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the mind murders
janwillem van de wetering
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| Oh so wonderful. If you’ve read my archives, you realize that I greatly admire this wonderful series by Van Vetering. This is an exceptionally good mystery. It combines elements of life’s journey as well as the puzzle of what happened to a drug dealer who was murdered in such a vexing natural way. This is once again set in lovely Amsterdam (I just bet it’s lovely). It’s an earlier book than the ones I’ve read before, and I like that as it gives me vital background to these characters who actually develop over the course of the books. Amsterdam must be a good place as I’ve loved two books set there (this series and "Rituals"). This book would be a good read just about any time, but may be best when you’re in a world weary mood. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
December 2000 [link] |
recommend
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just a corpse at twilight
janwillem van de wetering
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I was disconsolate. I’m beginning to reach the point where I’ve read EVERY Amsterdam Cops entry, and I was upset that there were only a couple of books to get through. "Just a Corpse at Twilight" was the first book of this series I read six or seven years ago. I read them out of sequence, so I didn’t get any of the references.
I had just read "The Maine Massacres" which takes place years before this book, so I was interested to see if I could re-read a book. Previously, I’ve never done so. I hate backtracking. Here’s what I discovered: it’s much easier to re-read books that are plot-driven after several years than ones that are poetry and character and philosophy-driven.
Par example, I could re-read this book with ease and only had a vague recollection of the major plot twist. Basically, it was as if I’d never read the book. BUT, when I’ve tried to re-read "The Passion" or "Rituals", it’s not as satisfying as the plot is so nominal, that I’m well aware of the twists and turns. Anyhoo, this is about "Just a Corpse at Twilight". This book was great mostly because I knew the characters. I wouldn’t quite suggest it as a first read as there are many inside jokes, but then again, it was my first book in the series. The end was so beautiful that I’m still cooing.
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reviewed by: kristen |
June 2001 [link] |
recommend
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the empty mirror
janwillem van der wetering
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| Although a friend of mine said that proclaiming yourself a Buddhist marks you as an obvious non-Buddhist, I’m merely saying that Buddhism is the path I’m investigating right now. It makes the most sense and offers the most to me. My beloved mystery author, Janwillem van der Wetering, has also written three books on Zen Buddhism. On a lark, I decided to have a gander. “The Empty Mirror” was excellent and the first book on Buddhism I’ve ever read. It’s an account of the author’s stay in a Japanese monestary as a lay guest. He knew no Japanese and not a soul in Japan “not even a mother’s friend’s cousin”. He rang the bell at the gate (which turned out to be a bell only used for monestary business) and began. One of my favorite passages in the book is the one where he feels proud for being detached enough to be aware that he was dressing sharp to impress a girl and then being aware enough that it was ridiculous for him to dress for a girl but that he was aware and then being aware that he was aware of being aware and how annoying it was that no one can realize how aware he is but himself (or something like that). I also love the way the book ends. It’s just a great, easy to read book. It’s not at all preachy or somewhat dull like my second book on Buddhism that I’m reading. If this wasn’t the most lively or exciting review, please realize that I’m trying to wean myself off caffeine. It’s Monday at work after a long spell of not working, and it’s raining. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
July 2001 [link] |
recommend
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corpse on the dyke, the
janwillem van der wetering
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| This was a book I read out of rebellion. I should have been studying and completing my schoolwork, but alas. I finished reading it about four days ago. This was a very competent detective novel from our Amsterdam team. There were very profound movement, but mostly this was no "Blond Baboon" - in fact, the similarity to "Blond Baboon" sort of dulled the quality of both books in my mind - same smart but warped villian, same beautiful but nutty woman... This was a great escapist read. It takes place early in the series when the detectives are still a bit rough and stuck. The buddhism slant is hidden but evident. Fast read. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
December 2001 [link] |
recommend
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the maine massacres
janwillem van der wetering
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I’ve read so many of these Grijpsta and De Gier books that I tend to get a bit smarmy. While they are yards and leagues way better than most books I read (mysteries and non-mysteries), this particular book was the worst of the series I’ve read. It was interesting only in the fact that it took place in Maine. I’m glad I read it, because I’ll be reading all the books in the series, but you don’t have to. (I wouldn't even have reviewed it - as it's not a burning hot book - except that I wanted to contribute to my body of work here on happyrobot.)
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reviewed by: kristen |
May 2001 [link] |
recommend
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maine massacres, the
jan van der willig
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| (The Maine Massacres and The Corpse in the Dyke) : I had been looking for this author’s books ever since I first read two of his in from recommendations from the cool downtown, wilmington bookstore. NO ONE carries them… and the library doesn’t stock his books either. Silly, because this book is in the top fourteen best books I’ve ever read – mostly because of its Zen, smoky, isolationist but wise tone. These are detectives from Amsterdam with a lot of world weary observations and the wryness that often accompanies world-weariness. I equate this detective team and the author to Tom Waits. I would read every one Jan’s written, but I don’t have the funds to purchase, and the library has not the books. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
September 2000 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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the blond baboon
janwillem van vetering
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This wins as the most amazing mystery ever read. It's a fast
read and full of all the Zen stuff that get's me a goin. Once
again, set in lovely Amsterdam. This is best read when you
want to remember summer and "Rear Window" and garden
parties and integrity. I read it and the buzz from reading it
stayed with me for days. That is something that has never
before happened. (Except for that vexing Fountainhead
book). |
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reviewed by: kristen |
January 2001 [link] |
recommend
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the perfidious parrot
janwillem van wetering
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| I can't say enough about these boys (the detective team in the book). I feel so lucky to have found a series of books that combine my favorite reading material: searches for the meaning of life, camaraderie, foreign locales, and a good mystery. I rented this book on tape from the library a while back to listen to on the way to visit my sister. Ugh. It was awful - like hearing Garfield the cartoon cat's voice for the first time when they had that show on TV: it wasn't anything like I imagined, and now I can't remember what I imagined. I just read them in my head with that voice. Anyhoo, I didn't finish the tapes, and recently found them in book form in the library (after searching in vain last year). I have this new system of finding books (since I have few friends who read and recommend books to me) where I just browse the shelves under a letter I like that day. I was in the doubleyou's and found "wetering" , and there they all were. I read the book, and liked it. It wasn't anywhere near "The Maine Massacres", but it was a good book. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
November 2000 [link] |
recommend
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amy vanderbilt complete book of etiquette
amy vanderbilt
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| if you want an amusing afternoon read, pick up this sucker. you will be endlessly amused at topics such as what to expect when a maid unpacked your bags, where to sit people for an 8 person dinner party and how to announce you and your gay companion have adopted a child. it's totally rewritten for the '00s. i think it would be even more amusing to see the original etiquette book from the 50s. what a freakin' hoot, i bet. i imagine that if you were having a fancy 500 person wedding, this might actually help with the planning in terms of what you're "supposed" to do. but for the rest of us, it's just plain interesting. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
February 2003 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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cutting for stone
abraham verghese
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The phrase "Cutting For Stone" comes from the Hippocratic oath: "I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest" which required doctors to diagnose patients without modern surgery techniques.
In the novel "Cutting for Stone", it is also related to the last name of the main characters as well as a multitude of other meanings. It's the perfect title for this book as the story itself exists on many levels and meanings. Spanning locations in India, Ethiopia and America as well as taking place over 40 plus years, the story begins with the birth of conjoined twins to a nun; one of the twins, Marion, is the narrator but as he and his brother, Shiva, are so close, we learn just as much about Shiva as well. Their mother dies in childbirth and they are raised by two other doctors where their mother worked. The father, a surgeon at the same hospital, flees the horror of the birth and therein lies much of the tale – the absence of parents, the presence of wonderful adoptive parents and the heartache, misery and joys of a third-world country's hospital. You can't help but love the wonderfully drawn characters and this long, epic tale means you get to spend a lot of quality time with them. As the author was first a surgeon, big portions of the book are medically technical but accessible and interesting.
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reviewed by: lisa may |
January 2010 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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gossip girl
cecily von ziegesar
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| Apparently, this is the book series that all the teens are reading nowadays. I just HAD to find out what it was all about. And this is what it is all about: each chapter is interspersed with an e-newsletter from anonymous "gossip girl" about well, duh, gossip. It follows the social scene of rich New York City prep school kids from east and west side elite families. During the day they ditch school to go shopping at Barney's and at night they go to charity events and then drink and smoke at all the hippest clubs in NYC. Lots of sexy teen talk you'll love! |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
July 2004 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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wampeters, foma & granfalloons
kurt vonnegut, jr.
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| I've never read a Kurt Vonnegut book. I've either seen or wanted to see a movie version of "Slaughterhouse Five" with I'm thinking Julie Christie in the cast? I think I was afraid he would have the diarrhea of the mouth syndrome that so annoys me about Tom Robbins (and hell yes Myself). But kent let me borrow this amazing book on New Year's Eve whilst mark was out of town finishing up his commercial. This book may be out of print and thus just be on the lookout at yardsales and used book stores (or maybe www.21.northmainstreet.com (that website that "the writer's notebook" prarie home companion guy on npr always plugs). Anyway, I'm glad I didn't read it earlier because I would have thought I was copying him, but no, it appears that both kurt vonnegut, jr et moi seem to have arrived at the self-same conclusion. You'll have to read this book to see what I'm talking about. Discover the short essays/jewels in whatever order you do, but I personally am throwing out for discussion the theory that the essay entitled "In a Manner that Must Shame God Himself" (maybe this particular essay is availble online for free?) is a horrifying parallel to the self-same afhghanistan thing going on now. Indira's Net anyone? Please read it if you care. (And watch "Red" on some highdolla weeed for heightened "ohmigod" factor - blue, red, and white is the order I myself came upon this movie. THANK YOU VISION VIDEO in ATHENS, GA for existing.) |
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reviewed by: kristen |
January 2002 [link] |
recommend
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assassination vacation
sarah vowell
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| In this latest and greatest from alternative It-Girl Sarah Vowell, we travel with Vowell to all the best sights related to the assassinations of McKinley, Lincoln and Garfield. What sounds like a potentially boring topic (I'm assuming she leaves out JFK because it would need a whole book of its own) turns out to be funny, brilliant and intellectual. At times, I thought the book was funnier than anything David Sedaris had written. Not only that, but I learned a lot historically as she visits places all over the country - places where the assassins hung out, where they took refuge and where they were imprisoned as well as where the murders took place. The text is peppered with Vowell's own political views (such as her thing for referring to President Bush as "the current president") and her quirky little self (we learn of her phobias which include "water, heights, snakes and 'Children of the Corn'"). This book is making me backtrack to her fiction novels - hopefully I'll be just as charmed. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
August 2005 [link] |
recommend
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take the cannoli
sarah vowell
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Ah, Sarah Vowell. If she wasn't such a funny writer we'd all think she was a total freak-o. This compliation of essays have appeared on Salon.com, GQ and you may have heard some of them on NPR. Vowell expounds on high school band, learning to drive at the age of 28 (with Ira Glass as a teacher) and the wonderful cheezyness of Disneyworld.
My favorite essay was about making mix tapes back in the day - who doesn't love a mix tape? The title references her obsession at one time with the movie "The Godfather" and how she couldn't stop watching it. Highly amusing and readable. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
September 2005 [link] |
recommend
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the partly cloudy patriot
sarah vowell
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If you don't already love Sarah Vowell, there's nothing to be done with you as she's just the wittiest, nerdiest, loveliest girl writer out there. I love her obsessiveness with history, I love hearing her kooky voice in my head as I read about her Thanksgiving visits with family, about attending the inaguration of G.W. and weeping because it's her right as an American and an essay about growing up a twin.
I saw a bumper sticker recently that said "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention" and I'm glad that Vowell is around, being politically outraged, being funny, being smart and sharing it all with us. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
June 2006 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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