2021 Reading List: February

 

YTD:  34 Books Read, 351 Hours Spent

Goal: 100 books and 1500 hours

 

MTD: 14 Books Read.   144 Hours Spent

 

I did not get through as many books as I had hoped in February but that is what happens when real life decides that it has other plans for my time. Still, it was a good month with some interesting and even thought-provoking reads. I am still working my way through last year's purchases while I continue to line my bookshelves with more from this year's sales and daily deals.

Best fiction this month is a tie among favorite series: A Test of Wills, Next to Last Stand and The Brutal Telling. Worst of the month definitely goes to Murder Comes to Call. 

 

The Secret of Chimneys  -- Re-read ACCC

On Her Majesty's Frightfully Secret Service -- NEW20

The Third Man -- Re-read, ACCC

The Adventures of Sally -- NEW21

Call for the Dead-- NEW22, ACCC

A Test of Wills-- NEW23

Over My Dead Body-- Re-read

The Blank Slate --  NEW24, 20 for '21

Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life -- NEW25,  20 for '21

How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read -- NEW26

Next to Last Stand -- NEW27

Murder Comes to Call -- NEW28

The Brutal Telling  -- NEW29

The Foundling -- Re-read

MTD: 14 Books Read.   144 Hours Spent

The Foundling

 

Georgette Heyer (read by Phyllida Nash)

 

The Foundling is the adventures of the orphaned at birth, young Duke of Sales, who manages to escape the loving and well-intentioned bonds of his family and retinue in order to prove to himself and his family that he has reached maturity and is quite capable of taking care of himself and his dukedom. It is absurd and most entertaining, in a word, a farce. Pure escapism. Nobody does this kind of historical fiction with the same eclat, the same sense of humor and same writing talent as Georgette Heyer. 

 

Four stars and a bit, because it is laugh out loud funny.

 

The Brutal Telling

 

By Louise Penny (read by Ralph Cosham)

Book  5: Inspector Gamache/Three Pines  

 

Well written.  A breath of fresh air, even if murder is involved.

I am beginning to think that this is one series that I might want to read in order rather than skipping around from book to book. Other than that I don't want to say much about the book because I don't want to give a way any of the story; it is too good to spoil with hints and there is nothing to rant and rave about.

Filched from Facebook

 

 

 

Why a certain person I know is not encouraged to play with power tools.

 

Murder Comes to Call

 

By Jessica Elliott (read by Barbara Rosenblat)

Book 4, Beryl and Edwina mysteries

 

 

Necessary roughage

 

Sorry to say, seasoned audiobooks reader Barbara Rosenblat does a less than convincing English accent. She is not the right narrator for this series.  Should be a Brit who can also do an American accent, instead of vice versa.

This is another one of those Golden-Age wannabes that confirms my feeling that if you want to read a book set in the past, read a book that was written in the past. Some authors can make this period work and other come across as modern novels dressed up for Halloween. This series is not for me.

Just short of 3 stars. What's next?

Next to Last Stand

By Craig Johnson (read by George Guidall)

Walt Longmire, book 16

 

Another escape to the mountains of Wyoming. I can just smell the pine fresh air.

It was so delightful. A complicated story about death and an old theft overlaid with a bit of Little Bighorn history and the black market in stolen art work. As always, a much enjoyed diversion, no thinking required. Just kick back and enjoy. I have read 14 of the 16 novels and none of the novellas (yet). I've already decided that I am not going to read one of the books because I think it is going to be a bit nastier than I enjoy reading.

I love the cast of characters that Johnson has created; they are people to be admired (at least the good guys are; the bad guys deserve what they get) -- hard-working, down to earth, playing the cards that life has dealt them. Some of them are mere sketches but then that is all that is needed to bring them to life. Others we get to see in a bit more depth. My favorite is one of Walt's deputies, a former Philadelphia cop with a bad-case of potty mouth and the hots for widower Walt; she doesn't take shit from anyone. She is also a crack shot.

I already know that once I have read all of the books in the series that I will read the story series over and over again -- this time in series order.

The series was also the basis for a TV show. I tried watching an episode and did not like it at all. It was one and done. I will continue to stick to my rule: read it or watch it but not both.

This one is a 4 star Walt Longmire.

 

 

 

 

How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read

 

Pierre Bayard (translated by Jeffrey Mehlman, read by Grover Gardner)

Suggested by a fellow BookLikes member

 

 

I just don't know what to say about this book. Is this guy serious or is he tongue-in-cheek?

I have never felt guilty about the classics I have never read (most of them) and still have no intention of reading any book just because it is considered a classic; there is more to choosing a book than its academic status.  This is not to say that I don't read classics. In fact, I have read a number of them. Some of them as part of my education and college studies and others over the years simply because I wanted to read them.  In other words, I am reading them not because I should read them but because something about them has attracted my attention.

Pierre Bayard is a Professor of Literature in Paris, France  -- and an iconoclast. In other words, it seems he is not your run of the mill literature professor. In his book, he sets about to to turn the world of reading and literary criticism on end and to divest it of its pomposity -- and, hopefully, in the process,  readers of any guilt brought on the avoidance of the high-brow. It does seem a bit like he is biting the hand that feeds but he does it in such a nice way.  And who knows, maybe we do need some teachers who are willing to upset the apple cart and to help us learn to look for new approaches to literature and culture.

Written in the style and structure of an academic treatise, Bayard examines five different styles of  not reading-- each one of which is roll on the floor amusing since he uses examples from the real world, including The Third Man and Groundhogs Day.  The book is short and an easy listen in spite of its academic overtones. At the very, very end, he finally reveals why he thinks his approach has merit -- and I am not going to reveal it here so that you can have the pleasure of discovering it yourself.

Three and half stars.

The Adventures of Sally

 

By P.G. Wodehouse (read by Frederick Davidson)

 

 

 

Published in 1922, set in 1918. A delightfully Wodehousian romp where the bad guys get what is coming to them and they all live happily ever after. Best scene in the book is the Italian waiters at the supper-club.

Three stars

ACCC: February, 2021

 

The Secret of Chimneys (read by Hugh Fraser, published 1925 )

 

 

 

As of the middle of January, our group has a new name: Appointment with Agatha.

Theme: Political mystery/murder

Side-read: The Third Man by Graham Greene (available on Audible US only as dramatizations)

Non-winners: The Division Bell Mystery by Ellen Wilkinson

Below the Clock by J.V. Turner

Over My Dead Body by Rex Stout

Call for the Dead by John LeCarre

Main read: https://peregrinationsbooksand.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-secret-of-chimneys.html

Side read:  https://peregrinationsbooksand.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-third-man.html

Side read runners up: Call for the Dead  https://peregrinationsbooksand.blogspot.com/2021/02/call-for-dead.html 

Over My Dead Body https://peregrinationsbooksand.blogspot.com/2021/02/over-my-dead-body.html

Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life

 

By Laura Thompson (read by Pearl Hewitt )

Read as part of the Agatha Christie Centenary Celebration and

A 20 for '21 read

 

 

I have been reading Agatha Christie mysteries off and on for at least half a century. I don't know how many I have read at this point and won't even hazard a guess -- and it doesn't really matter because in just 5 years I will be able to say that I have read them all, because for some odd reason, perhaps to read, perhaps for the socialization, I have joined up with a group that is going to read them all. When I heard that people in the reading group were reading and enjoying the recent biography by Laura Thompson, and when I saw that I could get it for free from Audible Plus, I decided that I should give it a whirl. About half way through, I decided that I needed a print copy for note taking.

I'm almost finished listening now and I will say that I have enjoyed going a bit deeper into her life than I get with a Wikipedia article. She was an interesting lady, to say the least.

Thompson book is an interesting combination of historical research and literary criticism -- and it is the literary criticism part that I am having trouble with, and part of the reason that I want a print edition. I am not sure of her methodology. I had a literature professor who went crazy any time someone would try to claim that actions or thought of a character had a direct correlation to what the author thought or believed. Thompson spends a lot of time pointing out which characters and scenes in the books are autobiographical. While it might be interesting to look for these things as I move forward reading the books, I also want to know the basis for these conclusions; I want to see the footnotes and references upon which she basis her opinion.

The early chapters are much more interesting than the later chapters. She covers almost every aspect of Christie's life -- her childhood, her marriages, her travels, her family, her financial affairs, her final years. While it started strong, at the end it just seemed to end abruptly.

Should you read it? Yes, if you are interested in the life and times of Agatha Christie. She was an interesting person who lead a fulfilled life and who didn't waste time crying over spilled milk. She worked hard to get where she was and she did it all on her talent and creativity.

Three and three quarters stars.

Fortune Cookie Wisdom

 

 

Human invented language to satisfy the need to complain.

 

 

Original orthography retained

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

 

by Steven Pinker (read by Victor Bevine)

Second entry in my *20 for '21 challenge

 

Cognitive psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker dumps his bucket!

Please don't ask me to tell you what his book is about or what I have learned from it because I can't. The book is over twenty hours long and covers so many different topics that all connect to the study of human nature. All I did was listen. I didn't take notes. I'm not in college any more and it's not like I have an exam on the topic at the end of the semester -- although this would be an interesting college course.

What I can tell you is that it is informative, entertaining, interesting and, most our all, readable. It is not full of jargon and is definitely written for the layman, not the profession. If you have the patience to sit through twenty plus hours, you will find the book thought-provoking --even if the thought is to fling the book across the room because it challenges your way of thinking. The book reads like a well-structured series of lectures and moves from point to point logically. I can't criticize or comment on his methodology or his science because I have no basis for judgement; this is not my field of expertise. I can say that it will get the gray matter working, one way or another.

Four and a half starts for clarity, for not treating the reader like an ignoramus and for daring to challenge conventional wisdom.

*****

For those who really want to know what the book is about:

Publisher's Summary: In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker, one of the world's leading experts on language and the mind, explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. With characteristic wit, lucidity, and insight, Pinker argues that the dogma that the mind has no innate traits - a doctrine held by many intellectuals during the past century - denies our common humanity and our individual preferences, replaces objective analyses of social problems with feel-good slogans, and distorts our understanding of politics, violence, parenting, and the arts.

Injecting calm and rationality into debates that are notorious for ax-grinding and mud-slinging, Pinker shows the importance of an honest acknowledgment of human nature based on science and common sense.

 *****

*20 for '21 is a a reading challenge that I borrowed from bookish buddy Mike Finn. The idea is to listen to 20 audiobooks that are 20 hours or more in length in 2021.  Last year I managed to read six books for the challenge; this year I am hoping to so better -- if I can find 20 books of that length that I actually want to read.

Over My Dead Body

 

By Rex Stout (read by Michael Prichard)

Nero Wolfe, Book 7

An Agatha Christie Centenary Celebration side-read runner up

 

Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe has to be one the most obnoxious private investigators to grace the pages of a detective novel. He is a cold, rude, ill-mannered, misogynist, agoraphobia-suffering effete snob who you just want to ask "Who died and made you King?" Good thing the story is told from point of his  long suffering assistant/leg-man Archie Godwin -- and Goodwin is no peach either -- because, from what I have seen of the character, I have little interest in getting inside Wolfe's head.

The plot was okay; enough to keep me reading to find out whodunit but not enough to make me want to spend any more time with the lead characters.  Still, it really feels like Nero Wolfe was written for the Walter Mittys of the world who want to know what it feels like to be a macho-man (this isn't it) and for the macho-men who just want to see their chauvinism confirmed.  Sorry, not my demographic. It might have been tolerable if I had gotten any inkling that the author was poking fun at his characters, but I found the book devoid of  any humor to lighten the load. The only redeeming moment in the book is when Wolfe is bested by a woman.

So what am I missing, friends? Stout was trade-award winning writer. He was a prolific author whose books sold. Am I falling into the trap of judging mores through a modern day prism? Should I just be ignoring the character and enjoying the plot? No, there is more going with Wolfe than just his dated mores; he is just plain rude, self-centered and entirely lacking empathy with people. I can't even laugh at him.

While I am at it, I should apologize to my Agatha Christie group for having voted for this book as a possible side read; at least it didn't win. The only reason it got my vote was because I already owned it. If I had but remembered what a yutz Wolfe is,...but alas I have such short, short memory for what I read.

Therefore, 2.75 stars for the reading experience.

A Test of Wills

 

By Charles Todd (read by Sam Gillies)

Book 1 of the Inspector Ian Rutledge series

 

 

 

This might be the first in the series but it is not the first Inspector Rutledge that I have read or reviewed. I love the series and am quite happy to read them in whatever order that I find them. I am in no rush to finish the series; I just hope I get it done before Audible loses the rights to them.

It bothers me only a little bit that the authors, a mother/son writing partnership, are American writing books set in post World War One England. The truth is that I am too engrossed in the story to pay attention to the vocabulary of the telling. Usually I yell at the tell-tale Americanism but in this case I'm just trying to hang on to the threads of the story.

Having read seven before this one, I have already met the PTSD-suffering Inspector and much of the information revealed was not new to me. I like that the story begins once the Inspector has returned to Scotland Yard after having been treated for his mental breakdown, after he has crawled out of the pit of darkness and shame. I don't need to have those details spelled out; it is sufficient to get his story in bits and pieces across the arc of the series.

But enough about the Inspector; what about the story? I loved the little twists at the very end of the story, the stuff I never, never saw coming. The skeletons all coming out of the closets. But, no spoilers. That would be unfair. You will just have to read it for yourself.

All in all, I'm giving this one 3.75 stars. It was a good start to the series.

Other review: Inspector Ian Rutledge: The Series