#TBR2022RBR

Adam is asking us how we are doing so far with this challenge.
Since the June checkpoint, I have finished three books.
I’m almost done with a 4th (Ensemble, c’est tout), but I am reading it with one of my French students, so I cannot read more than a set number of pages per week.
I’m also currently reading Eventide, by Kent Haruf.

A is For Alibi,
by Sue Grafton
Mystery
308 pages / 7H39
Published in 1982

I thought I REALLY needed to try this series.
It started ok, then a bit muddled. And really, no surprise at all about the main killer. So obvious.
But most of all, I could less and less bear Kinsey Millhone. There are way too many descriptions of her everyday meals and snacks. And really, I am not interested in her sex life at all.
I listened to the book, and the narrator Mary Peiffer fit the bill, she was good. And had the perfect voice for a person in real life I would end up finding annoying and uninteresting.
Did I make many enemies here?

The First Men in the Moon,
by H. G. Wells
Science-fiction
137 pages
Published in 1901

I was very surprised when I started reading how funny it was, I was definitely not expecting that from this classic scifi. I learned then that it’s a satire on Jules Verne’s novel on the same topic – so now I’m rereading this one (De la Terre à la lune), that I read as a kid back in France, to see how Wells varies from Verne.
Keep in mind this was written in 1901, so it was extremely fascinating to see how we imagined the moon back then, what you could find there, on or in it.
Incidentally, these past weeks, scientist have revealed that they have discovered some types of caverns on/in the moon! So who knows, maybe Selenites do exist!
There are awesome passages on the social description of the creatures there, and major criticism about human society, especially our love for war – a thing lunar people cannot fathom at all and find so absurd. And 13 years later, we were at it again…
And still in 2022…
This is really an excellent classic scifi.

The Daughter of Time,
by Josephine Tey
(Inspector Alan Grant #5)
Historical mystery
206 pages
Published in 1951

I was very impressed by The Man in the Queue, the first book in the Inspector Alan Grant series. Impressed especially by the richness of vocabulary, an element you don’t often find these days in the mystery genre.
So I intended to read the other volumes in order, but then EVERYONE was telling me their favorite was #5: The Daughter of Time.
So I decided to listen to you. And I am sure glad I did!

VERDICT: Unique and fascinating perspective: analyze historical enigmas with the eyes of a modern police inspector.

Click on the cover to read my full review.

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Here is my full list for this challenge:

1. Thomas Jefferson’s Crème brûlée: How a Founding father and his slave James Hemings introduced French cuisine to America, by Thomas J. Craughwell 6/12/22
2. Le Voyage d’Octavio, by Miguel Bonnefoy 5/22/22
3. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry 5/21/22
4. Stuart Little, by E.B. White 5/18
5. The First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells 7/22/22
6. Eventide, by Kent Haruf (currently reading)
7. The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey 8/21/22
8. Ensemble, c’est tout, by Anna Gavalda (currently reading)
9. Wanderlust: A History of Walking, by Rebecca Solnit
10. Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa, by Haruki Murakami
11. Arvo Pärt: Out of Silence, by Peter C. Bouteneff
12. A is For Alibi, by Sue Grafton 7/13/22

Alternates:
11. Joie de Vivre: Secrets of Wining, Dining, and Romancing Like the French, by Harriett Welty Rochefort
12. The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography, by Graham Robb

HOW ARE YOU DOING SO FAR WITH YOUR CHALLENGES?