Reviews Written By: A2ZBQBABWUM52Mprovided by Amazon.com |
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 | The Fox's Walk | |
 | "Beautiful Literary Fiction" | 2009-01-26 |
| As a quick synopsis, a young girl is left behind by her parents in Southern Ireland during World War One, under the care of an autocratic Grandmother and an inconsistent, kind Grand Aunt. The current of the book is of a child's discovery of family and of an Anglo-Irish way of life, just as that way of life spirals down into the Rising, the Troubles, and the end of Edwardian norms.
This is a book about language and culture, not description of natural beauty or of compelling, fast-paced conflict and action. First, the voice of the child is far too nuanced and the language too subtle - rather it is a voice of a sixty year old woman looking back at her childhood through the imprint of her life, and of her class. Children are actually much more physical, and visceral than this little girl. But, the point the author brings us is not child-like verisimilitude, but is the narration, and the grace of the words that the child / woman uses to tell us of her life. Second, this book is about discovery. The principle vocation of the girl is to deduce how things work in this adult world, not to be a child - and so this book is less of a coming-of-age than it is an implication of an era. Some minor problems - the interwoven history of Ireland is less compellingly portrayed than the movement of the family towards its destiny. In fact, the first painting of Irish context for the book occurs shortly into the first chapter and is a jarring right turn. Second, the book peaks with a scene of action, well prepared and even expected, but the book has so little description of movement and action in it that the culminating moment doesn't have as much force and drama as it could. Why should you read this book? - because it is about a time we will never see again, because it is true in what it says about human beings, and because it speaks to us in an elegant stately voice that is a pleasure to hear. Characterization: B Plot: B Dialogue: A Craft: A Language: A All rights reserved, Scott Jones, posted also on our personal website | ||
 | The Winter Queen : A Novel | |
 | "Stylized, Old Fashioned Mystery - But the Russians Take It Away from the Brits" | 2008-12-28 |
| Written in a style like Lermentov or Turgenev, placed in Czarist Russia, and with a super-bright, accident-prone hero. The research on this one is stunning. What's not to like? Plot: B Dialogue: B Characterisation: B Research: A Style and Craft: A Believability (the amount of willing suspense of disbelief required): C | ||
 | The Winter Queen : A Novel | |
| "Stylized, Old Fashioned Mystery - But the Russians Take It Away from the Brits" | 2008-12-28 |
| Written in a style like Lermentov or Turgenev, placed in Czarist Russia, and with a super-bright, accident-prone hero. The research on this one is stunning. What's not to like? Plot: B Dialogue: B Characterisation: B Research: A Style and Craft: A Believability (the amount of willing suspense of disbelief required): C | ||
 | The Winter Queen | |
| "Stylized, Old Fashioned Mystery - But the Russians Take It Away from the Brits" | 2008-12-28 |
| Written in a style like Lermentov or Turgenev, placed in Czarist Russia, and with a super-bright, accident-prone hero. The research on this one is stunning. What's not to like? Plot: B Dialogue: B Characterisation: B Research: A Style and Craft: A Believability (the amount of willing suspense of disbelief required): C | ||
 | Braun KF600 Impressions 10-Cup Thermal Coffeemaker, Brushed Stainless Steel | |
| "This is an exact replacement" | 2008-07-03 |
| For us, this is close to a perfect machine - it avoids paper filters which soak up the oils that contribute the sublety to coffee taste, and it holds coffee warm for long periods without continuing to cook it. We replaced a two year old pot with exactly the same model, after researching it through again. We don't rate it a 4 or 5 for two reasons. A twelve cupper would be better for us, rather than 10. Also, the previous pot's heater failed mysteriously. When we flipped the machine over to open it up to look for a fault, we discovered very strange plastic fasteners that are not obvious to work. The old pot is sitting in the garage waiting for a rainy day to try and decode, so we can get in to it to repair it. So, 10 cup rather than 12, unexpected burnout at 2 years, no obvious way for the consumer to get into the guts. | ||
 | The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court | |
 | "Great research, good effort, reads like the Washington Post" | 2008-07-02 |
| Depth: B Style: C Content: B Research: A Historical Impact: D Woodward and Armstrong write a tale of 7 years and 14 Supreme Court judges. To actually write the book, and to access dozens of law clerks and judges, and to amass huge documentation is in itself the feat of the book. The Supreme Court has been the most sheltered of all public institutions with only trifles of coverage before. The book does portray the quirks of the judges, the key decisions of each year, the infighting and the peculiarities of an institution founded on politics yet delivering fundamental cultural dictates. W and A fall down on two points - first, this is not a history book, but a retro-newspaper account. The two can't help but fall into the mode of journalists (which they tacitly state in the intro). This is not a book by Foote, Sandburg, Tuchman, or any other great historian. Secondly, in style they go year by year, day by day practically, without developing any great over-arching themes, lessons, keys, or even predictions. Toobin's recent book "The Nine" is actually sounder and more stylistic due to Toobin's political analysis and book writer's flair. It is clear that the authors despise Warren Burger, and their portrayal of him is of a petty, manipulative man with little integrity. Other accounts will have to be checked to see if the man is actually so unredeemed. all rights reserved - Scott Jones | ||
 | The Unconsoled | |
| "Dream State" | 2008-04-05 |
| The Unconsoled, by Kazuo Ishiguro is a nightmare of a novel, and I mean that in the nicest way. Everyone has a variation of these dreams: You're approaching end-of-semester finals and realize you've forgotten to attend one course, but being too embarrassed to admit it, plan to take the test anyway - if you can find the classroom. It's opening night of a production and, although you missed all the rehearsals, have no idea what you're supposed to do and everyone's mad at you, you're still expected to perform. It's important that you reach a destination, but no matter where you turn, there's an obstacle in place to thwart your progress. This, in essence, is the situation for the novel's protagonist, Ryder. He has arrived in a city to perform a concert. Oddly, everyone in town expects a speech from him that will somehow save the town's cultural growth. Everywhere he turns, he meets strangers who ask special favors of him. Or are they strangers? With every step he takes, he finds himself further and further off track. When he finally insists on following his own agenda, he finds his efforts wasted. Although not classified as science fiction, there are certainly elements of the fantastic interspersed throughout the novel. I was alternately intrigued, impatient, and amused, but never bored. | ||
 | Thunderstruck | |
| "Surprising Connections" | 2008-04-05 |
| Thunderstruck, by Erik Larson, reviewed by Sandy Once again Erik Larson manages to weave two seemingly unrelated stories into one compelling and suspenseful narrative. A work of non-fiction, Larson paints a graphic picture of England between 1900 and 1910, during the short reign of Edward VII. The beloved Queen Victoria is dead, the memory of Jack the Ripper still sends shivers up the spine, new inventions create both fascination and fear, and there is the threat of war against Germany. Against this backdrop, Guglielmo Marconi brings his wireless invention to London and begins the long process of proving the validity of wireless telegraphy, finding funding, and attaining his goal of sending wireless messages across the Atlantic. There are many competitors with greater scientific background than Marconi, and he has made some enemies who would delight in seeing his comeuppance. This alone would make a fascinating story, but the addition of a murder mystery heightens the suspense. Hawley Crippen, trained in homeopathy, has come to London to further his career in the development of patent medicines. His bugged eyes accentuated by thick glasses and his gentle, soft-spoken manner make him a man easily passed over. His wife, Cora, having unsuccessfully pursued fame in musical shows in America, eventually joins him in London. She takes the stage name of Belle, and again tries her hand a variety shows. A large, voluptuous woman, her public demeanor is one of great cheer and friendliness. Few are aware of her bouts of unreasonable anger directed at her husband. When Belle suddenly disappears, her friends doubt the story Crippen gives, and once Scotland Yard gets involved, a murder victim is discovered - or rather, various parts of. What remains cannot be identified as male or female, but there are clues. Could this be Belle? Is it possible that the meek Crippen is capable of such a methodical and thorough dismemberment? And how on earth do these two stories become one? Read for yourself. This a book you want to buy and pass on to friends. | ||
 | The Celts | |
 | "Not much archeological record, a lot of surmise" | 2008-03-26 |
| Mr. Herm is German, and a professional documentary film maker. He tells an intriguing tale of a Indo-European people called the Celts, closely related to the Italians. The Celt set of languages was also closely related to Latin, and the Celt history was one of constant expansion, and forced migration. Ultimately though, this book is flawed, because no one speaks for the Celt except the Celtic enemy. Because the Celts maintained all their governance, history and religion in a spoken language, their culture is essentially lost to us. What remains are Roman accounts of the Celts, and this is a book about Roman campaigns against the Celts. Blow this one off unless you're doing research out of the library. | ||
 | Alexander Nevsky | |
| "Xenophobia, and a desire to get in with Stalin" | 2007-09-06 |
| Alexander Nevsky has a huge and undeserved reputation as a film. As a film, it is a tour de force of editing and montage - the cinematography for the time is absolutely stunning, and is set among scenes that give the film its mythic properties. However, the score by Sergei Prokofiev wobbles from very good (nearly as compelling as the ballets) to laughable. It's the film's overwhelming political context that kills it, however.
Eisenstein made this film to please Stalin. As such, it is xenophobic, Rus in the extreme, and portrays the Russians as surrounded by hated and unredeemable enemies. This is the usual us-versus-them that justifies dictatorship. The speeches and posturing are all you would expect of government dominated art. this review also submitted to netflix | ||
 | Alexander Nevsky | |
| "Xenophobia, and a desire to get in with Stalin" | 2007-09-06 |
| Alexander Nevsky has a huge and undeserved reputation as a film. As a film, it is a tour de force of editing and montage - the cinematography for the time is absolutely stunning, and is set among scenes that give the film its mythic properties. However, the score by Sergei Prokofiev wobbles from very good (nearly as compelling as the ballets) to laughable. It's the film's overwhelming political context that kills it, however. Eisenstein made this film to please Stalin. As such, it is xenophobic, Rus in the extreme, and portrays the Russians as surrounded by hated and unredeemable enemies. This is the usual us-versus-them that justifies dictatorship. The speeches and posturing are all you would expect of government dominated art. this review also submitted to netflix | ||
 | Alexander Nevsky | |
| "Xenophobia, and a desire to get in with Stalin" | 2007-09-06 |
| Alexander Nevsky has a huge and undeserved reputation as a film. As a film, it is a tour de force of editing and montage - the cinematography for the time is absolutely stunning, and is set among scenes that give the film its mythic properties. However, the score by Sergei Prokofiev wobbles from very good (nearly as compelling as the ballets) to laughable. It's the film's overwhelming political context that kills it, however. Eisenstein made this film to please Stalin. As such, it is xenophobic, Rus in the extreme, and portrays the Russians as surrounded by hated and unredeemable enemies. This is the usual us-versus-them that justifies dictatorship. The speeches and posturing are all you would expect of government dominated art. this review also submitted to netflix | ||
 | The Valiant Sailors (Stuart, V. a. Phillip Hazard Novels, No. 1.) | |
| "Good action yarn, not world class" | 2007-08-02 |
| VA Stuart knows the Crimean war and has researched it well. Her hero is believable and likeable. The love interest is a bit soapy, but the action is fine, developing a drama and a tension that makes this type of fiction (military novel). The sole fault I would have with the writing itself, which is crisp and not cliched, is with the broad scope action. VA's hero is a Lieutenant with only limited access to the action and course of the war -- VA fills in the gaps for any history-in-the-making that her Phillip Hazard cannot directly see with narration that feels like history book stuff, and can go a little dry. A good fun read, but nothing to put on your resume. | ||
 | Halfhyde's Island (The Halfhyde Adventures, Number 2) | |
| "Potboiler, moves along but very unlikely" | 2007-08-01 |
| This is a historical naval book with a lead character much like Alistair MacLean heroes - obstinate, insubordinate, convinced he's smarter than anyone else, declamatory, and full of action. The novelist has his character speaking in little cliches to himself - in for a penny in for a pound Halfhyde! The action progresses well and the historical setting, as far as I can tell, is accurate. Battle sequences are stirring, but all in all .... The entire finish of the book hangs on a monstrous coincidence between nature starting her battle at the same time that the Japanese fire their guns. Unbelievable, and a bit too coy, also bad geology. | ||
 | Krups GVS142 1-1/2-Quart Automatic Ice-Cream Maker | |
 | "PERFECTLY suits our needs" | 2007-07-27 |
| This creates a half quart of ice cream in the least painful way that we imagine. Its all countertop, and the noise created, lasting approximately 45 minutes, is the same as our dishwasher. There is an auto-off function based upon stiffness of the cream which keeps you from going too far. Assembly for each batch is easy, and cleanup is a snap. Use of the Krupps does require planning, since the bowl has to be frozen for 12 hours before. We find this no problem since we keep it in the freezer all the time. Our only disappointment is in finding gelato recipes - you can find hundreds of incredibly good, fat filled, heart attack causing recipes (some come with the Krups), but we love the italian ices. This disappointment only comes because the Krupps has liberated us to make our own ice dreams. We seldom rate products as a 5, and we rate a lot of products. | ||
 | Roxio Toast 8 Titanium | |
| "Must Have Tool" | 2007-07-27 |
| We put off buying this for our Macs for 2 years. Now we are kicking ourselves. The first three uses - archiving, making Music DVDs (a strong challenge to using Apple TV for showing your music on the big tube), and making photo discs for the relatives -- all worked like a charm. You're going to like this product a lot better on Intel Apples than on G4 Power Books, but we are pleased on both, and we like the interface. Buy the boxed version and get the book - looking up how-to in the manual is much faster than scanning the electronic version for help. We hardly ever say that any product is a 5. | ||
 | Tree Houses You Can Actually Build : A Weekend Project Book | |
| "Lively little sketch book, very conversational" | 2007-07-27 |
| Works for kids, works for adults, very clear and very helpful. Very graphics oriented and the sketches make the text very clear. Unfortunately does not even mention escalating tree houses beyond the backyard project - if this were a full-revalation book, you would see the new engineering miracle, the Garnier Limb. We were quite pleased - PS we are hard graders, hardly anything gets a 5. | ||
 | House | |
| "Writes about one of the key needs we have as adults - housing and self image" | 2007-06-17 |
| There are perhaps four non-fiction authors I really admire - John Keegan, John McPhee, Dana Sobel, and Tracy Kidder. House was the book that Kidder wrote immediately after receiving the Pulitzer Prize for The Soul of a New Machine. He gets inside the heads of 4 carpenters, an architect, and the new owners of a house being built in 1983 in Amherst, Mass. This is much more true drama than the murder mysteries we all read, because it speaks to our primary needs as human beings. Kidder's ability to bring each character to light, to explain where they start from, and what they are feeling is a quite remarkable feat. Unlike some other narrative nonfiction authors, Kidder never appears in this book. We see it all unfold as if it's a novel, and only Kidder's excursions into the history and myth of home building makes it feel non-fiction. If you care about houses, owners, builders, and architects, you will thoroughly enjoy reading this book. | ||
 | House | |
| "Writes about one of the key needs we have as adults - housing and self image" | 2007-06-17 |
| There are perhaps four non-fiction authors I really admire - John Keegan, John McPhee, Dana Sobel, and Tracy Kidder. House was the book that Kidder wrote immediately after receiving the Pulitzer Prize for The Soul of a New Machine. He gets inside the heads of 4 carpenters, an architect, and the new owners of a house being built in 1983 in Amherst, Mass. This is much more true drama than the murder mysteries we all read, because it speaks to our primary needs as human beings. Kidder's ability to bring each character to light, to explain where they start from, and what they are feeling is a quite remarkable feat. Unlike some other narrative nonfiction authors, Kidder never appears in this book. We see it all unfold as if it's a novel, and only Kidder's excursions into the history and myth of home building makes it feel non-fiction. If you care about houses, owners, builders, and architects, you will thoroughly enjoy reading this book. | ||
 | House | |
| "Writes about one of the key needs we have as adults - housing and self image" | 2007-06-17 |
| There are perhaps four non-fiction authors I really admire - John Keegan, John McPhee, Dana Sobel, and Tracy Kidder. House was the book that Kidder wrote immediately after receiving the Pulitzer Prize for The Soul of a New Machine. He gets inside the heads of 4 carpenters, an architect, and the new owners of a house being built in 1983 in Amherst, Mass. This is much more true drama than the murder mysteries we all read, because it speaks to our primary needs as human beings. Kidder's ability to bring each character to light, to explain where they start from, and what they are feeling is a quite remarkable feat. Unlike some other narrative nonfiction authors, Kidder never appears in this book. We see it all unfold as if it's a novel, and only Kidder's excursions into the history and myth of home building makes it feel non-fiction. If you care about houses, owners, builders, and architects, you will thoroughly enjoy reading this book. | ||
 | About Schmidt | |
| "A Film about Desperation, Anger, Fear - but mostly about acting" | 2007-06-09 |
| A tragic-comic film and an incredible acting job from Jack Nicholson. This movie lets you have sympathy for characters other than Warren Schmidt, and indeed Nicholson's character is unlikable on several occasions. Some scenes are laugh out loud - when Warren dribbles urine all over his dead wife's bathroom in revenge for years of peeing sitting down, when Warren is fried on Percodan, when Warren is fighting a water bed and losing both the battle and his equilibrium ... Once you have dropped into the seduction of this film and it's your two hour reality, you'll wonder - is he really mailing those letters to his foster child Ndugu? Highly recommended, but you may only watch this one once. This review was also posted with Netflix. | ||
 | About Schmidt | |
| "A Film about Desperation, Anger, Fear - but mostly about acting" | 2007-06-09 |
| A tragic-comic film and an incredible acting job from Jack Nicholson. This movie lets you have sympathy for characters other than Warren Schmidt, and indeed Nicholson's character is unlikable on several occasions. Some scenes are laugh out loud - when Warren dribbles urine all over his dead wife's bathroom in revenge for years of peeing sitting down, when Warren is fried on Percodan, when Warren is fighting a water bed and losing both the battle and his equilibrium ... Once you have dropped into the seduction of this film and it's your two hour reality, you'll wonder - is he really mailing those letters to his foster child Ndugu? Highly recommended, but you may only watch this one once. This review was also posted with Netflix. | ||
 | Alice Adams | |
| "Painful to Watch, for Various Reasons" | 2007-05-26 |
| Hepburn at her youngest and most beautiful, but a film flawed by cliché, casting, and motive. The movie comes from a Tarkington book that had inexplicably won a Pulitzer prize and is a lame expose of small town class systems and social climbing - Tarkington's book became a screenplay with none of the bite or insight of Sinclair Lewis' work. As to the casting, everyone except Hepburn delivers a 2 dimensional 30's-ish performance except the father who falls perilously close to muggery and caricature. He is a cross between the cowardly lion and a Little Rascal's parent. Hepburn herself plays a young woman who is increasingly hypocritical and a liar in pursuit of a young man. The dinner sequence, justly remembered in Hollywood, shows her as luminous, bright, and brittle. However, it's all like watching Jerry Lewis play the idiot doomed to fail - very, very painful. The final redemption, after Hepburn becomes an honest woman, is less than believable. We had no character development of the Fred MacMurray character, so when he does the right thing, its because it's a Hollywood ending. Leonard Maltin rated this 3 ½ in his guide - shame on you Leonard! | ||
 | Alice Adams | |
| "Painful to Watch, for Various Reasons" | 2007-05-26 |
| Hepburn at her youngest and most beautiful, but a film flawed by cliché, casting, and motive. The movie comes from a Tarkington book that had inexplicably won a Pulitzer prize and is a lame expose of small town class systems and social climbing - Tarkington's book became a screenplay with none of the bite or insight of Sinclair Lewis' work. As to the casting, everyone except Hepburn delivers a 2 dimensional 30's-ish performance except the father who falls perilously close to muggery and caricature. He is a cross between the cowardly lion and a Little Rascal's parent. Hepburn herself plays a young woman who is increasingly hypocritical and a liar in pursuit of a young man. The dinner sequence, justly remembered in Hollywood, shows her as luminous, bright, and brittle. However, it's all like watching Jerry Lewis play the idiot doomed to fail - very, very painful. The final redemption, after Hepburn becomes an honest woman, is less than believable. We had no character development of the Fred MacMurray character, so when he does the right thing, its because it's a Hollywood ending. Leonard Maltin rated this 3 ½ in his guide - shame on you Leonard! | ||
 | Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture: 27 Stickley Designs for Every Room in the Home | |
| "Authentic Design, all you need to recreate Classic Arts and Crafts Projects" | 2007-05-15 |
| 23 pages of "how-to's" and then detailed 2D and isometric drawings with dimensions and with cut lists. Cheap paper, no color, but clarity is very high because the plans are in drawing form rather than photos. Could have been improved with exploded diagrams of through-tenon joints, but Stickley's craftsmen didn't need that evidently. The projects are authentic, and work for woodworkers who don't want any style upgrades and only want the 1rst generation Arts and Crafts that the book represents. | ||
 | In the Craftsman Style: Building Furniture Inspired by the Arts & Crafts Tradition | |
| "Projects from Cutting Edge Craftsmen" | 2007-05-15 |
| The quality, complexity, and complication of these projects can be stunning. Its a great resource for planning your own projects, but few of us will have the competence to take our work to this level of professionalism. Projects are highly imaginative and the write-ups are full of great "how to's". This is actually a cheap book for Taunton Press to put out, since it is culled from a few years of Taunton's Fine Woodworking magazine - therefore don't pay more than 20 for it, and look for it used. | ||
 | Gone Fishin' | |
| "The Bottom of the Pile of Mosley Books" | 2007-03-03 |
| Fans of Mosley will buy this prequel to the Easy Rawlins / Mouse Alexander stories to find out how their anti-heroes were `made'. This book is liable to disappoint, however. The setting is rural South, not 5th Ward Houston, and the young men seem more chaotic than inchoate. Mouse, however, remains his murderous loyal self and drives the action. Mosley's difficulty lies in portraying the secondary characters of this novel. They fall largely in three buckets - old-style holy roller good, blood evil, and grotesque. The stereotyping of rural blacks is blatant enough that Mosley seems to uphold the prejudices of 1920's redneck bigots. Fortunately he redeems this broad brush on several occasions with jewels of description and language, and a few twists of sympathy for his characters. Not a best effort - worth reading out of the library, but not buying. | ||
 | The Bookman's Promise : A Cliff Janeway Novel (Cliff Janeway Novels (Hardcover)) | |
| "Rollicking Read, but not Big Time Fiction" | 2007-03-03 |
| The Bookman's Promise, by John Dunning, 2004. Cliff Janeway is an intriguing character with a unique profession - a bookseller, or book connoisseur, or Bookman. Like an alcoholic who runs a bar in order to have ready access to his oblivion, Janeway has to have the big books, the important books. Dunning's mysteries tend to be so enjoyable because of the way his character interests us in books, their feel, their provenance, their allure. Janeway also happens to be an ex-cop, and this keeps the plot running. The pivotal books in this mystery are those by the famous explorer, linguist, writer, and radical Richard Burton - so we get a second story out of history. From top to bottom, the mystery is well crafted and only marginally predictable. There are a couple of great secondary characters that motivate us and make Janeway's work human and worthwhile. The personal relationship, however, falters and is not well written. The chapter heads in the book we bought (Scribner, hardbound) were very nice graphics, and the serif font Sabon is greatly pleasing - appropriate for a book about a Bookman. Overall, a fun read, but best obtained from the library, along with Dunning's other seven books. | ||
 | The Bookman's Promise | |
| "Rollicking Read, but not Big Time Fiction" | 2007-03-03 |
| The Bookman's Promise, by John Dunning, 2004. Cliff Janeway is an intriguing character with a unique profession - a bookseller, or book connoisseur, or Bookman. Like an alcoholic who runs a bar in order to have ready access to his oblivion, Janeway has to have the big books, the important books. Dunning's mysteries tend to be so enjoyable because of the way his character interests us in books, their feel, their provenance, their allure. Janeway also happens to be an ex-cop, and this keeps the plot running. The pivotal books in this mystery are those by the famous explorer, linguist, writer, and radical Richard Burton - so we get a second story out of history. From top to bottom, the mystery is well crafted and only marginally predictable. There are a couple of great secondary characters that motivate us and make Janeway's work human and worthwhile. The personal relationship, however, falters and is not well written. The chapter heads in the book we bought (Scribner, hardbound) were very nice graphics, and the serif font Sabon is greatly pleasing - appropriate for a book about a Bookman. Overall, a fun read, but best obtained from the library, along with Dunning's other seven books. | ||
 | The Bookman's Promise | |
| "Rollicking Read, but not Big Time Fiction" | 2007-03-03 |
| The Bookman's Promise, by John Dunning, 2004. Cliff Janeway is an intriguing character with a unique profession - a bookseller, or book connoisseur, or Bookman. Like an alcoholic who runs a bar in order to have ready access to his oblivion, Janeway has to have the big books, the important books. Dunning's mysteries tend to be so enjoyable because of the way his character interests us in books, their feel, their provenance, their allure. Janeway also happens to be an ex-cop, and this keeps the plot running. The pivotal books in this mystery are those by the famous explorer, linguist, writer, and radical Richard Burton - so we get a second story out of history. From top to bottom, the mystery is well crafted and only marginally predictable. There are a couple of great secondary characters that motivate us and make Janeway's work human and worthwhile. The personal relationship, however, falters and is not well written. The chapter heads in the book we bought (Scribner, hardbound) were very nice graphics, and the serif font Sabon is greatly pleasing - appropriate for a book about a Bookman. Overall, a fun read, but best obtained from the library, along with Dunning's other seven books. | ||
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