Category Archives: Book Reviews

In which the reader shares his thoughts on the books that possess his imagination throughout the year.

Book Reviews, Mystery

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? ~Agatha Christie

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Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? ~Agatha Christie

–first publication, 1934
–audiobook published 2007
–BBC Audiobooks America
–7 hours, 15 minutes (unabridged)
–4.25/5 stars

Robert “Bobby” Jones, son of a local vicar, finds himself in the unpleasant circumstances of being the only one present to hear the last words of a gentlemen who has apparently fallen off a cliff, “Why didn’t they ask Evans?”. His curiosity aroused, he enlists the help of his dear friend Lady Frances “Frankie” Derwent and soon they are off doing their best interpretations of amateur detectives. As too-clever-for-their-own-good young people are fond of doing in these Agatha Christie mysteries, they quickly find themselves involved in a case where they, along with the reader, are presented with multiple red herrings before the truth is at last revealed.

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Book Reviews, Nonfiction

At Home: A Short History of Private Life ~Bill Bryson

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At Home: A Short History of Private Life ~Bill Bryson

–published 2010
–Doubleday
–512 pages (452 main text)
–5/5 stars

Books are crafty and clever things. Even when one is exercising economic self-restraint and has taken great pains to eschew dens of iniquity (the local book shops), books have a way of pulling the ol’ snake charmer routine on you, and before you know it you find yourself at home with one, or more, new friends. Such was the case with me on a recent trip north of Kansas City to attend a work-related training. I was innocently listening to NPR when suddenly, without warning (or at least without anything I recognized as a warning), author Bill Bryson was reading to me from, and being interviewed about, his just released book, At Home: A Short History of Private Life. Even had I not partaken of and enjoyed Bryson’s book, A Walk in the Woods, many years prior, I would not have been able to resist the siren song of this book. It will surprise no one that on my lunch break that day I found the nearest bookstore, Borders, and walked out with this [thankfully 40% off] hardback.

Amazon calls it “an authoritative history of domesticity”.

Publisher’s Weekly says, “Bryson takes readers on a tour of his house, a rural English parsonage, and finds it crammed with 10,000 years of fascinating historical bric-a-brac. Each room becomes a starting point for a free-ranging discussion of rarely noticed but foundational aspects of social life.”

I say, “there is enough fascinating history…not dry history, but history come alive…in At Home that one could use it as a map for a lifetime of marvelous reading or simply devour it gluttonously as I did.”

Continue reading At Home: A Short History of Private Life ~Bill Bryson →

Book Reviews, Science Fiction, Young Adult

When You Reach Me ~Rebecca Stead

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When You Reach Me ~Rebecca Stead

–published 2009
–Listening Library, unabridged audio (4 hours, 20 minutes)
–book: Wendy Lamb Books (208 pages)
–2010 Newbery Medal Winner
–4.25/5 stars

The year is 1979; Dick Clark’s $20,000 Pyramid is captivating viewers; a sense of innocence is in the air; and 6th grade Manhattan native Miranda, a latch-key child of a single mother, sees her days revolve around a special book and spending time with her friend Sal. A series of seemingly random events, accompanied by enigmatic notes left in peculiar places, seem to indicate that something bad is going to happen and that this unknown scribe may be her only hope.

Rebecca Stead’s novel is a rare exception among the many young adult books I have read lately, in that the protagonist actually feels like the twelve year old girl she is written to be, and yet her story is equally captivating for adults as well as younger children. Miranda tells the story of that fateful 6th grade year from the perspective of having passed through the events, reminiscing to her mysterious note writer about the events that have transpired.

Continue reading When You Reach Me ~Rebecca Stead →

Book Reviews, Gothic/Horror

The Mystery of Irma Vep: a penny dreadful ~Charles Ludlam

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The Mystery of Irma Vep: a penny dreadful ~Charles Ludlam

–published 1984
–Samuel French, Inc
–71 pages
–4/5 stars

In the comments section of the recent book giveaway post* for The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, I bared my soul to share my bad-library-patron story, involving the play, The Mystery of Irma Vep. With the arrival of genuine autumn weather coinciding with the appearance of October, I found myself staying up late Saturday night for a long overdue visit to this melodramatic, camp favorite.

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Book Reviews, Mystery

A Study in Scarlet ~Arthur Conan Doyle

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A Study in Scarlet ~Arthur Conan Doyle

–originally published, 1887
–Modern Library Paperback, 2003
–121 pages
–4.5/5 stars

“There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.”

I have taken it upon myself to begin my Christmas shopping early this year, whenever Borders or Barnes and Noble coupons find their way to my email inbox. While book shopping for others goes a long, long way towards satisfying my much tempered book buying urges, occasionally I have to treat myself, don’t I? In such a condition I discovered myself yesterday at Barnes and Noble. While wandering the mystery aisles my glance alighted on this slim volume proclaiming itself to be the very first published exploit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s singular consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes. Realizing I had never read this particular volume, and having looked at my small Modern Library Classics paperback collection just days prior thinking that said collection was in want of expansion, my hesitation was but that of a moment before I added it to the handful of books that will sit under this year’s Christmas tree for a certain special lady in my life. And since I was soon to meet a good friend for lunch in that same vicinity, what was a passionate book lover to do to while away the intervening minutes but to open the book and begin.

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