Flavia de Luce, an 11-year-old English bicycle riding detective, pedals her way throughout the 1950s English countryside to unravel, when the Scotland Yard can’t, the murder mystery which began with the discovery of a rare lost stamp positioned on the beak of a dead black bird. For readers who loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society,  The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, a debut novel, provides a fast, fun, can’t-put-down very British read, which will thrill and delight, all the while propelling the reader into the intriguing world of stamp collecting. Stay tuned for the continuing series highlighting this precocious, winsome juvenile Sherlock Holmes!

-Nan

Ok…all you historical fiction fans I have a great book for you to read this summer!  Vanora Bennett has recently returned with her new novel, Figures in Silk.  Many of you will recognize her name because I also let you know about her first novel, Portrait of an Unknown Woman, which is about Sir Thomas More and his family.  Figures in Silk is set in the 15th century London during the War of the Roses.  It is the story of ambitious sisters whose destinies are intertwined with an ambitious king.  After being “married off” by their father wealthy silk merchant, John Lambert, Jane who is terribly bored begins an affair with the newly crowned, Edward IV and Isabel starts married life in the House of Claver where she immerses herself in learning the silk business.  Isabel soon realizes the life her sister is living is one that she can utilize to go forward with her dream of building her silk dynasty.  Bennett does a remarkable job using historical fact, gossip of the time surrounding the affair and the luscious details of silk making to weave together a fantastic tale with a little bit of everything: heroes, villains, power, passion, politics and intrigue.

Usually after I have read a historical novel I become totally interested in reading more about the time period.  I always have some unanswered questions especially if I don’t know a lot about the subject matter.  After I had read The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, I turned to Alison Weir to fill in some gaps for me.  So to Ms. Weir I turn again…The War of the Roses and The Princes in the Tower are two books that I will be reading this summer to help with those questions.

Ok, I haven’t seen the movie (with Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio) but in no way can it be half as good as the book! I’m talking about Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. I don’t remember the last time a book gripped me quite like this. I mean, I was drop-jawed by the end of the first page and kept shaking my head as I read and read and read. The story is not ‘revolutionary’ at all but the magic comes from the way Yates notices everything: every nuance, every slight turn of the head, every hopeful glance and every crushing disappointment described with the ease of a master who is a keen observer of people and of plain ole ordinary life.

I couldn’t wait to start another, so my next Yates book was A Special Providence. This is a story about a boy named Bob Prentice, a young soldier, who has spent his entire life trying to escape his mother’s stifling presence. Alice, his mother, struggles with her own hopes and demons as she tries to find meaning and success in her sculpture. Her husband left years ago and Bob and her art are all she has and she pursues both with achingly tragic results. You feel her desperation as one after another of her schemes die and she is forced to rise up and find another way to achieve something….for anything is better than what she has. Her life is a pitiful illusion and you feel yourself buying into it for awhile. Bob eventually goes to war in Europe at the end of WWII, hoping to become a man, a hero, but makes one bumbling disaster after another, never able to achieve much of anything while his mother waits at home for him to return and bring meaning back into her dreary life. It is a haunting story of loss and failure, one that leaves the reader wanting so much for these people. Yates has a way of making you care desperately for his characters.

I am at the end of a third book, entitled Cold Spring Harbor. This is the story of Evan Shephard and chronicles the half-lived life he doesn’t seem to mind living. How his indifference and just plain laziness plays out in the lives of people around him and what he does with roads not taken and challenges left unanswered takes you deep within a story that feels complex yet painfully simple.

I have several more of Richard Yates’s novels on my bed-side table: Disturbing the Peace, Easter Parade, and Young Hearts Crying. With the success of Revolutionary Road there has been a resurgence of interest in Yates and his books have been newly reprinted in paperback form. I’m not exactly sure why I have gravitated to him so strongly but rarely have I read dialog that strips characters down to their inner core like his does. The stories are simple and often tragic but it is the truths that he finds and the honesty with which he exposes people and ultimately the beauty he brings forth in the midst of the most ordinary existence that has captured my emotions…and …the man writes a darn good story!

click here to read: visitation by brad watson

my dad read this and thought i might enjoy it…he was right, now i’d like to share it with everyone.

by Zita

I recently discovered a wonderful book called The Natural Cat… yes, I actually bought a manual for caring for my Patsy cat. SO, I thought I’d write a little review of this book since I’ve found it so interesting and enlightening…

…And what would a blog about cats be without some references to T. S. Eliot’s collection of poems, “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats?”

I have only read forty pages of the book thus far and yet I am already shocked about all the information I lack and all the misinformation I have received over the years! For instance, I never realized that I was supposed to TRAIN Patsy to use a scratching post… who knew? I thought cats were supposed to like scratching posts and that I was unlucky enough to have a cat who chose my oriental rug as a matter of preference. I also never realized how particular cats can be about ETIQUETTE! I hate that I have spent the past year and a half being impolite to my Patsy!

A segment from Eliot’s collection of poems, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,

The Ad-dressing of Cats

“…With Cats, some say, one rule is true:

Don’t speak until you are spoken to.

Myself, I do not hold with that-

I say- you should ad-dress a Cat.

But always keep in mind that he

Resents familiarity…”

Anyway, I got interested in learning more about cats after watching Cesar Milan in the popular TV show, “The Dog Whisperer.” Cesar says that he “trains people and rehabilitates dogs,” and I thought, if there’s something similar out there for cats I need some training, otherwise my rugs may not have another year in them. All to say I found the book, The Natural Cat, aka The Cat Bible, which was originally published in the 70’s and was recently updated so if you have questions Anita Frazier has the answers.

There are many of you out there who may not give much credence to holistic therapy but even if you fall in that category this Anita Frazier’s book will help you create a more comfortable life for your cat as well as a better understanding of its behavior.

Frazier’s abilities as a “cat purrer” are incredible… She even teaches us how to “speak cat!” For all you naysayers, just give it a read… I have been amazed at all that I have learned and very surprised to realize that the book is actually fascinating!

The Rum Tum Tugger

The Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat:
If you offer him pheasant he would rather have grouse.
If you put him in a house he would much prefer a flat,
If you put him in a flat then he’d rather have a house.
If you set him on a mouse then he only wants a rat,
If you set him on a rat then he’d rather chase a mouse.
Yes the Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat—
And there isn’t any call for me to shout it:
For he will do
As he do do
And there’s no doing anything about it!
The Rum Tum Tugger is a terrible bore:
When you let him in, then he wants to be out;
He’s always on the wrong side of every door,
And as soon as he’s at home, then he’d like to get about.
He likes to lie in the bureau drawer,
But he makes such a fuss if he can’t get out.
Yes the Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat—
And there isn’t any use for you to doubt it:
For he will do
As he do do
And there’s no doing anything about it!
The Rum Tum Tugger is a curious beast:
His disobliging ways are a matter of habit.
If you offer him fish then he always wants a feast;
When there isn’t any fish then he won’t eat rabbit.
If you offer him cream then he sniffs and sneers,
For he only likes what he finds for himself;
So you’ll catch him in it right up to the ears,
If you put it away on the larder shelf.
The Rum Tum Tugger is artful and knowing,
The Rum Tum Tugger doesn’t care for a cuddle;
But he’ll leap on your lap in the middle of your sewing,
For there’s nothing he enjoys like a horrible muddle.
Yes the Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat—
And there isn’t any need for me to spout it:
For he will do
As he do do
And theres no doing anything about it!