We often don't realize the comparative idiocy of youth until we're older. Awhile ago, we had a new employee in my company. Newly graduated from college, she's only 22. The rest of us, being old, wise, ancient creatures of mid-20 to 30-somethings, looked upon her with contempt. "She's a baby!" we ...
I've been a Mary Stewart fan since a college roommate introduced me to her books, more years ago than I am willing to cop to. But my least favorite of all her books that I've read has always been The Stormy Petrel. I excitedly snagged it at a used bookstore years ago, read it and scratched my hea...
The Wicked Day is the final volume in Mary Stewart’s Arthurian saga, which began with The Crystal Cave. Unlike the first three books in the series, where Merlin is the first-person narrator, The Wicked Day is told in the third person but focuses on the life of Mordred, Arthur’s illegitimate son, ...
Originally posted here.I've always wanted to go to Greece. It seems like such a lovely place, rich in culture and I would love to try authentic Greek food. I have no idea when I'll be able to go though so I have to content myself with reading books with Greek settings. The Moonspinners is set in ...
This is another enjoyable Mary Stewart suspense novel (sorry, I'm never going to stop talking about her books. They're just so much fun). Airs Above the Ground, written in 1965, may not be her best novel, but it's set in Austria, a lovely country and one of my favorite places in the world, so bet...
Deception and hidden identity are at the heart of this 1961 Mary Stewart novel. Mary Gray travels from Canada to Northumberland in northern England, where she's accosted on Hadrian's wall, in the middle of nowhere, by an extremely handsome but very hostile guy, Con Winslow. Con is certain that sh...
I picked this up when I was just getting over a bout with the flu, and enjoyed this gentle read!Not your typical Mary-Stewart-suspense novel, this book takes the reader through a time shortly after World War 2 has ended. Set in England, Kathy (or Kate), has been called upon by her aging grandmot...
Sometimes it is the later books in a series that really bring the whole thing together. This is definitely the case when it comes to The Hollow Hills. The story doesn’t exceed The Crystal Cave, in fact, I would say the Crystal Cave is by far the more interesting novel, but I firmly believe that...
I have a collection of vintage Mary Stewart novels, and this one is only 175 pages in my 1963 paperback, so it's a very quick but enjoyable read. A bit different than Mary Stewart's other romantic suspense novels, this one has echoes of the old murder mysteries where a group of people in an isola...
I often think timing is everything when it comes to books (in some cases anyway). An otherwise well written and well plotted story read at the wrong time, or in the wrong company, (for me) means a missed opportunity. I think that was the case with my first Mary Stewart novel several years ago, ...
Originally published on my blog here in January 2002.When I first read this novel, quite soon after it was published, I thought it was the poorest that Stewart had written. On re-reading it, I have modified my opinion, and new feel that it is not actually too bad, even if not among her best.The s...
Jennifer Silver goes to the Pyrenees in France to see her widowed cousin Gillian, who has written to her and asked her to visit. Jennifer runs into Stephen at the hotel; a man from her past who was warned off her by her mother. A veteran of the Korean war he was a music student of her father’s bu...
The third installment of the Arthurian Saga tracks the beginning of Arthur’s reign as king and the ending years of Merlin. The pace is quite different than the first two, and the story is sort of away from most of the action going on in Britain. This is due to the fact that Merlin is our main c...
Crossposted from my blog2 StarsI’ve spoken about my love of all things Arthurian before, so I was really expecting to enjoy this book. All the ingredients are there – it’s centered on a character I normally like, on events that are often just skated over as prologue, and grounded in more unique ‘...
This appealing novel seems continually to struggle to transcend the formulaic conventions YA fantasy fiction. As I read, I kept thinking of Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane and of how Gaiman might have dealt with the same material. In both novels, a resourceful child strives to es...