Double Review: THE TECHNOLOGISTS by Matthew Pearl

Hardcover: The Technologists by Matthew Pearl Published February 2012 by Random House Publishing Note: This is both a review of the hardcover edition of The Technologists by Matthew Pearl, self-purchased copy, and a review of the Audiobook, also self-purchased. The Book: I admit, freely and wholeheartedly from the get go, and in the interest of full disclosure, that I have a full-on literary crush on Matthew Pearl. He had me at “The.” However, that being said, if I’d never been lucky enough to be familiar with Mr. Pearl’s work prior to The Technologists,  I’d make it my goal to become familiar now. In the aftermath of the  recently climaxed Civil …

GUEST REVIEWER Jennifer Conner

Jennifer Conner has had her nose in a book for as long as she can remember. In an attempt to redefine her identity after motherhood, she began blogging at The Literate Housewife Review in January 2007. It was a difficult bedtime routine with her daughters that first prompted her to pursue audiobooks. After listening to Simon Vance narrate The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, she discovered that she is a true audiobook geek at heart.  Imported from Michigan, she currently lives in Southwest Virginia with her family. In addition to her blog, you can find Jennifer on Twitter as @lithousewife. So Cold the River Written by Michael Koryta, Narrated by …

The Sherlockian

Written by Graham Moore, Narrated by James Langton -an audio book review- Jo Anna Perrin Sherlock Holmes, in both the enduring reality of the character and the ambivalent appreciation expressed towards him by his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a rift that caused Doyle to actually kill Holmes off at one point, becomes the  stuff of fiction. Literally.  It is the jumping off  point in Graham Moore’s paean to Holmesiana, The Sherlockian. If you are addicted to Sherlock Holmes, and even if you just have a passing interest,  it would be hard not to be charmed by this clever and nimble romp through the annals of the great detective. The …

Bury Your Dead: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel

Written by Louise Penny, Narrated by Ralph Cosham -An audio book review- Jo Anna Perrin I arrived slightly out of sync to Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Armand Gamache/Three Pines series.  I started with her fourth novel,  A Rule Against  Murder, and thence thoroughly hooked, happily retreated  to the first book in the series and worked my way forward. If you are unfamiliar with Penny’s well crafted series starring the intelligent and empathetic Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and the absolute confection of the town of Three Pines and its quirky inhabitants, I suggest you give her a listen. The sixth installment, Bury Your Dead, is in my opinion, the most brilliantly …