The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Christie)

The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by Agatha Christie (1920)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I will admit that I was looking for a couple of quick, short books to read to pad out my blog by the end of the year. An anthology of Agatha Christie books showed up online, and I thought this would be perfect. A couple of reasons: one, I just read a couple of mysteries by Sue Grafton; and two, I'd read the first book before. (Note: the image above is generic, not from the download.)

Okay, so it's been a long time since high school, and the only things I remembered about the book were Poirot, Hastings and "it wasn't strychnine, was it?" Also, back then, I didn't understand the title -- it didn't make any sense to me because I didn't know in advance that "Styles" refered to Styles Court, the estate were the murder takes place.

I knew I was in trouble when the book was front-loaded with characters whom I knew I'd never keep straight. I had trouble with the last Grafton book because of all the players. It was slow going, particularly since without a daily commute, I was reading primarily in the evening. When I didn't fall asleep, I was drowsy enough that I wasn't remembering what was going on. I think I missed part of the ending (about the third chapter from the end) which left me a little confused. At the same time, I didn't want to go back because I wanted to finish before midnight. That wouldn't happen if I kept going back.

So the question is, will I read more Christie? It is something that I should've done long ago as my wife not only has read them all but has a set of her books. (These actually my be in a relative's basement, but they still exist.) Something to think about.

As mentioned above, this was an ebook.

2020 Year in Review

My 2020 End-of-the-Year Review

It's not unusual that very little of what I read this year was published this year. What is unusual is that one of those things was actually written by me. Yay, me!

The year should have a total of 30 posts, including this 2019 Review, this entry, and, I'm hoping, one more book before the year is over.

Of the books read, most were fiction, but there was more nonfiction than usual. Some of the nonfiction came from free downloads with interesting titles or topics, like Celts or the Soviet Nuclear Weapons Program (which I remember little of now). The rest were math books, biographies and self-help/inspirational. Plus a pub quiz book.

Fiction is a mixed bag. There are at least two books I didn't finish, but there were other books I gave up on that I didn't bother to list. In the latter case, it was either because I was asked for a review and didn't wish to be mean publicly, or I gave up before I even hit 10% of it. There's also the Best of Tor.com 2016 which I made a dent in, but the book is huge, and I wanted to read other things.

Speaking of Tor, their free ebook of the month club has given me lots to read, not that I've read a lot of it. But the timing of The Haunting of Tram Car 015 coinciding with my just finishing A Dead Djinn in Cairo was too good to pass up. That rated its own entry.

There were two Oz books (one was manga), and two Kinsey Milhone mysteries (one better than the other). And aside from the Tor book, there were a couple of anthologies (including my own): If We Had Known, and Unidentified Funny Objects. I have books 1, 2, 3 and 8 in that latter series. Book 9 will probably kickstarter in the spring, and I'll fill in some gaps. (And maybe submit something.)

Ebooks accounted for 18 of the 28 book entries. Of those, only two were library books, and most of the rest were free downloads. I think only UFO 1 and If cost money. Both of those would be among the best things I read this year. I finally read Redshirts, but I was a little disappointed, but that could be all the buildup I've gotten since it's release. I don't know what I expected of it.

On the nonfiction side, putting the math and games aside, A Sick Life and Out of the Silence were interesting reads, while The Highly Sensitive Person might give me something to think about.

Ozma of Oz (Baum)

Ozma of Oz, by L. Frank Baum (1907)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I've read The Wizard of Oz as an ebook in the past few years. I read The Land of Oz as a paperback many, many years ago, and then again more recently as a rather interesting set of graphic novels. Next up in the series is Ozma of Oz. The fact that I was looking for short reads to pad out the year is not exactly coincidental.

Many years ago, I saw the movie Return to Oz when it was first released (at Radio City Music Hall, no less). I recognized a lot of the characters from "Land", except that it had Dorothy, and not Tip. Also, it had different villains, namely the Nome King (an underground rock creature of sorts, not a gnome) and the Wheelers (creatures with wheels for hands and feet, and long arms, too.)

This book starts with Dorothy and Uncle Ben on the boat going to Australia. Dorothy gets washed overboard in a storm and clings to a chicken coop for safety. In the morning, she finds a hen has also survived. The hen's name is Bill, and Dorothy calls her "Billina" instead. She discovers this because the hen is able to talk because they are close a a fairy land. Except that Oz doesn't border any oceans. Instead they wash up on the land of Ev, where their adventure begins.

Ozma and the rest of the gang from Land of Oz (except Pumpkinhead) show up in the second part of the book. They rescue Dorothy, and then take her with them to rescue the royal family of Ev from the Nome King, who has turned them into knickknacks in his palace. The King gives every member of the party (including each soldier) a chance to rescue the royal family -- and each other. If they fail to find anyone, then the searcher will also be turned into a knickknack in the palace.

If I remember the movie, Dorothy discovered the secret to finding the rest of the party. Here, it's Billina who is the King's undoing.

Celts: A Captivating Guide to Ancient Celtic History and Mythology (Captivating History)

Celts: A Captivating Guide to Ancient Celtic History and Mythology, Including Their Battles Against the Roman Republic in the Gallic Wars , by Captivating History (2019)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

Downloaded this freebie earlier in the year. It was an interesting read on my phone, but I put it aside for some reason or other. I picked it up to finish mostly because it was short and half-finished, and I wanted another entry before the year was done.

According to a webpage, Captivating History has nearly 200 books out about different cultures or people. Any number of them are free at a given time. This was interesting to read, and I wouldn't be opposed to downloading another if the subject matter appealed to me.

There is interesting stuff about the Celts, and I may go into more detail if I edit this entry later -- mostly so I can have that information closer at hand.

At one point in the first millenium B.C., (the book uses BCE, I, like one of the sources in the bibliography, do not), Celtic tribes populated most of Europe, north of Italy and Greece, and through Gaul and Iberia. And they were feared by the Greeks and Romans

Unfortunately, they didn't have a written language, so most of what we know of them comes from the Greeks and Romans. Some of this is, of course, biased. And the best you can say is that it gives us a snapshot into their culture.

Some takeaways: they were warrirors, but they were also farmers. They were raiders, but also traders. They were taller than the Romans and Greeks and fiercer. They had chieftans, but would follow another if the chieftan was defeated or fell from grace or whatever. They were loud in battle to show their fierceness.

S is for Silence (Grafton)

S is for Silence, by Sue Grafton (2005)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

After R is for Ricochet was a little disappointing, I decided I wanted to read another one before closing out the year. S is for Silence is another cold case for Kinsey Milhone. It's set in 1987 but she is looking into a mystery from the thirty four years earlier (1953).

Violet Sullivan, big on the violet theme with the color of her clothes and the smell of her perfume, left her house on the night of the Fourth of July, 1953, leaving her young daughter home with a babysitter. She was never seen again. Some thought she'd been murdered by her abusive husband, Foley. Others thought she'd fled her abusive husband. Either way, there had been no sign of her, dead or alive, since. Her daughter, Daisy, hires Kinsey's to find some answers. Kinsey is hesitant but agrees to look around for five days and report back, and let her decide if there is any reason to continue. Four slashed tires tell her that she's getting close to something and uncovering things that people want kept buried.

The book is a bit different in that it has dual narratives from 1953 and 1987. It's a little jarring at times. The narratives are not parallel. The flashbacks are usually centered on one person, and take place the weekend Violet disappeared. A couple events are retold from the opposite perspective. Nearly all center around Violet or involve her tangentially.

There are too many characters to get into, particularly since there are people back then who aren't around now. And honestly, since I didn't read straight through, I kind of lost track of who was who or how they were connected to the others either through family or work. Most of the guys are connected to Violet in some way because she chased after and slept with many of them.

Take all flashbacks with a grain of salt because of unreliable narrators. The only point of view we don't get is Violet's, which would be cheating if we knew. And nobody really knew her anyway. The rest of the flashbacks aren't told as flashbacks to Kinsey. They're outside of her story line.

I was surprised that there would be a new cold case so soon after a different one. One could imagine that writing in 2005 about 1987 about a 1953 disappearance that emerging technologies could track down some who tried to disappear and didn't want to be found. It was reasonable that Violet could be either dead or alive.

Cheney gets mentioned, but either he's busy or Kinsey is away. The retired guys Dolan and Oliphant also rate a mention early on. They would love this kind of case, but they aren't available, which is fine. The book didn't need to two of them arguing and babysitting each other. A consult with them might've been nice.

Again, for all the talk of family, there was none about Kinsey's family. It seems as if she dropped that thread, as surely as she reduced the "12 to 15 workings cases" Kinsey has at any one time to answering mail and paying bills. Just an occasional mention of filing a report, answering a call with a little more specificity or something would help.

That said, I enjoyed the book and finished it in just a few days. There will probably be a break before I borrow the next one.

It occurred to me, at this point, all the books are new to me. I stopped listening to books on tape by 2001, and probably sometime before that. It was a commuting thing. I never got past the middle of the alphabet, and they were usually in random order.

Another Dozen "Dozen" Game Books (Reed)

Another Dozen "Dozen" Game Books, Philip J. Reed (2020)

Below is a list of gaming supplements I've read through over the past few months. Mostly short, which is why there's a bunch of them, and mostly part of the A Dozen... line by Phil Reed, which is why there are about a dozen of them. Some of these might be rereads. I've added more description because this is as good a place as any to make some sort of catalogue so I can locate a supplement when I remember some unusual item that I could use in a game or a story.

The image above came from the last one I read. I noted the Elmore signature. I can't say that I'm overly familiar with Larry Elmore's work, but he did the art used on some of the cards in the old Guardians CCG from FPG, Inc.

A Dozen Strange Encounters (14 pages) some doomsday scenarios and planar gates A Dozen Dungeon Hazards (7 pages, 2004) Open Game Content (OGC) for Ronin Arts: Fogs, Fungi, Molds & Slimes (12 examples) My "favorite: was my accidentally misreading "Necromantic Frog" But the Harmonic Mushrooms could fit into a story very easily. I remember oozes/slimes just damaging ("consuming") bodies, but never taking them over. Not good from roleplay, I guess. A Dozen Planar Gates and Storms (8 pages, 2005) OGC. Ronin Arts: Fogs, Fungi, Molds & Slimes (12 examples) Interesting ways of how to get there, but not what you'll find there, which is a book of its own. Good ideas. The "storms" are things like the tornado in the "Wizard of Oz" or (not mentioned) "The Final Countdown". The gates are always gate-shaped like the Guardian (Star Trek), or Stargates, or Pylons (Land of the Lost). Six Planar Gates (5 pages, 2005) Companion to the previous one. This one had more tradition gateways, although one was a carriage reminiscent of the Cóiste Bodhar, the Death Coach featured in Irish legend, not to mention Darby O'Gill and the Little People. The difference is that this one travels all the planes and will take you where you actually want to go. A Dozen City Encounters (14 pages, 2020) Some ideas to use when the party is staying in town. Some of them might make good story prompts. There's a pied piper type who tells stories as a way of getting info out of kids. A half-giant leather worker who lives outside of town who will happily chat, and could be persuaded to make things. A couple other NPCs that I should make a list of. A summer festival (which might attract thieves) and an ominous fog. A Dozen Adventurous Rivals (14 pages, 2020) Other recurring characters the heroes might meet, whether experienced or novice. Many races and classes are covered, along with what notable treasure they might be carrying. The heroes shouldn't be fighting them directly, for the most part. 13 Starship Cargoes (12 pages, 2005) A baker's dozen, if you will. This supplement has d20 game mechanics, which are basically a foreign language to me, but I know enough that I can compare things to each other, and get a general sense. This is useful because my friend keeps encouraging me to write Dieselpunk, or whichever *punk that covers 1930s era spaceships that should have some plausibility to them. Thus my mind goes to cargo haulers and space cops. Of particular interest, the Voracious Monstrous Mantis and the Magnetic Slime, as well as the general description of the Mecha suits, which are more Aliens than Robotech. The last two pages are printable maps for cargo holds, which make me think about looking for the rest of the ship. A Dozen Documents and Papers (7 pages, 2004) The legalise is reduced in size, taking only a fraction of the last page. This was a freebie extra for backing many of Reed's current projects. Some ideas might spring to mind, but mostly it was just an interesting read. Would I use any of this were I to create a story? I don't know. Includes d20 rules. Also included is a page and a half about Smithfield's Chocolate House, with information about real-world historical parallels. This was originally printed on his website, but after nearly two decades, who knows if it's still there. (No, I didn't feel the need to check.) A Dozen Unusual Articles of Clothing (5 pages, 2004) Contains some examples of mundane clothing, but not the usual mundane clothing, and then some fine or enchanted versions. There's a list of garment colors by class, meaning upper or lower, along with clergy or wizard. The Dark Cowl of the Necromancer could spur a story by itself. Also, I learned about things like lirapipes (liripipe, when I searched online), gorgets, chaperons, great coats (okay, I knew about these), supertunics, houppelandes, tippets, and pelisses. Imaginary creatures mentioned include Tangtals (magical cats which could be skinned) and Thundershrikes (magical birds with colorful feathers). This is a little more than 4 pages, with the open-gaming license taking up most of the fifth page. A Dozen Unusual Bracers and Guantlets (6 pages, 2006) What was likely the last of the "Dozen" series, until Phil Reed revived it last year (at least according to the intro page). Entries include BONENEEDLE GAUNTLETS (mitten-style with venomus teeth from a large spidery thing), BRACERS OF THE THIEF (handy item I could've used in a story, maybe in edits), CEREMONIAL GAUNTLETS OF THE DRAGON (valuable, but useless items, like a dragon puppet for followers of cults, with penalities to Dex), CLERIC’S GAUNTLETS OF HOLY MIGHT (holy mittens that lock a weapon in place, but no modifier?), FISTS OF THE BLOOD WIGHT (unholy mittens, basically the hands and claws of a blood wight, which bleed unceasingly, though from no detectable source [my phrasing]), GAUNTLETS OF THE ANGELIC CHOIR (shiny, feathery, extra protection but heavy so Dex penalty, do they have Luck in them?), GAUNTLETS OF THE GRAVE (clamshell design for holding polearms, dex penalty, they have arcance runes and an aura or death or fear, and usually worn by skeletons and undead soldiers ... but they're fur-lined), GAUNTLETS OF THE OOZE CHAMPION (ooze mittens that will fuse with the wearer's arms but could be removed with hot water, part of a set that gives command over oozes), HARD, SPIKED BRACERS (made by dwarves for a human, they're what they say on the tin, good in close combat for wounding and disarming), SEPULCHRAL FINGER GAUNTLETS (a sepulchral guardian, an unusual type of construct created from the remains of dead humanoids that are encased in iron, with spikes, dwarven masterwork), SKULL BRACERS (nothing special, but well-made, used by rogues), SPELLCASTER’S BRACERS (like a magician's trick, they can pull something out one's sleeve, such as a material component). This is actually 5 pages, with the open-gaming license taking up the last page. A Dozen Unusual Materials (5 pages, 2004) Entries include ARCANE STONE (rare black stone from deep beneath the ocean used in jewelry and arrow heads, faintly naturally enchanted), BLACKWORK SILK (A powerful, uncommon silk woven from the web of an enchanted giant spider, blackwork has the strength of steel and the lightness of the finest natural silk), BONE OF THE UNDEAD (a powerful necromantic tool, could be useful in that Potions story I'm trying to write), DARKEST OBSIDIAN (black, volcanic glass, used artistically only), DRAGONNEL'S HIDE (the dragonnel, a foul beast that may be related to the abomination of a dragon and pteranodon, an evil creature with a massive wingspan and long, serpentine body -- sounds, familiar, I think I read this before. Oh, well.), HORROR CRYSTAL (sliver of a dead crystalline horror – an unnatural evil humanoid that’s made of crystal and glass, used artistically -- or is it?), GOLEM METAL (enchanted metals of a destroyed iron golem can, molten down and reforged into weapons or armor), GREEN (Emerald) MITHRAL (variation of the usual stuff), MOONRED HEART (a type of tree that grows deep beneath the surface world, a masterwork that will wither if brought to the surface), SCREAMING GOLD (when immersed in water, useful for alarms or diversions), SPIDER'S CARAPACE (hard deep black shell of a rare, underground spider used by drow for armor or wizard's for spell book covers), TROLL'S IRON (greenish metal from deep underground, below where dwarves dwell-- I wonder if those trolls would be tinier). The more I read, the more I realized that I'd seen this one before, even if I hadn't read the one before it. (The files are sorted alphabetically.) It must've been in the last list.f This is actually 4 pages, with the open-gaming license taking up the last page. All Fall Down (4 pages, 2004) An independent storytelling game with random elements (dice and voting), plus counters. A little on the mark with talk of disease and depression in these days of Covid.

By this point, I have a separate directory on my hard drive, filled with Phil Reed files, so there will definitely be more to come ...