What are you reading?: November 30, 2024

About to start Air Battles over the Baltic 1941, and a long-haul read in the form of Heart of Europe.

Starting Mal Goes to War. News from Mars will follow.

I'm a little over 700 pages into Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature which puts me two thirds of the way through the book. I've hit a long boring section on "Devotional and Ritual Poetry" that is far less interesting to me than the historical and mythological works. I can only take it in small doses.

I've started listening to Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. It's very pleasant listening.

I've been without a physical book for a couple of days as I've had no idea what to read. Eventually I've chosen to try to read Lonesome Dove for the third time. I know it's considered a great American classic, but I've never made it beyond the first chapter. This time I will conquer!

The Full Moon Coffee Shop
Mai Mochizuki
4/5 stars
A tale about a coffee shop and the people who work and spend their time and money there. A very delightful story. Miscellaneous Books

A Course in Miracles by Alan Cohen. It started out OK but I am not liking it very much at the moment. Perhaps I am taking the suggestions too literally. There seems to be no room for honest anger. I will persevere and we shall see.

I'm a few chapters into A Chainless Soul after reading Half-Life of a Stolen Sister, and also reading Cligès in a modern English poetic translation.

I think I may choose an easy-to-read book next, maybe some James Patterson to clear my head (the Brontës and Celeste Ng's latest book are pretty heavy reading!).

I'm almost done reading When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky by Margaret Verble. It had a slow start but the story is moving along now.

Encore Provence– Peter Mayle
Book on CD read by David Case.
3***

Subtitle: New Adventures in the South of France

Gosh but I love Peter Mayle’s memoirs of his move to and life in Provence! I read them all ages ago, and decided to revisit all his writing since his passing.

This is the third in the series and he write with his usual humor. He takes a little time in this one to give some practical advice on the best things to buy at the market, the best local wines, the different cheeses and olive oils, the passion for boules, the joy of locally sourced honey (and from different seasons), and, of course, truffles. He also talks about the endless bureaucratic hoops that must be jumped through in order to find and then purchase and renovate your own Provence paradise. And he spends an entire chapter on the uniqueness of Marseilles.

David Case does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. I have no clue if his French is pronounced properly (or with a Provencal accent), but he kept me entertained with his impressions of waiters, real estate agents, and farmers.

Gee, I forgot to check in here last Friday. I'm reading and enjoying (with some reservations) a wartime travel memoir called Into China by Eileen Bigland, a British author who was quite prolific mid-20th century but is mostly unknown today, at least in the U.S. Maybe she's better known in the U.K. At any rate, Bigland after her well-received memoir of her trip to Soviet Russia in the 1930s, tracing her family history there as best I can determine, was given a contract to travel to China, where she'd always dreamed of exploring, and write about it. By the time she went in the late 30s the Japanese invasion of the China was already of several years' duration. Bigland traveled into the country via the hazardous Burma road, riding in a bus that was part of an arms convoy bringing weapons and ammunition to the Chinese army. This memoir describes that journey and her time in China immediately afterwards.

Why Me?– Donald E Westlake
3***

This is book # 5 in the Dortmunder series, featuring a “professional“ burglar with a gang of inept misfits. In this episode, John’s friend Andy is unavailable to help him with a small job so John goes it alone. Unfortunately, while he’s in the jewelry store, the owner shows up with a couple of suspicious characters. John stays hidden and still manages to open the safe and get some loot after the owner and his associates leave. But without being aware, it seems that John has stumbled into an affair of international importance. Now, how to get the cops, Turks, Armenians, Mafia, and whoever else wants the goods off John’s back?

I love this series. Dortmunder is a pretty good guy – for a thief. He does have his standards, and his crew of accomplices is laughably inept. Except for his lady companion – May. What a woman! Unflappable, loyal, assertive … she is not to be messed with, and she doesn’t take any guff from anyone.

The books were written (and set in) a time without home computers and cell phones. So, Andy Kelp’s efforts to interest John in extension phones, an answering machine and call forwarding are charmingly old fashioned to today’s reader.

From the library: Murder in Highbury by Vanessa Kelly

The Christmas Dare – Lori Wilde
2***

From the book jacket: Kelsey James always played by the rules and look where it got her—dumped and half-drunk in a poofy white dress, her Christmas wedding ruined. Then her best friend talks her into going on her “honeymoon” anyway, daring her to a “Christmas of Yes.” It’s about time she lets loose a little, so Kelsey agrees to say “yes” to fun, to romance, and to adventure! And adventure leads her right smack into the arms of sexy Noah MacGregor.

My reactions:
Two immature people with lust in their hearts, but somehow think this is love. There are some nice steamy sex scenes to distract from all the drama of Kelsey’s unhealthy relationship with her narcissistic mother. And while this is part of the Twilight, Texas series, where legend has it that if you throw a penny into the fountain, you are sure to be reunited with your high school sweetheart, the legend is barely mentioned in this episode.

I think Wilde was trying too hard to be “relevant.” Just give me schmaltz (and sex) … that’s all I’m looking for when I pick up books such as this.

OK, I finished Into China, British author Eileen Bigland's memoir of her journey over the mountains via the famed Burma Road with an ammunitions convoy bringing weapons to Chiang Kai-Shek's army during the Japanese invasion of China of the late 1930s. It's fascinating and maddening in turns, the former due to Bigland's skill as a writer with a sharp eye and the latter due to her European condescension to Asian people, that fades as the narrative progresses but never disappears. Nevertheless, a mostly fascinating account. I posted a longer review on my 50-Book Challenge thread.

Next up for me will be Omar Appears in Jerusalem, an intriguing-looking novel by Egyptian writer Najeeb Al-Kelani (1931-1995). (I've found several spellings of his name. His Wikipedia page refers to him as both Najib Kilani and Naguib al-Kilani.) A member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Kelani was imprisoned for a time in the 1950s by Abdul Nasser.

Bride of the Tornado
James Kennedy
3/5 stars
Interesting book about a town who has a Tornado Day. The residents lock up during the tornado but there is a boy called the Tornado Killer and the adults seem to know that there is a secret of the origins of this storm! Miscellaneous

I seem to have forgotten to keep up to date here. Since my last post I finished reading
Lessons in Chemistry which was admittedly an exaggerated presentation of the dismissal of women in science as well as a exalted presentation of the intellectual interest of the housewife. Despite that it was enjoyable and also included a bit of mystery and a plot of missed opportunities.

I've also finished Gilead which was a collections of letters from an aging man to his 7 year old son conveying his lessons learned along with the revelation of a mystery.
An exploration of faith, forgiveness, and love

The new thread is up over here.