Tag: book lust i

In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz

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Wrong, Michela. In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu’s Congo. Harper Collins, 2001.

Reason read: Mobutu Sese Seko died in October. He was Zaire’s first president. Read in his memory.

More than a biography of Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbedu wa za Banga, Michela Wrong set up to write a love letter to the Congo. Even though Mobutu was a dictator and the first and only president of Zaire, the history of his homeland is a tale that is just as interesting to tell. It is a story of great triumphs and devastating downfalls; a cautionary tale of corruption, greed and betrayal.
It is a small detail of In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz, but I appreciated knowing Mobutu’s origin story of his love of leopard print. I am sure it is exaggerated, but the story goes that Mobutu’s grandfather used to ridicule him for being afraid of leopards. After killing one its skin became Mobutu’s personal fashion plate for his hats. I like to think every time Mobutu wore a leopard print hat he was giving his grandfather the proverbial middle finger.
As an aside…Every time someone saw me with In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz in my hands they would murmur, “ah…Heart of Darkness…” followed by either “I hated that book” or “I loved that book.” No one ever said it was just okay.

Chilling quote, “Knowing nothing about the past, of course, frees a population from any sense of blame for the present” (p 59). Or future, I would add.

Author fact: Wrong was a correspondent. As an aside, I found her comment about the potential spread of AIDS to be somewhat naïve. She was describing a hospital where AIDS carriers and HIV negative patients were “indiscriminately mixed together, their narrow beds only inches apart” (p 138). Even if the mixed patients were holding hands the HIV negative person would not be infected unless they shared blood.

Book trivia: the title of the book comes from a character in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

Music: “As Time Goes By,” “Hotel California,” Koffi Olomide, Zaiko Langa, Papa Wemba, Mick Jagger, Bryan Ferry, Wenge Musica and its variations: Wenge Musica 4×4, Wenge Musica Maison Mere, Wenge Musica BCBG, Wenge Musica Kumbela, Wenge Musica Aile Paris, Tabuley Rochereau, Pepe Kalle, and Gregorian chants.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Africa: Today and Yesterday” (p 10).

Almost Everyone’s Guide to Science

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Gribbin, John. Almost Everyone’s Guide to Science: the Universe, Life and Everything. Yale University Press, 1999.

Reason read: October is Science Month.

Atoms. Electrons. Energy. Hydrogen. Nucleus. Photons. Quantum. Particles. Molecules. Do you feel as though you are back in a physics or chemistry class? Gribbin will take you there. You’ll be reminded of the chemical action of covalent bonding and the spectral signature. You’ll meet geniuses of the day: Michael Faraday, Albert Einstein, and Isaac Newton. You’ll read up on the supercontinent of Gondwanaland. You’ll have a good chat about the Solar System, minus Pluto. There is a mention of climate change with and without human intervention. Gribbin will tell you his favorite theories with unbridled enthusiasm. You can almost hear the excitement as he warms up to his various topics. Everything Gribbin explains is done in a folksy, casual manner so as not to scare the reader away: “But the details need not bother us” (p 69). He will simplify the science by making Disney analogies and talk to you as if you are leaning over beers in a bar. This was fun.

Author fact: Gribbin also wrote Stardust which is on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: the illustrations in Almost Everyone’s Guide to Science are helpful.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Science Boks (For the Interested But Apprehensive Layperson)” (p 211).

And Be a Villain

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Stout, Rex. And Be a Villain. Bantam, 1994.

Reason read: to continue the series started a year ago!

Nero Wolfe is crafty. The way he finds clients is to insert himself into a dilemma (pretty much always a murder) with the promise of a solution (usually by proving someone’s innocence)…for a price (usually pretty steep). However it is up to Archie Goodwin to sell that service and bring the client onboard. When on-air guest Cyril Orchard is murdered by cyanide poisoning during Madeline Fraser’s radio program, Archie’s spin is that the heat will be off Madeline as a suspect if she hires the great Nero Wolfe to find the real killer. Logic prevails and Madeline agrees to Wolfe’s demands; except now it looks like the poison was meant for her. Is someone out there is trying to kill her? At the same time Beula Poole is found shot to death and a seemingly unrelated gynecologist is being blackmailed. Then a third person is poisoned. Are all of these events related? The case so stumps Wolfe that he begrudgingly involves his on again-off again nemesis, Inspector Cramer. As usual, Goodwin is the star of the show.

Line I liked, “No doctor should assume responsibility for the health of one he loves or one he hates” (p 168).

Author fact: according to one biography, Rex Stout devised and implemented a school banking system.

Book trivia: As with most Stout books the publishers lets the reader peek behind this curtain. This time And Be A Villain shared Viking’s lawyers’ attempt to find any detail that resembled real people or situations.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).

Bee Season

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Goldberg, Myla. Bee Season. Doubleday, 2000.

Reason read: I have a category called “Special Child Month” and this book falls in it.

Poor eleven year old Eliza Naumann just wants to be noticed by her family. Every member of her family has their own preoccupation. Older brother Aaron, once destined to becomes a rabbi, is on a quest to discover the right religion for him. Slowly he becomes absorbed into the Harre Krishna culture and dreams of becoming a pujari speaking Sanskrit. Mother Miriam has a fixation on stealing things. She stole a random shoe from a mall department store sale rack. She didn’t even want the shoe, useless without its mate, after all. She ended up throwing it away. Each theft begs the question why Each family member slips further into the background while Eliza becomes obsessed with words. When she discovers she is good at spelling her father becomes her champion and urges her to “remove herself entirely from daily life, to brush against the limitless” (p 98). There is an open-ended conclusion to this fractured family.

Lines I liked, “Besides, he can always masturbate to his memories” (p 48) and “It is late enough that the grass is filled with tomorrow’s dew” (p 196).

Author fact: Bee Season was Goldberg’s first book and the only one I am reading for the Challenge.

Book trivia: the front and back covers of Bee Season mimic a dictionary. The novel was made into a movie in 2005.

Music: Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Flock of Seagulls, Pachelbel canon, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman,” the Eagles, and “Oh Susanna.”

BookLust Twist: first, in Book Lust in the chapter called “Jewish American Experience” (p 132), and then again in More Book Lust in the chapter called “Child Prodigies” (p 43).

Feast of Snakes

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Crews, Harry. Feast of Snakes. Atheneum, 1976.

Reason read: October is scary month and this one takes the cake.

Feast of Snakes is not for the fainthearted. There is every kind of excessive abuse one can think of within its pages. Rape, domestic violence, corruption, animal cruelty, racism, adultery, elder abuse, alcoholism, gambling, murder, and even castration.
Joe Lon Mackey exists as your typical down and out alcoholic twenty-something year old. His high school glory days as a football star have long faded, “Then one day football was gone and it took everything with it” (p 102). Saddled with a mealy wife and two small squalling kids, trapped in a small town with no future, Joe Lon forever lives in the past. His sister is mentally unstable after coming home to find mom murdered by dad. Dad spends his time getting dogs to fight to the death. Old flame Bernadette is still as beautiful as ever, but committed to someone else. It pains Joe Lon that she has moved on and doesn’t seem to remember the good old days, but he’ll force her to think of them one way or another. The memories of what Joe Lon Mackey had but lost have made him brutally mean to everyone around him. His innermost thoughts lead one to believe that deep down inside he has a tiny smidgen of good that is trying to find a way out. Like mean Mr. Grinch, one had to have faith Joe Lon would crawl out of the anger that ensnares his soul. Unfortunately, the entire town seems to be full of brutally mean men and deeply sad women. It’s only a matter of time before the community explodes with rage.

As an aside, there is a rattlesnake round up that happens every year in Claxton, Georgia.

Line that summed up the entire book, “He always got mean when he got nervous” (p 141).

Author fact: Crews has written a bunch of stuff but I am only reading Feast of Snakes for the Challenge.

Book trivia: the dedication is pretty cool, “I have never raised a glass with a better friend.”

Music: Merle Haggard

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Grit Lit” (p 106).

Arabian Sands

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Thesiger, Wilfred. Arabian Sands. E.P. Dutton and Company, 1959.

Reason read: September is back to school month and a good time to learn about a strange region of the world.

Wilfred Thesiger was driven to go where others had not. He had a strong desire to test his limits and, where others shied away from them, unique challenges excited him. Nothing motivated him more than to say, “I know that no European had ever been here before me.” He sailed to Bahrain in a dhow simply because he wanted to have the same experience as an Arab sailor. He remembered his childhood as an explanation for his wanderlust spirit for his mother loved Africa.
In Arabian Sands Thesiger reported the Arabia he traveled in 1959 was unrecognizable from his earlier expeditions. He talked of long treks into the desert where “now” (in 1959) there were marring roads instead of endless stretches of dusty sand. [As an aside, what would he think of the region today? I am sure it has changed even more so since 1959.]
As a locust officer on behalf of the Locust Research Centre at the Natural History Museum, Thesiger was free to travel across the Empty Quarter. Although he showed no fear of danger wherever he went he had to hide behind a Syrian façade because of his Christianity. He absorbed the strange and fascinating culture of harsh people in a violent landscape. For example – the Islam faith. It regulated one’s religious observance, a man’s interactions with society and even the detailed routines of his daily life. Thesiger described the confusion of trying to identify various tribes by their saddles. It was important to know friend or foe to protect the camels from constant theft. [Speaking of camels, I found it remarkable that camels could be identified by the shape of their toes in the sand.] Thesiger became friends with Hamdu Uga who admitted he had just murdered three men. Thesiger casually reported that a mere two days later the young chief was murdered as well.

Quote to quote, “No, it is not the goal but the way there that matters, and the harder the way, the more worth the journey” (p 260).

Author fact: Thesiger was an avid hunter. He reported shooting seventy lions in the five years he was in the Sudan.

Book trivia: Maps were drawn by K.C. Jordan. Speaking of maps, there is a huge, fold-out map of the Empty Quarter at the back of Arabian Sands.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Armchair Travel” (p 24). Again, in Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Arabia Deserta” (p 23).

In Revere, In Those Days

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Merullo, Roland. In Revere, In Those Days. Shaye Areheart Books, 2002.

Reason read: Merullo was born in September. Read in his honor.

Anthony Benedetto is a sweet kid (almost too sweet) growing up in Revere, Massachusetts. His is a world where his extended Italian-American family is everything. When Benedetto loses both his parents in a plane crash his grandparents are quick to take him in. Recognizing Anthony’s sweet nature his grandfather teaches him to play hockey to avoid street fights Anthony would inevitably lose. This love of hockey is the foundation for Anthony’s young life and carries him through high school and college.
Anthony is also surrounded by aunts, uncles, cousins; an army of people who support him in every possibly way. These characters are not without their flaws and Anthony must navigate his confusion surrounding their actions. An uncle who gambles too much. An aunt who commits infidelity. A cousin who insists on dating the wrong boys. He loves them all, but does not completely understand their self destructive ways.
Merullo’s imagery is everything. An example: most people would take the easy route and describe a waning relationship as people “drifting apart.” Merullo says “melt” instead. In Revere, In Those Days is beautiful and I cannot wait to read his other works.

An an aside, I ran my first half marathon in Alton Bay.

Author fact: Like his protagonist, Anthony Benedetto, Merullo went to Exeter and Brown. I wonder if he played hockey.

Book trivia: this should be a movie.

Music: “O Signore,” “Lenta Va La Luna,” “O Sole Mio,” “Silent Night,” The Impressions, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” “Lenta Va La Luna, Lenta La Luna Va,” Derek and the Dominos’ “Layla,” and Bach.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter “Italian American Writers” (p 129).

Too Many Women

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Stout, Rex. Too Many Women. Viking Press, 1947.

The backstory: a businessman falls victim to a hit-and-run driver. Accident or murder? The firm, Naylor-Kerr, Inc, where the businessman worked, is convinced it was foul play. The board of directors hire Nero Wolfe to prove it. The only problem is Wolfe thinks the clues to solving the case are hidden in the executive offices of Naylor-Kerr. It is up to wise-cracking and devilishly handsome Archie Goodwin to find the evidence by going undercover in Naylor-Kerr. He starts in the Structural Metals section but gets distracted by the Correspondence Checker, namely the victim’s fiancé. In fact, there are too many beautiful women for Archie to handle. He starts dating a few of them to get to the gossip. The best part of his job is entertaining the women in the company. Dancing, dining, and drinking to interview them all.
Once his cover is blown, true to form, Archie is still the sarcastic and sharp-tongued sidekick to Nero that we all know and love. When a second man from the same company is found dead in the exact same manner on the exact same street the pressure mounts to solve the mystery. Even though this was a case that was harder than most for Wolfe to solve as Wolfe mysteries, they wrap up Too Many Women like an episode of Scooby Doo with a long narrative about how it all went down.

A favorite quote, “It wasn’t a conception that hit him, it was a sedan” (p 96).

Author fact: Rex Stout held a job as a bookkeeper.

Book trivia: There was a significant absence of Nero Wolfe in this installment.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).

Lyndon: an Oral Biography

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Miller, Merle. Lyndon: an Oral Biography. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1980.

Reason read: Lyndon’s birth month was in August. Read in his honor.

Merle Miller spent more than five years compiling Johnson’s oral history. The miles he put in, literally and figuratively, are astounding. Lyndon B. Johnson was a complicated man living in the time of the greatest society. Known for his aw-shucks attitude, he started out being a good ‘ole boy who voted against antilynching and antidiscrimination laws but ended his career as an instrumental advocate for federal aid to education, the creation of Medicare, changes in voter rights, and stronger civil rights. The death of Texas Congressman James P. Buchanan was a turning point in Johnson’s political trajectory. His campaigns were memorable – arriving by helicopter when running for senator. By the end of his political career Lyndon had weathered a tumultuous era: the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., the march in Selma, Alabama, the Vietnam War.
As with any oral history, the chronology jumps around a bit. Case in point: the birth of Lyndon’s first child came before the purchase of the radio station, KTBC.
Miller provides an intimate primer on the inner workings of the United States government. Probably the most fascinating section was the hour by hour, behind the scenes account of the Kennedy assassination and the transition of power to Lyndon B. Johnson. He also peeled back the curtain on Lady Bird Johnson’s life as well. Just as Lyndon was thrust into presidency, Lady Bird became the First Lady overnight. There was no time for preparation but she acclimated to her position with grace. As an aside, her note of encouragement to her husband was beautiful.

Author fact: Miller died when he was only 67 years old. My copy of Lyndon was signed by him.

Book trivia: Miller does not leave a detail unexplored. By default, readers get glimpses into the personality of President Roosevelt and a short biography of Lady Bird (Claudia)’s life leasing up to meeting her husband, to name a couple.

Music: Lena Horne, “I’ll Be with You When I’m Gone,” “Kate Smith on the South,” “God Bless America,” “San Antonio Rose,” “Dixie,” “The Eyes of Texas are Upon You,” Beethoven, “Hello, Dolly,” “The Eyes of Texas,” and “Ruffles and Flourishes.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Merle Miller: Too Good To Miss” (p 155). If Pearl wanted, she could have included Lyndon in the “Presidential Biographies” chapter as well.

Young Men and Fire

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Maclean, Norman. Young Men and Fire. University of Chicago Press, 2017.

Reason read: Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans twenty years ago this month. Young Men and Fire is about a different natural disaster; one started by lightning strikes and odd wind patterns.

On August 5th, 1949 thirteen out of fifteen smokejumpers lost their lives in the Montana Mann Gulch fire. Started by multiple lightning strikes, Mann Gulch and the surrounding area was soon a blazing inferno, completely out of control. For years, researchers have studied the tragedy to make sense of how only a handful of men, two being smokejumpers, survived. Someone needed to be blamed. Explanations were dire. Controversy surrounding foreman Dodge’s intentional lighting of an escape fire only added to the mystery. In 1978 Norman Maclean brought Robert Sallee and Walter Rumsey, the two surviving smokejumpers, back to Mann Gulch. Their memories of the tragedy were so sharp they were able to remember a can of white potatoes with two knife punctures. Nearly thirty years later, they could find the same can complete with puncture holes.
Beyond walking the scene of the catastrophe, Maclean and others plotted a course of reasonable explanation. They rationalized that if mathematics could be used to predict fire, why couldn’t math be applied to a past fire to reconstruct it? The science behind this was fascinating.
As an aside, this was the first time I read a publisher’s note explaining how a book which was published posthumously, came to be structured, fact-checked and released to the world. The University of Chicago Press was able to express its gratitude for the people who brought Young Men and Fire to bookshelves. I thought it wise of the University of Chicago Press to include “Black Ghost” as the preface to Young Men and Fire. A seemingly unrelated essay, it introduced Maclean’s personal experiences with fire and why the Mann Gulch tragedy was important to him.
In the end Maclean desperately wanted to believe the thirteen smokejumpers did not suffer. He consulted a doctor who said that asphyxiating in a fire is much like drowning; “it is not terrible,” was the conclusion. If you have read A Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger you might remember his play by play description of what it is like to drown. No thank you.

Memorable line, “No one who survived saw what happened to those who became crosses on that hillside” (p 307).

Author fact: in the introduction by Timothy Egan he shared that when Maclean was looking for a publisher for Young Men and Fire he was approached by a publisher who had previously turned him down for A River Runs Through It. As everyone knows, River was a smashing success. Big mistake. Big. Big. Mistake. Maclean was reported as saying he wouldn’t give this well known publisher Young Men and Fire if they were the last company on earth. Talk about a Pretty Woman moment!

Book trivia: Young Men and Fire includes photographs that not only show the devastation of the fire but also explain how the tragedy occurred.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “What a (Natural) Disaster!” (p 242).

Silent Speaker

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Stout, Rex. Silent Speaker. Bantam Books, 1946.

Reason read: to continue the series started in November.

One of the aspects of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe that I just adore is that Wolfe’s unscrupulous tendencies. He does not mind stooping to all new lows when trying to solve a case. When Cheney Boone, Director of the Bureau of Price Regulations, is murdered right before he was due to deliver a speech to the National Industrial Association, Wolfe pounces on a way to make NIA his client. Since the BPR and NIA are not exactly friendly, it is easy to pit them against each other. What better way than to accuse NIA of murder? Wolfe then finds a way to turn a $30,000 fee into an $100,000 reward along with faking a mental breakdown. As usual, it is Archie who steals the show.
Who would have predicted Nero Wolfe would come to the defense of Cramer? When Cramer is taken off the case Wolfe actually disapproves of the way the inspector has been treated. It is strange to not have him be the rival of a case.

Small confession: when I don’t take a lot of notes while reading that usually means I am not into the plot. But! I did find this quote that I liked, “An unaccustomed chair always presented him with a complicated problem” (p 238).

Author fact: Among Stout’s many occupations he was also a sightseeing guide.

Book trivia: Walter Mosely provides the introduction to Silent Speaker.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).

One Step Behind

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Mankell, Henning. One Step Behind. Translated by Ebba Segerberg. Havrill Press, 1997.

Reason read: at one time I researched the best time to be a tourist in various countries. I later decided that wasn’t a good enough reason to read a book so I deleted all of the “best time to visit” lists. I guess I missed Sweden. According to something I read a million years ago, July is the best month to visit. Who knows if that is still true. New Reason read: the Bayside Festival is being held this July in Helsingborg.

As a Swedish police officer, Kurt Wallander is an interesting character. One of my favorite elements of Mankell’s writing is how real his characters are drawn. Kurt lost his father and takes the time to help his stepmother sell the house. He has bad dreams and concerning health issues. He doesn’t always listen to his colleagues. He doesn’t have the greatest attention to detail (odd for a police officer). Despite his personal problems he has a dogged dedication to his job. When a group of young people are found murdered he realizes he downplayed the urgency back when they were reported missing months earlier. He assumed they were happy-go-lucky youths and the only crime was their refusal to check in with mom and dad. Then more bodies are found, including that of a fellow police officer with ties to the first victims. Suddenly, Wallander and his team have a serial killer in their midst. Can he solve the crime before more people are slain?

Author fact: Henning Mankell’s photograph looks like how I would picture Kurt Wallander.

Book trivia: confessional – I listened to this on audio and it was hard to differentiate the various characters with their foreign names.

Setlist: the Overture to Rigoletto by Guiseppe Verdi.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “I Love a Mystery” (p 117).

Dust and Ashes

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Rybakov, Anatoli. Dust and Ashes. Translated by Antonia W. Bouis. Little Brown and Co., 1996.

Reason read: to continue the series started in May.

Like Rybakov’s last novel, Fear, in Dust and Ashes the author takes the time to catch his readers up to the saga thus far. Yuri is a member of the secret police, Vika is married and living in Paris, her brother Vadim is also an NKVD informant. Maxim is in the Red Army as a commander. Nina is a Communist while her sister, Varya, rejects Communism and remains true to her friends. Sasha has been freed from exile but he is not allowed back in Moscow or any other major Russian city. Dust and Ashes begins in 1937. When we left Sasha and Varya, their romance had cooled after Sasha learned of Varya’s previous marriage to a gambler. Sasha struggles to make ends meet in various small towns, first as a truck driver and then as a ballroom dance instructor. World War II is almost a central character alongside Sasha Pankratov and Joseph Stalin. This is the era of endless interrogations (when you would rather have chat). Promotions could mean a reshuffling of the personnel deck or a literal death sentence. It is stunning the way Rybakov can seamlessly interject facts into a fictional account of the Great Purge. Details like the assassination of Trotsky. Two battles rage in Dust and Ashes – the delicate dance of Tyrants (Hitler and Stalin) and the Battle for Romance (Sasha and Varya). Who will win? Sometimes, when the target is not persuaded, the only motivation can come from fear. Confessional: the final pages of Dust and Ashes had me holding my breath. I did not want to believe it was the end. Surely there would be another sequel, a fourth or even fifth installment to the saga. But in actuality, really what more about be said?

Something I wanted to say in the last review but forgot – Rybakov had a character drink pickle juice to combat a hangover. I have to wonder if that really works.

Quotes to quote, “…I want to remain a decent person in these vile times” (p 79). The same could be said for these terrible times. Here is another: “Gone was the joyful amazement at life, the anticipation of happiness in a world which has seemed so inviting and lovely” (p 214).

Author fact: Anatoli Rybakov’s life mirrored Sasha Pankratov’s. Rybakov lived at 51 Arbat Street and he also joined the army.

Book trivia: Antonia W. Bouis also translated Fear.

Music: Confessional: these are songs from Fear: “Rio Rita” and “Splashes of Champagne”.
Dust and Ashes music: Isabella Yurieva, Leshchenko, Ivan Kozlovsky, Maria Maksakova, Stas Mikhallov, “Droplets if Champagne”, “Weary Sun”, and Leonid Utesov’s “From the Odessa Jail”,
Banned songs: “Jail,” “the Hop,” and “Murka.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter “Russian Heavies” (p 210). Pearl wasn’t kidding. Dust and Ashes was almost too heavy for my heart to lift.

Which Witch?

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Ibbotson, Eva. Which Witch. Apple Paperback, 1979.

Reason read: I am not really sure what I meant by this. I put Which Witch in the category of “Tequila Month” (???).

Imagine being new parents and realizing your darling baby boy is not normal. He was actually born a wizard. George became Arriman Canker and he grew up a solitary dark magic maker. When it came time for Arriman to finally find a wife he decided to hold a contest the week of Halloween. Which witch would make the perfect mate? Only a competition could tell him the true dark witch for him. He wanted a witch who could create the most vile, the darkest, the most powerful and evil magic imaginable. Meet the witches vying for Arriman’s hand in marriage:
Mabel Wrack, the sea witch. Her familiar is an octopus. Her magic for the competition was to raise the Kraken and my favorite magic of the whole lot.
Ethel Feedbag, the country witch with the pig as her familiar.
Nancy and Nora Shouter, twin witches with chickens. Their magic
Mother Bloodwort who occasionally turns herself into inanimate objects and then cannot remember how to change herself back.
Madame Olympia, with an aardvark as a familiar. Her magic for the competition was the most impressive. She created a Symphony of Death Performed by a Cast of Thousands.
Belladonna, a young witch with no familiar.
Needless to say, the competition does not go as planned but Arriman finds a wife and they all live happily ever after…sort of.

Here is something new I learned about magic: milk is the antidote to a spell.

Monalot (her real name was Gwendolyn Swamp). Her familiar is a sheep. She couldn’t compete because she got sick.

Author fact: Ibottson has written a ton of stuff for children. This is the only book I am reading for the Challenge.

Book trivia: My copy of Which Witch was illustrated by Annabel Large.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Not Only for Kids: Fantasies for Grown-Ups” (p 175). It should be of note that Which Witch is the last book in this chapter.

Not Quite Dead Enough

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Stout, Rex. Not Quite Dead Enough. Pyramid Books, 1944.

Reason read: to continue the series started in November.

Rex Stout likes to throw his readers a curve ball now and again. When we rejoin Archie and Nero in Not Quite Dead Enough, Archie has been in military service in Washington D.C. for two months. There is a war going on and he is trying to do his part. Meanwhile back in Manhattan, Nero Wolfe wants to do his part for the war effort as well. Comically, he and Fritz have been training to be soldiers by exercising and eating better (ha!). When Archive returns he is horrified by the change.
A welcome surprise for readers is the fact that Lily Rowan is back. We first met Archie’s crush back in Some Buried Caesar. This time Archie has set his sights on a new girl, Ann Armory, who works for the National Bird League. Only…she ends up dead. Of course she does. Since Wolfe is not interested in solving crime anymore Archie has to make matters into his own hands by becoming suspect number one. He is last seen with the pretty girl at a dance. His hair is found in her dead fist. Will Archie convince Nero to take the case and clear his name?

Book trivia: this is another one of those “double mysteries” where two novellas are combined.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).