Category: Books I Loved Back in the Day

Blast from the Past: The Westing Game

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

There are some books as a kid you have as assigned reading. Then there’s the books that everyone seems to be reading. Back in the ancient times when Duran Duran was just trying to break the American market, Ronald Reagan was our lord and master and Dallas ruled the airwaves (aka the early 1980s or Damn I’m Getting OLD) the book jammed in the backpacks of the Thornapple Elementary School fifth grader was Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game.

Sixteen people, all living in or having connections to the luxury Sunset Towers on the shores of Lake Michigan, find out they are heirs to the fabulous Westing Paper Products fortune. But there’s a twist. The sixteen heirs are split up into eight teams each trying to solve the puzzle of who killed the late Sam Westing. Winner gets the $200 million Westing fortune.  Each team has four clues written on pieces of Westing paper towels.

Right away the adventure starts. The teams seem to be made up of people who have little in common with each other. Only one team was sensible enough to take notes about the will. The other seven teams want those notes. And a peek at the other clues. But as the teams try to puzzle out the clues, Sunset Towers becomes rocked by a blizzard that leaves the residents snowbound. And to make matters worse, there is a thief AND a bomber prowling around.

For the youngster (and the adult) Raksin’s sharp writing keeps you on your toes. (One character gives her position/profession as none but another heir thinks she wrote down nun). Things aren’t all Mary Sue and sweet. Heck (SPOILER ALERT!!! ALARM ALARM ALARM SPOILER ALERT) Angela being the bomber comes as a shock even when re-reading The Westing Game as an adult. Another writer would have made the bomber more obvious. The Angela that emerges at the end of The Westing Game has a lot more in common with a Fay Weldon character than your typical children’s book.

Back in my day (cue wavery old lady voice with the implied “Git Off Mah Lawn You Rowdy Youngins’!”) The Westing Game wasn’t required reading. Now it’s bound to be on your average elementary/middle school summer reading list. But remember just because a book is required reading doesn’t mean it isn’t a gem!

 

Blast From The Past: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

Admit it…every time you open a candy bar you’re half hoping you’re going to see a shimmer of gold. Okay that might not be true for my Baby Boomer dad who honestly just wants the chocolate but for Generation X and younger I bet it’s true.

Even “I read Spiderman and sci/fi ONLY when I was little” superior snowflake Blacklight peeks for a Golden Ticket when he unwraps one of my Hershey’s bars he’s “liberated” from the freezer. Because a Golden Ticket is a passport to adventure, wonder and CHOCOLATE…ALL THE CHOCOLATE. Cue my dad perking up and holding his hand out for a chocolate bar.

So any wonder that while curled up sick on Mr Couch recently I shoved aside the stack of trashy classics featuring impossibly beautiful women and their amazing adventures in favor of something different? That’s where Charlie and the Chocolate Factory comes in.

You’re bundled up on Mr Couch, wind whipping fiercely outside and seeping into your apartment because your apartment has the suckiest windows EVER and there’s ANOTHER delay holding up the building wide window replacement and Blacklight is making you chicken soup and asking if you’re EVER going back to work…in a way, you feel a bit of kinship with young Charlie Bucket, living in a tiny two room house riddled with cracks and grandparents and nothing to eat but soup, soup and more soup.

Even though you have almost an entire bag of Hershey’s Kisses in the freezer and more chocolate chip cookies than working brain cells at the moment, you can totally understand the way Charlie savors his yearly chocolate bar. Why can’t a nice boy like Charlie get a Golden Ticket unlike those evil little brats who win? Because really? Veruca Salt needs a Golden Ticket? On what frosted pop tart planet?

So you snuffle and reach for the Klennex when Charlie gets his Golden Ticket thanks to a dollar he found in the street. And when Willy Wonka gives Charlie and Grandpa Joe their own huge silver mugs of fresh waterfall mixed chocolate from the river because Wonka realizes that something isn’t right in their world.

And giggle evilly when Violet swells ups like a balloon. And outright cackle when Veruca meets Willy Wonka’s squirrels (any chance I can borrowify some of them there squirrels for the children next door?).

Thank goodness colds go away. And thanks heavens for Roald Dahl setting down a charming tale that even childhood flashbacks of Gene Wilder singing can’t ruin!

The Bulgari Connection

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

Jump in the Way Back machine to 2000/2001. There’s a new Fay Weldon novel out. But instead of the Book World going “ooooo new shiny book good” there’s “whiskey tango sellout”. Why? It’s a classic Weldon tale of husbands and wives with a touch of the different. Grace McNab Salt is out of prison (trying to run down her husband’s mistress) and starting her new life as a single woman. But fate or something else has other ideas. All trails lead to a portrait of Grace’s friend Lady Juliet in a lovely white gown wearing her cherished Egyptian Bulgari necklace….

And there’s the problem. Well to the Book World as least. In exchange for a reported 18,000 pounds, Weldon agreed to mention Bulgari at least twelve times. Thus the sellout allegations. With a lesser author (coughcoughdeankoontzstephenkingpatboothcoughcough) I would run the frosted pop tart the other way.

But Weldon? Interesting…and worth a read. The two Bulgari necklaces, Lady Juliet’s Egyptian masterpiece and Doris’ Roman coins, are compelling. The eternal Egyptian, sought after and cherished. The Roman coins, an empire won and lost. Now add intrigue, new loves, shady business connections and you have a winner.

The Bulgari Connection isn’t the perfect Weldon novel (my vote goes to The Life and Loves of a She-Devil) but it’s good Weldon, something you can re-read and enjoy. Try to get to the last few pages and not be flipping back to reference a comment in the earliest chapters. And as for the reported 18,000 pounds…good on you Fay Weldon git paid girl you git yours!