In My Hands Today…

Murder on the Champ de Mars – Cara Black

22548137Paris, February 1998: Aimée Leduc has her work cut out for her—running her detective agency and fighting off sleep-deprivation as she tries to be a good single mother to her new bébé. The last thing she has time for now, is to take on a personal investigation for a poor manouche (French Gypsy) boy. But he insists his dying mother has an important secret she needs to tell Aimée, something to do with Aimée’s father’s unsolved murder a decade ago. How can she say no?

The dying woman’s secret is even more dangerous than her son realized. When Aimée arrives at the hospital, the boy’s mother has disappeared. She was far too sick to leave on her own—she must have been abducted. What does she know that is so important it is worth killing for? And will Aimée be able to find her before it is too late and the medication keeping her alive runs out?

Set in the seventh arrondissement, the quartier of the Parisian elite, Murder on the Champ de Mars takes us from the highest seats of power in the Ministries and embassies through the city’s private gardens and the homes of France’s oldest aristocratic families. Aimée discovers more connections than she thought possible between the clandestine “Gypsy” world and the moneyed ancien régime, ultimately leading her to the truth behind her father’s death…After all, for Aimée, murder is never far from home.

In My Hands Today…

The Night Counter – Alia Yunis

6067314After 85 long years, Fatimah Abdullah is dying, and she knows when her time will come. In fact, it should come just nine days from tonight, the 992nd nightly visit of Scheherazade, the beautiful and immortal storyteller from the epic The Arabian Nights.

Just as Scheherazade spun magical stories for 1,001 nights to save her own life, Fatima has spent each night telling Scheherazade her life stories, all the while knowing that on the 1,001st night, her storytelling will end forever. But between tonight and night 1,001, Fatima has a few loose ends to tie up. She must find a wife for her openly gay grandson, teach Arabic (and birth control) to her 17-year-old great-granddaughter, make amends with her estranged husband, and decide which of her troublesome children should inherit her family’s home in Lebanon–a house she herself has not seen in nearly 70 years. All this while under the surveillance of two bumbling FBI agents eager to uncover Al Qaeda in Los Angeles.

But Fatima’s children are wrapped up in their own chaotic lives and disinterested in their mother or their inheritances. As Fatima weaves the stories of her husband, children, and grandchildren, we meet a visionless psychic, a conflicted U.S. soldier, a gynecologist who has a daughter with a love of shoplifting and a tendency to get unexpectedly pregnant, a Harvard-educated alcoholic cab driver edging towards his fifth marriage, a lovelorn matchmaker, and a Texas homecoming queen. Taken in parts, Fatima’s relations are capricious and steadfast, affectionate and smothering, connected yet terribly alone. Taken all together, they present a striking and surprising tapestry of modern Arab American life.

Shifting between the U.S. and Lebanon over the last hundred years, Alia Yunis crafts a bewitching novel imbued with great humanity, imagination, and a touch of magic realism. Be prepared to be utterly charmed.

2017 Week 47 Update

The last few weeks of the year are upon us and all over we can hear the chimes of the Christmas bells and songs.

I’ve an interesting week career-wise. On Monday, a recruiter from an MNC reached out to me via LinkedIn to want to speak to me for a possible contract position there. I’ve accepted the invite to speak, but this person has still not gotten on the phone with me. Then on Tuesday another recruiter got in touch for a fairly entry level position. This recruiter was very weird and kept asking very personal questions, which I did not like and was slightly brusque in replying to her. Again no callback, but this was something I expected. The last was from another organisation where I had applied to from a mums job portal. They asked me to come in one day this week to discuss the job offer. This again seemed a bit funny to me because who offers a job to someone without even meeting them once? I wrote back saying I would be happy to meet them to discuss the position and so am going there this week. I suspect this is a part-time position, but it’s something I am willing to consider at this point.

S is on leave this week and so we’re planning some activities with the parents and children. Let’s see what we end up doing!

Have a great week everyone!!

Reading takes you places

Climb the mountain, clear the highest pass,

Or maybe you want a trip to steppes full of grass?

You be an emperor or the pope

Or perhaps be someone who has lost all hope.

Visit all the great cities of the world

See things that you never thought possible

Is this about a magic carpet I am talking about?

Nah, all this from the pages of a book

A good book is your best you guide

Takes you places you’d never thought go worldwide!