Matthew Bunson

If you ever host a Sherlock Holmes trivia night, be sure to bring this book along.

This is a thoroughly useful reference to the Holmes canon. For instance, every Conan Doyle story is included here, with a setting and a list of major characters -- but without telling the solution to the case; you'll rarely have to worry about spoilers. All those major characters also have their own entries, as do places involved in the tale. In addition to that, there is a lot of information about peripheral show more material. So you'll find information about pastiches and parodies, as well as movie tie-ins (so, e.g., there is information not only about The Hound of the Baskervilles, the novel, but about related movies, and about actors such as William Gillette, the original stage Holmes, and of course Basil Rathbone, among many others). There is also a chronology, though this strikes me as too dependent on William S. Baring-Gould, with too little discussion of alternatives.

The one thing the book doesn't cover very well is all the sources that Conan Doyle used. The example that struck me was Birdy Edwards and the Scowrers of The Valley of Fear. The Scowrers are based on a real group, the Molly Maguires (though the Scowrers are worse and have far fewer excuses than the Mollies), and Edwards is an avatar of the man who broke up the Mollies, James McParlan(d) (though here again, Conan Doyle distorts things, making Edwards a very good man, whereas McParland proved to be a less-than-wonderful character in real life). But author Bunson never so much as mentions either the Mollies or McParland.

And some of Bunson's citations are a little off. For example, in his entry on "Shakespeare," he accuses Holmes of mis-quoting the line from "Twelfth Night" -- cited by Holmes as "Journeys end in lovers' meetings." Bunson is right that the final word should probably be "meeting," not "meetings," but he makes much too much of the orthography -- we use apostrophes and standardized spellings, but such things were much more fluid in Shakespeare's time.

These are nitpicks, or, rather, they are differences in emphasis. I would have preferred a slightly different book. But if you accept its scope, this is a very solid, and often amusing, book. show less

This is a fantastic reference book for a wide variety of reasons - especially for those who don't have Internet access or who don't want their children to do searches on the Internet.

Our Sunday Visitor has been publishing an annual Catholic Almanac for over one hundred years. Teachers, educators, parents and many others will find a great deal of useful and well-organized information at their finger-tips.

The text is divided into four main sections with numerous sub categories beneath each show more one. Here's a quick overview:

Part One: News and Events:

The Year in Review and News in Depth(includes segments on Pope Benedict XVI, Papal Documents and Announcements, Special Reports on International News, Special Reports on National News, Life Issues and Meetings of U.S. Bishops)

Part Two: The Teachings of the Catholic Church

Doctrine of the Catholic Church, Glossary, The Church Calendar, Liturgical Life of the Church, The Sacraments of the Church and The Communion of Saints.

Part Three: The Church Universal

Dates and Events in Catholic History, The Papacy and the Holy See, The Roman Curia, Hierarchy of the Catholic Church, The Universal Church, Eastern Catholic Churches, The Catholic Church in the U.S., United States Hierarchy, Biographies of American Bishops, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Minority Catholics in the U.S., Statistics of the Church in the U.S., The Catholic Church in Canada, The Catholic Church in Mexico.

Part Four: The Life of the Church in the World

Consecrated Life, Apostolates and Ministries, Catholic Social Services, Education, Catholic Communications, Ecumenism and Interreligous Dialogue, Separated Eastern Churches, Reformation Churches, Interreligious Dialogue.

Although this is a complete list of main categories and general topics, it doesn't give a sense of the detail and usefulness of the overall content. I'll try to give a few examples that might be particular useful to Catholic homeschool families, to give a sense of the content:

In the section on "The Papacy and the Holy See" from Part Three, you'll find (among other things) a complete lists of popes as well as a more detailed overview of the Popes of the 20th Century. Here's a one of the segments (entitled "Peace Efforts") of the mini-biography of Pope Pius XII, who was Pope during World War II. I think this gives a good sense of the important facts which have been carefully chose and supported in the text:

Before the start of World War II, he tried unsuccessfully to get the contending nations - Germany and Poland, France and Italy- to settle their differences peaceably. During the war, he offered his services to mediate the widened conflict, spoke out against the horrors of war and the suffering it caused, mobilized relief work for its victims, proposed a five-point program for peace in Christmas messages from 1939 to 1942, and secured a generally open status for the city of Rome. He has been criticized in some quarters for not doing enough to oppose the Holocaust. This is a matter of historical debate, but it is a fact that through his direct intercession many thousands of Jews in Rome and Italy were saved from certain death, and he resisted wherever possible the threat of Nazism to human rights. Such were his contributions to assisting Jews that the rabbi of Rome, Dr. Abraham Zolli, was converted to Catholicism, and upon his death, Pius was praised by Golda Meir for his efforts. After the war, he endorsed the principles and intent of the U.N. and continued efforts for peace.

Also, in the same overall section is a 36 page country-by-country overview of Catholic statistics (number of religious, Catholic population, percent of the total population that is Catholic and things like that) and a paragraph briefly explaining the history of the faith in each country. It's a wonderful supplement to geographical studies and a place to find interesting information on current missionary efforts of the Church. I could readily imagine homeschool families choosing countries with small minorities of Catholics (such as Turkmenistan, which has only two priests to serve a population of approximately 1000 Catholics).

Here is a list of some of the other resources contained in this Almanac that may be of interest (there are many, many more besides these):

* Books of the Bible (including information on books that are rejected by Protestant denominations and overviews of each book)
* A mini Old Testament Bible timeline
* A list of Apostolic Fathers, Fathers of the Church and Doctors of the Church with a brief biography of each
* A 32 page Catholic Glossary
* A detailed liturgical calendar
* An overview of major Holy Days and other Observances
* Extensive listing of saints, including a list of traditional Patrons and Intercessors and recent Canonizations
* A ten page timeline of Catholic History
* A listing of all Papal Encyclicals from 1740 to the present day (The most recent encyclical included here is Deus Caritas Est)
* A Chronology of U.S. Catholic History
* A list of missionaries (with very brief biographies) to the Americas
* Lists of Cathedrals, Basilicas and Shrines in the United States
* An extensive listing of Catholic Colleges and Universities, including website and phone number, and current enrollment.

Because of the nature of this resource, I have not done a thorough read-through, but everything I've seen (and I've spent a number of hours poring through this) has been very solid. The book does contain some material that may not be suitable for young children, including a mention on the front cover of "An Update on the Sexual Abuse Scandal". show less

The Vampire Encyclopedia is a must-have reference for anyone who writes in the horror genre or is interested in vampire fiction or folklore. Bunson does not bother to document his sources, but that shortcoming is not uncommon in encyclopedias. The other shortcoming of this extensive list is that Bunson lends equal weight to fictional, historic, and folkloric accounts.

This is a perfect book for fans of the new tv series Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Or for those who before never ever really cared about Sherlock Holmes, or *gasp* never even heard about him.

It's a fun book to read, a quick read, but for people that know quite a lot about Sherlock Holmes, that have for instance read some or all the books, seen the movies with Basil Rathbone or the excellent tv-series with Jeremy Brett (R.I.P my one and only true Sherlock) then this book will not show more really satisfy you.

But as an introduction to future Sherlockians, then this is perfect!

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!
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