The Paris Library

 by Janet Skeslien Charles

This book is based on a historical library.

It is the story of a young Parisian woman, Odile, a Librarian, who gets a job working in an English Language, American Library, in Paris during WWII. Part of the book also takes place after the war in the U.S. where a young woman, whose mother dies, is befriended by the lady next door, a French woman who had married a G.I and moved to the U.S after the war.  This french woman is the Librarian. Odile is quite reclusive, but it also seems that the locals never quite accept her as the man she married had been expected to marry a local girl.  The young girl is delighted that Odile starts to teach her French.  The girl's father remarries not too long after her mother dies.  The stepmother tries to like the girl but the girl doesn't really like her.  This stepmother seems to have trouble filling the shoes of the original life and has trouble coping with the two young children that come along in short order.

The author does a great job of portraying t e various characters who work at and hang out at the Library.  The girl's father is a police officer.  He doesn't think she should be working and keeps bringing young police officers for dinner hoping one of them will ask her to marry them.  She does eventually fall for a young police officer.  He turns down a promotion offered to him by his father to convince her that he is interested in her and not in the proximity to her father.  Her parents are upset when after Hitler invades France, her brother enlists.

The book then portrays how the world in Paris changes, people are reporting on Jews, Jews are being rounded up.  On a few occasions the young woman and her beau have romantic encounters in empty apartments.  She never thinks about why these are empty and how her boyfriend knows about them til later.  Then the library gets advice that it should not serve Jews.

The girls brother is captured and is in a prisoner of war camp.  The family is able to write to him and send him supplies and he seems upbeat for a time but eventually dies of injuries.  The girl visits her father's office one day and sees piles of denunciation letters that she realizes her father has to act upon.  She starts collecting them and destroying them until her father catches her and warns her that his lack of action will be noted.

Shortly after one of the regular users of the library, a Jewess, disappears.  Odile finds out that her boyfriend, now her husband had something to do with this.  She is appalled and devastated by this.  She meets and American soldier on a bridge and eventually leaves with him for America.

Odile eventually shares her life story with the young girl including the fact that she was a bigamist.  The book was very interesting, much better than I had expected.  The only part I felt was superfluous was the step-mother.  Didn't feel her part had anything to contribute to the book.

The Club Dumas

by Arturo Perez Reverte

This is a mystery revolving around some handwritten Chapters of the Three Muskeeters by Dumas and a different versions of a manuscript that supposedly can be used to summon the devil.  The Satan books were supposedly created by a printer in 15th century Venice.

The story starts with a man who is a dealer (not so ethical dealer) in rare books being contacted by a close friend who wants him to verify the authenticity of a Chapter supposedly written by Dumas as part of the Three Musketeers.  The former owner of the Chapter was found dead, hanged, in his home.  Was he murdered or did he commit suicide

At the same time as he is working on this request the book dealer Lucas Corso is contacted by another client to track down two other copies of a document that supposedly can summon the Devil.  The client wants to know if the copy he has is an original or a fake.  The person who created them was murdered because of these works.

Lucas visits the owner of the of the other devil book.  This man is an aristocrat who has fallen on hard times.  He has sold everything except his collection of valuable books.  He has to sell one of these a year, reluctantly, to have money to live on.

Lucas is shocked to find out that the man is murdered soon after his visit and the copy the man had has gone missing.

Then Lucas approaches a book expert in Paris who confirms the Dumas chapter is likely the real thing.  He also visits a woman who has a book museum.  She is the owner of the third copy and lets him study it on the premises.  He has noticed slight differences in the pictures between the three versions.

While he is travelling around Lucas has a young woman who seems to be everywhere he is and turns out to be a protector of sorts. We never find out who she really is.

Lucas then finds his friend is having and affair with the wife of the hanged man and he wonders if they are working against him.  He keeps getting followed and attacked by a man with a large scar on his face.  Lucas starts to suspect that there is some link between the Dumas work and the devil book.

He eventually finds out that there is a club of Dumas devotees who don't want the manuscript he has to get out because it will reveal that Dumas had a collaborator who did more work than people thought.

In the end the client of Lucas has managed, by nefarious means to gather the images from all three volumes.  He attempts to create a ceremony using the images and info to summon the devil. Lucas leaves him screaming in disappointment.

I like books about books and book lovers.  This book was very entertaining and really kept you guessing to the end.

 

 

 

Crow Winter

 by Karen McBride

I recently tried to read the popular book Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson but had to give it away as I found it too violent so it was with some trepidation that I started reading this one as it seemed to have some similar story lines.

The story is about a young native woman who returns to her Ontario reservation after getting a degree in Ottawa.  She doesn't know what to do with her life and is still mourning the death of her father from a couple years previously.

The young woman is followed around by a crow and eventually she starts communicating with him.  Nanabush is a Shapeshifter, a Trickster.  She tries to ignore him but he won't leave her alone.  Through her mother's efforts the young woman gets a job sorting through files in the band office.  She finds some old documentation pertaining to a quarry, that is currently out of operation, that her father left her and her brother.  A group wants to develop it but the girl doesn't want it developed.

As the book goes on Nanabush helps her go back in time to see that her father was going to make a deal re the quarry.   On another occasion she is able to go back to see that an Indian Agent modified some land maps that changed the quarry land from reservation land to available land.

Hazel attends a sweat lodge and the invitation of a friend and is able to witness the seven gods talking about her.  Nanabush is trying to convince them to let him become human.  It seems if he helps Hazel he might get his wish.

Things get tense when a descendant of the land Indian Agent starts work to start up the quarry again.  Hazel has become convinced that re-opening the quarry will destroy a sacred doorway to the spirits.  She gets her brother who is working in Ottawa on Indian issues to try to prove that the documentation about the quarry was falsified.  She doesn't know what to do to stall for time so decides to thrown herself over the cliff at the quarry, eliciting Nanabush's help to keep her from getting too hurt.

He does help her land without too much injury.  Because of the incident works stops on the quarry and her brother is able to send the proof she needs.  So she gets what she wants, we don't know what happens with Nanabush.

The book was very interesting the characters and the relationships between the girl and her mother and the other people were all told in a very interesting and entertaining way.  I really enjoyed the story.

Snow

by John Banville

Banville won the Booker Prize for his book the Sea.  I read it but can't remember it.

This book, Snow, is a mystery book.  Apparently he has written other mysteries under a pseudonym.

The story takes place in Ireland in 1957  A priest has been found dead in a rich family's house.  He was stabbed in the neck and castrated.  We find out the man often spent time hanging around with this family even though class-wise he was out of their league.  He boarded his horse at their stable.

Dept Inspector St. John Strafford and ad assistant come to investigate.  The priest is Catholic, the family is Protestant and there is a lot of discussion in the book about the animosity between the two faiths.

As the Inspector investigates he meets the older man who owns the house.  He doesn't have any explanation of why this could have happened in his house. We meet the man's second wife, a much younger woman, who seems totally strung out on drugs.  We meet the man's daughter who hates her step mother and who is a manipulative, self-centred brat.  The son is also home from university.

As the story proceeds we are also introduced to a reclusive young man who works on the property.  The young woman torments him sexually, teasing him, forcing him to have oral sex on her.  The inspector's deputy goes missing and despite searches by local people he isn't found for several days until he is found dead in the van from a local business.

The inspector had seen the reclusive young man driving the van the day before.  Before they can arrest him they find him dead of suicide.  It comes out that the priest had been the priest at a boy's orphanage where the reclusive young man lived as a youth.  The priest sexually abused the young man and also the son of the family in whose house the priest was killed.  The priest was also sexually abusing the son of the family.  It is assumed that the recluse killed the priest because of the abuse.

However a few years later the Inspector runs into the daughter of the family and things she says hint that she actually was the one who killed the priest, but the recluse was the one who emasculated him.  This was a surprising plot twist.

I really enjoyed this book, the author's descriptions of the settings and the people were superb.  It was a masterful story.

 

The Henna Artist

 by Alka Joshi

This books has been on the Best Seller and Best Books of the Year lists for the past year.  It is about a young Indian woman, Lakshmi who has escaped an abusive marriage and made a life for herself as a Henna Artist in the city of Jaipur.  She knew she had shamed her family but sent them money.  She did not know her mother burned the letters without looking inside.  Unbeknownst to Lakshmi her Mother gave birth to another daughter after she left home.  She had hoped to build a home in Jaipur and have her family come live with them.  However both her parents have died leaving her young teenage sister Radha an orphan.  Radha is tormented by the locals who believe she has a curse on her.

Radha someone finds Lakshmi's estranged husband and they are able to find her in Jaipur.   Lakshmi is surprised to find she has a sister and terrified that her husband has found her.  He demands money from her and she feels he will keep coming after her for more.

Lakshmi is building a lovely house for herself and plans on expanding into being a matchmaker and she almost achieves this but then her wayward sister gets pregnant by the son of one of her influential clients.  Lakshmi had also gotten an in with the palace through helping heal the spirits of the Head man's wife.  However her reputation is ruined, all her clients make excuses for abandoning her.  Lakshmi has people hounding her for payment and goes the the husband of her influential client.  He likes her as she has given him some medicines in the past to help his mistresses not get pregnant or miscarry.  He agrees to give her the money but his wife finds out and is even more furious with her.

Lakshmi's husband eventually finds a role helping out the prostitutes that live in the city and stops bothering her.

Lakshmi cooks a plan to have the palace adopt her nephew when he is born but her sister refuses to give up the baby.  She and her sister go to a town in the country with a friend/relative who is also pregnant.  The friend loses her baby and Radha decides she does not want her baby adopted by the palace but rather by their family friend.

In the end Lakshmi decides to stay in the little village as her medicinal knowledge and skills are appreciated there. 

It was an interesting story.  The main character was so hardworking and scheming but it all fell apart for her.  It certainly kept you interested.  She did a great job of portraying the lives of the rich and poor, the gossipy nature of the rich women and how hard Lakshmi had to work to keep her customers happy.

 

A Bitter Feast

 by Deborah Crombie

This mystery takes place in a small village in England.  A married couple, who are police officers, are invited to come and bring their three children to the family home of a colleague.  The colleague's mother is holding a fund raising luncheon.  The mother of the family drives to the family estate with the female officer.  Her husband plans to drive up on his own later in the day.

The colleague's parents are wealthy, owner's of a newspaper publishing empire.  The colleague is always reluctant to tell people who here parents are.

There is a small pub restaurant in the nearby village.  One evening a local woman is sitting having dinner and notices a distinguished looking man also alone.  Shortly after the man goes into the kitchen and there is a lot of shouting.  The chef tells him to get out.  The man storms out of the pub leaving his coat behind. 

The woman leaves shortly after.  As she is driving home she sees the man from the pub staggering on the road.  She is a former nurse and sees the man is in distress.  She offers him a ride and then quickly sets off to the nearest hospital.  But they don't make it to the hospital.  She crashes into the car of the police officer who had been driving up to join his family.  The woman and the man in her car both die, but the woman mumbles something to the police officer who is injured but not seriously.  

The plot thickens when the police find out the man in the car was dead before the accident and as he has no id on him they don't know who he is.  After interviewing locals no one can explain why the woman would have had the man in her car.  People don't think that she knew him.

It then turns out that the dead man was a formerly famous chef who has fallen on hard times. He had come to try to woe the local chef to join him in a new restaurant endeavour in London.  The chef had wanted nothing to do with him.  We later find out that the chef was the father of her child and has threatened for joint custody if she doesn't agree.

Later the bartender is found dead on the side of the road.  It is clear he was hit on purpose and then bludgeoned.

Throughout the book the police that are visiting are working along with the local police to try to figure out what is going on.  Eventually it comes out that the partner of the local chef has killed the London chef because she doesn't want to lose her partner.  She killed the bartender because he had seen her talking to the London chef on the night he died.

This was the first book I have read by this author.  I enjoyed. it. was a interesting story but there were a lot of characters and an additional plot about the police officer from the wealthy family having a musician boyfriend she ends up breaking up with. There was another plot with two employees of the wealthy family skimming funds from the family.  These were extraneous as far as I am concerned.

Talking Animals

 by Joni Murphy

This book is about an animal society as the inhabitants of New York City. The Mayor is a horse, other city hall staff include a pig.  Alfonzo is a moody Alpaca  He works in the bowels of City Hall in the archives dept.  The basement is mouldy.  Alfonzo even wonders if anyone knows he is there.  In addition to sorting paperwork he also cleans the area. He is the sole employee.  

 Alfonso is working at City Hall in what he thinks is a temporary situation.  He is writing a dissertation, hoping to become a professor. He is devastated when his dissertation is rejected as disjointed by his advisor.  Alfonso has a friend at city hall, a llama.  This llama tries to get him to be less serious and not devastated by his academic results. Eventually Alfonso learns that the basement is being renovated and is invited to a meeting at which he assumes his job will be declared redundant.

Alfonso is also plagued by his father who is very critical of him.  Alfonso meets with his father occasionally and these occasions are always very traumatic for him.  He is terrified to tell his father about the rejection of his dissertation.

As part of the story there is friction between land animals and ocean life.  The land animals believe that the ocean animals plan to flood and take over the world.  This part of the book is the most satirical, possibly reflecting the racial/religious tension in the U.S.

In another plot line, Alfonso is introduced to a radical element in the city by his llama friend. They are trying to prove that the Mayor is using his position to reduce the value of some property and then buy it to make money.  He is awarding a lot of contracts to one country.  Alfonzo had printed his dissertation on used paper his friend  the llama. The used paper contains details on the corruption in City Hall.  This information gets to the media and the Mayor is exposed.

I can appreciate the attempt the author made to use animals as part of her satire but I kept getting fixated on the fact that animals would not be able to type, dress themselves, make coffee, etc.  This distracted me a bit from the story.  I am not sure that this story couldn't have been told as well without the animal characters.  It has been decades since I read Animal Farm but I think Orwell tried to incorporate animal stereotypes into his characterizations.  This wasn't done much in this book.