Is That a Poem in Your Pocket?

Happy "National Poem in Your Pocket" Day! From Poets.org:

Celebrate the second national Poem In Your Pocket Day on Thursday, April 30, 2009!

The idea is simple: select a poem you love during National Poetry Month then carry it with you to share with co-workers, family, and friends on April 30, 2009.

I think I will carry this one to celebrate being an "April Girl" ...

Always Marry An April Girl
by Ogden Nash

Praise the spells and bless the charms,
I found April in my arms.
April golden, April cloudy,
Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy;
April soft in flowered languor,
April cold with sudden anger,
Ever changing, ever true --
I love April, I love you.

Will you have a poem in your pocket today?

A sucker for a gimmicky day,
K

"Wherever I went I saw a question mark at the heart of the city."

Why is it that so many of the mysteries I read that are set in Venice are the most crass or violent kind? This book, The Lying Tongue by Andrew Wilson, is a psychological suspense story set in modern day Venice but involving a mystery from 1960s England. The mystery itself and the unexpected solution are inventive but some of the plot elements seemed random and irrelevant.

Adam is a recent college graduate who is an aspiring writer. Through a series of random events, he ends up employed by a one-time writer who is now holed up in a villa in Venice. Adam is supposed to take care of cleaning, cooking and home maintenance but ends up working on the author's correspondence and finds what appears to be a blackmail letter. He decides to find out the history behind the letter and ends up in a complex situation caused by lies and deception.

The writing was good in this book and the ending was creepy and strange. Andrew Wilson has also written a biography of Patricia Highsmith, if you're a fan of hers.

A bit scared of a trip to Venice,
K


Buy The Lying Tongue on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Early Review: The Man's Book

A new handbook is being released called The Man's Book: The Essential Guide for the Modern Man by Thomas Fink. This is a very comprehensive collection of manly and general knowledge topics. Each subject heading begins with humorous and appropriate quotes from various sources. Everything is covered in this book from first dates to liqueurs to knots -- hopefully not all needed on the same night!

This book is also handy for girlfriends or wives or daughters with cooking conversion tables and cocktail recipes. The visual charts of beard types and hair loss patterns are hilarious! The only section I really had a problem with was "How to Start Smoking". Smoking is not manly, nor is it healthy.

The Man's Book will be available on May 6, just in time to become a Father's Day present.

Amused by the strategy of urinal choice,
K


Buy The Man's Book: The Essential Guide for the Modern Man on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Early Review: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

If any author has ever been farther away from their main character than 70 year old Canadian Alan Bradley is from eleven year old British Flavia de Luce, it could only be in a fantasy. Yet somehow Bradley has crafted a young detective that is bright, impetuous and strong in his first Flavia novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. This novel won its first award before it was even published.

Flavia De Luce is an eleven year old with the soul of a much older woman. She loves chemistry, especially poisons, and has her own lab thanks to a relative a few generations before. She has two bossy older sisters and a distant father -- her mother died when she was a baby. She compensates by immersing herself in science and exploration. She becomes a detective when she finds a man dead in the cucumber patch and suspects that her father had something to do with it.

The writing in this book is fantastic and was actually the only small disappointment I had because it wasn't quite believable as the voice of an eleven year old, however mature she may be. However, there are much worse complaints that one can have about a book so I can forgive this! One of the elements of the mystery was also obvious early but I think that might have been on purpose because we can't expect a young girl to reason as well as an adult.

This book will be available tomorrow, April 28, from Delacorte Press. It is meant to be the first in a series. The second book is supposedly already finished and Bradley is working on the third.

Thinking about stocking some antidotes,
K


Buy The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Book Trailers: Do You Watch Them?

Book trailers have apparently been around for the past few years, regularly used for about the last four. I didn't really notice them until recently and I honestly haven't watched any yet. Well, not until just now when I was curious about the trailer for Carlos Ruiz-Safon's new book The Angel's Game. It was music and still shots of 1920s Barcelona with a narrator's voice-over. I can't say I got too much information from it but it was beautiful.

Do any of you, my readers, watch book trailers? Do they affect your book choices?

Bookscreening, Trailer Spy and Book Trailers are just a few of the sites where you can view these trailers. They can also be found on YouTube and other video sharing sites and on book purchasing sites.

Curious if images and music can really sell books,
K

Poe Fridays: Three Sundays in a Week

The Poe Fridays short story for this week was Three Sundays in a Week. You can read it here.

A very "fine old English gentleman," was my grand-uncle Rumgudgeon, but unlike him of the song, he had his weak points. He was a little, pursy, pompous, passionate semicircular somebody, with a red nose, a thick scull, [sic] a long purse, and a strong sense of his own consequence. With the best heart in the world, he contrived, through a predominant whim of contradiction, to earn for himself, among those who only knew him superficially, the character of a curmudgeon. Like many excellent people, he seemed possessed with a spirit of tantalization, which might easily, at a casual glance, have been mistaken for malevolence. To every request, a positive "No!" was his immediate answer, but in the end -- in the long, long end -- there were exceedingly few requests which he refused. Against all attacks upon his purse he made the most sturdy defence; but the amount extorted from him, at last, was generally in direct ratio with the length of the siege and the stubbornness of the resistance. In charity no one gave more liberally or with a worse grace.

This is the description that we are given of the author's uncle and guardian. The young man (20 years old) wants to marry his cousin (15 years old) but the uncle says he can marry her only in a week with three Sundays. Of course, this seems impossible but the youngsters want to get married so much that they find a way to make this happen.

This was a rather short and uneventful story. I believe it was meant to be humorous and witty but I don't think it translates very well to modern times. Some of the word play was amusing but the ending of the story was anti-climatic. And as we can expect from Poe, we get the somewhat disturbing young bride scenario again.

Next week's Poe Friday selection will be the strangely titled short story, Why the Little Frenchman Wears His Hand in a Sling. I can't wait to find out!

Annoyed by ornery guardians,
K

New Release: The Crimes of Paris

I've been having problems getting started on my review of Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler's The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection. It's not because I didn't enjoy the book -- the opposite is true. I think that I'm having trouble writing this review because this book is just so chock full of information that I have no idea where to begin! This was a very interesting book full of fascinating anecdotes and stories about crime and crime detection in turn-of-the-century Paris.

Just a few of the fun topics that this book explores are:

--Crime writing ... who wrote about crime, who wrote about criminals and who created the first detective novel.
--Crime detection ... Bertillonage, Vidocq, detecting poisons and the advent of fingerprinting.
--Crime ... anarchists, the first getaway car and the theft of the Mona Lisa.
--Art ... Picasso and his contemporaries try to change the way they express their world views.

How these authors possibly fit this much information into a 300 page book is beyond me but I feel like I have gained incredible amounts of trivial information and some overall impressions of late 19th and early 20th century Paris. This book also tied perfectly into some of my recent reading: The Black Tower, a historical fiction featuring the police detective Vidocq, The Dark Lantern, with part of the plot turning on Bertillonage, and Murder on the Eiffel Tower, where we visit the 1889 World Expo in Paris.

This was an impressive book and I would love to check out some of the other fiction and non-fiction that this couple have written together.

Fascinated by the birth of detection,
K


Buy The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Books Galore

On Sunday I went and checked out the big clearance at Borders (thanks Alea!) and picked up four books--two hardcover--for twenty dollars. Then I opened up a huge stack of presents today that were mostly books! Here are some of the titles I now own:

The Royal Shakespeare Company's William Shakespeare Complete Works (I have a few of the plays in paperback from high school and college but wanted a good Complete Works)
The King's Gold by Arturo Perez-Reverte (The next in the Captain Alatriste series)
The Law and the Lady by Wilkie Collins
Basil by Wilkie Collins
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes
The Secret Life of Houdini by William Kalush (I've become interested in Houdini lately in regards to spiritualism)
The Fig Eater by Jody Shields
Pinkerton's Sister by Peter Rushforth
The Lying Tongue by Andrew Wilson

Add in a couple of review books that I received this past week and my TBR pile is *way* too big!

Almost able to build a house of books,
K

"Hercule Poirot came out of the Vielle Grand'mere restaurant into Soho."

When I need a filler read, I have a long list of Poirot stories left. This one, Mrs. McGinty's Dead, was quite a good one. A man is scheduled to be executed for murdering his landlady but the superintendent that collected the evidence that convicted the young man isn't sure of his guilt. He asks Poirot to look into the case. Poirot goes to the small village where the murder happened and of course finds the one miniscule piece of evidence needed to lead him to the truth.

The clues in this case could lead to a few different conclusions so it was actually a good one for trying to guess the ending. Sometimes in Poirot stories I feel like his conclusions just come out of nowhere. Yet while this was one of the best Poirot mysteries, Christie uses her fictional author, Ariadne Oliver, to deliver lines that are obviously Christie's feelings about her own detective.

"How do I know why I ever thought of the revolting man? I must have been mad. Why a Finn when I know nothing about Finland? ... Why all the idiotic mannerisms he's got? These things just happen. You try something--and people seem to like it--and then you go on--and before you know where you are, you've got someone like that maddening Sven Hjerson tied to you for life. And people even write and say how fond you must be of him. Fond of him? If I met that ... Finn in real life, I'd do a better murder than any I've ever invented."

Learning to pay attention to the details,
K


Buy Mrs. McGinty's Dead on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Lazy Birthday Post

All I've wished for this year are some new books and music and some time with my family. Here's to a happy day!

Whistling a copyrighted tune to myself,
K

Enjoying Picture Book Art

Recently, two picture books have come into the house that I love to pick up just to look at the amazing illustrations.


The first is a library book that they had on display, Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland, a retelling of the Disney version of Alice by Jon Scieszka. The art in this book is compiled from the original Alice imaginings by Disney artist Mary Blair. I am a pretty big Alice in Wonderland fan so it was interesting to see the first artistic ideas for the movie. The pastels are somehow muted yet vivid. While Alice was changed quite a bit, so many of the backgrounds and peripheral characters are almost exactly what Blair created. The text in this book is only so-so (from the perspective of a fan) but probably sufficient for a child just becoming interested in the story. I just wish that they had kept the "crab-grass" in the garden scene!


The second book is one that I originally found out about through MotherReader's review and that made its way into Z's Easter basket (well, next to it because it's large). This book is The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino. He is the creator of Oswald and has many other picture books. This one is just incredibly fantastic though. The textures of the undersea world and the portraits of Cousteau are wonderful. The color palette can be seen in the title. This book also delivers a wealth of positive messages to children gleaned from Cousteau's own life -- perseverance, curiosity and environmental responsibility are just a few of them.

Which picture books do you love for their art?

Enjoying these museums of paper,
K and Z


Buy Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland and The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau on Amazon or find them at your local library.

Poe Fridays: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

This week's Poe Fridays short story is The Murders in the Rue Morgue which you can read here.

The beginning of this story is a longish somewhat rambling discourse on the different types of problem solving -- analysis versus ingenuity.

The analytical power should not be confounded with simple ingenuity; for while the analyst is necessarily ingenious, the ingenious man is often remarkably incapable of analysis. The constructive or combining power, by which ingenuity is usually manifested, and to which the phrenologists (I believe erroneously) have assigned a separate organ, supposing it a primitive faculty, has been so frequently seen in those whose intellect bordered otherwise upon idiocy, as to have attracted general observation among writers on morals. Between ingenuity and the analytic ability there exists a difference far greater, indeed, than that between the fancy and the imagination, but of a character very strictly analogous. It will be found, in fact, that the ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic.

After this, we are told we can see the brilliance of analysis in action in the case of a young man named C. Auguste Dupin. The narrator of this story becomes friends with Dupin and they move together into a dilapidated castle. They spend all of their time sequestered and talking and reading and thinking. When they read in the newspaper of a horrific double murder, Dupin thinks its solution is a challenge worthy of him. They visit the murder scene but Dupin solves the mystery from the comfort of his home using only his powers of observation and analysis.

This is classic Poe and was in fact the first "detective" story. Dupin was the model for none other than Sherlock Holmes. This story was very popular when it was released and it led to Poe's popularity in France. This is one tale where Poe uses both his wit and intelligence without co-mingling self-pity in the story.

Next week, I would like to read Three Sundays in a Week, another short story.

Wondering who would move to "Morgue Street",
K

"People have been slipping out of this world in occupational clusters ... for years."

I've left the artwork here a bit larger than normal because I absolutely love the cover of this book -- The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries by Marilyn Johnson. I don't remember where I heard about this book (maybe in this review from Jenners?) but it sounded interesting so it made it into my library queue. It's an odd-sized book for a slightly odd topic that Johnson swears is the most normal thing in the world.

Many facets of the obituary world are touched on in this book -- writers, obituary collectors, celebrity funerals and the tragedy of September 11th -- just to name a few. I thought the train of thought through the book was a bit scattered and sometimes I disagreed with Johnson's take on something but this was an entertaining read. The last paragraph really brings the whole issue together in a soft-hearted but professional manner.

"I still think that the point of the obituary and the beauty of it, aside from its elegant structure and the wonderful writing it can inspire, lies in that heroic act. There goes one, the only one, the last of his kind, the end of a particular strand of DNA. ... The better the obit, the closer it approaches re-creation. It's an act of reverence, a contemplation of this life that sparked and died, but also an act of defiance, a fist waved at God or the stars. And what else, really, do we have besides the story?"

I plan sometime soon to pick up the recently released The Economist Book of Obituaries, a collection of 199 obituaries run in The Economist over the last 13 years.

Wondering if the word "accomplished" could be used in my obit yet,
K


Buy The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries and The Economist Book of Obituaries on Amazon or find them at your local library.

Bringing Home Sleepy Animals (and Extinct Ones)

This week I let Z pick his own three books from the library and he chose two about sleeping. Strange!

The first book (which is not about sleeping) is Dinosaur Roar! by Paul and Henrietta Stickland, the same Paul Stickland whose dino pop-up book we have. This is a book of bright illustrations and simple rhymes. If you have a really young one that is into dinosaurs, there are whole pages that are just a collection of dino drawings that will fascinate them for a while. I think we will keep looking for more Stickland books because they are colorful and happy.

The first of our bedtime books is Little Quack's Bedtime by Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Derek Anderson. We haven't read any of the other Little Quack books, but this is an adorable one on its own! The illustrations remind me a bit of the little ducky in Suzy's Zoo. Five duck siblings fall asleep one by one after overcoming their fears during the night. Their mom lets them know that the different sounds and movements are the natural rhythms of the night. And if you were wondering if a cartoon duck yawn on the cover of a picture book is contagious, it is!

The final book we got is Bear Snores On, another book from a series that we haven't checked out before. This book is by Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman. Bear is hibernating on a cold and snowy night and, one by one, little critters come to take shelter in the den. They end up having a party while Bear sleeps. Eventually, something wakes Bear up and he is furious and then sad! He has missed the party! So he joins in the fun and, by the morning, all of the other animals are sleeping. This book has a great rhythm and a good building of tension as bear wakes up and reacts. I'm very interested in the other books in this series.

Ducks and bears and dinos, oh my!
K and Z


Buy Dinosaur Roar!, Little Quack's Bedtime and Bear Snores On on Amazon or find them at your local library.

Early Review: Mother of the Believers

I was very excited to get a chance to read Mother of the Believers: A Novel of the Birth of Islam, the first book by screenwriter Kamran Pasha. When I read Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses last year, I became familiar with many of the names associated with the founding of Islam but the stories were exaggerated and twisted so I didn't get a good sense of the true history. Mother of the Believers is a novel and thus is partially fictionalized but it is based in the oral histories passed down through generations of Muslims and the history and characters are factual.

"Mother of the Believers" was the honorific title given to any of the wives of the prophet Muhammad. This narrative is the history and confession of the most beloved of the Mothers, Aisha. She married the prophet when she was only nine years old and she was his third wife. He ended up with many wives as he kept marrying widows that needed protection or women that were politically significant to the growth of the fledgling religion. Much of Aisha's story deals with her feelings while being a child bride and the mistakes that she makes in her life based on her youthful temper and her teenage jealousies. She was extremely beautiful but also somewhat impulsive and her outbursts would sometimes get her in trouble or embarrass Muhammad or the other Mothers.

Regardless of these things, I think that most readers will fall in love with Aisha the way that her father and mother, her sister, her husband and many more did. I normally don't recommend books because I think that tastes are highly subjective and individual but I think this book is a must read for people of all faiths and those of little or no faith. In our world today, Islam is so often misunderstood that it would be very productive for more people to familiarize themselves with its origins and its core beliefs. And while you would send someone to the New Testament to gain an understanding of Christianity, I have found the Qur'an to be a difficult entry point to Islam. This writing in this novel is very fluid and engaging and the reader will be familiar with the origins of Islam with little effort. If you would like to read the Qur'an or any biographies of Muhammad, the author also generously provides a list of sources as an Author's Note in the book.

Mother of the Believers is available to purchase today. For more information you can visit Kamran Pasha's website. I leave you with a quote from the author's blog --

All in all, there is enough in my novel to offend and outrage anyone who has a specific agenda regarding Islam. Some non-Muslims will label me as an apologist for defending the Prophet and suggesting that their critiques are unfair and motivated by a bigoted agenda. And some conservative Muslims will not like the book, because I show the early Muslims as fallible human beings, and their agenda is to portray Islam and its heroes in as perfect and pristine ways as possible.

But as a believing Muslim myself, I embrace the humanity of these people, as did the early Muslim historians. There is nothing to learn from a plastic saint who does not share our foibles and weaknesses. The point of “Mother of the Believers” is that if flawed, passionate, complex people like the founders of Islam could find spiritual enlightenment, maybe we can too.

Becoming a better world citizen,
K


Buy Mother of the Believers: A Novel of the Birth of Islam on Amazon or find it at your local library.

"Clare: It's hard being left behind."

The Time Traveler's Wife is a book that I have frequently picked up at the bookstore, read the blurb and then decided against buying it. After so many mentions of it recently though, and the news that Audrey Niffenegger was finally working on a second book, I finally decided to give this one a chance. Besides going through half a box of tissues, I found a fascinating study of an unconventional relationship.

The back of the book gives the best brief summary of this book --

When Henry meets Clare, he is twenty-eight and she is twenty. He is a hip librarian; she is a beautiful art student. Henry has never met Clare before; Clare has known Henry since she was six ...

Henry is the time traveler and Clare is his wife. Henry's time travels frequently center around the meaningful people in his life so it's no surprise that his travels later in life are to the younger version of a wife he loves very much. However, his life is still somehow linear so he doesn't have memory of these visits until they actually happen for him. He begins traveling when he is five and it changes his life. Nothing travels with him so he always arrives at his destination naked and with no money or anything. This breeds a need for some rather questionable skills like breaking and entering, pickpocketing and fighting. His main goal, though, is to stop the time travel and to be able to enjoy his life with Clare.

This book is a touching story of a relationship that is strong enough to withstand all of the trials and separation that come with Henry's condition. I thought it was a bit crude in some parts but that might just be because I don't read very many modern novels. I didn't have any trouble following the time traveling Henry because every scene is identified as being either from Henry or Clare's point of view and is dated and lists their ages. This was very helpful!

There is a movie version of this book being released this August, starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana. It's a strange coincidence because at the end of this novel I was reminded of another McAdams picture, The Notebook -- and not just because of the number of tissues I dampened.

Grateful to have most of my moments with the ones I love,
K


Buy The Time Traveler's Wife on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny always brings us books so I can't wait to see what we get this year!

Hunting for plastic eggs of goodness,
K and Z

Poe Fridays: The Oval Portrait

This week's Poe Fridays selection was the very short story The Oval Portrait. It wasn't on the normal site that I use for the stories so head over and read it at this good-looking site.

This is a very short story about a man who is injured and so his valet breaks into a closed-up house to find shelter for the night. The master chooses a bed in a room full of art that also happens to have a book on the pillow that gives the history of each painting. In the middle of the night, he moves the candelabrum and a portrait that was previously in shadow is revealed. He is so disturbed by the eerily life-like yet beautiful portrayal of young woman that he turns to the book for the history of this work. What he finds is of course a tragic story.

She was a maiden of rarest beauty, and not more lovely than full of glee. And evil was the hour when she saw, and loved, and wedded the painter. He, passionate, studious, austere, and having already a bride in his Art; she a maiden of rarest beauty, and not more lovely than full of glee; all light and smiles, and frolicsome as the young fawn; loving and cherishing all things; hating only the Art which was her rival; dreading only the pallet and brushes and other untoward instruments which deprived her of the countenance of her lover. It was thus a terrible thing for this lady to hear the painter speak of his desire to portray even his young bride. But she was humble and obedient, and sat meekly for many weeks in the dark, high turret-chamber where the light dripped upon the pale canvas only from overhead.

This is an incredibly well-built story for its very short length. And the emotion evoked in these brief words is as good as any of Poe's longer works. I am always able to conjure a vivid mental picture while reading Poe which is one of the reasons I enjoy his stories more than many other short stories.

I've avoided some of the longer stories for a while here but I'm really dying to re-read The Murders in the Rue Morgue so let's be ambitious!

Avoiding soul-consuming art,
K

If You Give a Kid a Series ...

Some books come out in that time between when we are kids ourselves and when we become parents. Unless they are specifically brought to our attention, we miss out on them. Laura Numeroff's If You ... series is one that I hadn't heard of until recently when I started volunteering at the school library and Z had a unit on one of the books in preschool. These are easy reading picture books with a mischievous sense of humor. They are perfect for demonstrating cause and effect, both positive and negative.

If you give a mouse a cookie,
he's going to ask for a glass of milk.
When you give him the milk,
he'll probably ask you for a straw.
When he's finished, he'll ask for a napkin.

The series includes the following books:
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
If You Take a Mouse to the Movies
If You Take a Mouse to School
If You Give a Moose a Muffin
If You Give a Pig a Pancake
If You Give a Cat a Cupcake
If You Give a Pig a Party

I think those are all of them. Z's favorite right now is If You Give a Cat a Cupcake because that's the one they read in class and they got to eat cupcakes at the end of the week! Not surprisingly, he convinced me that we need to make cupcakes for Easter.

If you give a kid an idea,
K and Z

New Release: Sherlock Holmes in America

It has probably been a decade since I read through all of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories so it was nice to revisit the character in the newly released Sherlock Holmes in America. With a foreward by Daniel Stashower and also including a dinner speech about America from Conan Doyle himself, this collection of short stories about Holmes is literally all over the map ... of America.

Some stories in this book feature Holmes by himself, some with Watson, a couple with his brother Mycroft and one story even stars a young Harry Houdini picturing himself as Sherlock Holmes. The stories take place in such varied places as San Diego, Salt Lake City, San Antonio and Boston. Some of the stories are based on previously written Holmes stories and others are completely new. Most of the mysteries are somewhat simple but the characters are complex and interesting. Even if you haven't read any Sherlock Holmes stories before, this book stands alone fairly well.

One of the prevailing themes is that America is a country of action and of survival. In Conan Doyle's words:

These things are the romance of America, the romance of change, of contrast, of danger met and difficulty overcome, and let me say that we, as your kinsmen, upon the other side, exult in your success and in your prosperity ...

This book is chock-full of award winning American writers and the variety of styles and themes is refreshing and fun.

Enjoying the marriage of two worlds,
K


Buy Sherlock Holmes in America on Amazon or find it at your local library.

"Even if she hadn't been the last person to walk through the turnstile ... Jack Barker would have noticed the tall, slender woman ..."

I may be the last historical mystery fan on Earth to start reading this series but I am now a fan of Maisie Dobbs! This first book in Jacqueline Winspear's series about a woman in post-WWI London is both mystery and back story for Maisie. It had a good amount of suspense but also some depth in the analysis of the effect of the war on those who participated in it. It also touches on the subject of the British classes before and after the war.

The best thing about this book, though, is Maisie herself -- the parlormaid turned university student. Her tutelage by Maurice Blanche turns her into the consummate detective but also the perfect friend. She knows the value of sympathy and empathy, listening and suggesting, action and inaction. From Blanche she gained both intelligence and wisdom. Yet, all of these things are less than satisfying after she loses the one thing that she never thought about having -- love.

Feelings seem to run hot and cold for this series but I have fallen for it. I will try not to read through the remaining books too quickly!

Content with the aquisition of a new literary friend,
K


Buy Maisie Dobbs on Amazon or find it at your local library.

New Release: King's Fool

As far as historical fiction goes, one of the most visited periods is that of Henry VIII and his six wives. King's Fool by Margaret Campbell Barnes is that story with a twist -- it is the autobiography of Will Somers, court jester to King Henry.

Will Somers lost his mother at a young age and worked on his uncle's farm. He impressed a passing merchant, Richard Fermor, and was taken into Fermor's employ as a worker and scribe. When he accompanied this man to a meeting at the royal palace, he caught the eye of the King and was hired on the spot as the King's fool. Through time, Will uses his skills as a listener and a friend to become more than just entertainment. He keeps his job as he watches queens come and go and witnesses his King lose his virility and strength.

This was a very enjoyable tale that gives a brief introduction to the reign of Henry VIII. Somers was a very likeable character and the love story that Barnes added in was sweet. She is very talented at writing dialogue and at condensing large amounts of history into a short book. I would definitely like to read more of the novels that she wrote about the court of Henry VIII. This book was just re-released by Sourcebooks.

Appreciating that the fool was no fool,
K


Buy King's Fool: A Notorious King, His Six Wives, and the One Man Who Knew All Their Secrets on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Book v. Movie: Madame Bovary

In the 1949 film version of Madame Bovary, the author, Gustave Flaubert, is on trial for creating an unsavory, un-ladylike and detestable character in Emma Bovary. This is of course based on the actual lawsuit brought against Flaubert and his publisher on charges of immorality. They were acquitted and the book was a success.

This was a book that I avoided reading for a very long time based on a lack of knowledge of the plot. When I finally picked it up a couple of years ago, I was surprised by how engaging and heartbreaking this story was. Emma Rouault is a young woman who dreams of romance and chivalry while living the life of a farmer's daughter. When she has the opportunity to leave her life for one she believes to be more compelling, that of a doctor's wife, she finds reality to be far from what she desires. In an attempt to remedy this, she recklessly overspends to have a home above her station and has extramarital affairs in a search for those things she craves. She neglects her child and embarasses M. Bovary, her husband.

The film is a very accurate telling of the story and almost perfectly captures the pathos of Madame Bovary's situation. Jennifer Jones is Emma and Van Heflin is her tragic husband. My only complaint is the standard one I have with films of this time period -- the use of British actors in a French film who don't even attempt an accent. Some side characters are slightly French but not many!

Verdict: Read the novel and then watch the movie. You won't be disappointed with either.

Understanding a bit of Emma's angst,
K


Buy Madame Bovary (the novel) and Madame Bovary (the film) on Amazon or find them at at your local library.

Poe Fridays: The Cask of Amontillado

This week's fairly short Poe story is The Cask of Amontillado which you can read here.

Poe has many stories that touch on a variety of fantastical topics but then he has a set that are based on a small pool of negative subjects. This story is a combination of revenge and live burial. The narrator has a "frenemy" -- a man who he associates with regularly but whom he feels is constantly disparaging him.

THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could ; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged ; this was a point definitively settled - but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved, precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.

So the narrator hatches a dastardly plan and executes his revenge. This story differs from some others though in that there is no remorse or discovery at the end.

The suspense and anxiety are palpable in this story, as is Poe's forte. This was an enjoyable story.

Next week, the short The Oval Portrait.

Not following my friends or enemies into any crypts,
K

A Real Family Treasure

My trip last week was to help my mom sort through my grandma's belongings that have been in storage. We found many strange things, quite a few valuables and one very cool book --


As far as I can tell, this is a second edition, published in 1904 (the first edition was in 1903). It has a beautiful title page and color plates.





It is possible that this book belonged to either my great grandparents or my great-great grandparents because I don't have the kind of family that invests in books. This would have originally been bought in 1904. Now I wish that my grandma had shared this sort of information with us! But at least I have the book and, as I read about the adventures of Buck, I can imagine generations before me enjoying this same journey.

Connecting with the past,
K

New Release: Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark

I will admit that Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark by Donna Lea Simpson is not normally the kind of book I would pick up. The partially-shirted man on the cover would pretty much steer me away from choosing it. But in this case I would have missed out on a well-formed suspense story with only a touch of romance writing. This book has everything that a good cozy mystery needs -- a tower, a castle, a purported werewolf and a terrible mother-in-law -- all scary things!

Lady Anne is a Georgian spinster who is asked by her friend Lydia to come to her new married home and help her find out about the werewolf that has been scaring locals and killing sheep. Of course, Anne is a woman of reason and is sure there is something far less supernatural menacing the residents of this area of Yorkshire. Anne, upon arriving, literally stumbles across a fresh body and thus decides that her true purpose will be to find out who murdered this girl, Lydia's maid. The only thing in her way is Lydia's handsome brother-in-law, Lord Darkefell, who seems to be keeping secrets of his own.

This book was a fun read and I think it would be a great summer beach book. It was obviously written with a series in mind so I would be interested to see what direction Simpson takes with these characters.

Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark will be released by Sourcebooks in April.

Glad to live in a time of sexual equality,
K


Buy Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark on Amazon or find it at your local library.