KITCHEN CHINESE by Ann Mah

Isabelle Lee, Iz, has just been fired from her job as a fact checker for a magazine. Encouraged by her friends she decides she needs an adventure and moves from Manhattan to Beijing, where her older sister Claire, a high-powered attorney, lives. Iz is determined to have an adventure but not to find her Chinese roots as if she were in "an Amy Tan novel". Iz considers herself American at heart, not Chinese. Claire gets her a job at a magazine for expats, Beijing NOW, where she ends up as the food critic. Her Mandarin is limited and she is unfamiliar with a lot of Chinese culture but she has lots of help from her new friends. Claire, the older, successful, introverted sister is a new person in Beijing, but Iz doesn't think she is really happy and is determined to be there for her sister.

my review:
First things first. Don't read on an empty stomach. This book made me so hungry as Iz made the rounds of restaurants that I think I gained 5 lbs just reading this book. Okay, not from reading, but from getting a snack to keep me from drooling all over the book. If I was reading this on my Kindle, I would have shorted it out.
This is a pretty light-hearted, Bridget Jones in China type book; very fun and clever. Isabelle was very likable as were most of the characters. She bumbles around town while trying to get the hang of things.
The only thing I didn't like was the obligatory romance part. I felt like shoving Iz off of a cliff during some parts and the ending was just too pat. Must there be romance or can't there just be fun and dating? No matter what happens to girls in these books, the author always needs them to find Mr Right by the end.
Does this speak to the readers or is this the only way to market these books? This is why these are considered chick-lit and lose some credibility from  otherwise enjoyable novels and Kitchen Chinese suffers the same fate. And we have a decent read instead of a really good one. Mildly disappointed once again! Except for the food. Yummy!

my rating 3.75/5

Product Details

• Pub. Date: February 2010
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Format: Paperback, 339pp

Cozy Mystery Saturday: THE TALE OF HALCYON CRANE by Wendy Webb

Hallie James has grown up thinking that her mother died in a house fire when she was five. Hallie receives a letter from a lawyer informing her of the death of Madlyn Crane. Accompanied with this is a letter from Madlyn to Hallie informing her that Madlyn had thought her husband and child drowned thirty years before and she had recently discovered that Hallie is really her daughter, Halcyon Crane. Madlyn died before able to send the letter herself. Hallie asks her father who is suffering from early onset Alzheimer's; all he can tell her is that he wanted to keep her safe so he took her away. A few weeks later, he, too passes away.
Hallie travels to Grand Manitou Island in The Great Lakes, where her mother had a home. She is not welcome at first and strange things begin to happen.

SPOILER ALERT-
my review: I was not expecting this to be what I encountered. It was atmospheric, gothic like but a bit silly. This would make a great cozy mystery. But I'm not sure that it was the author intended. It was not a great ghost story. The ingredients were there but it just felt so very short. I would have liked this had my expectations been different and lower. Instead I felt rather ripped off.
I did not like Halcyon, I thought she was less then bright. The romance with her lawyer was forced and would have been cooler had he been evil. The immediate non-romance with the guy who turns out to be her half-brother also felt forced. It had a good start, but I felt like the author just lost steam and cranked out something that could be wrapped up quite easily instead of putting in effort to make a really decent read.
And why is Hallie so CLUELESS about the 100+ year old cleaning lady that knows all her family history but cleans and cooks and mysteriously appears and disappears. She's over 100 for god's sake.
I have no problem with the paranormal aspects of the novel but it was just done so poorly that silly is the best word to describe a lot of this book.

rating 3/5  because the first half wasn't too bad.  I also want my $9.99 back. Can't even sell the damn ebook.

Have a cozy post? Add here

CUBA by Emily Barr

Maggie moved to Brighton to get away from Edinburg, where she was dumped by her boyfriend. Maggie's family thinks she is working for American Express but she actually has a job as a stripper. She is lonely and sad, so when she buys a baby monitor for her sister and tries it out, she discovers she can hear her neighbors, David and Libby, through their baby monitor and Maggie can't stop listening.
When she discovers that they are planning to move to Cuba for six months, Maggie follows them there and "runs into" David at a language class and soon she has enmeshed herself into their lives.
But Maggie is just avoiding past demons and it will take an old friend to help her through this obsession with David and Libby, before anyone gets hurt.

my review: This is a fantastic book, one I have read before. I hate that it is billed as chick-lit. It IS NOT! Maggie has some serious issues and is not just a girl looking for love or to get over a bad break-up.

I try to look back on it and to force myself to enjoy, retrospectively, the feeling of being touched and desired. I can't do it. I hated it. I loathed every single moment....I am cheap. I feel exactly like I used to feel at Vixenz. I have once again, exposed by body to a stranger. This time it wasn't even for money. I don't know why I did it.

Maggie's frenemy Yasmin follows her to Cuba after a ten year separation when Yasmin stole Maggie's high school boyfriend. Both are great characters as well as Libby and David and the trails and tribulations of their marriage. The plot is very interesting and takes the reader to unexpected places. The setting in Cuba is wonderful and believable. This is a very well-written book and one I highly recommend!

my rating 4.75/5

Product Details

• Pub. Date: March 2004
• Publisher: The Penguin Group
• Format: Paperback, 324pp

This book counts towards Aarti's flashback challenge at Booklust

The Secret Keeper by Dorien Grey

Synopsis from book

PI Dick Hardesty listens with polite interest to his partner Jonathan's stories of his days working for 90-year-old multimillionaire Clarence Bement, helping the old man tend his garden. But when Bement is found dead, an apparent suicide, Jonathan is adamant that the old man would never have killed himself, a theory also held by Bement's grandson, Mel Fowler.

When Mel hires him to investigate, Dick learns Bement's lawyer also died mysteriously barely a week before Bement. He finds himself immersed in a world of greed and familial dysfunction, searching for a missing new will, and Jonathan becomes the target for someone who believes the old man entrusted him with a secret Jonathan is not aware he has.

my review:  At first I had a difficult time with this as it was not a thriller and the mystery was fairly predictable. But then I classified it as cozy mystery and enjoyed it more.
However, the writing was a little bland. I can forgive a predictable plot as that is what a lot of cozies have, but there is no reason why the dialogue can't be snappier and wittier. Also, I had problems with the descriptive aspects. Please, authors, I don't need to know exactly what the main characters are eating, wearing, etc. Feel free to cut some of that out. It's just enough to know that they are wearing clothes and that they eat food, unless it is a fashion or culinary mystery.

I did like the main characters, Dick and Jonathan, a committed couple raising Jonathan's nephew Joshua. In fact I liked how all the characters were written, very likable if a tad dull at times. Everything just needed to be taken up a notch. Sharper writing and tighter editing and this could have been really good. But it wasn't, so therefore it was just average.

 rating 2.5/5

Product Details

• Pub. Date: November 2009
• Publisher: Zumaya Boundless
• Format: Paperback, 252pp

review copy provided by publicist for fair review

Judgy Wudgy was a Bear: Can you Judge a Book by Its Words?

Generalizations. When are they not generalizations but common practice? If I'm not part of the community being generalized, how do I know what's true and what's not?

I recently read a mystery novel for review, where the main characters are gay men. Okay, no biggie, glad to see more mainstreaming and not just in m/m romance or erotica. But then the main character, a PI, is meeting with a client, another handsome gay man. Now PI guy, Dick, is in a committed relationship with Jonathon. Handsome new client asks Dick to look into the supposed suicide of his uncle. Then he politely asks Dick if he and Jonathon have an open relationship. What?? This really turned me off because I thought it played into the idea of all gay men having sex all over the place and hitting on all men. What poor stereotyping, I thought, all high and mighty.
But then I wondered. This is a book written by a gay man, not Jerry Falwell. How do I know what is the norm. I'm not gay or a man.
This made me wonder about other books I have read that I thought expressed streotypes of genders and cultures. But maybe they aren't. I can't exactly go up to a gay man or Native American and ask "hey, do all of you do this?" If I read about something enough, does this make it true or just that a lot of people are ignorant? How will I know when to be offended?

Any thoughts?

TWENTIES GIRL by Sophie Kinsella

Synopsis

Lara Lington has always had an overactive imagination, but suddenly that imagination seems to be in overdrive. Normal professional twenty-something young women don’t get visited by ghosts. Or do they?

When the spirit of Lara’s great-aunt Sadie–a feisty, demanding girl with firm ideas about fashion, love, and the right way to dance–mysteriously appears, she has one last request: Lara must find a missing necklace that had been in Sadie’s possession for more than seventy-five years, and Sadie cannot rest without it. Lara, on the other hand, has a number of ongoing distractions. Her best friend and business partner has run off to Goa, her start-up company is floundering, and she’s just been dumped by the “perfect” man.

Sadie, however, could care less.

Lara and Sadie make a hilarious sparring duo, and at first it seems as though they have nothing in common. But as the mission to find Sadie’s necklace leads to...

my review:
While I liked the first couple of the Shopaholic series, they became a bit redundant. And I never warmed to any of her other books. But it a fit of desperation during last month's horrifying reading slump, I was perusing Target and decided a light chick-lit might help. I read the whole book that day. Then, alas, went back to my reading slump.
Twenties Girl wasn't bad, it had it's moments. I enjoyed the relationship between Lara and Sadie, reminding us the our elders have stories and aren't just people to be pushed away to die. Of course, Lara doesn't discover this until Sadie is dead but she is lucky enough to get a second chance.
Though it has some predictability, it was still an enjoyable read, light with some mystery, romance, and touching moments.

my rating in it's chick-lit genre 4/5

addendum: I reread this book in April 2011 and I liked it better the second time. It is funny and more poignant  than your usual chick-lit. 

Product Details

• Pub. Date: March 2010
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Format: Paperback, 448pp

It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

 A book meme by Shelia at One Persons Journey Through a World of Books



 
Last Week:
I finished- Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel
 Death on the Cliff Walk by Mary Kruger
The Secret Keeper by Dorien Grey
started- The Tale of Halcyon Crane by Wendy Webb
Sunflowers by Sheramy D. Bundrick
The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors by Michele Young-Stone

This week: finish those three books, also work on A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel and From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris


Happy reading!!

Goya's Ghosts on DVD

I watched this for part of Heidenkind's Art History Challenge. Starring Javier Bardem, Natalie Portman, and Stellan Skarsgard as Goya.

Ines is the daughter of a wealthy family who has modeled for Goya. But when Father Lorenzo's Inquisitors see her refusing to eat pork at at inn, she is tortured into "confessing" that she is Jewish. Unable to get her out of prison, her father invites Lorenzo to dinner and tortures him into signing a "confession" that he is a monkey, to prove that Ines would have confessed to anything under torture. Goya tries to intervene but is unsuccessful. Wjhen Lorenzo is unable to get Ines released from jail, her father takes the confession to King Carlos IV. Before Lorenzo flees fro proseution he seduces Ines and jail and impregnates her. 15 years later, the French invade and release all prisoners of the Spanish Inquisition and Ines searches for her child with Goya's help.

This had potential but tried to pack too much into one movie. Also, Randy Quaid was cast as the King and looked silly. This was an unmemorable film but did spark my interest in Goya. I will look for some good reading material and avoid ever seeing this film again!

 my rating 2/5

Amazon vs. Barnes and Noble: A Tale of Two Dealers

I have been on a book buying binge lately and usually I buy from Amazon. But I was not happy that one of my orders was shipped via the USPS and sent to my alter ego address (there is a house with same street name and number in my same zip code. My street is St and other is Ave. This greatly confuses the post office). Luckily the people there are nice and send it back to post office to try again.
So I checked out B&N prices which seem to have gotten much better. Plus their free shipping is less time than Amazon and they use UPS. I <3 UPS! They sent me several emails to let me know they were packing my books, getting ready to ship them and finally an email to let me know they'd shipped and confirmation of arrival date. Sort of like that nice, friendly, slightly desperate boyfriend that you dump for the bad boy.

Amazon meanwhile is acting all nonchalant, sort of " hey babe, you'll get the books when I remember to send them. Don't nag me" But then like the bad boy that is secretly good, my Amazon package arrives days earlier than they said it would. Oh Amazon, how you play with me.

So I think I will continue to juggle my two boyfriends. I just can't decide if I like the drama or need something more reliable. Until there is a problem, that is. Because nice guy that B&N is, his mother (customer service) is awful, telling me I'm not good enough for her son, sometimes putting me on hold forever. Can't stand her. Amazon's mom is so sweet, bakes me cookies and invites me for picnics. I love her.

I guess it comes down to how often I interact with the mother. But the most important thing for now, I have my books! And I have a spending problem!

B&N:
Russka by Edward Rutherfurd
London by Edward Rutherfurd
A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel
Wish Her Safe at Home by Stephen Benatar (highly recommended by Aarti)
Kitchen Chinese by Ann Mah
Amazon: 
Last Night In Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel
The Possessed by Elif Batuman
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
Irish Girl by Tim Johnston
Sunflowers by Sheramy Bundrick
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

addendum: B&N in-store service is wonderful. I was referring to online service

DEATH ON THE CLIFFWALK: A Glided Age Mystery by Mary Kruger

Newport, Rhode Island 1895. Three maids have been murdered along the Cliff Walk path but when another women is killed, a socialite wearing a maid's uniform, the wealthy residents are up in arms. Matt Devlin is the detective assigned to the case. He does not like the wealthy residents of Newport and they won't talk to him. Brooke Cassidy is one of the residents that will talk to Matt. Her father used to be a cop but when he and Brooke's mother died, she went to live with her wealthy aunt an uncle. Now Brooke is part of the world that Matt deplores. But he needs her help if he is going to solve this mystery.

my review:
I enjoyed Kruger's knitting mysteries and was excited to find that she had another series. While I liked the plot and her characters, I found that the setting left something to be desired. Despite the fact that it takes place in Newport 1895, it could have been anywhere at anytime for all the detail that other gives. Other than a couple references to horse and buggies, the author really dropped the ball on atmosphere and description which are important in any novel, especially a cozy mystery where the plot isn't usually brilliant.
I was disappointed and most likely won't read the next in this series. I hope Kruger write another knitting mystery. Those were wonderful.

my rating 2.5/5

Read a cozy lately? Add your review here:
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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Zebra; First Thus edition 
• Date: December 1, 1995

LAST NIGHT IN MONTREAL by Emily St. John Mandel

Eli doesn't realize that when Lilia leaves his Brooklyn apartment to go get the paper, she has left for good. Not until several hours later when he looks up from his graduate thesis and realizes she has disappeared. Something Lilia has been doing since she was seven years old.

Lilia had not seen her father for years until one night, when she is seven, he tosses ice at her window and her home in Montreal. She immediately goes outside into his arms and they leave forever. They never stay anywhere longer than a couple of days, traveling around the US. Lilia writes in each bedside motel bible, unknown to her father variations of this: "I am not missing. Stop searching for me. I wish to remain vanishing. I don't want to go home."
Christopher Graydon is the private detective who becomes obsessed with finding her while neglecting his own daughter, Michaela.

Lilia ends up in Montreal after leaving Eli and meets up with Michaela who then sends Eli a postcard to come get her. But she refuses to tell Eli where she is until her own agenda is met.

my review: I LOVED this book. I thought it was meaningful and compelling. Lilia is a mysterious, tragic figure as is Michaela. Eli is caught up by both of their stories and this makes for a brilliant debut novel.

I also found the discussion of Eli's thesis on endangered languages to be very interesting, enough so that I am looking for a book to read more about this. I also found the language laws of Quebec to be fascinating as I was unaware of this. I also love reading books that lead me to other books or interests.

But Lilia's story is the driving force that kept me hooked: why did she leave with her father, why did he come get her, why even as an adult can Lilia not stop vanishing?

This is another fairly short novel that tells an amazing story in less than 300 pages. Run out and buy this book, I highly recommend it!

my rating 5/5

Product Details

• Pub. Date: April 2010
• Publisher: Unbridled Books
• Format: Paperback, 256pp

THE MARRIAGE BUREAU FOR RICH PEOPLE by Farahad Zama

This is another great book under the Amy Einhorn imprint, along with The Help and The Postmistress.
The novel takes place in southeast India. Mr. Ali is recently retired and decides to start a high class marriage business. Many marriages are arranged and he makes it easier by letting people search for a husband/wife via caste and other criteria. He hires a local girl, Aruni, as his assistant once the business takes off.
Aruni has her own issues as she is of marriageable age, but her father can not afford for her to be married and lose her income. The Ali's have a son, Rehman, who is a protester of a large development company that wants to tear down villages.
The novel takes us through a few months of their lives.

my review: I enjoyed this book as I have other Einhorn books. It gives an interesting look at marriage in India, whether it be Muslim, Christian, or Hindu, and the customs and parameters that go along with this. The atmosphere was lovely and the characters interesting and likable, especially the long-suffering Mrs. Ali. This wasn't a deep novel as the dialogue was light but it had it's moments, mostly seen through Aruna.

Aruna realized in their changed financial circumstances, she didn't have much of a choice, but she sickened of the whole experience and started protesting at being shown off to various people like a prize cow at a cattle mandi....This was the first proposal in almost a year. Aruna hoped it wouldn't start another round like last time, as she didn't want again to feel she was part of a cattle market.

This was a quick and enjoyable read and I definitely recommend this one.

my rating 4/5

Product Details

• Pub. Date: June 2009
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
• Format: Hardcover, 304pp

THE SPARE ROOM by Helen Garner

Helen lives in Melbourne, Australia and her friend Nicola from Sydney is going to be staying with Helen for a few weeks while she undergoes a holistic treatment for cancer that no longer responds to normal medical interventions. Helen is unprepared for how sick Nicola is, but also the fact that Nicola is in complete denial about her health. Helen is very suspicious of the treatment Nicola is receiving. As she spends several times a night changing Nicola's sheets and caring for her, Helen wants to call in palliative care. But Nicola won't hear of it. Helen finds that the more Nicola acts as if nothing is wrong, the angrier Helen becomes. She enlists the help of Nicola's family but no one is able to get through to her and Helen finds she can't wait for Nicola to just leave and become someone else's problem.

My review: I wasn't expecting to like this book. I honestly don't recall requesting it from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer's. Yet somehow I not only enjoyed this, it was one of the books that helped me out of my reading slump.
Garner writes directly and the story is unsentimental and compelling. And it only 175 pages, I read it in one sitting. Despite it's shortness, the story was fulfilling: funny, smart, touching, and brave.

"Peggy glanced at me. Horrified sympathy passed along her eye beams. It weakened me. A huge wave of fatigue rinsed me from head to foot. I was afraid I would slide off the bench and measure my length among the cut roses. At the same time a chain of metallic thoughts went clanking through my mind, like the first dropping of an anchor: death will not be denied. To try is grandiose. It drives madness into the soul. It leaches out virtue. It injects poison into friendship, and makes a mockery of love."

This was a powerful book, very stark and really made me think. How far would we go to care for one we loved?  Would I be able to tolerate someone refusing to accept the possibility of death and killing themselves with treatments that have no credibility? I think I would have speak my mind and not hold it all in.
here Iris, Nicola's niece tries to explain this to Helen.

"Want to hear my theory? said Iris. There's a lot of horribleness that Nicola refuses to countenance. But it won't just go away. It can't because it exists. So somebody else has to sort of live it. It's in the air around here. Like static. I felt it when she walked into the house tonight...It's like getting a madness injection."

This was a great book, strong but not depressing. I highly recommend it.

my rating 4.5/5

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Picador; 1 edition 
• Date: February 2, 2010

This book was provided by LibraryThing.com

It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

A book meme by Shelia at One Persons Journey Through a World of Books

Last Week:
I read: The Spare Room by Helen Garner, Someone Not Really Her Mother by Harriet Scott Chessman, She's So Dead to Us by Kieran Scott, The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama

I started: Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel, From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris and Devil's Food Cake by Josi S. Kilpack


This Week:
finish Last Night in Montreal and Devil's Food Cake
Start The Secret Keeper by Dorien Grey

Happy Reading!!

Read-A-Thon!

I will be updating this post throughout the day, rather than separate posts.

10:30 I woke up at 9:30 (yes, late) and started with Last Night in Montreal  by Emily St. John Mandel. It wasn't on my original list because I did not think it would arrive from Amazon until next week. 7 chapters in and loving it.


Going to switch over to The Marriage Bureau For Rich People by  Farahad Zama (an Amy Einhorn imprint) as I want to finish this- am 3/4 done from earlier this week.

snacks- too early for food, drinking water

2:45- took a break for lunch (rice and chicken and chocolate cake) and got caught up in tv. Now I need a nap but then should be good for quite awhile.
almost finished with The Marriage Bureau for Rich People, on page 201. Think I will pick up a Sookie Stackhouse read when I wake up.
Thanks to all you cheerleaders!!

7:00  took a 3 hr nap (yikes) but then finished Marriage Bureau and now starting on From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris- for Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge
snack- ice cream sandwich

4:00 AM went to bed at 11:00 with headache but wasn't able to fall asleep. Still awake though not able to read. I tried reading some of  Last Night in Montreal which I am loving but light is bothersome.
I am going to make up reading time tomorrow if my headache abates. Tomorrow should be a low pollen day.

Book Snooping: Do you have this problem?

There used to be a discussion thread on B&N online book clubs called Book Snoop. I loved that because I am a book snoop. Whenever I see someone reading, I want to know what the book is.  Twitter can drive me crazy when someone is discussing a book and they don't say which one. I look at their profile pages to find out the name. Sometimes I just have to ask WHAT BOOK??? Another place that drives me crazy is when people are reading on tv and I can't see the book. I will pause the show (pausing live tv is the best invention since the printing press and Amazon.com) and squint my eyes trying to see. It is so unfair to be teased like that. I'm not sure why I am so obsessed besides my obvious love of books. But I read enough blogs and websites and follow most publishers on twitter, so I'm not sure what I think is going to sneak past me. It's not like I don't discover enough books to keep me busy for the next 20 years!!

What about you? Do any of you have this affliction? What lengths will you go to to Book Snoop?  And what are you reading now, since I can't see your books?

Spring Read-a-thon 2010

I have decided to sign up for this weekend's Dewey's Read-a-thon April 10th though know I won't read for 24 hours. I have not been reading a lot lately- I think I read 3 books in March. But things seem to be picking up and I'm ready for day of reading!
Last fall I made a few mistakes by putting too much pressure on myself and ended up napping for a lot of the day. It didn't help that I tried to read in very comfy spots. Also it turns out that having the tv off is very distracting.
So I have some books picked out and some that I can download on my Kindle should the need arise. Most are cozy or fun mysteries that should make it easy.
So here are some of my choices:
From the Library:

From My Shelves:

I will be updating on my blog and on twitter and will be checking in on some fellow bloggers for unofficial cheering.

SOMEONE NOT REALLY HER MOTHER by Harriet Scott Chessman-

This is a short but fulfilling story, heart-breaking at times. Hannah Pearl is living in a nursing home in Connecticut and no longer is able to keep her mind in the present. She drifts back to France, where she lived before WWII, when her parents sent her to England to be safe.Hannah married a RAF pilot who was killed and then moved to America. Hannah's daughter, Miranda, does not understand why her mother is speaking French and keeps trying to bring her mother back to the present. Her two grand-daughter's Fiona and Ida also deal with Hannah in different ways. Fiona ignores and Ida tries to find out what they never knew about their grandmother.

my review: This was a beautifully written book, lyrical and touching. I liked how the author was able to show how all the characters deal with Hannah's illness, but also how Hannah herself feels. I felt she captured the frustration and confusion one must feel when dealing with Alzheimer's. We get bits and pieces of Hannah's life as if putting together a puzzle. The novel is only 160 pages but she accomplishes what it takes others 400.

my rating 5/5

Excerpt from the book:
Morning here is not like any mornings Hannah Pearl has ever known. First, the young woman with hair the color of honey comes in. Her hair spills out of the barrette. She’s wearing a blue—uniform. “Upsy-daisy, Hannah!” she says, raising Hannah’s bed. “Here’s your glasses!” She opens them up and puts them on Hannah’s nose. “And here’s your medicine.”
On the young woman’s uniform is a small—something—with Roxie on it. Of course she is Roxie. Hannah swallows her pills, one at a time, with water.
On this morning, the young woman—how is she called?—adds, “You’re having a visitor today, Hannah.” She smiles as she flips Hannah’s quilt off, and her sheets. “Time for the bathroom.”
One arm behind Hannah’s back, one holding Hannah’s right hand, the young woman pulls her upright. Slowly, Hannah sits on the edge of the bed. The young woman bends to pull on Hannah’s slippers, her honeyed hair almost touching Hannah’s knees.
“All set, Hannah. Now here’s your walker.”
“Merci, mademoiselle.”
“I love it when you call me that! Mademoiselle. I’ve got to get my boyfriend to call me that, it’s so elegant.” She holds Hannah’s elbow gently.
Hannah holds on to the silver handles and walks slowly to the bathroom. The young woman helps Hannah sit on the toilet. While she waits for Hannah, she looks into the mirror quickly, and tucks a strand of hair around her ear.
“Sharon will come give you your shower in a few minutes. So don’t you want to know who your visitor will be, Hannah?”
The young woman says Hannah like hand, with an h bold and blowing, just like that, and an a flat, like a marsh. Hannah is used to this, but privately she thinks of her name as having an h only when you write it. When you say Hannah, the word should open up at first, with no h at all, just a lovely “Ah!” and then another one. “Ahnah!” with more fullness to the second “ah.” How to tell the young woman this?
“Hannah? Don’t you want to know who’s coming?”
Hannah thinks of a rhyme. Who’s to visit Mrs. Pearl, Mrs. Pearl? A doctor, a something, a something, an earl. She is worried about splashing the floor, so she concentrates on making a single stream as the young woman—how is she called?— stands close by now, touching her shoulder. Hannah also likes the other one, with the warm voice, who sings. Her voice makes Hannah think of something her mother used to make—something warm and sweet, with pears. That one billows the new sheets like wings, like parachutes, as she sings.
“Hannah? Did you hear me?” The young woman is squatting down in front of Hannah now, smiling. “Your daughter’s coming this morning! She comes every week, right? She isn’t from France, like you, though, is she?”
The young woman’s words puzzle Hannah. She had a daughter, true, although that was in her other life, and how could her daughter, so young, find her here? This place— who could know where it is? The halls go on and on, making a puzzle. One can become lost just going to the—big room for meals. Hannah wonders how to say this.
“This—” she begins.
“Looks like you’re done. OK?”
The young woman takes a few sheets of toilet paper and wipes Hannah briskly.
“I can do that myself,” Hannah says.
“Oh, I know you can, Hannah, but I can just do it so much quicker. Up we go. Wash hands.”

Breakfast comes after a wait in the dining room. “English muffins,” says the woman who serves her. The other women are chatting together, but Hannah isn’t listening until they say, “Hannah, how did you sleep last night?” Hannah cannot remember how she slept, so she nods and says, “Very well, thank you.”
The woman with bright red hair says, “You’ll come out with us this morning, won’t you, Hannah? We’ll ask for permission to take you. It’s a gorgeous day for a little walk, a perfect spring day. We could walk just up the block, to see the marsh through the trees.” Oh, Hannah knows this woman, of course she does!
“I think her daughter, Mir, is coming this morning, Helen,” says the woman with white hair and dark brown eyes. She’s drinking her coffee, black. She is small herself, and a little hunched over. When she looks at Hannah she winks.
Hannah spreads butter on her muffin as she eyes the eggs all folded in on each other, with smooth walls. She could cook eggs more deliciously than this. A bright picture comes to Hannah of a kitchen, soapsuds frothing, her own hands warm and clean. Something’s about to go into the pan—eggs with a bit of milk, a bit of cheese— and something’s baking in the oven—Hannah closes her eyes to see and smell—little rolls for lunch.
Words come floating, out of a yeasty ocean: and, all in tears she melted, dissolving, queen no longer, of those waters. Who wrote this? Hannah loved Ovid in translation, and Shakespeare. A delicious language, English.
“Did you say something, Hannah?” the one with red hair asks, touching Hannah’s hand with her own. She’s a friend, Hannah’s sure now; both of the women are friends.
“She melted.”
“Ah. She melted, eh? Sounds like not such a good thing to do, no? Melting is not so good.”
Hannah smiles.
Soon she’s sitting in her chair by her bed. Outside the window the leaves wave, light green, new ones. Here in her room is her rug, braided with many colors, and her bed, and her—wooden something—with round circles one pulls, and her mirror, and of course her closet. Inside her closet, she is certain, wait important—documents. One day, possibly, she will look at them. She hopes for their safety. If the young woman with the honeyed hair comes in, Hannah will ask her to check. Maybe she will ask her to hide them.
Hannah’s hands look like landscapes, moonscapes, with ridges and valleys, changing with movement. She likes looking at them against the color of her skirt, a color like the little round fruits, bloodred, purplish, one picks from the tree in the garden. A something—a pit!—inside. Someone younger picks them with her, and drops the basket. Fruits scatter over the grass.
How has she come to have a skirt of this color? Maybe the young woman has given it to her. Un cadeau. Inside this language another waits. Hannah catches glimpses of it, like looking into the windows of a train going slowly past, as you stand in the field nearby. Hannah rubs her eyes. She does not like to think of trains.

When a woman comes in, Hannah is startled. She’s tall, wearing high heels, and she walks briskly, as if she’s on her way somewhere important. Her hair is shiny and her eyes look quick and lively. She has the air of someone from outside.
The woman comes close to Hannah and squats down, holding her hands and looking her straight in the eye. Pretty eyes, like shells. A mermaid, maybe. Hannah knows she’s being silly, but she glances at the woman’s feet for a hint of fin or scale. Mermaids drown you. They sing, though, too, don’t they? Songs like air.
The woman’s asking Hannah questions—so many! How to keep track? She asks one and, before Hannah can begin to understand it, she moves on to another. She talks quickly and her words rush together.
Now the woman is quiet. She squeezes Hannah’s hands—ouch!—and says something Hannah can grasp.
“Out.” That’s what she’s saying. “Let’s go out for lunch.” Sortons, sortons! Hannah pictures Maman, shooing plump Auguste, tail bristling, out of the kitchen. Out where? Hannah wonders. Not to a garden. Wall leads to wall. Someone will stop them. A line becomes a circle. You always come—home, she used to say.
The woman is looking at her with a question in her eyes. Hannah feels uncomfortable. What is she supposed to say? She doesn’t want to venture out, near the place where the women sit and talk on the telephone, in blue uniforms, in white coats.
But, “Out,” she says, in spite of herself, and nods. The woman looks happy now, as if she has plunged into clean, icy water on a hot day. I plunged like that once, thinks Hannah, proud for an instant, in another country, the pebbles hard on my feet, someone calling to me, Viens, Hannah! Vite! Come quickly!
“Yes, out!” says the woman. “To a restaurant! Where would you like to go?”
Where, indeed? Hannah pictures a house, cream colored, one of many all attached, glass with lovely colors in it—blue, red—in the window of the front door.
“I—” she begins, but the woman is too quick.
“Shall we go to the Pomegranate? You always like that restaurant. It’s the French one, remember? Remember the veal? You like it with the mushrooms, remember? Or what about the Golden Wings?”
What is she talking about? Hannah’s glasses start to slip down her nose; she catches them and fixes them. How is the woman coming up with names like this, Pomegranate, Wings? She must be mistaken.
Not wishing to hurt the woman’s feelings, Hannah smiles, and the woman smiles too. She is American, Hannah’s sure. Hannah notices how her eyes look puzzled—sad, maybe. She has a little line just above one of her eyebrows—how is that called? A something line.
“How about if we just get in the car and decide once we’re driving around?” The puzzled look changes into a hopeful one, and suddenly Hannah senses how her own kindliness toward this woman is blossoming into something else, courage perhaps. She decides to go along with the woman’s hopefulness about a restaurant outside. She can’t remember the last time she felt so ready to try for a change. To change places, why, that is a change indeed.
To Hannah’s amazement, the ones at the desk do not say, “Wait a minute! Where are you off to, Hannah?” as she and the woman walk up the hallway. A couple of them just keep looking into the big pink drawers filled with papers, or putting pills into little cups. One of them, in a white coat, looks up.
“Taking Queen Hannah out for lunch?” she asks.
Hannah wonders why the woman calls her this. Hannah looks at her shoes carefully as she walk...

IF BOOKS COULD KILL by Kate Carlisle

This is the second in the bibliophile mystery series and I very much hope there is to be many more.
Brooklyn Wainwright, a rare books expert and restorer is in Edinburg, Scotland for a prestigious book fair. Brooklyn runs into an old flame, Kyle, who asks her to authenticate a book of lost poetry by Robert Burns. Then Kyle is killed by one of Brooklyn's restoration tools and Scotland Yard considers her a prime suspect. But security expert Derek Stone shows up to help her find the real culprit.

I loved the first in this series, Homicide in Hardcover. You can check out my review here. This follow up did not disappoint either. I love the cast of characters that Carlisle has assembled and brought back for part two: her hippie parents, best friend Robin, arch-enemy Minka, and of course the sexy Derek Stone. Also a mysterious man from the first book is back for another cameo.
I loved the setting of Edinburg and the fun storyline and the wacky adventures. This is a great combo of chick-lit (the good kind) and mystery. I compared these to the Sophie Katz series in my first review and I stand by that.

I have been having a very poor reading time lately and this was a great book to get me reading again. I may still be in a slump but I was able to enjoy this read immensely!

rating 4.5/5