I was born in 1974. I was happy to search the catalog for this publication year and find a Nancy Drew book in our collection – The Strange Message in the Parchment by Carolyn Keene. I was a bit disappointed in this one.

The story takes place at the sheep farm of one of Nancy’s friends, June. June’s family has a parchment that has a mystery behind it that Nancy is invited to solve. In the process of investigating this mystery, Nancy is attacked by a flock of birds, a ram and an intruder. She also gets to show off her amazing art skills and gets a tour of a slaughterhouse and parchment factory.

I was disappointed at the obvious villain of this story – it is obvious from the first time you meet him that he is behind all the strife and chaos in the book. The Strange Message… seems to be written by a staff writer as quickly as possible in order to cash in on the Nancy Drew craze. It’s plot is much more linear than other Nancy Drew Mysteries I’ve read. It is also bit more political in tone and specifically seems to be pro-vegetarian and anti-labor unions.

Nancy got the bad guys in the end, of course, but I will not be returning to read this book again.

*****

Last week, my 7 year old and I read How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell together and we enjoyed just about every page! This is the book that inspired the movie franchise of the same name, although the book and the movie do not have a whole lot in common with each other. Instead of being the first to domesticate dragons as in the movies, in the Viking village of the book, boys must catch and train dragons in order to be members of the tribe in their own right. Before the beginning of this story, members of the tribe yelled at their dragons in order to train them and get them to do what they wanted. This is not the way Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III works, as he is puny and not much of a yeller. He has been studying dragons and has learned how to speak their language, Dragonese, the first Viking to do so.

Unfortunately, this does not help him much in training the smaller-than-normal dragon he caught and named Toothless. Toothless is stubborn, vain, recalcitrant dragon who won’t listen to Hiccup, at least, not in the beginning of the story. After many false starts, Toothless finally starts listening to Hiccup because Hiccup offers many tasty treats. But as happens in many coming-of-age stories, everything goes wrong during the actual test during the Thors-day Thursday festivities and ALL of the boys are to be exiled from the tribe the next day. Fortunately for them, two GIANT dragons show up on opposite ends of the island and the fates of all the Vikings appear to be in a very bad way. I say fortunately, because Hiccup is the only Viking to have learned Dragonese. He learns a bit about these large brutes and formulates a plan to get rid of them.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters are likable and engaging, the storytelling is a bit whimsical and fun, and there are small ink illustrations peppered through the book that are fun additions to the narrative.

*****

How could I not pick The Barn by Avi for the Rural Setting box for Hot Reads Bingo?

The Barn by Avi is our One Town, One Title selection for 2017. It is the story of a boy who is summoned to return home from school in 1855 when his father suffers from a seizure or stroke. The home farm is not the place that Ben seems to fit in well. He is small and book smart. His older brother and sister are bigger and better suited to the harsh conditions and hard work of pioneer farming.

Ben realizes early on that instead of working the fields he should care for his father who is basically in a vegetative state. The father cannot move on his own, except for small hand twitches and moving his eyes. Ben believes that the only thing that can save his dad is for the three siblings to build the barn his father was planning before his attack. Will it be enough for him to live for?

The characters in this short book all come to life, especially the children’s mother and father. They are both absent characters that live on in their children’s memories. The mother died in the not-too-distant past and the father’s stroke has left him absent as well. The father was a dreamer and ready to joke with his children, especially Ben. The mother, on the other hand, was much more a grounded realist who appeared to be disillusioned by her marriage. Their relationship fascinated me, probably most of all because it was only seen second hand.

I look forward to hearing what everyone else in Pine Island and the surrounding area thinks of this book. Please either stop by the library and share your thoughts on it, or come to our book club discussion on February 8 at Better Brew Coffeehouse at 6pm.

*****

I have been having a great time finding and reading books to fill up my Hot Reads Bingo Card. The one I’m reviewing for you today is for my Reader’s Choice box. I read The Weaver’s Inkle Pattern Directory: 400 Warp-Faced Weaves by Anne Dixon.

As a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, I have done a fair bit of handicrafts that have been done for many many centuries. One of my favorites is weaving. I love to sit down with a bunch of string and get up a while later (sometimes a long while later!) with a decorative band of fabric. A while ago, I took a class at one of our events, and the teacher recommended Dixon’s book. I am glad I finally took her advice and read this for myself!

Dixon has been weaving inkle bands for more than 20 years, and she shares her experience and patterns with the rest of us in this spiral-bound book. She describes step-by-step how to setup the warp to make decorative bands and trims using a variety of methods. She breaks down each type of weaving so that anyone can follow along and learn from her book. I am not an inexperienced weaver, but I learned a better way to start and stop a piece in the first 10 pages of her book.

The book begins with straight weaving, called tabby weaving. This is the basic over/under you probably think of when someone says “weaving”. The pattern here comes directly from the colors you used in your warp string. She then progresses through warp manipulation (also called pickup weaving), Baltic-style pickup weaving, Monks Belt and many more ways to create beautiful bands.

I have been on a weaving kick since reading this book and here are some of the bands I’ve created recently.

*****

I just finished the audiobook Pirate Latitudes by  Michael Crichton for my tropical setting book. I’d listened to this book a couple of years ago, but didn’t remember it very well. I have the feeling that I could do the same in a couple more years and still not remember it clearly. I enjoyed it, but unlike most of Crichton’s other books, this one was a lot less based in reality and much more just a swashbuckling ramble.

Captain Hunter owns and captains the Cassandra, a small ship with a big goal – to plunder and steal a Spanish treasure ship from under the nose of the most ruthless commander in the whole of the Spanish colonies. Of course they succeed, but only after a huge struggle. Oh, and a whole lot of bloodshed and killing. That is actually the thing that I think will stick with me longest from this book – the blood and gore and its pretty gruesome descriptions at times. I can honestly say I’ve never read a book before that described cannibals preparing their meal of seaman before…

I’ve read online that this book was discovered on Crichton’s computer after he passed away in 2008. It does appear a bit more unfinished and unpolished than the other books I’ve read by him, and the characters are a bit less developed than I’m accustomed to as well. But if you put all that aside and just read it for fun, I think you’ll enjoy the swashbuckling and the drama of the high seas on 1655 Jamaica and its environs.

*****

Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland is the book with a pretty cover that I chose for this year’s Hot Reads for Cold Nights entry. I’ve loved stained glass and reading books (both fiction and nonfiction) about art for a long time, so I was happy to put these two together! The beautiful window behind Clara’s silhouette on the cover pulled me right in and really set the stage for the story inside.

Clara was the head of the Women’s Department for Mr. Louis Comfort Tiffany’s glass company in New York City. Mr. Tiffany believed that women were better with the various shades of color, and he employed them at the turn of the 20th century for some of his most important windows and other pieces of glass art. This book follows Clara’s personal and professional lives from 1892-1908.

I loved learning more about stained glass and even catching a glimpse at how it is made. I certainly did not know that Tiffany developed specialty glasses like iridescent for the first time. I was also enthralled by the descriptions of how a window was put together and the many layers of glass that are needed for many of the deep colors I associate with Tiffany windows. To say I learned a lot about this kind of art is an understatement.

I was less enthusiastic about Clara’s personal life with all its trials and tribulations. They got overwrought and soap operatic at times which detracted from the overall story. And while she was friends with some very interesting characters, I was more interested in learning about the lives of the girls who worked with and for her. And this interest was in vain as Vreeland chose to have them be mostly one dimensional and their  spunk and individuality was only briefly highlighted.

This book could have also been edited with more of a heavy hand – it got sidetracked more than once and  if these had been cut out, I would have enjoyed it even more.

*****

Yesterday I started and finished the audiobook of Mark Twain’s The Diaries of Adam and Eve and I enjoyed almost every one of  the 125 minutes of it!  The version I listened to was preformed by Betty Buckley, Mandy Patinkin with an introduction and conclusion by Walter Cronkite.

This short book is actually two of Twain’s short stories that were married together as a kind of dialog. Both Adam and Eve follow the gender stereotypes of Twain’s era (Eve is a chatterbox in need of companionship while Adam is more aloof and likes to build shelters), but they are definitely three dimensional characters who just happen to start with these stereotypes. Eve is curious, caring and smart. Adam is not quite as smart as Eve, but he tries to put order to his world and the things in it.

Their story starts at the beginning and really the first half of the book is the funniest and best as Eve stalks Adam, scares him up a couple of trees and names all the creatures before he has a chance to since he was going to name the dodo a wildcat. The second half has its moments too. It takes place after the fall and it is especially entertaining to see Adam try to figure out what Cain exactly IS since he was gone when the baby was born and he’d never seen an animal like it before.

This book was recommended by my dad and I recommend it to you – especially the audio version I got through MNLink.

*****

I just checked off my Graphic Novel box with Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen, adapted by Nancy Butler & Hugo Petrus for Marvel comics. I am not sure I should have done so, as I know the story so well in the book and movie forms that I had a hard time to slow down and actually read it. The story still pulled me in, and I delighted in my favorite scenes in this image-led story. The writing wasn’t Pulitzer worthy, but I appreciate how challenging it is to reimagine a beloved classic.

That said, the main reason behind this book, the graphics and drawings, was the biggest thing I disliked about it. I was unable to find any beauty in the illustrations, and didn’t think they did justice to the story. I was very hopeful for it upon seeing the cover art. These covers are fun and whimsical and a good way to draw the target audience of teen girls into the comic store to buy them. Unfortunately, the interior art offers characters with little or no spark, they appear grumpy and depressed.

It appears to me that Marvel had artist Hugo Petrus on staff and waiting for an assignment, so they thrust this upon him, even though he was unable to do it justice.

I was dissatisfied with this one of my favorite novels and I think I’ll rush home & put on the BBC miniseries tonight to rediscover the fun and frolic behind Jane Austen.

*****

Review #3 is inspired by my love of the Middle Ages. I pulled Medieval Life and Leisure in the Devonshire Hunting Tapestries by Linda Wooley off a shelf in my personal library. I have been meaning to read it for over a year, and am glad I took advantage of the Nonfiction box on my Hot Reads Bingo to do so!

Tapestries in medieval times were decorative draft barriers in the castles & manor houses of the royal and wealthy. The four that are known as the Devonshire Hunting Tapestries are no different. These very expensive and huge wool wallhangings are windows into the leisure lives of the richest of the rich. You can get a hint of the scale and complexity of them on the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) website.

I am in awe of the time and talent it took to create these tapestries. They show us a lot of detail of a 15th century royal court as they participate or observe in the hunt of Deer, Boar & Bear, Otter & Swan, and Falconry. In this book, Woolley lays out the history of these tapestries, both what is know and the conjecture behind their origins. They vary in age and quality, and appear to be from different tapestry workshops.

One of the best things about the book, is how it is laid out. There are five chapters in this book, and they cover not only the history of the tapestries themselves, but also the content of them. I learned a bit about how hunting in the 15th Century worked, courtly fashion and even a bit about the mores of the time (and I felt sorry for the Miller in the Deer Hunt). I also loved how many closeups there are – each page has one or more full color pictures of some piece of the wall hangings. The last four pages are pull-outs of each tapestry. The scale still boggles my mind!

One of the weakest things about this book is the lack of other material. The reader gets to see pretty much every square inch of these four tapestries in good detail, but there are very few pictures of anything else to compare them with. For example, the text mentions a different falconry tapestry held by the Minneapolis Institute of Art more than once, but it does not have any pictures of it. It would have been nice to have it for reference here instead of having to look for it on the MIA website.

*****