VICKI'S 50 BOOKS READ IN 2020

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

39. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: August 16, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B
Review: Poirot has been invited to lunch at the country house of Lord and Lady Angkatell. No sooner does he arrive than he sees the body of Dr. John Christow; a few feet away his wife is holding a gun. Actually there's not a lot of Poirot in the novel; most is taken up by the background and interrelationships of the various characters assembled at the house. The denouement was pretty interesting. On reading it a second time, Poirot buying a little cottage in the country seems to me a really un-Poirot thing to do. He's definitely a city guy.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

40. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: August 23, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B
Review: Gordon Cloade, wealthy head of the Cloade family, was killed during WW II when his London home was bombed. The only survivors were his wife of a few weeks, Rosaleen, who was already a widow when they married, and her brother. With no new will, all the other relatives didn't inherit what they were expecting. Suddenly a man comes to town and tells the brother that he knows Rosaleen wasn't really a widow and he wants money to go away. Then he turns up dead. Poirot is called in by one of the relatives to sort things out, which he does, as usual. A complicated plot.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

41. by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
Finish date: August 25, 2020
Genre: Ancient literature
Rating: B+
Review: This was a very good translation, the first by a woman. The very interesting and lengthy introduction covers a lot about the history of the work.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

42. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: August 26, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B
Review: A retired policeman friend of Poirot's thinks that the young man convicted of Mrs. McGinty's murder is innocent, and he wants Poirot to look into the case. Ariadne Oliver just happens to be in the same town and they work together to interview relevant people and find the real killer. I just read it a second time and remembered whodunit, but not why. Also remembered there was something about a name that could be for a boy or girl. It's really weird what sticks with you about a book.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

SEPTEMBER

43. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Sept. 4, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: C
Review: Richard Abernethie, the rich head of a large family, has died and his relatives gather at his house after the funeral. One of them, Cora, declares that he was murdered. She believes this because of something he said when he visited her. The next day she is found dead. The family lawyer, Entwhistle, decides to get Poirot's help to sort things out. Actually, most of the "detecting" is done by Entwhistle; Poirot just uses his "little grey cells" to solve the mystery. I like it better when there's more Poirot.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

44. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Sept. 7, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B
Review: The sister of Miss Lemon, Poirot's secretary, is the "warden" of a student hostel where several items have gone missing in the past few days and she hopes Poirot can sort things out. He's interested because the items are so random: a shoe, some light bulbs, some trousers, boracic powder, a few others. When he says he's going to call in the police, Celia Austin confesses to taking most, but not all, of the items. Next morning she's found dead of a morphine overdose. Was it suicide? Poirot doesn't think so, and he tracks down the culprit. I'm very fond of Miss Lemon, from the TV series, and I wish there had been more of her in the story.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

45. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Sept. 10, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B
Review: Poirot's mystery writer friend Adriane Oliver is producing a "murder hunt" for a village festival and asks him to come see her, because she has a feeling something's wrong. Not long after he arrives, the murder "victim" is found actually dead. She's a local teen-age girl, whom no one could have wanted dead. Poirot works it all out, naturally. Very early in the book, I knew who the killer and original victim were, but I didn't remember anything else about the story. I must have seen the TV version, because this was the first time I read the actual book.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

46. by James Romm (no photo)
Finish date: Sept. 13, 2020
Genre: Ancient history
Rating: C
Review: When Alexander the Great died suddenly at age 32, there was no obvious successor to his vast empire. He had an infant son and a mentally-challenged half-brother, and his loyal Bodyguards declared them both to be kings, for whom they would be regents. Different men took charge of different parts of the empire and eventually fell out with each other, causing several wars. There was a lot going on in the book, and many different characters. I found it sort of hard to keep track of the various battles and generals. Many of the characters were very interesting. I particularly liked Eumenes, who started out as secretary to Alexander, but finally became a skilled general and perhaps might have taken over the empire, but he was Greek, and the Macedonians didn't trust the Greeks. There were also formidable women in the story - Olympias, Alexander's mother; Adea, his half-brother's wife; and Cynanne, Adea's mother. Each one worthy of her own book. The book felt unfinished, since it didn't go into the creation of the Selucid Empire.

ETA: Not enough maps.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

47. by Ellis Peters
Finish date: Sept. 15, 2020
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: A
Review: No young lovers this time, but we learn more about the abbey and its occupants. Cadfael gets to go to Wales again, which he loves. And Hugh Beringar helps to clear up the mistaken charge of murder against the son of a very old flame of Cadfael's. Plus a very tense ending.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Good progress Vicki and a very successful moderation and discussion.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

48. by Barry S. Strauss
Finish date: Sept. 15, 2020
Genre: Ancient history
Rating: B+
Review: A very interesting look at 10 Roman emperors, most of them quite familiar. I'm more interested in the early Empire, so I liked the chapters about Augustus, Tiberius, Nero and Vespasian best. But I was glad to read about Septimius Severus, since I didn't know anything about him. Strauss does a good job of summarizing what happened between the different emperors, even if there many years between them. So we get a glimpse of some of the more obscure men to rule over the empire.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

49. by Elizabeth Peters
Finish date: Sept. 18, 2020
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: A
Review: This is the first in a wonderful series about amateur Egyptologist Amelia Peabody and her soulmate Radcliffe Emerson. It's the 1880s and her father has recently died, leaving her financially independent. She's always had a hankering to travel, and in Rome she takes under her wing a young destitute and disgraced Englishwoman Evelyn. They travel to Egypt; Amelia has always wanted to investigate the ancient ruins there. Traveling up the Nile to Amarna, they encounter Radcliffe Emerson and his brother, who are uncovering pharaoh Akhnaten's city there. One night they are disturbed by what looks like a walking mummy, and from then on, things get more and more disturbing. The book is narrated by Amelia and she has a very strong and amusing personality.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

50. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Sept. 23, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B
Review: There's been a revolution in a Middle Eastern country and a fortune in jewels is unknowingly smuggled out by Jennifer Sutcliffe and her mother. Jennifer is just starting at an exclusive girls' school and some of the teachers are being murdered. Jennifer's friend Julia enlists the help of Poirot, who naturally unravels the mystery. He doesn't show up until fairly late in the book, so we learn a lot about the various girls and teachers at the school. Like other late books in the Poirot series, there's not enough of him in the book.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

51. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Sept. 26, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B
Review: A stenographer is requested to come for a job at a modest house. No one is home, but she was told to let herself in. After a few minutes, she discovers a dead body, and runs screaming from the house, to be assisted by a young man passing by. The woman who lives there, a blind woman, has come home and says she didn't ask for a stenographer. The young man, who seems to be some sort of secret agent, knows the police inspector and they work together. The book is partly narrated by him. Also he knows Poirot and calls him in about halfway into the book. Once again, Poirot doesn't sleuth, he just thinks. The solution is unusual, but then most solutions in Christie's books are.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

OCTOBER

52. by Rex Stout
Finish date: Oct. 3, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B
Review: While solving the murders in this book, Wolfe crosses paths with a master criminal, who figures in the next two books as well as this one. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.

[Lorna, Assisting Moderator (T) - SCOTUS - Civil Rights]

Vicki, congratulations on reading over fifty books and it is just October.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

53. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Oct. 11, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B
Review: A teenage girl announces at a Hallowe'en party that she saw a murder some years ago, but just realized that it was murder. No one believes her, because she's always been a liar. Later, her body is discovered, drowned in the tub where the kids bobbed for apples. Ariadne Oliver attended the party and enlists Poirot to help solve the mystery. There are always many interesting plausible suspects in Poirot mysteries.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

54. by Rex Stout
Finish date: Oct. 17, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B-
Review: Another set of three novellas/short stories.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

55. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Oct. 24, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B-
Review: While this is nominally a Poirot mystery, most of the "sleuthing" is done by his friend Ariadne Oliver, a mystery author. She is approached by an unpleasant woman at a literary luncheon who is worried that her son's intended fiance, Ariadne's goddaughter Celia, isn't suitable to join her family because her parents were were found shot to death when Celia was very young. Did the husband shoot the wife, then himself, or vice versa? Ariadne and Poirot talk to several people who might know something about what happened those many years ago (the "elephants" in the title). Naturally they work out what happened and there's a happy ending. Also, we find out Ariadne has false teeth. How did she eat all those apples in the previous novels?

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

56. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Oct. 27, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B-
Review: This is the last book with Poirot, written in 1975, 55 years after the first Poirot novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Poirot and Hastings return to the country house where they solved the first murder mystery, although all of the characters from the first book, except for them, have left. Poirot has collected a bunch of murders he believes are connected by someone he calls X, and he's convinced X is planning another murder at Styles, and he and Hastings have to stop him. Hastings' daughter is there, along with her employer, a brilliant scientist with an invalid wife. Poirot is very feeble and doesn't know if he will live to stop X. This one is very different from other Christie mysteries, and is pretty convoluted.
by Agatha Christie

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

57, by Rex Stout
Finish date: Oct. 2730, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B-
Review: This is another one with two novellas, connected only by the fact that Archie is now in the Army, so he's not there to keep Wolfe in line. The mysteries are interesting, but I still like book-length ones better.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

58. by Margaret George
Finish date: Oct. 30, 2020
Genre: Roman fiction
Rating: A-
Review: This is a very long, and very good, rendering of Cleopatra's life. I prefer the period she was with Julius Caesar to the one with Antony, because I like Caesar better. The section of her life after Caesar's assassination, when she returned to Egypt, was especially interesting because we see the upheaval in Rome, first with Octavian against Antony, then the formation of the Second Triumvirate, then the final defeat of the Liberators, from outside all the action. The last third of the book, covering Antony's devastating defeat in Parthia, the collapse in Actium and the final take-over of Egypt by Octavian was well done, but hard to read, because it was so depressing.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

NOVEMBER

59. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Nov. 2, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: C+
Review: All the stories are narrated by Hastings, who apparently lives with Poirot. They have a landlady who sometimes announces visitors, so I don't know if it's an apartment or boarding house. The stories are interesting but not as good as the full-length novels, which is not surprising.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

60. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Nov. 6, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: C+
Review: Most of these stories are Poirot, but there's one Miss Marple and 2 about Mr. Parker Pyne, who I've never heard of, and who is always referred to by his 3-word moniker.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

61. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Nov. 12, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B=
Review: This one has 4 novellas, all Poirot. In 2 of them, the deaths appear to be murders disguised as suicides. Or are they suicides made to look like murders? Poirot can figure it out. In the final story Poirot is on vacation at Rhodes when there's a murder. I would hate to be on vacation and have Poirot show up; probably bad things will happen.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

62. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Nov. 19, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B+
Review: This is the first Miss Marple novel and is narrated by the vicar at St. Mary Mead, Miss Marple's home town. A local wealthy and unpleasant man is found murdered in the vicar's study and first one, then another person confesses to the murder, but it seems neither could have done it. Miss Marple untangles the clues, even though the other people in the story don't think much of her deductions.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

63. by Gary Corby
Finish date: Nov. 20, 2020
Genre: Historical Mystery
Rating: B
Review: Bad things are happening at the theater where a play is being prepared for the Great Dionysia, a festival to honor the god Dionysus. Pericles commissions Nicolaos to find out what's going on. Not long after the start of the investigation, one actor is badly injured and another one is killed. We get to learn a lot about theater in ancient Greece and the treatment of metics, foreign non-citizens in Athens. Of course, Nico's younger brother Socrates is a big help.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

64. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Nov. 23, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B+
Review: The body of a young woman is found in the library of a close friend of Miss Marple. Suspicion naturally falls on the husband of the friend, so Miss Marple ferrets out the real culprit. I had watched the TV version recently, so it was interesting to see the clues and suspects, already knowing who had killed the girl. Actually, Miss Marple takes up rather little of text, which is mostly concerned with the police and various persons connected to the crime.

Reading this a second time after 5 years, I thought I'd look at the end to see whodunit (since I never can remember the plots of mysteries). It didn't help - I couldn't see any clues that would lead me to the solution. I don't know how Miss Marple does it.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

65. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Nov. 27, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B+
Review: Several people in a small town have received nasty anonymous letters, including a young man who's recently moved there with his sister (he narrates the story). One day it appears that the wife of the local solicitor has killed herself, and not long after that, her maid is found murdered. Miss Marple doesn't show up until about 3/4s of the way through, having been sent for by the vicar's wife, who knows that she can always solve the toughest mystery. Again, we don't get much of Miss Marple's personality, and only about 1% of the text is about her, but the people and the story are engaging.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

DECEMBER

66. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Dec. 2, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B+
Review: This is the fifth Miss Marple book I've read so far and the best one. In the others, it seemed as though Miss Marple was called in at the last minute as a kind of deus ex machina, to solve the murder with a few comments. In this one, she appears rather early on and talks to several of the characters. A newspaper item says a murder will happen at a particular time at a local home and several neighbors show up, thinking it's some sort of game. But when a young man bursts in and shots are fired, it's apparently for real. The young man himself is killed and the owner of the house is nicked on one of her ears by a bullet. I had recently seen the TV version of the story and wanted to see how the plot was all put together. It was very satisfactory.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

67. by Charles Dickens
Finish date: Dec. 6, 2020
Genre: Classic literature
Rating: B+
Review: This is a classic, written in the first person, and seems to be loosely based on Dickens' life. Of course pretty much everyone knows of Uriah Heep and Mr. Micawber, but there are lots of other great characters. I especially liked Tommy Traddles, David's friend from school whom he runs across later in life. In fact, if someone is mentioned early in the book, they are pretty much sure to turn up later. And there are several parts which are laugh-out-loud funny. My only quibble is with Dora, David's first love. It's hard to believe anyone can be that silly and clueless and still manage to eat and breathe. But altogether it was very enjoyable.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

68. by Charles Dickens
Finish date: Dec. 13, 2020
Genre: Classic literature
Rating: A+
Review: I love this edition. Ronald Searle's illustrations are just perfect. I bought this book over 50 years ago, not long before I met my future husband. On an early date, I tried to read part of it to him, but he just wanted to make out. He was not really a Dickens fan. But I am, and I try to read this every Christmas.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

69. by Ruth Downie
Finish date: Dec. 14, 2020
Genre: Roman mystery
Rating: A
Review: Ruso takes a leave from his duties as army surgeon in Brittania to go home to Southern Gaul, when he gets an urgent letter from his brother. It turns out that the family farm is in danger of being taken away by Severus, the new husband of Ruso's previous wife. But things get worse when Severus dies of poisoning at the farm in Ruso's presence. It all turns out well, thanks in part to the sleuthing of Ruso's British housekeeper/lover Tilla. There's a very funny chapter where Tilla goes to a small Christian meeting. She likes the idea of a god who's everywhere and can see everything, but doesn't like that this god won't do curses on her enemies.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

70. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Dec. 18, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B
Review: Some of Miss Marple's nephew's friends (including Miss M) have had dinner together and decide to tell stories about really strange things they know about, to see if anyone can solve the mysteries therein. Of course, Jane Marple is the only one who can put together the clues, along with her experiences in her town of St. Mary Mead, to solve the mysteries. It's interesting that this is where she meets Colonel and Mrs. Bantry, who are major characters in the next book, The Body in the Library.

by Agatha Christie

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

71. by Ellis Peters
Finish date: Dec. 26, 2020
Genre: Medieval mystery
Rating: B+
Review: King Stephen has defeated Empress Maud's partisans at Shrewsbury and captured the castle, executing all 94 of her men there. However, when the time comes to attend to the bodies, there are 95 of them, and the odd man out wasn't killed by hanging, as the "traitors" were. He was murdered and Cadfael sets out to find out why and who did it. As an added complication to his life, he has to take charge of a young helper for the gardens, who presents as a boy, but is actually a girl, the daughter of one of the main lieutenants of the Empress, who had fled before the castle was captured. She is also betrothed to Hugh Beringar (a main character in subsequent books), and who Cadfael is suspicious of, regarding the murder. A very satisfying mystery - Cadfael never disappoints.