Just finished The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer, a very enjoyable pastiche that “answers” some big questions about Sherlock Holmes’s childhood and personal motivations.
That sounds interesting. I’ve been working my way through the 007 books off and on over the past few years.
Nicholas Meyer wrote two sequels to The Seven per cent Solution.
The West End Horror isn’t bad. George Bernard Shaw substitutes for Freud as the Historical Character He Teams Up With, but there are cameos by just about everyone in the London Theater scene at the time.
The Canary Trainer isn’t about Wilson, as you’d expect from the title. It’s Sherlock Holmes Meets The Phantom of the Opera. (other peope have treated this meetup, too, most notably Sam Siciliano in The Angel of the Opera). Not one of Meyer’s better pastiches.
He also wrote a one-page Sherlock Holmes Investigates Watergate for the “Endpaper” feature in the New York Times Sunday Magazine circa 1974.
Finished Pure Drivel by Steve Martin. Meh.
Now I’m reading Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman.
Well, at least it wasn’t pure drivel.
Starting today on The Best Horror of the Year, volume 11, edited by Ellen Datlow.
Yes, I read both back in the Nineties and was underwhelmed. Probably won’t go back to 'em. June Thomson remains my all-time favorite Holmes pastiche writer.
A little over a fifth of the way through Falls the Shadow, by Sharon Kay Penman, the second novel in her Welsh Princes trilogy. Historical fiction in 13th-century England and Wales.
I finished Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and to quote my review on Goodreads: I would have given this a solid 5 stars except for the Scooby Dooish ending. Seriously, she needed to end the story before all the tweeing of Barclay Cove and definitely before the climatic reveal. It just ruined the whole atmosphere of the story for me… and it just didn’t fit with the character and their behaviors.
Overall however, the book is beautiful and reduced me to tears more than once, one of those times on the freeway… and a lot of social media yelling. The characters, with two notable exceptions, were weel drawn and had their own space in my head as I listened to the story unfold. The pacing was great, for a story that covered nearly 20 years, it never bogged down or was a slog to read. Her prose is a bit too flowery for my taste in places, but to give her her due, Ms Owens did know when to rein the diarrhea in and get back to the story.
Finished The Giver Quartet. Meh. The final one featured a pretty uninteresting antagonist who brought down an otherwise fine YA book.
Then I read The Witch-Boy, a YA graphic novel about a boy who grows up in a magical family. All the boys learn to shapeshift and fight demons, while all the girls learn to cast spells and do herbal magic. Except the protagonist is a very effeminate boy who can’t shapeshift but can cast spells. It’s a thinly-veiled metaphor for transgenderism, but also a thinly-veiled critique of gender roles, but also a thinly-veiled examination of what kids do when their dreams are at odds with parental expectations, but also a great adventure story. Right up my alley!
The sequel, The Hidden Witch, was also quite good.
Looking for my next read.
Mama’s Last Hug. Terrific book exploring whether animals have real emotions.
I’ve started Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime. It’s been floating around our house for months now, my wife and daughter have both read it, and it ended up on my nightstand (which is a sure sign that one of them thinks I ought to read it). The first couple of chapters are shocking – as they’re meant to be. That someone that much younger than me had to go through all that outrageousness does boggle my mind.
I picked up and read the Arcadia Press book on Southbridge, Masachusetts. I was at an Open House for the Optical Heritage Museum there on Sunday, and they were selling the book.
I also picked up a used copy of The Other Side of Oz. It’s Buddy Ebsen’s autobiography, and looks like a short but interesting read.
A valuable quality in a writer!
Actually, this book was a collection of humorous short stories. “Pure Drivel” was probably the best. It was about an editor of a magazine called Pure Drivel, who worked up the courage to write drivel of his own. Inspiring stuff.
Just finished Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. Not bad.
Now I’m reading Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant, by Anne Gardiner Perkins.
Sounds like the author needs to go to a fabric store and pick up some burlap.
Finished Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. Highly recommend. It’s not an easy read, but an interesting take on the interplay between Nazi anti-Semitism and Soviet anti-mostly Polish and Ukrainian nationalism, which turned into somewhat the same thing. Interesting discussion of Soviet revisionist history about the Holocaust.
The conclusion is the best part. One part stood out particularly - we can’t think of the Nazis as inhuman. Because that’s what the Nazis thought about the Jews.
Also listened to Spy the Lie while driving out of town. Very over-hyped - the authors cherry-picked their examples way too much. If their lie-spotting techniques are so good, they should be able to come up with less obvious stories, where the bad guy practically confesses in front of them.
Now finishing Dutch Courage, a collection of Jack London’s early short stories for YA. A nice little palate-cleanser to reset my taste for whatever I tackle next. On audio dog-walking books I have Thuvia: Maid of Mars by E.R. Burroughs for the same reason.
Regards,
Shodan
It’s young adult, where the thin veils are just fine.
Finished Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant, by Anne Gardiner Perkins. Not bad.
Now I’m reading The House of Dies Drear, by Virginia Hamilton.
Finished The House of Dies Drear, by Virginia Hamilton. It’s very good. Wish I’d read it as a kid.
Now I’m reading Paul Laurence Dunbar: A Poet to Remember, by Patricia C. McKissack.
Finished. Anthologies are always hit and miss, but this one had a pretty high signal to noise ratio. One story I didn’t finish (Laird Barron’s; too weird and boring); a few stories that just didn’t belong or didn’t do it for me (Robert Shearman’s Thumbsucker); some absolutely delightful stuff (honorable mention to Michael Marshall Smith, Dale Bailey, Joe Hill, and Adam-Troy Castro). Recommended.
Starting today on Caitlin Doughty’s Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big questions from tiny mortals about death. Do you know the answer? Would you like to? Probably not, at least not right away. They’ll start with the easier stuff like lips, noses, and eyelids. Your dog will do the same.
As I said long ago on this Board, I’m not sure that our cats will wait until we’re completely dead before they start nibbling.