Books, Books & More Books

The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty is a series of stories all running in parallel and intertwining delightfully. If you had a deep, dark secret, would you put it in a letter to your love in the event of your death? (I would not. That sucker dies with me.) Well, that’s exactly what Cecilia’s husband does, except she find the letter before he dies. And that’s the end of her neat and tidy life. Tess also discovers a secret; her best-friend and her husband have fallen in love. She bolts back to Sydney, to her mom’s, to figure out what to do next. And then there’s Rachel who lost her daughter to an unresolved murder and just can’t let it go. These women’s lives all intersect as they deal with their pasts and their futures. Witty, real and thoroughly engaging, I’ve already put another of Liane Moriarty books on my self to read.

 

Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger was fascinating. Have you ever asked yourself why some products become all the rage – even stupid ones like pet rocks – while perfectly good products wither and die away? Why is it we talk about some products more than others? And how is it that word of mouth can actually be more influential than all those billions of dollars spent on advertising. Jonah Berger, a professor at Wharton, draws on his research to explain the six steps that make products or ideas contagious.

 

Speaking from Among the Bones is another in Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce novels. The narrator of this series is an eleven-year-old girl, part chemist, part detective, and all round smarty-pants. What a delightful character she is: confident, determined, and self-aware. In this story she’s hot on the heals of a murderer, for when the local patron saint’s tomb is opened – with Flavia holding her breath in anticipation – it is the body of Mr. Collicutt that’s found.

Bradley’s writing is clear and funny. His leading lady is irrepressible, and you will not be able to avoid falling for her hook, line and sinker. Living with her widowed father – she refers to her dead mother as “Harriet” because she never knew her as “mother” – and her two tormenting sisters at Buckshaw Manse, Flavia seems to attract trouble. Her father is weary of her turning up dead bodies, and is distracted by financial woes. Flavia cannot be reined in.

This is the 5th book in the series, and I’m relieved to see there is a sixth. Happily, I missed a couple in the middle and they are now in my library, just waiting to be devoured.

 

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny. You already know this woman is one of my favourite authors. This book is one of the earlier ones in the Inspector Gamache series. After being badly wounded in a horrible shootout, Gamache is haunted by the young officer who lost his life while the Surete stopped the act of terrorism that would have devastated half the northern hemisphere. The good inspector is in Quebec City to visit when he’s drawn into the murder of a man who has been hunting for the remains of Samuel de Champlain. You just never know who the bad guy will end up being. And sometimes the bad guy isn’t who the Inspector thinks, which is the focus of the second story that runs parallel in the book. The Inspector’s right hand man, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, is sent to Three Pines to see if Gamache’s team overlooked some evidence when they locked up Olivier for the murder of the hermit (in a previous book).  This is all because Olivier’s partner Gabriel refuses to believe Olivier did it and sends a letter every day to Armand that says only, Why did he move the body? Wonderful, wonderful, I love Lousie Penny.

 

Joyland by Stephen King, was so good I stayed up all night! Not one of his truly scary books, it felt more like a coming of age book. Devin Jones is a student who comes to work in a small-town amusement park called Joyland. From working the regular shifts as a carny to saving a little girl’s life, the year is one full of challenges and changes for Devin. His heart has been broken by a girl and he just can’t seem to get over it. He’s told by a fortune teller that two children will cross his path, and one has the sight, but she’s not sure which. And then there’s the ghost that haunts the scariest ride at the park. No, the book isn’t just about the ghost, and how she got to be that way, though based on King’s other books you might think the horror was the story. This book is all about heart. And Devin will lose his to a little boy with muscular dystrophy, who sees life in a unique way and who has the heart of a champion. Good to the very last drop. Thank you Mr. King.

 

The Fallen Angel by David Hewson begins with a man’s fall to his death from the balcony of his apartment in Rome. Nic Costa happens to be close to the scene and arrives to find his beautiful 17-year old daughter, Mina, in shock, leaning over her dead father. As the mystery of how Malise Gabriel died unfolds, the whole thing seems to echo a sixteenth century tragedy.

The story is carefully plotted and the twists and turns leave you always guessing what’s going to be uncovered next. It’s a engaging, if tragic, tale that captures the deceit and treachery of a broken family and the dark side of Rome’s seedy underworld. Hewson’s description of the ins and outs of Rome, as he guides you through the eyes of his ensamble of characters makes the whole thing feel like a scary vacation. And his interweaving of the story of Beatrice Cenci and her lurid murder trial is brilliant.