A Halloween mystery treat - Click this link to hear Kendall & Cooper Talk Mysteries, the Haunted kind, with author Deb Cuyle.  We also talk K&C ghost mystery stories, and offer some reading recommendations especially for this time of year

Suspenseful Downfall

J. A. Jance giving an engaging talk for a crowd at the Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation event

Downfall

By J. A. Jance

Did you say you’re looking to solve a murder mystery?  Here’s one that will heat you up with the ferocity of the chase and with the heat of Arizona.  Gather clues about a double murder with no-nonsense Sheriff Joanna Brady, to discover what leads to someone’s final downfall.  Whether or not you’re already a series fan, you’ll be thrilled to hear that the latest installment in the Joanna Brady saga delivers a suspenseful mystery.  If you haven’t dipped into this series before, you can dive right into this novel and fully enjoy it.

The bodies of two women are found at the base of a local, distinctive peak in the foothills that are just outside town.  Led by Joanna Brady, the police investigate to determine if this tragedy is an accident, a murder suicide, or a double homicide.  The investigation uncovers desperate circumstances behind seemingly quiet lives.  One of the enjoyable aspects of this book is that many clues uncovered lead in different, interesting directions.  How some of these converge into a relevant suspect is up to the reader, and the Sheriff to puzzle out.

Author J. A. Jance knows a lot about the setting. She spent much of her childhood in Bisbee, Arizona.  She still splits her time between Arizona and her home in the Seattle area.  At a recent event with the Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation, she spoke touchingly about her life, the strong women she’s known, and the obstacles she overcame becoming an author.  The stories of her life influence the characters of the mystery, creating a suspense that’s akin to reality.

Enjoy the researched information about the small town police department, and it’s partnerships with other enforcement agencies on particular cases.  Also an interesting K-9 patrol officer team contributes to the investigation.  Besides her job and the murder, Joanna is dealing with other cases, a re-election race for Sheriff, and some big family changes.

When you make tracks to your own investigation of Downfall you’ll see how Joanna Brady handles it all.

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Gene Wilder, A Love Story

My French Whore

A Love Story

                                                                                                                                  

By Gene Wilder

The treasured legacy of Gene Wilder includes his books.  He wrote a touching autobiography, and also an intriguing group of novels about love.  This is one of those novels.  It’s set partly in France and then later in Germany in 1918, during World War I.

The characters in this novel are skillfully molded by the author, revealing for each the motivations, personalities, emotional wounds, and uniqueness.  The beautiful writing reflects the insights gained from an author who made a lifetime of paying attention to people and interpreting their lives as both an actor and as a writer.

It’s almost the end of the War, and American Paul Peachy makes the life altering decision to enlist in the Army as a way to escape his dissatisfying life.  Out of the frying pan and into the fire.  Life circumstances quickly deteriorate, and new risks faced quickly escalate.  How Paul tries to save his life is most unexpected, and humorous, and also brings him into ever greater danger.  One of the people he meets in his new circumstances is a woman he falls deeply in love with.  As he faces imminent death, he’s never felt so alive.

Through all of his characters, Gene Wilder shows dramatically what people will do, and what they will believe in order to survive fast changing life circumstances.  And he shows the amazing ways that humor and that love will appear and sustain.  Surrounding these memorable characters, his research into the environment of the First World War era is well done.

As a writer and as an actor Gene Wilder was a genius in any comedic situation.  This novel shows that his genius extends to other highlights of human nature.  As he said about his writing in a New York Times interview in 1999, “the more I've written, the more I've found that there is a deep well in me somewhere that wants to express things that I'm not going to find unless I write them myself."

I wasn’t aware of Gene Wilder’s novels, and now I’m so glad to have discovered them and what they reveal about this talented man.

All The Light We Cannot See

All the Light We Cannot See
                                                           By Anthony Doerr

Here’s a novel about a blind, freckled little girl growing up in Paris.  She’s enjoying her childhood with her father who adores her.  At the same time an orphaned little boy and his sister are growing up in a children’s home that’s about 300 miles northeast of Paris in Zollverein, Germany.  As they all enter their teen years, World War II starts, and then The Occupation, and the French Resistance.  Life out of their control, and they are on opposite sides.  The reader naturally draws comparisons and contrasts between these children’s lives.  Eventually their lives directly collide.

This book is about intolerable choices forced onto people, and the resulting consequences to themselves and to the people around them.  “What the war did to dreamers.”  It also shines a light on the ways, against all odds, that people can try to be good to one another, in whatever ways they can see.  Each character comes alive to the reader, beyond the circumstances they suffer.  Their spirits plummet, and waver, and somehow survive the bleakness, on a glimmer of hope.  “So how, children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light?”

Hidden away in the folds of the story there’s a lustrous stone that’s older than the ages.  It’s said to invisibly protect the holder, but brings harm to those nearby.  But does this gem truly emit such powers, or is a stone simply a stone?

The author skillfully shows us the adaptability, and the resourcefulness of people, especially in these dire, war circumstances.  Every decision, every move is life or death.  Then a picture of kindness to one another, moments of kindness and courage displayed.  This book shows the courage that people act on and the courage that they learn.

All the Light We Cannot See was awarded the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.  The author’s short stories and essays have won four O. Henry prizes and been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories.  His work has been translated into over forty languages.

To paraphrase, those who fail to learn from history are destined to repeat it.  On that note, there is hope when this historical novel was recommended to me by a high school student.

Thereby hangs a tale . . . .

Juan Williams Tells How We the People Create History

We the People

By Juan Williams

This comprehensive American history tells how Americans, known and unknown contributed to this nation’s story.  The author poses interesting questions.  What would the Founding Fathers think about America today?  Where we are today, how did we get here?  We’re taught who the original Founding Fathers are; who are the modern day figures who have reshaped and affirmed the vision of America?

It’s an ambitious collection of essays that recount the history of events, and the people who drove them, told without bias and without judgment of right and wrong.  The chapters cover such interesting topics as the Kennedy’s and the American Melting Pot, Eleanor Roosevelt and Human Rights, George Meany and Labor Unions and the Rise of the Middle Class, the Rise of the Christian Right, Rachel Carson and the Environmental Movement, the Social Safety Net, the Right to Bear Arms, and other controversial topics.  It’s so interesting to learn how these debatable topics began, and how they’ve evolved.

The book is written as a conversational discussion.  At the start of each chapter he compares and contrasts what the original Founding Fathers would think or imagine if they were magically transported to the modern day America and confronted with each of the issues presented.  Then he presents the history of the issue, introducing the influential people as it evolves.  He doesn’t steer away from the political impacts; instead he illuminates all sides of political influences and also discusses Supreme Court decisions.  Finally he gives us an in depth and insightful analyses of the influential people themselves.  He describes in detail their life and what drove their passion, decisions, and influence.  His extraordinary research and thoughtful writing reveals information not well known about these historical figures.

Juan Williams worked for two decades at the Washington Post as a White House correspondent and a prize-winning columnist.  He has won an Emmy for his TV documentary writing.  For ten years he was a daily talk show host and senior political correspondent for NPR.  This is his fourth bestselling book.  He’s currently a top political analyst on the Fox News Channel.

I had the privilege to meet Juan Williams at his Town Hall appearance in Seattle.  He’s such a personable celebrity.  He’s a very patient and thoughtful debater, and presents information and arguments that will challenge you.  He has a rich curiosity and intellect.  Especially in this historic election year, this book is a great way to put into context the passionate people, their actions, and the extraordinary circumstances that have evolved into present day America.  The issues and questions we’re now debating, how did we get here?

Thereby hangs a tale . . . .

Yellowstone Wolves

Returning the Wild to Yellowstone

By Douglas W. Smith & Gary Ferguson

And

When the Wolves Returned

Restoring Nature’s Balance in Yellowstone

By Dorothy Hinshaw Patent and Photos by Dan Hartman and Cassie Hartman

“Amazingly, a study conducted in 2005 estimated that some two hundred thousand people were seeing wolves in Yellowstone every year, making it hands-down the best place on Earth to observe these animals in the wild. . . . For those who’ve been peering through the spotting scopes, an unforgettable aspect of such encounters is the wolf’s eyes, which can seem to look right through you.”

These books tell the story of the reintroduction of wolves into the wilds of the world’s first national park, Yellowstone.  This park was a part of Ulysses S. Grant’s legacy.  The park was dedicated to the enjoyment of all the people.  Since that time we’ve learned to dedicate it to the natural ecosystem for the plants and wildlife.  Fear, loathing, and ignorance about wolves drove their extinction from the park by the 1930’s.  It took 60 years for wolves to be returned to Yellowstone.

Returning the Wild to Yellowstone was written by an award-winning writer in partnership with the leader of the Yellowstone Wolf Project.  It’s a fascinating study into the harmful impacts to an ecosystem when a piece of it is completely removed.  Chapters are dedicated to the planning and initial release of the wolves, and overviews of how they settled into the park and what the project members observed.  It’s so interesting to read the behaviors of the wolf packs, and the resulting behaviors of the other animals.  Mixed in are heartwarming “Portrait of a Wolf” chapters.  Each of these focus on a different wolf, describing the life and personality of specific wolves that the project team got to know so well.  You’re also treated to some wonderful photography by the project team.

At the end of the first decade of the wolves’ return, there were six successful packs in the park.  “In truth absolutely no one thought this reintroduction would go so well.”  Reading this book will give you an appreciation for the hard work and dedication of the project team, as well as a great respect for the tenacity and perseverance of this beautiful animal, the wolf.

When the Wolves Returned is a short overview of the wolves’ return to Yellowstone.  This is a great book to share with children as well.  It clearly shows how “the balance of nature is always changting.  But when all the pieces of the puzzle are present, the extremes are eliminated.  Today Yellowstone is working its way back to a changing but healthy system, thanks to the wolves’ return.”  The story is told through captions to beautiful, artistic photography by Dan Hartman and Cassie Hartman.  They are a very talented father-daughter photography team who live on the northeast border of the park.  Dan’s work has been published by National Geographic and many other places.  You can see some of his work at www.wildlifealongtherockies.homestead.com