Could there be a more unlikely hero than Roy Straitley? A 65-year-old Classics teacher at St. Oswold’s Grammar School for Boys, Straitley comes across as a self-righteous curmudgeon who’s too behind the times. When the term begins, Straitley must deal with losing his office, sharing his classroom, and getting criticized constantly for his treatment of his students.
Straitley’s unnamed opponent is also [...]
Archive for July, 2008
Gentlemen and Players (audio)
Posted in Audiobooks, Fiction, Mysteries on July 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The English American
Posted in Contemporary, Fiction on July 30, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Pippa Dunn has never felt quite like she fits in with her very tidy, very English family. Adopted as an infant, Pippa never knew her birth parents, and she’s always had questions about them. At age 28, she seeks them out and travels to America to meet them. Immediately, she feels at home, but as she gets [...]
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Posted in History, Nonfiction on July 28, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Since reading Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel, I’ve been interested in life in the Americas before Columbus. Diamond’s book makes it clear that the Americas weren’t the sparsely populated lands so often depicted in history books. In 1491, Charles C. Mann expands upon that idea by describing Indian civilizations, exploring the question of population [...]
Reading Challenges
Posted in Uncategorized on July 24, 2008 | 4 Comments »
I’ve been reluctant to join in on any reading challenges because I don’t want to add to my constantly growing stacks of books to read, but I was checking out a couple of challenges and saw that, hey, I could complete those with the books on my shelf! Plus, they’re both in the early stages, [...]
The Road Past Altamont
Posted in Fiction on July 21, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I’m teaching a course on Quebec and Cajun culture in the spring, and I’ve been doing some reading to prepare for it. One of the most delightful things about my job is that I feel virtuous when I read wonderful novels, because I’m developing professionally. Gabrielle Roy’s La Route d’Altamont (The Road Past Altamont) was a [...]
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
Posted in Fiction on July 20, 2008 | 2 Comments »
More than 60 years ago, Esme Lennox was locked away in a mental institution. She has never stepped outside its gates, never heard from her family. When the institution must close, the administrators contact her great-niece, Iris Lockhart, to find out what should be done with her. Iris has never even heard of Esme, and [...]
The Boleyn Inheritance
Posted in Fiction, History on July 18, 2008 | 12 Comments »
The Tudors are a bit of a cottage industry these days. And the reigning queen of Tudor fiction, at least in terms of popularity, is Philippa Gregory. Her books, most of which focus on the women of Henry VIII’s court, are a historical fiction sensation. But do they live up to the hype?
I’ve had a [...]
Oryx and Crake
Posted in Contemporary, Fiction on July 17, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake begins with a picture of utter ruin and devastation. Abandoned buildings and computers litter the landscape. There are wild animals roaming the streets. This is the end of the world as we know it. Or perhaps the end of the world as we will know it, since this is the near [...]
Cranford
Posted in Fiction on July 15, 2008 | 10 Comments »
“In the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazons; all the holders of houses, above a certain rent, are women.”
Thus opens Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel Cranford, a wonderful, poignant comedy (or comic drama; your choice.) I’ve never read anything by Gaskell before, and I was absolutely delighted with her story of a small town [...]
The Absolute Sandman, vol.3
Posted in Graphic novels, Speculative Fiction on July 14, 2008 | 3 Comments »
I’m not much of a graphic novel reader. It’s not that I don’t like them, just that I haven’t read many. It’s a whole genre I haven’t explored, partly because it seems like a big commitment (those who are fans of the genre seem to have a lot of knowledge about its history that I [...]
