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When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson

When Will There Be Good News? is one of those books that has three or four story lines that seem totally unrelated to each other but bit by bit they come together. This book is told from the perspective of Joanna Mason, who witnesses a crime when she is six, now it is 30 years later and the man convicted of the crime is released from prison. It is also told from the view of sixteen-year-old Reggie, who knows about bad things since 'bad things happen to me all the time'. The doctor she works for is missing and Reggie is convinced something has happened to her. We also are following a plot line with Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe, who has her own missing person to find and Jackson Brodie, who for a while is himself missing, who is a private detective and friend of the Chief Inspector. Oh and a train crashes. The various story lines may sound confusing here, but when reading the book they are clear, what is not clear is how they are all going to intersect, slowly it comes together, but not too slowly. The characters are all real, so much you can actually hear Reggie say, "Sweartogod" when you know she is lying.

I bought this book on a Saturday in the city, started reading it on the way home and finished it on Monday. The back cover says, "Unputdownable." I don't think that is a real word, and I did put it down, I do have to at least look like I am working when I am at my job. Strong character development, intriguing story line, even the back and forth relating of events, the same events from one point of view than another was not confusing and served to capture my interest. The book is labeled Crime Fiction but it is not a mystery in the true sense of the word, it is more about how crime effects us, the decisions we make and the people we become when we grow up.

I recommend this book.

If you would like this book,

with the name of the book in the subject line and your name and mailing address in the body of the e-mail. The first person who e-mails will receive my copy of this book. It is a trade paperback and since I bought it instead of receiving it from the publisher, I wrote my name on it. This is the only place I wrote on it, the rest of the book is in like new condition.

Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor

Synopsis
Abandoned pregnant and penniless on the teeming streets of London, 16-year-old Amber St. Clare manages, by using her wits, beauty, and courage, to climb to the highest position a woman could achieve in Restoration England-that of favorite mistress of the Merry Monarch, Charles II. From whores and highwaymen to courtiers and noblemen, from events such as the Great Plague and the Fire of London to the intimate passions of ordinary-and extraordinary-men and women, Amber experiences it all. But throughout her trials and escapades, she remains, in her heart, true to the one man she really loves, the one man she can never have. Frequently compared to Gone with the Wind, Forever Amber is the other great historical romance, outselling every other American novel of the 1940s-despite being banned in Boston for its sheer sexiness. A book to read and reread, this edition brings back to print an unforgettable romance and a timeless masterpiece.
c1944

I did not finish this book, but since it took the better part of a month to get to a point where I decided I couldn't/wouldn't finish it, I felt I should at least post some of my thoughts about it. Please remember this is just my humble opinion. First I found the character Amber St. Clare to be self-absorbed, vain, stupid and a little pathetic. She was little more then a high-priced hooker. That being said, the book also highlighted the way the society at that time was seriously anti-women. A woman without a man or family to support her was in a very bad situation.

Unfortunately, as one reviewer on Amazon said, "This book has the right title, the characters go on forever with no end". I agree with that statement which is one reason I gave up on this book.

Did not finish, so no rating, no reviewing, total lost time for me.

Books read in 2010

4. Slammerkin ~ Emma Donoghue ~ 2/3
3. When Will There Be Good News? ~ Kate Atkinson ~ 2/1
2. Replacement Child - A Memoir ~ Judy L. Mandel ~ 1/8
1. Conflicts with Interest ~ Michael Ruddy ~ 1/4

I am starting this by listing the books I am currently reading as I finish them I will put the date. As I finish some books I will just list books as I finish them. As in last years post, I will link to my reviews.

Check out this blog.

I recently found this blog and encourage you to take a look and leave a comment. She has a unique perspective of New York City. Journal of a Displaced New Yorker

Replacement Child by Judy L. Mandel

At approximately 3:43 p.m. on Wednesday, January 23, 1952 a plane fell from the sky and landed in Elizabeth, NJ destroying three houses and a garage and severely damaging a fourth house. The local paper reported that 'missing and feared dead' was Donna Mandel, hospitalized was Linda Mandel 2-½, in "poor" condition and her mother Mrs. Florence Mandel in "fairly good" condition. Judy Mandel never knew her sister Donna, she was conceived after the tragedy as a "'replacement child,' born to heal wounds and provide a 'salve for the burns.'"

I really enjoyed this book, it did not get bogged down in a lot of trivial details but gave you enough to follow Ms. Mandel's life. She switches between now, her life, and includes the day the accident happens. By talking about now at the same time she talks about growing up, she is able to explain why things happened, since at the time they happened she didn't have all the facts. She explains the term 'replacement child' and how being a 'replacement child' has affected her relationships with her family and the men in her life. The back of the book says it is Honest.Funny.Heartbreaking. It is all that and more.

I recommend this book to anyone who has lost a child, endured a child's injury or is a replacement child. I also recommend it to those who enjoy well written memoirs or are considering a career in counseling. It will really help you understand how something at appears to happen to someone else can profoundly affect you and the decisions you make.

A Memoir

Conflicts with Interest by Michael Ruddy

This book is about 'Defect Litigation'. A homeowner can sue the homebuilder if the house has a flaw in it. The homebuilder in this case is T.R. Morgan and his son Ryan Morgan. T.R. is mourning his wife's death and has developed a gambling addiction, or so the back of the book tells us, it is never really explored in the book. Enter Steve Sanderson, "a ruthless Bay Area lawyer" (from the back of the book) to sue T.R. Morgan for an imperfectly built house.

So we have the 'good guy' T.R. Morgan, and we have the 'greedy lawyer' Sanderson, who has an equally greedy associate whose main attributes seem to be her breasts and her ability to procure illegal aliens for Sanderson's ranch. We also have a bunch of people from the insurance companies, T.R.'s new girl friend and so on.

Unfortunately, there was no character development. The plot moves along at the speed of a court case, if you've ever been involved in a court case you know what that is. The ending is not the explosive climax the back of the book promises us.

I gave this book 2 stars and do not recommend it.
Advance Reader Copy

2009 Books Read

47. Starvation Heights ~ Gregg Olsen
46. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind ~ William Kamkwamba
45. The Rape of Nanking ~ Iris Chang
44. The Briar King ~ J. Gregory Keyes
43. Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit ~ John E. Douglas, Mark Olshaker
42. For Love of Mother-Not ~ Alan Dean Foster
41. The White Queen ~ Philippa Gregory
40. Dancing With Ana ~ Nicole Barker
39. Sworn to Silence ~ Linda Castillo
38. The Morning After ~ Lisa Jackson
37. One Scream Away ~ Kate Brady
36. Wait until Twilight ~ Sang Pak
35. Benny and Shrimp ~ Katarina Mazetti
34. The night before ~ Lisa Jackson
33. Cold Blooded ~ Lisa Jackson
32. Kiss of Midnight ~ Lara Adrian
31. Assiniboin Girl ~ Kathleen Wallace
30. The Osiris Alliance ~ Jack Ford
29. Bad Mother ~ Ayelet Waldman
28. Hot Blooded ~ Lisa Jackson
27. Afraid ~ Jack Kilborn
26. She and I: A Fugue ~ Michael R. Brown
25. Almost Dead ~ Lisa Jackson
24. Serial ~ Jack Kilborn & Blake Crouch
23. Deep Freeze ~ Lisa Jackson
22. Fatal Burn ~ Lisa Jackson
21. A Worthy Legacy ~ Tomi Akinyanmi
20. If She Only Knew ~ Lisa Jackson
19. My Ears Are Bent ~ Joseph Mitchell
18. Jantsen's Gift ~ Pam Cope
17. The Laws of Harmony ~ Judith R. Hendricks
16. Dirty Little Angels ~ Chris Tusa
15. Behind a Mask ~ Louisa May Alcott
14. Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life ~ Neil Strauss
13. The Keepsake ~ Tess Gerritsen
12. Singularity ~ Kathryn Casey
11. One Thousand White Women ~ Jim Fergus
10. The all-true travels and adventures of Lidie Newton ~ Jane Smiley
09. She Wanted It All ~ Kathryn Casey
08. Love in the Time of Cholera ~ Gabriel García Márquez
07. The Devil's Feather ~ Minette Walters
06. The Broken Parachute Man ~ Robert B. Bolin
05. Dearly Devoted Dexter ~ Jeff Lindsay
04. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer ~ Patrick Süskind
03. Cat Among the Pigeons ~ Agatha Christie
02. True Evil ~ Greg Iles
01. The Nine Days Queen ~ Mary Luke

Starvation Heights by Gregg Olsen

A True Story of Murder and Malice in the Woods of the Pacific Northwest

From the Publisher
In 1911 two wealthy British heiresses, Claire and Dora Williamson, came to a sanitorium in the forests of the Pacific Northwest to undergo the revolutionary “fasting treatment” of Dr. Linda Burfield Hazzard. It was supposed to be a holiday for the two sisters. But within a month of arriving at what the locals called Starvation Heights, the women were emaciated shadows of their former selves, waiting for death. They were not the first victims of Linda Hazzard, a quack doctor of extraordinary evil and greed who would stop at nothing short of murder to achieve her ambitions. As their jewelry disappeared and forged bank drafts began transferring their wealth to Hazzard’s accounts, Dora Williamson sent a last desperate plea to a friend in Australia, begging her to save them from the brutal treatments and lonely isolation of Starvation Heights.

In this true story—a haunting saga of medical murder set in an era of steamships and gaslights—Gregg Olsen reveals one of the most unusual and disturbing criminal cases in American history.

My review: I was bored at first when I started this book. But if you look at the books I had read just prior to this, you will see I was on kind of a murder and mayhem high when I started this book. Although this book also deals with a murder, it was a quite different method then I had previously read about. Gregg asked me not to give up on the book, since I was only at the 20 or so page mark I didn't.

The time period of this book as mentioned, steamships and gaslights, a slower paced time and the book follows this, Gregg Olsen carefully sets the stage, drawing the people with care and attention to detail. In the end, one feels that they truly 'know' everyone involved in the case and since you know the characters, you care and want to know what happens to them.

What Gregg does is take a quote from after the case had ended, in some cases from after Linda Hazzard had died, giving the communities take on Starvation Heights, sometime the stories and superstitions that were common in that area. These are scattered about the narrative of the case and the trial. Also we learn the history of Linda Hazzard and her husband and son, how they came to be in Olalla and the trouble that seemed to follow them. Much of it of their own doing it must be noted.

What Gregg doesn't do is report the trial word for word with trail transcripts. He does reprint some newspaper accounts and articles. Enough to keep you informed, but not so much that you are bored.

At the end of the book, he gives you a little synopsis of how he found out about this case and what intrigued him to write it. Where he got most of his information. This is important for me, I am always thinking as I read non-fiction, "How do they know that? How does the author know that this person said that?" And my absolute favorite part is when he talks about digging in the mud with his daughters on Father's Day looking for bones and teeth. Well what else would you expect from a true crime writer on his day?

I recommend this book to fans of Historical True Crime.
Historical True Crime
E-book
Copyright: 1997

Book Giveaway

One of the things I love about being a 'book blogger' is the 'book blogging community' as I like to call it. For instance ...

Someone e-mailed me to win a book I offered on my blog, in return, she told me about a giveaway on her blog. If you would like a chance to win a copy of The King's Rose by Alisa M. Libby click here.