Neil Gaiman story for RIP VI

All my plans for a lovely long post about all the books I bought on Friday (including 4  for RIP!) have been put aside until tomorrow.  My youngest son and I played Uno instead today, followed by bowling on Wii (until my injured knee started clicking, a bad sign) and then archery (no bending of said knee required).  Tomorrow is the first day back to school, and he is nervous - he and his sister are going to a new school this year.  Our daughter is currently in England attending a family funeral with her father, otherwise it would have been a family Uno game and Wii events.

Instead of books to drool over, I found something even better:  at Neil Gaiman's blog, back in July, he posted here about a collection of new short stories he and Al Sarrantino had coming out, entitled Stories (they are both editors of it).  His story in this collection, he says in this post, was also nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award at Readercon.  He won.  He invites everyone to go read it online, for free, here, at 52 Stories.  As we are now in RIP, this is like getting free candy for us horror fans:  a free dark short story (and not outright horror, no gore, so safe to read for the shy of heart), by the one and only Neil Gaiman, AND the story won the Shirley Jackson Award for best novelette.  So we get an award-winning dark  short story to read for RIP!  Let me know what you think, my Gentle Reader.

I've just finished reading it - entitled "The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains", and it is good.  Much better, and much more moving, and much more thoughtful than I would have expected.  Actually, I didn't know what to expect, which is good, because I have read Fragile Things, and Smoke and Mirrors, and I am happy to find I am still, always, surprised by his short stories.

While I'm on the topic of Mr Gaiman, I have to add that I have not commented on his Dr Who episode, "The Doctor's Wife", that aired earlier this spring here.  That wasn't because I didn't love it, on the contrary - it is an episode that the more it sits in my brain and heart, the better it gets, like there is old Dr Who and time travelling wisdom in this story that takes time to sink in.  The Tardis as a woman, ever so briefly, and the Doctor's true love.  An amazing episode, by an gifted writer, who can go from dark to funny to bizarre without really blinking at all. The episode is unlike almost any Dr Who episode ever, yet it is perfect for the Dr Who mythology.  In one fell swoop, we learn how the Doctor and the Tardis chose each other to run away with. It is romantic and beautiful and ethereal, like the most romantic part of the Doctor's soul has been revealed, the reason why we all love him so, because he is mad, and he does care, so very much.  

Enough of the fan-girl stuff, I have to go off to bed so I can be ready for the morning angst about starting a new school.  Fall is definitely in the air, it's school time again, and I have now read a short story and a book for RIP!!!!  Review of book to come.

Happy Labour day everyone! 

RIP VI - Horror, ghosts, spookiness, my favourite time of year

It's here!  It's here, it's here, it's here!  RIP VI, the annual horror/ghost story/suspense reading challenge hosted by Carl over at Stainless Steel Droppings.  I am, you can tell, so very excited.  Not only that, but it's the angel from 'Blink', only one of my favourite Dr Who episodes, EVER!!!!  *happy sigh from Ottawa*

I do have to apologize, I meant to do at least two posts while waiting for RIP to start, but life got in the way.  It's been one of those years, I think, where I am barely hanging on.  I think about posting quite often!  I've started many in my head, on my way home from work.  Posts on books I've read, books I should have reviewed but didn't get around to, books I got out from the library, super reads.......one day they will get done. Right now, I'm reading, my way of keeping sane in a year that making me look at who I really am, and where I want to go from here. 

Before I post my list for RIP, I have to add this very short funny story:  I went to Montreal last weekend, a quick family get-away.  Because of my knee, which is still not healed all the way, I can only do short trips right now.  So off we went on the train for a weekend holiday.  Around the corner from our hotel, was a Chapters.  Convenient, you say? Yes.  Planned?  No, I did not know until after we booked it! At this Chapters, I discovered the Ellen Datlow ghost story anthology I have been looking for for almost a year: The Dark.

  A sign?  Yes, I think so.  I snatched it up and held it close to my chest.  It was the only book I bought last weekend, a rare event in my book-buying life.  So I am treating myself to a RIP book-buying binge quick trip at some of my favourite Ottawas bookstores this Friday.  A girl needs some good ghost stories/mysteries to cheer her up, right?

I have picked more mysteries this year, partly because they are all sitting on my shelves, partly because one of my reading goals is to get to 50 mysteries read this year. 

SUSAN'S RIP VI LIST  ***partial only, despite the long list
The World of Charles Addams - collection of Charles Addams illustrations
macabre drawings, creator of the Addams family, black humour that is witty
Kraken - China Mieville - Giant squid!  Just on that alone, I had to read this book. 
The Dark: New Ghost Stories - Ellen Datlow - see prev post.
Blackwater - Kerstin Ekman - a Scandinavian mystery that I keep hearing about, dark and terrifying, that took me several years to find.  I found it during my first visit to Book Bazaar, a second-hand bookstore here in Ottawa, last week. 
Birdman - Mo Hayder - another mystery I have been almost too scared to read.  Grisly is one word I keep coming across.  I will try it, anyway, though graphic descriptions are not what I find scary (and tend to bother me since I am a visual person).  The series is supposed to be very good.
Grendel - John Gardner - I've wanted to read this for a very long time.  From the point of view of the monster in Beowulf. 
The Surgeon - Tess Gerritsen - another creepy mystery thriller.  The first in the Rizzoli and Isles series.
Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror - Chris Priestley  - so many of you bloggers have enjoyed this one!  Specifically Chris at Stuff as Dreams are Made of.  The House With the Clock in Its Walls - John Bellair - I read Face in the Frost last year, and really enjoyed it.  This book is for children, and looks deliciously spooky.      
Chill of Fear - Kay Hooper - Just sitting on my shelf.  Spooky Crimes unit special, FBI plus heroine with psi powers. 
A Fine and Private Place - Peter S. Beagle - I have never read this classic ghost story by him. 
Tricks - Ed McBain - I know, this has been on my list for several years.  Now is the time! Set during Hallowe'en, it's perfect for RIP.....
Winter House - Carol O'Connell - a Mallory mystery, this one is called a family gothic.
Mallory is one of the most fascinating main characters in modern fiction.  I can hardly wait to read this one.  I'm two behind in the series, so this will start to catch me up.
Dark Harvest - Norman Partridge - Can't resist a book with a pumpkin on the cover!  Plus, Chris again recommended this one. 
The Keeper - Sarah Langan - her debut horror novel, by all accounts very scary.  The titular figure is also named Susan, so how could I resist?
A Dark Matter - Peter Straub - a horror story par excellence, about a ritual gone badly wrong many years ago and the hero's quest to find out what happened that night.
The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters - a classic ghost story, one I've been meaning to read, and I think it's time has come.  I'm the last person in the world to NOT have read this yet.
Midnight Riot - Ben Aaronovitch - he discovers he can talk to ghosts, and he is on the police force.  Recommended by Bride of the Book God. (Yes, the book has a different title over here than in England).
Manitou Blood - Graham Masterton - I wrote in my last post that I didn't know he had a vampire novel out.  I read his The Manitou years ago, and it was so frightening.  It was about the aboriginal spirits called Manitous, and if you can find it, it's worth it.  I'm hoping Manitou Blood will be as frightening.
this one a paranormal mystery complete with an 'entity' who means no good for our heroine.
Angel Cafe - Jill Morrow - another book lurking on my shelves,
Falling Angel - William Hjortsberg - a mystery that features voodoo, black magic, and murder.  Highly recommended when it first came out in 1979. About time I read it, right?
Every Dead Thing - John Connolly.  The first book in his Charlie Parker series, he sees ghosts.  Supposed to be gory too, certainly the description of the first bodies was. I tried to read it a few years ago, and stopped after a few pages.  I'm hoping this time it will go better, as the series does look really interesting.  Intense and terrifying is what I've heard about this book.  Have you read it?
Poltergeist - Kat Richardson - 2nd book in the Harper Blaine, PI, paranormal mysteries. She can see ghosts and spirits and the undead, all that hover between this world and the next.  I enjoyed the first one, Greywalker, very much. 

Have you read any of these?  What are you looking forward to reading this year?
I am going to be doing RIP the first, of course.  I'm also going to do RIP Screen, since I love ghost  and horror movies.  I am not sure yet what I will be watching for this challenge. 

Musings on horror books

So, this year, for the first time in a few years, I have been reading horror fairly consistently.    I say to myself  - RIP challenge - and then start reading the book. 

Currently on the pile to be read I have:
Manitou Blood by Graham Masterton (his version of vampires, I haven't seen this before.  The Manitou by him was one of the scariest books I read, a few years ago)
The Best Horror of the Year Vol 1 - ed Ellen Datlow (it comes highly recommended, replaces the horror part of Year's Best Horror and Fantasy collection she did with Terri Windling. I just bought it this week, and not sure I can wait for RIP!)
Swan Song - Robert McCammon (reread from 20 years ago) - very excited to reread this again.
Darkness - Two Decades of Modern Horror - ed Ellen Datlow - another collection, this time of her collection of the best horror short stories published between 1984 and 2005
Under the Dome - Stephen King - Uncle Steve! horror!  big book to get lost in!
Drood - Dan Simmons - Dickens, madness, and terror. Yum.
A Dark Matter - Peter Straub - a magic ritual goes wrong, and twenty years later someone tries to find out what really happened.  Another yum.
Hell House - Richard Matheson - I've seen the movie several times (The Legend of Hell House) but never read the book. I decided it was time to right this wrong.  I know it will scare me, as the movie scares me (most delightfully and shiveringly).  How long until RIP starts???

Out of the library I currently have:
Haunted - James Herbert - a reread, it turns out, but again it's been at least 15 years since I read it
The Ghost Writer - John Harwood (based on Daphne's review a few years ago)

I have read this year:
The Unseen - Alexandra Sokoloff (review here)

The Red Tree - Caitlin R Kiernan - This is a chilling haunted house read.  Actually, haunted tree by a house book.  Young woman escapes unhappy romance to hide out in house in the woods.....a house with a terrible history of people disappearing in and around it.  This book features a scary relationship with a roommate and downward spiralling of insanity.  Very scary in places.  Highly recommended.

Handling the Undead - John Ajvide Lindqvist - one of my favourite books this year so far.  A book about zombies, but also about the loved ones who try to cope.  What would you do if suddenly the dead started to come to life?  What if your loved dead ones were stirring?  This book is about three recently come back to life people, and the repercussions on their families.  It's also about Stockholm, and society, and how they cope with the dead and newly returned.  It's also about what makes a person a person, that mysterious living part of us that goes when we die.  The worst things about zombies is that they are shells because this mysterious part is not brought back (in any zombie fiction.)  But could you resist seeing your loved one, one more time?  Just to touch them?  Hope that spark is there?

Apartment 16 - Adam Neville - I just finished reading this last week.  What a fun horror novel, and so very frightening.  A lot of horror fiction relies on the unstability of the narrator.  It's as if horror can't come into our sphere until we give it an opening, usually because of madness in some form.  I disagree with this.  I don't think instability is a precursor to good horror fiction.  I think there is horror all around us, and in our natures, and the trick is to make it believable without relying on madness.  That said, in Apartment 16, madness is at the center of the horror.  An artist long ago created obsessively pictures of the vortex, the swirling darkness that we go to when we die (that he believes anyway).  It's a disturbing vortex, filled with the true faces of people, all hideously deformed and distorted - their vices and desires, their lack of spiritual light, becomes their consignment to this swirling hell.  What he eventually creates though, is an entrance for that hell, in his apartment - Apt 16.  Apryl, the niece of an aunt who turns out to have a connection to the artist, inherits her aunt's apartment in the same building where the artist lived.  The book is about how she learns about the artist, and her aunt, and how the power of evil, and that morbid fascination does have its own strength.  This was a horrifying picture of madness, gripping, and sad in some ways.  Mostly, a book to read with the lights on and someone around to remind you things are normal where you are......I will not forget how mirrors are used in this book, for a long time, either.

The Passage - Justin Cronin (review here)

Button, Button - Richard Matheson (short story collection) - The title is from the first story in this short story collection.  It was made into a movie recently called The Button.  I didn't see the movie.  I did enjoy the short story very much - it is perfect, the story of what happens when a stranger calls and offers money in exchange for a life. Would you push the button?  Eerie.  Most of the stories are not quite as frightening as this one, which calls up the dark side of human nature, but the collection is enjoyable and nerve-tingling in places.


Horror books I would like to get for RIP:
Koko - Peter Straub
Feed - Mira Grant
The Dark - ed Ellen Datlow
Haunted Legends - ed Ellen Datlow
The Thirteen - Susie Moloney ***Canadian author, wrote The Dwelling a few years ago, a disturbing and very good haunted house book that has scenes that still bother me today.  The Thirteen just got published and I'm on the library waiting list, so I might see this next year.....

I'm not sure what has me reading horror this year, though I am enjoying it very much.  Apartment 16 is really terrifyng.  The Unseen is one of the best haunted house books I've read in a long time.  Handling the Undead took the zombie story and turned it upside down.  It is haunting and beautiful and exactly what examining horror should be, from all sides - the victims and the zombies, who are also accursed.  The Passage is excellent.

I have a few other books ready also for RIP, but I want to save them for a surprise so when I go to do my post in the next few weeks, I will have something to add to the list!

Are you busy getting ready for RIP?  What are you thinking of reading?  Are there any horror or ghost story books you really recommend for this challenge?  Let me know.  As you can see, I'm always looking for new and good horror to read. 

As we head into fall soon - and already our leaves are starting to change colour here, which is very early for us - I'm thinking about ghost stories and horror, and what I really enjoy about them.  Why do I read them?  Why do you, dear Reader?  Do you like being thrilled?  Scared, safely in the comfort of your home?  Do you like that eerie frisson of chill running over your skin when you read a particularly scary line or scene?  I know that I am always on the lookout for this.  It's delightful and shivery at the same time.  There is nothing like a good chill. 

I also find that horror tales are cautionary.  They remind me of what not to do.  Don't go into the unknown house alone.  If lights keep flickering on and off and you get chills and the sense you are not alone, you're not!  Horror also tells me what to do/not to do when I find myself in a scary situation.  The edge that horror has though, is that often it's from deep within our subconscious, so we can't control these deeper urges, or we are overtaken by events that we are powerless to do anything but try to survive.  The best horror shows us a way out, reminding us that there is a price to pay for going to the edge of the dark, where terror and truth lie.  It's also exciting, and a safe way to confront our darkest fears. 

84, Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff, or once upon a time before the internet

I've been reading a lot of mysteries and horror lately - reviews will come shortly - and yesterday I wanted to read something different.  I grabbed 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff off of my books to be read shelf.  I read it once long ago, and I've seen the movie with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins.  I prefer the book version, because the sense of the relationship, the love of books, the love of selling books to the right people, comes through this series of letters over 20 years between Helene, an American writer, and Frank, who works in a used book store on Charing Cross Road in London.  This was my introduction to London, that there was a street devoted to selling books.  This is no longer true of Charing Cross Road, although many good bookstores are found in and around the area, both new and used.  I know because whenever I go to London, that's always one of my destinations.  I came to Charing Cross Road because of the book 84, Charing Cross Road.

I love the generosity between these two people, and the lives that are touched by this correspondence.  Helene writes because of an ad the book store - Marks & Co - have put in a paper, advertising they specialize in out-of-print books. As I read about her request for books, I was thrilled to see that in the 15 or so years since I read this book, I have read some of these books now myself!  Helene is always searching for a particular edition of a book, and Frank is both the buyer for the store, as well as book seller and correspondent with Helene. 


This is a fine meeting of love of books and kindness, and it is becoming a book I love.  My edition is the new Penguin edition with a photo of the bookseller on the front cover.  I see only the books, though.  .And the street in London. 

Last week I finally took the plunge and ordered some out of print books from the Book Depository in the US.  You can find them through Amazon.ca/com/co.uk.  They will hopefully arrive next week - I'll do a post when they arrive, but really what has struck me is how different the world is now from 60 years ago when Helene first wrote to Marks & Co with her list of books. Back then, there was only mail, and letters written and sent, and long waits for replies.  Now, it's the internet - in some ways magical, with book ordering at my fingertips, and I do love the internet for this!!  And being able to see at any time what's in print, what's available, what isn't.  But I don't write letters any more, and unless I go to my local bookstore - which I do regularly -  I don't get to meet and talk with my local bookseller about books. 

What some of you may not know, is that once upon a time I worked in bookstores also.  Both new bookstores, and used bookstores.  I like them both, for different reasons.  I miss spending my days among books, helping customers find the right books, ordering for them, and just being surrounded by books.  84, Charing Cross Road made me long to be back in books again!  So I said to my husband that when I have my holidays at the end of this month, I really want to take a day to just go wander in the used book stores in Ottawa.  Because we have two universities here, we have more used book stores than many cities do, which is a secret pleasure of living in Ottawa.  Many have gone out of business now, including The Book Market on Dalhousie St, where I got my very first job when I moved to Ottawa 26 years ago.  There are still many fine ones, and I always, always find books when I go into them.

84, Charing Cross Road is all about the magic of reading, and the sharing of good books. 

Here is a small list of some of the books that are currently out of print or very hard to get, that I am looking for, because part of talking about books, is talking about what we really want to read and just can't find yet, as well as what we love. 
- Winds of Marble Arch by Connie Willis - put out by Subterranean Press, only the hardcover was published so far.  I held a copy of the hardcover in my hands, and put it back as my birthday was approaching and I wanted my husband to get it for me.  Sadly, when I went back to get it, it was already gone and any more copies have been unavailable since. 
Forest of Souls - A Walk Through The Tarot by Rachel Pollack.  I recently found a copy at our library and read it.  It was a revelation to me, and I have since bought all her books and am restudying the tarot.  While some are available used on line, I want to wait and see if I can track it down here before risking the mail.
The Spiral Dance - Gabriel Garcia Y Robertson - I had a copy of this book, read it and loved it - time travel romance set in England and Scotland, it was amazing.  It's also out of print.
Raising Demons - Shirley Jackson. I once saw a copy, I might even have owned one.  I sillily gave it away and have been looking for it ever since.  It's the hilarious story of raising her children, à la Erma Bombeck.
- any book by Charles Addams, who is the creator of the Addams family in cartoon sketches.  I once owned several books of his illustrations, which are gorgeously creepy and deliciously hinting at darkness in humans.  Absolutely the best and I finally found one of his books online at Powell's, so this is one of the orders I am waiting to see how it gets here, and in what condition.  I'm so excited! Here is a link to one of his on my wishlist.

What are you looking for, dear reader, that you haunt used book stores for, or pine away on Amazon looking for a copy suddenly appearing? 

The Power of Poetry

 We are down to one computer now, and as the children are now able to play games online, my time to be here is less than usual until we can afford a new computer.  So I haven't been on as much as I hoped the past two weeks, and right now it is 1 a.m. and I am heading to bed. Before I go though, I wanted to ask a question: 

If you read poetry, do you have a poem, a book of poems, or a poet, who saved your life?

I ask this because over at Terri Windling's blog, she has some Friday recommendations, among which is a link to a post by Michael Bourne, called Embracing the Other I Am, Or How Walt Whitman Saved My Life.  This is a wonderful post, about how at the bottom of his despair, he discovered the original poems Whitman published back in 1855, and they literally saved him. 

This has got me thinking about the power of words, of writing, of poets and poetry.  As many of you know, I read some poetry - Mary Oliver is my current favourite poet, teaching me how to bring my love of nature into my own writing even as I fall in love with hers.  There is something about poetry that lets our souls talk to one another that I've only found rarely in novels or other writing. 

The poet that comes to my mind who saved me, is Sylvia Plath. I found her at a difficult time in my life, when I was young and just leaving home - I left when I was 18, so very young it seems now looking back!  Her poetry was angry, and it was a revelation to me, that poetry could be powerful and say things that weren't nice.  Sylvia's poems are full of difficult ideas and themes, alienation from herself as well as her family, struggling to be an artist and to trust herself, and it was as if I suddenly saw myself reflected back to me in her words.  I could be angry, I could feel grief, I didn't have to be nice and pretend to be happy all the time.  It was shocking, and if now there are many more women poets who also write about what it means to be a woman today, for me Sylvia writes about what it is to be young and angry and trying to find out why, what it all means. Because of her I dared to begin writing poetry about how I really feel, and to stop hiding from even myself.  I think she saved me, also.  Ariel was her book of poems I discovered this way.

So, is there a poet whose words reached out to you and showed you yourself, or life, in a new way? 

The wonder of books, is that they are just waiting for us to find them, no matter how much time passes. This is a miracle I am grateful for, this very early Sunday morning at 1 a.m.   May we always find the books we need, when we need them.

Happy reading, everyone!

Some book reviews and some more garden fairies

So, what are some of the fabulous books I read the past two months?

The Broken Shore - Peter Temple.  Winner of the Duncan Lawrie Dagger from the UK for foreign crime fiction, it is set in rural Australia, far from the lights of Sydney.  Peter Cashin has taken a post near the seaside where he grew up, on semi-permanent leave from the Homicide Squad after getting a colleague killed and almost dying himself in a stake-out that went horribly wrong.  The book opens in Port Munroe, the seaside town where nothing happens, except the background racism of 'accidental' beatings and deaths of the nearby Aborigine community.  Joe's broken heart haunts this book; he is unable to move comfortably, almost permanently disfigured by the accident in a back injury.  Then an old rich man, the richest man in town, is found unconscious in a robbery gone wrong, and the seedy side of Australian life is exposed.  Countering this are two new people entering Joe's life, and he comes to recognize that he can feel, and live again.  Wonderful characters, superb setting, solid mystery that is sad and haunting when the truth is finally revealed.  Worth every word of acclaim it has gotten. 5/5

The Ghosts of Belfast - Stuart Neville.  I finally ordered this book  a few weeks ago when I looked and looked and couldn't find it.  It was worth the effort.  Set in Northern Ireland for once, in Belfast, it is the story of an IRA killer who is seeing the ghosts of the people he killed.  Twelve ghosts haunt him day and night.  One day he can't bear it, and sets in motion the events of the book by telling the mother of one of his victims where the body is buried.  Gerry Fegan is a fascinating character.  As the story unfolds, we see how he has discovered in jail remorse, that he has always carried guilt for the victims of his crimes.  He sets out to kill the men who gave him the orders - this is what the ghosts request over and over - like Ireland is trying to wipe the slate clean by not talking about what happened during the Wars.  What happened then, happened then, is the attitude, though plenty of people in the novel are benefitting from the new peace in Stormont.  Neville shows how unstable the peace process always is between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and how the new 'war' is the money coming in to line the same pockets as those who got rich during the War years. All this is shown in counterpoint to Gerry's eliminating those who ordered him to kill.  It is another haunting mystery, one that presents the people of N Ireland as the real victims, always, of those in power.  I really enjoyed the ghosts also, as well as Gerry discovering that he can feel again, after all, although he doesn't feel like he deserves to.  Highly recommended mystery. 5/5
Read for the Ireland reading Challenge

Crime Machine - Giles Blunt.  The fifth John Cardinal mystery, it takes place a year after John's wife has died.  This is quite an interesting mystery, not the least of which is because part of the book is about the crime machine itself, a 'family' of criminals who are bizarre and scary and very very violent.  The book opens with things being quiet in Algonquin Bay, and the police team are given old cold cases to work on. ATM's start being robbed, then the beheading of two people in an empty house starts the real mystery in the book.  Who killed them?  There is one witness, and her story - she is aboriginal, young, and very foolish - gives the heart to this mystery.  Her freshness is counterpoint to the very different life led by the killers, the hardness, violence and manipulation masking as love - it's all very dark, very noir, and very very good.  John is in the grips of recovering from his wife's death, and I enjoyed seeing how he was coping with the changes in his life.  I really enjoy this mystery series, it's one of my favourites, and I'm glad to see John back after a two year wait. 4.7 /5
Read for the Canadian Book Challenge.

The Brutal Telling - Louise Penny.  This is the darkest mystery yet from Three Pines and Chief Inspector Armand Gamache.  Louise Penny is beginning to develop a theme of exploring the darkness that lies in human hearts and what it drives people to do.  She is specializing in the darkness at the heart of families, and this mystery deepens this theme.  It is gripping, and very difficult to put down. An unknown man who is a hermit living in the woods behind Three Pines is found murdered in Olivier's Bistro, the wonderful bistro which is filled with Gabri's fabulous cooking.  Yum!  I always find myself drooling over the food that Penny describes so lovingly.  I want to eat there.  Despite all the murders, I want to live in Three Pines too.  Ok, back to the mystery:  I find it hard to write about because this mystery involves one of the central characters, and something is revealed that literally pulls the mask off to reveal what can lie hidden in a person.  I really enjoyed this mystery.  I liked what the Brutal Telling was about, the wood carvings, Gamache's search out to the Queen Charlotte Islands where the wood comes from that the victim carved, to meeting some more of the people who live in and around Three Pines. The Brutal Telling is the story that the murdered man told his killer, and carved in pieces of wood, which eventually reveals why he was killed.  This is another mystery that you really won't want to put down until you know it all.  we have more of Gamache and his wonderful idiosyncratic police team.  Inspector Beauvoir, the impeccably dressed fastidious man, is central to this story.  He is given lines of poetry, which when he finally puts them together, has an effect on him that shows what effect words can have on a person, whether in the form of a story or poem. I'm really happy I already have the next one already lined up to read.  This series is addictive, and I think it's the place of Three Pines that really pulls me in.  Wonderful mystery.  5/5 
Read for The Canadian book Challenge

The Janus Stone - Elly Griffiths.  I couldn't wait to get to this one.  I'd been waiting for it to come out in paperback for almost a year.  The Crossing Places was evocative and gripping and I was hoping this one would be too.  It is.  The Janus Stone is about the discovery of a child's skeleton under the doorway of a Children's home that is being demolished to make way for new condos.  Two children disappeared many years ago, and one of the children was the same age as the skeleton.  Ruth Galloway is the forensic archaeologist called in to examine the bones.  The Janus Stone is the stone set in the archway over the doorway,  Janus the Roman God of looking forwards and backwards in time. This mystery is about that, discovering the history of the land beneath the Children's home, the story of the people who lived there before, and of madness.  While the mystery is quite good, the best part for me is Ruth herself, her lovely home by the saltmarshes in Norfolk, and her growing pregnancy, the result of a one-night stand with DCI Nelson during the previous book.  It's fun watching Nelson and Ruth dance around the truth, and to see how Ruth copes with it all.  The secondary characters are well-done, from Shona the friend who is gorgeous and irresistably drawn to married men, to the various weird characters Ruth gathers around herself, especially Cathbad the Druid. I really like this series - I want to live where Ruth is living!  Maybe I could divide my time between Three Pines and Norfolk England? - and am trying to talk myself into the buying the hardcover of the next book in the series, The House at Sea's End, since I'm not sure I can wait until it comes out in paperback.
Delightful series, 4.7/5.

The last book I am going to review tonight is not a mystery.  It is a horror book.  I have been reading more horror this spring, I'm not exactly certain why, although it has been a long-time interest of mine.  I'd been waiting for The Passage to come out in softcover ever since Stephen King mentioned it last year in his Entertainment Weekly column that it was a must-read for 2010.  So at last, it came out in paperback:

The Passage - Justin Cronin. Everything Uncle Stevie said it would be.  I read it in less than two days.  I could not literally put this book down.  It is the story of what happens when a bat is discovered that supposedly can cure illness.....only it's really wanted for secret experimentation that goes horribly, terribly wrong, and wipes out most of the world's population, turning the victims into vampires.  This is an incredibly cool book.  Not because of Stephanie Myers and Twilight, not even because of Buffy (I'm a Slayer girl from way back!), or even Dracula.  This is dystopian end of the world is here, and what happens to the enclaves that are left behind, the survivors who didn't turn.  What would the world look like 100 years after this devastation?  Who would be left?  How would history be transferred?  How would society evolve in these enclaves?  This is a terrifically imagined story.  It's also the story of the Girl Who lived - who survived the vaccine that turned the other victims of the experiment into monsters.  Who she is, and the people who try to help her, makes a fantastic ride.  This was fun, and enjoyable to read, and it was creepy and nightmarish in many places, and sad, too.  One of my favourite reads of the year, and really, most of these books might end up on that list, they are all so very, very good. 5/5

So that's some of what I read while I lost myself in books these past few months.  More reviews will be forthcoming, because there are some more excellent books that I read.  What have been some of your favourite reads of the year so far? Have you lost yourself in some books too?

Just for Chris, and Cath, and the other gardeners out there, here are some more of the fairies etc who fill odd corners and under leaves in my garden.  My new header is from my garden also. 

Missed You All

I have been gone from here much longer than I expected, my dear Gentle Blogging friends.  I thought I was handling this year quite well, coping with my knee injury and the death of my friend David.  Then my son was hospitalized at the end of April for a skin infection, and I found myself doing what I always do when I am under severe stress:  I start reading voraciously.  I plunged headlong into so many good books over the past two months, and slowly, as it always does with me, all the emotions I was putting off feeling, started to surface.  I'm not sure why it works this way with me, I have just always been so very glad that I can read, and have this outlet. I think reading has kept me sane for many, many times through my life, and this was one more added to the tally.  Thank you, books!

So I have been busy reading.  I've also been busy in my garden, a tremendous relief and another healing sanctuary for me.  I love growing flowers, and spend many happy hours in my garden in our growing months up here in Canada.  I was tremendously worried with my torn knee cartilage if I would get in the  garden at all this year, and I am thrilled to say I can.  It's not always graceful since I can't kneel yet, but I can sort of half lower myself closer to the ground so I can dig holes for planting, and weed. So between my garden and my books, and my family, I am starting to feel much less overwhelmed with everything. 
A fairy in my garden. 

I was really unable to do anything for about two months, and looking back, I see what a shock it was to me to suddenly be so helpless.  I don't do helpless very well.  I like being independent and not needing any help, and it was so hard to only be able to go to work and come home by car.  No bus. No shopping for groceries or anything else we needed.  It forced me to really feel shut in and shut down while I waited for my knee to heal. 

What I did find was that I suddenly wanted to read all the good books I'd been saving, now.  No more waiting and doling them out to myself once in a while.  I decided to read all the latest by my favourite authors, if I had the books already.  And since I've been able to take the bus again, since the end of May, a month now, I've been on one long book-buying spree.  Every week I've been picking up books.  I love it!  I feel set free!  I can't carry very much, and my knee is nothing like strong enough yet, but it is getting better.  I can even do my walks again, and am up to a mile and a half every morning.  I love being in nature, and hearing the morning sounds and seeing the green light of day and just being where it's quiet and me alone, is tremendously powerful and healing for me.  In every way I can, I've been taking care of me during this horribly long spring, and my family have been wonderful and helping, even the kids, to pick up their belongings since I can't really get to the floor all the time.

I've missed you all.  I want to thank you for waiting so patiently for me to come back here.  I really want to thank you for all the books you talk about on your blogs, because over the past three months, I've either read or picked up books because you read them first and loved them:

Bybee, because of your post last year - OMG, I just checked, it was 3 years ago!! - because of your post three years ago about this book, I finally, finally found a copy just this week, and picked it up:  my very own copy of The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread by Don Robertson.  ***It helped that there was a little blurb that Stephen King named him one of his important influences on him. ****It does look really good.

Mariel,(***I think it's you.) because you said once that I should check out this series: Alison Croggan's The Books of Pellinor Series, I now have all four books, having found the last two earlier this week.  ***just discovered that Andi at Andilit has read the first one, here.

Kay at Home Girl's Book Blog:  because you said that Louise Penny's The Brutal Telling was better than The Murder Stone, for my birthday I read The Brutal Telling.  You were right.  It was far better than The Murder Stone.  Dark, really dark and disturbing and mournful mystery.  Thank you!

Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise, thank you for talking about Peter Temple.  I read The Broken Shore last week, and it was amazing.  I ran out and bought the sequel, The Truth, halfway through reading The Broken Shore.  I also have to thank you for talking about The Skeleton Hill by Peter Lovesey last year, because of that post I have started reading the Peter Diamond series from the beginning.  I really enjoy this series. I just bought Skeleton Hill, which I think I will have to read out of sequence since I can only get two books in the middle from the library. 

I will be reviewing these and others read over the past 7 weeks of silence from me. Someone read Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi  - Nymeth? why do I think it's you? here, or Bybee, here, or Chris, here -  in the past year or so ****2008!  three years ago!  See?  mention books, and sooner or later we find them..... and maybe all of you convinced me I could try it, and I finally did during this month of awesome books I read.  It was.  Awesome.  It made me cry, and laugh, and look at my Turkish and Iranian neighbors in a new light.  A Companion To Wolves (amazing! brilliant! and I've felt like a wolf ever since), The Janus Stone (creepy, why does Ruth keep going to the site at dusk and putting herself in danger?  love that she's unwed and pregnant), and so many others.

I'm not quite at my count for 50 books half-way through this year, but I'm close - at 45, and trying to convince myself I can read a book a day over the next week so I can catch up.  I am going to get to 100 books this year!

Here's hoping that all of your springs has been good to you.  I will be coming to visit many of you over the next few weeks to catch up, and say hi.  It's good to be back, and talking with you about books.