Happy Mother's Day

It's a gray and rainy Mother's Day in this part of the world, but it's nice all the same. My sons made me pancakes (well, one son stayed in bed, but he's thirteen and generally contrary) and brought them to my room in the time-honored tradition.

One of my favorite film moments honoring mothers is this clip from My Left Foot, in which Christy Brown, assumed to mentally disabled even by his family, takes the painstaking time to write one word--with his left foot.

Try not to cry.



And Happy Mother's Day!

Bury My Heart Under This Pile of Papers

I'm grading research papers this week, so my blogs will most likely be short and sweet. Each year I'm convinced I can get through them quickly and efficiently, but each year I am inundated with notecards, outlines, VERY rough drafts, and a slight headache right between the eyes.

I am learning, however, some interesting things about Ibsen's Nora Helmer and her quest for independence; Hermann Hesse's fascination with Eastern religion in the writing of Siddhartha; Fate as a driving force in Oedipus Rex; and why both Camus' Meursault and Dostoevsky's Raskolnikov create their OWN alienation. :)

It's an important time, though, when students begin to think of themselves as scholars, and that needs to be nurtured. So off to the great pile of scholarship I go!

(Disclosure: This is a reprint from LAST year at research paper time. Second Disclosure: I am lazy).

My First Mystery

I was reminiscing today about my earliest books--the first ones I read alone. I think this one may have been my first mystery.

Big Max was a wonderful book: the tale of a detective who traveled by umbrella and was hired to solve a case for the King of Pooka Pooka, who had lost his beloved elephant.

I can still remember the joy of discovering that book, but also the thrill of mystery. I'm not sure if I figured out the ending or not, but I know it was satisfying, even to my seven-year-old self. Eventually I moved on to such sophisticated fare as Nancy Drew and Cherry Ames, and after that I read single-title suspense novels by authors like Mary Stewart, Phyllis A. Whitney and Victoria Holt.

Big Max is still in print and available to a whole new generation of children (and perhaps future mystery lovers). Thank you, Kin Platt, for my first mystery reading experience.

Dana Fredsti on AUGUST MOON

My guest blogger today is Dana Fredsti, who is reviewing Jess Lourey's new book, August Moon, the fourth in the Murder-By-Month series. Take it, Dana.

I read a lot of books. I read before going to sleep, in the bathroom (you all do it, come on, admit it!), on the Muni and while I'm walking. Seriously. I've perfected the art of reading while walking without a: tripping, b: bumping into fellow pedestrians or other obstacles, or c: getting hit by cars. I read quickly too, so I go through at least five books in a week. Very rarely, however, do I read books that make me laugh out loud, especially in public. AUGUST MOON, the fourth in Jess Lourey's Murder by the Month series, is one of those rare books that did just that. We're talking the kind of laugh accompanied by a snort. You know. The kind of involuntary snorting that increases in frequency with age. Luckily the embarrassment factor decreases with each passing birthday. Good thing 'cause I was snorting up a storm while reading AUGUST MOON on a recent plane trip. The people in my row no doubt thought they were sitting next to some strange hybrid of woman and warthog.

Seriously, though, AUGUST MOON is just plain funny. It's also a cracking good mystery with a well thought out plot, plenty of suspense and a bountiful selection of suspects and assorted eccentric characters adding to the mix. To shamelessly quote the back cover of AUGUST MOON here: Our sassy young heroine suffers more than just unrequited lust during a Minnesota scorcher of a summer in this fourth Murder-by-Month mystery. A dead cheerleader and various oddball fanatics are uncovered in the small town of Battle Lake, "where the women are churchgoers, the men like to hunt, and the body count is above average."

At the beginning of AUGUST MOON Mira James, sassy young heroine in question, is stood up by a Brad Pitt-esque gardening expert, thus motivating her to give notice at her job as Battle Lake's librarian and move back to Minneapolis. Before she can put her plan in effect, however, petty theft and the death of a cheerleader draws Mira into the investigation of newcomer Pastor Meales and his evangelical bible camp. To add to the confusion, Mira's replacement at the Battle Lake library is a member of Pastor Meales' congregation, a mysterious, cape-wearing wood tick expert arrives in town and another cheerleader goes missing. Mira's work is cut out for her as she juggles the logistics of solving the various mysteries, meeting deadlines for her other job as (reporter) writer for the local newspaper, and attending a Creationist science fair at Christ's Church of the Apocryphal Revelation (think Jesus Camp).

The science fair brought on the major snortfest. Such exhibits as "My Great Great Grandpa Was a Christian, Not a Monkey," "Biology Proves Women Designed for Housework," and (my favorite) "Thermodynamic Readouts Confirm Satan Is More Active Than Ever" had me laughing out loud. There really are religious groups who promote these nutso theories, which is both funny and kinda scary. To quote Homer (Simpson, not the Greek epic poet), "It's funny 'cause it's true!"

And that pretty much sums up what I love best about Jess Lourey's writing: her characters, even the over-the-top eccentrics, all have a core of believability that allow the reader to lose themselves in the story. The plot is woven together carefully, but never feels contrived or forced, and Mira is a flawed (and therefore believable) yet extremely likeable heroine. I'm looking forward to a full year's worth of murder, mayhem and Mira!

Dana Fredsti, today's guest blogger, will be touring the west coast with Jess Lourey beginning May 21. They met at Left Coast Crime in Denver in March and haven't looked back. To see their tour dates, visit their websites (www.danafredsti.com, www.jesslourey.com). To win a copy of AUGUST MOON, be the first person to email Jess through her website and tell her what the best winery on the west coast is (and it has to be between San Francisco and Seattle).

Mysterious Mountain Journey

Someone sent me this via e-mail; I find the footage amazing, but also mysterious. How was it filmed? That is today's mystery. Check it out and tell me what you think.

Iron Man Evokes The Ancient Greek Hero

As the mother of two sons and the wife of a man-child who loves superheroes, my fate was to see Iron Man in the weekend that it came out. We have been marking the days, literally, on our calendar until the exciting debut of this latest Marvel-inspired film. I've seen lots of superhero movies with my bevy of men--Spiderman 1-3, Batman in all its incarnations, Superman, Hulk, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, X-men. They were all fun according to this pattern: superhero takes on a villain and saves the city (usually New York).

But Iron Man is different. Iron Man is not just about the evil nature of the villain without, but about the dual nature of the man within. It is about violence and conscience, power and accountability. And Robert Downey, Jr. makes it work with a very nuanced performance.

On the way home I was buzzing about the movie, trying to get the men to think about it on a symbolic level. They didn't really want to. They liked the testosterone of it, the giant metal suits, the pure power that perhaps every man, and some women, dream of.

To me, Tony Stark, the arms dealer who becomes Iron Man, could have been a character written by Sophocles, if Sophocles could be brought to Hollywood and asked to write a screenplay (and I'm sure Sophocles would have a lot to say about Hollywood . . .).
Stark is a flawed man, a man who may have wasted his life in the pursuit of power and pleasure. But he has a moment of redemption, and that moment fuels a new passion. Still, he remains flawed, and the Ancient Greeks would suggest that he must take responsibility for those flaws, no matter how often he himself is a victim, and no matter that he has changed his worldview. He will always be burdened by his past.

I like the fact that a modern-day movie raises some of the questions of the ages: Why does power so often corrupt? Why do people seek to solve problems with ever-escalating violence? Where is the logic in thinking that we can make weapons ever larger, ever more powerful, and can somehow still remain unscathed?

I recommend the movie, both as a fun superhero romp and as a thought-provoking examination of the modern world and its weapons. Jon Favreau, the director, seems to enjoy asking those big questions, and I intend to keep watching his movies to see if he comes closer to an answer.

Now Cut That Out!

On May 2, 1932, Jack Benny's first radio show debuted. His humor is so timeless that it's still funny now (unlike some "comedies" from the 70s and 80s).

Here's Benny in 1955 with my all-time favorite, Groucho Marx. The two are doing a skit on The Jack Benny Show in which Jack plays a contestant on Groucho's show, You Bet Your Life.