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, […]
Read MoreJohn 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” […]
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreHalloween 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
Read MoreJohn 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 […]
Read MoreBL-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 […]
Read MoreCrowdsourced: 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 […]
Read MoreBL-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 […]
Read MoreBooks With a Difference
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. […]
Read MoreSummer 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 […]
Read MoreSummer 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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