I’m reading Blood and Sand: Suez, Hungary, and Eisenhower’s Campaign for Peace by Alex von Tunzelmann. I read Eisenhower 1956, which covers the same topic, a year ago and I’m interested in reading a different view.
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
My mom recommended this to me when I was quite young, an attempt to interest a disinterested me in reading. Even before mom recently turned 89 – enjoying relatively good health for her age - I felt a compulsion to rectify this before it was too late. Besides, there was a promising precedent: mom had also recommended Maugham’s Ashenden, or The British Agent, when I was little. I ended up reading that for other reasons decades later and liked it tremendously (I would not have appreciated it when I was young), so mom’s sense of what constitutes “good reading” has some cred with me.
The Daughter of Time - Wikipedia -
Written in 1951 and regarded as one of the top mystery novels of all time, the story is about a modern-day policeman stuck in a hospital bed who becomes interested in resolving whether or not Richard III really had his nephews clipped in the 1480s. Friends, colleagues and a freelance researcher feed him books and other info throwing much doubt on unflattering historical representations of the king (including Shakespeare’s). Along the way, the reader is given a bit of a primer on a certain period of Brit history, how that history got written up and why people (esp. historians) are inclined to believe “fake news” even when confronted by contradictory facts.
I thought the writing was generally good, despite a few instances where an abundance of referenced royal names threatened to swamp the text. I found the story less than compelling and the royal shenanigans involved more proof (as if any were needed) of why I loathe the whole concept of royalty. As for the detective aspects of the story, they are undercut by a last chapter “revelation” that rendered the whole tale stale.
The pleasure I got from finishing this book did not derive so much from the book itself as being able to now discuss it. Thanks for waiting, mom!
It was you. I appreciate that call. It lived up to the hype for sure.
Thanks, I will add this to my list. Right off the bat that combination of alternate history and crime thriller sounds great.
Right now I am going to start a book that has been collecting dust for a while called The Wreck of the Titan by Morgan Robertson. Published in 1898 as “Futility”, it told the story of a declared ‘unsinkable’ British ocean liner called Titan, the biggest ever, hit an iceberg and sank on an April night in the Atlantic Ocean with over 2000 passengers on board. The majority of whom perished because of a lack of lifeboats on board. This book had already gone into obscurity until that April night of 1912 immortalized it after the Titanic sank with many eerie coincidences
Glad you liked it! Len Deighton’s SS-GB is similar in some ways, but set in London soon after a successful German invasion. Also well worth a look.
Finished: The Battle for Newfoundland , by Herb Sakalaucks
Now reading: 1636: The Saxon Uprising , by Eric Flint
Next up: Ring of Fire III, edited by Eric Flint
Is that the one where a pilot remembers flying “a congressman from Texas who had been a fighter pilot during World War II” (quote more or less correct) to see a city that had been nuked?
Definitely.
I don’t remember that scene but it’s possible.
I finally finished Heaven’s River. It was fairly interesting, but so LONG. For the last week or so, I’ve been wishing he’d just wrap it up so I could get on with the other stuff I want to read.
I’m going to refresh myself next with a children’s book, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.
Finished Unbowed: A Memoir , by Wangari Maathai, which was interesting.
Now I’m reading John Henry Days, by Colson Whitehead.
Finished: 1636: The Saxon Uprising , by Eric Flint (reread)
Now reading: Ring of Fire III , edited by Eric Flint
Next up: 1636: The Kremlin Games, by Eric Flint, Gorg Huff, and Paula Goodlett
You will love it! I should reread it …
I did love it, and teared up at the end of course. 
Of course, it was sad but hopeful at the same time.
Finished: Ring of Fire III , edited by Eric Flint
Now reading: 1636: The Kremlin Games , by Eric Flint, Gorg Huff, and Paula Goodlett
Next up: Grantville Gazette VI, edited by Eric Flint
I’m reading the entire four book Lonesome Dove series, which includes two prequels (Dead Man’s Walk and Comanche Moon) and a sequel (Streets of Laredo). I’m presently into the third book, which is the original, and it’s still as entertaining as the first time I read it.
About halfway through The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un by Anna Fifield. Gives the background history of the N. Korean dynasty but focuses on the current leader. Biggest difficulty is finding sources (that are not dead or afraid of becoming dead), but the author has done a lot of homework and if you want a basic knowledge about N. Korea and it’s leadership, it’s not bad and outside of the small print, not hard to read.
Finished Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe collection Three for the Chair (which, as Anthony Boucher says in a review they reproduce, is actually mistitled). A nice quick read after that long slog through Leatherdale’s exhaustively annotated Dracula.
Now it’s on to more mindlessness – Clive Cussler’s Sacred Stone, which I picked up months ago but hadn’t gotten to.
Finished John Henry Days , by Colson Whitehead. Outstanding, the best novel I’ve read so far this year.
Now I’m reading Answers in the Form of Questions: A Definitive History and Insider’s Guide to Jeopardy!, by Claire McNear.
I’m taking an involuntary break from Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls after getting about a third of the way through it (my local library pulled back the audiobook because someone else put a hold on it, grrrr). It’s not Papa’s best, I’d say, but I intend to finish it.
And now I’ve begun A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears) by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling, nonfiction about a tiny New Hampshire town which experimented with libertarianism as an actual governing ethos and got into big trouble. It’s funny and just a bit snarky, and I’m enjoying it.