Read My Review: SciFi

Read My Review, Hosted by A Trillian Books is a chance for book bloggers to share new and old reviews--all related to a theme.

What to do:

*Find one of your reviews that fits this week's theme (you can be as creative as you like when choosing what fits). It can be new or old, good or bad.

*Create a post on your blog explaining your book choice and leaving a link to your review there.

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*Themes stay for a month.

This month's theme is Sci-Fi. And do I have a doozy for you. Harlan Ellison--one of the superstars of classic Science Fiction. And, a collection that fits right in with the Halloween holiday. 'Cuz Ellsion can give you the creeps. Only his frightful stories don't deal with ghosts and goblins. He sticks with the the spookiness that is human nature and gives it a nice little twist. Click here to check out his short story collection Shatterday.

Read My Review: America

Read My Review, Hosted by A Trillian Books is a chance for book bloggers to share new and old reviews--all related to a theme.

What to do:

*Find one of your reviews that fits this week's theme (you can be as creative as you like when choosing what fits). It can be new or old, good or bad.

*Create a post on your blog explaining your book choice and leaving a link to your review there.

*Leave your link with Mr. Linky at the bottom of her post.

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This weeks theme is AMERICA--very fitting for this week following the Fourth of July celebrations (what am I saying, my neighbors aren't done celebrating yet. Fireworks going off as I write....).

Also fitting, I think, is my review of Scorpions: The Battles & Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices by Noah Feldman. This book tells the story of some of the great supreme court justices who served during a very important point in US (and world) history. Appointed just as the world was heading into World War II and serving well into the Cold War era, these justices made a great impact on how our current courts interpret the constitution today. For a more complete scoop, please click the title for my review.

Read My Review: World Wide

Read My Review, Hosted by A Trillian Books is a chance for book bloggers to share new and old reviews--all related to a theme.

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*Find one of your reviews that fits this week's theme (you can be as creative as you like when choosing what fits). It can be new or old, good or bad.

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This weeks theme is World Wide (Non-American/British). A large majority of the books reviewed out in the blogosphere are by American and British authors, so let's dig out reviews for books by authors from other countries!

Unfortunately, I'm one of those bloggers who reads primarily British authors with a bit of American thrown in and very little else. I know I should widen my horizons..... But, searching through the reviews I have done, I found Literary Murder by Batya Gur! Hurray! Batya Gur was an Israeli writer and the work that I'm familiar with is her mystery series starring police detective Michael Ohayon: an educated, pensive, and intellectual detective. I talked about her book over the course of two blog posts--please forgive me...at the time I was a brand-new blogger, so I didn't know what I was doing and the posts may be a little rough. The book was very good, though! Click on the book title for the first post and her name for the second.

Read My Review: Valentines

Read My Review, Hosted by A Trillian Books is a chance for book bloggers to share new and old reviews--all related to a theme.

What to do:

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This weeks theme is Valentines. Any book with a some kind of love element - it doesn't have to be an outright Romance genre book.

My choice: a classic favorite--Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. A love story that reads well when one is in the teens/twenties and still reads well when one is over 40.

Read My Review: Adventure/Travel

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This weeks theme is Adventure/Travel. So, any book where the character(s) go on a journey/quest ... something like that. My choice this week is Dead Man's Chest by Kerry Greenwood. Just a nice little, quiet little trip to the seashore. Well...since it involves Miss Phryne Fisher, not quite. What is supposed to be a relaxing family holiday turns into mystery and mayhem in the latest of the Phryne Fisher novels.

Read My Review: Favorite Authors

Read My Review, Hosted by A Trillian Books is a chance for book bloggers to share new and old reviews--all related to a theme.

What to do:

*Find one of your reviews that fits this week's theme (you can be as creative as you like when choosing what fits). It can be new or old, good or bad.

*Create a post on your blog explaining your book choice and leaving a link to your review there.

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This weeks theme is Favorite Authors. One of my all-time favorites is Dorothy L Sayers. Her mysteries are literate, sprinkled with humor and strong characters. I love Lord Peter Wimsey. He could talk piffle to me all day. I've chosen one of her best, Strong Poison, to link up this week.

Read My Review: Contemporary YA

Read My Review, Hosted by A Trillian Books is a chance for book bloggers to share new and old reviews--all related to a theme.

What to do:

*Find one of your reviews that fits this week's theme (you can be as creative as you like when choosing what fits). It can be new or old, good or bad.

*Create a post on your blog explaining your book choice and leaving a link to your review there.

*Leave your link with Mr. Linky at the bottom of her post.

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This weeks theme is Contemporary Young Adult. As I mention in the review, Young Adult fiction isn't really my cup of tea. It's not often that I read one. But needing a book to fulfill a challenge this past fall, I came across The Deathday Letter by Shaun David Hutchinson and I have to say I'm really glad I did. Absolutely fabulous book. If YA is your thing--you will definitely love it. And even if it's not, I encourage you to give it a try. [Click the title to go to my review from last fall.]

Time to Be in Earnest: Review

Time to Be in Earnest: a fragment of autobiography is P. D. James's response to Dr. Johnson's advice that seventy-seven is "a time to be in earnest." The much celebrated and beloved writer of mystery novels has created a luminous memoir of one year of her life. During the course of that year she not only relates experiences of the current time, but travels in time to give the reader snapshots of her life. These snapshots are vivid--full of descriptive clarity and beautiful language, only to be expected from such an accomplished writer.

It would be hard to do full justice to this memoir in a review. The entries are so varied that one could only give the full flavor by recounting each and every one. James covers everything in this memoir from the elusive quality of memory to why women seem to dominate the mystery field (and if, in fact, they really do). She talks about numerous fellow authors, from Ruth Rendell to Dick Francis, without gossip and with genuine affection.

It was, in fact, difficult to do full justice to this memoir reading it straight through as I did. I think it would have been better to savour the entries over a longer period of time, perhaps in daily readings over the course of the year just as the memoir was written. There is so much here to absorb and consider. And I think it a mark of how much this book has affected me that I have numerous slips of paper peppered throughout--marking passages that I want to go back and reread and possibly add to my quote collection. Thus earning this memoir four and a half stars out of five.

In the last days of this memoir, James gave a talk at the annual meeting of the Jane Austen Society. The entire address is given in an appendix to the memoir and is entitled "Emma Considered as a Detective Story. Someone who commented on my review of Emma suggested that reading these insights by James might better inform my reading of Emma (I wasn't a fan of this particular Austen novel) and that it changed her entire view of the book.

I readily admit all of James's points that give parallels to the detective novel. 1. That we have facts that are "hidden" but which the reader should be able to discover by logical deduction from clues inserted in the novel. 2. That we have a reconciliation of those mysterious facts which brings order when the previously misinterpreted facts are seen in their true light. 3. That we have a self-contained set of characters forced into a sometimes unwilling proximity. However, none of this changes my opinion of the novel. In fact, it just might lower it. You see, if I am to compare Emma to a detective novel, then I would want that comparison to be positive. A good detective novel, in my opinion, presents the reader with all the clues and keeps him or her thoroughly mystified until the final unravelling. As far as I can see the only one mystified in Emma is Emma herself. I recognized the truth behind the "misinterpreted facts" early on. I was quite certain I knew who sent the piano to Jane (and was right). As a mystery novel, Emma fails for me, every bit as much as it did as a serious novel. Sorry, but Emma still remains one of my least favorite Austen novels.

Read My Review: New Beginnings

Read My Review, Hosted by A Trillian Books is a chance for book bloggers to share new and old reviews--all related to a theme.

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This weeks theme is New Beginnings (for the New Year). So she suggests books where the main character makes a fresh start, moves house, new school ... anything like that. But we're told that we can be creative with our interpretation of what fits...So, I'm going with the idea of a new beginning being a debut novel.

My choice is India Black: A Madam of Espionage Mystery by Carol K Carr. This novel is a brilliant debut featuring India Black a madam who owns a brothel and finds herself in the middle of an international spy adventure. This book makes a wonderful beginning to what promises to be a terrific series. Click on the title to see my review.

Read My Review: From Book to TV/Movie

Read My Review, Hosted by A Trillian Books is a chance for book bloggers to share new and old reviews--all related to a theme.

What to do:

*Find one of your reviews that fits this week's theme (you can be as creative as you like when choosing what fits). It can be new or old, good or bad.

*Create a post on your blog explaining your book choice and leaving a link to your review there.

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This weeks theme is TV/Movie Adapttions. It doesn't matter if you liked the TV/Movie version or if you've even seen it, as long as there is one. My choice this week is The Saint Omnibus by Leslie Charteris. My review is split into two posts: click on the title for Part I and the author for Part II. The Saint was played most ably by Roger Moore in a 1960s television series. As I mention in the review, I had my husband order up The Saint so I could see what the series was like. I enjoyed both the book and the series a lot.

Read My Review: Science Fiction

Read My Review, hosted by A Trillian Books, is a chance for book bloggers to share new and old reviews--all related to a theme.

What to do:

*Find one of your reviews that fits this week's theme (you can be as creative as you like when choosing what fits). It can be new or old, good or bad.
*Create a post on you blog explaining your book choice and leaving a link to your review there.

*Leave your link with Mr. Linky at the bottom of her post [Blog Name (Book Title)].

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This week's theme is Sci-Fi, in honor of Trillian's excitement over the new Tron movie. My choice this week is Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny. Once upon a time (from about age 12 through college), I was a BIG science fiction fan. I still like Bradbury, Asimov, Clarke, Silverburg and all the other Golden Age SF writers, but I don't read them as often. I picked up the Zelazny this book as part of the Birth Year Reading Challenge I participated in. I had forgotten what a marvelous writer Zelazny is. Click the title to Read My Review.

Behold, a Mystery! (Review)

To be honest, this one was a bit of a let down. I was all set to add this to my Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge list--because the book-flap touts this as a murder that take place over the Christmas holiday. And quite frankly, there is no mention of Christmas in the entire book. Yes, we're told the action takes place at the end of December, but for all the description we're given it could take place at any time from November through the spring thaw. So, I can't in all fairness claim this as a Christmas read. Ah well, there are other books....

In this book, we find Jessica Greenwood, poor relation and companion to her elderly aunt, in the middle of a murderous mystery. Someone--most likely one of her cousins--has poisoned Aunt Hettie the better to get at their inheritance. Except, contrary to family rumor, Aunt Hettie has not left her fortune to the men in the family. When the will is read, it reveals that Jessica is the heiress--provided she marries one of her cousins within a year. The difficulty is how can she choose knowing that one of them is a murderer? The local Justice of the Peace refuses to call in Bow Street to investigate, virtually throwing Jessica on the mercy of the killer. So, Jessica takes it upon herself to look for clues to the killer's identity.

This is a rather pedestrian mystery. I spotted the killer very early and found some of the characters rather annoying. Jessica is the best of the main characters--but I would take the maid Mary over any of them. Period detail is decent and the writing style is much better than the mystery itself. Two and a half stars...just shy of a good, decent read.
*Read for the Holiday Read-a-thon (Dec 2-5)

Read My Review

Read My Review, hosted by A Trillian Books, is a chance for book bloggers to share new and old reviews--all related to a theme.

What to do:

*Find one of your reviews that fits this week's theme (you can be as creative as you like when choosing what fits). It can be new or old, good or bad.

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This week's theme is : First in a Series. Any series, any genre but it has to be the first book.

And my choice is my most recent read: A Foreign Affair by Caro Peacock (click title for review).

Read My Review: America

Read My Review, hosted by A Trillian Books, is a chance for book bloggers to share new and old reviews--all related to a theme.

What to do:

*Find one of your reviews that fits this week's theme (you can be as creative as you like when choosing what fits). It can be new or old, good or bad.

*Leave your link with Mr. Linky at the bottom of her post [Blog Name (Book Title)].

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A nice easy one this week. A lot of you will be celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday so this week’s theme is:

America

Be it an American setting, and American author, American character, all three or even some other element of Americanism. The theme stays for a week so you can leave your link any time and don't forget to pop back and check out some more fab reviews. You can also clink here to see the previous weeks reviews. My choice is Death Is a Lonely Business by Ray Bradbury, one of America's all-time best science fiction authors. But this one isn't SF...it's mystery set in 1930s California. Click the title for the review. Thanks for checking it out!

Read My Review: Winter

Read My Review, hosted by A Trillian Books, is a chance for book bloggers to share new and old reviews--all related to a theme.

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*Find one of your reviews that fits this week's theme (you can be as creative as you like when choosing what fits). It can be new or old, good or bad.

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And since it's getting chilly outside now, this week's theme is: Winter. So, anything wintery or set in a cold climate.

The theme stays for a week so you can leave your link anytime and check out some more fab reviews.

I don't have a previous blog review for this week's theme, so I'm going to do a "blast from the past" and choose a book that I've read and reviewed on Visual Bookshelf. My choice is The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin.

This book not only has Winter in the title (a sure winner!), but is set in Moscow--definitely got your cold climate covered. Here's the scoop: The setting is Moscow in 1876. Young sleuth Erast Fandorin is faced with the puzzle of what would cause a talented student from one of Moscow's wealthiest and most prominant families to shoot himself out in public? The public and most of the police assume that is due to a life of decadence and boredom, Fandorin does not believe it. Fandorin soon connects this strange suicide to an obvious case of murder--witnessed by our hero himself. He soon finds himself following clues that lead him across Europe and brings him to the center of an incredible conspiracy with deadly intentions.

Begining with a bang (literally), this story has lots of intrigue, suspense, beautiful women, suspects in high places, and secrets galore. Fandorin as an engaging main character and I enjoyed the author's writing style. It was very smooth and easily carries the reader along on Fandorin's adventures. Fandorin is absolutely entertaining in his interactions with Moscow's upper crust and the book is worth it for his adventures in Amalia's house. Amalia is a fine character in her own right. The mystery is very well done and Fandorin makes a fine showing as the detective. And the ending--it totally surprised me. When I finished the book, I was still pondering whether I like the ending, although I could see the logical progression.

I could not, however, agree with reviewers who have compared this book and main character to Holmes and Lord Peter Wimsey. Fandorin is a good detective--but I just cannot put him in their league. Three and a half stars out of five.

Read My Review: War

Read My Review is a chance for book bloggers to share new and old reviews, related to a theme. It is hosted by A Trillian Books. As November 11th is Remembranc Day in the UK (and other Commonwealth countries) and Veteran's Day in the US this week’s theme is: War.

So any book with some kind of war or battle going on (doesn't have to be a real war). The theme stays for a week so you can leave your link any time and don't forget to pop back and check out some more fab reviews.

What you need to do:

*Find one of your reviews that fits this week's theme (new or old review).

*Leave your link with Mr. Linky at the bottom of A Trillion Books' post.

*Visit some of the other reviews and leave a "quality" comment (a couple of sentences).

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I've chosen Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (click on title for Review).

Read My Review: Coming of Age

Read My Review is a chance for book bloggers to share new and old reviews, related to a theme. It is hosted by A Trillian Books. This week's theme is Coming of Age.

What you need to do:

*Find one of your reviews that fits this week's theme (new or old review).

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I've chosen To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (click on title for the review). I certainly consider this a coming of age for Scout. And, if not for Scout, then certainly for me...even if I did just read it at the grand old age of 41. It certainly drove home a few eye-opening truths for me....truths that I was aware of, but could use Harper Lee's way of illuminating them.

Read My Review: Paranormal for Halloween

Read My Review is a chance for book bloggers to share new and old reviews, related to a theme. It is hosted by A Trillian Books. This week's theme is Paranormal.

What you need to do:

*Find one of your reviews that fits this week's theme (new or old review).

*Leave your link with Mr. Linky at the bottom of A Trillion Books' post.

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I don't read a lot of paranormal, supernatural, spooky, or creepy books. But I did read Madam Crowl's Ghost & Other Stories by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu not too long ago. Mid- to Late- 1800s ghost stories. Click on the title for the review.

Read My Review: Romance

Read My Review is a chance for book bloggers to share new and old reviews, related to a theme. It is hosted by A Trillian Books and this weeks theme is Romance. It doesn't have to be an actual romance novel as there's romance as a fairly main part of the book.

What you need to do:

*Find one of your reviews that fits this week's thme (new or old).

*Leave your link with Mr. Linky at the bottom of A Trillian Books' post.

*Visit some of the other reviews and leave a quality comment (a couple of sentences).

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Here's mine: Nine rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean.

Read My Review: Historical Fiction

Read My Review is a chance for book bloggers to share new and old reviews, related to a theme. It is hosted by A Trillian Books and this week's theme Historical Fiction. Any time period, any style - as long as it's set in the past.

What you need to do:

*Find one of your reviews that fits this week's theme (new or old).
*Leave your link with Mr. Linky at the bottom of A Trillian Books' post.
*Visit some of the other reviews and leave a quality comment (a couple of sentences).
*Grab the button and post about Read My Review.

Here's mine: The Bohemian Girl by Kenneth Cameron (set in the late Victorian/early 20th C)