Diary of an Abbey Theatre Tour: Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching out on Tour
by 

Clive Geraghty

I just ordered the play, and saw this was listed on Amazon. It was reissued in 2016 for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. The diary is . . . not much, unless you are interested in acrid descriptions of various British theatres, a fair amount of whinging about the lack of publicity for the traveling production of Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching to the Somme, freezing dressing rooms and Geraghty's reclamation of his garden. What he does not discuss: the play itself. Unless you are already familiar with the broad plot outline, you have no idea what it is about from anything he describes. His fellow actors are shadow figures, as is the playwright and the director. He does talk about how he keeps his performance fresh, although not in any depth. Throughout the read I kept wondering who Geraghty reminded me of, and it finally came to me. He is Simon Brett's character Charles Paris in the eponymous murder mystery series. Which I like. In fact, I found myself longing for one of the other actors or even the tour handlers to be done in by bayonet just to see if Geraghty could spring into action.

I'm glad I read it because (1) I am an actor and I have toured, so yeah, I got it and (2) I am thinking of directing the play. But what a general reader would make of this diary escapes me.

Here we are at the end of a year, hell, the end of a decade. My darling wife is downstairs in a NyQuil coma after finally coming down with the cold Christopher and Catherine had over Christmas. Please, I can't afford one of those now.

No resolutions, just a determination to lead a better life, to be a better man than I have been this past year.

Happy New Year to anyone reading this blog. Is anyone?

Alexander the Great
by 

Philip Freeman 

Highly readable without talking down to non-historians or those unfamiliar with the broad outlines of Alexander's life. Freeman condenses a great deal of information into this account, which deals largely with the military history. Hephaistion is barely mentioned. Freeman seems to take for granted the idea that the friendship was intimate, but unlike Mary Renault he doesn't then create an Alexander who is a romantic hero. While Alexander was capable of chivalrous gestures such as his generous treatment of Darius' family, Freeman is quick to point out the political or military advantages that accrued to the king as the result. If he was defied, Alexander was as ruthless as any other warlord during the period. If Freeman can be believed, Persian mothers scared their children with the mere mention of his name. Alexander as bogeyman!

Freeman hits his stride in the last few pages when he lays out the continuing impact of Alexander upon history. He argues that Alexander made even the spread of Christianity possible. Freeman offers a persuasive argument that the Macedonian conqueror may have been the most influential figure of the ancient world, with lasting effect to this day on the West.

The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs
by 

Katherine Howe 

It reads like a more sophisticated Barbara Michaels, which isn't necessarily the highest compliment. Michaels lacked the academic respectability of Howe when it came to the underpinnings for the supernatural elements in her novels, but at the same time she was better at creating an aura of danger and interesting plot twists. There are no real twists in The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs, and several promising adjacent story lines never really go anywhere --- unless Howe is saving Verity and Chastity's for another book. I read it in one sitting, which means it did entertain. All in all, a good if not great read.

Dreaming Spies (Mary Russell, #13)
by 

Laurie R. King

This promising series has been a little hit-and-miss lately, but Dreaming Spies is an excellent addition to the Russell/Holmes saga. The best part of the book isn't the mystery itself (no spoilers, but the villain stands out like a sore thumb), but the descriptions of (1) shipboard life on a liner bound from Bombay to Japan in 1924 and (2) Japan itself when Holmes and Russell disembark. At every turn the reader is introduced to a wonderful setting. King writes first-rate descriptions of Japanese inns, baths, food, clothing and above all, cultural attitudes. Russell and Holmes are peripheral in this story, despite being the central characters. As good with Japan as her previous Palestinian novels have been.

Highly recommend.

Susan Collins, Mitt Romney . . . the Republic has fallen into the hands of banana muffins masquerading as Senators.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3088641517

Maria Yovanovitch, y'all. Maria Effin' Yovanovitch. When the annals of this nonsensical but devastating four year attack on the Republic are written, her name will figure in letters of gold. Unlike Gym Jordan, Milk Dud and the Elise woman whose name I am too lazy to google.

Highly entertaining. The wit is in full evidence ( did you ever think traveling with Herodotus could be boring?) Corby does, and the result is plentiful laughs along with a mystery that holds up if does not challenge. The usual enormous amount of historical information deftly inserted into the book, along with scenes of surprising sobriety. Usually Corby has been content to land jokes. No quarrel with that, but when he does decide to get serious, well, it opens up some brilliant insights into the mind of a Golden Age Athenian. Highly recommend.

The worst thing about life since the Emperor Tang seized power is the sheer force of negative emotion that courses through me every single goddam day. There is nothing that can set me off faster than being around people who I know voted for him or even worse, recognize him as some kind of "necessary evil."

Another cheerful entry in this mystery series. Nico and Diotima investigate the household of the Athenian hero/exiled traitor Themistocles in the city of Magnesia, where he rules as a satrap of the Persian Great King. Corby has a sharp eye for what made ancient Greek civilization great <i>and</i> peculiar, coupled with a witty style. This time out the mystery is actually puzzling as well, so The Ionia Sanction delivers the goods in that department as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93Q2srbfUPU


Oh my God!

Who Killed the Fonz? by Henry Boice

A one-sit wonder, which is what I call a book I start and finish in a couple of hours. Who Killed the Fonz carefully navigates the shoals of fan fiction and actually manages to be about something. It probably helps if you were a fan of Happy Days (I wasn't, but had no problem with all of the major references --- though I am sure I missed plenty as that will enhance the nostalgia factor). But the story of Richard Cunningham coming back to Milwaukee as a middle-aged man discontented with his life more than makes up for (1) the utter lack of mystery and (2) the mildly lame sitcom elements with Potsie and Ralph at the climax of the story. It is a very sweet read without being cloying.

Honest Doubt (A Kate Fansler Mystery #13) 
by

Amanda Cross,

Carolyn G. Heilbrun

Simon Donoghue's review

liked it

A delayed pleasure. I haven't read this because I wanted one more Kate Fansler mystery before lights out. Alas, Kate is a peripheral character in some ways, but central in ways that don't add up. Heilbrun went out on a sour note with the academic community within which she functioned. The themes in this book pick up on others that run throughout the Fansler ouevre, but with a twist. The protagonist is a fat --- her incessant word, not mine --- female private investigator who tools around on a motorcycle. Woody, as she is known, is sent to Kate about a case involving an academic homicide.

And we're off. Woody is presented as an academic naif, despite the fact that she has attended college and law school, which seems like a lot of higher education for someone who doesn't understand the concept of a core curriculum. Woody looks into the murder of the Chair of the English Department at Clifton College, a small liberal arts college in New Jersey. I myself work at a small liberal arts college in North Carolina. And no one, but no one, uses the language Heilbrun puts into the mouths of the Clifton professors. As long as the stories were told from Kate's point of view, Heilbrun's style made sense. It was like Woody Allen's concept of New York City dwellers' conversation. Something to which one could aspire. But Woody blows it. She wants us to believe that she finds academics odd when she herself uses the word "chap." This is a pet word of Heilbrun's; her characters have always called each other that, and the reader thinks, "oh, well, somewhere there are bunch of WASPS who do that." (I seriously doubt it.) But to have your narrator mocking the oppressor --- because Heilbrun clearly used her swansong to settle accounts with the patriarchy --- while talking just like them? The reader is constantly jarred out of the story. And that isn't hard to do, because there really isn't one. That fact is underscored so hard by the "solution" to the "mystery" that I wound up slamming the book shut with unnecessary violence.

But Kate does float through the story, acting much as she always has, and there is a final glimpse of Banny and Reed. Read it for that.