Review: Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh

by Carol5 Comments
Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh is a great little mystery. Set at a resort build around natural hot mud pools in New Zealand, the setting is unique, at least in my experience, and the characters range from quirky to downright sleazy. I listened to this one on audio, by the way, so can't really share any quotes. First published in 1943, Colour Scheme takes place right in the midst of WW2. An odd collection of people are gathered at the poorly managed Wai-ata-Tapu spa. The spa is owned by a retired British colonel who is rather bumbling and hard of hearing. His family is made up of his gentler demure wife, ne'er-do-well son and the daughter, Barbara, who is sweet, but seems fairly stuck in her life. The problem is the Colonel owes money to Questing, a shady business man who is confident that he is about to seize control of the resort. Enter the famous Shakespearean actor who is lured to the spa...
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Thursday’s Tale: Tony’s Bread by Tomie dePaola

by Carol4 Comments
  Several legends have grown around the Italian bread, panettone. It's a type of sweet bread loaf originally from Milan, usually prepared and enjoyed for Christmas and New Year, and is one of the symbols of the city of Milan. One tale goes back to 15th-century Milan. A nobleman loved the daughter of a poor baker named Toni and wished to marry her. To win her father's approval, the nobleman disguised himself as a baker and invented a rich bread to which he added flour and yeast, butter, eggs, dried raisins, and candied lemon and orange peel. It's this tale that dePaola retells for pre-schoolers and early elementary kids in Tony's Bread, admitting that he has taken "great liberties" with the story. Tony is a baker in a small town who dreams of opening a bakery in Milan and become famous. Tony has a daughter, Serafina, whom he loves and treats like a princess. Serafina wants to get married, but Tony doesn't...
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Top Ten Books I’d Save If My House Was Going To Be Abducted By Aliens

by Carol13 Comments
The Top Ten Tuesday topic for yesterday was Top Ten Books You Would Save If Disaster Struck. It got me thinking. It's not about your favorite books or the books you love to read. It's about which books you own that are irreplaceable. I was looking around my house last night thinking about which books I would save and came up with this list. Most of them are gifts I've received over the years. A Broadman Hymnal from 1940 - It was a gift and I do love hymns. Good Bones and Simple Murders by Margaret Atwood - It's a great collection, has a signed bookplate, and was a gift from my parents. The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall - First, it's an awesome story about staying true to yourself. Second, it was  a gift from my favorite teacher of all time. The Baker Street Dozen edited by P. J. Doyle and E. W. McDiarmid  - I think this was my first Sherlock Holmes...
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Review: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

by Carol10 Comments
Dan Brown's novels follow a formula, but it's a formula that works. For the most part, The Lost Symbol is a gripping thriller. The end is a little flat, but overall it kept my attention, kept me turning the pages. Robert Langdon, famed symbologist, is summoned to Washington, DC under false pretenses. Once there, he learns that a good friend is in danger. The villain, a psychopath, insists that Robert is the only one who can help him uncover the secret portal to the word that will unlock the ancient mysteries, or something like that. Langdon has to solve a series of codes, of course, and interpret a variety of symbols, on his desperate search around Washington. Luckily he has a beautiful, intelligent woman to help him on his quest. Unluckily, the CIA seems to think he should help them, at the expense of his friend's life. Brown tends to use settings with historical value and likes to teach us about secret...
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Venice in February: Brunetti’s Cookbook by Roberta Pianaro and Donna Leon

by Carol21 Comments
Two things I love- Italian food and mysteries. And Donna Leon has found a great combination with Brunetti's Cookbook. Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti series is one of my current favorites, and for those who've read the books, you know why she needed to add a cookbook. If you haven't read the books, let me tell you a bit about them. Brunetti is an inspector for the Venice Questura, so the mysteries are basically police precedurals, not the food-based cozies that are so popular now. But the descriptions of Venice transport you there, and the food is just mouth-watering, whether he's eating at a neighborhood trattorio or at home where his wife, Paola, cooks delectable multi-course meals. That's not to mention the pastries, the wine, the coffee. In Brunetti's Cookbook, Roberta Pianaro has brought these  dishes to our dinner table, with Leon interspersing the recipes with excerpts from her novels and essays about food and Venice. It's a marvelous cookbook to actually sit down...
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Thursday’s Tale: The Goat-Faced Girl retold by Leah Marinsky Sharpe

by Carol4 Comments
"The Goat-Faced Girl" is a classic Italian fairytale, although Leah Marinsky Sharpe takes many liberties in the re-telling of it. That's not a complaint though. The Goat-Faced Girl is a delightful book, a wonderful fairy tale to share with little girls in preschool or early elementary. It's magical, but has a message, too. A baby is abandoned in the forest. Sounds like a fairytale so far, doesn't it? "But this foundling was an infant girl who was far too young for quests, unable to understand talking animals, and even too young to interest the witch in the gingerbread house." Eventually the baby is taken home by a giant lizard, a sorceress in disguise. The lizard-lady raises the girl, Isabella, who becomes a beautiful, polite, intelligent young woman. Her only fault is that she is incredibly lazy. One day, Prince Rupert arrives at the lizrd-lady's home, where he meets  Isabella and after finding out how much they have in common, both being...
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