The following are the books I finished in March. In the beginning of the month I was reading literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. I also was reading a couple of classics that I've not yet finished. By the end of the month I needed a few mysteries.
In the Upper Country by Kai Thomas
This amazing novel begins in 1859, on the brink of the American Civil War, but the location is Dunsmore, a Canadian town near Detroit that was settled by people fleeing enslavement. A relative newcomer to the town is Lensinda Martin, a mixed-race woman who, unlike the other settlers, came from the north and was born in Canada. Now she works as a journalist for a black newspaper. Dunsmore is a stop on the Underground Railroad. One night a slave hunter from Kentucky shows up and is shot dead by an old woman who recently arrived. As the old woman awaits trial Lensinda visits her in jail to learn her story. But the old woman will only "trade" stories. And so each woman, young and old, tells the other woman a far ranging set of stories that reveal an interwoven story of Black and Indigenous peoples going back to the beginning of the century and encompassing the War of 1812. In his Author's Note Kai Thomas says: "I was steeped in stories of various colonial formulations: I knew and had seen many stories that were concerned with the relationships between black and white people, and similarly, between Indigenous and white people. And of course, between whites and any other people of color. But I couldn't think of a single story I knew that meaningfully explored black and Indigenous relationships." This is a first novel for Kai Thomas and what an excellent beginning for him. It is not perfect; sometimes I had trouble keeping track of the various characters. But on the whole I really enjoyed and heartily recommend this novel.
The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts
This is the true story of Annie Wilkins who, at age sixty-three and after being told she only had a few years to live, sold her debt ridden farm in Maine, bought a horse named Tarzan and set out for California with only a few belongings, almost no money, and her dog Depeche Toi. The year she set out was 1954 and Letts spends a great part of the book outlining how America was a changing country. On the one hand, Annie could still find stables along the way to house Tarzan; on the other hand the automobile was taking over the country. Annie believed that people were basically kind and all the people she met along the way who helped her affirmed her faith in mankind (it probably helped that she was a white person when she knocked on people's doors asking if she could use their fields that night.) Annie caught the fancy of the media and local and national newspapers, and sometimes even television, covered her story and Letts obviously spent time reading those stories along with the memoir that Annie eventually wrote This book was lent to me by a friend who thought I might enjoy it. He was right. I think most people would enjoy this story.
The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck.
This collection of poems, published in 1992, won the Pulitzer Prize. I like Louise Gluck's poetry but I had never read this collection. The One Bright Book podcast chose this as their March book so I thought I would read it along with them and I'm glad I did. The poems in the collection are a conversation between the plants in a garden, the human gardener and God (or some higher being). The collection begins in the spring when plants that seemed dead come back to life and ends in the fall as the garden goes dormant again. In between, the gardener has conversations with God in the form of poems called Matins and Vespers - which are the morning and evening prayers in the canonical hours of the Catholic church. Like the plants that are coming back to life the gardener is also coming back from ... grief? depression? It is never made completely clear. The conversations with God are frustrating for the gardener because God does not seem to answer; and yet for the reader God does answer in other poems. In one of the Matins she says "I'm looking for courage, for some evidence my life will change, though it takes forever ..." and finishes "was the point always to continue without a sign?"
Beowulf, tr. by Maria Dahvana Headley
I did not intend to read another classic epic poem so soon after finishing The Iliad, but I listen to the Poetry Unbound podcast and in February the host had an excerpt from the Maria Dahvana Headley translation of Beowulf and I was intrigued. I had read excerpts of Beowulf back in school and later I read Seamus Heaney's translation. But this was different. Imagine a Lin Manuel Miranda production of Beowulf but with fewer internal rhymes and more alliteration. For example, Seamus Heaney's translation begins "So. The spear Danes in days gone by ..." Headley's translation begins "Bro. Tell me we still know how to speak of kings!" If you are interested in Beowulf this is very readable. Recommended. I wrote more about it here.
Fortune Favors the Dead by Stephen Spotswood
Set in the 1940's this reads like an updated hardboiled classic detective novel except the detectives are women: Willowjean (Will) Parker, a former circus performer, and Lillian Pentecost, an experienced private detective suffering from multiple sclerosis. It's an interesting premise and I found it very readable. We learn how Will and Lillian teamed up and then the story jumps ahead three years. They are by now a well-oiled team and they are hired to investigate a high profile murder. I thought all the characters were interesting, both the main characters and the suspects. I thought the plot was good enough. There was a good sense of time and place. On the whole, recommended. This is the first in a series and I'm sure I'll read more.
A Mansion for Murder by Frances Brody
This is the latest in the Kate Shackleton mystery series. It came out last year but somehow I missed it. This is not my favorite mystery series but I like it enough that I always read each new installment. Kate is a WWI war widow who lives in Yorkshire. I'm always a sucker for post-WWI stories and I love stores set in Yorkshire; I think that's why I keep reading these. Kate's father is a high ranking police officer and Kate becomes a private detective when her husband goes missing, presumed dead. She is assisted by her intrepid housekeeper, Mrs. Sugden, and by Jim Sykes, a former policeman. This story takes place in Saltaire, a company Mill town that actually existed and is now a national historic site, in a mansion that did actually exist at the site. One of the things I like about this series is that Kate ALWAYS tells the people she talks to that they should go to the police with their information. In most detective novels the detectives act like the police should never be involved.
The Sussex Downs Murder by John Bude
Another of the British Library Crime Classics I inherited from my mom, I really liked this one. Superintendent Meredith is perplexed when a crime scene is discovered with blood but no body. Two brothers, John and William Rother share Chalklands Farm but now John is missing, presumed dead. I actually guessed the end of this one about 1/2 way through but it didn't really matter. This was published in 1936 and for once I think this is a crime novel that deserved to be republished.
Three-Inch Teeth by C.J. Box
The latest in the Joe Pickett series set in Wyoming, this one involves a rogue grizzly bear that is killing people in the area. I found the grizzly bear story very interesting and would actually have liked more of it. But of course there is always more in a Joe Pickett story than the wildlife story and usually the "more" involves a fairly unbelievable plot. This one is no different. Over the years Joe has amassed many people who hate him and want revenge for something. This time two of them have teamed up to seek revenge on all the people who have wronged them, including Joe and his friend Nate. The method they choose is almost completely unbelievable. But somehow that never really matters in a Joe Pickett story. I think I read this series mostly for the descriptions of the mountains and the wildlife, which Box does beautifully. The plot is always a page turner (albeit an eye-rolling page turner). As usual his characterizations are thin, but at this point we've known most of the characters for a long while so it doesn't matter much. My verdict is that it isn't the best Joe Pickett book but if you like Joe Pickett you'll enjoy it.
