Lakis Fourouklas's Blog, page 30

A Year in Reading 2011

One of my big favorites this year

I think I should start off by saying that I borrowed the title for this post from The Millions. And then… What can I say after that? Not much really. I can only state the fact that during this year I've read more books than ever before. And that 2011 was a year of new discoveries, during which I've fallen "in love" with Scandinavian crime fiction, felt pleasantly surprised by George R.R. Martin's work and continued my long journey into the world of Japanese fiction; but during it I also enjoyed reading some beautiful stories by European authors. Now here's a list of the books that I've read and reviewed:



David Baldacci – Hell's Corner

Neil Gaiman – The Graveyard Book

Jeffery Deaver – Edge

Haruki Murakami – Kafka on the Shore

Terry Goodkind – Wizard's First Rule

David Baldacci – The Sixth Man

Yoko Tawada – Where Europe Begins

Michael Connelly – The Fifth Witness

Hitomi Kanehara – Snakes and Earrings

Emma Donoghue – Room

Ian Rankin – The Complaints

Harlan Coben – Live Wire

Philip Pullman – The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

Jo Nesbo – The Devil's Star

John Sandford – Buried Prey

Banana Yoshimoto – The Lake

David Baldacci – One Summer

Charlaine Harris – Dead Reckoning

Téa Obreht – The Tiger's Wife

Karin Fossum – Bad Intentions

Lev Grossman – The Magician King

Stephen Kelman – Pigeon English

Janet Evanovich – Smokin' Seventeen

Sara Blaedel – Call Me Princess

Jussi Adler-Olsen – The Keeper of Lost Causes

Lee Child – Worth Dying For

Camilla Läckberg – The Preacher

Andrey Kurkov – Death and the Penguin

Amanda Kyle Williams – The Stranger You Seek

Evan Munday – The Dead Kid Detective Agency

Wilbur Smith – Those in Peril

Tess Gerritsen – The Silent Girl

Mukoma Wa Ngugi – Nairobi Heat

Sebastian Barry – On Canaan's Side

Lee Child – Second Son

Jo Nesbo – The Snowman

Tim Riley – Lennon

Andrey Kurkov – Penguin Lost

Stella Duffy – Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore

Stephen King – Mile 81

Ismet Prcic – Shards

Jose Saramago – Cain

Harlan Coben – Shelter

Jamil Ahmad – The Wandering Falcon

Amos Oz – Scenes from Village Life

Michael Connelly – Suicide Run

Mary Glickman – One More River

Joyce Carol Oates – The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares

Michael Connelly – Angle of Investigation

Karin Slaughter – Thorn in My Side

Various - No Rest for the Dead

Roberto Bolaño – Antwerp

Alessandro Baricco – Without Blood

Ian Rankin – The Impossible Dead

Michael Connelly – The Drop

Karin Fossum – The Caller

Tess Gerritsen – Freaks



These are the rest of the books that I've read this year but have not yet reviewed; either because it was too early to do so or due to the lack of time:



Marilynne Robinson – Gilead

Mako Yoshikawa – One Hundred and One Ways

Toni Morrison – Beloved

Margaret Atwood – Alias Grace

Amy Yamada – Trash

Dennis Lehane – Shutter Island

PD James – The Murder Room

Kobo Abe – The Woman in the Dunes

Colm Toibin – The Heather Blazing

David Baldacci – Deliver Us From Evil

Ogai Mori – The Wild Geese

George Pelecanos – Shoedog

Michael Connelly – The Reversal

Murasaki Shikibu – The Tale of Genji

Joseph Conrad – Heart of Darkness

Mordecai Richler – Cocksure

Kenzaburo Oe – Somersault

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Half of a Yellow Sun

Taichi Yamada – Strangers

Masako Togawa – The Master Key

Minette Walters – The Breaker

Yūko Tsushima – The Shooting Gallery

Yasushi Inoue – The Hunting Gun

Kyoko Mori – Shizuko's Daughter

Sōseki Natsume – The 210th Day

Paul Auster – The Book of Illusions

Hitomi Kanehara – Autofiction

Akira Yoshimura – Shipwrecks

Raymond Chandler – The Big Sleep

Stephen King – The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger

Richard Castle – Naked Heat

Rick Riordan – The Lost Hero

Edogawa Rampo – Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination

George R.R. Martin – A Game of Thrones

Dennis Lehane – Moonlight Mile

Hugh Laurie – The Gun Seller

Sōseki Natsume – I Am a Cat II

Hunter S. Thompson – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Harlan Coben – Live Wire

Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451

Miyuki Miyabe – Crossfire

Jeffery Deaver – Carte Blanche

Haruki Murakami – South of the Border, West of the Sun

Patrick Ness – The Knife of Never Letting Go

Daniel Kehlmann – Me and Kaminski

Bret Easton Ellis – Imperial Bedrooms

Yoko Ogawa – The Housekeeper and the Professor

Esther Freud – Hideous Kinky

Mario Vargas Llosa – Who Killed Palomino Molero?

Neil Gaiman – Stardust

Arturo Perez-Reverte – Purity of Blood

Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart

Kobo Abe – The Ark Sakura

Iris Johansen – Quinn

Natsume Sōseki – Kokoro

Andrea Kamilleri – The Track of Sand

Haruki Murakami – Pinball, 1973

Kathy Reichs – Flash and Bones

Shuichi Yoshida – Villain

Richard Castle – Heat Rises

A.D. Miller – Snowdrops

Julian Barnes – The Sense of an Ending

George Pelecanos – The Cut

Tatsuhiko Takimoto – Welcome to the NHK!

Marina Sonkina – Lucia's Eyes and Other Stories

Yoani Sanchez – Havana Real

Tessa Afshar – Pearl in the Sand

Haruki Murakami – 1Q84

David Baldacci – Zero Day

John Connolly – The Burning Soul

Georges Simenon – The Train

Ninni Holmqvist – The Unit

Kaori Ekuni – Twinkle Twinkle

Kwei Quartey – Children of the Street

Michael Ondaatje – The Cat's Table

David Baldacci – No Time Left

Kathy Reichs – Seizure

Barack Obama – Of Thee I Sing

Amy Yamada – Bedtime Eyes

Janet Evanovich – Explosive Eighteen

Thanhha Lai – Inside Out & Back AgainNeil Gaiman - Coraline

Hakan Nesser – The Return

Alex Kava – Hotwire

Patricia Cornwell – Red Mist

Paul Theroux – Murder in Mount Holly

Gillian Bradshaw – In Winter's Shadow.

John Grisham – The Litigators

Yasutaka Tsutsui – The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Stephen King – The Colorado Kid

Asa Larsson – Until Thy Wrath Be Past

Miranda July – No One Belongs Here More Than You

Sofi Oksanen – Purge

Hisham Matar – Anatomy of a Disappearance

Ryu Murakami – Popular Hits of the Showa Era

Thomas Caplan – The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen. Out on the 12th of January.Nick Arvin – The Reconstructionist

Vilmos Kondor – Budapest Noir. Out on February the 1st.

David Perry – The Cyclops Conspiracy. Out on February the 1st.

Raymond Khoury – The Devil's Elixir. Out on the 27th of December.

Val McDermid – The Retribution. Out on the 10th of January.

Philip Pullman – Two Crafty Criminals. Out on the 8th of May.

Niccolo Ammaniti – Me and You. Out at the end of January.

Ernesto Sabato – The Tunnel. Out on the 27th of December.

A.S. Byatt – Ragnarok. Out on February the 1st.



During the past twelve months I've also read 30 books in Greek, which brings the grand total to 190, if the math is right. Not bad at all, I'd dare say.

Book Review: Freaks by Tess Gerritsen

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The main protagonists in this short story by Tess Gerritsen, which only came out as an eBook, are the usual suspects: detective Jane Rizzoli and -"the queen of the dead"- medical examiner Maura Isles.

     The events of this case take place during one of the coldest winters in history in Boston, where the local police discovers the corpse of a young woman in a deserted church. Kimberly Rayner, as is the victim's name, looks undernourished and seems to have been strangled to death. While Rizzoli and Isles observe the scene of the crime, the most outstanding object of which is an open casket, they soon come to realize that apart from the cops there's another presence there; that of a scared young man who when spotted runs for his life with Jane in pursuit, who's bound to get him. Of course, when arrested, he instantly becomes the prime suspect, even though he insists that he's innocent. The man that goes by the name Lucas Henry says that he truly loved Kimberly, that they were soul mates and that all he ever tried to do was help her out. Truth be told, if someone ever saw the two of them standing next to each other, he would have no choice but believe his words, since they looked almost the same: deathly pale and ghost-like. Besides, according to Lucas their physique had to do with the fact that they were vampires. Not that they were attacking people in order to drink their blood, nothing like that; they just lived on… air, and blood, provided to them by some butcher or from a friend or two who got it from a blood bank.

      His story really sounds crazy, outrageous, but the police besides his presence at the scene of the crime, has no evidence whatsoever against him, while Dr. Isles is of the opinion that the two of them were suffering from a diagnosed illness which caused them to have shared delusions.

     But if it wasn't Lucas the one that killed the girl then who was? Well, the events are about to take a dramatic turn, which will bring Jane face to face with an extremely dangerous situation. Thankfully though, her good friend, the doctor, will once again come to save the day, as she will discover who the real perp is, using her usual means: science. The solution to the riddle will prove to be just as strange, as the case itself.

     This is a well-written story, which will undoubtedly satisfy the fans of this unique team of investigators.

Book Review: The Caller by Karin Fossum

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Karin Fossum is an author from Norway whom I've discovered only recently, so this is just the second of her books that I've come to read. The first one was Bad Intentions which I whole-heartily recommend to all crime fiction aficionados.

     The events of this book, in which the main protagonists are the usual suspects inspectors Sejer and Skarre, take place in a small provincial town in Norway. It all begins when somebody spills blood on a baby girl who sleeps in her pram beneath a tree in the yard, and thus gives the parents the scare of their lives, since at first they think that their kid is bleeding to death.

     Sejer is called to investigate the case, which at the beginning seems no more than an ill-humored prank. However at that very same night he receives a postcard with just a few words on it, according to which: Hell begins now. And it does, as during the next few days a series of unfortunate events, sometimes funny but mostly scary, will take place, which will spread a vale of terror over the town: A man will find his sheep dyed orange, a woman will read her obituary in the newspaper, and another one will receive a phone call which will make her rush to the hospital to visit her badly injured in a traffic accident daughter, who's not there.

     As the incidents increase day by day and the people get all the more scared, inspectors Sejer and Skarre do their best to discover who's behind these actions. However that will not prove so easy because, even though the perp seems to be a psychologically disturbed person, he's also highly intelligent and able to function well under pressure.

     The closer they get to him the better Sejer will come to understand his way of thinking. However as the perp will feel the breath of the law on his back, he will not feel scared. Instead he will decide to move ahead with his plans; plans that will make his past actions look nothing more than child's play.

     Once again the author puts too much weight on the inner world of her heroes; she describes their way of thinking and their troubled psyches, and thus delivers a book that can be read not only as a crime fiction novel but also as a sociological-psychological commentary.



By the same author:



Bad Intentions 

The Most Notable Books of Fiction of 2011

The New York Times have printed this year's list of the 100 most notable books in America. Since we are notable for only concerning ourselves with fiction here's a catalog of the titles that belong to this genre:



The Angel Esmeralda by Don DeLillio

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje

Chango's Beads and Two-Tone Shoes by William Kennedy

11/22/63 by Stephen King

The Free World by David Bezmozgis

Ghost Lights by Lydia Millet

Gryphon by Charles Baxter

House of Holes by Nicholson Baker

The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta

The London Train by Tessa Hadley

Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

A Moment in the Sun by John Sayles

My New American Life by Francine Prose

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

The Pale King by David Foster Wallace

Parallel Stories by Peter Nadas


The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

Stone Arabia by Dana Spiotta

The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson

The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht. Read my review here

The Tragedy of Arthur by Arthur Phillips

Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

Book Review: The Drop by Michael Connelly

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Harry Bosch is back, and even though he feels kind of rusty, he's as good as ever. The good detective is still working in the open-unsolved unit and as we find out right from the start the higher ups have decided to keep him in the Los Angeles police force for four more years, which in real time translates into thirty-nine months. Harry, who does not wish under any circumstances to retire, receives the news as a blessing. It's not that he wouldn't be able to live outside the force; it's just that solving crimes is maybe the only thing he can to do really well.

     His current partner is David Chu and the case they are called to investigate is that of one Lily Price, a woman's who was raped and brutally murdered back in 1989. At the beginning the case looks simple, since now, using the new technologies, they are able to extract the DNA of the perp, from traces of blood that were found on the victim's neck. The suspect has a history when it comes to crimes of this nature, but -and this is as big a But as you'd ever be able to get- he doesn't seem likely to have committed this particular crime, since when it happened he was only eight years old. And now the questions are: How did his blood get there? And, who's the real perp? As Bosch and Chu are about to start looking into it, a new case lands all of a sudden into their hands: the apparent suicide of the son of a councilman, with whom Harry clashed head to head more than once in the past. Given their ugly history he wonders as to whether it would be better if someone else handled the case, but then he learns that his involvement came as a direct request from the said councilman.

     So, having no word in the matter, the two partners head for the hotel where the man's body was found. He'd supposedly jumped from his room's balcony. This, at least at first, looks a simple case as well. However a few minimal clues that emerge here and there, some details that just don't fit, as well as some facts that soon come under Harry's attention, just complicate it. Thus, where he expected to sail through the case he finds himself wandering through a labyrinth made of secret and lies, and not before too long he comes to realize that he can't really trust anyone, since time and again people betray him.

     In the end the only person that he can really lean on, but also truly have faith in, is his daughter Maddie, who's decided to follow in his footsteps and become a cop. Harry is more proud of her that he could ever imagine himself to be and little by little he starts to train her for the future she chose. The more he trains her though, the more he feels like her ingenuity surpasses his, while her perception just about everything seems to get better and stronger all the time. Thus time and again she doesn't hesitate to point out to him some things he failed to notice, his small omissions. In the meantime a new woman comes into his life and he feels that something good could happen with her; something good and lasting; but not when things are as complicated as they now are.

     As Harry will struggle to solve these cases he'll have to, willingly or not, take a good look into his life and way of thinking, and maybe, just maybe, put some water in his wine, soften up a little, in order to give the people who worth it their due or simply a second chance.

     This is one of the best books Michael Connelly has written with this protagonist in the epicenter of the action. It reminds us of a crime novel and the story of a psyche at the same time. I'm sure the fans will love it, but this also offers the opportunity to the readers who have never met Bosch before to get to know one of the best fictional detectives out there.

Book Review: The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin

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One could say that it is sometimes a blessing to be a British crime fiction author, since the local publishers do not ask their writers to deliver a new book every six months, and thus the standards one has come to expect of them remain high as ever.

     Ian Rankin is one of those "lucky" authors and so we are not surprised to receive yet another great novel from him. In this his main protagonist is inspector Malcolm Fox whom we've first met in his previous novel, The Complaints (read my review here), who's now called to investigate whether three cops of the Kirkcaldy precinct have in any way facilitated the actions of one of their colleagues, who's been found guilty in a court of law for misconduct. Paul Carter, the policeman in question, was accused of asking favors of a particular kind from three women in exchange for not arresting them for some minor misdemeanors.

     From the very first moment that Fox and his partners, Joe Naysmith and Tony Kaye, arrive in town, they can feel a cloud of suspicion and enmity settle all over them. Of course that is hardly surprising since not a single cop likes the members of his team, because of what they do; and that is, in their eyes, work against their own people. One thing that's kind of strange, or rather surprising though, is that there's more to this case than what at first meets the eye. For starters, the man who gave Carter in was his uncle Alan, a retired cop. Then there are the connections of this said uncle with the criminal elements of the city. And, then come the facts of the distant past that suddenly spring to life during the investigation; facts that have taken place in Scotland back in 1985, a year of mayhem and relevant chaos, and which are in some strange way connected with what is happening today. Finally are the orders; the orders that come from the higher ups and who demand of Fox and his team to back off this case, as some ghosts are better to remain buried; but which ghosts and why?

     Rankin, using a simple investigative case as his vehicle, drives the reader back to the past and talks to him in a rather straightforward way about the widely unknown, or maybe forgotten, history of his country. Through the narration we get to learn about the student unrests of the 80's, the nationalist movement and the communists of the era, about the armed groups and the revolutions that never came to be. And returning back to the present we find out some things about modern day Scotland, a place where poverty and unemployment are widespread, where alcoholism, drug addiction and crime, as well as corruption rule the day.

     The author paints a world that is bleak, on the brink of destruction, but which, thankfully, is not quite there yet. And he also paints a world where hope for a better future is still, if barely, alive. Fox reminds us in one way or another of Rebus, but he is special in his own way. He doesn't drink, even though his sister is an alcoholic; he likes to be alone, even though he seems to desperately seek the company of a woman; and he does everything he possibly can to help those, who willingly or not make his life difficult. Of course he is not perfect, he has his flaws; but it's exactly these flaws that make him look so deeply humane.

     This is one of the best crime novels of the year. Just read it.

2011 National Book Award Winners Announced

The 2011 National Book Award winners were announced late last night. The winners in each category are:





Fiction:









Non-fiction:









Poetry:









Young People's Literature:

Costa Awards Shortlists revealed

The Costa Awards shortlists have been announced last night. Twenty books have been nominated in five different categories. The winner for each category will be announced on the 4th of January and the overall winner, for the book of the year award, will be revealed on the 24th. The nominated books in each category are:



Novel



The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes

A Summer of Drowning - John Burnside

Pure - Andrew Miller

My Darling I Wanted to Tell You - Louisa Young



First Novel



City of Bohane - Kevin Barry

The Last Hundred Days - Patrick McGuinness

Tiny Sunbirds Far Away - Christie Watson

Pao - Kerry Young



Biography



Thin Paths: Journeys In and Around an Italian Mountain Village - Julia Blackburn

Henry's Demons: Living with Schizophrenia - A Father and Son's Story - Patrick and Henry Cockburn

Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas - Matthew Hollis

Charles Dickens: A Life - Claire Tomalin



Poetry



The Bees - Carol Ann Duffy

Night - David Harsent

Fiere - Jackie Kay

November - Sean O'Brien



Children's Book



Flip - Martyn Bedford

The Unforgotten Coat - Frank Cottrell Boyce

Small Change for Stuart - Lissa Evans

Blood Red Road - Moira Young 

Book Review: Without Blood by Alessandro Baricco

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Baricco has a unique gift with words and an ability to enchant the readers with his stories. Every time I read one of his books I'm met with a new surprise, and it's always a pleasant one.

     The main protagonist in this novella is Nina. At the beginning of the story we meet her while hiding with her family in an old house in the countryside, in an anonymous country, during an unnamed civil war, which however reminds us of the Spanish.

     Nina's father, Manuel Roca, is not on the winning side, and he seems to have a lot of enemies, so they have to live in hiding to stay alive. But no matter how much they want to escape the past, one day it will catch up with them and the results will be devastating. Their enemies, headed by a man called Salinas, will track them down and a battle will ensue during which Manuel and his son will be killed. Little Nina however who during all this hustle was hidden in the basement will survive. And then…

     And then the years swiftly go by, and there comes a time that Nina sets out to take her revenge. She's afraid of nothing and of no one and she's determined to spare no effort to reach her goal. And thus yesterday's hunters become today's prey.

     Of course, as one would expect, in a Baricco story nothing is exactly the way it looks; the author seems to suggest that every coin has two different sides; but of course that doesn't mean that the one voids the other. At the end of the day what counts the most are the facts; it is them that write the history, it is them that engrave the souls. It is them thus that engraved Nina's soul, but they were not enough to completely rob her from her humanity, because even though she's out for revenge she's not willing to inflict more pain than the pain inflicted on her, while at sometime she reaches a certain point where she can stare with a clear eye on her enemies' truths. Besides, as we read: "You cannot dream of a better world and think that it will be delivered just because you ask for it." The world is what it is, the author seems to say, the past cannot change, but it's nevertheless worth the trouble to fight to make today and tomorrow a little bit better, a bit more humane.

     This is a well-written novella about the recurrent mistakes of men and their eternal passions.