Further Reading: Forensic Scientists in Contemporary Fiction

Novels about the study of bones and human remains in relationship to crime solving continue to fascinate and entertain readers - and top best seller lists. On the page or in real life, forensic scientists, those who perform chemical and physical analyses of evidence submitted by law enforcement officials, are crucial in piecing together a cohesive storyline between victims and suspects.

A host of contemporary authors are currently spinning tales about the role and lifestyles of forensic scientists:

Kathy Reichs, who is, herself, a practicing forensic anthropologist, has emerged as the leader of the pack. Her popular thrillers (Flash and Bones, Spider Bones) are filled with stories culled from her own work experience. Dr. Temperance Brennan, Reichs' protagonist and alter-ego, is a highly skilled forensic anthropologist who works at the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington, D.C. and writes novels on the side. Reichs's series has even inspired the long-running FOX-TV show, Bones.

Thorough scientific research gives credence and authenticity to books in this mystery and thriller sub-genre. Multi-faceted protagonists, often women faced with complex personal lives, add an additional level of engagement to these intricately plotted novels of suspense.

In The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths, forensic archeologist and college professor Ruth Galloway lends her expertise to the discovery of a mass grave of skeletal remains found on Britain's Norwalk Beach. In this third novel featuring Galloway, secrets are unearthed that may stem from World War II. Readers become embroiled in a plot that may hold deadly consequences, while they are also swept up in the intricacies of Galloway's personal life. She struggles to juggle the demands of her job and the investigation, her life as a single mother and a secret intimate liaison with married DCI (Detective Chief Inspector) Harry Nelson.

Other Eyes, a carefully structured, stand-alone forensic mystery by Chicago-based writer, Barbara D'Amato, features Blue Eriksen, a divorced single mother and a noted Northwestern University forensic archeologist. In this novel, Blue and her team travel the globe, studying and testing mummies in ancient cultures and religions seeking to identify a scientific compound that may actually cure people of drug addictions. Their work is suddenly deemed as a threat, and Blue becomes stalked by an assassin who may be working for a powerful drug cartel.

Note: This article is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this piece (in a slightly shorter form) as published on Shelf Awareness for Readers (3/13/12), link HERE

The Dog That Talked to God

How does a person of faith go on living after tragedy strikes? This is the major question facing 43 year-old, recently widowed, burned-out novelist, Mary Fassler in The Dog That Talked to God by Jim Kraus (The Silence). Disillusioned by the platitudes offered by well-meaning friends and family in an effort to ease her inconsolable grief, Mary--shaken, lost and confused--decides to adopt Rufus, a Schnauzer puppy, in the hope he will offer her companionship. During their daily walks through the suburbs of Chicago, Mary talks to Rufus, railing against a God from whom she feels estranged and abandoned while trying to make sense of a past she can't let go of and the prospect of a lonely, uncertain future. One day, Rufus unexpectedly talks back to Mary and informs her that he is in regular communication with The Almighty. When he begins to relay messages from God, Mary begins to pine less and listen more.

Rufus becomes the impetus for Mary to reconcile her life. This dog-savior scenario is plausible because Rufus is a lovable, quirky, gentle soul, and Mary's philosophical, humorous, and refreshingly honest narrative buoys an otherwise heartbreaking predicament. As Mary interacts with family, friends, her literary agent and new love interests, her unwitting spiritual recovery propels her to pack up and set off, with Rufus, on a pilgrimage in search of a whole new life. Kraus's novel is an entertaining, deeply engrossing portrait of what it means to be fully human and fully alive.

The Dog That Talked to God by Jim Kraus

Abingdon Press, $14.99, Trade Paper, 9781426742569, 278 pp

Publication Date: November 15, 2011

To order this book via INDIEBOUND link HERE

Please note: This review is a reprint and is being posted (in a slightly different form) with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (3/9/12), click HERE.

How Georgia Became O'Keeffe: Lessons on the Art of Living

"She followed her own rules, and got away with it," author Karen Karbo states in How Georgia Became O'Keeffe, referring to the artist as "the poster child for doing exactly what you want, in the service of an abiding passion."

This innovative, inspirational biography seeks to understand the intersection of O'Keeffe's life and art. The narrative is filled with great wit and hilarity and delves beyond the facts of O'Keeffe's "art star" status in order to better understand her choices: why she lived and painted the way she did; endured a tumultuous, co-dependent artistic and romantic relationship with the father of modern photography, Alfred Stieglitz; and how she maintained her sense of self and authenticity throughout.

Karbo's personal admiration for this bold, fearless artist leaps off the page. A single verb introduces the theme of each chapter with the intent to compare the artist's challenges to those that plague creative women today. Karbo explores O'Keeffe's artistic influences while circling the idea that O'Keeffe came from a sensible, hardworking, middle-class family and yet, she continually took risks and defied expected traditions of womanhood in order to nurture and preserve her ideals of self-expression. 

This is the latest installment in Karbo's "kick ass women" trilogy. The two other books examine the lives of Katharine Hepburn and Coco Chanel, also showing how strong, independent women forged their own paths by living true to themselves, despite being considered "unconventional."  While O'Keeffe continues to be revered as a personal icon to millions of women and aspiring artists everywhere, it is Karbo's original, wry analysis that is bound to enrich O'Keeffe's status even more.

How Georgia Became O'Keeffe: Lessons on the Art of Living by Karen Karbo

skirt!, $21.95, Hardcover,9780762771318, 240 pp

Publication Date: November 15, 2011

To order this book via INDIEBOUND link HERE

Please note: This review is a reprint and is being posted (in a slightly different form) with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (11/18/11), click HERE.

Further Reading: Valentine's Day

 

Valentine's Day... 24 hours dedicated to love, lovers and loving. For some, it's a joy. For others, a dread. They say the key to your true love's heart is through the stomach, so why not take to the kitchen and whip up something scrumptious for--or even with--your amore, surprising the object of your affection today and long after the designated day of romance?

Jacques Pepin can help. In Essential Pepin, he delivers more than 700 recipes, with something for every palate, including his signature roast duck a l'orange and crepes Suzette. Pepin blends the pragmatic with elegant sophistication. The "old chef," as he refers to himself, has come to the conclusion that even seasoned home cooks need the option of seeking some packaged shortcuts to help them prepare dishes from scratch.

And for dessert? Reach for Choclatique by high-octane chef and chocolatier Ed Engoron. This luscious cookbook is complete with useful tips and guides for whipping up decadent chocolate sweets for your sweetheart--even those with special dietary needs. There are 150 recipes for candies, cookies, fudge, soufflé, ganache, even cocktails. Watching your sugar or weight? Then simply cuddle up with the one you love and drool over the mouth-watering photographs of each delectable, chocolate-inspired creation.

But what if you don't cook or would rather not be trapped in your kitchen? You could always splurge and be wined and dined at your favorite upscale restaurant.

Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter by Phoebe Damrosch is part gritty exposé and part witty memoir, detailing the ascendant career of a restaurant captain at a high-end New York City eating establishment. The book is everything you've always wanted to know about the people who take and serve your order, including how a waiter navigates through elaborate menus and moves food from kitchen to table, as well as a waiter's interpretation of the dining foibles of notable clientele, critics and hand-holding couples.

Note: This article is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this piece as published on Shelf Awareness for Readers (2/14/12), link HERE

The House at Sea's End

Forensic archeologist and college professor Ruth Galloway is having a hard time juggling the demands of her life, and things only get worse once this single mother returns to work after a maternity leave. When a team studying coastal erosion discovers skeletal remains buried under the cliffs near a historical home on Britain's Norfolk Beach, Galloway lends her expertise to the police and DCI (Detective Chief Inspector) Harry Nelson. Upon investigation, it appears six people might have been killed in one mass grave. Were the deaths accidental or the result of foul play? When the bones are determined to be roughly seventy years old, the investigation turns toward World War II, a time when the Norfolk coastline was patrolled by the Home Guard, a local group ready and prepared for German invasion. But when Nelson and Galloway and their counterparts begin questioning some of the now elderly old-time guards of Norfolk--and those who knew them during wartime--secrets are suddenly unearthed that may incur deadly consequences.

The House at Sea's End is an engaging, contemporary crime novel. This is the third book in the Ruth Galloway mystery series (The Crossing Places, The Janus Stone), and author Elly Griffiths continues to enrich the main forensic investigation with compelling characters embroiled in personal challenges. The reader learns that Ruth's newborn daughter was secretly fathered (in a previous installment) by DCI Harry Nelson, who is married and not intending to leave his wife. Therefore, the scenes involving Ruth, Nelson, the baby--and Nelson's wife--evoke as much suspense as the crime plot. Once again, Griffiths delivers a smart, well-balanced, atmospheric mystery.

The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25, Hardcover,9780547506142, 384 pp

Publication Date: January 10, 2012

To order this book via INDIEBOUND link HERE

Please note: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (1/17/12), click HERE.

Forgotten Bookmarks

Used books and bookselling have been in Michael Popek's blood since he was a child. In Forgotten Bookmarks: A Bookseller's Collection of Odd Things Lost Between the Pages, he shares his unique collection of things discovered tucked inside the pages of books, "treasures within treasures . . . often untouched for decades."  The ephemera includes objects such as personal photographs, baseball and greeting cards, poems, shopping lists, recipes, invitations, report cards, burial vault information, razor blades, marijuana leaves and handwritten letters (received or unsent?). 

Each bookmark specimen has been reproduced, as found, and each is paired alongside a picture of the original book where the discovery was made. In an entertaining scrapbook-like presentation, Popek takes the liberty of transcribing some illegible handwriting.  However, he offers no commentary, preferring instead to let each relic and book exhibit speak for itself. This deepens reader fascination, as there is much intrigue in trying to decipher and decode whether the ephemera and book hold any combined significance.

Forgotten Bookmarks: A Bookseller's Collection of Odd Things Lost Between the Pages by Michael Popek

Perigree Trade, $18.95, Hardcover, 9780399537011, 288 pp

Publication Date:  November 1, 2011

To order this book via INDIEBOUND link HERE

Please note: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (12/6/11), click HERE.

Further Reading: "Sisters" in Fiction

Jane Austen launched the Bennet Sisters in Pride and Prejudice in 1813. Louisa May Alcott wrote the proverbial classic about the March sisters in Little Women in 1868.  Jane Smiley captured the love-hate  relationship of the Cook sisters in A Thousand Acres in 1991.  And Nettie and Celie, the sisters of The Color Purple by Alice Walker, released in 1982, will soon celebrate thirty years of literary significance.

Three debut novels, crafted with resonant prose, can now be added to the ever-growing canon of sororal literature:

In The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown, the Andreas sisters reunite at the family home in Ohio while their mother battles breast cancer.  In this contemporary family saga, the trio of disparate thirtyish sisters--each named for a Shakespearean character due to their father's affinity for the bard--are forced to face each other, their sibling intimacy/rivalry and the limitations of their lives in trying to find their places in the world. The story also addresses romantic complications, issues of mortality and the reversal of parent-child roles.

Familial sacrifice and sudden loss define The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen.  In this Wisconsin-set novel, Milly and Twiss, two spinster sisters in the twilight of their lives, spend the majority of their days caring for wounded birds - and people.  The two look back on life-changing events from a summer in 1947 when they were teenagers.  The story weaves seamlessly between the present and the past, when small moments from that one summer, and subsequent decisions made, dramatically altered the course of the sisters' existence.

A single, tragic event comes to define and filter through three generations of one Kentucky-based family in The Sisters, a multi-generational saga by Nancy Jensen.  Secrets, lies, betrayal and miscommunication set off a chain of events that irreparably estranges the teenaged Fischer sisters. The frayed bonds of family, and how misunderstandings can rob us of time spent with those we love, is at the heart of this deeply compelling narrative that winds through almost eighty years, from the Depression to WWII to Vietnam to the present. 

Each of these gracefully written novels delves into the complexities of love and human nature.  And whether the reader is a sister or not, the multi-layered plotlines and deft characterizations found in each of these stories continue to shed light into the ties that bind and also tear apart. 

Please note: This article is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this piece (in a slightly different form) as published on Shelf Awareness for Readers (1/10/12), link HERE

An O'Brien Family Christmas

Disillusioned accountant Laila Riley is stuck in a bad phase of her life, and it's all because of a philandering younger man, Matthew O'Brien, who stole her heart and created a rift with her family that cost her a job. When she finally breaks off her steamy affair, Laila finds that she's lost without Matthew and his large Irish-American clan of a family. It looks as though she might even be spending Christmas alone. That is until Matthew, devastated by their split, becomes determined to win Laila back. It is via the efforts of his meddling, dynamic and lovable family that Laila is convinced to join the O'Brien Christmas celebration in Dublin, Ireland under the condition that she and Matthew will keep "hands off" each other and start their courtship afresh.

This is the seventh installment in Sherryl Woods' "Chesapeake Shores" series. Each book profiles a different set of characters from the O'Brien family, and in this latest novel, Woods delivers another warm, touching saga about familial ties, romance and love. Matthew and Laila hold center stage, but as in previous books in the series, recurrent characters from the family, with stories of their own, enhance the plot--including a couple who are celebrating a honeymoon deferred by illness and the 80-year-old family matriarch who returns to Ireland for what might be the very last time, only to rekindle a relationship with an old flame. The young lovers courting in preparation for a possible future together nicely complement the story of two old friends who reunite and think only about "the now."

An O'Brien Family Christmas by Sherryl Woods

Mira, $16.95, Hardcover, 9780778312706, 288 pp

Publication Date:  September 27, 2011

To order this book via INDIEBOUND link HERE

Please note: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review (in a slightly different form) on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (12/9/11), click HERE.

My Favorite Reads of 2011

I've made it a rule since my college days to read at least one book (novel or nonfiction) per week or one short story a day...And this year, I had the good fortune to start reviewing books for Shelf Awareness.  That meant that I read a lot more than usual, but I had a little less time to devote to all the books I had planned on reading. The good folks at Shelf Awareness for Readers send me an often ecclectic list of nonfiction/fiction, mysteries and romances--books I might not normally choose for myself, per se, but titles I have enjoyed reading that broaden my range. Of late, this blog tends to highlight a majority of those titles. However, I read a lot more than what I post. 

Therefore, below is a list of my Top 12 Personal Favorite Books from 2011. Please note: there is no special ranking.  Each book is so different in content/form/subject matter that I feel it is unfair to qualify them in that way. The numbers are there to simply keep the list orderly.  And unless otherwise noted, all books referenced are fiction/novels. To learn more about any of the selections, link on the title for additional information:

1)    Faith - Jennifer Haigh
2)   Coming Up for Air - Patti Callahan Henry
3)   Let's Take the Long Way Home - Gail Caldwell (memoir)
4)   The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress - Beryl Bainbridge
5)   Bin Laden's Bald Spot - Brian Doyle (short stories)
6)   The Women Jefferson Loved - Virginia Scharff (nonfiction)
7)    Emily and Einstein - Linda Francis Lee 
8)    The Solitude of Prime Numbers - Paolo Giordano
9)    Emory's Gift - W. Bruce Cameron
10)   I Married You for Happiness - Lily Tuck
11)   The Train of Small Mercies - David Rowell (short stories)
12)   Blood, Bones and Butter - Gabrielle Hamilton (memoir)


Here is a list of books I had wanted to read this year, but never got around to...I'll add them to my stack for 2012:

1)     State of Wonder - Ann Patchett
2)    The Marriage Plot - Jeffrey Eugenides
3)    The Art of Fielding - Chad Hardbach
4)    Falling Together - Marisa de los Santos
5)    Death Comes to Pemberly - P.D. James

A Christmas Memory

"I've always thought a body would have to be sick and dying before they saw the Lord. And I imagined that when He came it would be like looking at the Baptist window: pretty as colored glass with the sun pouring through, such a shine you don't know it's getting dark. And it's been a comfort: to think of that shine taking away all the spooky feeling. But I'll wager it never happens. I'll wager at the very end a body realizes the Lord has already shown Himself . . . I could leave the world with today in my eyes."
~from A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote

I read A CHRISTMAS MEMORY by Truman Capote every year, and every year this carefully crafted story, steeped in great sensory detail and palpable atmosphere, takes on more depth and resonance. 

The setting is the rural South of the 1930s, during the Great Depression.  The story is told looking back via the perspective of a then, seven year-old boy remembering a Christmas he spent with his much older cousin, a childlike woman in her sixties who has never "seen a movie...eaten in a restaurant, traveled more than five miles from home, received or sent a telegram, read anything except funny papers and the Bible, worn cosmetics, cursed, wished someone harm, told a lie on purpose, let a hungry dog go hungry." These two seemingly lost souls are largely disregarded while living in a house populated with other people (some family members), and their being lost in the shuffle forges their friendship, along with a dog named Queenie, who rounds out the trio. 

During this one recalled Christmas, the best friends pool their nickels and dimes and set out on a quest to bake 31 Fruit Cakes (complete with a trek to acquire illicit whiskey from a creepy man named Mr. Haha Jones) to send to "persons we've met maybe once, perhaps not at all. People who've struck our fancy. Like President Roosevelt."

This aptly titled memory story is filled with details that evoke a sense of nostalgia, loss and ultimately, longing. It is a poignant, beautifully rendered tale about the bonds of love and friendship, gift-giving and the often simple pleasures that bring joy and meaning to our lives - however fleeting.  Truman Capote has given us a great gift in crafting, A Christmas Memory.  It reminds us that nothing last forever, but if we're lucky, memory does - and that is precisely what can sustain us.

Merry Christmas to all!

A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote
(30th Anniversary Special Edition Hardcover)
Publication Date: 2006
Knopf Books, $17.95, 9780375837890, 49 pp

A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote
(A Tale Blazer Paperback)
Publication Date: 1990
Perfection Learning,  $3.35, 9780895986634, 36 pp

Note:  This story was originally published in 1956.
To order this book (paperback edition) via INDIEBOUND click HERE

The Voice of the River

In the rural Northwest Rockies, a 17 year-old boy and his dog have gone missing.  It is suspected that they might've fallen through the ice of a frozen river near their home. But where are they - dead or alive? A whole community rallies to find them as acclaimed novelist and short story writer, Melanie Rae Thon (Iona Moon, In This Light) sets out to discover their whereabouts in The Voice of the River. 

The narrative is prefaced with a lengthy character description list to keep track of the various families tied to the search.  Structured in chapters set at various times amid the course of one single day, this novel appears to be about rescuing the missing.  But beneath the surface, the story probes the psyches of those who come together in this one community and how they are bound by personal tragedies and loss; grief, love and longings. Amid the search are interlude-like chapters which reflect individual characters as they struggle to find meaning and purpose for life and reconcile the secret, hidden places within their own hearts.

This is a beautifully written novel rendered via a stream-of-consciousness prose style. While this aptly coincides with the river theme, it also makes for a rather challenging read in both form and content. However, the reward of this novel is experiencing the river, all that it represents and every person drawn to it, as a moving meditation about navigating the changing currents and undercurrents of life.

The Voice of the River by Melanie Rae Thon

FC2-Fiction Collective 2/The University of Alabama Press, Trade Paper, 978-1573661621, 216 pp.

Publication Date: September 9, 2011

To order this book via INDIEBOUND link HERE

Please note: This review is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Opinion: A Pinch of Civility, A Dash of Gratitude

Thanksgiving Day Column

November 24, 2011

Opinion/Editorial (Section A-22)

BY KATHLEEN GERARD

The Record

To read the op-ed in its entirety, click on the highlighted article title above