A Scottish Detective

Admittedly a detective whose marriage is on the rocks, who drinks too much, and who flouts authority whenever possible sounds completely cliché. But Ian Rankin takes these standard mystery tropes and twists them into a gruff but lovable (and completely memorable) character: Detective John Rebus. The first book in the Rebus series is Knots and Crosses.

Rebus lives in Edinburgh--a cold and somewhat mysterious city, at least in the way Rankin writes it. Rebus used to be a paratrooper with the SAS, but now he's just a detective who's trying to quit smoking and keep up with the loads of paperwork from his cases. 

In addition to balancing his difficult  relationship with his ex-wife and daughter with a potential new woman in his life, Rebus also is investigating of a series of kidnappings and murders of young girls. His brother and a nosy reporter end up complicating things for him, while the killer may or may not be sending him crank letters; Rebus isn't quite sure.

I can't really say too much more about the plot without giving the whole big secret away. All in all Knots and Crosses is a fun read, and a nice introduction to the wonderful character of Rebus. If you get hooked on Rebus while reading this one, don't worry, there are about 19 more books in the series, so you can get your curmudgeonly Scottish fix whenever you need!

Rating: 3.8 out of 5
Should I recommend this book to my grandma?  Sure, as long as she doesn't mind a lot of whisky. (And p.s. whisky is Scottish, whiskey is Irish...it's not a typo!) :)

Who's your favorite divorced detective?

It's a Beautiful Day to be a Bookworm

Photo credit.

I'm currently reading two books I'm really enjoying. I love it when that happens! Every time I have a chance to read for a while it's a dilemma as to which book I ought to pick.

I've also decided, thanks to your feedback, to add specific ratings to my book reviews, which means as I'm reading I'm thinking "3.6? Well, maybe 3.8. Oh I don't know..." It's really hard to assign a specific number to a book! I explain a little bit more about my ratings system in my Frequently Asked Questions tab.

And, just so you know, I update the other tabs whenever I write a review that fits into one of the categories. So keep checking back, the lists are always changing!

Do you read multiple books at once? Or do you prefer to finish one book before starting another? Do you have any other questions that you think should be included in the FAQ?

Banned Books Week Made Me Bawl My Eyes Out

This week is Banned Books Week, when the American Library Association celebrates the freedom to read, and draws attention to books that have been censored. They also publish a list of the most banned books by decade.

#28 for 2000-2009 is Bridge to Terabithia. In honor of Banned Books Week I decided to re-read the book. We read this book in my 4th grade class, so I was particularly interested as to why it's so often banned.

I was immediately re-captivated by Katherine Paterson's descriptive writing style. Not for nothing did this book win a Newbery Medal. The story opens with Jess Aarons, who is determined to be the fastest boy in the 5th grade this fall. He has to work hard on the small family farm because his dad is gone at work in Washington all day, his mom is harassed and tired with housework, and his two older sisters always manage to get out of the work.

Then a new family moves in down the road -- a family with a daughter named Leslie who is just Jess's age. At first Jess is skeptical of her (she is a girl after all) and his skepticism grows when he finds out that Leslie's family doesn't own a t.v., her parents are writers, and she's been scuba diving. But eventually Jess warms up to Leslie, and she opens a whole new world of imagination, literature, and art for him. They create an imaginary kingdom in the woods between their houses and there they rule as King and Queen of Terabithia.

The other students, and Jess's own stolid family, are suspicious of Leslie and the deep friendship between the two of them, but Jess and Leslie don't care. They rejoice in Terabithia, until the day everything goes tragically wrong.

Paterson beautifully details life in a close-minded small town where hippies are regarded with suspicion and yogurt is an unknown entity. Jess longs for positive attention from his parents, but they are almost heartbreakingly distant from him. And the sad cycle repeats itself as his little sister May Belle longs for Jess's attention in return. These nuances were lost on me as a 4th grader, but I appreciated them this time around. And, remembering how the book ended, I caught several references where Paterson foreshadows the tragedy, most notably in the scene when the Aarons family goes to church at Easter.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone. I think that the reason it gets banned must just be its sadness. (There is a reference to child abuse, a few prayers offered to wood spirits, and one or two damns, but I hope none of those are enough to ban a book).

Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Should I recommend this to my grandma? Absolutely! Just make sure she has a box of tissues handy.

How many of the frequently banned books have you read?

Full disclosure: book image/title are Amazon affiliate links. If you use the link to buy the book I will earn a small referral fee.

Best Books of 2010 (and my 2011 challenge)

Here are my favorite books of 2010 (originally published in January on my mommy blog).

Bill Bryson is arguably my favorite nonfiction writer. I always swore that I would name my first son Bryson after him, and actually I seriously considered putting Bryson on the boys’ list when we were coming up for names for Eleanor, but it joined the annoyingly trendy Jaden/Braden/Bryson/Mason crowd, so it had to go.

Anyway, Bryson finally had a new book out last year, At Home: A Short History of Private Life, and it is hands-down my pick for best nonfiction book I read in 2010. It’s quite different than other books of his that I’ve read— it’s a sampling of an astounding range of topics from Victorian poorhouses to the 17th century spice trade to 18th century wigs to American millionaires to why British people don’t use ice cubes to how many dust mites live in your pillow. The book is grouped into chapters by rooms in his house; “The Dining Room” is a history of food, crops, and dishes. “The Stairs” is a history of architecture, “The Bedroom” a history of social interactions and sexual mores, etc. A fantastic book. (4.8 out of 5)

Other honorable mentions for nonfiction: The Know-it-all by A.J. Jacobs (he decides to read through the entire Encyclopaedia Brittanica in one year—hilarious factoid overload ensues) and The Imperial Cruise: A True Story of Empire and War by James Bradley (a history of American expansionism into Latin America and Asia. A fascinating read, but the rampant racism of Roosevelt and Taft is hard to stomach sometimes). (Both around 4 out of 5)

Fiction is a lot harder for me to narrow down, probably because 84 of my 105 books read in 2010 were fiction. The most engrossing book I read all year was definitely The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson; I read it all in one day, and then promptly ordered the next 2 books in the trilogy on Amazon as soon as I was done. Lisbeth Salander, the main character, is a tattooed, antisocial, bisexual, 4’11” hacker who rides a motorcycle and has a photographic memory. She’s one of the most amazing and unique fictional characters I’ve ever encountered. But, I hesitate to make it my book of the year, because of the rough language and the horrifying sexual violence.

Hm. Ok, I’m gonna call it a four way tie for best fiction of the year.

1. The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson (see above). (4.2 out of 5)

2. False Colours by Georgette Heyer (this feels slightly like cheating since it was a re-read, and Heyer is my favorite author, but I hadn’t read it in more than five years, so it counts!). Set in Georgian England it tells the tale of Kit and Evelyn Fancot, who are twins. Evelyn is engaged to Cressida, a lovely young lady, Kit has returned from serving as a diplomat because of unease about his twin, and the twins’ mother has run up a lot of debt. Hijinks ensue, Austenesque minor characters abound, and the dialogue is Heyer at her witty best. (4.8 out of 5)

3. Speaking of Austen, Emma by Jane Austen is third on my list. (Somehow I had never read this—or I read it so long ago that I don’t remember it). Miss Emma Woodhouse is a schemer, who has the best intentions of matchmaking those around her…although somehow her plans always go awry… (4.2 out of 5)

4. The Shetland Quartet by Ann Cleeves. Raven Black, White Nights, and Red Bones are the only 3 published so far. [Note: Blue Lightning is now out, but I hated the end. Just read the first 3 and pretend it's only a trilogy!] These are excellent mysteries, starring the emininently likeable Detective Jimmy Perez, who goes about solving crime in the tiny, insular society of the Shetland Islands. The imagery in these novels is so vivid that I really want to visit the Shetlands now. I can’t imagine living somewhere so far north that it never gets dark in summer, or somewhere where there are no trees for that matter. (4.5 out of 5)

 As for 2011, so far I've finished 87 out of my goal of 100! If you look in the left hand column you can see a little widget that says 2011 Reading Challenge. Whenever I update my Goodreads it updates the little widget, so you can see how I'm progressing!

What was the best book you read last year? How many books have you read so far this year?

Full Disclosure: all book titles and covers are Amazon affiliate links. If you use the link to buy the book on Amazon, I will get a small referral fee.

Weekend Links & Opinion Poll

Photo of Edible Books from Hungry Happenings.

• A kid that goes to our church wrote a book called Why a Boy Should Marry His Dog? He donates all profits from book sales to local animal shelters.
• Mysterious whimsical sculptures made out of books have been appearing in Edinburgh. Some of these are really beautiful!
• Look at those cute little edible books pictured above! I might have to make some of these since we have lots of fruit leather on hand around here.

And, I want your feedback on whether or not I should include specific ratings in my book reviews. If you scroll all the way down (on the home page) you can see a poll. The options are:

• Yes, on a numeric scale (i.e. 3.5 out of 5)
• Yes, using specific phrases (that I would establish later, i.e. Not Bad or Great Read, etc)
• No, keep the reviews the way they are

Could you take a minute to go answer the poll? Thanks!

I Liked it Even Without Prince Philip: A Review of Robin McKinley's Spindle's End

When I was little my favorite Disney movie was Sleeping Beauty. It was later supplanted by Beauty and the Beast, because a bookworm became a princess! I was awestruck.

But I've still always loved Sleeping Beauty. It has fantastic music, funny fairies, and a dreamy prince. Because let's face it, the prince in Beauty and the Beast? Downright girly.

So when recently a friend told me that not only had Robin McKinley retold the story of Beauty and the Beast in Beauty, which I read and loved in middle school, but had also written new versions of several other fairy tales, including Sleeping Beauty, I knew I had to give it a shot.

The retelling of Sleeping Beauty is called Spindle's End, and it's a quick and magical read that I greatly enjoyed. The story begins in a kingdom full of magic, a land where fairies must scour the magic out of teakettles so that ordinary people can use them. This kingdom's rulers had been childless for many years, but finally the Queen delivered a baby girl, and one person from every village in the kingdom was invited to her name day.

Alas, not only well-wishers arrived at the name day, but also an ancient and evil fairy named Pernicia who had sworn vengeance on the first female to be born into the kingly line. She cast a spell on the tiny princess, and threw the nameday into disarray. A young woman named Katriona, the lucky winner of a pass to the name day from a village all the way across the country, instinctively tried to protect the baby, and managed to deflect some of the spell.

The Queen's fairy-in-waiting gives Katriona the baby and tells her to leave quickly, and hide the baby until she is 21 and the deadline for the spell has passed. Katriona sneaks the baby home, and her aunt, a powerful fairy, takes the baby in. Aunt and Katriona manage to hide the princess's real identity from everyone. They call her Rosie, and little Rosie grows up to be a tomboy, more comfortable with horses and dogs than humans.

She has no idea of her true heritage for years, but then someone from her royal past enters her life dramatically. Aunt and Katriona will do their best to protect Rosie, but even they aren't sure if their magic will be enough to stop Pernicia...

Have you ever read any retellings of fairy tales? 

Who do you think is the best looking Disney prince? 

Full disclosure: the cover images/title links are Amazon affiliate links. If you click on them and purchase the books I will earn a small referral fee.

Or the Bull Kills You (and the giveaway winner!)

In Or the Bull Kills You, Jason Webster introduces Chief Inspector Max Cámara, "a dope-smoking... proverb-quoting, flamenco-loving, Valencia-based murder detective." Webster brings the complicated Cámara and his Spanish backdrop to vivid life in this intriguing first novel.

Max Cámara normally takes his annual vacation during Valencia's Fallas festival, to escape the weeks of drunkenness, music and explosions. Unfortunately for Cámara, this year he was not only unable to take time off, but he also has to officiate at a bullfight. Unlike the adoring crowds around him, Cámara does not appreciate getting to watch Jorge Blanco, the most celebrated matador in Spain.

Later that night, Cámara ends up back at the bull ring, but this time instead of a dead bull, he sees the mutilated body of a dead Blanco. As the case unfolds, Cámara is forced to delve into the secretive bullfighting culture, a world he has always despised. There are no obvious suspects: Blanco's grieving fiancée, his rival matadors, his rumored lover and the bull-breeding family that raised him all seem to be genuinely mourning the loss of the popular celebrity. Then, there's a second brutal murder and the pressure from City Hall to solve the case increases. As Cámara grapples with its intricacies, he is also forced to confront a startling revelation from his girlfriend and the displeasure of his boss. Will the noise of Fallas drive the introspective Cámara over the edge or will he be able to solve the case before someone else dies?

Shelf Awareness sent me this book, and my review of it was posted over there earlier this week. As far as I remember, this is the only mystery I have ever read that was set in Spain. 

Have you read any others? Have you been to Valencia and experienced Fallas? 

 And, the winner of last week's giveaway is commenter #9, Molly McCoy Koenig! She doesn't have a favorite Civil War novel, but she is a fan of Quirky Bookworm on Facebook. 

Congratulations Molly, I'll be emailing you soon!

Full Disclosure: all book images are Amazon affiliate links. If you use the link to buy the book on Amazon, I will get a small referral fee.

Stop Reading Books You Don't Enjoy

Original photo credit.

Sometimes - you should just quit reading. I'm not talking about books that are poorly written. For those I follow the 'eject' rule -- either 50 pages or 1 disc, depending on whether it's a hard copy or an audio book. If it doesn't have my interest by then, I'm done.

But what I'm talking about is a separate category from the ejected books. These are what I call the stalled books. Books that I started and got about halfway through, and then just quit. Sometimes this happens when I'm reading 4 or 5 books at once, and I put one down to focus on another one, and then I just never get back to it. Sometimes it happens when I find myself reading slower and slower, or I just inexplicably decide to set a book down and I don't pick it up again.

Curious about what some of my stalled books are? Here are a few sitting on my "unfinished" shelf on Goodreads.

• Globish: How English Became the World's Language
• The Demon of Dakar
• The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
• The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography
• A Corpse in the Koryo

They all sound interesting. They all held my interest for a while, but then they just didn't. And I can't really explain why. But there are too many books out there waiting to be read for me to waste time slogging through a book I'm not really enjoying.

Do you always finish a book?

Full Disclosure: all book titles are Amazon affiliate links. If you use the link to buy the book on Amazon, I will get a small referral fee.

Paris to the Past: Traveling Through French History by Train

Photo credit.

Ina Caro and her husband, biographer Robert Caro, have lived and traveled in France several months each year for the past 20 years. Caro's moment of inspiration for this book is twofold: first, she decides to visit monuments chronologically, rather than geographically, and she decides to write only about places that can be day trips from Paris by train. By visiting sites chronologically, she is able to observe the historical development of architectural style. By limiting herself to day trips, she is able to choose one place that particularly represents each era.

Paris to the Past: Traveling through French History by Train is divided into five sections ("The Middle Ages: Cathedrals and Fortresses"; "The Age of Louis XIV: Seventeenth-Century France," etc.). Within those sections, chapters focus on a particular place, like Blois or Versailles. Some people are mentioned multiple times across different chapters, especially Louis XIV, because he and his mistresses apparently went everywhere. This is slightly repetitive when reading the book straight through, but helpful when using it chapter by chapter as a travel guide and reference.

Caro has obviously done much research. From document-forging Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis to the transvestite Henry III to fiery Napoléon Bonaparte, Caro provides fascinating insights into the lives and the motivations for creating these glorious monuments. She also gives detailed instructions on which trains to take, while offering pithy (and sometimes downright snarky) opinions on restaurants and tourist attractions. Whether you're reading it as a history book or as a travel guide, you're bound to like Paris to the Past. Especially if you've spent time at a few of these places, it's fun to read about their history and the people who created them. I really wish that I'd had this book with me when I was traveling in France eight years ago!

This review was originally published in slightly shorter form in Shelf Awareness on June 28, 2011.

How about you? Do you like travel guides? Do you like French history? Tell me in the comments!

Full Disclosure: all book titles are Amazon affiliate links. If you use the link to buy the book on Amazon, I will get a small referral fee.

Bookish Link Love

A glimpse at a few of the bookshelves in my house and some book-related links for your perusal. 

Happy weekend!

• Florinda (one of my fellow Shelf Awareness reviewers) talks about being part of the book blogger community.
• Ever wanted a face shaped bookshelf? This guy did. 
• Megan reviews Just Moms, a book about conveying justice as a parent in an unjust world. 
• And, the giveaway is still open on last Wednesday's post! I'm no mathematician, but there are less than 10 comments right now, so if you leave a comment you have great odds of winning!

I'm Reading in the Rain...

Photo credit

What is it about rainy days that make you just want to put on some fuzzy socks, curl up in a chair, and read a good book?

This summer we had a really good monsoon in general, but the last week has been fantastic.

On average in Tucson we get 1.3 inches of rain during the whole month of September. This year, from the 9th to the 15th, we got 2.3 inches in our neighborhood! Lovely, lovely, lovely.

And I got a lot of reading done in my comfy chair. Although it's still getting into the mid 90s, so just a tad too warm for the fuzzy socks!

How about you? Do you read more in rainy weather? 

P.S. The giveaway from earlier in the week is still open! So far there are only two comments, so if you comment your odds of winning are really good!

History by Threes: The Civil War

In this History By Threes post, we're going to deep-dive into the Civil War. Here are three of my favorite Civil War titles.

My Name Is Mary Sutter is a novel by Robin Oliveira. The titular character, Mary Sutter, is a talented midwife in 1860s Albany, New York. Mary is smart, stubborn, and determined to become a surgeon. As the Civil War breaks out she sees her opportunity, and leaves behind her siblings (and recently widowed mother) to go to Washington DC to serve as a nurse in the understaffed Union hospitals. She hopes that by proving her skill as a nurse she will be able to convince a doctor to train her as a surgeon. This book offers a gripping perspective on a less-familiar side of the Civil War: the dearth of doctors and primitive medical conditions that wounded soldiers had to suffer through. Mary's voice is real and engrossing, and the pages fly by. I would warn squeamish readers, however, that there are graphically detailed scenes of childbirth and amputation. I listened to this on audiobook, and I highly recommend the audio version, it's really well done.

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin is a fascinating look at the behind-the-scenes political maneuvering that went on during Abraham Lincoln's presidency. The book opens with the 1860 presidential election, discussing the nomination schemes of men such as William Seward, Salmon P. Chase, and Edward Bates. When, to everyone's surprise, the almost unknown Abraham Lincoln gets the nomination, and eventually wins the election, he proves his greatness by choosing all of those men--his former rivals--to serve in his cabinet.

The rest of Team of Rivals follows Lincoln's presidency and his interactions with his cabinet through the various phases of the Peninsular, his son's illness and tragic death, his wife's growing strangeness, and his own determination to pass the Emancipation Proclamation. Goodwin also offers surprisingly prescient parallels to today--when another Illinois lawyer with little previous experience sits in the White House in a time of war. The book is almost heartrending in its inevitable march toward Lincoln's assassination--and I can't help but wonder how different Reconstruction might have been if Lincoln had been able to heal the nation as he wished. I really can't overemphasize how much I liked this book!

Across Five Aprils, by Irene Hunt, is a child's perspective on the agony of war. Jethro Creighton is nine years old when the Civil War begins. By the time it ends, five Aprils later, he will be a teenager, and he will have lost both his innocence and some family members.

Jethro is the youngest of a large family. He and his brothers, cousins, and father all work the farm together. Within months of war breaking out Jethro is the only "man" working the farm, and Jethro's dreams of more education are in the past. He and his sister learn their lessons together in the evening by reading the newspaper. Their history is the history of the war, their geography the battle maps that the papers publish. Written in a Southern Illinois dialect, this book is haunting fiction and also excellent history. It offers specifics of many battles, as Jethro's brothers write to him about the battles they've been in, and gives the reader a glimpse of how hard life was for an average, mostly uneducated, farming family in the 1860s.

We read this book in fifth grade, and I remember loving it. I just re-read it a few weeks ago, and I was still impressed by how good it is. Although it's geared at older children it's enjoyable as an adult--Jethro's voice is both believable and poignant, and I actually teared up several times. I think it might almost be more tragic as an adult because you can see the sadness in how Jethro lost his youth too quickly. As a kid I just remember being amazed by how he worked all day!

To win a copy of Across Five Aprils for yourself, leave a comment telling me your favorite book about the Civil War. 

Or, if you don't have one, tell me what book has recently made you cry?

Update: the giveaway is closed: the winner was commenter #9, Molly! Congratulations Molly!

All book images/titles are Amazon affiliate links. If you use the link to buy the book on Amazon, I will get a small referral fee. Thanks for supporting Quirky Bookworm

If you enjoyed this post, check out my other History by Threes posts too!
Tudor England
Colonial New England