Dorothy Sayers:
The Mind of the Maker
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Elizabeth Zimmermann:
The Knitter's Almanac
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Howard Turner:
Science in Medieval Islam
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Laurie R. King:
The Beekeeper's Apprentice
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Randall Garrett:
Lord Darcy Investigates
7 January 2002
Way too much reading over the holidays. (Which is why I'm actually finishing writing this up in February. Ah well.)
I didn't discover Dorothy Sayers until a few years ago. I enjoy the Peter Wimsey books, but The Mind of the Maker is the book of hers that I reread regularly. (I was tempted to say "religiously", but....) In this book, Sayers compares the Christian Trinity to the workings of an artist, providing interesting thoughts on the creative process, especially writing.
Over twenty years ago, I learned to knit, and I still enjoy making many knitting projects. A couple years ago I bought some titles by Elizabeth Zimmerman, since she's an author regularly recommended by knitters. And no wonder -- she's a delight to read. Chatty, reassuring, pleasantly opinionated. I haven't yet tried any of her specific knitting techniques; I just like to reread her books because of her writing style. Though one of these days The Knitter's Almanac may inspire me to knit some leggings; that's the project that really perks my ears up.
In my continuing quest to actually read some of the books that my employer publishes, I brought Howard Turner's Science in Medieval Islam with me over vacation. It's a wonderful brief introduction to advances by Islamic thinkers in numerous areas, with plenty of illustrations. (And speaking as someone who worked in the editorial department at the time, I can say that Mr. Turner was a delight to work with!)
I'm a big fan of Alexandria Digital Literature's recommender program, Hypatia. One of the books I discovered through it, that I probably wouldn't have learned about otherwise for a long time, was Laurie R. King's The Beekeeper's Apprentice. Mary Russell, a highly intelligent and observant young woman, becomes the protege of the famous detective....
(On a tangent, why is it that I like Sherlock Holmes pastiches so much better than Conan Doyle's original stories? Not that I dislike the originals, but few of the original stories make my "read over and over again" list. I heartily recommend the collections Sherlock Holmes through Time and Space and Sherlock Holmes in Orbit, if you can find them; like all anthologies they're mixed bags, but some of the stories are really fabulous.)
Anyway. The sequels weren't bad, but Beekeeper's Apprentice is still the best of the lot, I think. Russell's apprenticeship and initial cases, the developing friendship between Russell and Holmes, Russell's college life, all add up to an entertaining story. I'm not entirely happy with the big situation in the latter parts of the book; I felt like some of the clues just weren't given earlier. But overall, it's a very enjoyable book.
I also reread another favorite mystery collection: Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy, a 3-in-1 volume containing the novel Too Many Magicians and eight short stories. In an alternate world, where Richard the Lionheart survived the Crusades to found a empire, and magic takes the place of science, investigator Lord Darcy solves crimes for the Crown. A fascinating world, though if you're reading all the short stories in succession, you have to get good at skimming the infodump where the whole alternate universe setup is explained yet again. There aren't all that many speculative fiction/mystery crossovers out there, and this one's well worth pursuing.