Book Eight: The Female Barber Detective

The Female Barber Detective; or, Joe Phenix in Silver City by Albert. W Aiken, published in dime novel form by Beadle's New York Dime Library, 1895.

TTR: complicated and ridiculous (because I was trying to fix the formatting. The PDF scans I have of the book are very low quality and it really hurts to even look at them for any significant period of time. All in all, I'd say one-and-a-half days of nonstop reading was all it took (even though it was way more spread out than that).

Comments:
If you want a good, obtainable summary of the plot, look up Michelle B. Slung's Crime on Her Mind which also includes a really nifty, informal descriptive bibliography of 104 female detectives.

For now, just know: there is a mustachioed woman; an overly grandiloquent road-agent (highway man); lots of dueling; and disguises.

It is a pretty awesome book; but if you miraculously get your hands on a copy, be forewarned: it was written before the turn of the 20th century, and it's chalk full of racism and sexism to show it. If you want some sort of assessment of why I think it is valuable despite these less-than-acceptable qualities, look up my Master's Thesis in a few months.

Book Seven: THE LAND OF LITTLE RAIN

The Land of Little Rain, by Mary Austin. Published in 1903.

TTR: Started 2/2/13 and Finished 2/3/13 (just in time to watch the Superbowl).

Comments:

Oh, you actually want real comments because I was a slacker and didn't give you comments on books five and six you've heard about this book a million times and you're wondering what all of the hype is about?

Let me put it this way: Mary Austin was the National Geographic channel before television and cable existed. If you like naturalist writers like Emerson and Thoreau, you'll love this. If not, you might fall asleep. More than once. And drool all over this beautifully written book.

Austin does an excellent job painting us a picture of the Ceriso and the land around her home--mostly California/Nevada. I really love her descriptions of coyotes and, at the end, her sketches of a couple of settlements/villages. She really captures the weather, the flora, and the fauna. I mean REALLY. I've lived in the West/Southwest for most of my life and ALL of my adult life, so I would know.

Don't be fooled--this is not a novel, there really isn't a plot, and the action is minimal. Despite all of this, it is definitely worth the read. It's also in the public domain, which means I'm linking to a free ebook rather than my typical Amazon link (just click on the title at the top of this post).

Update Number Two: Books Five and Six

Awkwardly enough, I still have not finished Meat Eater, Side Jobs, or The Female Barber Detective. I did, however, finish Sherlock's Sisters and Place: a Short Introduction.

I get the feeling, though, that dense commentary on those very theoretical text might--well--bore the average reader. I will provide a brief commentary on Place: a Short Introduction in a few days, just for the comps section of this blog. If you are interested in Sherlock's Sisters, however, you might just be forced to track down my Master's Thesis (once it's finished). Or, you know, do the common sense thing and just find the book.

Each of these books took me roughly two days to get through, although I was a bit too distracted by my giant pile of grading and my personal homework assignments to keep strict track. (I promise to keep better records for fun books).

On a brighter note, I happened to snatch up a couple of gems while at the local bookstore last week: Black Out by Connie Willis (if you've never read her work, take a look at The Doomsday Book or--I really love this one-- To Say Nothing of the Dog) and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies because I have this strange zombiphilia and I was curious. Okay? Don't be a hater.