Behold, Here's Poison (1936)

Behold, Here's Poison. Georgette Heyer. 1936/2009. Sourcebooks. 330 pages.

I definitely LOVED this mystery by Georgette Heyer. Gregory Matthews has been poisoned. At first, the family assumed his death was of natural causes, but one insistent aunt sees differently. The aunt's instincts proved correct: he was poisoned by nicotine! Inspector Hannasyde and Inspector Hemingway are assigned the case. I have come to appreciate Inspector Hannasyde very much! (I also LOVED seeing Giles Carrington again!)

The entire family is on the list of suspects. And to be honest, the family is that dysfunctional so it would make sense that the suspect list would be a long one.

I enjoyed this one for the characters. (I loved Stella, and Randall definitely grew on me!!!) I found this one oh-so-satisfying.

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

Five 2013 Picture Books

 Ribbit. Rodrigo. Folgueira. Illustrated by Poly Bernatene. 2013. Random House. 32 pages.

Once upon a time there was a pond that was home to a family of frogs. It was their pond. And they were very happy living there. But one morning they discovered a surprise visitor...

I enjoyed Ribbit! I loved the illustrations of this adorable pig. This is the 'surprise visitor' who decided to visit the pond and make some new friends. The frogs didn't quite understand why the pig was there. They were very suspicious and extremely hesitant...at least at first. Really liked the ending of this one--with the pig up in the tree making new friends!

Text: 3 out of 5
Illustrations: 3 out of 5
Total: 6 out of 10

Toys in Space. Mini Grey. 2013. Random House. 32 pages.

That summer night, for the first time, the toys were left outside. The sun went down, the sky grew dark, and, for the very first time...the toys saw THIS. Everyone was quiet for a while. 

Toys in Space is silly and creative. I'm not sure if it would work for a group read-aloud, it was quite text-heavy. But I think it would definitely work as a read-aloud for parents to read to their own children. (They might want to read it first, however. I didn't like some of the language in this one: dang, stupid, ninny, etc. But every person has a comfort level of course! So what works for one might not work for another.) 

Text: 2 out of 5
Illustrations: 3 out of 5
Total: 5 out of 10

Good Night, Sleep Tight. Mem Fox. Illustrated by Judy Horacek. 2013. Scholastic. 32 pages. 

One Friday night, Bonnie and Ben were being looked after by their favorite babysitter. Skinny Doug leaned against their bedroom door and said: 

"Good night, sleep tight.
Hope the fleas don't bite!
If they do,
squeeze 'em tight
and they won't bite
another night!"

I enjoy the premise of this one. A babysitter telling nursery rhymes to two children as he tries to put them to bed at night. (I'm not sure he was trying too hard at the beginning!) After each rhyme he says: "I'll tell you another I heard from my mother..." I appreciated the fact that it wasn't a book about a babysitter reading these rhymes to the two kids. I liked the fact that these were rhymes that had stayed with him and were a part of his life, his memory. The book celebrates imagination, language, and childhood itself perhaps.

Text: 4 out of 5
Illustrations: 2 out of 5
Total: 6 out of 10

The Story of Peppa Pig. Scholastic. 2013. 32 pages. 

Once upon a time, there was a lovable, slightly bossy little piggy named Peppa. Grunt! Grunt! More than anything in the whole wide world, Peppa loved jumping up and down in muddy puddles. 

If you or your little one LOVES Peppa Pig, then this one is one to consider. I do love Peppa Pig. I love Peppa's whole family. The show is just so much fun: the music, the characters, the silly stories. The book isn't quite as much fun as the show itself, but it captures some of the magic.

Text: 3 out of 5
Illustrations: 3 out of 5
Total: 6 out of 10

Snippet the Early Riser. Bethanie Deeney Murguia. 2013. Random House. 40 pages. 

In many ways, Snippet was an ordinary snail. He drew on the sidewalk. He made leaf sculptures. He played soccer. He especially adored piggyback rides. At bedtime, he would snuggle inside his shell and fall fast asleep. But while his family loved to snooze all morning, Snippet did not. 

Snippet loves to wake up early. His father, mother, and sister DO NOT like to wake up early. Snippet does everything he can think of to make them wake up. He really wants to play! But still, his family stays asleep. Other insects offer advice on how to best wake them up, but it is the caterpillar's advice that works--at least this one morning! Snippet is a lovable character. Very charming! And I definitely enjoyed the illustrations! 

Text: 5 out of 5
Illustrations: 4 out of 5
Total: 9 out of 10
© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

Death in the Stocks (1935)

Death in the Stocks. Georgette Heyer. 1935/2009. Sourcebooks. 314 pages.

Death in the Stocks may just be my favorite Georgette Heyer mystery so far. I really enjoyed Why Shoot A Butler, and, Envious Casca had its great moments. But. Death in the Stocks was so enjoyable throughout. Some murder mysteries take too long to introduce the corpse, that is NOT the case in Death in the Stocks! Readers get a chance to know all the suspects and work alongside the detectives in solving the mystery. Of course, not all the characters were lovely people that you'd want to spend time with. But were they CHARACTERS? they were! And sometimes that is just what I need in a good book!!!

My favorite characters were Giles Carrington and Inspector Hannasyde.

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

The Autobiography of Methuselah (1909)

The Autobiography of Methuselah. John Kendrick Bangs. 1909. 104 pages.

...Let us hope that my story will not prove as heavy as my manuscript...

If you enjoyed Mark Twain's Diaries of Adam and Eve, then John Kendrick Bangs Autobiography of Methuselah is a true must read! It's slightly irreverent, I suppose. But it's quite funny at times. There are nine chapters to this 'autobiography':  "I am born and named," "Early influences," "Some reminiscences of Adam," "Grandmother Eve," "Some notes on Cain and Abel," "He confesses to be a poet," "The International Marine and Zoo Flotation Company," "On the extinction of the mastodon," and "As to women." The last chapter is slightly different than the rest consisting of "fragments" only--the "found" autobiography of Methuselah not being in the best condition, I suppose.

 I definitely enjoyed this one! Readers 'learn' more about Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Noah! It also serves as a commentary of the times in which Bangs was writing perhaps.

Favorite quotes:

Thought is everything. Pain is something. Hence where there is no thought there can be no pain. Wherefore if you have a pain it is evident that you have a thought. To be rid of the pain stop thinking.

Taking the alphabet first and learning one letter a year for twenty-six years he will be able to read and write as early in life as he ought to. If we were more careful not to teach our children to read in their childhood we should not be so anxious about the effects of pernicious literature upon their adolescent morals.

If I had my way no one should be taught to read until after he had passed his hundredth year. In that way, and in that way only can we protect our youth from the dreadful influence of such novels as 'Three Cycles, Not To Mention The Rug,' which dreadful book I have found within the past month in the hands of at least twenty children in the neighborhood, not one of whom was past sixty."

His view of me and my ways were expressed with some degree of force to our family physician who, when at the age of a hundred and fifty-three I came down with the mumps, having summoned the whole family and said that I would burst before morning, was met by a reassuring observation from Adam that he wouldn't believe I was dead even if I had been buried a year. "It is the good who die young, Doctor," he said. "On that principle this young malefactor will live to be the oldest man in the world."

"If there is any animal in the whole category of four-legged creatures that more thoroughly deserves to be called a pig than the pig, I don't know what it is. He looks like a pig, he behaves like a pig, and he eats like a pig—in fact he is a pig, and Adam never did anything better than when he invented that name and applied it."

The outer garments of to-day will become the under-clothes of some destined to-morrow, and centuries hence a man found walking on the public highways dressed as you are will be arrested by the police for shocking the sense of propriety of the community, and so on. It will go on and on until you will find human beings everywhere decked out in layer after layer of clothes until he or she has lost all semblance to that beautiful thing that an all-wise Providence has designed us to be.

as I [Eve] was the only cook in all Christendom at the time, the idea of not coming home to dinner never occurred to Adam... It is true that at times he criticised my cooking, but in view of certain ancestral limitations from which he suffered, I never had to sit quietly and listen to an exasperating disquisition on the Pies That Mother Used To Make...

It was Abel on the other hand who asked his father why he had not named the male ants uncles, a question that to this day has not been satisfactorily answered. Indeed I have frequently found myself regretting that there was nobody at hand to ask Adam these very pertinent questions earlier in his life, and before it was too late to instill in his mind the idea that a little more consistency would be desirable in his selection of names for the creatures he was called upon to christen.

August 3rd, 5569. Cain spanked and put to bed without his supper for asking his father why he had not called the male Kangaroo a Kangarooster.

I have never yet been quite able to make up my mind with any degree of definiteness in regard to the sanity of my son Noah. In many respects he is a fine fellow...but the complete obsession of his mind by this International Marine and Zoo Flotation Company of his is entirely beyond my comprehension, and his attempts to explain it to me are futile, because its utter impracticability, and the reasons advanced for its use seem so absurd that I lose my temper before he gets half way through the first page of his prospectus.

Read online at Project Gutenberg; there are even illustrations!

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

The Moon and More (2013)

The Moon and More. Sarah Dessen. Penguin. 384 pages. 

While The Moon and More isn't my new favorite Dessen novel of all time, it was WONDERFUL to spend time with new characters in the beach town of Colby. What I love about Dessen's YA novels is the fact that relationships--ALL relationships matter. Family relationships and friendships are typically very important in her works. This one was no exception.


Emaline, our heroine, has a steady job, a steady boyfriend, Luke, and a steady (blended) family. Her stepfather has raised her since she was two, and he is her DAD. She can't imagine not having two stepsisters, Margo and Amber. Though each sister can drive her crazy! And her mom, well, her mom is her mom. There's some awkwardness now and then as her mom's good intentions are not quite appreciated as intended. But Emaline knows her family is good and strong. Her relationship with Luke seems steady enough as well, at the beginning. They've been together since ninth grade! But there has been increasing awkwardness between them as well, ever since her mother caught them together in a compromising situation. Morris and Daisy are Emaline's BEST FRIENDS. And I love that these best friends play such a huge role in this novel! Emaline's job isn't horribly fun or exciting, but, it's a job--a job that brings her into contact with some cranky people. Then again, it also brings Theo into her life.

Theo and Ivy are SOMETHING. Ivy films documentaries, and she's in Colby to get the story behind local artist, Clyde Conaway. Theo is her assistant. He's only a few years older than Emaline, and he's so very, very different from all the guys Emaline has ever known. When Theo isn't being abused or pushed around by Ivy, he's making much of Emaline. He's determined that she is key to his "BEST SUMMER EVER."

For those wanting a magical romance, I'm not sure this one will fully satisfy. But that is what makes The Moon and More so great. It is a novel about growing up in a messy world and accepting life as it is. For Emaline that means feeling CONFUSED and uncertain about her biological father. One thing is certain: she loves her half-brother, Benji. But her father, well, he said he would pay her college tuition, he encouraged her--almost pressured her--to apply to BIG schools. When she let him know the good news that she was accepted at Columbia, he promptly disappointed her.  So her "big dream" won't be coming true at summer's end.

I loved this one for the characterization. I loved it because it was complex with no easy answers.

Quotes:

There's a difference between the words father and dad. And it's more than three letters.  (25)

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

Sunday Salon: Reading Magic for Marigold (1929)

Magic for Marigold. L.M. Montgomery. 1929. 274 pages.

Once upon a time--which, when you come to think of it, is really the only proper way to begin a story--the only way that really smacks of romance and fairyland--all the Harmony members of the Lesley clan had assembled at Cloud of Spruce to celebrate Old Grandmother's birthday as usual. Also to name Lorraine's baby. It was a crying shame, as Aunt Nina pathetically said, that the little darling had been in the world four whole months without a name. But what could you do, with poor dear Leander dying in that terribly sudden way just two weeks before his daughter was born and poor Lorraine being so desperately ill for weeks and weeks afterwards? Not very strong yet, for that matter. And there was tuberculosis in her family, you know.

I found Magic for Marigold completely charming! I loved the heroine, a young, imaginative girl named Marigold. Our heroine is much younger than previous heroines created by L.M. Montgomery. The focus is on her childhood years, those magical years between six and twelve. I found this to be such a refreshing change! Marigold lives with her mother, her grandmother, and her great-grandmother. When she's not at home or playing in the fields and gardens nearby, she can sometimes be found visiting relations on both sides of her family. While her first visit away from home did not go so well, Marigold comes to love visiting, for the most part. She doesn't always love when young cousins come to visit her, however. Especially when they lead her into TROUBLE. The book shares her adventures and misadventures in friendship! Marigold has a few lessons to learn about friendship, about family, about her own emotions, about life itself! And I loved reading about them!

Have you read Magic for Marigold? What did you think?

Favorite quotes:

Lucifer was Old Grandmother's favourite. A remote, subtle cat. An inscrutable cat so full of mystery that it fairly oozed out of him. 

Marigold looked rather scornfully at Grandmother. Didn't Grandmother understand that when you went through The Magic Door you stepped straight into fairyland, where there was no such thing as time? 

Gwen suddenly discovered that it was not such an easy thing to invent a prayer. "Dear God," she said slowly, "please--please--oh, please never let me have moles like Tabby Derusha's. And never mind about the daily bread--I'm sure to have lots of that--but please give me lots of pudding and cake and jam. And please bless all the folks who deserve it." 

Mrs. Lawrence was very proud of her resemblance to Queen Victoria and dressed up to it. She had three chins, a bosom like a sheep and a harmless, if irritating, habit of shedding hairpins wherever she went. Her favourite adjective was "Christian," and she had a very decided dislike to being reminded that she was either fat or old. She constantly wore a brooch with Clementine's hair in it and when she talked of her daughter--as she did very often--she snuffled. In spite of this, Mrs. Lawrence had many good qualities and was a decent old soul enough, as Uncle Klon said.

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

Week in Review: June 9-15

Emily's Quest. L.M. Montgomery. 1927. 228 pages.

Only You Can Save Mankind. Terry Pratchett. 1992. 207 pages.

Phineas Finn (Palliser #2). Anthony Trollope. 1869. 752 pages.

Strong Poison. Dorothy L. Sayers. 1930/1995. HarperCollins. 272 pages.
The Five Red Herrings. Dorothy L. Sayers. 1931. HarperCollins. 325 pages.
In A Glass Grimmly. Adam Gidwitz. 2012. Penguin. 192 pages.
The Testing. Joelle Charbonneau. 2013. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 344 pages.
The Book of Revelation. Adapted by Matt Dorff. Translated by Father Mark Arey and Father Philemon Sevastiades. Illustrated by Chris Koelle. 2012. Zondervan. 192 pages.
Love's Unfolding Dream. Janette Oke. 1987. Bethany House. 240 pages.
The Holy Spirit: Who He Is and What He Does. R.A. Torrey. Edited by Harold J. Chadwick. Bridge Logos. 343 pages.
In The Steps of the Master. H.V. Morton. 1934. 416 pages.
Creature of the Word. Matt Chandler, Eric Geiger, Josh Patterson. 2012. B&H. 256 pages.

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews