Teatime Talk with Shona Patel

  Every once and awhile I contact an author for a little e-chat, and after recently finishing the exotically themed Teatime for the Firefly by Shona Patel, I thought I'd give it a shot.  I wanted to know more about her life on those tea plantations in Assam, India, and about her publisher, Harlequin MIRA. Harlequins were the romance of choice during my teen years, and I can thank my tea-drinking Nana (who must have read them in between soap operas) for introducing these light stories to me. They hooked me on reading, but after a few years I moved on from Harlequins to more serious fiction. Forty years later I wanted to revisit the books I knew as a beginning reader. Patel's book didn't resemble those slim, red-covered paperbacks that were piled beside my bed.
   Patel was sweet and obliging, although she was busy working on her second novel. Here's what she had to say---

1. I'm confused about your publisher--Harlequin MIRA. Teatime seems so different from the books I read as a teen. They were formulaic and predictable--exotic setting, girl meets boy, girl hates boy, girl and boy kiss (or maybe more), girl and boy doubt their emotions, brood, but unite for a happy ending. Your novel was crafted with far more skill than stories I read from Harlequin in the 70s. Are we talking about the same publisher or just a new phase in its publishing life?

You are not alone in this, I get this question all the time. I have often received the comment, "Teatime is not your mother's Harlequin," so I guess it does come as a surprise to readers, but not in a bad way. My editor Susan Swinwood once said to me not so long ago that Teatime for the Firefly was changing people's perception about Harlequin and more specifically about romance. That's amazing.

 Harlequin has several imprints and yes, most of them are focused on romance like you describe. MIRA Books is the literary imprint of Harlequin and offers sophisticated, issue-driven editorial, the kind of novels book clubs like to discuss.

2. But Teatime does have a strong romantic component. Does that make you a romance writer?

No, I don't see myself as a romance writer per se. My books fall more in the literary fiction/women fiction category. As for the Harlequin label: I am not sure how much labels count anymore. In this age of social media, book sales are reader driven. Readers will arrive at their own judgment no matter how you categorize a book or who publishes it.

3. You lived on an Assam tea plantation, and I'm guessing your vivid descriptions of life there were drawn from your own experiences. Did you feel isolated as a child or were you distracted by the beauty and the wildlife? Did you attend school there?

I spent the first 15 years of my life in the tea plantations of Assam. I had a very carefree childhood surrounded by rivers, forests and fields. I don’t think I ever felt isolated or lonely for a single moment. My education was a problem as there were no regular schools around, so when I turned 10 my parents packed me off to a private boarding school like the other tea garden kids. The school was 300 miles away, and we came home twice a year for holidays. I loved boarding school and had tons of friends, many of whom I still keep in touch with. I remember my boarding school days as some of the best years of my life.

4.The term "tea garden," which pops up frequently in the book, is such a delicate term compared to the reality of monsoons, rogue elephants, snakes, insects. How long did your family live there and did you ever feel like you resided in a hostile place?

A. The term “tea garden” is rather misleading, I agree, but that’s what tea plantations in India are called. Most people imagine “tea gardens” to be small, picturesque tea farms when in reality they are sophisticated, industrial scale undertakings, employing thousands of people. Their location in the dense rain forests of north-eastern India often makes life unpredictable and dangerous, but I have come to believe a tea planter’s job attracts a certain thrill-seeking personality with a thirst for adventure. My father was a tea planter in Assam between 1941 and 1974, after which he retired and became a tea consultant in the city of Calcutta, where life was staid and predictable. I think all of us missed the tea gardens when we lived in the city.

5. The book jacket explains that you're a trained graphic designer. How--and when--did you make the leap to writing novels?

A. I started working in advertising and graphic design right out of college (1984: yes I’m old!!)  and I wrote Teatime for the Firefly on the side a few years ago while I was still working. I only became a full time writer when I signed a three-book deal with Harlequin MIRA.

6. How long was the story for Teatime steeping inside your head? Have you always wanted to tell the story of tea plantation life?

A. I’ve always wanted to write a novel set in the tea plantations of Assam. The story evolved organically in the writing process. I started out with a premise and had some idea how the story was going to end. Then all I did was set my sails in that direction. It’s quite fascinating really, how stories shape themselves, sometimes in marvelous and unexpected ways.

7. Did I read someplace that you live in Arizona? How did you land there?

I came to Arizona after getting married to my husband. We’ve lived here since 1995.

8. 'Fess up. What kind of tea do you drink? For those of us who love tea, what should we be looking for when we buy?

No surprises there, I am a die-hard Assam Tea drinker. My first choice is CTC Assam which is a strong, black tea. You can buy it as loose tea from specialty tea shops. I get my private stash (which I guard very stingily) shipped to me from India.  I brew the tea in a pot and take it with milk and sugar. Once in a while I’ll  throw in some fresh ginger and cardamom to give it that Indian chai taste. When I run out of loose tea, I use tea bags. I have a high caffeine tolerance (probably genetic) as I drink Assam tea several times a day. It  is what I wake up to every morning and it’s the last thing I drink before I go to bed at night.  If you want to try Assam Tea look for any packaged tea in stores labeled as English Breakfast Tea. This is typically a blend of Assam and that should give you an idea of the taste and flavor.

The Odd Couple

     She was pleasant but a tad ditzy, walking around town in technicolor tights and dresses, content with her waitressing job at the Buttered Bun, a  local coffeeshop. He, on the other hand, was an A-lister from London. Big business guy, extreme adventurer, handsome, worldly and sophisticated.
   But now he--Will--is in a wheelchair, and she---Louisa--needs a new job and has limited options. Unless working in a chicken processing plant or being a pole dancer can be considered choices.
   Louisa, Lou for short, and Will meet. She will be his companion for six months. And so it begins. A love story unlike any I have read before.
  Yes, I expected these two unlikely souls to get together at some point, but their journey as a couple is quite remarkable. This is not a cutesy, love-at-first sight tale. In fact, they don't really like each other much at first. Will is morose and detached from everything and everyone from his previous life and makes Lou's job miserable. Seems like she'll never break through.
  Over time, though, the two adjust. There are ups, downs, good days and bad. Big challenges and tiny victories for them both. With simple outings Will slowly starts to engage in life again, and Lou gets a taste of the world outside her little village. While she becomes a new friend and social director, Will assumes the role of teacher as he pushes Lou to try new music, new food, new books and movies.
  All very copacetic, agree?
  Not so fast. Although confined to a wheelchair, Will is a man of action, and he's got a plan. Although he can't feed himself, get dressed, bathe or travel without assistance, he can still choose how he will live these next few months and how he may--or may not--end it all.
   And so it continues. Can Lou make life worthwhile for Will? Will she find enough stimulating trips and activities for him to balance out the monotony and melancholy and infections and fevers and hospital stays?
  I loved Lou's conviction. She researched. She made a calendar. She planned. And Will came along and enjoyed the ride. And six months passed. Decision time came.
   I stayed up well past midnight last night to see how it all turned out. Very few books have that power for a woman who gets sleepy at nine, but there's no way I could have waited until the next day.
   Jo Jo Moyes is some storyteller! The book moves quickly but leaves a mark. It's more than a love story, although that's a big part of the last quarter of the book. Bigger than the couple's growing friendship and affection was the question it raised about how we live. Do we push? Do we step outside our boundaries? These are questions that pop up in many books that I read, but somehow this story with these characters made me think more carefully about how I answered them.
   The Push From the Book: Public libraries can't get every book in the universe. No library can, which is why we're lucky to be a part of a library system. Bethel Tulpehocken Library did not have this book, assigned reading for me as part of a book club selection. I borrowed it from Sinking Spring!
  Know this: more than 16,000 books and materials circulating to library users in Bethel come from OTHER libraries in our system or state. If you want a book that's not on our shelf it doesn't mean you have to go out and buy it. Ask someone at the circ desk to find it for you. Or you can go online and select the book, which will be shipped to Bethel. So easy. So convenient. Sharing is a good thing.

Traveling to Tea Country

  Shona Patel, author of Teatime for the Firefly, grew up on a tea plantation and recreated her richly green home turf, Assam, India, as the backdrop of a tender love story. For tea-drinkers like me who relish a soothing  cuppa to start--or break away from--a busy day, this book was like making a pilgrimage to tea Eden, all from the comfort of home. Patel dropped me inside the 1940s world of a bustling tea plantation and never skimped on the details: wineglass-shaped tea bushes growing in "waves and waves of undulated green," ebony-skinned tea pickers with colorful saris and thick pewter bangles, "pale lilac orchids sprouting from mossy armpits in branches."
   Halfway through I was so enthralled I went online to investigate tea plantation vacations. And there's a nice choice available, just for the record.
  Since finishing the book I'll  appreciate each sip a bit more than I did before. Tea may have the reputation as a soothing drink that invites quiet contemplation, but life among the Camellia assimica plants was rugged business back then. Encounters with man-eating leopards, venomous insects, rogue elephants, rhinos, even ghosts, were common. Is such a place the right place to cultivate love? That's the question that lingers as you move through the story.
   Maybe the tea plantation is the perfect place for Layla and Manik Deb. Earlier she was convinced she'd be a spinster because she was born beneath an unlucky star. Though highly educated, Layla believed her destiny was predetermined by her Hindu horoscope. So it would be impossible to move forward with former Rhodes scholar Manik, the handsome friend of her grandfather who is already engaged.
   Unbeknownst to Layla, Manik formulates a plan to escape the marriage and create a new life--not as a civil servant, but an assistant manager on a remote tea plantation. How they finally marry and flourish amidst the steamy jungles in a company bungalow kept me glued to each page. This, after all, is a love story, and the romantic in me enjoyed the flowering relationship in a world full of beauty and adversity. In addition to the natural world's obstacles, there was plenty to fear among the wives of the British managers employed by the tea company. They were an aloof, petty lot and rarely made Layla feel like part of the crowd. But they were minor threats compared to the upheaval underway in India at that time. As British colonial life ebbed, clashes between Hindus and Muslims became more prevalent and increasingly violent. Not even the tea plantation's distant location could insulate them from the discord, and both Layla and Manik's lives were interrupted--and threatened--during the turmoil.
  The warm, exotic feel of the book evaporates as Patel recreates this difficult period in India's history, but since her characters can't escape it, neither can we. How they responded during the crisis and its aftermath is a testament to her characters' deep connection to their souls and each other. It warmed me, just like a good cup of tea.
The Push From the Book: I'll visit those tea vacation websites again. It's a dreamy thought, to visit that part of the world so faraway and different from my own, but Patel planted a tiny seed inside me. And it's starting to sprout. Visit India? You never know.

Preps with Oars

  I just finished Ron Irwin's fine debut novel, Flat Water Tuesday. It's a rowing-team-going-for-glory story set on a New England prep school campus--old buildings, manicured lawns, and boathouse included. I found it to be a predictable clash of the haves and have-nots with edgy, adolescent boys and--to keep things interesting--a tough, green-eyed coxswain named Ruth. If the first few pages didn't tell you it was coming, you'd surmise tragedy was in the works. It's a theme that I've encountered before.
   A few years ago I read Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep, which I liked but hardly remember. Forty years ago there was A Separate Peace, the 1959 classic on my high school English teacher's suggested reading list that lots of us tried because it wasn't too long. That book stuck with me, as I think Flat Water Tuesday might. There's an outsider who lands among the privileged and learns to make his way. The journey is never easy and by the end there are big lessons learned and an unsettling fatality.
    At first glance Flat Water appealed to me because of the cover. Sometimes we just have to fess up and admit covers grab us and make us read. If I hadn't seen the photograph of rowers skimming over that glassy water I may have passed on this book. But the kayaker in me, the person who loves that serene flat water, seized the book and relished the trip inside the elite 'God Four,' the four-man rowing team with cream-of-the-crop status at Fenton School. The training and try-outs are murderous, and Irwin, who has boarding school and rowing team experience, skillfully puts us inside those damp, foul-smelling rooms with 17-year-old boys--and Ruth with her stopwatch--who sweat and strain and pull and nearly lose consciousness. It's a lot more than callouses on your hands, people. After this book I truly understand the torture of a rowing machine, a close race, and how much vomit an exhausted athlete can produce.
   Flat Water's protaganist is working-class sculler Rob Carrey, who's at Fenton on a post-high school scholarship. Carrey will provide the power the Fenton team needs to reclaim the trophy from arch rival Warwick, but Carrey likes to row alone. And if he wants that free ride at Fenton, he's got to join the God Four. No negotiation. Rob's journey from single sculler to team rower, amid the demands of his coach and boatmates, kept me engaged throughout the entire story.
      Irwin, however, is giving us Rob Carrey in two parts. He balances his life as a student with his life 15 years post-Fenton. We know that Carrey makes it through, but he's back to being a loner. He's a freelance documentary filmmaker, and instead of fitting into a rowing team bound for glory, he's trying to salvage his personal life with love interest and film editor Carolyn. The story moves back and forth with Rob as a teenager and Rob as an adult, although I believe I preferred the prep school narrative a bit more. Whether he's trying to mesh as one of the team or with his lover, Rob grapples with his ability to be a part of something bigger--at least that's what I took away from the story.
   I recommend this book to anyone who wants the inside scoop on the sport of rowing. Before you're on that flat water going head to head with another boat, there are weeks and months of gut-wrenching training. The descriptions of the conditioning regimes and the intricacies of keeping athletes in sync while they row were fascinating. The only time I see rowing competition is during the Olympics. When the races end the athletes look like they're physically defeated, whether they win or not. Now I know why.

The Push from the Book: I am now officially in awe of any athlete involved in this sport. Rowing at an elite level demands year-round dedication and great physical commitment. And, those tiny people who yell into a megaphone? Now I understand what it is a coxswain does and why he is necessary.The sport is more than moving down the river. It's keeping time, digging deep, matching your teammates stroke for stroke.
 

Someday, Someday Definitely.....

....you should read Someday, Someday, Maybe. You'll love Franny Banks, the quick-witted, aspiring actress/waitress who is on the verge of a major career move. Within the next six months she's promised herself that she'll land a meaningful acting job or pack it up and head home. There's always teaching.
   Franny gave herself a three-year window to hit it big in New York City, or at least hit it medium, and during her final days things are starting to percolate. In between her waitressing shifts at a local comedy club, she fits in acting classes with a well-established drama coach. The book opens with Franny preparing for the class showcase where she'll perform in front of the city's top casting and talent agents. It's now or never.
  Of course, when her big moment arrives, Franny tumbles across the stage. She recovers with her trademark humor and you feel in your bones she's on her way, but with Franny it's never easy, despite her comedic timing, her talent and her beauty, which she seldom acknowledges. There are bumps--maybe even a few huge potholes--along the way.
  Before going on I must report that this entertaining debut novel comes from well known television actress Lauren Graham, the former Lorelai Gilmore of "Gilmore Girls" and current star of "Parenthood." Who knew she was a double threat--actor and novelist? Well, actually, she's a triple threat, let's be honest. She's gorgeous, too.   Grrr.
 Graham created a character so agreeable and down-to-earth that I felt like I was catching up with a friend each time I returned to the story. The title alone, Someday, Someday, Maybe, suggests hope amid great uncertainty. Sure, Franny wavers at times, but she's always good company. At times her conversations resemble Graham's rapid-fire Gilmore Girls' patter, and I swore I could hear her voice during exchanges with casting agents or while hanging around with friends. She's fast on her feet, clever and a tad sarcastic. My kind of girl.
    I wanted this book to go on forever, but Wait--There's More!! It will be recreated as a CW television show, and Graham will write the adaptation as well as executive produce! Does this make her a quadruple threat? Probably.
  Someday, Someday, Maybe is set in the mid-1990s, and I presume some of the novel's description of Franny's absurd auditions and interviews were rooted in Graham's world before she hit it big. Ugly sweater commercials included.
   Those of us in the non-acting world realize, I think, that making the cut in the entertainment industry is a mixture of talent, looks, luck and connections. The odds are against lots of beautiful people who try to jump start their careers in New York or Los Angeles. Graham gives us a close look behind the scenes of what it's like to live with a few spare bucks in her checking account while waiting for that elusive big break. The absurdity---the sheer unlikelihood--of ever making it really comes through, which makes you cheer for Franny with all your heart.

The Push From the Book: You can tell I had fun while reading this book, but there's a strong, serious undercurrent pulsing through Franny's story. Stick with it. Stick with your dreams. Give it a go, with all your heart, and see what happens. You're never too old to think about this.

Aussie Angels 'Over There'

  First, look at this picture:
http://www.greenhowards.org.uk/womans-war/jpg-files/ww1-nurse-001.jpg
And then, this one:
https://cas.awm.gov.au/screen_img/E01304
This one too:
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTA2OFgxNjAw/z/3iYAAOxyV85R1cMJ/$T2eC16hHJGUFFh1bIIu0BR1cMJcBy!~~60_35.JPG?set_id=8800005007

If you have any desire to insert yourself into one of them, then you must read The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally, the Australian writer probably best known for Schindler's List. Say this for Keneally, he doesn't turn a blind eye to pain, tragedy or violence. While Schlindler's List went inside the effort to save Jews during WWII, The Daughters of Mars chronicles the lives of two Australian sisters who travel to far flung and hostile territory as nurses in WWI. The story is epic, and the sisters are cool customers who never seem to flinch when desperate times and situations envelop them.
   Once they depart from the Macleay Valley, New South Wales, Naomi and Sally Durance sail around their home continent with the rest of the Aussie nursing recruits bound for the Middle East. They see the Nile, the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the teeming markets of Cairo before wounded begin arriving on their hospital ship, The Archimedes. 
  Kineally's re-creations of crowded ship decks, the frantic triage assessments on board, the bandaging, wrapping, cutting, sterilizing, stitching, and comforting seemed so realistic to me. It was almost like I could hear the moans and groans of the injured or smell the blood and mud on boots and uniforms. He conjures up dazzling images of medical wards during  the aftermath of combat at Gallipoli. Australians took huge losses there but this was but a small taste of what the Durance sisters had yet to encounter on their ship and in Western Europe.
 Eventually, the war grinds on and both sisters land in France--Naomi in a private hospital, Sally laboring in a military clearing station. They tend to the wounded, gassed and shell-shocked troops, while trying to carve out time and space for themselves and  men who crossed their paths years before.
  The book spans the length of the war, and by 1918 medical personnel were facing another potent enemy--the influenza virus. It is here that Kineally throws a bit of a bomb himself, and I'm reeling from it. There is no clear cut ending. In fact, he creates two of them, and I'm not convinced I've got it right. Three times I went over pages 505-513 and am still dazed by this "choose your own adventure" closing. Somebody out there needs to read this so we can talk.
  The book will stay with me for a long while. I loved it, yet I wanted to know more, know the truth of the story, know how it all ends. But Keneally doesn't allow it. Can I love the book and yet seethe at its author? Yea, I think so.

The Push From the Book: I'm too stunned to process this, but this much I know. Those nurses were heroes. Doctors and nurses in all wars are, I suppose, but without the medical tools and technologies of today, their jobs back in 1915-1918 must have been strenuous and demanding and not for the weak of heart. Just take a closer look at those pictures. I'm not sure I'm made of the right stuff.

Stopping to Smell the Roses

   Margaret Dilloway's The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns was a summer escape to central California, full of lush backyard gardens, sea views, rose competitions, and a cantankerous biology teacher and rose breeder named Galilee (known as Gal, for short) Garner. She kept me chuckling, sympathizing, admiring, and sometimes fuming during the entire book. I won't forget her for a long time because Dilloway created a character whose life struggles and passions opened up whole new worlds to me.
    In her spare time Gal plunges herself into a unique hobby--rose breeding. She works feverishly to keep her roses fed, watered, fertilized and fungus free while swapping pollen and harvesting rose hips. The goal-- to create a fabulous and exotic new type of Hulthemia rose and bring it to market. But Dilloway adds another layer to Gal's life that makes her even more complicated. She's coping with life threatening kidney disease and must undergo dialysis every other day.
   What I thought was going to be a simple story about a woman who liked flowers was so much more than I expected. It thrust me into the botanist's greenhouse laboratory, the cutthroat world of rose competition, kidney disease and organ transplantation.
  And we didn't even address the side order of family dysfunction affecting Gal's life. She's got a devoted mother and father who arrive when Gal has health setbacks. She's accustomed to them, but not to her 15-year-old niece Riley. She pops up when her mother, Gal's sister Becky, heads to Asia for a long-term job assignment. Becky was healthy while Gal's childhood was marked by one health crisis after another. Gal got all the attention while Becky was on cruise-control. She became a rebellious teen, a rebellious young adult and then a single mother still battling addiction issues.
   Riley now lives with Gal and is as complex as her aunt. Her moods shift with the weather and Gal does the best she can to deliver Riley to school on time, in uniform and on point. Riley struggles with her aunt's biology course, the Science Olympiad team, friends and the long absences from her mother.
  The roses, Gal, Riley. They all have their seasons of growth, bloom and regeneration and reading Roses with Thorns was a nice blend of story and discovery. Rose breeding, a subject I've never ever contemplated, became the centerpiece of the book and I enjoyed reading about all the care and precision that's involved in creating something new in the natural world. I won't ever look at a rose the same way next time I wander through a garden center or plant nursery. It probably took years to arrive, considering its creation and time spent growing in a test garden somewhere. Also, sometimes when I go shopping I pass a dialysis center, never giving it a thought. I won't be so cavalier next time. I'll wonder how many people are inside getting their blood cleaned while waiting out a new kidney. Where are they on the list? Who is at home caring for the kids while they are connected to a machine in there?
   No surprise. I give this book a big green thumbs up. The story is satisfying. The characters are unique, and I guarantee that you'll learn a lot about subjects that are new to you.
The Push from the Book: Someone I know has a signature closing to her e-mails: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." Gal's daily struggle with her failing kidney brought renal disease into my consciousness. I was going to say "off the back burner" but truthfully, it wasn't even on the stove. I cannot imagine having to plan a full life around dialysis, yet so many people must. The book made me count my blessings. Which are many.

Trains and Lovers......and Yawns

 I could never seriously dump on Alexander McCall Smith, author of  the recently released Trains and Lovers, and creator of one of the most beloved book series, The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Any writer who imagines such benevolent and wise characters ( first Botswana female sleuth Precious Ramotswe, for example, and her intrepid assistant Grace Makutsi) and then inserts them into a uniquely beautiful African location can only be a man of playful good humor and tender passions. His characters' flaws are compassionately rendered, the mysteries are gentle, and the life lessons present in each novel are easy to swallow. He seems absolutely grandfatherly and adorable and until I learn otherwise that's what I'm going to believe.
   So how do you tell grandpa you're a bit disappointed with his latest gift to you? You don't.
   Instead, you offer, "How nice of you." "Thanks for thinking of me." "You're too kind."
   And all of that is appropriate commentary for Smith's last effort. The highly portable book (small enough to  carry in a coat pocket, purse or backpack) is not without its charms. I like the idea of listening in to the chatter between strangers leaving Edinburgh by train destined for London. I imagined  the rocking train car,  the green landscapes flying by their window, and Scottish, British and Australian-tinged accents going back and forth across the miles. But the events that I hoped would occur on that train never materialized. There were no love connections en route, just talk. And the stories exchanged weren't as interesting or compelling as the plot lines that Smith brought to life with his legendary detective series.
  Trains and Lovers has a simple premise. It's set in a train compartment with three men and one woman whose conversation starts as slowly as a train engine gathering steam. Once underway, however, they grow more comfortable with each other and begin to reveal tales about their lives, families and loves, all remarkably affected by trains. An art history intern spies an unlikely train in an old painting; a train carried one of the rider's parents to a new life in the desolate Australian Outback; another gets off at the wrong train stop but finds a new friend, and finally, a sighting of two friends parting while one of our passengers waits to board rekindles memories of a lost love.
  And all that was good. It just wasn't as great as usual. For a varying point of view, watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTWoUjVpeVY.
  The book was a very quick read, and you could do it in one sitting, especially if you were on a train or plane and had a few hours to kill. That's if you don't strike up conversation with somebody along the way.
The Push from the Book: This time around, I'm passing. I spent one summer day on this book. It was a pleasant ride, but no lasting memories or changes of heart.

Gone Girl--A Visit to the Dark Side

   Darkness unnerves me. Whether it's rooms, basements, starless nights or stories, darkness makes me jumpy. Cowardly lion jumpy. And when surrounded by it, I want to fix it or escape it. Maybe that's why I read Gone Girl so quickly. It was a dark, deceptive and unsettling novel, and I was eager to get out of the scary shadows.
    Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, is pitch black in terms of its themes of murder, treachery, revenge and retribution. Yet, it's wickedly good, and I couldn't stop reading it. I heard about the book last year, and its advance praise was lavish. Every review was enthusiastic, full of stars. I read the gist of the story--and yes, it sounded dark--but it was a book I needed to read.
  Here's the lowdown--Nick and Amy, a perfectly beautiful couple, meet in New York City, marry and when both lose their jobs, move back to Nick's  hometown in Missouri. His mother is dying from cancer and his estranged father has Alzheimer's. Nick taps into Amy's trust fund to buy a bar, and the couple starts over. Then, on the day of their fifth wedding anniversary, Amy is gone. Vanished after an apparent scuffle in the couple's living room.
    The novel has three parts. It begins with  Boy Loses Girl and sets the pattern of alternating Nick and Amy chapters. Nick's first commentary, "The Day Of," offers a look at the couple's present life and events surrounding Amy's disappearance. Amy's chapters are in the form of diary entries that begin when the couple first met, seven years before her disappearance. Her chapters give us the background we need to understand the couple's perfect romance, courtship and decline. Nick, Amy, Nick, Amy. Back and forth, present and past. The story flies by.
  By the conclusion of Part One, seven days have passed since Amy's disappearance. Meanwhile, Amy's diary entries have moved us into 2012. Flynn started the book with the characters' voices being years apart and by the half way point the timelines converge. The big take-away here is that during their brief marriage, Nick and Amy have fallen on tough times personally and professionally and now live inside a marriage that is circling the drain. Someone has to pay.
  And while you read these early chapters you have strong hunches about the source of evil. Flynn gives the reader just enough information to form theories and make educated guesses, but then the police make discoveries or Amy reveals something new in her diary or Nick finally divulges something nasty he's been hiding.
   Gillian Flynn writes like someone who has dominated the suspense genre for decades, but judging by the book jacket photo, she's a thirty-something. Her writing is slick and clever, and she's got one very devious imagination. Gone Girl, Flynn's third book,  has catapulted her onto my must-read-author radar, and I believe I'll need to go back and catch up with Sharp Objects and Dark Places---when I'm feeling brave.
   Even Hollywood is on board with Flynn's work. Gone Girl is destined for the big screen, and recent media reports say that Ben Affleck has been cast as Nick. A-list actresses Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt are in the running for the part of Amy.
  Push From the Book:  I married after knowing my significant other for less than a year, but after reading this book, I'd advise others to invest some time and really get to know your future mate. Sometimes you have to dig deep to find the flaws. And once you find them, what are you prepared to do?

The Last Man-- Last Words from Vince Flynn

   I needed some adrenaline pumping prose to jump-start my summer reading. Which is precisely why I chose the counter-terrorism thriller, The Last Man, by Vince Flynn. CIA operations in Afghanistan with a kidnapped agent were certain to give me a jolt, and its fearless, incorruptible tough guy hero Mitch Rapp was the ideal character to keep me riveted to the page.
  Four dead men on the floor of a safe house demand your attention, and in no time I was sucked into the well-knit story of FBI/CIA investigations, torture scenes, gunfights and deceptions. Why, I thought to myself at the end of the first few chapters, had I not heard of this author before. Who is Vince Flynn anyway?
  Before I tell you more, just know that this wasn't Flynn's first outing with Mitch Rapp. The Last Man was 13th in a series. Obviously, I'm a little late to the Rapp party.
   A few days later I was half-way through the book and while watching a news program that afternoon the cover of the book suddenly appeared on the screen. One of the news panelists was talking about Flynn, whose books had become favorites of real-life intelligence officials, as well as Presidents Bush and Clinton. The 47-year-old author was dead after a two-and-half year battle with prostate cancer.
   I'm sure I wasn't the only person in American reading a Flynn novel at the time of his death, but it came as a bit of a shock anyway. Certainly this healthy looking guy on the back of the book couldn't be gone, could he? He looked rugged, capable, strong, and smart. Just like the Mitch Rapp character I envisioned while reading his stories.
  Still unbelieving--although I knew the reports were accurate--I wanted to know more. Who was this writer who churned out these heart-thumping stories?
  The more I learned, the more dejected I felt. Flynn was a huge success story and a widely popular novelist. He sold 15 million books in the US alone and had legions of fans.
  In his hometown newspaper's obituary, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Flynn was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child and started writing in the 1990s to combat his disability. He self-published his first novel before Simon & Schuster picked it up. Two years later he wrote another book introducing Mitch Rapp and the series was born. He produced a new Mitch Rapp novel each year, and now it seems like I've got to back and get acquainted more formally. One book at a time.
  Here's an excerpt from the obituary:
 Former CIA official Rob Richer was chief of Middle Eastern Operations when he befriended Flynn during a 2003 research trip to Washington, D.C.
“This is a guy who wrote the books, but he also walked the talk,” said Richer. “He would vet his books to make sure he wasn’t giving away secrets while remaining true to what we did. When people were up in arms about the war on terror, he defended us. He also made sure hundreds of his books were mailed overseas to our servicemen and women. He was a guy who cared. And he was a real patriot.”
   If you'd like more information about Flynn or his series of Mitch Rapp thrillers, visit his website:
http://www.vinceflynn.com/

The Push From the Book: Flynn's book dedication on the opening pages struck me when I first read it and will stay with me for a long time: "To all of my teachers and coaches at Saint Thomas Academy who taught me that to succeed in life, you need to raise the bar, not lower it."  

Geek Reads

  I love lists. And lists with books are even better. And lists about books to read to your children are about as good as it gets. Browsing through this compilation of books every geeky parent (that's their term) should read to their children (to insure their geekiness) was tons of fun.
  See how many books you remember reading to your child, and if your kids are still at home and enjoying a quality bedtime reading habit, you might find some inspiration here:
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2013/03/67-books-every-geek-should-read-to-their-kids-before-age-10/

  If the geeks who put this list together missed anything, write back so we can compare notes. One not on the list that I really loved reading with my daughter was Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin by His Good Mouse Amos, a book about the true genius behind Franklin's inventions (it was the mouse, of course) and the beautifully illustrated tale of truth and honesty, The Empty Pot by Demi

The Perks of Being a Reader

  I subscribe to Shelf Awareness, an e-newsletter for readers and persons employed in the book business, and today's issue has an information-packed link about the benefits of reading. Not that I needed any additional proof about reading's advantages, mind you.
   Click on the link to learn more about how the brain changes and thrives while under the spell of a book. It'll make you feel less guilty while you burrow under the covers and keep turning pages when there's a sink full of dishes in the kitchen.

http://oedb.org/library/beginning-online-learning/your-brain-on-books-10-things-that-happen-to-our-minds-when-we-read

The Long and Winding Road

       The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce, is a quirky book. But's it's a quirky book with a big heart that left me mulling big thoughts about life---do I seize each day? have I wasted opportunities to live well and full? am I the best that I could be? is there something major left for me to accomplish?
  Harold Fry, a recently retired business man, lives life comfortably but without passion. He's blah. His wife Maureen is blah, and their lives together are dull, loveless, and very clean. There's lots of dusting and sterilizing going on to fill the void. Their son, moody and disconnected from his father, is out of the picture, so it's just the two of them. A story about nothing.
   But then an old friend writes to Harold. She's in hospice and wants to say goodbye. Harold sheds a tear for Queenie, a former officemate, and quickly responds with a short letter of his own. He walks to the mailbox, and then decides to keep walking. He will walk to Queenie. He will walk 600 miles, across the spring-blooming hills and dales, cities and villages of England. He's on a spur-of-the-moment odyssey, and for the first time in decades Harold is alive with purpose.
  I know what you're thinking. A book about walking? How interesting can that be?
  While he walks, Harold replays episodes from his life, and we begin to understand that in the beginning he and Maureen were madly in love. We learn about Harold's difficult childhood with an alcoholic father and runaway mom. We learn that Harold shrank away from his duties as a father, and isolated himself emotionally and physically from his son. We learn that he and Queenie met at work and formed a solid friendship. We learn that Harold's pilgrimage may be his last hurrah.
  And like any worthwhile pilgrimage, there are entertaining asides about people met along the way and others who join the long walk north. Over time and miles, Harold attracts fans of his own. Misfits, lost souls, even a stray dog, fall in line behind him.
   While England finds a new hero, back home Maureen actually dusts less and begins to miss her husband. He writes and phones, but she is at a loss. She knows he and Queenie were never lovers, but living alone has rekindled her own memories of their youth. Maureen wants Harold back home.
  Over each new hill there is a fresh challenge or another tag-along or another flashback into Harold's life as a child, husband and father. The farther north he wanders, the more we understand his life and his sorrows. And then we wonder, will he get to Queenie in time? Will she hang on until Harold gets there? What will they say to each other?
    I thought this book was going to be like a slow walk, pokey and meandering and not all that heart-thumping, but I was mistaken. This book was hard to put down. There were always questions and concerns. How far would he walk today? Would his blisters do him in? Why hasn't his son contacted him? Where will he sleep tonight? After weeks of effort, sacrifice and exhaustion, Harold's pilgrimage comes to an end. I won't say if he gets to Queenie in time, but I will report that Joyce created a tense, emotional conclusion to the book. The final 30 pages were riveting.
   I highly recommend The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Just be ready for something different. It's not your usual walk in the park.
The Push From the Book:  Live boldly, don't waste a minute, tell the special people in your life they matter.
 

Wartime London My Cup of Tea

  Anything, ANYTHING to do with WWII fiction gets my attention. So imagine my interest when I saw the cover of Mr. Churchill's Secretary, by Susan Elia Macneal. A prim, pearl-earringed woman with her hair in an elegant chignon set in profile against the London night sky, with RAF fighters soaring overhead. Wow, I said to myself, this is my kind of book.
   Which it was. Maggie Hope, an American-raised Brit, returns to her homeland to settle family business and stays on as Britain enters the war. She's a math wizard who defers her graduate education at MIT to go across the pond (really?) and finds herself adapting to the tea, the chintz and her new roommates. She's got friends in high places and by the first chapter lands a job at 10 Downing Street as one of Churchill's secretaries.
   Who cares that she's a math whiz and could do more? Chain her to a typewriter. She's a woman. I saw that old chestnut of a storyline coming and started to doubt.
   But it was early and I kept reading, or as Churchill would say, KPO. Keep Plodding On.
   Macneal did an admirable job of recreating London, life inside the PM's War Rooms and the German's daily air raids known as The Blitz. She even threw in some IRA terrorism involving a few of Maggie's coworkers and friends.
   Maggie eventually triumphs--using her math and codebreaking skills--and breaks out of the steno pool long enough to perform some heroic acts to save herself, her family, her friends and her nation. It unfolded a bit too predictably for me. I felt like I knew what was coming, but I couldn't put the book down until I knew for sure.
   This is a mixed review. I loved the setting and the historical details, but it lacked the depth and details of other WWII storytellers. I recommend the book to readers who enjoy a WWII yarn that features the best of the British, keep-a-stiff-upper-lip sensibility during their darkest hour. Those scenes were vividly recreated. If you like wartime suspense, in lighter doses, this would also satisfy.
  Just don't expect Ken Follett or Len Deighton-quality intensity.

The Push from the Book: See Above. KPO. That was a new Churchill-ism for me. Keep Plodding On. We all have our battles. Each day. Never give up. The book gave me a catchy new phrase, and I love the fact that it's Churchill's words.