What are you currently reading?

[San Antone]

The Man with a Load of Mischief (Richard Jury Mysteries Book 1)
by Martha Grimes

[steve ridgway]

Brian Cox & Andrew Cohen - Wonders of Life

Moving on to the story of life.

[Iota]

Brian Cox himself is one of the wonders of life as far as I'm concerned. I find anything even vaguely scientific presented by him is unfailingly fascinating and enthusing.
I've not yet experienced him in print and may delay that encounter yet awhile. Hope you're enjoying it.

[steve ridgway]

Brian Cox himself is one of the wonders of life as far as I'm concerned. I find anything even vaguely scientific presented by him is unfailingly fascinating and enthusing.
I've not yet experienced him in print and may delay that encounter yet awhile. Hope you're enjoying it.

Chapter 1 was very good. The books of BBC TV series are usually informative but easy reading; I want a basic and non-demanding overview of the big picture before getting on to the large university textbook.

[San Antone]

Gallows Court (Rachel Savernake Golden Age Mysteries Book 1)
by Martin Edwards

[Bachthoven]

This is quite an interesting historical fiction novel, and one can tap a link on the Kindle app on an iPad and listen to the piece of music by Chopin in question.

[Philo]

Lazarsfeld & Henry's Latent structure analysis

[ritter]

I was in Paris last week to close a deal I had been working on for months, and we had a very pleasant dinner at the restaurant Drouant, which is famous for being where the deliberations for the Prix Goncourt (France's most distinguished literary prize) are held since 1914. We could visit the private upstairs dining room where the jury meets, and the walls are decorated with the covers of the winning novels (some firmly established classics, others almost completely forgotten today).

The next day I bought last year's winner, Laurent Mauvignier's La Maison vide ("The Empty House"), which one of my colleagues at the dinner recommended vividly for its style. The French Wikipedia article on the book describes it thus: "Family fresco and meditation on memory, the book traces one hundred and fifty years of history through the silences, wounds and  disclosures of a French rural lineage". Its 740 pages are rather intimidating, but I'll give it a try.

[JBS]

I subscribe to a Bach-focused substack by Evan Goldfine.

Today he made a literary side-trip through Moby Dick.

https://open.substack.com/pub/yearofbach/p/rooting-for-the-whale-and-eight-other

[steve ridgway]

Richard Fortey - Life

I've been finding just the books I want in charity shops recently  .

[Bachthoven]

Somehow, I have not read this before now, so I figured a free Kindle version from Amazon would be a good place to start. It's very good, if often quite brutal.

[arpeggio]

Issac Asimov The Robots of Dawn.

[Karl Henning]

Revisiting a boyhood favorite. It's been so long since I've read A Wrinkle in Time I forgot that Madeleine L'Engle cheekily opens with "It was a dark and stormy night."

[San Antone]

A Man Lay Dead: Inspector Roderick Alleyn #1 by Ngaio Marsh



Crime comes to a country house: "Any Ngaio Marsh story is certain to be Grade A, and this one is no exception." —The New York Times

This classic from the Golden Age of British mystery opens during a country-house party between the two world wars—servants bustling, gin flowing, the gentlemen in dinner jackets, the ladies all slink and smolder. Even more delicious: The host, Sir Hubert Handesley, has invented a new and especially exciting version of that beloved parlor entertainment, The Murder Game . . .

"It's time to start comparing Christie to Marsh instead of the other way around." —New York Magazine

"A peerless practitioner of the slightly surreal, English-village comedy-mystery." —Kirkus Reviews

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've been reading from The "Four Queens of Crime" who dominated British mystery writing during the Golden Age (1920s-30s): Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Ngaio Marsh.  I had to look up how to pronouce Ms Marsh's name, it turns out to be "nai-ow maash".

[Mandryka]

Somehow, I have not read this before now, so I figured a free Kindle version from Amazon would be a good place to start. It's very good, if often quite brutal.

Bill Sykes is pretty horrible isn't he!

It's interesting how much child abuse there is in Victorian literature -- the worst example I know is Les Miserables -- the way the Tenardiers abuse Cosette, those two little starving maltreated boys who Gavroche takes into the elephant, and who just disappear, don't come back  -- no-one cares. Dickens and Hugo could get away with more than today's authors, I suspect. The last major novel with really disturbing child abuse that I can think of is Faulkner's Light in August (1932)

Do you think it's an anti-Jewish novel?

[Bachthoven]

Do you think it's an anti-Jewish novel?

Not sure yet. I'm setting it aside for a while since I don't care for his writing style.

[Karl Henning]

Bill Sykes is pretty horrible isn't he!

It's interesting how much child abuse there is in Victorian literature -- the worst example I know is Les Miserables -- the way the Tenardiers abuse Cosette, those two little starving maltreated boys who Gavroche takes into the elephant, and who just disappear, don't come back  -- no-one cares. Dickens and Hugo could get away with more than today's authors, I suspect. The last major novel with really disturbing child abuse that I can think of is Faulkner's Light in August (1932)

Do you think it's an anti-Jewish novel?

Yes, Sykes is a thorough scoundrel. 

[Karl Henning]

Revisiting a boyhood favorite. It's been so long since I've read A Wrinkle in Time I forgot that Madeleine L'Engle cheekily opens with "It was a dark and stormy night."

Finished Wrinkle last night. Hit me as thoroughly fresh. And now I've just started Wind in the Door. Back when I first read it (last century sometime) I think I just wasn't ready for its differences from Wrinkle. Enjoying it entirely now.

[Florestan]

It's interesting how much child abuse there is in Victorian literature -- the worst example I know is Les Miserables -- the way the Tenardiers abuse Cosette, those two little starving maltreated boys who Gavroche takes into the elephant, and who just disappear, don't come back  -- no-one cares.

In what ways is Victor Hugo a Victorian writer, other than his name being Victor?   

[Mandryka]

Victor

That reminds me of Victor/Victoria.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor/Victoria