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book reviews

Piranesi

Piranesi: A Book For the Dreamers Author: Susanna Clarke It does not matter that you do not understand the reason. You are the Beloved Child of the House. Be comforted. Piranesi lives outside of time in a ruined house where the sea roars through the lower levels and the dangerous tides drown galleries and creep up stairs. In this house there are few windows but infinite statues and hall after hall to explore. Some halls are crusted in barnacles while others are tumbled ruins with gaping holes leading to the drowned levels where the fish swim and the beautiful flowering [...]

2021-04-13T19:33:44-07:00April 13th, 2021|Tags: , |

Mystery of the Ivory Charm, The

Image from the 1941 edition, which captures the critical meeting between Nancy and Rai. Nancy and the Mystical Author: Carolyn Keene (This review is for the original 1930s version). When a giant snake gives Nancy the squeeze at a train station, a dangerous new adventure begins. This time the mystery goes all the way back to India and involves a shifty circus, a malicious animal handler named Rai, his abused boy assistant (Coya), and a woman named Miss Alison who owns an eerily empty circus house and claims to see visions. Tying everything together is a rare ivory charm [...]

2021-04-11T11:52:45-07:00April 11th, 2021|Tags: , , , , |

Lost Horizon

Lamas, Long Life, and the Moderately Heretical Author: James Hilton It’s 1931. The situation in Baskul, China has deteriorated into all out warfare. A group of four, including the famous World War I hero and current diplomat Hugh Conway, must hastily board a tiny, single engine aircraft to be flown to the relative peacefulness of Peshawar. When their pilot gets jumped at the last minute and a new man with a gun takes over the plane, however, a very different journey unfolds. Flying at dangerous altitudes into the serene but remote Himalayan Mountains, making a mysterious stop for an armed refuel, [...]

2021-04-05T20:27:06-07:00April 5th, 2021|Tags: |