This book. This book. I am, in all honesty, not even sure where to begin. But I won't let that stop me.
The Library Journal wrote, "The perpetrator, Edward Glyver, is an erudite bibliophile and
resourceful detective who assumes different names and personas with
disquieting ease." Sounds fascinating, does it not? The first thing you need to understand about Mr. Glyver is, however, that he is not entirely sane. Does the book ever tell you this specifically? No. But the context clues on this one form a mighty high pile.
Mr. Glyver feels that the mother who brought him up and his birth mother (who he discovers are not the same people) did him wrong and denied him his birth right. His birth right being the son of a very wealthy man who holds both power and land. He wants these things for himself and he thinks on them to the point of obsession. Well past the point of obsession, in fact.
This fellow starts off, very innocently, just trying to find clues that will prove him clearly and conclusively to being this wealthy man's son. In the meantime he is thwarted by a childhood acquaintance who has ingratiated himself into the Tansor family (the family to which Edward feels he belongs). This acquaintance, Mr. Daunt, is named successor to the Tansor family when Lord Tansor feels that there is no way that an heir will ever come.
What follows is Edward's downward spiral to betrayal, murder, and finally ostracizes himself to run from what he has done.
I truly am not sure if I liked this book. I'm completely on a fence about it. The story itself was rich and colorful and very well written but the characters themselves were not likeable in the least. I found myself in complete distaste of every single character I came across, including Edward eventually. But, I can look past that as it truly is a well written and well thought out story that is very rich in detail (almost to the point of being tedious with it). I give this book three and a half mouldering letters out of five.
I've been on a roll lately trying new authors and books I may not have used to have given a shot. This book is one of those experiments. Truly, I end up picking a lot of books because of great sales on them as Nook books.
Now, I feel that a good book should elicit emotion from me. I should be able to see the story clearly in my head, have a good understanding of the characters, and feel emotion for the actions in the story. This book certainly elicited a lot of emotion from me. In fact, one emotion in particular. You know what that emotion is?
Infuriation .
I'll start right off with saying that if you get highly offended over anything, such as violence, turn around right now. This is not the book for you.
Emma, our heroine, has been beaten and battered physically and emotionally for years by her husband Jared. I will never personally understand why any woman would allow that. Our Emma makes excuses and allows it to continue up until Jared sells their two children to work on a farm. Jared needs his privates removed with a dull knife, in my opinion.
Emma, after a failed attempt to kill her husband and a failed attempt to kill herself finds herself along the Mississippi on her uncle's paddle boat. The floating hotel is in need of a cook and when her uncle absolutely refuses to allow Emma to go back to her good for nothing husband employs her in the boat's kitchen.
This is me, infuriated again. We start with a woman allowing herself to be beaten and then getting plunked down in a kitchen. Lovely way to lead a life.
Emma is befriended by much of the crew and two men, the captain/co-owner of the boat and the lead mechanic fall over themselves in love with her. Infuriated again, the solution to your problems is not to find a new man. It's to be a stronger woman.
Anyway, this theme continues and Jared follows the boat on it's way down the Mississippi by way of horse along the shore. He ends up killing several people while chasing the boat and gets his rocks, which should have been removed with a dull knife ages ago, off on it.
The ending of the book is something I actually did enjoy so I won't spoil it here. I will also add that even though I spent the majority of this book absolutely livid it really is quite good. It's just not a theme I feel particularly compelled to read. If a man hits you, you had damn well better do something about it, not sit around and take it like a meek little mouse only to leave him and land yourself fairly promptly with another man. See? Infuriated.
The last few chapters of the book really did save it for me, so I will give it three crawfish out of five.
I read the reviews and comments on this book at least a dozen times over the last year before I finally decided to buy it. And I will admit the only reason I did was because it happened to be on an amazing sale that day. I will be the first to admit that the premise of the story is a little bit odd, and I do usually like odd, but I was afraid it was going to delve into the land of cheesy. Honestly, when the cover of the book is a creepy little girl levitating and managing to look menacing all at the same time it certainly sends a message.
That message is this book is either epic or chintzy.
We start with a pre-teen or early teen boy. I'm going to call him Bob because I simply don't care to remember what his name actually was. So Bob is a weak, whiny little brat of a boy that offends his grandfather and doesn't appreciate what is given to him.
And yes, I very much doubt that was how he was supposed to be perceived.
Bob instead of helping his grandfather, who calls and specifically asks him for help, assumes he is delusional and his grandfather ends up dead. Bob now sees an evil shadow in the forest with his dead grandfather, who loved his grandson very much, and our main character spends the next several chapters in therapy. At this point, lets just say I was more than ready to put the book down. But, I never start a book that I don't finish, so onward we plod.
Wimpy Bob and his father go through the grandfather's things and Bob finds a box of old photos of children doing things like you would find in a side show act. Levitating, strong man, invisible boy etc etc etc. His grandfather had shown him the photos years before so Bob decides to go to an island. There is a heartfelt and touching story behind all of that but, just like his name, I really don't care to remember.
In a nutshell, Bob finds the kids, gets the hots for his grandfather's ex who never grew up, and nearly gets the invisible boy killed. The evil shadows show back up and now Wimpy Bob is expected to save the world. I imagine this is supposed to give hope to physically weak or odd children, but mostly the whole story is a bit creepy.
Nor worth my time or yours.
I'd give the Peculiar Children two topiaries out of five.
I love animals. I have three cats, a goofy German Shepherd, and a turtle with an attitude. What I've never understood is how people survive without pets in their lives. Personally, I think I would come apart at the seems without my pets. Some people have kids, I have cats. And what does this novel have?
This novel has Chet.
Chet is a dog. Not just any dog, but a dog that has been through canine police school. He did however fail after a rather unfortunate incident involving a squirrel but that's neither here nor there. Chet still has Bernie and together they are the Little Detective Agency.
Bernie Little's detective agency gets a contract to find a teenage girl that is a supposed runaway. Chet and Bernie find themselves in a world surrounded by Russian gangsters and dishonest men. Of course, Chet figures out what is going on right off the bat but it takes the slower humans a while to catch up with him. Silly humans.
While our brilliant and furry investigator gets dog napped, finds himself in a cave in, nearly gets put to sleep, and rescues his silly human twice from certain doom you get to share in their joy when they rescue the girl that was stolen from her family because of someone else's poor choices.
The book itself isn't long but you get quickly pulled into their lives and can't seem to put it down. I give Chet four and a half beggin strips out of five.
A book based around the most popular children's author of all time? Don't mind if I do!
That is exactly what The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter are. Who is Beatrix Potter, you ask? Why, every child has heard of Peter Rabbit! That is exactly who Beatrix Potter is, the author of some of the most famous children's stories ever written.
Albert bases her stories (loosely) around events that actually occurred in Ms. Potter's life. From the history I have personally read of Beatrix it seems to me she made the personality of the character fit very well with the real woman as well.
Shy, determined, intelligent, creative. Wonderful.
In this story Beatrix is visits the lovely little town of Near Sawrey where she owns a farm that she, due to over bearing parents, doesn't get to visit very often. Ms. Potter loves her little farm and does her very best to take care of it and make it prosperous. However, every time she comes to the village, she seems to get tied up in some kind of mystery and mild mayhem. In this case it is the mystery of a baby that was left on her doorstep and no one knows who the child's parents are.
By a series of fortunate coincidences she does in the find the child's parents and the child gets the best of all worlds in the end. In the meantime Beatrix is mistakenly marked a bride, assists a friend with some much needed courage, and misplaces a duck. I do believe the part about the duck is my favorite. Anyone who has read Beatrix Potter's stories knows the tale of Jemima Puddleduck and in this book we get to explore a little further into her story as well as her furry friend's.
In all of the books Albert has done about Beatrix in her Cottage Tales series, they delve a little further into the children's stories that Potter actually wrote and it is really wonderful to add to those little stories in your head, even if it just seems like some insignificant detail.
Now, if you're looking for a fast paced, action packed book then this series would not be quite right under those per-requisites. If you want an interesting, well written, quiet yet detail orientated mystery then look no further. I would give this book, and the entire Cottage Tales series, a solid five flopsy bunnies out of five.
This book inspired me to make Shepherd's Pie.
Nothing quite says old England to me quite like Shepherd's pie. It is something that could be found in many homes as a hearty meal.
I don't often go for sci-fi. A little bit of fantasy, sure, because what is life without a little imagination. But straight out sci-fi? That happens a little next to never. However, Dealing with Dragons is the first in the series of four in the Enchanted Forest chronicles by Patricia C Wrede and they take you into a world of dragons, fiery princesses, evil plots, and magic that is so carefully written into the story that it seems almost commonplace and normal.
Cimorene is a princess of the Kingdom of Linderwall and she is not exactly what the king and queen would consider a normal princess. She conjugates Latin verbs, makes cherries jubilee, and can cast a mean invisibility spell. Her sisters learn when to scream as a dragon or orge is carrying them off and different embroidery stitches. But not Cimorene. When her parents arrange a marriage for her to an annoyingly proper prince in a neighboring kingdom, Cimorene goes off on her own and volunteers to become the captive princess of the dragon Kazul.
Sounds like fun to me.
While sorting Kazul's library, organizing her treasure vaults, and making her chocolate mousse Cimorene discovers a plot against the life of the king of the dragons. From here she works with a prince that was turned into stone (quite unfortunate), a ginger witch with perfect posture (and a lot of cats), and an only slightly silly princess to try to thwart the over-confident wizards from taking control of the dragon's throne.
This series is absolutely wonderful. Wrede keeps to her themes, stays true to her characters, and the series itself winds together beautifully. If you have even a passing fancy of sci-fi or even just a good and fanciful story I cannot recommend the Enchanted Forest chronicles enough. If
you aren't into science fiction I know it sounds a bit silly. However, I
truly believe if you give the books a try you will not regret it. Wrede
pulls you into her stories with such wonderful writing and you can't help but keep your eyes glued to the page. I give this book, and the series itself, five melting wizards out of five. (now go and find out what the melting wizards reference is, you silly goose!)
This book inspired me to make Coconut Potato Curry with Basil.
Thinking of the dragons breathing fire makes me want something spicy but still with a "down home" feel. Potatoes and curry absolutely hit the spot!
I bet you would have never guessed that I have an absolute obsession with Egypt. Three books all based on ancient Egypt (and a little bit of ancient Rome thrown in for good measure) and ironically all by the same author. When I initially purchased these books I had no idea they were all by the same author. That is just not something I look at when buying a book. Why would I care who wrote it? It's the content that is of interest to me. But, here I am, my third book by Michelle Moran, lets see if I liked it, shall we?
Here's a hint, does Dumbo love peanuts?
We start with lovely and young little Nefertari, niece of Nefertiti. She worries over losing her two closest friends as they are older than her and leaving school. Ramesses becomes pharaoh (and if you haven't heard of Ramesses the Great then you have issues and need to go read some history books) and her friend Asha becomes a ranking member of the army. Little Nefertari, what is she to do? Perhaps join the priestesses of Hathor and plot with the high priestess into becoming Ramesses' wife and overthrowing the high priestess' plotting sister's plans to take power form the throne.
Just maybe.
In a nutshell, this book is about love, struggle, war, and some rather devious plots whether they be for good or ill. The high priestess of Hathor (Woserit) has a sister named Henuttawy who is high priestess of Isis and she is, as Nefertari put it, a viper. Henuttawy spends all of her time plotting and planning on gaining a way to power from the throne by pushing a woman of her choosing, Iset, toward Ramesses who takes her as wife. Woserit and Nefertari have other ideas. Nefer becomes known as the Warrior Queen as she is made a wife and goes with her husband into battles and assists Egypt instead of sitting on her tush in a palace surrounded by every luxury. My kind of woman.
This story, as the others of Moran's, is full of historical fact as well as fascinating fiction. My main complaint, again, is that she really does not finish books well. I always feel like the climax is anti-climatic and the ending is rushed. It just doesn't feel quite right. The rest of the story is fascinating and completely engrosses me but the ending is just...stale. If she could just end her books better this one would have easily gotten a five, but as it is, this book gets four offerings to Amun out of five.
This book inspired me to make Fresh bread.
The common Ancient Egyptians' diet was largely centered around breads and only the more wealthy had a steady diet of meats.
