Cat Girl In The Basement

Who's ready for a rambling?  Yay, me too!  Today I will ramble about a book that has been on my radar and on my bookshelf for a while.  It has been part of my backpack of bookness  for and I was in the mood for a random book, so I put my hand into the backpack, pulled out this book and read it in two days.  The book is Serafina and the Black Cloak, a young adult novel by Robert Beatty.  Was it as awesome as the best seller list said it was?  I'll let you know, but first as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

 Serafina is a pre-teen girl who has spent her whole life hidden with her father in the basement of the famous Biltmore Estate in the 1890's.  Serafina spends most of her time napping during the day and using her unusual talents to catch rats in the extensive house.  She is no sure why her father hides hers away so carefully, but figures it has something to do with her strange coloring and the way her bones seemed to be just a bit malformed.  She has spent her whole life skulking around and observing the life that she can never have.  Her father has also warned her away from the forests that surround the estate, telling her that they are very dangerous.  One night while catching rats, Serafina runs into a horrible, rotting apparition that is clothed in a mysterious black cloak.  The worst part however is that he has kidnapped a young girl and when Serafina tries to help, the cloak envelopes the girl and she disappears with a scream.  The man in the black cloaks see's Serafina and chases her, but she manages to hid using her ability to fit into tiny spaces.  She goes up and spies on the house the next morning and learns one of the guests little girls is missing.  She tries to explain to her father, but he tells her she has read to many books and must have imagined it.  Sera goes exploring on her own and meets up with Braeden, the orphaned nephew of the Vanderbilts, the  owners/builders of the Biltmore Estate.  The two of them become friends and start to investigate the missing children, as they have come to find out that there were other's missing.  Sera tries again to talk to her father and finally learns the truth of her birth.  Years ago he had been out in the woods and came across some sort of wild animal.  He heard what sounded like cries and when he followed the sound, he came upon a small creature that resembled a human girl.  He took her home and eventually got a job at the Biltmore Estate, first as a construction worker, then as a maintenance man, all the while living and hiding himself and his adopted daughter in the house.  Much investigation and adventures follow with Sera and Braeden becoming tight friends.  Sera starts to suspect a Mr. Thorn, a guest of the Biltmore Estate who seems to mysteriously obtain a new talant every time a child disappears. Sera is chased into the woods and she after running through a mysterious, body less cemetery in an abandoned village she ends up in a green area with a mysterious angel holding a sharp sword.  There is also a mountain lion den, which holds a pair of lion cubs that Sera bonds with.  She is almost killed when the cubs lion mamma comes back and finds her.  More stuff and Sera lures Mr. Thorn away into the glade and gets the lioness to shred him.  She takes the cloak and learns it's evil history and how it was responsible for the town being abandon.  It tempts her to take it for her self, but she uses the sword to destroy it.  Once the cloak is destroyed, all the spirits that were taken are released, including the missing children.  Turns out the cloak would absorb the spirits and bestow the life and talent upon the wearer of the cloak.  One of the released people is Serafina's mother...actually it's the human half of a being known as a catamount, which is essentially a human/ mountain lion shape shifter.  This is where Sera get's her interesting oddness from.  The kid's are taken back to their grateful parents with a story of being lost in the woods, as nobody would really believe that they were trapped in a cloak.  The Vanderbilts have finally learned of Sera's existence and allow her and her father to continue to live in the basement.  Sera and Braeden remain fast friends and the next adventure starts in the next book.

World Building - The book is set in a historical location, but with a fantasy twist.  I don't know, the world was really well built...but I had a very hard time reconciling the fake fantasy world with it's non existent elements aka the abandon village and such, with what is a well known and well documented local historical landmark, but more on that later.  That being said, the world was well wrought and easy to navigate, especially the nooks and crannies of the big house and some of the cemetery aspects added to the overall story.

Story - This felt like a middle grade story, if that makes sense.  This is not a bad thing, sometimes I feel that authors try and get to clever, or to adult when it comes to this age group and this story really feels like it is written for the 9-12 club and in that sense it makes me very happy.  I however am not a 9-12 year old and felt that the book over all read a little young.  Again not a bad thing for the target group.  For the most part the story was complete and engaging.  The biggest complaint I had about the story (besides the historical aspect, which will get it's own area) was that I felt like it was trying to do a little to much.  We had so many elements to the story, and not all of them were tied together as well as I thought they could be.  So I guess overall the story was ok, but needed some work.

Character - This book had an interesting mix of historical figures and fictional characters which for me personally worked with mixed results.  As far as individuals go, I found Serafina to be a pretty good character, especially for the target age group.  She is feisty, self-sufficient, and not overly confident.  She has a lot of angst over her unknown past and reacts as most  9-12 year olds would to the event's that transpire.  Everybody else is fairly stock or background so yeah.

Editing - The flow of the book was pretty well done, I was able to follow everything with out too much trouble so that was good.  Again, as I mentioned, I felt like there were just too many elements.  We had the mysterious girl with all the weird physical stuff, we have the historic estate, we have a mystery involving missing children and a soul eating cloak, we have a mysterious origin story, we have an abandon village, we have a sword wielding stone angel, we have shape shifting cats...we have SO MUCH GOING ON!  I feel like I would have preferred if the author just focused on a couple of these elements at a time, especially since it is going to be a series.  Also a few things got tossed in with no explanation which always drives me nuts.

History/Fantasy - Ok, so here is where personal opinion comes in...so just remember that...this is just my bloggy opinion.  I find that the mixing of history and fantasy is hit or miss.  When it is done well, it can be awesome.  However more often then not, it just bugs the heck out of me.  This book is one of those that bugs me and here is why.  We know the entire history of the Biltmore Estate.  We know how and when it was built and by who and their whole personal history.  Nowhere ever is their an orphaned nephew, nowhere ever is their an abandoned village....in fact the forest around the estate was planted by the builders.  There are no local legends of catamounts so pretty much the author just appropriated the setting and a couple of real life people then totally went his own merry way with the rest.  I would have much preferred if the author, inspired by the Biltmore Estates, had come up with his own setting and characters...even if they were a homage to the originals.  I found it very distracting the liberties the author took with the history of this place and it's builders.

Family - One thing I did very much enjoy about this book was the portrayal of family.  We get to see every single type of family imaginable.  We see mom, dad and kid, we see family adopting on of their own, we see single parents, we see a gruff guy becoming an amazing dad by happenstance.  A shape shifting mountain lion being a mother from afar.  To me it just reaffirms the fact that anybody can be family if they are willing to put the effort in.  I always love it when a book shows us that a family can be more then just the traditional nuclear family and that as long as you try to love each other, all family is good family.

Bucket List - For all of my whining about the mix of history and fantasy, the Biltmore Estate has now gone on my Literary Bucket List.  I only live about 6-8 hours away from this place and it looks amazing.  I would love to do my best to fanagle my way into seeing some of the awesome places described in the book.  This one is very doable so keep an eye out for a post about it.

Overall Impression - I did not find this book to be my personal cup of tea...that being said, I totally get the appeal of this book, especially in the middle grade crowd that it is targeted for.  I will probably grab the second book at some point, but am not chomping at the bit for it.  I recommend it to anybody who wants to get their kid to read more and needs a good page turner.  I give it 6 out of 10 frayed rope belts.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Women With Issues And The Unstable Men Who Are Involved With Them

Hi Folks, sorry about the spotty posting, so to make it up to you let's get to a rambling shall we?  Today we ramble about one of the books I read while on my epic Texas vacation.  The book is The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.  I read it for several reasons.  One, the movie is coming out so I had to read it before I go see it.  Two, the synopsis sounded awesome and I was in the mood for a good mystery.  Three, several people I know had read it and liked it.  How do I feel about the book about now that I have read it?  Read on and find out.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

 The book is divided into three voices, Rachel, Megan and Anna.  These three women all have a direct connection to an area around a particular train stop.  Rachel rides the train to London everyday and everyday she passes an are where she can see her old house, complete with her ex-husband, his new wife and their baby daughter.  She also can see the upper porch of another house with a couple that she gives a made up life to.  In her mind, this couple is perfect, they love each other and they have great jobs and deep conversations, essentially everything Rachel wants for her life.  So pretty much Rachel spends her days on this train, passing her old life and fantasizing about others while indulging her alcoholism while pretending to go to work so that the friend she is staying with won't know how messed up her life is.  We learn that Rachel was married to a guy named Tom and that the two of them had been trying to have a baby and when they failed Rachel started to turn to alcohol to alleviate the pain.  Tom meanwhile started an affair with Anna.  After the discovery of the affair, Tom and Rachel divorced and he married Anna and had a baby with her.  Rachel, especially when drinking can't leave it alone and constantly calls and visits her old house and husband.  One day while on the train and watching her fantasy couples house, she is shocked and appalled to see Megan kissing a guy who is not her husband.  This moment shatters her little fantasy world.  We switch perspectives and learn about Megan and Scott, the couple that Rachel likes to watch.  Megan is a bit of a messed up soul, she loves her husband, but can't help but feel trapped on occasion.  Scott is controlling and is constantly checking up on Megan...which while totally creepy and unacceptable turns out to be a thing 'cause she can't help but cheat when she feels trapped and controlled.   Megan goes to a therapist named Kamal whom helps her start to unravel why she is the way she is.  After failing to seduce him, she turns to him as a friend and reveals how after her beloved brother dies she ran away and hooked up with a guy name Mack.  The two of them live a poor, drug and alcohol fueled life until Megan gets pregnant.  She has the baby at their home and does her best.  One night the electricity is turned off and being alone Megan takes the baby and takes a hot bath to try and warm up.  She falls asleep and when she wakes up the baby is dead.  They bury the baby and Mack leaves Megan alone.  Megan eventually tries to get it together and marries Scott.  Back with Rachel, she has a particularly bad day and goes on a drinking binge and ends up waking up covered in blood with a head wound not remembering anything more then snatches of the night before.  She is also horrified to discover that Megan is missing.  Rachel goes a bit crazy and contacts the police about the guy she saw on the roof with Megan earlier.  She also goes to Scott with the information.  Her and Scott start a bit of a weird and twisted sort of kind of but not really a relationship.  Meanwhile we get a glimpse of Anna and how her relationship with Tom started.  We find that after the affair and the subsequent marriage and baby, Anna is now feeling a little stuck.  She is also increasingly worried about the frequency of calls and visits from the usually intoxicated Rachel, especially to her husband.  She begs Tom to convince Rachel to quit, he promises to, but the harassment continues.  Rachel spends more time around Scott and his house, which puts her near her old house, which continues to freak Anna out.  Rachel continues to try and recover her memories of the night she was black out drunk and starts to uncover some disturbing things about her previous relationship with Tom.  After an episode with Scott where he gets violent and locks her in the room after learning she lied about her relationship to Mlegan, Rachel tries to get sober.  After a whole lot of seriously messed up stuff all things are finally revealed.  Rachel realizes that the night of her black out she saw Megan get in a car with her ex-husband Tom.  It comes out that Megan was pregnant before she died and that the baby was not Scott's.  After putting it all together Rachel goes to Anna to share that she thinks Megan and Tom were having an affair and that she thinks Tom killed Megan.  Anna has already pretty much come to the same conclusion after finding some things in her husbands gym bag.  Tom comes home and we find that he had actually been abusing Rachel any time she was drunk when they were still married and then twisted it until Rachel blamed herself.  There is an intense struggle and Tom ends up dead.  The whole sordid story comes out and everybody is left to try their best to pick up the pieces.

World Building - The world in which this story takes place is pretty small.  The vast majority is in the small suburban area around the Witney train stop outside of modern times London.  The smallness of the world contributes to the claustrophobic interweirdness of the story (totally a word a swear it is).  It is very detailed for all it's smallness and I felt like I could probably walk this little neighborhood in my sleep and the train was it's own perfect world.  It's a great example of how you don't need to be sweeping and epic to create a complete world.

Story - Ok here is where my opinion is going to start to diverge from other peoples.  I thought the story was kind of trite.  There was nothing really new or exciting, it was another one of those hey a bunch of messed up people making poor decisions do messed up things to other messed up people which results in all kinds of messed up ness...maybe that should have been the title of this post.  I was kind of disappointed I wanted it to be so much more atmospheric and a lot less tawdry and voyeuristic.  That being said it was a complete story that was woven together to make sense, which is better then a lot of these stories do so that was good.

Characters - Again here is a category where I am torn.  The characters where well written, but I hated almost all of them...not to the level of Gone Girl, but seriously.  These are people who are the root of their own problems, they are selfish and self centered.  They make horrible decisions and refuse to grow up and take responsibility for themselves.  They are fairly realistic characters...which may be why some people enjoy reading about them.  I know a lot of people like this in real life and even more that get shoved down our throats through various forms of media.  I just usually read to try and escape so reading about shitty characters who get into their own messes then bitch and whine about them just don't appeal to me.

Editing - For the most part the editing was pretty good.  The story was readable and everything ended up making sense in the end.  My only real complaint would be the dragging out of certain secrets a bit to try and make the story more of a thriller then it really was.  There were several secrets that got revealed through out the book, but no major twist so to me the term thriller is used loosely hear, but over all it was solid editing.

Relationships - The book for me was mostly about relationships.  Relationships between husbands and wives, men and women, women and women, people and alcohol, characters and memories.  Everything about this book was fueled by relationships, both real and perceived. Unfortunately most of the relationships in this book are at best unhealthy and at worst harmful.  The story was a picture of how people get trapped in bad head states and ensuing bad decisions that come from it.  There was very little in this book that hinted that these characters were even capable of attempting to have good relationships and that was just really really sad.

Mystery - The central mystery for the whole book is what happened to Megan.  I figured out who killed her as soon as I read about her sleeping with the "mysterious family man".  This was disappointing as I felt it was telegraphed pretty early in the book.  I wanted that mystery to be more...mysterious or at least not so blatant and trite...I think I may be spoiled.

Genre - I love a good mystery and thriller, but I am coming to the understanding that I should probably not read whatever genre this book is in.  It's very specific one...it's like chic lit plus mystery, plus really messed up characters.  Almost all the books I have read in this weird category just pretty much make me mad at the authors.  The funny thing most of them are fairly well written...I just hate the depressing out look on humanity that this style of books tend to have.

Overall Impression - So yeah...this wasn't really my style.  It was an ok story, but I just really really hate reading books that make me hate humanity as a whole.  I realize people are messed up in real life, I understand unlikable characters in books to further the story and add depth, but I don't want to finish a book and feel worse then when I started.  I give this book 5 out of 10 cans of gin and tonic and realize that I need to just not read these books so yeah...Happy Reading Everybody!

Sherlock Everywhere And Everything And Everybody Holmes

Hola readers!  How are you all doing this week?  Ready for a rambling?  Cool.  Today I'm gonna ramble about The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes a short story collection edited by John Joseph Adams, a favorite of mine in the short story world.  This collection features stories about my favorite detective set in every style of writing you can imagine.  We've got fantasy, we've got scifi. we've got traditional, we've got alternate history, alternate reality and any and all mix of the above that one can imagine.  I would thing that this would cause the collection to be a mess, but the editor once again manages to get a sort of flow to the whole thing.  Here are some of my favorites out of the many many amazing stories within this book.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Doctor's Case by Stephen King - This story, besides reminding me how much I like Stephen King in short story form is the perfect tale to set off the collection.  Here we have a fairly straight forward Holmsian tale...but solved by Watson, who has begun to think like the famous detective after so much time spent in his company.  This story makes me smile every time I read it, I just really love every word of it.

The Adventure of the Other Detective by Bradley H. Sinor - We go off the traditional track a bit in this alternate reality story.  Dr. Watson stumbles quit by accident into a world where Moriarty is the good guy, chasing down the notorious Sherlock Holmes.  Watching Watson try and work out this world that feels turned topsy turvey, all the while seeing where it would make sense to have a place where the two master minds switch places makes one want to go back and reread a couple of the original stories.  I love how the author dealt with both worlds, and the eventual acceptance of all parties of situation.

The Adventure of the Field Theorems by Vonda N. McIntyre - The author of this story get's a bit meta on us, introducing Conan Doyle (the original Holmes author) as a character.  The author uses the well known, and slightly odd fact that Sir Doyle, while writing the coldly logical Sherlock Holmes, was actually an avid Spiritualist who was more then willing to believe anything.  This story capitalizes on this fact with a mystery set in the fields in the form of crop circles and possibly aliens.  It is hard to describe the appeal of this story other then to compare it to an almost X-files style story with the added bonus of making me want to study Conan Doyle.

Dynamics of a Hanging by Tony Pi- Another Moriarty story, and again going meta with the inclusion of authors as characters.  This time the focus is on Moriarty's early years and the discovery of an almost impossible cipher.  I think what I really liked about this story was the duel focus on music and math as a way to write a code.  It also inspired me to go find some awesome cipher's to brush up on my code breaking.

The Specter of Tullyfane Abbey by Peter Tremayne - Here we get a glimpse of Holmes younger days.  He is portrayed as a smart young man, perhaps lacking the cold logic of his older self, but brilliant none the less.  He investigates a mystery at an old friends house with the hopes of gaining the friend's sisters affection.  This turns out to be hopeless as she is engaged to a wealthy man.  Holmes does his best to solve the case, but eventually sums it up to "darker powers"  which is not the Holmes we know.  Watson however figures out what young Holmes cannot admit to himself, giving us a satisfying conclusion.

The Adventure of the Lost World by Dominic Green - Sherlock Holmes and Dinosaurs...need I say more?

The Adventure of the Pirates of Devil's Cape - Pirates!  I love pirates!  This tale takes us to the sultry swamps of New Orleans, introducing our proper London gents to the sweat and swizzle of the Big Easy.  I like this story 'cause it has just the right amount of swashbuckling, a handful of Holmsian logic and just a smidge of potential super natural.  Also there is an albino alligator, Siamese twins and bit of awesome swordplay.

A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman - Another author whose short stories make me happy.  This tale is in a weird way the most traditional, yet most twisted tale in the collection.  We get a new take on a very traditional case...but in this one we get a Cthulhu alien royalty, an alternate reality and a twist ending that makes one want to go reread the story over to get every nuance.  I think that this story really sums up what the editor wanted this collection to be.  A very good entry to a very good collection.

These are just a few of the numerous and varied stories in this collection.  A few thoughts on the book as a whole.  I found an interesting pervalance of  Moriarty, Irene Adler and oddly enough H.P. Lovecraft style monsters making numerous appearances.  I noted that Watson was the most popular narration and that the authors usually used either the name of a case that was mentioned but not told in the original stories, or a twist on the title of the original stories.  I found that it took me some time to get through this book, mostly because every story had the basic element of a Holmes mystery so I had to take time to digest and think through every story as I read it...and a few I had to read twice.  Overall I loved the weird combination of the tried and true and creativity that was present in EVERY story.  I will be reading most of the stories in this collection again and recommend it to anybody who loves Holmes and just about any other genre of books.  I give it 8 out of 10 deer stalking hats.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Cruising Book List

Here it is folks, my super duper list of awesome books that are coming with me on my trip.  I don't know if I'll get them all read, but I'm sure gonna try.  I'm gonna divide them up into all of my favorite summer genre's this time.

Sci-Fi 

The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu - My brand new, never heard of it, sounds really cool and I think it will be a fun one to read with Hubbin book.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - My I know I love this book and it always delivers the right amount of humor and nostalgia so it can never be a bad day book.

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis - My I've been wanting to read this forever seriously old school sci-fi book.

The Rowan by Anne McCaffrey - My I love how absolutely immersed in this world I can get so I can escape when I need to book.

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi - My the premise of this book is so insanely crazy I hope it turns out as awesome as it sounds book

Federations by John Joseph Adams - My sci-fi short story collection that features one of my favorite aspects of epic space BUREAUCRACY book.

Double Helix: Infection by John Gregory Betancourt - My combing of sci-fi, Star Trek, medicine and oh yeah it's the beginning of a series book.

Mermaids

Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli - My I totally forgot I had this book, but how perfect is this for reading on the open sea book.

Prospero's Children by Jan Siegel - My random wow this cover is so cool this book will be either love or hate book.

Mermaids and Other Mysteries of the Deep by Paula Guran - My short stories about some of my favorite mythological beings and I was actually disciplined enough not to even start it until the cruise even though it's been on my shelf for weeks book.

Pirates

Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary Jacky Faber, Ship's Boy  by L.A. Meyer - My cheeky, cross-dressing wanna be sailor/pirate misadventure book.

Capt Hook by JV Hart - My I love Captain Hook so much and this proves there is more to him then the Disney villain (even though he is pretty awesome too) book.

Pirates! by Celia Rees - My girl pirates are super kick ass awesome book.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi - My what got me obsessed with the ocean and big pretty boats book.

Fantasy

The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson - My hey there are cool pictures and a unique premise how cool is that book.

Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire - My I know I'm gonna love it 'cause I have adored every other book in this series book.

Spelled by Betsy Schow - My sarcastic fairy tale rewrite that sounds like it could be a good ride book.

The Gates of Sleep by Mercedes Lackey - My retelling of one of my favorite fairy tales as part of one of my favorite series book.

Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones - My story taking place in the desert in case being in the open ocean is just too much water for me book.

Mystery

Three to Get Deadly by Janet Evanovich - My light hearted mystery that is always good to make my brain feel good book.

At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie - My vacation mystery featuring one of my favorite authors always a classic book.

Misc.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel - My recommended with great feeling by my baby sis book.

The Fall by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan - My I have to get this read to stay ahead of the TV show so I sound way cooler then everybody else when I watch it book.

The Straight Dope by Cecil Adams - My not have to think to hard, humorous, easy to pick up and put down book.

I also have a ton of books on my Kindle and Nook apps on my phone, but I don't really plan on bringing that to the pool or beach so I doubt I will get much of those read.  I am super excited to have time to sit by the pool and beach and just read my little brains out.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Smarty Pants Scavenger Hunt

I've been ready for something a bit more light-hearted, and since I enjoyed the first book so much I decided to read The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart, the second book in The Mysterious Benedict Society series.  Was it as delightfully puzzling as the first book?  Lets find out, but first as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Reynie Muldoon (a smart guy who can puzzle out almost anything) is finally reunited with his friend the resourceful and daring Kate Wetherall on the farm she is now living on with her long lost father Mulligan.  The two have not seen each other since their adventures at the L.I.V.E. institute.  They are soon joined by Sticky Washington (the boy with the photographic memory), his parents, and Mrs. Permal who has adopted Reynie.  The group all head to Mr. Benedict's house to meet up with the super young super perceptive Constance and for a surprise that he has in store for the children.  Upon arriving the group discovers that Mr. Benedict and his assistant Number Two were supposed to have put together a scavenger hunt across the world for the children, but instead have been kidnapped by his twin brother, the nefarious Mr. Curtain.  The kids obtain the first clue that was supposed to start them on their trip and sneak out to rescue their mentor and friend.  The clue leads them to a boat and Captain Noland and a sailor called Cannonball.  They end up in Portugal and after dodging a couple of Mr. Curtains henchmen they find the next clue.  Off to Holland they go.  After they make it to the library, they discover letters and journals written by Mr. Benedicts parents. Reading these informs the children that the Benedicts had been looking for a cure for the family narcolepsy curse.  They found a plant that when processed correctly would potentially cure the sleeping disease. Unfortunately they had to keep it a secret because if used the wrong way, could be used as a weapon to put people to sleep.  The children are attacked by guys known as the Ten Men, people who use nasty objects to inflict pain, all while being very sharply dressed.  The kids are rescued by the surprise appearance of Milligan who agrees to help the kids rescue Mr. Benedict and Number Two.  They work out where the island is and attempt to find the prisoners whereabouts.  The children and are captured and Milligan is defeated by the suave Ten Men and the children are taken to the cave where Mr. Curtain is keeping Mr. Benedict prisoner.  Much banter and exchange of wits occur with the result of Mr. Curtain going of with one of the Ten Men and Mr. Benedict securing his and the children's release.  The friends the children made through out their adventure come to their rescue and Kate proves herself better then the bad guys by showing them mercy.  They all return home to their worried family's and live happily until the next book.

This book was a classic second book in a kids series.  It was a bit predictable, a bit safe, but kept all the stuff I liked about the first one.  A couple of things that caught my attention in this book.  The kids abilities have all grown at a believable rate, now that they know they possesses certain skills, they (and the adults who are awesome) have helped nurture and hone them.  The result is the kids are able to more complicated issues quicker.  The kids themselves have grown up a bit and to that end there are some new tensions in the group that were not there before.  Reynie is struggling to find the good in the world, suspicious of most people, Kate has gotten even more impatient and impulsive, Sticky has the urge to show off, and Constance is trying to cope with her new awareness of patterns and people.  The kids fight and bicker among themselves, certain pairings get along better then others, but in the end they are all try hard to get along, and deep down value their friendships.  The adults in this book crack me up, they are portrayed exactly as I remember feeling about them as a kid.  Most of them come across as loving and a bit overprotective.  We also see the self important adults and the adults who underestimate kids.  One of the things that struck me most, being both realistic, and a bit silly is how after the kids survived their last adventure, proven themselves to be able to work through difficult situations, and be generally good kids, all most of the adults want to do is protect them.  They have a hard time understanding that after the freedom they had previously, trying to make them go back to being ordinary kids is a bit ridiculous.  The children circumvent this by pretty much doing what they want anyways...but always with the best of intentions.  Over all I miss some of the solvable puzzles from the first book, and some of the freshness was gone.  That being said if I was 11 years old, I would be reading and rereading these constantly.  I give this book 6 out of 10 fake diamonds and would recommend it to read aloud with your kids/kids in your life. Happy Reading Everybody!
 What is your favorite sort of puzzle?  How bad do you want to meet Constance when she is a crotchety old lady? Is it just me or are some of these illustrations a bit creepy?

Clint Eastwood Grandma's With .45's

Time for another rambling YAY!  Today I'm gonna share my super deep thoughts on the second book in the Stephanie Plum series, Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich.  Read this one because of a combination of needing a bit of light heartedness, need to get the books back to their rightful owner (there coming Kelsey I promise!), and I just really enjoyed the first one.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

We find our favorite bond girl Stephanie Plum still single, still broke, still in need of skills, but a little less desperate this time around.  She is put on the case of Kenny Mancuso, a guy who shot his friend in the knee, as the Vinny the owner of the bond company (and Steph's cousin) felt it would be an easy nab.  This all goes very quickly down hill when people start showing up dead.  Meanwhile,

Stephanie's special friend Joe Morelli (the guy she chased down the last time around) has been reinstated to the police force and is working on a special case that may or may not involve the people Stephanie is following. He also likes to show up on our girls doorstep with plenty of innuendo's, but mostly he ends up helping.  One of the people involved in the case is Spiro Constantine, a super skeevy guy who hires Stephanie to help protect him and his funeral home and to find some missing caskets.  To add to all the chaos, Steph's spunky grandmother get's a gun and starts "helping" her granddaughter. The longer the hunt goes on, the more we realize Kenny is as crazy as they come and he more then enjoy's inflicting pain on people.  We discover that Kenny and co have been smuggling discarded Army weapons and selling them on the black market.  This all culminates with Stephanie and her grandmother held by the bad guys in the basement of the funeral home, only to escape when granny goes Clint Eastwood on the baddies ending in their arrest.  All is well that ends well and Stephanie and her peeps live to star in the next book.

Obviously a ton more detail happens in the book, but I think you can get the gist of things from the above synopsis.  I enjoyed this book as much as the first one for many of the same reasons.  Again the combination of realism, down homeyness, light heartedness, and on occasion sheer over the topness just really work for me.  I LOVED the added extra grandma in this book, she is spunky, crazy, yet still age appropriate if that makes any sense.  She and Steph had a definite bond that the rest of the family just don't understand, and the fact that Stephanie doesn't automatically write her off because she is older makes me do a happy dance.  Stephanie and Joe's relationship makes me smile, it is going much slower then I would have originally thought, but it is not drawn out for the sake of the book or series, it's just how it is.  I like their frustration with each other on a professional level, with him wanting to protect her...and at the same time probably toss her from the top of a
skyscraper...again fairly realistic.  Cars once again play a significant role in the book, with Stephanies being stolen early on, forcing her to use her uncle's boat of a Buick with some hilarious results.  The issue of violence, especially against women was shown again, not as much as with the last book, but again shown as a bad thing that should NEVER be ignored, allowed, or excused.  I liked this book as much as the last one and felt it was a very natural progression.  I felt things moved forward at a reasonable pace with Stephanie learning, but still not super girl, with relationships moving forward, but not magically perfect and with plenty of stories left to tell.  I give this book an 8 out of 10 severed members...read the book, it will make sense.
What is your happy series go to?  What other books combine realism and humor in a good way?  Why did I write this post like a lingo hipster chick?

Aussie Flapper Detective Of Unusual Prowess

I have had the book Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood on my list for a while.  It is the first in the Phryne Fisher Series and sounded like a good time.  I actually started reading it because I found a series based on the books while my MIL was in town (she loves a good mystery).  After watching the show I was a little leery as it was a bit trite, but the book (as it usually is) was much much better.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Phryne Fisher is a thoroughly modern 1920's girl.  This modernness is helped greatly by her very newly acquired wealth, that her family has gained thanks to the Great War causing enough people between her father and a title to perish to finally gain it for the family and move to London.  Phryne does not however forget her poor roots in Australia and does everything in her power to use her money to her own ends.  In this vein she decides to try her hand at detective work when a family friend asks her to check on their daughter Lydia.  They are concerned because on her last visit she appeared very sick and are worried her husband is trying to poison her.  Phryne heads to Melbourne and secures herself the best room, in the best hotel, a stunning wardrobe, and the services of Dot, a somewhat naive girl, who none the less keeps Phryne in some sort of order.  Phryne uses her money and status to get invited to numerous parties and learns that cocaine seems to be the drug of choice among the elite.  Phryne meets with several people who have had lives of loved one ruined by the stuff, and she agrees to help them find the legendary King of Snow, who has a very tight grip on the drug trade in Melbourne.  Phryne meets Lydia who appears to be an overly clingy, nervous, socialite who requires attention at all time.  Oddly enough in between her clinging and whining Lydia appears to have a very shrewd business mind.  Lydia also confides in Phryne that she has been feeling sick after eating chocolates her husband buys her and suspects poisoning.  Phryne's friend, the female and awesome Dr. MacMillian assists her in patching up her friends and analyzing the various substances Phryne sends her way.  Eventually after much shock and mayhem Phryne, along with her cabbie friends Bert and Cec find the store front of the cocaine ring.  Phryne follows that product and discovers her sexy Russian dancer/lover has been caught and held.  Phryne gets caught as well and we discover that the King of Snow is none other then the clingy Lydia.  She had been setting up her husband to die in an apparent botched murder of herself, and to take over the business.  Phryne's friends come to her rescue, but discover there is not much left to do.  The case is solved, the bad guys are put away and Phryne treats EVERYBODY to an elegant luncheon to wrap things up.  She decides that she likes detecting and declares her intention to keep at it for the foreseeable future.

When I first started that book, I was a little put off at the sheer amount of costume changes that main character performed.  It felt like for the first two chapters that this was going to be a book about a fashion junky who just happened to at some point solve a mystery.  However once I got through the first couple chapters it started picking up in a really good way.  There were many things I liked and a couple of things that bugged me, lets start with the buggy stuff and get that out of the way.  The biggest issue for me was that the lead character Phryne was a super character, meaning she had little to no trouble getting anything and everything she needed to solve the case.  She had all the money, and no concern for cost.  It was established quit quickly (hey cool two q words in a row...sorry weird side obsession there :-) ) that Phryne had all the skills and training any human could possibly want.  She trained with martial arts masters, can fly planes, learned to drive on the race course, and all kinds of other skills that most people would not have readily available.  She was also of course beautiful, daring, charming an capable of making friends to supplement the very few skills she herself did not mysteriously possess.  This makes for a bit of an eye rolling disbelief when once again, she reveals some secret skill she possesses.  It made solving the crime too easy, because any barrier that was presented was so easily overcome.  This and the preoccupation of describing every stitch (including the underwear) of clothing Phryne wore, and everything she ate, got very tedious

sometimes.  All of that being said, Phryne was not a boring character, she was written with an irreverence and disregard off all social niceties that made her a crazy force.  I think in real life she would drive me absolutely crazy, but on paper she is a lot of fun.  The case itself was pretty cool, with two or three other side plot/mysteries and the 1928 Australian setting was unique and refreshing.  The side characters were especially well done, being varied and fairly realistic.  Each character had a fully formed personality and Dot especially added some great flavor to the book.  This is not a children's book in any way shape or form.  There is unapologetic sex, drinking, gambling and entertainment, there is blatant talk about desires and wants, and as an adult it was nice to read a book that did not dwell on these aspect in a sordid way, but made it clear that the main character was very self possessed and did not judge herself, or care if others judged her on antiquated ideals of purity and demureness.  Phryne was not stupid either, while she enjoyed sex, and alcohol, it was always tempered by her own intelligence, and her awareness that she not be used, or get herself into bad situations just because it was fun.  Overall the book was good enough that I could get past some of the more eye rolling moments and enjoy the ride as a whole.  I recommend it to anybody who enjoys a good mystery, a fun period piece, and a strong modern heroine.  I give it 7 out of 10 diadem garters and will be picking up the next book shortly.  A quick word if you ever watch the TV show based on these books, it is very very very different.  It keeps a bit of the flavor, but the show itself was a bit trite and predictable and is not a good indication of the fullness of the book.
How do you feel about characters who are super special?  Do you like liberated characters...or is too much liberation a bad example?  How convoluted is this rambling?

So Many Holmes

Baby Sis being the wonderful human being she is made sure that I had a new book for my birthday.  We not only share a love of reading, chocolate and The Gilmore Girls, but we also both love our boy Sherlock Holmes (and his buddy Watson).  In that spirit the book she so generously bewstowed upon me (I'm using my big girl words today) is the short story collection Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets edited by David Thomas Moore.  It was very different then I thought it was going to be, but once I got used to it I found several stories that I really enjoyed.

A Woman's Place by Emma Newman - Mrs. Hudson plays the pivotal role in this story.  We learn a fascinating secret about our ever present housekeeper that involves both Holmes and Moriarty.  This slight Sci-Fi twist on a typical Holmsian tale is the perfect vehical to show just how important Mrs. Hudson is.

A Study in Scarborough by Guy Adams - This story was my baby sis's favorite in the collection and I have to admit when I first started reading it, I wasn't impressed...but buy the end WOW!  I can't tell you any more, because as much as I love spoilers, you have to read this one for yourself.

The Final Conjuration by Adrian Tchaikovsky - This one seemed to really embody the spirit of this anthology.  In this story, Holmes is conjured to help out a magician in another world.  Despite the magical nature of this other world, Holmes logic still prevails.

The Innocent Icarus by James Lovegrove - I love stories like this one that keep our characters and settings familiar, but add just a bit of a twist.  In this case it is the evolution of various abilities in humans such as invincibility, flight, and speed.  The best part is that Holmes actually has no added abilities and accepts this by honing his wits.

All the Single Ladies by Gini Koch - Wooohoooo an awesome story where Holmes is a suave, competent, clever woman.  This story is told in modern times and gives us the meeting of Holmes and Watson in a throughly Homsian case.  Love this one!

The best and worst part of this collection is the mindset in which I had to be in to read it.  I am so used to Sherlock Holmes stories being a different version of his various cases.  I have read these set in various times and places, but always in the setting of a case.  This collection focused more on the personality of Holmes and Watson, many of these stories either did not involve a case, or the case took a back seat to the setting and story of the actual characters.  Overall, once I mentally switched gears I really enjoyed the majority of the collection and would recommend it to fans of Sherlock Holmes, Sci-Fi, Fantasy and genre mixing.  I give this collection 7 out of 10 blue beauties.
What is your favorite version of Holmes and Watson?  Why do you think the Holmesian genre is so adaptable?  Why does everybody want to make Holmes so depressed?

Wizard Detective

Hello All!  Did you get some good reading time in this weekend?  My life finally calmed down to less then hurricane style madness for a wee bit, so I got some great book time in.  I also got some time to sit down and ramble about a couple of books I have finally finished.  Today is a rambling about a book I kept forgetting I had, and then kept forgetting that I finished it.  The book is Storm Front, the first in the Harry Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.  I have read several short stories featuring Mr. Dresden and thought I would give the full length version a go.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

Harry Dresden is an openly practicing wizard in Chicago Illinois.  He uses his magic skills as a Private Investigator and sometimes consult for the Chicago PD.  In this first book his private case and his consulting PD case come together in a bloody, buggy mess of awesome.  On the private side, Harry is hired to find the missing husband of Mrs. Sells.  He had started dabbling in magic so Harry was the go to guy for a case like this.  Meanwhile Karrin Murphey of the Chicago PD calls Harry in on a scene of gruesomeness that could have only been committed by magic.  The bodies have had their hearts ripped out from the inside and can only have been accomplished through very powerful magic.  This makes Harry a bit nervous as he is essentially on probation with the White Council, a governing body meant to keep magic users in line.  After an encounter with a mistress vampire, grappling with giant scorpions, mixing spells with the help of a talking skull, screwing up a couple of dates and bribing a fairy with pizza, our detective wizard realizes that his two cases are related.  A couple of gory deaths later, Harry discovers that the missing husband is actually an amature wizard who has learned to harness the power of storms to boost his own magical ability.  He is using this power to distribute ThreeEye, a mind altering drug, and to disrupt the street trade of local gangster Johnny Marcone.  Harry battles Victor Sells and his assorted demon monsters, killing the amature wizard in the process.  The case is solved and Harry is absolved of his previous issues, unfortunately this all comes at the cost of a couple of friendships.  Harry Dresden is now ready to solve more crimes in more books.

I actually really liked this book, it had a great mix of old school, hard boiled detective novel, and some good wizard vs wizard magic.  The author did a really good job combing these two genre's, keeping everything balanced through out the story.  Harry Dresden comes across as a classic private investigator complete with the witty quips and his own way of doing things.  He is also a bit of a scholar, really understanding his magic and the need to study and practice to perfect it, in fact this comes into play in a very big way in the story.  The other characters are a bit stock, but fairly believable.  My favorite characters are probably Murphy, who is actually a believable PD character.  Her job puts her in a precarious position, one that forces her to believe in magic and utilize people like Harry to help her, while at the same time keeping the law and dealing with her fellow officers.  The trust that is broken between Harry and Murphy, while necessary, was a very realistic issue that would come up in these situations.  The fact that Murphy does not automatically forgive Harry, even after the case is solved, actually made me very happy.  My favorite part of the whole book had to be the spirit that lives in a skull in Harry's basement.  He is snappy, horny, funny and I love him.  He helps Harry with his spells (which are done in a really cool way) and has a ton of knowledge that he has no problem using to get what he wants.  Overall the book was enjoyable and I will probably pick up the next book in the series at some point.  If you like urban fantasy or detective novels, this would be a great book for you.  I give it 7 out of 10 wise cracking skulls.

What do you think of mixing genre's?  What is your favorite type of mystery?   Where would you keep your horny, spirit infested skull?

Bond Girl

One of the best things about my friends is that they are all little book freaks like me...well not quite like me, I'm my own special brand of freaky, but still way into books.  The best thing about having book buddies is getting reccomendations and book swaps that happen with fabulous frequency.  One of those books was the start of a series called One For the Money by Janet Evanovich.  It was not a type of book I usually pick up, but she said I would enjoy it and I'm glad I listened to her.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Stephanie Plum is a recently divorced, recently unemployed 30 year old Jersey resident.  She is in desperate need of money, having sold almost all of her possesions (or in the case of her car had them repossessed) just to keep the lights on.  Her overbearing mother suggests that she check with her cousin Vinny to see if he needs any filing done.  Filing is not what Vinnie needs, he needs somebody to track down and bring in people who have missed their trial date.  If she can manage this she gets a percentage of the returned bail money as her fee.  The biggest fish for Stephanie to catch is Joe Morelli, a cop accused of murder...and a guy who has gotten into Stephanie's pants on occasion.  Stephanie being brand new to all of this is coached by Ranger, a pro who takes the poor girl under his wing and trains her the best he can.  With this minimal training and some new supplies Stephanie sets off to catch her fugitive.  One of the tips leads to Benito Ramirez, a proffesional fighter with

violence against women issues.  He takes Stephanie's rejection personally and starts to stalk her.  As the case progresses Stephanie finds herself in situations that she never imagined possible and learns as she goes.  She befriends two hookers named Lula and Jackie who end up giving her information on women linked to Ramirez dissapering.  One of these woman was one linked to the Morelli case.  At some point Stephanie "requisitions" Morelli's car, causing him grief, and being saved by him on occasion.  Eventually Morelli tells Stephanie that he will work with her to clear his name and in return she can turn him in after they get proof of innocence so she can still get her money.  Chaos, intrigue, and blowing up cars ensues. Eventually they think they have everything figured out and Stephanie turns Morelli in.  Unfortunatly when she gets back to her apartment, Ramirez's manager is waiting to kill her, as she knows to much about everything.  She is saved at the last second and all the bad guys go to jail.  Morelli is released, and mostly forgives her for all the grief she understandably caused him and Stephanie decides that she likes the life of a bond girl...at least for now.

I orginally brought this book with me on my road trip to counter balance a couple of books I knew were gonna be heavy...the problem is I could not put this book down to start those.  Lucky for me it is a series so I have more to look foward too.  I think what I liked best about this book is how well put together it was.  The main character had a believable back story, a good motivation to go into this unusual job, she had no super skills, or amazing beauty, or unusual smarts, her only real defining factor was her desperation, and her incredible ability to wrench the good side out of a bad situation. She is not good at her new job and requires a lot of help and training to become even adequate.  By the end of the book, she knows she still has a ton to learn before she can consider herself even a decent bond girl.  The various other characters made perfect sense in their enviroment, right down to the appliance salesman/blind date.  The settings were done in a way that I feel like I could probably navigate my way around this town with little trouble, but the descriptions never dragged on.   I also liked how the author dealt with her women characters.  I know I have been having issuses with a couple of books lately, escpecially ones by women authors, so it was refreshing to see some of these issues dealt with so well.  Stephanie is a belivable woman.  She is of an age of most readers who will pick this book up, she has been through some realistic stuff, and she is dealing with a lot of the same issues the readers are probably dealing with.  The character is not hopless though, she works her way through things with a desperate wit that is both relatable and entertaining.  I liked that while the

character was not a super knock out beauty, she was aware of her attractiveness and owned it. She also awknowledged and owned her own sexuality in a non-destructive way which was awesome.  The other issue I thought was well done was the violence towards women angle.  I have been reading a lot of books where it is condoned, or glossed over, or forgiven, or turns the woman into either a gibbering dehumanzied victim, or a wild, uncontrollable, revenge seeking bitch.  In this book the violence was not glossed over, it was borderline unconfortable in its realism.  The character of Ramirez (the main perpatrator of said violence) was constantly getting off the hook because of his celeberty status and the fact that he mostly beat up women who seem to not matter to society, hookers, poor women, women who did not have the resources to make a proper fuss.  I personally felt that the author did a fantastic job of showing how often this happens in society, and then made sure her woman beater got jailed.  She did all of this while still keeping a fairly light hearted, entertaining narrative that made you keep turning the page.  The few critiques I have relate to the fact that this book was published in 1994 and several plot points depend on the lack of cell phones and internet or Stephanie being a little dumber then need be, but hey that is getting super nit picky.  Needless to say I really liked this book and hope the rest of the series lives up to the first one.  I give this book 8 out of 10 junky cars.
What book(s) have you read and loved on a reccomendation?  How does when a book was written affect it's future readability?  Did my feelings on how women are portrayed in books come out clearly?  Did you see the movie?

What Is Wrong With These People

Hola, how are all of you?  Sorry about the lack of post yesterday, but Hubbin (awesome and amazing person that he is) surprised me with awesome concert tickets and needless to say waking up was not priority after a wild night like that :-)  To make it up to you I will now present you with a rambling so chock full of rants that you will forget all about yesterday...I'm not sure how the two are correlated, but hey whatever :-)  The book is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and it hit all my angry buttons.  This is supposed to be a thriller/mystery so if you have not read it yet and plan to please keep in mind as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

The book is written in three parts and alternates between the two main characters (Amy and Nick) perspectives.
Part 1 - Amy and Nick are a New York couple, living in a New York brownstone, with New York jobs, living the New York life.  Amy is vibrant, detailed oriented and sharp.  Nick is laid back, charming, and good looking...or so they try and convince you. Amy and Nick move to Missouri to take care of Nick's ailing mother after they both lose their New York jobs, much to the distress of Amy, who never the less try's to put a happy face on it.  Nick goes to work at the bar he and his sister bought with the rest of Amy's trust fund, coming home to find his wife missing on the day of their fifth anniversary.  This first part of the book show us how Nick and Amy met and got married.  It then progresses from Nick perspective to the investigation into his wife's disappearance and we here from Amy in a series of diary entry's dated from before her disappearance.  Several things do not add up and Amy's diary seems to contradict some of the things Nick claims or even seems to know.  We also find out that Nick is a bit of a dick and has been having an affair with a student from the local college.  Nothing feels quite right and as Nick follows the clues Amy left for their traditional scavenger hunt more and more weirdness happens.  As the investigation progresses it seems that Nick becomes the prime suspect as many of the clues start pointing to him, even though he denies several of them (it makes sense in the book I promise) it all comes down to him.  Eventually Nick realizes that all of the places in the hunt are places that him and his mistress got it on.  This realization makes him realize that Amy is trying to frame him for her murder...
Part 2 - This is the part of the book that reveals the twist...Amy is alive!  Amy, sick of living in Missouri and heart broken over the discovery of Nicks mistress decides to fake her death and frame him as punishment.  She had planned this for over a year and has a stash of cash and a plan.  She takes off to the mountains and rents a cash only cabin and watches the case against Nick unfold.  When things don't happen fast enough, she call annonymous tip lines to make sure her fake diary, full of incriminating information, and tidbits that make look like a monster instead of just the self absorbed douchebag he actually is, is discovered.  She gets her money stolen and is forced to call an old friend, Desi,  who is fairly obsessed with her to help her out.  He ends up keeping her a virtual prisoner under the pretense of helping her, which makes her angry.  Meanwhile Nick has become the only suspect in the investigation thanks to Amy's mechanations and is now desperate to clear his name.  As he digs into her past, he discovers that Amy has a truly vindictive streak and will do anything to exact revenge on people she feels slighted her.  This includes lying, plotting, and even hurting herself to get other people's lives ruined.  It does not even have to be anything big, even a tiny perceived slight is enough to set her off.  Nick realizes that Amy is probably still alive and goes on TV to plead forgiveness in a bid to get her to come home and clear his name.
Part 3 - Amy, who has been following the case closely is moved my the idea she can still be the center of Nick's universe and drugs and kills Desi and mutilates herself to make it look like he kidnapped and abused her.  She arrives home, trying to make everything OK with Nick (who is still a doucebag) and spins an epic story to the police to keep herself out of trouble.  Nick is understandably disgusted by Amy, but when he tries to get the truth out of her, or in desperation to leave her, she announces her pregnancy (accomplished using frozen sperm from an earlier fertilization treatment earlier in their marriage) and tells him she has been setting it up that if he leaves, or tells anybody what really happened she will never let him near his child.  The book ends with everybody miserable, trapped and unhappy.

Whew that was a long one, and does not even begin to describe the sheer unlikability of almost every character in the book.  I have read a lot of reviews on this book (after I had read it for myself) and I keep hearing conflicting opinions, so please keep in mind as I vent my own personal fury over this book, that it is just that, personal.  There are several issues I had with this book, but oddly enough the writing was not one of them.  For the most part it was written fairly well, the plot was laid out in a well thought out manner, and for the most part it even retained a fair bit of plausibility.  Several reviews have also stated that they felt that the point of this book was to show our tendency to try people by the media and how a person can be found guilty on no other strength then a few over zealous reporters who think they know exactly what happened.  I agree with this interpretation up to a point, but feel there is a lot of other crap in it too.  My first complaint is the lack of sympathetic characters.  I get the anti-hero, flawed character concept, but this book seems to have taken it to an unenjoyable extreme.  By the end of the book the only person you can even remotely root for is the horrible, selfish, cheating, self pitying, unable to take any personal responsibility, conflict averse, needy, smarmy Nick who if their was a moral and ethics jail would be it's primary inmate.  He is married to what turns out to be the manipulative, self-absorbed, vindictive, psychopathic lying, murderous, soulless, vapid, vain Amy.  These are just the two main characters in this sordid tale.  All of the supporting characters are also shown to be some combination of inappropriate, crazy, attention hungry, obsessive, slutty, stupid and a plethora of other undesirable behaviors.  This makes for a very uncomfortable, unenjoyable read.  There are a few minor characters that the writer attempts to inject some sort of redeemable value into, like one of the two main detectives Ms. Boney who actually believes Nick about crazy Amy, but overall their was a void of characters to give a damn about.  One of the other things that really bugged my in this book was the horrid portrayal of various women.  Again Ms. Boney may have been a single exception in this, but for the most part all of the women were displayed as the sterotype of all the "bad" things about women.  Amy was obviously the worst, woman who cried rape and violence with a disturbing regularity, undermining the millions of women who are subjected to this horror everyday, but are brushed off as hysterical lying
females because of women like Amy.  Nicks young mistress was portrayed as a slutty whore who did not care that she was potentially ruining a marriage, she was also shown as overly clingy and more concerned about herself then a potential murder victim.  Other women were shown as attention hungry, liars, weak,
incapable and shallow.  The men did not fair much better, being shown as misogynistic, violent, sex addicts who while justified in their woman hate, were completely useless creatures in their own right.  This may have been the point of the book, to show people at their absolute worst and what the results of this can be, and that is valid.  I however do not need to read books about the everyday depravity of people...I can turn on the news for that.  I don't minds bad things happening, especially in a thriller.  I don't mind unlikable people, especially if they turn out to not be the bad guy (yay Snape!), but there needs to be some light somewhere in the story, some hope, some goodness, if for no other reason to contrast the bad.  I have read some dark and heavy books and really enjoyed them.  I have read some fantastic thrillers and mysteries that highlight the darkness of humans in a really great way, but they always had some factor that I cannot put into words, but that this book was missing.  Obviously I did not like this book, which frustrated me 'cause the author seems to have some real talent, I just really did not like the content. There is a movie based on this book coming out and I want to see it because I cannot imagine they left everything as is 'cause it would make for a very tough movie to get people to buy and watch for a second time.  I cannot in good conscious recommend this book to anybody, but you all decide for yourself.  I give this book 5 out of 10 faked deaths and that is only because the writing was to good to not give it some credit.
Do you notice ramblings on books I don't like tend to be really long? How did you feel about this book?  Does a book need to have hope, or is it ok to sometimes make a point using hopelessness?  How much do I love my wonderful Hubbin right now?

Who Knew Peppermints Could Be So Dangerous

Hello my lovely readers, I have finally dug myself out of the snow.  It has been a crazy week involving a lot of snow, a lot of station time, and not a whole lot of blog rambling, my most humble apologies.  I did however manage to squeeze in all kinds of reading time, which besides making me a very happy shut in, makes it possible for me to ramble my little brains out for a couple of posts.  I was also in a very nostalgic mood so I found a couple of books from back in my first library days to keep me company.  Peppermints in the Parlor is a middle grade book I recall rechecking out several times.  It was always a wee bit confusing to me, but it had a spunky girl and a mean old lady and that was one of my favorite story lines growing up.  Without further ado and SPOILERS AHEAD on with the rambling.

Emily Luccock has lost both her parents in a tragic boating accident and she is being sent to live with her Aunt and Uncle Twice, so called because her aunt is her mothers sister, and her uncle is her fathers brother, and when they married they became Emily's Aunt and Uncle twice over.  Though sad at her parents passing, Emily is excited to live with her aunt and uncle, recalling the wonderful times she had at Sugar Hill Hall, the parties, the beauty and splendor, the love of her aunt and uncle.  Emily arrives on a foggy evening in San Francisco and instead of being greeted by her glorious aunt and uncle, is forced to wait for hours until she is picked up.  At first Emily does now recognize her aunt, who has gone from a famous beauty, to a washed out, tired and scared woman.  Aunt Twice tells Emily that she must do exactly as she is told no matter how hard.  When they finally get to Sugar Hill Hall, Emily is horrified to see it in the hands of a snake like woman by the name of Mrs. Meeching who makes it very clear that she considers Emily no more then a common scullery maid. In the front parlor is a huge bowl of Emily's favorite treat, shiny, red and white peppermints.  She is informed under no circumstances is she to ever take one.  Aunt Twice takes Emily through the house, which has lost most of its splendor, through the industrial kitchen to the cellars where she is given a tiny
room, more like a cell really.  Aunt Twice tells Emily that she is a prisoner in her own home forced to work to keep somebody alive.  She will not give Emily any other details and begs her not to ask questions.  Emily is then handed over to Tilly, the rough young maid who is thrilled to finally have somebody beneath her.  Tilly goes back and forth between being Emily's friend, and being mean.  Emily's first task is to help Tilly with supper, which consists of a thin grey soup and moldy bread lumps.  These are given to the dozen or so old people who live in the mansion now.  Mrs. Meeching has turned Sugar Hill Hall into a old folks home.  The residents are silent and barely pick at their unappetizing food.  Emily notices that one resident is missing and is informed that the resident had stolen a peppermint and is now locked in the Room of Remembrance for punishment.  After the residents are fed Tilly and Emily go back to their own portion of soup and moldy bread, forced to watch as Aunt Twice prepares a huge feast of the most lucious foods for Mrs. Meeching and her cohort Mrs. Plumly, the grandmother like, knitting one of the pair.  Emily also meets Kipper, a fishermans son who while doing the occasional odd job for the Hall does what he can to help Emily.  Eventually Emily decides that since she can't help her self or her aunt, she will help the old people.  She starts slipping them fish oil so that they have appetites enough to eat the disgusting food, forcing Mrs.

Meeching to get them fresh food.  Emily and Kipper smuggle a kitten up to the old folks, along with some hobby supplies.  This helps to awaken the older folks, and Emily learns just how feisty they can be.  Mrs. Plumly has taken a couple opportunities to smuggle Emily to her rooms and feed her tea and cakes, she tells Emily that she too is a prisoner in the Hall, albeit a luckier one then Emily or her Aunt.  These visits continue as Emily continues to help the old people.  One horrible day Emily, Kipper and the old folks are all caught and Emily is sent to the Room of Remembrance.  Kipper finds a way to unlock her cell and they discover a trapdoor and tunnel that leads to a seedy tavern.  Their they discover that it is actually the sweet Mrs. Plumly who is in charge, slipping Emily truth serum in her tea to discover what she is up too.  They also discover that the old folks home is just a front for a smuggling operation.  Emily is summoned to Kippers house to hear the confession of an old sea captain who says he framed her Uncle Twice for a murder and used it as blackmail to get the Sugar Hill Hall.  It is all resolved, Mrs. Meeching and Mrs. Plumly are arrested after they are trapped by peppermint pelting old folk, and Aunt and Uncle Twice are reunited.  The family and the old folks, Tilly and Kipper all get their happy ending.

When I was in elementary and middle school, I had a thing for books about poor orphan girls and cruel mistresses that kept them locked up and enslaved, I am not sure why this trope appealed to me so much, but there you have it.  This book like I said was full on nostalgia for me, I remember reading it back when I was 8 or 9 and loving it.  The heroine is great because she does not start all spit and fire, and in fact has to dig pretty deep to keep herself from cracking.  I loved that when she realized that she could not immediately help herself or her aunt that she decided to help the old folks instead. Her initial reaction was always one of kindness, which seems to be lacking in some of the newer books.  I liked for the most part how the older people were portrayed, at first beaten down by the cruel Mrs. Meeching, but they themselves rallied and

became individuals again.  I liked how they reminded Emily that they too were people, with talents and lives. I love love love the character of Tilly, she is probably one of the more realistic characters in this fairly straight forward trope tale.  She is constantly torn between wanting Emily as a friend, and trying to be a good person as far as she knows how and doing her best to get ahead in the world.  She is glad to finally not be the low man on the totem pole and give Emily all the crap jobs, while enjoying the slim perks of what she considers more senior jobs.  She eventually proves herself a faithful, if somewhat rough friend and finds a place with Emily and her family.  Kipper acts at the semi-plausible way for Emily to solver her problems, that along with a gold coin gets her all the supplies she needs to make this story possible, I also love that every other sentence out of his mouth starts with "As Pa always says".  The ending is still a bit confusing for me, seeming to add characters and circumstances that appear out of nowhere to try and make sense of Uncle Twice's disappearance and the reasoning behind Aunt Twice's servitude.  Overall the book is pretty straight forward, sticking with a formula that works, while adding some great characters and just enough creepiness to keep you turning the pages. This is a quick read for most of us and is completely suitable for the 9 and up crowd. I give it 7 out of 10 peppermints.
What books do you remember rereading as a kid?  Do you find it hard to track down these books?  Are you ever disappointed when you reread your childhood favorites?  Is it funny that a grown woman is reading children's books and loving them?