In the fall of 2009 an apple green book cover filled me with such delight that I adopted it from my local purveyor of fine books and brought it home. Aesthetic-inspired love soon turned to the real thing as I was introduced to eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, lover of chemistry (especially as pertains to the creation of poisons) and soon-to-be amateur sleuth. Two years on, having turned the final page of the third book in the series, I am every bit as enamored with Alan Bradley’s creation as I was at the beginning.
In A Red Herring Without Mustard murder returns to the village of Bishop’s Lacey and Flavia de Luce cannot help but find herself caught up in the investigation. Alan Bradley’s mysteries rest comfortably in the cozy mystery niche carved out by the great Agatha Christie and others. While paying homage to those who have have come before, Bradley’s books step out of the shadow of the greats in their character examination of Flavia and the members of her family, both living and dead. It has become more and more apparent that the real mystery in the Flavia de Luce novels is not the one sparked by the murder du jour, but that one originating in the death of a young mother which continues to have deep and painful repercussions on the de Luce family.
Increased stress at work (move planning and new computer system implementation) have, not surprisingly, left me feeling more tired than usual. I have been combating that fatigue with reading, a renewed addiction to Fallout: New Vegas, and a voracious appetite for episodes of 30 Rock that I hadn’t watched…but not with blogging. I have several book reviews to catch up on, but in the meantime…
Neither icy rain nor falling snow could stop the intrepid postal workers from delivery goodies ordered from Amazon and Ebay. Nor could it stop me from driving to the local chain bookstores to use their irresistible discount coupons!
And so, here are the books that have found their way inside my home over the past few weeks:
I am mid-way through my re-read of Jo Walton’s book Among Others and am at the point where her protagonist, Mori, finds joins an SF book club. On the way back to the boarding school from the first meeting the school librarian Miss Carroll asks, “You don’t get a lot of chance to talk to people about the things that matter to you, do you?” It was a question that resonated with me the first time I read it and it did again this evening.
Mori’s joy at discovering a group of people who love science fiction as much as she does echoes that which I discovered for the first time a little over a decade ago when we moved to Kansas City. I met a small group of friends who were into similar things and over the years our conversations and sharing of books and films has enriched and expanded my life, making up for all those years of solitary reading with no one to share book talk with. (Cue sad music)
They are my karass. But now my karass has expanded and I would like to invite you to be a part of it as well.
Instead of sidling up seductively with promises of Valentines to come, February has arrived in the embrace of her wintry sister January. With icy streets covered by a thin layer of snow and predictions of End of Days snowfall to come, I find myself on the receiving end of that rarest of rare things: an actual Snow Day. My company generally laughs in the face of Old Man Winter, but today they chose not to tempt fate and issued orders for warm blankets, hot cocoa, and a good book. Or at least that is the way I heard it. 😉
Though January 2011 plagued us with heavy snowfall and temperatures worthy of comparison to a witch’s bosom, it was also filled with 31 days of mostly great reading, wherein I found warmth and comfort in the cold environs of space, on alien worlds, and in the past and future of good ol’ Terra Firma. Not to mention the incredible imagination of authors and artists whose work found fertile ground in my heart and mind.
I hope everyone else had a wonderful literary month. Here is where my journeys took me:
During the month of January I have had the pleasure of experiencing the work of Full Cast Audio for the first time, in their performance of two of Robert A. Heinlein’s juvenile novels, The Rolling Stones and The Star Beast. Both novels shine as examples of entertaining yet intelligent fiction that Heinlein wrote for young people in the 1950’s. I have mentioned in previous reviews that Robert A. Heinlein did not talk down to his audience. Because of this fact, I was rewarded with two rich reading experiences, narrated and performed by a talented and professional cast.
For the following reviews I will first discuss the story itself and then share some thoughts on the performance.
