Reading List for August, 2022

August being the anniversary month of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, it was originally my intention to read several books on the two bombings this month. However, as I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I miscalculated the amount of time it would take to read the last few books in July and actually finished reading John Hersey's Hiroshima ahead of schedule.

The first two books read in August were Susan Southard's Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War and The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians edited by Cynthia C. Kelly.

I had read that Southard had been concerned that, although much had been written on the bombing of Hiroshima, relatively little had been written on Nagasaki. She certainly made up for that neglect. Her book was similar to Hersey's in that like Hershey, she concentrated on the experiences of a few individuals. The difference being Hershey's book (or rather magazine article) was 106 pages and Southard writing more than 400.

There has been much written since 1945 as to whether or not the dropping of the two atomic bombs was necessary in order to end the second World War. As far as Hiroshima is concerned, I'm not sure how to answer that question. The arguments both pro and con the bombing seem reasonable to me. But, I have to say that in my opinion, the bombing of Nagasaki three days after Hiroshima was unnecessary and could possibly approach the level of a war crime.

I found the book on the Manhattan Project to be a bit tedious. Most of the essays and stories in that book were more about the "wonderful" achievements of the project, and less about any moral objection to the use of atomic weapons during the war.

When I had had my fill of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I went on to lighter fare. I did not post a review of Tracy Chevalier's book - I did, however write something on my thoughts on the work of Toshikazu Kawaguchi.

In July, I read the first of Dorothy L. Sayer's mystery novels, Whose Body? . I enjoyed that book enough to read more of Sayer's novels in August. I've written posts on two of those books - Cloud of Witness and Unnatural Death. . I've enjoyed the four books by Sayer that I've read this month; I thought I would manage a fifth one - The Five Red Herrings but I was unable to finish that ebook before the end of the month.

I have excuses, of course, as to why I'm still reading The Five Red Herrings . I've recently discovered a podcast which has taken up a lot of my time - The History of English Podcast. The podcast started in June of 2012. I've got quite a bit of catching up to do. I highly recommend this podcast to anyone nerdy enough to have an interest in the history of the English language.

Another reason why I've not finished with The Five Red Herrings has to do with Sayer's writing style with this particular book. The story takes place in Scotland, and Sayer thought it necessary to have many of the characters speak with a heavy Scottish accent. This makes it difficult to read. Here's an example from Chapter VII:

"Ay," said Jeanie, philosophically, "I'm no surprised. She's troubled in her mind aboot Mr. Farren. And nae wonder, wi' him mekkin' a' that disturbance and gaein' aff that gate an' never comin' back for twa nichts."
"Two nights?" said Wimsey.
"Ay. Nicht before last it was he went aff on his bicycle, swearin' somethin' awfu' an' nae ward tae say whaur he was gaein' nor what he was gaein' to du."
"Then he wasn't at home last night for dinner?"
"Him? Hame for's denner? 'Deed no, nor ony time o' the day. Monday nicht it was he come back an' fund Campbell i' the hoose an' sent him packin', an' after that there was sic a collie-shangie it nigh frighted my brither's wife into a fit an' her verra near her time, tu. An' oot he gaes and away, wi' Mistress Farren runnin' oot o' the door after him wi' the tears fallin' doon her cheeks. I dinna ken for why she takes on so aboot the man. I'd let him gae an' be daumed tae him, wi' his jealousies an' his tempers."

At any rate, here's the list of books read in August, 2022.

Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War   Susan Southard
The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians   edited by Cynthia C. Kelly
Girl With a Pearl Earring   Tracy Chevalier
Before the Coffee Gets Cold   Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Tales From The Cafe   Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Cloud of Witness   Dorothy L. Sayer
Unnatural Death   Dorothy L. Sayer
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club    Dorothy L. Sayer
Strong Poison   Dorothy L. Sayer

Unnatural Death - Dorothy L. Sayers

Unnatural Death is the third novel in Dorothy L.Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey series. How do we judge a mystery novel written 95 years ago? Fans of the genre, like myself are willing to overlook some things that haven't held up in these "modern" times.

I found the book entertaining, although I had a pretty good idea how the killer dunit very early on. The method used may have been unusual to the readers of 1927, but to today's audience, it seems fairly obvious.

Something else equally obvious to today's reader, which may have gone over the heads of some back in the day is the sexuality of certain female characters. I'm pretty sure the more astute readers understood that Miss Mary Whittaker and Miss Vera Findlater were lesbians. Of course, that word couldn't appear in a popular crime novel of the early 20th century, but Sayers certainly left enough clues for the would-be detectives reading this book.

I'm sure that many modern readers will frown on Sayers use of the "N-word" in the book, but as it turns out, the "person of colour" (as another character referred to the person in question) is one of the few characters that comes out on top in the end.

Readers who are fans of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction should enjoy this book, although I'm not sure it works for the general reader of today.

Cloud of Witness - Dorothy L. Sayers

In May of 2021, I began reading all the mystery novels of Agatha Christie (as well as several short story collections). This project was to keep me busy until October. At some point along the way, I learned of the mystery writer, Dorothy L. Sayers. Sayers was a contemporary of Christie, both writing during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

I learned that her novels were in the public domain in Canada and available for download at a Canadian website, fadedpage.com.

I proceeded to download all of Sayers' novels, although I knew I wouldn't be reading the ebooks right away.

I had recently been concentrating on "heavy" literature and toward the middle of July, I was looking for something "light" (yet enjoyable). As I mentioned  in an earlier post, I found what I was looking for, when a Facebook friend posted a review of Sayers' first book, Whose Body? . After reading Whose Body? , I knew I'd be reading more of Sayers' work. Not right away - I had already planned to read books on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

When I finished reading Hiroshima by John Hersey, Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War by Susan Southard and a book on the Manhattan Project, I still had three books (not on atomic bombs) in the queue.

After reading the two by Toshikazu Kawaguchi , I thought the time had come to get back to Dorothy Sayers.

I've just finished reading her second in the Lord Peter Wimsey series, Clouds of Witness . With this second ebook, I believe I might come to enjoy Sayers as much, if not more than I do Agatha Christie. There are enough twists and turns for any fan of the genre. I will most definitely go onto more in this series.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi

A few months ago, when I was reading a wide selection of novels dealing with Time Travel, I was unaware of Toshikazu Kawaguchi and his two time travel books - Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales From The Cafe (Before The Coffee Gets Cold Book 2) . Had I been familiar with these two back then, the two would have certainly made my list......perhaps even my my top ten.

The summary from the wikipedia page for the first novel does a very good job describing that novel -

In a narrow back alley in Tokyo lies a café called Funiculi Funicula. In the café, customers have the opportunity to travel back to a time of their choosing, as long as they follow a long list of rules. There is only one seat in the café that allows time travel; the seat is only available when the ghost that usually occupies it goes for a toilet break; once back in time, customers can't leave the seat; the only people in the past who can be met are people who have visited the café; whatever happens in the past, the present won't change; and, most importantly, the customer has to return to the present before their cup of coffee goes cold.
The novel follows the stories of the café staff, notably barista Kazu, and four different customers. The first, a businesswoman named Fumiko, tries to repair her relationship with her boyfriend after he left the country for a job in the United States. The second, a nurse named Kohtake, tries to find a letter her Alzheimer-stricken husband wrote. The third, a bar owner named Hirai, tries to talk to her sister whom she's been avoiding. The fourth, one of the café co-owners named Kei, tries to go to the future to talk to her unborn daughter.

Upon reading the first in the series, I immediately began reading the second book. A third book in the series, Before Your Memory Fades , is due for release in November, 2022.

In 2018, the novel was adapted to film as Kōhī ga samenai uchi ni (title translated to Cafe Funiculi Funicula ). I found the film on a Russian website - ok.ru - fortunately, with English subtitles. Watching it is definitely on my to do list.

The July 2022 Book List

Is it that time already? Seems like only yesterday that I posted the Reading List For June, 2022 . This month's list has fewer books than the previous list, but with 9 ebooks, it's still on par.

The first book read in July was the third novel in Naguib Mahfouz' The Cairo Trilogy . As I've mentioned before, I was so impressed with the Egyptian writer (who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature) that after reading his trilogy, I went on to read what some consider 3 of his best novels. I was a bit disappointed with Children of the Alley , but otherwise Naguib Mahfouz remains a favorite.

From Mahfouz I went on to read the only finished novel by a writer who might have gone on to follow in the older writer's footsteps; Waguih Ghali. Sadly, the writer of Beer in the Snooker Club died on 5 January 1969, after a fatal overdose of sleeping pills taken 10 days before.

The next two books on my list were written by Thubten Chodron, an American Buddhist nun trained in the Tibetan tradition. I recommend her books to anyone interested in Buddhism.

I have blog posts on the final two books of the month of July - Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers and Hiroshima by John Hersey. I mentioned in the post on Hersey's book that I had planned to read a few books on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August (the anniversary month of both bombings). I was a little early with Hiroshima but I'm on track reading a book on Nagasaki, to be followed by a book on the Manhattan Project.

So, now the reading list for July. With the exception of one book already mentioned, I can recommend all the books on this list.

Sugar Street    by Naguib Mahfouz
Children of the Alley     by Naguib Mahfouz
Midaq Alley    by Naguib Mahfouz
Miramar    by Naguib Mahfouz
Beer in the Snooker Club    by Waguih Ghali
Don't Believe Everything You Think    by Thubten Chodron
Open Heart, Clear Mind    by Thubten Chodron
Whose Body?    by Dorothy L. Sayers
Hiroshima    by John Hersey