Twaddle

False Mermaid: A Novel (Nora Gavin, #3)

2011-07-02T10:23:00.000-07:00

False Mermaid: A Novel by Erin Hart

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the third book in the series and we finally get the full story of Nora’s sister’s tragic death. Nora has long suspected her brother-in-law Peter Hallett as the vicious murderer, as has the lead detective, but Peter was too crafty to be caught. Now he intends to marry again and Nora is desperate to prevent any further tragedy both to his bride to be, and her young neice, Elizabeth. While Nora is certain that she loves Cormac McGuire, she cannot move further in that relationship until the murderer of her sister is brought to justice and her neice is safe.

Nora finds some clues her sister left hidden in a secret place they shared as children and she and the detective are convinced that the murder of her sister was not his first. Clues turn up in other places also and yet, they don’t lead all the way back to Peter Hallett, but Nora is sure he is the source of the evil.

In the meantime, Cormac McGuire has returned to an isolated village where his long-estranged father has been staying near Port na Rón. He meets Roz, a friend of his father’s and becomes interested in the mysterious disappearance of Mary Heaney who was reported to be a selkie who returned to the sea. While walking on the headlands, he finds the abandoned fishing hut where Mary was supposed to have lived and upon searching it, he finds a single shoe. Who runs away with only one shoe? Eventually, he and Nora are reunited and discover the truth of the old legend.

I really enjoyed this series and look forward to more books by this author.

View all my reviews

Lake of Sorrows (Nora Gavin, #2)

2011-06-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

Lake of Sorrows by Erin Hart

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book. The setting of Irish bogs is different from so many mysteries and adds a bit of interest because of the discoveries surrounding the prehistoric bog bodies found there. Forensic pathologist, Nora Gavin, has been asked to help with the discovery of another bog body who seems to have been killed in a prehistoric ritual “triple death.” When a more recent body turns up with the same “triple death” characteristics, the mystery widens. Is the ritual still being practiced?

-Archaeologist, Cormac MacGuire, is on the scene again too and he has the cottage where his mentor has lived when working on the bogs. Nora was invited to stay there and the two continue their relationship, but not without trials. Cormac knows that he loves Nora, but Nora is being pulled back to her home in the United States by the tragic and brutal death of her sister. When the identity of the second body is discovered, a cast of local characters are introduced and the link to their ancient roots is probed. As always, the colorful world of Irish music and dancing also adds to the feeling of the book

View all my reviews

The Chili Queen

2011-06-14T11:56:00.000-07:00

The Chili Queen by Sandra Dallas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved this book! It was engaging all the way through with a real twist at the end.. This is Sandra Dallas at her best. The characters seem alive with all their quirks and inconsistencies. At the end it is just pure fun. I also resonated with the names. I have relatives who are from What Cheer, Iowa and an Aunt Addie who lived here...hmmm and she was born in Jasper County! I felt like Sandra Dallas had looked at my genealogy;>)I have always been fascinated with the name. No one is exactly sure how it came to be called that for sure, but the stories are interesting.

The story is about a Madam, Addie French, who meets a plain, spinster woman, Emma Roby, a mail order bride, on the train. When the husband to be doesn't like what he sees, Emma ends up going to the "boarding house" of the only woman she knows...Addie. The woman is pitifully naive, but ends up getting in on a scheme with the bank robber boyfriend of Addie and proves that she is not as helpless as she appears. Along with that there is a scheme to defraud Emma's greedy brother of the portion of their inheritance that is rightfully hers. Everything is in place when the bank is robbed, the brother arrives, the swindle is on its way to fruition and then the fun begins. The reader looks at the number of pages left in the book and can only wonder what is going to fill all those pages. This is where the book ceases to be ordinary and is Sandra Dallas at her best. I thoroughly enjoyed this twisting and turning plot.

View all my reviews

Mid Year Evaluation

2011-06-12T17:03:00.000-07:00

It's a little early for the mid-year evaluation, but I have the time now and may not have it July 1. So far, I have read 91 books which is ahead of where I planned to be. I started with a list of 100 regular books (audio or print) and 25 classics that I wanted to read. Some were on the list because I have the books here at home and would like to read them and send them on their way to make room for more books. What has happened is that I keep reading books that are not on my list. At first, I kept expanding the list, but it is getting ridiculous. The list is found on Ravelry, a knitting group under the group 52 Books in 52 Weeks. The reason this is happening is that I am downloading audiobooks from my library and other free sites like LibriVox. If I a listening to a book then I can do many other things and thus get in reading time where no time existed. The problem is that a lot of books on my list aren't audiobooks.

I have finally started eliminating some of the books I planned to read in favor of books that I find through my audio sources. There are still some books that I won't take off my list, but others I can sacrifice like the whole Brother Cadfel series which, so far, I haven't found as audio books or on CD. It is almost time for me to leave for Virginia where I will have a whole new library system to hunt for books in and hopefully, many of these books will be found in audio format and I can save my book reading time for the books I want to read and find a new home for. I have really gotten addicted to doing something else while listening so that now it seems like wasting time if I am not doing two things at once...what a sorrowful statement! However, I have the cure! I am knitting while I am reading and can now feel virtuous again...not a sense is wasted. Arms are not danging useless at my sides, but are busy creating hats and baby blankets for charity and sweaters for my grandkids. I am on track again!

The next part of my resolution is also going well. I am writing a review of each book I read and transferring it to this blog. I did get a little behind in Goodreads, so I have a few books I have to go back a do a review for, but I am pretty near caught up. I see from my list of posts on this blog; however, that I have not transferred every review to this site. That is a pain in the neck because I have to go back and look through the list of book on Goodreads and see what I have missed. Right now I am trying to find a way to turn the Goodreads list into a spreadsheet so I can go over it quickly, but that may be just too much trouble. I'll see how much time I have this summer.

All in all, I am very pleased with my progress on the classics too. I have added a few to that list also, but I am on track and should make my goal. I wish I could say the same with my knitting and housework:>)

Haunted Ground: A Novel

2011-06-11T22:12:00.000-07:00

Haunted Ground: A Novel by Erin Hart

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was hard to get into at first, but I really enjoyed it. The reader is deposited right into the middle of the action and, while it gives a sense of immediacy, it is hard to figure out what it going on. The story is actually two mysteries in one...there is a red haired woman's head which is found deposited in the peat bog and a real woman and her child who have been missing for over two years. The plot is interwoven and switches between forensic and historical research on the bog body and dogged detective work in the contemporary case.

Once I got into the book, I could hardly put it down. In the investigation of the bog body, the archaeologist determine that the woman was beheaded and they find a probable date for the execution from an artifact. What is really intriguing is that they contact an elderly local historian for an understanding of what was going on in that locality at the time and then they turn to an elderly woman who has preserved hundreds of old ballads, many of which were composed about local historical events. When I read this I thought of how many of the old ballads I know of that talk about real events; ballads such as Tom Dooley, Geordie, the Long Black Rifle, The Ballad of Mary Hamilton, and Mattie Groves to name a few. In the book there is a pub where the detective, the archaeologist and others keep alive the old musical instruments and ballads which reminded me of the work of Francis James Child who collected 305 ballads and saved them for posterity.

View all my reviews

No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, #1)

2011-06-10T13:01:00.000-07:00

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love this book! I think I have read it 3 times. Every time a new one comes out, I go back and read them all again. I think that's because these books are not about plot, they are about relationships. Precious Ramotswe is a wonderful character and I would truly love to meet her. The books are beautifully written and remind me of Alan Patton's, Cry the Beloved Country. Both have captured the timelessness of Africa.

Precious Ramotswe solves problems for her clients, but the work of the agency is more like a vehicle to express the daily life and philosophy of an extraordinary woman. Her kindness and simple wisdom are a refreshing change from the hard-driving, iconoclastic female detectives that are so popular. I absolutely fell in love with her...even more so when I found some of the bush tea that makes up such a big part of her day. (It is actually delicious and I have been haunting the Internet to find more.) Do yourself a favor and sit down with a cup of tea and meet a new friend.

View all my reviews

The Charming Quirks of Others (Isabel Dalhousie, #7)

2011-06-08T11:39:00.001-07:00

The Charming Quirks of Others by Alexander McCall Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I always love any of Alexander McCall Smith's books and this was no exception. Isabel Dalhousie has been called upon to help find some information about three candidates for the job of headmaster of a local private school. It seems that the committee has received an anonymous letter stating that one of the candidates has a secret that might prove embarrassing to the school, but the person is not named. Isabel is to get background on the three men and determine if there is any truth to the letter.

At the same time, her relationship with Cat, always shaky, is finally on an even keel for a change. She has found a new man and, unbelievably, he is one of the candidates and is quite normal, which is saying something for Cat. I don't see that relationship continuing for that very reason.

Isabel and Jamie are working out their relationship and little insecurities come to the surface. I always hold my breath when they come up, but the two seem to weather each challenge. Along the way, Isabel deals with the questions of moral philosophy which make these books such a delight. As she investigates the three candidates for the headship, she covers ideas such as guilt, loyalty and sacrifice as well as some traits much darker.

View all my reviews

The Lost Art of Gratitude (Sunday Philosophy Club, #6)

2011-06-08T11:39:00.000-07:00

The Lost Art of Gratitude by Alexander McCall Smith

This is my favorite book of all Alexander McCall Smith's and it is for one huge reason...the poem at the end. While the book is very entertaining and Isabel has numerous situations which cause her to work through various moral dilemmas; her insecurities about Jamie, what to do with the obnoxious Professor Dove, and especially the possibly amoral Minty Auchterlonie, the book is always more about then people than the plot. Minty approaches Isabel to help her resolve two connected issues and Isabel reluctantly agrees to help, but finds herself being used by Minty to further her own schemes. Somehow, she manages to work good in the lives of the victims instead of the evil left from Minty.

Her niece, Cat, has found a new boyfriend and this is possibly the worst of all. He is a tightrope walker and stuntman and Jamie and Isabel can only shake their heads and get ready to hold up Cat when the end comes, as they pray that it will. I am always inspired by the way Isabel finds to see beyond Cat's thorniness and love her. I can almost see Cat 20 years in the future finally realizing that it was her aunt's abiding love which remained constant through the angst of her struggle for maturity.

All of this leads to the end of the book where Jamie puts to music one of the most moving poems I have read in ages.

What we lose, we think we lose forever,
But we are wrong about this, think of love –
Love is lost, we think it gone,
But it returns, often when least expected,
Forgives us our lack of attention, our failure of
Our cold indifference; forgives us all of this, and more;
Returns and says, “I was always there.”
Love, at our shoulder, whispers: Merely remember me,
Don’t think I’ve gone away for ever:
I am still here. With you. My power undimmed.
See. I am here.”

I was listening to the audio book and I could just hear God at my shoulder saying those words and I found myself playing them over and over. I read that the handwritten poem was sold at a charity auction and felt that if I had a lot of money, I surely would have bid on it, even to the point of sacrifice.
View all my reviews

Hiss of Death (Mrs. Murphy, #19

2011-06-06T11:25:00.000-07:00

Hiss of Death by Rita Mae Brown

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was a little disappointing. There were so many medical warnings that I felt like I was being preached at through most of the book. It became very tiresome. I think it is fine to slip in that the main character is going for a yearly check up or that another has been told by his doctor to lead a healthier life style, but it was everywhere you turned in this book and got in the way of the story. The mystery also didn't take center place. I never felt as if it developed because there were so many side stories. I haven't read any of Rita Mae Brown's book for quite a while and this may be why.

There are two murders which take place in the book and they are only loosely connected. The reason for the murders has to be spelled out by the murderer who spills his/her guts in the last few pages telling every little detail without benefit of lawyer or common sense. Those reasons were not a serious enough threat, I thought, to motivate any but the most paranoid and the murderer was not portrayed as any kind of extremist throughout the book. Sorry, but this is just the way this book struck me. I know the author has written many other books which are a lot better than this one.

View all my reviews

Duplicate Keys

2011-06-05T18:33:00.001-07:00

Duplicate Keys by Jane Smiley
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book was a disappointment to me. I disliked all the characters and the naive, blissfully unaware, Alice was too stupid to be a librarian, much less a friend. Non of the characters were well developed and their lives were pitiful.

The plot was about some friends in their 30's who had come through the hippie commune era and were living in New York. The band had had a hit record, but had done nothing much since. They seemed on the border of going some place, but never quite made it. The story begins with Alice, the narrator, entering Susan and Dennis' apartment to find Dennis and his adopted brother, Craig, murdered. Apparently everyone and their brother had keys to this apartment. Because of the murder and the suspicion surrounding it, the group unravels and a lot of hidden things become apparent.

There is some suspense as the book draws to a close and I felt compelled to find out why the two men were murdered even though it is apparent who did it about midway. There were some good points made in the book and insight into people's lives, but at times I felt like I was reading an essay rather than reading a book with a plot. I like Jane Smiley's writing, but and I felt like she had something to say here, but the burden of it was too great to place on Alice's shoulders.

View all my reviews

New Mercies

2011-06-03T13:34:00.000-07:00

New Mercies by Sandra Dallas

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the whole, I liked it. There were good characters and an interesting plot. Nora Bondurant Tate is recovering from her divorce and finds that she has inherited a crumbling antebellum house from a aunt that she didn't know she had. Nora knew little about her father and had no idea that he was from an old Natches, MS family. Even more incredible was the fact that her aunt was murdered by an old lover who committed suicide after he shot her. Her aunt was known affectionately as "the goat lady" because of the goats she raised and the milk she sold. She lived with 2 family servants in the crumbling house, the apparent last remnant of a proud old family.

I love most of Sandra Dallas' work and I think she does a great job of creating believable characters, but these people seemed to be wooden much of the time. I have Mississippi roots and family that still live there and I found some of the sayings and customs wonderful reminders, but others just weren't right. People who held certain opinions did not do certain things. It's hard to put this and not spoil the plot, but I will try. First, the book takes place in the 30's but many of the attitudes towards blacks did not ring true at all. Many of her white characters hold attitudes that just were not prevalent during that time. I also found it hard to remember that it was the 30's the book was about because certain figures of speech from the present day intruded. I guess what I am saying is that Sandra Dallas knows the Colorado mining culture and writes beautifully about it. She also knows the Persian Pickle culture. I don't believe she knows the Southern culture and was writing out of her element, making her characters less alive than in her other books.

With that being said, it is still an enjoyable book and holds together despite the above mentioned difficulties. I developed a real fondness for Nora's aunt and wished there had been more information on her. Nora is an engaging character and the only flaw I find in her is her lack of understanding of her husband and its consequenceses and the way it is handled in the book. There is too big a jump from his death and her actions in Natches. This is one time when I believe the character has more emotional baggage than the author allows her to show.

View all my reviews

Spanish Dagger (China Bayles Mystery, Book 15)

2011-06-01T12:56:00.000-07:00

Spanish Dagger by Susan Wittig Albert

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When China finds a body while looking for some Yucca, or Spanish Dagger, she knows she has the unpleasant task of breaking the news to her good friend and business partner, Ruby. She is doubly reluctant because Ruby is dealing with her mother, who is difficult at best, and is now suffering from dementia and even more quarrelsome. There has always been a mystery about Colin and now China feels that he is not what he appeared to be and has been living a double life. When another body is found, the situation is even more complicated. People are not who they appear to be and seemingly nice people are involved in the most unexpected things.

This mystery was pretty fast paced and entertaining. There was plenty of suspense and the conclusion was neat and believable, however sad it was. As always, the author's comments about various herbs and recipes enhance the book.

View all my reviews

Daniel

2011-05-31T14:58:00.000-07:00

Daniel by Henning Mankell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is extremely poignant and compelling as well as being unsettling. It is the story of a strange Swede, Hans Bengler, who goes to Africa to find an unknown species of insect to name after himself. He ends up finding an orphaned black boy about 8 years old whom he brings back to Sweden. He feels that he can give him a better life even though the trader where he found the boy tells him he will only destroy the boy.

Hans uses Daniel in part of a carnival type lecture series to get people to come in and listen to his lecture on insects. Non of the people involved consider Daniel or his needs. Daniel, on the other hand, longs for his home in the desert and sees, in his mind, his parents who were killed by white men. He meets with people who stare at him, pet him and sometimes regard his as the devil, but no one thinks of him as a real person. Daniel has been trained to say, "My name is Daniel. I believe in God" as a formula, but in his own mind, the voices of his parents are growing stronger and stronger. He hears of Jesus, who walked on water, and he is determined to learn to walk on water in order to go home.

The book calls into question the recent adoptions of young children whose culture is so different from the one they are adopted into, especially children older than 3-4. There are a lot of cultural implications that may not be being considered.
View all my reviews

The Lost World

2011-05-28T13:23:00.001-07:00

The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is as fresh as it was in the Victorian days in which it was written. A young journalist attends a lecture in which the claims of an naturalist and explorer to have discovered a land where prehistoric animals still exist is roundly scoffed at. A challenge is proposed by the bombastic professor and the scoffer can not refuse to test the claims by joining an expedition. The young journalist and an aristocratic adventurer also join and the four men with their bearers head for the remote area in Africa where the supposed sighting occurred. It does not take long for the party to realize that the professor was speaking the truth. Beyond them lies a huge plateau cut off from the world from which prehistoric birds fly. The men are able to get to the plateau, but when their exit is cut off, they find themselves learning much more about this strange land than they intended to.

I enjoyed this book tremendously. This is not the genre I prefer, but this was told so well and the suspense was so great, I found myself staying up late just to finish. There is little wonder while it is considered a classic today.

View all my reviews

The Lost World

2011-05-28T13:23:00.000-07:00

Buster Midnight's Cafe

2011-05-27T20:57:00.000-07:00

Buster Midnight's Cafe by Sandra Dallas

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I have mixed feelings about this book. I have read three other books by Sandra Dallas and I really loved them, but this one seems a little contrived. The characters are more caricatures, and from the wrong part of the country. I could easily believe that May Anna, Effa Commander and Whippy Bird came from a small town in Texas rather than Montana. The names, grammar and some of the actions seem more like the deep South. On the other hand, the fact that May Anna's mother has "gentlemen callers" and May Anna quits high school to become a hooker, and this is accepted by the circle of friends is really bizarre. That could happen, but not in the way it is portrayed in this book. Parts of it just don't ring true. I found it hard to relate to the characters and their attitudes. The author actually seems to glamorize the "sex trade" in a way that is not realistic, and I can hardly see Hollywood accepting this background for a major star as a simple matter of choice.

Still, there is a lot about the story that is interesting. The characters do get better as the book goes on and the way their lives turn out is not completely predictable. I don't know...I just can't put my finger on what is wrong with this book, but it just didn't ring true to me and nothing in me resonated with it. Her other books are MUCH better.

View all my reviews

The Persian Pickle Club

2011-05-25T21:21:00.000-07:00

The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have become very fond of these books by Sandra Dallas. This was one of her best. It involves a quilting circle in a small Kansas town during the depression. As the women meet together to quilt and discuss the details of their lives, they become so bonded to one another that they are able to share intense secrets almost as one person.

Into this mix comes the son and brother of two of the members and his new wife, Rita. Tom has gone to college in Denver and he and his young wife intended to continue to live in the city until unemployment and the need of his family force him back to the farm. His wife has her heart set on becoming a reporter and life in the small Kansas town is difficult even though she is welcomed into the Persian Pickle Club by virtue of the membership of her mother-in-law and sister-in-law. When bones are dug up in a local field, she attacks the mystery as an investigative reporter, not understanding the ways of these rural people.

There is enough tension in the book to make it not just another sewing/knitting circle book. The characters are well drawn and compelling. There is also a great variety in the characters in the group which provides an interesting mix. I will be reading all of Sandra Dallas' books.
View all my reviews

The Man Who Knew Too Much

2011-05-21T21:57:00.001-07:00

The Man Who Knew Too Much by G.K. Chesterton

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was harder to read than most of Chesterton's work. His sleuth, Horne Fisher, is not as compelling as Father Brown and most of the mysteries are very short and end without the lawbreakers being brought to justice formally, although in many cases, justice ends up being served anyway.

The other problem I had with the book was the amount of British politics in it. Since I don't recognize the titles for various political offices, it was often hard to get an understanding of the issues. That being said, the stories did make sense and the solutions of the mystery were amazingly clever, especially the one about Prince Michael and the tower.

As usual, Chesterton writes beautifully and has such a wonderful power of description that most of the characters became very real with the exception of Horne Fisher. For most of the stories, he is more of an observer, so the lack of personal details makes some sense, but I would have liked it more if he had been better drawn.
View all my reviews

2011-05-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It has been years since I have read this. I was looking for a book to use for homeschool for my 9 year old granddaughter and I thought this might be what I was looking for. The interest level is right and it has the kind of challenging vocabulary and sentence length found in most classics. I knew that the book differed some from the movie, but I couldn't remember how much. While there are a number of story lines not developed in the movie, it does follow the book fairly well.

This is simply a wonderful tale and every child should read it. It is not only a fun story, but there is a spirit of empowerment that runs all the way through. Whatever our intrepid four need to do, they "gird up their loins" and do it. Without being preachy, the book conveys the idea of meeting challenges step by step, loyalty, courage, integrity and friendship. Baum's imagination was so rich and creative that even adults will find this enjoyable.

I read, years ago, that the head librarian of the New York Public Library was totally against this book when it was first published and did everything she could to convey the idea that it was not literature and shouldn't be found in libraries. Fortunately, children and adults had more sense and the book has been popular ever since it was written.

View all my reviews

The Cincinnati Red Stalkings

2011-05-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

The Cincinnati Red Stalkings by Troy Soos

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Troy Soos writes a great story for baseball fans, of which I am one. I love the stories about the earlier days of baseball when the salaries weren't so high and players weren't so removed from the fans. This mystery takes place in 1921, the year that the Chicago "Black Socks" were supposed to have thrown the world series. I had always heard about it and felt that Shoeless Joe Jackson got a raw deal, but I never understood all the mysteries surrounding the scandal. While that isn't the the major theme in this book, a great deal of information is given, especially about the extreme actions of the Commissioner of Baseball and the feelings of the fans.

I also enjoyed the cameo appearances of Eppa Rixey who was from Rixeyville, just up the road from where I lived in Virginia. I had heard about him and saw a plaque dedicated to him, but never had any other information. Troy Soos fleshes out his character and gives some details about a few games he played in.

This book centers around the murder of a man who was gathering memorabilia from the earliest players and games. It is how the Baseball Hall of Fame must have started. Unfortunately, this young man was murdered and Mickey Rawlings is determined to find out how and why after his own house is broken into. Mickey was given some of the material that wasn't going to end up in the museum and he figures that the killer did not get the thing he sought when he broke into the museum.

View all my reviews

Death of the other self

2011-05-15T18:03:00.001-07:00

Death of the other self by Peter Packer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this a long time ago and was fascinated with it. The story is about identical twins, Todd and Tim Nicholson, heirs to the Pullman fortune. The boys were brought up by two seemingly totally self centered parents and were left to raise themselves. They were so close that they seemed as one person. In fact, their mother gave up trying to tell them apart and called each one Tim/Todd. This is really sad because you could tell them apart fairly easily. Tim was left-handed and like many identical twins, his hair grew in the opposite direction from his brother's. I just looked through the photos in the book and got them correct each time. In some photos, both boys hair is combed the same way, but one of the twin's hair flops over the forehead because the part is on the wrong side from the way the hair grows naturally. It seemed like the ultimate neglect for the parents to not make an effort to call them by their right names when just a little attention would give them their individuality.

The boys were uncontrollable and even spent some time at a military school at a very early age because no one could make them behave or stop fighting. This competition and fighting kept up their whole lives, but they were also so close they could not stand to be separated. They were all each other had.

As time went on, this uncontrolled nature began to be serious, especially for Todd. According to the book, he went into incredible rages and often targeted anyone around, but especially, Tim. Ultimately it was in one of those rages that Todd was shot by his brother. The defense claimed that it was self-defense even though two shots were fired and I believe it happened the way Tim said it did. It doesn't actually matter if Tim seemed to have gotten off lightly; for someone who has had only one person in his life to love and count on, jail could not have been worse than living without his brother.

I felt like this was a story about what happens to children who are spoiled and yet neglected, undisciplined and left without responsible role models. These boys raised themselves and because they were not getting the attention they needed from either of their parents, they were in constant competition. The same brother who was the only one to love and be loved by was also the major competitor for the drips and dregs of his parents attention. This was a fascinating story.

View all my reviews

2011-05-11T18:32:00.001-07:00

Murder at a Vineyard Mansion by Philip R. Craig

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book and it kept my attention, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. The main character, JW Jackson, a former Boston detective, loves his family and life on Martha's Vineyard. When he is asked by the female version of and "old curmudgeon" to investigate a murder, JW finds himself investigating some of the old line aristocracy of the island whose lives are intertwined. At the same time, there is a different kind of criminal...kind of a high tech Robin Hood on the island. This Robin Hood robs from the loud and gives peace and quiet to the multitude. He has found a way to electronically silence the loud car speakers and stereo systems so that they can never break ear drums again. Do we really want to see this guy caught and stopped? He sounds like a public benefactor to me, but JW makes the point that he might decide that Mozart needed to go also and that wouldn't sit too well. This is a good easy read.
View all my reviews

2011-05-11T18:32:00.000-07:00

Murder at a Vineyard Mansion by Philip R. Craig

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book and it kept my attention, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. The main character, JW Jackson, a former Boston detective, loves his family and life on Martha's Vineyard. When he is asked by the female version of and "old curmudgeon" to investigate a murder, JW finds himself investigation some of the old line aristocracy of the island whose lives are intertwined. At the same time, there is a different kind of criminal...kind of a high tech Robin Hood on the island. This Robin Hood robs from the loud and gives peace and quiet to the multitude. He has found a way to electronically silence the loud car speakers and stereo systems electronically so that they can never break ear drums again. Do we really want to see this guy caught and stopped? He sounds like a public benefactor to me, but JW makes the point that he might decide that Mozart needed to go also and that wouldn't sit too well. This is a good easy read.
View all my reviews

Infamous Lady: The True Story of Countess Erzsébet Báthory

2011-05-10T21:46:00.000-07:00

Infamous Lady: The True Story of Countess Erzsébet Báthory by Kimberly L. Craft

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was incredibly interesting. It took me a while to read it because of the subject, but I am glad that I read it. Countess Erzsebet Bathory was a wealthy woman from Hungary who murdered countless young woman brutally. Using her position, she brought in somewhere around 300 girls from about 10-14 and brutalized them until they died.

The book style is a little hard to get into because it is a compilation of actual records, testimonies, and documents. She was aided by 5 of her servants, four of whom were active participants and one who was ordered to torture the girls or be tortured herself. No one is exactly sure how many girls died, but even if the estimate is low, she is still one of the worst serial killers in history and the only woman to have killed so many.

I was interested in the book because it seems almost impossible for someone to have done this and I wanted some confirmation before I accepted it as true and this book has done that. Like The Nazi Doctors, this was hard to read, but important in understanding what makes people behave like this and what a human being is capable of.
View all my reviews

The Wise Woman

2011-05-10T20:55:00.000-07:00

The Wise Woman by George MacDonald

George MacDonald is one of my favorite authors. I love his imagination and his ability to tell a story that feels like a folk tale which has come down through the ages.

This tale is about two little girls, one a spoiled princess, and one a vain and selfish shepherdess. The Wise Woman steals them from their homes and attempts to teach them what their neglectful parents have not. While some would call the tale moralizing, it is totally appropriate for today's parents and children. Just about every time I go to a store like WalMart, I see badly behaved children and I feel like it is just as much abuse to allow them to grow up to be obnoxious teens and adults as it is to beat them, and unfortunately, may be even worse.

The Wise Woman attempts to teach the girls by putting them in situations we would call behavior management or conditioning. She is really quite clever, but the reader is never certain if the girls can be changed. My favorite part of the book came at the end when she had a few things to say to the parents of these girls. She makes certain that they understand that they have neglected their responsibility as parents:>)

View all my reviews

The Children's Blizzard

2011-05-07T12:32:00.000-07:00

The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is similar to The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea. It tells of a freak blizzard that hit the northern plains states in 1888. Scores of immigrants had sold everything and come to the rich lands of the American prairie only to find that the harsh climate could destroy those dreams in a day. The blizzard was called "the children's blizzard" because it struct about the time that children were going or returning from school. The weather bureau was in its infancy and the politics of the government agency and the conflicting claims of the railroad made it difficult to get what little warning there was out to the people. Actually, while there were problems with the weather bureau, this storm was so huge, so freakish and moving so rapidly that it was probably unpredictable with the weather instruments of the day and impossible to get word to the people on the prairie who had no phones or radios. This storm stands out like the 1935 hurricane in the Florida Keys and the Galveston hurricane of 1909 and the perfect storm of 1991...perfect, but sinister storms where every variable added more fuel to the raging tempests.

I remember a storm a little like this from my childhood in St. Louis. The weather of the morning of the storm was very mild and, like the children in the book, we went to school without boots, gloves or even hats. Out of nowhere came an incredible drop in temperature...in the case of the 1888 storm of even 30 degrees in less than half an hour. In our case, traffic came to a standstill and our buses couldn't run. We were kept at school for hours and hours watching the snow build and wondering if someone could come and get us. The nuns played games with us and allowed us to slide on the hall floors, something totally forbidden, in order to keep us from panicking, but the snow continued to rage. Finally a neighbor walked home from his work and then walked the 2 miles to the school bringing winter hats, boots and mittens for us and we set out for home. I will always be grateful for those wonderful nuns whose faith and good nature made our wait more of an adventure than anxiety. I remember standing at the window, realizing that it was possible than no one could get through and I remember one of the nuns calling us to slide on the perfectly waxed floors and making a game of who could slide the furthest. The incredible novelty of being encouraged to break such a hard fast rule made me leave my fears at the window and revel in such an unexpected pleasure.

The teachers and students of 1888 didn't have paved roads lined with houses to follow as we did. Teachers faced the decision to keep the children at school and hope their firewood held out or was enough to keep them freezing in temperatures of -30 degrees, or to lead them home as quickly as possible. In some cases, the decision didn't matter. They were doomed no matter what they chose. In other cases, some children miraculously were found alive where they seemingly had little chance of making it and others were found dead all huddled together on the bare prairie.

It wasn't just children. Farmers got lost going to the barn and froze to death just feet from their homes. Cattle froze standing up and toppled over when it began to thaw. Some communities lost dozens of members and some families lost almost all their children in just one day. Little decisions, easily made, spelled life or death.

I would recommend this book to everyone. It is a glimpse into the tremendous power of nature an a reminder that no matter how advanced we become, we can never control nature. It is also an excellent glimpse into the life of early immigrants and the prairie they lost so much to tame.
View all my reviews

The Art of Detection (Kate Martinelli, #5)

2011-05-06T15:21:00.000-07:00

The Art of Detection by Laurie R. King

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I don't know how it happened, but I have read two books in a row in which the gay/lesbian secondary theme in the book has been heavy handed and off putting. I am getting very tired of it. The detective, Kate Martinelli has her perfect little lesbian family with her partner's all too perfect and wise 3 year old child. About half the book is devoted to these side issues and, predictably, all the gays are wonderful, misunderstood, and discriminated against and the rest of the characters are either wildly supportive of their lifestyle or complete jerks. There is preaching, dogmatism and intolerance on the alternative lifestyle proponents that is every bit as nauseating as the morality plays of the past. Kate has an attitude that is every bit as prejudiced, bigoted and sanctimonious as the people she demeans. Please, authors, give it a rest!! This has nothing to do with a fairly decent mystery so why include it?

The setting involves a group of people who are Sherlock Holmes aficionados and the murder of one of their members. When his body is found in a gun emplacement on the Marin headlands Kate and her partner, Al Hawkins, believe the murder has been committed elsewhere and the body has been staged. They trace the murder victim to his home which is awesome as well as eerie. On the bottom two floors, the house is a replica of a San Francisco home at the time of Sherlock Holmes even down to the gas lights and heat. On the third floor, where Philip Gilbert mainly lives, he has a computer, security system with a nanny camera and even an elevator, but the rest of the house allows him to immerse himself in the life and times of Sherlock Holmes.

The crux of the story involves a newly found manuscript supposedly written by Arthur Conan Doyle while he was visiting San Francisco and it involves a complicated murder which was similar to the staging of Philip Gilbert's murder. The detective work is quite good and the solution is interesting and plausible. The addition of all the Sherlock Holmes information makes the book work slogging through despite all the gay/lesbian posturing.
View all my reviews

Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter (Dixie Hemingway Mystery #1)

2011-05-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter by Blaize Clement

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I wasn't as fond of this book as I thought I might be. The plot is simple and fits the cozy mystery genre, but I got tired of all of the posturing the author does throughout the book. Dixie was a Sarasota Sheriff's Deputy until her husband and daughter were killed and she became emotionally unstable. She gets embroiled in an investigation when one of the cats she cares for is found cowering in a corner and a man is found duck taped to the cat's water bowl. Dixie has an uneasy feeling about the whole set-up and she has a hard time explaining to Lieutenant Guidry what is going on.

The part I got very tired of was Dixie's gay brother, Michael and his partner. It is very heavy handed to make all the gay people incredibly handsome, mature and wise and the people who are uneasy about the relationship stupid, intolerant and homophobic. Enough, all ready! This is exactly like the old morality plays except the roles have been reversed and the PC proponents are just as prejudiced and sanctimonious as the people they vilify. Wouldn't it be better to just treat people, gay and straight, as simply people, sometimes bigoted and sometimes wonderful, sometimes handsome, sometimes plain etc.? Isn't that what being inclusive is all about. Just because you are gay doesn't make you handsome, wise and charming and everyone else jerks.
View all my reviews

The Tale of Hawthorn House (The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, #4)

2011-04-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

The Tale of Hawthorn House by Susan Wittig Albert

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fairies take center stage in this book also and we get to know them even better as they interact with the “big people.” During the village fete, a baby is deposited on Beatrix Potter’s doorstep with a sprig of hawthorn on it. Beatrix would love to care for it herself, but the care of her demanding parents and her work as an author seem to make it impossible. Still, she lives with regret, which is made even more poignant, by her work as a children’s author and her instinctive understanding of them and the magical world they inhabit.

Keeping the baby is no problem for her friend, Dimity though. All thoughts of having children seem to have gone from Dimity’s life with the marriage of the Boer War hero from the last book. Dimity has loved him all her life and she has never married, content to keep house for her brother and make herself respected and useful in the village.
But where did the baby come from? The only clue is the hawthorn sprig tucked in with the baby. It apparently has come from Hawthorn Manor, an unfortunate old mansion cursed by the spirits in the Hawthorn trees ruthlessly chopped down to improve the view of the lake. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the trees had been informed and treated with reverence. Part of the curse put on the house is that no babies will fill its walls. An old crone was seen running to Beatrix’s house with a bundle and many of the villagers think she was the spirit of the hawthorns or a fairy in disguise.

This book was especially good, I thought. There was a little more of a mystery in this one and it took some research and more active sleuthing on the part of Beatrix to solve. The development of the children is richer in this book also and they are becoming characters with a following as well as Beatrix and her friends.
View all my reviews

The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood (The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, #3)

2011-04-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood by Susan Wittig Albert

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In this third book of the series, the local children are attempting to get the fairies to help them and they find a true believer in Beatrix Potter. Susan Wittig Albert writes about fairies with the same mix of awe, reverence and fear that Tolkien does. The quest for the fairies help and the plight of the children is by far, the most important thread in the book. We are led into a world where fairies do get involved with the life of the “big people,” but they can never be taken for granted or controlled. They come and go as they please and are only visible to the young at heart.

In contrast, the “big people” are embroiled in their own problems and most don’t see how fairies could possible be a part of them. The local Boer war hero, has returned dreadfully wounded, but with a new bride who sets the village’s teeth on edge. What in the world could he be thinking of? She is totally inappropriate for village life and she isn’t even nice. To add to it, there is something suspicious in her relationship to a new man who appears to be a relative of the vicar’s and has come to stay, and stay, and stay.

One of the things I like about this series is that it follows the life of Beatrix Potter and weaves known attitudes and events into a beautifully crafted historical and yet fanciful--- tale. It is a wonderful series to curl up with on a rainy day and enjoy to the fullest. There is just enough mystery to keep you engaged while you enjoy life in a kinder and gentler time.
View all my reviews

The Tale of Holly How (The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, #2)

2011-04-26T13:41:00.000-07:00

The Tale of Holly How by Susan Wittig Albert

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In this second tale of life in the village, Bearix Potter is beginning to fit in better because of her kind manner and quiet ways. The villagers don’t know what to make of her determination to run her farm by herself though, but they like the fact that she is attempting to build up a herd of local sheep which are in danger of dying out. When she goes to look over some sheep she has bought, she finds the body of the elderly shepherd and it appears that he has been murdered.

At the same time, she is struggling to build an addition to her farm so that she can keep on the family who have worked the farm for so long and yet give her the privacy of her own home. Working with the local builder is a daunting task, but Beatrix is proving to be tougher than she looks.

In the village a crisis has arisen when the job of head teacher is vacant and the hiring of a new head is suddenly called into question. Everyone favors the primary teacher, but the lady of the manor has suddenly brought in a new candidate with much better credentials. Something seems wrong about him though and it is not just his credentials. The Lady’s personal assistant seems to be wielding more and more power and things just smell funny to Beatrix.

This is a delightful book to just sit back and read or, even better, listen to as an audiobook. The people are engaging and the animals keep up enough chatter to push the plot ahead and sometimes get through to their owners.

View all my reviews

The Tale of Hill Top Farm (The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, #1

2011-04-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

The Tale of Hill Top Farm by Susan Wittig Albert

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a delightful tale based loosely on the life of Beatrix Potter while she was staying on a village farm in the lakes district which she bought with the proceeds of her books. It is a combination of the Miss Read tales with The First Ladies Detective Agency books. There is a mystery here, but it is secondary to the goings on of the village. This is especially charming because the village animals and Ms Potter's pets also talk to each other to move the plot along and provide commentary.

In her description of village life, I could hear the echoes of Miss Read as she describes the little puzzles of life in Thrush Green. Many of these seem like mysteries because the reader is unsure of how the problems can be resolved in a way that is good for all the people involved.

This is definitely a cozy mystery and a comfort book, wonderful to read when you are tired of the complexity of your life and the plights or our modern world. The book is a far cry from Osama bin Laden and the Japanese earthquake and will definitely recharge your batteries.
View all my reviews

Folly

2011-04-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

Folly by Laurie R. King

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is a very compelling look at madness and healing. I found it different from anything else I have read by Laurie R. King. The main character is a woman, Rae Newborn, in her 50's, who has been subject to severe depression and several suicide attempts, and who has come to a deserted island in the Juan de Fuga straits. She was attempting to reconstruct the house left by her mysterious Great Uncle Desmond. The house burned and Desmond disappeared many years before and for some reason, she has an odd connection to both the house and her Uncle Desmond. Rae had been a successful artist whose worked with wood brought her fame and wealth, but after the tragic death of her husband and small daughter, and the madness it drove her to, has turned to building as a form of healing and finding herself again.

The most interesting aspect of this book is the intersection between paranoid madness and the possibility of actual physical danger from a real person who is stalking and intent on killing her. Rae struggles to differentiate between the two and to heal herself by reacting appropriately to the very real danger she is in.

Laurie R. King's skill at creating characters is never stronger than in this novel. The complexities of Rae, her daughter Tamara, and their relationship is the best of all her books. In Rae, she has given a window into madness and the struggle to reach beyond the chaotic thoughts of the insane to sanity. I have a relative who is mentally ill and I found real insight into the self-destructive impulses that can not be controlled despite a true desire to be sane.

View all my reviews

2011-04-21T10:48:00.001-07:00

Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this book while I was visiting in Mississippi about 60 miles from Holly Springs. I was there for a funeral and I experienced so many of the things mentioned in the book. Some have criticized it because of the number of questions that were answered in seemingly miraculous ways, but when you visit a place after a number of years, word gets around and people come to visit and talk and many of the mysteries of your childhood are explained or understood. We know that God does act in human events and just because the time in this book is telescoped, does not make the events outside possibility.

Father Tim began his journey because of a cryptic note that told him to "come home." Sensing that there is something important in the request, he takes his dog and heads South. He visits a hardware store and meets people there who catapult him into his boyhood. Word is spread that he is visiting and old friends and enemies contact him. Some of the information he receives is very difficult for him to hear, but he accepts what he hears as something that God wants him to know and act on.

This is a good story with enough mystery to keep the reader wondering, but it is also inspirational. As Father Tim learns things about his past, he has to change his view of many people he knew and to be both forgiving and forgiven. The courage that he exhibits is an inspiration and a reminder that we are not put on this earth for our own happiness, but to do the will of the One who sent us.

I was amazed to find that Jan Karon was not from Mississippi. She has managed to capture the language and customs of the Deep South with amazing accuracy. I was especially pleased when she added a little known custom of asking the person you are visiting to “come along with me.” To me that has always meant that you were having such a good time visiting that even though you had to go, you wanted the person to go with you and continue the visit.

View all my reviews

Mansfield Park

2011-04-19T09:34:00.000-07:00

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have to admit that this is my least favorite of Jane Austen's novels. Her character, Fanny Price, is just a little too humble and nice. I think everyone would like her better if she just got angry with the way she was treated from time to time. She was a niece of her mother's sister who was taken in by the family when she was about 11. Her own mother did not marry well and the poverty of her home and the large number of siblings prompt her Aunt Norris to suggest to her sister that Fanny come to live at Mansfield Park. Fanny begins her life with the four Bertram cousins, and while she is educated, she lives a life of a half-servant, waiting on her Aunt Bertram.

As the novel progresses, we see the superficiality of her cousins and their parents as well as the interfering hypocrisy of her Aunt Norris. Sir Thomas has made his wealth by dealing in slavery, his wife is so indolent and self-absorbed that she neglects her children and does not seem at all interested in developing their character, which leads to disastrous consequences as the book progresses. As with most of Jane Austen's books, the main focus of the book is marrying someone wealthy.

Fanny somehow has managed to have a deep moral sense and spirit of humility and stands in contrast to her cousins. The only one whom she has a relationship is her cousin, Edmond, the youngest son. His desire is to take Holy Orders and, unlike most wealthy young men of his class, does it from a true desire to minister to the people he is called to serve.

Into this mix come a brother and sister who are visiting the local Vicar. While they are superficially charming, they are extremely shallow and amoral. Edmond falls in love with Mary and while she tells him that she will never be a clergyman's wife as there is no prestige or income, she flirts with him outrageously and tries to change his position. Her brother is very attached to the two older sisters, but eventually decides to flirt with Fanny to amuse himself and ends up falling in love with her.

I have to admit that this is my least favorite of Jane Austen's novels. Her character, Fanny Price, is just a little too humble and nice. I think everyone would like her better if she just got angry with the way she was treated from time to time. She was a niece of her mother's sister who was taken in by the family when she was about 11. Her own mother did not marry well and the poverty of her home and the large number of siblings prompt her Aunt Norris to suggest to her sister that Fanny come to live at Mansfield Park. Fanny begins her life with the four Bertram cousins, and while she is educated, she lives a life of a half-servant, waiting on her Aunt Bertram.

As the novel progresses, we see the superficiality of her cousins and their parents as well as the interfering hypocrisy of her Aunt Norris. Sir Thomas has made his wealth by dealing in slavery, his wife is so indolent and self-absorbed that she neglects her children and does not seem at all interested in developing their character, which leads to disastrous consequences as the book progresses. As with most of Jane Austen's books, the main focus of the book is marrying someone wealthy.

My objections to the book are that it sags in the middle under the weight of too many examples of the superficial details of the main characters lives. Fanny is appalled at their behavior and that redeems her, not because she is a prig, but because she stands alone against overwhelming derision. Her own background in her parents home is chaotic at best and she could hardly have learned such virtues there or at Mansfield Park. I think it is this strength of character that keeps her from being a simple character in a morality play. While this is a harder book to read that any of Austen's other works, it is still filled with the kinds of things we expect from her works.

View all my reviews

The Cold Dish (Walt Longmire, #1

2011-04-18T21:11:00.000-07:00

The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I listened to this book in my GPS on the way home from Mississippi. This is a new experience, but it worked very well. The book was fairly well written although it dragged a bit in the middle. One thing I objected to was the language. When you are reading a book, you can skip over it, but in an audiobook, especially in the car, you are forced to just sit there and be assaulted.

The story begins with the murder of a boy who was the ring-leader of a group of 4 boys who raped and abused a Native American girl who suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome. They received very light sentences and two of the boys showed very little remorse. Someone has murdered the most obnoxious boy and there is a strong feeling that the murder has taken justice into his/her own hands. When another boy is killed, the sheriff is desperate to protect the two remaining boys.

The book is interesting, but there are some supernatural scenes which become tedious. The ending also could have been foreshadowed or at least some groundwork done to make it fit the book better.

View all my reviews

2011-04-17T12:43:00.000-07:00

The Body Snatcher and Other Tales by Robert Louis Stevenson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a collection of three very different short stories by Robert Lewis Stevenson. The first is a story about medical students and the grim work of the resurrectionists. It is set in the 1800's in Scotland and involves the action of young medical students and their secret work of digging up fresh graves to provide corpses for dissection. The very action of learning often compromises their own morality when the cause of death is suspiciously opportune and the identity of the corpse is known. It reminds me of Burk and Hare trials in 19th century and I think it has been the basis for several movies.

The second tale is completely different and reminds me of something out of Grims' Fairy Tales. It deals with the greed of an old woman and the results of her choices for her family. Like most old tales, there is a strong sense of morality and justice in it.

The last is also a folk story about a shaman/magician and the greed of his son-in-law. The old shaman needs his son-in-law's help and reveals the source of his wealth to be a magic island. The son-in-law returns to the island to steal the money and becomes ensnared in the magic of the island. Again, there is a strong sense of morality and revenge.

All of these tales are similar to those of Hawthorne and feel like they are based in true legends and morality tales. Each is complete and I could feel like I was sitting around a fire listening to an old sage reveal the legends of the ancestors.

View all my reviews

Pride and Prejudice

2011-04-07T19:21:00.001-07:00

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It has been a while since I read this and we were talking about books most re-read and this was mentioned. This has always been one of my favorite books and every time I read it again, I see something new.

The story is set in the 19th century and centers on an extremely proud and wealthy young man, Mr. Darcy and a strong minded, intelligent young woman, Elizabeth Bennett, who forms a strong prejudice against Darcy because of his pride and hurtful manner.

Elizabeth's family is a complete disaster. Her mother flutters over her five daughters and thinks only of getting them married off to wealthy men. She is unbelievable silly and most of the time offensive. She allows her silly and fickle younger daughters to flirt with any prospective young man and when that leads to absolute disaster, she still doesn't see what she has done. Elizabeth's father, while intelligent and kind is no match for his frivolous wife and younger daughters, and rarely interferes, no matter how distastefully they behave. He is only attached to Elizabeth and the kind and lovely oldest daughter, Jane.

Mr. Darcy's friend, Mr. Bingley, has fallen in love with the beautiful Jane, but his snobbish sisters, and Darcy himself are determined that there should be no match which would end in any relationship with the horrible Bennett family no matter how respectable Elizabeth and Jane are. The middle of the book is a saga of offenses, cross purposes, and star-crossed love.

As with all of Jane Austen's books, the plot is not the most important aspect. It is her ability to draw carefully constructed characters who grow and change throughout the book which makes her works classics. Along with the dynamic main characters, there are a number of unforgettable minor characters who are memorable and drawn to perfection. These include, the impossible Mrs. Bennett; the silly and flirtatious sisters, Kitty and Lydia; the supercilious, but somehow redeemable, clergyman, Mr. Collins; the scoundrel Mr. Wickham; and the kind, intelligent, but flawed and lazy Mr. Bennett. Sometimes I think it is the minor characters that draw you in and keep you reading while the more dynamic characters wrestle with their flaws and eventually emerge wiser and more mature; and, since this is Jane Austen, in love with each other. These minor characters are so real, you find yourself trying to figure out who they are reminding you of. Of course, they are an exaggeration, but only in that they are an amalgam of more real traits than are usually found in one person. All their actions ring true and if Mr. Collins would walk into the room, you would know him in an instant.

I know there are many who don't like Jane Austen because there is too much description, too many words and "flowery language," and main characters too concerned with money and getting married, but this is the world she was writing in. Her writing is like a hidden camera on the 19th century. Unfortunately, many people miss learning about this world and human nature because they don't want to do the work necessary to unlock what Jane Austen has to say.
View all my reviews

Emma

2011-04-05T17:13:00.000-07:00

Emma by Jane Austen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a re-read, probably for about the 5th time. It is always fresh no matter how many times I read it. There are so many things that I find that I have missed.

The story is set in England in the 19th century. While the village is only 17 miles from London, it is deep in the country. Emma, the bright, clever, pretty and beloved daughter of one of the first families in the district, has been spoiled dreadfully in her upbringing. She has no social equals and after the loss of her governess and friend, she sets to work to manipulate the lives of others in the village by attempting to make matches between the people she knows. The only person who has ever not spoiled Emma is the local, most eligible, bachelor, George Knightly. While he cares deeply for Emma and her father, he has always tried to bring some semblance of discipline into Emma's life by speaking the truth plainly to her.

As with almost every book by Jane Austen, there are plots and subplots, innuendo, misinformation, and wrong assumptions. Even though the elements of her stories are similar, the characters stand out almost as real people. In fact, next to Dickens, I believe Jane Austen created the most memorable characters in English Literature. Sometimes I think I re-read this book just to encounter the deliciously obnoxious Mrs. Elton.

Emma is a dynamic character and I found myself very irritated with her for the first half or more of the book. She meddles in people's lives and thinks she knows what is best for them. She has a deep seated snobbishness but a kind heart and, where she has found favor, a lack of class consciousness. In other words, she is a complex character who is basically kind and loving, but the petting and spoiling of her early life has led her to believe that everything she believes is right. She cheerfully meddles in people's lives and then is chagrined when the desired outcome does not work the way she intended.

There are some rough places in the book, especially when listening to an audiobook. The silly, boring and incredibally talkative Mrs. Bates, can be easily be skimmed over in a book, but she is hard to skip in an audiobook. She goes on and on and I am sure Jane Austen meant for her readers to experience just how boring she could be. There is also a lot of description which may irritate some readers, but to me evokes a time when lives moved at a slower pace and the concerns of the people were more mundane and closer to home. The endless discussions of what people should eat, or the superiority of the local doctor by Emma's father were similar to conversations I listened to in the 60's on the isolated Eastern Shore of Virginia. Where there is very little that changes, conversations center on the tiny details of daily life and family and this is what Jane Austen shows us. As with all of Jane Austen's book, in the end the threads are gathered together, all ends well, and dear Emma has come out a wiser and happier young woman.

This is classic #10 for the year. Fifteen more to go.
View all my reviews

Cure

2011-04-02T08:16:00.000-07:00

Cure by Robin Cook

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is not my favorite kind of book. I love the forensics and the medical mystery but I do not like anything to do with Mafia or other crime organizations, spies or anything of that sort. First, they are always callously "bumping people off", and second, they are all such unpleasant people who are usually only two dimensional.

Unfortunately, this not only has New York crime organizations, but two rival organizations from Japan. It seems as if the Mafia has turned over a new leaf, at least in New York. There is sort of a bargain with the police; if they quit murdering people right and left, the city will not look too closely at the drug operations. How cynical is that???

The action picked up in the second half of the book and, while there is still a lot Mafia operation, this part of the book was more about the medical and personal side. The conclusion is good and keeps you turning the pages.

View all my reviews

Cain His Brother (William Monk, #6)

2011-04-01T10:15:00.000-07:00

Cain His Brother by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was another good book in this series. William Monk has a case that involves twin brothers who are like Cain and Abel. When Angus, the proper family man, turns up missing, his wife knows that his evil twin, Caleb has murdered him. She engages Monk to find out for certain that Caleb has murdered him and turn up the body, or have him declared dead so that she can either get a new manager for his business or sell it while it is still profitable to provide for herself and her five children. When everything the woman says appears to be true, Monk looks in earnest for the murderer and Angus's body.

At the same time, typhoid fever has broken out in the slums and Hester, Lady Callandra, and the missing man's stepmother work ceaselessly in the same area Monk is searching for Angus and Caleb. As usual, the cases intersect and Hester becomes involved with Monk’s search for Caleb. To add to this mix, Monk has gotten involved with a person who is determined to extract revenge for something that he did early in his career and for which he has no memory.

At one point, the book seems to drag, but then another plot thread begins and the book is takes off again. As usual, Monk runs into his former callous self and has no memory of things he has done and people he has wronged. One of the interesting things about Monk and the way Perry has developed him is that he is still basically the same person he was before he lost his memory, but he has seen himself and wants to change. So, while he does not want to treat people in his old callous way, he finds himself being inconsiderate and thoughtless towards Hester, only now recognizing it and feeling guilty. This is the main reason I like the Monk books better than the Pitt series. I think that Monk is changing in the way a real person would, two steps forward, one step back.

View all my reviews

The Woman in White

2011-03-31T10:56:00.000-07:00

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've read this several times in my life and I am reading it again for a group I belong to. I had forgotten how good it was. It has all of the elements of a Gothic mystery. There is a spooky old mansion with a lovely and rich young girl, an earnest but poor young man who loves the girl but can't marry her, a capable older sister, a weird, reclusive old uncle/guardian, a mysterious suitor/husband, a creepy Count and the mysterious "woman in white" who appears and disappears throughout the story.

Of course, the beautiful young girl, Laura, marries the mysterious suitor, Sir Percival Glyde, who turns out to be a cruel monster, terribly influenced by the Count Fosco and his wife, who happens to be the sister of the reclusive uncle and is bitter about her lack of inheritance. Her sister, Marian Halcombe, comes to live with Laura and tries to protect her from her husband and Count Fosco. Her devotion to Laura knows no bounds and there is a wonderful scene where she proves her mettle by climbing on the roof of the mansion and listening to an important conversation between Sir Percival and Count Fosco in the pouring rain. The poor young lover, Walter, comes back into the picture after he returns from a long time in the jungle in Ecuador, where he attempted to recover from his devastation over the loss of Laura. Walter then attempts to solve the mystery of the Count and Sir Percival and their machinations.

The two best characters in the story are Marian and Walter, and that was one of the things that bothered me about the book. When Walter first meets Marian, he sees her at a distance and she appears to have an especially beautiful figure and presence, but when she turns around, he sees that she is ugly. When he meets Laura, he finds her beautiful and falls in love with her even though, Marian is, by far, stronger, more intelligent and interesting of the two. As the book proceeds, Marian becomes his friend, partner and confidant and yet all his love still goes to Laura. I am sure I am being unfair to Collins, as he was a product of his time, but to my way of thing Marian was a much better candidate for a life companion!

View all my reviews

Gourmet Rhapsody

2011-03-27T16:33:00.000-07:00

Gourmet Rhapsody by Muriel Barbery

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Pierre Athens is a renowned food critic who is givin 48 hours to live. He remembers something that he tasted years ago when he was a youth, long before he became a food critic. The taste was the single thing he has been looking to find again for years and now that his life is ending he is desperate to find it.

After reading The Eloquence of the Hedgehog, I was anxious to read this. The story was written after Eloquence, but it takes place before it in the same apartment building. So far it is pretty good.

You can't read this book very fast. The sentences are complicated and there is an abundant use of metaphors that need to be understood and related to in order to get any meaning. The writing is very precise with each sentence often written to evoke a specific image without which, there is no meaning to the text. I have to stop myself and reread some passages because I realize that I have not kept up with the metaphors and have no idea where the text is going. At first, this seems tiresome because I want to finish the book and then I remind myself that this author is trying to create, for her readers, all of the sensory details of the taste of a food.

I've learned something from this book. Here's an example. When I was a child and visiting Mississippi one year there was a bumper crop of watermelons. There were so many that we went in the fields and broke melons open and only ate the heart. I have since eaten scores of watermelons and none ever tasted that good no matter where I got them. From this book I realized that it wasn't just the melons, it was the combination of sensations that made them the best I would ever taste. I was young and playing in the fields and creeks and I brought to the watermelon a desire for the taste, the wetness and the coolness that I will never have again. The watermelon was at its peak and had just been plucked from the vine. There was a wild abandonment in breaking it open on the sandy ground and digging out the heart that I will never experience again. It wasn't just the taste of the watermelon that I would need to create, it would be the whole experience. That is what Pierre Athens is looking for.

This was extremely interesting. At first, I didn't think the conclusion worked, but after thinking about it, it was perfect. The language was beautiful. There were so many sentences I wanted to read again and again just for the sheer pleasure of the words. This is not a book for everyone, but I enjoyed it and I think it left me changed.

View all my reviews

Mysteries of Winterthurn

2011-03-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

Mysteries of Winterthurn by Joyce Carol Oates

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I have read the first two books in this combined novel. I have to say I have been disappointed. There are so many loose ends in the books and so much is left to the reader to explain. I understand that the author started from the idea that crimes do not all have tidy endings, but some major plot elements, even ones that lead to the conclusion are just left dangling. I could write a "locked-room" myster if I didn't have to explain how the murder was committed or who did it, and I am not a writer. I expected more from this author and I think if this were her first novel, it would never have been published.

There are vivid characters and plot elements that are developed and concluded, so the books are not a total waste, it is just better to go into them prepared that to keep expecting that everything will be revealed.

I have finished the third book in the series and I can't say that I am much more enlightened. I understand the third book and perhaps the ending, but a part of me wants to say, "What was the point?" There may be some who like mysteries written like this, but I am not one of them. This was pretty much a waste of time...and the waste of a good story. By that, I mean that there was a good plot going if it had just come to a better conclusion. I felt like I should give this 3 stars because Oates is such a good writer, but I just can't...so, alas, it's two.

View all my reviews

Little Women

2011-03-22T08:32:00.000-07:00

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this when I was a child and loved it. Reading it again at this stage of my life, I still enjoyed it and I can see why it is a classic.

It is the story of the four March sisters and what happens to them as they become young women and adults. It is autobiographical and most of the story elements represent what happened to Louisa and her sisters.

Jo is Louisa and she tells the story of her family and her early writing. Her writing is so vivid that it makes the characters seem to be friends and I found myself identifying with each of them. What happens to Beth seems as poignant today as it was when I read it so many years ago and I found myself crying once again.

View all my reviews

The Double Comfort Safari Club

2011-03-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love this series so I bumped this up to the top as soon as it was available in an audiobook. It was another beautiful visit with Precious Ramothswe and her friends and family. In this story we learn a little more about Mme Makutsi when her fiance is injured in an accident. When Mme Makutsi meets up with a ferocious Auntie it seems as if she might be defeated.

In the midst of her troubles, Mme Ramothswe decides that the two women need to make a journey to the other side of Bothswana, the Okavango Delta, to a safari camp where they attempt to locate a guide who has done such a good job that an American woman has left him a legacy. The adventures at the safari camp reminds us that the tame and pleasant city life is only a small part of Bothswana.

The 50% Violet Sephotho is back again with another clever scheme to defraud someone and build her life at the expense of another. Without giving away the plot, suffice it to say that Mme Makutsi enjoys her encounter with Violet at the end of the book. Mma Potokwane puts in an entrance to the delight of everyone and helps resolve a very sticky situation.

I enjoy the beauty of the language of Alexander McCall Smith and the common sense he gives to his characters. When I finish the book, I long for the next book so I can visit with these wise and charming people again.
View all my reviews

A Darker Place

2011-03-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

A Darker Place by Laurie R. King

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I didn't like this as much as the other books by Laurie King. The premise wasn't as interesting and there were long periods of soul searching by the main character that I found to be very boring. Still, it did have some very interesting twists and turns and was worth reading. King is just such a good author, I think I was expecting too much.

The story is about Professor Anne Waverley, a university religion teacher and expert at infiltrating cults for the FBI. As a young woman, she and her husband and small daughter were in a cult and when she left for some soul searching, all the members committed suicide leaving her with tremendous guilt that has been somewhat assuaged by working with the FBI. She adopts a different persona and infilterates the cult giving the FBI information that helps to establish if the cult is dangerous or not.

Several times throughout the book there are exerpts from books or lectres she has written for the FBI for their training in understanding cults. To me this was the most interesting part of the book. There was a fascinating discussion as to what makes a cult leader explode with violence and what are the danger signals. She also talks about the difference between a small break-away religious group and what we know of as a cult.

View all my reviews

Daddy Long-Legs

2011-03-17T20:44:00.000-07:00

Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this a long time ago and found it to be so entertaining as is its sequel. It is an old book, written in 1912, but still delightful. Jerusha Abbott has been raised in an orphanage, but one of the trustees noted that she was very bright and arranged for her to go to college to study to become a writer. The only thing he requires of her is that she not know who he is and that she writes to him monthly. He only responds to her through his secretary. The only thing she ever saw of him was his legs which were very long and she took to calling him "Daddy-Long-Legs." She writes letters in a cheerful and engaging way as she details her life in college. Her benefactor is very generous and as she meets young people and is invited places, he provides her with clothes and the things she needs. She doesn't like to take his money and is determined to pay him back, so she writes stories to sell to magazines.

This is such a sweet story and very entertaining. The reader is able to get an idea of who Daddy Long Legs is and watches "Judy," as she calls herself, develop. The ending is never in doubt, but since her benefactor never writes back to her there is still some question as to how it is all going to work out.

View all my reviews

The Unbearable Lightness of Scones (44 Scotland Street, #5)

2011-03-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

The Unbearable Lightness of Scones by Alexander McCall Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Unfortunately this book is finished and I have to wait for the last one to come by Interlibrary Loan. I enjoy being with the people in these books so much and I miss them when they are "gone."

This story sees Bertie joining the "Cub Scouts" much to his mother's dismay. Occasionally Bertie's father prevails, and this is one of them. Alas, girls may join the cubs now and Olive has caught wind of it and she shows up to torment Bertie and Tofu. If you want to know what Bertie's horrid mother was like as a child, just look at Olive.

Bertie's therapist has moved to Aberdeen and he has a new one from Australia and for a while it looks as if Bertie might graduate out of therapy. This new doctor is not a fan of Melanie Klein and not, seemingly, Bertie's mother, but unfortunately, something happens to make him keep Bertie...at least for a time. Personally, I'm glad. Poor Bertie needs a good therapist to help him cope with his mother.

The rest of the neighbors are back in full force. Matt is swept out to sea on his honeymoon and I won't tell what happens next. Angus and Domenica are playing thief and then police which is a new role for them, and narcissistic Bruce undergoes the greatest change of all...but can he truly reform?

These delightful stories are about real people leading everyday lives that Alexander McCall Smith manages to find humor, pathos and comfort in. It is his genius that makes us see them as we hopefully see ourselves with all our faults and all our goodness.

View all my reviews

The World According to Bertie (44 Scotland Street, #4)

2011-03-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bertie is just about my favorite character and in this book we see a lot of him. His biggest problem in this book is, of course, his mother and we have the addition of a baby brother, Ulysses, who looks suspiciously like Bertie's therapist. Bertie, who doesn't lie, mentions this a couple of times. His mother has decided that he should have his good "friend" Olive over to play with him weekly and he is in despair, not only can he not stand her, but his mother has painted his room pink again.

Pat is having her heart problems again. She and Matt have begun a relationship when the unbeliveably and narcissisticly handsome Bruce is back in Scotland. Matt is sweet and kind and...Pat is confused again.

One of the biggest problems in the book is that Angus Lordie's dog, Cyril, has been arrested for biting people and is in the pound awaiting trial. He is almost sure to be put down and Angus is beside himself. How can he get Cyril out of jail?

Reading this book is like visiting old friends.

View all my reviews

Love Over Scotland (44 Scotland Street, #3)

2011-03-13T21:18:00.001-07:00

Love Over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is another visit with the characters in and around 44 Scotland Street in Edinburgh and are introduced to two new and very promising characters; a very shady character from Glasgow who is a special friend of Bertie's and anthropologist Domenica Macdonald's friend who has come to stay in her flat while she is studying pirates. In this book we find Bertie managing to rebel against his horrid mother a little more with the help of his father. He also manages to get loose in Paris to his intense delight, and manages very well. Bruce sells his flat and Pat has to find someplace new to live which manages to usher in the "love" over Scotland Street, but not in the way she imagines.

I love these books because they charming without being trite. Smith has a wonderful way of creating characters that are real and likeable even with all their faults. I feel like I am catching up with old friends and when I finish a book, I feel a real sense of sadness. I find myself wanting to know how they think and feel about my world and I find myself changing because of some of the subtle bits of philosophy that resonate with me.

View all my reviews

Espresso Tales (44 Scotland Street, #2)

2011-03-11T20:48:00.000-08:00

Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
<
I loved 44 Scotland Street and this was just as good. It is the characters that make this series so rich, as it is in all Alexander McCall Smith's books. I feel like I'm visiting people I know. Undoubtedly, Bertie is the best character. He is the not quite 6 year old prodigy who is now ready for the Steiner school, when he really wants to go to a nice Rugby playing school. Bertie wouldn't be Bertie if it wasn't for his awful mother...the character you love to hate. And then there is Lou, the big-hearted coffee-shop owner whose loyal customers fill these pages. And her opposite, the narcissictic Bruce who can't pass a mirror without looking in it. Pat, Matthew, Dominica, Angus and his beer drinking dog Cyril round out the main characters, although Bertie's dad, Stewart, is making himself known. They are wonderful, charming, entertaining and thoroughly real. Like his other series, you don't read the "44 Scotland Street" series for its plot. The books are about the characters and I love them all.

View all my reviews

Deception on His Mind (Inspector Lynley #9)

2011-03-09T20:54:00.000-08:00

Deception on His Mind by Elizabeth George

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I just finished this for the second time. I couldn't remember all the details of the end, so I decided it was time to enjoy it again. I love the books in this series that involve Taymullah Azar and his delightful daughter. They are both very good characters.

The plot of this book, like most of her work, is pretty complex. A Pakistani man was murdered on the beach and the Pakistani community is up in arms because they feel that a white person has done the crime and that the local police will try to pin it on someone from their own community. They call in Taymullah Azar from London, who is a relative of the slain man's brother in law. Barbara Havers is on leave because of a beating she took and she follows Azar to the seaside town thinking the University Professor won't be able to take care of himself. When she gets there she finds a friend is leading the investigation and leads Emily to believe she has been sent from Scotland Yard to give some help. She neglects to mention that she knows Taymullah Azar. Emily gives her the job as liaison between the police and the Asian community leaders led by Azar and his cousin.

This story is filled with twists and turns and a lot of red herrings, and it does slog a little in the middle, but the conclusion is exciting and for the most part satisfying.

View all my reviews

The Fate of Katherine Carr

2011-03-08T17:51:00.000-08:00

The Fate of Katherine Carr by Thomas H. Cook

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wouldn't call this a mystery book. It is a story within a story. The first is the story of George Gates, whose 8 year old son was kidnapped and murdered. His young wife also died and now he is alone. He was a travel journalist who specialized in places where people disappeared, but after the tragedy, he became a reporter for a small newspaper. A retired detective got him involved in the disappearance of a poet, Katherine Carr who had previously been assalted and left for dead.

So many people have reviewed this that I am not going to add much more to the plot. It is essentially a novel about dealing with tragic deaths, especially with violence. I think the main question posed, after the immediate, "Why?" is "Why do they get by with it?" In an earlier generation it would be the question that the man screams at God with his fists raised. Why does a serial killer die in his bed of old age when his victims died too young and too horribly?

I figured out where the book by the poet was going fairly early and thought that it was a novel ending and fairly satisfying although many would not feel that way. It is a story about people who can't believe in God trying to reconcile the world they find themselves in when faced with atrocities.

I listened to an audiobook for this title and I would not recommend it. There are two different narrations; George Gates and Katherine Carr. Because both deal with abduction and tragedy, it is easy to forget who is speaking and I found myself having to backtrack when I was in the mindset of the wrong character. Other than that, I found it very well written, if disturbing. When dealing with violent deaths the usual practice for most people is to try to keep the details OUT of our minds, but this book dwells on them quite a bit and that was disturbing at times. It is not for the squemish.

View all my reviews

Great Expectations

2011-03-08T16:39:00.000-08:00

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is at least my 4th reading of this book and each time I see new things in it. Young Pip is orphaned and living with his short-tempered sister and his friend and brother-in-law, Joe Gargery. There are two events in his childhood that shape the rest of his life. While he is out on the moors, he is accosted by an escaped prisoner and made to bring him some food under threat of death. He does this, but the consequences in his home are dire.

The next event comes about when he is summoned to meet Ms. Haversham and her ward, Estella in a setting so creepy that it would take the imagination of Dickens to come up with it. Pip is to come to tea and visit with Estella whenever he is summoned.

Years later, as a young man, he is summoned by a lawyer and told that he has "Great Expectations" and that he is to be sent to London and raised as a gentleman. It seems apparent to Pip that his benefactor must be Ms. Haversham and that he is destined to marry Estella. He feels that this must by why she had him come and visit when he was a child.

The rest of the story revolves around the education of Pip in not only schoolwork, but in life. He makes new friends and loses them and he leaves behind old friends and mourns their passing out of his life too late.

I love Dickens. There is no other author who has given the world such well known and instantly recognizible characters. His books are filled with characters so real that we feel that they must have existed in the flesh. How can Scrooge or Tiny Tim not have existed? There are people who feel that Dickens is too wordy, which may be true if your goal is to just get to the end, but Dickens is to be sipped and savored. His characters need to live in your imagination and act of their own accord. Taking up Great Expectations is like visiting an old friend.

View all my reviews

The Innocence of Father Brown

2011-03-06T12:15:00.000-08:00

The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Father Brown, that innocent cleric, always has the answer because he is used to dealing with good and evil and is able to see it more quickly than his more jaded companions. It also helps that he has an amazing intellect and keen observation.

These stories are so much fun. A crime is committed and no one can see how it could have been done. Father Brown gives 3 or 4 explanations and his companions are stupefied. He explains that they said there could be no explanation and he has provided 4, none of which is correct. Then this innocent innocuous little priest explains exactly what happened.

As you would expect, he is always completely moral and concerned more about the spiritual condition of the criminal than the offense to society. He has some interesting ways for the criminal to be reconciled to God though and than makes these stories even more interesting.

View all my reviews

The Devil's Half Acre (Mysteries of Winterthurn #2)

2011-03-04T14:22:00.000-08:00

The Devil's Half Acre by Joyce Carol Oates

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the second book of the Winterthurn series and is marginally better than the first. The plot centers around a small plot of land with an unrepentant sinner buried on it and a reputation for sinister happenings. Five shop or mill girls end up being murdered there by what they call the "Gentleman Suitor." It is pretty easy to figure out who the murderer is as the reader follows the young detective, Xavier Kilgarvan around his home town of Winterthurn. Even getting the proof of the murders is not too difficult, but the trials are something else. There is a lot that doesn't ring true and while Xavier solves the crime, the reader is left very unsettled.

I found this book to be more satisfying to read than the first one until the end of the trial. From then on, I felt like the book unraveled. As with the first of this series, the book could have been good, but it just doesn't quite make it. The author may want to demonstrate that in real life, crimes don't always wrap themselves up neatly, but if that was what I wanted, I would read true crime, which I also enjoy. The best true crime writers, however, manage find as much background as they possibly can to attempt to explain the workings of the criminal's mind and to present as much of a resolution as is possible. I feel like good fiction should go even further since the murderer is known to the author and has been created with a personality which should follow a kind of logic, even if it is twisted, at least as it applies to the most important aspects of the crime.

View all my reviews

The Virgin in the Rose Bower (Mysteries of Winterthurn #1)

2011-03-02T14:24:00.000-08:00

The Virgin in the Rose Bower by Joyce Carol Oates

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was very stange. I have read everything I could find on the web to get an idea of what I was missing. Apparently it was written this way in the misguided idea that rarely in real life to we have all the answers in a mystery. What this means is that the reader is struggling to figure out what the various strange happenings and murders in the Honeymoon bedroom mean, who did them, why, and most importantly, how. Well, you are never quite sure of most of the above, especially the "how."

I also read that is was a parody on the Gothic mystery, but I wasn't really satisfied with that. I agree with one reviewer that it needed to be either a parody or a Gothic mystery, but not both. On the other hand, the book was very interesting. It had the feel of The Moonstone and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins and I think it could have been as good if there was an explanation of the mystery. I did like it and I figured out enough of the solution to feel somewhat satisfied, but it could have easily been a great book.

View all my reviews

Silas Marner

2011-02-27T11:05:00.001-08:00

Silas Marner by George Eliot

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this in about the 8th grade and I liked it, but there were parts I didn't understand. I can see now that I didn't have the vocabulary or the understanding of the time period to see the hints that were given in the book. I also remember it taking a long time to read, but the audiobook takes 8 hours to read! How things have changed!

This time I found it delightful. It is one of those very satisfying classics where things have a good conclusion and yet they are unexpected. Silas Marner lives in a small community and belongs to an austere religious sect. When something is missing, they draw lots to determine who is guilty and the lot comes up to Silas. He is forced to leave the community and he comes to another "country" which is actually another village about 30 miles away, but of an entirely different sort. (Most people of the time period never traveled more than 8 miles from the place they were born and many no more than 3) Embittered, he sets up his successful weaving business and hoards the gold coins he earns. He has no friends and does not go about the community. All that changes when his gold is stolen and is "replaced" by a little "golden headed" orphaned toddler. The story takes a completely different turn and we see the redemptive power of love.

View all my reviews

Belgrave Square (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #12

2011-02-26T11:18:00.000-08:00

Belgrave Square by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thomas Pitt is called in to investigate the murder of a money lender and blackmailer because the murder may involve a member of the "inner circle," a powerful secret society pledged to support each other whenever called upon. There are two lists left at the money lender's house; one of the debts of poor struggling souls and another of upperclass men who are more likely to have been victims of blackmail.

Thomas finds himself investigating people whom he knows and in many instances, people who are very admirable. He has to dig deep to find the secrets they are hiding and each discovery pains Pitt as it could end promising careers and many good works.

At the same time, Emily's new husband, Jack, is attempting to run for Parliament and, since she is in the early stages of pregnancy, Charlotte has to stand in for her at some of the social events important to Jack. As usual, Emily and Aunt Vespasia become Charlotte's confidents and attempt to get to the bottom of the mystery.

I found this book to be one of the best of Anne Perry's Pitt novels. As usual, the ending is abrupt and in this one, the ending is not my favorite, but the clues do fit and explain the trail of clues.

View all my reviews

Highgate Rise (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #11

2011-02-23T16:49:00.000-08:00

Highgate Rise by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As this series progresses, Anne Perry is going into some of the worst excesses of the Victorian age. This book centers on two aspects that were hotly debated at the time. The book begins with a terrible fire which kills the wife of a very outspoken local doctor. She had been quietly become involved in trying to breach a system of rental property law which allowed investors to charge extremely high rents for tenements in horrible conditions without anyone being able to tell who the property owner was. The poor were forced to live in such crowded and unsanitary places and they were also leased as brothels, opium dens and sweatshops. Many a righteous upper class families fortune was build on the backs of the wretched poor without anyone being the wiser. Neither of the Pitts can decide if the doctor or his wife was the intended victim.

When another fire errupts at the home of the doctor's friend with whom he is staying, the focus returns to the doctor however, the friend was an outspoken proponent of liberal Fabinism, which was also a source of contention in the village. While Thomas Pitt explores the motives relating to the doctor, Charlotte, Emily, Jack and Aunt Vespasia concentrate on the work the doctor's wife, Clemency, was doing. It appears that she had managed to trace the landlord of a despicable tenement and was surprised and appalled by whom she found as the owner.

While this plot was convoluted, all our main characters were engaging as usual and Charlotte's maid Gracie made an enterance as a detective also. She was an entrancing addition and a breath of fresh air, especially as various characters engage in some very long winded philosophical speeches which strain the patience of the reader.

View all my reviews

Bethlehem Road (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #10

2011-02-20T18:48:00.001-08:00

Bethlehem Road by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was one of the more complex of the Thomas and Charlotte series. The story begins when a Member of Parliament is found on Westminster Bridge with his throat slit. There seems to be no reason for his death until a second Member of Parliament is killed in the same way. Suspicion falls on the suffragettes and especially one woman in particular who has been greviously wronged by one of the victims, her estranged husband.

As this series continues, Anne Perry is giving a riviting description of the state of women during the Victorian era when husbands had complete control of their wives including their money and children. At the time of this novel, laws had just been passed to consider a woman in her own right and not as chattel to her husband. She was also in control of her own money, but things were not a whole lot better. The prime suspect has had her children taken from her including her 6 year old daughter and was cast out without any resources never to see her children again. She was considered an unfit mother because she was a suffragette and, because she did not have independent means, was left to the mercy of friends or a life on the street. Some of the most extreme Victorian attitudes are fleshed out in this story making for some very interesting reading.

View all my reviews

Silence in Hanover Close (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #9

2011-02-19T09:54:00.001-08:00

Silence in Hanover Close by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thomas Pitt begins an investigation on a 3 year old murder at the request of the diplomatic service. A talented young diplomat is on the verge of marrying the wife of a murdered man and the Home Secretary wants to be certain that she was not involved and that there is nothing that can jeopardize state secrets. Thomas finds it very difficult to get to the bottom of the murder. Nothing about it makes sense. As he delves further, he finds hints of a mysterious woman in a cerise gown who is seen mysteriously appearing in the night. Then a maid is killed and Thomas is implicated in another murder. Charlotte and Emily become involved as only they can.

This book turned out to be very interesting and events led to a startling conclusion, but it bogged down in the middle. There are long passages of suppositions that become tedious and don't lead anywhere. It does however, have an interesting conclusion and it worth puting up with the slow pace for a time. I listened to this as an audiobook, but if I had been reading, I'm afraid I would have just skimmed a chapter or two and not lost anything.

View all my reviews

Cardington Crescent (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #8

2011-02-17T17:06:00.000-08:00

Cardington Crescent by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lady Emily and her husband, Lord Ashton are visiting a rather unpleasant set of relatives when it becomes apparent that George is falling for the lovely wife of their host's son. Emily is distraught, but with her pluck, she attacks the problem with her usual sense. George and the young woman have a terrible scene and he and Emily are reconciled. The problem is that no one knows this and when George is found murdered, Emily is suspect. The detective on the case is Emily's brother-in-law, Thomas Pitt and Emily's sister, Charlotte is there to help. Emily and Charlotte were both born into society but Emily married far abover her station and Charlotte married the only man she ever found who interested her, Inspector Thomas Pitt, who was tutored with a gentleman's son, but was far below her in social standing.

This unlikely pair have had enormous success with Charlotte moving in society and giving Pitt the kind of information he could never glean from interviews, while he brings a suprising intellect and shrewdness and disarming good manner. Finding out who murdered George is more than a little difficult this time because so much is at stake. Charlotte and Emily peel back the hidden layers of this families relationships aided by George's indomitable Aunt Vespasia.

View all my reviews

Death in the Devil's Acre (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #7

2011-02-16T23:04:00.000-08:00

Death in the Devil's Acre by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When a doctor is found in Devil's Acre, dead and horribly mutilated, Thomas Pitt is called to the scene, but that is just the beginning of the murders. One after another, men who don't belong in the area are found mutilated in the same way. When some of the men killed are known to Charlotte and Emily's circle, the two sisters once again attempt to find the clue that unites them and provides the solution.

As things escalate, Charlotte and Emily are exposing themselves to ever increasing danger and Thomas himself is not immune. What can the upper crust have in common with this seamy side of town? Once again, Anne Perry gives us a glimps into the Victorian mindset and times. Women, relegated to the endless round of visits and social occasions, strike out to find some excitement and put themselves in danger, both social and even physical.

View all my reviews

Bluegate Fields (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #6

2011-02-15T23:03:00.000-08:00

Bluegate Fields by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When the naked body of a young boy of good family appears in the sewers of Bluegate Field, Thomas Pitt has the task of finding out where and why the boy was killed. The crime is a despicable one and the upper class close ranks to hide the scandal. When an innocent, but unpleasant man is arrested for the crime, Pitt has to battle with his superiors and his conscience and is in danger of losing his position.

This is one of the better mysteries of this series. Anne Perry takes us into the brothels of Bluegate Field and the unspeakable practice of selling young boys into male prostitution. She also details how many of the upper class close ranks and stifle justice in order to protect one of their own even at the expense of the innocent. The veneer of impeccable manners and codes of honor often cover a base dishonesty and injustice.

View all my reviews

Rutland Place (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #5

2011-02-14T23:06:00.000-08:00

Rutland Place by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This fifth mystery in the Charlotte & Thomas Pitt series begins with the loss of a locket by Charlotte’s mother. Alarmed by her mother’s unexplained concern about the locket, Charlotte agrees to pay calls with her mother and see if she can determine if anyone knows about it. As time progresses, Charlotte becomes aware that there is more to the locket than her mother wants to admit. Anyone finding it will be sure to realize that the picture inside is not her husband. The mystery deepens when on of the women returns home after a series of innocuous calls and is dead within minutes after drinking poisoned wine. Apparently, she has been spying on her neighbors and has learned more than she should.

This book ended rather abruptly for my taste. I was listening to an audiobook and saw that I only had 8 minutes to go and still the murder hadn’t been explained. I felt that there should have been more clues planted during the earlier parts of the book to have provided a basis for the conclusion.

As with all her books, Anne Perry gives us a glimpse into Victorian society and the strict roles of men and women. There are some wonderful scenes in the book and this is one of the more amusing of Perry’s books.

View all my reviews

Dracula

2011-02-11T20:34:00.000-08:00

Dracula by Bram Stoker

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As a librarian, I introduced this book in our book club and a number of people read it. The consensus was that it was the scariest book they had ever read. Note that was "scariest" as opposed to "gross." Too many horror novels today are overly concerned with gore and not with plot development. I think this is a classic because the suspense builds and builds while there is a pervading sense that the protagonists may not be able to survive. They have already lost one of their number and she was not a "disposable" character that the readers hadn't invested much in.

I homeschool my 7th grade grandson and had him read this book for Literature. We both enjoyed it and I was surprised at how much he learned from it. We studied the Gothic novel, Eastern European geography, living standards in Victorian times and a great vocabulary.

View all my reviews

The Sins of the Wolf (William Monk, #5

2011-02-05T20:05:00.000-08:00

The Sins of the Wolf by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Hester Latterly is offered a job to accompany an elderly lady on a railway journey from Scotland to London it seems like a pleasant journey and an opportunity to see a part of the country she has not been in before. Her only real duty is to administer her patient's heart medicine. When her patient turns up dead of a double dose of the medicine, Hester is arrested and charged with her murder.

She turns to Oliver Rathbone to defend her and William Monk to find out who actually murdered the woman and why, but is dismayed to find out that Oliver cannot represent her in Scotland. Always her champion, he hires the best lawyer in Scotland and comes there to help him defend Hester. William is also there by her side and the two manage to nearly get killed before the murderer is unvailed.

In this book, the relationship between Hester and Monk and Rathbone heats up and takes a leap forward, but will it be permanent or will things go back to normal after the strong emotions of the case are over?

View all my reviews

A Little Princess

2011-02-04T23:31:00.000-08:00

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a wonderful story of a little girl, Sara Crew, who is the apple of her widowed father's eye. She has lived in India all her life, but she is forced to go to an exclusive boarding school, Miss Minchen's Seminary in London to be properly educated. She becomes the prize pupil when Miss Minchen discovers how incredibly wealthy her father is. Sara and her father are unusually close because her mother died when she was very young and he treats her as a little princess. Fortunately, she has been also taught to behave like a princess and to be patient, kind, good natured and polite.

Sara needs all of those attributes when it is found that her father has invested all of his money in diamond mines in South Africa and they have failed. Not only that, but he has died from a brain fever brought on by the devastating news. Miss Minchen finds out the new status of her pupil and promptly makes a drudge of her. This is really where the story begins. Sara has been well brought up and has a wonderfully vivid imagination and these things help her to endure her wretched life. She has always been kind to the little scullery maid and now finds her a friend and helper.

One of the nicest things about this book is the way it encourages reading and imaginative play as well as good manners and real integrity. Sara has to find ways to deal with her reduced circumstances without becoming bitter or giving up. If you have seen the Shirley Temple movie or one of the other versions, you may be surprised at just how much Hollywood has changed this delightful book.

View all my reviews

Resurrection Row (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #4

2011-02-03T22:24:00.000-08:00

Resurrection Row by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This reminded me of an old movie called "The Trouble with Harry." Harry can't seem to stay buried. In this case, an elderly man is found propped up and dead in an cab in Victorian London. The problem is that he is not only dead, but he has been already been buried. The family gather's together to bury him again and a few days later there is another corpse that turns up posed as if he were living, but unfortunately dead and buried. By this time he is getting really hard to identify, but the family gathers together once again to bury him. When the next body turns up and the next, Thomas Pitt begins to get an idea that there is more to this than a gruesome prank. The solution to this is not obvious and it takes a joint effort of both Thomas and Charlotte to figure this one out.

View all my reviews

Paragon Walk (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #3

2011-02-02T22:46:00.000-08:00

Paragon Walk by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the third adventure with Thomas and Charlotte Pitt. A young woman is butally raped and murdered in elegant Paragon Walk. She is a quiet retiring young woman and no on can figure out how this tragedy happened in such an upscale Victorian neighborhood. Nothing is making sense when even more people are found murdered. Charlotte and her sister, Emily help Thomas Pitt by moving in society in ways he never could.

The story is good, but the best thing is the introduction of Aunt Vespalia, Emily's husband's aunt. She is delightful and a wonderful addition. As usual, the Victorian society assumes that the murder is done by one of the servants and that the murdered young woman must have been immoral even though there isn't a shred of evidence to suspect that. They engage in a frustrating circular argument which goes something like this. If the girl was raped, she must have been immoral. Even though she seems to be sweet, chaste and virginal, we know that she must have been immoral because she was raped. None of the upper class should be questioned in this matter because they don't come from the strata of society that committs crimes; they are upper class hence, they must be innocent.

The ever patient Thomas Pitt has to tiptoe around the upper class sensibilities in order to get any information at all, but he never falters. The help of Charlotte, Emily and Aunt Vespalia is vital in getting around barriers as they drink tea and engage in the gossip that brings out the elusive clues.

View all my reviews

Defend and Betray (William Monk, #3)

2011-01-30T17:43:00.000-08:00

Defend and Betray by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was a little more obvious that the others I have read. A man is murdered and his wife immediately confesses to his murder and offers no defense. It seems that she is shielding someone, but whom? It appears that it may be her fiesty daughter who has quarreled with him, but she can’t possibly have done it. In fact, the wife is the only one who could have done it, but why? Even in jail, she won’t tell her lawyer anything or help in her defense.

William Monk is brought in to determine what is going on and Oliver Rathbone takes on her case. Hester Latterly can move freely through the house and is best placed to find out what the poor woman is hiding. It doesn’t take long for Hester to find that the General was not what he seemed to be and that something has been very wrong in this household for a very long time.

I really enjoy these characters more than in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series even though I like them all. Hester is a likeable because she stands in stark contrast to the world she lives in. Her experience in the Crimean War with Florence Nightengale has given her experience and confidence mixed with quite a lot of outspoken brashness. That is what grates on the nerves of William Monk and yet, he values her help in getting vital evidence within the families.

Then there is poor William Monk who was in a terrible carriage crash and woke up not knowing anything about his past. As he tries to gain knowledge through observations he begins to learn that he was not a very admirable person although no one can say that he was not an excellent detective. Snatches of memory come back and he spends part of each book tracking down his clues to his own identity.

View all my reviews

Callander Square (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #2

2011-01-28T23:09:00.000-08:00

Callander Square by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Two infants are found while some digging was done on Callander Square. The coroner can't tell if the infants were dead before they were born or if they were murdered. One thing is for sure, one of them was badly deformed. Thomas is forced to painstakingly interview the upper class inhabitants of Callander Square who unquestionably believe that the babies must have belonged to one or even two different servants. When none of the young maids seems to be likely candidates Pitt is forced to begin the sensitive work of interrogating his betters.

His wife, Charlotte, and her sister Emily are intrigued by the case and begin to work their way through the round of daily calls and gossip to find some of the vital information that Thomas desperately needs.

Again, we are given a wonderful view of Victorian life and the unfortunate position of women during that era. However; we are also privy to the ways women got around the male restrictions in their lives. This is one of the better of Anne Perry's mysteries, however; as one reviewer mentioned, it does end rather abruptly.

View all my reviews

The Cater Street Hangman (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #1

2011-01-27T14:11:00.000-08:00

The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the first Charlotte and Thomas Pitt book and I thought it was excellent. Suddenly, several young girls have been killed with a garrote and all were found on Cater Street. Two were servants and two were young ladies who lived on Cater St. It seems to be the work of a madman, but possibly the madman may not even know he or she is the killer.

The story is told mainly from the point of view of Charlotte and like other of Anne Perry's other main characters, she is spunky, reasonable, bright and often outspoken and aggressive. Young Thomas Pitt is the policeman in charge of the investigation and as the book progresses, we see him admiring Charlotte more and more. Of course, he is not of her class...merely a "tradesman." But the book makes apparent that many of the upper class are selfish, immoral and unfaithful. The character of Thomas is a sharp contrast.

Everyone is becoming increasingly frightened about the murders and the inability of the police to find the culprit. What is most horrible is that the killer must be a person people are familiar with on Cater St. There have been no unknown characters on the street and it is apparent that the killer can walk up and down the street because he belongs there. Families look at each other with suspicion.

I did figure out who was the culprit near the end, but is was a clever, yet reasonable character. I found myself becoming attached to the characters and when one in particular is killed, I had a feeling of personal loss...something that is rare in books of this genre.

View all my reviews

Sudden, Fearful Death (William Monk Series #4)

2011-01-25T18:59:00.000-08:00

A Sudden, Fearful Death by Anne Perry

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In this fourth of the William Monk series we find Prudence Barrymore, a nurse with Florence Nightengale in the Crimea, murdered in a local hospital. Nurses of that era had reputations little better than prostitutes, but Prudence was skilled enough to work with the city's best surgeon. How did she end up dead then?

William Monk, a private detective, has taken the case and Hester Latterly has agreed to go to work at the hospital and work under cover. This turns out to be a big mistake which ends with Barrister, Oliver Rathbone, fighting for her reputation and maybe even her life.

In this book, we are beginning to see signs of respect for Hester in both Monk and Oliver Rathbone. In fact, it is hard to see anyone Oliver respects and admires more and he shows it, albeit discreetly. Monk is also beginning to change his opinions about women after looking into more of his past. Again, a very good read.

View all my reviews

The Face of a Stranger (William Monk, #1)

2011-01-24T18:27:00.000-08:00

The Face of a Stranger by Anne Perry

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Imagine wakeing up in a hospital and not knowing who you are or anything about your life. People come to visit and you have no idea who they are. William Monk wakes up in the hospital to find that his body is healing, but his mind is blank. From the Superintendent who comes to visit, he learns that he is a detective and that his cases are being handled, but Monk has no memory of the cases. He does know that he wants his job desperately and he can't let anyone know he can't remember anything.

Back at work, he is given the case of a Crimean War hero who has been beaten to death in an apartment. It becomes apparent that no one entered the building who can't be accounted for and that the culprit must be an acquaintence or family member.

Hester Latterly was a nurse with Florence Nightengale and has come to nurse an elderly gentleman in the household of the slain soldier. Her views on women's rights and her brash opinions set Monks teeth on edge, but he finds her assessment of the family invaluable in determining the family dynamics.

As Monk continues to investigate, he finds that, while he was a brilliant detective, his brusk manner and arrogance have left him with no friends and the enmity of Supt. Runcorn, his senior officer. He also finds out that he does have a sister, but he has been quite insensitive there also. His only help comes in the form of an assistant whom he has never worked with before, but in whom he sees great promise.

This is one of Anne Perry's best books. The whole premise of an amnesiac detective has wonderful possibilities and she makes the most of them. The reader is as anxious to pick up clues to Monk's history as he is himself. This is a very good read.

View all my reviews

Nearer Than the Sky

2011-01-22T17:08:00.000-08:00

Nearer Than the Sky by T. Greenwood

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This novel deals with the frightening mental illness called Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. In this sickness, a parent, usually the mother, brings the child into the hospital or to the doctor for a variety of illnesses or accidents in order to either get the attention of the medical community or to gain importance from seeming to rescue her child from horrifying accidents.

This story is written from the point of view of another sibling who watches this pattern develop between her mother and sister and sensitively, but harrowingly describes the effect on all the family. When this sibling suspects the pattern is beginning in another generation, she has to deal with long surpressed emotions and decide what she will do for her family and in her own life. The story is told with sensitivity and depth and gives a window into this terrible sickness.

View all my reviews

Book Goal for 2011 - 150 books, 25 Classics

2011-01-20T18:34:00.000-08:00

I've joined the "52 Books in 52 Weeks" again for this year and since I read a lot when I am knitting and love listening to audiobooks, I am going to make that 150 books. Last year I logged 85 book reviews, and I didn't enter any from late November when Dad went into the hospital until January 13th even though I read at least 10 books, I think 150 books and reviews for this year would be a good challenge. I also want to read or reread a number of classics this year including:

Silas Marner and Middlemarch - George Eliot
Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
Bleak House and Pickwick Papers and Nicholas Nickleby- Charles Dickens
Finish reading Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Pud'nhead Wilson, The Mysterious Stranger

I've got more to put on the list, so I'll say 25 classics for the year.

Blacklands

2011-01-18T17:54:00.000-08:00

Blacklands by Belinda Bauer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When the book opens a young boy is digging holes out on the moor. There is something determined, and yet frantic about his digging. He has been digging for his uncle Billy Peters body. Billy was killed by a serial killer when he was about 12, the age of Steven, the digger. His body was never found. Steven lives with his mother and grandmother and it is his grandmother he is trying to find Billy for. The family is disfunctional and Steven thinks that if he can find his uncle's body, his grandmother will begin to live in the present again and pay attention to his mother who has been pushed to the side in her mother's obsession with finding Billy.

This is a well crafted story with an engaging protagonist. It deals with several disturbing subjects, but it is fast paced and well crafted.

It also delves into the story that never makes the headlines...the story of what happens to the family left behind, the family that never has closure. I enjoyed this very much.

View all my reviews

Need to update

2011-01-16T21:03:00.000-08:00

Due to the death of my father and the complications of Christmas, I have a backlog of books to put on my blog. Hopefully I'll get time to update my blog soon.

Pudd'nhead Wilson

2011-01-13T18:54:00.000-08:00

Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was such a treat! I love the way Mark Twain creates memorable characters and his wonderful use of dialect. This is the story of a young lawyer who stumbles over a local social taboo and is dubbed Pudd'nhead from then on. He never gets to practice law and spends his time taking fingerprints and even reading palms. For the first part of the book, he is just a periphal character, but it is he that wins in the end.

While that is happening, there is a spoof on slavery where the almost white slave has a son who is only 32 degree colored and is almost identical with the son of the master. When his mother becomes wet nurse to the son of the house, who has been born at the same time and whose mother died in childbirth the situation is set. The babies are nearly identical and there is no doting mother around the young master so the slave mother switches the babies.

Then into the town comes a set of twins who write ahead for accomodations explaining that they are Italian Counts and will only need one room and one bed. The reason is apparent as soon as they arrive...they are conjoined twins. The addition of the twins makes the story hilarious, but in the end, there is a serious point made and Pudd'nhead Wilson is the hero of the day.

View all my reviews

A Christmas Visitor (Christmas Stories, #2

2011-01-12T18:34:00.000-08:00

A Christmas Visitor by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was one of the best of the Christmas series. We meet again Henry Rathbone from the William Monk series who is the godfather of Antonia whose husband has just been murdered. All of the brothers are to come home from far away places to the Dreghorn family home for Christmas. Poor Henry has to meet each at the station and break the sad news that their brother is dead and appears to be murdered.

The plots has many twists and turns and you find yourself hoping that none of people are to be found guilty, but each one has a secret to hide and, as in so many mystery novels, it is their little secrets that cause them to act in a suspect manner.

The book is short but interesting enough to remember who the characters are and what they have been doing as your reading time is shortened by the rush of Christmas.

View all my reviews

A Christmas Secret: A Novel (Christmas Stories, #4

2011-01-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

A Christmas Secret: A Novel by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a light, easy to read story which was perfect for the rush of Christmas when I read it. In fact, I read all four of this series over the Christmas holiday. It was interesting and moved at a fast enough pace, but not too deep.

Dominic Cord and his wife, Clarice are sent to the village of Cottisham to take over for an elderly Vicar who has gone on vacation. The villagers are very nice and the young couple fall in love with the place...that is until they find a body in the basement. There are plenty of suspects, most of whom you don't want to see found guilty and several others you would like to be the murder, but it seems as if they couldn't be. The answer is clever and comes after some little bit of danger and a lot of suspense. A great Christmas read!

View all my reviews

Track of the Cat (Anna Pigeon Mysteries, #1

2011-01-07T16:58:00.000-08:00

Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of Nevada Barr's better mysteries. I love the setting for this one and the plight of the mountain lions whose territory has deminished to smaller and smaller areas and even on Federal land are still vulnerable.

Someone is killing the big cats and the fear is that there are poachers who are leading hunters onto the wilderness areas of the park in order to hunt for sport. Anna puts her life at risk to find out who the poachers are and how they are getting in.

This book is especially filled with some very dark people and is a little creepier than most, still I enjoyed it.

View all my reviews

Because of Winn-Dixie

2011-01-06T23:13:00.000-08:00

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This delightful book depicts the story of a lonely girl who has moved with her preacher father to a new location. They have left their friends and church family and Opal is also dealing with the desertion of her mother years earlier. While shopping in Winn-Dixie Opal rescues a dog that is roaming the aisles and is destined for the pound. In sympathy, she claims the dog and calls him Winn-Dixie.

As the summer proceeds Winn-Dixie seems to be constantly widening Opal’s circle of unusual characters and leading her into adventures which help her to become part of her new community and grow in her understanding of her parents and human nature.

View all my reviews

The Valley of Fear

2010-12-30T12:09:00.000-08:00

The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an odd Sherlock Holmes mystery that is actually two stories in one. In the first story, we have the usual brillian detective work of Sherlock Holmes when a man is found murdered from a terrible wound to his head. It appears to be a murder, but there is no one to suspect and footprints disappear where they should carry on if someone is escaping. It is the classic "locked room mystery," which Holmes unravels splendidly.

Then comes the second part in America which is the history to the first murder. This is far less satisfactory and several times I bogged down and was tempted to quit, mainly because the reason for reading Sherlock Holmes is one thing and the mindset to read this background story of unions and beneficent societies and mining is another. It would have been nicer if this was explained concisely in less than a chapter.

View all my reviews

A Christmas Journey (Christmas Stories, #1

2010-12-22T23:11:00.000-08:00

A Christmas Journey by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The plot of this book was an interesting twist on the idea of punishment as attonement. A young woman guest at a stately country mansion insults another young woman who commits suicide later that evening. Everyone agrees that her cutting words could have pushed the vulnerable young woman over the edge and one of the guests contrives a quest which will atone for her ill tempered remarks and, if completed, will bind the other guests to secrecy and render the careless young woman forgiven. The trick is that she has to travel to the north of Scotland to deliver the suicide letter to the young woman's mother and confess her guilt in the tragic event.

Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gould, another visitor, agrees to go with the young woman, but the journey and the story is much more than she bargained for. The plot is convoluted, but very interesting. The young woman learns more about herself and Lady Vespasia does also. For an easy read in the hectic Christmas season, this book is perfect. It has some substance, but is not too taxing.

View all my reviews

A Christmas Beginning: A Novel (Christmas Stories, #5)

2010-12-20T23:16:00.000-08:00

A Christmas Beginning: A Novel by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this book, but it ended too abruptly. I was just getting the feeling that I knew some of the suspects when the villian was unmasked. Still, it was a nice easy book to read and it is near Christmas, so it was timely. I liked getting to know Runcorn better and to see the mystery from his eyes. I'm also glad he finally got some happiness in his life.

View all my reviews

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace

2010-12-18T10:13:00.000-08:00

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was an excellent book about Greg Mortenson, an avid mountain climber, who, after failing in his attempt to climb K2, became involved with the people of the impoverished Pakastani village where his rescuers came from and where he was nursed back to health. He was impressed by how desperately the villagers wanted a school and the ends to which they would go to get an education for their children, including their girls.

Mortenson, who was raised by missionary parents in Africa, also beleived that the way to solve the problems of violence and terrorism in this area was through education and humanitarian aid. He returned to the United States and began a campaign to raise funds to build schools. Providing education, especially for girls, was not easy in this part of the world and Mortenson dealt with kidnapping, fatwas, corruption and ignorance. Mortenson persevered and the story of his success is remarkable.

View all my reviews

A Dangerous Mourning (William Monk, #2

2010-12-12T18:36:00.000-08:00

A Dangerous Mourning by Anne Perry

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book out of order, so I had to go back and read the first before the beginning of this made sense. I liked the idea of the detective who couldn't remember anything before he woke up in the hospital. What was interesting was the way he came to know himself by looking at the reactions of others and the things he found in his surroundings. As a plot device, this is very interesting.

I enjoyed this mystery and the motivation of the murderer. It was an interesting approach, especially when Monk began to suspect that he was the murderer. Since he had only a few clues to his own personality and some of those were negative, I can see how he might suspect himself. I think Anne Perry has done a good job taking the basic Victorian murder mystery and turning it into something unique and interesting.

View all my reviews

Lucy Rose: Busy Like You Can't Believe

2010-12-10T14:19:00.000-08:00

Lucy Rose: Busy Like You Can't Believe (Yearling Books by Katy Kelly

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the fourth book in the series and is just as delightful as the first three. We see Lucy Rose again her engaging and hilarious self. She desperately wants to be Annie at the play, but this is problematic when her worst enemy gets the part. Lucy Rose is given a much better part, but she doesn't see it at the time.

Added to this is her concern that her mother is dating. Like almost every child of divorce, Lucy Rose has dreams that her parents will get together again and she is horrified when she listens in on a telephone call that makes her think that her mother has a boyfriend.

This is an excellent book for children of divorce. In fact, it would be great if it were required reading for their parents. Lucy Rose's parents bend over backward to accomodate each other for the sake of Lucy Rose and the grandparents do the same. Lucy Rose calls her father when she wants and her mother is always respectful of her love for her father. Even for adults, this book is good.

View all my reviews

Summer On Blossom Street (Blossom Street, #6)

2010-11-24T15:02:00.000-08:00

Summer On Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lydia Goetz, owner of "A Good Yarn" knitting shop decides to start a novel new knitting group. "Knit to Quit." It doesn't matter what you are quitting, just let knitting get you through it. She doesn't have to wait long for willing customers and new knitters. First there's Phoebe Rylander who wants to end her relationship with a man and Alix Turner who has to quit smoking when she and her husband want to have a baby. Then there's Bryan Hutchinson whose doctor recommends he take up knitting as a way of reducing stress.

Anne Marie Roche has made a pleasant life with her adopted daughter, Ellen when someone from the past comes in the shop to complicate it and then Lydia, herself, has her own stress when she and her family agree to keep a rebelious teen-ager for a week until she can be placed.

As usual, the knitting group becomes more than just a place to learn to knit. In bits and pieces stories are told and friendships are forged. This is a delightful book about what happens when strangers are thrown together by a compelling hobby called knitting.

View all my reviews

Murder At Ebbets Field

2010-11-20T11:49:00.000-08:00

Murder At Ebbets Field by Troy Soos

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mickey Rawlings is a utility player for the New York Giants during the pennant race for the 1914 World's Series. When he is picked for a bit part in a movie about baseball, he meets a glamorous movie star and a young woman who is also in the movie. Unfortunately, the movie star is murdered and Mickey has a hard time proving that it isn't him. He and a young Casey Stengal cross paths and become friends in the midst of the mystery. This is not just a mystery, but a lot of fun historical information, both about Casey and baseball in it's infancy. It is a great read for anyone who has any interest in baseball.

View all my reviews

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (Ballad Mystery, #2

2010-11-17T19:16:00.000-08:00

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter by Sharyn McCrumb

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This story is as odd as the several mountain stories that are told within it. Nora Bonesteel has the second sight and she often has the coffee poured and plates of cookies out arleady when the visitor comes up the road. She is the character around whom the story is told although she is not the main character. There is a terrible tragedy and four members of the Underhill family are dead and the remaining two children are dazed and left without kin to take them in. There are several more stories which thread through the book, a young woman's struggle to bear a child, a tragic fire and the sad death of a farmer suffering from fatal cancer from toxic chemicals leached into the stream that runs through his property.

The stories are a window into the Appalacian culture, its strengths and its weaknesses. The characters are vivid and real and the story telling is just as it should be...dark stories of mystery, love and tragedy. This is a wonderful book to sit back and enjoy

View all my reviews

Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood

2010-11-07T19:57:00.000-08:00

Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood by Julie Gregory

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the story of a young woman whose mother constantly took her to doctors or hospitals. The mother suffered from Munchausen's by Proxy whereby a person, usually the mother attempts to make herself feel important and validated by causing illness in her child and then working with the doctors to try to correct what is wrong. Julie Gregory was taken to doctors constantly as a child, sometimes for real illnesses, but more often by induced by her mother. She was frequently starved and was denied treatment when her wrist was broken until it was almost too late. She frequently missed school and when she was there, she was often too sick or tired from being in the emergency room all night to learn.

As Julie grew up, she began to rebel against her mother's treatment, but she could find no help in her family. Her father was ineffectual and often just didn't care to go up against his wife even though he knew what was happening to Julie. Eventually, her mother brought in elderly boarders and foster children and when Julie wasn't available she began to shift her attention to the foster children. It was at this point, and after her mother burned down the house for insurance money that Julie was successful in finding someone to believe her.

This is a terrible disease, but Julie provides enough background for the reader to understand her mother's family and the terrible life her mother had growing up. In fact, the disfunctional family seems to go back for generations. While this book is sometimes hard to read, it is important to know that these situations exist and that children need to be listened to.

View all my reviews

Taken into Custody: The War Against Fatherhood, Marriage, and the Family

2010-11-07T17:10:00.000-08:00

Taken into Custody: The War Against Fatherhood, Marriage, and the Family by Stephen Baskerville

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was a real eye opener. I had the idea that it was the men who ran off with "Tiffany" and left the women and children behind. Both this book and my experience is that there are so many more women who are leaving with the kids and the husband is left behind, often forced to leave his home, get an expensive lawyer and fight to see his kids.

This book also presented the idea that "No Fault Divorce" is the only contract where one person can break the contract and force the other person to pay. The left behind spouse has to get a lawyer, divide his or her income, be faced with hardly seeing his/her own children and often forced out of the house he/she has paid for. There is something seriously wrong here.

So often, the person who leaves has an unrealistic idea of what the future is going to hold. They see themselves as getting on in a new life and building a life with someone eles, leaving the old problems behind. Unfortunately, when that dream is crashed it is too late. They end up with vastly reduced circumstances, a more demmanding job to pay the additional expenses and children who are unhappy and very frequently having behavioral problems which take their lives in a totally different direction.

This book is important for all fathers involved in a divorce to read. It is not just "the other side", it is a cost that society pays as well as the involved parties. No one would sign a business contract in which one partner could leave and not pay a penalty; and especially leaving the other partner holding the bag and paying for the default while loosing most of the assets. Divorce is costing everyone and society has a right to limit the behavior of people whose actions are going to impact it. This book doesn't say that there should be no divorce, but that "no fault" does not serve society or the children of these marriages. On a personal note, I have found this to be a true representation in several cases I know of myself. It is no always the case, by any means, but it is happening much more than is known

View all my reviews

Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You

2010-11-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You by Holly Black

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a beautiful guide to go along with the Spiderwick Chronicles. The artwork is amazing, as it the creativity of the series authors. This is a great seriese for the 8-15 year olds...and fanciful adults.

View all my reviews

A Beautiful Child

2010-11-07T13:41:00.000-08:00

A Beautiful Child by Matt Birkbeck

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is the story off a young girl who was abducted by a man (or she was given to him by her father) when she was about four to six years old. She was a beautiful child even then, but she managed to be an exceptional student who received a scholarship to Georgia Tech and a stunningly beautiful young woman. She wanted to be an astronaut and it appears as if she would have achieved that goal had she been allowed to. Instead, her father put her in stripper bars and basically became her pimp. Eventually he was implicated in her death.

I just finished this and found it to be impossible to put down. It is amazing to think about all "Sharon" accomplished in school, knowing what her home life was. I can't help but think of what she could have done in a nurturing home. Her abductor blamed all his trouble and bad behavior on his upbringing and yet he provided such a horrible life for her and she rose above it. What a tragedy all around.

My feelings about then end of the book are divided. It is amazing how much law enforcement has improved in the area of missing children. Where once there was little done nationally and local law enforcement didn't get involved until the child was missing 24 hours, now there are the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, America's Most Wanted, and numerous other groups to help families whose children are missing. Local law enforcement have the child's description on the police database within the hour, but still too many children are abducted and murdered.

View all my reviews

The Devil's Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century

2010-11-05T09:03:00.000-07:00

The Devil's Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century by Harold Schechter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was the story of Roland Molineaux, a poisoner from the turn of the 20th century. He was the son of a famous and beloved General of the Civil War. He was accused of poisoning a rival for his intended wife and a man from his health club whom he had taken a severe dislike to. While the case added up, the motive seemed extreme for a gentleman of his class. The story was very interesting, especially as it was something of a "bad seed" affair. This is also another "Lizzy Borden" case in which there was a great deal of controversy about the verdicts which have not been agreed upon to this day.

Along with this is the story of the tabloid press or "yellow journalism" engendered by Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. Both men took over failing newspapers and turned them into wildly successful enterprises which left them multi-millionairs. What was especially interesting to me was the fact that the papers had detectives of their own and often managed to stay one step ahead of the police. This case changed journalism forever.

View all my reviews