Reading in Reykjavík

I have added cover images for some of the books I have reviewed, and am working on adding more. The plan is in the future to include cover images for all the books I review. I am also in the process of adding masses of links to the sidebar. This should be finished by the end of the week, but I urge my readers to let me know of useful and interesting biblio-websites. Just leave the URL in a comment under this post.

I've finally put all my old reviews online in one accessible place: Bibliophile's Review and Essay Archive All that's missing is the essays and other non-reviews. I decided not to include any of the comments, simply because it was too much work. Please post comments here if you find any broken links. (I am aware of the symbols that pop up in the text here and there. GeoCities doesn't like apostrophes.) Once the reviews in Another 52 books start to drop off the page, I will add them as well. (They will still be accessible in the month by month archives here on Blogger).

Writers have been putting down advice for wannabe writers for centuries, about everything from how to captivate readers to how to build a story and write believable characters to getting published. The mystery genre has had its fair share, and one of the best known advisory essays is mystery writer’s S.S. Van Dine’s 1928 piece “Twenty rules for writing detective stories.” I mentioned in one of my reviews that I might write about these rules. Well, I finally gave myself the time to do it. First comes the rule (condensed), then what I think about it. Here are the Rules as Van Dine wrote them . (Incidentally, check out the rest of this excellent mystery reader’s resource: Gaslight ) The rules are meant to apply to whodunnit amateur detective fiction, but the main ones can be applied to police and P.I. fiction as well. I will discuss them mostly in this context, but will also mention genres where the rules don’t apply and authors who have successfully and unsuccessfully broken the rules. 1...

Author: Isabella Lucy Bird Year of publication: 1856 Genre: Travel, USA and Canada Time period: Mid-19th century I have mentioned my love of travelogues before. I don’t just like to read new or newish books about places I would like to visit some day but also about places I have visited and historical journeys. Historical travelogues are especially interesting when they draw up a snapshot of places as they were at a given point in time, even though one always has to keep in mind that travellers often write about what they think they should have experienced or what they think the readers will want to read about rather than their actual experiences. I have a great admiration for the leisure travellers of the past who often went through amazing hardships just to be able to briefly visit a place, and I respect the commercial travellers who sometimes had to travel for many months or even years to get to their destination. Before the advent of aeroplanes and express trains the actual get...

Title: The Thin Woman Series detective: Ellie Simons, aided by Bentley Haskell No. in series: 1 Year of publication: 1984 Type of mystery: Cosy w/ treasure hunt, possible murder, murder attempts Type of investigator: Amateurs Setting & time: England, 1980’s Some themes: Dieting, insecurity, missing persons Story: Interior decorator Ellie Simons is fat and insecure and has always been made to feel inferior by her beautiful cousin Vanessa. When she is invited, along with all her other relatives (Vanessa included), to Merlin’s Court, her eccentric uncle’s fairy-tale castle, for a family weekend, she hires handsome Bentley Haskell, a writer who moonlights as a social escort, to accompany her and pretend to be her boyfriend. Uncle Merlin is not only eccentric, but also rich, and most of the relatives only come in the hope of getting a mention in his will. When he dies shortly afterwards, Ellie is stunned to learn that she and Ben have been left Merlin’s Court and most of Merli...

Title: The Winter Queen Original Russian title: Azazel Translator: Andrew Bromfield Series detective: Erast Petrovich Fandorin No. in series: 1 Year of publication: 1998 Type of mystery: Conspiracy, murder, thriller Type of investigator: Police Setting & time: Russia: Moscow & St. Petersburg, England: London; 1876 Some themes: Obsession, love, social improvement Story: Young Erast Fandorin, a lowly police clerk of good family but small means, is sent to investigate a mysterious suicide in Moscow. This leads him to a beautiful and mysterious woman who is not all what she seems. Events lead him to London where he discovers that she is involved in some kind of conspiracy. From then on, his life is in constant danger. Review: I didn’t really know what to expect when I picked up this book, and after reading the first couple of chapters I wasn’t sure whether I was reading a mystery or the parody of one, so parodic, almost satirical at times, is the style. Akunin has a way...

In spite of having loads of school work (did I mention that I’m about to finish my graduate studies?) I still managed to read 18 books in April. They would have been much fewer if it had not been for Easter. It’s amazing what a determined person can do over several days uninterrupted by work or classes, so I managed to finish an amazing amount of school work and read a book or two per day besides. Reviewed: The Barbie Chronicles: a living doll turns forty : Yona Zeldis McDonough (social history) The Case is Closed : Patricia Wentworth (murder mystery) Every boy's got one : Meg Cabot (romance) Grey Mask : Patricia Wentworth (mystery) Latter End : Patricia Wentworth (murder mystery) Maigret has scruples : Georges Simenon (murder mystery) Maigret in exile : Georges Simenon (murder mystery) The Murdered House : Pierre Magnan (murder mystery) Unreviewed: Belle of the Ball : Pam McCutcheon (historical romance) The Daughter of Time : Josephine Tey (murder mystery, historical) De...