Tonight I will share a few of the recent books that I have read.

Many of you have watched The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix, but did you know that it was based on a book?

The Queen’s Gambit is by Walter Tevis. I had this book on hold for a long time. The waiting list was long as the library system only had one copy. Finally just as I was next on the list, the new books they purchased finally came in. I was hoping for the original non-movie book, but got the paperback.

I really enjoyed the book, and fortunately there were not too many deviations from the mini-series. Or, would that be the other way around. However, the characters and setting in my mind while reading the book were from the movie.

I would much rather read the book first.

I am glad that we can again browse the stacks at the library. One advantage that an open stack library has over a closed stack library is that you will often see something on the shelf that you will not see in a catalog. During this last year most libraries have become closed stack libraries.

I always like to browse the new book displays around the library.

I saw this new Jacqueline Woodson book on a new book  shelf and had to pick it up.

Before the Ever After is about a young boy whose father was suffering from complications of having too many concussions while playing football in the NFL.

This is a wonderful book.

Another cover on the new book shelf caught my eye. I picked up the book to take a look and found the the Artifact Hunters by Janet Fox was the second in a series.  Since I wanted to read this book I had to find the first book.

Fortunately, the library also had a copy of The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle.

The two books by Janet Fox are set during WWII in an old castle in Scotland. A group of children are going to school in the castle and they have some interesting adventures.

The books are full of magic, monsters, time travel and puzzle solving.

I hope that there will be a third book in the series.

Sherlock in Shanghai: Stories of Crime and Detection by Cheng Xiaoqing is not actually about Sherlock Holmes. Instead they are stories written in the style of Sherlock Holmes.

I have seen a few reviews that state the writing is not as good as Doyle, and that they lack this or that. However, you must keep in mind that they were not meant for an English audience. They instead were an introduction to Chinese readers of this style of writing about crime solving.

The stories were written in the 1920’s and 1930’s, and the setting is of the same time period. There are still remnants of the architecture of this time period in Shanghai today and I can easily imagine the setting of the stories.

I have read just the first story, but look forward to the rest of them. Thanks to Timothy C. Wong for translating these stories.

Back to reading,

Steven