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Murder in the Dark–at the “Last Great Party”???
Murder in the Dark
by Kerry Greenwood
I read Murder in the Dark intermittently in the midst of traveling and chaos, but I always looked forward to returning to it and was never disappointed. Invariably, the character of Phryne Fisher as a sleuth is delightful. In this book, the regulars of the series play a role, but a minor one, as little action occurs in Phryne’s home setting, but at an old rented estate where a rich and magnetizing brother and sister are holding what they bill as the Last Great Party of the year. Phryne has been invited to stop a threatened murder of the host. She has also been personally warned away from the affair. Anyone who knows Phryne understands that such threats only serve to ensure her attendance.
These mysterious warnings are entwined with other puzzling events once the weeklong party begins. Phryne must use her deductive and social skills to solve the mysteries. She also enlists the help of a variety of people she encounters, both servants and other guests. The resolutions of the mysteries are surprising and not without action scenes. I love that Phryne spends her spare time at the event reading an Agatha Christie novel.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Poisoned Pen Press for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Mystery, Historical Fiction
Notes:
- heavy doses of drug use, sex, and gender transposition
- #16 in the Phryne Fisher Mystery series
Publication: May 2, 2017—Poisoned Pen Press
Memorable Lines:
“Dot has a talent for being happy.”
Phryne didn’t believe in rigid routines. They robbed the day of spontaneity.
Her childhood had been so poor that Phryne still got a vague thrill when she turned on a tap and hot water came out.
How can New Mexico help its students?
Education in New Mexico has gone from bad to worse. Teachers and, more importantly, students are suffering from bad decisions made at the state level by the Governor and her Secretary of Education, a non educator, cheered on by administrators at the school district level who fear retaliation if they stand up to the system. Teachers, in turn, fear from certain retribution (i.e. loss of job through inexplicably bad evaluations or being blackballed), if they hold their ground. The sweet children just do what they are told and suffer through overtesting and curriculum taught in a lockstep, one size fits all manner, while administrators claim that the “data driven instruction” will help students achieve higher levels. No, but it certainly wipes out individual initiative, creativity, and a love of learning. Oh, but the students do become better test takers!
Senator Tom Udall asked for my support for early childhood education on Facebook. Below is my response:
Admission of Guilt–a teacher tries to make things better for his students, but…
Admission of Guilt
by T. V. LoCicero
Admission of Guilt by T.V. LoCicero is a page turning thriller set in a rapidly declining Detroit. There is no easing into this story. The author immediately sets up his reader with sympathetic characters and then hits those characters and the reader with the reality of inner city life–poverty, children selling drugs, devastating budget cuts to education, gang warfare, and mafia control of the drug trade. Characters include an out of work teacher, a social worker, a P.I. and members of the country club set.
The characters find themselves making life and death decisions with moral, economic, and personal ramifications, and the reader is confronted with the age-old question of “does the end justify the means?” I guarantee lots of twists and turns to the plot that you just won’t expect and a book you won’t want to put down.
Admission of Guilt is Book 2 in The detroit I’m dying Trilogy but can be read as a standalone.
I would like to extend my thanks to the author, T. V. LoCicero, for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery & Thriller
Notes: Warning–the language is not anywhere close to squeaky clean; it is appropriate for the characters in their culture and to change it would produce a dissonance between the characters and their reality.
Publication: Smashwords–2013
Memorable Lines:
Spring leaves, already withering, scratched and whispered in the few Dutch Elms still standing on this dark, working-class street. Birds chirped and chattered on the pre-dawn breeze, and a worn-out Plymouth whined slowly to a stop in front of one of these decrepit wood-framed flats. A smallish figure slipped out, ran to a big front porch, then darted back to the street.
The Bringer of Books and Smiles
Part teacher, part book lover, part entertainer–a true friend to homeless children!
For the last eight years, Colbert Nembhard has been bringing books (and smiles) to homeless children in The Bronx, New York.
Mr Nembhard, a librarian who’s been the manager of the Morrisania branch of the New York Public Library for 25 years, has been on a mission to making literacy a constant in their wandering and ever changing lives.
The New York Times reports:
“It’s a pleasure to come in here,” Mr. Nembhard began on that Wednesday, never removing his jacket during a presentation that was just short of a Mr. Rogers routine.
He began to sing, “Good morning to you,” and followed with “Wheels on the Bus.” The children joined in with a chorus of “round and round, round and round.”
Toddlers, fidgeting in their chairs or in their mothers’ arms, suddenly became fixated. They could not wait to flip open “Dear Zoo,” by Rod Campbell, a lift-a-flap book…
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The Sun is Also a Star–Cultures don’t have to clash
The Sun is Also a Star
by Nicola Yoon
The Sun is Also a Star is the story of two immigrant families, one Korean and one Jamaican. Legal Korean son meets illegal Jamaican daughter on her deportation day. Both struggle with their identity on a personal level and a cultural level. There are also major conflicts within each family.
Most of the account is told within the scope of one day, but telling this story necessitates side trips into family history to discover motivations. There are no chapter divisions. There are labelled breaks according to who is is narrating the story, Daniel or Natasha. Sometimes there are passages about minor characters or philosophy narrated in the third person. This layout is initially slightly troublesome without chapter divisions, but as you are immersed in the storyline you realize how well this format works for this story.
The plot is engaging, the characters well developed, and the various settings reflect the cultural clashes. Additionally there is an underlying and unifying theme exploring fate, coincidences, and multiple universes. If just one incident had occurred a little sooner or a little later, how would that have affected the rest of the day’s events? It’s enough of a foray into philosophy and religion to attract a teen/young adult reader questioning their place in the order of things.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Delacorte Press (Penguin Random House UK) for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
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Rating: 5/5
Category: Teen & YA Fiction/Romance
Notes: Mild Language
Publication: Delacorte Press (Penguin Random House)–November 1, 2016
Memorable Lines:
The impossible hungry mouth of her loneliness wanted to swallow her in a single piece.
“It’s not up to you to help other people fit you into a box.”
Sometimes your world shakes so hard, it’s difficult to imagine that everyone else isn’t feeling it too.
“This is the life you’re living. It’s not temporary and it’s not pretend and there’s no do over.”
Swing Time–review and reminder of book giveaway for The Other Einstein
Sunday, November 20, 2016 is the closing date for the drawing for a free copy of The Other Einstein. To enter, go back to the ORIGINAL GIVEAWAY POST. It’s easy to enter!
Swing Time
by Zadie Smith
Swing Time has been summarized in simplistic terms as the story of two dance-loving brown girls growing up in London. This friendship is actually only one part of a complicated story that extends from New York through London to West Africa and includes politics, religion, and a variety of cultures.
I was immediately drawn into the story as I read the Prologue. At that point I had other things to attend to and put the book away with regret thinking “if the Prologue is so engaging, the rest of the book must be fantastic.” And it was. Part of it. Unfortunately, it unintentionally reflected its title swinging back and forth from interesting to “let’s just move on through.”
Zadie Smith is undoubtedly a very good writer. For Swing Time she draws on her own Jamaican heritage as well as extensive research of West African culture. She also depicts the various social and cultural groups of London. She has interesting characters but she doesn’t always share a satisfactory motivation for their actions. Some of the characters, such as the never-named main character/narrator’s boss and her mother’s partner are important but are treated more as accessories to the story rather than fully developed personalities. I do not regret reading Swing Time, but I wouldn’t reread it.
Note: Language warning
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Penguin Random House UK for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rich parents demand CCSS and PARCC for their children–NOT!
“Democracy works best when we prepare students to be critical thinkers who are creative problem solvers and question authority–CCSS are preparing students to be obedient worker bees. Ask yourself why students at elite private schools aren’t being subjected to CCSS or PARCC testing? If these standards and tests are so essential to a great education, wealthy parents would be clamoring to have them for their own children. In fact, exactly the opposite is happening. CCSS and unfair, rigged exams like the PARCC are for the unwashed, undeserving poor and middle class.”
–Dr. Terri Reid-Schuster
PhD in developmental literacy
currently works as a reading specialist in Oregon, IL
What did we learn from standardized tests?
“Frankly, it never made any sense to argue that parents everywhere were hungering to compare their own child’s test score to children in other states. Maybe it is just me, but I never met a parent who said, “I’m desperate to know how my child’s test score compares to children in the same grade in Alaska and Maine and Florida. And to insist that having this information would somehow improve education or benefit students made no sense either. What we learn from standardized tests is that family income matters. Having the same test everywhere doesn’t change that fact. What if the same energy had gone into reducing poverty and segregation? We might have made a dent. Instead, our whole country is pointed to the wrong goals.”
—Diane Ravitch
education pathways 