Carol's Notebook – Page 412

Thursday’s Tale: The Boy and the Dancing Fairy

June 13, 2013 by Carol4 Comments

There aren't many actual fairies in traditional fairy tales, so I though I'd feature one today. "The Boy and the Dancing Fairy" is from Canadian Wonder Tales by Cyrus MacMillan, published in 1918. Two Indian boys lived in the forest with their parents. The boy of the title was of course the younger brother. His older brother was bigger, stronger and meaner. He beat up his younger brother regularly and made him do all the difficult chores, so the younger brother decided to run away. He left with a bow and arrows and an extra pair of moccasins and, in true fairy tale fashion, headed out to make his own way in the world. The boy could run very fast and by the time night arrived he was far from home, lonely, and afraid of all the sounds. He met an old man who gave him a box that would be useful on his travels and would help him in times of...

Audiobook Review: The Baker Street Letters by Michael Robertson

June 12, 2013 by Carol4 Comments

Title: The Baker Street Letters (Baker Street Letters #1) Author: Michael Robertson Reader: Simon Vance Category: Mystery Audio published: May 29, 2009 by Blackstone Audio Rating: 3 out of 5 stars Add: Goodreads Purchase: Amazon | IndieBound | Book Depository In Los Angeles, a geological surveyor maps out a proposed subway route--and then goes missing. His eight-year-old daughter, in her desperation, turns to the one person she thinks might help--she writes a letter to Sherlock Holmes. That letter creates an uproar at 221b Baker Street, which now houses the law offices of attorney and man about town Reggie Heath and his hapless brother, Nigel. Instead of filing the letter like he’s supposed to, Nigel decides to investigate. Soon he’s flying off to Los Angeles, inconsiderately leaving a very dead body on the floor in his office. Big brother Reggie follows Nigel to California, as does Reggie’s sometime lover, Laura---a quick-witted stage actress who’s captured the hearts of both brothers. When Nigel is arrested, Reggie must use all his wits to solve a case that Sherlock...

First Chapter, First Paragraph

June 11, 2013June 12, 2013 by Carol10 Comments

I'm starting Missing Barbados by Willem Pain sometime today, so I'd thought I'd share the first bit of Chapter 1. Susan Berg passed by the ninth floor like bird poop falling out of the crystal blue Miami sky. At 32 feet per second, most would think that the building would be moving by very quickly. Funny how the mind works in an unusual circumstance like this, she thought. It all actually slows down, almost to a snail's crawl, perhaps because your body and mind have entered some sort of shock. Robert Merchant looked the same way as he seemed to float on a downward descent next to Susan, his eyes as big as saucers, his moth agape like a dry-bed guppy gasping for air. How was she to know he wasn't Luther Stein, the weasel bastard whom she was sure had broken into her eleventh floor condo to steal the evidence she had on him? So, what do you think? Keep reading or...

Matinee at the Playhouse: Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring

June 10, 2013 by Carol9 Comments

I occasionally read a classic novel, but not plays so often. Besides, plays are so much better seen at the theater than read or even watched on tv. Yesterday, my mom, David, Amber and I saw Arsenic and Old Lace at the Brooke Hills Playhouse, the local community theater. It was funny, in a dark kind of way and the actors did a good job, as they always do. The play revolves around Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic who must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn, NY, as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves. His family includes two spinster aunts who murder lonely old men, lonely because they don't have any family to miss them, by poisoning them with a glass of home-made elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine, and "just a pinch" of cyanide; a brother who believes he is Theodore Roosevelt and digs locks for the Panama...

Audiobook Review: The Song Dog by James McClure

June 7, 2013July 1, 2013 by Carol5 Comments

Title: The Song Dog (Kramer and Zondi #8) Author: James McClure Reader: Steven Crossley Category: Mystery- Police Procedural Audio published: April 23, 2013 by AudioGo (First published 1993) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Add: Goodreads Purchase: Amazon | IndieBound | Book Depository The year is 1962. Young Lieutenant Tromp Kramer of the Trekkersburg Murder and Robbery Squad has been ordered up to Jafini, a small, dusty town in northern Zululand, to investigate the "hero's death" of the town's chief detective, Maaties Kritzinger––another Afrikaner maverick, and one with many secrets. Kramer finds himself increasingly identifying with the victim as the investigation proceeds. And then his path crosses that of Bantu Detective Sergeant Mickey Zondi, who is trying to locate a multiple killer whose summary execution will quiet the spirits of his ancestors. Despite the racial differences, the two men sense a kinship...one that might prove dangerous in rural South Africa in the year of Nelson Mandela's imprisonment. The Song Dog by James McClure is as much about the South Africa in the early...

Thursday’s Tale: Faithful Johannes

June 6, 2013 by Carol2 Comments

Image by tinkerbelky at DeviantArt. I know I often feature fairy tales from Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, but they are, in general, the most well-known and some are just so odd, like today's, "Faithful Johannes." You can read the whole story here. A king on his deathbed orders his servant, Faithful Johannes, to take care of his son, to teach him everything, but to never let him see into a certain room, which holds a portrait of a princess. After the father's death, the new young king of course forces his Johannes into letting him into the room and he falls madly in love with the princess of the golden palace after laying eyes on the portrait. Johannes agreed to help the king win the princess' hand. The young king and his faithful servant Johannes travel to the golden kingdom, trick the princess into coming onto their boat and then set sail when she is below deck. Initially she is terrified, but when her kidnapper reveals he is a...