The Princess Bride

Book Review: Tress of the Emerald Sea

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During the last couple of years, when the bookshop was open, many of you who visited Fran and me on Fridays know I brought baked goods for you all to try. Whereupon I learn simultaneously that: A) I love baking. B) The practice gave me the confidence to try new and unfamiliar recipes. C) I am actually pretty decent at it. Due to this love, which finds me handing off treats to the neighbors and my husband’s coworkers regularly, I also enjoy watching baking shows.

Unsurprisingly, The Great British Bake Off is one of my faves.

Not only can you pick up pointers from the bakers themselves, but if you pay attention, you are exposed to all kinds of savory & sweet treats you (or, in this case, I) have never seen. Fans of the show know Prue Leith, one of the competition’s judges, has a compliment she whips out every now and again — “This (insert pastry name here) is worth the calories.” 

Or, inversely, “It wasn’t worth the calories.”

Considering the number of pastries, pies, breads, ice cream, and baked bits of goodness she and Paul Hollywood enjoy on the show — this is serious kudos or criticism indeed. 

Now, what does this have to do with the price of shortbread in Scotland? 

Since SMB closed its doors, gradually over the years, I’ve needed reading glasses more and more often. In point of fact, unless the writing on my phone is the size of a chipmunk’s footprint, I can’t read it. This makes reading the fine print on food labels, forms, and footnotes all but impossible…Unless I’m standing four feet away, which presents a whole new set of challenges. 

As I can no longer read books without my readers, eye strain has become a very irritating part of my life. Often keeping me from enjoying books as much as I used to. (Yeah, yeah, I’ll get to the optometrist soon. However, that’s not the point right now.) 

So when I tell you a book is totally worth the eye strain — you best believe I’m telling the truth. 

And Tress of the Emerald Sea is one of these books.

In the postscript of Tress of the Emerald Sea, Sanderson likens his story to a modern fairytale meant for grownups. However, a more apt one comes a few paragraphs later when he talks about watching The Princess Bride during lockdown with his family. When his wife wondered: “What would that story have been like if Buttercup had gone searching for Westley, instead of immediately giving him up for dead?”

This question planted the idea of Tress of the Emerald Sea in Sanderson’s brain and is a rather apt description that, whilst giving one an idea of what Tress of the Emerald Sea is about, doesn’t spoil the pleasure of found within the pages.

Of course, Tress of the Emerald Sea is far more complex and compelling than its origin question. (We’d expect nothing less.) It’s witty, laugh-out-loud funny, full of edge-of-your-seat suspense, with thought-provoking throwaway lines and a mystery concealed at its heart. 

Unlike my lovely husband, I’ve not devoured everything Sanderson’s written. Sure, I’ve read the Reckoners series (Steelheart, Firefight & Calamity) and Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds. And while Tress and the Emerald Sea is unlike any of the above books, it is set within the same multiverse. Meaning you meet one or three characters who obviously have a far deeper backstory. But so long as you know this before the first page, you’re fine. (Plus, Sanderson does a great job of weaving in enough information that someone picking up this book cold won’t get lost.)

*Squinting my eyes in the direction of New Mexico, where Fran is, at present, residing.*

Seriously, if you need something to lose yourself in, if only for a little while, Tress of the Emerald Sea is the book you’ve been looking for.

2014 Review Part 2:The Princess Bride, Iocane Powder, & Thallium

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My 52 Weeks With Christie: My 2014 The Pale Horse Review

Interesting Facts: **Spoiler Kind Of** While I reveal the murder weapon this will not give you the delivery method or the culprit!**

“Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You have killed my father; prepare to die!””

Alas I cannot relate Christie to this quote. (I am hoping for that day.) However, The Pale Horse does contain a slightly more sinister similarity to this 1987 film classic. In The Princess Bride (I am speaking of the movie here not the book, as I have not read it yet, blasphemer I know) Vizzini (played by Wallace Shawn) claims, “What you do not smell is called iocane powder. It is odorless, tasteless, dissolves instantly into liquid and is among the more deadlier poisons known to man.” The perfect poison for a battle of wits or for the occasional mysterious murder. Happily enough this iocane powder is completely fictional, a poison like that would be disastrous if obtained by the wrong person…

While The Princess Bride relies on a fictional poison to move the story along, Christie decided to use a real one in The Pale Horse. And just like in The Princess Bride this poison is orderless, colorless, tasteless, difficult to trace, hard to diagnose and dissolves easily in liquids.

Making Thallium a perfect poison — so to speak.

Though, unlike iocane powder, you cannot build up a tolerance to thallium. Thus making it less desirable for a duel of wits, as generally it’ll kill you stone dead.

But I digress.

Thallium is a highly toxic metal and like arsenic was once used as a rat poison and some medicines (Seriously there has to be some sort of symbolism to the number of people poisoned by something meant to kill rats…) If administered in large enough doses thallium can kill with in 24 to 48 hours after it is administered. However, poisoners generally dole it out in smaller doses, invoking a whole other set of symptoms. Which in turn mimic a whole plethora of other ailments. So when death occurs it appears to be natural causes.

The one tell thallium possesses? Rapid and clumpy hair loss.

Christie’s description of said symptoms in The Pale Horse is so good, it is credited with saving a number of lives. In 1975 a woman sent a letter to Christie stating she figured out her husband was poisoning her with thallium after reading the book. Second, a hospital nurse in 1977 diagnosed a baby’s illness (due to thallium) while reading the book. Most astonishing The Pale Horse is credited with stopping a serial killer dubbed The Teacup Poisoner. Graham Fredrick Young was convicted in 1972 for murdering two of his fellow co-workers while poisoning seventy others in the factory where he worked. As the story goes, a doctor consulting for Scotland Yard correctly identified the poison being used by Young thanks to Christie’s mystery.

On a complete side note the absolutely best treatment for thallium poisoning is a pigment called Prussian Blue (taken in pill form). It is even better than activated charcoal in removing the heavy metal from the victims system – due to the complex chemical nature.

Not sure what Prussian Blue is?

It is the pigment used to make blueprints, well, blue! It is also one of the colors which makes Vincent van Gogh’s painting Starry Night so vivid. It was one of the very first synthetic pigments to be created, around 1706. (FYI — do not eat blue prints if you think someone is poisoning you. Seriously there is lab grade Prussian Blue without the other chemical associated with paper & paint!)

Christie is often called the Queen of Poisons and The Pale Horse I think is the flawless jewel set in this crown.

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