Goosefoot, Death by a Honeybee and Home

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig! We got rained out and came home early. Not too much fun to camp in a tent pop-up camper in the pouring rain. Especially with a little one that is afraid of rain let alone really bad storms like we had! We did get our day in at Idlewild Amusement Park and a good time was had by all. The storm was moving in about an hour before closing time and they started shutting down rides and asking people to leave. We got out before the rain hit, but boy was it windy! Pokey 5 yr. old Ian found high speed when the wind hit and was dragging this old lady to the car as fast as he could go:) Crying ‘hurry Maimo’ as loud as he could! I think he would have carried me if he could have. It thundered and lightening and POURED all night! Very loud in a pop up camper! We did get in a day of swimming in the pool on Wednesday although cloudy and windy, but more severe storms were moving in so we packed up and came home before they hit. Great memories made even though shortened and talk of next year when we go….

Currently reading Goosefoot by Patrick McGinley.

back cover synopsis:
Her family had warned her that things would be different in the city, an Patricia Teeling had laughed at their caution. She had come for the excitement: the new job, the strange new people, the pubs and the dance halls, the men who followed her with their eyes. Even the stabbing death of her neighbor didn’t shake her-until a dark handsome man with a crippled walk, the ‘Goosefoot’, appeared the next day. She would see him on the street, in a pub, stalking her day after day, but there was something about him she wanted-something that drew her to him…like a moth to a flame.

Not sure what I think on this one. Very mixed feelings. I want to finish it to see what happens, but I can’t really say I’m ‘enjoying’ it. Really stupid characters. It’s a sort of coming of age story with a murder thrown in. Set in Dublin Ireland. Very smart girl graduates college and is informed by her uncle that she is to inherit his very large, successful farm. She has worked with him on it all her life and graduated with a degree in agriculture science. She has a beau and is set for a successful life. But…she decides she needs to move to the city to ‘experience’ life first. Her uncle gives her one year to get it out of her system and the farm is hers, if she decides at the end of the year she wants to stay in the city she loses the farm. So off she goes, not really knowing what it is she is looking for. She acquires a room mate that is obsessed with sex and the male ‘membrum virile’, (although she hasn’t experienced them yet) and makes friends with one of her fellow teachers at the school where she teaches science. He takes her for a pint everyday after school and gives her a balloon to blow up when they part company, explaining it will make her feel better. But it’s the couple downstairs that are the strangest and her life really takes a bizarre turn after getting involved with them. She makes some really dumb choices for such a smart gal. I don’t know how to describe it besides bizarre! I’m not finished yet, but almost so the jury is still out on this one. So I might talk more about it after I chew on it awhile. I think this book is one that needs chewing on. I also have ‘Bogmail‘ by the same author and I will definitely be reading it too.

Read this Book of the Times article in The New York Times from back in 1982 to get another take on it.

Also reading ‘Death by a HoneyBee‘ by Abigail Keam. That one is on my iPad and I don’t get a turn at it much with the grandkids here:) Got it free on Amazon Kindle books. A light easy read. Not really bonding with characters, or getting excited about the murder. Won’t read any of the other books in the series though.

Peggy Ann