Nev March > Recent Status Updates

Beautiful prose, and a fantasy that ranges through centuries.

Some of these stories are impossibly quixotic. Was Conan Doyle trying to be funny? It didn’t work.
However, despite the annoying self aggrandizement, Gerard grows on us in his silliness and impossible military ambitions, his nonsensical code of honor and his hero worship of fellow soldiers.

Very slow middle. Back and forth in time, but not really moving forward.
And now, at last, seems that the characters are finally moving forward.
Clearly a book done by a pantster since the plot is so slow
Nice reflections, and character growth, but few actual narrative questions. Will the Dutch house still matter as the elected siblings age? Will their step mother?

It’s rather slow with a lot of back and forth in time. Events shared out of order which don’t seem connected. Tracing a pair of siblings who have been denied their inheritance. The narrative question seems to be: how will they earn back their own childhood home? However the siblings relationships are front and center

Interesting. The audio book by Tom Hanks is delightful

Oh dear. This is a book that was not outlined. I rather think christie wrote about half and then had no idea what she wanted to do next.

So she came up with two new characters, and here we are, more than halfway through and I’m getting bored. Reading vague and pontificating conversations between two men I don’t much care about. Alas. And it started so well.

A trim neat little tale so far with just 4 characters
Feels rather predictable at the moment. A few nice lines in the mouth of old Mr Baldock

Magnificent. Harkening back to Jane Eyre beautifully. What delightful prose.

How marvelous to read of a Punjabi family who are actual characters and not just placeholders.

Marvelous re telling of Jane Eyre with a darker twist. So engaging

A mix of personal vignettes and historical statistics. It’s enlivened by the diary accounts of people on both sides of the war. A great portrait of Churchill
And his family

Useful relaxation techniques and nice format. A gentle paced textbook

Utterly gripping. And funny. And I can’t stop reading. Hope we have s9me leftovers for dinner coz I’m not stopping now!

I enjoy Persis Wadia the main character who is a Parsi woman like myself. Tough and upstanding she withstands the condescending attitudes of male colleagues and has an inner dialogue I can well understand. So far my only wish is that she trust her dad to be more open minded. Can’t wait to see if she does.

Chock full of useful pointers that my detective will surely use in my upcoming novels

Useful techniques to survive in corporate America! Also neat research for my detective novels.

Although 15 years since publication, the collection of studies on deception is quite interesting

Nostalgic scenes of Bombay, Interspersed with the trials of immigration and assimilation to the North American culture.

Slow going.
“Investigation amongst jungle-men must be carried on in a desultory way, and at fitting times. Any prolonged mental effort soon fatigues their untutored minds. A Kurraba is as quickly tired by a steady course of questions as the most brilliant conversationalist would be if set to push his way through the jungles in which the Kurraba travels from morning till iright without fatigue. “

Ok there’s a lot here about elephants. But also about the desperately poor jungle tribes and how they subsist

“He collected the image and stored it away for moments just like these, when the fear overwhelm him and only she would do for relief.”

Brilliant

“ Perhaps that was the great Ill of the world, that those prone to evil were left untouched by guilt to a degree so vast that they might sleep through a storm, while better men conscience stained men, lay awake as though that very storm persisted unyieldingly in the furthest reaches of their soul.”

And now it turns predictable. Disappointing. So Harris sets up a character of courage and then has him behave like a mouse. Sad. Does every story about injustice have to be dismal? No wonder folks read crime novels where at least there is a fiction of a character arc and consistency.

Emotional and lyrical, escalating in pace and tempo

Beautiful. Endearing characters and excellent craft in the switched points of view

A bit repetitive and in the nature of a brief biography listing his travels.
The descriptions of Punjab are delightful, and the manner of travel, paying tolls and crossing rivers is interesting

Waaaay too much about the difficulties and successes of converting youths to Christianity. However, to do so among villages and towns of Afghanistan one imagines the good doctor must have had a death wish.

Not so. His medical missionary work succeeded in great part because of his own upstanding character and the desperate need in those remote parts for medical care.

Filled with interesting little asides! Curious and enchanting

Research on Mysore state in the late 1800s. Many place names have changed but I located the vicinity of the nilgiri hills