Reds Books

Edmund Crispin is a fabulous English mystery writer who is not well known (at least in the U.S.) but deserves to be. He's literate without being pedantic, although a classical education will help you appreciate his humor (for example, a character who has taken the pseudonym of Mr. Datchery from a character in a Dickens novel). I will admit that one or two of his works are just a little bit too stylized for my enjoyment -- I think he's joking about things in Britain at the time he wrote that I don't understand. But this one -- although it is set in the post-WWII period and very topical -- has a puzzle mystery at its center that is timeless. The problem for the reader is, how could a very likable character NOT have committed the murder, given the evidence?

The setting is a pretty little English village, made less pretty by the presence of someone sending anonymous letters that are very distressing to the recipient. One letter drives the recipient to suicide, so it is particularly important that the sender be caught and stopped. Then there's a murder, which appears to be related to the letters -- or maybe not.

If you haven't discovered Crispin yet, I highly recommend him. My favorite by him remains The Moving Toyshop, but this one is also excellent.





This

Edmund Crispin is not known as a writer who features animals in his mysteries. Yet in "Swan Song," he gave us the bald, pub parrot that recited Heine in the original German.

In "Love Lies Bleeding," Mr. Merrythought, the ancient, slovenly bloodhound thwarted a double murder.

"The Long Divorce" introduces Lavender, the cat who sees Martians. (Either you have a cat who sees Martians---there is one perched on my printer right now, staring off into what humans refer to as `empty space'---or else you will have to take Mr. Crispin's word that such perceptive cats exist.) Lavender, the marmalade-colored tomcat with unusual visual powers is instrumental in the capture of a murderer.

Murder is really secondary to the story of a village plagued by an anonymous letter-writer. Some of the letters are merely obscene. Others are poisonously factual.

Gervase Fen, Professor of English Language and Literature in the University of Oxford is importuned by an old friend to expose the anonymous letter-writer. And so Fen, microscopically disguised under the name of `Mr. Datchery' (borrowed from Charles Dickens's "The Mystery of Edmund Drood") takes himself off to his friend's bucolic village.

"To an obbligato of bird-song Mr Datchery marched beneath a bright sky towards Cotton Abbas. And he carolled lustily, to the distress of all animate nature, as he walked....The directions given him at Twelford had been explicit. But since he believed himself to possess an infallible bump of locality, he was soon tempted to modify them with a variety of short cuts, and after about three miles he discovered, much to his indignation, that he was lost."

Is that or is that not Fen to the life?

"The Long Divorce" (1952) is eighth in Crispin's series of mysteries starring his literate, cynical, sometimes bumptious amateur detective. It is also a comedy of rural, post-war England. The characters are dead-on: the army veteran who is trying to stop smoking; the female physician who is struggling to build a practice in a conservative backwater; the teenager who both loves and is ashamed of her obnoxious, money-grubbing father.

Many of the mystery writers of the 1940s and 1950s were guilty of creating one-dimensional female stereotypes, or going off on the occasional anti-feminist rant. Margery Allingham, Rex Stout, and John Dickson Carr come readily to mind as producing examples of this type of writing. Crispin also creates the occasional stereotype, especially in his early novels and some of his short stories, but the characters in "The Long Divorce" are fully and fascinatingly realized---especially the women (okay, okay---except for the innkeeper's wife and the sluttish barmaid. But they are very minor players).

Crispin also works in an ongoing and thoughtful dialogue on suicide, and there is a hair-raising scene where Fen just manages to prevent a young girl from killing herself.

"The Long Divorce" is a classical Golden-Age British mystery, a thoughtful essay on suicide, and a marvelous, occasionally hilarious study of the rural English character. I feel the same frustration that Fen felt, when at story's end he reveals his true name to a gathering of the book's characters---and very few of them have heard of him.

Why isn't Fen at least as well-known as Lord Peter or Miss Marple or Nero Wolfe? He certainly deserves to be.

Edmund Crispin is not known as a writer who features animals in his mysteries. Yet in "Swan Song," he gave us the bald, pub parrot that recited Heine in the original German.

In "Love Lies Bleeding," Mr. Merrythought, the ancient, slovenly bloodhound thwarted a double murder.

"The Long Divorce" introduces Lavender, the cat who sees Martians. (Either you have a cat who sees Martians---there is one perched on my printer right now, staring off into what humans refer to as 'empty space'---or else you will have to take Mr. Crispin's word that such perceptive cats exist.) Lavender, the marmalade-colored tomcat with unusual visual powers is instrumental in the capture of a murderer.

Murder is really secondary to the story of a village plagued by an anonymous letter-writer. Some of the letters are merely obscene. Others are poisonously factual.

Gervase Fen, Professor of English Language and Literature in the University of Oxford is importuned by an old friend to expose the anonymous letter-writer. And so Fen, microscopically disguised under the name of 'Mr. Datchery' (borrowed from Charles Dickens's "The Mystery of Edmund Drood") takes himself off to his friend's bucolic village.

"To an obbligato of bird-song Mr Datchery marched beneath a bright sky towards Cotton Abbas. And he carolled lustily, to the distress of all animate nature, as he walked....The directions given him at Twelford had been explicit. But since he believed himself to possess an infallible bump of locality, he was soon tempted to modify them with a variety of short cuts, and after about three miles he discovered, much to his indignation, that he was lost."

Is that or is that not Fen to the life?

"The Long Divorce" (1952) is eighth in Crispin's series of mysteries starring his literate, cynical, sometimes bumptious amateur detective. It is also a comedy of rural, post-war England. The characters are dead-on: the army veteran who is trying to stop smoking; the female physician who is struggling to build a practice in a conservative backwater; the teenager who both loves and is ashamed of her obnoxious, money-grubbing father.

Many of the mystery writers of the 1940s and 1950s were guilty of creating one-dimensional female stereotypes, or going off on the occasional anti-feminist rant. Margery Allingham, Rex Stout, and John Dickson Carr come readily to mind as producing examples of this type of writing. Crispin also creates the occasional stereotype, especially in his early novels and some of his short stories, but the characters in "The Long Divorce" are fully and fascinatingly realized---especially the women (okay, okay---except for the innkeeper's wife and the sluttish barmaid. But they are very minor players).

Crispin also works in an ongoing and thoughtful dialogue on suicide, and there is a hair-raising scene where Fen just manages to prevent a young girl from killing herself.

"The Long Divorce" is a classical Golden-Age British mystery, a thoughtful essay on suicide, and a marvelous, occasionally hilarious study of the rural English character. I feel the same frustration that Fen felt, when at story's end he reveals his true name to a gathering of the book's characters---and very few of them have heard of him.

Why isn't Fen at least as well-known as Lord Peter or Miss Marple or Nero Wolfe? He certainly deserves to be.

When the narrator of "Looking for Atlantis" was a ten-year-old boy his grandfather came home from the sea for the first time. His grandfather had traveled every ocean a hundred times and visited every country of the world from the plains of Patagonia to the distant volcano of Tristan da Cunha. Before he died the boy's grandfather gives him the large wooden chest by his bed, telling him "Everything you could ever want is in that chest if you know where to look for it." He also talks about the boy getting to Atlantis, explaining that you have to learn to look for the mythical land but that it "is right here, all around you."

After the grandfather dies writer and artist Colin Thompson shows us the lifetime of treasures contained within that chest. "Looking for Atlantis" is primarily a picture book. By this I mean two things. First, that the chief attraction here are the pictures, in which Thompson often fills every square inch with literally dozens of details. You can spend an hour just looking over everything that we see when the boy opens up his grandfather's chest for the first time. But those who are familiar with Thompson's other work, such as "The Paperbag Prince" and "How to Live Forever," know that is exactly what to expect from his books. Young readers will have to ask adults for explanations as to the meaning of "Macho Mariner Biscuits with Extra Weevils" and to point out which bird is the Dodo.

Second, "Looking for Atlantis" is a picture book because after the detailed narrative at the beginning the words disappear for the most part. There are six picture spreads in which there is only a single line to be read. Clearly Thompson knows that once he gets going with his detailed illustrations words are something of a distraction from the main feast. However, there is a point to the story regarding the power of the imagination and the transcendental quality of love, it is just that the art is so visually stunning that you have to remind yourself that there is a narrative thread to the book as well.

There are also references to famous paintings throughout the book, which means that young readers will be able to return to this book as they grow older and find they get more of what is going on in each illustration. Thompson came up with the idea of "Looking For Atlantis" because he wanted to do a book that was a cross-section of a house. Having already used the idea in the 1993 Leeds calendar, Thompson needed a reason for a young boy to go through all the rooms on a house and decided that searching for Atlantis was a much better idea than just looking for a lost book or a cat. Eventually the idea was refined to the point that Thompson clearly had a lesson about how to look for something was more important than knowing where to look for something. Just be forewarned: once you enjoy one of Thompson's picture books you are going to want to track down the rest of them as well.

I just spent a week at the beach with my two grandsons, ages 4 and 5. We read this book over and over and over and over again. Searching for objects and moving through tiny doors to each new magical page, their interest never waned. I recommend it very highly!

I am giving this book 5 stars for the benefit of my two sons, ages 10 and 6. Both of them have enjoyed this book so much, it can't be rated any less than 5 stars. The pictures are mesmorizing and add to the magic of the storyline which teaches children to use their imagination. It also teaches them that, with their imagination, anything is possible!

I thought this was a great volume and I can't wait to get the next one!

Ths suspense of knowing more about the mysterious battle unit named Soubi is driving me crazy.

Loveless is one of the best manga ever. I loved it so much, that I rushed to buy every one the bookstore had one sale. Ritsuka is hilariously cute. Soubi is just hilarious in general.

Volume 2 of Yun Kouga's popular series does not disappoint.

For those unfamiliar with this series, Loveless is a strange BL/Shonen-ai manga series by the same author as Earthian, which revolves around the story of a boy named Ritsuka who at the age of ten lost all his memories. Two years later his mother denies he is her son and beats him, and his only support, his brother Seimei, dies mysteriously. A mysterious man appears, Soubi, who claims to have known Seimei and cryptically implies that he knows more, but won't divulge anything. Soubi declares his love for Ritsuka and that he now belongs to the boy, and the two enter down a path for answers through mysterious battles using words as spells, secret names of power, and people as sacrifices and fighters.

For people only familiar with the manga, the plot thickens in volume 2 as Ritsuka and Soubi's relationship grows uncomfortably closer and Ritsuka finally lets down some of his guards and makes friends at school. His teacher becomes increasingly concerned about the bruises on his body. New enemies appear that have cryptic information for Ritsuka about Seimei and Soubi continues to dodge questions about it. Later, Soubi encounters even more powerful enemies without Ritsuka, but we'll have to wait for volume 3 to see how that battle turns out.

If you have seen the TV series, this volume covers the plot through volume 2 (eps 5-8) plus the side story from volume 3 where Soubi stalks Ritsuka out with his friends in Yokohama. Things to note that are a bit different from the TV series are in the BL themes of the relationship between Soubi and Ristuka. In the manga it goes a bit beyond the suggestiveness of the anime. During a particularly, I struggle with the desire to use the word "disturbing," scene where Ritsuka wants this note containing information about his deceased brother, he prompts Soubi to destroy the enemies holding the note using both stern orders, which he at all other times is unwilling to provide to the man, and a level of seductiveness absent from the anime. I can only imagine how the scene from volume three of the anime with Soubi and Ritsuka in Soubi's apartment will turn out in the manga. If the subdued sexual tension in the anime from the manga continues it should prove to be even more uncomfortable.

My only complaint about this series is the slow release schedule. I can't stand that it will be fall before we see volume 3, and even longer before we get into plot that takes us beyond what was revealed in the anime.

Betty reminded me of my mother... and women similar to my mother. Ms. Foy is a great storyteller and enables you to feel as if she's actually talking to you. I felt as if I was "in on it" and "guilty", but justified. I can't wait to read her next offering.

... definitely an emotional roller coaster ride for the reader. Fast-paced, and an easy read that was anything BUT easy to put down. I found myself wanting to shout, "No, don't do it!" to Betty, the book's main character, as I knew she was about to make a terrible mistake. This is an excellent, thought-provoking, plot by a new author, who also seems to know her way around Las Vegas, where the story is set. Worth taking a ride in this red truck.

The Man in the Red Truck conveys the story of a widowed woman who deeply grieves the sudden death of her husband who was her true love. As time passes she thinks she has found someone to fill the void within her soul but this only at the sight of him and in her fantasies. At last her eventual encounter with him gradually leads to great mental and physical pain. She never again will know the feel of the fulfillment that she knew with her departed love. This book is a very deep feeling story and it kept me interested and eager to learn the outcome. It has an ending I did not expect.This book as titled is indeed about the Indiscretions of an Older Woman.

This book about a Minerva Louise adventure was a first for my five year old son and me, and he has never laughed harder at a story. The illustrations are simple and humorous, and the story about Minerva Louise's creative misperceptions is hilarious. I've ordered a bunch of these for gifts for friends and family!

This book about a Minerva Louise adventure was a first for my five year old son and me, and he has never laughed harder at a story. The illustrations are simple and humorous, and the story about Minerva Louise's creative misperceptions is hilarious. I've ordered a bunch of these for gifts for friends and family!

When I read the original tale of "Minerva Louise" by Janet Stoeke I was charmed. It's rare that an author packs so much great storytelling punch in such a little package. So when I discovered that Minerva Louise, the extraordinarily curious chicken, had further adventures to her name, I immediately located "Minerva Louise and the Red Truck". Just as great as its predecessor, this tale tells the story of a curious member of the poultry family and her attempts to make sense of the world around her.

Minerva Louise (who is prone to loving things) loves her farm's red truck. A playful foul, she likes to dress up in the abandoned bandanas she finds in the back and create tea parties out of tools and flowerpots. One day, while playing, the truck jerks to life and Minerva finds herself driving about. While out she translates the things she sees into farm-based items. A backyard swimming pool is a lake. Golfers are farmers hard at work in their fields. Best of all, a church (to a chicken's eye) is nothing more than a, "silly barn wearing a hat!". In a nice section of the book Minerva spies a construction site and decides that it must be a farm for other trucks. Hither and yon are baby trucks and big strong ones as well. By the end of the day she's happy with what she has seen, but she's glad that the red truck has returned back to her home. That is, until she sees a bright and shiny fire engine!

Minerva is the Amelia Bedelia of the farm world. It's sweet to see how everything fits into her perceptions and misconceptions. Kids reading her books can recognize where she's wrong and feel superior that they know more than this adventurous chicklet. For my own part, I was happy that the illustrations of the little heroine show her joy and contentment so clearly. She's just so darn perky and pleased with everything she sees that it's a joy to watch her. This particular book combines farm life with construction sites. For those kids who are really into trucks and trailers, this might be an ideal storytime reading selection. It's difficult not to love the plucky (ha ha!) Minerva Louise so definitely take the time to check her out. If you've never seen a chicken beam with contentment, this should be the book for you.

What a blessing! I am such a fan of Jerry Cook. He always tells it how it is. This book is a long over-due message to all churchs for today. I hope many will read it and carry the book in their hearts as they go into their worlds each week.

This is an incredible book based on the book of Ephesians. We don't have to make it hard anymore - Christ made it simple. We serve and love and He does the rest. Need to fine tune your daily walk? This is a great read - don't miss it! Our community group is studying it and it is changing the way we view our world and our purpose.

If you liked Jerry's book, "Love, Acceptance & Forgiveness," you will absolutely love this one! It powerfully describes how Christians can bring the love of Christ to the real world, in our existing lives while we're going about the normal routine of our day. It's continuing in Christ's model - not getting people to church, but meeting them in everyday life, not trying to convert them, just loving them in a very natural way that fits with who I am. This book has changed the way I approach my day, and everyone around me. Finally, someone has cut through the religious barriers to what our true mission is and how we can accomplish it in real life.

Luke awakens from a near fatal bout with meningitis to find that his senses are profoundly altered. Mondays are red to him, music has smells, and he sees wasps in his sister's hair. It's a condition called synesthesia, thoroughly explained at the end.

Luke is also followed in his mind by the character Dreeg, an evil force that wants him to do things he finds very hard to resist in his weakened state. Dreeg wants him to play increasingly dangerous tricks on his sister Laura, but Luke fights against it. He also begins to see the ethereal Seraphina, who is like a good witch and who appears when he is at his lowest point. Suddenly, he is able to sense that Laura is in real danger and that no else can help her except him.

Nicola Morgan's first novel is an intricate psychological suspense story. Readers will be drawn into the sensory world Luke lives in through powerful language and imagery. They will be drawn in so thoroughly that it is at times difficult to determine who other characters are, real or imagined, and what is actually happening.

Definitely a mind trip, MONDAYS ARE RED is a great book for discussion.

--- Reviewed by Amy Alessio

Morgan combines elements of horror and poetry in this tale of one boy's strange experience with synesthesia. After waking up in a hospital and learning that he has suffered a bout of meningitis, Luke Patterson quickly discovers that his life has taken a dramatic and confusing turn. With the help of a newfound imaginary friend named Dreeg whose form changes depending on Luke's feelings toward him, Luke learns that all of his senses are strangely blended. ("The fact that I tasted cinnamon when I looked at her and that every now and then butterflies flittered from her eyes was something I had come to expect by now from my muddled senses.") With this new realization comes the power to change situations by thinking about them, and with that power, a new sense of freedom. Luke now adds a new talent to his long-time passion for running and athletics training-the talent to write astonishingly beautiful and eerie poems and stories. Luke learns the dangers of his new powers just in time to prevent catastrophe in this hallucinogenic tale that is sure to please lovers of language and ignite new ways of thinking about ordinary sensations.

The Book I am doing a review on is, "Mondays Are Red", by Nicola Morgan. This is a story about a fourteen-year-old boy named Luke. Luke wakes up in the hospital with Synthesia (shifting of the senses). He finds out that he almost died from Meningitis. With Synthesia Luke now experiences a world he's never known. When he thinks of days of the weeks, he associates them with color, music with taste, feelings have smells and words have texture. The setting for the book takes place in modern day California. This book follows Luke as he realizes he has power and is faced with a decision to change the world. I absolutely loved this book, and highly recommend it. The author has a gift for bringing out the emotion of his characters.

This is one of the best series that I have ever read. It is a must see but beware, once you pick it up you will not want to put it down.

The best part of this story moves along faster in this book than the first 2 in this series, but not so fast that you're left wondering what happened. Thorliff continues to work for Elizabeth's father at the newspaper as Elizabeth goes to medical school, and when tragedy strikes Blessing, Thorliff goes home to help and eventually convinces Elizabeth to come when a doctor is needed desparately.

I noticed a couple of earlier reviews disliked the idea of Elizabeth and Thorliff being a couple, but it wasn't unexpected - the story in Book 1 allows readers to get to know Elizabeth pretty well before she ever lays eyes on Thorliff, so it's obvious she was introduced to us for a reason. I'm sorry things didn't go well with Anji, but at least Thorliff was spared from being in a "love triangle" with both women.

My only complaint about this book is that there isn't a 4th in the series - I would love to see Thorliff start a newspaper while Elizabeth sets up a medical practice in Blessing. (Of course one can imagine their own ending but I hate loose ends in a story)

This is a fabulous ending to the triology on Thorliff. Although I might have been rooting for another ending (Anji, why'd you marry that other guy!) this one still won me over. The book made me cry, laugh and share it with all my friends! I can't wait to go back to Blessing later, I have completely fallen in love with all the characters.

The Munched-Up Flower Garden is a humorous story about Liz,a little girl who grows beautiful flowers. She's hoping to win a blue ribbon for the best flower garden, but much to her dismay, another little girl, Sallie, comes by to brag about winning the blue ribbon the last four years. To make matters worse, a goat destroys Liz's garden. A twist to the ending keeping children turning the pages. This book extols the virtues of hard work in a fun-filled adventure that's sure to please. Richly-colored illustrations add to the delicious flavor of the book

What a great book! It's a charming story, well-illustrated, and it's impossible not to fall in love with young Lizzie the aspiring gardener. Her voice is really done well. Nancy Kelly Allen is really onto something with this book. Children will love it. I'm rating it 5 stars.

Thanks for a fun read.
-Jay

A Troublesome Creek Kids Story: The Munched-Up Flower Garden by Nancy Kelly Allen and featuring illustrations by K. Michael Crawford is the lively story of Liz Reilly and her seemingly endless attempts to build up an award winning garden for the Troublesome Creek Picnic. Carrying young readers through the tale of Lizzie and her young friends and rivals, The Munched-Up Flower Garden follows the young girl with her many efforts to maintain her garden despite relentless annoyances from goats, chickens, neighbors, and the evil Sallie Young. Original and entertaining, and available for school and community libraries in a hardcover edition (1933176-040, $16.95), The Munched-Up Flower Garden is very highly recommended as an inspiring example of persistence, bravery, and spirit for all young readers.

This is the first compilation of Paul Dini's MUTANT, TEXAS comic stories. The star is Ida Red, a winsome yet spunky orphaned Texas gal who discovers amazing powers lurking just beneath her supposedly "normal" exterior. J. Bone's artwork has the timeless look of classic cartoons and the amusing supporting cast of talking armadillos, comical Texas politicians and villainous coyotes make this series a winner. I can't wait for more!

The creative genius behind BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES, JINGLE BELLE and writer of the current hit ABC series LOST delivers his most imaginative work to date. Set in a marvelous, mystical corner of the southwest, MUTANT, TEXAS chronicles the adventures of Ida Red, a young cowgirl blessed with amazing powers. When her humanlike animal and plant friends are kidnapped and sold as freaks, it's up to Ida to assume the role of Sheriff and track down the villain varmints. Think Buck Rogers meets Roy Rogers with a big helping of Dale Evans thrown in, too. J. Bone's illustrations perfectly match the wit and whimsy in Dini's script. Bone's Ida Red is the consumate cowgirl, brave and strong of course, but playful and prone to the occassional moments of doubt that every young heroine must (and does) overcome. The chapter where Ida faces down an angry jaguar and tames it like a bucking bronco is a tall tales scene that would do old Pecos Bill proud. MUTANT, TEXAS is a delight for all ages. Kids will love Ida and her talking animal friends (Rolly the armadillo in particular is a hoot) and adults will enjoy the sly humor found in Dini and Bone's western wonderland.

I like Ida because she is fun and is a good role model for girls. I am tired of wonder woman. It was good to read about someone who is around my age and could maybe be my friend someday. It makes me also think I am a hero too.