This was a lovely story and it was satisfying to read.

You had to work to discover the mystery between it’s pages and I like that. I don’t want a story that’s going to show me the way, I want a story that’s going to take me with it.

And that’s what I got here.

It’s sensual and tantalysing and you follow the clues making discoveries along with the main character. The puzzle is revealed in real time as you both decipher the clues in unison.

So what happens? Boy gets sent to Italy by his university professor to study a garden. Whilst trying to unravel the mystery of the garden, Boy is unwittingly being used to unravel a much more recent mystery – that of murder and deceipt within his benefactors family.

As can only be expected it all comes good in the end and despite some bumps, bruises and what promises to be a rather remarkable scar – everyone escapes relatively unscathed.

Oh and there is also some sex.

One criticism though; what’s the deal with all the Italian? It’s set in Italy, I get it but I resent having to consult Google everytime something is said that isn’t obviously translatable.

That aside, it’s a delicious book and definitely a good way to spend a few hours of your day.

Hey all, I finished The Savage Garden by Mark Mills last night, and wanted to share a short review:

The Savage Garden is about Cambridge student Adam Strickland and his time spent at a Florentine villa, studying the art of its grand garden as a summer research project. Villa Docci is beautiful, but haunted by secrets: the mysterious death 400 years before of the young wife of the villa’s owner and the death of Signora Docci’s eldest son, Emilio, 15 years before, at the end of WWII. Adam strives to unlock the secret of the garden and discover the true circumstances under which Emilio was killed – before he becomes another victim of the villa. I really enjoyed this novel: visualizing the beautiful architecture and gardens of Florence, the Italian lifestyle post-WWII, and the mystery of secrets hidden in plain sight. The weaving of history, art, architecture, Dante, and mythology are utterly engrossing and fascinating. I don’t really understand why some reviewers felt that the novel was overshadowed by its sex scenes; yes there was sex in the novel, but nothing too lewd or graphic. I’ve read novels where the sex was raunchy and unnecessary, but this was not such a novel. And being a college-aged male, spending 2-3 weeks in a foreign country alone, it was not out of character at all for our protagonist to have sex. Nonetheless, good book, definitely recommend.

Life in general time: Today was a long day. I recently (re)joined the YMCA as I am so out of shape and completely unhappy with the state of my appearance from college weight gain. So I was at the gym for about an hour this morning, then I had to come back, shower, get ready, and then make food for work, as well as make some lunch to eat. Then there was work, though tiring, was kind of exciting today because I got a key to the library (no more knocking on the door mornings i have to open!). Also, one of my co-workers bought me one of the nice library bags that the Friends of the Library sell (Thanks Becky!!) It was a really sweet thing to do, and it’s a nice bag.

That’s all for now. I’m exhausted, so it is definitely time to hit the hay. Good night!

Update: I decided to make my 2009 Book list post an actual page, located at the top of my blog, right next to the About Me. This way the list is easier to locate, and I don’t have to keep updating the date of the actual post to make it more visible. Not sure what I’m going to do with the actual post…may leave it where it is for now, and then update it to New Year’s Day 2010 when we get there.

Saw this on Ooh…Books! and thought I’d participate Although I realize it is now Saturday, and not Friday, but oh well. Oh, and the meme started with Well-Read Reviews (gotta give credit where it’s due!)

Friday Firsts:

The first line can make or break a reader’s interest. Just how well did the author pull you in to the story with their first sentence? To participate in this weekly book meme is extremely easy.

Grab the book you are currently reading and open to the first page.

Write down the first sentence in the first paragraph.

Did this first sentence help draw you into the story? Why or why not?

Create a blog post with this information. (Make sure to include the title & author of the book you are using. Even an ISBN helps!)

Come back to this post on Well-Read Reviews.com and add your review to Mr. Linky! (Or just click image above!)

The Book: The Savage Garden 

Author: Mark Mills

ISBN: 978-0-399-15353-2

First Sentence:

Later, when it was over, he cast his thoughts back to that sunstruck May day in Cambridge — where it had all begun — and asked himself whether he would have done anything differently, knowing what he now did.

I felt that this was a fairly common opening line, where the narrator focuses on the protagonist in the supposed “present” time and then looks back for a moment of reflection. It’s an opening line that entices you to a degree as you want to find out what occurred to cause such reflection, but then not as enticing, since you as an assumed prolific reader have encountered such an opening line before. (Did I just make that sentence needlessly complicated?) Oh well. I am about 1/3 of the way through the novel; seems fairly good so far. I’ll write a review on here once I’m finished with it (hopefully!)

Ay yo, ay yo

Was just looking at the progress I’ve made so far this year with reading and comparing it to last year. I talked about 2008 reading back in January <– take a look there for refresher, if you so desire. So, 2008 I came up with a total of 36 books I had read, plus (maybe) a handful of others that I had forgotten to record. This year I have read 35, thus far. At first, I got upset with that number wondering how I was going to get through an additional 15 books by the end of the year? (My goal was to read 50 new books this year.) But that was beyond ridiculous for 2 reasons: 1) It’s September, and I am only 1 book away from beating last year’s record; I did the math and I have completed 70% of my goal. I am definitely going to beat last year. And 2) I realized that even if I haven’t read 50 new books yet, I have read 48 books in general so far this year: 35 new, 13 re-read. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

Alright, that’s all for now. I am going to go read a chapter or two of my current novel, The Savage Garden by Mark Mills, and then hit the hay with some help from Tylenol PM due to a strange headache and problems I have been having with my neck.

Bonne nuit!

Read John 4:1-26

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John” –although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized–he left Judea and started back to Galilee.

But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)  

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?”

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.”

The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!”

The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.”

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.  But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.”

Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”  (NRSV)

 —from Rev. Mark Mills, Pastor-Elect,          First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Moundsville

            A teenager came to church with her grandmother only every once in a while at my first church. Years later, she dropped by with a friend at the church I was then serving only to say that, because of one sermon I’d preached, she was volunteering with a church and was planning to go into ministry. She had come by to say thanks. I was   reluctant to believe I could’ve done this, but it wasn’t me; it was the Spirit in me.        

            Never take for granted the living water in your spirit. The people who’ve needed me most seem to appear when my life is the most challenging, and are often people on the margins of society. Give a drink from your soul to someone, even if that person is one you consider unacceptable. Or, give it to everyone, because the person who most needs it may never cross your radar.

As I prepare to receive from your table,

and feast upon your abundant love and grace,

make me more able, O God, to see my neighbor,

and in their very human presence

to see my Savior face to face.

Mark Mills over at The American Spectator has written a very good piece on why oil will not be replaced anytime soon by alternative energy products.  It’s a very good read.

Will Exxon Get Googled?

By Mark P. Mills from the November 2008 issue

THE IMAGE OF THE OIL INDUSTRY is captured (admittedly, deliciously) by Bruce Willis playing the rough-and-ready character of an oil roughneck in the 1998 Hollywood blockbuster Armageddon— driving golf balls off an oil platform aimed at a Greenpeace ship. Dirty, tough, old-world, almost Jurassic. Oil, in short, is seen as old tech. So yesterday.

Energy in the 21st century surely belongs to the denizens of high-tech Silicon Valley and similar domains from Boston to Bangalore. Many accomplished tech entrepreneurs are hyperventilating over prospects for “disruptive innovation” in the globe’s sprawling energy markets. The promise? To shake up the energy world, most particularly the nearly $2 trillion oil business, as profoundly as computer and Internet companies upended global communications in the late 20th century.

But is such disruption really likely? Will Exxon soon get Googled? Not likely. And likely not ever. The reasons? Well, first, the physics of oil and information are quite different—politics and wishful thinking aside, physics actually matters here. And, without fanfare, the oil industry—Bruce Willis aside—has already morphed into a tech-centric enterprise, assimilating the tools and materials of the digital age. In short, Exxon and Google are already more similar than dissimilar.

But first the physics. The tantalizing phenomenon oil disruptors want to emulate for Pontiacs is the technology that lies behind the Pentium. Today’s cell phones are more powerful than your first desktop computer 20 years ago. Imagine an energy technology that could follow the kind of doubling of computer power that has happened every 18 months, yielding an entirely new constellation of mega- corporations the likes of Intel, Apple, Microsoft, and Google. The problem is that the physics of information just doesn’t translate into the world of energy, at least not in the way popularized.

Here’s why. The essence of digital-silicon technology is that more and more information can be stored and transported in ever smaller, profoundly less energy-intensive ways. Millions, soon billions, of ever tinier information engines (a.k.a. transistors) are etched onto a sliver of silicon. On top of this, software engineers use clever mathematical codes made ever more powerful by microprocessors, to parse, slice, and shrink information itself, compressing it without loss of essence. The combination is powerful. Compared to the dawn of computing, today’s information-moving hardware consumes one million times less energy for a logic operation and can store data in a physical space 100 million times smaller. And progress continues.

But in the world of atoms and aircraft, not bits and YouTube, things tend to expand, not shrink. The energy needed to move a ton of people, or heat a ton of steel (or silicon), is fixed by properties of Mother Nature. Moving 1,000 pounds 1,000 miles at 50 or 500 mph has a specific, knowable, and immutable minimum energy requirement, dictated by laws of gravity, inertia, friction, mass, heat transfer, and the like. An aircraft’s or car’s engine is not about to shrink in size a thousand-fold and be etched onto a sliver of silicon, or increase in power similarly. On top of that, in the physical world there is just no analogue to compression software (mathematical trickery that puts even more information more efficiently into small spaces). Only in Star Trek can you compress people to the size of ants to put more in a smaller space.

And while nothing in our current energy infrastructure operates at the theoretical limits, pretty much everything is within spitting distance of Mother Nature’s hard stop in terms of energy density and efficiency. Of course, there’s room for progress. A 20 to 30 percent gain in efficiency in our national energy bill translates into serious money. Airlines, as well as most businesses, do back handsprings for such efficiency gains. But compared to the efficiency-created disruptions in the digital-info world, 30 percent is chump change. The reality is that we are stuck with limitations imposed by things like, well, Earth’s rotation and distance from the sun, which determine the maximum energy possible from solar power. Or the biochemistry of photosynthesis, which ultimately determines biofuel economics, or the physical chemistry that dictates potential energy per pound of oil, ethanol, or lithium.

So, using fundamental energy metrics, it is easy to understand the relentless pursuit of oil—the challenge in disrupting our “addictions” if you will. Consider how far a Prius-sized vehicle can travel on a highway using two cubic feet of fuel (roughly, a suitcase’s worth): that much volume in lead acid batteries lasts 20 miles; switch to lithium batteries and you get 100 miles; compressed natural gas, 150 miles; ethanol, 400 miles. Fill the same two cubic feet with oil? 700 miles.

OIL IS A REMARKABLE ENERGY SOURCE that is also uniquely easy to transport and store. Keeping up with civilization’s insatiable appetite for this elixir has involved much more than building ever bigger oil rigs and unleashing more Bruce Willis types. The oil industry has quietly and profoundly employed the wizardry of digital technology. Both directly and indirectly, a 21st-century oil well is the physical extension of super-computing. It’s not all that different from the relationship between your PC and printer, connecting the virtual to the physical. It has enabled the deepest offshore oil platform to go from sitting in barely 500 feet of water in 1969 to today’s almost 10,000 feet. Horizontal drilling didn’t even emerge until 1982, going a distance of 2,000 feet then, compared to 30,000 feet now.

Sit in an oil conference today and you will hear about digital technology and software: cloud computing, remote servers, bandwidth constraints, high-speed wireless, terabytes of storage, GPS, laser mapping, virtualization, 3D mapping, virtual-reality caves, satellite imaging, smart sensors, and robotics. You’d be hard-pressed to know whether it was a meeting for Google or Exxon. Companies such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard are intimate and integral parts of the global oil enterprise.

And just as in the info-tech world, while the behemoth companies get the headlines there is a whole host of smaller tech-savvy companies, many the innovation leaders, and most unfamiliar on Main Street. Oceaneering has emerged, for example, as the preeminent (underwater) robot company; Transocean is the hot ticket in offshore drill rigs; and private innovators like Great White Energy Services provide high-tech services on the front lines (where, full disclosure, our fund has an interest).

A lot has happened since NASA put a man on the moon in 1969—I mean, that’s three years before Pong, the first video game—a time when the oil industry had barely progressed beyond its early 20th-century roots. The scope of digital technology now employed on a day-to-day basis, the fusion of steel and silicon in the oil fields and oceans, was inconceivable 40 years ago.

One thing has not changed in 40 years: perpetual-motion-machine-style wishful thinking. While emerging energy technologies offer exciting (essential) promise, none of them are about to disrupt the oil industry. Terrorism, terrible policies, and wars can. Energy tech is the hope to sustain, not disrupt, our oil-dependent economy. The future, to stretch the analogy, is Bruce Willis with a Ph.D. in nanotechnology.

Mark P. Mills, a physicist, is co-founding partner of Digital Power Capital, an energy tech venture fund. He writes the “Energy Intelligence” column for Forbes and is author of The Bottomless Well (Basic Books).

From the Regional Minister’s Point-of-View posted earlier today:

On January 11, 2009 the congregation of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Moundsville, WV called the Reverend Mark Mills to become their next pastor. Rev. Mills currently resides in Florida and has served congregations in the Southwest Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

He will assume the pastorate in early March.  

I just finished reading Amagansett by Mark Mills and reviewed it here. Enjoy!

I read Mills’ ‘The Savage Garden’ last year and thoroughly enjoyed it (a garden *and* a mystery – what’s not to like *g*) so when I saw another title by the same author I grabbed it.  Oddly, it isn’t a follow-up; ‘The Whaleboat House’ is actually his first novel, republished under a different title.  I can only assume that it didn’t do terribly well first time round, but they re-released it when ‘Savage Garden’ proved more successful.

I hope it fares better second time around because it’s a fantastic book.  Set on Long Island, it involves the death of a beautiful young socialite, and the search for truth by the fisherman who finds her body.  There are twists and turns galore, but this is no ordinary murder mystery.  Every last detail of the Long Islanders’ intensely rural way of life is lovingly recreated, as is the tension between the early settlers and the new influx of wealthy incomers which provides an atmospheric backdrop to the events of the story.  I’ve never visited Long Island so I don’t know how authentic Mills’ descriptions and characterisations are, but he’s clearly done his homework (in spades) and the result comes across as entirely genuine and very gripping. 

The mystery is almost the least important part of the book, but it works very well and keeps the reader guessing pretty much up to the last page.  I hesitate to mention red herrings in a book about fishermen *g* but there are plenty, as well as a couple of neat twists, one of which I saw coming and the other I didn’t.

My only real complaint is about the use of American spellings and terminology throughout, and I admit this is rather a gray area.  The book is after all set in America with American characters, and to have them using British English would be wrong.  On the other hand, it’s written by a British author and has been published in Britain for a British audience – and in that case, the use of American spellings does look a little odd.

This was never enough to distract me from turning the pages with rapidly increasing speed.  Once I’d finished the book I felt bereft and even now, several weeks later, I still miss it and want to crawl back into the fascinating world Mills has created inside his pages.  I’m hoping there’ll be a third novel very soon.

Robert Bryce, Ecoblogue, 27 de outubro de 2008

Se todos nós começássemos a dirigir carros híbridos, consumiríamos mais energia do que nunca

Desde 1859, quando o Coronel Drake descobriu petróleo na Pensilvânia, até 1973, os EUA foram o principal actor no negócio da energia global. Durante a maior parte desse período, a América era o principal produtor e consumidor de petróleo e gás no planeta.

Esta dominância estendeu-se à tecnologia, às finanças, aos transportes e à refinaria. Quando as reservas de petróleo foram desenvolvidas e colocadas no mercado, os EUA não tinham nenhum sério rival.

Esses dias já passaram.

Neste momento, empresas nacionais, como a Aramco saudita, a Gazprom russa ou a PDVSA venezuelana controlam cerca de 77% das reservas de petróleo conhecidas. Ao mesmo tempo, a procura crescente da China, da Índia e de outros países em desenvolvimento está a permitir que as empresas petrolíferas nacionais alterem o seu padrão de vendas. Em vez de procurar exportar o seu produto para consumidores ocidentais, estão a olhar para leste.

Foi em Abril de 1973 que a quota sobre a importação de petróleo nos EUA acabou. Seis meses depois, começava uma das maiores crises energéticas da história, no seguimento do embargo sobre o petróleo árabe. A era da energia abundante e barata havia terminado.

Quase todas as discussões sobre a independência energética e o aquecimento global incluem apelos a uma maior eficiência energética. O argumento é simples: se usássemos a energia de forma mais eficiente, o consumo descerá e tudo será melhor. Não há dúvida de que a eficiência é uma coisa maravilhosa. Permite que os consumidores extraiam mais trabalho de um quilo de carvão, de um litro de gasolina, de uma turbina eólica ou de uma célula fotovoltaica. E quanto mais eficiente se torna um processo, maiores são os lucros. Um carro que atinge 30 milhas por galão pode dar o mesmo valor que um que atinge 15 milhas por galão – e consegue fazê-lo a metade do custo do combustível. Uma lâmpada fluorescente compacta que consome 18 watts e dá a mesma luz que uma lâmpada incandescente consumindo 60 watts faz todo o sentido do ponto de vista económico.

Mas a eficiência por si só não nos dará a salvação para a crise energética. A prova está na análise de outras inovações tecnológicas. Nos primeiros dias do computador pessoal, afirmava-se que os escritórios iriam deixar de usar papel. Isso não aconteceu. Em vez disso, novas indústrias nasceram, resultando num cada vez maior consumo de papel. Da mesma forma, previsões de que uma maior eficiência levará a um menor consumo de energia falharam completamente.

Durante décadas, o guru da energia Amory Lovins tem declarado que um aumento da eficiência reduzirá a procura de energia. Por exemplo, em 1984, Lovins afirmou à Business Week que “veremos a procura de energia a baixar no médio e longo prazo. As perspectivas a longo prazo para vender mais electricidade são fracas. Nunca teremos, suspeitamos, um preço suficientemente elevado para justificar a construção de mais centrais termoeléctricas centralizadas. Essa era acabou.”

Mas não acabou.

O consumo de electricidade nos EUA aumentou cerca de 66% desde que Lovins fez esta declaração. Para satisfazer essa procura, as empresas do sector energético construíram dezenas de centrais termoeléctricas. Na realidade, Lovins tem-se enganado sistematicamente nas suas previsões. Em 1976, previu que a energia renovável iria fornecer 30% da procura de electricidade nos EUA em 2000. A figura real está mais próxima de 1 a 2%. E, no entanto, “inexplicavelmente”, nota Vaclav Smil, da University of Manitoba, “Lovins mantém a sua aura de guru independentemente de quanto erra.”

Tal como Lovins previu erradamente que a eficiência reduziria a procura de energia, existe uma crença generalizada de que um aumento da eficiência dos automóveis reduzirá o consumo de combustíveis. Mas a História mostra que, apesar dos aumentos na eficiência, o consumo de energia não pára de aumentar.

Os Prius da Toyota e outros carros híbridos são porreiros. Mas são, como um analista da indústria do petróleo afirmava, “um penso rápido num amputado”. Mesmo aumentos dramáticos na eficiência dos automóveis apenas reduzirão a taxa de crescimento do consumo de petróleo.

As limitações da eficiência energética foram tornadas claras pelo livro de 2005 de Peter Huber e Mark Mills. Os autores concluem que a eficiência energética não baixa a procura, aumenta-a. Explicam que o objectivo da eficiência energética tem sido consensual na política dos EUA desde os anos 70. No entanto, apesar de a eficiência ter aumentado dramaticamente desde então, a procura tem crescido. Este excerto explica porque a procura de energia irá continuar a aumentar:

A eficiência pode baixar a procura no curto prazo, para a tarefa específica que temos em mãos. Mas no longo prazo o impacto é o oposto. Quando as centrais termoeléctricas, os motores a jacto, os motores de automóveis, as lâmpadas, os motores eléctricos, os ar condicionados e os computadores eram muito menos eficiente que são hoje, consumiam muito menos energia. À medida que se tornaram mais eficientes, as vendas aumentaram, logo o consumo global aumentou. Por unidade de energia utilizada, os EUA produzem mais do dobro do PIB hoje que produzia em 1950, mas o consumo de energia aumentou para o triplo no mesmo período. A eficiência não baixa a procura porque permite que mais pessoas façam mais coisas, de forma mais rápida – o que anula os ganhos de eficiência.

Huber and Mills não foram os primeiros a notar neste paradoxo. Em 1865, o economista britânico, William Stanley Jevons, publicou aquele que se tornaria o seu mais famoso livro “A questão do carvão”. O livro de Jevons marcou o início da economia da energia. Após estudar os padrões de consumo no Reino Unido e assumindo (erradamente) que os depósitos de carvão seriam esgotados em breve, Jevons conclui que “é uma consfusão de ideias supor que o uso económico de combustível equivale a uma redução no consumo. O contrário é verdade”. Esta observação ficou conhecida como o Paradoxo de Jevons.

Em 2003, Vaclav Smil publicou um livro magnífico, “Energy at the Crossroads”, que dá aos leitores uma visão exaustiva da história do consumo de energia, dos problemas com a previsão do uso de energia e os desafios que enfrenta a transição para o fim do uso de combustíveis fósseis. No que toca à eficiência energética, Smil – como Huber, Mills, e Jevons – conclui que a história está “repleta de exemplos demonstrando que substanciais ganhos na eficiência da conversão (ou uso de materiais) estimulam aumentos no uso de combustíveis ou de electricidade (ou de materiais) bem superiores às poupanças alcançadas com estas inovações.”

Nada disto implica que a eficiência é má. A eficiência é fantástica. É uma parte essencial da nossa economia em evolução. Faz sentido conseguir mais trabalho de cada unidade de energia. A eficiência energética conserva capital. É boa para o ambiente. É boa para ricos e pobres. Ajuda a reduzir o impacto da volatilidade de preços da energia e possíveis choques petrolíferos para os consumidores. Em 2002, dois economistas do Congressional Research Service, Marc Labonte e Gail Makinen, escreveram um relatório sobre este assunto que conclui que a eficiênicia “reduziu, e continuará a reduzir, os efeitos destes choques na nossa economia.”

Mas enquanto a eficiência é louvável, por si só não pode levar a uma redução no consumo de energia ou à independência energética.

Robert Bryce lançou recentemente o livro “Gusher of Lies” e é o editor da revista Energy Tribune.

Traduzido e adaptado da Alternet.

Qualche mese fa ho letto Amagansett di Mark Mills. Vi racconto in breve di che cosa parla.

La storia è ambientata a Amagansett, Long Island, nel luglio 1947. Conrad, un pescatore di origine basca, trova un cadavere impigliato nella rete. E’ Lillian, giovane e bellissima rampolla della potente famiglia Wallace. Per la polizia locale si tratta di “morte accidentale”, ma Conrad non ha dubbi: non è stato un incidente a uccidere Lillian.

Conrad, forte della sua convizione, decide di contrastare il tenente Holllis, ex detective della polizia di New York, esiliato a Amagansett. Ma non sono sufficienti i sospetti di un semplice pescatore per far avviare le indagini sulla potente famiglia Wallace; nonostante i sospetti di Conrad e i pochi indizi raccolti da Hollis conducano il poliziotto a un’altra morte misteriosa.
Tra le case di legno dei coloni e le residenze estive dei ricchi newyorkesi la convivenza è difficile: Amagansett diventa improvvisamente il palcoscenico di morti inspiegabili. Omicidi passionali? Oppure una vendetta che si perde nella notte dei tempi?
Ostacolato dai potenti, ma incalzato da Conrad, Hollis inizia una difficile indagine che, con continui colpi di scena, lo porterà a scoprire una verità tanto tremenda quanto inaspettata.
Mills conduce il lettore per mano fra gli abitanti e i vacanzieri di Amagansett alla scoperta dei suoi più oscuri segreti. La lettura di questo romanzo è avvincente e la scrittura di Mills è elegante ed efficace.

Se vi ho incuriositi e volete saperne di più sull’autore, vi rimando ad una interessantissima intervista, nella quale l’argomento principale è la scrittura. Vi riporto solo un paio di passaggi, che mi sembrano interessanti per far capire di cosa parla:

What made you want to write when you were starting out?
I started as a scriptwriter for films. I had a number of ideas and stories in my head that I had to get out; if only so they would leave me alone. And I think the need for that purging process still exists.

Do you find writing easy?
No I don’t. There are times when it is a real struggle but I don’t think those black moments ever dent my enthusiasm. I think writing it is a craft that you get better at with practice.

Is there a secret to writing?
Only that you should write the sort of story you would like to read, and hope there are enough people out there who agree with you.

Does a book that’s been recommended to you ever make you change your mind about someone? Polly, who you will have possibly read about and will be sure to read more about in the future, told me that I simply must read this book, she had really enjoyed it and was raving about it. I always respond well to passionate ravings about a book as it is something that I quite often do myself, and anyone who is passionate about a book and tells me I must read it normally gets my vote and read of said novel. Polly’s been right about many a book and indeed has bought me many a book, however having bought The Savage Garden by Mark Mills and having heard so much from Polly about how fabulous it was it had high expectations to meet. Let me also add that Polly is very well read and we generally like similar books. It has also been a Richard & Judy Summer Read, sadly I am someone who currently thinks that Amanda Ross’s choices of books are generally good ones too, another person who’s job I would kill for.

Anyway only thirty pages in I was thinking ‘am I reading the same book?’…I was. Set in post war Tuscany behind a grand villa lies and enchanting and mystical garden. A garden that in fact holds secrets, dark secrets with clues all around that someone needs to decipher. That person turns out to be Adam Strickland, a young scholar who visits the town and falls in love with the garden, its house and its family the Docci’s. The family themselves seem to have their own dark secrets and skeletons, could the garden and the house hold mysteries of murder, love and betrayal. Well I am not going to give that away, all I will say is by page 100 I couldn’t care less but felt obligated to finish the novel as I had promised Polly.

Mills is an author whom, for me personally, over describes everything. He doesn’t just describe the house exterior, he describes every window, every column almost every ivy leaf that grows up the side. Boring. As a reader yes I want hints as to what things look like, what characters sound like etc, I don’t need to be told intricate details that delay the story but also force my brain to depict things to the nth degree, this is an author who seriously wants control of what his reader is taking in and all power to him, it just doesn’t work for me. I have heard some of my favourite authors say ‘once a book is written it’s the readers, they imagine the characters, their voices and actions, its no longer mine though I have the story and characters in my head, that’s the point though you write something people respond to and take into their own brains and hopefully hearts’ well something along those lines anyways.

I have to say I will not be recommending this to anyone. In fact I dont think I will be reading another Mark Mills, I could eat my own words, it would have to take something seriously amazing for me to change my mind after reading this. Has it changed my opinion of Polly? No, as if, not after 22 years of friendship, I may be more wary of her choices from now on after all she recommended London Fields, my most hated book of all time, but she has also recommended me some gems. I’ll make sure I blog her next recommendation.

—4—

I picked Lev Grossman’s Codex up at Borders for $4.99.  Boy was it a great deal!  Codex follows a 20-something investment banker, Edward, who is asked to catalog a former client’s library.  At first Edward finds this position below him, but quickly he becomes obsessed.  He acquires the help of a Medieval Literature expert, Margaret, and they become entangled with a race to find a codex. 

There is a subplot involving an addicting computer game that begins to reflect Edward’s new world.  I wasn’t as interested in that part, but others may be.  Of course there’s romance and betrayal.   And I always love an exciting story that revolves around books!

4/5

Try Codex if you like books about other books like The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber or the suspense and writing style of Mark Mills’ The Savage Garden.

—4.5— 

Mark Mills’ The Savage Garden is an thrilling journey into the gardens of the Italian Rennisance, and two murders separated by 400 years.  Adam, a British undergrad, is sent to a garden to work on his art history thesis.  Built in 1557 as a memorial to the owner’s wife, the garden holds secrets the years have hidden.  Adam also begins to uncover the secrets of the Docci family, who currently reside in the villa. 

With references to Renissance sculpture and art, as well as garden arcitecture and Dante, this mystery is as smart as it is exciting. 

4.5/5