My March Book List

Hi everyone. 

Hope April is treating you well for these first few days. Before we get too far into the month  I want to share my monthly book post.  

March was a very good reading month for me, as you will see if book posts are your thing.  If you like book posts, please feel free to read on.

My first book for March was Amor Towles latest novel, The Lincoln Highway. 

This story is set in the early 1950's. The main  characters are mostly young men, but there's a whole cast of  characters as well as car rides, train rides with hobos, family stories, New York City and escaped "prisoners" from a juvenile facility, as well as Sally, who along with the little boy Billy  are my favorite characters from this book. (Although all of the characters were "flawed".)

 Like many people, I loved  A Gentleman in Moscow.   I had mixed feelings about The Lincoln Highway. It was a good story, not boring, but I wasn't rushing to pick up the book and read. In fact, I had to tell myself to read it so I could move onto another book.  I even thought about putting it down for awhile. I wasn't making connections to the characters or to the story, and  I wasn't that anxious to see what happened next.  Maybe I just went into to this book too ladened with expectations and hoped it really was a roadtrip book.

Once I got to around page 300, I finally made  some connections with the characters and also found myself fascinated with some of little stories stories within the story. I was starting to enjoy the book and wanted to see what happened. 

All in all, this book is a good and fairly easy read, although at almost 600 pages, not a short book.  I would give it a  4  out of 5 stars  because it took me quite awhile to get into the story. This novel makes me ask these questions. Is a good book one that keeps you thinking about it for awhile, whether you you enjoyed it or not? Or is a good book one you find yourself being satisfied with when it finishes?     My advice if you've read  A Gentleman in Moscow is don't expect this story to be more of the same tone, and I'm still trying to decide how I feel about the ending.  

My first listen for March was this book Old In Art School, by retired Princeton history professor Nell Painter. This was something way out of my usual book choice, but the title caught my eye. I decided to listen to this memoir of when Painter started art school at age 62. 

I have to say this book quickly hooked me for several reasons. One was Painter's discussion of feeling self-assured, or not, about going back to school to learn about making art. She didn't want to just take "crafty classes", she wanted to learn to be a serious artist.  Painter wrote about how she learned to think like an artist rather than a historian. 

Painter also wrote about the subject of art, how art changes over time, and how tastes change also. The one negative for me was that Painter mentioned many of contemporary artists that I was not, and still am not, familiar with.  These artists were her inspirations. It was almost too much at one point, but I suppose when you are a historian, you are trained to reference people who make a movement. In most of the book, instead of mentioning artists,  Painter  discussed being a woman in the art world, and even more so, being a black  woman making art. Or an "old" person studying and making art.   Painter also definitely brought home that age shouldn't stop you if you really want to do something. 

I really liked this book.  It  made me think about art, about school and learning, as well as many other topics. Perhaps because I am just about 2 years into retirement, and I feel like it is time to discover the what is next (now that covid is hopefully letting up its grip-at least for a little while), this book  spoke to me.  Painter wrote and narrated this book  (she's a great reader) which made it a more personal  look at her story of art, learning and life after 60, even though you don't have to be over 60 to enjoy this book.

My next listen was Her Hidden Genius by one of my favorite historical authors, Marie Benedict. This is Benedict's latest novel, and it caught my attention because it is about Rosalind Franklin, the woman along with 3 men who discovered the structure of DNA back in the early 1950's. I am somewhat familiar with Franklin and her story, as the discovery of DNA's structure is one of my favorite biology topics, and I was  curious how Benedict approached the story in this historical novel.

My first thought while listening was that I wanted to know what Rosalind Franklin's voice actually sounded like. The narrator, Nicola Barber, was excellent, but at first she wasn't what I pictured Franklin sounding like.  Too bad I couldn't find a recording of Franklin's actual voice.

 I think this book is a great way to introduce Franklin to many readers. I enjoyed this book, and it was different for me as it's events came from  Franklin's viewpoint rather than the men involved in DNA research.  I even learned a few new things about Franklin's life. She did have a full life outside of lab, which was what a lot of this story concentrated on. I can't say I knew much  about  those details  before this listen.

 There is one thing in this book I really had issues with however. I'm not sure if it was how the book wrote it or if it was just the narrator's reading, but please, pronounce deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA's full name) correctly. It is NOT deoxyribose nucleic acid.  Since Franklin's career choice and thinking was that of a scientist, and from all I've learned about her, she was a stickler for getting information correct,  the fact that the pronunciation is wrong does not fit in with her character at all. It could take away a whole lot of credibility when it comes to this historical story. My guess is the author did do her research, and it was an editor without a lot of science background someplace in the publishing/recording process who unknowingly was responsible for this misspelling and  then mispronunciation.

Then it was time for a mystery, because it is hard to go too long without reading one. This time I chose this British Library Crime classic, The Woman in the Wardrobe by Peter Shaffer.  I wasn't familiar with this author until I  read in the preface that he was also the author of the play Equus, which I am familiar with. I was now even more curious to see how he would handle a classic British "who done it" mystery. This book was first published in 1951 before Shaffer hit it big  writing plays.

The detective in this book is Shaffer's ode to Agatha Christie's Poirot, Mr. Verity. Mr. Verity is a collector of archaeological objects, particulary busts of people, a major cigar smoker, and  he does a lot of talking. In the seaside town of Amnestie at a beach side hotel called The Charter, Verity sees a man climbing down the rain spout from a window. A man named Maxwell has been murdered in his room, and a waitress is found locked in his bedroom wardrobe. There is also another man climbing in and out of windows, as well as a man who thinks he has been cheated out of being the King of England. You can see there are lots of interesting characters who might have something to do with Maxwell's murder.

And like Christie's Poirot, leave it to Verity is help the police solve this crime. This was an enjoyable mystery with a colorful and unconventional detective as well as a nicely wrapped up and surprisingly unpredictable ending. 

 

My next listen was this early Tony Hillerman mystery with his detective Jim Chee.  Although the book image says this is a Leaphorn and Chee novel, Leaphorn doesn't make much of a presence. I enjoy these novels, whether with Leaphorn, Chee or both of these detectives, and even  with Manulito who was added later in the series.  These stories are set in the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico. They are rich in Navajo life and culture, and they show how those intersect with the mainstream life in those states. 

In this mystery, a box of mementos goes missing from a rich man's safe. His wife hires Jim Chee, a Navajo police detective, to find them. This man made his money when uranium  was found on his property, so there are some potential sinister tie ins to the missing box and the mining of this radioactive ore .  There's also a blonde haired killer on the loose, and that makes some very suspenseful reading/listening in parts of the book.

I realized shortly into this book that I had read it several years ago, but since it had been awhile, I decided to listen to it again. It was as enjoyable this time around as when I first read it.  I enjoy the characters, the setting and  this author's writing. Although the characters in these books develop over time, I haven't read the books in order and are able to keep events straight without any issues.  Hillerman published the last of these mysteries in 2006, but lucky for us who love his stories, his daughter Anne has picked them back up. I'm excited for her new one to be published later this spring.

My next book was something  not everyone might want to read. The Story of Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries is not a kid's book at all, but over 400 pages about dinosaurs and the  people who discovered them.

The author, Donald R. Prothero, does an excellent job with this book. It is a mix of historical figures, living scientists, paleontological history as well as dinosaur theories, anatomy and some very interesting stories. I don't claim to know as much as some kids do about dinosaurs, but they are interesting biologically, and I have a thing for bones, pots or other items that get dug out of the ground.  Including dinosaur bones. 

The author's writing is also easy to read. He has a list of references at the end of each chapter, as well as an index, and he also references other chapters in parts of his writing where a reader might want to look for information.  I learned a lot in a very enjoyable way. Donald Prothero has some other books that I will  look into. You don't have to be a dinosaur expert to enjoy this book, and I really did. 

 

Spring fever was hitting me, so after listening to the Tony Hillerman mystery, I listened to this short (about 6 hours long) book about bees titled Our Native Bees; North America's Endangered Pollinators and the Flight to Save Them by Paige Embry.  Most of this book is about native North American bees, but there are also a few chapters at the beginning about honey bees. Honey bees are not native to North America, but they are here in large numbers, so I think starting this book with honey bees lead to some very good comparisons and contrasts when the book switched over to native bees. 

One thing I enjoyed about this listen was how it talked about the pollinating "flaws" of honey bees here in North America compared to our native bees. For an example, honey bees can't pollinate tomato plants, only our native bumble bees. (I didn't know that before this book.) However, honey can only come from honey bees, so that's not to say we don't need honey bees.  The other thing I didn't know was how much effort has been put into raising some of our native pollinators like we raise honey bees. Embry covered a wide variety of bee related topics from insecticides, diseases, extinction reasons and how we rely upon native  bees in agriculture. As well as learning new things, I enjoyed this listen. This book was fascinating glimpse into the world of North American Hymenopterans.

I've had a few long drives this month so I made a lot of headway  listening to some shorter books. After my natural history book about bees, I went back to fiction. Dead and Gone is book 9 of the 13 book Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. I haven't listened to any of these books for quite awhile, but since I have the read the entire series before, I can listen to a book when the mood strikes. 

If you aren't familiar this series, there are a whole lot of supernatural beings, from fairies, to werewolves to vampires, and even a few other assorted magical people. The main character is Sookie Stackhouse. She is a waitress who lives in Northern Louisiana, and she is able to read people's minds. At this point in the series, she is dating Eric Northman, a vampire who in his actual life was a Viking Warrior.  As in other volumes in this series, there is a murder that needs solving, but not in any traditional murder mystery way. I'm not sure I'd call these books murder mysteries though because the murders are just one part of a bigger story.

I enjoy these books. They are a fun read/listen. Some are better than others, and this is a good one. I do recommend you read the series in order if they would be something you'd want to read because these stories do build upon the ones before them.

And finally, my last listen for March was this book.

The Christie Affair, by Nina de Gramont, is the fictional novel about Nan O'Dea who is in a relationship with Agatha Christie's husband Archie Christie.  I don't claim to be any expert on Agatha Christie, but I was a bit confused at the beginning because the woman who Archie Christie left his wife Agatha for was not Nan O'Dea. Right off the bat there was something mysterious and suspenseful about this story. 

I'm finding it hard to write a review of this story that doesn't give too much away, but let me give it a try. Hopefully I'm not too vague.

The story weaves it's way through Nan's early life in Ireland and then pops ahead to December 1926 when Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days. Although what Agatha did during those 11 days are unknown, the author takes us on an imaginative tale of that time weaving Nan and Agatha together. This is definitely a work of fiction, answering the question of what if...

I enjoyed this book, with all its twists and turns. I will admit I had a hard time buying into the main premise of the story early in the book, but I never disliked the story.  I stuck with it, wanting to know what happened next, playing with different ending scenarios in my head. I won't spoil it by telling you whether I guessed how it wraps up correctly or not. Smile.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading through my list. I hope you found something that interests you even if it’s only to read about the book.  And as usual, I love recommendations.  

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and as always, thanks for visiting.