Gen Lit
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Review: Dracula by Bram Stoker
I finally finished reading the PadWorx interactive e-book (Bram Stoker’s Dracula) and can I just say, it was amazing. I have read Dracula before so I love the story but the interactive book added a whole new element. Lately bloggers and the media have been talking about e-readers and e-books, some have suggested that e-books and readers will soon dominate the market. When I got my iPad I knew that I could download books for it but I never dreamed that I would have a hard time going back to a paperback book. Having books at my fingertips is wonderful, and when there are books like this one by PadWorx…
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Review: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books of all time. I read the novel when I was in high school and then again sometime in between high school and college. The Bronte sisters were clearly more ‘wild’ and passionate in their love stories (one of my fav books is Wuthering Heights) than Jane Austen. I admired Jane’s sprit, especially when she totally called her aunt on the carpet about being more or less an evil, cold-hearted bitch to her. Jane was witty, charming, and above all strong. She really is the ideal woman both modernly and historically speaking. She stands up for herself and perseveres through difficulties and ultimately…
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Review: Drood by Dan Simmons
I recently picked up this book (Drood by Dan Simmons) in anticipation for Halloween. I wanted to read something that was scary and suspenseful with a historic Victorian London flair. This book started as a generally promising suspense/horror story but ended up being a huge disappointment. I’ll admit when I first started it I was completely hooked and into it but sadly as the weeks went by I had to force myself to finish it. The book is written from the famous English author Wilkie Collins (famous works include The Woman in White and The Moonstone) perspective. Collins often collaborated with the famous Charles Dickens in real life. The witty humor…
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Review: The Valley of Fear (A Sherlock Holmes Novel) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
As most of you know, I am finishing up the last of the four novels of Sherlock Holmes (A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, and The Hound of Baskervilles being the first three) titled The Valley of Fear. The first three novels were a little hit and miss for me. All of the first three novels that I read were a little on the long-ish and boring side, except for the various forensic science methods/techniques and the short lived love story between Mary and Dr. Watson. So I was totally hoping The Valley of Fear (VOF) was going to be more promising, sadly I was a little on the…
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Review: A Study in Scarlet and 3 Sherlock Holmes Novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I have always been a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes but I have never actually read any of the books. So after coming back from London this summer, I was really excited to read the books. I started reading the Sherlock Holmes Mysteries on the plane to London, beginning with A Study in Scarlet. This was actually a pretty interesting novel as it let the reader get to know the main characters. Of course Dr. Watson is the narrator and writer of their adventures but Holmes is CLEARLY the hero. The story begins with Watson returning from the wars and trying to find a place to live before he goes…