Saturday, May 25, 2013

2013 Summer Reading Challenge

It is time for the second annual Shhh! Mommy is doing her Summer Reading Challenge.

 
The Challenge runs from June 1 to Sept 1.
 
If you choose to participate come up with five categories of your own to read and then use my five or another friend's five or make up five-ten categories. I don't care. Just take a little time to sit and read, maybe in the backyard. With a chilled drink. I'm thinking limeade myself.

  1. Read the book you have been putting off forever
  2. Read a book that was meant for children
  3. Read a Genre that you don't normally read
  4. Read a book with or at the same time as your child or other relative
  5. Read a book from a series either a new series or one you already enjoy
  6. Read a book about something associated with summer
  7. Read a non-fiction book
 
My List
1. Putting Off - Eve and the Choice Made in Eden
 
2. Children - The One and Only Ivan
 
3. Horror: Dracula or Frankstein which ever is shorter
 
4.Tandem Read - with son: Julius Caesar or Beowulf: New Verse Translation
 
5. Series - One of the Lord Peter Wimsey books by Dorothy Sayer

6. Summer Sunshine - My Only Sunshine

7. Non-fiction - Handcart Pioneer book

LIMEADE LINK

 

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

2013 Vintage - Inspector Queen's Own Case

Inspector Queen's Own Case by Ellery Queen
A Calendar of Crime - 2013 Vintage Mystery Challenge

Inspector Queen has retired and is feeling at loose ends. He spends time on an East Coast island and discovers a murder mystery, maybe. Everyone except the victim's nurse believe it to be accidental death. So which is it. The inspector finds himself courting and falling in love with the only witness.

Not my very favorite, but a nice story.

Read January 24 & 25, 2013. 3 stars.

Vintage 2013 - A Man Lay Dead

A Man Lay Dead
Malicious Men - Vintage Mystery Challenge 2013



In his first appearance Inspector Roderick Alleyn sets out to solve a murder at an English country house. The death occurs during a weekend party game of Murder.

Inspector Alleyn arrives to find the body moved and the guests in an uproar. A side plot involving Russian conspiratists, a secret society, and deadly ancient weapons adds to the intrigue.

Marsh starts off her mystery writing career well with this 1934 novel.


I read this novel between March 12 & 14, 2013.

Vintage 2013 - Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries 1-3

I read several Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries by Dorothy L. Sayers and haven't linked them to the Vintage site, so I'm rectifying that over sight today. Here are my thoughts on each one from goodreads.

Whose Body? (1923) 4 stars
In the first Lord Peter Wimsey mystery, Sayers introduces one of my favorite dectectives. I love the name she chose as it signifies to me the way he goes about his investigations, whimsically. His first recorded case deals with a body found mysteriously in a bath tub. Whose body is this and how did he get here?

Clouds of Witness (1926) 3 stars
The second Lord Wimsey mystery finds two of his siblings suspected of lying, obstructing justice, or worse, murder.

A goodreads reviewer mentioned that Sayers uses the writing conventions of the vintage mystery which  I usually find charming, but this one was a bit slow especially at the end.

Unnatural Death (1929) 3 stars
Quite the vicious killer portrayed in this gold age mystery. This is the third book in the Wimsey series and while not my favorite, it kept me guessing.

But the Bibliographal Notes in my copy? Those were just confusing. Why reference things that haven't occurred in the main characyer's life yet?

Vintage 2013 - There Was an Old Woman

There Was an Old Woman by Ellery Queen (1943) - Wicked Women

Read for the Vintage Mystery Challenge 2013
I started this challenge over at my other blogsite, but book reviews will now be posted here. Click the above link to see my vintage mystery list and progress toward completion.
Ellery finds himself embroiled in the turmoil of a crazy family with a wicked and controlling woman for a mother. The mother, Cornelia Potts, has and is sacrificing her three rational grown children’s lives and wellbeing to serve her own power plays and for the whims of her other three mentally insane children.
The story begins as Cornelia urges on her crazy son, Thurlow, in a suit claiming slander against the honorable Potts name. The craziness moves quickly onto Thurlow challenging his younger half-brother to a duel and killing the competent young man at dawn despite the attempts of Ellery to avert the tragedy.
Insanity continues as more family members die.
Finally Ellery begins to put together the motive and plot behind all the murders and death.
I found this story difficult to get into at the beginning due to all the slang from the reporters and police officers covering the slander case. Once I got to the Palace, the house where the old woman raised her children, I was quite enjoying the twists and turns and additions from Mother Goose.
And I’m glad Ellery saved the innocent family members in the end, but the last chapter, could have been left off. I know this is a vintage mystery (1943), and I suspect that there is a reason that they are getting Sheila/Nikki into Ellery’s office, but really a multimillionaire secretary? Even back in the day, why would she do that?
All in all this will be a 3 star book.
To read more reviews of vintage mysteries visit My Reader's Block.

May Keyword Challenge

For May the Keyword options were bird, shine, laugh, clothing, name, run, shatter, lost, wings, and world.

I originally chose to read The Boy Who Drew Birds for this month’s book. It is a biography about John Audabon. I did read it in about fifteen minutes; I hadn’t realized that it was a children’s biography. I felt that I should find something a little longer to fulfill the Monthly Keyword Challenge. I went to my TBR list on goodreads.com and discovered another book with birds in the title.
So the book I ended up choosing for the challenge is A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Draysonpublished in 2008.

“For the past three years, the widower Mr. Malik has been in love with Rose Mbikwa, a woman who leads the weekly bird walks sponsored by the East African Ornithological Society. Reserved and honorable, Malik wouldn’t be noticed by a bystander in a Nairobi street – except perhaps to comment on his carefully sculpted comb-over. But beneath that unprepossessing exterior lie a warm heart and a secret passion.”
With this description on the dust jacket, A Guide to the Birds of East Africa begins. Mr. Malik is a quiet and thoughtful character who walks unnoticed through life, yet who has beliefs and passions and in his own quiet way affects lives all around him.
He soon finds himself in a contest against his childhood nemesis, seeking the hand of Ms. Mbikwa. The contest is to spot the most birds within seven days.
The events are told by a narrator who brings in an interesting twist and sometimes some rather amusing side comments. Joanne Harris, the author of Chocolat, probably describes the feel of the book best when she says, “A Guide to the Birds of East Africa is a book of immense charm; a sort of P. G. Wodehouse meets Alexander McCall Smith.”
I kept thinking about the story of the Hare and the Tortoise as I read. A Guide isn't exactly the same, but you can see the Aesop theme woven in there among all the scientific bird names, which surprisingly don't take away from the readability of the book.
I highlight recommend the book as a sweet and lovely story of quiet, good people.
For more May Keyword Reads visit Book Marks to Blog.