Books Finished Since October 1

 Fannie's Last Supper, Christopher Kimball
I hate to cook, but there's nothing better that I like than to read Christopher Kimball's column in each issue of Cooks Illustrated. His articles about Vermont put me in mind of Gladys Taber.

In this book, Kimball has brought his desire to cook a 12-course dinner from the original Fannie Farmer cookbook alive. We follow Kimball and his assistants as they plan the meal and attempt—as closely as possible—to cook it in period style. Of course (if you're familiar with Cooks you know they always change recipes to improve flavor) Kimball and the Cooks folks play with the recipes and actually reject some of them for not being all that tasty. This has apparently disturbed some of the folks who read this book, and it is a bit ironic that Kimball wrote a book about cooking alà Farmer and then did not go precisely by her recipes, but instead used better-tasting ones from other chefs. But since I have no interest in the actual cooking part and just read this for the historical perspective on cooking, I quite enjoyed the entire narrative. The revelations about cooking over the wood stove were especially "eye-opening." I knew they made the kitchen hot, but I never imagined things melted!

Warning: the chapter about the calves' brains may be a bit much for the modern person who gets everything packaged in plastic.

 The Sisters Grimm; Once Upon a Crime, Michael Buckley
Sabrina, Daphne, Grandma Relda, Mr. Canis, and police chief Hampton are on a mission: to return an injured Puck to a colony of Everafters in New York City where his family—the imposing Oberon and Titania of "Midsummer's Night's Dream" fame—can hopefully cure him. Instead the porcine police chief finds love and danger when he falls for a "fairy godfather's" girl (yes, it's exactly what you think it is), and Sabrina finds herself face-to-face with Puck's jealous girlfriend.

Once again Buckley has well-mixed classic fairy tales for a rollicking, but sometimes creepy, adventure in a really-out-of-this-world place, NYC at Christmastime. One thing bothered me: Granny really came down hard on Sabrina for using magic in the previous book. This time Daphne wields the wand and Granny doesn't seem to mind. Bothered me, as Sabrina, even if she is pushy, does seem a bit put-upon.

 Nellie Oleson Meets Laura Ingalls, Heather Williams
Since the "pre-Little House" adventures of Laura's grandmother Charlotte and great-grandmother Martha have come to an end, apparently since Harper-Collins wanted to dumb them down and the writers refused, these are two newer books about characters related to Laura. This one tells Nellie's side of the story of when the Ingalls family arrived in Walnut Grove and the events of "Town Party, Country Party" and the grasshopper invasion.

The story actually introduces Nellie, Willie and her family some time earlier; Laura doesn't enter the picture until halfway through the book, although Charles Ingalls is shown in the first chapter. I guess we are supposed to feel sympathy for Nellie when we hear about her distant father and social-climbing mother, and moments do exist when Nellie's bratty shell melts and she feels bad for people. But frankly, she's obnoxious from the start, corralling Willie into playing a mean prank on the schoolteacher, and you're glad when the plan backfires. So I'm a bit puzzled to what purpose the book was written. Williams does a good job keeping the narrative "Little House"-like, but it's still hard to warm up to Nellie.

 The Power of Babel, John McWhorter
Okay, I'm at a loss what to say about this one, although I enjoyed it. But then I devour good linguistics books like one eats potato chips. One of McWhorter's main points is about dialects versus the "standard" in a particular language: the standard isn't really the "most correct" version of the language, as one might think; it's just the version of the language that was chosen to become the standard, so that, really, "Cockney" is no less credible than "BBC English," "Parisian" isn't the be-all, end-all of French as opposed to what they speak in other areas of France, and a southern accent in the United States is no less "educated" than the flat midwestern tones once preferred of newscasters—they're all just versions of the same language which evolved in different areas. He uses pop culture and familiar media figures to explain these differences, which makes the text lively and less dry than some academic tomes about language.

 Re-read: Mr. Revere and I, Robert Lawson
Since we were going to Boston on vacation and I had long dreamed of visiting Revere's home, I just had to re-read this fun and lively view of Revolutionary Boston as seen through the eyes of Revere's horse. Sherry, or Scheherazade, as she is properly known, is originally a British cavalry horse, brought to Boston with the soldiers to help quell the rebellion. By a series of misfortunes, she comes into the possession of Paul Revere and sees the opening volleys of the American Revolution.

This is painless, occasionally humorous—some of the Founding Fathers, like Sam Adams and John Hancock, are shown in a not always flattering light—history for kids, which shows them that the folks behind the Revolution were not demigods, but ordinary folks with an extraordinary idea: a new republic not based on a monarchy. And, through Sherry, they understand what it is like to be free. Great story, if not always precisely in line with real historical events (the horse Revere rode on his famous "ride," for instance, was someone else's, and it was taken from him).

 Full Dark House, Christopher Fowler
This is all I need, another series. But what a fun series! In present-day London, 80-year-old Arthur Bryant is killed while working late at the Metropolitan Police's Peculiar Crimes office. His grieving partner, 76-year-old John May, attempts to solve the crime, which appears to have something to do with Arthur's opening of an old case, the first one which Bryant and May solved together, during the height of the Blitz, when a killer stalked the backstage area of the Palace Theatre.

Bryant and May are an odd couple; I thought of a 1940s version of Holmes and Watson, with Bryant as the eccentric and May as the more conventional (and more attractive to women). Fowler brings the WWII atmosphere of the Blitz to life—not just hardy Londoners stiffening their upper lips, but the fear and the uncertainty and the spooky feeling of streets under blackout, not to mention the claustrophobic feeling of the theatre. Yet the narration is also offbeat and frequently humorous, especially when presenting Bryant's oddball friends. I really enjoyed the entire milieu.

 Re-read: Ocean-Born Mary, Lois Lenski
Most people are more familiar with Lenski's regional series, like Strawberry Girl, but I have always also loved her historical stories, like A-Going to the Westward, and this book, which I first read in junior high school. When we went on vacation this year, we stopped at the setting of the novel, Strawbery Banke (the original name of Portsmouth, NH), where I was delighted to see the real places mentioned, like Puddle Dock.

This is not the true story of Ocean-Born Mary, a child whose presence on a ship caused a pirate captain to spare the lives of all if she was named after his little sister, but a fictional tale that Lenski has spun about the child. She arrives in Strawbery Banke to help an ailing cousin and experiences all sorts of adventures with the merchants and seafaring inhabitants of the port town, befriending an ailing child, a shipmaster's daughter, a woodcarver, a restless boy assigned to herd cows, and a merchant's daughter. And she also meets the man who spared her parents' lives, the pirate Philip Babb, who will once again cause problems in her life.

Today's children might find this book dull, but I loved every bit of historical detail in this book as a kid and still love re-reading it.

 The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter, Russell T. Davies and Benjamin Cook
In February 2007, Benjamin Cook shot Doctor Who's Russell T. Davies an e-mail: would he be interested in providing some input to Cook about how a Who episode is written? As Russell answered, "You had me at hello."

The "article" evolved into The Writer's Tale, and then The Final Chapter, a 700-page collection of the e-mails (and occasional texts) shot back and forth between Cook and Davies between the fateful day in 2007 through David Tennant's final appearance as the Doctor. In between, in a great cascade of words, one actually does find out how more than one episode is conceived, filmed, and finished, and a whole lot more. Before Catherine Tate signed up for her season, for example, Davies was working through the creation of a new companion for the Doctor, a young woman named Penny, whose father was a stargazer. How Penny changed and then morphed into Donna Noble, and how the stargazer became her grandfather, played by the delightful Bernard Cribbins, is completely told here.

In the meantime, there are behind-the-scenes glimpses, Davies' growing pressures as a writer for both Who and Torchwood, premieres, filming successes and problems (that damaged bus in "Planet of the Dead," for instance, was supposed to be whole; it was damaged in transport), script flaps, actor changes, the conception of the final story, and perhaps even a partridge in a pear tree. All in great fun—I found it totally absorbing, down to the terrible puns.

 Death on the Lizard, Robin Paige
Sir Charles Sheridan and his American wife Kathryn Ardleigh (also known as Beryl Bardwell, well-known author of thrillers) are back for one last case, set in the Cornish countryside where brilliant but mercurial Guglielmo Marconi has done the impossible: sent messages across the Atlantic by wireless. But the natives of "the Lizard" hate the noise and hurry the radio towers bring to their quiet corner of England, and when two men die on the site, foul play is suspected.

In the meantime Kate befriends Lady Loveday, a widow whose young daughter recently drowned, and who wishes to try to contact her through spiritualism. But when Kate makes a query or two, it looks as if little Harriet's drowning may have something to do with the conflict over the wireless station—and with spies of that selfsame station. And can Marconi's new inamorata be involved as well?

An excellent portrait of the times, where locals feel traditions are slipping away too fast to "newfangled" technology (times, it seems, never change), with multiple mystery threads. The "bad guys" are pretty easy to spot, though; if you are fond of impossible conundrums, read for the Edwardian atmosphere instead.

 Chasing Zebras: The Unofficial Guide to House, M.D., Barbara Barnett
Two books on House, MD were released this fall, the "authorized" guide and this, based on Barnett's popular blog "The End of the Thought Process." Like her blog, it's a great read, especially her analysis of each character (the emphasis on our "hero," of course, but also on Wilson and Cuddy and the original group of "ducklings." The latter part of the book is an episode guide, with such notations as the diagnosis—it's never lupus, except once it was—and the epiphany that led to it, "House is a Jerk" moments (of course too numerous to name), bromance minutes, continuity notes, nods at pop culture, and more, with inserts directed at a closer look at certain key episodes, like the award-winning "Three Stories." Sure to please a House fan—well, at least it pleased this House fan. :-)

 Turkish Delight & Treasure Hunts, Jane Brocket
Not being able to find Brocket's original foray into this area, Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer, for less than $40, I purchased this follow-up, a delightful little volume that brings together recipes and instructions for making foods mentioned in classic children's books, like "sugar on snow" from the little house books and raspberry cordial from Anne of Green Gables, as well as instructions for making or buying a skipping rope like Mary Lennox's or kitemaking. If you are fond of classic children's novels, you will read this with a big grin on your face, as it's just as cozy and welcoming as it sounds.

 Colonial New England on 5 Shillings A Day, Bill Scheller
From the time I saw Shakespearean London on 5 Groats a Day, I thought the idea of exploring history via a "tourist's guidebook" to be fun and clever. Although I bought the Shakespeare book first, because of our recent vacation, I read this one first and was not disappointed. The author offers an accurate portrayal of colonial times (travel, food, customs, etc.) at about 1760 (often with notes of what happened in the future). The most fun are the sly little asides to events that have not yet happened, as in noting that Sam Adams looked as if they had no future except as a brewer, or that "base ball" was much too ruffianly a sport for New Englanders and it should be consigned further west to "other Yankees." If all the other "Five" travel books (Ancient Greece and Europe, the Wild West, et al.) are as humorous and informative as this volume, I will have much fun "traveling" through history.

Books Finished Since September 1

 Death at Blenheim Palace, Robin Paige
In what Paige states is the penultimate book in the series, the emphasis is on those wealthy American young women who were dazzled—or coerced by greedy parents—into marrying English peers, only to find themselves looked down upon by the servants and overwhelmed by running huge manor houses, and discovering that they were only married to shore up dwindling finances. Consuelo Vanderbilt Marlborough has found this out the hard way. Now she fears her husband will make a fool of himself with his mistress. In the meantime, visitors Sir Charles Sheridan and his American wife, the former Kate Ardleigh, get wind of a plot to burgle Blenheim Palace during a visit of King Edward and Queen Alexandra—and it will be an "inside job." Winston Churchill as a young man also re-appears. Another "cozy" murder mystery revolving around a little-known piece of history, with a rather bitter taste at the end. For historical perspective on this novel, try the book To Marry An English Lord or a biography of Consuelo Vanderbilt.

 Changing the World, edited by Mercedes Lackey
A new collection of short stories set in Lackey's Valdemaran universe, and they are pretty much all "keepers." Lackey has a strong entry (especially against her "Scooby-Doo" parody in the last volume) about a woman who resents Heralds because of a family incident. I even enjoyed the very tongue-in-cheek "Interview With a Companion," which I understand some fans did not like. There's a nice mixture of stories as well, not all involving Heralds—witness a mystery involving city guards and the tale of a trader's daughter who wishes to rescue an abused servant girl in a female-repressive society. The humorous "Nothing Better to Do" about a Herald entrusted with the transport of a mischievous toddler was also a favorite.

 The Complete Idiot's Guide to The World of Narnia, James S. Bell Jr. and Cheryl Dunlop
I can't say there was anything in this volume that I didn't know, but if you are just getting into C.S. Lewis' Narnia books, or wish to probe the deeper meanings of the stories, you may find this volume helpful.

 The Way I See It, Melissa Anderson
How odd that books about sweet Mary Ingalls and nasty Nellie Oleson came out nearly at the same time. Anderson's book is...workmanlike to the point of being dull. While I don't think it was quite as bad as some of the reviewers on Amazon.com paint it—I did pick up a few interesting tidbits about the series and Melissa's life off the set—and I certainly don't mind that she "dished" little "dirt" about her co-stars, the simple sentences, the reiterations of whole pages of plot synopses from Little House on the Prairie (Little House fans will remember all the nuances of the plot; why repeat the details?), and the occasional wandering into a script format made the narrative choppy. I'd take this book out of the library rather than buying it; YMMV.

 Confessions of a Prairie Bitch, Alison Arngrim
On the other hand, this book is all that it was publicized to be. Arngrim's writing is fast, funny—and sometimes terrifying, occasionally profane, and always absorbing. Arngrim came from a theatrical family: her father was Liberace's manager and her mother the voice of animated characters like Gumby and Sweet Polly Purebred, her brother was the cute little kid with the dog on Land of the Giants. But beneath the surface was dysfunction; her father was gay in an era when it wasn't spoken of and her parents focused so little on their children that Arngrim's "cute" brother abused her from an early age and was a hard drug user, all without their knowledge. In the midst of this chaos Arngrim worked off her fears and frustrations (and the pain of her elaborate wig and costume) via bratty Nellie Oleson, and found friendship with the girl who played her "enemy" Laura Ingalls, Melissa Gilbert. Hilarious and heartbreaking by turns.

 Main Street 9: Coming Apart, Ann M. Martin
As we return to Camden Falls, Massachusetts for a new year, Nikki Sherman is dreading the reappearance of her father. His divorce from her mother is being finalized and he's showing up to collect a last few things. But when he does reappear, Nikki is surprised to see he is well-dressed, soft-spoken and—most importantly—sober. In the meantime, Flora is letting her love for her new baby cousin absorb her days, younger sister Ruby has done something forbidden and is trying to be good to make up for it, and the youngest of all the friends, Olivia, is emotionally coming to terms with the fact that her pal Joshua considers himself a boyfriend rather than a friend who's a boy.

As always, Martin mixes up the lives of her child characters with her adult characters: there's a subplot with Mr. Pennington, and also the fears of Mrs. Sherman. I was hoping she would go against type with Nikki's father, but I was disappointed in that. As seems to be custom in the "Main Street" books lately, it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. Nevertheless, another good visit with the Northrups, Walter, and Sherman families.

 Grace Under Pressure, Julie Hyzy
Grace Wheaton's grandmother loved Marshfield Manor, the place she had been a servant so many years ago, and brought up Grace to love the old place, too. Now in her twenties, Grace has become assistant curator at Marshfield, which has become a hotel and events venue as well as museum and home for the last of the Marshfields, Bennett. After a loud man attempts to break up one of Marshfield's weekly Teas, the mansion's security director is shot and killed, and Grace discovers that someone has been sending threatening blackmail notes to the estate owner. When Grace must step in the deceased man's shoes, she is faced with a resentful co-worker, irate customers, and the specter of the shooting: was the killer actually trying to murder Bennett?

Although there was a coincidence with some characters that seemed a bit contrived, I enjoyed both the mystery and the characters, especially Grace and her roommates (although I flinched at Hyzy giving a gay man the clichè name of Bruce!).

 At Home, Bill Bryson
Think of this of "a short history of nearly everything having to do with the home." Bryson takes us from attic to cellar in the old vicarage he calls home in England to tell the story of private life. After examining the pivotal year of 1851 and the land surrounding his home, Bryson starts with the basic structure of all human shelters, the one-room living space that became the medieval hall, and then visits each individual room to chronicle a different aspect of society: the bathroom to examine sanitation; the kitchen to talk about food (of course); the scullery to discuss servants, etc. The home becomes a springboard of discussion to architecture, social customs, furnishings, plants...even sexuality, and all in Bryson's engaging fashion.

The true test of this book: it kept me absorbed in a 3 1/2 hour ticket line in over 70 degree heat. Now that's interesting writing!

 An Impartial Witness, Charles Todd
Bess Crawford, nurse at the front in World War I, accompanies the wounded home to England where they will be hospitalized. One patient, a badly burned pilot, keeps a photograph of his wife with him always. To her surprise, Bess sees the woman at the railway station—with another man...then later learns from a newspaper article that the woman has been murdered. She can't help reporting what she saw to Scotland Yard...or becoming involved herself in the investigation, especially after an innocent man's life is at stake.

I didn't like this installment of the Bess Crawford mysteries as well as the last, although we did get to see much more of her family. Despite the fact she's nursing at the front, she seems to come and go from her posting at ease, and one can't worry about her much as she always appears to have a faithful bodyguard by her side. Those things, however, didn't keep me from turning the page to see who was involved and how other characters in the story would react.

 Night of the Living Trekkies, Kevin D. Anderson and Sam Stall
Quirk Books, who have kept us in supernatural horror characters like zombies, werewolves and vampires with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Mansfield Park and Mummies, tackles a media classic with this humor-edged survival tale about Jim Pike (hmmm...Jim Kirk...Christopher Pike...get it?), a veteran of two tours of duty of Afghanistan and former Star Trek fan who just wants to spend the rest of his life blending in with the woodwork, until the weekend GulfCon invades the hotel where he works as a bellboy. But it's not the invasion of the Trekkies that will bring Jim out of his torpor, but something more serious...something that looks like an invasion of...zombies? With his younger sister, a convention attendee, to protect, and others to protect, Jim must find a way out for them, and fast.

This isn't great literature nor an insightful psychological portrait, but it is a well-paced, very often humorous, survival adventure. SF fans especially will enjoy the battle of wits against the mindless invaders (and no, they're not actually refugees from reality television...).

 Turn and Jump, Howard Mansfield
This book made me...melancholy.

The subtitle is "How Time and Place Fell Apart" and is a series of essays connected by a time theme, basically how people used to operate on a schedule set by the sun and by what chores needed to be done, but how now we are harried by the clock. Some of them are only thinly connected to the theme, but I found all interesting, especially the story of a family-run grocery store that was operated for 103 years, and each year of its operation record books were kept of the day-to-day events. I almost cried when I finished the essay and discovered the place no longer exists, since it sounded like such a wonderful place to visit. The melancholy effect came to a head with the final essay, which is about the Native Americans just reclaiming their heritage in public, when they were told to keep it hidden for so many years.

 The Gentle Art of Domesticity, Jane Brocket
No sooner did I wish to find Ms. Brocket's Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer, a book about the goodies found in old children's books, then I came upon this volume on the remainder pile at Barnes & Noble. Since it's about baking, knitting, sewing, and quilting, with the occasional side trip to gardening, you might figure it was the last thing I would be reading, but I rather enjoyed it all, turning the pages that made the book into a cozy home, with colorful patterned illustrations on every page of baking or fabric projects or just family photos and domestic-themed paintings. It was like reading Jennifer Harris' "Allsorts" blog in print. Brocket's themes include "Inspiration," "Color," "Texture," "Patterns," and more.

 Blackout, Connie Willis
Willis returns to her future Oxford universe setting of The Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, where history students time travel to pivotal but not critical settings in history to observe people and events happen as part of their studies. As the book opens, Merope Ward (under the alias Eileen O'Malley, a maid at a manor house) is already studying World War 2 evacuee British children, Polly Churchill is now Polly Sebastian on her way to pose as a shopgirl in Blitz London to study the effects of bombing on the residents, and Michael Davies, as Mike Davis, is supposed to go to Pearl Harbor. But it becomes evident that there is something "up," as schedules are switched and amended up until the time each of them leave. Michael ends up near Dover, frantically trying to get to the beach to observe only the returnees from Dunkirk. Instead he takes part in the action and worries he has change history, while Polly must cope with "slippage" that has made her days late for her assignment and Merope with her job taken away.

Once one can get over the fact that most of these history students appear fixated on their time periods and don't know a lot about anything else but what they are studying, and, as in the past books, the "net" they use for transport is prone to trouble, this is an absorbing glimpse into what would happen if modern people had to cope with the realities of the Second World War, and perhaps the prospect of not returning home. As what happens to Kivrin in Doomsday Book, Polly begins to see that the population she is studying aren't just subjects, but real people who she begins to care about. Mike and Eileen also form attachments and struggle with what their impact will be on history.

Be forewarned that this book ends on a cliffhanger and is continued in the sequel All Clear...which I have in my hot little hands thanks to Amazon Vine. :-)

Books Finished Since August 1

 An Expert in Murder, Nicola Upson
If you are a fan of classic 1930s mystery fiction on the line of Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, and Josephine Tey, you will love the narrative. This is a complex plot with echoes of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series, as repercussions of events in the first World War still haunt an England slowly approaching the brink of the second. Josephine Tey (the pen name of Elizabeth Mackintosh) befriends a young woman on a train; a few minutes after Tey leaves the compartment the woman is brutally murdered in a manner suggesting the killer was leaving a message. Thus follows a complex mystery featuring the cast of Tey's hit play Richard of Bordeaux, including a thinly disguised Sir John Gielgud. In the midst of a cast of absorbing characters, the setting and Upson's pitch-perfect 1930s language also star.

 Candy Freak, Steve Almond
I plucked this book off the bargain table since it looked like a tounge-in-cheek look at small candy companies by a self-professed "candy freak." This book does contain some interesting looks at companies like the New England Candy Company (Necco) and a few others, but contains wayyyy too much personal info about the author. (Do we really need to know when he masturbates?) In addition, several irritating typos abound (agar agar is mentioned about a dozen times and misspelled at least half of those), and suddenly near the end of the book Almond's narrative degenerates into a nosedive of a political rant. Eh, what? Pity, because the candy factory parts were good reading.

 Shooting for the Moon, Bob Berman
With all the books about the US manned spacecraft program in the house, I suppose I could have passed on this short, simple overview of America's race for the moon. However, it was only a couple of dollars...

I notice a tendency in recent books about the space program to tag the Gemini program with "second movie in a trilogy" syndrome and say that it would be a footnote in history except for some exciting events within the program. As a person who sat and watched the Gemini programs, I'm not sure why modern writers consider Gemini an "also ran." The missions were all used to test heady stuff: space walks, docking, long-term spaceflight—as covered on television, they were never dull. So...enough already.

Check this book out if you want a summary of the U.S. space program with the occasional interesting bit of trivia. Otherwise there are much better books on the space program out there, like Chaikin's A Man on the Moon.

 The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, Kelly O'Connor McNees
This is a pleasant but occasionally irritating novel of one summer in Alcott's life when the family was living in Walpole, New Hampshire, in a home let free of charge to them by a relative. As always, due to Bronson Alcott's refusal to work at a traditional job (although he expected his wife and daughters to toil away at the backbreaking housework necessary in those days), the family was scraping to stay alive. Louisa is longing to return to Boston where she can live frugally and write her stories, eschewing the romances her elder sister Anna and friends long for, until Joseph Singer comes into her life. As the Alcott women try to escape the strictures put onto them by society, Louisa at first rebels against, then is attracted to Singer. In an effort to show Louisa's prickly temper, McNees occasionally makes her more annoying than independent, and pretty much nothing happens in the book until the last few chapters. Still, it's a painless way to find out something about the Alcott family dynamics.

 Mean Streets, Jim Butcher/Simon R. Green/Kat Richardson/Thomas E. Sniegoski
Frankly, I bought this book for the Harry Dresden story, but enjoyed the other three urban fantasy tales as well. Beware, the story about the private detective who goes searching for a woman's husband is rather intense and grim.

 Death in Hyde Park, Robin Paige
A new adventure of Charles and Kate Sheridan, reluctant peer/amateur sleuth and his American-born wife, this time focusing more on the age of social upheaval in England that they find themselves involved in, and of the anarchists, Russian and otherwise, who lived in the East End. More courtroom drama that normal in this cozy series, but entertaining if nothing else the quick-witted barrister's work. As the story opens, a young radical is killed by his own bomb; arrested in the subsequent raid on a socialist newspaper is a union organizer who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Charles is asked to help clear the young man. As always, Paige mixes real history in with her story, as a young Jack London, in England to write an expose of the slums, encounters the feisty female editor of the raided newspaper. Along the way you painlessly learn something of the years of British social upheaval.

 Spud, John van de Ruit
It's 1990 in a South Africa freeing itself slowly from apartheid. Nelson Mandela is about to be released from prison. And thirteen-year-old John Milton is off to boarding school for the first time. Nicknamed "Spud" (uh, because his "haven't dropped yet"), John ends up rooming with seven of the craziest boarding school buddies one could ever meet. As the year progresses, Spud embarks on escapades with his bunkmates, feels guilty for neglecting his girlfriend for an "older woman" (she's fifteen), copes during the holidays with his level-headed Mum and a father who thinks Mandela's release will wreak anarchy upon society (not to mention a slightly dotty grandmother whom he calls "the Wombat"), tries out for the lead in the school musical, befriends a few professors, and along the way learns some lessons about life.

This is definitely not a "G" rated book—with all those boys life is nothing if not raunchy—but it's also hysterically funny...and sometimes extraordinarily touching. Sort of a male version of Diary of a Chav and a less depressing Secret Diary of Adrian Mole (whom Spud has a few choice words about!).

 Up Tunket Road, Philip Ackerman-Leist
This is the simple but remarkable story of Philip and Erin Ackerman-Leist, who buy property in rural Vermont and live as real homesteaders. Their life is not easy; for some time they struggle against keeping warm and sheltered until their cabin is livable, and they must make choices about how to best use the land to support themselves. This is as much an examination of the homesteading lifestyle and what it is perceived to be versus what it is (or doesn't need to be) as it is a chronicle of the couple's adventure in living. Leist brings his down-to-earth Vermont neighbors vividly to life—the dowser, the builder, the organic gardener, the cattleman, and others. As always, there are humorous happenings in their unconventional life—like the time Leist is trapped in the outhouse by one of their oxen.

If you've ever wondered what it was like to "go off the grid," this is an honest retelling of the pleasures and the perils of doing so. Plus you get the wonderful pen-and-ink drawings of Erin Ackerman-Leist!

 The Sisters Grimm: The Problem Child, Michael Buckley
The sisters Grimm, Sabrina and Daphne, have no sooner started to cope with the destruction of their elementary school and the loss of "Mr. Canis," their grandmother's unconventional chauffeur (hint: he's really the big bad wolf!) than their uncle Jack shows up. Under Granny Relda's disapproving eye, Jack encourages Sabrina to dabble in the magic that her grandmother endeavors to keep her away from. But it's hard for Sabrina as the world of the Everafters is threatened by a new menace: Little Red Riding Hood. Driven mad by the death of her granny, Little Red is even invading Sabrina's dreams.

There's a bit more meat in this edition of Buckley's delightful "mash up" of fairy-tale characters as Uncle Jack tempts Sabrina into something she may become addicted to: magic! And with Daphne's new martial arts talents, can a rousing finale not be far behind?

 A Year at the Races, Jane Smiley
Another bargain-table find. It was...okay. I've noticed Smiley's name on several different best-selling books, and as this was about the training of race horses, I thought it might be interesting. The horse parts—about their individual, sometimes quirky personalities, how they are trained, and the backstage dealings at the race track—are fascinating, but the bits about the pet psychic are just...odd. The horse doesn't like its name so Smiley has to change it?

 Tales from a Dog Catcher, Lisa Duffy-Korpics
If you're a dog lover, you'll probably enjoy this collection of tales by Duffy-Korpics, who supported herself before and during college by being an animal-control officer in a small New York town. It has the flavor of a Chicken Soup for the Soul volume (in fact, several of the stories here have been in Chicken Soup volumes). You'll read about people willing to give up almost anything for their pets, and callous human beings not worthy of the name human; quirky owners (sadly, some quirky enough to endanger their pets) and those enriched by the lives of their animals—even a sociopathic dog. This is a good book for bedside reading, perhaps one story a night—but be warned in the case of some of them: tissues should be available.

 Mr. Monk in Trouble, Lee Goldberg
Well, isn't he always? :-) This time Monk and Natalie find themselves in Trouble, an almost forgotten gold-rush town—well, almost forgotten except for that tantalizing gold robbery in 1962—at the request of Captain Stottelmeyer; an old friend of his has been murdered while working at the town museum. Monk is appalled by the rustic town, but not appalled enough to not become intrigued in both the murder of the Captain's friend and the 1962 gold robbery. And along the way, Natalie starts reading a gold-rush era diary that features a young widow who works for a startlingly familiar, squeakily-clean assayer: a fellow named Artemis Monk.

Some bits of this book are fun, especially the improbable diary entries. But, oh, goodness, the running gag is back...times two. Please...please, not again... Not to mention that the murderer was so obvious that even I twigged to the person immediately.

 The Mapmakers, John Noble Wilford
Can anyone actually look at a map, especially a map of "places far," perhaps those mentioned in story and song, and read the exotic names without a sense of longing for adventure? Wilford begins at the beginning, with the idea of the map drawn into the sand by some ancient ancestor, and wanders the earth on the trails of the mapmakers: the ancients including the Egyptians and Greeks, the medieval cartographers who brought us the T-O maps, the men of the Age of Discovery, the mapmakers who seek to draw the most accurate maps, the search for preciseness in latitude and longitude, surveying, ocean mapping, and finally, to the methods of today, using spaceflight, computers, and GPS to make a better map. Wholly absorbing.

The 55-Question Book Meme

1. Favorite childhood book?

Oh, goodness, how could I choose one from such riches? Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Eight Cousins, Lassie Come-Home, Black Beauty, Beautiful Joe, The Green Poodles, Friday's Tunnel, National Velvet, Johnny Tremain, Understood Betsy, The Good Master and The Singing Tree, The Swiss Family Robinson, anything Marguerite Henry wrote...and more.

2. What are you reading right now?

I'm just finishing The Mapmakers by John Noble Wilford. I'm also reading Grandmere by David Roosevelt, The Writer's Tale by Russell T. Davis and Benjamin Cook, The Power of Babel by John McWhorter, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the World of Narnia, and the fourth "Sisters Grimm" book.

3. What books do you have on request at the library?

Memoirs of a Prairie Bitch by Alison Arngrim and The Way I See It by Melissa Anderson.

4. Bad book habit?

There are bad habits about books? :-) Okay, sometimes I'm so interested in my book I eat while I have a meal. This is not only bad manners, but sometimes I get food spots on the book. I also riffle the page edges, which I'm sure would make some folks squirm.

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?

None at the moment.

6. Do you have an e-reader?

Not a stand-alone one. I have a reader called "Aldiko" on my Droid, and download old children's series books from Munseys.com. I'm presently excited because I found at least three more of Hildegarde Frey's "Camp Fire Books" online. I love these old series books! They are terribly racist sometimes, to the point of being painful, but they're an honest portrayal of the time, and some of them are still pretty exciting. I've sampled "The High School Boys," "The West Point Series," "The Annapolis Series," "The Young Engineers" (all with the same set of characters), "The Pony Rider Boys," "Grace Harlowe," "Ruth Fielding," "Betty Gordon," etc. I also have the Kindle app and the Nook app, but really don't intend to buy any books. I like the feel of pages and paper.

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?

LOL. I think I answered that in question 2.

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?

I don't believe my habits have changed because of my blog, but I'm buying entirely too many books that I read about on other book blogs!

9. Least favorite book you read this year?

Skipping the "joke" books I bought, like The Lost Blogs, I think I was most disappointed in The Revolutionary Paul Revere. The narration was just too "hip" and "flip." Honorable mention to Candy Freak, which started out being a homage to small candy companies and turned into a political rant/whine.

10. Favorite book you’ve read this year?

Just one? Some wonderful young adult/children's stuff: Nick of Time, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, The Boneshaker, and also the wonderful The Fourth Part of The World, American History Revised, Picard's Victorian London, Hello, Everybody: The Dawn of American Radio, The Mapping of Love and Death, and An Expert in Murder.

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?

Since I read anything that interests me, there's not much out of my comfort zone. I don't read much horror, though, except for a couple of early Stephen King books, or true crime, and am not likely to.

12. What is your reading comfort zone?

History, the occasional sociological text, children and young adult books that don't involve vampires and werewolves (especially vintage books), cozy mysteries, the occasional police procedural and fantasy, geography, geology, homespun things (like Gladys Taber), the occasional television-based novel, linguistics, the occasional biography, New England travel, OTR, media, humor, and trivia.

13. Can you read on the bus?

I can, but I'd rather look at the scenery. Haven't been on a bus route for years.

14. Favorite place to read?

Stretched out on the sofa, with instrumental Christmas music playing (no matter what time of year).

15. What is your policy on book lending?

Close friends are fine.

16. Do you ever dog-ear books?

Used to as a kid. I do riffle the pages when I read.

17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?

Goodness, no!

18. Not even with text books?

Textbooks I've highlighted. (And pertinent parts in HTML books.)

19. What is your favorite language to read in?

English. Learned a little Italian in school, but never learned to read comfortably in it.

20. What makes you love a book?

Memorable characters, rich vocabulary, interesting setting, information imparted in an interesting style without being too cutesy or too ponderous.

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?

:-) Memorable characters, rich vocabulary, interesting setting, information imparted in an interesting style without being too cutesy or too ponderous.

22. Favorite genre?

Er...wow. Mystery, I guess, followed by history.

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)

I read what I like.

24. Favorite biography?

No contest! Life is a Banquet by Rosalind Russell and Chris Chase. Or are autobiographies not allowed?

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?

Yes, mostly about being organized. To my mother's despair, I never was very organized. At least I am trying to keep up with the decluttering.

26. Favorite cookbook?

Anything that's readable rather than instructing me to cook. I hate to cook. I have to say The Little House Cookbook, because it gives so much additional information about how the Ingalls and other pioneers ate and survived.

27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or nonfiction)?

I don't think I've read any inspirational books yet this year. The closest I've come is the Molly Wizenberg book.

28. Favorite reading snack?

No, no, no. Try not to do that. Just a glass of skim milk. Okay, cherries if they're in season.

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.

Not ruined my experience, but certainly didn't live up to it. Like Angels and Demons, which reminded me of the early 20th century boys' adventure novels I was downloading from Munseys.com, sexed up and "violenced" up. Another overhyped book was The Godfather.

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?

About half of the time. I find I really don't like New York Times bestsellers most of the time. They're either pretentious or about families with emotional problems that I don't want to read about.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?

It depends on if I feel the writer has made some effort with the book or not. Some books just don't work. You regret giving bad reviews to those because the book had good prospects but just had deficiencies in plot or character. Other times a writer appears to have just dashed a book off to make a quick buck. One doesn't mind criticizing them as much.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?

Italian, so I could read The Decameron in the original Italian.

33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?

I don't think I've ever tackled an intimidating book.

34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?

That would probably be something Russian, like War and Peace.

35. Favorite poet?

Robert Frost—although many of my favorite poems are not by Frost, like my absolute favorite, Alistair Reid's "Curiosity."

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?)

Hm. I usually go in for one and come out with three or four.

Sometimes five. :-)

37. How often have you returned a book to the library unread?

Once, I think. I didn't like the book very much and didn't finish it. I liked it so little, apparently, that I've forgotten what it was, too. :-)

38. Favorite fictional character?

Oh, goodness, you can't do that to me. If I had to pick one, probably Mary Stewart's Merlin. But how can I leave off February Callendar, Rebecca Randall, Sir Adam Sinclair, Cilla Lapham, Hermione Granger, Lord Peter Wimsey, Huckleberry Finn, "Gran" Preston, Kate and Jansci Nagy, Harry Dresden, Jo March, Rudolf Rassendyll, Anne Shirley, all of Hildegard Frey's Camp Fire Girls (especially Migwan), Dorothy Canfield's "Betsy"...and so many more. I'd invite them all to dinner if I could!

39. Favorite fictional villain?

Favorite as in "he was so nasty that I really hated his guts"? Probably David Jenkins in Memoirs of an Invisible Man. But that's probably because Sam Neill did him so well in the film. If we're going for "charming but evil," the first thought that comes to me is Rupert of Hentzau.

[Later: Oh, oh—Pap Finn!]

40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?

Actually, I usually take a bound issue of St. Nicholas magazine with me because the different stories will keep me busy for a week.

41. The longest I’ve gone without reading.

When I was in the hospital in 1990, probably three or four days. I just couldn't concentrate after the anesthesia.

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.

Oh, that's easy. It's the book I threw against the wall in college: Joyce Carol Oates' Wonderland.

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?

My husband reading aloud to me from what he's reading. But I do it back!

44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?

The Andromeda Strain (not the awful remake). Close second place: Airport. Very honorable mention, made for television: Centennial.

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?

Both made for television: A Wrinkle in Time or A Ring of Endless Light.

46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?

I think I spend more on Amazon.com, but it's probably about $75.00.

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?

Often, but not frequently. I will skim if I am doubtful about purchasing the book.

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?

Boredom, tops. Also excessive violence or just something really gross.

49. Do you like to keep your books organized?

Yes, they are pretty much all organized, but all are not alphabetized. Still haven't gotten to the humor books.

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?

I keep them if I like them and think I would read them again. If I don't like them, they go directly into the donate box, and when the box is full, it goes to the library.

51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?

Twilight and anything else that has to do with vampires, werewolves, and zombies. I'm just not interested. I don't get the vampire thing at all. Vampires are dead. They are cold. Imagine cuddling with a dead cold person. ::shudder::

52. Name a book that made you angry.

It was a Cleveland Amory book about animal cruelty. I ended up wanting to be really cruel to some humans.

53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?

I didn't know if I would like it or not, but Gone With the Wind. I had to order a book from a book club selection booklet and it was the only one that looked of any interest at all. It was my mom's favorite movie and I thought that if I didn't like it, she might. Well, I was enthralled for four solid days. I did nothing but read GWTW and sleep, except for the two days I was in school (I brought it with me and read it whenever I could, including in the back of math class—surely more interesting than nasty old algebra) and at church.

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?

My best friend recommended Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy, but I was bored silly. I've never been much of a hard science fiction fan, though.

55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?

Bound issues of St. Nicholas magazine, thanks. Kate Seredy's The Open Gate. Stewart's Merlin trilogy. Gladys Taber. Happy now.

Books Finished Since July 1

 The Rebellion of Jane Clarke, Sally Gunning
While this isn't "chick lit" specifically, I don't see this book appealing much to men. I suppose one could even call this a female version of Johnny Tremain. Jane Clarke is a young lady of marriageable age living on Cape Cod; her father, a contentious miller, has been accused of an unspeakable crime against a neighbor he has been feuding with. When Jane doubts her father, and also refuses the marriage proposal of a promising young man, her father ships her off to the home of an unpleasant, sickly aunt in a Boston being consumed by revolutionary fevour. Ironically, Jane's nursemaid duties gradually set her free from conventional thought, as she discovers how ardent a patriot her brother has become, befriends both British and revolutionary figures including bookseller Henry Knox, and grows in both personal and self knowledge. It's a well-written voyage of self-discovery with a nice period feel.

 The Lost Blogs: From Jesus to Jim Morrison, Paul Davidson
What if [insert historical figure here] had had his/her own blog? This is actually a good bathroom book, if you buy it off the bargain shelf since the quality of the humorous blog entries varies; some are actually chuckle-worthy and others just downright dull. Some of the cleverest ones are actually done as graphics.

 It's That Time Again!: The New Stories of Old-Time Radio, edited by Ben Ohmart
Finding this collection was a total surprise; I had no idea anyone was writing stories based on old radio series (what was even more surprising is that three other volumes exist!). The only caveat to what the writers could tackle was that the stories must be original to radio (so no Sherlock Holmes, Superman, Orphan Annie), etc. To me, some of the stories worked, but a few didn't, mainly the ones where the OTR setting was brought up to date, like the Captain Midnight tale. The "Our Miss Brooks" story was the funniest of the lot, capturing Connie Brooks' narrative style, and I also really enjoyed the "Sergeant Preston" story and the "Frontier Gentleman" piece also matched the kind of story the series did, although I guessed what was going on immediately. Some good fantasy pieces, too, especially in the "Dimension X" story. If you're an OTR fan, definitely a must-have.

 A Homemade Life, Molly Wizenberg
There seems to be a trend these days for books that are combination life-lessons and experiences/recipe collections, like Confections of a Closet Master Baker. This one, by blogger Molly Wizenberg of "Orangette," is a by turns amusing and heartbreaking, with interstices of intriguing recipes. As any friend of mine knows, I'm no friend to the stove, the oven, or the cutting board, but Wizenburg's adventures with food along with stories of her larger-than-life father Burg, her sole sojourn to Paris and the boy who left her behind, and her courtship with her husband Brandon make a stew of memories and mouthfuls so delicious that even I can't resist. One portion of the book sent me into tears, however: Wizenburg's chronicle of her father's final illness was heart-wrenching and brought me back to the death of my mother. Find a comfy corner, have a cup of some fragrant drink and a specialty item from a good bakery (or, better yet, make something homemade), and enjoy.

 Priceless, Robert K. Wittman
This was an Amazon Vine choice that looked interesting, and indeed it was. Bob Wittman wanted to be an FBI agent from the time he was a small child. Initially turned down by the Bureau, Bob became a businessman, a husband, a father—and then had the opportunity to join the FBI again. Once an agent, he became intrigued with the fight to recover stolen works of art, and the book chronicles his undercover efforts to recover not only stolen paintings from the world's greatest artists and Rodin sculptures, but illegally sold Native American artifacts and even a rare Norman Rockwell piece. Wittman meets all sorts of creepy gangster types and almost has his cover blown several times (sadly, once by someone who was supposed to be on his side). I enjoyed reading this, but was dismayed to find that the United States spends so little time and energy on recovering these precious treasures compared to other countries, and that the FBI would screw up the chance to recover the priceless art stolen from the Gardner museum in Boston just because some idiot supervisor had to stroke his ego by micromanaging the situation. I guess some executives have to be *ssh*les no matter what kind of important business they are in; Congress doesn't have a monopoly on these idiots.

 Heat Wave, Richard Castle
Wow, that Castle guy can write a heck of a sex scene! :-) Seriously, if you watch the Castle television series, all this will be familiar to you: award-winning magazine writer Jameson Rook [rook...castle...get it?], son of a famous stage actress, partners with tough, gorgeous homicide detective Nikki Heat, who has two police partners (one Irish, one Hispanic), an African-American boss, and an ally in the sassy coroner. (Alexis Castle doesn't seem to have a counterpart.) The book gets much steamier than the series, so if you've been longing for Castle/Beckett action, this may help your cravings. The story about the death of a wealthy businessman who was not what he seemed tries to be suitably complicated, but I guessed the perp halfway through, and most of the fun is noting the Castle conventions in book form. Oh, the "good stuff" is on pages 103-106, if you want to peek. :-)

 Amazing But True Bird Tales, Allen Zullo and Mara Bovsun
I found this for three dollars on Hamilton Books site; it's a delightful small volume of true stories about birds, from bird thieves (stealing golf balls) to bird heroes (awaking owners to a fire) to odd things birds do (becoming fixated on humans or other animals, trying to incubate stones, imitating technological sounds), and more. From hummingbirds to emus, there's something interesting—but mostly funny—in this volume for bird lovers.

 Common Birds of Atlanta, Jim Wilson and Anselm Atkins
JUst what it says; text about the bird on the even pages and photos of same on the facing pages, going in size from the smallest (hummingbird) to largest (crane). Perfect for bird spotters.

 Murder Most Medieval, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and John Helfers
I find anthologies often on spotty ground, mediocre tales mixed with better ones (although sometimes you get a total dud). This was one of the better mystery short story collections I have picked up recently. My favorites in this volume were Doug Allyn's Tallifer story, in which the minstrel who agrees to escort a blind girl has a very different adventure than he imagines, Ellis Peters' "origin story" of how Cadfael left military service and went into the monastery, and an unusual story of Robin Hood and Maid Marian, but I enjoyed all the tales, even the Sister Fidelma story, which I must confess, I found slightly dull. Fans of medieval mysteries will probably enjoy this book.

 Making Time: Lillian Moller Gilbreth—A Life Beyond Cheaper by the Dozen, Jane Lancaster
If bringing up a dozen boisterous children and being a "working mother" at the same time seemed like it was fun when you read Cheaper by the Dozen, this is the flip side to the hijinks. Lillie Moller (she changed her name to Lillian upon graduating from college because she thought it sounded more mature) was the daughter of a well-to-do family who could have married into "money" and been pampered for the rest of her life. Instead the bright, intelligent girl, who attended college and won a degree, then went on for her doctorate in an era when women were supposed to be maternal or ornamental, married self-taught engineer Frank Bunker Gilbreth, who willingly accepted his wife as an intellectual partner. Together, until his death in 1924, and then afterwards, Lillie Gilbreth made inroads in the field of motion study and psychology in the workplace. This biography reveals many personal things that weren't brought out in Cheaper and its sequel, Belles on Their Toes (which were, after all, not really biographies but humorous memoirs). If you were ever curious about the Gilbreths beyond the process charts, taking a bath in the least amount of time, and having tonsils removed en masse, this is an in-depth, well-paced narrative.

 A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson
After reading his two books about the English language, his Tales from a Small Island and I'm a Stranger Here Myself, not to mention the delightful Short History of Nearly Everything, I thought the next Bryson to investigate should be his volume about his plan to walk the Appalachian Trail. I started it several months ago, then put it down, really turned off by the buddy Bryson picked to be his walking companion, an overweight junk-foodie named Katz. However, when I return to it, Katz didn't seem all that bad; in fact, he was right in place among the often odd hikers Bryson meets on his quest between the earnest nature aficionados and hiking fans. I ultimately enjoyed the volume as a whole, but often was irritated at Bryson's humor; however, descriptions of breathtaking woodland settings, trail companions, and odd places along the route won out over these occasional lapses. Bryson fans will enjoy.


 The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, Jacqueline Kelly
In 1899, Calpurnia Virginia Tate, "Callie Vee" to her family, is sandwiched between three older brothers and three younger, the despair of her mother who wishes her to grow up ladylike, and, like her brothers, is in fear of her grandfather, who lives with them, but who has given up on the family business to hole up in an old shed, his "laboratory." Then one day, to satisfy curiosity, Calpurnia braves her grandfather's expected wrath.

What a surprise then that the old man opens a new world to Calpurnia, that of nature, and the two of them form a close bond. In the meantime, she lives through the day-to-day routine of a Victorian child: piano lessons, problems with her brothers, worrying about losing the love of her beloved older brother, and, worst of all, lessons in "domestic science" from her mother and the family cook, who expect her to fit the women's mold of the time.

This is a wonderful book: Calpurnia's narration is bright and sparkling, her brothers torment her but love her, the slice-of-life sequences remind one of Penrod, frequently with a bit of humor. The descriptions of the weather, the countryside, the town, Grandfather's "laboratory," etc. were vivid, bringing the era and setting to life. I was also impressed that the author did not make the mistake of so many modern books, that the "good" white people are somehow enlightened to the plight of minorities and treat them well where others do not. Sadly, this was the subtle prejudice that was so hard to overcome in those days, that minorities were only fit for manual work and that "they want to be that way." It is a great irony that while Calpurnia and her grandfather are learning so much about the natural world, they have not yet learned the most basic of lessons, that skin color is not a barrier to intelligence or ambition. Other little ironies abound, like the fact that Mrs. Tate deplores the use of "drink," yet in stressful times takes Lydia Pinkham's "vegetable compound," which is one-fifth alcohol.

Every once in a while, a word or phrase breaks the carefully crafted 19th century world for a second, but this is a minor problem only. Highly recommended.

 In Spite of Myself, Christopher Plummer
What a fascinating book! More a stream of memories than an actual autobiography, Plummer starts with his unconventional upbringing in Canada, continues with his breakthrough into acting, and then just keeps going, Energizer Bunny style, in an endless string of sometimes humorous, sometimes sad, very often eye-popping adventures. These aren't the tales of his upright life: if the narrative is being straight with the reader, Plummer seemed to spend half of his life inebriated, or at least drinking a lot; he admits that his first two marriages were made on whims and he was an absentee husband and father, and that he was often boastful, crass, rude, profane, or otherwise not the world's best guy.

On the other hand, his stories of acting on stage and in the movies were mesmerizing, especially tales of noted actors like Sir Laurence Olivier, Jason Robards, Raymond Massey, Eva Le Gallienne, James Mason, Mildred Natwick, Rex Harrison, Rachel Roberts, Kate Reid, Katherine Cornell; writers like Lillian Hellman and Neil Simon; producers, directors, "Broadway angels," locations including a miserable, filthy set and lodgings in the Soviet Union, and so many more. Since Hollywood tales are "a dime a dozen," much dirt being dished on the popular magazines of my childhood like "Photoplay," "Screen Stories," "TV-Radio Mirror," etc. which my mother bought and I surreptitiously read, I found Plummer's tale of stage life, foibles and fumbles the most absorbing. He even tells a good dog story about his family pets.

This rambling narrative probably could have used a good editing, but for myself, I had a great time wandering amongst Plummer's memories. YMMV.