Karen
This murder mystery set in a upper class girl's school in Dublin has a poignant portrayal of friendship and solidarity among a group of four girls as they navigate high school and teenage social pressures together. Although they are at an all girls' school, the corresponding all boys' high school is right next door and they interact with the boys regularly. When one of the students from the boys school turns up dead on the grounds of the girls' school and the police fail to find the murderer, it leaves everyone at the school uneasy. This story starts when one of the girls brings a postcard that announces "I know who killed Chris Harper," which she found posted in her school, to an ambitious detective in the Cold Case division of the police. The framing of the story is that this Cold Case detective brings the postcard to the detective in the Murder division who was in charge of the case when it first was investigated and the two of them revive the investigation.
The investigation aspect of the story was the least compelling to me. I really wasn't interested in the dynamics between the two detectives, and I found it hard to swallow the idea that the entire investigation portrayed in the book took place over the course of one long day. But I truly enjoyed the part of the book that focused on the friendship between the girls, and the hostilities with a rival group headed by their archnemesis Joanne. If Tana French had left the cops out of it and let the girls figure it all out amongst themselves, The Secret Place might have been really interesting. As it was, it was a pretty good mystery.
This murder mystery set in a upper class girl's school in Dublin has a poignant portrayal of friendship and solidarity among a group of four girls as they navigate high school and teenage social pressures together. Although they are at an all girls' school, the corresponding all boys' high school is right next door and they interact with the boys regularly. When one of the students from the boys school turns up dead on the grounds of the girls' school and the police fail to find the murderer, it leaves everyone at the school uneasy. This story starts when one of the girls brings a postcard that announces "I know who killed Chris Harper," which she found posted in her school, to an ambitious detective in the Cold Case division of the police. The framing of the story is that this Cold Case detective brings the postcard to the detective in the Murder division who was in charge of the case when it first was investigated and the two of them revive the investigation.
The investigation aspect of the story was the least compelling to me. I really wasn't interested in the dynamics between the two detectives, and I found it hard to swallow the idea that the entire investigation portrayed in the book took place over the course of one long day. But I truly enjoyed the part of the book that focused on the friendship between the girls, and the hostilities with a rival group headed by their archnemesis Joanne. If Tana French had left the cops out of it and let the girls figure it all out amongst themselves, The Secret Place might have been really interesting. As it was, it was a pretty good mystery.
I was a fan of Alison Bechdel's comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For back in the early 90s, but this is my first book length Bechdel. I liked it! This is at once a memoir and analysis of Bechdel's relationship with her mother from childhood to the present and a mini course on the life and psychological theories of D. W. Winnicott, who is known for his insights into children's psychological development.
Bechdel is open about her struggles with not feeling loved and valued by her mother (or, secondarily, by anyone else), depicting herself in therapy sessions, in conversations with her mom where she looks for affirmation and doesn't receive it, and in relationships with women who are ambivalent about committing to her. Her use of WInnicott's theories to analyze what might have been going on between her and her mother is a little technical and dry for someone not used to reading psychology texts, but her illustrations and the bits of information about Winnicott's life that she provides helped me through. Virginia Woolf and her novel To the Lighthouse also figure in this book. My favorite parts were when the text of the comic was about something from Winnicott or To the Lighthouse, but the illustration showed Bechdel and her mother having an interaction.
Overall, I'd recommend this if you already like Alison Bechdel or if you struggle with your relationship with your mom. Either way, it's insightful, compassionate, and the illustrations are great.
I was a fan of Alison Bechdel's comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For back in the early 90s, but this is my first book length Bechdel. I liked it! This is at once a memoir and analysis of Bechdel's relationship with her mother from childhood to the present and a mini course on the life and psychological theories of D. W. Winnicott, who is known for his insights into children's psychological development.
Bechdel is open about her struggles with not feeling loved and valued by her mother (or, secondarily, by anyone else), depicting herself in therapy sessions, in conversations with her mom where she looks for affirmation and doesn't receive it, and in relationships with women who are ambivalent about committing to her. Her use of WInnicott's theories to analyze what might have been going on between her and her mother is a little technical and dry for someone not used to reading psychology texts, but her illustrations and the bits of information about Winnicott's life that she provides helped me through. Virginia Woolf and her novel To the Lighthouse also figure in this book. My favorite parts were when the text of the comic was about something from Winnicott or To the Lighthouse, but the illustration showed Bechdel and her mother having an interaction.
Overall, I'd recommend this if you already like Alison Bechdel or if you struggle with your relationship with your mom. Either way, it's insightful, compassionate, and the illustrations are great.
Marx for Cats
Almost 300 pages into this book, author Leigh Clare La Berge describes Carl Van Vechten's 1920 book The Tiger in the House with this sentence: "Indeed, the reader can never be entirely sure whether she is reading a proper academic study or a farce." I might describe La Berge's book the same way. In Van Vechten's case, La Berge cites the lack of politics in the book that takes away from its gravitas. In La Berge's case, it isn't a lack of politics that causes the confusion, but the inclusion of puns, playful metaphors, and a distinct sense throughout the book that the author had a twinkle in her eye as she wrote it. In fact, I feel sure that she wrote the sentence above knowing that it applied to her book as well.
Ostensibly about the way that cats have served as symbols for different elements or forces in political life from feudal times to the present, the book also asks whether Marxism can expand to include non-human animals in its scope. The style is academic, but also a bit mischievous, and includes tiger's leaps of imagination. Nerdy fun for left leaning animal lovers.
Almost 300 pages into this book, author Leigh Clare La Berge describes Carl Van Vechten's 1920 book The Tiger in the House with this sentence: "Indeed, the reader can never be entirely sure whether she is reading a proper academic study or a farce." I might describe La Berge's book the same way. In Van Vechten's case, La Berge cites the lack of politics in the book that takes away from its gravitas. In La Berge's case, it isn't a lack of politics that causes the confusion, but the inclusion of puns, playful metaphors, and a distinct sense throughout the book that the author had a twinkle in her eye as she wrote it. In fact, I feel sure that she wrote the sentence above knowing that it applied to her book as well.
Ostensibly about the way that cats have served as symbols for different elements or forces in political life from feudal times to the present, the book also asks whether Marxism can expand to include non-human animals in its scope. The style is academic, but also a bit mischievous, and includes tiger's leaps of imagination. Nerdy fun for left leaning animal lovers.
This story of a schoolgirl friendship that grows complicated in cultural revolution era China is short, but powerful. The difficulty of retaining your humanity in a totalitarian society is a major theme.
This story of a schoolgirl friendship that grows complicated in cultural revolution era China is short, but powerful. The difficulty of retaining your humanity in a totalitarian society is a major theme.
An accessible book which attempts to establish which of the Mary stories in the four canonical Gospels are about Mary Magdalene, based on biblical evidence, and then interprets the significance of those stories for people in the modern world. I read this book just at Easter, so the story of Mary Magdalene at the tomb was fresh in my mind. I find methods of interpreting ancient texts fascinating, so this topic was interesting to me. Dr. McNutt doesn't think the "woman taken in adultery" or the sinful woman washing Jesus's feet and wiping them with her hair are Mary Magdalene, and offers compelling arguments to support her case. I'd love to see the best arguments on the other side. It's hard to imagine that they would measure up.
An accessible book which attempts to establish which of the Mary stories in the four canonical Gospels are about Mary Magdalene, based on biblical evidence, and then interprets the significance of those stories for people in the modern world. I read this book just at Easter, so the story of Mary Magdalene at the tomb was fresh in my mind. I find methods of interpreting ancient texts fascinating, so this topic was interesting to me. Dr. McNutt doesn't think the "woman taken in adultery" or the sinful woman washing Jesus's feet and wiping them with her hair are Mary Magdalene, and offers compelling arguments to support her case. I'd love to see the best arguments on the other side. It's hard to imagine that they would measure up.
Stories based on Tim O'Brien's service in the Vietnam War. Difficult to read, but so beautifully written. In our book club discussion, we pondered how many of these stories were likely to be factually true vs. conveying the truth of the experience of being an American soldier in the Vietnam war.
Stories based on Tim O'Brien's service in the Vietnam War. Difficult to read, but so beautifully written. In our book club discussion, we pondered how many of these stories were likely to be factually true vs. conveying the truth of the experience of being an American soldier in the Vietnam war.
A Legacy of Spies revisits the events of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold from the perspective of Peter Guillam, who is called in from retirement when the Circus is sued by the son of Alec Leamas. Guillam revisits documents from the operation and tells the investigating lawyers (some of) his part of the story. The gloomy atmosphere of shabbiness, moral ambiguity, and futility that is present in le Carre novels is in full force here, except, strangely, when George Smiley finally enters the scene.
A Legacy of Spies revisits the events of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold from the perspective of Peter Guillam, who is called in from retirement when the Circus is sued by the son of Alec Leamas. Guillam revisits documents from the operation and tells the investigating lawyers (some of) his part of the story. The gloomy atmosphere of shabbiness, moral ambiguity, and futility that is present in le Carre novels is in full force here, except, strangely, when George Smiley finally enters the scene.
This is the second Kurt Wallander mystery I've read, and it's #2 in a series. The first one I read was #3 in the series, so I'm going backwards in Wallander's life. In this book he is something of a sad sack, drinking too much, thinking about getting out of the police force and taking a job as a security guard, wondering why he puts so much of himself into his work only to get frustration and health problems out of it. While he's in this emotional morass, two dead men in a red life raft wash up on shore and an investigation begins that eventually sends him to Riga, Latvia. At this time, Latvia is still a totalitarian society under the control of the Soviet Union. His movements are watched, and he suspects that the police who are hosting him, who he is supposed to be assisting, are actually in on the crime.
This is a nice, moody mystery of the Cold War era.
This is the second Kurt Wallander mystery I've read, and it's #2 in a series. The first one I read was #3 in the series, so I'm going backwards in Wallander's life. In this book he is something of a sad sack, drinking too much, thinking about getting out of the police force and taking a job as a security guard, wondering why he puts so much of himself into his work only to get frustration and health problems out of it. While he's in this emotional morass, two dead men in a red life raft wash up on shore and an investigation begins that eventually sends him to Riga, Latvia. At this time, Latvia is still a totalitarian society under the control of the Soviet Union. His movements are watched, and he suspects that the police who are hosting him, who he is supposed to be assisting, are actually in on the crime.
This is a nice, moody mystery of the Cold War era.