The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Eleven-year-old Flavia finds a dying man in the family's cucumber patch.  She makes solving his murder - and his identity - her task.  Full of fun and quirky humor.

Alan Bradley's The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie was enjoyable to listen to.  I think it would make a great kid's movie.  I am not so sure about the appeal to adults.  I do not think I would have been able to enjoy this if I read it, but listening to it was fun.  The reader - Jayne Entwistle - did a great job of Flavia de Luce's voice.  She really sounded like a young genius.

A visit to Echo Park

The Madonnas of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse is a fascinating look at the interlocking lives of an unlikely group of Mexican Americans in the Los Angeles area.  When Skyhorse was in the sixth grade, he insulted a classmate at a dance party by refusing to dance with her because she was a Mexican.  Later, Skyhorse learned that he, too, was a Mexican American.  He has been troubled by his behavior ever since and has speculated on the life Aurora Esperanza would have had after his beastly behavior.  This book is his tribute to his classmate.  I recommend spending some time with the inhabitants of Echo Park and taking a peek at their lives.

Dragongirl

Ever since Todd McCaffrey took over the writing of his mother's famous Dragonriders of Pern series, the books have gotten weaker and weaker.  This book seems to be more about multiple sexual relationships than about dragons and fighting thread.  I think Todd is planning to take the series more into the realm of people and how they interact and less into their relationships with their dragons.

In this book, young Fiona, queen rider, becomes the head of Telgar Weyr, at a time when the dragon numbers are at their lowest and the threat of thread at the highest.  It is up to her and her fellow weyrleaders to determine how they will manage to increase the dragon numbers in time to save the planet.  I think it is obvious that they will go back or forward into time to mature their young population to fighting age in the next book. 

I can't help it, I keep reading them even though they fail to satisfy.

Louisiana at its murderous best!

James Lee Burke is a superb writer of mystery set in his home state of Louisiana.  One really gets a flavor of the state.  In the newest entry, The Glass Rainbow, Burke's detective, Dave Robicheaux gets involved in investigating a series of murders of young women.  Of course, these murders are outside his jurisdiction and using his friend Clete Purcell to help him, is not working by the book. 

I got lost when he began to investigate the wealthy man his daughter was dating.  I probably just read too fast.  The book is a good one, maybe not the best in the Robicheaux series, but still a worthwhile entry.

A Monstrous Regiment of Women - Laurie R. King

I just realized that I had omitted writing anything about this book.  I finished listening to it several weeks ago.  The book involves a charismatic woman preacher who has drawn a large following of wealthy women.  Why have so many of these women died?  Is the minister to blame?  It certainly looks as though she would be guilty.  This book was a good entry in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series and I recommend it highly.  One caveat, the series should be read in order.

Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes

I'm still listening to the series of Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mysteries by Laurie R. King that I read already.  I just finished A Letter of Mary in which Dorothy Ruskin, an archaeologist, presents to Mary a parchment she has discovered which appears to be from the hand of Mary Magdalene.  While Russell is studying the letter, she and Holmes discover that Ruskin has been found dead.  Determining that she was murdered, they then begin to seek clues regarding the murderer. 

A Letter of Mary is fairly interesting in its study of early documents and the implications such a document as a letter from Mary Magdalene would have on society.  I did not find the conclusion of the mystery that satisfying.  Perhaps I missed a clue or two.  This would not surprise me as sometimes when I listen to a book, my attention wanders.