Last Bus to Wisdom

By: Ivan Doig 

Narrated by: David Aaron Baker

Length: 15 hrs and 43 mins

 

 

 

Publisher's Summary

The final novel from a great American storyteller. Donal Cameron is being raised by his grandmother, the cook at the legendary Double W ranch in Ivan Doig's beloved Two Medicine Country of the Montana Rockies, a landscape that gives full rein to an 11-year-old's imagination. But when Gram has to have surgery for "female trouble" in the summer of 1951, all she can think to do is to ship Donal off to her sister in faraway Manitowoc, Wisconsin. There Donal is in for a rude surprise: Aunt Kate - bossy, opinionated, argumentative, and tyrannical - is nothing like her sister. She henpecks her good-natured husband, Herman the German, and Donal can't seem to get on her good side either. After one contretemps too many, Kate packs him back to the authorities in Montana on the next Greyhound. But as it turns out, Donal isn't traveling solo: Herman the German has decided to fly the coop with him. In the immortal American tradition, the pair light out for the territory together, meeting a classic Doigian ensemble of characters and having rollicking misadventures along the way. Charming, wise, and slyly funny, Last Bus to Wisdom is a last sweet gift from a writer whose books have bestowed untold pleasure on countless people.
©2015 Ivan Doig (P)2015 Recorded Books

 

Reminds me of Jean Shepard

A few years ago, I saw this book in an Audible sale pile and didn't buy it. I regretted the decision. Then recently, it made another appearance on the sales rack and I bought it. I am so glad I did.

As I was listening to the book, it slowly dawned on me that the storytelling reminded me a lot of a 60s &70s NY radio talk show host named Jean Shepard. There was something about the sound of the narrator's voice and the cadence of the prose that shouted "Jean Shepard." He was a raconteur par excellence and told a lot of stories about his childhood, which are all described as "semi-autobiographical." Probably his mostly widely known piece of work was the 1983 film A Christmas Story, which was adapted from his stories. However, Shep holds a place in my heart because in 1968 he stood on the stage of my high school auditorium with a microphone in his hand, and the principal in the front row, and unmistakably uttered the word "fuck" --and even more miraculously he was permitted to continue his monologue. The times, they were most definitely a-changin'.

But I digress. I'm supposed to be talking about the book I just read, not old memories. I loved the book and I want to read more by Ivan Doig. If I am going to read a coming of age story, this is the way I want it to sound -- youth as a carefree adventure, sweet and old-fashioned.

Four stars and I love the cover.

P.S. I also like the pun in the title. This was Doig's last book and  these were his parting thoughts.

Taking Out the Trash: March Edition

My thoughts in a sentence or two on a whole slew of books that I have read but not yet commented on. These are all audiobooks and none of them is really trash; it is just that I am a fan of The West Wing and taking out the trash was their office code word for dealing with the little things that keep getting pushed to the bottom of the priority list.

 

Queen Victoria's Matchmaking

by Debora Cadbury

Interesting. Victoria & Albert's plan to unite Europe through strategic marriage was an utter failure. It failed to account for the personalities involved. Three and a half stars

 

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The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet

by Becky Chambers

I got lost somewhere a long the way. Three stars

 

 

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Gaudy Night

by Dorothy L. Sayers

It was an interesting glimpse into university life, a world I know nothing about, but it dragged. Three and half stars

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A Shilling for Candles

by Josephine Tey

Disappointing and I don't know why. Three stars

 

Memoir Marathon Weekend

 

I just spent a delightful weekend with two amazing people: Michelle Obama and Mel Brooks.

I know it sounds like a weird combination but it was just luck of the draw -- and the timing of holds. I am so glad that we had nothing planned for the weekend and that DH was caught up in March Madness so that I could pretty much read undisturbed for the whole weekend, although I will admit that DH yelled down from the loft at regular intervals to ask if there was anything I wanted him to do to help with the housecleaning that I was doing while I listened to my books. I kept telling him, "No." He lucked out because I didn't want to stop reading to tell him what needed doing.

My only criticism of both books is that they would have benefited by more judicious editing; they both dragged a bit. 

 

 

 

Publisher's Summary

 
In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As first lady of the United States of America - the first African American to serve in that role - she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the US and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.

In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites listeners into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her - from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it - in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations - and whose story inspires us to do the same.
©2018 Michelle Obama (P)2018 Random House Audio

 

 

Publisher's Summary

All About Me! charts Mel Brooks’ meteoric rise from a Depression-era kid in Brooklyn to the recipient of the National Medal of Arts. Whether serving in the United States Army in World War II, or during his burgeoning career as a teenage comedian in the Catskills, Mel was always mining his experiences for material, always looking for the perfect joke. His iconic career began with Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, where he was part of the greatest writers’ room in history, which included Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, and Larry Gelbart. After co-creating both the mega-hit "2000 Year Old Man" comedy albums and the classic television series Get Smart, Brooks’ stellar film career took off. He would go on to write, direct, and star in The Producers, The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, and Spaceballs, as well as produce groundbreaking and eclectic films including The Elephant Man, The Fly, and My Favorite Year. Brooks then went on to conquer Broadway with his record-breaking, Tony-winning musical, The Producers.

All About Me! offers fans insight into the inspiration behind the ideas for his outstanding collection of boundary-breaking work, and offers details about the many close friendships and collaborations Brooks had, including those with Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Gene Wilder, Madeleine Kahn, Alfred Hitchcock, and the great love of his life, Anne Bancroft.
Filled with tales of struggle, achievement, and camaraderie, listeners will gain a more personal and deeper understanding of the incredible body of work behind one of the most accomplished and beloved entertainers in history.
©2021 Mel Brooks (P)2021 Random House Audio

The Mutual Admiration Society:

 How Dorothy L. Sayers and Her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women

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By: Mo Moulton
Narrated by: Lorna Bennett
Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
Unabridged Audiobook

Publisher's Summary
A group biography of renowned crime novelist Dorothy L. Sayers and the Oxford women who stood at the vanguard of equal rights

Dorothy L. Sayers is now famous for her Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane detective series, but she was equally well known during her life for an essay asking “Are Women Human?” Women’s rights were expanding rapidly during Sayers’s lifetime; she and her friends were some of the first women to receive degrees from Oxford. Yet, as historian Mo Moulton reveals, it was clear from the many professional and personal obstacles they faced that society was not ready to concede that women were indeed fully human. 

Dubbing themselves the Mutual Admiration Society, Sayers and her classmates remained lifelong friends and collaborators as they fought for a truly democratic culture that acknowledged their equal humanity. A celebration of feminism and female friendship, The Mutual Admiration Society offers crucial insight into Dorothy L. Sayers and her world.

©2019 Mo Moulton (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

 

How we slowly but surely move the world forward

You have me waxing philosophic this evening.

It is not the headlines that count. It is the slow, drip, drip, drip of incremental change wrought by individuals day after day, year after year that moves us forward -- toward enlightenment, toward societal change, toward whatever it is out there that we are trying to change about the world we live in.

Before there was Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug, The Feminine Mystique and a whole lot of Playtex going up in smoke, there were Ms. Sayers and her Oxford buddies -- the generation that would have literally given birth to the Bellas, the Glorias and the Bettys. Moulton has put together a very readable biography of a remarkable group of intelligent, motivated women who in their own mostly quiet ways moved us forward.

If you are interested in Sayers and her life story, this is a good place to start. If you can, eyeball the book, because the audiobook narrator's habit of taking a v-e-r-y long paused before every bit of quoted text will drive you crazy -- along with her attempts to give each of the women their own voice, which, to me, in a non-fiction recitation is not necessary.

The Wintringham Mystery/Cicely Disappears

 

 

 

By: Anthony Berkeley, (A. Monmouth Platts, Tony Medawar - introduction; not included in this audio production)
Narrated by: Mike Grady
Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins

 

Publisher's Summary
Republished for the first time in nearly 95 years, a classic winter country-house mystery by the founder of the Detection Club, with a twist that even Agatha Christie couldn’t solve! 

Stephen Munro, a demobbed army officer, reconciles himself to taking a job as a footman to make ends meet. Employed at Wintringham Hall, the delightful but decaying Sussex country residence of the elderly Lady Susan Carey, his first task entails welcoming her eccentric guests to a weekend house-party, at which her bombastic nephew - who recognises Stephen from his former life - decides that an after-dinner séance would be more entertaining than bridge. Then Cicely disappears!

With Lady Susan reluctant to call the police about what is presumably a childish prank, Stephen and the plucky Pauline Mainwaring take it upon themselves to investigate. But then a suspicious death turns the game into an altogether more serious affair....

This classic winter mystery incorporates all the trappings of the Golden Age - a rambling country house, a séance, a murder, a room locked on the inside, with servants, suspects and alibis, a romance - and an ingenious puzzle.

First published as a 30-part newspaper serial in 1926 - the year The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was published, The Wintringham Mystery was written by Anthony Berkeley, founder of the famous Detection Club. Also known as Cicely Disappears, the Daily Mirror ran the story as a competition with a prize of £500 (equivalent to £30,000 today) for anyone who guessed the solution correctly. Nobody did - even Agatha Christie entered and couldn’t solve it. Can you?

©2021 Anthony Berkeley, A. Monmouth Platts, Tony Medawar (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

(N.B. Originally serialized in The Daily Mirror in 1926 as The Wintringham Mystery, the book was published pseudonymously in 1927 under the title Cicely Disappears. Anthony Berkeley and A. Monmouth Platts are both pseudonyms of British author Anthony Cox. )

 

Thank you, T-A, for this one.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I loved the first chapter. Any Golden Age mystery that starts with the MC firing his butler because he has spent his way through his inheritance, is now dead broke and has taken a job as footman to some dowager can't be all bad -- and certainly can't be taking itself too seriously. Chapter one sets the tone. In spite of the absurd premise, the mystery is solid. It follows the "rules," leading us astray and serving up platters of red herring to keep us running in circles.

I wish there were more books by the author available on audio than the few I have found on Audible.

P.S. I like the cover.

 

ACCC: March, 2022

 

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The ABC Murders (c) 1936 (read by Hugh Fraser)
Side Read: The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler (c) 1949 (read by Scott Brick)

 

 

By: Agatha Christie
Narrated by: Hugh Fraser
Series: Hercule Poirot, Book 13
Length: 6 hrs

Publisher's Summary
There's a serial killer on the loose, working his way through the alphabet and the whole country is in a state of panic.

A is for Mrs. Ascher in Andover, B is for Betty Barnard in Bexhill, C is for Sir Carmichael Clarke in Churston. With each murder, the killer is getting more confident - but leaving a trail of deliberate clues to taunt the proud Hercule Poirot might just prove to be the first, and fatal, mistake.

©1936 Agatha Christie Limited (P)2003 HarperCollins Publishers

Yes, Hastings is back but fortunately the too-good-to-be true boyfriend/murderer is not. Well, you can't have everything. At least Hastings was not the dolt that we have seen in previous stories. I really did enjoy this one. It was delightfully twisted.

 

 

A Philip Marlowe Novel, Book 5
By: Raymond Chandler
Narrated by: Scott Brick
Series: Philip Marlowe, Book 5
Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins

 

Publisher's Summary

In noir master Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister, a movie starlet with a gangster boyfriend and a pair of siblings with a shared secret lure private eye Philip Marlowe into the less than glamorous and more than a little dangerous world of Hollywood fame. Chandler's first foray into the industry that dominates the company town that is Los Angeles.
©1949 Raymond Chandler (P)2021 Random House Audio

I enjoyed this one, as well. I'm a fan of Chandler; a little bit noir every now and then spices things up. Maybe it's because I think of it as the masculine version of a Harlequin romance, where the he-man wannabe gets to indulge all of his fantasies of being the macho man that I can chuckle may way through these stories. I'd never want to meet a man like that in real life,  what a turn off, but I can deal with him on the page.

And, I'm enjoying this year's exploration of American murder mystery authors.

 

The March, 2022 Sideread Poll results:

 

I must admit that I was happy that The Little Sister was the March choice. Audible has a bunch of Margaret Millars but not the one nominated, while the library said, "Margaret who?" Sometimes I can read Rex Stout and other times I find the MC to be very annoying (see! I can't every remember his name). Audible has Perry Mason galore but I don't want to spend a credit getting it and the library had no Perry on audio. As for Baynard Kendrick, unknown to both Audible and my library.

February, 2022: Month in Review

 

 

Holy-moly, I started 21 books this month (and DNFed three of them for various reasons). It was another good month. Lots of mysteries, a couple of interesting histories and a few more lectures in the history of Egypt that I started last month (I can only stand so much denture click-clack at a time). This month's Agatha Christie side read was a lot of fun and so was The Man That Got Away. Thanks to library loans, I'm happily making progress with the various series I've gotten involved in. I just wish the library offered more then just a couple of the books in each series. Least favorite book of the month, not including the DNFs, was The Eighth Detective; it fell flat as Shrove Tuesday pancake. Favorite books of the month were The Thursday Murder Club, The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman and Last Bus to Wisdom. They made a dark, cold month just a bit warmer and brighter.

 

 

 
 

YTD:  42 Books Read, 397 Hours Spent
Goal: 100 books and 1500 hours
 
This Month: 21 Books Read, 204 Hours Spent

 

Death in the Clouds  --  Agatha Christie   --  NEW20

A Rage in Harlem  --  Chester Himes  --  NEW21

The Moth Catcher   --  Ann Cleeves  --  NEW22

A Fatal Grace  --  Louise Penny  --  NEW23

The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman --  Julietta Henderson  --  NEW24

Search the Dark  --  Charles Todd  --  NEW25

The Eighth Detective  --  Alex Pavesi --  NEW26

The Last Judgement --  Iain Pears  --  DNF

The Cruelest Month  --  Louise Penny  --  Re-read

A Wreath for Rivera   --  Ngaio Marsh  --  NEW27

The Man That Got Away  --  Lynne Truss  --  NEW28

American Moonshot  --  Douglas Brinkley  --  NEW29

Dial A for Auntie  --  Jesse Q. Sutanto  --  DNF

The Thursday Murder Club  --  Richard Osman  --  NEW30

Queen Victoria's Matchmaking  --  Deborah Cadbury  --  NEW31

A Rule Against Murder  --  Louise Penny  --  NEW32

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet  --  Becky Chambers  --  NEW33

Last Bus to Wisdom  --  Ivan Doig  --  NEW34

The Long Call  --  Ann Cleeves  --  NEW35

The Girl with the Louding Voice  --  Abi Daré --  DNF

The Mutual Admiration Society  --  Mo Moulton  --  NEW36

 

The Thursday Murder Club

  

By: Richard Osman
Narrated by: Lesley Manville
Series: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery, Book 1
Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Library Loan

 

 

 

Publisher's Summary

Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves.
A female cop with her first big case.
A brutal murder.
Welcome to...
The Thursday Murder Club

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together, they call themselves the Thursday Murder Club. 

When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case. 

As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it's too late?

©2020 Richard Osman (P)2020 Penguin Audio

 

Characters Like Me

No doubt about it, I am a Boomer. I live in 'over 55' housing, down the street from a rehab facility and two different assisted living facilities (not that I expect to end up in either of them because when the kids pick my nursing home, they will pick something much closer to them). So why is it that these days, I seem to be reading a lot of old fart fiction -- Deacon King Kong, The Reading List, Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series and when you get right down to it, Papa Poirot. Is this my way of preparing for the future? of starting to deal with the fact that, yup, I'm not as young as I think I am? Oh, gawd, I hope not! In the meantime, I will just continue to make fun of my predilection for the genre.

I really enjoyed the book and it had nothing to do with the fact that main characters were my age. I liked the book because I like the characters themselves; they are people I would want to hang out with. They were good people, aging gracefully. I liked the book because it was a damned good mystery--and would have been regardless of the age of the sleuths. I'm already on the waiting list for book two and looking forward to it.

If you read the audio version, stick around for the interview with Richard Osman.

Another four star read.