The Naked Tree

The Naked Tree is a graphic novel version of a 1970 novel by the same name written by Park Won-suh. It paints a portrait of a Korea torn apart by what westerners call the Korean War. Koreans call it the American War. Cartoonist Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, author of the graphic novel Grass, brings this story to life with her bold, black and white drawings.

The story begins in 1951. Twenty-year-old wallflower Lee Kyeonga ekes out a living at the US military Post Exchange where goods and services of varying stripes are available for purchase. She peddles hand-painted portraits on silk handkerchiefs to soldiers passing through. When a handsome, young northern escapee and fine artist is hired despite waning demand, an unlikely friendship blossoms into Kyeonga's first romantic crush. However, her love is already married with children.

It was interesting to learn about how Koreans lived during the American War. While I read alot of history books I have never heard the perspective of the Koreans during this era. Their economy was in pieces as the war raged on and many families lost loved ones due to the American bombs dropping on them. This is Kyeonga's story though. It is told from her perspective and the reader gets a glimpse of her experiences working at the PX. She has an awful encounter with an American GI who tells her that he will liberate her in a hotel room, falls in love with that sensitive married artist, and tries to deal with the deaths of two brothers from American bombs. I feel badly for the Koreans who were living such a bleak existence and I must agree with Kyeonga's mother when she cries "how can the gods be so cruel?"  

The title of the book comes from a painting of a tree with no leaves. Kyeonga views it as a naked tree. Her telling of this story is magnificent. 5 out of 5 stars.

Russka: The Novel of Russia

Edward Rutherford published Russka in 1991. He is known for writing 1,000+ page historical fiction novels on major world cities and nations that cover 1,000 years of history. Russka is a mere 945 pages so this is a short book for him. I bought this book approximately one year ago but never got around to reading it before. Because my laptop is broken and I cannot access the Kindle app, I had to pick up a physical book. I have been reading the novel in 200 page increments. It is a captivating story and I loved it.

The publisher's summary:  

Here, Edward Rutherfurd turns his remarkable talents to a vast canvas: Russia. Spanning 1,800 years of its history, people, politics, and culture, Rutherford's grand saa is as multifaceted as Russia itself: harsh yet exotic, proud yet fearful of enemeies, steeped in ancient superstitions but always seeking to make its mark on the emerging world. In Russka, Rutherford transforms the epic of a great civilization into a human story of flesh and blood, boldness and action, chronicling the lives of four families who are divided by ethnicity but united in shapin the destiny of their land.

This novel only covers 1,000 years of history, not the advertised 1,800 years. The first chapter takes place on 180 CE. The story then quickly moves 800 years forward to the year 1066 CE and ends in 1992 CE. I loved reading about the characters who lived through these eras but would have liked to see more chapters and characters who lived between 180 and 1066 CE. I am not as knowledgeable about life in Russia during those years and yearn to know more.

It was interesting to learn that the Russian people have a Nordic origin while Kiev has a Slavic origin. With the Mongol invasion covering what is now Russia, the people intermarried and their skin color became darker. Even the Christian denominations they initially followed separated these people with Russia following Latin Christianity and Kiev following Byzantine Christianity. These countries may be geographically close but they have very different genetic and social origins and they have been fighting each other for 2,000 years. The story follows two families who lived during this time period.

The book may be over thirty years old but it is timely. Some of the cities where events take place include Moscow, Russka (there are 2), Novgorod, Kiev, Smolensk, Vilnius, Riga, Polotsk, Yaroslav, Suzdal, Odessa and Nizhni Novgorod. One of the settings is the city of Tver.  If you've seen recent news reports you know that Vladimir Putin's Wagner Company enemy Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash last week in Tver.  Kiev is another city that is included in many family stories in the book. It shows Russka invading Kiev and later being kicked out numerous times over and over and over throughout the millenium covered in the book. While Russka was published over 30 years ago, it has been a help to me as I read the news today.

I loved this novel but must admit if you are not a fan of history, you won't like Rutherford's tomes. I have read two others: China and London. Both were fantastic in my opinion.

I am rating Russka 5 out of 5 stars.

Banyan Moon

Banyan Moon is a family saga about 3 generations of Vietnamese women. The story alternates between grandmother Minh in Vietnam, her daughter Huong in Florida and granddaughter Ann in Michigan. It begins with Ann Tran receiving a call from her mother informing her that her beloved grandmother, Minh, has passed away. In the years since she’s last seen Minh, Ann has built a seemingly perfect life in Michigan. She lives with her rich and white college professor boyfriend Noah Winthorpe in a lake house and is invited to many elegant parties due to her relationship with him. After she gets a positive result on a pregnancy test Ann feels her life coming apart. Her discomfort with her current life gives her a sense that it was not the life she would have chosen on her own. With both her relationship and carefully planned future now in question, Ann returns home to Florida to face her estranged mother Huơng.

Back in Florida Huơng is simultaneously mourning her mother and resenting her for having the relationship with Ann that she never had. When Minh's will is read Ann and Huơng learn that Minh has left them both the Banyan House, the crumbling old manor that was Ann’s childhood home, in all its strange, gothic glory. Under the same roof for the first time in years, mother and daughter address the simmering questions of their past and their uncertain futures, while trying to rebuild their relationship without the one person who’s always held them together. Running parallel to this is Minh’s story, as she goes from a lovestruck teenager living in the shadow of the "American War" to a determined young mother immigrating to America in search of a better life for her children. While Huong and Ann go through Minh's belongings in the Banyan House, Ann makes a shocking discovery that sheds light on Minh's long-buried secrets from her life in Vietnam. The secrets affected the upbringing of both Huong and Ann.

This beautiful story spans several decades, from 1960s Vietnam to the swamplands of Florida. It is tinged with sadness and this sadness felt overwhelming in the first couple of chapters. Around chapter three I understood how this story was being told and became fully engaged. While the story has some sadness it is also shows alot of love between these three women. All of them are single moms so there is a shared experience between them. Both Huong and Ann struggled with the family expectation to be something that they were not. This commonality ultimately brought them together.  The immigration process is also shown here. It's not just how Minh made it to the U. S. but how Huong handled being a first generation American and how her perceptions affected Ann's upbringing. 

Family sagas are one of my favorite type of books and this novel is a wonderful example of that. It is hard to believe that this well written story is a debut novel. Thao Thai gave us a poignant portrait of the Vietnamese experience both in Vietnam and in the U. S.  I am rating the book 5 out of 5 stars.

Tides of Fire

Tides of Fire is James Rollins' 17th  Sigma Force novel. It was published two weeks ago on August 15, 2023. I was lucky to get one of the first copies of the book from my library. Currently there are 43 people who are waiting to get a copy so this is a popular book.

The publisher's summary:

The Titan Project—an international research station off the coast of Australia—discovers a thriving zone of life in an otherwise dead sea. The area teems with a strange bioluminescent coral that defies science, yet holds great promise for the future. But the loss of a military submarine in the area triggers a brutal attack and sets in motion a geological disaster that destabilizes an entire region.

Massive quakes, volcanic eruptions, and deadly tsunamis herald a greater cataclysm to come—for something is stirring miles under the ocean, a threat hidden for millennia.

As seas turn toxic and coastlines burn, can Sigma Force stop what has been let loose—especially as an old adversary returns, hunting them and thwarting their every move? For any hope of success, Commander Gray Pierce must search for a key buried in the past, hidden deep in Aboriginal mythology. But what Sigma could uncover is even more frightening—something that will shake the very foundations of humanity.  

 

The book started out great with volcanoes erupting at a quickening pace in Indonesia, water turning into to fire and dead human bodies that have turned into stone. A similar event took place in the region in 1815 when earthquakes and an eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia and its dark summer killed an enormous amount of people around the world. I was riveted by the work that marine biologists Phoebe Reed and Jazleen Patel were doing in the Coral Sea off the coast of Australia. Reading about their study of coral was fascinating and kept me reading to the halfway point without taking a break. 

When the Sigma Force folks became involved in the story I began to get bored. I couldn't see any connection between their subplot with the scientist's subplot. As the summary above states, this is supposed to be a story about geology and the biodiversity in the oceans. I did enjoy, though, Commander Gray Pierce's historical research into the massive earthquakes in Indonesia. With this subplot the story became a treasure hunt for the records of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. Raffles lived through the volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in the early 1800s.  As for the rest of the Sigma Force crew, why were they in the book? The subplot with characters Seichan, Monk Kokalis, and Joe Kowalski gives the reader an update about their lives but none of them were central to the other subplots. It seemed to me that they were added into the story only because they were featured in prior books in the series.

3 out of 5 stars.

Book of the Month: August

Lady Tan's Circle of Women is my best book for August. Amy Tan wrote a lovely novel based on the life of Tan Yunxian, a real-life woman who lived in China during the Ming dynasty. She went on to become a famous women's doctor. The story begins in the year 1469 when Tan Yunxian is 8 years old and ends when she is quite old. Her best friend Meiling grew up to be a midwife and occasionally they worked together. For the most part Meiling felt inferior to Yunxian because Yunxian came from a wealthy family.  Yunxian threw her weight around because of that financial security but over the years they worked through their conflicts. The novel is definitely a women's book. It's not just about female relationships but female medicine too. Highly recommended.

Book Cover of the Month: August

Kate Mosse's The Ghost Ship has a beautiful cover. What intrigued me the most is the center motif. It contains a fleur-de-lis, a sword and a bloody white fabric. I am presuming that the white fabric is the sail on the ghost ship.

I was not able to determine the identity of the book cover designer. It would have been nice to find out why the center image was chosen. As for the background, I saw similar images for sale on the Internet for authors to purchase. Did the publisher take the easy route here? 

Key Lime Pie Murder

August 1 is National Homemade Pie Day. It occurs every year. Since I am too lazy to bake, I have substituted reading the Key Lime Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke. It counts as a selection for the Calendar of Crime Challenge as an August holiday.

The publisher's summary:  

It promises to be a busy week for Hannah Swensen. Not only is she whipping up treats for the chamber of commerce booth at the Tri-County fair, she's also judging the baking contest; acting as a magician's assistant for her business partner's husband; trying to coax Moishe, her previously rapacious feline, to end his hunger strike, and performing her own private carnival act by juggling the demands of her mother and sisters.

With so much on her plate, it's no wonder Hannah finds herself on the midway only moments before the fair closes for the night. After hearing a suspicious thump, she goes snooping–only to discover Willa Sunquist, a student teacher and fellow bake contest judge, dead alongside an upended key lime pie. But who would want to kill Willa and why? 
 
Now Hannah needs to crank up the heat, hoping that Willa’s killer will get rattled and make a mistake. If that happens she intends to be there, even if it means getting on a carnival ride that could very well be her last…

The book is one of the older books in the series. Hannah isn't even married yet but thinks that the man she eventually marries is interested in her.  Key Lime Pie Murder did not seem to be a cozy mystery but rather just a cozy.  There was not much of a mystery here to be solved. No twists, no turns, no nothing. What the reader gets is the social life of the main character Hannah Swenson. I have a few of the later novels in the series and the plots were pretty thin also. I am sure there is a demographic for this type of a story. It just isn't me.

No rating.

Date Night

Date Night is a psychological thriller featuring married couple Libby and Sean Randell. Libby thinks that she has a solid marriage to Sean. Then one morning there's a note on her windscreen telling her that her husband is having an affair. She confronts him and of course, he denies it. She doesn't believe him but they go on a date night for dinner to try and ease the tension. The date does not go to well, so they return home. When they get there babysitter Sasha is missing. A few days later Libby is arrested under the suspicion of murder. 

The story alternates from the recent past to the present. This confused me in the first couple of chapters until I noticed the pattern. The writing, however, made the book a breeze to read and I couldn't put the book down until I finished reading it. There are numerous twists in the story that all lead up to the reveal of the murderer. With all of the characters having secrets, and the need to lie about them, I couldn't figure out the whodunnit. It was a total surprise when the killer was finally revealed. The whydunnit was not revealed until the last page and it was a shocker. Date Night is the perfect psychological thriller that reads like an Alfred Hitchcock story.

If you want to read something you know you will enjoy, pick up Date Night. 

5 out of 5 stars.

Can't Wait Wednesday #25

I have been anxiously waiting for the publication of the next book in the Harriet Gordon historical cozy mystery series by A. M. Stuart. Terror in Topaz will be published on October 18, 2023. Unfortunately, it is the fourth and final book of the series. This one has a new publisher and Alison Stuart remarked on her website that she hit a stumbling block while writing the story and with administrative issues to deal with it took her some time to get it done.

In this installment of the series Harriet and her brother Julian leave Singapore for a few days and travel to Kuala Lumpur. Julian had been invited to visit a prestigious school (he is a teacher). While the two of them were there, another visitor was murdered on the front steps of the headmaster’s bungalow. Inspector Curran joins them after he is ordered to investigate the Topaz Club, which is the center of corruption in the Malaysian government. Harriet and Curran then work together to shut down the club but they come across a devious criminal who tries to stop them.

The plot sounds magnificent but I think Stuart was tired of writing the series. Changing the venue in just the fourth book of a series is telling.

The Ghost Ship

The Ghost Ship is the third book in Kate Mosse's Joubert Huguenot Family Chronicles trilogy. It began with The City of Tears and The Burning Chambers. The Ghost Ship continues the story of Minou Joubert and Piet Reydon. While they have a prominent role in the current book the story is mainly about their granddaughter Louise Reydon-Joubert. The Ghost Ship is a hefty 476 page novel but it was so fascinating that I read it in one day.

The publisher's summary:

The Barbary Coast, 1621. A mysterious vessel floats silently on the water. It is known only as the Ghost Ship. For months it has hunted pirates to liberate those enslaved by corsairs, manned by a courageous crew of mariners from Italy and France, Holland and the Canary Islands.

But the bravest men on board are not who they seem. And the stakes could not be higher. If arrested, they will be hanged for their crimes. Can they survive the journey and escape their fate?

A sweeping and epic love story, ranging from France in 1610 to Amsterdam and the Canary Islands in the 1620s, The Ghost Ship is a thrilling novel of adventure and buccaneering, love and revenge, stolen fortunes and hidden secrets on the high seas.

This book is so incredibly lovely that I don't know where to start. The Ghost Ship has adventure, buccaneering, illicit love and lots of secrets. It most of all is a story of a defiant woman making her mark in a man's world. Our heroine Louise has always wanted to be the captain of a ship. When she turns twenty-five she receives an inheritance from her father and quickly buys a ship called Old Moon. Ten years later, she hosts a farewell dinner party for the Old Moon's retiring captain and meets Gilles, a wine merchant's apprentice. Louise and Gilles become fast friends and later begin a relationship. However, Gilles has a secret of his own. He is a she. 

While Louise hires another man to be her captain, she decides that she is going to travel with her ship to the Canary Islands. Fate steps in and Louise becomes the captain.  It is her commandeering of this ship that leads Louise to inquisitors in the Canaries, a Spanish and hence Catholic, island nation. With her family being well known Huguenots she is already a suspicious person to the inquisitors. However, some one on the ship has talked with them about her.

Louise’s quest to break society's rules had me scared for her throughout the novel. She was a tough lady but without her inheritance she would have probably married and bore children. Money gave her options. It was lovely to reconnect with her grandparents who we met in book two. Grandmother Minou is one of my favorite characters in the series and she has some of her own secrets that get exposed. We also find out what happened with her parents.  

Alot happened in this intricate plot. Author Mosse obviously did plenty of research into the Huguenots. She brought their travails to life. I also liked that she wrote a Preface before the story began telling the reader what was fact and fiction. It was nice that I didn't need to question facts as I read the book.

The Ghost Ship is a must read. 5 out of 5 stars.

Honey Drop Dead

Honey Drop Dead was published earlier this week on August 8, 2023. I had pre-ordered an ebook from my local library and read the book as soon as it hit my screen. In this 26th installment of the Indigo Teashop Series our heroine Theodosia Browning is catering a specialty tea for Charleston’s Imago Gallery at Petigru Park. The park has plenty of native grasses and a community beekeeping project. During the event, a fully suited up beekeeper showed up and sprayed toxic smoke at all of the guests. Then a gunshot was heard and Osgood Claxton III, a candidate for the state legislature, fell to the ground dead. Theodosia saw the beekeeper run away from the scene and ran after him. She couldn't catch him though. The next day Holly Burns, the owner of Imago Gallery, asks Theodosia to investigate the matter. Not only did someone get killed but several paintings were destroyed by the fumes that were sprayed and artists were cancelling their contracts with the gallery. As is usual with the series, almost everyone in Charleston disliked the deceased and leaving Theodosia with a long list of suspects to look into.

The story started out with a bang, pun intended. The murder happened early in the first chapter and wasn't solved until the final chapter, leaving alot of pages for plot twists. The deceased was a politician who everyone hated, including his wife. This gave Theo many more than the usual number of suspects to investigate and, as a result, more plot twists for the reader to enjoy. The pace was much faster than other books in the series. Was that due to the complex plot or the absence of secondary character involvement? I am not sure. I am glad, though, that I did not have to hear about Delaine Dish. She is an obnoxious character that I cannot stand. Even baker Haley had only a short mention albeit one which landed her under arrest. Theo, tea sommelier Drayton, and Riley, Theodosia's new policeman boyfriend, were the only main characters returning in Honey Drop Dead. All of the others were new to the series which I think is a plus. When a series is as long as this one, it is nice to upset the applecart every now and then.

5 out of 5 stars.

The Heirloom

The Heirloom is Beverly Lewis' newest Amish fiction novel. It will be published next month on September 12, 2023.  I received an advanced review copy (ARC) through Librarything's Early Reviewer's Club in exchange for an honest review. This story is a prequel to Lewis's The Shunning.

The publisher's summary:

After her widowed father remarries, nineteen-year-old Clara Bender is no longer needed to run his household. Marriage seems like her best hope of moving out, but there are few young men in her tiny Indiana Amish community. When she comes across letters from her mother's aunt Ella Mae Cook, she sets off to visit Lancaster County's Hickory Hollow to decide where her future lies. Ella Mae is not quite ready to move from the farmhouse where she and her recently deceased husband spent over fifty happy years, but her children are eager to resettle her, making Clara's visit seem like an answer to prayer. The two women form a warm bond while restoring an heirloom wedding quilt and sharing their lives, with Ella Mae confiding about a tragedy from her courting years. Eventually, Ella Mae suggests Clara stay for the summer, allowing Ella Mae more time with her and giving Clara an opportunity to meet the area's eligible young men. 

This book has a simple plot with a slow pace. I was distracted by the ARC's full justification for the paragraphs so perhaps that is why I felt the pace was slow. Sometimes there were only 2 to 3 words per line. It seemed that no matter how long I read at a stretch, I made little progress toward finishing the book. The justification was much improved by the midpoint of the story and that is where the plot became interesting. There were several mysteries and problems for Clara to resolve and the food descriptions were scrumptious. The pace also picked up nicely. Still, it took me two days to finish this short 190 page book. Unheard of for someone like me who can read three 300 page books in a day. 

The justification clearly impacted my enjoyment of the novel and I would expect that by the time it is published the justification will be corrected and my comments irrelevant. Let's just say the second half of the book is worth reading.

An Evil Heart

 a detec 

I was able to get a copy of Linda Castillo's newest book An Evil Heart from my public library.  I recently discovered this author and love her take on Amish fiction. Her sleuth is a police detective who investigates murders. This is not your typical Amish story but it has an Amish flavor. Painter's Mill Police Chief Kate Burkholder receives a call one autumn morning about a DB, "dead body," abandoned on a dirt road. The victim is an Amish boy named Aden Karn, just twenty years old and from an upstanding Amish family. As Kate delves into his past, she begins to hear whispers about a dark side of him.  Her investigation spirals out of control when a young Amish woman comes forward with a horrific story that pits Kate against a dangerous opponent. When the truth is uncovered, Kate comes face to face with the consequences of a life that has been lived in all of the dark places.

This story is unputdownable. It kept me on the edge of my seat, trying to figure out who the killer was. I was not too surprised but the whydunnit was interesting. Interspersed with the police investigation are scenes concerning Kate's upcoming wedding to her fellow officer Tomasetti. Tomasetti works for the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the two of them have worked on cases together in the past. Most of these scenes were with Kate and her Amish sister Sarah. Sarah sewed Kate's wedding dress which was an Amish dress. Since Kate left the Amish way of life almost twenty years ago it was a little surprising that this is the wedding dress she wanted to wear. After the murder has been completely resolved, we see Kate's Amish family baking up a storm for the wedding. 

The investigation of the murder itself was suspenseful and fast paced. While I do not typically like police procedurals, this series has captured my attention. I have only read one other book in this 15 book series but plan on getting through them all at some point in the future.

5 out of 5 stars.