Off My Rocker:

Recommendations From a Book Nut

March 2009

"Her crop was a miscellany
When all was said and done,
A little bit of everything,
A great deal of none.

Attributed to Robert Frost (1874–1963. "A Girl's Garden.")

LAST KASHMIRI ROSE, by Barbara Cleverly

In India during the British Raj, Police detective and WWI veteran, Joe Sandilands, is on the verge of returning to England at long last when he is called on by the provincial governor to investigate what appears to be merely a tragic accident.

As his investigation proceed, Sandilands realizes that there has been an entire series of "accidents" all involving young army wives.

Who is murdering these young women and why?

Convincing characters and fascinating setting are balanced by an unfortunate tendency to "telegraph" who dunnit.

GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY, by Mary Ann Shaffer

I started this book as a kind of penance since I don’t generally care much for books that get a lot of hype but I had a difficult weekend ahead of me and figured it would force me to take refuge in a book…any book (in a pinch, I’ll read cereal boxes).

So I sat down, turned to the first page and was lost in this great read.

It's remarkable what one can learn from reading fiction. For instance if I ever knew that Nazis had occupied England’s Channel Islands, I had forgotten it over the years.

Juliet Ashton, who was bombed out of her London flat during WWII losing nearly all her possessions but missing her books the most, is looking for a subject for her own new book. She finds that subject when she receives a letter from a man living on the isle of Guernsey. Somehow one of Juliet’s books from her flat has come into his hands, he has noted her name written in the book and contacted her for the address of a reliable book seller.

Thus begins a correspondence not only with this farmer, but with many of the inhabitants who suffered through the Nazi occupation.

This delightful novel, laid out in a series of letters works well for those who read for character for Juliet and the people of Guernsey become wonderfully real to the reader..Due to the epistolary (you like that word?) nature of this book it also works well for the busy reader who needs a pick-up-put-down novel.

I laughed…I cried…this was the best book I read last summer.