The Coffee Trader

David Liss

With twists and turns of real or imagined conspiracy to rival a Thomas Pynchon novel and with meticulously researched historical detail, David Liss' second novel, set in Amsterdam in 1659. It involves one Miguel Lienzo, a Portuguese Jew who trades at the new Amsterdam Exchange, the worlds first commodities futures market. Presumably, the young Lienzo is the same person as Benjamin Weaver's uncle Miguel who appears as an elderly man in early 18th century London in Liss' first novel, A Conspiracy of Paper.

Readers who come to The Coffee Trader after reading that first novel may view it as a kind of prequil, although one could read them in chronological order (Coffee Trader first) or in the order in which they were written with no harm done. Much more is learned about the Portuguese Jews in exile during that historical era and the full dimensions of the split between Miguel and David Lienzo, hinted at in A Conspiracy of Paper are brought to light.

It is very hard to write about a book that is so plot driven and so dependent on surprising twists and turns in it's plot without spoiling things for future readers, but I am trying. Without revealing too much then: Miguel Lienzo has gotten himself into debt through some trades on borrowed money, that went bad on him. He is introduced to coffee, a new commodity brought to Europe from the east recently and is convinced he can repair his fortunes by making a masterful trade in coffee, which will soon be for sale on every street corner in a chain of Starbucks shops. (not really) The ramifications of trading in the future price of a commodity and the scheming that goes on behind the scenes by rival traders, a cute Dutch serving girl, and the complications of life for a Jew exiled in a foreign land lead to a lot of unexpected adventures.

Liss has written five, or is it six, or perhaps even seven novels and, surprise! a slew of comic books for Marvel comics. Most of the novels appear to be historical fiction, including one about the whiskey rebellion. I may become somewhat of a boor while read and review all the David Liss writing I can get my paws on.

This post is in the 82nd



Published at Mel's Mouthful on Mothering.

A Conspiracy of Paper

David Liss

I picked up David Liss first novel, published in 2000, because the title appealed to me. It is set in London in the early 18th century and deals with a number of historical themes. The protagonist, Benjamin Weaver is a Portuguese Jew, one of a group that had begun to arrive in England at the end of the previous century. Jews were expelled from England by Edward I in 1290, so these Portuguese were all recent arrivals, coming from the Netherlands, where they were in exile from Portugal and Spain due to the 1492 expulsion there.

Weaver is a former prizefighter, retired because of an injury in the ring, except there was no ring at that time. Fights were staged in theaters and Weaver had fallen from the stage and broken a leg. He was lucky to have survived the treatment he received and luckier still to be able to walk. Professional sports is in it's infancy and medicine is based on folklore and trial and error.

Weaver has turned to recovering stolen property to make a living. He is in the process of inventing the role of the private detective. At this time London is inventing the police force and criminal justice. Corruption and bribery are the order of the day and thief takers are paid a reward for the conviction of those who they capture. He becomes involved in a case involving possible counterfeit stock certificates in the South Sea Company.

The idea of a stock exchange is just beginning to emerge in London at this time and the sale of shares in all kinds of ventures runs rampant. People had long bought shares in trading ventures by ship, then waited for their ship to come in, as the saying goes. In the 1700s shares in new inventions, public works projects, schemes of a very sketchy nature, but which promised to make money, and even lottery tickets were bought and sold in London coffee houses. Everybody who was anybody bought them.

The South Sea Company, a real company of the period, had been chartered by the English Government and given a monopoly on trade with the Pacific coast of South America. It was intended to be a great company like the East India Company, which traded with India, China and all of East Asia. The only problem is that the Pacific coast of South America was owned and operated by Spain, which was not about to allow some English company to trade there. Nevertheless, stock in the South Sea Company traded vigorously in the coffee houses and it's directors cooked up schemes to sell even more stock by exchanging Bank of England bonds for South Sea stock, thus relieving the government of debt. Eventually, after the time that this novel takes place, the South Sea Bubble burst and the first financial panic in the English speaking world, the first "bubble" got it's name and, apparently, nobody learned a thing.

The novel is full of ingenious plot twists and characters that seem right out of Dickens, including Jonathan Wilde, another real historical figure, who was the first organized crime boss. It takes the reader into the muddy, filthy streets of London's slums and into the posh clubs and ballrooms of the wealthy.Weaver has to thread his way through multiple layers of lies to find the murderer of his father, the forger of South Seas Company stock. It's a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there.

In the end both Weaver and the reader are left with ambiguity. We think that Weaver has found his man and justice is administered by persons unknown in a most irregular way. And room is left for a sequel.

This post is in the 82nd



Published at Mel's Mouthful on Mothering.

The 80th Book Review Blog Carnival

When I started the Book Review Blog Carnival I didn't expect that it would become such a vibrant part of the blogging, and the book reviewing community or last so long. This 80th edition contains 35 book reviews, ranging from illustrated children's books to the latest cutting edge conspiracy theory.

If you review books on your blog you can participate by submitting a link to one of your reviews through our submission form at blogcarnival.com, here. You can even host an edition of the carnival at your won blog. contact me at cbjorke(at)gmail.com if you would like to host.

Here is our carnival, stop by some of our participating blogs, leave a comment and enjoy!

Children's Books

Read Aloud Dad likes Classic Children's Fairy Tales - Best Illustrated Edition.



Amy Broadmoore reviews 10 Children?s Books About Fall at Delightful Children's Books.

Young Adult Fiction

Trudy Zufelt previews Spartacus and the Circus of Shadows the debut novel of Molly E. Johnson, posted at Boys and Literacy.


Shayna, at A Pop of Colour, says that The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell is a prequil to Sex and the City, written for 10 to 20 year olds.(presumably girls) That seems like a pretty broad age range to me.

Laura Robinson, of Tattooed Books: A YA book reviewing, librarian-in-training, rather liked The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger.


Katie Sorene , of Tripbase, suggests 8 Books to Teach Your Kids About the World.

According to Surabhi at Womanatics, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari has the power to change your life. Reminds me of my friend Norman, who changed his life on a weekly basis.


Jim Murdoch of The Truth About Lies was only dimly aware of Norse mythology through Marvel comic books until he read Ragnarok: the End of the Gods, by AS Byatt.

Crime Fiction

KerrieS is reading more Swedish crime novels, including THE HYPNOTIST, by Lars Kepler. Read her review at MYSTERIES in PARADISE


KerrieS says that before you read THE END OF THE WASP SEASON, by Denise Mina, you should first read the first book in the series, STILL MIDNIGHT.

KerrieS calls VIOLENT EXPOSURE by Katherine Howell. "world class."

Gothic Romance Mysteries

No, The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson isn't a crime novel. It's a gothic romance mystery, posted at Colloquium.


JHS, at Colloquium gives the carnival a whole new category with Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.

Stranger Than Fiction

Mark A. Vance is the author of an ebook Flight of the Forgotten - The Forbidden Fruit of US Government Censorship which appears to be the story of a WWII air crew murdered by the CIA as told to the author by the dead.

Novels

Rachel, at Books In The Sun just loved Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.

Not another talking animal book! Yes it is a talking bonobo in Primacy by J.E. Fishman, reviewed by Zohar, Man of la Book.

Bombay Duck Is A Fish says Kalyan at Heaven's Garden. It's also a book, I think.


Charlotte Vale points out that Heahcliff is not Sir. Larry in her re-review of Wuthering Heights posted at Estella's book smarts- Book Blog. What do I know, I thought Heathcliff was a cat.

Not one to shy away from classic literature, Charlotte Vale presents her theory that Marcel Proust, through the use of run on sentences, obscure punctuation and proto-stream of consciousness narrative technique, is capable of sending the readier back into a past episode of Star Trek - the one where Spok wears a watch cap to cover his ears and builds a radio with bear skins and stone knives: ah, but Captain Kirk's love interest of the week must die so that the United States will enter World War Two or we all will grow up in a Philip K. Dick novel: a well developed theme to be found at Estella's book smarts - Audiobook Blog.


Jim Murdoch at The Truth About Lies says that The Break by Pietro Grossi is a novel about billiards, paving stones and the inevitability of change.


Louise Marsh from The Reading Experiment reviews the Pulitzer Prize winning A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.

Zohar, Man of la Book is glad that he finally read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.


JHS, at Colloquium, reviews The Grief of Others. "The Grief of Others is an exquisitely written fictional account of one family in which each member is struggling with his/her own grief and isolation following a tragedy."

Memoir

Melanie Grant reviews I Am Hutterite by -Ann Kirkby, at Mel's Mouthful on Mothering.

Alex Washoe, of Books and Beasts reviews two dog memoirs, Luis Carlos Montalvan's Until Tuessday and Martin Kihn's Bad Dog (A love story), in A Brace of Dog Memoirs.


Non Fiction

Mainstream Mom briefly frightened me with the news that there are only 100 Days to Christmas, until I learned that it is the title of an e-book by Jennifer Tankersley.

Persha, at Dumped Days is relieved to have finally discovered the e-book Men Made Easy. "Understanding men has been a life long struggle for me. Most men say one thing mean another and do something entirely different." Persha must know a lot of lawyers.


Mainstream Mom reviews Escape from Cubicle Nation by Pamela Slim . I couldn't tell if this is a book based on a blog or just a blog imitating a book, but I'm all for escaping from the cube farm.

Pop Tart, of Inherited Values gives us American Pickers Guide to Picking by Libty Callaway, Mike Wolfe, Frank Fritz and Daniele Colby. Like Pawn Stars, American Pickers is an edgy cable TV version of Antiques Roadshow. Now you can learn how to buy and sell antiques for fun and profit.

Marianne Mathiasen doesn't often buy art books like Animals Real ad Imagined by Terryl Whitlatch, but she bought this one. Read about it at Marianne's Journal of Fantasy Art.


Jenn Palmer writes a dear John letter to Leo Tolstoy in Literary Break-up posted at A Love Affair with Words. I think she was talking about War and Peace.

Health, Fitness and Self Improvement

Danette Schott taught me a new word with his review of Beating Dyspraxia with a Hop, Skip and a Jump posted at Help! S-O-S for Parents.

Jonathan, of at World of Diets says You Are Your Own Gym in his review of Mark Lauren's Bodyweight Exercise Bible.

It sounds like an oxymoron, or maybe it's just that I haven't finished my first cup of coffee this morning. Outlive Your Life by Max Lucado is reviewed by Jon Milligan at Simple Life Habits.


Audiobooks

OK, so it's memoir that came out in print first, but Peter at Audio Book Downloads thinks the audio version ofBossypants, by Tina Fey is way better than the print version.

This concludes our 80th Book Review Blog Carnival. Watch this blog for an announcement of the time and location of the next carnival. Did you subscribe in a reader or become a follower? Do it now, NOW!

Edson

Bill Morrissey


Bill Morrissey was a singer songwriter who had his greatest success in the 1980's. This novel, published in 1996, is a fictional version of what it is like to be on the downside of your show business career.  Although not autobiographical, it is derived from Bill's life experience. It qualifies as a literary novel. - there is not a great deal of plot. I did not find that to be a particular lack. The characters are well developed in a way that makes the reader want to know more.

Henry, a man in his mid forties, has been sidelined from the music business because of artistic differences with the major label that bought his contract and demanded unacceptable changes to his just finished third album. Henry is living in the small mill town of Edson New Hampshire, a place where he used to be a regular headliner at the local music venue/bar. Caroline, the twenty one year old waitress in that establishment who lives down the hall from Henry in a ramshackle "hotel" becomes the love interest in the story. At the beginning of the book Caroline is unaware that Henry was ever a musician.

Pope Johnson is the current king of the Edson New Hampshire music scene. He has made himself into a replica of Henry at the peak of his career, mimicking his playing style, his gestures, even singing Henry's songs. He does not acknowledge Henry's influence publicly. Pope plans to move the New York and try for the brass ring. Caroline is one of the many young women whom Pope is seeing.

A singer songwriter that has made it big, Tyler Beckett, based on Morrissey's friend, Suzanne Vega, asks Morrissey's alter ego, Henry to come down to New York and co-write some songs for her next album. I doubt that Suzanne Vega ever made this kind of offer to Bill.

Henry has to choose between dragging his guitar out from under the bed and going off to write songs with Tyler or taking Pope's job pumping gas at a gas station in Edson. Believe it or not, this is a hard choice for him. The novel ends with Henry snowed in in a Connecticut Motel 6, drinking in his room.

Bill Morrissey died in a motel room this past July. He was alone, on tour and drinking in his room. Heart disease is the listed cause of death. It wasn't snowing.

This post is in the 81st



Published at Addicted to Media

Accordion Crimes

Annie Proulx

A while ago I saw a movie, The Red Violin, which followed a violin through many owners, beginning with it's maker, who had varnished it with the blood of his just deceased wife. The violin made beautiful, tragic music and all the owners died badly. That film could have been an adaptation of Accordion Crimes, changed by Hollywood to a more sexy musical instrument and given all new characters and dialog, but keeping the core concept.

Instead of being bloodstained, the accordion that Annie Proulx has written into the center of this series of vignettes has fourteen one thousand dollar bills glued to the inside of it's bellows. Nobody discovers the money until the last page of the book, when one bill turns up in the hands of three children who want to use it to buy soft drinks at a country store.

Even minor characters, appearing only for a page or three, tend to die badly in Accordion Crimes, like the truck driver known as Snakes: "Some year or two later, Snakes, using a climbing rope with a single core in a color pattern of purple, neon pink, teal and fluorescent yellow, hung himself in the cab of his truck. A note on the seat read: "I'm not going to wear glasses." "

The green, two row, button accordion which is the star of Accordion Crimes was built in Sicily in the mid nineteenth century, by a man who then immigrated to New Orleans. He was soon disposed of, setting the tone for the book. The man was killed in a prison riot - citizens of New Orleans break in to the prison and kill a group of Italians being held there, even after they are found not guilty of conspiring to murder the chief of police. The accordion was stolen and the thief soon murdered and dumped into the Mississippi river. This sort of thing goes on, through many generations of unfortunate owners, until the mid 1990s.

I had to keep reading to find out what happened to the money, pasted in the bellows by one of it's owners, a Tejano musician, a waiter during the day, who was paid in thousand dollar bills to pass documents from an obvious spy to various contacts who would then, cross over into Mexico.
Accordion Crimes is not light summer reading but it is well written and will hold your interest. It may turn you against accordion music again, though.



This post is in the 78th

Published at Colloquium