Sunday Salon: Week In Review #44

What I Reviewed At Becky's Book Reviews

Dumb Witness. Agatha Christie. 1937. HarperCollins. 320 pages.
Alice I Have Been. Melanie Benjamin. 2009. Random House. 352 pages.
Lucky for Good. Susan Patron. 2011. Simon & Schuster. 210 pages.

What I Reviewed at Operation Actually Read Bible

Hope Underground. Carolos Parra Diaz. As told to Mario Veloso & Jeanette Windle. 2011. Imago Dei Books. 191 pages.

What I Reviewed at Young Readers 

Happy Pig Day. An Elephant & Piggie Book. Mo Willems. 2011. Hyperion. 64 pages.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Library Loot: First Trip in November

New Loot:

The Death Cure by James Dashner
The Fat Man: A Tale of North Pole Noir by Kenneth Harmon
The Secret History of Tom Trueheart by Ian Beck
Tom Trueheart and the Land of Dark Stories by Ian Beck
The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley
The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill
Gideon the Cutpurse: Being the First Part of the Gideon Trilogy by Linda Buckley-Archer
The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
A Picnic Adventure by Lisa Gallo
The Silmarillion by J.R.R Tolkien
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Book of Lost Tales, volume one by J.R.R. Tolkien
Bilbo's Last Song by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
September by Rosamunde Pilcher
 Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Mary Poppins in the Park by P.L. Travers
Mary Poppins Opens the Door by P.L. Travers
Mary Poppins Comes Back by P.L. Travers

Leftover Loot:

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol and Other Stories by Charles Dickens
Here Lies Linc by Delia Ray
The Warden by Anthony Trollope
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.   

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Dumb Witness

Dumb Witness. Agatha Christie. 1937. HarperCollins. 320 pages.

Miss Arundell died on May 1st.

Dare I say it? I think I like Hercule Poirot! I always always thought I'd prefer Miss Marple to Poirot. And maybe I've just been finding exceptions the past few reads, or maybe I'm just REALLY in a mood for Christie, but I just LOVED Dumb Witness!!! It just felt so right when I was reading it.

So Hercule Poirot receives a letter from an old woman, a potential client. She suspects someone in her family--one of her nieces or nephews, or perhaps it's great-nephews and great-nieces?--of trying to kill her. There is something about her accident--her tumble down the stairs in the middle of the night--that doesn't feel right at all.

Circumstances being what they are, this letter isn't mailed until after Miss Emily Arundell has died. Did the would-be murderer try again? Or was her death by natural causes after all? Or are there two murderers in the family? Hercule Poirot could walk away from the case, his client is dead, but if he did....he wouldn't be Hercule Poirot!

I love Agatha Christie. I really enjoyed this one!

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Alice I Have Been

Alice I Have Been. Melanie Benjamin. 2009. Random House. 352 pages.

But oh my dear, I am tired of being Alice in Wonderland. Does it sound ungrateful? Only I do get tired.

I enjoyed this one. I did. I am not sure that I LOVED it as much as I loved The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, that book made me want to read more Melanie Benjamin.

Alice I Have Been is the fictional memoir of Alice Liddell, the little girl who "inspired" Alice in Wonderland. It is told through the eyes of a much older and much wiser Alice. An Alice who is perhaps just coming to terms with her past. An Alice who is asking questions and finding answers.

Explored in this one, of course, is her relationship--her family's relationship--with Charles Dodgson. This relationship is seen through both perspectives--as a little girl who idolizes a man that makes a big ado about spending play time with these children, and as an adult who questions what her feelings for the man really were after play time was over.

But the novel goes beyond those childhood years. Readers see her as a married woman with children of her own.

I thought the novel was well written. I found it fascinating. It was never boring!!! I think Melanie Benjamin is a great writer, a great storyteller. And I've really enjoyed both of her books.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Lucky for Good

Lucky for Good. Susan Patron. 2011. Simon & Schuster. 210 pages.

The enemies invaded the trailers.

Lucky's adventures in her small desert community continue.  

Since I enjoyed the second book in this series--at least more than I did the first book, the award-winning first book, The Higher Power of Lucky--I wanted to read the third book, Lucky For Good. (The second book is Lucky Breaks.)

If you have enjoyed both previous books, chances are you'll enjoy this one too. You may find it a charming addition to the series. You may appreciate the changes going on in Lucky's life and in Lucky's community. Some of the changes are even big--Miles' mother coming back, for example. Family issues--family relationships--are explored and tested in this one.

But. I just didn't enjoy this one. I didn't feel a connection--a good connection at least--with any of the characters. And the plot, well, it didn't hold my attention. Reading is subjective, and if you have loved the characters in the past, then you might think this well worth reading.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews