The Dain Curse

This book is not Dashiell Hammett's best novel, but is greatly enjoyable nevertheless. My personal favorite is The Thin Man with its hard-boiled drama combined with a healthy dose of humor. The Dain Curse is very sparse with the humor and heavy with the hard-boiled terseness of the genre (which I happen to like!). Body count is high and there's lots of gunshots and grumbling mystery.

Highly recommended for fans of hard-boiled detective novels. Would recommend others to read The Thin Man or The Maltese Falcoln for examples of Hammett's writing with broader appeal. Mystery readers who don't like stories where the detective has knowledge not related through the text of the story probably won't like this one.

Ender's Game

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is a terrific book. To detail it's plot or underlying themes in a brief review would likely detract from the enjoyment of those who might not have read it. This is a classic example of science fiction at its best!! Action, psychological drama, and more - this book's got it!

Very Highly Recommended for all readers. Especially recommended to read or re-read for people who "used to be" science fiction fans. It will renew your faith in the genre!

Girl Sleuth

This is a recent book by Melanie Rehak. See? I do read things other than the classics and children's books!! Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her is much more than a biography of the women involved in writing and updating the Nancy Drew mystery series. It also describes the business of ghostwriting many of the most popular children's series created in the United States as well as presenting a portrait of "appropriate" roles for women throughout the majority of the 2oth Century.

Especially recommended for those interested in publishing &/or the complexities of women's roles and opinions during the 20th Century (and Nancy Drew fans too!). An enjoyable read for most other non-fiction fans.

Journal of a Plague Year

I enjoyed this book largely because at the time I was getting sick with the cold/flu that all my friends and co-workers had. I kept thinking that I "had the distemper" and that "the pestilence was sweeping over us." Not so bad that anyone thought it was God's way of cleansing Southern California, but everyone was coughing and sneezing and generally sounding awful.

Journal of a Plague Year by Daniel Defoe (better known as the author of Robinson Crusoe) recounts the events that took place during the outbreak of plague in the mid-1660's - the year before the Great Fire wiped out a good portion of the city.

Highly recommended for all plague buffs. Also highly recommended for readers with an interest in medical history and/or municipal response to a biological disaster, this will prove very illuminating. Other readers may find the lack of chapters and most other breaks in the text distressing in addition to phrasing differences between contemporary English and Defoe's English.