2022 Series of PGMCC's reading: Episode Two

Read in 2022

I start the year with seven in-progress reads. Three of these are hangovers from 2020 and I am keeping them on the list as I do want to finish them.

Title; Author; Status; Start/end date; Number of pages

It was the best of sentences, it was the worst of sentences. by June Casagrande 17/02/2020 -
The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford 26/10/2020 -
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely 20/12/2020 –
Africa's Top Geological Sites by Richard Viljoen 02/04/2021 - 290 pages
The Economics of Inequality by Piketty 21/08/2021 - 135 Pages
Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen 18/10/2021 - 449 Pages
Uncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 27/12/2021 - 06/01/2022 393 pages

Books completed in 2022:

Title; Author; Status; Start/end date; Number of pages

Uncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 27/12/2021 - 06/01/2022 393 pages
Secrets of the World's Best-Selling Writer by Francis L. Fugate & Roberta B. Fugate 07/01/2022 - 18/01/2022 286 pages
The Case of the Lame Canary by Erle Stanley Gardner 18/01/2022 - 23/01/2022 186 Pages
Words Like Loaded Pistols: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama by Sam Leith 23/01/2022 - 05/02/2022 332 Pages
ARCADIA by Iain Pears 05/02/2022 - 18/02/2022 594 Pages
Guest List by Lucy Foley 19/02/2022 - 01/03/2022 371 Pages
Introduction to Detection Mystery Horror by Dorothy L. Sayers 02/03/2022 - 05/03/2022 48 Paged
Passport to Panic by Eric Ambler 05/03/2022 - 13/03/2022 194 Pages
Leaves for the Burning by Mervyn Wall 14/03/2022 - 20/03/2022 243 Pages
The Pigeon House by John Le Carré 21/03/2022 - 10/04/2022 310 Pages
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh 10/04/2022 - 320 pages ROA* DNF
The Sportswriter by Richard Ford 13/4/2022 - ? pages ROA* DNF
"Blood Christmas" by Ciamh McDonnell 14/4/2022 - 16/04/2022 74 pages
"Dog Day Afternoon" by Ciamh McDonnell 16/04/2022 - 16/04/2022 74 pages
The Day That Never Comes by Ciamh McDonnell 16/04/2022 - 18/04/2022 360 pages
Winter by Len Deighton 18/04/2022 - 02/05/2022 620 Pages.

*ROA: Risk Of Abandonment due to lack of interest or pure boredom.

Happy New Thread!

A new thread already? Yay!

Happy new thread! I hope you will fill it with good books!

Happy New Thread! How is the Piketty book coming along?

Thank you for the good wishes on my second exciting episode of 2022 reading by PGMCC.

I finished Arcadia on 18th February and really enjoyed it. My more detailed comments will be reserved for the group read discussion threads. As always happens, real life (work and family events - nothing nasty) has been getting in the way of my posting. In the meantime I am squeezing in The Guest List.



While a visit to Achill Island provided the inspiration for this story of a murder at a wedding on a remote island off the West Coast of Ireland, the island in the book is clearly not Achill and is located off the Connemara coast rather than the coast of County Mayo. Also, the imaginary island is described as a granite body that emerges from the sea two miles off the coast.

In the interests of full disclosure, I approached this book with bias against the author's work having found her previous book, The Hunting Party, impossible to continue after the first chapter because of the hateful characters. Frequent viewers of this channel will know that a colleague brought this book to my attention as she had just read it and was describing it to me. I was about to go to a wedding on a remote island off the West Coast of Ireland (the Achill Island of which I spoke). Also, I had not noticed the author was the same person who wrote The Hunting Party until I bought The Guest List in Westport, the nearest railway terminus to Achill Island, while on my way to a wedding on a remote island off the West Coast of Ireland.

Given my bias and the compellingly similarities between the plot and my holiday of last July (photographs of which you can see HERE in Episode 1) I am reading the book with determination.

I am reading the book and am finding it much easier to read, but I do not think I will be giving it much more than a 2.5 star rating. There are a number of incongruities that prevent it getting three stars, a rating that I give to good books that are a worthwhile read. I am about a quarter way through the book and have reached a part where it appears the murder has been discovered. I will list the positives I feel about the book the leave you with the incongruities that prevent its getting that extra half-star.

Good points:
I like the structure of the book. It started off describing the wedding reception up to the point of a power-cut and a blood curdling scream being heard. It then brings the reader back to days before the wedding and has a different viewpoint for each chapter which gives some backstory and relationship details of the guests and the people running the wedding venue on the island. The viewpoints are from the wedding planner, the bride, the best-man, the brides half-sister who is being bridesmaid and who had a crush on the bride's best male friend, and a "plus-one" who is the wife of the brides best male friend.

We are then brought back to "Now" and the scream that was heard at the reception. The book then jumps back to changing viewpoints at various times leading up to the reception.

The complexity of the timeline and switching viewpoints is a big plus for me. I like the chopping and changing, and the jumping back and forward in time. This is one of the aspects of Arcadia that I loved. I like thinking about linking the events from various accounts across timelines.

I am intrigued enough to finish the book.

Not so good points:
I find the writing a little clunky in places. It does not always flow smoothly.

Now I move into an area of complaint that results from knowing too much about certain subjects. To be fair, I am suspending disbelieve in the interests of the story, but I must say I am having to apply the poetic licence by the shovel-full to calm my OCD.

Geology: The author specifically stated the island was a piece of granite sticking out of the sea. When then, whenever she describes the geomorphology of the island does she describe features that would not, nay!, could not, be created on a piece of granite sticking out of the sea.

Characters: I said I could not continue the author's earlier book because of the characters. The characters in this book have been presented in a less blunt way, but they are still not a nice bunch of people.

The Final Nail In the Coffin: The evening before the wedding groomsmen are drinking Guinness...from CANS! This is in the mortal sin category.

And yet I continue to read.

>6 pgmcc: It's bottles only? This has nothing to do with your book, but... I was told by a now former member of this group (who became part of the microbrew industry in Minneapolis for a decade) that the current composition/structure of the can keeps the beer/ale fresher much longer than bottles can. I tend to buy bottles, still. I'm old enough that I remember just how bad canned beverages used to get in a short period of time.

>7 clamairy: I was not complaining about the containers, in this case, the cans. I was complaining that they were drinking from the containers. To be fair, the culprits were English, so they would not have the inherent, gene-encoded knowledge that Guinness should be poured into a glass and allowed to settle before drinking. No self-respecting Guinness drinker would drink Guinness straight from a can. The head on Guinness is as important as the black liquid. It is the combination of the two as one drinks that gives the beverage its unique appeal. Drinking straight from a bottle or can is not really drinking Guinness at all. You will recall Tana French made the same mistake in In The Woods, but I forgave her.

In relation to the longevity of Guinness: It used to be said that the only two places in The World where you could get good Guinness were Ireland and Nigeria.The reason was that Guinness had the reputation of not travelling well and that Ireland and Nigeria were the only two countries in The World where Guinness was brewed. I can testify that in the past (over twenty years ago), I have had Guinness in England and in the US and found it of poor quality. So much so that I would not have a second.

Since then, Guinness has put a lot of effort into improving the quality of the travelled product and of its technology for containers. I had an excellent Guinness in Birmingham, England, three years ago. I did not have the opportunity of having a Guinness in Cincinnati during my recent visit.

There are also great cans of draught Guinness now. You open them, pour the content into a pint glass, and watch the beautiful process of the head forming in front of your very eyes. It is almost like being at the bar watching it settle. I am quite happy to have one of those at home of an evening. In fact, I am feeling the urge to have one this evening. It just so happens I have a six-pack in the house.

Thank you for your question, and thank you for putting the notion of a Guinness in my head.

Even though I'm not a lover of stouts, I know of which you speak, Pete. The pour, the settle and the foam are all key. When I was a regular beer drinker though, I was a total Smithwicks fangirl. Could even say it properly and everything. Had one on draft this past fall when I was out and about with friends and we ducked into an "Irish" pub in Wausau, WI. It was still good.

>8 pgmcc: I am fond of Smithwicks too. On our trip to Achill Island last July I had my first pint of Smithwicks since before the pandemic started. It was a beautiful pint and it was a sunny evening. I will drink Guinness or Smithwicks depending on my mood. They are both made by DIAGEO. I was doing a consulting job for the Bailey's World Supply plant and was in the plant when the announcement of the new name for the company, DIAGEO, was announced. The announcement was made at 9am and before lunchtime they had worked out what DIAGEO stands for: Don't Imagine Any Good Employment Opportunities. Most of the people I was working with had to sit an interview for their existing jobs. Several of them, including the MD, did not pass the interview and were let go. It was a rough time.

>10 pgmcc: Ah, I understand. It's the drinking from the can. Yeah, I never do that, but especially not with Guinness!

>11 clamairy: Precisely. I can only conclude Tana French and Lucy Foley have never tried it either. Could be a bit messy.

Just a quick update.

Work and home life are pretty busy at the moment and are preventing GD/LT posting for the moment. Nothing bad, just busy, and, in fact, some good stuff, like a meet-up with one of my cousins.

The Guest List is not encouraging me to pick it up at every opportunity, which I see and a key performance indicator for the book. It is going along at a good pace and I do like the structure, but the characters are just, ugh! There is one character who is a little more likeable than the rest, but I think she has her own dark secret which may turn out to be as nasty as the others.

The author has kept the identity of the victim hidden very well and I am beyond the half-way mark. At this stage I do not care who the victim is, or who killed them, or how the died, but I am not abandoning the book. This seems paradoxical, but I will finish it. It is not dreadful to the extent of my wanting to walk away, but the characters are not nice, are getting more nasty as the story progresses and we learn more of their history, and the number of motives for killing someone is increasing as the chapters progress.

I've read that one and another Lucy Foley book and felt exactly the same way about the people. Would have preferred they all die in some catastrophe.

>25 pgmcc: Yes, but Peter, tell us what you really think …

>14 Bookmarque:
Was the other book, The Hunting Party? I gave up on that after one chapter.

Regarding "preferring they all die in some catastrophe", I can see where you are coming from but cannot bring myself to wish that upon them. Perhaps have them stranded on the island for a month of furious storms and heavy snow. That would put manners on them.

>15 haydninvienna:
Richard, I could not burden my GD friends with the full fury of my feelings for this book. :-)

Now that you mention it, I am becoming more intrigued that only one person murdered. It is a perfect scenario for several murders to be carried out during the wedding. Perhaps someone can write that story; everyone is murdered with the final ones to die having been the victims of a slow acting poison that they were given right at the outset of the story.

Yeah, that was the one. Ok, so it's a bit ... unsympathetic.

>17 pgmcc: I think I would read your version.

>19 -pilgrim-: I think I would read it myself. :-) I got quite carried away with the plotting.

>20 pgmcc: Go for it!!!

Despite my dislike of the characters, disdain for the type of social behaviour on display, and my abandoning the author's previous book after one chapter, I stayed awake until 11:55pm to finish this book. It did have an exciting ending and the structure used was suspenseful and kept the reader guessing to very close to the end.

The following comments should only be read by people who have read the book as the comments could give away the ending. The ending was quite satisfactory but I thought it was too neat.

I was going to give it a 2.5 star rating, but the ending has pumped that up to a 3. For me a 3 is a good book rating. Also, you will remember I am giving this good rating against the backdrop of the author having characters drinking Guinness from cans, and having described land-forms that could not possibly occur on an island that that is supposed to be made entirely of granite.

Would I read another novel by this author?
Probably not.

Would I recommend this book?
I am in two minds about this. As I said from the start there were many things I did not like about the book, but I did keep reading and there were many things, like the structure and the back-and-forward time-line, that I did like. The book did improve towards the end. I suppose I would give it a guarded recommendation with a caveat that people may not love the book. Somehow I do not see it as a book people could love.

Who would I recommend it to?
It would have to be someone who likes murder mysteries but who can put up with reading about people who are not the most pleasant in The World.

Now I have to work out what I am going to read next. That is probably my biggest first world problem for the moment.

E.T.A.
I think I will take a rest from the wildly exciting and ramble through 50 years of ghost stories.

>23 pgmcc: I recommended Untraceable earlier. I think you, in particular, would appreciate it.

Unfortunately, it is particularly apposite at the moment.

>23 pgmcc:
Your post went up while I was editing my post and I did not see it until I had posted.

I am not sure I want anything too apposite at the moment. We watched The Courier at the weekend. It was too apposite for Caitriona and she had to give up watching it. It is a great film, but it very much drew the similarities between the 1960s and the present day; more the Cold War aspects rather than the on-the-ground violence.

>25 pgmcc: As usual with my recommendations, it is about mentality more than acts of violence.

But I see your point. Personally, I think too much seeking for parallels with the Cold War era is unwise. Lebedev is trying to show which mindsets have survived from the Soviet era, through the "wild nineties", into the present day.

New word of the day: “Bugaboo”.

>5 Karlstar: Sorry I have not responded to your question sooner.

Not very well, I am afraid. The first chapter was about how he was going to measure inequality. It was quite logical yet mundane, and I got slightly bored. It was all about definition and it was material I knew. I had no problem with his proposed measure and should have skpped on to the next chapter once I realised what he was proposing. I therefore let my enthusiasm for the book be overwhelmed with the boredom of reading material I knew. In the meantime I got enthusiastic for another book and have not returned to Piketty. I intend to get back to him, but the joys of fiction are tempting me away from the fascination and excitement of Economics. :-)

In >23 pgmcc: I said I was going to start reading stories in 50 years of ghost stories. Well, I did not follow through on that intention. A funny thing happened to me on my way to the forum get the book. I came across the book Detection Mystery Horror Part I, edited by Dorothy L. Sayers. Some of you may recall that I picked this book up in an antique store in County Wexford last September when my wife and I spent a few days in that very pleasant part of The World. I had bought the book for the introduction. The book was edited by Dorothy L. Sayers and the introduction is a 48 page essay on the development of Detection, Mystery and Horror stories.

I decided to read the introduction as I was sure D.L.S would have fascinating things to say on the topic of Detection, Mystery and Horror story development. I was right. It is quite an interesting dissertation and it made a lot of sense. She did not, however, bother with giving warnings about spoilers, so if you have not read the stories she mentions there is a risk. I took the risk and was rewarded for it. Hopefully I will have forgotten what she wrote by the time I get around to reading the stories she gave away information about.

The introduction was written in 1928, the year when the book was published. My copy is the twelfth impression and was printed in 1947.

Those of you who recall my getting this book may also recall my lamenting that I only got Part I. Part II contains the Horror story selection. I have been able to source most of the Horror stories from other sources, some of which I already owned.

Her discussion of the Detective story was fascinating and she divided such stories into Pure Detection and Sensationalist tales. For each of these she described the various tropes used, and explored how these types of stories might develop into the future.

Well, I finished the Introduction and will, on some occasion, dip into the stories in Part I. These stories are:

Primitives:
a. Oriental
The History of Bel (Analysis of Material Evidence)
History of Susanna(Analysis of Testimony)

b. Latin
The Story of Hercules and Cacus (Fabrication of False Clues)

c. Greek
The Story of Rhampsinitus (Psychological Method of Detection: Plot and Conterplot)

The Modern Detective Story

1 The Story of Pure Sensation:

a. The Solution discovered by Chance
Mrs Henry Wood, The Ebony Box

b. The Clues known to the Detective but withheld from the Reader
Hedley Barker, The Ace of Trouble

2 The Story of Pure Analysis

Edgar Allen Poe, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt
Baroness Orczy, The Mysterious Death in Percy Street

3 Tales of Mixed Type

a. Amateur Detectives or Private Consultants
Conan Doyle, The Adventures of the Priory School
J. Storer Clouston, Coincidence
Ernest Bramah, The Ghost at Massingham Mansions
F. A. M. Webster, The Secret of the Singular Cipher
Bechhofer Roberts, The English Filter

b. The Journalist Detective
E. C. Bentley, The Clever Cockatoo

c. The Police Detective
Eden Phillpotts, Prince Charlie's Dirk
Robert Barr, The Absent-minded Coterie

d. The Scientific and Medical Detective
L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace, The Face in the Dark
Austin Freeman, The Blue Sequin
Edgar Jepson and Robert eusatce, The Tea-Leaf
Anthony Wynne, The Cyprian Bees

e. Specialists
Chess: Raymund Allen, A Happy Solution
Cards: Percival Wilde, The Adventure of the Fallen Angels
Railways: Victor Whitechurch, Sir Gilbert Murrell's Picture

f. The Intuitive Detective
G. K. Chesterton, The Hammer of God
H. C. Bailey, The Long Barrow

g. The Comic Detective
Sir Basil Thomson, The Hanover Court Murder

4. The Interpretation of Real Life

Aldous Huxley, The Gioconda Smile
Mrs, Belloc Lowndes, Her Last Adventure

5. The Romance of Crime

E. W. Hornung, The Wrong House

>29 pgmcc: That looks fascinating. Duly noted.

I started reading Passport to Panic a few days ago. It is one of the books Eric Ambler wrote in collaboration with Charles Rhodda and using the pen-name, Eliot Reed. These stories have not grabbed me as much as Ambler's earlier works under his own name. This one is about a man who goes out to his brother's coffee plantation in Central America to investigate why his brother has not responded to his letters, telegrams, and telephone calls. It is a few years since he was at the plantation and when he gets there he finds his brother at death's door, a strange neighbour taking control of the place and claiming his sister had married the brother recently. The ill brother is not conscious and the neighbour is making it difficult for our hero to sit with his brother.

I smell foul play. The brother has been a dedicated bachelor all his life and has been a caring uncle to our hero's daughter promising to leave everything to her. Now the new neighbour is claiming the ill plantation owner married his sister to ensure she inherited the estate. Something stinks in the state of Denmark this Central American place.

E. T. A.: Things are heating up. The first firearm has been drawn.

>28 pgmcc: lol! I can fully understand that trade-off in reading choices.

>32 Karlstar:
My wife is an econometrician, so please do not tell her I got bored with an economics topic.

I finished Passport to Panic. The second have was much more interesting than the first. The book suffered by having to much setting the scene. Still, when the action started it carried on apace. If I were to use a television comparison I would say the first half was like watching a 1950s black-and-white detective show, while the second half was watching in colour.

The story is about a London based businessman whose business is in financial trouble. He appeals to his usually generous brother, a renowned archaeologist who owns a coffee plantation in South America, for funds but receives no response to his letters and telegrams. In frustration he arranges travel to his brother's plantation, and then the fun begins.

This story was written in the 1950s and, like all Ambler's works, reflects the politics and socio-economic conditions of the time.

I warmed to this book in the second half, but it is still only a 2.5 star book in my catalogue. Not up to the full Ambler, and that is probably because it was co-authored.

I have started Leaves for the Burning by Mervyn Wall. He is the same Mervyn Wall who wrote The Unfortunate Fursey and The Return of Fursey.

I have no idea what Leaves for the Burning is about, so I am letting the author lead me blindly into his forest of intrigue.

New Books and Old

There was a discussion not so long ago about the benefits of being in The Green Dragon. As it was not directly pertinent to the discussion at the time I refrained from mentioning it, but a key advantage I see in being in The Green Dragon, and even being in LT in general, is that one is exposed to books of any age. So many book initiatives, book festivals, annual book awards, and book supplements, are geared at selling new books, not spreading the word about the numerous wonderful books that have existed for a long, long time.

Take any of our discussion threads and you will find recently published books, books of the last decade, books of one hundred years ago, books of ancient times being discussed and discovered. This is a very valuable aspect of The Green Dragon for me, second only to the camaraderie and mutual support found in the threads.

In my reading I have discovered how relevant many old, and even ancient, texts are to today. It is almost as if people in olden and ancient times had to deal with human life just like we know it. Isn't that amazing? This discovery has shown me that there are very few original stories or ideas. I have often been merrily reading through a one or two-hundred-year old book to find things that reflect the reality of today. My favourite example is Chapter Two of Nicholas Nickleby. It could be used to describe a modern day company launch. It describes the share placement of The United Metropolitan Improved Hot Muffin and Crumpet Baking and Punctual Delivery Company. The praiseworthy purpose of the company is to ensure everyone in London, rich and poor, can have a decent, healthy breakfast. Politicians have been recruited by the founders to lend support to the enterprise, and to even change the law to ensure only muffins and crumpet produced by The United Metropolitan Improved Hot Muffin and Crumpet Baking and Punctual Delivery Company to the highest of health standards can legally be sold in the metropolis. The share launch has been arranged and everyone is encouraged to attend and buy shares at £10 apiece to support this worthiest of enterprises.

I will not divulge the culmination of the exploit, but I guarantee you will find the outcome makes the chapter as up-to-date as can be. If you do not want to read the whole book just go to Project Gutenberg and read Chapter Two. I read and loved the book, but I must say that Chapter Two is the standout part. It is a wonderful case study of modern start-up creation.

>36 pgmcc: Very true, if only I had time to keep up with all of the great books people are reading, from all genres and time periods.

>36 pgmcc: Dickens was a keen observer of life and human nature. Nicholas Nickleby is my favourite of his works. I think I find something new in it most times I read it. Also, I have the DVDs of the Royal Shakespeare Co's eight (8) hour stage version, which is wonderful.

>37 Karlstar: I think your desire to have time to keep up with all of the great books people are reading, from all genres and time periods is shared with every Green Dragon member.

>38 tardis: That DVD collection sounds great. I seldom re-read books as I am loath to spend time re-reading a book I have already read when I can be reading a book I have never read. On the occasions I have re-read a book I have definitely found much more than I had discovered on my earlier read(s).

>39 pgmcc: That is the beauty of re-reading. Yes, the territory may be familiar ground but the depth of detail gleaned can be so much more rich. The recent group read of Arcadia is a case in point as that is a book that begs for a re-read.

Of course, for me, having a memory like a steel sieve means re-reads are often like reading a brand new book! ;)

>39 pgmcc: I don't re-read much, but I occasionally need a comfort read, and Nicholas Nickleby is one of them :)

>41 tardis: I can relate to that.

I have not read all Dickens's books, but I was reading merely through them until I read David Copperfield. I understand there is a suspicion that it was supposed to be quite authobiographical. It was the first Dickens book that turned me off. I found it a bit too drawn out.

>42 pgmcc: Aww, I loved Copperfield, but I think I was 23 when I read it for a grad school class. I wonder if I might be more impatient with it now, or less... I agree, though. Many of the great books I've found through LT have been published for ages.

I am really enjoying Leaves for the Burning by Mervyn Wall. First published in 1952 it describes the life of one Lucien Brewse Burke. He has a Master's Degree in Greek, but for the past ten years has been working as a clerk in the county council sub-office in a tiny, rural town in Ireland. The time is after Ireland has attained its independence and it has not fully reached the state of being a modern country. Plumbing and electrification are not the most common of attributes to be found in houses, and Lucien Brewse Burke's lodgings certainly do not have any such luxuries, not that even the Parish Priest would have plumbing or electrification.

Burke laments the lack of educated company in the very backward town he has to work in. He has long abandoned his academic studies and is existing rather than living, in a town that is dragging him down. In his isolation and educated state, he is driven to writing a letter to the local paper about the council's plan to tear down an old castle in the town, and grind the rubble into roadstone for the new road being built to the county boundary.

Now, you would think that writing a letter about preserving part of a nation's heritage would not get a body into trouble, but there you would be wrong. Firstly, Lucien is an employee of the council; a very junior employee at that. His letter is criticising something the council has decided. And that's not all. The people in the town and the surrounding countryside well remember the war of independence, and the brutality of the British to the local people. Many of the local men fought in the war and are not too happy that this trumped up blow-in from Dublin, with his haughty, educated notions, is trying to have the castle, a symbol of occupation and oppression, preserved and restored. Oh no! That is not going down well at all.

We also have the Chairman of the County Council. He is a Senator in the new Government, and owns several cinemas. Early in the book, the Senator receives a deputation from The Daughters of Glory, who are complaining to him about a film that was shown in one of his cinemas. The film in question is The Pimpernel Cowboy, and the complaint is that a woman was seen in the film to remove a stocking and showed too much leg. Shocking all together.

In short, this is a book about the early days of Ireland as an independent country, and it is touching on all of the not so best practices carried out in a country in that state. There is a great quote from the Senator:

"I don't know what this country's coming to," he said. "Where's our democracy if the elected representatives can't do what they like."

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone.

And the rest of the month to yourself!

>45 pgmcc: Happy St. Patrick's Day to you!

>45 pgmcc: To you as well! ☘️

>45 pgmcc: Happy St Patrick's Day to you and your family! I hope you can do something nice to celebrate (acquire some Irish books?)

>46 hfglen: >47 Karlstar: >48 clamairy: >49 Sakerfalcon:

Thank you!

We have just had a lovely traditional meal of spaghetti, meatballs, garlic bread, and wine. :-)

We watched the Dublin parade on TV. The American bands are back. There were at least two from Texas. I think we saw five American marching bands. Great spectacle.

Plenty of Ukrainian flags in evidence. Some refugees in the parade audience.

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE.

I am not sure if I mentioned this before. Anyway, here goes.

I told people at the end of last year that Chapters Bookshop, one of the few remaining independent bookshops in Dublin was closing. As planned, it closed its doors in January.

The closure was announced about October and the shop launched a sale to get in as much money as it could before closing. Thousands of people flocked to the shop for the three months of the sale. There were constant queues outside. Despite the hoards of people buying books the shop closed as scheduled. The owner said the rates and the debts meant that even the last minute flood of money was not sufficient to enable him to reach financial viability with the shop.

Along came the white knights.

Chapters has been in existence since 1983 and has had four locations during its life. Its penultimate location was on Abbey Street. While in that location, two gamers persuaded the owner to rent them space at the back of the shop to launch their own retail operation, Gamesworld, which was a great success and is now branded as GameStop Ireland.

When Chapters announced it was closing and the popularity of the shop was demonstrated by the book-buying public by swarming to the sale, the owners of GameStop thought it would be a shame to let this independent bookshop die. They had kept contact with the Chapter's owners and staff since their earlier association with the shop in its previous premises. They approached the owner and came up with a plan to reopen and revitalise the store. Chapters did not have an on-line presence and the new owners are remedying that situation. They bought out the owners and have reopened the store with all the employees reinstated.

I wish them every success.

Some cynical people might think it was all a scam to gain publicity and boost sales. If it was I would not complain. Scams have been pulled for less worthy causes. The survival of an independent bookshop that gives pleasure to readers and employment to staff is a worthy cause in my book, if you excuse the pun.

>51 pgmcc: Terrific! May they not only survive, but thrive.

>52 MrsLee:
Hear! Hear!

Whatever worries I might have about where my pension will come from, I have no worries knowing where it will go. :-)

>51 pgmcc: What a fine ending to what seemed like a very sad story. Hurrah for those white knights.

>51 pgmcc: woohoo! There is a similar story in my town. A little bookstore downtown was going to close. The customers starting donating money. It was enough to keep it afloat. It’s been there for over 10 years now. :)

>51 pgmcc: That is wonderful news!!!
I'm envious! Though I do have a great independent store only about 7 miles from me, it's tiny and they don't have any events.

Now we all need to go there and buy tons of books. That's what will keep it alive.

>51 pgmcc: Oh, how splendid! A great comeback and I join in >52 MrsLee: wish that they thrive!!

>54 Meredy: >55 catzteach: >56 clamairy: >57 haydninvienna: >58 jillmwo:

Chapters will have to be the rendezvous point for any future Green Dragon meet-up in Dublin. It is too late for any past meet-ups. They have happened at Hodges Figgis. :-)

>59 pgmcc: Is there a half decent pub nearby? Otherwise, I’m up for it, if I can swing a trip to Dublin.

>51 pgmcc: That's great news! I came away with several books from Chapters on my visit to Dublin, and will definitely go again on any return trips.

>59 pgmcc: Excellent idea. Sign me up!

I think we are all agreed that any GDer visiting Dublin must contact me and we arrange a meet-up in Chapters for as many GDers as are able to attend.

With regards to >60 haydninvienna:’s query about any half decent pub nearby: “Chapters is in Dublin, Richard. Need I say more?”

I am 9 pages into John Le Carré’s The Pigeon Tunnel. That means I am 9 pages into the introduction. I am enjoying it very much. I am very sorry I never met this man. He comes across as humorous, affable, and fascinating.

>62 pgmcc: When I lived in Dublin my local was Reilly’s on Merrion Street, and that and Doheny & Nesbitt are basically my ideal.

>64 haydninvienna:
They are only a short stretch of the leg away, and that takes us past Books Upstairs, another essential visit for our bookshop crawl.

>65 pgmcc: Last time I was in Dublin I started at Chapters, then Books Upstairs, then Hodges Figgis, and then with you to the bar at the Conrad, IIRC. I think Sweny’s Pharmacy was involved somewhere too (for a cake of lemon-scented soap).

If I ever get to cross the Atlantic again, my trip is going to have to include a visit to Dublin and a cheery rendezvous with you and anyone else in the neighborhood.

What >67 Meredy: said!

Let's synchronize, >68 clamairy:!

>67 Meredy: >68 clamairy:
Bring it on! Welcome any time.

Leaves for the Burning is set in 1948 and was first published in 1952. I have given it five stars.

This book follows the life of Lucian Brewse Burke for a few weeks following his writing a letter to the local paper criticising the County Council's decision to demolish an old castle in the small town where he works as clerk in the County Council Sub-office. Lucian has a master's degree in Greek and has ended up working for the last ten years in this small rural town where he feels lonely and where he has no connection with the people of the town or its hinterland. His letter not only gets him in trouble with his County Council superiors, but also with the local population. The castle was viewed locally as a symbol of British oppression and Lucien, in his plea for its preservation, has put him on the receiving end of disquiet from the local people who were mostly involved in The War of Independence which was waged to remove British rule.

Mervyn Wall writes very humorously about serious matters, and the first half of the book is very funny as it describes the actions of various people in the small town of Barretstown and the local County Seat, Moymell, where the County Manager and the County Council Chairman, a senator in the government, hold court and manipulate the politics of the surrounding area. There are many humorous episodes and situations that would today be identified as corrupt, outdated, and having the smell of nepotism. This was the way of things in post-revolutionary Ireland.

The middle of the book brings us to a darker side of life and the reader is presented with moral dilemma after moral dilemma. Also, the characters in the story begin to question their own values and to dwell on the past of twenty years ago when they had dreams and felt in control of their own destinies. Much of what was wrong in the country of the time is brought to the surface, and its impact on individuals is discussed and analysed.

The position of women is highlighted in the book. I will say no more on this subject as to do so would give away a key element of the plot.

While Lucian is a forty-three year old man the story is very much a coming of age tale. The adventures that follow his writing the letter in defence of the castle lead him on a journey of self-discovery.

Would I read more work by this author?
Most definitely yes!

Would I recommend this book?
Yes.

What sort of person would I recommend ti to?
Anyone who enjoys humour, and who likes looking at real socio-political situations through a correcting lens that reveals the reality of those situations.

Has this book inspired me to do anything?
I am inspired to read more Irish history of the time the story was set.

Hey, there! I seem to have lost track of your thread somehow, but I was going through the group threads and just found it again. So nice to hear that Chapters has reopened. We can use all the indie bookstores we can get. We have one here in the town where I live: Pickwick Books. It's very small and crowded and I only got there once before Covid hit, but it's still here so I'm hoping to get back once the impact of plague has lessened (notwithstanding my slight case of claustrophobia). And, of course, there's also The Strand in NYC, which is huge and amazing (and also a bit claustrophobic).


Interesting sidenote: This photo was taken by my next door neighbor, who, before retiring, was a professional photographer and still does some shows at local galleries.

>72 Storeetllr: I would love to visit the bookstore in the picture. It is interesting having the personal connection to the photographer.

I starte reading John Le Carré's Pigeon Tunnel on the 21st March. It turns out that I had not added the book to my catalogue and could not get the proper cover image to post here, hence the delay to my posting.

The full title of the book is, The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life. "Stories from my Life" is a perfect description for its contents. It is not an autobiography, but a series of short sections describing incidents from his life. Given his life as a member of MI6, an author of the most excellent espionage novels, and commentator on matters geopolitical and otherwise, his life has produced some fascinating tales. His 12 page introduction is really fascinating. In it he sets the context for the stories to follow, and also pokes fun at himself.

Reading this book is very relaxing as it is written in a conversational tone. It is mostly about people he met and the context around these meetings, and often hints at the significance of these meetings in relation to explaining world famous events, such as the background to the death of Robert Maxwell.

Many of the meetings he describes were encounters he sought when researching his books. His reputation as a former spy who writes World famous spy novels opened doors to him in many countries. In researching his novel, The Little Drummer Girl, a story about a woman who gets involved in spying on the PLO, Le Carré met with many senior Israeli security officials and security personnel, but also with Yasser Arafat and some of his lieutenants. He always wanted to make his stories realistic and want to properly represent the feelings and motivations of all parties.

His description of meeting Margaret Thatcher is very amusing.

This is not a gripping page turner like his novels, but it is full of bites size chunks that can be nibbled at a gentle pace, hence my not having finished it yet.

In terms of The Six Degrees of Separation theory, this is a fascinating book relating to my connections to famous people. I know Nick Harkaway, John Le Carré’s son, which puts me at two degrees from Le Carré himself. He has met Margaret Thatcher, Yasser Arafat, Alec Guinness, Russian government ministers, etc… That puts me three or four degrees from very many big names in World politics and the acting profession. The World is smaller than you might think.

My meeting George Mitchell is the other encounter that builds up my Six Degrees connectivity in a significant way.

I suppose having met our Taoiseach (Prime Minister) several times, and my wife being in contact with him on a virtually daily basis, adds to the connectivity too. It puts me two degrees from President Biden, all the EU leaders, and any attendees at summit meetings.

Oh dear! I have just realised that I am only two degrees from Boris Johnson. That is not a happy thought.

>74 pgmcc: Ping! Ordered the audio.

>74 pgmcc: Sounds like you are thoroughly enjoying yourself with this one.

>75 2wonderY: I hope you enjoy it. Reading it is like sitting in a room with Le Carré and he is just reminiscing about events in his life.

>76 clamairy: I certainly am.

The section I am reading at the moment is about Kim Philby, the Russian agent in MI6 who absconded to Russia when he came under suspicion in 1963. It is a very famous case an Philby is considered responsible for the loss of several hundred agents working for MI6 in the Soviet Union.

One of the side-bar discussions describes someone in the Russian hierarchy that provided military intelligence to the British and Americans around the time of the Cuba Missile Crisis. It struck me that this discussion related to the events that were the basis of the recent film, “Courier”, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

Those of you who have read the Weekend Thread set up by jillmwo will know I spent the day on a bookshop crawl. I visited four bookshops but only bought books in two of them. The driving force behind this day of delight and self-indulgence was my having a gift-card that apparently reduces in value by €1.49 every month. I was determined to use up the current balance before I lost any more €1.49s. You will be happy to learn that the mission was accomplished, and a bit more. :-)

Anyway, I only thought it fair that I share the titles of the books I bought and my motivation for picking these books. (As stated above, the initiating motivation was spending the gift-card. So a guilt-free mission to spend money.)

The first two stores, Eason's and Books Upstairs, generated no purchases. Hodges Figgis was my main target for the day as the type of gift-card I had is accepted there. I think Eason's would take it too, but Eason's is more of a book supermarket than a pure, dedicated bookshop. You can buy stationery, art equipment, confectionery, and music there. All well and good, but I prefer the browsing experience of Hodges Figgis.

Len Deighton is an English author of spy novels. His career covers many more occupations, but that is the relevant one for this post. Deighton’s claim to fame in my world comes from his having written The Ipcress File which was made into a film of the same name that my wife and I really enjoy, and have watched many times. It is the first story featuring Harry Palmer, a British agent, played by Michael Caine in The Ipcress File and the subsequent Harry Palmer films.

I have given this little commentary on Len Deighton by way of explanation as to why, when I spotted a row of Len Deighton books in Hodges Figgis, I stopped and examined the titles. The first book I looked at was called Berlin Game. On the page opposite the first page of the story was a heading, “The Bernard Samson novels”. I am assuming that Bernard Samson is the main character in these books, not, I would suggest, an unreasonable assumption.

Under the heading there is a list of book titles and an explanation of the period in history they cover. At the top of the list is a book entitled, Winter, which covers the period 1900 to 1945. The next book on the list is Berlin Game which is the first of a trilogy referred to as, The Game, Set and Match Trilogy, which covers the period from spring 1983 to spring 1984. The other books in the trilogy are, Mexico Set and London Match.

I check my trusty LibraryThing catalogue and discovered I already have London Match. Yes, I bought Winter, to get the start of Bernard Samson, Berlin Game, and Mexico Set. The purchases had begun.



I then paid a visit to the Science Fiction department. (Hodges Figgis is a four storey store. SF is on the first floor; US members will call it the second floor.) There I eventually picked The Priory of the Orange Tree. I might consider this a BB as so many people here have read it and enjoyed it. I have been thinking about getting it for some time, and I even checked my Kindle library and my catalogue to see if I had acquired it. Apparently I had not. Well I have now.



Before heading to the till I had a look around and discovered How to Make the World Add Up by Tim Harford. @hadyninvienna is no stranger to Tim Harford, or more correctly, Tim Harford is no stranger to @hadyninvienna, and I have read a couple of his books, and, to my great delight, got to hear him speak at a conference in London in pre-COVID 2018. If you ever get the chance to attend one of his talks, or watch him on TV, do. He is an economist who presents material in a very humorous and engaging way. He writes for the Financial Times and the books he has written include, The Undercover Economist and Fifty Things That Made The Modern Economy. I understand he has written eight books at this stage. How to Make the World Add Up was published in 2020, so it is one of his more recent publications.



At that stage, with the assistance of a very helpful till operator, I exhausted the value of my gift-card, even down to the last 6c, plus a few euros from my credit card.

With my mission accomplished I decided I needed a cup of coffee and a few minutes reading my Le Carré; but where?

I crossed the street to Costa Coffee, a quite plush coffee shop. There was quite a queue but I joined the end of it anyway. I could not see the menu clearly, so I went up to the top of the queue to see if there might be smoothies available. I thought I might have a smoothie instead of coffee, but the language they used on the menu did not explain to me if they had smoothies or not. I went back to the end of the queue, which had grown by another four people. My lasting memory of having been to Costa Coffee before was that it cost a brave bit. Taking this into consideration, and looking at the length of the queue, I decided to try somewhere else.

I thought there would surely be somewhere else where I could have a quiet sit-down and a latté, but could not think of anywhere I wanted to go. There were a few Starbucks around but I did not want Starbucks. Other smaller coffee shops tended to be small and crowded and would not be a comfortable place to sit and read. I did not want to go into a pub either. Then I had a flash of inspiration; Eason’s bookshop has a coffee shop. It might still be open. And it was. I settled down to a large latté, a blueberry muffin, and a pleasant read of The Pigeon Tunnel.

Having had my little interlude I considered my options. Head back to the car and head home, or what else? Then my second flash of inspiration hit me. If I go out of my way a little bit, Chapters bookshop would suddenly be on my way to the car park. So that is what I did.

Chapters put another €9.49 on my credit card and presented me with The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux, a supernatural tale I had not come across before, and Stallion Gate by Martin Cruz Smith. Martin Cruz Smith’s first big success was Gorky Park. I have been reading his books sporadically over the years. I have read about five or six of them, and not necessarily in chronological order. I have enjoyed his books and this is one I did not have.



After that I headed home and picked up some groceries before returning to my nearest and dearest, who had made a remarkable recovery and had spent the day in the garden supervising my son as he extracted brambles from the hedge.

I had spent five hours in town and had had a wonderful time. Did I mention that it was sunny and lovely?

>78 pgmcc: Oh, you lucky dawg. Sounds like a wonderful day.

>78 pgmcc: Sounds like the best kind of day possible! Thank you for sharing!

>78 pgmcc: Specifically, I’m no stranger to that particular book of Tim H’s. I bought it last year and thought it was great. Glad you enjoyed your day!

I considered myself very luck, and I had a wonderful day. Five hours to wander around town popping into bookshops, having coffee, reading my book.

Today was my wife's day. Last Sunday was Mother's Day. It was also our son's 25th birthday, so my wife said that she would celebrate my son's birthday last Sunday and that this Sunday she would like to be brought to a garden centre for a Mother's Day treat. So, yesterday I had five hours in town and it felt like an hour; today we spent an hour in the garden centre and it felt like five hours. :-)

No, we had a great time. We pottered around the garden centre. The sky was full of what I call "Simpson Clouds". I think most people will know what I mean. Anyway, when I saw the clouds I had to take a picture and send it to a friend who lives nearby. She messaged back that she was in a nearby coffee shop and that if we want to join her she would be delighted. When we were finished in the garden centre we joined our friend and, you will not believe this, when my wife mentioned a book that she was hoping to get for our son-in-law (Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone in Irish) who is teaching himself Irish (he's the American one), she recommend we try a local bookshop. So, we got to a book shop. My wife got some children's books and I found a Tana French that I did not have; The Secret Place.

After that we did some gardening. My wife was planting and pouring Miracel-Gro on anthing she thought needed it. I got the fun job of tearing down a fence that has been in place since we moved into this house. That will be thirty years ago in fourteen days.



So, we both had a great day.

>82 pgmcc: Sounds like another wonderful day. I read that book last Fall and enjoyed it very much. The main detective is named Moran!

What a wonderful day!

I want to read Priory one of these days. It’s pretty long so it’s a summer read.

I read The Secret Place a few weeks ago. It did not disappoint.

>82 pgmcc: Now that's a very successful weekend. Bookshops on both Saturday as well as Sunday! And yes, I read The Secret Place awhile ago and came away impressed by French's work. She requires attentive reading -- rewarding but which may also slow down the speed with which you take it all in.

>84 catzteach: & >85 jillmwo:

I am glad to hear good reports on The Secret Place. I have read four Tana French books, two standalone novels (The Wych Elm & The Searcher) and two books from her Dublin Murder Squad series (In the Woods and The Likeness). The Searcher was not that great but the others were very impressive.

If you like Tana French's books you might be interested in The Silent Patient. It also requires one's full attention.

>83 clamairy:
I am glad to hear it keeps the standard up. You also had the bonus of a family connection. At least it was with the detective and not the murderer; or was it both?

Steps away slowly trying not to attract any attention.

>78 pgmcc: By a curious coincidence, yesterday evening we watched Tim Harford's How to make the World add up presentation on YouTube. The Girls paid attention all the way through!

>88 hfglen:
He is very captivating.

>81 haydninvienna:, >82 pgmcc: What a perfect weekend! Thank you for sharing your book purchases with us.

>81 haydninvienna: That is good to hear.

>86 pgmcc: Adding that to my wishlist!

>92 clamairy: I look forward to reading your views on it.

>74 pgmcc: That's a great book shopping day! Those Harford books sound very interesting, though I'm wondering at the difficulty level of the statistics book.

>94 Karlstar:
You should not worry in that regard with Harford. He is very good at getting messages across in plain language and in ways that people can relate to.

>90 Sakerfalcon: It was a great weekend. I did not take many photographs, though I did take a few that might be worth sharing.

>74 pgmcc:
I am still reading and enjoying The Pigeon Tunnel. The last chapter was about John Le Carré's experiences baby-sitting Richard Burton in Dublin during the filming of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. The next chapter is entitled, "Alec Guinness".

My next read is likely to be Scoop by Evelyn Waugh. It is one of our Lockdown Book Club reads for this month. I was surprised to discover a book that might actually be fun reading was picked. I am quite looking forward to reading this one.

The second book picked is The Sportswriter by Richard Ford. I have reasonably high hopes for this one too.



I thought I had Scoop but, alas, I had not. Kindle acquisitions were made to keep the cost down.

I had a very strange experience with my Kindle. Until I bought these two e-books the Kindle has had no trouble downloading my purchases. It is set up to use the home wifi and I have not had any trouble in all the time I have owned it.

Having bought the e-books, I went to my Kindle to have a look at them. I was surprised they did not appear.

I checked my order on Amazon and also looked at the Kindle app on my phone. The order looked good and the app on the phone had picked up the two titles.

To check connectivity I went into the Kindle settings. The settings indicated I was not connected. I browsed the available wifi networks and could not see my home network. I tried adding it manually and it did not connect. I checked with my other wifi devices and they were all connected and could see the network.

To get the books on my Kindle I used my phone to set up a wifi hot-spot. That worked and could be seen by my Kindle. It enabled me to download the two e-books.

So, the evidence tells me:
- the wifi network is working as it can be seen and used by other devices
- my Kindle cannot see my wifi network, yet it sees other wifi networks, including the temporary hot-spot set up using my phone
- I was able to download the e-books using the hot-spot, so it would appear the Kindle is ok.

My Kindle and the local wifi must have had an argument and fallen out of love. They just will not speak to one another. :-(

>98 pgmcc: I’m having that same issue between my phone and my iPad, which is where i read ebooks. If I take it to the tech guys at the library, both devices will join their wi-fi automatically.

>99 2wonderY:
I have just checked my Kindle. When I tried to scan for wifi networks it found our home wifi. It asked me to select the preferred network. When I selected the house wifi it asked me, "Are you sure you want to delete this network?"

After some backing-out and some popping into other network sign-up screens the Kindle finally agreed to connect to the house wifi.

Curiouser and curiouser!

I empathise with your experience of the devices working perfectly when the experts are brought into investigate. That is so frustrating.

>100 pgmcc: So whatever the latest Kindle update did I too had some serious issues connecting to my house Wi-Fi, but only for one day. I must have manually reconnected a dozen times. Then I restarted my Kindle and left it charging overnight and the next day it was fine. And *knocks wood* it's been fine ever since.

Enjoy Scoop! I have had this on my TBR for more than two decades.

>101 clamairy:
When I was updating my catalogue with Scoop I noticed you and fuzzi have it.

I read Towards The End of The Morning in 2016 and my recollection is that I enjoyed it. It was set in a newspaper and it was around that time that I came across Scoop and planned to read it. As I say, my recollection is that I enjoyed Towards The End of The Morning and yet I only gave it 2.5 stars and did not write a review. I may have to re-read it and refresh my memory. I remember precious little about it.



E.T.A.

I went back to my 2016 reading thread and discovered that I was reading Towards The End of The Morning when I was travelling to Boston and that I finished it in Boston. That could explain my not having written a review. It does not explain why I gave it only 2.5 stars. My initial comments in the thread about starting to read the book indicated that I thought it had potential.

>98 pgmcc: I have had to use a USB cable to get books onto my kindle for a few years now. Admittedly it is a rather elderly kindle now.

I haven't read The sportswriter but I did enjoy the sequel Independence day quite a lot. I hope this month's book club choices hit the spot for you.

>95 pgmcc: Sorry, I knew the grammar on that one was misleading, I should have fixed it. I'm more concerned that it is too easy.

I have four books on pre-order. They are presented below by due date; earliest first:



Paul Cornell's "Rosebud". Release date: Tuesday, 26th April, 2022



"A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré 1945-2020"
I understand this collection was put together by one of John Le Carré's sons; not Nick Harkaway.
I am looking forward to this one, especially having read The Pigeon Tunnel.
Release date: Thursday, 3rd November, 2022



"Novelist as a Vocation"
I will always want to read the work of Haruki Murakami. It can be challenging, but I always find it rewarding. After finishing a Murakami book I have to have a period of light reading to recover. I imagine I would find it difficult to read two Murakamis one after the other.
Release date: Tuesday, 8th November, 2022



Release date: Thursday, 23rd March, 2023

"Beyond the Reach of Earth: Book Two of the Lightspeed Trilogy" by Ken MacLeod
This is the second book in Ken's "Lightspeed Trilogy". The first one was Beyond The Hallowed Sky

No Touchstones for the books on pre-order as they have not been released yet.

>105 pgmcc: That's an impressive list. That last image isn't showing for me, BTW.

>106 clamairy:
The last image is the Amazon “No image available” sign as no cover has been released for the book yet.

>107 pgmcc: Ah! You should create your own cover. :D

The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from my life by John Le Carré (h/b pp310 Penguie Viking 2016)

The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from my life is exactly what it says in the subtitle, stories from the life of John Le Carré, or David Cornwell if we are to use his real name, the only name he responded to.

I came to this book as someone who greatly admires Cornwell’s books and articles, has watched the majority of the screen adaptations of his novels, and who has enjoyed the few interviews he has given and that I have watched or read. You might claim I was biased in a way that means I was bound to enjoy this book. I always say, “There is no harm being biased when you are right*.”

Biased or not, this book did not give me any evidence that my admiration for David Cornwell and his works has been misplaced.

The structure of this book supports dipping in and out. There are many short sections describing incidents of note, or describing a character who provided the inspiration for one of Cornwell’s characters or who was a significant person in their own right and whom Cornwell encountered in his life, either incidentally or through his efforts to do research. I enjoyed the whole book and found the bite-size snippets for the author’s life to be intriguing and informative.

While Cornwell did not describe or discuss any of his activities while working in MI5 and MI6, the incidents he did discuss left me with a sense of a parallel world of intrigue and secrecy that most people do not see in their everyday life. There was a sense of everything you know not necessarily being real. I was reminded of Umberto Eco’s stories that, to me, were mostly about showing how the world we know, the history in the books, and the actions of governments and public figures, are not really the world that is around us.

David Cornwell’s father, Ronnie, was a conman, serial seducer, and a real charmer. The longest, most intense and most harrowing part of the book to read was, “Son of the author’s father”. In this thirty-five page chapter, Cornwell describes incidents that shed light on his relationship with his father and his mother, but predominantly his father. It was the one part of the book where one could get a sense of real angst and emotion about the matter being discussed. He describes how he had investigators seek out evidence to verify the veracity of his own memories. This chapter struck me as very personal.

If someone asked me to recommend a single section from this book, and I had to give a one section answer, I would propose the Introduction. The Introduction is twelve pages full of interesting detail and background, but also a warning. Cornwell explains that in describing the incidents he has been true to his memory, but goes on to say that his writing career has involved using memory and imagination, that his previous occupation as a spy in MI5 and MI6 was, by its nature, prone to deception, and that he was brought up by a father whose whole life was devoted to confidence tricks. In this context he questions the concept of “pure memory” and begs the question of how accurate his own memory might be.

If that hypothetical person were to ask me to recommend a single section from this book, my real response would be, “Read the whole book”.

Would I recommend this book?
Most definitely.

Who would I recommend it to?
Anyone.

Would I read more works by this author?
Certainly.

Did this book inspire me in any way?
I am inspired to read the Sisman biography of David Cornwell and to read the few Le Carré novels I have not yet reached.

*”Right” as in “correct”; not “Right” as in “politics”.

>109 pgmcc: Excellent review. My mother was a huge fan of his. Don't hate me, but I've never read anything of his myself. That's not a genre I indulge in.

>110 clamairy:
That is too bad. I really enjoy the intrigue and the twists and turns. Have you watched any of the films or TV series based on his books?

Don't hate me, but I've never read anything of his myself.

I am sure there are many authors whose work you love that I have never read.

I have started reading Scoop by Evelyn Waugh. It was first published in 1938.

I have read the first two chapters and am having to keep in mind it was written in 1938.

>112 pgmcc: I wondered if it might seem dated. My favorites of his were published in one volume, A Handful of Dust & Decline and Fall. I don't think I'll ever reread them because I'm not sure they'll stand up to a second read. They're both dark, and in my 20s that didn't bother me.

>111 pgmcc: No, I haven't watched the series, either. I may try reading one at some point. (Just to dip my toe in the water.)

>113 clamairy:
Scoop is a bit dated. The first chapter is very much set amongst the privileged world of a government minister's wife who, given her entitled status, drives her car on the footpath to get around traffic. When a policeman takes the number of her car she says, "That is the third time this week. I wish they would stop doing that. It is so awkward for my husband to deal with them."

Also, a pedestrian who is nearly knocked down by the car on the footpath gets really angry until he realises who was driving the car and then doffs his hat to the lady and exclaims how nice it is to see her.

I am sure this is all part of the supposed comedy of the piece, but it does talk to the elitism that existed in England at the time.

If you are to read a John Le Carré novel I suggest you try The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. It was his third novel and is the novel that made him famous. It is quite short by today's standards, but I think it is a fine example of a spy novel and I feel it contains nearly all the key elements of a spy novel. I might go so far to say that The Spy Who Came In From The Cold is to spy novels what The Lord of the Rings is to fantasy novels. There, I have said it; well, written it.

>114 pgmcc: Thank you for your input. Interestingly enough I believe that was one of my mother's favorites, and I seem to recall her reading it more than once. My mother did not read much fiction, so that meant it must have been outstanding.

My reading has taken an unexpected turn. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh is one of our Lockdown Book club choices for this month. I had high hopes for it. It is a comedy about a newspaper company. It would be more appropriately called a "Farce" in the of the traditional English Farce plays and stories. I had high hopes of enjoying a little light reading for the book club; not something that normally happens with the book club choices.

25% in and I can no longer put up with the totally farcical set-ups and events, the elitist characters full of a sense of total entitlement, and the blatant racism. The book was written in 1939. Normally I can make allowances for a dated book, but this book is of its time and of its class. I cannot put myself through the task of reading the rest of it.

Having abandoned Scoop I turned to the other book club choice with the hope that it would be interesting, if not amusing. It is The Sportswriter by Richard Ford. It is a book I have been intending to read for a long time. I am aware of Ford's reputation as a great writer. My reading of his book has not damaged his reputation as a great writer, but I am not good with books that appear to be nothing but a string of miseries, so I am also abandoning this one. For those interested, the miseries incluced
- Divorced sportswriter trying to persuade himself that he is doing alright.
- Divorced sportswriter who has lost a son at the age of five.
- Miserable working life of a divorced sportswriter.
There is a bit of a theme that you are not permitted to stray from for long as far as I can see.


In my disappointment I asked myself, what can I do to avoid a total reading disaster. I need something uplifting and righteous. I picked the novella, Bloody Christmas, by Ciamh McDonnell. This is from The Dublin Trilogy Deluxe Part 1, which starts with A Man With One Of Those Faces. Bloody Christmas is only my second venture into this trilogy which, I believe, has about ten books/novellas to its credit at this stage.

It is certainly cheering me up and brushing away any desire to go back to either of the two book club books.



I have to take my hat off to -pilgrim- for her introducing me, and a few others here, to McDonnell's works. Thank you, -pilgrim-

>116 pgmcc: I'm not surprised about the Waugh. Farce and satire don't always age well. I can't remember which one of his I started and set aside back in the 90s, (it actually might have been Scoop) but I plan to revisit Brideshead Revisited as an audiobook.

Enjoy that McDonnell book.

>118 MrsLee: I hope you continue to enjoy McDonnell. He is a total hit for me, but my husband not so much. Then again, my husband is very hard to please with reading material.

>118 MrsLee:
The only reason I did not carry on reading McDonnell when I finished A Man With One of Those Faces was because I had other things to do. I loved the first book and all the praise for his other works has me keen to read more. I am pacing myself.
:-)

I finished Bloody Christmas. It had the desired effect of cheering me up.

>120 pgmcc: There's a certain incongruity there that I'm enjoying. I do understand how that can work.

>120 pgmcc: I began reading Bunny Stateside. I know I will enjoy it, but it isn't always pleasant to see how others perceive one's country.

I have finished and enjoyed Bloody Christmas, Dog Day Afternoon and The Day That Never Comes by Caimh McDonnell. McDonnell's introductions are as worth reading as his stories. He describes how he has ended up writing a trilogy with an ever growing number of books and stories as time goese by.

I turned to these books after being disappointed by our two book club books and needing something I enjoyed reading and that would cheer me up. They certainly delivered on that and have cemented the idea that I will read more of Caimh McDonnell's stories.

>123 pgmcc: Thanks for the reminder. I can access the second prequel and the second book in the trilogy. Hmmm. Which direction should I pursue.

I have just started reading Len Drighton’s Winter.

My daughter sent this image of our youngest grandchild today. I just had to share it.

What a delight it must be to have this little one in your life.

>126 pgmcc: So freaking cute! :o)

>126 pgmcc: Great picture, so nice to see such a happy child.

>127 Meredy:; >128 clamairy:; >129 Karlstar:

Thanks for your kind words.

He is a very smiley baby. Takes after his granddad, on his father's side.

>125 pgmcc:
I am enjoying Winter by Len Deighton. It goes back to the end of the 19th century and I am currently reading about the birth and background of two brothers who end up working as attorneys on opposing sides during the Nuremberg trial of a former high-ranking Nazi. The story apparently covers the period 1899 to 1945.

>126 pgmcc: Love that big smile!

>126 pgmcc: Gorgeous smile! Is he the baby you traveled to see in Cincinnati late last year? If so, he had a big lovely smile back then too.

>132 Jim53:
It is great.

>133 Storeetllr:
He is the same child. He really smiles a lot. I hope he keeps it up.

>126 pgmcc: happy boy!

>126 pgmcc: Love that! Made me laugh with joy.

>126 pgmcc: He is enjoying life to the full!

>136 MrsLee: I am glad he brought some joy to you. He has a great giggle too. When we get videos his giggle is contagious.

>137 Sakerfalcon: He is certainly giving that impression.

I've never met you in person Peter, and I have only seen pics of you in here and on Facebook, but I swear I see you in that little boy's happy face.

>139 clamairy: That was definitely my impression as well!

>139 clamairy: & >140 2wonderY:
Thank you! My cover persona is obviously working.

>125 pgmcc:
I am enjoying the initial parts of Len Deighton's Winter. At this stage it is recapping history and providing the back-story to the two brothers in the novel. One concern I have is that later in the book Deighton may commit the crime I discovered in his book, Blitzkreig, which I read many moons ago. It was a brilliant account of the early stages of WWII, but Deighton inserted some characters to give the book human-interest. I loved the historical accounts but found the human-interest story-line banal, unnecessary, and distracting. In early parts of Winter he is dealing with the period from 1899 to, so far, 1910, and the fiction and the history have not reach a point where the juxtaposition might cause me discomfort.

Oh, no! I just saw over on Clam's thread that you missed your Thingaversary! What happens now?

(Alerting the Enforcers)

>143 Meredy:
I never thought you would squeel on me, Meredy.

>143 Meredy: and >144 pgmcc: From where I'm sitting, I can hear all kinds of alarm bells going off. It's possible that the Enforcers are already on the case.

>144 pgmcc: Oh, no! I thought you were in charge of the Enforcers! I was expecting something like a French farce to ensue, maybe even with some hiding under a table or behind a screen. Or behind a stack of books?

>144 pgmcc: I suggest hiding in a library. The Enforcers are unlikely to think of looking somewhere so obvious.

Plus, libraries generally don't have cheese and wine so they won't be naturally drawn in...

>146 Meredy:
Are you not aware of the penalties for revealing the identity of an Enforcer?

>147 ScoLgo:
You appear to know a lot about Enforcers and how to hide from them.

>145 jillmwo:
I am sure the Enforcers apologise for disturbing your quiet Sunday afternoon. I understand they were responding to an anonymous tip-off.

>125 pgmcc:
Whatever about the failings of the human-interest story in Blitzkrieg, Winter has caught my attention. The story has reached 1922. It is showing the political turmoil in post-WWI Germany, and the origins of the Nazi party. It is showing the political developments as a backdrop to the lives of the main characters in the story. I think that is where I found difficulty with Blitzkreig. In Blitzkreig the book came across as a book about the Blitzkreig military tactic and how the Nazis used it to gain early success in WWII, and the human-interest story was inserted, or in my opinion "squeezed in", for the sake of having a human-interest story. Winter is much more a story about the characters with the political activities occurring as part of the environment and affecting the society in which the characters live.

It is quite scary reading about the growth of the Nazi party, and seeing how politicians manipulated the vulnerable for their own ends.

>149 pgmcc: That one sounds very interesting. I think I've read one Deighton in the past.

>150 Karlstar:
The Ipcress File is one of our favourite films. I read the book and the sequel, Funeral in Berlin and enjoyed them.

Wow, it is three days since I last posted here.

Winter is still keeping me occupied when I find time to read.

Tonight is the next on-line meeting of our Lockdown Bookclub. I abandoned both books and look forward to a good thrashing from the other members.

The books were:
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh, and



The Sportswriter by Richard Ford.



I abandoned Scoop for the following reasons:
It is very much of its time and class. While I a happy to make allowances for books that were written in an earlier age I found it was too elitist, too much of a farce, and contains attitudes (racism in particular) that was just too much for me to stand. I quite like British farce, but this was going just too far. Within the first two chapters we have two incidents of mistaken identity with the same person. These are fundamental to the farcical scenario being built up, but I just got bored.

Also, there was a lot of elitism. Lady So-And-So drives her car along the pavement to get around traffic. A gentleman is nearly knocked down and is in a rage at the driver until he sees who it is and then doff's his hat to her and expresses his pleasure at seeing her around.

I know it is supposed to be a comedy, but there is just too much in it that I could not swallow, and that I felt it would compromise my integrity to read on and pretend I was enjoying it.

The Sportswriter is probably a brilliant book, and I would not fault the writing, but it was so depressing. I did not fancy reading a book that was going to be about people who were miserable, not doing what they wanted to do, and making other people miserable in the process.

This evening's book club meeting was very good. We all agreed that The Sportswriter was not our favourite book. Everyone agreed that it was well written, but it was so depressing, and no one could relate to any of the characters.

One person loved Scoop while the rest of us found it difficult to take. We are usually good at reading a book in the context of when it was written, but we found the farce in it too dated and boring, and the racism was just too blatant and very difficult to take. I was not the only one to abandon Scoop at an early stage.

I had a little victory tonight. My perception was that we have been reading a lot of contemporary novels, and I have not liked many of them, and generally I have to buy the books chosen. In preparation for tonight I perused my shelves for books that I have that the book club members might agree to read. The selection I came up with was:

The Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup, the author of Q&A, which was the book made into the film Slum Dog Millionaire.
Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews.
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, author of A Gentleman in Moscow.
Pet Sematary by Stephen King. This was a wild-card as I did not think any of them would want to read horror. (I was correct in my assumption.)
Uncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
The House by the Churchyard by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Stone's Fall by Iain Pears. This was one I added to the list because one of the members said he loved historical fiction and complex novels. When I described Pears's earlier novel, An Instance of the Fingerpost he got really excited.

The reaction was very good.
Rules of Civility was liked but one person had read it before.
Red Sparrow was rejected as everyone had seen the film, and they did not want to read the book.
Pet Sematary was recected out of hand because HORROR.
I was surprised that they were interested in the two Le Fanu books. One person had never heard of Le Fanu but when I told them he was an Irish author whose novel, Carmilla, inspired Stoker to writh Dracula, they became very keen. Obviously there is "HORROR" and there is "horror".
They were very interested in Stone's Fall but settled on The Accidental Apprentice as one of our books for next month.

They wanted to pick a contemporary book for the other choice and selected Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. Mandel wrote Station Eleven, one of our previous book club reads.

So, my little victory was not having to buy one of the books chosen. As you know, I have a considerable number of books in my possession that I want to read. As I seldom enjoy the book club choices, and usually have to buy them, I am adding books to my collection that I do not necessarily want, spending time on books not of my choice, and am not getting to read the books I want to read. To have them pick one of the unread books in my collection is a little victory. Also, there is a good chance they will pick an Iain Pears or a Le Fanu for a future choice. :-)

>152 pgmcc: (I)t was so depressing. I did not fancy reading a book that was going to be about people who were miserable, not doing what they wanted to do, and making other people miserable in the process.

Then you definitely don't want to read either the book I just finished - Heart of Darkness - or The Great Influenza, the book I'm currently reading. Both are like slow-motion car crashes that you just can't look away from.

ETA I recently read Sea of Tranquility and enjoyed it.

>154 Storeetllr:
I think you are perfectly correct in your assessment. :-)

>153 pgmcc: You hit me with a rubber bullet on The Accidental Apprentice, which means it went on my wish list. It is a bit more than I like to spend on an unknown book and author, so it must wait.

>153 pgmcc: They wanted to pick a contemporary book for the other choice. Sea of Tranquility is certainly more recent in terms of publication date but The Accidental Apprentice has only been out for nine years, having a publication year of 2013. How are they defining contemporary? Something published within the past 3-5 years?

>157 jillmwo:
They look at the lists of new books published in the newspapers under headings like, “This year’s top new summer reads!”

It is a drag.

By the way, I had meant to say in >153 pgmcc: that they perceived we have been reading mostly older books. I did a quick check in my LT catalogue and was able to inform the meeting that we were on an exact 50:50 split.

>156 MrsLee:
I hope you enjoy it. I found Q&A very good.

>153 pgmcc: i completely agree with their reasoning for not reading Pet Sematary. I had to stop reading King after reading that one back in the 80's.

>154 Storeetllr: Either Heart of Darkness or Lord Jim was going to show up on my reading list this year.

What does this word look like to you folks? club - that is clearly 'dee u b' to me.

Winter by Len Deighton (1987 620 pages)

This book covers the time period from 1900 to 1945. It is set in Germany and traces the rise of Nazism and its antisemitism by following the lives of three generations of an extended family and shows how their lives were affected by both world wars and the political backdrop to these conflicts.

The story is told beautifully and Deighton did a great job of presenting the socio-economic background in Germany that led to the struggles between the political militias within the country, and the eventual rise of the Nazi Party, and how the party took political control of Germany’s government, police forces, and ultimately, army. It showed how the party wooed the vulnerable and promised all things to the dispossessed, and built up national fervour with its slogan, “Make Germany Great Again”.

In this story we see the effect of social stratification, with the aristocratic elite believing themselves to be the decent and reasonable people, even though they were totally ignorant of how the “lower classes” lived. Honour and discipline were seen as the true values, and that when the Nazi government started doing things that the military thought were not right, that the military commanders still felt themselves obligated to stand by and let them happen as they were duty bound to serve the Government. This allowed the introduction of laws and procedures that enabled the Nazis to take anyone into custody, and facilitated the introduction of the concentration camps and death camps.

This book is a good warning of what can happen as it describes what did happen. Unfortunately, it does not necessarily prevent those same horrors from happening again.

This book was a great read, but there is so much in it that is echoed by events around The World today it was frightening at times.