harrygbutler's Tomes and Trifles in 2017, Part 3

"On the first of May, it is moving day..."



Hello, I’m Harry, and this is my second year in the 75 Books Challenge. By training I'm a medievalist, by occupation an editor; my taste in reading runs to Golden Age and earlier mysteries, pulp detective and adventure fiction, Late Antique and medieval literature, and westerns, among others. I also have a fondness for collections of cartoons and comic strips. A fairly recent discovery for me is the appeal of late nineteenth and early twentieth century popular fiction. I usually have a few books going at once.

My wife Erika and I live in eastern Pennsylvania with three cats — Elli, Otto, and Pixie — and a dog, Hildy. Our pets occasionally make an appearance in my thread. My other interests include model railroading, gardening, and birding, so you'll sometimes see something related to them as well.

I try to provide some sort of comment on the books I read, but they aren't really reviews.

My 2017 gardening thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/249983. I'll likely post most of my birding reports there as well.

Books completed in the first quarter of 2017

1. Why Shoot a Butler?, by Georgette Heyer
2. The Exeter Book Riddles, trans. by Kevin Crossley-Holland
3. Bear Island, by Alistair MacLean
4. The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 919-966, ed. and trans. by Bernard S. Bachrach and Steven Fanning
5. Murder in Maryland, by Leslie Ford
6. Kate Carnegie, by Ian Maclaren
7. Babylonian Literary Texts in the Schøyen Collection, by A. R. George
8. The Destroying Angel, by Norman Klein
9. Sweet Danger, by Margery Allingham
10. Rudder Grange, by Frank R. Stockton
11. Best Cartoons of the Year 1943, ed. by Lawrence Lariar
12. Norse Romance I: The Tristan Legend, ed. by Marianne E. Karlinke
13. The Footsteps at the Lock, by Ronald A. Knox
14. Proverbs of Ancient Sumer, by Bendt Alster
15. Solomon Kane, by Robert E. Howard
16. Hägar the Horrible: The Epic Chronicles: The Dailies 1983 to 1984, by Dik Browne
17. The Case Is Closed, by Patricia Wentworth
18. Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology, ed. by Milton J. Davis and Charles R. Saunders
19. Ava's New Testament Narratives: "When the Old Law Passed Away", by Ava
20. The Blackout, by Constance and Gwenyth Little
21. Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, ed. by Alan Thacker and Richard Sharpe
22. Early Medieval Rome and the Christian West: Essays in Honour of Donald A. Bullough, ed. by Julia M.H. Smith
23. Lonesome Road, by Patricia Wentworth
24. Gray Dusk, by Octavus Roy Cohen
25. East of Samarinda, by Carl Jacobi
26. Partners in Crime, by Agatha Christie
27. The Crock of Gold, by James Stephens
28. The Eye in the Museum, by J. J. Connington
29. The Life of Bishop Wilfrid, by Eddius Stephanus
30. League of the Grateful Dead and Other Stories, by Day Keene
31. The Black Stallion Returns, by Walter Farley
32. The History of Leo the Deacon: Byzantine Military Expansion in the Tenth Century, by Leo the Deacon
33. Galusha the Magnificent, by Joseph C. Lincoln
34. The Riddle of the Yellow Zuri, by Harry Stephen Keeler
35. The Amazing Adventures of Letitia Carberry, by Mary Roberts Rinehart
36. The Dain Curse, by Dashiell Hammett
37. The Sherlock of Sageland: The Complete Tales of Sheriff Henry, Volume 1, by W. C. Tuttle
38. The Mysterious Mr. Quin, by Agatha Christie

Books completed in the second quarter of 2017

39. Tam O' the Scoots, by Edgar Wallace
40. The Shepherd of Hermas (in Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2) (anonymous)
41. Einstein Simplified: Cartoons on Science, by Sidney Harris
42. Santorini, by Alistair MacLean
43. Danger Point, by Patricia Wentworth
44. Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle
45. Prince Valiant, Vol. 8: 1951-1952, by Hal Foster
46. The End of Time: A Meditation on the Philosophy of History, by Josef Pieper
47. The Land of Hana: Kings, Chronology, and Scribal Tradition, by Amanda H. Podany
48. The Ghosts’ High Noon, by Carolyn Wells
49. All Creatures Great and Small, by James Herriot
50. Epics of Sumerian Kings: The Matter of Aratta, trans. by Herman Vanstiphout
51. The Mummy Moves, by Mary Gaunt
52. Son of the Black Stallion, by Walter Farley
53. Juliet Dies Twice, by Lange Lewis
54. The Murder at the Vicarage, by Agatha Christie
55. Punch in the Air: A Cartoon History of Flying, ed. by David Langdon
56. The Chronicle of Ireland, trans. by T. M. Charles-Edwards
57. The Ahhiyawa Texts, by Gary Beckman, Trevor Bryce, and Eric Cline
58. Torchy, by Sewell Ford
59. The Chinese Shawl, by Patricia Wentworth
60. Ugaritic Narrative Poetry, trans. by Mark S. Smith, Simon B. Parker, Edward L. Greenstein, Theodore J. Lewis, and David Marcus; ed. by Simon B. Parker
61. The House Opposite, by J. Jefferson Farjeon
62. Gone North, by Charles Alden Seltzer
63. Hittite Myths, by Harry A. Hoffner, Jr.
64. The Lacquer Screen, by Robert van Gulik
65. Epigrammes and The Forest, by Ben Jonson
66. The Island Stallion, by Walter Farley
67. Heart Throbs
68. A Bullet in the Ballet, by Caryl Brahms and S. J. Simon
69. Partisans, by Alistair MacLean
70. The Ruin of Britain and Other Works, by Gildas
71. Death in the Tunnel, by Miles Burton
72. Sources for the Study of Nisibis, trans. by Adam H. Becker
73. The Bellamy Case, by James Hay, Jr.
74. Joseph Redhorn, by J. J. Bell
75. Mesopotamian Chronicles, by Jean-Jacques Glassner
76. The Holy War Made by King Shaddai upon Diabolus, To Regain the Metropolis of the World, by John Bunyan
77. The Black Stallion and Satan, by Walter Farley
78. The Billiard Room Mystery, by Brian Flynn
79. A Tale of Two Saints: The Martyrdoms and Miracles of Saints Theodore "the Recruit" and "the General", trans. by John Haldon
80. Ted Key’s Phyllis, by Ted Key
81. The Fifth Latchkey, by Natalie Sumner Lincoln
82. The Loudwater Mystery, by Edgar Jepson
83. Blind Date with Death, by Cornell Woolrich
84. Walt Disney's Donald Duck: "The Ghost Sheriff of Last Gasp", by Carl Barks
85. Grubstake Gold, by James B. Hendryx
86. Murder in Room 700, by Mary Hastings Bradley
87. Seeds of Murder, by Van Wyck Mason
88. The Spy Paramount, by E. Phillips Oppenheim

Reserved.

Next one's yours!

Happy New Thread!!

Happy New Thread, Harry! Happy May!

>6 lyzard: Thanks, Liz!

>7 msf59: Thank you, Mark! Happy May!

54. The Murder at the Vicarage, by Agatha Christie



The first entry in Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple series is an effective mystery narrated by the village vicar, though the ending is rather too rushed, with scant attention given to some misleading clues barely mentioned, sometimes not long before. My enjoyment was dampened by my prior knowledge of the solution to the mystery. Recommended.

First sentence: “It is difficult to know quite where to begin this story, but I have fixed my choice on a certain Wednesday at luncheon at the Vicarage.”

Hi, Harry! Are you reading the Marples in order, or was this a one-off? I wrapped up a chronological read last year, but I'm still working on the Poirots, which I hadn't realized there are many more of.

>10 rosalita: Hi, Julia! I'm tackling all the Christies in publication order, and I've just reached the first of the Miss Marple books. Next up is The Sittaford Mystery (aka Murder at Hazelmoor), and then back to Poirot with Peril at End House. Where are you with Poirot?

Happy new thread, Harry.

Just read about your railroad magazine find in your last thread. Because it's a minor interest of mine, I've got to admit that I got excited with one of the headlines - Harvey House Girl. A web search didn't yield up an online copy of the text, but I did happen on a review on Google Books.

Hi Harry and happy Monday to you!

>11 harrygbutler: I didn't realize you were reading (re-reading?) Agatha Christie in publication order - good for you!

I started reading Agatha Christie when I was a teenager so never had a chance to read them in order. I only have 8 of her books that I've never read, and re-read Poirot and Miss Marple as comfort reads.

>12 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul!

>13 countrylife: Thanks for stopping by, Cindy, and sharing that little review! Is it the Harvey House chain that is your interest?

>14 karenmarie: Hi, Karen! It effectively amounts to a first-time reading of the Christies, as though I read some of her books, in no particular order, when I was young, I can't recall which ones or the details of them, so I don't have the sense of rereading (at least not yet). So far I've only found the Poirots to be books I'd likely return to again.

I only read some of the books I had planned or tentatively planned to read in April, with others claiming my attention instead. That's likely to continue, but I still think I want to try to sketch out some of the upcoming reading for May.

Under way, to be finished:
The Chronicle of Ireland, trans. By T. M. Charles-Edwards
The Holy War, by John Bunyan
Punch in the Air: A Cartoon History of Flying, ed. by David Langdon
Sidrak and Bokkus, ed. by T. L. Burton (but this might go into June)

Planned shared reads:
The Island Stallion, by Walter Farley
The Chinese Shawl, by Patricia Wentworth
Partisans, by Alistair MacLean

Planned reads:
Torchy, by Sewell Ford (ILL book, in hand)
A Bullet in the Ballet, by Caryl Brahms and S. J. Simon
Vintage Murder, by Ngaio Marsh
Gone North, by Charles Alden Seltzer
Historia Salonitanorum atque Spalatinorum pontificum (History of the Bishops of Salona and Split), by Archdeacon Thomas of Split, ed. and/or trans. by Olga Perić, Damir Karbić, Mirjana Matijević-Sokol, and James Ross Sweeney
The Spy Paramount, by E. Phillips Oppenheim
Death in the Tunnel, by Miles Burton
Address of Tatian to the Greeks, by Tatian (in Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2)

Tentative reads:
Oh, Money! Money!, by Eleanor H. Porter
Deathblow Hill, by Phoebe Atwood Taylor
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, by Kate Douglas Wiggin
Nothing Can Rescue Me, by Elizabeth Daly
Penelope Passes, by Joan Coggin
Murder at Hazelmoor, by Agatha Christie

>11 harrygbutler: I just read Murder on the Orient Express last month, so it looks like Three Act Tragedy is next up for me, probably either late this month or next month. I've not read any of her standalone novels, so I'll probably tackle those when I've wrapped up Poirot.

I'll be starting The Chinese Shawl today. It came in earlier than I expected at the library, so I've got to finish it by Thursday before it has to go back.

Happy new thread!

>17 rosalita: I'm glad I'm reading all the books in one long string, as for me the Poirots have been nice breaks from books I liked less. The verdict is still out on Miss Marple for me.

I can probably start The Chinese Shawl this evening myself, as I'm beginning the month with no mystery underway. I have the clock ticking on a couple ILL books, but one I just got on Saturday, and I'm well along with the other.

>18 drneutron: Thanks, Jim!

A happy book arrival today: Joseph Redhorn, by J. J. Bell.

I first came across the series of amusing books about the Scottish house painter several years ago and greatly enjoyed all that I found and read since. One, however, had eluded me, and for a long time the only copies available online were priced far out of line with their described condition. I had hopes my niece would find it while she was studying abroad in Glasgow last year, but alas no. Eventually I tried interlibrary loan, though I really wanted to own the book. but even there I was disappointed, as it could not be had. However, one of my town's librarians did manage to find a copy for sale online at an acceptable price, in an acceptable condition — I placed the order and just received it, in need of some repair, but manageable repair. This may move up to the top of my TBR pile.

Happy new thread, Harry!

>22 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita!

>16 harrygbutler: I see those shared reads!

I've never read Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm...let me know when you want to read it, and I'll try to join in.

NOTE: I was going to mention this in the previous thread, but you dun went and seeded another, so here we are:

Harry, your thread is one of my favorites here at LT. You always stay above the swirl of controversy, and far removed from the daily anxieties and urgencies, seeming to float along on a raft of calm and contemplative enjoyment of books, birds, and gardening, three of my favorite things.

Thank you for letting me (us) share in your little oasis amongst an internet of chaos.

>24 fuzzi: Golly, thanks! I'm glad you find my thread a welcoming and pleasant place to visit!

I likely won't get to Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm until late in the month, so I'll let you know when it is coming up!

Happy New thread, Harry! Your reading is certainly going great guns this year.

I see that you've recently read two of my absolute favorite Christies: Murder at Hazelmoor and Murder at the Vicarage. I love the atmosphere and solution of Hazelmoor, and the first Marple was one of the very first of her books that I read, long ago. I can still read these with enjoyment, as old and comfortable friends rather than as puzzles to solve.

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm was a tremendous favorite when I was a young girl. I'll be very interested in your take on it.

Morning, Harry. Another damp, chilly day in the Midwest. At least I am off work today, but I will be homebound, with my books and my feeders.

Have a good day.

>26 Matke: Thanks, Gail! I feel as though I'm reading slowly — I have had a few books, including one I'm reading now, that have been slogs to get through.

I'm looking forward to Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. So far I've quite liked the books I've read by Kate Douglas Wiggin, especially the novellas in Rose o' the River, The Old Peabody Pew, and Susanna and Sue.

>27 msf59: A clear and cool day here, Mark — but as I'm working, it will just be the feeders for me, too.

A snapshot of the book business in 1932. This is the inside cover of my copy of Almost Married, a thriller published in England under the title The Devil's Triangle.



The copy I own was originally a file copy from a printer used by Grosset & Dunlap, the publisher of this edition. The printer, Kingsport Press, printed and bound 10,000 copies of this movie tie-in edition (Almost Married was a 1932 Fox release starring Ralph Bellamy and Violet Heming).

55. Punch in the Air: A Cartoon History of Flying



This is a mixed bag of cartoons from Punch, beginning with the early years of the magazine and running through the early 1980s, on topics related to aviation. The quality varies, of course, and some of the cartoons are dated — for example, the Concorde is becoming but a dim memory. Still, it was a moderately amusing collection overall, and I’ll likely keep it about to dip into again sometime in the future. Mildly recommended.

>30 harrygbutler: I love seeing old books like that.

What is a file copy?

>32 fuzzi: I think that a file copy would be a copy retained at the printer to show the work done and to use as a reference should a reprint be desired. There was probably another copy (or maybe more than one) held at the publisher's office for similar reasons; when I worked for book publishers we always retained physical copies (as well as electronic files) for reference as needed.

Morning, Harry! Sweet Thursday. No surprises at the feeders but I did see a northern flicker on my route yesterday. Good looking woodpecker.

Hi Harry! Happy Thursday to you.

>30 harrygbutler: I wonder what "S.A. No.", "C. No.", and "K. No." are. Do you know?

>34 msf59: Hi, Mark! Flickers are good. At our last birding walk, someone showed up with a flicker feather she had found — the shafts of the feather was an incredibly bright yellow.

>35 karenmarie: Hi, Karen! Unfortunately, I don't know what those abbreviations stand for. I'd expect "C. No." to stand for "Customer Number," but the others have me stumped.

56. The Chronicle of Ireland, trans. by T. M. Charles-Edwards


(Not the cover of the hardcover edition I read, which was a plain black.)

This entry in the Liverpool University Press series of Translated Texts for Historians is a bit different from most of them. Here, the translator, T. M. Charles-Edwards, endeavors to offer evidence for, and to some extent reconstruct, a now-lost chronicle that appears to serve as the basis for several later Irish chronicles. An interesting exercise, but I’m not really in a position to judge its success. The book provides copious notes, some on persons and places, some trying to sort out the relationships among the various chronicle texts. The chronicle itself, unfortunately, ends up being a bit boring, even taking into account the usually laconic nature of medieval chronicle entries, although I’ll admit that part of that is likely my unfamiliarity with most of the Irish figures (and names) mentioned. What is striking is just how many little kings there were running around the island in that era, and just how often these kinglets were killed in battle.

Here’s a fairly typical set of entries, for the year 676:

1. The kalends of January. Columbanus, bishop of Inis Bó Finde, and Fínán son of Airennán rest.
2. The killing of Máel Dúin son of Rígullán and of Bodb son of Rónán descendant of Congal.
3. Many Picts were drowned at Land Abae.
4. The destruction of Ailech Fringrenn by Fínsnechtae Fledach.
5. Faílbe returns from Ireland.
6. Congal son of Máel Dúin and the sons of Scandal and Aurthulae were killed.

Recommended only for those with a keen interest in the subject of early medieval Ireland.

First entry, for AD 431:

The kalends of January. In the 431st year from the Incarnation of the Lord, Palladius was ordained bishop by Celestine, bishop of the city of Rome, when Aetius and Valerius were consuls, and was the first to be sent to Ireland so that they might believe in Christ, in the eighth year of Theodosius II.

I was planning to make my own upside-down suet feeder using a plain cage feeder that we had on hand, but I encountered a design hassle because it turned out the cage feeder didn't open on a big side, but on one of the narrow sides, which meant more involved construction to make it easy to refill. I was mulling that over when I stumbled across a suitable feeder at our local garden center. It came home with me, along with some orange-flavored suet to try.





I refilled our other feeders at the same time, and this friendly chipping sparrow came zipping in to have an afternoon snack.



I think I'll mount the plain cage feeder to a cedar board to provide a tail prop.

^I really like that suet feeder, Harry. So they feed from the bottom?

Love the chipping sparrow. We have been getting then regularly too. Cute little guys.

>39 msf59: Right, Mark. Some of the birds that really make a dent in suet (like starlings) apparently aren't really able to hang upside down to feed, but woodpeckers, nuthatches, and the like can, so the theory is that it keeps the suet for the more desirable birds. We'll see.

Yeah, the chipping sparrows somehow seem friendlier than the song sparrows that are coming around, too, although maybe it is just that our song sparrows are very skittish.

I have not seen many starlings at the feeders, just a few but never at the suet feeder, mostly on the ground. Interesting.

I somehow missed the new thread. Better late than never, I guess.

>41 msf59: I don't see the starlings at the tube feeder all that often, really, nor all that much at our gazebo-style feeder, but they regularly go after the suet. Otherwise, though, they're usually down among the various ground feeders. The grackles eat everywhere.

>42 alcottacre: Hi, Stasia! Thanks for stopping by!

>33 harrygbutler: thanks for the explanation.

>38 harrygbutler: I hope that feeder works well for you. I bought one just like it, and it rusted badly. Next time I'm going to get the wood or recycled plastic version. It could just be that we're too humid/damp here.

>44 fuzzi: That's good to know, thanks. I'll keep an eye on it. If it doesn't work out, I'll probably make one, but I'll go ahead and buy a suitable cage to use with my scrap cedar so that I can refill it more easily.

Congrats on the new suet feeder, Harry! It seems counter-intuitive to me, but there are quite a few of them available on Amazon, so they must work, right? The tail prop is a good idea. The birds definitely seem to appreciate it.

>37 harrygbutler: The examples you gave remind me of the slog that I'm going through right now with the OT for the year long Bible-as-Literature read I'm doing. Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and now Nehemiah, are mostly just lists of disjointed names and quantities.

>46 karenmarie: Thanks, Karen! I'll be interested in seeing what sort of action it actually gets. I may have to try a few spots. Right now it seems that the orange smell is attracting birds that can't use it but then are feeding at the gazebo-style feeder on the other hook of the pole.

Genealogies and census lists can be heavy going, I know, Karen. I'm not good at visualization, so the lists of building materials for the Temple were probably the toughest for me, even with some illustrations to help.

Morning, Harry! Happy Saturday. I took the day off, so we are going on a walk this A.M. Hope to see something new & exciting. Cool again today but it should stay dry.

Enjoy your day.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend, Harry.

I reckon you'll pass your total number of posts on your thread for the whole of 2016, this weekend.

Hi, Harry - a couple of quick questions:

You don't happen to have a copy of The Mystery Of The Creeping Man, do you? I'm reasonably sure not, since I presume it would have come up in our earlier chat about The Maestro Murders, but I thought I would check. If not, could you kindly add it to the 'stuff to keep an eye out for' list? (Though I imagine you'd pick it up anyway.)

Do you know anything about Bertram Atkey's Smiler Bunn series?

Thanks!

>48 msf59: I hope you had a good outing this morning, Mark! Much of my day was spent at a book sale, so certainly a good time.

>49 PaulCranswick: Thanks for stopping by, Paul! I'm glad people are finding my thread a pleasant place to visit.

>50 lyzard: Hi, Liz! No, I don't have that one, but I'll definitely keep an eye out for it for you. (Otherwise I might not get it if I remembered it was by the author of The Maestro Murders :-) ).

And I hadn't heard of Bertram Atkey or the Smiler Bunn series, but I'll be keeping an eye out for them now; based on what I just read about them online, they sound like books I'd enjoy.

I saw several Mystery League books at a sale today, but they were all ones I already own. Book purchase report coming up as soon as I finish sorting them -- there were some you'll probably find of interest.

I've been busy reading Torchy, the first in a series by Sewell Ford that appear to deal with the escapades of a young man working as an office boy. Amusing so far, and I'm rapidly getting to know the slang of ca. 1912.

Today I visited the Archive, in Lansdale, Pa., for a big sale — many books for 25 cents, nearly all others half-price. I came out after a few hours of shopping with 68 books total, 26 hardcover ( (HC) ).

Poetry:
The Five Nations, by Rudyard Kipling (HC)
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, by Lord Byron (HC)
Collected Writings, by Elizabeth Jane Weston (Renaissance neo-Latin poetry in translation) (HC)

Humor (including cartoons and comics):
Pomona’s Travels, by Frank R. Stockton (1894; sequel to Rudder Grange) (HC)
The Good Humor Book, ed. by Robert Rango (1944) (HC)
Do It Yourself; or, My Neighbor Is an Idiot
Ted Key’s Phyllis, by Ted Key
Casper and Wendy: Ghosts and Witches
Sweetie Pie, by Nadine Seltzer
Andy Capp Number 23, by Reg Smythe
Andy Capp Number 34, by Reg Smythe
Tizzy, by Kate Osann
Broom-Hilda: Life Begins at 1500, by Russell Myers
The Laughter of My Father, by Carlos Bulosan

Crime and espionage (may include adventure):
The Silver Key, by Edgar Wallace (HC)
The Blanket of the Dark, by John Buchan (HC)
The Crow’s Inn Tragedy, by Annie Haynes (HC)
The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan (HC)
Greenmantle, by John Buchan (HC)
Mr. Standfast, by John Buchan (HC)
The Mystery of the Gold Box, by Valentine Williams (1932) (HC)
The Fifth Latchkey, by Natalie Sumner Lincoln (1929) (HC)
Murder in the Flagship, by P. Walker Taylor (1937) (HC)
Saigon Singer, by Van Wyck Mason (1946) (HC)
The Loudwater Mystery, by Edgar Jepson (1920) (HC)
Legacy of Death, by R. A. J. Walling (1934) (HC)
The Strange Case of Mr. Henry Marchmont, by J. S. Fletcher (1927) (HC)
The Emperor of America, by Sax Rohmer (1929) (HC)
The Clock Ticks On, by Valentine Williams (1933) (HC)
Bulldog Drummond Double-Header, by H. C. McNeile (contains Third Round and The Final Count, edition published 1937) (HC)
Drury Lane’s Last Case, by Ellery Queen
The Case of the Baited Hook, by Erle Stanley Gardner
Murder out of Turn, by Frances & Richard Lockridge
Beware the Curves, by Erle Stanley Gardner
First Come, First Kill, by Francis Allan
Horizon, by Helen MacInnes
The Basle Express, by Manning Coles
The Unconquerable, by Helen MacInnes
Stop at Nothing, by John Welcome
Fatal Step, by Wade Miller
Death on Scurvy Street, by Ben Ames Williams
The Man Nobody Saw, by Peter Cheyney
The Town Cried Murder, by Leslie Ford
The Galton Case, by Ross Macdonald
Murdered: One by One, by Francis Beeding
Love Has No Alibi, by Octavus Roy Cohen
The Horizontal Man, by Helen Eustis
The Black Envelope: Mr. Pinkerton Again!, by David Frome
Say Yes to Murder, by W. T. Ballard
My Son, the Murderer, by Patrick Quentin
A Body to Spare, by Maurice Procter
Date with Death, by Eaton K. Goldthwaite (former title Cat and Mouse)
Saigon, by “Nick Carter”
The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper, by John D. MacDonald

Western (including northern) and adventure:
Never Fire First: A Canadian Northwest Mounted Story, by James French Dorrance (HC)
The Lion’s Skin, by Rafael Sabatini (1911) (HC)
The Little Ark, by Jan de Hartog (I’m not completely sure where this belongs)
The Yellow God, by H. Rider Haggard

Children:
Kittens, by Catherine Stahlman (a Rand McNally Junior Elf Book) (HC)
Buckskin Brigade, by Jim Kjelgaard

Science fiction and fantasy:
The Terror, by John Creasey
Tales from the White Hart, by Arthur C. Clarke
Kyrik and the Wizard’s Sword, by Gardner Fox

General:
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, by Stephen Leacock (1912) (HC)
Grandfather Stories, by Samuel Hopkins Adams (1955) (HC)
O Ye Jigs & Juleps!, by Virginia Cary Hudson
Best of “Hillbilly”, by Jim Comstock, ed. by Otto Whittaker
I Drive the Turnpikes…and Survive, by Paul W. Kearney (purchased for the title, but I doubt either of us will ever read it)
Rub-a-Dub-Dub, by Hamilton Maule (stories of the Merchant Marine; it may belong in humor)

>52 harrygbutler:

I wouldn't bother with it, except that it's a series work. And that (per both The Mystery Of The Creeping Man and the Smiler Bunn books) is the real peril associated with my constant rehashing of my lists: I discover that things are series works when I didn't know it before, and am less than ever able to leave them be. :)

Over her career, Wees evidently shifted from mysteries to straight romances to Gothic romances to psychological thrillers; I hear good things about the last.

>53 harrygbutler:

Good GRIEF!!

>54 lyzard: Sure, I understand, though I have no trouble walking away from a series or an author I don't enjoy. But I'm constantly discovering new ones myself, and although I'm sure I don't maintain such an enormous list as you do, it does keep growing. :-)

Some of the books I got are likely duplicates, as there was so much to look through, and the prices were so good, that I didn't bother checking titles with the spreadsheet I use for that purpose, so a few may end up released back into the wild. Still, I thought it a decent haul. I also learned that their main old-paperback section has been completely restocked, so I'll have to make another visit to look that over; plus the owner mentioned he has better older paperbacks boxed up but could bring them out if I ask, so grounds for yet another shopping trip after that.

Hi Harry and happy Sunday to you!

>53 harrygbutler: I echo Liz: Good GRIEF!!

What an amazing haul. I bet you had fun.

68 books? Wowza! Now, that is a book haul!

Morning, Harry. Happy Sunday. I plan on having a more low-key day today.

>53 harrygbutler: I think that I must abdicate in your favour, Harry.

My days of adding 1,000 books a year have disappeared for a while but you have certainly stepped into the breach dear fellow.

>56 karenmarie: Hi, Karen! I was quite surprised myself, as when I was last in the area where they had the 25-cent books (regularly a dollar), I had seen no indications that there'd be anything much to get, but they had restocked in the interim.

>57 msf59: Hi, Mark! Now to find time to read them all! I have to work part of the day today, but I did manage to finish up a book earlier.

>58 PaulCranswick: Hi, Paul. I don't hit 1,000, but I do generally manage around half that, I think. I've been fortunate that when funds for book-buying are tight, I've had access to sales with quite low prices, so I can still keep buying — of course, I haven't had the need to move them halfway around the world, either!

57. The Ahhiyawa Texts, by Gary Beckman, Trevor Bryce, and Eric Cline



This book, part of the Society of Biblical Literature series Writings from the Ancient World, brings together all the surviving Hittite records (plus a bonus in Luwian) that have to do with the land of Ahhiyawa, which has been suggested was the Hittite version of the name Achaia, interpreted as the land of the Mycenaean Greeks. Although the texts are mostly quite fragmentary, and even the more substantive survivals aren’t as explicit as one might like, the authors make a good case for the identification and thus for the documents as written evidence of Mycenaean activity in western Anatolia in the Late Bronze Age. Particularly interesting is the Ahhiyawan ruler Attarissiya — could he be the same as Atreus, son of Pelops and king of Mycenae in later Greek legend? Recommended, but don’t expect a continuous narrative, or, in the case of many of the translated texts, even much that is coherent because of the fragmented state of the originals.

First sentence: “The Ahhiyawa Problem — or Ahhiyawa Question, as it is sometimes called — remains unsolved and unanswered almost a century after it was first introduced.”

Wow, great book haul, Harry. My favorite title in that list is Do It Yourself; or, My Neighbor Is an Idiot.

I remember loving Andy Capp and Broomhilda years ago. I recognized a few others in your list.

Do you recall ever reading The Saint books by Leslie Charteris? Does anyone?

>61 Matke: Thanks, Gail! I thought that was an amusing title, too. The subtitle is "A Cartoon Saga of Man's Inhumanity to Himself."

I pick up the old paperback reprints of comic strips when I get a chance. They don't always hold up, but usually I can get a dollar or two of amusement out of them still

I started reading The Saint books a couple years ago but haven't gotten very far — just two books in. I do enjoy the Roger Moore series when I catch an episode.

>61 Matke: I remember reading a few of The Saint books when I was a kid, just whatever the library had. I'm not sure I fully understood them but I enjoyed them.

Morning, Harry! More rain and cold weather here. We are definitely stuck in a rut. We do have 3 white-crowned sparrows visiting our feeders. That puts a smile on my face.

>64 msf59: Nice feeder visitors, Mark! It was a business travel day for me, so I didn't get a chance to really watch the feeders.

>53 harrygbutler: woo, great haul!

My sister owned a copy of Tizzy, and I recall stealing borrowing it to read a lot. I recall one panel, about a movie "being a waste of popcorn", lol.

Buckskin Brigade is on my tbr list. I plan to start The Island Stallion or Partisans first, though.

Morning, Harry! Happy Wednesday. I am off today so I am going on a bird stroll. I will report back.

Hope your day goes well.

>66 fuzzi: Thanks! I'm not sure when I'll get to any of the books in the latest haul, though the comics will probably all be first, so I'll probably try Tizzy soon.

I haven't started either The Island Stallion or Partisans yet. While at the Archive, I found their Alistair MacLean section: multiple copies of all, or nearly all, the books, at I think $2 per book.

>67 msf59: Thanks for stopping by, Mark! I hope you had a productive bird stroll. I was at a business conference all day, in New York City, so the only birds I saw were rock pigeons, and I didn't manage to spot anything on the train ride back home afterward, either.

58. Torchy, by Sewell Ford



Torchy is a fun book about the escapades of an office boy in the early years of the 20th century, narrated by the title character (so called because of his red hair) with humor and zest. I have a suspicion that the book began as magazine stories, as it is rather episodic. This was the first of a series of books about the character, and I’ll be looking to read the rest. Recommended!

I liked the illustrations and have included scans of a couple below:


Frontispiece


Torchy meets Miss Vee.


Torchy lunches with a fellow employee.

First paragraph: “Sure, I was carryin’ the banner. But say, I ain’t one of them kids that gets callouses on the hands doin’ it. When I’m handed the fresh air on payday, I don’t choke to death over it. I goes out and rustles for another job. And I takes my pick, too. Why not? It’s just as easy.”

>68 harrygbutler: ::drooling over Alistair MacLean books::

>70 fuzzi: I had so much else that I opted not to get any this time, but I'll be going back for them at some point — maybe next month sometime.

For our anniversary this week, Erika got me some books:

• Prince Valiant, Vol. 13: 1961-1962, by Hal Foster (more from the fabulous adventure comic)


• Walt Disney's Donald Duck: "The Ghost Sheriff of Last Gasp", by Carl Barks (another in the fun series of reprints of Donald Duck comics)


• The Owl and the Nightingale: Text and Translation, ed. by Neil Cartlidge (Middle English poetry)


• Tales Before Narnia: The Roots of Modern Fantasy and Science Fiction, by Douglas A. Anderson (mostly fantasy stories, I think, from the 19th and early 20th centuries)


• Epics of Sumerian Kings: The Matter of Aratta, by Herman Vanstiphout (ancient Middle Eastern poems)


• The Mind That Is Catholic: Philosophical & Political Essays, by Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. (more wisdom from one of my old college professors)


• The House Opposite, by J. Jefferson Farjeon (mystery starring Ben the tramp)

I've already begun reading The House Opposite and am quite enjoying it so far.

Morning, Harry. Happy Friday. It looks like a beautiful weekend in the Midwest. We have been waiting for this.

No birds to report yet...it is early.

Thanks, Mark. No unusual birds here, but I have noticed that the female cardinal is coming around much more often, and not just at dusk, to get food from the feeders.

I've put out some dried mealworms in a tray feeder and on a spot on the ground to see whether they attract anyone new. (Dried mealworms because I don't have a convenient place to get the live ones, nor a real interest in keeping them in our refrigerator, though I expect they would get a better response.)

59. The Chinese Shawl, by Patricia Wentworth



The fifth entry in Patricia Wentworth’s series starring professional detective Maud Silver is a solid mystery, a real improvement over the previous book. Laura Fane attends a house party hosted by her aunt in the old family home, which her aunt Agnes Fane has leased for years and wishes to buy now that her niece has reached her majority. The two sides of the family haven’t gotten along, and Laura also finds herself out of sympathy with her cruel cousin, Tanis Lyle, in part because of a swiftly growing romance between Laura and wounded aviator Carey Desborough, who had been linked with Tanis, and whom Laura’s aunts, Agnes and her sister Lucy, think all but engaged to Laura. When Tanis is murdered, there is no shortage of suspects, but Laura and Carey, either separately or together, are the likeliest of suspects. Fortunately Miss Silver is on hand, as she was also a guest at the house party, and she brings her keen investigative mind to bear to identify the guilty. Recommended.

First sentence: “Laura Fane came up to London in the third week of January.”

>72 harrygbutler: What else would you want for your Anniversary?!

Have a great weekend.

>76 PaulCranswick: Exactly, Paul! Have a great weekend, too.

>75 harrygbutler: Nice review, Harry. You did a much better job of succinctly explaining the relationship between Laura and her family than I did! I liked this one best of the ones we've read so far — a real, proper mystery this time!

>78 rosalita: Thanks, Julia! We're definitely in agreement — it was the best of the lot so far.

Morning, Harry. Have a good day at the shore. Hope to see a birding report.

I will keep my peepers open, as I stroll the route today. It supposed to hit 80 here.

>80 msf59: Hi, Mark. Anything interesting along your route today?

It was too rainy for good birding, but the egrets were out in it looking for food -- and I think that made my first great egret of the year.

The feeders are quieter today, but yesterday I saw a house sparrow fledgling being fed by its mother.

The lighthouse at Cape May looked down in dismay
As the rain came to town and the birds stayed away.
There were few regrets for the feeding egrets
Made it in all a more than worthwhile stay.

What books did you pick up, Harry?

>82 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul.

I got just a handful of books:

The Sign of Evil, by Anthony Wynne (1925; the first in a 28-book mystery series of which I own one other)

Trying Out Torchy, by Sewell Ford (1912; another in the Torchy series whose first I just read and reviewed briefly in >69 harrygbutler:)

Side-Stepping with Shorty, by Sewell Ford (1908; another series by Sewell Ford, picked up because I liked Torchy)

The Flying U's Last Stand, by B. M. Bower (1915; one of the western series about the Flying U ranch)

Flying U Ranch, by B. M. Bower (1914; another in the western series about the Flying U ranch)

Cover show of what I got yesterday:

The weather unexpectedly turned out fairly dry and sunny today. I had to work part of the day, but in the mid-afternoon we paid a visit to a county park over in New Jersey, Amico Island Park, which is a pleasant spot for a stroll with the dog. A distinctive feature of the park is that a small islet across the water from it is home to a large heronry — mostly great blue herons, though today I also saw a green heron, I believe. Yellow warblers were out in abundance, and the friendly catbirds were hopping around as well. I caught a glimpse of a male Baltimore oriole and got a fairly good view of a female, and Erika saw a black-and-white warbler. Hildy proved pretty patient while we looked for birds, too, so we may bring her along on our solo birding outings if they are in places where dogs are allowed.

I love herons, when I was young the grey heron was rare, their numbers had gone down for years.
But they came back and even in cities you can see them sometimes next to fishers, waiting for their meal ;-)
The last 10 years I have seen all tree other herons/egrets of our country: the great egret, the little egret and the purple heron.

I am glad Hildy was patient, Ari never minds when I stand for a while to look at the birds. Most sightings are when I walk with him.

>86 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita! The great blue herons here seem to have adapted reasonably well to increasing numbers of people. I like the look of the purple egret!

Hildy was best behaved when we stopped to look at length at the heronry; she just sat down on the ground and waited. She's not a big fan of most other people and most dogs, but didn't seem interested in chasing the birds on the ground on the path in front of us, or heading off into the woods after the deer that we saw.

I want to thank those of you who recommended the TV version of All Creatures Great and Small. Erika and I enjoyed the first series and have requested the second from our library system.

>88 harrygbutler: yippee!

Tirzah is a good dog, but scares away the wildlife (even insects) when she accompanies me. We walk around the yard after I get home, then she lies in a shady spot while I go hunting for photogenic critters...

Morning, Harry! Hooray for yellow warblers! I have not seen a black and white yet this year, but I did spot a Nashville Warbler yesterday. Hope to spot something interesting on the route today.

Enjoy your day.

>89 fuzzi: After the initial excitement wore off, Hildy was generally content to just sniff around while we stood still, though we did have to keep her from going off the trail into the brush in some spots. I attached her leash to my belt so that she wouldn't pull my arm while I was trying to focus the binoculars.

>90 msf59: Thanks, Mark! So far it is a good one — breezy but not too hot.

>91 harrygbutler: the advantage of a small dog...if she weren't trained, Tirzah could pull me over and drag me if she got excited, she weighs almost 100 pounds. She did yank me to the ground when she was a puppy, about a year old.

>92 fuzzi: Indeed. Hildy is probably smaller than we would have gotten if we'd gone out to find a dog to adopt, if she hadn't come to us on her own, although we also might have ended up with a dachshund.

I don't know whether I ever shared Hildy's story: I was working from home several years ago, and I looked out the window to see a dog come wandering into our yard — no collar, no tags. The neighbor's daughter caught her while I went back to work, and then Erika and I kept her in our back room while the search for a possible owner went on. No one responded, and no dog matching her description had been reported missing, so we adopted her.

>93 harrygbutler: aww, nice story. :)

>93 harrygbutler: Lucky Hildy!

>93 harrygbutler: Hildy found the right yard to wander into :-)

>94 fuzzi: >95 rosalita: >96 FAMeulstee: Thanks! She seems to think she found a good place to stay. :-)

The vagaries of interlibrary loan continue to bring an element of chance to my reading, especially given the two-week loan period for each book. Though I put in the requests, I don't know what will show up, when, and when a book does arrive, I generally need to put it at the front of the reading queue. That was the case again this week, with Ugaritic Narrative Poetry, which arrived on Monday. I had other books underway, but I temporarily put them aside so that I could get this one done, because I wasn't sure how much time it would take — some of these ILL books have been fairly quick reads (as was this one), while others were a bit of a slog.

60. Ugaritic Narrative Poetry, trans. by Mark S. Smith, Simon B. Parker, Edward L. Greenstein, Theodore J. Lewis, and David Marcus; ed. by Simon B. Parker



This volume brings together three long poems and some shorter works from Ugarit, the ancient Middle Eastern city that was rediscovered accidentally in 1928. Excavations at the site since have uncovered many documents in both Akkadian, the international language at the time of Ugarit’s flourishing (the mid to late second millennium BC), and Ugaritic, the local Northwest Semitic language, written by the city’s scribes in a unique cuneiform-based alphabet. Ugarit’s religion and culture have much in common with those of Canaan as known from the Bible; the narrative verse in this volume provides insight into the myths of Baal and his sister Anat, El and his consort Athirat (the biblical Asherah), and Mot, the god of death and the underworld.
The first of the long poems here is the story of the king Kirta, who has no heir and seeks the help of the gods (especially El and Athirat) in winning a wife and getting offspring; dramatic interest is added by Kirta’s forgetfulness of his vow to Athirat and subsequent punishment with illness. This is followed by the tale of Aqhat son of Daniel, who is slain by an agent of the goddess Anat because she desires a fabulous bow that he had received from other gods; Aqhat’s sister Paghit seeks to avenge his murder. The third, and longest, of the poems is the “Baal Cycle,” which may comprise more than one poem. It tells of Baal’s battles for supremacy against other gods, including Mot. The shorter narratives include tales of El’s drunken feast, of the betrothal of the Ugaritic moon god Yarikh and the Mesopotamian moon goddess Nikkal-Ib, and of the god Horon’s defeat of serpents in answer to the request of the mother of horses.

The poems have some interest, not just historical, but also stylistic, with the extensive use of repetition that I also saw in the poetry about Sumerian kings I read recently. Of course, as is generally the case with ancient works originally written on clay, nearly all of the poems have at least some damage, and in many cases the damage is so extensive that we cannot know the actual beginning or end of the poems, which makes it difficult to arrive at an assessment of them as literature. Recommended to those who’d like to learn more about the place and time.

First sentence: “The Ugaritic narrative poems all come from the ancient city of Ugarit, which lies half a mile inland from the Syrian coast opposite the eastern tip of Cyprus.”

I am not a visualizing reader. I would be hard put to describe the appearance of characters or scenes even immediately after reading their descriptions, no matter how well crafted. Indeed, I think the only literary characters whom I can picture at all are those I first encountered in movies, and then it is the actor whom I see — so for me both Sydney Carton and Rudolf Rassendyll look like Ronald Colman, no matter what the author may say.

But generally I don't "see" novels or stories as moving pictures, and even if I try to visualize, it is quite sketchy. Thus I'm interested to see artists' interpretations of characters in books I'm reading. Here's an example, from the dust jacket for the mystery thriller The House Opposite, which I just read, depicting the protagonist, Ben the tramp:

>100 harrygbutler: I'm quite the opposite: I am always visualizing the characters. Then, when my favorite books are moved to television or movies, I'm invariably disappointed at what the actors look like.

>101 fuzzi: I may find that characters don't match what I think they should be, but it seldom is because of the appearance, or the appearance alone.

How about some roses for a Friday afternoon? Our Zephirine Drouhin climbing rose is covered with fragrant pink blooms:

A slightly disappointing stop at a used book store (a few old magazines and a single old paperback mystery, Death at the Door (aka He Came by Night), by Anthony Gilbert) was offset by a stop at a thrift store where I acquired a half dozen old hardcover books, one western and five mysteries:

Texas Sheriff, by Eugene Cunningham (1937)
Murder Points a Finger, by David Alexander (1953)
The Mystery of the Smoking Gun, by Carroll John Daly (1936, but probably in magazine form a few years before; starring detective Satan Hall)
The Bellamy Case, by James Hay, Jr. (1925)
The Second Shot, by Anthony Berkeley (1931; 6th in the Roger Sheringham series)
The Crossword Murder, by E. R. Punshon (1934; 3rd in the Bobby Owen series)

>103 harrygbutler: Love the blooming flowers!

Happy Saturday, Harry! Another cool rainy day here but I am home now, dried off and having a beer. Birds at the feeders too.

>104 harrygbutler:

Nice! He Came By Night is one of the standalones, isn't it? I'm stalled on Anthony Gilbert at the moment: the fourth in the Scott Egerton series, The Mystery Of The Open Window, is hard to get hold of.

>104 harrygbutler: I'm reading The Island Stallion, you starting soon?

>105 msf59: Thanks for stopping by, Mark! It was cool here, but though it was cloudy, it never really rained. Enjoy your weekend!

>106 lyzard: Hi, Liz! I don't think I've read any in the Scott Egerton series. He Came by Night is a Mr. Crook mystery. I liked Death in the Blackout and so picked this up when I spotted it.

>107 fuzzi: Hi, fuzzi! I've gotten started on The Island Stallion, but I'm still in the first chapter.

>103 harrygbutler: Beautiful roses, Harry! We are drowning in rain here at the moment, so it's nice to see photos of sunshine and blooming things. :-)

>111 rosalita: Thanks, Julia! They're a real pick-me-up.

We went on a birding walk today at a new spot for us, about 20 minutes away. The weather was close to ideal — cool, though warm in the sun, and sunny. Though the walk suffered some from the usual drawback of large groups — too much noise, and in particular talking, we also experienced the benefits, including more eyes and ears finding birds, and surer identification, especially of warblers and sparrows, than might have been possible while birding by ourselves. We got to see some good birds, including some firsts for the year for us (though I think no life birds). A partial list of the highlights:

• rose-breasted grosbeaks, including one that came down to a stream beside the road to take a bath and gave a good close-up view, and also a nesting pair


• Baltimore orioles, including one welcoming us at the parking lot


• red-eyed vireo


• blue-winged warbler, which provided us with great views


• common yellowthroat


• indigo bunting

We saw some others, and still more were heard but not seen. I think we'll be heading back on our own now that we know about the place, as there are 12 miles of trails to explore.

>103 harrygbutler: Beautiful roses, Harry!

>104 harrygbutler: A detective named Satan Hall?? Tell me more...

>113 harrygbutler: I'd love to see an indigo bunting! That's one of the gaps on my life list I'd like to fill in.

Have a wonderful week, Harry.

>99 harrygbutler: I can think of no other place in the group where there would be a review of Ugaritic poetry, Harry!

Have a great Sunday.

>113 harrygbutler: nice walk! You've got the grosbeaks that left us when the weather warmed up!

>114 Matke: Thanks for stopping by, Gail!

Based on your preferences, I think the Satan Hall stories might not really be a good fit — they're hard-boiled pulp stories, with, if I recall correctly, a fair amount of violence. Here's a cover of Detective Fiction Weekly I found online showing the character:



I hope you get a chance to see an indigo bunting, Gail! They don't seem to be too uncommon, and I think they can be found down your way.

Have a great week, too!

>115 PaulCranswick: Hi, Paul! I've got a volume on Hittite myths to review, too, but then will be something a bit more ordinary: Ben Jonson's Epigrammes, which I should finish sometime this week.

>116 fuzzi: Thanks! We left the walk at about the halfway point to go get our tomato plants; the group eventually got more than 60 birds, but our count was about half that.

>113 harrygbutler: Love the bird walk update, Harry. We have been seeing many of the same migrating birds- the vireos, yellow throats, orioles and buntings. Have not seen a blue-winged warbler though. Sounds like a beautiful place!

Good morning, my friend!

>117 harrygbutler:

And he takes a bullet between the eyes from the guy standing in front of him?

>120 msf59: Good morning, Mark! We would have been hard put to identify the blue-winged warbler on our own, because the blue is subtle (and looked fairly gray in the light), and most of the bird is a bright yellow. We'll know in the future, though.

>121 lyzard: Quite possibly, though I think he had a long run in the pulps. :-)

>117 harrygbutler:, >123 harrygbutler: With a pic like that, I've got to find one of those books to try! :)

>124 drneutron: Quite striking, isn't he? :-)

There's been at least one paperback reprint volume, so it shouldn't be too hard to find a sample, Jim!

A chance find at a sale has me rereading Ben Jonson's poetry, starting with his epigrams and the poems in The Forest. The latter includes perhaps his most famous poem ("To Celia") — or at least most famous opening lines:

Drinke to me, onely, with thine eyes,
  And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kisse but in the cup,
  And Ile not looke for wine.

I'll share some good renditions I found:

• Paul Robeson: https://youtu.be/kUZSLWoCRsE


• John McCormack: https://youtu.be/D86kp0oymrg


• Robert Merrill: https://youtu.be/Jup9t9KTtn8

Hey harrygbutler! I finished The Island Stallion, and started Partisans this morning while waiting at the doctor's office...and I'm warning you, it appears to be a riveting book, one of Alistair MacLean's better novels.

You joining me?

>127 fuzzi: Absolutely! I'm hoping to finish The Island Stallion today, or tomorrow at the latest, and then I'll move right on to Partisans. Glad to hear it's shaping up as a good book!

61. The House Opposite, by J. Jefferson Farjeon



Ben the tramp’s rough dinner of cheese is interrupted by the insistent ringing of the bell of the empty house he is temporarily occupying. The young Australian at the door is just the first of a series of visitors to the “empty” home, including suspicious — and even threatening — characters as well as a young woman who enlists Ben’s sympathies and inspires him to go beyond himself despite his well-grounded fears. What are the strange doings at the house across the street, and just who is who?

The House Opposite is an effective thriller, if a bit dated. Ben is an engaging, imperfect hero, who doesn’t recognize his own courage and goodness, and the mystery was fairly satisfying, if more in the nature of a plot to be foiled than a puzzle to be solved. Recommended.

First sentence: “’Gawd!’ muttered the temporary tenant of No. 29 Jowle Street. ‘That’s done it!’”

62. Gone North, by Charles Alden Seltzer



Jim Fallon heads north into the Hudson Bay country in search of the missing Lin Underhill at the behest of Lin’s father; Fallon takes the job because of an interest in seeing that territory. The book opens with action that reveals there are those who would rather that Lin not be found. Fallon finds betrayal and friendship, and more, as he looks for the missing man.

Charles Alden Seltzer’s novel, originally published as a serial in the pulp magazine Argosy in 1930, is packed with adventure in an unusual setting — a castle built by an ex-pirate in the wilderness of northern Canada. It is slightly dated, but quite entertaining, with some quite unexpected plot developments. This is the second of Seltzer’s novels I’ve read and enjoyed, and I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more. Recommended.

First sentence: “Standing at the edge of the rotting wharf at Grand Marias, Jim Fallon filled his lungs with the sweet aroma of pine and spruce and cedar.”

>130 harrygbutler: sounds like something I'd enjoy. Maybe Open Library has it...

>131 fuzzi: The copy I read was reprinted by Altus Press a couple years ago, but there seem to be other editions out there as well. Good luck!

>132 harrygbutler: I've put in a request with the local university's ILL. There supposedly is a copy available in Virginia, as per WorldCat.

>133 fuzzi: Ah, good. I've been giving our local system's ILL department lots of business recently, for books I want to try before I buy, or know that I don't want to own (often academic books), or don't feel like putting off until I come across them at a book sale (especially the first of series where I already have, or have a chance to get, a later book).

63. Hittite Myths, by Harry A. Hoffner, Jr.



This volume brings together a variety of myths written in Hittite but often derived from other sources:

• “Old Anatolian” myths, chiefly of the “vanishing deity” variety, thought to have come from the indigenous inhabitants of Anatolia, especially the group known as the Hattians


• myths that come from the Hurrians, an external group (whose empire was centered on Mitanni) that dominated the Hittite kingdom for a time; the most important of these are the songs of the Kumarbi cycle, in which the god Kumarbi sends a variety of monstrous offspring to defeat the storm god Tessub, and the “Song of Release,” which includes parables and apparently also is concerned with explaining the destruction of the city of Ebla


• tales involving deities and mortals


• and a myth that apparently derives from a Canaanite original


Of some interest, though with the usual caveat that the fragmentary state of the texts often make the reading more frustrating than one might like.

First sentence of introduction: “The key to understanding any society is its living context.”

64. The Lacquer Screen, by Robert van Gulik



Judge Dee, returning with assistant Chiao Tai from a meeting in the capital, plans a brief vacation in another district. His arrival catches the local magistrate ill at ease. That magistrate later recruits Dee to investigate the murder of his wife. At the same time, because they are traveling incognito, Dee and Chiao end up mixed up with local crooks and entangled in two other mysteries, including an apparent suicide. As is usual with the Judge Dee novels, the mysteries are interrelated, but the judge follows the threads of them all. Recommended.

First sentence: “He remained standing just inside the door of his library, feeling utterly confused.”

Catching up after my short trip to London, Harry, your thread has been busy!

>103 harrygbutler: WOW, your Zephirine Drouhin is beautiful, is it a difficult rose to grow?

>113 harrygbutler: So nice to read about all the birding walks in this group.

>128 harrygbutler: I finished The Island Stallion too :-)

>136 harrygbutler: I havent read that one yet.

>137 FAMeulstee: Hi, Anita! Thanks for stopping by!

The Zephirine Drouhin must be fairly easy to grow — we're not the most attentive growers out there, and it is located at the end of our porch next to the neighbor's driveway, so the soil can't be all that good either (although I'm sure Erika does give it rose food from time to time). It does get consistent afternoon sun. It and its partner (which is blooming now) were replacements for earlier roses that didn't do all that well, and indeed we think got some sort of disease and had to be removed.

We hope to go on another bird walk this Saturday, weather permitting. This should be a somewhat different habitat (more grassland), so we should get some different birds.

Too bad you didn't care for The Island Stallion all that much! I'm enjoying it, and it's clear to me why I liked it when I was a kid. I still have a bit to go before I finish, and I'll be sharing my review here and on the Walter Farley/Black Stallion thread.

I'm hitting the Judge Dee books in chronological order this time, instead of publication order.

65. Epigrammes and The Forest, by Ben Jonson



As I mentioned upthread, I’ve been rereading Ben Jonson’s verse after picking up a second copy of The Complete Poetry of Ben Jonson at a book sale recently. I’ve now finished the Epigrammes and The Forest, which were first published together in the 1616 Folio edition of his works. A few of his most famous poems are included in these collections (for example, his encomium on the country estate Penshurst), but others aren’t particularly strong. As is common with occasional verse, the force of many is weakened by unfamiliarity with the person who is the subject, and the satiric pieces often depend heavily on circumstantial details of the time that need explanatory notes now. Still, some are quite good, and powerful, and at some point fairly soon I’ll move on to the poems collected in the posthumously published Under-wood. Recommended.

66. The Island Stallion, by Walter Farley


Title page of The Island Stallion, with coloring likely supplied by one Candy Huber, who owned the copy I read at some point in the past.

Young Steve Duncan travels to the Caribbean island of Antago to visit a family friend, Pitch, but actually drawn by a photo of Azul Island, an island that figured in his dreams, together with a red horse, in his childhood. Upon arrival, he sees examples of the horses rounded up from the small area of accessible land on the mostly mountainous, rocky isle, and they are sorry specimens. Still, he goes with Pitch on a two-week camping trip to the island, and on the first night he sees, up on the cliff above the valley where they are, the stallion of his dreams, Flame. He persuades Pitch to brave the dangerous waters around the island in search of an unknown route up to the top, and they discover signs of Spanish presence in the 1600s and a band of fine horses.

The Island Stallion is a tale of adventure with a perhaps surprising amount of violence, chiefly between rival horses. It’s certainly unrealistic in some ways, and much darker in tone than I had remembered. I recall the Island Stallion books being my favorites as a kid, and I think I see why — finding of lost relics and a hidden valley are keen, but I think at this point I prefer the Black Stallion books I’ve reread to date.

Do It Yourself; or, My Neighbor Is an Idiot, by Morris Brickman



This is an amusing collection of cartoons by Morris Brickman, possibly drawn from his Sure You Can "Do It Yourself" book. Some are a bit dated, but there is plenty here that still applies. I've scanned a couple that seem to fit here:

>140 harrygbutler: Good review of The Island Stallion.

Morning, Harry. Sweet Thursday. Working today but I have a organized bird walk planned for tomorrow morning. Migration season is winding down here, so it may be the last time to see certain birds, as they head north.

>142 msf59: Thanks, Mark!

We're planning to go on an organized walk on Saturday morning, both in the hope of seeing some passing migrants and just to get to know another preserve not far from home that we've yet to visit.

>141 harrygbutler: :) to that last one!

>144 drneutron: When I saw that one, Jim, I said to myself, "You have to share it."

67. Heart Throbs, ed. by Joe Mitchell Chapple



In 1904, Joe Mitchell Chapple, the editor and publisher of the National Magazine, launched a prize contest soliciting nominations of poetry or prose that could be published, saying “What I want is real heart throbs—those things that make us all kin; those things that endure—the classics of our own lives. Send me a clipping, a story, an anecdote, or a selection that has touched your heart.” The endeavor met with success, and the following year saw the publication of the book Heart Throbs (or Heart Throbs in Prose and Verse Dear to the American People), bringing together many of the submissions in a sort of commonplace book.

The contents are a mixed bag, as one would expect, with the touching and the sober, the humorous and the sentimental — little, perhaps, of lasting stature (perhaps most notably the complete text of The Raven and nearly all of Burns’s The Cotter’s Saturday Night) and much associated with now forgotten poets and famous people. The frontispiece (shown below) fittingly was President Lincoln, as the great president looms large in the pages; space is of course also given to the recently assassinated President McKinley. Many were the reminders of the fragility of life, and particularly of how common the loss of a child was at the time.



It’s not a book to read through quickly; I’ve been dipping in for some time and have just now gotten to the end. Recommended for those interested in popular taste at the start of the 20th century.

We don't have very many strawberries at a time, but those we are getting sure look — and taste — mighty good!

Happy Friday, Harry! Hope you have a good time walking the grasslands tomorrow. Looking forward to your bird report.

>148 msf59: Thanks, Mark! It was a good walk, though it got warm and humid, and the paths around the grasslands had not been mowed (presumably because of the rainy weather, as they were somewhat waterlogged), so it was also very tick-infested. We didn't have a lot of variety, really, but we had some good birds, including a lifer for me, the grasshopper sparrow -- and not just one, but a few, with some good views (thanks to someone who brought a scope).

The birds:
Green Heron (fairly good views)
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Solitary Sandpiper (OK views)
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)
Willow Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Kingbird
Blue Jay
Tree Swallow
Carolina/Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Cedar Waxwing
Common Yellowthroat (Erika heard)
Yellow Warbler (Erika heard)
Prairie Warbler (Erika heard; I might have seen, but not to be sure)
Grasshopper Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow (in abundance, and not particularly shy)
Field Sparrow
Northern Cardinal (E heard)
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Finch
American Goldfinch

>149 harrygbutler: nice list! There are a few listed that I've not seen or heard.

>150 fuzzi: Thanks! With migration nearly done and the heat on the way, I think the organized walks will decrease in number, but we'll probably manage some outings on our own when the weather cooperates.

Those strawberries sure look good, Harry!

>152 rosalita: They were good, Julia! And this weekend I was able to pick enough for us to have strawberry shortcake with dinner last night. Yum!

68. A Bullet in the Ballet, by Caryl Brahms and S. J. Simon



Dancer Anton Palook is murdered onstage during a performance of the ballet Petrouschka, in which he was portraying the title character. Detective-Inspector Adam Quill, who has been less than successful in his last big case, finds himself plunged into a bewildering world of dancers, producers, stage mothers, dealing especially with the head of the ballet company, Stroganoff, who is less concerned with the murder than with the impact on his company — who will now play Petrouschka in a big performance next week? Quill’s investigation finds many people who hated Palook and thus might be responsible for the murder; though the circumstances of the killing might have narrowed the field, many people were where they should not have been that night. Quill gradually narrows down the field, but a second murder suggests he must look again.

A Bullet in the Ballet, initially published in 1937, is the first of a short series focused on Stroganoff and the world of ballet. The accent is on humor, much of it arch, but I didn’t find myself drawn in or consistently amused, despite my general fondness for humorous mysteries. Perhaps better for balletomanes.

First sentence: “Since it is probable that any book flying a bullet in its title is going to produce a corpse sooner or later — here it is.”

Nadine Seltzer's Sweetie Pie was a bit of a disappointment. She's a knock-off Dennis the Menace, and though some of the cartoons in this collection were amusing, I didn't think they were particularly well-drawn. Mildly recommended if you like les enfants terribles.

69. Partisans, by Alistair MacLean



Yugoslavian Major Peter Petersen is entrusted by a German officer with a secret document for the Chetniks, Yugoslavs collaborating with the Axis and fighting Tito’s Partisans, in advance of a planned campaign. On the trip, Petersen is also saddled with two inexperienced radio operators whose actual roles are unclear. Then, aboard the dilapidated torpedo boat that will take them across the Adriatic from Italy, Petersen and his group meet other travelers, including a squad of Italians as well as another woman and her traveling companion, all of whom seem to be known by the captain of the boat. A night attack is thwarted, but Petersen and his augmented group commandeer a truck and head for the mountains and the Chetnik headquarters.

There’s plenty of adventure in Partisans, as well as the deceptions, betrayals, and twists to be expected in an Alistair MacLean novel. Assured competence is on display, and part of the pleasure is derived from seeing the obstacles rather readily overcome. As with most of his work that I’ve read, however, the ending seemed a bit abrupt. Recommended.

First sentence: “The chill night wind off the Tiber was from the north and carried with it the smell of snow from the distant Apennines.”

70. The Ruin of Britain and Other Works, by Gildas



The history of sub-Roman Britain is largely lost — we know Germanic tribes invaded, and that the locals resisted, that Roman cities decayed and that gradually all but the west and the north fell into the hands of the Anglo-Saxons, but details are scant and written sources are few. One such source is the 6th-century author Gildas, whose jeremiad against some of the British kings of his own day includes a historical preface that sketches the post-Roman history of the island, including indications of a ruler known to subsequent Arthurian legend as Vortigern, and a decisive victory over the Saxons at Mount Badon that for a time arrested the decline of the British kingdoms. But what Gildas provides are tantalizingly few specifics, because he is rather focused on contemporary misrule and misbehavior by both layfolk and clergy, and the bulk of his work, On the Ruin of Britain, involves a marshaling of scriptural testimony against tyrannical kings and perfidious priests. In addition to his main work, this edition and translation includes fragments of letters as well as a penitential attributed to Gildas. Recommended.

First sentence:

In hac epistola quicquid deflendo potius quam declamando, vili licet stilo, tamen benigno, fuero prosecutes, ne quis me affect cunctos spernentis omnibusve melioris, quippe qui commune bonorum dispendium malorumque cumulum lacrimosis querelis defleam, sed condolentis patriae incommoditatibus miseriisque eius ac remediis condelectantis edicturum putet.

In this letter I shall deplore rather than denounce; my style may be worthless, but my intentions are kindly. What I have to deplore with mournful complaint is a general loss of good, a heaping up of bad. But no one should think that anything I say is said out of scorn for humanity or from a conviction that I am superior to all men. No, I sympathise with my country’s difficulties and rejoice in remedies to relieve them.

Morning, Harry. Greetings from Kentucky. Saw a mess of wild turkeys yesterday and an owl flew over our vehicle last night. Couldn't make a solid ID, though.

Hope your week is going well.

>158 msf59: Good morning, Mark. It sounds like you're having a good vacation. Wild turkeys are good; it has been a while since I've seen any. And nice to spot an owl, even if you couldn't ID it.

Tizzy is a pleasant collection of cartoons depicting typical humorous mid-century teen behavior — somewhat like a 2D version of aspects of The Patty Duke Show. Light but enjoyable; recommended.



Wikipedia provided an explanation for an oddity I noticed in this paperback: sometimes Tizzy's hair was light (presumably blonde) and sometimes black. The cartoons began as a full-color feature in Collier's, where Tizzy's hair was red; in the syndicated black-and-white cartoons published after the magazine's demise, her hair was blonde. The book opted for black for those cartoons in which her hair had been red.

71. Death in the Tunnel, by Miles Burton



Sir Wilfred Saxonby, traveling alone in a first-class compartment on a homeward-bound train, is found dead of a gunshot wound, apparently self-inflicted, after the train passes through a tunnel on the line — a passage not without incident, as the train nearly came to a halt because the locomotive engineer saw someone swinging a red lantern, though that was replaced by green before they fully stopped, and the train moved on. Though suicide is clearly indicated, there are no obvious reasons for such an act, and Inspector Arnold of Scotland Yard is unsatisfied. Together with his friend, Desmond Merrion, Arnold endeavors to uncover the facts behind the murder, if murder indeed there was, and Arnold gradually builds up a chain of evidence pointing to a former manager with Saxonby’s firm — but is he really the culprit?

This was a moderately entertaining but pedestrian mystery. Arnold is a bit too dismissive of his friend’s interest in particular details, given that they’ve been involved in crime-solving together before, and both detectives are a bit slow to recognize significant clues, but they get there in the end. Recommended, but not strongly.

First sentence: “The 5.0 p.m. train from Cannon Street runs fast as far as Stourford, where it is due at 6.7.”

I finished 17 books in May, including two that I had started in April and one that I had been reading for a while, and not counting some small volumes of cartoons or comic strips. I read all three new planned shared reads for the month, but two of the books that were underway at the start of May are still in progress. As usual, ILL arrivals leapt to the front of the line and delayed my reading of some others. I expect that situation to continue, and I also expect whim to play a part in shaking up the list.

My plans for June:

Under way, to be finished:
The Holy War, by John Bunyan
Sidrak and Bokkus, ed. by T. L. Burton (but this might go into July)
Sources for the Study of Nisibis, trans. by Adam H. Becker
Hittite Studies in Honor of Harry A. Hoffner Jr. on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday, ed. by Gary Beckman, Richard Beal, and Gregory McMahon (but I will be skipping some of the essays in the volume)
The Bellamy Case, by James Hay, Jr.

Planned reads:
Vintage Murder, by Ngaio Marsh
Wigamur
Address of Tatian to the Greeks, by Tatian (in Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2)
Leave It to Psmith, by P. G. Wodehouse
Joseph Redhorn, by J. J. Bell
Under-wood, by Ben Jonson

Tentative reads:
All Things Bright and Beautiful, by James Herriott
The Spy Paramount, by E. Phillips Oppenheim
Oh, Money! Money!, by Eleanor H. Porter
Deathblow Hill, by Phoebe Atwood Taylor
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, by Kate Douglas Wiggin
Nothing Can Rescue Me, by Elizabeth Daly
Penelope Passes, by Joan Coggin
Murder at Hazelmoor, by Agatha Christie

Any chance of a shared read of The Black Stallion and Satan?

>163 fuzzi: Sure! I just requested a copy from the library.

>161 harrygbutler:

I complained in my review about Arnold dropping 50 IQ points every time he's around Merrion, but I found it an effective mystery.

>164 harrygbutler: I believe I have my own copy. I'll locate it, and wait until you get yours.

I'm reading three books at once, I've not done that in a while: The Four Swans, The Grandfathers, and a newly-arrived Early Reviewer book about Laura Ingalls Wilder, the name of which escapes me just now.

Addendum: The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Frontier Landscapes that Inspired the Little House Books is the name of the third book I am reading. I like, it, quite a bit.

Morning, Harry. Happy Sunday! We got back home last night. I have a bird walk this A.M. I leave shortly. I like to catch these organized ones, whenever they can fit into my schedule.

One thing I learned on my trip: mockingbirds are everywhere down south. 10-1, is my guess and they are incredibly vocal too. LOL.

>165 lyzard: Yes, he's definitely much more capable when he isn't talking with his friend. And yet Merrion wasn't all that impressive at those times, either.

>166 fuzzi: Sounds good. I expect it will show up in a day or two.

I generally have several books going at once, partly because there are usually a couple that aren't great for reading straight through. With adventures and mysteries and similar books, I usually hit a tipping point somewhere between halfway and two-thirds of the way, and then tend to read the rest before switching.

>167 msf59: Hi, Mark! I'll have to pop over to your thread and see what you've reported from the bird walk. We didn't manage any birding (except around the yard) this weekend.

72. Sources for the Study of Nisibis, trans. by Adam H. Becker



Despite periods of persecution, Christianity spread in the Persian Empire of the Sasanians, in the form of the Church of the East. In particular, that empire received an influx of those commonly known as Nestorians, after the fifth-century patriarch of Constantinople whose Christological teachings were condemned at two councils. This disagreement, and others, led to the relocation of a religious school from Edessa, within Roman territory, to Nisibis, in Persian territory, after the former school was closed in AD 489 by the local bishop.

This volume in the Liverpool University Press series of translated texts for historians brings together a few sources for the history of this School of Nisibis: a letter by an opponent, Simeon of Bēt Arsham; the last two chapters of the Ecclesiastical History by a certain Barḥaddeshabbā; The Cause of the Foundation of the Schools by another or the same Barḥaddeshabbā; and a portion of a metrical homily mentioning some of the heads of the school. The Cause was probably the most interesting work, moving as it did from a philosophical discussion of God to the events of the Fall and subsequent human teachings, and eventually to the School of Nisibis. Still, I’d only recommend this to someone already interested in the subject.

First sentence of introduction: “The Christianization of the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern world led to radical innovations both in the content and the locus of learning in Late Antiquity.”

Morning, Harry. I hope your week is off to a good start. I return to work today. Sighs...but at least the weather will be gorgeous.

It is nice to finally see the hummingbirds visit my feeder. Yah!

>172 msf59: Good morning, Mark! Not so gorgeous here, but the rain should help the garden — and if there's no change, it will be a good day for reading after work.

>53 harrygbutler: Holy cow! What a haul!

>174 alcottacre: It took hours to find them all, but it was worth it!

>171 harrygbutler: I remember Nestorianism from church history.

>176 thornton37814: Hi, Lori! I recalled the name but little of the details. The specifics of the theology weren't all that important for these particular works.

I won’t be counting the Festschrift Hittite Studies in Honor of Harry A. Hoffner Jr. on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday toward my totals for the year, as I didn’t read the whole volume, but just some of the papers included. It was an interesting mix, covering history, religion, philology, archaeology, and more, with varying degrees of accessibility for a non-specialist. It was a good use of interlibrary loan to get a book like this, I think, with little rereading value for someone with only a casual interest in the topic.

73. The Bellamy Case, by James Hay, Jr.



It’s primary season, and Wayne Gilmore and Joan Bellamy are contending for their party’s nomination in a North Carolina state senate race. An organization backing Gilmore brings in a noted campaign operative, C. Stokes Jackson, who is looking to rebuild his reputation as a winner after a recent unsuccessful effort in another state. Jackson intimates to Wayne that it might be possible to force Joan out of the race by some sort of underhanded means, and Wayne refuses that strategy absolutely. The reader then learns that Jackson does indeed have a hold over Joan and is willing to use it to force her to withdraw from the contest. Then Jackson is found dead, and circumstances suggest Joan’s brother George or friend Bob Rutledge might be implicated, or even Joan herself. As pressure mounts for Joan to withdraw because suspicions are turning the electorate against her, she consents to call in famed detective Jefferson Hastings, who agrees to undertake to clear her of suspicion despite her reluctance to give him her full confidence. How can she be certain he won’t identify the murderer? Who is the mysterious Nola Plantone, and what is her connection with the victim? What woman was seen in Jackson’s rooms after his death?

This mystery by James Hay, Jr., is one of a series starring detective Jefferson Hastings, but the first I’ve read. I wasn’t all that impressed with either the investigator or the mystery, though I was surprised by the solution and found the political setting of interest. Aspects of the novel are quite dated, though. Not really recommended.

First sentence: “It was nine o’clock in the evening, Monday, the last day of May.”

Hi, Harry! Sweet Thursday. Not much happening on the birding front. Quiet on my route but my feeders, at home, continue to be busy. Hummingbirds have become regular visitors too.

Hope you get your organized walk in this weekend.

>180 msf59: Thanks, Mark! I still haven't seen any hummingbirds around our feeder — but I haven't seen them over by the neighbor's where I usually do, so they may just not be in the vicinity yet.

Our feeders are busy as well.

Tatian’s Address to the Greeks, which I read in Volume 2 of the Ante-Nicene Fathers set, is an apologia by the second-century Assyrian author that compares Greek philosophy and religion with Christian teachings, to the advantage of the latter. I found it of modest historical interest, but it is unlikely to be something I revisit.

Morning, Harry. Happy Saturday. Is your bird walk today?

>183 msf59: Hi, Mark. The walk was today, but the heat kept us from going. Maybe we'll get in a shorter outing on our own sometime over the weekend.

Today's heat meant more time inside for reading, so I wrapped up a couple books, including #75, Mesopotamian Chronicles, and #76 The Holy War Made by King Shaddai upon Diabolus, to Regain the Metropolis of the World. I quite liked The Holy War,, but the copy I was reading was a very small book with tiny print, so I couldn't read many pages at a time, and it took me weeks to read despite being fairly short.

Bummer, about the heat, Harry. I would not have wanted to go today either, plus it was breezy too and, according to my wife, very little feeder activity. Birds staying cool somewhere.

Congratulations on #75!

And on finishing your tiny-fonted Holy War. :)

Will you be joining me for Gil Blas, if / when I get to it?

>187 lyzard: Thanks! If I read it again, I think I'll get a different copy.

Yep, I'm up for Gil Blas when the time comes.

Excellent! It will probably be next month (which is shaping as a chunkster-read month...)

>189 lyzard: Next month would be fine. I think I know where my copy is, but that will give me a chance to look if it isn't on that bookcase.

Congratulations on making 75 already Harry. I reckon you have one of the most varied reading habits in the group too.

I totally missed you meeting your goal, harrygbutler, congratulations. :)

>191 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul! I like variety. :-)

>192 fuzzi: Thank you! More heat today, so I finished up The Black Stallion and Satan and a couple other books as well.

Before I got going this morning, I had a quick read: Ted Key's Phyllis, a baseball yarn somewhat like Rhubarb, but featuring a field sparrow nesting in the Phillies' left field. A pleasant little book. Here's the back cover:

74. Joseph Redhorn, by J. J. Bell



I first encountered the work of Scottish author J. J. Bell in one of his books about the house painter Joseph Redhorn, The Indiscretions of Maister Redhorn, and followed it up fairly quickly with a second volume, Wullie McWattie’s Master, which was as pleasant and enjoyable as the first. I subsequently learned of another volume, this one, and spent a few years trying to track down an affordable copy, or one in decent condition. I got it at last and enjoyed reacquainting myself with the kindly painter and his good-hearted, but sometimes mischievous, apprentice. I was a bit disappointed, however, to discover after a long search that this is a volume that contains episodes that appear in the two volumes I already own. Oh, well, it was a pleasant time nonetheless. Recommended.

First sentence: “In almost frantic haste the congregation burst from the doorway of the little church.”

76. The Holy War Made by King Shaddai upon Diabolus, To Regain the Metropolis of the World, by John Bunyan



Allegory is not much in favor these days, but it has a long history, and one of the most effective authors of allegory was John Bunyan, most famously in The Pilgrim’s Progress, a powerful work on the Christian life. The Holy War Made by King Shaddai upon Diabolus, To Regain the Metropolis of the World is a somewhat similar story, using abstractions (Mr. Will-be-will, Mr. Conscience, Captain Credence) to explore conversion, in which Immanuel (Christ) besieges and retakes the city of Mansoul, which has fallen under the sway of Diabolus; backsliding, which gives an opening for the return of the Diabolonians; and repentance. Well-articulated analysis in old-fashioned dress; recommended.

First sentence: “In my travels, as I walked through many regions and countries, it was my chance to arrive at that famous continent of Universe.”

77. The Black Stallion and Satan, by Walter Farley



The Black is back where he belongs — with young Alec Ramsay — though the circumstances are sad owing to the death of his previous owner, Abu Ishak. Though he and Henry try to keep the Black’s return to the United States concealed, word gets out, and pressure mounts for Alec to race the Black again, especially once it becomes known that Abu Ishak had planned to enter the Black in an international invitational race to be held at a new track in upstate New York. Will the fierce Black beat his son, Satan, who is now a well-trained racehorse and indeed a Triple Crown winner, as well as the rest of the pack? Then fate intervenes, in the form of the dreaded disease swamp fever and also wildfires. The Black Stallion and Satan is a tight adventure with some depth. Recommended.

First sentence: “Alec Ramsay sat still and straight in his saddle, seemingly unaware of the thousands of eyes upon him.”

Congratulations on hitting 75, Harry!

>199 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia!

Congrats!

Morning, Harry! Hooray for hitting 75! That is our magical number, around these parts.

I am off today but too hot to bird. May spend a lot of time in the a/c, with the books.

>202 msf59: horrors! Having to spend time with books in an air conditioned house...

Congrats on reaching the magical 75 mark, Harry! Although I note that you seemed to have skipped that number in your reviews — you went from 74 to 76. :-)

>202 msf59: Thanks, Mark!I scrapped plans to get up early and do some outside work because they're promising somewhat cooler weather in a couple days. Enjoy your reading day!

>203 fuzzi: Quite a burden!

>204 rosalita: Thanks, Julia! And oops! I'll have to rectify that. :-)

75. Mesopotamian Chronicles, by Jean-Jacques Glassner



Among the earliest of written records are those from Mesopotamia, near and between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the location of Sumer, Ur, Uruk, Lagash, and Babylon, among other early cities. This volume in the Writings from the Ancient World series brings together an assortment of works in chronicle form, dating from the Old Babylonian era (around the start of the 2nd millennium B.C.) through the Assyrian ascendancy, the Neobabylonian Empire, and on to the period of the Seleucids after Alexander the Great. They often commence with a historical/mythological background, including for example a list of rulers before the Flood with the lengths of their reigns, before turning to more detailed and specific recent events. Jean-Jacques Glassner provides an interesting introduction before the facing-page edition and translation of the various, often fragmentary, chronicles. Recommended if you have an interest in the era or region.

First sentence: “As its etymology indicates, the term historiography denotes the writing of history.”

Opening of the first chronicle, the Chronicle of the Single Monarchy: “When kingship came down from heaven, kingship (was) at Eridu. At Eridu, Alulim was king; he reigned 28,800 years; Alalgar reigned 36,000 years; two kings reigned 64,800 years. Eridu was abandoned; its kingship was taken to Bad-tibira.”

I find myself misnumbering my reads all the time, Harry! Funny how much easier it is to spot on someone else's thread ...

78. The Billiard Room Mystery, by Brian Flynn



Murder disrupts a house party gathered for a week of cricket, and Anthony Bathurst, on hand for the games, is drawn to try his hand at solving the puzzling mystery of the killing of cricket ace Gerry Prescott, though the police have an able presence in the form of Inspector Baddeley. The evidence is confusing: Prescott is found in the billiard room amid some signs of a struggle, with muddy brown shoes (one missing a lace). Tracks outside the window suggest the possibility of an outside job, and the fact that the hostess’s pearls were stolen indicates that Prescott might have interrupted a crime. It appears, too, that the young man was robbed. But why is an IOU he had received earlier that night missing, too? And why was Prescott both strangled with his own shoelace, a doubtful happening in a struggle, and then stabbed with an ornamental dagger?

The first in the Anthony Bathurst series of mysteries is a fairly clued mystery, if a bit preposterous. The solution, though not original, was creatively varied from its model. Thanks to a tip in the review by Liz (lyzard), I spotted the culprit very early on, but it was still enjoyable overall. Bathurst is a bit of a cipher in this, though, with little distinctive about him. I’ll be interested in seeing whether the character assumes more definition in the later books. Mildly recommended.

First sentence: “Seeing Bathurst this evening, after a lapse of eight years, has given me a most insistent inclination to set down, for the first time, the real facts of that cause celèbre, that was called by the Press at the time, the ‘Billiard Room Mystery.’”

79. A Tale of Two Saints: The Martyrdoms and Miracles of Saints Theodore "the Recruit" and "the General", trans. by John Haldon



This volume, part of the Liverpool University Press series Translated Texts for Byzantinists, brings together a few fairly short accounts of the martyrdom and miracles of the fourth-century Saint Theodore the Recruit and one account of the similar martyr Saint Theodore the General, known only from later accounts. The texts were not without interest, although it was disappointing that the early sermon on St. Theodore the Recruit by Gregory of Nyssa was omitted from the volume, presumably because it had fairly recently been translated elsewhere, given the prominence of the author. Mildly recommended.

First sentence of the introduction: “St Theodore ‘the Recruit’ (tērōn), martyred at Amasia under Maximian (Galerius) and Maximinus (Daia), was one of the best known and most popular of the Byzantine warrior-saints, perhaps at least as popular as St George or St Demetrius and probably more so than St Merkourios, St Procopius or St Eutropios, among others.”

Hi Harry! Congratulations on getting to 75 so early in the year.

I have returned from a month of cleaning out my mother's house and getting it on the market to be sold, getting her mail forwarded, and her safe deposit at the bank officially closed.

I'm drawing a line in the sand since I didn't follow any threads for the entire month I was gone, and will try to keep caught up. I don't anticipate having to go to CA any time soon, don't want to go to CA any time soon, and plan on settling into my retirement more fully now that husband has a job and Mom's estate is not winding down exactly (until the house is disposed of), but presenting less stress.

I saw some West-Coast-only birds in CA, which was exciting (Rufous Hummingbird, California Scrub Jay, Cassin's Finch, Band-Tailed Pigeon, and not-just-West-coast but never identified before Eurasian Collared-Dove.)

Hi, Karen, and thanks!

I'm glad you'll be back visiting threads after that long and involved stretch.

Congratulations on the birds! My wife is from Oregon, so we've done a little birding out there, but usually our trips haven't given us enough time to do much. I do recall the scrub jays being all over the place.

I am reading The Fifth Latchkey, a mystery published in 1929, and I've found evidence of readers before me in items used as bookmarks: a recent post office receipt and, of more interest, a Brownie Blockprints Christmas card that is not new, and which may be of the same vintage as the book. The textured blocks on the paper don't show, but here are the front and the sentiment of the card:

>212 harrygbutler: I love the treasures I find in used books!

>213 fuzzi: Me, too. This Christmas card is going to get sent this coming year, I expect. :-)

>208 harrygbutler:

Oops---should I delete that part, then??

Though honestly, I think anyone who reads mysteries from that era would have the same thought. The only difference is that I spent the whole book going, "But he can't possibly be going that route!?"

>215 lyzard: I wouldn't bother, Liz; there are enough famous predecessors that it didn't have to be that one. I expect that I would have figured it out in a reasonably timely fashion. There's one clue that really can only point in one of two directions, I think: The finding of the shoelace pretty much has to indicate either the actual culprit or the detective, and since the detective went on to so many more cases, that's ruled out — but it might not have been ruled out for the first readers, and the clues at the beginning of the story are capable of sustaining an interpretation that makes the detective the criminal, which of course is not unheard of either.

80. Ted Key’s Phyllis, by Ted Key



Two field sparrows build a nest in left field while the Phillies are out west, and a groundskeeper persuades the higher-ups to leave the nest until the team gets back. When they do, popular outcry compels the team to leave the nest in place and construct a cage around it to protect it. The unusual configuration of the ball park works a strange influence on the last-place team, and soon the Phillies are racking up victories, despite the worst that opponents — and especially the Brooklyn Dodgers, hitherto in first place — can do to menace that new mascot, Phyllis, and her eggs. The team’s streak continues all the while Phyllis sits on the eggs, but when they hatch, to much acclaim, and then depart, the team’s fortunes slump. Will the team recover? Will our young groundskeeper find romance?

This is a pleasant little trifle, amply illustrated, and made for a good, quick read. Recommended.

Cool Christmas card, Harry!

>218 karenmarie: Thanks, Karen. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it hadn't been used.

>217 harrygbutler: I think I'd enjoy that!

>220 fuzzi: It was a fun little book. I'll keep an eye out for another copy. (They may be around, since it was a story about the local team.)

'Morning, Harry! Happy Thursday to you.

>222 karenmarie: Hi, Karen! Thanks for stopping by!

Our hollyhocks unfortunately have been hit with a fungus, so the leaves aren't very pretty, and we'll have to cut them off once the flowers are done blooming, but the first blossoms have opened, and they're promising quite a show:

>224 harrygbutler: beautiful!

I saw that Ted Key not only did the Hazel comic strip, but he also created the "Peabody and Sherman" characters for Jay Ward's Rocky and Bullwinkle show in the late 1950s! I love that series.

>225 fuzzi: Thanks! It's a mixed stand, so there are some that are more pink, and white, and others yet to bloom.

I quite like the Hazel cartoons and have at least a few collections of them. I didn't know he had created "Peabody and Sherman" — that's great. I really like the show, too.

81. The Fifth Latchkey, by Natalie Sumner Lincoln



Doctor Isabel Beale speeds to the home of Senator William A. Sanford, whose daughter Mona is her patient, being treated essentially for neurasthenia. She is stopped by a Maryland State Police officer, who accompanies her to the house, where they find a key in the door, no one answering the door, and in the library the body of Eric Van Vechten, Mona’s estranged husband. Van Vechten had been stabbed in the back, and he has the phone off the hook in his hand as though he were calling someone. But Dr. Beale says that she was summoned by Mona at the time that Van Vechten was murdered, and there is no other line in the house. If Mona didn’t call Dr. Beale, why had she gone out there in such a hurry? Soon the Montgomery County sheriff as well is on the scene, as is the state attorney for the county, Richard Bruce, whom Senator Sanford hates, but why? Given the estrangement, why was Van Vechten there? And why had he been staying with the exiled Russian prince Michael, who seems to be very close to Mona. Is she truly ill? Who, also, is the mysterious Officer Yorke of the state police, who ends up assisting the state attorney? Moreover, evidence also suggests the involvement of the Cat, a burglar who has been active in the area and who leaves behind the cat’s whisker from a crystal radio set as a calling card.

The mystery was fairly solid, and though I don’t think it was necessarily well-clued, Lincoln did a reasonable job of keeping suspicion on various parties. Some of the explanations were rather too perfunctory, but the writing on the whole was good, if a bit dated in some ways. Mildly recommended.

First sentence: “Isabel Beale stepped from her car as a motorcycle drew up close to where she had parked.”

Morning, Harry! Happy Saturday. Our temps are a bit lower today but it will continue to be warm and muggy. It has been a LONG week.

Enjoy your weekend.

Hi Harry! Beautiful hollyhocks. Thanks for sharing. I hope you have a wonderful day.

>228 msf59: Hi, Mark! Both yesterday and today are cool enough that we can have the windows open instead of running air conditioners in most of the house, but by tomorrow it is supposed to warm up again — and the humidity is and will stay high, so muggy here as well.

>229 karenmarie: Hi, Karen! I'm glad you liked them. I'm very happy with the hollyhocks — now there are other colors mixed in as well.

Today we're planning a visit to a flea market at the local Elks lodge, and then heading to our county seat for a big book sale that is held regularly at the newspaper there to raise money for scholarships, and after that, who knows?

>230 harrygbutler: "book sale"

:perk:

BTW, I decided to buy a copy of The Black Stallion's Filly, after seeing an original (1952) copy for sale, in good condition, and at a really good price. I'll be ready when August comes.

Now, where is my copy of The Blood Bay Colt?

>231 fuzzi: The book sale was mildly disappointing, but I did get a couple more Alistair MacLean books: Night Without End and The Satan Bug. Nothing from the thrift store we visited, but a few other books from a couple more stops. I'll probably post a list later or tomorrow.

Congrats on The Black Stallion's Filly! I'll be reading The Blood Bay Colt in a library copy, I expect.

>232 harrygbutler: those are two Alistair MacLean's I have, unread. I sense more shared reads in the future...

>234 harrygbutler: Excellent! I should be ready for another one next month.

Yesterday's book sale was a bit disappointing, but I still managed a half-dozen books, augmented by later stops at a couple used book stores (one a place that has been slowly going out of business and opens for a weekend only about once a month). I got a mixed variety of books, and Erika also found a few for her while we were out and about (three of Susan Elia MacNeal's Maggie Hope mystery series, and a new book by John Waters, Make Trouble (which I'll read at some point, as I like his writing — much more than his movies).

My acquisitions:

The Satan Bug, by Alistair MacLean
Night Without End, by Alistair MacLean
Alias the Saint, by Leslie Charteris
The G-String Murders, by Gypsy Rose Lee (I've heard good things about this, which was also the basis for the Barbara Stanwyck movie Lady of Burlesque.)
The Crimson Circle, by Edgar Wallace (This was an inexpensive hardback to replace a paperback I already own.)
Don Juan, by Lord Byron (I was actually hoping to find a good copy of either the collected poems or specifically Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, which I've been wanting to reread, but I scooped this up when I spotted it.)
Vampire's Honeymoon, by Cornell Woolrich (I think I've read at least one of the stories in this collection of pulp horror by Woolrich, "I'm Dangerous Tonight," but I don't recall it, and I'm looking forward to tackling the rest at some point.)
The Chessmen of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs (I read the series long ago and am gradually gathering the books up again for a reread.)
Heathcliff Ghosts, Goblins and Creepy Things Like That, by George Gately
Heathcliff Specialties, on the House, by George Gately
Heathcliff Chairman of the Board, by George Gately

Hi Harry!

Eclectic mix of books, for sure.

I acquired a bunch of Burroughs' Mars books - I don't remember how any more. I really like the cover art, although every time I read anything by Burroughs I'm highly entertained.

Happy Sunday to you!

>235 harrygbutler: Nice book haul!

Happy Sunday, Harry! It has cooled off nicely here. We needed a break. Enjoy your day.

>236 karenmarie: Hi, Karen! I find Burroughs pretty entertaining, too; though I've read some duds, they still moved along well.

>237 msf59: Thanks, Mark! It has been a hot and humid one here, so an indoor day for the most part, after some gardening work in the morning. I've finished two books as a result, and may get through another (though I'm about to start one, too, so I'm not sure).

82. The Loudwater Mystery, by Edgar Jepson



Lord Loudwater is an unpleasant brute, hated by his wife, who is in love with another; hated by his secretary, who is in love with a woman receiving an allowance from the lord (because of a broken engagement), which the lord plans to slash; hated by his butler, who has a similar irascible nature, and whom he sacks; and disliked or detested by nearly everyone else. It thus is no surprise when he meets his end, stabbed to death on a night when all the likely suspects were on hand or nearby. The acting chief constable, George Flexen, undertakes to investigate the crime, though it is clear that everyone is happier that Lord Loudwater was killed, and at least one person announces that he will do everything possible to help the guilty party escape arrest and punishment. Mildly recommended.

First sentence: “Lord Loudwater was paying attention neither to his breakfast nor to the cat Melchisidec.”

>206 harrygbutler: That one interests me, so I will have to see if the local library has a copy. Thanks for the recommendation, Harry.

>241 alcottacre: I had to use interlibrary loan to get it to read, Stasia, but maybe you'll be more fortunate. Thanks for visiting!

>242 harrygbutler: I will have to resort to ILL too, Harry, as my local library system - which includes 2 different college libraries - does not have it. I am going to have to wait until the library is fully up and running again though.

>243 alcottacre: I'm glad to hear they're making progress on getting your library back in place. Did they have to build a new building?

The Loudwater Mystery is likely to lead me to more mysteries, thanks to a list of Borzoi Mystery Stories (as of its publication in 1920) opposite the title page. Though I have one of the others already (The Solitary House), and would know the J. S. Fletcher books to be mysteries or thrillers, others are by authors I don't know (e.g., J. B. Harris-Burland, and have titles that don't automatically suggest mystery to me (e.g., The Pathway of Adventure).

The list:

1. The White Rook, by J. B. Harris-Burland


2. The Solitary House, by E. R. Punshon


3. The Shadow of Malreward, by J. B. Harris-Burland


4. The Middle Temple Murder, by J. S. Fletcher


5. The Talleyrand Maxim, by J. S. Fletcher


6. The Pathway of Adventure, by Ross Tyrell


7. The Paradise Mystery, by J. S. Fletcher


8. The Whispering Dead, by Alfred Ganachilly


9. Dead Men's Money, by J. S. Fletcher


10. The Loudwater Mystery, by Edgar Jepson

>245 harrygbutler: It's good to see your book sale shopping list has been expanded, Harry! You never know where you're going to get recommendations from.

>246 rosalita: I certainly don't want to run out of books to look for! :-)

Hi Harry and happy Tuesday to you!

Reading books indoors is infinitely preferable to laboring outside in humidity. *smile*

Hi, Karen! Thanks for stopping by!

Agreed. The sun is out today, after a day of rain yesterday, so I ought to spread some mulch during my lunch break, but I think it will wait until this evening, or maybe even tomorrow.

83. Blind Date with Death, by Cornell Woolrich



Many years ago I read a few novels by Cornell Woolrich that had been reprinted by Carroll & Graf: The Bride Wore Black, The Black Angel, and the like, though I don’t recall just which ones at this point. I don’t recall ever coming across any collections of his short stories, however, so when I spotted this volume at a book store a couple months ago, I snapped it up. It contains several stories first published in the pulp Dime Detective Magazine between 1936 and 1943. All were enjoyable, and a few were quite good. Recommended!


Cover featuring “If the Shoe Fits”

Contents:

• “Blind Date with Death” — The title story for this collection, first published in June 1937, is a pretty good one, in which a cop goes undercover as a gigolo to nab a gang of thieves and murderers.


• “The Living Lie Down with the Dead” — This was a fun story with the sort of creepy twist one associates with radio shows like Inner Sanctum, in which a pair of thieves plan to steal jewelry that is to be placed into a mausoleum by having one of the pair take the corpse’s place in the coffin.


• “Flowers from the Dead” — A somewhat weaker effort, this story has movie star Persis Grey reluctantly returning to her hometown, where she fears that she is fated to meet death.


• “The Riddle of the Redeemed Dips” — This is another undercover police operation, again involving jewelry thefts and murder, with the resolution somewhat dependent on luck.


• “The Case of the Maladroit Manicurist” — This is an entertaining story of a man apparently murdered by a manicurist and of a detective’s efforts to clear both her and the man’s wife, who had hired him to find the manicurist because she suspected an affair.


• “Crazy House” — Upon his return from the Far East, Bill Ingham goes calling on a girl his friend Jack knows, but something is wrong: people directing him to the house say that is boarded up and unoccupied, but someone had answered the phone; however, the girl who receives him doesn’t look like the one in the photo Jack had. Suspicion turns to certainty when the girl and the butler try to slip him a drugged drink, but his efforts to bring in the police backfire when a body is found and he is suspected. Woolrich packs a lot into the pages of this one.


• “If the Shoe Fits” — Detective Tom Nye stops a man from committing suicide by jumping off a bridge. The man has amnesia, and Nye decides to help him figure out who he is and where he belongs. They eventually track him to a house with a corpse in it. But why is the corpse wearing two left shoes?


• “Leg Man” — Newspaperman Clint Burgess dreams of owning the paper someday, but for now he’s just a “leg man,” not even writing his own stories, but just calling in his reporting. When the owner of Mike’s Tavern is found murdered one morning, Burgess doesn’t think the man arrested committed the crime, and he sets off on an investigation to uncover the truth — and boost his career with a big story, too.

Morning Harry. Another beauty here. Birds have been elusive but everything else is fine.

Belated congratulations on reaching 75, Harry!

I think the next Black Stallion is one I haven't read.

>251 msf59: Good morning, Mark! It's a beautiful day here today, too. Just the usual feeder birds so far.

>252 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita! I've been enjoying the Black Stallion reads, and am looking forward to that next one, too.

84. Walt Disney's Donald Duck: "The Ghost Sheriff of Last Gasp", by Carl Barks



This is another amusing collection of reprints of Donald Duck comics by Carl Barks. Lots of fun with Donald, Huey, Dewey, Louie, Uncle Scrooge, and the rest — though I’m not a big fan of the stories with Gladstone Gander. Recommended!

85. Grubstake Gold, by James B. Hendryx



Newspaperman Barry Cameron heads for the Klondike Gold Rush after running a story exposing corruption in local politics. On the way, he falls in with ex-boxer Red McCarty and with dancer Daisy Means (professionally known as Delphine De Vere), and opportunities for mutual assistance on the hard road to Dawson foster a strong friendship among the three. Thus, when a foolish try at living by gambling leaves Barry broke, Daisy and Red provide him with a grubstake so that he can prospect for gold for all of them. He heads off with a partner, Sam Black, and they soon find a good spot and set up four claims — for Barry, Sam, Daisy, and Red. But the crooked Quade, who with his partner McCabe has a couple nearby claims, murders Sam and frames Barry with an eye toward taking over their more-successful claims. Barry is swiftly arrested and jailed by Constable Brink of the Northwest Mounted Police, and a rapid conviction and hanging seem likely. But then Black John Smith of Halfaday Creek takes a hand….

Grubstake Gold is a solid adventure novel with interesting characters. The initial chapters on the way to the goldfields do a good job delineating Barry, Red, and Daisy, and provide a good setup for some of the action late in the story. Things really pick up once Black John gets involved, and the latter part of the novel brings together another strand to provide a satisfying conclusion. Recommended.

First sentence: “Chill, damp fog fanned Barry Cameron’s cheek as he stood on the beach at Dyea and watched the ship, her deep-throated horn sounding at minute intervals, gradually merge into the gray distance.”

Morning, Harry! Sweet Thursday! Congrats on hitting 75! I am getting very close myself...

Hi Harry! Happy Thursday to you. I've read Waltz into Darkness by Woolrich, but can't remember a single thing about it, unfortunately. I'll keep an eye out for him at my usual haunts - thrift stores, used book stores, and library sales.

>256 msf59: Thanks, Mark! I see you are indeed quite close — a target for your weekend, perhaps?

>257 karenmarie: Good morning, Karen! I haven't read that one, but now that that volume of his short stories has reminded me of his work, I'll be on the lookout for more by Cornell Woolrich myself, at the same sorts of places.

86. Murder in Room 700, by Mary Hastings Bradley



As this mystery opens, Virginia Channing is a hotel room where a man has been murdered. She takes steps to efface her presence and tries for a casual exit in the hope of delaying the discovery of the body, but she is unable to prevent the clerk from seeing her leave at an unlikely hour, and the murder is soon found out. The victim is playwright Philip Darrow, who has known the widowed Mrs. Channing and her daughter Nina for a number of years. Though she had hoped to escape attention, she is soon visited by the assistant district attorney, Stephen Ryder, whom she had never met, but who had been Philip’s friend, and who is investigating the crime. Although Mrs. Channing behaves suspiciously, Ryder decides to trust her claim that she was not involved in the killing and try to shield her from the police. Meanwhile, there are other suspects to consider: the leading actress Florence Fane, who has been involved with Darrow; the chorus girl Topsy Minn, who also may have been involved with him, or her new husband; a disgruntled songwriter; and more.

Though aspects of the circumstances facing Mrs. Channing are dated (Murder in Room 700 was published in 1931 by D. Appleton and Company, but it probably appeared first in Redbook Magazine), they don’t really get in the way of enjoying the story. The investigation is a bit haphazard-seeming, and the clues that point to the culprit are rather broad in nature, necessitating a late confrontation to trap the perpetrator. At least one twist did catch me by surprise. Mildly recommended.

First sentence: “She stood trembling in the middle of the room, staring at the figure that lay sprawled upon the floor.”

>254 harrygbutler: I have to confess that I have no memory of a Gladstone Gander in the Donald Duck menagerie!

>260 rosalita: He may have been a comic-book–only character, Julia. And since I was more of a Harvey Comics reader, I never encountered him until I started reading these reprints. His chief characteristic is that he is incredibly lucky and thus almost always ends up besting Donald in competitions of various kinds.

Both of my current reads are a bit hefty, so reaching 75 this weekend, may be difficult but it isn't called a challenge for nothing, right?

>262 msf59: True. Maybe you'll hit the right rhythm with one or both of them to complete them; I've had a few big books that flew by when shorter books dragged.

>261 harrygbutler: That probably explains it, Harry. My primary exposure to DD et al. was via cartoons rather than comic books.

>261 harrygbutler: I didn't read the comic books, but did love the Walt Disney and Golden comic book digests that were all the rage in the late 60s/early 70s. I wish I still had mine.





I remember owning both of those.

>264 rosalita: The same was true for me, Julia. We did have four large harcover Walt Disney volumes, but I don't recall Donald Duck et al. featuring prominently in those. (I do remember a great little story about Timothy Mouse, Dumbo's friend, fitting up a house for himself, with a drawing showing a sardine can fireplace with a walnut shell holding wood and a broken safety razor axe.)

>265 fuzzi: I don't know that I ever had any of those; if I did, they made no real impact on me. I may have had the Harvey Comics equivalents, but I think I usually had regular comic books with stories of Richie Rich, Hot Stuff, and the like, as well as Sad Sack.

Good morning Harry and happy Friday to you!

We only ever were allowed to get comic books on vacation and they ended up read, re-read, tattered, and eventually thrown away. I don't ever remember my parents expressing interest in comic books, and TV was, according to my mom, "the idiot box", and she waged an ineffective war on its insidious influence.

Now that both of my parents are gone, there are so many questions I wish I'd asked them, not the least of which is about comic books and when they first saw TV!

>268 karenmarie: Hi, Karen!

I don't really know how many comic books I actually had during the years when I was getting them. My parents didn't mind them (so far as I know). I'm not sure how much they read them when they were younger.

My parents liked watching TV as well as reading, and it was through them and TV I got lots of early exposure to old movies in particular. I know my dad's family didn't have a TV (his parents first got one sometime in the '60s :-) ). I'm not completely sure with regard to my mother; a neighbor had one and she watched there (and in fact thus has a better recollection of early TV than my dad), but they didn't have electricity for much of the time she lived at home. I do know some of the radio shows they knew and had a fondness for.

Hey harrygbutler! Did you recommend Gone North by Charles Alden Seltzer? I think you did.

Anyway, my ILL came in, so guess what I'll be reading next? :)

>270 fuzzi: I did — I hope you enjoy it!

>271 harrygbutler: I'll let you know. :)

>272 fuzzi: ::fingers crossed:: :-)

87. Seeds of Murder, by Van Wyck Mason



In a scene right out of an early movie mystery, famed detective Hugh North, a captain with U.S. Army Intelligence, arrives for a dinner in the midst of a terrific storm:

The wind now rose to a steady pounding gale that howled eerily outside the villa and hurled raindrops crackling with force against the glass.

At that squall, everyone fell silent, listening to the furious rushing of the wind. Then, with disconcerting abruptness a ponderous knocker on the front door commenced to bang. Everyone in the room jumped and Delancey started.

“It must be Hugh North,” he said, after a moment.

Ominous weather soon enough is followed by death: Jacob Wallace, partner of party host Royal Delancey, is found hanging in the bath he shared with another guest; though many, including the leading police investigator, think it suicide, North is convinced it was murder: the strangled man was suspended by a chain, not a rope; the knocked-over wastebasket was too flimsy to support his weight had he tried to use it to reach the hook from which he was hanged; the putative suicide note was on a sheet of stationery curiously shorter than the other sheets in the desk; and by the dead man was found an equilateral triangle of three Datura seeds. When a second killing — this one definitely murder — follows the first, and the same seeds are found there, it is recognized that Wallace was murdered as well.

Though Lieutenant Bullock of the police wants no help from outsiders, an ambitious police sergeant, Minot, who knows North’s reputation, seeks the captain’s help, and the captain, himself interested in untangling the mystery, obliges. The initial evidence suggests that a cheated investor might have sought vengeance, or that a spurned mistress likewise was involved, but North persists in his investigation and eventually contrives a midnight meeting that reveals the truth.

Seeds of Murder, the first in more than two dozen novels by F. van Wyck Mason starring North, is competently written but I think not completely fairly clued — there is one clue connected with height that may not be something the reader can discern until the explanation at the end. Still, I enjoyed it overall, and I’ll pick up the others in the series as I come across them.

First sentence: “‘I do hope Captain North will get here before the storm breaks,’ murmured Phyllis Delancey nervously.”

>274 harrygbutler:

I read that last year and have been meaning to get back to the series; I particularly enjoyed North's furious reaction at the end, in the face of his sidekick's failings. :D

>275 lyzard: North's human foibles are a good element, I think. I have a few much later entries in the series, but I'll be watching out for the rest.

I'm trying to sample mystery authors for whom I already have one or more books and have never tried any of them, or where I know I can lay my hands on them in reprint series, to figure out whether there are any authors I want to avoid. :-)

I'm pretty sure I've read one or two books by E. Phillips Oppenheim in the past, but I don't have a strong recollection of them. His bestselling status means that his books are readily available used — there are probably a dozen or more at one nearby used book store, and I see them at thrift stores as well, where I picked up The Spy Paramount recently. I started it before work this morning, and wow, what a hectic ride! I'm about a third of the way through and enjoying it, though I don't know just what is going on, really. Fun stuff!

Hi Harry and happy Saturday!

>274 harrygbutler: I've added it to my wishlist. Sounds good and if/when I can get hold of it I'll keep in mind the height clue.

The male hummingbird has been making frequent visits again but I haven't seen the female. How are the bird sightings doing at your house?

>278 karenmarie: Hi, Karen! Thanks for stopping by. If you do get a chance to read Seeds of Murder, I hope you enjoy it! One aspect I liked was that both the detective and the narrator (his friend) were competent but not perfect.

The main feeders are getting just the usual birds — the highlights are probably the cardinals (including I think at least one juvenile) and the house finches. We still haven't managed to spot the hummingbirds at our feeder, but the neighbor saw one again yesterday.

Enjoying as always your eclectic reading, Harry.

Have a great weekend.

>280 PaulCranswick: Thanks for stopping by, Paul! It has been a good weekend so far, and I hope that you enjoyed yours.

>244 harrygbutler: No, they are not building a new building, just renovating the old one.