Cannonball Read 11

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“How did I escape? With difficulty. How did I plan this moment? With pleasure.” (Remix) (OH, and double bingo)

Revenge by Stephen Fry

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(DOUBLE BINGO – corners and center, top left to bottom right I think the reason that this reworking of The Count of Monte Cristo works so well is because (at least per the afterword) Stephen Fry didn’t realize he was adapting the book until midway through writing it, thinking he was only writing a tale of the utter devastation of an innocent man and his revenge against those who had wronged him once he recovered from rock bottom.  I tend to believe this as I’ve done similar things – the unwitting plagiarism of having a good idea and realizing once […]

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8/9/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:60 |

In the Style of the Greeks

Mythos by Stephen Fry

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I think the title of this book and the name of the author tell you a lot about this book right from the start. It’s Stephen Fry telling you the Greek myths. And it does feel like he’s telling them to you. His tone is very Stephen-Fry-y and his style is direct, dryly witty, and interested. His love of alliteration does show up. “Her lines were sweepingly, swoopingly, swooningly smooth, supple, and sensuous.”— Galatea and Pygmalion If you’re very familiar with Greek Mythology, If you’re only passingly aware, or it’s been a long time since you delved into the stories, […]

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Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

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1/27/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:1 |

“You are the one fixed point in a changing age.”

His Last Bow: Some Later Reminisces of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #8) by Arthur Conan Doyle

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This is the shortest Holmes story collection: only eight stories and a preface written by Watson, explaining that Holmes is now retired to Sussex and keeping bees, and here are some stories he hasn’t yet published about their adventures, including their very last one. (All the stories in the last published book, The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes, apparently take place before “His Last Bow” as well.) Because of the shortness, you feel it a little bit more when a story is a dud. In particular, I thought the first, double-length story, “The Adventure on Wisteria Lane,” was a bit dull. […]

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11/30/2018 's CBR10 Review No:157 |

Probably my least favorite of these books.

The Valley of Fear (Sherlock Holmes, #7) by Arthur Conan Doyle

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I liked this, I did. But the first half was just an extended Holmes story (a pretty good one!), while the second half was basically pointless. I don’t think this should have been a full length novel. The content of the story just doesn’t justify it. The Valley of Fear was published in full in 1915 (after being serialized in The Strand of course), so by this point, Conan Doyle had been writing the character for almost thirty years. (This was also around the time Conan Doyle started getting super into spiritualism, and about five years before he started believing […]

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11/28/2018 's CBR10 Review No:140 |

“Holmes,” I cried. “Is it really you?”

The Return of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #6) by Arthur Conan Doyle

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While gathering my thoughts to start writing this review, I kept getting the feeling that this was my favorite of the Holmes story collections so far. With this feeling in mind, I moseyed on over to Goodreads to look at my status updates to try to collect evidence to back it up (I rate and do mini-reviews for every story), whereupon I found to my surprise that my reaction to most of the stories was just good, not great. It’s a solid story collection! However, only two out of the thirteen stories I liked enough to really remember and have fond feelings for. […]

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10/31/2018 's CBR10 Review No:131 |

But what of Barry the swim instructor? Does he get a happy ending?

Between the Bridge and the River by Craig Ferguson

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A few years ago (I don’t know…maybe 2007?), back when I was addicted to watching Craig Ferguson’s Late Night show, he had an interesting episode in which he sat and talked to his friend Stephen Fry. No monologue, no questions on cards, no skits, no dancing horse. Just a conversation between old friends. It was fascinating. They talked about all sorts of stuff, but what I remember most was their discussion about writing fiction. Fry had several books, their good friend Hugh Laurie had just written a mystery, and Ferguson’s Between the Bridge and the River had just been released. […]

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10/8/2018 's CBR10 Review No:37 |

“Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!”

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sherlock Holmes, #4) by Arthur Conan Doyle

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So I’ve been reading all the Sherlock Holmes stories and novels since January now, and I’ve been having a great time with the audiobooks narrated by Stephen Fry (especially since my version also has these little personal essays written by Fry at the beginning of each novel or collection). But I think I might have done myself a little disservice by listening to this one in audio. I’ve read it before, when I was in grade school I think, but the only part I remembered was SPOILERS when they discover the dog had been painted in phosphorous (except my memory […]

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8/29/2018 's CBR10 Review No:105 |

“Excellent!” I cried. “Elementary,” said he. #CBRBingo

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #4) by Arthur Conan Doyle

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Project: Catch Up On Review Backlog, review #4 out of 11 Of the four Holmes books I’ve read so far, this one has been my favorite. Even my least favorite stories are solid, and there are several that are excellent. For context, these stories were all published between 1892-1893, at the height of both Conan Doyle’s and his famous hero’s popularity. Conan Doyle was growing extremely tired of his creation, and he wanted to write other, newer and more challenging things (he did, almost none of which is read now by anyone other than Conan Doyle scholars and really dedicated […]

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8/3/2018 's CBR10 Review No:90 |


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