July 2019 Book Report

The Red House Mystery (1922) by A.A. Milne

Amateur detective Antony Gillingham and his friend are weekending at a sumptuous English estate when murder takes place and their host disappears. Interesting characters galore. I didn’t know that the author of Winnie the Pooh could write such a delightful mystery for adults.

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At The Earth’s Core (1922) by Edgar Rice Burroughs

A touch of Jules Verne here. Explorers David Innes and his mentor Perry travel into the center of the earth and find an entire new world inside the outer world. Evolution seems to have taken a different turn here and humans are not at the top of the food chain.

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Upside Down Magic (2015) by Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, Emily Jenkins

This a delightful series about children who come into their magic powers at age 10 (like all children in this particular world) and have to start learning how to control and hone their magic. A certain portion of them have their magic come out “differently” in an upside down way, and have more problems than usual. I’ve read the first 4 in this series and there are supposed to be more to come.

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The First Men in the Moon (1901) by H.G. Wells

I loved the 1964 movie and would watch it every time it came on TV. I finally got around to reading the book. What a difference! They took great liberties when they made the movie. In the book, there was no romance, a lot of violence and the ending was far different. I still love the movie but am glad I read the original.

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Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout

As I said at the beginning of the year, I’m not going to review all the books in any series, but just a general idea of the series. I’ve been reading Nero Wolfe books for many, many years. You get a real flavor of New York way back when. You have the brilliant but grumpy Nero Wolfe, the always engaging right-hand man Archie Goodwin, the orchid keeper Theodore Horstmann, his personal chef Fritz Brenner. There have been several TV series and movies done and the picture here is of my favorite Wolfe: Maury Chaykin. He came the closest physically to the Nero Wolfe I had in my mind from my readings. His interpretation of Wolfe was outstanding. Good books. Read them!! The TV series with Chaykin is available on DVD. Watch them!!

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