New Bookshelves for Departed Writers

This weekend I took the long drive into the nearest town that has more stores than our single Walmart. Five furniture stores later, I landed in the overpriced Pottery Barn and finally found what I needed: a pre-assembled half-height bookshelf. (I am deathly sick of assembling bookshelves myself - the last shelf lay in my living room half-finished for about a month.)

I immediately filled the bookshelf with the last box of books rescued from my parents' basement. I have great satisfaction in having a copy of Pat Conroy's Beach Music waiting for me out in the open now.

Pat Conroy died this week at the age of 70. Harper Lee and Umberto Eco died in February this year. Last year we lost Oliver Sacks, Jackie Collins, and Ann Rule.

Each author left behind a unique literary legacy, and they all meant something to me personally, too. Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, a murder mystery set in a library labyrinth, led me to Jorges Luis Borges, one of my favorite authors.

I once bought a paperback copy of Ann Rule's The Stranger Beside Me, but as at the time I lived in Seattle and was attending the University of Washington, I immediately chickened out and gave it away. Her books are read to pieces in my library, but I lack the necessary courage to pick them up at this point. Someday! (Maybe.)

I read To Kill a Mockingbird as a teenager, and feel it is overdue for a re-read. I don't plan on reading the controversial Go Set a Watchman anytime soon.

Oliver Sacks' compassionate accounts of treating patients with neurological disorders, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, made me see medicine and mental illness in a new way. His TED Talk on hallucinations is a great introduction to his work, given near the end of his life.

Pat Conroy's The Prince of Tides amazed me by being a literary story that was also a page-turner - an incredibly rare combination.

Jackie Collins' American Star kept me well-entertained, and is the perfect level of fluff, which in my book is praise. It is no simple thing to write an effortlessly entertaining book. Many try, few succeed.

Rest in peace, you wonderful authors. I will cherish your works.

Carnivores

Carnivores by Aaron Reynolds
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When misunderstood predators lacking self-confidence meet weekly, strange things are sure to happen.

If your kids thought Bruce the Shark was screamingly funny in Finding Nemo, then Carnivores is a bedtime story for them. It has the same wicked sense of humor, and can go right next to This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen (if you haven't seen its book trailer, do yourself a favor).

Kids who start here will be reading Roald Dahl and Lemony Snicket in no time. Mark my words.

Heeere's Brucie!

The Hidden Gallery

The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

On a visit to London, the mystery surrounding the wolf-children of Ashton Place deepens when their young governess, Penelope Lumley, receives warnings of danger at every turn.

Things have barely settled down after the disastrous Christmas party when renovations at Ashton Place make a visit to London highly desirable. The three wolfish Incorrigible children are thrilled to be in a new place, but their governess worries about how their squirrel-chasing and growling tendencies will play in a big city.

It's the least of her worries, as it turns out. Miss Lumley must cope with her Hixby's Guide, the most uniquely worthless guidebook to London ever written, invitations to tea, the troubles of the querulous Lady Ashton, a chance meeting with a handsome stranger, postcards to squirrels, and eerie warnings from fortune-tellers. Her excellent upbringing at the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females serves Miss Lumley well as she learns to navigate a crowded and unpredictable city.

This sequel to The Mysterious Howling has the same attractions and flaws as its predecessor: too many mysteries, not enough solutions. Miss Lumley remains charmingly eccentric, but there is a lack of a cohesive story here in this overly serialized book. Perhaps the sequel, The Unseen Guest, will hold more answers?

If you want a somewhat more satisfying series for middle readers, I definitely recommend A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. You might also try The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall.

The Mysterious Howling

The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A young governess enters the mysterious Ashton Place to care for three children raised by wolves - can she tame their howling and squirrel-chasing ways?

Miss Penelope Lumley is only fifteen years old, but she has been well-trained to handle emergencies by an excellent upbringing at the Swanburne Home for Poor Bright Females. All her compassion and ingenuity will be called upon to deal with her new charges, siblings Alexander, Beowulf, and Cassiopeia Incorrigible.

The children have a habit of howling and various attitudes toward bathing, but a regime of squirrel desensitization and firm training is intended to prepare them for an all-important Christmas ball that may change their future. At the same time, their new governess is aware of strange undercurrents at Ashton place, especially involving the frequently absent Lord Frederick Ashton and his frivolous young wife Lady Constance.

There are plenty of mysteries left unanswered at the end of this humorous first in the series, which makes the sequels essential. The narrative voice is a less acidic version of Lemony Snicket's all-knowing narrator, with educational asides on vocabulary and the wise sayings of Miss Lumley's Swanburne mentor. A Series of Unfortunate Events books are a great next read, as well as The Wolves Chronicles of Joan Aiken.

Quotable:

"She had chosen Dante because she found the rhyme scheme pleasingly jaunty, but she realized too late that the Inferno's tale of sinner being cruelly punished in the afterlife was much too bloody and disturbing to be suitable for young minds. Penelope could tell this by the way the children hung on her every word and demanded 'More, more!' each time she reached the end of a canto and tried to stop." - 91