“When Baba Segi awoke with a bellyache for the sixth day in a row, he knew it was time to do something drastic about his fourth wife’s childlessness. He was sure the pain wasn’t caused by hunger or trapped gas; it was from the buildup of months and months of of worry. A grunt escaped from the woman lying next to him. He glanced sideways and saw that his leg had stapled Iya Tope, his second wife, to the bed.He observed the jerky rise and fall of her bosom but he didn’t move to ease her discomfort. His thoughts returned to Bolanle and his stomach tightened again. Then and there, he decided to pay Teacher a visit. He would get there at sunrise so Teacher would know it was no ordinary stopover.”

Book Review:

Review by Friederike Knabe (DEC 20, 2013)

Ishola Alao, known as Baba Segi, has a problem that upsets his stomach and general well-being. After two years of trying, his fourth wife still does not show any signs of being pregnant. He already has a stable of kids with his other wives, but what is the use of another marriage if it doesn’t give him more offspring? Furthermore, his young wife, “the graduate,” has been creating unease and tension between his other wives. It is really beyond him to understand what the reason could be, given that he is sharing his favours equally among the women. Something has to be done about his “barren” wife and all else will sort itself out after that. Or does it?

Nigerian author Lola Shoneyin was a well-known poet and short story writer by the time her debut novel, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, was published in 2009. It immediately won several awards and was also long listed for the 2011 Orange Prize. As the title and my short introduction suggests, the novel takes an intimate look at a life in a polygamous family in modern Nigeria. Drawing on her own in-depth knowledge of the issues, Shoneyin writes with great confidence making this novel a very engaging and authentic read. She harmoniously combines humour and irony with empathy and sensitivity in her vivid depiction of the central characters and the circumstances they find themselves in. The reader is taken inside the complicated day-to-day of such living arrangements and, quite naturally, we also gain insights into the very difficult underlying societal issues of traditional gender relations and economic inequalities.

Bolanle, the young educated fourth wife is the central figure of this fast moving and highly absorbing tale: her introduction into the household sets off a series of events and revelations that have repercussions nobody could have anticipated. What is predictable is that her arrival does not go down well with the three established wives and mothers of Baba Segi’s children. Iya Segi, the “mother of the household” has had until now a very good handle on everything and managed the second wife, Iya Tope, and the third, Iya Femi pretty well (each named after her first-born child). Now with the intruder among them jealousy, insecurities, favouritism and disruption of their established group dynamics take over the daily life. One expresses what the three feel: “These educated types have thin skins; they are like pigeons. If we poke her with a stick, she will fly away and leave our home in peace”  On her side, Bolanle does not really understand the inner workings of the household and adds to the difficulties.

Rather than telling the story from one – external – perspective, Shoneyin gives each protagonist a distinct voice to tell her/his own backstory and in other chapters reveal their respective views on the unfolding dramatic events in the household. As readers we can appreciate their very different upbringing and circumstances that led them to marry into Baba Segi’s household. We can even develop some empathy with Baba Segi himself, a man whose life has not been easy and has bound him deeply to the traditions of his social environment. All in all a very satisfying read: lively, personal and also educational in giving the reader a glimpse into the challenges faced by societies developing from tradition to modern, from rural to urban life.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 60 readers
PUBLISHER:	William Morrow; 1 edition (June 29, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Friederike Knabe
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Wikipedia page on Lola Shoneyin
EXTRAS:	Reading Guide
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Another Nigerian author: The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Bibliography:

• The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives (2009; 2010 in US)

“…what mattered very much to Richard was what an imaginary dwarf would encounter once he hefted a virtual pick and began to delve into the side of a mountain. In a conventional video game, the answer was literally nothing. The mountain was just a surface, thinner than paper Mache, with no interior. But in Pluto’s world, the first bite of the shovel would reveal underlying soil, and the composition of that soil would reflect its provenance in the seasonal growth and decay of vegetation and the saecular erosion of whatever was uphill of it, and once the dwarf dug through the soil he would find bedrock, and the bedrock would be of a particular mineral composition. It would be sedimentary or igneous or metamorphic, and if the dwarf were lucky it might contain usable quantities of gold or silver or iron ore.”

Book Review:

Review by Bill Brody  (SEP 30, 2011)

Neal Stephenson’s ReaMde, a play on words for the ReadMe file that accompanies many computer programs, is above all a wild adventure/detective story set in the present day. As one would expect from this author, current technology features prominently. The cast of characters is international, offering windows into such diverse types as Russian gangsters, Chinese hackers, American entrepreneurs, Idaho survivalists and second amendment fanatics among many others. A video game, T’Rain, is central to the tale. Most of the characters are addicted to the game; much of the detection is done by playing the game or by mining the data kept by the game. ReaMde as a story is something like a prolonged session of T’Rain. T’Rain is a play on words for terrain.

Reamde is a computer virus that hijacks data by encrypting it so it is unreadable. Victims get a computer message including a file named ReaMde, that they mistakenly read as ReadMe. ReadMe files are text files with important how-to information and are commonly bundled with downloaded computer programs. The victim opens the file, but instead of getting a text message with useful information, they activate the virus. The victim is told that they must pay a ransom in virtual currency within the T’Rain game in order to receive the encryption key that will free their data. The virtual currency is worth a fairly inconsequential sum in real money, something like $75. The action starts as a consequence to Reamde hijacking credit card data that has been sold to Russian gangsters. The gangsters kidnap the seller and his girlfriend, who just happens to be the niece of the founder of T’Rain, the computer game in which the ransom must be paid.

T’Rain is a game played on the Internet with thousands, maybe millions of players at any given time. The game play consists of the interaction of this massive cast of characters in an incredibly detailed world. ReaMde is played out in much the same way with a very large cast of fascinating characters. They include:

Richard Forthrat, billionaire founder of Corporation 9592, the parent company of the computer game, T’Rain, a game distinguished by the incredible richness of its simulation of an entire world, its underlying physics and 4.5 billion year geophysical history;
Zula, his niece, an Eritrean refugee with a specialty doing computer simulations of the geophysics of volcanoes, a skill she is employed to use to enhance the virtual richness of T’Rain; Ivanov, the Russian gangster who purchased the credit card data from Zula’s boyfriend and kidnaps the two to start off the adventure; CIA and M16 operatives, gun nuts, fundamentalists of all stripes from Christian survivalists to Islamic jihadists.

The story flows remarkably smoothly for all its complexity, and is immensely readable. All the ends tie together and the action never flags, just like an addictive video game. This is a great entertainment for anyone in tune with modern computer technology, gaming or just plain interested in a good adventure story. One wonders how an entire world’s physics could be simulated in such a game. The story itself is like the computer game that is itself a part of the story, raising the idea of recursive games within games. How could a game with such virtual complexity be supported? This is the only part of the tale that is science fiction in that even the much simpler complexity of atmospheric or ocean physics is beyond the reach of current technology.

ReaMde is like a video game, and recalls the serialized adventure stories from the pulp era with its intensely interconnected series of adventures and adventurers. The characters are all fascinating. They each embody an adventurer or geek type possessing exceptional luck, physical and/or technical prowess. Each spin of the adventure dial is within the realm of possibility, but there is no sense that this is realism. What we have is great escapist literature with a gaming twist. In short, just about perfect for the geek-gamer audience.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 508 readers
PUBLISHER:	William Morrow (September 20, 2011)
REVIEWER:	Bill Brody
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Neal Stephenson
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Our reviews of: Anathem Quicksilver The Confusion Snow Crash

Bibliography:

• The Big U (1984)
• Zodiac: The Eco-Thriller (1988)
• Snow Crash (1992)
• The Diamond Age (1995)
• Cryptonomicon (1999)
• Anathem (2008)
• Reamde (2011)

The Baroque Cycle

• Quicksilver (2003)
• The Confusion (2004)
• The System of the World (2004)

Non-Fiction

• In the Beginning… Was the Command Line (1999)
• Some Remarks (August 2012)

Written as Stephen Bury (with his uncle J. Fredrick George):

• Interface (1995)
• The Cobweb (1997)
• Artists’ Multiples, 1935-2000 (2002)

“I’m writing to say good-bye. My decision has been made and by the time you read this, there will be no turning back. I have tried….But the war changed me, it changed my family, it changed everything, and finding my way again to what I knew before isn’t possible.”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky  (JAN 23, 2011)

A Lonely Death, by Charles Todd, is one of the most haunting mysteries in the Inspector Ian Rutledge series. The year is 1920 and the First World War has taken an enormous toll on the young Englishmen who naively went off to battle, expecting excitement and adventure. What they found, instead, was terror and violent death. Those who returned were often shell-shocked and/or physically maimed; their families suffered along with the damaged soldiers.

Rutledge barely made it through the war. He was nearly buried alive, and at times, wishes that he had never been rescued. He was severely traumatized by his horrific experiences and bears boundless guilt for his role in sending his men to their deaths. One deceased Scottish soldier named Hamish MacLeod still gives Ian no peace. Rutledge walks around with the young Highlander’s voice, “relentless and unforgiving,” resounding in his head, chiding him, giving advice, and reminding Rutledge that he does not deserve to live a normal life.

At least his work gives Rutledge some respite from his despondency. After he sees off Chief Inspector Cummins, who is retiring, Rutledge is called to Eastfield, Sussex, where a series of deaths by garroting have left three men dead in nine days. This case will prove to be a crucible that will test Rutledge’s determination and strength of character. He, along with Constable Walker and others, must determine why these particular men were targeted. Did the murders have something to do with events that occurred during the war? The evidence points in a number of different directions and the answers are far from obvious. In addition, Rutledge looks into a cold case that Cummins had always wanted to solve, but could not. This subplot is not particularly realistic, but it is intriguing nevertheless.

The mother and son who collaborate under the name Charles Todd have created a complex novel of psychological suspense with a large cast of memorable characters, evocative descriptive writing, and meticulous attention to historical detail. A Lonely Death is a wrenching story of revenge and sorrow. Charles Todd’s fine work of fiction is not only a commentary on the hellish price of war, but it is also an incisive look at the battles we wage each day–with our acquaintances, relatives, employers, and even with ourselves. Few emerge from these encounters unscathed. Inspector Ian Rutledge, alas, still has a great deal of healing to do before he can face the future with equanimity.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 41 readers
PUBLISHER:	William Morrow (January 4, 2011)
REVIEWER:	Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Charles Todd
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our reviews of: A Duty to the Dead A Pale Horse A Test of Wills

Bibliography:

Inspector Ian Rutledge series:

• A Test of Wills (1996)
• Wings of Fire (1998)
• Search the Dark (1999)
• Legacy of the Dead (2000)
• Watchers of Time (2001)
• A Fearsome Doubt (2002)
• A Cold Treachery (2005)
• A Long Shadow (2006)
• A False Mirror (2007)
• A Pale Horse (December 2007)
• A Matter of Justice (December 2008)
• The Red Door (December 2009)
• A Lonely Death (January 2011)

Francesca Hatton series:

• The Murder Stone (2003)

Bess Crawford, British army nurse:

• A Duty to the Dead (August 2009)
• An Impartial Witness (August 2010)

“I let one of the men rename me. A man gave me the name Rose – you didn’t know that, did you, Poke?…He said, this man, he said that Kwan was too hard to remember, even though it’s a good name and it means ‘spirit,’ and that the rose was the queen of flowers and I was the queen of Patpong.” She laughs, rough as a cough. “The queen of Patpong. A kingdom of whores and viruses. Death with a smile.”

Book Review:

Review by Lynn Harnett  (OCT 23, 2010)

The fourth in Hallinan’s involving Poke Rafferty Bangkok thriller series finds the American travel writer enjoying family life with new wife Rose and adopted daughter Miaow.

Miaow, a former street kid, now attends a multi-national private school where, determined to be like everybody else, she’s renamed herself Mia. Rose is Rose, tall, edgy, beautiful, happy in her newfound domesticity. Then a blast from her bargirl past turns up and in minutes there’s blood drawn and terror in their hearts.

James Horner, big, handsome and with private military skills, has a special grudge against Rose since she once tried to kill him. Rose isn’t saying much more than that, at least not until Rafferty has a couple more run-ins with Horner and his equally menacing sidekick. As a writer, Rafferty tends to meet brawn with brain, which is a lot of fun for the reader and still generates plenty of bloody action.

But with her family falling apart and another innocent girl hurt because she helped Rafferty, Rose decides to tell her story – which takes up the middle of the book.

Hallinan’s empathetic prose keeps this familiar story fresh – a bright, impoverished village girl, who runs away to escape being sold by her alcoholic father. We get a vivid picture of the gradations of bargirls – Kwan (Rose’s real name), more beautiful than most, has more choices. Hallinan takes us behind the scenes, giving us the girls’ point of view. Kwan’s story, full of pathos, friendship, and street-wise education, punctuated with occasional cruelty and common perils, builds to a crescendo of terror that makes it clear that Horner will stop at nothing to kill her. So Rafferty has to act, not just react.

With the help of his police friend and fellow Shakespeare aficionado, Arthit, Rafferty devises a plan. Trouble is Horner isn’t just big, he’s smart too, and much more ruthless than Rafferty. Hallinan meshes action, craftiness and the Bangkok streets to build to a white-knuckled and satisfying conclusion.

Hallinan knows his city, immersing us in Rafferty’s milieu of bar girls, school plays, cops and neighborliness. Miaow’s adolescent rebelliousness, her ardent and sometimes heartless desire to leave her streetwise past behind and be just like every other middleclass girl, and her endearing smarts all ring true.

Fans will be especially pleased to know more of Rose’s back-story, but first time readers will find themselves right at home in this exotic world.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 60 readers
PUBLISHER:	William Morrow (August 17, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Lynn Harnett
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Tim Hallinan
EXTRAS:	Queen of Patpong video on YouTube
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: Nail Through the Heart The Fourth Estate Breathing Water A previous interview with Timothy Hallinan New series: Crashed

Bibliography:

Poke Rafferty, Bangkok series:

• Nail Through the Heart (2007)
• The Fourth Watcher (2008)
• Breathing Water (2009)
• The Queen of Patpong (2010)
• The Fear Artist (July 2012)

Junior Bender, Burglar series:

• Crashed (2010)
• Little Elvises (2011)
• The Fame Thief (July 2013)

Simeon Grist, Los Angeles series:

• The Four Last Things (1989)
• Everything But the Squeal (1990)
• Skin Deep (1991)
• Incinerator (1992)
• The Bone Polisher (1993)
• The Man with No Time (1994)

“Later, thinking back on the way my father recounted the story, it occurred to me that much of the language he used to describe the storm might have been applied to the act of a couple making love. He made the sound of the wind for me, then, and I pressed myself against his chest so he could wrap his big arms around me. I shivered, just to think how it must have been that night.

For some reason, my father liked to tell this story, though I – not my sisters, not our mother—was his only audience. Well, that made sense perhaps. I was his hurricane girl, he said. If there hadn’t been that storm, he liked to say, I wouldn’t be here now.”

Book Review:

Review by Bonnie Brody (AUG 24, 2010)

Joyce Maynard’s books are usually about love, loss, life, and resolution. This book is no exception. It is a lovely book that I’d like to have read while resting against a tree in a forest or while lounging in a canoe in a crystal still lake. It’s that kind of book.

The Good Daughters is about two girls, Dana Dickerson and Ruth Plank. They are called “birthday sisters” because they were born in the same hospital on the same day, almost nine months to the day after the great hurricane of 1949. Because of this connection, their families stay in touch as the girls are growing up. Usually they visit one another once or twice a year. The Planks own a large farm in New Hampshire that has been in their family for generations. The Dickersons are never in one place for very long.

Ruth grows up on the farm with four older sisters. The four other sisters all look alike, just like their mother. They are short, sturdy, strong girls who are close with one another and their mother. Ruth is tall and lean, built unlike her sisters or mother. Her father calls her “beanpole.” Ruth doesn’t think that her mother loves her like she loves her other daughters. Their relationship is stiff and difficult at the best of times. Ruth feels very close to her father and loves to ride the tractor with him or spend any other alone time she can get with him. Ruth is drawn to art and wants to be an artist when she grows up. She has an active imagination and loves to create stories in her head.

Dana’s parents are on the fringe of society and move around frequently. Her mother is a narcissistic artist and her father is absent more than present. He is full of get-rich-quick schemes that come to naught. Dana’s mother is almost six feet tall and blond. Dana has a brother, Ray, that is quirky and ephemeral. Neither parent pays much attention to the children. Ruth and Ray have a special relationship. Dana’s mother showers her with Barbie dolls and Barbie outfits which are about the last thing in the world that she wants. When Ruth comes to visit she likes to play with them. Dana is short and stocky, not built at all like her tall, lanky mother. Dana loves the smell of the earth and the Plank farm. She doesn’t like to dress up. Her idea of dress-up is clean jeans and a clean shirt. She wouldn’t be caught dead in a dress.

The book harbors a big secret that is obvious to the reader very early on. This secret, however, is not obvious to Dana or Ruth. As they grow up and become the women they were meant to be, pieces of the story fall into place more and more.

The story is told in the alternate voices of Ruth and Dana. Each chapter is told by one of the girls and is about their lives from their births in 1950 until they are in their 50’s. The reader is privy to their childhoods, first loves and relationships. We live with them through the Vietnam War, Woodstock, their love of the land, and their relationships with their families. It is a tender book that has its share of sadness and torment. Joyce Maynard knows how to write page-turners that are literate and strongly emotive. This is a wonderful follow-up to Labor Day.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 46 readers
PUBLISHER:	William Morrow (August 24, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Bonnie Brody
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Joyce Maynard Wikipedia page on Joyce Maynard
EXTRAS:	Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	More from authors like this one: A Friend of the Family by Lauren Grodstein Every Last One by Anna Quindlen Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Bibliography:

• Baby Love (1981)
• To Die For (1992)
• Where Love Goes (1995)
• The Usual Rules (2003)
• The Cloud Chamber (2005)
• Labor Day (2009)
• The Good Daughters (2010)

Nonfiction:

• Looking Back (1973)
• Domestic Affairs: Enduring the Pleasures of Motherhood and Family Life (1987)
• At Home in the World (1998)
• Internal Combustion: The Story of a Marriage and a Murder in the Motor City (2006)

“Dear Elizabeth,
I’m sure this is a shock, although that’s not my intention, to shock you. Up until a few weeks ago, I never thought I would have any communication with you at all and accepted that as fair. That’s how it’s been for more than twenty years now. But it’s hard to ignore signs when they are right there in front of your face, and there was your photo in Washingtonian magazine, not the usual thing I read, but you’d be surprised by my choice of reading material these days. Of course, you are older, a woman now. You’ve been a woman for a while, obviously. Still, I’d know you anywhere.”

Book Review:

Review by Bonnie Brody (AUG 17, 2010)

Laura Lippman knows how to write about terror, both the subtle, covert, shadow type and the more acute, stomach-wrenching, in-your-face type. This is a book about acts of terror, specifically kidnapping and rape. It is primarily about the kidnapping and rape of 13 year-old Elizabeth Lerner in 1985 and the 39 days she spent at the hands of her kidnapper and rapist, William Bowman, a serial killer.

Eliza Bennett is currently living the life of a suburban mother in an upper middle-class area near D.C. She has recently returned to the states after 6 years in Great Britain, following her husband, Peter’s, job opportunities. She has two children, Iso (Isobel) 13, and Albie, 8. She and Peter, along with her immediate family members, are the only ones privy to the secret that Eliza Bennett is really Elizabeth Lerner. After the kidnapping, Elizabeth shortened her name to Eliza and when she married Peter, she took his last name. There is no reason that people should suspect Eliza Bennett and Elizabeth Lerner are one and the same.

The book goes back and forth in time from the present to the time of the kidnapping. It very subtly divulges more and more information about Elizabeth, Walter, and the other girls that Walter kidnapped. The novel shows what Elizabeth felt like in Walter’s hands. Her fear was primal and she felt that to stay alive she needed to obey Walter’s every wish. She not only obeyed him, but she always told him the truth, often entertaining him in a Scheherazade-like manner. In fact, she is the only one of Walter’s victims who has lived to tell about it. Elizabeth was the star witness in the trial whereby Walter Bowman was given the death sentence by the State of Virginia. As the book opens, Walter sits on death row.

Eliza is a good mother, but reticent to make friends and prone to nightmares about the other “ghost children” that Walter kidnapped. She knows that life is not safe and that trust is a false god. One day, out of the blue, she receives a letter from Walter, through an intermediary, that has an enclosed picture of Eliza and Peter at a gala. The letter says, “I’d know you anywhere.” So begins Eliza’s nightmares once again. Walter wants to be in phone contact with her and Eliza knows from experience that Walter is not happy if he does not get what he wants. It is here in the novel that I had trouble suspending belief in order to enjoy the rest of the book, for what Eliza does is get a phone just for the purpose of receiving Walter’s collect calls. She decides that it’s better to do what Walter wants than to get him angry. I can think of many other alternatives at this point but Eliza could not.

The story progresses and the reader gets to know Walter and Eliza very well. I was even able to suspend belief later in the book as I felt more compassion for Eliza and could empathize with her character differently and more fully. Knowing her better helped me understand her reasons for talking to Walter.

Laura Lippman is a master at keeping suspense up and of keeping the reader enthralled. Her writing is intelligent and emotive. She does terror so well that I had to put the book down at times because it was too much. However, that never stopped me from picking it up again.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 212 readers
PUBLISHER:	William Morrow (August 17, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Bonnie Brody
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Laura Lippman
EXTRAS:	Excerpt An interivew
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: To the Power of Three Every Secret Thing And these featuring P.I. Tess Monaghan: The Girl with the Green Raincoat No Good Deeds By a Spider’s Thread

Bibliography:

Tess Monaghan series:

• Baltimore Blues (1997)
• Charm City (1997) /
• Butchers Hill (1998) /
• In Big Trouble (1999) /
• The Sugar House (2000)
• In A Strange City (2001)
• The Last Place (2002)
• By a Spider’s Thread (2004)
• No Good Deeds (2006)
• Another Thing to Fall (2008)
• The Girl with the Green Raincoat (2011)

Standalone Novels:

• Every Secret Thing (2003) /
• To the Power of Three (2005)
• What the Dead Know (2007)
• Hardly Knew Her: Stories (2008)
• Life Sentences (2009)
• I’d Know You Anywhere (2010)
• The Most Dangerous Thing (2011)
• And When She Was Good (2012)
• After I’m Gone (February 2014)

“Kavita spent the next two days curled up on the woven straw mat on the floor of the hut. She did not dare ask what had happened to her baby. Whether she was drowned, suffocated, or simply left to starve, Kavita hoped only that death came quickly, mercifully. In the end, her tiny body would have been buried, her spirit not even granted the release of cremation. Like so many baby girls, her first-born would be returned to the earth long before her time.”

Book Review:

Review by Bonnie Brody (MAR 13, 2010)

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda is an engaging and captivating novel about adoption, family, and the search for self. Set against the backdrop of India, we share the life of Asha, along with her adoptive and biological parents, from the day of Asha’s birth to her development into a young woman.

Asha is Kavita’s second daughter. Due to the dire poverty and circumstances of her life along with the cultural belief in India that boys are much more important than girls, Kavita’s first daughter was taken from her at birth and killed. There is no money for raising more than one child and that child must be a male one. Kavita gives birth secretly to her second child in case it is a girl. When she finds out that it is indeed a girl, she conceals the infant child from her husband who killed her first daughter. She is determined that this daughter will live. Along with her sister, Kavita walks miles to Mumbai. There, she leaves her daughter, who she’s named “Usha,” at an orphanage. Her next pregnancy is fraught with anxiety for fear this child might also be a girl. Luckily, the child is male and is much loved. A day does not go by that Kavita does not think about the heartrending losses of Usha and her dead daughter.

Somer is a physician in the United States who is unable to bear children of her own. She is married to Krishna, an Indian man from Mumbai, also a physician. They decide to go to India to adopt a child. The child they choose is Usha whose name they change to “Asha.” Asha is 10 months old when she is adopted. She is raised in a loving home and given every advantage and entitlement that an upper middle class American child can have. Somer is reluctant to engage in any conversations with Asha about her past or her heritage. She denies that part of her family that is Indian, creating distance and discord between herself, her husand and her daughter. By the time that Asha is twenty years old, she has not been to Mumbai since the time she was in the orphanage.

The novel does a wonderful job of showing the cultural discrepancies of Indian life, its diametrically polar aspects. Indians live either in dire poverty or with great wealth. The slums are described in vivid detail, such that you can almost smell, touch and taste the florid poverty. There is a much larger population of adult men than women in India and the fact that female children are killed at birth or aborted is shown as a routine event in the lives of the poor. Though India is the seat of great advancements in technology, many people live without electricity or basic utilities. Education is valued highly but the poor have little access to it. Children from poor families either work at home in caretaking roles or are on the streets begging. It is rare that a poor Indian child gets to go to school.

Asha is drawn to her Indian heritage but knows little about it. As a child, she resents her parents for not sharing more of her past with her. She writes letters to her birth mother that she keeps in a treasured box. Any family that has dealt with adoption will appreciate the way this book deals with the subject. As Asha searches for her true self, she learns the meaning of real family and inclusion. She struggles to find herself as she is often the only child in her class with very thick black hair, beautiful slanted golden eyes, dark skin, hair on her arms, and big eyebrows. She asks herself where this all comes from, how do others deal with it, why is she different. Somer is blond and blue-eyed, the prototypical Californian. Krishna is a busy neurosurgeon and is not one to sit down with Asha to discuss these poignant concerns.

The book reads quickly and maintained my interest throughout. The only problem I had with it is that some of the characterizations were not treated with the depth they deserve. While I got a fairly clear picture of Asha, Kavita, Somer, and Krishna, it is not until the end of the book that some of these people and Asha’s extended family really became fleshed out for me. Others remained shallow throughout.

It would not surprise me at all if this book becomes a bestseller. It has all the elements that attract readers, especially women. It is a pleasurable read and the characters are mostly likable and easy to identify with. That, combined with the themes of adoption and the Indian culture will make it a novel of interest to many.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 449 readers
PUBLISHER:	William Morrow (March 9, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Bonnie Brody
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Shilpi Somaya Gowda
EXTRAS:	Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	More fiction that deals with adoption: A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore Non-fiction with same title as this book: Secret Daughter by June Cross

Bibliography:

• Secret Daughter (2010)

“It does you credit to want to set the world to rights, my dear, but…I see no point in investigating a tragedy that lies in the past where it belongs. Fifteen years is a long time, witnesses die, attitudes change, and it is almost impossible to make a judgment on new facts when the old ones can’t be reconstructed.”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky (OCT 5, 2009)

A Duty to the Dead, by the mother-and son writing team known as Charles Todd, opens in 1916 on a hospital ship, Britannic, that is sailing off the coast of Greece. Elizabeth Crawford is a nurse stationed on the ship, who has worked tirelessly tending to the British casualties of World War I. Some of the soldiers in her care suffer from severe mental and/or physical wounds, and many do not pull through. Bess’s work has toughened her up considerably; however, she remains an extremely sensitive and compassionate woman. Against her better judgment, she develops strong feelings for an injured soldier named Arthur Graham. On his deathbed, Arthur begs Bess to deliver an important message to his brother in Kent. After putting off the task for a while, Bess finally finds the time to visit Arthur’s relatives.

Much to her consternation, Bess discovers that the Graham family is dysfunctional, if not delusional. Mrs. Graham, the widowed mother of three boys, is brusque and bossy; her cousin, Robert, has the run of the house, but rarely expresses a personal opinion; Jonathan, a lieutenant who is recovering from a severe facial wound, is blunt and prickly; and Timothy has a clubfoot that has kept him out of battle. Most troubling of all is the fate of another brother, Peregrine, who for fifteen years has been locked up in an asylum after allegedly butchering a housemaid when he was a teenager. Rather than see him hang for his crime, Peregrine’s mother arranges for him to be kept under lock and key for the rest of his life. Bess soon suspects that the Grahams are withholding key information, but she has no hard evidence to support her theory.

Bess Crawford is one of those formidable “stiff-upper-lip” individuals who is intolerant of liars and makes no excuses for herself or others. Whether she is nursing a patient with pneumonia, calming a shell-shocked veteran, or conducting an investigation that may shed light on the past, Bess is courageous, highly intelligent, keenly observant, and not too concerned about her own safety. Her father, Richard Crawford, is a career army officer who is appalled but unsurprised at his daughter’s rashness. Bess has always been fiercely independent and determined to finish what she starts, no matter how difficult the task.

The authors skillfully evoke the bleak atmosphere of wartime England when all able-bodied men are shipped to the front. Even those who survive often return disfigured or so severely traumatized that they can no longer function in society. In addition, Todd vividly portrays the insular life of a small village where the rector does his own carpentry, everyone gossips about their neighbors, and long-buried secrets are difficult to unearth. A resolute Bess not only spends her own time and money conducting a lengthy investigation, but she also endangers herself to help someone who may be an innocent victim of a vicious conspiracy. A Duty to the Dead is a strong work of historical fiction that forcefully depicts the horrors of war and illustrates the terrible consequences of covering up the truth for all the wrong reasons.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 82 readers
PUBLISHER:	William Morrow (August 25, 2009)
REVIEWER:	Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Charles Todd
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our reviews of: A Pale Horse A Test of Wills If you like this book, you will like: Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear The First Wave by James R. Benn

Bibliography:

Inspector Ian Rutledge series:

• A Test of Wills (1996)
• Wings of Fire (1998)
• Search the Dark (1999)
• Legacy of the Dead (2000)
• Watchers of Time (2001)
• A Fearsome Doubt (2002)
• A Cold Treachery (2005)
• A Long Shadow (2006)
• A False Mirror (2007)
• A Pale Horse (December 2007)
• A Matter of Justice (December 2008)
• The Red Door (December 2009)
• A Lonely Death (January 2011)

Francesca Hatton series:

• The Murder Stone (2003)

Bess Crawford, British army nurse:

• A Duty to the Dead (August 2009)
• An Impartial Witness (August 2010)

Anathem: (1) In  Proto- Orth, a poetic or musical invocation of Our Mother Hylaea, which since the time of Adrakhones has been the climax of the daily liturgy (hence the Fluccish word Anthem meaning a song of great emotional resonance, esp. one that inspires listeners to sing along). Note: this sense is archaic, and used only in a ritual context where it is unlikely to be confused with the much more commonly used sense 2. (2) In New Orth, an aut by which an incorrigible fraa or suur is ejected from the math and his or her work sequestered (hence the Fluccish word Anathema meaning intolerable statements or ideas). See Throwback.

Book Review:

Reviewed by Ann Wilkes (MAY 01, 2009)

In Anathem, “concents”  with cultures similar yet underlying philosophies opposite to our convents and monasteries dot the world of Arbre. The concents cloister adherents with a religious devotion to scientific theory from the outside world and its “saecular” ideas. From the saecular world’s point of view, the fraas and suurs stay in their concents, without technology, to protect the outside world from scientific advancement in dangerous areas. They must work on their scientific theories without benefit of any hardware or software to develop new technologies.

Just as our hero, Fraa Erasmus and his friends prepare to graduate to the next level of their vocation, Erasmus’ mentor, Orolo, detects something strange in the night sky. Then Inquisition representatives lock down the starhenge, which houses the telescopes, and banish Orolo from the concent.

Risking detection by the hierarchs and the Inquisition, Erasmus and his friends try to piece together what little intelligence they can gather, including a recording taken by a telescope that he sneaks into the starhenge to remove.

Once it becomes clear that the object in orbit isn’t of their world, Erasmus and his co-conspirators are sent out of the concent to a “convox” of fraas and suurs from across the planet.

“The bells of Provener flipped switches in my brain, as if I were one of those poor dogs that Saunts of old would wire up for psychological experiments. First I felt guilty: late again! Then my legs and arms ached for the labor of winding the clock. Next would be hunger for the midday meal. Finally, I felt wounded that they’d managed to wind the clock without us. “

The action and intrigue begins well into this complex, 900 page tome. Expect to read 160 pages of world building and description before the plot begins to unfold. If you can handle tutelage in quantum mechanics, alternate realities, geometry, philosophy and history as a foreign exchange student to this world of Arbre, you’ll be rewarded with a masterfully orchestrated plot full of culture, religion, politics, intrigue and mind-bending scientific speculations with characters that will remain with you for days. And in case it gets a bit much, Stephenson provides dictionary entries along the way and a full glossary in the back of the book.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 329 readerss
PUBLISHER:	William Morrow (September 9, 2008)
REVIEWER:	Ann Wilkes
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Neal Stephenson
EXTRAS:	Excerpt Wikipedia in-depth page on ANATHEM
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Our reviews of: ReamDe Quicksilver The Confusion Snow Crash

Bibliography:

• The Big U (1984)
• Zodiac: The Eco-Thriller (1988)
• Snow Crash (1992)
• The Diamond Age (1995)
• Cryptonomicon (1999)
• Anathem (2008)
• Reamde (September 2011)

The Baroque Cycle

• Quicksilver (September 2003)
• The Confusion (April 2004)
• The System of the World (October 2004)

Non-Fiction

• In the Beginning… Was the Command Line (1999)

Written as Stephen Bury (with his uncle J. Fredrick George):

• Interface (1995)
• The Cobweb (1997)
• Artists’ Multiples, 1935-2000 (February 2002)

“Your mother is worried about you – you have so many choices, so many options. Those are choices she cannot relate to and it is always difficult to see those we love choose differently then we have chosen, to live differently and be different.

You have to decide what you want for your life. But don’t be too quick to throw away all of the old to embrace the new. Make room for both, Saira.”

Book Review:

Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie (APR 29, 2009)

The Writing on My Forehead is a multi-generational tale involving a complex Indo-Pakistani clan which is scattered all over the world. They periodically gather in Pakistan, England and America for family visits. However, Pakistan is the locale of preference, because so many relatives live here. The elders who live in the West are determined to familiarize their children with the rich culture and traditional mores of their heritage. Nafisa Haji has written, with lyrical prose, a multi-layered, coming of age story which is sure to appeal to many readers. Saira Qader, a first generation American, is the narrator. 

Sisters Ameena and Saira Qader, were born and live in a suburb of Los Angeles. They are Muslim-Americans of Indo-Pakistani descent. Their parents were born in India, before the Partition of British India into the countries of India and Pakistan. The Partition caused the sisters’ grandparents, parents, and millions of others, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, to make individual decisions on where they would reside. 

The two sisters are as different as day from night. Ameena , the eldest, is beautiful, inheriting her mother’s milky white skin and well defined features. She is slender, graceful, and has long, sleek, dark brown hair. Saira’s hair is so wild that it is kept boyishly short. She takes after her father with her “shorter limbs and stubby proportions.” While Ameena is obedient with traditional values, Saira is a “junglee girl,” (Hindi for ill-mannered), inquisitive and very intelligent. She longs to have a bit more Western culture added to her sheltered life. 

The teenage girls are forever listening to their mother’s stories – all with a moral attached. At times her tales appear to be far fetched and seemingly unrelated to the subjects which inspire them. “Mother India” is the “source of all her improbable fables. The stories always end with a twist – of fateful karmic proportions.” Mrs. Qader’s has a facile, but nonetheless comfortable, world view. “Bad things happen to bad people…or to not-so-good people who make bad choices.” Good people’s lives are defined by duty and obligation. She has learned this firsthand. 

Storytelling plays a big part in the author’s debut novel. Three generations of family people her book. They are a wonderfully diverse, boisterous clan which holds frequent gatherings, often in Pakistan with stops for more visiting in England. These get-togethers usually involve weddings or funerals. With so many people there are bound to be many secrets, some going back generations. Saira becomes an expert at winkling out whatever details she can obtain of family lore, and stores them away for the day when she will become a writer, a journalist – a far away day, as she is only fourteen when the novel begins. 

Saira’s view of her narrow world changes drastically when she flies solo from her home in Los Angeles to Pakistan for a cousin’s wedding. Here the reader is introduced to many of her relatives, and to a wonderfully bright and rich culture. The celebration is filled with joy, and rife with family rivalries, feuds, sibling jealousies and more secrets and lies than the teenager can internalize. 

Just as The Writing on My Forehead bridges generations, the characters attempt to bridge cultures, sometimes with disastrous results. From arranged marriages to pot smoking, sex and alcohol at university, there are resounding repercussions and even exile. Saira becomes a journalist and travels with her cousin, a talented photographer, to the most dangerous places in the world to “bear witness” to life’s injustices. An old friend and former lover asks, “Chechnya, Rwanda – have you ever met a massacre you didn’t like, Saira?” 

Her beloved aunt, Big Nanima, advises her to make room in her life for both the old and the new. The bond of family is all important. When tragedy strikes, this long ignored bond forces Sara to return to the culture she has rebelled against. It is at this time of extreme stress that Saira Qader aches for her mother’s touch. When Saira and Ameena were little girls, Mrs. Qader would write an “ayer” from the Quran on her daughters’ foreheads – “Ayatul Kusi,” a prayer for protection, meant to sooth away fears and nightmares. But now Saira is an adult, her mother is dead, and she will have to find other ways to bring peace into her life. 

I really enjoyed this novel and am impressed by Ms. Haji’s writing and ability to balance multiple storylines. She develops her characters so well, that I feel as if I know them. However, the narrative’s pace is uneven at times, and I wish the ending were stronger and more credible. I highly recommend The Writing on My Forehead and look forward to Nafisa Haji next book. 

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 15 reviewers
PUBLISHER:	William Morrow; 1 edition (March 3, 2009)
REVIEWER:	Jana L. Perskie
AMAZON PAGE:	The Writing on My Forehead: A Novel
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Nafisa Haji
EXTRAS:	no
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	no

Bibliography:

• The Writing on My Forehead (March 2009)