Reading - December 2024

Space: The Human Story by Tim Peake (2023)

A chatty, informal jaunt through the history of space travel. I don't think much of this is particularly new - I've read quite a bit about the Apollo missions and so the sections on that were somewhat familiar - but it's presented in a very readable style. An ideal introduction to the subject or, indeed, a perfect summary if what you want is a general reader on the subject rather than excruciating detail (I'm looking at you, James R Hansen).

The Fourth Protocol by Frederick Forsyth (1983)

Very convincingly detailed but also rather transparently reflective of the author's own views and prejudices. A great yarn nevertheless.

The Maid by Nita Prose (2022)

A nice little murder mystery, featuring a central narrator - the maid - who is presumably autistic (although this is never specifically mentioned). It feels like a cross between Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and the series that presumably all publishers want to duplicate, Richard Osman's record breaking Thursday Murder Club books. Very readable - I finished it in a day, although I was off work with a heavy cold so I wasn't doing much else - and enjoyable.  However, I did feel that the final "twist" wasn't very believable.

How Not to Murder Your Ex by Katie Marsh (2023)

I enjoyed this, a female-centred whodunnit/thriller, but found the characters a bit stereotyped.

A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie (1964)

A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie (1953)

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie (1962)

They Do It with Mirrors by Agatha Christie (1952)

Well, there's nothing quite like Agatha Christie for nice comforting murder mysteries, is there? Very often one of my go-tos when I'm not feeling well. All four novels (here from the Miss Marple Omnibus Volume 2) are classic Christie, setting the template for all future writers by making sure it's the least predictable person who dunnit, thereby making it a little bit predictable - but only from the perspective of seventy years later! 

The Thirteen Problems by Agatha Christie (1932)

Miss Marple's Final Cases by Agatha Christie (1979)

All the Miss Marple short stories (collected in a single volume here), but did you notice the incredible time between them? Yet they don't really read any different: Christie and Miss Marple in particular were always caught in a time warp. The stories themselves are nicely condensed, and don't feel too brief.

Marr's Guitars by Johnny Marr (2023)

For some reason it took me ages to get round to reading this, but once I did it only took me an afternoon. It's a sumptuous document of an astonishing collection of guitars but as a book it's a waste of money for me, and I'm not really sure why I bought it. I mean, you've seen one picture of a '58 'burst, you've seen 'em all, right? I'm not going to get to actually play any of these; I might play something similar and then I'll be interested in that. And I'm not sure what motivated Marr to make the book, as he doesn't come across as the type to just do it for the money. Still, nice to get a glimpse into another world!

The Secret Public by Jon Savage (2024)

Blimey, this was hard work. And I really wanted to like it - a history of how gay sub-cultures have informed and bled into mainstream entertainment over the decades is a story worth telling. But this isn't that story, sadly. It feels like Savage wants to be writing an academic tome for future historians to pore over, whereas I think what the subject needs - and certainly what I was hoping for - is a good summary. What we get is a mess of a structure that prevents any kind of clear narrative emerging, and a wealth of unnecessary detail. But none of it is new information and by including too much, the main point of the book - "How LGBTQ Performers Shaped Popular Culture (1955-1979)", to quote the over-reaching subtitle (it's mostly about gay men and pop music) - is fudged and obscured. I finished it eventually - over two months after I started - out of sheer bloody-mindedness but I'm not sure I should have bothered.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (1998)

I wrote last time I read this about the possible charge of cultural appropriation and I haven't changed my opinion (but then I am a white middle-aged, middle-class male so what do I know). What I'd forgotten is how filled with pathos it is - it's not just a jolly African Miss Marple. Very readable and with a clear, unique voice, which is rare I think. I didn't realise until today though that there are twenty five novels in the series!

Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith (2000)

The mix of small mysteries, homespun wisdom and little life choices is what makes these, for me anyway. Nothing really bad happens, nothing really major changes - just life moving along at it's usual pace. I don't know if McCall Smith planned these books as a series but in resisting the temptation to stuff each book with a lot of drama, he has given himself all the space to allow a much more appealingly gradual character and plot development. In hindsight, it's a brilliant idea, if the writing and characters are up to it - which they are of course.