Monthly Archives: December 2011

Sue Grafton, “V is for Vengeance”

Posted on December 30, 2011 by carolwallace

I’ve always been impressed by the way Sue Grafton has been able to keep her franchise going. All right — not always, but since about 1990 when it became obvious that she was going to work her way right through … Continue reading →

Posted in best seller, mystery | Tagged | 2 Comments

Ann Patchett, “Bel Canto”

Posted on December 24, 2011 by carolwallace

The magical laundry room shelves were pushy about this. A few weeks ago I noticed a copy of Bel Canto wedged in next to an out-of-date guidebook to Denmark. With Ann Patchett’s current book getting a lot of attention, naturally … Continue reading →

Posted in best seller, contemporary fiction | Tagged | 6 Comments

Elizabeth Kostova, “The Swan Thieves”

Posted on December 19, 2011 by carolwallace

There was a lot of fuss over Elizabeth Kostova’s earlier book, The Historian, and I tried to read it but could not quite cozy up to the Dracula theme, the violence, the portentousness. The Swan Thieves, though, was a much … Continue reading →

Posted in art history, contemporary fiction, historical fiction | Tagged | 4 Comments

P.D. James, “Death Comes to Pemberley”

Posted on December 14, 2011 by carolwallace

Oh, dear. I had such high hopes for Death Comes to Pemberley. I’m not a big fan of the  mash-up and I’m traditional enough to believe that Miss Austen’s work shouldn’t be meddled with. But surely, if anyone was going to … Continue reading →

Posted in anglophilia, mystery | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Karen Armstrong, “The Spiral Staircase”

Posted on December 12, 2011 by carolwallace

Karen Armstrong, it turns out, is a big deal. She’s an author and speaker on spirituality whose A History of God is evidently an incisive and readable history of the Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It’s probably her best-known … Continue reading →

Posted in memoir | Tagged | 2 Comments

Steven Naifeh & Gregory White Smith, “Van Gogh: The Life”

Posted on December 6, 2011 by carolwallace

Phew! Sorry — but really, who doesn’t feel relief upon finishing a volume that runs 870 pages? I read a paper-bound galley of Van Gogh: The Life and had a hard time just managing its physical bulk. This is not a … Continue reading →

Posted in art history, best seller, biography | Tagged , , | 7 Comments