Venice in February: Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon

by Carol8 Comments
Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon is an engaging mystery, where setting and plot fit hand in hand. This is not the first I've read in this series, although it is the one that began it all, so I fully expected to enjoy it, as I did. Internationally renowned German conductor Helmut Wellauer was performing La Traviata at Teatro La Fenice when he failed to come out for the second act. After being asked if there is a doctor in the house, Dr. Rizzardi enters the maestro’s dressing room to find Helmut dead. Since this is Venice, the police arrive by boat rather quickly.  Police Vice-Commissario Guido Brunetti leads the  investigation into the cyanide poisoning of the conductor.  Suspects abound from the victim’s much younger wife to musical peers and rivals.  Soon Brunetti learns that  Helmut has destroyed several singers' careers through the years, including a trio of young women.  With no help from his boss or assistants, Brunetti still manages, with calmness, tact and persistence...
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Venice in February: Olivia Goes to Venice by Ian Falconer

by Carol6 Comments
Since I'm exploring Venice, at least from my armchair, this month, I thought I'd tag along with Olivia and her family  as they visit Venice for spring vacation. Olivia, for those of you who may not know, is an adorable, spunky precocious pig, who is a little worried about visiting Venice, after all it's full of water and who knows what the food is like. Her mom reassures her that she won't need a snorkel and that there's pizza and ice cream everywhere. And they do get to eat lots and lots of gelato while touring the city. They walk across the bridges and take a gondola ride. Olivia even feeds the pigeons in San Marco's tower. But finding just the right souvenir is a little difficult and destructive. I enjoyed the tour of Venice with this delightful family, but I found Olivia in turns amusing and annoying. She's a little  naughty, which leads to the funny moment toward the ends, without having...
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Reading Shakespeare: Sonnet 130

by Carol8 Comments
Sonnet CXXX by William Shakespeare My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red, than her lips red: If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound: I grant I never saw a goddess go, My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground: And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare, As any she belied with false compare. Ah, I like this one. The speaker manages to make fun of traditional comparisons by stating that no, in fact, his beloved's eyes are not like the sun, her skin is as white as snow, her hair is black, her lips are not as red as coral....
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Reading Shakespeare: The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

by Carol3 Comments
I have mixed reactions when it comes to The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare. The story is a framed as a play put on for the amusement of a drunkard that has been convinced he is a nobleman. In the play, Baptisat Minola has two daughters, the older is Katherina, a shrew whose temper is notorious and it is assumed no one would want to marry her. The younger daughter, Bianca, is beautiful and gentle and has several suitors, but Baptista insists that the older daughter be married first.  Petruchio arrives in Padua and is recruited by one of Bianca's admirers to woo and marry Katherina, holding up Kate's money as a legimate reason to marry her. Petruchio courts Kate with reverse psychology, pretending that every harsh thing she says or does is kind and gentle, while he himself is just mean and nasty to everyone but her. Kate and Petruchio are married in a ridiculous ceremony where he dresses like a clown, hits the priest,...
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Review: Singing in the Shrouds by Ngaio Marsh

by Carol7 Comments
In Singing in the Shrouds, Ngaoi Marsh gives us another mystery with a group of individuals, the killer and potential victims, trapped together., in this case on a boat. When the police found a corpse on a wharf in the Pool of London, her body covered with flower petals and pearls, they know she is the latest victim of the Flower Murder. Once again, the killer walked away, singing. Within the hour he was safe at sea, aboard the Carpe Farewll, a cargo ship bound for South Africa, one of nine passengers. Inspector Roderick Alleyn joins the voyage undercover, to both discover the murderer's identity and protect the women on board. The passengers include a TV talk show star, a middle-aged femme fatale, a crotchety, retired schoolmaster, and a sad spinster. There's also a young couple who get to fall in love and a priest who I was unsure of through the whole story. The characters are rather two-dimensional, but I enjoy Marsh's...
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Reading Shakespeare: Shakespeare by Bill Bryson

by Carol9 Comments
It is because we have so much of Shakespeare's work that we can appreciate how little we know of him as a person. If we had only his comedies, we would think him a frothy soul. If we had just the sonnets, he would be a man of darkest passions. From a selection of his other works, we might think him variously courtly, cerebral, metaphysical, melancholic, Machiavellian, neurotic, lighthearted, loving, and much more. Shakespeare was of course all these things—as a writer. We hardly know what he was as a person. (19) I've read several of Shakespeare's plays this month, so I though it was about time I read a biography of the man himself. Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson is a slim book, which makes sense, since, as Bryson explains, we actually know very little about Shakespeare the man. Bryson does a good job at giving us the facts that we do know about Shakespeare's life, and...
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