The Man from Beijing and I Capture the Castle

This month my lady's bookclub chose two excellent books to read - The Man from Beijing by Henning Mankell, and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.  Vastly different, they both satisfied.

The Man from Beijing is my second Mankell read so far, the first being Faceless Killers (the first book of the Kurt Wallander mysteries).  Beijing is a stand-alone story with characters unfamiliar from Mankell's other books with the exception of the cold weather and countryside.  I appreciated the Kurt Wallander book as a true depiction of mystery solving via methodical (and often slow) police procedure.  This book contains minimal procedure and requires suspension of disbelief to follow the tale.  It is widesweeping (in geography and motivations) as the reader is taken from Denmark to London, Beijing and 1800's United States.  It is a far-fetched story of revenge, clashes of culture and tough decisions regarding whom to trust.  I appreciated the central character's authenticity but was disappointed by the number of coincidences that led to solving the case.  Ultimately, I found this a better story for learning something about early America and modern-day China than a mystery.  Mankell has his own impressive style and research behind the book again which is why I plan to return to his tales and I would still recommend the story for fiction readers, but I think die-hard mystery fans would find it troublesome. 

I Capture the Castle has gained many fans as a result of its recent re-printing.  The book was out-of-print for decades after its introduction to the world after WWII.  Thank goodness - It is a delight! 

I've read numerous books in the past year taking place in England so the eccentricities of the characters are nothing new.   Aside from the characteristic scenery, mouldering architecture and quirky characters though, this book could be a wonderful coming-of-age story for any land.  The narrator Cassandra voices the tale through her diary which is a difficult task for an author to pull off effectively.  She succeeds in injecting the exuberance, ecstasy and agony of teenagedom throughout Cassandra's tale and the ending was satisfyingly real (which means unsatisfying unlike most rom-coms today).  I highly recommend reading this book - especially for the literature lovers out there as she loves alluding to Jane Austen, quoting poetry (did everyone memorize poetry in the first half of the century!?) or starting interesting debates such as "Would you rather have a little Jane in your Catherine or a little Catherine in your Jane?" - now really, don't we all want to have that discussion?!

April Reads, Bought & Borrows

This was a busy month (and rainy!) but I managed to read some great, atypical books (for me), several of which I've been advocating heartily to others - see my UK post --  Now that the weather is turning, I suspect my reading list will slim significantly.  From my bookclub, I was introduced to two well-written non-fiction reads: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks & The Female Brain which were accessible and interesting. The Female Brain especially is a recommended book for women, fathers and husbands... I've been recommending it particularly to men with teen daughters.  Half of the book is reference material so it's concise, smart 5 chapters read quickly - plus you'll have some fascinating "did you know?" 's for your next dinner party!

The second half of the month I read a favorite past author of mine Sara Gruen, mainly due to my anxiety over the upcoming Water for Elephants movie release (I'm worried they'll ruin the very awesome story!).  Ape House was a surprising and touching story that reminded me of what Gruen is really all about in her stories: love of intelligent animals and how they teach us so much about our humanity.  It's inspired me to re-read Elephants and to hunt down some of her other tales. 

The last two were unusual for me again -- a book about a Salem witch and a modern researcher (not a particularly favorite topic for me) and a crime novel.  I actually sped through them both and enjoyed them a great deal.  The witch book was a great insight into Puritan society, or even medieval society really and the crime novel sated my need for a 4th Girl With/Who book by the deceased (and great) Stieg Larsson.