The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde

Oldest Book on TBR

Another fun romp through the weird nursery rhyme, folk-lore world created by Jasper Fforde. I'm bummed this was the second and last of this series. A third book was referenced, but to date it has not been published.

There were times I got a little lost in some of the complexity of the scientific explanations of, well, I won't spoil it for you. I found I just didn't let myself get bogged down in trying to wrap my head around it. I instead enjoyed meeting old and new nursery rhyme friends - the 3 bears, the Gingerbreadman, great-long-red-legged-scissor-man.

I feel like I could return to the Thursday Next series and give them another go.

Summary from Goodreads: The Gingerbreadman—psychopath, sadist, genius, and killer—is on the loose. But it isn’t Jack Spratt’s case. He and Mary Mary have been demoted to Missing Persons. Missing Persons looks like a boring assignment until a chance encounter leads them into the hunt for missing journalist Henrietta “Goldy” Hatchett, star reporter for The Daily Mole. Last to see her alive? The Three Bears, comfortably living out a life of rural solitude in Andersen’s wood.

Quotes:"She didn't have any children of her own - unless you counted her collection of ex-boyfriends"

"...because punishment and incarceration are but aspects of the penal system. We live in a society that values revenge, revenge for the victims and their families."

"Prejudice is a product of ignorance that hides behind barriers of tradition."

Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

Believed to be Shakespeare's first work, the narrative poem, Venus and Adonis was also one of his most popular works of the time. He wrote it in 1593 during the the plague in London. Ironically, I read it in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shakespeare modeled his poem after a portion of the epic poem, Metamorphoses by Ovid. Though, Shakespeare puts his own twist on it and instead of Venus and Adonis being lovers as Ovid depicts, Shakespeare has Venus (Goddess of love and sexual desire) relentlessly pursue Adonis (good-looking human) who disses her - What? Who disses a Goddess?

Venus pins down Adonis and tries to kiss him:

"But when her lips were ready for his pay,

He winks and turns his lips another way."

Venus exclaims that all men, even Gods desire her and cannot understand why Adonis wants nothing to do with her:

"Were I hard-favoured, foul or winkled-old,

Ill-nurtured, crooked, churlish, harsh in voice,

O'erworn, despised, rheumatic and cold,

Thick-sighted, barren, lean and lacking juice,

Then mightst thou pause, for then I were not for thee,

But having no defects, why dost abhor me?"

And she tries to convince him that they are meant to "get it on", come on baby, its nature, its procreation:

"Torches are made to light, jewels to wear,

Dainties to taste, fresh beauty for the use,

Herbs for their smell and sappy plants to bear,

Things growing to themselves are growth's abuse:

Seeds spring from seeds and beauty breedeth beauty.

Thou was begot: to get it is thy duty.

***

By law of nature though art bound to breed,

That thine may live when thou thyself art dead:

And so, in spite of death, thou dost survive,

In that thy likeness still is left alive."

To which Adonis responds:

"Fie, no more of love!

The sun doth burn my face. I must remove."

Venus berates him:

"Fie, lifeless picture, cold and senseless stone,

Well-painted idol, image dull and dead,...

Thou art no man, though of a man's complexion,

For men will kiss even by their own direction."

Adonis cannot be swayed, and then Venus swoons and faints and Adonis, thinking he may have killed her, tries to revive her:

"He wrings her nose, he strikes her on the cheeks,

He bends her fingers, hold her pulses hard,

He chafes her lips: a thousand ways he seeks

To mend the hurt that his unkindness marred.

He kisses her and she, by her good will,

Will never rise, so he will kiss her still."

And she comes to! Adonis tells her its getting late and he must go, and she begs him for one last kiss, which when he does she jumps him. He tries to break away telling her he will not see her again because he is going boar hunting with his buddies tomorrow and she is confusing love with lust.

"Fie, fie!...You crush me! Let me go!

You have no reason to withhold me so.

***

Call it not love, for love to heaven is fled,

Since sweating lust on earth usurped his name,...

Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,

But lust's effect is tempest after sun:

Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain,

Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done:

Love surfeits not, lust like a glutton dies:

Love is all truth, lust full of forged lies."

Adonis does go boar hunting, and is gored to death by the boar, where Venus finds him and his distraught and yells out to Death:

"Grim-grinning ghost, earth's worm..."

and puts a curse on Love:

"Since thou art dead, lo, here I prophesy

Sorrow on love hereafter shall attend:

It shall be waited on with jealousy,

Find sweet beginning but unsavoury end,

Ne'er settled equally, but high or low,

That all love's pleasure shall not match his woe.

It shall be fickle, false and full of fraud,

Bud and be blasted in a breathing while,

The bottom poison and the top o'erstrawed

With sweets that shall the truest sight beguile:

The strongest body shall it make most weak,

Strike the wise dumb and teach the fool to speak."

   A Study in Death - Anna Lee Huber
                      series

I really enjoy this series,this is the 4th one. It  reminds me of reading Mary Stuart and Victoria Holt years ago.   Wonderful Gothic suspense novels with strong women.

Goodreads::

Scotland, 1831. After a tumultuous courtship complicated by three deadly inquiries, Lady Kiera Darby is thrilled to have found both an investigative partner and a fiancé in Sebastian Gage. But with her well-meaning—and very pregnant—sister planning on making their wedding the event of the season, Kiera could use a respite from the impending madness.
 
Commissioned to paint the portrait of Lady Drummond, Kiera is saddened when she recognizes the pain in the baroness’s eyes. Lord Drummond is a brute, and his brusque treatment of his wife forces Kiera to think of the torment caused by her own late husband.
 
Kiera isn’t sure how to help, but when she finds Lady Drummond prostrate on the floor, things take a fatal turn. The physician called to the house and Lord Drummond appear satisfied to rule her death natural, but Kiera is convinced that poison is the real culprit.

Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin

Once Upon a Book Club - June 2019
Debut

"...it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single Muslim man must be in want of a wife..."

Can you tell what classic retelling this is??

While a contemporary romance is not my genre of choice, this was a fun read. I enjoyed the Muslim take on a classic novel (its been years since I've read the original!); I enjoyed being exposed to diversity in reading. This is Jalaluddin's debut novel and I look forward to future writings by her!

Summary from Goodreads: Ayesha Shamsi has a lot going on. Her dreams of being a poet have been set aside for a teaching job so she can pay off her debts to her wealthy uncle. She lives with her boisterous Muslim family and is always being reminded that her flighty younger cousin, Hafsa, is close to rejecting her one hundredth marriage proposal. Though Ayesha is lonely, she doesn't want an arranged marriage. Then she meets Khalid, who is just as smart and handsome as he is conservative and judgmental. She is irritatingly attracted to someone who looks down on her choices and who dresses like he belongs in the seventh century.

When a surprise engagement is announced between Khalid and Hafsa, Ayesha is torn between how she feels about the straightforward Khalid and the unsettling new gossip she hears about his family. Looking into the rumors, she finds she has to deal with not only what she discovers about Khalid, but also the truth she realizes about herself.
Quotes: "'I would rather you stay single for the rest of your life than quote that fool poet [Shakespeare] and think the world is a comedy when it always turns out to be a tragedy.'"

"'A woman plays many roles in her life, and she must learn to accept them as they come. Men are not so flexible'"

"'Just remember to pack light. Dreams tend to shatter if you're carrying other people's hopes around with you.'"

  The Woman in the Water - Charles Finch
                New Author

I have found a new series to pursue.  Just what I need.,  Not really!!!

Charles Lenox is an aristocrat in London, 1850.   He really wants to be a detective and this is his first case,  that of 2 murdered woman.  He needs to show the new Scotland Yard that he is up to the task.

Goodreads::This chilling new mystery in the USA Today bestselling series by Charles Finch takes readers back to Charles Lenox's very first case and the ruthless serial killer who would set him on the course to become one of London's most brilliant detectives.

London, 1850: A young Charles Lenox struggles to make a name for himself as a detective...without a single case. Scotland Yard refuses to take him seriously and his friends deride him for attempting a profession at all. But when an anonymous writer sends a letter to the paper claiming to have committed the perfect crime--and promising to kill again--Lenox is convinced that this is his chance to prove himself. 

King Richard II by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

Ah, more Royals, more plotting, more overthrowing.

King Richard II didn't hold my interest as well, I'm not sure if its because I'm tired of the drama of the royals or because Richard was so entitled and so wishy-washy.

When he learns his army has deserted him in the face of a rebellion he loses all hope and tries to deny his prior entitled royal actions (improper taxation to citizens, improper seizing of others' property/money); someone tells him to not be such a cry baby and "man up" until someone else tells him that his allies have been executed and then he gives up completely.

Act III, Scene 2

King Richard:...For God's sake let us sit upon the ground

And tell sad stories of the death of kings:

***

For you have but mistook me all this while.

I live with bread like you, feel want,

Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus,

How can you say to me I am a king?

Carlisle: My lord, wise men ne'er sit and wail their woes,

But presently prevent the ways to wail.

King Richard: Thou child'st me well...

This ague fit of fear is over-blown;

An easy task it is to win our own.

***

Go to Flint Castle; there I'll pine away;

A king, woe's slave, shall kingly woe obey.

That power I have, discharged; and let them go...

Then you have the Dukes and Lords going at it with a gage-throwing (gloves or hoods) fit - even having to borrow some when they've thrown down all they own:

Bagot: My Lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue

Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver'd.

Aumerle: What answer shall I make to this base man?...

With the attainder of his slanderous lips.

Fitzwater: If thou deniest it twenty times, thou liest;

And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart,

Where it was forged, with my rapier's point.

Aumerle: Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this.

Percy: Aumerle, thou liest; his honour is as true

In this appeal as thou art all unjust;

Surrey: As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true.

Fitzwater: Surrey, thou liest.

Surrey: Dishonorable boy!

That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword

That it shall render vengeance and revenge...

Fitzwater: ...As I intend to thrive in this new world,

Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal.

Aumerle: Some honest Christian trust me with a gage

That Norfolk lies....

I probably liked old man John of Gaunt best. When he tried to tell his son to look on the brighter side of his ten year banishment:

Gaunt:...or suppose

Devouring pestilence hangs in our air

And thou art flying to a fresher clime....

Suppose the singing birds musicians,

The grass whereon thou tread'st the presence strew'd,

The flowers fair ladies, and thy steps no more 

Than a delightful measure or a dance;

For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite

The man that mocks at it and sets it light.

Or when he's dying and gives a famous love of England speech:

Gaunt:  Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain;

For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain

He that no more must say is listen'd more

Than they whom youth and ease have taught to glose;

More are men's ends mark'd than their lives before.

The setting sun, and music at the close...

***

This royal throne of kings, this scept'red isle

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

This other Eden, demi-paradise,

This fortress built by Nature for herself

Against infection and the hand of war,

This happy breed of men, this little world,

This precious stone set in the silver sea,

Which serves it in the office of a wall,

Or as a moat of defensive to a house,

Against the envy of less happier lands;

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England....

This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,

Dear for her reputation through the world...

And to end with some words of warning from the deposed King Richard:

Richard: The love of wicked men converts to fear;

That fear to hate; and hate turns one or both

To worthy danger and deserved death.

The Library of Lost and Found - Phaedra Patrick
               Newest on TBR

#2020Key word Challenge - April

We all need to learn to be kind to ourselves and that we are responsible for our own happiness.  We must also learn to let the past go.. 

Martha does everything for everyone else.  For years she has done this, never putting herself or her needs ahead of others.

When a mysterious book shows up for her at the library, she begins to question her memories and her past. .  Cute story and quirky characters.  I would love to go to Martha's library and visit with them all.

Goodreads summary::

Librarian Martha Storm has always found it easier to connect with books than people--though not for lack of trying. She keeps careful lists of how to help others in her superhero-themed notebook. And yet, sometimes it feels like she's invisible.

All of that changes when a book of fairy tales arrives on her doorstep. Inside, Martha finds a dedication written to her by her best friend--her grandmother Zelda--who died under mysterious circumstances years earlier. When Martha discovers a clue within the book that her grandmother may still be alive, she becomes determined to discover the truth. As she delves deeper into Zelda's past, she unwittingly reveals a family secret that will change her life forever.

Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen

2020 Key Word Challenge - April (Lost, Below, City, Jewel, Night, My)
Guilty Pleasure

Sarah Addison Allen weaves mystical tales with characters you wish you could know and places you wish you could visit. While for me some of the romance in this one was a bit hokey, it didn't take away from the enjoyable story as a whole.

Summary from Goodreads: ...a beautiful, haunting story of old loves and new, and the power of the connections that bind us forever...

The first time Eby Pim saw Lost Lake, it was on a picture postcard. Just an old photo and a few words on a small square of heavy stock, but when she saw it, she knew she was seeing her future.

That was half a life ago. Now Lost Lake is about to slip into Eby's past. Her husband George is long passed. Most of her demanding extended family are gone. All that's left is a once-charming collection of lakeside cabins succumbing to the Southern Georgia heat and damp, and an assortment of faithful misfits drawn back to Lost Lake year after year by their own unspoken dreams and desires.

Lost Lake is where Kate Pheris spent her last best summer at the age of twelve, before she learned of loneliness, and heartbreak, and loss. Now she's all too familiar with those things, but she knows about hope too, thanks to her resilient daughter Devin, and her own willingness to start moving forward. Perhaps at Lost Lake her little girl can cling to her own childhood for just a little longer... and maybe Kate herself can rediscover something that slipped through her fingers so long ago.

One after another, people find their way to Lost Lake, looking for something that they weren't sure they needed in the first place: love, closure, a second chance, peace, a mystery solved, a heart mended. Can they find what they need before it's too late?

Quotes:"...felt sorry for him, the way she'd always felt sorry for those who had everything and it still wasn't enough."

"'Magic is what we invent when we want something we think we can't have....'"

"'...relying on one person for your every need is so dangerous.'"

"When your cup is empty, you do not mourn what is gone. Because if you do, you will miss the opportunity to fill it again."

A Brush with Shadows by Anna Lee Huber

Series

Another whodunit with one of my favorite sleuthing couples: Lady Darby and Sebastian Gage. This one takes place in the English moors and gives a glimpse into Gage's troubled family past.

Summary from Goodreads: July 1831. It's been fifteen years since Sebastian Gage has set foot in Langstone Manor. Though he has shared little with his wife, Lady Kiera Darby, about his past, she knows that he planned never to return to the place of so many unhappy childhood memories. But when an urgent letter from his grandfather reaches them in Dublin, Ireland, and begs Gage to visit, Kiera convinces him to go.

All is not well at Langstone Manor. Gage's grandfather, the Viscount Tavistock, is gravely ill, and Gage's cousin Alfred has suddenly vanished. He wandered out into the moors and never returned. The Viscount is convinced someone or something other than the natural hazards of the moors is to blame for Alfred's disappearance. And when Alfred's brother Rory goes missing, Kiera and Gage must concede he may be right. Now, they must face the ghosts of Gage's past, discover the truth behind the local superstitions, and see beyond the tricks being played by their very own eyes to expose what has happened to Gage's family before the moors claim yet another victim.

Quotes: "'She has a mind of her own, Grandfather.'
'Well, whose fault is that?'
'God'"

"...there is usually more to a person than one first assumed. That every action, good or bad, could be motivated by something opposite."

   Remembrance - Rita Woods
                Debut

A little historical fiction, a little magical realism, and 3 really strong women characters. We meet Abigail in Haiti, Margo in New Orleans, and Winter in Remembrance.

.  Set a few years before the civil war with the issue of slavery and some fantasy mixed in with the power of black magic and special gifts that each woman has.  Abigail, Margo and Winter each have many choices to face and must learn how to use their powers.

Goodreads says it better:

Remembrance by Rita Woods is a breakout historical debut with modern resonance, perfect for the many fans of The Underground Railroad and Orphan Train.

Remembrance…It’s a rumor, a whisper passed in the fields and veiled behind sheets of laundry. A hidden stop on the underground road to freedom, a safe haven protected by more than secrecy…if you can make it there.

Ohio, present day. An elderly woman who is more than she seems warns against rising racism as a young woman grapples with her life.

Haiti, 1791, on the brink of revolution. When the slave Abigail is forced from her children to take her mistress to safety, she discovers New Orleans has its own powers.

1857 New Orleans—a city of unrest: Following tragedy, house girl Margot is sold just before her 18th birthday and her promised freedom. Desperate, she escapes and chases a whisper.... Remembrance.

King John by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

Oh these Royals! Always fighting for power whether it is rightly theirs or not and who really knows - it's so hard to follow the lineage lines (then and now!)

So, King John's title is being questioned by the King Philip of France who supports John's young nephew, Arthur's, right to the throne. They go to Angiers, France to battle it out and claim the kingship of England. First, they ask the citizens of Angiers whom they'd prefer to be their king, the citizens say whomever is worthiest. They battle and both sides proclaim victory and ask the citizens for admittance to the town to which the citizens respond:

Act II, Scene 1

Citizen: Heralds, from off our tow'rs we might behold

From first to last the onset and retire

Of both your armies, whose equality

By our best eyes cannot be censured.

Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answer'd blows;

Strength match'd with strength, and power confronted power;

Both are alike, and both alike we like.

One must prove greatest. While they weigh so even,

We hold our town for neither, yet for both.

Of course this annoys the Kings, but the Bastard (though dubbed Sir Richard Plantagenet, he still goes by Bastard) makes a suggestion that they join forces and attack "the scroyles of Angiers" and then they can resume fighting each other! The Kings love the idea!

Act II, Scene 1

King John: Now, by the sky that hangs above our heads,

I like it well. France, shall we knit our pow'rs

And lay this Angiers even with the ground;

Then after fight who shall be king of it?

Of course what I love most about Shakespeare is his language, like this descriptive:

Act II, Scene 1

King John: ...The cannons have their bowels full of wrath,

And ready mounted are they to spit forth

Their iron indignation 'gainst your walls;

Or this passage from Constance questioning the law when the Pope's lackey excommunicates her son, King John:

Act III, Scene 1

Constance: O, lawful let it be

That I have room with Rome to curse awhile!

Good father Cardinal, cry thou 'amen'

To my keen curses; for without my wrong

There is no tongue hath power to curse him right.

Pandulph: There's law and warrant, lady, for my curse.

Constance: And for mine too; when law can do no right,

Let it be lawful that law bar no wrong;

Law cannot give my child his kingdom here,

For he that holds his kingdom holds the law;

Therefore, since law itself is perfect wrong,

How can the law forbid my tongue to curse?

And her speech on grief, personifies the feeling perfectly:

Act III, Scene 4

Constance: Grief fills the room up of my absent child,

Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,

Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,

Remembers me of all his gracious parts,

Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form;

Then have I reason to be fond of grief.

King John wasn't my favorite character and maybe it is as Shakespeare intended. Like many a pompous powerful personality, he refuses to take responsibility for his own orders. Such as when Hubert tells him that he killed young Arthur (he didn't actually) as he requested. King John claims Hubert misunderstood him.

Act IV, Scene 2

King John: Why seek'st thou to possess me with these fears?

Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur's death?

Thy hand hath murd'red him. I had a mighty cause

To wish him dead, but thou hadst one to kill him.

Hubert: No had, my lord! Why, did you not provoke me?

King John: It is the curse of kings to be attended

By slaves that take their humours for a warrant

To break within the bloody house of life,

And on the winking of authority

To understand a law; to know the meaning

Of dangerous majesty, when perchance it frowns

More upon humour then advis'd respect.

Now we jump forward 160 years to another King - Richard II!!