Act of Random Reading

Best-selling Italian detective novelist, Carlo Lucarelli's "The Damned Season", translated to English by Michael Reynolds.

The Damned Season refers to the period in 1944 when multiple armed and furious factions fought tooth and nail in Northern Italy, including retreating Nazi's and Allied Forces, for eventual control of the country. Communists, too.

This book is the second in a trilogy which introduces us to Police Commissar Deluca who is trying to get back to Rome, covertly, when captured by a local thug/policeman who remembers Deluca from some training he had once in Rome. He could kill the detective, since there is no law and order. Instead, he forces him to help him solve a local murder in order to take the credit and get promoted.

Being #2 in the trilogy, we don't know where Deluca came from or  goes from here; I was attracted to the book by a blurb on the cover that said "this is Alan Furst country". Yes, sort of. Not quite. The edition I read was an uncorrected proof, for advanced readers, found in the "magic paperback exchange" at my local public library.

Alan Furst's novels were the "Best" of 2018 for me--all of them. I have left one unread, which I will read sometime later this year, I hope.

And Today it is Snowing Pretty Hard. You Know what Snow Looks like.

Daffodils Bloomed Today

The squill flowers are going strong; along with the crocuses. Junco birds are still at the feeder. Soon they will depart for northern breeding ground.

We had a couple of Pine Siskins at the bird feeder the other day. They are similar to American Goldfinches.

Unexpectedly Disappointing Read. C. S. Lewis' "Surprised by Joy"

The small volume is a memoir or autobiography of the author's faith in God and return to Christianity. My reaction to the book is more a measure of my shortcomings as a reader than this esteemed writer's skills. I was interested in his narration: he suffered several very hard knocks as a child (he was born in 1898, died Nov 22, 1963, same as Kennedy): his mother was terminally ill with cancer and died in the home; his father was an emotional basket case, basically, for all of his life afterward. The boys were sent to a "dying school" with an abusive head master. Enough to make a person doubt in the deity.  But never again did he have bad teachers. He lost many friends in WW 1; was wounded himself.

But I could not grasp exactly how he reaffirmed in Faith, as an adult. The intellectual influence of many colleagues from the Academy. Lewis was a "Chair" at Oxford for years.

Maybe I will try the book again--or another by the author. But for now, I am "with" this little newborn shown above.

Here is a link to some of the notable "quotes" generated by the author: https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/c_s_lewis