Carol's Notebook

Odd, sad and beautiful, The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum by Kate Bernheimer is not a book I would recommend reading, but the illustrations are gorgeous. The story is about a tiny girl who lives in a miniature castle inside the museum. During the day children come to the museum and stare in at the castle hoping to see the girl, but when they leave she is lonely. The castle is a wonderful place, but she dreams of the people who could visit her. Finally, she decides that the reader should place of picture of themselves in her castle in the museum in the book and then she would never be lonely. I know it's a picture book, but it disturbs me a little. The girl is stuck in the castle and can never play with anyone else or talk to anyone else, she can only dream about other children. The writing is disjointed, it doesn't flow well from one...

I am feeling kind of miserable this evening, so this review is going to be short and to the point. I just have a cold, but I'm tired and stuffed up and all I want to do is lay down and go to sleep. Happily the timekeepers must realize how much I need a little extra sleep, since tonight is the night we turn back our clocks, and an extra hour of NyQuil-aided sleep will be a good thing. The bad thing is that life doesn't stop when I'm not feeling well and right now my daughter is practicing her trumpet. I'm glad she is and that she enjoys playing it, but it's not exactly gentle and sleep inducing, especially since she's only been playing for 5 weeks. Hard to sleep through. I'm a bit of a fairy tale junkie and it might be an interest I'm passing on to my daughter, Amber (11). The Sister Grimm is a series we...

A rich setting and well-developed characters make A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny a good mystery. The beautiful language and thoughtfulness of the narrative make it stand out. “What happened here last night isn’t allowed,” said Madame Dubois. It was such an extraordinary thing to say it stopped the ravenous Inspector Beauvoir from taking another bite of his roast beef on baguette. “You have a rule against murder?” he asked. “I do.  When my husband and I bought the Bellechasse we made a pact....Everything that stepped foot on this land would be safe.” This fourth in the series steps away from the town of Three Pines. Happily, in my opinion, because really the village needs a break from murders occasionally. Inspector Gamache and his wife are celebrating their anniversary at Manoir Bellechasse, a luxurious inn isolated on the shore of Lac Massawippi. The other rooms are occupied by the Finney family, as unpleasant as they are wealthy. The Gamaches are surprised when Peter and Clara arrive for the Finney reunion...