Spin #45 for the Classics Club, August 2026

 

The latest Classics Club Spin has been announced. To join in, I choose twenty unread books from my classics list and list them in a post before Sunday, August 16th, 2026.  On Sunday, the Classics Club will generate a random number between 1 through 20 and post it at the Classics Club website. Then I will read whatever book falls under that number on my Spin List by October 4th, 2026.

So, here is my list of 20 books for the spin...

1. Patricia Highsmith – The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)
2. Graham Greene – Our Man in Havana (1958)   
3. Edna Ferber – Giant (1952)
4. Edna Ferber – Show Boat (1926)
5. Virginia Woolf – Flush (1933) 
6. Roald Dahl – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
7. Ray Bradbury – The Martian Chronicles (1950)
8. Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
9. Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre (1847)
10. Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse-Five  (1955)
11. John Steinbeck – Cannery Row (1945)
12. Oscar Wilde – The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
13. J. D. Salinger – Catcher in the Rye (1951)
14. J. D. Salinger – Franny and Zooey (1961)
15. Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart (1958) 
16. Dashiell Hammett – Red Harvest (1929)   
17. Dorothy Sayers – The Nine Tailors (1934)
18. Robert Louis Stevenson – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)
19. Lewis Carroll – Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
20. James Thurber – The 13 Clocks (1950)

The three books I would most like to read for this spin are Jane Eyre, The Talented Mr. Ripley, or Our Man in Havana. Same as for the last spin. But, really, any of the books on my list would be fine.  

Are there any books on my list that you have particularly enjoyed?

Short Story Wednesday: Stories from Midsummer Mysteries

I was initially attracted to Midsummer Mysteries: Short Stories, edited by Martin Edwards, because of its striking cover and the lovely sprayed edges. I am a sucker for beautiful books. But it did not hurt that the book was a Crime Writers' Association anthology, and that I was familiar with some of the authors.

In the Introduction, Edwards notes that he endeavors to include authors that have not shown up before in previous Crime Writers' Association anthologies, and that is true here. But for the first two stories I read from this volume, I picked two by authors I have read previously and liked.

"St John's Eve" by Christine Poulson

This was a very atmospheric and sometimes spooky story about a Midsummer Eve in 1585. A statute had been passed that Jesuit or seminary-trained priests were not allowed in the realm, and any support they received was considered treasonous. Two priests were being hidden in the manor house and the owners fear that they will be discovered when neighbors arrive for the celebration feast. The story is told partially by the house itself (or spirits in the house), and finishes up 400 years later when the building is being restored. I enjoyed this story immensely; it was 12 pages long, a very good length.

"The Widow" by Martin Edwards

This is a chilling story, set in the 1960s, about a wife who wants to protect her dead husband's reputation at any cost. 

Gerry and Beatrice had run a taxi service in Berwick-upon-Tweed since before the war; Gerry came back from the war and time spent in a prison camp a changed person. But between the two of them, they kept the taxis running and bringing in money. Until Gerry died unexpectedly. Now a policeman keeps bothering Beatrice with questions about deaths in the area.

The setting in time and place was very effective. This may have been the only short story I have read by Martin Edwards, but I would like to read more.

Ten Books I was Reading on this Day (August 11) over the Past 10 Years

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

The topic for Top Ten Tuesday this week was to go back and list the books I was reading on August 11th in the previous ten years. I used Goodreads to find the books but I did find that in some cases it was hard to determine exactly what I was reading on that day, and I just winged it.

2025

Perplexing Plots by David Bordwell

Published in 2023

Bordwell was an influential film scholar; this book, the last one he published, focuses on crime fiction and films in the 1900s up to more recent times. He discusses the development of crime fiction plots and narratives and notes the same developments in plays and film of that time.

2024

A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny

Published in 2016.

The mysteries in this series are always rewarding. Usually very complex and sometimes circuitous and perplexing, they keep me guessing. I never even came close to suspecting the perpetrator in this book. Louise Penny is very good at creating characters we want to read about. She also continues to develop the characters, both the main characters and the continuing secondary characters in Three Pines. It is hard to look back and compare all the books, but I think this is my favorite book in the series so far.

2023

Sleep and His Brother by Peter Dickinson

Published in 1971.

This is the fourth in a series about Jimmy Pibble. In the first two books, he was a Scotland Yard detective; now he has been forced into retirement. His wife is a volunteer for a charitable institution and asks him to look into a problem they are having. There are vague supernatural elements, which is not surprising since Dickenson was a well-known author of fantasy books. The book is very short, around 200 pages, but very dense, not an easy read at all. I loved the story and the writing.

2022

Death Around the Bend by T.E. Kinsey

Published in 2017

This is the third mystery in a series of historical mysteries. Set in the early 1900's, Lady Hardcastle (Emily) and her maid Florence Armstrong solve mysteries while living in the English countryside. The stories are excellent historical fiction, and the mystery plots are well-done. 

2021

Way Station by Clifford D. Simak

Published in 1963.

All I knew when I started this book was that it was a science fiction classic about a man on earth, in the US in the 1960s, providing a station where aliens from other planets stop overnight while traveling from planet to planet. This is completely hidden from the rest of the world. It is a very interesting and entertaining book, with lots of tension, because his station is discovered, and I was surprised at the ending. It is very much of its time, but I did not mind that at all.

2020

Young Bess by Margaret Irwin

Published in 1944.

Young Bess is the first book in a trilogy about Elizabeth I of England.  It covers her life from the time she was 12 until she was about 20, including Henry VIII's death, his son Edward VI's years as king (from age 9 to 15), and Elizabeth's relationships with her brother Edward and Princess Mary, her sister.

2019

Champagne for One by Rex Stout 

Published in 1958.

Rex Stout is my favorite author; I have reread all the books in the Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin mystery series several times. One of Archie's acquaintances asks him to take his place at an annual dinner party and dance for unwed mothers. One of the mothers, Faith Usher, ends up dead. This book has all the best features of the series. The interplay between Archie and Nero Wolfe. Inspector Cramer visiting the brownstone to berate Archie for sticking to his guns regarding the cause of death. And freelance investigators Orrie, Fred, and Saul helping with the detecting.

2018 

Starting out in the Evening by Brian Morton

Published in 1997.

This book follows a short period in the life of four people: Leonard Schiller, a novelist in his seventies; Heather Wolfe, a woman in her early twenties who wants to write her thesis on Schiller's novels; Ariel, Leonard's daughter, who wants very much to have a child; and Casey, one of Ariel's ex-boyfriends. It was a wonderful read but very different from my usual reading.

2017

Hammett by Joe Gores

Published in 1975.

Joe Gores was an admirer and a student of Dashiell Hammett's writing. Both Gores and Hammett had been private investigators before they  became full time writers. Both had lived and worked in San Francisco. Thus Gores was the perfect person to write this fictionalized version of events in Samuel Dashiell Hammett's life, set in 1928 when Hammett was no longer a private detective and was trying to support himself with his writing.

2016

See Also Deception by Larry D. Sweazy

Published in 2016.

This is the second book in a mystery series set in rural North Dakota in October, 1964. The area is affected by a drought, with a severe impact on the crops and livestock on the farm.  President Kennedy was killed in the previous year, and that still affects the nation. There is a cold war going on, very visible in North Dakota, with missile silos being drilled into the ground. Marjorie Trumaine and her husband Hank are owners of a working farm; her husband is an invalid and Marjorie has to run the farm, and take care of her husband. Marjorie is a freelance indexer, creating indexes for non-fiction books. It is this aspect of the book that drew me to the series from the beginning. I think indexes in books are wondrous things and I can only imagine the work that goes into creating one. My husband pointed the first book in the series out to me because he knew I would be interested in it. I loved this book and I don't know why I haven't read the 3rd book yet.

A Graveyard for Lunatics: Ray Bradbury

 

Summary from Goodreads...

Halloween Night, 1954. A young, film-obsessed scriptwriter has just been hired at one of the great studios. An anonymous investigation leads from the giant Maximus Films backlot to an eerie graveyard separated from the studio by a single wall. There he makes a terrifying discovery that thrusts him into a maelstrom of intrigue and mystery—and into the dizzy exhilaration of the movie industry at the height of its glittering power.

The narrator of the story is a writer who is hired to work with his friend on a film for a Hollywood movie studio. The story gets so complex and changes directions so fast that initially I had no idea what was going on and who was doing what. It is a mix of many genres and the way it was written was often very confusing for me. 

A lot of the characters represent real persons but have different names, and I don't know enough about Hollywood studios (past or present) to know who they are referencing. But Ray Bradbury writes about Hollywood with love and his enthusiasm for the movies is catching. The story appears to be autobiographical. He did spend some time working in Hollywood, especially working on screenplays. 

This is the 2nd in a three-book mystery series. The first book, Death is a Lonely Business, is a homage to mystery writers such as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Ross Macdonald, who are mentioned in the dedication for that book. A Graveyard for Lunatics seems to be more about Bradbury's experiences in Hollywood in the 1950s and 60s. Both books include bizarre happenings and strange, eccentric characters.

Some readers of this book who are looking for a mystery may be disappointed; I did not find it very mysterious. The book may also leave readers expecting a fantasy unsatisfied. But in the end I enjoyed the story and was very glad I read it. The magic of Ray Bradbury's writing turns it into a lovely story. 

My only regret is that I read this book so long after I read the first book in the series. Both books share some characters and I think it would have improved my reading experience to read them together. I hope to read the 3rd book in the series, Let's All Kill Constance, soon.

Ray Bradbury's dedication in A Graveyard for Lunatics...

With love, to the living:

SID STEBEL,
who showed me how to solve my own mystery;
ALEXANDRA,
my daughter, who cleaned up after us.
GEORGE BURNS,
who told me I was a writer when I was fourteen.

And to the dead:

ROUBEN MAMOULIAN, 
GEORGE CUKOR,
JOHN HUSTON, 
BILL SKALL, 
FRITZ LANG,
and JAMES WONG HOWE.

And to

RAY HARRYHAUSEN
for obvious reasons.

[A note on the dedication:

Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen were good friends for many decades, until Bradbury died in 2012. Harryhausen was a highly regarded animator and special effects creator.]

Short Story Wednesday: Feuille D'Album by Katherine Mansfield

 

I discovered this story accidentally when I ran across some short story collections by Katherine Mansfield on Amazon. I had not read anything else by Katherine Mansfield and I looked for one of her stories to try out online. This was the first one I found.

"Feuille D'Album" 

The setting is Paris. The story was published first in The New Age in 1917, under the title of "An Album Leaf." A revised version later appeared in Bliss and Other Stories, a collection published in 1920.

A young man is noticed by several women. He looks sad and forlorn and seems very shy. Various women approach him, try to befriend him. He is civil but not really interested in them so they finally give up on him. 

The story continues on to describe the young man and his life in a small studio at the top of a tall building. Eventually he notices a young woman about his age who lives in a small shabby house across the way from his small studio. From this distance he falls in love with her and imagines what her life is like. The story has a nice, ambiguous ending.

Mansfield's descriptive writing is lovely in this story. Here is an example:

He lived at the top of a tall mournful building overlooking the river. One of those buildings that look so romantic on rainy nights and moonlight nights, when the shutters are shut, and the heavy door, and the sign advertising "a little apartment to let immediately" gleams forlorn beyond words. One of those buildings that smell so unromantic all the year round, and where the concierge lives in a glass cage on the ground floor, wrapped up in a filthy shawl, stirring something in a saucepan and ladling out tit-bits to the swollen old dog lolling on a bead cushion. . . . Perched up in the air the studio had a wonderful view. The two big windows faced the water; he could see the boats and the barges swinging up and down, and the fringe of an island planted with trees, like a round bouquet.

The story was very short and simple and I liked it. At first I saw it as a slice of life story, but later decided it may be too romantic or imaginative to be categorized that way.

I found a copy of the story online here.

I later discovered that I already own a Kindle version of The Garden Party and Other Stories, with an introduction by Colm Toibin. I also recently purchased a Kindle copy of The Complete Short Stories by Katherine Mansfield, and I read an additional story from Bliss and Other Stories, titled "The Dill Pickle." That story was sadder, and more serious, than "Feuille D'Album." It was about a man and a woman who meet unexpectedly after not having seen each other for six years. Their memories of the time they spent together when they were younger are different. I enjoyed that story equally as well. I am motivated to read more stories by Mansfield and will look for a print copy of one of her short story collections soon.

Murder on the Yellow Brick Road: Stuart M. Kaminsky

The Toby Peters mystery series is set primarily in Hollywood, California. Each book in the series is centered around a celebrity. Toby is a perpetually down-on-his-luck private eye; the books are humorous and clever. There are 24 books in the series.

Murder on the Yellow Brick Road is set in 1940, and Judy Garland is one of the primary characters. Toby gets a call from Warren Hoff at M.G.M., who requests that he look into the death of a little person dressed up as a Munchkin. The body was found on an old set of The Wizard of Oz, which had come out the previous year. Toby soon meets Judy Garland, who had heard his name at a party recently and wants him to work on the case. In addition to the humor and the intricate mystery plot, this book also features cameos of Clark Gable and Raymond Chandler.

About the author:

Stuart M. Kaminsky (September 29, 1934 – October 9, 2009) was an American mystery writer and film professor. He is best known for the Toby Peters mysteries and the Inspector Rostnikov series set in Russia, consisting of 16 books. He received the 1989 Edgar Award for Best Novel for A Cold Red Sunrise, a novel in the Inspector Rostnikov series. He was a past president of the Mystery Writers of America and in 2006 received the Grand Master Award from that organization. 

Kaminsky also published two shorter series. The Abe Lieberman series of ten books is set in Chicago; Lieberman is a sixty-year-old Chicago police detective. The Lew Fonesca series is set in Sarasota, Florida. Fonesca is a process server who ends up investigating crimes. There are 6 books in the series.

I am a big fan of Kaminsky's mysteries. I have read all but the last book in the Inspector Rostnikov series. I would like to read all of the Toby Peters books, but I have to find out how many books I already own. I have read the first book in both of the other two series and I thought they were excellent. The series are all different.