What are we reading? 26 June 2023

[Bill]

I'd say that I read very few books in translation, and almost all of them 50 years old or more, often much more (as in Greek and Roman literature). But the dominance of older books is also true, to a slightly lesser extent, of my reading of fiction in English.

That said, I'm currently reading a translation, Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis.

[Robert]

The fireworks have begun popping in my neighborhood. (Early)
Happy Fourth, folks.

[giveusaclue]

Robert wrote: "The fireworks have begun popping in my neighborhood. (Early)
Happy Fourth, folks."

Happy 4th to all our American contributors. And others, of course.

[scarletnoir]

Bill wrote: "I'd say that I read very few books in translation, and almost all of them 50 years old or more, often much more (as in Greek and Roman literature). But the dominance of older books is also true, to..."

You are not missing much according to the Guardian's list of the 100 best books of the 21st century - only 14 (!) were written in languages other than English. Take that, rest of the world!
https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

I know these columns are just clickbait, but could they not more honestly call the list: "100 books you might possibly enjoy", or something?
https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

Amongst the literary masterpieces you'll find JK Rowling, Gillian Flynn and the (to me) unreadable Kate Atkinson. France seems under-represented - unless I missed it, Annie Ernaux doesn't make the list - not that I have read her (yet), but madame is impressed which is usually a good indicator.

[giveusaclue]

Bill wrote: "I'd say that I read very few books in translation, and almost all of them 50 years old or more, often much more (as in Greek and Roman literature). But the dominance of older books is also true, to..."

I remember trying to read an Andrea Camilleri Montalbano book in Italian. I soon realised it had a great deal of Sicilian dialect in it and gave up.

[Gpfr]

giveusaclue wrote: "Robert wrote: "The fireworks have begun popping in my neighborhood. (Early)
Happy Fourth, folks."

Happy 4th to all our American contributors. And others, of course."

Seconded!

[Bill]

scarletnoir wrote: "You are not missing much according to the Guardian's list of the 100 best books of the 21st century - only 14 (!) were written in languages other than English."

I love these "greatest books" lists since they usually include books I disliked. Sure enough, this one didn't disappoint:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (a translation! – As I’ve recently said, this tops my “worst books of the 21st century” list.)
The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression (This was worth reading in an “against the grain” sort of way; I ultimately found the author insufferable though I’m glad to have read the book.)
The Corrections (Franzenfreude!)
The Amber Spyglass (The weakest entry in the trilogy – the earlier entries had some very good moments, but for me this one sunk the enterprise as a whole.)

On the not too bad to pretty good side of the ledger:

Stories of Your Life and Others
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (Very good for its account of King's serious injury and recovery, not so much “on writing”, however.)
Atonement
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea was the best book on the list of the ones I’ve read.

(Speaking of Franzen, I loved the way Goodreads lists the title of this edition: An Untouched House: 'A great writer' JONATHAN FRANZEN.)

[MK]

Bill wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "You are not missing much according to the Guardian's list of the 100 best books of the 21st century - only 14 (!) were written in languages other than English."

I love these "g..."

Being originally a Downeaster who absolutely steers clear of anything in the horror genre, the only book of Stephen King's I've read is On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. What I remember of it is the day his first book was sold was a day most stores were closed, and he ended up trying to find a gift for his wife, Tabitha, at LaVerdiere's - Maine's old timey pharmacy and schlocky gifts emporium.

[AB76]

was somebody here reading Jacksons biog of De Gaulle?

I read up to 1945 in 2021 and then decided to read post 1945, at a later date, looking foward to explore the EEC and Algerian crises, along with the formation of the Fifth Republic

Gonna push this up my pile, to follow Bowles

[Bill]

MK wrote: "Being originally a Downeaster who absolutely steers clear of anything in the horror genre, the only book of Stephen King's I've read is On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft."

For me, no horror writing by King or any other author was as terrifying as his account of being struck by a truck and subsequent hospitalization. As I recall, in reading The Exorcist a very, very long time ago, I found the medical tests which the possessed child undergoes early in the story more viscerally horrifying than any of the supernatural shenanigans that occurred later in the novel.

[scarletnoir]

Bill wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "You are not missing much according to the Guardian's list of the 100 best books of the 21st century - only 14 (!) were written in languages other than English."

As I suspected, our tastes differ a great deal!

I liked 'Dragon Tattoo' well enough as a thriller, though I'd certainly not put it on any 'best of' list. Franzen's imperfect efforts entertain me, though clearly not yourself.

On the other side of the ledger, 'Atonement' was the book that finally convinced me to give up on McEwan - a 'four pages about the living room carpet' book if ever there was one. As he's gone on, he's gone longer and longer, slower and slower - and more and more boring. Somehow or other - and against my better judgement - I had continued reading him through 'Black Dogs' and 'Enduring Love' (I may have skipped 'Amsterdam' - not sure), but this was the 'coup de grâce' as far as I was concerned. There was just about enough plot in there to make a short story, and nothing else but plot worth reading it for. (I'm not a 'plot' person, so that's saying something.)

Our single point of agreement - 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time'. I enjoyed that.

[scarletnoir]

Since I brought it up (probably a mistake, but I've never laid claims to wisdom) these are my pluses and minuses from the Guardian's bizarre list of 100 best 21st C. books:

Pluses:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Chronicles: Volume One
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
Levels of Life
The Corrections
My Brilliant Friend
Half of a Yellow Sun

Minuses:
4 Books: The Constant Gardner
Atonement
The Road


Neutral (sort-of entertaining):
Gone Girl
Brooklyn

There are a few books on the TBR list (I have bought but not read The Underground Railroad, for example) - and some by authors I never want to read again.

And just because I may have derived some pleasure from the books on the 'pluses' list does not imply that I'd necessarily put them on a 'best of' list - though some would definitely qualify.

[Bill]

scarletnoir wrote: "On the other side of the ledger, 'Atonement' was the book that finally convinced me to give up on McEwan"

To be honest, I'm not sure how I felt about Atonement; since finishing it I've never wanted to read anything else by McEwan (I'd earlier read a story collection, In Between the Sheets, which I enjoyed pretty well). I remember being impressed with the big set piece about Dunkirk, but otherwise wasn't overly taken with the whole framing structure.

[Bill]

I’ve been reading the Sunday’s translation issue of the NY Times Book Review.

In the “Historical Fiction” column, there’s an East German novel for which Franzen is credited as co-translator, The Short End of the Sonnenallee. This one sounds interesting to me – it’s set in a situation unique to its time and place. It’s the sort of translated novel I can see myself reading, which I can’t say about some of the other books under review. If I wanted to read about a young girl who marries to escape small town poverty and tedium (The Road to the City), or the quiet desperation of a middle-class housewife(Mild Vertigo), I’d seek out works by Anglophone writers.

[AB76]

Bill wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "On the other side of the ledger, 'Atonement' was the book that finally convinced me to give up on McEwan"

To be honest, I'm not sure how I felt about Atonement; sin..."

McEwan was the land of never-ending disappointment for me, he is up there with Paul Auster in that everything of his i touch becomes a kind of vague, boring no-no after 100 pages

Atonement was just a huge slab of no-no, i felt so ready for it and was thinking "this when this over-rated writer might appeal to me" but then it was more boredom. I liken him to a room that has everything in place, looks interesting but then starts to become like a hospital room and then a morgue

[AB76]

Bill wrote: "I’ve been reading the Sunday’s translation issue of the NY Times Book Review.

In the “Historical Fiction” column, there’s an East German novel for which Franzen is credited as co-translator, [book..."

thanks bill....this flashed up in an amazon recommendation which i couldnt re-find on saturday and has driven me mad, i only remembered the "allee" bit

Brussig is an interesting writer and i will add this to my DDR TBR list (Reimann, Hofmann and now Brussig)

[[deleted user]]

I've just started In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado.

[[deleted user]]

I'm going to lower the tone by saying I've spent a lot of the last week rewatching old Indiana Jones movies, and have now satisfied myself that Last Crusade is the best. Now that's been resolved, I'm returning to reading.

[[deleted user]]

Aargghh. I forgot there's a film thread. Sorry!

[AB76]

best 4th of july depiction in literature was my first Wharton novel Summer

if anyone wants a good summer read, i recommend it

[Bill]

My recollection is that The Corrections and Atonement were published about the same time and initial reviews seemed to indicate, though both novels came in for their share of praise in their native lands, that McEwen was on the whole better received in the US and Franzen in the UK.

[Robert]

AB76 wrote: "was somebody here reading Jacksons biog of De Gaulle?

I read up to 1945 in 2021 and then decided to read post 1945, at a later date, looking foward to explore the EEC and Algerian crises, along wi..."

I've been reading the Jackson bio. Fine book, but I, too, may take a break and poke into other TBR entries.

[[deleted user]]

Downeast. We were on a trip this holiday weekend to Portland, Maine, to visit a son. Lots of people strolling about in the Old Port area, a nice atmosphere but a bit too crowded for our taste. (Portsmouth, NH, by contrast was charming, smaller and less touristy, with a fife-and-drum band in colonial outfits playing in front of the town hall this morning.) Portland did have some interesting old bookshops. Among others, I found a used paperback called Aberystwyth Mon Amour. Who could resist a title like that? I didn’t know about Malcom Pryce and the Louie Knight mysteries. With a faux-40s cover picture of a hand gripping a pistol, a guy wearing a trench coat and a fedora, and a sultry-looking dame showing her décolletage, I had to get it.

But I can’t start it till I’ve finished another detective mystery, Night Squad by David Goodis, which I think was recommended by someone here. Enjoying it.

[CCCubbon]

I posted this over the way but thought I should put it here too

I like to have something easy to read at night and I read Still Waters by Viveca Sten which is the first book in a series set in the Swedish archipelago island of Sandhamn. It is pretty much as one expects from a first book, too much unnecessary description but then one of the reasons that I read it was to learn more about the location. Generally, it’s a run of the mill detective story but there is something about it which will most likely lead me to the second in the series. I would like to know if the writing gets better, not that it’s bad, just a tad immature.
I gave up on The Last Passenger by Will Dean after struggling half way - it just became too unbelievable for me. Shame.
I did finish A Snapshot of Murder by Frances Brody, the tenth in this series set in the 1920s. The details about early cameras were of interest comparing them to the modern craze for taking photos with your phone - a selfie. Of course, a timer had to be set then so you could run round in front of the camera to join the group. When visiting art galleries I wish cameras could be banned for nothing looks sillier than someone taking a selfie standing in front of a famous work of art and the enjoyment of the painting is often ruined for others.
I am still visiting various buildings in Fallen Glory by Crawford, the latest being St Paul’s Cathedral, the one burnt down in 1666. My first office job was in a firm directly opposite the front entrance to the rebuilt St Paul’s . It was a very boring job, filing mostly and I would spend time watching the comings and goings out of the window and my dinner hours listening up in the Whispering gallery.
One last book I will mention is the first book of poetry by Anna Akhmatova, the Russian poet.
I wander through them, like her style. This stanza comes from one written in 1911

“I will never forget you,” you uttered.
I could hardly suppose it was true.

Faces emerge and vanish again,
Dear today, but tomorrow - strange.
But what exactly caused me to bend
The corner to mark this page?

It’s a source of wonder, isn’t it, when we come across something that we have marked for some reason but forgotten. A window closed?

The poem is called Imitation of I. F. Annensky
The book is called Evening.

[scarletnoir]

AB76 wrote: "McEwan was the land of never-ending disappointment for me, he is up there with Paul Auster in that everything of his i touch becomes a kind of vague, boring no-no after 100 pages."

I rather liked McEwan's early short story collections - First Love, Last Rites and In Between the Sheets, and showed far more patience than I usually do by sticking with him for quite a while, despite not being so keen an any of the novels. As I suggested earlier, the longer he gets, the worse (more boring) he gets - IMO, anyway.

Of the three young British male authors who appeared at around the same time, I never got on with Martin Amis - London Fields is execrable (shudder!). The one who has worked most often for me is Julian Barnes, who at his best displays a degree of wit and sensitivity lacking in the other two. He has written a few duds as well as his very good efforts, though.

I'm not sure if I've attempted Auster - there is a US writer of that generation I sampled but didn't like - it may have been him. I don't feel tempted to check him out.

[scarletnoir]

Russell wrote: "I found a used paperback called Aberystwyth Mon Amour. Who could resist a title like that? I didn’t know about Malcom Pryce and the Louie Knight mysteries. With a faux-40s cover picture of a hand gripping a pistol, a guy wearing a trench coat and a fedora, and a sultry-looking dame showing her décolletage, I had to get it."

Let me know what you think. It may seem odd, but I've never read any of this series set in my home town. They are clearly intended as pastiche (or parodies?) and I'm afraid of disappointment. That tends to be my approach to anything too close to home - treat with caution. I once read a novel set in the town - nothing special - but I was annoyed by the wholly unnecessary messing about with some geographical locations to no good purpose.

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "was somebody here reading Jacksons biog of De Gaulle?

I read up to 1945 in 2021 and then decided to read post 1945, at a later date, looking foward to explore the EEC and Algerian cri..."

his book on the trial of petain will be a must read for me when it is out in paperback

[AB76]

Russell wrote: "Downeast. We were on a trip this holiday weekend to Portland, Maine, to visit a son. Lots of people strolling about in the Old Port area, a nice atmosphere but a bit too crowded for our taste. (Por..."

good weather in Maine?

[AB76]

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "McEwan was the land of never-ending disappointment for me, he is up there with Paul Auster in that everything of his i touch becomes a kind of vague, boring no-no after 100 pages."

I ..."

Oddly with Barnes i loathe his fiction but really enjoy his non-fiction, he is very good on France and french culture and writes well.

Amis is another one where i liked his non-fiction, London Fields keeps hovering on my radar with varying levels of enthusiasm. I dont think that generation (Amis-Barnes-McEwan) is half as good as it is written up though, i would expect one great novel to have emerged but it hasnt.

[[deleted user]]

scarletnoir wrote: "Russell wrote: "I found a used paperback called Aberystwyth Mon Amour. Who could resist a title like that?..." Let me know what you think. It may seem odd, but I've never read any of this series set in my home town.

Will do. I was confident you would have read them all!

[[deleted user]]

AB76 wrote: "Russell wrote: "Downeast. We were on a trip this holiday weekend to Portland, Maine..." good weather in Maine?"

Very pleasant, by good luck – poured down while we were driving and turned sunny when we got out. The rain dispersed the smoke, which in any event seems to be thinner near the sea.

[scarletnoir]

AB76 wrote: "Oddly with Barnes i loathe his fiction but really enjoy his non-fiction, he is very good on France and french culture and writes well."

As you know, I have no problem whatsoever when others don't share my own tastes or enthusiasms.

I wonder what you make of his Francophile fictions, then - namely Metroland, Flaubert's Parrot and Cross Channel? As a Francophile myself (how could it be otherwise?) I enjoyed these very much, and was delighted by the adolescents in 'Metroland' who wanted to be 'flâneurs... pour épater les autres!'. Just the right sort of cocky daftness you find in teenagers...

Or how do you categorise and judge what was for me his most moving book - a sort of memoir - Levels of Life, in which the three short sections (I think it's three) finish with an expression of love for his deceased wife? I found it honest, and shattering.

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "was somebody here reading Jacksons biog of De Gaulle?

I read up to 1945 in 2021 and then decided to read post 1945, at a later date, looking foward to explore the EEC a..."

Here's a gift link of Julian Jackson's latest on Petain from the FT. I hope you can access the comments as there is one with further information and links.

https://on.ft.com/3NYbenQ

[AB76]

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Oddly with Barnes i loathe his fiction but really enjoy his non-fiction, he is very good on France and french culture and writes well."

As you know, I have no problem whatsoever when ..."

sadly not.i guess modern fiction can be like kryptonite to me, its always hit and miss and i dont think i have ever read a good sequence of post 1980 novels in my life.

i do find a lot of 1980s gems but they are rarely well heralded and usually found in tattered second hand copies.

saying that My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley is going down well, i am enjoying it and reading it in a leisurely way, always a good sign

[AB76]

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "was somebody here reading Jacksons biog of De Gaulle?

I read up to 1945 in 2021 and then decided to read post 1945, at a later date, looking foward to expl..."

thanks mk

[AB76]

Russell wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Russell wrote: "Downeast. We were on a trip this holiday weekend to Portland, Maine..." good weather in Maine?"

Very pleasant, by good luck – poured down while we were driving and tur..."

i enjoyed Jewetts tales of Maine(The Country of Pointed Firs and Other Tales) remarkably good, i must return to some other fiction of hers

[MK]

Summer has arrived in the PNW as far as I am concerned. I mark it with putting my box fan against an open window this a.m. Looks like we will get to the upper-80s each day 'til the weekend. We are also getting smoke from Canadian fires with the EPA's website saying I am in the red zone (unhealthy). This puts paid to my plan to give a quick sanding to my new (used) bookcase before I stain it.

Yes, I have moved a smallish bookcase to in front of the fireplace I never use to free up space for the new one.

I'm listening to Peter Temple's The Broken Shore (library download). The back story is being dribbled out peacemeal. The reader, though, is excellent - Aussie accent and terse, too.

Today, I'm off to the dentist to have post-surgery stitiches removed. I'll take Black Mass with me so I can re-start it. I don't know why reading about Boston's most notorious hoods is preferable to Lehane's Small Mercies. The only connection is the Southie neighborhood.

Here's a segway - J. Anthony Lukas won the Pulitzer for Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families about enforced school busing in Boston.

For those of you interested in western history, you might pick up his Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets off a Struggle for the Soul of America - political murder in Idaho in 1905 (Pinkertons, Unions, Clarence Darrow). Time for me to get it off the shelf.

[AB76]

MK wrote: "Summer has arrived in the PNW as far as I am concerned. I mark it with putting my box fan against an open window this a.m. Looks like we will get to the upper-80s each day 'til the weekend. We are ..."

is that fires in BC, or Alberta? real shame the impact the fires are having on vast swathes of n america

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "MK wrote: "Summer has arrived in the PNW as far as I am concerned. I mark it with putting my box fan against an open window this a.m. Looks like we will get to the upper-80s each day 'til the weeke..."

Not sure. All I know is we are under a high pressure system which, with its clockwise flow, is bringing the haze to our area from Canada. You can look at a map here - https://fire.airnow.gov/

For more than you care to know you can also look here - https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/

[Bill]

AB76 wrote: "this US supreme court is a disgrace, the conventions of common law, in the US and UK, dictate that precedent drives all common law decision making, with occasional opportunities for the SC to overr..."

Here's an excellent podcast that takes an overview of the current US Supreme Court and looks to define the underlying social and political agenda it's effectively enacting:
https://www.thenation.com/podcast/pol...

The Supreme Court ended its term last week with a spate of extremely right-wing decisions that included severely restricting affirmative action in elite universities and colleges, clawing back on antidiscrimination protection for LGBTQ citizens under an argument for expressive free speech, and squashing the Biden administration’s plan to give relief to student debtors. These ruling come after earlier decisions curtailing labor rights and the end of a constitutional right to abortion. Taken together, the court has emerged as the powerful reactionary force in American society, one that is working overtime to roll back a century of expanding rights for workers, people of color, women, and LGBT citizens.

To survey the reactionary agenda of the court and the extremist social vision undergirding that agenda, I talked to Moira Donegan. She’s a frequent guest of the podcast and a columnist for The Guardian. She brings her characteristic incisiveness to analyzing the courts and warning of the dangers ahead.

[MK]

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "MK wrote: "Summer has arrived in the PNW as far as I am concerned. I mark it with putting my box fan against an open window this a.m. Looks like we will get to the upper-80s each day '..."

Follow-up to our bad weather yesterday, Cliff Mass (see above) has a piece on it - looks like fireworks were the culprit! Imagine it has something to do with fireworks being low to the ground where measurements are located.

[MK]

Bill wrote: "AB76 wrote: "this US supreme court is a disgrace, the conventions of common law, in the US and UK, dictate that precedent drives all common law decision making, with occasional opportunities for th..."

I stay away from and don't vote for people with FIRM convictions - wherever they are on a political scale which usually is that small end of the bell curve.

I think I mentioned that I am listening to Peter Temple's The Broken Shore. It is jarring to listen to the casual racism spoken by some characters. This led me to see where Peter Temple was grounded - https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

After some years and many hoops an acquaintance of mine (weight training class for retirees) finally was able to settle in Australia near her sole surviving child. Being a left-coast liberal, she has written that she cringes at the level of racism in Australia. When she does that, I think of Scott Morrison, former Premier, who, as an Evangelical, is so damned sure of his stands. She told me that this fall the country will be voting on a referendum which gives some rights to aborigines. Who knew? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Au...

Even though I was brought up in so-white Maine, I have never considered whiteness to be 'special.' (Our (US) current Republicans continue to fight back the tide of reality.) Unfortunately, until a couple of Justices kick the bucket, we are for it. I nominate Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas for the honor.

[Robert]

Anne wrote: "I'm going to lower the tone by saying I've spent a lot of the last week rewatching old Indiana Jones movies, and have now satisfied myself that Last Crusade is the best. Now that's been resolved, I..."

When I watched the Last Crusade, it occurred to me that George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg have spent decades trying to top Indy's attack on the convoy in the original Raiders, and have never topped it.

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "Anne wrote: "I'm going to lower the tone by saying I've spent a lot of the last week rewatching old Indiana Jones movies, and have now satisfied myself that Last Crusade is the best. Now that's bee..."

Raiders is still my favourite, though Temple of Doom is a grower, as a child i found the blonde woman in it annoying as hell, as a middle aged man, my thoughts were rather different lol

[Robert]

MK wrote: "Summer has arrived in the PNW as far as I am concerned. I mark it with putting my box fan against an open window this a.m. Looks like we will get to the upper-80s each day 'til the weekend. We are ..."

It's fan time here in Auburn, too. Our short summer is here!

[Tam]

All this talk of heat and fans put me in mind of this somehow. An homage, of sorts, to Queens 'Bohemian Rhapsody'... Though I didn't have it too badly, and it seems quite a while ago I did have one or two friends who suffered terribly from the effects of their menopause. Anyway I liked the working in of the 'banshees'... and some of their OTT expressions are worryingly familiar!...

Hopefully some will enjoy... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcVFt...

[Robert]

AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "Anne wrote: "I'm going to lower the tone by saying I've spent a lot of the last week rewatching old Indiana Jones movies, and have now satisfied myself that Last Crusade is the best...."

Once a San Francisco columnist, Debra Sanders, admitted a fantasy- that she had cornered Spielberg at a party, and asked him about the way women are portrayed in his movies. Or as my sister said about The Last Crusade, "she's the most capable woman in any of his movies, and she's a Nazi."

[scarletnoir]

The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey

Following some recommendations, I took advantage of a heavily discounted offer on the e-book of this title, and enjoyed it.

Ostensibly, the book tells the tale of the murder of a young female student in Bombay (now 'Mumbai') during a visit in 1921 by the Prince of Wales (later, Edward VIII and then the Duke of Windsor), which led to riots in the city precipitated by the pro-independence movement's 'hartal' (a strike in which businesses close their doors). The death is investigated by young female lawyer Perveen Mistry, who is a Parsi (an Indian of the Zoroastrian religion).

In truth, the investigation takes a smaller part of the book than does the social and political background of the time, which is well integrated into the story. We learn a great deal about the constraints on women in 1920s India, the relations between the various religious groups and the British, and a bit about the movements agitating for Indian independence. We also learn something about the workings of the legal system during that period. The story flows well, though with occasional slips into cliched descriptions such as someone being 'ramrod straight', and another 'ruggedly handsome'. On the whole, such tropes are avoided.

Most probably I'll read at least one more in the series, though more for the social background, where the narrative presents clearly what is and is not considered appropriate behaviour - especially for women - than for the murder story. There isn't really a 'puzzle' or 'clues' (not that I care about those); Perveen simply follows the evidence by interviewing those present at the time. I have learnt so much about the social background from this one novel that I do wonder how much more there can be to say about it - but will check that out.

There are a couple of wonderful asides which if I didn't know better, I'd suspect were written with certain British Prime Ministers in mind:

"...the college one attends does not define intelligence or ability. Miss Mistry can vouchsafe that some very lazy students have graduated from Oxford."

(We could take a guess there, but there must be more than one candidate!)

and

"Small men throw themselves on the public stage to gain stature. They might even become larger than life.

could apply to a number of 20th C. rulers, and to at least one 21st C. British PM!

[Gpfr]

After citing Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver in this week's Top 10 of elderly heroines, I got out my copies of her books and am re-reading — and enjoying — the first in the series: The Grey Mask, 1928.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

[MK]

Gpfr wrote: "After citing Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver in this week's Top 10 of elderly heroines, I got out my copies of her books and am re-reading — and enjoying — the first in the series: The Grey ..."</i>[book:The Broken Shore

She's sitting there on my shelf, just in case I need her. But at the moment I'm in the middle of Mrs. Malory's Shortest Journey which I found at a 2nd hand bookstore that I always detour to on my way back from Portland. It's a new one to me - needless to say I am enjoying it especially after finishing The Broken Shore. It was also better than just good, but I would not recommend it to those who don't like gritty, and I mean really gritty.

Today's listen is continuing Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right. It's obvious where today's GOP has its underpinnings - a few rich, white guys want to be left alone to do as they please and use every dirty tactic to get what they want- even accusing Ike as a communist. In a way the Society reminded me of Kipling's 'white man's burden' except his (Kipling's) was a little more altruistic (I like to think). Fred Koch, father of Charles and David, was a founding member of the Society. It is ironic that today Charles Koch is a never-Trumper. Reaping what you've sown comes to mind.

Weatherwise, we have our old friend, marine air back, which means cooler (Yay!) days for now.