Scent of the Missing by Susannah Charleson

Charleson is a volunteer search-and-rescue worker who is also a dog lover, and after working closely with a team that included some trained dogs she was inspired to adopt a Golden Retriever puppy and train her.

Scent of the Missing is part search-and-rescue memoir, part dog-training memoir and is definitely targeted towards people who love dogs as Charleson does. She's a gifted writer, and her tales of raising the strong-willed Puzzle to become an adult working dog are detailed, vivid and often humorous. If you like dogs and enjoy reading about dog interaction and behaviour, you'll enjoy the chapters where Charleson describes the interaction between her houseful of rescue Pomeranians and the inquisitive Golden puppy (I like dogs well enough, but have never had one so I have to admit I skimmed a lot of these parts, as cute as some of the stories are.) However, if you're looking for exciting action-packed tales of dramatic search-and-rescue operations, you may be disappointed by this book as there are far more tales of long days in the field doing sweep searches that don't turn up anything of interest. Possibly the most intense search that Charleson describes is the long and emotionally draining search for minute pieces of wreckage and human remains after the space shuttle Columbia disaster. Almost all of the searches in this book take place without the beloved Puzzle, who doesn't become certified as a SAR dog until she's over two years old. I hope that Charleson will consider writing a second memoir giving us a glimpse into her teamwork with Puzzle, who shines through every page as a very intelligent dog with a fantastic personality.

Hypothermia by Arnaldur Indridason

I've been waiting somewhat impatiently for the next Henning Mankell novel to come in at the library -- apparently I'm not the only person in my city who is hunting for other good Swedish writers after finishing Larsson's "Millenium" series! Mankell's books have grown on me slowly; after the first one, I definitely wanted to read more, and after the second, I felt like something was missing when I wasn't able to pick up the third right away. The librarians were able to suggest a number of other titles for me to try by good Scandinavian writers, and this one was the first I picked up.

"Hypothermia" is a crime novel with a bit of a twist, because the book doesn't center around a murder but instead, a suicide. The detective, Erlandur, has a hunch about this suicide, though, and with dogged persistence he probes at the dead woman's friends and family members, sure that there is some hidden, more sinister reason why she ended her own life. This persistent investigating uncovers the victim's obsession with the afterlife and near-death experiences, which gives a somewhat creepy air to the novel. Meanwhile, Erlandur is determined to close the books on two very cold missing-persons cases which his colleagues have long since decided aren't worth investigating.

I have tried other Icelandic authors - most memorably Halldor Laxness, whose Nobel prize winner, "Independent People", I wasn't able to finish - but found the books and their characters remote, dreary and forbidding (perhaps the novels of this country are much like the landscape?). However, this novel was a winner, with a great detective. Erlandur is a typical crime-novel hero in a lot of ways, with his failed marriage, lonely life and single-minded determination about his job, but he never felt like a cookie-cutter character. The cold and remote Icelandic landscape definitely plays a role in this book but never to the point where the characters themselves feel cold and remote, too. I understand this title is actually the eighth in the series so I will be happy to go back and read more from Arnaldur.

The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell

I very much enjoyed the second novel in the "Inspector Kurt Wallander" series by this gifted Swedish writer. Wallander is a complex, thoughtful character and in this story he gets swept up into the dangerous intrigue of a Baltic nation in turmoil as it struggles to develop a new identity after gaining independence from Soviet powers. A life raft holding two murdered men washes ashore near the Swedish town of Ystad, where Wallander works as a police Inspector; eventually the victims are found to be Latvian and after an initial, somewhat fruitless attempt to find answers in Ystad, the case is transferred to Riga and Wallander assumes that he will hear nothing more about it. A terrible series of events draws him to Latvia soon afterward and from that point on, I had a really hard time putting down the book.

I don't want to spoil the story in case you're thinking of giving this series a try, but I was really impressed with the way that Mankell conveyed the strange, grim atmosphere of the city of Riga and the corruption within the political system, which Wallander is trying to get to the bottom of, even though he is a complete stranger in Latvia and is putting his own life at risk.

Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey through China by Jen Lin-Liu

I recently discovered that my local library has an RSS feed where librarians recommend books of all genres. What a genius idea! This book was one of the highlighted titles.

Jen Lin-Liu grew up in the USA as the daughter of Chinese immigrants, but after finishing college she feels compelled to return to China and eventually settles in Beijing, earning her living as a food and travel writer. At some point she decides that she would like to learn to cook, and that's where this memoir begins, as Lin-Liu enrolls in a Beijing cooking college (much to the astonishment of the locals). She sits through endless lectures in the freezing-cold classroom before finally convincing the principal of the school, Chairman Wang, to give her private cooking lessons at Wang's home. Eventually, she learns enough to pass the exam and goes on a journey through China, learning how to make traditional chinese dishes such as dumplings and noodles through internships in various restaurants.

I think I enjoyed the first part of this book, where Lin-Liu is enrolled in the cooking school, the best; the rest was a bit choppier. I would have liked a bit more explanation of how her various travel opportunities came about to help transition the reader between each section. Nevertheless, the people in this book really come to life and I loved getting some insight into the role of food and chefs in Chinese society. On the whole, this was a well-written and very interesting memoir with some extremely tempting recipes scattered through the book. If I didn't have to return Serve the People to the library I would certainly be going on a Chinese cooking spree right about now!

Two books I've rejected lately

"The Other Family" by Joanna Trollope and "Careless in Red" by Elizabeth George.

These are two authors whose other work I've enjoyed -- in fact I've read almost everything else they've each written - but somehow after getting about halfway through each of these recent novels I just didn't feel compelled to finish the books. I can never figure out in those cases whether it's me being in the wrong mood for the book, or the book just not being up to par.