By Chris Conroy
Coquitlam Public Library
Are you making a list? Checking it twice? Well, these are some books - mostly naughty, one nice - to add to your list of books to read over the Christmas holidays.
In my book, mysteries are a great escape anytime of the year. Author Peter Robinson has a new Inspector Banks novel. Bad Boy revolves around Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks’ daughter Tracy, who becomes involved with bad-boy Jaff McCready. This time Banks himself is off-screen part of the time vacationing in the U.S., and his partner, Annie Cabott leads the investigation into a loaded gun found in a young women’s bedroom. The girl is none other than the roommate of Tracy, who runs to warn the owner of the gun, Jaff. Robinson has experimented in the past with interesting narrative structures with much success (Piece of My Heart), and Banks is at his most compelling when his personal life intertwines with a case. New readers to the series should not be deterred. Though Robinson’s books do refer to Banks’ past and home life, they are not sequential.
Still Missing is Canadian author Chevy Stevens’ first book. Publishers Weekly called it an “impressive debut.” It’s the story of real estate agent Annie O’Sullivan who is kidnapped by a man viewing a house she’s showing. She’s held captive for a year and sadistically brutalized. However, the story opens with her talking to her therapist about her year in captivity, so we know that it ends “well”. While it is gruesome to read what happens to Annie, it is also emotional and taut with suspense as we learn how she got away.
Simply entitled Life, Keith Richards’ memoir is an engaging read. While I’ve always liked the Rolling Stones, I’ve never been what you’d call a die-hard fan. However, Richards’ story intrigues me, mostly because he’s still alive. He opens each chapter with a few lines that are like stage directions or a journal entry: straightforward, yet personal. In fact, tone of the book has a casual style to it, like you’re reading about a regular bloke. Thing is, this bloke is Keith Richards and his friends are some of the best musicians and artists in the world. (Note: the audiobook features Johnny Depp as one of the readers.)
Considering his past love affair with various drugs and the fact that he’s eaten some pretty questionable things in equally questionable places, bad-boy chef Anthony Bourdain is another you can’t help but marvel that he’s still kicking. Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook is his follow-up to his huge hit Kitchen Confidential. Medium Raw opens with a clandestine midnight meal of some of America's most renowned chefs. They are served wild game smuggled into the country with the piece de resistance being a rare species of finches. Bourdain never shies away from saying what he thinks; he skewers big names in the food industry (see his chapter on Alan Richman). While his prose is peppered with profanities, it is wickedly entertaining.
The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin is one those the “year-I-spent-doing-blank” books. I admit I approach these books with a fair amount of skepticism. However, happiness is something we could all use so I wondered what Rubin’s secret was. In fact, Rubin admits that she was happy before she started the project but she had an epiphany on a bus that she could be happier. She starts her project by doing a lot of background reading, and she provides an extensive list of suggested reading. Each chapter is a month with resolutions, and she establishes twelve personal commandments. The book is conversational, and Rubin gives the reader just the right amount of the personal mixed with the reading she’s done. I found myself thinking “I do that” (laugh at myself), “I should do more of that” (exercise). Rubin tells you how you can start your own happiness project if you want, or you can just enjoy the book.
Visit your public library for these books and other good reads.
