John Le Carré
February and March 2021: Reading Recap
Well, go figure. The first quarter of 2021 is already behind us, never mind that I’m still having to remind myself on occasion to write “2021” instead of “2020” … (and we’re even a week into April already, but let that go). Anyway, since I never got around to doing a “February in review” post, […]
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John Le Carré: Call for the Dead
I discovered Le Carré as a teenager; not through any of his Smiley novels but through The Little Drummer Girl (his most recent book at the time), which, in the snobbery that characterizes the German literary scene to this very day, was characterized as a thriller and hence, “entertainment literature” (as opposed to “serious literature” […]
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The Guardian: John le Carré, author of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, dies aged 89
See: www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/13/john-le-carre-author-of-tinker-tailor-soldier-spy-dies-aged-89 R.I.P. — much more than a spy novelist; his knowledge of both human nature and post-WWII international politics was second to none. Fortunately, we’ll always have his books … but I do hope 2020 is finally done with the list of great people it’s taking from us forever.
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Halloween Bingo 2019: Tracking Post — Blackout! (And bingos Nos. 12 and 13.)
Many thanks to Moonlight Reader and Obsidian Blue for hosting this game for the fourth year in a row, bigger and better than ever before! Witih today’s call, I’ve blacked out my card, in addition to collecting my final bingos (nos. 12 and 13). Somewhat to my surprise, after completing my books for my […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019: Twenty First and Twenty Second Extra Square – Full Moon & King of Fear
Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1974242/halloween-bingo-2019-twenty-first-and-twenty-second-extra-square
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John Le Carré: A Small Town in Germany
This book is seriously odd — and it cut very close to home not merely geographically but also in terms of my own political formation. Le Carré first takes eons to trot out his personal disappointment with having been posted to Bonn instead of a “sexier” capital (via the voices of the British diplomats and […]
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BL-opoly: Dice Roll #20
Having DNF’d Laura Restrepo’s seriously off-putting Hot Sur and then completed Candace Robb’s The Apothecary Rose (which was — bad pun alert — just what the doctor ordered by way of a remedial reading experience), now that we’re past midnight German time I’m allowed to roll again … and hooray, even though I’m risking doing […]
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Crowdsourced: More Books with a Difference – Fiction
You asked, Moonlight Reader? To quote from one of my additional entries below: “As you wish …” Without any further ado: Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies When Lillelara added A Place of Greater Safety to her list, I could have kicked myself — because Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell books were definitely among […]
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BL-opoly: Dice Roll #9 … Parts a, b, c and d!
U P D A T E ____________________________________ Today is June 9 was another roll day for me, and it turnsed out as a result I’ll probably be I was set, reading-wise, for quite some time! Let’s take this one step by step … Beginning on my just-finished square, #16, my first roll today is was […]
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Responding to Moonlight Reader’s “call for papers (= titles / authors)” — there are quite a number of excellent lists out there already; anyway, here’s my contribution … or a first draft, at least. Links go to my reviews (or status updates / summary blog posts / author pages) to the extent I’ve posted any. […]
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Summer Reading 2019
So, summer reading is shaping up as rather busy this year: First of all, there is Summer of Sherlock, for which my reading list is already as long as a whole year’s worth of reading would have been for me once upon a time. I’ll also be watching the two Rivals of Sherlock […]
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… and then there were books.
In addition to the books acquired upon my departure for Hamburg, that is. Go figure, they had bookstores at Hamburg Airport and Hamburg Central Station as well … and I had way too much time on my hands ahead of my return flight to Cologne. * whistles innocently * Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1799055/and-then-there-were-books
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This happened today.
// TA decides to pack light because, after all, she’s only leaving for a 2-day business trip. Then agonizes a half hour over which one of several 100 books on physical TBR to take on the trip. // // Leaving home, finds book in mailbox that was delivered yesterday but which for reasons unknown she […]
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Summer of Spies – My Tracking Post
Memorial Day Weekend — Labor Day 2018 Read, to Date: Emmuska Orczy: The Scarlet Pimpernel (revisited on audio, narrated by Stephen Crossly) Agatha Christie: N or M? (revisited on audio, narrated by Samantha Bond) John Le Carré: Smiley’s People (revisited on audio, narraed by Michael Jayston) Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1762812/summer-of-spies-my-tracking-post
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England (the Southern / Central Part), from East to West and Back: Bookish Souvenirs
The Trip: * Chiltern Hills and Thames Valley (to mystery lovers, aka “Midsomer County” — though given that this is an area chock-full of quintessential(ly) English villages, it’s no surprise that it also routinely provides locations for other series, such as Inspector Morse, The Vicar of Dibley, and of course, adaptations of Agatha Christie’s mysteries […]
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