by Finzzzz
Happy April! This month I have something for
everyone.
 The Death
of Vishnu
by Manil Suri
At the opening of this masterful debut novel, Vishnu lies
dying on the staircase he inhabits while his neighbors
the Pathaks and the Asranis argue over who will pay for
an ambulance. As the action spirals up through the floors
of the apartment building we are pulled into the drama of
the residents' lives: Mr. Jalal's obsessive search for
higher meaning; Vinod Taneja's longing for the wife he
has lost; the comic elopement of Kavita Asrani, who
fancies herself the heroine of a Hindi movie. Suffused
with Hindu mythology, this story of one apartment
building becomes a metaphor for the social and religious
divisions of contemporary India, and Vishnu's ascent of
the staircase parallels the soul's progress through the
various stages of existence. As Vishnu closes in on the
riddle of his own mortality, we wonder whether he might
not be the god Vishnu, guardian not only of the fate of
the building and its occupants, but of the entire
universe. A charming and wonderfully crafted piece of
work from a first time author.
 Precipice
by Tom Savage
A great book to read during the winter, Tom Savage (one
of my favorite authors) puts forth a mystery thriller set
on the Virgin Island of St. Thomas. A happy, well-to-do
family enjoys its life of privilege in their Caribbean
paradise home named Cliffhanger before the arrival of the
beautiful and deadly Diana, a hired governess who turns
their ideal life into a hellish existence. Every
character has a secret and a hidden agenda.. Who will out
con who? The plot moves at high speed to an exciting
conclusion, and as you probably guessed it takes place on
a precipice overlooking the Caribbean Ocean. Great fun!
 Over
Tumbled Graves
by Jess Walter
A Riverbank littered with bodies. A city under siege by
crime-solving "experts." One young detective
struggles to discover the truth ... and preserve her
sanity. Spokane, Washington: a bustling city split by
hurtling white-water falls. During a routine drug bust,
Detective Caroline Mabry finds herself on a narrow bridge
over the falls, face-to-face with a brutal murderer named
Lenny Ryan. Within hours, the body of a young prostitute
is found nearby, dumped along the riverbank. Then
another. And another. Soon Caroline and her cynical
mentor Alan Dupree are thrown headlong into the search
for a serial murderer police have nicknamed the Southbank
Strangler. But while Caroline hunts a killer, he may also
be hunting her. What follows is a novel that turns the
usual serial killer story on its head, that confronts
America's burgeoning fascination with psychopathology and
murder and stares it down. Through one long, bloody
summer, Caroline and Dupree remain one step behind a
madman who seems to be communicating by killing women and
growing bolder with each new body. And when Spokane is
overrun by headline-grabbing FBI profilers,
statisticians, and TV producers, the detectives are
forced to grapple with the ever hungrier serial murder
industry. Before it's all over, Caroline and Dupree
uncover some hard truths about their city, their
profession, and each other. And Caroline finds herself
back at the river, facing an evil far more alarming than
the one she thought she was chasing. Rich with the darkly
muted colors of the Pacific Northwest skies, peopled with
characters of extraordinary depth and dimension, Over
Tumbled Graves marks the debut of a novelist with unusual
insight into the human psyche. It's an exciting and
engrossing mystery with a fast paced plot and
well-written, three dimensional characters. I was
especially intrigued with the descriptions of the Pacific
Northwest city of Spokane as the author brought that city
to life.
 Casey at
the Bat :
A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888
by Ernest Lawrence Thayer and
Christopher Bing (Illustrator)
Caldecott Honor Book, 2001
"And
somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville-mighty Casey has struck
out." Those lines have echoed through the
decades, the final stanza of a poem published
pseudonymously in the June 3, 1888, issue of the San
Francisco Examiner. Its author would rather have seen it
forgotten. Instead, Ernest Thayer's poem has taken a
well-deserved place as an enduring icon of Americana.
Christopher Bing's magnificent version of this immortal
ballad of the flailing 19th-century baseball star is
rendered as though it had been newly discovered in a
hundred-year-old scrapbook. Bing seamlessly weaves real
and trompe l'oeil reproductions of artifacts-period
baseball cards, tickets, advertisements, and a host of
other memorabilia into the narrative to present a rich
and multifaceted panorama of a bygone era. A book to be
pored over by children, treasured by aficionados of the
sport, and given as a gift to all ages: a tragi-comic
celebration of heroism and of a golden era of sport.
Bing’s graphic art direction for this book is quite
superb. This book is a must for any lover of baseball.
 The
Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup:
My Encounters With Extraordinary People
by Susan Orlean
Susan Orlean, "The Orchid Thief", and staff
writer for "The New Yorker", scores a hit with
this wonderful collection of articles focusing on
ordinary and extraordinary people. From the everyday life
of a 10 year old boy, ice skater and clubber Tonya
Harding, the guy who creates those big huge chairs for
novelty photographs you see at carnivals, to Spain’s
first female matador, Orlean brings these people into
your home in these exuberant collection of essays.
April
Book of The Month
 The Golden
Compass
by Philip Pullman
It was no ordinary life for a young girl: living among
scholars in the hallowed halls of Jordan College and
tearing unsupervised through Oxford's motley streets on
mad quests for adventure. But Lyra's greatest adventure
would begin closer to home, the day she heard hushed talk
of an extraordinary particle. Microscopic in size, the
magical dust--found only in the vast Arctic expanse of
the North--was rumored to possess profound properties
that could unite whole universes. But there were those
who feared the particle and would stop at nothing to
destroy it. Catapulted into the heart of a terrible
struggle, Lyra was forced to seek aid from witches,
gypsies, and formidable armored bears. And as she
journeyed into unbelievable danger, she had not the
faintest clue that she alone was destined to win, or to
lose, this more-than-mortal battle ...
One of my all time favorite adventure stories,
you’ll be caught up in Lyra’s adventure and her
search for the truth behind her past. I recently read
this book with my class of junior high schoolers and they
absolutely loved it.
Let me
know what you think of these and any other books. You can
e-mail me at Finzzzz@aol.com . Happy reading!
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