An over-scheduled month and history, intrigue and romance in Juliet

Oh May. You should be the month during which I enjoy sunshine without crazy heat, walk my dog while the flowers bloom and leisurely watch my girls participate in soccer, lacrosse, track or softball (preferably not all four). But you have teased me with beautiful days but made everyday of my calendar marked with activities and appointments. May, you are a life sucker.

First off, there is lacrosse, which is fine. Seems awesome, because the husband is coaching, which means teaching a bunch of 3rd and 4th grade girls how to run with big sticks without poking anyone--including themselves--in the eye. But this means I don't have to run older girl to practice (yeah!!). Of course, it means I'm the team secretary, but that's okay. I can handle that one.

Also for the older girl is her fourth grade celebration. It's the end of their elementary school career-- there is no graduation (thank you for that, I think tons of graduations are silly)--but we do a fun 'good-bye to all the easiness of elementary school-get ready for the real world aka MIDDLE SCHOOL' celebration. It's fun, and I will cry, and I have volunteered to help. I'm with a bunch of awesome women and it is worth it. It will be fun!

And there are end of the year field trips, team building for middle school (with all the other kids who will also be going to middle school), field days, carnivals . . . all the end of the year stuff.

But none of that is really quite overwhelming me. What is overwhelming me is younger daughter's medical stuff. In March we got blood tests back that came back positive for Celiac disease and thyroid issues. Let's just say that now week in May (and probably some in June) includes some doctor appointment, blood test or procedure. And everyone means entertaining an eight year old with Down syndrome for a couple of hours. Plus, every time a gastroenterology (the Celiac doc) gets postponed it means we have to buy just a little more gluten. We can't cut it out of our lives until after an endoscopy, and that can't happen until the stars are aligned just right and we hear angels singing. Or so it seems.

Okay, done whining. On to my book of the day--Juliet, by Anne Fortier.


                                                             

“Everything we say is a story. But nothing we say is just a story.”

 This novel takes a  new look at the tale of Romeo and Juliet, the story most of know from Shakespeare.  Shakespeare set  Romeo and Juliet in Verona, but Fortier stages her tale in 1340 Siena, Italy. I'm not sure of the history and truth, but she does tell some wonderful renditions of the story that predate Shakespeare.

This novel starts with the death of a woman in America, Aunt Rose. She has been raising her twins nieces, Julie and Janice Jordan since early childhood, when they were orphaned after the death of their mother in Italy. Aunt Rose's death brings an estate for the seemingly greedy Janice and a mystery to solve for Julie--a mystery her mother began to unravel, a mystery that dates back to the 12th century. Julie is very disappointed--she had been racking up credit card bills in the hopes that Aunt Rose's estate would be split between her and Janice.

So Julie flies off to Siena in order to find the 'treasure', where she learns her family history and discovers a number of unknown relatives. Julie learns that she was born Guilietta Tolemi, the original Juliet, and she and Romeo must reunite to end a family curse. And there is also the mysterious treasure that Juliet must find in order to save herself, her Romeo and her sister, not to mention extended family, monks and all of Siena.

Fortier blends past and present, describing Siena in breathless language and beautiful detail. The book combines intrigue, history and romance and is a wonderfully fun read. The ending is pretty predictable, but in a good way. They only  part of this story that didn't quite set me over the top is Julie. She's a little whiney and seems to take no responsibility for her predicaments. She does mature in the vision of her sister, who becomes more of a sister and less of a torment, but she seems to fall apart all the time. When the mystery is solved it is almost despite Julie being involved. Life seems to happen to her, instead of her taking hold and jumping in.

That said, it is a book I read twice. It is worth the time investment--fun and funny, romantic, adventurous and intriguing. It made me sigh and smile, bite my nails and laugh out loud. I would highly recommend this book, especially as a fun summer romp. GET ON IT!!!

Getting to the gym and my new obsession with Harry Hole

Silly me. I signed up for a gym challenge at our wonderful YMCA for the month of March. The challenge gives us a whole month to finish an Ironman triathlon.  A whole month. That's 2.4 miles of swimming, 26.2 miles of running and 112 miles of biking. The swimming isn't bad--I swam in high school and college and it came back to me pretty easily. Even the running isn't horrid--the elliptical counts and I like the elliptical. The hardest for me? You guessed it; it's the biking.

Biking kills me, and not because of the strain on my legs. I like that--I feel like I'm gaining muscle and losing fat. It's the strain on my tailbone. I have done something to my tailbone in the last year or so that exacerbated an old injury, and every time I do something that means contact with my tailbone it HURTS! That means sitting for too long (at my desk, in the car, on a bike) or jarring it up and down (in a spin class, for example). You know it's gotten bad when sitting in your office chair makes you cry.

BUT I will prevail. I am more than half way done, and feeling pretty good (other than the bike). I have loved getting back in the water and think I will continue swimming after my month is up. I even think I have convinced my hubs to get me a waterproof iPod for Mother's Day. If that does happen, I will HAVE to continue swimming.

Well, enough about me. It's time for books. And today it is a wonderful character named Harry Hole and the mysteries of Norway.

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"Sick is a relative concept. We’re all sick. The question is, what degree of functionality do we have with respect to the rules society sets for desirable behaviour? No actions are in themselves symptoms of sickness. You have to look at the context within which these actions are performed."

  I have been intrigued with Scandinavian mysteries lately. Some of the most interesting and complex works have been coming out of the Scandinavian countries. If you don’t count Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg in 1993, which was well written but very slow moving, Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy was my first endeavor—and I was HOOKED!!! Next I read The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler, a pretty good mystery that takes place in Sweden. I heard wonderful things about Jo Nesbø, but was reluctant to switch to another unknown country (I did a lot of research on Sweden while reading Larsson so I could sort of understand where everything was taking place), so instead I went to Germany (I know a little about Germany—that was my thinking) and read Snow White Must Die by Nele Neuhaus. It was pretty good, but not as good as Larsson’s books. So I finally succumbed to the siren of Norwegian mysteries and jumped into Nesbø and Harry Hole. I am hooked. 

I started with The Redbreast, which is actually the third in the Harry Hole series. It was a good place to start, but I will have to go back and read the first two. The Redbreast is amazing. The pace of the book is wonderful and the writing is easy to read but not simple—part of the credit for this (and all translated books) has to go to the translator; in this case, Don Bartlett. 

 This book is written in the present (well, the past, but present tense)of 1999-2000, but it flashes back to World War II. At first the flashbacks seem out of place, but they add to the mystery of the book and come to make sense. 

 Hole is a great detective with some jarring flaws that only make him more likable and believable. He’s an alcoholic loner, a lonely man afraid to let his defenses down. He does let them down, though, and we like him for it. He follows his gut and it usually takes him to the right place. Hole is a hero we can believe in, flawed but trying to find his way. The villain in this story is also wonderfully complex, spanning time and probability. I even liked him a bit, and I think Hole did, too. I have a feeling he will be returning in some shape or form. 

The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo for Kindle at Amazon

 This book is wonderfully written; Nesbø writes not only a great mystery but also a great piece of literature. This is definitely a book with reading.

The Woodcutter by Kate Danley

"You are no longer that which you were and will forever be more than you ever thought possible."

I love it when an author an author finds a way to take a fairy tale, or a group of fairy tales, and reshape it in to something new. A good re-telling takes the stories that we know by heart and shows a different telling. Kate Danley does just that.

This book takes us into the world of the Woodcutter, a magical man (creature?) who plays the part of guardian, detective and ecologist. He guards the border between reality and fairy tales. When a young girl is found dead in the woods he takes on the role of detective, knowing that something is wrong in the fairy world. 

We pretty much know who the bad guys and the good guys are based on fairy tale mythlore, and the book does wrap up very neatly. It does start off slowly, but once I got into the book I didn't want to put it down. Danley entwines many fairy tale characters and storylines and mixes them into one wonderful mystery.

Another plus for this book was the price. I got this for my Kindle, so at $3.99 it was a deal. I pick these up every once and awhile for when I am between books (and the fact that I can store them without the clutter eases both my pack rat mentality and my clutter-free world mentality). It is also one of the titles that can be shared between Kindles, which is a plus.

The Woodcutter by Kate Danley available on Kindle