Five Books

In May, I came upon a list of "the nine books you must read in 2023". As I write this post, I've read five of the nine books and reviewed two - The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith and I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy .

I suppose I should say something about the other three - Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - and Death at La Fenice, by Donna Leon.

Half of a Yellow Sun tells the story of the Biafran War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970). I was a teenager at the time and have some memories of the war from news reports, but I was more preoccupied with the Vietnam War. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was not yet born at the time of the war and obviously her information regarding the war is second hand. The book is no less powerful for that.

The Midnight Library tells of a woman who is able to experience alternate versions of her life. It's all explained by "Quantum mechanics".

Death at La Fenice, is the first in Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti mystery series. I don't know why I've never heard of Ms.Leon before now. I've begun reading the 2nd book in the series -I've downloaded all 32. I'm not sure how many I'll read in the series before returning to the "nine books" list.

I can recommend each of the five books I've read so far.

The Reading list for May, 2023

Well, today is the last day of May and I'm not likely to finish another book before the month is out, so I'll go with the five I've managed to finish this month.

I was able to post a review of sorts for four of the five:
The Talented Mr. Ripley  by Patricia Highsmith
The Lost World  by Arthur Conan Doyle
A Game for the Living  by Patricia Highsmith
and  I’m Glad My Mom Died  by Jennette McCurdy

The only one that I didn't review was another Patricia Highsmith novel, The Blunderer.

I've already started on the first two books that will be on the list for June. I found one of the books - Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the list of  The 9 Books you Must Read in 2023. The other is a book by Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude. I'd already read two books by García Márquez and liked what I'd read. I've come upon several lists where One Hundred Years of Solitude is named as one of the greatest novels of all time. Of course, I had to put it into the queue. I give the book high marks, although I would hardly classify it has the best thing I've ever read. It's good, but overrated in my opinion.

A Game for the Living by Patricia Highsmith

Continuing on in my exploration of the work of Patricia Highsmith, I've just finished her 1958 mystery, A Game For The Living. Although wikipedia describes the novel as a psychological mystery, the novel is very different from her work that I've read so far.

I'm sorry to say that this is my least favorite novel by Highsmith. I'm in good company, however. In her non fiction book, Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction, she says that A Game For The Living is her least favorite as well.

I had tried to do something different from what I had been doing, but this caused me to leave out certain elements that are vital for me: surprise, speed of action, stretching the reader's credulity, and above all the intimacy with the murderer himself. I am not an inventor of puzzles, nor do I like secrets. The result, after rewriting the book four times in a gruelling year of work, was mediocrity. I always say to foreign publishers, and to publishers who contemplate a reprint, "This is my worst book, so please think twice before you buy it."

I was aware of her opinion of the novel before going in. I suppose it is the "mystery" aspect that she and I dislike about the novel. Like reading Dostoevsky, a Highsmith novel is best when she focuses on the psychology of the killer and less on the "who-done-it".

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

 

Let's start at the beginning.

At some point during the month of March, while looking for books to read, I came upon the name of Patricia Highsmith. She is best remembered for her 1950 psychological thriller, Strangers on a Train, which was adapted to film in 1951 by director Alfred Hitchcock. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I located the Hitchcock film online and re-watched the movie and began reading the e-book.

For those familiar with the film, note that Hitchcock made several changes to the story. Never the less, I became an immediate fan of Highsmith, downloading everything she had written.

I went on to read Highsmith's Deep Water in April and so far this month, I've read two additional e-books -The Blunderer and The Talented Mr. Ripley. It was after I had put The Talented Mr. Ripley into the queue for this month that I came upon The 9 Books you Must Read in 2023 of which The Talented Mr. Ripley is one. As I am a fan of Highsmith, I knew I'd enjoy that particular book, although frankly I wasn't sure that it belonged on a list of the 9 books that really had to be read before the year was out.

That was, of course, before I'd actually read the book. Now that I've finished reading it, I'd have to say that it may be the best book I've read so far this year. Highsmith was a master of the psychological thriller; each of the four books written by her, that I've read so far, have not failed to surprise me at every turn.

Highsmith wrote five books within the , so-called "Ripliad". Having finished the first, I'm naturally looking forward to finishing the "Ripliad". However, I began with the idea to read Highsmith's novels in pretty much the order that they were written. The second in the Ripley series, Ripley Under Ground, was published 15 years after the first one. I'd have to skip over eight of her books - breaking the order. I'm going to stick to my original plan and read her 1958 novel, A Game for the Living next (even though Highsmith herself said "This is my worst book, so please think twice before you buy it").

Nine Books

 

When I opened the Chrome browser on my phone recently, I was greeted with a link to the following article - The 9 Books you Must Read in 2023. Being ever on the lookout for interesting books to read, I clicked on the link. Here's the list, according to the article:

Sea of Tranquility       by Emily St. John Mandel
The Midnight Library   by Matt Haig
The Talented Mr. Ripley    by Patricia Highsmith
I’m Glad My Mom Died   by Jennette McCurdy
Carrion Comfort         by Dan Simmons
Death at La Fenice     by Donna Leon
Half of a Yellow Sun   by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Dune                          by Frank Herbert
Harlem Shuffle          by Colson Whitehead

Of the nine, three were already in my e-book library; as a matter of fact, The Talented Mr. Ripley was already in my queue of books to read this month.

Of course, I had to download the remaining six.

I'm currently alternating between a book on my Kindle and a book on my phone. Following those two, I have two additional books in the queue, so I'm not at all certain when I'll begin on the above list (other than the Highsmith novel) and I'm not certain in what order I'll read the books. I suppose reading each in the order they fall on the list would work.

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

"Strangers on a Train" - Novel by Patricia Highsmith

 

While searching for books to read, I came upon the name of Patricia Highsmith. Highsmith is best remembered for her 1950 psychological thriller, Strangers on a Train which was adapted to film in 1951 by director Alfred Hitchcock. I was familiar with Hitchcock's film and decided to put Highsmith's novel into the queue.

Having read just the first few pages, I became aware that Hitchcock had made changes in the story when bringing it to the screen. In the film, the story takes place in the Northeast corridor, between Washington, D.C. and New York while the novel begins in Texas. In the novel, Guy Haines is an architect - in the film, Haines is an amateur tennis star. In the novel, the other "stranger on the train" is named Charles Anthony Bruno later changed to Bruno Anthony in the Hitchcock version.

Before finishing the novel, I located the film online.

The changes in the film become more dramatic. I'm not going to give spoilers to the novel, except to say it is very different from the movie......completely unexpected.

I'll be moving on to other novels by Patricia Highsmith in the days ahead.