Book Review: Killer Cruise by Laura Levine

In the middle of reading a long and serious book for a book discussion group, I found this light and amusing mystery novel, a really good comedy, which I read in less than a day!

In Killer Cruise, one murder is enough! But there are many possible culprits on board the cruise ship Festival, ranging from a jilted ex-fiancee, an ice sculptor, and the relatives and friends of a silver haired lady being swept off her feet by love at first dance.

Our heroine and crime solver, Jaine Austen (with an i in Jane), has some setbacks on a cruise she was expecting to be a lot of fun. She is an employee, hired to give writing lessons to cruise passengers, but only five show up. She has an unintended stowaway, her cat Prozac, who had to be sneaked on board at the last minute.

While hiding Prozac as well as reading the hefty manuscript of her cabin steward, the would be writer Samoa, in exchange for his silence about the cat on board - Jaine finds time to do some snooping to solve a murder while also indulging in her passion for midnight snacks and all things chocolate.

"I hurried along the corridor, checking over my shoulder to make sure Anton wasn't following me. Then, with the unerring accuracy of a homing pigeon, I returned to the buffet, where I picked up some roast beef for Prozac and a restorative dose of brownies for me." (p. 29)

Though this is a mystery novel, I chuckled all through the book, and laughed out loud at the ending. Humourous lines on every page. Readers who like comedy and mystery will like this one.

By the way, author Laura Levine is a comedy writer who has written for TV shows such as Three's Company, Laverne and Shirley, and The Love Boat.

Lemonade Award

This is so much fun! I've gotten another Lemonade Award, thanks to Missy of Missy's Book Nook.

"Here are the rules for passing on the award to your favorite blogs:

1. Put the Lemonade Award logo on your blog or post. 2. Nominate up to 10 blogs that show great attitude or gratitude. 3. Link to your nominees within your post. Let them know they have received this award by commenting on their blog. 4. Link to the person who gave you your award."

And the award goes to... - some great blogs I recently discovered:

Ms. Lucy and Arleigh at Plaidy's Royal Intrigue

Jo-Jo at Jo-Jo Loves to Read

Patricia at Horror and Fantasy Book Review

Jess at Barney's Book Blog

Hope In Brazil at Worthwhile Books

Tutu at Tutu's Two Cents


Please check them out!

Midnight's Children by Rushdie: Tuesday Teaser

This novel is about a child born at midnight 1947 on India's independence day from Britain. The book follows his life (and India) into the modern age.

"Snakes can lead to triumph, just as ladders can be descended: my grandfather, knowing I would die anyway, administered the cobra poison. The family stood and watched while poison spread through the child's body...and six hours later, my temperature had returned to normal."

from Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, Book II, p.189

Teaser Tuesday meme courtesy of MizB at Should Be Reading. Choose two sentences at random from your current read; include the title and author for those who might want to read the book.

Queen's Cross, book review

The Schoonover Collection: Queen's Cross by Lawrence Schoonover


The story of Isabella of Castille and her husband Ferdinand of Aragon uniting Spain in the 15th century is a lively tale told by Lawrence Schoonover in Queen's Cross.
For this review, I mainly did a summary of the book, but the story is so interesting I couldn't resist. My precis has omitted a lot of historical and other details, which the book itself can supply. It's a well known story, but Schoonover has enlivened 15th century history, bringing us the amazing life of Isabella of Spain.

Chroniclers in monasteries, penning her astonishing achievements..., did not hesitate to call her a living saint. She was not logical, but her exploits were magnificent." (ch. 17)

At the beginning of the novel, we meet young Isabella and her brother Alfonso, both set to succeed their childless half-brother, the current King Henry. When
Henry later has a daughter but disowns her as not his biological child, and when his second child, a son, is stillborn, Isabella and Alfonso once again assume the title of Infantes, successors to the throne.
To avoid being forced into an arranged marriage, Isabella schemes to marry Ferdinand of Aragon. Her brother Alfonso dies before he can become king, and Isabella is crowned queen of Castille on the death of King Henry.

"Isabella and her consort Ferdinand emerged from the celebrated Cortes of 1480 as absolute monarchs. She began to spend her great revenues in ways that at first he judged foolish.... No one had ever done that before, at least no one since Caesar." (ch. 23)

The landing of the Turks in Sicily, on parts of King Ferdinand's lands, prompts Isabella to begin the building of a fleet of ships, an armada. The Moorish war continues, and so does the spread of the Spanish Inquisition. Granada falls and becomes part of Spain. With the lands under Christian control "from Granada to the Pyrenees," Spain is united, and Ferdinand reluctantly agrees with Isabella that Christopher Columbus can begin his celebrated voyages.

"Oh very well, senora mia," he agreed grudgingly. "I suppose we can afford him now, and you seem to feel strongly about him. Sail him way, for all I care, out of this world. At least he'll quit pestering me."
"How do we know,: Isabella smiled, "that he won't bring back another?" (ch. 31)

Those who like historical fiction and 15th century Spain will enjoy reading Queen's Cross, one of several historical novels written by Schoonover.

Book provided by the publisher, for my objective review.

Fortune Cookie Chronicles, book review

New York Times metro reporter researches and writes about Chinese food in her memoir, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food, 2009.

An interesting question in her book:

"It gnawed at me. Could fortune cookies have been introduced to the United States by the Japanese?"

Many people wanted to know the answer to this one: (from Everyday Mysteries

"Two men in the early 1900s in California claimed the credit - a Japanese man who served tea and fortune cookies in 1914 in San Francisco, and a Chinese man of the Hong Kong Noodle Company in Los Angeles who stuffed Biblical messages in cookies. A judge ruled that Japanese-American Makoto Hagiwara of San Francisco was the real inventor of the fortune cookie!"

Jennifer 8 Lee tackles other questions about Chinese food as well in her memoir -the origin of chop suey, American stir-fry, and the phenomenon of multiple lottery winners on March 30, 2005 who bet on the same numbers provided by their fortune cookies!

The book details Chinese restaurants in the U.S. and around the world in places such as Australia, Brazil, Toyko, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. There are explanatory notes on each chapter at the end of the book, and an impressive bibliography.

The author certainly did her homework for this one! However, I was prepared for a memoir rather than a book of such detailed restaurant and food research. The information wasn't new or unusual enough and much of it seemed to me to be already common knowledge. Correct me if I'm wrong!

(Jennifer 8 Lee thanked me on Twitter for reading her book. She has a blog for more Chinese food information at The Fortune Cookie Chronicles)

Book provided by the publisher, for my objective review.

Book Review: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I'm still coming down from the emotional roller coaster ride of this book. It made me alternate between laughing and crying, then I was plunged into feelings of dread and doom as I watched/read scenes that reminded me of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury.

Then the novel, for me, descended into horror, which the tidy ending doesn't much dispel.

I think the author may have intended to evoke these feelings, his characters reflecting a side of Barcelona and Spain during and after the Civil War, and during the repressive Franco dictatorship. I can't decide if it's a four or a five star read. I gave it the benefit of the doubt, despite or because of the feeling of awesome dread that the book left me with.

This excerpt, central to the plot, can probably give a sense of the atmosphere and mood in the novel that precipitates the catastrophic events.

"Sophie had only to exchange one look with Don Ricardo Aldaya to know she was doomed. Aldaya had wolfish eyes, hungry and sharp, the eyes of a man who knew where and when to strike. He kissed her hand slowly, caressing her knuckles with his lips. Just as the hatter exuded kindness and warmth, Don Ricardo radiated cruelty and power." p. 380.

Book lovers will like the basic story, of a boy who discovers a fascinating book and sets out to find out about the author Julian Carax and the reason Carax's books are being systematically sought out and destroyed. What he finds are the stories of a group of boys who attended the same elite Catholic school years before, how the boys' lives intertwined and even collided over the years, and the mystery and tragedy that resulted.

I found these stories powerful and intriguing, the writing and characterizations excellent. I read all 487 pages in three days! The novel was translated from the Spanish by Lucia Graves.

Submitted for the
Lost in Translation Reading Challenge.

The Kiss Murder, book review

The Kiss Murder by Mehmet Murat Somer of Istanbul, Turkey, is the first in the Turkish Delight mystery series that has been translated into English and published by Penguin Books.

The main character, who works with computers in the day, dresses up as Audrey Hepburn at night, when he runs his unconventional nightclub. The mystery involves the murder of one of his nightclub employees, who had refused to turn over letters from a client that someone wants to use for blackmail.

Though the book is described as "outrageous and hilarious" and very popular in the author's native country, Turkey, I find much of the humor has been truly "lost in translation."

What may be excruciatingly funny in the original Arabic, culturally and linguistically, unfortunately didn't carry over for me into the English version. The "humorous" events fell flat. If you can, try reading the novel in the original!

Note: A "Teaser Tuesday" meme quote from the novel generated the comments for this post.