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Content by Gail Cooke
Commentateur n° : 13
Votes Utiles:
816
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Reviews Written by
Gail Cooke (TX, USA)
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A Rumpole Christmas
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de John Mortimer
Édition : Hardcover |
| Price: CDN$ 17.16 |
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| Availability: Usually ships in 3 to 5 weeks |
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sadly mortimer is gone but rumpole lives on, Nov 27 2009
The passing of an esteemed author is always sad but I felt a special loss earlier this year upon hearing of the death of Sir John Mortimer. His Rumpole stories have brought me so much pleasure, and when I learned he was gone I wished I'd just sat down and written a good old-fashioned fan letter to let him know what enjoyment his work had brought. This is surely belated but nonetheless sincere when I say that, for me, Mortimer's Rumpole is a legendary English detective, deserving a place by Sherlock Holmes and Jeeves.
What a surprise to find A RUMPOLE CHRISTMAS, a collection of five Rumpole holiday stories now published in book form. We find the ever amusing, always insightful Horace Rumpole coming across all manner of skullduggery to relieve him of the usual yuletide tedium when he and his wife, Hilda, aka "She who must be obeyed" enjoy turkey, plum pudding and "a bottle or two of Pomeroy's Chateau Thames Embankment" following the exchange of a tie for him and a "ritual bottle of lavender water" for her.
For starters there's a rather shifty eyed although plump Santa at Equity Court's Christmas party. This is followed by "Rumpole's Slimmed Down Christmas," a story in which Hilda presents him with a surprise gift - reservations for a stay at Minchingham Hall, a health farm where the food leaves much to be desired. For supper the main and only course "was a small portion of steamed spinach and a little diced carrot, enough, perhaps, to satisfy a small rodent but quite inadequate for a human." On the bright side, there was what appeared to be a murder in a steam room.
And so it goes. As Hilda says crime does seem to follow Rumpole as does thoroughly enjoyable reading for us.
- Enjoy!
- Gail Cooke
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A STORY OF FRIENDSHIP AND LOVE, Nov 27 2009
Tomie dePaola has won the hearts of countless youngsters with his endearing illustrations and pictures. Now, adults who enjoyed him as a child are enthusiastically sharing his books with their own children. That might well be the case with FOUR FRIENDS AT CHRISTMAS, which was first published some 30 years ago as the chapter entitled "Winter" in Four Stories for Four Seasons." Rereading and enjoying this edition reminds one of the timelessness of dePaola's work. FOUR FRIENDS AT CHRISTMAS is as fresh today as it was when first published because it is a story of friendship and love.
Our story opens as the Christmas holidays near and most animals are preparing for it, but not Mister Frog. "Mister Frog always slept right through the winter. Most frogs do." However, Mister Frog's three friends had always told him how wonderful it was to celebrate the Christmas holidays so this year Mister Frog decided he would stay awake and join the festivities.
He did manage to stay awake all through November, which was quite a chore for him. He had kept busy making plans because after all this was to be his first Christmas and he wanted everything to be absolutely perfect. Planning turned out to be quite tiring so he decided he'd take a small nap before going shopping. Then, before he knew it he heard church bells ringing. Oh-oh, could he have overslept and will he miss another Christmas?
Suggested for youngsters ages 3-6, FOUR FRIENDS AT CHRISTMAS will warm hearts both young and old.
- Gail Cooke
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CHEERS !, Nov 26 2009
The author of this "can't-wait-to-try-one" drink book is identified as a Master Mixologist. Now, just in case you're not familiar with that designation it is one who, among other things, creates original cocktails, blends of spirits springing not only from necessary ingredients but also from imagination, experience and experimentation.
Among Master Mixologists Eben Klemm is one of the best, although that was not his original goal. A former student of biology at Cornell University he once managed a molecular biology laboratory but also learned, as many have, that there are times when one simply needs to pay the bills and bartending is one way to do it. From that introduction Klemm became a restaurant bar manager and later created the cocktail menu and signature drinks for numerous restaurant openings. He now shares his expertise with us in this brightly illustrated COCKTAIL PRIMER.
Divided into seven chapters the book opens with everything we need to know about setting up a home bar, follows with a section on Martinis and variations thereof, and then Manhattans From there Klemm sheds light on Simple and Complex Sours before tackling Muddled Drinks (Mojito, Mint Julep, Black Cherry Bounce, etc.) The concluding chapter is devoted to Highballs in which he notes that highballs can be as simple or as complex as we want to make them. (I vote for simple as Klemm tells us those are nearly infallible.)
THE COCKTAIL PRIMER will be a welcome addition to any home bar or simply enjoyed for browsing.
- Gail Cooke
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A Christmas Blizzard
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de Garrison Keillor
Édition : Audio CD |
| Price: CDN$ 25.17 |
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| Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks |
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THE IRREPRESSIBLE KEILLOR AT HIS BEST, Nov 24 2009
The zillions of fans who enjoy Garrison Keillor's trademark warm , folksy humor may be a mite surprised and delighted I might add to discover that he can also be caustic - entertainingly so. Of course, a great deal of the pleasure in this tale is in the reading by Keillor - there's that unforgettable voice, familiar, spellbinding as he relates A CHRISTMAS BLIZZARD.
It is, of course, the holiday season, a least favorite time of year for energy drink company mogul James Sparrow and the happiest time for his wife, Joyce, Unfortunately, this year Joyce can't pursue her multitudinous yuletide preparations as she has the flu. James wants to leave it all behind, hop on his jet, and hide out for a while at their vacation home in Hawaii.
However, that's not going to happen as he receives a phone call with sad tidings - his Uncle Earl is dying in Looseleaf, North Dakota. So, James has no choice but to rev up the plane and head for his hometown. Once there he's not only almost buried by a sudden snowy blizzard but also by a horde of relatives and old friends.
For reasons perhaps not even known to the inscrutable James he passes himself off as a CIA agent and agrees to "hide" in an ice fishing cabin on the local lake. Well, this sort of exposure and dramatic change from the comforts of his ten-room apartment in Chicago can cause all sorts of strange reactions. Strange may be an understatement in the case of James - a confrontation with a wolf, the Big-Hair Lady, and a Chinese wise man.
Keillor is the king allowing us not only to enjoy his unparalleled narration but his fertile imagination in A CHRISTMAS BLIZZARD. Oh, and by the way, Uncle Earl is just fine.
Enjoy!
- Gail Cooke
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HOPERFUL AND HEARTWARMING, Nov 23 2009
As many of us do, I well remember my grandparents talking about the Great Depression. Little did I dream that some day I might be having a similar experience, so I recall what they told me and the stories of how they coped. Thus, I feel an affinity for Suzan Colon and what she learned when she went down to the basement and found her grandmother's cookbook.
Matilda was her grandmother's name and she had left not only a collection of favorite recipes but also commentary, wise words from the past. At this point in her life Colon needed all the help she could get. It was 2008 and she'd just been laid off from her magazine editor's job in the downturn that left so many out of work. (She's now a contributing editor with O (the Oprah magazine).
Nonetheless, more than the tried and true recipes from Grandmother Matilda she found a chronicle of how her family had gotten through some very tough times. Thus, what we have in CHERRIES IN WINTER is not only menu suggestions but examples to buoy our spirits.
Hearing Colon read her story is a large plus as she brings a timbre and feeling to it which would be very hard for a professional narrator to duplicate. For those who are feeling a bit down, CHERRIES IN WINTER is a viable tonic.
- Gail Cooke
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Herblock
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de Haynes Johnson
Édition : Hardcover |
| Price: CDN$ 27.41 |
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| Availability: In Stock |
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APT TRIBUTE TO AN ICONIC THINKER AND ARTIST, Nov 23 2009
What can you do? When it comes to national politics and politicians sometimes all we can do is cry or laugh. Thank goodness for the late great editorial cartoonist Herb Block who helped us laugh in both the best of times and the worst of times. Yes, we chuckled whether it was at Adolf Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, the Great Depression, the New Deal or the atomic age. Block's work, which covered nearly 75 years serves as a record of our history, pinpointing events that shaped our country politically, culturally, and socially.
Words cannot describe Block's contributions but reproductions of his cartoons found in HERBLOCK surely do. We're reminded of how his work influenced both politicians and public opinion when we note that in the early 1930's with Hitler on the horizon Block warned of the Nazi menace. He revealed Huey Long for who he truly was portraying Long screaming into a microphone as before him a figure wrapped in chains represented Louisiana.
There was little that he did not tackle and for this he received numerous honors plus three Pulitzer Prizes as well as a place in the hearts and minds of countless Americans.
HERBLOCK offers some 200 of Block's cartoons presented in historic order plus a DVD containing 18,000 cartoons. A magnificent collection and apt tribute to an iconic thinker and artist!
Enjoy!
- Gail Cooke
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COMPELLING, ATMOSPHERIC, SUSPENSEFUL, Nov 20 2009
The mother and son writing team known as Charles Todd has written 11 highly acclaimed Ian Rutledge mysteries, each recognized for scrupulous attention to historic detail, careful plotting, well developed characters, and riveting psychological suspense. The same is true of A DUTY TO THE DEAD in which Todd introduces a new series featuring Bess Crawford.
While Bess lived in 1916 she's more than a match for any contemporary mystery heroine. The daughter of a highly principled and equally highly disciplined officer she inherited these qualities in large doses. It is 1916 and Bess follows in her father's footsteps by serving as a nurse in the Great War. During training she is cautioned about becoming too fond of her patients. "They are yours to comfort, yours to heal, but not yours to dream about." Nonetheless, Arthur Graham found a special place in her heart, and she made a deathbed promise to him, a vow to take a brief, rather cryptic message to his brother, Jonathan.
However, it is some time before she can keep that promise as when our story opens she is aboard the ill-fated hospital ship Britannic. Todd's description of the explosion that rocks the ship and the ensuing sinking is intense, gripping. Bess suffers a broken arm but does manage to find a place in a lifeboat and is eventually sent to England for recoveryr. It is then that she goes to Arthur's home in Kent.
While at first she is welcomed warmly Bess is astute; she recognizes a sorely fragmented family. There is Arthur's widowed mother, a domineering matriarch. Jonathan is a lieutenant who has suffered a facial wound, another brother, Timothy, who was born with a clubfoot and appears bitter because he could not join the service. A third brother, Peregrine, is at the heart of the mystery; he has been held in a mental asylum since the age of fourteen - a confinement that we learn was arranged by his mother. To compound matters there is the mysterious Robert, a cousin, who is omnipresent.
While a guest in the Graham's home Bess is confronted with numerous challenges, not the least of which is assisting the local doctor in caring for a shell shocked soldier. She learns the matrix of small village life - secrets kept, gossip rampant, an aversion to strangers.
A DUTY TO THE DEAD is an atmospheric rendering of wartime England, a sterling suspense tale and an unforgettable picture of the horrors of war.
- Gail Cooke
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FAMILY LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEARS, Nov 18 2009
What parent hasn't given advice to their children, chastised them, encouraged them, consoled them? This has been done through the ages, and undoubtedly will continue for unknown time to come. Often it may be difficult to find the right words to express your thoughts or impress the young one, which is why it's both enlightening and fun to read what comments parents have made though the ages in LOVE TO THE LITTLE ONES.
Readers will be surprised to find how much they have in common with those raising families hundred of years ago. Portions of diaries, letters, essays, and memoirs are arranged chronologically beginning with pregnancy through childhood, adolescence, and adult children. Fox has focused on British parents because, as she says, "...they seem to have had a slightly different experience of family life from other English speaking countries." Thus, one finds Thomas More's last letter to his daughter and Rudyard Kipling's letters to his son.
One of my favorite selections was found in a 1683 letter Jack Verney wrote to his wife who was expecting their third child, "Everything that the Lovingest of husbands can express to the best of wives, & love to the little ones not forgetting the kicker in the dark."
Yes, of course, there have been a multitude of changes regarding the raising of children since Verney's day, perhaps most conspicuously the amount of professional help available. Nonetheless the thoughts of parents are very much the same as they face the joys and trials found in family life.
- Gail Cooke
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Selected Lyrics
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de Ira Gershwin
Édition : Hardcover |
| Price: CDN$ 15.75 |
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| Availability: In Stock |
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"NEVER FORGET HOW GREAT IRA WAS", Nov 16 2009
Granted, I love music so these comments may be a mite biased . For me, the partnership of George and Ira Gershwin produced some of the best popular music we know or will ever know. Whether it was a song that touched your heart or a melody that made you want to get up and dance they were music masters. We cannot think of one Gershwin without the other.
However, since many of us are "hummers," tending to remember a tune rather than words perhaps not enough emphasis has been placed on the brilliant lyrics of Ira. Now, in this all too brief volume we are privileged to read and reread his words, perhaps realizing for the first time what a truly amazing lyricist he was.
The breadth of his writing astounds as he excelled in both comedic (Let's Call The Whole Thing Off) and dramatic (The Man That Got Away) veins. "Good lyrics," Ira once told one of George's biographers, "should be simple, colloquial, rhymed conversation." Ira's lyrics were that yet so much more, they often reflected the way we spoke during the years that he wrote. He had an ear for the man (and woman) on the street, penning lyrics that reflected their thoughts and aspirations.
Irving Berlin, after singing "A Foggy Day In London Town" over the telephone to a friend said, "Never forget how great Ira was." This collection of his song lyrics will help us remember.
Enjoy!
- Gail Cooke
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STORIES, PAINTINGS, AND POP-UPS !, Nov 13 2009
What little girl doesn't love princess stories? The tales are, of course, made more enjoyable by accompanying illustrations, but how about a book that presents not only the printed story and beautiful illustrations but also pop-ups? A TREASURY OF PRINCESS STORIES holds all of this in one tidy package.
With respect for the originals and in easy to understand prose Amy Ehrlich retells some of the most loved stories, tales that have been enjoyed through the ages as they're passed from one generation to another. She begins with The Wild Swans, continues with The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, The Princess and the Pea, Snow White, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and concludes with The Frog Prince.
Gary Blythe's acrylic illustrations appear as if dusted with a golden haze as they capture each story. Much of his work is full page while other paintings decorate printed pages. Surely one of the most memorable is his rendering of the queen in Snow White as she returns to her looking glass saying, "Looking glass, looking glass on the wall, Who in the land is fairest of all?" Perfection in proud tilt of chin and haughty gaze!
Now, the pop-ups are the result of thoughtful paper engineering as each is found in a cover, thus preventing the figures from becoming bent. These are found at the beginning of each story and represent a pivotal scene. This is one pop-up book that won't soon lose its "pop."
Enjoy!
- Gail Cooke
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