Challenge Complete: Bucket List 2012

The 2012 "Bucket List" Reading Challenge was the challenge to sign up for if YOU have a list of books that you are dying to read but just haven't gotten to them yet. The Rules are simple for this challenge and The Eclectic Bookshelf has included a couple of sample "Bucket" Lists to provide a good starting point. If you'd like to join in, click on the Challenge Button above to head to the site.**

As you can see, I jumped in for the Semi level (13+ books). Here are the books I used to complete the challenge:

1. Prayers to Broken Stones by Dan Simmons (1/14/12)
2. The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells (2/3/12)
3. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (2/14/12)
4. Nothing Can Rescue Me by Elizabeth Daly (2/18/12)
5. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (2/29/12)
6. The Curious Cape Cod Skull by Marie Lee (3/21/12)
7. The Rose Window & Other Verse from New Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke (3/22/12)
8. The So Blue Marble by Dorothy B. Hughes (3/24/12)
9. A Sprig of Sea Lavender by J. R. L. Anderson (3/31/12)
10. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (4/4/12)
11. The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart (4/14/12)
12. The Gemini Man by Susan Kelly (4/15/12)
13. Dracula by Bram Stoker (4/25/12)
14. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery (5/4/12)

 **Please note: The Eclectic Bookshelf site is now defunct and it appears that she has left blogging altogether.  But--I still finished the challenge, even though I can't tell her so.

Anne of Green Gables: Review

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery is, I am quite sure, a much more delightful book than what my review may say.  Not that it wasn't a good story.  I did enjoy it--but I think I would have enjoyed it more some other time.  I've mentioned before here on My Reader's Block that I think that some books are meant for specific times in our lives--not necessarily the same time of life for everyone. I never really got into the "girl" books when I was growing up (Little House on the Prairie, the Anne books, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Pollyanna, etc....and all those horse-centered books).  There was a point in college when I read Pollyanna and I must have hit it just right because I thoroughly enjoyed it (it helped that I could picture Hayley Mills in the part).

This is a very nice story of Anne (that's Ann with an "e") being adopted by Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert at the turn of last century.  Not that they intended on adopting an orphan girl....no.  They had decided to get a boy who could be trained and be a help to Matthew on the farm.  However, their instructions to a friend who was already on her way to adopt a little girl of her own was garbled by the messenger and it is Anne who Matthew finds waiting at the train station to be picked up.

At first Marilla is determined that Anne must go back to the orphanage, but it doesn't take long for this talkative "queer witch of a girl" to cast her spell upon everyone she meets.  And Anne becomes part of the Cuthbert family.  The book follows Anne from that point all the way through her certification as a teacher herself.  She gets into scrape after scrape--making friends and learning all along the way.

In some ways, Anne reminds me of Pollyanna with her generally sunny disposition and the way she wins people over despite their reluctance or mistrust of her character.  But then she has the stereotypical temperament of the redhead--flying into a rage over Gilbert's calling her "carrots" and then holding a grudge over it for about four years.  She feels all of her emotions (not just sunny, positive ones) very deeply.  I do appreciate Anne's enthusiasm and way of looking at life--but her loooooooooonnnnnnngggggggggg monologues on how much she talks and she knows that she shouldn't and she'll really try and stop really got on my nerves a bit.  Probably wouldn't have bothered me as much if I'd read this sooner.  Personal rating three stars for a nice, solid story.  But I can certainly see why this is a classic and why so many people love it (and the series).

Quotes:

It's delightful when your imaginations come true, isn't it?

 True friends are always together in spirit.

People laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas, you have to use big words to express them, haven't you? 

For a moment Anne's heart fluttered queerly and for the first time her eyes faltered under Gilbert's gaze and a rosy flush stained the paleness of her face. It was as if a veil that had hung before her inner consciousness had been lifted, giving to her view a revelation of unsuspected feelings and realities. Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one's life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one's side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music, perhaps. . . perhaps. . .love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.

All life lessons are not learned at college, she thought. Life teaches them everywhere.

Ruby Gillis thinks of nothing but young men, and the older she gets the worse she is. Young men are all very well in their place, but it doesn't do to drag them into everything, does it?

Don't you just love poetry that gives you a crinkly feeling up and down your back?

...because when you are imagining, you might as well imagine something worthwhile. [Anne Shirley] (p.13)

It's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will. [Anne] (p. 30)

I read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I've never been able to believe it. I don't believe a rose WOULD be as nice if it was called a thistle or a skunk cabbage. [Anne] (p. 32)

Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I'd do. I'd go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep, deep woods and I'd look up into the sky - up, up, up - into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I'd just feel a prayer. [Anne] (p. 41)

All things great are wound up with all things little. (p. 108)

It's all very well to say resist temptation, but it's ever so much easier to resist it if you can't get the key. [Anne Shirley] (p. 111)

You know there are some things that cannot be expressed in words. [Anne] (p. 113)

“Miss Barry was a kindred spirit after all," Anne confided to Marilla, "You wouldn't think so to look at her, but she is. . . Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.” (p.125)

...somehow it it's hard to carry out your resolutions when irresistible temptations come. [Anne] (p. 157)

 It must be a great deal better to be sensible; but still, I don't believe I'd really like to be a sensible person, because they are so unromantic. [Anne] (p. 160)

It's always wrong to do anything you can't tell the minister's wife. [Anne] (p. 182)

...she makes me love her and I like people who make me love them.  It saves me so much trouble in making myself love them. [Mrs. Barry] (p. 222)

Dracula: Review

Dracula by Bram Stoker is the classic horror story.  No sparkling boy-vampires here.  No teen angst.  Just plain and simple, down-right nasty evil--the Master of the Undead and the "children of the night" (read wolves).  This vampire story, despite all the in-depth criticism and literary analysis, is not about seduction.  It's not sexy.  This is Count Dracula in all his baseness wanting to exert his mastery over the human race and to make everyone--especially Mina Harker--do his bidding and become like him.  He doesn't want Mina Harker because he wants to thrill her with his all-powerful, undying masculinity.  He wants first to punish her for interfering with his plans and then to make her his creature to in turn harm her husband and the others in their small group of crusaders.

Dracula is one of those stories that you assume that everyone knows.  It has been such a part of our culture--from Bela Lugosi's Dracula of the 1930s to the 1992 "Bram Stoker's Dracula."  Stoker's version may not be the very first vampire story--but it is the one that set the standards for vampires.  We all know how vampires behave because of this novel--they can change form (primarily bats and wolves), they are stronger than normal men, they are strongest at night (and in some cases can't bear daylight), they must have their native soil with them for strength, they can almost hypnotize their victims when overpowering them, they can't stand garlic and crosses and other religious icons. 

This story tells us about Jonathan Harker, a young lawyer, who is sent to Transylvania to complete business affairs for a mysterious Count.  Count Dracula has plans to leave his native land and take up residence in England.  Harker and the office he works for have been procuring a house for the count and he has brought the final paperwork and summary of preparations for the count to sign and approve.  Harker's journey to the castle home of Count Dracula should warn him of what is to come.  The residents of the surrounding town and his fellow travelers all make signs to ward off the evil eye and his driver and the horses are more and more nervous the closer they get to castle.   Once at the castle, Harker notices that his host never eats with him and he discovers that the man casts no shadow and no reflection in the mirror Harker has brought to shave with.  Soon he finds that he is a prisoner in the castle and the Count does not intend that he will ever leave.  The young lawyer fears what fate awaits him at the hands of the Count...or the evil women who also inhabit the castle.  Harker makes a daring escape by climbing out a window and down the sheer castle wall below.

The story shifts to England where Harker's fiancee, Wilhelmina Murray is visiting with her dear friend Lucy Westenra.  Lucy has not been feeling well and falls into an old habit of sleep-walking.  Mina tries to restrain her, but Lucy cannot seem to resist the urge to walk at night.  Mina finds her one night up at a favorite sitting place--very weak and pale.  Dr. Seward is called in to examine her, but he cannot find a cause for her weak health.  He is mystified by odd puncture wounds in her neck.  He in turn calls upon his mentor, Professor Van Helsing to attend the girl.  Van Helsing is appalled at her state of health and eventually calls upon her fiancee, Lord Arthur Godalming (as well as Dr. Seward, Quincey Morse (another admirer of Lucy's) and himself) to give the young woman blood transfusions....all in a vain attempt to save her life.  But the blood of four good, strong men is not enough to save her and soon they are laying her to rest in the family vault.

Meanwhile, Harker has made it back to England--albeit unwell and delirious--and Mina had gone to his side to nurse him back to health. She is away when her friend dies.  It isn't long before children begin wandering off and when found they exhibit similar neck wounds to those found on Lucy.  All they can say about their experience is that they were lured away by a "bloofur lady."  Seward, Van Helsing, Godalming, and Morse band together to seek out the "bloofur lady"--and incident that will bring much heartache to Lord Godalming.   Harker recovers from his trauma and he and his now wife, Mina meet up with others.  They pool their stories and recollections of the incidents and Van Helsing convinces them that they must now go after the source of the trouble--the mysterious Count.  The rest of the book revolves around the group's efforts to thwart Dracula and end his reign of terror.

Told in the form of letters and diary entries, Stoker uses the various points of view very effectively.  Switching often from Harker's journal, Mina's letters and diary, Lucy's letters, and Dr. Seward's journal, we see events as they happen and sometimes from more than one perspective.  It is a very well-rounded method of story-telling--and quite good when done well.  As it is here.  Stoker manages to build the suspense and horror without the blood and gore and shock techniques often found in modern horror stories.  His use of atmosphere is superb.  A long, sometimes dense classic--but well worth the investment.  Four stars.

Two more comments:  First--my initial contact with the Dracula story was in an illustrated children's version (what would now be considered a graphic novel--although I don't believe that term was in use back in the dark ages when I was young).  Having now read the entire classic novel, I am amazed at how well done that condensed version was.  It was a very short paperback book--no more than 70 pages, I'd say--but it hit all the most important points.  And didn't skimp on the palpable horror either, I'm thinking in particular of the scenes with the "bloofur lady"--kids in the "dark ages" were apparently expected to be up to the challenge.  Here is a link that Pendulum Press classics illustrated edition..

And....One of the main reasons I'm reading this now is for the Man of la Book's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Challenge (among others).  Having read the graphic novel of The League of Extraordinary Gentleman (and not being extraordinarily impressed--click title for review), I just want to emphasize that I'm really unenthused with Alan Moore's vision of Mina Harker--er, Murray, since he has her divorced from Harker.  I'm not going to claim that I entirely endorse the Victorian view of women that Stoker presents--women as the angel of the home, bringing sweetness and comfort to their men.  A good woman giving her man "heaven on earth."  But he (Stoker) does get some kudos for showing Mina to have some brains and to be the true heroine of the novel.  I digress.  The point is, if we go with her creator's vision--she IS a very sweet woman.  She truly loves and is devoted to both her friend Lucy and her husband Harker.  And there is no way on earth you can get me to buy into the sour-faced wench that Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill (illustrator) has given us in League.  I still say she looks like she's got a poker shoved where the sun don't shine.  Yes, she's a strong female character--but Stoker gives us that with sweetness, not as lemonade with no sugar.

The Gemini Man: Review

The Gemini Man is Susan Kelly's debut novel and the first in a series of mysteries starring Liz Connors, free-lance writer, and her police lieutenant lover, Jack Lingemann. The setting is Cambridge, Massachusetts--with strong ties to Harvard University. Liz has lived in her new apartment building only three weeks and hasn't had time to really get to know her neighbors. But she comes home one evening to discover her next door neighbor Joan Stanley battered to death in a particularly violent crime. More deaths follow and Liz feels driven to do what she can to help Jack get to the bottom of what looks to be the work of a sexually-driven serial killer. Liz's leads take her to a crisis counseling center in Cambridge, the Harvard Psychology Department, and singles bars. But she doesn't expect her investigation to bring the danger so close to home.

Definitely a product of the 80s, the story is laced with humor and realistic characters. It gives us a peek back into what life was like twenty years ago (some of us remember...). I enjoyed the relationship between Liz and Jack and also enjoyed her abilities to get people to talk to her. Her job as a free-lance writer made it very plausible that others might confide in her when they were reluctant to talk to the police. The one draw-back--I spotted the culprit early on and the red herrings and false clues just weren't strong enough to cloud the issue. But--a good first book. Good enough that I'd certainly give this author another try. Three stars.

The Bat: Review

In Mary Roberts Rinehart's The Bat (a book based on the play which was a collaboration between Avery Hopwood and Rinehart--see note below), Cornelia Van Gorder, a spinster who has longed for adventure, takes herself, her Irish maid Lizzie, and her neice Dale off to the country to escape the city's summer heat. She rents a country home that has recently become available when Courtleigh Fleming, a local bank manager, died. She's bemoaning her quiet, unadventurous existence when suddenly the countryside becomes the center for some very mysterious activity.

Cornelia begins receiving anonymous notes meant to frighten her away from the house. There are rumors that The Bat, a notorious criminal mastermind, is in the area. And...in the wake of the bank manager's death, it is discovered that a large amount of bank funds are missing--as well as one of the bank clerks. Cornelia's neice begins acting strangely, her maid Lizzie is nervous as a cat, and her butler Billy is inscrutable (as all Chinese men of the time are represented). Dale brings home a new gardener who isn't what he seems and Cornelia decides to request that a detective be sent to help her get to the bottom of the nasty notes. Who on earth could possibly care if she spends her summer in the banker's abandoned house?

That's when the excitement begins. There are mysterious people popping in and out of rooms. Strangers on the roof and bats flying through the rooms. The detective seems ready to round up and use the rubber hose on anyone who even looks at him cross-eyed. Billy the butler scurries around seeing ghosts and Lizzie is screaming at the drop of a hat. Before long, the banker's nephew is dead, a secret room is discovered, and the missing money is found. Cornelia gets her adventure....and even gets the satisfaction of outwitting The Bat.

Great fun. This book (which is based on the play The Bat, which in turn was based on Rinehart's The Circular Staircase) reads like a serial story. Just about every chapter ends in a cliff-hanger moment and there is more action going on in this old house than you'd believe. Four stars.

Quotes:

Columnists took him up, played with the name and the terror, used the name and the terror as a starting point from which to exhibit their own particular opinions on everything and anything. Ministers mentioned him in sermons; cranks wrote fanatic letters denouncing him as one of the seven-headed beasts of the Apocalypse and a forerunner of the end of the world; a popular revue put on a special Bat number wherein eighteen beautiful chorus girls appeared masked and black-winged in costumes of Brazilian bat fur; there were Bat club sandwiches, Bat cigarettes, and a new shade of hosiery called simply and succinctly Bat. He became a fad - a catchword - a national figure. And yet - he was walking Death - cold - remorseless. But Death itself had become a toy of publicity in these days of limelight and jazz.

The situation's this: for the first time the super-crook - the super-crook of fiction - the kind that never makes a mistake - has come to life - real life.

"Sally doesn't remember when she was a younger generation herself," thought Miss Cornelia. "But I do - and if we didn't have automobiles, we had buggies - and youth doesn't change its ways just because it has cut its hair."

"I've stood by you through thick and thin," she mourned in a low voice. "I stood by you when you were a vegetarian - I stood by you when you were a theosophist - and I seen you through socialism, Fletcherism and rheumatism - but when it comes to carrying on with ghosts - " (Lizzie)

"Every man leads a double life and some more than that," Lizzie observed. "I guess it rests them, like it does me to take off my corset."

"Oh," she whispered, "you're just as bad as all the rest of 'em. A good-looking man comes in the door and your brains fly out the window!" (Lizzie)

"Miss Van Gorder, I confess - I'm very anxious for you," he continued. "This letter is - ominous. Have you any enemies?" (Dr. Wells) "Don't insult me! Of course I have. Enemies are an indication of character." (Cornelia Van Gorder)

"You won't change your mind?" he asked anew. (Dr. Wells) Miss Van Gorder's smile was obdurate. "I have a great deal of mind," she said. "It takes a long time to change it." Then, having exercised her feminine privilege of the last word, she sailed out of the room, still smiling, and closed the door behind her.

In her mind she was already beseeching her patron saint that she would not have to show the gentleman to his room. Her ideas of detectives were entirely drawn from sensational magazines and her private opinion was that Anderson might have anything in his pocket from a set of terrifying false whiskers to a bomb!

"I have read a great deal on the detection of crime," she said hotly, "and - " (Miss Cornelia)"Well, we all have our little hobbies," he said tolerantly. "A good many people rather fancy themselves as detectives and run around looking for clues under the impression that a clue is a big and vital factor that sticks up like - well, like a sore thumb. The fact is that the criminal takes care of the big and important factors. It's only the little ones he may overlook. To go back to your friend the Bat, it's because of his skill in little things that he's still at large." (Anderson)

Miss Cornelia moved over to her niece protectingly. She put a hand on Dale's shoulder to reassure her. But Dale was quite composed now - she had gone through so many shocks already that one more or less seemed to make very little difference to her overwearied nerves.

"My dear child," said the indomitable lady, with a sharp glance at Bailey's bewildered face, "I have employed many gardeners in my time and never before had one who manicured his fingernails, wore silk socks, and regarded baldness as a plant instead of a calamity."

"God knows I hate to move, but if there's one place safer in this house than another, I've yet to find it." (Lizzie)

"I'm going!" she announced. "I don't know where, but I'm going!" (Lizzie)

"I wish somebody would knock me on the head! I'd like to forget a few things!" moaned Lizzie, but the interruption went unregarded.

A brave man may be willing to fight with odds a hundred to one - but only a fool will rush on certain death.

The Maltese Falcon: Review

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm not a hard-boiled, private eye, noir-ish kind of girl. Philip Marlow, Mickey Spillane, Mike Hammer, Michael Shayne, Sam Spade and their fellows just don't really do it for me. At least not in print. The Maltese Falcon film with Humphrey Bogart? Love it. In fact, if I'm gonna do hard-boiled, private eye then I generally prefer them on screen....and in black and white, please. But I gotta give Dashiell Hammett credit. That man could write. And I now know why (beyond Bogey) I loved the movie....because so much of the dialogue was lifted right off the page. And Hammett's dialogue is absolutely right for this story. There are other reviewers that said that one annoyance with having seen the movie before reading the book is that you have Bogart's and Lorre's and Greenstreet's (etc) voice in your head when you read the dialog. I would say that one of the great things about having seen the movie before reading the book is that I have Bogart's voice in my head. He was absolutely perfect as Spade and I think it really helped me get over any lurking qualms I had about hard-boiled noir to have had the visual experience first. One of the rare instances when the movie got things right.

So...for those of you who have never seen the movie or read the book...here it is in nutshell. Sam Spade is a well-worn, world-weary private eye in San Francisco. He's approached by a woman who says she wants a man named Thursby tailed because he's run off with her younger sister. Spade's partner, Archer, agrees to do the job and gets himself killed for his good deed. Thursby winds up dead as well and Spade finds himself knee-deep in plot and counter-plot as the woman changes her name three times, various shady characters show up--all thinking he's got the goods on a mysterious black statue of a bird, and the police seem to think Spade's more deeply involved in the killings than is healthy for him. Spade has to fast-talk his way around suspicious cops, wily criminals, and gorgeous dames in order get out of this one with his skin whole. He also has to figure out who's side he's on...and who, if anybody, is on his. And just what is the limit of things people will do to get their hands on this fabled falcon?

Fast-talking, high-drama, action-packed mystery. A strong, flawed detective. A mysterious woman with more curves than a mountain road (and that's just in the stories she's feeds to our hero). A terrific read...and that comes from someone who doesn't enjoy the genre. If you've seen the movie, but haven't read the book--you should. If you've read the book, but haven't seen the movie--you should. Great stuff in both formats. Four stars.

A Sprig of Sea Lavender: Review

A Sprig of Sea Lavender by J. R. L. Anderson has been something of a Holy Grail-type book for me. It got added to my TBR/TBF list sometime in the 1980s and I've kept an eye out for it whenever I've gone to used book stores or book sales--with no luck. And then my mother-in-law went to visit her sister at Christmas and they went to a used book store in Jacksonville, FL. Mom-in-law was armed with a list of some of my most-wanted books (she didn't seem to want to take all 10-15 pages of my To-Be-Found list with her--I can't imagine why). Wonder of wonders, she came home with the Anderson book (along with 30-some others; have I mentioned what a great mom-in-law I have?).

Now, I can't exactly explain why this book appealed to me so much that I kept it on the TBF list for 20 years. I found it listed in The Mystery Lover's Companion by Art Bourgeau and something about his synopsis grabbed me and held on tight:

Piet Deventer of Scotland Yard investigates the murder of a young woman found dead on a train, with a fortune in artworks in a portfolio next to her. The only clue is a sprig of sea lavender. the trail leads to the seaside in an excellent read.

Not precisely a description to make you drop everything and run out to find it.....and yet I felt like it was a must-find. And, while I have disagreed with some of his favorites, I have found his ratings to be pretty reliable over-all.

Now, of course, you're wondering--was it worth the wait?

First things first, though. How about a little more on what it's all about? As mentioned the story begins and centers on the death of a young woman on a train. She comes rushing to the platform just as the train was pulling out and is hauled aboard by a young solicitor from London. From the beginning, he thinks she isn't feeling well and isn't surprised when she seems to fall into an exhausted sleep. However, when they reach their destination he finds that he can't waken her. For good reason, she's dead. The woman has no identification on her and the only items found in her possession or near her in the compartment are a portfolio of artwork and a sprig of wildflower later identified as sea lavender.

Chief Inspector Piet Deventer has had experience as an artist and serves as part of the Fine Arts Division of Scotland Yard. He is called in to check out the portfolio and is astonished find that three of the paintings appear to be unknown works by Constable, Gainsborough and Turner. If genuine, this means that the young woman was carrying a treasure-trove of artwork with her when she died. An examination soon proves that she died of an overdose of barbiturates--but the case is further complicated by the traces of arsenic also found in her system. Using good old-fashioned leg work, Deventer manages to discover the identity of the victim and uses his background in the arts to go undercover at a seaside art colony to get to the bottom of mystery.

This is a good, solid mystery. Not quite as fairly clued as I would like (there's no way I could have figured out the true identity of the culprit/s), but a nicely written police procedural. I like the character of Piet Deventer very much and would like to read more stories featuring him (note to self--are there more stories featuring him? A quick peek at the interwebs would seem to say no. :-( ). I'm glad I kept the book on my list--but, in all honesty, it's not the Holy Grail of mysteries, nor anything like. Just a good average book written in the late 70s. A quick read and full of adventure. Three stars.

Quotes:

I agree that her story is improbable, but the improbable is not necessarily untrue.
~Wilbur Constantine (p. 125)

But reason is one thing, imagination another, and imagination here was not greatly comforted by reason. (p. 164)

Vintage Theme #1 Complete: The So Blue Marble

The So Blue Marble (1940) was the debut novel for Dorothy B. Hughes. It is a bit thriller, a bit noir, and just a tad bit off-the-wall. The protagonist is Griselda, former actress, current fashion designer for the rich and famous in the glittering world of Hollywood. She has come back East for a rest and has taken advantage of her estranged husband's offer of his apartment for her stay. Con (the husband) is away on assignment and the apartment is conveniently empty.

She hasn't been there long when her nightmarish journey begins. A pair of dashing twins--identical in every way save that one is golden blond and the other dark-haired--in top hat and tails walk her home and begin to invade her life. And her younger sister, Missy, is involved with them as well (and quite the little psychopath, by the way--this is no spoiler, you know it from the moment you meet her). They insist that they will leave her alone if she will only hand over a very important object. The so blue marble. We learn later in the book that the marble is rumored to contain secrets leading to riches untold as well as the "secrets of the greatest lost civilization, of the day when the sun was harnessed, as we would like to harness it, when gravitation was controlled as we haven't dreamed of controlling it." They don't believe her when she says she doesn't have it (and doesn't even know what it is) and before she knows it she's caught up in a web of terror and there are dead bodies littered everywhere.

On the one hand, there is a lot of suspension of disbelief required by the book. That a map to such treasures could fit in a "marble" that somehow opens up. That dead bodies can appear and disappear all over New York. That the twins can kill indiscriminately without being caught. That Grisleda's other sister Anne could have no clue about the sinister undertones in every meeting with the twins and Missy. On the other, this is one page-turner of a book. I read it in two sessions (two, only because I absolutely had to go to bed last night) and could not put it down during either session. Very compelling narrative and description...and even though it all seems unreal, it becomes quite believable while you're reading it. It is easy to see why this book is considered a classic in the field. Four stars.

The Rose Window: Review

Suddenly a shaft of moonlight
shines out fiercely, as if somewhere
the archangel had unsheathed his brilliant sword.
~from "Townscape"

I'm really working on clearing out books that have been sitting on the TBR shelves for much too long. The Rose Window & Other Verse from New Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke has been hanging out for about 10 years or so. I fell in love with Rilke's poetry in college. I went out immediately and bought myself The Complete French Poems and have read and reread those. Then in about 2000, I found this pretty little book sitting in the clearance bin of a now defunct bookstore. And somehow managed to never read it. So...I put it down for a number of reading challenges just to ensure that I would finally do so.

This book of poetry isn't quite as compelling as the translated French poems. I think perhaps it suffers from the fact that there are multiple translators rather than just one--nine translators in all. I would get into a certain rhythm (or rather the translator seemed to) and then a poem would come along that brought things to a screeching halt. Word choice and order seemed a bit off. Then there would be a few more good ones. It made for very uneven reading. My favorite poems were "Early Apollo" and "The Angel of the Meridian" (both translated by the same person), "The Poet" and "Townscape" (translated by a second person) and "Lullaby" (translated by a third). My rating for the entire collection: three and a half stars.

[for the European Reading Challenge: Rilke was born in Prague, died in Switzerland, and the poems are translated from German]

The Curious Cape Cod Skull: Review

The Curious Cape Cod Skull by Marie Lee is another mystery that has been sitting on the TBR list for quite a while. It is also an academically-inclined book--with the body finder and main character being a former science teacher and the victim and most of the suspects being university folk. And...thankfully, this one went over a heck of a lot better than my previous read.

As mentioned, Marguerite Smith is a retired science teacher who is preparing for a visit from her nephew Jeb and his sons. On schedule for the weekend is an introduction to clam digging for the youngsters. In anticipation of the outing, Marguerite heads out to her shed to unearth the clamming equipment--only to find the door securely locked (not something she regularly does). Her surprise does not end with the locked door, however. On the other side is a dead body.

The victim is one Peter DaFoe, a handsome Cambridge archeologist who had been in charge of an area excavation of an Ancient Native American homesite. And the murder has been carried out using a baseball bat stored in the shed. Police investigations turn up several suspects--from DaFoe's colleagues on the dig to his beautiful, straying wife (who just happens to benefit under a large insurance policy) to, surprise!, Marguerite's nephew Jeb. Having found the body and then having suspicion focus on her relations, Marguerite takes it upon herself to help the police get to the bottom of the mystery. And then her dog Rusty digs up another exhibit....an ancient skull in a fairly new plastic bag. Was this the reason DaFoe had to be silenced?

True to cozy mystery tradition, there are a lot coincidences and the improbable "help" given by the amateur. But the mystery is fast-paced and interesting and the main characters (Marguerite, the police officers and most of the suspects) are charming and well-drawn. Their voices ring true and they seem like real folks who might live in your home town. A very nice debut to a short series (only three books) . The only short-coming is the rather too-detailed archeological descriptions and run-down of how the family trees of the various blue-blood East Coast families. But it doesn't distract too much from the story. If I come across the other two, I will certainly give them a read. Three stars for a solid mystery.

A Tale of Two Cities: Review

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity...."

It was the best of Dickens, it was the worst of Dickens, it was passages of brilliant description, it was pages of tedious detail. A Tale of Two Cities is very much a best of and worst of kind of book--with a final tally in favor of the best. I love the story. I love some of the descriptive passages....like this one:[about Tellson's Bank] Thus it had come to pass that Tellson's was the triumphant perfection of inconvenience. After bursting open a door of idiotic obstinacy, with a weak rattle in its throat, you fell into Tellson's down two steps, and came to your senses in a miserable little shop, with two little counters, where the oldest of men made your cheque shake as if the wind rustled it, while they examined the signature by the dingiest of windows, which were always under a shower-bath of mud from Fleet Street, and made the dingier by their own iron bars proper, and the heavy shadow of Temple Bar.

I can see Tellson's. I feel like I'm there. But then there are the long, drawn out bits (pages--especially when Dickens has taken us to France) where I despair of Dickens ever getting back to the story.

The story is a familiar one to most classic literature enthusiasts. Dickens depicts the years leading up to the Revolution in France. He begins with the freeing of Dr. Manette--a man who has been kept prisoner in the Bastille for all of his daughter's life. They are reunited and begin to live a normal life in London. They soon become involved in the life of Charles Darnay, a French expatriate, who is being tried for treason. They are witnesses at his trial and through their evidence and the work of Sydney Carton he is acquitted. Darnay marries Lucie, Manette's daughter, and Carton (who harbors an unrequited love for Lucie) becomes a close friend of the family. Several years later, Darnay (who is really a French aristocrat) is lured back to France when he receives a message that a former servant is imprisoned. The vengeful peasants, led by Mr. & Mrs. Defarge, have begun the movement towards revolution and Darnay is captured and sentenced to death. Carton, who closely resembles his friend, performs the ultimate sacrifice and takes Darnay's place in prison--and finally at the scaffold. To paraphrase: It is a far better thing that he does than he has ever done before.

Dickens does a terrific job in balancing the story between London and Paris. He shows us the building resentment among the poor and oppressed people of France. He uses the backdrop of the horrors of the time to set off and highlight the sacrifice of Sydney Carton. It is a timeless story and a very touching story of redemption and new life. If only Dickens could have trimmed out some of the long-drawn out descriptions in France, then I would give a five-star rating. As it is--four stars--for a timeless classic, for a Dickens novel that I liked so much better than Great Expectations (which I read and slogged through in high school), for Carton's sacrifice, for Manette's suffering, and for Miss Pross's stand-off with Madame Defarge. (Miss Pross is Lucie's devoted former nursemaid and current companion.) A rollicking good historical classic.

Oh...and another plant for my victory garden this one has been on the TBR shelf for...um...30 years. Yikes! But done now. Oh yeah.
Quotes:
...perhaps second-hand cares, like second-hand clothes, come easily off and on. (Book 1, Ch. 4)I have sometimes sat alone here of an evening, listening, until I have made the echoes out to be the echoes of all the footsteps that are coming by and by into our lives. (Book 2, Chapter 6)

The time will come, the time will not be long in coming, when new ties will be formed about you--ties that will bind you yet more tenderly and strongly to the home you so adorn--the dearest ties that will ever grace and gladden you. O Miss Manette, when the little picture of a happy father's face looks up in yours, when you see your own bright beauty springing up anew at your feet, think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you! (Book 2, Chapter 13)

If you remember the words that passed between us, long ago, you will readily comprehend this when you see it. You do remember them, I know. It is not in your nature to forget them. I am thankful that the time has come, when I can prove them. That I do so is no subject for regret or grief. If it had been otherwise, I never should have used the longer opportunity. If it had been otherwise. (Book 3, Chapter 13)

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known. (Book 3, Chapter 15)

The Jesus Incident: Review

Once upon a time in a science fictional decade far, far away there was an author named Frank Herbert. He wrote a novel called Dune and it was good. He wrote a few more Dune-related books and they were a mixture of good and bad. And he wrote a book called The White Plague and it was good as well. And then he joined up with another author (a poet) named Bill Ransom and wrote a novel called The Jesus Incident--and completely lost this member of his audience.

After having this novel (and its two companion pieces) sitting on my TBR shelf for decades, I decided that this year, with my Mt. TBR Challenge, was the year to finally tackle it and get it out the way. I'm going to confess up front--I did not read every word of the entire thing. I skimmed a great deal of the mid-section....because, let's face it, it wobbled between being down-right confusing and all-out boring. With Dune Herbert created a whole new world--lots of things going on that were unusual and different, but he managed to give the reader enough information about that world that we knew what was up and we actually cared about Paul's journey to become Muad-Dib. In The Jesus Incident, we have another whole new world....and I just don't get it and I don't really care all that much.

Well, okay. Yes, I did get it. We have this experimental group of the last survivors of Earth. They were originally set up to try and create sentience. Somewhere along the line, they succeeded and now their space vehicle, Ship, is sentient. And thinks it is god. And wants to be WorShipped. And it has brought the humans and their clones (yeah, what?) to a new "paradise" planet where they will be tested--one last time. (Apparently, there have been many "testings" prior to this that we really don't know about. Must not be important). If they fail to figure out to WorShip properly, then Ship is going to "wipe the tape," end the experiment, in a word--get rid of mankind. Nice.

Oh. And that "paradise" planet? Not so much. It's full of all kinds of predatory life that just love to kill humans/clones. And there's not enough food for everybody. Sounds like the perfect place to take your next vacation, don't you think?

You'd think that might be complex enough to hold my attention. Yeah, no. Because when it came down to it, the answer to how Ship expects to be WorShipped is a pretty lame and predictable and recycled answer. No new insights here. No real comment on the human condition or human spirituality or anything. Just not Herbert's best writing, in my opinion. One star.

Nothing Can Rescue Me: Review

Nothing Can Rescue Me by Elizabeth Daly....the title is oh so right. Nothing can rescue Sylvanus Hutter from the brutal blow dealt to him by an unseen hand wielding a Chinese bronze statue. Nothing can rescue his sister Florence Hutter Mason from the poison planted in her iron pills. Not even having Henry Gamadge on the spot and prepared for something malicious to happen.....

Sylvanus approaches Gamadge at their club and asks him to come with him to Underhill, the Hutter family's country estate for the weekend. Florence has gathered her friends and family there in an effort to get away from the pressures of World War II--which seem so much more evident in New York City than in the country. She thinks she's surrounded by friendly souls, but after trying to contact the spirits using a Ouija board, she's not so sure. Someone has been typing ominous messages in the manuscript of the novel she has been working on. It begins with a mischievous message, but they gradually become more threatening. Gamadge is quite sure that there is more than spooky fun and games going on.

He is very quickly proved right when Sylvanus is found bludgeoned by the the proverbial blunt instrument. One of the guests still points to a spectral hand--after all Sylvanus was killed in a dark room while playing at Ouija himself. Gamadge is on the look-out for a human agent with a perhaps more mercenary motive, and he makes every effort to protect Florence from harm. The killer is very cunning, though and, despite Gamadge's attempt to prevent another murder, Florence falls victim as well.

But who could have wished Sylvanus and Florence dead? Of course, there is the Hutter family fortune and the inheritance of Underhill at stake....but with Florence changing her will on a regular basis, could anyone have been sure that the inheritance would fall where they wanted it to? Did Tim Mason, Florence's philandering husband, believe that he stood to inherit? Or perhaps Susie Burt, his current interest, counted on him inheriting and helped things along? Then there's Florence's secretary, Evelyn Wing, who, unlike her predecessors, has managed to stay in the position for four years. Did she hope that her devotion would be sufficiently compensated for in the most recent will? And what about Sally Deedes--did she hope for an inheritance big enough to bring her former husband back? There are too many possible motives with not enough certainty for Gamadge's taste. It will take another attempt at murder before he can give the police enough evidence to arrest the culprit.

Daly, who is said to be Agatha Christie's favorite mystery writer, weaves an interesting mystery with plenty of suspicion to go around. There are several false clues and it a good, solid, workable mystery. Not her most outstanding work, but certainly no dud. And Henry Gamadge, her dashing bibliophile amateur detective is always a treat. Three and a half stars.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Review

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne is, quite honestly, more of an adventure and revenge novel than science fiction. Admittedly Verne was speculating on the use of sciences that were in their infancy or just a glimmer in their inventor's eyes when he wrote, but there isn't much that's truly out-of-this-world and stretch-your-imagination here--particularly for someone reading it now.

Verne has given us the mysterious figure of Captain Nemo--a man whose nationality and origins are unknown. A man who harbors a deep distaste for his fellow man and who is a on a quest to avenge some private wrong. At the end of the story he says about a vessel that he is about to attack, "I am the oppressed, and there is the oppressor! Through him I have lost all that I loved, cherished, and venerated,--country, wife, children, father, and mother. I saw all perish! All that I hate is there! Say no more!" We are never told exactly what happened to make him so bitter.

But, I get ahead of myself....to backtrack. The story begins with Professor Aronnax, French naturalist who is a recognized expert on marine life and who is on his way home to France after an expedition. When he arrives in New York in preparation to sail back home, there are also preparations being made for the naval ship the Abraham Lincoln to set out in search of a "sea monster" which has been spotted by various ships and most recently has opened a large hole in the passenger ship the Scotia. The captain and crew of the Lincoln have vowed to hunt down whatever creature may have done the damage and Professor Aronnax is invited along as an expert in sea life. His devoted servant Conseil joins him on what may (and does) prove to be a dangerous journey. They make friends with the skilled harpooner Ned Land.

When the Lincoln finally locates the "creature" and engages it, the ship is damaged (the rudder rendered useless) and Aronnax, Conseil, and Land all find themselves adrift in the Atlantic. They wind up washed up on the hull of the "creature"--a man-made submarine shaped roughly like a cigar. The three are soon brought inside, but find themselves prisoners of a man who introduces himself as Captain Nemo. Nemo tells them that he means them no harm, but that he will never allow them to leave the vessel. They must resign themselves to a life aboard his ship.

The remainder of the book is a veritable travelogue of the voyage of the Nautilus (Nemo's vessel) through the oceans and seas of the world. We follow him through the Atlantic and Pacific, through the waters of the Antarctic to the pole itself. We see him journey through the Red Sea and a secret underground passage that takes him through the Mediterranean. We are treated to an encyclopedia's worth of marine life (literally--a catalog of underwater creatures, with commentary given to us in great detail by the Professor). And ends with the scene of revenge from which the quote above is taken.

There are some grand adventures here. There are some very nice descriptions. Nemo has the makings of a tremendous character study. I enjoyed the heart of the story very much--and could have loved this so much more than Moby Dick and Ahab's obsession*, but for two things. First--the obscenely long lists of marine life and the detailed descriptions of everything from their scales to their fins to their tentacles. And the fact that even Conseil, the servant, seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of most of the life they encounter. He occasionally has to ask the Professor a question, but he seems to know more than most servants should about just about anything. Second, we never find out Nemo's back-story. He's one of the most interesting characters but we don't know why he hates men so much or what happened that took everything he had away from him. We're left to wonder. I would have enjoyed more about Nemo and less about the zillions of kinds of fish.

Overall, an enjoyable adventure. Three and a half stars.


*I do like it better than Moby Dick (which I hated), by the way. But I could have loved it much more and would have liked to.

The First Men in the Moon: Review

This is not my favorite H. G. Wells novel. I really enjoyed The Island of Dr. Moreau last fall--it won the creepy contest sponsored by Softdrink & Heather in their annual Dueling Monsters challenge. And The Invisible Man garnered 4 stars this year. But The First Men in the Moon is one of Wells' lesser known novels--and I think deservedly so.

It is the story of two men who find a way to journey to the moon (back at the turn of the last century). There is the brilliant scientific theorist who comes up with the method and the failed business man (and current attempted playwright) who prods the theorist into putting his ideas into practice. The business man, of course, has visions of what they might discover on the moon and bring back to Earth for a profit. He might actually make something of himself...

The scientist, one Mr. Cavor by name, has come up with a substance (dubbed Cavorite) that will block the force of gravity. Coat a spherical ship with the stuff and manipulate it just right and off you go to the moon! It's just that easy. And so they do. They arrive on the moon to find that, miracle of miracles, they can breathe the air. It's a bit thin, but workable. And when they get lost and can't find their ship, why they can eat the moon-vegetation as well. The only ill-effect is drunkenness. Well, that, and they come out of their stupor to find that they have been captured by the natives of the moon. Their captors take them down inside the moon.

Bedford, the businessman, fears what the Selenites (that's what the moon-people are called) might do to them and a grand escape and chase and action-hero fighting take place. It looks like our two protagonists will make a clean get-away. But then they are silly enough to separate. Bedford finds the sphere and Cavor is re-captured. Bedford has an idea that he might head back to Earth and bring back reinforcements, but things don't go exactly as planned. The book ends with communications that are received from Cavor and a bit of Wells' usual philosophizing on the war-like nature of man.

You'd think with the action, this would be an interesting book. But it just didn't pull me in the way the chase across Moreau's island did. And I didn't really care for either of the main characters. Cavor is a bit endearing as the one-track-minded scientist who can't really see the practical side of things--but not enough to win me over. Two stars.

Prayers to Broken Stones: Review

Prayers to Broken Stones is a collection of the early short stories by Dan Simmons. I remember being knocked out by his novel Hyperion when I read it in the early 90s. My best friend sent me this collection of short stories shortly thereafter and I somehow managed never to get around to reading it. All I can do is shake my finger at my younger self and say, "You missed something. Should have read it sooner."

Wow. I don't remember making the connection to Harlan Ellison when I read Hyperion, but if anyone comes close to writing like Ellison, it's Simmons. (And, interestingly enough, the introduction is written by Ellison and he claims to have discovered Simmons.) He has that same ability to move effortlessly between genres...a little horror here, a little science fiction there, a little bit of the dark thriller...and all of it making deft and accurate comments on the human condition. And this is his early stuff--the "I'm just getting into my writing groove" stuff. Makes me want to run out and buy the most recent thing he's written just to see if he kept it up and made it better.

This book has it all--from pyschic vampires who get their jollies (and "feedings") from making other people kill to a story of Resurrectionists who can bring your mom or dad or son or lover or whoever back from the dead. But is that really a good thing? There are stories built on the battle of Gettysburg and the loss of the Challenger shuttle. And stories cutting the televangelists down to size. There's even a story explaining why there seems to be so much more cancer nowadays....and stories that hold the seeds that would grow into Hyperion.

The man can write. He can take you back in time to a Civil War battlefield or whisk you away to a planet you've never heard of--and you absolutely believe that you're there. He may have just started in these stories, but he's miles ahead of other first-time writers. Four stars.

Favorite quotes:

I desperately want to talk to her now. I want to ask her who it was who so deftly crafted and shaped the legend that was our love.

"Remembering Siri" (page 121)

The past is dead and buried. But I know now that buried things have a way of rising to the surface when one least expects them to.

"Iverson's Pits" (page 237)

Bucket List Reading Challenge

The 2012 "Bucket List" Reading Challenge is the challenge to sign up for if YOU have a list of books that you are dying to read but just haven't gotten to them yet. The Rules are simple for this challenge and The Eclectic Bookshelf has included a couple of sample "Bucket" Lists to provide a good starting point. If you'd like to join in, click on the Challenge Button above to head to the site.

Rules:
1. Challenge starts on January 1, 2012 and goes until December 31, 2012.
2. You don't need a blog to participate.
3. Create a sign up post and link up on the Challenge post.
4. There are four levels
a. The Mini Cooper: 4 bucket list books
b. The Mid-sized Sedan: 8 bucket list books
c. The Pick Up: 12 bucket list books
d. The Semi: 13 or more bucket list books

Stipilation: If you originally start small and decide to upgrade that is fine. But once you decided to to go big you can NOT downgrade.


As you can see, I am in for the Semi level. This should be no problem since I'll already be reading from the TBR ("Bucket") list for my own Mount TBR Challenge. I will list the books read below.

1. Prayers to Broken Stones by Dan Simmons (1/14/12)
2. The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells (2/3/12)
3. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (2/14/12)
4. Nothing Can Rescue Me by Elizabeth Daly (2/18/12)
5. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (2/29/12)
6. The Curious Cape Cod Skull by Marie Lee (3/21/12)
7. The Rose Window & Other Verse from New Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke (3/22/12)
8. The So Blue Marble by Dorothy B. Hughes (3/24/12)
9. A Sprig of Sea Lavender by J. R. L. Anderson (3/31/12)
10. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (4/4/12)
11. The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart (4/14/12)
12. The Gemini Man by Susan Kelly (4/15/12)
13. Dracula by Bram Stoker (4/25/12)
14. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery (5/4/12)

Challenge Complete: 5/4/12!!!