Love's Labour's Lost, by William Shakespeare

 

I read this play in anticipation of a performance by Penn State's Centre Stage in April. It's one of Shakespeare's earlier comedies and follows the King of Navarre and three companions who agree to swear off women for three years while they study. Of course, their plans quickly go off track, especially when a French princess and her friends come for a visit.

Selected poems of Charles Baudelaire, translated by Geoffrey Wagner

 

I bought this book in the 1990s at the University of Pittsburgh bookstore when I worked at Hillman Library. I thought it would be a good way for me to practice my French reading, since it had the original poems in French and the English translation on facing pages. It did, in fact, prove to be a good exercise, but I'm embarrassed to admit that it took me 30 years to take on this project. In the meantime, this book traveled with me from Pittsburgh to New Haven to State College to Albany and back to State College before I picked it up recently and read through all the poems several times. It was a fun project!

The secret of Chimneys, by Agatha Christie

 

In Agatha Christie's fifth mystery, down on his luck Anthony Cade travels from South Africa to London to deliver a manuscript memoir by a British diplomat to the fictional country of Herzoslovakia to a publisher in return for 1,000 pounds. Anthony also agrees to deliver a packet of letters to a woman whom he believes has been blackmailed. Once in London, it's clear that there are many people and organizations trying to prevent the delivery of the manuscript, and when one of them breaks into Anthony's hotel room, he steals the letters by mistake. Anthony is determined to get the letter back and deliver the manuscript, and he follows the clues to the country mansion Chimneys, where a man has been murdered. Once again, Christie has developed a plot that is so intricate and with so many twists and turns, that it's hard to summarize. I'll just say that Anthony stays one step ahead of the bad guys throughout the book, and he teams up with Superintendent Battle, from Scotland Yard, and a beautiful widow, presumably the author of the packet of letters, to solve the crime. Although not the main character in The secret of Chimneys, Superintendent Battle appears in four subsequent Christie mysteries. The fictional country of Herzeslovakia appears in two other Christie stories, and I was fascinated to see that there is a travel poster for this country available on Ebay.
 

 

Service model, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

 

I really loved this science fiction novel by British author Adrian Tchaikovsky. Humanity is in decline, and when a virus disrupts the work of most robots, the robot valet Charles murders his employer, then is set adrift on the world. Ordered to go to the Diagnostics Center, he walks for days until he locates the center, but along the way he observes how all the estates that he passes are run down, and the robots tending them are all dysfunctional. When he gets to the Diagnostics Center, he meets up with another robot and they team up to find appropriate work for Charles, who is now unemployed and who has been renamed Uncharles. What follows is a series of adventures as the two cross what appears to be a post-apocalyptic landscape with few humans left alive. Service model is a compelling and funny take on the human condition. The dialog between the two robots as well as others whom they meet along the way is both provocative and hilarious. I was completely entertained by this book and couldn't put it down. Each new situation that they encountered was outrageous but plausible, and the ending was both highly entertaining and satisfying.

Flight, by Lynn Steger Strong

 

I have mixed feelings about this novel about three siblings, their spouses and children, and a young mother and her daughter. I had a hard time keeping track of all the siblings at first. Henry and his wife Alice live in an old house in Vermont that Alice inherited from her grandmother. They're hosting Christmas dinner for Henry's sister Kate, her husband Josh, and their three children, as well as Henry's brother Martin, his wife Tess, and their two children. Alice is a social worker, one of whose clients is Quinn and her daughter Maddie. This is the first Christmas after Henry, Kate, and Martin's mother Helen died, so it's particularly fraught with grief and other emotions. All of the characters have what appear to be major flaws. Henry is an artist who is obsessed with the environment and makes no money. Alice was an artist but has had to stop creating art and works as a social worker to help make ends meet. Kate is a stay at home mom, which she loves but won't admit. Her husband Josh works in finance at a mid-level job; he has no ambition because he's always relied on his trust fund for support, but this has been depleted by his poor investment decisions. Tess is a highly stressed attorney who is anxious about everything, especially her children. Her husband Martin is a professor on leave due to some inappropriate behavior with his students. As they come together, they struggle with decisions regarding the disposition of Helen's estate, with Kate and Josh hoping to be allowed to live in the house and everyone else, at least initially, hoping to sell it and split up the proceeds. The story advances slowly and is interspersed with Quinn's narrative. She is a single mom who is a recovering addict; Alice is her social worker, but is obsessed with Maddie as she has been unable to conceive a child herself. As they prepare for Christmas dinner, they all rally to help find Maddie, who has gone missing while her mother was out drinking. I was put off by the unlikability of all of the characters. How likely is it that every single member of a family has such distressing issues? It's a non-stop stream of bickering and arguing and picking on the spouses behind their backs. None of the children are charming. I just didn't find this pleasant to read. Nothing much gets resolved, although the ending seems to have mellowed everyone out, including the kids. I also found the writing to be a little awkward.