Category Archives: Classics

Man and Wife

Posted on June 28, 2017 by

I’m on record as being a massive Wilkie Collins fan. I love his sensationalist prose and his twists and turns and especially his unctuous villains. The books I’ve read of his (six so far) have all been complete hoots. But … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Fiction | 13 Comments

Oblomov

Posted on June 23, 2017 by

This 19th-century novel by Ivan Goncharov spends its first hundred and fifty pages establishing its main character, Oblomov. Who is this man, and why is he the way he is? It seemed to me at first an excruciatingly slow way … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Fiction | 15 Comments

Ruth

Posted on June 14, 2017 by

I’ve read several of Elizabeth Gaskell’s novels, and thought all of them were quite spectacularly good (North and South, Wives and Daughters, Cranford.) So I was expecting a pleasure when I picked up Ruth, her second novel. Was I ever … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Fiction | 7 Comments

To Be or Not To Be

Posted on June 12, 2017 by

So take the following: Choose Your Own Adventure, Shakespeare, illustrations, humor. Which belong together? In Ryan North’s book To Be or Not To Be, a choosable-path adventure based on Hamlet, you can have all of the above! At the beginning … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Drama, Graphic Novels / Comics | 4 Comments

The Turn of the Screw

Posted on June 10, 2017 by

Lately, my husband has been reading The Ambassadors by Henry James. I haven’t read James almost at all (The Golden Bowl, but many years ago) and I thought I would renew my acquaintance with his most famous ghost story, The … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Fiction, Speculative Fiction | 13 Comments

Charlotte Sometimes

Posted on April 30, 2017 by

Charlotte Makepeace, the central character in this 1969 novel by Penelope Farmer, is all on her own at a new boarding school. But she was lucky enough to get first choice of beds in her dormitory room, at the encouragement of … Continue reading →

Posted in Children's / YA Lit, Classics, Fiction, Speculative Fiction | 8 Comments

A High Wind in Jamaica

Posted on April 2, 2017 by

When a hurricane levels their home in Jamaica, the Thorntons decide that the best thing to do is to put their five children on a ship to England. have Joining them are the two Fernandez children, both of them creoles … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Fiction | 7 Comments

The Fire Next Time

Posted on January 7, 2017 by

This 1963 book by James Baldwin is heart-breakingly relevant today. Not only did it inspire two important books of 2016—The Fire This Time and Between the World and Me—but it also feels at times like it could have been written last … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Nonfiction | 6 Comments

The Haunting of Hill House

Posted on January 6, 2017 by

This book by Shirley Jackson might have had more of an impact on me if I weren’t already a fan of the 1963 film (soooo creepy!), but it’s still a good book, even if you know what chills are coming … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Fiction, Speculative Fiction | 13 Comments

The Cornish Coast Murder

Posted on January 5, 2017 by

I read about the British Library Crime Classics on Litlove’s site a couple of years ago. They are reprints of lesser-known crime fiction, put out by the Poisoned Pen Press, with titles like A Scream in Soho, Sergeant Cluff Stands … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Fiction, Mysteries/Crime | 6 Comments