The Cracked Spine (Scottish Bookshop, Bk 1)
8 journalers for this copy...
A hop, a skip and a jump,
she doesn't land herself in the pond
but she still gets wet.
she doesn't land herself in the pond
but she still gets wet.
This lucky little book has become part of a mini-trade! :)
May it provide some fun and entertainment with it's new reader! ;)
May it provide some fun and entertainment with it's new reader! ;)
The box of trade books arrived today - many thanks for knocking off so many of my wishlist books at once! This one's from a cozy-mystery series set in a bookshop - and I have to admit that "The Cracked Spine" is an excellent (if wince-inducing) name for a secondhand book store...
Later: Rather fun, and better-written than many of these series, with a great fondness for the Scottish setting and people. We get to meet a number of characters as protagonist Delaney does, from her new boss at the bookstore to the charismatic bartender across the way. (Cozies do generally feature some kind of love-interest, and at least this one isn't a cop {wry grin}.) Oh, and there's Hamlet - yes, that's his name - a teenager who delights in performing in the local theater company, though at present he's playing Macduff.
The plot itself was, for me, a bit of a letdown, involving a rare-manuscript Macguffin and an unlikely assortment of criminals, but I did enjoy the setting and the character interactions. The series is up to seven books now, so I may dip in to see what's in store for Delaney and her new friends.
Later: Rather fun, and better-written than many of these series, with a great fondness for the Scottish setting and people. We get to meet a number of characters as protagonist Delaney does, from her new boss at the bookstore to the charismatic bartender across the way. (Cozies do generally feature some kind of love-interest, and at least this one isn't a cop {wry grin}.) Oh, and there's Hamlet - yes, that's his name - a teenager who delights in performing in the local theater company, though at present he's playing Macduff.
The plot itself was, for me, a bit of a letdown, involving a rare-manuscript Macguffin and an unlikely assortment of criminals, but I did enjoy the setting and the character interactions. The series is up to seven books now, so I may dip in to see what's in store for Delaney and her new friends.
I'm adding this to the 2021 Bookish Bookbox, bookbox-journal here. (Missed the post office hours today so the box will go in the mail on Monday.) Hope someone enjoys the book!
*** Released for the 2021 The The challenge. ***
*** Released for the 2021 Keep Them Moving challenge. ***
*** Released for the 2021 The The challenge. ***
*** Released for the 2021 Keep Them Moving challenge. ***
Chosen from the Bookish Bookbox.
I loved it! Looking for more of this series. Saving for a Scottish/Irish Bookbox in the making.
Journal Entry 9 by 
heartthumper
at Book Box, A Bookbox -- Controlled Releases on Friday, May 13, 2022
heartthumper at Book Box, A Bookbox -- Controlled Releases on Friday, May 13, 2022
Released 1 yr ago (5/24/2022 UTC) at Book Box, A Bookbox -- Controlled Releases
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Continuing it's journey in the My Armchair Travels to the UK/ Republic of Ireland box.
Book is back in Florida after a tour, lol.
This sounds interesting, although I do agree that The Cracked Spine is not my favorite name for a bookshop.
This sounds interesting, although I do agree that The Cracked Spine is not my favorite name for a bookshop.
This is the first book of a series about a Scottish bookshop set in Edinburgh. Delany Nichols arrives from Kansas to work in a bookshop across the pond, and soon after she arrives, the owner's sister is murdered and a valuable Shakespeare folio is missing.
I don't know if Scots are so friendly that a cab driver will invite you to his house for supper, and Delany's sleuthing feels too experienced, but I do enjoy the book, at least once I get used to the accents. The author did a great job pacing the introduction of characters and making each distinct from another.
This book will now travel on.... drumroll... "home" to Scotland for the BC Convention, to fulfill a wish.
I hope I'll get a chance to visit Grassmarket in Edinburgh and maybe even visit the Wee Pub, Scotland's smallest pub, on which Delany's Wee Pub is based on.
I don't know if Scots are so friendly that a cab driver will invite you to his house for supper, and Delany's sleuthing feels too experienced, but I do enjoy the book, at least once I get used to the accents. The author did a great job pacing the introduction of characters and making each distinct from another.
This book will now travel on.... drumroll... "home" to Scotland for the BC Convention, to fulfill a wish.
I hope I'll get a chance to visit Grassmarket in Edinburgh and maybe even visit the Wee Pub, Scotland's smallest pub, on which Delany's Wee Pub is based on.
Of course this book is going to attend the BC Con in Scotland!!
Thanks, Azuki! This warms the heart of an old bookshop-keeper.
A light Scottish accent mentioned. The Moira Monologues from the Convention came to mind right away (pic).
A Natural History Museum and their historical items were mentioned. Reminds me of my visit to the museum in Helsinki and the picture of newlywed insect collectors Mr & Mrs Reinhold Sahlberg about to leave for their honeymoon. It probably wasn't a honeymoon out of a fairytale book, because Mr Sahlberg was in the habit of taking home souveniers - from his expedition to Brazil once he sent home 70 000 insects (of those 850 new species were found), 400 bird skins, 30 mammal skins and as many skeletons.
Edinburgh Castle mentioned. I climbed up there on a very hot summer day in 1984, when I was interrailing in Britain for the first time. The castle guide was great but the climb was not - no, nay, never, no more!I wonder why Scottish and Irish accents are so difficult for the Americans? I was on a pre-congress tour in Ireland a few years ago and there were Germans, Swedes, Danes and Finns in the bus and we all understood the broad accent of the driver. Then there were the Americans and first I thought they had trouble hearing, because each time we stopped and the driver told us when he wanted us back, they asked us what he had said. Then the congress began and the arriving Americans asked if the tour had been good.
"Oh yes, we saw some awesome places, but the language was a problem, everybody speaks Gaelic here..."
The local bookshop in Galway had a sign on the window: "American spoken."
My neighbourhood's second-hand bookshop of 40 odd years (it closed down in 2020) was crammed and would have needed some organizing. I always had the urge to say that I could come and work for free, if I were allowed to do the windows (when the owner sold a book from the window, it might take him weeks to put something new there to fill the space. Didn't he know that windows were his best opportunity to sell anything, because the shop was such a shambles?) and reorganize some shelves. I never opened my mouth, because I felt guilty about my own messy flat. I, on the other hand, wasn't selling anything and hardly anybody came to visit.I never took photos of Kauppamasiini sh-bookshop, but this pic is from a sh-bookshop in Reykjavik, Iceland, which I visited 11 months ago. It had the air of a once great and well-loved shop, but either it had a new or severly burned-out owner.
Greyfriars Bobby's statue mentioned. This faithful Skye Terrier is well-known all over the world.
Some closes are really narrow but worth the view (would not go into them in the dark, though).
Some are named after famous people.
Vinegar. Now that is something I've never understood; Brits spoiling perfectly good crisps and chips by adding loads of vinegar. Yikes! The other yikes-thing is Marmite, a sour-tasting paste they call the Backbone of Britain. Revolting!Pic: As I haven't got a photo of vinegar or Marmite I will put here a wee part of a map where you can see Grassmarket. I was very close, in the Greyfriars Kirkyard.
Feeding coins to a machine to have electricity sounds so very Scottish. Can't remember which Scottish youth hostel had a shower which worked with coins back in 1984. It was somewhat tricky trying to wash with one hand and keep the coins in the other and be ready to feed the greedy water meter when the shower turned into drip drip drip...My brother got a flat for a month in Edinburgh in May 2017 and I of course invited myself over for a long weekend. He was a bit surprised and reminded me that it had been over ten years since my last visit to his flat in Helsinki, which lies perhaps two km from my house. I said that when he lived so near I had no urge to visit him, but when he would be so far away I would start missing him right away... When it was time to travel he told me to bring a toarch, because there were no lights in the lift. My brother has studied Russian and been on a language course in Moscow back in the 1970'ies Soviet Union, which had been pretty primitive, but even the Russians had lights in their lifts. Hmm, I thought... And found the key to the problem when I arrived (pic).
Writers's Museum mentioned. It sounds grander than it is, but it only celebrates the lives of Robert Burns, Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson, although Edinburgh has been home to many more authors.
I had to laugh when I saw this plaque on the wall of a house in Falkirk:"Robert Burns, poet, slept here" + the date. Good heavens how many plaques we would have of the Finnish poet Pentti Saarikoski alone, if all his sleeping around was documented...
Delaney was wondering if all men in Scotland wore robes. Well, yes.Oops, that wasn't a robe, it is a tartan flannel pajamas.
Drugs mentioned several times. I am probably an oddity nowadays, because I've never tried drugs and I don't personally know anybody who has used drugs, except my ex-boss, who on her Interrail trip 40 years ago changed trains in Amsterdam and wanted to grabb some breakfast. She went into a Coffee Shop and had coffee and cake. The cake tasted funny and there seemed to be some spices on it which she didn't recognize."What cake is this?", she asked.
"It's hash cake."
"Oh..."
So instead of getting back on the train she and her friend sat beside a canal the whole day, giggling. In the evening they felt about normal and continued their journey.
In case you didn't know, cafés which sell hash products (quite legally) in the Netherlands are called Coffee Shops.
My no good grandfather (whom I never met) was a drug addict, having gotten amphetamin from Germans during the WW2 to help him stay awake. There were many ex-soldiers who had become addicts at war. A few years ago I found granddad's "legacy", his little syringe kit (pic). They didn't have single-use needles way back then, I bet it must have stung, injecting with a blunt needle. Not very sterile, either.
Oh dear, the book and I have suddenly caught international attention in the forums, so I ought to speed up my reading. It should be easy, because I've just began my holiday, but holidays tend to be busy...Here is a rose we got from a client. Unfortunately we mostly get flowers when we have killed somebody, and this was not an exception. The owner of the late dog is trying to write a mystery, so there is a wee link to this mystery.
Then it was time to go to a dog show in Porvoo,,,
They were looking for new reading dogs, which encourage kids with reading difficulties to read aloud.
Back to Edinburgh. Delaney went to a shady pub. Bookcrosser Annelis and I chose our watering holes better when roaming around the city.
Jane Austen mentioned. It's confession time: I've never read Pride and Prejudice or anything else by her, although (or because of?) Dad was a big fan of hers. I've seen the TV-series and for the life of me I don't know what women see in Darcy.Do I get any brownie points from STANDING ON Jane Austen? I was again interrailing in Britain, either in 1986 or 1988, and went to Winchester Cathedral, when the entry was still free (not anymore!). I was looking around, mostly up the walls and ceiling, and then I stopped and dropped my eyes - and I was standing on Jane Austen's grave! I even have a photo of it (pic).
I've also visited the Jane Austen Centre in Bath to feel better for not actually having read any of her books. I didn't go so far as to buy any of these Jane Austen tea pots...
...nor a notepad.
Back in 2018 I was in Winchester again and was shown the house where Jane died (pic). So our paths have crossed several times and as a veterinary nurse I was tempted to...
...buy this Guinea Pig Pride and Prejudice, but it was a fast read and read it in the shop instead (pic).
Oh, and I once was at London Vet Show and the lecturer asked what John F. Kennedy and Jane Austen had in common? -Addison's disease. Here is the slide to prove it (pic).
Men in kilt - did we see them? Yes, sirree, one was welcoming us to the Convention in Falkirk with a bit of bagpipe music.
Old maps mentioned. A friend of mine is working in an antiquarian bookshop which is specialized in old maps. This is one of their latest treasures, the map of old Rome (pic). Will have to check the age and price, because no numbers stay in this head of mine. Edit: The map is from 17th century and it was sold for 40 000€.
J.M. Barrie mentioned. I've bumped into his house in London town. (Pic of the plaque, sideways).
Finally finished. The book failed to mention that there are giraffes in Edinburgh.
Not a peep about the Little Free Libraries.
...which were plentiful.
We found one which a local bookcrosser had never heard of, despite walking past it every day!
Found a bookshop cum typewronger repair shop (Typewronger Books) and began to chat with the owner who not only was from Falkirk, but who was a former student of Cameron Wyllie, who had given us a talk about his memoir "Is There a Pidgeon in the Room" at the Convention.I also learned that my old Hermes 3000 had become more valuable since Tom Hanks had praised it in some interview.
Thanks to bookcrosser Bookfrogster we found the charming Dean Village close to the centre of Edinburgh. Like stepping back in time.
Amazing things can be found along a footpath in the woods.
Tarya has this on her wishlist, but I would think Annelis wants to read this first, having just come back from Edinburgh. And she has good pictures of the Princess Gardens and the Royal Mile.Pic: Here is the gravestone of the first bookcrosser in Edinburgh (Greyfriars Kirkyard).
Thank you very much for the book, Kirjakko! Why did you not mention haggis at all? It is good, rather like our maksalaatikko. This was my breakfast in Edinburgh seven years ago - with haggis.Finally Delaney ate some haggis, not all she got but some. It is a good start.
I don´t know why people wanted to touch Hume's toe. Just to be sure, I did the same.
To the meet-up in Kerava.
Happy reading!
Happy reading!
Journal Entry 51 by 
Paulanni
at Riihimäki, Kanta-Häme / Egentliga Tavastland Finland on Saturday, December 30, 2023
Paulanni at Riihimäki, Kanta-Häme / Egentliga Tavastland Finland on Saturday, December 30, 2023
I ended up picking this from the meet-up today, thank you for sharing. Wishing you a happy reading year 2024!
