The Dream and the Glory
Dec. 1st, 2012 11:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
todayiamadaisyThe local paper has a celebrity birthday section. It's just a list of names and occupations, with one name picked out as the Birthday Highlight. That person gets a little biography and a photo. Today's list contains people like Le Duc Anh, former Vietnamese president, Woody Allen, US actor and director, and Bette Midler, singer and actress. So the Birthday Highlight must be pretty special, right? Yep: Happy birthday, Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug lord.
November books read
* Whispers Underground - Ben Aaronovitch (2012)
* A Red Herring Without Mustard - Alan Bradley (2011)
* The Broken Teaglass: A Novel - Emily Arsenault (2009)
* Beauvallet - Georgette Heyer (1929)
My first two books of November were both the third books in their respective series, both mysteries told in first person, and the authors have initials that are palindromes of each other. Coincidence? Yes.
Whispers Underground is the third book about wizard/policeman/wizard policeman Peter Grant, who plies his trade in modern London. A Red Herring Without Mustard is the third book about 11-year-old chemistry genius/amateur sleuth/obnoxious brat Flavia de Luce, who plies her trade in the 1950s English countryside. Peter Grant is an amiable sort of chap - bright, but still learning how to use his new abilities - and I am looking forward to the next book. Flavia de Luce is an odious little creature, who actively obstructs police investigations. I loathe her, but I can't stop reading the damn things.
I thought The Broken Teaglass was a murder mystery, and it is, in a way. It's not a murder mystery like the previous two, though. It is the story of two young lexicographers working at a famous dictionary, who find a story hidden in the word citations. When they put it all together it turns out to be a confession. That's not spoiling the story, by the way. They work that out quite early. It's more about the journey than the destination, but I didn't find it a particularly interesting one.
I do like nonsense, and Georgette Heyer is top shelf, black label, gold standard nonsense. Beauvallet is the story of Sir Nicholas Beauvallet, an English privateer who is a friend and rival of Sir Francis Drake, only better. It is set in 1586, back when pirates really knew how to sexually harass women. Here's what Beauvallet's band of ruffians say to a young Spanish noblewoman they they find on a ship they raid: 'You pretty chuck! Buss me, sweeting!' Shocking.
If nothing else, reading this book taught me all about Elizabethan insults. Dewcock, cullion, chewet, meacock, coystril, crack-hemp, pigeon-livered hound, Master Hemp-Seed, may the black vomit seize you! Oh, an eater of broken meats, a very pungent rascal! If we slit not your weasand for this! I think my favourite was when Beauvallet called the bad guy Master Puke-Stocking.
Also, it is impossible to take seriously any book in which a character is described as flouncing to the poop. All up, I thoroughly enjoyed Beauvallet.
November books read
* Whispers Underground - Ben Aaronovitch (2012)
* A Red Herring Without Mustard - Alan Bradley (2011)
* The Broken Teaglass: A Novel - Emily Arsenault (2009)
* Beauvallet - Georgette Heyer (1929)
My first two books of November were both the third books in their respective series, both mysteries told in first person, and the authors have initials that are palindromes of each other. Coincidence? Yes.
Whispers Underground is the third book about wizard/policeman/wizard policeman Peter Grant, who plies his trade in modern London. A Red Herring Without Mustard is the third book about 11-year-old chemistry genius/amateur sleuth/obnoxious brat Flavia de Luce, who plies her trade in the 1950s English countryside. Peter Grant is an amiable sort of chap - bright, but still learning how to use his new abilities - and I am looking forward to the next book. Flavia de Luce is an odious little creature, who actively obstructs police investigations. I loathe her, but I can't stop reading the damn things.
I thought The Broken Teaglass was a murder mystery, and it is, in a way. It's not a murder mystery like the previous two, though. It is the story of two young lexicographers working at a famous dictionary, who find a story hidden in the word citations. When they put it all together it turns out to be a confession. That's not spoiling the story, by the way. They work that out quite early. It's more about the journey than the destination, but I didn't find it a particularly interesting one.
I do like nonsense, and Georgette Heyer is top shelf, black label, gold standard nonsense. Beauvallet is the story of Sir Nicholas Beauvallet, an English privateer who is a friend and rival of Sir Francis Drake, only better. It is set in 1586, back when pirates really knew how to sexually harass women. Here's what Beauvallet's band of ruffians say to a young Spanish noblewoman they they find on a ship they raid: 'You pretty chuck! Buss me, sweeting!' Shocking.
If nothing else, reading this book taught me all about Elizabethan insults. Dewcock, cullion, chewet, meacock, coystril, crack-hemp, pigeon-livered hound, Master Hemp-Seed, may the black vomit seize you! Oh, an eater of broken meats, a very pungent rascal! If we slit not your weasand for this! I think my favourite was when Beauvallet called the bad guy Master Puke-Stocking.
Also, it is impossible to take seriously any book in which a character is described as flouncing to the poop. All up, I thoroughly enjoyed Beauvallet.