Another Perry Mason! Don't worry, this is the last one for awhile, I had a *ton* of holds come in for me all at once at work.
"Case of the Postponed Murder" has Perry defending a woman accused of killing wealthy Penn Wentworth on his yacht. The police and prosecution think the murder happened at one time, when Perry's client was on board. Perry however thinks the murder actually occurred later, once his client had left. Guess who is right? :)
"Below Stairs" by Magaret Powell is one I've been waiting for for a long time now; the hold list at my library has been insane. She inspired the shows "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey" with her memoirs about working in domestic service right after World War I. It was funny and witty and she had a great dry sense of humor about her low station in life.
The summer Olympics are coming up again, and gymnastics has always been my favorite. I remember watching the '84 Olympics at my grandparents' house: they drug the TV outside on an extension cord and set it up out there so my sister and I could watch without having to get out of the pool. I was so thrilled in '96 when the U.S. ladies gymnastics team won the first team gold, and of course Kerri Strug's amazing vault landing the second time around still gives me chills. So I read "Off Balance" by Dominique Moceanu, the youngest member of that '96 team. She tells of abuse at the hands of Bela and Marta Karoyli, the famous Romanaian coaches, and how her overbearing, domineering father ruled over their family with an iron first, forcing Dominique's mother to give up a daughter for adoption when she was born without legs. Twenty years later Dominique's sister, Jennifer, got in touch with her just as Dominique was getting ready to give birth to her first child. It was a good story and I enjoyed it, but it did get a bit repetitive at times. I sometimes felt like I was reading the same thing over and over. Still, she went through quite a bit but at least now it looks like she's in a good place in her life.
"Curses!" by J. A. Kazimer is an interesting twist on fairy tales. R.J. is a villain on leave from the union when Asia, one of Cinderella's stepsisters, approaches and asks for his help solving Cinderella's murder. R.J. agrees and the bodies start piling up and the list of suspects narrows until it looks bad for Asia. It was pretty funny, and different.
"Cruising Attitude" by Heather Poole is about her adventures as a flight attendant. Even though I've worked in customer service my whole life, people's bad behavior never fails to amaze and astound me, and shockingly the way people behave on an airplane is no different than how they behave in a library or a bookstore. I wonder when it became okay in our society to go out and act like an asshole in public. I don't think people would have behaved that way when my grandparents were my age. People had class and manners and a sense of shame back then. It's unfortunate that it's come to what we have now, but at least Poole is able to laugh about (most of) it.
No comments:
Post a Comment