Staff Recommendation #33: The Phryne Fisher Series

Although I am a lifelong fan of mystery stories (with, as you'll recall, a particular love of Sherlock Holmes), I am quite picky when it comes to the type of mysteries I like to read. I insist, of course, on a cracking-good story -- but it's just as important to me that the characters be well-written and engaging. If I'm not interested in the characters, it won't matter how good a puzzle the plot may be.

So finding the Phryne Fisher series has been pretty terrific.

The books are set in the Roaring Twenties -- and, indeed, part of the pleasure of reading them is the amount of research of the period that author Kerry Greenwood has undertaken. Our heroine, Phyrne Fisher, is an aristocrat with an unusual past: she was born into poverty in Melbourne, Australia. Her father had a far-removed relative of nobility, but it wasn't until several of the gentlemen between her father and the title died off that Phyrne's father was able to inherit. Phryne now finds herself with an official title ("the Honourable Phyrne Fisher"), a vast fortune, and a life of opportunities available to her.

After spending some years in London, she returns to Australia at the request of one of her fellow aristocrats, who have hired her to track down their daughter and rescue her from her husband (who they believe may be poisoning her). The case is recounted in the first book in the series, Cocaine Blues, which contains not only a crackling good puzzle with lots of twists and turns, but also introduces the reader to Phryne and her new family. Because, as it turns out, a life in Australia suits Phryne after all.

Phyrne has been described by her author as a female take on James Bond; her skills range from solving mysteries to flying planes. She's poised and eminently stylish, and has a zeal for adventure that befits an unofficial P.I. But she is also possessed of an incredibly huge heart, and she quickly fills her large Australian house with a new family: Dot, her official maid and unofficial "Dr. Watson," who Phryne rescued from a life on the streets; and her two adopted daughters, Jane and Ruth, who she rescues from orphaned poverty and slavery. She also has a romantic interest or three, although Phryne has no intention of settling down ...

It's precisely her mixture of independence and kindness, of stubbornness and compassion, that makes Phryne such a rich and engaging character. It also makes her quite a lot of fun to read about, making the Phryne Fisher series one that any mystery fan may want to take out for a spin.

She also has a tendency to drive too fast. Like, really too fast. Don't try this at home.

Books


1. Cocaine Blues
2. Flying Too High
3. Murder on the Ballarat Train
4. Death at Victoria Dock
5. The Green Mill Murder
6. Blood and Circuses
7. Ruddy Gore 
8. Urn Burial
9. Raisins and Almonds
10. Death Before Wicket
11. Away with the Fairies
12. Murder in Montparnasse
13. The Castlemaine Murders
14. Queen of the Flowers
15. Death by Water
16. Murder in the Dark 
17. Murder on a Midsummer Night 
18. Dead Man's Chest
19. Unnatural Habits
20. Murder and Mendelssohn
- A Question of Death [short story collection]



Television Series

- Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries: Series One [DVD]
- Series One on Blu-ray

- Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries: Series Two [DVD]

"He sounds like he might bear more investigation," said Dot.

"Did he fancy her?" asked Ruth. "It might be a tale of forbidden love."

"I swear, Ruth, one day I am going to make a little bonfire of all the romance novels in the world," said Phryne without rancour. "Actually, it would have to be a very big bonfire. Perhaps I could rent a volcano and drop them in from the air. Honestly."

-- from Unnatural Habits

-- Post by Ms. B

Staff Recommendation #26 : "S." by Doug Dorst and J.J. Abrams

When I first heard that J. J. Abrams was co-creating a book, my inner fangirl went crazy! As readers of this blog may know I am a huge fan of Fringe, Lost, and Star Trek (2009), all either created or directed by Abrams. While I admit I have not seen everything he's been involved with, I give almost all of it a try. And I knew that S. would be another one of those that I would have to try.

S., conceived by Abrams and written by Doug Dorst, is a story within a story. One story is the physical book Ship of Theseus by V. M. Straka. The other is within the margins of Ship of Theseus, which tells the story of Jen, a college senior, and Eric, a graduate student at the same college.

Jen and Eric are trying to uncover the mystery surrounding Straka, the author of Ship of Theseus, while they are learning to trust each other and figure out what their futures hold. Jen stumbles upon the book in the college library only to discover that someone has been making notes in the margins. She decides to read the book herself and returns it with a message of her own. Thus begins their old fashioned correspondence and their friendship. They continue to communicate and try to solve the enigma that is Straka, through the margin notes and a variety of other items, such as postcards and letters (when there is too much to share in a margin).

Meanwhile, we are pulled into the mystery of the man, S, in Straka's book. S has no memory of his past but is reluctantly swept along with a group of revolutionaries. S ends up on a ship filled with a strange and intriguing crew that will be his home for many years, although it only feels like days to him. He is also desperately trying to find his way back to the woman who captured his heart so long ago.



I'm not going to get into what these stories represent because I don't think that I have that figured out. Sad to say, but the idea of this book had me more excited than the book itself. I don't regret reading it, but it's not a book to be taken lightly.

One of the most important things to know about reading S., is that you probably should have a strategy for reading. Theories abound on the internet on the best way to approach it. Some say read Ship of Theseus the whole way through and then only go back and read the margin notes and ephemera. Others say read a chapter and then the notes. While others insist on reading the margin notes along with Ship of Theseus. My strategy changed while I read it which I think affected my feelings on this book.

My overall recommendation though is that if you love books - how they look, how they feel, even how they smell - then you should take a chance on S., you won't be disappointed.

-- Get S. from the catalog.



--Post by Tracy

Staff Recommendation #23: A Chinese Sherlock Holmes

Our thanks to MPL librarian Sally Michalski for today's Staff Recommendation!

As I was looking through the mystery paperbacks in our collection, I stumbled across several white-bound books by author Robert Van Gulik, with intriguing titles like The Willow Pattern and The Chinese Bell Murders. I felt as if I had stepped back to a time when I was hooked on the Fu Manchu mysteries of Sax Rohmer, or even to the Green Ginger Jar of my childhood.

No one had taken these books out in ages, so I took home The Willow Pattern: A Judge Dee Mystery to try for myself. Here I was introduced to the Chinese detective Judge Dee. The mystery was pretty typical of a present-day murder mystery -- but the setting was China during the Tang Dynasty of the 7th century.

In reading Van Gulik's series, it's hard not to picture a modern-day setting. The culture of the Tang dynasty was sophisticated, and the acts of murder were for much the same reason that people murder today. There are even descriptions of martial arts fights between two people, described just as you would see them in the movies today.

My first impulse while reading the book was to find out more about the author of these Judge Dee mysteries. Robert Van Gulik was born in Holland, but was raised in Jakarta, where he learned to speak Mandarin as well as other languages. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1935 from the University of Leyden, and went on to join the Dutch Foreign Service, where he was primarily stationed in East Asia. As a diplomat, he was in Tokyo when Japan declared war on the Netherlands, and he worked with Chiang Kai-shek’s government in China. He married a Chinese woman and had four children. At the time of his death, he was the Dutch Ambassador to Japan.

Judge Dee -- who was a real person, living during the Tang Dynasty -- was well-known long before the fictional Sherlock Holmes came upon the scene with his powers of deduction. As part of the governing system, Judge Dee served as a magistrate, hearing criminal and civil cases and distributing justice in the best interest of the people. His reputation for fairness and his powers of deduction are what propelled him into modern-day literature.

Van Gulik’s original literary connection with Judge Dee was in a book called Dee Goong An. This is a volume that was written in the 18th century, but was eventually translated by Van Gulik. In this book, Judge Dee is involved in three murders at the same time, which is typical of the Chinese Detective novel as it has developed over the centuries.

There are elements in Dee Goong An that are not present in the Judge Dee series that Van Gulik wrote himself. One such element is fulfilling the audience's expectations for detective novels and revealing how the criminal is going to be punished, with all the gory details of the punishment vividly described. (Torture is also meted out in the magistrate’s courtroom; one apparently-favored method of getting someone to confess was through the use of screws on the wrists and ankles.)

Another modern-day author, Eleanor Cooney, has also written about Judge Dee. In Cooney's thick novel Deception, Judge Dee is swept up into the intrigue surrounding a royal concubine who will go on to become the Empress Wu. There are magical elements involving a sorcerer, visits to Buddhist monasteries, and nights of meditation in Buddhists chapels. (Divine inspiration is given to Judge Dee regarding the crime after such a night.) There's even a peek into Judge Dee’s private life.

Dee has been immortalized in recent movies. In the tradition of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, this ancient sleuth has been showcased with fantastic action and brilliant scenery. From the 2010 film Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, men are experiencing spontaneous combustion as they work on one of the  Empress Wu’s building projects. Of course, there are battles in the tradition of the fantastical, where warring parties seemed to be imbued with supernatural strength and physical prowess.

A new Inspector Dee movie was released in September 2013 -- Young Inspector Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon.

Inspector Dee, Judge Dee, Detective Dee; they are all the same immortalized person. If you are looking for a good mystery that is not set in England and does not include spies or terrorists, try a Judge Dee mystery by Robert Van Gulik. You will find Dee’s powers of deduction to rival those of Sherlock Holmes, as you read your way through murders by poison, knifing, arrows, or magic!


From the Catalog:

-- The Judge Dee mysteries - by Robert Van Gulik.

-- Dee Goong An - translated by Robert Van Gulik.

-- Deception - by Eleanor Cooney.

-- Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame [DVD]



Bibliography

- Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee (Dee Goong An): An Authentic Eighteenth-Century Chinese Detective Novel. New York : Dover Publications, 1976.

- Cooney, Eleanor and Altieri Daniel : Deception: A Novel of Murder and Madness in Tang China.  New York : W. Morrow, c1993.

- Gulik, Robert Van: The Willow Pattern: A Judge Dee Mystery. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1993.

Staff Recommendation #21: The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

To put it bluntly, I am not an adventurous person. I tend to stick to what I know and what I'm familiar with, although since meeting my husband I have opened up a bit to the idea of adventure. That is one of the reasons I identified so much with the author of this fascinating and, dare I say it, adventurous look at one man's search for a great lost city in the Amazon.

The author, David Grann, who readily admits to having trouble with directions and even forgetting where he is on the subway, sets out to find out what made Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett so obsessed with finding the lost city of Z. This book tells the story of Grann trying to understand Fawcett's obsession and learning about who Fawcett was and what happened to him after he disappeared into the Amazon in 1925, never to be heard from again.

Percy Fawcett was the last of the great English explorers. Born in 1867, Fawcett joined the British Army at the age of 19. The next twenty years of his life were spent in the service stationed mainly in Sri Lanka, where his love of exploration seems to have started. It is also where he met his future wife, Nina. Nina would turn out to be his most ardent and supportive fan, even though they would spend more of their married life apart than together.

In 1906, after studying to be a surveyor with the Royal Geographical Society, he was hired to to survey the disputed border of Bolivia, Peru and Brazil. This would begin a nearly 20 year connection to this untamed portion of South America and to his eventual disappearance, along with his son Jack and Jack's best friend Raleigh, in 1925.

Percy Fawcett

During this first trip, and many more that followed, Fawcett began hearing stories of "white" Indians and lost cities deep in the Amazon. Many stories referred to a place called El Dorado. With his fierce determination and love of exploring, Fawcett was convinced that he could find this lost city that he named "Z."

David Grann, on the other hand, always had a love of adventure stories, but was not the adventurous type. But when he stumbled upon mention of Fawcett while working on another story, he was hooked. This fascination with Fawcett would lead Grann to England, where he meets with Fawcett's granddaughter, and eventually to Brazil, where he attempts to find out what happened to Fawcett and maybe even find the Lost City of Z himself.

The story of Fawcett would have been interesting enough, but adding Grann's own story to the mix makes it a much more relatable tale. Grann leaves behind his wife and young child in much the same way that Fawcett left behind his family in search of something that may not even exist.

I found this to be a fascinating look at what drives humans to want to explore the unknown. While I'm not sure I understand it anymore than I did before, it was a great adventure to "tag" along with Grann and Fawcett on.

If you are looking for a little adventure, but want to experience it vicariously, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon is the book for you!


-- Post by Tracy

Staff Recommendation #16 : Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

So, here I am, once again, reviewing a book that is hard to review. It's not as bad as trying to review Gone Girl without giving away anything, but it is still a little complicated. But here goes!

First off, I've been a fan of Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie series for quite awhile, but had never read any of her other works. Her earlier novels were all written before Case Histories (the first in the Brodie series) was published in 2005. While the Brodie series is a mystery series, they are a little different. What I liked about Case Histories is that it wasn't a typical mystery. Yes, there is a murder to solve, but it's only one of three cases that Brodie is working on.

When I heard that Kate Atkinson was writing another book, I was actually a little disappointed that it wasn't a Jackson Brodie book. But since I already knew I liked her writing style, I assumed that I would get to the new book sooner or later. Well, it turned out to be sooner rather than later.

Life After Life starts off with the birth of Ursula Todd in 1910. Minutes later, she dies. And then she is born again, but this time she lives. That is, until she dies again and the process starts over. Good things and bad things happen to Ursula in her different lives. Some events are exactly the same; other times, they are very different. Often she is aware of her past life, but most times she is not. Maybe it's déjà vu? Maybe it's not?

Ursula's very proper English mother is quite exasperated by Ursula's behavior (it is very un-English like), and eventually takes her to see a psychiatrist, who brings up the subject of reincarnation. But Ursula doesn't always encounter Dr. Kellet, so is she aware of this idea in her other lives?

London during the Blitz -- 1941

Much of the story revolves around English life during World War II, and Ursula's role in it. In one life, she is a warden during the Blitz; in another, she is acquainted with Eva Braun and Hitler. Sometimes she meets the same people, sometimes she doesn't.

As you see, it's a hard book to describe. But I think the author put it best herself:

People always ask you what a book is ‘about,’ and I generally make something up, as I have no idea what a book is about (it’s ‘about’ itself). But if pressed, I think I would say Life After Life is about being English (on reflection, perhaps that’s what all my books are about). Not just the reality of being English, but also what we are in our own imaginations.

Atkinson just uses the premise of living your life over and over again to demonstrate her view on being "English".  (She goes into greater detail here, but don't read it if you don't want spoilers.)

This book turned out not to be exactly what I thought it would be, but sometimes it's good not to have your expectations met. In this case, it was a very good thing.




Click below for books in the Jackson Brodie series:

Case Histories

One Good Turn

When Will There be Good News?

Started Early, Took My Dog

Click below for other books by Kate Atkinson:

Behind the Scenes at the Museum

Human Croquet

Emotionally Weird

Not the End of the World





-- Post by Tracy

Staff Recommendation #15: The Plain State of Being Human

How to describe Nick Hornby?  He's the British author of such popular novels as About a Boy and High Fidelity (if you haven't read the books, you may have seen the movies). He's known, primarily, as an author who takes a closer look at the lives and lifestyles of aimless single guys -- but it's something of an unfair pigeon-holing. Nick Hornby knows how to write about everyone. 

His books are noteworthy precisely because they seem like they shouldn't be -- being stories about average people who find themselves in situations that, while not average, become totally relatable. His plots are so uniquely quirky (obsessive fans, spiritual conversions, and temporary time travel, to name but a few), that it's only because of Hornby's incredible way with words that you can still relate to the characters. He has a knack at describing our everyday thoughts, feelings, and impulses in simplistic language -- but it's a language that shows off his uncanny ability to reveal what it truly means to be human.

And, if it's true that I don't always agree with those conclusions, I always enjoy coming along with Hornby to see what his characters discover. Here, then, is a look at my three personal Hornby favorites:

-- About a Boy

"This thing about looking for someone less different... It only really worked, he realized, if you were convinced that being you wasn't so bad in the first place."

Thirtysomething Will Freeman lives a life of somewhat boring leisure, whiling away his time watching reality TV and listening to music albums. He doesn't have to work (and so he doesn't work), thanks to the royalties rolling in to him from his father's one-hit-wonder music career. (His dad wrote a smash-hit Christmas jingle.) Will's life has been lacking in any particular challenges, until he hatches a unique scheme to meet women: he joins a support group for single parents. He's not a single father, himself, but he solves that problem neatly enough by inventing an imaginary two-year-old son named Ned to tell the ladies about.

Then there's Marcus -- a slightly awkward, slightly nerdy twelve-year-old who is having a rough time of it. He and his mum have just moved to London, and adjusting to his new school proves impossible. Nobody likes him -- not even the teachers -- and he can't figure out why. (He'd go to his mum, but she has problems of her own.)

When Will and Marcus's paths intersect, Will finds that he can't just brush Marcus out of his life. Marcus needs an adult in his life, after all -- and even if, on the surface, Will doesn't seem like the best guy for the task, it quickly turns out that he's the only one up for the job.

(The 2002 film adaptation stars Hugh Grant -- and the book is also the basis for a single-camera sit-com due out this fall, courtesy of NBC.)

-- How to Be Good

"The plain state of being human is dramatic enough for anyone; you don't need to be a heroin addict or a performance poet to experience extremity. You just have to love someone."

I picked this book up on a whim at a bookshop. I wanted something different from what I normally read, and this quirky, darkly hilarious, quietly heart-rending book definitely fit the bill.

Katie Carr is a family practitioner whose marriage is on the rocks. She's married to a man known in his own newspaper column as "The Angriest Man in Holloway" -- which might explain why they can't stop fighting. Divorce seems inevitable -- that is, until David undergoes a most unusual spiritual conversation and decides to change his life.

Determined not only to treat Katie (and their two kids) much better than before, David's plans for turning over his new leaf go much further than that. Donating their most valuable belongings to shelters. Giving away their holiday dinner to the poor. Organizing a neighborhood-wide project to bring in homeless teens and offering them places to stay in everyone's homes. On paper, it sounds magical -- but it takes a toll in ways Katie couldn't have imagined. 

Darkly funny, sharply observant, and devastatingly real, Hornby uses this book to answer one of the most stark but complicated questions of the human condition: why can't we come together and make it all right?

-- Slam

"There are many differences between a baby and an iPod. And one of the biggest is, no one's going to mug you for your baby."

There's lots of books about teen pregnancy. This nominally-YA novel takes a different approach from the norm and tells the story from the guy's point of view.

Fifteen-year-old Sam is, himself, the son of a teen mum. He certainly knows all about how much a small mistake can change your life -- but he never anticipated becoming a teen dad.

He explains all this to Tony Hawk, his skateboarding hero. Sam's got a poster of TH in his bedroom, and he's taken to explaining all of his problems to his imaginary mentor when he can't quite figure out what to do next. He isn't going to leave Alicia to handle things on her own -- but what does this mean for her?  For them?  For Sam himself?  And how can he find his way through it?

As if that's not bad enough, something ... weird is going on. Sam goes to bed and wakes up a few years in his own future. (It's how he knows he's going to be a dad even before Alicia gets the pregnancy test results.) After a day, he's back in time where he started -- with no idea how he went there, how he got back, or even what it all means. But it must mean something, because Sam is pretty sure that Tony Hawk's behind it ...

As funny and insightful as his other books, Hornby's Slam stands out to me. It's a sci-fi book without the science fiction, a teen book perfect for adults. In the end, the story's sporadic windows into the future are there to show Sam -- and us -- that our present might not be so bad after all.

-- Post by Ms. B

The Land of Oz Redux

Our thanks to MPL librarian Sally Michalski for today's Birthday Biography!

While most people know the Land of Oz from the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, there was a time, before radio and television, when the children of the world were caught up in the wonderful Land of Oz in print. Oz was the Harry Potter series of its time.  It was a craze.

Lyman Frank Baum, a man who could not find his place in the real world, loved to tell stories to his children.  Finally, about 1899, he was persuaded to put his stories on paper. He engaged W.W. Denslow as the illustrator of his imaginary Land of Oz that they tried to get published, but no one would take them on. Finally, the Geo. M. Hill Company agreed to publish the book, but Baum and Denslow had to pay for the binding and color illustrations themselves.

The first 1900 edition was a printing of 5,000 books and was quickly sold out.  Two other printings followed, and between April and November of that year, 60,000 copies had been sold.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was such a success that L. Frank Baum, as he preferred to be known, went on to write other children’s books about other children -- but not Dorothy.

He got letters from children begging him to write another story about Dorothy and the Land of Oz, and finally he said that he'd only write another Oz tale when he had received a thousand letters. And he got them.

The second book, The Marvelous Land of Oz, was once again a hit, but Dorothy wasn’t in it. The children clamored for more -- but this time with Dorothy, please.  Ever after, every Oz book Baum wrote had Dorothy taking part.

I read these books as a child who frequented my local library. It was a strong emotional pull that took me directly to the bottom shelf of a stack, kneeling on a corrugated rubber runner hoping against hope that there was yet another Oz book I hadn’t yet read. I loved the characters, and I’m not just talking about the Tin Woodsman and the Cowardly Lion.  I am talking about such high falutin’ characters as H. M. Wogglebug, T. E. (or Highly Magnified Wogglebug, Thoroughly Educated). Another favorite character was the Patchwork Girl, who was the only person of color in Munchkinland.

There were oodles more, each one more interesting than the last. I couldn’t stop reading them.

As a child, I loved the stories as stories themselves.  I grew up to be a collector of Oz books, because I still can’t get them out of my system. As time went on, I began to see the man behind the stories.  Frank Baum kept popping out in his opinions, his politics, and his thoughts about new-fangled inventions.

In Ozma of Oz, published in 1907, a new character is introduced.  Her name is the Princess Langwidere -- whose name is close to languid, which means unwilling to exert oneself.  Baum portrays the Princess Langwidere in this fashion, as she must lean on her maid for support as she travels from one room to the other or from one closet to the next.

Langwidere is a princess of the Kingdom of Ev.  She does not rule, but spends much of the royal treasury. The princess cannot be recognized by her face, because she is very vain and has thirty heads, one for every day of the month.  This princess has a waiting room that is surrounded with mirrors, even on the ceiling, and the floor is silvered so that every object in the room is reflected. A vain and flighty person is the Princess Langwidere.

Baum pokes fun at the suffragettes in The Marvelous Land of Oz, published in 1904.  A girl named General Jinjur raises an army of four hundred pretty girls.  The army is going to attack the Emerald City because “[the City] has been ruled by men for long enough.”

Jinjur’s army is dressed in silk uniforms with green blouses and multicolored skirts. (The skirts have panels of blue, red, yellow, and purple.  Depending on what Oz country the girl is from, she wears the color of that country in front.) Each girl has a pair of knitting needles in her bun that she uses as a weapon. When they arrive at the gates of the Emerald City, the Guardian of the Gate is surprised to be attacked, and says, “Good gracious, what a nonsensical idea! Go home to your mothers, my good girls, and milk the cows and bake the bread.” The army then attacks him with their knitting needles and he runs off in search of help.

Next, Jinjur sits on the throne in the Emerald City and begins eating caramels. The men of Oz are doing housework and minding children, and are worn out from the work.  The Scarecrow, who was the reigning King of Oz, is asked, “Why don’t you send her back to her mother where she belongs?” Another asks, “Why don’t you shut her up in a closet until she behaves herself, and promises to be good?” A third says, “Or give her a good shaking.”

In Ozma of Oz (1907), Jinjur is seen again.  On another trip to the Emerald City, Dorothy and her gang stop to beg some milk from a pretty maid.  Ozma sees that it is Jinjur who explains, “I’ve married a man who owns nine cows, and now I am happy and contented and willing to lead a quiet life and mind my own business.”

In all, L. Frank Baum wrote 14 Oz books and numerous other titles for children.  When he died in 1919, Ruth Plumley Thompson took up the stories with The Royal Book of Oz (a posthumous honor to Baum) and, in total, wrote 19 more books about Oz. John R. Neal, the second illustrator of the original Baum series, wrote four Oz books.  Jack Snow wrote two and Rachel Cosgrove wrote one, as did Eloise Jarvis McGraw and her daughter.  There are other Oz books beyond these, but they are not considered canon.

The land that Frank Baum created is still very much with us today.  Not only is The Wizard of Oz movie with Judy Garland a staple for children, but recently Oz, the Great and Powerful was produced as the latest addition to the story of Oz.  I am happy to report that I think this new movie carried through the personality of the Wizard, although I could have done without the sexy witches.

A first edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is very valuable today. There are websites that have first editions of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from $6,000 to $100,000. For myself, I've found that writing a blog plot can be expensive.  In doing this little exercise, I just had to purchase a copy of John R. Neill’s posthumously published book The Runaway in Oz. One can never have too many Oz books.

Happy Birthday, L. Frank Baum -- 157 years old this May 15. You enriched my childhood with imagination and a sense of wonder.

-- Post by Sally Michalski

For more reading:

- Introducing the Girls of Oz
Sally Michalski's website, with more information about the female characters of Baum's Oz books.

- Rare Oz Books 

All about the rare collectibles of Oz.

References: 

- Baum, L. Frank, The Marvelous Land of Oz: A Sequel to the Wizard of Oz, ill. John R. Neill (New York: William Morrow & Co., c1904).

- Baum, L. Frank, Ozma of Oz, ill. John R. Neill  (Chicago: The Reilly & Lee Co., c1907).

- Betty Lee Johnson, “The World of Oz Remains Wonderful To this Day,” Antique Week, 3 February 1992.

- Daniel P. Mannix, “ The Father of the Wizard of Oz,” American Heritage, December. 1964.


(All illustrations by John R. Neill.)

A Professional Pirate

The irreplaceable, irrepressible Tim Curry

I've been a fan of Tim Curry for years. An actor, singer, and voice actor, he's appeared on stage and screen in a huge variety of shows, plays, and films. He first came to my attention in such kid-friendly fare as the film adaptation of the hit Broadway show Annie, and as the deliciously villainous Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers. As I got older, I discovered how far his range truly stretched with such iconic roles as Dr. Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Pennywise the Clown in the Stephen King miniseries It. (And, of course, one of my favorite Curry roles is his appearance as the Moriarty-inspired character of Dale Biederbeck in the TV series Monk.)

Despite having such a wide range -- from comedic roles to the dramatic, from period pieces to horror, from voice acting to musicals -- one of the things that Curry brings to every role is precisely why I think he has so many fans: his sense of fun. Curry is clearly an actor who loves what he does, and in every role, no matter what it is, that enjoyment and high good humor is shining through. There are many actors who I'm a fan of, but Tim Curry might be the one who's the most consistently fun.

So in honor of his upcoming birthday (April 19), let's take a look at five of his most memorable roles:

-- The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Starting life in 1973 as a London musical, The Rocky Horror Picture Show was quickly adapted into a film that was released two years later. The movie musical was Curry's first major film role -- appropriate, since he'd originated the role in London during the play's premiere.

A musical send-up of the science fiction and horror B movies of the 50s and 60s, this cult classic features Curry in the role of Dr. Frank N. Furter. This nearly-indescribable musical focuses on a newly-engaged couple who leave their broken-down car and walk down the road to a castle owned by Dr. Frank N. Furter, only to get caught up in all manner of increasingly bizarre and wild hijinks. The best way to describe it, I think, is simply to say: you gotta watch it for yourself.

Strangeness aside, this cult classic nonetheless features one of Curry's most iconic roles. And the film's effects on pop culture are decidedly far-reaching: the movie has remained in theaters to this day. Don't forget to check out the soundtrack!

-- Clue

You wouldn't expect a movie based on a boardgame to become a cult classic in its own right -- until you've seen Clue, anyway. This murder mystery story is very much a spoof of the mystery genre, and a comedy in its own right, starring such actors as Christopher Lloyd, Martin Mull, Madeline Kahn, and Tim Curry as the butler, Wadsworth.

Borrowing heavily from Agatha Christie's classic And Then There Were None, the film draws together six strangers who are invited to a secluded mansion. They're promptly given code names by the butler (of the "Professor Plum" and "Colonel Mustard" variety, natch), before the reason for their invitation becomes clear: all six of them are being blackmailed by their host, Mr. Boddy. (Get it?)  When Mr. Boddy turns up murdered, the culprit has to be one of the guests -- but who?  Antics ensue as the guests (with Wadsworth's help) try to figure out the guilty party.

Since "the butler did it" is such a staple of murder mysteries, you might expect Curry's dry, droll Wadsworth to be the culprit -- but, well, it actually depends. There are three different solutions to the mystery, and, when the movie was first released to theaters, how you saw the ending was determined by what theater you happened to see the film in. (The DVD release features all three versions.)

-- Muppet Treasure Island 

Tim Curry as a pirate in a movie starring the Muppets?  Yes, please!  This Muppet-ified version of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel Treasure Island stars Tim Curry in the role of the peg-legged sea cook Long John Silver -- alongside Kermit the Frog as Captain Smollett, Fozzie Bear as Squire Trelawney, and Miss Piggy as Benjamina Gunn.

This family-friendly musical manages to be both a delightful Muppets spoof and also a fairly faithful adaptation of the original novel (well, more or less). Like most Muppets movies, the film's a fun romp for kids while also having plenty of humor for the adults in the audience (Gonzo and Rizzo find a copy of Henry Kissinger's Diplomacy in Billy Bones's sea chest).

The cartoony, off-beat humor and fun make this classic Muppets fare. But the story's also got heart, in the paternal friendship that forms between Long John Silver and the orphaned Jim Hawkins (played by  Kevin Bishop). 

-- Spamalot

We've talked about Spamalot before -- the Eric Idle-penned musical adapted from the Monty Python cult classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail. When the show premiered on Broadway in 2005, the production starred Curry in the role of King Arthur.

I got to see Spamalot when it toured to Pittsburgh several years ago, but, alas, Curry was no longer playing the role of Arthur. Luckily for all of us who missed out, the original Broadway cast recording is available on CD. Curry shines as the devoted, often slightly-exasperated King of Camelot who just wants to find the Grail and get back to Camelot -- but who can't seem to help but get involved in all sorts of weirdness along the way.

-- A Series of Unfortunate Events 

As a major animation buff, one of the reasons I'm such a Curry fan is because of the vast amount of voice acting he's done. He's famous among animation fans for the wide variety of cartoon characters he's voiced -- and also the ones he hasn't. Bruce Timm, the showrunner of the popular 90s show Batman: The Animated Series, confessed that he originally hired Curry to provide the voice of the Joker in the show. Unfortunately, the producers had to let Curry go after he'd recorded the dialogue for only a few episodes. Curry was doing such a good job the producers were afraid his performance would traumatize the show's youngest viewers!

But you don't have to be an animation enthusiast to experience Curry's amazing vocal repertoire. Try, instead, his performance as the audiobook reader on Lemony Snicket's well-known children's series A Series of Unfortunate Events. This thirteen-book series features the misadventures of the Baudelaire orphans -- Violet, Klaus, and Sunny -- as they struggle to escape from the clutches of their new guardian, Count Olaf. Olaf is after the fortune that the Baudelaire parents left for their children.

Promising from the first page to be a book "with no happy ending," Unfortunate Events still manages to be a darkly humorous series, making it a match made in heaven to Curry's voice acting skills. He finds distinctive voices for the huge cast of characters, and his wry reading (matching Snicket's wry writing) makes this series primed to be enjoyed by listeners of all ages.

-- Post by Ms. B

Staff Recommendation #12: "Insane City" by Dave Barry

Insane City by Dave Barry

I've mentioned before that I'm a big fan of Dave Barry, the author and humorist whose column for the Miami Herald appeared in more than 500 newspapers and won him a Pulitzer Prize. Since leaving his column-writing duties in 2005, Barry has still been writing -- concentrating on his bestselling YA series Peter and the Starcatchers with co-author Ridley Pearson.

He's written over thirty books throughout his career, the majority of which are non-fiction collections. But he's also penned three novels for adults: Big Trouble, Tricky Business, and Insane City (a fourth novel, Lunatics, was written with co-author Alan Zweibel).

When Big Trouble came out in 1999, it was an instant bestseller, popular enough to be made into a movie starring Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Janeane Garofalo, and Stanley Tucci. (The book's popularity did not transfer into a blockbuster film, alas.) Three years later came Tricky Business, which seemed less popular among fans than the first book, but which I, myself, found much more enjoyable and engaging than Barry's first offering.

I had to wait over a decade for Barry's third solo novel, which finally arrived in the shape of Insane City. I was, pun intended, insanely excited when my turn came up on the Library holds list, but as I started reading, it was with a slightly apprehensive question in mind: would the book turn out to be worth the 11-year wait?

I am so pleased to say that the answer is Yes.

Describing the comedy (and quirky action) of a Barry novel's plot is to always do the actual story a disservice. Centering -- at least at first -- around an upcoming wedding in Miami, the book takes unexpected twists and turns that alternate between hysterically funny and just seriously great action. There's simply no short description that could give justice to the fun of watching soon-to-be-groom Seth Weinstein and soon-to-be-bride Tina Clark get caught up in a series of whirlwind events -- events which include a orangutan, a Burmese python, an accidental robbery of a convenience store, and an only-in-Miami rehearsal dinner. Don't forget the gunfire, multiple car chases (including one with a stolen cop car), and the pirate ship.

As in his previous novels, however, there's more to Barry's tale than simply throwing wacky elements together for a good laugh. (Though, don't get me wrong: there's a lot of good laughs.) Introduced initially in alternating chapters to the pre-wedding hijinks, we meet a desperate family of Haitian refugees, whose plight ultimately forms the backbone of the novel. By the third act, the stakes are far more than whether or not Tina and Seth will ultimately make it down the aisle -- and it boosts the novel from being a collection of humor skits into a story that has something to say about relationships, ambition, and what it means to do the right thing.

The book is, at turns, funny, tense, engaging, suspenseful, always fun, and filled with rich characters (I particularly love Seth, LaDawne, Bobby -- and especially Meghan, who was probably my favorite character).

If there's any single downside to the book, it's that the audio version of the book is not as enjoyable. I really love audiobooks, and I was greatly looking forward to "rereading" the book by listening to the recorded version. I was doubly excited when I found out that Barry himself had read the audiobook; he'd done such a great job with his history-of-the-60s non-fiction collection Dave Barry Turns 50. Unfortunately, his performance was not quite as smooth with a novel. His reading of the narration is engaging enough -- but as he makes no attempt to change his voice for the dialogue portions, it becomes difficult not only to tell which character is talking, but also when a character is speaking at all. So in this case, I'd recommend sticking with the novel itself.

But that's alright: the novel version won't disappoint. I'm already looking forward to Barry's next book -- but, in the meantime, I'm excited simply to read this one again.


-- Request a copy of Insane City

-- Request the audiobook version of Insane City, read by the author

From that one time that somebody brought a live nurse shark onto a Miami subway train. 

Because when you live in Miami, you don't have to make up the weirdness.

QUESTION: What is it about Miami that makes it such an "insane" city?

DAVE BARRY: People come here from all over the world -- to work, to party, to commit felonies, to seek elective office, sometimes to do all of these things simultaneously. So you have a wide range of residents, coupled with humidity and many large non-native snakes. And drugs. It is not a recipe for normality.

-- Post by Ms. B