Death of a Red Heroine (Qiu Xiaolong)

I adore books that cast me in a midst of a country, immerse me in all the senses, especially taste and smell, not withstanding a complicated culture and history like China's. Granted, Xiaolong has written the protagonist of his first crime novel--Chief Inspector Chen--as one of a kind. Chen is an English and literature scholar well versed in Chinese and Western poets, who writes and recites poetry throughout the novel. Added to that is Chief Inspector's penchant for good food, which he describes in succulent detail. So, the promotion to head of a "special" crime force seems strange to not only the reader, but to his colleagues as well. When he is placed on a case that involves the murder of Guan Hongying, a designated "national role-model worker" in the reign of Chairman Mao, everyone doubts Chen will be able to solve the case. More so when the case turns political and the high cadres--the upper echelon of the Communist Party--may be involved. The prose itself is tough to read, a stilted, unnatural English, which may lie in the difficulty of the translation or the style of the author. The author loses some points for the deux ex machina to conclude the novel, however clever the interweaving of the Chinese setting and conflicts fascinate me in this mystery story.

Style, baby, STYLE

You're not getting any reader through your piece of prose, unless you've got style. And part of style, lies in knowing the rules. Everyone says that, right? 'Cause once you know the rules, then you know which ones to break. That's the beauty of it. So, learn 'em and learn 'em good.
Then your very own styled prose is filled with broken bits of standards along with idiosyncrasies no one else can claim.

Time-Tested Writing Guide:
William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White. The Elements of Style: http://www.bartleby.com/141/

For Science Writing:
A Field Guide for Science Writers, 2nd Edition. Deborah Blum, Mary Knudson, Robin Marantz Henig, Eds. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

For Non-Fiction Writing:
John Franklin. Writing For Story: Craft Secrets of Dramatic Non-Fiction. New York: PLUME, 1986.

William Zinsser. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Non-Fiction. New York: HarperCollins, 1976.

For Memoir:

Natalie Goldberg. Writing Down the Bones. Boston & London: Shambala, 1986.

For Travel Writing:
L. Peat O'Neil. Travel Writing: See the World. Sell the Story. Cincinatti, OH: Writer's Digest Books, 1996.

The Seven Sisters (Margaret Drabble)

Half of us in the book club were split on whether The Seven Sisters was a good read or not. Sure, I respect the limited perspective offered by Drabble's main character Candida in this novel, as the world is seen only through her somewhat naive glimpses of the world around her. We never find out full truths or explore beyond what Candida can see. She, in her intimidated way, rarely ventures out beyond what her imagination allows. So, even the move to one of London's seedier sides from her very comfortable married life in Farlingham is a surprise. A move motivated by the infidelity of her husband Andrew, the acceptance of the upper class community of his affair with a mother whose daughter committed suicide. Candida's move also motivated by an isolation from her own three daughters, communication and closeness being her weaknesses. But I couldn't get past the affected writing, the shifts in perspective that turn out to be lies, and the pretenses of death. So, that the drama is as superficial as the world as I understand it through the main character's eyes.

No Country for Old Men (Cormac McCarthy)

After reading The Road and hearing the movie, No Country for Old Men, was receiving accolade after accolade, I was determined to read this 2005 McCarthy book. Boy, oh, boy was I glad I did. What a read. I had trouble putting it down. You know, those books that you read right before sleep, where your eyes grow heavy and your head starts to nod. Well, that just didn't happen with this book. In fact, I literally felt my adrenaline start to race, and my eyes scanned quicker, trying to keep pace with McCarthy's writing, flipping pages, curious as all hell to see what happens next. The dialogue is one of the best I've read, even though the truisms coming from bad-to-the-bone Anton Chigurgh and welder-on-the-run Llewelyn Moss sound like they could have come from the same character. I love what the book jacket depicts as the theme: "an enduring meditation on the ties of love and blood and duty that inform lives and shape destinies." The characters all seem to embody the belief that they are, not was or will be, just are. So be their demise. The only one that seems to escape this predetermined existentialism is Sheriff Bell, who follows the characters throughout the book, only to make his own decision on whether to stay with the killer til his own bitter end or to make a change that might save his own life, regardless of right or wrong.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver)

Kingsolver never fails to send me flat in awe-struck wonder at her non-fiction prose and send me reeling from the truths that sink in after a read. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is no different, save for contributions to this book from husband Steven Hopp and daughter Camille Kingsolver. Moving from dry, water-deprived Tucson to verdant farm in the Southern Appalachians, Kingsolver and her family resolve to live on what they can grow in their garden, raise in their chicken and turkey coops and buy locally. What the book becomes is a diary of that experience, including recipes for each season, and a testament to how possible this venture can be. A book club book, we came together on May 3rd over a completely local dinner, determined to change our shopping ways after reading this book and understanding better the distances our food travels to our table and at what cost to our local farms and dependence on oil. I went to the local farmer's market to buy the book club dinner I was hosting. Spinach so crisp, I ate it like lettuce the entire week. Cilantro, long, bushy, so smelly. A thick slap of halibut that melted, flaked when grilled. Asparagus, spicy red potatoes. And wine from Bainbridge Island and Mt. Baker. Over and over I heard from my book club friends how wonderful the meal was . . . and all I can say is that I did very little but cook it. It's the love and work the farmers put into that food that brought out flavor we so miss when we buy sub-quality food from the grocery store.