A Cineaste’s Bookshelf
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REVIEW: THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN by Hallie Ephron
Perhaps what makes this novel so frightening is that it could happen to anyone. The devious plan is so deceptively simple that it barely registers as out of place. The narrative alternates between two feisty heroines — Mina, an elderly resident of the quiet Higgs Point neighborhood in the Bronx and Evie, a young,… Read More »
REVIEW: THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS by Kristopher Jansma
This is the The Talented Mr. Ripley for the newest generation. It’s a twisting tale of identity and the search for true companionship. Each chapter marks another episode in the young protagonist’s life. The book opens with an “Author’s Note”, but this is only the first of many kindly deceptions. It’s not from the author… Read More »
REVIEW: THE MAN FROM PRIMROSE LANE by James Renner
This book is a bizarre and twisted that deals with obsession. Told primarily in the third person but from the point-of-view of reporter and best-selling true crime author David Neff. With a nose for finding stories, David takes possession of an abandoned box of clippings and files about a cold case. The more he reads,… Read More »
REVIEW: THE DAMNATION OF JOHN DONELLAN by Elizabeth Cooke
It has all the makings of a Georgian era Agatha Christie novel — a house full of suspects, bizarre alibis, unsubstantiated timelines, inheritances, jealousy, and a bottle or two of poison. When young soon-to-be baronet Theodosius Boughton dies unexpectedly one morning, a scandal erupts in the quiet countryside county of Warwickshire. Although not in tip-top… Read More »
REVIEW: THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ by L. Frank Baum
With Illustrations by Michael Sieben Just in time for the release of Oz: The Great and Powerful, comes an all new edition of the original classic children’s story. All the usual characters are there. Dorothy and Toto are swept up by a tornado and find themselves in the colorful land of Oz. There they meet up… Read More »
REVIEW: THE BURNING AIR by Erin Kelly
Erin Kelly’s third novel puts a modern twist on a classic archetype: The English country house mystery. This is a chilling psychological tale, told from a number increasingly unreliable narrators. The MacBride family is well-to-do and respectable. The patriarch is a lauded schoolmaster in a prim and proper English town. When the mother of the… Read More »
REVIEW: LADY AT THE O.K. CORRAL by Ann Kirschner
I must admit – I never knew that Wyatt Earp was married. He was, by most accounts, a dashing and magnetic man. But for every larger-than-life aspect of his legend, there was Josephine (Marcus) Earp. Daughter of a Jewish family, she struggled to find her own identity in Victorian Era America. When one could not… Read More »
REVIEW: THE REAL JANE AUSTEN by Paula Byrne
Frustratingly little is known about Jane Austen. We don’t know what she looked like. There is only one drawing of her, as a youth, that is considered to be a portrait, but even some scholars don’t accept that. In time for Jane Austen’s bicentennial year, Paula Byrne has put together a compilation of her life.… Read More »
THE GREATCOAT by Helen Dunmore
This book would have done better as a short story. It has the makings of a good yarn, but it draws things out much too long. If kept clean and simple, it would have been much more effective. In 1952, a young woman, newly married, takes up a worn, dingy apartment with her husband. He… Read More »
REVIEW: ALIBIS by Andre Aciman
When I set to read a book that I plan to review, I come at it a little differently than just reading for fun. I make notes, mental and written, about style or themes that I want to mention in the review. And I dogear pages that have a passage I want to quote. Sometimes… Read More »
REVIEW: REVENGE - Eleven Dark Tales by Yoko Ogawa
This collection of stories is frighteningly brilliant. Each is gently tied to the next by a tiny thread. This detailed stitching, when tugged, wrinkles and shapes the fabric around it. I truly hesitate to explain much about the stories themselves. The reader should discover them for himself. I can say that Ogawa makes the completely… Read More »
REVIEW: ELIJAH'S MERMAID by Essie Fox
In Fox’s follow-up to The Somnambulist, she eschews the sprawling country estate for the dank warren of the Limehouse district. Found floating in the river, like a Victorian Moses, baby Pearl is plucked from the Thames. But she enjoys no pharoah’s life. She is raised by the mysterious but efficient Mrs. Hibbert. The woman of the House… Read More »
REVIEW: THE TOWER By Nigel Jones
Jones’ overview of the Tower of London’s thousand year history was no doubt a massive undertaking. Imagine it: ten centuries worth of sieges, celebrations, world-altering decisions, wrongful deaths and sovereign decrees all held within these walls, on just a few acres of land. Jones visits the (in)famous as well as the less well-known. Henry VIII’s… Read More »
REVIEW: BEAUTIFUL LIES by Clare Clark
Yes, the novel is as gorgeous as the cover. Ethereal, impactful*, vintage and evocative. The heroine, Maribel, is the vivacious wife of parliamentary representative Edward Campbell Lowe. Himself a boisterous, outspoken politician, the two make an unforgettable pair, if an unlikely one. Maribel employs her energies in photography, working to capture true images —… Read More »
REVIEW: JUNGLELAND by Christopher S. Stewart
Stewart’s travelogue is as addicting as the tales of the lost city itself. A freelance writer from Brooklyn, Stewart heard about Ciudad Blanca during an interview with a US solider who had endured the Honduran jungle. Like many who hear stories of far-flung secrets, Stewart was hooked. He scoured satellite images from Google Earth, questioned… Read More »