Books

Jan 8. THE ROTTERS CLUB by Jonathan Coe. Tells the story of 3 teenagers living in Birmingham (England) in the seventies. The principle character is Ben, who has unrealized talents in poetry and the arts. He has a sister, whose fiancee is blown up in a bombing, and a nasty younger brother, Paul, who always takes the opposite (conservative) side in family discussions. One critic compares Coe to the young Evelyn Waugh. Don't agree, since the writing style of Coe is lengthy and discursive; the young Waugh was short and pithy.
THE CLOSED CIRCLE by Jonathan Coe. What happens after the end of the Rotters Club. Benjamin, the budding genius of his school group, becomes an accountant, fiddles around with his great novel for the rest of his life, and generally goes nowhere. His brother Paul, who in the earlier novel plays a comic right wing monster, becomes an important MP in the Blair government.
Feb 4. PARIS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by Jules Verne. Written in 1863 but translated into English only in 1996 this early novel by Verne tries to look a century into the future. In some areas he is uncany: he forecast the subways (but above the ground), the development of huge corporations, the decay of literary life, the omnipresent ads we see everywhere, the improvement in health services. What he didn't forsee was the carnage of the two world wars of the twentieth century: he saw only a dull, uninteresting existence for most people. The book itself is dull; for example, the two lovers never get together. They appear to die of starvation. She disappears; he wanders about the snow-covered old cemetary of Pere Lachaise and in the final paragraph he falls down into the snow.
Apr 16. CATCHER IN THE RYE, by JD Salinger. Holden Caulfield as the angst-ridden teenager who can't live in this world, which he claims is populated purely by phonies, which include his classmates, his teachers, his girl friends, everyone, including himself.
June 1. GOOD BLOOD, a mystery novel by Aaron Elkins set in Italy. Gideon Oliver, a forensic anthropologist, becomes easily bored on holidays, even in Italy. He escapes from his tour to accompany a friend to visit his family who own an island in Lake Maggiore. When a son of this family is kidnapped and a skeleton is found on the grounds of a company controlled by the de Grazie family, he offers his services to the carabinieri. A beautifully plotted and well researched book for the mystery reader.
June 3. MAKE NO BONES, by Aaron Elkins. Another beautifully plotted murder mystery in which skeletal bones are a great part of the solution. Elkins has a genius for creating an interesting group of people, this time anthropologists at their annual convocation, siting them in an fascinating spot on earth (the Rockies in this novel) and introducing a corpse, more precisely a skeleton. Who done it?
June 11. A DECEPTIVE CLARITY by A Elkins. Chris Norgen, an art historian, examines art stolen by the Nazis, to be shown by the American Army in Germany.
June 13. WHERE THERE'S A WILL by A Elkins. One of the elder brothers of the wealthy Torkelsson family, who own extensive property on the Big Island of Hawaii, is killed, presumeably by insiders. His brother flees on a plane that disappears. Gideon Oliver, the Skeleton Detective, visiting Hawaii, is summoned and gives his usual interesting and authoritative analysis.
June 15. THE NILE AND ITS MASTERS by Jean Kerisel. Geographic, historical and hydrolic story of the Nile River, Valley, and civilization. Chock full of information you never knew.
June 17. SKELETON DANCE by A Elkins. The celebrated skeleton detective takes on a series of murders in the Institut de Prehistoire in France, where the remains of Cro-magnon and Neanderthal have been found in caves in the limestone cliffs.
June 28. OLD BONES by A Elkins. The bones detective teaches a class in Normandy, where the discovery of bones dating from WW2 in an old house leads to murder. Usual spellbinding tale by Elkins.
July 2. A GLANCING LIGHT by A Elkins. A genuine (?) Rubens appears mysteriously in a shipment of art reproductions from Bologna to a Seattle art dealer. Chris Norgren, an expert in Renaissance and baroque art, is called on to find out what happened. Interesting light on the culture of the international art market.\=
July 30. Two more mysteries by A Elkins: TWENTY BLUE DEVILS, set in Tahiti, and MURDER IN THE QUEEN'S ARMES, SET in an archaeologic dig in Wessex, England. Both books exhibit a great sense of place. You learn something about the locale and the people who live there. Wonderful time killers.
Aug 4. ICY CLUTCHES by A Elkins. Locale--Alaska. Were the skeletons in the glacier killed accidentally or murdered? With Gideon Oliver around, murder wins out every time.
Aug 17. TURNCOAT by AE. Family disrupted by the sudden appearance of the wife's father, who--according to the wife--had been a resistance fighter killed by the Nazis. Much derring do in France and Spain. What would writers do without the Nazis to call on to block up their books?
Aug 25. LITTLE TINY TEETH by AE. This time we're on a riverboat expedition down the Amazon from Iquitos in Peru. The Unlikeable Guy, Prof Arden Scofield, is thrown overboard by an enemy. Gideon Oliver, the celebrated Bone Detective, goes to work. (The tiny teeth, by the way, refer to the pirhuana)