The Street of a Thousand Blossoms

Gail Tsukiyama is a wonderful and prolific author of such novels as The Samurai's Garden and Women of the Silk, to mention just a couple.
 
The Street of a Thousand Blossoms tells the story of  Kenji and Hiroshi, who are orphaned as young boys and raised by their grandparents in a quiet neighborhood of Tokyo. The story spans almost 3 decades from the late 30's-60's.

Hiroshi has always dreamed of someday becoming a sumo master, while Kenji is fascinated by the masks of the Noh theater and dreams of being an artist. Pearl Harbor, and Japans entrance into the War changes everything.

Tsukiyama is at heart a wonderful storyteller. She takes the reader on a journey into another time and place and creates characters that we care about and teaches us a new way of looking at the world. This is a beautiful, well written, and at times sad novel. It is steeped in Japanese tradition and at the same time moves effortlessly in the modern world. Tsukiyama captures the essence of the fragile beauty of life that is constantly changing, like the title's cherry blossoms.

The Night Circus

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is the best book I've read in a long time. An incredible debut, I just didn't want it to end.

Morgenstern creates an amazing and magical world inside the travelling circus called     Le Cirque des Reves, that only opens from dusk until dawn. No matter how many times you enter that world, there are always more wonders to discover.

The plot circles around a challenge between two young illusionists that are magnetically drawn to one another; a challenge set up by their mentors years ago, bringing all sorts of interesting characters into the mix.

Totally original, totally mesmerizing, a feast for the imagination. This is one not to be missed.

The White Garden

The White Garden, A Novel of Virginia Woolf, by Stephanie Barron is a reimagining of Virginia Woolf's last days. There is a three week period between the time Woolf supposedly committed suicide by drowning herself in the river, and her body was found. During this time, Barron's mystery unfolds, in which Woolf is very much alive, yet possibly in grave danger.

The novel centers around American gardener Jo Bellamy, who has come to Sissinghurst Castle in England to view the famous White Garden, and to try to understand her grandfather's recent death. She finds out her grandfather knew Virginia Woolf when she discovers a diary written by Woolf, after the date she supposedly died.

The story unfolds a bit like The Da Vinci Code. There is a chase through grand old buildings in Europe, searching for clues in the form of ancient books and documents, there is a secret society, and one clue leads to the next as Jo tries to unravel the mystery she has stumbled upon.

I enjoyed reading this novel. It is an interesting, fun, historical mystery set in the beautiful English countryside with even a bit of romance thrown in for good measure.

Stephanie Barron aka Francine Mathews, a former intelligence analyst for the CIA, also writes The Jane Austin Mystery Series which might be worth checking out if you like this sort of thing.

Siam

Siam or The Woman Who Shot a Man is a slim, elegant novel by Lily Tuck. It takes place in Thailand in 1967 as the US begins bombing North Vietnam.

Claire, a young newlywed has just moved to Thailand with her husband James, a government contractor. Shortly after arriving, she meets Jim Thompson, an American Millionaire who is the owner of the Thai Silk Company. Within weeks, he disappears in the jungle and Claire becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened to him.

Tuck captures beautifully the strangeness of being in a foreign place. With little to occupy her days, Claire begins a slow descent into loneliness and even paranoia. The novel moves slowly and not a lot happens, yet  I felt transported to a particular time and place in history. A spare yet gripping novel.

Julia's Child

Julia's Child by Sarah Pinneo is an entertaining, contemporary novel about a Mom of two small boys who quits the corporate world to start an organic food company for toddlers, called Julia's Child.

At times it made me laugh, yet I found it somewhat contrived and predictable, with nothing special about the writing or the characters. Some of it was simply hard to believe.

However, Pinneo does capture the feeling of a harried Mom of young children trying to make all the right decisions for their health, while creating an income and finding time to actually spend with her family. This is the part of the novel that rang true.

A passable debut.

Luncheon of the Boating Party

I've come to love Susan Vreeland's historical fiction based on famous works of art. Luncheon of the Boating Party is perhaps my favorite. It is based on Renoir's famous painting Le Dejeuner des Canotiers.

In it, the fourteen people captured enjoying lunch along the Seine in 1880's France, come alive. Each modeled for Renoir for eight Sundays over the course of two months in late summer to complete the painting before the light of summer disappeared. Vreeland brings to life the actual people in the painting, who were friends or aquaintances of Renoir, artists, actresses, lovers, mimes, writers, seamstresses etc. All part of la vie moderne that he wanted to capture a fleeting moment of in his painting.

This was at the time when the group of Impressionists he was a part of was breaking apart. It was the biggest, most ambitious project taken on by any of them. Through Vreeland's brilliant storytelling, the painting comes alive, as well as the time and place. It is like taking a stroll through 19th century Paris and hanging out with friends, enjoying delicious food and wine along the Seine. Wonderful!

The Sparrow

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell is a futuristic novel about a Jesuit mission to a newly discovered planet and an unknown species. Sounds far fetched? Doria Russell's novels are so well researched and intriguing, I was captivated for most of the novel.

This novel works because it is character driven, by the group of  mismatched friends sent on the mission, led by Puerto Rican Priest and linguist Emelio Sanchez.

It was reminiscent of Star Trek, and in fact the author mentions Star Trek several times. Unfortunately, I found Doria Russell's take on first contact with a new species not at all original, and the fact that it devolved into such brutality was entirely unnecessary and in my opinion ruined the book.

We are to believe that Sanchez is something of a mystic or saint who has his faith in God tested to the limit. An interesting idea, badly executed.  I think I will skip the sequel Children of God.

The Snow Child

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey is a wonderful novel, mixing fairy tale magic with the realities of life, homesteading in the Alaskan wilderness in the 1920's.

Mabel and Jack always wanted children, but this was never to happen. Searching for a different life, they head to Alaska, only to discover vast wilderness, bitter winters, and hard earth that doesn't seem able to yield enough food to live on. One night, during the first snow of the season, they build a snow girl and dress her in mittens and a scarf. In the morning, she is gone and in her place a mysterious snow child seems to have appeared running through the trees and leaving little gifts for them.

Ivey does a wonderful job of blending magic with reality, exposing our greatest longings, hopes, dreams and fears. I was drawn into this story immediately and carried away to another world. It reminded me of why I love to read. A beautiful book.

The Bird Sisters

The Bird Sisters, the debut novel by Rebecca Rasmussen, is about two sisters, Milly and Twiss, who are old now, but are remembering back to the summer when they were teenage girls in Wisconson in 1947. That was the summer their cousin Bett came to live with them and everything in their lives changed.

I wanted to like this novel more than I actually did.  It was lacking in plot and character development, and for some reason, it never fully drew me in. The writing was promising though, and I would be willing to try another novel by Rasmussen in the future.

The Lake Shore Limited

I find Sue Miller's novels to be hit or miss. Her latest, The Lake Shore Limited, is, I believe, one of her most accomplished novels. She writes from the perspective of four different people whose lives all intersect around a play titled The Lake Shore Limited. It is very loosly based around events of 9/11 and the playwright's own experience of losing her lover on that day.

But this in no way is a story about 9/11. Is it about human reactions to events and to each other, and unexpected emotions that may or may not have surfaced at the time. Not all of the characters are likable, yet Miller does a masterful job of weaving the four stories together and giving enough depth to each character that we want to know what will happen to each of them.

This is also a story of how art effects life, and the novel mirrors the play of the title in that the end is really only a beginning, as in life itself.

Labyrinth

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse is an epic thriller similar in ways to the Da Vinci Code. It is a big, thick, historical mystery set in the Pyrenees mountains in modern day France and at the same location 800 years ago.

Alice, a volunteer at an archaeological dig, uncovers a tomb by accident, setting into motion events beyond her control, and bringing up memories of the past, and a woman named Alais, that she is strangely connected to. The mysterious labyrinth is always at the heart of the tale, as the past and present stories unfold.

The novel tells of the brutal crusade led by the Catholic Church, and at times was a bit violent for my taste, but Mosse stays true to history. The writing could have been better, and at times it was distracting going back and forth from past and present with so many characters to keep track of. However, if you like books filled with secret societies and grail hunts, this book is sure to keep you up half the night.

Agony of the Leaves

Agony of the Leaves by Laura Childs is the latest in the Tea Shop Mystery Series, reuniting us with Theodosia Browning and the crew of the Indigo Tea Shop in Charleston.

This time, Theodosia is hot on the trail of the murderer of her ex-boyfriend Parker Scully. These books are formulaic and pretty silly, but full of fantastic tea lore that I love. So, if you're looking for something light to read with a good cup of tea, it can be a satisfying choice.

Child's book is not to be confused with the wonderful non-fiction book The Agony of the Leaves: The Ecstasy of My Life with Tea, by tea expert Helen Gustafson. This is a wonderful book, highly recommended for tea lovers.