I'm Baaack!

 I'm finally back to writing. I've had several weeks' worth of reading to do for my two book clubs as well as just some personal reading that I felt I owed myself. Consequently, my blog has suffered. Additionally, we were finally able to take a few days earlier this month to travel to New Jersey to see my oldest daughter and her family. And we finished it off by seeing our youngest daughter on our way back through PA and taking her to dinner one night.

Reading-wise, as I said, it was busy. Six books in June from my last post on the 10th of June, and nine more this month - finished the ninth one just yesterday. Of those fifteen, nine were nonfiction, and six were fiction.

It wasn't always comfortable reading. We have had very hot weather - 90 degrees plus for over two weeks - and again our air conditioner has been broken for most of that time. Oh, and did I say I got no reading done on our 4-day trip north?

But I have been diligent in writing reviews on my Goodreads account. They are getting better. Not great yet, but a few readers do respond by hitting the thumbs-up icon. 

And I watched most of the 2021 Tour de France and am still watching a fair amount of the Tokyo Olympics. Remember, I carried the 1984 torch on its way to Los Angeles. And I watched the U.S. Open and the (British) Open in the last two months. So I have had a few things other than blogging to do I guess.

Notable nonfiction during this period: Nuremburg: Infamy on Trial (Joseph Persico); The Sixth Extinction (Elizabeth Kolbert); Season to Taste (Molly Birnbaum); Essays After Eighty (Donald Hall); Gallopoli (Alan Moorehead)

Best fiction: Before the Poison (Peter Robinson); The Last Bookshop in London (Madeline Martin); Angels in the Gloom (Anne Perry); Flashman (George MacDonald Frazer)

Reading and Re-Reading

 This was a weekend of re-reads. I re-read The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan and A Pale Horse by Charles Todd. I read the Buchan mystery again principally because I have saved a film by that name on the TV and it sounds nothing like the story as I remember it. The film said it was about a man and woman fleeing while handcuffed together. And oh, by the way, they hate each other.

See any woman on the cover? No, just a man running towards an automobile. And this correctly sums up much of the story. The only women I remember were a wife and a housekeeper who briefly play a good samaritan role in helping our hero get some water, food, and clean clothes. That's it. Everyone else is a man: police, spies, bad guys, and some ordinary folk. Fly fisherman, road worker, milkman, train passengers, and others. 

The other book is the tenth episode of my favorite mystery series of all. Written by mother-son writing under the name CharlesTodd, the series is about a Scotland Yard inspector, Ian Rutledge, who suffers from shell-shock effects of WW1. The time period is after the war, with the first book taking place in June 1919. Each book after the first one takes place a few weeks or a month or so afterward. This one is June 1920.

I won't give the plot away, but it is typical of the series. Peppered with many towns and villages, and peopled with many, many characters, it is not uncommon for me to write names down so I can remember them.

There are currently 23 in the series, published annually in February, the most recent coming out last month on schedule. I should warn you: read them in order! Some series might give you some slack in not reading in order, but this one won't.

A word about re-reading books versus reading new books. Most of my re-reading is fiction. In fact, while I was typing the previous sentence, I was trying to think of a nonfiction book I have read more than once. Not counting The Bible, I can only think of a couple of fly fishing memoirs. I'm sure there are others, but now pop into mind right now.

So why do I re-read? I guess because it is a lot like visiting an old friend: it is comforting. And probably a little safe. I know I will enjoy the book and won't be wasting my time. I hate reading a book, getting about 50 pages in, and then deciding I don't like it. Often it takes me two or three times before I actually can get through a book. It has to be the right time. And then, I will decide if I will likely read it again.

And that is why I keep so many of my books.