A. > Recent Status Updates

Elizabeth Berridge, “The Hard and the Human”, 8.5/10. A battle of wills between an Irish country obstetrician and a bitter pregnant woman on bedrest. Beautifully observed, with a shocking mid-story twist. Pp 67 for a review quote (“I suppose that’s what a hospital is for…miracles sometimes happen.”

Oppenheimer in Goettingen. Read Proust. The poisoned apple incident.

Finished last night.

Finally figured out how to add reading logs LOL

"On Conscience" -- a meditation on guilt, and how it ensures that all wicked deeds really are punished. Also a rumination on the futility of torture, since people will tell you what you want to hear.

"Work Can Wait Until Tomorrow" -- I guess Montaigne wrote goodreads reviews too, lol.

"A Custom on the Isle of Cea" -- basically a collection of anecdotes about suicide, honorable or otherwise. Fitting that the titular custom is mentioned only at the very end.

"A Custom on the Isle of Cea" -- basically a collection of anecdotes about suicide, honorable or otherwise. Fitting that the titular custom is mentioned only at the very end.

Oppenheimer’s charmed New York upbringing. He hated the piano and loved rocks.

“The Forger”, Samuel Warren, 6/10. The medicine is so incidental to the story (forger caught and hanged). The mid-story swerve—a pregnant widow—was a nice touch.

Preface & Prologue. Oppenheimer’s funeral, his multifaceted character.

“A Doctor’s Visit”, 9/10. The medicine here is incidental—what really matters here is the doctor’s despair over the class relations—run by the devil, poisonous to both sides—his unexpected kinship with sick girl, the subtle way he encourages her to get away, how it transforms his view of the carriage ride back.

“The Final Problem”, 10/10. A masterpiece of English literature. The haunted, deadly end-time atmosphere it evokes, the machinations and subterfuges of two duellers. I widh we’d seen Holmes go over the falls — this could have been arranged tbh. Still: a fantastic original closing chapter to the canon and a great final showcase for Sherlock Holmes.

“The Naval Treaty”, 10/10. An absolute classic, with multiple layers of Holmes detection and theory-testing. The highest stakes too.

“The Greek Interpreter”, 10/10. Introduces Mycroft Holmes, the Diogenes Club, and a thoroughly damgerous mystery. Perfect.

Things are coalescingpretty well! The reveal of the Zen master as Minna’s brother was very well done.

“The Crooked Man”, 7/10. Not much deduction here lol. Another story of British people in India. Extra star for the inclusion of a mongoose.

Started “The Crooked Man”

“The Reigate Squires” 9.5/10. Utterly fantastic from beginning to end, with a dazzling series of Holmes’ deductions that only seem obvious in retrospect, a classic bait-and-switch, and a lovely backstory of Holmes’s recent burnout. One of my favorite parts of the early half of any Holmes story is his intrigue about some minor element, whose significance you can’t quite grasp.

“The Musgrave Ritual”, 9.5/10. A flashback story. The solemn mystery of the Ritual itself charges the atmosphere of the story considerably. Priceless artifacts, romantic intrigue, and a treasure hunt. Exactly why we read these stories.

Out of flashbacks. Lionel & Julia.

Midway through what I guess is part 3? Long flashback into childhood. Minna seems pretty exploitative. The things this book does with language and voice are more interesting than what it does with plot and character tbh.

“The Gloria Scott” 5/10. Not much of a mystery here. Dynamics similar to the Bascombe Valley mystery, with false identities and buried crimes. Mostly useful as a prequel, whee Holmes deduces a lot and gets told to become a detective.

Just begun. Car chase. Great narrator. But this is a tough audiobook.

“The Stockbroker’s Clerk” 5/10. A re-tread of the Red-Headed League, but less arresting.

“Silver Blaze” 9.5/10. Multiple mysteries to untangle, and some of Holmes’s best deductions.

-Eri-Asai trapped in the dresm world? Park bench convo

“On Drunkenness”, Montaigne doesn’t drink much. Really more about self-control.

I will say, I enjoy the "interlinked strangers" conceit that he's going for in the main narrative.