What We're Reading

The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

2011-10-07T11:31:00.000-07:00

In the almost 10 years that I have been here only Heidi & Dixie Shimshak have offered a book review. Last night Joel Mikesell presented me with this book review so I asked his permission to publish it on this blog.

If you haven't read The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury, get it now and
read it before Halloween! In The Halloween Tree, Bradbury has written an
artist's history of Halloween, lightly wrapped in a story.

The wrapping: A group of boys are taken on a journey through history to
discover the true meaning of Halloween. They travel in time and space to
the ancient world, Notre Dame, and, of course, to Mexico for Bradbury's
beloved Day of the Dead.

The sweet inside: I call The Halloween Tree an artist's history
because‑‑while Bradbury's accounts of Halloween's historical roots are
accurate enough‑‑they are more implied than laid out for the reader. It is
the spirit of Halloween in these various cultures that is important to
Bradbury, not dusty footnotes. (Unless it be mummy dust, of course.) When
the boys travel to Notre Dame, it is not to be given a lecture on Gothic
architecture and decorative arts, but to feel the gargoyles come alive,
doing what they were meant to do in a world where darkness has palpable
power.

This is a children's book. It is quite short and so a fast read, even
without Bradbury's extraordinary tone and pacing that tumbles the reader
along like a fallen leaf pursued by an autumn wind.

Apparently there is a new, longer edition out that includes some material
from Bradbury's collaboration with Chuck Jones on the animated version of
the story (Don't care, didn't like the cartoon much.), and a copy of
Bradbury's first submitted manuscript of the book with descriptions that
were cut in the first printed edition (Very exciting, this!).
ISBN13: 9780375803017

How long has it been since you've read a book in one sitting, excited the
whole way through? Give yourself a treat.

‑ Joel Mikesell

Two -new to me- mystery authors

2011-05-28T12:11:00.001-07:00

A friend called. We worked together a number of years ago at a Library in Marin County.
She recommended two mystery authors that I had not read.

Jane K Clelland
Consigned to Death: Josie Prescott left New York City after a series of difficult events and moved to the coast of New Hampshire (all 18 miles of it) and started her own antiques auction house. Being a murder mystery, she is almost immediately mixed up in murder. The descriptions of her business and her employees are entertaining and carry the story forward. There are several other Josie Prescott stories which follow.

Elizabeth Gunn
Kissing Arizona: This is Elizabeth Gunn's second mystery series. Sarah Burke is a detective in Tucson, Arizona trying to balance work, care of her drug addled sister's daughter and a bit of romance on the side and oh I forgot, her mother. Today's typical family story with murder added.

Reference Books: Local plans & EIRs

2011-05-13T11:54:00.000-07:00

Even if you are not interested in the subject, you can learn a lot about where you live
by looking at local environmental impact reviews and plans.

There are two recent publications:

Notice of preparation of a draft environmental impact report & notice of public scoping meeting & public review period, a Proposal to Construct the New Ukiah Courthouse for the Superior Court of Mendocino County. Currently they are considering two sites. The First is the "Library Site" bordered by Perkins St., Main St, Mason St and behind the properties front Smith St. The second under consideration is the "Railroad Depot Site" 309 Perkins St. It is interesting to note because the AOC, Administrative Office of the Courts, local government land use planning and zoning regulations would not apply to proposed courthouse project. I would never have known that without reading this.

Draft Ukiah Valley Area Plan Filled with great pictures, maps, graphs and local information.
This plan gives the reader the proposed changes in land use and discusses community development, population, housing, circulation and transportation, water management, energy and air quality, health and safety, open space and conservation, historical and archaeological preservation and parks and recreation. This is the plan for our community.

Both of these are Reference Books so they do not check out, but may be read at the Ukiah Library.

On Borrowed Time by David Rosenfelt

2011-05-05T11:13:00.000-07:00

On Borrowed Time by David Rosenfelt

His biography says he lives with his wife and 27 Golden Retrievers something
I who have had, once and only once, 14 dogs (mostly rescue waiting to be adopted) have a hard time imagining.

That aside and having initially being attracted to his previous books because the dog was an essential part of the story. I enjoyed this dogless tale. This is a scary tale of Richard Kilmer who thinks he lost his true love in an automobile accident, only no one else in his life knows anything about her.

Can memories be implanted from the outside?

This was an interesting night's read. Hope you also enjoy it.

Eliza

Last Dog on the Hill by Steve Duno

2010-08-10T10:21:00.001-07:00

It is not often the star of a book is a dog probably off the pot fields of Mendocino County and a dog that changes the life of the man who rescues him. Lou was one of the many Rottweiler/Shepherd mixes that seem to abound around here. My dog Joplin is one which is probably why the minute I saw the cover of this book and found a good review, I ordered it.

Lou leads his person Steve into dog training. Lou helps. I was watching our local dog trainer, Sallie Palmer and her dog Skete last evening and this reminded me of Lou. Sallie was teaching a puppy class. Some 8 puppies from 2 to 4 months, from 5 to 35 lbs. Skete was right there when play turned to squabble.

Steve used Lou in much the same way when rehabilitating dog aggressive dogs.
The ones who missed out on a calming influence from an older dog when they were puppies. Dogs learn from the pack as Cesar Millan says. I agree having had some 350 foster dogs myself over the last 15 years. It is my dogs who teach them how to interact with dogs as Skete did with the puppies and as Lou did at the Academy of Canine Behavior as a last resort.

We all have the dog of our heart. The one who made us a better person.
This is Lou and Steve's story of love and redemption.

Eliza

The City and the City by China Mieville

2010-07-30T09:59:00.000-07:00

This is what we know: Mahalia Geary is dead, murdered.

Her murder has caused an international incident, not only involving the the United States, of which she was a citizen, but the two conjoined but forever separated city-states: Beszel and Ul Qoma; the cities of the title.

Besz detective Tyador Borlu is the man on the case, but he quickly discovers that there is a good chance the murder didn't happen on his turf, but possibly instead in Ul Qoma, and if that has happened it means it is not his problem, but an issue for the border police, the Breach.

Ul Qoma and Beszel exist within the same physical space. They share streets and parks and monuments but they are two separate political entities, two countries. Beszel is a dying city of aging infrastructure and Ul Qoma is a vibrant metropolis. The denizens of each city learn to "unsee" those who belong to the other. It is a legal requirement, with severe punishments for infractions, which are meted out by the Breach.

Mahalia, in her studies as an archeology student, was threatening to tip the balance of the cities in her pursuit of a third city occupying the same space, the mythical Orciny. She had roused many enemies up to the highest levels of politics. Even as Borlu launches an international investigation, Mahalia's best friend disappears. Is she dead? Is she kidnapped? Have the Orciny or the Breach captured or killed her? Who really is the Breach?

Mieville's fantasy creates a unique world that sits within our modern one but is utterly fantastic, yet with little hint of supernatural powers. It is a testament to Mieville's writing, that I found myself immersed and believing that there was some plausibility in the idea. I read the book in two days. It wasn't so much the mystery of Mahalia's death, it was the fascination with the cities that kept me turning the pages.

As I read it, I found myself puzzling over where my sympathies should land. Perhaps I should support the "unificationists" who believe there is only one city separated by a very destructive culture and political schism. Perhaps instead I should root for those, including Borlu, who seem intent on maintaining the status quo. ... and ultimately I had to ask myself, don't I live every day in a different city than is inhabited by other people who walk the same streets I do? Don't you?

If you have a card from Mendocino, Lake or Sonoma Counties, you can order this book here.

~mel

Civil War Novels of Ann McMillan

2010-06-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

Having grown up in Virginia just down the street from a fort built to protect Washington, D C, and yet knowing not much about the Civil War until I watched Ken Burns incredible series. It just was not discussed much except that my grandmother always said we were not rich because Albert Goddard had died and her father in law, Alfred Goddard was the dreamer and Shakespeare scholar, but not a money maker. I was just a kid. What did I know?

Ann McMillan's heroine described as a white widow turned Confederate nurse solves a series of mysteries all the while Richmond, Virginia is coming closer to being engulfed by the northern armies. She is aided by a free black herbalist and midwife, Judah Daniels. McMillan's 4 civil war mysteries are as follows:

Dead March
Angel Trumpet
Civil Blood
Chickahominy Fever

Since most books about war are from the male side, I am drawn to these books that bring the war down to a city, a block and a family. How are people affected. Her stories
are fascinating and certainly very possibe. I think of how one could be a nurse during the butchery of the Civil War, well probably any war. But that is what interests me.
If for nothing that they are well written and interesting stories, I recommend this series of 4.
Unfortunately, I do not see any new books in this series.

Eliza

What We're Not Reading

2010-06-10T15:51:00.000-07:00

Top 10 Difficult Literary Works

Share This- Published June 7, 2010 by Xilebat - 320 Comments

Xilebat publishes the top 10 most arduous literary works. I can't say I disagree and the commentary is amusing.

Link is here, but for those who don't want to click. Here's the list from 10 to 1:

10. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy

9. Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand

8. Moby Dick, by Herman Melville

7. The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

6. Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco

5. Scarlet Letter, by Nathanial Hawthorne

4. The Waste Land, by TS Eliot

3. Naked Lunch, by WIlliam Burroughs

2. Sound and Fury, by William Faulkner

and

1. Finnegan's Wake, by James Joyce.

Click on the link at the beginning of the post to see responses and/or post your own response here.

~mel

The Book of Spies and The Coil

2010-06-05T15:24:00.000-07:00

The Book of Spies by Gayle Lynds was a bit too violent for me but I love the mystery of the search for Ivan the Terrible's lost library. Ms Lynd's interest in the Library was piqued by a newspaper article on the secret tunnels underneath Moscow.

One of the exquisite books appears and the murders start. It is left to rare books co-ordinator Eva Blake to find the Library and those that control it. It is a world of the rich and famous, the CIA and international espionage.

The Coil is an earlier book with similar parts of CIA, M6 of Great Britain, hired "janitors", European Union, free trade, Nautilus and those protesting free trade.
Again there is a secret group of powerful men who started out with a positive vision of helping the world economy (and themselves) but have slipped into murder, secrecy and self-promoting actions. Like The Book of Spies this is a fast paced ride through a world we can only hope does not exist.

Eliza

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes by David Grann

2010-05-13T12:12:00.000-07:00

Move over Sebastian Junger and Jon Krakauer, you’ve got competition. David Grann is my new favorite adventure story writer. In the first book I read by Grann, he traced the steps of the bold explorer Percy Fawcett who set off in the Amazon looking for the lost city of gold. The Lost City of Z was a deceptively simple story that grew to include not only a re-thinking of the anthropology of the dense Amazonian jungle but a survey of this history of exploration and cartography – when Fawcett and explorer of the old school met the new technology-enhanced expeditions. I’ve recommended it to everybody.

Now comes The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, which is a compendium of Grann’s stories from his work as a journalist, mostly from the early 2000s. In it you meet famed Holmes/Doyle scholar Richard Lancelyn Green and what he may or may not have done for love of the brilliant detective and Frédéric Bourdin, often called the human chameleon for his ability to transform himself into teenagers.

Grann has made unique choices in the people he chronicles for these stories and he draws the reader in to their complicated lives. Green, for instance, lived and breathed Doyle and Holmes and through Grann’s storytelling I could almost enter into the mania. Its an esoteric world with adherents of Holmes who disregard Doyle and even question his authorship. It might not venture into Crips and Bloods territory but the warfare is intellectually fierce.

In a more conventional story of gangland, Grann details the rise and partial fall of the Aryan Brotherhood. For those who might not know it, the AB is a prison gang who killed, stole and intimidated even those charged with guarding them. They began as a white supremacist group, bands of white prisoners united against those of other colors. They weren’t satisfied with this and soon controlled drugs and prostitution and power just like their “free” world counterparts did.

These stories were by turn entrancing, enlightening, mysterious and sad. Read the story of Trial by Fire, the story of Todd Willingham who was put to death by the state of Texas for the murder by fire of his children. Only did he do it? Was he indeed guilty?

Grann doesn’t always draw conclusions but he does leave the reader with something to think about. Order this through Lake-Mendocino-Sonoma libraries here.

~mel

A Twisted Faith by Gregg Olsen

2010-04-12T23:11:00.000-07:00

I have just finished A Twisted Faith by Gregg Olsen. I finished it in two days, reading almost non-stop. Yeah, this true crime lover thought it was that good.

A Twisted Faith is a true story about a youth minister who heard or said that he heard direct words of God through Rick Joyner's prophecies of the late nineties. He then worked actively to fulfill these prophecies and others as he thought they applied to him. After his wife died, and even before, he manipulated several women into believing they were a part of a prophecy and their involvement with him would lead them closer to the will of God.

Olsen's writing is without sensation and dispassionate, relating the story clearly and with sympathy, it seemed to me, for all parties. Having long been a member of pentecostal churches and having been familiar with Joyner's prophecies, I could hardly put the book down. The pastor/minister, Nick Hacheney, used Joyner's words and other more direct prophecies (as given to particular members of the fellowship) to ultimately destroy lives, including his wife's, and to help destroy their community church.

To me, the most interesting character of the book was Sandy Glass. She was a prophetess and the church's secretary for a time. Her involvement is to date not totally known. Since she didn't interview with the author, she remains opaque and mysterious. Is she guilty, complicit or a victim? Let the reader decide.

I recommend this book highly for any true crime lover, or one who loves explorations of religion gone awry. As I am writing this, Annette Anderson, one of the main people profiled in the book is answering posts here. Part of what is so remarkable about the internet is that this type of interaction can occur.

I've just ordered another of Gregg Olsen's books. I'm impressed with his writing.

If you are interested in this book, and you are from Lake, Mendocino or Sonoma Counties, you can order it here.

~mel

Blacklands by Belinda Bauer

2010-03-06T15:56:00.000-08:00

Blacklands is about uncomfortable subjects. It is about a young boy searching for the bones of his long dead uncle who as a child was killed by a serial killer now in jail. It is told from both the killer and the boy's points of view.

Steven is the boy, always digging, attempting to get away from his messy, dirty ugly home life. He smells of mildew and his teachers hardly recognize him from one day to the next. He is not a gifted child and hardly a loved one.

Arnold Avery is the pedophilic killer. Locked up in jail, he relives his kills over and over again because he enjoys remembering. He gets off on remembering. Steven, desperate to find his uncle, finally writes to Avery and Avery writes him back. They begin a relationship of sorts that takes a new turn when Avery discovers that Steven is a child.

The book kept me off balance. It managed to be disturbing, funny and engrossing all at the same time. I didn't want to laugh ever, but I was chuckling in places. Avery is a magnetic character; so bright and so evil as well as so un-self-aware. Just the nonchalance Bauer injects into the writing tilts things in this book. She doesn't judge Avery, she invites us to make our own judgments about him and allows other characters to. She lets us into his brain and even though she spares the details, it is a distressing place to be. There are bad men ... and then there is Arnold Avery.

I don't know if I would recommend this book. It was quite well-written. The narrative flowed and the characters seems so real, so full of the cares that most of us feel day-to-day. I cared for and rooted for Steven and worried for him -- even though he was fictional. Here was a kid with the deck stacked against him. Here was a kid who deserved some good things in life.

I don't want to say too much more or give away the ending. Even to say whether I liked the ending or not gives too much away. I guess I'd say: read it. Read this book and form your own conclusions.

You can order from Lake, Mendocino and Sonoma libraries here with your library card.

~mel

2010-02-18T13:29:00.000-08:00

This is an amazing "truth is stranger than fiction" story about a woman who died more than 60 years ago, but whose cells live on in massive quantities around the globe (they've even been sent into space!). This book describes the author's years of research to discover the story behind the famous HeLa cells. The author, Rebecca Skloot, in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, tells a young woman's and her family's tragic story, describes awesome advances in science and medicine, and presents challenging ethical questions. -Barb

Two Books

2010-01-28T11:31:00.000-08:00

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

Cecelia Rose Honeycutt's life changed the week her mother died. For 12 years as her mother's mind slipped back to her
time of glory as the Vedalia Onion Queen of 1951, CeeCee had become almost totally isolated. She had no friends. How could she when her mother would go to the Goodwill and buy every prom dress and then dress up in one and stand out in the front of their house and blow kisses to those passing by.
Her father could not deal with any of this and so spent less and less time at home. Her only friend was an elderly widow next door.

After her mother's death, her great aunt Tootee appears and whisks her off to Savannah and a new chapter in her life.

At the same time, I started reading The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog by Bruce Perry. Dr. Perry helped change the image of children as ever resilient and able to overcome any abuse in the early years by showing that the human brain needs love, caring and stability to grow normally. Abused children often have high heart rates because they are hyper vigilent to the circumstances around them. Without love one cannot learn empathy and loving kindness. There are a series of children who early lives he describes including the boy raised in a dog crate. He was left with someone who had no idea how to raise children, just dogs. The story of the 21 children released by the Branch Davidians before the conflagration was so very sad.

What he said though reflected the lucky circumstances that CeeCee fell into, is that much early abuse can be overcome through the presence of a caring and loving adult in a young child's life.

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is just a fun read, but having read Dr. Perry's book at the same time, gave it greater weight.

Eliza

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do and What it Says About Us.

2010-01-16T11:26:00.000-08:00

In a west coast city, there are pedestrian walk lights that work without human intervention. Instead, a sensor recognizes that there is someone who wants to cross and gives a green light accordingly. This lovely idea was put in place to help those who need to cross the street on Sabbath and cannot do any "work" to be able to do so.

It is Tom Vanderbilt's contention that traffic is borne of human nature and culture. He says so in Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do and What it Says About Us. And that's self-evident. In this engaging audiobook (available by downloading here, if you have your library card), Vanderbilt wanders far and wide examining everything from manners to accidents to the age-old struggle of pedestrian versus the machines. Did you know that the law in most states is that an unmarked (i.e. without paint) crosswalks give pedestrians the same right of way as marked ones do? If you didn't, you're not alone -- the vast majority of drivers do not.

Did you know the 4th of July is the worst day for traffic fatalities? Did you know men drive better with women in the car than they drive with other men? Did you know there are proportionately less fatalities on windy, narrow roads generally than on other seemly safer highways? These are just a few of behaviors that Vanderbilt investigates. What do traffic engineers do? Why is merging late actually a good idea?

I loved this book. Vanderbilt's prose is sturdy and his explanations and narrative clear. He asked just about every question I would have asked and sought experts all over the world. If you've ever wanted to know if hunting around for the closest parking spot to your destination is worth it (generally, it's not) and how traffic engineers can best discourage people who run yellow lights, and what types of circumstances are most likely to result in accident -- this is the book for you.

Yes, there are many, many facts in this book but the tone is generally light and his writing is smooth and entertaining. And who knows? It could even make you a better driver.

~mel

Autistic Children & Dogs

2010-01-04T12:35:00.000-08:00

There have been two recent books on pairing autistic children and dogs. A Friend Like Henry by Nuala Gardner recounts her sons journey from violent, terrifying tantrums and her journey from starting to prepare a fatal dose of painkillers and sleeping pills to the connection that her son Dale had with a Golden Retriever and how that slowly blossomed into connections with others.

Before Henry, days were 18 hours of tantrums. An hour to get pajamas off. Another hour to get clothes on. A local pediatrician diagnosed Dale with a communication disorder. The family learned to communicate through Henry.

Cowboy was another Golden Retriever bought at a pet store, from a puppy mill and I must admit for me half the time, I just felt sorrow for Cowboy and angry that anyone buys puppys from puppy mills. Cowboy had numerous auto-immune deficiencies and did not even make it to age 3. And thinking of all the difference she made to Wills in that short time, I can only think "What if", "What if they had a long and happy life together. Like Henry, this book, Cowboy & Wills by Monica Holloway, Cowboy brings out the child. Her presence brings his classmates over to say hello. Her comfort allows Wills to play with other children and form friendship.

There are a number of places that you can check out dogs and autism.
Autism Service Dogs of America
North Star Foundation
Canine Companions for Independence

Some train and only place fully trained adult dogs
Some choose a puppy that they think will help a particular child.

Eliza

New York Times 2009 Notable Books of the Year.

2009-11-30T13:24:00.000-08:00

Quick link to their annual list is here. Click here to borrow the most intriguing titles from the library. Happy reading!

Black Seconds by Karin Fossum

2009-11-25T19:13:00.000-08:00

Our apologies on the long hiatus. As you may have read, most public libraries are crazy busy and Mendocino County Library branches are no exception.

Karin Fossum is well known and extremely well regarded in her native Norway. She is a multiple award winner, beginning her literary career as a poet. Her work has been translated by a couple of translators. Black Seconds was translated by Charlotte Barslund.

The mystery is the 5th of a series of books to be published in the States, featuring Inspector Konrad Sejer. I always find Sejer a bit of a cypher however his rational, humanistic investigative methods are the perfect counterpoint to the quirky characters which form the center of her novels.

All of her Sejer novels are uniformly excellent, balancing a solid mystery with human interest, appealing continuing protagonists and sympathetic view on the marginal and the outcasts.

In brief, the book is about the disappearance of a beautiful little girl called Ida Joner. One evening, she heads off in her little yellow bicycle to a nearby store and never comes back. Inspector Sejer and his sidekick, the angelic looking Jacob Skarre, are called in to find her. They hope they will find her alive. They are afraid to find her dead. At the center of the mystery of her disappearance may be a solitary, autistic man named Emil Mork ... or perhaps not. One never knows with Fossum.

Black Seconds gave me chills. That's not a common occurrence but I've not read such a matter-of-fact even sympathetic rendering of the thoughtlessness, indifference that can lead to a devastating result, almost as a side-effect of one person's following the path of least resistance. Perhaps, in the right circumstances, it could be any of us but yet not ... and that is what gave me that frisson, that creeping sense of otherness. I don't want to say much more because I'd like readers to follow the mystery on their own, come to their own conclusions about the characters.

Read the book and post your thoughts. I'd welcome your take.

As always, this book can be ordered online here if you live in Lake, Mendocino or Sonoma Counties, or from your local library wherever else you live.

~mel

Sacrifice and Awakening by S J Bolton

2009-09-24T10:26:00.000-07:00

I just came across Sacrifice and then Awakening by S J Bolton and thoroughly enjoyed both of them. They are dark, involving human sacrifice and snake handling pentecostal cults.
The protagonists and also to some extent past and present victims are both women. One a
doctor and the other a veterinarian. Neither is for the descriptive weak of heart. It
helped me that I grew up with a grandfather for whom the first CSI lab was built and who had
books with full colored pictures of victims of gun shoot wounds (his specialty) and have
a daughter who is a veterinarian and so have been the recipient of books like "The Book of
Bodily Fluids" and a by stander in an equine necropsy.

But if just reading about these things does not both you. You will probably enjoy her books.
I am looking forward to the next one.

Eliza

Tara, the dog and Andy Carpenter, the lawyer

2009-09-01T17:00:00.001-07:00

New Tricks is the latest in a series of books about Andy Carpenter and his special Golden Retriever, Tara. Starting with "Open and Shut" you too can indulge in his easy, interesting, self-deprecating, dogwise, lawyering mysteries that take place in the Paterson, New Jersey area. The main character reminds me of a lawyer I know, especially the sports on television part. These books are definitely better than most television shows, fairly inciteful and generally entertaining. They are available through our catalog. Enjoy!

Eliza

FLU: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918

2009-08-13T16:26:00.000-07:00

FLU
The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It
by Gina Kolata

Earlier I had read the Great Influenza by John M Barry which discussed the state of medicine in the United States at the turn of the last century and the spread of the influenza pandemic of 1918 and who was affected the heaviest.

The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic... delves into the history of various pandemics and the search for whatever unique cause of the flu of 1918. That is pertinent to today because it was also a swine flu. The theory is that this particular swine flu started off as an avian flu and then infected hogs in middle America and then went out as the virulent form that killed so many young people throughout the world. The search is fascinating.

Phryne Fisher mystery series by Kerry Greenwood

2009-06-09T10:45:00.000-07:00

People kept recommending these and I kept thinking if her name is Fern, spelled it Fern.
Well it is not. She is named for Phryne, fry nee, after the Greek Courtesan.
Here is a link if you want to know more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phryne

Of course, she has a sister who only plays a very small part, named Eliza (consecrated to God)
What were her parents thinking.

Well I just jumped in and read the first one I came across. It would probably be fun to read them in order so here is another link: http://www.phrynefisher.com/books.html

Phyrne is a wonderful liberated woman of her time. An exact opposite of the Stepford Wives.
She is single by choice, in charge of her life, has fallen into the field of a private investigator but has enough money to live in style. She is always fashionably dressed, does most things well and has a great mind. She left England and moved to Australia to be as far away as possible from her family.

I just finished reading #16 Murder in the Dark an exotic tale about exotic people during a week long party at an old mansion with costumes, hunts, polo matches, a goat that loves mint, murder and kidnapping, drugs, drinks and more and more. I think you will love this series and this book.

I am already reading another in the series.

And just for the fun of it. Take a look at Simply Irresistible by Ellen White. The cover says "unleash your siren and mesmerize men" She speaks of different women, Angelina Jolie in the present, but mostly historical. I think it was the introduction that really got my attention.
The author says that "it was under two generations of maternal guidance that I tossed aside my schoolwork and boned up on my flirtation techniques. It was rough going". She was 10 years old at the time.

Eliza

the rivers run dry

2009-06-01T12:56:00.001-07:00

Sibella Giorello

Special Agent Raleigh Harmon began as a forensic geologists. Wanting to know more about the cases her work helped and to be part of the team that brought truth and closure, she went to the FBI Academy and became an agent. In this, the second book in the series, she has proved herself as a good agent but bad politician and has been transferred from Virginia to the state of Washington. The characters are fun, the storyline kept me reading and while I am still a little vague about her character, I enjoyed the tale and will look forward to the next in the series.

Skip the reader's guide section. In a word, dumb.

Eliza

Broken: a love story

2009-05-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

This book has a lovely picture which I cannot download and there is absolutely no where to ask, "Why not?" Though the horse in the picture has a halter which is both too large and too clean and much too expensive to ever be found on any working ranch or reservation. Not to mention the horse which looks most like a thoroughbred. Rant aside leaving blogger and book cover designers and photographers behind, this was a very interesting book.

Broken: a love story. Horses, Humans and Redemption on the Wind River Indian Reservation by Lisa Jones.

Lisa is sent by her magazine, Smithsonian I believe, to see a four day horse taming, natural method approach, conducted by a Norther Arapaho, Stanford Addison. Stanford, a paraplegic at twenty. New spiritual powers emerged as he slowly accepted his life in a wheel chair or on his stomach when his pressure sores overwhelmed him. He could watch an untrained horse and often an untrained person and tell the person step by step how to get the horse to willingly accept them. You have heard the story before, green horse accepts person and they ride off into the sunset happily.
The stuff of my childhood dreams. Read Molly Gloss, "The Hearts of Horses" for a good fictionalized account of this.

Of course, the person "gentled" "trained" "taught" is Lisa herself. Addison is already who he is, trainer, observer, healer. Lisa is a single woman at 40 because she bolts at marriage proposals.

I do not want to write the story again. Read it yourself. ENJOY!

Dark Summer by Iris Johansen

2009-02-21T11:24:00.001-08:00

At Leadership Mendocino they think all I talk about is the Library
At the Library they think all I talk about is dogs.
Actually I picked up this book because the heroine is a veterinarian
and so is my daughter. But it also is about a shaman, herbal medicine,
healing and in this case they think that it is the dogs that have the power to heal.
Six dogs, hidden away because someone is on a mission to steal them and will stop at next
to nothing to get them. When one of the dogs appears, shot by a would
be assassin and ends up in the hands of Devon Brody, the veterinarian, people die
and Devon's world is torn to pieces.
Of course, since it is written by Iris Johanssen there is romance mixed in
with the danger. A great alternative to a night of watching television.
Interesting theme, lots of technology and basic shamanism.

Eliza

The Parrot Who Thought She Was a Dog

2009-02-06T15:22:00.000-08:00

The Parrot Who Thought She Was a Dog by Nancy Ellis-Bell

Two things brought me to read this book. My father had had a macaw and as the book crossed my path, I noticed she lived in Mendocino County. I am always interested in Mendocino County authors. There may be a list somewhere, but I have not found it.

Someone must have thought this was a catchy title in our current slew of dog books. I never found the connection. Sarah the macaw obviously is a parrot. A large somewhat feral, one legged macaw with a wing span of 4 feet while the author, her husband, dogs and cats live in a fairly small trailer. My father's macaw was imposing and he stayed in a large cage in the dining room spewing feathers, seeds and other dropped matter. Having a cage free and fairly large bird in one's house seems imposing, but then people tell me 5 dogs and 3 cats seem imposing to them.

It is a fascinating story though and I will leave you to read it yourself. I enjoyed the tale and thoroughly expect that you will also. If you are so inspired, the last chapter lists information, rescue organizations, bird organizations and avian veterinarians to help you integrate a large or smaller bird into your house.

Eliza

Not Yet Drown'd by Peg Kingman

2009-01-24T11:04:00.000-08:00

Not Yet Drown'd is a book that I would have probably missed if a gift copy had not come across my notice. Written by an author from Potter Valley, Peg Kingman, it opens a world about which I know next to nothing. Scots woman, Catherine MacDonald a recent widow, taking care of her dead husband's daughter is disturbed by a package from India. It contains an incredible paisley shawl, a package of tea and a musical score written in the hand of her supposedly dead twin brother.
Restless and pushed by the appearance of an obnoxious relative of her husband who demands the return of the child, she joins her other brother Hector on his trip to India.

Joined by a mysterious Indian woman and an escaped slave, the ship sails around Africa and onto India. Just like the intricate design of a paisley shawl, the story is decorated with tales of the East India Company, scottish tunes, bagpipe airs, steamship diagrams, tea growing, matriarchal Indian tribes, the beginnings of Chess, South African settler's trying to tame Zebras, Indian customes, British society and so much more.

It is a lovely and intricate tale and well worth reading.

And if you are curious about what happened to a group on the way to India whose ship wrecked off the wild coast of Pondoland, try Calibran's Shore: the Wreck of the Grosvenor and the strange fate of her survivors.

Eliza

Molly's Daughter by Margaret Frings Keyes

2008-12-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

Molly's Daughter: a three generation story exploring: what do women really want?

Margaret Frings Keyes has written a fascinating fictionalized account of three generations of women in her family. She takes us out into the social issues immigration, mining, unions, treatment of women, butte montana, san francisco, The Depression, war, earthquakes, the developing personal empowerment movements and much more.

Most of the issues faced by mother, daughter and granddaughter are found in most families.
Much is never acknowledged in most families. The wonderful element in Molly's Daughter is that Keyes as a therapist has cast a knowledgeable and educated eye upon both the exterior and interior lives of these 3 women.

If Molly's Daughter interests you and given our country's sudden plunge into Depression, some U S Senators trying to break the Unions as a condition to helping the auto industry, the rising number of people without jobs, families without homes, corporate greed and more, check out the Mendocino County Library catalog: http://www.mendolibrary.org and read about these subjects. Your Library cards allows you to check out books, audio, video items and to access major magazines and newspapers.

The Monster of Florence

2008-08-13T17:07:00.000-07:00

I like Douglas Preston. I like him especially when he’s writing with his co-author Lincoln Child in what apparently is called the Agent Pendergast series.

I like true crime books. While I may quibble with Ann Rule’s canonization of victims, I’ve read everything she ever wrote. I like Capote’s In Cold Blood far more than Breakfast at Tiffany’s and think Mikal Gilmore’s Shot in the Heart is one of the best true crime books ever written, next to Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song. I think Gilmore's book is better than the more celebrated book by James Ellroy: My Dark Places. And there's your nickel tour of literary true crime.

Given all that I was very intrigued that Douglas Preston had written a true crime book with co-author Mario Spezi called The Monster of Florence.

The Monster of Florence is about a serial murder case that is not much known of here in the States. The Monster killed seven couples between the years 1974 and 1985 while they were what we shall euphemistically call “parking” in and around the environs of Florence, Italy. The FBI even provided a psychological profile to the Italian authorities. This book details the private investigation and reporting by star journalist Mario Spezi and Douglas Preston’s involvement with him and their run-in with the official investigators.

As occasionally happens, the authors become part of the story – Preston was indicted and Spezi actually arrested during their hunt for the truth. The book is their stories as well.

I categorize true crime books into three main types, depending on the result of the investigation. The first type are those many of us aficionados are used to: culprit is found and prosecuted. The second type, typified by the various books about the Black Dahlia or Jack the Ripper are what I call “I know who did it” books where a solution is supposed or proved but not legally. The third type are the ones with no solution.

The Monster of Florence is of the second type. Preston and Spezi are sure they know who did it but it remains legally unproven. Furthermore, I am not sure I agree with their conclusions. They are intriguing and plausible but possibly not convincing. Some of the leading investigators disagree with them, as well.

It is not what I'd call literary true crime. Still, I highly recommend this book. I finally found out the difference between the Italian police (civil) and the caribinieri (military) and how the two do and don’t work together. I learned much about the history of Florence, some about its vital role in the gestation of the Renaissance, and some about its labyrinthine legal system. In a brief section Preston mentioned the connection to the more recent case of with interestingly similar lines of inquiry by the Italians.

There's a waiting list for it so order it soon. See if you agree with the authors.

Deceit by James Siegel

2008-06-03T12:14:00.000-07:00

This is what I am listening to, actually. I have recently finished this book on CD and now I am going back and reading everything James Siegel ever wrote. He's a mesmerizing writer with a fertile imagination and pitch-perfect understanding of moral ambiguity and human flaws. Maybe not too surprising for the author is Senior Creative Director and Vice President of the BBDO advertising agency in New York.

Tom Valle, ignominiously dismissed from a newspaper the level of the NY Times finds himself in the backwater burg of Littleton, California where he is the reporter for local paper.

His editor sends him out on a routine automobile fatality story but he recognizes almost immediately that something is hinky. Trouble is, nobody seems to see what he sees. He continues to uncover cover-ups, lies, twists and turns that go back decades in his quest for the truth.

The truth. For Valle that's an interesting ideal. He was fired from his last job because he fabricated news stories and it led not only to his dismissal but to the fall of a great editor. Now he's on the trail of a very important, potentially world changing mystery which could re-establish him ... if only he would be believed.

I'm not sure I believed him and I'm not sure to this moment whether or not Siegel wanted Valle to be believed. Is everything that Valle finds out true, a delusion, a lie? Some of it seems so fantastical, yet somehow possible, almost plausible that this reader found herself asking this question at every turn. Has his firing sent Valle 'round the twist? Is he calculating that a big lie is more believable than small ones? Has he really stumbled one of the most significant cover-ups of all time ... quiet and masked in this little California town?

Well, dear reader, that's up to you to decide.

Mill Valley resident Phil Sheridan was a perfect choice as the reader for this novel. His voice teases out the quirkiness of each character and beautifully conveys the transformation of Tom Valle from world-weary and burnt out to reinvigorated and determined.

I highly recommend this. It is available as a book, a book on CD and a book on cassette. (link to our catalog here.)

~mel

Escape by Robert Tanenbaum

2008-05-16T14:25:00.000-07:00

In the latest of this wonderfully eclectic series the underlying moral question is, “Are we responsible for acts we commit if we believe it is God’s will?” Three very different situations are woven together—a woman in post partum depression hears God tell her to bring her children to him, several Jihadists plan terrorist acts and an old man tells of his experience in a German
death camp to the students and parents of a Bat Mitzvah class that Karp is teaching.

Butch Karp, New York City District Attorney, his associates, family and an incredible group of New Yorker’s from a news seller with Tourette’s syndrome to a small army of “moles” who live in New York’s underground tunnels. Oh and I forgot the Vietnamese and Russian mob members. These people appear in all of Tanenbaum”s tales and I would hate to take away your pleasure from meeting them.

There are many books in this series and if you have not discovered them, you might want to start at the beginning to see the development of Butch Karp and his wife, Marlene Ciampi starting in 1987 with No Lesser Plea. Like all series, some are better than others, Escape was one of the best.

Reviewed by Eliza Wingate

Ukiah Library

An Orgy of good reading

2008-03-19T15:53:00.000-07:00

After being ill, not enough to not go to work, but enough to just come home and just go to bed. I do not think I read a book for at least a month. Just too tired. So I have been indulging in an orgy of reading mystery books.

Prepared for Rage by Dana Stabenow

Very different from her other books. An American educated Pakistanian watches as his sister is raped and humiliated by Muslim fundamentalists for merely talking to male friend in a car and in his anger becomes fodder for the war against America. His target is a space shuttle. The FBI and Coast Guard have the job of guarding that all American icon, the space shuttle.

Stalking Ivory by Suzanne Arruda:

Another wonderful Jade del Cameron mystery set in post World War II Africa. All the exciting elements are there poachers, raiders, a cache of German guns. Elephants, African shape shifters and Jade herself, an all American woman who can take care of herself.

Strangers in Death by Nora Roberts writing as J D Robb

My daughter introduced me to Lt Eve Dallas of the New York City homicide squad, 2060. The food and electronics are futuristic, the human problems are age old. Always a murder. At least one. Eve is dogged in her pursuit of the truth and the killers. This one is even better than most.

Murder in the Rue de Paradis by Cara Black

Cara Black lives in San Francisco and visits Paris to get the background for her books. Sounds like a dream life to me. Aimée Leduc runs her own private investigation business. Mostly she and her partner prevent information theft. This time the murder of an old flame the morning after he proposes to her leads her into danger. The trails leads her to a sleeper Jihadist cell, Turkish-Kurdish politics and danger as she tries to thwart an Islamic terrorist intent on killing the first Muslim woman elected to a Turkish political post. As usual, fast paced and intriguing.

Even Cat Sitters Get the Blues by Blaize Clement

This is the third Dixie Heminway (no, no relation to the other Heminway) mystery. Dixie a former cop who quit after the death of her husband and child to take up the quiet life of a pet sitter is once again involved in murder and mystery. This time she adds to her list of jobs, a very very sick man and his iguana, Ziggy. It is convoluted, dangerous and almost romantic. So much happens in a short time that it is hard to put this book down.

The Fault Tree by Louise Ure

Cadence Moran, blind from an automotive accident is a first rate auto mechanic. She can hear problems others cannot see. She is used to being independent. Walking to and from work until one night she is almost killed when a car tries to run her down. An elderly neighbor had been murdered and the murders think that Cadence might have seen them. This is a thoroughly intriguing and sad tale of murder, survival and perseverance.

Eliza

Amnesia

2008-03-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

Today's entry should be what we're watching.

Amnesia (this link will take you to library's catalog) is the story of Detective Matt Stone (John Hannah) and his seemingly irrational search for the truth behind the deaths of several women whom he believes were all married to and murdered by the same man. You see, Matt Stone's own wife has gone missing it has been driving him around the twist. He can't remember what happened to her and his reality becomes conflated with what he may remember or may be imagining or even may be dreaming.

In this state, he has fixated on John Dean, wonderfully played by an actor named Anthony Calf. Despite every evidence and his own amorphous reality he believes that Dean has re-invented himself time and again and is this time married to the lovely Jenna (Jemma Redgrave). Dean admits to having amnesia, there is much that he just does not recall and Stone is convinced he's faking it.

But who is faking what? Anonymous letters arrive suggesting that Stone may have killed his wife and the truth in this psychological thriller becomes as amorphous as Stone's daily world.

I loved this British TV movie. The actors, lead by Hannah, Redgrave and Calf, were well cast and believable in their roles. I was kept off kilter and guessing and enthralled by Hannah's ability to inhabit the character of Matt Stone. I so enjoyed director Nick Laughland's work that I'll be looking for more by him. If you like to be a little off balance and like to be kept guessing, you'll enjoy this DVD.

~mel

The Ice Trap by Kitty Sewell

2008-02-28T09:06:00.000-08:00

Published to acclaim in Europe, Kitty Sewell’s Ice Trap is at heart a romance. A romance between people, about the great Canadian north and the author’s with her protagonist.

The cover says it is a novel of suspense and there is some suspense. The impossibly handsome, impossibly good hero has found himself the father of twins from a long ago liaison, one he didn’t remember having and is sure is a mistake. Dr. Dafydd Woodruff, now ensconced in Cardiff Wales, has been trying for years to have a child with his wife. He is contacted by a girl purporting to be his daughter, conceived during a self-imposed exile to the Arctic a dozen years ago.

A young surgeon, starting out, he’d made a huge mistake. He’d taken the wrong organ from a dying child. He fled to the Canadian sub-arctic to try to do penance. He’d met and made friends and enemies there, chief of the latter is the head nurse of the hospital where he worked, Sheila Hailey. Hailey was a beautiful woman but controlling, vindictive, and hateful. Woodruff had never liked her nor trusted her so finding out that she was the mother of his twins was shocking. There had never been anything between them. But DNA doesn’t lie. How can this be?

Dafydd Woodruff is not a man without faults by any means. He had injured a child and during the story, he drives his motorcycle drunk, earning himself an opportunity to go back to Canada to find the truth. He is a very good man, though. He’s faithful husband until his wife leaves him, he is incredibly loyal to his druggie friend Ian and to his putative children. He even makes sure to use a condom in a brief interlude with a lovely, talented indigenous woman named Uyarasuq during his first visit. I grew a bit impatient with him, waiting for him to break out of the saint mode. Sewell however seemed delighted with her character.

I expect readers will figure out the mystery before Dafydd but the story is well told, the scenery interesting and most of the characters well-limned and appealing. Sheila Hailey is as impossibly bad as Dafydd is good but they make for a lovely chiaroscuro for the sub-Arctic and the rest of the characters to play against. In any event, it is a fine way to while away a few hours on a chilly winter evening.

~mel

Mark of the Lion

2008-02-13T18:57:00.001-08:00

I love to be told about a new author and while this is not Suzanne Arruda's first book. It is her first mystery. And i love that it is a different century though not so far away. My grandparents lived through World War I. Jade del Cameron, brought up on a New Mexican ranch, drove ambulances in France during World War I, follows the dying wish of her almost fiance to find his brother in Africa.
With little information she goes to Africa, fights hyenas, lions, men's attitudes and witchcraft to find David's brother. It is fun, exciting and certainly takes one away from the cold, wet, California winters.

There are two more books in this series, once you finish the Mark of the Lion, follow Jade del Cameron's adventures in Stalking Ivory and the Serpent's Daughter.

If you like this story of African witchcraft, you might like the South American witchcraft in Michael Gruber's books.

Eliza

Wild Indigo by Sandi Ault

2008-01-30T19:12:00.000-08:00

Sandi Ault's "Wild Indigo" is a wonderful addition to western stories and mysteries that center around Native American life. Ms. Ault who lives in Colorado and has been a journalist and writing teacher highlights the Pueblo culture. Her protagonist, Jamaica Wild, working for the Bureau of Land Management becomes entangled in tribal matter.
Jamaica and her wolf cub, Mountain, fight off innuendo, witchcraft and bureaucracy to find out what really happened to the son of her friend.

If you have enjoyed Tony Hillerman, Margaret Coel, Thomas Perry, Linda Hogan and Aimee & David Thurlo, give Sandi Ault a try. Her second book will be coming out this spring--"Wild Inferno" It is in the catalog, on order, place your hold for both right now.

Eliza

The Hearts of Horses

2008-01-22T12:02:00.001-08:00

The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss

The Hearts of Horses is a lovely tale of a young women on the changing Oregon frontier where the dream of the fiercely independent life is changing due to lack of knowledge, lack of water and of course, the introduction of technology. Martha Lessen is a nineteen year old "horse whisperer". The language and metaphor of the west had been conquering the land, the task and horses. Subduing through sheer strength.
A "horse whisperer" works with the horse, using the natural desires of herd mentality to get the horses attention and trust. You go into a round ring with a horse, and just keep it moving until the horse turns to you. I have seen it. Done it. It is a magical moment when the horse turns to you, moves toward you and then walks with you around the ring.
Martha becomes back of the community using her gentle ways to save a families horses when their wagon slid into a ravine, helping a dying man give his son a gift of a gentle horse, speaking up against a trainer abusing horses. Again a lovely tale of strength through communication of two species.

Eliza

The Devil's Feather by Minette Walters

2007-11-13T09:34:00.000-08:00

What do they say? "Torn from today's headlines comes a story of ... " Minette Walters sets the beginning of the Devil's Feather in Sierra Leone and Baghdad. Connie Burns, a war correspondent for Reuters, encounters a mercenary with a questionable past. Where he goes brutal, misogynistic murders follow. In war, though, how can she know which is the unfortunate cost of war and a destabilized economy and which is a deliberate act of a psychopath.

Burns goes to the mercenary's employer and to the police but the employer is protective and the police helpless. Then she's taken hostage for three days while in Baghdad. In the aftermath she moves to an isolated village in England to recover. That isn't the end and what happened to her in Baghdad is not the only mystery.

I like Walters. She's that odd writer who can write dark novels convincingly and still end in hope. However, it has been awhile since I've set everything else aside and buried myself in a book -- but I could not put this one down. The story is not that unusual, a riff on the woman-in-peril plot. Burns seems, on the surface, not much more than the standard issue heroine. But she's not. Readers, keep your eye on her. Even now, reflecting back, I wonder at Walter's writing and the clues I missed along the way.

Walters also manages to convey the chaos and violence of war in Baghdad and Zimbabwe, takes a shot at the modern day use of mercenaries and the "if it bleeds, it leads" news mentality. While not graphic, I found some scenes (especially the flashbacks to her captivity) uncomfortable.

There is as much mystery in Burns as there is in the plot and it makes for a compulsive read.

~mel

Sweet Revenge by Diane Mott Davidson

2007-11-10T15:19:00.001-08:00

How can a Librarian not be drawn into a murder mystery where in the first chapter, there is an altercation in the library over a cell phone and then a murder. Diane Mott Davidson brings us another book of mayhem and delicious food and all the interesting characters of her Colorado neighborhood. This library has volunteer guards and a video camera and still patrons are grumbling over internet and cell phone use. Sounds just like home.

There are always complications of course. Goldy, our heroine and caterer extraordinaire, is sure she has seen a ghost. Goldy is positive that the person she saw leaving the library was the young woman who shot her former husband and then jumped into a forest fire to her presumed death.

The dead man is the town's former D A who leaves a grieving fiancee, a furious ex-wife and a business partner desparate to find the missing maps that this man had.

So come to dinner and a murder and enjoy the dessert.

Eliza

Here If You Need Me

2007-10-17T12:00:00.001-07:00

Here If You Need Me

By Kate Braestrup

While this story starts with love and loss, and that is always a sub-theme, it has so many wonderful moments of discovery and happiness and sometimes pure zaniness that
I felt blessed just to know part of her story. Kate Braestrup loses her much loved husband, follows his dream to become a Unitarian minister, becomes one of the first

Chaplains for the Maine Warden Service, follows the wardens as they search for and hopefully rescue those lost and comes home to 4 children, including a teenage son who calls her Mom Dude.

This book is filled with sadness, joy, tragedies and miracles. I leave them for you to discover.

Eliza

Next by Michael Crichton

2007-09-15T16:47:00.000-07:00

Next. Michael Crichton needs a good editor. I remember reading that once in a critic's description of PD James' book "Devices and Desires" and I had to agree at the time. It is also painfully clear here in Next.

Not even his most vociferous fans would call him a good writer. I don't think they would anyway. He's usually a fine plotter, inventive, provocative and knows how to keep the pages turning but the actual written word is not his forte. When I read his books I picture how they'd look on the screen and that's where most of them end up. He knows what sells and reliably produces it. I think that's a good thing in a writer, to know what one is capable of and what one's audiences want to read.

Jurassic Park was a triumph in the Michael Crichton school of writing. The cardboard characters in that book actually propelled the plot along smoothly and I stayed up late into the night to finish and even recommended it to my less bookish family members. It was a hit with them all.

Next is no Jurassic Park. It is even choppier than his usual fare with short chapters that are almost, to me, haphazard in their beginnings and endings. My thought while reading was Crichton was attempting to do without transitions of any sort just to see if he could do it. Well, he can't. The reader can fill in only so much.

I've never minded that Crichton's characters were author-directed puppets with little to distinguish them as individuals - that's not the point of reading his novels. The characters in Next, however, are barely limned in; to say even that they were caricatures would be giving the book too much credit. He has two child characters named Jamie, similarly threatened, and you don't know there is a reason for the matching names until the last third of the book. Even when I did know the reason I suspected it was an afterthought although it is easy enough to replace characters' names --- see the comment about editing above.

About the plot: there are evil, mean scientists and there are good and true scientists. There are very bad business-people and there are some caught up in the happenstance of life. All of the characters, the pure and the not so pure, are involved in using gene research to classify people and to practice eugenics, to create transgenic animals and to exploit or protect them. This wreaks the predictable havoc. I noticed even the person who wrote the description of the inside flap of the book seemed at a loss to describe it.

The theme of the book, as he tells us in the afterword, is this: Stop patenting genes. I think it is an admirable goal and I support him in it. I recommend the bibliography. However, I wish he'd written a better work of fiction instead of a barely disguised screed. Even Crichton can write better than this.

Melanie

eat, pray, love by Elizabeth Gilbert

2007-06-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

eat, pray, love is one of those wonderful tales of redemption that we all wish that we had the money and time to live ourselves. Gilbert, a writer wavering in a relationship that must appear in several novels finally leaves home, husband and all those children not yet born that would define "family" to suffer depression and aimlessness until she decides to treat herself to Italian lessons just because Italian sounds so wonderful.

She receives an advance on the book she will write (this one) and takes off for four months in Italy where she eats and studies Italian. Since it seems that all my friends this year have been going to Italy, I went vicariously. If only I had the food.

She goes home briefly for Christmas and then is off to India for four months in an Ashram. A very different life than her four months of pleasure in Italy. Her last four months are spent in Indonesia with a local healer.

The format of this book makes it a great summer read. Take it with you everywhere. Most of the chapters, all 108 of them (the number of prayer beads) are short enough to read almost everywhere. So enjoyable.

Summer Reading

2007-06-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

Summer Reading

By Hilma Wolitzer

“Summer Reading” is just that. A reading club consisting of the rich wives of those who can afford a summer house in the Hampton’s, those for whom the belonging to a book group brings more satisfaction than the reading of the books. A group that notices the absence of its member with the highest social standing. Turns out instead of reading, she is having a hot affair with the local mafiosa.

She is living life, taking chances like Emma Bovary. The question is will she feel compelled to commit suicide for her variance from social norms. Like Emma Bovary, they sought to learn what was really meant by the words “happiness”, “passion” and “intoxication”.

The story weaves between the lives of Lissy, club hostess and trophy wife; Michelle a year round working class resident of the Hampton’s who is working as a maid for Lissy and Angela who leads the book group and who glimpses the daughter of old friends who she had not seen since the husband with whom she was having an affair allowed a provocative nude picture of her to be hung in his art show. Lives are out of balance. Their stories all end happily or at least with as much chance for happiness as any of us are offered.

Eliza

the higher power of lucky

2007-03-10T11:10:00.001-08:00

the higher power of lucky by Susan Patron

I do not usually review children’s books. But this book would be such a great book to read out loud to your children. Once that is you have gotten past the dog being bitten in the scrotum by the rattlesnake and the necessity of explaining exactly where that is. I say that just to get it out of the way.

Lucky’s mom died. She and her dog HMS Beagle (who isn’t a Beagle, Lucky just admires Darwin) are struggling to find her “higher power” in Hard Pan, California, population 43. Lucky knows that people find their “higher power” since she has one of the three paying jobs in Hard Pan. Lucky cleans up after the various 12 step programs that meet in town and listens (through a knot hole) to the people’s stories about their lowest moments and how they found their higher power. Did I mention that Lucky is only 10 and is currently living with her father’s first wife, a French woman named Brigette who flew from France to take care of her. Lucky has never met her father who divorced both his wives because he did not want children. I do not want to say another word about this book because this is a book to read out loud. It is filled with wonderful, unforgettable people and an ending so joyous you will want to read it again soon.

Eliza

A three dog life

2007-02-22T12:11:00.000-08:00

A three dog life by Abigail Thomas

A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas

“Australian Aborigines slept with their dogs for warm on cold nights, the coldest being a – three dog night”.

This is a small satisfying book. Abigail Thomas’s husband takes the dog out for a walk. He is hit by a car. His brain is shattered. Her life is shattered. It takes three dogs to help her find her way. The dogs are warmth, distraction and companionship as she finds her own way to her new and different relationship with a husband who lives only in the present moment, suffers frustration and rage and must now live in an institution. This is really a story about Abigail’s journey and acceptance.

Other books you might like:

A widow, a Chihuahua, and Harry Truman by Mary Beth Crain

The social lives of dogs: the grace of canine company by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

Pack of two: the intricate bond between people and dogs by Caroline Knapp

The new work of dogs: tending to life, love, and family in a changing world by Jon Katz.

Eliza

Find Me by Carol O'Connell

2007-01-23T17:39:00.000-08:00

We have to write about a mystery that ends in Mendocino, even though its place of ending is totally tangential to the story. In the latest Mallory mystery a dead woman is found in Mallory’s apartment. Mallory has gone missing. She has bought a new car, seemingly an ordinary Volkswagen Beetle convertible, silver with a black rag top. Her partner, Det. Riker and others are covering for her absence knowing that if she underwent a psychological exam, she would never be re-admitted to the New York City Police force.

Being Mallory, she comes across a body in Chicago with a hand missing.

This body is at the intersection that is the start of the original Route 66. Mallory is following a description of Route 66. Letters written by her father to O B. Those who know Mallory’s story have watched her develop in previous books by Carol O’Connell from a raw incredibly bright and beautiful sociopath to an incredibly controlled and successful if eccentric young woman.

Also on the trail along Route 66 are the parents of “lost” children. A caravan of hundreds develops as these parents are determined to have their story known. Most have been ignored by the authorities and the stories of their lost children and the hundred graves along Route 66 have been covered up.

A typical Mallory mystery, the trip is as fascinating as the destination.

If you missed the Mallory series, start at the beginning.
Mallory's Oracle
The Man Who Cast Two Shadows
Killing Critics
Stone Angel
Shell Game
Crime School
Dead Famous
Winter House

It is definitely worth the trip!

Eliza Wingate

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

2006-12-26T15:08:00.000-08:00

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell has been hailed as the best fantasy novel in 70 years. That is a fulsome compliment and one I could quibble with but it is certainly one of the best fantasies that I have ever read.

In a nutshell, this is an 800 page book about the return of real magic to Great Britain. It is set in the years of the Georgian regency and the Napoleonic Wars. The magicians Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange are workman-like, even prosaic, in their practices as they help the British to defeat Bonaparte yet the infusion of Faerie grows daily stronger until their their own mistakes and arrogances threaten not only themselves but England.

It is written after the style of early mid 19th century writers. It flirts with being Dickensian (with delightful minor characters) but flavored with a Jane Austen-like measure of subtle humor and keen observation of foibles. It intermixes real people like Lord Byron and the Duke of Wellington and historical incidents of the time to make this read like a lively, amusing glimpse into a real world and not the usual sword-and-sorcery swashbuckling too often found in fantasies.

Literary fiction is not my cup of tea, but this is a long, deep satisfying immersion into another, yet not completely other, world. It is perfect for quiet, winter nights when the workday is done and the imagination is free to fancy.

-- mel

Two mystery books set in Mendocino County

2006-12-23T14:27:00.000-08:00

Set in Mendocino County (or very close)

A Single Eye by Susan Dunlop

Darcy Lott became a stunt woman because she could not overcome her fear of the woods.
Her New York City Zen Master sends her off to a sesshin deep in the redwoods of Mendocino County. The mysterious disappearence of the “prize” student at the
Monastery’s opening six years previous mirrors the past failures that the Monastery’s residents are hiding from. Nothing is as it seems.

The Second Tale of the Sixth Patriarch is thus:
The body is not a bodhi tree
There is no clear mirror anywhere
Fundamentally nothing exists
Nothing for dust to cling to.

“The circle is never complete; there’s always an opening through which life flows”

Family Business, A Port Silva Mystery by Janet LaPierre

A young man disappears when a peaceful anti-war demonstration suddenly becomes a riot. Searching for a past that Danny Soto does not seem to have, private investigators, the mother and daughter team of Patience and Verity Mackellar, must discover who Danny really is by delving into family relationships and secrets.

Family Business is set in Port Silva, a small mythical seaside town somewhere along the Mendocino coast. The year is 2002, following the Gulf War. As a librarian, one incident jars me. Both the librarian and young volunteer in the local library willingly talk about what newspapers Danny was reading and searching through online. Librarians just do not do that. We believe in your privacy. That aside this is a fine mystery.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

2006-09-06T12:59:00.000-07:00

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

I remember my last visit to the big top. Ringling Brothers set up their tents in Arlington, Virginia. Somehow appropriate is that the site is now the home of the Arlington County Public Library. Not as splashy as a circus on the exterior but filled with as many stories.

Water for Elephants is the story of Jacob Jankowski, a veterinary student who loses his parents and seemingly his future just days before his final exam at Cornell. He runs aimlessly and jumps on a train car filled with workers of the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show, a third rate circus hanging on during the depression. The story changes back and forth between the present, Jacob as a young man and the present, Jacob as an old man essentially abandoned in a nursing home.

I never thought about how circuses operated, how people lived, the brutality of the life. My visual perspective is somewhat influenced from seeing some episodes of the televison show Carnivale which also takes place during the 1930’s. Both the book and the series have brought all the inhabitants of the circus alive. There is a wonderful love story and a great assortment of circus animals fill in the background; the amazing liberty horses and their gorgeous trainer, Marlena and Rosie the elephant who seems stupid and untrainable until they realize she only speaks Polish. Rosie, who carefully pulls up the stake attached to her foot, and ambles over to drink up the day’s container of lemonaide, and then ambles back and re-plants her stake.

It is a world that most of us missed and I highly recommend a visit.

Eliza

Water for Elephants is available through the Mendocino County Library. I listened to the story, but the book is also available.

what the dog did by emily yoffe

2006-08-02T15:34:00.000-07:00

what the dog did; tales from a formerly reluctant dog owner by emily yoffe

What does a mother do when her 5 year old daughter’s favorite book is the American Kennel Club’s Guide to Dog Breeds. When instead of bedtime stories, she wants her mother to read about another dog breed so she knows which one to choose as soon as she is old enough to leave home. The daughter sobs, “I don’t have anything I want! I don’t have a sister! I don’t have a brother!
I don’t have a dog! Dogs are who I am. Dogs are my life.”

So after going to the local animal control facility where her daughter falls in love with a Beagle that is not available. They go in search of adoptable Beagles.
BREW, the local Beagle Rescue, advises right up front that if you want a dog to obey you, stay home, be easy to housebreak and walk off-leash, then a Beagle is NOT for you. My rescue group once had a Beagle that used to take off at every opportunity and not come back for 12 hours. A seasoned Beagle person scoffed and said, “Must be a mix. A true Beagle would not return for over 24 hours.”

What happens when Mom gives in to her 5 year olds desire for a Beagle is just the sub-plot of this hilariously funny book. It is really the story of dogs, people and how we put up with each other or don’t. This book is so funny that my friend’s husband asked her to read the book in another room. She was laughing out loud and he wanted to sleep. Meet heroic dogs, incontinent dogs, bad dogs and good people, bad people and good dogs and truly ignorant members of both species.

Some other books you might like:
For Bea: the story of a Beagle who changed my life by Kristin Von Kreisler
Pack of Two: the intricate bond between people and dogs by Caroline Knapp
Uncle Boris in the Yukon and other shaggy dog stories by Daniel Pinkwater
Bones would rain from the sky by Suzanne Clothier
What dogs have taught me and amazing things I have learned by Merrill Markoe
A widow, a Chihuahua and Harry Truman by Mary Beth Crain

Eliza

The Great Influenza by John M. Barry

2006-07-20T16:30:00.000-07:00

The Great Influenza: the epic story of the deadliest plague in history
By John M. Barry

I have to be honest, it was the picture that drew me in, #6 showing an army emergency hospital. I have seen this picture before. My grandfather, Dr. Calvin Goddard, was an army doctor in 1918 and in a cupboard in my parent’s living room was an old document about his treatment of soldiers during the influenza epidemic of 1918. One of the protocols that he initiated was to place the sick in alternating directions so that they had greater space between heads and therefore coughs, fluids, etc.

The most wonderful aspect of this book is that it covers most of the medical and political world at the time of the great influenza. Influenza pandemics have been circling the world since recorded history. Even now approximately 40,000 people die a year, in the United States alone, from influenza. Almost 90 years later. Post anti-biotics. Now, when even possible pandemics are hyped on television and in the magazines, influenza is still a force to be reckoned with.

At the start of the twentieth century to become a doctor, even at such prestigious institutions as Harvard and Princeton a person did not even have to graduate from high school. The teachers were just doctors who lived nearby. Students often never saw a patient, performed no necropsies, never used microscope, never worked in a laboratory, had little knowledge of the pathology of disease. That was about to change with the European education of many young doctors and the established of the Johns Hopkins medical school along those lines.

The influenza pandemic probably started in Kansas. It only became known as the Spanish flu because Spain was the only country not at war and therefore still had some freedom of the press to even mention that the flu was devastating their country. In the United States, Democratic President Woodrow Wilson, a political conservative and religious fundamentalist had totally shut down freedom of the press and many other freedoms citing patriotism and the need to keep Americans on the right track, so that the influenza pandemic could not be mentioned. The public health officer for the city of Philadelphia allowed a huge co-mingling of these young men and the public during a parade. He said that all was well. It was not patriotic to establish guidelines to protect the civilian public. At the same time thousands and thousands of young men were sent to various camps, kept in crowded quarters throughout the country and from there shipped out to other military containment centers and then to Europe. They were most infectious to others before symptoms appeared and were in huge numbers dead within the week. Possibly 10% of those who came down with the influenza died. Doctors died, nurses died. Over the fall and winter of 1918 more people died from influenza than any other pandemic before or after.

I love mysteries and this book is an informative, exciting cliff hanger. I have learned medical history, social history, political history. I see my grandfather in a whole new light. He went on to become or so I was told, the youngest director of the Johns Hopkins Hospital before becoming a developer of the new science of forensics. He was invited to Chicago to sort out who shot whom in the St. Valentine’s Day massacre and later with others developed the method of tracing a bullet back to the gun from which it was shot.

Even if your grandfather was not part of this era, this book will leave you wanting to know more.

More information on this topic:
The Devil's Flu by Pete Davies

Flu: the story of the great influenza pandemic of 1918 and the search for the virus that caused it by Gina Kolata

Influenza 1918; the worst epidemic in American History

and the PBS video: Influenza 1918

A few of the websites still discussing this pandemic.
http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/influenza/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Flu

Eliza

Coronado: Stories by Dennis Lehane

2006-06-30T16:46:00.000-07:00

I'll admit right up front that I am pretty fan girly about Dennis Lehane, so I was happy to get my hands on a preview copy this past weekend.

Coronado is a collection of short stories due out in September of 2006. There are five of them and a story based on the final one. The stories are: Running out of Dog, ICU, Gone Down to Corpus, Mushrooms, and Until Gwen. Coronado, A Play in Two Acts (based on Until Gwen) completes the collection.

Lehane is noirish writer. His characters are that mixture of good and evil that defines humanity and Lehane doesn't blink when investigating those inconsistancies. Emblematic of that is the first story: Running out of Dogs. Elgin Berg is back from the Vietnam and has taken up with Jewel Lut, an old schoolfellow. That she's married to Perkin Lut, and not about to get divorced, causes him a twinge or two but nothing that stops them from enjoying themselves.

There is a fourth side to what should be a standard triangle: Berg's best friend Blue. Blue's favorite pastimes include burning cockroaches and shooting stray dogs in the head. Blue, says Lehane through his main character Berg, "ain't never grown toward nothing. He's just been dying real slowly since he's been born." Blue worships Jewel, creating her as a creature of purity and beauty in his mind. This odd balance of characters tilts into an conflagration when Perkin hits Jewel in front of townspeople and Blue requires revenge. The end is both inevitable and surprising.

ICU is the story of a man being pursued. It is only in the tertiary a story of crime, instead it's strength is it's exploration of what human connection actually is, and how it matters. Going Down to Corpus is about the nihilism of vandalism and Mushrooms is a tale of crime and revenge.

Until Gwen is the penulitmate story, on which the play which titles the collection is based. Bobby and Bobby's Father are two characters working out their relationship in the context of lives lived outside the margins of society. Lehane writes in his introduction to the play that "I've created villians before, but most are tortured or misunderstood and a lot less villainous than we might prefer in terms of our comfort level with the human race as a whole." Bobby's father, however, is irredeemable as he picks up his son from jail so that his son can find and give him the jewelry that Bobby had stolen at his father's behest, whatever it takes.

Coronado is not Lehane's best work. I think this may be because he works better on the larger canvas that a novel provides but I enjoyed it. It is a quick read and even in these pieces he is able to limn out the arches of lives so that the narratives are a natural and believable outcome of the intersection of the characters.

Especially in crime fiction, this is a rare feat.

~ mel