The Golden Tresses of the Dead by Alan Bradley (The Flavia de Luce Mysteries)

Are you a fan of the Flavia de Luce books by Alan Bradley? The series started out with a bang with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (2009). Since then it's been a mixed bag for me, some enjoyable and some not as much. Despite this inconsistency, I persist with this series.

These books are set in 1950s England.  Flavia, the pre-teen protagonist, is a budding scientist living in a crumbling family estate with her two older sisters and widowed father. Flavia's mad chemistry skills and flare for detection get her involved in solving the various murders that occur in her village of Bishop's Lacey. The vibe in the books is, on the one hand, familiar for fans of Agatha Christie and Martha Grimes and, on the other hand, fresh with these characters and their interest in science, literature and music.

The most recent addition to the series is The Golden Tresses of the Dead, and it is an entertaining book. In this outing, the game is afoot when a finger is found in a wedding cake - much to the bride's horror. With good atmosphere and lots of twists and turns, this is a fun read. Fans of Flavia should greatly enjoy it.

Because so much has changed in Flavia's life over the course of this series, readers new to it would, I think, be wise to start from the beginning. Have a book-reading binge! As Ben Dolnick wrote in the NYT recently:

[T]he mind — for all its endless rationalizations and solemn prohibitions — is in fact a ceaseless pleasure hound. Once I’m actually enjoying a book, it really does feel as if the pages are turning themselves; I find myself reading in all the little pockets of time that were once reserved for the serious business of checking to see if my dishwasher pods have shipped.

And pleasure is, after all — once I scrape away the layers of self-image and pretentiousness — the reason that I read. When I’ve found the right book, and I’m reading it the right way, reading is fun — head-tingling, goosebump-raising fun. It’s a vivid and continuous dream that is somehow both directed from without and cast from within, and I get to be awake for it. Netflix can wait.

Ben Dolnick, The New York Times, May 4, 2019

Check out Flavia. Binge on some books and enjoy!

Fun Innovation: The New York Times Skimmer.

Browse the headlines of the New York Times with the paper's new "skimmer".  After linking to the skimmer page, select the section of the paper you want to peruse from the box on the right.  Then use the "next" and "previous" buttons, or the arrows on your keyboard, to scan those pages.  Fun!

Confused about Health Care?

The new recommendations on breast cancer screening issued this week were quite a surprise. If you haven't seen it, check out New York Times columnist Gail Collins on-point, and funny, column about this situation.

What does this all mean? My plan is to follow these steps: Stick with a Mediterranean diet and red wine. Get plenty of sleep and some strength training. And no white shoes after Labor Day.

I think these rules will be effective.

Read a book a day for a year? Oy.

I've been on beach vacations where I've plowed through a book each day. It's a dizzying undertaking, and the books tend to blur together, particularly mysteries. Years later I pick up books only to discover, 75 percent of the way through, that I've solved this particular murder before.

None of my reading marathons, however, can compare with that of Nina Sankovitch. Sankovitch, according to the New York Times, is reading a book a day for a year and reviewing the books at her blog. Check out the article here and the blog here.

Although I love to read, this sounds like a nightmare to me. And I've tried to imagine being an author who labored over a book for years, only to have a reader/reviewer gulp it down in less than 24 hours. I think I'd feel dismayed. My symbolism! My carefully crafted language! The subtleties!

Or maybe I'd just be glad that someone read the work.

Book Buzz

Lorrie Moore's new novel, A Gate at the Stairs, was reviewed Sunday by Jonathan Lethem in the New York Times. Last week, Michiko Kakutani reviewed the book in The Times. Today, in the Arts section of the paper, a profile of Ms. Moore appeared.

Other works by Lorrie Moore include Self-Help and Birds of America: Stories. Moore teaches creative writing at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Donald Westlake's "The Hunter" Now a Graphic Novel

From the New York Times:

[Darwyn] Cooke has turned his eye toward the guys and dolls that make up the world of Parker, the single-named, downright criminal antihero created by Richard Stark (the novelist Donald E. Westlake, using a pseudonym, who died last year). The result is a wonderfully engrossing graphic-novel adaptation of “The Hunter,” the 1962 book in which Mr. Stark introduced his frequent protagonist. (more)

Best Seller Round-Up

Ernest Hemingway: "You go to the races?"

Interviewer: "Yes, occasionally."

Hemingway: "Then you read the Racing Form . . . .
There you have the true art of fiction."

From The Paris Review Interviews, Vol. 1.

Note: Available this July is a new edition of Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. According to the publisher, "This new special restored edition presents the original manuscript as the author prepared it to be published."

I. The New York Times.

Published July 10, 2009.

Fiction Paperback (Trade): My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult.
Fiction Hardcover: Swimsuit, James Patterson and Maxine Paetro.

Nonfiction Paperback: Glenn Beck's 'Common Sense', Glenn Beck.

Nonfiction Hardcover: Catastrophe, Dick Morris and Eileen McGann.

II. Los Angeles Times.
Published July 12, 2009.

Fiction Paperback: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!, Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.
Fiction Hardcover: Finger Lickin' Fifteen, Janet Evanovich.
Nonfiction Paperback: Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
Nonfiction Hardcover: Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell.

III. Northern California Independent Booksellers.
For the week ending July 5, 2009.

Fiction Paperback (Trade): Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout.



Fiction Hardcover: The Angel’s Game, Carlos Ruiz Zafón.
Nonfiction Paperback: Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
Nonfiction Hardcover: Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell.


IV. Heartland Indie Bestseller List.
Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association
For the week ending July 5, 2009.

Fiction Paperback (Trade): The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Random House Reader's Circle), Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows.
Fiction Hardcover: Finger Lickin' Fifteen, Janet Evanovich.
Nonfiction Paperback: Glenn Beck's 'Common Sense', Glenn Beck.
Nonfiction Hardcover: Liberty and Tyranny, Mark R. Levin.

ACLU Wins Case Before the United States Supreme Court for Arizona Student

In an 8 to 1 decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a strip-search by school officials of a 13-year-old student, Savana Redding, suspected of possessing prescription-strength ibuprofen, violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Justice Clarence Thomas dissented.

ACLU

From the New York Times: Safford Unified School District v. April Redding

Other Reading: The Anita Hill - Clarence Thomas Controversy.

Best Seller Round-Up

"All good books are alike in that they are truer
than if they had really happened,
and after you are finished reading one,
you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you;
the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow,
the people and the places and how the weather was. "

- Ernest Hemingway

I. The New York Times.

Published June 19, 2009.

Fiction Paperback (Trade): The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.
Fiction Hardcover: Relentless, Dean Koontz

Nonfiction Paperback: Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
Nonfiction Hardcover: Liberty and Tyranny, Mark R. Levin.





II. Los Angeles Times.
Published June 21, 2009.

Fiction Paperback: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.
Fiction Hardcover: The Scarecrow, Michael Connelly.
Nonfiction Paperback: Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
Nonfiction Hardcover: Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell.

III. Northern California Independent Booksellers.
For the week ending June 14, 2009.

Fiction Paperback (Trade): The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows.
Fiction Hardcover: The Scarecrow, Michael Connelly
Nonfiction Paperback: Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
Nonfiction Hardcover: Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell.

IV. Heartland Indie Bestseller List.
Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association
For the week ending June 14, 2009.

Fiction Paperback (Trade): The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows.
Fiction Hardcover: Shanghai Girls, Lisa See.
Nonfiction Paperback: Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
Nonfiction Hardcover: Liberty and Tyranny, Mark R. Levin.

Kindle Competition

Competition is bubbling in the electronic book ("e-book") industry, where Amazon's Kindle has thus far dominated. Publisher Simon & Schuster is now selling its books via Scribd, a publisher of online content. Check out this explanation of the deal at the Los Angeles Times.

Additionally, Google also has an e-book plan. The New York Times has details. Google's plan involves selling readers on-line access to books; no special device or unique "reader" required.

Interesting developments. Yet, except for a small segment of the market, such as business travelers, I still see no advantage in purchasing an e-book for most readers. Am I wrong?

Book Buzz: "Shop Class as Soulcraft" by Matthew Crawford

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford, is described in the New York Times as a "beautiful little book about human excellence and the way it is undervalued in contemporary America." Mr. Crawford, who holds a Ph.D. in political philosophy, is also a mechanic and runs a motorcycle repair shop. The book concerns the joy and rewards in work that involves making things, as opposed to sitting in a cubical at a call center.

If you are interested in reading this book, you might also want to listen to an interview with Mr. Crawford that took place on the Diane Rehm Show from NPR.

Mr. Crawford - an author, philosopher, Ph.D., mechanic, and entrepreneur who apparently also has a strong streak of discipline and ambition - is the poster child for a liberal arts education, in my opinion. His various interests look to be unified by his ability to think critically, organize those thoughts coherently, and communicate clearly. Crawford seems to be living an interesting life. I look forward to reading his book to find out if it is equally as interesting.

Related: Raising Kids Who Can Thrive Amid Chaos in Their Careers by Sue Shellenbarger writing in the Wall Street Journal. Discusses job market skills to install in young people, including adaptability, exploration and entrepreneurial thinking.

Book Buzz: "The Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters was reviewed on NPR this morning. The book is both a spooky ghost story set in 1947 England, and a story about about post-war changes in class and social hierarchies.

The Little Stranger received favorable reviews in the Washington Post and the New York Times, which called it "a gripping and readable novel. "

The Times Online reviewer wrote, "It would be unfair to reveal very much about The Little Stranger; enough to say that this reader, left alone one night in her boxy Seventies ex-council house - about as unspooky a place as you can imagine - had to stop reading for fright. This is an effective, gripping book . . . You'll want to sleep with the light on." However, the reviewer from the Financial Times was more convinced by the book's social history than its ghost story.

"The Whole Five Feet" by Christopher Beha

Liberal Arts Majors: Here is yet another opportunity to put that learning to good use.

Christopher Beha has written a memoir that has as its hook the author's vow to read all 51 volumes of the Harvard Classics. The Harvard Classics is an anthology of classic literature assembled in the early 1900s by the then-president of Harvard. This collection, called the “Five-Foot Shelf", sold millions of volumes.

In a clever promotion for his book, Mr. Beha is running a contest at his web site. Each day for the next few weeks he is giving away a volume of the Harvard Classics to an individual who correctly answers a question relating to the volume in question.

For example, the June 4 question relates to Volume 23, Two Years Before the Mast: What was the name of the ship on which Richard Dana completed the second leg of his two-year trip?

If you want to participate in the drawing, email your answer by 5 p.m. Eastern to thewholefivefeet AT gmail DOT com.

And to think, some people pooh-poohed the utility of all those English courses we took as undergrads; of course, those folks didn't understand the joy in those classes.



(Via The New York Times Paper Cuts)

Statistic of the Day - General Motors

The New York Times reports this morning that after the current round of plant closings, G.M. will have fewer than 40,000 workers building cars in the United States compared to 395,000 workers in the 1970s.

New Book Buzz at the BookExpo Convention

BookExpo Convention is the publishing industry's annual convention and a time where buzz begins to build around certain new works. Motoko Rich at The New York Times has a round-up of book titles getting talked-up at this year's BookExpo.

Most intriguing quote from the NYT: Geoffrey Jennings, an independent bookseller at Rainy Day Books in Fairway, Kansas, on Down Around Midnight by Robert Sabbag, "a memoir about a plane crash that [Sabbag] survived 30 years ago, and its aftermath. “I am abrasive and jaded and I have read lots of things,” Mr. Jennings said on the floor of the exhibition hall. “I was reading the book at night and my wife came down and I said ‘there is nothing you could say or do – in fact you could not even pay me – to stop reading this book.’”

President Obama at The White House Correspondents' Association Dinner

Via The New York Times.

Best Seller Round-Up

“The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”
- Dr. Seuss

I. The New York Times.
Published May 8, 2009.

Fiction Paperback (Trade): Vision in White, Nora Roberts.



Fiction Hardcover: The 8th Confession, James Patterson and Maxine Paetro.




Nonfiction Paperback: Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
Nonfiction Hardcover: Liberty and Tyranny, Mark R. Levin.

II. Los Angeles Times.
Published May 10, 2009.

Fiction Paperback: Unaccustomed Earth Jhumpa Lahiri.
Fiction Hardcover: First Family, David Baldacci.
Nonfiction Paperback: Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin.
Nonfiction Hardcover: Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell.

III. Northern California Independent Booksellers.
For the week ending May 3, 2009.

Fiction Paperback (Trade): Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri.
Fiction Hardcover: Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, Alexander McCall Smith.
Nonfiction Paperback:Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin.
Nonfiction Hardcover: Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell.

IV. Heartland Indie Bestseller List.
Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association
For the week ending May 3, 2009.

Fiction Paperback (Trade): The Shack, William P. Young.
Fiction Hardcover: Home Safe, Elizabeth Berg.



Nonfiction Hardcover: Liberty and Tyranny, Mark R. Levin.
Nonfiction Paperback (Trade): Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin.

Author and Feminist Scholar Marilyn French Dead at 79

Marilyn French died. When I was an undergraduate, every female student that I was friends with owned a copy of The Women's Room.

More about Marilyn French here and here.

Best Seller Round-Up

". . . there are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts."

- Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist

I. The New York Times.
Published May 1, 2009.

Fiction Paperback (Trade): The Shack, William P. Young.

Note: June 2008 article about The Shack from The New York Times.

Fiction Hardcover: First Family, David Baldacci.
Note: On Amazon this book has been given 51 customer reviews and rates 2.5 stars out of a possible 5.



Nonfiction Paperback: Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
Nonfiction Hardcover: Liberty and Tyranny, Mark R. Levin.

II. Los Angeles Times.
Published May 3, 2009.

Fiction Paperback: Unaccustomed EarthJhumpa Lahiri.
Fiction Hardcover: Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer.

Nonfiction Paperback: The Soloist, Steve Lopez.
Note: Movie tie-in. See Rotten Tomatoes.



Nonfiction Hardcover: Liberty and Tyranny, Mark R. Levin.

III. Northern California Independent Booksellers.
For the week ending April 26, 2009.

Fiction Paperback (Trade): Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri.
Fiction Hardcover: Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, Alexander McCall Smith.



Nonfiction Paperback:Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin.
Nonfiction Hardcover: Outliers, Macolm Gladwell.

IV. Heartland Indie Bestseller List.
Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association
For the week ending April 19, 2009.

Fiction Paperback (Trade): The Shack, William P. Young.
Fiction Hardcover: Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, Alexander McCall Smith.
Nonfiction Hardcover: Liberty and Tyranny, Mark R. Levin.
Nonfiction Paperback (Trade): Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin.

May Day - International Workers Day

Today is May 1st, a date that has a long history for being a time of celebration and of the rallying together of workers.

The New York Times reports that in Europe, the crowds of workers out today are frustrated and angry about their loss of jobs and retirement savings while at the same time corporate executive make out like bandits.

Yes, I said bandits. A 2008 report from the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy found the following:

CEOs in the United States, despite our current hard economic times, continue to pocket outlandishly large pay packages. S&P 500 CEOs last year averaged $10.5 million, 344 times the pay of typical American workers.Compensation levels for private investment fund managers soared even further out into the pay stratosphere. Last year, the top 50 hedge and private equity fund managers averaged $588 million each, more than 19,000 times as much as typical U.S.workers earned.

Given the distortions in the economy, it is only fair that President Obama's agenda is implemented: tax cuts for the middle class, health care reform, help for folks who want to attend college, and so on.

Solidarity! and don't forget on this May Day to celebrate the end of winter and our turning towards warm and sunny weather.