It’s no secret to anyone who reads my reviews that I enjoy audiobooks and chick lit. This title happens to combine the two. The book is about Sophie Katz, a mystery writer who tends to find dead bodies and then gets herself into trouble solving their murders. In this case, she is house shopping, comes across her somewhat slimy ex husband who just happens to have the perfect house for her. They go to look at the house and find, you guessed it, a dead body.
The unfolding mystery introduces her to a bunch of dysfunctional ghost hunters and yet another murder. The characters in this book are well fleshed out and well written and the answer to the final whodunit was surprising and unexpected. Sophie’s friends Dena and Marcus are funny as is her sister Lea. Her mother was also well written. Of particular interest to me was a trip into Sophie’s childhood and a peek at her parents’ marriage. After all, as children, we think we know what goes on between our parents, but do we?
I strongly recommend this book. It may be checked out in audiobook format from the Cavendish Fletcher Community Library.
I have always been an armchair adventurer fascinated by tales of mysterious disappearances. Just say “Amelia Earhart” to me and you have my full attention, so when I heard about this book which concerns a famous explorer lost in the Brazilian rainforest nearly 80 years ago I couldn’t wait to read it. I brought it home and started reading and immediately forgot all about cooking dinner.
The Lost City of Z tells two tales, one of early 20th century explorer Percy Fawcett who vanished in the rain forest in 1925 while searching for an ancient civilization he was sure existed and that of the people who went to look for him. Both are equally fascinating. It is hard to think that 80 years ago there will still vast tracks of the world that were simply unknown to mainstream society. What I found the most interesting were the paralleling obsessions of Fawcett, who became more and more certain that not only was there a city in the Amazon, but that it was a gateway to spiritual enlightenment, and the obsession developed by David Mann, the author, about finding out Fawcett’s fate.
The book is well written and compelling, though I found myself frustrated by having to wait to find out what happened to Fawcett when the narrative digressed to discuss other issues. This book is worth your while. Now if we could just have a good book on Amelia Earhart, or Henry Hudson….
The Lost City of Z may be checked found in the Cavendish Fletcher Community Library either in hardcover or audiobook format.
Like many of my generation, I grew up watching Sesame Street with no idea how it came about. It could have sprung fully grown like Athena from the head of Zeus. I just remember placidly watching it with my little brother, lying on the floor of the living room after school. It never occurred to me that it was anything special or revolutionary. It just WAS. That is until I picked up this book. I was amazed to learn that public television as we know it was not around until 1969 when it was created in part by the Children’s Television Workshop and Joan Ganz Cooney, its director. This book traces the history of the Workshop and the idea of television that would educate children.
The story is fascinating and well told. It suffers however from having so many people in the mix. It is important to know that Sesame Street did not come from just one person, but alternately tracing each of the 10 or so founders made it difficult for me to keep track of who each person is, let alone their contributions to the show. The book skips over some of the more lurid details, such as Northern Calloway’s breakdown. Instead it focuses on the many ways that the show broke new ground and how it adapted to the times and various competing interests such as “Barney”.
This book is an interesting read and I recommend it for anyone who enjoyed or still enjoys finding their way to Sesame Street.