The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen

My plan to read some more Gerritsen some time in the indefinite future got a bump when my daughter went to Hastings and found a shelf of her books (she had read The Apprentice after I finished it).

So - this one is the first in this particular series, preceding The Apprentice. It is the story of the creepy bad guy's earlier foray into mutilating women, in which Jane Rizzoli receives the injuries which haunt her through the second book.

Again, tight, well-plotted police drama loaded with tension - kept me up reading last night. I will be reading the rest of these - my daughter bought all of this series. This is an interesting point regarding Gerritsen's work. Rather than continue indefinitely with the same detective(s) as is "traditional" in formula mystery, Gerritsen has several series with different settings and characters - some classified as "romantic suspense" - a category that causes many mystery afficianados to cringe. I will withhold judgement until I have actually read one. I have experienced both good and bad in that genre. And some I consider bad are very popular with people that I know and admire. As for me, I was a great fan of what I call "gothic horrors" when I was younger (don't open the door, you twit!) and then there were Mary Stewart and Barbara Michaels - mistresses of romantic and gothic suspense. But I digress.

Curiously, Jane Rizzoli is not the central character in this book. She is close to the center - and it is she, of course, who actually gets hold of the crucial clue and runs the baddy to earth before he can finish off Catherine Cordell. She has to be rescued herself, but anyway. She is more nearly the center of book two, and my daughter says (based on the back cover) that Maura Isles is central in book three. Isles, by the way, does not appear in book one at all. Seems to me it took considerable creativity on someone's part to create a television series based on those two characters. Also, given Gerritsen's description of Rizzoli as short and unequivocally plain (but with nice eyes) - casting Angie Harmon in the part --- well, never mind.

Protector of the Small - Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce

Mission accomplished. We know it will be, because this is fantasy - but knowing that the hero (in this case, heroine) will survive and succeed isn't the whole story. The reader is forced all the way to wonder which of the secondary characters are going to be "red shirts." In this case, no characters which we have followed from previous books in the series are lost. I think Pierce must be very fond of her characters and unwilling to bump them off. Works for me. A couple of the named sparrows did die in book three, but they were pushing ten years of age and that is pushing plausibility even for fantasy - and besides they died peacefully in bed. So they all lived happily ever after.

And, by the way, Kel's stray for this book is a child rather than an animal. So technically there has been a progression in the level of her rescues. The sparrows were not exactly rescued - she fed them and they stayed. In book two we had the dog, Jump. In book three, she definitely rescues the griffin fledgling and calls to mind the old adage that no good deed goes unpunished. Then, finally, in book four, she rescues the abused foundling, Tobe, who proves to be a valuable asset and does survive along with the dog and the sparrows and the griffin, one assumes, he having been returned to his parents.

All in all, good fun.

Protector of the Small - Squire by Tamora Pierce

Whatever am I going to do when I have to go back to work and can't sit and read all day?

Okay, so it wasn't a dragon in her arms, it was a griffin. Of course, she is a success as a squire and both at tournament and in battle.

This book telegraphs the next more explicitly than the previous two. She has already passed the ordeal of knighthood and has been presented with the great evil which she must defeat in the next. Still good fun.

Protector of the Small - Page by Tamora Pierce

I suppose I could wait and log all of these together, but since I have begun by posting the first in the series solo, I guess I might as well continue.

Kel is a wonderful YA heroine. She is determined, she accepts no special favors, and in a society modeled heavily on the medieval courts she seeks to make her way in what is traditionally a man's profession - as a knight. There is a little unevenness in the setting in that context. The knight who stands as the king's champion is a woman. Kel's mother fought and killed attackers and saved the national treasures of the court where her husband was ambassador. Yet Kel is subjected to continual abuse by both fellow students and instructors who do not believe she should be allowed to pursue her dream.

Besides, so far she has rescued kittens from a nasty boys and a monster, a warhorse from the knackers, and a ugly and battle-torn mutt which, judging from the cover picture, owes much of his lineage to English bull terriers. Not to mention the flock of sparrows which has adopted her. And the cover of book three shows her with a small golden dragon. I can hardly wait.

Protector of the Small - First Test by Tamora Pierce

Change of pace. I was ready for a change after the Lindskold and Larsson books. This is YA fantasy, nicely done. The usual sort of thing, a quasi-medieval setting with magic. The young girl trying to earn a position in a male bastion - and succeeding - after all, if she hadn't succeeded, what would the next three books be about.

The girls read these years ago, but somehow I never got around to them. They turned up in the same box that the Lindskold book was in. Now there is a contrast - one features a 50+ heroine and the other a ten year old.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

I was warned. The good friend who loaned me the book told me that unlike so many second and third novels in a series this one does not disappoint -- all true. When I realized that this one was going to center around a court case, I was doubtful, but it definitely kept the pace and intensity that the first two books led me to expect. The depth and nature of the political conspiracy was truly horrifying and (of course) left me wondering whether or not all those conspiracy theorists have had it right all along.

The guy is just so plausible. It is quite difficult to step back and remind yourself, "Oh yeah, this is just fiction." Then there were the side issues such as the persecution of Berger. And the finale! I was reminded of the description of a hand-to-hand combat in something or other that I have read more than once. The underdog loses a weapon in the first few moments of the battle, but later snatches it up to win. In this case the writer has dropped the one issue so completely that its reappearance in the final pages came as a complete shock to me. Yes, I am deliberately trying to be vague in case someone who has not actually read this book should stumble on these lines. But, I do think the nail gun was a nice touch.

Just one last question - why didn't he start sooner? I know, he was only fifty and logically should have had many years to continue writing, but surely he could have started sooner. On the other hand, are any of us up to the stress of another one of these every year?

Child of a Rainless Year by Jane Lindskold

OK - so this is a reread. My daughter hauled me out to the storage locker to look for something and I spotted this in one of her boxes. Actually, it is mine. I had loaned it to her and she hadn't gotten around to reading it. It has been a number of years since I read it - and since the publication date is 2005 - I must have read it shortly after it was released.

When I was twelve or thereabouts - we were living in the house that used to be at the crossroads where the railroad track, Highway 80/85, and the truck by-pass all met near Mesilla Park. One of my Christmas gifts (I'm sure there were others, but this is the one I remember) was a copy of We by Charles Lindbergh. As soon as all the obligatory hoopla was accomplished, I went back to the back room - it was my brother's bedroom, but he was just a baby and didn't care - and read. All day. I finished that book that day.

That's about what I did today. I did start yesterday, but today I have done very little but sit here at my desk and read.

I was right. This was definitely worth a reread. This is fantasy of amazing depth and complexity with fascinating characters and haunting mysteries - and she has the audacity to set it in Las Vegas, New Mexico. No "long ago in a galaxy far far away," or in a place that has traded on its mystique for generations: plain old dusty Las Vegas. And a fifty year old heroine - how's that for radical?

I have read one other of hers - and this time I must look for more.

Last Refuge by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

I enjoyed it; I will pass it on; I was a little disappointed. It is a sequel to Nothing Sacred and I don't think it quite lived up to it. It was pretty predictable and maybe a little facile. I think that is the word I want - everything was almost slick - apparent challenges for the characters, but maybe not so much -- One of the main characters is killed and eaten fairly early on, but somehow the horrors which are described in this episode and many others seem to have little impact. There is almost a sense of detachment from everything.

Still, Scarborough only partially on target is better than most.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

I've put this one off for a long time. Years. I don't know why exactly, maybe I was afraid that it would be more challenging than I cared to deal with in the name of entertainment. I may have been right.

The book isn't difficult to read, but the ideas are another matter altogether. I'm forced to wonder what levels of symbolism Card was embedding in the plot, the characters, the names of the characters, and settings. Some of it is quite blatant, but then there are bits that left me wondering. It is quite possible that I am over-reading, but this is definitely more than a science fiction adventure story. On the other hand, it ends so conclusively that I am somewhat concerned about what he could have done to continue this as a series for seven more novels. It would really be a shame if he has simply kept the pot boiling. Now I can be apprehensive of continuing to read the series, although the title of the second book, Speaker for the Dead, is the what first attracted me to the books in the first place - although my daughter wouldn't let me read it until I had read Ender's Game.

Card has done something that most writers just dream of - he has created a fictional universe with fundamental assumptions that are different from our own.

Silks by Dick Francis and Felix Francis

I avoid "ands" on general principles. It tends to make me a little queasy to see one of my favorite writers "anded" with some unknown on a book cover. Most of the things I can imagine as motivations for such things are not what I like to consider in the context of writers that I have read and respected. Almost worse are the books by "son or daughter of." This one may be the exception to the rule.

This read like vintage Dick Francis. The gentle pun in the title, the indirect association with racing of the later books, the romance, the violence, the reluctant hero, the very satisfying total destruction of the evil villain -- it's all there. And it's as readable as ever and just as engrossing. Witness that I started reading this yesterday after I had posted about the Tess Gerritsen book -- and I went to work today. Maybe this book was in my bag and maybe I did read a few chapters ...

You know - I am going to read more of theirs. And in the back of the book there was a notice that Francis himself has another Sid Halley story out. I have been out of the loop lately.

The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen

This one was because I had watched a few episodes of the TV series "Rizzoli and Isles" and perverse curiosity forced me to wonder -- all the things you wonder (if you are book people) when you see a formula mystery suspense series supposedly based on a novel or series of novels.

I really enjoyed this book. It is fast paced and intense. Jane Rizzoli is a convincing and compelling character. The killer is one of the creepiest I've encountered lately. I think I may read another one or two of these.

As with Kathy Reichs, this leaves the question of why the author sanctioned such a cutesification of her work. And I suppose the answer is - and always will be - the money. And, frankly, at the moment, that is a motive that I can completely understand, given the fundamental insecurity of the income of a writer. It's a shame, though.

Bare Bones by Kathy Reichs

No complaints. Reichs is, as usual, both scientific and dramatic and if this time the threads to be connected were a little more scattered than usual, the process of tying them all together is well done.

I think I have gotten a some of these out of order. In this one Tempe first becomes actually involved with Ryan - and I think I have read others where this is a long-standing fact. Or not. Reichs never lets the characters' lives become the focus of the story.

Again, I am reminded of the capability of Hollywood to warp material. The real Tempe Brennan, the one in the books, is a well-rounded adult with deep insight into the vagaries of the human mind. The character of the same name in the television series supposedly based on Reichs work is anything but. TV Tempe's social ineptitude, which the character excuses as scientific objectivity, is one of the major features of the show. Laughs all round at the genius scientist who is saved from herself every week - or every night, if you are watching one of the rerun channels - by people she blatantly considers her inferiors.

The only actual similarity between the books and the TV show is the name of the main character. Everything else is changed -- for the worse. And yet, Reichs signed off on it and is cited in the credits of every episode. I hope she got paid plenty.

Innocent Mage by Karen Miller

One of my sister's recommendations. Good solid fantasy - maybe a bit much left vague - and, of course, is the big bad dead at the end? Probably not. Very persuasive, likable characters. As in much classic fantasy quest fiction, the hero is unaware of his great destiny - Garion in the Belgariad, Frodo Baggins, and countless others. In this case, our hero is still totally clueless at the end of the first book. Totally clueless. Not suspecting but not knowing like Garion, or reluctantly accepting the burden like Frodo, but completely unaware that he is a pawn in some great scheme or the fulfillment of ancient prophecy. The author, no doubt, saved the big guns for the second book. It does appear from her wiki that she did stop with the two books, so I don't quite understand why so much is left for later - maybe all will become clear when I read the second book.

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

I didn't have an awful lot of time to read this week - it was final exam week, and I had one. That course is over now, and, by the grace of God and my professor, I passed. So, for a few weeks - until classes start again in January - I can get some reading and knitting and housecleaning done. And (maybe) do some studying, since I am signed up for another semester of the same stuff - and I feel none to confident of what I just "learned."

At the last book club meeting that I attended, someone mentioned this book. I thought it sounded interesting and ordered it - then at the last book club meeting (which I missed - we have several members who are convinced that it would be much more civilized to meet on a weekday evening instead of Sunday afternoon), the hostess for the next meeting announced this as our next selection. I think I said something in an earlier post about putting it aside to read during the long break, but I finished about three things at once and I picked it up to "taste" a few pages.

I am a little leery of "then and now" books, the switches of place and period can be jarring and/or difficult to follow, but de Rosnay makes a clean job of it. And the contrast between the horror of the central historical event - the round-up of French Jews by Frenchmen to be turned over to the Nazis - and the ignorance and indifference of the present-day French to the fact of the event is striking.

Although the early part of the story switches faithfully chapter by chapter from Julia in the present and Sarah in 1942, we never really become well-acquainted with Sarah especially since we actually follow her for a period of a few months. Some information about her life is uncovered, but only through the narratives of others. Julia we get to know better. In fact, the story is actually about Julia and her personal crisis. Julia's research into Sarah's story is a thread that runs through the whole thing, but I think the connection could have been made more significant.

I enjoyed it, it was a good read, but I don't know that I am going to hold my breath waiting for the next one - which, from the excerpt at the end of this book, sounds rather similar - family secrets, dying declarations, etc.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Well, this was inevitable, wasn't it? After they left Pauline tied to the tracks with the 9:05 bearing down on her?

It was a great read, no pauses for breath. All that remains is to overanalyze it. Is it a cautionary tale? Are the seeds of this kind of horror operating in our society even now? The setting is some future America made into a nightmare without even the agency of a nuclear holocaust. Are we in the process of allowing the government to take absolute control? Of course, in this future world, the system of checks and balances no longer exists. On the other hand, have you read the Patriot Act? Maybe we are not so far off that path as we would like to believe. Or is it simply a fable on the "power corrupts" theme, with the final kicker that the leader of the noble rebellion is as corrupt as the monster that sits as president for life in the capitol.

Okay, no more analysis, Katniss is a wonderful character with all the doubts and uncertainties of her age. She is judgmental and critical, and horrified when she begins to see herself through the eyes of others. And beginning to see herself, she is totally unable to understand why people care about her. A perfect teen heroine.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

As usual, I was reluctant to begin this because sequels are so often disappointing. This one does not, except in the usual thing about second books of series - it is very distinctly not complete and requires the third book. "Frodo was alive, but in the hands of the enemy." Perils of Pauline stuff.

I do not recall ever reading a story of revolution written from the point of view of the symbol of that revolution. The use of the symbolic mark almost recalls stories of early Christians. No rallying cry of "Remember the Maine" or "Remember Pearl Harbor" but a living girl who is being managed and manipulated by others. Jean d'Arc, perhaps? But St. Joan had her visions and was a willing or at least aware participant in the great events surrounding her, even though she was not truly in control of them. Katniss Everdeen, in this book, becomes aware that she is being manipulated, but is totally unable to see through the web of intrigues which are forcing her down an unchosen path.

My Freshman Year* *What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student by Rebekah Nathan

This was fascinating. It actually is a cultural monograph after the manner of the ones I read when studying anthropology as an undergraduate. The dean has placed a set of bookshelves in the faculty lounge in our building. As far as I can tell, she is the only contributor so far. I have read several pieces of fiction from the shelf, and studiously avoided the professional material. After this I may give The Saber-Toothed Curriculum a try.

Teachers everywhere observe that "kids are different than they was" -- "no, they ain't; no, they ain't, but you got to know the territory." (with apologies to Meredith Willson) This woman decided to check it out. So she adopted a pseudonym and enrolled (in her fifties) as a freshman at her own university - that is, the university at which she is a member of the anthropology faculty. She lived in a dorm, took gen ed classes including freshman seminar, and made a study of life on the other side. She knows "the territory" now and has formed some interesting conclusions.

While we (teachers) don't understand why they don't just "do the reading" or whatever else is assigned. She found out. And she found that she was making the same judgment call. She found that the messages we give students to "help them adjust to university" are repetitive and predictable and not the sort of thing that is actually useful to students.

She found that our plaintive cry for "community" is anachronistic, a wish to go back to the university of many generations ago - a generation when freshmen were required to wear ugly hats and step off the sidewalks for upperclassmen, a generation when almost all undergraduates were white males.

Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

The supernatural thriller I mentioned above. Celtic mythology. Set in Ireland - although the setting did not seem to me to be particularly significant - except for the Celtic creepy-crawlies.

Talk about your guilty pleasures - I kept wanting to put it down and say, "This is one of those books that it is not necessary for me to finish reading just because I started it." Instead, I kept on reading. The main reason I wanted to quit was the heroine - inane, self-centered, conscious (to the point of taking off her underwear in very public locations) of every male that crosses her path - or at least of the pretty ones, the teenager attitude of "if you tell me 'no' then that is the one thing that I will do."

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larsson

I think I liked this book even better than the first one. I think the pace was more even - well, maybe even isn't the way to describe it. The first book took a while to get going, publishing and high finance are simply not topics that keep me turning pages. But I had been warned about that and the reward for continuing was well worth the effort. This one started paying back from the very beginning. I loved the way he kept "all the evil" hanging until the very end. It isn't often that a writer hands me a total surprise - although friends have told me I should have expected it - the title and all. Oh, well. I loved being surprised. I was, however, annoyed when the ending sequed into the beginning of the third book in the series. Is that a publishing trick to get people to buy the next book? I would have read the next book anyway - and it just seems like a cheap stunt.

At our last book club meeting we spent more time talking about these books than about the actual selection. Those who had read it/them loved them. A big part of our book club meetings is the discussion of "what are you reading" and "should I bother."

Actually, I finished the book a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to return it to my friend, and my other friend said that we couldn't go to lunch again until I finished it, because she didn't want to give anything away! Talk about incentive.

Now, on to my reading queue. I am reading a light-weight story with a supernatural setting recommended by my university friend. That will doubtless be next. Then I do have the next book club book, but the meeting isn't until January (we don't always try to meet during the holidays) and I have the long break to read it. I am also reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - that would be rereading the first book and getting on to the second and third. I have borrowed my friend's boxed set of the books - again with the borrowed books. Actually, I own these books - but before I could read more than the first one, my daughter borrowed them. She occasionally has time to read at work. My books are now making the rounds of the newsroom at our local paper. I rather like the idea that the people who put out the paper I read every day (well, I read it when my husband remembers to give it to me) are readers and like to read some of the same stuff that I do.

Books and Book People

I promised over a week ago that I was going to start keeping a reading log again in this format. My father started me logging many years ago - he had done it for years and thought I might find it interesting. I used to log 150 to 200 books a year. Then, after over twenty years in high tech industry, I started teaching school. Sounds pretty straight-forward - but the transition from unemployed systems analyst to teacher took almost ten years.

The first year I taught school, my reading log dropped to around fifty entries. And after a couple of years I gave it up completely. I have wasted some time trying to figure out why this was the case. Part of it was that I felt that I should read what I assigned my students to read - seems only fair. Many of my colleagues did not agree with me. I remember my horror when one of them looked at me in total bewilderment and said, "But why would you bother? I read The Scarlet Letter in high school and I still remember it perfectly well." Fortunately for the sake of peace in the department, I was so stunned that I (unusual situation) was at a loss for words. What I would have told her was that I was no longer the person I had been in high school and that I should be able to both bring to and take away from the book more than I had back then. More importantly, if a book is not worth rereading, then why are we forcing students to read it in the first place? The future is unlikely to turn on whether or not one can name the principal characters and themes of a particular 18th century novel.

One might think that a high school English department would be a concentration of book people. One would be wrong. There were a couple of book people in the department - but the third in our building underground was the French teacher, besides I was only part-time in the department - I spent the rest of my day teaching math and computer science.

I belong to a book club composed primarily of people who have or have had some connection with that high school. A few English teachers, a few librarians, some teachers from other departments, secretaries, and some that we have picked up along the way. My main motivation for joining was to read some things that I might not ordinarily read. I have my own reading rut, which cycles from murder to fantasy to science fiction with a rare foray into something different. Now I can depend on "having to" read something else on a fairly regular basis. We take turns choosing - alphabetical order, host's choice. My turn is coming up soon and I am juggling several options. I have faithfully read most of the members' selections, even a few which I would just as soon not have read.

I have a few reliable sources of recommendations - a good friend that I meet with regularly to discuss our writing (although precious little of that has taken place in the last few weeks - the novel may have to wait for end of term), one of my sisters who is an even bigger murder and SF fan than I am, and a friend where I work now - our offices were next door to each other for a year and we did a lot of book talking. Now the Math Department has moved me down to their own little corridor (to keep an eye on me, I think) so we have to sneak off and have lunch sometimes.