Here I go again

 I'm really bad at this. 

German class ended the third week of May, Gott sei dank! I'd had enough Zoom for one lifetime. Took the DLPT and got a 2 in the Listening and a 1+ in the Reading. Happy with that. 

Books I've read since the last update:

Mozart, by J.W. Dyck. An easy little German reader about the composer. Great level for me. Quick read. 

The Skull Mantra, by Eliot Pattison. Inspector Shan #1. My wife's choice in our family reading group. Very fun detective story, set in Tibet. Why do I love these foreign detective stories so much? (c.f. Arkady Renko.) I will read other Inspector Shan novels.

The Right Sort, by L.H. Bradshaw. Got this old book (copywrite 1921) from an auction for 5 pounds. Fun English public school story with, of course, a happy ending. Wodehousian. If you can find it, read it.

Translation: A Very Short Introduction, by Matthew Reynolds. Very short. Good, but if you want an intro to modern-day translation, instead read Is That a Fish in your Ear? 

Warlight, by Michael Ondaatje, the author of The English Patient. Just as good. Man can write. Why don't I just read all his books? OK, I will. 

The Mother Code, by Carole Stivers. Great concept, an AI "mother" who can raise human newborns. Good, readable book, but the author rushed the ending. Unfortunately.

Medalionoj, by Zofia Nalkowska. Book about what the Nazis did to the Poles. Horrible. Not the book. The Nazis. Read this in Esperanto. 

Six Four, by Hideo Yokoyama. Best detective novel as far as the Japanese are concerned. And I have to agree. Incredible story. Great translation by Jonathan Lloyd-Davies. Long book, but well worth the time. Top 5 I've read in the last 1-2 years.

Currently I'm reading:

Atenco, by Julian Modest. Story about Eastern European spies during the Cold War. In Esperanto. Originally. 

The Secret Pilgrim, by John Le Carre. Another Smiley novel. I'm a sucker for them. Sadly, this is the penultimate novel. 

Slowly but surely:

A Century of Humour [sic], edited by PG Wodehouse. I got this from an auction. I think 20 pounds? Maybe 30? Unsure, but it is over 1000 pages of British humor (not humour), short stories all. So stinking good. I'm reading a story a night, 3-4 nights a week. It will be a while till I'm done with this one. So many stories, I'll be reading this for a while, so of course it was worth 30 pounds, right?!

The 99% Invisible City, by Roman Mars. Great book about all the things we walk by in a city and don't really pay attention to. You know those painted symbols and lines on sidewalks? This book explains them. Again, will read a chapter or so every once in a while. 

I won't promise to write more this time as I'll probably forget again. But I hope you all are doing well.