Books read and other media of note |
Portugese
Irregular Verbs by Alexander McCall Smith. An antihero on the
lines of The Confederacy of Dunces, less broadly played... Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith. Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. He manages to give the remaining fragments of norse lore a coherent structure and helps explain part of the Marvel Universe thereby... Not much theology to live by in the norse religion, more to die by and be tricked by... When I think of other great humor writers besides PG Wodehouse, I wouldn't have thought of Alexander McCall Smith, as I only started reading the No. 1 Detective series recently, and they are light in tone but no belly laughs. Then I got "Unusual Uses of Olive Oil" and McCall Smith, from his own experience of being a professor, absolutely nails the comedy in a professor whose one mark to fame is a book on Portugese Irregular Verbs. If Inspector Clousseau had taken to pedagogy instead of sleuthing Herr Dr Dr Igenfeld would have been the result... Now I have to backtrack and read the other three in the series, and I notice he has several other series worth checking out. And no, I don't represent the publisher of the aforesaid... No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. I'd previously glanced at this series and decided the African names or honorifics like Mma and Rra were a bit much, but this time I got over that and am looking forward to reading more in the series... It slightly resembles the Tony Hillerman novels in adopting a native persona... The Girl from Venice by Martin Cruz Smith. Set at the end of the war in Italy, a compelling story of intrigue and love but a bit too complex for my liking... Anti-Ice by Stephen Baxter. I'm not fond of steam-punk sci fi, but this one felt totally retro Jules Verne, and kept me wondering where it was going... Paw Enforcement by Diane Kelly. The only romance author I read is Janet Evanovich, because she is also incredibly funny. But I picked this book off the library paperbacks shelf because it was about dogs and funny. It wasn't as funny as I'd hoped, and the romance was pretty subdued, so it seemed a pale reflection of Evanovich. But it read well... |
INBMA |