2010 March » Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

Review: The Sleepers of Erin by Jonathan Gash

Posted by Anastasia on March 15, 2010 No Responses »

Mar 152010

51. The Sleepers of Erin by Jonathan Gash
Publication: E. P. Dutton, Inc. (April 22, 1983), Hardback, 214pp / ISBN 0525241639
Genre: Mystery
Rating:
Read: February 27-28, 2010
Source: BookMooch
Summary from Amazon:

Everybody wants it, and some will kill to possess it. Lovejoy is on the loose once again as he embarks on a madcap search for a priceless Celtic antique. Half a step behind, however, are a couple of mayhem-minded antiques dealers, a woman of extraordinary beauty and intelligence, the police, and a motley crew of “interested parties”. Assault, false arrest, kidnapping, blackmail, and murder all add up to the high cost of finding and keeping an antique that only Lovejoy can identify. With time out for a romantic interlude, Lovejoy nobly fights to hold on to the treasure — and to his life.

Review

I was already pretty familiar with the Lovejoy mysteries through the TV show, since I’ve seen about…four seasons? And it’s pretty much awesome antiques-related mysteries where everybody is ugly (except the wonderful Phyllis Logan!) and Ian McShane has even more ridiculous hair than he does today. It’s funny and weird and a great show, overall.

The Sleepers of Erin is much like the TV show. It’s number seven in the series, but I don’t think it’s necessary to read the earlier ones, really. Or maybe I just think that because I’ve seen the show and I already know the basics? Whatever, it’s a good book and I really enjoyed reading it.

I liked how the mystery was interwoven with antiques lessons from Lovejoy. I liked the characters, even when they were gross (Lovejoy’s slightly misogynistic). It was slightly violent but very exciting, and the ending was perfect. If you haven’t seen the show this would be a good book to start out on, and if you have seen the show this is probably closest to what you’re used to, so it’s good to read.

I will warn you, though, if you’re used to the show: Tinker in the books is not the same as the Tinker on TV. TV Tinker is a dapper drunk man with witty things to say. Book Tinker is a disgusting near-homeless man who smells like a dumpster and isn’t nearly as funny. The difference was quite a shock!

The TV cast

And

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Other reviews: Have you reviewed this book? Let me know and I’ll link to it from mine!

TSS (March 14): Spring break madness

Posted by Anastasia on March 14, 2010 No Responses »

Mar 142010

Spring break for my college started on Friday, and though I have to work this week and work on a presentation/paper for the next, I’m basically free! For days and days and days! Which means I can read a lot, yaaaaaaay~

Because I don’t have to drag all my textbooks and whatnot out with me I have room to carry around a heavy hardback if I so wish it. Normally I leave my hardbacks at home and only take out the lighter paperbacks, which in theory is nice for my back but in practice means I read very little hardbacks and they are taking up A LOT of room on my shelves. So, anyway, here’s what I was thinking of reading this week:

The Napoleon of Crime by Ben Macintyre, which is a true crime/biography about Adam Worth (so NOT Macavity, actually). It’s been on my TBR pile for a while, and it’d be nice to get it off there.

Spirit Gate by Kate Elliott, which is a fantasy with dragons and some other stuff that looks interesting.

The four books books I got from my book blogger secret Santa last year, which are all YA and also all hardbacks.

Runemarks by Joanne Harris, which is YA fantasy with Norse mythology stuff in it. It’s actually a paperback, but a really freakin’ heavy one, so I’m counting it as a hardback.

Can I finish all these books? Dunno. Besides being heavy they’re also pretty long, so I might actually only finish one or two of them. But at least I have a goal!

Books read this week:
58. The Kid Who Was Zapped Through Time – Deborah Scott [rating: 3/5] *? / %
59. The Circus Lunicus – Marilyn Singer [rating: 3.5/5] %
60. Dragonfly – Frederic S. Durbin [rating: 3.5/5] %
61. Calling on Dragons (Enchanted Forest #3) – Patricia C. Wrede (audiobook) [rating: 4/5]
62. To the Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf [rating: 5/5] %
63. Soulless – Gail Carriger [rating: 4/5]
64. The Secret of the Mansion (Trixie Belden #1) – Julie Campbell [rating: 3.5/5] %

Books reviewed this week:
23. The Third Magic – Welwyn Wilton Katz [rating: 3.5/5] %
40. Scales of Justice – Ngaio Marsh [rating: 3.5/5] %
41. Dissolution – C.J. Sansom [rating: 4/5] %
52. Vagabonding – Rolf Potts [rating: 4.5/5]

Mount TBR Stats
6 books conquered
6 books conquered total
10 additions (2 from publishers, 3 from BookMooch, 5 Virginia Woolf books I discovered were missing from my LibraryThing account so my records were wrong from the beginning, crap.)
0 subtractions
344 books remaining

Not a great start to the expedition, ahaha. Ha. I may have to prune some more to make up for it!

Birdbrain(ed) Boxes sold: 0 (lol)

Currently reading:
Trixie Belden #2: The Red Trailer Mystery. After finishing TB #1 yesterday, I really wanted to know what happened to Jim, the runaway boy Trixie and Honey helped out. Luckily I had this ready for reading immediately. (I also have #3, yay!)

Library Loot (March 7-13)

Posted by Anastasia on March 13, 2010 3 Responses »

Mar 132010

Library Loot meme Library Loot is a weekly meme hosted by Eva and Marg that encourage bloggers to talk about what books they’ve gotten from their library during the week. Anyone can participate any time during the week, so feel free to write up your own post and link it using Eva’s (or Marg’s) Mr Linky!

After getting off to a decent start on my Mount TBR expedition, I’ve fallen a little bit to the wayside. It’s the library books! They’re too tempting, and though I haven’t actually started reading any of the ones I’ve gotten this week, I can hear their siren song. I suppose it helps a little that I brought back most of the ones I’ve had since January? So I’m starting with a clean slate, kind of?

Anyway, here’s what I got this week (and partly from last week. Click on the book cover to go to the Amazon page for it.

Black Jack by Leon Garfield. Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey. Work Your Way Around the World by Susan Griffith.

The Calder Game by Blue Balliett. Lyonesse: Well Between the Worlds by Sam Llewellyn. My Autobiography by Charlie Chaplin.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart.

Autobiography by A.A. Milne (no cover). Trailing the Giant Panda by Theodore Roosevelt and Kermit Roosevelt (no cover).

I’m actually most excited about the non-fiction books, because while I have an impressive collection of fantasy and sci-fi on my TBR mountain, I have very little non-fiction. It’s nice to have a variety! Although now I’m not sure when I’ll actually get to read them. One of them’s due back March 25th, so I suppose that’ll be first…

Review: Scales of Justice by Ngaio Marsh

Posted by Anastasia on March 13, 2010 No Responses »

Mar 132010

40. Scales of Justice by Ngaio Marsh
Publication: Jove (1980) originally published 1955, Paperback, 256pp / ISBN 0515054364
Genre: Mystery
Rating:
Read: February 24-25, 2010
Source: Bought
Summary from Amazon:

Swevenings village is pretty as a picture, but its secrets are ugly; and its gentry dread the publication of Sir Harold Lacklander’s memoirs. When one of them is murdered, Inspector Roderick Alleyn’s investigation takes him through petty vendettas, an ex-commander’s blend of whiskey and archery, and cocktails on the lawn with a femme fatale. But the motive he’s angling for lies even deeper than the trout stream beneath the rustic bridge…

Review

This is the second book I’ve read by Ngaio Marsh and though I can’t say she’s better than Christie, I do enjoy Marsh’s books. I really like Inspector Alleyn, and this book in particular was interesting because it gave a little look into the politics of a mid-1950′s English country village. It’s just about as twisted as you’d think, especially when everybody’s lives are tied up into one big ball of murder and betrayal.

I liked the mystery in this, for sure, but I was disappointed that Alleyn didn’t show up until nearly the whole way through. I didn’t particularly care about the inhabitants of Swevenings, and spending so much time reading about their weird habits and abrasive personalities was actually really boring. Plus, some of the dialogue was horrendously upper middle class, everyone-has-a-face-like-a-horse cliched. It was a good thing Alleyn eventually came in when he did, because I was really worried I’d end up not liking Scales of Justice.

I did like it, kind of. The mystery, Alleyn, and Fox almost completely made up for the rest of it, but I wish I had liked it more. I’m not sure if I just don’t like Marsh’s writing or if I’m just too used to Christie, who sometimes goes into the horse-faced dialogue herself but always makes it funny rather than grating. (Maybe I just don’t get Marsh’s humor?) I have at least one more Marsh book besides this one to read, so I guess we’ll find out!

And

Find your own copy @ Amazon or IndieBound

Other reviews: Community of Readers Book Reviews

That cover isn’t actually the one on my book, but I can’t find it online and I can’t be bothered to scan it even if it DOES both horrify and contain spoilers. It’s pretty bad.

Review: Dissolution by C.J. Sansom

Posted by Anastasia on March 12, 2010 No Responses »

Mar 122010

41. Dissolution by C.J. Sansom
Publication: Penguin (Non-Classics) (April 27, 2004), Paperback, 400pp / ISBN 9780142004302
Genre: Mystery, Historical Fiction
Rating:
Read: February 26-27, 2010
Source: Bought
Summary from Amazon:

The year is 1537, and the country is divided between those faithful to the Catholic Church and those loyal to the king and the newly established Church of England. When a royal commissioner is brutally murdered in a monastery on the south coast of England, Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s feared vicar general, summons fellow reformer Matthew Shardlake to lead the inquiry. Shardlake and his young protégé uncover evidence of sexual misconduct, embezzlement, and treason, and when two other murders are revealed, they must move quickly to prevent the killer from striking again.

Review

First off, I’m not overly familiar with the Tudor era, just the basic stuff when it relates to Queen Elizabeth (who I quite like). And secondly, I know practically nothing about the Reformation, just that Cromwell had something to do with it. So reading Dissolution was a real eye-opener as well as a good mystery!

The mystery actually doesn’t seem as important as the history bits. It’s an excellent historical fiction book– I could really get a sense of what that time period was like for anyone living in it, both rich and poor. By the end of it I knew a lot about the Reformation and I feel much more intelligent for that. I mean, it was a horrible time in history, but everything was horrible back then. I’m just glad I live in this time period, you know?

Anyway, the history stuff was good, and the mystery was pretty good, too. Shardlake was an interesting character– I don’t think I’ve read a book starring a hunchbacked lawyer detective before– with some depth and layers and etc. He only really has the beginnings of a personality, though, and if I wasn’t so absorbed in the historical particulars I think I’d have been really bored. (I heard he gets better in the subsequent books.)

The other characters are fine, though I don’t think their depths were plumbed enough. I think also sometimes Shardlake was being willfully blind to some things, and so he kept going in the wrong direction. He didn’t really figure out the solution until it was nearly over, and that doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in his detecting skills. The ending really annoyed me, too, because, and this is kind of a spoiler, the killer gets away. Bah! I hate when that happens in a mystery! I want retribution! Or at least justice.

The killer getting away does sort of fit in with the overall crappiness of the time period, however, so I suppose it’s alright in that regard. But I don’t have to like it!

So basically: I liked the book, Cromwell was scary, the Reformation was scary, lots of people die but it fits in with the time period, and the detective was unusual but somewhat boring. If you’re a history nut I think you’d like Dissolution a lot, but if you’re a mystery nut you may be slightly disappointed. But it was excellently written, very exciting, and if the characters had some personality problems that can be forgiven in light of the well-researched history stuff.

And

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Other reviews: The Mystery Reader | Captain Ahab’s Watery Tales

Thursday Tea (March 11): Pere Goriot

Posted by Anastasia on March 11, 2010 No Responses »

Mar 112010

Thursday Tea is a weekly meme hosted by yours truly. To play along, all you need is some tea, a book, and the answers to these questions: what tea are you drinking (and do you like it)? What book are you reading (and do you like it)? Tell us a little about your tea and your book, and whether or not the two go together.

The book: I’ve been slacking slightly on the books I have to read for class, so with that in mind I’ve been trying to catch up this week. Right now I’m reading Pere Goriot by Balzac for my Paris class, and it’s actually pretty good! I almost never expect to like a book written before 1920, but I’m 13 pages into this one and enjoying it.

I think partly the translation helps because it sounds more modern than I think it would have otherwise. Also my copy has a map and explanatory notes, which helps me figure out where the book takes place precisely in Paris. Oh, if you’re not already familiar with the book– here’s a short summary:

This fine example of the French realist novel contrasts the social progress of an impoverished but ambitious aristocrat with the tale of a father, whose obsessive love for his daughters leads to his personal and financial ruin.

Told you it was short!

The tea: My faithful English breakfast tea is serving me well this morning, though I still wish I had brought something more interesting with me to work. Blood orange would have been MUCH better. I’ll remember for next week!

Do they go together? You know how English breakfast and Darjeeling are, like, the quintessential British teas? Does France have something similar? (This is a rather obvious ploy to distract you from the fact that the dreariness of my tea matches perfectly the dreariness of the boarding house I’m reading about. Dreariness isn’t as interesting as spice, I think.)

What are you drinking/reading this Thursday?

Review: Vagabonding by Rolf Potts

Posted by Anastasia on March 10, 2010 No Responses »

Mar 102010

52. Vagabonding by Rolf Potts
Publication: Villard Books; 1st edition (December 24, 2002), Paperback, 224pp / ISBN 0812992180
Genre: Non-Fiction, Travel
Rating:
Read: March 1-2, 2010
Source: Library
Summary from Amazon:

Vagabonding is about taking time off from your normal life—from six weeks to four months to two years—to discover and experience the world on your own terms. Veteran shoestring traveler Rolf Potts shows how anyone armed with an independent spirit can achieve the dream of extended overseas travel.

Review

I’m already pretty familiar with Rolf Potts through his travel blog, Vagablogging, which I’ve been following ever since I decided to travel around the world myself. I think he’s pretty much considered the authority on round the world travel, and so it was with that in mind that I decided to read his book.

Now, I had been researching round the world travel tips pretty solidly for almost a month when I started reading Vagabonding, and so I knew almost everything Mr Potts was talking about beforehand. Stuff about prepping for long-term travel, both mentally and financially. Stuff about how to get around the world, what to do when you get there, and how to do it without going bankrupt. Stuff about hostels and working abroad and, basically, everything you need to know. It’s good stuff, very informative stuff, but I kinda already knew it.

What I actually took away from Vagabonding was a renewed mental attitude towards what I’m planning to do. Going on a long-term travel trip is pretty strange here in the US, where you’re expected to go directly from high school to college to career, and where apparently everyone but me knows what they want to do for the 40-ish years of their working life. I don’t! Not really. And so I’m going to travel and maybe, hopefully, I’ll figure out who I am and what I can do.

When I try to explain this to other people, however, I’m confronted by confusion and near-anger. How could I do this to myself?! What about my future?! And so on.

I knew instinctively that travelling was something I had to do, but I was nevertheless plagued by doubts. Was I really doing the right thing? Vagabonding gave me the reassurance that, yes, I’m doing the right thing. Mr. Potts is writing from the perspective of a dude from the US, and so he knows the kinds of doubts and worries that travelers go through. He’s had them himself! But his enthusiasm for travel, especially long-term travel, shines throughout his book, and the reasons he gives for why long-term travel is good for you definitely outweigh the doubts. (If you want to know those reasons– read the book.)

Knowing that someone else went through what I was going through, that they had had the same problems, the same doubts and arguments with family members, but went ahead and did it anyway and came back better for it– that gave me so much encouragement. Yes, it is worth it to travel, and yes, it is worth me doing it.

So I’m kind of really fond of this book, even if it was slightly outdated already and even if I didn’t agree with Mr Potts about bringing technology with you when you travel. If you’re interested in long-term travel but haven’t yet done any research into it, Vagabonding is a must-have book. If you need reassurance like me that long-term travel is worth it (and that it isn’t as hard as some people would have you believe), Vagabonding is a must-have book.

And

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Other reviews: The Ren Men Book Review

If you just like travel narratives, you might still like Vagabonding since it does have some memoir stuff in it, but you might like Mr Potts’ other book more, since that’s all memoir. Probably. I haven’t actually read it yet.