Reading Summary for February 2020

February was a strange reading month. It took me close to 3 weeks to read Bleak House. I also read a good number of short stories, most of them in the two short story books I have already reviewed. All of the books I read were published before 1990. One of the books from the 1980s featured a nun as the main character and was written by a nun.

Fiction

Bleak House (1853) by Charles Dickens

This is one of Dickens' longest novels. Some readers consider it his best novel. I have only read A Christmas Carol by this author, so I can make no comparison. I feel ambivalent about the novel. I enjoyed reading much of it, but it was a very difficult read, and seemed too long to me. It was first published in 20 monthly installments. 

Grand Hotel (1929) by Vicki Baum
Translated from the German by Basil Creighton with revisions by Margot Bettauer Dembo

Several disparate people stay in the Grand Hotel in Berlin over several days. For almost all of them, the people they meet and the things they do there effect changes in their lives. This was a remarkable book, thought-provoking and entertaining. 

Crime Fiction

The Saint Valentine's Day Murders (1984) by Ruth Dudley Edwards

This is book 2 in the Robert Amiss series. The first two books in the series feature office settings, and focus on bureaucracy and office politics. See my thoughts here.

Seven Days in May (1962) by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II

After Kirk Douglas died earlier this month, we watched Seven Days in May, a film he had starred in. It was directed by John Frankenheimer, and Burt Lancaster also had a major role. We have watched it many times but it had been a while. The book it was based on had been on my shelves since 2014, so I decided it was time to read it. It is a fast-paced thriller about the attempt by military leaders in the US to take over the government and remove the President from power. A very good read.

A Novena For Murder (1984) by Sister Carol Anne O'Marie

This is a very cozy mystery starring a nun as amateur sleuth. Sister Mary Helen has retired at 75 and is sent to Mt. Saint Francis College for Women in San Francisco. Shortly after she arrives the body of a professor at the school is found, following an earthquake. The police blame the wrong person, in Sister Mary Helen's opinion, so it is up to her to find out what happened. I liked the setting and the characters; it was the perfect read for me at the time.

Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens (1982) by Michael Gilbert

This is one of two books of short stories about two middle-aged spies, working for a secret government group in the UK called the Joint Services Standing Intelligence Committee (JSSIC). See my thoughts here.

English Country House Murders (1988) ed. by Thomas Godfrey

A short story anthology edited by Thomas Godfrey. The volume begins with a charming introduction by Godfrey; he also introduces each story. See my thoughts here.