Updated March 27, 2003.  URL is http://www.tentativetimes.net/books/03spring.html

Books I Read, early 2003

fiction, non-fiction and young adults.

FICTION

Sebold, Alice.........The Lovely Bones
     Can you believe that this concept could cause so much controversy?  The book is narrated by a very young girl who was kidnapped by a neighbort, raped and killed.
She goes to a heaven which is different for each person.  Hers is like a small town where she has a roommate her age, an advisor, and all the time she needs to adapt to her own death and watch over her family on earth. 
     I found it extremely comforting.  It's well written. It wraps you up in the situation like an old quilt; you settle in and read on and on.   Most eveyone in my book club hated this book.  I'll find out why, at the next meeting.  Meanwhile, you read it!

Rosenberg, Joel C.........................The Last Jihad
This may be the most gripping book of the season. We read it in early February 2003 as  President Bush  is mobilizing for possible war in the Middle East.  Set ten years in the future, seriously elusive plotters plan to kill the President (a successor to G.W. Bush) as well as HRH the Queen of England,  the Saudi Royal Family, the PM of Canada, and all of Israel.  There are amazing complications and twists.   You won't be able to put this book down, and I do hope a real war doesn't occur as you read it, or ever.  Don't even read this if you have high blood pressure.  www.tor.com
Forge 2002 351pp HB ISBN 0-765-30715-4 (alk. paper)

Haywood, Gar Anthony.............It's Not A Pretty Sight

So I found out that Haywood has two different series running!  The other one, reviewed earlier, was about a retired couple with "interesting" offspring.   But  this series I just found features private investigator Aaron Gunner,   a down-at-the heels, heart-of-gold ex-lover of the murder victim. The African-American community in which he lives and works, South Central Los Angeles, pulses with suspects.  But Gunner is the only one who believes the victim's husband didn't kill her.  Reviewers rank Haywood with Mosley, Chandler and Ross MacDonald.   They are so right!
Berkley Prime Crime 1998, (or in Haredback from Putnams in 1996)
241 pp pb, ISBN 0-425-16196-X

Walter Mosley.........Bad Boy Brawley Brown

Easy Rollins is back after 6 years, better than ever if that's possible.  Easy cheats death many ways as he tries to get his friend's lady's son back from a revolutionary group in L.A. Surprise after surprise.... I dare you to figure this one out.  A Celtic knot of a plot, totally memorable.  Welcome back, Easy Rawlins.  

Large type edition from Thorndike Press in Waterville, Maine.  800.223.1244 or www.gale.com/thorndike  or www.gale.com/wheeler   2002, ISBN 0-7862-4593-X

Albert, Susan Wittig.................Mistletoe Man, a China Bayles mystery

China is married!  What a relief.  We were all holding our breath.  But marriage hasn't slowed her down, and she takes shuddery chances all through Mistletoe Man..  Albert also gives us mistletoe lore in every chapter.  The Mistletoe Man is a crabby recluse who sells mistletoe to the  China Bayles herb shop at Christmas time.  He's the corpse.  Whodunit is the name of the game in this sprightly delight.  Contact Susan Wittig Albert on-line at www.mysterypartners.com

Gillman, Dorothy................... Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha

Kaminsky, Stuart...............The Devil Met A Lady

I think it was about Betty Davis, but I misplaced the book before I could write about it.  It didn't grab me by the throat and hold on while I read it.   Kaminsky can't write a bad book, but some are more gripping than others.

Mysterious Press, 1993, 194 pp HB, ISBN 0-89296-436-7

Atherton, Nancy.......Aunt Dimity: Detective

Nancy Atherton is one of the nicest, most genuine and charming writers loose on the planet.  Aunt Dimity is dead, but it hasn't slowed her down much.  Her descendant, mother of twins Lori Shepherd, gets into quite dangerous predicaments which Aunt Dimity lends a hand with solving.  It may sound hokey when I write that, but the series is a delight.  Equal to Charlotte MacLeod in my humble opinion.  Visit www.auntdimity.com

Viking Penguin 2001, 229 pp HB  ISBN  0-670-03021-X (alk. paper)

NON-FICTION 

Fast, Howard.........................Citizen Tom Paine

Where was Howard Fast when I was in school? (We had to read a long, serious book a week for English and another for History, but this is one of the books we could count for both classes.) No one will forget the amazing story of the author of Common Sense. What a difficult life he led.  Fast must be the leading popularizer of Revolutionary War history.  Tom Paine was just a name to me until I found this account at a garage sale.  I hope your library or bookman has this 1943 book.

Judith Reick Long..................Gene Stratton-Porter, Novelist and Naturalist

Although I've been involved with the Gene (Geneva) Stratton-Porter State Historic Site since 1972, this is the first in-depth biography I've read about Mrs. Porter.   Unfortunately, Mrs. Long died right before publication of this excellent biography.   Scholarly yet completely accessible, we learn "the rest of the story" of this feisty, extraordinary author/naturalist/photographer who put Indiana on the map for the rest of the world, early in the 1800s.  You can buy this book at my website for her Limberlost State Historic Site, on-line at www.genestrattonporter.net

Indiana Historical Society, 1990, 254 pp Hb with 30 pages of footnotes, index and select bibliography.  ISBN   0 - 871 95-052-9        

Hearth, Amy Hill........The Delany Sisters' Book of Everyday Wisdom

The Delany sisters of Having Our Say  share more advice with their readers.   A charming reminiscence with wise welcome reminders.   

McBride, James..............The Color of Water 

Subtitled A Black Man's Tribute To His White Mother, McBride's autobiography/biography of his mother (alternating chapters)  fascinates us with the tale of a true survivor with one of the most intriguing lives imaginable.  Ruth fled an impending arranged marriage in Suffolk, Virginia where she had been raised an Orthodox Jew.  Her father was a tyrant, her mother was crippled from polio.  Ruth went to her reluctant relatives in New York City where she overcame hardships hard to imagine today.   All twelve of her children graduated from at least one college. Many have advanced degrees.  Ruth herself received a degree in Social Work in Philadelphia when she was 65.  She became an international traveler as well as a force for good in Philadelphia.  You would do yourself a disservice if you passed up reading this book.
You will probably never forget it. 

Apple, Max................I Love Gootie

Max Apple wrote Roommates, the story of  life with Rocky,   his fabulous Lithuanian immigrant grandfather.  So many readers wrote asking about his grandmother that he wrote this book.  It flows like milk, it sings like meadowlarks, and it brings Gootie back to life.  Really, it's the life of Max as he grows up in the 1950s and '60s, with one heck of a riotous homelife.   (He, his two sisters and his parents lived with his grandparents.)  Colorful uncles,   wacky aunts, general bedlam....   Woody Allen would eat his heart out!   Now I'll have to read Roommates as soon as I can find it.     
Warner Books, 1998, 244 pp HB.  ISBN 0-446-52074-8

Jeffers, H. Paul.......Sal Mineo, His Life, Murder and Mystery
I learned a lot about Sal Mineo and his remarkable family from this book, things I hadn't  heard before.  I don't recommend it to kids, for the language is gratuitously tough, and there is much too much "who James Dean slept with" in these pages.  Well, there's too much "who Sal slept with" too.  I thought I was getting the new Mineo bio, The Switchblade Kid, but this is a different book.  If you have an affection for Sal Mineo, you will be spellbound by Jeffer's account.  I was. 

Large print edition 2001 from Thorndike Press, ISBN 0-7862-3167-X

YOUNG ADULTS/TEENS

Hickman, Janet................Zoar Blue

The War Between The States  presents a wrenching challenge to the Society of Separationists of Zoar, Ohio.   The young men want to do their part, but they are mostly forbidden by their parents.  Some enlist anyway, and those left behind much deal with their emotions individually.  No one will talk much about their feelings. 

Meanwhile, an orphaned girl taken into the community as an indentured servant tries to escape to the uncle in Pennsylvania.  What she finds working as a nurse in Gettysburg helps her mature. 

This was written in 1978, when young readers were more protected from almost everything.  Still, it's an interesting read. 

Links out:
Links to my other book reviews
Magna cum Murder Halloween conference for mystery writers and fans
BIG NEWS from Ann Benson!!  (Plague Tales Trilogy etc.)
        (Read all about Ann here: www.tentativetimes.net/books/wint01.html)  

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