes pristinely white at all times. Though many try to avoid answering his questions, the fat man eventually unearths the real story behind the woman’s death—one which involves the Deadly Sin of lust—and administers his own brand of justice.

This novel satisfied many interests for me: mysteries, Greek mythology, and everyday life on a Greek island (more on that later). In mythology, Hermes is Zeus’s son, the messenger between the Olympian gods and humans. The fat man’s evasiveness whenever someone asks who he’s working for—coupled with other subtle clues—implies he’s not just a namesake of the god. Don’t worry if that sounds a little too mythological for you; Diaktoros is a stout, earthy presence, albeit one with slightly unusual methods of solving mysteries.

Zouroudi, who was nominated in 2008 for ITV3’s Crime Thriller Awards for Breakthrough Author of the Year, has a timeless style evocative of Agatha Christie’s, which is apropos for the setting. Thiminos is a remote island without modern trappings; life here is hard and the men are harder. Women are still considered as little more than baby producers and cooks. Irini, the victim, wanted more from life and instead ends up dead.

I mentioned earlier that this book addressed my curiosity about what it would be like to live on a Greek island. When I visited the islands in 2006, I was so overwhelmed by the beautiful vistas, I toyed with the idea of moving there (Zouroudi actually did this; she fell in love with the islands on vacation, relocated, married a Greek man and had a baby there before moving back to England). I chatted with locals about their lives and received candid answers about their struggles when tourist season is over. Zouroudi provides even more insight about the day-to-day existence, how being island-bound can breed despair in some people and fear of leaving it in others, how the landscape can be breathtaking yet harsh, how the old buildings I found gorgeous on the outside can be damp and drafty inside during the winter.

Reading Messenger of Athens (and about Greece’s recent bankruptcy troubles) may have deterred me from Greek-island living for now, but I still feel the pull of the splendor I found there. Since that beauty partly motivated Zouroudi to write this series, I thought I’d share some personal snapshots in the slideshow below to illustrate what captivated both my and Zouroudi’s heart. The book’s Thiminos isn’t real so my pictures are from Mykonos and Santorini, two of the prettier islands I visited. Maybe the photos will entice you to travel there someday or at least start reading the Greek Detective series.

For more on Detectives Around the World, be sure and visit Jen’s Book Thoughts.

[cincopa 10581879]

Buy The Messenger of Athens from Amazon

Buy from an indie bookstore

Disclosure: I only get a small commission if you buy from Amazon. The indie link is for those who would rather eat glass than buy from Amazon.