Staff Picks Category: Fiction

Guilt by Association by Marcia Clark [Book]

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I was not expecting to like this book. I thought that this was a person taking advantage of name recognition to put out a book. Whether or not that is the case, I found myself genuinely engaged by the characters in this legal thriller. Los Angeles D.A. Rachel Knight is stunned at the death of her colleague, Jake Pahlmeyer, who is found shot to death in a sleazy motel along with a 17-year-old boy, raising ugly suspicions that Rachel doesn’t want to acknowledge. Rachel is warned off investigating further, but risks her career to clear her friend’s name. Quick-paced with plot turns and authenticity — the author does know her stuff, prosecutorily. Recommended and looking forward to the next in the series.

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith [Book]

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In the latest installment of the popular No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, Mma Grace Makutsi gets married, Mma Precious Ramotswe deals with a complicated case of attacks on a farmer’s cattle, and the tiny white van takes on a metaphysical dimension. McCall Smith’s characters handle the large and small dilemmas of life with a realistic mix of (mostly) good intentions and human vulnerability. His prose is charming and the loving portrait of Botswana, always in the background, makes you want to go there.

The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [Graphic Novel]

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I.N.J Culbard illustrates Ian Edginton’s adaption of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Sign of Four. This graphic novel takes on the second Sherlock Holmes story in which the famed detective and Doctor Watson must locate a mysterious stolen treasure. Holmes applies his trademark acute deductive reasoning skills while sprinkling in impatient and acerbic comments to all those within an earshot.

Being a longtime admirer of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, seeing the tale presented as a graphic novel is a quite a treat.

True Grit by Charles Portis [Book]

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After learning that I was a fan of the recent True Grit film the Coen Brothers released in 2010, a co-worker told me that the novel which it was based is an essential read. This recommendation certainly did not disappoint.

The story takes place in the West at the close of the 19th century. It’s narrated by Mattie Ross, who shares her story of a quest to avenge the death of her father when she was just fourteen. She searches for a man with “true grit” who is up to the task of hunting down the killer. Mattie is exceptionally shrewd, fearless and also has an advanced understanding of law and finances. Traveling on her own, she finds and hires a heavy drinking, dirty, eye-patch wearing, cursing, aging bounty hunter named Roger “Rooser” Cogburn. Mattie and Cogburn are later joined by a Texas Ranger by the name of LaBoeuf. The three set out on the trail of murderer Tom Chaney.

True Grit is a real page turner of an adventure novel where stakeouts and gun fights are standard fare. Author Charles Portis also chooses to use a great deal of humor in the storytelling thanks to the wild Cogburn his constant one-upmanship between he and LaBoeuf. There’s also the constant reminder that the young Mattie is more educated and sensible at fourteen than any characters in the story.

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin [Book]

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A character-driven mystery set in rural Mississippi, we are slowly drawn into the stories and lives of Silas “32” Jones, a constable who twice daily has to direct traffic when the shift changes at the local mill, and Larry Ott, a mechanic who has been ostracized from the community. Larry and Silas were secret friends as children, both on the outside, Larry a white boy in a mostly black school who would rather read Stephen King books than do most anything else, and Silas as a poor black boy with a single mother, recently moved from Chicago. They play and fish in the woods, until a neighbor girl goes missing while on a first date with Larry. Now, 20 years later, another girl has gone missing and the suspicion is back on Larry. The story goes back-and-forth between the two timelines, with an increasingly complex network of connections. Check out this ‘rural noir.’

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell [Book]

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The latest work from the prodigious literary talent David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas and Black Swan Green, follows the eponymous Jacob De Zoet, a young Dutch accountant who arrives in feudal japan in 1799 on a quest to earn enough of a fortune to marry his love upon his return to Holland. The strength of Mitchell’s characterizations, his mastery of dramatic construction and the humor and grace with which he treats his characters is evident throughout this historical tale, as he fleshes out a world previously unimagined by the reader without ever delving into dull description or awkward exposition. The continued joy of discovery prevails even when the story takes dark and despairing turns for the protagonist. Highly recommended for fans of Mitchell, contemporary fiction and historical novels alike.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith [Book]

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The Regency classic meets Buffy the Vampire slayer in this hilarious mashup of Austen’s best-known novel with flesh-eating undead. England is in the grip of a plague of zombies and the Bennet girls are keeping them at bay thanks to their arcane training in “the deadly arts.” Elizabeth is distracted from her battle against the zombies by the arrival of Mr. Darcy, who is also well known for his swordsmanship. Will she marry him? Will she get her brains eaten? Most importantly, can the rotting bodies climbing out of their graves cause enough mayhem to disturb the manners of the country gentry?

Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby [Book]

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Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann [Book]

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A tale of Manhattan in the 70’s, of a remarkable man who walked on a wire strung between the top of the two trade center towers, and of some of the various and sundry people who watched him from below. An anguished Irish monk, a black hooker and her prostitute daughter, a Park Avenue matron mourning her son who died in Vietnam, a twenty-something artist, and a Guatemalan nurse, interact and come together in unpredictable ways. The characters are engaging and real; and the story, written beautifully, won the National Book Award.

While Mortals Sleep by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. [Book]

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In his touching preface, writer Dave Eggars refers to Kurt Vonnegut Jr. as a “hippie Mark Twain”. Never has Vonnegut’s appeal been described so accurately. While Mortals Sleep features unpublished, short fiction pieces by the Slaughterhouse- Five, Breakfast of Champions and Cats Cradle author. This is the second posthumously released collection (the first being Look At the Birdie) and it focuses solely on the author’s early work before receiving literary notoriety. In these stories, we get a preview of themes and tones that will exist later in his most famous writings: mainly bizarro science fiction and his select brand of acerbic wit and humor (this is where we mostly relate his Twain influence).

Luka and the fire of life by Salman Rushdie [Book]

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This wonderful book is a sequel to Haroun and the Sea of Stories, though it stands perfectly well on its own. Luka and the Fire of Life, like Haroun, is a children’s book, and like Haroun it is dedicated to one of Rushdie’s sons. This story is a fast-paced fantasy set in a world made up from bits and pieces of many stories, from ancient myths to Super Mario Brothers and Doctor Who. The writing is wonderfully witty, full of word play and puns and humour of many sorts; it had me chuckling immediately and erupting in belly laughs within the first few pages. Children and adults alike will get great pleasure from this book.

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway [Book]

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A haunting and memorable novel of hope, courage, and the daily struggle to survive that takes place during the 1992 siege of Sarajevo. After a mortar shell kills 22 people who were lined up in the town square to buy bread, a once famous cellist who viewed this from his window vows to pay tribute to each one during the next 22 days. Every afternoon he brings his chair to the spot where the shell had fallen, and plays a beautiful rendition of Albinoni’s Adiagio. Arrow, a gifted female sniper, is assigned to protect him. A powerful depiction of how the human spirit endures and life continues during the heartbreak of war.