Book Review for “Bel Lamington” by D.E. Stevenson. Summary: "Bel Lamington, an orphan daughter of an Army colonel, is brought up in an English village and flung into the whirl of London life to earn a hard living as a secretary while attempting to navigate romance, unexpected friendships and urban life. Shy, sensitive, and innocent, she is unaware of the pitfalls that surround her.

MY VERDICT: Typical Voltaire’s satire: heavy-handed, repetitive, not my cup of tea.

‘Establishes firmly her claim to the throne of detection. The plot is as ingenious as ever… the dialogue both wise and witty; while the suspense is maintained very skilfully until the final revelat…

Book Review for “Parker Pyne Investigates” by Agatha Christie. Summary: "Agatha Christie once again demonstrates her mastery of the short form mystery with Parker Pyne Investigates—short stories of crime and detection featuring Parker Pyne, certainly one of the most unconventional private investigators ever to pursue a hot lead. Mrs. Packington felt alone, helpless and utterly forlorn. But her life changed when she stumbled upon an advertisement in the Times that read: "Are you happy?

Book Review for “Breakfast at Tiffany's” by Truman Capote. Summary: "It's New York in the 1940's, where the martinis flow from cocktail hour till breakfast at Tiffany's. And nice girls don't, except, of course, Holly Golightly. Pursued by Mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires, Holly is a fragile eyeful of tawny hair and turned-up-nose, a heartbreaker, a perplexer, a traveller, a tease.

Book Review for “Towards Zero” by Agatha Christie. Summary: "What is the connection among a failed suicide attempt, a wrongful accusation of theft against a schoolgirl, and the romantic life of a famous tennis player? To the casual observer, apparently nothing. But when a house party gathers at Gull’s Point, the seaside home of an elderly widow, earlier events come to a dramatic head.

Book Review for “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” by Muriel Spark. Summary: "She was a schoolmistress with a difference. Proud, cultured, romantic, her ideas were progressive, even shocking. And when she decided to transform a group of young girls under her tutelage into the 'creme de la creme' of Marcia Blaine school, no one could have predicted the outcome."

Book Review for “Mrs. Pollifax on Safari” by Dorothy Gilman. Summary: "Now the incredible Mrs. Pollifax has been sent on a safari to smoke out a very clever international assassin whose next target is the president of Zambia. "Just take a lot of pictures of everyone on that safari," the CIA man told her. “One of them has to be our man." It sounded simple enough.

Book Review for “Sparkling Cyanide” by Agatha Christie (Colonel Race #4). Summary: "Six people sit down to a sumptuous meal at a table laid for seven. In front of the empty place is a sprig of rosemary- "rosemary for remembrance." A strange sentiment considering no one is likely to forget the night, exactly a year ago, that Rosemary Barton died at exactly the same table, her beautiful face unrecognizable, convulsed with pain and horror.

To find out more about this unique reading challenge, please visit The Classics Club Blog for the rules and link-up post.

Time for a new spin! The Classics Spin #43 The Classics Club2024-2029 My challenge for the Classic Club is to read my list of 50 classics over 5 years 2024-2029. What is the spin? It’s easy. At you…

Time for a new spin! The Classics Spin #42 The Classics Club2024-2029 Here are the directions from The Classics Club: At your blog, before Sunday October 19, create a post to list your choice of an…

Time for a new spin! The Classics Spin #42 The Classics Club2024-2029 Here are the directions from The Classics Club: At your blog, before Sunday October 19, create a post to list your choice of an…

I read. That's what I love to do. But I am also crazy about drawing, writing, traveling, walking....and let's not forget serendipity and paradox....

#theclassicsclub The Classics Club 2024-2029 MY FULL CLASSICS CLUB 5th LIST IS HERE The Classics Spin #43 Twitter hashtag: #ccspin For this Classics spin #43, I got #2, which on my list is Dom Casm…

Book Review for “Daisy Miller and Other Stories” by Henry James. Summary: ""Daisy Miller" is one of Henry James's most popular tales, it is the story of a young American woman who while traveling in Europe is courted by Frederick Winterbourne. Originally published in The Cornhill Magazine in 1878, "Daisy Miller" is a novel that plays upon the contrast between American and European society, a theme common to James's work.

Book Review for “Madame Chrysanthème” by Pierre Loti (Translated by Clémence Aubert). Summary: "Pierre Loti’s novel Madame Chrysanthème (1888) enjoyed great popularity during the author’s lifetime, served as a source of Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly, and remains in print to this day as a classic in Western literature. Loti’s story, cast in the form of his fictionalized diary, describes the affair between a French naval officer and Chrysanthème, a temporary "bride" purchased in Nagasaki.

Book Review for “Dear Hugo” by Molly Clavering. Summary: "Sara Monteith makes an ideal correspondent for Hugo Jamieson, brother of her lost love Ivo, killed in the war before they could marry. Her neighbours in the lovely Border village of Ravenskirk don't know that Sara has moved here because it's where Ivo and Hugo grew up, but they welcome her warmly.

Review for “The Veldt” a Short Story by Ray Bradbury. Summary: "The advanced technology of a house first pleases then increasingly terrifies its occupants." Age: Adult; Genres: Genre - Science Fiction; Settings: Era/s: Vintage Futuristic; Location/s: Somewhere on earth, I suppose; Other Categories: Short Story, Classics.

Book Review for “A Palm for Mrs Pollifax” by Dorothy Gilman (Mrs Pollifax #4). Summary: ""What we are looking for - aside from the stolen plutonium, Mrs. Pollifax - is evil in its purest form." Mrs. Pollifax was leading a very full life: Garden Club, karate, yoga - and a little spying now and then. This time the mysterious Mr.

Book Review for “Table Two” by Marjorie Wilenski. Summary: "Marjorie Wilenski’s only novel, as biting and funny as Barbara Pym at her crankiest, follows an office of women translators at the fictional Ministry of Foreign Intelligence in London as they bicker, manoeuvre, and shift allegiances just before and then in the thick of the London Blitz. Its two main characters are sharply contrasted—the clever, efficient but terminally bitter middle-aged Elsie Pearne and the cheerful, pretty young newcomer Anne Shepley-Rice, whose once affluent family has fallen on hard times.

Book Review for “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. Summary: "'Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’ A lawyer’s advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee’s classic novel – a black man charged with the rape of a white girl.

Book Review for “The Rabbits” by A. A. Milne. Summary: "The Rabbits, as they call themselves, are Archie Mannering, his sister Myra, Samuel Simpson, Thomas of the Admiralty, Dahlia Blair and the narrator, with occasional guests. Their conversation is almost entirely frivolous, their activity vacillates between immensely energetic and happily lazy, and their social mores are surprisingly progressive. Originally published as sketches in Punch, the Rabbits’ escapades are a charming portrait of middle-class antics on the brink of being shattered by World War I, and fail entirely to take themselves seriously.

To kick off the New Year, the lovely people who give up their time to be moderators of The Classics Club have invited members to reflect on their relationship with the classics by answering a series of questions: When did you join The Classics Club? How many titles have you read for the club so far? Share a link to your latest classics club list.