#86 - Peter and the Starcatchers - Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson

#86

Title:  Peter and the Starcatchers

Author:  Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Read by:  Jim Dale

Genre:  Fiction

Rating:  B+

Published:  2004

Dates:   12/15/15 – 12/23/15

Cds/Hrs: 7/9

This prequel to Peter Pan is precious.  An adventure to say the least full of imagination, detail, humor and wonderfully developed characters.  Peter and his pals, also orphans, find themselves on a ship, the Never Land.  Along the way they meet Molly daughter of a Starcatcher who talks to porpoises.  As Peter becomes more immersed in learning what a Starcatcher is and the secret of a fantastical trunk, the winds pick up, a band of pirates and thieves invade their territory and before you can say Mollusk Island Peter and company find themselves right there.  Getting lost and found is fraught with danger.  If you ever loved Peter Pan as a kid, you’ll want to keep listening to learn the back story of the art of flying, a crocodile, and a pixie.    And Jim Dale narrates as only Jim Dale knows how.

#85 - Speaking from Among the Bones - Alan Bradley

#85

Title:  Speaking from Among the Bones

Author:  Alan Bradley

Read by:  Jayne Entwistle

Genre:  Fiction

Rating:  B

Published:  2013

Dates:   12/6/15 – 12/28/15

Cds/Hrs: 8/8

Fifth in the series we find eleven year old Flavia de Luce ensconced in a murder mystery.  This time she’s at St. Tancred’s during the week preceding Easter.  Upon the 500^th anniversary death of St. Tancred’s patron saint, the community is preparing to open his tomb.  Flavia is so excited at the anticipation of such an event.  Neither she nor anyone else is expecting to find Mr. Collicutt, the church organist, dead in the crypt   With chemistry, Flavia’s passion, she pulls the clues together and helps solve the mystery.  I think this is the best Bradley offers us so far in this fun English mystery series set in Bishop’s Lacey, a quaint village, of the mid-20^th century.

#84 - William Stryon - Judith Ruderman

#84

Title:  William Styron

Author:   Judith Ruderman

Genre:  Biography

Category:  Non-Fiction

Rating:  B

Published:  1987

Dates:  12/1/15 – 12/21/15

Pages:  160

From the Literature and Life: American Writers series, Ruderman introduces us to Styron’s body of work.  Among his novels that I’ve read are The Confessions of Nat Turner and Sophie’s Choice, the former of which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.  Detail is the word that describes the depth Judith Ruderman goes into about his other books, short stories, sketches and reviews, a play and a screen play.  Some of Styron’s work is morbid such as his novel, The Long March and his play, The Clap Shack.  Ruderman say that a book he was working on, The Way of the Warrior, would inform it as well.  Interestingly enough it was not published.  Instead, however, a short auto-biography came out in 1990 entitled Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness.  Perhaps he overdid his commentary on war as a theme in his books.