Library post

Ooo oo oo. I went to the library & there were 5 books waiting for me. It was like Christmas!!!
What was I thinking to reserve all those books?

The God of the Hive, Laurie R. King

I don't believe I have written a review for all of the previous nine Mary Russell stories, but I know I have enjoyed them all. Some I have enjoyed more than others, some less. I remember when the last story ended it was not finished. This story finishes the last.

And I remember wishing that story had finished before it ended. So I was really looking forward to this new novel.

I think I enjoyed this as much as I did some of the early ones, better than some of the middle ones. I really enjoyed the character detail of Mycroft, this mysterious brother to Sherlock that has never really been delved into in the previous books. As in the last one I have enjoyed learning more about Sherlock & his son and the intricate details of his sons life and how it has evolved.

Telling Memories Among Southern Women, Susan Tucker

The Help brought me to this book. An edited collection of first person stories from both the black and white sides of the southern experience of life with domestic servants.

Like life in general this book was full of every imaginary take on domestic servility. Servants that hated white employers, were approached or molested by their white male employers, whites who didn't see anything wrong with the frighteningly low wages paid to servants, didn't see the truth that the servants felt obligated to agree to anything their white employers suggested, the trap that this whole position was. I find the explanations for the white employers ignorance of the black servants situations revealing and completely understandable. I can see how some white employers would have to live in ignorance, if only to be able to live with themselves.

This reminds me of the book American Pictures by Jacob Holdt. In his travels through the southern United States in the same time frame that these interviews were taken, Mr. Holdt found what he thought of as remnants of the Master/Slave environment. He found whites with serious alcohol problems and little soul, blacks with problems getting ahead, as if they didn't know how to grow or change with the times.

Both books wrote of changes and over twenty years has passed since both transpired, plus I lived in the deep south for ten years and witnessed a different world. I expect that times have changed for both groups by now but it is extremely interesting to read these edited first person accounts of life as they knew it. A little bit of history is always a good thing and so very important to our future as healthy human beings. I wish everyone could read both of these books and learn of a better way to live and think. I wish all of us could be forced to address our inner bigots.

The Help, Kathryn Stockett

This was recommended as a nice easy summer read and I have to say that it was. The story drew me in quickly. The personal account of domestic servants in the south was so moving. I have read similar stories in the past that touched on the lives that servants lived in the south but I don't think I have ever read one that seemed so complete.

It was heart renching to read of the love and caring that the servants had to supress for the children they raised, the hurt they had to live with when the children turned into bigoted tyrants like their parents.

I wanted more, I neede more. So I read the next....

The Alienist, Caleb Carr

This was first recommended to me a few years ago by my friend G, then I picked this up from a friend about six months ago. I really really enjoyed this novel. It seemed to be a mystery/historical novel. It covers the profiling and search for a serial murder around the turn of the century.

Theodore Roosevelt is police commissioner, trying to clean up New York City's polie regiments but with a mind that was open to trying new detective methodsHe allows a secret group to form a search for the killer of several children in New York City.

Reading this was like watching Law & Order, CSI or NCIS, of which I enjoy. I enjoy a story with twists and turns, that keeps my on my toes and keeps me questioning what is going on and when the various sub plots are going to come together.

Hoarders among us.

Homer and Langley, E. L. Doctorow



A historical fiction of the infamously hoarding Collyer brothers of New york City, I found this story a bit melancholy in nature.

Based on the true story of Homer and Langley Collyer this gives a possible first person narrative of these men who were both found dead in their Harlem home, Langley after several days search.

In this story Homer speaks of his life and involvement with his collecting brother Langley. While both are described as anti social and anti establishment, Homer is presented as a follower in his brothers fancies.

This was beautifully, if not hauntingly written. I hurt for the blind Homer's being drawn along with and into his brother's madness. I found myself reminded of my maternal aunt's hoarding and fearful that I could become like a Collyer.

In life the character's were a bit different, I was compelled to find out more about the two & the true story as it is known is a bit different although no less moving or sad. Langley was found in a tunnel of his own making, having been crushed to death by his own created booby trap, 8 - 10 feet from where his brother was found, paralyzed, malnourished and dead. It took days for police and firemen to find Langley hidden underneath his own collections.

Voyeurism at it's best!

Why do I find myself attracted to the screwed up lives of celebrities, especially musicians? Fall to Pieces by Mary Forsberg-Weiland, helped me fulfill this sordid attraction to famous drug addicts. I suppose there's something to my attraction to the screwed up men, yes, I'm one of those which is why I married "out of type", I have at least acknowledged that my "type" is very, very bad for me.

I remember in the nineties when Stone Temple Pilots were recording in Atlanta. Many of my friends thought STP sucked but I have always liked Scott Weiland's voice & thought it was very cool that he was hanging out at my bar when they were in town. He was playing eye contact with my friend one night when he suddenly disappeared. Later she was waiting for the bathroom line, which was always a long wait on a busy night but was particularly long this night, when he came crashing out of the bathroom, pin holed eyes, crazy looking and grabbed at her. This was the last attraction for her, she was scared & left the bar shortly after.

This same week it turns out that he turned my friends sister onto shooting heroin. She had been snorting it but didn't shoot until he came to town. She's dead now, she ended her life with a shot to the head. My friend had to identify the body, a gruesome thing for him to do. He will always blame Scott Weiland for this, although I'm not sure he is entirely to blame.

So reading this autobiography was a step back in time in a way. It was also a filler for what I figured was happening in the life of this rock star. Mary Forsberg-Weiland had a love affair with Scott Weiland for years, whether consummated or not. Scott Weiland was married to someone else for many of these years yet Mary loved him anyway.

Like Scar Tissue, Anthony Kiedis' autobiography of his life with drugs, I believe this was written to set the record straight, for redemption & even for money I'm sure. For me it was just an easy read, fulfilling my voyeuristic tendencies reminding me that life could be so much worse and making me thankful that I can at least see now that my type is such a bad idea.

If you're into biographies I would recommend this as an easy read, simply written.