Books I Love: The Dollhouse Murders

Title
The Dollhouse Murders
Author
Betty Ren Wright
I first read this book
in fourth grade, approximately 1986

This book was one of those delicious stories that one person in the class reads and then recommends it to someone else who recommends it to someone else until it seems like everyone you know has devoured it.

The Dollhouse Murders is one of the scariest books I have ever read. It's the story of Amy, a teen girl who has to look after her mentally challenged sister Louann. While the two of them are staying with their Aunt Clare in their great-grandparents' large, old home, Louann becomes fascinated with a model of the home. The model even includes dolls that resemble the girls' great-grandparents. Amy finds the dollhouse creepy, especially because the dolls seem to be moving on their own and possibly even re-enacting the night their real-life counterparts were murdered. Will Amy summon the courage to watch the dolls and solve the mystery?

This story has everything – a dollhouse any girl would envy, cookies, stormy nights, a moody aunt. Best of all, Amy's and Louann's relationship is honest and real. Amy resents her sister and resents the attention she receives, but she loves her, too. This was probably the first book I ever read that featured a mentally challenged character. The first time I read this, I was just as resentful and angry as Amy. Later, after I got to know someone like Louann, I felt more sympathy for her when I re-read the book.

Despite the premise of dolls acting out a murder, the book has a reality to that grounds it. The chills and thrills keep you turning the pages, but it's the relationships and characters make The Dollhouse Murders memorable.

The Owls Are Not What They Seem

I've been rewatching Twin Peaks. Again. I've talked about my love for the show and its characters. Needless to say I am positively giddy thinking about the new episodes that begin Sunday. It has been a long twenty-five years since we last visited that town "both wonderful and strange."

As I rewatch the show, I find myself increasingly drawn to two characters in particular. All of the characters are intriguing and special, but these two have claimed my undying love — Deputy Andy Brennan and Agent Albert Rosenfeld.

I'll talk about Andy first. I loved him from the very first time I saw the show in April 1990. He wore his heart on his sleeve and had a strong sense of justice and moral character. He weeps at the sight of Laura Palmer wrapped in plastic. Harry Goaz is so sincere in his portrayal of Andy that you can't help but adore him. He's so sweet, and he tries so hard. How can you not love a law officer who openly mourns the victims of crimes?

He may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but his heart is in the right place.

Albert is another officer of the law, but that's about all he and Andy have in common. Albert is argumentative, stubborn and judgmental. He does not suffer fools, and he thinks everyone is a fool until they prove themselves otherwise. Miguel Ferrer is brilliant playing this pugnacious FBI agent. 

While we meet Andy in the first five minutes of the first episode, we only hear about Albert who Agent Cooper says "has a little more on the ball" than Sam.

Albert finally makes an appearance in the third episode and immediately antagonizes Sheriff Truman and the entire Twin Peaks Sheriff's Department, not to mention the hospital staff and town citizens. He even takes a punch from the sheriff!

His methods seem cruel to Twin Peaks' residents. They knew Laura, after all, and hate to see her treated so cruelly in her death (never mind her treatment in life). But, as Agent Cooper says, "Albert's path is a strange and difficult one."

Andy's and Albert's journey takes them from adversaries to allies. I cannot wait to see what's in store for these two law men in the upcoming episodes.

Thank you to Harry Goaz and Miguel Ferrer for bringing these two indelible characters to life. And thank you to David Lynch and Mark Frost for creating such indelible characters in the first place.

Who other than these four geniuses could gift us with a scene like this?

Books I Love: Anne of Green Gables

Title
Anne of Green Gables
Author
L.M. Montgomery
I first read this book
summer after my junior year of high school, 1993

I will admit that I didn't read this book until after I had seen the Kevin Sullivan television movies with Megan Follows and Jonathan Crombie. I adored those movies. My grandmother and I borrowed them from a friend, and we watched both of them in one day. Then I watched the first one again!

Needless to say, I needed to read the book.

Fortunately, the same friend who had the movies also had the entire series in paperback. I borrowed all of them, and read them one after the other in about a month.

I love the entire series, but Anne of Green Gables is my favorite. I adore that spunky little redhead and all her misadventures.

I also find myself drawn in by the descriptions the Montgomery uses. To me, they're beautiful. Maybe too effusive, but I don't mind. Prince Edward Island was such a long way from my small-town Texas home that I needed those somewhat flowery passages to fully appreciate the beauty of Anne's world.

I loved Anne so much I had to share her with my best friend. We watched the movies, and she read the books, too. We even wrote letters to each other as Anne (me) and Diana (her). My grandmother became Marilla.

The next summer I was cast in a local production of Anne of Green Gables at the Gaslight Theatre. I got to play Mrs. Rachel Lynde, and the whole experience of that show was such a delight--terrific cast, amazing crew, wonderful director, fantastic audiences.

I'm enjoying my cordial.

photo by Mom

In 2008, I was able to visit Prince Edward Island and see the "real" Green Gables. I walked through the Haunted Wood and drank raspberry cordial. I strolled down Lovers' Lane and cried from happiness.

And that raspberry cordial? It was delicious! I bought two more bottles to share with another kindred spirit and shipped them home wrapped tightly in bubble wrap. I'm pleased to say they made it all the way back to Texas intact. Sharing that drink with a kindred spirit at her apartment was one of the best moments.

Anne of Green Gables has turned strangers into friends and truly changed my life. It is my absolute favorite children's book.

The Buffalo In the Campground

This is not the buffalo in the campground. This bison was seen many years
later along a trail. I slowly backed away after taking some pictures.

photo by Sara K Joiner

In 1987, my mother, my niece and I took another long summer road trip through the western United States. We again spent most of the trip camping in state and national parks. One of the more memorable evenings I've ever spent in a national park was on this trip.

It was dusk, and Mom stood by the picnic table boiling water on our little Coleman stove to make hot chocolate. It wasn't a cold evening--being late June--but it was cooler than us Texans were used to at that time of year.

My niece and I sat in the rear of the van with the back doors open drinking our hot chocolates. We must have been deep in the conversation of ten-year-olds because we weren't too aware of our surroundings at that moment.

Until we heard an angry shuffling noise nearby.

All three of us raised our heads and looked toward the back of our campsite. I don't know what I was expecting to see, but I was shocked to my core by what I did—an enormous buffalo the size of the boulder he stood beside.

And he was mad!

I don't know if he was mad at us specifically or campers in general. I don't know if he was mad because he had gotten lost from the rest of the herd. I don't know why he was mad; I only know he was.

He pawed the ground with a sharp, furious motion. He snorted.

Mom, who stood closer to the buffalo than my niece and me, said, "Girls, don't move."

As if we could. We were frozen in fear.

Time stretched out between the three of us and the buffalo.

Then, as if cued by some sound on he could hear, he charged!

Mom grabbed her hot chocolate and scurried over to us at the van.

The buffalo ran past the picnic table, across the drive of the neighboring campsite, and off away from the noise of the campgrounds.

Mom asked if we were all right, which we were except for the serious heart palpitations.

I don't remember other campers being nearby (no one was in the neighboring site he crossed), and I don't recall hearing any yells in the distance. Maybe I was too scared to register any other noises. Surely he had to come across other campers before he moved away from the campground.

Years later I learned that buffalo have poor eyesight, so we were even more fortunate. That's probably why he swerved across to the neighboring site from the picnic table.

Every trip back to Yellowstone, Mom and I talk about that buffalo. I hope he was able to reunite with the herd.