Stealing with Style

April 18, 2005
"What good luck!/ She has found his bones." So begins a litany of horrors from an Iraqi poet who witnessed Saddam's regime's atrocities firsthand. Mikhail, 40, works in Arabic, Chaldean and English, and had to flee Iraq in the years just before the current war; after a stint in Jordan, she now lives in Michigan, where the poems in the first section here were composed over the past few years. They are forceful and direct, with ironies that ring through their blunt admonishments: "Please don't ask me, America./ I don't remember their names/ or their birthplaces./ People are grass—/ they grow everywhere, America." In some, the speaker imagines life in wartime Iraq or writes in one of its many voices, including mythic ones ("I am Inanna," begins one in the Sumerian love goddess' voice, "[a}nd this is my city"). In others, she channels grief or anger, as in a bitter and beautiful set of "Non-Military Statements." The book's other two sections contain poems from the earlier collections Almost Music
(1997) and The Psalms of Absence
(1993) respectively; their coverage of the Gulf War makes clear just how much, for Iraqis, war has been a nightmarish way of life, with the U.S. playing a recurrent role. Stark and poignant, Mikhail's poems give voice to an often buried, glossed-over or spun grief.

April 1, 2005
Sterling Glasss, a small-town Virginia antiques appraiser, aficionado, and sleuth, discovers a fabulous Paul Storr silver tea urn amid the effects of a recently deceased bank client. Subsequent finds in thrift shops raise red flags. Then, during a New York trip, she meets an old man whose collection of rare, handmade dolls seems under attack by thieves. An insurance claim leads her to the root cause: a clever conspiracy to bilk families of their antiques treasures. This first novel in a debut series offers a fascinating look at the world of antiques -all the way from pickers to New York auction houses. Fans of other antiques mysteries (e.g., Sharon Fiffer's "Buried Stuff, "Deborah Morgan's "Marriage " "Casket") and collectors especially will enjoy the steady flow of facts. A longtime antiques appraiser and the author of numerous books on antiques ("Emyl Jenkins' Appraisal Book"), Jenkins lives in Richmond, VA.

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2005
Jenkins, a well-known antiques appraiser, puts her knowledge to excellent use in this elegant little mystery. Not surprisingly, the heroine is also an appraiser, Sterling Glass, who mostly spends her time examining heirlooms in the vicinity of her Virginia home. She pines for Peter Donaldson, a former minister now working at the local Goodwill, and it's through Peter that she learns that valuable antiques have been found hidden in items at the store. Her investigation into the Goodwill antiques coincides with other appraising business and takes her to New York, where heirlooms collide. A subplot set in Brooklyn and involving an old man who wants to preserve some treasured figurines adds a bit of Semitic spice. The glamorous backdrop of New York auction houses is enticing and the mystery intriguing. But it is really Sterling Glass herself who makes this so special. Hats off to a heroine of a certain age with plenty of smarts and a healthy longing for a gentleman caller. Add this sparkling series debut to other antique mysteries by Lea Wait, Sharon Sloan Fiffer, and, of course, Jonathan Gash.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)