Books

Dikeledi’s sister Lesego has not come home from school. It has been hours. Dikeledi fears something has happened to her sister. She tries to get the police to search for her but they think that Lesego is a runaway. No one takes an interest until another girl goes missing and her father gets involved. Detective Kudu and his new partner, Samantha Khama investigate the disappearances of the two girls. What they find is a witch doctor that is making muti out of human remains. Deadly Harvest is my first introduction to a detective Kubu mystery and the writing duo of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip as Michael Stanley. I have to say that after reading this book I am very impressed by this duo. This book was way better then I thought it would be. Mr. Sears and Mr. Trollip have developed a good formula for their writing. I could not tell where one left off and the other one began. I like detective Kubu. However another person I was drawn to was his new partner, Samantha. Samantha helped to bring the human aspect to this story. Whereas Kubu was the more level headed one and could bring good insight with his experience as well. The storyline featured in this book was scary. I can picture this exact situation still happening in some parts of the world. Thus this is another reason why I was so intrigued in reading this book. Don’t let your chance slip away without reading Deadly Harvest!

If I fall in love/lust with your body and your brain, that is only half as hot as falling in love/lust with your body and your mind. (If you are smart you are sexy because your mind is interesting -- not your brain, an organ to which we have little access. Even in an mFRI gadget, meaning does not give up its secrets). Is this evidence for mind-body dualism? [That is not a LOL jape or an a

I've been reading Clare Messud's new book, The Woman Upstairs for the last few days. I'm almost 150 pages into the book, and I still don't really know what it's about. I know what's going on; I'm just not sure what it's about, yet. I've a feeling that something very bad is going to happen before it comes to an end, much the same way I did with Neil Bartlett's novel Skin Lane. Meanwhile, I wanted to post the book's first page, because I just loved it. Ms. Messud had me from the first sentence. What follows is not safe for work. How angry am I? You don't want to know. Nobody wants to know about that. I'm a good girl, I'm a nice girl, I'm a straight-A, strait-lace, good daughter, good career girl, and I never stole anybody's boyfriend and I never ran out on a girlfriend, and I put up with my parents' shit and my brother's shit, and I'm not a girl anymore, I'm over forty fucking years old, and I'm good at my job and I'm great with kids and I held my mother's hand when she died, after four years of holding her hand while she was dying, and I speak to my father everyday on the telephone--every day, mind you, and what kind of weather do you have on your side of the river, because here it's pretty gray and a bit muggy too? It was supposed to say "Great Artist" on my tombstone, but if I died right now it would say "such a good teacher/daughter/friend" instead; and what I really want to shout, and want in big letters on that grave, too, is FUCK YOU ALL. Don't all women feel the same? If you've already read The Woman Upstairs through to the end, please keep it too yourself. I should be done with the book by Monday. A full review will probably follow.

Mr. Renek was a critically admired New York writer who crafted comic tales about historical criminals and modern urban life but never achieved the commercial success he sought.

“More than anything, we are remembered for our smiles: the ones we share with our closest and dearest, and the one we bestow on a total stranger who needs it right then, and God has put us there to deliver.” — Carrie HamiltonYou are about to meet an extraordinary young woman, Carrie Hamilton. The daughter of one of television’s most recognizable and beloved stars, Carol Burnett, Carrie won the hearts of everyone she met with her kindness, quirky sense of humor, and wonderfully unconventional approach to life. Living in the spotlight of celebrity, but in an era when personal troubles were kept private, Carrie and Carol made a brave display of honesty and love by going public with teenager Carrie’s drug addiction and recovery. Carrie lived her adult life of sobriety to the fullest, enjoying happy and determined independence and achieving a successful artistic career as an actress, writer, musician, and director. Carrie’s passion for life and her humorist’s view of the world never wavered as she aggressively battled cancer. Carrie died at the age of 38.Carrie and Me is Carol Burnett’s poignant tribute to her late daughter and a funny and moving memoir about mothering an extraordinary young woman through the struggles and triumphs of her life. Sharing her personal diary entries, photographs, and correspondence, Carol traces the journey she and Carrie took through some of life’s toughest challenges and sweetest miracles. Authentic, intimate, and full of love, Carrie and Me is a story of hope and joy that only a mother could write. (Simon and Schuster website)What I remember of Carrie Hamilton is sadly her troubled past and the rocky relationship she had with her mom, Carol Burnett. I was blown away while listening to the complex and inspiring woman she truly was. Her struggle with addiction was such a small (although impactful) piece of her life. Narrated by Carol Burnett herself, this audio experience was hugely emotional. Burnett's trademark crack in her voice made me smile. Her love for her daughter really comes through and their relationship certainly is one every mother and daughter would hope for. They managed to make it through the rough times and come out shining. He unfortunate death at such a young age broke my heart.Carrie and Me briefly chronicles the hard time Carrie had as a teen and young adult with drugs but mostly concentrates on her growth as an adult and how she finds peace in Colorado. You learn about her music and writing career and a little bit about Carol's life at the the same time.The last portion of the book is Carrie's story she wrote before she died. I listened to this right around Mother's day and found it to be the perfect thing to listen to. I recommend it for fans of Carol Burnett and/or memoirs of mother, daughter relationships. You get a little Hollywood thrown in but it's mostly the power of that bond and the story of a great woman taken too soon.Publisher WebsiteHappy Listening and as always, thanks for stopping by!red headed book child

I'm off to Crimefest 2013 in Bristol this week. While I pack my passport and toothbrush, I'm revisiting a few posts about some of the authors whom I'll join there. I might not have read Anne Zouroudi's Messenger of Athens had she not been on one of my panels at Bouchercon in 2011, but boy, am I glad I did read her. Zouroudi is a master of slow, languid pace, of lives stoically lived, and of wrongs righted without sentimentality. What a sense of phsyical and human place. For today's Crimefest blog post, give a big, fat ???? ??? to Anne Zouroudi.============================= Anne Zouroudi reminds me of Pierre Magnan. In Magnan's novels, I wrote:"Consequences unfold slowly, if at all, and characters accept them stoically or with good-humored resignation or silent suffering or secret relief."Magnan set his novels in rural France; Zouroudi sets The Messenger of Athens on a small Greek island. Her languid storytelling suggests a languid pace of rural life, with dark secrets emerging only slowly, and everyone getting the chance to relate events as he or she saw them.Into this slow boil comes an investigator from Athens by the name of Hermes Diaktoros (the same name as the messenger of the Olympian gods), sent to investigate a death the locals insist was a suicide. The ancient Hermes was supernaturally strong and wore winged shoes; this one's epithet is "the fat man" and, though he stirs things up in ways some residents don't like, he's content to adopt the leisurely local pace, albeit with the occasional sly joke at which only he smiles.I'll see how the mystery unfolds. In the meantime, I like this protagonist.© Peter Rozovsky 2011

... Portrait of a Closet. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

... James Bradley was the winner of this year's Pascall Prize for Critic of the Year, Australia's only criticism award. We look at why he won, and what he has to say about the practice and future of criticism. - The Wheeler Centre: Books, Writing, Ideas. (Hat tip, Lee Lowe.)

I adopted this cat last year as a gift for my friend Donna. It was made by my friend Emily, who loves to sew. The inner lining of the straps even looks like cat hair protecting the ears.Emily sells her creations online through her Mtn Frankle Creations, and this is her description of this particular Cat Face Tote Bag: DescriptionThis cute bag was upcycled from a fleece dress. It has an appliquéd and embroidered cat face on the front. The heart shaped nose and whiskers are gray colored while the eyes are the usual dark yellow with black vertical stripes. It is 10 inches across the top with two 7 inch black padded straps that are black and white striped underneath. There is a dark yellow button with embroidered spider-like legs at one strap and my signature button at the other strap. The sides are 10 inches long that end diagonally at the 14 inch scalloped bottom. It is lined with a shiny black material.Materialsfleece dress, button, threadThis smart idea I found on Facebook looks like something else Emily might make.

Lynn:  So, I’m a mad fan of this duo – Fogliano and Stead!  It started last year with And Then It’s Spring which I loved with a passion and gave to every child I know.  I was lucky to get the galley for If You Want to See a Whale (Roaring Brook/Neal Porter 2013)  at Midwinter, read it immediately and have been waiting impatiently since then to write about it. This has the same rich sparseness of their first book.  I know, that sounds like a contradiction of terms but it is not.  Both the line drawings and the text are deceptively simple at first glance but reveal imaginative treasures with a closer look.    Lots of white space, Fogliano’s  exquisitely chosen words and  Stead’s airy illustrations unite to create a sense of the wonders around us if we just take the time to look. “If you want to see a whale you will need a window and an ocean and time for waiting and time for looking and time for wondering “is that a whale?” There is much to tempt the small boy and the dog away from looking only for a whale and that is not a bad thing.  Persistence is rewarded at the end in a heart-swelling reveal but this is truly a celebration of the splendid wealth available to all who take the time to look and to wonder.  Can you think of a better book to get us all ready for summer?  Here’s wishing all of you some unscheduled days to just enjoy the journey. Cindy: It’s a beautiful day here in west Michigan, if cool, and my husband is putting in the dock. I’ve just rowed our row boat down the bayou we live on and I was grumpy about having to come inside to get my part of the blog post done. But now? NOW? I need to find a dog and head back out in the row boat to spend the rest of the afternoon looking for a whale. Fogliano’s story was just what I was in the mood to read and Stead’s illustrations are charming. I’m a fan of wood block art and this whole book just makes me smile.  I’m sure to get distracted, like the boy in the book, and take my eyes off the water to look at cloud shapes and smell the flowers but I’ve got a three day weekend stretching ahead and surely there’s time to find a whale in that…it can’t hurt to try.