BW13 - Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf

On March 28, 1941, Virginia Woolf filled her coat pockets with rocks and walked into the River Ouse.  She had been battling depression for a very long time and decided to give up the fight. In a letter to her husband, she said:

I feel certain I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don’t think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can’t fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can’t even write this properly. I can’t read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that — everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can’t go on spoiling your life any longer.

Brainpickings Articles:  How Virginia Woolf's letter interpreted by the media

Despite her battle with depression for much of her life, Woolf was a forward thinker and intellectual writer whose compelling stories were full of stream of consciousness and introspective writing.  Along with her novels, she published numerous short stories, essays and wrote powerful letters.  For more information on Woolf's life, check out The Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain. 

I currently have Mrs. Dalloway on my shelves and will be reading it this week in honor of Virginia Woolf.  Join me in reading her works this week.  All are available online here at The University of Adelaide.

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History of the Medieval World - The Huns  423 - 450 AD  (pp 106 - 114)

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BW12: Happy Spring!

Josephine Wall's Hope Springs Eternal

The year’s at the spring
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hillside’s dew-pearled;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in His heaven -
All’s right with the world!

~Robert Browning

Happy Spring! In keeping with our mystery theme this month, I looked up books with spring in the title and found several interesting mystery titles. 

 How about something hard boiled

Poodle Springs by Raymond Chandler

Or a bit British

G.M. Malleit's Pagan Spring

Maybe a psychological thrill

Clifford Irving's The Spring

Or gut wrenching suspense

Rick Riordan's Cold Springs

or a step back in time 

Charles O'Brien's Death in Saratoga Springs

Find something with Spring in the title to read this season. And no, you don't have to stick with mysteries.  *grin* 

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History of the Medieval World - Chapter 15 (pp 100 - 105)

Northern Ambitions (China 420 - 464 AD)

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BW11: Cozy Mysteries

Cozy mysteries are so much fun to read. They usually involve a casual sleuth in a small town and a variety of settings (bookstore, museum, crafts shop, restaurant) as well as a variety of occupations (librarian, coffee house, reporter) with various side kicks including cats or maybe a dog or two or even a ghost.  The crime usually takes place off screen as well as any romantic interludes.  One  favorite cozy mystery author is Cleo Coyle with her Coffee House Mysteries as well as her Haunted Bookshop series. Check out her virtual coffeehouse full of coffee and muffin recipes.  Start with On What Grounds and she'll not only get you hooked on the story, but coffee recipes as well.  *grin*

Courtesy of Cleo Coyle

I also lean toward bookstore themed stories and have enjoyed Lorna Barrett's Booktown Mystery series starting with Murder is Binding.

 

Check out Cozy Mysteries Unlimited where you'll find every kind of cozy mystery possible.  

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History of the Medieval World 

 Chapter 13 (pp 91 - 94) - Seeking Homeland (410 - 418 AD)

 Chapter 14 (pp 95 - 99) - The Gupta Decline (415 - 480 AD)

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BW10: Mystery Book Awards

I couldn't decide whether to go with international mysteries or non fiction mysteries this week so gave it up all and started perusing the mystery awards.  Who knew there were so many and such a wide variety of winners. Oh my poor aching wishlists.

Check out the best contemporary novel nominees for 2014 by the Agatha Awards (Winner to be determined in May.)

°	The Good, the Bad, and the Emus by Donna Andrews
°	A Demon Summer by G.M. Malliet
°	Designated Daughters by Margaret Maron
°	The Long Way Home by Louise Penny
°	Truth Be Told by Hank Phillippi Ryan

and the 2014  Edgar Awards nominees for Best Mystery novel to be presented by the Mystery Writers of America (Winner to be determined in April)

°	This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash
°	Wolf by Mo Hayder
°	Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
°	The Final Silence by Stuart Neville
°	Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin
°	Cop Town by Karin Slaughter

Left Coast Crime mixes it up a bit by presenting the Lefty award for the most humorous mystery novel (Winner to be determined next week)

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The Good, the Bad, and the Emus by Donna Andrews

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Herbie’s Game by Timothy Hallinan

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January Thaw by Jess Lourey

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Dying for a Dude by Cindy Sample

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Suede to Rest by Diane Vallere

Then we have the 2014 Macavity Awards named after the cat, Macavity in T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

*	Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
°	Sandrine’s Case by Thomas H. Cook
°	Dead Lions by Mick Herron
°	The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood
°	How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny
°	Standing in Another Man’s Grave by Ian Rankin

Thank you to Stop, Your Killing Me for providing all the links. Saved me some work.  *grin*

Now I have to go see what I can do to increase my book budget.  Happy exploring!

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History of the Medieval World - Chapter 12 (pp 85 - 90)

One Nature vs Two (408-431 Ad)

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BW9: March Mystification

Courtesy of Teaching with a Mountain View

Welcome to March Mystification and our author flavors of the month are Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and Josephine Tey.   All month long we'll be highlighting mysteries, both puzzling and perplexing, riddles to solve and mind boggling queries. Where dime novels, cozy mysteries, whodunits and police procedurals compete with hard boiled private eyes and super sleuths.  Pull out your magnifying glasses and binoculars and get ready to snoop. 

Agatha Christie created Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence as well as Ariadne Oliver, Harley Quin and Parkey Pyne.   I am more familiar with Poirot and Marple, than the other four, but will eventually make their acquaintance.  I haven't read anything yet by our other two authors.  Dorothy Sayers introduced readers to Lord Peter Wimsey and Josephine Tey brought us Inspector Alan Grant in her best known story The Daughter of Time as well as several others. 

Our fascination for mysteries started way back in the ancient Greece with Sophocles and Euripides who entertained folks with mystery and dramatic plays. Since then, we've fallen in like with classics mystery writers such as Edgar Allen Poe, Sherlock Holmes, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, G.K. Chesterton and Ellory Queen, among others. But least we forget, there are numerous authors presently who make us fall in love with mysteries such as some of my favorites:   Nora Roberts, James Rollins, Sandra Brown, Lisa Scottoline, Cleo Coyle, Dan Brown, Jeffrey Deavers, Lee Child and John Sandford to name a few.  

Don't know where to start - check out Mystery Authors, Mystery Writers of America, and Cozy Mystery.  You'll be following rabbit trails for days.  *grin* 

Join me in reading all things mystery for the month of March.

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History of the Medieval World - Chapter 11 (Pp 77 - 84)

The Sack of Rome (396 - 410 AD)

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