Journal to a Muse

Recent Reading
I probably should feel guilty, but I don't. Instead of working on a secret knitting project I have been reading. And reading. And reading. Very pleasant. Nothing about work.

Robert B. Parker is reliably funny with his dialog and plotting. The whodunit aspect of this Jesse Stone novel was a bit more transparent to me than some of his earlier works, but I wasn't sure until approximately 3/4 of the way through. A plus is that characters from the Jesse Stone AND Sunny Rollins novels appear in the same book. I found myself hoping that homicidal criminals looking for someone to knock off might consider some of our real life high-profile talk-show rabble rousers. Just a thought.
(Freedom of speech is so painful sometimes!)

Ms. Shreve, as always, has written a book that is thoughtful and rather quiet. A mini reunion of sorts is held on the occasion of a marriage in a small Massachusetts town. (It could have been Lenox.) Echoes of 9/11, a tragedy during their senior year at a Maine prep school, and the degrees of maturity during the intervening 30 or so years are deftly woven together. Although the book comes with a discussion guide, I don't know that it had an especially profound "point." Several moderately important observations to be sure: We don't know each other as well as we think. We don't always know what we will do under future circumstances. Often we misjudge others as well as ourselves. But I'm glad I invested the time to read it.

I haven't quite finished this one. It seems much more episodic than her earlier books. LOTS of quirky characters get ten or twenty pages in which their past and present situation is sketched out. They cross paths with each other only rarely. Ms. Binchy has gained the courage to have some characters with quite nasty dispositions and huge character defects this time... which in my recollection is new for her. Whitethorn Woods is in danger of being wiped out by a freeway or historically preserved in a way that strangles the village. And the resulting stress is not bring out the best in anyone.

I found this on the children's bargain shelf at Borders. I've been out of the kiddie lit business for a while... and have missed some wonderful illustrators. Ten fairy tales have been retold by ten illustrators and made very fresh. The retellings are neither bowdlerized nor "updated." Rather they are timeless and dreamy. And while they are mostly familiar (Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Fisherman's Wife) there are also some less familiar tales such as The Three Languages, the Enchanted Pig, and The Brush Princess. Cinderella seems to have met the Great Gatsby, too, as her tale is set and illustrated in the style of the 20's. Hansel and Gretel's house of sweets looks like a cross between Krispy Kreme but in this telling it is observed that all witches have red eyes... which prevent them from seeing clearly. Creepy.

Happy reading.