Books I'm Looking Forward To

One of today's Bout of Books challenges comes from River City Reading and asks for a list of books we are looking forward to reading. I decided to put together a list of a dozen novels published in 2014 that I want to read. I need to get going on reading books for the next round of Dublin Award nominations so this seemed like a good way to start (blurbs are quoted from Goodreads)

1. Still Life with Breadcrumbs by Anna Quindlin
   "Still Life with Bread Crumbs begins with an imagined gunshot and ends with a new tin roof. Between the two is a wry and knowing portrait of Rebecca Winter, a photographer whose work made her an unlikely heroine for many women. Her career is now descendant, her bank balance shaky, and she has fled the city for the middle of nowhere. There she discovers, in a tree stand with a roofer named Jim Bates, that what she sees through a camera lens is not all there is to life."
2. The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
   "In the spirit of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Gabrielle Zevin's enchanting novel is a love letter to the world of books-and booksellers-that changes our lives by giving us the stories that open our hearts and enlighten our minds."
3. Hyde by Daniel Levine
   "A reimagining of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from the monster's perspective, Hyde makes a hero of a villain." Since I got Jekyll and Hyde for my spin book I want to read this soon.
4. Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid
   A "witty, updated take on Austen’s classic novel about a young woman whose visit to the stately home of a well-to-do acquaintance stirs her most macabre imaginings, with an extra frisson of suspense that only McDermid could provide."
5. And the Dark Sacred Night by Julia Glass
   "The award-winning author on her best subject—family secrets—in the story of a middle-aged man who searches for his father, upending relationships beyond his own and changing forever the way he fits into the world he thought he knew so well."
6. Alena by Rachel Pastan
   "In an inspired restaging of Daphne du Maurier’s classic Rebecca, a young curator finds herself haunted by the legacy of her predecessor."
7. Pioneer Girl by Bich Minh Nguyen
   A "novel about a Vietnamese American family’s ties to The Little House on the Prairie."
8. The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman
   " the story of an electric and impassioned love between two vastly different souls in New York during the volatile first decades of the twentieth century."
9. The Swan Gondola by Timothy Schaffert
   "A lush and thrilling romantic fable about two lovers set against the scandalous burlesques, midnight séances, and aerial ballets of the 1898 Omaha World’s Fair."
10. Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan
    "The passionate and turbulent story of Robert Louis Stevenson and his tempestuous American wife, Fanny." Another one connected to Jekyll and Hyde!
11. Delicious! by Ruth Reichl
    A "dazzling fiction debut about sisters, family ties, and a young woman who must finally let go of guilt and grief to embrace her own true gifts."
12. To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris
    "At once laugh-out-loud funny about the absurdities of the modern world, and indelibly profound about the eternal questions of the meaning of life, love and truth." 

2013 Really is the Year of the Short Story!

Ann of Books on the Nightstand (a fabulous podcast!) dubbed 2013 the "year of the short story" back in January. Apparently some of the folks who give out big literary awards listen to her.

The Giller Prize went to Lynn Coady for a short story collection, Hellgoing.

The 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature went to Alice Munro, "master of the contemporary short story."

Two more writers for my TBR list!

X: Qui Xiaolong

Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Set in Shanghai in the 1990s (after Tienanmen Square) this is the story of a policeman, Chief Inspector Chen Cao, who is also a poet, a translator of mystery novels, and a "loyal party member." He is trying to figure out who murdered a young woman found dumped in a canal. There is a lot of information in this book about life in China, including quite a bit of modern political history woven into the story. There is also quite a bit of Chinese poetry, mostly classical, quoted in the book. Both of these things add to the book rather than distracting from the mystery. The detection part of the story focuses a lot more on the "why" of the crime than the "who" and is resolved (as far as concluding the novel) in a satisfactory way. I think the greatest strengths of this book were the complexity and Chen as a character and the writing. The style of the book is a bit noir-like, but with a poetic aspect to it rather than a really gritty one.

"Yu sat beside the window, smoking a cigarette. The streets of Shanghai were spread out beneath his gaze, gray and black roofs with curls of peaceful white smoke undulating into the distance. Yet he seemed to smell crime smoldering in the heart of the city." (p. 108)

This book won the Anthony Award and was nominated for an Edgar Award.The author, Qui Xialong was born in Shanghai and has lived in the U.S. since 1989. He has written several more novels featuring Inspector Chen.

This is an excellent novel, and a fascinating view into life in China.

 This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise.

The Dorthy Parker Award

"This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly.
It should be thrown with great force."
--Dorthy Parker

At The Beauty of Eclecticism there is a page for one of the best award ideas I have seen: The Dorthy Parker Award. The fabulous Ms. Parker originally said this (according to award page) about Atlas Shrugged. If I am ever unfortunate enough to read a book deserving of this award I will be sure to warn others by giving it a Parker Award.