MERRY CHRISTMAS:
Now that that traditional greeting is out
of the way, I can get on with the post for this month. I had planned this month
to post a critical review of the first novel in the Barbara Hambly’s Benjamin
January series. I decided instead to review it in February 2013 and to review
the other nine novels in the series in remaining nine months of 2013. The 10
novels feature Hambly’s believable 19th century African American
detective.
Why February? Well, I have to post my review
of a novel that I read in November before embarking on my adventure through 1830s
New Orleans with Benjamin January.
Every December, to give my brain a break, I
relax from reading crime fiction by reading a so-called literary novels. I choose
the novels at random. This year I plan to read two novels—Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and Tumbling, a first novel by Diane McKinney-Whetstone. If I can
find the time, I might read one of the novels I have on my Kindle or Nook. On
the Kindle, I have current crime fiction, and on the Nook, I have crime novels
from the 19th century that I downloaded from the Gutenberg website.
Well, that’s it for this short and sweet
post.