Read This!: Shutter Island

By Dennis Lehane

Challenge: Takes place during a hurricane

I interrupt these vacation posts for a book review. 

Mr. read this book not too long ago and he thought I would like it.  I needed a book that took place during a hurricane so I figured I would go with it and finished right before we left for vacation.

Shutter Island is the home to an asylum for the criminally insane.  Teddy Daniels and his partner, Chuck Aule, are US Marshalls sent to find a missing patient named Rachel Soldano.  After arriving on the island, Teddy starts to suspects that there is more going on there than meets the eye and he works against the clock to uncover the truth before it is too late…

I was hooked on this book to the point I couldn’t bear stopping when I had to return to my office from lunch so I may have read ahead revealing one of the many secrets ahead of time.  Mr. was annoyed at me for doing this but, eh, it is like finding out what your kid is before it’s born, you still have the kid and know what it is, you just find out earlier than nature would have intended.  Doing this does not ruin the book for me and there were other reveals that I didn’t know would happen that were still surprising.  Needless to say, I found this to be a page-turned and would recommend. 

Mr. and I watched the movie, Shutter Island, on vacation.  I thought it followed the book fairly well and was worth a look-see.  The movie conveyed some of the nuances like looks people are giving each other that can’t be described in a book and I think this helped to make the end less surprising.  However, it could just be because I knew the end so I was aware of what was happening.  The movie also made the end clearer than the book did.  I thought the book ended one way and Mr. said no, it was this way.  The movie backed up Mr. so I guess he had it right.  For once.

Russia!

After Estonia, we headed towards Russia, land of the Tsars, where we spent two days. 

If you are American and going to Russia, you need to have a visa (I was going to make a “not the credit card” joke here, but I will resist).  However, if you are on a cruise ship and taking a cruise ship sponsored tour, you don’t need to get one but you still need to go through customs at the pier.  We opted for the cruise sponsored tour because we were hesitant to go around St. Petersburg alone and getting a visa seemed like a major debacle.  This was the smart choice.  St. Petersburg is huge and spread out and two of the places we went to see were outside the city. 

We took two all day tours while we were there.  There was a lot I wanted to see as I have a great interest in Russian history and if you didn’t know, I read War and Peace this year.  On top of this, it’s not like we plan to pop back into Russia any time soon, so we might as well see what we could.  We are young and spritely so two back to back all day tours did not seem that bad.

Day 1

Our first day in St. Petersburg, we took a tour of the Catherine Palace in the morning and the Hermitage in the afternoon. 

The Catherine Palace was built by Peter the Great for his wife Catherine I (not Catherine the Great).  It is about an hour outside St. Petersburg in the Tsars Village.  His daughter, the Empress Elizabeth, decided the original palace wasn’t up to snuff and greatly enhanced it to what we see today.  During WWII, the Nazis set up camp here and pretty much destroyed everything.  This made me quite angry.  How could you destroy that history?  By the time they left, nothing but the bones remained.  Since WWII, the Russians have been working to refurbish the place and it looks quite nice now (although it is somewhat disappointing that is not all the original stuff).  The Catherine Palace is (was) also home to the Amber Room which was lost during WWII.  This palaces was also called The Summer Palace because the tsars spent their summers here.

The Catherine Palace

Much of the palace is in the Baroque style with LOTS of gilding.  I walked into the ballroom and may have yelled “OH WOW!!!!”.  It was quite impressive.  The whole palace was jaw-dropping.  The Russians really know how to say “Yep, we are Tsars and know how to build a kick-ass house”.  You did have to pay $5 to take pictures inside but it was very worth it (although the pics don’t do it justice).  The tour takes you through a number of rooms but obviously not the whole place.  They are refurbishing more rooms and we were told that we would in fact see those when we come back some day.

After the Catherine Palace, we headed to lunch where we ate some borscht.  I am not a beet fan, but it was actually good.  Afterwards, we hit up a souvenir shop called Matryoshka.  I might have bought way too much stuff.  Unfortunately, Mr. handed me the bag of souvenirs and I didn’t quite grasp it and it dropped. I think I may have cracked one of our matryoshkas.  Oh well, I can’t be certain the crack wasn’t in there before and it is not that noticeable and not like we could return it… 

Post-lunch we drove back into the city for a tour around on the bus and a visit to the world-famous Hermitage museum.

One of the ceilings in the Hermitage

The Hermitage was built by Empress Elizabeth and is also called The Winter Palace (where the tsars primarily lived).  It consists of five buildings and has the longest façade of any building anywhere.   During WWII, the Nazis did not enter St. Petersburg (but kept it under siege for 872 days) so the Hermitage escaped the war unscathed except for a few bombs.  (The art was sent to Siberia just in case though.) While it houses one of the world's greatest art collections, I thought the architecture was spectacular and took many pictures of that over the actual art.  We toured the rooms of the palace as well as the Impressionist and Old Master exhibits. The cost for picture-taking was $5.  Mr. bought a book of the Hermitage which does better justice to it than my pics.

Day 1 was a bit exhausting but the sites were awesome and we were geared up for Day 2's adventures.... 

Day 2

The next day we headed out for another full day tour.

In the morning, we went to Peterhof which consists of palaces and gardens built by Peter the Great.  It is located outside of the city.  At Peterhof, we toured the Grand Palace.  You couldn't take pictures inside which was a nice break after Day 1 but trust me, it was quite grand.  The Nazis pretty much destroyed Peterhof so like the Catherine Palace, it has been rebuilt.

We wrapped up the tour just in time to see the daily turning on of the fountains which was an event with the national anthem of Russia playing.  The gardens were filled with flowers and you can see why the Russians like to come and picnic here.

Peterhof

After lunch, we took a hydrofoil back to the city and visited the Church of the Spilled Blood.  It started to pour down rain after our bright and sunny morning so we didn't get fab pics outside.  However,  the inside was absolutely spectacular.  This got another OH WOW!!!  out of me.  The entire inside was made up of mosaics.  AMAZING!

Ceiling of Church of the Spilled Blood

This finished up our tour and we headed back to the ship for some more travels.

I was most looking forward to seeing St. Petersburg on our vaca and it did not disappoint; although I will say I was bit done with gilding towards the end.  

Copenhagen & Estonia

Mr. and I just returned from our two week vaca in Europe.  This year, we decided to do a 10 day cruise to the Baltic.  Now, when I told people we were going here I got responses like "Do you have family there?" and "Are you going to a wedding?"...   Both answers were no.  We chose this because we had talked about it for awhile and I said to Mr. a few months ago, "Where do you want to go on vaca?" and he picked this. A cruise was the easiest way to see the countries we wanted to visit and get a taste for each of them.  I have a lot to say about the cruise itself but I'll save that for later.  I am dividing this recap into four posts: Copenhagen and Estonia; Russia;  Helsinki, Stockholm and Germany; and the Cruise.

Copenhagen, Denmark

Our cruise started in Copenhagen on Tuesday, May 21.  We decided to fly in on Sunday the 19th so that we could spend Monday touring Copenhagen.  Even though we arrived in the late afternoon on Sunday, we didn't do much besides nap and go to Max Burger, a fast food joint close to our hotel (the Palace Hotel, I would recommend).  We ordered chicken burgers, fries and two teas.  Yes, two earl grey teas.  We love our tea.

On Monday, we decided to follow Frommer's Walking Tour 1 and visit Rosenborg Castle.  As you know, I like the Frommer's walking tours because they provide some direction instead of walking aimlessly around a new place.  We started out right across the street from our hotel at the Hans Christian Andersen statue and Tivoli Gardens.  We didn't go into Tivoli, which is a big amusement park, because Mr. had no interest at all in the rides so we took a pic and moved on to the next stop.

We eventually ended up at Rosenborg Castle.  This castle was a bit tiny for what I think of when I think "castle" but the inside was worth a look-see.  We chose to go to this one over the Amalienborg or Christianborg Palaces because it was the oldest one (built in the 1600s) and it seemed to have the most charisma.  I was not disappointed.  We did have to pay to take pictures which was a loser but the interiors had a lot to say and the visit to the treasury to see the jewels was definitely fun.

Rosenborg Castle

I won't bore you with details of all we saw, go ahead and read the walking tour if you want to see that but overall Copenhagen was a pretty, walkable city.  We had warm weather and it was sunny so that was a plus.  Mr. ate a danish or two while there (the pastry, not the inhabitants).  Since my name is Danish, I was super excited to hand over my credit card with a wink that said "see you are Danish, I have a Danish name" and get a wink of "yep we are on a team" in response.  But, the one time I used my card, they didn't seem to notice.  We didn't realize until we were there that May 20 was a holiday so a lot of the stores were closed which was a bit of a loser.  Overall, I would recommend Copenhagen, I could have stayed another day and seen some things like The Little Mermaid statue that we didn't get a chance to.


Tallinn, Estonia

We boarded our cruise, as I mentioned, on Tuesday.  Wednesday we were at sea and pretty much did nothing but swim and go to the afternoon tea which was fab.

Tallinn

Thursday we hit up Tallinn, Estonia.  Estonia was formally part of the Soviet Union and is now, if you haven't guessed, its own country.  Tallinn is a town that has two parts: the new and the old part.  We only ventured to the old part of Tallinn which is still very much medieval in its set up.  If you have never taken a cruise before, you are offered a variety of excursions in each port that you can pay extra to go on.  Mr. and I decided to not go on an excursion in Tallinn and just walk around on our own.  The old town is quite small so if you are going there and not disabled/ don't have leg problems, I would suggest doing the same.  I don't see a need for an organized tour.  However, Tallinn was very hilly and cobblestone streeted which made it hard at times to walk around.  On some weird whim, we decided to pay to walk to the top of the tower at the city hall.  This was a mistake.  The stairs were extremely steep and hard to manage.  Our legs literally hurt for the next five days.  I screamed with pain all over Russia every time I went down a step.  Don't walk up this tower unless you have power quads. I do not.

Anyways, back to Tallinn.  Instead of the Frommer's we crazily veered over and used the Rick Steves' walking tour.  Feel free to peruse it but suffice it to say, it worked out well except for the fact that the map didn't match with the description numbers.  Kind of annoying but we found our way around.

When we were at a store purchasing some souvs, the theft alarm kept going off and I made a joke to the lady that it was probably ghosts.  She was like "I think there are in these old places.  Sometimes I come in in the morning and the matryoshkas are all knocked over."  Um AHHHHH!!!!  I quickly ran out of there. Yikes!

I really liked Tallinn.  It had a Mont-St-Michel feel about it if you have ever been there.  The weather was a bit chilly but no rain.  I flat-ironed my hair before leaving and alas, the morning mist and all the fog made it look very pitiful by the end so word to the wise, wear a pony tail if you are heading out into the damp.

That about sums up Copenhagen and Estonia.  Next up will be Russia...

Read This!: Sharp Objects

By Gillian Flynn

You all know how I liked Gone Girl…. Mr. had bought this book for me for Christmas because I had already bought Gone Girl during the big Amazon sale and he knew I wanted to read it.

Camille Preaker is a reporter for a second-rate newspaper in Chicago when she is assigned a story covering the murder of two girls in Wind Gap, MO, her hometown. On returning to Wind Gap, Camille stays with her mother, her step-father, and 13 year-old half-sister. Throughout Camille’s coverage of the story, more and more sinister and dark details about her family, her past, and Wind Gap are revealed as she uncovers just what happened to the murdered girls.

When we went to see Gillian Flynn, she talked about this book a bit and how she kept thinking she had to write darker and darker. I knew going in that the mother was a piece of a work and the main character was a cutter but that was pretty much it. (Nice, light reading, right?) It was definitely disturbing and I kept thinking what’s wrong with these people? With a mother like that, it is no wonder Camille had some issues.

Gone Girl was more polished for sure but this was still a suspenseful, good read. I was on to some of the reveals not too far in but I have to say, in the end, I was a bit surprised how everything ended up.

Don't Read This!: Night Watch

By Terry Pratchett

 

 

Book challenge: On the BBC list

 

 

I picked this book because it was one of the few on the BBC list I hadn't read.

 

 

Night Watch is part of the Discworld series. I had never heard of that series and don't know what its deal is but I thought I would mention it.

 

 

Sam Vimes is the head of the Ankh-Morpork city watch. While fighting an enemy, he and the enemy are transported back in time thirty years. In this past, Ankh-Morpork is less than a desirable place to live. A revolution is on its way and Vimes is soon caught up in it while pursuing the enemy, mentoring his younger self, and trying to get home.

 

 

This book stunk. I do not like fantasy or "trying too hard" humor. I felt this book could have been a lot shorter if it hadn't been for all the shenanigans that weren't needed. There were also no chapters. How annoying is that? I need chapters. I kept getting lost because suddenly the author would be talking about someone else and I would have no idea what was happening.

 

 

I disliked ths book so much that I relooked at the list from BBC which was supposed to be the favorite books in the UK. I couldn't imagine I had picked up the right book. But it looks like I did. I guess the Brits and I have different opinions on what a favorite book should consist of.

Read This!: An Old-Fashioned Girl

By Louisa May Alcott

Book Challenge: Childhood Favorite

So, again, when trying to pick a childhood favorite, I had a bit of a hard time. I didn’t want to ruin my opinion of books I LOVED as a kid and eventually settled on one of my favorite but not my FAVORITE Louisa May Alcott book.

An Old-Fashioned Girl tells the story of a poor country girl Polly who comes to stay with her wealthy friend Fanny in Boston. While there she is struck by the fashion and glitz of Fanny’s house, friends, and the city. But, pretty Polly doesn’t despair. She wins everyone over with her kindness and open nature. Six years later, Polly returns to Boston to live as a music teacher. Through it all she sticks to her old-fashioned up-bringing even when she is tempted to do otherwise.

Now, I dislike books that lecture on anything and I felt Polly was a little too good now that I read AOFG as a grown-up and frankly, her constant killing the party vibe with her stories about poverty would have not got her on the invite list to my next soiree.

That aside, I did enjoy rereading this story. I read this book a hundred times as a kid that it was crazy how much I didn’t remember and how much on the other hand it was like hanging with an old friend.  Even though I knew what was coming, I still loved the last chapter because it still gets me with the romantic tension!

Another Mad Men Post

At the risk of this becoming an all Mad Men blog, I have some thoughts on this week’s episode, the best of the season so far.

We had characters burning bridges, be it Don with Jaguar, Pete with Trudy, CGC with the car client they dropped to chase Chevy, or Pete and his father-in-law after their run in at the . . . ummm . . . "hotel".  We also had a lot of characters going behind others' backs - Bert, Pete, and Joan with the IPO; Roger chasing the Chevy executive; Don & Roger scheduling a dinner with Jaguar sans Pete; Don & Teddy with the merger; and of course the usual adultery (Pete as always, his father-in-law, Peggy with Teddy, etc.)  And finally, change has been the most prevailing theme for the whole show, and we see what happens to those who don’t change or aren’t willing to change – they get left behind.  And so it’s really interesting to hear Peggy (really the symbol of change on Mad Men) tell Abe that she doesn’t like change and wants things to stay the same.  Well be careful what you wish for Miss Olson, because by the end of the episode her new firm has merged with her old firm, and her old boss is suddenly back in her life.  Things are pretty much back to the same as they ever were for Peggy.

The moments I particularly enjoyed:

- Pete falling down the stairs
- Roger keeping copies of his memoir “Sterling’s Gold” in his bag
- Bob Benson offering to pay Pete’s hooker for her services (and really why was Bob there in the first 
place, to hold Pete’s pants?)
- A smiling Bob Benson holding two cups of coffee up to Pete and Ken as they discuss the “father-in- law incident" from the night before
- Both Don and Marie in the restaurant scene with Herb and his wife. A drunk Marie insulting them in French was great, as was Don’s “I love puppies” comment.
- Joan telling off Don (isn't it about time someone did?), even though she’s still a partner in the firm so her part in winning Jaguar wasn’t really for nothing
- Peggy’s face when she heard Don’s voice in Teddy’s office - why do I get the feeling she's not super excited to be returning to the old office?


The complications I’m anticipating for the remainder of the season:

- The inevitable Don-Teddy ego clash
- The almost as inevitable Peggy-Don clash
- The potential Roger-Cutler accounts guy clash
- The Peggy-Abe clash after Peggy ends up having an affair with Teddy (even though I really hope they don’t take it any further, as much as I dislike her relationship with Abe)
- The Don-Megan clash after the expected blow-up following Don and Sylvia’s affair coming to light (and with Doctor Rosen having quit his job, it will make it that much harder for Don to continue the affair, right?)