Top Ten Tuesday: Go Away and Stay Here

This week, our Top Ten Tuesday prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is "Books for Armchair Travelers."  Here are my ten favorite books with vivid settings that really make you feel like you are visiting their locations!

I'm organizing these alphabetically by title this week because I don't feel like putting them in the order of how much I like them.  I've also included where they take place, and linked the titles to my reviews in case you are curious about them.

1. Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard-- Pennsylvania

2. The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery -- Muskoka, Ontario, Canada

3. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim -- Italy

4. The Hound of the Baskervilles by A. Conan Doyle -- Dartmoor, England

5. Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes -- Boston, Massachusetts

6. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson -- Scottish Highlands

7. The Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett -- Rocky Mountains

8. Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry -- Chincoteague Island, Virginia

9. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster -- Italy

10. Swamp Water by Vareen Bell -- Okeefenokee Swamp, Georgia

What books have you read that have really vivid locations?

"A Study in Scarlet" (Manga Classics) by Arthur Conan Doyle (original story), Crystal S. Chan (story adaptation), and Julien Choy (art)

FINALLY!  The Manga Classics folks are releasing new titles again, and the fact that their first new release in several years is a Sherlock Holmes novel fills me with absolute glee.  Especially since they are promising more Holmes mangas to come.

Y'all know I am a devoted Sherlockian.  I've loved the canon since I was in my very early teens, and I have read quite a number of pastiches and watched a lot of movies and shows based on the characters and books.  I can be a bit picky about how Holmes and Watson are portrayed -- Watson needs to be intelligent, Holmes needs to have an inner core of kindness and decency, and their friendship needs to feel genuine.  Happily, this manga version of A Study in Scarlet hits all those notes.

One thing I especially liked was how young they portrayed Holmes and Watson.  They should be in their mid-to-late 20s, and I think they hit that range really well.  Watson should be just a trifle older than Holmes, but less world-weary.  Mrs. Hudson is shown to be younger than I usually see her portrayed, but I don't recall anything in the canon talking about how old she is, so it's entirely possible she's not middle-aged or beyond the way she is usually cast in film adaptations.

Doyle's original novel is basically split into two halves, and I think Crystal S. Chan did a great job here of making the story feel more like one whole narrative instead.

Oh, and this manga is in full color!  The previous Manga Classics books have been black and white, so this is a really interesting and fun change.  I wonder if it's only the Sherlock Holmes titles that will be in color, or if their upcoming release of King Lear will be as well?

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for a couple of old-fashioned cuss words and for discussing murder, including showing dead bodies and people being killed.  Nothing too gory.  Polygamy gets very briefly mentioned too.

Top Ten Tuesday: My Favorite Reads of 2023

Our first Top Ten Tuesday prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl for 2024 is all about looking back over our reading from the past year and picking our top reads.  As usual, I am doing two lists, one of my top ten favorite new reads, and one of my top ten favorite re-reads.  I've linked each title to my review here on my blog, and provided a little info about each book as well, including its publication year.

My Ten Favorite New Reads:

1. Code Name Edelweiss (PG-16) by Stephanie Landsem, 2023 -- Christian historical fiction spy story set in Hollywood during the build-up to WWII

2. A Deed of Dreadful Note (PG) by Patricia Meredith, 2023 -- Christian historical fiction murder mystery based on the life of mystery novelist Anna Katherine Green

3. High Lonesome (PG-16) by Louis L'Amour, 1962 -- western adventure about strangers banding together against terrible foes

4. Murder on Black Swan Lane (PG-13) by Andrea Penrose, 2017 -- historical fiction murder mystery set in Regency England

5. A Right to Die (PG-13) by Rex Stout, 1964 -- a Nero Wolfe murder mystery involving the Civil Rights Movement

6. Beauty (G) by Robin McKinley, 1978 -- gentle and wholesome fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast

7. The Lilies of the Field (G) by William E. Barrett, 1962 -- sweet story of finding common ground despite outward differences

8. And Then There Were None (PG-16) by Agatha Christie, 1939 -- classic murder mystery about people trapped on an island

9. In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson (PG) by Bette Bao Lord, 1984 -- middle grade book about a Chinese immigrant family in the 1950s

10. The Vanderbeekers on the Road (G) by Karina Yan Glaser, 2022 -- middle grade book about a family road trip

My Ten Favorite Re-reads:

1. The Hound of the Baskervilles (PG) by A. Conan Doyle, 1902 -- classic Sherlock Holmes mystery

2. The Blue Castle (PG) by L. M. Montgomery, 1926 -- classic about a woman stepping out into life from the shadows

3. Shane (PG) by Jack Schaefer, 1949 -- western about a loner who adopts a family

4. The Black Stallion (PG) by Walter Farley, 1941 -- middle grade classic about a boy and wild horse who rescue each other

5. Playback (R) by Raymond Chandler, 1958 -- hardboiled detective mystery starring Philip Marlowe

6. The Enchanted April (G) by Elizabeth von Arnim, 1922 -- classic about four women who discover their true selves in Italy

7. Borden Chantry (PG) by Louis L'Amour, 1977 -- western murder mystery

8. Jane of Austin (PG-13) by Hillary Manton Lodge, 2017 -- Christian fiction retelling of Sense and Sensibility set in modern-day Texas

9. By the Great Horn Spoon! (PG) by Sid Fleischman, 1963 -- middle grade classic tall tale about the Gold Rush

10. Big Red (PG-10) by Jim Kjelgaard, 1945 -- middle grade classic about a boy and the dog he loves

You can see all my lists of favorite reads since 2014 on this page.

Check back later this week for a more fulsome look at my 2023 reading, including how I did with various challenges and so on!

Top Ten Tuesday: Old and Loving It

I missed the August 16 Top Ten Tuesday prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl, so I'm doing it for this week's freebie.  It was "Books I love that were written over ten years ago."  Ahem.  That's actually ALL of my top ten favorite books of all time!  So, here they are, with their publication dates in case you are curious:

1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte -- published in 1847

2. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas -- published in 1844

3. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien -- published in 1955

4. The Hound of the Baskervilles by A. Conan Doyle -- published in 1902

5. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton -- published in 1967

6. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery -- published in 1926

7. Persuasion by Jane Austen -- published in 1817

8. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows -- published in 2008

9. Shane by Jack Schaefer -- published in 1949

10. The Black Stallion by Walter Farley -- published in 1941

I think it's rather cool that my top ten favorite books basically span 200 years, from 1817 to 2008!

It's So Classic -- Blog Tag

The It's So Classic Blog Party hosted by Rebellious Writing comes complete with a tag!  And since I'm reading War and Peace right now and am only a little over 500 pages into my 1300-page copy and don't have any book reviews to write right now as a result, a tag is exactly what I need.  Here goes!

Rules:

1. Link your post to Rebellious Writing
2. Answer the questions
3. Tag at least 5 bloggers.

What is one classic that hasn’t been made into a movie yet, but really needs to?  The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery.  I insist that Michael Fassbender play Barney Snaith, and I'd like Elizabeth Henstridge to play Valancy Stirling, please.

What draws you to classics?

The fact that they've both stood the test of time and have influenced others.  I enjoy reading classics for their meaty goodness and for what I can learn from them.

What is an underrated classic?

Most people seem to think of Northanger Abbey as somehow lesser than Jane Austen's bigger, more serious novels, but it is chock full of all the things I love about her writing: wry wit and satire that make me laugh and well-developed characters to befriend. 

What is one classic that you didn’t expect to love, but ended up loving anyway?

I thought that War and Peace was going to be really hard to follow and fairly boring.  It's neither.  I'm not sure I'd say I love it yet -- I want to get to the end and see how it all turns out before I can settle that question.  But I'm definitely enjoying it, and I didn't really expect to do that.

(From my Instagram)

What is your most favorite and least favorite classics?

Most favorite = Jane Eyre, which is also my favorite book of all time.  Least favorite = Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.  You can read my review to see why it makes me crabby.

(Also from my bookstagramming)

What is your favorite character from a classic?  Sherlock Holmes.  Mmmmm, Sherlock Holmes.

What’s a popular classic that you felt wasn’t actually that great?

I am not a fan of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.  I adore The Lord of the Rings and have read it eight times so far, but... The Hobbit irks me.  I don't like the condescending narration, a lot of it is rather silly, and it lacks focus.  I've read it three times now, and nope.  Not my thing.

Who is your favorite classic author?  It's a three-way tie between Jane Austen, A. Conan Doyle, and Lucy Maud Montgomery.

(Yup, mine from Instagram)

In your opinion, what makes a classic a classic?

On my Classics Club page, I give my personal definition of a "classic" as being a book that is more than 50 years old, well-known (or by a well-known author), and influential on society or other writers.

Relating to newer books, what attributes does a book need to have in order to be worthy of the title “classic”?

Those same things.  There are a lot of modern books that I think will be considered classics one day, but right now... they're not classics yet.

I hereby tag these five bloggers to play along if they want:

Classics Considered

Coffee, Classics, and Craziness

Holds Upon Happiness

Horseback to Byzantium

The Maidens of Green Gables

Top Ten Tuesday: I Love a Mystery

I love mysteries.  I've got more than a hundred posts on this blog tagged "mystery."  It's my favorite book genre, no question about it.  So for today's Top Ten Tuesday prompt ("Books from Your Favorite Genre") from That Artsy Reader Girl, I give you My Ten Favorite Fictional Detectives. 

1.  Sherlock Holmes from the canonical books and stories by A. Conan Doyle, and also in the Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R. King.

2.  Philip Marlowe from the books and some of the short stories by Raymond Chandler, who is my favorite author of all time.

3.  Archie Goodwin & Nero Wolfe from the Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout, which I love so much I've collected all of them.  (I know technically these are two people, but they work as a team.)

4.  Frank & Joe Hardy from the Hardy Boys by F. W. Dixon, which I read over and over and over as a kid.  (Again, totally a team.)

5.  Jack Reacher from all those books by Lee Child, which I guess are classified as thrillers and not mysteries, but he always solves a mystery in them, so that's how I view them.

6.  Trixie Belden from the series by Kathryn Kenny, which I also read over and over and over as a kid.  I loved Trixie's gang of friends, the Bob-Whites, and use to pretend I was one of them!

7.  Drew Farthering from the series by Julianna Deering, which is one of the best Christian mystery series I've ever encountered.

8.  Gwen Marcy from the books by Carrie Stuart Parks, the other best Christian mystery series I've found.

9.  Jane Austen from the series by Stephanie Barron, which I thought was going to be dorky and irksome, but actually turned out to be really fun!  

10.  Irene Kelly from the series by Jan Burke, which I started reading a few years ago and really ought to finish one of these days.

(All photos are mine, from my Instagram account.)

Who are YOUR favorite fictional detectives?  Do we share any favorites?

The Finally Fall Book Tag

I'm borrowing this from Joseph over at The Once Lost Wanderer.  We had about a week of what I consider to be fall weather in early October, but it's been hot and muggy again lately.  Still, the evenings are cool, trees are beginning to change color, and I've got that energized-and-creative vibe going on that I get in fall and spring, so yay!

For some reason, I keep hearing the voices of random cast members on Whose Line is it Anyway? reading these questions in the ridiculously perky voices they use whenever they're the "contestant" on the "dating show" game they do.  Which is cracking me up.

(Photo by me)

1. In fall, the air is crisp and clear: name a book with a vivid setting!

I'm going to go with The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, because Middle-earth is so vivid, I want to live there.  And not just because of the movies, but because of the way he describes all the places.  Every time I re-read it, I am in awe of his world-building.

2. Nature is beautiful… but also dying: name a book that is beautifully written, but also deals with a heavy topic like loss or grief.

I think Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen is an amazing look at how the death of one person can so drastically affect others.  Mr. Dashwood dies at the beginning, and his wife and daughters have their whole world upended.

3. Fall is back to school season: share a non-fiction book that taught you something new.  

The first one that comes to mind is Sixguns and Society: A Structural Study of the Western by Will Wright.  I learned so much about story structure from it, not only for westerns but just for all kinds of stories.  And I discovered a lot about what kinds of story elements really draw them, which I hope has helped me use them more effectively in my own writing.

4. In order to keep warm, it’s good to spend some time with the people we love: name a fictional family/household/friend-group that you’d like to be a part of.

Today I pick the Curtis family and their gang in The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton.  I'd love to marry Darry and help take care of Soda and Ponyboy, or move in next door to them and become their friend, or whatever -- I've actually imagined being part of their lives on and off since I first read the book.

5. The colorful leaves are piling up on the ground: show us a pile of fall-colored spines!

6. Fall is the perfect time for some storytelling by the fireside: share a book wherein somebody is telling a story.

All of the Nero Wolfe books are narrated by Archie Goodwin as if he were telling you a story, and I love them dearly!  My favorite is A Family Affair, but I don't recommend that you start reading the series with it, as it won't work as well if you aren't already familiar with the characters.

7. The nights are getting darker: share a dark, creepy read.

I don't read a lot of creepy books.  Can't deal with them, just like I can't deal with scary movies.  But I do like a dark story now and then.  My beloved Hamlet is quite dark, and creepy in spots too, I suppose.

8. The days are getting colder: name a short, heartwarming read that could warm up somebody’s cold and rainy day.

I think it would be hard not to be warmed and cheered by A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd.  It's so sweet and quirky and cheerful.

9. Fall returns every year: name an old favorite that you’d like to return to soon.

I get very much in the mood for The Hound of the Baskervilles by A. Conan Doyle in October, and this year is no exception.  Not sure if I'll squeeze in a re-read, but if not this year, then next year!

10. Fall is the perfect time for cozy reading nights: share your favorite cozy reading “accessories”!

Well, I kind of just read anywhere, anytime?  I read when I'm brushing my teeth.  I read when I'm waiting for water to boil while making lunch.  I read in the car (when I'm a passenger, don't worry).  So really, my favorite cozy reading accessories are a book and a bookmark. 

I mean, it's fun to sit by my fireplace on a chilly evening and read.  Or to sit on the swing in the backyard in the summer and read.  But really, I just want a book and a bookmark.

I'm not going to tag anyone with this, but if you love books and autumn and tags, feel free to fill this out!

Mini March Reading Tag -- Summary

You may recall me posting briefly about this event.  I decided just to do one summary post at the end of the month about what I read for each author, since I didn't read anything new or big.

For Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I read "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches," both of which are in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.  I'm teaching ninth-grade literature and creative writing to our oldest niece, and those were both things I assigned to her.

For William Shakespeare, I read the first two acts of Hamlet.  I meant to read the whole thing, but children and life intervened.  

For J.R.R. Tolkien, I finished a chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring today.  I'm considering suspending my LOTR read for right now because I might be teaching it to my niece next fall, and I don't know that I have time to read it twice in one year.  Which isn't me giving up on My Year in Middle Earth, just sort of splitting it up.  I won't decide until I've discussed the idea with my in-laws and niece.  She loves fantasy and hasn't read it, and I think it would be an excellent way to teach things like theme and world-building and foreshadowing and... we shall see!

Anyway, my thanks to Joseph at The Once Lost Wanderer for setting up this mini reading challenge!  Without it, I wouldn't have dipped into Hamlet this month, I'm sure.

Upcoming Events

Time to do a post about all the cool stuff I'll be participating in soon.  I know I have buttons in my sidebar for them, but I want to talk a bit more about them too.

First up is Beauty and the Beast Week hosted by Meredith at On Stories and Words.  I'll be reviewing Gaston Leroux's classic novel The Phantom of the Opera for this.  This is next week!!!

Next, Joseph at The Once Lost Wanderer is hosting the Mini March Reading Tag.  Whether you want to read something by all three authors, or just one or two of them, it's a fun way to band together around these three wonderful authors.  You know I'm a big fan of all three, so there's no way I would miss it!  Not sure yet just what I'll read for this, though.

And third, I'm participating in the Adventure of Reading Challenge hosted by Heidi at Along the Brandywine.  I've signed on for the Wrangler Level, which means I aim to read 10-12 books before the end of the year.  Specifically, I intend to read Hood, Scarlet, and Tuck by Stephen Lawhead, Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, The Land of Stories by Chris Colfer, and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and then whatever else I please.

Which brings me to my final announcement.  I haven't set a start date yet, but I'm definitely going to host a read-along of The Great Gatsby this summer!

Top Ten Tuesday: Feels Like Fall

Today's topic from The Broke and the Bookish is a fall freebie, so I'm listing off my Top Ten Books That Remind Me of Fall.  Some of them take place partly or entirely in autumn, and some just feel like they ought to be read when leaves are turning colors and the air is crisp and invigorating.  Here they are, with titles linked to my reviews when possible:

1.  The Hound of the Baskervilles by A. Conan Doyle takes place in October, and every October for over a decade, I have felt the urge to either read the book or at least watch a film version of it.  I re-read it earlier this month (but didn't review it again because I just did a read-along of it two years ago, and I don't have any new thoughts on it yet).  It was the first non-abridged Sherlock Holmes book I read, when I was 13 or 14, and I've loved the characters of Holmes and Watson ever since.

2.  Anne of Windy Poplars by L. M. Montgomery covers several years, but I envision Anne walking through fallen leaves when I think of this book, so here it is.  Could be because the cover above is the one my copy has, and it has a somewhat autumnal feel, to me.

3.  The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien has a lot of scenes set in autumn, and much of the movie does as well.  Since I watched the movies before I read the books, that definitely swayed my feelings.

4.  The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton does take place in fall, doesn't it?  All that stuff up at the abandoned church, with piles of dead leaves and so on.  

5.  The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler takes place in the fall and definitely feels like it -- the whole book is permeated with an atmosphere of decay, ending, dying.  I'm suddenly in the mood to reread this now.

6.  Bloodlines by Jan Burke might not take place in autumn -- it might be winter instead, I'm not sure.  But I have the impression of days getting colder, lots of dead leaves, but no snow, so there you go.  

7.  The Key to Extraordinary by Natalie Lloyd has lots of stuff about graveyards and ghosts in it, which makes me think of fall, though there's lots of stuff about flowers and growing plants that also gives it a springtime feel.  Kind of a mix, I guess.

8.  Middlemarch by George Eliot probably doesn't have much to do with fall, but I started reading it in September a couple of years ago, so it will always remind me of this season.

9.  Samantha Learns a Lesson by Susan S. Adler takes place during the fall, when Samantha goes back to school.  I read this series over and over and over as a kid -- back when Samantha, Kirsten, and Molly were the only American Girls!  I remember when the Felicity books were released -- I went to a release party at my library :-o  And got a free poster!  But anyway, yeah, this was one of my favorite Samantha books because I love how she learns to care for those less fortunate than herself.

10.  Little Men by Louisa May Alcott reminds me of fall, just like Little Women reminds me of spring.  No clear idea why, it just does.  Especially Dan and Nat -- something about them just says "fall" to me.

So there's my list for this week.  What books remind you of fall?  Did you do TTT this week, and if so, what topic did you choose?

A Birthday Blog Party for Sherlock Holmes!

The party is afoot!  I'm so glad you could join me in celebrating one of my favorite characters of all time.  Just a couple of instructions on how this works, so settle into your armchair with your pipe or cup of tea or brandy or whatever you're celebrating with.  Then, copy The Good Old Index of Questions onto your blog (or put them in a note set to "Public" in Facebook if you don't blog) and answer them there -- and please include a link back here somewhere in your post!  Then come back here and add a link to your post to the link-up widget.  And then enter the giveaway!  How absurdly simple, right?

EDIT:  There is no time limit on this party!  The giveaway ends Jan 13, but you can join the party and link-up any time.

Feel free to add one of these images to your post, or the one I used above.

The Good Old Index of Questions

1.  When and how did you first encounter Sherlock Holmes?

2.  Please share a fact or two about yourself related to Holmes.  (You've read the whole canon, you've been to Baker Street, you're an official BSI member, etc.)

3.  What are three of your favorite Holmes adventures?

4.  What draws you to the Sherlock Holmes stories?

5.  If you were going to give Sherlock Holmes a birthday present, what would it be?

6.  If you could climb into a Holmes story and replace any one character for a day, who would you like to be?

7.  Please share some of your favorite Holmes-related quotes!


The Link-Up


The Giveaway

I am giving away three brand-new books!

• In the Company of Sherlock Holmes:  Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger.  This is a hardcover copy of the book, which was published just before Christmas, and contains stories by authors like Cornelia Funke, Jeffery Deaver, Michael Connelly, and Harlan Ellison.  I have not finished reading my own copy, so I can't tell you what the content level is, but you can read here what I thought of its predecessor, A Study in Sherlock.  Please note that these are inspired by the canon, so while some stories include the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, some are about characters who have been influenced by the canon stories and so on.

• The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Paperback, with an afterword by Anne Perry.

• Sherlock Holmes:  The Essential Mysteries in One Sitting by Jennifer Kasius.  This is a tiny hardcover book with recaps of twelve famous canon stories and illustrations, including many by Sidney Paget.  It also has little essays on "The Life of Sherlock Holmes" and "Essential Characters in the World of Sherlock Holmes."  Great fun for new and long-time fans of Holmes alike!

This giveaway is open world-wide.  I will choose the winners one week from today, which is Tuesday, January 13, 2015.  I will then email the winners at the address provided to the widget, and they will have one week to reply with their mailing address.  If a winner does not reply by Tuesday, January 20th, I will disqualify them and pick a new winner.

PLEASE make sure your information for the giveaway widgets includes your current email address so that if you win a prize, you'll get my email informing you that you won!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

"The Hound of the Baskervilles" Read-Along Index

Here are links to all the chapter posts and bonus posts from the Baskervilles read-along.

Bonus Posts

Interview with NYT best-selling author Laurie R. King 
Concluding Link-Up and Goodies

Chapter Posts

1.  Mr. Sherlock Holmes
2.  The Curse of the Baskervilles
3.  The Problem
4.  Sir Henry Baskerville
5.  Three Broken Threads
6.  Baskerville Hall
7.  The Stapletons of Merripit House
8.  First Report of Dr. Watson
9.  Second Report of Dr. Watson
10.  Extract from the Diary of Dr. Watson
11.  The Man on the Tor
12.  Death on the Moor
13.  Fixing the Nets
14.  The Hound of the Baskervilles
15.  A Retrospection

"The Hound of the Baskervilles" by A. Conan Doyle (again)

Because I wrote a full review of this only last year (read it here), today I'm going to answer the questions I provided for the read-along link-up and say just a few other things.

Have you ever read any Sherlock Holmes stories before?

Yes.  I've read the entire canon, most of it twice, much of it many times.

Have you read this before?  If so, why did you decide to re-read it?

This is the first Sherlock Holmes story I ever read, back when I was 12 or 13.  Since then, I've probably read it five or six times, most recently in August of last year.  I decided to re-read it because I get in the mood to either read or watch it every autumn, and I thought it might make for a good read-along. 

At the end, Watson calls this adventure a "singular narrative, in which I have tried to make the reader share those dark fears and vague surmises which clouded our lives so long and ended in so tragic a manner."  Did he succeed in making you share them?

Even though I have read this so often, and watched adaptations of it equally as often, which have made me very familiar with the story and what will happen next... yes, the dark fears are still there.  The descriptions of the setting are so masterfully dismal and bleak, so evocative of the unknown that I get a thrill of pretend-fear just thinking about it.

Have you seen any film adaptations of this story?  If so, do you recommend any?

Yup.  I've seen the Granada version that stars Jeremy Brett probably more often than I've read the book.  (I reviewed it here back in December.)  It really matches my mental images for the book, and if you're looking for a solid, faithful adaptation, you can get it brand-new on DVD for about $10 online.

I've also seen the Sherlock episode that was inspired by this story, "The Hounds of Baskerville."  (I reviewed it here in January.)  Although I didn't love it, I thought it was amazingly well done, and lately I've been wanting to watch it again, now that I know how it all comes out.

What did you like best about The Hound of the Baskervilles?

I think I especially like how much Watson gets to do.  He's not just an observer, but an active participant in the investigation.  I also love the atmosphere, the cleverness of the antagonist, and the character of Sir Henry Baskerville.

Was there anything in the story you didn't care for, or think could have been done better?

I said here that I thought the last chapter had a bit too much recapping, but I've since decided that's probably just because I'm so familiar with the story, and if I had never read it before, or only once or twice, I would probably love Holmes' full explanation there.  So nope, wouldn't change a thing.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for suspense and scary images.


This is my 15th book read and reviewed for The Classics Club!