book review

“The Reader, the Text, the Poem” by Louise M. Rosenblatt

Literary Criticism, Literary History, Literature & Psychology, Nonfiction, Reading, Review / By /

Rosenblatt, Louise M. The Reader, the Text, the Poem: The Transactional Theory of the Literary Work  Carbondale, Ill., 1978Hardcover, 196 pagesISBN 0-8093-0883-5 Highly Recommended Rosenblatt is one of the proponents of the reader-response theory of literary criticism, a concept that emerged in the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s as a reaction to New Criticism, which treated […]

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“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee

Fiction, Review / By /

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)   rpt. Warner, 1982, 281 pages, $6.99 paperbackISBN 0-446-31078-6 Highly Recommended The story takes place in rural Maycomb, Alabama, between the summer of 1933 and Halloween of 1935. In Part One the young narrator, Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, sets the stage for the main action by introducing us

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“O” is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton

Fiction, Review / By /

Grafton, Sue. “O” is for Outlaw (1999)   Henry Holt and Company, 318 pages, $26.00 hardcover   ISBN 0 8050 5955 5 In an introductory note Grafton explains to the reader that Kinsey Millhone time progresses at a slower pace than real time: “Since the books are sequential, Ms. Millhone is caught up in a

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“Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet ” by M.C. Beaton

Fiction, Review / By / /

Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet (1993)  St. Martin’s, 199 pages, $17.95 hardcover  ISBN 0‑312‑09242‑3 Agatha Raisin arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport with a tan outside and a blush of shame inside. She felt an utter fool as she pushed her load of luggage towards the exit. She had just spent two weeks in the

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“Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death” by M.C. Beaton

Fiction, Review / By / /

Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death (1992). St. Martin’s, 201 pages, $17.95 hardcover  ISBN 0‑312‑08153‑7 When we first meet Agatha Raisin, she’s 53 years old and about to retire from her public relations job in London to a cottage in the Cotswolds: “The Cotswolds in the Midlands are surely one of the few man‑made

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“Death of a Gossip” by M.C. Beaton

Fiction, Review / By / /

Death of a Gossip (1985) Warner Books, 179 pages, $6.50 paperback  ISBN 0‑446‑60713‑4 Every week during salmon-fishing season a new class arrives at the fishing school in Lochdubh run by John and Heather Cartwright. But town constable Hamish Macbeth has a bad feeling about this particular class…. Macbeth is the lone police officer in Lochdubh,

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M.C. Beaton: Introductory Notes

Author News, Fiction / By /

M.C. Beaton is a pseudonym of Marion Chesney, who is known primarily for the more than 100 historical romance novels she has published under her own name and under several pseudonyms: Helen Crampton, Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, and Charlotte Ward. But M.C. Beaton is the pseudonym she reserves for her mystery novels. Marion Chesney was

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The Best Books I Read in 1999

List, Year's Best / By /

Listed alphabetically by author Berg, A. Scott. Lindbergh Cheever, Susan. Note Found in a Bottle: My Life as a Drinker Connelly, Michael. The Black Echo Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory Deane, Seamus. Reading in the Dark Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin

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“Certain Prey” by John Sandford

Fiction, Review / By /

Sandford, John. Certain Prey (1999)  G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 339 pages, $24.95 hardcover   ISBN 0 399 14496 X   In his latest Lucas Davenport thriller John Sandford does something different: he focuses on the villain as much as on the hero. And what a villain it is: Clara Rinker, the best hit woman (or hit

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book review

“The Body Project” by Joan Jacobs Brumberg

Nonfiction, Review / By /

Brumberg, Joan Jacobs. The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls Random House, 1997Hardcover, 267 pagesISBN 0-679-40297-7 Joan Jacobs Brumberg teaches in the fields of history, human development, and women’s studies at Cornell University. In this cultural and historical study, she describes how growing up female has changed over the last century and how, in

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