Sunday Salon

Jill kindly told me about the fact that many readers on Sunday post their thoughts on reading under the title of "Sunday Salon"...so I'm following in kind. I read Sherlock in Love from start to finish...reading some in the morning and then during commercial breaks and half time during the Colts Game (unfortunately I'm a big Peyton Manning fan so I'm still hoping that little bro' can pull it off during today's second playoff game).


Title: Sherlock in Love
Author: Sena Jeter Naslund
Rating: Thoroughly enjoyed
Genre: Historical fiction, mystery
Number of pages: 225
Finished: 1-13-08
Challenges: A to Z Author Challenge (N); Themed; Back to History; 101 books in 1,001 days

I have tried many times in the past to read other selections by Sena Jeter Naslund and I always hit a brick wall...namely with Ahab's Wife (but I think I might try picking her up again). The story of Sherlock Holmes in love is told in the first person by Dr. Watson and immediately when you read the first sentence you are hooked. You know that there will be a mystery involved that will take you down a classic path of Holmesian logic. The drama begins in the present day...late in Dr. Watson's life and two years after Holmes has died. The classic second fiddle companion decided to put forth the request for letters, stories, and information about Holmes that would allow him to compose a complete biography. Shortly thereafter weird things happen to Watson...pages of his notebooks are cut out with a razor, threatening letters appear, and he is even assaulted! All is clear in the end and the reader even goes on a journey back in time to when Holmes is still alive and meets Crazy Ludwig of Bavaria. Another read that surprised me...and enjoyed so much that I read it in a day.

And here's another review...I was able to read when watching over E who had a headache and stomach and wanted mom's care:

Title: Madeline's Ghost
Author: Robert Girardi
Rating: Pleasantly surprised
Genre: Literary mystery
Number of pages: 356
Finished: 1-12-08
Challenges: A to Z Title Challenge (M); Mini-Challenge (New to me); 101 books in 1,001 days

If I remember correctly I was pointed in the direction of this novel based on a review I read of one of Carol Goodman's books...that if you like her writing and stories than you will enjoy this book. And I did, once I got past the first 50 pages and then I couldn't put it down. The story begins in New York when you meet a down and out historian named Ned Conti. He has just managed to sweet-talk his way into a job with a church to find documentation that could me submitted to the Vatican in order to declare a sister in the order a saint. Religion, redemption, spirits and the spiritual world, narcissism, and addiction all factor into the lives of the various clearly delineated characters in this book. I definitely enjoyed the chapters that took place in New Orleans and the bayou over the dark and dangerous streets of New York, and the most the chat with the ghost. A thoroughly entertaining read and I hope that Girardi didn't stop writing after this, his first novel.

Next up...I think will be for just a change of pace a thriller by Nelson DeMille Night Fall.