Stuff That Interests Me

Letters and Tearooms

 Ten Illuminating Letters From Authors to Authors  

Tea rooms and Feminism 

A Mighty Girl--Book and film suggestions for girls of all ages:

Twelve Amazing Canadian Women--including Lucy Maud Montgomery, Margaret Atwood, and Buffy St. Marie.

Six Mighty Women Who Deserve a Film of Her Own:  Iday B. Wells, Eleanor Roosevelt, Maria Tallchief, Rachel Carson, Nancy Wake, and Wanagri Maathaie.

Beyond Harry Potter: 35 Fantsy Adventure Series Starring Mighty Girls

And on and on with so many girls and women, real and fictional.  

Picture Books

The Right Books at the Right Time

Why Picture Books Are So Important

books vs tv

Gaslighting

For those of us who love mysteries and psychological thrillers, this article is about gaslighting in psychology. There are actually a surprising number of articles about gaslighting, a fact that makes me a little uneasy.  

Gaslighting is one of the creepiest and most sinister forms of manipulation, and I can think of several novels that have made great use of the technique.   The first ones that came to mind:

The Breakdown by B.A. Harris
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Girl Before by J.P. Delaney

What are some of the novels you can think of that have included gaslighting?

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Every once in a while I go through links I've saved.  It is interesting to go through them again.  

A Merciful Truth by Kendra Elliot and Some Interesting Articles

Book #2 in this series.  Mercy Kirkpatrick's family, dominated by her father, has had mixed feelings about her return to the small town of Eagle's Nest.  Her sister Rose is the only one who is wholeheartedly happy for Mercy's return.

After the conclusion of the first book, Mercy took a position with the FBI office in Bend, Oregon to be closer to Eagle's Nest, Rose, and police chief Truman Daly.  Before he died, her brother Levi asked Mercy to take over the care of his daughter Kaylie, so she is also trying to find her feet in parenting a teenager.  

A series of fires, first thought to be the work of teenagers, turns into something more sinister.  An anti-government militia is forming in a secluded area, and Kaylie's boyfriend Cade works on construction at the ranch.  When Cade sees something he shouldn't, an already dangerous situation becomes even more menacing.

A Merciful Truth can be read as a standalone, but since it is only the second in the series, it is easy to begin with the first book for a more thorough background.  I have #3 in hand :)

Kindle Unlimited
Crime/Suspense.  2017.  Print length:  322 pages.  

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An Interview with Lyndsay Faye over at Kittling Books.

Book covers can make the difference on whether or not we give a book a chance.  This article gives examples of iconic dust covers from the 1920's and 1930's.  My, how covers have changed. 

The Year in Sherlockiana 

Interesting Bookish Articles

The Best Recent Crime Novels--review roundup  The only one I've read is The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths, which kept me uncertain the entire time.  I didn't  know whodunnit until the end.  Suspense and great literary allusions and an eerie Gothic vibe throughout.  

9 Ways of Looking at Sherlock.    Beyond helping us feel better about our own status as outsiders, Sherlock is also a figure that brings the whole mystery community together. Conan Doyle’s work has been appreciated by generations of crime and mystery fans, in a variety of ways specific to those generations and universal to fans through time. We decided, as the year draws to a close, to gather a variety of these interpretations of Sherlock together, to showcase the vast breadth of Sherlockian fandom. 

As a fan of any good Sherlock pastiche and of several of the authors of the various essays, I'm all over these.    :)

 Adding to the Espionage Canon.  Recommended fiction and nonfiction for the espionage genre.  I read and enjoyed Leo Marks' Between Silk and Cyanide:  A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945  several years ago and recently saw a reference to Marks in a biography of the SOE agent Odette Sansom.  Leo Marks' father owned 84 Charing Cross Road, the bookshop made famous by Helene Hanff.  

Interesting Article

What Does Immersing Yourself in a Book Do to Your Brain?

an excerpt from the article:
The unsettling reality, however, is that unbeknownst to many of us, including until recently myself, there has begun an unanticipated decline of empathy among our young people. The MIT scholar Sherry Turkle described a study by Sara Konrath and her research group at Stanford University that showed a 40 percent decline in empathy in our young people over the last two decades, with the most precipitous decline in the last ten years. Turkle attributes the loss of empathy largely to their inability to navigate the online world without losing track of their real-time, face-to-face relationships. In her view our technologies place us at a remove, which changes not only who we are as individuals but also who we are with one another.

and another excerpt:
These studies are the beginning of increasing work on the place of empathy and perspective taking in the neuroscience of literature. The cognitive scientist Keith Oatley, who studies the psychology of fiction, has demonstrated a strong relationship between reading fiction and the involvement of the cognitive processes known to underlie both empathy and theory of mind. Oatley and his York University colleague Raymond Mar suggest that the process of taking on another’s consciousness in reading fiction and the nature of fiction’s content—where the great emotions and conflicts of life are regularly played out—not only contribute to our empathy, but represent what the social scientist Frank Hakemulder called our “moral laboratory.” 

I don't think it comes as a surprise to most readers that reading and placing oneself in the role of another person, with all that entails, creates understanding from a perspective different from our own.  That it works on the brain, creating new networks shouldn't be a surprise, after all, athletes know that "imagining" their performances is as important as practice in producing a result.

I don't think that this decline is limited to young people, however.  Fear of  "the other" has risen in the last couple of years and fear often results in a lack of willingness to put ourselves in another's situation.  

However, it perhaps more incumbent than ever to choose books that are both interesting and thoughtful for our children and to encourage them as they grow to read books that will give them insight into lives that are quite different from their own.

Two Mysteries and Some Interesting Articles

The third in the Ravenwood Mystery series, A Record of Blood finally gives more of the background of Atticus Riot.  Each entry into this series has been stronger, not necessarily believable, but suspenseful and full of intriguing characters.

A missing corpse, a missing horse,  Bel goes missing, missing girls from Chinatown, and Atticus faces some of the memories missing since the murder of his friend and mentor.  Lots of missing going on.  

Another rollicking adventure.

Purchased.

Historical Mystery.  2017.  Print length:  523 pages.

If the title doesn't appeal to a Sherlock fan, then the authors might.  I read about this one on Verushka's Pop.Ed.Lit  when she reviewed the second book in the series.  As a dedicated fan of anything Sherlock, I needed to know more about Mycroft as a young man  and quickly downloaded Mycroft Holmes, the first book.  

Mycroft's role in the Sherlock novels is usually a cameo of a heavily built man with greater deductive powers than his younger brother.  The older Mycroft is physically inactive, but brilliant, and Sherlock says of his brother:  "Occasionally he is the British government [...] the most indispensable man in the country." 

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has long been a fan of Conan Doyle's great detective, and he and Anna Waterhouse began creating a background for the elder Holmes brother as a young man.   

A brief quote from the description:  Fresh out of Cambridge University, the young Mycroft Holmes is already making a name​ ​for himself in government, working for the Secretary of State for War. Yet this most British of civil servants has strong ties to the faraway island of Trinidad, the birthplace of his best friend, Cyrus Douglas, a man of African descent, and where his fiancée Georgiana Sutton was raised.

The plot is perhaps more complicated than necessary, but the friendship between the two main characters makes up for that.  There is also the promise of more to come in the adventures of Mycroft and Cyrus Douglas to keep me happy.   I'll be getting to the next book soon.  :)

Purchased.

Historical Mystery/Sherlock Homes Pastiche.  2015.  Print length:  336 pages.  

And Some Interesting Articles:

Best British Women Crime Writers  2018 edition  - Some of my favorites and some I haven't read.

100 Best Horror Stories  (I've read 24--which means I have a long way to go)

How Important Are Libraries?  Are they on the decline, no longer useful?  Of course, libraries have been so important to me over the years that they are one of the things I'm happy to pay taxes for.

From the Ashes and A Bitter Draught

From the Ashes by Sabrina Flynn.  Ravenwood Mysteries #1.

From description:  Atticus Riot took a bullet to his head the day his partner was killed. Three years later, Riot returns to San Francisco to put his ghosts to rest, but the abduction of an heiress snags his attention. Two ransom demands are delivered, and the husband of the abducted Isobel Kingston is hiding the truth.

The clock is ticking. Can Riot find Mrs Kingston in time, or will she become one more regret among many?


The first chapter left me divided about continuing, but then the introduction of Isobel/Bel hooked me completely.  As I read, I found myself wondering if Flynn intended the book to be about Atticus Riot, but fell in love with the socially incorrigible Bel.  For me, the book began with the unpredictable Bel and her kick-ass personality.  

A rollicking Victorian mystery set in San Francisco.  Not perfect, I knit-picked about half a dozen things, but still enjoyed it immensely and went on to the next book.  

Free with Kindle Unlimited.

Historical mystery.  2014.  Print length:  270 pages.

A Bitter Draft continues the adventures of the Ravenwood Detective Agency, Atticus Riot, Bel, Tim, and others.

Bel reinvents herself as a reporter and a member of the Ravenwood Detective Agency and her twin brother Lotario emerges in a larger secondary role.  Oh, the gender-bending--Bel masquerades as a man at times, and Lotario as a woman.  

The plot involves Riot and Bel working together to solve a number of "suicides."

I can't say these books are believable; they are pretty far-fetched.  On the other hand, they both kept me interested in the plots and the characters.  A small cast of secondary characters like Tim, Miss Lily, Tobias, and Grim make a likable group of supporters for the two main characters.  And Lotario?  Well, he's certainly a law unto himself.  Or herself.

The books are like gobbling Halloween candy.  I know a thing or two about that.  :)

Kindle Unlimited.

Historical mystery.   2015.  Print length:  377 pages.

----------- Interesting Articles -----------

Sherry Thomas (author of the Lady Sherlock series) on Crafting the Perfect Sherlock Holmes Pastiche.

What Does Immersing Yourself in a Book Do to Your Brain?  

------------ Halloween ------------

A tipsy goblin drinking Viper Venom

Interesting Articles

On banned books.  I've read 6/10.  I tried Ulysses, but gave up, and nothing has made me want to try again. 

On conversation.  I watched the following Ted Talk a year or so ago, but someone referenced it recently, and I watched again.  Everyone is doing more "talking at" than "talking with" these days.  I'm often guilty.



 On Craig Johnson.  As a long time fan of the Longmire series, I'm looking forward to Depth of Winter. 

On Crime Reads.  Several of these have caught my interest!

Mazes and Labyrinths

Mazes and labyrinths have such mystery attached to them--from the fear of being lost and confused in a maze...

 Source

 to the meditative process of walking a labyrinth as a spiritual exercise.  

Source

I found this article that examines the way writers use the concept:  Myths, Monsters, and the Maze: How Writers Fell in Love with the Labyrinth.  You have to scroll way down to get to the parts that interested me, but it begins with a gift from a guide in Knossos (Mrs. Grammatiki) to a little girl (the author, Charlotte Higgins) and how years later, the guide and the grown woman began a fascinating correspondence about mazes and authors.  

I didn't realize the etymology of the word clue.

"The Minotaur’s lair in Chaucer’s The Legend of Good Women is “crinkled to and fro”, and “shapen as the mase is wroght”. To find his way through it, Theseus must use the “clewe of twyne” that Ariadne gives him. The word “clewe” derives from Old English cliwen or cleowen, meaning a rounded mass, or a ball of thread. Eventually it became our word “clue”. It lost its material significance, and retained only its metaphorical meaning. But still, there it is, hidden but present: the clewe is in the clue (and the clue is in the clewe). Every step towards solving a mystery, or a crime, or a puzzle, or the riddle of the self, is a length of yarn tossed us by the helping hand of Ariadne."


There is an interesting discussion of Stanley Kubric's The Shining and the three mazes:  the hedge, the model, and the hotel itself...and young Danny as a Labyrinth walker.  

The correspondence between Charlotte Higgins and Mrs. Grammatiki began with letters and then became emails:

In her last email to me, Mrs Grammatiki wrote this: “I sometimes imagine that Daedalus, when he designed his labyrinth, must have re-created the ridges and convoluted folds of his own brain in the form of a building, as if it were a self-portrait. Do you not find that an image of the human brain resembles a labyrinth? And if Daedalus’s labyrinth is a diagram of the brain, it is therefore also a symbol of the imagination. It represents the manner in which humans make associations, one thought following another in a long procession, from the edge to the centre to the end. Stories have this comfort to them: they have a beginning and an end. They find a way out of the labyrinth.”

 How I love the idea of the brain as a labyrinth!