It's August and it's hot out. No surprise there. Last month, I mentioned that I had an idea for this month's post. I started in that direction but, like Burns said about the best laid plans, they ".. gang aft agley". I picked up a couple of books that I dove into immediately.
Off The Shelf - Sherlock Holmes
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Richard Lancelyn Green, ed. ($6.00/$6.00, copyright 1985, 272 pages, Paperback)
Green went out of his way to pick out authors who tried to write Sherlock Holmes stories as they were written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and they have refrained from taking any liberties with the traits of the characters. They are very much in the late Victorian era style. Not all them are of
equal merit. Sadly, in my opinion, the one by Adrian Conan Doyle - Sir Arthur's son - is the weakest, but there are some really good ones here and it's always fun to spend time with old friends. I enjoyed it.
Young Adult
Theses are the couple of books that threw me off my original intent. I came across them on the library sale shelves in Middletown.
Tunnels - Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams ($8.99/$.25, copyright 2008, 472 pages, Trade Paperback)
Will Burrows is a 14-year-old London boy who doesn't really fit in. His Dad runs a museum and loves to dig tunnels as a freelance archaeologist. Will has accompanied his Dad on a few and has even started his own. He befriends Chester, another outcast at his school, and talks him into helping him. When Will's dad disappears they set off in search of him. This leads them to an underground colony where they hate people from above ground and Will's life is thrown into disarray when questions arise about who he really is. I have to say that it didn't interest me at all and I didn't know that it was the start of a series. I didn't like it and I won't be continuing with it.
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman ($8.99/$1.00, copyright 2008, 307 pages, Trade Paperback)
This is the story of a young boy who, as a toddler, wakes up one night, decides to wander around the neighborhood, and winds up in the graveyard. The inhabitants - ghosts, of course - take him in and name him Nobody Owens, Bod for short. While this was happening, a man named Jack has murdered the child's family and is looking for him. Gaiman plays the story out in individual chapters that stand alone and yet continue to build to a bittersweet but satisfying ending. I've been a big Gaiman fan for years having read many of his Sandman comics and adult novels. He could have stretched this out into one of those but, I think, he realized that it worked best in this format. I really enjoyed it.
Next up is September and I'm going to be spending a lot of time babysitting my new granddaughter. It should be interesting to see how that affects what I read going forward. Till then ..
Keep reading.
