A Selection Of Ten Favourite Books

Some links before I get myself started today. Yesterday was a Sunday, so we had a Snippet Sunday post at our joint blog. Krisztina had some thoughts at her blog. Parsnip had this video at her blog. Whisk asked if you were ready for zombies. Maria writes about writing right. And Lorelei had a Murphy's Law kind of day.

A few days ago on Facebook, there was a meme going around about particular favourite books. I wrote them down, and decided to expand today on what draws me to each book in turn. It occurs to me looking at this list of ten books that I haven’t included any Canadian authors- Robertson Davies, Farley Mowat, L.M. Montgomery, or Alice Munro rate among my favourites. Not Margaret Atwood though; it’s a matter of personal taste. I get why she’s so acclaimed, but reading her work just doesn’t do it for me. I remember a line from a television show: books are like old friends, and every once in awhile you have to drop in and see how they’re doing. These ten books are personal favourites, ones that I like coming back to from time to time.

The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara. My favourite novel. It won the Pulitzer for fiction in 1975. It tells the story of the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War, from the point of view of commanders on both Union and Confederate sides. Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, John Buford, and others come alive in Shaara’s insightful novel that sticks to the facts of the timeline of that battle. While it’s technically a novel, with dialogue and character interpretation as part of that, it follows the events of the battle closely, and rings true to who these men were. Shaara’s style feels clipped and efficient, presenting both sides of the conflict fairly, and fleshes out the inner voices of the characters. His writing style has certainly been an influence on me, and I’ve long since lost track of how many times I’ve read the novel. Every once in awhile it demands re-reading.

The Lord Of The Rings, J.R. Tolkien. The masterful trilogy by Tolkien tells the story of Middle Earth, following in the footsteps of his earlier children’s book The Hobbit. It follows the adventures of a varied band of warriors and hobbits as they embark on a quest to destroy the source of power of a dark lord rising up once again against the world. Tolkien expands greatly on his world of Middle Earth, establishing a masterpiece of mythology and a true classic that stands the test of time. He blends in themes of the strength of friendship and the notion of fighting for the good in the world. I first read the trilogy in early teenage years, and from time to time I come back to immerse myself in the world of hobbits, dwarves, elves, and other fantastic beings of Middle Earth.

Thunder Point, Jack Higgins. This was the first book by Higgins I ever read, though I had been familiar with the name, as his book The Eagle Has Landed was particularly well known. It’s a spy thriller that brings back his signature character Sean Dillon, who he introduced in his previous book, Eye Of The Storm, as a villain. Dillon, a feared IRA gunman, was supposed to have died in that book, but Higgins’ wife told him the character was just too good to kill off, so Higgins gave him an out. Thunder Point opens at the end of the Second World War, with the Nazi Martin Bormann making his escape from the theatre of war, carrying documents with him, documents that go down in the Caribbean aboard a U-boat during a storm. Decades later, the submarine is discovered, and more than one party is interested in those documents. A British intelligence official, Charles Ferguson, finds himself having to enlist the aid of Sean Dillon to deal with the opposition, under the premise that when dealing with nasty enemies, it helps to bring in someone who fights the same way. Dillon goes from terrorist to operative in the book, turning his back on his past and starting a new career with his old adversaries. While he never apologizes for his past in the books that follow, and while killing still comes easy to him, his shift from terrorist to hero starts here, and it feels like a natural transition.

John Adams, David McCullough. Another one of my favourite authors, McCullough’s known for his historical works and time spent in television documentaries. He’s won the Pulitzer twice for biographies of two American presidents, Adams and Harry Truman. Among his many other works that I enjoy reading are 1776, The Johnstown Flood, and The Great Bridge. McCullough brings a natural storyteller’s gift to his narratives as a historian, making the words flow easily and the past come alive. This biography of the second president is my favourite of his works, examining the complex and compelling life of a man sometimes overshadowed by other presidents, but just as deserving of greatness.

The Civil War, Shelby Foote. If you’ve seen the Ken Burns documentary on the subject, you’ve seen Shelby Foote, the Southern writer who was one of the expert commentators for the series. Foote had been a writer of novels and short stories before he turned his attention to history. He wrote the mammoth three volume narrative history of the War over a period of some twenty years in the 1950s and 1960s, writing a balanced account of the conflict that didn’t cater to the Lost Cause aspect of society plaguing the South; the only argument Foote made was that the War in the western theatre mattered as much as what was happening in the east. It is a massive undertaking to read the series, but it’s a rewarding one. Foote brings the story of the War and the soldiers who fought it alive with vivid detail, using the novelist’s sense of style in energizing the story.

Patriot Games, Tom Clancy. This was my favourite novel by Clancy in the Jack Ryan series, and while it was written after The Hunt For Red October, it serves as a prequel. Ryan is a vacationing tourist in London when he steps into an attack on members of the Royal Family, saving the day and earning the wrath of the people who escape, a band of breakaway Irish terrorists with agendas all their own. Clancy had a reputation early on for being fascinated with technology, often stopping in mid narrative to lecture the reader on how something worked. Still, he had a way of telling a potboiler tale and driving up the tension. I think of all of the novels he wrote- up to the point where his quality as a writer took a steep dive off a cliff- this one still stands as my favourite of his works. Maybe because it feels the most human. Jack is fighting first and foremost to protect his family, the people he loves the most. That’s a very primal instinct, and an honourable one. It elevates the story.

The Last Full Measure, Jeff Shaara. Jeff is the son of the late Michael Shaara, and after the death of the great man, turned his attention to writing as well in the same vein, telling stories of military history through the perspective of those who fought it. He’s turned his attention to the Civil War, the Mexican War, the American Revolution, World War One, and World War Two, each time taking on the points of view of men (or women) on both sides. His first book, Gods And Generals, served as a prequel to his father’s master work The Killer Angels, telling the story of the Civil War in the first two years through the points of view of several commanders, ending at Chancellorsville. The Last Full Measure picks things up after Gettysburg, following the points of view of several key commanders, including Chamberlain, Longstreet, and Jeb Stuart. First and foremost, though, it is the story of the great duel between the armies of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, from the battles of Spotsylvania to Appomattox, bringing to life the horrors of war and the complicated personalities of that war. The two novels serve as ideal companions to The Killer Angels, creating a father and son literary trilogy.

Crusade In Europe, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Between the Second World War and the Presidency, General Eisenhower wrote his account of being supreme commander of Allied forces in the European theatre. He examines the events of the war, the personalities of his commanders, the decisions he made, and the prism of history through the eyes of the man in charge. Eisenhower’s writing style is efficient as you might expect of a career soldier, but it flows well and keeps the reader hooked. His personality also comes through, and you get to understand why this man was so good at managing the full force of the western Allies against Nazi Germany. It’s been awhile since I’ve last read it, but Eisenhower’s words draw the reader right back into the Supreme Command’s headquarters.

Little Women, Louisa May Alcott. A classic of American literature, this two volume book explores the four March sisters, living in Civil War era New England. Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy’s imaginations, their trials and triumphs, the bonds of family, the exploration of love, and the heartbreak of loss are themes that resonate throughout the novel, based on the author and her sisters. This is another of those books that I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read it. I suspect that I relate to Jo in a lot of ways; she’s a writer with a bit of a temper, outspoken when she has to be, and she’s unconventional. Other readers might relate to another character. Regardless, it’s a classic that still feels fresh and inviting any time the reader picks it up again.

The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett. I first read this one in a children’s literature course, and wished I’d read it years before. It tells the story of Mary, a troubled orphaned girl who comes to live with her reclusive uncle at a manor in the English countryside, amid the wilds of a moor. She comes to find a garden, hidden and locked away behind a wall for years, and as she starts to tend to the place and bring it back to life, she changes herself, going from the unaffectionate and spoiled child to becoming a better person in time. I could identify with Mary’s early personality- I’ve felt that sense of isolation and aloneness, so the character resonated with me.

In The Company Of Evil

Well, I've been busy taking pics since the last blog. I'm getting my feet wet, figuring out the smartphone and thinking of photographic subjects. My next blog will feature a few more shots, and I'm thinking that I'll definitely go ahead and join in on daily photoblogs, in a seperate blog from this one, spotlighting my home town of Ottawa and beyond. Keep an eye out here for further developments as I go along. If you'll have a look over at Norma's blog, you'll see her response to my now getting my mitts on the smartphone (yes, I was dragged kicking and screaming into it, but that's beside the point).

Today, however, a bit of news occupies my attention...

Last week, news came out that the last surviving witness of Hitler's final hours had died. Rochus Misch, an SS sergeant, had been a loyal bodyguard for much of the Second World War to the most evil man of the 20th century. Misch was unapologetic to the end, suggesting that Hitler was no brute or monster. He sidestepped the issues of guilt or responsibility, claiming he knew nothing of the Holocaust, thinking of those days as just doing a job, not asking questions. He insisted Hitler had been a wonderful man, describing the events leading up to the suicide of the dictator and his mistress turned wife. Perhaps it is because of his lack of remorse about it all that the end of his days is being treated from various quarters with derision. Where the country itself has accepted the past and taken responsibility, this man never did. This is a man who's seemingly spent most of his life not atoning for the past, never accepting what most reasonable people understand: that Hitler, and the Nazi ideal by extension, was pure evil, walking the earth.

From the point of view of the writer and the reader, the news occasionally provides inspiration. And stories from the war, even seven decades on, can provide us with fodder for writing. Jack Higgins, the great British spy writer, is an influence on me as a writer and as a reader. True, I'd say his work has been declining in recent years- he really should have stopped several books ago, but it's not the huge plunge off the cliff in quality that Tom Clancy's work has taken (side note: Tom Clancy hasn't written anything of value since The Bear And The Dragon). Higgins is known for writing pot boiler thrillers, both set in the Second World War and the contemporary world. He's best known for The Eagle Has Landed, a thriller about German plans to send an operative against Churchill, through the use of an Irish operative. The book was later adapted into a movie starring Michael Caine and Donald Sutherland, one that I liked.

Most of his current work centers on Sean Dillon, a former IRA enforcer turned British operative, a hard man who can be both ruthless and yet utterly charming. Dillon started out as the villain, in a book which set him as the man responsible for the mortar attack against Ten Downing Street during Desert Storm, and yet Higgins found the character so compelling that he turned Dillon into the protagonist for his next book, Thunder Point, which draws on secrets linked to those last days of the War. It begins with the Nazi Martin Bormann escaping Germany at the end of things (making use of the rumors that persisted for years that Bormann survived), taking a submarine for sanctuary in South America. He carries pivotal documentation, including the names of those friendly to Nazi interests in Britain and America, and a document that could prove critically damaging to the Royal Family (another nod to the history of the Duke Of Windsor, who seemed entirely too comfortable around Nazis). The sub goes down in the Caribbean while Bormann is away, and decades later, the fact of its existence is uncovered, and a British intelligence officer, faced with an unknown enemy trying to reach the sub, enlists Dillon under the notion of set a thief to catch a thief, and starts the former terrorist out on the path to becoming a better man. The book remains a personal favourite, and it wouldn't be the last time Higgins made use of the war to tell a story in the present, later using a German baron starting out in the war as a young man, gradually rebuilding his life through the years after, ultimately becoming the villain in a later book, tangling with Dillon and his associates.

From the writer's point of view, I have ideas that come out of the war as well. I've mused on writing a thriller set squarely in the war. And I've also thought of using the war as part of the backstory for a book set in the present, for a villain whose family escaped to South America after the war, still holding onto Nazi ideals, still part of that legacy.

As writers, we find inspiration in some strange places. With the death of Misch, we have the end of an era, the last witness of those days in that bunker. It speaks volumes that he never made amends for it, that he still thought of that most reviled excuse for a human being as a wonderful boss.

The Cat Is Going To Swat Oliver. I Repeat, The Cat Is Going To Swat Oliver

I was born into a long and distinguished line of feline overlords five years ago. Our kind had always ruled over the lowly humans with an iron claw. They catered to our every whim, feeding our delicate appetites with only the best, because that's all we would stand for. They gave us all the attention we sought, treated us as gods, because we deserve no less. In return, we treated them with disdain and sullen attitude. It's an expected thing to do when dealing with lower life forms.

And then there came the day when I, Sovereign Majestrix Felicity the Mousekiller, encountered my arch foe. For that was the day when my human servant Alice met the fop who calls himself Oliver. I mean, honestly, what self respecting human uses that name?

Ahem. Couldn't resist. Sorry about that....

Before I get started today, I'm also guest blogging over at Beths' blog, where I'm blogging about telegraphs and telegrams.  Be sure to check it out. And now, on with todays' foolishness...

Backstory. It's a narrative in a novel that refers to an earlier time then the main part of the book. It can be revealed through exposition, flashback, summary, or other means, weaved into the narrative, or it can be its own narrative, serving perhaps as an opening chapter in the book.

In the espionage genre, a backstory will often be the history of the villain, or a crucial supporting character being introduced for the first time. A protagonist will usually have their backstory introduced in bits and pieces through the narrative of several books, if it's a series, but if the author's telling the story of a character who's only turning up one time, using the back story is a handy way of getting the reader acquainted with the character.

Last time out, I talked about the genre and three of the big names in the traditional side of things. I thought I'd return to them today with a look at their techniques for employing backstory in their books.

Tom Clancy has given the world his main character, Jack Ryan, a CIA analyst who rises through the ranks of the Agency to ultimately become the President of the United States. That is, of course, when Jack wasn't dealing with his author frequently stopping to explain a techno-fact along the way. Jacks' backstory gets weaved into the narrative in bits and pieces, particularly in the early books, like The Hunt For Red October and Patriot Games, as we were just getting to know him. He's a former Marine, his parents died in a plane crash, and he doesn't like to fly. He has a deeply estranged relationship with his father-in-law. The bits and pieces technique actually works well when you're starting out with your protagonist in a series: don't give the readers too much at a time. Just as long as you don't retcon things in future books that you write as prequels. Mr. Clancy, Red Rabbit is Peoples' Exhibit #1 in this matter.

Clancy brought another primary character into the game in Cardinal of the Kremlin, a field operative named John Clark. His backstory remained essentially a blank for three books, barely hinted at, until Without Remorse. The book is essentially all backstory, set well before the present day books, during the last stages of the Vietnam War. It follows the character from his days as a Navy SEAL to becoming a CIA agent, while the man himself wages his own secret war against a drug gang to avenge a tragedy in his personal life.

Backstory has played its role for other characters in Clancy novels. In Cardinal, a spy deep in the Soviet government often finds himself flashing back to his experiences in the Second World War, sequences that are crucial to explain why he becomes a spy against his own country. In the novel Debt of Honor, a villain has a deeply personal connection to the WWII story of Saipan, and his reflections on it form a critical part of his motivation. And in Rainbow Six, the people pulling the strings behind a diabolical scheme to wipe out much of humanity have their own backstories, carefully placed in such a way not to expose their agenda to the reader until Clancy is ready to reveal it.

Jack Higgins has, for the last twenty years, concentrated most of his effort on the Irish gunman turned British agent, Sean Dillon. He's introduced first in Eye of the Storm, where he's the villain, a one time student of the theatre who turned to the IRA after his father was killed. The book concerns itself with placing Dillon as the man who's hired to attack Ten Downing Street with a mortar during Desert Storm (an attack that really did happen). Dillon becomes the protagonist in the following books when the British make him a deal he can't refuse, primarily because Higgins' wife told him Dillon was too good a character to kill off. In the books that follow, Dillons' backstory makes the occasional appearance here and there, from connections to multiple terrorists on both sides of the Irish issue to operations he's taken part in back in the old days.

Higgins' technique is to often start off in the past with a novel, so a chapter or more might serve on its own as the backstory, seperate from the main narrative. In Thunder Point, the escape of the Nazi Martin Bormann by submarine sets off a chain of events that lead to the present day action and links to the antagonists Dillon has to deal with. Angel of Death uses opening chapters to unveil how a terrorist group comes together over a handful of years. Drink With the Devil uses the first third of the book as pure backstory, since that portion is set several years before the main narrative, following a Protestant Irish terrorist who pulls off a gold heist in the English countryside. The ramifications spill over into the modern day.

Most notably in The President's Daughter, Higgins uses backstory to open the book. He follows the life and career of a young man from the Vietnam War days to the White House, which includes an ill fated romance and finding out long after the fact that he has a daughter. It links into the current day action when that daughter is kidnapped and used as a bargaining chip for a terrorist group who wants the American President to do the unthinkable.

Daniel Silva has made use of backstory in creative ways as a novelist too. Most of his novels have centered on the operative Gabriel Allon and his colleagues. From the earliest books, like The Kill Artist, we learn that Gabriel has been killing people for the state of Israel since the aftermath of the Munich incident. We discover that he's suffered the death of a son and the physical and psychological maiming of his first wife, an act of revenge by an old enemy. Silva weaves details here and there about Gabriel in the books that follow, showing us how he came to be an art restorer (a very handy cover for a man in his profession), and his ties to some of the people in his life, the people who in the more recent books become his team of operatives.

In some of the more recent books, the backstory of a villain comes in the form of a briefing. In the recent Portrait of a Spy, the backstory of two terrorists is laid out midway through the book, the members of the team going through what they know of both men as if the entire chapter is an intelligence briefing. It's a different way of giving the reader a taste of a character, somewhat detached from that characters' point of view, but it works beautifully.

With Heaven & Hell, I've been making use of backstory in various ways. With my protagonists, it's tended to lean towards the "bits and pieces" at a time mentality. There's no need to give away too much at once, since they'll be back again in future books. Where my antagonists are concerned, they get much more of a fully revealed backstory. The first three chapters of the book, in fact, are their story. Over a period of several years, starting fifteen years in the past, the events that bring together the Covenant are laid out, coming to a conclusion with their first official operation as a terrorist group.

A certain dead Muppet's backstory....

Backstory plays a considerable part in fiction writing, but in the espionage genre it's particularly useful. I've certainly made use of it, and in works to come, I'll be revisiting this narrative device.

Post script: Yes, the title's yet another play on espionage codephrases... but let's face it. Someone named Oliver deserves to get swatted.

The Dog Eats The Wedding Cake At Five. I Repeat, The Dog Eats The Wedding Cake At Five

"Never judge a book by its cover."  ~ old proverb

"....Unless the cover's rich Corinthian leather." ~ addendum to old proverb

"I'll have to read Marges' book, and I swore to never read again after To Kill A Mockingbird gave me no useful advice about killing mockingbirds! It did teach me not to judge a man by the colour of his skin, but what good does that do me?" ~ Homer Simpson

The book cover. We're not supposed to judge the contents of what's in the book by the cover, but let's face it, one glance at the cover is often enough of a spark to make us either pick it up off the shelf and have a look at the blurb on the back or the dustcover... or to leave it behind. A simple, bold image might be the sort of thing that draws our eye. By the same token, a generic sort of image that's basically just playing on the same theme of a previously established hit (deserved or not) will tend to backfire. I know I've seen any number of Twilight inspired rip-offs (can you rip off something that's already cheesy to begin with?) on the shelves, the covers obviously designed with feeding off that market. The covers have that uninspired cashing in on the fad before the fad breaks feel to them. You've seen them, right by the checkout at your drug store, no doubt.

As the industry changes and ebook publishing becomes more and more of a force to be reckoned with, those of us who are breaking out into the world of ebook publishing have to keep the cover in mind. Though it's being read in an ereader or a computer, that cover still serves a purpose. It grabs the readers' attention. So it needs to be bold, distinctive... the sort of imagery that makes someone want to take a closer look.

The color should be a consideration, of course. It should compliment the tone of your title lettering. I would avoid using psychedelic purple for your motif. Unless you're writing Puff The Magic Dragon: How I Spent Five Decades Stoned Out Of My Mind.

Admittedly, I'd have been lost having to design on my own. I'd have stumbled around in photoshop or other computer programming, and the finished image wouldn't have come out all that well. I was lucky. Collin Beishir designed the cover for Heaven & Hell, which you can see over there to the right. Below that is a link for his facebook page, so have a look at some of the other work he's been doing. He's brilliant at this kind of thing, and I'm happy with the end result. The cover is bold, distinctive, and carries a gravity to it. I knew generally what I was after, as you can see in this blog, which offers the explanation for the image.

Anyway, since I write in the spy genre, I thought I'd take some time today to have a look at some of the covers in the traditional side of publishing, from three of the big names. Usually these have been designed in-house by the publishing company, and with the author's input being hands off. Some of them work very well. Others, unfortunately, come off as generic. And when you add new editions, movie editions, and international editions, a traditionally published book might have quite a few different covers before it's all said and done.

Tom Clancy's been a heavyweight in the genre for a long time, though realistically, his day is done. Having had read his books, I've often been annoyed by his tech-happiness and tendency to stop in the middle of the narrative to explain how this works, where that was designed, and who made it. His last four books, as a reader, have shown a steep decline in narrative, to the point where I don't think he cares much for writing anymore. That, and he's got a whole pack of apprentices now to do the writing for him. He's a franchise, not a writer.

Some of his covers have worked well; others, not so much. You'll often find a piece of military equipment, a vehicle, that sort of thing superimposed on a Clancy cover. Sometimes it works. Other times, not so much.

This one seems to work well. Patriot Games remains my favourite of his novels, and the early cover is simple, to the point. The name and title, while large, don't overwhelm the whole cover. The colouring is bold and compliments well, and the gun is the proper image, since the book revolves around the issue of an Irish splinter terrorist group.

Not so good here. The name and title seem to drown out the cover... and the image of rocket flares (assuming that's what it is) seems lost in the mix. Given the subject of the book, a man in silouhette with a gun might well have worked better.

Rainbow Six has an original cover that I've always thought is the best his graphic designer ever put out for him. The book is about a multi-national counter terrorism team confronting a threat against nearly every human being on earth. Using small flags for America, the UK, Germany, and Israel, and placing them among the name and title gives the cover a very crisp, distinctive look. Whoever came up with that did a terrific job.

Jack Higgins is another big name in the genre for some fifty years now, and among some of his earlier books is the classic The Eagle Has Landed, a World War Two yarn about German commandos going after Churchill. His primary character through most of his work in the last twenty years has been a former IRA gunman who's gone to work for the British, a charming rogue named Sean Dillon. Some of the books have been outstanding, and personal favourites in the genre. His more recent books have shown a decline; it's a combination of his age and, I think, killing off a major character several books ago. He might not have realized it at the time, but it took a lot of heart out of the series.

His cover designers tend to go in different ways. Some books will feature a person in the shadows, late at night in some location. Other covers focus on a location itself, like a famous building or a skyline. Most of them are dark and brooding.

His Angel of Death uses a distinctive image against a black background that I'd always liked. A tombstone angel superimposed against the Union Jack mirrors the terrorist group who's the threat in the heart of the book.

The cover designer for the first edition of Flight of Eagles really outdid themselves with it. The layout for the World War Two story of twin American brothers who go off to fly for two airforces, the RAF and the Luftwaffe, features a stylized swastika overlying an American flag.

The last of the trio is Daniel Silva, much younger then Clancy or Higgins, who's been writing for a decade now, his thrillers based primarily on an Israeli operative named Gabriel Allon. I started reading the books at the suggestion of a librarian in my local library, after talking with him about the need to get inside the head of an Israeli spy. He suggested Silva, so I started reading, and got hooked. His main character spends his time as an art restorer, which serves as his cover, when he's not off dealing with one threat or another.

The cover designs for Silvas' novels tend to make use of location more often then not. It might be a building, a skyline, or a hidden cloister. Invariably it'll be a dark brooding, nighttime setting (what is it about spy novels and life in the shadows?). And in a nod to the primary character, the covers will often have an artistic sensibility to them, particularly in the way it uses shadow and light.

Now then, you've been wondering what that title means, haven't you? Well, I was thinking about the title for this blog... and then it occured to me that since I was writing about espionage thrillers, I might as well use a nonsensical codephrase as a title. So no, it doesn't mean anything. Unless, of course, you're the bride and groom, walking in on your reception to see Marmaduke gorging himself on the cake.

I'll be doing the same for my next blog, incidentally, since I'll be revisiting these authors for another aspect of the espionage genre, so expect a really out of the loop title. Unless, of course, The Dog Eats The Wedding Cake At Five is an actual codephrase that starts off the second Korean War before then. If that's the case, all I can say is.... oops.