Under the Dome by Stephen King

Title: Under the Dome
Author: Stephen King
ISBN: 9781439148501, Simon & Schuster, 2009
Genre: Horror, Fiction
Rating: B+
Source: Paperback Swap

First Line: From two thousand feet, where Claudette Sanders was taking a flying lesson, the town of Chester's Mill gleamed in the morning light like something freshly made and just set down.

Under the Dome is huge. I never did get around to weighing the thing, but if you chucked it at someone, you could cause some real damage. It comes with a map and a cast of characters. I went through it like a house afire, and the only thing I got tired of was the feeling that I'd strapped a sleeping toddler to the end of my arm.

A dome comes down over the small town of Chester's Mill, Maine. If you're inside the dome, you can't get out. If you're outside the dome and want in, you're out of luck. If you happen to be caught halfway, you're really out of luck. You can't dig under the dome, and you can't fly over it, and used car salesman Jim Rennie thinks all his prayers have been answered. The town and the people of Chester's Mill have been put right in the palm of his sanctimonious, greedy, power hungry hand.

Although the cast of characters is huge, and the action continuously shifts from place to place, after the initial inspection upon opening the book, I never referred back to either the map or the cast of characters. I grew up in a small town, and I think I mentally put Stephen King's dome down over my own home town and called many of its people by King's names. I would imagine that I'm not the only one who did this. For those who didn't, the map and the cast list will probably come in very handy.

The dome immediately becomes a media event, and the military shows up even before CNN and Fox. It doesn't take long before people realize that the dome has an ecological effect on the town, and as people feverishly work to get rid of it, King's characters became etched in my mind: Big Jim Rennie and his spoiled son, young Rennie's pack of no-good friends, "Barbie" the Iraqi war veteran, the newspaperwoman, the minister who isn't so sure she believes in God... it's a large cast, and each character remained clear in my mind.

As the pages flew by, character after character paid dearly for hasty decisions, and I didn't always like the consequences. Fortunately King provided just enough comic relief for Under the Dome to avoid becoming overwhelmingly dark. His opinion of the human race isn't very kind; unfortunately, it's often right on the mark, so if you like reading a fast-paced novel about good and evil filled with memorable characters, pick up Under the Dome. With its heft, you'll also be giving yourself a workout.

[Note: if you have a low tolerance for gore, I'd advise you to avoid this one. I normally don't think about this because I have a high gore tolerance. Must come from going hunting with my grandfather and cleaning what was brought home to eat.]

Scene of the Blog Featuring Sherrie of Just Books!

This week takes us to Indiana, home of book blogger extraordinaire Sherrie of Just Books.

From the old book background (and I'm always trying to read the spines of those books!) to the ladybug contentedly reading in her header, Sherrie's blog radiates a cheerfulness that's contagious. Whether it's the memes Sherrie participates in, her book reviews or the other fun stuff she does, you can tell this woman loves books and reading. If you've never met Sherrie or visited her blog Just Books, I hope you'll stop by soon to say hi!

Let's see where Sherrie does her blogging, shall we? (You can click on the photo to view it full size.)

This is my computer area-- messy, but mine. I have all I need to sit for hours or minutes. My books are here, my pen and paper for jotting down info I find on the web, and my camera for taking photos of interesting things around here.

I really like this photo, not just because of the sunlight in the room or the bright red seat cushion or the leafy autumn lane that's Sherrie's wallpaper on her computer. I like this photo because this blogging space looks real. It looks as though a busy person sits here to work and to be creative... and there's not always the time to tidy up. I also like the fact that she keeps her camera close at hand. Perhaps she has a window like mine. I never know when I'm going to look out and see a hawk sitting on the birdbath or a pair of Mallard ducks swimming in my pool. Gotta have that photographic proof!

Thank you so much for sharing your space with us, Sherrie. We really appreciate having our inner Peeping Toms satisfied for another week!

Where will Scene of the Blog visit next Wednesday? You'll just have to stop by and find out for yourself. See you then!

Wordless Wednesday

Hassayampa River Preserve
Wickenburg, Arizona

Click on photo to view full size. More Wordless Wednesday.

The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspear

Title: The Mapping of Love and Death
Author: Jacqueline Winspear
ISBN: 9780061727665, Harper Collins, 2010
Genre: Historical Mystery, Private Investigator, #7 Maisie Dobbs mystery
Rating: B+
Source: Amazon Vine

First Line: Michael Clifton stood on a hill burnished gold in the summer sun and, hands on hips, closed his eyes.

Try as I might not to play favorites, there are still mystery series that are near and dear to my heart-- ones that I will always recommend first whenever I'm asked "What's good?" Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series is on the shortlist of my favorite series. I know readers who do not like the time period about which it's written (1930s showing the aftereffects of World War I), but they love these books, and it's all due to the characters.

Maisie was born into the English lower class and became a maid for a wealthy family when she was a young girl. Fortunately her employers were liberal thinkers who recognized Maisie's intelligence and fed it. After serving as a nurse in France during World War I, Maisie completed her university education and with the help of her teacher and mentor, Maurice Blanche, she set up practice in London as a private investigator.

In this seventh installment of the series, Maisie is asked to help a wealthy American couple after their son's body is plowed up in a French field. Although the rest of the bodies in the bunker died when it collapsed, Michael Clifton did not. He had been murdered. His parents are not aware of that fact, but Maisie is. What his parents are concerned about are the love letters from an English nurse that were given to them with the rest of Michael's effects. When Maisie begins her investigation, the American couple is attacked in their hotel room and very seriously injured. Maisie knows she's going to have to be very careful working this case.

In each book, Winspear addresses an area of World War I that may not be familiar to most readers. The Mapping of Love and Death covers the importance of cartography in the conflict. The mystery was dangerous, but one of its threads was a bit easy to guess. What I enjoyed most about the book was the author's setting the stage for future events in her characters' lives.

She shows the utmost empathy when writing about World War I and its effects on people, but she never leaves her characters behind. Maisie's assistant, Billy Beale, has his own aspirations and problems to deal with, and they're a part of the story. Maisie's mentor, the elderly Maurice Blanche, plays a role in this book, as does James Compton, the son of the people whom Maisie worked for as a young girl.

In a way, the mystery in The Mapping of Love and Death took a backseat to the main characters, but I didn't mind at all since I got the distinct impression that Winspear was doing a bit of her own cartography with her characters' futures. I am definitely looking forward to the next books in this series!

The Hand-Drawn Heart Test

You Have a Content Heart

Your heart doesn't crave much. It doesn't take much to make your heart happy. You may or may not have found love, but either way, your heart is at peace. If your heart has been broken, you are over it. Your heart has no scars. Your heart is open to anything. You have a lot of love to give to the world.

The Hand Drawn Heart Test

Still Midnight by Denise Mina

Title: Still Midnight
Author: Denise Mina
ISBN: 9780316015639, Little, Brown & Company, 2010
Genre: Police Procedural
Rating: A
Source: Amazon Vine

First Line: An orange Sainsbury's plastic bag in full sail floated along the dark pavement.

Once again Denise Mina takes us to the mean streets of Glasgow and serves up a tale of a kidnapping gone wrong peopled by finely nuanced characters.

Two Glasgow "yobs" (rowdy, aggressive, or violent young men) break into a Muslim home and demand to see Bob. When they realize that there is no one there by that name, they grab the family patriarch, Aamir Anwar, and name an astronomical sum as ransom-- an amount that no owner of a small grocery would ever be able to pay. Detective Sergeant Bannerman is assigned the case, although DS Alex Morrow is much more capable of solving it. As the investigation progresses, it is indeed Alex's knowledge of the area and her know-how that begins to piece together the clues needed to solve the case.

I've been a fan of Mina's since her Garnethill books. She tends to focus on characters that most readers would consider "throwaways", and she brings them to life in all their complexity and vulnerability. Although the tone is dark and the streets are mean, her books aren't true noir.

Mina demands readers who are patient and observant, readers who are willing to believe that characters who are criminals or drug users can have some good in them-- that they can even show flashes of humor from time to time. If you're a reader like that, then you will be sitting in high cotton because as you slowly peel back the layers of character and events, you'll feel just like Alex Morrow as you put the pieces together.

The further Alex investigates, she discovers that both criminals and victims aren't as they appear to be. A "case" in point is the kidnapped man, Aamir Anwar. Through most of the book, this small older man has a pillowcase covering his head, and he is referred to as "the pillowcase". I didn't like how this appellation dehumanized this character, and once Mina allowed me inside his head, I disliked it even more. This quiet, unassuming little man was just as full of memories, hopes and dreams as anyone else on this planet-- and he's not the only character you can feel this way about in Still Midnight.

As the story unfolds, I felt as though I knew the characters and that I had a stake in how their stories turned out. There were more than a few surprises along the way. Once again, Mina has a winner. The only thing that I feel like warning people about is that she does use Scots dialect, and if you're not used to it, it could be a little confusing. Still Midnight (and Mina's other novels) are well worth a bit of confusion. They're that good.

Mailbox Monday-- Three Cheers for Slow Weeks!

Welcome to another week of my favorite meme, Mailbox Monday, hosted by Marcia on her blog, The Printed Page. Thank you so much for hosting this, Marcia!

If you're like me and insatiably curious about the books that enter people's homes, feel free to join us. Just click on that redhead to the left there to be taken to the heart of this week's action. It doesn't matter if you want to join in or just take a peek at those books, glorious books!

This past week was a slow one here at Casa Kittling, which suited me just fine. Everything seems to be blooming, the birds are courting and gathering nesting materials, and I've caught a humongous case of Spring Fever. Tuesday Denis and I are going to jump in the Jeep and go out on the Apache Trail to check on the wildflowers.

Last week, I sent 4 books to new Paperback Swap (PBS) foster homes and found a total of one in my mailbox. Since that one book is by the author of one of my all-time favorite books, I'm not complaining!


The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt & The Fire That Saved America by Timothy Egan (PBS). "When Theodore Roosevelt vacated the Oval Office, he left a vast legacy of public lands under the stewardship of the newly created Forest Service. Immediately, political enemies of the nascent conservation movement chipped away at the foundations of the untested agency, lobbying for a return of the land to private interests and development. Then, in 1910, several small wildfires in the Pacific Northwest merge into one massive, swift, and unstoppable blaze, and the Forest Service is pressed into a futile effort to douse the flames. Over 100 firefighters died heroically, galvanizing public opinion in favor of the forests--with unexpected ramifications exposed in today's proliferation of destructive fires."

Here's hoping that all your mailboxes were filled to the brim with wonderful books. It's time for me to wander around to see what y'all got!

Poll Results Are In!

You may remember that on the last poll, I asked about your reactions to seeing the same book being heaped with glowing praise on blog after blog. Kinda what I call a blog blitzkrieg. Everywhere you go, there's that book.

Well, I want to thank the 117 people who took the time to respond to the poll. Here's where I get to distill your answers. (Please don't turn me into the revenuers!)

58 of you (or 49%) are trying to reduce your bulging TBR shelves and piles. You said that, if the book sounded like something you'd enjoy reading, you'd make a note of it. This response sounds hopeful, but when you're talking about bookaholics, it would be all too easy for this book to fall through the cracks.

34 of you (or 29%) said that if the book sounded good, you'd make a point of reading it soon. This is more in line with what the publishers are hoping for.

The third largest group-- 14 of you, or 11%-- said that all the hype really makes you hesitate because it's very difficult for a book to live up to all this praise.

Five of you (4%) said that all the hype turns you off so completely that you don't care if you ever get around to reading the book. I have one foot in this camp. It's the foot that tells me that I have a feeling that I wouldn't enjoy the book in the first place. Where's my other foot? Up in that first group that says if it sounds good, I'll get around to it one of these days. To be honest, the more a book is hyped, the more likely it is to fall through the cracks with me.

Four of you (3%) said that you have to read it now. It sounds to me that, unless your name is Oprah, if publishers are looking for super sales figures within the first few weeks, the blitzkrieg approach really isn't working. Of course, my poll isn't the most scientific thing going.

Last but not least, two of you (1%) were honest and said that you read the book with the express purpose of exposing its faults. Uber popular books annoy you.

From the looks of it, all the publishers and publicists can do is bring a book to our attention. After that, it's a game of chance with 61% saying "maybe", 34% saying "yes", and 5% saying "no".

Would you say that a tactic that gains you a 33% return is really working? Inquiring minds want to know!