Ten Books to Look Forward to in 2018

It’s what we obsessive readers do — make ever-longer lists of books we want to read. Looking ahead at the publishing calendar next year, here are some titles that have piqued my interest.

Top Ten Tuesday: Literary Settings I’d Like to Visit

The reason we read is to go somewhere else, if only in our minds. In some books the setting is merely a backdrop. But in others, it is pervasive. We can immerse ourselves in another world. These are eight literary places* I would like to visit.

*many will be in England. Control your surprise.

REVIEW: MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS

Rather than a “locked room” mystery wherein the victim is found dead in a room where no one could have gotten in or out, Christie traps everyone together on a snowbound train. The victim, the suspects, and the detective are all stuck in the “locked room.” The new movie version, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh is problematic but it was much better than the trailers led me to believe.