Final Exam (Murder 101 Mystery, #4)

Final Exam
by Maggie Barbieri
Rating: ★★★½
isbn: 0312376774
Series: Murder 101 #4
Publication Date: December 8, 2009
Pages: 336
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur

Well, this book was better than the last one, Quick Study, but it wasn’t as good as the first two books. Allison, our now-fearless MC, is back to being thrust into situations beyond her control, albeit with some serious authorial license – in the first book Allison was tenured. Now, she’s not, which I guess gives the administration the power needed to force her into being a Resident Admin at one of the dorms when the current RA goes missing. Allison is determined to find out where the missing RA is, so she can move back home and off the dry, catholic campus.

When Allison moves into her room, her toilet explodes, revealing a brick of pure heroin. This only spurs her on, of course.

What results is a bit convoluted, and the story is further muddied by a side plot involving her best friend’s marriage which didn’t quite work. Ultimately, the plot, distilled down to its essence, is a good one involving unwitting college students, drug runs and what a less-than-ethical parent will do in the name of ‘what’s best’ for their child. No dead bodies in this one, just a lot of chases and head wounds. But in my opinion, it could have been better with, perhaps, a different editor. This author writes good crime mysteries, and efforts at high-jinks just fall flat.

The Thirteen Problems

The Thirteen Problems
by Agatha Christie
Rating: ★★★★½
Series: The Agatha Christie Collection #
Publication Date: September 2, 2002
Pages: 201
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Agatha Christie Ltd/Planet Three Publishing

Thirteen short stories of unsolved crimes, solved by Miss Marple.

I (re)read this book for two reasons: I belong to a group reading Agatha Christie’s oeuvre in order of publication, and it fit a Halloween Bingo prompt – 13. Either one of those reasons would have been a good enough excuse to read this charming little collection of Miss Marple showing everyone up.

13 short stories: the first 6 of which share a common tie of being stories told at the Tuesday Night Club, an impromptu gathering where each person tells the tale of a mystery that went unsolved at the time. The next 6 stories are tied together in a similar way, as stories all told around the dining table one evening. The last story is a ‘stand-alone’ although it relies on the friendship established in the previous stories between Miss Marple and Sir Henry Clithering.

Without exception, each story is excellent. Some are more excellent than others; in my opinion, The Blue Geranium is the absolute stand-out, though Motive vs Opportunity comes close. The weakest was probably the last, for me, Death by Drowning. It’s solid, but in comparison, duller than the previous 12 stories.

I have a confession to make about Agatha Christie’s books: I dislike both Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. I find that in the longer books Miss Marple tends to natter on a bit too much and plays the “old spinster” and “aww shucks” hands a little too strongly. Hercule Poirot is just … an amalgamation of the worst traits of Holmes and Dupin is as close I can come to a description. I don’t find him as comical as most.

However, these short stories offer the perfect dose of Miss Marple: for almost all the stories, her participation is relegated to the end, so the simpering is contained. I also really tried, while reading these, to re-imagine Miss Marple in my mind by remembering the subjectivity of the descriptor ‘old’ and the stereotype of ‘spinster’. Yes, Miss Marple has white hair and knits, but I know many a 50-60 year old that has white hair and knits. I don’t recall her age ever being mentioned in the books I’ve read so far, so perhaps I dislike Miss Marple because of popular portrayals, combined with current attitudes about the adjectives that Christie used 100 years ago, when they covered broader spectrums.

I was partially successful; it was a struggle. Ingrained conceptions die hard. Fortunately I have a lot of books ahead of me to use for mental re-programming. Now if only I could figure out a way to like Poirot…

As I mentioned, I read this for Halloween Bingo 2020 to fit the 13 square.

Quick Study (Murder 101, #3)

Quick Study
by Maggie Barbieri
Rating: ★★★
isbn: 0312376758
Series: Murder 101 #3
Publication Date: December 9, 2008
Pages: 336
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur

This is where the series falters; at least short-term. While the first two books in the series were excellent stories about our very-human MC shoved into circumstances beyond her control, Quick Study is all about the hubris. Allison thinks she’s a one-woman crime-fighting team, taking on all comers. It’s silly and it cheapens what was a good series (and might be again, I can’t remember). Looking at the publication date of 2008 (about the time cozy mysteries started becoming derivative) I can’t help but wonder if the author just hit a dry patch inspiration-wise, or if she was following the dictates of big-publishing in it’s single-minded pursuit of the bandwagon.

Either way – poorest entry of the bunch so far.

Extracurricular Activities (Murder 101, #2)

Extracurricular Activities
by Maggie Barbieri
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 0312355386
Series: Murder 101 #2
Publication Date: November 27, 2007
Pages: 294
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur

Well, I didn’t think I’d be able to refrain from immediately picking up the next book, but I’m a bit surprised by how quickly I devoured it. Almost as good as the first one, though the action got a little bit over the top. I found the premise believable, but the number of times Allison, the MC, found herself in peril stretched the boundaries of believability, even for a cozy. Not cozy peril either: she’s shot, she’s stabbed, she’s kidnapped … her insurance rates must be hell.

Still, it obviously kept me riveted. I miss mysteries like this; I know they’re still out there, but there just harder to find, which makes me all the happier that I can revisit the keepers on my shelves from time to time.

I have the rest of the series on my shelves too, but I’m going to try to hold off starting #3 so I can get some Halloween Bingo reading in. We’ll see how long that lasts.

Murder 101

Murder 101
by Maggie Barbieri
Rating: ★★★★½
isbn: 9780312355371
Series: Murder 101 #1
Publication Date: October 31, 2006
Pages: 288
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur

Safely away from the chaos of Manhattan, St. Thomas, a small college on the banks of the Hudson River in the Bronx, is supposed to be tranquil, bucolic, and serene. Unfortunately, English professor Alison Bergeron has found it to be anything but. Recently divorced from a fellow professor and even more recently without a car---it was stolen---she has been hoofing it to school. One Friday evening, two NYPD homicide detectives drop by her office. The good news is that they found her beat-up Volvo; the bad news is that the body of one of the students in her Shakespeare seminar was in the trunk.

Not only are Alison's chances of getting the car back bleak, but suddenly she's the primary suspect on a list that includes, among others, the murdered student's drug-dealing boyfriend, Vince, and the girl's father's business rivals (he's head of an old Italian family . . .).

Accused of a crime that she didn't commit, Alison enlists her best friend, Max's, emotional support and services as an amateur sleuth. Their fumbling efforts to clear Alison's name could land her in even hotter water with Detective Bobby Crawford, the handsome investigating officer (and former altar boy)---not to mention the nuns at St. Thomas. . . .

This was a re-read of a book I’d read years ago, the first in a series that takes place on a private, catholic college campus. Our MC is a professor of English literature and the formula is fairly basic: she’s an unwitting suspect in a campus murder, and the investigating detective is a tall slab of gorgeous. Peril and protection follow.

Same old, same old right? Yes, and no. When Barbieri wrote this 14 years ago, this formula wasn’t yet so much a formula as it was a trend, and as such, this book doesn’t feel derivative – at least not to me. This story was written before ‘cozy’ became synonymous with ‘fluffy’ and ‘vapid’. So we have likeable characters we genuinely cheer on, that are going through some rather heavy duty events involving very real violence. When the MC sees crime-scene photos, she passes out, then vomits all over the detectives shoes – twice. But instead of being played for laughs, the author makes us feel the mc’s embarrassment – and the detective’s embarrassment for her.

The plotting was good; not spectacular, but this is a first book, and it was adequate enough that I didn’t guess the culprit. The author did well with presenting an array of viable suspects, and when it came down to it, the solution made sense.

I’m glad I re-read this; I’d forgotten why I loved cozies so much; it’s nice to see that what I fell in love with is not the derivative nonsense cozies have become today. Of course, I now want to re-read the entire series.

I read this for Halloween Bingo 2020, specifically for the Dark Academia square.

Uh huh, I went there again. Twilight series re-read

Why? I have no idea except I couldn’t sleep one night and I wanted something both paranormal and mindless, and I’d recently re-read all the paranormal on my shelves that I could reach, except these.

I was never a Twilight hater, though I readily admit the mc, Bella, is silly beyond belief. Neither Edward nor Jacob do heaps for me as romantic leads; I not into sparkly or stupid. But I enjoyed aspects of the story enough to read the first and skim 2-4. Actually, I barely read Eclipse because I can’t do whiny tragic. I think any appeal the books have for me centered on the Cullen family dynamic.

At any rate, it seems I never wrote reviews for these books originally, though I starred them (4, 4, 3.5, 3 respectively). My thoughts on them remain more or less the same as I remember thinking the first time I read them. Eh. Average.

The Loch Ness Papers

The Loch Ness Papers
by Paige Shelton
Rating: ★★★
Series: Scottish Bookshop Mystery #4
Publication Date: April 2, 2019
Pages: 310
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Minotaur

Delaney Nichols is delighted with her life in Edinburgh, working at The Cracked Spine—a shop that specializes in hard-to-find books and artifacts. With a job she loves, and her fast approaching marriage to devastatingly handsome Scottish pub-owner Tom Shannon, Delaney's life could be straight out of a fairy tale—at least it would be, if the pastor meant to perform the wedding ceremony hadn't recently passed away. Outside the church where Delaney is searching for another reverend, she stumbles across Norval Fraser: an elderly man obsessed with the Loch Ness monster. Always attracted to the interesting and unusual, Delaney befriends Norval. But when his nephew is found dead, the police decide Norval's obsession has moved from monsters to murder.

With a wedding to plan, her family arriving soon from Kansas, and the arrival of an over-the-top Texan with a wildly valuable book, Delaney's plate is full to bursting, but she can't abandon her new friend. Determined to help Norval, she sets out to learn the truth. The Loch Ness buries its secrets deeply, but Delaney is determined to dig them up—whether Nessie likes it or not.

I’m a little annoyed that I read this book; if I’d waited a week or two, I could have used it for the upcoming Halloween Bingo; it’s a perfect fit for the “Monsters” square. But I didn’t know that when I began the book, though I probably should have suspected.

This series dances on the thin edge between normal cozy mystery and paranormal. It’s always maybe this or that happened, and always plausible through other explanations.

I should have enjoyed The Loch Ness Papers more than I did; I generally enjoy the author’s writing, and I love the Loch Ness theme. But either the writing or my attention was too scattered to really get lost in the mystery. I suspect a bit of both; my attention could have been more focused, but the disparate clues were too disparate, and made a connection between the mysteries obvious. The sympathy Shelton hoped to garner for certain characters fell flat and she tried to involve too many people as possible suspects, making it impossible to keep them all as active participants in the mystery. And on top of it all, Delaney’s family is in town for her wedding. The result was a scattered story that felt chaotic and I suspect even if I was totally focused on the story, it would still be scattered and chaotic.

The Bird Way

The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think
by Jennifer Ackerman
Rating: ★★★★★
isbn: 1925713768
Publication Date: May 5, 2020
Pages: 355
Genre: Science
Publisher: Scribe Publishers

'There is the mammal way and there is the bird way.' This is one scientist's pithy distinction between mammal brains and bird brains- two ways to make a highly intelligent mind. But the bird way is much more than a unique pattern of brain wiring, and, lately, scientists have taken a new look at bird behaviours. What they are finding is upending the traditional view of how birds conduct their lives, how they communicate, forage, court, breed, and survive. They're also revealing not only the remarkable intelligence underlying these activities, and disturbing abilities we once considered uniquely our own - deception, manipulation, cheating, kidnapping, and infanticide - but also ingenious communication between species, cooperation, collaboration, altruism, culture, and play.

Drawing on personal observations, the latest science, and her bird-related travel around the world, from the tropical rainforests of eastern Australia and the remote woodlands of northern Japan, to the rolling hills of lower Austria and the islands of Alaska's Kachemak Bay, Ackerman shows there is clearly no single bird way of being. In every respect - in plumage, form, song, flight, lifestyle, niche, and behaviour - birds vary. It's what we love about them. As E.O. Wilson once said, when you have seen one bird, you have not seen them all.

I loved this book so much, I started putting together a post for it and realised I was going to end up writing something half as long as the book itself, with pictures most of my friends have already seen. Thankfully I realised just how much work that would be, and frankly, Jennifer Ackerman’s done a better job that I’d ever be able to do.

The Bird Way is sort of a follow-up to The Genius of Birds, which I also highly recommend. Both bring birds to life in a way that highlights just how unique, how smart, and how under-appreciated they are as a species by the general population. The Bird Way focuses on some of the even more unique outliers of the species; the ones that defy expectations either by their intelligence, their capacity for play, their weird mating rituals, communications, or parenting styles (or the lack thereof).

After reading this, one comes to terms with the idea that there is truly nothing new under the sun. There are birds that commit chicknapping, and birds that leave their eggs in everybody else’s nests.. There are birds that murder other birds, rape their females and commit acts of necrophilia. It’s all very sordid, but their are also birds that go out of their way to feed another species’ fledglings, warn other species about predators, and practice cooperative, communal parenting. Birds that sing so beautifully that symphonies have been written around their song, and birds that create literal walls of sound that chase out every competitor in their vicinity.

Obviously, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It’s easy, accessible reading, but Ackerman has done her research and includes a comprehensive Further Reading at the back of the book, broken down by chapters, that serves as a list of citations. I’ll admit, part of why I enjoyed the book as much as I did was that while her focus was international, a lot of the birds discussed were Australian and ones I’ve been privileged enough to see myself. It’s probably this first hand experience that pushed the book solidly into 5 star territory for me; perhaps without it I might have rated it 4.5 stars. Either way, it’s a book I’d happily recommend to anyone interested in not just birds, but it how we are discovering just how wrong we’ve been about what makes humanity “special”. And if the section about Keas doesn’t make you smile, and perhaps chuckle out loud, you must be having a really bad day.

Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast

Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast
by Oscar Wilde
Rating: ★★★½
isbn: 9780241251805
Series: Little Black Classics #119
Publication Date: May 2, 2016
Pages: 52
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Penguin Books

Selections taken from Nothing ... Except My Genius: The Wit and Wisdom of Oscar Wilde

I always think I’m going to enjoy a book of quotes or aphorisms, and I do really enjoy Oscar Wilde’s wit, but I can’t just read a book of quotes. They all run together and I never remember them anyway. Still, I read a few each day and as with every collection like this, some are better than others.

A favorite from this collection that I can remember:

“Murder is always a mistake. One should never do anything one cannot talk about after dinner.”

Reading Progress Update: I’ve read 142 of 355 pages of The Bird Way

The Bird Way
by Jennifer Ackerman
ISBN: 9781925713763
Published by Scribe Publishers on 2020
Genres: Natural Science
Pages: 355
Format: Paperback

I’ve just finished a chapter called “Tracing the Ant’s Path” about antbirds in Costa Rica, and while the birds themselves are fascinating, as is their behaviour, I was absolutely enthralled by the seething fan-shaped mass of tens of thousands of army ants boiling across the forest floor … I’m having flashbacks to old MacGyver episodes and then I read about E.O. Wilson’s story about living in Mozambique, and how he used to allow the army ants there to sweep through his critter-infested house; just “go away and have a cold drink somewhere” for a few hours and then come home after the army had passed through, massacring and taking with it every animal it finds, to a house “that has been perfectly cleaned for you”.

Sorry antbirds; the ants stole the show in this chapter.