This List is a Mystery

Danielle at A Work in Progress put up this post yesterday and I snagged the list from the Mystery Writers of America of the top 100 Mysteries of All Time (compiled in 1995) ... last year I ran another mystery list that was compiled by booksellers.

I've bolded those I've read.

1. The Complete Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle
2. The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett
3. Tales of Mystery and Imagination, by Edgar Allen Poe
4. The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey
5. Presumed Innocent, by Scott Turow
6. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, by John le Carré
7. The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins
8. The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler
9. Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier
10. And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie
11. Anatomy of a Murder, by Robert Traver
12. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie
13. The Long Goodbye, by Raymond Chandler
14. The Postman Always Rings Twice, by James M Cain
15. The Godfather, by Mario Puzo
16. The Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris
17. A Coffin for Dimitrios, by Eric Ambler
18. Gaudy Night, by Dorothy L Sayers
19. Witness for the Prosecution, by Agatha Christie
20. The Day of the Jackal, by Frederick Forsyth
21. Farewell, My Lovely, by Raymond Chandler
22. The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan
23. The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco
24. Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
25. Eye of the Needle, by Ken Follett
26. Rumpole of the Bailey, by John Mortimer
27. Red Dragon, by Thomas Harris
28. The Nine Tailors, by Dorothy L Sayers
29. Fletch, by Gregory Mcdonald
30. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, by John le Carré
31. The Thin Man, by Dashiell Hammett
32. The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins
33. Trent's Last Case, by E C Bentley
34. Double Indemnity, by James M Cain
35. Gorky Park, by Martin Cruz Smith
36. Strong Poison, by Dorothy L Sayers
37. Dance Hall of the Dead, by Tony Hillerman
38. The Hot Rock, by Donald E Westlake
39. Red Harvest, by Dashiell Hammett
40. The Circular Staircase, by Mary Roberts Rinehart
41. Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie
42. The Firm, by John Grisham
43. The Ipcress File, by Len Deighton
44. Laura, by Vera Caspary
45. I, the Jury, by Mickey Spillane
46. The Laughing Policeman, by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
47. Bank Shot, by Donald E Westlake
48. The Third Man, by Graham Greene
49. The Killer Inside Me, by Jim Thompson
50. Where Are the Children?, by Mary Higgins Clark
51. "A" Is for Alibi, by Sue Grafton
52. The First Deadly Sin, by Lawrence Sanders
53. A Thief of Time, by Tony Hillerman
54. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
55. Rogue Male, by Geoffrey Household
56. Murder Must Advertise, by Dorothy L Sayers
57. The Innocence of Father Brown, by G K Chesterton
58. Smiley's People, by John le Carré
59. The Lady in the Lake, by Raymond Chandler
60. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
61. Our Man in Havana, by Graham Greene
62. The Mystery of Edwin Drood, by Charles Dickens
63. Wobble to Death, by Peter Lovesey
64. Ashenden, by W Somerset Maugham
65. The Seven Per-Cent Solution, by Nicholas Meyer
66. The Doorbell Rang, by Rex Stout
67. Stick, by Elmore Leonard
68. The Little Drummer Girl, by John le Carré
69. Brighton Rock, by Graham Greene
70. Dracula, by Bram Stoker
71. The Talented Mr Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith
72. The Moving Toyshop, by Edmund Crispin
73. A Time to Kill, by John Grisham
74. Last Seen Wearing, by Hillary Waugh
75. Little Caesar, by W R Burnett
76. The Friends of Eddie Coyle, by John V Higgins
77. Clouds of Witness, by Dorothy L Sayers
78. From Russia, with Love, by Ian Fleming
79. Beast in View, by Margaret Millar
80. Smallbone Deceased, by Michael Gilbert
81. The Franchise Affair, by Josephine Tey
82. Crocodile on the Sandbank, by Elizabeth Peters
83. Shroud for a Nightingale, by P D James
84. The Hunt for Red October, by Tom Clancy
85. Chinaman's Chance, by Ross Thomas
86. The Secret Agent, by Joseph Conrad
87. The Dreadful Lemon Sky, by John D MacDonald
88. The Glass Key, by Dashiell Hammett
89. Judgment in Stone, by Ruth Rendell
90. Brat Farrar, by Josephine Tey
91. The Chill, by Ross Macdonald
92. Devil in a Blue Dress, by Walter Mosley
93. The Choirboys, by Joseph Wambaugh
94. God Save the Mark, by Donald E Westlake
95. Home Sweet Homicide, by Craig Rice
96. The Three Coffins (aka The Hollow Man), by John Dickson Carr
97. Prizzi's Honor, by Richard Condon
98. The Steam Pig, by James McClure
99. Time and Again, by Jack Finney
100. A Morbid Taste for Bones, by Ellis Peters, tied with Rosemary's Baby, by Ira Levin

I've read 18 of these which actually isn't too bad. I ran through the British list as well and had 14 of 100 read. I really need to branch out in my mystery authors though. I lucked out with having read all of Josephine Tey's books and a good portion of Agatha Christie.

Why I haven't read more mystery is a mystery,
K

New Release: The Last Dickens

After my recent disappointment with Dan Simmons' Drood, I was excited to see that an author that I enjoy had also just written about Dickens' final unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood. This book is The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl, released last week by Random House.

The main character in this book is the non-fictional James Osgood, a Boston publisher with Ticknor and Fields (which later became Fields, Osgood, & Company). This was the publishing house for such notables as Whitman, Longfellow, Emerson and later Mark Twain. They had the American publishing rights for Charles Dickens' later works and this novel concerns the time when, after hearing of Dickens' passing, Osgood and a female bookkeeper are forced to travel to England to search for the possible remaining parts of the story of Edwin Drood. They are in a race against time as the Americans don't respect British copyrights so as soon as other firms (in this case the Harper brothers) get copies of the Drood manuscript, they will begin printing their own competing copies of the novel. Osgood and Miss Sand are also being thwarted and menaced by an unknown villain who is seeking the same manuscript for his own personal reasons.

This book is a fascinating look into the publishing industry in America and is also a very compassionate and compelling look at the final years of Dickens. The mystery presented in this book is strong and I appreciated that there was no supernatural element in the story, as there was in Drood. This book also addresses the entry of women into the workforce and the hurdles they faced both in and out of the workplace. All of the historical information in this novel is incorporated seamlessly and it has a very authentic feel. I really enjoyed this book and was only disappointed that it mentioned Wilkie Collins in passing but did not have him as a character.

I recommend this book and if you haven't read Pearl's other novels, The Poe Shadow and The Dante Club, they are also books that feature authors as characters and are very well researched and written.

Wishing that no novel was left unfinished,
K


Buy The Last Dickens: A Novel on Amazon or find it at your local library.

We Be Awarded

While I was away last week, WeBeReading received a blog award from Elizabeth at As Usual, I Need More Bookshelves ...

"This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this clever-written text into the body of their award."

Eight bloggers that I admire that you should be checking out (not including Elizabeth even though she is awesome!) are
Eva at A Striped Armchair
Danielle at A Work in Progress
Tanabata at In Spring it is the Dawn
Jenners at Find Your Next Book Here
Robin at A Fondness for Reading
Teresa & Jenny at Shelf Love
Booklogged at A Reader's Journal
Juxtabook

All of these bloggers are friendly and interesting and would love to have you visit!

Giving credit,
K

Poe Fridays: The Sphinx

The story I chose for this week was The Sphinx, a very short story as I was away from home for most of the week. Take a moment and read it here.

Okay, now that you've read it, do you agree that it was completely strange and anti-climatic? The narrator is in a fragile state of mind as all of his friends and family are dying in a cholera outbreak while he is safely out-of-town at a friend's house. One day, he thinks he sees a terrible monster out the window and later he tells his friend about it and sees it a second time. Was it really a monster? An omen of his own death? Not exactly.

I don't really know what to say about this one. It was just bizarre. Next week let's go with a familiar favorite, The Cask of Amontillado.

Gaining a little perspective,
K

Rerun Thursday: The Quincunx

K is traveling this week and so we will be revisiting some posts from the early days of WeBeReading ... this one is a book that I know a lot of people are curious about or have in their TBR pile.

One of the first books I read this year was The Quincunx by Charles Palliser. It was published in 1989 and is almost 800 pages long. It is set in 19th century England -- a period I read about quite frequently. I had seen this book a few times over the years at my local Barnes and Noble on the shelf for books recommended by store employees. The book has no synopsis on the back so it took me a few years to decide to read it.

I think if it did have a synopsis it would be simply this "the story of a boy who becomes a man - in a field of rakes". You know this image from cartoons -- the unfortunate character steps one direction onto a rake that snaps up and nails him in the face and when he turns to go another direction, another rake is there to hit him in the nose again. This book was 787 pages of agony. And yet --- I would read it again. I know, what am I thinking, right? But the book was thoroughly engaging and though you knew the worst would happen -- because it kept happening -- you hoped in each situation that this would be the time that it worked out for young John Huffam. But sadly, there would be 400 pages left with no story and so it continued through the whole book.

The Quincunx, by the way, is the five-pieced symbol on the cover of the book. It represents the five families that are players in the story.

Who would I recommend this book to? Anyone with a lot of patience for misery, an interest in the less-fortunates of 19th century London or the desire to completely escape into another era for a week or two as this book is quite a long read.

Until next time,
K


Buy The Quincunx on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Rerun Wednesday: Here Come the ABCs and 123s

K is traveling this week and so we will be revisiting some posts from the early days of WeBeReading ... this is a little one for the little ones.

One of our favorite things that did a great job of getting Z interested in letters and words is the fantastic They Might Be Giants' Here Come the ABCs video and cd. T and I were fans of TMBG in our younger days (and still are -- don't despair John and John!) so when we saw that they were putting out an ABCs album for the little ones, we were psyched! I think Z was about 18 months old when it came out so he was just about ready for some ABCs and we were in the market for kid music that wouldn't make us stick our fingers through our ears into our brains.

With such awesome tracks as "Go for G", "Pictures of Pandas Painting" and "Alphabet Lost and Found", there's something for everyone. As with all of They Might Be Giants' music, there's a lot of variety in the sounds and styles of each song so it doesn't get as tedious as some other sing-songy kids' music. And the best part is that it lets the young ones learn that letters and words are exciting -- and boy, are they!

Rocking to the ABCs,
K and Z

p.s. If you like this one, don't miss their second outing Here Come the 123s.


Buy Here Come the ABCs and Here Come the 123s on Amazon or find them at your local video store.

Rerun Tuesday: The Winter Queen

K is traveling this week and so we will be revisiting some posts from the early days of WeBeReading ... this is the first in a fantastic series.

"Chapter One -- in which an account is rendered of a certain cynical escapade". I'll admit that is not the first sentence of The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin. It's the first chapter heading -- but isn't it amazing? You don't even have to get past the chapter title to experience the fantastic writing of this book.

After giving up on The Mill on The Floss for now, I decided to go back and read The Winter Queen for a second time. It had been a while since I first read it (Amazon says I bought it in February 2005) which usually means that I can't remember much about it. It turned out that I remembered most of it but it was still throughly enjoyable this time through. Akunin is a fantastic writer and I also give credit to the translator of this book, Andrew Bromfield. He does an admirable job of translating this book from its native Russian.

The main character in The Winter Queen is a 20 year old clerk in the Moscow department of detectives in 1876. Erast Fandorin begins his adventure when he is assigned some investigatory work into the mildly suspicious suicide of a college student. This small and seemingly simple case leads Fandorin straight into the middle of a worldwide conspiracy. His life is constantly in danger but his intelligence and self-control help him to perserve in the most treacherous of situations.

This book was mentioned in my previous post about the best detectives around the world and it definitely deserves its place on the list. There are eleven books so far in the Russian series, 5 of which have been translated into English.

Moving on to another mystery,
K


Buy The Winter Queen on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Rerun Monday: The Chronicles of Chrestomanci

K is traveling this week and so we will be revisiting some posts from the early days of WeBeReading ... this is a nice little fantasy YA series ... there is also a book of short stories set in the same world called "Mixed Magics".

No, I'm sorry ... not The Chronicles of Narnia. Today we have The Chronicles of Chrestomanci! I discovered Diana Wynne Jones about a year ago when I was watching one of my favorite films, Hayao Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle". I noticed that the movie was based on one of her stories so I decided to read it. The book is not very similar to the movie but both are fantastic in their own ways. Then I read a sequel book to that one and was really enjoying her style of writing YA fantasy fiction so I picked up the first volume of The Chronicles of Chrestomanci in March. There are three volumes, each with two books from the series. I just finished reading all six books this past week.

First we have Charmed Life which is the story of a young boy named Eric "Cat" Chant. He is an orphan who lives with his forceful older sister, Gwendolen. They find some old letters of their parents' from Chrestomanci -- a very powerful enchanter who works with the government to manage the use of magic through various universes. Gwendolen writes to him and he decides to take the children back to his castle for their education. Gwendolen is excited because she has plans to be a famous witch. Cat doesn't think that he has the ability to do magic but as time passes, he discovers that someone he trusted may have been holding him back all along. This was a good story about a young boy who finds his own strength and learns to believe in himself. The world is not as complex as, say, the Harry Potter universe but it is very vivid and believable.

The second book is The Lives of Christopher Chant. This book is about another boy named Christopher Chant who has the ability to travel between universes. He is asked by his uncle to perform certain tasks in these worlds and he is enjoying himself and feeling important until he becomes suspicious of his uncle's motives. Eventually he meets the Chrestomanci of his time (a different man from the one we met in the first book) and has to decide to be loyal to his family or to stand up for what is right. Christopher is an entirely different sort of boy from Cat and this book greatly expanded the universe and also introduced us to many different universes and parallel worlds.

The second volume has two stories that are based in two of these other worlds. Chrestomanci only has a small (but significant) role in these two: The Magicians of Caprona and Witch Week. They are both about children who need to discover their own strengths and powers or face the end of their worlds. I didn't enjoy these stories as much as the ones in the main world, especially Witch Week. It just didn't seem to have the same flow as the rest.

The fifth book is Conrad's Fate which is about a young boy named Conrad and also the teenaged Christopher Chant. Both boys take menial jobs in a magical castle but have ulterior motives for why they are there. Eventually they trust each other and help each other in their quests. Christopher has become mature and cocky and yet is a positive influence on Conrad in some ways - if only by helping him find his confidence. Even though this story was set in a different world than the original one, it flowed with the first two.

Finally we have The Pinhoe Egg. This book focuses on the villages around Chrestomanci Castle and returns to the story of Cat Chant. There is some bad magic going on and it takes the strength of a few brave children to set everything right. I thought this was the best story of the bunch, with the most complex plot and the most character development.

This is a great series of YA fiction. It is in a world of magic but where magic is rather common place and isn't the main focus. It is all about empowerment for children that, for various reasons, have not been taught to believe in themselves. I have just read that there is one more collection of four short Chrestomanci stories called "Mixed Magics" that I will need to find. I have really enjoyed everything that I've read by Diana Wynne Jones so far and I hope that you will too!

Fantastic reading,
K


Buy The Chronicles of Chrestomanci Volume I, Volume II and Volume III on Amazon or find them at your local library.

Rerun Sunday: David Copperfield

K is traveling this week and so we will be revisiting some posts from the early days of WeBeReading ... the David Copperfield mini-series is reshowing on Masterpiece Classic right now. You can watch it online for a limited time as well.

"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show."

I didn't set out for my first two books in this favorites list to both be by Charles Dickens but I happened to watch a David Copperfield Masterpiece Theatre this past weekend and it has put me in the mood to discuss this book. This was written when Dickens was in his 30s and is thought to be his most autobiographical. This book contains one of the most lovable Dickens characters in Mr. Micawber and arguably (not really - it's a given) the most repulsive one -- Uriah Heep. It is hard to write a summary of a Dickens book because he writes about dozens of characters so I will give you the briefest one possible.

David is a boy who, as he says, is born "a posthumous child" -- after the death of his father. He lives a happy childhood with his mother and their servant Peggotty. When he is still young, his mother remarries a Mr. Murdstone who turns out to be the prototypical evil stepfather. David is sent away to school for a brief time and while he is there, his mother dies. Murdstone recalls him home and tells him that he is now on his own and sends him to London to work in a factory. Eventually he runs away from this horrible life to try his luck with his aunt, Miss Betsey Trotwood. She decides to take guardianship of him and this time he goes to Canterbury to study and become a gentleman and a man of business. Many sad and unfortunate things happen to him and those he loves but he constantly moves forward. Through all of this and through the following years, he retains his innocence and good nature even while coming into contact with treacherous and vile people. On the other hand, he is also rewarded with true friends and true love.

That seems like a very poor summary of the book because much of the value of it is in the well-written and diverse characters: Peggotty and her father Mr. Peggotty, Em'ly and Ham (Peggotty's cousins), Steerforth (David's school friend), Betsey Trotwood and her simple-minded friend Mr. Dick, the Micawber family that David lives with while he works in the factory in London, Mr. Wickfield and his daughter Agnes who David lives with when his aunt sends him to study, and finally the repulsive Uriah Heep. Each of these characters has something to add to the story which is why David, in starting the book, uses the words that he does -- that he may or may not be the hero of his own story.

This book is often overlooked because of the simple title and the prejudice against Dickens but it is really a fantastic story. If you aren't sure about it, I suggest that you watch the fantastic miniseries. It has Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) as the young David Copperfield and other stars of British cinema including Bob Hoskins, Maggie Smith and Ian McKellen.

Worshipping at the altar of Dickens,
K


Buy David Copperfield on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Poe Fridays: Lenore

This week's Poe entry is the poem, Lenore. I am going to simply post it here since it is fairly short.

Ah, broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever!
Let the bell toll! -a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river;
And, Guy De Vere, hast thou no tear? -weep now or never more!
See on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore!
Come! let the burial rite be read -the funeral song be sung! -
An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young -
A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.

"Wretches! ye loved her for her wealth and hated her for her pride,
And when she fell in feeble health, ye blessed her -that she died!
How shall the ritual, then, be read? -the requiem how be sung
By you -by yours, the evil eye, -by yours, the slanderous tongue
That did to death the innocence that died, and died so young?"

Peccavimus; but rave not thus! and let a Sabbath song
Go up to God so solemnly the dead may feel no wrong!
The sweet Lenore hath "gone before," with Hope, that flew beside,
Leaving thee wild for the dear child that should have been thy bride -
For her, the fair and debonnaire, that now so lowly lies,
The life upon her yellow hair but not within her eyes -
The life still there, upon her hair -the death upon her eyes.

Avaunt! tonight my heart is light. No dirge will I upraise,
But waft the angel on her flight with a paean of old days!
Let no bell toll! -lest her sweet soul, amid its hallowed mirth,
Should catch the note, as it doth float up from the damned Earth.
To friends above, from fiends below, the indignant ghost is riven -
From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven -
From grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of Heaven."

This is such a beautiful memorial poem and yet a powerful accusation, again with the theme of a young woman taken before her time -- something Poe experienced in his own life with the loss of his young wife Virginia. There is a very interesting study guide that you should check out if you want a short analysis of this poem. This poem was first written and titled The Paean in Poe's youth and then adjusted and renamed later.

Next week's Poe Fridays selection will be the very short story, The Sphinx.

Musing on youth and loss,
K

Book Prizes ... Do You Care?

Another book award list was announced today, the nominees for the Orange prize. A book I recently reviewed, The Invention of Everything Else, made the list and another that I intend to read, Girl in a Blue Dress, is on there as well.

My question for you is whether book prizes really make a difference in what you choose to read. I have to say that I will use them as exposure to titles I haven't heard of but the award process itself doesn't make me more or less likely to read a book. I don't participate in challenges that are just about reading award winners. My choice process is solely about what I would find to be an entertaining or fulfilling read. How about you?

Thinking all readers should get to present their own awards,
K

"The Italian lunged forward."

Frank Tallis' Vienna Blood is "Volume Two of the Liebermann Papers". I reviewed the first book in the series, A Death in Vienna, last December. The main characters are Liebermann, a Freud-trained psychoanalyst, and Rheinhardt, a police inspector. This time, they are investigating a set of seemingly unrelated murders that nevertheless seem to be perpetrated by the same maniac. This book also spends some time exploring the beginnings of the white supremacist movement in Austria and Germany at the turn of the century.

I enjoyed this book only slightly less than the first. The writing was still fantastic -- it was only the subject matter that bothered me a bit. The racial cleansing dialogues were not exactly to my taste. I do appreciate that they are part of Vienna's historical tapestry at this specific time but it still makes me angry and ill.

The amusing thing that Tallis continued in this book is the in-depth discussion of the various pastries available to the Viennese. He never fails to make me very hungry! I will definitely pick up the third book in this series, Fatal Lies, as soon as I have some free reading time.

Craving some sort of torte,
K


Buy Vienna Blood: A Novel on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Animal Fun in Small Doses

Z's favorite magazine right now is National Geographic Little Kids. Not only do they have access to the beautiful photography of the National Geographic archives, but they have the resources to put out a beautiful, colorful magazine every other month. They put a lot of focus on young animals and family units. Right now, Z's favorite part of Kids are the six collectable animal cards that come with the bi-monthly publication. We have a small photo album that we have made into his "scientist" book and he puts away the cards each time and looks through the whole album again. He knows almost as many species of animal as I do -- and I have a Zoology degree!

National Geographic also has a Kids magazine for ages 6 to 14 (10 issues a year) and a fantastic website for all kids.

Learning about obscure animals,
K and Z


Buy a subscription to National Geographic Little Kids or National Geographic Kids from the National Geographic Society for only $15 a year.

"...Never let your name be found in a dead man's trousers."

There are few stories more heartbreaking than those of children punished for the crimes of their parents. For the children of deposed royalty, there may not even be a specific crime but just a need to destroy the line of inheritance. The Black Tower by Louis Bayard is based on the "lost dauphin", the young son of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who supposedly died in the Black Tower at the age of ten after his parents were captured during the Revolution. There were hundreds of impostors later who claimed to be the now grown Louis XVII, actually spirited away before his reported death.

The Black Tower tells the story of a doctor, Hector Carpentier, who attended young Louis-Charles (Louis XVII) in the tower. Some of the story is told through the medical journal of Carpentier that details some of the actual purported mistreatments of the young boy. Carpentier's son, also Hector, is approached by a detective, Vidocq, when his name is found in a dead man's possession. It is of course actually his father that the man was looking for but the young doctor-in-training is intrigued and is pulled in to the investigation which leads to the discovery of the possible dauphin. This is a fantastic historical mystery with compelling characters and a real sense of loss. There is a heart-breaking scene between the would-be king and his older sister, the Duchess d'Angouleme.

I would love to know if Bayard plans on featuring Vidocq in another novel. He is a fantastic criminalist because he was once a criminal -- which is a very fascinating idea.

Steering clear of Madame Guillotine,
K

Sidenote: Yay! My 200th post and I'm having a lot of fun with this blog. Thanks to all my readers and I hope that I'm at least mildly entertaining sometimes. :)


Buy The Black Tower on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Upcoming Release: Distant Waves

I was looking for another book on Tesla and came across this soon-to-be-released YA book, Distant Waves: A Novel of the Titanic by Suzanne Weyn. Here's the blurb:

Science, spiritualism, history, and romance intertwine in Suzanne Weyn's newest novel. Four sisters and their mother make their way from a spiritualist town in New York to London, becoming acquainted with journalist W. T. Stead, scientist Nikola Tesla, and industrialist John Jacob Astor. When they all find themselves on the Titanic, one of Tesla's inventions dooms them...and one could save them.

This should be quite interesting as we know that Tesla was not actually on the Titanic. Stead and Astor IV actually did meet their ends on the Titanic though.

Distant Waves will be released on April 15 by Scholastic Press.

Waiting to see how it all fits together,
K


Buy Distant Waves: A Novel Of The Titanic on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Poe Fridays: The Fall of the House of Usher

I was so excited to get to re-read The Fall of the House of Usher this week. This is Poe at his best. Please go read it if you haven't before!

This is the story of the "House of Usher", both a physical house and a family line. The narrator describes it thusly --

I looked upon the scene before me - upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain - upon the bleak walls - upon the vacant eye-like windows - upon a few rank sedges - and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees - with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium - the bitter lapse into everyday life - the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart - an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime.

In this creepy and almost disgusting house, is the narrator's childhood friend, Roderick Usher, whom he has come to visit at Usher's request. What he finds in the house is a friend changed almost beyond recognition, a dying sister and a pervading sense of gloom and malice. Things escalate to a tragic end which our narrator narrowly escapes.

This story is perfect to show Poe's love of creating "atmosphere" in his stories. In fact, little of this story is actually plot but mostly description of the house, the grounds, the homeowner and the feelings that all of those things inspire. I found that this story worked best by imagining an actual narrator's voice. I could hear a morbid fascination, a smidge of panic and a tint of fear all come through. This is truly a well-crafted tale.

Next week's Poe read will be the poem Lenore.

Not the end of my family line,
K

Pop Into Fun

All young children enjoy pop-up books and Z was finally old enough this Christmas to receive two pop-up books of his own from his Gramma. These ones are fantastic books by Paul Stickland, a book illustrator.


First, we have Swim Little Fish! about a little yellow fish with some fun shimmery scales -- looking a bit like Rainbow Fish. He has to stay safe while passing an octopus, a shark, a manta ray, sea turtles and dolphins until he finally reaches his parent. The pop-outs are VERY large and bright. They are also quite sturdy and on thick cardstock so this would even be a good supervised read for younger kids.


Then we have Dinosaur Stomp! which is a cute book about dinosaurs heading to a dino dance. The dinosaurs are brightly colored and rather tame. This one is good for the excitement and the big teeth! I think that pop-up books are a great way to stimulate little minds and also to teach kids to be respectful of books. They lose the fun of the book if they don't take care of it. Z is really good with his pop-up books now!

Popping out for a read,
K and Z


Buy Swim Little Fish! here and Dinosaur Stomp! on Amazon.

"I am always drawn back to places where I have lived, the houses and their neighborhoods."

The first book I tackled for the 1% Well-Read Challenge is one I consider more of a short story at 111 pages -- Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's. After having watched the movie version with my very favorite Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly just short of a million times, I finally decided I had to read the story behind it all.

I was never overly fond of the plot of the movie -- I was much more in love with the glamour and Moon River and so many other little details -- but I am even less fond of the original story. It can all be summed up in this one passage (spoken almost verbatim in the movie between OJ Berman and "Fred") --

"So," he said, "what do you think: is she or ain't she?"
"Ain't she what?"
"A phony."
"I wouldn't have thought so."
"You're wrong. She is a phony. But on the other hand you're right. She isn't a phony because she's a real phony. She believes all this crap she believes. You can't talk her out of it."

I really feel that in the movie, the Holly Golightly character comes through more as a "real phony". She is strong on the outside but so damaged on the inside. I feel that in this story, she is more visibly damaged. I don't want to give anything away so I will just leave it at that but I would love to hear some other responses to this story.

Tanabata at In Spring it is the Dawn reviewed this story a few weeks ago.

After the same rainbow's end,
K


Buy Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories and Breakfast At Tiffany's on Amazon or find them at the local library.

Our Review Policy

As we here at WeBeReading start receiving more solicitations for reviews, I thought I would write this brief post of our review policies and standards.

First, our reading interests ...

K will read a variety of fiction except for most modern romance, true crime, military potboilers and chick lit. She prefers historical fiction, classic literature, mystery, international fiction and mild fantasy and science fiction (especially with some humor). She also doesn't mind a good youth or YA fantasy series. Sample authors: CJ Sansom, Salman Rushdie, Louis Bayard, Jasper Fforde, Neil Gaiman, Elizabeth Peters, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Matthew Pearl, Frank Tallis.

K also really likes a good non-fiction in the following categories -- science, nature, biography (some), history, music and travel. She doesn't read self-help or inspirational books and only rarely reads memoirs. Sample authors: Simon Winchester, Jane Goodall, E.O. Wilson, Rick Steves.

Z prefers the older level of picture books, early readers and some chapter books. Sample authors: Lauren Child, Kevin Henkes, Eric Carle, Mo Willems. He also likes non-fiction about science, nature, animals and music.


We will review any book that we agree to receive although we can't guarantee a glowing review of every book we read. We are all about honesty but also value tact. Unsolicited mailings will be evaluated on a case by case basis for review. We don't ever overschedule our reading because we want to enjoy books so we should always be able to post reviews in the requested timeframe. All adult reviews are also posted on LibraryThing.

You can contact us at webereading AT gmail DOT com.

Thanks to all the publicists for their hard work and we hope to make their job a little easier!

Back to the books,
K and Z

"Lightning first, then the thunder."

If you are in the mood for a historical fiction that is much heavier on the fiction than the history, try Samantha Hunt's novel about Nikola Tesla, The Invention of Everything Else. If you aren't familiar with Tesla, he was a very prolific scientist who, among other things, worked with electricity and had an awesome lightning lab in Colorado Springs. A version of the lab was featured in the Christian Bale/Hugh Jackman movie The Prestige with Nikola Tesla played by David Bowie.

This book incorporates Tesla's bizarre love of pigeons, his obsessive-compulsive disorder and his friendship with Samuel Clemens into a story about a man coming to terms with death. We also see a little bit of the rivalry with Thomas Edison, Tesla's former mentor. This story is actually focused on a young woman, Louisa, who is a maid at the Hotel New Yorker where Tesla lives at the end of his life. Louisa is a young woman always living in the shadow of her father's love for her dead mother. She goes to clean Tesla's room and starts reading his biographical papers and becomes interested in his past. This story took off in some pretty bizarre directions (think time travel) and was rather disjointed but it has inspired me to learn more about Tesla so I will be picking up a book that Hunt suggests -- Tesla: Man Out of Time by Margaret Cheney.

And for your viewing pleasure, here is the man himself, supposedly quite a favorite of the society ladies at the time even though he saved himself for science.



Inspired but left wanting more,
K


Buy The Invention of Everything Else and Tesla: Man Out of Time on Amazon or find them at your local library.

I wish today was a bit more like ...

... this picture, on a day much warmer than today.

Sprung forward,
K

(photograph by me)

Poe Fridays: The Angel of the Odd

This week's Poe short story is The Angel of the Odd, a story that I had never read before. This story has a new subject matter than we have read about so far but some of the same themes.

The narrator appears to be an "overindulger" who has ended up in a state of confusion after a night of heavy drinking. He takes umbrage at the amount of "odd" stories that appear in the newspapers and this triggers a visit from someone calling himself The Angel of the Odd who speaks with an exaggerated German accent. The angel takes credit for helping the odd events happen. Not surprisingly, the "angel" is made from a cask for a body, kegs for legs, wine bottles for arms and a flask and funnel for a head. The narrator then proceeds through a set of progressively "odd" events where "odd" would be a severe understatement.

This story is obviously built from Poe's own experiences as a drunk. It was laugh-out-loud funny for the most part but with a tinge of sadness at the pitiful state of the narrator. I don't know if Poe meant this story more as an explanation or an apology. I think maybe some of both.

For next week's Friday the 13th reading, I'm choosing a classic -- The Fall of the House of Usher. This is one of my favorites and I can't wait to read it again.

Setting down the drink,
K

Ruining the Mystery

Apparently it's not a good idea to watch a mystery movie before reading the story. I have watched most of the Poirot series on PBS and it happens that almost every one of these fourteen story in Agatha Christie's Poirot Investigates has been made into a television film. Therefore, when I started reading these stories, I would get through about the first page or two and think "oh yeah, this is the one where it's the wife" or "geez, the one on the oceanliner".

Though I normally like Christie's short stories for their paradoxically complex mysteries, this was just a painful experience! Next time I will pay more attention to which stories are in the book I choose.

Still thirsting for some mystery,
K


Buy Poirot Investigates on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Keeping Current

I wanted to take this post to draw your attention to one of my sidebar items that is also updated regularly with good book-y content. The "book-related news from faves.com" widget is some of the book news that I have noticed and found interesting recently. I have bookmarked articles about publishers, books, authors and also editorials and reviews from other sources. Here are some of my favorite recent items:

From The Guardian, Salman Rushdie on celluloid adaptations of novels

A literacy charity that has a great multi-faceted approach, Room to Read

From CNN.com, 10 stories behind Dr. Seuss stories

From The Guardian, Victorian novels helped us evolve into better people, say psychologists

So don't forget to check out some of the news in the world of books!

Reading more than just books themselves,
K

"The square onto which the windows of the district court looked out was already almost completely empty by this hour in the early evening."

Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk is the second book translated to English in Boris Akunin's series about a young nun who is incredibly adept at gymnastics and solving crimes. I read the first book in the series, Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog, just over a year ago and really enjoyed it. This book had many of the same features that attracted me to the first novel.

The setting of this series of mysteries is rural Russia, I believe in the early 1900s because this second book (which takes place directly after the first) references the work of Madame Curie which was first published in 1898. The mysteries in both of these books are very well formed and not at all predictable. In this current novel, a spectral "black monk" is appearing at a hermitage in their district, provoking hysteria and even death. After unsucessful investigations by three other people, Sister Pelagia eventually takes it on herself to travel to this monastery and solve the mystery. She is quite amusing in that, in both books, she takes on the persona of a Muscovite widow and dresses in the latest fashions, pretending to be a layperson. In this one she also adds a second disguise -- a young male monk.

Some of the more interesting parts of these books are not in the narratives at all but in the religious discussions between Sister Pelagia and her mentor, Bishop Mitrofanii. It is very intriguing to get a glimpse of Russian Orthodoxy about 100 years ago. More in the first book than this second one, there is quite a bit of information about rural political structure in Russia which is also interesting. These books are fantastic as both historical studies and mysteries. I again must complement Akunin's English translator, Andrew Bromfield, as I have ready many a poor translation from Russian.

The third book in the series, Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel, comes out in August.

Loving a dark Russian mystery,
K


Buy Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Bugs and Mothers and Motherly Bugs

Z is incredibly obsessed with Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends at the moment, thanks to Noggin On Demand and Noggin.com. So, we're taking advantage of this and getting him books at the library like Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Kids and Miss Spider's Tea Party. At Barnes & Noble the other night, we picked up a copy of Little Miss Spider, the chronologically first Miss Spider book by David Kirk.

This book tells about Miss Spider's search for her mother and eventual adoption by Betty, a beetle. The final stanza of this poetic book is incredibly sweet --

For finding your mother,
There's one certain test.
You must look for the creature
Who loves you best.

This would be a fantastic gift for any young child and would be especially good for young adopted children. A mother's love isn't based on biology but on choosing who you want to be with.

Always enjoying our time together,
K and Z


Buy Little Miss Spider on Amazon or find it at your local library.