by Richard Subber | Sep 10, 2026 | Book reviews, Books
prepare to be delighted
Book review:
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (1859-1930)
New York: Mysterious Press, 1903-1904, 1987
304 pages
Doyle revived the 19th century Sherlock Holmes stories at the turn of the 20th century.
The 13 stories in this collection are notably like the rest of the notable series—can you doubt that Holmes is a masterful detective?!
In the first story, “The Adventure of the Empty House,” it becomes apparent that Holmes did not die with Moriarty at the remote chasm. Maybe no one ever believed it to be true.
If you like the Sherlock Holmes style and successes, you’ll like The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
There’s no mystery about how sincerely these stories compel a reader’s delight.
* * * * * *
Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
A poet is a “maker”
…and it doesn’t have to rhyme…
–
My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 52 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Sep 8, 2026 | Language, My poetry, Poetry
each layered wave…
Ashore
This place, it has no words for me.
The ocean makes its thrum,
it pulls the bow across the longest string…
Each layered wave aspires to end in surf,
and lightly bears its encumbering crest,
wavers at the sandy lip
and rolls beneath the swell,
makes room for every motion
that was born afar in blue water,
and sidles now to make a final turn,
becomes mere rhythm…
May 6, 2021
Ogunquit, ME
It was high tide at the Beachmere Inn.
The broad curve of the bay accepted the languid procession of modest waves…
it all seemed so unexceptional,
but I know that each wave is unique until it gets to the shore line.
The tableau did not speak to me.
I know that my presence was not needed.
Published in Creative Inspirations, January-February 2023.
My poem “Ashore” was published in my eighth collection of 57 poems, Empyrean: new poems.
You can buy it on Amazon (paperback and Kindle),
or get it free in Kindle Unlimited, search for “Richard Carl Subber”
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
A Farewell to Arms (book review)
classic Ernest Hemingway
with relentlessly realistic dialogue…
–
In high meadows: poems abide with 60 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Sep 6, 2026 | Poetry, Reviews of other poets
Got “repining”?
I read lots of poetry—colonial, classic American, modern—and I don’t find much that I like.
This is puzzling to me. I think hard about what I like and dislike about poetry, especially my own poetry. I’m still not prepared to offer any explanation much beyond my sincere failure to discern anything meaningful in the kind of poetry I classify as “obscure,” you know, the wayward romp through disconnected words and disjoint images, and the wanton disregard of verb tense/pronoun antecedents/subject and verb relationships/sentence structure…I think you may have seen this kind of wantonly weird stuff:
“Sky falls cloud sheep bray at starry islands in my hoping
are them my lost love I step around the dog poo…”
I just rapped that out this minute. No poetic inspiration involved. It doesn’t make me proud. I’m trying to get to a point:
I’ve read a bit of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882). Longfellow was a lyric poet who tried his hand at free verse, although much of his work is constrained to the often stultifying shackle of line after line and page after page of rhyme. Longfellow writes at length. I confess I can’t make myself keep turning the pages to read “Evangeline” and “The Song of Hiawatha.” I do understand that this fashion of poetry was written and enjoyed before the successive advents of radio, TV, Sony Walkman and the internet. I guess reading a poem for an hour or so was more doable in the 19th century.
Longfellow does offer something to me in his more bite-size poetry. He was a capable wordsmith and he dreamed out images and insights and perspectives that appeal to me, and even nudge me to wakefulness.
In “Snow-Flakes” he placidly describes a snowfall:
“Out of the bosom of the Air,
…The troubled sky reveals
The grief it feels.
This is the poem of the air…”
In “The Rainy Day” he says something we all know:
“…Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.”
Thus, in Longfellow, something of poetry.
Admit it, we don’t use “repining” often enough
in our casual conversations.
* * * * * *
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: A Cold Welcome
The culprit was global cooling,
500 years ago…
by Sam White
–
Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Sep 3, 2026 | Book reviews, Books
it seems dense
Book review:
To the Lighthouse
by Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
Boston: Mariner Classics, 1927
209 pages
Reading anything by Virginia Woolf for the first time is a brand new experience.
I guess that it’s doggone near impossible to pigeonhole her writing style.
The critical literary world has determined that Woolf was a “modernist” who characteristically used the “stream of consciousness” technique among other styles.
I guess you have to be in the mood for stream of consciousness. Most of the time it doesn’t suit me.
To the Lighthouse is, of course, a short novel, and that’s a plus in my book.
I’ll say that it seems dense. It’s a puzzling narrative, it just seems to spin the wheels on page after page. You can learn about the characters, but they aren’t very personable.
You may like it if it suits you.
* * * * * *
Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: “The Gentle Boy”
The Puritans had a dark side…
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
–
Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 74 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Sep 1, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry
The Book of Days
The dawn’s early light can be pleasure enough for the whole day.
There are words enough to tell the story of “the temptation of day to come.”
It is my delight to write some of them for your delectation.
Casserole
A plump expanse,
delicious reds,
maybe good enough to eat,
the vault is filled,
it lures the eye,
it makes a feast.
May 13, 2026
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: Shawshank Redemption
A world I do not want to know…
by Stephen King
–
In high meadows: poems abide with 60 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
* * * * * *
