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What am I reading now?
Anasazi America, by David E. Stuart. The book promises to combine archeology and history, but I'm still in the early chapters, which are necessarily archeological (pre-dating any written records from that part of North America). The book is talking about climate, changes in tools, food sources, and settlement patterns, and the author promises to draw connections between the collapse of the Anasazi civilization and our own time and circumstances. He also notes that "Anasazi" is generally politely glossed as "the ancient ones" but "a better translation would be 'ancestors of our enemies'" ("our" referring to the Navajo), while the Pueblo refer to that ancestral people/culture in English as "the ancient ones," but he will use the name "Anasazi" because it's common in library catalogs and Internet databases. Certainly the title is what caught my eye, idly browsing library shelves a month ago.
What have I read recently?
Strange Images of Death, by Barbara Cleverly. Mystery novel, with entwined plot threads of vandalism, murder, and a girl's desire to find her missing mother, or at least learn who she was. The detective was supposed to be on vacation, and is drawn into both the criminal investigations, and his courtesy-niece's questions about her mother. It comes together pretty well, and I will probably read more of these, but not immediately. (This is I think her third book about the detective in question, a Scotland Yard officer in the 1920s.)
The Pilgrim of Hate, by Ellis Peters. A Brother Cadfael book I hadn't read before, courtesy of the Bellevue Library. It has the strengths of the others, and refers back to a previous volume, but would I think work for a fresh reader. It also has some of the weaknesses, such as odd usages like "notabilities" instead of "notables" of the town, maybe trying for a more medieval voice beyond what can be had by garment names and fields of "pease." Reading this, I remembered an earlier discussion and wondered how much of the background being painted and herbal medicine invoked was genuinely of the time. Peters also had a weakness for a certain shape of romance in the background, the young couple who meet, often by chance, and are quickly sure they wish to marry.
What am I going to read next?
I'm not sure. The two books I mentioned last time as likely choices are both still on my bedside table, along with two more Ellis Peters novels and A Charm of Words by Eric Partridge. That's one I hadn't remembered existed, let alone that we had, until I pulled it out of a box last week; something else found during unpacking might get in before any of them.
Anasazi America, by David E. Stuart. The book promises to combine archeology and history, but I'm still in the early chapters, which are necessarily archeological (pre-dating any written records from that part of North America). The book is talking about climate, changes in tools, food sources, and settlement patterns, and the author promises to draw connections between the collapse of the Anasazi civilization and our own time and circumstances. He also notes that "Anasazi" is generally politely glossed as "the ancient ones" but "a better translation would be 'ancestors of our enemies'" ("our" referring to the Navajo), while the Pueblo refer to that ancestral people/culture in English as "the ancient ones," but he will use the name "Anasazi" because it's common in library catalogs and Internet databases. Certainly the title is what caught my eye, idly browsing library shelves a month ago.
What have I read recently?
Strange Images of Death, by Barbara Cleverly. Mystery novel, with entwined plot threads of vandalism, murder, and a girl's desire to find her missing mother, or at least learn who she was. The detective was supposed to be on vacation, and is drawn into both the criminal investigations, and his courtesy-niece's questions about her mother. It comes together pretty well, and I will probably read more of these, but not immediately. (This is I think her third book about the detective in question, a Scotland Yard officer in the 1920s.)
The Pilgrim of Hate, by Ellis Peters. A Brother Cadfael book I hadn't read before, courtesy of the Bellevue Library. It has the strengths of the others, and refers back to a previous volume, but would I think work for a fresh reader. It also has some of the weaknesses, such as odd usages like "notabilities" instead of "notables" of the town, maybe trying for a more medieval voice beyond what can be had by garment names and fields of "pease." Reading this, I remembered an earlier discussion and wondered how much of the background being painted and herbal medicine invoked was genuinely of the time. Peters also had a weakness for a certain shape of romance in the background, the young couple who meet, often by chance, and are quickly sure they wish to marry.
What am I going to read next?
I'm not sure. The two books I mentioned last time as likely choices are both still on my bedside table, along with two more Ellis Peters novels and A Charm of Words by Eric Partridge. That's one I hadn't remembered existed, let alone that we had, until I pulled it out of a box last week; something else found during unpacking might get in before any of them.
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