Good morning, fellow
Salon members! How is everyone on this fine, crisp, sunny spring morning?
I've had a fairly decent, if not busy week. In amidst trying to get caught up from both being sick and being gone for a few days last week from work while I was in Cincinnati visiting family, my co-worker was sick and out of the office most of this week, so that it seemed like the work week just flew by, and I still don't feel like I'm entirely caught up yet!
I was able to finish reading Agatha Christie's
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and I think I'm in love. This was my third Christie book, and I've enjoyed each one. I did a little reading about
Roger Ackroyd after the fact, and discovered that there has been some debate as to the plot device she used at the end of the book and whether or not it was "fair." Quite frankly, I thought it was ingenious. Really never saw it coming, which I think is important in a mystery, right? I picked up
Murder at the Vicarage this week, the first Miss Marple mystery. The three that I have read so far (
The Mysterious Affair at Styles,
Murder on the Orient Express and
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd) were all Hercule Poirot mysteries, and while I love his extravagant flair, I figure it's time to introduce myself to her other great sleuth.
I also read Neil Gaiman and Gris Grimly's
The Dangerous Alphabet. Told in 13 rhyming couplets, it's your general alphabet book, but told in Gaiman's usual quirky style. It's the story of 2 children and their pet gazelle as they strike out underground in search of treasure, and the unusual, creepy creatures they meet along the way. The story is fun, but the real star of this book is Gris Grimly's illustrations. I had never been exposed to his art before, and I am intrigued by his art style. The children have almost rag doll proportions, and the ghoulies that inhabit the underground are rather stupendous in their creepiness. If you are interested in seeing more of Grimly's art, visit his website at
www.madcreator.com.
The Graphic Novel Discussion Group will be talking about Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's
Superman for All Seasons. It's not your usual "spandex and tights" superhero story. It really gets underneath the costume and gets to the "character" of the character and examines what makes Clark Kent, Superman. Originally told in four separate issues, each chapter takes place during one of the four seasons, and each season's story is told from the point of view of a character that is close to Clark Kent and how they perceive him as both a person and a superhero. The story starts off in Spring, with Clark Kent in his senior year of high school, and as he is still learning about the powers that he has, and how his father is also coming to terms with his son's special abilities. Summer finds Clark Kent in Metropolis, working at the Daily Planet, and rivaling Lois Lane as the top reporter for the Daily Planet. Autumn finds Lex Luthor challenged by Superman's presence in Metropolis, and what he will do to break his character. Winter finds Clark Kent back home in Smallville, dealing with the events with Lex Luthor, where he discovers his high school sweetheart, Lana Lang, has moved back to Smallville, and helps him come to terms with the responsibility and burden of being Superman. I haven't read many Superman stories over the years, so I was a little hesitant reading this, not being as familiar with the Superman mythos as some others in the group, but really, he's something of an American mythology these days, and even knowing the limited plot points that I did, I still found myself enjoying this story.
The last book that I read this week was William Shakespeare's
A Midsummer Night's Dream, as adapted by Brooke McEldowney. This was a real treat. Brooke McEldowney is the creator and writer/illustrator of
9 Chickweed Lane (a daily comic strip) and
Pibgorn (an almost daily comic strip), both of which can be read
online. McEldowney took characters from both strips, and recast them as characters in
A Midsummer Night's Dream and reset the story with a 1930's gangster theme, and it works amazingly well! McEldowney keeps true to Shakespeare's words for the most part, but as he explains in the foreword, while some lines are great on stage, they don't translate so well to the printed word, so he removed a soliloquy and rearranged some of the lines here and there, and also recast the sexes of some characters, but otherwise the play is presented in it's entirety. I think that he cast some of the characters like he did due to their interactions with each other in the daily strips, so some of the subtle nuances of this aspect of his inner-jokes may be lost on those who don't read the strips on a daily basis, but it doesn't detract from the overall storytelling process. This was a great little read, and I would hope that someday he continues this theme and stages another Shakespeare play (I would love to see his version of
Much Ado About Nothing).
I'm still greatly enjoying
Bone: The One Volume Edition. I didn't get as much read this week as I would have liked, so I don't have much to report on the progress of this story right now.
This week will find me continuing Martin Millar's
The Good Fairies of New York. It was a birthday gift from my friend S this past year. I'm not that far into the story yet, but it does open with a group of fairies from Scotland, who mysteriously find themselves in New York City, with no idea how they got their due to a combination of alcohol and magic mushrooms. So we've got stoned, inebriated Scottish fairies arguing with squirrels in Central Park and passing out in the apartment of a violinist. Needless to say, I'm just a little intrigued where this story will take me. I will also be reading Morgan Llywelyn's
Druids on a recommendation from my friend, Irish and it turns out that S has quite a few Llywelyn's books, so I'll be able to borrow those from her.
Well, I'm off to my mother's house to help do some yard work and play with my dog, Mame. I'll be back later in the evening, visiting some other Salon's and trying to sneak in some reading during commercial breaks while watching
Desperate Housewives and
Brothers & Sisters (2 of my television guilty pleasures). I hope everyone has a loverly week!
