P D James The Murder Room (2003)

     P D James The Murder Room (2003) Dalgleish visits the Dupayne Museum’s Murder Room with a friend, who regales him with his hypothesis that murder mirrors it social setting. A couple of weeks later a murder brings him back. The  Museum’s future was in doubt because the murder victim refused to sign the renewal papers for the lease.  The puzzle is relatively simple, but James hides the clues in plain sight, so that careful reading is required if you want to solve it before the solution is revealed. He was (as one suspect from the beginning) murdered to ensure the Museum would continue operating.
     I don’t read for puzzle-solving (much), but for the characters and social setting, which James as always handles superbly. She creates a believable version of late 20th Century Britain because she creates characters that inhabit that world. They are constrained by the social structure, the economics, and their own ambitions. No one is perfectly happy, but most achieve at least contentment. Dalgleish’s love life frames the story; it has a happy ending. ***

Carl Sagan Broca’s Brain (1979)

     Carl Sagan Broca’s Brain (1979) Collection of essays. Sagan was in his time one of the great popularisers of science, especially of cosmology. His TV series Cosmos is still worth watching, even though, like this book, some of its data and speculations are outdated. Sagan treats this in one the essays, in which he muses about how much earth-bound observation was able to discover or how well  hypotheses were grounded. Subsequent space-based (almost entirely robotic) data decided between the hypotheses, or confirmed the observations, for example the surface temperature of Venus. A salutary reminder that our understanding of the universe is always limited by our factual knowledge and shaped by our prejudices, desires, and passions, and whatever worldview we have formed from necessarily limited data. Thus, educated people for a long time refused to believe that rocks could fall from the sky. But science as a method in the long run corrects errors and adds to our knowledge. In this, it differs from pseudoscience, which changes only as new science offers new opportunities for waffle and bafflegab: see the recent co-option of the jargon of quantum theory to justify claims of planes of existence, astral projection, and similar nonsense.
     Science also, and I think more importantly, helps us understand our place in the cosmos. There’s a paradox here: we are insignificant creatures confined to an insignificant planet in an insignificant patch of our galaxy, one among billions. But we are able nevertheless to grasp that insignificance, and that in itself is significant.
     Sagan also takes on a a couple of cranks, especially Velikovsky. He shows that Velikovsky’s speculations are physically impossible. That Velikovsky (and von Däniken, etc) enjoyed such a vogue in their time demonstrates how badly and incompletely science is taught. High school science is enough to refute their claims. It also shows that we underestimate the intelligence, skills, and technology of our ancestors. This is probably an effect of the caveman stereotype which is still disseminated in poorly understood versions of evolutionary theories. Our ancestors were very clever people: that so many modern humans cannot imagine how they did what they did suggests if anything that intelligence and creativity have declined in the last few millennia.
     Sagan writes in a clear style, rarely assuming his readers have more than a high school grasp of science and mathematics. Good book. ** to ***

Malcolm Furlow. HO Narrow Gauge Railroad You Can Build (1984)

     Malcolm Furlow. HO Narrow Gauge Railroad You Can Build (1984) Just what the title says. The book reprints a project railroad series first published in Model Railroader. The design of the layout has all the Furlow characteristics, especially his ability to design vistas, so that the layout looks good from almost any viewpoint, and as good from a distance as close up. The fantasy element is somewhat restrained compared to Furlow’s later efforts, but is still there: neither engineering nor economic principles played much of a role in laying down the invented prototype. But the effect is impressive, and only the Grinches of prototype fidelity would complain (they have complained, in fact, about Furlow’s latest work, which is little more than an animated diorama). Furlow covers all aspects of building a layout, although he tends to make craft seem much easier than it really is, and  emphasises scenery over rolling stock and track. *** (2004)

Annie Proulx. Brokeback Mountain (1998)

     Annie Proulx. Brokeback Mountain (1998) Reprint of a New Yorker story. I read about 1/3rd of it and skimmed the rest. The style seems more important than the story, which delineates a homosexual affair between two drifters, both of whom end up loners, losing whatever connection to community they had when they abandon their wives (or vice versa). Raymond Carver I think does a better job of treating such themes. It may be that Proulx intends the story to show that unacknowledged homosexuality exacts a heavy price, but that’s a truism. It may be she wants to show that even among the ill-educated passion flows true and deep, and love hurts. Many New Yorker stories give me the impression, as this one does, that the reader is slumming, perhaps because they are set amidst ads for goods that the characters in the stories will never be able to afford (and may never desire) * (2004)
     Update: in 2005, a movie of the story was released, It won 3 Oscars.

E. V. Rieu. The Flattered Flying Fish (1962)

     E. V. Rieu. The Flattered Flying Fish (1962) Rieu is better known as a classical scholar and for his translations of the New Testament. These verses show him to have an ironic sensibility and a mildly satiric eye. Again, no memorable images or lines, but a pleasant and often funny read all the same. The illustrations by E H Shephard are more interesting than the verse. ** (2004)

Ronald Ferris. A Wing and a Prayer (1990)

     Ronald Ferris. A Wing and a Prayer (1990) A collection of verses by Bishop Ferris, written while he was in the Yukon. They range from the nice to the mildly arresting. Ferris has a knack for versifying, but tends to use too many adjectives. None of the verses offends against good taste, and none contains memorable imagery. For those who know Ferris, this pamphlet amounts to a memento of the man. * (2004)

Leonard Cohen. God is Alive, Magic is Afoot (2000)

     Leonard Cohen. God is Alive, Magic is Afoot (2000) Illustrated by Sarah Perkins and Ian Jackson. An excerpt from Beautiful Losers, designed to be pleasant to look at. The text is a pretext for paintings and clips from classical art, digitally combined and manipulated, apparently with the aim of extending the text. But the art never rises above the interesting, and most of it is high greeting card. “Tasteful” kitsch IOW.(2004)