April 2020 books read

  • The Moon Moth” – Jack Vance, 1961. Just a short story, but such a favorite that I’m listing it. It successfully combines Vance’s mystery genre side (he wrote a bunch as John Holbrook Vance as well as some “Ellery Queen” novels) with his primary skill at anthropological science fiction, culminating in a delightfully-satisfying twist ending.
  • Water in Plain Sight: Hope for a Thirsty World – Judith D. Schwartz, 2016 – quotes pulled, tbd
  • Angle of Repose – Wallace Stegner, 1971 – quotes pulled, TBD
  • Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (tr. Constance Garnett), 1878 (1901) – ditto!
  • The House that Berry Built – Dornford Yates, 1945. My father, who sparked my love of Yates through this book specifically, died this month, and I picked this up to re-read for the umpteenth time in memory of him…
  • An Eye for a Tooth – Dornford Yates, 1943. …and then I was off on a Yates kick, but a restrained one. This time I just went back to a few of the thrillers – this is one that I acquired late and so didn’t remember that well. I might only have read it once or twice, imagine that! Not bad but a little past his prime in this genre.
  • Safe Custody – Dornford Yates, 1932. I moved on to the series that deal with one of my favorite McGuffins ever, a set of 127 carved jewels commissioned by Pope Alexander VI. They’re so well-described that I wish they really existed; I see that they were probably inspired by the Pope Paul II collection of 827 such gems.