I dug these two out of the “take to the used bookstore” box after
discovering that, yes indeedy, I do enjoy her mysteries. That was before I
trotted myself down to the Large Chain Bookstore, unfortunately placed just
down the road from where I work, to buy 6 more. I’m sure they are all at the
library but, gosh, we are going on vacation in a couple weeks and if I got
them now and didn’t read them right away there are those nasty, nasty fines
and we don’t want that, now do we? Much cheaper just to buy the books right
up front.

Died in the Wool takes place first of these two. Detective Alleyn is in
New Zealand during the war searching for spies or “fifth columnists” as they
are called in the book. He is called in by the nephew of a deceased woman MP
there to investigate her death. Seems she was smothered and then packed into
a bale of raw wool at her wool ranch in the backwaters. They didn’t find her
til weeks later when someone noticed a wonky smell in the wool warehouse and
makes the mistake of cutting open the bale to look for the dead rat they
think is in it. It was the bale hook going in and coming out with goo on it
that did me in. Eeuuw!

Now the house is in the possession of her nephew, her husband has since died
of heart disease and the people who live there all agree to tell their side
of the story. Oh, and the nephew and another nephew, both injured in the
war, are working on a top secret magnetic fuse for missiles to use against
the Germans. The secretary has stayed on as a gardener. Her ward is still
there. The butler, who seems to be the top candidate since he was
recommended before the war by a Japanese gentlemen, is still there. And it
again wool shearing time so all the itinerant workmen are back on the ranch.
Detective Alleyn must listen to all their stories, find the motive and
figure it all out. And one of them is likely a spy.

A Clutch of Constables takes place while Alleyn is off in the States
investigating an international art forgery ring. His wife, Troy, whimsically
decides to take a riverboat cruise of a twisty turny river in England after
a big show of her paintings. She hopes to do it anonymously. The passenger
list is the usual assortment of odd eccentrics including a lepidopterist, a
preacher from Australia, an American brother and sister with loads of camera
equipment and an annoying nosey woman who had discovered journaling and
writes down everything. Troy discovers that the passenger whose place she
has filled was found murdered in his flat in London, there is some weird
stuff happening on board and then, the annoying journal writer disappears.
Fortunately, Detective Alleyn returns just in time to figure out the whole
mess and save his wife.

Both of these were light and entertaining. What I like about Marsh’s
mysteries is that she gives all the clues plus a few extras to trip you up.
They are wonderfully complicated without being difficult to read. I didn’t
figure out whodunnit in either of them until the end. And Detective Alleyn
is growing on me—sort of the tall silent type.

I just received an interesting piece of e-mail imploring me to join in a nationwide boycott of Border’s Books and Music stores. The offense? It seems that a singer named Julia Rose was performing at a Border’s store in Fredericksburg, Virginia last night. Between songs, Rose, who is a body builder, made a joke about President Bush, accusing him of having “chicken legs”. According to the e-mail, which included a clipping from a local paper, that was the extent of her political commentary.

Apparently some of the Border’s patrons in the audience were offended, and complained to the store’s manager, who responded by banning Rose from any additional performances in the Fredericksburg store (several more were scheduled). Note that the ban applies to that store only; she can still perform at the several other Border’s stores in the vicinity.

My correspondant wishes me to call Borders’ corporate number, and also the manager of the Border’s in Fredericksburg, and tell them that I will be boycotting the Border’s chain until this ban is lifted. She assures me that all the Democrats in that part of the state (I assume that’s what she meant; she called them “DEMs”) were joining in.

And I have to ask…what’s she smoking?

Q: Why does Border’s have musicians come and perform?
A: To attract customers.

Q: Why did the manager in question ban Julia Rose from future performances?
A: Because Julia Rose offended some of her customers.

If you think it was a bad decision, correspondent mine, then by all means contact the manager and ask her to reconsider. She’s in the business of pleasing her customers, and if it’s clear that most of her customers think the ban is inappropriate she’ll likely change her mind. If you’re polite, that is. But boycott the entire chain because a not particularly outrageous decision by one manager? That’s just plain silly.

If this is representative of the DEMs these days, then they badly need to acquire a sense of proportion.

Will

I’ve just posted Chapters 20 and 21 of my novel Through Darkest Zymurgia! For those who were wondering, we’re now halfway through.

It’s immodest of me to say this, but…

I wrote all this four or five years ago, and I haven’t really looked at it since. While I remember the overall story perfectly well, I’ve forgotten lots of the details, and I’ve certainly forgotten almost all of the actual prose. So as I re-read it, which I’m doing as I post the new chapters, two chapters every week, it’s almost as though I’m reading someone else’s work.

And I have to say, it’s surprising how much I’m enjoying it. It’s really pretty good!

When Katherine Hepburn died recently, I browsed the library stacks for the
movie “A Lion In Winter.” I hadn’t seen it in years and the kids and husband
had never seen it so it seemed a good choice for our traditional Sunday
night movie and popcorn. Of course, all the way thru the movie they are
asking me questions about who’s who and why is she shut up in the castle etc
etc. While I have a sketchy, at best, grasp of the history of the period,
the whole thing piqued my curiosity to know more. Clearly if Hepburn’s role
was any indication, Eleanor was an interesting woman. And I just happened to
have this book on my shelf from last Christmas so I got it out and started
in.

Eleanor was indeed a very interesting woman, though Hepburn’s role is
romanticized and modernized to make her more palatable to the public. Henry
II was too. What struck me most is how little is really known about her.
Weir makes very clear what is known fact and what is supposition in her
biography and where sources give no information about Eleanor, she fills in
the gaps with what is known about Henry II. And Weir kindly includes a map
contemporary to the times making some of the geography much clearer. France
then was a small state surrounding Paris, powerful yes, but geographically
miniscule compared to what Henry II and Eleanor ruled over jointly. And we
must remember that no one was speaking English in England except the
peasants. French and more specifically, a dialect of Provencal, was the
language of court and the aristocracy.

The biography itself is easily read and understood. She gives the reader a
general understanding of what life was like for a young woman of good
birth, how girls were raised, what choices they had and didn’t have and what
levels of education they were given. She reminds us continually the role the
Church plays in the ruling of nations and of the importance of alliances by
marriage. And then she goes on to show how Eleanor breaks just about every
rule there is. She is taught to read, though not to write since writing is
the occupation of scribes. She marries Louis, King of France and takes up
the Cross with him on a Crusade, scandalizing everyone. While there, she has
a scandalous affair with her uncle and eventually annuls her marriage after
her return on the grounds of consanguinity. She turns around and marries the
King of England without consulting her former husband who is her guardian or
the Church.. She gives him sons who eventually become Richard The Lion
Hearted, and King John. Henry, unfortunately, is a bit of a bounder and they
have a falling out. She sides with her sons against Henry in what is
essentially a failed hostile takeover and he shuts her up in a castle for
years. And that’s the first two thirds of the book. Eventually, she enters
a convent as a guest and dies at the age of 82.

She was an amazing woman. We have no representation of what she looked like
aside form her effigy on her tomb and some dubious statuary and paintings.
The only surviving artifact from her life is a crystal vase she gave Henry
as a gift. Most of the castles she lived in are in ruins. And yet, she
still inspires biographies, movies and novels. I was utterly enchanted by
her.

This is the first book in a new series, “The Corean Chronicles”. It’s
about a young man with extraordinary powers he slow learns to use.
Once he does, he finds himself in a position to destroy a serious evil; moreover, no
one else is likely to be able to do it. In the meantime he grows up and
becomes quite remarkably talented at the trade which is thrust upon him.

Oh, and he falls in love too.

Put that way, this sounds rather like The Magic of Recluce,
doesn’t it? The magical underpinnings and history of our hero’s world
are entirely different (which is refreshing), as is our hero’s trade;
instead of being a woodworker, he’s a sheep herder (which is trickier
than it sounds) and an amazingly lethal soldier.

In fact, the bulk of this book is really just military fiction. If you
like reading about advances and retreats and strategy and tactics at the
level of a cavalry trooper, it’s not bad. But it’s a long slow book, and
things really only pick up toward the end.

I dunno. The book’s well-crafted, certainly; it was long and slow, but it
wasn’t–quite–tedious. But it’s maybe a chest of drawers where I was
looking for something more like a grand piano.

I’ll most likely read the next book in the series.

I’ve been reading this to David at bedtime over the last month or so, and
we finally finished. David’s familiar with the story, having seen the
movie any number of times, though there were still a few surprises.

There’s no point in my reviewing this book in the usual way, as pretty
much everyone has already formed an opinion about it. I do have a couple
of comments.

The first is, the book reads aloud tolerably well. It’s not outstanding
as a read-aloud–the prose doesn’t flow trippingly and effortlessly from
the tongue–but it flows pretty well, nevertheless, with only the
occasional clunky bit. I’ve read books that are much, much harder to
read aloud. (Some of them, ironically, are intended for kids who are
learning to read. There’s something wrong with that.)

But there’s something I noticed this time around. (This is a spoiler,
for anyone who doesn’t know how it ends. Uh huh.)

Dumbledore has hidden the Sorceror’s Stone using the Mirror of Erised in
such a way that only someone who wants the Stone but does not want to use
can get it. Thus, Quirrel/Voldemort sees himself using the stone, but cannot
get it. Harry, on the other hand, has no problem.

So…that means that the Stone would have been perfectly safe if Harry
had simply left well enough alone and gone to bed instead of braving
Fluffy and the other horrors in an attempt to save it from Voldemort’s
hands. Dumbledore was already on his way back to Hogwarts at the time
Harry faced down Quirrel; if Harry hadn’t been there, Dumbledore likely
would have caught Quirrel in the act and would have dealt with
Voldemort, perhaps permanently.

In fact, Harry’s presence made it more likely, rather than less,
that Voldemort would succeed.

I’ll grant you that getting past all of the obstacles took great courage
and skill. Not everyone at Hogwarts could have done it. But just how
was it anything but colossally stupid?

Deb English just pointed out to me that we’ve gotten a mention over at 2 Blowhards. Michael Blowhard said, and I quote:

I also love reading View from the Foothills, Will and Jane Duquette’s blog, which day after day demonstrates that sunny spirits and brains don’t have to be strangers.

Which is quite frankly one of the nicest compliments I’ve ever received.

I’d like to return the favor by commending 2 Blowhards to you, if you’re not familiar with them already. (Hah! As though that’s likely.) Michael and Friedrich have wide and varied interests, and even though I don’t share all of them I always find something interesting every day or so that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

They simply have the most friendly, least snobbish, most encompassing culture blog I’ve yet run across. And the amazing thing is, that extends to their comments section as well. Despite the name, there’s an amazing humility to the Blowhards–they really want to know what we think.

It’s not home, but it’s a wonderful place to visit.

The Los Angeles Times Calendar section had an article today about the current exhibits at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). The most interesting, apparently, was this little guy:

“Charlie”‘s a remote-controlled little boy robot on a tricycle, and he rolls around the museum’s galleries and sneaks up behind people. The Times describes him as “spreading sweet joy”. He was commissioned by MOCA.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that this is amusing, but it’s also a little creepy. I begin to have a suspicion that neither the folks who run MOCA nor the people the who visit MOCA are used to having real little kids underfoot–and have no idea how much real sweet joy a real kid can be.

This is yet another Wodehouse whose acquaintance I’d not yet had the
pleasure of making. It is, of course, a complete hoot. It’s a variation
of the Wodehouse staple
“imposter at the country house” theme, but in this book he takes it
higher, wider, and more plentiful than I believe I’ve ever seen him do
before. Almost everybody in the book is somebody else; at one point, I
think there are three or four distinct but overlapping sets of people,
all of whom know about three or four distinct sets of imposters. I’m not
sure I counted that quite right, mind you; it’s all rather dizzying.

Anyway, you should read it.

This is the third of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, and if it
seemed just a tad lighter weight than its predecessors, and perhaps just
a smidgen more calculating, well, it was still a pleasant evening’s read.
I’ll buy the fourth book when it comes out in paperback.