Kidnappings, Examining Rock and a Murder Mystery on the Bayou

My Week In BooksWhen someone recommends to me a book I like, I go back to them for more in the hopes they’ll continue to be a good source of great books. Kat Chow, an NPR reporter and sometimes guest on Pop Culture Happy Hour did me right. Again. When I started reading An Untamed State by Roxane Gay, all I knew was that Chow enjoyed it. A few pages in, I knew I did, too.

As a rule, I don’t watch scary movies. I hate that feeling of something being about to jump out at any moment, of waiting for the other shoe to drop. In An Untamed State, Gay establishes from the very first paragraphs that she’s setting up something scary. And I was okay with that. When something is scary on paper, I can shot the book when it gets to be too much. With a movie I have to cover my eyes and plug my ears and that just doesn’t leave a free hand for using the remote to turn off the television.

In An Untamed State, Mireille Duval Jameson is in Haiti with her husband and son visiting family when she gets kidnapped. Her thirteen days in captivity and the recovery that follows are explained in great detail. Interspersed throughout, Gay shares with us background into Mireille’s relationship with her family growing up, her husband and his family and the country her parents call home.

There are so many topics lying central to An Untamed State: privilege, violence against women, the experience of first- and second-generation immigrants. I was most intrigued by the story of recovery. How does a person recover after experiencing terrible violence perpetrated against them? How do relationships recover?

Gay has created a marvelous book. When I was done and logged the book in my GoodReads account, my review simply said, “Wow.”

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When I look back on life, I see it as punctuated by music – good and bad – and it was for that reason I was interested in Behind the Music: A Collection of Short Stories With a Musical Theme by Karen J. Mossman. This short collection leans towards chic lit with it’s dramatic stories and insertions of romance, which I don’t always appreciate. But the first story, A Cry in the Night, about a musician and a woman both taking a break from their regular life and meeting each other in the process, shows a lot of potential. Although just a brief story, Mossman has the beginnings of what could be a much longer romantic novel.

I received a copy of Behind the Music: A Collection of Short Stories With a Musical Theme by Karen J. Mossman for free as part of a GoodReads First Reads contest.

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There was a period when I was younger when I read mysteries all of the time. Agatha Christie, Nancy Drew, whatever. I’ve gotten out of the habit, but still enjoy a good detective story. Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran is just that, but it’s so … quirky. The setting is more The Wire than anything Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple would have encountered. Claire DeWitt herself is sort of a cocky mess, but so up front and confident about it that it’s almost okay.

I don’t think Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead is a story that will stick with me very long, but if I am ever stuck for a book to read, I’ll happily check out the other Claire DeWitt story.