How Do I
Cathy's Picks
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Arnaldur Indridason Hypothermia Fiction |
| I’ve enjoyed the Swedish mysteries by Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell so I thought Hypothermia by Icelandic writer Arnaldur Indridason might be a good follow-up. The audiobook version was a good choice for my daily commute because it is short (7 discs) and mysteries keep my attention and are easy to listen to. And it's read by George Guidall, perhaps my favorite reader (listen to his Lord of the Rings). The main character in Hypothermia, Erlendur, is a middle-aged divorced police detective (reminiscent of Mankell’s Wallender), privately investigating the suicide of Maria, a depressed woman who was intrigued by the afterlife. The friend who finds her hanging from the rafters of a lakeside cottage is convinced it wasn’t suicide and sets Erlendur off on a hunt that uncovers seances, the traumatic drowning of Maria’s father during her childhood, and the experimental death and revival of a university student. The topic of suicide also prompts Erlendur to find closure to two missing person cases which were presumed suicides thirty years ago. Throughout the novel, pieces of Erlendur’s own life surface, in particular a blizzard in which he and his younger brother were lost when he was ten, and in which his brother disappeared, and his estranged relationship with his wife, son and daughter. This is not a bloody action thriller but a thoughtful investigation of interrelated events from the past that are tied together by “hypothermia,” an appropriate Icelandic topic. Recommended January 2012 |
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Black, Cara Murder in the Marais Mystery |
| If you liked Lisbeth Salander, the female computer-hacking investigator in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, you might like the Aimée Leduc mysteries by Cara Black. Aimée is also an unconventional and computer-savvy private investigator but the series has the advantage of taking place in Paris. Each book highlights a Parisian neighborhood so, if you are planning a trip to Paris, you might want to pick up the volume corresponding to the arrondissement in which you are staying (it’s an easy read for the plane ride). Here’s the background: Aimée’s mother, an American, abandoned Aimée when she was eight, leaving her in her father’s care. Aimée worked with her father, a police investigator, until he died in a bombing. Despite these traumatic experiences, she continues investigative work as Detective Leduc. Black’s stories take place in the 1990s. The history and politics of each neighborhood play a large part in the plot. For instance, in Murder in the Marais, since the Marais was an historically Jewish neighborhood, the murder has its roots in the Nazi occupation of Paris in the 1940s. Paralleling LeDuc’s investigation are chapters on individuals who play a role in the murder or the political situation and it is always interesting to see where they come in. Cara Black gives the reader a taste of Paris that is not in most guidebooks. Aimée lives in an Ile St. Louis apartment with “a temperamental electrical system, archaic plumbing and warped seventeenth-century parquet floors overlooking the Seine.” And the neighborhoods she investigates are often gritty. Cara Black, who lives in San Francisco, does historical research for each book. If you enjoy spunky female private investigators and Paris, I recommend the Aimée Leduc mysteries. Recommended January 2011 |
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Ziegelman, Jane 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement Nonfiction |
| Ziegelman portrays five families who lived in the tenement
at 97 Orchard Street in Manhattan (now the Tenement Museum) to tell
the history of immigrant foodways between 1863 (when the tenement
was built) and 1935 (when it was no longer used for residences). An
easy and interesting read, the author gives a broad and entertaining
history of food and social conditions in New York City during each
period. Ziegelman begins with the Glockners in the 1860s, a German
family who built the tenement. Then comes the Moore family from Ireland,
the German Jewish Gompertz family from Prussia in the 1870s, the Russian
Jewish Rogarshevsky family in the early 1900s, and finally the Italian
Baldizzi family in the 1920-30s. Ziegelman describes the living conditions
of each immigrant group and the food they would have commonly eaten.
97 Orchard gave me the final impetus I needed to visit the
Tenement Museum (http://www.tenement.org/) on the Lower East Side
in Manhattan, a followup I highly recommend, especially during this
time of immigration controversy. Recommended October 2010 |
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Summers, Carolyn Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East Nonfiction |
| If you’ve read Douglas Tallamy’s Bringing
Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens
and are interested in implementing its philosophy, Summers’ book is
a helpful resource for the Pittsburgh gardener. Tallamy’s book offers
a new gardening paradigm: instead of choosing “insect-resistant” plants,
one should choose native plants that native insects can feed on, which
in turn will provide food for native birds and other wildlife. It
is a way to make your garden sustainable and a haven of biodiversity.
Summers shows you how to “go native” by providing alternative indigenous
plants to invasive non-natives we all seem to have in our gardens.
And she’ll tell you what sorts of insects, especially butterflies,
feed on them. I must admit it is tough reading when one feels guilty
for growing forsythia, butterfly bush and Japanese barberry, especially
when they are thriving. And my lovely hostas and daylilies don’t qualify
as natives either. I might not tear these plants out, but I will introduce
more native plants and for this, Summers's book is a great help. She
provides lists of native alternatives for commonly grown trees, shrubs,
perennials and grasses, and since she is from New York state, the
plants she recommends should do well here. My only complaint is the
paucity of color photographs, but the internet provides photos for
identification. Any person interested in sustainable gardening should
find Summers’s book thought-provoking and useful, and at the least,
it will change the way you look at plants and insects. Recommended September 2010 |
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