This time last year I picked up a book by a new mystery author, Noah Boyd.  He is a former FBI agent who spent more than 20 years with the Bureau where he worked on the Green River Killer case and the Highland Park Strangler case.  When I read that in his bio it really peaked my interest in The Bricklayer.  Well I was certainly not disappointed. Now here we are at the end of 2010 and I have to say that The Bricklayer is one of my favorite books that I read this year.  Needless to say, when I received my ARC of Boyd’s new novel, Agent X,  I was thrilled.  I almost put down everything else and jumped in but I used a little self-control and put it in my suitcase.  You see I actually had a little Christmas holiday this year and was trying to save some books to read on my break.  I packed by carry one bag with Agent X on the top, and let me tell you I hadn’t even gotten on the plane before I was reading it!

I really like the main characters, Steve Vail–who has been fired from the FBI for insubordination but always seems to get caught back up in some really messy cases and Kate Bannon–deputy assistant director in the FBI who seems to be the only one that Steve trusts and will work with. Vail comes to Washington, D.C. to have what he thinks is going to be a New Years date with Kate (she has other ideas) and of course spies never take a holiday and this case is one that only Steve Vail can solve.  An officer at the Russian embassy, known only as Calculus, has contacted the FBI and he has a list of Americans who are selling information to the Russian SVR.  He will give up the names for a small price–$250,000 each.  The FBI really wants to keep this quiet but anything that involves Steve Vail is going to be a wild ride with lots of casualties.  Another reason I love these books is that they are jammed packed with action.

Agent X will be out on February 8 but don’t worry if you come by the store I will make sure that you all know it is out and ready to be read!  The Bricklayer is out in paperback now so come on by and get to know Steve Vail.

I read V. S. Ramachandran’s book Phantoms in the Brain several years ago, and though I’ve always been drawn to science writing for the layman, this book was a bonafide page turner. Like Oliver Sacks, Ramachandran uses strange cases and patients that he’s worked with to talk about how our brains work. In fact, one of the unique qualities of neurological science, what makes it different than, say, chemistry or physics, is that without the anomalies, without something going wrong, it’s nearly impossible to explain cognitive behavior and function. For this reason, neurological science is still basically in its infancy; in the past three decades there have been more leaps and breakthroughs than ever before. Neuroscience is beginning to have something to add to the discussion about human beings that was previously the realm of the philosopher — why we act as we do, why some of us are more creative than others, why we’re social beings, why we developed language, how we perceive beauty, how religion developed.

In his new book, The Tell-Tale Brain, these are the discussions that Ramachandran adds to; revisiting some of his cases from his earlier books and presenting some new cases, he uses his cases of amputees with phantom limbs to demonstrate the brain’s capacity for change, he uses cases of people with synesthesia, or a blending of the senses, such as someone who can “taste” music, to theorize about where our creativity comes from, and he investigates the properties of a nerve cell that may be one of the most crucial to humans — the cause of our social nature, our development of language — these cells allow us to empathize with one another and adopt another’s point of view.

Ramachandran’s books are very readable and fascinating; I’ve just begun his new one, published at the first of the year, and I already find myself wanting to remember the details of this or that case so I can talk about what they taught me about how I am.

As we finish up 2010 we reflect on the our work and our favorite books – Mark lists his favorites here. Many of my favorites were first editions club picks. Steve Yarbrough’s Safe From the Neighbors and Karl Marlantes’ Matterhorn immediately come to mind because this time last year we were just learning about the first big books of 2010. I’d like to take the opportunity to tell you about the first couple of books we’re learning about for 2011.

Chinaberry Sidewalks by Rodney Crowell

Yes, this is Rodney Crowell the Nashville singer/songwriter who was once son-in-law to Johnny Cash. Chinaberry Sidewalks is Crowell’s memoir about his  Texas childhood. It’s funny, we had a signing in November for Marshall Chapman – another singer songwriter who is a friend of Crowell’s – in her book she asks Crowell about how he first came to Nashville. Crowell’s book fills in the blanks before he came to Nashville. This book is getting a lot of critical acclaim – it is reminiscent of Mary Karr’s Liar’s Club. Crowell will sign, read, and even perform a few songs on January 19 starting at 5:00.

You Know When the Men are Gone by Siobhan Fallon

We really like picking first time authors for our First Editions Club. It’s fun to work with an upcoming author from the very beginning. For instance we picked Cold Mountain and All Over but the Shoutin’ for the club in 1997. You Know When the Men are Gone is Fallon’s first book. They are short stories, but they are all connected, not by the characters, but by the themes. Each story is either the tale of soldiers in Iraq or of their wives back home. I enjoyed this book very much. Each story is full of suspense – reminiscent of Raymond Carver.

Beso the Donkey

Poems by Richard Jarrette

Michigan State University Press (2010)

If you are like me, you’ve often wondered why someone picked out a particular book to give to you as a gift. Also, if you are like me, your reading is very scheduled, organized, chosen, valued, and reserved for those precious times when you can relax and concentrate. Often when a foreign book enters your chosen realm, a first response can be: Why this book? I’m already stacked. How do I fit this book in?

I ask you to consider and ponder why this particular book and why now. Usually the giver has put some effort and thought as to why they think you would want to spend your time reading their gift. This exercise can be an interesting puzzle to solve. Receiving a book to read that has never crossed into your reading plain of desire can lead to a rewarding and bonding experience. A possible starting point for a new conversation adding to a larger and deeper friendship.

Recently, my old Lemurian bookseller pal Tom sent me an inscribed copy of Beso the Donkey. Upon receiving, I scanned the poems (not too intimidating); Read the wrapper blurbs (W. S. Merwin, James Hirschfield and Joseph Stroud: All poets whose books I have enjoyed); Critiqued the wrapper art and felt that Beso came for a reason. Reading in the midst of Christmas retail exhaustion, this little book has been very pleasant. I doubt if I ever would have looked at this book. It wasn’t part of Lemuria’s inventory and I didn’t know the poet. Beso has been refreshing.

My point is that when you receive a book this Christmas don’t be too quick to judge your interest level. Let the gift settle into your life figure out why it is within your reach and why now. I believe books come when they are supposed to–why and how I am not sure. However, usually there is a reason; Naturally, it just happens. A wonderful rewarding reading experience can be the intended gift.

George Prochnik writes in the introduction to In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise:

“One spring day I went in pursuit of silence in downtown Brooklyn. I live not far away from where I began my search, on a leafy street that is, relatively speaking, a haven of quiet in a relentless city. I have a small garden, and the rooms where I sleep, work, and spend time with loved ones are surrounded by old, thick walls. Even so, I’m woken by traffic helicopters; I’m aggravated by sirens and construction . . . And then there are the screeching bus brakes, rumbling trucks unsettling manhole lids, and the unpredictable eruptions of my neighbor’s sound systems. I’m scared of becoming a noise crank, but I’ve just always loved quiet. I love to have conversations without straining to hear. I love, frankly, staring up from my book into space and following my thoughts without having any sound crashing down, demanding attention.”

George Michelson Foy is also in pursuit of silence in Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute Silence. Prochnik and Foy both share a variety of perspectives on silence–from history, science, religion to their own personal recollections and experiences. In Foy’s quest for silence he even ventures to what the Guinness Book of World Records calls “the quietest place on earth,” a place where no one has ever been able to spend more than 45 minutes before finding the silence unbearable. It seems there is a fine balance between over and under stimulation. Foy writes of a farmhouse, a place which seems to be just right for him:

“It’s an old, dark house, smelling of dry rot and smoke, with a fieldstone hearth and thick walls. The farm lies deep in the hills of the Berkshires, far from any roads. It’s the dead of night, at midwinter. The air is frozen and void of wind. Farmhouse, meadows, and woods surrounding are buried in a quilt of snow so deep that everything alive has chosen not to fight, but burrow instead below the white and go to sleep. All is cold and silent, on that farm in mind, that the stars, shining against a sky the color of tarnished lapis, seem to give off a vibration that is not sound and not light but something in between–something that is perhaps the essence of silence itself.”

I hope after the loud and bustling holidays that you find just the right place, too. Maybe you can lazily stare out into space, maybe with a book in your lap, having no particular aim for your thoughts.