Books Read in March 2024

Even though I am getting my summary of reading for March 2024 out very late, I am happy because I have actually written reviews for six of the nine books I read. For me that is very good. And I enjoyed almost all of the books. So March was a good reading month. 

Of the fiction books I read this month, six were published between 2007 and 2020. Only two were published before 1960. That is a big change in the direction of my reading. I read too many exceptional books to pick a favorite for the month but I am glad I reread another book by Rex Stout. And I am in the middle of a book of three novellas in the Nero Wolfe series, Curtains for Three. 

This week I participated in the Classics Club Spin, where 20 books are listed and a random number between 1 and 20 is selected. The book that resulted from the spin for me to read for this spin was The Warden by Anthony Trollope. I am happy with that pick because I haven't read anything by Trollope before.

Here are the nine books I finished reading in March:

Nonfiction

The Book of Books (2007) by Les Krantz and Tim Knight

The subtitle of this book is "An Eclectic Collection of Reading Recommendations, Quirky Lists, and Fun Facts about Books." It has a more formal approach than the Book Lust series by Nancy Pearl, although it was published around the same time. This book is made up of lists of books about specific subjects, or genres and subgenres. Each book on the lists is summarized briefly. Some of the lists came from outside sources and some were put together by the authors.

Fiction

My Name is Lucy Barton (2016) by Elizabeth Strout

While Lucy Barton is in a hospital in New York City for many weeks due to complications following an appendectomy, her mother visits her and they have some strained conversations about the past. The story is set in the 1980s, and Lucy narrates it, years after it happened. See my review. 

The Glass Hotel (2020) Emily St. John Mandel 

This story revolves around Paul Smith and his half-sister Vincent Smith, and starts when they are teens. Many other characters that they interact with then and later in their lives are important to the plot. Set in Canada. See my review. 

Crime Fiction

The Silver Swan (2007) by Benjamin Black

Set in Ireland in the 1950s, this is the 2nd book about Quirke, a pathologist working in a hospital in Dublin.  Benjamin Black is a pseudonym of John Banville. See my review.

Defectors (2017) by Joseph Kanon

This is the first book I have read by Joseph Kanon, and it definitely won't be my last. I have six more of his books on my shelves. The Defectors focuses on a group of American and British spies living in and around Moscow during the Cold War, after defecting. My focus was on the relationship of the two brothers in the story, Frank, the US spy who defected to Russia in 1949, and Simon, his younger brother, who had to leave his job in intelligence to work in publishing after Frank's defection. In 1961, Simon has been allowed to come to Moscow to work with Frank on publishing his memoirs. He has not seen or heard from Frank in the years since his defection. I loved the exploration of family relationships, but the story has plenty of action also.

Your Republic is Calling You (2006) by Young-ha Kim

The story takes place over the course of one day in the life of Ki-Yong, a South Korean with a wife and teenage daughter. Except that he is really a North Korean spy who has been living in Seoul, working as a film importer, over 20 years, and has now been recalled to North Korea. See my review.

A Beautiful Place to Die (2008) Malla Nunn

This is a historical mystery, set in a very small town on the border between South Africa and Mozambique in 1952. New apartheid laws have recently gone into effect. The protagonist is an English police detective who is investigating the death of an Afrikaner police captain. See my review.

A Scream in Soho (1940) by John G. Brandon

This was one of the earlier books in the British Library Crime Classics series, and it was the only book this month that I was disappointed with. It is not a bad book, it is just that it is more a thriller than a mystery, along the lines of Edgar Wallace's novels, per the introduction by Martin Edwards. Published during the war, the plot centers around a spy hiding in Soho. It also had a good bit of overt racism and sexism which was distasteful, although not that unusual for book of this period. 

Plot It Yourself (1959) by Rex Stout

This book is part of the Nero Wolfe series; Wolfe is a private detective and his assistant is Archie Goodwin. In this case, the story revolves around authors, publishers, and accusations of plagiarism. The first novel, Fer-de-Lance, was published in 1934. See my review.

Currently reading

I started The Mistress of Alderley by Robert Barnard last night, and surprised myself by reading 100 pages. Caroline Fawley has given up her acting career quite willingly to live in an elegant home in the country. Her wealthy lover Marius purchased a country house for her to live in, but her children worry that she is depending too much on his generosity, with no promise of marriage. This book has a surprise appearance by Inspector Oddie and Detective Charlie Peace from Barnard's Charlie Peace series; I have read all except the last two books in that series.

The photos at the top and bottom of this post were taken in late March in our back yard after we had a good bit of rain. The lighting was perfect. We had a lot of weeds in the back at the time, and we still do. Lots of work to be done. 

The photos were taken and processed by my husband. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

 

Classics Club Spin #37, April 2024

The latest Classics Club Spin has been announced. To join in, I choose twenty books from my classics list. On Sunday, 21st April, 2024, the Classics Club will post a number from 1 through 20. The goal is to read whatever book falls under that number on my Spin List by Sunday, 2nd June, 2024.

So, here is my list of 20 books for the spin...

1. Patricia Highsmith – The Talented Mr.Ripley (1955)
2. Shirley Jackson – We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962)
3. Madeleine L'Engle – A Wrinkle in Time (1962)
4. William Shakespeare – Much Ado About Nothing (1598)
5. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein (1818)
6. John Steinbeck – Cannery Row (1945)
7. William Thackeray – Vanity Fair (1848)
8. Anthony Trollope – The Warden (1855)
9. Oscar Wilde – The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
10. Virginia Woolf – Flush (1933)
11. Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart (1958)
12. Roald Dahl – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
13. Charlotte Brontë – Jane Eyre (1847) 
14. Anne Brontë – Agnes Grey (1847)
15. Albert Camus – The Stranger (1942)
16. Lewis Carroll – Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
17. Willa Cather – My Ántonia (1918)
18. Kenneth Grahame – The Wind in the Willows (1908)
19. Graham Greene – Our Man in Havana (1958)
20. Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

This is the same list as I used last time, except for one change to eliminate the book that I read for the last spin, and add Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Are there any of these you especially like... or dislike?

My top choice would be The Wind in the Willows.

The #1937Club: They Found Him Dead by Georgette Heyer

I read They Found Him Dead by Georgette Heyer for the 1937 Club hosted by Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings. And isn't this a lovely image for the club?

They Found Him Dead begins with a large gathering of family and friends at the home of Silas Kane and his mother, Emily Kane. The occasion is Silas Kane's 60th birthday celebration. With most of the main cast introduced at the beginning, it is difficult to figure out the relationships. But that is part of the fun.  And there are some very interesting characters in this family.

The next day the body of one of the family members is discovered at the bottom of a cliff and the death appears to be accidental. But when there is a second death in the family, Scotland Yard is called in. Inspector Hannasyde and Sergeant Hemingway arrive and start gathering facts and evidence. Young Timothy Harte, 15 years old, is staying at the Kane's country house while his parents are traveling; he is fascinated by the investigation and offers plenty of tips to the policemen. 

My favorite character, possibly because we get much of the story from her point of view, is Patricia Allison, companion and secretary to Emily Kane. She is intelligent and down-to-earth. She has caught the eye of Jim Kane, who is Timothy Harte's half-brother. Most (if not all) of Heyer's mysteries involve a romance, but I liked this potential romance because there isn't a lot of angst involved. The focus of the novel is not on the romance but on the mystery.

Another wonderful character is Lady Norma Harte, Timothy and Jim's mother, who is traveling in Africa as the book starts but returns in time to be considered a suspect. She is a strong female character, not afraid to speak her mind.

I haven't even mentioned the Mansell's, a family who have been close friends of the Kane's for years. Joseph and his son Paul are partners in the firm of Kane and Mansell. The Mansell's seem to be pushing the Kanes to support a scheme in Australia that Silas Kane is not in favor of. There are many more characters I haven't described and you can see how confusing the many characters could be. In this case it was not a problem at all for me and the book was a lot of fun to read.

There are eight mysteries by Heyer featuring Hannasyde and / or Hemingway. In later mysteries, Hemingway has worked his way up to Inspector.

I loved this interchange between the policemen from Scotland Yard:

“You're more prejudiced against Paul Mansell than I've ever known you to be against anyone," said Hannasyde.

"Not prejudiced,"said the Sergeant firmly. "I never let myself get prejudiced. All I say is, that he's a nasty, slimy, double-faced tick who'd murder his own grandmother if he saw a bit of money to be got out of it.”

The only small complaint I have is that I did not like the ending. It made sense, and the groundwork had been laid, but it just wasn't satisfying. But overall, a good read, and I am eager to read more of Heyer's mysteries.

The two mystery novels by Heyer that I have read in the last few years are Envious Casca (1941), set at Christmas, and Death in the Stocks (1935). I enjoyed both of them.

Short Story Wednesday: "Disguise for Murder" by Rex Stout

 

Rex Stout's "Disguise for Murder" is an 80-page story in the Nero Wolfe series. It is one of three stories in Curtains for Three, published in 1950. 

The introduction to the book describes the contents as three novelettes, although I think 80 pages is more like a novella. No matter, it is an entertaining story. It was first published in The American Magazine, September 1950, as "The Twisted Scarf". 

As usual, Archie Goodwin narrates the story. Some semi-regular characters are included: Saul Panzer, a free lance detective; Fritz, the cook; and Inspector Cramer of the NYC police.

As the story begins, the Manhattan Flower Club has been allowed to visit Nero Wolfe's greenhouse at the top of his brownstone, to view his orchid collection. Saul and Fritz are vetting all the attendees and Archie is mingling and otherwise keeping an eye on the crowd. 

While mingling he notices an attractive young woman. Later in the afternoon she meets with Archie in Wolfe's office, and tells him that she can identify the murderer in a case that has plagued the police department for months. She seeks an audience with Wolfe, but before that happens she is found dead in Wolfe's office, after most of the guests have departed. 

After the police are done examining the scene and interviewing witnesses, Inspector Cramer refuses to allow Wolfe access to his office for an extended period of time. This infuriates Wolfe, and he decides to solve the case himself rather than collaborate with the police. He has spotted a clue that Cramer obviously missed in the witness statements. He proposes that Archie take on a dangerous assignment to unmask the killer. Saul Panzer is Archie's back up but the plan goes awry, and in the end it is all up to Archie.  This one has a little more action than usual and less humor.

I did have a quibble with the last part of the story (and it bothers me every time I read it), but I still consider this one of the most memorable of the novellas. 

The other two novellas in Curtains for Three are "The Gun with Wings" and "Bullet for One".

Plot It Yourself: Rex Stout

I had not planned to review this book, but then I realized that this is a bookish book, with the plot revolving around authors, publishers, and accusations of plagiarism. Rex Stout gets to poke some fun at publishers, authors, and even himself in this book.

Rex Stout wrote 33 novels and 41 novellas about the private detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant, Archie Goodwin. The series began in 1934, with Fer-de-lance, and the last book in the series, A Family Affair, was published in 1975, shortly before Stout's death. I have read all of the novels and the shorter works several times over the years, so this was a reread for me.

In Plot It Yourself, four authors have been accused of plagiarism over four years. The four incidents have been similar, and looking back it is clear that they were carefully planned and have similarities. In most of the cases, the publishers have settled before the case went to trial. When a fifth author is accused of plagiarism, a group of authors and publishers band together to get help with this issue. They ask Nero Wolfe to solve the mystery of who is behind the false plagiarism claims.

Wolfe takes some time evaluating the situation, reading the books of the people who claim to have been plagiarized, and comes up with a plan to identify the culprit. When a death occurs as a result of his investigation, Wolfe realizes he has made an unpardonable mistake. Now that there is a death, the police are investigating that crime, but the publishers group asks Wolfe to continue working on the plagiarism case. 

Nero Wolfe has many quirks. He doesn't like to leave his house; he is a confirmed armchair detective. He lets Archie do much of the leg work and pulls in a team of freelance investigators when needed. He spends most of his time on gourmet food, cooking, beer, and orchids. While working on this case, he is so enraged by the mistake he made that he vows to eat no meat and drink no beer until the murderer is caught.

See my post about Top Ten Reasons Why I Love Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Series for an overview of the series.

This is actually a very good book for someone new to the Nero Wolfe series to start out with. It is a straightforward mystery. Some of Rex Stout's novels can be fairly convoluted and seem to involve intuition just as much as detection, which doesn't bother me, because I am reading more for characters than plot in this series. 

This book counts for the Bookish Books Reading Challenge hosted by Susan at Bloggin' 'bout Books.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:  Bantam, 1989. Orig. pub. 1959.
Length:      208 pages
Format:     Paperback
Series:      Nero Wolfe, #32
Setting:     New York
Genre:      Mystery
Source:     A reread.

Two Brief Reviews

I read these books in March. Both were good books and very different stories. Each was challenging to read at times, and both were well worth the effort.

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

The story is about a woman, Lucy Barton, who was in a hospital in New York City in the 1980s for many weeks due to complications following an appendectomy. Her husband doesn't visit her very often because they have two young daughters at home and he has a job. Her mother comes to sit with her for a few days when she is in the hospital and they have some strained conversations about the past. This leads Lucy to remember her strange and unfortunate upbringing and her relationship with her parents and siblings. 

Lucy tells the story; thus it feels very personal. She is telling it years after it happened. That approach worked very well.

My thoughts...

•  I loved this book. I do have to caution that this is not a happy, feel good book; I found it unsettling and sad at times.  Also sometimes it was very funny. 
• On the other hand, it is only about 200 pages long and it had me longing to read more about Lucy and her life. Fortunately there are three more books about Lucy Barton. 
• I like the themes, childhood experiences and mother-daughter relationships. This was only my second book by Strout; I read Olive Kitteridge a few years ago. 

A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn

This is a historical mystery, set in a very small town on the border between South Africa and Mozambique in 1952. New apartheid laws have recently gone into effect. 

The protagonist is an English police detective who is investigating the death of an Afrikaner police captain. The Security Branch takes over the investigation. They would like to blame the death on black communist radicals, and will be happy to beat a confession out of any suspect that fits their bias. Detective Emmanuel Cooper is directed by his superior to stay in the area so that he can ensure that the real murderer is arrested, if possible.

The story gets very complex. Emmanuel, an emotionally traumatized World War II vet, has problems of his own. The dead Afrikaner policeman's sons have it in for him, and he spends a lot of time avoiding them. He is lucky to be working with a native Zulu officer, Shabalala and a Jewish doctor who has no real credentials in South Africa.

My thoughts:

• The setting of South Africa in the 1950s was well done. There was plenty of action and a sense of dread about how the English detective could survive. 
• I could have done without some of the melodrama but I liked the depiction of apartheid at this time, and hope to continue reading the series. 
• Apartheid is not a totally new subject to me, but I don't know much about it. I am still trying to understand the differences between the various racial groups involved.
• It was a good story but a difficult read. The same thing applies to the other book I read that was set in South Africa during apartheid, A Lonely Place to Die by Wessel Ebersohn. That one was published in 1979 and set around that time.