The Bridge of San Luis Rey

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Thornton Wilder

In 1714 in Peru the bridge of San Luis Rey broke, sending 5 people to their deaths.

The accident was witnessed by Brother Juniper, who has been plagued by the question of the role the hand of God plays in the lives and deaths of human beings. He realizes that if he can find a common denominator among the five victims he may be find an answer.

As he investigates the lives of the dead, he finds many intersections where their lives entwined with one another, but can he find a reason why God would have wanted them dead?

I loved this book and have added it to my list of favorites. I do not wrestle with the big questions raised by this book, but I always love books that address the huge basic question of what it means to be human, and our role in the universe.

I was so impressed by how such huge themes were contained in this little gem of a volume. The writing was sure and powerful. I would have loved it for that, alone, but I loved everything about it. The characters, the situations, and the setting were all so wonderfully done.

The Westing Game

The Westing Game

Ellen Raskin

The Westing Game is a book for older children that deservedly won the Newberry prize in the late 1970's. Paper magnate Samuel Westing leaves a very curious will.

Sixteen potential heirs are paired into eight groups and each pair is given a set of clues. The first to find the cause of Westing's demise wins the game.

This book was a hoot. The characters were colorful and funny, the game was fun and the plot was surprisingly imaginative. This was a very cute book altogether.

Crooked House

Crooked House

Agatha Christie

Aristide Leonides had come to England as an impoverished Greek youth, and had built a fortune - and a lavish but slightly unusual house. At 85, the loving, wise, benificent family patriarch was found dead.

Which member of the Leonides household could be crooked enough to have poisoned him?

I find almost all of Agatha Christie's work to be very satisying reads, and this was no exception.

A Christmas Journey

A Christmas Journey

Anne Perry

Guests have been invited to spend a holiday weekend at Applecross, an English country estate.

When a young woman is apparently driven to suicide by the cruel remarks of another guest, thoughts of celebration quickly turn to thoughts of justice, forgiveness, and atonement.

As a group, the remaining guests decide that the young lady that they hold responsible for playing a part in the other's suicide must undertake a perilous journey into the brutal winter of the Scottish Highlands, in order to find the dead young lady's mother, and to explain her role in her death.

It always gives me a lot of pleasure to read Anne Perry's Chrismas books this time of year, even though the themes are often dark and difficult.

In an Antique Land

In an Antique Land

Amitav Ghosh

This is both an account of an Indian slave who was owned by a Jewish merchant in the 1100's, and an account of the time that Ghosh spent in Egypt.

Both accounts were interesting. I found passages about trade among the Middle East, N. Africa, India and Southern Europe during the Middle Ages to be especially fascinating. Ghosh's attempts to uncover the identity of the slave and to learn about his life are also interesting, though it seems to me that his conclusions were almost all pure educated speculation based on too lttle evidence. The slave's master makes up almost all of the narrative of the slave. Given that there is, of course, so little written material concerning the slave, or any of the lower classes of that time, it's to be expected.

The account Ghosh gives of his several visits to Egypt over a decade or so are also interesting.

Tied Up in Tinsel

Tied Up in Tinsel

Ngaio Marsh

An eccentric estate owner, a staff of convicted murderers, a hybrid Druidic/Christmas celebration, various and sundry guests, and a corpse are the ingredients of this fun and interesting Yuletide mystery.

I've read a few Ngaio Marsh books, and so far this is my favorite.

A Chirstmas Odyssey

A Christmas Odyssey

Anne Perry

It's Christmas time and James Wentworth enlists the help of his friend Henry Rathbone to reunite him with his estranged son, Lucien, who has fallen into the abyss of Victorian London's underground of unimaginable debauchery, sordid appetites of all kinds, and violent criminal behavior. Squeaky Robinson, who is nurse Hester Monk's assistant, Crow, an almost-doctor, and Bessie, a 14-yr-old who is at home in the underground but who has not yet been tainted by its fetid atmosphere join Henry on his quest to rescue his friend's peodigal son.

I enjoyed this, but I didn't think it was quite as strong as Perry's other Christmas books.

How Green Was My Valley

How Green Was My Valley"

Richard Llewellyn

This is the story of a Welsh coal-mining family at about the turn of thd Twentieth Century as narrated by the youngest son, Huw Morgan.

I felt a great sympathy for Huw and his entire family, in spite of the males' proclivity for fighting - settling scores with their fists.

The story was beautiful and poignant. The author's gift of storytelling is obvious. This was a wonderful book altogether.

The Face of a Stranger

The Face of a Stranger

Anne Perry

This is the first book in the William Monk series. Monk, a policeman in Victorian London, has been in a terrible accident. which left him severely injured, and without any memory of his past.

As he slowly begins to piece bits of his life and small bits of his memory back together, he is handed a case that requires him to move among the gentry with extreme delicacy.

As the case unfolds, he uncovers some shocking clues to his own past - clues which could well end his future.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Monk seems to me to be one of the most complex sleuths since Sherlock Holmes.

I've read some of Anne Perry's other series, the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt novels, which I also enjoyed, and I've read several of her Christmas books, which I love, but this is the most well-crafted of them all. I'm glad that there are umpteen more books in this series. I intend to eventually read them all. I hope they are all so strong.

*This book is also the first in my William Monk First Three Novels omnibus edition. I am only reviewing the first right now.

A Daughter's Love

A Daughter's Love

John Guy

This was a very readable biography of Sir Thomas More and, incidentally, of his daughter, Margaret Roper. I say incidentally, because she was treated with more depth than other family members and other background characters, but nto with nearly the same depth as More, the author of Utopia.

I really liked Guy's More. He was witty, jolly, fun-loving, socially conscious, and a loving family man. However, after I'd finished the book, and had a bit of time to digest what I'd read, I realized that he was the same person who condemned many people to horrible deaths as heretics. I couldn't help but think that his own fate at the hands of Henry VIII was a perfect example of poetic justice.

I really did find this a fascinating read. More was definitely an interesting man who was a deep thinker and very highly principled, although holding too tightly to those same principles led him to commit terrible acts, and, ulitmately, was his undoing.