Joe’s Year in Books

What did you read this year?

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2023

54,541

pages read

156

books read

Joe

Shortest Book

144

pages

Longest Book

874

pages

Average book length in 2023

349

pages

Most Shelved

8,092,932

people also shelved

'THE ADVERTISING MURDERS by Julian Symons

Least Shelved

people also shelved

Joe’s average rating for 2023

3.3

Highest Rated on Goodreads

4.26 average

The Case of the Black Twenty-Two by Brian Flynn

Joe’s first review of the year

liked it

The Case of the Black Twenty-Two by Brian Flynn, (1928), is the second adventure of Anthony Bathurst - yet another well-to-do amateur sleuth. Our hero - along with Scotland Yard - is asked to solve two murders - of a night watchman and a wealthy man - that happened miles apart, yet are tied together by artifacts belonging to Mary, Queen of Scots.

Our young Bathurst is nowhere near as eccentric as say Poirot, Vance or Wimsey, but is still clever. ...more

JOE’S 2023 BOOKS

Mr. Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva

Murder After Christmas by Rupert Latimer

Weapons of Mass Delusion by Robert Draper

it was amazing

The Saint Meets the Tiger by Leslie Charteris

Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli by Mark Seal

it was amazing

Uninvited Guests by J. Jefferson Farjeon

The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green

it was amazing

The Greek Coffin Mystery by Ellery Queen

really liked it

The Saint Closes the Case by Leslie Charteris

The Death of Democracy by Benjamin Carter Hett

really liked it

Dead Man's Mistress by David Housewright

The Case of the Lame Canary by Erle Stanley Gardner

The Day That Never Comes by Caimh McDonnell

really liked it

Mr Finchley Goes to Paris by Victor Canning

The Last Coincidence by Robert Goldsborough

really liked it

The Case of the Demented Spiv by George Bellairs

The Unfathomable Ascent by Peter Ross Range

it was amazing

really liked it

Hitler's First Hundred Days by Peter Fritzsche

The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly

Gold Comes in Bricks by Erle Stanley Gardner

Behind That Curtain by Earl Derr Biggers

it was amazing

Roosevelt Sweeps Nation by David Pietrusza

it was amazing

Murder by an Aristocrat by Mignon G. Eberhart

The White Priory Murders by Carter Dickson

Joe’s last review of the year

it was amazing

REREAD 9/23

It’s 1933. William E. Dodd – a name that most likely doesn’t ring an historical bell - was 64 years old, a transplanted southerner and the History Department Head at the University of Chicago. Dodd was feeling his age and also a little sorry for himself, having not realized his life’s ambitions, particularly the completion of a history of the antebellum South he’s dreamed of writing. His phone rings and it’s the new President, Franklin REREAD 9/23

It’s 1933. William E. Dodd – a name that most likely doesn’t ring an historical bell - was 64 years old, a transplanted southerner and the History Department Head at the University of Chicago. Dodd was feeling his age and also a little sorry for himself, having not realized his life’s ambitions, particularly the completion of a history of the antebellum South he’s dreamed of writing. His phone rings and it’s the new President, Franklin Roosevelt, requesting that he take the job of Ambassador to Germany – a country in transition with Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party assuming power.

Even then and without the aid of historical hindsight, this appointment was not a “plum” assignment. Dodd was not Roosevelt’s first choice, nor even his second, but Dodd accepted. Duty had called and besides he believed he could finish his Southern history while overseas. So he and his family packed up – with their Chevy - boarded an ocean liner and made their way to Berlin – their lives never to be the same again.

Larson, using letters and diaries, particularly of Dodd’s and his daughter Martha, chronicles the first year of Hitler’s Germany through their eyes. Dodd was a fuddy-duddy – nicknamed “Ambassador Dudd” by his fellow State Department “peers” – frugal, unpretentious and liked nothing more than to finish his day with a glass of warm milk, stewed peaches and a good book. Dodd’s 24 year-old daughter Martha viewed the trip as an international romantic adventure. In the process of getting a divorce at the time, she collected lovers in Germany like butterflies – her list of paramours both extensive and at times shocking.

As we follow the Dodds, the new Ambassador, at times, comes across as incredibly naïve and provincial; his daughter Martha as downright vacuous. Regardless, while meeting the Nazi “elite” – from Hitler on down – and witnessing the ever increasing Nazi perniciousness, - the Reichstag fire trial, the ever increasing Nazi anti-Semitism and “The Night of the Long Knives” - both father and daughter, (and mother and son – the reader just doesn’t hear as much from them), soon realize that Nazi Germany was an evil force that would soon need to reckoned with. (For instance Dodd spent his post-Ambassador career speaking around the U.S., warning the country about the inevitable conflict, until it inevitably occurred.) Because of their “Americana normalcy”, the opening of the Dodds’ eyes foreshadowed what was to sweep across this country in just a few years time.

I found In The Garden of Beasts to be Larson’s best effort yet. His books are labeled as novelistic history and although that is a mouthful, the description is apt. Using the Dodds and their observations, perspectives and mounting concerns as a guide to the early days of Nazi Germany is a twist of literary genius. Included in this story are also plenty of engaging sub-plots. For instance the insipid, juvenile antics of the self-named “Pretty Good Club”, a group of wealthy, narrow minded, immature men employed by the State Department; who with their back-biting, condescension and gossip made Dodds’ job unnecessarily more difficult. On the other side of the Atlantic, the sheer buffoonery of Hermann Goering, Hitler’s right-hand (fat) man, captured here, is also worth noting.

Highly recommended. ...more

2023 READING
CHALLENGE

Joe read 156 out of 100 books.

156%

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