Speaking from Among the Bones

I'm done with Flavia de Luce # 5, Speaking From Among the Bones.  Well!  I finished the last page and shrieked a little when I finished it.  The very last sentence drops a huge bombshell.  I have recommended Flavia over and over on this blog, so I don't think I need to rhapsodize anymore about how wonderful the books are.  Instead, I'll give a brief summary and then some of my favorite quotes from this book.

In this book, the little Hamlet, Bishop's Lacey, in which Flavia lives is holding a five-hundredth anniversary celebration of Saint Tancred.  In this celebration, they will dig up his remains.  Flavia just so happens to be on the spot and is the first to discover the former church organist, killed and wearing a gas mask in the tomb of Saint Tancred.  Nobody can think who would have bad feelings for the mild mannered Mr. Collicutt, but Flavia is determined to find out.

Quotes (Some of these, I marked in the book because I liked them, and some are thanks to GoodReads, who helps me remember every book quote I ever forgot):

“I was the eighth dwarf. Sneaky.”

“There's an unwritten law of the universe which assures that the thing you seek will always be found in the last place you look. It applies to everything in life from lost socks to misplaced poisons. . .”- This is so true!  

“The word “actually,” like its cousin “frankly,” should, by itself, be a tip-off to most people that what is to follow is a blatant lie— but it isn’t.” -  And, I would add, "No offense".  Of course you are going to say something offensive, there's no need to add that annoying little preface. 

“History is like the kitchen sink,” Adam answered. “Everything goes round and round until eventually, sooner or later, most of it goes down the waste pipe. Things are forgotten. Things are mislaid. Things are covered up. Sometimes, it’s simply a matter of neglect.” 

And finally, I have a poll for all you readers.  How do you pronounce the name Flavia?  When I read the first book, I pronounced it "Flahvia".  But here's the thing: Flavia nicknames herself "Flave", which makes me think that maybe it's "Flaevia."  I wonder if this is a British/American thing. I have a poll to the right and I'd love it if you would vote one way or the other.

I am Half-Sick of Shadows

I got my Flavia de Luce book back!  I sat down and started reading.  I think this might be my favorite of the Flavia de Luce books so far because of all the developments in character and in the ongoing story about Flavia's mysterious mother.  I really was very pleased with what happened in this story.  The other new new thing about this book for me is that for the first time, I actually am interested in Dogger's character.  (Dogger is Flavia's father's valet of sorts and also a gardener/odd jobs man.  They were also in a war together and Dogger still has painful flashbacks.)  He seems to be developing into a main character and not just a background character.

In this book, Colonel de Luce (Flavia's father) is even closer to bankruptcy on the old mansion in which they live.  Finally, he hears about a film producer that is looking for an old English mansion for his latest film.  Colonel de Luce rents out the mansion and the set trucks and the famous actors start appearing a few weeks before Christmas.  This both disappoints and thrills the de Luce daughters, who are excited to have real live actors living with them, but also disappointed because it means that there will be no Christmas tree and presents.  However, things start to get very exciting when Flavia becomes friends with the selfish but strangely likable leading actress.  The night after a play that the actors give for the locals, Flavia can't sleep and so is wandering the halls.  Suddenly, she hears a movie that the actress starred in.  She hurries to the actress's room and finds her, hung from the ceiling with rolls of film.  But the odd and slightly chilling thing is that the actress was dressed and covered with make-up after she died.  Now it's up to Flavia, with the grudging assistance of the inspector, to find out whodunnit.  There are a pile of suspects, as half the village has been snowed in with the de Luces.

The quote on which the title of the book is based.
Each book title in the series is from a quote.

I am enjoying each Flavia de Luce book more and more as I go along.  Each story stands out in my mind and the characters are well-developed.  My next read will probably be the 5th Flavia book.  I'm also very excited because there is a TV show about Flavia de Luce being made this year!  I will most definitely be watching it.

Mary Stewart Books

I got cheated out of a library book.  I checked This Rough Magic out of the library, so pleased that I had found a book by Mary Steward that I had never read.  After reading through most of my library pile, I finally reached for This Rough Magic.  I opened the book and started reading.  Each chapter of the book has a quote at the start.  This one, from the Tempest, seemed awfully familiar, but I kept reading.  Two chapters in, I realized that I had read this book.  I wasn't in the mood for a re-read, so with a sigh I put the book back in the library box.  So now I know that I have read every Mary Stewart book in the library.

 If you haven't read anything by her (or if you have), Mary Stewart is a truly fantastic author.  Her writing is clever and really fits into its own genre: a mix of gothic, thriller, romance, magic, a smattering of comedy, and beautiful scenery descriptions.  I was introduced to Mary Stewart quite a while ago. 
She is such a good writer that I would confidently recommend anything she has written to any reader.

But, while I have read all the books, I haven't read them in these editions.  Just recently, the UK released all of the Mary Stewart books in beautiful new editions with lovely vintage pictures on the front.  I am feeling slightly light-headed.

Did you notice that Thunder on the Right, Nine Coaches Waiting, and My Brother
Michael all have the same dress.  I wonder if these illustrations came from a
vintage pattern cover... 

Sigh.  This is my biggest want right now.  Can you imagine?  The complete set of these (go to amazon, there are about 10 more) sitting on my bookshelf.  *Swoon*

Brighten the Corner Where You Are

I adored this book.  Even though I was in deep mourning over leaving Flavia de Luce behind, that didn't keep me from thoroughly enjoying Brighten the Corner Where You Are by Fred Chappell.  The premise of the story is very simple: a day in the life of Joe Robert Kirkman, a schoolteacher who wants to teach about evolution, a philosopher, and a lover of pranks in a 1940s North Carolina mountain town.  The story is recounted by his son.

The tale opens with Joe Robert Kirkman shimmying up a tree at 3 in the morning to catch an opossum. Then he cooks french toast for himself while his family sleeps, breaking every pot and pan in the house and then splattering egg all down the front of his best suit.  We learn that he is going to be questioned by the school board about his beliefs because of his teaching of evolution.  While on his way to school, he sees a child flailing about in a small, fast-flowing creek.  He dives in, expels the water from her lungs, and takes her to the general store, where he changes into an odd collection of clothes that afford him odd looks all day.  The day is filled with many an adventure from ending up stuck in the chimney with a goat on the roof to a drastic interview with the paper.

The Author

One of my next reads.

This story is charming, gently funny, and full of beautiful language.  The writing is some of the best I have read in a long time and Chappell manages to capture post war North Carolina perfectly.  The characters are interesting and quite human, with foibles and funny quirks.  Joe Robert Kirkman is the funniest, quirkiest, most human of them all.  I highly recommend this to pretty much everybody.  Even if you don't have an affinity for southern novels like I do, this is a must read, simply for the beautiful language.  I am also excited because this novel is part of a sort of casual series, all written through Joe Robert Kirkman's son's eyes.  I will definitely be reading them all.

Hunger Games Thoughts

(This isn't a book review, but musings about a book.  If you want the basic plot of the Hunger Games before you read my thoughts, go to Good Reads.)  

For months (probably years by now) I have had people telling me that I need to read and watch the Hunger Games.  I was quite reluctant for several reasons.  First of all, I had read the first book and thought that the writing was, frankly, not that great.  Second, I have a (slightly irrational) dislike of young adult fiction as a class.  I think that it's kind of ridiculous that teenagers have to have their own category of books.  You read the children's section until you're sick of it, then you gently ease into the adult section.  I also found it highly ironic that the people reading/watching the books/movies are being entertained by the killing just like the members of the Capitol.  However, last night at the behest of my family, I sat down and watched the first Hunger Games.  Before I sat down, I decided I was going to step out for the worst of the gore.  There actually were only three huge battle scenes, so I didn't actually miss huge portions of the movie.

Several things struck me while I was watching the movie.  1.  This story is a huge social commentary.  That's something I didn't realize when I first read the book.  Sure, the story is for entertainment, but there's a deeper point behind the pretty basic tale of kids in a dystopian society.  Are we, like the people of Panem, entertaining ourselves to death?   I was interested to read that Suzanne Collins thought of the Hunger Games while switching channels between a sports game and Iraq war footage.   2.  I don't think that many watchers/readers get how serious the message is. Actually I don't think you really can if you're, say 10.   3.  And this is completely shallow...I'm sorry.  I liked Gail (the boy back home that loves Katniss) better than Peeta (the boy who is in the Hunger Games and ends up with Katniss).  He has principles, something Peeta apparently doesn't really have.  And, I just think he's a nicer person.

My third thought deserves a whole paragraph unto itself.  I'm going to have a little spoiler here, so if you don't want to know what happens at the end of the first book/movie, stop reading.  At the end, Peeta and Katniss (our heroine) survive.  They have been told that they can be a team, so they don't end up killing each other.  Finally, after everybody else is dead, there is an announcement that, never mind, they will have to kill each other.  Katniss pulls a move that nobody is expecting.  She takes a handful of deadly berries and tells Peeta that they're both going to eat them and die, leaving no winner.  Now, let's stop right there (I promise this isn't the end).  You all know that I am a sucker for happy endings (in fact, I'd probably hate the writers if I hadn't thought of this plot ending myself), but what would have happened if Katniss and Peeta had eaten the berries and died?
It would have been a huge statement.  Think what would have happened- here is the Capitol with no winner, no huge victory parade and medals, no crown.  It would have shown all the watchers the true horribleness of the Games.  It would have said, look, the whole point of the games is death and entertainment.  There would probably have been a whole lot of rage and uprising and, hopefully the end of the games.  Of course, that isn't what happens.  A voice yells, "Stop!" and the two are safely carted home with much fanfare.

So now you know what I think about the Hunger Games.  I think I will go ahead and read the books and I'm definitely going to watch the next movie.

A Red Herring Without Mustard

I just finished the 3rd Flavia de Luce this morning.  I spent all of Sunday afternoon reading it, moving from the porch swing to the front yard with a kitty to the first raft ride on the pond with my family, to the hammock under the shade of an old spruce.  It was the perfect afternoon to share with a wonderful book.

Flavia is back, with a curious mystery.  The book opens with Flavia having her fortune told by an old gypsy that has just turned up in the area, after being gone for 20 years.  This may seem like a fairly harmless beginning, but things quickly turn sour when the fortune-teller is found in her caravan, bludgeoned.  And this seems to be connected to an earlier mystery, the kidnapping and death of a small child.  And the gypsy is being accused of the deed by the mother.  Just when Flavia thinks the drama is over, a well-known poacher is found, dead, hanging from a statue on her estate gardens.

It was an exciting, well written yarn and, though I really tried my best, I was still amazed by whodunnit.  Mixed with this exciting mystery are many introspective moments for Flavia.  She solves just a tiny piece of the mystery of her mother, Harriet, who died on a mountaintop when Flavia was a year old.  And there's a new friend for Flavia in the granddaughter of the gypsy.  Of course, the odious sisters are still hanging around and Flavia spends quite a bit of time wondering why on earth they despise her so.  The reason is not found by the end of the book, but I'm still hoping that I'll find out...
I am so curious why Alan Bradley has created such awful siblings.  I have never met siblings that treated each other as badly as the de Luce sisters do.  Sibling rivalry?  Of course, I've seen plenty of that.  But this goes beyond the normal arguments and twitting into truly hateful behavior.  But, I've heard that all is explained, so I keep reading.

I am thoroughly enjoying this series.  It's perfect spring reading because it's exciting and fascinating enough that it can hold your attention away from all the new sights and smells and sounds outside.  However, you can put the book down mid-chapter to snap pictures of the blowing wash or take a nap on a patch of green grass and then pick the book up and remember exactly where you were.

A Room with a View

This is one of those books that stays on my to-read list; not because I don't want to read it, but because it gets surpassed by more flashy books.  It seems that, the longer it stays on the list, the less likely I am to read it in the future.  However, I finally checked out A Room with a View and heartily enjoyed it.

It is the story of young Lucy Honeychurch, a very proper Edwardian everywoman who goes to Italy with her overbearing older cousin as a chaperon.  However, her life is changed forever when she gets to Italy.  She finds herself falling for an unsuitable match: the melancholic and mysterious George Emerson.  First, she falls into his arms in a dead faint after seeing a man murdered.  Then, Mr. Emerson most improperly kisses her behind a row of bushes, seen only by the Italian taxicab.  Charlotte, her chaperon, warns her to tell nobody.  Back home, Lucy is forced by her mother and Charlotte to marry the highly eligible bachelor Cecil Vyse.  Mr. Vyse is a dull, oppressive force in Lucy's life and she works her hardest to love him, but finds herself continually thinking about the fascinating Mr. Emerson.

I found myself gripping this book and reading slightly obsessively until the book was finished.  The main idea of this story (girl torn between true love and obviously-awful-but-really-eligible guy) has been done many times, but it was interesting to read one of the "originals".  I also love events unfolding simply by smart conversation and hidden meanings in every word that someone says.  Sometimes I wish that people still had that skill.

I think that I'm going to have to read more of E.M. Forster.  And I'm definitely going to watch the 90s movie that was done that stars Helena Bonham Carter.  I recommend this for anybody who loves a good, smart romance with a side of social commentary.

Library Loot

Today I'm linking up with this fantastic blog to bring you the books that I got at my last trip to the library.  I think this is a great way to promote libraries and I've gotten some great book ideas from it.
So here are the books that I checked out last time I was at the library.






1.The Egg and I is the first autobiography by the fantastic Mrs. Piggle Wiggle author.  I laughed and laughed at this account of chicken farming in the Northwest Pacific.

2.  A Room with a View is one of those classics that so many people miss out on reading in school.  It's the story of a young girl who leaves proper England for Italy.

3. I picked up Life is Meals on a whim.  It's a cooking calendar, with a one page treatise on such topics as ice cream, Alice Waters, and a poem to Brie (the cheese, that is).

4.  A Red Herring Without Mustard is the third Flavia de Luce book.  I just started it.  It's very good!

5.  I'm continuing my Neil Gaiman reading and thought I would check out this very famous title.  I just recently watched the movie and liked it.

6.  This Rough Magic is written by one of my favorite authors, Mary Stewart.  It is the story of Lucy Waring, a minor actress who goes to Corfu to visit her sister and has a very exciting adventure.

7.  South of Superior is a debut novel about a woman who returns to a little eccentric town on the upper peninsula of Michigan.  She goes to take care of an old family friend, but along the way meets many interesting people and is changed forever.

8.  A Company of Swans is by the very talented Eva Ibbotson.  This is the story of a young girl who lives with her oppressive father and aunt.  The only thing she likes is ballet.  Defying her father and aunt, she goes with a ballet troupe to South America and falls in love with a British exile.  Unfortunately, her father and fiance are following her.

9.  Brighten the Corner Where You Are is a day in the life of a North Carolina school teacher.   It has gotten a lot of critical acclaim, so I'm eager to read it!


And that concludes this week's library loot!  I'm looking forward to repeating this every week.

In Defense of Happy Endings

"As this world becomes increasingly ugly, callous and materialistic it needs to be reminded that the old fairy stories are rooted in truth, that imagination is of value, that happy endings do, in fact, occur, and that the blue spring mist that makes an ugly street look beautiful is just as real a thing as the street itself."- Elizabeth Goudge

Dust baths in the sunshine.

In this post, I mentioned that I loved Agnes Grey so much because there wasn't extreme hysteria and unnecessary unhappiness.  You see, I am a happy-endings reader.  Call me shallow and unwilling to face the brutality of life, my one requirement of a book is that it have some sort of redemption and loose-ends tied up by the end.  So here's why I read books with happy endings and my requirements for a book:

Tom Kitten (named for the Beatrix Potter character)

1.  I read fiction for escape.  If I want to read about something terrible that ended terribly or had no resolution, I will pick up a newspaper.  For me, fiction is a happy place where one can travel to all sorts of places and never leave home, where improbable things sometimes happen, and the antagonists get their just deserts.

2.  The fiction I read doesn't have to be all happiness all the time.  In fact, that would be monotonous very quickly.  Dickens is a perfect example of my favorite kind of reading.  There are some pretty bad situations, but our hero/heroine always ends up with some kind of happy resolution.  So, you say, why doesn't Wuthering Heights make the cut?

3.  I don't like unhappiness simply for the sake of unhappiness.  Wuthering Heights does, in fact, have some small resolution at the end of it, but the rest of the book is about being miserable (loosely speaking).  That's my beef with Tolstoy. Anna Karenina is just 1000 (or whatever it is) pages of desperate unhappiness with a desperately unhappy ending.  If unhappiness contributes in some way to another plot, then I am happy to read about.  But a plot about unhappiness?  Sigh.

I can't get over the lovely crocuses in the front garden.

I have had thoughts going around my head all week about this topic, but couldn't quite figure out how to get them onto paper.  I hope everything I wrote here was clear.  I'd love to hear what any of my readers think about this and what kind of reading they like!  I'll close with another quote about happy endings.

Hordes of Canadian geese flocked to our pond.  I caught a glimpse
of them on camera Sunday afternoon.

“October knew, of course, that the action of turning a page, of ending a chapter or of shutting a book, did not end a tale. Having admitted that, he would also avow that happy endings were never difficult to find: "It is simply a matter," he explained to April, "of finding a sunny place in a garden, where the light is golden and the grass is soft; somewhere to rest, to stop reading, and to be content.”- Neil Gaiman

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

This week, I discovered a wonderful book!  I wasn't expecting it to be wonderful, but I checked it out of the library anyway.  It was Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte.  I originally checked the book out because I felt sorry for it.  Now, this may sound strange, but sometimes when I come across a book that looks neglected and like it hasn't been checked out for awhile, I'll check it out.  I had read books by both of the other Bronte sisters: Jane Eyre (too brooding and dramatic for my taste) and Wuthering Heights (brooding and dramatic with the added edge of hysteria).  But I'd never read anything by Anne Bronte. So, I checked out Agnes Grey.

Agnes Grey is the largely autobiographical story of a young woman who, upon the sudden poverty of her father, agrees to go as a governess to make money for her family.  She first works for a dreadful family with unruly and hateful children.  After a year of futilely trying to teach such awful children, she is fired by the cold, domineering mother.  Next Agnes goes to a family of four children who, while shallow and cosseted, are much easier to work with.  After the two boys go to school, she becomes friends with the two girls: the pretty and flighty Rosalie and her tomboy-ish sister, Matilda.  While working in this position, she falls in love with the kind and worthy curate.  But, she must be separated from him when she returns home after a family tragedy.  The book is quite short; only 198 pages.

I loved this book so much because it was like a breath of fresh air after the other two Bronte sisters' novels.  Agnes is a basically happy character with a functional family.  The book has a nice happy ending and the heroes/heroines basically triumph at the end of the book.  I enjoy books like this where the problem is solving something, instead of the trouble being the hero living a troubled and tortured life.  I think I sense another post about happy endings...

Before I started the book, I read reviews on Good Reads and most of the reviews rated the book as average to strongly disliked.  The reviews complained that the Agnes was too goody-goody and a 2 dimensional character.  I disagreed after reading the book.  Agnes is a very Victorian character with strong morals and a definite sense of right and wrong.  She occasionally gives lectures about morality to her charges, but it is nothing spectacular for the time period.  Agnes has inner turmoil and debates with herself about what she should do in certain scenarios.  So I would say she is not at all 2-dimensional, but rather very typical of her time period.  I highly recommend this book to anybody who likes classics and hasn't bothered to read anything by Anne Bronte.

The Farm

I've been gathering my thoughts for about a week now to write about this book called The Farm.  The first page had me hooked.

"Johnny's earliest memory of the Farm was filled with snow and the sound of sleigh bells.  Riding through the soft-falling drift of white, he could see the fat rumps of the horses which drew the sleigh and the steam which rose from their wet coats as they plunged forward to drag it up the steep rise in the lane beyond the bridge over the brook...Then the sleigh came to a halt beside a white picket gate beneath the drooping black branches of the Norway spruce...Out of the house came a tiny old lady and three or four enormous people, and Johnny was swept in through a hubbub of greetings and noisy kissing into a room which was warm and had a delicious smell compounded of coffee and sausages, roast turkey, and mince pie." 

This lovely description had me all ready for a pleasant, cozy read about a boy growing up on a farm.  Instead, it was the history of an old farm and the author's family history as it tied into this midwestern America farm.  In the second chapter, I yawned and thought about stopping reading, but I kept going because that first page had been so good.  I'm glad that I kept reading.  It is a good author that can make their personal family history interesting to the general public.  Stories of all the family from the stern Colonel, the family patriarch, the vivacious grandmother, Maria, and the author's mother kept me interested until the very end.  

So, overall, this is a good book with well-developed characters and interesting, everyday adventures.  Although the writing style is pretty slow and I kept it for reading when I was fully awake, I am really glad that I stuck with this book.  

The Secret of Platform 13

After a particularly busy and stressful week, I was coming down with a nasty chest cold, so I brewed myself a pot of peppermint tea and went to the crate that holds our library books.  Nothing quite suited me, until my eye fell on a little title that I had picked up on a whim the week before.  The book was called The Secret of Platform 13.  I had first heard of the author from the lovely Penderwicks.  Jane, the middle sister, loved books by Eva Ibbotson, so I decided that I needed to read at least one of her books.  Sure enough, Jane's book recommendation was true and I like to think that The Secret of Platform 13 was what put me on the road to recovery.

The Secret of Platform 13 is the story of four very different magical creatures who come from a magical island that can be reached every 9 years for 9 days going through on the abandoned Platform 13.  On this island, harpies, ogres, feys, and witches live together in harmony, but there is one little twinge of sadness.  The human king and queen lost their son 9 years ago when the prince's three nannies lost him to an evil kidnapper named Mrs. Trottle.  So, an ogre, a little hag (our heroine), a very old wizard, and a fey travel through Platform 9 thirteen years after the boy was kidnapped to save him.  They discover, much to their horror that the boy who is the prince is quite awful and the boy that they wish is the prince is only a kitchen boy.

This story reminds me of Roald Dahl, E. Nesbit,  J.K. Rowling, and other British magic-writers.  I highly recommend this gripping, yet gentle little story for any age.

An Update on Emma Graham

(See the first post)
Well!  I've just finished Cold Flat Junction and for some reason, this book set me more abuzz than the first book.  For one thing, I felt like the unfinished pieces were more apparent than in the first.  I desperately want to know why, WHY? the dreadful Davidows have to live with the poor Grahams.  The Davidows are a truly despicable mother and daughter who, for some inexplicable reason, are living with the Grahams and driving them insane with their awfulness.  I also am curious about the crazy great aunt Aurora who lives on the fourth floor and, it appears, drinks cocktails around the clock, prepared by Emma.  I also felt bad that the sheriff, Emma's only friend and confidant, grew slightly distant in this book.  And why is Emma's mother so stern and cold?  I'm sure there's a dark secret there.  I hope these questions get resolved by the end of the series.

This story is just a continuation of all of the themes and stories of Hotel Paradise.  But Emma is in deeper than ever and is discovering that the mystery that she thought she was solving has turned into three mysteries.  There's still more of Emma's incessant questions and the same quirky characters who help her find the answers to mysteries that have remained buried for years.

                                                         
I can't wait to read Belle Ruin!  I hope that it answers some questions and gives me more of the same wonderful writing.

The Life of Pi

This is a review of an old favorite, rather than a book I have just read.  This book definitely goes on my top ten list of books.  Life of Pi came out several years ago, and many people have kind of forgotten about how good it was.  I however, still think about it quite fondly and was just thinking the other day that I need to get it out and read it again.

Life of Pi is the story of an Indian boy, Piscine Patel.  The story is told by a much older Pi, now living in North America, to a young man who wants to write a book.   Pi's family, originally from India, moves to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship.  Pi is the son of a zookeeper and so, along with his family, come all of the zoo animals.  One fateful night, the ship that the Patels are on sinks in a storm, killing everybody except for Pi, a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra and, most frightening of all, a 450 pound Bengal tiger.  Now all four very different species have to figure out how to survive on a small life boat in the middle of the ocean.

Quickly, the tiger kills the wounded zebra, then the orangutan, and then the hyena.  This leaves Pi and the tiger to decide who is going to survive.  Both manage to survive together until they reach Mexico, where Richard Parker, the tiger, disappears into the jungle and nobody ever finds him again.  Pi, wounded and very thin, is recuperating in a hospital when Japanese officials come to his bedside to hear the truth about what happened.  Pi recounts his story to the officials, but nobody believes him.  Finally, he comes up with a much more ordinary story and tells it, pleasing the officials.  "Now, which story do you prefer?"he asks in closing to the young man writing the story.

Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays

This was my latest classic read.  Next up is a collection of Shakespeare.  I was surprised at how much I enjoyed these plays.  The plays were well written, though of course, archaic, and it was fun to read a slightly new take on classic Bible stories that many people know so well.  Part of the reason I was so eager to read these, is that these plays are credited with being the sort of plays that would have inspired Shakespeare.

This is the edition of the book from which I read.

I also was interested in this book in light of Russell Crow's new Noah movie (I haven't seen it, but apparently it was very good).  The story of the flood is one of the plays included in this book and the take on the story, and the medieval exclamations that biblical characters made such as, "Ye gads!"  made me laugh.  It just goes to show that people have been changing and reinterpreting bible stories to suit their particular life experiences for a very long time.  What doesn't change is the attraction to the stories.  

The majority of the book is taken up with plays written about bible stories.  Most of the major stories in both the new and old testament are included.  Then, the last 30 pages are the Everyman play.  The Everyman play is the story of Everyman, an average human.  God says that people have become too obsessed with money and power and that they need to be taught a lesson, through Everyman.  So, God sends Death, the reaper, to bring Everyman to eternity, never to return to earth.   Along the way, Everyman makes a friend, called Fellowship, who promises to stay with him forever, until he realizes that Everyman is summoned by death.  Fellowship leaves.  A similar situation happens with Kindred and Cousin.  Next, Everyman turns to Goods (inanimate objects, representing worldly stuff), which does not comfort him. Finally, Everyman meets Good Deeds and others like him, has his soul purged of sin, and goes with his new friend, Good Deeds, to heaven to meet God.  This story reminded me very much of Pilgrim's Progress.

So, overall, I recommend this book.  I think it's a great place to start in reading medieval plays, because it shows the play-watching background that so many famous playwrights would have had.

The Graveyard Book

I first heard of Neil Gaiman through a family member, who raved about how interesting and wonderful his writing was.  While at the library, I did a little search through the young adult and adult fiction by Gaiman and settled on The Graveyard Book.  I was quite unimpressed by the cover: very typically young-adulty-sci-fyish looking, but I went ahead and checked it out because a.) it won a Newberry and b.)  the summary of the book looked very intriguing.

The Graveyard Book is the story of a boy named Bod, short for Nobody, who lives in a graveyard and is raised and educated by ghosts and his guardian, a strange creature who is neither a ghost or a human.  He has all kinds of adventures, from keeping away from the evil man who murdered his whole family, to meeting the Indigo man who lives under a hill.  He makes friends and has a loving family, just like a normal human child, but all of his friends and family are ghosts, with exception of a girl named Scarlet.

An illustration from the book

This book is so intriguing and I loved every minute of it, from Bod's doting ghost parents, to the thrilling adventures he has.  While I was reading it, I didn't think for a moment, "This is definitely a young-adult book."  This story can be enjoyed by all ages.  So, I recommend it and I guarantee that, even if you've never cared for ghosts stories, you will love this charming book.

Another illustration from the book

Flavia de Luce

I just finished a mystery called The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag and before that I read The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, both written by Alan Bradley.  They are mysteries about a young girl in 1950s England named Flavia de Luce.  She is a brilliant chemist, living with her slightly absent-minded father and two aggravating sisters who are respectively a brilliant musician and reader.  Flavia rides around her small English village on her bike, name Gladys, and solves mysteries.

As I said in this post,  I love stories about precocious young detectives who solve difficult mysteries in their everyday lives and I think that Flavia is going on my list of favorites.  Her funny voice shines through so well.

In the first book, a man is killed in her garden and she is convinced that her father did it.  But, to solve this mystery, she has to go back and solve another mystery about a man with whom her father went to school.  In the second book, Flavia meets a famous puppeteer and his assistant, the frantic and slightly distressed Nialla.  When the puppeteer is killed by a bolt of electricity and then hung by marionette strings, Flavia sneaks around the village inspector who is looking in all the wrong places and does some sleuthing on her own.

I have read just the first two in this fantastic mystery series.  I can't wait to read the next!

Don't Look Now by Daphne DuMaurier

Daphne DuMaurier is a very interesting writer.  When I opened Rebecca (DuMaurier's most famous novel), I fell in love.  I read the story through twice and it continued to haunt me.  It is a book that I still return to regularly

Crocuses!  Pictures in this post are of spring sightings.

However, Rebecca is the only one of DuMaurier's books that I have ever really enjoyed.  I read Jamaica Inn and liked it, but didn't adore it.  I didn't like the heroine and there was something odd about DuMaurier's writing style.  Then I attempted My Cousin Rachel and enjoyed it even less.  Two weeks ago, when I was at the library, I was browsing through DuMaurier's many works, thinking, "I need to get over this aversion and read something else by Daphne."

Pink rhubarb noses poking out of the ground!

Unfortunately, Don't Look Now, a collection of haunting short stories written in the 60s was my least favorite of all of DuMaurier's writing.  I happily started the first short story one drizzly evening and prepared to enjoy a good shiver.  At first, the story was very enjoyable, with a set of psychic twin sisters in Italy and two grieving parents.  But then, as I moved through the story, I started to frown.  A story that had great potential to be a good, eerie yarn, went down a gruesome path, ending (Spoiler Alert!) with the main character getting an ax thrown through his head by a dwarf woman.  Now, don't get me wrong, I love a good, haunting thriller, but this was too eccentric and gory to be thrilling.   I stopped reading. "Huh?" I said.  I skimmed the rest of the stories and found them just as odd.  I firmly shut the book and finished up the evening with something a little lighter.

Another kitty shot

In my opinion, Rebecca is the exception that proves the rule.  I don't particularly like DuMaurier's writing style, but she did manage to produce one pretty wonderful book.  So, I highly recommend Rebecca, but don't bother reading any of DuMaurier's other writings, unless you like lots of the supernatural and a very dark writing style.