Purchased – Page 38 – Carol's Notebook

Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker

March 4, 2020March 4, 2020 by Carol2 Comments

Bruno is the only municipal policeman in the small town of St. Denis, France. He's a good guy, he is not a brooding policeman, he is not corrupt, he is not plagued by guilt, he does not go renegade. He's a good guy. He teaches tennis to local kids, he organizes parades, he makes sure the "hygiene" police don't catch locals selling cheese that doesn't meet the standards. He also cooks and has a wonderful vegetable garden. In general, the people of the town get along, with a couple of minor exceptions. And then the murder occurs. An Algerian grandfather is found brutally murdered in his cabin, a swastika carved into his chest and his medal of honor and a treasured photo missing. Members of the right-wing National Front, a political party that opposes immigration, immediately rise to the top of the suspect list. Given the background between France and Algeria, along with some anti-immigration sentiment, the investigation is...

Mailbox Monday – 2/17

February 17, 2020June 27, 2022 by Carol9 Comments

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. Tell us about your new arrivals by adding your Mailbox Monday post to the linky at mailboxmonday.wordpress.com. I used my Barnes and Noble gift card to get two books (and a coffee and cookie). ...

Sweet Danger by Margery Allingham

February 5, 2020February 5, 2020 by Carol2 Comments

I'm a fan of Albert Campion. I like how he pretends to be a little dull and inoffensive, but is really pretty brilliant, daring and rather charming. The bad guy in Sweet Danger knows him pretty well too. Savanke went on impassively. "I know your success, your association with Scotland Yard. Let me see, you are unmarried, unattached." "Fancy-free," remarked Mr. Campion mildly, "is the term I've always liked.""You are thirty-two years old," the voice went on inexorably. "You are reputed to be comfortably, but not lavishly provided for. You are reckless, astute, and quite extaordinarily courageous.""I take number nine in shoes," said the young man with the toothache with sudden irritation. "I always wash behind my ears, and in my mother's opinion I have a very beautiful tenor voice. Suppose I decide not to play revolutions with you?""I don't think you would be so stupid." Oil has been found in Averna, which is on the Adriatic Sea. Big Oil in the...

Becoming by Michelle Obama

January 31, 2020January 31, 2020 by Carol6 Comments

In Becoming, Michelle Obama tells her story. She talks about growing up poor in Southside Chicago. She talks about the love of her family, the value they placed on hard work and education. She discusses her career, the right path she started on and the twists and turns it took. She talks about meeting Barack, their early marriage, and how they function as a couple. Of course, she eventually gets around to the presidential campaign and their time in the White House, but she (mostly) stays with her point of view, her difficulties, and her initiatives. She also touches on her difficulties with putting her career on hold to support her husband's career and how unfair things could feel. She talks about the difficulties of raising two girls, the tightrope of keeping them safe but allowing them to have "normal" childhoods and teen years, of appreciating the luxuries they have but still being grounded in "regular" life. Michelle Obama is...

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

January 27, 2020January 27, 2020 by Carol6 Comments

Orlando is a beautiful novel. The writing is smooth and descriptive. Orlando, man or woman, is charming and intelligent and introspective. He/she cares about literature and nature, love and (sometimes) people. It's rather plotless. Time passes, fashions change, but not much really happens. And the things that do, like Orlando becoming a woman rather than a man or living 300+ years, are treated as no bigger, no life-changing than day to day events. Orlando handles everything with grace and honesty. at heart, she is the same person he had always been. Reading Orlando in 2020 is not the same as reading when it was first published. When Orlando becomes a woman, she cannot inherit her own home. She can't be an Ambassador again. She feels she needs to be more aware of others see her. We forget that at the time women were just gaining the vote when this was published, and Woolf uses her book to show the...

The Black Cat Murders by Karen Baugh Menuhin

January 22, 2020January 22, 2020 by CarolNo Comments

I'm becoming rather fond of this series. This time around, Lenox visits another country house, this time the home of a childhood friend for her wedding celebration. There are several activities leading up to the wedding including a couple of operas performed in the theater on-site. (Yeah, several of the guests find this a bit odd, too.) During one of these performances, a man is killed when a trapdoor gives way under him. It's considered an accident at the time, but the doctor thinks it's fishy and asks Lenox to do a bit of investigating while he's there. Lenox is in the difficult position of helping Scotland Yard's investigating, pursuing his own leads, and not disrupting the wedding party. I liked how everything wound together, the paintings, the various characters, the swords. I felt all the clues fell together well, although I'm not sure I actually liked who the culprit turned out to be. It made sense, but only up...