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Tree Bride
 
Tijuana Straits
 
Dies the Fire
 
In the Night Room
 
The Sunday Philosophy Club
 
Wife of Moon
 
Nobody Runs Forever
 
All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians, and Artists
 
Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend
 
The Fall of Baghdad
 
First Crusade: A New History
 
The Jamlady Cookbook
 
Sinatra Treasures: Intimate Photos, Mementos, and Music from the Sinatra Family Collection
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FICTION
The collision of cultures has been and will be an issue that continues to
touch all our lives, and San Francisco author Bharati Mukherjee has offered
particularly astute observations on the subject in her fiction and essays.
Her latest novel, The Tree Bride (Hyperion, $23.95), begins with a
routine doctor’s visit, when Calcutta-born Tara Chatterjee decides to trace
the story of her great-great aunt, Tara Lata who at the age of five was
married to a tree. Chatterjee’s journey of discovery reveals surprises about
her family and her ancestral village that change her life indelibly. The
Tree Bride offers rich helpings of Mukherjee’s singular prose and superb
story telling skills.
Kem Nunn’s newest novel, Tijuana Straits
(Scribner, $25.00) provides an unflinching look at an area many prefer to
avoid; the ragged borderland between California and Mexico. The action
begins when Fahey, an ex-con and once-renowned surfer, rescues Magdalena, an
injured Mexican environmentalist who has fled Tijuana. A trio of killers
follow Magdalena north to stop her efforts on behalf of the thousands of
Mexican peasants who work in the country’s maquilladoras, the
pollution-spewing border factories owned by foreign corporations. But the
killers find that in Fahey, Magdalena has found a friend and protector who
understands their world all too well. Tijuana Straits is a remarkable
novel by an author whose style melds driving narrative and dark lyricism.
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A different
sort of darkness permeates S. M. Stirling’s new novel Dies the Fire
(Roc, $23.95). After an intense electrical storm causes the world’s
electrical devices – and firearms – to cease working, humanity is left
groping, quite literally, in the dark. Many people band together out of
desire or necessity, to create self-sustaining communities and alliances.
But others see the disaster as an opportunity to press their own agendas for
consolidating power and wealth. While Dies the Fire follows a long
tradition of apocalyptic fantasy and science fiction, Stirling brings some
new ingredients to the mix. His focus on how people struggle to find their
way from lonely high tech reliance to community-based efforts is
particularly interesting. Overall, Dies the Fire is a ride well-worth
the admission price. Peter Straub’s In the Night Room (Random
House, $21.95) offers a very different sort of ride, and one not for the
squeamish. The novel follows the surreal paths of two novelist protagonists;
Willy Patrick and Timothy Underhill. Both are dealing with the intense
remnants of personal loss and apparent visitations from the dead. When the
two finally meet, the awful similarities of their experiences lead them to
join together to confront the darkness that surrounds them. Overall, In
the Night Room demonstrates Straub’s gift for crafting bone-chilling
suspense out of common materials, a skill he shares with his friend and
occasional co-author, Stephen King.
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Darkness may be Peter Straub’s natural element, but light is that of
Alexander McCall Smith, best known for his No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
mysteries. The Sunday Philosophy Club (Pantheon, $19.95) begins the
author’s new series featuring Isabel Dalhousie, the Scottish-American editor
of the esteemed Review of Applied Ethics. In this maiden voyage,
Isabel witnesses a young man’s apparent suicide which takes on a more
sinister aspect as Isabel looks into it. The Scottish setting (Edinburgh)
and characters could hardly be less like the Botswana of Precious Ramotswe,
but similarities do abound. Smith’s books are essentially modern cozies that
focus as much attention on the personal lives of his ‘detectives’ as they do
on the game afoot, and pursue a relaxed, informal narrative style. Overall,
The Sunday Philosophy Club looks like another winner for the author’s
myriad fans. Along with the rise of ‘regional’ U.S. mysteries, the
past decade or so has been a boom time for mysteries following Native
American themes. Tony Hillerman is the acknowledged master here, but others
including Peter Bowen, Dana Stabenow, and Margaret Cole are also standouts.
Cole’s tenth novel, Wife of Moon (Berkeley, $22.95) focuses on the
detecting duo of Arapahoe lawyer Vicky Holden and Father John O’Malley, a
Catholic priest on the Wind River reservation. The novel’s action begins
nearly a century ago, when an event staged by photographer Edwin Curtis ends
tragically. When Curtis’s photographs are displayed at the reservation’s
museum, a descendent of the tribal chief depicted in the photos is murdered,
and the curator vanishes. Wife of Moon presses Holden and O’Malley
into service as informal investigators, but the novel also provides some
closure for the pair’s often uneasy relationship. Where Cole takes the
series from here remains to be seen, but she is a talented enough writer to
make any destination entertaining.
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Hardboiled mysteries are anything but cozy, but their steady charms can be
found in Richard Stark’s novels. Stark (a nom de plume of Donald E.
Westlake) wrote a few well-regarded novels in the early 60s featuring
professional thief Parker, then went to ground as readers turned to lighter
fare. Fortunately, Stark, Parker, and the hard boiled market have returned
in force. Stark’s latest Parker novel, Nobody Runs Forever
(Mysterious, $23.95) takes up where the previous Breakout, left off.
Parker is organizing a bank job in rural Massachusetts, but complications
arise including a nervous partner, a two-timing wife, an inquisitive cop,
and a greedy bounty hunter. The problem is that the payout is sweet enough
to justify some managed risk, a process perfectly suited for Parker’s
skills. How the job works and works out forms the heart of Nobody Runs
Forever and provides the set-up for the next Parker novel. If you are a
fan of truly exceptional hardboiled mysteries, look no farther than Stark
and Parker.
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NON-FICTION
Terry Gross of NPR’s Fresh Air is a tiny dynamo whose informed questions and
informal style have made her a renowned interviewer. Gross’s skills are
shown off to good effect in All I Did Was Ask (Hyperion, $24.95) a
collection of Fresh Air interviews with writers, actors, musicians, and
artists. The conversations range from friendly, even goofy chats with movie
and rock stars to intense conversations with serious artists and writers.
Most of the discussions are friendly enough, but those with Broadway legend
Uta Hagen and Kiss bass/tongue meister Gene Simmons go south for entirely
different reasons. If you are a regular Fresh Air listener, you may have
heard most of these interviews, given the show’s tendency to replay
‘classic’ episodes. However, though All I Did Was Ask does not offer
any new material beyond short intros, it offers an informative look at some
singular people and the radio host who spent time with them. Modern
popular music thrives on legendary figures, from seminal blues and jazz
players like Robert Johnson and Charlie Parker to the hosts of rock stars
who have ended up in early graves. But Django Reinhardt occupies a special
place in this pantheon as an individual who overcame singular handicaps to
become one of music’s most influential guitarists. Michael Dregni’s new
Django (Oxford, $35.00) captures Reinhardt’s extraordinary life, from
his youth in Gypsy camps and the nearly fatal caravan fire that maimed his
left hand to his embrace of American jazz and pioneering work with the
Quintette du Hot Club du France. More interesting in ways are
Reinhardt’s later years, when he experimented with styles ranging from big
band jazz and bebop to symphonic compositions. In most every way, Dregni
gets it right, marrying scholarly detail with a fan’s love of Reinhardt’s
music and accomplishments. If you are any kind of jazz aficionado, Django
will be a treat.
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War journalism demands both a scholar’s devotion to accuracy and a
willingness to directly witness conflict. But the requirements of war often
knowingly disable journalists’ need to know for the rationale of military
security. That has been especially true during the recent war in Iraq, when
the U.S. military systematically restricted access to any and every kind of
information. Despite these strictures, some reporters, including Jon Lee
Anderson, a staff writer with the New Yorker, have succeeded admirably in
exploring the heart of the Iraq conflict. Anderson’s new The Fall of
Baghdad (Penguin, $24.95) follows a diverse group of Iraqis, examining
their day to day lives under Saddam’s brutal dictatorship through the war’s
commencement, to its conclusion and aftermath. By examining world shaking
and world shattering events through the eyes of ordinary people caught in
the crossfire, Anderson has done a service to everyone. The Fall of
Baghdad is one of 2004’s most important books. When President Bush
referred to the U.S. war on terror as a ‘crusade’, the passionate response
throughout the Arab world offered some measure of how that term and those
events are still remembered. But what exactly were the Crusades? Thomas
Asbridge’s new book, The First Crusade (Oxford, $35.00) examines the
roots and events of these events in particular detail, from Pope Urban II’s
call to arms 1095 (which mobilized over 100,000 volunteers) through the
pitched battles that led to the fall of Jerusalem in 1099 and the slaughter
of thousands on Muslim men, women, and children. The reverberations of those
events have lasted for generations and still color relations between
Christians and Muslims. The best histories consider the effects of past on
the present day, and offer a clear view of the path that led from there to
here. The First Crusade qualifies as one of those histories that
provides a measure of insight we would be wise to consider and foolish to
ignore.
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The
world abounds with guilty pleasures for lovers of sweets, but they would do
well to make the acquaintance of Beverley Ellen Schoonmaker Alfeld, author
of The Jamlady Cookbook (Pelican, $35.00) and an authority on the
creation and care of preserved treats. Alfeld’s book stands as both a
scientific and culinary treatise on an increasingly obscure subject. Making
jams, jellies, and preserves was once a common summer chore, but cheap,
commercial products have replaced such homemade goodies for most families.
Is there any reason to rescue this art? Not if Smucker’s grape jelly
represents the apogee of your desires. But anyone who has tasted them knows
the difference between homemade jams, jellies, and preserves and store
bought replacements. The Jamlady Cookbook focuses on demystifying the
preparation process and distilling a lifetime’s worth of kitchen wisdom into
a single volume. If you love homemade jams and preserves or aspire to make
them like a pro, The Jamlady Cookbook belongs in your kitchen. Frank
Sinatra may once have qualified as a guilty pleasure, but the recent
celebrations of his music on Broadway and television made 2004 one of the
singer’s biggest years. In part, this reflects a shift in musical taste, but
it is also the result of focused efforts by Sinatra’s family to ensure his
spot in the pantheon of American music. The Sinatra Treasures
(Bullfinch, $45.00) reproduces photos, mementoes, and music from the
singer’s family’s private collection. The book features over 200 color and
black and white photographs, more than half of which were previously
unpublished. It also offers a 60 minute CD of rare and unreleased interviews
and recordings, as well as 30 facsimiles of family memorabilia including
scrapbook pages, fan newsletters, radio show transcripts, and personal
correspondence. Overall, it is a lovely piece of work, but is The Sinatra
Treasures for everyone? Not really, but for any true Sinatra fans the
book offers a unique, once unimaginable trip down memory lane.
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