It should not be so hard to write both poetry and fiction. Both arts, after all, make use of the same materials, words and punctuation. Poems...
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This is an amazing book! Barbara Goldsmith not only recreates Professor Marie Curie's life but answers many questions I've been puzzled about WW II, French historical connection to Radium and Professor Curie's important impact to physics and chemistry. There is no getting past chapters before the book becomes too good to put down. This book captures the reader at the introduction.
2011 was a year of many challenges but also the year I discovered a new, talented, creative fiction author! The older I get the more challenging this is.
Alan Bradley's main character is Flavia de Luce, the 11 year old enthusiast of chemistry, with a special interest in poisons. Flavia’s superior observational and questioning talents leads her into secret misdeeds in the hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey, a stolen toddler, and finally a dead body in her backyard. It is possible to be 11 again and be Flavia rescuing gypsies, making and losing BFFs (best friends forever), and eluding her two officious older sisters.
This is no penny mystery when the murderer is obvious by the 3rd chapter. Pedaling Gladys, her bicycle once enjoyed by her dead mother, Flavia uncovers odd twists, tangled dark deeds and dangerous secrets.
I can tell how good a read is by how many other books I read at the same time. One in my haversack for the bus. Another book by the computer for those passing long moments of updates/downloads/start... Another by the bed... I am not the type to try and remember where I last read a book to grab it as I run for the bus~~ Unless it is a really good read, and this one is! 'Take a Seat' was the only book I read from Dominic's journey from Alaska to Ushuaia.
This is not your normal cycle story from point a to b book for Dominic is riding a tandem to pick up 'stokers' (anyone to take the empty back seat and join the adventure!). But what really captured my heart was the fact from Vancouver, BC to entering Mexico I have traveled/lived at many of his stops and he was spot on! in describing the people and cultures he experienced. With this I could trust what he wrote as he traveled further south.
The best quote from the book - 'I was being forced, through experience, to conclude that the vast majority on this continent are positive and loving people. Every day I would pass a TV showing crashes, robbing, and abductions. Either, like a parting of the waves, I was riding through it protected, or the nastiness didn't exist in the volumes we are led to believe.'
I bought this book for the pleasure of reading about an alternative Seattle. I was rewarded with a fantastic read! I have not enjoyed a new book from a USA author in years. Cherie's characters quickly come alive in her 1860 Seattle. She created an adventure that travels (and in a few areas rearranges) popular 2009 neighborhoods still around from the 1800s. Most enjoyable are her characters that capture that odd, unique Seattle attitude.
I would also like to compliment the cover artist Jon Foster and Cover designer Jamie Stafford-Hill. Yes a cover does not make the book good, but an excellent cover on a great book creates a complete package!
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(4 of 6 readers found this comment helpful)
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SeattleMom has commented on (4) products.
Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie (Great Discoveries) by Barbara Goldsmith
SeattleMom, January 23, 2012
This is an amazing book! Barbara Goldsmith not only recreates Professor Marie Curie's life but answers many questions I've been puzzled about WW II, French historical connection to Radium and Professor Curie's important impact to physics and chemistry. There is no getting past chapters before the book becomes too good to put down. This book captures the reader at the introduction.A Red Herring Without Mustard: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley
SeattleMom, January 2, 2012
2011 was a year of many challenges but also the year I discovered a new, talented, creative fiction author! The older I get the more challenging this is.Alan Bradley's main character is Flavia de Luce, the 11 year old enthusiast of chemistry, with a special interest in poisons. Flavia’s superior observational and questioning talents leads her into secret misdeeds in the hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey, a stolen toddler, and finally a dead body in her backyard. It is possible to be 11 again and be Flavia rescuing gypsies, making and losing BFFs (best friends forever), and eluding her two officious older sisters.
This is no penny mystery when the murderer is obvious by the 3rd chapter. Pedaling Gladys, her bicycle once enjoyed by her dead mother, Flavia uncovers odd twists, tangled dark deeds and dangerous secrets.
Take a Seat: One Man, One Tandem and Twenty Thousand Miles of Possibilities by Dominic Gill
SeattleMom, December 28, 2011
I can tell how good a read is by how many other books I read at the same time. One in my haversack for the bus. Another book by the computer for those passing long moments of updates/downloads/start... Another by the bed... I am not the type to try and remember where I last read a book to grab it as I run for the bus~~ Unless it is a really good read, and this one is! 'Take a Seat' was the only book I read from Dominic's journey from Alaska to Ushuaia.This is not your normal cycle story from point a to b book for Dominic is riding a tandem to pick up 'stokers' (anyone to take the empty back seat and join the adventure!). But what really captured my heart was the fact from Vancouver, BC to entering Mexico I have traveled/lived at many of his stops and he was spot on! in describing the people and cultures he experienced. With this I could trust what he wrote as he traveled further south.
The best quote from the book - 'I was being forced, through experience, to conclude that the vast majority on this continent are positive and loving people. Every day I would pass a TV showing crashes, robbing, and abductions. Either, like a parting of the waves, I was riding through it protected, or the nastiness didn't exist in the volumes we are led to believe.'
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
SeattleMom, January 12, 2011
I bought this book for the pleasure of reading about an alternative Seattle. I was rewarded with a fantastic read! I have not enjoyed a new book from a USA author in years. Cherie's characters quickly come alive in her 1860 Seattle. She created an adventure that travels (and in a few areas rearranges) popular 2009 neighborhoods still around from the 1800s. Most enjoyable are her characters that capture that odd, unique Seattle attitude.I would also like to compliment the cover artist Jon Foster and Cover designer Jamie Stafford-Hill. Yes a cover does not make the book good, but an excellent cover on a great book creates a complete package!
(4 of 6 readers found this comment helpful)