31.
Title: Murder in Chinatown
Publication: Kindle
Pages:
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Acquisition: Purchased on the train home from NYC
Date Completed: March 28, 2011
Rating: 4 stars

Another birth finds Sarah Brandt in a part of New York virtually unknown to "respectable" society, and once again finds her involved in a murder - this time of a young resident. As usual, I enjoyed Thompson's depiction of a challenged culture, and I found her to be sympathetic to the historical inspiration of her own writing. The mystery itself runs in circles with little progress until the end, but the narrative is nonetheless enjoyable.

30.
Author(s): Douglas Adams
Title: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Publication: Hardback, part of the complete collection
Pages: 148 Pages
Genre: Science Fiction
Acquisition: Pulled from hubster's bookshelf
Date Completed: March 23, 2011
Rating: 4.5

Don't Panic.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has been on my "to be read" list for quite awhile; while I didn't really enjoy Adams' Dirk Gently, I thoroughly enjoyed Last Chance to See, and my partner promised that Hitchhiker's is Douglas Adams at his best. It's certainly Adams at his most famous.

Arthur Dent is having a bad day. First, he discovers that his house is scheduled to be bulldozed for road construction, and then his planet meets a similar fate. And really, though he manages to keep his skin, his day doesn't get much better.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the first novella in a series that follows the last man from Earth as he's dragged around the universe with his travel-writing friend Ford Prefect and the questionably-sane Galactic President. This first introduction is well-paced and highly amusing, and I can't wait to begin The Restaurant at the end of the Universe.

29.
Author(s): Liana Krissof
Title: Canning for a New Generation
Publication: Paperback
Pages: 304 Pages
Genre: Cookbook
Acquisition: Birthday gift from SIL
Date Completed: March 20, 2011
Rating: Unrated until recipes are tested

My sister-in-law earns an A+ for this birthday gift, largely because she had no idea I had this book on my wishlist; we were recently talking about my new desire to try canning, and so for my birthday she bought me canning supplies and Krissoff's beautiful book - only to realize later I had it tagged on Amazon.

I have not yet had the opportunity to try any of the recipes, so I don't feel that I can give the book a proper rating, but I wanted to share my initial response to Canning for a New Generation as a straightforward text.

First of all, the book as a whole is visually pleasing. In my limited experience I have found that some cookbooks are either too cramped or use too much white space, but this particular book has an excellent layout with easy-to-follow text and clear directions. The images that are included are very enticing.

Secondly, I am thrilled with the organization of the book as a whole. Krissoff breaks her recipes down into seasons to make the best of good, fresh produce, and to share ideas for canning throughout the entire year. Each season is then broken down into fruits and vegetables, making it easy to navigate even if you choose not to use the table of contents.

Thirdly, Krissoff includes recipes in each seasonal chapter that use the canned goods described! This is another winning feature of the book, and a great advantage for a novice such as I. Sure, I want to learn canning, and I want to try all sorts of new and wonderful things ... but what do I do with all of these preserves once I have them sitting smugly on my shelf? Krissoff provides some ideas, and everything seems perfectly scrumptious.

In her introduction Krissoff describes her methods for choosing the recipes she includes - some of which are family favorites, and others are of her own invention - and one of the key requirements seems to be ease of preparation. All of the recipes are for water bath canning, and all are for foods with a high acid content, which apparently means there is no risk of botulism.

Now I can't wait for spring and summer produce to start rolling in so I can start my canning adventure!

28.
Author(s): Loree Griffin Burns
Title: Tracking Trash
Publication: Paperback
Pages: 64 Pages
Genre: Nonfiction
Acquisition: Work Text
Date Completed: March 20, 2011
Rating:

I used this text to lead a fifth-grade student through utilizing the different components of a text - including the use of an index, analyzing publication information, and utilizing images and graphic displays as isolated sources - with great success. The writing is well-suited to this age group, and the visual representation makes it an appealing text to work with.

27.
Author(s): T.C. Boyle
Title: Greasy Lake and Other Stories
Publication: Paperback
Pages: 240 pages
Genre: Short Stories
Acquisition: Work Text
Date Completed: March 22, 2011
Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5

I inherited Greasy Lake and Other Stories when I accepted an additional lit and comp course last minute, and looked forward to the opportunity to explore new short fiction - a genre which I do not generally pursue on my own. I was reassured that students really relate to the works in the collection, and that it is an ideal text to teach short fiction at this level.

As a tool for teaching literary devices, I certainly see the worth of Greasy Lake; Boyle himself writes like an undergraduate creative writing student, and each brief story is dripping with immediately recognizable devices and techniques. For this I appreciate the collection - after all, one of my primary goals is to introduce students to techniques such as similes, personification, and onomatopoeia, and Boyle's stories provide extensive examples for quick and dirty references. Students gain confidence as they learn to spot these devices on their own, increasing their own strengths as developing scholars.

However, in terms of general content and appeal I'm afraid that the collection simply does not resonate. Like the narrator of the title story in this collection, T.C. Boyle seems to be trying his best to be a Bad Character, but his work is dated in a way that Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" or John Updike's "A&P" don't seem to be (for example, my students did not recognize the stock character of the "greaser," and so this basic allusion had to be explained in order for students to understand the narrator of the title story). In the future I will likely continue to use stories such as "Greasy Lake" and "Caviar," but I will be certain to supplement a reading of Boyle with other short stories in order to capture the attention of my classes.

As a teaching text, I would give Greasy Lake a four-star rating, but in terms of personal opinion and taste I would have to rate the collection far lower.

26.
Author(s): Victoria Thompson
Title: Murder in Little Italy
Publication: Kindle
Pages:
Genre: Mystery
Acquisition:
Date Completed: March 18, 2011
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

When a young Irish girl finds herself unexpectedly expecting she turns to a dalliance with a young Italian to secure a future for herself and her newly-growing family. Sarah Brandt is called in to deliver the child "early," but the shrewd midwife and unforgiving mother-in-law quickly put two and two together, and realize that the healthy full-time baby couldn't possibly be the offspring of the young Italian. Tempers fly, challenges are made, and Sarah does what she can to mediate for the sake of the newborn. Interestingly, the young Irish girl remains calm and smug despite the threads, and assures the midwife that things will work out just fine indeed.

Which, in the world of mystery novels, means she's destined to die as soon as someone turns their back.

I enjoyed this mystery as much as I have the others, but I've come to realize that I've made a mistake in judgment in relation to this stories: I've always worked under the assumption that the female protagonist is extremely intelligent. Sarah Brandt is an seemingly a wonderful midwife and confidant, and her upbringing makes her an ideal interrogator for unsuspecting suspects, but she is no detective. Time and again she puts herself in danger, and in this particular novel she completely glosses over the confession she hears early in the narrative - not to mention the glaring red arrows that point out the guilty party.

Still, for a cozy mystery series, the Gaslight Mysteries continue to be enjoyable, and I appreciate the slow development that Thompson is drawing out in terms of Mrs. Brandt and Detective Malloy's relationship.

25.
Author(s): Kresley Cole
Title: Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night
Publication: Kindle
Pages:
Genre: Supernatural Romance
Acquisition:
Date Completed: March 12, 2011
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

I never read a romance novel of any kind before I received my Kindle 2, and the driving reason behind that is the cover work for any given series. I'm a fan of frippery and foolishness, and whether or not they admit it, every romance reader enjoys the sex, but there's something repugnant about these images. Perhaps it's because they are only so loosely connected to the books themselves, or because the images are often sophomoric, but I've come to find that I can only pick one up if my only glimpse of the cover comes when I link to the book for my review.

As for the book itself ... it's the same. I did appreciate Cole's efforts to wrap up a few dangling story lines, but this particular book really highlights the lack of chemistry that seems characteristic for this series.

24.
Author(s): Patricia Briggs
Title: River Marked
Publication: Hardback
Pages: 326
Genre: Horror/ Fantasy
Acquisition: Preordered
Date Completed: March 9, 2011
Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Mercy Thompson defies convention from all sides: she's a female mechanic named Mercedes who specializes in VWs, she's a coyote walker who has run with werewolves her entire life, and despite her rather bohemian lifestyle, she has fallen for a straight-laced former-military Alpha. So, when she finally gets around to marrying Adam, it stands to reason that her wedding will break from expectations - hers, at least.

And then comes the honeymoon.

River Marked contains a great deal of self-discovery for Mercy, as she and Adam set out learning how to be married and mated. Although the fae's interference turns the honeymoon itself into a real nightmare, watching the bond between Adam and Mercy - and discovering secrets to Mercy's heritage - really adds depth to what would otherwise be a fairly common MT novel. I enjoyed the discovery as much as the action, and closed the book with a sense of deep satisfaction.

23.
Author(s): Rohan O'Grady
Title: Let's Kill Uncle
Publication: Paperback
Pages: 279
Genre: Fiction
Acquisition: Early Review Copy
Date Completed: March 5, 2011
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

A small island off the coast of Canada has a reputation for being cursed. Mountie Sergeant Coulter is the only son of the island to make it back alive from WWII, and now he serves as the sole judiciary force on the childless, and critically aging, piece of land.

And then, one summer, two children arrive.

Christie is a young girl whose mother has sent her away from a crowded and claustrophobic city for a summer with "the goat lady," and Barnaby is a sprite of an heir whose guardian-uncle has selected the island for its detachment from the outside world. Because, as Barnaby tries unsuccessfully to inform Sergeant Coulter, Uncle is trying to kill him in order to get his hands on Barnaby's 10-million-dollar inheritance. When the adults once again prove useless, Christie, displaying balanced childhood innocence and maliciousness, provides the perfect solution: they must simply kill Uncle first.

In retrospect, I am dissatisfied by the devices O'Grady uses to facilitate her plot; the means through which she places the children on the island, under such specific care, and with such companions as One-Ear, defy any kind of reason. However, I think it says something about the novel itself that I did not truly consider the children's guardianship throughout the narrative until after I had closed the book. Yes, the narrative has its fair share of clumsiness, ranging from the suggestion of the supernatural in an otherwise "realistic" novel to the clumsy and unsuccessful personification of One-Ear, but the development of Barnaby and Christie carries the narrative through to what I found to be an undeniable success. O'Grady has captured the multi-faceted personality traits of each young child perfectly, skillfully displaying how such children can be simultaneously sweet and repugnant, justifying malicious acts with juvenile confidence. I found the children to be both realistic and frightening.

I read the first half of the book in a single sitting, and it was with great reluctance that I had to close the book for the first time. Despite my complaints, Let's Kill Uncle is a thoroughly engaging novel, and is one I would certainly recommend.

22.
Author(s): Victoria Thompson
Title: Murder on Lenox Hill
Publication: Kindle
Pages:
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Acquisition:
Date Completed: March 4, 2011
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Murder on Lenox Hill begins with a rather unusual midwifery all for Sarah Brandt, and comes full circle to a form of sexuality that all civilized people will find appalling, leading to a tragic, if still satisfactory, conclusion. As seems typical for this series, the mysteries aren't very mysterious, but the path to the conclusion is a satisfying narrative that entertains from beginning to end. And, for once, Brandt's propensity for putting herself in very stupid situations is missing. Recommended for fans of the Gaslight Mysteries.

20.
Author(s): Roald Dahl
Title: Boy: Tales of Childhood
Publication: Paperback
Pages: 176
Genre: Autobiography (despite what Dahl says)
Acquisition: Purchased previously, reused as a work text, 5th grade
Date Completed: February 28, 2011
Rating:

I thoroughly enjoyed Boy when I first read it last year, and I looked forward to the opportunity of discussing it with a student. When my fifth-grade pupil reacted rather negatively to the beginning of Phineas Gage] we switched gears, and moved to Dahl's brief autobiography instead. After reading a few of his Revolting Rhymes, my student was very interested to learn more about the poet and children's author, and was both amazed and a little terrified of some of his experiences. Overall, I think it made for a good learning experience, and certainly seemed to be at the right level for this 4th/5th grader

21.
Author(s): Kresley Cole
Title:No Rest for the Wicked
Publication: Kindle
Pages:
Genre: Supernatural Romance
Acquisition:
Date Completed: March 2, 2011
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

More supernatural fluff with Valkyries and vampires, and just what I needed.