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- Feb 3. SKULL DUGGERY by Aaron Elkins. Our favorite bones doctor is on another case, this one investigating old
bones found in the bottom of a mine in Oaxaca, Mexico. It's a page turner in which the rotter, his wife's cousin, tries to
kill her husband near the temple of Yagul.
- Feb 5. THE RANSOM OF RUSSIAN ART by John Mcphee. The story, at least that
which can be told, of Norton Dodge and his Herculean efforts to buy 9000 works of underground art from the Soviet Union. Somehow,
Norton traveled extensively around the Soviet Union in the sixties and seventies, buying art from the artists and smuggling
it out of the Soviet Union. How it did it is an unsolved problem, but to do this successfully must require the help both of
the KGB and the CIA. Just how do you smuggle a 17 feet canvas from Russia to his farm in Maryland?
- Feb 12. SNARK by
David Denby. An analysis of snark, which Denby defines as a tone of teasing, snide, underhanded abuse that has become very
popular on the internet. Snark was introduced to the general public by Lewis Carroll in his nonsense poem The Hunting of the
Snark.
- May 4. OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET, by CS Lewis. Story about a man kidnapped and forced to fly on a space ship
to Mars, called Malacandra. The silent planet is earth. Thinly disguised attack on western imperialism in the post world war
I era. The bad guys: the scientists and their supporters in the English upper strata. There are three dominant races in Malacandra:
the workers, the intelligencia, and the rulers. The number one man is mostly spirit, and can be seen only on special occasions
when the heavenly lights turn on. Beautifully written like a poem in some sections.
- June 6. THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD,
by Margaret Atwood. Another end of the world scenario from the talented Canadian, MA. God's Gardeners, a religious sect devoted
to the preservation of nature, which is being destroyed by science and industry, predicts the coming of a natural disaster.
When it arrives in the form of a plague, all restraint, both corporate and governmental, breaks down, leaving ordinary people
at the mercy of robbers, killers, and torturers. The story follows the life of three women, who miraculously survive the breakdown
period. Harrowing, not for the squeamish.
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