Poirot agrees, and after arriving at Nasse House begins to meet some of the residents, including George and Hattie (whom everyone except Mr. Stubbs’ personal secretary Mrs. Brewis thinks is “simple”), architect Michael Weyman, and Amy Folliat, an older renter on the grounds and whose family previously owned Nasse House. Also expected soon is Etienne de Sousa, Mrs. Stubbs’ cousin from Italy.

On the day of the fair and the murder hunt game, things get a bit crazy, as the grounds are opened up to the general public. For the murder hunt, someone at Nasse House recommend a local girl named Marlene Tucker play the victim in the boathouse. Once the game is underway, Mrs. Oliver starts to have some doubts as to whether or not anyone will actually solve the “crime”.

Later in the afternoon, Mrs. Stubbs asks Mrs. Brewis to take a tea tray to the boathouse so Marlene can eat something. Once there, Mrs. Brewis discovers that Marlene has been murdered for real! The bad event that Mrs. Oliver feared really did happen after all. The question becomes: who would want to kill a 14-year-old girl? To make matters worse, no one can find Mrs. Stubbs either, and when her hat turns up floating in the river, everyone assumes the killer tallied two victims on that day.

Police investigators soon arrive to take over the case and question all suspects. They get nowhere, and even Poirot is unable to make headway. A full five weeks go by before he gets a flash of inspiration and figures out what went down at Nasse House.

Liked:

• I liked the setup and solution to this crime. Who knew that staged murder games were as popular back in Christie’s day as they are now? What an interesting way to frame the real murder
• The solution was very tricky, but fair. I was unable to guess that the current Hattie Stubbs wasn’t the real Hattie Stubbs, but the explanation — that George was already married when his mother Mrs. Folliat proposed Hattie as a wife — made sense, especially since the family was determined to keep hold of Nasse House. And killing the girl was necessary because the cousin was coming and would’ve spotted “Hattie” as a fraud? That was brilliant!
• I liked the reveal of the additional body under the folly (an architectural folly, I mean). After all, with “folly” being in the title, the reader expects it to play an important role in the story. That was the body of the original Hattie and was a nice touch.

Disliked:

• For some reason, this book seemed to progress at a snail’s pace for me. It took me an unusually long time to read it, and at no point in the story did I feel I was engrossed in a page-turner. In fact, I often found myself drifting off to sleep in the middle of reading it, and my Kindle took several tumbles to the mattress after falling from my senseless hands. That’s kind of disappointing for a murder mystery.
• There were too many characters in this novel, and they were not developed very well. I Besides the immediate residents of the house, I couldn’t keep anyone else straight because they had no distinguishing characteristics to make them memorable.
• Once again, Poirot didn’t narrate his investigation, so it was impossible for the reader to get clues from him about where to look for the solution. I miss having Hastings around, because he served as a sounding board for Poirot, thereby giving readers some insights into the detective’s thoughts.

Rating:

Dead Man’s Folly by Agatha Christie certainly isn’t the best book in her canon. The way was slow-going most of the time, but I think the solution made the journey well worth it. I give this book 3 stars out of 5.

Basically, Gladwell argues that epidemics hinge on the following three factors: Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. Law of the Few refers to how certain individuals seem to be responsible for great change. These individuals are connectors, mavens, and salesmen. They’re the ones that have the widest circle of acquaintances, have the most influence, and end up setting trends. They range from Paul Revere warning that the British are coming to Manhattan club kids wearing Hush Puppies and hip students using Acer Aspire netbooks. Epidemics don’t happen without their approval.

The Stickiness Factor refers to how well something stands out, its memorability. A midnight ride to alert folks of the Brits’ impending attack was more memorable than a midday one. Airwalk ads featuring kids using connecting with their shoes in odd ways were more memorable than traditional ads. Context refers to the external environment and how things must be aligned in just the right way for these epidemics to take hold. Cutting down on petty subway crimes in NYC, for instance, helped revitalize the entire transit system from the ground up.

Liked:

• Gladwell uses a number of interesting examples throughout the book. I enjoyed hearing about Airwalk, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Hush Puppies, and the other success stories he highlighted.
• Gladwell presents this book in simple terms that laypeople can understand. I’m sure I could find a sociology textbook that addresses these very same issues, but that wouldn’t be half as fun to read, now would it?
• I think Gladwell was mostly spot-on with his arguments. It’s hard to disagree with the factors that combine to create that elusive tipping point.

Disliked:

• This book was so short that it’s kind of hard to find something worth disliking. If I had to pick, though, I’d say it’s the fact that Gladwell doesn’t really provide any earth-shattering insights here. I think most of what he says is merely common sense. Sure, he’s giving specific names and descriptors for these phenomena, but it’s not as though he’s the first one to “discover” the tipping point theory or put everything together like this.

Rating:

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell is an interesting enough read. I don’t think it’s the kind of book that will open many eyes, insofar as the information is basically commonsense stuff, but nevertheless it’s worth spending a few hours on. I give it 3 stars out of 5.

Things started to change when Purcell-Gates provided both Jenny and Donny with some one-on-one tutoring sessions at the local literacy center. Jenny made rather quick progress, and started to learn how to read “environmental print”, which consists of the signs, labels, etc. that we come across in everyday life.

Donny, however, was a tougher nut to crack. Since his father, Big Donny, didn’t see any value in reading, Little Donny didn’t see any either. Reading simply didn’t fit into their Appalachian lifestyle. It was difficult for Purcell-Gates to change Donny’s attitudes about reading; once she succeeded, she started to make a bit of headway with him.

Purcell-Gates also addresses the larger issues of literacy in our public school system. How is it possible that children like Donny continue to slip through the cracks in this day and age? She really took the school district to task — and rightly so — for allowing the boy to move to second grade. She also argues that there’s something fundamentally wrong with the way reading is taught. It’s not fair that children from middle- and upper-class families enter kindergarten having been read to and exposed to reading and print for most of their young lives, while those from a lower socioeconomic status are just beginning to come into contact with print. The children from higher SES groups begin with an advantage, and the gap grows larger with time.

Purcell-Gates posits that instead of starting with the assumption that kindergarten kids already know their ABCs and understand something about the function of print, school systems should start at the beginning for everyone. Moreover, schools need to do a better job of finding books and materials that appeal to all lifestyles, not just the white middle class. And there needs to be specialized instruction in classrooms instead of the “whole class” approach to ensure that every child gets the attention he or she needs.

Liked:

• Purcell-Gates did a fantastic job of personalizing the illiteracy issue by introducing us to Jenny and Donny and showing how illiteracy plays affects so much of their lives. It’s one thing to read endless stats and figures about illiteracy, but quite another to hear about it in regards to a specific family.
• I think Purcell-Gates makes some interesting proposals regarding the teaching of reading in the early elementary grades. She has a point about low SES students not having the same amount of exposure to reading and print, and argues quite persuasively that this negatively affects their ability to pick up reading as quickly as their middle-class counterparts. In order to close the gap, maybe something really does need to be done about the way reading is approached in kindergarten, first, and second grade.
• I never thought about the kinds of books typically available to kids in the public schools and how that might affect a specific child’s interest in reading. There could actually be some truth to that. Wouldn’t you rather read a book about something you like than something you’re not familiar with at all?

Disliked:

• I think Purcell-Gates puts too much blame on the school system alone and not enough on the students and/or parents. While it’s true that the teachers and administrators should have paid far more attention to Donny, it’s also true that Jenny and Big Donny should have made it clear to Donny that he had to try hard, not goof off during lessons, etc. He can’t just sit there like a passive vessel and expect to “acquire” reading skills. He had to be ready and willing to learn.
• A few of Purcell-Gates’ proposed solutions were impractical because of the sheer cost of putting them into place. While it would be fantastic to have books that interest every single child, how could that plausibly be implemented in a single cash-strapped school, let alone a whole district, city, or state?

Rating:

Overall, I think Other People’s Words is a very worthwhile read, particularly for educators interested in the problem of illiteracy in the United States. The case study is actually rather engrossing, and you’ll probably end up wondering, as I did, how Donny and Jenny are doing today. I give this book 3 stars out of 5.

Myron is stunned at first. After all, Clip was the man who drafted Myron in the first round for the Boston Celtics. But then Myron blew out his knee in an exhibition game, thereby ending his career forever. Now he’ll finally get to achieve his dream of playing in the NBA — albeit under very strange circumstances. He accepts the case.

Best friend Win and assistant Esperanza are less than thrilled at the prospect. They knew how much basketball meant to Myron and how it destroyed him when he learned he couldn’t play anymore. They don’t want to see Myron go through this charade because they don’t think he can handle it being a charade. But he convinces them to help with the case anyway.

During the course of the investigation, Myron and Win slowly uncover bits and pieces of Greg’s history as well as recent goings-on in his life. They start to cobble together a few different theories about what might have happened to the superstar, but none of the theories make much sense. The stakes are raised when the marks of a crime scene are found in Greg’s basement and the dead body turns out to be a woman he knew.

The plot takes a few twists and turns before the full story becomes clear. The woman, Carla (aka Liz Gorman), had been involved in a bank robbery in Arizona. Part of the haul included an audiotape from a safe deposit box. On the tape, Greg Downing and another player are heard, with Greg paying the other player $10,000 to deliberately injure Myron. Carla thought the tape could be used to blackmail Greg, so she got in contact with him. Once he realized the tape could leak, he went into hiding. Then Greg’s girlfriend, a sports reporter, killed Carla to protect Greg. Myron and Win figure everything out by the end and bring everyone to justice.

Liked:

• This was another quick, easy read from the Myron Bolitar series. Sometimes there’s nothing better than light entertainment!
• Myron and Win are definitely growing on me as characters, as it’s obvious that Coben is honing and refining them as the series goes along. There weren’t quite so many smart-ass remarks from them this time around, which made the dialogue more believable and made it funnier when the two did crack jokes. And Win didn’t come off as quite so much a Superman caricature in this one, which is progress in the right direction.
• The case was very twisty, and even though it was rather far-fetched once all the details were unraveled, at least it kept me guessing throughout.

Disliked:

• Come on, Myron getting put on an NBA team in the middle of a playoff run just because the coach “really liked him” and wanted him to realize that his knee was blown for good? That was about as stupid a plot point as they come. And to have Myron actually get in a couple games and score points? Oh, puhleeze!
• That whole blackmail-murder scenario seemed like a stretch. Those are some pretty damn extreme actions for over an audiotape about an assault that took place 10 years ago. But I guess if a professional athlete thought his career and millions of dollars were in jeopardy, maybe things would unfold like this. Just maybe.
• The Big Cindy stuff was ridiculous and made it seem like Coben was trying too hard to be funny. I could have done without that.

Rating:
Overall, I thought Fade Away by Harlan Coben was an average mystery novel. It featured good characters and the plot kept me guessing until the end, but it wasn’t a page-turner by any means. An average book gets an average rating of 3 stars out of 5.

It’s not all smooth sailing for the film crew, however. There are problems with securing the right locations, and the director, Dean Lawrence, who has a reputation for boozing and womanizing, seems to be intent on keeping up with those two pastimes during filming. Moreover, there is some friction on the set when one of the leading actors, Burke Anson, says some damaging things about Lawrence during a TV interview.

Things come to a head when Lawrence tries to demonstrate what he wants from his actors during a particular scene. The scene is to be a suicide, and Burke was to use a gun with the firing pin removed. But when Lawrence pulls the trigger, it turns out to be a real gun, killing the director instantly. Who switched the guns? And was the intended target Lawrence, who was known for his demonstrations with props, or Burke, the man who was supposed to be in the scene in the first place?

Mike Kingston is the acting sheriff during this time because Bill Todd is away at a conference in Miami. He handles the official part of the investigation, while Hannah (of course) gets involved in the unofficial aspects. She goes about solving the crime in the usual way, which consists of asking people questions and trying to figure out the motive.

Along with the murder investigation, one of the main subplots in the book is the answer to the marriage proposals that Hannah received in the last book when both Mike and Norman popped the question. Not surprisingly, Hannah turned them both down, saying that she wasn’t ready to make up her mind yet.

Liked:

• I thought the movie storyline was pretty good. I know it’s kind of a cliché in these “cozy mysteries” to bring a movie crew to town, but there are so many other clichés in these types of books that one more isn’t going to bother me. Crisis in Cherrywood actually sounded like a decent film, and Fluke revealed so much of the movie plot that the reader could tell she thought it out very carefully.
• The killer reveal was more believable this time than in books past. At least Fluke didn’t make Hannah out to be some sort of super sleuth in her detective work this time. Instead, Hannah stumbled across the killer’s identity more by accident than by detective work.

Disliked:
*I used to rip Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swensen novels, but then I discovered that the author is 68 years old. Now I’d feel like I’m tearing into my own mother if I’m too harsh here, so I’m going to tread a bit more lightly.

• The Hannah-Norman-Mike triangle still grates, and needs to be resolved sooner rather than later. Fluke really shows her age when it comes to handling this relationship, because it’s something straight out of the 1950s. There is absolutely no way in hell these two men would continue to allow themselves to be strung along by Hannah, while being friends with each other in process. And the fact that there’s no sex involved just makes the whole situation even more eye-rollingly annoying.
• I still cannot stand the way little 6-year-old Tracy is portrayed as some kind of perfect genius. She does everything right, acts like someone three times her age, and is beautiful to boot? Whatever. Fluke is probably idealizing a favorite granddaughter on these pages….
• There were tons of recipes in this book, which interrupted the flow of the story. I know this series is called “Murder She Baked”, but 14 recipes is going a bit overboard. Do people actually try all the recipes in these books? If I did that, I’d need a year’s supply of the best diet supplement to even have a chance of maintaining my figure!
• Another potential lover for Hannah. Sigh. She’s depicted as 20-30 pounds overweight, has unruly red hair, and is very condescending to everyone around her. So I have to ask: Why is it that all these men are supposedly swooning over Hannah? I don’t get it.

Rating:

I think the key to enjoying Joanne Fluke’s books is not to hold them to the same standards as other mysteries. After all, these are of the “cozy” variety and have way different elements and conventions than other potboilers. So I’m just going to take these books as they come, warts and all. I guess the fact that I keep reading them even after I say I’m going to stop is an indication that they’re at least enjoyable on some level. I give Cherry Cheesecake Murder 3 stars out of 5.

What Susie sees is her family falling apart. Initially, Susie’s case is treated as a disappearance because there was simply no trace of her after the murder. But then a neighborhood dog found her elbow, which pretty much convinced most people that Susie was dead. Her father Jack takes the news especially hard, and is never the same after. He continues searching for answers even after the police give up, which causes even more strain on the family — especially wife Abigail, who has troubles of her own. Indeed, Abigail ends up having a brief affair with Len Fenerman, the detective assigned to the case, and then abandons her family to head out to California. Other daughter Lindsey has boyfriend Samuel to lean on, while 4-year-old Buckley is simply too young to comprehend what’s going on.

As Susie watches the earthly proceedings, she tries to figure out a way to communicate with her loved ones, to point them in Mr. Harvey’s direction. But this is not easy to accomplish. She can occasionally “show” herself to Buckley and former classmate Ruth, but can’t tell them the identity of her killer. Soon enough, however, Jack begins to suspect Mr. Harvey after having a strange conversation with the man. Jack tells the police, but there’s no hard evidence and they can’t very well arrest him for being weird.

The rest of the novel continues in this vein, showing the family struggling to get on with their lives even as all these external influences try to tear them apart. Years pass, a decade. Buckley grows up, Lindsey and Samuel get married, Abigail eventually comes back home. The family never gets the satisfaction of finding out exactly what happened to Susie on that fateful day, nor is Mr. Harvey ever brought to justice. But they survive and they go on.

Liked:

• I absolutely loved the basic premise of the book, that of having a murdered girl narrate her story from heaven. I’d never read anything like this, and was immediately captivated by the originality.
• I appreciated this extended look at a family in the aftermath of a violent trauma such as having a daughter/sister kidnapped and murdered. In most other books, the family would be hellbent on revenge. They would either hire private investigators or the mom or dad would suddenly turn into Super Sleuth to nab the killer. This seemed like a much more realistic portrayal, where things don’t work out quite as expected and the “happily ever after” is replaced with “just okay ever after”.
• I enjoyed Sebold’s writing style. She’s clearly talented in that regard. This novel had a much more literary feel than most books that top the NY Times Bestseller list these days.

Disliked:

• I thought Sebold ran out of steam at about the halfway point. By then the originality of the narrative structure had worn out, so I was ready for something to happen. All the “action” took place at the beginning with Susie’s murder.
• I did NOT like the “miracle” at all. So Susie succeeds in inhabiting Ruth’s body for a short time, and what does she do? Have an all-day sex marathon with Ray Singh, a boy on whom she had the beginnings of a crush 10 [Earth] years ago? WTF??? After seeing how much her family had been suffering, it didn’t occur to Susie to drop by her house and say a few encouraging words to Jack or Lindsey? The most important thing to do was have sex? Gimme a break!!!
• I didn’t like the non-ending. There was no resolution of any kind for anyone in the family. They just had to go on without ever knowing what happened, without ever finding Mr. Harvey — though he was inexplicably driving around their town at the end. Yes, I’m sure this happens quite often in “real life”, where the families of murder victims never get the answers they seek. But this is a novel, one that I invested my free time in. I would appreciate getting a decent ending in return.

Rating:

Overall, I thought The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold was a decent book, an average book. What I disliked was mostly balanced by what I liked, so in the end I didn’t feel that this was a complete waste of time. It’s just too bad the author couldn’t follow through on the strong premise by delivering a solid second act and great ending to wrap things up. I give this book 3 stars out of 5.

Her family, consisting of sisters Carol and Christine, brothers Michael, Mark, and John, and dad Billy, all think Sarah should jump back into the swing of things, so Sarah decides to answer a personal ad. Trouble is, she shows up for the date only to realize that the guy on the other end is… her father! Completely horrified, Sarah is ready for some more seclusion, but Carol convinces her to keep trying. This time, Carol will compose and place the ad herself in the hopes of getting at least a couple of good leads.

The responses to Sarah’s ad run the gamut from the promising to the downright strange. She ends up meeting one guy, John Anderson, based on the ad, but is extremely disappointed when he doesn’t turn out to be the Harrison Ford lookalike he said he was. Still, she maintains contact with him because he seems nice enough. Sarah is also interested in Bob Connor, the father of one of her preschool students. She realizes that dating him would be inappropriate, but that probably won’t even be an issue since Bob seems to be more attracted to Sarah’s beautiful young assistant June. And then there’s also Ray Santia, a handsome man that Sarah noticed — and subsequently stalked — when he was walking his dog.

The remainder of the novel shows how Sarah tries to make up her mind about which guy she would have the best future with. Along the way, we get significant amounts of time with Sarah’s highly dysfunctional yet loving family, as they all work through various issues of their own.

Liked:

• I thought Must Love Dogs was a refreshing change from those typical love-at-first-sight or never-ending love stories that seem to permeate this genre. Sarah’s scenario of not being able to make up her mind seemed far more realistic, and I liked the fact that she was leaning towards the “average guy” at the end. Not many romances would play out this way.
• Sarah was a likable character. Again, she seemed like a real woman, with legitimate concerns about finding a man and realistic expectations about the pursuit. She didn’t dream about a soul mate or anything like that, which, again, was unusual for a romance novel. Plus, Sarah had a great sense of humor and was definitely someone I would like to know in real life.
• I liked that there wasn’t a predictable, saccharine ending to this novel where everything worked out perfectly for all the characters. Sarah’s life is clearly a work in progress, and she’s taking baby steps towards achieving what she wants.

Disliked:

• I thought Bob, John, and Ray were all a little too vanilla for the purposes of this story. I mean, I finished this book a few days ago, and the only thing I remember about Bob and Ray is that Sarah thought they were both very good-looking. I know John was supposed to be vanilla, so I could accept that. But having all three guys be this bland was not a good choice.
• I could have done without so much family drama. Yeah, I get it: the Hurlihys are one of those big, crazy families where there’s always a hundred different things going on. The 70-something dad is getting more action than his kids, there are troubled marriages, troubled teens, etc. It was a little over the top.
• All the family drama took away time from Sarah’s dating adventures. I expected this book to be mostly about the men that she would meet from her personal ads, which would have been a fun read. We needed to see some rejects along with the three guys Sarah went out with. For instance, where was the 40-year-old loser still living in his parents’ basement? Or the grossly overweight guy in need of a visit to www.cholesteroltreatments.com? There were a lot of ways Claire Cook could have taken this storyline. But the dating angle only was only a small part of the plot. Most of the attention seemed to be on the family, not the potential boyfriends, and that didn’t work so well.
• The story unfolded a bit too slowly for my taste. Some parts were interesting, so I had no trouble moving right along, but others were downright boring and I ended up setting the book aside for days at a time.

Rating

Although I liked how Must Love Dogs wasn’t a conventional love story, I think some of the unconventional elements ended up getting in the way of a decent plot. A few of the family situations were funny, but most were just boring, which affected my overall enjoyment of the book. As a result, I’m giving it just 3 stars out of 5.

The second case involves an unhinged Iraq war veteran named Pete Gordon who really despises women and children (including his own wife and kids) because of some of the things he saw in the desert. So he goes around the city executing mothers and children in various parking garages, leaving behind the letters “WCF” in lipstick at each crime scene. Nobody knows what that means until the Lipstick Killer himself literally spells it out for the cops: Women and Children First.

Along with the cases, which are solved in more or less the usual way, the authors spend a bit of time addressing the private lives of a few of the main characters. Lindsay and Joe are still engaged, and apparently trying for a baby. Cindy and Rich Conklin (Lindsay’s partner on the force) are moving in together. And Yuki, who finally won a court case, is dating the bartender at one of the Club’s usual haunts.

Liked:

• This is a very quick, mostly entertaining read listen (I had the audiobook version from the public library), which is what I’ve come to expect from the series.
• The Hello Kitty storyline was fairly interesting. I wouldn’t have minded if that had been the main focus of the book. I particularly liked that Sarah and Heidi were lovers. When they first met up in the cafeteria after Sarah’s night at the Dowlings’, I expected them to just chitchat about diet pills that work, hair products, or whatever else BFFs usually talk about. That they were planning a liaison was a definite surprise.
• Lindsay wasn’t quite as annoying and whiny as she has been in the past few books of the series. Hopefully this improvement continues.
• I liked that Pete Gordon (the Lipstick Killer) turned out to be Heidi’s husband. I didn’t see that twist coming.
• It was interesting that both criminals got away. The Lipstick Killer managed to disappear into traffic, and Hello Kitty got placed in Witsec. Does this mean these people will pop up again in future books?

Disliked:

• What was up with all the sex scenes in this book??? The Dowlings, Sarah (Hello Kitty) and her husband, Pete and Heidi, Sarah and Heidi, Rich and Cindy, Joe and Lindsay… wtf? So many interludes, so little time.
• Sarah aka Hello Kitty just returns all the jewels without holding anything back, and then agrees to go into witness protection? Seems like a smarter move would have been to fence at least some of the stuff and leave the country, which was the original plan. It’s not as though the cops were any closer to unmasking her, and it’s not as though she completely erases her culpability in the crimes by returning the goods, so what was the point of that?
• And what was the point of the plane crash fake-out involving Joe? Was that just so Lindsay would come to realize how much she loves him? If it takes something like that to convince her, then she has problems. That whole “epilogue” just seemed totally manufactured and unnecessary.
• Wow, the Lipstick Killer storyline was pretty brutal. The authors didn’t really hold back, what with having Pete kill five children. Yikes. Also, I found it completely unbelievable that Pete would refer to these children that he hated as “kiddos”. That seemed way too tame. He would have called them brats or bastards or little shits… something other than “kiddos”.
• Would the feds really have allowed Sarah to go into WitSec with Heidi and her kids? They don’t just let “friends” come along for the ride, do they? Heidi didn’t ‘fess up and say the women were lovers, so I don’t understand why the FBI let that happen.

Rating:

If you’re a regular reader of the Women’s Murder Club books, then you already know what to expect from 9th Judgment. You’ll get neither more nor less than the authors have churned out in past installments. The action clips along at a decent pace, the criminals du jour are slightly interesting, and Lindsay carries the show once again. I give this 3 stars out of 5.

For some reason, Gregor still thinks of going to work, but after struggling for more than an hour just to get out of bed, gives up that plan. His boss then comes to the house to berate him through the closed bedroom door, while his parents and sister Grete worry about what has happened. Gregor reveals his transformed self at the end of the chief clerk’s harangue, at which point that man runs screaming from the apartment while Gregor’s father shoos him back into his room with a stick.

Grete is the only one who seems to have any sympathy for Gregor’s plight. She considers the ways she can help him, and tries leaving a tray of decomposing food that she thinks a bug might like. Gregor, knowing that his appearance disgusts his family members, takes to hiding under one of the modern sofas in the living room and only emerging when no one else is around. Gregor then takes to crawling all over the floor and walls, prompting Grete, who sees the sticky tracks he makes, to try clearing the furniture out of the way to make the going a bit easier. It is on one of these excursions that Gregor’s mother finally catches sight of him, causing her to pass out from shock and fright. Gregor’s father can’t stand the situation anymore, so he pelts Gregor with apples, a piece of which gets lodged in Gregor’s back, causing immense pain and discomfort.

Because of the injury, Gregor no longer prowls about the house. Instead, he languishes in his room, where he eventually dies. His family, meanwhile, simply go about their business and emerge from the situation even better off than before Gregor’s transformation. Now all three have good jobs and they can afford to move out of the apartment to a better house in the countryside where they will focus on finding a good husband for Grete. Gregor, it seems, is immediately forgotten.

Liked:

• As with any piece of classic literature that has been much discussed, I was glad to have finally read the novella so I can understand the frequent references to it that I come across in other readings.
• I loved how Kafka attempted no explanations for Gregor’s metamorphosis. It just happened without any ostensible reason at all. Similarly, I liked how Kafka chose to have everyone simply accept the metamorphosis for what it was. No one questioned why the change occurred, they simply accepted that it did and moved on.
• The novella was short and to the point, with no extraneous subplots or unnecessary scenes. This was a very quick read!

Disliked:

• After reading some commentary on the novella, it appears that I got hold of a subpar translation. I wish I had thought to look for the best English translation before reading the book!

Rating:

Well obviously a story like Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is open to a myriad of interpretations. What does the story mean? What does Gregor’s metamorphosis symbolize? I don’t even know where to begin trying to figure this out on my own! At any rate, just from a bare-bones, basic reading I thought this was a decent, but not great, story. It was interesting and funny in parts, but not something that appeals to my usual tastes or something I want to spend a lot of time dwelling on. So at the risk of appearing low-brow and unintellectual, I give it 3 stars out of 5.

The story centers on two teenagers named Earl and Randy Portney, who work in the timber industry in Maine. Things are not going well for the orphaned boys, and they are about to be evicted from their ranch for not paying the rent. That’s when they get a letter from Uncle Foster Portney, inviting them to go to Alaska with him in search of gold. Uncle Foster has been there before and had some success, and he thought it would be just the thing for the boys. He’ll pay their expenses, including travel from Boston to San Francisco to meet up with him.

Earl and Randy immediately agree to go, so they sell off all their possessions in order to make it to Boston. Once there, they are to meet Uncle Foster’s bankers to receive $300 for travel expenses. But upon arriving at the bankers’ office, Earl and Randy discover that the money has been paid out already — to two other young men in possession of the original letter written by Uncle Foster to the boys. Earl and Randy figure the thieves are Tom Roland and his companion Guardley, both of whom had been around when Earl lost the letter. The boys then find someone else to vouch for their identity, get the money, and make it to San Francisco.

From there, the boys and Uncle Foster load up on provisions and make the long journey to Alaska, where they must then travel an additional 500 miles across dangerous terrain to get to the gold fields. Along the way, they hook up with Captain Zoss, an old friend of Uncle Foster’s, and Dr. Barwaithe, another man looking to strike it rich. Fred Dobson, a sickly stowaway from back home, also joins the company later on.

The rest of the novel then details the daily hunt for gold, and also gives an account of the harsh, harrowing Alaska winter that nearly devastates the makeshift shelter the company has constructed and pushes them all to the brink of starvation. By the end of the year-long adventure, everyone emerges thousands of dollars richer because of the gold, and Earl and Randy can’t wait to do it again.

Liked:

• This is a simple, straightforward book geared towards young adults, and reads as you’d expect of something published in 1899. Totally uncomplicated.
• Earl and Randy were likable enough protagonists. The brothers’ names reminded me of the pair on the sitcom My Name is Earl, but obviously the characters were nothing alike!
• I enjoyed the gold-digging scenes and the description of the Alaskan winter. Those are clearly not subjects that modern books pick up on very often.

Disliked:

• Character development is practically nonexistent. It’s hard to distinguish Earl from Randy (besides the fact that one is older), and I never had a clear picture of what any of the other men were like.
• I would have preferred having the group come upon a major gold bonanza while in Alaska. The captain and doctor only earned $9,000 each for all their toil, while Uncle Foster did much better at $53,000. But that still didn’t seem like reward enough. I was hoping they’d all end up millionaires or something!
• The story of Tom and Guardley never really went anywhere. I had a feeling that was supposed to be a “teaching moment” on the author’s part, but Guardley simply disappeared after his whipping and Tom’s body was found after the long winter. Kind of anticlimactic, especially since the author specifically said that the reader would do well to remember those two.

Rating:

To Alaska for Gold seems like a rather average old-time adventure story for young readers. I enjoyed it because I had a direct hand in getting the work onto Project Gutenberg, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a page-turner or anything like that. I give it 3 stars out of 5.