REVIEW: As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by A. Bradley

Title: As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust

Author: Alan Bradley

Genre / Pages: Fiction, Crime / 358

Publication: 2015

Rating: 4th shelf

Source: Chapters Indigo

Lj's plot in one pot: Ms de Luce, having been transplanted to Canada, finds something rotten at Miss Bodycote's (and I ain't talking about the corpse).

If you have read any of my reviews on the Flavia series, this one won't surprise you. Flavia is, quite simply, my spirit animal. She is a quirky, precocious, chemistry wizard, who seems to attract dead bodies...yet her naïveté with some worldly situations belies her actual age of 12.

If you haven't read the previous instalments...Spoilers ahead!

Following the arrival of her long-lost mother's remains, Flavia is sent to boarding school in Canada to learn how to be an active member of the "Nide" (a secret society).

A friend who also reads the series told me that fans of Bradley's ingenious murder plots will be disappointed, whereas fans of Flavia will be pleased as punch. She was spot on. Although there is a murder, it is definitely the background plot, whilst Flavia snoops on, being tormented by school girls as opposed to her sisters.

Flavia is so expertly written, I continually am shocked to remember that she is written by a man.  Story arc and historical accuracy (and obviously fantastic character development) make this a great read!

"I came to the conclusion, at last, that it was like this: Tickling and learning were much the same thing. When you tickle yourself - ecstasy; but when anyone else tickles you - agony." (p.110)

REVIEW: Rush Home Road by L. Lansens

Title: Rush Home Road

Author: Lori Lansens 

Genre / Pages: Fiction, Coming-of-Age / 547

Publication: Vintage Canada, 2003

Rating: 3rd shelf

Source: Library

Lj's plot in one pot: Not so sweet lil Sharla Cody teaches Mum Addy a thing (or ten) about forgiveness as we peek into Adelaide's youth as a citizen of Rusholme, ON.

I am back! After a gentle nudge via social media, I realized I DO have the time in my life to spend on my blog.  Hopefully I can update things quickly and will have lots of  good (and bad!) reviews to share in the upcoming weeks.

This book was a book club choice and originally I was not looking forward to it (can you say Oprah's book club?!?).  But I immediately began to soak up the rich history that belongs to Adelaide.

The story is written with alternating chapters; between present and flashbacks to Addy's childhood and youth. 

Subject matter was tough to take, abandonment, death (at all stages of life), etc. Sharla had some decent comedic timing to lighten the (very) heavy load of Adelaide's misfortune. 

"Addy Shadd's skin was the colour of root beer, so wrinkled and stretched it looked like there was enough of it to cover two people...The lines around her lips puckered like a bum when she smoked her cigarette." p.18

Interested in learning more about the real life town that was the inspiration for Rusholme settlement in Canada? Click link here for the Buxton Museum website. 

REVIEW: Bury Your Dead by L. Penny

Title:  Bury Your Dead

Author:  L. Penny
Genre / Pages:  Fiction, Mystery / 371
Publication: Sphere, 2010
Rating:  TOP shelf 
Source:  Chapters Indigo
lj's plot in one pot: After a mysterious and fatal police raid, Armand Gamache takes refuge in Quebec City during Carnaval.  He becomes involved in a murder investigation of someone looking to dig up the past (literally).  He too, wants to dig up the past and sends Inspector Beauvoir back to Three Pines to take another look at the murder of the Hermit (from book 5 in the series).

Okay, okay, so that wasn't really one sentence, but the book is so amazing, I didn't want to leave anything out.  As stated, the book takes place in the beautiful, historic Quebec City.  I have to go back there, because in my mind, it represents trying (unsuccessfully) to communicate and being charged double for a haircut.  That being said, Penny's description of the city makes a person long to see the history in person.  

I was a little disappointed that more of the story didn't take place in Three Pines (as I really come to love this fictional town), but she does such a fantastic job of describing Quebec, that I forgave her for moving to the big city.

The plot of this story was moving and tragic.  Having myself been recuperating from a collision, I found a lot of the passages dealing with pain (physical and emotional) very hard to read.  The author is so on point, so in touch with humanity, that I felt like she was writing to me - especially when Beauvoir reveals that even the most well-intentioned sympathy can often feel like pity to the injured person.

I really don't want to be giving plot away, any more than I already have, but this book is simply fantastic and even if you haven't read the others (there are 5 previous books), you must read this one, and then perhaps you too will be sucked into the world of Three Pines and Chief Inspector Gamache.

"Instead he stopped and slowly straightening he looked right at Gamache.  He stated for ten seconds or more, which, when eating a chocolate cake isn't much, but when staring, is." p.29

 "And when the Quebec sun set on a Quebec forest, monsters crawled out of the shadows.  Not the B-grade movie monsters, not zombies or mummies or space aliens.  But older, subtler wraiths.  Invisible creatures that rode in on plunging temperatures.  Death by freezing, death by exposure, death by going even a foot off the path, and getting lost.  Death, ancient and patient, waited in Quebec forests for the sun to set." p.74

Want more info?  You know you do!  Click here for the author's website.