Murder in the Mystery Suite

by: Ellery Adams

Libby audiobook 9 hours

Read by: Johanna Parker

Published: 2014

Genre: murder mystery

When I "opened" this book to listen, it was on chapter 3. Apparently, I tried this once before and returned it unread and unblogged. This time I listened to the end. There were things I liked and things I disliked.

Here's the description that caught my attention (twice):

Tucked away in the rolling hills of rural western Virginia is the storybook resort of Storyton Hall, catering to book lovers who want to get away from it all. To increase her number of bookings, resort manager Jane Steward has decided to host a Murder and Mayhem week so that fans of the mystery genre can gather together for some role-playing and fantasy crime solving.

But when the winner of the scavenger hunt, Felix Hampden, is found dead in the Mystery Suite, and the valuable book he won as his prize is missing, Jane realizes one of her guests is an actual murderer. Amid a resort full of fake detectives, Jane is bound and determined to find a real-life killer. There’s no room for error as Jane tries to unlock this mystery before another vacancy opens up…

 

I liked the literary allusions! There were lots and lots and lots of references and some I didn't know. I liked that there were so many clues and twists.

Jane's twin sons were named Fitzgerald and Hemingway. Fun!

 

I like that so many of the guests thoroughly enjoyed the Murder and Mayhem activities and it benefited other businesses in the small town. It was fun to think that Jane would plan other theme weeks for Storyton Hall.

I didn't like "Mrs. Pratt" - she was probably why I stopped reading it the first time. She just seemed creepy. I'm not sure what her age was, but she came across as a middle aged sex-starved pervert. Yuk.

 

Aunt Octavia is sickening with her disregard for her own health (overeating and not exercising), especially considering her extreme concern for the big family secret.

 

Also, Aunt Octavia is spending money on extravagant clothes when Storyton is falling into disrepair and money is needed to take care of the building? What the heck!

 

The bend-over-backwards-to-appease the guests by Jane is absolutely mind-boggling. This was clearly written before the era of shaming Karen behaviors.

I didn't like how extreme the story got - they have a secret, hidden library that has untold treasures (like the fabled library at Alexandria). The Stewards are literal stewards of this treasure and Jane is now going to train to be a superhero of sorts. It just got to be a bit much.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

by Douglas Adams
Carver County Library audioCDs, 6 hours
read by Stephen Fry
genre: SciFi humor

Thanks to Mason, I "re-read" this book that I haven't touched in almost thirty years. Not sure why I enjoyed it enough back then to read the rest (Restaurant at the End of the Universe, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, and Life the Universe and Everything). It is as stupid as I expected (or stupider? grin). Now I'm really glad I convinced Mason that this wouldn't be a good choice for our eighth grade book club. It's very inane, only occasionally funny, and the ridiculous names just beg the question "Why?"

Zaphod Beeblebrox
Bartislartfast
etc.
Doesn't do it for me. I'm getting rid of all four paperbacks in the next donation box.

The reader, however, was fantastic! Inflection, character voices, etc. were all fantastic.

The Education of Henry Adams

by Henry Adams
Introduction by Edmund Morris
Carver County, hard cover, 500ish pages

Hmm. I only read the intro & about ten pages of the actual autobiography (written in third person). This came into my hands in a timely manner - just when I was going to talk with Tamara's students about reading something a little bit challenging. The first few pages (of the intro) included these words: escarpment, equipoised, epiphanies, atavistic, legionnaires, scion, crucible. What a great example of a "reach" book! However, Mr. Adams is just a bit too arrogant, intellectual, and dry for my taste. So after a dozen pages, I bid him adieu. Perhaps I'll read this when I grow up.

I got it from the library based on this review:
"As history, as literature, as autobiography, this book is one of the gold standards in American letters. Unless you are very young, you've probably read it, but how long ago? It's time to read it again, with all the insight you have gained since you first read it. Adams viewed his country through the mirror of himself and his family. What he saw gave him a great deal for his acute and wide-ranging mind to mull over. We, his fortunate readers, enjoy the result, a work arresting, entertaining, and profound." This is from the Page-a-Day calendar I got from MILI last year. So far, I have disliked all the books I've checked out based on their reviews. (Latte' Trouble, Beethoven's Hair, Adverbs, etc.) I think it's time to turn the rest into scratch paper!