I'm not a Sherlock Holmes geek! Honest!-Okay, yes, I am

A Study in Scarlet

By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

And now for a book that I loved!

 As a big fan of the movies and the BBC TV series (huge in this case) I was really psyched to read the Sherlock Holmes books. I started off with the first in the series although it isn’t that huge of an issue, I’m just super OCD when it comes to my books.

In A Study In Scarlet, Dr. John Watson moves in with Sherlock Holmes and they solve their first case together (although really, Holmes solves the case and Watson is just along for the ride),  a man found dead, murdered,  in an abandoned house, with no signs of injury whatsoever on his body and the word RACHE printed on the wall in blood.

Sherlock Holmes really surprised with how accessible and easy to read it was, given that it was written in 1887. There were words that have different uses now, as is to be expected, but it was really easy to follow. It’s also really cool to see Holmes' thought pattern, even if it is through a different person’s eyes.  In the TV series A Study In Scarlet is adapted to a modern setting and renamed A Study In Pink, and it’s really interesting reading the book having already seen the television show, and comparing the two. What’s also really neat is seeing how Holmes deals with being so incredibly smart. (Smart people books! Yay smart people books!)

A Study In Scarlet is in three parts and I originally thought Part 2 was a separate mystery, but it’s actually back story to the murder, which is actually a bit sad and then the third part goes back to Watson and Holmes.

I really enjoyed A Study in Scarlet, and am definitely going to read every Sherlock Holmes book. Yep, that’s right, every single one. Even if it takes me a year.

Feisty chick-o-meter: 2/10 hardly any female characters unfortunately
Age rating: 13 and up
Rating: 10/10
Stand alone or series: Series
Book or audiobook: Book

YPLA- Week Three or "I give up"

Bomb: The Race to Build-And Steal- The World's Most Dangerous Weapon

By Steve Sheinkin

So, the Young Peoples' Literature Award winner was announced: Goblin Secrets. Meh.

I had decided to give up on those books anyway, I didn’t like Goblin Secrets, Never Fall down was depressing, and Bomb didn't keep me hooked. Plus, of the two that I haven’t read, Endangered is about endangered bonobos in the Congo, and Out of Reach is about a girl whose brother has a drug addiction.

I always say there is a time and place for every book I read, and now is just not the time for these books. Anyway, here’s the review for Bomb, the last YPLA book that I’ll review:

Bomb:  The Race to Build-and Steal-the World's Most Dangerous Weapon makes you think this is going to be a sort of spy thriller, however it’s actually a biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, often called the father of the atomic bomb.

Bomb is well written and very interesting, but it just didn’t grab me. There wasn’t technically anything wrong with it, but it didn’t latch onto me and make me want to superglue it to my face. I would like to come back to it eventually, but I think it would take me a (long) while to read it. This conflicts with every single review on amazon that I’ve read, all the reviews are 5 stars, but for now, this is my verdict on it.

I think I just need to accept that the person that chose the YPLA finalists has very different taste in books to me.

Feisty chick-o-meter: No female characters as far as I have read, but I can't really rate it seeing as it's a biography.
Age rating: 10 and up
Rating: 5/10
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Book or audiobook: Book