Reviews

Recently, I realized how much pleasure I derive from reading international fiction with an Irish flair; must be that Irish blood coursing through my veins or a previous lifetime spent roaming locales like Donaghadee, Ballyskeagh or Glengormley.

Ann Rule is one of the best true crime writers of this generation. No one else does so much detailed research about murderers (serial or otherwise). I have read all of her books and eagerly anticipated the publication of Bitter Harvest since it dealt with a local crime. Bitter Harvest takes place in Prairie Village, Kansas and involves Dr.

Ian McEwan has never disappointed me and Solar was no exception. However, unlike previous McEwan novels I’ve read, Atonement, On Chesil Beach, and Enduring Love this one is neither poignant nor tragic. Michael Beard is a brilliant scientist past his prime, void of any self-discipline, a true narcissist. He has never been faithful to any of his five wives.

The Bolter is a scandalous biography of Idina Sackville written by her great-granddaughter who is married to the finance minister of England. It begins in the flapper age and continues until World War II. Idina was a blue-eyed beauty, elegant and smart.

This foreign film is a romantic comedy with subtitles. The french film has a simple plot, what would happen if two people who are friends or strangers decide to kiss. The result is a complex problem develops between. What will happen, I will not tell. But there is plenty of humor and melancholy  involved.

Organic Housekeeping (or Green Housekeeping as titled for the newer paperback version) is a useful and informative guide to green cleaning and organizing.

In a complete departure from what I would normally read, I chose to listen to the audio cd of Stardust by Neil Gaiman.  I made this choice after watching a piece about Gaiman on T.V.

Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs is another fun read. Pheobe's world is turned upside down when her mom comes back from a vacation in Greece with a fiance and the announcement that she has to leave Los Angeles to move half way across the planet!

I really enjoyed this blast from the past. This dvd contains some of the most famous of the MJ videos. You can watch him change and evolve in the making of these music videos. I couldn't sit still while viewing these and never saw so many zippers, clasps and snaps in a 90 minute period.