The library has been getting new books in lately. Definitely thought I would check out Vagabond by Tim Curry. Its all about his career. He said his personal life is no one’s business.
Wonderful idea! There are several Kingfishers I haven’t read, but I don’t want to rush through.
Thanks for that. Vagabond is on my library list and now I know what to expect. I wanted to know about his thoughts on his various roles anyway so this might be exactly what I wanted.
You will love it.
I’ve been reading mysteries by Edward Marston (mostly the “Home Front” and “Railway Detective” series, though I’ve started “The Domesday Books”). Now I’m reading Twelve Months, the new Harry Dresden book.
Oh goody! 
Now if I can only whoever has it now will turn it back in so I can snatch it off the shelf. I love Tim Curry and his versatile acting.
Right now I’m slogging through The Quincunx by Charles Palliser. It’s like if Dickens went ultra-dark and had no humor. I was thinking about tossing it aside because the narrator’s mother got on my last raw bleeding nerve, but she’s going to die soon so I’ll stick with it. It’s a slog because Palliser was writing a Victorian novel in 1989. As someone who reads a lot of Victorian novels I can attest that it’s fairly true to the form but he’s trying too hard. Jury’s still out on whether I agree with my mom’s long-ago thoughts about the book. (She read it when it first came out.)
On the finished pile we have the latest Travis Baldree book, Brigands and Breadknives. This one’s a bit of a departure from the other two books he’s written because it’s not about a fantasy small business. In this one Fern, the bookshop owner from Bookshops and Bonedust, has a mid-life crisis and goes on an adventure with a legendary mercenary and a very odd goblin. It was great, and it shows you more of the world he’s created. I’m becoming a big fan of the rattikins.
I have that series on my list. I haveBookshops and Bonedust, I think that’s the 2nd or 3rd book in the series?
Oh it’s the prequel written after the first book, that explains my confusion.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City - Jonathon Mahler
The crazy year 1977 in New York City, which featured:
- The Son of Sam serial killer
- A bruising mayoral election between Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo (father of Andrew Cuomo)
- A blackout accompanied by widespread looting
- Arson-set fires in the Bronx
- Chaos and conflict in the Yankees clubhouse between the new superstar Reggie Jeckson and embattled manager Billy Martin. They nevertheless went on to win the World Series
Entertaining and enjoyable book
Finished The Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery. I really enjoyed the book, it had red herrings galore, colorful characters and copious swearing but I felt it suffered a bit from being unable to decide if it was a serious Golden Age mystery or a 1920s farce.
Read the small book by Hilaria Baldwin called Manuel Not Included. Not bad.
I finished listening to The Widow by Grisham. Another good read by a good author. The protagonist is a small-town lawyer whose marriage is crumbling and he also has a drinking problem. When a rich widow wants him to draft a new will and needs somebody to administer her estate, he thinks his ship has come in. But when she dies under mysterious circumstances, he is suddenly a suspect in a homicide.
The only thing I didn’t like about it was how the plot got wrapped up very neatly and quickly, like the book was long enough and it was time to send it to the publisher.
Started reading Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead by K.J. Parker, as always with this author a good read.
Finished Jazz, by Toni Morrison, which was brilliant; and The Journey with Jonah, a play by Madeleine L’Engle, which was okay.
Also finished, but forgot to post before I read them, One Writer’s Beginnings, by Eudora Welty, which I enjoyed and then enjoyed even more when I discovered that the book was autographed by the author. (I’m guessing the owner of the used bookstore didn’t realize it was autographed or would’ve charged more than $3.50), and Old Nathan, by David Drake. It’s a collection of short stories, of which the best was “The Bull”.
Next up: The Roma: A Traveling History, by Madeline Potter, and The Case of the Marble Monster and Other Stories, retold by I. G. Edmonds.
Finished Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead which I ended up not liking very much, a disappointment.
Started a non-fiction book The Last Dynasty: Ancient Egypt From Alexander the Great to Cleopatra, by Toby Wilkinson which is not quite capturing my attention and a fiction book Space Trucker Jess by Matthew Kressel which started very well but took an unexpected turn into the psychedelic and is risking a DNF if it doesn’t get back to normal in 10 pages or so.
My new audiobook is Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris, a historical novel about the manhunt for two of those who took part in the execution of King Charles I of England, after Oliver Cromwell’s Puritan republic ends and Charles II takes the throne. The book’s OK but not great so far.
Finished Great Expectations last night–and it’s excellent. Pip, the main character, is a literary archetype called a “massive douchebag” for the middle half of the book, but that’s deliberate on Dickens’s part: it justifies a redemption arc. I’m not, ultimately, sure that I buy the arc, that Pip is truly redeemed by the end. That’s a testament to the complexity of the writing and characterization. There were a couple of sentimental outs that I worried Dickens was going to take, to wrap the story up in a bow. He avoided them in favor of a much more bittersweet ending, with a beautifully ambiguous last line.
Okay. Back to science fiction!
Abandoned Space Trucker Jess for now ( too much mind expanding with drugs, too little Space Trucking) may return to it later.
Proceeded with The Last Dynasty: Ancient Egypt From Alexander the Great to Cleopatra, which while not riveting (too much socioeconomics, too little shield smashing) is interesting.
Currently reading A Box Full of Darkness, by Simone St. James. A ghost story.
I’m a big fan of Edward Marston’s ocean liner detective series. I’ve been meaning to get onto the railway detective stuff soon so appreciate it being brought back on my radar.
…
The first book I started and completed in 2026 is A Cold Wind From Moscow. It’s the next installment in the historical spy thriller series by Rory Clements that now follows the end of the Second World War. The series begins in the 1930s leading up to the war and I’m glad he carried on with it into the Cold War era. He’s got a new one out just now that I should get a copy of soon.