Drood FIANALY Disappears!!! (I'd say its a spoiler, but the book is a dissaperaence mystery)

So, first let me say that tMoED is all of 272 pages. Drood disappears on page 162. IT TOOK SO LONG! (Yes,  I do try to avoid all caps, but it took so long).  Drood went on a walk down to the river on Cristmas Eve with Neville Landless, and Nevile Landless was the last person to see him--alive or dead. Neville walks eight miles out of town. I thisks that qualifies of excaping the scene of the crime! Then, a group of eight Cloisterhamians (???), including John Jasper and Mr. Crisparkel, I belive. NL thinks that they are theives and will not go with them, and the subsequently beat up NL. They bring him back to Cloisterham and then they blame the bood stains that they have created on him murdering Neville. Mayor Sapsesa orders the river to be dregged for any traces of Drood, which they find none. Then, Mr. Gregwerious, Rosa legal gaurdian comes to town , as his ward's fiancee is missing, and talks to Jasper. Jasper then faints when he tells him that Rosa and Edwin called off their engagement. I choose to interpret this as a sign of giult that he murdred Drood so Rosa would be upset and he will then try to get Rosa off the rebound. When Jasper comes to, he eats some food with Gregwerious (I'm not sure that's spelled right, but I don't have the book right in front of me). Greggy (as I will be calling Mr. Gregwerious) continualy descrtibes himself as an "Angular man" (the "a" is always capatalized). I haven't the slightest idea of what that means. The more than I think of it, Greggy does have motive for murder. He is the gaurdian of Rosa and it seems that he does not like her predestined husband (Drood).

The Mystery of Edwin Droo(ooooooooooooooo)d(ddd) by Charles Dickens- Up to Pg. 94

Currently, this is anything but a quick read. You can't really glaze over the text like people do sometimes, you need to grasp every word. But now, I have some motive: I got my hands on Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs, and I've promised myself that I shan't read a word of it until Drood is done.
Its fun to pay attention with the way Dickens plays with word choice, especaly in the chapter tittles. The seventh chapter, "More Confidences Than One", makes an exponental amount of sence, because Nevile Landless shares with Rev. Crisparke, then Helena Landless shares with Rosa.
I've started to formulate possible suspects for the murderer. So far, the people with the most motive are John Jasper and Nevile Landless. Jasper is in love with Rosa, whom Drood is engaged to. Crimes of Passion are Often Drawn From Passion. Nevile is, as he knows very well, "Secret and Revengefull" and despises the way Drood seems to take Rosa, a beautiful young woman for granted. What these two people don't know is that the young couple are on the verge of breaking up- their marrage was arranged, and they have no real love for each other.
I will get more reading done, I promise. Oh, and I'll keep up with the blog entries =). Been having some technichal difficulties latley, oh and, I know its early, but for all my fellow Jews out there:
happy haunakah

TITTLE ERROR and a Bit About the Book on the Block

I'm so very sorry, and I feel so very stupid: but the title of the book I am currently reading, is Death's Acre, not Death's Arch. I had one of those moments where you read something as a word that it looks like and then don't realize it for quite sometime that its actuality different word, in this case, for over a month.
A sincere thank you goes out to all the people who saw this and didn't realize/tell me that I was wrong. (I'm not being sarcastic. Really.)
Fact being that Death's Acre is a memoir, as compared to a fast-paced Kathy Reich's style realistic fiction, there isn't mush story arch. And I'm going to put it down for a whileSo, I figure that I'll tell you about the next book that I'm going to read (I've started it, but haven't finished it. I don't always read things all the way through. I have a wonderful attention span) And that book is:
The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens
The Mystery of Edwin Drood, or tMoED, as I will be calling it, is a Victorian-era set murder (mystery). Now, just to warn you so you don't get your hopes up or bet money on who the murderer is, THERE IS NO ENDING. Mr. Dickens was writing tMoED in twelve instalments, shortly after finnishing the sixth instalment, the man fell into a coma and subsequently died. Sounds like a great storyline for a musical, no? Well, it is a musical, and although I may be a tad partial to it, if you ever have the chance you must go see it. Or I will hunt you down, and we will have a little chat. The musical version was written by Rupert Holmes, who i was fourtuante enough to meet April 2009 when I worked backstage at a preformance of the show. But more on that later. TMoED is set in a small town nicknamed Cloisterham by Mr. Dickens. The novel takes off when Edwin Drood (need I say, he is the protagonist), a 17 year-old orphan is visiting his uncle, John Jasper, the resident music teacher and choirmaster of Cloisterham. Other mentionable charaters are:
Rosa Bud: Of course, often called Rose Bud. She is the fiancee of Drood, as arranged by their fathers. She is also orphaned.
Nevile and Helena Landless- Twins form Ceylon (Present day Sri Lanka) They are orphaned as well and are temporally under the care of Reverend Crisparkle. Their true guardian is Mr. Honeythunder (Whom I will not be addressing in this section) In their youth, they were abused and deprived by their father.
Rev. Crisparkle- A philanthropist, and Reverend of the local church.
(The) Princess Puffer- Yes, it's a drug reference. Puffer runs an opium den. Jasper often frequents there.
Mr. Sapsea- An auctioneer. He also becomes the Mayor of Cloisterham

Death's Arch (Dr. Bill Bass and Jefferson)

So, one day I was in Barnes and Nobel's looking for a book to read, just browsing isle by isle, regardless of content. I found Death's Arch, by Dr. Bill Bass, in the weight loss section. Dying is a convinent way to loose weight, but its a tad extreme!
Death's Arch is the memoir of Bill Bass, PhD. He worked at the University of Knoxville in TN for sometime. While he was there, he helped start the Anthropology Research Center, a.k.a. The Body Farm. Here, the use bodies donated to science to study human decomposition patterns in select environments and how the mortises form (well, by the time they get the body, palor and livor are probably already taken care of!) It's an interesting read because if i had to decide today where to go to college and I could go anywhere, I'd chose UK without hesitation!
I've already learned a lot. Bass writes in an extremely vernacular form. When he does use sciency mumbo-jumbo, he explanes it quickly.
He's also very down to earth about what he's doing. He's dealing with murder victims. He gives them a name, a face, and shows people how their final hours were. He brings their killers to justice, after years, decades of them having escaped the law. It's quite beautiful.

SECOND QUARTER BEGINS HERE

In conclusion...206 Bones by Kathy Reichs

This was an overal great book. Although I haven't completly finished the book yet (I have like three pages left) it was totaly amazing. I like Reichs' langiuge alot. She intergrates English with a bit of French to get a very interesting effect. Its like taking purple and buting a little bit of green next to it. It just makes it pop! This is such a hard entry to write! I mostly read the end of the book this week, and I don't want to give anything away. the bigest thing I can tell you without giving the ending away is that Tempe's Quebec apartment window gets exploded. Its was scary, but extermly cool!
Adeus,
Me

206 Bones (Kathy Reichs): One of the MOST Fantastic Books I Have EVER Read

And I have read my fair share of books.
One of my favorite things is the tick, tick, tick, tick, tick that is a reocouuring theme (refering to clocks). As I have stated, the book stats with Dr. Brennan in what she thinks is a very small tomb (later she finds that is is slightly larger then she first found it to be, but there is something/one sharing the space with her) Reichs is the absolute queen of cliff hangers. the last sentence in the chapter is always the type of steryotypical last line, but unlike many other cliff hanger style chapters, the "OMG" moment is in the middle of the next chapter. However, one cliff hanger is very confusing. It says that she has found something that is sharing her enclosure. Then the next chapter starts with her talking about cadaver dogs. It was just plain odd, it made me think that she was sharing her tomb with a dead cadaver dog (ohhh the irony!).
One thing I love about Kathy Reichs' books isin't the writing. Its the cover art. It is so very grabbing. They always have something rather interesting. (See the pictures below)  The book's cover is of a floater (a bond found in a lake, it has a very interesting decomp pattern). In the begenning, they are talking about Rose Jurmain's murder. they are in Chichago, where Temperance spent her first few years of her childhood, before her day and baby brother died. The assistant patholigist inspecting the death of Rose is infact the childhood friend of Temperance's. (They say that he looks like some guy from like The Brady Bunch or some show I've never watched) Jurmain was not a floater, and therefore is not the person on the cover. (Also, the hand, if it was real, has the structure of a male's hand.) This book in the series, like Bones to Ashes, Temperance is paired with Lieutenant-Decetive Andrew Ryan of the Securite de Quebec, (excuse my lack of accents) as Jurmain's death was tenchachly on Canadian turf. 206 Bones takes place around the end of December and by then there is snow in the windy city. On Ryan's and Brennan's way to O'Hare, they get a handy-dandy call from the airline, reporting that their flight has been canceld until further notice. Temeerance's ex-husband, Pete, has family in Chichago and they ask them if they can stay at their house for the night. Amist the Latvian cooking, a family friend asks Temperance if they have found any remains that match the discription of her step-son, who they call "Lassie". The next day, Tempe has nothing else to do at works and requests to inspect some of the unidentified remains that could match Lassie. Because this is a book, of course, Temperance finds a set that is deemed his. The remains had shown up at a lake near a quary, and he was a floater, like the one on the front cover.


At the end of each of Reichs' last three books, she has an interview or such, and in this book, she has a rant on faulty anthropological identification. I find that it was extremly disturbing. If I was to die in a way that required anthroplogical identification, I definitly would not like to be misidentified. Its like: okay, I'm dead, now yayyy someone identified me as a male negroid (I am a female caucasoid). I hope that no one who that would make that type of error would be allowed in the profession.

206 Bones by Kathy Reichs

I am one of the lucky ones. I can name 153 out of the 206 bones in the average human body. Kathy Reichs and her protagonist, Temperance Brennan can name all of them.
Reich's latest novel, 206 Bones, starts off in a way different from her last two books, Devil Bones and Bones to Ashes. The book opens in an italic font ment to throw you off. It did for me! Dr. Brennan, as we discover has been traped in a cement tomb, berried alive and has no recolection of ever facing her assailant. She does however, with mush effort, remeber the last case whe was working on.
It dealt with murder of Rose Jurmain, a snack food heiress, excommunicated from her family due to their devout Catholicism and her lesbian lifestyle. The family's lawyer claims that the Jurmains received an anonymous telephone call from someone claiming that Dr. Brennan has faked the autopsy results to cover up the "fact" that Rose had been murdered. (Temperance's original findings were that Rose was heavily under the influence of drugs and alcohol and went out for a walk where she got hypothermia and died.)

Let's have a party! I'm done wih Devil Bones.

Well, its not that I'm happy to be done,  I'm happy to start the next book, 206 Bones which is also by the brilliant Kathy Reichs.
If you were hoping I'd tell you who the murderer was, you're wrong! Not that you'd know who I was talking about until of the book because we don't meet him until then. But what I will tell you is that the end was an extreme plot twist!
This book hit home for me in so many ways. First,a I said in the previous post there was the aspect of Wicca. Also, one of the murders was an anti-gay hate crime. I've had affiliations in the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual) for close to three years now and I was just astonished that something like that came up in this book. It reminded me how real these things are.
Overall,this book was a great read and the action really starts as soon as you open the book. I enjoy Reich's writing style a lot and cant wait to blog about 206 bones!

Happy School Spirit Day! Now Let's Talk About Dead People! (Devil Bones, Kathy Reichs)

I f you could'nt tell from the title, its school spirit day. The seniors wrote on the block of lockers where mine is "Homecoming". I had the C. I erased it. It says "Homeoming" now. =) Anyway, something a tad bit more important: dead poeple!
As youu probaly can tell, the book I'm reading is Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs. Temperance Brennan went to her friends coven metting (a coven is a group of people who come together to pratice Wicca). I quite enjoy Reichs' take on the religion. For a short time, I had explored Alexandrean Wicca. (Wicca has seveal sects, like how cathloics can be prodestant, lutheran, etc.). I found that it was very calming at makes you feel connected to the earth. Reichs tries to show people that paganism is not devil worship. Its purley interesting. Temperance is very calm when she is showed the religion, although she does not belive in it. I think that this book is ofering people an alternative view, as opposed to the one they usualy have because of the religious brainwashing that has occoured it our society.
Think about it.

Tear, Tear, Tear

On Friday, I had a Chemistry test, after which, I decided to read my independent reading book, Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs. Towards the end of the period, I came across a plot twist. My favorite secondary character was shot!!! And he died. His death shook and stirred the world of Temperance Brennan. Throughout the book, a point is made that she is a recovering alcoholic (a little irony in her name, no?), and takes a Perrier or Diet Coke with Lime to a glass of Merlot. Tempe is sorounded in grief. She is visited by her ex-Husband, Pete and she starts to drink. I'm sure this will have some sort of repercussion in the time to follow. There was that moment where you thought "No, Tempe, no!" but the fate of the character was already written and there was nothing you could do about it.

Why I like Rinaldi. (Devil Bones, Kathy Reichs)

Rinaldi is a secondary charter in Devil Bones by Dr. Kathy Reichs, PhD. Rinaldi is the co-worker of the detective that Brennan works with, Sidell. He is described as tall skinny, and Italian. I can totally imagine him with like the greasy gelled back hair, with a black suit and black neck tie, totally pronounced yet totally attractive features.
I'm not entirley sure why I like the character, but I think that he plays a relatively important role in the story line. Perhaps he is actually the murder? Probably not...

Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs- Up to page 60

In the 2008 instalment in Dr. Reich's Temperance Brennan novels, Tempe must solve a horrific case based on a plumbers findings while he was renovating a home's bathroom of a teenager's skull and several dismembered livestock.

She has met with her daughter over dinner and was tempted, but Temperance defused to discuss the devilish case.

This book takes place in Charlotte, North Carolina, a place where I was fortunate enough to visit in summer 2009. Satanism, which is a key element in the book, I would imagine is quite disgruntling at the least to the people who are happy to eat their Chic-Fil-A. The people of North Carolina are generally super religious, and for the most part, Christian or Roman Catholic. Obviously, the pagan practices that were taking place right under their noses that lead to the murder of a teen would make these people take up arms.

Although I have not quite read enough of the book, I am not able to form an official opinion. However, I am sure that this will be a good book and worth reading!

Bones To Ashes by Kathy Reichs

After reading it this summer, Kathy Reichs has become one of my favorite authors. She is a forensic anthropologist and her novels about "what ifs" from her unusual line of work inspired the FOX drama, Bones.

In her 2007 instalment in the Temperance Brennan series, Tempe must solve a string of deaths from several badly decomposed skeletons that popped up in Quebec, where the book is set. One set of remains sends her for a ride down not-so-fond memory lane. The remains fit all the markers of a missing person (MP) whose description matches exactly that of her child hood friend, Evangeline Landry.

The story line is not always easy to follow, but a small dose of logic and a short time of thinking will get the reader back on track. Most of the forensic terms are defined and the ones that are not are easy to find if the reader breaks down the roots of the word.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes Bones, but also to those who enjoy a good mystery. People like fans of Agatha Christie would definitely like the story. However, the book does have some mature content, but nothing too out of the ordinary, as the book does describe roting corpses and some other things the every day person may not find so pleasant, but it is nothing that anyone over the age of thirteen hasn't heard before.

As the story is based off things that could have happened, there are not metaphors or similes that are blatantly obvious. In the writing, a leprosy epidemic is just a leprosy epidemic and nothing more.

Over all, this book is great and was an enjoyable and fast paced read.

Summer Reading: Why NOT?

Summer:

The time of the year associated with heat, freedom, ice cream, and most importantly, no school.

So why are most students forced to read over the summer?

This odd action is commonly called "Summer Reading" and is considered by some to be blasphemy.

As you may notice, I only completed one book this summer, because summer is my time to relax, and not be forced to comply with the rules of school. Aside from summer reading being unnecessary, it is also very constrictive. A student is given a list of books they are allowed to read. Not only are we subjected to reading now twelve months of the year, bust e are being told what we can and cannot read.

This is a disgrace to the fundamental beliefs of America and clearly contradict two of our inalienable rights to liberty and the pursuit of happiness and I, Hailey Wynn, refuse to take part in such an unAmerican practice.