Sometimes you read a classic and wonder why it’s hailed as one. Some are weighed down with ponderous prose, others laden with barely-moving plots. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is happily none of these. A great book from start to finish, one that simply leaps out at you and reifies each character in the book [...]

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The Winter Queen is a novel set in Russia in the nineteenth century. Erast Fandorin is a policeman in Moscow, working his way up the ranks of the CID. A string of queer incidents has occurred in Moscow, culminating in a rich heir blowing his brains out in front of a pretty girl and her [...]

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Bill Pronzini weaves a delightful tale of suspense in his short novel, The Hidden. It is California in the 00s and the unsullied vistas of nature are a soothing balm to a veteran just returned from the hellhole that is Iraq. Driving along the edge of the continent is just what the PTSD-scarred veteran needs [...]

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Here’s another little gem from Stephen Fry. English boarding school buggery, rampant latent homosexuality, constant allusions to classical myths and an intricate MI5 plot about, of all things, a lie remover, combine to make this an extremely interesting read. Adrian Healey is a born liar, someone to whom the truth is so dreadfully mundane, so [...]

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This is one of those books whose blurb makes it seem funnier than it really is. Merde Happens is about an expat Brit who lives in Paris, but runs afoul of the French language laws regarding the labels in his gourmanderie, and is fined roughly a year’s salary. In no position to pay off this [...]

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Sometimes the best way to examine a depressing subject is to cloak in savage folds of humour. Sherman Alexie does precisely this with The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Arnold Spirit Jr. is a kid who’s been dealt some unfortunate cards from the deck of life. Born hydrocephalic, with a lisp and stutter [...]

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I don’t read a lot of love stories, but once in a while break from the constant brutality of war and history is a good change, I suppose. Modus omnibus in rebus and all that rot. This is a love story with a twist, where the man travels through time to meet his wife as [...]

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Anyone familiar with The Three Investigators or the cameos of a portly Hitchcock stepping onto a bus will love this book, put out by the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. The short story is a very different beast compared to its heavyweight cousin: the long novel, in my humble opinion. The author lacks the luxury of [...]

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H. M. Naqvi‘s Home Boy is the story of three Pakistani men in New York, describing their lives as they intertwine and mesh ever tighter in the aftermath of 9/11. We have all three possible classes of Pakistani-Americans: one born and raised in Jersey, an intellectual atheist who drinks too much and a new immigrant [...]

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Here’s a link to some old French fairtyales, illustrated by Virgina Frances Sterrett and written by the Comtesse De Segur. Once in a while, a real gem turns up on openlibrary.org. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. http://www.archive.org/stream/oldfrenchfairyta00sgrich#page/n9/mode/2up

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