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Education: TV & Preschool, Preschool & TV
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I wanted to go back and see them together with me ...
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Where I'd Like to Go
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Terror In a Small Town
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You've got questions, she's got answers. Be among the first to read Elise Mac Adam's new etiquette guide.
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Thriller
I'm tired and cranky today but only have myself to blame because I stayed up late finishing a thriller that the recommendation wall at my favorite mystery bookstore* promised was better than the movie I didn't see. I have to assume it was superior, since it kept me awake when I usually have a sleep latency of about 35 seconds, but I am ashamed to say I was dragged along into the night by the subject matter, which involved the kidnapping of a small child from her own bed, in a Manhattan apartment, just down the hall from her parents.
It was comforting, while I was frightening myself, to keep in mind that the book family didn't have an excitable terrier constantly poised to attack noises- strange or otherwise.
Of course this got me wondering, as I do periodically, if I've just gone soft or if I'm just a normal person responding to a book in the way that made it a best seller. I hate being the person who is so easily manipulated, but here I am with the bags under my eyes to prove it.
Actually, mystery thrillers tend to see me through all sorts of crap. I oscillate between ancient novels of sensation (Wilkie Collins and the like) and pure pulp. One guy who has distracted me through a miscarriage scare, terrible trips, insomniac periods and low, low, low moods is Lee Child whose hero, Jack Reacher, is a ton of fun.
There is a lot of pleasure in recommending the Reacher books and turning people into addicts. The first in the series, Killing Floor, has the perfect combination of modern noir elements, which is what attracted me to the series in the first place. A stranger in a strange town, mistaken for someone else, arrested for something he didn't do, finds himself an avenging angel out to scrape some corruption out of a corner of the world.
*If you're wondering how I might have a favorite bookstore with such a specialty, there are actually several in Manhattan, but each draws a different crowd and I find that this one has the best recommendations, most entertaining readings and a staff least likely to roll its eyes and act completely snotty if the books you have selected for yourself don't meet some impossible invisible standards of coolness. I don't mind admitting I'm not cool, I just don't have time to sit through the attitude, and Partners & Crime just cuts to the chase.
posted by Elise at 12:02 PM
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10/28/2006 1:13 PM
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10/28/2006 1:14 PM
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10/28/2006 1:14 PM
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