Q: It’s difficult to talk much about the plot of Poison for Breakfast because it is a short book with fun surprises, and I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but I’d love to know what you hope readers take away from this quirky and bewildering tale of death — and breakfast? A: There was a child under my care, and it was breakfast time, and as adults have done for children since the dawn of time, I prepared something the child did not want to eat and then began scolding the child for not eating it. It was an egg. “Eat the egg,” I said to the child; “it’s not poison.” The child pointed out that if they ate the egg, when they were done eating the egg they would be closer to the moment of their death. Looking at it that way, the egg was poison. I found this idea so fascinating that I wrote “You had poison for breakfast” on a scrap of paper and ate the egg myself. The child had toast. Years later, there was a book, and here it is. Because of his constant presence in the royal court, whispers grew that Rasputin was acting as a puppet master over the royal couple. Alexandra’s growing dependence on Rasputin and his apparent healing abilities with her hemophilic son only exacerbated these rumors. Occasionally, the monk did offer military advice as well as medical help, but his ideas never proved beneficial for the Russian army or Tsar Nicholas personally. In fact, after Tsar Nicholas took personal control over his armies on Aug. 23, 1915, under the advice of Rasputin and the Tsarina Alexandra, the Tsar became the target of blame for Russia’s battlefield defeats. Meanwhile, with the Tsar away fighting, a vacuum of leadership was filled by the Tsarina. What is known is that one evening Rasputin went to the Yusupov Palace in St Petersburg at the invitation of Prince Felix Yusupov. Rasputin’s dead body was recovered from the frozen Neva River days later. No one is completely sure what happened in between these two events. A: When I was young, the mysterious world of Edward Gorey captivated me like nothing else; as I grew older, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Agatha Christie, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Auster, Muriel Spark, Toni Morrison, Haruki Murakami, Raymond Chandler, Percival Everett and Anne Carson carried this mysterious torch. I do realize that some of these people are not always considered to be mystery writers. But they are, they are.

Reading this little book feels like opening a window to let in air and light. It’s filled with curious information and powerful feelings, and is humorous, sad, meditative and rapturous by turns.’ Guardian

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Before the schism, Volunteers were required to get a tattoo of the V.F.D. insignia on their left ankles, but afterward, they found it hard to know who was who while in disguises, because if they had a tattoo, they could be on either side, and because the insignia was only shown off by the fire-starters after the schism, the tattoo was associated with that side of V.F.D., causing problems. A: I think when we are bewildered, when we stand in utter confusion and look around wondering what in the world is going on, we are as close as we can possibly get to understanding the world. The roundabouts become a little too tedious in this book for me. Whereas in the Series of Unfortunate Events there is some rather large tangents within the book, it still continues on a path to an ultimate goal or storyline. This book is more floaty than that, and because of it, I got bored.

Neophytes go to the V.F.D. Headquarters where each is given a commonplace book and trained throughout childhood and into adulthood in a particular topic that interested them. According to Captain Widdershins, "V.F.D. isn't just a fire department. Aye–it started that way. But the volunteers were interested in every such thing!" Here, the myth does approach the truth. Though the Tsarina was in charge, Rasputin did wield great power as her adviser. The mystic healer wasted no time in appointing his own church ministers and other public officials.I wasn't totally encapsulated by this book. It was okay, but it didn't hold my full attention. That being said, I really liked the style this book had. It's very funky and odd, in all the best ways. The repeated comments over and over (like the little breakfast poem) drove me insane though. Unknown; Fire-Starting Side: Possibly Man with a Beard but No Hair and Woman with Hair but No Beard (books) This book is written by a bibliophile that's for sure. The references are so nerdy and reader-world-like. The V.F.D. Insignia (seen above) is an eye made from the letters 'V,' 'F,' and 'D.' Any member of V.F.D. who joined before the schism has a tattoo of the eye on their left ankle. After the schism, the practice of tattooing members desisted. Thank you so much, NetGalley, W. W. Norton & Company and Liveright, for the chance to read and review this book!