Monthly Archives: December 2010

Pegasus – Robin McKinley

Posted on December 31, 2010 by Ela

(G. P. Putnam’s Sons 2010) Robin McKinley is a writer whose books I almost always buy in hardback, since I’m too impatient to wait for the paperback issue. However, I’d actually hesitated about getting this, her latest, until I read … Continue reading →

Posted in 2010 New Reads, Fantasy, Fiction, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

The Thin Man – Dashiell Hammett

Posted on December 30, 2010 by Ela

(Penguin Red Classics 2006, originally published 1934) Nick and Nora Charles are staying for Christmas in New York, when Dorothy Wynant, who remembers Nick from when he used to be a detective, introduces herself and asks Nick if he knows … Continue reading →

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The Instant Enemy – Ross Macdonald

Posted on December 28, 2010 by Ela

This book begins immediately at the Sebastian house, where Keith and Bernice’s daughter Alexandria, more commonly known as Sandy, has gone missing, along with her father’s shotgun and a box of ammunition. Keith Sebastian has hired Lew Archer to find … Continue reading →

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The Red House Mystery – A. A. Milne

Posted on December 26, 2010 by Ela

(Vintage 2009, originally published 1922) It’s rather a surprise to realise that Milne, now known best for his Winnie-the-Pooh books, poetry for children and dramatization of The Wind in the Willows, Toad of Toad Hall, wrote a detective novel. In … Continue reading →

Posted in 2009 New Reads, Crime fiction, Fiction, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ – Philip Pullman

Posted on December 22, 2010 by Ela

(Canongate 2010, Myths Series) Pullman is well-known for his novels for children, particularly The Northern Lights trilogy and his series of Victorian-set novels featuring Sally Lockhart, amongst others, and he’s also attracted a good deal of interest and criticism for … Continue reading →

Posted in 2010 New Reads, Fiction, Historical fiction | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Jungle Books – Rudyard Kipling

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Ela

(Penguin Classics 2000, originally published as ‘The Jungle Book’ in 1894 and ‘The Second Jungle Book’ in 1895) Is it a shameful confession to reveal that I never read either of the Jungle Books when I was a child (though … Continue reading →

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Diplomatic Immunity – Lois McMaster Bujold

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Ela

(Baen 2002) This book follows on from the events of A Civil Campaign, about a year or so later. Miles and Ekaterin are married, and at the start of the book, are on their way home from a long-delayed honeymoon, … Continue reading →

Posted in 2010 New Reads, Fiction, Science fiction | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Not finishing books

Posted on December 14, 2010 by Ela

I don’t often not finish books. Sometimes they take a long time to read, and a lot depends on what’s going on in my life in the mean time as to how quickly they get read and what time I’ll … Continue reading →

Posted in Discussion | 10 Comments

Death at the Opera – Gladys Mitchell

Posted on December 11, 2010 by Ela

(Vintage 2010, originally published 1934) Gladys Mitchell’s detective novels, featuring the gloriously eccentric Mrs (later Dame Beatrice) Bradley, seem to have fallen rather out of favour, and are just now being republished in a piecemeal fashion. Mrs Bradley is independently … Continue reading →

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A Legacy – Sybille Bedford

Posted on December 9, 2010 by Ela

(Penguin Modern Classics 2005, originally published 1956) Set in the late years of the nineteenth century, this novel is set largely in recently-unified Germany, and tells the stories of the wealthy, bourgeois Jewish family of the Merzes in Berlin, and … Continue reading →

Posted in 2010 New Reads, Fiction, Historical fiction, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments