I think this is sad, but it is something that is happening in more countries than New Zealand. I believe we need more men to step up and get men and boys to read more often, and to read a different variety of books.
N.Z. Book Council
Study: Why Are Kiwi Men Reading Less?
"Are you, or
do you know a bloke who doesn't like to read?
Noting that
"our research last year showed that Kiwi men are reading
less," the
New Zealand Book Council is recruiting "a group of 12 men
from a range of
backgrounds, occupations and ages. You must be a
reluctant or
'low-volume' reader who is happy to help provide insights
into how to get more
boys and men to read.
"We expect to
hold 3-5 meetings in a pub in Wellington throughout 2019.
You'll be helping
us in our mission to grow a nation of readers, and
making a big
difference to the future of New Zealand!"
RIP to a wonderful author and columnist.
Obituary Note:
Russell Baker
Russell Baker
the Pulitzer
Prize-winning author "whose whimsical, irreverent
'Observer' column
appeared in the New York Times and hundreds of other
newspapers for 36
years and turned a backwoods-born Virginian into one
of America's most
celebrated writers," died January 21. He was 93. The
Times noted that
Baker, "along with the syndicated columnist Art
Buchwald (who died
in 2007), was one of the best-known newspaper
humorists of his
time."
His son, Allen
Baker, said, "We couldn't have asked for a better father.
He was a tender
and loving man to his family.... He was just a Regular
Joe with an
extraordinary job."
After an early
career that included stints as a police reporter, rewrite
man and London
correspondent for the Baltimore Sun, then a Washington
correspondent for
the Times, Baker became a columnist in 1962. He wrote
nearly 5,000
"Observer" commentaries, which "generated a devoted
following,
critical acclaim and the 1979 Pulitzer for distinguished
commentary, ended
with his retirement in 1998." He subsequently wrote
essays for the New
York Review of Books, some of which were collected in
Looking Back.
Regarding his
columns, he once told Nora Ephron: "Nobody knew what the
column was going
to be. I didn't. The Times didn't."
Baker published 15
books, including many column collections: No Cause
for Panic (1964),
Baker's Dozen (1964), All Things Considered (1965),
Poor Russell's
Almanac (1972), So This Is Depravity (1980), and The
Rescue of Miss
Yaskell and Other Pipe Dreams (1983). Baker's memoir
Growing Up (1982)
earned his second Pulitzer, the 1983 prize for
biography. Baker
also won two George Polk Awards, for commentary in 1978
and career
achievement in 1998, and many other honors. In addition, he
edited the Norton
Book of Light Verse (1986) and Russell Baker's Book of
American Humor
(1993).
"To a
generation of television watchers, he was also a familiar face as
the host of
Masterpiece Theater on PBS from 1993 to 2004, having
succeeded Alistair
Cooke," the Times noted.
In a tribute,
Pulitzer Prize administrator Dana Canedy
observed that
Baker "was one of the first American writers to win
Pulitzer Prizes in
both Journalism and Letters. He was a distinguished
member of the
Pulitzer Prize Board, who served as its chairman in 1994,
and who delivered
the keynote address at the Prizes's 75th Anniversary
Celebration in
1991. We join the rest of the country in recalling and
celebrating his
life, characterized by wit, charm and erudition."
"The
classiest and most talented
Dowd tweeted.
"Once, when some male pols were giving me a hard time, he
wrote me a letter
telling me not to get overwhelmed: 'Just remember,
these are all the
same guys you went to high school with.' "
In his final
"Observer" column, "A Few Words at the End
Baker wrote:
"Thanks to newspapers. I have made a four-hour visit to
Afghanistan, have
seen the Taj Mahal by moonlight, breakfasted at dawn
on lamb and
couscous while sitting by the marble pool of a Moorish
palace in Morocco
and once picked up a persistent family of fleas in the
Balkans.... I
could go on and on, and probably will somewhere sometime,
but the time for
this enterprise is up. Thanks for listening for the
past three million
words."
Such a stellar cast!
TV: American
Gods, Season 2
A new trailer has
been released for the second season of American Gods
the Starz series
based on Nail Gaiman's novel. Deadline reported that in
the new season,
"the battle moves toward a crisis point, as the
destinies of gods
and men collide. While Mr. World plots revenge for the
attack against him
in the first season, Shadow throws in his lot with
Wednesday's
attempt to convince the Old Gods of the case for full-out
war, with Laura
and Mad Sweeney in tow."
The series stars
Ricky Whittle, Ian McShane, Emily Browning, Pablo
Schreiber, Crispin
Glover, Orlando Jones, Yetide Badaki, Bruce Langley,
Mousa Kraish, Omid
Abtahi and Demore Barnes. The eight-episode second
season, which is
helmed by executive producer and showrunner Jesse
Alexander, replacing Bryan Fuller and Michael
Green, premieres March 10.
The Golden Tresses of the Dead by Alan Bradley is the latest Flavia deLuce mystery novel. I've read all of these books, mainly because I enjoy following Flavia and her beloved bike Gladys on their adventures in 1950s small town England. The series reminds me of Father Brown and Grandchester and all those other PBS Masterpiece mysteries, only from a young, (teenage) bright woman's POV. Here's the blurb: A finger in a wedding cake is only the beginning in this deliciously
shocking mystery featuring Flavia de Luce, “the world’s greatest
adolescent British chemist/busybody/sleuth” (The Seattle Times).
Although it is autumn in the small English town of Bishop’s Lacey, the chapel is decked with exotic flowers. Yes, Flavia de Luce’s sister Ophelia is at last getting hitched, like a mule to a wagon. “A church is a wonderful place for a wedding,” muses Flavia, “surrounded as it is by the legions of the dead, whose listening bones bear silent witness to every promise made at the altar.” Flavia is not your normal twelve-year-old girl. An expert in the chemical nature of poisons, she has solved many mysteries, sharpening her considerable detection skills to the point where she had little choice but to turn professional. So Flavia and dependable Dogger, estate gardener and sounding board extraordinaire, set up shop at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, eager to serve—not so simple an endeavor with her odious little moon-faced cousin, Undine, constantly underfoot. But Flavia and Dogger persevere. Little does she know that their first case will be extremely close to home, beginning with an unwelcome discovery in Ophelia’s wedding cake: a human finger.
Although it is autumn in the small English town of Bishop’s Lacey, the chapel is decked with exotic flowers. Yes, Flavia de Luce’s sister Ophelia is at last getting hitched, like a mule to a wagon. “A church is a wonderful place for a wedding,” muses Flavia, “surrounded as it is by the legions of the dead, whose listening bones bear silent witness to every promise made at the altar.” Flavia is not your normal twelve-year-old girl. An expert in the chemical nature of poisons, she has solved many mysteries, sharpening her considerable detection skills to the point where she had little choice but to turn professional. So Flavia and dependable Dogger, estate gardener and sounding board extraordinaire, set up shop at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, eager to serve—not so simple an endeavor with her odious little moon-faced cousin, Undine, constantly underfoot. But Flavia and Dogger persevere. Little does she know that their first case will be extremely close to home, beginning with an unwelcome discovery in Ophelia’s wedding cake: a human finger.
What struck me immediately about the 10th novel in this series is that Dogger, the faithful servant of the de Luce family, is now Flavia's partner in their private investigations business, and is much more a part of the book, using his various experiences in the war to help track down the murderer and solve the case. Although I adore Doggers character, I wasn't prepared for him to take over so much of the novel, and have Flavia take a backseat to him during the investigation. She seemed to be at a loss several times, more emotional and all at sea than she's ever been, and I missed her confident and daring nature.
I was also surprised that the horrible little cousin Undine, who has none of Flavia's smarts or charm, is allowed to do whatever she wants and get in the way of the investigation, putting herself in danger and being snotty and vile and bratty. Shining a light on this loathsome little blot on the landscape seemed a waste of time and ink, to me, because I read the books for Flavia, not for the secondary characters. Also, Flavia is now 13 or 14, from what the text says, so she's growing up, which is great, but I get the feeling that the author wants Undine to take her place as the ingenue in this play, because she's younger than Flavia and that innocent/fresh youth, combined with a brilliant mind and chemistry skills are the bedrock of what makes the series different. Still, the prose is excellent and the plot putters along like clockwork. I'd have to give it a B, and recommend it to anyone else who has read this series and wants to see what direction Bradley's taking for Flavia's future.
No Time like the Past and What Could Possibly Go Wrong? by Jodi Taylor are the 5th and 6th books in the St Mary's Chronicles series of time traveling adventures through history. I am reading the 7th book now, and I have the 8th and 9th books on my TBR stack, ready to go after I finish lucky number 7. While I enjoy the saucy take on history and the famed British wit, I find the misogyny and it's lesser creature sexism to be rather tedious, as they're wove throughout the novels. Here's the blurbs: Behind the seemingly innocuous facade of St. Mary’s Institute of
Historical Research, a different kind of academic work is taking place.
Just don’t call it “time travel”—these historians “investigate major
historical events in contemporary time.” And they aren’t your harmless
eccentrics either; a more accurate description, as they ricochet around
history, might be unintentional disaster-magnets.
The Chronicles of St. Mary’s tells the chaotic adventures of Madeleine Maxwell and her compatriots—Director Bairstow, Leon “Chief” Farrell, Mr. Markham, and many more—as they travel through time, saving St. Mary’s (too often by the very seat of their pants) and thwarting time-travelling terrorists, all the while leaving plenty of time for tea.
In No Time Like the Past, St. Mary’s has been rebuilt, and it’s nearly back to business as usual for the history department. Except for the visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral with a seventeenth-century ghost that only Mr. Markham can see. And getting trapped in the Great Fire of London. And an unfortunately-timed vacation at Thermopylae that leaves the fate of the western world hanging in the balance.
Actually, that sounds quite like business as usual for Max and the gang. In What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Max is back, with a new husband, a new job, and a training regime that cannot fail . . . to go wrong. Take one interim chief training officer, add five recruits, and mix with Joan of Arc, a baby mammoth, a duplicitous Father of History, a bombed rat, Stone Age hunters, a couple of passing policemen who should have better things to do, and Dick the Turd. Stir well, bring to a boil—and wait for the bang!
The Chronicles of St. Mary’s tells the chaotic adventures of Madeleine Maxwell and her compatriots—Director Bairstow, Leon “Chief” Farrell, Mr. Markham, and many more—as they travel through time, saving St. Mary’s (too often by the very seat of their pants) and thwarting time-travelling terrorists, all the while leaving plenty of time for tea.
In No Time Like the Past, St. Mary’s has been rebuilt, and it’s nearly back to business as usual for the history department. Except for the visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral with a seventeenth-century ghost that only Mr. Markham can see. And getting trapped in the Great Fire of London. And an unfortunately-timed vacation at Thermopylae that leaves the fate of the western world hanging in the balance.
Actually, that sounds quite like business as usual for Max and the gang. In What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Max is back, with a new husband, a new job, and a training regime that cannot fail . . . to go wrong. Take one interim chief training officer, add five recruits, and mix with Joan of Arc, a baby mammoth, a duplicitous Father of History, a bombed rat, Stone Age hunters, a couple of passing policemen who should have better things to do, and Dick the Turd. Stir well, bring to a boil—and wait for the bang!
Taylor's prose is deliciously fun, a sort of cross between PG Wodehouse, Monty Python and Doctor Who with some Agatha Christie thrown in for good measure. The plots only slow about once per book, and then they pick up speed and carry on as if nothing had happened. But though Max the protagonist is a woman, there is still the miasma of sexism and stereotyping/cliches riddling the text. None of the women at St Mary's can exist without a relationship of some kind with a man, the main bad guy is a guy (though there is a woman who is his henchman who is as nasty as they come, but of course, Max kills her at least twice so far), the women cry and the men do stupid sexist things, make harassing comments and are generally loutish, and all of the women lack basic self esteem, while the men are all egotistical braggarts. Blech. All the same, I'd give these two titles a B-, and recommend them to anyone who has read the first 4 books and hasn't thrown them across the room in frustration. Feminism will eventually get to St Mary's, I'm certain of it!
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