BOOK: The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery

The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery, 264 pages

Colourful Challenge; 4th CBC Challenge

Such a sweet story with a 1980s retro cover that would inspire no one to read it, unless you've been hanging around the internets. I've been reading some recent reviews of and references to The Blue Castle and it inspired me to reread it. (Plus, it finished off the Colourful Challenge for me.) Even though I knew the main twists in the story, my enjoyment could not have been higher. It was fun to read it again, looking for all the clues that were dropped.

The story: Valencey Stirling is a 29 year old, old maid. This was written in 1926 so that was the phrase of the day, and also, it means she has not fulfilled her role in life. Poor Doss, as her family calls her, is put upon and made fun of, while she comments in her head all the things she wishes she could say. When she receives a dire health prognosis, she decides to live like she hasn't been. Her family is mightily confused by her sudden backbone, and she is finally, blissfully happy. There is much more to the story, but if I told more, you might not have the fun of reading it too.

It's a romance, a feel good read, and although it's predictable, it's absolutely wonderful. Many LM fans like The Blue Castle best. Also, it's a musical written by Hank Stinson. If you ever get a chance to see this performed, please do.

 Get a head start on the 4th Canadian Book Challenge:
I picked up a copy (with the equally old fashioned cover) at our local Walmart, because we can do that on Prince Edward Island. Would someone like a copy? I so love this book, I'd like to send it to someone else to share the enjoyment and love of LM Montgomery and Valency Stirling. I'll take requests for a week in the comments (make sure I can contact you somehow) and then draw a name after October 9th..
Good luck!

ps - there are already comments on this post, so please wait a moment for the comments to load.

BOOK: A Little Yellow Dog by Walter Mosley

A Little Yellow Dog by Walter Mosley, 308 pages

Historical Mysteries Challenge; Colourful Challenge;

Easy Rawlins, that cool cat who starred in the Denzel movie, Devil in a Blue Dress from 1995, has turned over a new leaf. He's not living the street, he's got a real job as a supervisor of custodians at a school in East LA, in the 1960s. One morning before school starts, he has a steamy encounter with a teacher. She leaves her dog with him as she takes off after a body turns up in the school yard. Easy is drawn into a world he thought he left behind.

I read Devil in a Blue Dress years ago, and although A Little Yellow Dog is the 5th in the series, I didn't feel confused at all. I am usually more rigid about reading a series in order, but this worked. Mosley does a wonderful job of giving enough background to situations and characters so that I never felt confused. He also writes a tight, hardboiled mystery with a nuanced, lead character. I like that we are in Easy's head and we get to hear his logic. So many noir mysteries leave me unsure of what just happened or what that interaction was about, but this was just right. Crap, now I have another mystery series I'd really like to read more of.

Easy Rawlins and Mouse (Don Cheadle from the movie) are two characters who've got quite a past, and are trying to live their life, making tough decisions. They are so close to a violent, criminal world and make choices all the time. As Africa-American men in 1960s LA, a lot of choices are made for them and they deal with the cops too much. They make for a great story.


This is the last book for the Historical Mystery Challenge. I've still got a list I'd like to read but I have really enjoyed picking books for this challenge. I've started two new series, read the second in two others, and filled in a gap on a series where I've read over 15. Thanks for hosting to AF Heart over at Mysteries and My Musings, I've taken a few more off the TBR.

1. The Green Mill Murder - Kerry Greenwood 1920s
2. Maisie Dobbs - Jacqueline Winspear 1920s
3. Bethlehem Road - Anne Perry 1880s (Victorian)
4. The Tale of Hill Top Farm - Susan Wittig Albert 1910s
5. A Little Yellow Dog - Walter Mosley 1960s

What is your favorite historical mystery series?

BOOK: Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron by Jasper Fforde, 388 pages

Colourful Challenge; It's the End of the World

In a world where your social status is defined by the colour you can see (Chromatacia), Yellows are on top with last names like Primrose, McMustard, and Courtland. The Reds - Russetts, Oxblood, and Ochre are just above the lowly Greys. I loved all the synonyms for colours in this book, among other things.

If this had been my first Fforde, I'm not sure I would have made it. He crams so many allusions and jokes and ideas into every page that it can be hard to read. And setting up a whole new world after the Something that Happened (to our world) is a lot of work. It can be very tough reading in the beginning. But I stuck with it, knowing that Fforde has a sure hand and can write the most amazing new worlds, and then once the book picked up, I flew to the end, anxious to find out what might happen - a little romance, a little adventure, some treachery and enlightenment. And a plethora of spoons, because in a world with a spoon shortage, you know there must be some hidden somewhere.

Eddie is the perfect protagonist - a little naive with a sense of fair play. His discovery that his world is not quite what he thought it was, that the Head Office might have an agenda, is slowly revealed by anther new wonderful character, Jane Grey. I look forward to more Eddie and Jane (does Jasper Fforde really have a thing for Jane Eyre or what?) adventures.

There are two more books planned with Brunswick and deMauve: Painting by Numbers and The Gordini Protocols.

also reviewed by:
chris at bookarama
alison at piling on the books

another library book

BOOK: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, 609 pages

Our Mutual Read; Colourful Challenge

I have been wanting to read a Wilkie Collins book since I read The Suspicions of Mr Whicher in the summer of 2008. The Woman in White is considered one of the first of the mystery novel genre. I was surprised to find it was also epistolary, written as diary entries, letters, and extracts from official documents. Collins was a real leader in the types of books I like best. The Woman in White was originally written in serial form, and unfortunately for me, that makes for a bloated, long read.

I liked the book - I must have, I've been reading it on and off since January. Each time I picked it up, I read a good chunk, but it was slow going. As a credit to Collins' writing, I preferred a few of the narrators over others as some of that Victorian writing pains my poor head. Never use 2 words when 25 will do.

Laura Fairlie has to be the epitome of the vapid, delicate woman. Were women really like this? Too delicate to hear any pertinent information? Swooning? Blech. At least her cousin Marion was smart and forceful and cunning. She comes off as a man in the book because of that - there is no consideration of her marrying. She listened to me from beginning to end with a steady, silent attention, which, in a woman of her temperament and disposition, was the strongest proof that could be offered of the serious manner in which my narrative affected her. (page 100)

The best characters were wildly written, especially Uncle Frederick Fairlie, ESQ, who was hilarious and had the best line in the book - Was it at this point that I began to suspect he was going to bore me? I rather think it was. (page 337) I also enjoyed the outlandish Count Fosco and his wife, who played his villain role with relish.

So, while long and at times rambling, I enjoyed the book enough to still want to read Moonstone, another Collins mystery. Sometimes when I read classics that seem a little dated (the Victorian writing for example) I like to think how new and exciting a book like this must have seemed when it was first published. It allows me to enjoy the book on a different level than I might generally have.

about the cover: That is not the cover I had on my book and I cannot find it online anywhere. My camera wouldn't take a picture of it because it was white and kept reflecting back on me. The cover I've shown is a new release from Penguin.

BOOK: The Green Mill Murder by Kerry Greenwood

The Green Mill Murder by Kerry Greenwood, 173 pages

Historical Mysteries Challenge; Colourful Challenge

Late 1920s, Melbourne. Phryne Fisher, a rich, independent, detective lives the flapper life on her own terms. While attending a dance marathon at a local club, one of the dancers falls down dead, killed. Phyrne takes it upon herself to investigate, as her date is one of the prime suspects, and he goes missing.

Her investigations include having her fly to the outback in her Gypsy Moth, in search of a missing shell-shocked soldier, which also lead to my favorite line in the book - One of the goodies she had brought along was her diaphragm. One never knew. Add in a jazz band, with sultry singer and charismatic banjo player, and the atmosphere is set for a great romp.

I love how Phyrne is her own woman, with a staff who adore her, and are not shocked by any of her adventures. She is assertive, and smart, and ahead of her time. The mysteries aren't terribly convoluted, but the characters are fun, and it's a great read every now and then, especially with the 1920s setting and Australia.

A perfect book for a week with parent-teacher interview sessions, when I still want to read, but my brain in fried.

BOOK: Through Black Spruce and The Book of Negroes

Two Canadian Award Winners + a new Canadian book

Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden, 360 pages

Book Awards IV: Giller Prize 2008; Colourful Challenge

Will Bird, famed Cree bush pilot, is telling his nieces the story of his life, from his coma. His niece, to help him recover, tells him the story of looking for her missing sister in Montreal and New York City amidst the glamourous, partying modelling world. The story alternates between these two (very nicely too, as I was never confused as to who was talking) and also between the present and the past.

I mostly liked it. I was intrigued by what had happened and the gradual discovery of how Will ended up in the coma. I was hoping for the characters to be happy. The sense of northern Ontario and how life has changed for the natives of that area was very well done. However, it was a touch long and could have been shorter and told the same story. In some sections, the details were too much, but overall, I liked the book, and would read the author's book, Three Day Road, which has some similar characters - Will Bird's father, during World War One.



The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, 475 pages

Book Awards IV: Commonwealth Writers Best Book 2008; TBR Lite

Fiction that felt a bit like nonfiction, like a Roots type book. Very brutal violence, so much so that I barely was able to continue after page 80, but people promised me it would get better. It took anther hundred pages, but I guess it improved in some ways, but still horrible, horrible events happened to Aminata Diallo, a slave stolen from Africa at the age of 11. She narrates her life from Africa, to America, and then to a version of freedom. I liked the historical story of the 1700s, but I just wasn't up to the brutal violence inflicted on the slaves by the whites, just because.

While this book won Canada Reads last year, I would much prefer The Outlander or Mercy Among the Children, other choices from that competition.


Deloume Road by Matthew Hooton, 310 pages

Canadian Book Challenge; Countdown Challenge: published in 2010

Set on Vancouver Island, following the residents who live on Deloume Road from several points of view and from several time periods. There is the unnamed narrator who hints at events from twenty years before, the residents from the road in the 1980s, and Gerald Deloume the original settler from 1899. The characters are connected because of of there homes, but living separate lives. Mostly it follows four preteen boys, two brothers, their friend, and the poor neglected kid, but also an immigrant butcher, a young Vietnamese widow, and a Vietnam veteran.

There is a sinister overtone in parts, and it is obvious 'something' happened, and the reader is kept in suspense, but the concern is reconciling what the reader imagines, with what actually happens, and hoping that there isn't too much of a gulf between them. Deloume Road was a slice of a simple Canadian life.

BOOK: Red Mandarin Dress by Qiu Xiaolong

Red Mandarin Dress by Qiu Xiaolong, 306 pages

Colourful Challenge; Global Reading Challenge: Asia, China

Detective Chen is a poet policeman, torn between working on a literature paper, and working on the latest serial killer in Shanghai. Women are turning up dead in nothing but a red mandarin dress. Chen isn't officially on the case, but he begins looking into the historical significance of the mandarin dress.

Great little mystery, with some Chinese history, and a look at modern Shanghai. I liked the progression of the story, the details as the mystery emerged, and great inclusion of the Chinese history of poetry, and folklore.

BOOK: Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 307 pages

Orange January (shortlist 2004); 20-10 challenge (set in Africa); Colourful Challenge

Adichie is a Nigerian writer, and is often compared to the famous Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe, as a voice of modern Africa. And perhaps, in her first novel, she is paying homage to Achebe's famous novel, Things Fall Apart, with the opening line -

Things started to fall apart at home when my brother, Jaja, did not go to communion and Papa flung his heavy missal across the room and broke the figurines on the etagere.

Other similarities are the theme of Christian missionaries and the conflict between new beliefs and old. Purple Hibiscus examines the relationships within one family, led by an extremely devout, well-off man, a leader of the community. However, his family life is not nice, and his controlling, violent ways cause repercussions. The family dynamics is set against a coup in Nigeria, and the rebellion against the totalitarian rule. Once his two teenagers spend some time in the city with his sister, they are exposed to a freedom that will change everything.

I knew very little about this book, other than I had enjoyed Adichie's other book, Half of a Yellow Sun. The beginning was a little slow, and I wasn't liking the characters. However, once I read the back cover and realized where the book was headed, I kept reading and then enjoyed the story. The aunt, Ifeoma, was a great character, a strong woman with strong convictions to do the right thing. This book wasn't as strong as Half a Yellow Sun, but it certainly shows Adichie's promise. For readers interested in African life, and for a book with many layers and messages - about government, church, traditions, and love, this is a worthwhile read.



Third book read! More details here, but if you read a novel or more, you too can post this snazzy badge on your blog. Next up, Winner 5X. I would so love to get the gold 10X badge, but I fear that final exams in January, and sports tournaments every weekend will conspire against me. My job that pays the bills and my talented sports-minded children interfere with my reading plans!

CHALLENGE: A Colourful Challenge

hosted by Rebecca at Lost in Books
This is the second year that Rebecca has hosted A Colourful Challenge. (Note my Canadian spelling!) It runs all year and you have to read 9 books.

old rules:
Read 9 books with 9 different colors in the title. Six colors are required, while the last 3 can be your choice.
new rules:
You still need to read 9 books with 9 different colors in the title, but this time you get to choose all 9 colors for your books!

Here's a list of possible colours:

• Blue : Gathering Blue, Blue Castle, Virgin Blue
• Silver : Pat of Silver Bush by LM Montgomery

The Books Read:
1. Purple: Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi
2. Red: Red Mandarin Dress by Qiu Xiaolong
3. Black: Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden
4. Green : The Green Mill Murder by Kerry Greenwood
5. White: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
6. Grey: Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
7. Yellow: A Little Yellow Dog by Walter Mosley
8. Orange: Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris
9. Blue: The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery