2014 reading, February
I've been going to Chicago Symphony concerts & Folkstage concerts at WFMT (when it wasn't too cold for the brass monkeys), plus physical therapy for my back (& orders to Keep Up The Exercise), instead of reading > production down.
M 31. In Praise of Tomatoes - Steven Shepherd 2/25/14 Nonfiction: San Diego man writes about his wife & son, their neighborhood, climate, different varieties of tomatoes and their strengths & vulnerabilities, also good sauce recipe. Blog form, duration a year. Enjoyed.
L 30. Homemade Sin - Kathy Hogan Trocheck 2/24/14 Callahan’s cousin Patti is killed by a carjacker. Patti’s 9-year-old son was in the back seat & is the only real witness. His father won’t allow the police to question him - fishy. The rest of the family are furious that Callahan can't/won’t leave it to the police.
L 29. To Live and Die in Dixie - Kathy Hogan Trocheck 2/23/14 Callahan and the House Mice have a new client, a man who is a Civil War reenactor/antiques dealer convicted 20 years earlier of murder but got off on a technicality on appeal. His house is a total mess, and he’s having a charity party tomorrow, so Callahan agrees to clean from 6 PM until midnight with 4 of her staff. Unfortunately they find the body of the dealer’s assistant and the house had been burgled. The police are sure he did it & staged the burglary as a coverup. Callahan is hired to recover the stolen goods, *not* to get him off for the murder.
L 28. Every Crooked Nanny - Kathy Hogan Trocheck 2/22/14 Julia Callahan Garrity dropped her first name on entering the Atlanta Police Department, working there 10 years. On leaving she got a private investigator’s license, but that was a financial disaster. 2 years ago she bought a home cleaning service with her mother, called House Mouse. As all the paperwork was printed that way, she still uses the name but hates it. A new client turns out to be a sorority sister, Lilah, whose nanny is missing. Lilah is a gold-plated bitch, the nanny a solid gold bitch who stole financial records from Lilah’s husband & was blackmailing him. Lilah insists on hiring Callahan to recover the stolen papers, jewelry, furs, et cetera, over husband’s opposition. Lilah & Callahan find the furs, but the nanny’s body is under them. So whodunnit?
L 27. Thanks for the Memories: Love, Sex, and World War II - Jane Mersky Leder 2/20/14 My fault : I was expecting something more entertaining. It reads like a sociology textbook where it isn’t like a Paula rant.
L 26. God’s Secretaries: the Making of the King James Bible - Adam Nicolson 2/18/14 modified rapture. Very much about the individual men and not so much about the actual retranslation - the original notes burned in 1616.
M 25. The Rejection Collection: Cartoons You Never Saw, and Never will See, in The New Yorker - edited Matthew Diffee 2/12/14 very funny, mostly vulgar, only a few LOL
M 24. A Chili Death - Jessica Beck 2/8/14 Classic Diner series #1. The Charming Moose is the diner’s name, owned by Victoria’s grandfather Moose, who is a charmer with the ladies. Moose & his wife Martha have mostly retired, leaving the diner’s running to their granddaughter Victoria & her husband. He cooks, she is in charge of the front & the cashier. Moose & several other townspeople bought their businesses’ real estate 40 years ago from a man now dead. His grandson tried to extort payment for the real estate again, stole the county ledger for that month, & was killed in the diner’s freezer while Victoria & her husband were having supper during a lull in customers --- the back door didn’t latch after a delivery. Moose & Victoria have to figure out whodunnit, as Victoria is a suspect. But there are 6 others. Despite this long early plot summary, I only rate this book a C- because of the writing.
L 23. Operation Storm - John J. Geoghegan 2/8/14 Japanese Navy’s WWII top secret submarines capable of launching small planes & a plot to change the outcome of the war - originally to bomb NYC & Washington, then to bomb the gates of Gatun Lake & ruin the Panama Canal, then to bomb SF or LA with viruses, then to bomb Ulithi. All failed because of delays in production, then by the surrender, then capture en route to Ulithi.
M 22. Phoenix Rising: Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences #1 - Philippa Ballantine 2/4/14 Steampunk fantasy, amusing. Pre-MI5 1899 spy stuff; an active (female) agent is sent to Antarctica to retrieve the Archivist of the Ministry, captured by a dissident force inside the Empire. Unfortunately she had been told to eliminate him, not rescue him, & on return to London she is taken off active duty to be his assistant in the Archives as punishment. She finds the records of her partner, now a resident of Bedlam, & persuades the archivist to help her find out whatever the partner had been working on, to their peril. Complete with James Bond-type Sekrit Weppons.
L 21. Christ stopped at Eboli - Carlo Levi 2/2/14 Set in 1935-36, an antiFascist Italian-Jewish doctor painter political prisoner is sent to Gagliano, Lucania, one of the poorest provinces of southern Italy, after serving in a prison in Rome then a year in Matera, Lucania’s capital. The book is about his interactions with the local power structure and the peasants, and their total frustration with regulations that have -only- dire consequences.
L 20. Nero Wolfe: The Archie Goodwin Files - edited by Marvin Kaye 2/2/14 Talks by various people given at Wolfe Pack annual meetings about aspects of the Stout canon, trying to resolve inconsistencies, plus some fanfic. Only of interest to diehard Wolfe fans, of which I am one.
M 31. In Praise of Tomatoes - Steven Shepherd 2/25/14 Nonfiction: San Diego man writes about his wife & son, their neighborhood, climate, different varieties of tomatoes and their strengths & vulnerabilities, also good sauce recipe. Blog form, duration a year. Enjoyed.
L 30. Homemade Sin - Kathy Hogan Trocheck 2/24/14 Callahan’s cousin Patti is killed by a carjacker. Patti’s 9-year-old son was in the back seat & is the only real witness. His father won’t allow the police to question him - fishy. The rest of the family are furious that Callahan can't/won’t leave it to the police.
L 29. To Live and Die in Dixie - Kathy Hogan Trocheck 2/23/14 Callahan and the House Mice have a new client, a man who is a Civil War reenactor/antiques dealer convicted 20 years earlier of murder but got off on a technicality on appeal. His house is a total mess, and he’s having a charity party tomorrow, so Callahan agrees to clean from 6 PM until midnight with 4 of her staff. Unfortunately they find the body of the dealer’s assistant and the house had been burgled. The police are sure he did it & staged the burglary as a coverup. Callahan is hired to recover the stolen goods, *not* to get him off for the murder.
L 28. Every Crooked Nanny - Kathy Hogan Trocheck 2/22/14 Julia Callahan Garrity dropped her first name on entering the Atlanta Police Department, working there 10 years. On leaving she got a private investigator’s license, but that was a financial disaster. 2 years ago she bought a home cleaning service with her mother, called House Mouse. As all the paperwork was printed that way, she still uses the name but hates it. A new client turns out to be a sorority sister, Lilah, whose nanny is missing. Lilah is a gold-plated bitch, the nanny a solid gold bitch who stole financial records from Lilah’s husband & was blackmailing him. Lilah insists on hiring Callahan to recover the stolen papers, jewelry, furs, et cetera, over husband’s opposition. Lilah & Callahan find the furs, but the nanny’s body is under them. So whodunnit?
L 27. Thanks for the Memories: Love, Sex, and World War II - Jane Mersky Leder 2/20/14 My fault : I was expecting something more entertaining. It reads like a sociology textbook where it isn’t like a Paula rant.
L 26. God’s Secretaries: the Making of the King James Bible - Adam Nicolson 2/18/14 modified rapture. Very much about the individual men and not so much about the actual retranslation - the original notes burned in 1616.
M 25. The Rejection Collection: Cartoons You Never Saw, and Never will See, in The New Yorker - edited Matthew Diffee 2/12/14 very funny, mostly vulgar, only a few LOL
M 24. A Chili Death - Jessica Beck 2/8/14 Classic Diner series #1. The Charming Moose is the diner’s name, owned by Victoria’s grandfather Moose, who is a charmer with the ladies. Moose & his wife Martha have mostly retired, leaving the diner’s running to their granddaughter Victoria & her husband. He cooks, she is in charge of the front & the cashier. Moose & several other townspeople bought their businesses’ real estate 40 years ago from a man now dead. His grandson tried to extort payment for the real estate again, stole the county ledger for that month, & was killed in the diner’s freezer while Victoria & her husband were having supper during a lull in customers --- the back door didn’t latch after a delivery. Moose & Victoria have to figure out whodunnit, as Victoria is a suspect. But there are 6 others. Despite this long early plot summary, I only rate this book a C- because of the writing.
L 23. Operation Storm - John J. Geoghegan 2/8/14 Japanese Navy’s WWII top secret submarines capable of launching small planes & a plot to change the outcome of the war - originally to bomb NYC & Washington, then to bomb the gates of Gatun Lake & ruin the Panama Canal, then to bomb SF or LA with viruses, then to bomb Ulithi. All failed because of delays in production, then by the surrender, then capture en route to Ulithi.
M 22. Phoenix Rising: Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences #1 - Philippa Ballantine 2/4/14 Steampunk fantasy, amusing. Pre-MI5 1899 spy stuff; an active (female) agent is sent to Antarctica to retrieve the Archivist of the Ministry, captured by a dissident force inside the Empire. Unfortunately she had been told to eliminate him, not rescue him, & on return to London she is taken off active duty to be his assistant in the Archives as punishment. She finds the records of her partner, now a resident of Bedlam, & persuades the archivist to help her find out whatever the partner had been working on, to their peril. Complete with James Bond-type Sekrit Weppons.
L 21. Christ stopped at Eboli - Carlo Levi 2/2/14 Set in 1935-36, an antiFascist Italian-Jewish doctor painter political prisoner is sent to Gagliano, Lucania, one of the poorest provinces of southern Italy, after serving in a prison in Rome then a year in Matera, Lucania’s capital. The book is about his interactions with the local power structure and the peasants, and their total frustration with regulations that have -only- dire consequences.
L 20. Nero Wolfe: The Archie Goodwin Files - edited by Marvin Kaye 2/2/14 Talks by various people given at Wolfe Pack annual meetings about aspects of the Stout canon, trying to resolve inconsistencies, plus some fanfic. Only of interest to diehard Wolfe fans, of which I am one.