Tag Archives: books

A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Posted by melydia on October 19, 2012 1 comments

A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (unabridged audiobook read by David Timson; 4 hrs 45 min on 4 discs): I confess, I was mostly interested in reading this after seeing the episode of the new BBC series Sherlock inspired by it, “A Study in Pink”. (And then I promptly re-watched the episode and understood a whole bunch more of the jokes.) The first part is fairly straightforward, starting with the meeting of Holmes and Watson and following through a couple of murder investigations that appear to be linked. Once they’ve caught the criminal, there’s a huge shift in narrative and suddenly we’re in Utah with evil Mormons. It was almost too random to be offensive, really. This turns out to be the backstory and motive of the killer, but it takes a while before that’s evident. I am hesitant to offer this up as a good introduction to Sherlock Holmes, since it is so dated, but the mystery part of it is actually quite fun. Definitely going to have to pick up some more of Holmes’s adventures.

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard P. Feynman

Posted by melydia on October 16, 2012 None comments

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard P. Feynman (unabridged audiobook read by Raymond Todd; 11.5 hrs on 10 discs): From his early days fixing radios by thinking to safecracking while working on the Manhattan Project to playing bongos in Brazil, Richard Feynman is certainly never short of a good story. I was especially amused by his attempt to enlist in the military. My only real complaint was how short the whole thing was on his main passion, science. Then again, that could be something to recommend it, since you are pretty much guaranteed to understand what’s going on. If you are easily shocked, you might want to skip this one – he’s pretty frank about his feelings about pretty girls, for example – but all in all I was quite entertained by his antics.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Marly’s Ghost by David Levithan and Brian Selznick

Posted by melydia on October 12, 2012 None comments

Marly’s Ghost by David Levithan, illustrated by Brian Selznick: In this “remix” of Dickens’s classic Christmas Carol, teenaged Ben must cope with his girlfriend’s death by being visited by the spirits of love past, present, and future. The idea was clever, and it was fun picking out which characters were which from the original story, but the re-used dialogue was out of place, coming across as stilted and meaningless. If Levithan had either always had the characters speaking like Dickens or paraphrased the original lines, it would have been smoother. All the same, I enjoyed this short book, and the illustrations were nice.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle

Posted by melydia on October 9, 2012 None comments

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle (unabridged audiobook read by the author; 7 hrs 19 min on 6 discs): Years have passed since the last books; now Charles Wallace is in high school and Meg is married and pregnant. When the President calls with concerns about nuclear war with the (fictional) South American country of Vespugia, Meg’s mother-in-law gives Charles Wallace an ancient rune that seems to control weather, and charges him to stop the war. Charles ends up traveling through time, following the lineage of ancient Welsh settlers. This was probably my favorite of the series so far. I got a little sick of hearing the rune over and over, but all in all I enjoyed the unweaving of the legend. Recommended for fans of time travel fiction, and I don’t think one needs to have read the previous books to appreciate this one.

A note on the audio: L’Engle has a strange way of pronouncing “nothing.” She separates the syllables: nuth-thing. It’s just a little odd.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale

Posted by melydia on October 5, 2012 None comments

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale: In 1860, a child was murdered in a grisly fashion and the case more or less inspired all of detective fiction. Mr. Whicher was the detective on the case, whose unorthodox and – by Victorian standards – extremely intrusive investigative style ruffled many feathers and caused a nationwide sensation. The details and public reactions were fascinating, as were the quotes from various detective novels of the day, most of which were clearly based on Mr. Whicher and this case. Not something I normally would have picked up, not being a mystery or true crime buff, but this was truly interesting. Recommended.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle

Posted by melydia on October 2, 2012 None comments

A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle (unabridged audiobook read by the author; 5 hrs on 4 discs): Charles Wallace has fallen deathly ill, and so Meg and Calvin must journey inside his mitochondria to combat the evil that is making him ill. It’s terribly strange, and honestly not all that interesting. I mean, the cherubim was kind of neat-sounding, but the farandolae was obnoxious and the Eckthroi were too nebulous to be truly menacing. Too much of the book was taken up with “what do I do” and “what’s going on” and not enough actual plot. And, of course, the solution was visible from a mile off. But maybe I’d have appreciated this more as a child.

A note on the audio: I am always wary of books read by the author, but L’Engle was fine. My only real complaint was that the recording was poor quality (or maybe just old), making all the S sounds loud and lispy. Then again, perhaps L’Engle really has a lisp, in which case never mind. :)

(I have a lisp too.)

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Posted by melydia on September 28, 2012 1 comments

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman: When Richard Mayhew helps a bleeding girl on the sidewalk, his life is turned utterly upside-down. First his fiance dumps him, then he seems to no longer exist: taxis won’t stop for him, people don’t notice him unless he speaks directly to them, then forget him immediately after. He then journeys into London Below, a strange world of magic and sewers and abandoned tube stations. This is Gaiman’s forte: take the real world and then flip it on its head, revealing the strange beauty beneath. There’s a real sense of wonder woven throughout the story, making me desperately want to visit these places, meet these characters, see these sights. The villians were nefarious and even the heroes were a bit disturbing at times. I think my favorites were Old Bailey and the marquis, though I wasn’t sure how I felt about the marquis for quite a bit of the tale. If you’re looking to try out Gaiman, this is a good book to start with.

Side note: did anyone else notice that the physical description of Richard Mayhew very much resembles Gaiman himself?

Also posted on BookCrossing.

P.S. – I’m seeing Neil Gaiman speak tonight at George Mason University. Yay! :D

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Posted by melydia on September 25, 2012 None comments

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid: I’m not sure how to describe this book, really. It’s told almost in second person, with the narrator telling you, the reader/his American dinner companion, the story of his time in America. It’s even interrupted frequently with references to the waiter, the food, and the other patrons of the cafe. This adds to the realism but on the whole the experience was rather strange. The narrator, Changez, attends Princeton and lands a fabulous job immediately after graduation. Then on September 11 his world turns upside down and suddenly he’s focusing more on his Pakistani heritage than his American future. The tale was rather engaging, and I read it quickly, but I still have absolutely no idea what happened at the end. I even re-read the last chapter to see if I missed anything, but I’m still confused. Oh well.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

Posted by melydia on September 21, 2012 2 comments

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo (unabridged audiobook read by Graeme Malcolm; 3.5 hrs on 4 discs): Despereaux is a small mouse with large ears who loves music and falls in love with a human princess. Roscuro is a dungeon rat who loves light. Miggory Sow is a slow-witted, half-deaf serving girl who longs for more. Their stories intertwine to form one lovely little fairy tale. I think my favorite part was how involved the narrator was, constantly talking directly to the reader as if you’re there in the room with them. This is the sort of book I would have enjoyed as a kid.

A note on the audio: Malcolm was fantastic. I’ll have to be on the lookout for other books read by him.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Posted by melydia on September 18, 2012 2 comments

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (unabridged audiobook read by Hope Davis; 6 hrs on 5 discs): Meg Murry is an ordinary girl in an extraordinary family: her parents are scientists, her baby brother is a prodigy. One day they are visited by the mysterious Mrs. Whatsit, who takes them on an amazing adventure to combat evil personified. I read this before, back in college, and I’d forgotten how overtly religious it is. Sure, there’s plenty of science, but also quite a bit of talk about faith and god. Which is fine, as it manages not to be too preachy. As with the first time I read it, I wasn’t all that excited about it. I mean, sure, it was fine, and maybe I would have loved it as a child, but as an adult it came across as just kind of strange. That said, I still intend to read the rest of the Time Quintet, which I haven’t read before, to see what further adventures lie in store for the Murry family.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

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