Another Week in the Books

by Carol7 Comments
You know, I don't think I finished a single book this past week. I take that back, I read a couple of books with Amber (10) that were short enough to read in one sitting, including Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears by Verna Aardema, which we've read several times a year since she was like 5. I posted a couple of reviews last week. My favorite though was The Chatham School Affair by Thomas H. Cook. It's probably not for everyone, but I loved it, even if it had me bawling at the end. My giveaways for Montana Legacy by R. C. Ryan and Flirting with Forever by Gwyn Cready are both still open, by the way. Besides watching the hockey play-offs, we had a nice week. It was gorgeous, so we got some yardwork done and some flowers planted. As soon as David gets the garden rototilled, we'll be planting some Romaine lettuce, peas and onions. Saturday, David, Amber and I...
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“Instructions” by Neil Gaiman

by Carol4 Comments
I read a Neil Gaiman poem recently in A Wolf at the Door. The title was "Instructions" which describes the poem perfectly. It's instructions on what to do if you find yourself in a fairy tale. It's cute but true to the fairy tale standards. Help those who ask for it, don't steal from an old woman's house. It's about trust and hope and seeking. Remember: that giants sleep too soundly; that witches are often betrayed by their appetites; dragons have one soft spot, somewhere, always; hearts can be well-hidden, and you betray them with your tongue. At the end, if you follow the instructions, you will return home, safe and sound, although changed by your journey. Of course, we all know that even if you follow the rules, a journey through fairy tale land is dangerous, indeed. You can read the whole poem at The Endicott Studio. It's also on Gaiman's Speaking in Tongues CD and according to the Neil Gaiman Online Store, if  "despite following...
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The Chatham School Affair by Thomas H. Cook

by Carol8 Comments
The Chatham School Affair by Thomas H. Cook Henry Griswald is the narrator of this tragic story he relates what happened seven decades earlier, when in 1926, he was a teenager, son of the headmaster of the Chatham School. That is the year, Elizabeth Channing arrived in town, a young, beautiful art teacher who has traveled the world.  That is the year his small town witnessed passion and death, saw a young woman destroyed and eventually accused of murder. Only Henry holds the key to what truly happened those years ago and it takes the whole book to learn all of the secrets. We left a few minutes later, and I didn't say a single word to Miss Channing that morning, but only gazed at her stonily, my demeanor already forming into the hard shell it would assume on the day I testified against her, answering every question with the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, knowing all the...
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From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg

by Carol15 Comments
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg (Suggested reading level: Grades 3-6) Sometimes classic children's books just don't work for me, probably because I'm too critical. Amber (10) and I both adored this one, though. Claudia is determined to run away from home to teach her folks a lesson. She knows herself well and realizes that she wants to run to somewhere comfortable and beautiful. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the perfect place. Taking her brother Jamie, who has a fair amount of cash, with her, she settles in for a nice stay. There she becomes intrigued by Angel, a statue that may or may not have been carved by Michelangelo. Claudia is determined to discover the statue's secrets. Her quest leads her to Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the remarkable old woman who sold the statue, and to some equally remarkable discoveries about herself. "Returning with a secret is what she really wants. Angel had...
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Flirting With Forever by Gwyn Cready

by Carol13 Comments
Flirting with Forever by Gwyn Cready I don't know that I've ever read a time travel romance before this one. Apparently I've been missing a fun sub-genre. This is a fun, sexy romp. In present day Pittsburgh, art historian Campbell Stratford is working on a manuscript, a sexy tell-all "fictography" of a seventeenth-century painter that she hopes will help her get the promotion she's after. To her surprise, she discovers a time portal that transports her back to that time, straight into the home of painter Peter Lely, portraitist to Charles II. Here's where it gets a little confusing. Peter Lely is dead and has been recruited by the Guild protecting dead artists to sabotage Cam's project. So he's traveled back to that point in time, too, knowing that he will meet the writer then. Sparks fly, but after a night of seduction, Cam returns to the present and realizes she's been betrayed. But, Peter manages to travel to modern Pittsburgh, in theory...
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