Teaser Tuesday: Night in Shanghai by Nicole Mones

Each night Thomas listened closely to the jazz in the basement, especially the piano work of Julian Henson, which was tightly controlled even when he improvised. There was restraint to it, it kind of glassy hardness.

-- Night in Shanghai by Nicole Mones.

Thomas Greene, the hero of Nicole Mones's new novel, is a black American pianist who emigrated to Shanghai in the 1930s to lead a jazz orchestra.  Greene is fictional, but many of the other characters are real jazz musicians who created China's Jazz Age.      

The book is already generating a lot of buzz. Alan Cheuse, of NPR's All Things Considered, says "Night in Shanghai, an intelligent historical romance, shows off with forceful insight, terrific characters, and a telling sense of detail. And, folks, it swings." Read his full review here.

Night in Shanghai is the fourth novel by Nicole Mones, following Lost in Translation (reviewed here), A Cup of Light, and The Last Chinese Chef (reviewed here).

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

NON-BOOKISH NEWS -- NEW JOB!

It’s official! The Dumas Law Group will open its doors for business on March 31, 2014.  (April 1 would have been more logical, but I didn’t want anyone thinking it was an April Fools prank!)  My new contact information is below. The website isn’t up yet, but soon, we hope.  We are based in Portland, but handle cases across the country.

After seven years of working with Kelly Clark on sex abuse cases – starting with his very first case against the Boy Scouts that we took to trial and won a $20 million verdict – it is time for me to move on to my next challenge.  When Kelly passed away rather unexpectedly before Christmas, the loss of him as my partner made me really think about the work I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it.

The answer was a smaller firm, focusing only on litigation.  My associate attorney, Ashley Vaughn, and I will continue to represent survivors of child abuse – those who are now adults as well as those who are still under 18 – in cases against the perpetrators and the trusted institutions that allowed the abuse to happen.  We will continue to work on cases across the country, working closely with our network of skilled attorneys in other states.

Drawing on my 22 years of experience with commercial litigation, we also will continue to represent small businesses and individuals with civil lawsuits, employment claims, real estate matters, and other business disputes.  We also have the flexibility to handle certain personal injury and professional malpractice claims.

Both Ashley and I will be marketing like crazy to get this enterprise off the ground.  We appreciate your referrals and are open to associating with other attorneys on cases.

Gilion C. Dumas

Dumas Law Group, LLC

Weatherly Building, Suite 309

516 SE Morrison Street

Portland, OR  97214

www.DumasLawGroup.com

503-952-6789

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Book Beginning: Night in Shanghai by Nicole Mones

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

The years before the war forced everyone in Shanghai to choose: Nationalists or Communists? Resist the Japanese invaders or collaborate with them?

-- Night in Shanghai by Nicole Mones.  Great beginning for setting the scene in pre-WWII Shanghai. But it doesn't hint at the terrific premise, which is how black American jazz musicians expatriated to Shanghai in the 1930s to avoid prejudice in the US.

Mones put meticulous research into this sliver of fascinating history.  But the historical details never bog down the exciting, sexy story of an American pianist falling in love with a Chinese spy. Great stuff!

Night in Shanghai is the fourth novel by Nicole Mones, following Lost in Translation, A Cup of Light, and The Last Chinese Chef.

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

Last week was a banner book week for me. Four books came into my house. They are as different as can be but all look great!



Night in Shanghai by Nicole Mones. I love her books! This one is a romantic adventure set in 1930s Shanghai. The hero is a black American jazz musician; the heroine is a young Chinese woman bonded into servitude to pay her father's gambling debts.  Their lives collide when the Japanese invade Shanghai.



 The Other Side of Paradise: Life in the New Cuba by Julia Cooke.  Cooke is a journalist who spent five years "embedded" in Cuba after Fidel Castro stepped down as President.  By focusing on the lives of young adults -- the "last generation of Cubans raised under Fidel Castro" -- Cooke offers a fresh and timely look at real life in Cuba.



 Small Town Trouble by Jean Erhardt.  This is the first in a new mystery series featuring Kim Claypoole, a restaurateur and amateur sleuth with her home base in the Smokey Mountains.



The Next Tsunami: Living on a Restless Coast by Bonnie Henderson, published by OSU Press.  Henderson mixes science, history, and first-hand accounts to explain how the next mega-quake under the Pacific Ocean will generate a tsunami "likely to be the most devastating natural disaster in the history of the United States."

Book Beginning: The Rich are Different by Susan Howatch

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

I was in London when I first heard of Dinah Slade. She was broke and looking for a millionaire, while I was rich and looking for a mistress. From the start we were deeply compatible.

-- The Rich are Different by Susan Howatch. This is one of those sprawling, intergenerational sagas that were so popular in the 1970s. I ate them up in Junior High, including this one, although I don't remember anything about the plot now.

Howatch knows how to weave a yarn. This one starts in the 1920s, when the heroine -- a 21-year-old, precocious, bluestocking with a Cambridge degree and a moldering Norfolk mansion -- charms a New York banker into her bed and out of a loan sufficient to pay the debt on her mansion and launch her cosmetics company. I love these big, shaggy stories.

It's My 6th Blogiversary!

If this wasn't a crazy busy week for me, I would ponder what's it's been like to have a book blog for six whole years and share some thoughts. I'll have to save them for my 7th blogiversary!

Teaser Tuesday: Meander Scars by Abby Phillips Metzger.

. . . [I]slands form in all kinds of ways, sometimes because of high water or at a confluence where the force of one river meets another. . . . Some last a few decades, others centuries, which in the sceme of a river is not a long time. 

-- Meander Scars: Reflections on Healing the Willamette River by Abby Phillips Metzger, published by OSU Press.

Metzger grew up alongside Oregon's Willamette River.  In her essays, she explores how Oregon's now-tame river could reconnect with its wild history.  She relies on her own keen observations as well as stories from farmers, scientists, and conservationists to share her vision for this beautiful river.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday: Neighborhood Book Gleaning

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

I have a couple of great books heading my way (including Night in Shanghai by Nicole Mones), but the only books that came into my house last week are those I gleaned when out enjoying the gorgeous early spring weather.

Little Free Libraries have sprouted up in my neighborhood like daffodils.  There are at least three within six blocks of my house.  Most of them look like little peaked-roof houses with two shelves, like this one:

But my favorite pre-dates the brand name Little Free Libraries.  It is just an old, oversized black mailbox with BOOKS stenciled on the side.  I have great luck with this one.

I've taken to keeping a bag of finished books handy and grab one when I head out for a walk, so I always have a contribution ready for the first LFL I pass by.

The books I found last week are:



The Butcher's Boy by Thomas Perry (an Edgar winner)



No Uncertain Terms: More Writing from the Popular "On Language" Column in The New York Times Magazine by William Safire



Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures by Robert K. Wittman

Book Beginning: Meander Scars by Abby Phillips Metzger

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

I live by a river that floats through a broad valley between two mountain ranges, a river called the Willamette.

-- Meander Scars: Reflections on Healing the Willamette River by Abby Phillips Metzger.

Metzger has spent her lifetime exploring Oregon's Willamette River up close.  This book, with it's gorgeous cover, contains essays on her observations and impressions.

I can't read a book all about the Willamette River without taking the opportunity to remind my non-Oregonian friends that we don't pronounce the name of our main river with a French accent. It's not will-uh-METT, it's will-A-met, rhymes with damn it.  And, while we're on the subject, we pronounce Oregon just like an organ in a church.

Teaser Tuesday: The Book of Jonah by Joshua Max Feldman

If he thought about it – and he rarely had – he would have allowed the possibility of something Almighty-ish: some sort of vague and unfathomable field of enormous but inscrutable power. He thus understood divinity the way most people understand Wi-Fi.

-- The Book of Jonah by Joshua Max Feldman. 

Young Manhattan attorneys aren't likely candidates for biblical visions, which is what makes Feldman's modern retake on the Jonah Bible story so fresh and wonderful.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. 

Review: The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris

at the World's Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn.  

An unexpected career crisis leads a former corporate exec to the legendary Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, while her perfect boyfriend puts his career on hold to hang out with her.  

If The Sharper Your Knife were a novel instead of a memoir, it would verge on too adorable to tolerate.  Not quite Eat, Pray, Love, but getting there.  Yes, Flinn has plenty of anxious moments in the classroom and out.  These range from the enviable (the crisis of having to buy a wedding dress off the rack in Paris) to the seriously sympathetic (her new husband suffers a life-threatening accident).  But mostly she shares the joy and excitement of veering off a chosen career track to live in a magical place, fulfilling a life dream.

The whole American in Paris/cooking school/Julia Child redux schtick works because it hits many notes on everyone's fantasy scale. Best to simply indulge.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

The Sharper Your Knife counts as my first book for the 2014 Foodies Read challenge.  It is also going on my French Connections list.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginning: The Book of Jonah by Joshua Max Feldman

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Jonah knew the 59th Street subway station well enough that he did not have to look up from his iPhone as he made his way among its corridors and commuters to the track.

-- The Book of Jonah by Joshua Max Feldman.

Jonah is a promising young Manhattan attorney whose life is about to become unrecognizable to him. Feldman's debut novel is a contemporary re-imagining of the biblical book of Jonah.

Teaser Tuesday: The Gods of Second Chances by Dan Berne

I reach into my pants pocket and pull out the note from Sitka's mom. Jenny. My drugged out, ex-con, now-I'm-ready-to-come-home-and-be-forgiven-once-again daughter

-- The Gods of Second Chances by Dan Berne, the first novel published by Forest Avenue Press.

That sets up the story in a nutshell. 

The Gods of Second Chances is available now.  This is a book worth asking for from your local bookstore or library.

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Family means everything to Alaskan fisherman Ray Bancroft, raising his granddaughter while battling storms, invasive species, and lawsuit-happy tourists. To navigate, and to catch enough crab to feed her college fund, Ray seeks help from a multitude of gods and goddesses—not to mention ad-libbed rituals performed at sea by his half-Tlingit best friend.

But kitchen counter statues and otter bone ceremonies aren’t enough when his estranged daughter returns from prison, swearing she’s clean and sober. Her search for a safe harbor threatens everything Ray holds sacred. Set against a backdrop of ice and mud and loss, Dan Berne’s gripping debut novel explores the unpredictable fissures of memory, and how families can break apart even in the midst of healing.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. 

Mailbox Monday: The Book of Jonah

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday!  MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event.  Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

I got one book last week that caught my eye because of its intriguing premise.



The Book of Jonah by Joshua Max Feldman.  This is a modern retelling of the Jonah bible story, with a Manhattan lawyer cast in the starring role.  The whole idea really grabs me.  I want to see how Feldman turns such a religious story into contemporary fiction.

2014 Challenge: Foodies Read -- COMPLETED!

COMPLETED!

Margot from Joyfully Retired started the Foodies Read Challenge a couple of years ago, before passing the torch to Vicki from I'd Rather Be at the Beach, who is hosting the challenge on its own site, Foodies Read 2014.

This is always one of my favorite challenges.  I'm signing up again this year for the Pastry Chef level to read four to eight food books in 2014.

BOOKS FINISHED

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World's Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn (reviewed here)

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan ("Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." There's more to it.)

French Women for All Seasons: A Year of Secrets, Recipes, & Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano (maybe she should have left off with French Women Don't Get Fat)

The Pearl Diver by Sujata Massey (a mystery set in the Washington, DC restaurant world)

Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor (an ambitious, creative novel about a Vancouver, BC chef seeking gastronomic authenticity)

BOOK POSSIBILITIES

There are several possibilities on my TBR shelves, including:

The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America's Emerging Battle Over Food Rights by David E. Gumpert

Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk

The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley by Elizabeth Romer

Epicurean Delight: The Life and Times of James Beard by Evan Jones

A Cordiall Water by M. F. K. Fisher

The Feasting Season by Nancy Coons

Dumas on Food: Selections from Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine by Alexandre Dumas

French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano

NOTES

Last updated November 1, 2014.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginning: The Gods of Second Chances by Dan Berne

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Mud and rain invaded my dreams after Donna's death.

-- The Gods of Second Chances by Dan Berne, published by the up-and-coming Forest Avenue Press.

What an evocative opening sentence! 

The Gods of Second Chances is available in a Kindle edition now, and at select book stores, like Powell's.  It will be officially released March 1.  Ask your local bookstore or library to order a copy --  The Gods of Second Chances is a book to get excited about.

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Family means everything to Alaskan fisherman Ray Bancroft, raising his granddaughter while battling storms, invasive species, and lawsuit-happy tourists. To navigate, and to catch enough crab to feed her college fund, Ray seeks help from a multitude of gods and goddesses—not to mention ad-libbed rituals performed at sea by his half-Tlingit best friend.

But kitchen counter statues and otter bone ceremonies aren’t enough when his estranged daughter returns from prison, swearing she’s clean and sober. Her search for a safe harbor threatens everything Ray holds sacred. Set against a backdrop of ice and mud and loss, Dan Berne’s gripping debut novel explores the unpredictable fissures of memory, and how families can break apart even in the midst of healing.

Five Faves: Venice Books

FIVE FAVE VENICE BOOKS

It is Carnival in Venice this week, so here is a short list of my favorite Venice books:

• The World of Venice by Jan Morris (the history and vibe of Venice -- my all time favorite)
• Death in Venice by Thomas Mann (a classic of Venice-induced lust)
• Serenissima by Erica Jong (before there was Sex and the City, there was Erica Jong; reviewed here)
• Alibi by Joseph Kanon (post-WWII Venice spy stuff) 
• About Face by Donna Leon (or any of her Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries) 

I keep a list of books set in or about Venice. Any suggestions? What are your favorites?

FIVE FAVES

There are times when a full-sized book list is just too much; when the Top 100, a Big Read, or all the Prize winners seem like too daunting an effort. That's when a short little list of books grouped by theme may be just the ticket.

Inspired by Nancy Pearl's "Companion Reads" chapter in Book Lust – themed clusters of books on subjects as diverse as Bigfoot and Vietnam – I decided to start occasionally posting lists of five books grouped by topic or theme. I call these posts my Five Faves.

Feel free to grab the button and play along.  Use today's theme or come up with your own.  If you post about it, please link back to here and leave the link to your post in a comment.  If you want to participate but don't have a blog or don't feel like posting, please share your list in a comment.

Teaser Tuesday: When Patty Went Away

That space, that divide that came between us so many years ago, still weighed on Molly, and I felt she always blamed Patty over it, though Patty and Edie were only young children at the time. Molly and I never spoke of it again, but it lay there between us like something rotting.

When Patty Went Away by Jeannie Burt, published by Muskrat Press.

Jeannie Burt's debut is a literary novel with a hearty dose of mystery.  Set in eastern Oregon farm country in the 1970s, this story of a missing girl is gripping and heartbreaking.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. 

Review: The Difficult Sister by Judy Nedry

The Difficult Sister is not the cozy you might suspect, given that it involves two fifty-something women on a road trip to the Oregon Coast. This second mystery by Judy Nedry is darker and edgier than its description suggests.

Emma Golden is a freelance writer with a penchant for adventure. After stumbling into a wine country murder in An Unholy Alliance, Emma is back in Portland and back on the wagon, ready to snuggle in for a quiet winter. But when her best friend comes to her, distraught over not hearing from her sister Aurora in weeks, Emma is game to leave a cold and soggy Portland, jump into Melody’s Mini Cooper, and head to the beach.

What they find is a coastal community divided between rich part-time residents and tourists and the year-round locals struggling to make a living or dropping off the grid. They soon realized that Aurora’s disappearance can’t be attributed to whim or her restless spirit. Something much more terrifying is going on and Aurora isn’t the only woman missing from her sleepy little beach town.

OTHER REVIEWS AND POSTS 

The New Book Journal reviews The Difficult Sister
The Hartford Books Examiner interviews Judy Nedry
Don't Need a Diagram interviews Judy Nedry

If you would like your review of The Difficult Sister listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it. 

NOTES

Judy Nedry is the author of two nonfiction books about Northwest wine and co-founded Northwest Palate magazine. The Emma Golden books are her first works of fiction.

Book Beginning: When Patty Went Away

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

I used to think if you didn't take a breath, or didn't blink, or didn't make any other kind of move, nothing would ever change, and you could hold onto that moment and that day, and you could count on it.

When Patty Went Away by Jeannie Burt, published by Muskrat Press.

Jeannie Burt's debut novel takes place in 1976, in eastern Oregon wheat country.  When a local teenager goes missing, no one seems to care except for Jack, the father of the girl's only friend.  Although Jack is struggling to keep his farm afloat and his family together, he sets out to find the missing girl.

Review: Nights of Rain and Stars by Maeve Binchy

Maeve Binchy’s novels appeal to some deep need for tidiness. The stories are all different, but they have the same structure: a lot of characters facing various problems share some connection; one of the characters sorts all the mess and solves the problems; the characters and the reader go away happy. These books provide the same satisfaction as the vacuum cleaner ads where the salesman dumps a huge pile of dirt and debris on the lady’s carpet and then vacuums it all up, leaving the carpet pristine.

Nights of Rain and Stars follows the same pattern, but is not nearly as satisfying as her other novels. The story involves four travelers visiting a Greek island who are drawn together when they witness a tragic accident. They all have problems and the problems all get sorted. But the book doesn’t live up to the Binchy model because nearly all the characters (three of the visitors and two of the locals) have the same kind of problem – a broken relationship between a parent and child. Because the problems are the same, the discussions are the same, and the solutions are the same. It makes the book repetitive and boring.

The only character who does not have a parent/child problem is the German television reporter conflicted over her sexual relationship with her boss. But that conflict is so muddled, it is difficult to tell what the problem is or what she wants. That plot line adds too little to shore up the rest of the story.

The romantic setting and solid storytelling are probably enough to satisfy diehard Binchy fans, but Nights of Rain and Stars is not her best, by a long shot.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this or any other Maeve Binchy book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

Nights of Rain and Stars counts as one of my books for my personal 2014 TBR challenge, the Mt. TBR Challenge, and the European Reading Challenge. 

Teaser Tuesday: The Difficult Sister by Judy Nedry

But the rock woman was dead, drowned in shallow water.  The hairs on my arms and neck prickled.

-- The Difficult Sister by Judy Nedry.


The Difficult Sister is the second book in Nedry's Emma Golden mystery series, following the series debut, An Unholy Alliance.

Emma Golden makes a terrific heroine. She's a a 50-something wine writer turned amateur sleuth.  Here, Emma heads to the Oregon coast to find her friend's missing sister.


Judy Nedry is the author of two nonfiction books about Northwest wine and co-founded Northwest Palate magazine. The Emma Golden books are her first works of fiction. 

Mailbox Monday: The Gods of Second Chances by Dan Berne

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday!  MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event.  Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

Only one book came into my home last week, but it looks great!



The Gods of Second Chances by Dan Berne, published by the up-and-coming Forest Avenue Press.

Based on the description on the back cover, I flipped to the first page and was sucked into the story from the get go.  The writing seemed effortless and there is no tinge of purple to get in the way of the prose. I can't wait to read this one.

Look for it starting March 1, either on-line or order it from your local bookstore.  The Gods of Second Chances is a book to get excited about.

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Family means everything to Alaskan fisherman Ray Bancroft, raising his granddaughter while battling storms, invasive species, and lawsuit-happy tourists. To navigate, and to catch enough crab to feed her college fund, Ray seeks help from a multitude of gods and goddesses—not to mention ad-libbed rituals performed at sea by his half-Tlingit best friend.

But kitchen counter statues and otter bone ceremonies aren’t enough when his estranged daughter returns from prison, swearing she’s clean and sober. Her search for a safe harbor threatens everything Ray holds sacred. Set against a backdrop of ice and mud and loss, Dan Berne’s gripping debut novel explores the unpredictable fissures of memory, and how families can break apart even in the midst of healing.