2011 Challenge Reviews

Have you written a review for the Baker Street Challenge?

Add the link to your review to Mr. Linky so other participants can read your thoughts.

Please include both the title of the book and your name or name of your blog in "Your Name" field.

For example: Hound of the Baskervilles (Bookish Ruth)

Welcome to the 2011 Baker Street Challenge! (Rules & Information)

Welcome to the Baker Street Challenge, an annual reading challenge for one of the most iconic and enigmatic literary figures, Sherlock Holmes. Join us as we celebrate Doyle's original stories as well as the rich world of new adventures his works have inspired.

The Rules

1. Choose a goal from the reading tier below and add your name to the sign up page.

2. The challenge will run from January 1 to December 31, 2011. You can sign up for the challenge at any time before December 31, 2011.

2. You do not have to choose your books in advance. You may change your reading list at any point in the challenge.

3. Overlapping with other challenges is fine.

4. Audio books and eBooks are allowed.

5. Feel free to post reviews or general thoughts about your reading to the Baker Street Challenge blog. Please e-mail me at bookishruth [at] gmail [dot] com to be added as a contributor.

Reading Tier

Three Pipe Problem: 3 books
The Sign of Four: 4 books
Five Orange Pips: 5 books
Seven Percent Solution: 7 books

Book Guidelines & Suggestions

The Canon: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novels (A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Valley of Fear) and 56 short stories (compiled in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, His Last Bow and The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes).
Pastiches: Sherlock Holmes stories by authors other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, such as The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer, The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King, The Montana Chronicles by John S. Fitzpatrick, The Sherlockian by Graham Moore, etc.
Non-Fiction: Books about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or the Holmes phenomenon.
Other Doyle Works: Books such as The Lost World, The Coming of the Fairies, The Maracot Deep, and non-Holmes short stories do count for this challenge.

Since 2011 has already begun, please note that any books read between the start of the year to January 17, 2011 that qualify for the challenge will count toward your total if you wish to count them.

Ready to sign up for the challenge? Head over to the Sign Up page.

Sign Up for the 2011 Challenge

Welcome to the sign up page for the 2011 Baker Street Challenge. Since 2011 has already begun, please note that any books read between the start of the year to January 17, 2011 that qualify for the challenge will count toward your total if you wish to count them.

Please be sure to read the Rules post before signing up. After reading the rules, please sign Mr. Linky. If you have a specific post on your blog to keep track of your progress in this challenge, please leave the link to that entry, not your main URL. Thank you!

Also, if you'd like to be added as a contributor to this blog so you can post your book list and reviews here, please send me an e-mail at bookishruth [at] gmail [dot] com for posting access.

I hope you enjoy this year's challenge!

Review: The Case of the Missing Marquess

The Enola Holmes mysteries weren't on my radar when I signed up for the Baker Street Challenge, but I'm so glad I decided to give them a shot! Here's an excerpt of my review of the first book in the series, The Case of the Missing Marquess:

Women have always upset Sherlock Holmes’s equilibrium (see Irene Adler from the original short stories or Mary Russell from Laurie R. King’s fantastic mystery series). Holmes’s family background is one aspect of his life that has received scant, if any, attention in the various Holmes pastiches that have appeared over the years. In the first Enola Holmes mystery, Nancy Springer dares to imagine a most unconventional mother and much-younger sister for the famed detective, both highly unconventional women well capable of throwing his order-loving world slightly off-kilter.

You can read the rest of my review here.

The other Ruth at Booktalk & More.

Review: The Mysterious World of Sherlock Holmes by Bruce Wexler

The Mysterious World of Sherlock Holmes
Author: Bruce Wexler
Publisher: Running Press (2008)
Hardcover, 192 pages, $14.95
ISBN-10: 0762432527
ISBN-13: 978-0762432523

Lavishly illustrated, The Mysterious World of Sherlock Holmes is a companion guide to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Great Detective.

The book includes a biography of Conan Doyle, a history of Sherlock Holmes in print as well as on stage and screen, and an examination of the Holmes phenomenon today. Wexler also briefly touches on Sherlock Holmes' role in the evolution of crime fiction, the class structure of Victorian society, Victorian medicine and Holmes' use of forensic investigative techniques.

Over 150 illustrations are beautifully presented throughout the book. Many of Sidney Padget's iconic images are reproduced as full or half-page illustrations. There are many photographs of Victorian London and weapons that were common to the era. The section picturing some of Holmes' key possessions (such as his deerstalker hat, magnifying glass, pipe, Persian slipper, and violin) was especially interesting to me. When I first read through the Sherlock Holmes stories as a teenager, I had no idea what a Persian slipper looked like. I would have had no such trouble envisioning Holmes' quirky method of tobacco storage if this book had been available then.

Read my full review at Bookish Ruth.

Challenge Completed!

Yep, that's right, I've completed The Baker Street Challenge!

I chose the 7% Solution level so I had to read 7 books. Since I had already gotten interested in Laurie R. King's Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell series I decided to read the 7 remaining books in that series.

Here's a recap of what I read (with links to my reviews) and the major themes/settings of each:

1. Monstrous Regiment of Women - women's movement after World War I
   
2. Letter of Mary - archeology and women
   
3. The Moor- fraud and The Hound of the Baskervilles
   
4. Oh, Jerusalem!- colonial control of Palestine
   
5. Justice Hall - World War I battlefront issues and English inheritance law
   
6. The Game - colonialism and espionage in India
   
7. Locked Rooms - the jazz age in San Fransisco

I recapped the challenge and wrote more of my thoughts on the books over at my blog.

Thank for putting this together Ruth!

- Heather from Age 30+ ... A Lifetime of Books

Locked Rooms

This is the 8th book in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series. The 9th book, THE LANGUAGE OF BEES, comes out next month.

In this episode the couple travels to San Fransisco where they attempt to unravel the secrets of Mary's tragic childhood while navigating a city in the throes of the jazz age.

If you'd like to read my complete but very short review, hop on over to my blog.

- Heather from Age 30+ ... A Lifetime of Books