Category: Books

Genre: Book                                    

Grade: B+

Notable People:  Mark Billingham

Title: Sleepyhead

Review: this big-ass bestseller was recommended to me by my longtime band mate, Brother Al, no doubt for the protagonists’ immersion into our kind of alt country music (think Gram and Merle). This was the first in what has become a lengthy Tom Thorne series for Billingham, previously known as a standup comic, and became a small sensation in crime fiction. Well written, interesting plot, familiar hero type detective, but the story is also told from the perspective of a woman in a more or less induced come, who is aware but cannot communicate. Good turns and twists, nice character development. Will see how the series proceeds since this first effort from 2001.

Genre: Book              

Grade: A

Notable People: Martin Walker

Title: A Grave in The Woods

Review: Number 17 in Walker’s’ critically acclaimed series that features, Bruno, the Chief of Police for the Vezere Valley and the town of St. Denis in southwestern France’s fabled Dordogne region. As usual the mystery soon melds into thoughtful fore’s into French culture, cuisine, history and, especially, Les Resistance movement of the second World War. You get to learn, you get to be allured, you get a good mystery.…and you get really hungry from the detailed meal prep descriptions in this region famous for its gastronomy and wine. These books are simply a must for anyone with a Francophile tendency. ​

Genre: Book            

Grade: A-

Notable People: Howard Frank Mosher

Title: Points North

Review: the critically acclaimed final work of beloved Vermont fiction by Howard Frank Mosher, who died in 2017. ​Mosher continues his 30 year, 14 book odyssey exploring the story of centuries of the Kinneson family of Vermont’s loosely disguised remote Northeast Kingdom fictionally, Kingdom County). The setting, which has often been the focus of Mosher’s four-decade-long career, is brought up to the 21st Century. Through a series of stories rooted in Northern Vermont, Mosher captures the essence of rural America with dead eye commentary, subtle observations on people and relationships and a masterful dry wit. I periodically pick up one of these book at the library and always become immediately entwined in his fabled Kingdom community and its irreverent characters. Vermont’s fiction laureate in my book.

Genre: Book  

Grade: B+

Notable People: Daniel Mason

Title: North Woods

Review: This interesting fifth novel from a psychiatrist/ author has been the rage of our local mountain libraries. I got on a wait list for it, waited for a month, started reading it, and was ready to be done after first 25 pages. Not my style to give up, so persevered-and it got a lot better, though still obtuse at times. Story of a single house and its occupants in a rural area of Western Mass., for centuries, starting with what seemed to allegorically (or not) be the garden of Eden with the book’s apple orchard initial setting and related bad behavior, and then gravitating into an unending line of seriously dysfunctional generations of inhabitants. Got a lot more interesting in the pre-post civil war years and then faded some in modern times. Mason writes more like a shrink than a man of letters from my point of view, but the story is unusual and many of the characters are captivating. Could have been 100 pages shorter for my money……and have a bit less forbidden fruit.

Genre: Book                 

Grade: A-

Notable People: Walter Mosley

Title: Finding Amethystine Review: The great Walter Mosley- chronicler of the post war Black American experience in the infancy of what is now LA sprawl has put out his umpteenth offering in this magnificent series-which he originally published in the 70s and has now temporally moved from 1946 to 1970. January 1970 finds Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, LA’ s premier Black detective, having made 50 years of age despite all expectations to the contrary .  He has a loving family, a beautiful home, and a thriving investigation agency.  All is right with the world… and then Amethystine Stoller, his own personal Helen of Troy, arrives. Her ex-husband is missing. A simple enough case. But even as Easy takes his first step in the investigation he trips. Into all kinds of devilry highlighting his life journey with race, loss, love, a world war, and a hunger that has eaten at him since he was a Black boy on his own on the streets of Fifth Ward, Houston. Top echelon of current American writers and a great storyteller with a powerful message. Long Live Easy.

Genre: Book  

Grade: A-/B+

Notable People: James Lee Burke

Title: Clete

Review: fine writers ranging from John Irving to Stephen King have proclaimed Burke to be our greatest living writer. Nearing 90, he remains prolific, and his wheelhouse mainstay has been his amazing Dave Robicheaux series, which he has penned for nearly 40 years now; leading us deftly through the swamp and bayous of southern Louisiana with acuity of spirit and a narrative style matched by none. Lift any paragraph from any Burke book, and it is instantly recognizable, and incomparable in its descriptive power and lucidity-it takes you there and then. The fact that these are “mysteries” is irrelevant; Burke’s greatness transcends genre. All that said, this is an unusual effort to have Dave’s perennial sidekick, Clete Purcell, a larger than life character for 40 years tell this story in the first person. It is a brave experiment in writing, and somewhat of an adjustment and the telling lacks some of the finesse of his other books, but then Clete has never been accused of finesse. I struggled a bit with the folksy narrative, but that is nit-picking. It is JLB, and always worth reading. And you will never know the bayou of south Louisiana, in is history, culture and demons like after reading one of these books.

Genre: TV Series            

Grade: A-/B+

Notable People: James McBride

Title: The Color of Water

Review: This very moving testament to his mother from McBride, a noted musician and writer, who was one of 12 black children born of, and raised by a white mother, starting in the 1940s. From the deep south to the notorious Red Hook (housing) Projects of Brooklyn and Harlem in its golden age, it a wonderful tale; alternating his and his mother’s story; she of an orthodox Jewish family and rabbi father, who became fully invested in black America at a time when it was not an easy choice (is it ever?). The parallels between the Jewish and African –American experience are potent; as is the sense of loss and alienation for her and for her children. Poignantly written with a great deal of emotion, it is a work worth pursuing, though, admittedly, I would not see McBride as a top echelon writer…but his story…..  

Genre: TV Series      

Grade: A-/B+

Notable People: CJ Box

Title: Three Inch Teeth

Review: another fine entity to this series about Wyoming Game Warden, Joe Picket, now in its third decade of publishing. The characters in the book have evolved very well over time, and this is one of the great current series for sense of place; if you love the American west, this is hard to put down. The story revolves around the uncommon, and suddenly plentiful, incidence of grizzly bear attacks throughout Wyoming. The writing is precise and evocative; and the story keeps you engaged, though it seemed a bit more of a stretch on believability than usual. Still, Box is a gem of a writer that happens to be work in the medium of mystery.

Genre: Book           

Grade: A-

Notable People: Thomas Perry

Title:  Harbor Lights: Poison Flower

Review: This 2012 addition to the wonderful Jane Whitefield series, continues the trend of each book being better than the last. Jane is back in the business of helping unfairly hunted people escape and new anonymous lives, a career she is beyond masterful….. at once again leaving her long suffering surgeon husband to the good lie in Buffalo, and taking on the evil guys while helping three “runners” the same time. Filled with iconic Native American imagery, with wonderful characters and riveting road tales across the country, this series is one of the best going; happily, with no end in sight. A hard to put down summer read.

Genre: Book             

Grade: A-

Notable People: Anne Berest

Title:  Harbor Lights: The Postcard

Review: An unsigned postcard arrives at the Berest home in Paris in January of 2003. A photo of the Opera Garnier is on the front – on the back, no message, just four names written in ballpoint pen – Ephraim, Emma, Noemie and Jacques. The names were of writer Anne Berest’s maternal great-grandparents and their children (her aunt and uncle) who had died in Auschwitz. It takes 16 more years for her to try to find out who sent that postcard and why, and what that story discloses about her family. Set in France, and an Incredibly hard hitting and, at times, extremely painful recounting of the horrors of the Nazis and the Holocaust – but on a very personal/familial level. Well written historical fiction, that may be closer to non-fiction than not. This is not a fast book to read, as I had to put it down at times, as it became so fraught with emotion and tragedy, but a lot of heroism as well. It’s a time we would all like to, but should never forget. Very well translated from the original French best-seller.