Repertory of DJR Melvin

Review: Troubles

2012-01-20T13:16:00.001-06:00

Troubles by J.G. Farrell My rating: 5 of 5 stars Take Cold Comfort Farm, move it to 1919 Ireland, add a larger cast of characters and an author who wishes to educate at the same time he entertains and you have Troubles. The Majestic Hotel is one of the best buildings as a character I've ever read, and the family and lodgers who cross her crumbling threshold are gothic

Review: Gulliver Travels

2012-01-20T13:04:00.001-06:00

Gulliver Travels by Justin Luke Zirilli My rating: 4 of 5 stars Fun and light read that can turn to dark and serious in a paragraph. There's also a balancing act going on between true life and romantic fiction that is most noticeable with the fairy godfatherlike characters of Todd, the room mate and Sebastian, the website owner. But the places are well described and

Review: The Minstrel's Tale

2012-01-13T09:31:00.001-06:00

The Minstrel's Tale by Anna Questerly My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is a book I think I would have loved as a child, maybe up to about 8 or 9 years old. The original fairy tales told by Amos, the Minstrel, have the detail that not only keep the reader reading, but also would have held the interest of a crowd of villagers who had plenty of experience with well told

Review: The Marlowe Conspiracy

2012-01-08T09:48:00.001-06:00

The Marlowe Conspiracy by M. G. Scarsbrook My rating: 3 of 5 stars There were parts of this book I loved (the use of well researched details of theatre life and the Star Chamber courts), parts that made me cringe (yes, it's fiction, but fiction based on something as well documented as the time line of Christopher Marlowe's short life shouldn't play fast and loose with

Review: The Likeness

2011-12-19T15:52:00.001-06:00

The Likeness by Tana French My rating: 3 of 5 stars I'm glad I gave French a second chance, as this book is much better than the first in the series. This time around, the cliched relationships are gone or at least used as part of the plot and French's ability to muddle her mystery just the right amount is even stronger. There is one giant suspension of disbelief, a

Review: The Accident

2011-12-16T10:17:00.001-06:00

The Accident by Linwood Barclay My rating: 3 of 5 stars A fast paced mystery set in suburbia that doesn't have a bored single mom at the center of the story. That guarantees a book a two star rating from me! Add some decent research, good pacing (except for the big action scene that was obviously written for seeing rather than reading) and hardly any superfluous

Review: So Cold the River

2011-11-29T11:07:00.001-06:00

So Cold the River by Michael Koryta My rating: 4 of 5 stars My Hoosier bias would have this as five stars: Koryta knows his setting! If, for some reason, a reader would like to immerse themselves in contemporary southern Indiana, this is the book to read. That is, if they want a creepy, haunted version of that part of the state. The living people are authentic, the

Review: The Stranger's Child

2011-11-05T14:26:00.001-05:00

The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst My rating: 2 of 5 stars Hollinghurst's ability to immerse a reader in time and place is all that kept me going to the end of this book. The selective omniscient point of view is used to drag out scenes that go nowhere while plot lines that might have been interesting (How did Jonah end up working for Harry Hewitt?) are teased

Review: Nightwoods

2011-10-16T11:37:00.001-05:00

Nightwoods by Charles Frazier My rating: 2 of 5 stars Fantastic sense of place and amazing turns of phrases almost ruined by characters that are so flat and underdeveloped that I could not have cared less about the peril they are exposed to (and that includes the two kids!). I'll remember where this story took place a lot longer than I'll remember why it took place.

Review: We the Animals: A novel

2011-10-09T11:30:00.001-05:00

We the Animals: A novel by Justin Torres My rating: 3 of 5 stars A portion of the three stars is for author potential, something I very rarely consider when rating a book. If Torres turns out to be capable of writing an actual story rather than a collection of scenes that may or may not reveal a sad character arc, he will prove to be a gifted writer. Right now, he

Review: I'd Know You Anywhere

2011-09-18T13:05:00.001-05:00

I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman My rating: 2 of 5 stars In order to give all opinions about the death penalty a fair shake, Lippman created characters, not people, to fit the opinions. That's moralizing, not story telling, and it's not even good moralizing when an author tries to cover the bases. For a novel that's about a spree killer and his one surviving

Review: The Magic Cottage

2011-09-12T09:06:00.001-05:00

The Magic Cottage by James Herbert My rating: 2 of 5 stars Loved the house as a character, but the people in the book brought nothing to the story. The horror is good and creepy in some places and over the top silly (and pointless) in other parts of the book. The story is told by one of the main characters looking back after all the events have occurred and the

Review: Creepers

2011-09-08T10:29:00.001-05:00

Creepers by David Morrell My rating: 3 of 5 stars Morrell might be a masterful researcher, but the dialog reads like something written for a second rate screenplay. I can lose hours of a day looking at photos of urban decay and abandoned urban spaces, so I found the first two thirds of the book readable for the descriptive passages. But when the last third turns into

Review: The Death of Sweet Mister

2011-09-08T10:22:00.001-05:00

The Death of Sweet Mister by Daniel Woodrell My rating: 5 of 5 stars Dark and twisted and masterfully written. View all my reviews

Review: The Night Train: A Novel

2011-09-08T10:20:00.001-05:00

The Night Train: A Novel by Clyde Edgerton My rating: 4 of 5 stars Amazing sense of time and place: early 1960's small town North Carolina. Martin Luther King Jr and the SCLC are beginning to make waves in little towns that thought everybody was happy with the status quo. Starke is just such a place, segregated by history, physically divided by railroad tracks.

Review: Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean: The Adventurous Life of Captain Woodes Rogers

2011-08-30T08:41:00.001-05:00

Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean: The Adventurous Life of Captain Woodes Rogers by David Cordingly My rating: 4 of 5 stars The title is a too obvious attempt to trade on the popularity of the Disney movies (Cordingly was a historical advisor on the first one) and that's too bad because the book stands on its own merits as a lively piece of non-fiction. Woodes Roger's

Review: Happily Ever After

2011-08-23T08:54:00.001-05:00

Happily Ever After by John Klima My rating: 4 of 5 stars "Fairy Tales Retold" is the subtitle, and the only thing truly negative I can say about this collection is that I would have liked to see a broader selection in source material. Why do so many authors want to rework Little Red Riding Hood?Although some of the books are told in a style that's not my favorite,

Review: Buddha Standard Time

2011-08-20T21:11:00.001-05:00

Buddha Standard Time by Surya Das My rating: 3 of 5 stars Stop and smell the roses. Repeat.Choose your relationship with the universe from the menu of any religion or philosophy, leaving out the parts that dwell on the past of stress you about the future.Now stop and smell the roses some more.Snark aside, I actually thought this was a decent book for bits and bobs

Review: Haunted Tales from The Region: Ghosts of Indiana's South Shore

2011-08-20T21:00:00.001-05:00

Haunted Tales from The Region: Ghosts of Indiana's South Shore by Dorothy Salvo Davis My rating: 2 of 5 stars Is a story a legend if only one person has told that story? In several of these tales, only one person seems to have experienced the manifestation, and by their own admission, they'd been drinking a bit (The Boats, as we of The Region refer to them, are an

Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

2011-08-12T08:45:00.001-05:00

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs My rating: 2 of 5 stars Reading the other reviews here, apparently I'm not the only person who didn't know this was YA fiction before they read it. However, I might be the only one who thinks it's being called YA because it's mediocre writing and there are a lot of publishers who think YA means lower

Review: A Dance with Dragons

2011-08-12T08:35:00.001-05:00

A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin My rating: 3 of 5 stars For a very good review that says almost everything I'd want to say about this book if I were as good at reviewing as she is, see Kelly's review . I agree with everything she says, and double for some of the let downs. The plot is stretched far too thin to cover the approx 1000 pages. There's also the

Review: The Inverted Forest: A Novel

2011-07-26T07:55:00.001-05:00

The Inverted Forest: A Novel by John Dalton My rating: 4 of 5 stars One of the best books I've read this year. Beautiful writing with original, deeply developed characters. Some of them are intriguing, some are heart breaking, some are endearing and some are down right evil, yet none of them are one note. The story appears to be about a young man who, having spent

Review: The Darling Dahlias and the Naked Ladies

2011-07-19T19:19:00.001-05:00

The Darling Dahlias and the Naked Ladies by Susan Wittig Albert My rating: 2 of 5 stars Once again, great historical setting with details galore, told in the traditional cozy style of people first, plot second. I'm not a big fan of mixing true crime with cozies, so when one of a fictional member of Al Capone's outfit shows up in Darling to deal with a fictional

Review: Daughters of the Revolution

2011-07-17T10:15:00.001-05:00

Daughters of the Revolution by Carolyn CookeMy rating: 2 of 5 starsMore a set of linked short stories than a novel, there's so little solid story telling in this book that it goes nowhere. The settings are handled well enough, with obvious references to actual historical events thrown in to establish the time period, but the characters read like plot devices more than people. They're there

Review: Before I Go to Sleep

2011-07-16T15:16:00.001-05:00

Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. WatsonMy rating: 2 of 5 starsIntriguing plot about an amnesiac who begins to recover memories that don't fit with her current reality. However, the author seems to have confused loss of memory with loss of intelligence, because Christine is just too accepting of her current situation and does little to improve it without others giving her a shove in the right

Review: A Choir of Ill Children

2011-07-16T15:05:00.001-05:00

A Choir of Ill Children by Tom PiccirilliMy rating: 4 of 5 starsSouthern gothic horror is a special kind of horror. It has no ghosts or demons, just the humans at their most monstrous. And that's what this book is about - people that look like monsters and people who act like monsters while looking perfectly harmless. The demons are plentiful but not supernatural, in fact, it's nature at

Review: Go the F**k to Sleep

2011-07-14T08:20:00.001-05:00

Go the F**k to Sleep by Adam MansbachMy rating: 4 of 5 stars100% perfect on the writing, but some of the kids in the illustrations were just plain creepy!View all my reviews

Review: Once Upon a River

2011-07-01T07:50:00.001-05:00

Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo CampbellMy rating: 4 of 5 starsOnce I realized that the title of this book is meant to give you a clue as to what type of story you're about to read, most of my criticisms evaporated. Margo's journey is a fairy tale, where only those that know her best are capable of saying no to her, and she always manages to meet people that will help her on her journey at

Review: State of Wonder

2011-06-26T11:14:00.001-05:00

State of Wonder by Ann PatchettMy rating: 4 of 5 starsGreat sense of place, from cold Minnesota to the almost uncharted Amazonian jungle that more than makes up for some predictable characters. There's more mystery here than the book's description would have you expect, and although the ending for the main plot isn't all that surprising, the intrigue concerning the medical research takes a

Review: Doc: A Novel

2011-06-26T11:07:00.001-05:00

Doc: A Novel by Mary Doria RussellMy rating: 4 of 5 starsAs historical fiction, it was so good that I might actively avoid any non-fiction about Doc Holliday. All that kept it from being a 5 star book were Russell's occasional references to things that would happen in the future such as Holliday's future famous distant relative and how history would look at the events in Tombstone. A work of

Review: A Novel Bookstore

2011-06-13T07:27:00.001-05:00

A Novel Bookstore by Laurence CosséMy rating: 4 of 5 starsI almost stopped reading this after the first 20 - 30 pages. The mystery set up was clunky, or maybe it was one of those things that doesn't translate well, However, once that part is over and the book turns to the central theme, the love of good books and all that it inspires, I couldn't put it down. View all my reviews

Review: The Writing Book: A Workbook for Fiction Writers

2011-06-11T07:56:00.001-05:00

The Writing Book: A Workbook for Fiction Writers by Kate GrenvilleMy rating: 3 of 5 starsThe writing advice isn't anything that not available in a lot of other books, but Grenville does go a step further by including examples of what she's talking about. Good examples, too, not only of what she's teaching but for reading in general. That could be counterproductive, in that you'll want to

Review: The Things They Carried

2011-06-11T07:51:00.001-05:00

The Things They Carried by Tim O'BrienMy rating: 4 of 5 starsBrilliant characterizations that will stick with you for a long time. O'Brien's writing style works very well for the audiobook format, he (or his alter ego narrator) is a natural story teller. There is not a bad story in this book, although some are definitely darker than the others, but the two that really stood out in my mind

Review: Caleb's Crossing

2011-06-06T08:34:00.001-05:00

Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine BrooksMy rating: 1 of 5 starsIf I'd had anything else to read/listen to, I would have not finished this book. Yes, I think it's that dull. A well worn plot of a young woman living in what she feels to be a restrictive culture meeting a young man who is daring to break out of his own culture goes exactly as it always does. This book really isn't even that much

Review: Let the Right One in

2011-06-01T08:14:00.001-05:00

Let the Right One in by John Ajvide LindqvistMy rating: 5 of 5 starsIt's been a long time since I read a book that was truly scary. The fact that I read this one after having seen both versions of the movies based on it, and it was still scary says a lot about Lindqvist's horror writing skills. He understands the most basic rule of horror - it's not what you see, it's what you don't see

Review: Child of God

2011-05-28T19:40:00.001-05:00

Child of God by Cormac McCarthyMy rating: 5 of 5 starsBrilliantly dark. I don't know how McCarthy gets to the part of himself where a story like this lays waiting, but I'm very glad he gets there. (And very glad for the people who live around him that he's able to get back from that place.)View all my reviews

Review: Final Arguments

2011-05-26T09:37:00.001-05:00

Final Arguments by Clifford IrvingMy rating: 3 of 5 starsDecent courtroom mystery, with better use of supporting characters than most. The Florida setting was interesting, especially with the details offered about their legal system and their use of capital punishment at the time the book was written.View all my reviews

Review: In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin

2011-05-26T09:25:00.001-05:00

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik LarsonMy rating: 4 of 5 starsFour stars because this book went a long way towards answering my "How was it possible?" question about Hitler's rise to power. Larson really sticks to his source material in this book, so much so that it's not the story of Ambassador Dodd's family as it is the story of Dodd

Review: 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America

2011-05-23T10:46:00.001-05:00

2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America by Albert BrooksMy rating: 2 of 5 starsSo many good plot devices, wasted on such weak characters! "Near future" science-fiction is a risky setting for any writer because so much of that future has arrived between the first draft and publication. It's likely to appeal to a wider audience, however, more like mainstream fiction because it's easy

Review: The Sparrow

2011-05-01T10:38:00.001-05:00

The Sparrow by Mary Doria RussellMy rating: 5 of 5 starsAbsolutely brilliant first contact science fiction! Russell's background as an anthropologist brings history into the future when small group of human beings travel to meet some newly discovered neighbors. Funded and partially manned by the Jesuits, the story draws on what has happened in the past when one type of civilization attempted

Review: The Lure

2011-04-26T10:06:00.001-05:00

The Lure by Felice PicanoMy rating: 4 of 5 starsA really good mystery from the oh so ancient 1970's. The immersion factor is high in this one, both for the protagonist and the reader. I thought it was littered with a few too many characters who were perhaps supposed to be red herrings but read more like ambience. Enough time has passed since this was published that it no longer reads as

Review: The Last Nightingale: A Novel of Suspense

2011-04-18T14:13:00.001-05:00

The Last Nightingale: A Novel of Suspense by Anthony FlaccoMy rating: 1 of 5 starsWhat a sad waste of a great setting. Truly a waste, because post earthquake San Francisco all but disappears from the last third of the story when a new disaster is introduced - Black Plague. The book did make me curious enough to want to read more about the 1906 earthquake, maybe in a book that wasn't

Review: Wildthorn

2011-04-18T14:07:00.001-05:00

Wildthorn by Jane EaglandMy rating: 2 of 5 starsInteresting look at a Victorian asylum, but beyond that it's a paint by the numbers coming of age/strong girls save themselves plot.View all my reviews

Review: The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree

2011-04-11T09:07:00.001-05:00

The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree by Susan Wittig AlbertMy rating: 3 of 5 starsOnce upon a time, I began working my way through Albert's China Bayle's series. I have an interest in herb gardening and I like a good mystery, so it seemed a good match. I made it through #6 and then tossed in the towel. In my opinion, she's exhausted her setting and her ability to create a good mystery

Review: A Red Herring Without Mustard

2011-04-05T08:12:00.001-05:00

A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan BradleyMy rating: 3 of 5 starsThe third book in this cute little series, and I think it's starting to show some wear and tear. There's still plenty to enjoy here: Flavia is still clever but not supernaturally so, she hasn't turned into an adult in a kid's body and Bishop's Lacey continues to be quirky without being farcical. Flavia's family faces a real

Review: Rodin's Debutante

2011-04-05T07:55:00.001-05:00

Rodin's Debutante by Ward S. JustMy rating: 3 of 5 starsFour and a half stars for the setting - North Shore, South Side, Gold Coast, Hyde Park, even a name drop for Gary, all so alive that they are the characters that kept me reading this book. Two stars for the real characters, the main ones so flat and bloodless that they can move in and out of the story arc without being noticed. There's

Review: A Clockwork Orange CD

2011-03-23T20:03:00.001-05:00

A Clockwork Orange CD by Anthony BurgessMy rating: 4 of 5 starsHard to believe, but this audio version was better than the movie. Magically, Hollander makes the nadsat dialect as easy to understand as your native tongue. This version includes the real ending to the book, the one edited out of early editions, read by Burgess himself. It is a better ending, but I'm sorry to say that it lost

Review: Those in Peril

2011-03-20T13:14:00.001-05:00

Those in Peril by Wilbur SmithMy rating: 1 of 5 starsView all my reviews

Review: The Sherlockian

2011-03-10T08:19:00.001-06:00

The Sherlockian by Graham MooreMy rating: 3 of 5 starsIt's unusual to find a real person historical fiction where the author doesn't put the historical figure on a pedestal. After all, they usually chose to wrote the book because they were so fascinated by that person they weren't satisfied with what is factually known about them. Moore doesn't hide Dr. Doyle's faults from the reader,

Review: Swamplandia!

2011-03-10T08:08:00.001-06:00

Swamplandia! by Karen RussellMy rating: 3 of 5 starsThere are two coming of age stories in this book, and it's unfortunate that it's the less interesting, less original one that is the focus of the blurbs and advertising campaign. Yes, little Ava goes on a harrowing and ugly adventure in hopes of finding her mentally ill sister who has run off to marry a ghost. She goes through through

Review: If I Stay

2011-03-10T07:52:00.001-06:00

If I Stay by Gayle FormanMy rating: 2 of 5 starsSome very nice stream of consciousness writing (pun intended), but so obvious about the outcome that even most young adults will know what's going to happen long before the protagonist does.View all my reviews

Review: Under the Skin

2011-02-14T10:03:00.001-06:00

Under the Skin by Michel FaberMy rating: 2 of 5 starsGreat premise, great set up in the first half, but everything went so very very flat in the last half. Once the well written big reveal was over, there wasn't a lot left to the story but for a sad attempt at what I think was supposed to be romance but read more like fluffy page filler. Fluffy in sci-fi/horror? No thanks. It should make

Review: Under the Bright Lights

2011-02-06T09:51:00.001-06:00

Under the Bright Lights by Daniel WoodrellMy rating: 2 of 5 starsThe dialog is all dialect and idioms, the setting is heavy on ambiance and far too light on necessity. There's a decent story hidden under all the long winded insults and far too clever retorts, but cutting through the heavy handed noir-style makes for hard reading or fast skimming.The best part of this book is that Woodrell

Review: Cup of Gold

2011-02-03T08:46:00.001-06:00

Cup of Gold by John SteinbeckMy rating: 3 of 5 starsTo be a fair critic of this book, you'd need to not know who the author was before you started the book. As a first book, it doesn't deserve to carry the literary stigma of The Grapes of Wrath or Of Mice and Men. And it is a stigma, because any reader who has read those books will go looking for at least the seed of what was to become some

Review: The Girl Who Played with Fire

2011-02-01T08:38:00.001-06:00

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg LarssonMy rating: 2 of 5 starsI never would have finished this if it wasn't for the brilliant narration of Simon Vance. So much detail, so much set up and almost no pay off. This clearly is part one of a two part story. Don't expect any kind of solution or closure or anything that resembles the end of a story arc. However, if you loved the main

Review: Then Came the Evening: A Novel

2011-01-30T10:24:00.001-06:00

Then Came the Evening: A Novel by Brian HartMy rating: 3 of 5 starsThe opening chapter for this book is a masterstroke of what I think of as "immersion fiction". The reader is dropped into the middle of a big scene with no introduction to the characters or the surroundings. A good writer is able to let you know just enough to make the scene interesting, but not too much so that you're

Review: Captain Blood

2011-01-17T13:32:00.001-06:00

Captain Blood by Rafael SabatiniMy rating: 5 of 5 starsYes, it's almost 100% historically inaccurate. But it's a swashbuckler through and through and a heck of a fun read. Sabatini writes about revenge and loyalty and double crossing and triple crossing every bit as well as Alexandre Dumas and doesn't get near the credit for it, and that's just wrong. If you've seen the Errol Flynn movie

Review: Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World

2011-01-17T13:24:00.001-06:00

Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World by Simon GarfieldMy rating: 3 of 5 starsInteresting multipurpose nonfiction, written for the reader who wants a lot of practicality and history with their science lesson. The book is very disjointed in its lay out, with the author jamming the contemporary ramifications of Parson's work in to the middle of chapters where they don't

Review: Ride with the Devil

2011-01-11T08:26:00.001-06:00

Ride with the Devil by Daniel WoodrellMy rating: 4 of 5 starshow I love a book that not only entertains, but also educates and enlightens. My knowledge of the Border Wars between Kansas and Missouri was limited to what I was taught in high school US history, that is, that Congress didn't want to settle the volatile issue of slavery in Kansas and Nebraska, so they passed the Kansas-Nebraska

Review: Wild Spirit: The Story of Percy Bysshe Shelley

2011-01-09T11:06:00.001-06:00

Wild Spirit: The Story of Percy Bysshe Shelley by Margaret MorleyMy rating: 2 of 5 starsI'm giving this two stars ONLY if you look at it as very young adult fiction, even though it's not listed as YA at any library or online book store that I could find. As incredibly shallow telling of the life of a very deep and complicated man, this is more travel journal (without any description of the

Review: Portraits of a Few of the People I've Made Cry: Stories

2011-01-06T08:57:00.001-06:00

Portraits of a Few of the People I've Made Cry: Stories by Christine SneedMy rating: 4 of 5 starsA very good set of short stories with a terribly incorrect description here on Goodreads. The idea of "romantic love" enters into a couple of the stories, but for the most part these stories are about attachments and attractions and the holes that people try to fill with other people's lives.

Review: The Lake Effect

2011-01-04T19:48:00.001-06:00

The Lake Effect by Blake SebringMy rating: 3 of 5 starsTold almost as a series of stores, this first novel from journalist Blake Sebring reminded me quite a bit of Charles Baxter's "The Feast of Love", in that the narrator takes the reader along with them on not only a physical journey but an emotional one as well. We go along as he reconnects with a group of friends of college while

Review: Enemy of God

2010-12-31T08:42:00.001-06:00

Enemy of God by Bernard CornwellMy rating: 4 of 5 starsI'm still enjoying Cornwell's version of the Arthurian legend. Using a story teller as a narrator rarely works for me because it's an excuse for a lazy writer to do massive amounts of telling when the showing gets tough. But Cornwell is not a lazy writer and Dervel, the converted Christian scribe who used to be a Pagan warrior, is the

Review: The Water Seeker

2010-12-28T08:59:00.001-06:00

The Water Seeker by Kimberly Willis HoltMy rating: 3 of 5 starsWithout Will Patton narrating this, I'm not sure how much I would have enjoyed it. He does a fantastic job with the various characters and caricatures, even mastering the aging of the central character, Amos, from a young, nearly orphaned boy to a young man proving himself on the Oregon trail. As far as the story, it doesn't

Review: The Lieutenant

2010-12-28T08:50:00.001-06:00

The Lieutenant by Kate GrenvilleMy rating: 3 of 5 starsGreat sense of time and place, but extremely predictable character development and almost no plot. The book is so shallow in the fiction department that I went on line to double check that it wasn't supposed to be young adult fiction. It's not. It's a good fast read if you're looking for a quick trip to the early days of England's

Review: An Object of Beauty: A Novel

2010-12-15T09:08:00.001-06:00

An Object of Beauty: A Novel by Steve MartinMy rating: 3 of 5 starsThis book exceeds in some areas and falls very short in others, making it an average book that wasn't painful to read. Not much of an endorsement, eh? The setting and most of the plot is the business side of the art world. Galleries, collectors, auction houses and even the FBI art squad are all players in this book.

Review: The Murder Book: An Illustrated History of the Detective Story

2010-12-06T16:07:00.001-06:00

The Murder Book: An Illustrated History of the Detective Story by Tage La CourMy rating: 4 of 5 starsIf I were to judge this book solely on the number of books it caused me to add to my 'to read' shelf or movies that were added to my Netflix queue, this would be a strong six stars. The book is arranged in chapters (that read like essays written by very doting fans, so there's a star loss

Review: Sleep, Pale Sister

2010-12-02T08:19:00.001-06:00

Sleep, Pale Sister by Joanne HarrisMy rating: 2 of 5 starsOn the plus side, it's very gothic. Every main character is not only damaged, but intent on damaging the others. There's a perverted artist, a heart of stone prostitute, a lecherous user of women, and the misused, misunderstood, emotionally stunted young woman they all revolve around. That the story is told by each of those characters

Review: A Skeptic's Guide to Writers' Houses

2010-11-28T09:53:00.001-06:00

A Skeptic's Guide to Writers' Houses by Anne TrubekMy rating: 4 of 5 starsDo not underestimate the importance of the word "skeptic" in the title of this book. Ms. Trubek makes it very clear from the beginning of this book that she doesn't understand why a dead author's fans enjoy visiting their homes that have been turned into shrines. I would suggest, however, that the word "guide" in the

Review: The Invention of Hugo Cabret

2010-11-22T08:53:00.001-06:00

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian SelznickMy rating: 4 of 5 starsI read this entirely because I've heard some buzz about the movie being made from it, supposedly using 3D because it enhances the story, not just the box office. I wondered how a story set in 1931 Paris, about an orphan who lives in a train station and keeps busy setting the old-fashioned clocks while trying to restore

Review: Full Dark, No Stars

2010-11-20T09:12:00.001-06:00

Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen KingMy rating: 3 of 5 starsThe first piece, 1922, is nice piece of Rural Gothic, something I don't think I've read from King before. Of course there's some supernatural goings on on, used for what reads more like easy story telling than good story telling, but it's far and away the best story in the book. Big Driver and A Good Marriage use exhaustive amounts

Review: At Home: A Short History of Private Life

2010-11-18T07:48:00.001-06:00

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill BrysonMy rating: 4 of 5 starsThis is the first Bryson book I've read, and now I understand why there's a flutter of excitement every time he publishes a new book on any subject. He does have a gift for taking loads and loads of information and arranging it in a story like manner. The book has a "stumbled upon this when I was looking for that"

Review: Muldoon, a True Chicago Ghost Story: Tales of a Forgotten Rectory

2010-11-11T08:07:00.001-06:00

Muldoon, a True Chicago Ghost Story: Tales of a Forgotten Rectory by Rocco A. FacchiniMy rating: 4 of 5 starsThis book is so much more than a first person account of possibly paranormal activity in the lovely old gothic style rectory at the now non-existent Saint Charles Borromeo Church. It's also a memoir of a former priest's first years answering what he believed to be his calling, serving

Review: Van Gogh, Encore

2010-11-10T08:05:00.001-06:00

Van Gogh, Encore by John A. KarrMy rating: 4 of 5 starsKarr shows us the famous and infamous moments of Van Gogh's life as an artist through a 21st century filter, and creates a contemporary fiction to fill in the rest. The people that we know of that played a large part in Van Gogh last years come with him, and play similar roles as they did in the real story. What Karr does best in this

Review: The Kitchen House

2010-11-08T07:58:00.001-06:00

The Kitchen House by Kathleen GrissomMy rating: 2 of 5 starsI lost track how many times I almost gave up reading this book. As a historical, there's something a little new in the book - the life of an Irish indentured servant in a slave holder household. Unfortunately, it's used more as a gimmick, with no exploration of how the born to slavery characters would really feel about this white

Review: The Last Witchfinder: A Novel

2010-11-04T07:48:00.001-05:00

The Last Witchfinder: A Novel by James MorrowMy rating: 4 of 5 starsA book narrated by another book. That threw me off at first, as the narrating books own voice is a little on the stodgy side. But it would be, thatbook is over 300 years old. But it turns out that Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica is a natural born story teller, and as the story of Jennet Stearne's

Review: The Widower's Tale

2010-11-01T08:22:00.001-05:00

The Widower's Tale by Julia GlassMy rating: 3 of 5 starsGlass weaves together many current political themes: ecoterrorism, illegal immigration, gay rights, and healthcare; throws in some instances of intellectual snobbery and agism; and even takes a stab at the death of hardcopy communication. That's a lot for one book, and yes, it IS too much. Just because a writer is good at writing from

Review: Sarah's Key

2010-11-01T08:00:00.001-05:00

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de RosnayMy rating: 2 of 5 starsIntriguing historical fiction with an opportunity to shed a light on an event that,as the author points out, the participants tried to forget. Unfortunately, the writing is so shallow that it was hard to not get angry at the author for using such an important story to tell the really, really, really childish contemporary half of the book.

Review: Matterhorn

2010-10-27T07:38:00.001-05:00

Matterhorn by Karl MarlantesMy rating: 4 of 5 starsView all my reviews

Review: All Souls' Rising

2010-10-27T07:31:00.001-05:00

All Souls' Rising by Madison Smartt BellMy rating: 4 of 5 starsPerfect balance of character/story/setting, this is a book that tackles a big event (Haitian slave rebellion) and brings it down to a very human size. The story is told through all the various points of view that brought about an incredibly bloody and deadly event, which in a lesser writer's hand would feel like padding. But

Review: The Witch's Trinity: A Novel

2010-10-21T07:53:00.001-05:00

The Witch's Trinity: A Novel by Erika MailmanMy rating: 3 of 5 starsBasic damned if you do, damned if you don't Christianity vs. paganism witch story. The setting is a little different than most (16th century Germany, with no mention of the Reformation) and the accused woman does see some pretty strange things, and just when the ending seems to be going the way most of these stories go

Review: You

2010-10-18T08:14:00.001-05:00

You by Charles BenoitMy rating: 4 of 5 starsThe first few pages in I thought I was going to hate this book. I didn't think that the story would support the second person POV, I thought that the main character wouldn't hold my interest, and I expected the supporting characters to be one dimensional because that's what usually happens in second person POV. I was wrong on all accounts.

Review: Scaramouche

2010-10-18T08:02:00.001-05:00

Scaramouche by Rafael SabatiniMy rating: 4 of 5 starsI am truly ashamed that I had never heard of Sabatini before I went looking for a historical fiction about the French Revolution. I had no idea that "The Sea Hawk" "Captain Blood" were books before they were two of the best 1)Pirate, 2)Sword Fight, and 3)Errol Flynn movies of all time. Now I have discovered that the man who came up with

Review: The Tailor of Panama

2010-10-06T19:02:00.001-05:00

The Tailor of Panama by John le CarréMy rating: 3 of 5 starsMy first le Carré, and although I understand that it's not his typical work, I can still understand why he's not only popular but well respected. This is a writer who is a master of the slow but never boring reveal. The setting is incredibly detailed without ever resorting to information dump, and every character breaths. If only

Review: Last Night at Chateau Marmont

2010-09-30T09:32:00.001-05:00

Last Night at Chateau Marmont by Lauren WeisbergerMy rating: 2 of 5 starsI was expecting fluff, so no disappointment on that front. However, fluff does not equal dumb, and when the entire plot depends on the protagonist willfully ignoring what she already knows about her new life, and then whining about it...well, that IS dumb. The supporting characters also must remain blind to her

Review: Speaks the Nightbird

2010-09-22T08:29:00.001-05:00

Speaks the Nightbird by Robert R. McCammonMy rating: 4 of 5 starsA very character driven mystery wrapped up in a whopping historical fiction. The setting what a new one for me - coastal Carolina, 1699, and once again I am amazed that any Europeans survived long enough to get a firm foothold on the new world. The witch trial aspect of the story is turned into a mystery when (slightly

Review: Slammerkin

2010-09-15T07:39:00.001-05:00

Slammerkin by Emma DonoghueMy rating: 4 of 5 starsThis is not a whore-with-a-heart-of-gold story. In two years time, fourteen year old Mary Saunders goes from a life of poverty with her family to the very grown up world of the Courts of Assize. There's a lot of messages to this story - what options were available to women in Mary's time period, how did class determine a person's future and

Review: Hawksmoor

2010-09-15T07:18:00.001-05:00

Hawksmoor by Peter AckroydMy rating: 4 of 5 starsNot an easy read, but one that is worth the trouble. Rather than bring early 1700 London to the reader (as most HF fiction writers do), we are taken back through his use of historically correct English. Nicholas Dyer is at work, designing and supervising six new churches as directed by Parliment. Dyer's personal religious convictions fall

Review: The Kingdom on the Waves

2010-09-08T10:50:00.001-05:00

The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. AndersonMy rating: 4 of 5 starsThis is the second half of Anderson's story about a Boston born slave who sees the start of the American Revolution not only from both sides of the conflict but as someone who has a different concept of liberty than your average historical fiction character of that era. Having escaped his master and being forced into a Rebel

Review: The Devil Amongst the Lawyers: A Ballad Novel

2010-09-07T07:10:00.001-05:00

The Devil Amongst the Lawyers: A Ballad Novel by Sharyn McCrumbMy rating: 2 of 5 starsSo little story, so much cynicism! A young woman in a small 1930's mining town is accused of murdering her father, and reporters from "the big city" descend to cover the story, biased and condescending to the last letter. Even the reporter who comes from the mountains attempts to use something other than

Review: Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories Of Shirley Jackson

2010-09-01T07:36:00.001-05:00

Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories Of Shirley Jackson by Shirley JacksonMy rating: 3 of 5 starsThis collection is all over the place in content and quality. It's a posthumous publication, so it's quite likely that Ms. Jackson herself would have been unimpressed with some of these stories. Certainly, they all show her natural talent as a writer, but the stories written in college

Marriage!

2010-08-26T13:04:00.001-05:00

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott FitzgeraldMy rating: 4 of 5 starsView all my reviews

Marriage!

2010-08-26T13:02:00.001-05:00

Watership Down by Richard AdamsMy rating: 5 of 5 starsView all my reviews

One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson

2010-08-25T09:22:00.001-05:00

One Good Turn by Kate AtkinsonMy rating: 2 of 5 starsAtkinson uses the same story telling technique that worked so well in Case Histories - several mysteries unravel at the same time with characters slowing crossing from one to other until it's all brought together in the end. However, in Case Histories, each mystery stood on its own merit. In this book, I felt like the characters were

Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro

2010-08-23T10:26:00.000-05:00

Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo IshiguroMy rating: 2 of 5 starsFinished this less than 24 hours ago and the only thing that is sticking to my mind is that the singer in the first story looked and sounded like a character James Gandolfini would play. The plots are nothing new (non existent in Malvern Hills, and the dialog is labored to the point breaking at some point in

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

2010-08-22T09:47:00.001-05:00

The Hunger Games by Suzanne CollinsMy rating: 3 of 5 starsSomehow, despite the popularity of this book, I managed to escape ever having read a review or a detailed description. All I knew was that it was about a girl who has to survive a "The Most Dangerous Game" type of situation. Pretty strong stuff for YA fiction, and it turns out that the author didn't pull back from the dark side of such a

Mentor by Tom Grimes

2010-08-21T19:27:00.000-05:00

Mentor by Tom GrimesMy rating: 4 of 5 starsThis a memoir about that awful, wonderful, scary, magical journey that every author wants to take, the one that puts them in a place that when someone says "What do you do?" they can answer, "I'm a writer" without any fear of a followup question. Tom Grimes put in the hours, he did the revisions, he wrote and wrote and wrote. But still, it was a

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

2010-08-17T10:37:00.001-05:00

A Reliable Wife by Robert GoolrickMy rating: 3 of 5 starsReally good historical, pretty good fiction. The blurbs on the back promised more than was delivered (I know, I should know better than to believe those), but there was a gothic tone to most of the story that made up for the weak tension. The predictable love triangle was saved by all of the characters being deliciously flawed.View all my

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

2010-08-17T10:26:00.002-05:00

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee BenderMy rating: 2 of 5 starsI really enjoyed the first third of this book, it had all the makings of a "I couldn't put it down". Unfortunately, the first third is the book, it doesn't expand on what it a fascinating plot device. What if someone could taste the emotions of the people who made their food? What if that person was a child? How would

The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier

2010-08-13T07:30:00.000-05:00

The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy ChevalierMy rating: 2 of 5 starsThe setting and the historical aspect were interesting and informative. Perhaps a little too informative? There were no obvious information dumps, but there were times, especially when the story shifts to the weaver's portion of the story, that I felt I was reading a book entitled "Guilds in the Medieval Village" and not the