Back to ThreePines: Louise Penny's A World of Curiosities

 

For anyone who knows me as a reader, it should come as no surprise that I've just finished Louise Penny's latest novel in her Three Pines Series featuring Chief Inspector Armande Gamache. The only surprise is that I didn't read the book as soon as it came out in November.

This book moves back and forth between the past when Ganache first met the headstrong Jean Guy Beauvoir while investigating a murder and present day when the son and daughter of the murdered woman arrive in Three Pines.

I love so many things about Penny's books, particularly the character development, but I also enjoy how she weaves literature, music, and art into the narrative. In this case, a hidden room is discovered above the book store in which they find what at first appears to be a work of art known as "A World of Curiosities" or the Pastan Treasure. Closer inspection, though, shows that while at first glimpse the painting resembles the seventeenth century painting, it actually includes myriad details from modern day, from a digital watch to scratches that are found to be made in shorthand. Soon Gamache recognizes them as messages from a serial killer he put behind bars.

In addition to the beloved recurring characters from the village, Penny also reintroduces Amelia Choquet from a couple of years back, a tattooed and pierced young woman who survived life on the streets and was eventually brought into Quebec law enforcement. 

After spending so much time in the homes in Three Pines, I can recognize the smell of sandalwood, the family pets, and even Rosa, the profane pet duck of the crotchety old poet Ruth. 

When I read Louise Penny's books, I find myself tearing through them, pulled along by the suspense, but then sad when they end, knowing I'll have to wait until November for my next visit.

Back to ThreePines: Louise Penny's A World of Curiosities

My 2019 Reading List

With just over a day left in the year, I decided to go ahead and post my reading list from this year. I'll post some more detailed commentary later, but I am already looking forward to comparing my list to others'.  

I always enjoy being reminded of a year of reading. Two Louise Penny books made the list because she published two close enough for me to read both. I hope she is busy writing the next one. I do see several poetry books included on this year's list, especially Nye and Kooser because of last year's and next year's Christian Scholars Conference. 

I also re-read some books that I already loved. My book club chose Daphne DuMaurier's classic Rebecca, which got me started reading all of her books back in junior high. It held up over time. I also read Varina by Charles Frazier again, the book club selection for the month I hosted. I also had a couple of books with Little Women connections, The Spring Girls, a modern retelling, and Ann Boyd Rioux deep dive into the book, the author, and all the spinoffs. Because I'd loved A Gentleman in Moscow, I selected the audiobook for a long road trip with my husband, now also hooked on audiobooks. I listened to a significant percentage of several others with him, but didn't add them to this list.

I also read Margaret Renkl's Late Migrations twice, in part because I'm reviewing it for L. A. Review, but also because I simply loved it. In fact, I gave more than one copy as a Christmas gift this year, and I recommended it to so many others. 

Already I have a long list of books I hope to read next, knowing that other books will muscle their way into the queue. 

Reading List 2019

Stuart Turton, The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Louise Penny, The Kingdom of the Blind

Kate Atkinson, Transcriptions

Heather Morris, The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Richard Grant, Dispatches from Pluto

Fannie Flagg, I Still Dream about  You

Tommy Orange, There, There

Delia Owens, Where the Crawdad Sings

Ann Boyd Rioux, Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Matters

Sonia Nazario, Enrique’s Journey

Emily Griffith, All We Ever Wanted

B. A. Paris, Bring Me Back

Susan Orlean, The Library Book

Patti Callahan, Becoming Mrs. Lewis

Lisa Genova, Every Note Played

Naomi Shihab Nye, Voices in the Air

---. You and Yours

---. Red Suitcase

---. Fuel

---. The Tiny Journalist

Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones and the Six

Amor Towles, A Gentleman In Moscow

Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

Louise Erdrich, Future Home of the Living God

Clyde Edgerton, Night Train

John Shors, Beneath a Marble Sky

Sandy Coomer, Available Light

Diane Setterfeld, Once upon a River

Marie Kondo, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying up

Anne Todd, The Spring Girls

Alan Bradley, The Golden Treasures of the Dead

Ron Seybold, Stealing Home

Andrew Sean Greer, The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells

Helen Ellis, Southern Lady Code

Katie Quinn, The Alice Network

Casey Cepp, Furious Hours

Melinda Gates, The Moment of Lift

Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Results

Fiona Davis, The Masterpiece

Tom Hanks, Uncommon Types

Margaret Renkl, Late Migrations

Ocean Vuong, On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous

David Brooks, The Second Mountain

Anne Youngson, Meet Me at the Museum

Allen Eskens, The Life We Bury

Daphne DuMaurier, Rebecca

Cathleen Schine, The Grammarians

Ann Patchett, The Dutch House
Colton Whitehead, The Nickel Boys
Adrian McKinty, The Chain

Louise Penny, A Better Man

Charles Frazier, Varina

Mary Laura Philpott, I Miss You When I Blink

Elizabeth Strout, Olive, Again

Tana French, In the Woods

Naomi Shihab Nye, The Tiny Journalist (re-read)

Margaret Renkl, Late Migrations (another re-read)

Ted Kooser, Flying at Night

Kevin Wilson, Nothing to See Here

Colm Tolbin, The Testament of Mary

Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give

Zadie Smith, Grand Union: Stories

Ted Kooser, Delights and Shadows

Patricia Harmon, The Reluctant Midwife

Matthew Dicks, Twenty-one Truths about Love

The Bible (McArthur’s read in a year)

My 2019 Reading List

My Favorite Fiction of 2017

I figured out a long time ago that the books I love aren't necessarily the ones I can recommend to just anyone; similarly, I have to be careful criticizing a book I don't enjoy because, sure as the world, someone I love will have liked it.  Even though my reading list is quite varied, I have always favored novels over most other reading. I'll start with just a few words about the ones that made my list of favorites:

Paulette Jiles, News of the World  

This book didn't necessarily start slowly, but it was understated at first, as readers are introduced to Captain Jefferson Kidd in 1870. After his printing business failed, he spends his time going from town to town, reading aloud from a collection of newspapers from across the country and the world, changing twenty-five cents a head.  He is asked to return a ten-year-old white girl to her surviving relatives after she has been held captive by Kiowa long enough to identify as a tribe member. I was drawn in quickly by the conflicts he and the girl face as she slowly learns to trust him and to communicate. When I hosted my book club to discuss this book, I had a playlist of fiddle tunes and other period music referenced in the book. 

Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

I read and loved Towles' earlier novel Rules of Civility, even finding myself in D.C. at the National Museum with Walker Evans' subway portraits on display as I was just beginning to read the book in which they play a part. The storyline and characters of new novel are so different that I could forget they were written by the same author. When I read A Gentleman in Moscow, I couldn't wait to convince others to read it too. Count Alexander Rostov, the protagonist, is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol Hotel because of some of his poetry deemed subversive. He is moved from his comfortable, even luxurious quarters to a small attic room. Over the years of the story, he encounters a number of characters who cross his path, in particular a young girl Nina who engages him in conversation and then exploration. He has a camaraderie with most of the employees of the hotel, but finds one particularly incompetent worker his nemesis. This book so charmed me that I still find myself remembering particular scenes. I've almost convinced myself that I've been to the Metropol myself.

Louise Penny, Glass Houses

One of my best discoveries in the past couple of years was Penny's mystery series set in the fictional village of Three Pines.  Usually I am reluctant to start a series, knowing the reading commitment; I don't gravitate toward mysteries either. But Penny's writing has captured me as one loyal reader. I always advise people to read her books in order, starting with Still Life. She gives enough exposition that any of the books can be read as a stand-alone, but reading in order feels like getting to know a whole community of real people. Inspector Gamache, the protagonist of the series, has taken on a new role in the law enforcement of Quebec and is coming  under criticism for failure to deal with serious crime. The story involves his colleagues, including his son-in-law Jean Guy Beavoir, and the colorful locals I've come to love. Since I've read all thirteen books in the series, my wish for 2018 is that Penny is busily writing away on the next novel.

Lily King, Euphoria

This book also caught me by surprise. King took details of the life of Margaret Mead and transformed the characters, placing a married couple, both anthropologists, in New Guinea in the 1930s. The story is strong enough without a knowledge of the fact behind the fiction, something of a love triangle that develops in this rather competitive marriage and professional partnership. 

Joy Jordan-Lake, Tangled Mercy

Nashville writer Jordan-Lake started this novel, set in Charleston both pre-Civil War during a failed slave rebellion and in 2012, several years ago.  The modern protagonist takes a leave (practically going AWOL from her academic career) after the death of her parents, whose separation left her with unanswered questions. The back story, dealing with the plot of rebellion, follows a slave who words as a blacksmith, allowing him a small small amount of autonomy. Through the book, she moves back and forth between the two time settings, gradually weaving the stories together. She revealed at her book launch that current events forced her to rework the novel. The results make for good reading.

Gin Phillips, Fierce Kingdom

I've always loved zoos, particularly the one in Birmingham where we often took our children when they were small. Even though Phillips never directly names the zoo at the center of her story, I know she hails from Alabama with her family in the area, so I take imaginative liberties. The story begins with a young mother and her son enjoying an outing. As they head toward the exit at closing time, though, they hear gunfire and are forced to take cover as a live shooter incident unfolds. I've read and enjoyed other novels by Philips, and I expect big things from this one. I understand a movie may be in the works.

Nicola Yoon, The Sun Is Also a Star

I'm an unapologetic fan of Young Adult fiction, and I loved this one. The story brings two characters together on a pivotal day for them both. Natasha and her family are about to be deported to Jamaica after her father is involved in a driving incident. She sets out to find someone who can help her avoid the move. She runs into Daniel, a Korean American second son, on his way to a college interview for the "second best" university after his older brother fails to live up to his family's expectations. In this pressure-cooker situation, their friendship develops quickly over less than twenty-four hours.  Natasha is a pragmatist; Daniel, a poet. I loved the way Yoon works in the questions that help people fall in love (from a New York Times piece I saved in my clippings file.)

Hanna Tinti, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley

This book presents the story of Loo, a girl raised by her father who moves from place to place, keeping the girls' dead mother's mementos in something of a shrine.  The twelve lives to which the title refers are the twelve bullet scars on Samuel's body.

William Kuhn, Mrs. Queen Takes the Train

Several years ago, I enjoyed Alan Bennett's slender volume, An Uncommon Reader, in which Queen Elizabeth discovers the Bookmobile as she walks her corgis. This novel is a similar fiction treatment of the Queen's daily life, in this case as she begins to take a measure of her life. Kuhn introduces a number of characters, including an Indian teenager working at the cheese shop, the young woman who cares for the horses in the royal stables, and a number of palace employees. Kuhn builds tension,  along with a measure of sympathy for the queen, as much she has taken for granted is being taken from her, all delivered with both humor and tenderness. 

Frank Conroy, Heart and Soul

I've been meaning to read this book for years. My husband read and loved it first and then accidentally left it on an airplane. I knew only that it was about music--piano music.  One doesn't have to be musically knowledgeable or talented to enjoy this novel, but an interest makes the story so much more engaging. The main character, a young boy raised in a dysfunctional home by his single mother, discovers his own innate piano genius. A music store owner takes him under his wing and introduces him to teachers who can help him develop his unparalleled talent. 

Lisa See, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

I've read most of Lisa See's novels, and this one was especially enjoyable. The story begins in a remote area of China famous for its tea. As she does in many of her books, See explores how traditions have such a hold on people, particularly on daughters. The story also explores adoption of Chinese daughters by American parents. Reading the book was not only a character study but also "steeped me" (pardon the pun) in knowledge of the intricacies of the small family tea industry.

My Favorite Fiction of 2017

Lucky Thirteen: Louse Penny's Newest Novel in the Three Pines Series

Since today is Friday the 13th, I have had to reexamine my own light case of superstition. If I really were concerned about this day's reputation for bad luck, I should be comforted by the number of four-leaf clovers crumbling in books throughout my house.  I thought it a funny coincidence, though, that on the 13th, I finished reading Glass Houses, the thirteenth in Louse Penny's Three Pines series. I do count it a stroke of luck that I started her books with Still Life a few years ago.

I'll admit that I had a preconceived idea about what to expect --a little light reading, a beach book. In fact, listening to the author interview at the end of the audiobook, I heard Penny describe readers telling her they thought she was ready now for literary fiction, as if what she writes isn't quite serious enough. I beg to differ.

I admit that I don't generally seek out mysteries, and I am reluctant to engage in a series--even one with just three of four books--because I don't want to overcommit. When I read these books, though, I feel intellectually stimulated, my senses are fully engaged, and yet, I also feel as if I am re-visiting characters I know well. The complex relationships between the characters are so insightful, delightful. Of course, I love Inspector Gamache, who has accepted the position of Chief Superintendent of the Surety du Quebec,  but I also love his wife Reine-Marie. I honestly believe Jean Guy Beauvoir, Gamache's son-in-law and second in command, may be the character I find most intriguing. He's such a foil character to his patron, and he's so complex and multi-dimensional. When he went through a dark period in one of the earlier novels, I felt almost physically ill.

In this book, the narrative opens with Gamache testifying  in a murder trial during a heat wave. The defendant remains unnamed for much of the story, as the back story develops. Among the usual villagers, Clara and Myrna, the poet Ruth and her pet duck Rosa, new characters have come to town. Four old college friends have returned for a reunion. Two new employees--a baker and a dishwasher--have come to the bistro and the boulangerie.  Once the body is found, everyone comes under suspicion.

In this story, though, the murder is almost secondary. First Penny introduces an oddly dressed stranger dressed as a cobrador, explained as a "debt collector" from Spanish lore. Woven into the story, though, is Gamache's challenge with the growing drug trade, particular heated this close to the United States border.  Some of the characters who have always stood for justice and right have to test that standard against what Ghandi referred to as the higher court: conscience.

Once again, Penny has kept me on edge and has left with with hope as Gamache ends the tale, whispering words of kindness to one of his own team, whom he regards as family. I am also left with hope that Penny keeps writer. I dread waiting a year for the next installment.

Lucky Thirteen: Louse Penny's Newest Novel in the Three Pines Series

Discovering Louise Penny, or How to Expand My Must-Read Stack

For practical reasons, I'm reluctant to start reading books in a series--not because I don't enjoy them but because they tend to commandeer my reading time, elbowing other books out of the way. I couldn't wait to read all the Harry Potter books, and I wait for the next in Alan Bradley's Flavia DeLuce books. At least when I start reading a series as it's being written, I can keep up.  When I discover a series that already includes several books, I'm already behind.

Case in point: I had heard readers I respect mentioning Louise Penny's novels, but I just never knew enough to read one. Then a former colleague who knows my book tastes recommended her works. He said he had read them all. I started with Still Life, the first in Penny's Quebec Inspector Gamache novels. A murder mystery set in the small village of Three Pines, the story introduced a cast of characters in a little arts community. I know that strong characters pull me into a story, and the residents of this Canadian town are interested, vivid, and clearly drawn.

Best of all, though, Penny's writing is delightful.  Hers is not show-off literary prose; she just manages to put words together, to put words in her characters mouths--or heads--that I want to mull over. Since her characters care about art, poetry, books, and good food, the deft allusions are incorporated smoothly throughout the novel.

I made the mistake of picking up the next novel out of sequence, skipping ahead a few books just because of library availability, to A Long Way Home. Inspector Gamache was back in Three Pines, now as a resident of the little village. The plot has him helping Clara, one of the characters from the first novel, to locate her husband, from whom she has been estranged for just over a year.  Again, the art community is central, as is Myrna, the psychologist-turned-bookstore owner and the crotchety poet Ruth, this time with a pet duck.

I was able to read this one out of order, but I felt like I had been out of town for a long while, returning to find that I had a lot of catching up to do.  I decided to enlist my local librarians to make sure that I read the rest of the series in order. If only Inspector Gamache could solve a mystery for me: how am I going to read everything I want to read in the coming year--or years?

Discovering Louise Penny, or How to Expand My Must-Read Stack