Finished Peace Breaks Out by Angela Thirkell, which I enjoyed very much, although it’s midway through a lengthy series and parts of it would’ve been easier to understand if I’d started at the beginning, which I may do. Also, some language really didn’t age well. (The publisher even has an apology at the beginning.) It was written in 1945.
Next up: The Spamalot Diaries by Eric Idle and The Eyes & the Impossible, by Dave Eggers.
We appear to be dipping into the same ponds.
I finished The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie. It’s a well done story of international espionage, murder, and masquerade… and a boat load of language that hasn’t aged well in reference to non English peoples. I winced and moved on enjoying the story of missing royal heirs, blackmail, and stolen treasures.
I’m about a quarter of the way through Talbot Mundy’s King – of the Khyber Rifles. It’s an interesting book. It’s filled with the “who is really my ally and my enemy” stuff you encounter in spy novels and a lot of the sort of “outmaneuvering each other to no purpose” stuff Jean Anoiulh wrote about in Becket. That sort of thing is interesting in small doses, but this book seems to be constructed entirely of such stuff. We’ll see how it pans out.
One reason I picked this up was because I’d seen that it was done as one number of Classics Illustrated that I never read. That made me wonder a bit about how the folks at CI chose their subject matter. Talbot Mundy was an action-adventure writer in the class of Robert E. Howard, but I’d never expect to see Conan the Barbarian in a Classics Illustrated volume. Some of their entries clearly stretched the definition of “classics”.
More to the point, if their goal was to encourage young readers to seek out the original books and read them, King – of the Khyber Rifles is an odd choice. According to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, the book had only been published by three companies before the comic came out in 1953 – it’s original 1916 publication, three rapidly-upon-the-heels publications by the British company Hutchinson in 1932, 1933, and 1934, and a paperback edition by the US Beacon Publications in 1944, almost a decade before the comic. American kids would’ve had a hard time getting hold of any of these – the 1916 publication was too early, the British one was overseas, and the paperback was nine years before – and libraries generally didn’t stock paperbacks.
In addition to which, here’s what the cover looked like:
(The “Hollywood” referred to is the 1929 film The Black Watch, based on the book. )
The only real reason I can see for Classics Illustrated to adapt this story was that another film version came out in 1953, right when the comic did. It starred Tyrone Power and Terry Moore, and apparently wasn’t at all faithful to the book. The Classics Illustrated edition, by contrast, actually appears to be.
It wouldn’t be the first time the crew at Classics Illustrated cashed in on current films. They put out a Special Edition of The Ten Commandments right when the Cecil B. deMille spectacle came out in 1956 (although the comic wasn’t an adaptation of the film). It may be a coincidence but they issued The Time Machine less than a year before the George Pal film, and the adaptations Robur the Conqueror and Master of the Worldcame out the same year (1961) as the film adaptation (based on both) Master of the World did.
You can read the Classics Illustrated version of King - of the Khyber Rifles here, by the way:
Finished The Spamalot Diaries by Eric Idle and The Eyes & the Impossible, by Dave Eggers, both of which were okay.
Now I’m reading Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See, by Bianca Bosker.
Working my way through Dame Agatha Christie’s works, many of which I read back in my teens when blatant racism didn’t make me visibly flinch…
Last week’s was a reread and this week’s two are new to me, one good and one… not so much.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd I knew the twist the first time I read it, so it’s never been a surprise, however, this time I just enjoyed the ride and the way she crafted the solution.
The Secret of Chimneys is story of espionage, murder and missing heirs.Waaay too much racism for my taste and the Deus ex Machina ending ticked me off.
N or M? is the third Tommy & Tuppence book. I really wish she had written more T&T and far less Poirot. The espionage plots are wildly improbable but the interactions between T&T are funny, sweet and endearing. I adore the level of respect Tommy gives his wife’s intellect and I love that Tuppence never once screams, faints or even drops her knitting when the sh*t hits the fan.
Just finished SUBURBAN DICKS by Fabian Nicieza, a fun and very funny detective story.
Also read the new Bosch and Ballard novel THE WAITING. Connelly never disappoints.
Reading a Sci-Fi novel called SALVATION by Peter F. Hamilton. One of my favorite writers.
Next up is John Sanford’s JUDGEMENT PREY.
I haven’t had the spoons to do any reading for the last few weeks, but recently found myself stuck with time to kill and nothing to fill it except On Earth As It Is On Television, by Emily Jane. It has a pretty irritating style and no likeable characters, but I choked it down and in the end, didn’t hate it because it’s a First Contact story with a happy ending. If you don’t super love cats, don’t bother picking this up.
Finished The Waiting, Michael Connelly’s latest. Very good, as usual. A couple of errors though. The story takes place completely in February of this year, mostly in Los Angeles but partly in Hawaii. Not once but twice, Connelly gives the time difference between California and Hawaii as three hours, No, not in February it isn’t. Unlike California, Hawaii never changes its clocks, so from the time change in early March to the time change in early November, then the time difference is three hours. But from November to March including all of February, the time frame of this story, the time difference is only two hours. This is the second book – I think the second in a row – where Connelly makes a serious time-zone error, previously between two mainland time zones. He really needs to brush up on this. Or his publisher needs better fact checkers. The other error: Connelly keeps saying “in Maui,” “in Oahu” etc. No. Unlike Guam, Taiwan or Singapore, one is never “in” an island here (although you can be “in the islands.”) (I guess if you’re dead and buried here, then you are.) One is “on Maui,” “on Oahu,” etc. No one – and I mean NO ONE – uses “in” in this context. Now, an ignorant mainlander could be forgiven for making this mistake, but Renee Ballard is from Maui, and she makes this mistake repeatedly, and no one from Maui would ever do so. But these are minor quibbles. It’s a great story with some great detective work and a narrative that will keep you involved. Recommended.
Have started Henry V: The Astonishing Triumph of England’s Greatest Warrior King, by Dan Jones. I am still in the young Henry’s childhood and am struck by how much King Richard II resembles Donald Trump in temperament. Things do not end well for Richard, because of that temperament. I can only hope it will be the same for Trump.
1635: The Weaver’s Code, by Eric Flint and Jody Lynn Nye – the latest book set in Flint’s 1632 universe.
The Flavia de Luce mysteries, by Alan Bradley – just binged the first five, but am now taking a break from them so I can finish Flint & Nye.
Finished The Big Four by Dame Agatha Christie. On the whole not too bad, the small mysteries inside the larger mystery kept the chase from getting boring. I’m startled by how much almost 60 year old Kris does NOT like Hastings and think he is rather a tool. 
I just reread the entire Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. It was interesting in that when I read them once a year as they came out, I forgot too many details from the previous books. Then I read the latest Martin Walker book on Bruno. Pretty tense, but I enjoyed it. Then I got the latest Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny. I have to say, it was an unpleasant read, but once I started I had to see it to the extremely exciting end.
This World Is Not Yours Kemi Ashing-Giwa
Ostensibly an action, horror sci-fi set on a distant planet. It was set on a distant planet, but other than that, no.
Two small groups of humans are attempting to settle a distant world. Early on, one group attacks the other and destroys a lot of their equipment, including the IVF lab. As a result, the government of the attached group orders same sex couples to split up and partner with opposite sex couples to have babies. The first two-thirds of the book follows the psychodrama soap opera of one such foursome. I don’t know about the last third, because I gave up reading it.
Not recommended
Finished Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See, by Bianca Bosker, which was occasionally amusing and/or interesting.
Next up: House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday and Simple Gifts: A Memoir of a Shaker Village by Jane Sprigg.
I just finished Volumes 1 and 2 of The Wrong Earth. A graphic novel series about how two versions of a superhero, one who’s a cheesy optimist in the vein of g
Batman 1966, the other a grim and gritty cynic (a la the Dark Knight) switch Earths. The dark one dealing with colorful villains who have crazy scenes and lightning dealing with a city filled with corruption and murder. It was not bad.
Today I read Unspeakable Things, by Jess Lourey. It’s about a young girl living in a small town. Her schoolmates are being attacked by a mysterious man, but she has plenty of problems in her own secretive household. Very dark subject matter, but it wasn’t so detailed that it ran me off. In fact I’m glad I read it all in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down.
Today I read So Witches We Became, by Jill Baguchinsky. Very YA, very slow, not enough witchcraft. The title and cover art were the best parts.
Finished listening to Conclave by Robert Harris. A good read about the election of a new Pope by a divided, scheming, and backstabbing College of Cardinals. Would recommend and now I definitely want to see the movie.
Next up: An Officer and a Spy by the same author.
Reading Walter Isaacson’s biography about Steve Jobs. I feel it’s pretty fair, I bought his biography about Musk but given what’s happened with him politically in the last year or so I’m in no rush to read it…
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