Still Life by Louise Penny

Still Life is Louise Penny’s debut novel, published in 2005.  Since then she’s written 7 more  novels each of them featuring Armand Gamache a Quebec detective with a literary bent and an eclectic collection of quotes and sayings sprinkled through his conversations.

Still Life introduces us to the village of Three Pines in Quebec.  This quiet village has been plunged into a murder investigation with the murder of one of its elderly citizens.   The investigation opens old wounds, exposes hidden character flaws and forever changes life in Three Pines.

Penny’s characters are richly drawn and even in this first book there is a suggestion that there is much depth in the main characters who will continue to be featured throughout her books.

I read this book when it first came out and was hooked.  Since then I’ve read all her books and am eagerly waiting for the 9^th one to be published later this year.     Still Life is being made into a movie and so I re-read the book again this Christmas.  It was fun to go back to the beginning and see how much her characters have grown through the next 7 books.    I highly recommend this series if you’re looking for an entertaining, intelligent mystery that will leave you wanting more.

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

This was another book club pick that I normally wouldn’t have read on my own.  But from the first chapter I was hooked.

Towner Whitney fled her childhood home of Salem, Ma in order to escape her crazy family and after the death of her twin sister.  But she’s been drawn back by the disappearance of her Great-Aunt Eva.  In the opening paragraph Towner admits that she herself is crazy and lies all the time.   Her mother Mae is a recluse, living on an island and rescuing abused women and supporting them by teaching them how to make lace and selling it.  Both her mother and her aunts are lace readers; women who can see the future in the patterns of the lace they make.

This is a complicated story that flits between fantasy and reality; past and present.  Told mostly from Towner’s point of view the lines are always blurred as she tries to piece together the reason why her Aunt has disappeared and how that will affect the rest of her life.  This is a mystery on many levels; the disappearance of Eva; the mystery of what happened to Towner and her twin sister; who really is Cal Boynton, the resident cult leader.  Naturally since the setting is Salem, there are witches who are on a collision course with the Cal Boynton and his particular brand of religion. 

This book was hard to put down.    It’s fast paced with twists and turns that I wasn’t expecting.  The ending is particularly shocking but does help to make the rest of the story make sense. 

This is Barry’s first novel and I’m looking forward to reading her second one The Map of True Places. I highly recommend this book.

The Tiger by John Vaillant

This book was a complete departure from my usual reading.  First of all it is non-fiction.    I know I should read more non-fiction but I’m just not interested in it.  Secondly, it’s a book about animals, and I’m not really an animal person.  But this was a choice by my book club so I had to read it.

The book is a true life tale about a man-eating tiger that terrorizes a village in Russia and the team of men sent out to kill it.  It’s told in kind of a revolving story style.  One chapter about the man the tiger killed; the next chapter about the tiger; the next one about the man who lead the team of hunters.  There’s a lot of detail in this book.  There’s evolutionary theory about the development of the tiger and the land it lives in; there’s some animal psychology with a lot of mythical and folk lore knowledge thrown in.    He also includes a lot of background on the political climate of Russia at the time.  These particular tigers are becoming extinct and the author is passionate about his desire to preserve them.

The story is told like a mystery.  The murder occurs; the group has to identify and hone in on the one tiger responsible; then they have to track him and bring him to justice.  In between the gathering of facts are stories about the characters involved.

The key point of the book is that the author believes the tiger killing the man was an act of revenge against the man who had stolen some of its food.    I found this a bit farfetched and though it might have been handled better as a novel but apparently some animals do have long memories and can reason to this extent. 

The book is very well written and has some beautiful descriptions of the land in it.  I think it’s probably worthy of all the hype it’s received even though it’s not my particular cup of tea.  I did finish the book and am glad we read it.  

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This was a complete departure in reading for me; I usually don’t read young adult stuff and wasn’t very interested in reading these books.  But my new book club was reading the Hunger Games so I decided to give it a try and was hooked from the first chapter.

The premise is horrifying.   It’s set in a futuristic society which has arisen after the destruction of North America.  A Capitol district populated by the rulers of the society is surrounded by 13 districts.  There was an uprising against the Capitol resulting in a Treaty that among other things ushers in the Hunger Games.  These Games are the Capitol’s way of providing a yearly reminder and punishment for the people who instigated the uprising.  Each year 2 children are chosen from each district to participate in a televised battle to the death.  There can be only one victor.    As the description in the book says “this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy.  How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion”.

The main character is a 17 year old girl named Katniss.    The book opens with the reaping, a time when the 2 participants from each district are chosen, 1 male and 1 female.  Katniss is not chosen but her 12 year old sister is and Katniss invokes and old rule that says she can volunteer to go in her sister’s place.

That’s all of a summary I will give you.  This book is a page turner.  In fact I stayed up late a few nights to finish it.   Katniss is a strong female character.   After the first chapter I completely forgot that she was only 17years old.  Yes, there is some violence in the book but it is in context and not overdone (in my opinion).   By the time I was finished the book I needed to read the rest of the series.  It is well developed and again in my opinion, well written.   I won’t say anything about the other two books as it’s impossible to say much without giving the story away. 

There are strong themes of good and evil, love, family and of course coming of age throughout the series.    This book evokes strong emotion from people.  My book club had people who loved it and others who hated it.   I think that if you can stomach the premise you will get to read a really good story with likeable characters and things to think about.   I highly recommend this series.