"The Luminaries" by Eleanor Catton~Man Booker Prize Winner

SUMMARY :

Winner of the 2013 Man Booker Prize and Canada's Governor General's Literary Award, a breathtaking feat of storytelling where everything is connected, but nothing is as it seems....It is 1866, and young Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On the stormy night of his arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men who have men in secret to discuss a series of unexplained events: A wealthy man has vanished, a prostitute has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely ornate as the night sky.

Richly evoking a mid-nineteenth-century world of shipping, banking, and gold rush boom and bus, The Luminaries is a brilliantly constructed, fiendishly clever ghost story and a gripping page-turner. It is a thrilling achievement for someone still in her midtwenties, and will confirm for critics and readers that Eleanor Catton is one of the brightest stars in the international writing firmament.


PARTICULARS OF THIS BOOK :

Published by Little, Brown and Co.
Pages:  848
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Author:  Eleanor Catton



ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

Eleanor Catton was awarded the 2013 Man Booker Prize for The Luminaries. Her first novel, The Rehearsal, won the 2009 Betty Trask Award and the Adam Prize in Creative Writing, and was long-listed for the Orange Prize and short-listed for the Dylan Thomas Prize. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and an MA in fiction writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters. Born in Canada, Catton was raised in New Zealand, where she now lives.


VIDEO OF MS CATTON DISCUSSING HER BOOK:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :

What would a 28 year old "child" have to say that would cause her to win the Man Booker Prize we might ask.  I certainly did when I picked up "The Luminaries" to decipher the mystery.  This is a hefty book of over 800 pages...is it just the sheer volume of words and the juggling of them that makes them worthy?  I was interested in the pre-press I'd received giving Ms Catton such accolades as that she was a writer in the vein of Charles Dickens (hence the volume of letters/words), with touches of other famous Victorian authors and famous writers of note.  I don't care for it when new authors are compared to the classics...somehow it sets them up not to be given credit for themselves.  In this case, Eleanor Catton earns every single laud she gets.

While her novel is a load to carry or sit with to devour, it is pure and strong, and her words have a clear ring of truth.  Her writing style is crystalline.  Not at all heavy and burdened by the verbose as some classic authors can be...  Catton is readable.

Not to put too fine a point on the summary of this novel, I think the immediate setting of a barroom at night with a group of otherwise, seemingly unrelated men is a perfect one.  Our poor protagonist, Walter Moody, steps into a secret meeting unbeknownst to him, and becomes a divining tool of sorts for the problem/mystery they are struggling with.

I love the complication of manners and the assortment of characters we're introduced to in this novel.  Diggers and diviners, dolls and dandies, devilish and divine they are all particularly interesting....gold mad and money hunting...running against a Zodiac circle of time. 

Initially, a thread of the story is introduced which concerns a prostitute, a murdered man and a towns people, but I was not dragged into the heart of the book deeply enough, quickly enough, sorry to say.  It may have been the season with all the holiday rush and expended energies.  This is a book I simply couldn't get entrenched in more than mid-way.  However, I wanted to give a quick summary for the moment because I do intend to come back to it to finish it.

I think this is a rare novel.  It's beautifully written.  Catton has a mesmerizing voice and a story to tell.  I liked her attaching the metaphysical to the whole, as well.

While I didn't have time to finish the book this time through, I will be finishing it in the new year.
And, so far, I give the book a 4.5 stars.

I hope you'll take up the challenge and put this one on your Christmas list.  There is no doubt about Catton's writing style and gorgeous use of words.

Deborah/TheBookishDame

"Murder As A Fine Art" by David Morrell~Thriller!

SUMMARY :

GASLIT LONDON IS BROUGHT TO ITS KNEES IN DAVID MORRELL'S BRILLIANT HISTORICAL THRILLER.

Thomas De Quincey, infamous for his memoir Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, is the major suspect in a series of ferocious mass murders identical to ones that terrorized London forty-three years earlier.

The blueprint for the killings seems to be De Quincey's essay "On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts." Desperate to clear his name but crippled by opium addiction, De Quincey is aided by his devoted daughter Emily and a pair of determined Scotland Yard detectives.

In Murder as a Fine Art, David Morrell plucks De Quincey, Victorian London, and the Ratcliffe Highway murders from history. Fogbound streets become a battleground between a literary star and a brilliant murderer, whose lives are linked by secrets long buried but never forgotten.

Praise for MURDER AS A FINE ART

“Murder As a Fine Art by David Morrell is a masterpiece—I don’t use that word lightly—a fantastic historical thriller, beautifully written, intricately plotted, and populated with unforgettable characters. It brilliantly recreates the London of gaslit streets, fogs, hansom cabs, and Scotland Yard. If you liked The Alienist, you will absolutely love this book. I was spellbound from the first page to last.”

—Douglas Preston, #1 bestselling author of The Monster of Florence

“London 1854, noxious yellow fogs, reeking slums, intrigues in high places, murders most foul, but instead of Sherlock Holmes solving crimes via the fine art of deduction, we have the historical English Opium-Eater himself, Thomas De Quincey. David Morrell fans -- and they are Legion -- can look forward to celebrating Murder As a Fine Art as one of their favorite author's strongest and boldest books in years.”

—Dan Simmons, New York Times bestselling author of Drood and The Terror

“Morrell’s use of De Quincey’s life is amazing. I literally couldn’t put it down: I felt as though I were in Dickens when he described London’s fog and in Wilkie Collins when we entered Emily’s diary. There were beautiful touches all the way through. Murder As a Fine Art is a triumph.”

—Robert Morrison, author of The English Opium-Eater: A Biography of Thomas De Quincey

“I enjoyed Murder As a Fine Art immensely. I admired the way Morrell deftly took so much material from De Quincey's life and wove it into the plot, and also how well he created a sense of so many dimensions of Victorian London. Quite apart from its being a gripping thriller!”

—Grevel Lindop, author of The Opium-Eater: A Biography of Thomas De Quincey

PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :
Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Mulholland Books
Hardcover; 368p
ISBN-10: 0316216798
Purchase this novel:  Amazon


ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

David Morrell is a Canadian novelist from Kitchener, Ontario, who has been living in the United States for a number of years. He is best known for his debut 1972 novel First Blood, which would later become a successful film franchise starring Sylvester Stallone. More recently, he has been writing the Captain America comic books limited-series The Chosen.

For more information on David Morrell and his novels, please visit the official website. You can also follow David on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.


INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR !!!!

The Bookish Dame is priviledged to bring this interview today with this formitable author.  Thank you, Mr. Morrell for agreeing to stop by...

Here are some simple questions for you:

1)        Tell us something about yourself, please.  How do most people describe you?

 

I like to joke that I’m a mild-mannered former professor who loves to write suspense.  I have a Ph D in American literature from Penn State. I was a full professor in the English department at the University of Iowa. To some, it’s a contradiction that an author with my background loves to write thrillers and mysteries, but to me, it makes perfect sense. For one thing, the genre offers a wonderful opportunity to reach a wide range of readers. For another, I think that thrillers and mysteries offer a wonderful way in which to experiment.  There are no inferior genres, only inferior writers in those genres. My childhood was difficult. My father was a pilot who died in combat. My mother couldn’t take care of me and earn a living, so she put me in an orphanage. Later she remarried, but my stepfather didn’t like children.  There was a lot of fighting in the house.  In fear, I slept under my bed, where I told stories to myself. They were adventure stories in which I was the hero. It’s no wonder that I grew up to write similar stories.

 

2)       Where is your favorite place to write?  Any special gimmicks, writing tools or keepsakes that you keep near you when you write…I hear authors can be superstitious!

 

In my Iowa City home, I literally wrote in a closet, but in my home in Santa Fe, NM, I have a separate officer with two desks.  At one, I write on a computer. At the other, I read the printouts of my work, trying to separate the experiences. Sometimes, to make a page look fresher, I change fonts. I try to write 5 pages a day. These are revised the next morning, and then I continue with the story. By the time a project is finished, I have probably made changes to each pages 20 times. I can write pretty much anywhere—even on planes. But when I’m away from home, my writing tends to be devoted to small items such as introductions or else to reading books for research. 

 

3)       Who first told you could write well, and how did it affect you?

 

When I was 17, I made the decision to become a writer because of a television series that I’ll talk about later. I became an English major in college.  Then I realized that I would probably need a day job because writers don’t earn much, so I went to Penn State for my MA and Ph D and became a professor. While I was a student at Penn State, I met a professional writer who’d written science fiction during the golden age of the 1950s. His pen name was William Tenn. His actual name was Philip Klass. I persuaded him to give me private lessons. My early efforts, which were bad imitations of James Joyce, met with his disapproval. But with determination, I persisted, finding my home in suspense fiction, and one day, after a year, he told me that I might have a career. I dedicated my first novel to him.  That book was published when I was 29, twelve years after I decided to become a writer. 

 

4)       Which contemporary authors do you most admire?

 

I love the work of my friend Dan Simmons, who has written in just about every genre, including science fiction, and received numerous awards. His energetic style matches his active mind and fascinating stories. Some of his best books are HYPERION, CARRION COMFORT, and THE TERROR (about Shackleford’s disastrous Arctic expedition). His DROOD (about Wilkie Collins, the friend of Dickens and the author of THE WOMAN IN WHITE) is a Victorian thriller that your club members might like to look at after they read MURDER AS A FINE ART. 

 

"Drood" is a favorite of mine, too.  Dan Simmons is a venerable writer. 

 

5)       Which are your favorite classical authors?

 

Because I was an American literature professor, I keep going back to the great authors I taught: Hawthorne and Melville, Hemingway and Faulkner. I am very fond of Henry James, who taught me a lot about narrative viewpoint. And I’m especially fond of Edith Wharton’s inside perspective of old New York in THE AGE OF INNOCENCE. The classical thriller author I most admire is Geoffrey Household, whose ROGUE MALE in 1939 described a British big-game hunter’s effort to stalk Hitler just before the start of WWII. It’s masterful, with nature scenes that feel as if William Wordsworth wrote thrillers.

 

Personal favorite authors of mine!  I knew from your writing we had something in common...

 

6)       Jump into any book~which character would you be?

 

I’m reminded of the first sentence of Dicken’s DAVID COPPERFIELD. “Whether I shall turn out to be the main character of my life story or only a minor character, these pages shall reveal.”  I love that idea—that it’s possible to be a minor character in our lives. I have met people who are indeed, tragically, minor characters in their live stories. But I hope that hasn’t been the case with me. I am by nature a teacher and a pre-reactor (if that’s a word). I look ahead and try to do things that make me a fuller person.  

 

7)       If you could have 5 historical people to dinner, who would they be?  What would you have to eat?

 

Because MURDER AS A FINE ART is about the real-life 1800s author Thomas De Quincey, he would be at the top of my list. He was the first person to write about drug addiction in his infamous CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM-EATER, at a time when the concept of addiction didn’t exist.  He invented the word “subconscious” and anticipated Freud’s psychoanalytic theories by a half-century. He also invented the true-crime genre in the third installment of his essay “On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts.” He influenced Edgar Allan Poe who in turned influenced Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to create Sherlock Holmes, so he stands at the start of detective fiction. Fascinating. De Quincey’s conversations were said to be so entertaining that people wanted to hold him prisoner and bring him out like a toy when they were bored.  He was an intimate friend of Wordsworth and Coleridge and had many interesting stories to tell about them.  He so admired Wordsworth that he moved close to Wordsworth in the Lake District of England. After the poet moved from Dove Cottage, De Quincey moved in so that he could sleep and eat where Wordsworth had eaten and slept. In MURDER AS A FINE ART, I also write about the most powerful and influential politician of his day, Lord Palmerston, who was war secretary, foreign secretary, home secretary, and prime minister.  His personality was so engaging that he would liven any dinner party. After De Quincey and Lord Palmerston, I would include Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. (Although I’m a Victorianist these days, my college roots are in American culture.)  Finally, having mentioned her already, I’ll mention her again: Edith Wharton.

 

Oh, how I'd love to be at that dinner party...  Fascinating company.  Would we ever eat a bite?

 

8)       Favorite two tv shows:

 

I mentioned that a television series changed my life when I was 17. Premiering in 1960, ROUTE 66 was about 2 young men in a Corvette convertible who travel across the United States in search of America and themselves.  Influenced by Jack Kerouac’s ON THE ROAD, its theme was searching for and pursuing one’s destiny. Every episode was filmed on location across the U.S. A mixture of action and ideas, the scripts by Stirling Silliphant made me want to do what Silliphant did. I wrote him a letter (a kind librarian gave me the address for Screen Gems, the show’s production company). A week later, Silliphant wrote back and encouraged me. Eventually we became friends.  We even worked together when my novel THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSE became the only television miniseries to be broadcast after a Super Bowl. Silliphant was the executive producer. He received an Oscar for the screenplay adaptation of IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT.  For me, no other series can compare. But I’ll mention a few current favorites: MAD MEN, BREAKING BAD, and SMASH (the latter because in my youth I considered a theatrical career).

 

Very surprising choices, David.  Although, I can see MADMEN being attractive to you, absolutely. 

9)       Favorite movie of all time:

 

This is always a tough one. I’ll choose the first title that pops into my head, which is indeed probably my favorite: Alfred Hitchcock’s NORTH BY NORTHWEST, a nearly perfect thriller.

 

10)   Are you working on a new book?

 

Everyone who has read MURDER AS A FINE ART has insisted that I write a follow-up, which is what I’m working on now.  The working title is THE INSPECTOR OF THE DEAD, and there’s a chance that it will come out next year (2014). In my 41 years as a published author, I wrote few sequels, but Thomas De Quincey is so fascinating that I have plenty more to say about him and the Victorian era.

 

Bravo!  Can't wait to read this sequel.

 

11)   Anything else I forgot to ask you?

 

Research is very important to me. For books with contemporary subjects, I go to many of the places that I write about. I interview people. I try to do what my characters are doing.  Thus, for a wilderness survival novel, I lived for 35 days in the mountains of Wyoming.  I once spent a fascinating 5 days at the Bill Scott raceway in West Virginia, learning to handle cars the way Secret Service agents do. For a novel about the famous Marfa lights in West Texas (THE SHIMMER), I researched airplane sequences until I became a private pilot.  But there isn’t any way to do hands-on research for 1854 London.  I spent two years reading everything I could about the period until I felt that I could convince readers they were truly on those fogbound streets, hearing unfamiliar words like dollymop, dustman, and dipper.  When I knew how much a middle- or upper-class woman’s clothes weighed (37 pounds), I knew I was prepared. I read and re-read the thousands of pages that Thomas De Quincey wrote until I felt that I was channeling him. An editor joked that I was a ventriloquist for him.

 

An amazing and life-long adventure of a life!  Thank you for sharing with us.  I look forward to talking again with you in the future.  If only I could capture and  hold you hostage in my living room for a dinner party to have you tell me all you know about De Quincey and some of the authors you mentioned, I would be in heaven.

 

THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :

Rarely have I been so entranced by a book from the introduction to the end.  There was not a moment's break in the action and mystery of this novel.  Thrilling and suspenseful, dark and blood-curdling, this is a book that will live in my mind for years to come. David Morrell is an author of pure genius.  I wonder if he couldn't become one of the world's best detectives himself.

The character who drives the novel, Thomas De Quincey, is brilliant in this role, as well as being a bit frightening, himself, in his struggles with opium addiction.  Brooding and obsessed by the devious murderer who has London thrown into a panic, his focus is deadly.  He is a culled from life figure that reaches out to us with an icy but mesmerizing grip.

Obviously, characterization and mood are strong points for Mr. Morrell.  His London is the smoky Victorian set we've come to love in other formidable books of this era. All of his characters are strong and clinching set in the gas-light era.  They held me in suspense with both their deductions and plots.  The murderer is the like of which I haven't encountered in all my suspense/thriller readings.  He's brutal and conniving like a consciousless beast.  Absolutely horrific, cold and spell-binding in Morrell's capable hands!

I can only tell you this is a book you have to read this year.  It's a rare find.  The action and brooding atmosphere will keep you up for hours into the night.  David Morrell is an extraordinary author in this genre.  Masterful and menacing story!  I highly recommend it.

 

5 stars plus                  Deborah/TheBookishDame

 

 

*NOTE:   This review and interview are brought to you in cooperation with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours:

Please follow the tour, finding other reviews and commentary by clicking this link:

 http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/murderasafineartvirtualtour/

 

 

 

GIVEAWAY!! "Dark Room" ~Joshua Graham A Thriller!

Dark, deceptive, political intrigue and ghostly images...all this and more await the eager reader who loves a thriller and a mystery in "Darkroom."  I lived through the Viet Nam War era, but don't recall having read a single suspense novel that has its focus around the Vietnam cross-culture that made its way to the US. This book is unique in many ways. It has a bit of everything to recommend it:  love, mystery, conspiracy, family connections to ancient times and places, politics, terrorism and murder; not to mention the Viet Nam War and the vets that brought home not only images, but other baggage, and loved ones.  A must read, this book is fast moving, intriguing and beautifully written to tantalize!  Joshua Graham is a fantastic writer who knows when to dangle the carrot and when to pull it back.  I loved the whole reading process!  His characters are rich in detail, lovable, sad, frightening and strangely familiar.  I was literally up all night reading "Darkroom" having such a good time in the process.  I couldn't put it down...   If you've ever been placed in the moral dilemma of wondering whether you should tell the truth and risk it all, you'll love this book.  If you've ever wondered if there are conspiracies and cover ups in political arenas we aren't privy to, you'll love this book...  I have to give it a solid...
5 stars!!

Published by:  Howard Books/Simon and Schuster
Visit Mr. Graham's website here:  http://joshua-graham.com
Also see his blog at:  http://joshua-graham.com/blog/



Quick Overview of "Darkroom": 

After scattering her mother’s ashes in Vietnam, photojournalist Xandra Carrick comes home to New York to rebuild her life and career. When she experiences supernatural visions that reveal atrocities perpetrated by American soldiers during the Vietnam War, she finds herself entangled in a forty-year-old conspiracy that could bring the nation into political turmoil.
Launching headlong into a quest to learn the truth from her father, Peter Carrick, a Pulitzer Prize Laureate who served as an embedded photographer during the war, Xandra confronts him about a dark secret he has kept–one that has devastated their family.
Her investigations lead her to her departed mother’s journal, which tell of love, spiritual awakening, and surviving the fall of Saigon.
Pursued across the continent, Xandra comes face-to-face with powerful forces that will stop at nothing to prevent her from revealing the truth. But not before government agencies arrest her for murder, domestic terrorism and an assassination attempt on the newly elected president of the United States.
Darkroom is a riveting tale of suspense that tears the covers off the human struggle for truth in a world imprisoned by lies.

About Joshua Graham :

 WINNER OF 2011 INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble #1 bestselling author Joshua Graham’s novel BEYOND JUSTICE is taking the world by storm, one reader at a time. Many of his readers blame him for sleepless nights, arriving to work late, neglected dishes and family members, and not allowing them to put the book down.

Suspense Magazine listed BEYOND JUSTICE in its BEST OF 2010, alongside titles by Scott Turrow, Ted Dekker, Steven James and Brad Thor.
His short story THE DOOR’S OPEN won the HarperCollins Authonomy Competition (Christmas 2010.)
Publishers Weekly described BEYOND JUSTICE as: “A riveting legal thriller…breaking new ground with a vengeance…demonically entertaining and surprisingly inspiring.”
Joshua Graham grew up in Brooklyn, NY where he lived for the better part of 30 years. He holds a Bachelor and Master’s Degree and went on to earn his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. During his time in Maryland, he taught as a professor at Shepherd College (WV), Western Maryland College, and Columbia Union College (MD).
Today he lives with his beautiful wife and children in Southern California. Several of Graham’s short fiction works have been published by Pocket Books and Dawn Treader Press.
Writing under the pen name Ian Alexander, Graham debuted with his first Epic Fantasy novel ONCE WE WERE KINGS, an Amazon #1 Bestseller in multiple categories and Award-Winning Finalist in the SciFi/Fantasy category of The USA “Best Books 2011″ Awards, as well as an Award-Winning Finalist in the Young Adult Fiction category of The USA “Best Books 2011″ Awards, and an Award Winner in the 2011 Forward National Literature Awards in the Teen/Young Adult category. ONCE WE WERE KINGS is available in ebook and hardcover editions.
Look for his next Suspense/Thriller DARKROOM (Simon & Schuster/Howard Books) to be released May 1, 2012!
For Film Rights Josh is represented by UNITED TALENT AGENCY. Please use the CONTACT button on this website for all inquiries.
You can visit his website at www.joshua-graham.com.

A Bookish Libraria is pleased to be on the virtual book publicity tour for Mr. Graham sponsored by Pump Up Your Books.  To find out more about the GIVEAWAY, please go to this site:  http://pumpupyourbooks.com
                                     and search for "Darkroom"

Thanks for stopping by!   Deborah/TheBookishDame

"Practical Jean" by Trevor Cole~Crack Your Tailbone Hilarious Reading!

I died when I read some of the one liners in this book!  Trevor Cole has a sadistic streak that begins with killing his readers!

Published by:  Harper Perennial/Harper Collins

Pages:  320

Genre:  Fiction/Contemporary/Mystery

May I Talk Cover Art With You?

I love this book cover!  I love it because it's just dripping with high fashion kitsch!  Love the spiked heels, the dripping butcher's knife, the sexy silk seamed stockings, and the very posh black/white/deep red color.  This is a New York state of mind cover, Ladies!  This has the feel of The New Yorker Magazine in font and design and flung out reviews at the base of those legs.  Perfect murder in progress book cover...I'll buy!  Rated:  A+


Summary:

Jean Vale Horemarsh is content, for the most part, with the small-town life she’s built: a semi-successful career as a ceramics artist, a close collection of women friends (aside from that terrible falling-out with Cheryl years ago), a comfortable marriage with a kind if unextraordinary man. But it is only in watching her mother go through the final devastating stages of cancer that Jean realizes her true calling. No one should have to suffer the indignities of aging and illness like her mother did—and she, Jean Horemarsh, will take it upon herself to give each of her friends one final, perfect moment . . . and then, one by one, kill them.

Of course, female friendships are quite complicated things, and Jean is soon to discover that her plan isn’t as simple as she initially believed it to be.

The Dame Tells All :
This is one of those times when I wish I could conjure up my NC, high school girlfriends to sit around the living room and discuss a book.  We would have a field day with this one!  In fact, if your book group is wondering what to read next for a wild time, this is your best bet.  Hilarious!!   I hardly know where to begin to tell you about this book... It's just flat out good reading and side-aching laughs.

The first line that hit me so hard I still can't think about it or I laugh out loud in grocery shop lines is:  "...Grana, after she had snapped her tail bone on a flight of polished stairs..."   This may not seem funny out of context, but in the reading, it welled up and hit me full force and unexpectedly.  It was the funniest visual I had had in years!  "Snapping" a tailbone on a flight of polished stairs!!!   FOTFL   I could  just see my own feet slipping faithlessly out from under me!

Trevor Cole has a sharp wit, a stinging humor, a sense of political comedy and comedy of manners.  He can convey the real evils and the ridiculous in the every day, the death and destruction in a "butter tart that's the work of the Devil," and the heartbreak of an odd ceramic artwork that's too fragile to breathe on, let alone touch.

His characters have charm.  They spark with charisma.  He has that uncanny ability to hone in on the one major flaw that makes a person stand out, and that makes them own up to the ridiculous face they put on in public, and he can show those things to us through his characters.  With the precision of the tiniest crochet hook he can slip in a knot of truth and draw out the best and the worst in his characters before you can flick an eyelid.  He couches the worst with the cushion of humor. There's a slapstick quality to his writing, but it's never cheap laughs because the satire is well told.  There is a gentle "love the flaws and vulnerability" in all of us message in this book that's so endearing.

Cole's inescapably loveable character, Jean, makes us remember the crushed dreams in ourselves.  And, her willingness to sacrifice all in a frenzy of displaced grief is allegorical.  What might any of us do if we let our minds loose after a life of creative repression, ridicule, rejection and humiliation at the hands of a mother like Jean's?  Especially one whom she had to care for in her last, suffering days...especially when her mother had believed so strongly in and practiced euthanizing animals all her life!  

Much black humor goes on in "Practical Jean" but it's so very funny, and you'll hardly know what's hit you when the real trouble starts happening.  Honestly, I'm still laughing about passages in this book.  And, at the same time, I carry a very special torch for Practical Jean...she was only trying to help.

Feeling sad?  Get Practical...

5 spectacular stars!

Trevor Cole has been called "one of the best young novelists in Canada" by

The Globe and Mail, though, admittedly, "young" is getting to be a bit of a stretch. His first novel, Norman Bray in the Performance of His Life, published in 2004, garnered enormous acclaim. It appeared on the Maclean’s bestseller list, was adapted for radio and audio book, was short-listed for a Governor General's Literary award and the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best First Book (Can-Carib region) and was long-listed for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His second novel, The Fearsome Particles, published in September of 2006, won for Cole his second Governor General's award nomination, and his second appearance on the long list for the IMPAC. Practical Jean is his third novel. Published in Canada by McClelland & Stewart in September of 2010, and by HarperPerennial in the US in 2011, it was short-listed for the Rogers Writer's Trust Fiction Prize and won the 2011 Leacock Medal for Humour.

As a journalist, Cole specializes in long-form magazine pieces and has been called "a consummate professional" endowed with "prodigious talent." He has won nine National Magazine Awards including three gold medals.

Thanks for choosing to read my review today.
Deborah/TheBookishDame

"So Damn Lucky" by Deborah Coonts~Lucky's a Hellbentforleather, Sassy Las Vegas Detective!

Any time spent with Lucky is unimaginatively hilarious!

She's the kickin' female friend you'd love to have

drinks with at girl's night outs!! 

Published by:  Forge

Pages:  385

Author's website:  http://deborahcoonts.com/

I encourage you strongly to go there!!

The Book Summary from Kirkus Reviews:

If Houdini were going to send a message from the great beyond, what are the odds it would land in Vegas? Lucky O'Toole, Head of Customer Relations at Vegas' glitziest hotel, the Babylon, is not having a good day. A visiting couple from the Midwest has gotten tangled up in a sex sling. Her boyfriend Teddie has opted out of their relationship in favor of groupies and rock-star fame. And when the curtains are opened during a performance, Dimitri Fortunoff, a magician trussed up in a replica of Houdini's Chinese Water Torture Cell, has vanished.

 Did one of the many other magicians attending the annual gathering of prestidigitators waylay him? Are they responsible for the threatening note he received? Who will replace him as the Masked Houdini at Halloween night's performance? Or did Dimitri himself plan his disappearance in search of much-needed publicity?

 In between flirting with a handsome gaming control board member, swooning over the hotel's delicious new French chef and witnessing the wedding of her parents at a drive-through chapel, Lucky (Lucky Stiff, 2011, etc.) tries to find Dimitri. The search takes her from subterranean storm drains to Area 51, the Air Force's secure facility, which has become a mecca for UFO seekers, as she sorts through lies and puzzles set up to fool her by Dimitri's assistant Molly and four members of the Magic Ring. Mentalists have their say. Kooks congregate to stare at the sky. Lucky, alas, becomes vulnerable to head whacks and the effects of serious liquor and coffee consumption. Like everything in Vegas, the plot is saturated with sex, booze and backgrounds that don't bear scrutiny. But the Houdini code is intriguing, and Lucky's the kind of gal who will make any heart beat faster.

Let's Get To Know The Author:

Hi, Deborah, I've been dying to interview you!  Here goes!!

1. First of all, please tell us a special something about what makes you "tick." When you aren't writing, what are you doing?

Mainly getting into trouble. You have no idea how hazardous my research in Las Vegas can be. Take male stripping (Yes, this really was research. My visit to this world ended up as a really fun scene in the new book, SO DAMN LUCKY.) Anyway, I had no idea this sort of thing was a contact sport! For some reason, I couldn't stop laughing, which didn't make the "scenery" very happy. I think I lasted about 45 minutes, but I'm glad I went. No way could I have imagined the whole stripping thing as over-the-top as it really is. My version would have been much more... dignified, to the extent that that adjective should ever be appropriate when talking about men taking their clothes off to a thumping beat for the entertainment of inebriated, pawing women. Then there was the trip to Shark Reef with my son. I asked one of the attendants at the shark tank if I threw a dead body in there would the Tiger Shark eat it. Yes, I have the number of a good attorney on speed-dial. And my son won't go on research expeditions with me anymore. Go figure.   OMGosh, I can only imagine you doing these things!!!  I've often embarrassed my children, but never over dead bodies, Deb!! LOL

2. You chose a specific genre, a place and time to write about, what made you choose it?

Years ago I discovered that trying to do anything even remotely serious was not within my skill set. So, I played up my ability to get a laugh, cutting my humorist's teeth on a column I wrote for a national magazine. Gradually I expanded my repertoire until I felt delusional enough to handle novel-length silliness. I throw in a bit of mystery and some romance because I like those things -- and a story sort of needs a purpose:)

Vegas: need I say more? Talk about a place ripe with stories! Nowhere else is the human condition more fully or lushly displayed. I've lived there for over a decade and I never tire of the endless parade. Where else does Elvis bag your groceries? Or the guy behind the counter at the gym moonlight as a unicyclist? Or the pretty pre-school teacher is also a scarf performer at a Cirque show? Or the University professor is a showgirl at night? You get my drift. And this doesn't even include the 45 million stories the visitors bring to town every year . . . The most difficult task for me is to pick which stories I want to tell.

3. Bronte or Austen? Hemingway or Hawthorne? Why?

If I had to pick, Austen, because the stories can be a bit more lighthearted. And Hemingway for the adventure, the joie de vivre . . . at least most of the time. But, frankly, I'd rather have Dr. Seuss, Will Rogers and Mark Twain, if I could.  LOL  I can totally see that!

4. In your opinion, what makes a book a great one?

Something about it touches your soul and becomes a part of you.

5. Which author(s) most influenced your love of books from childhood?

All of them. What courage it takes to tell a story! The things people say, the comments they make! Thank Heavens I started writing when I was a bit older--not only do I have more to say, a better perspective, hopefully, but my skin is also much thicker.

Anyway, as a child I loved the Marguerite Henry books (I was nuts about horses) and I also liked Mary Stewart, Alistair Maclean, Arthur Hailey -- I was a pretty precocious reader:)

6. Read any good books in the past 6 months?

With writing taking up so much time, I don't get to read as much as I would like. That being said, I try to read enough. And I try to read outside my genre. A book that I didn't expect to like, but enjoyed immensely was The Discovery of Witches. I'm reading books by thriller writers now such as Allison Brennan, Carla Neggers, and Lisa Gardner and also enjoying them very much.  I love Lisa Gardner, too.  She writes a great thriller.

7. Choose 4 guests from any era for dinner. Who would they be and what would you choose for a topic of conversation?

Winston Churchill, Ayn Rand, Abraham Lincoln, and the Dalai Lama. I'd love to sit back and let them argue about how to get the human race working together. And just for kicks and grins, I would love to bring Dorothy Parker as my side-kick. Truly, was there ever a funnier woman?  OMGosh, Ayn Rand with that group!!!  She'd have them all in a tither!  Three pacifists and a radical, and two of you to laugh at them!!!  :P

8. Which of your characters is most like you?

Well, my aunt told me that Lucky is the woman I always wanted to be. Does that count?

9. If you could cast your book for a movie, who would you choose?

I hesitate to answer that because a trip through a story is such a personal experience. One of the wonderful things about reading is that we, as readers, get to participate in our entertainment. The writer may set the stage and propel the action, but the vision of the place and the actors is unique to each reader.

10. Worst habit you have?

Talking before thinking. For a woman who is fluent in sarcasm and innuendo and trying, at the moment, to navigate Dallas, the Buckle of the Bible Belt, a mute button would be a good thing -- or at least a filter.    Oh, God, I know the feeling!!

11. How much research did you do before and during writing?

I live in Vegas, so my "research" surrounds me. However, sometimes I do get a wild hair . . . see Number 1 above:) I'm always poking into interesting places whether it's behind the scenes at Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden, or backstage at a Cirque show, or in the tunnels under Las Vegas. Who knows where my wanderings will take me next?

12. Tell us a secret about your book we wouldn't otherwise know, please!

If you flip the pages real fast, there's a subliminal message. Kidding. A secret? I don't have any secrets. Let me think . . . Okay, I really did meet the French chef . . . although he was a vintner:) Oooh, la, la! No, I won't tell you his name. That's my secret.

Deborah, you are a hot mess, as they say in the South!!  Just this interview can do nothing but give insights into your writing!  LOL

Something Else About Deborah Coonts: 

My mother tells me I was born a long time ago, but I'm not so sure--my mother can't be trusted. I do know that I was raised in Texas on barbeque, Mexican food and beer. I currently live in Las Vegas where family and friends tell me I can't get into too much trouble. Silly people. I have owned my own business, been a tax lawyer and a flight instructor, and have survived a teenager. And now, I make stuff up for a living.

Each day I sit in the front window at my favorite Panera and play with my imaginary friends. My SO is a psychologist and he tells me that many of his colleagues would consider me an annuity. I can live with that. Thankfully, he can too.

I write a mystery series set in Las Vegas--funny, sexy and romantic. I've been told they are comedic thrillers--sounds like an oxymoron to me, but you get the drift. The first in the series, WANNA GET LUCKY?, came out May 2010. The second, LUCKY STIFF, and the third, SO DAMN LUCKY.

Look who I found in Vegas!  Robin Williams....my lucky star...

The Dame's Wrap-Up :
Deborah Coonts's book is hysterically funny, strange, light-hearted and a mystery in so many ways!  Deborah is a nut-case, she's so funny! I had a great adventure reading "Lucky."  Here's the thing about Coonts; she's a wonderful mix of a good writer, a satirist and a student of people.  She's also a comedian. 


"So Damn Lucky" is the best trip you'll ever take to Las Vegas!  If you've never been there, you only have to pick up this book to experience it.  I laughed myself off the chair in the first chapter visualizing the exact characters she portrays that I'd seen there myself!  This is a side-buster of a book, and a great mystery, too.  Viva Las Vegas, absolutely captured and delivered in the hands of "Lucky" and Deborah Coonts...Elvis is definitely still alive there, so are aliens and missing persons!

If you're looking for a book to make you laugh and read like a bandit, and that will keep you wide-eyed with the joy of finding out about crazies and cons, this is the one for you.  I found it a refreshing oasis from the books I've been reading lately.  It's not always good to have a steady stream of the serious and fantasy world...once in a while it's so nice to have a sorbet between courses.   "So Damn Lucky" is the raspberry sorbet of a book that will have your literary palate tingling!!

4 stars

Deborah/TheBookishDame          Thank you for stopping by to see me!