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What book is everyone reading at the moment? Part 2.

#3 The Case of the Lucky Legs (3.10) NOT 2.2*

This is another novel where Perry doesn't go into court, but in the B&W TV series, he does. This is also one of the many cases where the murderer confesses in court, unlike the books where this rarely happened.

As promised, here are two quotes from The Case of the Lucky Legs that explains the "intent" and "aiding" rules that I outlined in my first Perry Mason review. Sure the first one pertains to fraud, but I'll have more later as I read each book.


"'Get me right on this,' Manchester said. 'I know the set-up. It’s one of those legalized rackets. A lawyer has advised Patton just how far he can go and keep out of jail. Perhaps the lawyer was right; perhaps he’s wrong. It’s all a question of intent, and you know as well as I do that it’s damn near impossible to prove intent by a preponderance of the evidence as it’s required in a civil case, let alone to prove it beyond all reasonable doubt, as is required in a criminal case.'"

“'While you’re on the line,' Perry Mason said, 'I’ll tell you a little law, Paul: You can’t compound a felony if a felony hasn’t been committed. On the other hand, you can’t become an accessory by aiding a person who isn’t guilty of anything. If your principal isn’t guilty, you aren’t guilty, no matter what you do.'”


Here's one about lying to the police:

“'Isn’t that a crime?'

'It is not. A man can lie to the police or any one else just as much as he wants to. If his lies tend to shield a murderer, he may be guilty of compounding a felony. If he lies under oath, he is guilty of perjury. But, in this case, gentlemen, the lies tended to trap a murderer.'”


I'm sure folks would argue those points with me, but instead, Erle Stanley Gardner (RIP) is the one they should really argue with, and remember, he was also a lawyer, and all these points were based on 1930's laws and not the 2024 ones.


* (season.episode)


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Just finished Unruly by David Mitchell, a somewhat brisk and potted history of the Kings and Queens of England.

It broadly covers the period from Alfred the Great in the early 9th century, to Elizabeth I in the 16th/17th century. The justification for this period is basically that it starts around the same time as the concept of 'England', and monarchs after Elizabeth were rulers of Scotland and England, or Britain, and also slightly less interesting because Parliament became more of the political centre.

It covers enough ground to be interesting without trying to be exhaustive. It's not all serious, but isn't just silly. I found it very readable and well-paced, though it perhaps skipped over some of the characters a little quickly. It does all get a little confusing at times with the aristocracy's habit of giving everyone the same name, but as a place to start, it does the job of bringing the characters to life a little and making them feel a little more real.

What I found he did well was give the big picture of what the concept of a monarch was, how it changed over time, and why that mattered.

No history buff is going to find out anything new, but the novice (like me) may well at least have more of an idea of how things developed over this time.
I finished David Mitchell's Unruly, and could not have written a better review than this.

I certainly have a better idea of how things developed over time, even if I can't exactly remember my Ethelreds from my Edwards.
 
Have either of you read 1066 And All That?
Many (about 40) years ago, and not certainly recently enough to give a fair comparison.

My recollection is that 1066 is more of a parody, while Unruly is a somewhat serious history, written in a lightly comedic style.
 
Have either of you read 1066 And All That?
I don't remember if I read it or not. I just remember it on the shelf as a kid, and that Mum thought it was fun. Maybe if I had, I might have remembered the names and deeds of more of the early kings when reading Unruly.
 
A Man with One of Those Faces by Caimh McCDonnnell

A comic murder mystery set I Dublin, with a huge cast of unlikable characters who talk in various Irish dialects It's the first in a series featuring detective Bunny McGarry, who is sort of a drunken Dirty O'Harry. The mystery is improbable, the comedy largely slapstick, and the characters so unpleasant that I won't read more of the series, though I did push through to the end and all six or eight epilogues,
 
#4 The Case of the Howling Dog (2.23)*

In this case, Perry pulls a slick legal maneuver that some folks would call unethical and illegal, but the truth is that it's neither.

The same quote from the last case explains why:

“'While you’re on the line,' Perry Mason said, 'I’ll tell you a little law, Paul: You can’t compound a felony if a felony hasn’t been committed. On the other hand, you can’t become an accessory by aiding a person who isn’t guilty of anything. If your principal isn’t guilty, you aren’t guilty, no matter what you do.'”

As far as being unethical, a lawyer is allowed to do anything to protect a client as long as it's not illegal, and that includes testing the recollection of a potential witnesses.

Perry pulls a little trickery in this case that...


proves the client is innocent, and because of that assumption, you don't realize Betsie Forbes really is guilty, and IIRC, that is the only time that a client of Perry's was really guilty of murder, and of course, that would also make him guilty of accessory if they could ever figure out a way to get past the double-jeopardy rule to charge his client again and find her guilty, and then go after him.

The howling dog is all the proof you need to prove both the guilt and innocence of Perry's client.


ETA: Oh, and in the TV show, the murderer is different, and it's also one of the many cases on TV where they confess on the stand.


* (season.episode)


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Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel by Sophie Green, 2024.

Several people come together to do artwork, becoming friends while undergoing personal battles. It's a nice easy read for the holidays, while still giving new insights into the human condition.
 
Getting another Audible credit tomorrow, them unless I get that book on the Drumpf cult phenomenon, I'll get a Pargin horror novel. I really want to finally read House of Leaves this year, too. I guess I'm just in the mood for absurdism.

To hold me over I'm reading through waterwater's posting history.
 
Finished two short books.

Psmith Iin the City (1910) by P.G. Wodehouse. Wodehouse began writing fiction while still a student at Dulwich College. His first stories were tales of British school life in the vein of Tom Brown’s School Days: rivalries and warfare-by-pranking amongst the students, collisions with authority, just squeaking through examinations by skullduggery, and so on. One of his earliest characters was Mike Jackson, a gifted cricketeer, reasonably level-headed, with notions of noblesse oblige and a determination to keep up one’s side. He was less attentive at his studies, and at one point his pater takes him out of the school he loves, Wyrkyn (based on Dulwich) and into the barely-acceptable Sedleigh, with no strong cricketeering cohort. There he meets Rupert Psmith, and the two form a more improbable friendship than that of Holmes and Watson.

At the beginning of Psmith in the City, the boys have just left school and are looking forward to careers at Cambridge. Alas, the Jacksons face a decline in fortunes and Jackson, Sr, finds Mike a place at the bottom layer of the New Asiatic Bank. Psmith, who regards Mike as his personal consultant and executive secretary, joins the firm a few days later. From there on they reenact many scenarios from the school tales, outwitting the executives and Psmith bamboozling everyone in a grandiloquent manner, placidly bulldozing any opposition:

The bank manager assumed the posture of a bosun, cat o'nine in hand, about to deliver nine of the best. “Really, Smith, I must strongly—”

“Tut, Comrade Bikersdyke, tut! You need not wax fulsome regarding my je ne sais quoi, my how to put it succinctly, my agreeing absolutely with the brilliant principles you have so insightfully espoused. We are in complete agreement, moi et toi, my dear fellow. Thank you for settling the question. Comrade Jackson and I will be pleased, as you suggest, to terminate our work hours early this PM and leg it, as you intimated, to Lord’s.”

Through the episodic plot, Mike and Psmith are in and out of trouble, with Psmith always self-dramatizing; “Hark! Do you hear the susurrus of awed voices? ‘Rejoice, all! For Psmith has entered in to the lists of Commerce! Henceforth he shall take charge of the New Asiatic Bank’s Department of Stamps, and shortly afterward the British economy shall dominate the globe!’ A patriotic cheer arises from a million British throats, and you, Comrade Jackson, shall have your share of the glory that is Psmith!”

Neither young man is pleased with working for the bank. The hours are far too long (ten AM to five-thirty PM, with four hours off for tea, lunch, and informal conferences). And their chief does not appreciate the supreme value of cricket. Eventually, Psmith masterminds a plot to free them both.

Mike Jackson is closely modeled on Wodehouse himself, whose father worked for the Indian branch of a British bank. His pension was paid in rupees, and a downturn in the value of rupees led to Wodehouse’s being forced from his beloved Dulwich College and into the bank without the prospect of a university education. As to Psmith, Wodehouse said his character was inspired by the dandified, affected son of Richard D’Oyly Carte, who paraded around London in evening dress and sporting a monocle.

This and the other Psmith novels and stories offer amusement and cleverness but lack the verbal grace and the laugh-out-loud humor of the Jeeves and Wooster stories. I’d still recommend them.

The Art of Coarse Acting (1964, revised edition 2014), by Michael Green. Thanks to Jay Utah for mentioning this! My wife gave me a copy for Christmas, and I read through it grinning and occasionally laughing out loud. From a notably British perspective, Michael Green surveys the plight and the position of amateur actors in the am-dram scene.

The book’s conceit is that it is a manual of how to be a coarse actor—defined as one who wishes to tread the boards and gain a reputation as a thespian, while avoiding the complications of having to actually attend rehearsals. Topics covered incluce how to break away from the theater between scenes in order to hoist a few at the pub around the corner and how to leave for home as soon as one’s last line has been spoken. The proper emotive process is made clear, resolved into six basic emotions, with all the others created through combinations of two or more basics (Rage + Fear +Joy=Insanity). Green offers a plethora of examples of what can go wrong and how, along with how to recover in such a way as to cast blame for minor annoyances (the ceiling falling in) on the leading lady, the director, or the lighting master.

It’s a funny, funny book for anyone like me who has participated in amateur and college theatrics. I learned early and on my own one of Green’s most important )lessons: Never take a major role.

Small parts (my favorites were Dr. Pinch in A Comedy of Errors and the Rabbi in Fiddler on the Roof) shine in my memory. Nice bit parts they are—the Rabbi has about six lines of dialogue, but he’s the center of attention whenever he’s onstage, and the audience thinks the part’s much bigger, while Dr. Pinch is a slapstick character who gets belly laughs by being the butt monkey in the final act). By treachery, I once was cast as Inspector Rough in Angel Street (“He’s only in the first part of the first act and the last part of the second act,” the director assured me, leaving out the fact that those sections were three-quarters of the whole show} and once as Professor Higgins in Pygmalion. I had my heart set on playing Mr Doolittle, a lovely small role, but it turned out I was better at dialects than the other male actors, so I was cast as ’Iggins AND as the dialect coach AND was on stage for literally all but seven minutes of the whole show. It was fun, but exhausting fun.

I’m with Green—get the little roles where you can attract attention, ignore almost everything going on around you, and overlook minor speedbumps like forgetting to enter or exit on cue, or one’s trousers falling down mid-soliloquy, or a blackout cue being missed by the light crew, leading to an extended course in How To Jimmy Open a Stuck and Locked Desk Drawer, supposed to take seven seconds but extended to about nine minutes until someone in the light booth finally woke upl

Anyway, it's a short, fun, lead illustrated with photos of all-purpose emotions for the actor, positions in which NOT to die onstage, and so on. Recommended.
 
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What am I getting myself into?

I'd start with the first book in the series, John Dies at the End, but it isn't available in my Audible region, and he's said it doesn't matter if you read them out of order, so I'm going with This Book is Full of Spiders, by Jason Pargin, the mad genius behind I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom.
The basic premise is that it's a series of absurd horror books where a group of men drink a magical 'Soy Sauce' and see the world as it really is. It's also apparently meant to be an allegory on growing up and facing adulthood.
 
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Already with the deep thoughts:

"Come on. You know if one of us wanted to sleep around, you'd have a way easier time than I would. I'm the crazy guy who sees monsters and shoots delivery people. You're the adorable readhead. You could go down to the guys' floor of the dorm and go 'I'm a woman! I wanna have sex!' and you'd have 20 guys lined up with roses and ◊◊◊◊. I'd have to work at it."
"Why do guys alway say that? It's just as hard for a girl."
"That's ridiculous! Every bar is full of guys desperate to get laid, and full of girls desperate to fend off all the horny guys. It's just the way it is. It's biology. It's easier for girls."
"That's actually impossible. Heterosexual sex takes one man and one woman. That means guys and girls have the exact same amount of sex. That means there's an equal number of [promiscuous people] and desperate people on both sides."
"That... Can't be right."
"Do the math."

Which segues into:

"Amy had a superhuman ability to point out the one flaw in a movie that would make it impossible to ever fully enjoy it again. During a single weekend's George Lucas marathon, she'd pointed out to me that if Indiana Jones had just stayed home, Raiders of the Lost Ark would have turned out exactly the same way: The Nazis would have opened the Ark and gotten vapourized. Then, during The Empire Strikes Back, she'd paused the movie when a character referred to Luke's ship as an X-Wing, which is impossible, she said, because there is no way that ship should be called an X-Wing based on it being physically shaped like the English letter 'X', since an ancient race of people in a distant galaxy would've never seen that letter before."

Maybe I should make a separate thread for Pargin books. "This thread is full of spiders. For all your Wong and Pargin needs."
 
I read Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies some years ago but I realised when starting to watch the TV programme that I'd never got around to reading The Mirror and The Light. So I'm rattling through that now.
 
I read Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies some years ago but I realised when starting to watch the TV programme that I'd never got around to reading The Mirror and The Light. So I'm rattling through that now.
Love them and Mantel! Still so sad that she is gone...
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant, Ben Ames Williams
A short novel, set in the late 1800s, this is the tale of a New England whaling clan, the Shore family. The Shores routinely die at sea, and they have dwindled to only two brothers, the younger Joel, a homebody, and his brawny brother Mark, missing in the Pacific following the last whaling expedition. Joel accepts command of his brother's ship and determines to travel to the Pacific in search of whales and his lost brother. Oh, and before that he marries Priscilla, who goes on the voyage with Joel. There's a whole mess of Ill- gotten pearls, casual murders, racism, a love triangle, bother against brother combat, a mutiny, and a happy ending for the few survivors. Just ... okay, and less realistic than Treasure Island.
 
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Very Good, Jeeves! P.G. Wodehouse

One of Sir Pelham's juiciest collections of Jeeves and Wooster stories, these narratives find Bertie wrestling with problems caused by fellow Drones, assorted aunts, many young ladies, and intricate schemes. The gem of gems is "Jeeves ad the Song of Songs" in which Aunt Dahlia taps Bertie with breaking up an incipient romance between Tuppy Glossop and a young opera diva . . . wheels within wheels, I mean to say. I long for an annotated edition that elucidates such Wodehousian terms as oojah-cum-spiff, snooter, and rannygazoo.
 
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Basil of Baker Street, Eve Titus

A children's book and the basis for the Disney animated movie The Great Mouse Detective, this is about Basil (of course) a mouse who patterns himself after (of course) Sherlock Holmes, to the extent of having a mousy Watson (Dr Dawson). In this initial book of a series, Basil not only moves into the cellar of 221 Baker Street* but persuades about fifty mouse families to build homes there as well. Soon enough a crime occurs when the twin daughters of one of the families are kidnapped. Basil and Dawson follow clues to save the day. It's a harmless little tale, but as you may already have noticed, the Disney cartoon bears very little resemblance to the book.
*Titus writes that the cellar is directly beneath 221B Baker Street, but the building's address is 221; 221B is the address of a set of rooms on two upper floors of the building.
 
Currently reading Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger and The Cavalry that Broke Napoleon: The King’s Dragoon Guards at Waterloo by Richard Goldsbrough. The latter is very detailed.. been skimming some chapters.
Finished this and also read a swedish history book about the swedish Count Axel Von Fersen. Great book about Fersens astonishing career and his private life (being Marie-Antoniette lover) and his brutal ending.

Currently reading: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
 
It's hardly a novel or "literature," but I'm reading "Smart Brevity," about how to write in a more terse way that apparently is all the rage in corporate America (but I'm reading it anyway). eh. For a booked called "Smart Brevity" and touting terseness, I find it awfully chatty.
 
The Code of the Woosters, P.G Wodehouse
To my mind this is the absolute peak of the Jeeves and Wooster novels. The ingredients are like the old shell game, but featuring in lieu of a pea an antique silver cow-creamer,* a pocket-notebook abulge with vituperous observations, and a policeman's helmet. Madly circling these items is a melange of demanding aunts, not one but two star-crossed couples, an aspiring fascist dictator, a magistrate turned baronet, and a herd of moon-struck newts. It is not only hilarious but dazzling in its complexity, poor Bertie floundering but holding true to the titular Code** and even the imperturbable Jeeves going above and beyond. Wodehouse habitually wrote a 30,000 word narrative outline before undertaking a novel, and his impeccable planning shows. He could have been a hell of a mystery writer.
*This ghastly vessel is a cream pitcher in the form of a cow, its looped tail the handle, its open mouth the spout.
**"A Wooster will never let down a pal."
 
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The Code of the Woosters is probably my favourite PGW book, though I do like the short stories when I only have scattered minutes for reading. The revelation of why Sir Roderick Spode can be controlled by the word "Eulalie" was a real laughing out loud moment.
 
Looks like I'm not the only one who had a problem with the ending of The Stand, but when I get a chance, I've got to get this anthology authorized by Stephen King:

Stephen King's Anthology First Fixes The Biggest Problem With The Stand's Ending, 47 Years Later

Considering that, The End of the World As We Know It is one of the most exciting Stephen King-related projects coming out soon, even if he's not actually writing it. Still, that's not the only reason it has so much potential: The Stand anthology can also fix the biggest complaint with the original novel. Granted, there aren't many. Stephen King's apocalyptic epic is beloved for so many reasons. But that doesn't mean the book is flawless, and it has one glaring problem that has been an ongoing weakness of King's throughout his career: Stephen King's book endings often leave readers wanting more. The End of the World As We Know It can fix it.


I'm also about four weeks away from getting the revised version of said book from the library to read, because despite the ending, it's still one of my favorite books by King... YEEEEEEEEEha!!!


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Rhythm of War, book 4 in the Stormlight Archives by Sanderson. I am glad book 5 is out, but I do not like hardback so will have to wait a bit longer to get it in paperback. I might check out the library and see if they have it though.
 
Donal in another thread mentioned Bowling Alone, so I've added it to my to-read list along with the book on the Drumpf cult.
 
Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett

In this later installment of the Discworld saga, the ancient game of Foot-the-Ball is gaining popularity and casualties. Played with a lethally solid wooden ball, not in an arena but through the streets of Ankh-Morpork, it has attracted ruffians who routinely stab, bludgeon, or stomp on victims - and they're only spectators. With the players, the game becomes murderous. No player ever breaks a rule, because there are no rules to break. It's only getting worse,

Then the wizards of Unseen University learn that one of their most important endowments comes with a small-print caution: The University must field a team and play football at least once every twenty years or lose millions. Archchancellor Ridcully and young Ponder Stibbons set about, under the auspices of the Patrician, revising (i.e. inventing) the rules of the game, recruiting reluctant players from faculty and staff. One of these is Mr. Nutt, a humble candle dribbler, who knows more than one would think and philosophically joins in to make football a, well, fair game.

Mingling with this arc are two Romeo-and-Juliet couples, a Cinderella girl and her unprincely lover, a sociopathic young street thug who would like to slaughter those whom he dislikes (everyone), a fashionista, and thick layers of ethnic prejudice, for Mr. Nutt may be the very last of his kind, a despised and persecuted group. It's familiar territory for Pratchett.

Unfortunately, there are plot lines that go nowhere, characters who seem important and then vanish into the background, and not enough typical Pratchett wit and foolery. The climactic piece is, of course, the crucial Big Game, with some high points: the former Dean, now Archchancellor of an upstart new school of wizardry, makes an astonishingly good referee, the goalie recovers from the effects of a sinister poisoned banana, and Mr Nutt and the holdout player Trevor (also employed in the UU candle department) cooperate to show the hooligans what good clean play can accomplish.

...and then four separate conclusions, like ducks in a row, none adding much to the book.

All of this doesn't quite gel, and it might have succeeded better with some judicious editing. It's only second-rate Pratchett, but admittedly, second-rate Pratchett is better than first-rate almost anything else.
 
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Rhythm of War, book 4 in the Stormlight Archives by Sanderson. I am glad book 5 is out, but I do not like hardback so will have to wait a bit longer to get it in paperback. I might check out the library and see if they have it though.
Have had Sanderson recommended to me for some time and finally cracked and read Warbreaker* in the summer and am now just coming to the end of the first Mistborn trilogy. Thoroughly enjoyed both. Very readable, page turners. Am waiting for the Stormlight Archive books to become a bit cheaper second-hand before diving in but have the first two 'Reckoners' books ready to go when I finish Mistborn.

*That rarest of things, a stand-alone fantasy novel rather than part of a trilogy(ies).

Talking of the usual serial nature of fantasy novels, am waiting for the paperback version of the 11th book in Janny Wurts' Wars of Light & Shadow series, which I am hoping will bring it all to a satisfying conclusion.
 
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Have had Sanderson recommended to me for some time and finally cracked and read Warbreaker* in the summer and am now just coming to the end of the first Mistborn trilogy. Thoroughly enjoyed both. Very readable, page turners. Am waiting for the Stormlight Archive books to become a bit cheaper second-hand before diving in but have the first two 'Reckoners' books ready to go when I finish Mistborn.

*That rarest of things, a stand-alone fantasy novel rather than part of a trilogy(ies).

Talking of the usual serial nature of fantasy novels, am waiting for the paperback version of the 11th book in Janny Wurts' Wars of Light & Shadow series, which I am hoping will bring it all to a satisfying conclusion.
I actually have not read Warbreaker, but I will add it to the list. Sanderson is very good (imo) with having a large number of characters doing different things, but bringing things together into a cohesive conclusion. Not just for the ultimate showdown, but for important plot points.
 
Do graphic novels/comics count here? Because I just read Wash Day Diaries at the library and loved it.
Edit: Also, some culture warriors in the news took issue with Genderqeer, which inspired me to finally read it, and I loved it. So informative.
 
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Most of what I get on Kindle is graphic novels/comic collections. Usually they run about 200 pages. Lots of "older" stuff in the DC Universe from say 2010 on is still new to me.
 
Thank You, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse

A funny but flawed tale, in which Bertie Wooster takes up the banjolele, leading to his eviction from his London digs, Jeeves's resignation as his valet, and his relocation to Chuffnell Regis, on an estate owned by. his old pal Chuffy, now engaged to Pauline Stoker, an American girl who a few months earlier was engaged to Bertie for for 46 hours.

Bertie also hires a new valet, Brinkley. He proves to be inferior to Jeeves by virtue of being a radical Bolshevik, a drunkard, an arsonist, a homicidal maniac, and prone to singing Low Church hymns off key.

The cast also includes Sir Roderick Glossop, a brace of insufferable brats, and bumbling constables. Plus, oh dear, a blackface minstrel band. Circumstances lead to both Bertie and his erstwhile foe Sir Roderick roaming Somerset in the midnight hours, both blacked up in boot polish.

Cringeworthy today and uncomfortable to read Bertie's casual use of the racial slur that precedes "minstrel." Tempora mutantur et nos mutantur.
*******
ETA: next is
Beyond the High Himalayas, by William O. Douglas. It's the book Lisa is reading in the last scene of Rear Window.
 
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Still reading Beyond the High Himalayas. Meanwhile I've finished -

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
Resulting from an 1889 dinner party during which Lippincott's commissioned it and Conan Doyle's The Sign of Four, Wilde's gothic novel deals with fin-de-siecle ennui, hedonism, suicides, murder, and the titular portrait, which deteriorates as its subject remains young and beautiful, but rotten at the core.
 
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Only a few days left til I get another Audible credit. Looking forward to getting my grubby mitts on The Cult of [Drumpf].
Looking forward to getting a better understanding of the sect. They've been confusing me even more than usual lately. Especially the frantic handwaving of Musk's Hitler salute.
 
Beyond the High Himalayas, William O. Douglas

Between July 1 and August 31, 1951, US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas traveled through India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, and Tibet (and various small principalities and kingdoms). He took sound movies, still photos, and extensive notes of the landscapes, flora and fauna, and people in remote countries seldom visited by Americans. This book is a travelogue of his experiences.

He carefully describes everything, often comparing things - the Himalayas are like the Cascades on a grander scale, the deodar tree reminds him of Virginia evergreens, and so on. Some people irk him. The leader of a mule team is never on time for anything, yet Douglas finds him amusing. He meets the Dalai Lama, not yet an exile, but a cheerful teenager. He talks politics and learns that the Islamists there distrust and dislike Russians, but hate the Islamists of Afghanistan even more.

It's dated, but still an interesting read. Douglas gives translations of poems and folk song lyrics and even skeet music for the tunes. Quirky, peppered with sharp observations, and good-hearted humor, it's worth a read.
 
Oh god, the narrator. He has this... Tired tone of voice and also reads the book pretty slowly. As if he's had to narrate every single audio book sold one at a time and is just so done by the time he got to mine. Hoping that he'll grow on me.
 

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