A Golden Age is a beautiful and touching story about the Bangladesh War of Independence told through the eyes of one family, Rehana and her children Sohail and Maya. While Sohail and Maya join the movement against Pakistan, Rehana is a little reluctant to let her children go. Eventually, she relents and does what she can to help her country.
Anam presents an interesting perspective on this time period in Bangladesh’s history. Her characters are believable and the story line was compelling. It turned out to be quite the page-turner. With the information that Anam provides regarding the War of Independence, I think I really got a sense of what life was like in Bangladesh in the 70s. To be quite honest, I wasn’t quite sure where Bangladesh was. Now, I know.
Rehana was my favourite character. I worried with her when she had very difficult decisions to make. I felt her anguish. I also loved the descriptions of the food that she was making. It all sounded wonderfully appetizing. I’m a big fan of Middle Eastern/East Indian cuisine and each dish made my mouth water. I’m going to have to find recipes for some of Rehana’s dishes and attempt to make them myself.
Because I like being exposed to other languages, I was delighted to see that the text was peppered with both Urdu and Bengali.
This debut novel is wonderful. I’m looking forward to more of Tahmima Anam’s work.
Highly recommended.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
A Killer's Kiss by William Lashner
It’s not often that I stop on page 3 of a book and proclaim out loud, I LOVE THIS BOOK. That’s precisely what I did with this book.
In A Killer’s Kiss, Victor Carl is a lawyer with a soft spot for his ex-fiancée, Julia. Her husband, Wren, has just been murdered. Even though Julia is the prime suspect, the police have Victor in their sights because Julia and Victor have been spending time together and the murder weapon is found in his apartment. When Victor finds out that $1.7 million dollars is missing from Wren’s business accounts and the other business partners (thugs, really) approach him to recover it, he goes into overdrive to clear his name and get to the bottom of things. The suspects and motives pile up as Victor works the case.
Lashner has written a great mystery/thriller. The opening chapter is brilliant. I was hooked and wanted to read the rest of the book as fast as I could. There are lots of interesting characters, plenty of red herrings and some devious twists and turns in the storyline that kept me guessing who-dun-it and why until the very end.
Victor Carl is a great character. He is sarcastic and witty. It’s sort of unfortunate that he saves his best stuff for Sims and Hanratty. I would have liked to see a little more of that attitude. Although, too much of a good things isn’t great either. It is no wonder Lasher has written seven books featuring this attorney. Julia, the femme fatale, plays the part perfectly. Derek turns out to be quite a funny guy and steals every “scene” he’s in.
I love books written in the first person and this book is no exception. I’m sure writing all the events from one person’s perspective and having that one character in every scene presents a challenge for the writer, but for me it’s a joy to read. It’s interesting to see how the author manages to get all of the information across through that one person. I love it.
This is the seven Victor Carl book in the series. I’d love to read the others and I hope to find them on my travels.
Recommended.
In A Killer’s Kiss, Victor Carl is a lawyer with a soft spot for his ex-fiancée, Julia. Her husband, Wren, has just been murdered. Even though Julia is the prime suspect, the police have Victor in their sights because Julia and Victor have been spending time together and the murder weapon is found in his apartment. When Victor finds out that $1.7 million dollars is missing from Wren’s business accounts and the other business partners (thugs, really) approach him to recover it, he goes into overdrive to clear his name and get to the bottom of things. The suspects and motives pile up as Victor works the case.
Lashner has written a great mystery/thriller. The opening chapter is brilliant. I was hooked and wanted to read the rest of the book as fast as I could. There are lots of interesting characters, plenty of red herrings and some devious twists and turns in the storyline that kept me guessing who-dun-it and why until the very end.
Victor Carl is a great character. He is sarcastic and witty. It’s sort of unfortunate that he saves his best stuff for Sims and Hanratty. I would have liked to see a little more of that attitude. Although, too much of a good things isn’t great either. It is no wonder Lasher has written seven books featuring this attorney. Julia, the femme fatale, plays the part perfectly. Derek turns out to be quite a funny guy and steals every “scene” he’s in.
I love books written in the first person and this book is no exception. I’m sure writing all the events from one person’s perspective and having that one character in every scene presents a challenge for the writer, but for me it’s a joy to read. It’s interesting to see how the author manages to get all of the information across through that one person. I love it.
This is the seven Victor Carl book in the series. I’d love to read the others and I hope to find them on my travels.
Recommended.
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