A Cineaste’s Bookshelf
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SUMMER OF CHRISTIE: Dead Man's Folly
The second title in the Summer of Christie is Dead Man’s Folly, a fête-filled mystery for Poirot. Mrs Oliver, an acquaintance of his (who also happens to be a mystery writer) asks Poirot to join her for the weekend at a country house. She has been asked to organize a scavenger hunt-style murder mystery for the… Read More »
REVIEW: I WAS JACK MORTIMER by Alexander Lernet-Holenia
This deceptively small book reads like a layered film noir. An innocent cab driver is drawn into a labyrinthine plot when his fare is shot and killed in the back seat. The driver, Sponer, is perhaps of less than average intelligence. He decides the best course of action is to drive around with the body… Read More »
Three Odd Books – via Futility Closet
Three Odd Books – Futility Closet. B.S. Johnson’s 1969 “book in a box” The Unfortunates consists of 27 unbound sections, ranging in length from a single paragraph to 12 pages. The first and last chapters are specified, but the 25 in between can be read in any order. Johnson felt this was a “better solution to the… Read More »
REVIEW: DUEL WITH THE DEVIL by Paul Collins
No, it’s not about that duel. It turns out the two worked as lawyers defending a young man accused of murder in 1800 New York City. It’s a bizarre and expertly-told story that sheds light on life when our country was still in its childhood. On a cold, crackling winter night at the end of… Read More »
REVIEW: SUPERNATURAL ENHANCEMENTS by Edgar Cantero
This is an updated, modern take on the supernatural gothic tale. Set in present day, a young British man (only identified as A.) inherits an estate in rural Virginia. The house is over a century old and it seems each of its prior occupants has met with a premature end. This beneficiary is a rather… Read More »
REVIEW: THE VISITORS by Sally Beauman
“The Orient—including present-day Turkey, Greece, the Middle East, and North Africa—exerted its allure on the Western artist’s imagination centuries prior to the turn of the nineteenth century.” Jennifer Meagher, Dept. of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art The cover alone appeals to the unrepentant Orientalist in me. I’m fascinated by the archaeology and exploration of… Read More »
BOOKS for July
As summer heats up, reading on the porch, with a tall glass of lemonade is a must. Here are some titles to dive into while you relax to the drone of a faraway lawnmower and the flash of lazy lighting bugs. ASYLUM FOR FAIRY TALE CREATURES by Sebastian Gregory This is a wonderfully imaginative short… Read More »
SUMMER OF CHRISTIE: And Then There Were None
It’s the first book in our Summer of Christie! We are counting down until Sophie Hannah releases Agatha Christie’s Monogram Murders. I watched Hitchcock and read Poe, Christie and Sherlock at a young age. Weird, I know. It’s just that I was bored by books written for my “age” and I loved mysteries. I desperately… Read More »
ACCENT: BLISS HOUSE by Laura Benedict
Laura Benedict refreshes the typical Gothic story with this novel. Set in present day Virginia, a recently widowed mother and disfigured daughter move in to the ancestral home. The house is nestled in an uncomfortable middle ground between Southern sensibilities and a modern life. The peace that the two seek is denied when the daughter… Read More »
REVIEW: BLOOD ROYAL by Eric Jager
Centered around the brutal and shocking assassination of the Duke of Orleans, brother to the King of France.Returned home one night, he was set upon by a gang of mounted ruffians who bashed in his skull and left him for dead on the cobblestone street of Rue Vieille du Temple. Jager’s retelling of the incident… Read More »
Crimes Dark & English
This is a brilliant behind-the-curtain novel. It pulls together known facts in such a way as to make it nearly believable. Here, the famous writer Thomas De Quincey (who wrote The Confessions of an English Opium-Eater) comes to life, along with his daughter in a dastardly mystery. When a series of murders starts to terrorize… Read More »
REVIEW: DREAMING FOR FREUD by Sheila Kohler
Kohler has an exceptional ability to imagine point-of-view in a realistic and enlightening way. Though this book is a novel, it is heavily researched and quite plausible. In it, the reader is treated to the inner thoughts of “Dora”, one of Freud’s main subjects during his study on hysteria. Barely more than a teenage girl,… Read More »
It's a Summer of Christie!
This summer, (re)read some of your favorite Poirot stories in anticipation of The Monogram Murders‘ release this September. Here is the schedule, posted by Book Club Girl: Here’s a schedule of when I’ll post questions to discuss for each of the books: June 30th: And Then There Were None July 30th: Dead Man’s Folly, and we can… Read More »
Books for June
Time to dive into refreshing summer reads… FURTHER JOY by John Brandon In a collection of thirteen new stories, John Brandon gives us a stunning assortment of men and women at the edge of possibility—gamblers and psychics, wanderers and priests, all of them on the verge of finding out what they can get away with,… Read More »
ARMCHAIR BEA 2014 - Young Adult Suggestions
Our final genre of discussion is books for the younger crowd, from middle grade to young adult. When I was growing up, I don’t remember much in the way of a Young Adult genre. Or maybe I passed through the reading levels so quickly, I skipped it all together. As an adult I am fascinated… Read More »