Maisie Dobbs Introduces a Strong Female P.I. and Post-World-War-I England

I am a reader of series. I love the knowledge that one book is followed by another and another, all about a character I have come to know and love. Because I am not usually a fan of historical fiction, I resisted giving in to the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. As oft is the case, I was wrong.

Beloved female investigator Maisie Dobbs has detected her way through eight novels, with a ninth being released in March. I picked up a copy of the first book at my favorite used book store during my honeymoon in January, but I just started reading it two days ago. Two days ago, and I finished it last night -- in less than 24 hours!

Turns out, I do not dislike historical fiction as much as I thought. In fact, when it comes to Maisie Dobbs, I don't dislike historical fiction at all.

The series begins in 1929 England, as main character Maisie Dobbs opens her first investigative office in a less-than-ideal area of town. Her first case seems to be an open-and-shut one, but it leads -- as many things do -- to a more complicated situation.

Winspear expertly weaves Maisie's present with her past. In this first novel in the series, she takes readers all the way back to Maisie's childhood and relates her story from her father's tiny home to benefactor Lady Rowan's large estate to Cambridge University's Girton College. An important part of Maisie's history is also revealed in her work as a Red Cross nurse in France during World War I.

The first novel in particular (and perhaps the entire series, based solely on back-of-book descriptions) is set in the late 1920s, yet is also tied to the Great War and its long-lasting effects. As Maisie's war story unfolds, Winspear delves into some deeper themes that are still relevant today.

Coming up next month is March is Maisie Month, with a tour from TLC Book Tours, which I will be participating in. I'll be reviewing the seventh book in the series, The Mapping of Love and Death. Up until then, I plan on catching up on all the books in the series! The second and third books are in my possession at the moment, and I've already started the second one.

For more about Jacqueline Winspear, visit her website, check out the dates for her upcoming book tour, and visit her Maisie Dobbs blog.

Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table Shows Ruth Reichl's Life as a Complicated Series of Meals

Although most people wouldn't think twice about a food critic's background, Ruth Reichl's life is the stuff that makes for interesting reading. Much more than a foodie memoir, Reichl's look at her early life from childhood to her first job as a food writer wears many hats.

Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table is a biography of a poor little rich girl, one who was sent off to boarding school and sailed off to Europe. It is also the story of a hippie living freely in the 1970s, shocking society with her blindness to skin color and normal conventions. It is the story of a child dealing with a parent with mental illness. It is the story of a girl learning to cook first at home (disastrous), then at her father's first wife's mother's house (yes, you read that convoluted relationship correctly). It is also the story of a food writer in the making.

While Reichl came from some degree of wealth, her tone is never pretentious. Instead, she writes candidly about her life in New York City and about her mother's madness, which colored every day of her life. She forgoes some of the privilege she enjoyed as a child in order to escape for periods of time: to the University of Michigan for college, to Europe as a newlywed, to Berkeley as a commune-living chef. 

Reichl's relationship with food is a constant in her life, from the molded hors d'oeuvres her mother serves at parties to the wine she tastes in Europe on a buying trip with her local wine seller. Food is more than just food to Reichl; instead, it is a part of her life she can control, one that she can depend on. It is perhaps the thing she relies on the most, the ability of food to please and to comfort as long as one uses fresh ingredients and treats them well.

Often foodie memoirs are not noted for their literary merit, but Reichl manages to both write about her life and food and to do it extremely well. The pages of Tender at the Bone are sprinkled with well-tested recipes, but Reichl's true ability is in her impeccable word choice, her ability to write prose about food and make it sound like poetry. 

THE SWALLOW'S PORK AND TOMATILLO STEW

1/4 c vegetable oil

8 cloves garlic, peeled

2 lbs lean pork, cut in cubes

Salt

Pepper

1 bottle dark beer

12 oz orange juice

1 lb tomatillos, quartered

1 lb Roma tomatoes, peeled and chopped

2 large onions, coarsely chopped

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

2 jalapeno peppers, chopped

1 14-oz can black beans

Juice of 1 lime

1 c sour cream

          Heat oil in large casserole. Add garlic cloves. Add pork, in batches so as not to crowd, and brown on all sides. Remove pork as the pieces get brown and add salt and pepper.

          Meanwhile, put beer and OJ in another pot. Add tomatillos and tomatoes, bring to a boil, lower heat, and cooke about 20min or until tomatillos are soft. Set aside.

          When all pork is browned, pour off all but about a tablespoon of the oil in the pan. Add coarsely chopped onions and cook about 8min, or until soft. Stir, scraping up bits of meat. Add chopped cilantro and pepper and salt to taste.

          Put pork pack into pan. Add tomatillo mixture and chopped jalapenos. Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover partially and cook about 2 hours.

          Taste for seasoning. Add black beans and cook 10min more.

          Stir lime juice into sour cream.

          Serve chili with rice, with sour-cream/lime juice mixture on side as a topping.

-- Ruth Reichl, Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table (p.230)

To learn more about Reichl, visit her website, read her blog, or follow her on Twitter.

This post is part of the Beth Fish Reads weekly series, Weekend Cooking. BFR describes Weekend Cooking as a place for "anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs." To read more food-related posts from the past week, visit this week's Weekend Cooking post.

Catch Me Delivers Thrills from Lisa Gardner

D.D. Warren has been through some serious changes in her personal life recently. She delivered a healthy baby boy, Jack, ten weeks ago. Just before that, she moved in with her love interest and fellow police officer, Alex. A visit from her not-so-amicable parents is almost enough to send the Boston homicide detective over the edge.

Before she loses it, thriller writer Lisa Gardner sends some saving grace her way: two complicated cases, perfect distractions for her stress at home. D.D. dives headlong into the first case, the shooting death of a convicted pedophile, out after time behind bars. When the case is linked to another similar death, D.D.'s squad finds themselves investigating a rogue citizen bent on ridding Boston of its child molestors. It's not exactly a case anyone particularly wants to solve. However, always the homicide investigator no matter the victim, D.D. and her team are putting as many hours into this case as they would any other.

As D.D. leaves the scene of one of the murders, she runs into a second case. This time she isn't quite so gung-ho, as the crime hasn't actually happened. Rather, a girl wants D.D. to investigate her own own murder -- which she claims will take place in a few days. Although intrigued, it isn't exactly what D.D. does -- solve crimes that haven't yet occurred. She can't quite decide if the girl's crazy or scared, but something tells her the answer is scared. And so, despite her misgivings, D.D. listens to her story and begins a tentative investigation.

Lisa Gardner always tells an excellent story, but she is particularly adept at doing so in Catch Me. She gives readers both the story of the detectives, but also the background for the cases. Catch Me begins two decades ago, with the story of an abused child. With several flashbacks, Gardner fleshes out the present storyline with details from the past.

Additionally, for the first time Gardner really examines D.D.'s character with some depth. As aforementioned, her parents arrive from Florida and play roles in several scenes. Although D.D. has detected her way through half a dozen novels, little time has been spent developing her character. Longtime readers of the series will recall detective Bobby Dodge from the first few books, a character who changed and grew as the series developed. Although his character doesn't appear in Catch Me, Gardner does the same thing with D.D.'s character, allowing her to grow and mature in this latest novel.

If you want to go back and read the D.D. Warren series in order, visit Lisa Gardner's website, or glance back through my previous reviews:

Alone (2005)
Hide (2007)
The Neighbor (2009)
Live to Tell (2010)
Love You More (2011) -- I've never reviewed this? What? Okay, will solve this soon! It's fantastic.
"The 7th Month" (2012)

Gardner is also the author of the FBI Profiler series (whose characters make brief cameos Catch Me), as well as three standalone novels. As far as mystery/thrillers go, you really can't find anyone better than Lisa Gardner. The audio versions of all of her books are amazing, but the print versions are excellent, too!

"This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage" Details Ann Patchett's Success (and Failure) in Love

Valentine's Day posts should be about love, and today's post is. Well, it is and it isn't. Back in December, Audible.com offered a free download to its listeners: an essay on marriage by acclaimed author Ann Patchett. At the urging of friends and family, Patchett wrote down the story of her marriage -- a happy one, by all accounts.

She begins, however, with several unhappy marriages: her grandparents', her parents', and finally, her own first marriage.

"Tell the story of your marriage," my young friend Niki says to me. "Write down how it is you have a happy marriage." But the story of my marriage, which is the great joy and astonishment of my life, is too much like a fairy tale, the German kind, unsweetened by Disney. (Patchett, "This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage")

As a result of her family history, Patchett had no background in making marriage work. She saw her mother choose poorly time and again, and make decisions to follow men cross-country from California to Patchett's hometown of Nashville.

Although she describes her stepfather as a father-figure to her to this day, Patchett holds nothing back when relating the drawbacks of her mother's marriage to him. She and her sister had to exist within the walls of this second marriage, she says, while his kids only visited on summer breaks and holidays. She isn't sure still which group of kids had it better. They had no permanent father in their lives back in California, but she and her sister had to live in that marriage.

After a disastrous first marriage to a man she never really loved, Patchett swore off marriage. It was not for her, she decided. And yet, here she is -- in present day, married to a man with whom she is thrilled to spend her life. How did she manage to get from point A to point B? In this extraordinary essay, Patchett reveals what love means to her, and why after many years she decided to give marriage a go again -- and why it's the best decision she's ever made.

"This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage" is an essay not to be missed, especially on this, the (albeit consumer-market-driven) holiday of love. In fact, it is the perfect thing to listen to on a day like today, when society tells us love is roses and expensive chocolate. The love Patchett describes has nothing to do with those things, and everything to do with choosing to become a better person through your partner.

To get this essay to listen to today -- or any day -- (for free!) click here.

"The 7th Month" Shows D.D. Warren Detecting During Pregnancy

Before her latest thriller starring Boston detective D.D. Warren hit shelves, author Lisa Gardner released a short piece that detailed some of the time between her last book, Love You More, and her new novel Catch Me. At the end of Love You More, D.D. discovered she was pregnant. This news was unexpected and somewhat shocking to the detective. After all, she hadn't originally planned to be a parent at all, much less in the near future.

E-novella "The 7th Month" reveals D.D. in her seventh month of pregnancy, still on the job (albeit behind a desk). When a movie producer enters the police station looking for a police consultant for a film shooting in a local cemetery, D.D. jumps at the chance to get out from behind her desk. The movie's current retired-police consultant hasn't shown up for work in a day or two, and filming must go on.

Readers of Gardner's previous books shouldn't find it unbelievable that once on set, D.D. begins to unravel a mystery. Although little would be gained from reading this short piece as a standalone, for fans of the series, it's a perfect taste of the detective, on-the-job and with child. Fans won't want to miss this glimpse of life between the novels before diving into Catch Me. And the piece isn't so short that it isn't worth the $1.99 price tag. I estimated it to be about 40-45 pages long, the perfect length for short fiction.

Look for my review of Catch Me within the next day or two!

Godspeed

Today, I am only thinking about one thing: safe travels for my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew as they travel halfway around the world.

Since 2009, my brother and sister-in-law have lived in Tanzania, doing work to help the people there become more educated and more self-sufficient. In short, to help them create good, productive lives for themselves.

As a mission goes, it has been slow-moving. First, there was the distance to travel -- more than 7,000 miles. Then, there was a new language to learn --eastern Africa's Swahili, but also some tribal dialects like Sukuma. In addition to language differences, there were also many housing and cultural issues to overcome.

In 2010, they traveled back to the U.S. to have my nephew (the cutest little boy in the whole entire world). That November, my mom and dad traveled to Geita, Tanzania via Rwanda to visit them and their first and only grandson. Last summer, my mom and I went back and had an amazing adventure. Besides seeing them and experiencing daily life in a Tanzanian town, we also got to stay overnight near Kilimanjaro, visit a rural village, explore the city of Mwanza, and go on safari in the Serengeti. It was a trip of a lifetime.

This past November, they traveled once again to America, this time for a different kind of life celebration. Instead of a birth, they returned to help with my wedding. Holly was my matron of honor, Jude was my ring bearer, and Carson was a builder-of-decorations and video-camera-guy. My heart swells with the love they showed me and that I feel towards them for coming and helping with this special occasion.

Today they fly home, first to Washington, D.C. and then on to Tanzania. Last night was full of laughter, conversation, and hugs and kisses. Today we are missing them, but certain in the knowledge that they are following their hearts to do good work.

Holly wrote eloquently yesterday about the business of leaving, which you can read here.

Many prayers and well wishes are with them as they travel.

And who knows if I will wait until they return in 2014? As a new nephew will arrive in May, I might just have to make that journey again.

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty... Swoon. Faint. Beginning-of-Every-HBO-Series-Sound.

Joshilyn Jackson has (thus far, at least) established a certain set of ground rules in her novels. There will be strong, flawed female characters; they will be from the south; and a shadow of darkness will lurk in the corners, just beyond where the light manages to reach. A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty, Jackson's latest novel, contains both a lot of light and a whole heck of a lot of darkness, all blended into a particular Jackson-style piece of fiction.

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty introduces a whole host of fabulous characters, both sort-of heroes and definite villains. At the novel's center are three generations of Slocumb women: Ginny (also known as Big), Liza, and Mosey (or Little). Grandmother, mother, and daughter all live in a little house in the fictional small-town of Immita, Mississippi, which lies somewhere along the Gulf Coast. After Liza suffers a stroke at the age of 29, Big and Mosey serve as caretakers for her. It's not an easy life, but it's their own.

That is, until a pulled-up willow tree in their backyard reveals a secret none of them is prepared to discuss. During the subsequent police investigation, Big and Mosey conduct their own covert operations in an attempt to discover the truth behind the unearthed box. For Big, that means serious rehabilitation work with Liza, as it's clear she holds the truth deep within her broken body. In Mosey's case, it means she and her sidekick Roger turn their investigative abilities into high gear. Roger invents one wild goose chase after another, until Mosey is worn out with his eagerness.

In the process of attempting to solve the mystery under the willow tree, all three generations mature in various ways. Big learns to overstep what she refers to as her "bad year" (which happens once every fifteen years, so far); Liza works to recall the words she needs to communicate; and Mosey gains a deeper understanding of exactly what it means to be a family.

Jackson's villainous characters are every bit as interesting as her mostly-good ones. A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty offers up a character list peppered with drug users, self-righteous private-school moms, and cheating ex-wives. Most of the time, Jackson allows just a glimmer of goodness to shine through their cold veneers, but a couple of these characters simply never redeem themselves -- as in life. Their inclusion is a perfect foil for the radiating goodness of the more sympathetic characters.

The deep south is as much a character in the novel as are the characters themselves. As she grew up along Florida's Emerald Coast and currently lives in Atlanta, Joshilyn Jackson is a southern girl born and bred. In short, she knows of what she speaks. She is the south. This is highly apparent in her novels, and A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty is no exception. Immita, fictional though it may be, has the bones of a true southern small town. It's the kind of place where everyone knows everyone (and everything), where the Baptists believe they're going to heaven (while everyone else rots in you-know-where), and where there are backwoods sects like the Duckins that are the stuff of legends.

Full of humor and raw emotion, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty is quite simply southern literature -- or any literature, for that matter -- at its best. Jackson pulls out all the stops in this fifth novel. Well-drawn characters, a finely nuanced setting, and a darn good story.

Joshilyn Jackson is the author of four other novels, including gods in Alabama (my review here); Between, Georgia; The Girl Who Stopped Swimming; and Backseat Saints (my review here). You can follow her hilarious ramblings on her blog Faster Than Kudzu, or even catch her on book tour for A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty between now and February 18.