The Summer Snow (Soho Crime)

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An excellent book of a mystery and relationships

mildly interesting

Evocative and enjoyable

The Petulant Prodigal Son Returns

An Outstanding Historical Novel & Riveting Mystery ! BRAVO Ms. Pawel!

The Summer Snow (Soho Crime)
Rebecca Pawel
Manufacturer: Soho Crime
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Law Of Return

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Borkmann's Point: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery

ASIN: 1569474435

Book Description

"Pawel's splendid historical series . . . takes an inspired turn in The Summer Snow."-Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

"In addition to strong characterizations and a witty sense of humor, [Pawel] explores the inherent tension of a detective trying to seek the truth in a country that regularly suppresses it."- Christian Science Monitor
"This is another winner."- Detroit Free Press

"A triumph of characterization, suspense and atmosphere. . . . This beguiling novel will richly reward lovers of both mysteries and mainstream literary fiction."- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

In the city of Granada, Spain, bastion of the conservative Catholic aristocracy, fear of the red menace remains strong in 1945. One rich, elderly lady summons the police to her home almost once a week, sure Communists are plotting against her. She changes her will almost as often. When she is found dead, the long-suffering police can't believe that she really may have been murdered. But as her latest will has vanished, the death must be investigated.

Influence is exerted to have Lieutenant Carlos Tejada Alonso y Leon transferred temporarily from Potes, in the northern mountains, to take charge because the old lady is his grandaunt. And one of the chief suspects is his father. The family expects Tejada to exonerate its members, but Tejada is a man who puts duty first.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent book of a mystery and relationships.......2007-04-07

Lieutenant Carlos Tejada comes to Granada with his wife and son after his wealthy grand aunt has died. She had been a querulous old lady always seeing conspiracies but Carlos finds she had been murdered. While trying to find his aunt's killer, his wife, Elena, must deal with her in-laws disapproval of her while trying to keep their young son amused.

I so enjoy this series as much for the relationship of Tajada and his wife as for the mystery itself. It is not a perfect marriage. They were raised differently, and have very different political views which cause friction. In other words, it's realistic. It's interesting seeing Tajada in an environment where he is not in command of the men, but of the investigation, and where has to interrogate family members, including his father. This is a very good, character-driven story still with a very good mystery. I highly recommend this series.

mildly interesting.......2007-01-04

The setting, Spain in the aftermath of the civil war, was new to me. The mystery was of some interest, but it all seemed rather superficial. A summer book to read at the beach.

Evocative and enjoyable.......2006-12-22

I'm a big fan of Rebecca Pawel's Tejada series and found "The Summer Snow" an agreeable read, if somewhat less so than its predecessors. The murder mystery at the core of the book's plot was less interesting than the author's very evocative descriptions of the provincial city of Granada in the post Spanish Civil War period. The tensions within the Tejada family--father and son especially--are also convincingly laid out by the author. Good book for history buffs, particularly for those into Spain and Europe of the late 1940s.

The Petulant Prodigal Son Returns.......2006-08-01

The wife is still irritating although a little less of a nag than in "Watcher in the Pine". Carlos acts a bit like a petulant brat with his family and complains too much about familial obligations. He seems to find his family often a burden rather than something to which he should feel a duty towards.

I have a sucspicion that Carlos is becoming a Centrist, not a liberal of course, but nonetheless a Centrist. In "Death of a Nationalist" he killed someone in cold blood. The now married, Carlos in fatherhood, wouldn't dream of it.

Sad to say, but Rebecca Pawel seems to be giving in to some sort of PC urge and taming the Falangist from the first book. And the blurb on the cover should soon read "A Carlos Tejada Alonso y Leon & Wife Investigation".

Just one more thing, the dust jacket on the hardcover has a blurred photo of Ms. Pawel. Coulnd't she give a better one??

An Outstanding Historical Novel & Riveting Mystery ! BRAVO Ms. Pawel!.......2006-04-11

"Summer Snow" is Rebecca Pawel's fourth novel featuring Carlos Tejada Alonso y Leon, and each book is more intriguing than the previous. Set in post Civil War Spain, the author accurately paints a grim portrait of a country settling into the "normality" of an uneasy peace. Atrocities have devastated both sides of the conflict. The populace's "us" versus "them" attitude will continue for many years, and even in 1945, battle scars are still fresh, as are memories of dead loved ones, festering political wounds and fears of the Red Menace. Many areas of Spain are in ruins, and food shortages leave much of the population hungry - some are literally starving Although descriptions of the humiliation, defeat and isolation of those who did not support Franco's cause is made palpable throughout Ms. Pawel's intelligent narrative, with "Summer Snow" she gives the reader an idea of how the other half - the winning Falangists - live and think. Fascinating material, made more so by the author's intelligent, knowledgeable writing and original plot.

The Lieutenant, his wife, Elena, and their small son have been asked to visit Tejada's family in the beautiful southern city of Grenada, where they are wealthy landowners. Carlos' great aunt, Dona Rosalia Ordonez, died suddenly and Sr. Andres Tejada, our protagonist's father, believes she was murdered. The only copy of her will, in which she bequeaths considerable amounts of money and land holdings is missing. The eccentric old woman had always insisted that the Reds were out to murder her. She also feuded almost continuously with members of her immediate family and subsequently changed her will frequently to signify her anger and mood swings. Her final revision was made just a few days before her death.

Carlos is asked by his father to come home from Potes, in the northern mountains where he is stationed to investigate. Since Guardia policy is for officers to serve in regions far from their family homes, "so they will not be subjected to local pressures," the Tejada family must take vacation time for Carlos to solve what does turn out to be a nasty murder case...with many interesting suspects, including his own father, and as many varied motives. To spice up the story, Carlos and Elena both have problems with "the family."

The Tejada Alonso y L?on and Ordonez families are embarrassed by their youngest son's career choice - so plebeian - when he could have remained at home and led the life of a senorito...a spoiled, rich younger son. And then he married a Red! Needless to say, they are barely civil to Elena.

Carlos Tejada is one of the most well developed characters that I have met in recent popular fiction, as is his wife. They are both extremely bright, well educated, decent people, and polar opposites politically. He is the second son of a wealthy landowner, a conservative, and a staunch Nationalist. He backed Franco from the beginning. Now, as a lieutenant in the Guardia Civil, his political views have been moderated somewhat through maturity, experience, and the influence of his spouse - the former Elena Fernandez, Socialist daughter of a distinguished Classics professor at the University of Salamanca. Carlos studied law at this university before joining the Guardia during the war. The couple met in Madrid, where she worked as a schoolteacher, while Tejada was investigating a murder.

This rich historical novel is much more than a mystery, although the sleuth-work and suspense are riveting. The characters themselves are the story - and a most compelling one. I highly recommend "Summer Snow," and suggest reading "Death of A Nationalist" and the other books in the series first. The novels stand on their own, however, without any prequel. Outstanding!
JANA

Snow in July: Bring-It-All-Together Book (Get Ready, Get Set, Read!/Set 5)

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Snow in July: Bring-It-All-Together Book (Get Ready, Get Set, Read!/Set 5)
Gina Erickson M.A. , and Kelli C. Foster Ph.D.
Manufacturer: Barron's Educational Series
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0812093364

Book Description

This review book brings together the long vowel sounds taught in SET 5, which feature the word families: ound, y, ow, ew, and all.

Summer Snow: Reflections from a Black Daughter of the South

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Autumnal Harvest

Summer Snow: Reflections from a Black Daughter of the South
Trudier Harris
Manufacturer: Beacon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

A wide-ranging, spirited collection of personal essays about growing up black and Southern Like Maya Angelou and bell hooks before her, Trudier Harris explores her complicated identity as a black woman in the American South. By turns amusing and probing, Summer Snow lays out in a series of linked essays the formative experiences that shaped Harris into the writer and intellectual she has become. With passion and eloquence, Harris writes about the creation of her unique first name, how porch-sitting is in fact a creative Southern tradition, and how insecurities over her black hair ("the ubiquitous hair") factored into her self-image. She writes about being a "black nerd" as a child, and how the black church influenced her in her early years. But she also writes about more troubling topics, such as the price blacks have paid for integration, and the "staying power of racism." In one moving piece, Harris remembers a white teenager propositioning her for sex in exchange for five dollars. Unflinching in her assessment of white Southern culture, yet deeply attached to a South many black intellectuals have abandoned, Harris in Summer Snow takes readers on a surprising tour of one woman's life, loves, and lessons.

Customer Reviews:

Autumnal Harvest.......2003-04-20

Summer Snow is a cornucopia of riches about a landscape steeped in traditions and customs that evoke pride and terror, praisesong and dirges. Harris is funny, provocative, frank, and incisive as she ruminates on family, community, education, racism, religion, hair and the mannerisms that inform the black and white people who intersect on these social and cultural plains. Her essays are steeped in a wisdom that has accrued through a joyful life. The summer snow of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, as depicted by Trudier Harris, is a cultural phenomenon that is quintessentially American for any reader growing up in the South--and I use Malcolm X's geographical construct, south of Canada.

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Summer Snow
Trudier Harris
Manufacturer: Beacon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0807072559

Book Description

Trudier Harris will tell you that African Americans who consider themselves Southern are about as rare as summer snow. But Harris has always embraced the South, and in Summer Snow she explores her experience as a black Southerner and how it has shaped her into the writer and intellectual she has become.

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Wonderful book

Summer Snow: A Merlin Fanshaw Western
Stan Lynde
Manufacturer: iUniverse, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Action & Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0595396399

Book Description

U.S. Deputy Marshal Merlin Fanshaw is out of town on the day George Starkweather and his outlaw band hold up the Cattleman's Bank of Dry Creek. Upon his return, Fanshaw's boss, U.S, Marshal Chance Ridgeway, suggests the deputy volunteer to infiltrate the gang as an undercover agent. Fanshaw hesitates only a moment before agreeing. He and Starkweather have a dark history, and he's eager to bring his old nemesis to justice.

The winter of 1886-87 brings Fanshaw face-to-face with Starkweather, as he becomes a member of the outlaw band. As the bitter winter deepens, so does the danger, and Fanshaw finds himself in more trouble than he ever imagined. Just when he thinks he's played his cards right, Fanshaw lands in jail-charged with murder, while Starkweather roams free. Will a surprising revelation bring retribution to the outlaw leader, or will Deputy Fanshaw be left alone to face a hangman's noose?

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful book.......2007-04-09

I bought this book for my dad, who is a huge Stan Lynde fan and he loved it. He has several other Stan Lynde books and likes them so much he reads them over and over.

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Summer Snowman
Gene Zion
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0060269103

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Summer Snow
Marilyn Levy
Manufacturer: Fawcett
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0449701883
Release Date: 1986-10-12

9 Titles By Pilcher - September - Coming Home - Blue Bedroom - Empty House - Day of the Storm - End of Summer -Snow in April - Under Gemini - Wild Mountain Thyme

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9 Titles By Pilcher - September - Coming Home - Blue Bedroom - Empty House - Day of the Storm - End of Summer -Snow in April - Under Gemini - Wild Mountain Thyme
Rosamunde Pilcher
Manufacturer: various
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000Q5E4C4

Product Description

9 Mass Market Paperback Titles By Pilcher - September - Coming Home - Blue Bedroom - Empty House - Day of the Storm - End of Summer -Snow in April - Under Gemini - Wild Mountain Thyme

Ageless Love: The Conviction of Charlotte Grey, Summer Snow, to Dwell in the Land (Ageless Love Series , Vol 1)

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A joyous, lilting little story, with some shadows.

Ageless Love: The Conviction of Charlotte Grey, Summer Snow, to Dwell in the Land (Ageless Love Series , Vol 1)
Jeanne Cheyney , Sandy Dengler , and Elaine Watson
Manufacturer: Zondervan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0310209552

Customer Reviews:

A joyous, lilting little story, with some shadows........1999-10-20

Picking up this little gem of an old love story made my day. It covers several years of a young girl's life and takes her from childhood to - well, I mustn't say more. It is a bright, joyous tale of the wooing of a country maiden by a man twice her age, an artist accustomed to the big city life of Atlanta. Juliana's brothers don't want this dark mature stranger from the city in their young sister's life, and they take measures to make sure the two never see each other. There are pitfalls aplenty, Foster Kirk's age being the biggest. Juliana is searching for a meaning in her life. She is a very normal teenager, having more questions than answers. There are pitfalls aplenty as various other family members, and friends of Juliana's and Foster's, join the separating force. A good book to tuck in your bag for that next trip.

BLACK HEART IVORY BONES: My Life as a Bird; Bear it Away; Rapunzel; The Crone; Big Hair; The King with Three Daughters; Boys and Girls Together; Snow in Summer; Chanterelle; Goldilocks Tells All; The Red Boots; Rosie's Dance; You Little Match Girl

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BLACK HEART IVORY BONES: My Life as a Bird; Bear it Away; Rapunzel; The Crone; Big Hair; The King with Three Daughters; Boys and Girls Together; Snow in Summer; Chanterelle; Goldilocks Tells All; The Red Boots; Rosie's Dance; You Little Match Girl
Ellen; Windling, Terri (editors) (Charles de Lint; Michael Cadnum; Tanith Lee; Delia Sherman; Esther Friesner; Russell Blackford; Neil Gaiman; Jane Yolen; Greg Costikyan; Debra Cash; Brian Stableford; Scott Bradfield; Leah Cutter; Emma Hardesty) Datlow
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

ASIN: 0739408925

Customer Reviews:

MOEMI OFFERS HER BODY....AGAIN.......2006-12-30

Moemi is prepared to lay it all on the line as she offers her body up to Yota but he keeps on seeing this vision of a faceless short haired girl telling him that he had finally made his "choice". He believes that this girl he is seeing is Ai and that no matter what his feelings or desires, he musn't go any further with Moemi and that he has to break up with her. He decides to focus exclusively on Ai, even though he can't tell her that he overheard her creator say that if a man could fall in love with Ai, he would make her human. He thinks if he tells her, then the deal would be off. Even as Yota breaks up with her, Moemi decides once again that she's not going down without a fight. Ai, meanwhile, doesn't believe Yota's statements that he doesn't want to be with Moemi. All the time this is going on, Ai's tape continues to run, and her time on Earth continues to run out. As you can see, things are in a mess, but with only a few volumes left in the series, Katsura's gonna have to bring things to an end.

Video Girl Ai is a manga that has gone on about 10 too many volumes. We've been pretty much stuck in stasis now for about five or six volumes with Yota going out with Moemi but still finding his mind drifting to Ai and telling himself it's only because he doesn't want her to disappear. Speaking of memory loss, has Yota completely forgotten how much he loved Ai in the first couple of volumes, and how he went to Hell to rescue her, quite literally? His feelings for Moemi have always seemed a bit more like desire or lust instead of true love, but he's been kidding himself for hundreds or even thousands of pages now that she's the one he loves. The characters are all stuck in emotional limbo, not because of their personalities, but because the writer wants to drag on the story longer than neccesary and make a few bucks more from the concept. It's a real shame because in the volumes that didn't have a lot fluff (which was about 5 out of 12 so far), the story really shined and was very compelling.

SAYING GOODBYE.......2006-12-02

Yota's deadline for submitting artwork for the children's book he's working on is tomorrow, but he feels it won't be up to snuff unless Ai is helping him out with the coloring. Which is probably true since there's always an aspect of being lost surrounding Yota when Ai isn't around. He's also still trying to work out who he really loves. Is Moemi just a consolation prize because he didn't want to get involved with Ai, who he knew was always destined to disappear eventually? But now he knows that Ai can become a real girl if a human falls in love with her so what's stopping him now? I'll tell you. He's a wuss! Meanwhile, his childhood friend Natsumi is laid up dying in a hospital and Ai has made it her mission to find the boyfriend that dumped her and caused her to come to Tokyo in the first place.

Video Girl Ai is suffused with too many characters that are afraid of rocking the boat, so they all just tend to wallow in misery. Yota is afraid to hurt Moemi's feelings by dumping her and going for Ai, while Ai is waiting for Yota to choose herself as the one he loves and get the courage to break up with Moemi. Natsumi has given up on seeing the guy she loves again. The only character that seems to be doing anything to improve her situation is Moemi. At least she hasn't given up on Yota and pursues him passionately even though she perhaps doesn't use the best methods. Video Girl Ai is probably a series that has gone on too long but it's still entertaining if frustrating to read. The side story with Natsumi's boyfriend was actually more intriguing than the main storyline. Still an ok read.

MOEMI TITILATES.......2006-10-10

Ai's time in this world is down to about a month. In that time she must get a human to fall in love with her. If she can, she will become human. If she doesn't, her tape will be erased and her existence will cease. Of course, she's in love with Yota but in his conscious mind he's moved on and now he's getting in deeper with Moemi. Unfortunately, his unconscious mind still dwells on Ai, which makes Moemi jealous and causes her to start devising ways to take his mind off Ai. As Ai lives a life on the street, Moemi uses her body to try to win Yota's heart, even as Yota finds out he needs Ai to help him on his first big break in the children's book illustration world.

I'm pretty much sick of Yota by this point in the series. He's become so callous to the girls around him, letting Ai and Natsumi live like vagrants in city parks and alleyways in the cold. Does he think homeless people have it so good as he lives alone in his sprawling palacial residence? Yeah, he tries looking for Ai a bit, but he doesn't try that hard, and this is the guy that went through all sorts of mental and spiritual torture to rescue Ai early in this series. He forced himself to forget about her after she lost her memories but it just seemed too easy back then and now it seems even more ludicrous. No matter how Video Girl Ai ends up, I feel I'm going to be dissatisfied. To me, the strongest part of this series was when it focused on the interactions between Ai and Yota, and that has been missing for many volumes. In Volume 9, the writer went back to this core, but in Volume 10 we go back to the whole Yota/Ai/Moemi conflict with all its resulting stagnation. What a shame. I would have given this 3 stars but Katsura's passionate eroticism and extraordinary art gave it a bit more power. Also, the characters of Ai and Moemi steal the show and give Volume 10 a much needed energy.

AI GETS HER MEMORY BACK.......2006-08-21

In Volume 9 of Video Girl Ai: Cut Scenes, Ai finally gets all her memories back of her love for Yota. She kinda already suspected that in her past life she was in love with him, but now all her suspicions are confirmed and she's in a bind as to what to do with them because Yota is finally realizing his dream of being Moemi's boyfriend. Ai doesn't want to ruin anything that could develop between the two, but not only does she have to fight against her own selfish desires for Yota, her tape is rapidly running out of time. Her creator had given her additional playing time and even said he would make her human IF she could make a man fall in love with her. Perhaps getting to work one-on-one with Yota as she helps him finish a submission for a children's book contest might give her the oppurtunity to grow close to him again.

Volume 9 was one of the more enjoyable installments of this series because we get back to the root conflict that started it all. Namely, the fact that Ai, instead of helping Yota get the girl of his dreams, falls in love with him instead and complicates the whole situation. I always felt a little uncomfortable with the amnesiac Ai and was glad to see her go back to her old self. Without her presence, Yota had become a playboy jerk whose affections were pretty much blowing in the wind. I'm really curious as to how it will end. It's too bad it took about 5 volumes to get back to the main plotline instead of dwelling in shojoesque relationships without any advancement of plot.

DO DREAMS COME TRUE?.......2006-07-07

Volume 8 of Video Girl Ai is called Flashback because Yota plans to replay a scene from his life that he didn't get right the first time. Early on in this series, Yota was alone with his crush Moemi and was going to declare his love for her, but instead he found out that she was in love with his best friend Takashi! Now he's taking her back to the same place, with the same plan to declare his love for her, but this time he's going to get it right! The problem is that nothing has changed. Moemi still cares for Takashi, and even thinks he saved her from getting raped, when it was actually Yota that saved her. There is even some implication that Takashi was actually the one that put her in that situation but the author is not exactly clear since Takashi still hasn't come clean about that night. But most of the girls at school are spreading the rumor it was him that set her up. When Moemi finds out the truth, what will she do? And Ai's life is still ticking away. If she doesn't get a man to fall in love with her, she will be erased. But with Yota's attention fully on Moemi, how is she supposed to make any headway?

To me, Video Girl Ai is a manga that is in a temporary, but hopefully not permanent, holding pattern. The character of Yota has become less interesting the closer he has come to his dream of being in a relationship with Moemi. The fact that he is no longer a nerd called "Dateless", but instead has become a more normal highschooler has decreased the conflict in his character. Now he has to deal with the REALITY of being "normal" and all the boring characteristics that come with that. For braving the depths of Hell a couple of volumes back to save Ai's life, he seems to have made Ai into a third class citizen pretty fast. There's JUST enough story here to keep me interested a little longer, but if Katsura doesn't get the plot moving again and bring some comedy back in, I'll be erasing this series from my reading time.

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