Wednesday Reading Meme
Jun. 29th, 2016 08:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Bill Bryson’s The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain. I complained last week that I thought Bryson was getting a bit cranky, but then Brexit happened and his contention that Britain might very well be headed to hell in a handbasket seemed less cranky and more alarmingly prescient.
This is still not on my list of top Bryson books - my favorites are probably In a Sunburned Country, The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way, and The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: Travels through My Childhood - but still worth reading, and very funny at times. I do love a good travel book.
Ngaio Marsh’s Black as He’s Painted starts out with the completely enchanting tale of retired diplomat’s Samuel Whipplestone’s unexpected infatuation with a house. He’s just walking along one day, feeling a bit glum, when he sees the perfect house, lit up brilliantly in the sun, and next thing you know he’s visiting the estate agent and getting to know the local butcher and adopting an adorable little black cat with a white tip on her tail.
I could have read an entire book - possibly an entire series of books - about the quiet life on Capricorn Way. But of course, this being a Marsh book, a murder had to intervene. (Not of Mr. Whipplestone or his adorable cat, I am happy to say.)
Then it got… a bit more racist than I was expecting, although I’m not sure if it’s because other Marsh books I’ve read were actually less racist, or if I’ve just become more sensitized to it; it’s been a few years since I read one of her books. So it is perhaps unfortunate that Marsh didn’t stick with Mr. Whipplestone’s Adventures in Charcuterie.
What I’m Reading Now
I’m reading Jennifer Ackerman’s The Genius of Birds, because apparently I will read anything if it’s about animal intelligence. Unfortunately, at this point I’ve read so enough books about animal intelligence that there’s not much in this particular book that is new to me, but I’m a sucker for stories about crows poking things with sticks to get at a tasty treat so I will probably read the whole thing anyway.
I’m also about a quarter of the way through Charlotte Bronte’s Shirley, and there is still no one named Shirley in the book. We have met a possible heroine, however, Caroline Helstone, who I like very much.
What I Plan to Read Next
I’ve gotten a card at a new library, which conveniently has a large and varied selection of Ngaio Marsh books! I’m definitely going to read Death of a Peer (known outside the US as A Surfeit of Lampreys, but I suppose the American publishers didn’t think that sounded deathy enough); I have not yet decided which of the others I shall read. Perhaps I should start by ascertaining which of Marsh’s books I’ve already read.
Bill Bryson’s The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain. I complained last week that I thought Bryson was getting a bit cranky, but then Brexit happened and his contention that Britain might very well be headed to hell in a handbasket seemed less cranky and more alarmingly prescient.
This is still not on my list of top Bryson books - my favorites are probably In a Sunburned Country, The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way, and The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: Travels through My Childhood - but still worth reading, and very funny at times. I do love a good travel book.
Ngaio Marsh’s Black as He’s Painted starts out with the completely enchanting tale of retired diplomat’s Samuel Whipplestone’s unexpected infatuation with a house. He’s just walking along one day, feeling a bit glum, when he sees the perfect house, lit up brilliantly in the sun, and next thing you know he’s visiting the estate agent and getting to know the local butcher and adopting an adorable little black cat with a white tip on her tail.
I could have read an entire book - possibly an entire series of books - about the quiet life on Capricorn Way. But of course, this being a Marsh book, a murder had to intervene. (Not of Mr. Whipplestone or his adorable cat, I am happy to say.)
Then it got… a bit more racist than I was expecting, although I’m not sure if it’s because other Marsh books I’ve read were actually less racist, or if I’ve just become more sensitized to it; it’s been a few years since I read one of her books. So it is perhaps unfortunate that Marsh didn’t stick with Mr. Whipplestone’s Adventures in Charcuterie.
What I’m Reading Now
I’m reading Jennifer Ackerman’s The Genius of Birds, because apparently I will read anything if it’s about animal intelligence. Unfortunately, at this point I’ve read so enough books about animal intelligence that there’s not much in this particular book that is new to me, but I’m a sucker for stories about crows poking things with sticks to get at a tasty treat so I will probably read the whole thing anyway.
I’m also about a quarter of the way through Charlotte Bronte’s Shirley, and there is still no one named Shirley in the book. We have met a possible heroine, however, Caroline Helstone, who I like very much.
What I Plan to Read Next
I’ve gotten a card at a new library, which conveniently has a large and varied selection of Ngaio Marsh books! I’m definitely going to read Death of a Peer (known outside the US as A Surfeit of Lampreys, but I suppose the American publishers didn’t think that sounded deathy enough); I have not yet decided which of the others I shall read. Perhaps I should start by ascertaining which of Marsh’s books I’ve already read.
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no subject
Date: 2016-06-29 04:11 pm (UTC)I did like The Boomer, though, despite the narrative's attempts to explain him by means of Racial Essences. I don't know if this is a failure of critical reading on my part, or what.
I complained last week that I thought Bryson was getting a bit cranky, but then Brexit happened
:(
I'll be interested to see what you think of the Lampreys!
no subject
Date: 2016-06-30 12:10 am (UTC)And I did like the Boomer a lot. I think if they ever did a proper TV series of Ngaio Marsh mysteries, a good actor could make a lot out of him, and it would defuse some of the more racist bits.
I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that Brexit actually is happening. It's like I'm living in a bad AU version of our world.