My Evil Mother

 My  Evil Mother, by  Margaret Atwood, is such a fun light entertaining story from this fabulous author. I listened to this short title on audible.  It was fun to listen to and maybe because I have read so many books by  the author I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.

the best part about this story is I want to share it with my daughter.  I feel like this is very similar to our story.  The mother daughter relationship.  As a mother, you are doing your best and yet your daughter sees you as the evil enemy.  This is a clever interpretation of that fateful relationship.

Written to make every mother whose daughter rebelled or stormed up the stairs yelling 'I hate you' able to laugh at those memories.  

The story of a single mother and her daughter coming of age in the 1950s.  Description of the perfect housewife, who claims to have more witchlike powers.  The daughter worries that the kids at school will find out.  She also wonders how much of what her mother says is true.  Growing up can be difficult, but with a mother like hers, it can be mortifying .

The Mystery of the Sorrowful Maiden (A Laetitia Rodd Mystery)

 The Mystery of the Sorrowful Maiden, written by Kate Saunders turned out to be a delightful novel. this is the first book I have read from this series, though it is the third in the group.

Laetitia Rodd is a lady of distinction, who seems may have fallen on hard times after the death of her husband, who was a clergyman. She is now a private detective and lives with her landlady, Mrs. Bentley. She is a woman of a certain age, though that is never made clear, and she is a woman of discretion.

This time around she gets involved in helping to absolve a woman, Sarah Transome, of murder at the behest of her neighbor, Ben Tully.  Mrs Rodd gets involved and the case gets complicated with many different characters being suspected.  There seem to be a plethora of guilty characters, but then there are also going to be more victims.  Using her ladylike discretion, she assists the police inspector of Scotland Yard, Mr. Blackbeard with his inquiries and brings the culprit to justice.

The interesting topics covered in this storyline are surprising for the time period.  This is a quick read and fast moving plot with colorful actors. This plot takes us to the streets of London in the mid nineteenth century.  Theatre was becoming gentrified.  This story describes Georgian tradition where the audience participated with boos and hisses.  Then there is also a description of a new type of acting beginning, the Shakespearian theatre.  This is a time in history when thespians were yet to be recognized as respected members of society.   

  

The Golden Dreidel

 The Golden Dreidel is a short children's book written by Ellen Kushner.  It has recently been re  -  released with illustrations by Kevin Keele.  It is a simple story about the miracle of Chanukah. What separates it from some of other stories written about the Chanukah story is that it closely resembles The Nutcracker story for Christmas.

So not surprisingly, New York’s Vital Theater Company asked Ellen to adapt the book as a play for their 2008/09 season — and at the last minute she fulfilled her life’s dream of acting on stage in New York, when she stepped in to play the part of Tante Miriam! 

This is the story of  Sara, who is frustrated that her family cannot celebrate Christmas, like her friends.  That Chanukah is not as colorful and brilliantly lit up as Christmas.   She and her brother, Seth join her parents and all  the cousins, aunts and uncles for the annual Chanukah party.  As the kids are playing  dreidel, Tante Miriam arrives and has a big bag of gifts for everyone.  Sara is given a golden dreidel and a warning to be careful, this is not an ordinary  dreidel.  In a fight over the dreidel with her brother, the TV is damaged.  In the middle of the night just like a broken nutcracker in the other version, Sara is taken on an adventure... is it real or did she just dream it?  

An interesting take off  on  the classic Christmas story.   And the perfect vehicle for a holiday stage play and maybe some day a short movie to watch on Chanukah.