March 2018 Wrap Up

Angela Thirkell

Books Read:
The Excellence of the Rosary Conferences for Devotions in Honor of the Blessed Virgin by Math Josef Frings   5/5 stars
This is a set of lectures given for a conference by Rev. Frings in 1912, and they are still relevant today.  These lectures, though scholarly, are easily read.  They explain and expound upon the various parts of the Rosary, giving the layperson a deeper understanding.  I highly recommend this short book.  (This book is available free for Kindle.)

Growing Up by Angela Thirkell  4/5 stars  (my review here)

Audio Books Completed:
House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones  4/5 stars  (my review here)

Burglars Can't Be Choosers by Lawrence Block  3/5 stars
Bernie Rhodenbarr is a professional burglar who has been framed for murder.  To save himself from prison, he tries his hand at solving the mystery.  This is smartly written, and though the solution was a bit hard to believe, all the pieces fell together nicely.  I'll definitely read the next in this series.

Upon a Dark Night by Peter Lovesey  4/5 stars  (my review here)

In the Midst of Death by Lawrence Block  4/5 stars
In this third Matthew Scudder book, a prostitute is murdered, and a whistle-blowing cop is framed.  Matt is hired to clear the cop's name and find the real killer.  Block effectively drops the reader into the middle of the action in this hard-boiled mystery.  It is generally well-written, with believable characters, though I found the solution a bit weak.

Scales of Justice by Ngaio Marsh  4/5 stars
This, an excellent mystery that revolved around the scales of fish, was well-written and well-plotted, as is usual with Marsh.

Did Not Finish:
The Wedding Walah by Farahad Zama
I thoroughly enjoyed the first two by Zama, and looked forward to revisiting the characters in this novel.  It lacked the life of the first two, and I wasn't able to get more than a quarter through it before putting it down.