Bibliophile. Reading mysteries, with a bit of UF, Science and History to keep things interesting.
A Table Near the BandI grabbed this book as a counter-balance to Einstein’s War, and while I’m only 30 pages and 2 stories in, it’s charming so far! A.A. Milne has given me a wry and humorous story and a sweet one that manages to be sweet without being saccharine or overly sentimental. If the rest of the stories are this good this collection will be a treasure.
Einstein's War: How Relativity Triumphed Amid the Vicious Nationalism of World War IFew recognize how the Great War, the industrialized slaughter that bled Europe from 1914 to 1918, shaped Einstein&;s life and work. While Einstein never held a rifle, he formulated general relativity blockaded in Berlin, literally starving. He lost fifty pounds in three months, unable to communicate with his most important colleagues. Some of those colleagues fought against rabid nationalism; others were busy inventing chemical warfare&;being a scientist trapped you in the power plays of empire. Meanwhile, Einstein struggled to craft relativity and persuade the world that it was correct. This was, after all, the first complete revision of our conception of the universe since Isaac Newton, and its victory was far from sure.
Scientists seeking to confirm Einstein&;s ideas were arrested as spies. Technical journals were banned as enemy propaganda. Colleagues died in the trenches. Einstein was separated from his most crucial ally by barbed wire and U-boats. This ally was the Quaker astronomer and Cambridge don A. S. Eddington, who would go on to convince the world of the truth of relativity and the greatness of Einstein.
In May of 1919, when Europe was still in chaos from the war, Eddington led a globe-spanning expedition to catch a fleeting solar eclipse for a rare opportunity to confirm Einstein&;s bold prediction that light has weight. It was the result of this expedition&;the proof of relativity, as many saw it&;that put Einstein on front pages around the world. Matthew Stanley&;s epic tale is a celebration of how bigotry and nationalism can be defeated and of what science can offer when they are.
I picked this off the TBR shelves yesterday because Einstein! I almost put it back because Nationalism! War! and I’m in the mood for neither. I decided to read the prologue, and got completely sucked in.
I’m only 60 pages in, so Einstein and Eddington are still relative newbies to the science scene and WWI is only a gleam in Kaiser Wilhelm II’s eye, but I’m thoroughly sucked it. I’m really enjoying the author’s way of leading the reader through all of Einstein’s papers, so it’s apparent that the general theory of relativity was a process that was built upon, layer by layer, instead of something that sprouted fully formed one day. I’m also appreciating the graphs and illustrations, even if the mathematical formulas are way over my pay-grade.
I’m really hoping my zeal for the book will withstand WWI.
The Book of Forgotten Authors"Absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder. It makes people think you're dead."
So begins Christopher Fowler's foray into the back catalogues and backstories of 99 authors who, once hugely popular, have all but disappeared from our shelves.
Whether male or female, domestic or international, flash-in-the-pan or prolific, mega-seller or prize-winner - no author, it seems, can ever be fully immune from the fate of being forgotten. And Fowler, as well as remembering their careers, lifts the lid on their lives, and why they often stopped writing or disappeared from the public eye.
These 99 journeys are punctuated by 12 short essays about faded once-favourites: including the now-vanished novels Walt Disney brought to the screen, the contemporary rivals of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie who did not stand the test of time, and the women who introduced us to psychological suspense many decades before it conquered the world.
This is a book about books and their authors. It is for book lovers, and is written by one who could not be a more enthusiastic, enlightening and entertaining guide.
The 4th star I’m giving this book, a collection of 99 authors who have been ‘forgotten’, is a tip of the hat bump-up for witty dialog that made me chuckle throughout the book, and for giving me a handful of author names worth researching for future used bookstore treasures.
Otherwise, this is a collection of 99 authors who have been ‘forgotten’, along with a half-dozen or so essays that discuss additional forgotten authors, that is made a bit average through sheer volume. It’s both a book that doesn’t lend itself to reading through, nor dipping into here and there. It’s best read in chunks, I guess, but then one is apt to get to authors who write – or wrote – in areas of no interest to the reader, and suddenly there’s skimming and skipping.
There are a number of authors Fowler includes that I’ve not only heard of and/or read, but whose titles are actively sitting on my shelves: Allington, Wheatley, Orczy, Mitchell and Crispin, among others. This made me feel oddly better about myself in a way I probably shouldn’t admit to, but there it is; suddenly my wall of cozies seem a tiny bit elevated by sharing company with these names who have been deemed worth remembering.
Behold, Here's PoisonThis is a book I should have enjoyed more than I did. The dialog between characters is scathing, often hilarious in a ‘I can’t believe he/she said that out loud’ kind of way, and the murder was clever and the karma both just and tragic. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it, so much as I think I might have been better off choosing something else at that moment, with the result that I was impatient with the reading of it. It’s a weird place to be when you’re reading thinking this is good and are we done yet? at the same time.
Heyer’s strong point in writing wasn’t her detectives; Hannasyde is flat and Hemingway needs to switch to decaf, but the rest of the cast of characters are all vividly written, and as I said, the dialog scorching. Mrs. Lupton came on the scene with a speech that had me laughing and wanting to stand and applaud and the rest of the case all have a shot at each other at least once or twice.
The romance, arguably Heyer’s raison d’être, just … failed. To put those two together with so little development or subtlety makes me wonder if Heyer hated these characters and wanted them so suffer. I mean, there’s playful verbal sparring, and there’s what these two were doing. Me? I don’t find anything romantic about being called a little idiot.
The first half of my re-reading binge was inspired by Moonlight Reader’s comment in her posts about wanting to get back to reading Tasha Alexander’s Lady Emily series. This is a series I’d gotten caught up in years ago, but abandoned for reasons I couldn’t remember. She put the series back on my radar, and I got to wondering whether I could get caught up in it again, or if I should just mark that series as abandoned, so I had MT pull the 9 books I have down from the shelves and buried myself in 19th century England.
Rather than try to review all of the books again here, I’m just going to list the book and include a thought or two about each one. Because this is still going to make for a physically long post, I put it behind a ‘read more’. Suffice it to say that the series was very hit and miss for me up through book 9. I remember the qualities that drove me to set the series aside originally, but there is also a lot to like about them (most of them, anyway). Will I continue? I’m still not sure. Maybe. At least, I might try one more.
CrowbonesNote: While this is book 3 in the series called The World of the Others, it’s a direct sequel to book 1, Lake Silence. Book 2, Wild Country, is set in a different location in the same world.
4 stars is the lowest I’ve rated any of the books in Bishop’s Others or World of the Others series. Crowbones was good – really good – but not as nearly as compelling as most of the titles.
In part, this might have been because I’d read the jacket flap, which has never been an issue before. But this time it left me with the impression that this story was going to have a locked-room mystery vibe to it, and it didn’t, at all. That’s not a bad thing, and there are murders to be solved, but it jarred with my expectations for the first third of the book. I’d have been better off reading it blind, so to speak.
This book also felt more human-centric in focus than any of the previous books. I can’t actually say it was, I’m just not left with the usual feeling I get from these books: that I’ve visited another reality where humans are only bit players with big ambitions. The others didn’t seem to exude their usual air of menace and, hardly ever had to fight the urge not to eat the annoying humans. I don’t know a thing about Anne Bishop – I’m not the type to research my authors, or visit fan sites, but I get an impression that the MC, Vicki, has a touch of the autobiographical about her. I have less than nothing to base that on; she just reads as though she comes from a very personal place. Whether that’s good or bad depends on your perspective, I guess. I liked that she had no problem laughing at herself, and that she recognised where her anxiety stemmed from, but she also made me roll my eyes more than a few times.
Neither of those things are complaints, really, although I’d have liked to see more large-scale smackdowns. Given that I’ve re-read every one of the other books in both series and every time found something more to like, it may be that once I re-read this one I’ll pick up different nuances I missed this time. Whether I do or not, I really enjoyed Crowbones and my brief holiday in the world of the Others. Call me crazy, but this is a world I’d happily live in.
Our Lady of Immaculate DeceptionThis is the first book in a spin-off series, of sorts, from the Blackbird Sisters; it involves a completely different member of the crime family Michael is the heir apparent to, and takes place in Pittsburgh, rather than Philly.
It’s also a much rougher, seedier flavour of cozy mystery, set in a low income area with a high crime rate. Roxy owns an architectural salvage company, trying to support her daughter and avoid working for her uncle Carmine in the family business.
Martin created Roxy as a deeply flawed, broken woman who uses an active sex life as a weapon, but seems to enjoy it not at all. She obviously cares a great deal, as she goes out of her way to shelter abused women, support her daughter, and keep her dim-witted friend from violating his parole, but her uber defensiveness is grating and her inability to connect with anyone makes it difficult for the reader to connect with her. It’s a very different take from the Blackbird Sisters, which didn’t shy away from dysfunction, but still managed to engage the reader.
Different too is this story’s multiple POVs. When it works, it works brilliantly, offering an ending that might not be expected, but when it doesn’t it leaves the reader wondering why Martin bothered, or at least wondering why certain POVs were included.
The parts were there for a very excellent read, but they just didn’t come together in a way that left me caring at all about any of the characters. I have the second book of what ended up being a 2 book series, but when I finished my re-read of this one, I found that I just didn’t have it in me to dip into this kind of dysfunction a second time. Maybe someday.
Murder Melts in Your MouthDown-to-earth debutante Nora Blackbird is having a meltdown. A noted Philly philanthropist has taken a swan dive from an office balcony and Nora’s friend Lexie stands accused of the murder. Then her scheming parents reappear, sending all three Blackbird sisters into a panic. Now Nora must uncover her parents’ scandalous high jinks before she winds up taking the heat.
This was a gut wrencher; again, Martin touches on edgy subjects but this time in a more seductive way. Nora’s best friend’s business partner is found dead on the sidewalk minutes after his exposure for serious financial crimes has been made public.
Nora’s efforts to clear her friend of any suspicion are clouded by a number of factors involving her own family and the cloudiness of the victim’s family life, both of which reveal some rather startling revelations for everybody.
I remember reading this the first time and the feelings of dread and shock I felt as answers to the myriad questions were discovered; there were no happy endings for anyone in this book, although there were some hilarious moments along the way.
Having read the entire series, I think I’d say this is the best entry of the 10.
A Crazy Little Thing Called DeathABOUT A CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED DEATH
Nora Blackbird has made the society pages yet again. The impoverished Philadelphia heiress has agreed to wed Mick Abruzzo, son of New Jersey’s most notorious mobster. Now Nora has to help him survive the Blackbird curse: Every time a Blackbird sister marries, the groom is bound to die.
But Nora’s superstitions are eclipsed by some ominous news. Penny Devine, ex-Hollywood starlet and daughter of the Philadelphia Devines, has disappeared, and strangely, her family is very eager to have her declared dead. When it’s revealed that Nora has inherited Penny’s extensive couture wardrobe, eyebrows rise even higher. The only way for Nora to keep her name clear and save her sanity is to snoop among the snooty…until she sniffs out the truth.
While things have settled down for the characters, relatively speaking, Martin digs down again to present another unpleasant but well crafted murder plot: remains of a once famous actor are found on the family grounds during a polo match. This time Nora’s search for journalistic truth unravels animal hoarding, and some pretty extreme psychological abuse along with the usual bevy of hidden family secrets.
Michael is a more active participant this time around which conveniently feeds into the whole Blackbird curse mythology that’s part of the series: all Blackbird women who marry are doomed to be widowed young. Michael survives, of course, but a series of maybe accidents provides a convenient of angst for the romance angle.
The ending is well done, but a hot mess; nobody comes out unscathed by the end, with the exception of one person, who tries to offer Nora some perspective on her own life. It’s a slightly more uplifting ending than perhaps this story deserves but it leaves the reader feeling at least a little lighter hearted.
Have Your Cake and Kill Him TooWhen the tycoon owner of a spectacularly tacky sports bar is killed, Nora Blackbird suspects a secretive politician, a shady former rock star doubling as a pastry chef, and a dangerous aristo-brat on the verge of stardom.
This one was sort of weird, with Martin juggling a lot of balls in the air at once. There’s Nora’s on-again-off-again relationship with Michael and the constant tension his ties to the mafia brings; a new suitor half-heartedly trying to woo her away; her sister Emma’s continued uneasy relationship with sobriety; the bizarre behaviour of her party-planning friend, and the dead owner of the Fitch estate and a new hot-wing sports bar called Cupcakes.
Martin continues to weave uneasy topics into her plots – this one involving the disreputable dead man and his step-daughter – but mostly this felt like a transition book; more about the character development and overall arc than its own murder mystery.
From a plotting perspective, it was well done – even on re-reading I hadn’t remembered how it ended, but the result was a story that felt more than a little seedy and dissatisfying. Good but with an unpleasant after-taste.