Magpie Murders
Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz, offers up a premise that’s almost sure to pique the interest of most lovers of classic mystery novels. It’s a very Agatha Christie-esque mystery wrapped up in another mystery involving the publication of that manuscript. It’s an especially compelling setup for a mystery novel, since two mysteries means double the …
Shakespeare: The World as Stage
Bill Bryson’s Shakespeare: The World as Stage is a short and well-researched biography on the famous Bard, with some background on Elizabethan England thrown in for good measure. I’ve been meaning to read something of Bryson’s for a long time and thought this might make a good introduction, especially since I did a lengthy project …
The Sense of an Ending
Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending opens with a list of memories and an almost ominous warning, “But what you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have witnessed.” It is a deceptively simple book — in that it’s not simple at all and to get it, you have to think …
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
I finally finished Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, which I really enjoyed. It’s about two magicians, set in England during the Napoleonic Wars. When the story begins, magicians are almost an anachronistic remnant of Britain’s past (according to the story, magic once abounded but has since disappeared). Instead, there are only theoretical …
The Final Solution
The Final Solution, by Michael Chabon (who won a Pulitzer in 2001 for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay), is like Encyclopedia Brown on crack. A novelette – it’s a brisk 144 pages – starring a famous unnamed detective (the book hints at his identity being Sherlock Holmes), The Final Solution is a story …