Reviews

Reading, Reviews

All The Eerie Books: Friday The 13th Edition

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Happy Friday the 13th! I don’t give this date any credence. But I thought it’d be fun to write out all the scary books I’ve read. Because it’s probably the shortest list of books you’ve ever seen.

Frankenstein1. Frankenstein

No, it isn’t really that scary. Not like the dumb movies supposedly based on it. But it’s still pretty eerie. And I absolutely love it.

2. The Fall of the House of Usher and other works by Edgar Allen Poe

I had to read these for school. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have touched them. People buried alive, implied incest, murder, ravens…shudder. Great writing, but not my cup of tea.
The Thirteenth Tale3. The Thirteenth Tale Again, just kind of eerie and “off.” Not material for a horror movie. If it had been, I wouldn’t have read it, believe me. It was a very intriguing story, though. Diane Setterfield is a darker Kate Morton in style.

4. Macbeth

Why can’t I count that as something scary I’ve read? There’s a ghost in it and a mad woman! For that matter, can I count Jane Eyre?

It seems my “scary” books list starts and ends with eerie to slightly eerie.

If I had to list the number of scary movies I’ve seen, the list would be even shorter than my scary book list. In fact, it doesn’t exist at all. Unless you count the movies that scared me as a child (E.T., The Wizard of Oz, etc.). I simply can’t do scary movies. Chalk it up to an overactive imagination or being too sensitive, they just appall me.

Is your scary book list long or short? I’m not planning on lengthening mine any time soon. Maybe someday I’ll work up the nerve to read some Wilkie Collins, but I doubt it.

I hope your Friday the 13th is full of good things and nothing scary.

Everyday Life, Reading, Reviews, Top Ten Tuesday

What I Read At The Beach

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My daughter and I feel the same way about the beach.
My daughter and I feel the same way about the beach.

I didn’t participate in Top Ten Tuesday this week because I just returned from my long awaited beach vacation. It was lovely. We went to the same beach I’ve been going to since I was a tyke, and I just didn’t want to leave. It feels like home. And it’s on the beach. A more perfect combination probably doesn’t exist.

Orphan TrainWhile at the beach I read Oprhan Train by Christina Baker Kline. I really enjoyed it. It was partly set in 2011 and presented as the story of a 17-year-old girl named Molly, and partly set in the 1920s-40s and told by Vivian. Is there a technical name for those books that flux between now and then? There must be by now, but I don’t know it. Please tell me if you do. Molly has been in foster care since she was a little girl, going from family to family and never finding a family to love or to love her. She is rough around the edges, but understandably so. She meets Vivian because her boyfriend sets up a community service project for her in hopes of keeping her around instead of seeing her sent to a new family or somewhere worse. Vivian is in her 90s, and their project together is to clean out her attic.

I feel like I shouldn’t give too many plot details because I think Kline has put together a book that gives just enough away of the story in each part to maintain a comfortable level of suspense and comprehension for the reader. Knowing too much about the plot of a book before you read it takes away half the fun of reading. So I’ll just tell you that this is a good read which will also inform you of some actual history. I had never heard of the orphan trains that took children from New York City to the Midwest. I was fascinated by the story of these children, and saddened by the story of a current day foster child, too. While reading this book on the way from Phuket to Koh Lanta, when I saw my own mom wipe the sand off my children’s faces at the beach or saw my husband jump with them in the waves, I thought, “How many children, just like those children on the orphan train, never experience a simple, caring gesture of a loving parent or grandparent? How many two-year-olds never have someone brush the hair out of their eyes and pat them on the back or help them blow their noses?” It is something to think about.

If you decide to read Orphan Train or if you have already read it, please share your thoughts! I always love to find out what other reads think of the books I review.

I also started reading at the beach Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, because so many people mentioned it in their Top Ten Tuesday list last week. Most of them paired it with The Great Gatsby and said they really liked it, so I thought I’d give it a shot. So far, it’s not much like Gatsby but it’s pretty good in its own right. A full review will appear here by the end of the week (I hope).

Happy reading!

Reading, Reviews

Maisie Dobbs

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Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs, #1)I just finished Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. This is one of those books I grabbed when browsing at the library on the off chance that it was any good. In high school, I read a good number of detective novels by Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, but I haven’t read many good ones since. I get bored with the private detective routine: a solitary and brilliant but quirky person devotes his or her life to figuring out what no one else can, and always succeeds, but also always comes into grave danger and escapes by the skin of his/her teeth.

Snore.

There are some detective novels, though, that manage to rise above the ordinary and become something more. One such books is the first book in the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. The characters in that book are so original. But in general, I am not a fan of the detective novel.

Maisie Dobbs was more than a detective novel, though. Here’s the summary from goodreads.com.

“Maisie Dobbs, junior housemaid, is found reading in the library, assigned tutor Maurice Blanche who trains her in psychological investigative techniques and prepares her for Cambridge. After spending World War I nursing in France, she sets up as a private investigator. But her very first assignment, seemingly an ordinary infidelity case, soon reveals a much deeper, darker web of secrets, which will force Maisie to revisit the horrors of the Great War and the love she left behind.”

The structure of the novel is interesting because it begins with Maisie opening her own detective office and stumbling on some intriguing facts and coincidences, then jumps backwards to Maisie’s history of how she went from household servant to private investigator, and then goes back to where the story began to follow the original case as it unfolds.

Maisie Dobbs is a fun, not-too-gruesome, detective novel that also manages to make the history of the first World War become more real. It’s not a pretty history. I learned something about how much it changed those who participated in it. Maisie’s character is a little cut and dry, but it is a good starting point for a series. She is a very ladylike character, which I appreciate. I don’t know that I’ll read any of the other books in the series (10 books in all), but I’d recommend the first one if you like detective novels or historical fiction. This book is an even mix of both.

 

 

Reading, Reviews

East of the Sun, South of Good: A “Why I Didn’t Finish It” Review

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Last night, I found myself back in the book mood. I decided to take another whack at East of the Sun by Julia Gregson. This time, I couldn’t blame not being in the book mood for my distaste of the book. East of the Sun is not for East of the Sunme.[ This is why I’m scared to do Advanced Copy Reviews…I just can’t put myself through certain books.] I did like the idea of having a good look at what the British Empire was like for English wives in India. It was an interesting concept, looking at “The Fishing Fleet,” those debutantes who had not successfully reeled in husbands during “the season” in London and so had to go to India, where the ratio of British men to women was 3:1. The book definitely had some good qualities. However, the characters and the plot line were too thin and broke before they had a chance to reel in this reader.

The main characters are Rose, Tor, Viva, Guy, and Jack. Rose is heading to India because, being an English beauty, she met Jack on his leave in London during the season, and agreed to be his wife. She is traveling with Tor, her husband-less, lovelorn cousin, and Viva, their chaperone. Viva happens to be younger than she has claimed, and also has charge of Guy, an 18-year-old boy who has been kicked out of boarding school and sent home. He has some mysterious behavioral issues. I thought the character development got off to a good start, but then floundered after everyone boarded the ship to India. Everyone is embroiled in some personal mystery, that is slowly revealed through the book. It’s intriguing, and I can understand some readers really enjoying it. The soap opera feel of the plot on board the ship just got to me. People were throwing themselves at each other, lavish settings were described half way but not completely detailed, and a certain darkness surrounded everyone. It was as if something bad was lurking underneath the surface.

So have you finished East of the Sun? What did you like and not like about it?

I am now finally reading The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald and really enjoying it so far. Classics are so safe, you know? I’m headed to the beach soon so I’m trying to gather some good beach read titles.  Let me know if you have some ideas to share!

Everyday Life, Reading, Reviews, Young Adult

August Reading, Part 2, and A Tiny Rant Against Autumn

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There’s a crispness in the air that I despise. Yes, I said despise. Sorry, Fall and Football lovers. I love summer and I cannot lie. I do not like cold days. I do not like the mess of leaves all over the back yard, and all the raking…raking…raking. I don’t like watching the summer flowers die. I don’t like heavy clothing and jeans every day.  But really, the biggest problem of all is that my family is not taking our one and only beach vacation until mid-September. Summer, please stay until then!

However! I am trying to conjure up happy memories of hot chocolate and books by a warm fire. Maybe if I start a Fall reading list, I’ll let go of my morbidity towards Autumn. If I can keep finding as many good books in the Autumn months as I’ve found in August, the coming season will be pretty swell.

Here are the books I finished this month.:

1. Cybele’s Secret by Juliet Marillier

Cybele's Secret (Wildwood, #2) The sequel to Wildwood Dancing, but not nearly as great. Still, a pretty good read, especially if you’re a fan of the genre. Marillier is one of  my new favorite YA authors.

2. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Read my reviews (yes, there are two of them) here and here

3. The Artist’s Daughter

I really liked this memoir. Read my review here

4.  Slash Your Grocery Budget & Eat a Whole Foods Diet With Aldi by Carrie Willard

I read a slew of nonfiction this month. I consider it a slew, anyway. The main reason was that Ella came down with a stomach bug on Sunday afternoon and I couldn’t leave her side without her getting upset. So while she dozed, I read all the free e-books I’ve been downloading to the Kindle app on my phone. I find these free books on moneysavingmom.com, but I usually download them and then forget about them. I was grateful to have them this weekend, though.

Slash Your Grocery Budget was a great book for people who shop at Aldi or are considering shopping at Aldi. It includes menus and recipes—features that equal awesomeness in any nonfiction book. I haven’t actually tried any of the recipes yet, but I plan to. Look for this book to show up in my next Saturday Cooking feature.

5. A Simpler Season by Jessica Fisher

With the chill in the air and the impending hours watching football, I’m feeling like now is a good time to start planning some projects for Christmas. Last Christmas I had all kinds of ideas and hardly any of them got done. I’m okay with that; my kids were 3 and 1, we had a nice holiday season that was not as stressful as usual, we celebrated what mattered. Still, I’d like to be a little more involved in the details this year. A Simpler Season was a good starting point for me to think through those some of those details. Will you still find me in Target two days before Christmas? Probably. But hope springs eternal.

6. How to Eat A Cupcake by Meg Donahue

A departure from the norm for me, but in a fun, not-too-terrible, romantic comedy kind of way. Read my review here.

Now I’m working on East of the Sun by Julia Gregson. For school with Ella, we’re reading In Grandma’s Attic. I can’t tell you how much I am loving re-reading my favorite children’s chapter books with Ella. We tried The Bobbsey Twins, but it was a little wordy for now. Maybe in a year or two. I actually never liked those books much, but they seem cute to me now.

Tell me what should go on my Fall reading list! I need a long, cheering list to console me over being robbed (robbed!) of summer.