Helen V. Griffith, Grandaddy and Janetta Together - This is a simple series of children's books about a little girl and her grandfather. While Grandaddy isn't exactly like my grandfather, his speech cadence is similar and his approach to Janetta is as well. There's warmth and love and old-fashioned values and family all rolled into these little books; they're quite lovely.
Elaine Viets, Pumped for Murder - I love this series for its lightness and its growing cast of unusual characters, as well as for the fact that the characters lives are dynamic and continue to move forward. This was not my favorite entry, because I don't love Helen, the lead, as much as her supporting cast, and I don't love her family in St. Louis, which is filled with pretty boring people, and I think the whole plotline regarding her ex-husband's death is tedious and tortured ... but the "A" plot of the book was interesting and I give it a pass because of the overall quality of the series. Hoping for better things from the next one, however!
Christopher Kimball, Fannie's Last Supper - This is a fascinating tale of a recreated Victorian meal and the research and work that went into it. The text explains why the Victorians ate the way they did, where they got their food, and how the modern historians recreated the cooking styles. He gets a bit overly philosophical in the end, but the rest of the book is a really solid and interesting look at Victorian eating.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit - This may be a shocking thing to say ... but I didn't much like The Hobbit. I find Bilbo and Frodo Baggins two of the least interesting characters in Tolkien's world, and this early version of Bilbo has him all-but-character-free. He is a reactor and not an actor, and has very little personality; the large number of dwarves he travels with have even less personality. The adventures aren't bad, but there's really not a lot of resolution. Overall, it seems like a practice book before the actual achievement that is the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
book reviews
Geraldine Brooks, Caleb's Crossing - I read one of Brooks's previous books, Year of Wonders, and was underwhelmed, so I didn't expect much of Caleb's Crossing ... and I was still disappointed. Year of Wonders at least had some fine moments, while Caleb's Crossing had nothing that particularly stood out. The title is a misnomer, as Caleb is actually only a supporting character, whose role shrinks over the course of the book. The language attempts to be authentic sixteenth-century, but mostly comes across as unnecessarily complicated and pretentious. And the plot had very little that was new - it was a typical 21st-century historical novel, with a female heroine who longs for learning and strains against the confines of her gendered role in her society.
Zane Grey, Robber's Roost - This was a nice version of the standard Western. The hero makes no bones about being an outlaw, joins willingly enough with a group of robbers, and is slowly won away from them and their dark deeds by the love of a good woman. Grey's prose is relatively florid, filled with description and short on character development, but he spins a good tale, and this one was one of my favorites of his.
Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Negligent Nymph - Gardner shook up his standard format a bit here by embroiling Perry in the unfolding plot from the very beginning, giving Perry a very personal stake in the events. This may be the least sympathetic client I've ever seen in a Mason mystery, but it worked well, because Perry had no other choice from the get-go than to go along with her and to get her out of her mess. The story is set in a different county than usual, so the hostility of the district attorney had a different tone than the expected, which was a nice change of pace. Altogether, a solid entry in the series.
Edward Abbey, The Fool's Progress - I admit I didn't make it far into this book. It's one of those hyper-cynical books with a protagonist who's too smart for the rest of the world, leading to him treating women badly and being left alone and miserable. I read through the first fifty pages and nothing happened but the guy moping around in his empty house thinking drunken, cynical thoughts. Not gripping and not interesting.
Zane Grey, Robber's Roost - This was a nice version of the standard Western. The hero makes no bones about being an outlaw, joins willingly enough with a group of robbers, and is slowly won away from them and their dark deeds by the love of a good woman. Grey's prose is relatively florid, filled with description and short on character development, but he spins a good tale, and this one was one of my favorites of his.
Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Negligent Nymph - Gardner shook up his standard format a bit here by embroiling Perry in the unfolding plot from the very beginning, giving Perry a very personal stake in the events. This may be the least sympathetic client I've ever seen in a Mason mystery, but it worked well, because Perry had no other choice from the get-go than to go along with her and to get her out of her mess. The story is set in a different county than usual, so the hostility of the district attorney had a different tone than the expected, which was a nice change of pace. Altogether, a solid entry in the series.
Edward Abbey, The Fool's Progress - I admit I didn't make it far into this book. It's one of those hyper-cynical books with a protagonist who's too smart for the rest of the world, leading to him treating women badly and being left alone and miserable. I read through the first fifty pages and nothing happened but the guy moping around in his empty house thinking drunken, cynical thoughts. Not gripping and not interesting.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
book reviews
William Bennett Seitz/Harry Moses, Pickups: Classic American Trucks - I'm a big fan of old cars, and particularly old trucks, so Lou got me this awesome coffee table book of restored trucks around the country. The pictures are great, the people's stories are interesting - I really enjoyed it.
Rhys Bowen, Death of Riley - I liked the first book in this series, so I had high hopes for this second one, but I admit to being disappointed. Molly seems to fall in easily with all sorts of unusual people just when she most needs it, it's all very convenient. In addition, where historical fiction is concerned there's a fine line between grounding your character in the time period and straining disbelief, and to have Molly all of a sudden show up and come within moments of preventing the assassination of the president was an event so poorly led up to and so completely coincidental that I didn't buy it. The intrusion of the real world meant that I was no longer living in Molly's world.
Edmund Burke, The Evils of Revolution - I was disappointed in this. I had read about Burke's book many times. It's quoted frequently and figures prominently in the thinking of 19th-century Americans. But the book itself did not impress me - I found it too blustery and not as powerful as I had expected.
Jack Todd, Sun Going Down - This is a western epic, based on the memoirs of the author's own family, and I thought it was overall quite successful. The characters were rich and interesting and they were fully enmeshed in their time period, which came to life on the page. It definitely follows a pattern of misery - as soon as a character expresses happiness, or love for another person, you can be sure one of them is about to die - but that's fairly typical of other books I've read set in the early 20th century west. The first half of the book the characters are more fully realized than in the last half, but the book as a whole was gripping and held my interest.
Rhys Bowen, Death of Riley - I liked the first book in this series, so I had high hopes for this second one, but I admit to being disappointed. Molly seems to fall in easily with all sorts of unusual people just when she most needs it, it's all very convenient. In addition, where historical fiction is concerned there's a fine line between grounding your character in the time period and straining disbelief, and to have Molly all of a sudden show up and come within moments of preventing the assassination of the president was an event so poorly led up to and so completely coincidental that I didn't buy it. The intrusion of the real world meant that I was no longer living in Molly's world.
Edmund Burke, The Evils of Revolution - I was disappointed in this. I had read about Burke's book many times. It's quoted frequently and figures prominently in the thinking of 19th-century Americans. But the book itself did not impress me - I found it too blustery and not as powerful as I had expected.
Jack Todd, Sun Going Down - This is a western epic, based on the memoirs of the author's own family, and I thought it was overall quite successful. The characters were rich and interesting and they were fully enmeshed in their time period, which came to life on the page. It definitely follows a pattern of misery - as soon as a character expresses happiness, or love for another person, you can be sure one of them is about to die - but that's fairly typical of other books I've read set in the early 20th century west. The first half of the book the characters are more fully realized than in the last half, but the book as a whole was gripping and held my interest.
Friday, September 07, 2012
book reviews
James Thurber, The 13 Clocks - Part Jabberwocky, part Legend of Zelda, this beautifully written story is clever and entertaining and well worth reading many times over.
Jean Edward Smith, Grant - A marvelously well-written biography that made me see Grant, and many of the battles he led, in a new light. I could have asked for more detail about his post-presidential life, which was all wrapped up in a single chapter, but otherwise I found this highly readable and extremely interesting.
Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson, The Great Typo Hunt - The story of a man who decides his only superpower is an ability to correct typos, and who sets out to do just that all across the country and back ... and what came of it. Deck and Herson are men after my own heart, and it was heartening to read about their crusade.
Hildegarde Dolson, We Shook the Family Tree - A '40s memoir in the vein of Cheaper by the Dozen. Dolson writes well, her family is adorably wacky, and I've been enjoying her stories for more than twenty years.
Jean Edward Smith, Grant - A marvelously well-written biography that made me see Grant, and many of the battles he led, in a new light. I could have asked for more detail about his post-presidential life, which was all wrapped up in a single chapter, but otherwise I found this highly readable and extremely interesting.
Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson, The Great Typo Hunt - The story of a man who decides his only superpower is an ability to correct typos, and who sets out to do just that all across the country and back ... and what came of it. Deck and Herson are men after my own heart, and it was heartening to read about their crusade.
Hildegarde Dolson, We Shook the Family Tree - A '40s memoir in the vein of Cheaper by the Dozen. Dolson writes well, her family is adorably wacky, and I've been enjoying her stories for more than twenty years.
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