[022] Upon a Dark Night - Peter Lovesey

Upon a Dark Night by Peter Lovesey

What the Back of the Book Has to Say:

Who is the young woman, and why was she dumped unconscious in a hospital car park upon a dark night?

Named Rose by the social workers, the amnesiac is taken to a hostel until her memory returns. There she meets Ada Shaftsbury, a huge, boisterous shoplifter and compulsive eater, who takes Rose under her wing. Throwing her quite considerable weight into the investigation, Ada helps Rose uncover the trail that will lead to her identity.

Peter Diamond, Bath's top detective, is investigating a suspicious death and is unwilling to get involved. A woman has plunged to her death from a roof in the Royal Crescent, while half the young people of Bath partied in the house below. Accident, suicide or murder?

Badgered by Ada, galvanized by another gruesome death, Diamond is forced to admit that the deaths may be linked, and Rose is the key to the mystery.

Why I Picked It Up:

A love of my previous Peter Lovesey find, The Reaper.

What I Thought:

Everytime I make my biweekly trek to the library, one of the very first shelves I check is the L's, in search of another Lovesey book. To be honest, I never have much hope so you can imagine how excited I was when I saw this book sitting on the shelf. The selection is so small in the library, to find two books by the same author seems nothing short of a small miracle.

Despite the fact that there was a small "A Peter Diamond Mystery" on the front cover, I picked up the book regardless. I had faith that Lovesey would not let me down and that, regardless of what number this book was in the series, it would be able to stand alone so that I could enjoy it (unlike some books I have read). 

Well, I put my faith in the right author.

The key point of this book is all the threads and ideas that are introduced early on never actually come together until the last forty or so pages. On the one hand, we have our amnesiac, Rose, who we follow for the first fourth or so of the novel. Lovesey has created a very powerful image in Rose, describing her amnesia in such detail that you actually start to wonder how she could possibly pick up the pieces of her life. She doesn't even recognize her own face in the mirror when she first wakes up. Her total despondency is intriguing and reels you right into the plot.

Soon (but not too soon) into the book, he introduces who will become our hero, Peter Diamond. Diamond is the head of the murder department of the Bath police, a little gruff, a little over-bearing, a little bit in a competition for dominancy with a younger DCI but overall endearing and very much an everyman. He's a very fully developed character and it takes perhaps a few paragraphs to start to get a grasp on who he is. Lovesey is confident in his work and thus, although he doesn't give us background information on him, Diamond is so well formed that we can figure it all out ourselves. I didn't even know that this book was fifth in an eleven book series until I googled it just now. It could have easily been much earlier on.

As the novel continues, the reader twists and turns through Bath and a number of crimes: the attempted abduction of Rose, a young girl falling to her death at the Royal Crescent, and the apparent suicide of an old hermit out in the middle of nowhere. As the characters press on, ignoring clues, investigating dead ends and gathering information that will later become vital, the seemingly separate plots start to tell a story much different to anything you probably would have guessed.

The true genius of this novel and, indeed, of Lovesey's writing is the way that he paces the plot and uses narrative voices. He employs a few characters for third person limited point of view during early points in the novel and, as the intrigue and danger escalate, he severely limits which characters we interpret the actions through. Without even drawing attention to it, he manages to make the reader worry about characters simply by realizing they haven't been the focus of the chapter in awhile. Little tricks like this really help set the mood of the book and subtly develop the mystery. 

All in all, a few more books and I will happily start calling Peter Lovesey one of my favorite authors. I highly doubt I will find more of his work over here in Tokyo but once I get to an English speaking country again, I am officially on the case.

[021] Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason - Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding

What the Back of the Book Has to Say:

The Wilderness Years are over! But not for long. At the end of Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget hiccuped off into the sunset with man-of-her-dreams Mark Darcy. Now, in The Edge of Reason, she discovers what it is like when you have the man of your dreams actually in your flat and he hasn't done the washing-up, not just the whole of this week, but ever.

Lurching through a morass of self-help theories and mad advice from Jude and Shazzer, struggling with a boyfriend-stealing ex-friend with thighs like a baby giraffe, an eight foot hole in the living room wall, a mother obsessed with boiled-egg peelers, and a builder obsessed with large reservoir fish, Bridget embarks on a spirtitual epiphany, which takes her from the cappuccino queues of Notting Hill to the palm -- and magic-mushroom-- kissed shores of ...

Bridget is back. V.g. 

Why I Picked It Up:

Nothing says "It's almost time to go home for Christmas!" like a re-read of one of your favorite books.

What I Think:

I think I have covered most of what I have to say about my love of Bridget Jones in my entry on the first novel but I suppose I will say a little bit more about the main plot of the sequel.

If you've only ever seen the movie version of this, get that out of your head right now. Although I personally don't think it's an awful movie, it's definitely not as good as the book and it would be much better if you're not picturing movie scenes as you read. The plot line, although similar, strays a lot from the original plot and the novel is much, much better.

It opens about the same, with Bridget finally together with Mr. Darcy and settling into a comfortable life of domesticity. However, things start to go wrong when too many misunderstandings and not enough discussion begin spiraling out of control.  A frenemy of Bridget's sets her sights on Mark, Bridget keeps jumping to conclusions about things that she never explains quite right, Jude and Shazzar have problems of their own and Tom runs away to San Francisco with an airport attendant. 

Bridget tries to get her life back on track, tries to become an independent journalist and a confident working woman and those plans go just as well as you would expect. She has to face head on her addiction to self-help books and when friend's advice shouldn't be listened to anymore. It's a novel about personal growth, not just for Bridget but for all the characters.

There are some wonderful sideplots with Jude and Shazzar that I am ultimately disappointed they did not include in the movie. Jude and her on again/off again boyfriend 'Vile Richard' go through a lot in the background of this book and it has a big effect on all of the characters. Unfortunately, Richard just gets a passing mention in the first movie. Shazzar, as well, as to deal with the conflict between her non-comprimising feminist views and the relationship she has with a close guy friend. 

I love this novel as it sees the characters from the first book come into their own and achieve happiness not through luck but from really looking at themselves and doing their best to change for the better. It has a great message (if you're looking for messages in your chick lit) and, beyond that, it's just a great read. It's funny, romantic and takes all of about two hours to get through. If you like chick lit, I promise you that you'll love this book.

[020] The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

What the Back of the Book Has to Say:

SPECIAL REPORT: Mikael Blomvkist

The Millennium publisher has [obscured by price sticker] explosive and far-reaching expose of the multi-billion kronor sex-trafficking industry in Sweden, and its international links.

Double killing in Stockholm apartment

Two found dead. Suspected murder weapon recovered close to the scene. Police are baffled by this apparently professional killing.

Lisbeth Salander sought by every police force in Sweden

The chief suspect in three killings, former security analyst Salander eludes nationwide search. Inspector Bublanski leads the Stockholm team.

Crusading author and liberal journalist Stieg Larsson died after delivering to his Swedish publisher the novels that are the Millennium Trilogy. Tragically, he did not live to enjoy the phenomenon that his work has become.

Why I Picked It Up:

The first book had been a good thriller, if the characters left me dry. I wanted to read it. Plus, when you start a trilogy, you really have to end it, don't you?

What I Think:

If you remember anything about what I wrote about the previous book in this series, then it should be that, while I thought the plot was very interesting, I found myself not really liking the characters all that much. To be honest, that thing happens more often than I would hope but a lot of times I find at least one character that seems redeemable and I can anchor myself to them for the majority of the novel. The Millennium Trilogy, to me, doesn't have one.

Now, it's fine to have horrible (in my opinion) characters as long as you have an intriguing storyline. The first novel had that down pat; although I didn't much care for the detectives getting to the bottom of it, the mystery of the disappearance of Harriet Vanger was interesting, with enough twists, turns and just suspects in general to keep me on my toes and interested. Surely, the second book would be able to pull through with that?

The problem I have with Fire is that it couldn't decide how it wanted to tell its story. Although we didn't need much exposition (as that's what the first novel in a trilogy is typically for), the first one hundred or so pages were devoted to what Lisbeth and Mikael had been up to since the first novel ended. Fine, whatever -- as long as we got a big, juicy mystery for them to solve pretty soon. 

It takes a few hundred pages before the murder described on the back cover occurs and even then, I wasn't entirely sure what was going on. The problem is that the novel creates a bunch of narrative threads that it really doesn't even try to weave together. Although they will eventually create a picture later on, it won't be for about five hundred more pages. While I normally enjoy a story that seems haphazard but later is fully fleshed out, in this case it seems to be more sudden realization than forward planning. 

Let me put it like this: if you asked me to tell you what the main plot of this novel was, I wouldn't be able to tell you. I might tell you it's about sex trafficking and it kind of is. I might mention a gangster and I wouldn't be wrong. I could talk about Lisbeth Salander's backstory and there's a bit of that in there, too. Plus, there's this whole side story about the police and the security company working together and another murder that seems important but ultimately isn't. In short, the plot seems more like a bunch of random stories thrown together to make a book. It doesn't have the underlying mystery to keep it neatly wrapped together, like the first novel.

Not to mention that this book keeps the characters separated and not talking to each other for most of it. Normally this wouldn't be a problem as that usually establishes dramatic tension and escalates plot but in this case, it just made us repeat the same facts over and over again as new characters discover things we had already known. It became truly annoying after awhile.

This isn't to say that there wasn't anything interesting about this book. Lisbeth's backstory is very intriguing, especially as they had shrouded it in mystery for so long. The murder of the couple is a good read, as you really don't find out what happened until the very end of the novel. But ultimately, it just seems thrown together and out of place. I'll read the next novel, if only to finish the series but I'm starting to wonder if this trilogy peaked with Dragon Tattoo. I suppose we shall see.

[019] Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

What the Back of the Book Has to Say:

A dazzling urban satire of modern human relations?

An ironic, tragic insight into the demise of the nuclear family?

Or the confused ramblings of a pissed thirty-something?

Why I Picked It Up:

Comfort food

What I Think:

Bridget Jones has long been one of my favorite novels of all time. Of course, if you ask me what my favorite novels are, I'll say something like Pride and Prejudice or Lord of the Rings or Snow Falling on Cedars. I definitely have a wide and varied taste on this sort of thing. However, when it comes right down to it, I think I have read Bridget Jones at least fifty times and it never gets old.

Bridget Jones is about as close to perfect as any chick lit novel can come. Bridget is a wonderful heroine: she makes mistakes but she is always endearing. She never really learns her lesson but stands up for herself when she needs to. Her diets never succeed nor do her attempts to give up self help books. She is simultaneously worried for and annoyed by her mother and second guesses herself constantly. Basically, she's a regular girl and incredibly relatable.

The novel is a modern take on the Pride and Prejudice story and if you've only ever seen the movie, I suggest you also read the book because the similarities are even more noticeable in the novel. It's a quick read: it will maybe take you all of a day, if you take frequent breaks. It's broken up into months as it is, as the title states, a series of diary entries. Even the entries that don't pertain to the plot are a delight to read as an insight to the mind of a thirty-something in the mid-ninties. Of course, due to the time period it was written in, a few things do seem a bit dated but it's easily overlooked. 

I always come out of a reread wanting to be Bridget's best friend and writing in her diary style for a few days afterwards. She has abbreviations and turns of phrases that are very her and will stick in your head for awhile. I applaud Helen Fielding for creating a character where you really feel like you're in her headspace. It's very easy to understand Bridget's point of view at any time and the writing style is a big part of that. 

If you've only ever seen the movies, I really encourage you to read both the original and the sequel, The Edge of Reason. I know the second movie isn't very good but I assure you that the book is quite the opposite. While the first movie follows the book pretty faithfully (with a few missing plotlines), the second movie is almost nothing like the book and the book really is much better. Bridget has a stalker! Bridget interviews Colin Firth! Trust me, it's just as good as the first novel.

It is very hard to write about books you love to death objectively in this blog format so I think I'm going to stop while I'm ahead, before this turns into me gushing "It's really just so good!" as I tend to do. If you like chick lit, then I promise that you'll find something to like in Bridget Jones. It's a light read but definitely worth it.

[018] The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

What the Back of the Book Has to Say:

The Industrialist

Henrik Vanger, head of the dynastic Vanger Corporation, is tormented by the loss of a child decades earlier and convinced that a member of his family has committed murder.

The Journalist

Mikael Blomkvist delves deep into the Vangers' past to uncover the truth behind the unsolved mystery. But someone else wants the past to remain a secret and will go to any lengths to keep it that way.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Lisbeth Salander, the enigmatic, delinquent and dangerous security specialist, assists in the investigation. A genius computer hacker, she tolerates no restrictions placed upon her by individuals, society or the law.

Why I Picked It Up:

This book is a phenomenon. It felt like God had placed it on the shelf for me, as a reward for finishing Doctor Zhivago. 

What I Think:

They say that you have to get a hundred pages into The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo before you really get into it. However, once you pass that mark, it is one of those intense, can't-put-it-down novels that have you on the edge of your seat. I have heard that statement from pretty much every source: friends, family, random reviews on the internet. Considering this is one of the top selling novels of the past year and everyone and their mom seems to have read it, I figured it must be true.

Now I think that those estimates may be a little off. There definitely is a period you have to struggle through the novel before it hits a good pace but a hundred pages is a bit naive. It took me about two hundred pages, if not two hundred and fifty, until I found myself intrigued enough to continue reading outside of the train, at the stoplight, waiting to pick up my dinner at the bento shop. The hundred page mark is rather significant, plotwise, but if you're looking for the can't-stop-reading mark, I would say it was definitely around the two hundred mark.

One of the reasons this is is the very nature of the narrative of the novel. There are two main characters: Mikael Blomkvist, the financial reporter who gets indicted for libel in the first ten pages and Lisbeth Salander, the vaguely punk rock, takes nothing from nobody character who works for a security firm. The main problem is that they don't meet each other until around page 250. Before that, the novel is constantly mixing perspective with different storylines. The first one hundred pages gives you a background on both Blomkvist and Salander, giving you a taste of the kind of people they are and what some of their motivations are before actually getting them involved in the mystery.

Now, once the mystery of the disappearance of Harriet Vanger begins, the book really picks up. The case is forty years old and seemingly a beyond dead end but clues come up and strange occurrences happen and it's all very exciting. The problem is that you have to make it to that point and I know a lot of people that have given up before getting that far. To those people, I can only say: Try again! Even if the characters don't appeal to you (and I will get to that in a second), the mystery is definitely interesting enough to at least give it a try. If at page 300 you're still on the fence, then I can forgive putting it down. But at least get to the Bible references! You'll know what I mean when you get there and, hopefully, thank me.

With all that being said, I do have to admit that I'm not entirely in love with the characters in this book. Blomkvist has a few faults that rub me the wrong way but, as a detective character, he is intriguing enough to read about. As much as I hate to admit it, it's Salander who gets on my nerves the most. I know that there is much debate about whether she is a feminist character or not and here is my little take on that issue. Personally, her character feels (to me) like Larsson trying too hard. She has piercings and short black hair and wears shirts with slogans like "I can be a regular bitch. Just try me." on them. She is bisexual, she is not afraid of getting violent revenge on anyone who wrongs her (or, indeed, anyone who just kind of irks her) and her emotions are very black and white. Basically, she feels like a grown up child of the Hot Topic generation. I don't even want to touch the strange tilt in her personality that plays up in the last fifty or so pages of the novel. It's so out of character and, frankly, annoying so as to turn me off of whatever I found understandable about her character.

This isn't to say I didn't like the novel because I did. I'm looking forward to trying to read the other two novels in the series if I ever get the chance. It was a highly addictive mystery. But I don't know if you should really be looking to this book for kickass role models because you might find yourself a little put out.

[017] Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

What the Back of the Book Has to Say:

"On they went singing 'Eternal Memory', and whenever they stopped, the sound of their feet, the horses and the gusts of wind seemed to carry on their singing..."

Doctor Zhivago is the epic novel of Russia in the throes of revolution and one of the greatest love stories ever told. Yuri Zhivago, physician and poet, wrestles with the new order and confronts the changes cruel experience has made in him and the anguish of being torn between the love of two women.

Why I Picked It Up:

Yet another misguided attempt to better myself by reading the classics.

What I Think:

Personally, I feel like I deserve some kind of special accolade for having read all of Doctor Zhivago. The entirety of the novel feels like you're reading a "classic." It revolves around Yuri Zhivago, true, but it encompasses eras of Russian history, from the Tsarist beginnings of the early 1900s to the end of the 1940s and World War II. Because of the scope of the novel, it makes it incredibly difficult to read for many different reasons.

The first reason is, to be quite honest, my own ignorance of early twentieth century Russian history. Of course, Pasternak lived through everything he described in the novel and there is an assumed sense that you know what the current regulations are, who each of the various fighting armies or militias are, and indeed, even what the year is. I always thought I knew a bit about Russian history but this novel has opened my eyes to the fact that everything I know about said history is from popular movies that I have watched and clearly that is not enough. 

The secondary reason this book is nearly impossible is Russian names. In the edition I read, the page after the table of contents is a page devoted to "Principle Characters in the Novel" with a name division of three columns: "surname", "name and patronymic" and "diminutive". Any character can be called by any three of those names. Our main character is referred to as Zhivago, Yury Andreyevich, Yura, or Yuri. At least most of his start with "Yu" so you can figure it out. Other main characters are fairly easy. But where it gets hard is with all the secondary characters which leads us to our third reason.

There are so many secondary characters and Pasternak expects you to remember every single one of them. Despite the list after the contents, there are still at least ten or so characters that the author clearly expects you to recognize immediately but usually just leave you with that strange 'I know I should be making a connection' feeling in the back of your head. Pasternak is obviously trying to make a theme of connectedness and fate with the way characters appear in and out, hundreds of pages apart but it is ultimately just frustrating. What you actually need to read this novel is a constantly updating chart with names, references and maybe even page numbers. 

Getting past all these details, there is still the plot itself. The cover of my edition tells me that this is "one of the greatest love stories ever told." I am annoyed with this. The way love is portrayed in this novel is the way all old fashioned, epic love stories tend to make it: the main characters meet and despite the reader never actually seeing them fall in love, they somehow fall into that state and then are passionately and painfully in love. It's tiring, especially as it seems to come from nowhere and catches both of our "destined" lovers in adulterous affairs.

What really annoys me about Lara and Yury's deep and powerful love is that they are both obviously still in love with their respectful partners, despite also having an all-consuming love for each other. I understand the way the author tries to justify their love by showing how their spouses came out of childhood views of responsibility but the two of them clearly still feel for their significant others. They're also both parents and Lara, in particular, seems to be leaving a bad impression for her daughter, Katya. 

And beyond all of that, towards the end of the novel, Yury takes on a third relationship with a girl named Marina and has children with her. Tonya and Lara are vaguely understandable as a dutiful love versus a passionate love but to bring in a third girl? I was slightly offended, to be honest. 

I'm not even going to get into the strange Biblical undertones that come out of nowhere sometimes and the forty pages of poems ostensibly written by Zhivago in the back of the book. Suffice it to say, I tend to dislike poems and these did not change my mind. 

All in all, the novel definitely felt like an epic but keeps a distance from the reader that is nigh impossible to bridge. Read it if you fancy an intellectual exercise but I don't know if you'd really want to read it for pleasure. I definitely wouldn't again. 

[016] Y2K: It's Already Too Late - Jason Kelly

Y2K - It's Already Too Late by Jason Kelly

What the Back of the Book Has to Say:

The world depends on computers. They run power plants, route phone calls, and control banks. Because computers have existed only in the twentieth century, they store years as two digits, not four. The year 1999 is stored as 99. But on January 1, 2000, two-digit dates become 00 and computers shut down.

Los Angeles riots and burns to the ground. Neighbors fight in grocery stores over the last remnants of food. An old man dies from a stopped pacemaker. Digital power brakes lock up at seventy miles per hour. The lights are out. The phones are dead. The U.S. military sits crippled on bases and in ports around the world. Suddenly, from within the confusion, the Chinese navy steams towards Hawaii.

Operating on its own diesel electricity and private satellite network, Solvang Solutions is the only company still operable after New Year's Eve 1999. Mark Solvang frantically directs his Year 2000 repair firm to restore the world. He discovers powerful forces exploiting the meltdown and finds himself in a race to save his life.

The Year 2000 computer problem, known in the industry as Y2K, is real. Jason Kelly's novel is based on evidence from congressional testimony, military documents, and reports from computing experts. It is a chilling look at what lies just around the corner.

It's already too late to escape.

Why I Picked It Up:

See Title and Back Cover

What I Think:

I was 12 years old on New Year's Eve 1999. I remember that my family was at a party at a friend of mine from school's house a few blocks away from ours. It was my very first NYE party and I was really enjoying myself. That's why I was very disappointed to find that my parents wanted to leave around 11:45. I didn't understand why I couldn't just keep playing with Kelly until after midnight, as that was obviously the point of a New Year's Eve party. My parents wouldn't listen to my protests, however, and I welcomed 2000 sitting on the couch between my mother and my father, beloved pet cat in hand, watching the ball drop in New York.

Looking back, I suppose that my parents must have been slightly worried about Y2K, to make sure we were together as a family on that historic moment. Ever since then, they have slept through the countdown while I banged pots in the other room, at least until I was old enough to go to parties on my own. However, despite the nation's worries, the only thing that came out of the moment we hit 2000 for me was a photograph that still sits in my parent's living room of the three of us, me in all my nerdy 12 year old glory, giant green glasses, dorky grin and all, holding my cat by the scruff of the neck so she would look at the camera which unfortunately makes it seem like I'm choking her. No power outages. No riots. No end of civilization.

My family's reaction, though, is pretty suggestive of most people's thoughts at the time. The truth was that everyone had heard stories and theories on the news and no one knew what would happen. Although I have the advantage of reading this book ten years after the event,  what is really sweet about Y2K is that it is obviously written by a man who honestly thought that the end was upon us. There are ads in the book for a company where you could buy a year's supply of freeze dried food or buy extra copies of the novel, with the inference that you will pass them on to family and friends. He wanted people prepared.

Throughout the novel, Kelly presents a vision of a future where the breakdown of modern technology puts us into some chaotic vision of the apocalypse. There is an obvious parallel between the author and our main character, Mark Solvang, the founder of a company that has been trying to convince the public of the Y2K problem for ten years but only gets anyone's attention in 1997, much too late to save anything, their help now limited to damage control. 

The novel is all over the place, jumping from Solvang Solutions trying to fix different civilian centers, to the Department of Defense slowly watching a fleet of ships heading to the US from China, to random civilians and how they deal with the aftermath of Y2K. There are race riots in Los Angeles. People in Portland attack each other after breaking into a grocery store-- not the prettiest picture of my own hometown. 

The China plotline is a little ambitious, thinking that there was a whole conspiracy with China to make sure the US military wasn't ready for Y2K which threads itself through the whole story. However, without some of that intrigue, the novel would be incredibly boring. It lives in its descriptions of a strange rival military team attacking the headquarters of Solvang Solutions and the riots breaking out in areas of California. It gets bogged down in a naval battle towards the end of the novel that I admittedly heavily skimmed but action is definitely the best part of this story.

What I loved the most, however, of my reading was the fact that whoever had read this book before must have been worried themselves about impending disaster and had taken notes throughout the book. All over the place were little marks in red pencil, underlining facts and figures, writing little notes in English and Japanese in the margins. In one instance, they had underlined the phrase "Global Positioning System" and had written down what I can only assume were the coordinates of their home. There's something endearing in watching people prepare for a disaster you know will never hit.

Say what you will about what all of their preparations turned out to-- at the very least, if the something had happened, at least someone would have been prepared and maybe, much like Solvang Solutions, would have helped us get back on track.

Maybe.