Books Set in the United States: North Dakota

The Round House, by Louise Erdrich (2012)

This novel is narrated by the adult Joe, recounting the events of the summer of 1988, when he was 13 years old.  Joe’s father is a judge on an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota.  He imagines his father presiding over, and deciding, cases of immense importance.  During the summer, he comes to understand that a tribal judge actually has very little jurisdiction over matters involving Native Americans and non-Natives.

Joe’s mother, Geraldine, was brutally beaten and raped.  For weeks after the rape, Geraldine refused to speak of the assault.  Slowly, we learn that it occurred near the Round House ~ a sacred ceremonial spot of the tribe.  The exact location of the assault is not so clear.  Near the round house are state, federal and tribal lands.  Each have differing laws and officials.  Thus, determining the exact location is important if justice is to be had.

Joe wants justice for his mother.  He and his three closest friends seek ways to find evidence to help his mother.  Joe goes to the Round House to search for evidence. When the rapist is finally caught, Joe and his family breathe easy, until he is set free over jurisdictional issues.

In between seeking justice for his mother, Joe interacts with various extended family members, including his old grandfather who recounts tribal lore, and Sonja, the former stripper who lives with his uncle Whitey.

The story got bogged down in the middle.  The boys spy on the new Catholic priest.  When the priest catches the boys spying, the encounter seems off.  One of Joe’s friends, Cappy, has a relationship with a young girl.  When Cappy confesses to the priest, the priest’s reaction, again seems off.

In the afterward, the author notes that the laws in effect in 1988, did not grant much relief for Native-American women who were raped, and 86% of rapes and assaults on Native-American women were perpetrated by non-Natives.  The Tribal Law and Order Act was signed into law in 2010, which seeks to restore sovereign justice.

Read: July 29, 2018

3 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Wyoming

The Cold Dish (#1), by Craig Johnson (2005)

This is the first book in the Longmire mystery series.  We are introduced to the characters ~ Sheriff Walt Longmire; Deputy Victoria “Vic” Moretti; Deputy Jim “Ferg” Ferguson; Henry Standing Bear, Walt’s close friend; and Cady Longmire, Longmire’s daughter.

Several years before the novel began, a young Cheyenne girl named Melissa Little Bird was brutally raped by four white boys.  Melissa Little Bird had fetal alcohol syndrome and was unable to provide a lot of help in the prosecution of her attackers.  Although the boys were found guilty, they got off lightly for the crime with suspended sentences.  Now a few years later, one of the rapists, Cody Prichard was found shot dead in a sheep field.

Prichard’s death was initially believed to be a hunting accident, however, the evidence begins to point to foul play.  As the evidence mounts, it seems that Prichard’s death was related to Melissa Little Bird’s rape.  Longmire must protect the other three boys from also being killed.

Longmire, a widower, also begins a relationship with Vonnie Hayes, a woman he has known since they were school children, although he knows little of her life.

As Longmire investigates the murder, tensions mount between the Native American and white communities.  The author mixes in bits of history of the between the two communities, which adds to the narrative.

I enjoyed this novel, although at times I got lost in the prose and had to go back an re-read portions.

Read: July 26, 2018

3 stars

Books Set in the United States: South Carolina and Chicago

By Invitation Only, by Dorothea Benton Frank (2018)

A quick beach read.  Frederick was born and raised on a farm in South Carolina.  His family ekes out a living, but doesn't have a lot of money.  Shelby is his rich fiancée, who grew up in Chicago.  She had everything growing up.

When the families meet, Shelby's mother, Susan, looks down on Frederick's family.  She is intrigued by Frederick's uncle Floyd, however.  Her husband is too busy on conference calls to pay much attention to her.

It is Susan's dream to have the wedding of the century for her daughter.  She plans to pull out all stops and spare no expense ~ including $40K worth of butterflies to be released at the climax of the wedding.  She even wants Frederick's family to host a rehearsal dinner for over 200 guests.  This is something that Frederick's family can clearly not afford.

Shelby and Frederick, however, decide to plan the wedding their way, which upsets the superficial Susan.  Will the families be able to reconcile their differences?

This book was by the same author who wrote The Hurricane Sisters, which I read four years ago.  I wasn't crazy about that book, either.

Read:  July 22, 2018

3 Stars

Books Set in Asia: Singapore

Crazy Rich Asians, by Kevin Kwan (2013)

I picked up this book because I know that is a soon-to-be released movie.  

This is an amusing book about the adult children of very, very rich families. The rich families in the novel are Chinese living in Singapore, but probably the children of the very, very rich families anywhere would be essentially the same.  The novel essentially follows the lives of three intertwined ultra-wealthy families.

Rachel Chu and Nicholas Young are professors at a university in New York City. Rachel is 29 and Nicholas is in his early 30s.  They have been living together for the past two years.  When Nicholas invites Rachel to spend the summer with him in Singapore, she jumps at the chance to meet his family.  Little does she know, however, that he is of THE Young Family.  She gets her first hint when the plane tickets are in a suite on the flight to Asia.

Upon arriving in Singapore, Rachel and Nicholas attend a gathering at the palace of Nicholas’s grandmother.  She is in awe of the magnificent surroundings.  Nicholas’s mother, however, is certain that Rachel a gold-digger and out to snare her son, so she leaves the country so isn’t present to welcome her son and his girlfriend.  She also hires a private eye to investigate Rachel’s background. 

Rachel is introduced to Nicholas’s friends.  Nicholas is to be the best man at his close friend’s wedding.  Rachel is invited to a bachelorette party with the bride and her friends.  The bridal party quickly recognized that Rachel is not of their social class, and treat her very poorly.  Rachel soon sees how competitive and catty the other young women.

We are also introduced to Astrid, Nicholas’s cousin, who is married to Michael. They try to live on Michael’s salary, but Astrid still sneaks off to Paris twice a year to spend literally millions on clothing. 

Also, very amusingly in this novel, the author includes footnotes to explain translations of Chinese words and phrases, or to provide details into the lives of such high-culture and society.  His explanations are often very funny.

What will the detective find out about Rachel’s past?  Does so much money really make the families happy?  How do marriages work when one partner is so wealthy and the other is from a more modest background?

This is a very entertaining novel about the extravagances of the super rich.

Read: July 19, 2018

4 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Wyoming

Any Other Name (#10), by Craig Johnson (2015)

I picked up a Walt Longmire mystery because we have been watching Longmire on CD for the past few weeks.  I wanted to see what the books were like.

Walt Longmire is the Sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming.  This novel takes place in late December.  His daughter, Cady, is in Philadelphia and is about to give birth. She expects her father to be with he when the baby is born.  He plans to be there, but first he agrees to look into the suicide of Gerald Holman, a fellow law enforcement in an adjacent county.  Gerald was a by-the-book officer and his suicide seems suspicious.

Before Gerald died, he was investigating cold cases involving missing women.  Walt wonders if the cases are related.  His investigation takes him into South Dakota, and it seems that someone isn’t happy that the missing women are being tracked down.

While he is on the case, Cady is trying to get her father to Philadelphia before her baby arrives.

This was a quick fun read.  Nothing heavy, but the writing was good and I will likely pick up some other Longmire mysteries ~ starting at the beginning.  This was mystery #10, and made references to occurrences in previous books in the series.

Read: July 14, 2018

3 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Washington State

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, by Kelli Estes (2015)

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk is a historical novel of a slice of Chinese live in the United States in the late 1800s in the Northwest.  The novel follows two young women ~ present day Inara Erickson, who’s family owns a large shipping company out of Seattle and Mei Lien, a young Chinese woman who lived in the late 1800s.  The novel goes back and forth between the lives of these two woman.

Inara inherited the estate of her single aunt who owned a home on an island off the coast of Seattle.  The estate brought back memories of her childhood, as she and her family summered there.  Initially, she sought to sell the estate, but decided to turn it into a boutique hotel. During the construction, she discovered an elaborately embroidered silk sleeve to a garment hidden in a staircase.  The sleeve depicted a strange story of a ship and people floating in the water.  She takes the sleeve to a Chinese professor at a university to inquire about its authenticity.

The late 1800s were terrible times for the Chinese living in the United States. The Chinese Exclusion Act had been signed in 1882, forbidding the immigration of Chinese laborers.  Mobs in various west-coast towns literally forced the Chinese from their homes.  Mei Lien and her father were forced onto a boat, ostensibly sending them back to China. When Mei Lien learned of their actual destination, she was literally thrown overboard and was rescued by Joseph McElroy, a farmer on one of the Orcas Island.

In the course of Inara’s research on the sleeve, she discovers a terrible family secret that has been in her family for years.  When she tells her father, he warns her to continue to keep the secret because it could destroy his shipping business.

The chapters of Mei Lien are very fascinating.  We see a young girl exposed to the prejudices of the whites, and how she learns to cope.  After she married a white man, his family refused to accept her.

The chapters on Inara are initially interesting, however, her renovation of the estate into a hotel do not ring true, nor does her budding romance with the professor.

Still, this was a good book and provided an insight into a piece of history that is not often addressed.

Read: July 11, 2018

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe: France

The Baker’s Secret, by Stephen P. Kiernan (2017)

The Baker’s Secret takes place in the small coastal town of Vergers in Normandy during World War II in the years before D-Day.  The novel focuses on Emmanuelle, known as Emma, who learned how to bake as an apprentice to “Uncle” Ezra.  After the town came under Nazi occupation, Ezra was shot and killed for being a Jew.

Emma was then ordered to bake 12 loaves of bread each day for the Nazi soldiers occupying the town.  Food for the villagers was scarce, but Emma was given an extra ration of flour for her bread.  Emma found that, with her extra rations, and by stretching the dough with ground straw, she could meet her daily quotient for the occupiers, with extra loaves to share with the villagers.  By doing this, she also set up a secret network of bartering and exchange with the other villagers for supplies each needed for survival.  She siphons off fuel from a Nazi officer’s motorcycle to provide additional fuel to the fishermen for supplying fish.

After Captain Thalheim commandeers her home, Emma and her grandmother find ways to adapt, while still quietly rebelling against the Nazi’s orders. While the town people continue to be optimistic that the Allies will come and save then, Emma feels no such hope. Still, she preservers and continues to do what she can to help her fellow townspeople.

As D-Day draws near, hope in the village seems to fade.  This novel described the horrors of war, but also focused on the strength that keeps people alive when all seems lost.

This book was very well written.

Read: July 8, 2018

5 Stars

Books Set in Europe

Tell Tale, by Jeffrey Archer (2017)

Jeffrey Archer write wonderful short stories with a twist.  This book was no exception.  Tell Tale is a collection of 14 short stories.  (Two of which are only 100 words long!)

Several of the stories were inspired by real life events.  One story, A Gentleman and a Scholar, describes the trials of one of Yale University’s first female professor in Shakespeare.  As she began, her students gave her a hard time.  Forty years later, at her retirement, many of those same students returned to wish her well, and how she responded.

A Wasted Hour, had a lovely twist.  A young college girl with dreams of being a writer hitches at ride with an elderly man.  He tells her his life story, which is full of lost job and heartache. She tells him of her favorite novelist and her aspirations to write the Great American Novel.

The Road to Damascustouched upon young British school boys, then followed up on their careers years later in the aftermath of World War II.  This story made me cry.

My favorite story was The Holiday of a Lifetime.  Archer gave the reader three different endings so the reader can make up his mind as to what makes the best holiday.

The stories in this book are all very satisfying.  I enjoyed this book very much.

Read: July 6, 2018

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe: United Kingdom, England

A Banquet of Consequences, by Elizabeth George (2015)  //  Thomas Lynley # 19

I generally like Elizabeth George’s novels with Detective Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers.  I have missed a few books in the series, however, thus missed some of the references in this mystery novel regarding their personal lives.

This novel is less a mystery to be solved by Lynley and Havers and more a look into the lives of too many damaged people with too problems.

The book begins with the suicide of Will Goldacre.  Not a spoiler, as he kills himself in the first few pages of this nearly 600 page tome.  His mother, Caroline Goldacre, can’t get over his death, and years later, when most of the action takes place, she is still grieving.

Caroline is a busybody who meddled into Will’s life and now is trying to save her other son, Charlie’s marriage.  She is also the personal assistant to militant feminist Clare Adley.  When Clare is found dead, Lynley and Havers become involved.  Havers has apparently (in a previous Lynley mystery), come sideways with the big boss, so is on a short leash to solve Clare’s murder.

There were just too many people and too many threads, many of which had nothing to do with the murder of Clare, but not significant enough to make they “red herrings.”

I found this book to be less than satisfying as a good murder mystery.

Read: July 4, 2018

2.5 Stars