Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
After nearly two decades spent on British soil bestselling author, Bill Bryson, decided to return to the United States. But before departing, he set out one last grand farewell tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home. Veering from the ludicrous to the endearing and back again, his venture is a delightfully irreverent jaunt around the unparalleled floating nation that has produced zebra crossings, Shakespeare, Twiggie Winkie's Farm, and places with names like Farleigh Wallop and Titsey. The result is an uproarious social commentary that conveys the true glory of Britain, from the satiric pen of an unapologetic Anglophile.
Of course being a big fan of any British I had to read this book, well I listened to it on CD during my drive around town. What a great trip down memory lane as I listened to his travels to parts I had visited to parts I know what to venture to. What made this book interesting was his path around the island, most of which was to parts that most tourists never venture. He was intrigued by the names or by things he had read or heard about from friends.
I think that the only part that was annoying to me was the rants he would get on about say Oxford. But I can overlook that as Bryson has such an authentic voice and such a love for Britian. I had not heard of this writer before as I am not a big fan of non-fiction books but I think I'll look for others he has written.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Extra Large Medium by Helen Slavin
Annie Colville sees dead people, and the dead wear chocolate brown while inhabiting the "Waiting Room of Heaven World," which overlaps with the everyday "Living Room World" that the rest of us see. The ghosts reach out to Annie to enlist her in tidying up unfinished—and mundane as often as unconventional—business: which niece should get the Wedgwood teapot, which romantic path a lesbian daughter should follow.
But Annie also has problems of her own: her husband, Evan Bees, disappeared seven years ago, and though he's assumed dead, Annie hasn't seen him among the cocoa-clad (the countdown to when Annie can have him declared legally dead provides the book's time line); her quest to discover which of her mother's many lovers is her father is leaden with disappointment; and some ghosts prove to be more haunting than others.
This was kind of strange book, as I was expecting a bit more spookiness to it. It was very matter of fact in many ways. Annie finds ways to use her gift to help others find peace, both the living and the dead. But she is always cut short of finding peace for herself. There are several storylines told from others point of view. Some were more shocking because you discovered they were dead when you thought they were a part of the living. It was almost like watching a play of these different vignettes that I kept hoping would all tie up in the end. There was some closure but left me wanting more.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay
After a brief and mostly idyllic (except for some gruesome performance art) honeymoon in Paris, Dexter has returned to Miami as a devoted husband and family man. He's even getting involved with Rita's kids as he signs Cody up for cub scouts and takes him to his first meeting.
He returns to work just in time for a string of gruesome new murders: four people who are eviscerated, filled with weird stuff (fruit and sunscreen, among other things), and artfully arranged. When it causes a media storm, a reluctant Deb asks Dexter to please help her out with the investigation. His own experiences (and the Dark Passenger) tell Dexter that this isn't an ordinary serial killer, but someone who seems to have a strange grudge against the tourist trade of Miami. It just doesn't feel like a serial killer, but where did these bodies come from? Deborah looks into the Miami Tourist commission to see who might have a grudge and surprisingly there are several.
So Deborah and Dexter go investigating together, looking into the list given to them by the Miami Tourist commission. But then things get personal for Dexter when Deb is viciously stabbed, and while Dexter saves her and captures the attacker it looks like they can't prove it. After his relief Dexter decides to take things into his own hands and silently kills him in the night. He knows something is wrong when the man whispers "Smile" as his last word and his dark passenger is whispering to him. He quickly discovers that he because he got the wrong guy! An email shows up in his inbox with a link to Utube (we know that can't be good) and it isn't as there is a video of Dexter killing him!
The other man starts making it personal when Dexter takes Cody to his next cub scout meeting and there is the den master dead on display like the previous 4 bodies. Dexter ends up on a race against time to keep Rita and the kids from being the next round of victims. But Astrid and Cody can hold there own as they defend themselves and Rita from a kidnapping and are instrumental in helping Dexter in the end. There is a kind of surprise cliff-hanger at the end.
I eagerly awaited the latest addition of Dexter, hoping it wouldn't be like the 3rd in the series which was really a disappointment. So I was very happy to read and say "Dexter is back!". The author, Jeff Lindsay, has such a way of writing with dry humor and somehow makes you cheer for someone who would be labeled a sociopath and is a serial killer. But I really can't help it as this character is so conscious of this and still tries to live a normal life. When I read about or see on TV these horrible people who do horrible things I wish there was a Dexter in real life. If that makes me a terrible person, than so be it. I have seen a couple of episodes of the show on Showtime so maybe since this is in print it isn't a graphic to me. But I do appreciate how Lindsay, shows the struggle Dexter goes through to find his place. I think we all have that struggle with finding the appropriate way to show our emotions and react.
After a brief and mostly idyllic (except for some gruesome performance art) honeymoon in Paris, Dexter has returned to Miami as a devoted husband and family man. He's even getting involved with Rita's kids as he signs Cody up for cub scouts and takes him to his first meeting.
He returns to work just in time for a string of gruesome new murders: four people who are eviscerated, filled with weird stuff (fruit and sunscreen, among other things), and artfully arranged. When it causes a media storm, a reluctant Deb asks Dexter to please help her out with the investigation. His own experiences (and the Dark Passenger) tell Dexter that this isn't an ordinary serial killer, but someone who seems to have a strange grudge against the tourist trade of Miami. It just doesn't feel like a serial killer, but where did these bodies come from? Deborah looks into the Miami Tourist commission to see who might have a grudge and surprisingly there are several.
So Deborah and Dexter go investigating together, looking into the list given to them by the Miami Tourist commission. But then things get personal for Dexter when Deb is viciously stabbed, and while Dexter saves her and captures the attacker it looks like they can't prove it. After his relief Dexter decides to take things into his own hands and silently kills him in the night. He knows something is wrong when the man whispers "Smile" as his last word and his dark passenger is whispering to him. He quickly discovers that he because he got the wrong guy! An email shows up in his inbox with a link to Utube (we know that can't be good) and it isn't as there is a video of Dexter killing him!
The other man starts making it personal when Dexter takes Cody to his next cub scout meeting and there is the den master dead on display like the previous 4 bodies. Dexter ends up on a race against time to keep Rita and the kids from being the next round of victims. But Astrid and Cody can hold there own as they defend themselves and Rita from a kidnapping and are instrumental in helping Dexter in the end. There is a kind of surprise cliff-hanger at the end.
I eagerly awaited the latest addition of Dexter, hoping it wouldn't be like the 3rd in the series which was really a disappointment. So I was very happy to read and say "Dexter is back!". The author, Jeff Lindsay, has such a way of writing with dry humor and somehow makes you cheer for someone who would be labeled a sociopath and is a serial killer. But I really can't help it as this character is so conscious of this and still tries to live a normal life. When I read about or see on TV these horrible people who do horrible things I wish there was a Dexter in real life. If that makes me a terrible person, than so be it. I have seen a couple of episodes of the show on Showtime so maybe since this is in print it isn't a graphic to me. But I do appreciate how Lindsay, shows the struggle Dexter goes through to find his place. I think we all have that struggle with finding the appropriate way to show our emotions and react.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Ice House by Minette Walters
Ten years ago, Phoebe Maybury's hateful husband David disappeared from Streech Grange after his wife caught him in bed with their traumatized daughter Jane. After the body has never been found she still live under the umbrella of suspicion of the village. Now Phoebe lives with her two friends, Anne & Diane, and the three reclusive English women have become the subject of censure and speculation during a new murder investigation.
After a rotting corpse is found in the ice house of Streech Grange, Chief Inspector Walsh sets out at once to prove it is the body of David Maybury, whom wife Phoebe was suspected of murdering when he was reported missing years earlier. Since no body was ever found, Walsh deduces that Maybury returned and was killed by Phoebe or one of her friends, Anne and Diane, who live with her at the Grange. Detective Sgt. Alan McLoughlin, however, isn't so sure, especially after the coroner says the dead man was older than David and the local belief that the three women are a lesbian menage a trois turns out to be untrue. But McLoughlin can't understand why the Grange's residents make the investigation so difficult by refusing to answer questions and sometimes openly lying.
I have been meaning to read this book for at least 8 years and finally got around to it. It is Walters first book and while at first is a bit slow, once she gets rolling the book just sucks you in. It is a intelligent, emotionally suspenseful mystery and really not a traditional British murder mystery at all. Yes there is a murder (maybe 2) but there is this suspense in wondering what is the real motive behind all this. At once point Anne is struck and left for dead. She is saved by McLoughlin who while going through his own troubles and spends the first quarter of the book drunk is really the only person who is objective enough to find the truth. McLoughlin's wife has left him for his best friend and former police detective so he isn't the most objective when it comes to women right now. Plus the 3 women seem to relish throwing their "lesbian" relationship in his face. But is it real or just a ruse? Because McLoughlin is starting to have feelings for Anne which offers us some romantic intrigue.
You really have pay attention and there were many times I had to go back and re-read. I originally tried this on CD but found myself getting frustrated with it so went back to reading. I'm really glad that I did as it lived up to what I had read about it and left me wanting to read more of her books. Walters really has a way of writing about subjects that make you uncomfortable and she really delves deep into the souls of the characters she writes about. I'm looking forward to trying her other books soon.
Ten years ago, Phoebe Maybury's hateful husband David disappeared from Streech Grange after his wife caught him in bed with their traumatized daughter Jane. After the body has never been found she still live under the umbrella of suspicion of the village. Now Phoebe lives with her two friends, Anne & Diane, and the three reclusive English women have become the subject of censure and speculation during a new murder investigation.
After a rotting corpse is found in the ice house of Streech Grange, Chief Inspector Walsh sets out at once to prove it is the body of David Maybury, whom wife Phoebe was suspected of murdering when he was reported missing years earlier. Since no body was ever found, Walsh deduces that Maybury returned and was killed by Phoebe or one of her friends, Anne and Diane, who live with her at the Grange. Detective Sgt. Alan McLoughlin, however, isn't so sure, especially after the coroner says the dead man was older than David and the local belief that the three women are a lesbian menage a trois turns out to be untrue. But McLoughlin can't understand why the Grange's residents make the investigation so difficult by refusing to answer questions and sometimes openly lying.
I have been meaning to read this book for at least 8 years and finally got around to it. It is Walters first book and while at first is a bit slow, once she gets rolling the book just sucks you in. It is a intelligent, emotionally suspenseful mystery and really not a traditional British murder mystery at all. Yes there is a murder (maybe 2) but there is this suspense in wondering what is the real motive behind all this. At once point Anne is struck and left for dead. She is saved by McLoughlin who while going through his own troubles and spends the first quarter of the book drunk is really the only person who is objective enough to find the truth. McLoughlin's wife has left him for his best friend and former police detective so he isn't the most objective when it comes to women right now. Plus the 3 women seem to relish throwing their "lesbian" relationship in his face. But is it real or just a ruse? Because McLoughlin is starting to have feelings for Anne which offers us some romantic intrigue.
You really have pay attention and there were many times I had to go back and re-read. I originally tried this on CD but found myself getting frustrated with it so went back to reading. I'm really glad that I did as it lived up to what I had read about it and left me wanting to read more of her books. Walters really has a way of writing about subjects that make you uncomfortable and she really delves deep into the souls of the characters she writes about. I'm looking forward to trying her other books soon.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Daddy Long Legs (Manga adapation) Manga Literary Classics series by YKids
Combines this classic novel by Jean Webster with the graphic of a modern manga style. This adaptation of Jean Webster's novel has been beloved by young girls ever since it was published in 1912.
Jerusha Abbott was brought up at the John Grier Home, an old-fashioned orphanage. The children were wholly dependent on charity and had to wear other people's cast-off clothes. Jerusha's unusual first name was selected by the matron off a grave stone, while her surname was selected out of the phone book. At the age of 18, she has finished her education and is at loose ends, still working in the dormitories at the institution where she was brought up.
One day, after the asylum's trustees have made their monthly visit, Jerusha is informed by the asylum's dour matron that one of the trustees has offered to pay her way through college. He has spoken to her former teachers and thinks she has potential to become an excellent writer. He will pay her tuition and also give her a generous monthly allowance. Jerusha must write him a monthly letter, because he believes that letter-writing is important to the development of a writer. However, she will never know his identity; she must address the letters to Mr. John Smith, and he will never reply.
Jerusha catches a glimpse of the shadow of her benefactor from the back, and knows he is a tall long-legged man. Because of this, she jokingly calls him "Daddy Long-Legs." She attends a women's college, but the name and location are never identified; however, men from Princeton University are frequently mentioned as dates, so it is certainly on the East Coast.
The book chronicles Jerusha's educational, personal, and social growth. One of the first things she does at college is to change her name to "Judy." She designs a rigorous reading program for herself and struggles to gain the basic cultural knowledge to which she, growing up in the bleak environment of the orphan asylum, was never exposed. While she is at college, she becomes acquainted with Jervis Pendleton, the wealthy uncle of one of her classmates, and they become increasingly attached to each other, but her shame and embarrassment at her humble origins lead her to reject his marriage proposal despite her love for him. Unhappy and depressed, she turns to "Daddy Long-Legs" or John Smith, for advice. At the end of the book the true identity of "Daddy Long-Legs" is revealed.
It was interesting to read a graphic version of this classic story which was one of my personal favorites from my childhood. It is a much more flighty, silly kind of story where from my memory it had a much more serious feel to it. I do want to go back and re-read the original story to see if my memories are accurate. I did enjoy this modern adaptation but wish it had been to keep the feel of the original story.
Combines this classic novel by Jean Webster with the graphic of a modern manga style. This adaptation of Jean Webster's novel has been beloved by young girls ever since it was published in 1912.
Jerusha Abbott was brought up at the John Grier Home, an old-fashioned orphanage. The children were wholly dependent on charity and had to wear other people's cast-off clothes. Jerusha's unusual first name was selected by the matron off a grave stone, while her surname was selected out of the phone book. At the age of 18, she has finished her education and is at loose ends, still working in the dormitories at the institution where she was brought up.
One day, after the asylum's trustees have made their monthly visit, Jerusha is informed by the asylum's dour matron that one of the trustees has offered to pay her way through college. He has spoken to her former teachers and thinks she has potential to become an excellent writer. He will pay her tuition and also give her a generous monthly allowance. Jerusha must write him a monthly letter, because he believes that letter-writing is important to the development of a writer. However, she will never know his identity; she must address the letters to Mr. John Smith, and he will never reply.
Jerusha catches a glimpse of the shadow of her benefactor from the back, and knows he is a tall long-legged man. Because of this, she jokingly calls him "Daddy Long-Legs." She attends a women's college, but the name and location are never identified; however, men from Princeton University are frequently mentioned as dates, so it is certainly on the East Coast.
The book chronicles Jerusha's educational, personal, and social growth. One of the first things she does at college is to change her name to "Judy." She designs a rigorous reading program for herself and struggles to gain the basic cultural knowledge to which she, growing up in the bleak environment of the orphan asylum, was never exposed. While she is at college, she becomes acquainted with Jervis Pendleton, the wealthy uncle of one of her classmates, and they become increasingly attached to each other, but her shame and embarrassment at her humble origins lead her to reject his marriage proposal despite her love for him. Unhappy and depressed, she turns to "Daddy Long-Legs" or John Smith, for advice. At the end of the book the true identity of "Daddy Long-Legs" is revealed.
It was interesting to read a graphic version of this classic story which was one of my personal favorites from my childhood. It is a much more flighty, silly kind of story where from my memory it had a much more serious feel to it. I do want to go back and re-read the original story to see if my memories are accurate. I did enjoy this modern adaptation but wish it had been to keep the feel of the original story.
Monday, October 12, 2009
There Goes the Bride by M.C. Beaton
Agatha Raisin mystery
Now in her 20th mystery, Agatha Raisin is overrun with cases for her new detective agency. Overworked and needing a rest, Agatha takes a holiday visiting several of Europe's most famous battlefields. She goes to Istanbul to see the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimea War. However, Agatha is horrified to see her former husband, James Lacey, and his much younger fiancée Felicity Bross-Tilkingtonare. She jumps into a taxi hoping to escape notice but James sees her and assumes that she is stalking him as he also sees her again.
Back in England, Agatha ignores his accusations and but it's difficult since she and her entire detective agency and most of the village have been invited to his wedding. Per usual Agatha buries herself in her work until the wedding. After a disasterous pre-wedding party, James confides in Agatha that he is making a terrible mistake. But as a gentleman he is going throgh with the wedding. On the wedding day as James waits for his bride to walk down the aisle; his bride is found shot dead in her wedding dress. The police suspect Agatha in a crime of passion, but fortunately she has witnesses that place her elsewhere. Olivia Bross-Tilkingtonare, Felicity's stunned distraught mother, hires Agatha to find out who killed her daughter as she distrusts the cops to do an adequate job. However, this case is much more complicated as her investigations seem to stir up more trouble than actual find the murderer.
Agatha becomes enamoured with her new love interest, Sylvan Dubois, a friend of Felicity's father; as she suspects both of them in some dubious activities. But Agatha's confidence is shaken to its core when it seems every new person she meets wants to kill her. She even starts to doubt her own ability to be a detective.
Per usual, I await for the latest Agatha Raisin book to come out. But this one was much more complicated than any I've read so far. She travels more, falls in love with several different men, manages to retire from her own detective agency. Interestingly enough Charles shows himself to be more useful and in a much more positive light in this book than ever which shows promise. All the usual suspects are in the story and Agatha finally seems to finally have some closure with James as at one point describes their relationship as "old friends". So I enjoyed this new addition and appreciate the complexity that Beaton is now giving Agatha so hopefully we'll have many more mysteries to come.
Agatha Raisin mystery
Now in her 20th mystery, Agatha Raisin is overrun with cases for her new detective agency. Overworked and needing a rest, Agatha takes a holiday visiting several of Europe's most famous battlefields. She goes to Istanbul to see the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimea War. However, Agatha is horrified to see her former husband, James Lacey, and his much younger fiancée Felicity Bross-Tilkingtonare. She jumps into a taxi hoping to escape notice but James sees her and assumes that she is stalking him as he also sees her again.
Back in England, Agatha ignores his accusations and but it's difficult since she and her entire detective agency and most of the village have been invited to his wedding. Per usual Agatha buries herself in her work until the wedding. After a disasterous pre-wedding party, James confides in Agatha that he is making a terrible mistake. But as a gentleman he is going throgh with the wedding. On the wedding day as James waits for his bride to walk down the aisle; his bride is found shot dead in her wedding dress. The police suspect Agatha in a crime of passion, but fortunately she has witnesses that place her elsewhere. Olivia Bross-Tilkingtonare, Felicity's stunned distraught mother, hires Agatha to find out who killed her daughter as she distrusts the cops to do an adequate job. However, this case is much more complicated as her investigations seem to stir up more trouble than actual find the murderer.
Agatha becomes enamoured with her new love interest, Sylvan Dubois, a friend of Felicity's father; as she suspects both of them in some dubious activities. But Agatha's confidence is shaken to its core when it seems every new person she meets wants to kill her. She even starts to doubt her own ability to be a detective.
Per usual, I await for the latest Agatha Raisin book to come out. But this one was much more complicated than any I've read so far. She travels more, falls in love with several different men, manages to retire from her own detective agency. Interestingly enough Charles shows himself to be more useful and in a much more positive light in this book than ever which shows promise. All the usual suspects are in the story and Agatha finally seems to finally have some closure with James as at one point describes their relationship as "old friends". So I enjoyed this new addition and appreciate the complexity that Beaton is now giving Agatha so hopefully we'll have many more mysteries to come.
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