Bill's Best of 2014 Fiction

With the end of 2014 tonight I look back on a year in which I read just over 50 books which is about average for me. Over the past 15 years I have read 797 books.

My choices for the Best Fiction I have read in 2014 cover 4 very different books. As with other years my selections are not limited to books published in 2014.

Bill’s Best of 2014 Fiction are:

1.) Silver Totem of Shame by R.J. Harlick – For the second year in a row my top fiction read of the year was a Canadian mystery. Last year it was The Gifted by Gail Bowen. This year’s choice stays in Western Canada but is set in British Columbia.

There were several reasons I loved Silver Totem of Shame:

          a.) Setting – Being set in Canada is a plus for me;

b.) Personal connection – The murder took place in the Totem Pole carving shed on Granville Island, a location I have visited on many trips to Vancouver. I could see the murder in my mind from that familiarity;

c.) Strong characters – Sleuth, Meg Harris, and her husband, Eric Odjik, are both interesting people with a good relationship;

d.) Place, people and history – The mystery effectively integrates its setting, the residents of the area and their history to create a story that could only have taken place among the Haida people and their islands of Haida Gwaii; and,

e.) Social issues – Beyond being a good mystery the story looks at a current issue involving indigenous Canadians - the adoption of indigenous children by white Canadian families.

2.) An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris – It takes exceptional writing skill to take a well known real life story, the persecution and vindication of Alfred Dreyfus, and create a great work of fiction.

Harris achieves that feat by focusing on Georges Picquart, the French Army officer, who refused to let an injustice be perpetuated. Harris, by focusing on Picquart has a hero rather than a victim, Dreyfus, at the heart of the story.

It was inspiring to read of a man of integrity and moral courage who was ostracized, prosecuted and dismissed from the French Army but ultimately prevailed in having Dreyfus exonerated and personally being raised up to become Minister of War. 

3.) The Ascendant by Drew Chapman – While murder mysteries are usually my favourites The Ascendant reached the Best of 2014 list as a modern thriller. I have modest hopes that it will inspire more contemporary thrillers that do not dull the reader with an excessive body count.

For some reason I had never thought of cyber-warfare being real until I read the book. The technological attacks and counter-attacks between China and the United States were riveting. Not a physical bullet is fired but the virtual offensives are just as destructive. How many heroes of 21st Centuries thrillers rely on intellect rather physical violence? Unlike most current thrillers it was exciting and real rather than comic book.  How real was emphasized by the cyber attack on Sony over the movie, The Interview, and the subsequent downing of North Korea’s internet. (As an aside I watched The Interview with my family. It was partly curiosity and partly a personal protest against censorship that led me to watch the movie. It is often crude and never subtle. I did find The Interview entertaining. It is the opposite of The Ascendant in its plot being highly unreal.)

3.) Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller – I would never have expected that my favourite hero of the year would be an 82 year old American, Sheldon Horowitz, living in Norway.

Horowitz, a former marine and retired jeweller, struggling with issues of the elderly does not hesitate when a woman and a boy are in danger. He acts to protect a boy with whom he does not even share a language.

My appreciation of the book was summed up in the following paragraph:

The book is a modern epic that happens to be a mystery. Great themes of bravery, honour and loyalty share space with moments of absurdity. Horowitz displays improvisational skills on his journey that left me full of admiration.

It has been a good year of reading and my next post will feature my personal Best of category that I call Most Interesting.

 

Happy New Year readers and fellow bloggers!

Bodie Island Lighthouse and By Book or By Crook

Reading the first Lighthouse Library Mystery, By Book or By Crook, set in the Bodie Island Lighthouse on the Outer Banks of North Carolina I had to find out about the actual lighthouse. The cover image on the book accurately shows the lighthouse.

Eva (Vicki) has a lovely explanation in her author’s note of how the lighthouse inspired her:

The lighthouse setting and grounds are as wonderful as described. It is not however, a library. Nor is it large enough to house a collection of books, offices, staff rooms, two staircases or even an apartment.

But it is large enough to accommodate my imagination. And I hope the readers’ also.

 

The website outerbanks.com explains the current lighthouse is the third upon the site:

Luckily, the old adage "third time's a charm" proved true, and a third lighthouse was planned and began construction in 1871. This lighthouse was moved further North and further inland to a 15 acre site, and was nearly double the height of its predecessors. A lighthouse keepers' duplex was constructed at about the same time, and by 1872, the lighthouse was in operation, providing a beacon to passing ships with a First Order Fresnel Lens. In 1932, the Bodie Island Lighthouse became automated, and by 1953 it had been transferred into the care of the National Park Service.

The National Park website describes the climb inside the lighthouse:

The Bodie Island Lighthouse has just over 200 steps from the ground to the top, equal to climbing a 10-story building. The narrow stairs have a handrail only on one side, one-way traffic, and 9 landings.

While there is no library in the lighthouse it remains a striking landmark on the Outer Banks.

Trip Advisor has it rated the 2^nd of 8 attractions in the area of Nag’s Head. Reviewers have rated it at 4.5 out of 5 stars.

 
I hope our family travels will one day take us to the Outer Banks so I can visit the lighthouse.

By Book or By Crook by Eva Gates

By Book or By Crook by Eva Gates – The author is actually Canadian author, Vicki Delany, writing a new series, The Lighthouse Library Mysteries, under the name of Eva Gates. The cozy series is set in the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Lucy Richardson, a professionally trained librarian has been working at Harvard. She has achieved a credible education and a suitable job. She has a stifling life in Boston. Her well-to-do family led by her formidable mother has mapped out her life. Family friend, Richard Eric Lewiston III, known as Ricky, an associate in the law firm in which her father and his father are partners, has been designated her spouse-to-be in a modern form of arranged marriage. She has glided into her 30’s vaguely dissatisfied but hardly rebellious. Then Ricky proposes. Unwilling to be “trapped into a life of social expectations” Lucy rejects Ricky and decides to change her life.

She resigns her job and heads south to the Outer Banks to spend some time with Aunt Ellen and Uncle Amos. Shortly after arrival she is offered the position of assistant librarian at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library and the chance to live in the small apartment located on the 4^th floor of the lighthouse. She is glad to accept.

 

The library is in a whirl as she arrives as an exhibit of first editions of Jane Austen’s six books is about to open. Lucy describes holding the 1811edition of Sense and Sensibility

I closed my eyes again and breathed. The scent was of old paper and aging leather, carrying with it memories of the foggy streets of London, the sound of horse’s hooves rattling across the cobblestones, the gentle rustle of skirts and petticoats, and the cackle of fire.

The night before the opening of the exhibit the staff, Library board and local dignitaries gather at the Library to celebrate. Wine and beer are flowing freely and emotions are clashing. Marital discord and local rivalries within the library are unleashed.

Lucy is pleasantly diverted by Mayor Connor McNeil and Officer Butch Greenblatt. The handsome Mayor had been the first boy a teenage Lucy had kissed. The equally good looking Greenblatt invites Lucy to supper.

A scream suspends the festivities. Library Board Chair, Jonathan Uppiton, has been found dead in the rare books room beside the Austen exhibit.

Suspicion falls upon the Head Librarian, Bertie, who had a nasty exchange with Uppiton just before he was killed.

Still actual evidence is sparse and anyone from the party could have slipped upstairs and killed Uppiton.

Lucy is permitted to stay in her small apartment while the investigation continues into the murder. She brings Charles, the Library’s Himalayan cat, up to stay with her.

The exhibit opens the next day and is a great success despite the murder. Local and distant lovers of Jane Austen flock to the library.

Lucy starts giving lectures about Austen to sell out audiences. Bertie reassures Lucy that she need not have in depth knowledge of Austen’s life and work. She realizes Bertie is correct after answering several queries on where Austen lived in North Carolina.

The Library’s world is turned upside down again when Sense and Sensibility is stolen. Already in jeopardy Bertie’s future is even more uncertain.

While Lucy’s dinner with Butch is canceled the Mayor invites her out. Personally Lucy dresses carefully for her date with the Mayor:

It was unadorned, cut without much shape, but made of excellent linen. If I wore it with the black leather belt that had come with the yellow dress, it would give me some much-needed curves. But stark black seemed so ….. Boston. I eyed a three-quarter-sleeved yellow sweater, cropped at the waist that I’d bought for something to throw on over shorts if a summer evening turned cool. The sweater would give the outfit a pop of color.

Perfect.

Though ghost stories abound about the Lighthouse Lucy is determined to stay and clear Bertie.

The book flows smoothly. It is an interesting mystery and a fascinating setting. The mix of history and sea and shore has me wanting to visit the Outer Banks. It is an excellent cozy. As I know little more about Jane Austen beyond she never lived in North Carolina I cannot comment on the Austen element. I expect readers who love Austen would find the book even more enjoyable. The book will be released on February 3, 2015.

Canadian Corporate Spirit of Christmas

As I am in Calgay which is the home of WestJet it seemed fitting to provide a video of their annual Spirit of Giving. This year involved a village in the Dominican Republic.

 



The video made me a little prouder of Canada. More information is available on the company blog at http://blog.westjet.com/christmas-miracle-spirit-of-giving/.

I am with my sons and their partners in Calgary. We are going to Midnight Mass at the cathedral tonight and will enjoy Christmas Day together.

All the best to blogging friends and readers around the world!

The Great Sandhills and Standing Rock

My last post was a review of Cool Water by Dianne Warren in the form of a letter to the young man who had given me the book a few weeks ago. In the book Warren wrote about the landscape of southwestern Saskatchewan where the story was set.

On her website the author has a post about inspirations for her in writing the book which include landscape photos - http://www.diannewarrenauthor.com/book-inspiration/

The book opened with a 100 mile horse race from pioneer days much of which took place in the Great Sandhills. The same sandhills were in the contemporary part of the book.

Tourism Saskatchewan describes them:

The Great Sandhills of southwestern Saskatchewan are a unique 1900 sq km area of active desert-like sand dunes. Native grasses and small clumps of trees such as aspen, willow, and sagebrush flank the dune formations. Mule deer and antelope frequent the area.

Some dunes reach 15 – 20 metres in height.

In addition to wildlife several thousand cattle are pastured in the hills for several months of the year.

Oil and gas exploration takes place in the hills.

About 20 years ago our family had a summer trip around the province which included a stop in the Great Sandhills. Used to either bush or prairie it was an unusual experience to climb up the pure white sand hills and feel we were in a desert.

Warren’s photos above capture those hills which often have grass and/or trees at the base of the dunes.

A huge rock is further featured in the book. Buffalo and now cattle rub up against the rock. While rocks are not special in much of the world they are a rarity in the prairie.

Warren provides a photo of Standing Rock, a large rock on the prairie near Hazlet, Saskatchewan. It is a glacial erratic and stands out in a plain. In fact, it was used as a landmark by settlers of the area. It is 3.35 meters high and 9.14 meters long.

I have been to Hazlet to play Twilite baseball but I have not seen the rock.

I admire how Warren effectively incorporated geographic features of our province into Cool Water.

Cool Water by Dianne Warren

Cody

Thank you for giving me Cool Water by Dianne Warren. I started reading it early in the week. I was caught up in the story and read all Friday evening finishing the book just before midnight. This letter will be my review for my blog instead of a conventional book review.

Did the characters resonate as deeply with you as they did with me? While I am a generation removed from living on the farm at Meskanaw I knew people who could have inspired characters for the book.

I can see the quiet bachelor Willard, living with his sister-in-law Marian, so shy he can barely talk to Marian let alone express his feelings for her. We had an equally soft spoken gentle neighbour, John, who surprised and delighted the community at 50 by finding and marrying a fine lady.

I expect you had farm neighbours like Blaine and Vicki and their six kids, a family who worked hard but could not make a go of it on the farm. I have seen the frustration and hurt in men who saw their farms gradually taken away no matter how hard they worked.

Equally in my youth the town banker, Norval in the book, was respected as an important man in the community. His decisions on credit were critical. Still, as in the book, bankers were not so much feared as worried about by farmers.

Did you personally identify with Lee, the young farmer in his mid-20’s, who forwent the opportunity to go to university on scholarship to stay with his family and farm? I saw Lee as the man I could have become had I decided not to go to university and eventually become a lawyer. You also chose a life journey from the farm that took you to university and law.

The characters spoke to me as Saskatchewan voices. I find there is generally an understated tone to rural Saskatchewan people. We have emotions but restrain them in speech.

I appreciated the occasional humour in the book. Lee, making up a solemn formal description of a local cultural past-time in imitation of old books describing foreign cultures says:

The dunes provide a handy place for local teenagers to drink their ritual beer away from the watchful eyes of adults.

The book depicted for me what it feels like to live on a Saskatchewan farm. There is nothing in town life to compare with the sense of isolation and vastness of our province than to step outside a farm house deep in a summer night with the wind blowing strongly. You feel alone in the universe.

The book depicted the loneliness of living on a farm with the nearest neighbour a half mile or more away. At the same time Cool Water set out how close you become to neighbours when they are few in number. The bonds with my farm neighbours when I was growing up were stronger than I have experienced living in town.

Cool Water was very convincing to me in its portrayal of the land on the edge of the Great Sand Hills of southwestern Saskatchewan. I would be interested in your thoughts on the description of the area for you grew up far closer to those Hills. I have visited them but once in my life. I found them impressive as they rolled across the landscape, the steady wind of Saskatchewan constantly shifting the dunes.

I appreciated that Warren was content to have drama created by the characters dealing with genuine personal challenges, some from family relationships, others related to the harsh climate of Saskatchewan. Will it ever rain?

Warren connected the history of the land with the present.

The epic 100 mile horse race to open the book from pioneer days between two cowboys drew me into the book.

The huge buffalo rock that millions of buffalo would have rubbed against before the province was settled is now rubbed by cattle.

In real life, on my home quarter we looked back in history through the arrowheads my Dad found over the years when he was cultivating the summerfallow in the northeast corner where there had been an Indian campsite.

I was moved by how Warren created separate conclusions for all the characters that were so believable. I was fully involved in the lives of people of the fictional Juiliet and amazed how Warren told their stories in the context of a single day.

I have not read a work of fiction about Saskatchewan to compare with Cool Water since I read Who Has Seen the Wind by W.O. Mitchell decades ago. Each book has a lyrical quality to the writing. While I love Who Has Seen the Wind it was set in the 1930’s before I was born. Cool Water has characters and a setting of our generation.

It was a deserving winner of the Governor General’s Award for English Fiction in 2010. I will remember Cool Water.

Best wishes.

Bill

****

Cody is a good friend of my sons who grew up on his family's farm near Eatonia, (population 449 which is slightly smaller than Juliet’s 1,011) and now lives in Vancouver.

Gray Mountain and Real Life Legal Aid

John Grisham, in Gray Mountain, features a young New York City lawyer, Samantha Kofer, engaged in legal aid law in rural Virginia.

In the Mountain Legal Aid Clinic the lawyers do no criminal law. The clinic is privately funded through donations and some grants.

In Saskatchewan our provincial government funds a legal aid plan that provides legal assistance to the poor with regard to criminal matters and family law. The plan does not fund for representation in many of the areas of the Mountain clinic.

As a young lawyer I often handled legal aid cases. They were an opportunity to gain experience in court. In Saskatchewan they involved criminal law. When staff lawyers faced a conflict of interest with regard to a case or had too many files they could assign a case to a private lawyer. Members of my firm still do legal aid work. Because the payment schedule is low I now rarely handle a legal aid case.

Grisham evoked well the desperate situation of the poverty stricken with major legal problems. Without resources to hire a lawyer it is daunting to put forward a defence to a criminal charge or pursue a divorce. Legal Aid in Saskatchewan gives them a chance to be well represented.

Often it is hard for a lawyer doing legal aid as the lawyer can see their client has multiple problems. Solving the legal issue does not solve their life. It may be that there are American legal aid clinics, like Mountain, where lawyers also effectively function as social workers dealing with problems such as housing, employment and childcare. In Canada legal aid lawyers stay lawyers and would not venture into those other legal issues.

Grisham touched upon the challenges legal aid lawyers face in the daily influx of new cases or complications in ongoing cases. Probably because it would make the book too complex he did not truly delve into the daily life of a legal aid lawyer.

In Saskatchewan a legal aid lawyer would be glad to only have to deal with 1-3 new cases a day coming through the door. Here a legal aid lawyer at docket in Saskatchewan will have 6 or more new files to deal with each court day. They cannot give the extended time of the legal aid lawyers of Gray Mountain to every client.

 

The demands of constantly dealing with the influx of cases is far more stressful than in Gray Mountain. Sam feels the pressure of individual clients but is not really coping with the number of files real life Legal Aid lawyers must deal with in their offices.

Legal Aid lawyers I know empathsize with their clients but do not go beyond their professional boundaries to try to solve the crises of personal lives.

Grisham chose not to have Sam working on child protection cases. Among the most challenging of legal aid cases is the representation of parents from whom the government wants to take children. In Saskatchewan, the government where abuse and/or neglect is alleged, may seek with regard to children orders of supervision or a temporary committal to the government or permanent committal. I can recall many hours crafting arguments about what is the minimal acceptable level of parenting to keep children with their parents.

Grisham does express well the gratitude of many legal aid clients. They truly appreciate the efforts of their lawyer. Unlike business executives who can change lawyers on a whim legal aid clients are grateful to just have a lawyer. Often they have never had someone fight for them. They know but for their lawyer they would have no one to stand with them against the power of government.

Gray Mountain by John Grisham

Gray Mountain by John Grisham – My annual Grisham legal mystery flowed just as smoothly as the previous 21 books. I started the book Friday morning and was done Sunday evening. The book is a variation on a theme Grisham has used in other books. A lawyer in a big city big time law firm leaves the soulless mega firm for a different life in the law.

Unlike many of his contemporary mysteries Grisham goes back to 2008 for Gray Mountain. After a privileged upbringing in Washington D.C., Samantha Kofer has been diligently toiling away in New York City in corporate real estate for Scully and Pershing, the world’s largest law firm with 2,000 lawyers in various offices around the globe.

After 3 years of hard work - she billed 3,000 hours in her previous year - she has a financially comfortable lifestyle, chronic sleep deprivation and six souvenir models of skyscraper projects upon which she has worked.

However, the financial meltdown after the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market has left the huge firms in chaos as major clients collapse and the flow of money becomes a trickle. With little future work and uncertainty whether the world is in recession or depression drastic cuts are made.

At Scully and Pershing Samantha (Sam to her parents and close friends, Samantha at work and Sammie to no one) is furloughed for a year. She will receive no pay for 12 months though her health benefits will continue and, if she works for a non-profit rather than with a private law firm, she will be re-hired if economic circumstances are more favourable.

Turned down by 10 non-profits who have a surplus of New York lawyers applying for positions Samantha travels to the small town of Brady, Virginia for an interview with the Mountain Legal Aid Clinic.

Deep in the mountains of Appalachia the Mountain Clinic is an unconventional legal aid office in that it handles no criminal law. Privately and modestly funded it provides free representation for the poor in a variety of areas of civil law.

Big City Sam is alternately charmed and appalled by Brady and its inhabitants. She accepts, maybe even likes, being called Miss Sam but she is depressed by the deep and pervasive poverty.

Coal dominates the economy. The former underground mining has been replaced by surface mining, a euphemism for slicing the tops of mountains to extract the coal. The massive amounts of waste soil and rock are dumped into the surrounding valleys.

Black lung disease, formerly associated with underground mining, is surging as miners breathe in coal dust from the mining and the washing and the transportation of the coal. Safety regulations mean little to the big coal companies.

Sam meets Donovan Gray, a charismatic trial lawyer tilting at the coal companies in 5 different states for their dangerous practices. He is also young, handsome, charming and separated. Donovan is an aggressive trial lawyer with a handgun mounted on his dashboard as he is followed by the thugs of Big Coal.

At the Clinic Sam is swiftly caught up in the challenges faced by the poor, especially in economically depressed areas.

Phoebe Fanning has been beaten by her husband, player in the local meth industry and a heavy user of crystal meth. Fearful for her life a restraining order is sought. Sam joins Annette Brevard from the clinic in court fighting to protect Phoebe.

Mrs. Francine Clump, 80 and ailing, asks for a new will as she does not want her children, who care little for her, to have her 80 acres. She does not want the land sold to Big Coal and then ravaged.

Pamela Booker has been fired because of the bookkeeping hassle to her employer from Pamela being garnisheed for a credit card debt she did not realize still existed. She is living out of her car with her two young children.

Sam finds life on the front lines of human legal representation more intriguing than the dull days and nights of document review high above the streets and people of Manhattan.

It is an interesting, not great Grisham book, until ……….. To say more would spoil the book. I did not see the twist coming. Grisham does not often insert a dramatic change. It works brilliantly in Gray Mountain.

Big coal and poor people make for uneven fights unless the poor have a good lawyer. Does Sam want to join the fight?