What are you reading the week of August 19, 2023?

I finished up the collection of the complete poems of Enheduana. At least half of the book consisted of essays on Sumerian poetry and the Babylonian obsession with the ancient past. The fact that the four thousand year old poems of a priestess has survived until the present day is amazing. More time passed between the life of Enheduana and that of Julius Caesar than between Caesar and today.

I'm currently about a third of the way through Thursday the Rabbi Walked Out.

Switching back and forth between Silver Nitrate and Yugoslav Fighter Colours 1918-1941. Will probably start Born of Lakes and Plains after that.

Having finished those books, I'm now switching back and forth between Origin and several hardware books; particularly Savoia-Marchetti S.79.

This week I listened to Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Japanese writer Satoshi Yagisawa. Japanese life and culture seem to be so very different than life in Canada so I am always struck by people's actions and reactions in Japanese books. That was true of this novella. It's definitely worth reading, but I came away from it feeling cold and confused by the ending.

I've been trying to read Jo Nesbo's Killing Moon this week, it's his latest book in the Harry Hole series. For the first time ever, I can't get into the book. Nesbo is, for me, one of those authors that get you lost in his prose for hours on end, and it just isn't happening here. I'm probably going to shelve it and try something else. I'll get back to Harry when I'm in a different mood.

Today I finally finished the awful Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather. I know it's a bad book for me when death finally comes for the main character and my thought is, At last!!

I'm also still reading the riveting The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson.

downloaded these two YA audios via Libby ~

Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman

and

Will Sparrow's Road by Karen Cushman

Finishing up Night Train to Mother that I'm finally finishing after 3 failed attempts over the past 30+ years. Also still reading The Bourne Ultimatum to decide if I want to read it all the way through, or just put it in the Little Free Library nearby.

I finally started the Xanth series this spring, and they are amazingly addictive! I'm now on Well-Tempered Clavicle, book 35 in the series. They are all different and all good! I thought the heavy use of puns would send me away after the first book or two, but Anthony's plots are well-developed and the characters grow throughout.

I am reading The World According to Bob, a memoir by James Bowen. This is the second book in a 2-part series about how a ginger cat — Bob — enters the life of James Bowen and helps him with daily living. James is a former heroin addict trying to make a living the honest way on the streets of London. Bob becomes his companion and best friend. Heartwarming but also painful just knowing that this is a true story.

>4 PaperbackPirate: Lol. Glad you made it out alive.

I just finished Ann Patchett's new book, Tom Lake, and I loved it. These last few weeks have been full of distractions and I blame them and not the book that it took me 12 days to read.

>9 Copperskye: LOL! Barely!

I just finished Unseen: Unpublished Black History from The New York Times Photo Archives by Darcy Eveleigh, Dana Canedy, Damien Cave, and Rachel L. Swarns. This is a beautiful coffee table book full of great photographs and fascinating back stories. In 2016, New York Times photo editor Darcy Eveleigh tumbled onto the fact that there were tens of thousands of photographs and negatives languishing, usually unseen for decades, in the Times photo archives. In many cases, Times photographers or freelancers would have shot several rolls of film (remember film?) while on assignment, and either only one of the photos would have been chosen for printing in the paper, or the editors would have ended up running the story without any photos, or the stories might never have been run at all. You can find a lengthy review/description on my 50-Book Challenge thread.

I'm now reading through the pocket sized City Lights Publishing edition of Frank O'Hara's poems called Lunch Poems. I've been going through them very slowly, in many cases rereading two or three times. Next for me will be something lighter, Three Thirds of a Ghost, the third entry of the obscure but entertaining Jupiter Jones mystery series from the 1940s.

Young Master Darcy: A Lesson in Honour
Pamela Aidan
4/5 stars
Pamela Aidan explores the life of Master Darcy as a teen in 1797. His mother is ill and he is struggling with her illness as the Christmas season begins and he has to return to Pemberly and the expectations of his family. Books by Pamela Aidan

The Last Chance Library – Freya Sampson
Digital audiobook narrated by Nathalie Pownal
3***

From the book jacket: June Jones has never left the sleepy English village where she grew up. Shy and reclusive, the twenty-eight-year-old would rather spend her time buried in books than venture out into the world. But when her library is threatened with closure, June is forced to step out from behind the shelves to save the heart of her community and the place that holds the dearest memories of her mother.

My reactions:
This was just lovely. June’s growth throughout the book is wonderful to see. I also like how initial impressions of people are sometimes proven quite wrong, and how the various relationships / friendships developed. There’s a bit of a romance, but a very slow burn … June has to find her inner strength before she can commit to any relationship.

The cast of supporting characters runs the gamut from an elderly patron who can never remember how to use the computer, to a youngster discovering the joys of reading, to a head librarian who rarely lets her guard down, to a young lawyer only temporarily in town to help his ailing father. All of them a fleshed out and really give a sense of community to the novel.

It was a charming diversion from everyday life – perfect for when you want a cozy read with a happy ending.

Nathalie Pownall does a fine job narrating the audiobook. She sets a good pace and handled the various characters easily.

Gaudy Night – Dorothy L Sayers
Book on CD read by Ian Carmichael
2.5***

Book # 10 in the Lord Peter Wimsey series focuses not on Peter, but on Harriet Vane.

Harriet arrives at Shrewsbury College, Oxford, for the annual celebration known as Gaudy Night. She is one of the alumnae, though hardly typical, remaining single and earning her living as a mystery writer, while keeping company with Lord Peter Wimsey, whose proposals of marriage she keeps declining. But what promised to be a pleasant, if sometimes awkward, homecoming, turns decidedly ominous with a series of destructive “pranks” and malicious, vile graffiti.

This seemed very slow and plodding for a mystery, and I wasn’t terribly interested in much of it. Lord Peter is off on some secret assignment, and difficult to reach, though Harriet does manage to get him to come to her aid when she’s unable to capture the “poltergeist” on her own.

There were times when I was ready to applaud Sayers’ efforts at focusing the story on the women – not just the students and staff of Shrewsbury, but the alumnae who were also present. There certainly were plenty of suspects and the perpetrator seemed able to vanish without a trace. But the series is focused on Lord Peter Wimsey, after all, so he had to make an appearance. Still, I was irritated that it was HE who finally solved the case. And the speech the culprit gave once caught, a diatribe on “women’s place at home, caring for her man and not taking jobs as should be his,” just set my teeth on edge.

Ian Carmichael is a talented actor, and he plays Lord Peter in the BBC series based on these books. But with the focus on Harriet and the women of Shrewsbury, I think the audiobook would have been better if narrated by a woman.

Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
Digital audiobook performed by Ralph Cosham.
3.5***

A classic coming-of-age adventure tale set in the 18th century. Jim Hawkins is witness to some strange goings on in his parents’ inn. After his father dies, Jim and his mother escape the inn with a packet that once belonged to Captain Bones; the package includes a treasure map. Jim shows the map to physician Dr Livesey and squire John Trelawney, and they decide to go in search of the treasure aboard Trelawney’s vessel, the Hispaniola. On board ship, Jim meets various crew members, including the cook, a one-legged man named Long John Silver.

Shiver me timbers, but this was good! There are intrigues, dangers, plots, mutinies, battles, and double-crosses galore to keep the reader engaged and turning pages. And if danger isn’t enough, there are the added lures of the tropics and of treasure. If the story line is somewhat farfetched, well, who cares. It’s fun and exciting. And Stevenson gave birth to the quintessential pirate – a man with one wooden pegleg and with a parrot on his shoulder.

Ralph Cosham does a marvelous job of narrating the audiobook. I’d probably give him 5***** for his performance.

I also had the Scribner illustration edition handy to refer to. I’m so glad this is the edition I got from my library. It has 13 full-color plates of illustrations by N.C. Wyeth. A treasure, indeed!

These Three Remain
Pamela Aidan
4/5 stars
I do love the original book and the movie of Pride and Prejudice and was so happy to find this four-book series. The books encompassed Fitzwilliam Darcy as the lead character and which tells his side of the story. Highly recommended!

From the library: Summer in the Spotlight by Liz Johnson
New and #3 in the "Prince Edward Island Shores" series, a Christian fiction contemporary romance

The new thread is up over here.