As promised earlier, here’s the list — or at least the first half — of the most recently read hundred books. Once again I strive to say a word or two about a volume or two in each set of ten books listed. I hope you shall not be too terribly bored, though if you dislike mysteries you may not find much here to like, as that genre preponderates. I’ll try to confine my comments to the winners, and ignore the losers (*looks askance at Cara Black, who won’t even be in this half-century of books*).
I have already spoken of Double Cross Purposes, back when I mistakenly thought that it was my 200th book read, so I won’t mention it further here, save to say that the very, very British mystery inaugurated my 3rd century of books, rather than closing the 2nd.
I was not expecting the Mr. Moto mystery — the second of the series — to be quite so good, though if I had reflected on the fact that Marquand is, after all, a ‘serious author’, I might have lifted my expectations higher. They would have been met even so. I also must confess that the first of the several medieval mysteries in this set, by Susanna Gregory, was quite good, a surprise to me only because I had judged it to be too ‘romance-like’ by its nondescript cover.
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 201 | 6/27/18 | Ronald Arbuthnott Knox | Double Cross Purposes | Mystery |
| 202 | 6/30/18 | Susanna Gregory | A Bone of Contention | Mystery |
| 203 | 7/2/18 | Peter Tremayne | Absolution by Murder | Mystery |
| 204 | 7/6/18 | Peter Tremayne | The Subtle Serpent | Mystery |
| 205 | 7/9/18 | Jacques Futrelle | Best “Thinking Machine” Detective Stories | Mystery |
| 206 | 7/13/18 | Peter Tremayne | Valley of the Shadow | Mystery |
| 207 | 7/14/18 | John P. Marquand | Thank You Mr. Moto | Mystery |
| 208 | 7/16/18 | John LeCarre | A Murder Of Quality | Mystery |
| 209 | 7/16/18 | Aristotle | Poetics | Philosophy |
| 210 | 7/22/18 | Alistair Maclean | Fear Is the Key | Mystery |
Ross MacDonald is fantastic, and his Lew Archer is a worthy successor to the private eyes of Hammett and Chandler. These short stories come from the beginning of MacDonald’s career, and can be read either as noir par excellence or as a nostalgic set of signals from a lost California that perhaps never was. Also worth checking out are the Tey and Lovesey books, but you already knew that. My full-on mystery craze is pointed out by the fact that even the Asimov book in this set of ten is a mystery.
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 211 | 7/24/18 | Ross MacDonald | The Name Is Archer | Mystery |
| 212 | 7/26/18 | Margaret Frazer | The Novice’s Tale | Mystery |
| 213 | 7/27/18 | Isaac Asimov | A Whiff of Death | Mystery |
| 214 | 7/29/18 | Margaret Frazer | The Servant’s Tale | Mystery |
| 215 | 7/30/18 | Agatha Christie | At Bertram’s Hotel | Mystery |
| 216 | 8/4/18 | Elizabeth Peters | Lion in the Valley | Mystery |
| 217 | 8/10/18 | Elizabeth Peters | The Last Camel Died at Noon | Mystery |
| 218 | 8/13/18 | Elizabeth Peters | The Snake, the Crocodile and the Dog | Mystery |
| 219 | 8/16/18 | Josephine Tey | To Love and Be Wise | Mystery |
| 220 | 8/17/18 | Peter Lovesey | The Reaper | Mystery |
And now we make a sharp turn into the world of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Of course, Tales From The “White Hart” is a classic, and deservedly so. Though other imitators such as Spider Robinson have had some success with the wonderbar subgenre (see the following tranche of ten), I shall always return to the creator of geosynchronous satellites for these stories of scientific shaggy dogs.
I also continue to recommend the Dray Prescot series by the pseudonomynous Alan Burt Akers (Kenneth Bulmer), both for his sheer joy in language and the protagonist’s irrepressible joie de vivre. There are over thirty-five books in the series … fifty is you include the novels published originally in German at the end of the series. Full disclosure: Though I do love these books, my mother thought the series quite silly. So there’s that.
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 221 | 8/18/18 | Gordon R. Dickson, Richard S. Weinstein, & Andrew J. Offutt | Stellar Short Novels | SF/Fantasy |
| 222 | 8/21/18 | Steve Orr | Conspiracy Ideas and the Revolutionary Political Imagination after Thermidor: The Tragedy of François-Victor Aigoin | History |
| 223 | 8/22/18 | Leigh Brackett, ed. | The Best of Planet Stories, No. 1: Strange Adventures on Other Worlds | SF/Fantasy |
| 224 | 8/24/18 | Arthur C. Clarke | Tales From The “White Hart” | SF/Fantasy |
| 225 | 8/26/18 | Alan Burt Akers | Transit to Scorpio | SF/Fantasy |
| 226 | 8/29/18 | Alan Burt Akers | The Suns of Scorpio | SF/Fantasy |
| 227 | 9/1/18 | Alan Burt Akers | Warrior of Scorpio | SF/Fantasy |
| 228 | 9/2/18 | Alan Burt Akers | Swordships of Scorpio | SF/Fantasy |
| 229 | 9/5/18 | Alan Burt Akers | Prince of Scorpio | SF/Fantasy |
| 230 | 9/6/18 | Geoffrey Willans & Ronald Searle | Whizz For Atomms | Humor |
To read H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau is to understand both why moviemakers want to bring the story to the screen as well as why they fail. An understated story as simple as “The Most Dangerous Game”, Wells once again pushes his usual theme of the descent into barbarism from supposedly lofty motives. Of course, the idea of man struggling between the twin poles of godlike potency and bestial dissolution dates back at least as far as Homer. And any words I write here about this classic tale are like Tenacious D’s “Greatest Song In The World”*: nothing like the work itself.
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 231 | 9/8/18 | H.G. Wells | The Island of Dr. Moreau | SF/Fantasy |
| 232 | 9/9/18 | Spider Robinson | Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon | SF/Fantasy |
| 233 | 9/10/18 | Terry Pratchett | The Colour of Magic | SF/Fantasy |
| 234 | 9/11/18 | Isaac Asimov | Foundation and Empire | SF/Fantasy |
| 235 | 9/14/18 | Andre Norton | Quag Keep | SF/Fantasy |
| 236 | 9/14/18 | J. K. Rowling | The Tales of Beedle the Bard | SF/Fantasy |
| 237 | 9/16/18 | Ian Fleming | Casino Royale | Mystery |
| 238 | 9/17/18 | Tony Hillerman | The Fallen Man | Mystery |
| 239 | 9/19/18 | Tony Hillerman | The First Eagle | Mystery |
| 240 | 9/20/18 | Tony Hillerman | Hunting Badger | Mystery |
Though I tell myself that I must have read Ray Bradbury’s Illustrated Man before, several of the stories seemed so fresh and new that I have my doubts. Perhaps I only thought I had read this collection qua collection, or perhaps this is just another benefit of age. Naturally, I remembered many if not most of the stories; we all know “The Veldt” and “Zero Hour” (the latter appeared in several versions on radio anthology programs). But … well, in any case, I could not be sure I had read the book, though now I have that surety. The stories are magnificently creepy, especially when taken as a whole, and I found the book more accessible (to me) than other Bradbury I have read. (If I have actually read other Bradbury….) I will also note that this book is apparently stolen, as the image reveals, though that library and the Eye Room with its Carol Doda sign are long gone.
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 241 | 9/22/18 | Tony Hillerman | The Wailing Wind | Mystery |
| 242 | 9/25/18 | Ray Bradbury | The Illustrated Man | SF/Fantasy |
| 243 | 9/27/18 | Isaac Asimov | Second Foundation | SF/Fantasy |
| 244 | 9/28/18 | Tony Hillerman | The Sinister Pig | Mystery |
| 245 | 10/1/18 | Jim Thompson | The Nothing Man | Mystery |
| 246 | 10/5/18 | Isaac Asimov | Foundation’s Edge | SF/Fantasy |
| 247 | 10/9/18 | Sue Grafton | H Is for Homicide | Mystery |
| 248 | 10/10/18 | Jack London | Call of the Wild | Fiction |
| 249 | 10/11/18 | Tony Hillerman | The Great Taos Bank Robbery and Other Indian Country Affairs | History |
| 250 | 10/12/18 | Agatha Christie | Hickory Dickory Death | Mystery |
So that’s all for this first half of the third century of books. I’ll note in closing the breakneck pace of reading: less than four months to read fifty books. I will be back in a little bit for Part II of the book list for these most recent hundred books. The lists of previously read books may be found here and here. TTFN!
* Yeah, I know it’s actually called “Tribute”. Sheesh.
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