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

Trustee From the Toolroom

 

by Nevil Shute (read by Frank Muller)

an annual re-read

 

You don't have to be rich and ambitious to be happy or successful in life

Nevil Shute was the last author that I added to my annual re-read list. I had read Shute many, many years ago and remembered that I had liked what I had read. I can't remember how it was that I got back into reading his books on audio. Maybe it was a sale pile. Maybe it was a day when I was looking for something different to read and Shute's name came to mind. In any case, this was the first Shute on audio that I added to my library -- and it has become my favorite. It was his last book and it was published posthumously.

Keith Stewart is a quiet, unassuming man living a quiet life with his wife in the shabby suburb of Ealing. He writes a column in a hobby magazine, The Miniature Mechanic, giving step by step instructions to hobbyists around the world for how to build miniature mechanical marvels in their home workshops. He is content with life and asks for nothing more. When his sister and her husband die at sea, the Stewarts become guardian of their 10 year old daughter and trustee of her estate. It falls on Stewart's shoulders to go halfway around the world to retrieve the legacy, which was on the yacht when it went down on a coral reef off an uninhabited Pacific island.

Trustee From the Toolroom is mostly about how the less than worldly-wise Keith Stewart, manages to get from London to Tahiti and back and the people he meets along the way.

Five stars. Read this book and have your faith in humanity restored.

Lord Edgware Dies

 

by Agatha Christie (read by Hugh Fraser) c. 1934

Agatha Christie Centenary Celebration read

 

 

 

aka Thirteen for Dinner

Poirot, Hastings and Japp team up once again to solve the murder of Lord Edgware. Absolutely delightful. I thought I had it figured out in the first chapter. From the cast of characters, it seemed obvious where the book was going. But then I fell into the trap and let myself be lead astray, forgetting that in a mystery deception is key and the narrator not necessarily trustworthy. Kept me guessing until the last minute. So much better than some of the first dozen we read.

I'm giving this one four stars.

P.S. With this read, we now enter the second year of our five and a half year Agatha Christie Centenary Celebration read on Good Reads. This is book number 13.

2021 Reading List: September

 

YTD:  142 Books Read, 1329 Hours Spent

Goal: 100 books and 1500 hours

 

 

 

 

 

MTD: 22 Books Read.   186 Hours Spent

1. Peril at End House  -- Agatha Christie  NEW85
2. The Rainbow and the Rose  -- Nevil Shute  --  Re-read
3. LATW: MacBeth  --  William Shakespeare  --  Re-read
4. Rat Race  --  Dick Francis  --  Re-read
5. Reflex  --  Dick Francis  --  Re-read
6. Regency Buck  --  Georgette Heyer   --  Re-read
7. The Reluctant Widow  --  Georgette Heyer  --  Re-read
8. Risk  --  Dick Francis  --  Re-read
9. Round the Bend  --  Nevil Shute  --  Re-read
10. Ruined City  --  Nevil Shute  --  Re-read
11. Second Wind  --  Dick Francis  --  Re-read
12. Shattered  --  Dick Francis  --  Re-read
13. Smokescreen  --  Dick Francis  --  Re-read
14. So Disdained  --  Nevil Shute  --  Re-read
15. Sprig Muslin  --  Georgette Heyer  --  Re-read
16. Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle  --  Georgette Heyer  --  Re-read
17. The Talisman Ring  --  Georgette Heyer  --  Re-read
18. These Old Shades  --  Georgette Heyer  --  Re-read
19. They Found Him Dead  -- Georgette Heyer --  Re-read
20. To The Hilt --  Dick Francis  --  Re-read
21. The Toll Gate  --  Georgette Heyer  --  Re-read
22. Trial Run -- Dick Francis  --  Re-read

Trial Run

 

by Dick Francis (read by Tony Britton) c. 1978

an annual re-read

Set in Moscow in the run up to the 1980 Olympics, former amateur jockey and full-time gentleman farmer Randall Drew is sent to make sure that it is safe for a royally-connected equestrian to participate as there are rumors about that he shouldn't. Drew finds a lot more than rumors as he sets about his investigation in paranoid Soviet Moscow.  What a wild ride!

Solidly four star Dick Francis.

The Toll Gate

 

by Georgette Heyer (read by Daniel Hill ) c. 1954

an annual re-read

 

 

 

 

 

More mystery than romance

I like this one. I like the characters -- both the romantic leads and the entire cast of secondary characters. I like the setting -- a bit outside the normal "life among the titled gentry" as it is set at a wayside toll gate in the middle of nowhere. I like the dark, gloomy atmosphere; there is not a lot of sunlight, warmth, bright colors and happy people in this tale. I like that the romance takes a backseat to the mystery.  In other words, I like everything about this very entertaining read.

Not quite four stars.

 

P.S. Terrible cover for a story that is anything but light and bright.

To the Hilt

 

by Dick Francis (read by Simon Prebble) c. 1996

annual re-read

 

 

 

 

''Before that sudden journey no one is wiser in thought than he needs to be, in considering, before his departure, what will be adjudged to his soul, of good or evil, after his death-day.'' 

Bede's "Death Song"

With Dick Francis, when it comes to choosing a favorite my answer is always, "The one I am currently reading." I cannot make up my mind. I can't even rank them. Maybe it is because each one is different  and not a forty-plus book arc of one character.

To the Hilt is one of the last books that Francis wrote with his wife Mary. Like many of his previous stories, it weaves together multiple storylines -- and does so very very deftly.  Alexander Kinloch, a well-known and well-paid artist, lives and works by choice alone in a bothy in the highlands of Scotland. When his stepfather suffers a heart attack, Al/Alexander returns home to help his mother and finds himself up to his eyeballs in his step-father's business troubles (embezzlement leading to bankruptcy) and dead in the sights of his raging step-sister, who fears that Al is after her father's business for himself -- and that he always has been.  Of course, like a typical hero, Al finds the money, saves the business and straightens out the step-sister, but not with a dead body or two and some bumps and bruises just to make it interesting.

This is four star Francis.