The Reading List for September, 2022

September is nearly at an end and the time has come for me to post yet another monthly book list. Frankly, my heart isn't in it.

There are only four books on this month's list - a very disappointing number, to say the least. Unfortunately, my choice of books for September weren't very interesting. Of the four books, I can only recommend one - In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden. Even it has fallen in my ratings - from a five star to a four star. Still, it's a book worth reading, however.

So, for better or worse, here is the list of books read in September.

The Five Red Herrings  Dorothy L. Sayers
Good Karma : How to Create the Causes of Happiness  Thubten Chodron
The Deerslayer  James Fenimore Cooper
In This House of Brede  Rumer Godden

VW Beetle - number 73

Note:This will be simultaneously posted to all three of my blogs-
sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken
dumaguetewebsite
robertsimms

Anyone who has followed me for any length of time is aware of my occasional posting of photos of Volkswagen Beetles that I might happen upon while roaming about Dumaguete and Sibulan. This will be the 70th VW post published onto the first blog. Those 70 posts have featured 73 different Beetles - not including the VWs featured in a blog post on VWs in Davao.

As has been my routine for over a year, I went out early this morning on my bicycle. I don't always take the same route; I'm likely to go anywhere within a five or six mile radius of my home. Today, I took a slight detour toward the Negros Oriental Convention Center not far from the Main Campus of Negros Oriental State University.

As I passed an office of the Highway Patrol, I spotted the VW Beetle I'm featuring here.

The Five Red Herrings

The Five Red Herrings is the sixth in the Lord Peter Wimsey series of mystery novels by Dorothy L. Sayers. The eleven novels in the series, as well as a number of short stories, are available for download (as e-books) at a Canadian website, fadedpage.com. I had downloaded the 11 e-books last year when I was on an Agatha Christie binge, but had neglected to read any until after coming upon  a review of her first novel by a Facebook friend.

After reading Whose Body? and clearing up a few books I had already put into the queue, I began reading the Lord Peter Wimsey series. I've read the first six, and for the most part, I've enjoyed what I've read. However, I'm afraid that I didn't care for The Five Red Herrings . I mentioned in an earlier blog post that I found Sayers' usage of a heavy Scottish accent in this particular book distracting. The story was far too complicated and difficult to follow, and the accents made it much worse. From wikipedia:

"The first edition was reviewed in The Spectator of 1931 by MI Cole who found the impregnable alibis of the rather indistinguishable artist suspects, and the elaborate examination of timetables, ticket punches and so on, to be really taxing to the intelligence. He noted that Lord Peter Wimsey and the author's usual pleasant fantasies have retired into the background leaving a 'pure-puzzle' book which is disappointing, dry, and dull. He acknowledged, however, that it has been appreciated immensely by puzzle fanatics who possess 'the type of mind that goes on solving crossword puzzles for ever and ever' ".

After reading The Five Red Herrings, I decided to put the last five books in the series on a temporary hold. I've gone off in a totally new direction with the book I'm currently reading - Good Karma : How to Create the Causes of Happiness by Thubten Chodron.