the cuckoo’s calling part 2

jk-rowling-the-cuckoos-calling

We enter part 2 of The Cuckoo’s Calling (Kindle here, my thoughts on part 1 here) to follow our heroes while they gather more clues. I actually feel more like I am in the board game clue than in a story. If security guard was in the wash room, and the boyfriend at the club, I propose Mr. Bestigui murdered Lula Landry in the drawing room with the candlestick.

As an editor/journalist/pretend police investigator, I like gathering clues and information. But as a reader, I’d like to get all of this info as the plot moves along or as characters develop. It seems like more talking than showing, more explaining than storytelling.

“Strike would have preferred Bristow not to intervene.”  See what I mean? Telling me what’s in his head is just so boring.

But since we spent all that time interviewing and clue gathering, let’s see what we know.

  • Lula has a friend from rehab named Rochelle who met with Lula on the day of her suicide/murder.
  • Lula had an on-and-off relationship with that dumb guy who wears a wolf mask to avoid the paparazzi because, sure, a wolf mask garners less attention.
  • Mr. Bestigui is mad about 200 roses being spilled in Deeby Mac’s apartment. If those roses don’t mean anything this is the biggest, most annoying red herring ever.
  • Lula’s driver is obsessed with fame and celebs, and he was not her driver the night she died.
  • The apartment security guard was away from his post when Lula fell.
  • Tansy Bestigui heard some yelling in Lula’s apartment. The police don’t believe she could have heard anyone–they clearly don’t live in a place where you can hear things through the vents.

What do you guys think? Have any bets on who the killer is? Are their big clues I’m missing? If you’ve finished, no spoilers please! See my thoughts on part 1 here, and keep reading! I’ll see you back here next week.

(I bought this book on my own and am not being paid to write about it. But I am a part of the Amazon Affiliates program, so if you buy through my links on Amazon, I’ll receive a little bit of money for it.)

rocket, my screen-printed bike

bike

“Seems to me,” the Lady said, “a boy’s bicycle needs to see where it’s goin’. Needs to see whether there’s a clear road or trouble ahead. Seems to me a boy’s bicycle needs some horse in it, and some deer, and maybe even a touch of reptile. For cleverness, don’t you know?”

In Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon, our hero Cory gets a brand new bike.

This isn’t just any bike. This bike is from The Lady. It’s brand new and made just for him. It’s red and had a headlight, and in the headlight it has an eye that looks out for Cory. It steers him away from danger and helps him get to adventure–fast.

“At this instant I felt at one with Rocket, as if we were of the same skin and grease, and when I grinned, a bug flew into my teeth. I didn’t care; I swallowed it because I was invincible.”

So in tribute to a book I loved, and in tribute to Rocket, a bike I wish I had, I made my own. Sort of. Mine’s a bit more two dimensional.

screen printing stencil

I started with a stencil. I traced and drew and doodled until I had a bike I liked. Then I traced it onto a transparency and used a craft knife/box cutter thing to cut out my stencil.

Continue reading “rocket, my screen-printed bike”

project life: beach vacation

fat cat and project life

More project life! This time from our wonderful family vacation. #fatcat definitely likes the pages.

left page project life

We had so much fun on vacation and there was no way I could include all the pictures. I chose some that I thought kept it beachy and relaxing–just like our trip.

Continue reading “project life: beach vacation”

hot hot hot

What do you do when it’s this hot outside and you need to look professional at work but your commute includes walking in the sun and riding on hot trains?

Well, start with the bare minimum: a sleeveless dress and sandals.

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Once you get to work, replace your sandals with some heels and add a blazer. Then realize you never should have kidded yourself about wearing your hair down, look for a hair elastic, and never find one.

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Then hope your AC holds up for the rest of the day. Happy Friday!

the cuckoo’s calling part 1

jk-rowling-the-cuckoos-calling

It is a not so secret desire of mine to become a police detective. It is my back up plan, my alternate universe career, and the subject of quite a few daydreams. I can’t stop watching cop shows or reading murder mysteries. (And yeah, I know that’s not exactly how it works in real life.)

So I like a good detective story. I feel like I am reading about my imaginary colleagues. And though solving a mystery in a book isn’t at all like solving a mystery in real life, I’m pretty good at it. (Well, I’m not the worst at it.)

I have just finished part one of The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith J.K. Rowling (Kindle here). I can’t say I never would have read this book if it didn’t come out that Robert Galbraith was a pseudonym for Rowling (that secret didn’t last long, did it?), but I can say I didn’t hear about the book until that story broke. So I picked it up, along with thousands of others.

Continue reading “the cuckoo’s calling part 1”

project life: may

project life rae's days

It’s been a very busy summer. A wonderful, fun-filled, busy summer. I’m a little behind on project life, but these are the pages I made from a weekend trip in May. This was to celebrate my best friend Jewels‘ upcoming wedding.

left page project life

We had so much fun. There was so much more I could have included, maybe I will go back and add a page or an insert. (Actually the more I think on this, the more I want to add things.)

right page project life rae's days

We went to a baseball game, went to brunch, and went to some bars, but most of all we just enjoyed being around each other and celebrating our friend.

project life scrapbook

I used some sticker letters, and I also got maybe carried away with my new paper punch that makes the corners round. Other than that I used scrapbook paper and project life inserts. I have more pages to do for family vacation and the rest of June and July, so stay tuned.

You can see my other project life updates here:

miss blue glass and miss green glass

In Boy’s Life, which I totally loved, two sisters named Sonia and Katherina Glass were almost perfect mirror images of each other–except one always wore blue and the other green.

Now that is style. They adopted a uniform, dressed as themselves, and went with it. Plus monochrome can really be a great look. I don’t own enough of one color (except black) to pull off monochrome looks very often–and I have a pretty strong aversion to matching. But in honor of Miss Blue Glass and Miss Green Glass, let’s take a look at some killer blue and green clothes and accessories we could wear in our own lives.

blue

blueaccessories

I’m really into blue. It’s one of my favorite colors and I just think it’s beautiful–like the ocean and sky. Plus blue jeans are blue, so you’ve got that going for you. But I was surprised at how much I liked these greens.

green

green accessories

Gorgeous, right? Emerald and mint are really growing on me. Maybe soon I’ll give up mismatching for one day and pick a color and stick with it.

boy’s life by robert mccammon

boy's life by robert mccammon

Last week, when I was walking to work, I saw people putting leaves on trees. There was someone on a ladder, someone in a raised platform, and someone on the ground, and they were all using wire to put fake leaves on a tree that had none.

When Cory, the narrator in Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon (Kindle here), is riding on a train with a man who looks suspiciously like Frankenstein’s monster, Cory thinks, “Were these three insane, or was I?”

That’s how I felt.

Cory lives in the small town of Zephyr, Alabama, in the 1960s, and he tells the story of the year he turns 13. His town is full of wonderful absurdities, his adventures are plentiful, and his love for his family and friends is strong and true.

I love a lot of things about this book. But the thing I love most is Cory’s voice. A lot of books use children narrators–children can ignore danger and logic in a way that adults can’t–but adult attitudes, vocabularies, and thoughts tend to sneak through. Cory’s voice is consistently strong and interesting, and he tells stories the way kids see them: big and real and exaggerated and in your face. “Writer? Author? Storyteller, that’s what I decided to be,” Cory says. And a storyteller he is.Continue reading “boy’s life by robert mccammon”

stripes, three ways

all stripes, all the time

I am so into stripes. I got this outfit a few weeks ago an can’t stop wearing it. Well, at least parts of it. It’s separates! Separates that go together and look like a great striped dress. It’s so comfortable and light for summer–I really can’t get enough of this skirt and top from the Loft.

work stripes

So I keep wearing it. Lots of ways. This time with a white pencil skirt. Ready for summer and ready for work. And if you’re going somewhere more casual…

striped skirt

Always add a gray T-shirt. And if you’re feeling it, tie it in a knot for a summertime crop top.

Now go forth and mix and match!

month in review: june

It’s July. JULY. Time for fireworks and beaches and turned-up air conditioning. June was great. It was my birthday and family vacation and some really wonderful times. The top-viewed posts from June were:

Some snapshots from the month:

flowers

Continue reading “month in review: june”