N/A

September 1981 Dear Mousey, Fun facts About Murder: Use Coca-Cola to clean up blood spills. The combination of ascorbic acid and carbonated water actually digests the blood, leaving no trace of evidence. This seems like a frightening opening to a novel involving a boys school, a church school. I feel as though something dreary and horrible is going to happen within the pages of  "Different Class" by Joanne Harris. rosecityreader.com        

East Texas is a place where there are good times and bad times. In "Bluebird, Bluebird" by Attica Locke, there are really awful days for people like Geneva, the owner of the cafe, Joe, her husband, and Darren, a Texas Ranger, and others I haven't named like the visiting Law student, Michael. This novel involves more than one crime and I mention Geneva, first because she will experience both horrible incidents personally. Both crimes touched my heart. However, I felt more touched by the double homicide. It happens six years than the bayou murders. It involves a black man and a white woman. There springs alive a bed of hatred or more specifically racism. No dirty rice, okra or catfish can calm the nerves of the community. The special dish seems to give only energy to the body to scream and cry and wonder why. There isn't a race riot. There is just the knowledge of Darren, the Texas Ranger, and the relatives that the case needs solving quickly. Before th

" 'An eye like a blue pearl,' was what my father said. And then he died. During a winter's first snowfall, just like this." http://www.svreeland  

Sleeping Beauty was awakened with a kiss. In Mary Ashley Townsend's poem "Creed," a woman, I think, not a man is awakened not only from a long sleep but from death. The real sleep which is described as "cold" and like someone living in "exile" is romantic and not dreary. If I think of a realocation, I remember descriptions of  Siberia.  It is her lover's love that awakens her. She "gladly" feels herself awake from the strange, unknown place of death. It is thought of as an isle. This seems like such a romantic poem. However, If I think of prose, I think of "The House of Ushers" by Edgar Allan Poe? I'm not sure whether it was love that awakened her or something else. There are two words in this stanza that puzzle me. What does the poet mean by "folded orbs?" let's see if I can print the stanza here with the two words that are puzzling to me. poemhunter.com/poem/creed-13/                                  

"Ida, my dear, you don't really believe that fascism can survive in the land of liberte', e'galite', et fraternite'?"   gloriagoldreich.com

In "What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours" by Helen Oyeyemi, there is music, puppets, beautiful English and Chinese roses, music and keys and locks. All of this and more tempt our imagination and curiosity to come out and play. A desire is awakened to visit La Pedrera in Spain. It is definitely a book where a reader will find the time to revisit and relearn the characters. I feel each time it is reread another key will become available to open another locked door. helenoyeyemi.com