A Slight Cure for The Downton Abbey Blues

The Walnut Tree is a holiday tale published this year by the mother/son team known as Charles Todd.  

Their bio states that the authors "live on the east coast of the US.  Caroline Todd has a BA in English literature and Charles Todd a BA in Communication Studies.  They have a rich storytelling heritage from time spent listening to their fathers and grandfathers reminisce.  An uncle/great-uncle served as a flyer in WWI and aroused an early interest in the Great War.  This tradition allows them to write with passion about events before their own time."

They pen the Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries which take place right after WWI.  The Inspector has just returned from the war and gets caught up in his work in order to save his own sanity.  The Bess Crawford mysteries follow a WWI nurse who becomes an amateur sleuth.  These are historically accurate cozy mysteries.  

The Walnut Tree is a stand alone holiday selection and lightly evokes the wartime atmosphere of Britain and France.  As one reviewer stated "Find some cures for the post-Downton Abbey blues".  The woman on the cover even looks like Lady Sybil Crawley! 

The story revolves around Lady Elspeth Douglas who gets caught up in the chaos that erupts when war breaks out.  She defies her position to become a war nurse and sees her soon to be fiance head off to war.  In his absence she falls for a handsome Captain.  This is not War and Peace but if you enjoy cozy mysteries and the books of Louise Penny and Anne Perry this author is a good one to check out.

As an aside - did you know that prolific cozy mystery author Anne Perry was convicted in 1954 at the age of 15 and served five years in prison for participating in her friend's mother's murder?  Her bio says that since being released from prison she has not committed any crimes (good to know!).

Do You Know Any "Outliers"?

Chances are you've heard of some famous Outliers but probably don't know one personally.  An outlier is a term meaning something that lies outside of normal experience.  An outlier appears to deviate markedly from other members of the sample.

International bestselling author and The New Yorker staff writer Malcolm Gladwell highlights many outlier individuals and gives interesting statistics to prove his hypotheses in this 2011 non-fiction selection.  The information is set forth in a very readable, lively fashion, almost like the author is having a conversation with the reader.  He discusses many famous and some not so famous outliers such as Bill Gates, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Asian math whizzes, New York Jewish lawyers and others and gives reasons as to why and how they became outliers.

A wise man once said "opportunity is luck meeting preparedness".  Are people successful because of just plain luck or is there something else at work?  You will learn some fascinating ideas about why some people are phenomenally successful.  Did you know that the Beatles spent 10,000 hours honing their craft before they became famous?  Or that a young, curious Bill Gates had the opportunity to work on a super computer at a time when computers weren't a part of everyday life?  Does the date you were born increase your chance of success?

Gladwell is also well known for his other books.  The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference is about change.  Why did the crime rate in New York City dip dramatically in the mid 1990s? Why is word of mouth so powerful? Why do teens continue to smoke even though everyone knows that cigarettes kill?

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is about the kind of thinking that happens in the blink of an eye.  It's about what goes on in the first few seconds of an event.  Gladwell says he doesn't like the word "intuition" and never uses it.  He says that what we may call intuition is actually powerful and rational thinking.

Some have criticized Malcolm Gladwell as using "pop" sociology and have questioned his methodology but our book club found Outliers engaging, readable and even inspiring.   Why not see for yourself and check it out?

Malcolm Gladwell

Musings about Interesting Men

The new book The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce is a heartfelt journey.  Travel with Harold as he meanders for months through England's cities and villages struggling to figure out his life after his retirement.  You will get to know him, his bewildered wife he's left at home and the dark past that haunts him.  You will fall in love with this enduring novel.

That aristocratic detective Charles Lenox is back with a new mystery to solve entitled A Death in the Small Hours.  This is the sixth in author Charles Finch's  "cozy" mystery series.  This time Lenox is home from his Burial at Sea adventure and is a respected member of Parliament. He gets pulled back to his first love - finding the murderer.  You will feel yourself walking the gas lit streets of Victorian London right along side Lenox. Downton Abbey won't be back on American PBS until January, 2013 so this is a delightful way to fill the hours until then.

Speaking of PBS, don't forget Ken Burns' new documentary this Sunday and Monday, November 18 and 19, 2012 at 8 p.m. EST.  This time he explores the Dust Bowl with heart wrenching first hand stories.  He said he was always interested in this period and had a sense of urgency as the people who experienced the Dust Bowl are now in their 80s and 90s.  PBS says the Dust Bowl was "the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history".  

Quiet Words of Wisdom from Alexander McCall-Smith

 

Alexander McCall-Smith

Our Thursdays With Maureen Group just discussed Alexander McCall-Smith's 2008 standalone novel La's Orchestra Saves The World.   

La (short for Lavender) has had her heart broken and moves from London to a small village at the start of World War II.  She lives a quiet life and being from London she craves a little more intellectual stimulation than the townspeople can deliver.  Eventually she volunteers to help with the war effort by taking care of a local farmer's chickens. This gives her days purpose and makes her feel more a part of village life.  One thing leads to another, she meets a mysterious Polish airman and starts a beloved community orchestra to boost moral and lighten the wartime mood.  

This selection is reminiscent of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society.  McCall-Smith's writing makes you feel you are transported back to wartime England.  This book is a little more serious than his other books.  He has stated that he wanted to highlight the everyday people of World War II who were never honored as heroes but who were brave just the same as they endured the war years.

He also says "The other group I wanted to pay tribute to was the Poles.  Polish servicemen played a major role in the war. Their airmen, for example, participated in the Battle of Britain, that crucial battle that decided the fate of Europe. At the end of the war the Poles were betrayed and the contribution of their forces largely ignored. In the victory parade in London, the Poles were not allowed to march with everybody else (Stalin insisted on this). So those brave men stood at the side of the road and wept. This book is about them too.".
 
McCall-Smith is the prolific author of many novels plus nine series including the well known No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie series and Corduroy Mansions.  One of our members reads almost all of his series and said that the 44 Scotland Street books are her very favorite.  They revolve around the comings and goings at 44 Scotland Street which is described by the author's website as occupying  "a busy, Bohemian corner of Edinburgh's New Town, where the old haute bourgeoisie finds itself having to rub shoulders with students, poets... And number 44 has more than its fair share of the street's eccentrics and failures...". 

 McCall-Smith's books are quiet character studies.  There is not a lot of action but small gems of life's lessons are gently given.  La's Orchestra Saves The World is a wonderful selection for a brisk late autumn day.

"Gone Girl" - WOW!

 



Wow, what a story! Gone Girl is definitely the best page turner in a long while. 

 
It was written by Gillian Flynn who also wrote two other novels, Dark Places and Sharp Objects.  She must have been practicing with those because Gone Girl is certainly dark but extremely entertaining.  

She is a former TV critic for Entertainment Weekly, lives in Chicago, was born in Kansas City, received a degree from University of Kansas and a masters from Northwestern.  Therefore, she's a Midwesterner.  That is useful while reading Gone Girl.  There is a lot of Midwest bashing and criticism of the media so it's nice to know her background and whose side she is on.  

This book is in the nature of the movies The Crying Game and The Sixth Sense.  It is most enjoyable if you have no idea what its about.  

There are many issues to discuss for book clubs if the members don't mind a dark selection.  Eventually you many not love the characters but you will certainly be highly entertained trying to figure out how it's going to end. 

Some Ideas for Your Next Read

Sometimes when patrons return books they comment on how much they liked them.  Here are some authors and titles that have had good feedback.

Simon Mawer is the author of the 2009 New York Times historical fiction bestseller The Glass Room, a story of a couple and their beautiful home before and during World War II.  One Amazon review says "a near perfect novel of architecture, art and love". 

Trapeze, Mawer's latest book, a blend of fact and fiction, is an espionage tale set in Europe again during World War II.  An English girl fluent in French is recruited by the British Special Operations Executive which trained agents to operate behind enemy lines. She is parachuted into France to join the resistance network. The New York Journal of Books said it has "many of the finest elements of spy thrillers and even romance novels" and "is a fascinating tale and homage to the resistance fighters and members of the SOE".

 

 

 Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is still creating great comments.  Reese Witherspoon has been set to produce the movie. 

Gillian Flynn

Soon to be a movie

 Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail is Cheryl Strayed's memoir of her summer, 1995 eleven hundred mile hike.  She had no experience, "just an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise".  This is an Oprah Book Club selection.  It brings Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods to mind but that book is much lighter.  It does bear some resemblance to Elizabeth Gilbert's blockbuster Eat, Pray Love. The publisher says Wild is "told with great suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor".  "It captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her".  

Cheryl Strayed on the hike

 






 All these books have good "buzz".  Why not stop at the library and check one out.

Wallander is Back!

Just a reminder that our favorite Swedish inspector, Kurt Wallander, returns Sunday with "three chilling new cases with devastating effects".  Season 3 of PBS Masterpiece Mystery starring Kenneth Branagh is here just in time to open the new fall season.  PBS says Wallander returns in An Event in Autumn "with a new home and relationship, a new sense of possibility".  

Wallander starts this Sunday, September 9, 2012 at 9 p.m. and continues for the two Sundays after that, September 16 (The Dogs of Riga)  and September 23 (Before The Frost).  

Fans of author Henning Mankell will remember the two books, The Dogs of Riga and Before The Frost.  The first PBS installment is based on a Mankell short story.  If you love Swedish noir, Henning Mankell is the master and PBS captures the brooding sense of doom in Wallander perfectly.