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Review: The September Society (Charles Lenox Mysteries #2) by Charles Finch
How perfect and fitting that I am finishing this book today on the first day of September! I’ve just come off a string of long and content heavy books. So I just mentally needed a break from reading things that were hard/complicated, wordy, and had long, extensive family trees (which is so typical of English literary classics and British based books like Outlander or Through a Glass Darkly!). So, I was eager to read something else historically based but yet something I also knew to be a little less complicated and easy to read/understand….I immediately turned to the next book in the Charles Lenox Series, The September Society by Charles…
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Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
I have settled on re-reading one of my fav books of all time….The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I decided to read Dorian Gray for the Gothic Reading Challenge, I had it on my list to read for both the Gothic Reading Challenge and the Victorian Literature Challenge but decided to use it for the Gothic Challenge since I am in a ‘dark’ mood with all the madness happening…..why not have madness in my literature too LOL. Oscar Wilde is one of my most fav authors, he literally just didn’t care who he made mad and wrote about what he loved….he is eccentric, carismatic, and philosophical in his…
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Review: A Beautiful Blue Death (Charles Lenox Mysteries #1) by Charles Finch
In between books I picked up the first book in the Charles Lenox Mysteries, A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch. I read this book as part of the Historic Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Historical Tapestry. The HF Reading Challenge required one thing….the book must by set in a historic setting so that means any genre (mystery, sci-fi, YA, fantasy….anything. I don’t really know too much about the series but the books sounded like they would be right up my alley. I saw the series listed on Goodreads and they had favorable reviews from readers. The are more or less a remake of the Sherlock Holmes Mysteries and since I have read many…
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Review: Blameless (Parasol Protectorate #3) by Gail Carriger
Well everyone I am sad to say I just finished my last Alexia Tarabotti novel until July 2011. Blameless by Gail Carriger is the third book in the Parasol Protectorate series. I don’t know that I am going to be able to wait that long! I have become so enthralled with the series over the last week that I have managed to devour the entire series in a matter of eight days…that’s how you know a series is good, when you think of nothing else but getting home and reading that next book! I love all the characters in this series–Alexia is a kick. She is witty, smart, independent, and it…
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Review: Changeless (Parasol Protectorate #2) by Gail Carriger
I am happy to report that I am making good progress with the 2011 Steampunk Reading Challenge. I just completed the second book for the challenge last night and yes it was another sleepless night–well late anyway–I just couldn’t unwind! I finished reading Changeless by Gail Carriger, most of my time at my ‘day job’ was spent longing to go home and keep reading Changeless so I of course picked it up the minute I walked in the door. As I mentioned review of Soulless, I was hooked before you could say ‘Parasol Protectorate’! The first book was a great mixture of humor, supernaturalism, romance, and mystery. Besides the aesthetically pleasing cover, the…
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Review: Soulless (Parasol Protectorate #1) by Gail Carriger
I am pleased to say that I have finished my first book for one of my reading challenges and the first day of 2011 is barely over! The 2011 Steampunk Reading Challenge hosted by Bookish Ardour kicked off 1/1/11 and I started reading Soulless by Gail Carriger in the wee hours of 2011 simply because I was not tired and thought there is no time like the present when it comes to New Years resolutions! The 2011 Steampunk Challenge intrigued me because of course I am a huge fan of all things Victorian and Gothic but had never really gotten into the other sub-genres such as Steampunk. For those of you who don’t…
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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 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I have just finished The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes which actually went pretty fast compared to the four novels I read earlier. This collection of short stories was a fun fast read which satisfied my need to read but I did not feel committed to an entire long novel however after the first five short stories I found myself wondering if I was simply re-reading the same story over and over again? Every short story seemed to follow the same pattern, a client came to see Holmes, he enlisted Watson’s help, Holmes found some small detail in the client’s story that no one else could and made it look easy…
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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…