Book Review: The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens; plus final Just Desserts meeting of 2023 is tonight!

The Mystery of Edwin Drood
by Charles Dickens (Dickens)

I have read nearly every book written by English author Charles Dickens, so I decided to make it a goal to read the few books by Dickens that I have not read in the coming year. I decided to start with Dickens’ last work, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which was unfinished at the time of Dickens’ death at age 58 following a stroke. From the beginning of the book, it is apparent that this story is unlike anything else that Dickens has created due to its initial setting in an opium den with one of the main characters delirious from the effects of smoking opium from a pipe. Of all the books I have read, this novel is one of the darkest that I have read. Dickens spends more time with descriptive passages demonstrating the differences between dark and light, evil and good, and characters who demonstrate all of these. The main plot seems to be built around a beautiful young orphan who is engaged to be married to a childhood friend, Edwin Drood, an undeserving young man who doesn’t seem to know what he wants out of life. Both young people have guardians who have worked to prepare the couple for their upcoming marriage without checking to see if this is what they really want. There are several characters who seem to be in love with the young lady, named Rosa, who would gladly be willing to take Drood’s place. Conflict arises when the couple break off the engagement and young Drood goes missing. It appears that Edwin has either left the country or has been murdered by one of his rivals. Unfortunately, we will never know the outcome of this mystery since Dickens suffered a stroke and died while writing this book. I would venture to say that it is just as well that the book was not completed. The dark imagery, violence, drug abuse and racism that fill this book make this one of Dickens’ most complicated stories, and definitely not one of his best.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Bleak House, David Copperfield or A Tale of Two Cities , all also by Charles Dickens.)

 

( Wikipedia entry for Charles Dickens )

 

Recommended by Kim J.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

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If you're a mystery fan, you're invited to join us for this month's Just Desserts meeting tonight, October 26th, at 6:30 p.m. in the 4th floor auditorium of the Bennett Martin Public Library downtown at 14th & "N" St. -- this mystery-themed discussion group meets on the last Thursday of each month, January through October. Tonight, in our 2023 season finale, we'll be discussing the life and works of classic American mystery author Dashiell Hammett. After this meeting, Just Desserts will take a year-end hiatus and then return in late January 2024.

 

Even if you haven't read anything for this specific discussion, you can still participate, and learn about great new mysteries to try! For more information, check out the Just Desserts schedule at https://lincolnlibraries.org/bookguide/book-groups/#justdesserts

DVD/Movie Review: My Favorite Brunette and The Cat and the Canary starring Bob Hope

My Favorite Brunette and The Cat and the Canary
starring Bob Hope (DVD My)

While recently working on the comedic play “The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940” at the Lincoln Community Playhouse, I was inspired to watch two classic Bob Hope comedy dramas, which served as inspiration for that wacky mystery/farce play.

 

My Favorite Brunette (1947) featured Hope as mild-mannered children’s photographer Ronnie Jackson, who envies the private eye who operates out of the office next door to his. When that P.I. is absent, Ronnie ends up taking one of his cases, after misrepresenting himself, and soon finds himself up to his armpits in thugs, femmes fatales, and gun-toting goons. Because the film opens with Ronnie being led to the executioner’s chamber on Death Row and relating his adventures in flashback, we now that things didn’t go his way. That’s what you get for pretending to be something you’re not!

 

The Cat and the Canary (1939) is a more direct thematic predecessor of “The Music Comedy Murders of 1940”, with Hope as Wally Campbell, one of several people named in the will of an eccentric man who died 10 years earlier. The will requires that all the people named in it must journey to the swampy estate in the Bayou, where the man used to live. The primary heiress, Joyce Norman (played by frequent Hope co-star Paulette Goddard) must live for a week in the estate, without being driven insane, in order to fully inherit.

 

This triggers a madcap series of wacky events, involving hidden doorways and passageways, creepy spooks, other jealous relatives, a woman who may or may not be a witch, and maybe even paranormal hijinks.

 

Both films are classic comedian Bob Hope at his wimpy, sarcastic, snarky, break-the-fourth-wall best. Anyone who’s ever seen and enjoyed Hope and his friend Bing Crosby in their series of “The Road to…” movies will definitely enjoy both of these films. The libraries own My Favorite Brunette on DVD. The Cat and the Canary is available to borrow on DVD through our InterLibrary Loan service, but it is also available to watch for free on YouTube (with commercial interruptions). Both movies are short — under 90 minutes each!

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the stage play The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940.)

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for My Favorite Brunette ) | ( Internet Movie Database entry for The Cat and the Canary )

 

See the booklist page for the Lincoln Community Playhouse: The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 here on BookGuide, for additional similar items!

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

DVD Review: Around the World in 80 Days (2021)

Around the World in 80 Days (2021)
(DVD Around)

Masterpiece Theatre has given us some of the best British drama productions through WGBH Boston on PBS. Around the World in 80 Days (2021) is another fine chapter in the Masterpiece book.  This eight-part adaptation stars David Tennent (Doctor Who, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), as Phileas Fogg.  Tennent is also listed as one of the Executive Producers.  In short, Phileas Fogg makes a bet with a fellow member of The Reform Club in London, that he can circumnavigate the globe in 80 days.  Each episode deals with a section of his trip that is either perilous or hindering his progress.

I love the 1956 David Niven film of “Around the World” but mostly because of all the star cameos. I haven’t read the book yet, so I can’t speak to how true this current production is to Jules Verne’s novel, but I can tell you I was involved and entertained in this show.  Even though I know the events and outcome this film did a fine job of providing tense action and apprehension for the characters.  I was very nervous at the end as Fogg, his French valet Passepartout, and Fix, his chronicler, are dashing to The Reform Club in a last minute, desperate attempt to meet the deadline.

Season One gives us the story of Around the World in 80 Days, while focusing on the personal growth of Fogg.  I really enjoyed this interpretation, and loved the opening graphics and soundtrack.  I highly recommend this series, and if you wish to binge the shows you need to set aside only one eight-hour day to do so.

It’s implied that Season Two will place the trio in the world of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea but no official word, trailers, nor release date have been provided yet.

(Also available in traditional print format.)

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this film )

 

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Public Service — Bennett Martin Public Library

 

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: The Princess Bride by William Goldman

The Princess Bride (S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure…the “good parts” version)
the original novel by William Goldman (Goldman)

If you’ve only ever seen the 1987 movie version of this story, and not read this novel, you’re missing out on a lot. The Princess Bride originally came out in 1973, and author William Goldman, also the famed screenwriter of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men, and many more noteworthy films, almost immediately wrote his own screenplay adaptation for the movie. That screen then languished, unproduced, for over a dozen years.

There are definitely some distinct differences between the novel and the film versions of the story. And, it also depends on which edition of the book you get your hands on — there’s the original 1973, and then there are both a 25th Anniversary edition, with new content, and a 30th Anniversary edition, with still more new content. All of these feature one major structural difference from the film — author Goldman inserts himself in the story, in the form of extensive editorial “interruptions” and “explanations”. Goldman’s conceit is that he is doing a massive abridgement to a classic novel, published by the legendary Florinese author S. Morgenstern — Goldman claims to have enjoyed his own father reading the tale to him as a child, only to discover that Dad cut out all the boring, exposition bits and only read aloud the exciting plot-propelling bits. Goldman also pulls on our heartstrings with a sentimental story about his own son (which turns out all to be fictional). Goldman has proposed to his publisher that they reprint the original novel by Morgenstern, but he’ll do an abridgement to “just the fun parts”.

When adapted to the Rob Reiner film, this “framing device” is turned into Grandfather Peter Falk reading the original fairytale/novel to Grandson Fred Savage. But, while that ends up being a minor, humorous element of the film, Goldman’s editorial interruptions to the novel are constant, lengthy and continuous, making The Princess Bride almost a novel within a novel within a novel. Never-the-less, the humor is about the same in both novel and film, so if you’re looking for “true love”, adventure, pirates, villainous noblemen, mad magicians, swordplay, cliff-climbing, poison, rodents of unusual size, giants who like to rhyme, matters of honor and revenge, and the definition of what “As You Wish” really means, you’ll still love this book.

The 25th and 30th editions each have extended new author/edition introductions by Goldman, giving lengthy explanations for what has happened with the editing/printing of book in the years since the original 1973 version, including what Stephen King has to do with the story — and touching on the making of the movie. Some editions also include the first chapter of what was supposed to be a sequel to The Princess Bride, Buttercup’s Baby, with additional author/editor notes explaining why only the opening chapter has thus far been published. Author Goldman passed away in 2018, with plans to expanded Buttercup’s Baby into a full novel sadly unrealized.

While the film The Princess Bride is one of my all-time favorites, and gets an unabashed rating of “10” from me, I’m only giving this novel an “8”. While I enjoyed how much fun Goldman has in playing around with the structure of a parody of adventure/fantasy literature, his constant editorial interruptions to talk about how he’s cutting chunks of Morgenstern’s original story that would slow down the story…have the very effect of slowing down the story anyway! And, there’s a couple of casual ethnic slurs that seem uncomfortably inappropriate for contemporary readers. Still a great read anyway!

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the 1987 film The Princess Bride directed by Rob Reiner. Also, actor Cary Elwes’ autobiographical book As You Wish about the making of this film — I particularly enjoyed this as an audiobook, read by Elwes and many of the other cast members of the film!)

( Wikipedia entry for the novel The Princess Bride ) | ( Wikipedia entry for William Goldman )

See Kristen A.’s review of the movie The Princess Bride in the December 2012 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!
See Scott C.’s review of Cary Elwes’ book As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From the Making of the Princess Bride in the July 2015 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: The Lord God Made Them All by James Herriot

The Lord God Made Them All
by James Herriot (B H43551)

This summer I have read every book in our collection by the English author James Herriot (Alf Wight). I had become obsessed with the PBS series All Creatures Great and Small last year and wanted to hear more of the stories about life as a Country Vet in the highlands of Yorkshire. I have enjoyed all of the books written by this author, but I especially enjoyed this one. James gets the opportunity to travel to Russia during the Cold War on a ship with cattle. Sections of the story are written as if you were reading his personal diary, seeing situations from his point of view. There are also stories of events that happened during his tenure as a veterinarian in the small town of Thirsk, referred to as Darrowby in the books. Some of the stories made me laugh out loud, others brought me to tears. I highly recommend any of the books in this series, especially if you love stories about animals.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Things Wise and Wonderful, and Every Living Thing or James Herriot’s Yorkshire all by James Herriot.)

 

( official jamesherriot.org web site ) | ( Wikipedia page about James Herriot )

 

Recommended by Kim J.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The Haunting of Hill House
by Shirley Jackson

I mentor a young adult in high school, and they recently mentioned to me that they watched the Netflix series inspired by this book. When I looked the book up, just out of curiosity, I discovered it was written by Shirley Jackson! I always marveled at her short story, “The Lottery.”

Intrigued, I decided to read The Haunting of Hill House. I found it very captivating! It’s told in an old-world style, though it can easily be adapted to modern-day. I loved the way the main characters interacted with each other, always trying to laugh and joke and make light of things, even during times of great stress. I’m not sure I’d be brave enough to visit Hill House!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin.] [ The Haunting of Hill House page on Wikipedia ] | [ official ShirleyJackson.org web site ]

See Charlotte M.’s review of The Haunting of Hill House in the October 2005 Staff Recommendations

Recommended by Tracy T.
Anderson and Bethany Branch Libraries

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (audiobook)

And Then There Were None
by Agatha Christie (Compact Disc Christie)

For the September meeting of the libraries’ Just Desserts mystery book discussion group, participants were assigned to talk about a memorable “stand-alone” mystery novel they’d read recently or in the past. I looked through my reading history list on LibraryThing to see what “stand-alones” jumped out at me — it was surprising how many books I have read (and loved) that are parts of ongoing series. But then I remembered Agatha Christie — in addition to her Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot series (among others), she had several significant “stand-alone” novels, including And Then There Were None, which has the distinction of being the top-selling mystery novel of all time, at over 100 million copies sold!

I originally read this back in high school, mumble-di-mumble years ago. I decided to revisit it for Just Desserts and took the opportunity to listen to the Book-on-CD audio adaptation, narrated by actor Hugh Fraser (who co-starred as Hastings in the Poirot television series opposite David Suchet). Fraser is a superb audio narrator, and gives each of the ten characters in this book a different audio personality. This story is legendary, and to say too much about it is to spoil the enjoyment of experiencing it (if you’ve never read it before). The book has evolved a little over the years, originally having been released in 1939 under a title that would be considered offensive today. Later American editions used the title “Ten Little Indians”, tied into a plot point of the story, but in the past 50 years, all editions have been titled And Then There Were None.

The plot, in a nutshell: Ten strangers find themselves lured to an estate on an island off the coast of Devon, England — either hired as employees or invited by distant and not-well-remembered associates. Once on the island, they are shocked by the playing of a recorded message, accusing each and every one of them of having committed murders for which they were never punished. Trapped on the island, with no way off, tensions rise as some of the ten die — first in what could be accidents, but later obviously by someone’s hand. And the fact that ten little carved Indian figures in the dining room begin disappearing to match the body count, means that the killer must be one of the remaining survivors. But who is it, and can anyone be trusted?

In true Christie fashion, the murders generally occur “off stage”, and are not overly gruesome. Which means this is a true psychological suspense novel. The story is told from the point of view of nearly every character, at one time or the other, and the reader gets to explore the psychology of each of them as the situation becomes more and more dire.

Christie said she felt And Then There Were None was the most complicated novel for her to write, with having to make sure so many characters’ stories matched up so effectively. In retrospect, having listened to it again, I can see a few flaws in the storytelling. But it is still an enthralling read, and Fraser’s audio version is marvelously entertaining!

[This novel has been adapted for film and TV several times (1945, 1965, 1974, etc.) — almost always with major changes made to the plot. I particularly enjoyed the TV mini-series version of it done in 2015, featuring Charles Dance and Aiden Turner (among others). The novel was also adapted (by Christie herself) into a stage play, which is a staple of community theaters around the US and UK. The play features two potential endings, one of which differs significantly from the novel.]

[ official And Then There Were None page on the official Agatha Christie web site ]

Read Elizabeth J.’s review of the print edition of And Then There Were None, from August 2005

Read Kristen A.’s review of the audiobook of And Then There Were None, from December 2017

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!