Nevada Barr's Ill Wind

When a fiction writer can make the "where" part of the story into it's own character - that's quite a talent. Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon mystery series takes you into the national parks of the U.S. and makes them come alive. In the book Ill Wind, Barr sets her story in Colorado's Mesa Verde National Park.

As Anna explores the park, it's history and the cliffs, she learns more about her co-workers who live on site and about the ancient Anaszi who once lived there and disappeared long ago. This summer, the park has seen an usually high number of medical emergencies and there is the tragic death of an asthmatic child. Then Anna's coworker is found dead in a kiva in the cliffs. Was it an accident? The ancients? Or something a bit more modern?

She just was becoming friends with the fellow ranger. She thought she knew him, but finds out that everything is not what it seems. When Anna struggles to make sense of what is happening in the park, she also has to take stock of her own personal demons that have come with her to this new work site.

Barr brings the Mesa Verde area to life. I have not been to this park, but I have been to other Anaszi sites in the southwest and she brings the striking beauty alive with her descriptions. Makes you want to pull up pictures on the Internet while you are reading. This series really allows the reader to be an armchair traveler!

It was a fun read. I am looking forward to discovering the others in the series.

Coyote Wind

Sometimes a book delivers to the reader a glimpse into a different world. Such is the case with Peter Bowen's Coyote Wind. Bowen brings to life a small community of Metis in Montana. The Metis people are a mix of French and native Indian cultures. There are many Metis in Canada and several communities in the United States.

Bowen's lead character is Gabriel Du Pre, a cattle brand inspector, who gets involved in a few investigations because he's the only "law" man available. He also is an excellent tracker and that comes in handy when he is assigned to look into a very old crash site. The mystery is not who was in the plane that went down so long ago, but how the extra skull and finger bones ended up there. And whose bones are they? And how did they end up in the crash site?

In this concise but twisting mystery novel, we discover the widower Gabriel's world of his lover and his two independent children, and his joy of being a fiddler man. It is a rough life but the only one that Gabriel knows, since his family has been in this community since before he was born.

While this book is written in a vernacular which may be hard to read for some, I found it fascinating. And Bowen manages to use this language to show Du Pre's humor. Du Pre is constantly referring to himself as just the "cow ass man", when he grumbles about doing more investigative work or when he is getting yelled at by his superior law officers.

A fun read and a great insight into a different subculture. Can't wait to read the next one.

Keeping Up With a Series - Part 1 - Dead in the Family

The latest book in the Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series is Dead in the Family. And it proves that even vampires have issues with their relatives. Of course your relatives are not a centuries old vampire from ancient Rome and his latest "child" a haunted Russian boy of a very famous family. Yours might be worse. Or not.

Sookie is having family issues too. She's recovering from the fairy war her great grandfather finished and that she nearly died in. Supposedly the door to the fairy realm has been closed. But she has found out that some have remained behind. And have been on her land. Was it her cousin Claude? He claims not - but he asks to be her roommate for a while...

Lots of things going on in this book, and as in any good saga the reader tries to stay in touch with what has been going on in Sookie's world /community. Some items and scenes of note: Sookie spending time with her little cousin Hunter who hears voices just like she does. Eric trying to stay one step ahead of the latest intrigue in vampire politics. Is his sheriffdom going to last? And he's trying to keep things running smoothly while his "dad" is in town. Sam is having family problems of his own - after the shape shifters have come out to the rest of the world. Are the shape shifters really going to have to be registered with the government? Bill develops a relationship with his modern relatives. And Sookie discovers and finds his "sister" in order to help him recover from the last battle. And just how good has Sookie's and Eric's relationship been lately?

Yep - all this and more. It is a book packed with recovery from the last 'storm' in Sookie's life. And if you read between the lines - or is it just the way Harris is sending us, we can guess some of the major events that might happen in the future. Or not. Harris has a brilliant way of keeping us entertained while we are guessing. And that is one of the reason why this series is so dang good.

I throughly enjoyed my latest glimpse into Sookie's funky universe. And I am eagerly awaiting to see what happens next. But in the meantime I'll enjoy the scenes with Pam (one of my favorite vamps)and Sookie and try not to laugh to loudly. And I'll try to speculate what happens next. It was a very fun and frothy read!

For my other post on the Sookie Stackhouse books - try this link.

Flavia's Back! The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

Our favorite young sleuth Flavia de Luce is back in her next adventure, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley. She has not abandoned her fascination with the study of poisons. But the famous (or infamous) victim in this book is not killed by poison - or is he? And this latest incident seems to have something to do with the death of another villager and what happened during the war. What will Flavia uncover as she digs around in the past?

I just love Flavia's character. Such joli le vive! Well - maybe not - the first scene has her pretending to be dead in the church graveyard and imaging her sisters and family crying. Ah, the dreams and the revenge of the little sister!

Some other fun points, we get to see what Flavia does to the latest of her sister Ophelia's suitors, and we learn more about her mysterious mother from her spinster aunt who comes to visit. And we get to learn more about the village and people of Bishop's Lacey. A fun frothy read and great sequel. I can not wait for the next one!

If you like to listen to audio books, this is one to try on audio. The narrator, Jayne Entwistle, is just perfect and she really brings Flavia's sarcasm and humor to life.

Best Food Writing 2009

Collections of non-fiction essays don't sound very hip and cool. They sound like something you're forced to read for Lit class. But if you have an interest in the topic or the theme, they can be great fun and a neat way to discover new authors. If you are an espiring foodie, or just concerned about what you eat, than this is the collection for you. Best Food Writing 2009 is edited by Holly Hughes and I am glad I finally checked it out.

Besides being filled with local authors Monica Eng and Mark Caro from the Chicago Tribune, there are pieces from Ruth Reichl, Calvin Trillian and Marcella Hazan. Some highlights from a great group of essays are: Kate Liesener's on the joy of Marshmallow Fluff and how it is made, Lettie Teague on Wine Scams (very interesting and apparently not that hard to do), Rachel Hutton on the celebrity of Spam, Hugh Garvey on how Tokyo is the cocktail capital of the world (who knew?) and Tim Stark on the misunderstood habanero. (In fact, that essay made me read his book that this excerpt was from - more on that later.)

There are essays on the topics of food and the family, resturants and chefs, home cooks, and the joy of eating. Something for everyone. I can hardly wait for the 2010 edition and meanwhile I am going back and hunting down the older editions. A fun read.