“The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner,” by James Hogg

FM's ratings:

          1. Premise 5

          2. Prose 6

          3. Plot 7

          4. Characters 7

          5. Overall 6

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

I had this book recommended to me, primarily as a peek at historic Scotland, and especially Edinburgh.  When I rate a book at a “6” or lower it’s an indication that I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to someone else.   This is essentially a re-hash of the many versions of “man-makes-deal-with-devil” stories, albeit with some interesting twists.  Fortunately, the prose and pacing were NOT tedious!  [See various previous entries.]  There simply wasn’t anything special about them.  It’s a fairly short book, so it gets credit for that, too.  The characters were rather shallow, including the protagonist; who took almost the entire book to realize just who he was dealing with, while everyone else saw it very clearly.  Yes, this book is a “classic” – and classics are a VERY mixed bag – so I didn’t want to give it a miss.  But of all the classics available, there are many that you probably haven’t read that would be more worth your time.

Here’s the January line-up! 

“Suffer Little Children,” by Peter Tremayne

“Shakespeare’s Trollop,” by Charlaine Harris

“Choke,” by Chuck Palahniuk

“Underdog,” by Laurien Berenson
“The Green Ripper,” by John D. MacDonald 

(As always, if there are any books you’d like to recommend for the next month, please do so.  Also, if you have already read one on our previous lists, you are invited you to give your ratings/comments for that book!)