Up with the Lark

The Naming of the Dead

The Naming of the Dead is the lastest in a series of mystery novels by the great Scottish writer Ian Rankin.  Rankin has once again returned to his tortured antihero Inspector Rebus. As always, Rebus is tilting at his own personal windmills, trying to get the better of his superior officers and trying to stay clear of his nemesis Ger Cafferty.  Rankin's writing is taut and the murder plot moves along at a good clip.  But it is the character of Rebus that makes Rankin's novels so compelling.  It seems that his mantle of guilt and responsibility becomes heavier to bear with each book.  Rankin's other recurring character Siobhan Clarke is also a great character study and with this novel she is moving perilously close to leading the kind of austere and driven life that Rebus endures with so much difficulty.  Rankin is a real master of his genre and here he is at the top of his game.Buy at Amazon

The Architecture of Happiness

After tackling such diverse topics as Proust, status and love, Alain de Botton has turned his erudite eye to architecture in his new book The Architecture of Happiness.  Using a bit of history, a bit of pop psychology and a lot of his own opinions, this book talks about how and why buildings make us feel the way we do.  This is a charming little book filled with photographs of the buildings and paintings he discusses.  This book isn't as funny as some of his previous writing, but it is an interesting diversion. Buy at Amazon

Through the Children's Gate

Regular readers of The New Yorker magazine will already be familiar with the wonderful writing of Adam Gopnik.  Those of you who are new to his writing are in for a treat with this gem, Through the Children's Gate.  Gopnik ruminates about his family, his adopted city and life in general with a great deal of wit and charm.  He is insightful without ever being arch and he portrays the intelligence of his children without making them seem coy or precocious.  He is effortlessy funny - his three year old invents an imaginary friend who is too busy to play with her - but there are moments of real emotion as well.  This a companion piece to his earlier book Paris to the Moon which chronicles his family life during their five years in Paris.  From beginning to end this is a fabulous read.  Buy at Amazon

The Wal-Mart Effect

Lloyd Alter first published this review in Treehugger.com.

When this TreeHugger was a kid, salmon was a rare expensive treat, usually smoked on a bagel. Fresh salmon was almost unheard of outside of the seasonal catch. Now salmon is everywhere, all year round- at a Wal-Mart superstore, right across America, it is big, fresh farmed Chilean Salmon and $ 4.84 per pound- a price so cheap it is hard to understand- you couldn’t mail it home for that price. We learn all this from the Wal-Mart Effect, written by Charles Fishman late last year before Wal-Mart Prez Lee Scott’s latest pronouncements that we have been so happy to promote at TreeHugger here and in John’s post today. The book tries to study the very opaque, inaccessible largest company in the world to see how it works, how it affects us whether we shop there or not, and how it is changing the economy of America and its suppliers all over the world. Although the book does not address the new initiatives that are receiving so much copy, it does lay out good reasons for us to question Wal-Mart’s ability to carry through with them.

The Meaning of Night

Author Michael Cox apparently took some 30 years to write this novel The Meaning of Night.  Weighing in at 600 pages, it may take you almost that long to read it.  Mr. Cox is the editor of The Oxford Book of Victorian Detective Stories and clearly knows the writing style of the period intimately.  I have read a lot of 19th century literature and if I hadn't known that this was a modern book, the author would have had me fooled.  It has all the requisite characters - the young man cheated out of his inheritance, the saintly mother, the kindly benefactor, the beguiling prostitute, the evil enemy, the beautiful chaste young lady, the mysterious deceased Lady of the manor, even the rotund housekeeper and the weeping maid.  Mr. Cox has not only captured the voice of the time, he gives the novel the kind of pacing of a Victorian detective fiction, doling out bits of forshadowing information and plot twists, although none that weren't apparent to me.  The novel touches on many things common to Victorian books: the notion of honour, loyalty, blood, true love all seen through the lens of the social mores of the time.  Readers of modern novels may find it wordy, but if you are a fan of authors such as Wilkie Collins then you have a good read ahead of you.  So sit in your wingback chair in front of the fire with your companion next to you working her embroidery, ring for the butler to bring your tea (or perhaps a very little whisky) and open the pages of the novel and let Mr. Cox work his magic.

For movie lovers - you might want to try Kind Hearts and Coronets (19490 starring Alec Guiness and Dennis Price which covers a lot of the same territory but with a lot more humour. Amazon

Climbing the Mango Trees

Anyone who has read the work of writers such as Nigel Slater or MFK Fisher knows that food can feed memory.  And so it is true of Climbing the Mango Trees, a delightful memoir by Madhur Jaffrey.  Jaffrey's childhood is recalled through the spices, textures and the aromas of the food that surrounded her.  Living with her parents and siblings alongside her grandparents and many aunts, uncles and cousins she mentions in passing that she was an adult before she realized that most immediate families did not consist of at least thirty people.  I loved Jaffrey's description of her and her many cousins sitting in their grandfather's mango tree.  The eldest sat nearest the top with a knife and handed down pieces of green mango for the smaller children on the lower branches.  When she began to dip her mango slices into salt and chili she was no longer considered a baby.  Jaffrey is an elegant writer and effortlessly evokes what it was like to be a child of privilege growing up at the end of British rule in India.  Her descriptions of the family foodstuffs is mouthwatering and she provides over thirty of her family recipes in the back of the book.  Amazon

DeNiro's Game

DeNiro's Game by Rawi Hage is a compelling story to two young men in war ravaged Beirut. Brutality is a way of life for these men - one works with the militia thugs getter deeper and deeper into degradation while the other tries to remain on the outside and dreams of another life.  The protagonist is forced to leave Beirut and it is quickly apparent that he only knows how to get what he wants by force.  He is an outsider everywhere. The book is beautifully written and I found it impossible to put it down.  Be aware that the violence is pervasive and sometimes quite difficult graphic.  Amazon

Dead Cold

This is the second novel by Canadian writer Louise Penny.  A mystery set in rural Quebec, it revisits characters from her first novel, Still Life.  I think this effort is better than the first with the characters a bit more fleshed out and with a good plot. There is no need to read the Still Life first, although Penny does refer to that novel quite often as the book progresses and I think may provide a bit of a spoiler for people who read these books out of order.  This is one of those books that's good to curl up with on a snowy afternoon and just enjoy. Amazon in Paper or in hardcover

The Other side of the Bridge

Readers of The Other Side of the Bridge will recognize the age old story of two brothers. Arthur is worthy, hard working and dull and Jake is the feckless and charming brother. Author Mary Lawson manages to write around those clichés and produce characters of depth and interest. The book is set during World War II with a parallel story set in the 1960’s. By alternating settings each chapter the author to give us the background to the events that the reader sees played out. This is a fine follow up to Lawson’s first novel Crow Lake.  Buy at Amazon

The Custodian of Paradise

This new novel by Wayne Johnston picks up the story of Sheilagh Fielding, first introduced in The Colony of Unrequited Dreams. This character is a bitter, brittle, brilliant wreck of a woman.  The reader delights in her wit and her repartee while glimpsing the grief that underpins everything in her life.  Johnston has added an interesting plot to match this wonderful character study, making it a terrific read. My biggest quibble with the book is the length. Weighing in at over 500 pages I could have used a bit more editing. Don’t let that put you off reading it – it is worth the time.  Buy at  amazon