Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King

Doreen’s Thoughts:  Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King

Dreaming Spies

Author:                Laurie R. King

Publisher:   Bantam  

Format:  E-book,  352 pages

List Price:  $10.99

Disclaimer:  ARC read via NetGalley.

After a lengthy case that had the couple traipsing all over India, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are on their way to California to deal with some family business that Russell has been neglecting for far too long. Along the way, they plan to break up the long voyage with a sojourn in southern Japan. The cruising steamer Thomas Carlyle is leaving Bombay, bound for Kobe. Though they’re not the vacationing types, Russell is looking forward to a change of focus—not to mention a chance to travel to a location Holmes has not visited before. The idea of the pair being on equal footing is enticing to a woman who often must race to catch up with her older, highly skilled husband.
 
Aboard the ship, intrigue stirs almost immediately. Holmes recognizes the famous clubman the Earl of Darley, whom he suspects of being an occasional blackmailer: not an unlikely career choice for a man richer in social connections than in pounds sterling. And then there’s the lithe, surprisingly fluent young Japanese woman who befriends Russell and quotes haiku. She agrees to tutor the couple in Japanese language and customs, but Russell can’t shake the feeling that Haruki Sato is not who she claims to be.
 
Once in Japan, Russell’s suspicions are confirmed in a most surprising way. From the glorious city of Tokyo to the cavernous library at Oxford, Russell and Holmes race to solve a mystery involving international extortion, espionage, and the shocking secrets that, if revealed, could spark revolution—and topple an empire. 

Doreen’s Thoughts: 

Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell is a worthy partner for Sherlock Holmes.  Introduced first in The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, Mary is a bright, brash American woman several years younger than Holmes, yet able to intrigue the man enough to bring him out of retirement and into handling cases once again.  In Dreaming Spies, Mary and Holmes are returning from an adventure in India when they are entangled in a mystery set in Japan.  This mystery spans both the past (in Asia) and the present (England), and King is able to create a separate tone for each of the locations. 

One of the best things about King’s writing is her ability to totally immerse her characters into the heart of their setting.  The reader ends up learning not only about the history of a particular time, but also the characteristics of a particular location.  For this outing, King focuses on Japan, and as a way of framing the story, she starts each chapter with a Haiku, the short 5-7-5 syllable poem that evokes a specific sense and time.  It is a lovely way to introduce each section and hint at what has happened and may happen in the tale. 

As always, King does a great job creating characters that invoke the best and worst of the people they are intended to represent.  By having Mary and Holmes travel through the Japanese countryside, King illustrates the self-sacrifice representative of its people.  The main character, Haruki Sato, is another bright, ambitious woman who is more than she seems, which also is true of Mary herself. 

The plot centers on a small Japanese book of illustrated Haiku, and the history of the piece is established so firmly, a reader might believe such a work exists.  The politics of both England and Japan are at work during the early 20^th century, and America has yet to prove itself friend or foe to a Japan that only recently opened itself up to the West. 

Dreaming Spies is an enchanting read, one that had me staying up late and getting up early to reach the end.  As always, King has done a marvelous job continuing the legend of Sherlock Holmes and the wife that he should have had at Baker Street.  

Crimson Angel by Barbara Hambly

Barbara Hambly has been one of my favorite authors since the 1980s.  I discovered her in the Fantasy realm and devoured all of those novels.  In 1998, she wrote a historical mystery called A Free Man of Color, about a free black man living in New Orleans during the early 1830s.  I read it and was immediately hooked – she started my interest in mystery novels.  Crimson Angel is her 13^th novel about Benjamin January, a skilled pianist and a Paris-trained physician who solves mysteries in his spare time.

This novel focuses on a secret in his wife’s family, one for which someone is willing to kill.  One of Rose’s two white half-brothers comes seeking Benjamin’s help in searching for a secret treasure in Haiti, left behind when the slaves rose up in rebellion and killed or drove out all the white planters.  Although Benjamin initially declines to help him because of the dangers involved in traveling to Haiti, the brother is murdered, and someone attempts to kill Rose.  It becomes obvious that in order to protect Rose and their son, Benjamin must find the mysterious treasure before the killer does. 

Hambly excels in her vibrant descriptions and the minute details that she puts into her works.  The language is lyrical and almost poetic.  In addition, the historical minutiae that she includes are evidence of the intense research Hambly must have done.  I wish that high school history classes would teach from these types of books rather than the boring texts that I remember.  During the course of the novel, Hambly describes some of the casual atrocities of slavery as well as the relationships that exist between races and within families; however, she does so simply through the telling of her tale, rather than addressing it directly.

Although this is the continuation of a lengthy series, anyone could pick this novel up without having read any of the preceding ones.  Hambly does an excellent job of giving enough background information without setting it aside in a prologue or explaining it through dialogue.  One simply starts the novel and is immediately immersed into the politics of the French Orleans and the American Orleans, the interactions between masters and slaves, and lastly the everyday life of traveling during the first part of the 19^th century. 

At the end of the novel, Benjamin is faced with a horrific moral dilemma – to say more would spoil the story.  The decision he is forced to make was extremely difficult, and I am not sure that I would have been able to do the same.  I came away from the book questioning my own values, and I am still amazed at how Hambly was able to invoke such thoughtfulness so obliquely.  Needless to say, I cannot wait for her next novel.  I eagerly search her website for short story scraps that continue the adventures of characters that she wrote about over 30 years ago.  I cannot recommend her writing enough.  

"Black Arts" by Faith Hunter

http://qwillery.blogspot.com/2014/01/review-black-arts-jane-yellowrock-7-by.html/

Sarcoidosis

I've struggled with health issues for a long time. In fact, I had to quit working before I ever got my sarcoid diagnoses and start fighting for disability. I finally got the sarcoid diagnosis in 2012, and while it helps to have a name for it and realize that it's a valid, serious illness, my sarcoid is not under control and I keep having flares. I've seen lots of posts talking about the frustration when people make comments about "but you don't look sick" and I've dealt with that myself.

You need to understand that sarcoid is one of the "invisible" diseases - most of the symptoms are not obvious at first glance. In addition, lots of people get it and get over it and move on with their lives without any major problems. In fact, they have determined that some people have it and never knew it - it only shows up after they die from something else or they receive a biopsy to check for something else; they never experience any symptoms.

But some of us are massively affected, and 5% of those who get it, actually die from it. For some, it is a wonderful feeling to finally have a diagnosis of something "serious" - but most of the public don't recognize that sarcoid can be just as "bad" as cancer, ALS (which is very visible right now due to the ice bucket challenge), MS, lupus, etc., etc., etc.

For me, a diagnosis of sarcoid validated that the feelings of pain, fatigue, and neuropathy were not "all in my head" as many doctors made me feel over the years. There is a valid reason behind how bad I am feeling - the sweating and the shaking and the exhaustion without being able to sleep. There is a reason why I am short of breath without the wheezing that is typical with asthma.

HOWEVER, even with prednisone and all the other medications I take (over 20), there is no cure. I have periods of time when I am stable, when I only need oxygen at night, but I never feel "well." I am one of those for whom this is a chronic disease. It may not kill me, but it probably will make me miserable for the rest of my life.

For years, cancer used to be a death sentence. It is common enough that nearly everyone knows someone who has died from it. I'm the first person I know with sarcoidosis. Even my mother who is a nurse had to look it up to find out about it.

Recently, I've seen "sarkies" complain that we need to do more to make sarcoid as well known as ALS. No one is saying that they'd rather have ALS than sarcoid, but they are frustrated because it seems that everyone knows about ALS and right now tons of money is being donated to research a cure. Where is "our" ice bucket challenge? How much money is being donated to "our" cure? I'll lay odds that more money is donated to research a cure for cancer than ALS, even with all the recent attention.

There is no way to compare serious diseases. I certainly don't want to receive a diagnosis of cancer, MS, or ALS, but I also don't want the diagnosis that I currently have. The reality is that research is driven by money and money is driven by the number of those affected. Pharmacy companies look at the number of people with a diagnosis and steer their research accordingly. Unfortunately, we just happened to draw the short stick when we were given our sarcoid diagnosis. It doesn't make us any better or worse than anyone with Lupus, AIDs, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, or any number of alphabet diseases. It just means we are sick. Seriously sick. That should be enough for anyone.

Pain

Several years ago, I broke my ankle – shattered it, really – while gardening.  Thinking it was simply sprained as usual, I walked on it for three days before going to see a doctor.  It is never a good thing when they bring a wheelchair to the x-ray machine for you.  I tell this not to boast, but to point out that I recognize true pain, because I live with chronic pain. 

In the mornings, I lie there for a few minutes doing a mental check of my body, much like you use your tongue to probe your teeth for sore spots.  I start with my head and base my headache on a scale of 1 to 10 – 3 is usually a pretty good start to the day.  Then I check my neck, shoulder, and scapula, cracking my neck if at all possible.  Next I breathe in as deeply as I can, because I also have a lung disorder, and some mornings, it is more difficult to breathe than other days.  Once I determine how much lung capacity I have, I move on to my flank, where I have abdominal adhesions, and rate my pain – there is never a time when I do not hurt in my side.  Finally, I scan my arms, legs, and feet. 

After I perform this daily check, I roll to my side and push myself up on the side of the bed.  I typically stretch my arms and legs before rising to my feet and stretching my calves and hamstrings.  Then I begin the torture march to the bathroom.  I have neuropathy in my feet – a fancy way to explain the burning, stinging, and oddly enough, numbness that I feel in my toes and the soles of my feet.  I run myself a hot bath, checking my blood sugar and recording it, and taking the first of several doses of medicine for the day. 

I carefully climb into the bath, water as hot as I can stand it, and wait for my joints and muscles to loosen up.  Without this daily heat treatment, I would spend most of the day shivering and aching.  I do more gentle stretches in the water, bending each of my joints as best I can and tightening and loosening the long muscles of my body.  After 30 or 40 minutes, I carefully rise to my feet, step out, and begin my morning ablutions. 

I have a number of disorders that contribute to my daily pain – polymyalgic rheumatica, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, cervical spondylosis.  I take numerous prescriptions for these and my other diseases, including anti-inflammatories, muscle relaxants, and plain-old pain medications.  I take about 20+ different pills in the morning and a few less in the evening.  I live a life of routines I have developed to better cope with my friend, pain.  These include the hot bath in the morning, the stretching, massages every other week, and the meds.  

Nothing seems to relieve all the pain at once; one or two things help one or two pains for a short time. 

There is a fine line between drugged and over-drugged – I have crossed that line before.  In order to be truly comfortable, I must be drugged enough that I cannot stay awake; but this is no life.  So I suffer a little so that I can function a lot – not as much as most people, but more than is comfortable for me.  Again, I ask not for pity, but rather understanding.  So many are critical of the number and types of drugs that I take -- I know that they mean the best, but they do not understand what it is like to live in this body of mine, to walk on a foot that is both numb and screaming with pain at the same time.  Some think that the pain is all in my head, but I remember the broken ankle and the pain associated with that and know the truth.  I hurt all the time.  

47 Ronin

On Christmas Day, "47 Ronin" was a small gift.  A scrumptiously costumed piece set in feudal Japan, the movie was obviously a piece created out of love.  Based on the famous tale of 47 ronin, masterless samurai who are sworn not to take revenge for the death of their master, the fable came to life with magic and mayhem.  

Kai is a half-breed teenager who comes to the village of Arco after fleeing for his life from another world.  He is taken in by Master Asado, the samurai warrior who runs the village, and falls in love with Asado's daughter, Mika.  However, since he is not from the same culture, he can never be a true samurai and prove himself worthy of Mika's love.  Despite his skills with a sword, he winds up being sold off in slavery when Master Asado is killed using witchcraft by Kira, the rival lord from another village.  

The masterless samurai warriors are led by Oeshi, a long-time samurai who looked down upon Kai when he was a villager.  After he is punished for a year, Oeshi is expected to leave the village and his wife and son to live in infamy; however, instead he plots revenge upon Kira for his treacherous act against Master Asado and his upcoming wedding to fatherless Mika.  Oeshi seeks out Kai in his slavery, knowing that the young man loves Mika and will do anything for her.  Given his background with demons, Kai knows how to acquire weapons for the samurai and joins them to take their revenge.  

The movie is a jewel of a show, with beautiful scenery, gorgeous costumes, and elaborate fantasies in the beast, the demons, and the witch-dragon.  Since the scene is in the trailer, I can talk about the witch-dragon and how realistic its fight scene was, with its muscular snake body and its razor-sharp teeth.  The creature virtually swam through the air and danced with Keanu.  The other fight scenes are also well-done, with intricate sophistication and straightforward strength.  Keanu Reeves has created a tiny masterpiece, the revenge fantasy ending as it could only end, in love and blood. 

Obama's Affordable Care Act (ACA)

I live in Idaho, one of the many states whose governor is refusing to get on-board with the ACA and expand Medicaid so that my boyfriend can actually have health insurance.  I've two experiences with the process - the first trying to enroll my boyfriend and the second for myself.

It did not take very long to verify my boyfriend's application - as I mentioned, he would qualify for the expanded Medicaid if our governor allowed it, and there were several options available to him - if he had the money to purchase the plan.  Because of his (lack of) income and the lack of the Medicaid expansion, he is exempt from having to have a policy effective January 1st, so all is well with him, except he still has no coverage.

As for me, I am extremely fortunate.  Despite my disability, there are many plans now available to me.  I've hung onto my $1000-per-month insurance like a raggedy blanket, clutching it for dear life, afraid that I'd never qualify for anything again because of "preexisting conditions" - however, it appears with that gone, I can purchase a plan at half the cost I've been paying with supposedly the same coverage or close to it.  They also referred my application to the State's Medicaid plan to see whether I qualified through them as well - which I probably won't because I make too much money between my pension and SSDI.  I've taken a huge leap of faith and enrolled in the new coverage - paid for it, even -- and been reassured that by the end of the month, I'll have a new enrollment card.  I've spoken with the company three separate times and been reassured every time that, yes, I really have coverage.  We'll see come January 1st...

All in all, I found that the governmental site was rather easy to use and that the variety of plans was pretty reasonable.  I'm not sure if that's because Idaho's marketplace is better than other states or what.  Again, until I actually have an enrollment card in my cold little hands and start seeing how the insurance really pays, I am reserving judgment.  I also hung onto my dental coverage through my former employer to ensure that if this year is a complete bust, I can get my old policy back again, come next November.

Here's hoping that everyone else who've commented negatively find the process a little easier this month!