Every time I read a new Josephine Tey novel, I end up saying “this is the best one she wrote.” In order that has been – The Franchise Affair, To Love and Be Wise, The Daughter of Time, The Man in the Queue, Brat Farrar (just last week) and now A Shilling for Candles.
Tey writes stellar characters and then writes effortlessly engaging dialogue for them. Other writers also do that; Christie in “Why Didn’t they ask Evans?” and Hammett in The Thin Man, of course. But Tey’s charming witty banter floats on air in a magical way. She’s just so good at it. Grant seems to be a catalyst for that sort of writing from her.
This novel – this needs to be a movie. Or a miniseries. It’s topical for one thing; the meditation on crushing levels of fame is particularly timely. The characters sparkle in a way that just begs to have real humans saying their words aloud.
This particular reprint I have is awful. I bought it years ago when it was the only one available on Amazon. It’s a print of a photocopy, reduced to fit a trim size such that the print is way too small. There are errors in the back cover copy and the biography. The cover art has nothing whatsoever to do with the book.
And despite the almost unreadable typographic problems, the story shines.
Baxter enjoying the cold.
7:55 pm – finished reading An Untidy Affair by M.B. Dabney. Very fun; lots of twists.
TV Watched:
Season 5 episodes of Longmire.
Also sold a number of books on eBay.
11:50 pm – Didn’t do much today except work and stay around the house. In the morning I finished outlining 7 of the 20 anti-trans bills that are going through the Indiana Statehouse. That was draining. Working on documentation for work.
Reading: Stayed up exceptionally late finishing Demon Copperhead. What an extraordinary novel. The narrator voice is fantastic.
TV Shows Watched: Pokerface – first episode, then we discovered we have to pay the premium to buy the rest. Since we just canceled Paramount, we’re unlikely to pick up Peacock. Vera – we’re in the 9th season and the show just seems dark.
7:09 am – breakfast and getting ready for back to work.
5:19 pm – worked on a couple projects for work all day with some short breaks to let Baxter outside and wash some sheets. Sat down to read, ended up watching TV.
1:35 pm – I’ve had a headache this morning, so I’m reading in the library with Baxter hoping it will go away. I’m on page 260 of Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and I’m still enjoying it. I have plans to run to Midland Antique Mall and see how many empty spaces we have to fill. I’ll probably do that soon. I mailed two of Stephanie’s mom’s paperback books to their new owners (sold on eBay). Incredible Hulk and The Electric Company.
2:30 pm – Midland Antique Mall. I added a couple books to our booth. Walked around and took photos of fun stuff.
They had all these large ledger books from Indiana counties for sale. Fun to look at.
Saw this picture shared on Tumblr in the middle of the night (because what else would I be doing at 3 a.m.?) with the caption “at least we queers have some representation for Christmas, if inadvertent.” Of course I had to track this holiday item down. And buy it. And also locate all the other gay cardinal couples for sale.
I’ve been on a binge watching spree of Crime shows / police procedurals on Britbox/Amazon Prime. Some of these are 2021/2022 and have diverse casts with lots of female leads. Of these, I particularly like Sherwood, The Tower, Eleventh Hour and Karen Pirie. Shetland and Vera are a bit gloomy, both in setting and in mood.
Karen Pirie (Emer Kenny plays a secondary character; I’ve liked her on other shows)
