Dusty Volumes

Non-Fiction:

• Cathar Castles: Fortresses of the Albigensian Crusade 1209-1300 by Marcus Cowper ★★
• Henry VIII’s Wives: History in an Hour by Julie Wheeler ★★
• The Perfect Heresy by Stephen O’Shea ★★★★
• The Pope Who Quit: A True Medieval Tale of Mystery, Death, and Salvation by Jon M. Sweeney ★★

Somewhat of a history theme this month. I spent several weeks at the end of December and the start of January driving around Pays Cathare, and with my interest suitably piqued, I sought out some reading for a more detailed background. The first, part of the Osprey Fortress series, was an interesting introduction, and would probably have been better to read before my trips, but The Perfect Heresy was much more engaging. (Update: The Pope Who Quit turned out to be an eerily prescient read!)

Fiction (Series):

• The Baxter Trust (Steve Winslow #1) by Parnell Hall (as J.P. Hailey) ★★★★
• The Anonymous Client (Steve Winslow #2) by Parnell Hall (as J.P. Hailey) ★★★★
• The Underground Man (Steve Winslow #3) by Parnell Hall (as J.P. Hailey) ★★★★
• The Naked Typist (Steve Winslow #4) by Parnell Hall (as J.P. Hailey) ★★★★
• The Wrong Gun (Steve Winslow #5) by Parnell Hall (as J.P. Hailey) ★★★
• The Innocent Woman (Steve Winslow #6) by Parnell Hall (as J.P. Hailey) ★★★★
• In the Midst of Death (Matthew Scudder #2) by Lawrence Block ★★★
• Time to Murder and Create (Matthew Scudder #3) by Lawrence Block ★★★
• A Stab in the Dark (Matthew Scudder #4) by Lawrence Block ★★★
• Eight Million Ways to Die (Matthew Scudder #5) by Lawrence Block ★★★★
• When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (Matthew Scudder #6) by Lawrence Block ★★
• Detective (Stanley Hastings Mystery #1) by Parnell Hall ★★☆
• Gone (Gone #1) by Michael Grant ★☆
• Bloodline (Sigma Force #8) by James Rollins ★★★★
• Sandstorm (Sigma Force #1) by James Rollins ★★☆
• Map of Bones (Sigma Force #2) by James Rollins ★★★★
• The Inimitable Jeeves (Jeeves #2) by P.G. Wodehouse ★★★★
• The Case of the Sulky Girl (Perry Mason #2) by Erle Stanley Gardner ★★★★
• The Case of the Lucky Legs (Perry Mason #3) by Erle Stanley Gardner ★★
• The Case of the Counterfeit Eye (Perry Mason #6) by Erle Stanley Gardner ★★★

The Steve Winslow series was a quick fun read. The books are heavily modelled after Perry Mason, so after trying another series by the same author (and not really liking it so much), I decided to read my way through the original Mason books instead. After loving Lawrence Block’s Bernie Rhodenbarr and Evan Tanner series, I’ve moved on to the Matthew Scudder books. These are much darker, and I’ll probably keep going with the series, but I’m not in as much of a hurry as I was with the two lighter series. The Sigma Force books are a slightly-more-intelligent-and-better-written-than-Dan-Brown scientists-with-guns conspiracy-theory-ahoy rompfest. They’re a little over-long at the start, but the pacing gets better as the series progresses.

Fiction (Non-Series):

• Jammy Dodger by Kevin Smith ★★★★
• Essays in Love by Alain de Botton ★★★
• Not the End of the World by Geraldine McCaughrean ★★★★
• The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren ★★★★
• The Man Who Wouldn’t Stand Up by Jacob M. Appel ★★

Jammy Dodger is a fun tale of ’80s Belfast that likely wouldn’t be quite so appealing to those who didn’t live through it. It’s slightly difficult to know whether Essays In Love should be in the Fiction or Non-Fiction category. Like most of de Botton’s books it’s full of interesting insights and quotable phrases, but is rather patchy. Not the End of the World is a fascinating re-telling of the Noah’s Ark myth that asks a lot of usually-ignored questions of the story. I suspect The Brothers Lionheart would have received five stars had I read it when I was much younger. The Man Who Wouldn’t Stand Up starts off well, but then completely loses it.

Abandoned unfinished:

• You Want WHAT??? by Mariann Mohos
• Another Man’s Wife Plus 3 Other Tales of Horror by David Bernstein
• The List of 7 by Mark Frost

Not yet finished:

• Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• The White Man’s Burden by William Easterly
• The Horologicon by Mark Forsyth
• On the Origin of Tepees by Jonnie Hughes
• Against Intellectual Monopoly by Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine
• This Will Make You Smarter edited by John Brockman
• The Great Cat Massacre by Robert Darnton

Total: ~9,589 pages