[mc4wp_form id="1782"]

Tag: new

Posted on

Book Review: Drive!

Stuck in mud

201605_goldstone_driveDrive!: Henry Ford, George Selden, and the Race to Invent the Auto Age by Lawrence Goldstone

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A useful history I will return to again and again. Taking the 30,000-foot view, with plenty of details to give the history a personal feel. With the wide-angle overview approach, however, the story moves along without becoming bogged down in details most readers won’t be looking for in such a book. Goldstone weaves the early history of automobiles into a highly readable account, creating a very straight-forward narrative arc, though historical topics are anything but. Highly recommend to those interested in the later Industrial Revolution, early 20th-century history, and of course, car nuts.

If you’re looking at Lawrence Goldstone’s name and thinking it looks familiar, he and his wife wrote at least three excellent memoirs about bibliophiles and the rare book trade — that was my introduction to him as a writer.

This book was provided to me via NetGalley for review.

View all my GoodReads reviews

WHY NOT SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER?

Posted on

To new beginnings

Notebook and coffee

This is definitely not my first blog post.

I had a blog about book collecting and bibliophilia for many years over on blogger.  I’m active over on tumblr too, but that isn’t so much blogging as a constant stream of amusing/pretty/cool stuff.  I post a lot of photos and quotes and things I happen to like, (i.e. typewriters. I love me some typewriters.)  It’s more immediate too, so there will be music links and funny memes, you know, tumblr stuff. Here, I’ll share links to articles, tools, and especially historic research resources I find helpful.  I may occasionally post music to write to, or cool images.

Here, I’ll talk about my research, my writing, whatever I’m working on as I progress toward my writing goals.  What are those goals?  Well, in the short-term, I’ve managed to get a piece of flash-fiction placed with cool series from Akashic Books.  Next is to finish another short (but longer than flash) piece and get it placed somewhere.  Longer term, I’m working on what I’m seeing as a novella series, and then another series of full-length novels.  Both series are historic thrillers/mysteries. One of those series grabbed me by the collar and is dragging me along.

What I’m working on now: a novella set in and around 1930s Denver. I was not alive in the 1930s nor have I lived in Denver, so there’s some research to do.  This story also features a main character who I think will be a series character.  Anyway, the short has been a lot of fun, using info I’ve dug up previously, but haven’t used.

I’ve gotten to know the main character  in this one pretty well.  He first appeared as a supporting cast member of my first attempt at a novel back in 2007 or so.  Through edits, rewrites, and dumping the whole thing and starting over a couple times, he’s emerged as one of the two main characters of that novel — he was too fascinating, and too much fun to hang out with compared to my original main character.

Why not subscribe to my newsletter?

Anyway, thanks for reading.  No spoilers, but amazing poster served as a bit of inspiration this week:

h0849-l93439607

Posted on

Book Review: The Murder of Mary Russell by Laurie R. King

 

 I’ve just finished The Murder of Mary Russell.  Wow.  It’s … fantastic. I get nervous with Laurie R King’s new books in her beloved Mary Russell – Sherlock Holmes series.  This is book 14 of the long-running series.  Sure, I love some books of the series better than others … but this book was marvelous and absolutely the follow-up I needed (as a fan) after Dreaming Spies, Garment of Shadows, and (deep breath), The Pirate King.
After a deadly confrontation, readers are drawn through the history of one of Sherlock Holmes’s earliest cases and the true background of the fascinating Mrs. Hudson(!), and the true nature of her relationship to Sherlock.   We even get a bit of King’s take on a Sherlock Holmes not long before his arrival at Baker Street.  I know I could read a *lot* more in that vein.  Maybe someday King will give us a little more.
About half-way through this latest of the series, I had an idea that though I was enjoying it, The Murder of Mary Russell would only appeal to the die-hard fans of Mary Russell and maybe those true completists of Sherlock pastichery.  And a few unbranded #histofic mavericks.  After all, we’re delving deep — real deep, into the supporting cast of the series, usually territory for only the most devout readers of fanfic and scholars of minutia.  However, after that half-way mark (or so), all that build up became more and more meaningful, reaching deep into the story of King’s Sherlock, which incidentally, is among my favorite interpretations.
We’re also (mostly) but not entirely back in London and Sussex for this tale.  If you’re among the legions of King’s readers who love the globe-trotting nature of Russell and Holmes’s lives, you shouldn’t feel too cooped up, after sojourns at sea and a bit of time in Australia during the days of Transportation and gold.
So, a spoiler free review, given how little I can tell you, given that title.  Yikes.  Read The Murder of Mary Russell and see how the world of Sherlock and Mary Russell is changed forever.
Disclosure: I received a free advance ebook copy for review.

WHY NOT SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER?

.
Posted on

Book Review: Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye

Book Review: Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye

“Reader, I murdered him…., A reimagining of Jane Eyre as a gutsy, heroic serial killer….”
With a lead-in like that, I had high expectations.  That and this is Lyndsay Faye we’re talking about, the creator of the marvelous Timothy Wilde series, and the one who finally gave us a gripping account of Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper that frankly is better than anything Conan Doyle would have come up with.  
Jane Steele is a fun, action-filled homage to the Gothic triple deckers of the Victorian age.  It has the classic tropes:  Girl orphaned young, named Jane, abused by the wealthier kinfolk she lives with, sent away to horror-show school and becomes governess …  I go into books labeled ‘reimaginings’ with gun-shy wariness.  Like satire, it can be a fine line between brilliant and obnoxious, too cute or cloying.  Steele is not a satire of the genre, but it is sly and winking, more like a quiet unspoken joke between old friends.   Jane Steele is even published as a triple decker — thankfully under one cover.  It’s action-filled and just tons of fun with some great characters I deeply hope to see again.    
Steele, is also unflinching from the ugliness in ugly people, and hardships of the time.  Some of that ugliness is only hinted at in those classic Gothic novels we love, but here if someone is a sexual predator, it’s said/shown.    
Anyone shying away from the ‘serial killer’ tag — I think it’s not used well here.  Jane Steele isn’t a serial killer.  More like a vigilante, or frankly just someone who lives in hard place during a hard time.  The violence is largely unflinching, but far from Tarantino-esque.  This isn’t a cozy knitting mystery, but I think the majority of readers won’t be put off by the violence.
Faye’s descriptions are gold, building tension then giving readers that pinching little twist of anticipation making payoffs that much sweeter.  Book to book, she just gets better and better.
Posted on

Book Review: The Infidel Stain by MJ Carter

 

It’s been three years since Jeremiah Blake and bibliophile William Avery teamed up in India for what was one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read recently (The Strangler Vine) — getting in on the ground floor as it were of a new series.  The Infidel Stain takes us to London in the early 1840s, into the orbit of publishers and pornographers, dissidents and rebels.  Oh, and of course, murder.  It’s one of those novels that just oozes with atmosphere of dank and dark London, after a terrifying time in the dangerous jangals of India. Our heroes have become something of celebrities given their encounter with Xavier Mountstuart.  We learn a little more about the mysterious Jeremiah Blake’s background in this novel, which was interesting, to say the least.  We don’t get much more of Avery, which I would have enjoyed.  Maybe the only thing I’d have expected was that ardent bibliophile William Avery, on a rare visit to The City would indulge himself in a visit to a bookshop.

Historically rich, and textured, a thriller that had me reading late in huge gulps.

Ok, an admission: I liked the first book better.  But with reports of Blake & Avery 3 well underway, I can’t wait to see what happens next. This book was published as The Printer’s Coffin in the United Kingdom.

Like this?  Subscribe to my newsletter.

Posted on

Book Review: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

station_eleven_cover
We read Station Eleven aloud, and … wow.  My partner now wants to read more post-apocalyptic stuff (I recommended: Alas, Babylon).  We follow the intertwining strands of several people’s lives who experience a nearly extinction level pandemic in the near future.  I didn’t find it overly gruesome the way some books in the genre go, though there is death and injury, and other unsettling events, as anyone would expect.  The book does a lot of slipping and sliding in the timeline, but these shifts are handled deftly by Emily St John Mandel.  The post-apocalyptic chapters and scenes largely take place 20 years after the pandemic, which is very interesting.  If you’re at all interested, I know you’ll look at more reviews, and have probably already heard of this book.  I’m just adding my voice to the choir singing its praises.  It’s a creepy, beautiful, touching story about family, survival, and at its core: art.  I loved it.

Enjoy this post?  Why not subscribe to my newsletter?