Agatha Christie died in 1976. So how could she be publishing a collection of new Miss Marple stories in 2022? Did she leave them behind, only to be discovered four decades later and published posthumously? That’s certainly what a glance… Read More ›
Books
Who cares about the burning of the library at Alexandria?
“At least half of what Sagan says about history is outright false, but his authority is still seemingly unimpeachable today, forty-two years after the programme first aired.” So says the distinguished “Kiwi Hellenist”, Peter Gainsford, who is a classicist from New… Read More ›
It’s Magpie Murders, not The Magpie Murders!
Yes, the definite article makes a difference…not because we’re being pedantic, but because we’re being attentive to anagrams and acrostics. Here’s the problem: I’m talking, of course, about the recent PBS Masterpiece series by Anthony Horowitz, titled Magpie Murders, as… Read More ›
The Department of Rare Books…
Speaking of women in libraries…this seems to be the time of year to read and review books about women in libraries, especially mysteries about them. After The Woman in the Library, my next example is The Department of Rare Books… Read More ›
Shy (the book, not the song)
“Everyone should marry a gay man at least once,” says Mary Rodgers (better known as the daughter of Richard Rodgers, but an important figure in her own right, and not just for Once Upon a Mattress) on page 128 of… Read More ›
What is Jewish Noir?
According to Wikipedia, film noir comprises “stylish crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations.” So, what then is Jewish Noir? Moving the medium from film to short stories, we get a series (two books so far) edited by… Read More ›
And Justice for Mall
Yet another entertaining Jersey Girl mystery by E.J. Copperman. This is the fourth. Although we’re firmly out in SoCal at this point, there are still enough reminders of her Jersey origins that you won’t forget where Sandy Moss, the protagonist,… Read More ›
Every Last Fear
Ordinarily you would never expect me to want to read a book with that title. Ordinarily I would never expect to want to read a book with that title. But it had been recommended to me by a reader I… Read More ›
The woman in the library handed me The Woman in the Library.
This is the second time in less than a month that I’ve had to use typography to disambiguate the title of a post. This is the better of the two examples, both because it contains the very same phrase twice… Read More ›
Revisiting Jane Langton
No, not revisiting her in person: she died four years ago, and I had never met her. The title of this post means that I have just finished rereading two of her Homer Kelly novels. If you know the first… Read More ›
The library had Something to Hide.
No, no. The typography is wrong in that title: it should be “The library had Something to Hide,” not “The library had something to hide.” Something to Hide is the latest novel by Elizabeth George; I had to wait for… Read More ›
Have you read For Whom the SUV Rolls and Farewell to Legs?
Those two titles may remind you slightly of a couple of books by some guy named Hemingway, who was famous mostly for his many six-toed cats. Actually, however, I cheated slightly: the first title is really For Whom the Minivan… Read More ›
What did you read in high-school English?
Just over three months ago I wrote a post about the pros and cons of my high-school experience. One paragraph, in the list of cons, focused on what my classmates and I read in my English classes: When I asked… Read More ›
This philosopher explained Donald Trump before Trump ever became president.
Not only before he became president, but even before he had won the Republican nomination, in fact. Nevertheless, the explanation still holds today. The philosopher in question is Professor Aaron James, head of the philosophy department at UC Irvine. The… Read More ›
A “newish” Agatha Christie…plus a golden oldie
There was, of course, no doubt: I had to watch the 2018 BBC adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Ordeal by Innocence, even though I hadn’t (and still haven’t) read the original. The movie is adapted from a 1958 novel, one of… Read More ›
Nasty, brutish, and short
If you don’t recognize the title of this post, it probably means that you didn’t pay attention in your college philosophy class! Or perhaps your professor just didn’t teach you about Hobbes (that’s Thomas Hobbes, not Calvin and). That’s right,… Read More ›
It’s not Hillbilly Elegy. Fortunately.
Let’s suppose Hillbilly Elegy were a novel, i.e. fiction. And suppose its author, J.D. Vance, were an honest writer. Then Hillbilly Elegy would turn into Lady Chevy. Of course Hillbilly Elegy is actually a memoir, not a novel. And J.D…. Read More ›
He moved up in the world (from Providence to Brattleboro), changed his name, and then…
And then he became the murder victim in Archer Mayor’s latest novel, Marked Man. Of course “moving up in the world” is a matter of opinion; I don’t mean that he moved north, although he definitely did do that. No… Read More ›
No pirates. And it’s not in Penzance. But it’s nearby: It’s Death in Cornwall.
What, I wonder, draws me to the Celtic languages and Celtic lands, when I’ve never even been there and speak none of those languages? Irish, Manx, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish…all are missing from my language repertoire. And I’ve never visited… Read More ›
The books of the century (Which century? The 20th, of course!)
You’re surely wondering which books were the most influential, or most popular, or most important in the 20th Century. Fortunately, Daniel Immerwahr has done the work for you. “Who’s he when he’s at home?” you’re asking. Well, in his own… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 