Shelf Control #2: Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier

Shelf Control is a weekly feature created by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies, and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. Since early January 2023, Shelf Control has moved base to Literary Potpourri.

My pick this time is:

Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier

Tracy Chevalier is one of my favorite historical fiction writers. It all started since my reading of Girl with A Pearl Earring, which is, so far, my favorite. Since then I've also read: The Lady and the Unicorn, The Virgin Blue, Falling Angels, and Remarkable Creatures.

What I loved most from Chevalier is her subjects. She usually picks an extraordinary historical art or culture, then weaves a remarkable story around it - story of people involved in it: their lives, struggles, and triumph. Chevalier's great penmanship allows us to be transported to the past, mingling with these characters and living their lives.

In Burning Bright, we are transported to the 18th century London. From Amazon: 1792. Uprooted from their quiet Dorset village to the riotous streets of London, young Jem Kellaway and his family feel very far from home. They struggle to find their place in this tumultuous city, still alive with the repercussions of the blood-splattered French Revolution.

Luckily, streetwise Maggie Butterfield is on hand to show Jem the ropes. Together they encounter the neighbour they’ve been warned about: radical poet and artist William Blake. Jem and Maggie’s passage from innocence to experience becomes the very stuff of poetic inspiration…

I haven't heard about William Blake before, but it is rather interesting, right? Can't wait to be immersed once more into an absorbing reading with Chevalier's.


Have you read this book? Or any of Chevalier's?

 

One by One They Disappeared by Moray Dalton (1929): A Golden Age Mystery

🔹️Nine men and one cat had survived a sunken ship. The oldest - and richest - of them, Mr. Pakenham, as a token of gratitude to his fellow survivors for helping him on board the live boat, has been hosting  annual elaborate dinners for them over the years. On the last dinner, he announced that the eight of them were made joint-beneficiaries in his will.

🔹️This year, however, only two of them appeared at the dinner. Young uprising Inspector Hugh Collier from Scotland Yard was present at the same building when the two guests arrived. Therefore, when few days later he learned that one of them died from an accident, he feels that something isn't quite right, and investigates the case.

🔹️Tracing the remaining survivors, Collier finds out that several of them has been died recently. Either by accident or presumably by nature. It's clear now that it's murder for money gain. Someone, apparently, is too greedy that he wants to dip into the whole inheritance at once.

🔹️Also involved in this case is the other guest attended the dinner, a Gerald Freyne. He's attracted to a girl called Corrina, the ward of Freyne's neighbor: Mr. Stark. When Freyne disappears one day, Inspector Collier was helped by Mr. Pakenham and Jehosaphat, his beloved cat, both of whom proved to be of hugely valuable helps in solving the case.

🔹️ All in all, it was a fast-pace whodunnit murder mystery spiced with a little bit of romance. Dalton wrote this in 1929, the first book of a series. Maybe due to it being the first book, the Inspector I found isn't very smart. He made a huge blunder (which no detective should ever do) that nearly caused catastrophe to one of the innocent parties. I cringed everytime he did it, like: "Don't do that!!" Moreover, old Pakenham also inspired Collier more than once during the investigation. I do hope he'll be much developing throughout the series, since I still want to read more of it!

🔹️Of the murderer, I could guess pretty easily, so it's not a surprise. Despite of the flawed detective, I enjoyed this mystery, especially the most critical moments in the last chapters. One more thing I do not agree is the way Dalton "off-staging" the brave cat Jehoshaphat by only mentioning casually of him in a conversation (or in the narrative?) He saved a girl’s life, no less! It's not the way one treating a hero, but you can’t dictate a writer, right?

Rating: 3,5 / 5


I'm not sure whether one might call this book a cat-theme book. There's a cat, yes, and he has a substantial role in the mystery, but he makes seldom appearance and very little stage was provided for by the writer. So, I would put this book as an honorary entry to Literary Potpourri's Reading The Meow 2023.

Art Heists and Hairballs by Bailey Booth: A Cozy Mystery #ReadingTheMeow2023

🐈 "I need your help. I've been catnapped." Imagine what you'd think if a cat has greeted you with those words after you’ve rescued her! Addie Dawson, the founder of Helping Paws Animal Shelter, was quite astonished when a cat inside the box she found outside the shelter's door, greeted her so.

🐈 The cat introduced herself as Persephone. She's a beautiful, well-fed cat who lives with an elderly woman named Margaret, the owner of an art gallery. Persephone tells Addie, who's apparently the only person who can talk with her, that she has witnessed an art heist, and been catnapped.

🐈 There's a huge reward for whoever can return the stolen painting, and Addie can well use it for helping more animals (Helping Paws is a no-kill shelter) until they find their forever homes. With Persephone's help, surely, she would be able to catch the thief and return the painting.

🐈 So off Addie goes to the gallery, bringing Persephone to reunite with Margaret, while Addie tries her best to dig information surrounding the art heist. Unfortunately, Addie doesn't have enough lucidity to become a proper sleuth. But for Persephone's clues (how the thief smells, for instance), she won't be able to solve the mystery.

🐈 As a cozy mystery, I think there's not much of mystery in this novella. It lacks of suspects, and I guessed instantly the criminal even from their first appearance. For cat lovers, however, or cat-cozy-mystery lovers, this is a cute story. I loved how Persephone gives Addie titbits info she hears from the other cats, which will help Addie and the shelter crew to provide more fitting treatments for them. And a talking cat gives more personality to the feline creature, and giving her more highlights than that, otherwise, of an ordinary cat.

🐈 All in all, it is a cute little cat-cozy-mystery, a proper introduction to the series, of which I think I'd love to read more.

Rating: 3,5 / 5

 

**My third read for  Literary Potpourri's #ReadingTheMeow2023**

Getting to know the Meow:
My name is Persephone, and I am the purr-tector of an art gallery.
One day I was catnapped after witnessing an art heist!
My contribution to the story: I help Addie (a nice lady who found me) to find the thief. She can speak my language. It's nice to have a human who can understand me, and gives me food that I want to eat! In exchange, I tell her what other animals in the shelter need/want.

Aunts Aren't Gentlemen by P.G. Wodehouse: A Review for #ReadingTheMeow2023

🐱 Bertie Wooster wakes up one morning to find red spots on her chest, and the doctor's (E. Jimpson Murgatroyd) order is to stay quietly in a peaceful place. So go Bertie and his smart valet Jeeves to Maiden Eggesford, a rural town where Bertie's Aunt Dahlia is staying with her friend, Colonel Briscoe, in a house called Eggesford Hall.

🐱 But will Bertie get his prescribed dose of the quite life in Maiden Eggesford? Of course not! As usual, a series of chaos would certainly ensue wherever he goes. This time in the shape of a stray cat!

🐱 There will be a horse race in nearby town. Colonel Briscoe and a man called Cook, who lives in a house called Eggesford Court, were longtime rival. Cook's horse, Potato Chip (what a name for a racehorse!😂) is very attached to a stray black cat. He always performs well whenever the cat is present.

🐱 When Bertie was calling on Colonel Briscoe for lunch, he mistakenly arrived at Eggesford Court (Cook's residence) instead of Eggesford Hall. He saw a black cat, and played with it. But, alas, Pop Cook saw it and thought Bertie wanted to steal his cat to sabotage Potato Chip's training. Bertie recounted this unpleasant incident to the 'old ancestor' (Aunt Dahlia), who has actually placed a bet on Simla, her host's horse. Knowing a way to secure her win, she arranged with a local poacher to steal the cat, and to place it temporarily at Bertie's cottage!

🐱 This then created a string of complex but hilarious misunderstandings, mis-timings, and whatever you call it that usually happens to Bertie Wooster! Add to it the romance between a headstrong girl (Cook's daughter), whom Bertie had once proposed to but regret it now, and a communist young man (Bertie's friend) who are now jealous of Bertie. To make it more complicated, Major Plank, whom Bertie had had trouble with in the past, happened to be staying as a guest at Pop Cook's!

🐱 If you're familiar with Wodehouse's Jeeves stories, you'll guess how chaotically funny these awkward situations can become, and how the ever reliable Jeeves could always save his master from the worst possible intricacies he's liable to put himself in.

🐱 As usual, one will always feel much satisfied after a dose of laughter along Jeeves stories. This one is no different. Though the cat seems not to appear very often, it did have an important and cohesive role in this particular adventure.

Rating: 4,5 / 5

**My second read for Literary Potpourri's Reading the Meow 2023 **

Getting to know the Meow:
I won't tell you my name, but I am very fond of my horse friend: Potato Chip.
I'm hanging around him during his trainings (he's a race horse, isn't it cool?)
My contribution to the story: I was catnapped! Poor Potato Chip refused to do what he's told because I'm not there with him. 
I don't understand why people make fuss about it, 'cause I'm having a good time, and I love following people around!

 

Classics Club Spin #34

UPDATE: THE SPIN NUMBER IS 13!

CC Spin is back! 

It’s easy. At your blog, before next Sunday 18th June, 2023 create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain “to be read” on your Classics Club list. This is your Spin List. You have to read one of these twenty books by the end of the spin period. On Sunday 18th, June we’ll post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by the 6th August, 2023.

As my reading schedule will be quite tight coming July, I choose only short classics (100-200ish pages) which I think I would enjoy. There are only ten of them, so I double the entry to make it twenty. Here's my Spin list:

1. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
2. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
3. The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
4. Mrs. Harris Goes to Moscow by Paul Gallico
5. Three Men in A Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
6. Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome
7. The Enchanted Barn by Grace Livingston Hill
8. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
9. Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
10. Letters from My Windmill by Alphonse Daudet
11. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
12. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
13. The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
14. Mrs. Harris Goes to Moscow by Paul Gallico
15. Three Men in A Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
16. Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome
17. The Enchanted Barn by Grace Livingston Hill
18. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
19. Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
20. Letters from My Windmill by Alphonse Daudet

Have you read these books? Which one do you wish me to get?

The Cat Saw Murder by Dolores Hitchens (1939): A Murder Mystery #ReadingTheMeow2023

🐈 Samantha is probably the richest cat in the world. The black cat is an heiress of a wealthy eccentric lady, inheritor of quite a fortune! Now she lives with Rachel Murdock, the deceased lady's (Agatha) sister.

🐈 Rachel is a seventy years old spinster, living in a village with her sister Jennifer, also a spinster. Their ordinary peaceful days is interrupted when Rachel receives a letter from her step-niece, Lily, calling for help. So, go Miss Rachel and Samantha the cat to Breakers Beach, California, to stay at a shabby boarding house where Lily lives.

🐈 Lily is a gambler and in desperate need of cash. She has a share of her aunt's inheritance, but she can only get that after Samantha's death. So, when Miss Rachel found that a poisoning attempt had been made towards the cat, we had suspicion of whodunnit, right? Is Lily a murderer, then? Not of the cat, surely, since she will see a murder - as indicated in the title, but maybe the guy that went missing? The guy (fellow resident) to whom it seems Lily has a crush? Or perhaps deeper than that? Whoever it may be, there is indeed something sinister going on in the house.

🐈 Then Lily herself was murdered, while Miss Rachel was drugged at Lily's bedside when she's visiting her niece's room. Lieutenant Mayhew is the formal investigator of the case, but the real sleuth is, of course, Miss Rachel - a calm, intelligent old lady who'll remind you instantly of Miss Marple. Though Miss Rachel is much more agile than Miss Marple. It's amazing to read how she heaves herself up the attic to spy on the other residents through a hole in their attics!

🐈 However smart and agile Miss Rachel is, she wouldn't solve the case without Samantha. The dear cat has a trusting personality, and likes to follow people. When the murder was committed, she's the only witness, though of course she can't tell it to anyone. But by following the murderer out of the room, Miss Rachel later notices something which shouldn't have been there. And that turns out to be an important clue to the case.

🐈 This is a combination of a gripping murder thriller with a cozy mystery of a charming amateur sleuth and her cat. It also has the Golden Age crime fiction vibes, being published in 1939. The plot is reasonable, spiced with some thrilling action near the end, and good investigation from the police. Though I've guessed the murderer correctly from the beginning, it's still an entertaining crime story to read. I loved the charming Rachel Murdock and the grubby Lieutenant Mayhew. I wish to see more of this unlikely partnership, with Samantha purring and meowing every now and then, preferably in the most critical moment.

Rating: 4,5 / 5

**My 1st book for Literary Potpourri's  #ReadingTheMeow2023**

Getting to know the Meow:
My name is Samantha.
I am very rich, I am an heiress of a wealthy lady.
I love following people around, no matter who they are.
My contribution to the story: I witnessed a murder, and then following the murderer around. It's up to Miss Rachel (she's the nice smart lady who takes care of me) to notice anything amiss with me after that, and solving the mystery. I can't tell her who the murderer is, she can't speak my language!

Book Title Challenge

Woman Writing by Hendrik Jacobus Scholten

I saw this fun bookish tag in Golden Age of Detective Fiction blog, who had also seen it in another blog. I thought it would be a fun way to bring back some favorite books I have read and reviewed here years ago. So, let's play!

A Book with A Number In The Title

Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

You might be more familiar with Dumas' Three Musketeers, but my favorite from this series is actually the direct sequel: Twenty Years After. It is, as the title hinted, twenty years after the four friends' last action in The Three Musketeers. We saw them in this book as more matured men. They struggled with more personal or family issues, and it all changed their views. But one thing stays rather the same: their friendship. It was even more deepening toward the end. A very compelling, heartwarming book, still with some swashbuckling scenes to entertain you.

A Book with A Name In The Title

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

One of my favorite books that deal about conscience and free will. "If God does not exist, then everything is permitted" always provides you ample ground of argument.

A Book with A Setting In The Title

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

This book remains one of my favorites from Christie. It's a straightforward case, inside a family, and set in a peaceful English countryside. It is also Christie's first book. And having been listening about the writing process in her autobiography very recently, only added the book's charm in my memory. Christie even named her first house 'Styles'!

A Book with An Animal In The Title

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

A wonderful book that deals on the two sides of human being: the good and the evil.

Book with a Colour In The Title

The Black Tulips by Alexandre Dumas

A lesser known work of Dumas, though with the same intricately woven plot. Combining historical events and passionate agricultural personages, the result is highly entertaining story.

A Book with One Word In The Title

Beloved by Toni Morrison

A very powerful read that will blow your mind. If you have to read only one from Toni Morrison, this one would the perfect choice. It's a beautiful albeit bitter story about slavery in the South of America around the end of Civil War, or in the Reconstruction era.


Feel like doing this yourself? Then consider yourself tagged!