The Library

[PatH]

The Library Our library  is open 24/7; the welcome mat is always out. Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us.

[PatH]

I think I've read all of Dick Frances' books.  They vary a lot in quality, but most of them are good reads.  I learned most of what I know about racing from his books, and can make sense of what's going on in a race now.  They aren't all about racing; a few of them don't even have a horse in them, but each one is about some specialized subject or other, and he has done his homework well enough to give you an interesting picture of whatever it is.  They made good airplane reading. You could buy the latest one in the airport, and get most of the way through it on a cross-country trip.

[Tomereader1]

Thanks for posting, Frybabe and PatH.  I read all available posts both here and in Seniors&Friends.  As I mentioned (somewhere) I have several books from the library which I have checked out: "Upstairs At The White House" which is about the first ladies from Eleanor Roosevelt to Pat Nixon; An Autobiography (Agatha Christie); Anomaly; Pines (a mystery); Harlem Shuffle (for my next General Book Club meeting); This Grave Hour (a Jacqueline Winspear mystery).  If I could get away from the streaming TV and my BritBox mysteries, I might get all these books read.  It's a good thing our library system did away with the "late fees" or I'd be in real trouble! Have a good weekend everyone.

[ginny]

Good point, Tome! Busy busy busy, everybody is busy, just trying to keep afloat, really. The problems of success, truly  not enough hours in the day,  but all so satisfying. Why IS it that now there is so little time and so MANY wonderful things...no time, no time, like the White Rabbit.

On reading, mine came to an immediate stop and I enjoy it so much I've tried to  start back. It's certainly a guilty  pleasure when one should be somewhere else doing something else so no one is disappointed.

 And of course it's Agatha Christie for me, now, who has become so popular now with the pandemic and crises that they've come up with a million not only new editions of her books,  but now there are "new" Miss Marple stories, with one from Christie and a whole bunch of new writers on Kindle. Short stories, that's about all I can read now or get into or have time for.  I've always liked a good short story best, though. They really take skill.

I started, however The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, I think it's her first book. It's part of a new series that reprints the book as it was, the diagrams of the house (remember those? I used to pour over those in the past) and the actual print typeface it was written in. I think that last is a mistake, it's such spiky letters and they are so small that it's actually tiring to read. Yet I am progressing, a couple of pages at a time before bed. It's odd. It's strange,  but as always immediately you are drawn into the character which, if somebody asked you could not physically describe.

That's her genius, sucking you immediately into the character with very little description. I don't know how she does it. I imagine that it's been analyzed but it makes the entire book so  personal, because you project ON to it.

At this time of crisis everywhere, I seek escape in entertainment.  There is SO much cruelty and hate in the world today, so much nastiness, I don't want to read about any MORE of it.  Reminds me of the  Great Depression and how Hollywood dealt with it: all the glossy films of beautiful people dancing and descending stairs, etc. Remember those? Glamour laid on with a trowel.


I am so excited to see you all reading A Christmas Carol. For years I read it every Christmas, and can quote a great deal of  it  now without much prompting.

I hope you all will play a rousing game of The Minister's Cat during the discussion. I have always ALWAYS wanted to do that, and that would be a perfect time and commemoration of it.

Have any of you noticed a change in what you read lately? Or is it just me? I hadn't read Agatha Christie in  YEARS, and now it seems I can't get enough of it. She and Caesar in the original do it for me.

What's everybody else reading?

[Frybabe]

I've been on a SciFi binge for years now. It came out of nowhere, really. Lately, I have made a rather successful effort to read other genres as well. There is always at least one SciFi in my reading.

I've decided to give up on the Masters of War lecture series. There are several audio books available to listen to right now, not wait. One is The Road to Little Dribbling and the other is An Officer and a Spy. It is almost a no brainer. Bryson's book is beckoning, but Harris's book has been in the wish list longer. Which to choose. No, Little Dribbling is calling just too strongly.

[BarbStAubrey]

sorry - no time to breathe much less post - found a house in Magnolia and then someone beat me out but 4 days later acted on their option to back out and so then I upped my offer over asking price and got it... then there is inspections and and and ---

The buyer for this house had so many inspections and then to top it off and extensive survey that included placing on the survey all the trees on the property that are over 10 inches in circumference, which are most of them, and he was here for 6 hours

Now all sorts of issues with my license since we could not get an appointment during the pandemic and the appointment they gave me last summer was for December and now more recent my son was able to nab me one for the end of November but by that time I hope to be in Montgomery Country rather than here in Travis county and now the Title companies are saying they cannot close without a valid license -

Shoot the glories of relocating - Unless I kill someone in this process it wouldn't make a book however, I'm about to write a fantasy novel about how if your driver's license is out of date for a year the government representatives assume you died and an outer body terrestrial force entered your body so that Houston can beam you up at a moment's notice carrying with you in your brain all the secrets of property ownership in the state so that terrestrial beings can be beamed back down and take over the land through property ownership.   

[ginny]

  You need a driver's license to buy a house? When did that happen? I thought you meant your  Real Estate License. Do they want you to start driving? Isn't there an alternative document for those who are no longer driving?

You OUGHT to write, Barbara, that was a hoot. I am sure it's not fun in person, very frustrating!

Is that a law all over the country? Could you use a birth certificate?

[ginny]

Frybabe, Little Dribbling is a hoot and a half. Just reading the title makes me want to read it again. It will be interesting to see what you think of it.

We should discuss it chapter by chapter, laughing all the way. We all need a good laugh lately.

[Frybabe]

A note on the audio version of Little Dribbling: It comes with a little ditty sung at the beginning. What a start to a book. Delightful.

[ginny]

 What song is it, Frybabe? Can  you quote it? I only have the print version.

[Frybabe]

Ginny, the song title is The Bryson Line, written and performed by Richard Digance. I am sure this thing is copyrighted, but it begins "The Bryson Line cuts a small island in half". Is it printed in the book somewhere? There are only a few lines. While I couldn't find it on-line, I did find Richard Digance. Wikipedia lists him as a comedian, folk singer and media exec. I hunted him up on YouTube and found a few clips, but not of this song. While I was at it, I looked up The Bryson Line. There is one, now, or was, all because of Bryson's book. It runs (or ran) from Bognor Regis, West Sussex, England to Cape Wrath, Scotland. There is a blog site https://www.thebrysonline.com/ which lists the walks on the fictional Bryson Line which sponsors HNS Charities from 2018 to 2020. For Facebook fans, here is The Bryson Line website. https://www.facebook.com/thebrysonline/ Doesn't look very active now though.

Oh, and BTW, the audio on my borrowed copy of The Road to Little Dribbling was poor. At first, I thought it was my Kindle 8 Fire, but it did the same on my 10, so, I sent it back. Never fear, I went hunting for it on Audible and there is was. As a bonus, it was on sale. So now I own a good copy of it.
 

[ginny]

Oh for heaven's sake, Frybabe!  I did NOT know that about the Bryson Line, that's so cool!

[PatH]

Here's a question for you: my family often gives each other books for presents.  For her birthday, one of my daughters asked for the kindle version of the first volume of any detective series of my choice that I liked and thought she might like.  That was a tough one: I had no idea of her taste in that genre.  Neither did she, and what you want from a detective story isn't necessarily what you want in your other reading.  Tony Hillerman would have been ideal; His loving descriptions of the local terrain are unforgettable, and his description of the Navaho way of thought and life is both interesting and accurate.  Unfortunately, the books often have brutal or gruesomely bloody bits in them which are about at the limit of what I can take, and my stomach is stronger than hers.  I finally settled on Harry Kemelman's series, with a rabbi detective.  They're pleasant and low-key, full of interesting explanations of the philosophy of Judaism, and she would like the Talmudic reasoning with which the rabbi solves his cases.  (She and I are both nitpickers.). So I gave her Friday the Rabbi Slept Late, and she liked it.  The present was open-ended; I would keep giving her more authors until she liked one.

So what would your suggestions be for such a present?

[Frybabe]

That is a tough one for me because I don't read a lot of detective mysteries. I assume she is already passed Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple and Poirot. I've read two Agatha Raisin (M. C. Beaton) so far and liked them. The same with William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor series although I can't say yet just how gruesome they might get.

If she likes historical things, she might like Lindsay Davis's Falco series which begins during Vespasian's reign as emperor. I liked them a lot. You may remember Ginny and I talked here about the series a few years back. The first is Silver Pigs.

Oh, here is a good one, Jasper Fford's Thursday Next series starting with The Eyre Affair. This series follows detective Thursday Next as she tracks down literary characters who jump from fiction to the real world. Here is a description of the series. http://theurbanlegion.com/thursday-next-series/

I would add Alastair Reynolds' Prefect Dreyfus Emergencies series, but he only wrote two of them. They are part of his Revelation Space Universe, but I don't think you need to read them to enjoy them. John Scalzi also dabbled in a SciFi detective series, Lock In being the first. Again, the author only wrote two. A shame really, I very much would like to see more of both SciFi detectives.

I guess you can call Martha Wells, Murderbot Diaries series a detective series of sorts. Although the cyborg is part of a private security firm, he does solve crimes. BTW, Murderbot is what the cyborg calls himself; it does not mean he goes around murdering people. His backstory is that he was a former soldier injured so badly that he ended up being revived as a cyborg. I cannot for the life of me figure out why a recent article/review called him a robot since he is of part human, part (well, mostly) high tech artificial construction. Wells, has won numerous awards for the series. I hope she plans on writing more. 

[BarbStAubrey]

Pat your question reminds me of the many lists asked for about likes that I see on Facebook - several mystery series I have liked and just downloaded a new one that sounds good but have not started yet.

The new one takes place on the Brittney Coast in France with small town problems solved by a detective from Paris. First in the series is, Death in Brittany author is Jean-Luc Bannalec

Then a series centered in Ireland and her work has been more substantial then the quick Detective story the series is A County Cork Mystery by Sheila Connolly. Buried in a Bog is the first

One of my favorites - Did not like at all the film version that is fairly new - my imagined look for the characters is completely different - anyhow any of the Agatha Raisin books are light and fun - a middle age Public relations agent from London who retires in the Cotswolds with no clue how to be a villager, few friends besides the local minister's wife, ends up running her own detective agency. M.C. Beaton the author has another delightful series that takes place in Scotland, Hamish Macbeth mysteries, a lazy cop who does not want ever to be promoted.

The Gabriel Taverner Mysteries - 1607 a ships surgeon turns into a country doctor in Devon the beginning of forensic clues solving murder - First book is A Rustle of Silk and gets into the silk Trade - Alys Clare is the author.

Then finally for the laugh that keeps on giving there is always the extensive series - The Chronicles of Brother Hermitage which takes place in 1066 When the Normans are invading Britain this medieval monk trips over himself and everyone in the monastery however, he solves the mystery each and every time...  First in the series is The Heretics of De'Ath the author is Howard Warwick

[Frybabe]

Cormac McCarthy has a new book, just out, called The Passenger. I've never read any of his works. I am thinking of getting this one.

[PatH]

I've never read any either.  It'll be interesting to see how you like it.

[Dana]

I have become a fan of Audible because I find I love to listen to books in bed ....has to be the right kind....and they lull me to sleep, hopefully after a pleasant interlude of listening to something interesting.  Guess what?  Presently am listening to the Canterbury tales and it is marvellous, perfect to listen to, quite hilarious.  I think next I shall get the Decameron.  Books I either had to read in school (some of) or read as a teenager because it was forbidden....I also got the Iliad and am enjoying that too, but as I am translating it, I think that adds a big appeal.  I am only up to book 5 out of 18 translation-wise, so am in no hurry to finish the listen....I wonder if it will still be on my phone in about 10 years time.....!

[BarbStAubrey]

Cormac McCarthy is often a rough read - he shows the underbelly of man on the same level as heroic deeds - the left hand is no better or worse than the right hand... and his examples of man's underbelly or left hand often shocks like riding desert lands where there are no green valleys or mountains but flat out scorched dry land like an anvil to the sun where the many ways nature can kill are out in the open with no place to hide much as the characters portrayed in Cormac's stories. From the write up of The Passenger it appears his character's consciousness or psyche is like the desert land. As a writer I put him among the gods...

Dana the idea of hearing a story before sleep sounds like a winner and you had me sold on the idea till i realized any story I listen to would end before I heard 2 pages since as soon as my head hits the pillow I'm asleep. During the day I do better with music because I cannot keep track of what is happening if a story is being told while I am doing something else - I bet it would work though if I was having a lazy day especially during colder weather while knitting or even snuggled in the corner of the sofa. I love the idea of hearing read the Canterbury Tales and a few others that we read those many years ago while in school.

Can't wait to unpack and have my music fill the house - we finally have this buyer's loans nailed down - he is doing a construction loan along with the permanent loan that requires him to have the drawings of his plans approved before the lender can submit them and so the idea of closing this week is off and now we are looking at the week before Thanksgiving - feels for sure now and so I've more packing before the movers pack. At least I can easily vote without being in another part of the state trying to get all that switched quickly 

[Dana]

Actually Barb you're so right about listening to stories putting you to sleep (our parents were on to something I guess!)  What amazes me is that, being someone who has always had difficulty sleeping, I have tried every trick known to science and nothing works half as well as a sleep story, or almost any story.  I guess the trouble with a regular story is that you do lose your place and keep having to find it again the next night...so I set the time for 15 minutes only.  Until smart phones came along I suppose it was not that easy or common to be able to listen to a story at night and that must be why no medical text on sleep in my time ever encouraged listening to a book. Duh!  It stops rumination more easily than meditation, and sleep comes wafting down...

[PatH]

Given my reaction to attention gaps in listening to audiobooks, I wonder if they would work for me as a sleep aid, or just frustrate me.  But I do read in bed as a sort of sleep aid.  It sort of works, though it's hard on the book if you drop it over the edge.  I use a little book light, so I'm not sleeping in a brightly lit room.  Books you've already read are best.

[PatH]

Thanks for all the detective story suggestions.  Gee, I should have thought of Jasper Fforde.  I bet Cathy would like their goofiness.  And one more praise for Agatha Raisin.  I should try her.

Barb, Your chronicles of Brother Hermitage sounds like something I would really like.  That reminds me of Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael series, which takes place a century later, when Stephen and Matilda were warring for the throne.  They aren't played for humor though.  Cadfael led a worldly life, fighting in a crusade, but eventually he obeyed the Call and became a monk, immediately becoming involved in his first mystery.  A TV series was made, with Derek Jacobi as Cadfael, but they made it so unnecessarily brutal that I stopped watching.

[BarbStAubrey]

I remember the Cadfael series with Derek Jacobi  - I liked just about everything he acted in... Those two years with nothing being filmed seemed to affect many of the older actors and actresses - I'm thinking not working we let ourselves go a bit and the camera is not kind to those showing their age. Or maybe they just decided enough - forced to create a life without acting had them realize there is more to life and they better get on with it...

I'm finding those changes here among the many small businesses and old 'go to' restaurants that closed their doors during the Pandemic and have not come back - all very unsettling because the new businesses that are opening are not anything like what is gone. We never hear about how communities handled life after WWII when business after business was gone and all the Jewish shops were gone - I guess just a taste of the change in living after the Black Plague decimated an area.  I just feel disjointed - almost cranky because i don't feel great and joyful but not woe is me either - just disjointed finding that even the TV programing has changed - reading seems to be my only escape and with moving there is hardly any time - Been gobbling up the World Series this year as an escape... that and my music drowning out all other thoughts and sounds is working.

[ginny]

 A couple of nights ago, tiring of the Palace Papers, I had a notice from kindle about The Inimitable Jeeves on Kindle, and it was $1.99. I haven't read a Jeeves book in AGES,  and these appear to be in a series from the first one, and I'm not sure I  have read all of them so I thought what the heck and am enjoying it immensely. Nice to go to sleep laughing if you can.

I also got a new book which I started in one of those read free preview things on Amazon kindle and liked it enough to get the hardback. (It's not in paperback yet, I guess).  It's called Twelve New Mysteries (featuring Miss Marple) ...and it says Agatha Christie, but it's not by her, it's by modern authors such as Val McDermid,  Ruth Ware, and quite a few others I have never heard of. It came yesterday and I'm reading the first one now by Lucy Foley. I do wish they had put little bio's of the writers as well but it's fun to see if my own "understanding" of the Miss Marple character will stand up to the "new" Marples.

I finally got my book about  George Carman, they are very hard to get,  but I'm going to read Preston's other book first,  The Dig, about the Sutton Hoo treasure. I really enjoyed the  film starring Rafe Feinnes a while back. Super movie and I like Preston, it's a true story and it should be interesting.

Pat H, does your daughter like  puzzles and mysteries combined? Have you read The Christmas Crimes at Puzzel Manor by Simon Brett? Some people hate it because you have to solve a puzzle at the end of each chapter to solve the mystery,  and at the end of the book he does not solve the final one himself.. I love it for a real puzzle but it's not a series. It's in a world of its own.  So FUN to read with another person who probably will get mad half way thorough when they can't solve the puzzles.  A very clever man, is Brett. I know I always mention it but on the off chance that that might appeal, I'll throw it out.

[Dana]

If you like all that royal stuff I can highly recommend Palace Confidential every week on you tube.  Keeps me up to date.  Also The Spectator which I am subscribing to at the moment for peanuts is always marvellously snarky about Megan and Harry.

[ginny]

 I watched some of that, Dana, and then later on the news I actually saw it quoted.   Thank  you for that recommendation. I do think the female anchor might adjust her...decolletage a bit,  what on earth are they trying for there?

She appears to have been sprayed with oil when the show opens, but not as it goes on. Maybe it dried.

[ginny]

Anybody here watching the new The Crown? If so what do you think? I've watched the first three, the one with Mohamed Al Fayed was interesting.  I didn't know anything about his background.

I like the way they put them all out at once, a nice Binge Or Not, your choice.  Still trying to get used to the new cast, but they are all really good. Imelda Staunton is excellent and she has big shoes to fill.  Of course who could ever criticize Jonathan Pryce? He is good in anything he's in. He does not resemble Prince Philip physically, nor does he sound like him, Charles Dance would have been perfect but they already used him as Mountbatten, but Pryce is incredible in the part anyway. The scenes with the horse carriages and the bereaved mother are a triumph.  He's good in anything. He was fabulous in the Two Popes and should have split an Oscar there with Anthony Hopkins.

I saw Jonathan Pryce at  the Globe Theater in London when he played Shylock. The crowds to see him were backed up no end, and the staff (volunteers?) who were to open the particular doors where our seats were, apparently were late or delayed in traffic or something. At any rate our doors did not open, and everybody else's did, and they were all going in while we stood. I was concerned because the time before the performance was really getting short and I worried we would be trying to find our seats while the show went on OR they would not allow us to enter once it started.

A crack appeared in the door and it started to open and on my right a VERY tall man slowly  moved forward with the crowd  on my right, and I looked and it was Jonathan Pryce himself, coming in the main door. I don't know how they normally come in, but he had no trouble because the minute people saw him they fell back astonished (is it really JONATHAN PRYCE standing here with us waiting?). Lovely person, lovely manners, and he was incredible in that part.  As he is in this one.

[Tomereader1]

I have been bingeing it.  I'm on Epi.6 now.  Staunton and Pryce are, as usual, wonderful.  Kudos to Leslie Manville, she is superb as Margaret!  I cannot stand the guy who is playing Charles.  He keeps chewing on his lower lip or inside of his cheek, and even though I've not seen many films or newsreels of Charles, I've never seen that "tic" in evidence. Also, the gal playing Diana...while she is perfectly "bulimic thin", most of the time she keeps peering from under her bangs,or lower, her eyebrows.  This was a trait of Diana's, but it wasn't a constant one.  Getting on my nerves.  Very funny scene with Dodi's father at the horse show though!  Showed a bit of humor not evident earlier.  The actress playing Princess Anne, who I don't believe I've seen in anything before, is also doing an excellent job.  Let's hear it for Leslie Manville, who is in virtually everything this season!  Causing me to wonder, where has she been all our lives!
Ginny, I'm certainly glad to see you posting here.  No ones been in for ages.

[ginny]

 He sounds like Charles, doesn't he? Until he walks into the camera view, you'd think it was Charles.

I don't think the real  Charles is anything like what we think, and I think we're going to be surprised as time goes on by what he does and how he acts..

Yes Leslie Manville is quite good. She  reminds me of my Aunt Helen, however, now unfortunately deceased, so it's hard to separate her from my aunt in appearance, and I keep wondering why she's talking to this or that person. hahaha  I think possibly the Queen mother is miscast?

I guess people are not reading the same things or all that much. Covid did strange things to people's reading habits. I'm still reading Wodehouse for a laugh, but only a couple of pages at a time at night. I did read a super book on Cicero, though, very well written and enjoyable by Kathryn Tempest. A lot of people are quoting Cicero today, due to our political situation.

Did A Christmas Carol make your reading group's choices?

[Tomereader1]

Yes, A Christmas Carol is our December selection!

[ginny]

 YAY! Something to look forward to.  I wonder if you'll get in a discussion of the best Scrooge on film? I always like those discussions.

[BarbStAubrey]

Received a note from MaryPage - she is just out of the hospital and family is there fixing all her favorite meals - MaryPage is well into her 90s - sounds a bit ominous - maybe an email to her is in order? I did return her message but did not inquire as to why she was in the hospital...

[Frybabe]

Part of her ongoing battle with heart failure, Barb. She said she had an "episode" in the wee hours of the morning. It doesn't sound like she was in long, but her daughter in Kansas City flew in right away. I don't know how long she will be staying.

[BarbStAubrey]

Thanks Frybabe - she is such a dear lady... but we all have our time and MaryPage has a huge family that cares about her... thanks for filling in the unknowns

[BarbStAubrey]

found this delightful writer on Facebook - he calls them stories however to me they are more like long poems - he writes about ordinary things so that reading his 'story' opens up memories and takes us to the things that really matter and make up our lives

Here is his web page and I will see if I can find the story on Facebook that captured me about his trips to Lubbock as he brings his children one by one to Texas Tech.

https://greghallwrites.com/home%2Fblog

[BarbStAubrey]

Here we go...

REMNANTS OF COTTON

It’s not over yet…and I’m already feeling the finality.

I’m driving south from Lubbock, Texas. It is a drive I will likely not be making many more times.

Amidst a dust storm…I dropped my eldest daughter off here at the university many years ago.

I hugged her goodbye and left her behind to seek her future.

On the dark drive home that fateful evening…long ago…my throat was constricted so tight that I did not utter a word for hours.

It is not that I didn’t want to…I just couldn’t.

With the perspective of time…things changed. I grew to respect this far away place and this new time of life.

Now, a decade later…my youngest is attending that same university and my wife and I are making the 5-hour trip back home after a brief and penultimate visit.

We will be back one more time in December to watch him graduate and then…it is over.

I’ve never lived here…in this southern end of the Panhandle known as the “Llano Estacado”. However, I’ve been here enough to appreciate its stark and unpretentious beauty.

Vast expanses of windswept, infinite vistas sparsely appointed with ranch homes, nodding donkeys and weathered rock…
and here near Lubbock…fields of cotton.

Defying the strong north winds, the remains of the cotton crop cling to their brittle branches this late November.

The harvest is all but complete. Left behind…are only frayed white residuals of some Texas farmer’s livelihood.

The bolls have burst…but not all of the resultant cotton fragments have met their destiny.
Or…have they?

I’m sure for some it is just leftover cotton that will blow away or disintegrate into the earth below…
not for me.

Like the humble poor, from days gone by…I am gleaning all of the sustenance I need from these spent fields.

They perfectly reflect my feelings…my twilight thoughts…as I prepare to say goodbye to another stage in my life.

A stage of life that saw my children test their independence and grow into adults. 

I neither fear, nor embrace this  change.

In this place where the land never ends and eternity can be seen in every direction…I make my peace with the soon to be past.

I do not know how many chapters remain in the story of my earthy life.

However, driving out here on the edge of the world…what I do know…is that this most recent chapter will be filled with the thoughts of my children that have made this
journey out west …and for a time…a life.

Their good times, their trials and their hard fought achievements…tied to this magnificent land with memories…forever bookmarked…
by remnants of cotton.

From Hall (1.15) Acres…
Midlothian, Texas…
Please have a good day!
Greg T. Hall

[Frybabe]

I've bookmarked his web page, Barb, so I can read his blogs.

Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything is now playing. Had I heard something like this when I was in school, I would more than likely taken a bigger interest in science. Hard to decide which to listen to next, In a Sunburned Country maybe? Or The Body? How about The Mother Tongue or the "Collection" of three of his books which includes I'm a Stranger Here Myself? I already have his short called The Secret History of Christmas on my wish list; in several days it will be available to download from the Audible lending library (they call it the Plus Catalog).

[PatH]

Barb, thanks for the poem.

[ginny]

Frybabe, you can't go wrong with Bryson. I liked I'm a Stranger Here, Myself and all his British books. How did you like his Little Dribbling, weren't you listening to it? But if you do read any of his non British Walks, please do report here your thoughts?

Just loving the World Cup, Qatar notwithstanding. Love the commercials. Did  you see where Qutar planes flying to Doha have Lewandoswki on their safety film and Neymar leading people to their first class seats? Priceless.

I'm pretty much now understanding my current reading tastes.  I don't want or need outre stuff. I  don't need coming of age, been there, did that, no interest at ALL. Mystery wise I don't want ANY more part time Reluctant Sleuths running hotels or cleaning services or anything else.  Especially those with those awful punny titles.  If you're that reluctant, don't do it.


I think that's why I read Agatha Christie.  She has become one of the  most popular authors in the world in the last couple of years. WHY, people scream, WHY?

I don't know why others are reading her. Apparently what  I need to read with all the problems in the US and the world, is somebody who can infallibly solve whatever problem he's been presented with,  no matter what it is. One can see clearly why Julius Caesar was and remains popular, he knew what his country needed, until jealousy and hatred brought him down, (there's a lesson there).


Am currently reading Simon Brett's A Tomb in Turkey,  just started it, but he's usually very good. Some of the reviews don't like it, good thing I don't need those either.

Just yesterday I  also just started a huge compendium of all the Hercule Poirot short stories Agatha Christie wrote. I like short stories and they are SHORT!  It's HUGE, and they are dated. You can trace the changes in his character.  So the first one (I've only so far encountered one of them I knew before, where are they all coming from?), but the first one appeared March 7, 1923, in the magazine The Sketch.  The second on March 14. The third on March 21. She was either writing one  a WEEK or she had all of them backed up.

The book is a paperback, very heavy and thick. No matter, it's so enjoyable. The only thing I would change is the color of the pages (kind of a faded yellow) and the print is on the smaller side, and in a font I don't appreciate but I tell self that's because it's old (it's not) and the paper is yellowed because of age (it's not) and so I'm on an adventure in history, but it sure beats every one of the "new" formulaic mysteries Amazon keeps sending me "FREE," they should be, the writing is awful.

And that goes for the new Miss Marple by Many  Current Authors book, I'm having trouble getting through the first story. It seemed well written, initially,  but I think given  Miss Marple at her age and the frailty that Christie gave her, I can't see her marching along through the woods with the much  younger character offering Un- Miss Marple Like opinions. I think perhaps you can try to copy the style of an author, and maybe fail in understanding the character.

I hope the rest of them will be a bit more in character. I expect to see her hang gliding next. The NEW Miss Marple!!!! Just for 2022!!  It's  the old one, the one who is overlooked, called "dearie" condescendingly, ignored and marginalized till she solves the problem that nobody else can, that  our current population which is skewing over 60,  wants to read.

Thanks as always to Jane for the wonderful seasonal headings on the website.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all, however you celebrate it!

[BarbStAubrey]

I've heard and read that mystery stories are popular today because the sleuth or detective always finds the villain and solves the case which during this time of chaos and the daily unexpected is what we crave - and so what is not in real life we can be soothed and renew our expectation that in the end all will be explained and solved.