Susan's Top 10 Reasons to Read Skellig

So many people have written so many wonderful reviews of Skellig by David Almond, that I don't want to repeat what they have written. Rather, I've linked to as many as I can find at the bottom of this post, and starred the two that made me finally get this book. I've decided instead to list my 10 reasons to read this book, because it's a book that I think is one everyone, young and old, can love.

1. It features a doctor nick-named Dr Death by Michael, the main character, who is afraid of his white skin and ice cold eyes.
2. Owls. Owls feature in this book. Owls both giving life and taking it. Owls flying by moonlight. A boy and girl learning to say "whoo" with their hands. Didn't you try this when you were young? I did. It's their secret signal to do nighttime exploring. How cool is that?
3. The baby. The baby who is ill. The baby around whom all the book revolves, the hope, the faith, the love, the sorrow, the fear. She pierces the heart, and so does this book. (wipes tears away again)
4. A character is homeschooled and at age 10 knows all about William Blake! So homeschooling suddenly looks cool! and William Blake's visions when he was a child play a role in this book. (big hint here....)
5. You can read this book in a day. And it will stay with you for a very long time after.
6. Poetry from said Blake is quoted. By children.
7. Skellig himself - mystery creature, part human, part owl maybe, angel certainly. It's never really solved, and that is part of the charm of this lovely book.
8. Is Chinese take-away the nectar of the gods? Read this book and find out!
9. Ossification, calcification, pneumatization, in the same book - for children - as prayers and a discussion of Darwinism through children's eyes: " monkey girl" and "ape-boy".
10. Answer this question: what are shoulder blades really for? See book for answer.

bonus reason #1: Michael hears his sister's heart beat with his when he listens hard enough. Everything he draws and thinks of is about his baby sister. His love for her makes this book emotionally compelling a way that everyone from age 6 to 100 will immediately understand and relate too. He is the best older brother ever.

bonus reason # 2: No one will ever look at shoulder blades in the same way again.

Blogger's Amazing Reviews of this book, here:
****1. Mariel (Where Troubles Melt Like Raindrops) - This is the review that brought the book to my attention. Fabulous, wonderful review.
****2. Nymeth (things mean alot) - the review that made me get the book. I dare you to read these two reviews and not want to get the book. Immediately.
Both those bloggers have more reviewers listed on their posts.
Elizabeth (As Usual, I Need More Bookshelves)
Becky ( Becky's Book reviews) - someone who wasn't as keen on it!
Bookpusher (The Genteel Arsenal) - another blogger who just read it and loved it

I know there must be more reviews out there! Please let me know, and I'll gladly link them.

Meantime, here is today's Bluenose Ghosts excerpt:

It must be about eighty years ago that a strange sight was witnessed in Halifax Harbour by two residents of that city. Mrs King told me that when she was a young girl she was in a boat with a number of other people returning from a picnic. Fog was rolling in and there was a light breeze. Suddenly she saw a boat with square sails set which passed close beside their boat and they could see a crew at work as it passed them. Mrs Turnbull, sitting beside her, turned to heer and said, "Did you see that?"
"Yes," she said, "but I thought it must be a mistake. " On talking this extraordinary experience over, they concluded this must be one of the boats of d'Anville's ill-fated expedition. It had suffered death and destruction, and the pay-ship was supposed to have been sunk in Bedford Basin. Others had told of seeing it in the vicinity of Navy Island.

A book that broke my heart and patched it up again....

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is Sherman Alexie's first full-length novel, published in 2007. I read it as part of Dewey's Challenge, though I would have read it anyway just because it looks interesting. I was not prepared for how good it really is. I didn't expect to cry and laugh, often at the very same time, most of the way through it. Going to his site here I discovered that since it's publication, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has been winning awards: 2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, 2008 Washington Book Award, The New York Times Notable Children's Books of 2007, are a few.

But I don't like this book because it is an award winner. I like it because it is an honest, true portrayal of being Indian and growing up on the rez in a white world. And how do I, Mrs White Canada, know about Indian life? Because I've met many Indians, some are friends of mine, I've been to rezes and powwows and met elders and medicine men, and mostly because my best friend, and my brother (who is adopted, a long story), are Indian. But you don't have to have met any Native Americans to recognize the genius of this novel, you don't have to know about the poverty and isolation and no hope on reserves, to appreciate Arnold "Junior" Spirit and how he attempts to get off the rez. You just have to cheer him on, and laugh at his silly and wise adolescent humour as he faces heartbreak and loss and love and friends. This just happens to be a book about a Native American Indian boy. It's mostly about a boy who wants to dare to make a better life for himself.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is about Arnold "Junior" Spirit and the year he decides to change his life by going to a different high school off the Spokane reservation where he lives. The Diary is told in the first person, and as Arnie is a cartoonist, the novel is sprinkled with hilarious dry wit as Arnie makes fun of himself, his classmates, friends, family, and the world. Arnie is the class loser, the kid with geeky glasses and big feet who can't win a fight, but who still keeps picking them. It's that refusal to give up that makes this book such a joyful and tragic read.

Sherman Alexie doesn't hold anything back, either. Life on the reservation is told in all its sadness, and all its Indian humour. White people are made fun of often (and we do deserve most of it in the book), but so are Indians, so is the world, his schoolmates, so is love, and in the midst of all his teen angst, Junior also has to deal with devastating loss. Alcohol is a big feature of this novel, because it plays such a principle role in so many Native American people's lives. Every day today, it still does. So I love this book because every character could be a stereotype, and they aren't. The alcoholics aren't just drinkers; Junior's Dad goes to the casino, drinks the money away, but he also shows up at every basketball game and event Junior is in, which is more than Junior realizes the white kids can say. Junior lives in excruciating poverty, but there is no bitterness or rage at the Federal Government system; he's not angry, he just wants to escape. And Junior deals with it honestly, openly, in this diary of his first year at Reardon High School, the white school off the reserve in town:

Overnight, I became a good player.
I suppose it had something to do with confidence. I mean, I'd always been the lowest Indian on the reservation totem pole - I wasn't expected to be good, so I wasn't. But in Reardon, my coach and other players wanted me to be good. They needed me to be good. They expected me to be good. And so I became good.
I wanted to live up to expectations.
I guess that's what it comes down to.
The power of expectations.......

Coach was thinking I would be an all-state player in a few years. He was thinking maybe I'd play some small-college ball.
It was crazy.
How often does a reservation Indian kid hear that?
How often do you hear the words "Indian" and "college" in the same sentence? Especially in my family. Especially in my tribe.

That is why I think this book is true. How often do we ever hear Indian and college in the same sentence? I know that up here in Canada, we have poor reserves where almost no one gets off, and richer ones where some of the kids go to university or college - which is always off-reserve in the cities. How often do you hear the words "drunk' and "Indian" together? All the time. Junior talks about it though: his Dad is a drunk, his Dad's best friend dies over a last drink in a bottle in a parking lot of a grocery store. This book is real, and it's honest. It could be a depressing novel, but it's not. It's funny. Heart-breakingly funny. And sad. I cried all the way through it. And I laughed. It's about this crazy mixed up world we all have to find our way in, no matter our race or colour. Arnie and his glasses are me when I was 10. I wish my brother had had this book growing up. I wish I had had this book growing up. I wish my parents who had adopted an Indian child had had it. I wish our entire Department of Indian Affairs employees would be forced to read it, starting with the Minister of Indian Affairs. Then I wish our Prime Minister would read it, so he would stop ignoring Indians and reserves, and start fixing some of the problems.

Mostly, I just want you, Gentle Reader, to get to know Junior, because when he says this near the end of his first year at Reardon High, I knew what he meant, and I wanted to sing along too:

"What are you laughing at?" Mrs Jeremy asked me.
"I used to think the world was broken down by tribes," I said. "By black and white. By Indian and white. But I know that isn't true. The world is only broken into two tribes: The people who are assholes and the people who are not."
I walked out of the classroom and felt like dancing and singing.
It all gave me hope. It gave me a little bit of joy.
And I kept trying to find the little pieces of joy in my life. That's the only way I managed to make it through all that death and change."

Isn't that how we all make our way through life? Finding the joy in the midst of death and change. Certainly that's been my year this year so far. So I love Arnie. He's a hero to cheer for.

That last quote also reminded me of Dewey. It's been almost a year now since she passed away. I'm glad this was a book she loved and recommended. To you, Dewey.

Also, because Dewey loved a ghost story as much as all of us do, here is today's Bluenose Ghosts excerpt:

...so I am pleased to have a very heartwarming event to relate [about angels]. Many years ago several little children were lost in the woods near Sambro and they had to sleep out all night in the dark. Their parents and friends were nearly frantic as they thought of the terrors that would beset them. The shore is very rocky here and the waves pounding in the darkness would frighten much older and stouter hearts. Imagine the astonishment of the searchers then when they found the children looking perfectly happy and untroubled. Afraid? They looked surprised at such a question. Why would they be afraid? They were all right, they said, because an angel had sat up with them all night.

Happy reading, everyone!

Sunday Salon - Stephen King is back!!!

Sometimes, very occasionally, a book is worth the buzz around it. Even more rarer, a book is better than the reviews. I am so thrilled to say that Duma Key deserves more rave reviews than it got. It's a return to vintage Stephen King, MINUS the extra gore-fest that he admitted in his first writing nonfiction look at horror book, Danse Macabre, that he would do if he got stuck when writing. He would go for the gross-out rather than holding back. In Duma Key, he has learned how to hold back, and for the first time since The Shining, I found myself scared, and hearing noises in the dark that weren't really there, and scared of my open windows at the back balcony - I had to close them both in order to get rid of the feeling someone was there, looking in, so I could finish the book. That's how effectively creepy Duma Key is. And I am so delighted to be able to say it. Uncle Stevie is back.

Duma Key is about a wealthy construction owner who survives a terrible accident at one of his worksites, and what happens to him afterward. A lot of people aren't aware that when there is a head injury, sometimes the personality changes, and anger and other emotions are much more uncontrollable for the victim. King writes about this in his character, and it is one of the strengths of this novel that the anger doesn't take over; this is not a novel about rage, it's a novel about finding strength to recover no matter the odds. And Edgar Freemantle loses a lot in this story, but he doesn't lose his sense of humour, and Stephen King the author doesn't lose the plot.

So now you are asking me, "So Susan, what about the horror? Is there any good horror in this story?" Oh my, yes, there is. To aid in his recovery, Edgar's doctor recommends a change of scenery, and Edgar goes, as many people do, to someplace warm: Florida. Except he's not in the centre of Florida with all the snowbirds (as we call our Canadians who head down south for the winter, and there are a lot of us, thus the term!), he's down on the edge of Florida in the Gulf, on a tiny island which is called a key. And this is not a good island to live on. It is owned by one family, the Eastbournes, that Edgar finds during the novel have a tragic history. But he only discovers this slowly, because Edgar discoveres that he can draw, and not only can he draw, he is almost possessed to do so.

This part of the book where Edgar lets the paintings come through him, the focus and the opening of himself to it, feels so authentic - this is what an artist does, this is what any creative person does, this is how Stephen himself recovered from his terrible car accident when he was hit by the truck driven by a man who had bent over to dig some food - a steak I believe -for his dog. The truck smashed into Stephen, as we all know, and he almost died. Some of that recovery process is used to excellent service in Duma Key. One of the best things is that Edgar doesn't question opening himself to his art; he does not know what he is painting or why, the pictures just come to him, so he paints them. When he discovers that the figure he is painting is someone he loves, both he and us the reader share in that awful moment of clarity that something dreadful might happen, might be happening, and can it be stopped?

There are genuinely terrifying moments in this book, of which one scene has direct links to a scene in The Shining, but I don't want to say any more. I do know that if I was alone in a house and woke up to find footprints that aren't mine leading to my bedroom door, I would be out of that house so fast there would be a puff of air behind me. Edgar doesn't leave, but I never felt the same about the Big Pink, as he calls the house he stays in, again. I felt dread throughout the rest of the novel that he was staying there still. It was like the horror was drawing nearer to him, only he couldn't quite grasp it, but we the reader can.

At the end of the book, when he could have so easily gone for the gross-out, King doesn't. And so I can genuinely say the ending is as effective as any he's done. This book is almost as good as The Shining. It has the same slow build of wrongness, the same slow build that terror is coming but we (and the characters) don't know where from, and of good people caught in a spiral that they can't get away from. When the evil is revealed, it's not a cop-out as say some of Stephen's middle books have had; the characters here have a choice of action, have a choice to fix it, and they try. They are heroes. This is like The Stand mixed with The Shining. Without the grand scale of The Stand, and without the absolute terror of Danny alone with his gift in that terrible hotel. For me, The Shining is one of the scariest novels of all time. Duma Key is not as scary as that, but it comes a very good second in Stephen King's books for me. It does not have as many scary moments as The Shining, but it shares some of the same themes: isolation, a gift one can't control, an old evil that needs to be contained, and good friends that help the hero. One of the main differences is that this is an adult novel, with the characters of varying ages, with adult themes of love, and loss, and death. Like Bag of Bones (the last Stephen King novel I read), the characters are thoughtful, and look backwards and forwards to try to explain what happens, but they do not have all the answers.

I like this restrained ghost-story telling. And don't get me wrong; there is plenty of death, and gruesomeness in Duma Key, but it fits into the story. And the ending is good, very satisfying. Indeed, when I closed the book late last night, I wanted more of Edgar Freemantle. I wanted to know what his life was like, the adventures he had, what he thought about things. I genuinely like him. And that is some achievement in any book, never mind a horror book.

This is a good horror novel, and one I can happily recommend as a scary read. 4.5 /5, because I would have liked more spookiness...

This is my first book read for Carl's RIP IV. I hope the others are as good. I'm just sad it took me a year after buying Duma Key to read it!

Today's Bluenose Excerpt:
"A dwelling known as Shelburne House was erected at the time of the Loyalists but it was torn down many years ago. The sound of the front door opening and of an officer's sword clanking as he ascended the stairs was heard at times, but only by certain people.
"One time a lady who had never been in the town before was a supper guest at Shelburne House and, during the evening, she heard this same mysterious interruption. When her husband called for her later she asked if the house was supposed to be haunted. He asked her whatever made her think such a thing? 'What did you hear?' he said.
" ' I heard the front door open and it was followed by the clank of a sword on the stairway, ' she said.
" ' I can't say you imagined it,' her husband said, 'for it's been heard before.' Nobody knows the reason for it, or whether this was a restless ghost or a scene re-enacted from the past. "

And as a treat, since I have missed a few days posting, here is another ghost story:

When Annapolis Royal was taken over by the English in 1710 a number of the people who came also brought slaves with them. Some of their descendants are there to this day....I visited one of the older women one day with the following result.
"When I was first married I lived in a house on the left hand side of the Granville road above the railway tracks. One day I was in my kitchen when I looked up and saw a man standing in the doorway with a chain around one leg and a dog sniffing at his heels, and I could hear the sound of the dog sniffing. That seemed so strange to me. I wasn't frightened, but I must have moved because suddenly they disappeared and I have never seen them since. He must have been trying to lift the wooden latch to come in. I didn't like to say anything about it to anybody until one day the rector's wife came to call. I thought she would laugh at me but I wanted to tell her and I did. But she didn't laugh. She knew the history of the houses in Annapolis and she said that years ago that house had belonged to a general and that he was known to have had a slave who was chained by the leg."

Blue, and Bluenose Ghosts

I try not to mention my work here on my blog because this is where I consider my real life is. There are times, though, when work interferes with my life, and the last six months have been very difficult for me. I've tried to keep my blog up, but I haven't been able to get to all of your blogs as much as I have in the past, and I just wanted to say - I haven't forgotten you. I am attempting to get to all of you more often, but sadly it's not anywhere as often as I'd like it to be yet. I don't know when things will get better and I think after last week, I've lost hope that work will improve any time soon. So I am feeling blue, and in keeping with that mood, here are two ghost stories from Bluenose Ghosts. The last one made me cry , so be forewarned:

today's Bluenose Exerpt:

Mrs Hirtle came honestly by her ability to see things. Her mother had the same faculty for she had been lying in bed one night when she felt a cold hand come down and pass over her face. She sat up in bed greatly startled to see her aunt standing over her. The aunt said, "Fare thee well." Mrs Hirtle's mother was not frightened enough by the occurrence to call the family but, in the morning when she came downstairs, she announced that her aunt was dead. Word came later that this was so.
At Annapolis Royal a woman of English descent was given a visual warning. She had an eleven-month-old baby, to all appearances in perfect health. "One night I was awakened from my sleep and saw a little white coffin in front of the bed. I woke my husband and said, 'I'm afraid something's going to happen to my baby.' He laughed at me, supposing I'd been dreaming. The next day for no known reason my baby died in my arms."

I have been reading Duma Key for much of the long weekend, and am not finished yet - it's 600 pages long- but I am thoroughly enjoying it. Uncle Stevie has returned to form! Very creepy - in fact, it could be creepier, but I think he was trying out something new with this book. More thoughts when I'm done.

Star Trek was fabulous this weekend. I'll write more on that tomorrow too. Mostly this was a quick post to say hi and thinking of you all and wishing there were an extra 4 hours a day just for blogging and reading!! Then I could get to you all, and read some more!

Thanks for listening.

All things Star Trek and a little bit of Star Wars

I'm so sorry I missed the Bluenose Ghosts yesterday and Thursday. This week was the first week back to school, and our kids were haywire on Thursday, and needed lots of attention to calm down. I ended up going to bed early, even though I looked longingly at the computer, I knew I was too tired to try to type.

Last night I watched a cool very funny movie I'd rented last weekend, so it had to be seen before it was due back, called Fanboys, about a group of friends who take a road trip to George Lucas' ranch to try to get a glimpse of the Phantom Menace - 6 months before it was released - because one of the young men is dying and won't make it to the movie premiere. Fanboys was released last year (it opened in Canada early this year). It is filled with Star Wars love, memoriabilia (I so want the huge poster one of the characters has on his wall!), and the war with Trekkers, which is hilarious. I'd have to admit to being a gal on the Trekker side, except I don't have a uniform or even a phaser gun! Fanboys was very funny, and I highly recommend it as a silly, fun, delightful movie homage to all things Star Wars.

Star Trek Weekend on Space Channel
I'm a Star Trek girl: At 1:50 this afternoon, I will be plunking myself down to watch on Canada's Space Channel on tv, one of my favourite movies of all time, The Wrath of Khan, followed by The Search For Spock, and The Voyage Home. The first 6 movies in the Star Trek cannon air today, the rest tomorrow. The link to Space Channel website is here. I only saw the ads last night while we were catching a very new episode of Smallville, so I had to hastily rearrange my plans for the weekend. Ok, I guess I qualify as a fangirl of Star Trek! Sheesh, I saw the movie twice this summer, and I can name the episodes/plot within seconds of seeing the opening scenes of any Star Trek episode. I own all the movies in VHS, but we still don't have a VHS player (stolen when our house was robbed a few years ago)- only a DVD player - so I haven't been able to see Wrath of Khan for at least two years, and lately I've been really wanting to see it again. So I am in heaven (Star Trek heaven, anyway!). Bring out the popcorn! At least I can eat that, as a diabetic!!

My daughter is very happy that she is old enough to watch Star Trek with me, as we'd been discussing that earlier seasons of Smallville is more suitable for her than the later seasons. All of the Star Trek tv series is good for kids, so she is planning on watching some of the episodes with me on Monday, which is when Space Channel is airing the top 10 episodes of the tv show as chosen by the viewers. I am so looking forward to showing her The Trouble with Tribbles!!

more TV: World Cup (soccer) qualifying.....
On top of all this Star Trek heaven, it's the World Cup qualifiers this weekend; we are fortunate to be getting Portugal vs Denmark on tv this afternoon, as well as Scotland vs Macedonia. We don't have to cheer for England since they aren't playing this weekend (ok they are playing a friendly, as my husband just pointed out reading over my shoulder; a friendly is a game that doesn't count for anything but practice!), so it's Scotland for us today, and we're debating on who to cheer for in the Denmark/Portugal match. As my husband just half-laughed, half cried, there is also a very good tennis match on this afternoon - now he's confessing he doesn't know who is playing, just that it's going to be good - so I think basically we are going to be using every tv in the house......

so how is your Labour Day weekend shaping up?

Today's Bluenose Ghosts Excerpts:
Time for some ghost stories - and oh, speaking of ghosts, I have just begun Duma Key, and so far I am enjoying it. It's a different start from King's other novels, and I can see how his accident shaped this book, but it also adds a real hint of desperation to the main character, whose life has changed so drastically from one moment to the next after a dreadful accident. In between Star Trek movies and running to see football (soccer to us in North America) moments, I will be reading my second horror book for Carl's challenge! Here is today's Bluenose Ghosts excerpt:

The ability to see ahead is not the prerogative of older people only. Peter Morrison was only twelve when he saw a coffin-shaped light pass him low to the ground and turn in at the cemetary just before a fatality at a mine, and the same thing happened to Mrs Allen Morrison and a friend when they were young girls. A boy at Point Edward heard digging in a graveyard when the ground was frozen too hard to be dug, and in all these cases a death followed within the week.

Because I missed Thursday and Friday, here is a long and very creepy true-life ghost story to make up for the days I missed:

Next we have a story from Marion Bridge......it was told by Mr Alex Morrison, son of the blacksmith who plays such an important part in it.
"A strange thing happened just before Sandy Munro fell over the bridge and got drowned. At that time Neil McPherson was just a lad and he was walking over the Marion Bridge one night with his mother. He stopped for a moment and said, 'Come here mother and look at the little boy lying on the bottom of the river.' His mother couldn't see anything and told him to come along home. It was just after this that Sandy was drowned, but that wasn't all that happened.
"About that time they were seeing a light on a boat up the river at Grand Mira. The owner wanted to sell the boat but nobody would buy it, being suspicious that something must be wrong with it on account of the light. My father wanted it, light or not, so he bought it.
"They always thought foul play had caused Sandy's death. The night before he died the irons in the smith were making a great racket. You could hear them in the forge and they seemed to be jumping around. Sandy and the blacksmith were friends and the boy often did errands for him. Just before he died the blacksmith had asked him to take an axe across the bridge for him. He was doing this when he must have met two boys who were known to be bad and whose mother was said to be a witch. Someone saw the boys having a tussle on the bride and, a while later, the body was discovered lying in the water as Neil McPherson had described him to his mother.
"They called on the blacksmith then to get the boy. The grappling irons he used to take him from the water were the ones that had jumped in the forge the night before, and the boat that he took to go out on the river was teh one that had shown the strange lights and that nobody would buy but my father. After the body was recovered Sandy's mother had a dream. She thought the boy came to her and pointed to the blacksmith's axe as it stood in its place at the forge, and said, 'That's the axe that killed me.' And when Sandy's body was laid out on the bridge of the boat my father had bought, there were alot of people from the village who came to look at him. One was the boy who was supposed to have murdered him. You know it's an old belief if a murderer passes by or touches the person he has murdered, that blood will issue from the wound, and that is exactly what happened. The wound that killed Sandy was in his temple and, as the suspected murderer walked past him, blood flowed from the wound and stopped as soon as he went by. The thing was hushed up and the boys and their mother moved away, but that's the way it all happened."

Enjoy your Labour Day weekend! Happy reading, everyone!

Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a translated mystery by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. It is the first of a trilogy, featuring Mikael Blomquist and Lisbeth Salander. He is a journalist, she is a dysfunctional amoral young woman whose only skills lie in investigating people, since socializing comes so difficult for her. They do not know each other at the beginning of the book, although she has investigated him through her work.

The mystery involves the Vander family, a Swedish industrial family who have made their fortune over the 20th century in various ventures. One of the younger Vangers went missing 40 years ago, and Blomquist is hired by her grandfather to find out if she is dead, because every year since her disappearance, the same kind of gift she used to give her grandfather, arrives for his birthday and he thinks the killer is taunting him. He wants to know if she is dead, and how.

This is a gritty Swedish mystery. It is also a love story, and about all kinds of love, and about relationships of all kinds. The best mysteries I find always involve the human heart. This book has heart, and plenty. It is also different because part of the story involves Mikael's public humiliation when he is found guilty of slander in an article he wrote on a mafia-like financier, and how he comes to believe in himself again and redeem himself. Lisbeth is his key. They make a very unusual detective team, their skills balancing one another's; they are good for one another.

It is unputdownable, literally. I read through lunch, through several Smallville episodes (we are working our way through Season one again as the kids search for something to watch in the evenings), through dinners, any time I could get last weekend was spent with this book. In fact, I read it through much of Sunday afternoon, finishing it blissfully on the sofa, enjoying the luxury of reading while the kids were awake.

I can't say enough about the characters, because they seemed so real, so life-like, that I always had the sense the conversation continued off the page, that the characters had a life away from the page, and we just got to see part of it. I really enjoyed getting to know all the various characters, and the Vanger family are numerous and exquisitely drawn, as are Mikael's colleagues and other secondary characters. As Mikael earns Lisbeth's trust, we come to know her better too. This is the story of how Mikael finds redemption and Lisbeth learns to trust. And it's about how the truth is never quite what we think it is. Unusually too this is a mystery about ethics, and I enjoyed this angle very much also.

The translation is so good that the book reads like it had been written in English! Only occasionally does something with a foreign understanding of our language slip in.

The mystery? This is part of what made the book so thrilling to read; it was so hard to put the book down. The mystery is dark, and very very bad. There are several layers of darkness in this book. Very good, very creepy, funny in places, and a lovely sense of some of Sweden outside of Stockholm.

I really enjoyed this book. I had think it is deserving of all the acclaim it has received. Highly recommended; just make sure you have some free time before you pick it up! 5/5

Other reviews:
Fyrefly's Book Blog
Literate Housewife Review
S. Krishna's Books

Today's ghost story from Bluenose Ghosts:
Mrs McGillivray of Marion Bridge, told of another strange ocurrence.
"One evening many years ago Uncle Neil was visiting us and I went to the windo to draw the blinds. I stood there for a moment looking out at the night, when I saw a light moving up by the apple trees. I said, "I think you're having a visitor. It must be someone carrying a lantern.' He said, "I must go." (Cape Bretoners are always considerate of visitors and would not dream of being away when a call was made.) I said, "No, don't go. I'm making the tea." (That too is a Cape Breton custom; they always make tea for their guests.) But he felt he should return home.
The next time we met he looked at me strangely and said, "Was that a trick you played on me the other night when you saw a light going up to my place?" I said, "No, I wouldn't do such a thing when you were out ceilidhing (visiting). Mother and I were so glad to have you ." When he arrived home that night he found no visitor there, nor had any of the neighbours called. That was October. December his daughter died. It was probably a forerunner of her casket, for it had looked like a light carried by a person on a wagon."

RIP IV - Ghost and horror stories challenge is here!!

Carl's RIP IV is here. I breathed a big sigh of relief when I saw his post here, and then I started piling books up. Up, up, and up. I ended up with over 20 books I wanted to read for this challenge! Now, I know that last year I read more than required, and I know this year I will, but even I think 20 is a huge pile. So I've been whittling away at the pile until it's more manageable.

I am choosing Peril the First, which is 4 books:

Here is my list of what I'm considering for the challenge:

1.Bluenose Ghosts - Helen Creighton (to be read
throughout the challenge) - this is the one I'm posting daily
quotes from. Sort of a blog gather around the campfire and
let's tell real-life ghost stories, as a few of you have commented on the first two excerpts I've given.















2.The October Country - Ray Bradbury (I've long
wanted to read this; The Small Assassin is one of the
classic short horror stories everyone refers to.)















3.Duma Key - Stephen King (finally! Uncle Steve,
please don't disappoint me with this one)

















4.Tricks - Ed McBain (takes place over Hallowe'en!!)














5.The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield (everyone
raves about this gothic featuring a writer. Fingers crossed!!)














6.Spirits That Walk the Shadows - Nina Kiriki Hoffman
(a YA by her I hadn't heard about, a Mythopoeic finalist,
about an emotional vampire encouraging one of the
teen characters to be depressed)











7. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane
Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith (can hardly wait!)












And, a special mention:
two VERY BAD BLOGGERS,
PLEASE STAND UP:


BRIDE OF THE BOOK GOD:
Thanks to your excellent review here,
I requested from my library and picked up yesterday:

8.Tales of Terror from the Black Ship by Chris Priestley;












and Tanabata at IN THE SPRING IT IS THE DAWN:
thanks to your post here, I requested and am also holding now:

9.The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston.
This one looks creepy. True-life serial killers in Italy.










That's only 9 books! Don't worry, I have several waiting in the wings, Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, Fool Moon by Jim Butcher, Not Flesh Nor Feathers by Cherie Priest, Haunted House Stories ed by Peter Haining, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.......This is my "B" list, by back-up list......




October Country also counts for Short Story Peril, which for once I would like to participate in on Sundays! I keep signing up for them, and then Sunday whizzes by and once again no short stories get read.

I just love the art for this year, and I really appreciate the artist, Jennifer Gordon, for allowing Carl to modify one of her prints for the banners. It is so ghostly and eerie and sad, perfect for RIP. Thank you, Carl, for hosting this again! It's not too late to sign up, and indeed, I am number 216 after I sign up tonight.

Today's Ghost Excerpt
So, with that all done, here is today's ghostly excerpt from Bluenose Ghosts: (Note, we are now on the chapter dealing with Foresight; before, we were on the chapter dealing with forerunners, which are sounds.)

The forerunner, as you have read, usually deals with sounds. Foresight, on the other hand, is visual. On the island of Cape Breton it is known as double vision or double sight and people who have the gift are said to be double-sighted. It occurs here mostly among those of Scottish descent although there are isolated instances among other groups. On my field work for the National Museum of Canada in 1956 I visited many descendants of settlers who came originally from the highlands and islands of Scotland, and was amazed to find this strange faculty possessed by so many people. Perhaps the word gift as applied here is inappropriate, for a gift is a pleasurable attribute. This is not, for the vision is usually that of a funeral. Stories, of which there are a surprisingly large number, go like this. I quote from the words of Mr Hughie Wilson of Glace Bay.
"There was a woman in Mira who could see a funeral ahead of time, even sometimes before the person had been taken sick, and she would know whose funeral it was. When it happened she would be walking along the road and would be pushed to one side by the crowd following the hearse. The experience would exhaust her because not only could she feel the passing procession but also she could tell who were the people in it."

And to make up for missing yesterday, here is a bonus story:
A story of another boat comes from Broad Cove in Inverness County. It was a good boat as far as the owners could see, and they had built it themselves. Soon after it was finished, however, people began seeing lights on it and there was no accounting for them. Since no physical explanation could be found, the lights were taken as a warning and, one of the older men said, it must never be used again or it would drown its passengers. Consequently it was hauled up on the shore and left to rot until it was of no further use.
At this time a young man named McNeil was building another boat and he looked at this derelict lying idle. He thought he might as well remove the steering irons and use them in his boat. The older people, he thought, were pretty superstitious. Why listen to all their foolish talk? So he took the equipment and he and his brother set out for Prince Edward Island. They were sailing close to shore with everything well under control when a squall came up so suddenly and so unexpectedly that it capsized their boat and they were drowned. Was this mere coincidence? We shall never know.

Happy reading, my Gentle Readers!!