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Book Review: CASEBOOK by Mona Simpson

This review originally appeared in Shelf Awareness for Readers and is reprinted here with permission.

At the beginning of Casebook, from PEN/Faulkner Award nominee Mona Simpson (Off Keck Road), teenage narrator Miles Adler-Hart and his twin sisters are told their parents are divorcing. The separation isn’t as bad he’d feared, as the adults have remained amicable. The kids and their mother’s lives start to really change, however, when Irene begins dating an elusive man named Eli Lee.

Eli claims to work for the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC, but travels regularly to see Irene in Santa Monica, Calif. Eli showers her with sweet talk and, as Miles notes with dismay, orders red-pepper flakes for her in restaurants. Miles wants his mother to order for herself. He and his best friend, Hector, suspect Eli is not as he seems, and the boys decide to do some snooping, including listening in on her phone calls. Their amateur tactics don’t get enough results, so they eventually hire a sympathetic private investigator, Ben, and discover things about Eli they wish they could unlearn.

It’s a bit precious for Miles to call his mother “the Mims” and his twin sisters “the Boops,” and Sherlock Holmes fans might be further distracted by the mother’s full name being Irene Adler, but Simpson’s coming-of-age tale is otherwise striking for its restraint, effectively conveying a sense of heartbreak. Miles observes that Eli’s life story is sad, but “in a way that had no poignancy.” Casebook itself is poignant, showing that pain can transform us, and sometimes we have to go through it to find what we need when we least expect it.

Nerd verdict: Case of heartache and healing, told with restraint

Amazon | IndieBound

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Giveaway: THE COLD NOWHERE by Brian Freeman

Just popping in to give you a chance to one of three copies of Brian Freeman‘s The Cold Nowhere from Quercus. I haven’t had a chance to read this one yet so the review will come later.

Here’s the description from the author’s website:

The eighth psychological suspense novel by international bestselling author Brian Freeman brings the long-awaited return of Lieutenant Jonathan Stride to the bitter cold of Duluth, Minnesota.

“My mother told me that if there was ever a time in my life when I needed protection, and no one was around for me, I should go to you. Find Mr. Stride, she told me. She said you’d help me.”

As Jonathan Stride returns home to his cottage on the shore of Lake Superior after midnight, he finds a teenage girl hiding in his bedroom. She’s pretty, scared, and soaked to the bone…and she says that someone is trying to kill her. The girl isn’t a stranger to Stride. She’s the daughter of a woman he tried—and failed—to protect from an abusive, murderous ex-husband years earlier.

With the guilt of that failure still hanging over his head, Stride is determined to protect this young girl, Cat Mateo, from a shadowy predator. However, Cat seems to have secrets of her own. She’s led a tough life on the streets; she doesn’t always tell the truth; and she has an unhealthy obsession with knives. Stride’s partner Maggie is convinced that the girl can’t be trusted, and she’s afraid that Stride may be putting himself in danger by letting Cat inside his house.

Wherever Cat goes, death seems to follow. A journalist who interviewed the girl has disappeared. Two more women are found murdered. Stride feels as if he is always one step behind a brutal killer who has Cat in his sights, and as the investigation races ahead, he finds himself on a collision course with another detective—a woman who shared his bed for years: Serena Dial. With all of their fragile relationships hanging in the balance, Stride, Serena, and Maggie must find out why this young girl has been targeted for death – and why a decade-old crime is coming back to life.

Sound good to you? Enter by answering the following question in the comments: What/who is the strangest thing/person you’ve ever found in your bedroom? As usual, lies are accepted. All entries without an answer will be disqualified. If you don’t even want to read all of this post for the instructions, you probably don’t want to read the book that much.

Giveaway ends next Wednesday, April 30, at 9 p.m. PST. Winners will have 48 hours after being notified to claim the prize before alternate winners are chosen.

Good luck! Let me know what funkiness you’ve found in your bedroom!

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Book Review: THE INTERN’S HANDBOOK by Shane Kuhn

This originally appeared as a starred review in Shelf Awareness for Readers and is reprinted here with permission.

Shane Kuhn’s The Intern’s Handbook may have an innocuous title, but the titular instruction manual is far from toothless. The handbook is written by John Lago for the new employees at Human Resources, Inc., a placement agency for assassins who pretend to be interns to infiltrate major corporations and eliminate targets. Lago is about to turn twenty-five, forced retirement age for HR, Inc. employees; any older and the interns would draw attention. Lago wants to pass on his knowledge and survival skills so the new recruits can avoid the “all-inclusive interrogation and torture package” at Guantanamo Bay. He does this by detailing his final assignment, which he initially worried wasn’t challenging enough to be his swan song but it turned out to be all kinds of wrong.

Lago is an appealing narrator, a hit man with his own code of honor about collateral damage that sometimes puts him at odds with his elusive boss, Bob, who may or may not have Lago’s best interests in mind. Fans of Duane Swierczynski’s Charlie Hardie trilogy and Josh Bazell’s Beat the Reaper should enjoy this witty but deadly thriller. The pace may induce whiplash and some of the action is way over the top, but that’s what makes the story so fun and w(h)acky. Just when Lago thinks he knows where his last job is headed, it jinks in an unexpected direction, with the biggest surprise for him and readers being how affecting the journey is.

Nerd verdict: Wild and thrilling Handbook

Amazon | IndieBound

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Book Review: THE DISAPPEARED by Kristina Ohlsson

This review originally appeared in Shelf Awareness for Readers and is reprinted here with permission.

The opening of Kristina Ohlsson’s The Disappeared is one of the most disturbing in recent memory. An unnamed woman watches an old film clip of another woman being hacked to death. Is it fake, or a real snuff film?

The tension doesn’t let up as Stockholm police discover dismembered body parts, later identified as belonging to Rebecca Trolle, a literature student who went missing two years earlier. Inspector Alex Recht and his team, which includes analyst Fredrika Bergman, discover that at the time of Rebecca’s death, she was obsessed with the topic of her dissertation—a former beloved children’s book author who went to prison for murdering her ex-lover. Rebecca was convinced of the author’s innocence and may have stumbled upon information proving her theory.

While working the difficult case, the investigative team is also grappling with personal conflicts. Alex, still mourning his dead wife, finds himself attracted to Rebecca’s grieving mother. Fredrika, who has just given birth, suspects her partner Spencer, a literature professor, is hiding something when he suddenly takes paternity leave. She becomes more alarmed when his name surfaces in relation to Rebecca.

The Disappeared is the third novel in a series (following Unwanted and Silenced), and though some recurring characters’ backstories aren’t fully explained here, the protagonists are well defined and this enthralling case stands on its own. The complex plot keeps readers in the dark with a sense of dread, but the unsettling aspects are balanced by the investigators’ persistence in the face of depravity, their determination to not let humanity disappear.

Nerd verdict: Creepy, engrossing Swedish thriller

Amazon | IndieBound

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Gillian (Anderson) Killin’ It

I was idly surfing the Internet this past weekend when I stumbled upon an interview with Gillian Anderson promoting her new TV show, Crisis, that premiered on NBC on Sunday. Network programming hasn’t impressed me much these past few years, so Crisis sounded only mildly interesting, but what made me perk up was Anderson’s mention of The Fall, her hit TV show for the BBC that aired last year. I immediately sought out the first season (available on Netflix and Amazon), stayed up until 4:30 a.m. binge-watching, and screamed in frustration when the five-episode first season ended on a cliffhanger.

Anderson, long a favorite of mine, plays Stella Gibson, a London detective superintendent sent to Belfast (Happy St. Patrick’s Day!) to track down a serial killer. We know at the very beginning who the killer is—Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan), a grief counselor with a wife and two young kids. The suspense comes in watching these two operate on parallel lines, she hunting the predator even has he preys on his female victims.

The show starts a bit slow but picks up fairly soon, with some unsettling scenes and surprising twists. Spector is not the smartest killer and makes several mistakes, so it’s frustrating when the people around him don’t pick up on the clues, allowing him to continue to get away with murder. Luckily Gibson is closing in by the end of the season, and Anderson promises a darker, more intense second season (which started filming last week and currently has no air date).

Some critics have compared Gibson to Prime Suspect‘s Jane Tennison and the comparison is apt—both women are formidable, smart, and very good detectives—but Gibson is much sexier. Nothing against Helen Mirren, who played Tennison, because we all know the actress is sexy as hell, but Tennison was lonely, consumed by her job, and almost asexual. Gibson is alluring and sexually frank, but this aspect of the character takes nothing away from her work. Her male colleagues lust after her and respect her at the same time.

Anderson knows the key to Stella’s strength and appeal is her stillness, direct gaze, and never having to raise her voice. There are scenes in which she cuts men down so calmly yet effectively with her words, you can almost hear the sound of the guys’, ah, cojones shrinking as they slink out of the room.

The show is also interesting as a showcase for Jamie Dornan. The actor’s name has been in a rash of media stories due to his upcoming turn as Christian Grey in the movie adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey, but the only thing I knew about him was that he’s a former Calvin Klein model. Though his character is neither suave nor sexy here, Dornan does a credible job. He makes Paul Spector so detestable, I want Gibson to take him down in a hard and painful way. That sick bastard needs to pay. My wait for the second season already seems long and it’s been only one day since I saw the first-season finale.

Wanting another Anderson fix, I watched Crisis on Sunday. The premise has a group of kids on a field trip getting kidnapped, and one of them happens to be the son of the US president. Anderson plays Meg Fitch, a billionaire whose daughter is also among the hostages, and Fitch’s sister is FBI agent Susie Dunn (Rachael Taylor), assigned to the case. Dermot Mulroney plays a dad chaperoning the field trip who gets rounded up with the kids.

Most of the actors playing the kids are forgettable and give unconvincing line readings, Anderson is not in as many scenes as I’d like, and some plot points are illogical, but I’m intrigued enough to keep watching for now to see what the kidnappers’ end game is.

Nerd verdicts: Gripping Fall, lukewarm Crisis

Photo: Vivian Zink/NBC

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Book Review: LOVE STORY, WITH MURDERS by Harry Bingham

This review originally appeared in Shelf Awareness for Readers and is reprinted here with permission.

Welsh Detective Constable Fiona Griffiths returns for her second outing in Harry Bingham’s Love Story, with Murders (after 2012’s Talking to the Dead). She finds a dismembered female leg in the freezer of an old woman who has recently passed away. Fi’s investigation reveals the old woman was cranky with her neighbors but not that cranky. Then other body parts start showing up all over town, not only those belonging to the original victim, who was apparently killed about seven years earlier, but also to a recently murdered man.

Because the body parts are so widely scattered around Cardiff, the detectives pin an entire phone book up on the board to represent the list of suspects. Fi gets to the bottom of things by going “off-piste”—following her own instincts more than protocol—but not before having her own chilling encounters with the killers.

Bingham combines sharp observations (a smile is described as “so thin it was probably manufactured in an Apple design lab”) with an expanding portrait of his unique heroine. The mystery of the body parts parallels Fiona’s own struggles with Cotard’s syndrome, a rare condition that makes the afflicted think they’re dead or unable to feel certain parts of their body. Fiona is attempting to put the victims’ bodies back together just as she tries to make herself feel whole. She has surprisingly poignant reactions to harrowing situations; if she fears dying then she must still be alive. She sometimes think she’s out of touch with her feelings, but Bingham is very much in control of his characters’ inner lives.

Nerd verdict: Dark but unusually poignant Love Story

Amazon | IndieBound

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Nerdy Special List March 2014

Gah, the first week of March is gone already? This list is a bit late because I worked on the Oscars most of last week (see picture below) and needed to do some major catching up on other business this week. It’s also why I didn’t get a post-show fashion commentary up (thanks, Laura and Lauren, for asking about it!).

Without further ado, let’s get to this month’s recommendations.

From Jen’s Book Thoughts:

Roosevelt’s Beast by Louis Bayard (Henry Holt and Co., March 18, 2014)

Roosevelt’s Beast is the newest adventure from Louis Bayard. Re-imagining the expedition that Theodore and Kermit Roosevelt took down the River of Doubt in South America, Bayard lets his splendid imagination and stunning mastery of language create a magical, horrifying, amazing fictional account of this world for his readers. The voices he supplies to Teddy and Kermit are at once entertainingly funny and complexly authentic.

Bayard takes the reality of the dangers that existed on the actual exploration and magnifies them with a kidnapping and a vicious beast to create suspense and excitement. Meanwhile, he explores the interactions between father and son, between explorer and native, between man and nature. This book is steeped in rich layers that demand multiple readings to fully grasp its complete essence, and I’m certain each subsequent reading will be as good or better than the one before.

Amazon | IndieBound

From Julie at Girls Just Reading:

The Accident by Chris Pavone (Crown, March 11)

I haven’t yet read Pavone’s The Expats but after reading this one, that has moved way further up in my pile. The Accident takes place in a high-octane, 24-hour period, spanning from the US to Europe. Pavone leaves no string unattached and there are no plot devices. The mystery is a solid puzzle and keeps you guessing until the end, when the puzzle is put together for the full picture. It might leave you wondering how you didn’t see it coming. For thriller and espionage fans, this is not one to miss.

Amazon | IndieBound

Fallen Beauty by Erika Robuck (NAL Trade, March 4)

Robuck is quickly becoming one of my go-to authors for historical fiction, specifically ones that fictionalize a literary icon. In Fallen Beauty, she takes on Edna St. Vincent Millay and her eccentricities. We are also introduced to Laura Kelly, who is ostracized by her town for making a wrong choice. This novel is as much Laura’s story as it is Millay’s, and how Laura’s and Millay’s stories entwine is what makes both of them more relatable. Millay shows Laura how to break down walls, while Laura shows Millay that there are all kinds of connections in the world.

Amazon | IndieBound

From Rory at Fourth Street Review:

Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler (Thomas Dunne Books, March 11)

In a modern day coming-of-age story, four friends who grew up in a tiny Wisconsin town find themselves inexplicably drawn back to their roots. A farmer, a musician, a broker, and a bull rider come together again in the town of Little Wing—for better or for worse. Shotgun Lovesongs is quiet and comforting, exploring the intricacies of life, love, and friendship as the men try to find their own place within their own reality. It’s the type of story that leaves one warm and fuzzy, nodding along with Butler’s brilliant prose. It’s as much a love letter to the Midwest as it is the story of true friendship, although it was clearly written before this Midwestern winter. (Read Rory’s full review here.)

Amazon | IndieBound

From PCN:

Watching You by Michael Robotham (Mulholland Books, March 11)

Robotham’s series featuring Joseph O’Loughlin, the psychologist with Parkinson’s, has always been solid, but Watching You may have pushed it to new heights. Someone is stalking the protagonist Marnie, whose journalist husband disappeared over a year ago and she’s being forced to do unmentionable things to pay off his debts.

People who cross her, however, have a penchant for turning up dead, while Marnie seems to have blackouts, for which she seeks out her neighbor, O’Loughlin, for help. Is Marnie a killer, is she being framed, or is there another explanation altogether? I guessed what the big revelation was, but it only made the story creepier. If you’ve never read Robotham, start now and you’ll probably want to look up his entire backlist, which Mulholland is conveniently rereleasing in the next two months.

Amazon | IndieBound

Any of these sound good to you? (See previous Nerdy Special Lists here.)

I’ll leave you with this pic, the only one I was allowed to take at the Dolby Theatre on Oscars day after wrapping up work. Happy weekend!

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Book Review: BARK by Lorrie Moore

This review is by contributor Thuy Dinh, editor of Da Mau Magazine.

Lorrie Moore’s Bark is more like a dachshund’s whimper. An elegy to fifty-something baby boomers, this collection of short stories is listless despite the high-concept packaging: the notion of stories as “songs” in a music album, with each song articulating a mood related to the album’s title.

Meaning the outer layer of trees, hardened by time and weather, bark is an apt and tactile metaphor for middle age. It also suggests a dog’s, or an insecure person’s, scare tactic: His bark is worse than his bite. Thus debarking (the title of one story in this collection) can mean “to peel, leave a ship, unload, denude, reveal.” Yet the epiphanies in Moore’s stories are cold comforts; they merely ease her characters into disunion or death.

“Foes” and “Subject to Search” are the two most successful stories out of the eight featured. They both take place in supposedly convivial settings, when the main characters are sharing meals with each other. But no communion takes place in either story. Instead, doubt, enmity, and loneliness predominate.

Bake, the liberal protagonist in “Foes,” is mortified when realizing that his dining companion and “foe,” a Republican lobbyist named Linda, is not a fetching Asian-American but a 9/11 burn victim whose “exotic looks” at close range turn out to be the results of botched reconstructive surgery.

“Subject to Search” deftly illustrates the horror of glibness disguised as romance. The juxtaposition of the heroine’s spy lover making global decisions via a remote-access laptop with a pointed yet oblique reference to Abu Ghraib through an almost homonymic line from Jabberwocky—“the mome raths outgrabe”—reinforces the cartoonish sterility of both modern love and war.

While depressed middle-aged characters should not necessarily diminish Moore’s stories, they are unsympathetic due to their First World problems. Many characters protest the war in Iraq and imagine vivid acts of violence against their spurious government or faithless spouses, but generally do nothing. They seem to be intrigued or attracted to people of different races or cultures but make no attempt to understand these others. The despair seems hollow, theatrical. It’s hard to care for aging characters who use the Bush administration’s war on terrorism as an excuse to wallow in self-pity.

Most of the stories’ insights are deeply arresting, but they resemble literary criticism more than fiction. The stories are technically solid, but seem mannered, hermetic, like assignments in an MFA writing workshop. Lacking life-like characters and rich, textured settings, Bark is marooned by lethargy, or perhaps unmoored by inside jokes and cannot debark.

Amazon | IndieBound

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Book Review: ROMANCE IS MY DAY JOB by Patience Bloom

This book is a testament to how much a cover can help a book’s discoverability. I rarely read memoirs and never read romance novels, but when I received a pitch for this memoir by Harlequin senior editor Patience Bloom, the cover captivated me. Perhaps I was coming off a bunch of dark, creepy crime novels and needed something lighter, but the artwork is bright and fun so I said yes to a review copy and am glad I did.

The book starts with Bloom in boarding school, trying to get her nerve up to ask a cute boy named Kent to a dance. Things don’t go well, which also describes her love life in the next couple of decades.

Bloom started reading and loving romance novels while a teen and often built dreamy scenarios in her head as soon as she developed a crush on someone. This led to her going to great lengths to please the objects of her affection in her journey toward finding The One.

But, alas, her time and efforts did not bring about her desired results. At the age of 41, with her dream job as an editor at Harlequin, Bloom realized she was happy in her single life. Then an old friend contacted her on Facebook.

Bloom has a breezy, accessible style that reads like someone telling you a story at a dinner party. At times, there’s too much repetition—in saying romance novels got her through tough times, for example, or insisting that reconnecting with her old friend on FB wasn’t going to lead to anything—but she comes across as someone who’s decent, self aware, unafraid to own up to her flaws and neuroses, and witty. She doesn’t wallow in self-pity after each disappointment; she gets right back in the saddle with remarkable resilience and optimism.

Which is why I was invested in her story, and it’s a good one. It contains awkward moments that call to mind Bridget Jones’s disastrous adventures in dating, amusing comparisons between romance-hero types and real men, and dark moments (like many fairy tales, there’s a nasty stepmother and scary characters), but the ending affirms the notion that sometimes real life can turn out better than fiction.

Nerd verdict: Breezy, affecting Romance

Amazon | IndieBound

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Book Review + Giveaway: NORTH OF BOSTON by Elisabeth Elo

In crime fiction, the protagonists can start to resemble each other after a while: tough FBI agent or military guy or cop or private eye, etc. I’m not saying books can’t be good with those types of characters—it all depends on the execution—only that every once in a while, it’s nice to see a different type of protagonist, and that’s who Pirio Kasparov is, in Elisabeth Elo’s debut, North of Boston.

One foggy night, Pirio is on a lobster boat with her friend Ned when a huge ship comes out of nowhere, crashes into the little boat, and quickly sinks it. The ship moves on without stopping. Ned perishes but Pirio survives, for over four hours in frigid waters before she’s rescued. She becomes somewhat of a local celebrity, and the US Navy wants her to submit to tests to determine how her body managed to stave off hypothermia when most people would’ve succumbed.

But Pirio, heir to a successful perfume business started by her Russian immigrant parents, only wants to find the ship that ran over Ned’s lobster boat. She meets resistance from the Coast Guard and others telling her to just accept the accident as a hit-and-run.

Then she meets a mysterious man at Ned’s memorial, someone who seems to want the truth as much as she does. Neither realizes how deadly the truth is, and how their attempt to see justice done will land them in deep waters, literally and figuratively.

Pirio is someone I took to right away, a woman who’s smart, not touchy-feely, and blunt to her father and friends if she feels they need to hear the truth. Her one soft spot is for her ten-year-old godson, Noah, who also wants to know what happened to his father, Ned.

The prose is full of witty descriptions such as this:

Her dress is cream and pink, a boatneck, small stripes, and some kind of floppy belt. It looks as if it started out in the morning for a 1912 steamship, took a detour to a 1950s garden party in the suburbs, and ended up in a 2013 online catalog.

When Pirio is in the mysterious man’s home, trying to figure out if he’s a good or bad guy, she checks out his bookshelf and has this observation:

*Mild spoiler*

The environmental books are persuasive, but the book that makes the strongest case for his not-evil character is The Elements of Style. What bad guy would give a shit about the difference between which and that?

*End spoiler*

Can’t argue with her there.

The story goes from the Boston area to more remote locales up the Labrador Coast in northern Canada, where the beauty of the land is contrasted by the danger Pirio is in and the ugliness of the bad people’s actions.

The descriptions of the tests Pirio endures for the navy—for the sake of her country, she’s told—are terrifying and hypnotic at the same time. I could easily visualize and imagine the mental and physical states Pirio goes through as she voluntarily freezes to the brink of death while the navy studies her. Did I mention this woman is tough?

The one false note for me was Pirio’s repeated musings on love: how she wants it, how she’s not sure if she’s ever felt it, what true love feels like, whether or not she’ll ever find it, etc. Her longing is clear and doesn’t need to be reiterated so often.

But that’s a small quibble, and I’d definitely sign up for Elo’s next exotic adventure. The press materials accompanying my review copy said the author spent time last year in Siberia and that’s partly where her next novel will be set.

If you’d like to read North of Boston, leave a comment and you’ll be entered in a giveaway of one copy, courtesy of Viking Books. Answer this question: What’s the most exotic or coldest place you’ve ever visited? (Comments who don’t include an answer will be disqualified.)

Giveaway ends next Monday, February 17, 9 p.m. PST. One winner will be randomly selected and have 48 hours to claim the prize before an alternate winner is selected. US residents only, please.

Amazon | IndieBound

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Weekend Viewing Pleasure

If you’re looking for entertainment this weekend, there are some good options across different media platforms. The Winter Olympics are on TV, and Amazon just posted ten new pilots for you to watch and rate and help decide which one will get picked up for series. You don’t need a Prime membership, just a regular free account.

Of biggest interest to me and many readers is Bosch, based on Michael Connelly’s books about LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, who’s played by Titus Welliver in the show.

Welliver is not how I pictured Harry, but the actor perfectly captured Harry’s weariness for internal politics and compassion for the victims. Strong impressions were also made by Jamie Hector as Harry’s partner, Jerry Edgar, and Annie Wersching as Julia Brasher.

Besides Wersching, another 24 alum popped up—Amy Price-Francis as Honey Chandler, the attorney out to nail Harry in a civil suit after he shoots a man while on duty. Oh, and did/can you catch Connelly’s cameo? If you’ve seen the pilot, watch it again and see if you can spot him.

It was fun for me to watch Bosch because I’ve been to all the locations featured—Angels Flight, Musso & Frank, the overlook at the reservoir with the Hollywood sign in the background, the courthouse downtown where I’ve had to do jury duty, even the street where the old doctor’s house was.

Sometimes I take for granted where I live, and just put my head down and try to get through the day. When I see all the energy and beauty and history of the city captured on film, it makes me really appreciate my surroundings. Now I just have to find out where they shot Harry’s house because the view from his deck is breathtaking. During that scene, the jazz music playing is Frank Morgan’s “Lullaby.” It’s the first cut on a free CD of Harry Bosch’s music that came with the hardcover first edition of Connelly’s Lost Light.

Other pilots up at Amazon include The After from The X-Files‘ Chris Carter, Transparent from Six Feet Under‘s Jill Solloway, and Mozart in the Jungle from About a Boy‘s Paul Weitz. Besides Bosch, I’ve seen Transparent and found it unbearable. The characters, other than Jeffrey Tambor’s patriarch, are unpleasant and self-centered. The dad even says at one point that his children are all selfish. Yup.

If you feel like venturing out to a movie theater, The Monuments Men, directed by George Clooney and adapted from the book by Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter, opens today. Based on true stories, the movie offers a look at a group of real men who retrieved art masterpieces stolen by Nazis and returned them to their rightful owners. The men weren’t soldiers but regular folk who understood that destroying or robbing a culture of its art means completely eradicating those people’s influence on civilization.

The all-star cast, including Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Jean Dujardin, among others, is uniformly good, but I will say Blanchett is especially good, which is probably no surprise to anyone. And look for a special cameo at the very end. The movie has lighthearted moments and heartbreaking moments, all while teaching me about a part of history I didn’t know much about.

That’s it for now. Happy Friday everyone!

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Nerdy Special List February 2014

Happy February! I have a feeling I’ll turn around and it’ll be September before I know it. But in the meantime, I’ll enjoy the shortest month of the year.

I’m happy to welcome a new contributor to our list, Florinda of The 3 R’s Blog. Florinda is a veteran blogger (since 2007!), a fellow reviewer for Shelf Awareness for Readers, and ardent supporter of the list since its inception in 2012. Check out her site if you haven’t already, and see her recommendation below.

Here are the February releases we really enjoyed.

From Jen at Jen’s Book Thoughts:

The Stolen Ones by Richard Montanari (Mulholland Books, February 25)

Philadelphia detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano are investigating a series of gruesome murders linked by their dump locations. All the victims are found in Priory Park. The investigation takes the police detectives back in time to the Delaware Valley State Hospital (for the criminally insane) and around the world to one of Europe’s most atrocious serial killers.

The Stolen Ones has an intense, gripping plot that will keep you glued to the book but with all the lights on. It invokes the strongest elements of the thriller, the mystery, and the horror novel, so whether you enjoy plot, character, or scare-your-pants-off suspense, it delivers.

Byrne and Balzano are returning characters, but as a first-time Montanari reader, I found no problems understanding and fully appreciating the whole novel. This was indeed a standout read and will be the first to vie for a potential spot on my favorite books of 2014 list.

From Rory at Fourth Street Review:

Road to Reckoning by Robert Lautner (Touchstone, February 4)

While I have no doubt this novel will garner comparison to True Grit, Road to Reckoning is more than just a straightforward revenge quest. What begins as a story of a father and his son Thomas quickly becomes a story of murder, revenge, friendship, and the journey back to home. The novel is set against the history of Colt firearms and the way it, and industry, changed the West. It has a distinctive, engaging narrative voice and a meandering plot that never fails to entertain. While Road to Reckoning is a typical Western in the best sense, it has quiet moments of heart and reflection as well. Recommended for fans of good literary fiction and a must-read for Western enthusiasts. Overall, a very impressive debut. (Read Rory’s full review here.)

From Florinda at The 3 R’s Blog:

One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak (Knopf, February 4)

This is the first fiction collection by actor/writer B.J. Novak (The Office). These short pieces—some are very short, barely filing a page—don’t feature recurring characters or common narrative threads, but they’re united by a consistency in tone, similar worldview, and—perhaps not surprisingly, given Novak’s background as a comedic writer and performer—a shared sense of humor. The writing is intelligent but doesn’t feel like it’s trying too hard to be clever, and I was struck by a touch of sweetness mixed into the funny. Quite frankly, I expected more snark, and I’m glad Novak confounded that expectation. I’m not generally a short-fiction fan, but this was “potato-chip reading”—I kept thinking I’d have just a few, but then I’d dig further and further into the bag.

From PCN:

Love Story, with Murders by Harry Bingham (Delacorte Press, February 18)

Fiona Griffiths, Harry Bingham’s Welsh detective afflicted with Cotard’s syndrome, finds a female leg in a recently deceased old woman’s meat freezer. The leg seems to have been in there for at least five years. Fiona finds more body parts scattered around town, some belonging to another victim, a man recently murdered.

Don’t be fooled by the flowery cover and title. The story is dark and the love story is a twisted crime-fiction version. The best reason to read this series is Fiona, whose rare condition makes her think she’s dead and unable to feel some of her own body parts. She’s gritty and constantly surprising, someone who embraces the threat of death because fearing death means she’s still alive. She has moving epiphanies at unexpected moments, and made me grateful just to feel the beating of my heart.

Any of these sound good to you? What February books are you looking forward to? (See past lists here.)

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