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| | # | cover | title | author | isbn | isbn13 | asin | pages | rating | ratings | pub | (ed.) | rating | my rating | review | notes | | comments | votes | count | started | read | addedDown arrow | | owned | | | format | | | -------- | -------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------- | -------------------- | --------------- | ---------------- | --------------- | ------------------- | --------------------- | ----------------------------- | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------ | ------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | --------------- | ------------------------- | ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----- | --------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | | ------ | | | checkbox | position | cover The Girl Who Played with Fire (Millennium, #2) | title The Girl Who Played with Fire(Millennium, #2) | author Larsson, Stieg | isbn 0307269981 | isbn13 9780307269980 | asin 0307269981 | num pages 503pp | avg rating 4.25 | num ratings 942,861 | date pub 2006 | date pub edition Jul 28, 2009 | Jim's rating | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review None | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 12, 2024 | date read not set | date added Nov 12, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Ticket That Exploded: The Restored Text | title The Ticket That Exploded: The Restored Text | author Burroughs, William S. | isbn 0802122094 | isbn13 9780802122094 | asin 0802122094 | num pages 352pp | avg rating 3.61 | num ratings 2,608 | date pub 1962 | date pub edition Apr 08, 2014 | Jim's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review It's like a 230-page slow-motion nightmare taking place under water. William S. Burroughs's The Ticket That Exploded: The Restored Text is not for rea It's like a 230-page slow-motion nightmare taking place under water. William S. Burroughs's The Ticket That Exploded: The Restored Text is not for readers who demand a tightly reasoned and wholly comprehensible book. You will encounter whole pages that appear to make no sense, but are crudely poetic and cogent nonetheless. If you accept the author's world at the outset, you can enjoy The Ticket That Exploded; otherwise, you will be at sea. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 8 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 08, 2024 | date read Nov 11, 2024 | date added Nov 08, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Best Martin Hewitt Detective Stories | title Best Martin Hewitt Detective Stories | author Morrison, Arthur | isbn 0486233243 | isbn13 9780486233246 | asin 0486233243 | num pages 138pp | avg rating 3.68 | num ratings 25 | date pub Aug 1976 | date pub edition Jan 01, 1976 | Jim's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Sherlock Holmes was undoubtedly the most famous of the Victorian/Edwardian detectives, but he wasn't the only ones. There was Dr Thorndyke (Richard Au Sherlock Holmes was undoubtedly the most famous of the Victorian/Edwardian detectives, but he wasn't the only ones. There was Dr Thorndyke (Richard Austin Freeman), Max Carrados (Ernest Bramah), the Old Man in the Corner (Baroness Orczy), the Thinking Machine (Jacques Fuitrelle), and Martin Hewitt (Arthur Morrison).Best Martin Hewitt Detective Stories is a collection of Hewitt stories publishes by Dover. It illustrates the weakness of the Hewitt tales compared to Doyle's Holmes. For one thing, Martin Hewitt is several shades more bland than the Baker Street maestro -- no Irene Adler, no stinky experiments, no violin, no cocaine -- and his narrator, Brett, is totally a tabula rasa. Still, the stories are generally well told, except when the plot hinges on hypnotism or Gypsy superstitions. My favorite story was probably the last -- "Thew Case of the Ward Lane Tabernacle" -- probably because Hewitt's client, Mrs. Mallett, is more on the ball than Hewitt and Brett combined.. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 1 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 05, 2024 | date read Nov 06, 2024 | date added Nov 05, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Rigadoon | title Rigadoon | author Céline, Louis-Ferdinand | isbn 1564781623 | isbn13 9781564781628 | asin 1564781623 | num pages 273pp | avg rating 3.93 | num ratings 550 | date pub 1969 | date pub edition Nov 01, 1997 | Jim's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Europe is in ruins ... yet Dr Destouches (Céline), his wife, and the cat Bébert must dance from ruined city to ruined city ... that's what Rigadoon me Europe is in ruins ... yet Dr Destouches (Céline), his wife, and the cat Bébert must dance from ruined city to ruined city ... that's what Rigadoon means ... a Baroque dance ... and Céline and his party were shuttled from one bombed out ruin to another ... courtesy of the Nazi government ... until, with Germany's fall imminent ... he is imprisoned in Copenhagen for fourteen months.Louis-Ferdinand Céline's outrage is expressed with multiple ellipses ... we never hear from Dr D's wife or cat ... but the good Dr has plenty to say ... even when he is beaned by a brick when a building front collapses in Hannover ... he may have been an anti-Semite, but I suspect he was a good doctor ... he guides 18 retarded children through Hamburg to the border, where they are taken over by the Swedish Red Cross.I might not like Dr D's views on race ... but as a writer, he's unique ... no less than Kurt Vonnegut wrote the intro to this edition ... he wrote:Every writer is in his debt, and so is anyone else interested in discussing lives in their entirety. By being so impolite, he demonstrated that perhaps half of all experience, the animal half, had been concealed by good manners. No honest writer or speaker will ever want to be polite again.So there you have it ... they might be late recognizing your talent, but it is real. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 5 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 2024 | date read Nov 04, 2024 | date added Nov 01, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Fragments from My Diary | title Fragments from My Diary | author Gorky, Maxim | isbn 0140182837 | isbn13 9780140182835 | asin 0140182837 | num pages 288pp | avg rating 3.89 | num ratings 73 | date pub 1940 | date pub edition Dec 07, 1990 | Jim's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review This is a delightful collection of character sketches of Russian men and women between the 1890s and 1924. Reminiscent of Charles Dickens's Sketches b This is a delightful collection of character sketches of Russian men and women between the 1890s and 1924. Reminiscent of Charles Dickens's Sketches by Boz, Maxim Gorky's Fragments from My Diary is a joy to read with its array of some of the most eccentric thinkers who have ever lived.The translation by Baroness Budberg, who new Gorky well, is highly recommended. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 5 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 28, 2024 | date read Oct 30, 2024 | date added Oct 28, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Blinding Light | title Blinding Light | author Theroux, Paul | isbn 0618711961 | isbn13 9780618711963 | asin 0618711961 | num pages 438pp | avg rating 2.99 | num ratings 700 | date pub 2005 | date pub edition Jun 01, 2006 | Jim's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review The opening scenes of Paul Theroux's Blinding Light in the Amazonian jungle showed great promise which the rest of the book didn't quite deliver. You The opening scenes of Paul Theroux's Blinding Light in the Amazonian jungle showed great promise which the rest of the book didn't quite deliver. You might say it was about sex, drugs -- but no rock and roll. It's the tale of an unnamed author who, having written one overwhelmingly successful book -- makes a deal with the devil to restore his craft and his waning manhood. That devil is ayahuasca, or datura. The drug makes him blind, but allows him to see not only the outer form of things, but also much of the inner form. He takes a supply of the drug back to the US with him and writes a novel about sex while revitalizing his relationship to his physician wife, Amy. He is dogged by one of the group that went to the Ecuadorian jungle, a German named Manfred. Around the time his supply of the drug runs out, the writer becomes truly and medically blind. Manfred finds him; and the two go back to the jungle for an interesting denouement which I will not reveal here.In the end, Blinding Light is a tale of a tragic flaw, much like the myth of Midas, for whom everything he touched turned to gold. But Theroux shows us that, as in the Midas myth, it's not always a good thing to get what you want. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 4 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 23, 2024 | date read Oct 28, 2024 | date added Oct 23, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Paradais | title Paradais | author Melchor, Fernanda * | isbn 0811231321 | isbn13 9780811231329 | asin 0811231321 | num pages 112pp | avg rating 3.64 | num ratings 14,581 | date pub Feb 02, 2021 | date pub edition May 10, 2022 | Jim's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review If you are one of those people who look upon our neighbor to the south as a fearsome and savage place, what with drug cartels and violent crime, Ferna If you are one of those people who look upon our neighbor to the south as a fearsome and savage place, what with drug cartels and violent crime, Fernanda Melchor will only confirm you in your thinking. Her Paradais is the tale of two teenage boys -- one hopelessly mooning over a seductive cougar of a neighbor and the other stuck in a dead-end job and a dead-end home -- whose fantasies become frighteningly real. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 3 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 22, 2024 | date read Oct 23, 2024 | date added Oct 22, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Red Milk | title Red Milk | author Sjón | isbn 0374603367 | isbn13 9780374603366 | asin 0374603367 | num pages 160pp | avg rating 3.30 | num ratings 888 | date pub Oct 10, 2019 | date pub edition Jan 18, 2022 | Jim's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review This strange little novel by Sjón tells of an Icelander who attempts to create a fascist party along Nazi lines in postwar Reykjavik. Red Milk: A Nove This strange little novel by Sjón tells of an Icelander who attempts to create a fascist party along Nazi lines in postwar Reykjavik. Red Milk: A Novel takes the life of Gunnar Kampen from childhood to his death by cancer in Cheltenham, England using a mixture of straight narration, letters, and rightist literature. In the end, we see that a life in which there is a wrong turn at the outset can easily become increasingly twisted. Interesting reading. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 1 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 21, 2024 | date read Oct 21, 2024 | date added Oct 21, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Poetry of Zen (Shambhala Library) | title The Poetry of Zen | author Hamill, Sam | isbn 1570628637 | isbn13 9781570628634 | asin 1570628637 | num pages 194pp | avg rating 4.10 | num ratings 347 | date pub Nov 16, 2004 | date pub edition Nov 16, 2004 | Jim's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review This is a delightful collection of translated poems from the Chinese and Japanese Buddhist traditions. The translations by the two editors, Sam Hamill This is a delightful collection of translated poems from the Chinese and Japanese Buddhist traditions. The translations by the two editors, Sam Hamill and J.P. Seaton, can be a bit stiff at times, but that is in the nature of trying to convey originals using Chinese and Japanese originals into English. The Poetry of Zen covers almost 900 years of poetry, some of which will make me return to this book again in the future. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 5 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 20, 2024 | date read Oct 21, 2024 | date added Oct 21, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Noctuary | title Noctuary | author Ligotti, Thomas | isbn 0786702354 | isbn13 9780786702350 | asin 0786702354 | num pages 208pp | avg rating 3.95 | num ratings 2,127 | date pub Feb 28, 1994 | date pub edition Apr 25, 1995 | Jim's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Thomas Ligotti is my favorite contemporary writer of weird and horror stories. Noctuary is a good place to start. It contains a novelette length story Thomas Ligotti is my favorite contemporary writer of weird and horror stories. Noctuary is a good place to start. It contains a novelette length story entitled "The Tsalal," which is my favorite, along with the short short stories in Part Three of the collection. Ligotti owes a lot to H P Lovecraft without Lovecraft's sometimes annoying archaic style. At one point he mentions Arthur Pym, the hero of Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of A Gordon Pym, which also is a forerunner of his subject matter. In "Mad Night of Atonement," he writes:And after careful observation and painstaking verification I was forced to this conclusion: the world thrives on its faults and strives, by every possible means, to aggravate them, while at the same time masking them like a congenital deformity.Passages like this warm my cynic's heart. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 1 | votes 3 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 18, 2024 | date read Oct 19, 2024 | date added Oct 18, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover In the Name of the Father | title In the Name of the Father | author Balla | isbn 0993377351 | isbn13 9780993377358 | asin 0993377351 | num pages 144pp | avg rating 3.68 | num ratings 342 | date pub Jul 07, 2011 | date pub edition May 2017 | Jim's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review His books are published only under his last name, Balla; but Vladimír Balla is the best author to come out of the Slovak Republic since its founding. His books are published only under his last name, Balla; but Vladimír Balla is the best author to come out of the Slovak Republic since its founding. In the Name of the Father and Other Stories contains one novelette (the title story) and three short stories -- all of which are excellent. Their wild sense of humor reminds me of Bohumil Hrabal, the Czech writer, but Balla tends to be a bit darker.In the title story of the collection, we have a father, wife, and two sons -- all unnamed -- who live in a ramshackle house and whose family is slowly going to pieces. The father does not care for his wife (who dies during the story) and his sons. He is more intent on romancing his co-workers at the office.Typical of his sense of humor is the story "Contagion," in which a man cannot put up with his furniture; so he gets rid of it. Ditto, the carpets, Ditto, the wallpaper. Eventually even the walls of his house begin to bother him. And then:I hit the road. It wasn't a comfortable life but I had no choice. At first I would spend the night at railway stations and in barns, but later I found it impossible to rest, since after a few minutes an unspeakable sound, a chorus of whispering phantoms would rouse me from my sleep and I would find myself surrounded by multitudes of exact copies of myself and couldn't stay there any longer, not even for a moment, and felt compelled to press my hands to my ears and stagger out into the night.I never fail to be amazed by the high quality of literature coming out of central and eastern Europe. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 1 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 16, 2024 | date read Oct 17, 2024 | date added Oct 16, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Murder in the Latin Quarter (Aimee Leduc Investigations, #9) | title Murder in the Latin Quarter(Aimee Leduc Investigations, #9) | author Black, Cara * | isbn 1569475415 | isbn13 9781569475416 | asin 1569475415 | num pages 304pp | avg rating 3.61 | num ratings 1,366 | date pub Jan 01, 2009 | date pub edition Mar 01, 2009 | Jim's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review A young Haitian woman interrupts Aimee Leduc's busy day claiming she is her half sister by Aimee's father. That's when the merry-go-round starts up as A young Haitian woman interrupts Aimee Leduc's busy day claiming she is her half sister by Aimee's father. That's when the merry-go-round starts up as Aimee and Mireille (the sister's name) keep trying to contact each other but are prevented by several murders, some mysterious toughs (mecs) that seem to be pursuing both of them, and various functionaries who tend to be lukewarm or disparaging at best.Cara Black's Murder in the Latin Quarter is not the best of the Aimee Leduc series, but it is the most hectic. The author even switches points of view -- not too successfully. The action takes place over a week during which Aimee and Mireille barely escape with their lives, encountering each other only during hyperstressed moments.Still, I like the Aimee Leduc character and her partner Rene, but find that some of the other characters such as Edouard of "Eurodad" and Leonie are not quite up to the mark. It's a good read, but the weakest of the bunch that I have read thus far. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 1 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 15, 2024 | date read Oct 16, 2024 | date added Oct 15, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Message from the Shadows: Selected Stories | title Message from the Shadows: Selected Stories | author Tabucchi, Antonio | isbn 1939810159 | isbn13 9781939810151 | asin 1939810159 | num pages 300pp | avg rating 3.67 | num ratings 43 | date pub May 14, 2019 | date pub edition May 14, 2019 | Jim's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Short story collections could be a mixed bag. You can encounter some great stories, or you could encounter stories that strike you as obscure. That is Short story collections could be a mixed bag. You can encounter some great stories, or you could encounter stories that strike you as obscure. That is certainly the case with Antonio Tabucchi's Message from the Shadows: Selected Stories. I fell in love with "The Reversal Game," "Night, Sea, or Distance," "The Trains That Go to Madras," and "Postscript: A Whaler's View of Man." What can make Tabucchi's stories seem difficult is his multiculturalism. He is an Italian who happens to live in Portugal but is conversant with other cultural contexts, such as Romanian, Indian, and Argentinian. For me, the stories varied from good to great, so that I hope to read more of his work. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 2 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 13, 2024 | date read Oct 14, 2024 | date added Oct 13, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover On A Chinese Screen by W. Somerset Maugham: Observations and Insights from the East (Bestseller Collection) | title On A Chinese Screen by W. Somerset Maugham: Observations and Insights from the East | author Maugham, W. Somerset | isbn | isbn13 | asin B09HQNF75B | num pages 187pp | avg rating 4.08 | num ratings 24 | date pub unknown | date pub edition Oct 01, 2021 | Jim's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review This is a delightful collection of short essays by W. Somerset Maugham containing observations of people and places experienced during a protracted vi This is a delightful collection of short essays by W. Somerset Maugham containing observations of people and places experienced during a protracted visit to China with his companion Gerald Haxton. On A Chinese Screen by W. Somerset Maugham: Observations and Insights from the East describes a China inhabited by British colonials serving as consuls, business representatives, missionaries, and sea captains -- virtually none of whom spoke Chinese.Typical of the people he describes is a businessman with British American Tobacco (BAT):He had lived in China for five years, but he knows no Chinese and takes no interest in the race among whom in all likelihood the best years of his life will be spent. His business is done through an interpreter and his house is managed by a boy.By boy, Maugham means a Chinese man who might be older than his employer. One has to discount the century-old British attitudes toward racism to appreciate this book, which describes a China that is no more.One can easily see that advocating for Maugham in 21st century America would not be easy. One has to see writers who lived in the past take on attitudes that would be regarded as highly charged. Once one passes that hurdle, however, Maugham writes with a pleasant style and does a good job describing the British expatriates who controlled much of the country circa 1920. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 8 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 10, 2024 | date read Oct 11, 2024 | date added Oct 10, 2024 | owned | format Kindle Edition | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover A Bad Character | title A Bad Character | author Kapoor, Deepti | isbn 0385352743 | isbn13 9780385352741 | asin 0385352743 | num pages 256pp | avg rating 3.33 | num ratings 965 | date pub Jan 01, 2014 | date pub edition Jan 20, 2015 | Jim's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review A striking first novel about a young orphaned woman finding sex, drugs, and independence in Delhi, India. It is a city that comers across as repulsive A striking first novel about a young orphaned woman finding sex, drugs, and independence in Delhi, India. It is a city that comers across as repulsive in almost every regard: corpses lying in the gutter, weather that is usually horribly hot (but occasionally too cold), full of men who are only too willing to deprive her of any choice in the matter of her life. Deepti Kapoor's A Bad Character doesn't identify who is the "bad character," though it could easily be the unnamed narrator or any of her boyfriends. In many ways, the novel is like a waltz through hell. The first boyfriend dies by suicide by getting drunk and jumping in the path of a truck. The neighbor girl across the way tries to escape from her family by creating a rope of sheets tied together, but only winds up plunging to her death from an upper story apartment. At one point, a fortune teller sees nothing but death unless the narrator manages to leave India and become an "NRI" (non-resident Indian?). Fortunately, the author now lives in Portugal; so the prediction was averted. That's good, because Ms Kapoor has the makings of an excellent author. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 2 | votes 2 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 08, 2024 | date read Oct 09, 2024 | date added Oct 08, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Phantom Coach: Collected Ghost Stories | title The Phantom Coach: Collected Ghost Stories | author Edwards, Amelia B. | isbn 1899562826 | isbn13 9781899562824 | asin 1899562826 | num pages 307pp | avg rating 3.79 | num ratings 528 | date pub Oct 04, 1999 | date pub edition Oct 04, 1999 | Jim's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review There are two kinds of ghost stories: the kind devised to terrify you, and the kind to amuse you with a view to overturning your expectations. Amelia There are two kinds of ghost stories: the kind devised to terrify you, and the kind to amuse you with a view to overturning your expectations. Amelia B. Edwards's The Phantom Coach: Collected Ghost Stories is a delightful collection of ghost stories that probably won;t terrify you. They are, to be sure, strange and sometimes on the verge of being alarming, but they are so well written that they will probably not give rise to nightmares.Probably the best known tale in the collection is the title story, "The Phantom Coach," which I had read and enjoyed some time ago. But equally interesting are "The Discovery of the Treasure Isles," "The Story of Salome," "In the Confessional," and "A Night on the Borders of the Black Forest." Fully half the stories are set in Germany, Switzerland, or Northern Italy.I am happy to have discovered such an excellent writer -- and one who has been relatively unknown except in some obscure short story collections. She was also an Egyptologist of some note, and I look forward to reading her books on the subject. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 3 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 04, 2024 | date read Oct 07, 2024 | date added Oct 04, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Maigret's Holiday (Maigret, #28) | title Maigret's Holiday(Maigret, #28) | author Simenon, Georges | isbn 0141980745 | isbn13 9780141980744 | asin 0141980745 | num pages 208pp | avg rating 3.86 | num ratings 1,583 | date pub 1947 | date pub edition Dec 03, 2015 | Jim's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review It seems that Detective Inspector Jules Maigret cannot go on vacation without getting involved in a murder case. Of course his hands are tied because It seems that Detective Inspector Jules Maigret cannot go on vacation without getting involved in a murder case. Of course his hands are tied because he is outside his jurisdiction, but he manages to solve the case anyhow, usually with a minimum of effort. Georges Simenon's Maigret's Holiday sees Maigret and his wife at the seaside at Les Sables d'Olonne, when Mme Maigret comes down with an attack of appendicitis and has to be operated upon.Before long, there are three deaths. Our suspicions immediately turn to the noted Dr Bellamy, but it takes a while for Maigret to suss out the murderer. It amazes me that I have read over 40 Maigrets, and there's not a bad one in the bunch. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 5 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 02, 2024 | date read Oct 02, 2024 | date added Oct 02, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Havana Libre (Cuban Noir) | title Havana Libre | author Arellano, Robert * | isbn 1617755834 | isbn13 9781617755835 | asin 1617755834 | num pages 224pp | avg rating 3.87 | num ratings 60 | date pub Nov 20, 2017 | date pub edition Dec 05, 2017 | Jim's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review It's interesting to see a mystery/spy novel in which the Communists are the good guys, similar to the Yalta Boulevard novels by Olen Steinhauer. In th It's interesting to see a mystery/spy novel in which the Communists are the good guys, similar to the Yalta Boulevard novels by Olen Steinhauer. In this case, the good guys are Castro's Cubans; and the bad guys are the gusanos or Cuban counter-revolutionaries whom have escaped to Florida and made good. Unfortunately, they finance terrorism, in the case of Robert Arellano's Havana Libre, the bombing of hotels frequented by tourists in Havana.The hero is Manolo Rodriguez, a pediatrician who is the son of a gusano in Miami who was also a doctor, but who has not yet been allowed to practice medicine in the US as the Cubans have refused to confirm his medical degrees. Manolo is recruited by state security to spy on the gusanos to determine their next bombing target. His guise is sussed out by the gusanos, but he manages to escape back to Havana. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 3 | # times read 1 | date started Sep 30, 2024 | date read Oct 2024 | date added Sep 30, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Times Of Melville And Whitman (1947) | title The Times Of Melville And Whitman(1947) | author Wycks, Brook Van | isbn | isbn13 | asin B00LZ7P8QS | num pages 510pp | avg rating 5.00 | num ratings 1 | date pub Jul 19, 2014 | date pub edition Jul 19, 2014 | Jim's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Reading the Makers and Finders series of books on American Literature by Van Wyck Brooks is like finding yourself in an attic crowded with treasures, Reading the Makers and Finders series of books on American Literature by Van Wyck Brooks is like finding yourself in an attic crowded with treasures, in this case clues to follow up on in the search for new authors to read, many of whom I fully expect to be worth the effort. The Times Of Melville And Whitman covers the American literary scene from roughly 1840 to 1885 -- with the exception of New England, which is separately covered in two volumes in the Makers and Finders series.The amazing thing about the series is that one cannot afford to skip the footnotes: They are fully as interesting as the main text. It becomes evident that for Brooks this was a labor of love, and it shows in every page. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 4 | # times read 1 | date started Sep 26, 2024 | date read Sep 30, 2024 | date added Sep 26, 2024 | owned | format Kindle Edition | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Spadework for a Palace | title Spadework for a Palace | author Krasznahorkai, László | isbn 0811228401 | isbn13 9780811228404 | asin 0811228401 | num pages 96pp | avg rating 3.93 | num ratings 358 | date pub Sep 25, 2018 | date pub edition Jun 01, 2022 | Jim's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review László Krasznahorkai is quite simply the best living Hungarian writer of fiction, and Spadework for a Palace, while something of a bagatelle, only rei László Krasznahorkai is quite simply the best living Hungarian writer of fiction, and Spadework for a Palace, while something of a bagatelle, only reinforces my assessment of him. Except for a few direct quotes, the 96-page novelette is a single sentence which is, curiously, not all that difficult to read. It consists of a plan by a librarian to build a perfect library -- one in which all the books are present, but there are no services for readers. In fact, there is no entrance.The librarian is named herman melvill [sic] who is fascinated by the 19th century American writer with a similar name. Most of the book recounts melvill's walks in lower Manhattan, dreaming of Herman Melville, of Malcolm Lowry's Lunar Caustic (which in turn talks about a similar obsession with Melville), and an American architect named Lebbeus Woods, who also frequented Lower Manhattan. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 6 | # times read 1 | date started Sep 25, 2024 | date read Sep 25, 2024 | date added Sep 25, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | |

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