January Book Reports (in February)

This long President's Day weekend, we painted the dining room. I won't tell you the color I finally chose; I'll wait to show you the after pictures! In the meantime, I have a bunch of little book reports I want to catch up on.

 
Because book posts are not easily illustrated, here are some truffles I made for Valentine's Day, using Mrs. SDC's recipe. The left are plain chocolate, and the right are almond flavor. YUM!

I've just finished The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley, and have completely fallen for Flavia, the eleven-year-old detective. She's brilliant, especially with chemistry (poisons are her passion), observant, independent, and has a dry sense of humor that I find refreshing. She also rides her beloved bike, Gladys, which endeared her to me even more. Flavia lives at Buckshaw, her family's estate outside the village of Bishop's Lacey in 1950s England. Her two older sisters annoy her, and her father is a distracted stamp collector who lost his wife Harriet, Flavia's mother, in a mountaineering accident when Flavia was only a year old. The family never expresses affection, but deep down, do care for one another, as well as Dogger, their manservant-turned-gardener.

One afternoon, Flavia and Mrs. Mullet, their housekeeper, discover a dead jack snipe on the back doorstep with a stamp on the bird's beak. When Flavia's father sees this, he turns white with fear, leaving Flavia to wonder how the bird could have arrived so early in the season in England, and why it upset her father. A short time later, Flavia discovers the body of a red-haired man in the cucumber patch outside the back door. She immediately sets out to discover the identity of the man, and also prove her father's innocence when he is arrested on suspicion of murder. You have to love a girl who asks herself, "What would Marie Lavoisier do?" Inspector Hewitt doesn't always appreciate Flavia's help, but learns to admire her resourcefulness!

If you love English village mysteries, or strong female characters, you'll love Bradley's books. Though I saw the solution coming, the book was so much fun to read that it didn't matter. After finishing this first volume, I immediately went to the library and scooped up the next book, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag.

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Before I met Flavia, I read a couple of other mysteries, not nearly as satisfying.

Ngaio Marsh's Artists in Crime was a disappointment. I'd been looking forward to getting to know her work, as she is a contemporary of Agatha Christie, and I do love the "Golden Age" mysteries. In this book, Inspector Alleyn is called to the home and studio of an artist named Agatha Troy when her model Sonia is found impaled on the throne, or bench, where she poses for students. Some of the students had worked out the anatomical logistics of a murder illustration in one of their reference books, and one of the students had returned to the studio and put the dagger in place on purpose.

The students all seem to be self-centered, selfish people, and I didn't like or feel empathy for any of them. The owner of the studio is disconnected from everyone, and though Alleyn is attracted to her, she cannot allow herself to be vulnerable enough to let him into her life. I pushed myself to finish the book so that I could judge it fairly, but the story never really clicked with me, and I was never so happy as to be done.

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Bookplate Special is the third book in the Booktown series by Lorna Barrett. Tricia the bookstore owner's college friend Pammy overstays her visit, and when she is finally asked to leave, she is found dead the next day in a restaurant dumpster. Suspicion naturally falls on Tricia, and though no one liked Pammy the Moocher, it seems no one had a good motive to silence her. Then Patricia discovers a blackmail plot, and also the secret life of those around her who dumpster dive for food (called freegans), and begins to solve the puzzle. The mystery was well-written, but the dumpster-diving subplot didn't appeal to me. One aspect of the story I personally found sad is that, whether the author intended to or not, she seems to be sending a negative message about men. Tricia and her sister Angelica are both divorced, and the men they are dating often leave them angry and disappointed, as if that is just "how men are." The young saleswoman Ginny is dumped by her fiance for another woman, after she has sunk all of her savings into a "money pit" house, worked overtime to exhaustion, and stressed about planning an affordable wedding. The only man above criticism is the elderly gentleman that works in the bookshop, Mr. Everett. He and his lady friend Grace (whom Tricia rescued in the first book) plan a lovely wedding together. Perhaps this is just an evolution of the relationships of the characters, and things will resolve more realistically in the upcoming volumes?

I also attempted to start another new book-themed mystery series, this one centered around a modern day bookbinder named Brooklyn. This was one of those rare instances where I didn't even get through the first couple of chapters before I gave up on the book/series. I could not personally relate to the main character at all; didn't click with her (you might like her just fine, though!), or any of the supporting characters that probably reappear in the series, and well, the Cabinet of Shame is too overstuffed with books to push through on a book you dislike from the beginning. If I like the setting, or at least one character, or the story itself has me captivated, I can get through things like weak plots or unlikeable suspects. Not this time.

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Georgette Heyer's The Unfinished Clue is a typical English Country House mystery. An unpleasant patriarch is found dead, hunched over the desk in his study, and each of his family members and guests has a reason to be pleased that he has died. Suspicion centers around his son, who hopes to marry a selfish Brazilian dancer and will of course create a family scandal. What better motive than to murder your father before he disinherits you?

If I didn't enjoy the English Country House setting so much, I probably wouldn't have finished this book. Again, I couldn't relate to any of the characters: the nervous wife, the blase nephew, the manipulative houseguests...only Daphne, the wife's sister and detective's ally, was at all interesting to me. The murderer's identity was a surprise -- I always love that unsuspected twist at the end -- but I didn't feel sorry for the circumstances that caused the murder. I only wanted someone, anyone, to murder that terrible Brazilian dancer character, and was so disappointed that no one did!

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Just after Christmas, I finished Julia Cameron's Walking in this World book. I love everything of hers I've read so far; she somehow dissects creative blocks and removes them so painlessly that you find yourself wanting to run to the sketchbook or computer or your medium-of-choice.

In this sequel to the Artist's Way, Julia (as I like to think of her) introduces the concept of a weekly walk, in addition to daily journaling and a weekly artist's date, as a source of inspiration to artists.

As we stretch our legs, we stretch our minds and our souls. St. Augustine, himself a great walker, remarked, "Solvitur ambulando" -- "it is solved by walking." The "it" that we solve may be as particular as a bruising romance, or as lofty as the conception of a new symphony. Ideas come to us as we walk. We also invite their quieter friend, insight. Walking often moves us past the "what" of our life into the more elusive "why."

Throughout the book, she again provides exercises on dealing with doubt, old creative injuries, sorting out the encouraging friends from the discouraging ones, and focusing on those things and people you love and are grateful for as a building block for your creative work. My favorite exercise on p. 229 is called "Taking Heart." She asks you to make a list of 50 things that your heart loves. My list includes things like the ocean, the scents of almonds and lemons and coconut, peonies, my gram's Italian cookies...there is something about writing out a specific list of these things that can't help but make you happy, if not inspired. And then going out to treat yourself to one of the little pleasures is even better!

I never feel like I can touch even the proverbial tip of the iceberg when trying to share about Julia's books, so if you are at all in need of creative empowerment, please get to the library or bookstore and see her work for yourself.

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My spring Interweave Knits arrived last week, and I didn't see any patterns that I totally love and want to knit right away. How about you? I'm making very slow progress on my current projects, but thinking about what I might want to knit next. One small project I'm thinking about is a yoga bag, but I haven't found a pattern I like yet. The closest is the Namaste bag from Knitty, but, all those cables! Eek!

 
A little bit of spring, delivered on Valentine's Day, from Chris. Thanks for bearing with this long post!

Comments

[jodi]

Wasn't The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie just delightful? So charming! I've read the 2nd one, which I enjoyed, but it wasn't quite as good as the 1st one. That said, the character and the setting weren't as fresh and surprising at that point, so perhaps it isn't fair of me to judge it that way.

Have you read Bird by Bird? I'm working on that right now -- not only am I enjoying it, I'm finding it useful.

[Kara]

Just finished the third Flavia book. I love that girl and her Gladys. They are such great books. I have to love books about strong and intelligent female characters, especially when they are only 11.

[Karen]

Well, I always enjoy your book reviews, and no one can argue with pictures of truffles and flowers. But NO FAIR giving us a tease on the dining room and then not letting us see it!!! Boo! ;)

[Leah]

Thanks for the book reviews! I'll have to check out the Flavia book--it sounds really fun!

Lovely flowers. Thanks for sharing :-)

[Kristen]

I'll have to order the Flavia series in audiobooks from the library- sounds like good knitting accompaniment.
I've recently started listening to whatever Georgette Heyer books are available. Companies aren't in much of a rush to put older books on CD. I'm enjoying the stories, silly and out-dated as they may be.
I'm hoping you convinced Chris to go pink for the dining room!

[Robin]

I also didn't see anything that wowed me in the Spring Interweave Knits - but usually I like their fall and winter issues better. Hope you have a great birthday weekend and do something fun on Sunday to celebrate!

[Dorothy W.]

Sorry about your disappointing books, but Flavia sounds like a great character. Those books would be great to listen on audio, I think. Perhaps I'll have to see if my library has it. I can get over the title if I have to! :)

[Sonya]

I promptly put The Sweetness... on hold at the library. Sounds wonderful! Your Valentine's flowers make me long for spring.

[betty]

I don't subscribe to Interweave Knits, but I'm going to buy one because I like the ruched yoke T.

Since you're a mystery fan, have you ever read mysteries by Josephine Tey? I stumbled upon a couple of books recently, and I love them. They were set in the 1950s, so it feels kind of odd -- not quite old enough to be "period pieces", but old enough to feel like olden days.

[Beth]

Thanks for the book reviews! And I love the flowers that Chris gave you!