Books of 2018: Three Novels by Alison Joseph

Since September, I read three mystery novels by Alison Joseph. She is the author of a dozen books set in early 20^th Century England in small country villages.  Agatha Christie is a character in some of the dozen or so books Alison Joseph has published, including one of the novels I read. Christie is trying to write a book and is interrupted by being dragged reluctantly into solving an actual murder. 

I am not very good at puzzles, so I read mysteries that are good stories. When I got to the end of each of the novels, I was surprised to find who committed the murders. I won’t say anything else because any clue at all helps those sharp-minded people who love solving mysteries and really can figure out “Who Done It?” before the end.

I read all of Dorothy Sayers Lord Peter Whimsy novels because I loved the stories. I feel the same about the novels of Alison Joseph. They are really good stories that happen to be about solving a murder. 

This year I read: Murder Will Out, Dying to Know and Hidden Sins. Next month I’m planning to read The Dying Light.

Three Books by the Historian Timothy Snyder

Timothy Snyder, historian of the Holocaust and Eastern Europe

Three books by the historian Timothy Snyder about the Holocaust, fascism and tyranny:

On Tyranny is a little book published as it became clear that Donald Trump would be the Republican candidate for President. The book lists 20 lessons from the 20^th Century on tyranny and its consequences. I copied each of the 20 lessons and posted them on Facebook in the 20 days prior to the 2018 elections.  I thought there was a chance the President would cancel the election. All of his tendencies are tyrannical.

Black Earth is a country-by-country history of the Holocaust with manner of death per country and the political situation in each that encouraged slaughter or survival.  At the end of the book, Snyder acknowledges the heroes who saved Jews from the slaughter that was the worst in countries between Germany. Then he says the Holocaust represents a complete failure of the state Churches. I have always believed the Church dies when it has power. Snyder demonstrates this in terrible detail.

The Road to Unfreedom maps the demise of democracy in Russia, Europe and America as authoritarian leaders take control of democratic governments. This book is contemporary history. Snyder shows how Russia attacked Ukraine both on the ground and in cyberspace. It also covers how those living in Eastern Europe were expected Trump to win long before Americans thought he had a chance. This book is much less sad than Black Earth, but since it so clearly shows how democracy is crumbling it is very chilling.

2018--A Year of Books in Groups of Three

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Jill Lepore, author of These Truths, my favorite book of 2018

When I looked at the list of books I read in 2018, I realized that the books fell into groups of three:

·      Three books by the historian of The Holocaust, Eastern Europe and Fascism, Timothy Snyder.

·      Three detective novels by the delightful mystery writer Alison Joseph.

·      I re-read three books by C.S. Lewis.

·      In addition to threes by author, there were threes by type:  I read three science books, three books with French text, and, including books I am currently reading, three books with Russian text and three with Hebrew text, just one with Ancient Greek text.

·      I read three philosophy books: two by Hannah Arendt, one by Mark Belaguer.

·      Among the seven history books I read were three about Israel: one about the Yom Kippur War, one about the Battle for Jerusalem in 1948, and one chronicling the history of the Hebrew language.

·      Another three history books were about America. I finally read Anti-Intellectualism in America by Richard Hofstadter, at the same time I was reading and annotated Constitution of the US, and my favorite book of the year These Truths by Jill Lepore—a one-volume, nearly-one-thousand-page history of the United States.

·      The dozen fiction books I read include the three by Alison Joseph; three authors I have read for the first time: Philip Roth, Michael Chabon, and Albert Camus; three books by authors of whom I have read nearly everything the have written: Kazuo Ishiguro, Mark Helprin and George Orwell; and I finally read Dune by Frank Herbert.

·      Since everything can’t go in threes, I read one art book, a biography of U.S. Grant, Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot, two self-help books and a dull memoir.

·      This year there were no books I loathed, as happened last year, but I did have the experience for the first time of not really liking a book by Kazuo Ishiguro. This year I read Unconsoled. I had read all of his other books and stories and was enthralled. But Unconsoled left me flat. I read it to the end, hoping the magic would be there, but it was not. On the other hand, the book I read by Mark Helprin “Paris in the Present Tense” is now my favorite among all of his books and stories.

In future blog posts, I will write in more detail about my groups of three.  

Since I am getting more and more history and analysis from podcasts, I am also going to write a post about this method of information delivery along with books.