Let's Go to the Hop

The Book Blogger Hop at Crazy-for-Books is asking us this week to Tell us about some of your favorite authors and why they are your favorites.

It's really hard for someone who loves books and reading as much as I do to narrow it down (I assume Crazy-for-Books doesn't want me to go on for pages and pages)....but I'll try for a top five:

1. Dorothy L Sayers. The most literate mystery writer of all time. I read her books not only because they're classy mysteries (they are) and not only because I have a literary crush on Lord Peter (I do--he could talk piffle to me all day), but also because they are so well-written. Full of literary allusions and quotations and all kinds of interesting tidbits to dig up and examine (or if you're lazy--use the Lord Peter Wimsey Companion to look up). I have re-read her books more times than I could count and I am quite sure that I will read them again. She's also good for theological non-fiction as well. And her The Man Born to Be King is a wonderful play about the life of Christ.

2. David Lodge. Cannot beat this man for academic satire. Best British wit ever.

3. Jane Austen. Wonderful social commentary for her time. The comedy of manners school at its best. I would love her if the only book she had written was Persuasion.

4. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes. Need a mystery lover say anything more? Nancy Drew & Sherlock Holmes are responsible for my on-going mystery addiction. Not that I'm complaining. I can't imagine having never read The Hound of the Baskervilles (my all-time favorite).

5. John Dickson Carr (aka Carter Dickson). No one can beat Carr at the locked-room mystery game. The man was incredibly prolific and to my knowledge never repeated a trick. Who knew there could be so many ways to commit what appears to be the impossible crime? I love almost everything he wrote....if only he'd stayed away from those historical mysteries. They just were not his thing. Everything else? Pure gold.

If you're Hopping by, please leave a comment so I can visit your blog too.

Rex Stout Duo

Just finished up two mysteries by Rex Stout--And Be a Villain and If Death Ever Slept. The Nero Wolfe & Archie Goodwin books are part of one of my comfort mystery series. When I want a book that I know will satisfy and take me to another time period, then I reach for Stout (or Christie or Sayers or Richard & Frances Lockridge). Both of these were fast reads and gave me exactly what I was looking for. I love Archie Goodwin and I love the way he plays Wolfe...especially when Wolfe has been lazy and they need a job to pay the bills (orchids and the fancy eating prepared by Fritz). The beginning of If Death Ever Slept is classic. Wolfe thinks he's going to teach Archie a lesson and Archie turns the tables and reels his boss right into the job. Both of these were well-plotted. I had my suspicions about the villain in And Be a Villain, but wasn't sure and I didn't expect the twist at the end of If Death Ever Slept.

Each book earned three out of five stars.

Booking Through Thursday Repsonse

Today's Booking Through Thursday Question: Do you have friends and family to share books with? Discuss them with? Does it matter to you?

I will discuss books any time with anyone. I have a few friends that I talk books with...off and on, but not really anyone to share with regularly. It's great to have someone to talk books with...but I don't have to have someone. One of these days (once my son has left the nest), I may seek out a book group. That would be nice.

Unhappy Returns Makes for Happy Reading

A good, solid outing by Detective Superintendent Tom Pollard of the Yard. I always enjoy this series by Elizabeth Lemarchand and this one was particularly good. Unhappy Returns starts with the death of eccentric spinster Ethel Ridd who has recently announced that a chalice that no one else knows anything about has been stolen. All sorts of distracting little details muddy the waters: just how important is the alleged missing centuries-old jewelled chalice; does it matter that the shifty-eyed local grocer seems to be holding something back; what about the teenager who seems to have more than teenage angst on her mind? Lemarchand does a great job juggling all the elements and keeping the reader on their toes. Three stars out of five.

A Local Matter

A Local Matter: A Murder Case from the Notes of George Howard, Secretary to Lord Alfred Tigraines by John McGrew Bennett. This was really quite awful. The Scotland Yard Inspector was so wooden and not at all engaging. His interactions with various characters seemed to me like they ought to be spoken in monotone (at least that's the way I heard it in my head). Lord "Tiger," the one who does the amateur bit and figures it all out....well, he's an interesting character EXCEPT as an investigator. I mean, he didn't really--investigate that is. And then he played it all Sherlock Holmes (not revealing anything till the very end) without the charm of the Holmes stories. I just can't really think of anything redeeming about the book at all. And I was all prepared to like it because, again, it promised me a scholar as the victim. That didn't even wind up being true....can't tell you why, though. It'd spoil the ending. Supposing you still want to give it a try. One and a half stars out of five.

My Sherlock Holmes: Untold Stories of the Great Detective

Just finished this collection of stories about Holmes--all told from the viewpoint of one of the other characters in his stories. It was very interesting to see Holmes through the eyes of someone other than Watson. Although, of course, any time one reads Holmes stories from outside the canon they must be taken with a grain of salt. My favorites were "The Dollmaker of Marigold Walk" (the 1st Mrs. Watson); "Call Me Wiggins" (the "chief" of the Baker Street Irregulars); "The Witch of Greenwich" (Billy, the page) and "Mrs. Hudson Reminisces." I still don't get the authors who insist on putting Mycroft in league with Moriarty. Had to suffer through another one of those...otherwise, I would have given a full four stars in Visual Bookshelf. And, of course, we had to have a few stories that showed Holmes in a less than glowing light (Dupin, Moriarty, & Col. Moran all have a chance to have their say on the Great Detective). I was a bit disappointed that none of the authors chose to write from the viewpoint of Lestrade....he only shows up in the last section, titled "The Others," and is given very little space.

The Professor's House: Review

I enjoyed this story of a professor facing middle age who discovers that he has quite a disconnect with most of the people in his life. He thought he understood them all...his wife, his daughters, his friends and colleagues at the university--and even himself. But a period of solitary living in his old house makes him see that while he had what he calls a pleasant life, it wasn't what the "real" professor wanted and that he doesn't really want to reconnect (or ever live) with his family once they come back from Paris. A final twist makes it apparent that he will go back to them--but will they notice that he's not the man he was before and not really the man they thought he was? Probably not, unless each of them have a period of introspection such as he has experienced. It does make one think...do we ever really know another person. The Professor doesn't think so; he muses: "The heart of another is a dark forest, always, no matter how close it has been to one's own." Do we ever really even know ourselves? Three out of five stars.

Disappointing Reads

Here's the Booking Through Thursday question for the week: Name a book or author that you truly wanted to love but left you disappointed. (And, of course, explain why.)

I have a couple. The first is The Sonnet Lover by Carol Goodman. I picked this one up because it was an academic mystery. The book blurb made it out to be a real literary puzzler. Did Shakespeare pen a series of passionate sonnets, unknown to modern scholarship? And what will people do to possess or suppress them? After reading the book, I decided the better question was: Do we care? The opening line reeled me in and then wound up being the best part of the thing. "The most thankless job on the planet may well be teaching Renaissance love poetry to a group of hormone-dazed adolescents on a beautiful spring day." If only the rest of the book had been as good. There wasn't even a decent mystery to help out with the fact that I had a total lack of interest in the characters.

The second is Arthur & George by Julian Barnes. I love Barnes. I've loved and devoured every other book by him that has come my way. It was given to me by a dear friend whose taste I respect. I wanted to love this one too.....but I just couldn't. I found this one a very hard row to hoe. I kept plugging away at it, but was bored stiff. It seemed to me that Barnes was trying his hand at writing a "major work" and just filled up space writing as much as possible about what little he had. An epic story, needing 400-500 pages, this isn't. But Barnes thought so. I've read other novels based on Conan Doyle's life that were much more interesting and involving. I guess that's the sticking point for me....I never felt involved in this book the way I had in his previous work.

Last Week's Top Ten Tuesday List from The Broke and the Bookish: What are your top ten childhood favorites?
I just can't resist questions and lists about books. Here goes.....

1. Nancy Drew (all of the classic series--before Nancy went modern with leather mini skirts and all that other nonsense): Most particularly The Clue of the Broken Locket. This one just captures everything I loved about Nancy and I probably read it at least 50 times. Every time I ran out of new things to read, I went back to this. My mom (who gave me her set of 5-6 1950s editions) and Nancy are responsible for my irrepressible love of mysteries. It's the genre I always return to.

2. Trixie Belden (again, all of the classic series): But if I have to choose one then I'll go with The Secret of the Mansion--the first of the series and the one that introduces us to Trixie and most of the core group for the Bob Whites. When I was growing up, I wanted to be in the Bob Whites. Another mystery series, naturally.

3. The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright. I wish I had known that there were more of this series about the Melendy family when I was young. My grandmother (who worked at the local school) often was allowed to bring home books that were culled from the school library from one reason or another. She brought this one to me and I fell in love with the Melendy kids. No real mysteries in this one, just a great story about a family of city dwellers getting used to their big, rambling house and life in the country.

4. Chocolate Fever by Robert Kimmel Smith. This story about a boy who loves chocolate so much and eats it on everything who suddenly breaks out in chocolate spots always cracked me up.

5. Ghosts Who Went to School by Judith Spearing. This one is about the interactions of Wilbur & Mortimer, two ghosts who are bored with staying at home and decided to join the fun at the local school. This book marked my first acquaintance with the musical instrument called the glockenspiel. It's the instrument Wilbur, I think, wants to play in music class....

6. Clarence the TV Dog by Patricia Lauber. A rollicking good story about Clarence who loves tv and actually winds up on TV.

7. Harry Cat's Pet Puppy by George Selden. The stories by Selden about the animals who live in the Times Square subway station are classic, feel-good children's stories. I loved this one where Harry and Tucker Mouse take in the poor bedraggled puppy and then have to find a home for him when he outgrows the drainpipe where they live.

8. The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang. Although the fairy tales and fables in his collections weren't actually written by Lang, he put together some great collections of the darker versions of popular stories (like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty). These aren't Disney's take on fairy tales, but I loved them.

9. Tom Thumb (not sure of the author on this one). Another one brought home to me by my grandma. An old version (like, 1909 or so...I don't have it in front of me), but no matter how many times I come across different versions, this one's my favorite.

10. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren. I loved reading about this plucky, fearless girl and her wacky adventures. Made me want to have adventures of my own....not that I ever did, really.

Top Ten List from The Broke and the Bookish: Today's list is Top Ten Books I'd Want On A Desert Island!
I just found this new blog and couldn't resist trying to answer this. Of course, when one considers that I have read & loved thousands of books over the course of 36 years or so, it's gonna be really hard to come up with a top ten.

Okay...here goes:

1. The Bible...a must have. It has everything from mysteries (no matter what definition you use) to poetry. Proverbs to parables. End of the world prophecy.

2. The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I've got to have some humor and I never tire of Adams' British wit. And who knows, the Hitchhiker's Guide may have suggestions that will help me on the island. (I'll be sure and pack my towel, too.)

3. Strong Poison by Dorothy L Sayers...unless somewhere out there exists a complete works, then I want that. But Strong Poison shows Lord Peter off just as he's beginning to really grow and I love the scene when he visits Harriet in prison--particularly when he says: "I'm told I make love rather nicely--only I'm at a disadvantage at the moment. One can't be very convincing at the other end of a table with a bloke looking in at the door." And Miss Climpson is an absolute treasure. I couldn't do without her.

4. Tristram Shandy by Lawrence Sterne. If only because I keep promising myself that I'm going to read it and I never do. If I were stranded on a desert island, I'd have to...'cuz the girl has to read.

5. The Complete French Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke...again unless there is a complete works of all his work. I love Rilke. I love his rhythm and the visions that he creates in me with his words. I could read these poems over and over. And have.

6. Any of the North books by Richard & Francis Lockridge. I love each and every one of these madcap mysteries. The Pam & Jerry North have Nick & Nora Charles beat hands down when it comes to sleuthing couples. I guess if I can only take one, I'll just close my eyes and take the luck of the draw.

7. The Night Is Large (essays) by Martin Gardner. This is a tough book. Challenging and I'm quite sure I didn't get all that I could out of it the first time. Terrific essays on a variety of topics.

8. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson...another poet that I could not do without. She packs so much into so few words.

9. Persuasion by Jane Austen. My absolute favorite by Austen (and, of course, I'd be open to a complete works, if it exists...I don't mind huge books).

and.....how in the world do I choose just one more? How?

Um.....

10. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I really like the character study of Dorian Gray. And I love Wilde in general...did I mention that I'd like to take "complete works" of all these authors?

A Masculine Ending

 Just finished up A Maculine Ending by Joan Smith. This is one of many books that I've snatched up because it has an English professor (or other academic) as the central character. In this one (from the back of the book) Loretta Lawson, English professor at London University, is annoyed when she discovers a sleeping stranger in the supposedly empty Paris flat she has borrowed. When she returns from a feminist literary conference to find the stranger gone but his bed sheets bloody, Loretta doesn't need an encyclopedia to figure out her mysterious roommate has been murdered. With urgent business calling her home, Loretta heads back for the start of the term with one precious clue--a book that must have belonged to the victim--and more than an academic interest in discovering exactly what happened to a corpse with a penchant for literary criticism.

This is a good debut novel. The writing is solid and overall it makes for a good story. I gave it three out of five stars on Visual Bookshelf. I would have rated it higher, but I absolutely HATE those open-ended endings. The kind where you find out who did it (I guessed but didn't know exactly why), but you don't know if s/he gets caught or not. Does Loretta turn the culprit in? Considering that she doesn't notify the police about any of her discoveries along the way, who knows? I sincerely doubt it. And there is no evidence at all that the police are anywhere near the right answer.

There's some good by-play among the academics. Working in an English Department, I can say that she's gotten the tone of things right. I look forward to reading another by her. (And I just happen to have another sitting on my To Be Read shelf....) But next up is Willa Cathers' The Professor's House.

A Very Peculiar Particular Murder

Wow. S. T. Haymon has provided a double-twist ending. And I didn't see either one of them coming. I certainly wouldn't have guessed that.....(sorry, don't want to spoil the ending) or that.....would happen next. It's been a long time since an ending has surprised me like that (Ten Little Indians [And Then There Were None] by Christie?? That may be the last one.) The writing is a bit convoluted at the end...otherwise, I would have rated this one higher in Virtual Bookshelf (FaceBook). [I gave it 3 and 1/2 stars out of 5.] And I might have been even more surprised if I hadn't had to reread certain sentences to make sure I got what Haymon was trying to say. I also deducted points for the physicist bits. A bit much when all one wants is a good read. Every once in a while I DO want to read about science...but I head to the non-fiction section for that.

A Very Particular Murder

Currently, I'm reading A Very Particular Murder by S. T. Haymon. For the curious...yes, this is one of my book-binge treasures. I've read both of Haymon's previous books (Death of a God and Death & the Pregnant Virgin) which titles give one the idea that Haymon has a religious theme going. But not really...all of the novels do have a hint (the current book has an odd little reverend among the suspects), but that's not the focus. This one caught my eye at first simply because I've enjoyed the other books. But, once I read the back and discovered that a professor was the victim...well, there was no way this one wasn't coming home with me.

I've had a hard time getting through this one. Not because it's a bad story--on the contrary, it's quite a nice little puzzle. Was the poisoned orange juice meant for the Professor's adopted son as it seems or did the poison reach the intended victim after all? And, in either case, who had the chance to do it? My trouble lies in in not having time to get through it. I've been sidetracked by the real-life mystery called "Can we get my son to the rank of Eagle Scout before his 18th birthday (Aug 15)?" We'll have to see.

In the meantime, I've been stealing time to read this evening while we're in a bit of an Eagle Scout Project lull and have come across this little gem: "A man was dead--the wrong man, it seemed; which must have given those ruddy physicists no end of joy, the random universe behaving randomly."

Booking Through Thursday Response

Today's question on the "Booking Through Thursday" Blog: Do you read book reviews? Do you let them change your mind about reading/not reading a particular book?

I read reviews in blogs and those left through Virtual Bookshelf in FaceBook. But I rarely let a review make or break a book choice for me. Usually, I'm just curious to see what a blogger has said in their reviews or, in the case of FB, I tend to see the reviews when I'm entering a book in my "Read" list. It's a little late then. The "reviews" that mean the most to me are those given to me by friends who know my reading tastes. If one of those folks tells me that a book is good, I'll probably put it on my "to be read" list. This almost always turns out well because my friends know me well. I can only think of two books that I just didn't get into that a trusted recommender had steered my way.

I absolutely do NOT pay attention to professional reviewers. The closest I come is reading the blurbs on the back of books. And I do that more for amusement than anything else. I'm going to choose a book based on the synopsis, not because some famous so & so said it was "an awesome read" or whatever.

The Lost Gallows & The Truth Machine

Unfortunately, my book-binge vacation is drawing to a close. In way too few hours I'll be back to work. But before the binge ends...I've added one more to the tally (that makes 31 books grabbed up this week)--and read another two.

  Just finished The Lost Gallows by John Dickson Carr. Carr was a true master of the detective novel. Locked rooms are his specialty, but he shines in other mysterious realms as well. This one features Bencolin, his French detective. These books are always full of a bit more atmosphere than his other two series. In this one the shadow of Jack Ketch (an early, sadistic British executioner--as well as a by-word for the devil himself) hangs over every page. "Jack Ketch" is stalking his victims and it's up to Bencolin to discover his identity and foil his plans. Just when I was sure (for the fourth or fifth time--I lost count) who Jack was, Carr pulled out another twist and proved me wrong. Absolute pleasure for the mystery fan! Three and a half stars out of five.

Just before this I squeezed in The Truth Machine--a children's Star Trek

book from the '70s. It was a very cute story. The best part was the graphics--the crew are especially well done...if you disregard Spock's expression on the last page. (I did cringe a bit at the purple skinned ape/mugato type creatures dressed in loincloths with belts and black leather boots that look suspiciously like regulation starfleet boots. In case you don't know, the mugato is a creature encountered on one of the Star Trek episodes. Mugato body shape with ape-like face.) Naturally, Spock saves the day by telling the truth....but not ALL of the truth.