strange and random happenstance

Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd by Alan Bradley
Published by: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: September 20th, 2016
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Canada and Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy are behind Flavia! Some might say expelled, Flavia might say freed. She expected a ticker tape parade, all hail the returning heir of Buckshaw! Instead she arrives to the bleak news that her father is ill in hospital. But he's her dad, he's always been there for her, he'll be fine while she avoids home as much as possible because dealing with her sisters and her cousin Undine is too much to contemplate. Therefore a murder landing right in her lap is a wonderful distraction from what's actually happening at home. So how did she get involved in yet another case? Well, Flavia gladly agreed to run an errand for Cynthia Richardson, the vicar’s wife. Flavia hopped on her trusty stead Gladys, probably the only one happy to see her, and set out to deliver a message to a reclusive woodworker. When she arrived at Roger Sambridge's house she found the seventy year old man crucified like St. Peter on his bedroom door. This seemed quite out of the ordinary, and it's obviously Flavia's first crucifixion, so she immediately set to searching the premise before reporting the murder to the police. All she found was a disinterested cat and a set of children's books by Oliver Inchbold, an author who was interestingly pecked to death by seagulls. Or at least Flavia finds that very interesting. One of the books is inscribed to Carla Sherrinford-Cameron, someone Flavia knows. What's more, Carla's aunt was Inchbald's paramour and also died in a freak accident. One freak accident could maybe be accounted for, but two, Flavia knows something is up and she knows that Roger Sambridge's reclusive neighbors are hiding something. Something Flavia is determined to uncover, rumors of witches be damned! Anything and everything to not face going home and dealing with the fact that her father might be sicker than she is hoping. Anything to delay the intrustion of reality for one more minute.

When you look at the beautiful jewel colored books written by Alan Bradley on your bookshelf there's always one that stands out like a sore thumb. Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd doesn't just stand out for it's appearance but for it's content. While the events are important for the proceeding books, so much of what happens between it's covers feel bleak and unnecessary. Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd throws Flavia back onto the shores of blighty with a desperate need to forget she ever went to Canada. From the author's point of view, not the readers. Because Bradley quickly dispatches with references to Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy, going so far as to quickly dispense with the teacher who accompanied Flavia to continue her education in a less formal manner. It feels like it's an attempt to return Flavia to the status quo, and yet everything that happens to her seems to be Bradley going out of his way to make sure that the status can never be quo again. The most human and therefore endearing aspect of Flavia is how she interacts with her family. By having her more adult and independent, more willing to lie in order to push her family aside means that she's cold. She's not lovably quirky like Sherlock Holmes in season one of Sherlock, she's an asshole, like Sherlock Holmes in season three of Sherlock. If this was done to somehow humble her when Bradley unceremoniously killed off her father, well, it failed. Because it just pissed me off. There was no earthly reason to kill off her father. None. At. All. It was a punch that missed it's mark. But so much of this book misses the mark. There are so many unfinished ideas that it felt scattered. You knew where it was going and what would happened but there seemed a lot of loose ends left loose, the explanation being that "life isn't ever that neat" isn't satisfying, it's annoying. This is FICTION, we can have all the closure we want and need! We don't need reality when we're following a precocious preteen sleuth with more chemistry knowledge than all the scientists in the world combined. As it is, it's a pretty thin veneer of reality we're working with here!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alan Bradley, Canada, Cats, Crucifixion, DEATH, England, Flavia De Luce, Gladys, Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy, Murder Most Foul, Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes, Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd, Witches

Found Drowned by Laurie Glenn Norris
Published by: Nimbus Publishing
Publication Date: December 31th, 2019
Format: Paperback, 262 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Based on a true unsolved crime from 1877, Laurie Glenn Norris's debut novel tells the story of two small towns linked by the disappearance of a teenage girl. Mary Harney is a dreamy teenager in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, whose ambitions are stifled by her tyrannical grandmother and alcoholic father. When Mary's mother becomes ill, an already fragile domestic situation quickly begins to unravel until the September evening when the girl goes missing.

Across the water on Prince Edward Island we meet Gilbert Bell, whose son finds a body washed up on the beach below the family farm. As the community is visited first by the local coroner and then by investigators, Glenn Norris paints a fascinating and darkly comic picture of judicial and forensic procedures of the time. At once tightly plotted and pensive, the novel travels back to the circumstances that led to Mary's disappearance and then back further to the circumstances of her parents' marriage, all the while building toward a raucous courtroom finale."

Based on True Canadian crime? Yes please! 

Eventide by Mae Clair
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: December 31th, 2019
Format: Paperback, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The darkness is coming...

The old house near Hode's Hill, Pennsylvania is a place for Madison Hewitt to start over-to put the trauma of her husband's murder, and her subsequent breakdown, behind her. She isn't bothered by a burial plot on the property, or the mysterious, sealed cistern in the basement. Not at first. Even the presence of cold spots and strange odors could be fabrications of her still troubled mind. But how to explain her slashed tires, or the ominous messages that grow ever more threatening?

Convinced the answer lies in the past, Madison delves into the history of the home's original owners, only to discover the origin of a powerful evil. An entity that may be connected to a series of gruesome attacks that have left police baffled. No matter where she turns-past or present-terror lingers just a step away, spurred on by a twisted obsession that can only be satisfied through death..."

A sanctuary turned evil? Oh, I can't wait! 

Much Ado About a Widow by Jenna Jaxon
Published by: Zebra
Publication Date: December 31th, 2019
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Lady Georgina Kirkpatrick defied her family, jilted her fiancé, and married the man she loved. But when her husband died at Waterloo, she was delivered right back into her father’s power...

Victory is sweet - but England’s triumph was Georgie’s rout. Now that she’s widowed, the loathsome marriage her father first arranged has simply been renegotiated. With neither money nor rights, and nowhere to flee, all she can do is cherish her last weeks of freedom.... Until a band of ruffians overtake her carriage and kidnap her. When she escapes in seaside Brighton and encounters her brother’s rather wild friend, Lord St. Just - whom she suspects aspires to be a pirate - she’s prepared to entertain more of his adventurous suggestions than usual...

St. Just knows his mind and his duty, and he loves a challenge. Helping a fair lady make her farewells to hoodlums suits his talents well. Within the hour he has Georgie, her lady’s maid - and her little dog too - sailing for his castle in Cornwall. Meanwhile, the lady’s entire family, her kidnappers, and her scheming intended are in pursuit. But as he and the indomitable Georgie grow closer, he begins to suspect that together they will prove a match for them all..."

Because sometimes, after reading about all the bleakness and death, you need a nice romance to lighten the load. 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Canada, Eventide, Found Drowned, Hode's Hill, Jenna Jaxon, Laurie Glenn Norris, Mae Clair, Much Ado About a Widow, Nova Scotia, Tuesday Tomorrow

Still Life by Louise Penny
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: July 11th, 2006
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Life in Three Pines is about to change forever. Jane Neal is a doyenne of Three Pines and just one of the many eccentrics loved by the residents. But Jane Neal has a secret. She has painted her whole life but she has never let anyone see her paintings, let alone invited them into her house beyond the kitchen. Jane has decided that the time has come to show the world her art, and in particular her small group of friends. But just two days after being accepted into the area's prestigious juried art show she is found dead in the woods. Her death looks like it might be a hunting accident, it is afterall Thanksgiving Weekend and the bow hunters are out in force. But Chief Inspector Armand Gamace of the Sûreté du Québec who is called in early on that Thanksgiving morning isn't sure Miss Neal's death is an accident. The aim of the arrow is too accurate and the murder weapon is missing. Beneath the placid surface of Three Pines Jane wasn't the only one with secrets to hide. After a shocking gay bashing a few days before Jane's murder, it looks like this small town is going into some kind of revolt and it's up to Armand Gamace and his team to bring back the peace.    

I've heard about Louise Penny and Chief Inspector Gamace for a few years now. But a cozy murder mystery series tends to be a comfort read for me so this book has been on a back burner, waiting, while my bloggerly duties took over my reading. A little over two years ago when they announced that this first book was being adapted for television starring everyone's favorite brooding detective, Inspector Lynley, ahem, I mean Nathaniel Parker as Gamace, I made a note that I should definitely move Still Life up the "to be read" pile. Yet it wasn't until my mother's book club chose it as one of their monthly reads that I finally bit the bullet and devoured Still Life. This book is not a masterpiece, not by a long shot, and falls prey to many problems of the first time writer, but there is something homey about it, something about the community created with the cast of characters that makes me feel deep in my bones that this is a series that will get better as it goes on and I want to read those further stories.

The cast of characters is both the book's strength and weakness. Penny is creating a community that we will want to return to. To me it's like the Candian Sookie Stackhouse mysteries, obviously without the supernatural element. But the thing about the Sookie books is that the mysteries were secondary, it was spending time with this well-rounded cast of characters that made you keep coming back for more. The problem with the cast of characters in Three Pines is that they have potential, but are not well rounded. They are very much the stereotypical cast of characters. The gay couple who run the bistro and bed and breakfast and say "Bitch please" and "Slut" but in a "loving" manner. The large black lady who is a fount of knowledge and down home advice. The kooky artist with the flyaway hair. I could go on and on. But all I'd be doing is listing superficial two-dimensional traits. Yet that's all these characters have! Going forward Penny will have to flesh these characters out because people aren't so superficial and can't be summed up in a catchphrase. Which is why I'm more excited for the future books than I was while reading this one.

The character who harmed this book the most though is Gamace's subordinate, Agent Yvette Nichol. I hated her more than the killer. Yes, I spent an inordinate amount of time fantasizing about her death, that's how much I hated her. Even if she was the red herring baddie used to distract us while Penny waited to reveal the true villain, she was such an annoyance that I could almost not read any part of the book she was in. We've all known people in our lives whose sole outlook on the world is how everything revolves around them. They are in their own little microcosm of unreality where they are the center of the universe. Anything that doesn't matter to them or would inconvenience them is pushed aside and forgotten as being irrelevant. I have sadly even had some close friends who lived in their own little world where I felt like an intruder in their very self-centered life story. This is Agent Nichol. Any advice Gamace gives her obviously doesn't apply to her, because she knows best. Nothing sinks in, nothing latches on. The murder would have been wrapped up right away if not for her unwillingness to be a team player. She can't be on a team, because that would mean she's not the star. Plus she views her mistakes not as her fault but the cause of others, making her view herself as a victim. Could someone please make her a victim, the kind in a body bag with a toe tag? Because seriously, if she's in the next book I don't think I can read it.

Leaving Agent Nichol far far behind and going back to the other characters, an overall trait they all had which was an annoying foible in Still Life was the overuse of patois. Local sayings and even Quebecois swears were scattered throughout the book like pixy dust. Instead of adding flavor and color to the book it seemed forced into the narrative at random moments like we might be on the verge of forgetting the book is set in Quebec so here's a short sharp reminder. The patois didn't come naturally from the narrative, like it should. It felt like a gimmick. Like a mediocre substitute to actually bothering with some worldbuilding. Why would Penny bother to show us the world of Quebec when she could just tell us with a few words? This is where her greenness as an author shows. It's show not tell, not the other way around. Again, my hope is that as she grows she learns more how to develop her story and her world. Right now her world is very two dimensional when what we need and want is three.

Yet, despite all these nagging issues, they could all easily come under the heading of issues experienced by first time writers. They can be fixed in time. The core of her book, the mystery and the life of Jane, these ephemeral things that trip up even experienced writers succeeded here, making me hopeful for the future. But it's Jane's home that captured my imagination the most. I wanted into that house that even her closest friends were barred from so badly that every time there was a delay I almost audibly cried out. For us readers outside Canada we might not get the connection between Jane's house and the Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis. She is beloved in Canada and their answer to Grandma Moses, only with more cats. I was lucky enough to visit Nova Scotia over a decade ago and see her artwork that is on display at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. More importantly I was able to see her house which is situated fully in this Gallery. While I won't spoil the reveal in Still Life, let me say that Maud Lewis and Jane Neal had very similar decorating schemes and I think they would have gotten along marvelously.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Art, Canada, Cats, Chief Inspector Armand Gamace, Grandma Moses, Inspector Lynley, Louise Penny, Maud Lewis, Nathaniel Parker, Nova Scotia, Patois, Quebec, Sookie Stackhouse, Stereotype, Still Life, Three Pines

The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: August 25th, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Hardly a day goes by when nine year old Laurent Lepage doesn't cry wolf. From alien invasions, to walking trees, to winged beasts in the woods, to dinosaurs spotted in the village of Three Pines, his tales are so extraordinary no one can possibly believe him. Including Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache, who now live in the little Quebec village.

But when the boy disappears, the villagers are faced with the possibility that one of his tall tales might have been true.

And so begins a frantic search for the boy and the truth. What they uncover deep in the forest sets off a sequence of events that leads to murder, leads to an old crime, leads to an old betrayal. Leads right to the door of an old poet.

And now it is now, writes Ruth Zardo. And the dark thing is here.

A monster once visited Three Pines. And put down deep roots. And now, Ruth knows, it is back.

Armand Gamache, the former head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec, must face the possibility that, in not believing the boy, he himself played a terrible part in what happens next."

So, yeah, I'm kind of getting into the Gamache mysteries now... got quite a few to catch up on first!

The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory
Published by: Touchstone
Publication Date: August 25th, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"By the #1 New York Times bestselling author behind the Starz original series The White Queen, a riveting new Tudor tale featuring King Henry VIII’s sixth wife Kateryn Parr, the first English queen to publish under her own name.

Why would a woman marry a serial killer?

Because she cannot refuse…

Kateryn Parr, a thirty-year-old widow in a secret affair with a new lover, has no choice when a man old enough to be her father who has buried four wives—King Henry VIII—commands her to marry him.

Kateryn has no doubt about the danger she faces: the previous queen lasted sixteen months, the one before barely half a year. But Henry adores his new bride and Kateryn’s trust in him grows as she unites the royal family, creates a radical study circle at the heart of the court, and rules the kingdom as Regent.

But is this enough to keep her safe? A leader of religious reform and the first woman to publish in English, Kateryn stands out as an independent woman with a mind of her own. But she cannot save the Protestants, under threat for their faith, and Henry’s dangerous gaze turns on her. The traditional churchmen and rivals for power accuse her of heresy—the punishment is death by fire and the king’s name is on the warrant…

From an author who has described all of Henry’s queens comes a deeply intimate portrayal of the last: a woman who longed for passion, power, and education at the court of a medieval killer."

More Royals behaving badly and I can't seem to get enough.

Breakout by Ann Aguirre
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: August 25th, 2015
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"All hell is breaking loose in the edge-of-your-seat follow-up to Havoc and Perdition from New York Times bestselling author Ann Aguirre…

The prison ship Perdition has become a post-battle charnel house with only a handful of Dred’s soldiers still standing and now being hunted by Silence’s trained tongueless assassins. Forging an uneasy alliance with mercenary commander Vost—who is their only chance at escape—the Dread Queen will do whatever it takes to end her life sentence on Perdition and keep the survivors alive long enough to cobble together a transport capable of getting them off station.

If Dred and her crew can win the deadly game of cat and mouse, the payoff is not only life but freedom—a prize sweeter than their wildest dreams. Yet the sadistic Silence would rather destroy Perdition than let a single soul slip from her grasp…"

Come on, of course I need this, was there any question?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ann Aguirre, Breakout, Canada, Chief Inspector Armand Gamace, Philippa Gregory, The Dred Chronicles, The Nature of the Beast, The Taming of the Queen

As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley
ARC Provided by the Publisher
Published by: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: January 6th, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Flavia can not believe that she has been forced to leave Buckshaw and go all the way to Canada! Sure she's getting the honor, however dubious, of attending her mother's Alma mater, and getting to study with a world famous chemist who may or may not have killed her husband, but it's so far from home and everything familiar. She's never had to experience homesickness before. It doesn't help matters that her voyage to the school is in the hands of Ryerson Rainsmith, the chairman of Miss Bodycote's Female Academy's board of guardians, and his wife Dorsey, two people destined to die in Flavia's fevered imagination. Poison is such a lovely thing to dwell on, especially during a long transatlantic crossing. This being Flavia, the first night she arrives at the school a desiccated body is found in her room's chimney. Unlike anyone else this at least gives Flavia something familiar in this unfamiliar new world. She knows murder and she knows how to solve them. So while some things change, other things will always remain the same.

As much as I love Buckshaw, and I mean, I really love Buckshaw, I would move there if I could in an instant love it, I was both thrilled and terrified at the idea that Flavia was heading off to boarding school in Canada. My feelings were probably pretty much on par with Flavia's own. Miss Bodycote's Female Academy owes much of it's origins to that hallowed fictional institute created by Ronald Searle, St Trinian's. In fact it was Alan Bradley who turned me onto that lovely female academy where it was more likely to find dead bodies and weapons of mass destruction then well behaved gentle ladies ready to make their debut in society. In fact, looking beyond the surface of Miss Bodycote's, I'd say the two are one par, what with Harriet having attended previously, and the curriculum of the students preparing them more for a life of espionage then that of a homemaker. The two schools are almost interchangeable, you have an equal chance of getting killed at each as Flavia soon discovers.

If I had one real complaint about As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust it's that Bradley doesn't properly exploit this new school setting. Instead we get Flavia once again investigating a murder but instead of interacting with her fellow students she quickly finds herself falling into her old habits of interacting with adults only. Previously Flavia didn't have much time for or with her peers, but I was sure that a boarding school environment would force this upon her and hilarity would ensue. Initially it did. The late night Ouija board session which she rigs for her own purposes is some of the most thrilling and hilarious writing to ever flow out of Bradley's books and then the momentum he created is squandered. Couldn't she have gone to classes and done some homework? Found a little happiness with people her own age? Apparently not. The classmates are brushed aside, the adults are questioned, and Flavia is expelled.

This last bit is the most annoying conclusion I could imagine happening. Here we finally have Flavia getting ready to take on the world, to move her story forward, and instead I fear it's going to stagnate because it took one step forward and then two steps back. I can't decide why Bradley did this. Because I don't think Flavia's homesickness warranted this result. Yes, the first six books were a solid arc and the length of Bradley's original contract, but the contract got extended. So now we have a further four books, well three now. By having Flavia leave home I thought, wow, now she can grow up a little. Can you just imagine how much fun Flavia will be as an adult when the Cold War is really starting to gear up? I expect hijinks on the level of Chuck Barris's Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. This, of course, is all my wishful thinking. But by having Flavia return home, ug. Bad idea. I might have loved this book and Flavia but I did not love where we left her. I want these final four books to be something new, the "next chapter" not the same old same old.

As for the murder itself. I felt that this was easily the weakest of the murders in the whole series. Though the truth is the murder is never the most important aspect of Flavia's books to me, they are a major part of the story and need to hold my attention nonetheless. Yes, there isn't really any new way to kill someone under the sun. If you can think of it, well, in all likelihood it has been thought of before, and most likely by Agatha Christie. Ah, Agatha, you wily lady you, thinking up all the greatest plot twists so that even if someone isn't meaning to they emulate you in same way, shape, or form, they somehow do. In this case it's Dead Man's Folly and your wunderkind sleuth Poirot, and it was a case of really very bad timing.

I actually have a hard time remembering the whodunits of Agatha Christie, they all kind of blend together after awhile so they are eminently re-readable. But as fate would have it the adaptation of Dead Man's Folly filmed at Christie's own home Greenway Estate and staring David Suchet aired at the same time that I received the arc of As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust from NetGalley. While it's not exactly the same, it couldn't be identical having been written by two very different and talented writers, well, there was enough similarity that any surprise or suspense was lost because of my foreknowledge. Yes, I know that I am really really good at figuring things out and knowing what's going to happen, but gosh darnit, sometimes I just wish I could be surprised. And while I look forward to my next adventure with Flavia, I hope there's some surprises in store for me.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Agatha Christie, Alan Bradley, As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, Boarding School, Buckshaw, Canada, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Dead Man's Folly, Flavia De Luce, Poirot, Ronald Searle, St Trinian's

The Swallow by Charis Cotter
Published by: Tundra Books
Publication Date: September 9th, 2014
Format: Kindle, 322 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Polly and Rose live next door to each other. Polly's house is too full of people and her macabre tastes make her long to see a different kind of person, one who is no longer alive, ie, a ghost. Rose's house is the opposite of Polly's and is always empty and Rose has the dubious ability to see ghosts. The two soon strike up an unlikely friendship and Polly is right jealous of Rose's "gift." Yet maybe there's a reason she can see ghosts? There's a tombstone behind their houses with Rose's name on it... perhaps Rose herself is a ghost? One thing is clear, there is something strange going on and Polly thinks that the two of them need to get to the bottom of the spooky goings on; because one of them might be a ghost.

If you've ever thought, wow there really needs to be a middle grade version of The Sixth Sense set in 1960s Toronto, then I have good news for you! If on the other hand you're looking for a story that isn't predictable like, oh, anything ever done by M. Night Shyamalan, look elsewhere. The main problem with The Swallow is that everything is so obvious. It's not like there was one of two things that surprised me. Oh no. Every. Single. Thing. Was. Expected. It's like Cotter has no ability to dissemble. She can't hide her story structure, and she certainly can't hide her big reveals. From the second Polly went into her attic I knew that there'd be a secret passage, because I'd read C. S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew. Yeah, you didn't do a good job of hiding where that attic came from Cotter, much like everything else.

But as to each reveal, they were delivered exactly when you'd expect it. There was no flow to this story, no chance for surprises. It felt as if Cotter sat down and wrote the most rigid structure she could to tell her story, with each reveal carefully placed, and when she went from outline to prose not one thing was allowed to vary from that outline. I felt at times as if the book was more a rigid structure of steal that had words around it then an actual narrative. You could feel the story gripping the spine trying to be a real book. A good author transports us and makes us not see the craft behind the work. Cotter pulled back the curtain on the wizard and showed us that writing isn't magic, it's labor intensive, and not just for her, but for us as readers as well. The only positive that can be said for this book is that it was a short read so the pain was quickly over.

Though what is most aggravating to me is that this could have been a unique story! We have the 1960s, we have the ghostly aunt/doppelganger, vintage shoes, creepy pictures of Rose and Winifred dressed alike, and yet it felt like it could be happening right now because none of these interesting aspects are delved into or exploited for the benefit of the story! Instead we get two girls, Polly and Rose, who are just as annoying and whiny as any kid today with no sense given to us readers of how they fit into their time to better explore the sixties. They are completely unlikable in the beginning, and even if you grudgingly like them a little later, the jeopardy they get placed in is so badly contrived that they are never able to rise up and save the book. In a true sign that shows how utterly commonplace everything about the book is, the girl's voices are basically the same. If it weren't for their different situations and the little label saying who's head we're in, I doubt you could tell which girl was which.

As for the ghosts. Well, I have problems with them. First, let's take the ghosts as a whole, and I won't talk about how thick Rose is, we'll just accept that as a given. The ghosts seem to have been given stupid characteristics, like the ability to eat and touch so that we wouldn't know that Polly was dead all along. Oops, I hope you hadn't planned on reading this book, because yeah, spoilers! Though with Cotter's writing if she'd been allowed to write the book's blurb, well, she would have signaled you into that twist in just those few short sentences. Since when can ghosts eat? Like seriously, I think this would be the number one thing on my "things ghosts can't do list." Haunt, yeah, move objects, yeah, give me nightmares, yeah, eat my food, NO! Also more specifically, Winifred is like the worst developed ghost ever. She's angry and crazy and remorseful and a loving sister? Yes, people can be a cornucopia of different personality traits, but, you know what? It has to be explained. Just having her go from crazy to contrite, it doesn't work.

But what I really want to know is was this book a teaching moment? So many of the reviews and blurbs talk about how this book will help kids with concepts like grief and acceptance. If this book was written to tell a rigidly plotted story and it just happened to help with grief and acceptance, well, I'm ok with that. On the other hand, if this book was written just to teach kids about these concepts? NO! I am not a fan of the "teaching moment." I want learning to be a byproduct of reading not the be all end all. Plus, when did everything have to be made "improving" for children? All literature had to teach them lessons. All toys had to be educational. WTF people! How about literature is there to teach kids the joy of reading? And how about toys being there to grow their imagination? I loved toys but I was slow to books. If I had read this book as a kid, it would have put me even more off reading, it's middle grade meh.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: C.S. Lewis, Canada, Charis Cotter, Ghosts, M. Night Shyamalan, Middle Grade, The Magician's Nephew, The Sixth Sense, The Swallow

I seriously don't know why or how I knew Doctor Who was returning. At this time I didn't really use the internet for much, other then to do homework (see, I can't escape school now that it's sucked me back in, and in fact this fall is the first time since 2006 I haven't had classes) and to play online games with my friends. But there, in the back of my mind, I knew that there was a new series and that, well, obviously, I had to see it. The one thing I did know, from my various British addictions, was you could be sure, whenever the show showed up in the US, it would be a long time since it had aired in England. In fact it was almost a full year from the airing of "Rose" on the BBC till it aired on Sci-Fi (or Syfy as it now ludicrously is). As it turns out, I didn't have to wait that long...

In the spring of 2005 I was done with college (round one) and at a bit of a loose end, thinking maybe grad school, maybe not. My friend Sara had gone to graduate school in Halifax, Nova Scotia at NSCAD. She was graduating that spring and having a big gallery show/thesis/dissertation combo event with mashed potatoes on the side (seriously, there were mashed potatoes at the opening). Her whole family and a few of her close friends, me included, decided to descend on Halifax. Cold and wet and bleak and full of children wielding led pipes... the drug capital of Canada... needless to say, I didn't go out much. After most everyone else had returned to their respective homes, I stayed in Canada for another two weeks or so. I spent most of my time in Sara's little cramped apartment. She had one roommate, Kenny, and no spare space. The kitchen was minuscule, the bedrooms were tiny, the bathroom was somewhat large, but the hallway was non-existent as it kind of merged with the stairwell and the ceiling in this stairwell was mildly psychedelic, as the landlord had plastered the ceiling with these swoopy wave patterns. It was white, but there was like glitter mixed in. This ceiling fascinated me, because all I could think of was who would spend that much time on a ceiling? It would have actually fit in quite well with a few of the TARDIS interiors over the years.

Her roommate Kenny was also doing his performance/thesis/dissertation, so he was gone much of the time. He was gone and in return for keeping the tiny kitchen clean (not that hard) I had full access to his tv. I was instantly addicted to Canadian television, mainly because it's like all the big shows are on one station and some of it is in French. There was no flipping back and forth between ABC and CBS and Fox, it was all there on one channel. And while watching that one channel of an evening they said something that really caught my eye... on April 5th, a mere ten days after "Rose" aired in the UK, the CBBC was showing the first episode of the new Doctor Who! Even though Kenny had basically given me carte blanche over his television, I made sure to ask him as soon as I saw the ad that I would have the tv that Tuesday night. He said there was no problem and my heart leaped.

Here I was, far from home and my cat, in another country, but I was going to watch Doctor Who! Not just any Doctor Who, the newly rebooted series! I remember the Sunday night before there was a horrid cold front that moved in. Sara and I were driving back from PEI and it was so windy the car was struggling the whole way back to Halifax. And then the wind that night. It howled and howled. I started putting on more and more clothes in an attempt to keep warm. The next day the whole apartment was frigid, because of the fact the landlord turned down the heat during the day. The cold continued into Tuesday, but I didn't care, I had a fire in me to keep me warm, I had The Doctor. I remember it was still a little light outside the window as I sat down on the edge of the orange plaid blanket that covered Kenny's bed. I was instantly hooked as soon as Christopher Eccleston said "Run!" I mean, the first episode sure had it's flaws, but, well, that was to be expected. Mickey was the main flaw, but then, well, Rose left him in the dust didn't she? When the episode ended and I realized that come the next Tuesday I would be in New York again and not able to watch "The End of the World" I was beyond depressed. When Christopher Eccleston's face lit up in that wide smile surrounded by the London Eye, well, I knew I couldn't wait till this show came stateside.

I still think how naive I was to the ways of the internet. I didn't know about downloads or torrenting. I knew about Amazon UK, and so, I pre-ordered the DVDs, which came out in batches of three episodes every so often and then took about a month to get to me. So over the course of 2005 I slowly watched all the series. Each episode making me more and more a Whovian. In fact, that Christmas when they aired David Tennant's first episode simultaneously in Canada and England, I told Sara all I wanted for Christmas was for her to tape that episode, she did and I was ever so grateful, it was like being back in Canada again!

Step two was to get others addicted. When I went back to New York in Fall 2005 to look at a grad school, I bought tons of Doctor Who tie-in books at Forbidden Planet. When I was back again in Spring 2006, well, then the inculcation of my friend Miss Jessica began. We had returned to her apartment after a long night seeing Alan Cumming in The Three Penny Opera, and then several hours outside to meet him (which we did!) Then there was the train ride back to Queens, so it was long after midnight when I popped in disc one and said, "just one episode." Soon it was episode two and we were singing along with the 9th to "Tainted Love." Over the years, whenever me and Miss Jessica get together, well, there is always Doctor Who involved somehow. When she came to visit me shortly after David Tennant became The Doctor, a certain line from "New Earth" was used repeatedly while bowling. "Ooh. Curves. Oh Baby! It's like living inside a bouncy castle!" (Say while caressing a bowling ball, or other round parts of your anatomy. Oi! Not so dirty, we were at a bowling alley! They allow small children in bowling alleys and they get the cool bumpers).

Since then, the addiction has only gotten more rooted and with my increasing knowledge of technology, my addiction is fed on a regular and timely basis. Though I will admit to not watching the end of Rose's time on Doctor Who till I read some spoilers... I was really worried they were going to kill her and I knew I couldn't take that (and right there is where I lose my friend Moxie's sympathies, Rose hater that she is). Ever since that fateful Tuesday evening in Canada, I have become a Whovian in every sense of the word. And you know what? I wouldn't change a thing! Meeting new people, falling in love with new Doctors and companions, having recurring jokes with friends. Every single second of it has been awesome. Though if Moffat makes me cry again this Christmas as much as I did during the Michael Gambon Christmas special... I may go slam his hand in a car door so he knows the pain he has caused me.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alan Cumming, BBC, Canada, Christmas, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Doctor Who, Michael Gambon, New Earth, New York, Nova Scotia, Rose, Steven Moffat, TARDIS, The 10th Doctor, The 9th Doctor