Category Archives: Literary

The Poisoned Pawn – Peggy Blair – BLOG TOUR

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blair_poisonedpawn_pbWhen Cuban Inspector Ricardo Ramirez is dispatched to Canada and told to bring home a priest found in possession of child pornography depicting Cuban children, he knows his job will be hard enough. But it gets worse once he’s in Ottawa, and women in Havana start dropping dead from a mysterious toxin. Worried about his family, powerless to help pathologist Hector Apiro, and faced with the threat of a Canadian travel advisory that could shut down Cuban tourism, Ramirez tries focus on his mission. As he does, he untangles a web of deceit and depravity that extends all the way from the corridors of power in Ottawa to those of the Vatican, and uncovers a cold-blooded killer.

The Poisoned Pawn is the gripping, fast-paced sequel to the award-winning, critically acclaimed mystery The Beggar’s Opera. Evoking the crumbling beauty of Old Havana and featuring Inspector Ramirez, a man haunted by the victims of his unsolved cases, it’s perfect for fans of Donna Leon and Martin Cruz Smith who love exotic settings and unforgettable characters.  - Publisher’s Website

I really have to say, Peggy is getting better and better with her 2nd book in the Inspector Ramirez series.  She has penned a book that has everything tucked away in a concise and entertaining series.  Even though this book is set mostly in Canada, Inspector Ramirez’s mind is as clear as ever, even with the sub-zero temperatures.  He has more things up his sleeve during this investigation that I would have thought of, but he does it with class and grace.

Do not underestimate him!  I want the next book to come out already! My earlier review of Peggy’s first book is located here, so go and take a look.  Also, the Begger’s Opera is now available in the U.S., so if you live there, go and get yourself a copy and get ready to immerse yourself in Cuban Culture, and Mystery Writing at it’s finest.

Much Thanks to Peggy and Penguin Canada for allowing me to take part in the blog tour again.  Always looking forward to great new emerging Canadian Talent! I’m so happy to be able to bring this to you along with many, many more that I have loved.  So, go and get both books in the series if you haven’t read them, and the first in the U.S. and are new to Peggy’s work.  I can attest that you will not be disappointed in the least !

If you are looking for other view points on this book and her first, the blog tour isn’t finished yet.  You can go to these blogs and see what they had to say about Peggy’s newest work.

Feb 25 -  The Literary Word
Feb 26 -  Curled Up with a Good Book and a Cup of Tea
Feb 28 -  Just a Lil Lost
March 4 -  A Bookworm’s World
March 5 -  Serendipitous Readings  – That’s Here !
March 6 –  Literary Treats
March 7 - Thrifty Momma ’s Brainfood 

Excerpt – Peggy on Twitter – Peggy’s Website - Goodreads - Facebook – Peggy’s Blog - My review of The Beggar’s Opera – Q&A w. Peggy

Up and Down – Terry Fallis

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Up and DownThe author of the Stephen Leacock Medal-winning The Best Laid Plans brings his trademark humour and sharp storytelling to a new novel set in the high-stakes world of a global public relations agency.

On his first day at Turner King, David Stewart quickly realizes that the world of international PR (affectionately, perhaps ironically, known as “the dark side”) is a far cry from his previous job on Parliament Hill. For one, he missed the office memo on the all-black dress code; for another, there are enough acronyms and jargon to make his head spin. Before he even has time to find the washroom, David is assigned a major project: devise a campaign to revitalize North America’s interest in the space program – maybe even show NASA’s pollsters that watching a shuttle launch is more appealing than going out for lunch with friends.

The pressure is on, and before long, David finds himself suggesting the most out-of-this-world idea imaginable: a Citizen Astronaut lottery that would send one Canadian and one American to the International Space Station. Suddenly, David’s vaulted into an odyssey of his own, navigating the corporate politics of a big PR agency; wading through the murky but always hilarious waters of Canada-U.S. relations; and trying to hold on to his new job while still doing the right thing.

Equal parts clever and satirical, thoughtful and affecting, Up and Down is Terry Fallis at his best, confirming his status as a Canadian literary star. – Publishers Website

I have to say, Terry has hit his stride right out of the gate and produced his best book yet in my opinion!  I had a very hard time putting this book down, and when I did my darling cat Georgie kept it company in my wake.  Laugh out loud funny, entertaining, hard-hitting, and poignant all in the same swoop, not to mention some sneeky, sneeky stuff done by the US head of the advertising agency.  It is my favorite of all three books Terry has produced yet.  Modern Day takes on the Space Shuttle in a reality show, how can you top that ?!?  Just wait, someone in Hollywood will get a hold of this and make a movie about it.  Loved it ! Yes, that is a dare for all of those Hollywood Types out there !! ;-)

The Painted Girls – Cathy Marie Buchanan

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painted girls cover cdnParis, 1878. Following their father’s sudden death, the Van Goethem sisters find their lives upended. Without his wages, and with the small amount their laundress mother earns disappearing into the absinthe bottle, eviction from their lodgings seems imminent. With few options for work, Marie is dispatched to the Paris Opera, where for a scant seventeen francs a week, she will be trained to enter the famous Ballet. Her older sister, Antoinette, finds work as an extra in a stage adaptation of Émile Zola’s naturalist masterpiece L’Assommoir. Marie throws herself into dance and is soon modelling in the studio of Edgar Degas, where her image will forever be immortalized as Little Dancer Aged 14. Meanwhile, Antoinette, derailed by her love for the dangerous Émile Abadie, must choose between honest labour and the more profitable avenues open to a young woman of the Parisian demimonde. Set at a moment of profound artistic, cultural and societal change, The Painted Girls is a tale of two remarkable sisters rendered uniquely vulnerable to the darker impulses of “civilized society.” In the end, each will come to realize that her salvation—her survival, even—lies with the other. – Publishers Website

LOVE, LOVE LOVE !!! I guess I can’t just say that, now can I?  Cathy has taken a subject she has just come across and developed a seductive, evocative historical fiction masterpiece in her newest book!!  Even if you haven’t taken ballet as a girl like I Cathy and myself have, you are still drawn into the gruelling training, the blood and sweat that is left in the practice rooms or on the stage during performances.  The attention to detail is impeccable, the emotions stirring your own as you flip or in my case devoured page by page, then realizing that you have read it in one sitting thinking what in the world just happened.  Yes, I have gushed about her earlier book The Day The Falls Stood Still, BUT! (yep, there’s that one again) You will absolutely love this one in a whole new way.  Grab that glass of absinthe, get comfy in your favorite reading place, and prepare to become enraptured in the trials and tribulations of the Van Goethem sisters as they traipse, dance and leap across the Paris Theatre Stage .  As they walk through their poor existence as best they can.  One thing I can’t help thinking about…what has happened to them in the next 20 years of their lives…Cathy does give you a small glimpse into the future at the end of the book, but do they fade into the background at the same speed they came to the foreground?  Is there something else in the background waiting in the wings? Only I can speculate or dream as they did.

This book for sure will have the Giller Judges enthralled if it is nominated this year for Canada’s Literary Prize for sure! Please Giller Gods, Make it Be !!

If you are on the USA side of the Border, it is published by Riverhead Books.  And if it is any sign of the publicity that it is receiving on both sides of the border, it will be a massive best-seller for sure !!

Reading Guide – Facebook - Twitter - Cathy’s Website - Browse Inside The Painted Girls - Q and A with Cathy

 

Guest Author Post – Cathy Marie Buchanan – The Painted Girls: Two Stories Intertwined

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Please welcome Cathy to the blog once again for her second historical fiction book – The Painted Girls which is available both in the USA and Canada right now!  I can tell you if you haven’t read her first book which I fell in love with at the first few sentences, you should.  Cathy is one of those rare talents where writing gets better and better like a fine aged wine…that’s if you drink wine! Here is a guest post she has done for me, enjoy!

 

When Edgar Degas unveiled Little Dancer Aged Fourteen in 1881, he showed the sculpture alongside his portrait of two teenage boys on trial in the criminal court.  The Painted Girls tells the story of the young dancer who modeled for the sculpture and also that of the Emile Abadie and Michel Knobloch, the boys Degas drew in the prisoners’ box.

Art historians contend more than a shared exhibition links the artworks.  They suggest in each Degas sought to imply the depravity of his subjects. What, I wondered, lay laid beneath such a claim?

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Marie van Goethem, I would learn, modeled for Little Dancer.  She was from a poverty-stricken family and was trained to enter the famous Paris Opéra Ballet. It was the dream of many a poor Parisian girl. The ballet offered a chance to find fame and fortune if she had talent and ambition, if she was able to attract the attentions of an admirer with clout enough to advance her career.  Such liaisons were commonplace, and unfair though it was, blame fell squarely on the shoulders of the ballet girls.  It was not surprising, then, that when the sculpture was unveiled, the public at once connected Little Dancer with a life of corruption and young girls for sale.  Her face, they said, was “imprinted with the detestable promise of every vice.”  Degas, it would seem, was successful in suggesting the child’s depravity.

Such an intention was easy enough to swallow when it came to the portrait of Abadie and Knobloch.  “Scientific” findings of the day supported notions of innate criminality and particular facial features—low forehead, forward-thrusting jaw—that marked a person as having a tendency toward crime.  Those features are incorporated into the portrait (and the sculpture, too).  Even more telling, Degas titled the portrait “Criminal Physiognomies.”

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What fascinated me most of all, though, as I researched the stories of Marie and the boys was the possibility the link between the artworks went beyond the shared exhibition and the suggestion of criminality.  All three youths had inhabited the same underbelly of Paris, and I could not stop myself from imagining their paths had crossed, the ways in which such a meeting might have altered destinies.  Yes, I wanted to tell both stories, but I wanted to intertwine their lives, too.  And so on the pages of The Painted Girls, there is a fateful day when Marie’s older sister meets Abadie behind the Paris Opéra.

It certainly does make you think about this, doesn’t it?

Thank you so much Cathy for this, and stay tuned for my review of The Painted Girls.

The Headmaster’s Wager – Vincent Lam

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From Giller Prize winner, internationally acclaimed, and bestselling author Vincent Lam comes a superbly crafted, highly suspenseful, and deeply affecting novel set against the turmoil of the Vietnam War.

Percival Chen is the headmaster of the most respected English school in Saigon. He is also a bon vivant, a compulsive gambler and an incorrigible womanizer. He is well accustomed to bribing a forever-changing list of government officials in order to maintain the elite status of the Chen Academy. He is fiercely proud of his Chinese heritage, and quick to spot the business opportunities rife in a divided country.

He devotedly ignores all news of the fighting that swirls around him, choosing instead to read the faces of his opponents at high-stakes mahjong tables. But when his only son gets in trouble with the Vietnamese authorities, Percival faces the limits of his connections and wealth and is forced to send him away. In the loneliness that follows, Percival finds solace in Jacqueline, a beautiful woman of mixed French and Vietnamese heritage, and Laing Jai, a son born to them on the eve of the Tet offensive.

Percival’s new-found happiness is precarious, and as the complexities of war encroach further and further into his world, he must confront the tragedy of all he has refused to see. Blessed with intriguingly flawed characters moving through a richly drawn historical and physical landscape, The Headmaster’s Wageris a riveting story of love, betrayal and sacrifice. – Publishers Website

I really liked this book ! Percival isn’t only a man who has a business, he also bribes officials and almost always has a solution to everything…Until his son causes trouble and he has to send him away to China so he doesn’t end up in prison.  His son is everything to him, he will do anything for him and his school.  When the loneliness from missing his son becomes too severe, he takes up with a young woman when gambling at one of the houses he goes to .  Later on, she becomes pregnant, and the desire to leave the country in war as well as all of the chaos is even more urgent.

Percival was an interesting man – his past marriage to his son’s mother, the bribes and people he is connected to,  especially his right hand man Mak gives him the solutions he needs until he misses his son so much that it is nearly impossible to have him return to Vietnam from China.  What won’t he do to survive? Who will he bribe next? Will he become bankrupt before he can leave the country, or worse dead?

I really loved Vincent’s narrative.  Although Percival is a man of many things, the one of the many things he loves are his son and his mistresses son, whom he was told it was his son, well, you will just have to read the book to find out. I don’t like giving spoilers !  There are times where it is all fun and games, periods of tumultuous fighting with his own family, and closest friends, but also within himself.  He wages a constant battle of doing right from wrong, and weighing them against the better good.  Does he do these things to get ahead? Of course.  Would he do anything to save his son who was exiled, absolutely.  Is it all about him, most of the time.  Does he have remorse? Of course he does.  And, I’m sure he would change things differently if he could go back in time.  That’s the thing with life, you can’t go back and change anything.  Did he learn from his lessons, yes.  Did he change? I’ll let you decide.

There were obviously good times had in the book as well, all combined into this novel it is about sacrifice, love, war, and greed.  I am sure that Vincent will be back soon with another novel of even more importance even if it is fiction.  He won the Giller Prize in 2006 for Blood-Letting and Miraculous Cures.  He was nominated for the Giller yet again this year, but only made it on the long list.  He was also nominated for the Governor Generals Awards.

Vincent’s Website - Twitter - Facebook  - Browse Inside

Touch – Alexi Zentner

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NOMINEE 2011 – Scotiabank Giller Prize

Touch begins with Stephen, an Anglican priest, returning from Vancouver to the northern BC town of Sawgamet where he grew up, just in time for his mother’s death. Sawgamet was founded by Stephen’s grandfather Jeannot, when he heard a voice in the woods calling his name and his dog, Flaireur, refused to take another step. Back then, as Stephen remembers it from the stories passed down to him, men were giants, or even gods, striving to tame the land. The world of Sawgamet was enchanted, alive with qallupilluit and ijirait, sea-witches and shape-shifters; Jeannot saw caribou covered with gold dust and found gold nuggets the size of boulders. Sometimes winter refused to end, and blizzards buried the whole town in snow for months at a time. Sawgamet was a place where Jeannot had to kill a man twice and then carry the bones around with him, bound in cloth, to make sure he stayed dead.

Years later, with his mother on her deathbed, Stephen tries to piece together the past from myths and stories and memories that he’s not sure he can trust. And not everything is magical: if life in Jeannot’s Sawgamet was richer and brighter than it seems for Stephen now, it was also harder and more brutal, with both fire and ice claiming too many lives before their time. Jeannot never knew his son, Pierre, Stephen’s father, who was himself maimed in a logging accident; Stephen’s childhood was marked by tragic loss, and a lasting pain he must now confront as he considers how to pass Jeannot’s stories on to his own daughters.

A chronicle of the birth of a town and the passing of a way of being in the world, Touch is unique, compelling and full of marvels. But this book captures the most personal moments in life as well as the most dramatic ones – Alexi Zentner conveys three generations of a family’s intimate emotional experience in language that pierces the heart. This beautiful and moving novel is a great story told by a natural storyteller, and to read Touch is to enter an enthralling world that you’ll never want to leave. - Publishers Website

Believe the book’s description.  Touch is one of those books where the writing is fantastic, the story baffling, you can’t really believe what you are reading – fact or fiction, but as you read page after page, it entices you, envelopes you as if you are a person living in this town.  The realization is like being in another world, except you are right there where you are reading it, being brought into another world.  The legends, the stories – real or fabricated makes you feel like you are listening to them from your own grandparent or other family member – your eyes all widened, the look of shock or even mischievous thoughts crossing your mind wondering if it really was weird or just made up. Thoughts of making the story even more out of this world.  Yes, it does happen.

Then as you are caught up in the story telling, it reminds you of other thoughts and feelings possibly of your own mortality, other family members that have passed away, the warmness of their hugs, the food they made, the stories they told.  The stories passed on from earlier generations are as wild as they were when you first heard them.  It’s about a family, much like yours or even mine – the ties that bind, the secrets kept, the hard work, shocking revelations, the things they regret and are telling you to finally let them go.

Truly a novel that needs to be read to be believed.  It has recently been long-listed for the IMPAC Dublin Awards a few days ago, along with the other previous nominations including the Giller Prize.

If you haven’t already picked up this gem, now is the time to see what I have talked about.

Goodreads – Alexi’s Website – Alexi on Twitter – Alexi on Facebook

Listen to Alexi Zentner’s Touch from Dreamscape Media on Vimeo.

The Secret Keeper – Kate Morton

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From the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Distant Hours, The Forgotten Garden, and The House at Riverton, a spellbinding new novel filled with mystery, thievery, murder, and enduring love.

During a summer party at the family farm in the English countryside, sixteen-year-old Laurel Nicolson has escaped to her childhood tree house and is happily dreaming of the future. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and watches as her mother speaks to him. Before the afternoon is over, Laurel will witness a shocking crime. A crime that challenges everything she knows about her family and especially her mother, Dorothy—her vivacious, loving, nearly perfect mother.

Now, fifty years later, Laurel is a successful and well-regarded actress living in London. The family is gathering at Greenacres farm for Dorothy’s ninetieth birthday. Realizing that this may be her last chance, Laurel searches for answers to the questions that still haunt her from that long-ago day, answers that can only be found in Dorothy’s past.

Dorothy’s story takes the reader from pre–WWII England through the blitz, to the ’60s and beyond. It is the secret history of three strangers from vastly different worlds—Dorothy, Vivien, and Jimmy—who meet by chance in wartime London and whose lives are forever entwined. The Secret Keeper explores longings and dreams and the unexpected consequences they sometimes bring. It is an unforgettable story of lovers and friends, deception and passion that is told—in Morton’s signature style—against a backdrop of events that changed the world. – Publishers Website

Wow, just Wow!  I have always enjoyed Kate’s work, but this one has to be the very best yet.  I was hooked from the first chapter. She held me along until the last few chapters until all was revealed, I fell dumbfounded, shocked, shaking my head.  Kate is a very skillful storyteller that If I haven’t read any of her earlier work this would be the book to start from.  I am literally speechless!  And trust me that doesn’t happen often lol

Such a wonderful story about life, love, sacrifice, and the one skeleton in a closet that has sat patiently for so long.  The only one person who knows about it is on their deathbed, wanting to share, but is afraid of the consequences – her family, friends, old friends from the past.  This one will keep you in suspense right until the end and still will have you saying to yourself I didn’t even see it coming…

Wow, Wow, Wow…

Goodreads - Kate’s Website - Facebook - Browse Inside

 

The Red Pole of Macau – Ian Hamilton

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In The Red Pole of Macau, Ava’s half-brother Michael is desperate to pull out of a multi-million-dollar real estate deal in the territory of Macau. The developers are threatening to halt construction unless Michael and his business partner put up another $80 million; the bank is looking for repayment on their loan; and her father is prepared to sell everything to protect his first-born son.

When Ava enlists Uncle for help, she discovers his health is failing and is forced to turn to a former client, the cunning and seductive May Ling Wong. As Ava follows the money trail, she finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into Hong Kong’s dark and deadly world of organized crime.

Will Ava protect her family’s future? Or will this job lead to a violent end . . . – Publishers Website

Fangirl Moment when this arrived in the mail !! The fourth installment of Ian Hamilton’s Ava Lee Series ! I admit, I was engrossed in another book when this one arrived, but it was literally starting me down from the living room table, I had to put down the other book, until this one was read cover to cover, in the middle of reading I’m sending my thoughts to Ava with things like “Get That Sucker!” as well as other expletives that I can’t divulge here.  Tee hee!

I absolutely LOVE Ian’s collection so far, and wont give up on reading them until the last one has been shed, the plots revealed, and Ava has ridden the world of evil and people who are trying – yes, trying to take something away from people who a) don’t deserve it, or b) are being greedy!

I found out something quite interesting (at least to me) Some have commented on Goodreads that the constant name dropping of fashion brands, and of course her Starbucks Via in the books have turned people off the books.  But, when I was at Word on the Street in Toronto, I found out by the publicist that in fact in the Asian culture, that is what they do, they go by designer names, etc.  It is just their culture.  No more no less.   And I realize that here in Canada or anywhere else that sounds a bit much or irritating, but Ian has toned it down so to speak.  You won’t hear as much of it in the books, but you do see some of it.

So, now that I’m done gushing about Ian and his Ava, go and get the books all right?!?  They are FANTASTIC!  Ava comes out with a new book in February, so get caught up would you !!

Browse inside - Ian on Twitter - Ian on Facebook - Goodreads - Ian’s Website

I really wish there were some book trailers for Ava, She would kick some serious ass in them !

The Midwife Of Hope River – Patricia Harman

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Midwife Patience Murphy has a gift: a talent for escorting mothers through the challenges of bringing children into the world. Working in the hardscrabble conditions of Appalachia during the Depression, Patience takes the jobs that no one else wants, helping those most in need—and least likely to pay. She knows a successful midwifery practice must be built on a foundation of openness and trust—but the secrets Patience is keeping are far too intimate and fragile for her to ever let anyone in.

Honest, moving, and beautifully detailed, Patricia Harman’s The Midwife of Hope River rings with authenticity as Patience faces nearly insurmountable difficulties. From the dangerous mines of West Virginia to the terrifying attentions of the Ku Klux Klan, Patience must strive to bring new light and life into an otherwise hard world. – Publishers Website

I really enjoyed this book, until that is the end of it came and I felt like the main character did something that was completely out of character at least I thought it was out of character for her to do.

She has survived so many difficulties, overcome so many obstacles in her life, then to continue a relationship with one of the other characters in the book that they didn’t even really discuss; they just continued on with it, how it should progress, they didn’t discuss their feelings about one another, it just seemed as though the author needed to (in my opinion) end the book and didn’t have any other things to share about the couple.

Maybe it is me being in this modern world and all, I’m not sure.

Overall, it was a gorgeous book, written with a sense of the time period – the ’30′s. It had genuine parts of what it was like to be a midwife back in the day.   I was quite enthralled with it.

I just thought the ending of the novel could have been written better than it was.  I hope to read more from Patricia in the future.

Reading Guide – Patricia’s Website – Browse Inside – Goodreads – Facebook – Twitter

 

The Printmaker’s Daughter – Katherine Govier

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Recounting the story of her life, Oei plunges us into the colorful world of nineteenth-century Edo, in which courtesans rub shoulders with poets, warriors consort with actors, and the arts flourish in an unprecedented moment of creative upheaval. Oei and Hokusai live among writers, novelists, tattoo artists, and prostitutes, evading the spies of the repressive shogunate as they work on Hokusai’s countless paintings and prints. Wielding her brush, rejecting domesticity in favor of dedication to the arts, Oei defies all expectations of womanhood—all but one. A dutiful daughter to the last, she will obey the will of her eccentric father, the man who created her and who, ultimately, will rob her of her place in history.

Vivid, daring, and unforgettable, The Printmaker’s Daughter shines fresh light on art, loyalty, and the tender and indelible bond between a father and daughter.

A lost voice of old Japan reclaims her rightful place in history in this breathtaking work of imagination and scholarship from award-winning and internationally acclaimed author Katherine Govier. In the evocative tale of 19th century Tokyo, The Printmaker’s Daughter  delivers an enthralling tale of one of the world’s great unknown artists: Oei, the mysterious daughter of master printmaker Hokusai, painter of the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. In a novel that will resonate with readers of Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, and David Mitchell’s The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, the sights and sensations of an exotic, bygone era form the richly captivating backdrop for an intimate, finely wrought story of daughterhood and duty, art and authorship, the immortality of creation and the anonymity of history. – Publishers Website

I was very enthralled with this book.  A daughter who takes over her fathers painting when he gets too old to be able to do it.  She has spent her whole life studying beside him, going from place to place in object poverty, providing himself and his family the little money he can make under Communist China.  The threat of death, starvation, and shunning from the Government itself sits on their shoulders everyday while printing ‘approved’ books, and paintings; all the while painting ‘non-approved’ pieces for more money, but a much greater chance of being caught and their small livelihood obliterated with a jail sentence or worse.  As the daughter grows up in this time, she meets a friend of her fathers; really a prostitute who will figure into her whole life – from being able to apply makeup, to other womanly secrets.  They are linked for their lifetimes, in good times and bad.  It was the sad story of a woman who is attempting to eek out an existence where it is heavily controlled by the Government.  If they shun you, you are finished.  Love for family, survival, relationships on the brink of collapse, poverty, and self-sufficiency all had me engrossed along with the gracefulness of the geisha’s in the brothels who hone their craft for decades until long past their expiry date.

On  a side note - In CANADA it is entitled The Ghost Brush.  Catherine is also a Canadian!

Katherine’s Site – Twitter – Goodreads – Facebook – Browse Inside

 

Forgotten – Catherine McKenzie

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Congratulations to Catherine!!, who just this week had this book published in the USA.   This is a re-posting of the review I had done for it’s Canadian Release. It is available through William Morrow in the USA.

When everyone thinks you’re dead, how do you start your life over again?

Emma Tupper, a young lawyer with a bright future, sets out on a journey after her mother’s death: to Africa, a place her mother always wanted to visit. But her mother’s dying gift has unexpected consequences. Emma falls ill during the trip and is just recovering when a massive earthquake hits, turning her one-month vacation into a six-month ordeal.

When Emma returns home, she’s shocked to find that her friends and colleagues believed she was dead, that her apartment has been rented to a stranger and that her life has gone on without her. Can Emma pick up where she left off? Should she? As Emma struggles to recreate her old life, everyone around her thinks she should change – her job, her relationships, and even herself. But does she really want to sacrifice everything she’s working so hard to gain? – Publishers Website

I really truly believe that this is Catherine’s best novel yet !  It had a soul that you couldn’t walk away from, that one thing that keeps you reading page after page, until the last one wanting there to be more in the story.  What would you do if this happened to you?!?  Would you scream and cry or pick up where you left off to start your life all over again or would you just throw in the towel and say to hell with it? Myself, since I have started over again when my marriage failed so miserably I didn’t really have a choice to just sit and cry, I had to get up and prove to people I was the person that I was saying I was, and not the one other people were portraying me to be.  So, I can identify with Emma, know what she was going through in a sense.  Your whole world is somewhat turned upside down.  You, yourself are the only one that can turn it back upright; and fight for what you believe in.  Even if that means falling in love with the one person who you didn’t think possible. My reviews of Catherine’s other books can be found here by clicking the links – Arranged – SPIN.  Here are 2 Q and A’s I have also done with Catherine – Q and A #1 – Q and A #2

Catherine’s Website – Browse Inside – Twitter – Facebook – US Publisher – William Morrow

The Deception of Livvy Higgs – Donna Morrissey Blog Tour

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For two traumatic days, Livvy Higgs is besieged by a series of small heart attacks while the ghost of her younger self leads her back through a past devastated by lies and secrets.

The story opens in Halifax in 2009, travels back to the French Shore of Newfoundland during the mid-thirties and the heyday of the Maritime shipping industry, makes its way to wartorn Halifax during the battle of the Atlantic in World War II, then leaps ahead to the bedside of the elder Livvy.

Caught between a troubled past, and her present and worsening living conditions, Livvy is forced to pick apart the lies and secrets told by her greedy, prideful father, Durwin Higgs, who judges her a failure, and her formidable Grandmother Creed, who has mysteriously aligned herself with Livvy’s father, despite their mutual hatred.

Tending to Livvy during her illness is her young next-door neighbour, Gen, a single mother, social-work student, and part-time drug dealer. Overnight, a violent scene embroils the two in each other’s lives in a manner that will entwine them forever. In The Deception of Livvy Higgs, the inimitable Morrissey has written a powerful tale, the Stone Angel of the East Coast. – Publishers Website

What a book !  Not sure what to expect at first when I received the email about this particular book.  I actually had to stop and start a few times, just because of the nature of the book.  I had to get my head right so to speak so that I could delve into Livvy’s mind and her past bringing together past and present into this fantastic piece of literary fiction.

Livvy is having dreams, but in actuality she is having mini heart attacks.  She’s forgetting to go to the grocery store, feeding her cats, among other household chores.  Her younger neighbour who is a student and single mother helps her from time to time, but Livvy doesn’t want to depend on her all the time.  The dreams she is having have to do with her past – as a girl growing up in an upper class family where her father owns the general store – who decides if you are good enough for credit or not through the harsh winter months.  As the past reaches into the present, Livvy and Gen her neighbour come to blows about an incident that happens.  Will Livvy come to terms with her past, deal with it and live a calm existence in her last days? Or will Gen’s drama splinter that fragile relationship they have and drive them both on a path they aren’t meant to be on.

As both women go back and forth, it is almost a mirror image of the two in different times.  Both have made mistakes in their younger years, Both have made sacrifices for the good and bad.  Both have done things they aren’t proud of, but in the moment they did what they had to do to survive.  As we all go through life, I know in my own there are things that I have done that I am not proud of because of circumstances, and things that have happened I didn’t wish on anyone, but I learned from them and the mistakes I have made.  I cannot change any of it, but yet, if I could I don’t think I would.  It gave me things to think about, situations that have made me a better person, and strengthened my reserve to make me a stronger person.  In Livvy’s case, I believe that she needed to make amends for what she did so that she could finally let it go instead of hanging on to it for so long.  In Gen’s case, I think she learns from Livvy and her mistakes in a way that she can avoid them in the future if that makes any sense.  Both women are teaching and learning from one another, in different times if course, but the outcome and the lessons are still the same.  Do you want to be happy or do you want to be right?

Anger, Resentment, and hanging onto feelings for years or even decades isn’t good for you, come clean and be lifted of that weight to be able to be happy and free.  Donna has written a fantastic piece of Literary Fiction that will become a Canadian Classic!

 

Read an Excerpt - Donna on Facebook - Donna’s Website - 49th Shelf - Goodreads

 

For more reviews and commentary, check out the others on tour with Donna’s book!

September 18 Luanne –  http://luanne-abookwormsworld.blogspot.com/
September 19 Marci –  http://serendipitous-readings.com/
September 20 Aislynn –  http://www.stitchreadcook.com/
September 21 Nicole –  http://www.nicoleabouttown.com/
September 24 Allison –  http://bibliomama2.blogspot.com/

The Orphan Master’s Son – Adam Johnson – TLC Blog Tour

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Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother—a singer “stolen” to Pyongyang—and an influential father who runs a work camp for orphans. Superiors in the state soon recognize the boy’s loyalty and keen instincts. Considering himself “a humble citizen of the greatest nation in the world,” Jun Do rises in the ranks. He becomes a professional kidnapper who must navigate the shifting rules, arbitrary violence, and baffling demands of his Korean overlords in order to stay alive. Driven to the absolute limit of what any human being could endure, he boldly takes on the treacherous role of rival to Kim Jong Il in an attempt to save the woman he loves, Sun Moon, a legendary actress “so pure, she didn’t know what starving people looked like.”

In this epic, critically acclaimed tour de force, Adam Johnson provides a riveting portrait of a world rife with hunger, corruption, and casual cruelty but also camaraderie, stolen moments of beauty, and love. – Publishers Website

At first, I got this book mixed up with another book, so initially I had said no; then as I was going through some other things I decided to click the link for it and realized my mistake.  Once I was finished reading the description, I said yes to reading this particular book.

It did sound intriguing at first, but once I opened it up to actually read it, I was astounded, shocked, and scared for the people of North Korea.  To be subjected to unspeakable acts of abuse by their government was one thing, having a fictionalized account was another.  Where most of the things were most likely accurate and not unheard of.    But then there is this main character Pak Jun Do who first lives in an orphanage where his father is the orphan master, then onto a labor camp, who then you see working in varying different jobs, until he is in one of the most coveted jobs – as taking over one of the more prominent people in North Korea.   Through his wild rides through the bureaucracy, to the United States, and back again, he serves as the novels hero in some respect – trying to be invisible but yet in his final position to free a woman and her children from the ravages of the living conditions, the propaganda, and harshest living conditions to be free.

It had taken me a bit of time to fully read this novel.  At first, I thought it was a unusual story, but as you delve further into it, it’s the story of probably many of the people of this communist country – less the assumptions of different characters of course.  I have read somewhere that the author had taken one trip to North Korea to research this novel, and i cannot believe that he captured it so effortlessly.  My impression is that of shock that people are still made to live like this in the world now.  (Here I go wearing my heart on my sleeve again…)  If you are interested in at least a fictionalized account of North Korea, the people and other things, then this is the book for you.  I felt as if I was inside the country ducking to hide wherever I could so I wouldn’t be captured much like some of the characters in the book.

Goodreads - Excerpt – Reader’s Guide - Facebook

 

Thanks to the women at TLC Book Tours for including me in this tour ! Here are the other blogs where you can find this book and other thoughts:

Tuesday, August 7th:  Booklover’s Book Reviews

Wednesday, August 8th:  The Bowed Bookshelf

Thursday, August 9th:  Unabridged Chick

Monday, August 13th:  As I Turn the Pages

Tuesday, August 14th:  Gone Bookserk

Monday, August 20th:  Life in Review

Tuesday, August 21st:  Unabridged Chick – author interview

Wednesday, August 22nd:  Lit and Life

Thursday, August 23rd:  Bookish Habits

Monday, August 27th:  The Scarlett Letter

Tuesday, August 28th:  Book Dilettante

Tuesday, September 4th:  Serendipitous Reading

Monday, September 10th:  Peeking Between the Pages

Tuesday, September 18th:  You’ve GOTTA read this!

TBD:  Col Reads

TBD:  So Simply Sara

Q and A with Author Cassie Stocks of Dance, Gladys, Dance

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Photo Credit: Terry Gasior

I want to welcome Cassie to the blog, and hope you enjoy her answers to the questions I posed to her recently via email, I enjoyed her answers immensely!

What was it that made you want to become a writer after having so many adventures yourself?

When I was about seven, I wrote a couple of sentences on a scrap of paper about two people I was having trouble with. I folded up the piece of paper, put it in my pocket, and carried it around all day.  Somehow, I knew I’d done something both powerful and comforting.  As preteen I wrote poetry illustrated by feminine hygiene advertisements from Reader’s Digests (you know – women in billowy gowns walking on beaches). I wrote a gang novel on the back of my worksheets in elementary school and I kept journals for years.  I wrote throughout my adventures in later life as well but it wasn’t until I settled down a little that I had both the time and the brain space to tackle a larger project.

How much of yourself or have you added parts of yourself  into your book?

I think there is something of myself in all the characters in Dance, Gladys, Dance. The details in the novel are a mixture of pure fantasy and real life. I did have a deaf cat called Beethoven that walked across the piano. I didn’t ever sleep with any of my professors or instructors. Like the main character Frieda, I did have a feeling of displacement in the ‘real world’ from trying to live as and have a career as an artist. I have both painted and made papier-mache projects but I’ve never crocheted. I did travel in a bus with a bar band (for a very short while).  I’ve never been a Goth or a ghost.

You are a fellow Canadian. What would be your most favorite “Canadian” thing to do?

I’m not sure, I’ve never skied, climbed a mountain, or played hockey. I was in a canoe once. I’ve drank a lot of Tim Horton’s coffee and spent my share of Canadian Tire money.

What gave you the idea for this novel?

About fifteen years ago, I saw an ad for a stereo. The ad actually said “Gladys doesn’t dance anymore, she needs the room to bake.” I clipped the ad and kept it for years. It might have been a joke, but I wondered who Gladys was and why she would ever give up dancing for baking. In the novel, I changed the stereo in the ad to a phonograph, but it ultimately led to Gladys’ story.

The stories of Frieda and the other women are a combination of my own sentiments, research I’ve done on women and creativity, composites of people I’ve met, and the results of a caffeine saturated imagination.

Besides writing, what other talents would you like to have?

I’d like to be able to do psychic grocery shopping and cleaning by telekinesis (when I’m in the middle of a project, I buy paper plates and plastic cups and cutlery. Bad for the environment, but if anyone wants to start a Save the World – Get Cassie a Cleaning Woman Fund, I’m up for it).

If you died and were able to come back as anything you wanted, what would it be and why?

If I could come back in the past, I’d come back in the roaring twenties. I want to be at a literary salon, as the woman writer wearing tweed pants, paisley silk scarves, and leather ballet slippers (no matter the weather), sitting cross-legged in an over stuffed armchair with a martini, making bitter pronouncements about poodles and the world economy.

Do you have any favorite writers? Who are they and why?

Off the top of my head, I love Kurt Vonnegut (Bluebeard), Nick Hornby (A Long Way Down), Roddy Doyle (Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha), George Orwell (Keep The Aspidistra Flying), Charles Dicken’s (Oliver Twist), Miriam Toews (A Complicated Kindness), Paul Quarrington (Whale Music), F. Scott Fitzgerald (Cannery Row), Stephen Leacock (Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town), Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe), John Irving (A Prayer for Owen Meany) and Mark Childress (Crazy in Alabama).  I enjoy a good story simply told, both intelligent and accessible. I like the sense of a story being about itself, but also about something bigger, with a sense of political or social awareness.

Are you working on anything new?  When can we expect it to come out?

I’m working on my second novel called The Amazing Adventures of Mattress Boy. I’m not sure when it might be out. Stay tuned.

Do you have any heroes in real life? Who are they? Why?

My English Spaniel Frieda (named after the main character in Dance, Gladys, Dance to remind myself to write every time I called the dog — sad I know). I got Frieda from the humane society. She was terrified of the world and literally crawled everywhere. With time she overcame her nervousness and decided to befriend the entire world. Two years later she jumped off a second story porch, got tangled in a wrought iron railing on the way down and had to have one of her back legs amputated. Within a week, she was up and around and still runs around now like mad and approaches the world with endless enthusiasm.

What is the one trait that you most deplore in others? Yourself?

Judging others seems to be a recreational sport for some people. I think we need to choose not to evaluate people based on their skin colour, gender, social standing, monetary worth, religious beliefs, shoe size, or whatever the heck people choose to judge others by. Compassion, not criticism should be our beginning point. I work on this myself; it’s easy to get caught up in gossip and nit-picking.

Dance, Gladys, Dance – Cassie Stocks

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27-year-old Frieda Zweig is at an impasse. Behind her is a string of failed relationships and half-forgotten ambitions of being a painter; in front of her lies the dreary task of finding a real job and figuring out what “normal” people do with their lives. Then, a classified ad in the local paper introduces Frieda to Gladys, an elderly woman who long ago gave up on her dreams of being a dancer.

The catch? Gladys is a ghost.

In Dance, Gladys, Dance, Cassie Stocks tells the uplifting story of a woman whose uncanny connection with a kindred spirit causes her to see her life in a new way —as anything but ordinary. – Publishers Website

I have to say, what a quirky, funny, interesting read ! Not so much classic chic-lit in any way; it is certainly a book that makes you think about the instances that Frieda encounters throughout the book.  Is Frieda’s life really such a mess?!?  Is she really alone and untalented as she thinks she is?!?  Does Frieda believe in herself?!? Why do others think of herself much more than she does? It seems to me she is going through some sort of crisis she brings upon herself; those negative messages she starts to believe from what other people have told her.

Don’t we all at one time or another fall into that trap.  Depending on whether we are having a bad day, or just feeling down upon ourselves, Frieda finally through the help of Gladys, who is a ghost who is chasing her own mistakes she has made in life, while attempting to help from beyond the grave.

We, as women, or even men for that matter need to stop the negative back talk and regrets in our own lives or in other for that matter and start to believe in ourselves.  This book is laugh out funny, deeply inspirational, and with characters’ quirkiness which, will have you glued to the pages wondering what will happen next.  We need to stand up for one another as the characters did midway to the end of the book for what we believe in, maybe not as drastic as some of the members did with going with all out nudity, but we can make our presence known in other ways.

As part of this blog tour, please stop by these other blogs that are participating.  Although, I don’t offer book giveaways, these other blogs may be holding one if you want to try your luck and try to win a copy.  If you aren’t lucky, please support the author by going to your indie bookstore or chapters/indigo/kobo and buy your copy !

Tomorrow, I have the Q and A where I had a chance to ask Cassie some questions, stay tuned !

Dance, Gladys, Dance Blog Tour

June 26th and 27th: The Indextrious Reader

July 2nd and 3rd: Lavender Lines

July 13th and 19th: Koala Bear Writer

July 16th and 17th: The Book Chic Blog

July 19th and 20th: Serendipitous Readings - HERE

August 7th and 8th: Peeking Between the Pages

Unknown date – The Book Drunkard

Cassies Blog – Goodreads – Twitter – Download an Excerpt – Listen to a Podcast

#24 – The Confession – Charles Todd

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Scotland Yard’s best detective, Inspector Ian Rutledge, must solve a dangerous case that reaches far into the past in this superb mystery in the acclaimed series

Declaring he needs to clear his conscience, a dying man walks into Scotland Yard and confesses that he killed his cousin five years earlier during the Great War. When Inspector Ian Rutledge presses for details, the man evades his questions, revealing only that he hails from a village east of London. With little information and no body to open an official inquiry, Rutledge begins to look into the case on his own.

Less than two weeks later, the alleged killer’s body is found floating in the Thames, a bullet in the back of his head. Searching for answers, Rutledge discovers that the dead man was not who he claimed to be. What was his real name—and who put a bullet in his head? Were the “confession” and his own death related? Or was there something else in the victim’s past that led to his murder?

The inspector’s only clue is a gold locket, found around the dead man’s neck, that leads back to Essex and an insular village whose occupants will do anything to protect themselves from notoriety. For notoriety brings the curious, and with the curious come change and an unwelcome spotlight on a centuries-old act of evil that even now can damn them all. – Publishers Website

This was my first foray into Inspectors Ian’s world and I wasn’t disappointed.  Continuing on after Ian has come back from the War, he’s back at Scotland Yard when he talks to someone who says  a murder has happened.  Yes, someone comes forward to tell him of a murder that has happened – 5 years earlier.   When this  person passes away suddenly and floating in the river, Ian takes a trip to rural village outside London to see if he can find any clues about who this person was who came to him, when a whole can of worms opens up that Ian isn’t so sure of.  Through the bends of the narrative, Ian sleuths out the people involved, the lies, the deceit, and what is behind it all in a historical mystery that will have you hooked until the end.

Then of course there is Ian himself – shattered and broken from the War and the nightmares that never seem to go away…

Charles’ Website – Facebook – Excerpt – Fun Stuff

#23 – Voyagers of The Titanic – Passengers, Sailors, Ship Builders, Aristrocrats, and The Worlds They Came From – Richard Davenport – Hines

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Late in the night of April 14, 1912, the mighty Titanic, a passenger liner traveling from Southampton, England, to New York City, struck an iceberg four hundred miles south of Newfoundland. Its sinking over the next two and a half hours brought the ship—mythological in name and size—one hundred years of infamy.

Of the 2,240 people aboard the ship, 1,517 perished either by drowning or by freezing to death in the frigid North Atlantic waters. What followed the disaster was tantamount to a worldwide outpouring of grief: In New York, Paris, London, and other major cities, people lined the streets and crowded around the offices of the White Star Line, the Titanic’s shipping company, to inquire for news of their loved ones and for details about the lives of some of the famous people of their time.

While many accounts of the Titanic’s voyage focus on the technical or mechanical aspects of why the ship sank, Voyagers of the Titanic follows the stories of the men, women, and children whose lives intersected on the vessel’s fateful last day, covering the full range of first, second, and third class­—from plutocrats and captains of industry to cobblers and tailors looking for a better life in America.

Richard Davenport-Hines delves into the fascinating lives of those who ate, drank, reveled, dreamed, and died aboard the mythic ship: from John Jacob Astor IV, the wealthiest person on board, whose comportment that night was subject to speculation and gossip for years after the event, to Archibald Butt, the much-beloved military aide to Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft, who died helping others into the Titanic’s few lifeboats. With magnificent prose, Voyagers of the Titanic also brings to life the untold stories of the ship’s middle and third classes—clergymen, teachers, hoteliers, engineers, shopkeepers, counterjumpers, and clerks—each of whom had a story that not only illuminates the fascinating ship but also the times in which it sailed. In addition, Davenport-Hines explores the fascinating politics behind the Titanic’s creation, which involved larger-than-life figures such as J. P. Morgan, the ship’s owner, and Lord Pirrie, the ship’s builder.

The memory of this tragedy still remains a part of the American psyche and Voyagers of the Titanic brings that clear night back to us with all of its drama and pathos. – Publishers Website

Since it was the 100th Anniversary of the fatal accident that sank the Titanic along with most of its passengers, I thought it would be interesting to see how they lived 100 years ago.  I have to say and be perfectly honest, I think the people who served the people as well as the third class passengers had much more interesting stories then the first class passengers and the people who were in charge of the ship building.  Not that having money isn’t a bad thing, the lower class passengers/employees had more of an interesting background.  Where they were going, where they had come from, where they running from something, What was behind their going on the ship to America? That sort of stuff.  It wasn’t the how much money I have more than you, or wether their honeymoon was cut short.  I found it interesting how the decisions were made about how many lifeboats compared to how many passengers were on the ship that had originally piqued my interest.  It was quite the impressive work the Richard had put into this book.  If you are a fan of this sort of genre, I think you should pick this one up.  It may be some of the same information you have heard before, but it was interesting to see how they lived, what they were striving for, before the ship sank on that night.

Richard on Goodreads

 

#21 – Stray Bullets – Robert Rotenberg

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In The Guilty Plea and Old City Hall, critically-acclaimed Canadian author Robert Rotenberg created gripping page-turners that captured audiences in Canada and around the world.

Rotenberg’s bestsellers do for Toronto what Ian Rankin has done for Edinburgh and Michael Connolly for Los Angeles.

In Stray Bullets, Rotenberg takes the reader to a snowy November night. Outside a busy downtown doughnut shop, gunshots ring out and a young boy is critically hurt. Soon Detective Ari Greene is on scene. How many shots were fired? How many guns? How many witnesses?

With grieving parents and a city hungry for justice, the pressure is on to convict the man accused of this horrible crime. Against this tidal-wave of indignation, defence counsel Nancy Parish finds herself defending her oldest, and most difficult, client.

But does anyone know the whole story?

Stray Bullets is Robert Rotenberg’s third intricate mystery set on the streets and, in the courtrooms, of Toronto. – Publishers Website

I have to say Robert’s newest novel set in busy Toronto is another winner !!  It doesn’t let up, it keeps amping up, by the time you have finished the book it’s like you have gotten off a runaway train plus or minus a few details.  With Robert’s busy legal practice, I cannot fathom how he can churn out a book every year with all the edits and re-writes !! I was introduced to his work last year when The Guilty Plea came out for a blog tour along with a mini Q and A , he just keeps going and going.  His narrative is set just perfect along the storyline he is creating.  There are no awkward jumps or starts -  it is a smooth sailing as much as a murder case whodunit can be right?

I am looking forward to much more from this Canadian who continues to get my read on !! I hope you will discover him and say yes, you are a new and excited fan!!  It doesn’t hurt either that he is being compared to Ian Rankin from Scotland and Michael Connelly from California!!

Robert’s Website – Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads – Read an Excerpt

 

#16 – The Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great – Eva Stachniak

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From award-winning author Eva Stachniak comes this passionate novel that illuminates, as only fiction can, the early life of one of history’s boldest women. The Winter Palace tells the epic story of Catherine the Great’s improbable rise to power—as seen through the ever-watchful eyes of an all-but-invisible servant close to the throne.

Her name is Barbara—in Russian, Varvara. Nimble-witted and attentive, she’s allowed into the employ of the Empress Elizabeth, amid the glitter and cruelty of the world’s most eminent court. Under the tutelage of Count Bestuzhev, Chancellor and spymaster, Varvara will be educated in skills from lock picking to lovemaking, learning above all else to listen—and to wait for opportunity. That opportunity arrives in a slender young princess from Zerbst named Sophie, a playful teenager destined to become the indomitable Catherine the Great. Sophie’s destiny at court is to marry the Empress’s nephew, but she has other, loftier, more dangerous ambitions, and she proves to be more guileful than she first appears.

What Sophie needs is an insider at court, a loyal pair of eyes and ears who knows the traps, the conspiracies, and the treacheries that surround her. Varvara will become Sophie’s confidante—and together the two young women will rise to the pinnacle of absolute power.

With dazzling details and intense drama, Eva Stachniak depicts Varvara’s secret alliance with Catherine as the princess grows into a legend—through an enforced marriage, illicit seductions, and, at last, the shocking coup to assume the throne of all of Russia.

Impeccably researched and magnificently written, The Winter Palace is an irresistible peek through the keyhole of one of history’s grandest tale. – Publishers Website

I absolutely LOVED this book.  Eva portrays these two women with such confidence, surety, and conviction in what they believe in and what they will do to get it.  I am sure that Catherine the Great, and all of what she has done in the past surely has her heroes and haters, but I really liked this book.

It is filled with drama, dilemmas, fighting and intrigue, and if you haven’t read it yet, go and get it I LOVED this book!

Reader’s Guide – Eva’s Website – Facebook – Twitter


#11 – The Face Thief – Eli Gottlieb

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Gottlieb introduces the mystery of the charismatic Margot, a promising journalist who morphs—with stunning panache—from a high-achieving affluent twentysomething into a grifter making her living preying on the weaknesses of men.

Having studied the ancient Chinese art of face reading, she becomes an expert at reading people and is also able to rearrange her look and persona with uncanny skill to fit any social situation. She is an avenging angel, shattering marriages and draining bank accounts.

What drives her quest to deceive and disarm? Exploring this question, The Face Thief moves fluidly forward and back in time, drawing vivid portraits of Margot’s rocky childhood and her adult victims: an amiable, newly married man enticed into a catastrophic fraud; an esteemed teacher outwitted by his most dangerous student; and a well-meaning New York City cop tripped up by his belief in redemption.

Ingeniously constructed and exquisitely written, The Face Thief swirls a hypnotic dance of predator and prey, creating a contemporary landscape where the educated are violent, the beautiful ugly, and the well-intentioned hapless. And yet we never give way to despair, because the protagonists of the book push back against the maelstrom and attempt tirelessly to right their toppled lives. Rich in suspense, psychological depth, and nuance, The Face Thief confirms Gottlieb’s standing as “a master” (Denver Post) and, in the words of essayist Phillip Lopate, “an enthralling stylist who[se] . . . characters are shockingly, electrically alive.” – Publishers Website

I was looking forward to digging into this book,  heard so many good things about it online and from the publishers.  I was a bit disappointed, I will explain in a bit.

Opening the book is the story of an unknown woman in the hospital regaining consciousness.  Her name isn’t known at the time, but as you read further, she has this uncanny ability to deceive people to get what she wants.  It was cryptic, getting you deeper and deeper into the novel.  At one point, I thought that it was going to be a really good ending, the suspense was adding up getting bigger and bigger as the end neared.  Just at the point where the plot was going to show itself, at least for me, it fell flat on its face on page 211.  I did finish the book, but was a bit disappointed at how the author had or hadn’t made the ending with more of a bang so to speak.  If you read the novel, I think you may agree with me…It would have been a far better book if the ending was more thought out.

Goodreads – Eli’s Website – Browse Inside – Reading Group Guide

#10 – The Wild Beasts of Wuhan – Ian Hamilton

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The Third installment in the wildly popular Ava Lee series, The Wild Beast of Wuhan uncovers the secret world of art fraud.

In The Wild Beasts of Wuhan, Uncle and Ava are summoned by Wong Changxing, “The Emperor of Hubei” and one of the most powerful men in China, when he discovers that the Fauvist paintings he recently acquired are in fact forgeries.

Ava uncovers a ring of fraudulent art dealers and follows their twisted trail to the Netherlands, the Faeroe Islands, Dublin, London, and New York. But the job is further complicated by Wong’s second wife, the cunning and seductive May Ling, who threaten to interfere in Ava’s investigation.

Will Ava find the perpetrators and get the Wongs’ money back? Or will May Ling get to them first… – Publishers Website

Oh Ava, how I have missed you !! You are smart, sexy, agile in more ways than one, you always manage to get things done no matter the consequences, the difficulty hunting down the bad guys, making all right with the world until the next situation comes up.  Ian surely has hit his stride with the series and his main character Ava.  This time it is about forged art, and although she isn’t sure she can produce results, you hang on while reading to see what happens next.  When I received this book I believe I actually squealed (possibly even jumped up and down a bit, but shhh don’t let anyone  know ok?)

There is also something new in the book or in her world – Ava has a love interest, which changes it a bit, but it is a good change.  I’m not sure how this will affect future books, we will just have to wait and see.  AS a matter of fact, Ian has just signed a new contract with House of Anansi – Spiderline to a new deal which will have 3 new books in the mix after the Fall release of The Red Pole of Macau.  So, I am just as excited  and honoured to be allowed to read these before anyone else when it hits the stores.

So, if you haven’t already read my reviews of Ian’s earlier novels in this series they are Book 1 – The Water Rat of Wanchai – Book 2 – The Disciple of Las Vegas and this one of course.  So, I cannot get enough of Ian’s series so far, what about you?I just wish that I could get all of the books at once and read them from start to finish ! Ian?!?  House of Anansi ?!? are you listening …hint hint ha!

Ian’s Website – Facebook – Twitter – GoodReads - Reading Guide – Read an Excerpt

The Beggar’s Opera – Peggy Blair – Q and A

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I would like to welcome Peggy to my blog,  and thank her for taking the time out of her very busy schedule to answer some questions about The Beggar’s Opera.

SR – In The Beggar’s Opera, the book is situated in Havana, Cuba.  What is about Havana that mesmerized you so much to write a book based on this location?

PB -  I’ve traveled to quite a few countries that were once communist dictatorships. I was an election observer during the “Orange Revolution” elections in Ukraine; I monitored elections in Kiev and also in towns very close to the Russian border.  I did human rights work in Serbia with the UN Development Program, training judges and mediators in dealing with human rights violations, and I have visited the Czech Republic several times as well.

Cuba is different from anywhere I’ve ever been. It has a dictatorship with a charismatic leader who is larger than life, and the subject of over six hundred assassination attempts by the American CIA, who even poisoned his cigars. It’s a country that is desperately poor, thanks to the American trade embargo, but has one of the most educated, literate, and healthy populations in the world.

I watched the police in Havana closely when I was there – I was a criminal defense lawyer and Crown prosecutor for decades – and I wondered how on earth they could investigate crimes with such limited resources. You can’t even find pencils or batteries, and there are constant fuel and food shortages. Meanwhile, thousands of tourists wander around, completely oblivious to the harsh reality of the daily lives of most Cubans. I thought that was something worth writing about.

I also visited the Callejón de Hamel  (the inspiration for my fictional Blind Alley) with a pair of hustlers, or jineteros, as they’re called, who were quite happy to rip me off. It was incredible– the centre of Havana’s Afro-Cuban community, bursting with music, art, and Santería, the religion brought by slaves from Africa. (As in the book, there really was a plastic bucket with these poor turtles trapped in it so that people could collect and drink their urine in the hope of living a long life.)

Put all of that together with gorgeous, crumbling architecture; feral dogs and cats, crazy anti-American billboards, and music everywhere, and setting a story in Havana was irresistible.

SR – On the back of the galley I received as part of the Blog Tour for your book; it states that you have been a lawyer for many years, as well as selling houses in the Ottawa area.  I have noticed in the few years that many lawyers who have made the transition to writing books.  What was it for you that you wanted to hang up your robes for more of a literary pursuit?  What is it about selling houses that you like about it?

I was a lawyer for thirty years. For the first ten or fifteen of those, I was in criminal law, and then after winning an important case that involved a treaty rights defense,  I kind of fell into the highly specialized area of Aboriginal and human rights law. ( I actually have a PhD, or LLD, as they call a doctorate in law in this area. Most of these are awarded honorarily to retired politicians at university convocations: I’m one of the twits who actually earned one.)

I ended up involved in long-term negotiations over fisheries and when we finally resolved those issues,  I moved into the Indian residential school claims process. I heard claims of serious sexual and physical assault involving children  as a senior adjudicator, and then as a Deputy Chief Adjudicator. I finally hit a point where I knew I had to stop – I was starting to feel the effects that they warned us about going into it.

After that, I got back into land claims business and quickly realized I could end up sitting around the same negotiating table for the next twenty years, discussing the same files with the same government negotiators,  and not have anything resolved. At that point, I realized the time had come to do something else.

The Beggar’s Opera was actually written while I was working on my realtor exams.

I’ve always loved renovating houses, and I knew  my background in law and negotiations would be  an asset to me as a realtor. It’s one of those things that, looking back, I wish I had done ten years earlier. I love my office and my colleagues and I really like  working with clients. Unlike law, or writing, which can be quite isolating, the real estate community is surprisingly supportive. I’ve enjoyed every file I’ve worked on.

SR - Do you think Cuba in the future would be better off staying as it is, or becoming a democratic community like Russia and other countries have?

I don’t think the current status quo is sustainable, frankly. I think most Cubans are willing to wait to see what happens when Fidel Castro dies. But they are a highly educated, bilingual population (English second-language training is required in the schools) watching economic development take off in South America while they struggle to get enough to eat and live in atrocious conditions.

I think they are apprehensive about what the future will look like without Castro, particularly given their proximity to the U.S., but they are ready for change. That said, there is a real fear that American money will flood into the country and turn it back into the kind of place it was under Fulgencio Batista – a sort of Las Vegas of the south — with a government even more corrupt than the current dictatorship

SR – Who is your favorite character in the book and why?  Mine would have to be Ramirez – the detective who is suffering from dementia, who still believes that the truth is out there and strives to find the truth before time runs out.

PB – It’s funny how many readers have that take on Ramirez. I always think of him as balancing on the knife-edge of corruption, not quite sure which way to go.  I’m glad you like him. I’m quite small and therefore   I probably identify the most with Apiro, who may be short but is much larger than he appears.

SR - Can you give us a hint of what to expect in book two, or am I being a bit too anxious?

The King’s Indian is the name of the second book and it picks up the story right where The Beggar’s Opera leaves off. Inspector Ramirez goes to Canada and while he’s away, women start dying in Havana, prompting the Canadian government to consider issuing a travel advisory warning tourists against going to Cuba. Needless to say, there are ghosts.  I  have a big crush on Charlie Pike, a new character. He’s the Aboriginal detective who escorts Ramirez around Ottawa. (Charlie Pike appears in Book Three, Hungry Ghosts, as well.)

So thank you Peggy so much for doing this.  Below, is a list of the other blogs that are on the blog tour for Peggy’s book, so make sure that you check out what they had to say, what they asked Peggy, or if she just wrote something.  It is bound to be interesting regardless the topic!

Blog Tour Hosts and Dates

#8 – The Beggar’s Opera – Peggy Blair

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In beautiful, crumbling Old Havana, Canadian detective Mike Ellis hopes the sun and sand will help save his troubled marriage.

He doesn’t yet know that it’s dead in the water—much like the little Cuban boy last seen begging the Canadian couple for a few pesos on the world famous Malecon.

For Inspector Ricardo Ramirez, head of the Major Crimes Unit of the Cuban National Revolutionary Police, finding his prime suspect isn’t a problem—Cuban law is.

He has only seventy-two hours to secure an indictment and prevent a vicious killer from leaving the island. But Ramirez also has his own troubles to worry about. He’s dying of the same dementia that killed his grandmother, an incurable disease that makes him see the ghosts of victims of unsolved murders. As he races against time, the dead haunt his every step … – Publishers Website

What a breath of fresh air ! I loved Peggy’s tale of Cuba, intrigue, suspense, action and adventure.  She kept me guessing all through the novel, just when I thought I knew who the bad guy was, I was so totally wrong!   She had woven a tale that I am almost sad that I got to read the first book of three, because now I want to read them all at once ! Oh well, we will just have to wait until Peggy is finished writing those book don’t we?  Peggy, I just hope that I am one of the first on that list to be able to get a sneak peek before everyone else (I love my job reviewing) I think just because of that, I get a sneak peek at books that I loved and gush about before any of the public does! Too bad the pay isn’t better ! ha ha !!

So, if you are a fan of the thriller, action, adventure genre, then this new to you and me author will have you glued to wherever you’re reading this and will have you there until you have read the last word on the page.  Then you will think to yourself, Peggy!! Hurry Up!! I want more please !!

Stay tuned, I have a Q and A with Peggy that I have done recently with her, as well as a list of other blogs that are on her Blog Tour so you can see what they had to say about Peggy’s first book of three.  It will be posted immediately here after I am done this post.

Beggars Opera Site – Peggy on Twitter – Goodreads – Peggy’s Website – Facebook – Peggy’s Blog – Read an Excerpt

 

#5 – A Good Man – Guy Vanderhaeghe

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Multi-award-winning author Guy Vanderhaeghe’s eagerly awaited new novel is a dazzling follow up to his bestselling The Englishman’s Boy and The Last Crossing (a Canada Reads winner!).

A Good Man culminates what could be thought of as a trilogy of books set in the late nineteenth-century Canadian and American West, and it is a masterpiece. Vanderhaeghe skilfully weaves a rich tapestry of history with the turns of fortune of his most vividly and compellingly drawn cast of characters yet. Vanderhaeghe entwines breathtaking, intriguing, and richly described narratives that contain a compelling love story, a tale of revenge and violence, a spectacular battle scene, the story of an incident in Welsely’s past that threatens his relationship with Ada, and much, much more. While raising moral questions, this novel weaves the historical with the personal and stands as Vanderhaeghe’s most accomplished and brilliant novel to date. – Publishers Website

Although, I haven’t read the two earlier novels that pre-date this one.  It is certainly a book that you can read by itself.  I really enjoyed Guy’s writing style, it was a comfortable, relaxing read.  It was a book that mellowed you out, made you comfortable where ever it was I read.  It is one of those books that you can wind down from a long hectic day at work, certainly not one that will put you to sleep; but one that just mellows you out so you are able to enjoy it fully. At least it was for me, you may experience it differently.

Between the main characters brief stint in the Northwest Mounted Police, as well as others you will learn about; he is keeping a dreadful secret.  One, that he thinks will end his career or at least his reputation.  Determined to go on his own, he leaves Canada for the American West.  When there he learns the tales of others who are rather unsavoury and out to get him, or others as the plot progresses.

Then of course there is a  woman – Ada Tarr, married the town’s lawyer, who has a past of her own.  Sitting Bull has a cameo in this novel as well, the portrayal is stunning to his own real-life description. The fighting/war scenes are of course a staple in this historical gem of a read.  It does however, make you ask yourself some tough questions, whether you are a fan of Guy’s past works, or your first foray into his world, you certainly will not be  disappointed.

 

Goodreads – US Publisher – Facebook

#4 – Into The Heart of The Country – Pauline Holdstock

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Set in eighteenth-century Canada, this compelling new novel takes the reader deep into unexplored territory. Appearing only fleetingly in the historical record of the Hudson’s Bay Company are the Native women who lived at the company’s Prince of Wales Fort and served as companions to the European traders — and whose survival was bound, for better or worse, to the fortunes of those men.

Across more than two centuries, the mixed-blood woman Molly Norton, daughter of Governor Moses and personal favourite of the explorer Samuel Hearne, speaks to us from her dreams. As the story of her liaison with Hearne unfolds, we move toward its tragic consequences. When their small society is torn apart, Molly and the other women find themselves and their children abandoned by their British masters. Now — in one of history’s cruel ironies — they must fend for themselves in the harsh country from which their own ancestors sprang.

Unflinching, powerful and rich in moral ambiguity, Into the Heart of the Country explores a tragic meeting of cultures that still reverberates in the present day. – Publishers Website

Wow, what a book ! Set in the desolate and often mostly un-inhabited northern areas of Canada during the 18th century, Pauline takes us into the wilds of Northern Manitoba during the time the English and French came to search for animal pets, work and settle.

The Norton’s, in particular the head of the settlement for the Hudson’s Bay Company sits in almost ambiguity as the Governor of the Prince of  Wales Fort. His family – a mix of English and Native people from the surrounding areas is uncommon as it was common to drink tea in Britain.  His daughter Molly undeniably half-blood, unprepared, under-dressed, and forbidden to learn the skills her Mother has learnt from her ancestors.

She is fearful of her father, even more fearful of the harsh wilderness that is right outside.  His tyrannical rule even spreads farther outside the desolation of the lands they trade furs.  He doesn’t trust anyone, ever.   Even more so as one of their Native acquaintances – Matonabbee; the head of the tribe that conducts business with the Governor from time to time.

At a time where Canada is being inhabited by people from Britain as well as France, this particular fort is forced to face the most dubious of forces.  Where there is an almost certainty of being double crossed, promises made that are  broken, or upheld amidst the harshest of circumstances.

How far would you go to protect, or destroy something that is in your way?  How far would you go to get what you wanted?  Is there anything you would do to get it and destroy the people in your way?

I was completely astonished in the way(s) that some people would do or say to get what they ultimately wanted.  The harshness of the wilderness that surrounded these people, the wish and will to survive.  Even now, in present day, the Native people of this country are still fighting for what they believe in.  They were the ones that were here first, only to have their lands and beliefs as well as to be good people stripped away from them, then and now.  This, is a story of not only tragedy, but of resilience, hope, love, and sadness.

I really enjoyed Pauline’s writing.  The book does go from past to present in mostly Molly’s voice as the story unfolds;  but also told from the perspective from other characters in the plot.  All I could think of while reading this book was how people, not only the natives who suffered, but also the people who came to begin a new life in Canada among the harshest of circumstances, the people who taught them how to survive, at all costs, wasn’t enough for some.

Into the Heart of the Country was long-listed for the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize.  Pauline was also a finalist for the 2004 Giller Prize for her book Beyond Measure, as well as the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the City of  Victoria Butler Book Prize.  She won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize that same year.

Pauline’s Website - Facebook - Goodreads - Canadian Bookshelf - Browse Inside