I’m still Bookshelf Travelling in Insane Times, do join in if you feel the urge! Last week I was actually travelling – and buying books, so I didn’t get around to doing this. This meme was hosted by Judith at Reader in the Wilderness but I’m gathering the blogposts at the moment.
This week the bookshelf is in the main guest bedroom again. It’s inhabited mainly by crime fiction, Ngaio Marsh (not a favourite,) Gladys Mitchell who is okayish in parts but I can’t understand why she made her detective Mrs Bradley so ghastly, Patricia Wentworth’s Miss Silver is much more likeable in fact I think I prefer her to Miss Marple – is that blasphemy?
The Alfred Hitchcock book Murder Racquet is a collection of short stories and amazingly I haven’t heard of any of the authors which might be why I haven’t got around to reading it.
I love Louise Penny’s Three Pines books but I usually borrow them from the library, I can’t remember why I felt the need to buy Still Life.
Landed Gently by Alan Hunter is unread, I don’t think I’ve read any of his books but this one is apparently a whodunit in the classic tradition and even has a floor plan at the front, published in 1957 it sounds right up my street.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote, not vintage crime but I love the film and enjoyed the book too although it is a wee bit different.
Are you bookshelf travelling this week?
I’m really enjoying these posts! Perhaps next week I’ll join, if I can take some decent daylight photos of a bookshelf before then…
ireadthatinabook,
I hope you can manage to join in. I’m looking forward to seeing some of your bookshelves!
It took a few more weeks than I had hoped but now I finally have a bookshelf up on my blog. https://ireadthatinabook.wordpress.com/2020/11/08/bookshelf-travelling/
ireadthatinabook,
Thanks, I’ll add it to my blogpost, when I get around to doing it later tonight!
I have read a lot of these authors and some of these books. I did read Landed Gently and enjoyed it. I want to read more books in the series to see if I like them as well. I liked Breakfast at Tiffany’s but both the book and the film were a bit depressing to me.
I haven’t decided how I feel about Miss Marple vs Miss Silver, but if I had to choose, I would probably pick Miss Silver over Miss Marple. The Miss Silver books are not as consistently good, but then there are a lot more of them.
I have recently read my second Gladys Mitchell book (Laurels are Poison) for a group read, and I am planning to read more. I have Speedy Death. Are there any others on your shelf you would especially recommend?
tracybham,
I haven’t read Laurels are Poison. I’ve just looked back at my thoughts on her books and I think I enjoyed The Saltmarsh Murders and Murder in the Snow most. I’ve just realised that I don’t seem to have read Speedy Death, I thought I had read all of those books, maybe we could do a readalong sometime.
Katrina,
I’m so excited to think that you prefer Miss Silver to Miss Marple. What a revelation! This makes me think I must try a Miss Silver book. Do you have a title you would especially recommend?
And, how is your knitting coming along?
Judith,
Part of the reason I prefer Miss Silver is that Wentworth always keeps the reader informed as to how Miss Silver’s knitting is coming along and what exactly she is knitting and for whom. It’s a strange thing that both Christie and Wentworth conjured up an elderly female knitting detective in the same year! I’m knitting baby things, I’ve just finished a sort of Guernsey/gansy sweater for a 1 year old and I’ve just begun a 4 ply cable design sweater for a 1 year old. I enjoyed The Blind Side by Wentworth earlier this year, I somehow got it free for my Kindle, possibly from Dean Street Press.
I ran out of time this week for Bookshelf Traveling, unfortunately. However, I really like this shelf. I am surprised you don’t like Ngaio Marsh! I am a fan of most, especially those with a theater setting. I still have a grudge against one called Black as He’s Painted which the library accused me of not returning about 40 years ago (they misshelved it). You already know how much I like Patricia Wentworth and I have become a big fan of Louise Penny. It annoys me that the first two books are a different trim size from the rest (she started more as a cozy author and then expanded). Pre-pandemic I used to see these discarded all the time but, of course, now there are no book sales.
Coincidentally, I just picked up a copy of Huxley’s Murder at Government House last week in a very odd place; I think I have read her before but do not remember specifically. I have not read any Gladys Mitchell but would do so if they were handy.
I have not read any Hitchcock anthologies but my brother-in-law, who is a big reader of American history, loved the Three Investigators growing up and read them to his children.
Last night I dreamed I was walking past a used bookstore – and it was open, I could see the lights – but I couldn’t seem to get there. Talk about a nightmare!
Constance,
That was a nightmare! I’ve been buying books online, but it just isn’t the same. I managed to visit an Oxfam bookshop when we were down in England last week, I bought five books in less than five minutes, it felt quite risky being in such a confined space – even with masks on – when I got home I realised I already had two of the books! I must say that I prefer Marsh’s theatre setting, Death at the Dolphin comes to mind. I remember thinking that she was more racist than any other vintage crime writers, it doesn’t usually bother me too much because it was just the atmosphere of the times, but one of her books must have annoyed me more than usual.
I enjoyed that Huxley book but it’s the only one I’ve read. It shouldn’t have mattered where the library shelved the book, was that library computerised by then? Someone made a mistake when you took it back! I hate it when they change the format of books. I’ve had secondhand bookshop owners rolling their eyes at me because they had a book I wanted, but not in the edition I was looking for, but why wouldn’t I want a series to match?!
My girls and I enjoyed the “Mrs. Bradley” series, but then anything with Diana Rigg is worth watching! Haven’t read any of the books.
I like the Miss Silvers I’ve read, and of course appreciate the knitting!
Jeanne,
I enjoyed that too and recently watched Diana Rigg as Mrs Pumphrey in the new version of All Creatures Great and Small, it’s so sad that she died just when she had got that part. https://www.bing.com/search?form=MOZSBR&pc=MOZI&q=all+creatures+great+and+small+2020
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