Anastasia

Review: Suicide Excepted by Cyril Hare

Posted by Anastasia on December 8, 2010 7 Responses »

Dec 082010

220. Suicide Excepted by Cyril Hare Publication: HarperCollins (April 1991), originally published 1939, Paperback, 246pp / ISBN 0060806362
Genre: Mystery
Rating: Buy it
Read: November 19-21, 2010
Source: Freebie table at Bubonicon 2010
Summary from ~~Amazon~~ the back cover:

Disappointed with the accommodations, the meals, and the service at the country hotel of Pendlebury Old Hall, Inspector Mallett is looking forward to the end of his holiday. He must endure only one more trial: the hotel boor, whose family once owned the country house, sits down at Mallett’s table and unburdens himself. The next day the man is dead, an apparent suicide. The suspicious death interrupts Mallett’s rural reverie and inadvertently embroils him in family passions and murder.

Review

Picture of ME with my own personal copy, because apparently there aren’t any good pictures of it already online? Yay for laptops with cameras in them! (I have to buy a new digital camera before our trip to Disney World in January– my old one is completely dead now.)

I got my copy from the last Bubonicon; there was a bunch of free books and magazines and other swank on a table and I grabbed whatever I could stuff into my bag, including, obviously, Suicide Excepted! I didn’t even really pay attention to what it was really about– I sort of just skimmed the back, saw it was a mystery with a police detective, and shoved it into my bag before someone else grabbed it. I’m VERY bad with free things, although I will try to be better at BEA. I swear it! Continue reading »

Birdwatching: Governesses!

Posted by Anastasia on December 7, 2010 12 Responses »

Dec 072010

Reading Agnes Grey has got me thinking about governesses, especially about the governesses I’ve read about in other books. I’m pretty sure they all had easier charges than poor Agnes does (I’ve gotten to chapter five, and now I never want to be an au pair). I’m also pretty sure I’ve read only about good governesses– do you know of any books with mean ones?

Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers (1934).
The Incorrigible Children series by Maryrose Wood (2010-future years).
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh (1964).
The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones (1988).
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (1847).
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868).
The Nanny Diaries by Emma Mclaughlin & Nicola Kraus (2002).
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte (1850). (obviously)

Links are to Amazon. Thanks to Once Upon a Bookshelf for the list-y inspiration!

Classics Circuit Review: Mr Scarborough’s Family by Anthony Trollope

Posted by Anastasia on December 6, 2010 9 Responses »

Dec 062010

Not Mr Scarborough

228. Mr Scarborough’s Family by Anthony Trollope
Publication: originally published 1883, ebook published 2004
Genre: Fiction, Romance
Rating: Borrow it
Read: September 8-December 3, 2010
Source: Project Gutenberg
Summary from VictorianWeb:
“MR SCARBOROUGH, WEALTHY owner of Tretton Park in Staffordshire, is dying. His eldest son and heir Mountjoy has gambled away his inheritance to avaricious money-lenders who hold post-obits to the entire value of the estate. As the story opens, Mr Scarborough astonishes Society by declaring Mountjoy illegitimate. He claims that he only married his wife shortly before the birth of his second (remarkably unattractive) son Augustus, thus making him the real heir. Mountjoy’s creditors threaten vain law suits against the estate; and the odious Augustus assumes his place as heir.”

Today’s fellow Circuiters: Things Mean a Lot | 2,606 Books and counting……

Review

I’ve been wanting to do a Classics Circuit for a while, but nothing ever worked out until this one, the Anthony Trollope circuit. I’ll admit I’m not overly familiar with Anthony Trollope. I read Rebecca’s review of Can You Forgive Her? and thought he sounded like a boring old fart, but he’s written SO many books that I thought I’d give him a chance and try at least one of his books. I decided on trying one of his lesser-known books for the Circuit because a) I assumed everyone else would be reading some of his more famous books anyway and b) I have a soft spot for forgotten books (it’s why I like Girlebooks and Persephone Books so much) and wanted to try highlighting something somewhat unknown.

Anyway. Instead of a boring old fart, Trollope’s really a money-obsessed, repetitive, prejudiced and possibly bigoted old fart. Or at least that’s how he comes across based on the two books I’ve read– this one I’m reviewing here and Miss Mackenzie! And I honestly don’t know if I can work up the stamina to get through another. I mean there’s only so many times I can read about how much someone got a year and why that makes him better than the other fellow who only gets this much a year, and will he marry that lady who has a small inheritance but is hella shrewish or will he marry the nice but poor lady, etc etc. It’s tiring, especially because I really don’t give a crap how much someone has (or makes) a year, at least not to the extent that Trollope blathers on about it.

Mr Scarborough’s Family was actually the lesser of two evils, by which I mean I enjoyed it more although it was miles too long. So:

On the one hand, the characters are quite a lot of fun. The characters are, I think, the best part of Mr Scarborough’s Family. They’re why I kept reading it even when everything else was annoying me, because I wanted to see what would happen to Harry and Florence, and whether Augustus would get his comeuppance and whether Mountjoy would finally break his gambling habit.
Continue reading »

TSS (Dec. 5) & IMM (7)

Posted by Anastasia on December 5, 2010 15 Responses »

Dec 052010

The Sunday Salon (Dec. 5)

I finished my paper that’s due today, so now I get to blog (and read fun books)! Huzzah, huzzah.

This week will be exciting for a number of reasons. On Monday it’s my day to post my Classics Circuit review, which I spent, like, two hours writing (so I hope y’all like it). On Friday it’s my last day of class EVER! And then the next week is finals and, finally, graduation. Soon I’ll be done with my college life, and that’s sort of scary. Well, not sort of. It IS scary. After 17 years of doing one thing and one thing only, I don’t know what to expect in my post-college life. No tests? No papers? No teachers telling me what to do? Scary, and yet really liberating. I look forward to seeing how I’ll cope without having homework to do. (More blogging, maybe?)

I also think I’ve FINALLY, once and for all, decided on a plan of action for the next two years or so. I definitely know I want to move out of New Mexico, and I know I want to try living abroad somewhere. In order to live abroad I need to get a job, and the easiest sort of job for me, an English major who’s first language is English, is to teach English as a second language. So I’m going to apply for the JET program next September, and hopefully I’ll be accepted and then I’ll be living in Japan for a year starting in 2012! If not– I’ll have to figure something else out. I hope I get accepted, though. I’m going to start learning Japanese in preparation! And I’m going to be reading more Japanese books, for sure. Continue reading »

Free (& Cheap) Reads (4)

Posted by Anastasia on December 4, 2010 1 Response »

Dec 042010

There were a whole bunch of freebie books made available since the last time I posted, but they seem to have mostly disappeared now. A shame, but I hope these ones will tide you over! If you’d like to keep up daily with freebies, you may want to check out Randomize Me, where daily freebies and deals for the Kindle, Nook and otherwise are diligently posted.

Legend
 [format, DRM/no DRM, location restricted to]
Continue reading »

Review: Middleworld by J & P Voelkel

Posted by Anastasia on December 3, 2010 2 Responses »

Dec 032010

225. Middleworld (The Jaguar Stones #1) by J & P Voelkel
Publication: EgmontUSA; Revised edition (April 27, 2010), ARC Paperback, 416pp / ISBN 1606840711
Genre: MG Fantasy, Adventure, Action
Rating: Buy it (if you’re a preteen, or as a present for a preteen) / Borrow it (if you’re an adult)
Read: November 26, 2010
Source: Publisher
Summary from Amazon:

Fourteen-year-old Max Murphy is looking forward to a family vacation. But his parents, both archaeologists and Maya experts, announce a change in plan. They must leave immediately for a dig in the tiny Central American country of San Xavier. Max will go to summer camp. Max is furious. When he’s mysteriously summoned to San Xavier, he thinks they’ve had a change of heart.

Upon his arrival, Max’s wild adventure in the tropical rainforests of San Xavier begins. During his journey, he will unlock ancient secrets and meet strangers who are connected to him in ways he could never have imagined. For fate has delivered a challenge of epic proportions to this pampered teenager. Can Max rescue his parents from the Maya Underworld and save the world from the Lords of Death, who now control the power of the Jaguar Stones in their villainous hands? The scene is set for a roller-coaster ride of suspense and terror, as the good guys and the bad guys face off against a background of haunted temples, zombie armies, and even human sacrifice!

Review

I admit it: sometimes I’m a snob. I tend to judge books by their cover, by their back cover summaries, and by their blurbs. As we all probably know, those aren’t exactly the BEST ways to figure out if a book is a good match for you or not, and a couple of times I’ve been proven wrong in my initial assessment (for better or worse). The Jaguar Stones trilogy looked, upon initial inspection, to be something I would NOT enjoy. I think it was the connection with the so-called “2012 phenomenon,” the entirety of which I find repulsive and ridiculous and even sort of offensive (I’m also prejudiced against certain things, besides being snobby). But then, when I was emailed by the publisher about the second book, I took another look at the series and you know what? This time around I thought it looked like a lot of fun!

I don’t know what changed. I hope it’s that my book snobbishness is receding back into the murky depths of my soul, but maybe it’s just that I was seduced by the comparison to Indiana Jones. So maybe I’m still judging books by their outsides– whatever. The point is that the publisher very kindly agreed to send me both books one and two, and now I’m kicking myself for not reading them sooner. Continue reading »

Review: Holy Disorders by Edmund Crispin

Posted by Anastasia on December 2, 2010 3 Responses »

Dec 022010

219. Holy Disorders by Edmund Crispin
Publication: Felony & Mayhem (February 15, 2006), originally published 1945, Paperback, 240pp / ISBN 1933397284
Genre: Mystery
Rating: Buy it!
Read: November 15-18, 2010
Source: Paperback Swap
Summary from Amazon:

Gervase Fen–the eccentric Oxford don with a knack for solving “impossible” crimes–made his debut in The Case of the Gilded Fly, which Edmund Crispin (in reality, composer Bruce Montgomery) wrote to win a bet. With Holy Disorders, Crispin’s skills matured, but Fen remains as maddeningly childish as ever, still deliciously fond of his own wit and erudition, and given to quoting Lewis Carroll at inappropriate occasions. First published in 1945, Holy Disorders takes Fen to the town of Tolnbridge, where he is happily bounding around with a butterfly net until the cathedral organist is murdered, giving Fen the chance to play sleuth. The man didn’t have an enemy in the world, and even his music was inoffensive: Could he have fallen afoul of a nest of German spies or of the local coven of witches, ominously rumored to have been practicing since the 17th century? Tracking down the answer pleases Fen immensely–only the reader will have a better time. This, said the New York Times Book Review, is “Fen at his very best.”

Review

I really enjoyed this one. It reminded me a bit of a snarkier version of Dorothy L. Sayer’s mysteries, mixed with some of Agatha Christie’s humor. It’s technically the second in the series but they take forever to show up on Paperback Swap (this one was about a two year wait?) and I’m not waiting for the first book to start reading Edmund Crispin. Plus I figured with these long mystery series it’s not super important to read them in the correct order anyway, and I think I did okay. Continue reading »