Mummies, Parasols, and Cucumber Sandwiches

Crocodile On The Sandbank

By Elizabeth Peters

This is the first book in a favorite series of mine. You can't read all the books at once and the earlier books are my favorite, but the whole series is worth a read. My favorite way to read this series is actually to listen to the audio book narrated by Barbara Rosenblat.

Set in 1884, the indomitable Amelia Peabody has been left a significant sum of money by her deceased scholarly father. While she enjoys the sudden attention and popularity she never enjoyed in her youth, she finds that it quickly bores her and she has no interest in marrying any of the men who have called on her. So, armed with her faithful parasol, she decides to travel and to see the wonders of the ancient world that her father wrote about.

First stop is Rome, where Amelia rescues young Evelyn Forbes. Seduced and abandoned in a foreign country by a villainous Italian, Amelia immediately takes pity on the girl and endeavors to help her however she can.

Together they set out for Egypt with Evelyn as Amelia's new companion. They begin to sail the Nile with the intention of stopping at various archeological sites, however when they reach Amarna circumstances arise which make it difficult for them to leave.

Radcliff Emerson, a loud, irascible man, who Amelia has clashed with once before, is deathly ill and his amiable brother, Walter, is struggling to keep their archeology site from being destroyed and keeping his brother from working himself to death. Amelia immediately realizes that her helping hand is needed, whether they want it or not. 

All is not going well though, many strange things are happening, including the appearance of a murderous mummy who's target seems to be the lovely Evelyn.

The name of the book comes from an Egyptian love poem which is reproduced in the front of the book:

The love of my beloved is on yonder side
A width of water is between us
And a crocodile waiteth on the sandbank.

Lots of this book, and the series as a whole, is very tongue in cheek and parodies the novels of the times as well as making fun of the stereotypes of the day.

Amelia is well-meaning, but entirely heavy-handed with her kindnesses. A trait that gets her into trouble many times throughout the series. She always carries a parasol with a strong steel tip so that she may jab people with it, if she has the need.

I love this series so much that I'm actually having a hard time not saying too much and limiting myself to what pertains to the first book.

The book is written in a journal form which she has partially rewritten for publication by her heirs. After all, as she comments to her readers, she is sensitive to the fact that certain events may prove embarrassing for certain individuals were they published at the present time.

She often claims (after the fact) to have had 'dire premonitions', a notion that Emerson heartily scoffs at.

There is a romance but this is also mostly a mystery.

It's not necessary to begin with the first in the series to enjoy it. I began with the second book, "The Curse of the Pharaohs", which introduced two of my favorite reoccuring characters: Cyrus Vandergelt, and Kevin O'Connell.

My cats, Bastet and Horus, are named after some of the cats which appear in this series. What literary characters have you named pets/children/videogame characters/etc. after?

Zombie (Un)Life

If you have any book recommendations or books you'd like me to review, I would be happy to hear them. I'm always looking for new books and I am trying to branch out on what genres I'm reviewing. So far it's been mostly fantasy, since that's what I read lot of the time.

You may notice that I've been giving the summary straight off the back of the book rather then writing my own. That's because sometimes it does a good job and it's kind of a pain writing my own. If I feel that the summary doesn't cut it, I will write my own.

My Life As A White Trash Zombie

By Diana Rowland



Um, this is certainly a different variation of a genre I've been reviewing. This is a romance zombie book.

'Living with her alcoholic deadbeat dad in the swamps of southern Louisiana, she's a high school dropout with a pill habit and a criminal record who's been fired from more crap jobs than she can count. Now on probation for a felony, it seems that Angel will never pull herself out of the downward spiral her life has taken.

That is, until the day she wakes up in the ER after overdosing on painkillers. Angel remembers being in an horrible car crash, but she doesn't have a mark on her. To add to the weirdness, she receives an anonymous letter telling her there's a job waiting for her at the parish morgue—and that it's an offer she doesn't dare refuse.

Before she knows it she's dealing with a huge crush on a certain hunky deputy and a brand new addiction: an overpowering craving for brains. Plus, her morgue is filling up with the victims of a serial killer who decapitates his prey—just when she's hungriest!

Angel's going to have to grow up fast if she wants to keep this job and stay in one piece. Because if she doesn't, she's dead meat. Literally.'

Before I get started talking about the actual book, I really like this book cover. I'm not sure why but I really like it and it's part of the reason I decided to read this book.

Wow, where to begin with this book. I suppose I should start with, I actually did enjoy this book a lot. This isn't the first zombie book I've read, but it is the first that: Is from the Zombie's point of view, Is a Zombie Romance, and Is about Zombie survival.

Angel is an interesting character because I wasn't really expecting to like her at all. She doesn't have a lot going for her and she has done lots of things I would never do.

At the beginning of the book she's a druggie (becoming a Zombie cures this and she never has to deal with kicking the habit) and she's on parole for having a stolen vehicle (her boyfriend knew this guy who she could buy a cheap car from).

She's been fired or quit every job she's ever had, so when she gets this job, driving a van for the morgue and picking up bodies, everyone in her life assumes that this is going to be just like every other time.

No one in her life seems to actually care about her well being very much. There's her dad, who's a drunk and semi-abusive, and there's her boyfriend, who is kind of a jerk in negligent way.

This is a romance (not as much as I was expecting) but a lot of this book is Angel turning her life around and realizing that she's not a loser just because everyone says so, she's a loser because she acts like a loser.

One review I read about this book made a connection between the Zombies in this book and the recent trend of Vampire books. I see where that connection can be made, but I felt like the book was enjoyable enough to read, that I never stopped and started mocking it, like I've done with several of the new Vamp books I've tried.  It was free of tacky Zombie puns in a way that Vampires seem unable to shake.

The Zombies in this world are not the shamblers you see in the movies, in fact, in this world they are self-aware and eating brains keeps them alive. Now, unlike with Vamps nowadays, there is no cheating this. It has to be human brains, no substituting for animal brains. It doesn't work like that.

Angel spends the first half of the book not knowing she's a Zombie, she reluctantly follows the instructions left her via mysterious note that neatly blackmails her with her deepest fear. As the book goes on and she figures out that the instructions she's following are saving her unlife and trying to teach her how to survive without overwhelming her all at once.

Now this is an adult book and adult things are mentioned, but nothing is ever explicitly described. I don't actually remember how much cussing there was. I tend to filter those things out and not even notice.

This was only a little over 300 pages so this was a fairly short read. I think I finished it in two sittings.

Oh yeah, and there's a serial killer going around and decapitating people. That always makes things interesting.

Dragons Be Here

First off, I want to say sorry for the long absence. I got caught up in a lot of homework and then it was just really hard to get started again. But I'm back now and hopefully I'll be able to keep this up for a while yet.

Seraphina

By Rachel Hartman



'Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.'

Seraphina is one of the best dragon books I've read in a long time and I felt like I really couldn't sum it up anymore concisely then the summary on the back of the book.

 It begins with both a birth and a funeral. Prince Rufus has been found murdered in a suspiciously draconian method and this does not bode well for continued peace.

Seraphina is a very gifted musician who is the assistant to the court composer and whose father is intimately involved with making sure the treaty is kept. She gains much attention for the haunting solo she plays at this funeral and soon she is teaching Princess Glisselda harpsichord.

Of course soon she has learned things she'd rather not and Seraphina's deepest secret is threatening to be revealed.

One of the things I love most about this book is the dragons themselves. While they may look human it is very plain to anyone who meets them that they are not. They move awkwardly and stiffly, their blood is silver, and they don't understand emotions well at all. The newer the dragon the more obvious their wrongness.

Political intrigue and mystery are also elements that I really enjoy in this book. There are players on both sides that don't want the treaty to work. On the human side, we have The Sons of St. Ogdo, who believe that Dragons are all monsters that should be wiped out and not allowed to integrate their evil into society. While on the dragon side, we have old Dragon Generals who feel that they gain very little with this peace and lose much, most notably their hoards.

It is very unclear throughout the book, until the end that is, just who it is that benefits from the death of Prince Rufus.

Someone did complain that some of the names in this book were too similar and that made it confusing, but I didn't find it to be that much of a distraction.

There is some romance, but I thought that it felt more like a subplot rather then a major component of the plotline.

Overall I found this to be a very sophisticated young adult book. It's 467 pages so it's longer then some of the books I've reviewed but I don't think it's a laborious length at all.