Essential Mysteries

  After plowing through The Grapes of Wrath for my book club, I should consider one of these 50 essential mysteries for a taste of something completely different. The last mystery I read was probably an installment in the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith last year, or maybe the year before. My appetite for who-dunits is meager, but every once and awhile I hunger for a good chase or criminal investigation or creepy setting with spies and bad guys.
       This list is fun to click through. I read a few of them, like the John Le Carre classic above, but perhaps it's time to switch things up. There are more than a few "never heard of that book" selections here and some that I've always wanted to try. Many of them seem to invite that trench coat, film noir vibe. Enjoy your time in the literary shadows!

  http://flavorwire.com/434548/50-essential-mystery-novels-that-everyone-should-read/


 

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.