Category Archives: Book Reviews
Review: Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
When I decided to branch out into reading other members of the Inklings (the casual literary circle comprised of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and others), Dorothy L. Sayers was the obvious first choice as the only female of the group. I started out reading Mind of the Maker, Sayers’ book on the creative [...]
Review: The Companions of Jehu by Alexandre Dumas
Portrait of Napoleon by Antoine-Jean Gros. In The Companions of Jehu, even though Alexandre Dumas implies the fate of some of the characters from the beginning, throughout the book I couldn’t help wishing—no, believing— that it could turn out differently. I have to admit, The Companions of Jehu, got off to a very, very slow [...]
Review: Auralia’s Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet
Title: Auralia’s Colors Author: Jeffrey Overstreet Genre: Fantasy Sometimes the Fantasy genre (or any genre, I suppose) gets so caught up in trends that one can almost lose hope. Right now a certain sparse writing style seems to have preempted the delectable prose of writers like McKillip, Kushner and similar, let alone Tolkien. A lot [...]
Richard the Lionheart Biography
Since there’s a new Robin Hood movie coming out soon, and since I don’t know what they’ll do to the character of Richard the Lionheart, my favorite English king, I thought I’d take a moment to recommend an excellent biography: Richard I (Yale English Monarchs) by John Gillingham. “In this new account of Richard the [...]
Review: The Dream by Emile Zola (The Classics Circuit)
This post is part of Paris in the Spring: Émile Zola on Tour at The Classics Circuit. Le Rêve (The Dream in English) is not so much a story about religious fervor, but about Zola’s most important theme: heredity. In this case, how heredity plays out when the child is reared and educated in an [...]
Review: The Sheen on the Silk by Anne Perry
Title: The Sheen on the Silk Author: Anne Perry Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: Ballantine Release date: March 23rd, 2010 The Byzantine city of Constantinople was the heart of Christendom during late antiquity and the medieval period, yet it’s usually only studied in upper-level history courses. A city of legend and power, Constantinople was the center [...]
A Study in Sherlock: A Study in Scarlet
I’m reading through the Sherlock Holmes stories for the first time, and posting my thoughts on each story as I read it. Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25796513@N08/ / CC BY 2.0 Title: A Study in Scarlet, from The Complete Sherlock Holmes Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle A Study in Scarlet is the first Sherlock Holmes novel ever [...]
Review: The Bell at Sealey Head
In Patricia A. McKillip’s The Bell at Sealey Head, two worlds are connected by the ringing of the sunrise bell. In Sealey Head where Judd Cauley runs his inn and an old noblewoman lays dying at ancient Aislinn House, the townsfolk go about their business in a “polite society” evocative of the 18th century, enjoying [...]