Carol's Notebook – Page 152

Sunday Salon – 3/15

March 15, 2020March 15, 2020 by Carol13 Comments

Thanks to Deb at Readerbuzz for hosting The Sunday Salon. Stop over there or at the Facebook Group to participate. It's amazing how much has changed around here due to the coronavirus in the past week. I hope everyone is staying calm and healthy. Amber's home. Oberlin pushed Spring Break up and then they'll be doing remote learning for the remainder of the semester. We're setting up a corner of the finished basement as her art area and ordered a six foot tall easel, like the ones she uses at school. As of 9:00 this evening, all the restaurants and bars in the state will be closed for dining, they can only do carryout and delivery. We've all seen the flattened curve by this point, let's hope this social distancing works. It might be a long few weeks though. Week’s Highlight: David and I went to see The Chieftains with the Pittsburgh Symphony Monday, before everything was getting cancelled. It was an excellent show. Reading: Next weekend is the #24in48...

Flowers for the Judge by Margery Allingham

March 12, 2020March 12, 2020 by Carol2 Comments

On a beautiful morning in 1911, Tom Barnabas, a director of the publishing firm Barnabas and Company, left his London house and walked down the street. Somewhere along that street, before he reached the tobacconist’s shop on the corner, he disappeared. His disappearance was never explained – or solved. Twenty years later, another director of the firm disappears. His family turns to Albert Campion for help, but before he can get far on the case the man turns up dead. A great deal of circumstantial evidence points at the victim’s cousin, a young man who is clearly in love with the victim’s widow. The cousin, Mike Wedgwood, is arrested, and the police are quite satisfied. Flowers for the Judge is a true mystery. Mr. Campion here is clever and follows the clues. He allows his intelligence to show throughout. He believes Mike is innocent, as do other members of the family, including Gina, the victim’s widow. And so Mr. Campion...

A Shot in the Dark by Neil Richards and Matthew Costello

March 11, 2020April 16, 2020 by Carol2 Comments

I've listened to several of the Cherringham series by this Richards and Costello, so when I stumbled across A Shot in the Dark, the first in their Mydworth series, I went ahead and picked it up. I enjoy a light mystery novella, and this fit the bill. Lord Harry Mortimer and his new wife, Kat have just arrived in England, when Harry is called to Whitehall on urgent business. So Kat decides to drive herself to their new home, but when she arrives, it's all locked up. She walks across the fields to "nearby" Mydworth Manor where Harry's aunt, Lady Lavinia, lives. As she arrives she hears gunshots, a man falls from a window and more shots are fired in her direction. Not quite what she was expecting. Harry arrives and they search the body and find jewelry in his pockets. The man was Lady Lavinia's driver, who was apparently shot while attempting to rob one of her guests. She asks Harry,...

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

March 10, 2020March 10, 2020 by Carol10 Comments

Generally, I don't read emotionally heavy books, and I don't know if I would have picked up The Radium Girls if I had known that it would have me in tears on almost every page. That being said, it was an excellent book, one I would definitely recommend. At the beginning of the 20th century, dozens of healthy, young, working-class women (some as young as 14) were employed in a newly-born business: painting watch, clock, and other instrument dials with a luminescent paint containing radium, both for consumers and the military. At the time, this fluorescent wonder was believed so beneficial for the body, that medications, aesthetic treatments, and even toiletry items had started to employ it. Everyone who came in contact with this miracle of science was amazed by its property to make everything it touched glow, even the skin, teeth and clothes of the girls who worked with it. Painting with radium was a highly desired job, as it offered...

Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

March 9, 2020March 6, 2020 by Carol4 Comments

I've read three of Verne's books now, the three biggies, Around the World in 80 Days, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and I just finished Journey to the Center of the Earth. As far as I can tell, here's what they all have in common, aside from the "journey" plot. Each has a lot of really boring parts interspersed with some thrilling, brief adventures. And I'm not sure the exciting parts outweigh the mind-numbing bits. A geologist finds a hidden scrap of paper, deciphers what it says with the help of his nephew, and decides to follow what it says and make the journey to the center of the earth. They don't actually get there by the way. The geologist takes his nephew with him and they find a guide in Iceland. What they do discover is a vast subterranean cavern. This underground world is lit by electrically charged gas at the ceiling and is filled with a very deep subterranean...

Sunday Salon – 3/8

March 8, 2020March 8, 2020 by Carol2 Comments

Thanks to Deb at Readerbuzz for hosting The Sunday Salon. Stop over there or at the Facebook Group to participate. Week’s Highlight: David and I went to the hockey game on Tuesday and they actually won. They haven't been winning a lot of games lately. And I had a really yummy milkshake while we were there. https://www.instagram.com/p/B9SyjI6l0u0/ Reading: I've been reading The Radium Girls by Kate Moore. What happened to those poor women is just horrible. The book has me in tears like every other page. It's a well-written, compelling book, but man, it's killing me. Last week’s post: Death of a Ghost by Margery AllinghamDoctored Evidence by Donna LeonBruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker Watching: We finally watched Ready or Not earlier today. I really enjoyed it, and it was just what I expected. On tv, we've been watching Survivor and an occasional episode of Father Brown. Playing: We played Lords of Waterdeep on Friday. Such a good game! You take on the role of one of the masked Lords of Waterdeep, secret rulers...