20 Books of 2020 (Pt.11)

I cannot believe we are on Part 11 already. Check out my page if you'd like to see what else I've been reading in Parts 1-10. I enjoy reading as more of an extreme sport, as some like to put it, than anything else and with this COVID-19 stuff still knocking everyone about, I have been inside more often than normal (which is difficult to achieve because I'm naturally always inside, I hate the outdoors). When it comes to reading, I have been told by others that they are jealous of my speed. My response to this is naturally that I don't count speed as a factor when it comes to reading. As long as you are reading for enjoyment, it doesn't matter whether a book takes you two hours or two years - as long as you enjoyed it, that's what counts. It doesn't matter what you read, how much you read or how many books you can fit in. The point is, whatever and however you're reading - you should be enjoying yourself. If you're not enjoying yourself then there's really no point.

I'm the type that likes to be immersed in a book from start to finish, normally captivating myself for lengthy amounts of time over books until they're complete. Why? Well, I become so invested that I can't put it down until I'm done. I always have reading material on me and it has treated my bank account with great disdain and anger as it has plundered through my every penny. However, I do not stop this regime and have come to understand that I prefer books to pretty much every other habit, behaviour or pastime I can possibly think of. I don't really watch TV, I don't discuss politics and when I watch movies, it will be at night when I can't sleep. People often complain about my quiet habits and silent nature, but when it comes to reading, I feel like I can be as loud as I see fit (in my own head obviously).

However, when it comes to reading, I am particular about what I read because everyone has their own taste. I never judge anyone for their taste in books because, like TV or Film, books are written as a medium of entertainment and everyone is going to have a different taste. If we like the same books that cross over genres that may simply be by chance, but if your favourite book is the same as mine then we'll get along nicely. I'm perfectly aware that certain people prefer certain books and every book in its own way is a preferred read for someone. It does not matter what that book is. There really is no such thing as a horribly bad book that absolutely nobody likes. If a book gets you into reading it, then that's great. If you've enjoyed your reading experience, then that's even better.

What we're going to do now is go through the 20 books of 2020 I've been reading part 11 - these are numbers 201 through to 220. If you would like to know what I'm reading on a regular basis, my Instagram handle is in my bio, just drop me a message that you found me on here and I'll let you follow me for my account is on private.

Without further introduction then, let's begin!

201-210

201. Dance to the Piper by Agnes de Mille

This book didn't really shock me all too much. It is written as a memoir and the concept is actually really good. This girl sees a Russian Ballet Dancer and then becomes dedicated to ballet and dance herself. With much squandering and action, with hurt and torment, she comes to overcome hurdles which try to stop her. The personality of the character is sometimes spoilt, but a realist nonetheless. However, I didn't like the writing style. For something set in the depression and having the subject matter it did, I found the tone often too light-hearted and jumpy. I think that the time period and place wasn't really conveyed well in the tone. But maybe that is just me. I really enjoyed the sense of character it created though, there was a lot of personality coming through in this writing and the personality itself was very strong and often at ends with itself. It is a complex character memoir.

202. What Great Paintings Say by Rainer Hagen and Rose-Marie Hagen

I very much enjoyed this book because it goes through great paintings from all over the world throughout history. It starts with Ancient Egypt and goes through to Baghdad and China and even all the way to the Renaissance and America. There's so much information and analysis to be read. One of my favourite sections has to be on the Byzantine painting of Theodora and in her group of attendees because it depicts Theodora as such a great and godly figure even though she was not from a wealthy background. There's a massive analysis on it and the way its told is to make Theodora look as if she is an all-powerful being. I absolutely loved this book, it is a must for any art fans out there.

203. What Am I Doing With My Life by Stephen Law

I really enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought it would. This book basically takes several different popular internet search questions and answers them humorously and philosophically backed up with philosophical opinion and citation. Questions like "are ghosts real?" and "am I normal?" are some of the ones that are answered. Now, if I were going through these books in a store, I would never pick this one up because it doesn't look like my thing. But when I read it, it was basically laugh out loud funny (for me, anyway). It was a nice light-hearted read.

204. The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse

I have never really liked Hermann Hesse's dense and often overly-packed writing style. But in this book, I really quite enjoyed myself. I thought it was clever and meticulously put together. It is basically a puzzle of a book in which you have to pay attention to the rather elusive way the 'game' is played in order to understand it. Set in rough future, the character Joseph attends a prestigious school reserved for the most intelligent in the most academic (and purely fictional) epicentre of Europe. Through this, he begins a vast obsession with the 'Glass Bead Game' in which a deep knowledge and connection must be made between seemingly unrelated topics in order to progress forwards. Though the game remains itself a mystery, I think that the writing style, through its choice of various topics and writings, gives the reader ample thought to work with and really does entertain you. I never thought I'd be entertained by a book by Hermann Hesse.

205. Lampedusa by Steven Price

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's about the writing process of the book "The Leopard" and how one man is seeking to leave his legacy. It starts off with the Prince of Lampedusa finding out he has a terminal illness and then, through these strange necessities of his cousin Lucio going around writing poetry, the Prince (Giuseppe) states that he too wanted to write something but was too old. It is Lucio who tells him he isn't too old. We go through his life, his ups and downs even to a woman who has her house fall on her and dies, leaving her child found three days later in the rubble alive. It is one of the most beautiful books I've read this year and you absolutely have to give it a go.

206. Afropean by Johnny Pitts

I absolutely adored this book - it is such an important read and the author is very intelligent. Johny Pitts tells the story of his travels around Europe encountering various communities of black people, telling us about the history of black people in that particular place and how that has evolved into something else entirely. For example: black people in Paris due to the colonisation of the African countries by the French, black people in Belgium due to the horrid affairs of the Belgian Congo and black people in England, well you know that story. He also tells us about the people he meets along the way with tour guides, students and people in nightclubs and restaurants, on trains and busses telling him their stories. It is a brilliant example of a modern critique of how much and how little things have changed. It is an essential piece of writing for the 21st Century.

207. The Fox in the Attic by Richard Hughes

This book is about a million different things and it's brilliantly written. It's written in a very raw and coarse style and set amongst the 1920s. A man called Augustine runs away when he's accused of committing a horrible crime - the book then goes through the rise of Hitler and how he comes to power. I'm not going to lie when I tell you I found the image of Hitler really uncomfortable because when you read it, it seems far too real. The way in which Hitler and his rise are described are almost too malevolent for words and yet, he is surprisingly human. It's like he's a force of evil and yet, nobody knows it yet. It's a raw and inconceivably frightening description of one of the most evil men in human history. The book is a brilliant example of how great writing can be and how terrifying writing can be even when your genre isn't horror. The suspense will murder your soul.

208. Death of Anton by Alan Melville

This book is about a tiger tamer who is killed supposedly by an act of suicide. Firstly, everyone thinks he was mauled by his tigers, but when they see bullet holes in him - everything turns upside down. An inspector is called in and the various shady characters are called to talk. After another death involving being mauled by a tiger, the inspector thinks he's on the right track. When there's a revolver in the midst of a man who's wife Anton was having an affair with - things take a turn for the worst. With an illegal opium trade going on and a man who wears Anton's old costume to perform, Inspector Minto may have his most difficult case of all. I absolutely loved this book from start to finish. Yes, it is slow to begin with but after a while, it picks up by about chapter 5 and you speed on to the end. I doubt you'll be able to put it down.

209. Death of a Busybody by George Bellairs

This book is about an investigation into the death of Ethel Tithers. She is not well liked by the community because she tends to overly pry into people's private lives and tries to teach them, or rather force them, to become more religious and more god-fearing about their ways. Even though it seems like a small community, there are a lot of goings-on and therefore, there are a lot of people who are suspect of murdering her. She is found faced-down in some water, presumably she was killed there. However, the inspector soon finds out she was knocked down somewhere else and carried to where she finally died. This book is filled with multiple aliases, strange whispers and a maid who would profit out of the death of Mrs. Tither. But if she didn't kill her then who did? I absolutely adored this book and I can honestly say that I had the total wrong idea about who killed her, I never thought it would've been who it was. But, when the other man (Mr. Weekes) shot himself and that other thing happened to his wife, I can say it started to become clearer and clearer.

210. Quick Curtain by Alan Melville

So I read this book and I can honestly say that I was absolutely shocked when I did. First of all, there's a murder-suicide. A man is murdered whilst he is performing on stage and his murderer then hangs himself. However, we find out that there was another man, from a different shooting position that may have done it judging by the bullet hole made in the curtain. But, then again - there's a woman the murdered man was having an affair with who also turns up dead in the book. BUT THEN, there's a talent agent with no alibi for a good deal of time. There's duplicitous identities, forged names, disguises and everything you'd expect from murder at the theatre. It's a delightfully twisted story that leaves you absolutely shocked when you hit the end because you actually won't see it coming at all.

211-220

211. Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert

This book was a twisted one because I didn't expect what I actually got. First of all, a man dies and then, from out of nowhere, a corpse is found amongst his things. This is the corpse of Smallbone - a man with a shady past. When we unravel the novel, we get someone who wants to stay truthful to their employer, someone entangled in a brutal and tempestuous love affair, someone who isn't telling everything they know and one man, who is dead and cannot speak for himself. The characters are absolutely brilliant, both living and dead. The mystery is absolutely delightful from start to finish and completely unpredictable in every sense of the word. It is an absolute work of art and I don't think that through this lockdown I will stop reading crime.

212. Murder in Piccadilly by Charles Kingston

This book was very different to the previous ones I've read because it has a murder in the middle of the book instead of the beginning. In this book, there is a lot leading up to the murder and when it does happen, you immediately think that you know who it is. But after much accusation and finger-pointing, you realise that it could be an entirely different person altogether. Entangled is this is Bobbie, a nephew to inherit a fortune. There's Nancy, his materialistic dancer-girlfriend. Billy, the dance partner of Nancy. Ruskin, a man of business with a shady motive. Ruby, Bobbie's widowed mother. Massy, a rich man who is Bobbie's uncle and pays the ultimate price. And finally, there's Annie - a woman with a strange history and a secret marriage. In the middle of it is Inspector Wake, a man who is fixated on studying each and every character with vigour. I absolutely love this book and I read it in flat out a few hours. It is a brilliantly entangled mystery.

213. The Cheltenham Square Murder by John Bude

This one was fascinating because it's about a murder that happens right before someone else's eyes and yet, they have no idea who it was. A man who is disliked by his higher-station social circles is shot through the head with an arrow whilst in the company of another man. This other man (Buller) couldn't have committed the crime because it was at the wrong angle. Through mistaken identity and when Buller himself turns up dead, the investigation becomes a sticky mess of inheritance, fraud and an archery club caught in the middle of it all. The characters are so thorough you can basically witness them come alive, each in their own voice and dialect. You can see the tensions at every single turn and how the inspector is apt that he must solve this crime at any cost.

214. The Body in the Dumb River by George Bellairs

I don't think I can put into words how clever this book is. First of all, we've got a man with a duplicitous lifestyle who has turned up dead in the Dumb River. Then, we've got a socially higher family of in-laws who hated him, a job in the fair that he hid and another woman he was living with on the side. This open secret that was tossed around brings the abusive wife into clear view alongside her abhorrent father and three ignorant daughters. From this, we get an image painted of a man who wanted nothing more than to protect his family and paid the ultimate price. But when another body is found in the cellar, confession begin to seep through the cracks as a final blow is delivered to the famous Inspector Littlejohn. I freaking love the Littlejohn mysteries because they're filled with the most three dimensional characters and the language is so good because it's worded in such a clever and almost sinister way. This book really shocked me because really, I never would have guessed.

215. Weekend at Thrackley by Alan Melville

This book has to be Alan Melville's best I've read yet. It is about a man who invites jewel traders to his country house and whilst there, the guests learn something surprisingly disturbing about the things their host (Carson) got up to in South Africa and India. After this, his daughter Mary turns out to be another person entirely. The chauffeur is suspect to a duplicitous identity and the host in question is not who you think he is at all. In the middle of this is Jim Henderson, who is a penniless nobody and was also invited to this country house for reasons that he must discover - and the truth is almost stranger than fiction. This book was amazingly intense and clever, dark with undertones of obsession from start to finish. The style it is written in makes the climax happen with such amazement and finesse that you really can't put the book down at all. It is highly addictive and Alan Melville is an absolute genius for concocting this incredible mystery.

216. Surfeit of Suspects by George Bellairs

I'm not going to lie but with this one I was well and truly stumped. I couldn't figure out who had made that large explosion! Here's what happens in short (no spoilers!) - After an explosion happens at 8pm in November, it kills three people who are all directors of a company massively in debt. Throughout the book, it does what what it says on the tin - it works up a list of over ten suspects that could've either been in on it, or had done it themselves. Through the nature of fraud, the businesses of shady dealings, affairs, dynamite and even suicide - this book is one clever adventure of sin and immorality on everyone's part. But the real criminal seems to be hiding in plain sight and not only will you never see it coming, but it seems like the very explosion itself did not even happen the way everyone thought it did, even if they witnessed it themselves.

217. Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay

This one was absolutely brilliant because I was captivated from start to finish. The book begins with a bunch of Oxford Students finding a girl whom not many people liked murdered by drowning, put into a canoe and floating down the river. They pull her in and then are immediately questioned by the inspectors. After this, the girls form an investigation of their own, meeting even with the niece of the murdered woman. When things start getting out of order, the girls follow a man to some sort of shed in the night, they find a penknife and overhear strange conversations in Serbian. But, the whole story seems to be not told that way, it takes a turn for the worst and familial connections are put in serious jeopardy when lateness gets out of hand. It was absolutely amazing from start to finish and I was captivated by all these strong personalities in the book. From Sally who kept challenging the inspector to the Slovenian girl who is a bit too nonchalant about the situation. There are so many people to suspect in this strange and unlikely murder.

218. The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay

This one was a real mystery. Now I don't normally like mysteries set at Christmas because I think that they're really a bit cheesy. But this one by Mavis Doriel Hay is far, far from cheesy at all - in fact, it is so damn clever you'd be mad not to read it cover to cover! First of all, we have a rather large family meeting at Christmas time in a manor. The patriarch of the family is Sir Osmond, a somewhat sickly old man who some like and some don't. Then, there's the family and the various relatives and friends who appear, some of them shiftier than the others. The best thing about this book is the chapters are each told from the POV of a person. One chapter is Hilda, one is Grace, some are the Colonel etc. When Sir Osmond is found to have committed suicide, things take a turn for the worst when the suicide is suspect. Motives from the family are established and a various string of horrendous affairs come out in secrets and whispers from the crowd who are now in and overcast of complete doubt.

219. Excellent Intentions by Richard Hull

This book was pretty brilliant because it was written differently to all the others I've read. The entire book is set in a court room and is told in various flashbacks of witness statements to the crime. The crime is that a not well-liked man has been poisoned on a train with four other people as witnesses. Through various duplicitous identities and people who had various motives, the act of suicide is quickly crossed out and so is an accidental death. When cyanide is found in the vicinity of the snuff-box by which he died there is a question of who had the biggest motive, who hated him the most and what the hell happened in the days leading up to the death of the man (Henry). Why? Well it was Henry who bought the cyanide. A brilliantly twisted story with a bunch of strong identities intertwined - this book has all the workings of a modern masterpiece.

220. Death in the Tunnel by Miles Burton

I loved this tale because there wasn't much backstory and, as a difference, it concentrated so much on the crime. There were many recreations of the crime and the way it was played out by possibly many different suspects. It starts when a man is shot on a train and it is suspected as suicide. But when you look deeper there are many things at play - someone in an unhappy marriage, someone dissatisfied with their employer, a son to an inheritance and an angry niece. This is one of those books where if you tried, you really could not guess the outcome at all. There are so many aliases and identities! There are so many disguises and clues in keys and locks and valuable items, and that one gun.