The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Book Details
Paperback, 226 pages
2004, Vintage
ISBN: 1400032717

Synopsis
Christopher Boone, the autistic 15-year-old narrator of this revelatory novel, relaxes by groaning and doing math problems in his head, eats red-but not yellow or brown-foods and screams when he is touched. Strange as he may seem, other people are far more of a conundrum to him, for he lacks the intuitive "theory of mind" by which most of us sense what's going on in other people's heads. When his neighbor's poodle is killed and Christopher is falsely accused of the crime, he decides that he will take a page from Sherlock Holmes (one of his favorite characters) and track down the killer. As the mystery leads him to the secrets of his parents' broken marriage and then into an odyssey to find his place in the world, he must fall back on deductive logic to navigate the emotional complexities of a social world that remains a closed book to him. --Amazon

Review
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time began beautifully. The mystery of who killed a dog, shown through the eyes of a 15-year-old autistic boy, was more intriguing and entertaining than most of today's generic amateur sleuth mysteries. Written in an easy to read format with helpful diagrams, this book appeared to be an interesting tale that could perhaps shine a little light on the thought processes of autistic teenagers.

About halfway through the book, the dog's murderer confesses and then entire focus of the story shifted. Instead of a mystery, it became a rambling tale of running away from home. It went from engrossing to dull in the turn of a page. With the story switching gears so unexpectedly, it felt as though the book was in fact two separate stories (featuring common characters) pasted together to create a book. It felt off, like something just wasn't fitting properly.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time's quirky uniqueness didn't translate through the second half of the book. This was a case of an amazing book turning dreary. Had the entire book been dull, it might almost have been better.

Rating

Guest Author: Stacey Jay + Giveaway!

Stacey Jay has been kind enough to stop by Reading with Tequila, along with her character Karen Vera, to tell us about zombie romance.

Romance for Zombies:

It’s a common misconception that zombies are totally gross, brain-munching, rotted-skinned freaks who couldn’t care less about things like love and romance. So not true!!

Hello, my name is Karen Vera. As a freshman at DEAD High—a top secret school for zombies, which isn’t so top secret now that my book MY SO CALLED DEATH has hit the stands—and a recent acquirer of my very first boyfriend (also a zombie, like me), I know a thing or two about love and dead people and I’m here to assure you that the two are NOT mutually exclusive.

Now I know you’re probably saying: “But, Karen, ew. That’s still so gross. Who would want to kiss a dead person, even if you are, yourself, a dead person?”

Aha! But you’re missing the point! We’re not dead. We’re undead. There happen to be some very big differences between the two; let me show you them:

1. Aside from very pale, cool skin and dark under-eye circles—which are easily concealed with a good base, I recommend the Mac kind that comes in the little pot, applied with a horse hair brush—zombies look and feel like people. Our diet of brains (Animal only! Don’t freak!) works a kind of magic in our undead flesh, keeping us looking very human to the untrained eye.
2. Zombies have feelings too. Sometimes we have even MORE feelings. Can you imagine dealing with the fact that you have to eat brains for the rest of your life, and that you could potentially outlive your entire family if you don’t get taken out by some supernatural zombie hunter first? Just the fact that there are supernatural zombie hunters out there alone is enough to whip up a big batch of angst. So yeah, we zombies feel stuff. We can cry too, normal, salty human tears, not the creepy, bloody vampire kind. So hug a zombie today if you get the chance. We won’t bite…usually.
3. Speaking of biting, only bad, black-magically raised zombies consider humans a food source. A normal Death Challenged individual would never think of a Breather as meal. In contrast, ALL vampires think of humans as food and you people don’t seem to have a problem thinking of them as romantic heroes.
4. Dead guys can be really cute. Take my boyfriend for example: totally cute. With a precious little dimple and big blue eyes and manly, swimmer’s shoulders and…well, you get the idea. (Okay, I’m blushing a little. Yes, zombies can blush too!)

In conclusion, I would like to add that love and romance are powerful forces of the universe that know no boundaries. It’s not like dead people are dogs and cats. We’re all still people, whether we breathe or are able to metabolize dairy foods or not. (Zombies can’t eat milk. We’re allergic.)

Join me next time, when I’ll be discussing why it’s okay for a zombie to be on team unicorn, and the reasons sparkles should NOT be considering a dying trend!

Best in life and death,

Karen Vera

About the Author

Stacey Jay is a recovering workaholic (or at least working hard at recovering) with three pen names, two small children, and a passion for playing pretend for a living. She’s been a full time mom-writer since 2005 and can't think of anything she'd rather be doing. Her former careers include theatre performer, professional dancer, poorly paid C-movie actress, bartender, waiter, math tutor (for real) and yoga instructor.

In her very limited spare time, Stacey enjoys cooking elaborate dinners and eating them very, very slowly, dressing up in costumes with her sons, and dancing like a total freak who all but the coolest of her friends are embarrassed to be seen with. You can write her email if you want. She’ll do her best to answer in a timely fashion and tell you thanks for reading.

About the Book

Just because you don't have a pulse doesn't mean you can't be perky.

One second, freshman Karen Vera's on top of the most fabulous cheer pyramid ever. The next, she's lying on the pavement with seriously unflattering cranial damage. Freakishly alive without a pulse, Karen learns that she's a genetically undead zombie.

Soon, Karen is sent off to DEAD High, a boarding school for the "death-challenged," and her non-life is suddenly an epic disaster. She's stuck with a greasy-haired, wannabe-Goth roommate who hates her guts. She's chowing down on animal brains every day to prevent rot (um, ew?). Even worse, someone is attacking students and harvesting their brains for a dark ritual . . . and it might be the hottest guy at DEAD High, the one who makes Karen's non-beating heart flutter!

As more brains are stolen—including her best friend's—Karen tracks down the brain snatcher to save her fellow students from certain zombie death.

Stacey Jay's website
My So Called Death at Indiebound
My So Called Death at Amazon

About the Giveaway

The fantastic Stacey has offered to send one lucky reader a copy of My So Called Death!

Deadline for entry is Monday, March 15 at 11:59pm EST. US & Canada only.

To enter, leave a message for Stacey!

Be sure to leave an email address so I can contact the winner.

Stacey's going to be popping in today to see your responses, so feel free to be chatty!

From Here to Paternity by Jill Churchill

Book Details
Paperback, 256 pages
1995, Avon
ISBN: 0380777150

Synopsis

Vacationing at a Colorado ski resort with a couple of friends and an assortment of offspring, suburban sleuth Jane Jeffry is horrified when she careens into a snowman that hides a dead body inside of it. (From Amazon)

Review

As all the Jane Jeffry mysteries are, From Here to Paternity is a light and fluffy mystery with lots of character interaction. Jane's neighbor invited her to visit a ski resort and share her opinion of whether it would be a good investment for the neighbor's husband. While there, Jane, as per usual,  discovers a couple of bodies and sets off to discover the murderer with or without the help of detective boyfriend Mel. I liked the resort setting and appreciated the chance to see most of the characters outside of their normal, everyday situations. I was a little confused as to why Jane's opinion about investment property was important, but I guess you had to get her near the bodies somehow.

Rating

Owning Books is My Addiction of Choice or How Much Do You Spend on Books?

I read over 150 books a year and I get my books from many places. I borrow books from the library. I pay full price at online and brick and mortar stores. I get some great deals at used book stores and library book sales. I received free review copies from authors, publishers and public relations people. I also enter (and occasionally even win) online giveaways.

I acquire more books a year than I could possibly read. My TBR (even though I've been weeding out the books I'll never get around to reading) is in the high 700s. For every book I read, I probably get 3 more. With that many books coming and going, it can be hard to figure out how much I actually spend on books.

Focusing only on the books I pay money for, I'd estimate I buy 250 books a year or about 21 a month. Some months, I'm good, don't buy anything and focus on my TBR. Other months, I'll by 50 or 60 books at used book sales. Some books I just can't wait to get my hands on and preorder then so I receive them the moment they come out. Other times, I get a no-to-be-denied urge to buy new books and can't help buying or ordering at least 2 or 3. It's an addiction I try to keep in check so that there is still room in the house to move and so my husband doesn't leave me. Because owning books, yeah that's like my crack.

My house doesn't look like this (yet). Mostly because I fear the children being crushed by a book avalanche.

Three quarters of the books I buy are used. While I love shiny, new books I can't afford to buy all my books new.  They'll cost me anywhere from 25 cents to 4 dollars each. So on average, I spend $375 a year on used books. I just did the math there and wow, was it higher than I expected.

Since I received my beloved Nook, three quarters of the new books I buy are in ebook form and cost from 4.99 to 9.99. On average, I spend about $350 on ebooks a year. Ok, wow, my husband can never see this.

The remaining one eighth of my purchases are full-priced new books from stores. New books are anywhere from 6.99 for a mass market paperback to 29.95 for a hardcover. That means I spend about $575 on physical copies of new books.

All told, I spend about $1300 on books a year. Perhaps I should stop complaining when my husband spends $60 on a new video game every month, since I'm spending almost double that on books.

This little exercise has certainly been eye-opening. Of course, it doesn't change anything and I'll still be buying books. Maybe now I can figure out a budget of some sort.

So I ask you, am I a crazy gluttonous book hoarder? How much do you spend on books a year? How much is too much?

Thanks to Lynsey @ Narratively Speaking for the topic suggestion. If you'd like to suggest a topic for future discussions and win a prize, fill out the form.