National Poetry Month Begins With A Poem From the Cat

National Poetry Month Begins With 
A Poem From the Cat

Makes you tingle, doesn't it? We'll have a new poem daily in April here at Hedgehog Lover. If you have suggestions, be sure to share them!

Thanks to Delaware Humanities Forum for the great poetry graphic at the top of the page. The cat poet is anonymous (which isn't unexpected — just ask T.S. Eliot about cat names.)

'Beastly Bones' Brings More Magic to Readers

In Beastly Bones, William Ritter has created another delightful tale with the astute R.F. Jackaby and clever Abigail Rook, who are on the case of shapeshifters, dinosaur bones and a few more otherworldly creatures (including humans).

This tale may begin with kittens, but don't let that lull you into a false sense of security. This is a fast-paced story, a mystery wrapped in a riddle with lots of excitement and revelations. It is funny and poignant, clever and revealing.

Jackaby is a detective who specializes in the supernatural. Abigail fled England to find opportunity beyond the boundaries enforced by her family. It's 1892, and her options are limited — until she meets Jackaby and joins one of the most unique and delightful detective agencies on this side of the Atlantic.

Beastly Bones jumps right into the thick of things with shapeshifters who, for the time being, are adorable kittens (mostly). Their owner soon meets an unfortunate end, and Jackaby and Miss Rook are plunged into a mystery that takes them away from New Fiddleham to Gad's Valley to help their police officer friend, Charlie. A dinosaur skeleton has been unearthed on a farm  — and a mysterious death connects the valley to New Fiddleham.

Not only are we reunited with our favorite characters, we meet another: Hank Hudson, an old friend of Jackaby's, a trapper by trade with an interest in the more rare species. The mystery of New Fiddleham lurks in Gad's Valley, and Charlie has to try to keep the peace, assist in the investigation as only he can, and keep two hotheaded paleontologists from harm (as well as harming each other). Nellie, an intrepid reporter, does her part to get the facts, and the others in Gad's Valley round out this interesting cast of characters.

Readers will laugh out loud and gasp in surprise, well up with a tear or two and root for the underdog (literally). It's a great romp into the unknown with the best guides imaginable led by an occultist and a paleontologist.

This is the second in the series, so consider taking a few hours to read the first book, Jackaby. (I estimate "a few hours" because, if you're like me, you'll finish it in record time.) One need not read the first book to enjoy the second, of course — but an intimacy with the cast of characters will add to a reader's enjoyment of the story.

Readers, rest assured, this is not the end of the story: a third tale in the series is scheduled for publication.

Additionally, Algonquin Young Readers offers a novella titled The Map: A Jackaby Story to tide over Jackaby fans.

Finally, visit the publisher's website for  extras available for both Jackaby and Beastly Bones.

Enjoy the fun and suspense that only R.F. Jackaby and Abigail Rook can provide, and learn a little about a lot of unusual things along the way.

Ignore all Hype, Ye Who Read 'Luckiest Girl Alive'

Critics think they are doing Jessica Knoll a favor by comparing her debut novel to Gillian Flynn's books. They are not. I, as a reader, was led to expect an entirely different book than I got.

Is Luckiest Girl Alive suspenseful? Sure. 

Does it tease out the story with plenty of foreboding and dangling clues and teasers? You bet. 

Are there some surprises in there? A few. 

In fact, it's one of the best-written books I've read in a while. However, the hype around the book influenced my reading of it, which wasn't fair to me, Knoll or poor TifAni.

 

As the book opens, Ani FaNelli is living the life of her dreams. She works not at just any magazine, but The Women's Magazine. She isn't just engaged, but engaged to a blue-blood, Old Money bachelor with an obscenely wealthy family. Her address, her clothes, even her friends are Just Right — rich in all the right ways, and all because of fiancé Luke. She is starving herself into a size six wedding dress, drunk half the time, wicked all the time. The veneer, however, is starting to peel, which her fiancé notices.

Ani's past unfolds alongside her present, and it's compelling. Her childhood was changed by a singular bad choice in middle school that propels her to Bradley, a posh private school in Pennsylvania. Readers meet TifAni, a desperate hormonal teen who will do anything to be popular and accepted by the blue bloods. Despite the central story’s surprisingly short fuse, the tale is well-paced and intriguing.

 

For 200-plus pages, Ani is a calculating, measured gold digger, a bizarre delight to read — until she nosedives in uncharacteristic missteps and unexpected displays of immaturity. I forgave that flaw in hopes of a big payoff, The Big Secret. In fact, I don’t think there was a Big Secret. There was, however, a logical and satisfying conclusion.

Long story short, abandon all expectation. Hide the dust jacket and ignore all adjectives. Approach this book as a debut novel with a well-told tale that provides an unraveling of a tightly-wound gold-digger whose fall is delicious and hearty.

Poetry: In Honor of Liam's Due Date

My grandson Liam was expected to be born today. As with all babies, he is choosing his own birthday.





TO A LITTLE INVISIBLE BEING WHO IS EXPECTED SOON TO BECOME VISIBLE
 

Germ of new life, whose powers expanding slow

For many a moon their full perfection wait,—

Haste, precious pledge of happy love, to go

Auspicious borne through life's mysterious gate.

What powers lie folded in thy curious frame,—

Senses from objects locked, and mind from thought!

How little canst thou guess thy lofty claim

To grasp at all the worlds the Almighty wrought!

And see, the genial season's warmth to share,

Fresh younglings shoot, and opening roses glow!

Swarms of new life exulting fill the air,—

Haste, infant bud of being, haste to blow!

For thee the nurse prepares her lulling songs,

The eager matrons count the lingering day;

But far the most thy anxious parent longs

On thy soft cheek a mother's kiss to lay.

She only asks to lay her burden down,

That her glad arms that burden may resume;

And nature's sharpest pangs her wishes crown,

That free thee living from thy living tomb.

She longs to fold to her maternal breast

Part of herself, yet to herself unknown;

To see and to salute the stranger guest,

Fed with her life through many a tedious moon.

Come, reap thy rich inheritance of love!

Bask in the fondness of a Mother's eye!

Nor wit nor eloquence her heart shall move

Like the first accents of thy feeble cry.

Haste, little captive, burst thy prison doors!

Launch on the living world, and spring to light!

Nature for thee displays her various stores,

Opens her thousand inlets of delight.

If charmed verse or muttered prayers had power,

With favouring spells to speed thee on thy way,

Anxious I'd bid my beads each passing hour,

Till thy wished smile thy mother's pangs o'erpay. 

By Anna Lætitia Barbauld
  

courtesy Poetry Foundation app

Poetry Wednesday: Chocolate

National Poetry Month begins in April, so here's a tasty morsel to help you get ready!

Chocolate

Velvet fruit, exquisite square
I hold up to sniff
between finger and thumb -

how you numb me
with your rich attentions!
If I don't eat you quickly,

you'll melt in my palm.
Pleasure seeker, if i let you
you'd liquefy everywhere.

Knotted smoke, dark punch
of earth and night and leaf,
for a taste of you

any woman would gladly
crumble to ruin.
Enough chatter: I am ready

to fall in love! 

by Rita Dove
courtesy Poem Hunter

A Month of Letters Starts Today!

When was the last time you wrote a letter?

A card?

A postcard?

Anything without an "e" in the title?

Make February the time to do just that: join A Month of Letters.

It's simple, really. Just write a letter or postcard. To anyone. About anything. And pop it in the mail. Then repeat through February.

Don't worry, you don't have to be wordy, just thoughtful. Or funny. Or — well, you decide.

Stop by the stationery store (yes, they still have those!) and pick up a box of blank cards. Or stop by Target, or your favorite drug store. A sheet of notebook paper folded into an envelope will work as well. Be as fancy or simple as you want.

Yes, writing a letter on the computer counts (if you print it and mail it, of course).

Here are a few ideas:

• Congratulate a friend.
• Praise the work of a professional.
• Thank someone.
• Send a memory, happy or poignant.
• Share your favorite poem.
• Print a photo and send it as a postcard (it's easy!) 
• Wish someone a happy birthday.
• Write a fan letter.

Join me for A Month of Letters!

Filling in the 'Gaps' 2016

Do you think classic books (even modern classics) are best left to students? Or do you indulge throughout your life?

I am in the latter camp. I read some great books in school, but there are too many good books to simply stop because no grades are involved.

As a result, I have begun "Filling in the Gaps" of my reading. The original challenge was to make a list of 100 books to read in five years. My list was originally published in 2010, was ambitious — and one that was destined to change. I realized some books were not worth reading after all, and others I discovered I already had read.

Additionally, the list was influenced by an interactive project with my friend Carole: Weighty Reads, in which we chose 20 books to read together in the next decade, with a few related books tucked into our repertoire along the way.

Frankly, one should adjust one's list as time goes on. Is Asimov as important as Bradbury? Should I keep three Dickens at the cost of Jerome K. Jerome and Patricia Highsmith? Do I sacrifice classics for modern classics? The answers differ depending on who one is at the time the decision is made.

Here is the most recent iteration of the list, with a few more books marked off since it was published.


Fill in the Gaps, 2016

1. 1001 Nights / Arabian Nights
2. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
3. Highsmoor, Peter Ackroyd
4. Foundation, Isaac Asimov
5. Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood
6. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
7. Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
8. √ Sundays With Vlad, Paul Bibeau
9. Ten Days in a Mad-House, Nellie Bly
10. √ The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown
11. The Early Fears, Robert Bloch
12. The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
13. A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett
14. Cold Sassy Tree, Olive Ann Burns
15. √ The Land that Time Forgot, Edgar Rice  Burroughs
16. √  Tobacco Road, Erskine Caldwell
17. √  Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
18. Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather
19. O Pioneers!, Willa Cather
20. Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes
21. Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
22. The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
23. The Stories of John Cheever, John Cheever
24. Girl with the Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
25. √ The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
26. Moll Flanders, Daniel DeFoe
27. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
28. Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens
29. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
30. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
31. The Man in the Iron Mask, Alexandre Dumas
32. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers
33. Middlemarch, George Eliot
34. So Big, Edna Ferber
35. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
36. Where Angels Fear to Tread, E.M. Forster
37. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
38. The Women’s Room, Marilyn French
39. In the Woods, Tana French
40. The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
41. √ Unbroken, Lauren Hildenbrand
42. √ Goodbye, Mr. Chips, James Hilton
43. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
44. The Bone People, Keri Hulme
45. Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
46. The  Lost Weekend, Charles R. Jackson
47. √ The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson
48. The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
49. Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
50. √ Up the Down Staircase, Bel Kaufman
51. On the Road, Jack Kerouac
52. √ Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, Jean Kerr
53. √  The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
54. The Jungle Books, Rudyard Kipling
55. The Man Who Would Be King, Rudyard Kipling
56. A Separate Peace, John Knowles
57. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, John LeCarre
58. The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
59. Sliver, Ira Levin
60. Elmer Gantry, Sinclair Lewis
61. √ The Monk, Matthew Gregory Lewis
62. The Call of the Wild, Jack London
63. √ The Best of H.P. Lovecraft, H.P. Lovecraft
64. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
65. Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
66. The Road, Cormac McCarthy
67. The Member of the Wedding, Carson McCullers
68. √ Atonement, Ian McEwan
69. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurty
70. Peyton Place, Grace Metalious
71. Beloved, Toni Morrison
72. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
73. Suite Française, Irene Nemirovsky
74. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy O'Toole
75. The Portable Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker
76. Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
77. Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
78. Anubis Gates, Tim Powers
79. Remembrance of Things Past/In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust
80. All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
81. Home, Marylynne Robinson
82. The Human Stain, Philip Roth
83. The God of Small Things, Arundathi Roy
84. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
85. √ A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
86. Prayers to Broken Stones, Dan Simmons
87. Enemies, A Love Story, Isaac Bashevis Singer
88. Angle of Repose, Wallace Steigner
89. √ Dracula, Bram Stoker
90. The Magnificent Ambersons, Booth Tarkington
91. The Man Who Fell to Earth, Walter Tevis
92. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
93. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
94. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
95. Traffic, Tom Vanderbilt
96. All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
97. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
98. Night, Elie Weisel
99. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
100. The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
101. The Inimitable Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse

I tried to make my list as inclusive as possible. If you have suggestions, please share your ideas with me.

Do you have a Fill in the Gaps list? What's on it? If you haven't compiled such list yet, what would you put on it? Let me know!