Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries (reread)

 

A is for Alibi (1982)

Kinsey is 32

B is for Burglar (1985)

C is for Corpse (1986)

D is for Deadbeat (1987)

E is for Evidence (1988)

F is for Fugitive (1989)

G is for Gumshoe (1990)

H is for Homicide (1991)

I is for Innocent (1992)

J is for Judgement (1993)

K is for Killer (1994)

L is for Lawless (1995)

M is for Malice (1996)

N is for Noose (1998)

O is for Outlaw (1999)

P is for Peril (2001)

Q is for Quarry (2002)

R is for Ricochet (2004)

S is for Silence (2005)

T is for Tresspass (2007)

U is for Undertow (2009)

V is for Vengeance (2011)

W is for Wasted (2013)

X (2015)

Y is for Yesterday (2017)

Reading Zola

At the end of 2019, I made a decision to read Les Rougon-Macquart series. Yes, all 20 of them!

Books were purchased from Book Depository. I bought the Oxford World Classics edition, because they have already published 19, and the last one "Doctor Pascal" is due for publication in September 2020. 

Here's an excerpt from the Introduction to "Money": It was in 1868, at the age of twenty-eight, that Emile Zola hit on the idea of a series of novels based on one family, Les Rougon-Macquart, Histoire naturelle et sociale d'une famille sous le Second Empire ('Natural and Social History of Family under the Second Empire), in which he would trace the influence of heredity on the various members of a family in their social and political setting. 

Wait... he embarked this writing journey at age 28?!! This is such a major stuff to be written by someone so young! As usual, I'm going in blindly - I have never read the synopsis of any of the books. This is it! It's either I like it, or I hate it. I was hoping hard that I would love this series, because .. come one, I bought all the 20 books!

Next is to decide which reading order to follow. Do I follow the publication order, or the reading order recommended by Zola himself? I'm playing it safe and decided to follow the author's direction. So here's the recommended reading order, taken from Wikipedia

A recommended reading order

1. La Fortune des Rougon (1871)
2. Son Excellence Eugène Rougon (1876)
3. La Curée (1871-2)
4. L'Argent (1891)
5. Le Rêve (1888)
6. La Conquête de Plassans (1874)
7. Pot-Bouille (1882)
8. Au Bonheur des Dames (1883)
9. La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret (1875)
10. Une page d'amour (1878)
11. Le Ventre de Paris (1873)
12. La joie de vivre (1884)
13. L'Assommoir (1877)
14. L'Œuvre (1886)
15. La Bête humaine (1890)
16. Germinal (1885)
17. Nana (1880)
18. La Terre (1887)
19. La Débâcle (1892)
20. Le Docteur Pascal (1893)

It is September 2020 now, and I have read the first four books in the series. I like his writing style, and appreciate the immense researches that he did for each book. His story delivery is very bold: there is no need to guess the nuance - everything is blatantly described with vivid emotions

***Spoiler alert***

22 Feb 2020 The Fortune of the Rougons

This novel lays the foundation of the family. Rooted from a crazy lady who had an affair with a destitute, Zola created a blooming family tree. The Rougon side of the family is ambitious and money-minded, while the Macquarts are poor and lacking of ambitions

13 Jun 2020 His Excellency Eugene Rougon (Politics)

Eugene Rougon is the most powerful of the Rougon. I started seeing a lot of bad sides of humanity here. Woman sleeping with men to gain power; men kissing ass to gain power and money; bribes are everywhere. Eugene Rougon himself did not have a smooth political life, but he emerged to be a strong player that his enemies need to think twice before attacking him

25 Jun 2020 The Kill (Property)

Saccard, Eugene's younger brother, let his first wife die with sickness and sold his name to marry a younger lady just to get into the circle of the riches. He played dirty in the property business. He just enjoyed the game, as at the end he had no money left for himself. The shocking part is the crazy relationship between his wife and his son from the first marriage. Zola really described the greed and lust for money and sex in full force, it's disgusting to a certain extent. 

15 Sep 2020 Money (Capital market)

Saccard again, but in banking scandal this time round. I am very impressed by Zola's knowledge about the capital market in that era. There was little or no regulatory control at that time, so everything that is wrong with financial industry was described there. You name it, Zola had it all covered. Front-running, insider-trading, accounting manipulation, lack of corporate governance.... Oh, and Zola even mentioned about buying an option, and that's super impressive! 

Every time I finished reading one of these (starting from Eugene Rougon onwards), I started questioning why we humans are so bad. We are greedy, and ready to sacrifice others for our own benefit. However, (again, taken from Introduction to "Money"), Zola wrote "I should like, in this novel, not to conclude in disgust with life (pessimism). Life, just as it is, but accepted, in spite of everything, for love itself, in strength." This was what he wanted to emerge from the whole Rougon-Macquart series

Wow! Zola is just like Vasily Grossman in Life and Fate! After all the brutality and the mess that he witnessed, he still had optimistic view about life... and for that, I have immense respect both men.

Rainbirds

First of all, can we just acknowledge how beautiful the cover is? The title says "Rainbirds" but you get goldfish on the cover. I love it!

I sense a lot of Murakami's style in this debut novel; the quietness, weird people, weird dreams, the moon, jazz (!), and pasta (!). Oh my God, it's like she really pushed herself to be Murakami's minion! I was waiting for a talking cat to make an appearance to complete the Murakami's pattern, but thank God it didn't happen.

I also feel that some of the scenes are simply incoherent, the flow is just wonky there.

I gave 2 stars for this. In a nutshell, don't bother spending time with this book. Read a Murakami instead and you'll get a better experience.

I feel bad because the author is Indonesian-born Singaporean and I'm supposed to cheer for her. I hope that she finds her own style in her second book. Please just leave Murakami in his own world - there are many other concepts to explore.

At Mrs Lippincote's

Elizabeth Taylor is Jennifer's favorite author and she recommended her to me. I've never read any of her works, so I decided to check it out and start with her first novel. At Mrs Lippincote's is a story set in 1945. We follow the Davenant family - Roddy, his wife Julia, son Oliver, and cousin Eleanor settling in this rented house.

It took me a while to get used to her style. I felt that it reads more like scenes than a novel. However, I loved Taylor's sharp and witty delivery, and all the references to literature works. She brought the characters to life that they are so relatable even to the current era.

My favorite character is the 7-year old Oliver. He is a bookworm as described here:
Oliver Davenant did not merely read books. He snuffed them up, took breaths of them into his lungs, filled his eyes with the sight of the print and his head with the sound of words. Some emanation from the book itself poured into his bones, as if he were absorbing steady sunshine. The pages had personality.

Catch-22

It took me 2 months to finish this book. Heller was an amazing writer; he came up with the story and then broke them into tiny jigsaw puzzles, messed them up, and linked the pieces together into this amazing book!

I am glad that I stayed on. The first part was a struggle as he introduced so many characters with no background, and then I realized that the background came later... and slowly I could see the big picture. The humor helps, too!

The Eighth Day

A lady kidnapped her lover's baby, joined a cult, and was always on the run until one day she had nowhere to run anymore. The victim naturally grew up as a troubled young lady searching for her identity.

I like how the author presented us with the both sides of the story; all the aches, longings, and struggles to understand why their lives ended up this way.

Mitsuyo Kakuta is popular among the ladies in Japan, but not well-known outside the country. I really appreciate how she tackled women and family issues in 80s Japan in this book.

This One Summer

It's a typical teenager story.

You have one reliable good friend, problems at home, a guy whom you have a possible crush on; mix all the issues together, and it's a walk down the memory lane 😅It's a light read for a hot summer day!

Not a big fan of the artworks, though.

I love the depiction of summer in Awago beach 💖This book triggered the itch to book a trip to Bali right away!