Ariadne’s Legacy

I checked and I haven’t blogged about books since July 2008.  Oops.  I’ve been reading more than blogging since then, so I won’t mention everything I’ve read (don’t wanna bore you), but some highlights. 

I should mention that some things I read in print and some on audio.  I rarely buy books full price.  I usually get them from the library (duh), download from my Audible membership, or pick them up here and there really cheap.  We have a Half Price Books nearby now, so I’m thrilled about that.  I love the $1.00 clearance section!

Kid Stuff

• The Sisters Grimm: Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley:  Cute “mystery”/fantasy.
• Winter of Peril by Jan Andrews; Turned Away by Carol Matas; An Ocean Apart by Gillian Chan; A Trail of Broken Dreams by Barbara Haworth; With Nothing But Our Courage by Karleen Bradford; No Safe Harbour by Julie Lawson:  Who knew they had Dear Canada books as well as  Dear America?  I bought them for the library because some of our girls have pretty much been through all the Dear Americas.
• Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson:  How can you resist a book whose blurb includes the phrase “the cult of evil Librarians plotting to take over the world”?  It’s a hoot!
• A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban:  A quirky little gem about imperfect people that was in our book fair.
• The Mother-Daughter Book Club by Heather Vogel Frederick:  “Chick lit light” for young adults.  Four teen girls are dragged into a book club against their will; of course they learn to get along and appreciate themselves and their families more, but the characters themselves are pretty fascinating.  

Mysteries

• The Widow’s Tale and others by Margaret Frazer:  Set in medieval England, they’re not as good as the Brother Cadfael ones by Ellis Peters, but they bring the period to life.
• The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie:  Typical English mystery; they’ve had Miss Marple on the local PBS station, motivating me to pick up a few of that series.
• The Eye of Jade by Diane Wei Liang: Set in today’s Beijing, an interesting look at current Chinese society along with a mystery.
• The Transcendental Murder by Jane Langton: The first in the Homer Kelly series, it is a bit dated, but extremely funny. [Note: Laura, you would probably like it as it is set in your old stomping ground and features an literature professor.]
• Thread of Deceit by Catherine Palmer: An “inspirational/Christian fiction” book; I could see the bad guy from a mile away, but the main characters are interesting and it’s a nice love story.
• The Bordeaux Betrayal by Ellen Crosby: Third in a series set in the wine country of Virginia, this one mixes in some history involving Thomas Jefferson.
• Sound Tracks by Marcia Simpson:  A mystery set in the panhandle of Alaska.  Well, the mystery part isn’t all that mysterious, but it’s got interesting characters and is very atmospheric.  I think I would have liked this one even better in print as I thought the narrator wasn’t the best.

History / Travel

• The Loyalists by Christopher Moore: More Nova Scotia / New Brunswick history.
• The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester: An interesting biography of Joseph Needham, who, as the title indicates, was a great adventurer and scholar of China.
• Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron: An intreped Brit treks along the route of the former Silk Road; bet you didn’t know much about Kyrgyzstan either.
• Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell: To say that the author traced the sites associated with three presidential assassinations sounds boring — in reality this book is an absolute hoot and packed with interesting anecdotes.  It’s best in audio as she has a unique voice and does her own narration (Sarah Vowell was also the voice of Violet in The Incredibles). 
• The Passport by Martin Lloyd: A history and anecdotal treatment of passports.  Again, it doesn’t sound like the most exciting book, but it pulls in the attempt to assassinate Napoleon III, Machiavelli, forgery, and spies.
• Inventing Niagara by Ginger Strand: A little heavy on the environmental message, but full of stuff you never knew about Niagara Falls.

I also read a couple of Brit Lit titles:  Starburst by Robin Pilcher (Rosamunde Pilcher’s son), which is set in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy, set in Ireland.

I have got to blog more frequently — catching up takes way too long!

Last year on this date I arrived in beautiful Cape Breton. Sigh. I’d love to take another road trip, but it doesn’t look like it’s on the agenda this summer.

However, for those of you who like to browse here for book suggestions [Laura ] here’s a “few” I’ve read lately.

• Several in the Daisy Dalrymple 1920s mystery series by Carola Dunn: Damsel in Distress, Dead in the Water, the Winter Garden Mystery
• Halsey’s Typhoon: The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue by Bob Drury & Tom Clavin — the story of a 1944 typhoon that struck the Pacific Fleet during WWII. Not my usual type of read (as much as I like history, World War II is not one of my favorites and the book had some harrowing passages) but it was on audio at the public library so I gave it a try. Coincindentally, John McCain’s grandfather featured prominently.
• The Tomb of Zeus by Barbara Cleverly — another 1920s mystery, set at an archaeological dig on Crete
• Pushing Up Daisies by Rosemary Harris — landscaper Paula Holliday stumbles upon body in the course of her work. I really liked her interaction with the cops, especially “MOM,” Sgt. Mike O’Malley. Unfortunately this seems the first in the series and I don’t think any others are out yet.
• Barometer Rising by Hugh MacLennan — a novel set at the time of the Halifax explosion in 1917. I picked it up last year on my trip (in Halifax, of course).
• Several children’s books: The Court of the Stone Children by Eleanor Cameron, Magyk and Flyte by Angie Sage (my oldest niece is two books ahead of me on this series), Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little by Peggy Gifford (my younger niece would like this; it’s a hoot), and The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander. That last one I’d read when I was young and thought I’d reread it since I bought a copy for the new library.
• I also got on a fantasy kick and read or listened to several Tamora Pierce books: Wild Magic, Wolf Speaker, The Circle of Magic Quartet, Trickster’s Choice.
• I listened to A Distant Mirror: the Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman while I did a lot of my quilt work — kind of a downer, what with the plague, wars, exploitation of peasants, etc. And not being able to see all that French written out (I’m such a visual person) drove me crazy. But it was very informative.
• A Very Dangerous Woman: Martha Wright and Women’s Rights by Sherry H. Penny and James D. Livingston — an interesting biography picked up at Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, NY, last summer.

I’ve started exercising again. I figure if Dara Torres can make the Olympics at 41, I can get into shape (although, round is already a shape). Note to self: taking the iPod to the gym does no good if you leave the earbuds in the car.