Treat...and a Trick!





What better way to get in the Halloween mood than by reading Dracula by Bram Stoker? [I read it for free at www.Literature.org!]  I wondered if I would be really scared because since the age of 14 after reading Salem’s Lot by Stephen King and going to sleep for a month with a cross under my pillow, vampires tend to scare me.  But, I needn’t have worried - I really liked it, particularly the way the story was told by using different journal entries by different characters and compiling them to tell a story that was, at times, a little creepy.  It never got full-on scary, though.  I did fall just a little bit in love with the Dr. Van Helsing character in the book [I tend to gravitate towards the eccentric genius type].

The story moves along pretty briskly and the descriptions, dialogue and multiple points of view are expertly delivered.  I greatly enjoyed Mina’s journal entries, and felt that her side of the story was the soul of the book, while Dr. Jack Sewerd’s was the backbone.  [What else?  I mean, she’s a woman in love and he’s a psychiatrist].  Mina is clearly a smart, independent woman and it shows in her journal entries and her willingness to help the men hunt down the Count and kill him.  I was surprised at the depth of the two main female characters, Mina and Lucy, and their “modern-ness.”  I also found it ironic that the more the men played to the stereotype of men-as-protectors, the more harm came to the women.  Even more surprising [and endearing] was Dr. Van Helsing’s continuous praise of Mina as a strong, smart woman, who should be held as a standard of excellence among society.  The end of the book was rather abrupt, but satisfying.  Even though I didn’t think the book itself was scary, the more I thought about the characters and the story, the more frightened I felt.  I suppose the true test for a horror story is whether the reader’s imagination takes hold of the idea and takes it to the next level.  Count Dracula is a cultural icon and while vampires are all the rage now, there’s a certain simplicity to this book and Stoker’s Dracula character that makes it far more appealing and frightening than anything more recent.    

All through the book, I kept picturing Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing because he was the only character I really remembered from the 1992 movie, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.  So, I felt a good bit of anticipation before settling back to watch the movie.  Now, some people [my son, my husband, my friends, my mother….okay – a lot of people] think I am too hard on movies adapted from books.  I admit I am a purist when it comes to adaptations, but I thought I had mellowed quite a bit [thanks Harry Potter], and was prepared to take some deviation as par for the course.  Well, if it had only been some deviation, I could have gotten over it, I think, but this was a travesty!  I say that, but then I recall the early nineties as being a wasteland when it came to most fashion, music and anything else requiring creative thought.  This movie is no exception.  I’m sure they thought they were being super artsy when Dracula’s shadow does strange things, but in the book, Count Dracula doesn’t even HAVE a shadow.  That’s just one example. 



One of the few scenes with Mina and Lucy fully clothed



Really, you could probably classify this movie as soft porn, what with the women kissing, bared breasts and moaning for no apparent reason, etc.  Ridiculous!  Needless to say, it didn’t follow the book closely at all.  It should have been called “A Vampire’s Kiss:  Mina And Lucy’s Erotic Adventure With An Ancient Vampire Turned Young”.  What’s worse is that I absolutely loathed Anthony Hopkins’s portrayal of Van Helsing!  He was pretentious, overbearing, snobbish and a complete ass – nothing like the book! 



           My advice is skip the movie unless you’re a huge fan of seeing Winona Ryder in revealing dresses and watching her breasts heave, or you want to see a young Keanu Reeves playing something besides a time-traveling buffoon [well, he’s still a buffoon, but he doesn’t get to meet Abe Lincoln in this flick].  If you want a good read that isn’t gory or in-your-face scary, then Dracula is for you.  If you like Dracula, here’s another fantastic read on vampires and Count Dracula - The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. 


Great Book - little scary, though



A Woman of Independent Means

     A fellow member of a writing group is the owner of an online bookstore, and he recently had a huge sale at his warehouse.  One of the books I purchased was A Woman of Independent Means, 2oth Anniversary Edition by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey.  The title seemed vaguely familiar to me and the blurb on the back intrigued me, since I am fascinated by history and books – not necessarily in that order.   Also, the fact that the entire book was written in the format of letters really fascinated me.  The review on Amazon.com says this of the book and of Bess Steed Garner, the main character:

“From the early 1900s through the 1960s, we accompany Bess as she endures life's trials and triumphs with unfailing courage and indomitable spirit: the sacrifices love sometimes requires of the heart, the flaws and rewards of marriage, the often-tested bond between mother and child, and the will to defy a society that demands conformity.”



Money? Yes.  Likeable?  No.

 

     Needless to say, I had high hopes for this book.  I thought this character would be quite the radical – someone who defied the stereotype and was more than a wife and mother. 

     I was wrong.  So, so wrong!

     This woman, Bess Steed Garner, only aspired to be the “perfect” upper class wife and mother – one obsessed with money, status and only a part-time caretaker to her children.  Combine that with the woman’s narcissistic personality and you get a character that I immediately disliked.  I mean, this lady writes her husband’s obituary and then sends it to a paper in her former hometown with a cover letter that instructs the editor to print it in the society pages because he was such an influential person.   Bess asked her dying father’s nurse to leave his bedside and come back to help her instead!  She forced her aunt, who had taken in her father and raised him as her own, to go into a nursing home.  She sold the aunt’s home and made her aunt sign over all her antique furniture to Bess in payment for the nursing home care and then had the audacity to write her aunt and tell her that she was being petulant about living in a nursing home!  Bess asked her housekeeper to delay her vacation in order to decorate Bess’s house for the holidays not for Bess and the children, but for Bess’s friend who would be staying in the house alone, without them.  Bess alienated her children, especially her daughter, and forced them to do as she wanted instead of finding their own places in life.  She did nothing with her money except build houses, decorate them and go to Europe on vacations.  She didn’t do anything special or help others.  Bess absolutely expected to be catered to and resisted any effort made to try to let her know she wasn’t the center of the universe.  

     The author wrote in the preface to this edition that the book was based on her grandmother.  After reading it, I thought “Wow. This was not a tribute to that woman.  How could she have thought she was writing it as one?”

     Not long after I finished the book, I was on the phone with my mother and asked her if she had read it and she said that she had and liked it.  I laughed and said, “Well, it must be a generational thing because I absolutely loathed that woman and was grateful I didn’t have her as a mother!  You may not have had any money to speak of, but you sure did more for your kids than Bess ever did!”     

     I was so relieved to finish that book.      

Diet?!…I Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Diet!

Ah, the holidays!  There’s nothing like having to rush out to Dollar General 30 minutes before dusk on Halloween night only to discover that the only candy left is the “bad” kind because somehow all the Twix, Butterfingers, Hershey bars and Snickers have disappeared from the candy bowl at home (“and it was scarcely odd, because they’d eaten every one” – The Walrus & the Carpenter, Lewis Carroll)

Therefore, I have resolved the following:                                      

1.      Not to buy Halloween candy until October 30th;

2.      Walk at least 30 minutes a day; and

3.      Start back on The Dukan Diet. 

I love this cover! Makes me want to go to Paris

Yes, I was one of the millions of sheep, who bought the book after finding out Kate Middleton used the diet to lose weight before her wedding to Prince William in April, 2011.  [baaaaaa].  But, what is more surprising than me being a fad follower and royal watcher is that this diet actually works exactly like it says in the book!  I am living proof, I tell ya’. 

Here’s the catch, though, this is not a diet you can stop and start whenever you want. In order to have long-lasting effects, you have to follow through.  I started the first phase, “Attack,” in early May of this year, and got through it reasonably well with a loss of about 8 lbs.  Pretty good, but the best thing was the belly fat that I tend to accumulate was melting away! Then, I hit the “Cruise” phase and all hell broke loose! I just didn’t make an effort to remember to alternate days of pure protein and protein with vegetables. And, I missed fruit. And, it got hot and I couldn’t walk anymore because it was like walking on the surface of the sun. And, I have many other excuses, but none of them come close to the truth, which is that I just didn’t want to do it anymore.  But, I’m starting again so I pulled the book out and re-read it. 

Dr. Pierre Dukan, the diet developer and author of The Dukan Diet, gives easy to understand examples and directives as well as provides short chapter summaries. Because the diet is four phases:  Attack, Cruise, Consolidation and Permanent Stabilization, the book’s format is easy to follow and especially easy to reference with recipes and menus located at the back of the book. 

I liked Dr. Dukan’s writing style and his ability to tell his story in a compelling way – the preface “A Decisive Encounter, or the Man Who Only Liked Meat” was one of the reasons I bought the book. Dr. Dukan presents complicated, and what has been so often contradictory information in a way that is organized, simplified and helpful. I liked that he presented his theory first and then gives general nutritional information in only about 20 pages, since some books [ahem..Atkins..cough] take FOREVER to actually get to the point – the diet!  Not only does Dukan present the diet quickly, but he also puts the most obvious questions and answers to them within the phase section.  If you just want a refresher, then you can check out the chapter summary breakdowns instead.   

A short book (263 pages) with easy to understand concepts and directions describing a way of losing weight that actually works! Pick up The Dukan Diet and it will persuade you to make a change. 

Preston & Child

I’m trying to stick to my schedule of one review avery two weeks, but I get stidetracked and start reading ahead! I had planned to write a review of The Dukan Diet, but my dearest husband finished Cold Vengeance [finally!] and I knew I had to read it before I did anything else. Luckily I was almost finished with Still Life for Crows and could jump right in.

I have read every single Preston & Child book, [wow, that sounds kinda stalker-creepy, doesn’t it?] and Still Life for Crows was the first book I have wanted to not finish reading. The only saving graces in this book were [of course] Special Agent Pendergast, whom I adore, and Corrie, a new character who steals the whole she-bang.   

I try not to put any kind of spoilers in these reviews, so I’m going to keep my critique general.  First, contrary to many horror movies, books and tv shows, scary can exist without gore, and when grisly, gory parts are necessary, it is best when largely left to the imagination. Suffice to say, I did not read about 6 pages to quiet the heavings of my stomach.  Some things I just can’t bear to have in my consciousness.  Second, it was never explained exactly why Pendergast was in that god-forsaken Kansas town to begin with! Third, and most importantly, the ending stunk! I was left with the feeling of what the hell did I just waste my time on? And that’s NO way to feel after reading a Pendergast novel.   

So, to recap…Still Life with Crows is a book to read if you are a die-hard Pendergast fan, but pretty much a waste of trees in my opinion [aside from Corrie, who they could have introduced some other way].



"Before you emark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves" ~ Confucious



Now to the good stuff…Cold Vengeance! I read this book in just a few hours.  It’s short – just 356 pages, but it is chock-full of revelations.  After Fever Dream, Pendergast is in a state of shock and rage and is determined to find the truth about Helen’s murder.  I was impressed at how deftly the story threads were woven and delighted at the inclusion of both Constance and Corrie in the storyline.  D’Agosta could have been featured more, I think, but I believe that Preston & Child did not want to prolong that part of the story, which I thought was the only mistake in the whole book. Yes, we have been waiting years to know about Helen, but we also deserved to have Pendergast’s emotional state more thoroughly described.  He is a complex character and his thought process in some ways, IS the story. 

Other than that, I was pleased with the book and the continuing mystery.  I believe that the story will only get better!  If you haven’t read any of Preston/Child books, let me recommed Relic as your introduction to the Pendergast world. 

City of Thieves

               I have a confession to make.  I am a coward.  And I don’t mean that I’m afraid of bedbugs or the dark [even though I am, a little].  I mean cowardice in a big way.  As in I would not be the person standing in front of a tank or staging a sit-in or charging into a burning building.  It’s one thing to survive an event, it’s quite another to willingly step into what you know is dangerous. 

As the 10^th anniversary of 9/11 nears, I find myself thinking of that day.  I remember my

feeling of horror as I watched the carnage.  It was not just for the people in harm’s way, but also, a little, for myself.  Because even though I sat with my family, safe in my own home, I was terrified.  What kind of  mentality must people have that they commit such acts?  What kind of anger, fear, courage or adrenaline made the victims jump out of burning buildings or rush a hijacker? I mourn for all those touched by 9/11, even small people like myself – those of us who learned that day the truth of their inner hearts.  And that is one reason why, after I turned the last page of City of Thieves, tears slid slowly down my cheeks.  

                During World War II, the Nazis invaded Russia and surrounded the city of Leningrad.  The city’s population in June 1941 was 2.5 million people.  For 900 days, the Nazis kept the city under siege (from September 1941 to 1944).  The official death toll for the entire siege is 632,000, but some believe that a truer estimate of loss from death, disease and flight is closer to 1.5 million people – approximately 60% of the population. (http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/siege_of_leningrad.htm)

“In June of 1941, before the Germans came, we thought we were poor.  But June seemed like paradise by winter.”  This is the setting of City of Thieves.  It is a story of a war, of nations, of a people.  And of youth, survival, desperation, friendship and love.  Of courage.

            At first, it seems a memoir about the struggle for survival under supremely harsh circumstances, but like a light flurry turning to a heavy snowfall, you slowly come to realize the impressive and vivid weight of truth in this story.  What I mean is that it’s not just the beauty of the narrative, the unceasing flow of the perfect words, the dialogue, the bareness of emotions; it’s the feeling of absolute genuineness that accompanies each and every sentence. 

In some novels, it’s the historical background that lends legitimacy to the words, but in this, it is the people [I hesitate to even call them characters, they are so much more].   The most powerful stories, I think, are the ones that brush the truth we hold closest inside of us.  When you read City of Thieves, be prepared for Lev’s and Kolya’s journey also becoming your journey; one that will reveal as much about your own fears, hates, lusts and confusion as theirs.  When it ends you may feel, as I did, a little lost, a little stunned and a tiny bit envious.     

Ali's Choice

When my mother, the Benevolent Book Goddess and tech geek, rushed out to buy one of the first Amazon Kindle eReaders and gushed about how cool it was, I have to admit I was pretty obnoxious in my refusal to even hold it.  I just couldn’t imagine reading a book on a computer screen.  After about a year of my Mother asking me if I wanted her Kindle [there’s a button to turn pages on both sides and it was hard for her to hold it], I finally decided to try it out – and was blown away!  I absolutely love the little thing and the fact that around half my books on there were downloaded FREE was a fantastic bonus!  Now, those of you with kids can understand the tendency to do this:  when I get something, I must then get my kids something, too.  I think it’s a balance thing.  So, after getting myself a couple of books, I started looking around for something for Ali, my 6-year old daughter. 

First, you have to understand that my daughter loves being read to. She just started to read for herself last year, but together, we have gone through an insane number of books. Oh, and we don’t read the books – we make a production out of it.  I am the silly voice maker, the get off the floor acter-outer and the freaky face-maker of readers.  So, her favorite books are always going to be the ones where I have a horrible British accent [‘a-low gov’na], act like an animal, or some other such craziness. Here are two of her very favorites that never [and I mean never] get old for her.



Mo Willems - Genius!



We call them “The Pigeon Books.”  That pigeon is one of the funniest characters in children’s books I’ve come across.  He begs, he pleads, he threatens [sound familiar parents?], and he teaches. The very first time I read The Pigeon Wants a Puppy, my daughter looked down at the floor sheepishly [she recognized some of her own tactics].  I immediately opened it back up and gave it the full-on Brit treatment. She fell out laughing.  When the last page was turned, she looked at me and said – with a straight face – “that pigeon’s kind of a brat isn’t he!”  It took every ounce of willpower I had to hold in the maniacal laughter.  Mo Willems is awesome.  Check out his Knufflebunny books, too!

             Another favorite is Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton (who also wrote Russell the Sheep – another good one).  Splat is a neurotic cat whose fur seems to float on the page.  In fact, Ali reached out her hand to see if he was fuzzy like he looked on the page. Her very favorite Splat book is Love, Splat because she’s into all that mushy love stuff.  That one is a sweet, funny Valentine's story.  But the one she likes me to read the best is Splat the Cat because it’s all about Splat going to school for the first time and how he overcomes his anxiety. It was a great book for her to read, especially last year as she entered kindergarten. She's kind of a worrywart herself, so she relates.



Mmmmm....hamburgers!

            Okay, so back to the Kindle. The only book of these three I downloaded to the Kindle was Stick Dog Wants a Hamburger  [because we already own the other two].  I got Stick Dog for FREE from Amazon.com.  Tom Watson takes it to the next level with his hilarious comparisons and descriptions. It’s a little long, but I split it up into two separate bedtime readings, which worked great [especially since my throat was getting a little sore from doing the voices].  A few words of caution:  Although this book was great – funny and smart with lots of action, there are a few things worth knowing before reading it.  First, it’s really for kids 6+.  Second, it’s going to make your kid want to run around like a small Tasmanian devil.  Third, prepare yourself for snickers, giggles and outright horselaughs every time you say one of the character’s names. Finally, it may cause a gigantic urge to grill out some thick, juicy hamburgers.  We liked the book, and the drawings showed up really well on the Kindle.  Since they're pencil drawings and because the Kindle is black-and-white, they looked good.  I won’t hesitate to download another picture book if it turns out as great as this one.

            All in all, I am extremely satisfied with my Kindle, and now that I can get some really cool books like Stick Dog for free [or close to it], within a couple of minutes, without even leaving the house, I greatly fear that I’ll need to keep a good supply of throat lozenges handy for some marathon reading sessions.

Hostage to the Devil

Here’s how my life works:  I read an article or book and I think to myself - “Is this true?”  So, of course, like any other well educated American, I hit the Internet to see what’s out there on that particular subject.  As I research, I become intrigued by a related word, phrase, picture or name and I follow that link further into the Internet cosmos until I find something that finally gets my full attention [Why, yes, I do have a touch of ADHD] 

This particular fall down the rabbit hole led me to Hostage to the Devil, a free e-book by Malachi Martin.  There are people out there who feel very strongly that the devil exists and influences our lives on a daily basis.  “Ah, yes,” you may be thinking, “the ignorant, the fundamentalist, the religious fanatic!”  Or, you could be thinking more along the abstract “Evil exists, yes, but only as construct of humanity – a classification of aberrant social behavior“ [Ok, so maybe only the anthropologists out there are thinking that.]

~~Of the five case studies presented in this book, I could only make myself read through the second.~~


Whatever it is you are thinking, it can’t compare to “I no longer want to read this book, “which was my exact thought around page 117, followed by “I want to delete this book from my computer’s hard drive and then have my computer blessed by a religious person.”  This is not an exaggeration.  I don’t think I’ve ever read anything as truly creepy as this [and I’m a Stephen King fan!].  

Two things stood out:  First, there are grammatical and punctuation errors throughout the book that I know, on a rational level, were most likely caused by the OCR program that scanned this book in, but…there is a part of me that thinks that the errors are there on purpose.  For what purpose, I don’t know – or maybe won’t permit myself to guess at, but I have a pretty vivid imagination, and what I come up with is something like a secret demonic code that is unwittingly translated as you read and hard-wires  your brain into receiving Satan and all his minions into your subconscious.  [Sounds fun, huh?] 

The second thing that I could not seem to reconcile was the startling intelligence behind the writing in this book.  You can immediately tell that an educated person – an intellectual, in fact – wrote this book.  Having my liberal arts education turned on its ear was hardly comforting.  This intelligence coupled with the glaring mistakes in grammar and punctuation is creepy in and of itself, and lent the book an overall dark and disturbing energy. 

I never did finish the book.  [And I probably will delete it from my hard drive.]