Book List for April, 2023

The time has come around once again for me to post onto this blog a list of the books I've read this month. April being a relatively short month, it would be expected that the number of books read would not be particularly high, but this April the list is considerably smaller than usual. The list is exactly half the number of April 2022.

Part of the blame can be placed upon the Internet. I've come upon websites that have old television shows of which I'm found. Yes, place the blame on Sgt. Bilko, Lt.Columbo and Dr. Who.

The first book on the list is Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith. I was impressed with her first novel, Strangers on a Train. This novel did not disappoint. As a matter of fact, a Highsmith novel will be first on the list for May.

Next on April's list is another of David Lagercrantz' continuations of Stieg Larsson's Millennium series. Sadly, I am not as big of a fan of Lagercrantz as I am Stieg Larsson.

Book number three came to me as a pleasant surprise. Bullets and Bolos: Thirteen Years in the Philippines Islands by John R. White was recommended to me by a friend and I appreciate the recommendation. The book is a memoir of an American who served in the Philippine Constabulary under Gov. Taft, beginning in 1901. The fact that most of the events he wrote about happened on the island where I now call home is certainly a plus.

I've been thru a number of Kindles over the past few years and I've prepared for the day when my present Kindle will fail me by downloading an e-reader app onto my phone. The Kindle is still my first choice but I have used the phone app a couple of times. The e-reader on my phone came with a few e-books pre-loaded. Of course, these are books found in the public domain. 

Having the book on my phone was the reason I began reading Jules Verne's A Journey to the Center of the Earth. Jules Verne is one of those writers I heard of all my life but had never actually read. After a couple of chapters in, I did a little research on the book. As it turned out, the English translators of Verne's novels weren't always faithful to the original French novel. It seems the first English translation in 1871 was a "drastically rewritten version of the story" pretty much created out of thin air. The 1877 translation by Frederick Amadeus Malleson is considered a much better translation, although it is far from perfect. It's the Malleson translation that's on my phone. Frankly, Jules Verne might have been a wonderful writer (as far as style goes) but the story is absolutely unbelievable. It's hard for me to imagine that readers in the 19th Century could be so incredibly ignorant regarding science. Sure, scientific knowledge has advanced quite a great deal in the 150 plus years since the original French publication, but the story is totally absurd on its face.

So, without further ado, here is my April 2023 reading list.

Deep Water     by Patricia Highsmith
The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye     by David Lagercrantz
Bullets and Bolos:Thirteen Years in the Philippines Islands     by John R. White
A Journey to the Center of the Earth    by Jules Verne

Book List for March, 2023

 

It's the final day of March and the time has come for another list if the books I've read since the posting of my last monthly reading list.

The first in the list is The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara by David I. Kertzer. I first learned of the book and the story it told was from my reading of Richard Dawkins' book, The God Delusion. Kertzer's book tells the true story of the the Vatican's kidnapping seizure of a six-year-old boy from his Jewish family in Bologna, Italy, on the basis of the family's former servant's testimony that she had secretly baptized the boy as an infant.

Prefecture D is a collection of novellas by Hideo Yokoyama dealing with the internal politics of a large metropolitan in Japan.

In The Girl in the Spider's Web, David Lagercrantz continues Stieg Larsson's Millennium series.

Metropolis is a 1925 science fiction novel by the German writer Thea von Harbou. The novel was the basis for and written in tandem with Fritz Lang's 1927 film of the same name. Oddly enough, reading the novel makes the film more understandable....and vice versa. Each one helps the other.

In Just Babies, psychologist Paul Bloom explores our innate sense of morality.

For my thoughts on Highsmith's novel, check out my earlier blog post.

The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara     by David I. Kertzer
Prefecture D         by Hideo Yokoyama
The Girl in the Spider's Web    by David Lagercrantz
Metropolis    by Thea von Harbou
Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil    by Paul Bloom
Strangers in a Train     by Patricia Highsmith