Book Description
Nine strokes from an old country church toll out the death of an unknown man and call Lord Peter Wimsey to one of his most baffling cases. Set in the strange, flat fen-country of East Anglia, this is a classic tale of suspense by a master of mystery.
Customer Reviews:
The "Tailors" don't sew.......2007-09-19
This tale finds Lord Peter Wimsey and his ever-present butler, "Bunter," on a driving tour of the English countryside when Lord Peter, (who is a bit of a klutz at times), crashes the car, which keeps the two stranded for a day or so in a great and atmospheric rural location, of course, to launch into another great double-whammy mystery: an old jewel theft and murder.
Wimsey and Bunter end up staying overnight at a friendly old preacher's home and Peter gets "roped" (yes, a pun...) into an all-night bell-ringing vigil to ring in the new year at the local church, due to the reported serious illness of one of the bell-ringing team. The bells themselves are the Nine Tailors of the title, each having a separate formal name.
I'll stop there, except to say that Lord Peter ultimately has to return much later to solve the theft and the murder mysteries.
The story is expertly crafted by Sayers, a master of the mystery-writing art, and few folks will guess the ironic ending. Here are some things that I like about this mystery: It's English; it takes place early on in the 20th Century; there are "crusty" characters; the location is very good; I learned a LOT about church-bell ringing, clearly an art-form that I was previously unaware of, and; the story has a satisfying conclusion. So, what didn't I like? Well, those are mostly my own hang-ups because these are things NOT so much found in this story, but I savor mystery cliches such as creepy old houses, lots of rain, and a clear nemesis throughout such sagas.
Also, I will assert that Dorothy L. Sayers wrote BETTER mysteries than this one, (e.g., "The Unpleasantness at the Belonna Club," her best mystery ever), so I'm sort of rating this one solely against her own works. Still, this is a fine mystery and I recommend it to others who enjoy the genre.
It's also available on Audiobook and that version is VERY good, rendered by an excellent reader. I definitely recommend that you read the book first, though, because there are tons of intricate details and clues in this one that are otherwise easily missed in the audiobook version.
Ingenious Plot with Bells, Jewel, and War!.......2007-09-12
This novel of Dorothy L. Sayers would have deserved five stars, if Ian Carmichael's performance as the 20s aristocratic sleuth in the TV mini-series, Lord Peter Wimsey - The Nine Tailors, has not been so spectacular, and the story seems more effective when it was told in a chronological order in the film. Those who are interested in more recent aristocratic sleuths may want to check out Sir Philip Wild and the Emerald Necklace, an intriguing mystery novel with similar storyline and an attractive baronet as a private detective.
Ding! Dong! Go the Bells.......2007-09-12
For those interested in the intricacies of church bell ringing, look no further. This novel drones on and on about the clangers in a manner that displays Sayles' need to show off her extreme research. Cut out these 50 or so pages, and you might have a rather fine read indeed. Wimsey and his servant Bunter are endearing characters, and there are several other fine creations, including a lively parrot. Yet the mystery itself seems at times to be a wedged-in afterthought. And then there's the Superintendent's line: "She's got a stack of money and the meanness of fifty thousand Scotch Jews rolled into one." This is pure anti-Semitism and it isn't that favorable to the inhabitants of Scotland either. Truly this is one of the more overrated books I have ever read. As for Sinclair Lewis stating that this mystery might be better than Dickens' Bleak House, it makes you shudder. Either Lewis was in bed with Sayles, they were pals, she had reviewed one of his books favorably, or the man had gone crackers. I'm sticking with Dickens and Agatha Christie.
great book.......2007-09-11
I literally ordered it and got it so quickly! I also love the author and her books.
Dorothy Sayers at her best.......2007-04-11
This novel by Dorothy Sayers represents her considerable literary skills at their best. She skillfully weaves her mystery within a highly educational and entertaining presentation of bell chaining, a unique custom of the Church of England. Lord Peter Wimsey is the man!
Average customer rating:
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It Took Nine Tailors (American Autobiography)
Adolphe Menjou
Manufacturer: Reprint Services Corp
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Binding: Library Binding
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ASIN: 0781285917 |
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IT TOOK NINE TAILORS
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H3PFT6 |
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The Fifth Crystal
Eric Day
Manufacturer: Xlibris Corporation
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Binding: Hardcover
General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1413456669 |
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Fifth Dimensional Healing: Crystal Wizdom & the Five Elements of Multidimensional Healing
Manufacturer: Words of Wizdom International
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ASIN: 1884695116 |
Product Description
"Most histories of corporations are for the birds. Certainly not for people. They are full of facts. They bristle with statistics. They offer photographs of factories, old and new. They pay solemn tribute to departed captains of industry. But when they come from the printing press, they go straight onto library shelves where they gather dust for eternity. In other words, nobody reads them. Why is this? Because usually they are unreadable. And why is that? Because the warmth and color and humor and excitement that make for good reading are lacking. Earnest, well-meaning, and dull, most corporate histories sound as if they had been written by an exceedingly well-informed corpse. We have tried to make this book different. I think that the author, Arthur Gordon, has done a marvelous job of capturing the spirit of the company. It is not so much the history of a company as the story of the men and women who built it. In the last analysis, a corporation is nothing hut a collection of human beings working together toward a common goal. It's the quality of these people, every one of them at every level of the enterprise, that determines whether that goal is met, whether the business flourishes or declines, whether it moves forward or back. My role is simply that of a catalyst, to stimulate and encourage wherever I can. But it is their loyalty and their patience and their willingness to work like tigers that over the past seventy-five years has enabled our company, as Kipling put it, to 'meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same.' To all of them my heartfelt and affectionate thanks as Savannah Foods and Industries moves into another seventy-five years of expansion and service to our customers, our community, and our nation" ("Foreword" by W.W. Sprague, Jr.).
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Activation energies for creep of single aluminum crystals favorably oriented for cubic slip: Fifth technical report
Yves-Andre Albert Rocher
Manufacturer: Minerals Research Laboratory, Institute of Engineering Research, University of California
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: B0007HGVWW |
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Recovery in single crystals of zinc: Fifth technical report
Robert Drouard
Manufacturer: University of California, Institute of Engineering Research
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: B0007HE7QO |
Average customer rating:
- men in black: the early years
- A fun read but not to be trusted
- Admitted hoaxer's unbelieveable tales
- Campy & amusing, but outdated science
- A classic must-read for anyone interested in phenomena.
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They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers
Gray Barker
Manufacturer: Illuminet Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1881532100 |
Customer Reviews:
men in black: the early years.......2004-08-15
Allegedly, this is the book that launched the myth of the Men in Black, back in 1956 (the author does not capitalize or use the acronym).
It is a readable book, but not a good book. It has an easy journalistic style, very matter-of-fact, but with oddly interpolated melodramatic and exclamatory phrases! To remind you to be frightened, I presume.
The major weakness is the lack of info about UFOs. The few short case studies are nothing but a prelude to a lengthy investigation of how a few saucer magazine publishers got spooked into voluntarily shutting down (or so they claim -- several people in the book were still active in the following decades, according to the Skeptical Inquirer).
But it is interesting to read a front-line report of fringe phenomena where the protagonists TRUST the government and are not necessarily paranoi; when UFO tracking was a gee-whiz science hobby fuelled by intellectual curiosity and not a delusion about one-world governments or the occult.
Not a good book, but fun to read about a phenomenon before it became a phenomenon.
A fun read but not to be trusted.......2001-06-30
I am the author of an article for Skeptical Inquirer about Gray Barker, who was my first publisher. My further research for a new article indicates that Gray didn't even believe much of the story he had related in "They Knew Too Much ..." Consequently, read this book with a jaundiced eye!
...
Admitted hoaxer's unbelieveable tales.......2000-07-12
This book is filled with outlandish stories that, somehow, caught the public's eye in the 1950s. Barker had a reputation for purposely mixing fact with fiction; as long as it made a buck he was happy. His section on the Men in Black, for example, was mostly made up by him. The magazine Skeptical Inquirer exposed his MIB hoax in its May/June 1998 issue.
Campy & amusing, but outdated science.......1999-01-06
I saw an advertisement for this book in a local newspaper and decided to purchase it.
While the book initially grabs you and pulls you in, towards the end you have read some of the most outlandish theories, over-dramatic musings, simpleton ways of thinking about the whole 'saucer' phenomenon.
It is a relatively easy read both in length and style and I'll have to admit it did hook me. But did it hook me because of the mystery of UFO's or because some of the explanations about UFO's and their relationship with humans, the earth, our world governments, conspiracies, religion are so wacky it was enticing to read what the author would say next.
It did present one or two theories that I did find very interesting and even plausible, and it did lend much more mystery to the Men In Black. Just who are these dark dressed men who answer nothing and interogate the victims of UFO incidents,then scaring them half to death.
This book is classic for the pulp science fiction readers of the late 40's and early 50's where science was mysterious to the common man. But now in 1999 it is really hard to believe (and embarrassing to know) that we as a society actually thought this way.
A classic must-read for anyone interested in phenomena........1998-08-31
Considering the reputation of the author as a bold-faced hoaxer, this book is still considered to be the one that started it all-Flying Saucers, Men-in-Black, Lemuria-it's all here. Although many current researchers and Roswell-philes may be quick to discredit and sweep Barker under the carpet, They Knew Too Much is still an integral part of the canon.
Product Description
Third printing of an early UFO classic. 256 INDEXED pages about disappearing UFO researchers.
Book Description
"Echikson's understanding and explanation of how the business works...is fascinating and easy to swallow."—Michael Philips, Wall Street Journal
For wine lovers the world over, Bordeaux is the center of the universe. But in the past two decades, revolutionaries have stormed its traditional bastions, making their mark—and their fortunes—modernizing the production and marketing of wine.
Noble Rot introduces us to the figures who epitomize the changes sweeping Bordeaux—the noble family behind Château d'Yquem; a stonemason turned winemaker whose wine, made in a garage, sells for $100 a bottle; the Maryland-based critic Robert Parker, whose opinion routinely makes or breaks a wine; the New World operations that have used branding to undercut Bordeaux's supremacy—and delves into the mysteries of the legendary classification of 1855. 23 illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
Biased yet engaging read.......2007-07-27
Revolving and rotating around the issues and people surrounding the great wine producing area of Bordeaux, Echikson's Noble Rot creates a non-linear history seemingly centered on the great Chateau d'Yquem and the vintages clustered around the year 2000. There is a smattering of pre 19th century history throughout the book - but likely because of the book's jumbled narrative, fails to give the reader an adequate idea of why certain peoples and ideas were truly shocking to the region.
Similar to the wine movie Mondovino (Directed by Johnathan Nossiter), Echikson introduces us to characters in the wine making world, in this case Bordeaux, who drive the narrative forward. However, perhaps because of the people he chooses, or simply because of his own bias, Echikson is quick to villify producers who are critical of the 'wine revolution' and lionize those who are decidely pro-american and what winos would call 'modern' winemakers. The bias turns up over and over again, and I was nauseated by his unabashed vindications.
Patriotic, or perhaps taste preferences aside, the book was highly engaging despite the flaws, telling the story of Bordeaux's recent history through a mixture of gossip, biography, and pure academic research. Easy to read by wine-lovers and historians alike, the book's 280 some pages was a perfect, satiating length.
NOT QUITE SO NOBLE.......2007-03-29
The title 'Noble Rot' is misleading as the term relates to part of the process of making Sauternes, whereas the book covers Bordeaux wine as a whole and even goes outside its borders; what you see is not what you get.
However, William Echikson presents a refreshing viewpoint of a fascinating topic. Whether by stint of his experience he comes up to the standards set by better known authors on the subject, is a matter of conjecture; I take the view that he falls short.
Notwithstanding, the subject of Bordeaux as a city and as a region along with its wines presents magnetic attractions and each author puts a varying and interesting case as he sees it. good value at $17.22 plus shipping.
Message in a Bottle.......2006-08-26
Each bottle of wine has a story and one tends to forget that it is a combination of good soil and climate, hard work in the fields, chemistry and, above all, human genius which transforms grape into wine. Many wine writers focus exclusively on the finished product. They taste, form an opinion, write down their impression and try the next bottle. In Noble Rot, William Echikson does not talk too much about specific wines but relates the months he spent in 2001 in the Bordeaux area. He focuses on the people who make wine, on their motivation, their philosophy, their financial and family problems. He shows that even a well established industry like the business of Bordeaux wines never stands stills. There are naturally wineries which have been owned for centuries by the same families and which try hard to replicate the same type of wines year after year regardless of the evolution of the taste of the customers. In contrary, Echikson shows that with a lot of passion and guts, it is still possible to create or rejuvenate wineries. I am not sure that the author knew what he would write about when he traveled to Bordeaux. However, as an experienced reporter, he met a few key individuals who had fascinating stories to tell and decided it to share them. The result is better than anticipated. It is a collection of stories which sometimes read like a thriller. In one case, a hedge fund and investors took over a sleeping winery and invested millions of dollars to produce a wine which would seduce American critics, sell well in the US and generate stellar returns. Echikson managed to follow these people month after month until they submitted their samples to the two American gurus. I was tired when I read this part but I could not stop reading until I knew the verdict! My only disappointment is the choice of the title Noble Rot. Families and people, whatever styles of wine they produce, deserve respect. The wine industry is just like the real world, with people who love or hate each other, strive in a changing environment or excel in a stable situation and that family conflicts are as old as the invention of wines in Greece a long time ago...
A vine read.......2006-08-22
This book is a good 'slice of time' account of the Bordeaux region of France. The author manages to include lots of history and geography, as back story, interwoven with interesting stories of real people and estates. I do have to echo another reviewer's sentiment- it can be very confusing at times. I kept having to go back and re-read to keep the people and their roles straight. This book is a great companion to the documentary MONDOVINO. Many of the people and places featured in the book are in the movie.
The Tippling Point.......2006-02-24
Noble Rot offers an interesting and in-depth look at key developments in Bordeaux over the last decade or so, a time that has probably seen more upheaval than any since the horrendous scandals of the early 1970's. In many ways, the birth of the garage movement in parallel with the apotheosis of Robert Parker, two phenomena made for each other, set off a revolution that will reverberate for decades to come, even if Steven Spurrier and other learned interlocutors have already proclaimed the whole garagiste thing a fad on the way out.
The book's narrative spins several threads together to tell its story. The primary focus, hence the book's title, is on the history of Chateau d'Yquem, the most famous sweet wine in the world, whose grapes owe their insane concentration to a mold that "ennobles" them while they rot. The other major storylines are a primer on the influence of Robert Parker, a history of the garage movement including the rise of Parker's partner in crime, Michel Rolland, and a profile of a leading Entre-de-Mers co-op and its peasant-farmer president. Along the way are sprinkled a variety of entertaining digressions and insights into the workings of other significant Bordeaux properties producing both red and sweet wines, as well as portraits of some key figures like Jeffrey Davies (hitherto unknown to me) who played a key if somewhat quiet role in the emergence of the garage movement.
The deepest treatment is naturally enough reserved for d'Yquem itself, and here the author retells the entire history of the property since the 18th century, not only the more recent events. Others may well disagree, but I found this tale of seemingly endless family feuds, intrigues and falling outs to be fatiguing over time. Too much "Dynasty" or is it Knott's Landing (?) and not enough d'Yquem might be one way of saying it, and it began to dull my palate long before I got to the end. Other sections have more energy and move at a faster clip.
Having recently read Elin McCoy's book, The Emperor of Wine, about the rise of Robert Parker, I was struck by the concision achieved here in Noble Wine. The author manages to hit all the high and low points of Parker's career (focused of course on Bordeaux) without all the useless filler in the other book. It's a great and balanced summary of his contributions and shortcomings.
I've read other books and articles about garage wines over the years, but I must confess that Noble Rot helped solidify for me the points made by other writers like the estimable Andrew Jefford (see his interview with Jean Luc Thunevin on page 169 of his masterpiece The New France). How can it ever be a bad thing to meticulously pick ripe fruit by hand, discard rotten or unripe grapes, and make sure that only the finest representations of the vineyard and vintage make it into the final product? Noble Rot drives this point home effectively and also does a nice job of helping consumers understand some of the freakonomics that result in Bordeaux prices.
One downside of Noble Wine is the overall impression I got of both the writing and organization. The narrative jumps around all over the place, both from chapter-to-chapter but also occasionally on the same page. I found myself getting lost from time to time unable to follow from one paragraph to the next (maybe my brain is subject to Noble Rot). Interestingly, it wasn't until I finished the book that I happened to look up the author's biography only to find he is a Wall Street Journal reporter. I had to wonder at that point if this book wasn't somehow stitched together from dispatches or essays rather than written holistically. I don't know if that's the case, but it's easier to blame the author than admit I have Alzheimer's.
Overall I found this book to be well researched and revealing, with careful attention to the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of what is arguably the world's most important and influential wine region. Some of the other reviewers have referred to its gossipy qualities, and it's true there are a lot of reported conversations that it's hard to believe the author actually witnessed. Nevertheless, I think the book is well worth the effort even if the writing can be a little hard to swallow in places.
Books:
- The Perfect Paragon (Agatha Raisin Mysteries)
- The Rainaldi Quartet
- The Sempster's Tale (Sister Frevisse Medieval Mysteries)
- Thrilled To Death (Samantha Shaw Mysteries)
- Thrones, Dominations (A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery)
- Through a Glass, Darkly (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries)
- Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism
- Triangle Of Sins
- Veiled Threats (Carnegie Kincaid, Book 1)
- Watchers of Time: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Novel
Books Index
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