Laughs for Language Fans

If you are a fan, like I am, of books like Anguished English and its sequels by Richard Lederer, Jerry Robinson's Flubs and Fluffs, or other books or collections where signs, letters, school papers, and other written items with amusing grammatical errors are featured, you may enjoy English As She is Wrote, a collection of flubs and fluffs published in 1883!

Books Only Multiply

So I went to the library on my lunch hour, intending to return Degrees of Separation and Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little Town (previously mentioned). Instead of driving to the closest library (Sibley, a tiny bit of a library crammed next to a car financing company), I went to the central library downtown. In her blog, Dani Torres has mentioned the Phryne Fisher mystery novels and I was intrigued. The Cobb County Library system has three of these Kerry Greenwood-authored novels, two of them at the central library (of course, as luck has it, none of the three being the first one), which explains my attendance.

The central library always has a little cart out of mystery books and in scanning it I found an delicious-looking book: The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Murder Case by George Baxt. According to the back cover Baxt has also written something called The William Powell and Myrna Loy Murder Case, which sounds equally delicious. I suppose I will find out if it's actually true after my read of Fred and Ginger. I checked the card catalog—now a misnomer since all the books are listed on computer instead—to see if the library had any other Baxt books, but apparently the Fred and Ginger book is so new it's not even on the computer, never mind Bill and Myrna. :-)

So I sallied forth into the stacks to fetch Phryne (#9 and #12; she's a British ex-pat living in Australia during the 1920s) and of course came back via the Christmas books, and found myself smack-dab next to the linguistics books, so I also picked up two William Safire "On Language" volumes I don't remember reading, Quoth the Maven and Spread the Word. Yum...nice fat books about word usage!

As I departed the library I debated also taking out Ballet Shoes (I've never read any Streatfeild and the television production piqued my interest), but dismissed it for now. I wish Cobb County had more than one Beany Malone book! If I want to read the others I will have to get them through interlibrary loan, darnit.

A sign at checkout said "Try our new self-checkout," so I did! Just like the grocery store (although it helps when you scan the library's barcode, not the book's...LOL).

Trading Places

Remember Disney's Freaky Friday, about a teenage girl and her mother who switch bodies after they wish they could be each other (thinking that the other's life is easy), filmed originally in 1977 and remade twice since then? All had their genesis in the 1972 Mary Rodgers novel, which was followed by a sequel where the brother in the story switches places with his dad.

Would you be surprised to know that the notion of a parent changing places with a child via some sort of magical wish/talisman is not a new idea? The original concept was published as long ago as 1882: Vice Versa, the tale of a stuffy British businessman who changes place with his boarding-school bound son, can be read here. (Note: it was updated in the 1980s for American television, with Fred Savage in the boy's role.)

Books Read Since January 19

• Moving Targets, and Other Tales of Valdemar, edited by Mercedes Lackey
This is the fourth collection of short stories taking place in the Valdemar/Velgarth universe created by Lackey back in the 1980s starting with Arrows of the Queen. Sadly, every story in this anthology is interesting except for Lackey's humorous titular offering. There's nothing wrong with humor in the Valdemar universe; it's been done before—but a Herald's story that is a spoof on Scooby-Doo? With the four young people (and their version of a van) accompanied by a kyree (usually telepathic catlike wolf-creature) who speaks like Scooby? ::sigh:: I would have loved a humorous story from Lackey, but not this one. Worth buying for the other stories, however.

• Sojourn (Time Rovers, Book 1), Jana G. Oliver
In the future, time travel is possible and tourists and researchers embark on time travel vacations with the help of an escort: a time rover who places them in the past and then returns to extract them. Jacynda is a rover sadly in need of some off-time (she's starting to have hallucinations, a side effect from crossing too many timelines in quick succession) who is sent back to Victorian England right before Jack the Ripper strikes the first time to bring back a missing tourist. But he's vanished, and in the course of her search Cynda becomes involved with two gentlemen of the period who have a rather unusual secret. If you are fond of fact-based fantasy, this one's a real page turner, with enjoyable characters. There are two sequels, Virtual Evil and Madman's Dance.

• Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little Town, John E. Miller
This is a slim but interesting volume about the town of DeSmet, where the Ingalls family finally set down roots, basically a biography of the place where Laura Ingalls became an adult and was married. If you are a LIW fan, you may be interested to know more about her eventual hometown.

• Degrees of Separation, Sue Henry
In the newest Jessie Arnold Alaska mystery, Jessie is awaiting the first snowfall so she and her dogs can begin training again after her enforced rest after knee surgery. Unfortunately she and the team run over a dead body on their first outing. The victim turns out to be a young man whose family is well-known in a nearby town; he has a reputation for being a little wild. Then someone deliberately tries to kill state trooper Phil Becker, partner of Jessie's significant other Alex Jensen. Are the crimes related? Nature isn't cooperating, either, as a series of earthquakes rattle the area. Interesting thing about this outing: all the "strings" aren't neatly tied up at the end.

The book features a large cameo by Maxie McNabb and her dachshund Stretch, the protagonists of Henry's other mystery series. How well you tolerate this depends on your affection for these characters; I didn't mind much, but I prefer Jessie and Alex on their own.

• FDR's Splendid Deception, Hugh Gallagher
Most biographies of Franklin Roosevelt mention is polio only in brief, as a stumbling block to his political career and his road to the White House. Some note Roosevelt's efforts to cover up his being wheelchair-bound, and a couple mention his fear of fire, possibly engendered by having seen one of his aunts burn to death after a terrible accident with an alcohol lamp. I heard Gallagher speak in the documentary FDR: A Presidency Revealed and immediately found a copy of this book, which is the only volume to detail the struggle Roosevelt faced with his polio, which was not as "painless" as he always made it appear. Even if you disagree with his political decisions, it is difficult not to admire the man for coping with the daily struggle he had to put up to appear fit. Today we have associations that help the disabled to take their place in society; back then each "differently abled" person had to fight just to be treated as something other than a half-wit unable to function at all. A look at Roosevelt from "a different angle."

• Europe 101: History and Art for the Traveler, Rick Steves and Gene Openshaw
This is an entertaining summary of European history through its art and politics for the casual, non-history-buff tourist who visits Europe and wonders what all those statues and paintings are all about. For people a little more well-versed, it's a fun review—unless you can't stand Steves' atrocious puns. Well-illustrated and a good guide to art galleries and sites.

• Harry: A History, Melissa Anelli
Anelli was just a high-school student when she read the first couple of Harry Potter novels. She then forgot about the series as she arrived at college, decided that journalism, not pre-med (as her parents wished) was her forté, and got back into the series. As a lark, she wrote a few reviews for a new website devoted to Harry Potter, The Leaky Cauldron. And that's what this book is all about, Anelli's introduction into Potter fandom, her growing involvement with the website, her encounters with author Rowling and others involved in Potter fandom (including a very offbeat chapter about "wizard rock"), all interspersed between the story of the buildup to the seventh and final novel.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, even if I have no interest in wizard rock. I've read reviews of it which complain about Anelli's "name dropping," about other websites being left out of this tale of "Harry Potter fandom," and other "sour grapes" comments that sound all too familiar—they are the same sort of thing leveled at author Joan Winston after her book The Making of the Trek Conventions. For all I know Anelli is a real creep—or not. This book is labeled very clearly as "a personal memoir." It makes no claim to be the be-all end-all history of Harry Potter fandom with promises to mention every single website a lot and praise a lot of people. This is Potter from Anelli's POV and as such it is enjoyable.

• Silent in the Sanctuary, Deanna Raybourn
In the second of the Lady Julia Grey mysteries, Julia is spending time recovering from the loss of her home and her husband by living in Italy with two of her many brothers, Plum and Lysander. When the three are summoned back to the family estate, ostensibly because Lysander has married a tempestuous Neapolitan girl who needs to be introduced to the family, they travel reluctantly, accompanied by the bride Violetta and a friend, Antonio. It is only when they arrive at the March family home, an old abbey, that Julia discovers that her father has also invited Nicholas Brisbane, the intelligent but reclusive "inquiry agent" who helped Julia solve the mystery of her husband's death, and whom Julia found herself attracted to. But Brisbane is now engaged, and if that little fact wasn't enough, one of the Christmas guests at the abbey is murdered. Deliciously convoluted plot involving Brisbane's fiancee, two poor relations, a gathering of Romany people on the estate, and much creeping about in dark halls, with the Wuthering Heights business between Brisbane and Julia a bit softpedaled, thankfully. If you love Victorian mysteries with unconventional characters and period detail, this one's for you.

• Country Matters, Michael Korda
In the 1980s writer Korda (nephew of the famous Hungarian director Alexander Korda) and his wife bought a weekend country house where they could relax from the tumult of life in New York City and ride their horses. The rambling old farmhouse they buy, of course, is a fixer-upper, and, in the course of repairing the house and grounds, the Kordas meet all sorts of country types, including the handyman who prunes and bulldozes the yard, neighbors in trailers, etc. A few reviews mention that Korda seems to look down on his nose at these folks, who are not the "horsy set" across the river, and he does sound a bit supercilious at times, but he also makes a good deal of fun at himself at not knowing how to cope with events that his neighbors find so easy, wryly observing how they make fun of his prolifigate spending on things like a riding arena, and of the friends who sometimes invite themselves to his "country estate" over the weekend expecting to play tennis and swim and who instead find themselves on a farm where things must be cleaned, horses must be tended, and pigs must be fed. Seems to me Korda makes almost as much fun of himself and his snooty friends. Anyway, I enjoyed it, but it is more a library book to borrow than to own.

"Plain Jane" Information on Old Children's Book Series

Master List here.

Massachusetts Author

I picked up a mystery today, The Dante Club, which takes place in 1860s Boston. Someone is murdering people in ways taken from Dante's Inferno. The members of the Dante Club, and eventual sleuths, are three writers whose names you probably know: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell, along with publisher James T. Fields (of Ticknor and Fields, which, among other things, published the children's magazine Our Young Folks, which was later absorbed into St. Nicholas). (For some reason, James Fields is mentioned in the 1994 movie version of Little Women as the publisher of Jo's book Little Women; the actual publisher was Brown Brothers.)

Some of the reviews say this book is rather plodding, but I'll reserve judgment until read.

Speaking of Little Women, I considered buying another, new copy of Little Women. Now, I have a perfectly serviceable copy of Little Women, the Grosset & Dunlap publication with the Louis Jambor illustrations. However, last night I noticed a hardcover version of Little Women in the literature section (rather than the children's section) of Borders, with old-style illustrations on the cover. I took it down from the shelf, noting the same illustrations in the text, and also a note at the front of the book about this particular edition.

Little Women was first published in 1868, what we now know as part one of the novel. The second half of the book was published the next year as Little Women, Part 2 (often known in England and other countries as Good Wives). In 1880, the two parts were united as one book and have been so ever since. In addition, however, this notation indicated, some changes were made. Alcott's original version had the girls and Laurie speaking less grammatically and more like children talked when Alcott wrote the book. However, when the volumes were united, Alcott went over the manuscript and corrected this dialog to fit with what publishers and educators said was better for children to read.

For example, at the opening of the book, Meg chides Jo about her tomboyish behavior and tells her she needs to start paying attention to her behavior, because she is now a young lady. In my Grosset & Dunlap (and most other) version, Jo's response is "I'm not! And if turning up my hair makes me one, I'll wear it in two tails till I'm twenty." In the original book, Jo says, "I ain't"! In the chapter where Beth is sick, Laurie asks Jo "Doesn't Meg pull fair?" [helping care for Beth]. In Alcott's original, Laurie says in the vernacular of the day, "Don't Meg pull fair?"

There are all sorts of little differences like that; I'm quite crazy about Louisa May Alcott's juveniles and may get the "original" Little Women anyway. Many of Alcott's novels went through editing after first publication and I love to read them "as written," not cleaned up.

I really want this book, too, but...oh, my, the price! I saw it today at Borders and just drooled, but even with a 30 percent off coupon...maybe when the used copies get more reasonable...

Hail to the Headless Horse!

One of my favorite Disney films of all time has always been the French-set (filmed in England) story The Horse Without a Head, based on a book by Paul Berna. The film starred Vincent Winter (Disney semi-regular, appearing in Three Lives of Thomasina and Almost Angels) and Pamela Franklin (one of her two appearances for Disney, the other being A Tiger Walks), along with Jean-Pierre Aumont and British character actor Leo McKern. Winter and Franklin, along with three other child actors, play five poor French children whose only toy is a full-sized hobbyhorse (not like a rocking or spring horse) on three metal wheels, which they use as a "thrill ride" of sorts, riding it at breakneck speed down the steep hills of their town. Franklin is particularly delightful as Marion, the girl with a talent for nursing and re-homing stray dogs, who has them all trained to come to the sound of her whistle.

So you can imagine I was delighted many years ago to come upon the Scholastic printing of the book, translated from the French. Given that Disney sometimes adapts books into unrecognizable format, it was interesting to read this volume and discover that they stuck very close to the storyline for this adventure.

There are minor differences: in the movie the crime is seen being plotted (probably because the ringleader of the robbery is played by well-known actor Herbert Lom, later of the "Pink Panther" films), while in the book some of the perpetrators are figured out only at the end. In the book there are ten children, not five, and Vincent Winter's character is a combination of two boys, the head of the group, Gaby, and the part he actually plays, Fernand. In the movie Marion's grandfather is the old junkman who finds the horse for the children, while in the book he is a character not connected to Marion.

Also, Inspector Sinet in the book is a rather dour middle-aged man rather than someone like the handsome, vibrant Jean-Pierre Aumont. However, everything is "there," so to speak, so if you ever have enjoyed the Disney film, you would be well to look up a copy of the book to further capture the French character of the town and the story.

Books Read Since January 10

• American Road, Pete Davies
Today when we complain about bad roads, we're probably thinking of a pot-hole-pocked asphalt mess after the winter or, at the worst, that bumpy dirt road leading to a vacation cabin. But 90 years ago, despite burgeoning automobile sales, the road situation in the United States was dire. Only large cities had paved roads, and what lay between cities and towns were dirt trails that became a muddy morass when it rained. It was common for both automobiles and horse-drawn vehicles to become stuck, sometimes up to their wheel hubs, in this "gumbo."

In 1919, a military caravan composed of early trucks and other motor vehicles drove cross-country from Washington, DC to San Francisco, California, to publicize the Lincoln Highway project. Due to the state of the roads, the trip was fraught with exhaustion and frustration, despite the parties thrown for the participants in the cities in which they camped. One of the military officers along on this ordeal was a young World War I veteran who was thinking of resigning his commission and who, with a buddy, played practical jokes on members of the caravan. He'd later become famous in World War II: Dwight David Eisenhower.

Having made two cross-country trips in the days of the interstate (which, of course, Eisenhower initiated), I found this a fascinating book about the difficulty of cross-country travel in the early 1900s, a chronicle of the construction of the Lincoln Highway and what existed before it, of the men who thought up the project, and the men who endured the drive.

• Eden's Outcasts, John Matteson
He was a man with educational ideas before his time, a man who could tend a garden and discuss Plato, a friend of notables like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, a vegetarian in an era when meat was considered the best food for you, but a flawed man who believed fair-haired people were the most highly chosen and who often let his family go hungry while he tended to his ideals. He was Amos Bronson Alcott, who became the father of one of American literature's most famous writers, Louisa May Alcott. Unlike her placid father, Louisa was headstrong and tempestuous, but the two became bound together as they grew older. A must for Louisa May Alcott fans, even if you, like me, wants to grab Bronson by his collar occasionally and shake some good sense into him.

• Reserved for the Cat, Mercedes Lackey
The fifth in Lackey's "Elemental Masters" series (unless you count The Fire Rose, which preceded that series), in which characters in a Victorian/Edwardian alternate earth where magic exists; the stories are retakes on classic fairy tales. This version of "Puss in Boots" involves Ninette Dupond, an impoverished Parisian ballerina whose brief turn as featured dancer gets her fired after her rave reviews enrage the reigning ballerina. Not knowing where her next meal will come from, Ninette is astonished when a scrawny tomcat starts talking to her in her mind and starts her off on a journey to England, where she will pretend to be a shipwrecked Russian ballerina and get a position at a music hall in Blackpool.

Neither Ninette nor Thomas the cat realizes that the real ballerina will eventually discover that Ninette has stolen her name, and that the woman has been taken over by evil and will do anything to destroy Ninette.

This is a bit of a lesser effort next to Lackey's early "Elemental Masters" books, but fun enough, and the characters are engaging, if not unforgettable.

• Wesley the Owl, Stacey O'Brien
When Stacey O'Brien, a biologist at CalTech, is given the opportunity to raise and observe an injured barn owl, she finds her life not only enriched by knowledge, but by love for the wild bird who has become her family. While this book will occasionally make you cry, O'Brien's often laugh-aloud funny observations of life with an owl is a joy to read—although, even as a bird lover, I still don't know how she got through the feedings! (Warning: the nature of Wesley's diet can be a bit...well, icky.) My favorite bits, however, have to be when Wesley...um, enters puberty, since I had a budgie that exhibited similar behavior, and the chapter where her colleagues at CalTech question her about certain of Wesley's vocalizations is hilarious.

• Re-read: The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgsen Burnett
After re-watching MGM's rather gothic-touched treatment of this classic novel, I retreated to the well-thumbed pages of my Tasha Tudor-illustrated edition for a happy reunion with the moorland setting that helps change a bossy, unlovable little girl who was born in India and a sickly, hypochondriac boy kept hidden in Misselthwaite Manor into two loving, generous, healthy youngsters, with the help of a countrified Yorkshire maid and her animal-loving brother, and the beautiful, hidden garden that young Mary Lennox rediscovers. Delightful from first page to last, no matter what age you are.

• A Drowned Maiden's Hair, Laura Amy Schlitz
Maud Mary Flynn is the worst-behaved orphan at the all-girls Barbary Orphanage, a young cynic who was left behind when her older brother and baby sister were adopted by a farming family. Despite her rebellious nature, she is hungry for love, and when two elderly sisters arrive at the orphanage looking for a little girl and choose her to come with them and be their "secret child," Maud will do and say anything to stay with honey-voiced Hyacinth Hawthorne, who looks like she will give Maud the love she needs—as long as Maud does what she says. But as Hyacinth explains the nature of what she desires from Maud, and as Maud befriends the lame housemaid that Hyacinth scornfully nicknamed "Muffet" because she is afraid of spiders, the basically good-at-heart child begins to wonder if being loved is worth the deceit she will need to perpetrate.

This is an absolutely absorbing young adult novel taking place in the early 1900s, with a gripping plot and unforgettable characters. I remember seeing this when it first was published and noting that it sounded intriguing; when I found it on remainder I was delighted. It completely fulfilled my interest in it. Highly recommended.

Books Read Since November 16

No, I didn't read fewer books during this period. :-) It's just that during the holiday season I read Christmas books and magazines. The books were reviewed in Holiday Harbour.

• A Great and Godly Adventure: The Pilgrims and the Myth of the First Thanksgiving, Godfrey Hodgson
If you have read Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower, you will find this volume redundant; however, if you are looking for a readable narrative about the "Pilgrims," their beliefs, their sojourn in Holland, and then their voyage and survival in the New World, this one will fit the bill. Detractors complain that it doesn't tell as much as Mayflower, but it doesn't claim to.

• Stories to Live By, edited by Marjorie Vetter
What a cool find!—these are growing-up stories for girls published in the 1940s and 1950s in the Girl Scout magazine, American Girl. I had AG in the early 1970s, when the stories became funky and full of 60s twaddle; these go in the other direction and sometimes feel quaint because of the stereotypes about girls in them. On the other hand, subjects still of concern today, such as being overweight or peer pressure, are covered, and by well-known authors like Betty Cavanna. I really enjoyed reading this one and "traveling back in time."

• Crusader Nation: The United States in Peace and the Great War, David Traxel
This was one of my finds at the Book Warehouse in Pigeon Forge; since this is my sphere of American history interest, I found it enjoyable indeed. Traxel writes in an uncomplicated, but not simplistic style about the United States' efforts to be a peacekeeper and innovator, until the "Great War" changed the country's isolationism. To my pleasure, there was plenty of material about my favorite president, Theodore Roosevelt. Traxel covers not only political, but social innovations. Well worth your time if you are a United States history buff.

• The Mark of the Lion and Stalking Ivory, Suzanne Arruda
I found Stalking Ivory in the bargain bin at Borders, and therefore started the Jade del Cameron series from the middle. I loved the 1920s East Africa setting, but there was something about the prose that bothered me. Finally I went back and found a cheap copy of the first book, Mark of the Lion.

Jade del Cameron, a young American woman of part Spanish descent (she was raised on a ranch in New Mexico), is driving an ambulance during World War I when her fiancé David Worthy is shot down during a dogfight. With his dying breaths he gives her a ring and begs her to find his brother in Africa. But Jade remembers that David once told her he was an only child.

After kicking off the plot in the first chapter, the remainder of the book takes place in East Africa, where Jade searches for David's mysterious brother. In the course of the story, she meets an English couple working a coffee plantation, whose wife will immortalize Jade in a series of romance novels.

Jade, as in most of these mystery-adventure novels, is a woman before her time: independent, free thinking, not ready to be encumbered by marriage—and of course good-looking, with raven-dark hair. The first novel is a cracking good adventure story, but I think I had trouble with the sequel Stalking Ivory because it was straying into romance novel territory, especially with the appearance of the handsome young American former pilot Sam Featherstone. Jade seems to change in Ivory, too; she becomes more of a conservationist...not sure if this is a natural progression because of what she has seen in East Africa or because the author chose to make her more "environmentally friendly."

I have to admit that in the end I enjoyed both books, but I think Mark of the Lion was the stronger.

• No Rest for the Wiccan, Madelyn Alt
This is the fourth in a series of "bewitching mysteries" about Maggie O'Neill, who works at Enchantments, a New Age gift shop run by a witch. Maggie has been discovering her own empathic powers and is coming to terms with herself, if having trouble deciding between the two men in her life, the practical policeman and one of her employer's "witchy" cohorts, a free-spirit biker type. Then her "perfect" sister Mel becomes bedridden and in the course of caring for her, Maggie discovers an evil spirit in the home. But it's nothing to what happens after a local feed mill owner is threatened and then dies of an apparent suicide.

If you enjoy themed cozy mysteries, you might enjoy the Alt books. I like the characters, even if they often don't seem real—except for Maggie's sister. Little Miss Perfect I want to slap. :-)

• Foundation, Mercedes Lackey
Mercedes Lackey returns to her Valdemar universe after a five-year absences. While Foundation, set at the time that Herald's Collegium is being built (and being fussed about by older Heralds who think the old way of instructing novices one-on-one is fine), isn't terrible, it does read a bit like a young-adult novel rather than a tale for adults. And there is the usual plot: adolescent, badly treated (in this case, the boy protagonist Mags is a mine slave, so it's more serious than usual), is Chosen and finds happiness, but also finds challenges in the form of evil intentions by outsiders. In this case the "evil" comes late in the novel and is just a setup for the remainder of the trilogy, so nothing really earth-shaking happens. Still, it's another new Valdemar novel, and hopefully something a bit more exciting will occur in the sequels.

Favorite Books of 2008

Since several of the other book blogs have done a list like this, I thought I'd take a look back at my favorites as well. Out of all of them, only three fiction entries. Heh. (Okay, I have to 'fess...I did enjoy the hell out of the four "Pink Carnation" books by Lauren Willig.)

• Inside the Victorian Home, Judith Flander (nonfiction, history)
• An Incomplete Revenge, Jacqueline Winspear (mystery)
• The Time Travelers and The Time Thief, Linda Buckley-Archer (young adult; arrgh! the third book isn't out until June!!!)
• A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson (nonfiction)
• Wait Till Next Year, Doris Kearns Goodwin (memoir; I hate baseball, but I loved this book)
• America 1908, Jim Rasenberger (nonfiction, history)
• In the Shadow of the Moon, Francis French and Colin Burgess (nonfiction, space program)
• Color, Victoria Finlay (nonfiction)
• Only Yesterday, Frederick Lewis Allen (nonfiction, history ["Roaring" 20s])
• The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan (nonfiction, history [Dust Bowl])
• Crusader Nation, David Trexel (nonfiction, history [1898-1920 US])

Books Read Since September 23

• Re-read: Friday, Robert Heinlein
I'm sorry, I like this book. Yeah, Heinlein was obsessed in his later years with sex, especially young, always sexually receptive women, and Friday is definitely that, but I see the story as a young woman looking for a home. Embarked on a series of truly "picaresque" adventures, as my junior-high English teachers would have categorized them, Friday, an "artificial person" raised to think of herself as less than human and a special operative for a mysterious organization run by an elderly man known as "Boss," loses a family but finally gains another as she avoids one danger after the other.

• Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters, Lesley M.M. Blume
I don't know what to say about this book: the summary, about a girl whose pianist mother overshadows her life and who finds a friend in an elderly neighbor who traveled the world as a young woman sounded delightful. And truly, the story of Cornelia, her feelings of inadequacy next to her mother, her friendship with Virginia Somerset and her awakening sense of self-esteem is delightful. I was less delighted with Virginia's stories—they all seemed to be about four spoiled sisters who went into foreign places where they weren't wanted, although I had to admit the story with two of the sisters' rivalry while taking painting lessons was pretty funny. But for the most part, the sisters' behavior reminded me why so many Europeans label those from the US as "ugly Americans." I guess I'm reading too much into something that's just supposed to be a kids' book.

• Mad for Decades
This is one of two MAD magazine compilations being sold at Barnes & Noble; this is the one with the television and movie spoofs, which includes one of my all-time favorites, "Lizzie the Wonder Dog," a laugh-a-panel spoof of Lassie.

• Deja Demon, Julie Kenner
What's next for Kate Connor, the the supposedly former demon hunter who's now the wife of an respected attorney running for office? She's already adopted a half-crazed elderly demon hunter who helped her when demons invaded her home town, is raising a toddler and a teenage daughter from her previous marriage who knows her profession and who is training at her side, and, oh, yeah, she somehow brought her late husband, whose spirit has been residing in the body of the high school's new gym teacher, back to life, and he naturally wants to be part of his daughter's life. How can Kate fight demons, keep her daughter safe, ignore her love for her ex-husband, and keep her present husband out of the loop—not to mention help make a bunch of Easter baskets for a civic project! Action, tongue-in-cheek dialog, and some interesting relationship questions in this series described as "Buffy the vampire slayer grown up."

• Marley and Me, Josh Grogan
A long time on the bestseller list and now about to be a motion picture, this is the story of the Grogan family and their delightfully loopy golden Labrador, the obedience school dropout. Marley will worm his way into your heart.

• The Adams Chronicles, Jack Shepherd
This is a novelization of the television miniseries, highlighted by numerous engravings, paintings, and documents from the lives of four generations of the Adams family, starting with second President John Adams. I enjoyed it, but it's not light reading.

• The Dance of Time, Michael Judge
This is a short book I picked up on the remainder shelf about the cycle of the year and the holidays and seasonal changes that accompany each month. The prose is lyrical and provides lovely reading, although the information imparted may be a bit thin for some.

• The Tale of Hawthorn House, Susan Wittig Albert
Imagine Beatrix Potter's surprise when she wakes up one morning in the new annex at Hill Top Farm and finds a baby sitting on her doorstep and an elderly woman disappearing over the stone wall! At the same time, young Emily, a servant girl, disappears from her position in order to take a job in London, one less grander than she was led to expect. As care for the child passes on to Dimity Woodcock, the voices of gossip begin spreading in the neighborhood, about Beatrix, Dimity, her brother Captain Woodcock, and the unfortunate Major Kittredge, not to mention baby Flora. In the usual animal subplot, Jemima Puddleduck is wrestling with her attraction to the evil fox who tried to seduce her into a dinner plate. These are charming little whimsical tales; beware if you are a procedurals fan!

• The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey
This is one of the classics of mystery fiction, and I have to say I quite enjoyed it. Inspector Alan Grant is hospital-bound due to an injury sustained in the line of duty. Bored out of his mind, he is intrigued by the face of a portrait his girlfriend brings him, a sensitive face that turns out to be that of the "murderous" Richard III. With the help of history books and an unassuming American history scholar, Grant sets out to prove who really killed the little princes in the tower. The supporting characters, including Grant's two nurses, are really a plus!

• Death at La Fenice, Donna Leon
This is the first of a series of police procedural mysteries about Commissario Guide Brunetti, who works as a detective in the city of Venice. While he's married to a warm loving wife and has two children, Brunetti's work life is a little more tense: his superior is a rather stupid and very vain and imperious know-it-all. When a famous German conductor is poisoned between acts at a performance at the famed Venice opera house La Fenice, Brunetti's superior is insistent that the crime be solved quickly. But the longer Brunetti investigates the evidence, the more he discovers that the conductor's past was not as exemplary as anyone would like. I had a bit of a struggle to get through this. I enjoyed the characters very much, and the mystery was well-plotted, but I'm just not a police procedural fan.

• A Foreign Affair, Caro Peacock
Just as young princess Victoria inherits the throne from her deceased uncle, a young Englishwoman named Liberty Lane receives a shocking note that her father was killed in a duel in Calais. Knowing that her father abhorred dueling, she travels to Calais to claim the body, only to be swept up in intrigue. Finally Liberty is coerced into "going undercover" as a governess to uncover the activities of Sir Herbert Mandeville. I enjoyed this one a lot, but couldn't help thinking the story was a bit of deja vu, as this is the third novel I've read about pretenders to the throne in two months! My main quibble is that Liberty lives up too much to her name for a 19th century woman...much too much wandering about unescorted, a big no-no for a woman in those days. But I can't help liking a woman who chooses what path she's going to take because of a horse!

• All Shots, Susan Conant
When a mysterious biker shows up on Holly Winter's doorstep looking for Holly Winter, "our" Holly knows he must be looking for the other Holly Winter in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a Holly who loathes dogs. But while "our" Holly is on a mission to find a lost dog, she discovers a murder victim...who's also named Holly Winter. And this Holly looks she might have been involved with something illegal. Frankly, the combination of Hollys make this outing rather confusing.

• The Neandertal Enigma, James Shreeve
Fascinating book about the newest theories about Neandertal man and what happened to them...although much of the book seems to be about feuds between anthropologists and their theories!

Vacation Books

I always find books, no matter where. These are books I picked up at the Book Warehouse in Pigeon Forge, TN:

Shadows in the White City, Robert Walker: 1893 Chicago-set detective story (second in series; haven't read the first).

The Avion My Uncle Flew, Cyrus Walker: originally published in 1946, now in a Puffin edition, young-adult novel about an American boy overseas in postwar France.

The Adventures of Tintin, Volume 1, Hergé: Would you believe I've never read any Tintin? This is a compilation of three different stories.

Crusader Nation, David Traxel: the US between 1898 and 1920.

The other two books I bought were gifts. My order from Hamilton Books also came while we were gone. Again, two of the books were gifts, but I also bought a volume called Cross Stitch Greeting Cards (for only $3!) and A Great and Godly Adventure: The Pilgrims and the Myth of the First Thanksgiving by Godfrey Hodgson.

Book Meme

What was the last book you bought?

A book called Christmas Curiosities by John Grossman, about Victorian images of Christmas that we would now find rather grotesque.

Name a book you have read MORE than once

You mean...just one? Are you serious? LOL. I'll just name a few: Gladys Taber's Stillmeadow books. The Harry Potter novels. The Lord Peter Wimsey books, Little Women and Louisa May Alcott's other juvenile novels. The Horsemasters, The Open Gate, The Secret Garden, Friday, Heinlein's juveniles, Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy, A Christmas Carol, The Cottage Holiday, Sudden Sea, Wyoming Summer, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Addie Pray, Red Sky at Morning... That's just a sample. :-)

Has a book ever fundamentally changed the way you see life? If yes, what was it?

I can't think of one, although I always remember what Mary O'Hara says in Wyoming Summer: "Happiness hangs by a hair."

How do you choose a book? eg. by cover design and summary, recommendations or reviews

It depends. I have been seduced by covers and then been delighted by some and disappointed by others. The same with recommendations and reviews. I have found some of the best books by accident in the bargain book dumps at Borders! I do find that being able to page through the book and read the first few pages helps. That's why I am wary of buying books online that I cannot read samples from.

Do you prefer Fiction or Non-Fiction?

I read anything that strikes my interest. I am always interested in good historical nonfiction if it's in an era that I'm interested in (and a well-written book in an era I'm not interested in may snag me as well).

What’s more important in a novel - beautiful writing or a gripping plot?

I'd say the latter; all the beautiful writing in the world isn't going to make up for an inane plot. But I am tempted by beautiful writing...Laurie Lee's prose, for instance, was close to poetry, and Gladys Taber's writing often painted lovely New England portraits.

Most loved/memorable character (character/book)

Another unanswerable question—if I chose one, what about the others? I'd feel as if I was being unfair. I can say that Mary Stewart's Merlin has ruined me for any other Merlin portrayal, he is so real to me. But so are Peter Wimsey and Jo March and Kip Russell and the Preston family...

Which book or books can be found on your nightstand at the moment?

If I want to be pedantic, I think the only book on my nightstand right now is a bound issue of St. Nicholas (and two bound issues of Wide Awake that I have no other place for). However, my to-be-read "pile" consists of five shelves in a bookcase next to my bed (and the three Sherlock Holmes volumes under the nightstand, and the pile of new Christmas books behind the sofa).

What was the last book you’ve read, and when was it?

I finished Caro Peacock's A Foreign Affair this morning.

Have you ever given up on a book half way in?

Oh, several. My best friend gave me Asimov's Foundation trilogy way back when we were in high school...she loved the books...I staggered to a stop after five pages. In college I was halfway through Joyce Carol Oates' Wonderland before I threw the book against the wall in disgust. Right now I'm stuck halfway in the second Jade del Cameron book, Stalking Ivory. Ideally it's a period piece I should like, but there's something about the writing I find annoying.

From "BooksPlease" via Dani Torres' blog.

Found on Google Books

Four bound volumes (at least) of St. Nicholas magazine have been "digitized" and placed online at Google Books!

November 1878 through November 1879

November 1893 through April 1894

November 1914 through April 1915 (with vintage ads!)

May 1921 through October 1921

Also, here are a couple of bound volumes of other vintage children's magazines:

Wide Awake, June though December 1888 (Volume AA)

Our Young Folks for the year 1873

As for what adults were reading while their kids were having fun with St. Nicholas:

Century May 1899-October 1899 (with vintage ads!)

Books Read Since August 22

• The Other End of the Leash, Patricia B. McConnell
This one should have been on the list months ago, but I handed it over to James to read and forgot to add it to the queue. McConnell, an animal behaviorist (as she mentions quite a bit), discusses the difference between human/primate body language and the body language of dogs. If I have claimed at times that Willow was driving me crazy, I can see after reading this book that we are both driving Willow crazy by saying one thing with our voice and another with our body stance. I'm trying to correct myself and the dog does seem more responsive when I remember. Anyway, an interesting read with many illustrative behavior tales about McConnell's own dogs.

• A Poisoned Season, Tasha Alexander
Lady Emily Ashton, the young Victorian widow who has astonished society by being genuinely interested in Greek antiquities and text (and who drinks port rather than the more ladylike sherry), returns in this outing that revolves around thefts of relics of Marie Antoinette and the appearance of a man who may be the heir to the French throne. While Emily helps two of her friends with their very different relationship problems, not to mention deals with her mother about her unorthodox lifestyle, she also contends with a mysterious correspondent who seems to know her every move, while her romance with her late husband's best friend procedes afresh. An enjoyable narrative which supplies seamless period detail.

• Silent in the Grave, Deanna Raybourn
Lady Julia Grey first meets Nicholas Brisbane over the dying body of her husband, whose weak heart finally fails in the opening pages of the book. From Brisbane, Julia later learns that someone has sent her husband threatening letters, but refuses to believe him. It is only when, a year later, Julia finds one of the letters herself that she asks Brisbane to look into the now-cold mystery. An heady mixture of Victorian novel of manners, mystery tale, and gothic novel (Brisbane, with his dark, powerful looks and mysterious mein—which of course begin to attract Julia—comes directly out of the Wuthering Heights mould), this is an absorbing narrative if one has the patience to stick with it. Julia's unconventional family and servants provide a great deal of color to the novel.

• September Surprises, Ann M. Martin
It's back-to-school time for Flora Northrup, Nikki Sherman, and Olivia Walter, and this time it's a big step: from their elementary school to the big comprehensive junior/senior high school. Olivia, who has skipped a grade, is afraid she'll be bullied or ignored, and sure enough, a classmate begins demanding Olivia let her copy her homework. In the meantime, Ruby Northrup's class becomes pen pals/benefactors for a school in Florida destroyed by a hurricane, Min and Mr. Pendleton see more of each other (to Flora's dismay), Mr. Willet makes preparations to leave the Row Houses, and the girls' Aunt Allie has a disturbing secret. Yet another good story from Martin. What? There's not another until spring? Egad!

• About Time, The Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who, 1985-1989, Tat Wood
The sixth and final volume in the volumnous Mad Norwegian Press episode guide/commentary to Doctor Who. I've discovered after reading this that I hardly remember any of the Colin Baker stories, so much was my dislike of his tenure, yet Wood makes them sound appealing. Almost. :-) I'll leave to your imagination what Wood said about the Paul McGann movie, or, as he refers to it, Grace: 1999. The movies Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks: Invasion Earth, as well as "Dimensions in Time" are covered here.

• The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan
You can look at the horrifying photos of "dusters" from the photo archives, or the pictures or newsreels of those affected, you can read the statistics about the land destroyed during the Dust Bowl—but nothing will quite equal the stories woven by Egan in this narrative of the dry times on the prairies that should have never been broken by the plow to such an extreme extent. Through the lives of the people who endured dust-choked homes, cattle dead with dirt in their stomachs, children with dust pneumonia, withered crops, blasted landscapes, and final defeat, Egan brings the Dust Bowl years to heartbreaking life. You will cry with these people and wonder how on earth they endured. Stunning.

• The Seduction of the Crimson Rose, Lauren Willig
Mary Alsworthy, once the belle of the ball and now a failed "relic" of several Seasons after her intended marries her sister (and even falls in love with her!), cannot face accepting payment from said sister to finance another Season and instead accepts the darkly seductive Lord Vaughn's business proposition: he is planning to use the tall, dark-haired beauty to bait the villainous Black Tulip, who tries to recruit ladies of her appearance. What starts out as a business relationship turns into more—this is a "Pink Carnation" book, after all!—as Mary and Vaughn's delicious verbal duels bring them closer together while circumstances contrive to drive them apart. But what is behind Vaughn's distance from the world? And what of the interested eyes Mr. St. George keeps casting Mary's way?

• From the Crash to the Blitz: 1929-1939, Cabell Phillips
This is subtitled "The New York Times Chronicle of American Life," but as far as I can tell this was the only volume produced in the "series," if one ever existed. This is a dense but readable overview of the decade between stock market disaster and invasion of Europe, with much emphasis on Government policies, broken occasionally by what was going on in the lives of everyday folks, chronicling their entertainment and means of living. What's really fascinating about this particular history, however, are the wealth of photographs and clippings scattered liberally throughout the book: famous people and events, record labels, menus, newspaper advertisements for stores, ice cream cup lids, fan magazines, baseball cards, sheet music covers, photos of radio performers, playbills, and other epherma that represent the everyday events of the era.

How Can So Many Memories Fit Into One Little Book? #2

LOL...this is #2 because I began it last year...

My mother asked me, "Now that you're working, what are you going to do with 'all that money'?

It was, for 1978, quite a good deal of money, considering I was only working in a factory! I was living at home, paying $25/week rent, $5/week for gas, $5/week as an allowance I gave myself (since paperback books were then about $1.50, this seemed a great deal). The rest (as of the time I was laid off in 1981, about $90) went into the bank. A "big treat" back then was grabbing a book at Waldenbooks and then going to the Roast House at Lincoln Mall for "the turkey sandwich special": an all dark meat turkey sandwich on a Kaiser roll with gravy, a bowl of turkey soup, and a large coffee milk, all for about a dollar and a half. I had to pack jewelry to earn it, but there were much worse jobs (like retail and fast food) and the company was nice.

Still, now that I had money, I wanted to do something special. I wanted to go to a Star Trek convention. Ever since I'd read about them in TV Guide, it had become a dream. Specifically, I wanted to go to a Star Trek convention in New York City.

Dad was not the one to ask about this. Our vacations, now that Mom was working and we could afford it, were myriad and varied, but we never went into cities on our own. The one trip to Washington, D.C. was as part of a Colette bus tour. Dad had enough with cities driving my grandfather to Boston occasionally when Papá took his yearly trip to Italy "on the boat."

Mom said she would go with me. This was the first of three trips we took to New York City together, twice for Trek conventions and once at Christmas. To those who goggle in amazement at anyone over the age of twelve who goes somewhere willingly with their mother: Nyah! Mom and I always had a great time together, even in the so-called "difficult teens." (Did we argue? Um, sure. Lots. But we still had fun together.)

I hadn't ridden a train since I was three years old, so the entire first experience was awesome from beginning to end. We boarded the train at 6 a.m. and swayed through the length of Rhode Island and into Connecticut before the train stopped for the ten-minute-layover in the dark where they switched the engine from diesel to electricity. We passed the suburban commuter platforms that I'd only seen in movies, then descended into dark tunnels, not seeing New York until we climbed from the depths of the platform at Penn Station with our suitcases and emerged out the front door—and looked up, and up, and up! Wow, talk about the little country girl going to the city for the first time—and I was only from the suburbs!

The hotel for the convention was directly across the street from Penn Station: what was then the Statler Hilton, having previously been—and is now again—the Hotel Pennsylvania, made famous by the Glenn Miller song about its phone number, Pennsylvania 6-5000. Compared to its most recent facelift, it was pretty dowdy back then, but I was impressed, as it was the first time I was in a real hotel. The ballroom and convention floor were starting to become downtrodden, but to me the red carpets and straight-backed plush convention chairs were like something out of a fairy tale. On the stage of the ballroom I watched people I'd only read about appear in real life, including the famous Dr. Isaac Asimov, who could talk...and talk...and talk.

One of the speakers we saw at the convention was a lady named Joan Winston, who, with others, formed the original "Committee" that threw the first few Star Trek conventions. (The ones we attended were professionally run, but someone named Townsley, who didn't seem very revered.) Ms. Winston had written a book about her experiences helping with throwing the original conventions, and she was so amusing and her tales so compelling that I told my mom, "I really want to buy this book!" Alas, all the copies she had bought to the convention had been sold!

So Mom and I consulted a telephone directory and walked all the way down (or rather up!) to the Doubleday bookstore on Fifth Avenue, with me trying not to gape at the canyons of the NYC streets. We passed some of the grand old stores on the way: Gimbels, Macys, Korvettes. And when we reached Joan Winston's autograph table after her second panel, I was able to proudly say, "We walked all the way to Doubleday's for this," and she scribbed one of the best autographs ever: "Linda, I've heard of going to the ends of the earth for something...but MY book?"

When I open the book now it's as if I get two stories, the one that Joan Winston wrote and the one Mom and I wrote, from the Union Station platform to the hotel ballroom to the "sidewalks of New York" and then back again. In a rush it all comes back: the heavy scent of the train tunnels and the New York tarmac, the savory odors of Chinatown Express and La Trattoria across 33rd Street (I recall shouting out during the Penn Station scene in Moscow on the Hudson, "Look, there's La Trattoria!"), the wooden-stepped escalator and the embellished red carpet, the narrow aisles of the dealer's room and the spotlights on the guests, and that one wonderful meeting room with the fanzines for sale that, quite unknown to me then, started me for better or worse on a whole new life. How that little book doesn't burst apart from the memories I don't know!

Books Read Since July 14

• The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, Jeanne Birdsall
The Penderwick sisters—responsible Rosalind, unpredictable Skye, literary Jane, and little sister Batty, along with their Latin-quoting widower dad—are back at their home on Gardam Street after an eventful summer, but autumn appears to be even more eventful: their aunt has produced a letter from their late mother, requesting their father start dating again. So the resourceful sisters form a club to sabotage the dates. A sweet, funny throwback to those simple novels by Beverly Cleary and Eleanor Estes, with the memorable sisters, especially novel-writing Jane and sister Skye, who are embroiled with a deception in school. Yeah, you can see the ending coming a mile away, but who cares? Wonderful stuff.

• Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture, Jon Savage
The term "teenager" and teen culture really only date from the late forties, but the rebelliousness of youth has been eternal. Savage returns us to the late 1800s when rebellious Marie Bashkirtseff's published diary astounded the world that a young Victorian lady would have such unladylike thoughts and a "boy murderer" killed several little boys near Boston. As the new century progressed, more of these "twisted" teens emerged: the young ladies who left sedate walking for suffragette marches and then became flappers, the discontented young men who became Apaches in Paris and swing fans in Nazi Germany; how both sexes experimented with sex, tobacco, and freethinking. Savage's readable text chronicles the shifting face of youth in the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, and other areas of Europe.

• About Time: The Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who, 1980-1984, Tat Wood and Lawrence Miles
More commentary, trivia, pointed barbs and insights, inserted essays, and everything and anything else you'd want to know about Tom Baker's final Doctor Who season along with the Peter Davison years. Strictly for fans of the good Doctor, sharp, funny, sarcastic.

• The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, Lauren Willig
Graduate student Eloise Kelly has lucked out in her research about the flowery-titled English spies of the post-French Revolution like the Scarlet Pimpernel and his cohort the Purple Gentian: Arabella Selwick-Alderly, descendant of the Purple Gentian, Richard Selwick, over the protestations of her nephew Colin, has allowed Eloise free rein in her private papers, where Eloise hopes to find out the identity of the most mysterious of the spies, the Pink Carnation. Suddenly she is plunged into the story of half-French/half-English Amy Balcourt, who has rushed to France, unfortunately encumbered by her cousin Jane Wooliston and their chaperone Gwen Meadows, to join the league of the Purple Gentian to avenge the death of her father in the Revolution. Make no mistake, first and foremost this book is a romance novel, for when Amy meets Richard, sparks fly...and not all of them are in anger. Much swash buckles in this page-turner, along with some decidedly anachronistic vocabulary, but it's all done in such fun, just play along with it.

• Words Words Words, David Crystal
A small collection of essays by linguist Crystal. Not as enjoyable as Crystal's larger books like Stories of English.

• Only Yesterday, Frederick Lewis Allen
After having this volume recommended by several people as well as several books, I picked up this history of the 1920s written in 1931. It is a remarkably contemporary account for a history book written over seventy years ago, as opposed to the often turgid historical prose from that era. Allen examines all facets of the 1920s, from the average home life of the time to the flappers to politics of the era to finally end with a chronicle of the stock market crash that led to the Great Depression. And finally a comprehensible explanation of the Teapot Dome affair! I enjoyed this so much that I want to find Allen's book about the Great Depression.

• The Masque of the Black Tulip, Lauren Willig
Secondmost, this series of books, if you are in the mood for the amusing romances spun within, are as addictive as peanuts. I bought the first three at bargain book prices and then purchased the fourth in hardback with coupons—and I don't even like Lord Vaughn! In this outing, Sir Richard Selwick's sister Henrietta, who thinks of her brother's best friend as an adopted brother, and his best friend Miles, who has always acted as "Hetty's" protector, discover that there's something more to their relationship when they're embroiled in a search for the deadly "Black Tulip," a French spy who has dispatched more than one of the Purple Gentian's cohorts and who has now set his (or her) sights on the Pink Carnation's operatives. Meanwhile, Eloise Kelly and Colin Selwick clash once more...and you know what that means...

• The Deception of the Emerald Ring, Lauren Willig
Eloise Kelly's research leads her to a further surprise as she descends back into her research into the workings of the Pink Carnation: Richard Selwick's cohort Lord Geoffrey Pinchingdale-Snipe, who has spent years writing love poetry to aristocratic Mary Alsworthy, actually married Mary's red-headed sister Letty. In a slight homage to The Scarlet Pimpernel, Geoffrey treats Letty with scorn, thinking she has tricked him into marrying her by compromising them together, when she was only trying to prevent her sister's elopement. When Geoffrey leaves for Ireland directly following their honeymoon, Letty stubbornly follows him, unwittingly becoming embroiled in his spying mission. More swash, more buckles, and of course the inevitable romance. More fun from Willig.

• Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary, Vivian Cook
A tidbit of a gift book about the English language concerning spelling mistakes, spelling reform, and even grammatical wrangles. Nothing special, but okay for a bargain book.

• Jewels, Victoria Finlay
In the tradition of her previous Color, Finlay takes us on a journey around the world, from mines in Australia, England, the far East and the American West, and most places in between to trace the history and use of amber, jet, pearl, opal, peridot, emerald, sapphire, ruby, and diamond, profiled in order by their order of the Mohs hardness scale. Finlay visits places that are still exotic and/or isolated today, some which appear to be very dangerous, whether from the terrain or from the population. It is amazing to think that some of these places still exist in today's electronic world. "Fascinating" is the only word.

• Re-read: A-Going to the Westward, Lois Lenski
Lois Lenski has always been most well-known for her regional children's novels, such as Strawberry Girl, but she also wrote several historically-based novels, starting with her first books A Little Girl of 1900 and Skipping Village, based on her own childhood. Westward is the story of twelve-year-old Betsy Bartlett, who, with her parents, younger brother, and an aunt, sets across country via wagon in the year 1811 for the first westward movement, to the Ohio country. Accompanied by an irritating neighbor family, the Bartletts endure bad roads, bad weather, frightening river fords, thieves, and other dangers as they begin a new life. Since most books about pioneers emphasize the later migration across the Plains and the Rocky Mountains, A'Going to the Westward remains a unique, absorbing narrative of the first western movement. Although written for children, Lenski's vocabulary is never restrictive.

• No Dogs in Heaven?, Robert T. Sharp DVM
Don't expect the poetical prose of James Herriot, but if you love anecdotes about days in the life of a veterinarian, this book may just be your cup of tea. Dr. Sharp talks about the most memorable patients in his career of taking care of pets and farm animals in Ohio. Perfect for a bedside read, with short chapters.

• Hounded to Death, Laurien Berenson
Melanie Travis (Driver) is back for a new outing, but this time she is sans new husband and young son, as well as her beloved poodles, to accompany her aunt Peg and sister-in-law Bertie to a weekend symposium where she hopes to relax. Of course, this being a Melanie Travis mystery, you know that can't happen; after making an astonishing keynote opening speech, a well-known and respected dog judge turns up murdered in the conference center's hot tub, and Melanie, Peg, and Bertie are involved up to their eyebrows since they discovered the body. Worse, Melanie's reputation has preceded her and all sorts of people are demanding she ferret out the killer. No better or worse than any of the other books in the series, although an event at the end is rather terrifying considering Melanie's pregnancy. Recommended as always for dog lovers and fans of cozies.

"People Who Watch TV Don't Read A Lot of Books!"

Apparently this is supposed to be a truism from educators and psychiatrists, and it does seem via reports that children—and adults!—spend large amounts of time lolling in front of the television and don't care to read books.

On the other hand, I've found that television and movies have "turned me on" to books. When I was seven years old, my parents bought me a World Book encyclopedia. If we watched television and I asked about something, whether it was on a reality series like Wild Kingdom or a fact presented on Lassie, my mother would always suggest, "Why don't you look it up in the encyclopedia?" I therefore grew up knowing that books could provide a wide horizon beyond television and always loved what they offered.

I have been trying to make a list of literature, novels, and short stories I have read due to having seen programs on television about the individual or subject. I'm sure this is incomplete, but this is what I have finally come up with:

• My Friend Flicka, Thunderhead, Green Grass of Wyoming, Wyoming Summer and Flicka's Friend by Mary O'Hara (via the Flicka TV series; I didn't see the movies until I was an adult)
• Lord Peter Wimsey stories/novels by Dorothy L. Sayers (via the Ian Carmichael versions which were on Masterpiece Theatre)
• National Velvet by Enid Bagnold (via the television series, not the movie, which I didn't see until I was in my twenties)
• James Michener's books (via Centennial)
• Spencer's Mountain/The Homecoming/You Can't Get There From Here by Earl Hamner (via The Homecoming and subsequently The Waltons)
• Thomasina and The Poseidon Adventure by Paul Gallico (via both films, also Gallico's The Abandoned)
• Airport, Hotel and other Arthur Hailey books (via Airport--yes, Hailey wrote potboilers; they're still books <g>--also Hailey's bio by his wife Sheila)
• Christy by Catherine Marshall (via the TV movie)
• Margaret by Janette Sebring Lowrey (via the original MMC serial "Annette," somewhat different from the serial)
• By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman (via Bullwhip Griffin)
• The Moon Spinners and other Mary Stewart thrillers like My Brother Michael, Airs Above the Ground, and Nine Coaches Waiting (via the Disney film)
• Ivanhoe (via Anthony Andrews/Sam Neill version)
• The Anne Shirley books by L.M. Montgomery (I didn't read them as a kid, but post-Kevin Sullivan's Anne of Green Gables)--also all the "Emily" books, the "Golden Road" books, Magic for Marigold, the Pat books and Jane of Lantern Hill after I saw the film
• The Railway Children by E. Nesbit (via the Jenny Agutter film)
• Cross Creek (via The Yearling, both film and book, and before the film)
• The Fox and the Hound by Daniel P. Mannix (via Disney, and, as you can imagine, much more serious than the film)
• The Taran books by Lloyd Alexander (via The Black Cauldron)
• The Narnia books by C.S. Lewis (via the BBC production of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe)
• Big Red and other Jim Kjelgaard books (Irish Red, Outlaw Red, etc., via the Disney film)
• Mother Carey's Chickens by Kate Douglas Wiggin (via Summer Magic; I'd already loved Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm from childhood)
• Sherlock Holmes (via The Seven-Per-Cent Solution with Nicol Williamson)
• Captain Grant's Children, Journey to the Center of the Earth, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (via In Search of the Castaways and the other two films)
• The Little House books of Laura Ingalls Wilder (via the television series; we had only Little House in the Big Woods in our elementary school library, but I never withdrew it)
• The Flambards series by KM Peyton (via the TV series, though most times I'm sorry I even read Flambards Divided )
• Mister Roberts by Thomas Heggin (via the movie)
• James Thurber (via My World and Welcome to It)

Plus multiple books about:
• Queen Victoria and her family (via Edward the King)
• Old Time Radio (partially via parents' old radio stories and some radio tapes, but also Remember WENN, The Night That Panicked America, 1940s set movies and TV series)
• World War II (partially via parents' stories, but also Remember WENN, Goodtime Girls, Remember When [WWII-set TV movie with Jack Warden], PBS documentaries, etc.)
• History of television and old-time radio (somewhat due to being a TV watcher, but also via documentaries like Television, films like The Night That Panicked America, and Remember WENN)
• Space program (via televised launches; my first were Appointment on the Moon by Richard Lewis and We Reach the Moon by John Noble Wilford, both purchased when I was twelve years old)
• Sidney Reilly and spies (via Reilly: Ace of Spies)

Of course, there were also books I was into long before they appeared in the media: anthropology/archaeology long before Indiana Jones, the Harry Dresden books many years before The Dresden Files, and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials/Sally Lockhart novels long before The Golden Compass and Billie Piper in The Ruby in the Smoke.

I would be interested in hearing from anyone else who read certain books or became interested in certain subjects due to their being presented as a television series/movie/documentary or a film/documentary. Please note that I am not talking about "TV tie-in novels" like those based on Monk, CSI or Doctor Who! Did you start reading Elizabeth George because you caught an Inspector Lynley episode? Did you become interested in "debunking" literature by watching Mythbusters or James Randi on the Tonight Show? Did catching The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man on TCM start you reading Dashiell Hammett novels?

100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century

Copied from Dani Torres' blog: It is "The 100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century, as selected by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association's online members (compiled in 2000)." I've also bolded the ones I've read. Some of them, however, I really wouldn't read. Allingham, Margery. The Tiger in the Smoke (no, but I've read Pullman's Tiger in the Well, which is a great thriller) Ambler, Eric. A Coffin for Dimitrios Armstrong, Charlotte. A Dram of Poison Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity's Death Ball, John. In the Heat of the Night Barnard, Robert. Death by Sheer Torture Barr, Nevada. Track of the Cat Blake, Nicholas. The Beast Must Die Block, Lawrence. When the Sacred Ginmill Closes Brand, Christianna. Green for Danger Brown, Frederic. The Fabulous Clipjoint Buchan, John. The 39 Steps Burke, James Lee. Black Cherry Blues Cain, James M.. The Postman Always Rings Twice Cannell, Dorothy. The Thin Woman (sigh...I've tried Cannell twice--I really don't like her) Carr, John Dickson. The Three Coffins Caudwell, Sarah. Thus Was Adonis Murdered Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep Christie, Agatha. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (other Christie, but not this one) Connelly, Michael. The Concrete Blonde Constantine, K.C.. The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes Crais, Robert. The Monkey's Raincoat Crispin, Edmund. The Moving Toyshop Crombie, Deborah. Dreaming of the Bones Crumley, James. The Last Good Kiss Dickinson, Peter. The Yellow Room Conspiracy Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles DuMaurier, Daphne. Rebecca Dunning, John. Booked to Die (I like his Two O'Clock Eastern Wartime) Elkins, Aaron. Old Bones Evanovich, Janet. One for the Money Finney, Jack. Time and Again (and the sequel, too!) Ford, G.M.. Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca? Francis, Dick. Whip Hand Fremlin, Celia. The Hours Before Dawn George, Elizabeth. A Great Deliverance Gilbert, Michael. Smallbone Deceased Grafton, Sue. "A" is for Alibi Graham, Caroline. The Killings at Badger's Drift Grimes, Martha. The Man With the Load of Mischief Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon Hare, Cyril. An English Murder Harris, Thomas. The Silence of the Lambs (never, never, ever--too creepy) Hiaasen, Carl. Tourist Season Highsmith, Patricia. The Talented Mr. Ripley Hill, Reginald. On Beulah Height Hillerman, Tony. A Thief of Time (I saw the Mystery presentation—does that count?) Himes, Chester. Cotton Comes to Harlem Innes, Michael. Hamlet, Revenge James, P.D.. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman Kellerman, Faye. The Ritual Bath Kellerman, Jonathan. When the Bough Breaks King, Laurie. The Beekeeper's Apprentice Langton, Jane. Dark Nantucket Noon le Carre, John. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird (wonderful book!) Lehane, Dennie. Darkness, Take My Hand Leonard, Elmore. Get Shorty Lochte, Dick. Sleeping Dog Lovesey, Peter. Rough Cider MacDonald, John D.. The Deep Blue Good-by MacDonald, Philip. The List of Adrian Messenger Macdonald, Ross. The Chill Maron, Margaret. Bootlegger's Daughter Marsh, Ngaio. Death of a Peer McBain, Ed. Sadie When She Died McClure, James. The Sunday Hangman McCrumb, Sharyn. If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O Millar, Margaret. Stranger in My Grave Mosley, Walter. Devil in a Blue Dress Muller, Marcia. Edwin of the Iron Shoes Neel, Janet. Death's Bright Angel O'Connell, Carol. Mallory's Oracle Padgett, Abigail. Child of Silence Paretsky, Sara. Deadlock Parker, Robert. Looking for Rachel Wallace Perez-Reverte, Arturo. The Club Dumas Perry, Thomas. Vanishing Act Peters, Elizabeth. Crocodile on the Sandbank (all of the Amelia Peabody books, thanks) Peters, Ellis. One Corpse Too Many Pronzini, Bill. Blue Lonesome Queen, Ellery. Cat of Many Tails Rendell, Ruth. No More Dying Then Rice, Craig. The Wrong Murder Rinehart, Mary Roberts. The Circular Staircase (I think I may have read this; it could be The Bat) Robinson, Peter. Blood at the Root Rosen, Richard. Strike Three You're Dead Ross, Kate. A Broken Vessel Rozan, S.J.. Concourse (I've read the Lydia Chin books, but not the Bill Smith ones) Sayers, Dorothy. Murder Must Advertise (all of Lord Peter Wimsey books, thanks!) Sjowall & Wahloo. The Laughing Policeman Stout, Rex. Some Buried Caesar Tey, Josephine. Brat Farrar (I have Daughter of Time to read, though) Thomas, Ross. Chinaman's Chance Todd, Charles. A Test of Wills Turow, Scott. Presumed Innocent Upfield, Arthur. The Sands of Windee Walters, Minette. The Ice House White, Randy Wayne. Sanibel Flats Woolrich, Cornell. I Married a Dead Man

Unexpected Find

The last time we were in Book Nook, James picked up a copy of L. Neil Smith's The Nagasaki Vector; he had all the "Win" Bear/North American Confederacy books at one time, but about half of them disappeared in the course of three moves. I said impatiently "Well, why haven't you looked for them online?" and clicked around on Amazon.com and found a bit worn but acceptable copy of The Probability Broach, which arrived Saturday and which he's been reading ever since.

Happily, we also found another in the series, a later publication (2001), which he didn't even know about, The American Zone. That arrived in today's mail and there was a gleam in his eye about having found a new book in a series he already loved...so understandable to me after finding Verney's Samson's Hoard and Frost's Fireworks for Windy Foot, not to mention L'Engle's last novel. It's like finding a long-lost family member.