Mar 8 2010

In the Mail: The Devil’s Star

The Devil’s Star Jo Nesbo

Publishers Weekly

A serial killer taunts Harry Hole in Nesbø’s searing third crime novel to feature the Oslo police detective to be made available in the U.S. (after Nemesis). Still suffering from alcohol-fueled demons and obsessed with hunting for evidence against a clearly dirty cop, Hole grudgingly agrees to help look into the murder of a woman whose finger has been amputated and a red diamond stuck under her eyelid. More bodies follow, with the murderer leaving identical five-pointed diamonds (the titular devil’s star) at each crime scene. At first the killings appear to be random, but Hole soon discovers an ominous pattern. Nesbø brilliantly incorporates threads from earlier novels, including Hole’s often tumultuous relationship with his lover, Rakel, without ever losing the current story’s rhythm. Even with—or perhaps because of—his flaws, Hole is arguably one of today’s most fascinating fictional detectives.

By Kevin Holtsberry • In The Mail • 0 • Tags: , ,

Mar 7 2010

Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell

Despite the fact that he lives and preaches in my home town (well, town I was born in anyways) of Grand Rapids, Michigan – and I have always heard good things about him – I was never a big Rob Bell fan. There was something about him that put me off a bit – a little too hip, the religious left type language and attitude, a post-modern sensibility, I am not sure.

But I read Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile for our church’s summer book series and found myself enjoying it (more about that later).

So when the publisher offered Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith for free on Kindle I scooped it up (free is free after all) and started reading it on a recent trip (my Kindle is a lifesaver when I travel). And maybe Bell is winning me over because I really enjoyed this book too.

Here is the Bell’s blurb for his own book from the publisher:

We have to test everything.
I thank God for anybody anywhere who is pointing people to the mysteries of God.
But those people would all tell you to think long and hard about what they are saying and doing and creating.
Test it. Probe it.
Do that to this book.
Don’t swallow it uncritically. Think about it. Wrestle with it.
Just because I’m a Christian and I’m trying to articulate a Christian worldview doesn’t mean I’ve got it nailed. I’m contributing to the discussion.
God has spoken, and the rest is commentary, right?

My take below.

Keep Reading

By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 0 • Tags: , , , , ,

Mar 7 2010

In the Mail: The Spellmans Strike Again

The Spellmans Strike Again Lisa Lutz

Publishers Weekly

In Edgar-finalist Lutz’s entertaining fourth and final novel about the eccentric Spellman PI clan (after Revenge of the Spellmans), Isabel “Izzy” Spellman juggles the usual family drama—her mother tries to sabotage Izzy’s relationship with her Irish bartender boyfriend and younger sister Rae throws herself into freeing a wrongly convicted man—while helping to drum up business in a dreary economy. While Rae works on her “Free Schmidt” campaign, Izzy investigates the whereabouts of a missing valet with a checkered past and sifts through garbage for a screenwriter client. Older brother David, the only Spellman not involved in the family business, grows closer to his defense attorney girlfriend. On the sly, Izzy is also tailing Rick Harkey, a rival San Francisco PI, and discovers that Harkey left behind a trail of suspicious arrests and conveniently misplaced evidence in his career as a cop. Narrator Izzy’s biting wit—mixed with a refreshing dose of humility and sadness—easily carries the story.

By Kevin Holtsberry • In The Mail • 2 • Tags: ,

Mar 6 2010

In the Mail: Lighting Out For The Territory

Lighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain by Roy Morris, Jr.

Library Journal

Samuel Clemens went west in 1861, and Mark Twain returned east six years later with the growing reputation of being a writer who rarely let the facts get in the way of a good story. Using letters, diaries, and reminiscences, Morris, author, journalist, and editor, pieces together the facts to show how an unemployed riverboat pilot became a self-made writer. Morris comments that separating fact from fiction in Twain’s case is more or less a full-time occupation. Morris is the editor of Military Heritage magazine and has served as a consultant for A&E Network and the History Channel. By relying on primary sources, he tracks Clemens’s personal, professional, and artistic transformation. Details include the development of Twain’s style including use of the vernacular, a love of the ridiculous, and a stinging wit to transform true-life situations into some of the most memorable stories of frontier life. Fans of Twain’s writing and academics will enjoy this well-researched biography. VERDICT A noteworthy addition for American literature and biography collections.

By Kevin Holtsberry • In The Mail • 0 • Tags: , ,

Mar 5 2010

Dueling Reviews: Angelology

Susan Cokal in the NYTBR:

Sensual and intellectual, “Angelology” is a terrifically clever thriller — more Eco than Brown, without the cloudy sentimentalism of New Age encomiums or Catholic treatises. It makes no apologies for its devices, and none are necessary. How else would it be possible to bring together the angels of the Bible and Apocrypha, the myth of Orpheus, Bulgarian geography, medieval monastics, the Rockefellers, ­Nazis, nuns and musicology? And how splendid that it has happened.

And Janet Maslin in the NYT:

These details are brought to mind by Ms. Trussoni’s first novel, “Angelology,” a class-obsessed, scholarship-spouting, minutiae-strewn thrill ride that follows the “Da Vinci Code” model as loftily as it can. In fathoming the grandiosity of Ms. Trussoni’s escapism, maybe it helps to recall the world from which she had to escape.

[...]

This novel is neck deep in mumbo jumbo and will do its tireless best to conflate fact and fiction. Obscure theories? Nonexistent historical events? Exact anatomical details about otherworldly beings? Complaints about the naysayers who have “distorted angelic reality”? Yes, “Angelology” has them all.

Confused? Never fear, dear reader, Angelology is in the TBR pile. In the not too distant future I will offer what I am sure will be the definitive take on this polarizing novel …

By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews, Views • 0 • Tags: , , ,

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