I recently listened to
The House with a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs. I watched the movie a few months ago, and I think I purchased it as an Audible Daily Deal in January. I don't recall this children's book series in the 70s. I plan to read Book #2. Interesting that the narrator was George Guidall who also read
The Left Hand of Darkness (the January New Leaf Book Club selection).
From Goodreads:
Quote:
|
Lewis Barnavelt doesn't have time on his side... When Lewis Barnavelt, an orphan, comes to stay with his uncle Jonathan, he expects to meet an ordinary person. But he is wrong. Uncle Jonathan and his next-door neighbour, Mrs Zimmermann, are both witches! Lewis couldn't be happier. What's not to like about seeing his uncle practise spells and eating Mrs Zimmermann's delicious cookies? At first, watching magic is enough. Then Lewis experiments with magic himself and unknowingly resurrects the former owner of the house: a woman named Selenna Izard. It seems that evil Selenna and her husband built a timepiece into the walls - a clock that could obliterate humankind. As the clock can be heard ticking away in the house all the time, sometimes louder, sometimes quieter, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, it is up to the Barnavelts to find where it is hidden in the walls - and stop it. A true race against time...
|
I also recently finished
Come, Tell Me How You Live: An Archaeological Memoir by Agatha Christie Mallowan. It was a nomination in the New Leaf Book Club last month. She calls the book "small beer" and a record of "everyday doings". It is a good description. I had higher expectations for this book and was a little disappointed. It is more about the people and the culture than it is about the places and archaeology. However, I think that with her writing skills she could have had better character development than she achieved. A similar book that I read and enjoyed more was
The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron which was a selection in the Literary Club last year.
From Goodreads:
Quote:
|
Over the course of her long, prolific career, Agatha Christie gave the world a wealth of ingenious whodunits and page-turning locked-room mysteries featuring Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, and a host of other unforgettable characters. She also gave us Come, Tell Me How You Live, a charming, fascinating, and wonderfully witty nonfiction account of her days on an archaeological dig in Syria with her husband, renowned archeologist Max Mallowan. Something completely different from arguably the best-selling author of all time, Come, Tell Me How You Live is an evocative journey to the fascinating Middle East of the 1930s that is sure to delight Dame Agatha’s millions of fans, as well as aficionados of Elizabeth Peters’s Amelia Peabody mysteries and eager armchair travelers everywhere.
|