Robb, J.D.:  Judgment in Death

In an uptown high class strip joint, a cop is found bludgeoned to death. Roarke owns the place and it looks like this cop who was working a part time job off duty was a dirty cop.  But things aren’t always what they seem. This is another Robb where you end up having sympathy for the perpetrator and some of the victims seem to get what they deserve-but of course vigilante justice is not something Eve would condone.  These books are still holding my interest. I usually lose interest in a series after six or seven, but even though I know these aren’t books I’ll ever reread I certainly enjoying them as a light fast read.

Skom, Edith:  The Mark Twain Murders

I’d better write this review fast-before I forget this book that I finished this afternoon.   I was very excited about this book because I usually really enjoy “literary” mysteries that somehow connect to classic authors I love.  The story takes place at “Midwestern University” in Illinois and concerns thefts of rare or somewhat rare books from the university library and murders that take place in the library.  The FBI is called in and of course the agent is attracted to the young female professor of literature who is trying to find out about a plagiarized essay.  The first murder victim submitted it to a contest which she won.  We get lots of information about the professors in the English department and views of the rivalries that are going on.  It should have been right up my alley.  I kept thinking I had read this before, but I hadn’t-only others like it. It’s an “okay but run of the mill” mystery.   There are at least 2 others in the series (this is the first) and I own the second one.  I can’t decide if I want to read it-maybe someday when I have to flu and can’t concentrate.  It’s possible that this author will improve with practice but right now my verdict is that this book makes J.D. Robb look like literature!  If you want a really great literary mystery try The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl.

Pearl, Matthew:  The Dante Club

I read this in 2007 and highly recommend it for those who like “literary” mysteries.

This was an immensely satisfying, if at times gruesome, read.  Pearl gives us a good look at historical Boston, Harvard, and some great literary figures of the day while also providing a mystery that also gives a fair “romp” through Dante’s Inferno.  The Dante Club, centered on Longfellow when he was translating Dante as a way to cope with his wife’s death, was a fact and Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and J.T. Fields, the publisher, were members of the club that met every Wednesday night to discuss the translation.  The murders are fictional but the author says, “…they reflect a very real, new sense of violence that had to be confronted at all levels of American Culture [immediately following the Civil War, which is when the novel is set].   Nicholas Rey, as the first Afro-American policeman in Boston, is also fictional, but Pearl states that Rey’s situation comes from Pearl’s research into the historical circumstances of non-white police in the 19^th century.   This is a wonderful historical novel and may become a “classic.”  Therefore, I listed it in “fiction” rather than “mysteries.”

Greene, Douglas G. & Robert C.S. Adey, editors:  Death Locked In (An Anthology of Locked Room Stories

This is a wonderful collection of 24 locked room mysteries from the 19th and 20th centuries including stories by Ngaio Marsh, Conan Doyle (not a Sherlock Holmes story), Wilkie Collins, Le Fanu and of course John Dickson Carr–to mention just a few of the “greats” in this genre. The last story even involves a “time machine!”  My favorite stories were a pair written by May Futrelle and her husband Jaques Futrelle in which the stories are connected.  This tome is a real treat for classic mystery buffs.

James, P.D.:  An Unsuitable Job for a Woman

I really liked this story and the detective, Cordelia Gray.  A famous scientist, a peer of the realm, hires Gray to find out why his son quit college and then committed suicide.  The characters are interesting and the story compelling.  Of course it was murder and I figured out much of the mystery before the end but it was fun to read.  I want to read the other Cordelia Gray mystery, The Skull Beneath the Skin, now.   If it is as good as this one I will be sorry James only used this protagonist twice.  Cordelia reminds me a little of Maisie Dobbs

May 26-Monday (holiday)

We had a nice weekend with Marty and his friends going wine tasting in Sonoma and visiting at our house in Vallejo but I didn’t have as much time for reading and for annotating books as I had hoped.  I did get to read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde this morning and tonight I will finish Silmarillion before I go to bed.  I also read An Unsuitable Job for a Woman Friday and finished last night-so I guess I did get some reading done.  The summaries will have to wait until later this week when I get home.

I got to visit 2 bookstores this weekend.  Friday we went to Barnes and Noble to browse and I did break the “no buying” ban.  I found a beautiful edition of The Divine Comedy in the Longfellow translation (which I have been trying to find ever since I read The Dante Club) which also had the Gustave Dore illustrations.  I had to buy it (only $18 in HC!) because there was only one copy on a bargain table and I might never see one like this again.  So far I’ve done admirably on resisting books during the buying ban but now I’ve ruined my record.  Today we went to Borders in Vacaville which is where we were to meet John and Susie.  Jim found a book about the Mondovi family that he wanted and since it was on a buy one get one at ½ price he also bought Devil in the White City, a nonfiction story that takes place in Chicago during the 1893 World’s Fair which Tucker had recommended to him.  He doesn’t have to pay attention to the ban because although he likes books he can control himself most of the time in a book store.

I’ve been reading a “book about books” that I got from the library, The Yellow- lighted Bookshop, subtitled a memoir, a history.  It is one man’s journey with books both as a vendor and as a reader.  The most important thing I have learned in this book is that not only do I suffer from “book lust” I am also a “book snoop!”   Whenever I see someone reading I am always curious to know what the book is-not to make judgments but just interest in what other people are reading.  I tend to surreptitiously try to read the title or at least see the cover (in an airport I’ve been known to then go to the bookstore to see if I can locate the cover to find out the title).  It was nice to discover that I’m not the only one who does this (the author at least tries to see the title-I don’t know if he carries it to the extreme I do).

When I get home I will have to get serious about making my “classics list” for the challenge I plan to do.  I’m still trying to decide if this is a good time to try Anna Karenina.  We only have to read an average of a book a month and if I did it in the summer I should be able to not get too bogged down.  This challenge will probably make me have to give up my goal of 100 books this year anyway.  As Dad’s doctor said-you have to weigh quantity against quality-although he was talking about life, not literature.  Although, come to think of it, is there really that much difference between the two?  There are just so many books and I have so little time-and that gets shorter every year!

Stevenson, Robert Louis:  The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

After seeing the musical a couple of years ago I wanted to read the original. Yesterday (Memorial Day holiday) I finally did it.  This is another one to forget any dramatized versions you’ve seen-this is classic good vs. evil.  I only wish I could have read it before I knew the secret.  That’s pretty hard to do now but the story still holds your interest especially as a psychological thriller of the 19^th century-pre-Freud.  I wonder if Freud got some of his ideas from Stevenson!  It is short-more of a novella-but a great story.

Tolkien, J.R.R.:  The Silmarillion

This was interesting because it gives the background myths that Tolkien spent years working on and from these ideas came the germination of the idea of the Lord of the Rings.  This is not easy to read because there are many stories loosely linked as a mythology with so many names to keep track of you need a reference to keep them straight.  (Tucker says he couldn’t get into War and Peace because he couldn’t keep track of the names, yet this is one of his favorite works.  Go Figure.  W&P is a piece of cake compared to this.)   However it is interesting and enriches the legend of Middle Earth.  I will probably read it again so that more of the stories “sink in.”  It was definitely worth the effort although most of the stories are tragic.  For me, the geography, which Tolkien always emphasizes, was even more difficult than the names.  I could picture individual places as they were described (loved this part!) but had trouble visualizing the routes to get from one place too another.

Milosz, Czeslaw:  A Book of Luminous Things (An International Anthology of Poetry)

A truly international collection, this book contains wonderful, accessible poems with an emphasis on excellent poets that aren’t household names, although many of my favorite 20th century poets are represented.  Walt Whitman is also well represented and I’m reminded that I must read LEAVES OF GRASS soon (as a challenge book!?).  I was especially pleased with so many entries from ancient Asian (especially Chinese) poets, an area with which I am not as familiar.

The poems are grouped by categories such as People, Places, Travel, etc. and Milosz has an introductory comment on most of them.  I preferred to read the poem before I read the comment so I could compare my reaction to his.   Now that I have read the entire collection, I would like to have 2 copies–one for my guest room bookshelf and one to keep in my night table when I want to find something soothing and lovely to read before falling asleep.

The following example is by one of my favorite poets and reminds me of when I lived in Savannah, Georgia, one of my favorite places. Sometimes I was privileged to see these magnificent birds:

THE KINGFISHER

The Kingfisher rises out of the black wave

like a blue flower, in his beak

he carries a silver leaf, I think this is

the prettiest world-so long as you don’t mind

a little dying, how could there be a day in your whole life

that doesn’t have its splash of happiness?

There are more fish than there are leaves

on a thousand trees, and anyway the kingfisher

wasn’t born to think about it, or anything else.

When the wave snaps shut over his blue head, the water

remains water-hunger is the only story

he has ever heard in his life that he could believe.

I don’t say he’s right.  Neither

do I say he’s wrong.  Religiously he swallows the silver leaf

with its broken red river, and with a rough and easy cry

I couldn’t rouse out of my thoughtful body

if my life depended on it, he swings back

over the bright sea to do the same thing, to do it

(as I long to do something, anything) perfectly.

Fadiman, Anne:  At Large and At Small

A second book of essays by the author of Ex Libris, this book is meant to be read slowly and savored.  I managed to do this for a couple of weeks but then I got impatient and “gobbled” the last half of the book in one evening.  However, that gives me the excuse to reread this in the not too distant future. The range of topics is wider in this collection although there are essays that mention books, authors and libraries.  Two of my “favorite things”, ice cream and coffee, each has an essay of its own.  Reading Fadiman is a pleasure, a learning experience (she is full of tidbits of interesting information) and a vocabulary enhancer-be sure to have a dictionary handy!  This was a gift from Tucker and Valerie last Christmas.