Review: “Ceiling” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

by Carol8 Comments
I'm developing a true appreciation of short stories. I've only started reading them regularly in the last year or so. I don't feel as connected to the characters of as invested in them as I do with a novel, but each phrase, each action because so much more important in a short piece. I jumped at the chance to review The Best American Short Stories 2011. "Ceiling" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the first selection in the anthology. Obinze is the main character in "Ceiling." He's a married man living in Lagos, Nigeria. He's one of those guys that has it all, beautiful wife and child, nice house, money, fancy car, but he's just not content. He was tired. It was not a physical fatigue—he used his treadmill regularly and felt better than he had in years—but a draining lassitude that numbed the margins of his mind. His feelings are brought home to him by an e-mail from his college sweetheart, the one who...
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Monday morning

by Carol12 Comments
It was actually a little cooler around here this past week, pleasant, and even some rain. It was kind of nice to be back on my regular schedule for a week. I did receive a few books over the last couple of weeks. Mailbox Monday is taking a blog tour. This month’s host is Staci at Life in the Thumb. If Jack's in Love by Stephen Wetta (from Putnam) Hidden in Paris by Corine Gantz (a win from My Love Affair with Books. Thanks Misha!) Between the Thames and the Tiber by Ted Riccardi (from Open Road Media via NetGalley) Three Sisters by Helen Smith (a win from Her Book Self. Thanks Lisa!) I'm looking forward to reading them. I know I always say that, but I always mean it. Something about every book I receives attracts me, whether I end up actually liking the book or not. It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. Here's what I wrote about last...
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Review: The Curse of Scattershale Gulch by Camille LaGuire

by Carol5 Comments
I've said it before: Mick and Casey are my favorite fictional couple I've met this year. They're a young married couple in the Old West, gunslingers who tend to caught up in mysteries that need solving. Mick and Casey are riding with the stage coach just for the day. I was lucky. I had a partner - my wife Casey - working with me and watching my back. She was females, and what some might term "just a slip of a girl," bu I wouldn't dare call her that. She was a sharpshooter and otherwise mean as a wet cat. Couldn't think of anybody I'd rather have watching my back and I sure enjoyed watching hers. Turns out though that the regular messenger is dead. Mick doesn't take the gob of going on with the stagecoach, but he and Casey hear about the curse of Scattershale Gulch in the saloon. There's a stretch of road where people have a tendency to have accidents...
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Review: The Hanging Wood by Martin Edwards

by Carol6 Comments
The Hanging Wood is a good detective story, but wasn't outstanding for me. It's the 5th in the Lake District Mystery series and maybe I missed out by not having read any of the previous. Hannah Scarlett is the head of Cumbria's Cold Case Review Team. The case this time is that of a teenage boy who disappeared 20 years ago. His uncle was suspected of killing the boy and he hung himself, which everyone at the time assumed meant he was guilty. The case was brought up again by the boy's sister, Orla Payne, who makes a drunken call to the Cold Case team and soon after is found dead in a grain silo. Hannah takes up the investigation, revealing secrets about the local rich family. She's aided by Greg, a member of her team, and Daniel Kind a historian who I believe is also one of the recurring characters in the series. The book started slowly for me; it took...
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“A New Dawn”

by Carol9 Comments
"A New Dawn" 373 words "Come," she whispered in my ear. I hadn't heard her approach, the sound of her steps masked by the noise of the marketplace, crowded even in the evening. She breezed past me, her black robes brushing my arm, smooth, silky, cool. She pulled back the flap of a tent at the end of a row. I followed her in, hit by the fragrance of cassia, and something else underlying it, something musky that I couldn't place. The woman turned to me, the candles' light reflecting in her eyes, the flickering flames leaving the corners of the tent in shadow. She picked up a bottle that shimmered with greens and purples and held it toward me. "One hundred sheckles, and you'll forget it all." Expensive, but I was here for that freedom. I had searched out this beautiful, dangerous woman knowing she was the only one who made the potion, or at least the only one who worked for herself...
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Guest Post: Debra Brenegan, author of Shame the Devil

by Carol4 Comments
I'd like to welcome Debra Brenegan, author of Shame the Devil, to my notebook today. Learn about history by reading historical fiction By Debra Brenegan By profession, besides being a writer, I am a teacher. Frankly, one of the reasons I chose to write my historical novel Shame the Devil was because I wanted to teach people about Fanny Fern, a trailblazing nineteenth-century journalist, novelist and feminist who has been largely forgotten.  I did enough research to write a biography about her, but I wanted to convey all of the wondrous information I discovered about Fern to as many people as possible. What better vehicle than a historical novel, right? But, does reading historical fiction really count as learning history? According to a survey by the Center for Survey Research and Analysis at the University of Connecticut, professors believe 81 percent of college seniors are at a D or F grade level when it comes to American history. Teachers lament these statistics and search...
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