February 1st Through the 15th

A woman of my word, here are brief reviews of the books I read in the first half of February.  I hope you all had happy Valentine's Days.  I spent mine at the doctor's and then in bed with a stomach virus.  Fortunately, I had my Valentine to take care of me.  Much better now.

I usually don't read modern books that continue an older series, but the two books I've read by Guy Fraser-Sampson that continue the Mapp and Lucia series are well done and capture the flavor of the originals.

Mapp (not very wealthy) and Lucia (wealthy) are continuously trying to outdo each other socially.  Lucia and her husband, Georgie, decide to vacation in the lakes section of Italy.  Mapp finds out and, lucky for her, one of Benjy's old India friends, a very wealthy man, asks Benjy if he'll escort his son on vacation until he is free to take him  -  all expenses paid.  So Mapp connives to go to the same little town and stay in the same hotel as Lucia.  All I can say is that pandemonium and laughter ensue.

I've read a few of the Judge Dee mysteries and this one wasn't one of my favorites.  It dragged and I didn't like the theme.  Judge Dee stops at a festival at which a young man is poisoned.  And a woman is found murdered.  There's much talk about the Emperor's Pearl, a valuable pearl stolen years ago from the royal jewels, thought to be a myth by many.

Judge Dee must solve the mystery.  What he finds is a sadist and a surprise.

This book was disappointing, too.  I like Amy Poehler.  I don't think you can beat her and Tina Fey for laughs when they get together.  But this book felt forced, disjointed, didn't make me like Amy more, and maybe even a little less.  I thought it would be funnier.

Another celebrity memoir, but this one was more enjoyable.  That is, despite the fact that much of the book is about Cumming's horrible father and how he beat Alan and his brother and made them feel that they were worthless.  When Alan was 45, his father called and told him that he wasn't his real father.

Alan, in the middle of the British show Who Do You Think You Are? is devastated.  Elated to think that he's not the blood of a monster, but having to reevaluate his life and family.  So, simultaneously, he investigates the truth of his father's declaration and the story of his mother's father, who elected to leave his family after the war and who died in a mysterious shooting incident in the Far East.

And, finally, an old mystery by a well-regarded mystery author.  During a dinner with his neighbors, a man complains of stomach pains.  One of the neighbors, a doctor, opines that it's an ulcer and advises him to lay off the booze and rich food for a while.  He sends over some medicine.  The next day, the man is much worse and he dies a few days later.

The dead man's estranged brother arrives and demands an investigation.  They find that the man died of arsenic poisoning.  There is much speculation about how he ingested the arsenic:  in the medicine is the first supposition, but he also could have committed suicide (his finances are tanking), or it could have been accidental (he's been experimenting with different washes for his fruit trees), or, his brother's favorite, his younger wife could have done it because she wanted to leave him for another man.  The revelation was a surprise to me.

So, there you are.

Recent Reading

Right after we returned from our vacation in Maine, my local branch library notified me that it was my turn for the latest Elly Griffith / Ruth Galloway mystery.  I adore Ruth Galloway, her complicated personal life, and her professional life as an archeologist.  This book also engaged my fascination with abandoned WWII air fields.

A body is found in an airplane crashed during WWII and buried in a field.  Ruth sees, however, that although the body is from that era, it has only recently been placed in the plane.  The police discover the identity of the man, Fred Blackstock, a soldier whose family lives near by.  And what a family they are!  The patriarch, Old George, is half crazy, tended by his milquetoast son, Young George, and his ditzy wife, Sally, and their two grown children, Chaz, a pig farmer, and Cassandra, an aspiring actress.

A strange man appears when the soldier is re-buried.  A body is found mostly devoured by Chaz's pigs.  Someone hits Cassie over the head and she and Dave, one of the policemen on the case, fall in love.

Ruth and DCI Harry Nelson, the father of her daughter, do their usual relationship dance.  Nelson's very forgiving wife, Michelle, buys a lovely present for her husband's illegitimate daughter's birthday.  Michelle also explores the boundaries of her marriage.

In the dramatic wrap up, Ruth is trapped in the Blackstock family ruin with both Georges in a raging storm and a terrible flood.  Nelson can't get in to rescue her and she can't get out.  Don't worry, there's a tragi-comic rescue, so she'll be around for another episode.

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One of my favorite podcasts is the video podcast of The Book Club (which used to be called The First Tuesday Book Club), from Australia.  I like the host, Jennifer Byrne, and the two regular guests, Jason Steger and Marieke Hardy.  They also have two special guests on each episode.  They read and discuss contemporary books, classics, the whole range of reading, often with very different opinions about what they've read.

Alan Cumming, is to be a guest on the upcoming show and the book he chose for them all to read  and discuss is Enid Blyton's Five on a Treasure Island.  I had heard of Enid Blyton and was aware that her books were a big part of the childhoods of many children in Britain, but I had never read any of them.  I decided I wanted to be part of the discussion, so I downloaded Five on a Treasure Island and just finished reading it.

Yes, it's a children's book.  Yes, it's dated.  Yes, it has flaws.  But it was a ripping adventure story about four independent children and a dog and a ruined castle on an island and buried treasure and thieves and a time when children were allowed to go off on adventures.  I'm looking forward to the discussion on the show.  Marieke never holds back and I can just imagine some of her comments.  Then again, maybe she'll surprise me.  Either way, it'll be fun to listen to the Five on The Book Club talk about Five on a Treasure Island and find out why this book is important to Alan Cumming.