The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun

"To understand a cat, you must realize that he has his own gifts, his own viewpoint, even his own morality" - Lilian Jackson Braun,

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (1966) is the first novel in Lilian Jackson Braun's popular 29 book series.  And the novel begins with newspaper man Jim Qwilleran arriving in the fictional town of Pickax in Moose County ("400 miles north of everywhere") to take a job working for the local newspaper The Daily Fluxion.  

Jim Qwilleran had a career as an award winning crime reporter but his drinking got in the way. He is now in recovery and his first assignment for the Fluxion is to write a piece for their arts section.  Qwilleran is not thrilled since what does he know about art?  But it's a way back into journalism.

And in the course of doing his research Qwilleran meets the paper's art critic George Bonifield Mountclemens, a very popular columnist at the paper because of his scathing reviews.  Mountclemens is a very eccentric man.  He lives alone in a dusty town house with his Siamese cat Koko.  Koko is very bright, very fussy about how his food is prepared and Koko likes to read the newspaper following the words from right to left.  

Jim Qwilleran needs a place to stay and Mountclemens offers him the downstairs apartment.  He takes it and discovers that cat sitting duties are part of the deal.  At first Qwilleran is annoyed but he soon warms up to Koko.  And then Mountclemens is found murdered and he is not the only member of Pickax's art community who is meeting a grim end.  And so Jim Qwilleran finds himself taking full time care of Koko and back on the crime beat. 

I enjoyed The Cat Who Could Read Backwards.  It's well written but I would say that the ending and who did the killing and why is puzzling.  The novel doesn't lead up to this person.  But Jim Qwilleran and Koko make a nice pair, a Holmes and Watson with Koko who solves the case being the Holmes in this detective duo.  I would rate The Cat Who Could Read Backwards 3.8 stars and might go on to book two hoping for a more straightforward mystery and satisfying ending.

Saint Of The Narrows Street by William Boyle

Saint of The Narrows Street (2025) by William Boyle begins in 1984.  The setting is Gravesend, Brooklyn, a working class Italian-American neighborhood.  And when the novel begins we are introduced to 28 year old Risa Franzone.  She is married to Saverio Franzone (Sav) and they have an eight month old baby, Fabrizio (Fab).

Risa is afraid of Sav and miserable. She wants out of their marriage but she is religious and her parents, devout Catholics, would never accept her divorcing Sav even though he is unfaithful and abusive.

Giulia Taverna, Risa's 24 year old sister, is staying with Risa and Sav.  And then one night Sav tries to strangle Giulia.  Risa takes an iron skillet and bashes Sav's head in, killing him.  The right thing to do is to call 911 and explain it was self-defense.  Sav was trying to strangle Giulia.  And a few days prior as a joke Sav pointed a gun at Risa and baby Fav There were witnesses including Sav's friend Christopher (Chooch) who was disgusted by what Sav did.

But instead of going to the police Risa, Giulia and Chooch (who they call over for help) decide to tell no one what happened.  They drive all night to upstate NY and bury Sav's body on the grounds of Chooch's mother's abandoned house.

As the years go by it looks like Risa, Giulia and Chooch have gotten away with what they did.  Everyone in the neighborhood believes that Sav is just the kind of character who would pack up and leave his wife and baby, including Sav's parents.  And you would think knowing they got away with it that Risa, Giulia and Chooch would be able to get on with their lives.  

But of course they can't.  As the years and then decades go by their conscience and their anxiety will not let them forget their past.  And then there is Fab who was eight months old when his father died.  Fab's been told his father skipped town but in part four of the book it is 2004 and Fab who is now 18 has questions and he wants answers.  

Saint of The Narrows Street is a gritty and profoundly sad novel about the dangers people can get into when they make the wrong choices in life.  It's a novel about regrets, deep regrets.  But it is also a wonderfully written character driven novel.  I will not forget Risa, Giulia and Chooch anytime soon.  

A starred review from Publisher's Weekly and I agree.  

The Shell House Detectives by Emylia Hall

Thank you Cath at Read-Warbler for your very fine review of The Shell House Detectives (2023).  Its the first novel in Emylia Hall's new mystery series and it takes place in West Cornwall in the fictional seaside town of Porthpella.  I was drawn in to the Shell House Detectives right from the start and I already have the second book in the series The Harbour Lights Mystery stored in my kindle.   

When the Shell House Detectives begins we are introduced to Ally Bright, a widow in her 60's.  She is an artist and beachcomber who makes beautiful paintings and sculptures from the items she finds on her walks along the beach.  Ally has a cute little dog named Fox and everything seems to be going well.  But Ally is dealing with grief.  Her husband Bill, a retired police officer, died  a year ago and life hasn't been the same since.

And then one night a young man, Lewis Pascoe, knocks on Ally's door. Bill told Lewis that he would be there for him if he ever needed help.  Lewis needs help now because he has just gotten out of prison only to find that his grandmother who raised him passed away and new people are living where his grandmother used to live.

Ally wants to help.  She remembers Lewis Pascoe's father, Paul Pascoe, who committed suicide 20 years ago when Lewis was a baby.  She is tempted to invite Lewis in to talk but Ally is a woman alone and it's late at night.  She breaks the news to Lewis that Bill passed away and that if Lewis is in trouble he needs to go to the police.  

The next day Ally is walking along the beach with Fox and notices that there has been an accident up ahead.  She gets closer and discovers it's Lewis.  He has fallen from the cliff. Lewis is barely alive and the police are calling it a suicide attempt.

And that introduces us to Jayden Weston who is also there at the scene.  Jayden is 30 and recently left the police department after his partner was killed in the line of duty.  Jayden, like Ally, is somewhat lost.  He moved to Porthpella with his wife who is expecting to have a more peaceful life.  But Jayden is bored because being a detective is in his blood.  Ally and Jayden are not convinced that Lewis's accident was a suicide attempt and they are determined to find out what happened with Lewis particularly after a woman goes missing and the two cases seem to be related. 

Ally and Jayden are well drawn characters who have very nice chemistry together.  And there are other characters I really liked.  Saffron the young woman who owns the Hang Ten Coffee Shop and likes to surf.  Gus who is working on a detective novel and Mullins a young Porthpella police officer with an admirable sense of duty.  

And finally there is the town of Porthpella.  I would love to live in a seaside community like this particularly when the sea we are talking about is the Atlantic Ocean.  I highly recommend The Shell House Detectives.

Top Ten Tuesday

 This week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt, hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl, is about travel.  Here are my ten and I have read and recommend each of these books:

Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon - I read this book when I was in my twenties and loved it.  Blue Highways for me set the bar for travel memoirs.

Nomadland by Jessica Bruder- such an important book about the high cost of housing in America and how many people are living in their vans.  I fear Nomadland will be even more relevant ten years from now

 

Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer - A powerful book about a young man who decides to head to Alaska and live in the wilds with tragic results.  Very well written and thought provoking.

Kerouac by Ann Charters - Jack Kerouac was the consumate writer and traveler and this biography is excellent. 

Midnight In The Garden of Good And Evil  by John Berendt -  in the 1990's the author travelled to  Savannah GA ito write a magazine story and stumbled upon a story bigger than he could have ever dreamed.   216 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and if you haven't read the book you should.  The movie does not do the book justice.

 The Sun Down Motel by Simone St James - A really fine novel about a young woman who moves to an out of the way town in upstate New York.  She takes a job at a run down motel in the hope of finding out what happened to her aunt who worked at that same motel and disappeared over 30 years ago.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - Read this in my twenties and as I recall it was a struggle. But it's an important novel about a poor farming family, the Joads, who move from Oklaoma to Calfornia during the Great Depression.  It's possible I read it when I was too young and I definitely want to give this novel another chance.

Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden - A novel about a group of Anglican nuns who travel to the Himalaya mountains to open up a school and a medical clinic.   The sisters are not really prepared for the beauty and remoteness of the area and the culture shock.  Thus novel is very good with a haunting atmospheric quality. 

Life And Other Near-Death Experiences by Camille Pagan - The plot centers around a young woman who get a very bad cancer diagnosis.  She decides if they can't cure her  why bother with treatment.  And so she moves to an island in the Caribean that her mother, who passed away when she was a teen, loved.  It sounds like a depressing read but I found it inspiring and hopeful.

Confederates In The Attic by Tony Horwitz - Tony Horwitz was such a great writer of history and travel and he combined his talent for both in Confederattes In The Attic. 

Hope everyone has a great summer.  Stay cool and Happy Reading

Homer's The Iliad

Currently reading Homer's The Iliad.  Its a book that has been on my bucket list for some time.  It's one of the most important works of literature but would I understand it?  And I am pleased to say that I am halfway through The Iliad and I am understanding it and enjoying my reading experience.  

And that is due to the greatness of The Iliad but also Stephen Mitchell's translation.  There are so many translations out there but Stephen Mitchell writes in a contemporary English that works for me.  The Iliad is a little over 400 pages and it contains 24 chapters.  I am now going into chapter 15.  I pace myself, a chapter every other night.

The backstory to the Iliad is the Trojan war which began when Paris, a Prince of Troy, ran of with the beautiful Helen, the wife of King Menelaus who is one of the Achean (Greek) Kings.  Menelaus is furious and humiliated but that's nothing compared to King Agamemnon, Menelaus's brother, who is the King over all of the Acheans.  King Agamemnon launches a war against Troy and the two sides have been fighting ever since.

And now nine years into the war The Trojans and the Acheans no longer think much about Paris or Helen.  Instead the two sides are fighting for honor, glory, vengeance and survival.  And a central focus of The Iliad is Achillies.  He is the greatest of the Achean warriors, a man of super human strength, but he is sitting out the battle sulking due to his fury at King Agamemnon who has betrayed and humiliated him and the cause is once again over a woman.  

The dispute begins when the god Apollo forces King Agamemnon to return his slave girl Chryséïs, to her father.  Agamemnon does not want to do this but you can't go against Apollo.  And so to compensate himself Agamemnon orders Achillies, his best warrior, to give him Briseis, a woman Achillies won in battle years ago. Heartbroken and furious Achillies explains all this to his mother Thetis who is also a sea goddess.  She flies up to Mt Olympus and begs Zeus to restore her son Achillies' honor.  Zeus cares for Thetis and grants her wish.  Achillies stays out of the war and the Trojans start winning.  

And that brings us to Hector, the greatest of the Trojan warriors.  Hector is a major character in The Iliad second only to Achillies.  He is the brother of Paris and is quite angry at all the destruction and bloodshed Paris has caused Troy by running off with Helen  

How will this all end?  Will Achillies come back into the war and lead the Acheans to victory?  What will cause him to rejoin the fight?  And then there are the gods and goddesses.  They play a major role in The Iliad.  They are not impartial bystanders.  The gods and goddesses have very human emotions and they have taken sides in this war and are not adverse to aiding their side when needed.  

Hera, Athena, Poisideon are supprting the Acheans.  Aphrodite who has been rooting for Paris and Helen is on the side of The Trojans.  Zeus appears to be on the side of the Trojans as well but this is all part of a master plan and if Achillies comes back into the fight the Trojans are in trouble. Hector understands this and during a break in the fighting his wife pleads with him not to go back to the front:

"Hector answered her, “Dearest, what you have said troubles me too. Yet I would feel terrible shame at facing the men and the long-robed women of Troy if, like a coward, I shrank from the fighting. Nor can I: my heart would never allow that; it is my place to be brave and scorn danger and always fight in the front line, winning great fame for my father and for myself. But however it is, deep in my heart I know that a day will come when the sacred city of Troy will be devastated, and Priam, and Priam’s people. And yet it is not their anguish that troubles me so ... that is nothing compared to your grief, when I picture you being caught by some bronze-armored Achaean who claims you and takes your freedom away and carries you off in tears ... But may I be dead, with the cold earth piled up upon me, before I can hear you wail as they drag you away.”

I should say that The Iliad is a violent book. Battle scenes everywhere and men dying on both sides of the conflict in gruesome ways and I am only halfway through.  But I am fascinated by this story.  It is holding my attention and this is certainly a 5 star read.

Mother To Son by Langston Hughes..

Mother to Son by Langston Hughes (1922)

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It’s had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare.

But all the time

I’se been a-climbin’ on,

And reachin’ landin’s,

And turnin’ corners,

And sometimes goin’ in the dark

Where there ain’t been no light.

So boy, don’t you turn back.

Don’t you set down on the steps

’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

Don’t you fall now—

For I’se still goin’, honey,

I’se still climbin’,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

The Big Sea by Langston Hughes

"Life is a big sea full of many fish. I let down my nets and pull...I'm still pulling" - Langston Hughes

I am not much of a poetry reader because alot of poetry goes over my head.   But there are poets, and Langston Hughes is one of them, who are very talented but also accessible.  And a few years ago when Jane at Reading Writing Working Playing (please visit her fine website at blogs I follow) reviewed Langston's memoir The Big Sea (1940) I knew it was a book I would be reading and this year's Search For Wonder Classic's Challenge has given me the reminder I needed.

Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, MO in 1901 and The Big Sea takes him to age 31 and what an amazing life he had in just 31 years, a published poet, novelist and short story writer.  He worked on ships traveling to Africa, Paris, Italy, South America.  He was a key member of the Harlem Renaissance and met so many fascinating people and had such memorable adventures.  All of which he details in this book.

Langston Hughes's life wasn't easy though.  His relationship with his parents was not supportive and so he was on his own from an early age.  Langston got jobs working on ships because he wanted to travel but also the racism in the US in the 1920's meant that  many jobs were closed to him.  But jobs working on ships as part of a crew were easier to get.

In writing the Introduction to The Big Sea, Arnold Rampersad notes that there were three important events in Langston Hughes' life: 

"The first is in Hughes’s boyhood, when, after waiting trustingly for Jesus to come to him at a religious revival, he fakes a conversion, then weeps far into the night in guilt and shame. The second, in his adolescence, and almost cheerfully advanced against a background of Mexican Technicolor, concerns Hughes’s brutal feelings for his father: “I hated my father.” The third involves Hughes’s banishment, when he was twenty-nine, by Mrs. Charlotte Mason who had generously supported him as a patron over the previous two years. Even in 1939, ten years afterwards, as he himself writes, Hughes cannot recall the exact moment of banishment without feeling sick".

The falling out between Langston Hughes and Charlotte Mason was a sad part of this book.  Langston Hughes writes that he loved Mrs Mason.  She wasn't just a patron but he thought of her as a friend.  But she turned into a very controlling person who felt that she should be dictating what Hughes wrote.  And finally when he suggested to Mrs. Mason that maybe it was best she no longer support him but that he still wanted very much to be her friend she said some terrible things which Langston doesn't go into (he doesn't name Mrs Mason in the book) but he was very hurt.

The Big Sea ends on a happy note with Langston Hughes looking towards the future and I will be interested in reading more of his poems which now that I have read his memoir will be even more meaningful.