Scarpetta – Audio CD / Book Review

Scarpetta
By:  Patricia Cornwell
Reviewed by:  Paul McMahon
15 hours, 12 CDs

I like Patricia Cornwell’s mysteries.  She is willing to build her characters and evolve them over the several books that they play roles in.  She also explains a lot of the technology of the Medical Examiner as well as that used in law enforcement.
 
First, don’t listen to this with kids in the car.  There are several very graphic descriptions of murders that will give them nightmares for months.  And you will have to get up and comfort them.
 
Cornwell, as well as other authors like Patterson, keep raising the level of cruelty in these cases.  Makes it refreshing to read an old mystery after some of the modern stuff.
 
Now to the story.
 
Scarpetta has moved to South Carolina and then to Massachusetts and New York City.  She gets called in to examine Oscar Banes who is involved (a person of interest) in the murder of his girl friend.  He tells a bizarre story of being tracked by some entity which watches everything he does and everywhere he goes.  Because he is not charged, Scarpetta is under a doctor/patient relationship with Oscar and cannot disclose what Oscar has told her (and us) even as she interacts with her husband and other players such as her husband, Marino, Lucy her niece, Berger the DA, and other players.
 
The story gets off to what seems to be a slow and confused start, but that is the beauty of Cornwell’s writing.  You are just as confused as real investigators are in a real case.  Just when you are ready to give up, Cornwell switches point of view and you have new insight.  Pretty soon you are sitting in your parked car listening to a new piece of evidence.
 
Kate Reading is the reader.  She does an excellent job of giving each character an unique verbal identity which she applies throughout the book.  Marino’s Jersey accent was never better.

Paul

Library Hours Changing as of July 1st

New Summer Session Hours:

July 1st-August 7th, 2009
Mondays-Thursdays 8am-7pm
Fridays 8am-4pm
Closed Saturday

Please note that we will be closing at 7pm Monday-Thursday for the remainder of the Summer Session.

Essential New England-100 Books

The Boston Globe has picked the top 100 Books written about New England or by local New England authors. It’s a great interactive list that allows you to rate the choices and keep track of which you’ve read or plan to read.

The Globe’s top five:

1. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
2. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
3. Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
4. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
5. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

I love the Make Way for Ducklings choice, and Little Women and Owen Meany would also make my top five. But, I think Connecticut could be better represented on this list, don’t you?

Library Catalog is Up!

Our system upgrade is now complete. You can once again search our catalog for books, dvds, and other materials held by the Tunxis Library. Please note that the new catalog is a work in progress. Some of the functions you were used to before the upgrade may not be available yet. There will be many changes and improvements throughout the summer as we customize our catalog to your needs. We thank you for your patience. As always, if you need assistance searching for items in the catalog, please contact a librarian.

Library Catalog downtime

The library’s catalog will be down on Thursday, June 3rd and Friday, June 4th for a major upgrade. Look for many great, new improvements in the forthcoming version.

Liberty – Book Review

Liberty
By: Garrison Keillor
Reviewed by: Paul McMahon

I decided to take a break from all of the murder and mayhem in the books that I have been reading when I saw a book by Garrison Keillor. And what a break it was.

The book is light and a quick read. There is a little threat of violence, but it gets dissipated. There is one gun shot, but it went through the ceiling of the Bunsen Ford dealership.

There is some sex, but not overbearing.

There is tons of humor of every kind.

The story is built around Clint Bunsen who is a top auto mechanic and the chairman for the sixth time of the Lake Wobegon Fourth of July Parade. Each of Clint’s parades have been better. The 5th got on CNN. This one will be on CNN live.

One reason the parades have gotten better is that he refuses to tolerate entrants such as the Norwegian Bachelor Farmers and their wagon full of high grade pig manure or the somewhat senile Sons of Canute. The result is a palace revolt which ends his chairmanship with the end of this year’s parade.

Keillor describes Clint’s mid-life crisis which is going on as the parade unfolds. 65-year old Clint shares his crisis with 30-something Angelica. Angelica has played Miss Liberty who is a living Statue of Liberty and about as far out as you can get. Last year Clint realized the Miss Liberty had nothing on under her robe. A lot of other observant people noticed it too. But Lake Wobegon being a conservative town in northern Minnesota does not bring things like this up. However Angelica is the crisis in Clint’s midlife and he has had a secret affair with her. The affair is not as secret as Clint thinks and which he will find out as the parade gets set up and begins to roll.

The Governor decides to come and sends his staff man to set things up. Clint thinks he might run for Congress since the incumbent resigned over an incident in the men’s room at the Minneapolis – Saint Paul airport.

The Governor is late. CNN is lost and Clint finally starts the parade without them. The parade is almost done when they show up. Clint puts the Governor is the last car with the mayor and just ahead of the children’s choir who had been banned by Clint after a poor performance and were sneaking in and also just ahead of the Sons of Canute who decided to show up anyway.

Because of CNN Clint orders the parade to continue to a side street and then come back to the start and do it again. Of course when you run something with a large group of volunteers who have little practice in precision and in listening to orders and getting them right the parade U-turns and starts coming down Main Street which is a little busy with the parade going up Main Street. The result is mass confusion which CNN broadcasts to 53 million people world-wide. One example of the confusion starts about halfway down page 239 where the Governor goes from the top of the short list for nomination as Vice President to toxic waste who would not be invited to Bin Laden’s birthday as he steps on Miss Liberty’s gown which is too long and in a few steps pulls it down and off and then trips and ends in a pose which is caught on camera by CNN and FaceBooked around the world.

I laughed till I cried as I read Keillor’s story. I think you will too.

Paul

Gods in Alabama – Audio CD Review

Gods in Alabama
By: Joshilyn Jackson
Read by: Catherine Taber
Reviewed by: Paul McMahon

There was something about this book jacket that attracted me. It had an air of mystery.

I listened to it and have to say that the jacket text hardly touched the book and its story.

The book follows a girl from high school in Alabama to teaching college literature in Chicago. Arlene does something so terrible that she leaves her loving family and exiles herself for 10 years. She (white) then brings her future husband Burr (black) to a family get together with a damn the torpedoes approach.

The book has great character development. It tells Arlene’s story warts and all.

It opens your mind to new ideas about the South, race and love.

Enjoy it!

Paul.

What we are reading in June

	Graphic Novel		Business		Hot Read
	Self Help		Memoir		Mystery
	Fiction		Science		History

Library Hours Week of May 25-29th

The Tunxis Library will be open from 8am-5pm on Tuesday-Thursday this week. We will close at 12 noon on Friday for a system-wide meeting.

Tunxis Library Will Be Closed Friday, May 22-Monday, May 25

The Tunxis Library, along with the rest of the campus, will be closed on Friday, May 22 for a state furlough day. We will also be closed on Monday to celebrate the Memorial Day holiday.
Happy unofficial start to the summer season!