Mike Klaassen has updated the classic fairy tale The Frog Prince. He has rewritten this story of the spoiled child to make the characters more believable to the modern day reader, both the child and the parent reading this story.
He has rewritten the dialogue to sound like the pre-teenager in every one's household. With all the empathy of the average self centered child, who feels they should be treated like a prince or princess, and have everything handed to them on a silver platter. For the teenager who says indignantly to their parent, 'I have to have that, everyone else has one.' So when this young prince looses his three pronged gig, a frog or fish hunting tool, and gets caught in some quick sand, you would think he would be more appreciative of the old woman who rescues him. But showing us how being spoiled and prejudice can make a person small minded, the prince ends up cursed to live out his life as a frog.
This is, as we know, his fate unless a girl will kiss him three times. Enter the beautiful young princess who has behavior issues of her own. Now the frog prince must convince this intolerant, overindulged princess to kiss a repulsive creature, namely himself.
Klaassen has nothing to change the actual story line of the original fairy tale, so we all know how this story goes. What he has done is update the dialogue and speech patterns to represent the everyday attitude and demeanor of the modern pre-teen. It is an enjoyable read, and maybe today's kids will enjoy it because it feels more relatable, but the author did not make the moral of the story anymore clear than it has always been.
Monday, February 27, 2017
Sunday, February 26, 2017
The Fifth Petal
Author, Brunonia Barry has "discovered" another fantastic plot in her newest novel The Fifth Petal. She has written another terrific storyline about Salem Massachusetts and the memories of the women who were accused there of witchcraft and the history that has shaped that city into the modern times.
I have loved all her books about the Salem residents and historical figures both those who practiced the crafts of magic, lace reading, those with the gift of sight or the gift of listening. Barry brings to life the history of the women who were punished for their association with witchcraft. She does her best to absolve them of their crimes through her storytelling.
In this novel we see the story through the eyes of Callie Cahill, who came to salem as a young child with her mother. She has witnessed a horrific murder scene, as a child, and now as a young adult she comes back to Salem to see if she can find the answers that are hidden in her nightmares and memory to help bring the murderer to justice. As she meets people and visits locations in Salem, slowly the memories that have been buried come to the surface. Between the help of the current police detective and a young man she is developing feelings for , she starts to have visions that will help discover the answers no one has been able to uncover for the past twenty years. But also linked to this modern day crime is the connection to the women accused of witchcraft in 1629.
So many different plot lines are developed as we read about Callie, her "aunt" Rose, the police chief and his wife, Towner, and Towner's Tearoom for women who are escaping domestic abuse. The reader becomes intrigued with the sub plot relationship between Towner and John Rafferty. Also important to the developments of this novel are the love interest, Paul, and his parents, Finn and Emily Whiting. We take a look back at the Callie's mother and her friends who were known in town as the Goddesses.
Barry once again brings you a fast paced novel with interesting well defined characters. A storyline, that with a leap of faith, is a very entertaining explanation of the fate of the famous witches of Salem, Sara Good, Rebecca Nurse, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, and Sarah Wildes.
I have loved all her books about the Salem residents and historical figures both those who practiced the crafts of magic, lace reading, those with the gift of sight or the gift of listening. Barry brings to life the history of the women who were punished for their association with witchcraft. She does her best to absolve them of their crimes through her storytelling.
In this novel we see the story through the eyes of Callie Cahill, who came to salem as a young child with her mother. She has witnessed a horrific murder scene, as a child, and now as a young adult she comes back to Salem to see if she can find the answers that are hidden in her nightmares and memory to help bring the murderer to justice. As she meets people and visits locations in Salem, slowly the memories that have been buried come to the surface. Between the help of the current police detective and a young man she is developing feelings for , she starts to have visions that will help discover the answers no one has been able to uncover for the past twenty years. But also linked to this modern day crime is the connection to the women accused of witchcraft in 1629.
So many different plot lines are developed as we read about Callie, her "aunt" Rose, the police chief and his wife, Towner, and Towner's Tearoom for women who are escaping domestic abuse. The reader becomes intrigued with the sub plot relationship between Towner and John Rafferty. Also important to the developments of this novel are the love interest, Paul, and his parents, Finn and Emily Whiting. We take a look back at the Callie's mother and her friends who were known in town as the Goddesses.
Barry once again brings you a fast paced novel with interesting well defined characters. A storyline, that with a leap of faith, is a very entertaining explanation of the fate of the famous witches of Salem, Sara Good, Rebecca Nurse, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, and Sarah Wildes.
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Set For Murder
When is a cruise ship like a movie set or a theatre stage? When you set sail with Jolie Beaumont in her fun mystery novel, Set For Murder. What a fun, light, entertaining mystery. Sailing on a cruise ship bound for England during the 1920s. At the beginning of the depression we set sail from New York headed for England. The author mixes the rich and famous of American society with the royal society of England. Actors and dukes socialize on the transatlantic journey as Inspector Travers is along for the ride to guard the famous Tarrington pearl necklace.
All the style and glamour of the wealthy society. You are along of the ride as people are murdered while the members of this cast stroll the decks of the ship and enjoy the life at sea. Inspector Travers unravels the crime as you learn about all the interwoven relationships of the passengers. What at first seems like a random group of travelers soon becomes a web of deceptive passengers who are somehow all connected. Inspector Travers spends his time interviewing the suspects and radioing back to the United States to try and find out who had motive to murder.
Beaumont does a splendid job of writing this detective plot in a colorful, period style. You enjoy following the characters around on the ship, through lavish meals, tennis matches and bridge games. The relationships between characters are well created, though sometimes it is confusing who is related to who and is married to who.
Life is glamorous traveling first class on a transatlantic ocean liner. Keep your jewels locked in the safe and beware the jealous traveler.
All the style and glamour of the wealthy society. You are along of the ride as people are murdered while the members of this cast stroll the decks of the ship and enjoy the life at sea. Inspector Travers unravels the crime as you learn about all the interwoven relationships of the passengers. What at first seems like a random group of travelers soon becomes a web of deceptive passengers who are somehow all connected. Inspector Travers spends his time interviewing the suspects and radioing back to the United States to try and find out who had motive to murder.
Beaumont does a splendid job of writing this detective plot in a colorful, period style. You enjoy following the characters around on the ship, through lavish meals, tennis matches and bridge games. The relationships between characters are well created, though sometimes it is confusing who is related to who and is married to who.
Life is glamorous traveling first class on a transatlantic ocean liner. Keep your jewels locked in the safe and beware the jealous traveler.
Saturday, February 18, 2017
A Man Called Ove
Everyone I know has been incredibly positive about this book. they say it is the best book they have read this year. The movie also has gotten rave reviews. Unfortunately once again I do not agree with the popular opinion.
A Man Called Ove, written by Fredrik Backman is a somewhat sweet tale about an elderly man who has lost his wife and is learning to negotiate life without her. He also has an very obsessive, compulsive personality, which he had even during his marriage. At one point he mentions that his wife, Sonja, is the only woman can put up with his unique behaviors. The book is written in chapters that could almost be individual essays or short stories except one does lead into the next.
The little plot lines of each chapter are interesting and give you more and more details about Ove and his personality. He comes across like a grumpy, extremely organized with a set routine that he does not line to waver from. A strict set of rules make him comfortable and he enjoys enforcing those rules on others.
Two of the chapters stood out for me. One where is is teaching, Pavaneh, his Iranian pregnant neighbor how to drive. She is flustered by the idea of learning to drive on car with a manual transmission. Learning to use the stick shift, the clutch along with the gas and brake pedals is more than she thinks she can absorb. Ove and Pavaneh are in the car and they are arguing about which pedal is which and how to use them. Ove explains to her that she has overcome so many hurdles and accomplished so many important tasks. She has come from a foreign country and learned a new language. She has fled war and persecution and gotten an education. She is raising a family, so driving cannot be that hard. Ove says, "I'm not asking for brain surgery, I'm asking you to drive a car. It's got an accelerator, a brake and a clutch. Some of the greatest twits in world history have sorted out how it works. And you will as well." He adds, "Because you are not a complete twit".
A Man Called Ove, written by Fredrik Backman is a somewhat sweet tale about an elderly man who has lost his wife and is learning to negotiate life without her. He also has an very obsessive, compulsive personality, which he had even during his marriage. At one point he mentions that his wife, Sonja, is the only woman can put up with his unique behaviors. The book is written in chapters that could almost be individual essays or short stories except one does lead into the next.
The little plot lines of each chapter are interesting and give you more and more details about Ove and his personality. He comes across like a grumpy, extremely organized with a set routine that he does not line to waver from. A strict set of rules make him comfortable and he enjoys enforcing those rules on others.
Two of the chapters stood out for me. One where is is teaching, Pavaneh, his Iranian pregnant neighbor how to drive. She is flustered by the idea of learning to drive on car with a manual transmission. Learning to use the stick shift, the clutch along with the gas and brake pedals is more than she thinks she can absorb. Ove and Pavaneh are in the car and they are arguing about which pedal is which and how to use them. Ove explains to her that she has overcome so many hurdles and accomplished so many important tasks. She has come from a foreign country and learned a new language. She has fled war and persecution and gotten an education. She is raising a family, so driving cannot be that hard. Ove says, "I'm not asking for brain surgery, I'm asking you to drive a car. It's got an accelerator, a brake and a clutch. Some of the greatest twits in world history have sorted out how it works. And you will as well." He adds, "Because you are not a complete twit".
This was very funny and felt very real. It was much the way I felt both when I learned to drive and while I was teaching my children to drive. Though it can feel like you will never understand it, everyone seems to eventually figure it out, no matter the level of their IQ or their education.
Finally the most moving part of the book I felt was the when he remembering a conversation with his wife. She compares love to living in a house. Sonja said, "Loving someone is like moving into a house. At first you fall in love with the new things, amazed every morning that all this belongs to you, as if fearing that someone would suddenly come rushing in through the door to explain that a terrible mistake had been made, you weren't actually supposed to to live in a wonderful place like this. Then over the years the walls become weathered, the wood splinters here and there, and you start to love that house not so much because of all its perfection, but rather for its imperfections." She went on to wax poetic about the little things that you get used to in the house and it is the same with your spouse. You learn to either love or tolerate his annoying little habits. You learn to work around the things that bother you, or how to keep the peace by not doing things you know anger the other person. This is so true in most marriages and relationships.
So even though this will not be on my top 10 list of books this year there were so very relevant points presented that I could really relate to.
Unravelling
Unravelling, a novel written by Elizabeth Graver is the a captivating story of Aimee Slater, a young girl growing up in the rough, uncompromising world of 1840s New England. Gentility was for the wealthy. Hardscrabble was for the farmers, factory workers and main population.
Aimee is born into a farming family in New Hampshire. There are five siblings and her parents living in the small house. Her sister Anna is buried in the family plot in the church yard. Her father keeps chickens, pigs and farms the land. Aimee always feels different from her sisters and brothers, that her name stands out from the familiar names of her siblings, that her name was similar to her mother's but a fancier version. She tells the reader, "I was the girl who might go bad, who needed to hear the warning bedtime stories, right from the beginning, but my mother seemed to love me best.
Then I thought myself the most deserving of her love - I was, after all the prettiest of her children and the quickest at school." this need for acceptance and craving for attention and love plague Aimee throughout her life. These needs get into the trouble she finds and the frustration and anguish she can never escape.
Aimee feels trapped in her small town, stifled by life on the farm. She feels different than the other children she is growing up with. After her friend writes to her from the Mills she feels the tug of a life in the larger world.
She goes off to the Lowell Mills at a time when young girls were convinced to go to work in the harshest of elements and work conditions. She is young and alone trying to negotiate a world beyond her experience. When things go wrong, her family, who she desperately needs to reach out to her, pushes her away. This was a typical reaction of families at this time period . This novel is written in the very stylized vocabulary of the time period and is very realistic to the behavior of the people at that time to the circumstances of a young girl in trouble.
Graver writes so wonderfully capturing the dialog and conversation style of the period and also the feelings of the townspeople and the parents toward anyone who was different. the descriptions were so vivid that you feel like you are in Aimee's shoes and living the experiences with her. Or sometimes I felt like I was there with her as her friend and wanted to shout; don't go down that path.
Told in the first person as an account of her life looking back from the end to how it all happened, Aimee is trying to come to terms with where she has ended up and make peace with herself , her mother and the make the best of the life she has been dealt.
Aimee is born into a farming family in New Hampshire. There are five siblings and her parents living in the small house. Her sister Anna is buried in the family plot in the church yard. Her father keeps chickens, pigs and farms the land. Aimee always feels different from her sisters and brothers, that her name stands out from the familiar names of her siblings, that her name was similar to her mother's but a fancier version. She tells the reader, "I was the girl who might go bad, who needed to hear the warning bedtime stories, right from the beginning, but my mother seemed to love me best.
Then I thought myself the most deserving of her love - I was, after all the prettiest of her children and the quickest at school." this need for acceptance and craving for attention and love plague Aimee throughout her life. These needs get into the trouble she finds and the frustration and anguish she can never escape.
Aimee feels trapped in her small town, stifled by life on the farm. She feels different than the other children she is growing up with. After her friend writes to her from the Mills she feels the tug of a life in the larger world.
She goes off to the Lowell Mills at a time when young girls were convinced to go to work in the harshest of elements and work conditions. She is young and alone trying to negotiate a world beyond her experience. When things go wrong, her family, who she desperately needs to reach out to her, pushes her away. This was a typical reaction of families at this time period . This novel is written in the very stylized vocabulary of the time period and is very realistic to the behavior of the people at that time to the circumstances of a young girl in trouble.
Graver writes so wonderfully capturing the dialog and conversation style of the period and also the feelings of the townspeople and the parents toward anyone who was different. the descriptions were so vivid that you feel like you are in Aimee's shoes and living the experiences with her. Or sometimes I felt like I was there with her as her friend and wanted to shout; don't go down that path.
Told in the first person as an account of her life looking back from the end to how it all happened, Aimee is trying to come to terms with where she has ended up and make peace with herself , her mother and the make the best of the life she has been dealt.
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Dark, Witch & Creamy
This book is simply delicious. H.Y. Hanna is an author who is writing veraciously. She already has one very delightful mystery series, Oxford Tearoom Mysteries, about a tea shop in a small village where the owner and her employees keep running into murder investigations that they help solve. Now she is starting this second series, Bewitched By Chocolate, with a twenty something year old Caitlyn, is looking to discover her birth family after the loss of her adoptive mother. She stumbles across a small village in the Cotswolds and of course a murder that the locals are having trouble solving.
This is a fun plot line where if you let go of your need for reality you can get lost in the world of witches and witchcraft. Living in this community is the old angry woman who owns the dark, dusty chocolate shop at the end of the lane. There are the nosy, gossipy ladies who hang out at the post office. Don't forget the old woman's daughter and granddaughter who run herbal shop. And no cozy mystery series would be complete without the handsome love interest who lives in the mansion on the other side of the woods.
The recipe is for murder is set. Caitlyn is intrigued with the village, the chocolate shop especially, where you can smell and taste the delicious chocolates that taste so good they may be enchanted.
Even Bertha, the woman who owns the herbal shop explains to Caitlyn the potency of cacao, "The ancient Mayans and the Aztecs knew about this. They called it xocolatl - 'food of the gods'. Cacao beans were associated with wisdom and magical power, and the ancient witches and shamans used it in the spell working rituals."
So settle down with one of H.Y. Hanna books and dig your teeth into a delicious, melt in your mouth plot that will fill you up with feelings of satisfaction as you try to figure out who the murder is and if the romance will blossom.
This is a fun plot line where if you let go of your need for reality you can get lost in the world of witches and witchcraft. Living in this community is the old angry woman who owns the dark, dusty chocolate shop at the end of the lane. There are the nosy, gossipy ladies who hang out at the post office. Don't forget the old woman's daughter and granddaughter who run herbal shop. And no cozy mystery series would be complete without the handsome love interest who lives in the mansion on the other side of the woods.
The recipe is for murder is set. Caitlyn is intrigued with the village, the chocolate shop especially, where you can smell and taste the delicious chocolates that taste so good they may be enchanted.
Even Bertha, the woman who owns the herbal shop explains to Caitlyn the potency of cacao, "The ancient Mayans and the Aztecs knew about this. They called it xocolatl - 'food of the gods'. Cacao beans were associated with wisdom and magical power, and the ancient witches and shamans used it in the spell working rituals."
So settle down with one of H.Y. Hanna books and dig your teeth into a delicious, melt in your mouth plot that will fill you up with feelings of satisfaction as you try to figure out who the murder is and if the romance will blossom.
Monday, February 13, 2017
The Library Paradox
Catherine Shaw has written a very dense and meaty mystery novel that you will just sink your teeth into to find out who done it. This is more of a puzzle to solve than anything else. The well known, hated, anti -Semitic Professor at King's College in London is dead of a gunshot wound in his study. Two students heard him yelling at someone right before the gun went off. When they entered the room there was no one there and they saw no one running out.
The year is 1896 and Vanessa Weatherburn is a new young mother of twins, who has given up her career as a teacher. She talks of how hard it is to stay home and be responsible for the domestic commitments. Her husband seems supportive or at least does not hold her back. When the Professors come to see her about helping to solve what looks like a clear case of murder, she takes the case. Because she thinks to herself, "Certainly I am neither experienced nor famous nor brilliant, and yet, there was a period, after I married and stopped teaching, where if some interesting problems did not come my way, I should have fallen into gloom out of sheer boredom - indeed there is quite simply a part of my brain that is not fulfilled by the plain enjoyment of domestic pleasures and yearns to touch the rougher spots of life's texture."
Shaw is careful to write the story in the style of speech of this earlier century and to follow the mores, styles and customs of this time period. So that even though Vanessa is stepping out of conventional behavior of a women of 1896, she is careful to not behave in a manner that would be unacceptable at that time.
Also there is the explanation of the title, The Library Paradox. A paradox is a statement that is contradictory, because it contains two statements that are both true but cannot be true at the same time. The contradictory elements of this murder are the statements of the witnesses. Though the facts they present are all true, there is still a dead body that could not have been killed if the witness are all telling the truth, thus a paradox. Because it happens in a library, Shaw brings in the famous logical paradox about the Catalog of Catalogs. This gives the reader something to sink their teeth into as they try to understand the complicated circular points of this paradox
Also central to this mystery novel is the notorious "Dreyfus Affair". There is so much historical evidence and evidence in this novel about the atmosphere in England during this time period. This also plays apart in the anti-semitism of the murdered Professor, who was involved in writing articles about the Dreyfus conviction and other "blood libel" cases in history.
This is a book packed with history, mathematics, logic along with the intrigue and relationships.
A history lesson, logistics challenge and a who done it all wrapped up in one fun read.
The year is 1896 and Vanessa Weatherburn is a new young mother of twins, who has given up her career as a teacher. She talks of how hard it is to stay home and be responsible for the domestic commitments. Her husband seems supportive or at least does not hold her back. When the Professors come to see her about helping to solve what looks like a clear case of murder, she takes the case. Because she thinks to herself, "Certainly I am neither experienced nor famous nor brilliant, and yet, there was a period, after I married and stopped teaching, where if some interesting problems did not come my way, I should have fallen into gloom out of sheer boredom - indeed there is quite simply a part of my brain that is not fulfilled by the plain enjoyment of domestic pleasures and yearns to touch the rougher spots of life's texture."
Shaw is careful to write the story in the style of speech of this earlier century and to follow the mores, styles and customs of this time period. So that even though Vanessa is stepping out of conventional behavior of a women of 1896, she is careful to not behave in a manner that would be unacceptable at that time.
Also there is the explanation of the title, The Library Paradox. A paradox is a statement that is contradictory, because it contains two statements that are both true but cannot be true at the same time. The contradictory elements of this murder are the statements of the witnesses. Though the facts they present are all true, there is still a dead body that could not have been killed if the witness are all telling the truth, thus a paradox. Because it happens in a library, Shaw brings in the famous logical paradox about the Catalog of Catalogs. This gives the reader something to sink their teeth into as they try to understand the complicated circular points of this paradox
Also central to this mystery novel is the notorious "Dreyfus Affair". There is so much historical evidence and evidence in this novel about the atmosphere in England during this time period. This also plays apart in the anti-semitism of the murdered Professor, who was involved in writing articles about the Dreyfus conviction and other "blood libel" cases in history.
This is a book packed with history, mathematics, logic along with the intrigue and relationships.
A history lesson, logistics challenge and a who done it all wrapped up in one fun read.
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