In 2003, Jonathan Yardley, the chief book critic for The Washington Post, began a series of reviews he called "Second Reading," in which he reconsidered "notable and/or neglected books from the past." Every month for the next seven years Yardley examined a book that was out of print, out of fashion, misunderstood, or misread. Europa Press collected the columns into a book in 2010.
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99 books · 8 voters · list created July 25th, 2014 by Nathan (votes) .
Tags: criticism
8 likes · 
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Comments Showing 1-2 of 2 (2 new)

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message 1: by Greg (last edited May 08, 2019 06:25PM) (new)

Greg No Hammett? (Red Harvest!!!) No Chandler? (Lady in the Lake) No Woolrich? (The Black Series). No Spillane? (But includes the far lesser quality of John D. MacDonald.) Oh, and no Ross MacDonald? This guy has never read a great noir/mystery/hardboiled work. Too bad they let him publish a book. And who doesn't read Dame Agatha Christie's "Orient Express" or "And Then There were None" a second time to try to find out if she pulled a dirty trick on the reader. AND, Suess's "Oh, the Places You'll Go"? Or "Anne of Green Gables?" Okay, about Dumas, well, yes, good choice. But you can't read "Count of Monte Cristo" and not grab Dashiell Hammet's stupendous masterpiece, "Dane Curse" for a 2nd or 3rd read.


message 2: by Nathan (new)

Nathan Greg wrote: "No Hammett? (Red Harvest!!!) No Chandler? (Lady in the Lake) No Woolrich? (The Black Series). No Spillane? (But includes the far lesser quality of John D. MacDonald.) Oh, and no Ross MacDonald? Thi..."

I'm not sure your complaint is valid: This isn't supposed to be a list populated exclusively with "noir/mystery/hardboiled" books, it's made up of books that Jonathan Yardley considered "notable and/or neglected" from his career as a book critic.


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