vivdunstan

A bumper crop of more books finished in the last month. Helped again by some library books.

( earlier books )
1. Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
2. City of Vengeance (Cesare Aldo book 1) by D.V. Bishop
3. Beside the Ocean of Time by George Mackay Brown
4. Delirium's Party: A Little Endless Storybook by Jill Thompson
5. The Haunted Trail: Classic Tales of the Rambling Weird by Weird Walk
6. Manga Classics Sherlock Holmes volume 1 A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle, Crystal S. Chan and Julien Choy
7. Glenshee: Glen of the Fairies by Antony Mackenzie Smith
8. Insomniacs After School volume 7 (manga) by Makoto Ojiro
9. Forgotten Churches: Exploring England's Hidden Treasures by Luke Sherlock
10. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

Of the newly finished ones, I enjoyed Arthur Conan Doyle's Memoirs collection of Sherlock Holmes stories yet again. The David Bishop book was a Renaissance Italy thriller, the first in an ongoing series, and very enjoyable. The George Mackay Brown novel (Saltire award winning and Booker shortlisted) was still magical, on a reread. I found the Sandman Little Endless graphic novel on a book clearout/rummage, so read it again quickly before passing it on to charity. The rambling "Tales of the Weird" book was interesting, but not a great run of stories for me. Enjoyed the manga Sherlock Holmes. Still really enjoying the Insomniacs After School manga series. Loved the church history book, and enjoyed with provisos the V.E. Schwab vampire book, newly published in June. That last one was read for my book club. I wouldn't have got to it so quickly otherwise.

I've just started reading The Art Thief by Michael Finkel about a particularly prolific thief of Renaissance paintings and other art works. The first theft of his that the book describes was the 1997 theft of an ivory sculpture of Adam and Eve from the Rubenshuis in Antwerp. Martin went there when we were in Antwerp for me to attend a book history conference in 2014. He was pushing me around the conference in my wheelchair, but exploring the city alone when I was having my rest days in between. And he got to Rubenshuis. And yes, he photographed that stolen item! It had been returned to the museum after the theft some years earlier. Small world.