Review: London and the Seventeenth Century: The Making of the World's Greatest City

London and the Seventeenth Century: The Making of the World's Greatest City by Margarette Lincoln
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An excellent book that delivers exactly what is promised. Moreover, despite being a pretty big book, it is jam-packed with information. I particularly liked the story about coffee shop and how it affected news being circulated, as well as how the King Charles debacle came to be (maybe British people learn this in school, but much of it was unknown to me). Also, they shipped 400 prostitutes to Barbados? Did they really think that would end prostitution?



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Review: London

London by Edward Rutherfurd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The style of this book reminded me of "Il prete rosso", although I have to admit I enjoyed it more then, since it only covered 500 or so years so the families and generations were more intertwined (also it took place in a much smaller valley).

After a while this book seemed more like a collection of short stories. Each story takes place in London at a different point in time, involving people of the same family(ies), from the Ancient Roman times to the 20th century. This is a lot of ground to cover, and at many points I found myself not caring about the stories and just wanting to hear more about the time and age.

In fact, if this had been a real series, with a different book of this size for each time period, I think it would have been more interesting, since it could delve deeper into each era.


Regardless, I definitely enjoyed it. 3.5 stars.



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Review: The British Museum Is Falling Down

The British Museum Is Falling Down by David Lodge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had just finished reading "The Library at night" before this book, which also discussed the library at the British Museum, so it was pretty serendipitous that I happened to read this next.

This was a random purchase from the clearance shelf in 2nd and Charles. It turned out to be a cute book. It reminded me of P.G. Wodehouse, although I'm sure that's because it's a cute, comic, novel that takes place in London. The various sections do seem to have different styles, which was apparently on purpose. I'm sure I'm not erudite enough to pick up on them all, but suffice it to say that it was a quick, fun, read about a man's day in mid-60s London.


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Review: The Last Dickens

The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was sort of a let-down, but I'm really not sure how it could have improved. It's a mystery, but also a historical novel. For some reason, these two genres seem to often be in conflict. A mystery should be quick-paced, leaving the reader with cliff-hangers and wanting to know more, while a historical novel often delves into life in a certain place at a certain time, creating the atmosphere for that locale, which takes time. So these two things often don't go hand in hand (I've rarely seen it work well, as with Umberto Eco).

Anyway, all that was to say that this novel seemed disjointed. Some exhilarating action, followed by a deep dive into 19th century Boston, or the publishing industry during Dickensian times. I enjoy all of these, but they didn't really seem to mesh. Add some scenes in India that add absolutely nothing to the story, and it is rather frustrating.

Having said that, it did make me very curious about The Mystery of Edwin Drood. I remember, as a kid, seeing the play of Edwin Drood at a theater in Cape Cod. I knew nothing of it ahead of time, and halfway through the performance the actors came out, saying that Dickens never finished the novel, so the audience would vote on the final outcome. I don't remember what we voted for, but I do remember being frustrated there too.

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