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Release Date: 1999-03-01
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
| My dear HolmesEverybody knows him -- the pipe-smoking detective on Baker Street (with or without the movie-added deerstalker), who is able to deduce all sorts of things just by glancing at a person. "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" shows off Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's first collection of short stories involving Holmes, mingling human psychology with sometimes bizarre mysteries.
Holmes is visited by the masked King of Bohemia, who has a slight problem: he's engaged to a princess, but his former lover Irene Adler has a compromising letter that could jeopardize his future marriage. But Adler has a formidable brain of her own. Then Holmes is hired by a man who was hired by the mysterious Red-Headed League, and given a strange job... which is somehow connected to a criminal undertaking.
Among the other strange cases that Holmes and Watson undertake -- a missing fiance, a strange murder in Boscombe Valley, a dead man who was sent five orange seeds, a woman whose husband has utterly vanished, a blue jewel hidden in a Christmas turkey, a dead woman whose last words were "it was the band, the speckled band!", a young engineer given a dream job, an American heiress who vanishes directly after her wedding, a broken beryl coronet, and a young woman given a surreally weird job.
Sherlock Holmes mysteries come in two types:
1. The case is completely baffling, and Holmes is needed to unravel the knot of obscure clues.
2. The case seems straightforward, but Holmes is needed to connect seemingly unrelated clues to the crime in order to find the REAL perpetrator.
There are plenty of both kinds in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," with a dozen cases that require Holmes' unique detecting skills -- it can be something as simple as locating a letter, or something as complex as foiling a robbery or counterfeiting ring. Doyle's stately, dignified prose is heightened by moments of excitement or horror (" It swelled up louder and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled in the one dreadful shriek"), and he wove in a lot of human psychology into Holmes' cases.
Holmes himself... is Holmes. Doyle didn't like his detective much, but Sherlock's knife-edged intellect and fascination with puzzles are strangely hypnotic -- even if you wouldn't like to be roomies with the guy, it would be amazing just to sit and watch him work. Watson is the perfect counterpoint for Holmes: he's not a genius but is definitely intelligent, warm-hearted and capable.
"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" is a magnificent collection of Holmes' first twelve short cases, filled with murder, intrigue and all sorts of weird crimes. An absolute must-read.
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Release Date: 2009-07-28
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
| Would you like coffee with that?There's a difference between a good storyteller and good writer and Stieg Larsson is not a good writer.
He's a master of the irrelevant detail with a weird fixation on coffee.
His characters "start coffee," "pour coffee," are "impressed" with others' coffee-making skills. I swear F. Scott Fitzgerald did not mention booze as much in all his stories as Larsson mentions coffee in this one book. If Larsson had written "Moby Dick," the opening line would be "Call me Ishmael and join me for a coffee..."
Larson seems to very often miss the point that good thriller writers know about what information to give and what to withhold, and what characters know and what the reader should know and when.
Then there's the needless and draining repetition.
In one tiresome chapter, he gives us a police press conference where all the information (and I mean ALL) is stuff we already know, but is presented again in detail.
There's a 100 page section that's truly risible in its irrelevance. Characters investigate and hit dead ends and "uncover" information we already know. We, the reader, are ahead of the characters, and that's always tedious (unless the characters are being drawn suspenseful into a trap, which is not the case).
As Eric Asimov wrote, you can't wait for Larsson's books to end (as opposed to not wanting them to end) but I have to admit, that despite all their many flaws, I sort of enjoy reading these books. I also spend a lot of time wondering why.
I think it's because, Larsson is a good storyteller, and he creates compelling characters. His Lisbeth Salander is singular pleasure to follow, and whenever she's on the page, the story crackles. Just being inside her head is a perverse pleasure.
I'll probably read the next installment (which is supposed to be much better than "...Played with Fire") and then be glad they're over (but not glad for the reason, of course).
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Release Date: 1994-07-01
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
| Amazing story of our country's foundingI wondered "How can an autobiography get a 4 to 5-star review?" Now I see why. This is one of the coolest things I ever read. I won't spoil the fun for the new readers, but it is a definite don't miss. If you want to know what it was like in early America - and how a principal founder of our country helped form its development (and WHY he was so popular), this is a must-read.
One very cool tidbit - a true account of events led to the outsting of the British out of the country, and why we went to war...if you're British you may not want to read this. ;) On the other hand, if you're French, you will be flattered!
In addition to reading history, you will also learn negotiating and fund-raising tactics, as well as master-minded political moves that help move bills toward passage.
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