The Pied Piper by Ridley Pearson (audio)

Posted on April 28, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Another effort to become more universally familiar with the mystery genre. Another lackluster review; but to be fair, two things: 1) the Husband and I listened to the abridged audiobook, and I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it was very heavily abridged. 2) this was a fair audiobook. Passable. Got us through Tyler and almost up to Texarkana. Which is to say, vastly superior to Shoot Him If He Runs.

It was just a bit too rushed. In only 3 cds, I’m going to assume we lost quite a bit of character and plot development. Even at this rate, the characters were interesting and likable; I’m genuinely concerned about Boldt’s wife who’s dying of leukemia and intrigued by her spirituality. I wanted to get to know these people better and, to give Pearson the benefit of the doubt, I’ll guess that I could have, if I had read the unabridged book. This level of abridgement hurt the flow, style, and interest of the plot, assuming it was a good book to begin with.

Would I give Pearson another try? I’d be willing to if he fell in my lap at the right moment. I’m not against him.

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NOLA: thankfully, a phoenix

Posted on April 25, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I spent last weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana with my parents, celebrating my father’s birthday. It was a milestone one, but I’ll leave the numbers out in case he’d prefer it that way. 🙂 The Husband didn’t get to join us because he had a different celebration going on: his parents were celebrating a milestone anniversary. What a weekend! Congrats and happy birthdays all around.

I’ve never had such a lovely time in New Orleans. It was one high point after another. I left work early on Friday to get there in the early evening, and walked Bourbon Street with the folks and had a delicious dinner at NOLA, one of Emeril’s restaurants. Saturday morning was my father’s big birthday event, the Crescent City Classic 10k race, a very big and very big-deal race through the French Quarter and out to City Park. I ran with Pops to the start and ran around a bit til the race came by where I was stationed on Rampart, and even jumped in to run a few blocks with him – I’m not a runner, really, but had a nice run myself while he had a very HOT but ultimately successful race. Next was breakfast with my mother, walking the French market, and then lunch with all three of us together again.

Then we went to the Louisiana State Museum to see their Katrina exhibit. This is difficult to describe. According to the National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Katrina caused close to 2000 deaths when it hit Louisiana in August of 2005, and in the weeks of aftermath, including flooding and major loss of services. As a Houstonian, I was only indirectly affected; I had friends who evacuated, and I made new friends, as some New Orleanian evacuees stayed in Houston. Searching various sources tells me that my city absorbed the largest number; NPR claimed in 2007 that over 90,000 New Orleanians were still living in Houston. I’ve visited NO all my life, and certainly was aware of appallingly great suffering and the recovery that has been taking place ever since. I’ve traveled back to NO a number of times since 2005 – including for my honeymoon in 2008 – and I’ve seen how well the city is doing; but I’ve also seen that things are not the same as they were, and they never can be. I’ve seen the high water marks on the freeway walls – several stories up.


But I hadn’t taken any of the “Katrina tours” offered, and this was my first museum exhibit. It was beyond powerful. There were photographs, interviews, objects & artifacts, text, interactive educational displays (mostly relating to the “forensics” of how the destruction of wetlands contributes to flooding, the myriad ways in which levees can fail, hurricane formation, etc.), and multimedia displays, audio and video recordings of folks telling their stories. I cried. I promise you would cry too.

I think this exhibit should be required for visitors to New Orleans. This event will never cease to be deeply relevant to everyone’s experience of the city; the horror that took place, and the efforts necessary to rebuild and recover, are an important part of the city’s culture and what it has to offer today. I love this city and its people, the great food, the friendly attitudes, the art, the extraordinary live music, the irreverence and the unapologetic, frank approach to the party lifestyle. It’s a very unique culture, and I’m glad it’s back, although in a slightly different incarnation.

When we left the museum after this intense and emotional experience, it was time for a change of pace. We took a streetcar out of the Quarter to a pub my father had found. It was just our kind of place: long beer list of obscure and diverse beers with quirky, knowledgeable, friendly staff. We camped out there for most of the rest of the day, and I got to drink a bottle of De Drie Fonteinen Schaerbeekse Kriek!! My father and I visited this brewery years ago, and I wrote about it for the newsletter of the liquor store I worked for at the time, and golly, there’s a picture floating around here somewhere of me with the brewer… it’s a very, very rare bottle to find, and it was very exciting to me to find it in NO – and very yummy to drink! (This was only one of many exciting and delicious finds.)

We left the Avenue Pub (highly recommended) late in the evening, and caught the streetcar back into the Quarter for some live music. We watched a sidewalk act for a while and then settled at Cafe Beignet to watch Steamboat Willie’s band play. Both were outstanding! I settled in feeling very content with my weekend.

On Sunday morning, on our way out of town, Pops took us by a statue he’d seen after Saturday morning’s race. It’s a memorial, in the spirit of New Orleans: using color and whimsy to commemorate a tragedy. Like singing at a funeral. It’s called the Scrap House, by Sally Heller, and is part of a commission by the Art Council of New Orleans of public art. Made of recycled materials, it depicts a little bayou shack stuck in the top of a tree.

We stopped on the way home at the Cafe des Amis in Breaux Bridge. This was another outstanding meal – I recommend the Crawfish Cornbread!

And finally, the bookish news: I finished Jacqueline Winspear’s A Lesson in Secrets, started Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca (review to come), and listened to the audio of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five in the car with the parents on the way home (review also to come, but for now I’ll say WOW! like I do for all of Vonnegut’s work).

I’ve never had such a lovely time in the beautiful Crescent City. It has so much to offer. If you’ve never seen New Orleans, now’s the time. Be sure you go to the Louisiana State Museum (right on Jackson Square), and be sure you bring a handkerchief. Thanks Mom & Pops for a beautiful weekend.

Edit: Pops found the picture of me with Armand. Thanks Pops!

Julia at Drie Fonteinen w/ brewer Armand Debelder, Jan. 2006

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The Apothecary’s Demise by Anne Sloan

Posted on April 24, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I had some free time while home sick and picked this up as a light and enjoyable sort of read. You might recall the first of these two books, Murder on the Boulevard, which I read a few months ago. I ended up with a slightly mixed review: the mystery was not stellar as genre fiction, but it was satisfactory; the writing and production (self-published) were not extremely professional; but the story itself, and the characters, and overwhelmingly, the setting, were so likable and comfortable that I enjoyed it overall.

The same rings true for the second book; except if anything, I enjoyed it even more. I think I had come to terms with the fact that the writing was not perfectly polished; I expected less in that regard (sounds nasty, doesn’t it. not trying to be). And I really adore the historic Houston Heights setting and all the local, historical detail. As I said before, there’s nothing like reading about your own backyard, as it were. And the names dropped (like Teas the nursery man) are great fun when you’re in on the jokes. So, perhaps someone not from Houston wouldn’t find these books quite so charming, but I most certainly did.

In this sequel to Murder on the Boulevard, Flora and Max are attached but not yet engaged, which surprised me; I thought it was a foregone conclusion at the end of Murder. Max leaves town (to see Wilson inaugurated in DC with Jesse Jones), and Flora finds herself caught up – reluctantly – in another murder mystery: in fact, another apparent suicide. In trying to help some friends of friends out of trouble, solve a double murder, and unravel the mysterious illness of her best friend since childhood, Flora finds herself aggressively courted by a newcomer to town. I found this book easy to read, entertaining, and extremely comfortable in its hometown flavor – I loved picturing the streets and settings as they were described. I’m pleased to give Anne Sloan a positive review in the end.

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Houston Grand Opera presents The Marriage of Figaro

Posted on April 23, 2011 by pagesofjulia

The Marriage of Figaro is being produced by the Houston Grand Opera, and thanks to the Husband I got to attend a dress rehearsal with our neighbors on Tuesday, April 12. (The Husband begged off: he got us tickets and bowed out. Fair enough.) Now, I had not attended an opera since, what was it, high school? or middle school? And I remember not liking it much. I’m not sure what it was, in fact; I want to say it was Shakespeare but I could be crazy. Do they make opera out of Shakespeare? This is very much not my area of expertise, but it being a) free and b) a dress rehearsal, this sounded like a fine time to give it another go.

Well, it turned out to be a snafu in various ways, and I got in late and left early, both due to circumstances beyond my control. So, call it an incomplete experiment. But I have some observations to share all the same.

Please be patient with me, opera aficionados, for I am entirely new to this. So first, the music is very beautiful – the orchestral music, I mean – I’m not a symphony-goer, either, but it would have been lovely on its own. The operatic singing is unlike anything else, so being so new to it, it’s a bit hard to fit into my world, if you will; it might be a bit of an acquired taste, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. I think I did; it’s just different. And very impressive. It is of course in Italian, but even in English I’m not sure I could entirely understand them. There’s a little screen way up above the stage rolling subtitles; it’s a little rough looking down at the actors and up at the screen, but it allows me to follow the action. There’s something a bit disjointed about the fact that every 10 words on the screen take 90 syllables onstage (they repeat almost every line, for one line) but I was able to adjust to the rhythm. So I guess my theme here is, this is a unique art form and one that must be gotten accustomed to.

The plot of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (which I read online before attending – did my homework – I find that I enjoy theatre better when I’m a bit familiar ahead of time) was surprisingly Shakespearean. Lots of mistaken identity, disguises, romantic quadrangles, lovers or suspected lovers hiding under couches when the next one enters the room. A bit slapstick. Very fun! I’m not sure I realized opera could be so fun. (Please forgive my prejudice.) And I’m not sure I’d realized that really, it’s just musical theatre – except that they sing in a distinctive style, in a foreign language, and constantly – all the words are sung – unlike standard musicals which are plays in which the actors spontaneously burst into choreographed song and dance. (Very realistic. :)) Oh, and that reminds me, there was almost no dancing – at least during the parts of this production that I got to see. That’s a bit disappointing; but perhaps with such, erm, athletic (?) singing, it would be too much to dance, too.

My overall review is incomplete because I saw only part of the show, but: I like this. It deserves more of my time and attention to become better acquainted with this format, and I’m ready to give it. Luckily I get another chance: I have tickets to another dress rehearsal in a few weeks, of Ariadne auf Naxos, and I’m taking my mother, and I’m looking forward to it!

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an average day in the life of a librarian

Posted on April 21, 2011 by pagesofjulia

…means taking things home. We will eventually have a storage problem in my house. Or perhaps it has already begun, considering that the books have outgrown my study (Husband calls it the “book cave” which is really unfair as there is lots of lovely natural light streaming in) and the TBR bookcase is in the dining area. Here is a picture, which is now dated; it’s all full up these days…


Some days I just carry my regular work bag, which only allows a book or two along with my lunch and personal effects. But some days I carry a supplemental book bag. Like today. Today I’m bringing home…


Starting upper left and going clockwise:

Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner. My interest is inspired by Thomas at My Porch, and I’m nearing the end of it now and very well pleased.

The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent. Katy at A Few More Pages has written up this and other of Kent’s books, and I’m intrigued.

These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf, which I’ve had my eye on for a while now. Now, litlove (at Tales From the Reading Room) did take issue with this book, calling it commercial fiction. But I’m still interested.

The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne. The one and only mystery from the author of Winnie the Pooh etc.? I’m sold.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. I’ve never read it (gasp!) and want to; plus I saw this post the other day at Savidge Reads and got a final nudge.

Without Fail by Lee Child. My current genre favorite; he hasn’t let me down yet. It’s always good to have some light pleasure reading lying around!

By-Line: Ernest Hemingway has been discussed here before. I’m still not quite done.

Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child on audio. This is in the car right now. More of my current genre guy.

And… Tales from Watership Down by Richard Adams. On the long list of books I’ve always vaguely intended to read, so I grab when I can.

It’s a dangerous world when you spend over 40 hours/week in a library!!

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Masquerade Theatre presents Urinetown!

Posted on April 20, 2011 by pagesofjulia

What a joy. Ahhh. On Saturday, April 9, I finished my database searching class, with a final paper and presentation. Now, I LOVED this course, found it fascinating, found my instructors’ passion and expertise inspiring, learned a lot, and am so glad I took it. But the semester turned out to be about a week too long for me. Returning from the effortful trip to Ouachita to write a paper (I had barely started it. I confess. am not usually a procrastinator but none of us is perfect) and plan a presentation… just about overwhelmed me. (And, I got sick for the second time in two weeks while trying to write & plan.) Whine whine, sorry, my point is… Saturday I did my presentation and it was less than perfect. I didn’t plan very well, and I ran out of time and didn’t get to make all my points. I think I still did fine but it was below my standards and that’s a shame. But mostly I was just SO glad the semester was over with. (And I’m already contemplating the condensed, advanced class this summer. I am NUTS right?)

SO, this long preamble is trying to say, the Husband and I celebrated the end of the semester that Saturday night by going out to see a Broadway musical, courtesy yet again of my Pops! Thanks Pops! Thanks Husband for being game for more Broadway! If you let a reluctant patron of musical theatre, like the Husband, pick your musical, you end up with something like Urinetown. Lol! The story is of corruption, water shortages, and pee. Water supplies are so low that toilet facilities are fee-based, and the greedy Urine Good Company (UGC) is hiking fees and partying hard on the money of the little people. Assistant toilet attendant Bobby Strong and UGC heiress Hope Cladwell fall in love before realizing each other’s position in the scheme of things, and the balance of power, money, and pee is upset.

This is another cute, funny play a la Curtains, but decidedly superior in production. There were no gaffes, aside from more microphone woes. The cast was very professional and it was a very fun event. Very silly, but very fun. Officer Lockstock is our narrator as well as a character in the play, and he breaks down that fourth wall like crazy (with some assistance from Little Sally) in ways that tickled me pink. I thought it was a great play, fun and well produced, and also rather ambitiously taking on social, political, and environmental issues with relative success; but the ending fell a bit short for me, unfortunately. The Husband doesn’t have any idea what I mean by that so I guess it’s a personal thing.

What a great time. I’m so glad I’m getting all these theatre experiences this year! Never have I spent so many evenings in this way, and I’m loving it. Coming up: CATS, straight from Broadway! And dress rehearsals of Houston Grand Opera‘s productions of The Marriage of Figaro and Ariadne auf Naxos! Am I a lucky girl, or what?

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Most treasured.

Posted on April 18, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I’m acting on a nudge from Sheila today, over at Book Journey. She did a lovely post about her very most treasured (physical) book, and asked her readers what they treasure. I found her story of her father’s death,and the loss of most of his possessions, very touching and very (obviously) sad, and I was relieved to find the good reason why she’s never read her most prized and treasured book: it’s a Vietnamese/English dictionary, thus not the sort of thing you read cover to cover. Got it. At any rate, it got me thinking.

I think it’s probably obvious that I treasure physical books. Most reading-bloggers undoubtedly do! Even those who have embraced e-readers (and I haven’t, yet, but all things are possible and I’m not ragingly anti) feel the value of “real” books. I love books. But my most treasured? I think, like Sheila, my favorite books came from my parents. I don’t have as striking a story to go with mine as she does (and thank goodness, I still have both of my parents) but I do have a small collection of older editions that I am very fond of, and will be very sad when they finally, completely fall apart. Like these:

I think my very most favorite is the battered hardcover copy of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, on the bottom.

Sheila, thanks for asking!

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Shoot Him If He Runs by Stuart Woods (audio)

Posted on April 14, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I tried Stuart Woods out because he’s popular with some of my library patrons and I want to be as well-rounded as possible, especially in the mystery genre which is my personal favorite.

Shoot Him If He Runs sees Stone Barrington return to the scene of earlier action on the small Caribbean island of St. Mark’s with ex-girlfriend and CIA spy Holly Barker. There is governmental corruption (no mysteries there); there are vodka gimlets, nude beaches, beautiful people, and other accoutrement of the good life; there is a a very talented former-CIA spy, master of disguise, now thorn-in-the-side of the CIA, who Stone and Holly are trying to find and identify. There is no action, terrible dialog, no intrigue, a tiny touch of gratuitous and pointless sex, undeveloped characters and unexplained lose ends. I don’t know what to say that’s nice about this book. I fell asleep during some of the most important parts, but I don’t think it mattered (the Husband was driving and therefore presumably awake throughout and could name no redeeming features) and is only a statement of my feelings about the action. I guessed what was coming at about halfway through. Then I went to sleep.

I’m sorry, Stuart Woods. I wanted to see what so many of my older male patrons like about you, but I just didn’t.

I’m pretty sure I won’t pick up another Stuart Woods novel again unless I’m in serious book-deprived distress, but that’s a state I’m generally able to avoid.

Edit: I asked Husband to share his perspective for us, and he said “It’s no Reacher. [referring to Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series we both love so much] No suspense.” There you have it, folks: the succinct review. Well put, Husband.

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Love You More by Lisa Gardner

Posted on April 13, 2011 by pagesofjulia

My first experience with Lisa Gardner was an overwhelmingly positive one. I’d been attracted by reviews and descriptions of this recent release for weeks, and was excited to find it available to me right before leaving for our road trip to Arkansas at the beginning of the month.

A few key elements:

  • female detective with personal life. Detective D.D. Warren’s former boyfriend is also her former work-partner, and in this book she has to work with him once again. Her current boyfriend is largely off-screen. She’s pregnant and in denial about it.
  • female state trooper has apparently shot her husband who has apparently been beating her. Tessa’s six-year-old daughter is missing. Tessa is well acquainted with processes of criminal investigation, etc., and therefore very able to assist, or thwart, D.D.’s efforts to figure out why the husband is dead, why Tessa shot him (she did shoot him, right?) and most importantly, where’s little Sophie?
  • suspense!! edge-of-my-seat, staying-up-too-late-on-Thursday-and-Friday-nights-before-my-big-race-on-Sunday (thank goodness I finished it before Saturday night), thrilling, adrenaline-junkie suspense.
  • police procedural with all the details, including interdepartmental pissing contest.
  • strong sense of place. I’m not real familiar with Boston but the details felt authentic to me; neighborhoods, social strata, housing trends and home values are discussed. This was very much a real place.

These are some elements that make me very, very happy about genre fiction. This is some of my favorite stuff. As I’ve mentioned repeatedly in this blog, I have a theory that the current trend in fiction (apparently even in my beloved bloody-violent genre) is themes of maternity and family, and it tends to annoy me a bit. These themes were present here: D.D. is panicking over her unwanted pregnancy and the idea of reconciling it with a career in law enforcement; Tessa provides a perfect example of how wrong this combination can go. The two women’s situations are clearly not only entwined but allegorical. This didn’t bother me a bit. D.D. is all business, no mushiness, no sentiment. Tessa loves her daughter very much, but it’s not mushy for her either. They’re both strong women, and I was fine with the maternal angles in this case.

This was a murder mystery that had everything I ask for, including wild plot twists (I was so caught off guard! repeatedly!) and surprises, and a wild build-up of action and violence to the finish. And yea, okay, some of the final crescendo of action and gore was a bit unrealistic but come on, I don’t read this kind of book because it’s realistic in its minutia. It was well within my ability to comfortably suspend disbelief.

All the thumbs are up. I shall be seeking out more Lisa Gardner. Well done!

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Theatre Under the Stars presents Curtains!

Posted on April 12, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Well I’ve gotten a bit behind. On a Thursday night a few weeks ago, March 31, I went with some friends to see a production by Theatre Under the Stars called Curtains. It was at the Hobby Center in downtown Houston.

The show’s website bills it as “music, comedy and murder in one killer package,” and my observation is that it is heaviest on the comedy! It was a cute, funny story, and although I was beginning to feel it was predictable (thought I’d guessed whodunit), I ended up surprised, so I must take back my predictability comment. This production required a light heart and generosity for a few stumbles: several actors forgot or mumbled through some lines, and the microphones intermittently missed some of their lines, too. There were a few painful moments in this regard, and the play was overwhelmingly silly. But it was a good time. I love the Theatre Under the Stars folks for keeping theatre alive! Imperfection is life, and I’m glad to see musical theatre in all its forms.

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