2019 Reads - Fiction Part 2

I was listing books alphabetically by author, and discovered that I missed a few!

So .  .  .  

21.  Flight of the Falcon, by Daphne du Maurier.  A rather odd book.  The protagonist is a courier for a tour company in Italy.  There's a murder of an old lady in Rome, and he might or might not know who she was.   He returns to his home town, where his brother (whom he thought was killed in the war) is organizing a pageant about a dubious Renaissance duke.  It's all very odd.

22.  Eve's Ransom, by George Gissing.  A shorter Victorian.  Maurice Hilliard, having unexpectedly come into a bit of money, goes (doesn't everyone?) to London to enjoy life, and not incidentally to track down a young woman with whose photo, shown to him by his landlady, he has fallen in love.  She is not doing well financially, and so is willing to take what she can get from him, including a trip (accompanied by a friend) to Paris - rather compromising at that time.   Things get complicated, but all works out in the end.

23.  La Ragazza con la Leica, by Helena Janaczek.  This is a fictionalized account of the life of photographer Gerda Taro (the first woman photojournalist killed covering a war - the Spanish Civil War) and various of her colleagues and friends.  It jumps back and forth in time, and is primarily other people's recollections of her.  Interesting enough that I sought out non-fiction about Taro.  

24.  The Island of the Mad, by Laurie R. King.  A Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mystery.  Mary is asked by an old friend to track down her aunt, who disappeared with her nurse after being furloughed from Bedlam (a mental hospital) to attend her brother's birthday celebration.   All clues lead to Venice, so Mary heads there with Holmes, whose brother Mycroft has charged with reporting on the political situation.   While there, the two also become involved with "bright young things", like Cole Porter. 

The island of the title is Poveglia, one of the lagoon islands, a place where in the late 1700s plague victims were sent, likely to die, and in 1922 a mental institution was built there.  There are all sorts of stories of an evil doctor and hauntings, and the like.  I was there once, in the dark, it's very spooky.

25.  Chicago, by David Mamet.  1920s Chicago, the mob, newspaper men.  I finished this only because my book club was reading it.  I don't think I've ever read such ridiculous, stilted, pretentious dialogue in all my life. Seriously, after half a page, I threw the book down, yelling, "No one talks like this!" And this man is a playwright (not that I've ever thought much of his plays, either)! The narrative is pretty bad, too.

26.   Compulsion, by Meyer Levin.   A novel based on the Leopold-Loeb murder case.  Not bad.  It drags a bit once we get to the trial.   There's a reason that books, films, television shows about trials are so unrealistic.   They need to be dramatic, and, let's be honest, trial (in this case, sentencing) transcripts aren't, and Levin basically just parrots the testimony.

27.  The Quiet Side of Passion, by Alexander McCall Smith.  This is one of his Isabel Dalhousie series.  Isabel is coping with now two children while editing her philosophy journal, and sticking her nose into other people's business (in fairness, usually because someone asks her to do so).  The usual secondary characters - housekeeper Grace, niece Cat - are their usual selves, and the always obnoxious Professor Lettuce also puts in an appearance.

28.  The Peppermint Tea Chronicles, by Alexander McCall Smith.   A 44 Scotland Street book.  This is my favorite series of his.   It's always a joy when a new one comes out.   Bertie and Stuart are reveling in the absence of the truly annoying Irene, who is off getting an advanced degree in Aberdeen.  Bruce the narcissist is thinking of settling down(!), but his ego trips him up badly.  Elspeth and Matthew continue to figure out how to raise triplets.  Can't wait for the next!

29.  Speedy Death, by Gladys Mitchell.  Murder at an English country house, where one of the party, Mrs. Bradley, is a psychoanalyst and amateur sleuth.  Very twisty and enjoyable.

30.  Festa di Famiglia, by Sveva Casati Modignani.   Italian chick lit.   A group of friends meets regularly for dinner, and support each other through life's trials and tribulations.

31.  Charade, by John Mortimer.   Mortimer's first novel (it shows) is based on his experience in a film unit during WWII.  The narrator is basically a "gofer" in the unit, the other people are all a bit odd, and there's a death that might be murder.   A bit weak, but, I say, it's his first, and we know he'll improve.

32.  Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata.  Keiko is definitely not leading the life expected of a young (well, not so young any more) Japanese woman.   At 36, she has been working at a convenience store, where the prescriptive, rule-bound nature of the work suits her personality very well.  Family members, though, try to get her have a more "normal" life.  A bit quirky, and with some good points made about the difficulty of fitting in.

33.  The Story of the Treasure Seekers, by E. Nesbit.   A re-read.   There are some "children's books" that I still like to read, and E. Nesbit's are among them.  When the family fortunes disappear, the children vow to restore them.  Well, you can imagine!   Fun.

34.  The Pit: a story of Chicago, by Frank Norris.  This concerns a Chicago trader's attempt to corner the market on wheat, and the financial and familial consequences.   The descriptions of trading in the old Board of Trade building are excellent, as are those of the social and business lives of the city.   This is the second in what was intended to be a trilogy, The Epic of Wheat, but Norris died before writing the third.

35.  Dear Mrs. Bird, by A. J. Pearce.  This is set during the London Blitz, and the protagonist is Emmy, a young woman who would love to become a Lady War Correspondent, but finds herself as dogsbody to an agony aunt, one who will answer only Acceptable problems. Feeling that even (or especially) the writers of Unacceptable letters need help, Emmy starts to write back.  The book has its comic moments, but it's also a very good picture of life during the Blitz, the worries and the rationing, how the folks, particularly the young ones, went on with life.

36.  The Secret Commonwealth, by Philip Pullman.   The second of "The Book of Dust" trilogy focuses more on Lyra, now an adult, than did the first.  Poor Lyra.   She and Pantaleimon are at odds.  Truly.   That's not supposed to happen with your daemon.   But, unlike just about everyone else, they can separate, and it's in part the circumstances that led to that that also caused Pantaleimon's sense of betrayal, their inability to communicate with each other in the old way.  And now each must take a dangerous journey without the other.

37 and 38.  Unnatural Death and The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, by Dorothy L. Sayers.  These are both re-reads.  In fact, I re-read Bellona Club because I'd acquired a new copy to replace one that was falling apart.   

39.  Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, translation by Nicholas Rudall.  Chicago's Court Theatre mounted a production of Oedipus this season, and will later do The Gospel at Colonus and (next season) Antigone.   They used (mostly) the Rudall translation.   In conjunction with the performance, they held a seminar about the play, facilitated by a staff member and classics professor from the University of Chicago.  I liked doing a deep dive into the play, the discussions were thought-provoking and made seeing the production so much better.  I told the artistic director that they should do this sort of thing more often!

40.  Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey.   Another re-read, for the anniversary of the murder of Richard III.