My reading list is never confined to the seasons. Just the same, it is tremendous fun to select a few titles from the stacks of unread books and purpose to read them over the summer. Of course, I often read quite a few books that you’ll never see a trace of on my list…sometimes one comes to my attention and slips ahead of the books that have been patiently waiting their turn in orderly lines across my dresser. 🙂
But without further ado here’s the list of vintage books planned so far:
American Ceasar; Douglas MacArthur by William Manchester
Paul Revere & The World He Lived In by Esther Forbes
Photos in this post are of the handsome Franklin Library edition (1989)
This famous mystery has been well reviewed and discussed by much abler pens than mine, and I don’t have the time at this moment to do it justice with a good long glance. But regardless, I shall make a few quick observations:
A friend writing a mystery novel once read me a line from a book on the craft of writing. He had it written out on paper and stuck to his computer. I’ve long forgotten the source, but the line went something like:
“Your dialogue should crackle. Like Rice Crispies. Snap! Crackle! Pop!”
And that line kept going through my head while buried in the dialog of Murder Must Advertise. The dialogue, the DIALOGUE ladies and gentlemen, is so much fun. I don’t know when I’ve come across this brand of dialogue since an old Cary Grant comedy about newspaper writers.
I grew to love the detective, Lord Peter Wimsey. He is one sleuth a reader grows increasingly fond of as a man, in a way that Sherlock Holmes can never achieve– regardless of his fine cases and deducing skills.
Some of her descriptions of people, their choices, and their lives hit me personally with a choking in the throat. They were so realistic. I felt she was describing folks I know, and the atmosphere changed from a humorous murder mystery to weighty real life truth. For most folks this book would never strike them that way. Indeed it is simply a fun bit of fiction. But I have a few unusual connections whose lifestyles I’ve rarely heard evaluated so aptly. She must have had a lot of knowledge of people to make such characters and have such insight into their paths of life.
There was one conclusion near the end of the book that was not entirely satisfactory to me–but I shall say nothing so as not to spoil the ending.
And that about sums it up. Good synopsis for this tale are in overabundance online, so I won’t write one here.
A few quotes:
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“My brother, being an English gentleman, possesses a library in all his houses…”
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“If only I had ever seen Willis engaged in any game or sport, I should have know better where I stood, but he seemed to despise the open-air life–and that in itself, if you come to think of it, is sinister.”
***
A word of advice from an English chap to a fellow who was always bemoaning little facts about himself (like having never been to Yale):
“You oughtn’t to say a thing like that, old son,” said Bredon, really distressed. “It’s not done.”
“No–I dare say I’m not a gentleman. I’ve never been–“
“If you tell me you’ve never been to a public school,” said Bredon, “I shall scream. What with Copley and Smayle, and all the other pathetic idiots who go about fostering inferiority complexes, and weighing up the rival merits of this place and that place, when it doesn’t matter a damn anyway, I’m fed up. Pull yourself together…you mustn’t go about creating intolerable situations, you know. ” 🙂
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If describing this book in one paragraph to a friend I would say:
The dialogue is fired off with “His Girl Friday” rapidity, the humor and wit is second cousin to “The Thin Man” films, the mystery itself is worthy of Dame Agatha, and meanwhile D. Sayers is making a telling commentary on the advertising business, marketing ethics in general, strong families, drug dealers, and the living of lives of integrity. All without seeming to do so. Skillful, yet unpretentious. This is detective fiction worth owning.
Bound in green cloth with gilt lettering on the cover and spine; originally came with a dust-jacket
Published by the Reilly & Lee Co.
A tale of an orphaned girl. But not the usual kind. This orphan is not a sad little piteous thing. She’s a 17 year old with grit, who faces hardship with a grin and quick-witted ambition–including an assumed identity, running away from her landlady, feuds with a millionaire, and dealing with the hosts of young fellows who hang on her every glance…
All things considered this is a very simple story. But that is where much of it’s charm lies. There and in the contagious attitude of the Peggy, the heroine. The thing I love about Peggy, and also about Judith in Emma Sampson’s “The Comings of Cousin Ann,” is that they are thrown into very tough situations. Not to mention what the millennial generation would call quiet, unfulfilling, lives of thankless drudgery. But they don’t see themselves as victims. Neither do they just sit around and talk and dream up all sorts of solutions to their fears and hard lives. The are doers in the here-and-now. They attack the hardship with grace and a grin–with such jovial grit and action. That’s what I like about this tale.
These sorts of books are just the sort of antidote our weary world could use. Old books have a breath of freshness that drifts out of the musty pages. It pays to learn the attitudes of a generation besides your own. It gives one perspective. That’s one of the biggest takeaways I’ve had in the hundreds of simple old stories: the attitude and atmosphere of the protagonists contrasted with my generation and my culture.
And that’s my two cents on why it’s such a fun and charming read from yesteryear–even though it is a very simplistic story. The charm lies in the attitude and sweetness, not in any masterpiece of a story. “The Comings of Cousin Ann” however, is still my favorite of Sampson’s works!
There is currently a copy of The Spite Fence available here in the shop! *SOLD OUT*
“She might have added that she had never expected to be doing what she was doing. There were times when she felt as though she could not go on with the drudgery of her days, but she had a certain sturdiness of character that made it impossible for her to give up a task once begun.”
“Occasionally, when she had saved up a little money, she would go to a book store… One must have books. Mrs. Fitzpatrick was waking up to that fact, and now that the piano was paid for she was buying the Five Foot Shelf, which was all very well, but Peggy wanted some books of her own–little chunky books she could slip in her pocket, long slim books of poetry, with deep margins and one poem on a page.”
A simple roundup of the vintage books read in 2017, and a few notes…very much overdue. 😉
I read over 40 old books last year, and much could be discussed about each volume, but to keep this a manageable length I’ll just make a few quick observations.
Vintage Fiction
Among my all time fiction favorites in 2017 were most assuredly John Buchan and Wodehouse’s books—-a sheer delight, as always. I read John Buchan’s stirring Salute to Adventures and John Macnab and relished them both. Of Wodehouse I read:
Love Among The Chickens
The Coming of Bill
Jill The Reckless
Carry On Jeeves
Very Good Jeeves (my least favorite on this list—good but not great)
Right Ho Jeeves
Blandings Castle
The Code Of The Woosters
{Note on Blandings Castle: in this volume of short stories there is one which stood out as possibly the funniest thing I’ve read by Wodehouse; or at least the funniest short story: the Bobbie Wickham story “Mr. Potter Takes A Rest Cure.”
Do yourself a favor and read it. Then do your family a favor and read it aloud on your next road trip. Its quite short and can be easily read aloud in less than an hour–that is, if you don’t keep stopping because you are laughing too hard.}
It was great fun to re-read two of my old favorites aloud: “The Comings Of Cousin Ann” and “Bulldog Drummond.”
Other fiction favorites from last year were two of the Anne of Green Gables books, “The Prisoner of Zenda,”“The Screwtape Letters,” and the hilarious “The Story of the Treasure Seekers.” I’m still on the fence about “Random Harvest” but I think it should be included in this paragraph for the cunning plot and skillful writing…but I’m not quite sure about it yet…
Vintage Non-Fiction Favorites
“Ernie Pyle in England” and “They Were Expendable” were both fascinating bits of WWII non-fiction, written with such ease and flow that it’s not even akin to the books most folks call history.
Particularly Ernie Pyle’s book. His writing is superb and he is the most engaging newspaperman I’ve read in my life. Reading his observations makes me want to write. And not just write, but write like a craftsman, with a homey “old fashioned-letter” touch. His lean sentences, eye for beauty, and “sun-tanned” conversational tone are a personal delight of mine. I’ve not met many other readers of his works, but to me they stand out as stellar among their peers. His books (particularly “Here Is Your War”) changed the way I understood war and soldier-hood. And, in turn, the way I understand the old-men-WWII-veterans I talk with.
I’ve never been the same since “meeting” Ernie Pyle. And I’m much indebted to the fellow who read his books aloud to me for a couple of years until I realized what treasures they are, and started reading them myself.
“The Great Escape” (which I’ve been wanting to read ever since I saw the movie), “The Last Chapter,”“The Letters and Recollections of Robert E. Lee,” and “A Heap Of Living” round up the rest of my top 2017 vintage non-fiction.
Not Recommended
These are the books on the list below I wouldn’t recommend seeking out or taking the time to read.
“Lin McLean” and “Lady Baltimore” by Owen Wister, while I personally enjoyed many aspects of these novels, they had a few serious flaws that I just can’t overlook enough to recommend them to anyone.
“The Egg and I,” partly wonderful, partly terrible—I’m glad I read it (and laughed ever so much at times), but wouldn’t recommend it to others.
“The Builders” was a sheer waste of time.
“Ginger Rogers and the Riddle of the Scarlett Cloak” (see review).
And I’ll finish up with a complete list of the titles read for those who may be interested:
