news, views & reviews
Posted in Historical, Young Adult on Jun 5th, 2007
reviewed by John J. Desjarlais
Belisarius: Book I, The First Shall Be Last
by Paolo A. Belzoni
Arx Publishing, 2007
$14.95
ISBN-13: 978-1889758-78-7
Historical fiction set in the distant past has often been used as a platform to comment on contemporary events. Yes, the reader says, that situation was like the one we face today, and the way their heroes […]
Posted in Audiobooks, Fantasy, Historical on Apr 5th, 2007
by Susanna Clarke
reviewed by John Murphy
“Two magicians shall appear in England”
I tend to catch the tail-end of trends, like an enthusiastic gate-crasher at a party long since broken-up. When friends and family suggest—nay, insist—that I must, I absolutely must watch such-and-such a movie, listen to such-and-such a CD, or read such-and-such a book … well, […]
Posted in Audiobooks, Classics, Historical on Dec 21st, 2006
read by Frank Muller
reviewed by Rachel Murphy
I first happened upon Frank Muller’s reading of A Tale of Two Cities (Recorded Books, 1986) from our local library last year, and it was clearly a well-used volume of cassettes. The sound quality of at least one of them made it nearly impossible to follow along, especially over […]
Posted in Historical, Horror, Suspense/Thriller on Sep 20th, 2006
reviewed by Debra Murphy
I’ve never been a huge fan of the vampire story. As a youngster, I was duly appreciative of the shivers to be had from the old Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee movies that played on television. (Back in Champaign-Urbana, where I grew up, there was a regular Late Show movie once a […]
Posted in Classics, Historical, Horror on Feb 9th, 2006
Reviewed by Christine J. Murray
Few people, even among Catholics, have heard of Robert Hugh Benson. That was not the case 100 years ago. As an author and novelist, the Catholic priest from Britain was incredibly popular. The reading public and the Catholic Church suffered greatly when he died in 1914. Benson was […]