If you regularly see my Facebook status in your News Feed, you may have noticed that it said “I’m lost in Lexicon right now…” on October 17. This status confused some of my students. One of them asked, “How did… Read More ›
Books
Betty Webb
Do read Betty Webb’s fascinating and informative “Desert” mysteries about the world of fundamental polygamists in the southwest. So far I’ve read Desert Wives, Desert Noir, and (most recently) Desert Lost, all of which I can recommend. Please note that the… Read More ›
Bruno, Chief of Police
You’ve heard Martin Walker on NPR. His peaceful mystery — Bruno, Chief of Police — is well worth reading if you want to bathe in a mixture of French politics, small-town French life, and a host of interesting characters. Despite some… Read More ›
Dirty Blonde
In my previous reviews of two of Lisa Scottoline’s legal thrillers (Daddy’s Girl and Lady Killer) I wrote about Scottoline’s treatment of the world of Italian Catholic working-class South Philadelphia, families, law, and justice. Dirty Blonde (notice a theme here… Read More ›
Alice I Have Been and Dreamchild
I suppose you would have to label it historical fiction, as the novel Alice I Have Been is actually a fictionalized autobiography or memoir. Like all historical fiction, it is faithful to the letter and the spirit of the known… Read More ›
Linguistics, mathematics, and mysteries
“I make order out of chaos.” This is how an old friend whom I hadn’t seen in years explains her transition from linguistics to statistics, when people think it’s a complete change of field. It’s how she explains it to… Read More ›
The King of Lies
During the last few months I read two interesting novels by John Hart: The Last Child, which I believe is his newest, and The King of Lies, which is definitely his first. It’s not really clear why I read them… Read More ›
Mathematician’s Lament
“Mental acuity of any kind comes from solving problems yourself, not from being told how to solve them.” So says Paul Lockhart, and I couldn’t agree more. It’s great having cooperative students who will correctly follow directions in solving problems… Read More ›
Lady Killer
The setting of Lisa Scottoline’s Lady Killer feels authentic to me, but that judgment certainly doesn’t come from first-hand experience. Unlike my previous review (of My Latest Grievance, where the family, the location, and the social milieu are all familiar… Read More ›
My Latest Grievance
The first page of Elinor Lipman’s 2006 novel, My Latest Grievance, grabbed my attention immediately: Of the five main characters, narrator and protagonist Frederica Hatch is a sophomore at Brookline High School. Two of the others — Frederica’s parents — are… Read More ›
Meeting across the River
Meeting across the River has a truly unusual and creative premise for a collection of 20 short stories. Its subtitle, Stories Inspired by the Haunting Bruce Springsteen Song, reveals the premise: every story (each by a different author) was inspired… Read More ›
The Meaning of Everything
Like many other books that I enjoy, Simon Winchester’s non-fiction opus, The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, won’t appeal to everyone. But if you’re interested in words — and the development of the English language… Read More ›
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The late Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a quirky and fascinating novel. It is at once a thriller, a character study, and a political exploration — all taking place in Sweden. The lead character, Lisbeth Salander,… Read More ›
The Bookwoman's Last Fling
Here I am, continuing my efforts to catch up on some of the books I read in 2009. I’ll turn my attention now to writing a capsule review of John Dunning’s The Bookwoman’s Last Fling. As a bibliophile, I’ve had… Read More ›
Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Yes, this is a bizarre title for a novel. But a novel it is. And it continues one of the themes suggested in yesterday’s post: the extraordinary but still believable teenager. Many readers found Marisha Pessl’s narrator (and hence this… Read More ›
The Last Child
Part mystery and part thriller, John Hart’s absorbing novel, The Last Child, is well worth reading. Actually, more than a mystery or a thriller, it’s a portrait of an extraordinary 13-year-old boy, a mother, and a police detective, all caught… Read More ›
The Writing Class
The Writing Class, by Jincy Willett, might make a good companion volume to The Jane Austen Book Club. Though much lighter — with no pretense of being serious literature — this mystery novel also deals with a group of adult… Read More ›
The Jane Austen Book Club: the book and the movie
Two and a half years ago I read Karen Joy Fowler’s novel, The Jane Austen Book Club, and I am surprised that I didn’t write a review of it at the time. I no longer remember why. Perhaps I was… Read More ›
Roadside Crosses
Although Jeffery Deaver’s Roadside Crosses is far from one of his best novels, it’s still worth reading — or listening to on audiobook, as I did. As with all of his works, the plotting is clever, starting with an opening… Read More ›
The Catch
Apparently I’m reviewing one of Archer Mayor’s novels each year. I see that I wrote about St. Alban’s Fire on February 3, 2007; and I wrote about The Second Mouse on March 8, 2008. Unfortunately I have to report that… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 