The Cloud Sketcher – Richard Rayner

Having polished off All That Remains rather more rapidly than expected, I resorted to the books that line the shelves of the Gyford’s Walton residence…. Having already plundered the shelves on numerous occasions I knew I’d have to try something I’d previously rejected.

The one I picked, Richard Rayner’s The Cloud Sketcher, has proved a very good read, and I’d never have expected a novel to teach me about both American urban architecture and Finnish history, whilst simultaneously managing to build in a romance across a vast social divide!

The Cloud Sketcher follows the life, loves and career of Finnish architect Esko Vaananen, taking him and us from his childhood in a remote peasant village to the prosperity and opportunities available in Helsinki to a young architect at start of his career in the early years of the 20th century. This promising start is cut short by the bitter fighting between the Reds and the Whites as Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution spills over into Civil War in Finland, its neighbour and, at this time (I think…), vassal state.

The action then moves on to east coast of America in the glorious 20s, a time of prohibition and jazz, millionaires, gangsters and their molls, and the skyscrapers evoked in the title. Even if times the plot seems a bit bloated, Richard Rayner keeps you turning the pages right to the bitter end.

Buy it: Amazon link

All That Remains – Patricia Cornwell

A quick one-day read over the weekend at Walton, which came as a bit of a surprise as I’d expected this Kay Scarpetta novel to last me rather longer. Then again, it’s one of the earlier instalments in the series and I’m realising that the more recent novels are much longer – Blowfly and Trace in particular.

A satisfying read though, with Kay and Marino uncovering the connection and killer behind a series of double murders that turn out to stetch back decades, and unlike many other novels featuring Kay Scarpetta, this one stretches over many months. In addtion to the murder mysteries themselves, the plot also features politics a-plenty, and bitter rivalry and deliberate obfustication between the various law enforcement agencies that get involved. In fact, everyone seems to have their own agenda; from the drugs czar who is not only one of america’s most powerful women, a potential presidential candidate in fact, but also the mother of the girl whose murder opens the novel, to Benton Wesley who Kay encounters heading up the FBI team…..

Two additional points of interest in this novel, particularly if – like me – you’ve read some of Patricia Cornwell’s later novels first: (1) it features Mark as Kay’s love interest; and (2) Kay’s interest in Benton Wesley is purely professional, and she dislikes and distrusts him.

Having just been to explore www.patricia-cornwell.com and finding the publication timelines, I realise that this must be the earliest Kay Scarpetta novel I’ve read. Clearly I need to read its two predecessors: Post Mortem and Body of Evidence – if only to learn more about Kay’s relationships.

Amazon.co.uk link: All That Remains – Patricia Cornwell

Amazon.co.uk list: Kay Scarpetta Collection (in order)

Microserfs – Douglas Coupland

Read on the recommendation of Phil, selected due to running out of library books and the media coverage surrounding the publication of JPod, and very good it was too.

Although of more immediate appeal to those of us with an interest in technology, Microserfs is actually also worth reading if you’ve ever wondered what people whose work involves “programming” or “the internet” actually *do*. Or, more accurately given that this was written in the late 1990s, “did”. It’s also an excellent snapshot of the coming together of a generation of geekoids, the technical developments / opportunities they could both envision and create with the venture capitalist investment and proliferation of IT in both workplaces and homes which resulted in the dotcom boom.

But it’s not an altogether alien world of techno-speak and nerds. Yes, the book is set on America’s west caost, in the high tech towns of Seattle and San Francisco, but Dan, Karla and the rest are characters that recognisable in their foibles and their fears – even if some of their fads and fetishes aren’t quite so familiar. There are lots of funny moments, and poignant ones too, and I really liked the way the main characters are given a wider family setting, so that you get a sense of how they have ended up who and where they are.

Buy it: Amazon link

Amazing sunset – but no tomatoes :( (Yet)

We had an amazing sunset last night – reds, pinks, mauves, purples vibrant enough to prompt us to pause the video (My So-Called Life for 1994 US teenage angst nostalgia) to take some photos from the roof terrace!

Still no tomatoes on the tomato plants up there…. and they are looking much much healthier than the plants on the lounge balcony, which have one each. Bizarre.

H10: The Haddock 10th Birthday Party

… on Saturday night. Lots of people, lots of fun – even if I was a lame early leaver. It doesn’t seem that long ago that we celebrated Haddock’s 5th birthday, and I was a real newbie. “Matured Phishes”? Maybe not – although “More babies, Less hair” would be true. “Smoked / pickled/ steamed”? Almost universally.

And [Monday now] Tom Coates’s photo of Phil, me and him is the top search result if you search for “haddock” on Flickr… for now at least. No one else seems to have manages to take/upload any pictures…. me included.