Lily Fairbairn
Gondolin
3:34pm
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It's the occasional reading thread!
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It's been another very eclectic month of reading.
I listened to three short cozy mysteries, Bunburry (the name of the village) by Helena Marchmont. They're so old-fashioned I was startled when the main character pulled out his cell phone. (Or mobile, since they take place in the UK.) These are pleasant, with the usual cast of quirky characters, but very short on plot.
I then listened again to Chatter by Ethan Kross. "Chatter" is what he calls that vicious circle of negative thoughts we can trap ourselves in. To overcome it he suggests, among other ploys, going outside into nature, keeping one's surroundings tidy, using ritual and habit. He also suggests journaling, but I've never found that useful for me since I'm a writer anyway. Go figure!
Then I listened to Lost Art: The Stories of Missing Masterpieces, by Noah Charney from The Great Courses. This is an overview of stolen, forged, destroyed, and sometimes even fictional great art.
Then it was back to another audiobook set (ten novels for 63 hours!) of short British cozies, Albert Smith's Culinary Capers by Steve Higgs. They are described as culinary cozy mystery adventures in that the protagonist, a retired police inspector, travels around the UK visiting towns with famous culinary products. The first is Pork Pie Pandemonium, taking place in Melton Mowbray. The next installment takes him to Bakewell for the tarts.... Well, you get the idea.
The narrator is adequate (you don't get, say, Kenneth Branagh for ten novels for one credit) and the stories pretty basic, but Albert is feeling his age---a realistic touch---and his dog's point of view is highly amusing.
I'm now listening to Earthly Delights, by Kerry Greenwood. This is the first in the Corinna Chapman series, which I like very much and have read more than once in print. I wanted a female narrator after several men and the Aussie accent is lovely. Greenwood also wrote the better-known Phryne Fisher series. The TV adaptations are enjoyable, but I don't care for the books at all. I find Corinna, a baker in contemporary Melbourne with many personable friends, a much more sympathetic character.
I'm still listening to my post-lunch/naptime audio, My Garden World, The Natural Year, written and read by gardener and BBC presenter Monty Don. Here, in his gentle, affable, way (he's the Mr. Rogers of British gardening), he considers not just the plants in his gardens but the animals as well. Lovely book.
On paper I read Clanlands, (mostly) by Scottish actors Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish. They go off across Scotland with a film crew, considering landscape, history, crafts, and so forth, and ultimately create the TV series Men in Kilts. There's a lot of teasing, and more than a few reminiscences about their roles on the TV show Outlander. I've never read the books nor seen more than one episode of the adaptation (and don't intend to start now) but I still found Clanlands enjoyable, not least because they visit multiple places I've visited in Scotland.
I have the sequel in audio, where the author/actors make a similar tour of New Zealand, where McTavish lives now. He, of course, played Dwalin in The Hobbit. And, it turns out, Sam Heughan was often called "Samwise" by his family, including his brother Cirdan.... 
I also read the second Arnold Landon mystery, Murder at the Manor, one of a bundle I got for the Kindle. He's an architectural historian working for a planning office in Northumbria who gets entangled in murder mysteries. In this installment he's going through the records of an old house whose ownership is in dispute. Unfortunately, the story is very slim on historical architecture and very long on tedious business/corporate politics, so much so I was skimming madly by the end.
I just started reading Babel, about the world's languages, and will report on it next time.
So what have you been reading?
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....
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