A. A. Milne is a million times more famous for Winnie-The-Pooh than he is for this neat, compact and fluent little novel of amateur detectives and a body in a locked room. Which is a shame, as The Red House Mystery (1922), while not brilliant or innovative, is of value because it masters the conventions with precision and humour, creating an entertaining mystery, and likeable characters with enjoyably explicit nods to Sherlock and Watson in their dynamic. Mark Ablett is a patron of the arts, an […]
The Genius Files: You Almost Get Killed Thrice
The Genius Files #3: You Only Die Twice was the third book in the Genius Files series. I forgot to review the second one because I was pretty sure I already did. In this book, they have a new villain, an evil Elvis impersonator. Let me just say, the book ends with a bang, a very big bang. Read this book as they go from Washington on their way to back to California and I swear the third book will make no sense without the second […]
Do Androids Dream of … Revenge?
With this 2013 novel, Ann Leckie has won the Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke and, as of last week, Hugo awards, and has been nominated for the Philip K. Dick award. Ancillary Justice has a complex, fascinating plot and in its protagonist a kickass corpse soldier. I picked up the book because the author is a woman (serves my quest to read 50 books by 50 women this year) and it has won so many prestigious awards. I’m often wary of Sci Fi — it’s not […]
“On sweet silk grass I stretch me at mine ease,…”
Like J. Courtney Sullivan’s The Engagements, reviewed here, Kate Beaufoy’s Liberty Silk is a tale of different eras and generations connected by a single object–in this case, a beautiful, shimmering, colourful silk dress from Liberty of London. Bought in 1919 by Jessie, a young lady of patrician English background who marries a penniless artist and spends her honeymoon deliriously happy in the summery South of France, it’s eventually inherited by Baba, born Lisa, who is a starlet with an empty life in Hollywood in the 1940s, […]
If I never read the word Greyjoy again, it will be too soon.
Last year, my kids did the swim team at our pool. That meant I had HOURS of time for reading, just sitting pool-side, and I got through the first three GOT books. This year, one kid had a broken arm and we also ended up going away for a month. This meant very little time for me to dedicate to George Martin. But I did manage to plod my way through book 4 (and jeez, I just picked up book 5. WHEN AM I EVER […]
A Boy and a Tiger Doing Not So Smart Things
You’ve probably heard of Calvin and Hobbes which explains my title. In my opinion, these are the two greatest collections of Calvin and Hobbes because one of them has one of the great story lines of Calvin and Hobbes: Revenge of the Babysat. The other one is great because it’s funny and it’s hilarious and it’s Calvin and Hobbes. My parents handpicked these because these had no strips I’d ever read before. They gave them to me because I finished third grade and I always […]
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