The Wordy Shipmates

Yes, Sarah Vowell has done it again! She has a taken a tiny section of American history and made it her own. The Wordy Shipmates is her latest micro-history. This book is about the early settlers of Massachusetts. Nope - not those pilgrims with a capital "P". This is about that other group - those future Bostonians, the Massachusetts Bay Colony and their leader John Winthrop. They want to build "a city upon a hill" but their way. And if you do not agree - then they banish you. And thus Rhode Island is born!

There are some problems with this book. It is hard to be quirky about major players in history, when what writings that are available seem to suggest that some of the founding fathers had no sense of humor at all. And most of us modern folk would call them cranks. But different times for different men, and Vowell tries to make them alive for us, with all their sins and faults. While her admiration for their struggles and the principles that they passed on to us future Americans, is evident, it is hard for the reader to get excited by the early 17th century prose.

Winthrop and his group survived, passed on their beliefs, created Harvard, started Indian wars, and helped create a uniquely American culture. And Vowell ties it all together for you. This book is a must for a Sarah Vowell fan, or a early American history buff.

Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China

Jen Lin-Liu is an American journalist and food writer living in Beijing, China. She decides to hone up on her cooking skills by taking Chinese cooking classes in a state run cooking school. Her adventures have lead to the book, Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China.

So is this book about Chinese cooking? Yes - but it is so much more. It is also a study of China today and where it is headed. It is about the ambition of it's people and where they have been. Who knew that one of the most important people that she meets is the secretary and caretaker of the school? This "non" teacher becomes Jen's guide to the China of yesteryear as well as her traditionalist cooking advisor and friend. As Jen discovers and learns about different regional cuisines, she travels and cooks in different areas and restaurants. Everything from your local small lunchtime noodle shop to the high class international restaurants of Shanghai.

A good book for Chinese food fans, history fans, and those who are trying to get a grasp on the Chinese culture today. After reading this, one has a better understanding of how the latest food scares out of China can happen and why they will probably continue. An excellent read.

Murder of a Small Town Honey

Murder of a Small Town Honey is the first book in the Scumble River mystery series by Denise Swanson. School psychologist, Skye Denison, is not too happy to be back in her small home town in Illinois. She had thought she had moved on to broader horizons. But a job loss and personal setbacks have her back at home starting a new job, and getting reacquainted with the busybodies and her relatives. She even gets suckered into judging the local Chokeberry Days jelly contest.

But the festival is suddenly ended, when she finds a dead body of a TV celebrity who happens to have her same small town past, and who turns out to have dated her older brother and several others... well, it might need some looking in to. And when her brother is arrested for the murder, she has to take a hand in getting the police on the right track.

Moving back to your hometown is tough, when you really did not want to come back. Skye mixes those feelings with trying to get her life restarted again. And how come she keeps finding every one's home ransacked? And what does her brother have to do with all of this anyway?

A clever story of reinvention, confronting your past, and small town life. And murder thrown in. A good read. Looking forward to the next one.

Death in the Orchid Garden

Going to Hawaii to film part of her PBS TV gardening show sounded great to Louise Eldridge. They were filming in the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Kaui, with three world renowned botanists. The shoot went well. She would even have time to relax in the hotel's lovely water lagoons. She did not expect to find one of the botanists on a cliff ledge with his head bashed in.

By setting her story, Death in the Orchid Garden in Hawaii, Anne Ripley manages to make the islands another character in her mystery. She shows us the beauty of the area (checkout the website of the gardens - http://www.ntbg.org/) and hints at the darker side of tourist lands. Louise's suspects equally have their own mysterious pasts. It is a small community of scientists, but they have worked with and against each other for years. Just who is telling the truth, and who is lying?

Louise is bit reluctant to investigate. She really has been lured by the islands' seductive powers. But people, she has come to respect and admire, are getting hurt. And it looks like she is in danger too. This is an exciting story that will interest the serious plant enthusiast and Hawaiian islands fan as well as the mystery lover. A great read.

Tomb of Zeus: A Laetitia Talbot Mystery

Laetitia Talbot is a woman who know what she wants. She is no simpering miss. This British gal is about to embark on her first archaeological dig that she is overseeing. She has money. And a family that supports what she is doing - even if it is reluctantly. She is clever and a bit nosey. All fine traits when she is digging for her next find or involved in a mystery.

The Tomb of Zeus by Barbara Cleverly is Letty's first adventure - even though it is alluded to that she has had an adventuresome life before this particular trip to Crete. She has been sponsored by the renowned Theodore Russell, and soon finds that his household has a rather sinister feeling that she can't shake. She is not sure why - his second wife Phoebe is delightful, his son George is very pleasant and she finds that she has an ally - and maybe an unwelcome one in this group - William Gunning. So why does she have this strange feeling all is not well?

But before she can embark on her dig, there is a shocking death and the little perfect world that was the Villa Europa seems to be falling apart. Was it murder? And why? Why is Gunning there? Why does Russell seem to send her on a wild goose chase of a dig? And what about her dig site? The tomb of Zeus or just an ordinary burial chamber or religious site?

Letty is a fun character - not too sentimential; the previous war (WWI) took care of that - but smart and trying to balance several things at once. The dig, the mystery, the land and it's people, and her relationships. What or who is telling the truth?

A very fun read. It may start out a little slow but hang in there. Can't wait til the next one comes out.

This Organic Life

This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader by Joan Dye Gussow is already considered a "classic" in the growing number of books being put out that are about "going Green." Written in 2001, she predates Barbara Kingsolver's experiment of growing everything you eat for a year. This is not an experiment. This is how she lives.

Gussow is a friendly writer. She makes herself sound like the cheery next door neighbor with the good gardening tips that we would all love to have. Going "Green" is nothing new to her. To her this is just good gardening. And she manages to do it in a small plot that has flooding issues, by the Hudson in the outer suburbs of New York. Her and her artist husband's struggles to create a "retirement" home from a very old property takes center stage in the book. She is more concerned with the garden - because that is what already provides them with most of their food. And it is a struggle. And their life is a struggle. And each growing season is different and has its own unique challenges.

A great story about how the careful care taking of the land provides you a glimpse into the character of the people. A story of patience and hard work, and a must read for vegetable garden lovers. And there are some great recipes for those times when you have an explosion of vegetables. A very good read.