Lillian Stewart Carl (Author of The Vorkosigan Companion)

Lillian Carl added:

Curiosities of Literature
by John Sutherland

read in June, 2012

My rating:

This is a series of short anecdotes about authors and books, such as the origins of the Brontes' odd last name. Tolkien is mentioned in an entry about Amanda McKittrick Ros, born in 1860 in Ireland, who Sutherland names as the worst novelist of all t...more

Lillian Carl added:

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
by Sam Kean

read in June, 2012

My rating:

Yes, it's a book about chemistry (NOT something my brain wraps itself around!) but a very readable and amusing one. Kean presents anecdotes about chemists and the discovery and uses of elements in a folksy and amusing manner. Yes, my eyes have glazed...more

Lillian Carl added:

The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco

My rating:

Part mystery, part historical novel, this book is a tour de force of writing. It's a difficult read, but worth it for the breadth and depth of the story.

Lillian Carl added:

Sepulchre (Languedoc Trilogy, #2)
by Kate Mosse

My rating:

I'd classify this as a thriller more than a mystery, and as a literary novel as much as either.

The story starts in Paris in 1891. Leonie Vernier and her older, very protective brother, Anatole, head to the south of France to visit a relative by marri...more I'd classify this as a thriller more than a mystery, and as a literary novel as much as either.

The story starts in Paris in 1891. Leonie Vernier and her older, very protective brother, Anatole, head to the south of France to visit a relative by marriage, Isolde Lascombe. Her estate, the Domaine de la Cade, is a spooky place surrounded by much myth and legend, not least those connected to Rennes le Chateau, just up the road.

Soon the story moves to Paris in 2007, where Meredith Martin, who is writing a book about Debussy, also heads to the Domaine de la Cade---now a posh hotel---not just to research her subject but also to track down her own genealogy.

The story moves skillfully back and forth between the two time periods and the two viewpoints of Leonie and Meredith (who soon begins channeling Leonie). Supernatural events occur, subtly at first, and a mysterious deck of tarot cards binds the two times together.

The book is well over 500 pages long, and should have been much shorter. The descriptions are very well done, but after a while build up to where the reader needs a machete to get through. The events of 1891 are quite a soap opera, ending in (predictable) tragedy, while the events of 2007 develop nicely for a while and then are skated over.

Mosse cleverly suggests that the legends of Rennes le Chateau (made famous in Holy Blood, Holy Grail, a precursor of The Da Vinci Code) are tied in with the tarot, but ultimately I found her use of those legends unsatisfying---the events at Rennes le Chateau are simply a cover for events at the Domaine de la Cade, she says with a dismissive wave of her hand.

Okaaay.

The 1891 villain is a ghastly creepy character, but has no relationship to the legends/supernatural material until the very end, when he seeks to exploit them. The villain of 2007 is searching out the truth of the legends. He refers to events that took place before the beginning of the story but which are never explained. In fact, I went to Amazon to read reviews of Mosse's first novel, Labyrinth, thinking perhaps Sepulchre is a sequel to that, and the 2007 villain was first introduced in that novel. Not so, apparently---the material is simply left undeveloped.

My brows went up when both Leonie and Meredith more or less find by accident an important artifact. Well, Leonie had a hint, but Meredith goes right to it---while the villain of the piece has been turning over the area for years, looking for the artifact, to no avail.

There's also a piece of music that turns up repeatedly in the story (Mosse used musical imagery very effectively) but whose origins go unexplained. (Unless I dozed off at that point.) It's a nice touch to have that piece of music in the back of the book, though, and I intend to pick it out on my piano.

Mosse keeps throwing in apparently random phrases in French (yes, I realize the characters are French and would actually be speaking French) which are then left untranslated. I still remember enough of my high school and college French to get past this, but other readers might be really annoyed.

In the end, I enjoyed some of the book. The contrast between past and present is presented very nicely, for one thing. But I ultimately found Sepulchre unsatisfying to the point of irritation---too long in spots, too undeveloped in others, overly melodramatic, and not particularly well focused.(less)

Lillian Carl added:

To Kingdom Come (Barker & Llewelyn, #2)
by Will Thomas

My rating:

This is the second book in a series, after Some Danger Involved. It's set in the world of Sherlock Holmes, with the main character, Cyrus Barker, being an all-wise, all-seeing version of Holmes.

The point of view character is not at all Watson, thoug...more This is the second book in a series, after Some Danger Involved. It's set in the world of Sherlock Holmes, with the main character, Cyrus Barker, being an all-wise, all-seeing version of Holmes.

The point of view character is not at all Watson, though. He's Thomas Llewelyn, a young man with a difficult past who signed up to be Barker's assistant in the first book. He's an engaging character, whose occasional bewilderment helps to balance out Barker's neverending perfection.

In this volume, Barker (and Llewelyn with him) is hired to infltrate a group of Irish terrorists plotting to blow up various sites in London, and, if they can, take out the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII). Much of the story is taken up by Llewelyn's interactions with this group, and especially with the beautiful Maire O'Casey.

The novel begins in a way that annoys me---a crisis from the end of the book is made into a prologue, as though the author can't trust the story in and of itself to draw the reader in. This when the first chapter ends with a bomb going off at Scotland Yard!

The story moves along at a slightly brisker pace than the one in Some Danger Involved, but, as with Some Danger Involved, the big reveal at the end wasn't that big a surprise to me. And, as with the earlier book, poor Llewelyn takes a serious licking but keeps on ticking, James Bond fashion.

I was amused by Llewelyn's description of the "internal exercises" Barker has him do: "There we were in our shirtsleeves, moving placidly across the lawn, waving our arms in slow, precise movements resembling postures of self-defense, save that one would have been struck long before completing any of the motions." He goes on to say that Barker learned the art in China.

Obviously he's speaking of tai chi, which, I'm told by my tai chi instructors, was in Victorian times still considered a martial art---the health aspects were emphasized until a decade or two into the 20th century. I assure Llewelyn that if he were to encounter the younger of my instructors, he'd find himself defeated very quickly by those same movements.

Unlike Some Danger Involved, To Kingdom Come isn't a mystery but a suspense novel, not a whodunnit but a willtheydoit.(less)

Lillian Carl added:

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
by Katherine Howe

My rating:

Connie Goodwin is a graduate student at Harvard, who has just qualified to
write a doctoral dissertation on American colonial life, focussing on
perceptions of witchcraft. Her advisor, Manning Chilton, wants her to find a
new primary source on the su...more

Lillian Carl is now following Alexander McCall Smith's reviews

Lillian Carl became a fan of Goodreads Author Alexander McCall Smith

Lillian Carl added:

The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith

The Miracle at Speedy Motors (No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency #9)
by Alexander McCall Smith (Goodreads Author)

My rating:

I've been reading the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency books out of order -- it
depends on which volume falls into my hands when. Fortunately this doesn't
matter. There are characters and bits of business that carry over, but tight
plotting is not a feat...more

Lillian Carl added:

Avalonian Quest
by Geoffrey Ashe

My rating:

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	The Vorkosigan Companion 3.60 avg rating — 190 ratings — published 2008 — 5 editions	My rating:
	The Secret Portrait (A Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron Mystery #1) 3.94 avg rating — 34 ratings — 5 editions	My rating:
	Ashes to Ashes (Ashes to Ashes #1) 3.86 avg rating — 29 ratings — published 1990 — 5 editions	My rating:
	The Burning Glass (A Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron Mystery #3) 3.86 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 2007 — 6 editions	My rating:
	The Murder Hole (A Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron Mystery #2) 3.83 avg rating — 23 ratings — published 2006 — 5 editions	My rating:
	The Blue Hackle (A Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron Mystery #5) 4.12 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 2010 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Dust to Dust (Ashes to Ashes #2) 3.76 avg rating — 21 ratings — published 1991 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Shadows in Scarlet: A Haunting Novel of Romantic Mystery 3.93 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 2001 — 4 editions	My rating:
	The Charm Stone (A Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron Mystery #4) 3.80 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 2009 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Blackness Tower 3.38 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 2008 — 4 editions	My rating:

Lillian Carl added: Curiosities of Literature by John Sutherland read in June, 2012	My rating:
This is a series of short anecdotes about authors and books, such as the origins of the Brontes' odd last name. Tolkien is mentioned in an entry about Amanda McKittrick Ros, born in 1860 in Ireland, who Sutherland names as the worst novelist of all t...more
2 hours, 39 min ago · see review
Lillian Carl added: The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean read in June, 2012	My rating:
Yes, it's a book about chemistry (NOT something my brain wraps itself around!) but a very readable and amusing one. Kean presents anecdotes about chemists and the discovery and uses of elements in a folksy and amusing manner. Yes, my eyes have glazed...more
2 hours, 40 min ago · see review
Lillian Carl added: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco	My rating:
Part mystery, part historical novel, this book is a tour de force of writing. It's a difficult read, but worth it for the breadth and depth of the story.
Apr 17, 2012 02:33pm · see review
Lillian Carl added: Sepulchre (Languedoc Trilogy, #2) by Kate Mosse	My rating:
I'd classify this as a thriller more than a mystery, and as a literary novel as much as either. The story starts in Paris in 1891. Leonie Vernier and her older, very protective brother, Anatole, head to the south of France to visit a relative by marri...more
Apr 17, 2012 02:30pm · see review
Lillian Carl added: To Kingdom Come (Barker & Llewelyn, #2) by Will Thomas	My rating:
This is the second book in a series, after Some Danger Involved. It's set in the world of Sherlock Holmes, with the main character, Cyrus Barker, being an all-wise, all-seeing version of Holmes. The point of view character is not at all Watson, thoug...more
Apr 17, 2012 02:26pm · see review
Lillian Carl added: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe	My rating:
Connie Goodwin is a graduate student at Harvard, who has just qualified to write a doctoral dissertation on American colonial life, focussing on perceptions of witchcraft. Her advisor, Manning Chilton, wants her to find a new primary source on the su...more
Apr 17, 2012 02:23pm · see review
Lillian Carl is now following Alexander McCall Smith's reviews
Apr 17, 2012 02:21pm
Lillian Carl became a fan of Goodreads Author Alexander McCall Smith
Apr 17, 2012 02:21pm · all of Lillian's favorite authors
Lillian Carl added: The Miracle at Speedy Motors (No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency #9) by Alexander McCall Smith (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
I've been reading the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency books out of order -- it depends on which volume falls into my hands when. Fortunately this doesn't matter. There are characters and bits of business that carry over, but tight plotting is not a feat...more
Apr 17, 2012 02:20pm · see review
Lillian Carl added: Avalonian Quest by Geoffrey Ashe	My rating:
Apr 17, 2012 08:47am

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