Let's see. What about books, you say? well, I've completed one more since my last update. I'll provide my review of that for you. Also the synopsis of the next book started and the synopses of a couple of books that arrived the past few days.
Just Completed
"Calling Out for You is the 5th book in the Inspector Sejer mystery series by Norwegian author, Karin Fossum. It's the 2nd book I've read in this interesting series.
Gunder Jomann is an elderly bachelor who works as a salesman in a hardware / agriculture type shop. His main friend is his married sister, Marie, who gives him a book about the world. Gunder decides to travel to India in the hopes he will meet a woman he can marry. On his vacation to India, he meets a waitress, Poona. They fall in love and marry. Gunder makes arrangements for Poona to travel to Norway where he will pick her up at the airport and take her back to Elvestad where they would make a life together.
The day Gunder was to go to the airport to meet Poona, his sister Marie is in a car collision and taken to the hospital in a coma. Since her husband is out of town, Gunder makes arrangements with the local taxi driver to go pick Poona up. Kalle arrive at the airport but Poona isn't there. Later that same night, a body is discovered in a field just a few miles from Gunder's home, dead with her face terribly beaten.
Inspector Sejer and his assistant Skarre arrive in Elvestad to conduct the investigation into her murder. It makes for a fascinating story, moving between, Sejer, Skarre and the various suspects and witnesses. Each and every character is interesting and well developed. The little town holds its secrets and gossips. You've got the young woman who witnesses the car near the murder site and develops strange feelings for Skarre. There is the pub owner who has Poona's suitcase. Or the old man who lives next to the field and is afraid to speak out about what he's seen.
It's an excellent personal study as well as an interesting mystery. The ending wasn't totally satisfactory but that's probably because I do prefer my mysteries cut and dried whereas this leaves things a bit open. But still an entertaining read. (3.5 stars)"
Currently Reading
"SOON THE FIRST SNOW WILL COME.
A young boy wakes to find his mother missing. Their house is empty but outside in the garden he sees his mother's favourite scarf - wrapped around the neck of a snowman.AND THEN HE WILL APPEAR AGAIN.
As Harry Hole and his team begin their investigation they discover that an alarming number of wives and mothers have gone missing over the years.
AND WHEN THE SNOW IS GONE...
When a second woman disappears it seems that Harry's worst suspicions are confirmed: for the first time in his career Harry finds himself confronted with a serial killer operating on his home turf.
...HE WILL HAVE TAKEN SOMEONE ELSE."
New Books
(I have been getting a bit disillusioned. Books I ordered just around Xmas have not been arriving as I'd hoped. I'm sure part of it has to do with the sorting and cleaning up of backlogged mail that affected postal service during their strike. Still, it has been disappointing. Not that I lack enough books to read...) OK, enough rambling. New books!
"A band of dangerous jewel thieves plans to raid a posh riverboat. A teenage girl is snatched by a murderous kidnapper, right out from her mother's nose. A young man is beaten, tortured and drowned in the dark river. Commander Georges Gideon, Scotland Yard's genius at detection, wades through a swamp of baffling clues only to discover., with alarm, that he may, already, be in well over his head... Gideon at his best and the Thames at its most diversified."
"The modern classic Speak is now a graphic novel.
"Speak up for yourself—we want to know what you have to say."
From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless—an outcast—because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. Through her work on an art project, she is finally able to face what really happened that night: She was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her."
Women Authors Whose Work I've Been Enjoying - Dorothy Parker
 |
| Dorothy Parker (nee Rothschild) |
I'm not sure how I discovered her, possibly when I was looking for some poetry to satisfy a poetry challenge. (Maybe when I highlight some of her works here I'll discover that I mentioned it then. 😎😉) She was unique talent, a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table, a newspaper columnist, an Academy Award winning screenwriter (unfortunately placed on the Hollywood blacklist for her leftist leanings). I've only tried her poetry so far and actually find it quite enjoyable, sarcastic, funny and also touching. I'll highlight the 3 books of poetry I've enjoyed and one other book of hers currently sitting on my book shelf but to be read this year. 🤞
"Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker is my first experience with the 'verses' of Dorothy Parker. I readily admit that poetry is one of my least favorite genres; I just don't get it. I also readily admit that I have enjoyed some authors' poetry. Dorothy Parker's book was one such.
The book includes an excellent introduction about Parker's life. A fascinating, irascible, hard living, witty woman. She preferred to call her poems 'verses' as she had an inferiority complex when it came to her work. Stuart Silverstein, who wrote the intro, compared some of her work to that of short story writer, H.H. Munro AKA Saki. Having read a collection of Saki's work, I can see the comparison. Saki's stories often started in one direction but the final outcome / ending often came out of the blue, somewhere out in left field and left you shaking your head. Parker's poems have that effect as well. A romantic work will start out in one direction but you always find yourself wondering if there will be a witty punchline.
A poem about Myrtilla, on Easter Day, starts off
"Myrtilla's tripping down the street
In Easter finery.
The Easter blooms are not more sweet
And radiant hued than she....."
It continues with lovely descriptions of Myrtilla, how she makes the mens' hearts flutter.. and then ends thusly
"As down the street Myrtilla trips,
I hope she breaks her neck!"
Not all of the works are in this vein, but there were many that make me chuckle at the end. What I especially liked about her work was how accessible it was. I think that is my normal issue with poetry; I just find it difficult to get in to a flow. But not with this collection. I have to say that I found myself reciting some of them to my wife to gauge her reaction. And even reading them was 'easy'. I just found myself able to see them, to get into them.
I enjoyed this collection. The first section The Poems, was excellent. The second section, The Hate Verses, was not quite so enjoyable. In them she writes a number of selections; Women, Men, Actors, etc. and highlights different types of personas within each grouping and why she dislikes them. It's all in good fun, I imagine, they didn't grab my attention quite so well.
All in all, I enjoyed the collection very much. I may look for more of her works. (4 stars)"
"Enough Rope is the second book of poetry that I've read of Dorothy Parker. Whenever I read a book of poetry I usually have to qualify it by saying poetry and I don't generally work. Well, the poetry of Dorothy Parker I do get for the most part. At least in my poetry analyzing brain.
Dorothy Parker writes off beat, sarcastic, sly poetry. She starts off on a subject... let's see...
Verse for a Certain Dog
"Such glorious faith as fills your limpid eyes,
Dear little friend of mine, I never knew.
All - innocent are you, and yet all - wise..." (and then throws a curve)
"For heaven's sake, stop worrying that shoe"
See what I mean.
The majority of the poems in this collection deal with relationships, women, men... and even here, Dorothy keeps you on your toes...
Indian Summer
"In youth, it was way I had
To do my best to please,
And change, with every passing lad,
To suit his theories.
But now I know the things I know,
And do the things I do;
And if you do not like me so,
To hell, my love, with you!"
It's a style that I enjoy. Lovely verse, flowing lines, then a punch in the gut. I have to say, Dorothy does like to kick a man a bit lower at times.
Men
"They hail you as their morning star
Because you are the way you are.
If you return the sentiment,
They'll try to make you different;
And once they have you, safe and sound,
They want to change you all around.
Your moods and ways they put a curse on;
They'd make of you another person.
They cannot let you go your gait;
They influence and educate.
They'd alter all that they admired.
(... wait for it)
They make me sick, they make me tired."
Ok, now you need to check out Dorothy Parker's poetry. Even though I'm now a shrunken shadow of my self after reading this book (I am a man after all), I highly recommend. (4.0 stars)"
"Sunset Gun: Poems by Dorothy Parker is my 3rd collection of poetry by American poet, screen writer, movie critic Parker. I say this every time, but here goes again as an intro to my review of a book of poetry. I don't always get poetry but I keep trying. I have enjoyed Parker's work, her humor, her take on life. This collection was no exception.
There is much about love and life in this collection, sometimes what seems a very negative view of both.
"Rhyme against Living
If wild my breast and sore my pride,
I bask in dreams of suicide;
If cool my heart and high my head,
I think, 'How lucky are the dead!"
But as you read through the collection, I think you find that when it comes to life, Dorothy prefers a wild, tempestuous life or love, rather than a calm, mild one. She loves adding a twist or an unsuspected ending to a train of thought. That makes you go... Oh yeah!
"Surprise
My heart went fluttering with fear
Lest you should go, and leave me here
To beat my breast and rock my head
And stretch me sleepless on my bed,
Ah, clear they see and true they say
that one shall weep, and one shall stray
For such is Love's unvarying law....
I never thought, I never saw
That I should be the first to go;
How pleasant that it happened so!"
I don't always get her thoughts, but it's fun trying to. She's definitely worth trying if you want to explore the world of poetry. (3.5 stars)"
"Dorothy Parker holds a place in history as one of New York's most beloved writers. Now, for the first time in nearly a century, the public is invited to enjoy Mrs. Parker's sharp wit and biting commentary on the Jazz Age hits and flops in this first-ever published collection of her groundbreaking Broadway reviews. Starting when she was twenty-four at Vanity Fair as New York's only female theatre critic, Mrs. Parker reviewed some of the biggest names of the time Barrymores, George M. Cohan, W.C. Fields, Helen Hayes, Al Jolson, Eugene O'Neil, Will Rogers, and the Ziegfeld Follies. Her words of praise-and contempt-for the dramas, comedies, musicals, and revues are just as fresh and funny today as they were in the age of speakeasies and bathtub gin. Annotated with a notes section by Kevin C. Fitzpatrick, president of the Dorothy Parker Society, the volume shares Parker's outspoken opinions of a great era of live theatre in America, from a time before radio, talking pictures, and television decimated attendance. Dorothy Complete Broadway, 1918-1923 provides a fascinating glimpse of Broadway in its Golden Era and literary life in New York through the eyes of a renowned theatre critic."
Piqued your interest at all? Dorothy Parker is worth checking out. More info on her life and works can be found at her Wikipedia page. Enjoy your Valentine's Day and your upcoming weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment