A repost of reviews for the “mystery” theme that inaugurated The Bibliophagic Society book club.
The Big Over Easy, by Jasper Fforde: I chose to read this book first because it was the only title to appear on two different lists. I’d read the first two books of the Thursday Next series before and found [...]
Needless to say, the unreliable narrator has become a much more familiar convention to me, but I still admire the way that Ishiguro explores the layers of self-deception we use to protect ourselves.
[When We Were Orphans, by Kazuo Ishiguro]
What’s cool and disturbing about Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans (another book, which I read during the [...]
The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle, by Catherine Webb: Pei Yi and I had a book swap, where I sent her Ted Chiang’s short story anthology, and she sent me this book by Catherine Webb. Lucky for me because as far as I can tell, the Horatio Lyle books aren’t published in [...]
I’ve been dragging my feet on posting here for nearly a year now because I haven’t had the time to face down the immense backlog of books, and I have this irrational compulsion to review books in chronological order. Sometimes I think my life would be a lot simpler if I weren’t so neurotic. [...]
The following books were read from January to March 2006.
Bridget Jones’s Diary, by Helen Fielding: I’ve seen Bridget Jones referenced obliquely so many times—in magazine articles, in the Very Secret Diaries, in passing conversations—that reading the actual book was somewhat of an anticlimax. I suppose it also didn’t help that I had watched the movie [...]
The following books were read in December 2005.
Cut to the Quick, by Kate Ross: The first of the Julian Kestrel mysteries featuring a Regency dandy as the detective. When you hear such a premise, the sort of protagonist brought to mind is a flippant, well-dressed wit whose trivial façade hides a sharp intellect. In a [...]
I haven’t updated this blog since last October, due to considerable laziness on my part. But that doesn’t mean I’ve abandoned it, and I shall try my best over the next few days to catch up on the backlog. In this post, some notes on the books I read from October to November [...]
Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett: Another Ankh-Morpork novel along the lines of The Truth, i.e. a look into the chaos that explodes when the Discworld equivalent of a modern-day convenience develops. Vetinari at his absolute best here. There’s definitely a gentle parody of that 50s film stereotype of the con man who ends [...]
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling: I bet it’s still not safe to post spoilers. What I will say is that The Half-Blood Prince has replaced The Prisoner of Azkaban as my favorite in the series. I’m sure some people will violently disagree with me (especially due to the, er, [...]
I finished these books last month. My reactions have muted with time, so I’ll try to note down quickly my most memorable impressions.
Claudius the God, by Robert Graves: I’ve been meaning to read Claudius the God ever since I finished I, Claudius two years ago, and finally I’ve gotten around to borrowing it from Lamont. [...]