The Man in the Brown Suit January 31, 2008
Posted by sadiejean in Book Reviews, Mystery.Tags: agatha christie, And Then Ther Were None, Man in the Brown Suit, Sparkling Cyanide
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—3.5—
The Man in the Brown Suit is the latest Agatha Christie I read. In this mystery, a young woman, Anne Beddingfeld, witnesses a strange death at a London train station. A doctor in a Brown Suit pronounces him the man dead. Anne then finds that the man’s death is linked to a nearby woman’s murder. Soon, she is following this adventure to South Africa, taking it upon herself to solve the crime. There is blackmail, diamonds, love, and disguises; I suppose all things that make a good mystery.
I enjoyed this book a lot, however I found the middle portion dragged a little. The story is told by Anne as she writes the book. She adds excerpts of another character’s journal to tell the portions of the story she was not witness to. I’m not sure if it was my favorite form of story-telling. The Man in the Brown Suit is a good mystery, and I love how everything comes together in the end, as Christie is known for. I think I just liked some of her others better.
3.5/5
Try Man in the Brown Suit if you enjoyed Agatha Christie’s other mysteries And Then Their Were None, and Sparkling Cyanide (both MITBS and SC feature the character Colonel Race).
The Ghost Writer January 27, 2008
Posted by sadiejean in Book Reviews, Classic Literature, General Fiction.Tags: Nathan Zuckerman, Philip Roth, The Ghost Writer
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—4.5—
Philip Roth’s famous Nathan Zuckerman series begins with The Ghost Writer. It introduces us to Zuckerman in his early twenties, after minor success with a few short stories, hoping to become a major force in literature. A story about his family has put him at odds with them, and so he goes to discuss his work with a recluse writer he is enraptured with. The night becomes quite a fiasco, in that emotions run high, and Zuckerman falls in love with a woman who may be a famous historical (and supposedly dead) writer. This book is severly uncomfortable at times, and I have to admit that a great deal was probably over my head. But I really enjoyed it. It was a discussion of literature as art, and what makes it such, and the types of people who write great things but live the mundane. It is not a book with an expansive plot, but more a character study of several very different, and difficult, people. I am very excited to read the next Zuckerman novel, and see where life takes him.
4.5/5
New York Times Bestsellers 1.27.2008 January 27, 2008
Posted by sadiejean in Randomness.add a comment
Top 5
1. PLUM LUCKY, by Janet Evanovich
2. PEOPLE OF THE BOOK, by Geraldine Brooks
3. A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, by Khaled Hosseini
4. BEVERLY HILLS DEAD, by Stuart Woods
5. WORLD WITHOUT END, by Ken Follett
Top 5
1. TOM CRUISE, by Andrew Morton
2. IN DEFENSE OF FOOD, by Michael Pollan
3. LIBERAL FASCISM, by Jonah Goldberg
4. AN INCONVENIENT BOOK, by Glenn Beck and Kevin Balfe
5. I AM AMERICA (AND SO CAN YOU!), by Stephen Colbert, Richard Dahm, Paul Dinello, Allison Silverman et al.
The Family That Couldn’t Sleep January 27, 2008
Posted by sadiejean in Book Reviews, Nonfiction.Tags: D.T. Max, Fatal Familial Insomnia, Prions, The Family That Couldn't Sleep
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—5—
You know I love a good medical mystery. The Family That Couldn’t Sleep by D.T. Max was a such a remarkable book. It begins by introducing an Italian family in which many members die early because they can no longer sleep. The cause? A prion disease, Fatal Familial Insomnia. Prions are infectious malformed proteins. From here Max explores the history of prion discovery and research, other prion disease such as Kuru, Chronic Wasting Disease (in deer), and the most famous – Mad Cow Disease. He explores the scary way each of us could have been exposed to Mad Cow, and how still today nothing can be done to help those suffering from these disorders.
Max’s novel is fascinating and frightening. I was interested in prions in school, but I believe with a little effort someone who’s never heard of prions could understand and enjoy this book. This is the best non-fiction book I’ve read in quite a while.
5/5
I’m going to provide some interesting excerpts to hopefully clarify prions a little, and give an example of the author’s subjects.
“Prion…the infectious agent responsible for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and a disease in sheep called scrapie, was not a virus or a bacterium but a protein, a nonliving thing.”
“But this family is cursed. For at least two centuries, its members have suffered from an inherited prion disease called fatal familial insomnia that strikes them…killing them by depriving them of sleep… In the general population the chance of having FFI is one in 30 million; within the affected branches of this Italian family, it is one in two.”
“…roughly eight years passed after that discovery [of mad cow disease] before an effective barrier was set up to protect humans from mad cow. It’s as if John Snow had successfully traced cholera to the Broad Street pump only to have the government tell Londoners to go on drawing their water from it while committee after committee studied the problem.”
“Fortunately, prions aren’t as infectious as, say, the flu. If they were, only long-time vegetarians would be alive in England today.”
Garden Spells January 27, 2008
Posted by sadiejean in Anderson Book Club, Best Sellers, Book Reviews, General Fiction.Tags: Garden Spells, Sarah Addison Allen
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—4—
The latest installment of the Anderson Book Club is Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen. It is the story of two sisters who have long been separated by life and personality. Claire Waverley uses her gift of cooking with edible flowers to affect the moods and feelings of their consumer. She has remained in her home town, embracing her gift while avoiding life. Her sister Sydney, however, ran from her home much like their mother did years earlier. Only in returning home does she begin to discover her own Waverley magic. Together, the two sisters begin to realize how alike they are.
This was a happy, magical-feeling book. Simple and sunny. An Aunt of Claire’s and Sydney’s, Evanelle, is one of my favorite characters in a novel in a long time. Evanelle’s Waverley gift is that she needs to give people certain objects that they will need in their future, although she does not know why they will need it or when. It was a lot of fun to see what objects she would bestow next, and what unusual use they will come to. Overall, this book was a nice, joyful read.
4/5
Want to read along with the Anderson Book Club? The next book is The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.
BookPage: America’s Book Review January 17, 2008
Posted by sadiejean in Book News, Randomness.add a comment
If you can’t get your free public library’s excellent Book Page every month, you can subscribe to get a newsletter emailed to you, or check out their website. Book Page has book reviews, author interviews, and advice for writers. The website is nice because you can listen to excerpts from audio books as well as enter to win free books. Also, search through Book Page’s archives and see an advance title list for what will be reviewed in the following month.
The Art Thief January 15, 2008
Posted by sadiejean in Book Reviews, Mystery.Tags: Noah Charney, The Art Thief
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—2—
I often worry (mostly because I worry about everything, as those who know me can attest to) that I write too many positive reviews. Unlike a professional critic, I purposely pick books that I believe I will like, therefore, my reviews will generally be raves. But, I can worry less now, because Noah Charney’s The Art Thief was a really bad book.
Three seemingly unrelated art thefts occur, one in Rome, the next in Paris, and the last in London. Each case is undertaken by a different detective, and slowly it is seen that the robberies are not quite independent after all. Interesting premise right? I hoped…
Charney’s characters are pathetic and one-dimensional. I think he just wants to show us he can talk in French and Italian. So I spent much of the book frustrated with, what I could only assume was, the author trying to show us how witty he is. I could just picture him writing this, all smug and laughing to himself about his cleverness. (Is this too mean?) I just wanted him to speak in English, and make the characters more memorable. Often, I found myself looking back and wondering “now who is this again?” and “what city are we in now”? And often I just kept reading, because I didn’t really care. If you want to read about thieves, read The Book Thief, not The Art Thief, cause apparently the art isn’t worth stealing.
2/5
New York Times Bestsellers 1.15.08 January 15, 2008
Posted by sadiejean in Randomness.add a comment
Top 5
1. A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, by Khaled Hosseini
2. DOUBLE CROSS, by James Patterson
3. THE SHOOTERS, by W. E. B. Griffin
4. WORLD WITHOUT END, by Ken Follett
5. T IS FOR TRESPASS, by Sue Grafton
Top 5
1. IN DEFENSE OF FOOD, by Michael Pollan
2. I AM AMERICA (AND SO CAN YOU!), by Stephen Colbert, Richard Dahm, Paul Dinello, Allison Silverman et al.
3. BORN STANDING UP, by Steve Martin
4. AN INCONVENIENT BOOK, by Glenn Beck and Kevin Balfe
5. BOOM!, by Tom Brokaw
My 10 Favorite Books of 2007 January 9, 2008
Posted by sadiejean in Randomness.1 comment so far
Well it is a new year, and with a new year comes new books! But first, I thought I’d look back at my favorite books I read this year. I have narrowed them down to ten, and while I could have put ALL the Harry Potter books on the list, I figured I better diversify a little. So here are the best books I read this year (or at least remember the most fondly).
Intro: Silent in the Grave January 31, 2008
Posted by sadiejean in Current Read Comments.Tags: Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave
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“To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband’s dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor.”
Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn