Bookreview: If Fried Chicken Could Fly

Author: Paige Shelton
Genre: Mystery, Detective
Published: 2012
Personal rating: 5/5
Yearly count: 20
This book is the first in the Country Cooking School Mystery series, in which Isabelle “Betts” Winston teaches at her grandmother’s cooking school in her hometown Broken Rope, Missouri – famous for its past of outlaws, knife battles, and hangings. When her grandmother becomes the prime suspect in the murder of local theater owner Everett Morningside, Betts tries to clear her name. But that’s not all she has to worry about!

I loved this book! I have to admit that I was surprised that this was a supernatural mystery, with a good old-fashioned cowboy ghost, but that only made it more fun. It’s a typical cozy mystery, set in a small town with plenty of colorful characters. The plot was great, the side stories interesting, and for once the police was neither dumb nor incompetent! All in all a great start to a new series and I for one can’t wait to read the next one. Highly recommended for cozy mystery lovers.

Bookreview: Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station

Author: Dorothy Gilman
Genre: Spy
Published: 1983
Personal rating: 4/5
Yearly count: 19
Mrs. Pollifax gets another assignment from the CIA, which brings her to China this time. It is in fact a two-pronged assignment, the first part is Mrs. Pollifax’s mission, while the second part is for an unknown to Mrs. Pollifax CIA agent. Of course, as always, things don’t exactly go to plan.

This book is good old-fashioned fun as I’ve come to expect from the Mrs. Pollifax series. The plot is good, the cast of characters is interesting, and the readers gets a glimpse into the China of the early 1980s. The only minor point of complaint I have is about the method in which Mrs. Pollifax leaves the country – I thought it was too…easy? Contrived? Coincidental? I don’t even have the right word for it, but it did lose the book one star, because it brought down the believability factor immensely. But, all in all, a great book I’d heartily recommend.

Bookreview: A Witch Alone

Author: Marian Green
Genre: Non-fiction, Paganism
Published: 1991
Personal rating: 4/5
Yearly count: 18
This book is meant as a workbook for solitary practitioners of paganism. Each chapter has excercises and is meant to take you one moon – from new moon to new moon – to complete, although skills learned do need to continue to be practiced. It’s a very down-to-earth book, with a heavy emphasis on discovering things for yourself. Marian Green points you in the right direction, but that’s all. If you don’t do the work, the book won’t have anything to offer. There are no recipes or rituals in here.

As for those who are not pagans themselves, but are interested in paganism and folklore, this is still an interesting book. It’s all about traces of pre-Christianity that can still be found in today’s culture and landscape. Although here too it’s simply the author pointing in the right direction, it gives some great food for thought. And while the book is focused on the UK, it’s easily translatable to other countries because it’s more about where and how to look for traces of surviving paganism than a list of surviving traces in the UK.

All in all a good book that’s interesting for two groups of people, but ultimately you’ll need to do a lot of the work – thinking and researching – yourself. If you’re not prepared to do that, then this is not the book for you.

Bookreview: The Demigod Files

Author: Rick Riordan
Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure
Published: 2009
Personal rating: 3/5
Yearly count: 17
The Demigod Files is a companion book to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. It has some short interviews with some of the characters, a few character profiles, some puzzles, and a few other odds and ends about the series in it. It also contains three short stories – two of which can take place anytime within the series, but the third one takes place between book four and book five. Therefore, that’s the best time to read this booklet. It’s not a necessary thing to read this – you can enjoy and follow the series without it. Recommended for those who love the series, but otherwise not very special.

Bookreview: The Confessions of Catherine de Medici

Author: C.W. Gortner
Genre: Historical
Published: 2010
Personal rating: 5/5
Yearly count: 16
This fabulous historical novel follows the life of Catherine de Medici from her time in Italy as a little girl, through her marriage with the eventual king of France, until her time as regent and power behind the throne of her sons and eventual death. The story flows very naturally, the writing pulls you in and that makes this book a fairly quick read, despite the sometimes heavy topic.

The one part of this book that might deter some historical novel fans from picking it up is the fact that Catherine sometimes has visions. But, as the author explains, this is based on historical evidence – many of Catherine’s friends and acquaintances wrote down instances of these visions. Only those instances were put into the story by Gortner. I, myself, did not find it out of place in this novel. Catherine’s attitude to religion, her visions, and the paranormal are in keeping with the time period.

What I liked most about this book is the fact that the author took a woman history has painted black and made her human. He looked at the evidence – the true evidence, not the propaganda spouted by her political enemies – and found a complex woman living in a complex time. She was more tolerant than most Catholic rulers in her time, but she had flaws and made mistakes – sometimes with tragic and bloody consequences. In the end, it is Catherine who made this novel amazing for me. I loved it from beginning to end and I highly recommend it!

Bookreview: Murder on the Links

Author: Agatha Christie
Genre: Mystery, Detective
Published: 1923
Personal rating: 4/5
Yearly count: 15
World War One is over, and Captain Hastings and Hercule Poirot are sharing an apartment in London. Poirot has started working as a private detective, and he’s hired by a wealthy gentleman. But when Poirot and Hastings get to France, it’s already too late – Poirot’s client has been murdered. Poirot feels honor bound to solve the murder. But with his investigation he pits himself against the famous French detective Giraud, a member of the French La Sûreté Nationale – the National Police, France’s version of Scotland Yard.

Poirot is not as annoying as I remember him. Perhaps because it’s only the second book he appears in and Agatha Christie’s third novel overall, she is not yet confident enough to truly make Poirot’s quirks take center stage. Or it could be because I was distracted by my annoyance at Hastings. Shouldn’t Hastings know – especially after the Styles case – that the unimportant things Poirot interests himself in usually are important clues? And the whole ‘falling in love at the drop of a hat’ thing he has going for him – in the last book, and now again – is annoying as well. I cannot say I mind that Hastings doesn’t appear often after this book. His clueless bumbling, without seeming to learn from his mistakes, will not be missed by me.

As for the mystery, I liked it. Some parts of the plot I actually figured out before the reveal, but most of it I didn’t – exactly how I like my mysteries. The competitive element between Poirot and Giraud is fun, especially considering their very different methods of coming to a conclusion. All in all, a good, strong mystery which I recommend.

DNF: One Moldavian Summer

Author: Ionel Teodoreanu
Genre: Historical
Published: 1925
Personal rating: 1/5
Did not finish count: 1
One Moldavian Summer is said to be one of the best books in Romanian literature. I sincerely hope that people are talking about the original novel and that it’s much, much better than the translation I read. If not, I have to wonder of Romania actually has any books deserving of the title literature! My copy was an English translation done by Eugenia Farca. It was published as part of the East European Monographs in cooperation with the Romanian Cultural Foundation Publishing House and distributed by Columbia University Press in 1992. So you would expect a fairly good translation. Alas, such was not the case. Verbs occurring in the wrong tenses, Mrs. instead of Mr. and he instead of she were common errors. Sometimes, words appear to be missing in a sentence. I hope this is just a reflection on the translation and that these errors do not occur in the original text.

But, aside from the translation issue. I did not like this book. The plot – there wasn’t one really – bored me to tears. I did not like two of the three main characters. Danut is a petulant little boy who lives in a dream world. Olguta is a spoiled brat of a girl. Monica might be the only one likeable, albeit because she’s a grey little mouse who’s a follower. But even her behavior started to get on my nerves. The almost telegram style of writing only underscored these issues.

I gave One Moldavian Summer 100 pages to convince me to read it. It failed, badly. I’m not convinced it's worth my time to read, so I gave up on it. I highly recommend any potential reader to pass this book by. It’s truly not worth your time to read it. All in all, a very disappointing experience for me.