Viking: The Plains of Althing

I enjoyed reading this historical novel of tenth century Iceland. It is the first book in a norse adventure trilogy.  However, there were a few problems that affected my enjoyment of the book. The blurb:

"A corrupt chieftain plots to rule all of Iceland and his steward Kel Coessen may be the only man who can stop him. But there's a catch: if Kel dares to defy his leader, Kel's love Aldis will be killed. A fearless slave called "The Black Mountain" starts Kel down the treacherous path of treason-and when the chieftain commits a loathsome crime, Kel snaps.  An unforeseen force draws Aldis to a place she vowed never to return, forcing her to confront her past-and a long buried secret threatens her future.  As strife grows, others meddle: a bishop eager to convert pagans, and a foreign jarl's furtive agent with her own designs on the country's young democracy."

The first third of the book was enchanting. I loved the characters and looked forward to reading more about them. However, the middle of the book was about additional characters instead and I quickly lost interest. I finished the book to find out what happened with Kel, Aldis and Tor, the "black mountain" slave. I am curious about their future stories, which makes me want to read book 2. Tor's story in particular is compelling but I am not yet sure whether I will take the plunge.

Favorite Bookstores

When I was young, I used to spend hours browsing the stacks at the now defunct Kroch's and Brentano's. There were many locations throughout Chicagoland and I regularly visited several of them. I remember on one occasion my mother remarked to me that Mr. Duncan Hines had just walked past us as he roamed the store at Randolph and Wabash in downtown Chicago. I said "who?" I didn't know that he was a famous art and food critic for one of our local newspapers or that the Duncan Hines cake mixes were named for him.  I remember following him because my mother said he was a famous person and all the customers stopped browsing to watch him. In my mind he was just another old man with a cane. When I grew older and wanted to learn a foreign language, I was introduced to 2 ladies who managed the foreign language tapes section. For each language there were between 5 and 10 companies who made the audiotapes. These ladies knew the ins and outs of each product within each brand. Their knowledge was unparalleled and I cannot think of any other bookshop providing service as Kroch's and Brentano's did.

After Kroch's went out of business in 1995 we were lucky to get a Waterstones to open in the gold coast neighborhood.  The main thing that captured my attention with Waterstones was the prevalence of poetry books. I spent alot of time picking out which ones I would buy during each visit. Waterstones carried types of books that I had never seen before as well as categorizing them in different ways. I remember a section on medieval books.  I always spent time perusing this section.  It was a pretty busy area too. This store was huge, three stories I think. I was devastated when it closed.

After a few years with no bookstores in my area, Borders came to town.  It was the first bookstore to have a cafe inside it and it was always packed. The only way to guarantee finding a seat was to run up the escalator when it opened up in the morning. The few leather seats were always taken and folks spread out their coats and bags to save the seat when they used the restroom or searched for more books. This bookstore sold items other than books and the fancy paper section always drew me in. The primary Borders that I shopped at was at Randolph and State in downtown Chicago. It was close to where I worked and I could shop there on my lunch hour. On weekends I would shop at the Clybourn Corridor location. This location had half of the first floor devoted to magazines. Being a magazine addict, I spent way too much money there.

The only bookstore left after Borders went bankrupt was Barnes and Noble. I particularly liked the branch in Old Town. It carried many types of art books that the downtown store didn't sell. Last October the Old Town store lost their lease and closed. The downtown store remains open for business but due to the COVID-19 pandemic it only offers curbside pickup services. Barnes and Noble was already in fiscal trouble before the pandemic. I doubt it will survive.

It is depressing to consider that the era of bookshops is over. There is always Amazon but it just isn't the same.

Lisbon Sketchbook

I have all of Fabrice Moireau's travelogue sketchbooks. His Lisbon Sketchbook was published last month and I couldn't wait to receive it in the mail.  When it finally arrived I was delighted to view its pages, printed on actual watercolor paper as were all of his earlier watercolor sketchbooks. This fantastic book is just like his Paris, Provence, Loire Valley, Brittany, Gardens of Paris, Rooftops of Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, Sicily, New York, and Berlin sketchbooks.

The bucolic scenes of Lisbon are described in written word by Gonzalo Tavares. Moireau always has a 2 page spread showing the colors of the city he has drawn.  It is interesting that Lisbon is the most colorful of those cities, something that I wasn't expecting. As an artist myself, I view his books frequently as I learn alot from them concerning perspective and how to draw details in architecture. Moireau is the most detailed watercolor artist I am aware of. Britain's Graham Byfield and Malaysia's Chen Voon Fee and Chin Kon Yit as well as Singapore's Gretchen Liu all have looser watercolor styles. Moireau's detailed sketching style is perfect for drawing his native France with all of the intricate features of its buildings.

Lisbon Sketchbook is a wonderful book to display on a coffee table. I have several of them on my coffee table and visitors always love flipping through them. I highly recommend this book for artists and art lovers. 5 out of 5 stars.

Book of the Month - July

I have two favorite books for this month. I could not select just one. Both books stayed with me for days after reading them. Singapore Sapphire and The Stone Doors are fantastic reads that satisfy the your reading soul. Both books take place in settings that are new to me in historical fiction. Singapore and Iceland could not be more different but it was nice to read something other than English, French or Italian stories.

I Know Your Secrets and Becoming RBG were close seconds which makes the month of July one of my better months for reading. Now that I am back to work full time I won't be able to read as much as I have since March when the coronavirus shutdown began. It's been a fun time. I have read 57 books as well as finishing several art projects. 

I Know Your Secret

Ruth Heald has written a gripping psychological thriller with her 4th novel I Know Your Secret.  It is a tale of two women, Danielle and Beth. Danielle is separated from her husband Peter and Beth is her marriage counselor.  Beth is also separated from her husband Richard and has custody of their young son Charlie.  The chapters alternate between Danielle's story and Beth's story. Both women have secrets, hence the title of the book.

The publisher's summary:

"She thinks she knows me.  She believes my marriage is falling apart at the seams, that my husband can barely look me in the eyes.  She thinks I'm desperate for a baby, that my longing for a family keeps me up at night.  As much as I hate to admit it, all of this is true.  She thinks I listen to her advice, that I care about her opinion.  That couldn't be further from the truth. Because she has no idea who I am, she has no clue that I know everything.  I know her secret. I know that she did the unforgivable. I know how many lives she ruined.  I know exactly what she did.  And I'm here for her."

Revenge is sweet. This slowly evolving story becomes unputdownable as each chapter unveils how twisted these two ladies are.  The tension is addictive. This story has just as many twists as the ladies have.  Upon finishing the book I felt that I had missed many clues and need to reread it to fully appreciate them as well as appreciate how twisted the characters are. The author created amazing characters in Danielle and Beth. Their husband's had such small roles that it is hard to consider them secondary characters. I Know Your Secret is all about the women and they are both strong enough to carry the plot.

This story is one for the movie producers. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Stone Doors

Brendan Baker's Stoneborn trilogy begins with this novel in the year 1013. It is an Icelandic tale of love, loyalty and law.  After finishing this fantastic tale I tried to find the next two books in the series. With The Stone Doors publication date of 2016 I expected to find them. Sadly, there are none.

The story begins with Kvelduf Thorbjornsson and his young son Tryggvi working on their Brauoavatn horse farm. Tryggvi's horse Orri was beloved by him so when 2 men approached the farm and were seen stabbing Orri, Kvelduf ran to the horse to try to save him. Unfortunately, Orri was dead and in an angry fit Kvelduf killed the man who stabbed Orri. The other man ran away in order to save himself. The dead man was buried on the farm and Kvelduf met with his gooi, Gunnar Ingolfson, to discuss whether he broke the island's law. Gunnar said that technically the law was broken but promised to help him if an accusation was made against him at the next annual Althing. Althing was the young country's Parliament where every citizen was required to attend. Keeping a low profile at Althing, Kvelduf felt that he was safe from prosecution. However, after Tryggvi got involved in a fight he and his father became noticed and an accusation was made against Kvelduf. Gunnar represented him. If found guilty he could be banished from Iceland and lose all of his possessions.

I loved this story. It was so engaging that I could not put it down and read it in one sitting. The pace was fast. The characters were strong. In fact, the secondary characters were just as compelling as the primary characters. Of course, the beauty of the Iceland setting was wonderful to read about.
While the dialogue was written in contemporary language, there were a few words that I had to look up in the dictionary as I was reading. They were mostly used in setting descriptions. This story has remained in my mind after reading it. It was difficult to begin another book. I tried 4 new books but abandoned them quickly and worked on art projects instead.

5 out of 5 stars.

Paying the Land

Paying the Land is a phrase that means to offer something to the land. It is also the title of Joe Sacco's newest reportage comic about the history of the indigenous tribes of Canada's Northwest Territories during the twentieth-century.  The Canadian government pursued a policy of taking the Indian out of the child by sending young children to residential schools far from their homes for 10 months of every year. This is also a story concerning extracting oil from native lands at their expense. By getting the tribes to accept money or modern conveniences they became less dependent on their natural environment and more dependent on the government for survival.

Sacco traveled to northern Canada to interview members of the Deni tribe, a First Nations tribe who primarily live in the Northwest Territories. He wanted to find out why they were disengaged from their culture. Fracking is the main issue addressed in the book. It has divided the tribe. While it brings in jobs and money, fracking destroys the environment. Another issue is alcoholism and drug addiction. Those who attended the residential schools no longer fit in with their families or the tribe anymore. The result is excessive drinking and an increased death rate from it.

Paying the Land is another great graphic novel from Joe Sacco. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Low Road

The Low Road is the fifth book in A. D. Scott's Highland Gazette Mystery Series. It takes place in the 1950s in Scotland. I have read all of Ms. Scott's earlier books in the series and loved them. However, The Low Road falls short with a poorly written plot and heavy usage of the Scottish language that made it unreadable.

The series amateur sleuth is Joanne Ross, a reporter for the Highland Gazette. In this installment of the series she is inactive. Joanne is recovering from brain surgery and has nothing to do with the investigation of the murder. Her boss and fiance John McAllister was the sleuth. The murder did not occur until page 200 of this 328 page book. The first clue came on page 250.  With no action and every page heavy with Scottish sayings, The Low Road was awful reading. I have to wonder if A. D. Scott actually wrote it. The writing style was different from earlier books and she did not use much Scottish language in them.

For the third time in this blog I am rating a book 0 out of 5 stars. 

The Crow's Call

It's been awhile since I have read Wanda Brunstetter.  I have been wanting to read something different and thought that an Amish mystery would do the trick.  The Crow's Call is Book 1 in the Amish Greenhouse Mystery series which I think is going to be a trilogy.

The publisher's summary:

"When Vernon King, his son, and son-in-law are involved in a terrible accident, three women are left to cope with their deaths, as they become the sole providers of the family they have left.  The women's only income must come from the family greenhouse, but someone seems to be trying to force them out of business.   

Amy King has just lost her father and brother and her mother needs her to help run the family's greenhouse.  It doesn't seem fair to ask her to leave a job she loves, when there is still a sister and brother to help.  But Sylvia is also greiving for her husband while left to raise three children, and Henry, just out of school, is saddled with all the jobs his father and older brother used to do.  As Amy assumes her new role, she also asks Jared Riehl to put their courtship on hold."

The book has an interesting plot but I feel that the pace was rather slow.  There are only so many pages a reader can stand of the characters doing the same things over and over. Amy was always having angry thoughts about her lazy brother Henry and Henry was always angry over nothing in particular. This went on for over 100 pages. I became bored but kept reading because I wanted to know how Amy and Jared resolved their relationship problems. Also, if there had been a few more twists and turns in the plot the book would have been more interesting and there probably would have been a lot less of the character's angry thoughts. Providing the reader with a resolution of the vandalism of the greenhouse would have been nice since it was mentioned in the blurb.

3 out of 5 stars. 

Last Wool and Testament

This is the first cozy that I have read in a few years.  I got tired of their simplistic plots and Stepford characters. Because this book is about weavers and I am a weaver I decided it was a good time to try a cozy again.  I was not disappointed. Last Wool and Testament was fantastic.

The story opens with amateur sleuth Kath Rutledge traveling from Illinois to Blue Plum, Tennessee to attend her grandmother Ivy McClellan's burial.  Kath has planned to stay for 2 weeks so that she can decide what to do with her grandmother's home and yarn shop business both of which she inherited. When she arrives at her grandmother's home for her stay, Kath finds that the lock has been changed. She is quickly handed a piece of paper stating that her grandmother and now Kath owes back rent for the property.  She is also told that the home and The Weaver's Cat, a yarn shop, are now owned by someone else.  Kath meets with the TGIF - thank goodness it's fiber - group for advice.  The TGIF members meet regularly at the shop to work on fiber projects.  Kath also meets with her grandmother's attorney, Homer Wood, for assistance with the estate.  Wood puts her off several times before he finally tells her that her grandmother was a suspect in a murder.  The murdered man's relative now claims to own both of her grandmother's properties.  Kath works with her new friends from TGIF to determine what is going on in Blue Plum.

I loved this book.  However, in the beginning I had a difficult time determining what character was speaking.  It finally dawned on me that a ghost is one of the characters.  All I had to do was look at the cover of the book and see that this new cozy series is a haunted yarn shop mystery.  When I finally figured out which characters were speaking, the reading was smooth sailing.  The ghost character began to bother me after a few chapters though.  I just am not in to ghost stories.  I wonder if the identity of this ghost will be a recurring character or if there will be different ghosts in subsequent books in the series.

Solving the mystery of who murdered the dead man was thrilling.  Two more murders occurred later in the plot and it was interesting to watch Kath try to connect them to the first murder.  There were plenty of red herrings and twists in the plot to satisfy me.  The writing was crisp making Last Wool a great introduction to a new cozy series.

4 out of 5 stars.

Becoming RBG

Becoming RBG is a graphic biography of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  It covers her life from birth to the present day.  It was written for middle schoolers who might not be familiar with the judicial system.  Terms such as "federal government" are explained as well as what famous politicians such as McCarthy were known for.  Author Debbie Levy goes into detail on the cases that RBG brought in to the courts while a lawyer that advanced women's rights.  She also gives details on cases that RBG decided as a district court judge.  RBG's plan to advance civil rights step by step is shown both in her life as an attorney, district court judge as well as while she has been on the U. S. Supreme Court.

I found the book engaging.  I read it in one sitting and even enjoyed the illustrations drawn by Whitney Gardner.   Initially I was surprised at the detail RBG's court cases were given.  However, I quickly realized that any book on RBG would have to explain why she brought certain cases to court over others and what she hoped to accomplish with the legal opinions written on her cases.  RBG's life can only be told by examining her work.  The need for women to work is something her mother instilled in her when she was a child.  She has carried her mother's ethic with her throughout her life.

I definitely recommend this book for female readers young and old. As the old saying goes, "we've come a long way baby" and we have RBG to thank for that progress.  5 out of 5 stars!

Mozart in Paris

This graphic biography covers the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart during the six months he lived in Paris with his mother when he was 22. While there, he worried alot about his father's expectations for him. Mozart taught piano, slept around and composed. He socialized with the wealthiest Parisians with hopes that he would receive commissions for musical scores. Of course, he was able to get some jobs but was disappointed with his reception by the Parisians. They preferred a different style of music.

There was something awkward about the writing and I can't put my finger on it. It made me lose interest quickly but I continued reading. It was originally written in French so perhaps there is a translation issue.  The drawings were unusual compared to other graphic novels that I have read. I was not able to find any information about the style of the drawings used and feel clueless here.

It is normally impossible for me to not like a graphic novel. However, this one did not click with me. 2 out of 5 stars.

A Bend in the Stars

A Bend in the Stars is the story of female doctor Miri Abramov and her scientist brother Vanya.  It takes place in Russia in 1914, the year a solar eclipse occurred over Kiev.  At this time, Albert Einstein was attempting to prove his theory of relativity, that gravity bends light.  Vanya Abramov wanted to beat Einstein by proving the theory before him.  In order to do that Vanya needed to photograph the solar eclipse.

The publisher's summary:

"In Russia, in the summer of 1914, as war with Germany looms and the Czar's army tightens its grip on the local Jewish community, Miri Abramov and her brilliant physicist brother, Vanya, are facing an impossible decision.  Since their parents drowned fleeing to America, Miri and Vanya have been raised by their babushka, a famous matchmaker who has taught them to protect themselves at all costs:  to fight, to kill if necessary, and always to have an escape plan.  But now, with fierce, headstrong Miri on the verge of becoming one of Russia's only female surgeons, and Vanya hoping to solve the final puzzles of Einstein's elusive theory of relativity, can they bear to leave the homeland that has given them so much? 

Before they have time to make their choice, war is declared and Vanya goes missing, along with Miri's fiancé. Miri braves the firing squad to go looking for them both.  As the eclipse that will change history darkens skies across Russia, not only the safety of Miri's own family but the future of science itself hangs in the balance."

I enjoyed the book but at the halfway point feared that the Abramovs' scattered flight across Russia was not going to help them escape.  They started out traveling together but quickly split up as each one of them had a different agenda to complete before they could consider leaving Russia.  They did not learn their babushka's teaching that they should always be prepared for disaster.  Neither brother nor sister cared enough about the family as a whole but rather their own interests.  While their haphazard flight seemed suspenseful, I could not stop thinking about how they handled their earlier lives by always being prepared for the enemy and then when it counted, neither Miri nor Vanya acted in any planned way.  In fact, they both changed their plans several times while they were traveling across Russia.

1. A Bend in the Stars was a fast and relaxing read.  I rate it 4 out of 5 stars.