2021 Reading List: November

 

NOVEMBER: 21 Books Read.   156 Hours Spent

YTD:  182 Books Read, 1627 Hours Spent

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All I wanted to do this month was to read. I tried to keep up with the review writing but I got behind, far, far behind. I will have to figure out how to catch up at least on some of it. Only eight of the titles I read were for 24 Festive Tasks (finding appropriate books has been a challenge) -- again, behind, far, far behind. I have met some new authors this month, some are keepers while other are one and done. I enjoyed the Agatha Christie November side-read by Josephine Bell and hope I can find more of her books on audio. The same can be said of not-quite cozy mystery writers Donna Andrews and Ellery Adams.  Martha Grimes's Richard Jury and Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver are growing on me.  In fact, I have so many "project authors" to get through right now (Cleeves, Penny, Marsh, Pratchett and others) that I'm not sure I need to look for new authors for a while.  Ben Sheehan (worst book of the month), Daniel Mason and Peter Robinson are one and done-- the first for sure, the latter two at least for now.

 

 

1. Wild Fire --  Ann Cleeves --  NEW101 
2. A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth --  Daniel Mason  --  NEW102 
3. Why Didn't They Ask Evans  --  Agatha Christie  --  NEW103 
4. The Port of London Murders  --  Josephine Bell  --  NEW104
5. Owls Well That Ends Well  --  Donna Andrews  --  NEW105 
6. Seven Years  --  Peter Robinson  --  NEW106
7. The Old Fox Deceiv'd  --  Martha Grimes  --  NEW107 
8. Quick Service  --  P.G. Wodehouse  --  NEW108
9. Miss Silver Intervenes  --  Patricia Wentworth  --  NEW109
10. Dead Water  --  Ann Cleeves  --  NEW110
11. Last Ditch  --  Ngaio Marsh  --  NEW111 
12. In the Hurricane's Eye  --  Nathaniel Philbrick  --  NEW112
13. The Cruelest Month  --  Louise Penny  --  NEW113
14. OMG WTF Does the Constitution Actually Say?  --  Ben Sheehan  --  NEW114 
15. Murder in the Storybook Cottage  --  Ellery Adams  --  NEW115
16. Spinsters in Jeopardy  --  Ngaio Marsh  --  NEW116
17. Snuff  --  Terry Pratchett  --  NEW117
18. The Gatekeepers  --  Chris Whipple  --  NEW118
19. The Lion in Winter  --  James Goldman  --  NEW119
20. The Curse of The Pharaoh  --  Elizabeth Peters  --  NEW120
21. A Christmas Carol  --  Charles Dickens  --  Re-read

Miss Silver Intervenes

 

by Patricia Wentworth ( read by Diana Bishop) c. 1943

Miss Silver, Book 6

 

Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 05-06-14

Language: English

Publisher: Audible Studios

ASIN: B00J7XR02W

Publisher's Summary

When her fiancé, Giles Armitage, is lost at sea in the middle of the Second World War, Meade Underwood is left in the company of a middle-aged aunt with nothing but a monotonous round of bridge parties and war work to fill her days. A chance encounter restores Giles to Meade but he has lost his memory, and their rediscovered happiness is threatened by the machinations of the scheming Carola Roland, a figure from Giles' forgotten past. So when Carola is viciously murdered, Giles becomes the chief suspect and it takes all Miss Silver's ingenuity to unravel the real significance of the crime and its electrifying consequences.

Except for those damned clacking knitting needles, she is growing on me

I have to thank the Agatha Christie Centenary Celebration read (aka Appointment with Agatha) for introducing me to Patricia Wentworth. I read The Key back in April and enjoyed it (in spite of the knitting needles), so when I needed another title in a recent 2 for 1 sale and Miss Silver was on the list, I grabbed it.

I enjoyed this story. I like the way Wentworth unwinds the story -- no melodrama, no stupid characters doing stupid things when we already know what is going to happen when she meets the killer at midnight.  I like Miss Silver's  working relationship with the Inspector Abbott and the way he respects her and treat her as an almost equal -- not equal only because she is a civilian, not because she is a woman. Abbot actually looks forward to the collaboration. He respects her intellect and her ability to get information he hasn't, because she brings another point of view to the table. I like it very much.

Not quite four stars.

Last Ditch

 

by Ngaio Marsh (read by Nadia May) c. 1976

Roderick Alleyn, Book 29

 

 

 

 

 

 

Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 06-06-05

Language: English

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

ASIN:  B0009W0496

Publisher's Summary 

Young Ricky Alleyn has come to the picturesque  fishing village of Deep Cove to write. Though the sleepy little town  offers few diversions, Ricky manages to find the most distracting one of  all: murder. For in a muddy ditch, he sees a dead equestrienne whose last leap was anything but an accident. And when Ricky himself  disappears, the case becomes a horse of a different color for his  father, Inspector Roderick Alleyn.          

And not a baby any more makes three

 

Father and son share the scene.  This one was a lot fun in a leisure suit and drug squad kind of way. I like the way that Ngaio Marsh has kept up with the times and used it to her advantage. Alleyn is at once timeless and dated.  Timeless because he is accepting of the world around him but dated because he seems just a bit out of step with the times and very much an elder statesman. All in all, Marsh balances the yin and the yang of Alleyn and of the story.

Four stars to an author who  has kept up with times and kept her writing fresh.

The Old Fox Deceiv'd

 

by Martha Grimes (read by Steve West) c. 1984

Richard Jury Novel, Book 2

Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 04-30-13

Language: English

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

ASIN: B00CISWPVE

Publisher's Summary

It is a chill and foggy 12th Night, wild with  North Sea wind, when a bizarre murder disturbs the outward peace of  Rackmoor, a tiny Yorkshire fishing village with a past that proves a  tangled maze of unrequited loves, unrevenged wrongs, and even  undiscovered murders.

Inspector Jury finds no easy answers in  his investigation - not even the identity of the victim, a beautiful  young woman. Was she Gemma Temple, an impostor? Or was she really Dillys  March, Colonel Titus Crael’s long-lost ward, returning after eight  years to the Colonel’s country seat and to a share of his fortune? And  who was her murderer?

 

 

If first you don't succeed...

After DNFing my first attempt at this series, I thank my bookish buddies for urging me to try again. It was definitely a mistake to start so late in this series and I said so.  I started other series in the middle but it was just too hard to get into without the background of the earlier installments. The Old Fox Deceiv'd was delightful and I look forward to further adventures with Jury and Plant.

Seven Years

by Peter Robinson (read by Greg Patmore)

Bibliomysteries Series, Book 6

 

 

 

 

 

Length: 1 hr and 46 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 03-05-19

Language: English

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

ASIN: B07NZ21T3L

Publisher's Summary

A gripping novella from the New York Times best-selling author of the Inspector Banks Mysteries and a "master of the art" (Boston Globe)

Retired Cambridge professor Donald Aitcheson loves scouring antiquarian bookshops for secondhand treasures - as much as he loathes the scribbled marginalia from their previous owners. But when he comes upon an inscription in a volume of Robert Browning's poetry, he's less irritated than disturbed. This wasn't a gift to an unwitting woman. It was a threat - insidious, suggestively sick, and terribly intriguing.

Now Aitcheson's imagination is running wild. Was it a sordid teacher-pupil affair that ended in betrayal? A scorned lover's first salvo in a campaign of terror? The taunt of an obsessive psychopath? Then again, it could be nothing more than a tasteless joke between friends.

As his curiosity gets the better of him, Aitcheson can't resist playing detective. But when his investigation leads to a remote girls' boarding school in the Lincolnshire flatlands, and into the confidence of its headmistress, he soon discovers the consequences of reading between the lines.

Bibliomysteries=Serendipity

I stumbled across this series while browsing the Audible website. The first one I found was The Pretty Little Box by Charles Todd, an author I have been devouring of late. It was free and it was short, so I grabbed it. When I saw it was part of a series and that a couple were available on Audible, I got the only other one available through the Audible Plus Catalog. The series of short mysteries is published by MysteriousBooks.com and is available on through their website. Some are available through Amazon and Audible.

Seven Years is a delightful little story but a bit predictable at the end even though there are two possible endings; I wish the author had gone with the other ending.

It gets 3.5 stars.  

Quick Service

 

by P. G. Wodehouse (read by Simon Vance) c. 1940

Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 03-03-15

Language: English

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

ASIN: B00U7U1HH8

Publisher's Summary

This standalone novel is another fine example of the wonderful, zany humor of P. G. Wodehouse.

Imperious  American widow Beatrice Chavender is visiting her sister's country home  near London when a most unfortunate thing happens: She takes a bite of  inferior ham while having her breakfast. Soon everyone around her is  suffering the consequences - her sister, her brother-in-law, the butler,  poor Sally, Sally's fiancé, and even Mrs. Chavender's ex-fiancé, "Ham  King" J. B. Duff.

Don't miss this wild romp from the acknowledged master of British humor.

 

 

Rolling on the floor laughing my @$$ off!

P.G Wodehouse has a way with words! I wish I had a print copy because I would be happy to share some of the more droll lines and observations. This is timeless humor. The perfect antidote for a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day." Simon Vance is the perfect narrator for this book because he has mastered both English and American accents. Good thing the library has plenty of Wodehouse on tap.

Four and a half stars for a quick wit, a keen observer of people and their foibles and a most prodigious use of language.

Owls Well That Ends Well

 

by Donna Andrews (read by Bernadette Dunne) c. 2005

Meg Langslow, Book 6

24 Festive Tasks 2021: Door 5

Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 10-24-16

Language: English

Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC

ASIN: B01M675VLK

Publisher's Summary

Meg Langslow was actually looking forward to  renovating the old Victorian mansion she and her boyfriend Michael  bought. But she wasn't thrilled by the lifetime of junk accumulated by  the house's eccentric previous owner, Edwina Sprocket. The easiest  solution: hold the end-all and be-all of gigantic yard sales. But when  the event attracts the late Miss Sprocket's money-hungry heirs, the  over-enthusiastic supporters of some endangered barn owls, and customers  willing to go to any lengths to uncover a hidden treasure, Meg suspects  things have gotten a little out of hand. Then, an antiques dealer is  found stuffed in a trunk with his head bashed in - and the yard sale  turns into a days-long media circus.

Another series to keep me happy!

This is my first "Meg Langslow" and I've jumped in to the middle of things but I have wanted to try something from this series for a long time -- and for half a credit, I could be a sport.  Author has a light-hearted touch and populates her world with zany, larger than life characters (kind of like the zoo I have lived with all my life). Right now, she is getting 9 hours of mileage out of a yard-sale and the weirdos who frequent them. Any book that starts with the MC dumping a jug of water on a yard-sale early bird ringing her door bell before dawn can't be all bad. This is cozy done well and you bet I will be visiting again.

Three and half stars

The Port of London Murders

by Josephine Bell (read by john Telfer) c. 1938

Agatha Christie Centenary Read November side read

 

 

 

Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 05-06-21

Language: English

Publisher: Soundings

ASIN:  B0946ZXRRW

Publisher's Summary

When the San Angelo drifts into port  in the Thames Estuary, telephones begin to ring across the capital and  an intricate series of events is set in motion. Beset by dreadful storms  in the Bay of Biscay, the ship, along with the 'mixed cargo' it  carries, is late. Unaware of the machinations of avaricious importers,  wayward captains and unscrupulous traders, Harry Reed and June Harvey  are thrust together by a riverside accident, before being swept into the  current of a dark plot developing on the dockside. 

A moody  classic set around London's historic docks published in 1938, Josephine  Bell's unique and atmospheric writing shines in a mystery weaving  together blackmail, bootleg lingerie and, of course, murder.

Give me more Josephine Bell

Did she write anything else? I don't know, let alone if it is available on audio. I very much enjoyed this one, mostly, I think because of its setting on the docks of London and the complete lack of lords, ladies and the idle rich.

Not quite 4 stars.

 

Why Didn't They Ask Evans

 

by Agatha Christie ( read by Emilia Fox ) c. 1934

Agatha Christie Centenary Celebration read

Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 07-03-12

Language: English

Publisher: HarperAudio

ASIN:  B008GZWMY8

Publisher's Summary

While playing an erratic round of golf, Bobby  Jones slices his ball over the edge of a cliff. His ball is lost, but  on the rocks below he finds the crumpled body of a dying man. The man  opens his eyes and with his last breath says, "Why didn't they ask  Evans?"

Haunted by those words, Bobby and his vivacious  companion, Frankie, set out to solve a mystery that will bring them into  mortal danger...

This title was previously published as The Boomerang Clue.

We are in a groove now

I have absolutely nothing insightful to say here.   It isn't that I am not enjoying the stories or don't like Christie's writing; I enjoy the stories very much. It is more like I don't have the patience for an in-depth analysis of every book I read, especially when I am reading for the sheer pleasure of escaping into another world. The truth is that sometimes I have nothing to say about a book that hasn't already been said. I'm happy to accept that truth and move on, unperturbed.

But, before I go, I just want to say, "Way to go, Aggie!" for naming the inept golfer after the most successful amateur golfer ever to compete at national and international levels, Robert Tyre Jones, Jr., aka Bobby Jones (competitive years 1923-1930). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Jones_(golfer)

 

Three and a half stars. Keeps you guessing.

Wild Fire

by Ann Cleeves (read by Kenny Blyth) c. 2018

Shetland Island Mysteries, Book 8 (and last)

Library Loan

 

 

Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 09-04-18

Language: English

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

ASIN: B07GVNV1FM

Publisher's Summary

The betrayal of those closest burns most of all...

 

Hoping  for a fresh start, an English family moves to the remote Shetland  islands, eager to give their autistic son a better life. 

 

But  when a young nanny's body is found hanging in the barn beside their  home, rumors of her affair with the husband spread like wildfire. As  suspicion and resentment of the family blazes in the community,  Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez is called in to investigate. He knows it  will mean his boss, Willow Reeves, returning to run the investigation,  and confronting their complex relationship. 

 

With families fracturing and long-hidden lies emerging, Jimmy faces the most disturbing case of his career.

I never saw it coming

Oh! My! Goodness!  What an ending! The clues were there; I just never picked up on them. 

 

Four stars.

A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth: Stories

 

by Daniel Mason (read by Michael Crouch, Susannah Jones, Jay Ben Markson, Lucy Rayner, Joel Richards, Gary Tiedemann) c. 2020

Audible Daily Deal

24 Festive Tasks: Door 6

 

 

 

 

 

Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 05-05-20

Language: English

Publisher: Hachette Audio

B087LB2H1V

Publisher's Summary

On a fateful flight, a balloonist makes a  discovery that changes her life forever. A telegraph operator finds an  unexpected companion in the middle of the Amazon. A doctor is beset by  seizures, in which he is possessed by a second, perhaps better, version  of himself. And in Regency London, a bare-knuckle fighter prepares to  face his most fearsome opponent, while a young mother seeks a miraculous  cure for her ailing son.

At times funny and irreverent, always  moving and deeply urgent, these stories - among them a National Magazine  Award and a Pushcart Prize winner - cap a 15-year project. From the  Nile's depths to the highest reaches of the atmosphere, from  volcano-racked islands to an asylum on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro,  these are tales of ecstasy, epiphany, and what the New York Times Magazine called the "[S]truggle for survival...hand to hand, word to word", by "[O]ne of the finest prose stylists in American fiction".

Expanding My Horizons: Audible Daily Deal Lucky Find

Usually the Daily Deal offerings are variations of the same crap that I have no interest in reading -- too violent, too depressing, too dysfunctional, too maudlin, too much the same as every other book they offer. But, every now and again, they find a title that sparks my interest.  Please don't ask what grabbed my attention the other day when I decided to buy this title. I have no idea who the authors is, what his background is, what kind of books he writes.  There was something in the title, the cover, the description, the price; before I knew it, I was buying it.

I lucked out on this buy. Much to my surprise, especially as I listened to the first story and wondered what I was getting myself into, not only did I like the stories but I liked the writing. The stories are challenging. They are layered. They make you think. Where the heck did the author come up with these ideas? This is definitely not the light storytelling of Christie or Jeffrey Archer; this is 'literary fiction,' storytelling on a whole different plane. In fact, Mason's stories make me think of Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar, two wizards of short fiction.

Four and a half stars -- for the writing and for the imagination of the author.

 

2021 Reading List: October

 

       

YTD:  161 Books Read, 1471 Hours Spent

Goal: 100 books and 1500 hours

It was a busy month! I think that this is the first year since I started on audiobooks that I have ever read more that 100 NEW books in a year. For that, I have to the thank the Audible PLUS Catalog and the Boston Public Library for the access to free books. 

1. Lord Edgware Dies -- Agatha Christie --  NEW86
2. Trustee From the Toolroom -- Nevil Shute  --  Re-read
3. Twice Shy -- Dick Francis  --  Re-read
4. The Unknown Ajax --  Georgette Heyer  --  Re-read
5. Death at the Dolphin  -- Ngaio Marsh  --  NEW87
6. The Myth of the Self-Made Man  --  Ruben Reyes  --  NEW88
7. John Woman  --  Walter Mosley  --  NEW89
8. How We Got to Now  --  Steven Johnson  --  NEW90
9. The Final Solution  --  Michael Chabon  --  NEW91
10. The Final Curtain  --  Ngaio Marsh  --  NEW92
11. Overture to Death  --  Ngaio Marsh  --  Re-read
12. No Shred of Evidence  -- Charles Todd  --  NEW93
13. The Horse You Came in On  --  Martha Grimes  --  NEW94  --  DNF
14. The Seagull  --  Ann Cleeves  --  NEW95
15. Nine Nasty Words  --  John McWhorter  --  NEW96
16. The Pretty Little Book  --  Charles Todd  --  NEW97
17. Revolutionary Summer --  Joseph Ellis  --  NEW98
18. Where There's a Will  --  Mary Roberts Rinehart  --  NEW99
19. The Long Way Home  --  Louise Penny  --  NEW100

MTD: 19 Books Read.   142 Hours Spent

Where There's a Will...

 

by Mary Roberts Rinehart (read by Paula Faye Leinweber) c. 1912

Library Loan

 

 

 

 

Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 07-16-19

Language: English

Publisher: Spoken Realms

Publisher's Summary

Where There’s a Will is Mary Roberts  Rinehart’s hilarious comedy involving a health spa, an heir, a would-be  princess, and an impostor. The story is told by Minnie, who has  essentially run the spa for years and inherited the care of its famous  spring from her father. When the old doctor dies and leaves the Hope  Springs Spa to his near-do-well grandson with the stipulation that he  live on premises for two months in order to inherit, the grandson is  nowhere to be found. So Minnie tries to save the spa by enlisting the  help of family and friends to trick the lawyer and keep the spa running.

Hope Springs Eternal!

Still fresh over a hundred years later! Loved it! What a hoot!  Pure farce. Post and Kellogg, eat your hearts out. The sanitarium business skewered and debunked. Adorable, light-hearted romp in the back-woods of middle America of the early 20th century. The reader has the perfect voice for the story and I love the slang in this one. One of these days I will really have to start writing down all the little turns of phrase that I always thought were new in my youth that are in truth much older than that.

Three and a half stars

The Long Way Home

by Louise Penny (read by Ralph Cosham) c. 2014

Chief Inspector Gamache, Book 10

Library Loan

 

 

 

 

 

 

Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 08-26-14

Language: English

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Publisher's Summary

Happily retired in the village of Three  Pines, Armand Gamache, former Chief Inspector of Homicide with the  Sûreté du Québec, has found a peace he'd only imagined possible. On warm  summer mornings he sits on a bench holding a small book, The Balm in  Gilead, in his large hands. "There is a balm in Gilead," his neighbor  Clara Morrow reads from the dust jacket, "to make the wounded whole."

While  Gamache doesn't talk about his wounds and his balm, Clara tells him  about hers. Peter, her artist husband, has failed to come home. Failed  to show up as promised on the first anniversary of their separation. She  wants Gamache's help to find him. Having finally found sanctuary,  Gamache feels a near revulsion at the thought of leaving Three Pines.  "There’s power enough in Heaven," he finishes the quote as he  contemplates the quiet village, "to cure a sin-sick soul." And then he  gets up. And joins her.

Together with his former  second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and Myrna Landers, they journey  deeper and deeper into Québec. And deeper and deeper into the soul of  Peter Morrow. A man so desperate to recapture his fame as an artist, he  would sell that soul. And may have. The journey takes them further and  further from Three Pines, to the very mouth of the great St. Lawrence  river. To an area so desolate, so damned, the first mariners called it  "The land God gave to Cain." And there they discover the terrible damage  done by a sin-sick soul.

The spirit of envy can destroy; it can never build.

Margaret Thatcher

I like the Three Pines/Inspector Gamache series. I'm not reading it in order and I'm not rushing my way through. Three Pines is the ideal hometown populated with the most diverse group of kind-hearted over-achievers you have ever met. It is a town of contradictions -- small enough that it isn't even on the map (Brigadoon) but large enough to support a bistro, a bakery and a used book store (I can't figure out how). Mostly, it is such an ironic backdrop for stories that are themselves so dark.

In general, I like her writing. I like the way, in a novel where her characters are actually speaking French, she spends a couple of pages describing a stone circle of hares and ends, very convincingly, having it confused with hair, which could only happen in English because in French they are very different words. I like her stories -- dark and deep but not graphically gory. I like the complicated plots and I like the way she slowly peels back the layers on the characters, even the recurring characters. I love the depth of Armande Gamache, his complicated life on the police force and now in retirement. I like the bold steps she has taken in the arc of this series, pushing readers out of their comfort zone as she chooses the road less taken.

However, this is not the best book in the series. The premise stretches the bounds of credulity and while I enjoyed the journey, the destination was disappointing.

Three stars

 

The Pretty Little Box

by Charles Todd (read by Greg Patmore) c.2019

Audible Plus Catalog

Series: The Bibliomysteries Series, Book 32

 

 

 

Length: 58 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 06-04-19

Language: English

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

 

Publisher's Summary

In  a quaint, antiquarian bookshop in the Midlands of England, a woman is  captivated by a rare gilt-edged devotional nestled within an exquisite  and equally tempting box. Her desire to pilfer it overcomes her  scruples, and her guilt and terror at doing something so audacious, so  unlike her. With a simple sleight of hand, it's hers.

 

But this  irresistible book of hours isn't in her possession for long. By chance,  desire, and cruel twists of fate, it soon falls into the covetous grip  of others - from a pickpocket to a schoolboy to a priest - as one  woman's transgression sets in motion a dreadful chain of events.

Short but maybe not so sweet

What an interesting little tale! An amuse bouche. Something to clear the palate between longer reads. Well written. Simple, nothing fussy but deep if you want to take the time to look for it. 

Three and a half stars.

 

Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence

 

by Joseph J. Ellis (read by Stefan Rudnicki) c. 2013

 

 

 

Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 06-04-13

Language: English

Publisher: Random House Audio

Publisher's Summary

A distinctive portrait of the crescendo moment in American history from the Pulitzer-winning American historian, Joseph Ellis.

 The summer months of 1776 witnessed the most consequential events in  the story of our country’s founding. While the thirteen colonies came  together and agreed to secede from the British Empire, the British were  dispatching the largest armada ever to cross the Atlantic to crush the  rebellion in the cradle. The Continental Congress and the Continental  Army were forced to make decisions on the run, improvising as history  congealed around them. In a brilliant and seamless narrative, Ellis  meticulously examines the most influential figures in this propitious  moment, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson,  Benjamin Franklin, and Britain’s Admiral Lord Richard and General  William Howe. He weaves together the political and military experiences  as two sides of a single story, and shows how events on one front  influenced outcomes on the other.

The Summer of 1776

How strange that I have read two different different books recently that cover the run up to the Revolutionary War.  But that is okay because it is a topic I like to read about. I grew up in Philadelphia and visited Independence Hall many times. In 1976, I worked for Philadelphia's Bicentennial Commission -- and I'm sorry that we aren't still living in Philly because I think I would like to part of the celebration again.

I am a fan of Ellis and have already read 4 other of his books -- and now have only 4 to go. I like his take on the founding of our nation (an experiment in government that even the founders ever expected to last as long as it has).  I like the way he picks his focus and sticks with it, not going off on tangents, not feeling that just because he knows something he has to include it in the current story he is telling.

Four stars.

Life's Too Short: The Horse You Came in On

DNF👎

 

 

Richard Jury, Book 12

By: Martha Grimes

Narrated by: Steve West

Series: A Richard Jury Novel, Book 12

Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 02-25-14

Language: English

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Yes, I started in the middle of the series, but that is what was available from the library.

 

I absolutely cannot get into the story. The narrator is putting me to sleep. 

 

I'm done.  Life's Too Short. Moving on.

Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever

by John McWhorter  (read by the author) c. 2020

Library Loan

 

 

 

 

 

 

Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 05-04-21

Language: English

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Publisher's Summary

 

One of the preeminent linguists of our  time examines the realms of language that are considered shocking and  taboo in order to understand what imbues curse words with such power -  and why we love them so much.

 

Profanity has always been a  deliciously vibrant part of our lexicon, an integral part of being  human. In fact, our ability to curse comes from a different part of the  brain than other parts of speech - the urgency with which we say "f--k!"  is instead related to the instinct that tells us to flee from danger.

Language evolves with time, and so does what we consider profane or unspeakable. Nine Nasty Words  is a rollicking examination of profanity, explored from every angle:  historical, sociological, political, linguistic. In a particularly  coarse moment, when the public discourse is shaped in part by once-shocking words, nothing could be timelier.

Linguistics without all the jargon

Let me make clear up front that I am a John McWhorter junky.  I follow his Lexicon Valley podcast. I have listened to his books and his The Great Courses lectures. I like his irreverent, light-hearted delivery of topics that at times are complicated and even downright boring.  McWhorter has made it his career to make the topics of linguistic study accessible to the masses -- and I approve of his love of the Broadway musical and its use in lectures.

Nine Nasty Words is not the first tome I have read on the topic and probably won't be the last. Let's not be prudes; we all use them to some extent or another. I know that growing up we were taught there were certain words that were taboo and that educated people don't need to use swear word.  Boy, did my parents miss the boat on that one. Scientist now understand that swearing comes from a different part of the brain and has very little to do with one's education.  By the time I was in high school, Mom finally gave up on the battle and started shocking her own children with her accomplished use of a well-placed, "Bullshit!" I'm sure she was just making up for the times she could not use it in the classroom, as in "The dog ate my homework." "Bullshit!" Dad on the other hand has held fast to the use of euphemisms -- even should hammer meet thumb. Still even with Mom's bullshit, there were a whole raft of words that were taboo and remain so to this day -- most of them racial/ethnic epithets.

The book covers a lot of ground in seven hours. He opens by comparing his list to the George Carlin list of the 1960's "The 7 words you can't say on television," explaining why the list has changed since it was first enumerated. Then, one word at a time, he covers the etymology of each word, showing how its usage and acceptability changed over time. He talks about how the word is used in every day speech -- and how it may be different in other English speaking countries. He spices it up with stories and example from literature and song. This is not a scientific tome. It tells you what you need to know in terms you can understand.

If you read only one chapter in the book, read his chapter on the 'n'-word(s). It is enlightening, a level-headed,  explanation of the etymology of the word(s), their uses over time and how they reached the current dual nature of wholly acceptable use by some and complete taboo for others (and the hazards of navigating  the minefield).

Four stars.  Long enough to cover the subject; short enough to be interesting.

The Seagull

 

by Ann Cleeves (read by Janine Birkett) c. 2017

A Vera Stanhope Mystery, Book 8

Library Loan

 

 

 

Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 09-12-17

Language: English

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

ASIN: B0756NSFXS

(September 5, 2017)

Publisher's Summary

A visit to her local prison brings DI Vera  Stanhope face to face with an old enemy: former detective superintendent  and now inmate John Brace. Brace was convicted of corruption and  involvement in the death of a gamekeeper - and Vera played a key part in  his downfall.

Now Brace promises Vera information about the  disappearance of Robbie Marshall, a notorious wheeler-dealer who  disappeared in the mid-'90s, if she will look out for his daughter and  grandchildren. He tells her that Marshall is dead, and that his body is  buried close to St Mary's Island in Whitley Bay. However, when a search  team investigates, officers find not one skeleton but two.

This  cold case takes Vera back in time and very close to home, as Brace and  Marshall, along with a mysterious stranger known only as the Prof, were  close friends of Hector, her father. Together they were the Gang of  Four, regulars at a glamorous nightclub called The Seagull. Hector had  been one of the last people to see Marshall alive. As the past begins to  collide dangerously with the present, Vera confronts her prejudices and  unwanted memories to dig out the truth....

Family history comes back to haunt

I saw one episode of the TV series a number of years ago only because it starred Brenda Blethvyn, an actor I admire. It wasn't much of a leap when I saw books of the series available on both Audible Plus and the library to deciding to give them a whirl. I already knew that I like the the author, now it was just a matter of meeting her take of Vera Stanhope. She is now on my reading list. I like Vera and I'm very happy to spend time with her.

I really enjoyed The Seagull. It is all about cold cases that come back to haunt not just the perpetrators but their progeny, as well, including Vera. The story is complex in a clockworks kind of way -- lots of moving parts. No one is who they seem to be -- not even the corpse. The Northumbrian setting gives it atmosphere.

Most of all, I like Vera Stanhope. She got where she was through hard work. She doesn't trade on her looks or a university degree. She doesn't pretend to be what she isn't and doesn't give a damn what people thing of her.

Four stars for the complex plot and the simple, clear prose.

No Shred of Evidence

 by Charles Todd (read by Simon Prebble) c. 2016

Series: Inspector Ian Rutledge Mysteries, Book 18

 

 

Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins    

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 02-16-16

Language: English

Publisher: HarperAudio

ASIN: B0195E0W5E

Publisher's Summary

On  the north coast of Cornwall, an apparent act of mercy is repaid by an  arrest for murder. Four young women have been accused of the crime. A  shocked father calls in a favor at the Home Office. Scotland Yard is  asked to review the case. #

However, Inspector Ian Rutledge is not  the first inspector to reach the village. Following in the shoes of a  dead man, he is told the case is all but closed. Even as it takes an  unexpected personal turn, Rutledge will require all his skill to deal  with the incensed families of the accused, the grieving parents of the  victim, and local police eager to see these four women sent to the  infamous Bodmin Gaol. Then why hasn't the killing stopped? #

With  no shred of evidence to clear the accused, Rutledge must plunge deep  into the darkest secrets of a wild, beautiful, and dangerous place if he  is to find a killer who may - or may not - hold the key to their fate. #

Where have all the soldiers gone? Gone to graveyards everyone

Having now read not quite half of the series, I have yet to read a story in this series that I did not like, which makes these review particularly hard to write because how many times can you write, "I loved this book," and still make it sound fresh and inviting.  I love the fact that Rutledge is a flawed man; he carries a lot of baggage from the war, as did many men who fought in that war.  I love the way the authors get inside Rutledge's head. I love the way the readers are along for the ride as the detective slowly goes about solving the crime mostly by talking with people -- no cell phones, no fancy crime labs, just his "gray cells" and a lot of patience. I love the series so much that I am not rushing through it, so that it will last.

No Shred of Evidence is particularly well-done. It very cleverly weaves together two different stories that like, tangled skein of yarn, Rutledge must slowly pulled apart.  Narrator Simon Prebble is, as always, a superb narrator. He never missteps and he knows that "dour" does not rhyme with "sour."

Overture to Death

 

by Ngaio Marsh (read by Wanda McCaddon) c. 1939

Agatha Christie Centenary Celebration: October side-read

 

 

Series: Roderick Alleyn, Book 8

Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 09-01-11

Language: English

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Publisher's Summary

Who in the quiet village of Chipping would kill wealthy spinster Idris Campanula? Plenty of people—among them her fellow cast members from a troubled charity production. Miss Campanula was a spiteful gossip, gleefully destroying others’ lives merely for her own excitement. But once Inspector Roderick Alleyn arrives, he quickly realizes that the murderer might have killed the wrong woman—and may soon stage a repeat performance.

Rivalry among between the biddies

 

Okay, so the murder itself is a bit farfetched but the characters in this English village mystery and their many subplots kept me going, trying to figure out just whodunit.  This is an early Marsh and to a certain extent lacks the maturity and sophistication of her later work but the red herring keeps flowing and she keeps us guessing until the last minute.

Three and a half stars.

Final Curtain

 

by Ngaio Marsh (read by Nadia May) c.1947

An Agatha Christie Centenary Celebration side read

Audible Plus

 

It's always the quiet ones

So much fun! Ancreton Manor is full of some of the most interesting characters that you would never want to meet in real life -- or maybe you have already, but not all living under the same roof! Inspector Alleyn and his wife share the stage in this one. Troy sets the scene and Alleyn arrives back in England after three war years in New Zealand just in time to solve the mystery.

Four stars.

The Final Solution: A Story of Detection

 

by Michael Chabon (read by Michael York) c. 2006

 

 

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW HOW THE STORY ENDS

 

I'm sorry, I'm breaking my no-spoilers policy. I don't know how to insert spoiler tags but there are things that I want to say that will give away the whole story.

I'm all for authors who like to try new things --especially if they get it right. How curious, then, that in one week I have read two books by superb authors (Chabon and Mosley) where they are getting out of the groove. I haven't been this excited about a new title in a while and now it's two in one week.

Not that I have ready everything he has written but I am a long time fan of Michael Chabon -- The Wonder Boys, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and now The FInal Solution. I read the first because I loved the movie, The Wonder Boys (Frances McDormand, Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey, Jr., et al.). This was a really odd move on my part because I will see the movie or read the book but very, very rarely both. I don't like seeing my favorite books turned into movies; they never get it right. The other Chabon titles followed.

I was browsing the Audible Plus catalog when I found The Final Solution. Oh, my goodness! Who in their right mind calls their book The Final Solution? Michael Chabon, that's who! Those three words are in inexorably and forever linked to that madman and the Holocaust. They are forever tainted. Ah, but it is Chabon and right from the get-go he is giving us some mighty big hints and already I want to know what the questions is.

For a novella, Chabon sure packs a lot into it. Set toward the end of World War II, there are two stories very neatly intertwined. The overt story (which I completely missed because I wanted the answer to the covert story) is a detective story -- a murder and the kidnapping of a very special parrot. I completely missed that the old man was supposed to be the now retired Sherlock Holmes (never given a name and referred to as the old man); I learned that on the internet after I read the book. The covert story revolves around the boy, the owner of the parrot, who was part of the Kindertransport that rescued 10,000 children, mostly Jews, from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia just prior to the outbreak of World War II.

The boy is mute; does not say a word throughout the entire book. The parrot does all the talking. Among other litanies, he counts in German. What is the meaning of these numbers? Are they a secret code? Well, somebody thinks they are important enough to commit murder and kidnap the bird. The old man gets involved and solves the mystery. But the numbers are where the overt and the covert intersect. What do those numbers mean? I knew from the moment the parrot started reciting, from the the title, that the numbers had to do with the Holocaust and not some spy ring or anything else connect to the waging of war, I just wasn't sure exactly what.

Of course, Chabon saves the best for last --and it is magical. First, he takes us inside the mind of the parrot and reveals many secrets (least of which is that the bird is pissed off and wants to slash the face of the kidnapper). Inside the mind of the parrot!? What a stroke of genius. Then in the last paragraphs of the book, as the old man is bringing the parrot back to the boy, standing in the train station, we finally are shown what the numbers are. Only if you have been paying attention, only if you are clever enough and knowledgeable enough, will you know what the numbers meant because Chabon doesn't make a definitive statement of what they mean he just describes the scene. It is then up to the reader to understand the meaning...or not.

Four and a half stars. I am going to have to read this one again!

John Woman

 

by Walter Mosley (read by Dion Graham) c. 2018

 

There is so much more here than I can absorb in one reading

I don't remember who said what that caused me to delve further into Walter Mosley but before I knew it, I was adding John Woman to my Plus Catalog reads. I've read two of Mosley's Easy Rawlins mystery stories but didn't want to read any more of his mysteries; I wanted to see if he had written anything else that I might be interested in reading. For some reason, I chose John Woman.

I just finished and already I am at the keyboard, getting my thoughts on paper. I tore through it but realized early on that I would have to read it again and maybe again before I got it all. There is so much going on here. Some of it I found to be disturbing. Most of it, I found intriguing-- and it's the intriguing that kept me reading. But, what is sending me back for the re-reads is all that he has to say about deconstructing history, how we confront the past, what is truth, how do we move forward.

I have to read this book again.

How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World

 by Steven Johnson (read by George Newbern) c. 2014

The Hummingbird Effect: Glass, Cold, Sound, Clean, Time Light

Definitely written for the layman, Johnson tells us why and how we got from hunter-gathers living off the land to the age of the internet, space exploration and population explosion -- and many of the technological steps between. He delves into 6 areas of innovation and shows us how we got to where we are to day.

Three and a half stars: Informative without being preachy, political, overly technical or verbose.

Death at the Dolphin

 

by Ngaio Marsh (read by James Saxon) c. 1967

Agatha Christie Centenary Celebration, October side read

I am beginning to think that I like Ngaio Marsh more than Agatha Christie

 

 I love that this is set in a theater around the production of a play. Marsh was not just an author but she was a playwright, producer and director as well. She knows all the moving parts and weaves them into the tale deftly.

One thing that I like about Marsh is that she is not always in a hurry to get to the foul deed. She takes her time with the set up, giving us time to get to know the cast of characters and the situation, maybe even dropping a few clues along the way. It's the anticipation -- waiting for the other shoe to drop, wondering who the victim will be and when and where it will take place.

Four stars.

The Unknown Ajax

by Georgette Heyer (read by Daniel Philpott) c. 1959

an annual re-read

Never assume

When Major Hugo Darracott's father married a "weaver' brat" he was disowned. Hugo was born and raised in Yorkshire, schooled at Harrow, joined the Army, fought in the Peninsula and later resigned his commission. When the heir apparent to the Darracott title (and estates) and his son both die suddenly, Hugo is next in line. Grandfather Darracott summons him home to meet the family, marry his cousin Anthea and start learning about the estate he will soon inherit. Son of a "weaver's brat," the family expected a loutish country bumpkin -- and that is exactly who sat down to dinner that first evening. His Yorkshire accent was so thick it could be cut with a knife.

The book floats along on a river of misconceptions about the Heyero, who uses the family's own snobbery to learn more about them than they learn of him. This doesn't bother me. Heyer has gone this route before and her humor shines through. Such as in the scene between to the two valets Crimplesham and Polyphant. But the best scene of all is the final act, in which she describes in detail, sometimes hilarious, how Hugo saves a member of the family after he is shot by troopers trying to catch a band of smugglers. I read this book always in anticipation of this scene.

With a simple plot and a lot of embroidery to fancy it up, The Unknown Ajax is as much about Heyer's Regency world as it is the romance of Hugo and Anthea.

Four stars because the book is so subtle and delightful. It's not about the getting there as quickly as you can but about enjoying the scenery along the way.

 

The Myth of the Self-Made Man

 

A short story by Ruben Reyes (read by Christian Barillas et al.)

An Audible original

Deeply disturbing

My experience with Audible Originals is that they are mostly crap. This is better than most of what I have heard from AO but it does not paint a very hopeful picture of the future of racism in the US. Fortunately, the author makes his point quickly in a short, apocryphal tale of the new slavery in a future America that has completely lost its moral compass.

No rating.

& More: Concert Going

 

Handel+Haydn Society, a Boston institution since 1815

 

 

 

 I can't play an instrument. I can't read music. I can't talk music. I can't carry a tune in a bucket. But I love listening to music -- mostly classical and for sure almost nothing written after 1975 (unless its Broadway). I am not one who fills my house with sound from dawn to dusk, not even during the isolation of the pandemic, but I am a concert-goer and have been for most of my life. I grew up on Eugene Ormandy at the Academy of Music and the Robin Hood Dell (free open air summertime concerts) and my father playing his classical LPs on Sunday mornings -- regardless of which of his children were still asleep.

When we moved to the Boston area, we eventually hooked up with another concert-going couple who introduced us to the idea of historically-informed performance. It was love at first sight. We already loved Bach and Vivaldi and now we were being introduced to new composers of the same ilk and new instruments as well. Boston has multiple outlets for what is also known as early music -- Handel + Hayden Society, Boston Early Music Festival, Boston Baroque, the former Museum Trio (our long-time staple until the principal became ill), just to name a few. It was a long time coming but we are now subscribers to Handel + Haydn and go to 6 or 8 concerts a year. While we have been to a couple of Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts, we have never been subscribers; a good band but they don't play enough of the kind of music we like to listen to. 

October 10, 2021 I sat in a concert hall for the first time since concert hall music abruptly stopped 18 or so months before. What a thrill and what an amazing, amazing concert. Symphony Hall was packed for the orchestra's 2539th concert.  The choice of music was perfect for celebrating the return to the concert hall -- up-beat and familiar with a sprinkling of new.  I was worried about the 'sprinkling of new' because I still haven't found a modern composer of classical style orchestral music whose music I like but my apprehension was unfounded. Handel's Water Music was comfortingly familiar, a gentle re-entry.  But I was there for the The Four Season and it was magnificent; I could not clap loud enough, long enough.

Concert-master Aisslinn Nosky 'lead' the 27 member ensemble. She is a force of nature -- a twinkling-eyed pixie with a violin and the audience loves her. She brings new life to the classical concert stage. Stodgy is not in her vocabulary.  Her enthusiasm and her love of the music she is playing is infectious. You see it in the ensemble and you feel it in the audience.

Vivaldi’s concertos are show vehicles, and “The Four Seasons” might be the showiest of them all. Possibly the worst thing a performer can do with the piece is play it understatedly. If it sounds like background music, you’re doing it wrong. And fortunately for the Symphony Hall audience on Friday night, H+H concertmaster Aisslinn Nosky does not do background music. Anyone who wears a red ringmaster’s tailcoat on stage had better not.

A.Z. Madonna, The Boston Globe

The Program:

Handel: Selections from Water Music

Jonathan Woody: Suite for String Orchestra after the works of Charles Ignatius Sancho

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons