Book Reviews – Page 96 – Carol's Notebook

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

January 30, 2019January 29, 2019 by Carol8 Comments

I knew I'd love The Three Musketeers. The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas is one of my favorite all-time books and this is even more mentioned/read/known. So, I was happy when the Classics Club Spin hit #1 and my challenge was then to read The Three Musketeers by the end of January. Dumas takes the historical events of France, 1625-27, and plays with them to bring us one of the best adventure stories ever. The beautiful Anne of Austria is Queen of France, but she is lukewarm, at best, toward her husband, XIII. Cardinal Richelieu, the true ruler of the country, has made advances towards her, but been rebuffed; he's eaten up by jealousy and spite, especially since he knows through his network of informers that Anne's heart in fact belongs to the handsome Lord Buckingham. These fictionalized historical figures are at the center of the story, it's their loves, desires, conquests and favors that everyone else's life revolves...

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

January 29, 2019January 28, 2019 by Carol2 Comments

Sapiens looks at our history, but that history is 100,000 years long, so it's more of a quick overview of our history. I found it rather fascinating though. He takes us through the history of human development and migration, through the Cognitive Revolution, and Agricultural Revolution. He looks at how currency and coinage developed, the creation of religions, the arrival of imperialism and capitalism, and the history of inequalities and injustices. Yes, he has his own biases, but I loved the bits of information. So many things from this book pulled into conversations I was having, like the worth of a slave's life and the bank run in It's a Wonderful Life (which I've never watched by the way). In the end, he veers off into predictions for the future. I, personally, didn't find it particularly pessimistic, and there was a lot of hope too, like how relatively peaceful it is now. If you love history, I wouldn't suggest reading...

Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny

January 10, 2019January 10, 2019 by Carol11 Comments

Penny's Inspector Gamache series is definitely one that is best to read from the beginning. However, this is #14, which makes it a bit difficult, so it you want to jump in here, I'd recommend you at least read Glass Houses, #13, as it connects closely with some of the events in Kingdom of the Blind. We've got two story lines in this one. There's the mysterious will and dead man in a collapsed house. Then, there's secondary one involving the drugs Gamache allowed to get onto the streets of Montreal in the previous. The Baroness, Bertha Baumgartnor, a cleaning woman who lived near Three Pines, wrote the will mentioned in the blurb, splitting between her children a vast fortune and properties that she clearly did not have. The dead man is her son. The piece about the collapsed farmhouse, about the search and rescue, is one of the tensest scenes on the book. Winter in Quebec can be dangerous. I loved...

Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie

January 3, 2019January 3, 2019 by Carol6 Comments

When will these older, wealthy men stop inviting their whole families, most of whom hate them or each other, to Christmas house parties? Simeon Lee is the one who's done it this time. All his children, a grandchild none of the others know, and an old "friend's" son, are at the house for Christmas and of course Simeon Lee ends up dead, killed in a locked room. There are plenty of motives, although how was he killed is a good question. The killer was a surprise to me. I'm not sure we really had enough clues to guess who it was on our own. But it's a good ending. I do love Christie. I also listened to this short story. It's another Christmas only this time, Poirot already knows what the crime was, a stolen gem. It's his job to track it down. But he also learns how enjoyable an English Christmas can be. There's no actual murder in this one, which...

Slay Bells by T. C. Wescott

January 2, 2019January 4, 2019 by Carol9 Comments

Slay Bells by T. C. Wescott was one of the books I finished on New Year's Eve. I had two current reads that I wanted to finish before the end of the year, which I did, this one and Hercule Poirot's Christmas. They winded up my year's reading and my Christmas books. Slay Bells is probably the most Christmassy mystery I've read. It takes place in Christmas Village during the annual Christmas festival and stars Mrs. Maribel Claus as our amateur detective. She has plenty of time on her hands this time of year, since her husband is so busy in his workshop. The entertainers lodging in Plum Cottage are hired for the festival, but then one of them is murderer in a rather mysterious way. The actual villagers are never suspects. The killer is obviously a member of the troupe, no one else could have a motive. I loved the holiday atmosphere, the customs and stories of Christmas Village. The characters...

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

December 30, 2018December 30, 2018 by Carol15 Comments

Rebecca was a re-read for me, but the last time I read it I was probably in high school. I had a basic idea of the storyline, but didn't remember a lot of the details. I honestly expected to love it, but instead I felt like I was slogging through it. The heroine is unnamed through the entire novel and it is told in the first person. I think part of the reason I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought was her. For the whole first half/two-thirds of the book, I wanted her to take charge of her life. Yes, she was in awe of Maxim, her new husband, and of her estate, but she was so timid and afraid and just rather annoying. That being said, it is an intense book and Rebecca is an incredibly memorable character, especially for being someone we know only through others' memories and impressions. The descriptions are detailed and atmospheric. I can appreciate...