"Murder on the Orient Express," by Agatha Christie

FM's rating:

1. Premise 8
2. Prose 7
3. Plot 8
4. Characters 7
5. Overall 7

Comments (optional - but try to keep it under 3000 words!)

First time reading Christie, though I’ve always intended to!  Quite enjoyable even if the writing is a little thin.  I’m not sure if fleshing it out with more eloquent prose or more in-depth characterization would be a plus or not with a story like this.  It does make me want to read more of her works.

"Rabbit, Run," by John Updike

FM's rating:

1. Premise 7
2. Prose 10
3. Plot 8
4. Characters 9
5. Overall 8

Comments (optional – but try to keep it under 3000 words!)

Just awesome prose.  “Sleep this night is not a dark haunted domain the mind must consciously set itself to invade, but a cave inside himself, into which he shrinks while the claws of the bear rattle like rain outside.”  Rabbit (in which role I cast Will Farrell – a great fit!) has had a positive life-changing experience here, at least temporarily escaping “the claws of the bear” that his life has become.  There is a poetic aspect to the prose without ever coming across as pretentious.  The overall message of the book gives us a re-hash of the rather existentialist, “life sucks” statement that was popular in American literature at the time.  Had the story given us a more profound message, this book could have easily moved up to a “9” (Excellent) in my estimation. 

Here’s the June line-up! 

“The Last King of Texas,” by Rick Riordan [6/6]

“No Good Deed,” by Manda Scott [6/13]

“1984,” by George Orwell [6/20]

“Endangered Species,” by Nevada Barr [6/27]

 

    

"Salem Falls," by Jodi Picoult

FM's rating:

1. Premise 9
2. Prose 7
3. Plot 8
4. Characters 7
5. Overall 8



LC's rating:

 
1. Premise 10
2. Prose 10
3. Plot 10
4. Characters 10
5. Overall 10
 
Comments (optional - but try to keep it under 3000 words!)

Well-crafted legal mystery loosely based on historical events in Salem.

 

 

"Do Unto Others," by Jeff Abbott

FM's rating:

1. Premise 8
2. Prose 9
3. Plot 8
4. Characters 8
5. Overall 8

Comments (optional - but try to keep it under 3000 words!)

Another of the new favorite authors I keep discovering!  This Austin-based author is similar to and as good, in his way, as Riordan or even Grafton.  Never tedious, often very witty, just good entertaining writing.  I will definitely be back for more Jeff Abbott!



 

"The Robber Bride," by Margaret Atwood

FM's rating:

1. Premise 7 
2. Prose 10

3. Plot 6
4. Characters 9
5. Overall 8

Comments (optional – but try to keep it under 3000 words!)

Atwood is utterly brilliant.  Her prose is second to none. “The Handmaid’s Tale” is enough by itself to win her a place in the history of literature, much like Harper Lee’s single work, “To Kill a Mockingbird.”  BUT.  Atwood’s longer works, as brilliantly written and plotted as they are, become tedious for me.  That’s because she is one of those authors – much like John Irving, who I also very much admire but who can also be tedious - whose novels are character-driven, not story-driven.  They tell the story through the process of character development, so to speak.  This entails giving lots of “back-story” which, to me, always feels like putting the “real” story on hold, while we take a long look at events in the characters’ pasts.  Sigh.  Does this technique give the novel more depth?  Yes!  Does it help us relate to the characters?  Yes!  It does lots of good things.  But it makes the book tedious for many of us.  I get so bogged down in the histories of the characters that I have to alternate reading sections of the book with reading sections of a different book that develops the characters through the process of telling the story.