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This week's question was which historic hotel-turned-apartment building
in downtown Los Angeles is rumored to be haunted by a ghost called the Lady in
Black? 
The Friday Society by Adrienne
Kress is steampunk mystery written for teens and telling the story of a trio of
girls each working as a “girl Friday” in this vaguely London, vaguely late
1800’s novel. The book was sort of cute
but I couldn’t really get into it. I
had no empathy for the characters and, in fact, kind of wanted to give one of
them a slap for being so ridiculous.
Furthermore the completely modern use of idiom (things were awesome,
guys were hot) was jarring in a novel set in the 1800’s even though it isn’t
really OUR 1800’s.
These Things Happen by Richard Kramer is a
little slice of life. It follows
(switching viewpoints) a 15-year old boy, his friend, his father, his mother,
his father’s boyfriend, and his mother’s husband over the course of about 2
days and through a rather traumatic event.
What I liked best about the book was the author’s use of language. The book engages in a lot of following the
thoughts of these people but when it breaks into dialogue it is especially
captivating.
Which historic hotel-turned-apartment building in downtown Los Angeles is rumored to be haunted by a ghost called the Lady in Black?
This week's question was: What is the name of
the type of gun that Colonel Custer left behind when he set out for the Battle
of Little Big Horn? This gun is also where a common slang term for a gun came
from.
The book The Genius of Dogs by Brian Hare
and Vanessa Woods explores the world of dog cognition. It is an easy to read examination of the
science that has been done in the quest to understand dogs and the dog-human
relationship. This book provides an
introduction to the subject and an overview of the material that is easy to
understand (i.e. there is no depth of specific scientific information to hinder
the scientifically illiterate).
Set in Northern Ireland in 1983, The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty follows a Catholic police officer in the
Royal Ulster Constabulary as he investigates a series of murders. The book does an excellent job of evoking a
period and a mood. The mystery was
interesting but I found the ending troublesome.
This week's trivia question was:The answer is James Butler “Wild Bill” HickokThe question, and answer, were found on pages 124-125 of The Historical Atlas of American Crime by Fred Rosen. The book was published by Facts on File in 2005.