The Book Store

[HerlockSholmes]

This is just a thread where anyone can recommend books of any type: fiction or non-fiction

Apart from Holmes stories I read very little fiction but I do have a few on my ‘to read’ or ‘to buy’ lists and the first book I’ve chosen is a fiction one which I’ve just finished.

The author George Mann is a guy that I sort of knew. Before he became an author he was the Assistant Manager in a bookshop in a town close to where I live. Since then he’s been busy. He wrote a sci fi novel called The Human Abstract which he was working on when I knew him. Since then he’s written a series of steampunk novels featuring his characters Newbury & Hobbes and 4 books in a series called The Ghost. He’s also wrote a Dr Who novel set in the David Tennant era. I have to admit that I haven’t read any of these except for The Human Abstract which was very good. What I have read though is George’s 2 excellent Sherlock Holmes novels The Will Of The Dead and The Spirit Box. He’s also edited 4 collections of Holmes short stories.

The book that I’ve just finished though, and the one that I’m recommending, is Wychwood. It’s set in Oxfordshire and follows a Journalist called Elspeth Reeves who returns to the village where she was s born, Wilsby-Under-Wychwood, after a failed relationship. While she’s living with her mom a series of strange murders occur which follow the folklore legend of the Carrion King. It goes without saying that she gets involved with the investigation.

This is a really good read with an intriguing plot. If you like your crime fiction with a touch of folklore and the supernatural thrown in then I’d certainly recommend this one. It’s 346 pages but I read it over two evenings as it flies along at a brisk pace. George has written a sequel called Halloween which is already on my list.

[Carol the Dabbler]

1 hour ago, HerlockSholmes said:

Whenever I start a new thread I usually suspect that there’s already a suitable thread which I haven’t seen.

There have been a very few attempts to start threads on this topic, but there hasn't been any activity on them for years.  So I'd say this one is fine.  Also, that sounds like an interesting book!

 

[HerlockSholmes]

I just wanted to add that this thread isn’t just intended for just recommendations by me. It would be good to hear recommendations from anyone on whatever subject.

I enjoyed the book Carol. It was nothing heavy or deep, just a good, well written whodunnit. I don’t want to put anyone off by my use of the word ‘supernatural’ though because there are no ghosts or monsters. Maybe a touch of the Midsomer Murders about it.

[Carol the Dabbler]

48 minutes ago, HerlockSholmes said:

... this thread isn’t just intended for just recommendations by me. It would be good to hear recommendations from anyone on whatever subject.

I've taken the liberty of editing the beginning of your initial post to reflect that.  But if you prefer a different wording,please feel free to edit it again!

 

[HerlockSholmes]

1 hour ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

I've taken the liberty of editing the beginning of your initial post to reflect that.  But if you prefer a different wording,please feel free to edit it again!

 

That’s great Carol, thanks👍

[Arcadia]

My brother gave me a book for Christmas called "West with the Night" by Beryl Markham. He said it was one of his all-time favorites. I haven't finished it, but based on what I've read so far, I'm inclined to think it will be one of my favorites.

It's autobiographical, about a female pilot who was flying free-lance in Africa during the '30's. Sounds unlikely, doesn't it? But it's wonderful; she starts off with descriptions of flying over herds of animals while looking for a missing pilot, of meeting an old friend unexpectedly in the middle of the savanna, of being attacked by a lion as a child. Which sounds even more unlikely! But she doesn't sensationalize it, it's more about describing what Africa was like. It's fascinating and beautifully written. I have no idea where she's going in the next chapter, but I expect to enjoy the ride.

I've also been reading the Inspector Gamache books. He in no way resembles Sherlock, but they make for a good light read. Or did at first; I have to admit I felt the last 2-3 I read were trying too hard to create drama, and she resorted to some rather obvious trickery to avoid revealing whodunnit too soon. If the next one continues in the same vein, I may stop reading them.

But I still recommend the first several books in the series. It's set in a small, somewhat mysterious village in Canada, and features a large, diverse and entertaining cast. Most of the characters are pretty humorous and the stories are brisk and entertaining. Of course, over time some of the darker sides of said characters begin to be revealed, and many of them go through rather significant changes. Some of the crimes are more engaging than others, but I read the books more for the characters than I do for the detective-ing. Very entertaining.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Here are two of my all-time favorites:

Euell Gibbons' Beachcomber's Handbook:  Mr. Gibbons was well known a few decades ago for his foraging guides (beginning with Stalking the Wild Asparagus).  They're all good books, but his Beachcomber's Guide is special!  It consists of anecdotes (with recipes) of his laid-back style of "living off the land" (largely in residential areas!) on Oahu in the 1940's.  Especially recommended for nostalgia buffs who love Hawaii.  Out of print, but readily available as used copies and on Kindle.

Ismael, by Barbara Hambly:  This is a Star Trek / Here Come the Brides crossover novel, probably enjoyable by fans of either show but especially by Trek fans who wonder how things might have turned out after Brides was cancelled.  Time travel gone wrong takes Spock (who has developed amnesia) to early Seattle, where he's taken in by Aaron Stempel and threatened by Klingons.  A good Trek novel, a nicely done crossover, and  I loved how the author tied up a number of loose ends for Brides.  Also apparently out of print, but available used and on Kindle.

I haven't seen either of these books since we moved to this house in 2004, but am looking forward to finding them as we (finally!) get the attic sorted out!

 

[HerlockSholmes]

6 hours ago, Arcadia said:

My brother gave me a book for Christmas called "West with the Night" by Beryl Markham. He said it was one of his all-time favorites. I haven't finished it, but based on what I've read so far, I'm inclined to think it will be one of my favorites.

It's autobiographical, about a female pilot who was flying free-lance in Africa during the '30's. Sounds unlikely, doesn't it? But it's wonderful; she starts off with descriptions of flying over herds of animals while looking for a missing pilot, of meeting an old friend unexpectedly in the middle of the savanna, of being attacked by a lion as a child. Which sounds even more unlikely! But she doesn't sensationalize it, it's more about describing what Africa was like. It's fascinating and beautifully written. I have no idea where she's going in the next chapter, but I expect to enjoy the ride.

I've also been reading the Inspector Gamache books. He in no way resembles Sherlock, but they make for a good light read. Or did at first; I have to admit I felt the last 2-3 I read were trying too hard to create drama, and she resorted to some rather obvious trickery to avoid revealing whodunnit too soon. If the next one continues in the same vein, I may stop reading them.

But I still recommend the first several books in the series. It's set in a small, somewhat mysterious village in Canada, and features a large, diverse and entertaining cast. Most of the characters are pretty humorous and the stories are brisk and entertaining. Of course, over time some of the darker sides of said characters begin to be revealed, and many of them go through rather significant changes. Some of the crimes are more engaging than others, but I read the books more for the characters than I do for the detective-ing. Very entertaining.

I thought that her name sounded a bit familiar so I just checked her on Wiki. She certainly had an eventful life Arcadia. I also saw that her third husband claimed that he was in fact the author of West With The Night but the evidence appears to be overwhelming that she did indeed write it. There was even a biographical mini-series about her on CBS in 1988 starting Stephanie Powers.

[kimber8ada]

Has anyone read the "In Death" series by J. D. Robb? The books are slightly futuristic, but not overwhelmingly so, starting in the late 2050's up to the recent ones set in the 2060's. The main characters are a New York city homicide cop and her insanely rich husband, with a very colorful cast of supporting characters. The murders can be a bit gruesome but are unusual and creative. The main attraction for me is the character development with most of the characters evolving over time, with the early novels delving into the past and telling how they got to who they are now and the later ones touching on how some of the cases affect them and their pasts.

Edited April 28, 2021 by kimber8ada
Punctuation is important.

[Arcadia]

On 4/28/2021 at 11:34 AM, kimber8ada said:

and the later ones touching on how some of the cases affect them and their pasts.

Is time travel involved?

I've actually heard of the series but never tried it. If I ever get up-to-date on the Gamache series I may give it a try. I wouldn't mind re-introducing some sci fi into my reading habits ... it all seemed to get so bleak that I stopped trying after a while.

Oddly, I seem to be enjoying non-fiction more than fiction these days, such as the above-mentioned West By Night. But I have so little time to read, it's really hard to say what I like. I haven't touched a book since I wrote my last post in this thread, e.g. 😞 

[kimber8ada]

No time travel.  Just dealing with childhood traumas and facing unpleasant occurrences. The futuristic aspect of it is very off handed, incorporated into daily life. Even though the books are classified as sci fi, to me they are really mysteries with some quirks.

[HerlockSholmes]

If anyone has an interest in true crime I’d recommend HH Holmes: The True History Of The White City Devil by Adam Selzer.

There have been numerous books on HH Holmes but there won’t be a better researched one than this. He strips away all the myths and presents the story of a man that killed many people but nowhere near the numbers that are often attributed to him. He also debunks all of the stories of torture chambers and the like. HH Holmes was a horrible man but he was a conman constant juggling scams and usually with more than one court case pending. You almost have to take your hat off to him for avoiding prison for so long. Holmes didn’t kill for pleasure though but for gain or convenience. I guess you’d have to call him a sociopath. Someone with no real feeling for others. If someone became an obstacle to his plans they simply ‘disappeared.’ Tragically this even involved children. This is a brilliantly researched and well told story and I’m guessing that it might now e considered the last word on the terrible Mr Holmes.

[HerlockSholmes]

A few years ago I read The Alienist and then Angel Of Darkness by Caleb Carr and loved them both. I know that The Alienist was made into a tv series but I haven’t managed to see it yet. I recently bought The Italian Secretary by Carr which is a Holmes story set in Scotland. The Italian Secretary being David Rizzio, the favourite of Mary Queen Of Scots who was murdered by her husband Lord Darnley and his cronies. Rizzio doesn’t appear in the story of course except in suggested ghostly form. I really enjoyed this one. Any Holmes story has to get the basics right of course….the ‘voices’ of Holmes and Watson (and Mycroft who plays a significant part in the story) and the period atmosphere, and Carr does this well in my opinion. I’d certainly be interesting in reading more should Carr decided to dip his toes into the world of Holmes and Watson again. Cheap copies of this book are easily available.👍

[Arcadia]

1 minute ago, HerlockSholmes said:

A few years ago I read The Alienist and then Angel Of Darkness by Caleb Carr and loved them both. I know that The Alienist was made into a tv series but I haven’t managed to see it yet.

I watched it; or at least, the first season. It never engaged me, the characters were too ... I'm not sure what. Boring?   There's something about Daniel Bruhl that puts me off, I'm afraid, and the other actors couldn't quite make up for it. Disappointing, since it got such rave advance notice.

[Hikari]

On 5/18/2021 at 5:57 AM, Arcadia said:

I watched it; or at least, the first season. It never engaged me, the characters were too ... I'm not sure what. Boring?   There's something about Daniel Bruhl that puts me off, I'm afraid, and the other actors couldn't quite make up for it. Disappointing, since it got such rave advance notice.

I read "The Alienist" a few years after it had made a publishing sensation (pub. 1994).  In the mid-late 1990s, there was only one person who I thought would do for the character of John Schuyler Moore, the "Watson" to Dr. Lazlo Kriezler's "Sherlock Holmes", and that was John Cusack.  Moore is presented as a bachelor-about-town of about 30 or so, and John Cusack was the perfect age at the time.  I was probably influenced by his rather similar character in "In The Midnight Garden of Good and Evil", but you have to admit that JC is crackerjack at these types of parts.

Even though the titular alienist is presented as a man of only 40  years old, which means that Daniel Bruhl is a perfect age for it, I always interpreted the central relationship to be more mentor-protege than a match of peers as the miniseries presents. Luke Evans as Moore is only 10 months younger than Bruhl and looks older.  So the, if not father-son, but maybe nephew-wise uncle dynamic I had envisioned doesn't really work when the characters are same age.  Who better to play a paternal psychiatrist than Anthony Hopkins?  Admittedly, his Dr. Lechter was influencing me here too; Tony was only three years out from his Oscar win for Silence of the Lambs when Carr published his book.  I didn't think a feature-length film could do justice to the complexity and sheer scale of this story, so I was pleased that it was being made as a limited series for television after all this time.  I just regret that the ship had sailed on my casting picks, as I think they would  have been awesome.

[Carol the Dabbler]

2 hours ago, Hikari said:

I just regret that the ship had sailed on my casting picks, as I think they would  have been awesome.

I cast books in my head also.  For some strange reason, studio casting departments never agree with me.

 

[Hikari]

1 hour ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

I cast books in my head also.  For some strange reason, studio casting departments never agree with me.

 

Nor I with them, quite often.

The recent "Little Women", for instance.  Apart from Chris Cooper as Mr. Lawrence, I wouldn't have selected a single one of those actors for that piece, Meryl Streep inclusive, because she was hamming it up, rather, and the part was so tiny as to be somewhat beneath her . . .2-3 scenes long it was.  None of the 4 leads were actually American, which is odd in such an all-American story.  It'd be like "Pride & Prejudice" with Kristen Stewart as Lizzie and Dakota Fanning as Jane.  Give me a break. 

Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised by unconventional casting.  Leo DiCaprio knocked my socks off as Jay Gatsby for Baz Luhrman, and I didn't see that coming.

[Carol the Dabbler]

2 hours ago, Hikari said:

None of the 4 leads were actually American, which is odd in such an all-American story.

At least it's set in eastern Massachusetts, where the accent (at least nowadays) is not especially American.

Who does play the leads, and where are they actually from?

 

[Hikari]

10 minutes ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

At least it's set in eastern Massachusetts, where the accent (at least nowadays) is not especially American.

Who does play the leads, and where are they actually from?

 

I suppose in 1860, the accent would have been rather different.

The actresses are all from the UK with one Australian.

Soairse Ronan (Ireland) (Jo)

Emma Watson  (England) (Meg)

Eliza Scanlen (Australia) (Beth)

Florence Pugh (England) (Amy)

Of all the girls, only Eliza was a teen (just, she was 19 at the time of filming).  All the rest were mid-20s, and Emma Watson was 29.  The ages of the little women at the start were: 16, 15, 13 and 11.  23-year-old Florence Pugh who's got a deep husky voice of a gin palace hooker was much too mature and knowing for child Amy . . dolled up to look like a little girl, the effect was child prostitute ala 'Pretty Baby'.  Ronan is a gifted actress but I didn't care for her in this part.  For some reason, the artistic decision was made to make three of the four little women blondes, probably because Ronan is a natural blonde, though in the book, only Amy is.  The naturally brunette Pugh had a bad dye job/wig.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

I had a look at the cast, and the only names I recognized were Watson, Streep, Laura Dern, and Bob Odenkirk.  It was filmed in Massachusetts, so the international leading cast does seem odd.

27 minutes ago, Hikari said:

Of all the girls, only Eliza was a teen (just, she was 19 at the time of filming).  All the rest were mid-20s, and Emma Watson was 29.  The ages of the little women at the start were: 16, 15, 13 and 11.

How old does an actor need to be in order to be considered an adult (e.g., no need for a tutor on set)?  I imagine that's one reason for the overage actors.  It's not like the Harry Potter film series, where we needed to see the kids start quite young and gradually grow up.

 

[Hikari]

On 5/20/2021 at 5:35 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

I had a look at the cast, and the only names I recognized were Watson, Streep, Laura Dern, and Bob Odenkirk.  It was filmed in Massachusetts, so the international leading cast does seem odd.

How old does an actor need to be in order to be considered an adult (e.g., no need for a tutor on set)?  I imagine that's one reason for the overage actors.  It's not like the Harry Potter film series, where we needed to see the kids start quite young and gradually grow up.

 

I suppose tutoring goes to 17, though kids in the performing arts get a lot of dispensations.  They may only study with the tutor for 2 hours to meet the requirement, so it's not like a full school day.  Along with that, people under 18  have restrictions on how many hours they can be on-set for child labor laws.  When a production window is tight, they need to have everybody available for some grueling 14-16 hour days at times.  There's been a long tradition of adults playing teens (Grease, hello?) and most of them look young enough to get away with it.  This does create unrealistic expectations about how sophisticated real teens are supposed to look, though.  When 16-year-olds aspire to copy a character who is supposedly their age but is actually being played by an actor who's 28, they can set themselves up for poor self-esteem.  It's the exception rather than the rule when an actual teen gets to play a teen.

"Little Women" is particularly challenging because the characters are supposed to grow from 'little women' into actual women over the course of the two halves of the book, spanning some ten years.  This is most noticeable in Amy, as Beth, the second youngest doesn't get to live long enough to have a life.  But Amy goes from an elementary-aged child into a young woman old enough to get married, at least 20 years of age.  It's easier for the other actors because their maturation isn't so transformative.  I think out of all the many productions of LW we've had, only one, the 1994 movie, chose to have two actresses play Amy.  Since the childhood scenes with Amy are so memorable a part of the first half (the limes at school; her feud with Jo; the burning of the book; falling through the ice), I think it was the better choice to have child Amy portrayed by an actual child.  There wasn't much of interest left for her adult replacement to do, other than snag Laurie, but the 'grown-up' portions of the story are the weaker ones anyway.  Florence Pugh, who played Amy in the new version is one tough cookie.  I could easily envision her in a movie about female MMA fighters or Army recruits.  I thought her tough, rather masculine demeanor was entirely wrong for quintessentially girly-girl Amy, but her performance isn't even the biggest beef I had with that version.  It's a lengthy list.  I will always be partial to the 1994 movie, even though at first blush, tiny gamine Winona Ryder didn't seem the best fit for Jo, physically.  But she can act, and she's got Jo's inner fiestiness and spunk.  There was a PBS miniseries version a few years ago which I didn't think good, either, but the Jo was a standout, in my opinion.  She was Maya Hawke, daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman.  She was 19 years old and had never acted before.  Both physically and artistically she had a coltish, fresh quality that embodied Jo perfectly, and had no problem playing slightly younger than she was at the start.

Megan Follows was 16 when she was cast as Anne of Green Gables, despite the producers' concerns during the audition process that she might be too old. Anne, like Amy, is 11 years old at the start of her story.  Anne is supposed to be an exceptionally mature 11 -year-old, given her hard life and her natural old-soul personality.  In the pigtails and pinafore, MF looked, if not as young as 11 exactly, young enough to pass for maybe 13.  She is physically tiny, with a sweet voice and delicate manner.  That was a gamble that paid off.  Dorothy Gale of Wizard of Oz is 11 years old at the start, too, and was played by 17-year old Judy Garland, who absolutely no one thought was anywhere near 11.  A Kansas farm girl in the 1930s was accepted to be more innocent like a younger girl, even if the reality was somewhat different.  There seem to be a lot of 11-year-old heroines popping up in literature . . Hermione Granger is that age, so too is Alice in Wonderland, if I'm not mistaken?  It's a very delicate age--one foot in childhood, the other on the cusp of starting to become a woman.  A rough age for casting directors!

 

[Hikari]

I stayed up til the wee hours to finish a cracking book in a new series, "The Devil's Claw" by Lara Dearman.  Set on the Channel Island of Guernsey, it follows a young newspaper reporter on the trail of a potential serial killer who, with the help of the local police chief, finds disturbing links to the cases of six island girls found drowned on the beach over a period spanning 50 years.

I have recently found out a lot more about Guernsey (setting for the NYT best-seller/movie, "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society").  The island is strongly influenced by its Norman heritage with its own brand of French patois, and was occupied by the Germans during WWII for 5 years--the only occupation of British soil during the war occurred in the Channel Islands which are halfway between England and France.  Renoir painted there for 6 weeks in the summer of 1883.  For a very small place, it is full of lively culture and fascinating history and folklore, much of which the author, a Guernsey girl now living in the U.S. has sprinkled throughout her book.  Now I'm off to check out the second in the series.

[Carol the Dabbler]

1 hour ago, Hikari said:

There's been a long tradition of adults playing teens (Grease, hello?) and most of them look young enough to get away with it. 

Roddy McDowall made an entire career out of that (though the ape make-up helped at times).

You make a good point about different adaptations of the same work having different strengths and weaknesses.  I once made a similar list of favorites regarding the two filmed versions of Hitchhiker's Guide.

1 hour ago, Hikari said:

I stayed up til the wee hours to finish a cracking book in a new series, "The Devil's Claw" by Lara Dearman.

My first thought was, didn't she copy a Conan Doyle title -- but then I realized that was the Devil's Foot.  I wonder if the similarity was intentional?  Sounds like an interesting story, in any case.

1 hour ago, Hikari said:

I have recently found out a lot more about Guernsey (setting for the NYT best-seller/movie, "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society").

Is that book is by a different author?  And is potato-peel pie a real thing?

 

[bedelia1984]

On 5/20/2021 at 10:07 PM, Hikari said:

Soairse Ronan (Ireland) (Jo)

Sorry to nitpick, but Saoirse Ronan is Irish and we aren't part of of the UK, not the republic of Ireland where Ronan is from anyway.

I did think there were issues with the casting in Gerwig's Little Women. I think Ronan is very good in the role of Jo, actually, but I found Pugh didn't embody Amy as well. I liked their Beth, (Scanlen), but I don't know if Watson was the right casting for Meg, or if they cut a lot of her scenes, but I thought it was hard to really find her character in it, it seemed she was barely there. I got the impression the director was very taken with Pugh and Ronan and the film centred a lot on them, with the other two as afterthoughts.   I remember the 1994 Meg having more impact, I think that was Trini Alvarado, she was charming with a quiet strength, like Meg in the book. I would guess  almost all the actresses are too old for the parts, but willing to let it slide as it's a movie and they all age up anyway. I also thought Chalamet was not the ideal Teddy, but their Dr. Bhaer was much better cast than when in 1994 they brought in Gabriel Byrne.

I actually enjoyed the movie a lot overall, the tone and the scenery and the dialogue worked for me, and it was a different enough take than 1994, which I loved, to be worth making.

I'm reading a book I love right now. 'The Art of the English Murder' by Lucy Worsley. It goes into the golden age of British crime writing, how it evolved, styles, how it reached an audience. It has references to Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Dickens and lots of others and a section of photos of old newspapers etc in the middle.

[Hikari]

21 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Roddy McDowall made an entire career out of that (though the ape make-up helped at times).

You make a good point about different adaptations of the same work having different strengths and weaknesses.  I once made a similar list of favorites regarding the two filmed versions of Hitchhiker's Guide.

My first thought was, didn't she copy a Conan Doyle title -- but then I realized that was the Devil's Foot.  I wonder if the similarity was intentional?  Sounds like an interesting story, in any case.

Is that book is by a different author?  And is potato-peel pie a real thing?

 

I think any resemblance to The Devil's Foot was coincidental; that is a plant-derived drug and the Devil's Claw of this book refers to a mineral deposit on a cliff in Guernsey that looks like a claw mark made by a beast.  In ancient Guernsey folklore, it is said to be the spot where the Devil made landfall on the island.  There's a lot of witchcraft lore of this type.  Both legends revolve around Satan who just gets around everywhere in the world. 

The Guernsey LIterary and Potato Peel Pie Society was written by Mary Ann Shaffer who sadly passed away prior to publication.  The final rewrite and edits were done by her niece, Annie Barrows, who is credited as a co-author.  I assume that Potato Peel Pie is a Guernsey dish but I have not yet started the novel.  I will be taking a virtual tour of Guernsey very soon and hope to find all this out.