Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

When I created this blog it of course was for the purpose for reviewing fiction titles. I have decided, however, that occasionally I will throw in a non-fiction title that reads like fiction. The first of these books is The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Bailey due out in August by Algonquin. This petite read (only 208 pages) took me about four to five hours to read and frankly, I probably know way more about snails than I need to know now.


I first picked this book up out of the box that the publisher's representative sent me because of the title. I was expecting something slightly quirky or funny, what I discovered led me to look at certain aspects of my personal life differently. In the book, the author has been confined to her bed due to a mysterious illness that took several years and many doctors to diagnose. This resonated deeply as my mother is dealing with a similar experience. It is odd when you live with someone who is ill for so long, that often the illness becomes a seperate entity and you always feel as if there is a houseguest that you can never get rid of.

During her confinement, the author's friend deliver's a snail to her and she starts living vicariously through the small mollusk. She watches as it explores the limited habitat and beyond and starts comparing her life to it's limited world. Her friends and family visit less and her body provides no respite. The only calming influence she has found is in the strange little creature that happily munches on portobello mushrooms and eggshells. As an author, she begins researching everything she can about snails and sees similarities and differences with her own life.

My mother has been sick three quarters of my life and at times, I admit, I have not been the most sympathetic daughter. It was harder when I was younger (those pesky teenage years) to not be able to go on school trips or go out with friends because I had to stay home to help take care of her. What I did learn from this experience at an early age though, is that life can be complicated and messy. I also learned that I will make the most of my life and be grateful for what I have been given and the health I have.

Fever Dream

I was turned on to the Agent Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child a few years ago after I saw a really bad movie for the first book in the series called Relic.  As an avid movie buff, I am painfully aware that Hollywood will often take creative license in order to create a movie script which was true in this case.  The first two books in the series Relic and Reliquary feature a fictional South American creature that preys on the people of New York and specifically the Natural History Museum. 

I typically tend to shy away from the horror genre both in books and film, not because I fear they will produce nightmares, but because they tend to be a bit predictable.  Oooh, the girl is by herself in the woods, will she be safe?  Let's just say, I would rather spend my time on something else.  What kept me reading this series, was not the plot, but the characters.  Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast and Lt. Vincent D'Agosta reminded me of Scully and Mulder from the X-Files.  Pendergast always searching (and finding) odd cases that involved the often unexplainable.  To counter Pendergast, there is Vinnie D'Agosta who is level headed, very New York cop who has to see it to believe it, but still somehow seems to follow Pendergast into the great unknown.  Come to find out, this is not a horror series at all, but a "what if" series that lets the reader try to decide what is real and what isn't.

The newest book in the series is Fever Dream due May 11 from Grand Central publishing.  It delves into the little known marriage of Pendergast that ended in his wife's tragic death on safari 12 years before.  While visiting his family home, Pendergast makes the alarming discovery that his wife Helen did not die in an accidental death as he always believed but was murdered.  With Vinnie by his side, he begins the investigation that will ultimately uncover a larger corporate cover up.

We see a very different side to Pendergast in this newest book.  While he has always worked outside the boundaries in the previous books in the series, he takes on a more ruthless and at times, more sadistic personality that gives his character even more added dimension.  At these times, you see that he is not so different from his criminally insane family members.

If you have not read the Pendergast series, I urge you to do so.  While Relic and Reliquary are the first two books in the series, they are very different than the remainder of the series as far as content.  Also, make sure that you read the non-Pendergast books Mount Dragon, Thunderhead and Ice Limit as they deal with characters that will have a bearing in later books.  Happy reading.

prestonchild.com

61 Hours

Originally when I started this blog, my intention was to review titles that were coming out in the future and give an opinion on whether I felt it was a good read or not. One of the added benefits I have discovered for this blog has been that I am reading authors or genres that I wouldn't normally read or haven't read in the past.

One of these authors that for some reason I have neglected in the past has been Lee Child and his Jack Reacher series. This last weekend I read 61 Hours due in May from Delacorte Press. This broke a cardinal rule for me as I never read any series out of order. It's a weird OCD thing I have, I admit. All I can say is, what the heck have I been doing all these years, missing out on one of the best suspense writers I have ever read. 61 Hours was fast paced and a very smart read.

Jack Reacher is stranded in a small town in South Dakota in the middle of winter while the local police are trying to protect a local witness in a drug case. The only problem is the local economy is tied into a new prison and all the officers must respond in the event of a prison break or riot which could potentially leave their witness unprotected.

At first, Reacher strikes the reader as someone who is lonely and willing to forsake the rest of the world. He is not tied to anyone or anything. Upon closer inspection though, when push comes to shove, he is not only willing to protect people he has just met, but is willing to give his life for them, because that is what is right. While a hard man who has lived a hard life, Reacher still comes across as sympathetic and human.

61 Hours has made me decide to read all the Reacher series and I strongly recommend, that if you haven't picked them up, then go to your local library or bookstore and do so.

Blood Oath

Do you ever get a giddy feeling when you know you have come across something that is truly great? That is how I felt after reading Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth coming in May from Putnam Publishing. This debut novel combines wit, intrigue and the supernatural to form a spectacular adventure of the mind.

Zach Barrows is an up and coming White House shining star and believes he can handle any job the President can throw at him. Little does he know that the President still has a few surprises in store for him by making him the "handler" of Nathaniel Cade. Barrows looks at the job as a demotion and finds it hard to believe that his new assignment is in fact a vampire pardoned during Andrew Johnson's presidency. He soon realizes that the impossible is true and his life has just taken on a whole new direction.

Farnsworth bases his modern story on a little known historical fact that President Johnson really did pardon someone for vampirism. This book reminds me of the Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's Pendergast novels with its attention to historical detail that engages the reader without boring them or becoming too analytical. It also has a sense of quirkiness that keeps the reader guessing. I am genuinely looking forward to the next installment of the President's vampire and hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.

Black Magic Sanction

When it comes to the paranormal genre, most people either love it or hate it. I usually read certain authors within the genre: Patricia Briggs, Charlaine Harris (before the TV show), etc. One of the authors that I follow is Kim Harrison, as her books are smart, witty and fast moving. One of the reasons I like Kim Harrison, is that she is not afraid to take chances with her storylines. If it drives the story or series forward, she will give up a beloved character or introduce a controversial storyline to keep the plot moving, even at the risk of upsetting the reader.

Black Magic Sanction (March 2010) is the next book in the Rachel Morgan Hollows series. Ms. Morgan is a witch bounty hunter who is business partner with a pixie and living vampire. In this current installment (8th in series), Rachel who has been recently shunned in the witch community, must figure out a way to reverse their decision. This seems simple enough, however, throw in witches trying to murder her and other witches able to summon her as if she were a demon and the story kicks up to a whole new level.

If you have not read this series, I recommend them and urge you to start with Dead Witch Walking (all titles play off Clint Eastwood movie titles).

The Passage

In a recent article in Entertainment Weekly, author Stephen King mentioned the book The Passage by Justin Cronin (June 2010) as a upcoming must read. I agree, although I had to power through the beginning of the book as I felt a disconnect with some of the initial characters and scenarios leading into the heart of the story. I feel that about another 100 pages needs to be edited out as a few passages throughout the book tend to become a little tedious in the details.

The main premise of the book is a post-apocalyptic society after a "vampire" virus spreads through America. The beginning of the book deals with how the virus was brought to America and used by the government/military in virology experiments on 12 death row inmates and finally a little girl named Amy.

Amy, a young girl who is abandoned at a nunnery early in the story, forms a telekinetic bond with the virals (the vampiric beings), in which she understands them and also can control them.

In California, a community called the Colony has formed during the Apocalypse and has maintained and existence that has withstood infiltration by the mutated beings for several generations. In this community is a young man named Peter Jaxon who will ultimately lead Amy and small group of friends to the place where it all began and also begin the process of reclaiming mankind.

This book reminded me of I am Legend, with the vampire virology and the characters' feeling of isolation from the world. This book, however, allowed me to have a sense of hope that mankind will prevail.

Once a Spy

We have all been caught up in the mystery and intrigue of classic spy characters like James Bond and Jack Ryan due to movie dramitizations of popular novels. We generally associate spys with suave debonair movie idealizations, when in fact most literary spys have very fallible lives.

A book that dramatically illustrates this point is Once A Spy by Keith Thomson due in March from Doubleday Books. Character Charlie Clark gets a rude awakening when the father he always assumed was a low key appliance salesman, turns out to be a former CIA operative. This is only the beginning, Charlie's father Drummond has alzheimers, and now the CIA want him "contained" as he might inadvertantly disclose information regarding still active ops. Once a Spy allows readers to get a dose of a classic spy novel with clandestine meetings, gadgetry and shootouts, but the book really deals with the growing relationship between father and son. Through some serious and sometimes comical situations to evade the "bad guys,", Charlie and Drummond's relationship evolves from distant to close.

This quick, easy read had the nostalgia of Ian Fleming or John Lecarre, but with the humor of Man from U.N.C.L.E and Wild Wild West (yes, that dates me, but I watched them in reruns as a kid). Charlie and Drummond have to create makeshift disguises, forge alliances with shady characters and interpret code from racing forms in Drummond's moments of lucidity. This is a first novel, and while I had a few issues with some of the plot construction, it was a fun read and I would recommend it.