Hi, Ian! The Meursault Investigation is sort of an homage to The Stranger. It casts the murder victim - a nameless Arab - as the central figure of Camus' masterpiece. Makes for a great book pairing! #devonbookhour 📚
Hi! Missed #devonbookhour again (time difference tricky). But of the books on that list, I have to put in a word for L’Etranger. Fascinating to read in conjunction with The Meursault Investigation by an Algerian writer who retells the story from the Arab who’s shot & killed that day on the beach.📚☀️
I remember reading - and liking - this when it first came out & won all sorts of literary prizes (back when the Booker was a great way to find unknown writers or novels). Moon Tiger definitely a banger!🙋♀️📚
A blackbird perches sideways on a maple bough, standing out against a foggy gray sky. The dark branches dangling down are studded with leaf buds. A black rooftop and bare treetops are visible in the distance. Baltimore, MD (March 2026)
Bird on a Bough
#SideProfiles #birds #BirdOfTheDay #ECK
A white seagull facing one way, a dark duck faces the opposite way on the cement ledge of the Reflecting Pool. Washington, DC (June 2017)
Sensing some yin/yang dynamics here. #BirdOfTheDay #MixedPairs #opposites
“It may be that they think he has nothing to do with what happened, whatever it was.” — David Szalay, Flesh
#WorldBookDay 📚
You’re absolutely right, Ian - shocking how casually slurs are flung around in literary fiction like this (the n-word right there on p. 1) but it’s part & parcel of the times back then (pre-revolutionary Cuba of 1950s)🤷♀️📚 #devonbookhour
Hi all #devonbookhour came & went, but I did want to say that rediscovering Graham Greene led to picking up Our Man in Havana - rather amusing as spy stories go despite being a product of its racist times.🤷♀️📚🕶️
I think that was a Booker long-list selection a few years ago? It always takes awhile for American edition to come out if we’re lucky enough to get one at all! Will have to see if by chance the library has it.📚🙋♀️ #devonbookhour
Also, thanks for all the reposts! Have a wonderful day🌞🙏🏻
His 1st one in the series wasn’t bad. If you mash up Silence of the Lambs and Thelma & Louise, you’d get the thriller Long Road to Mercy. Despite the flaws (stilted dialogue, cardboard-cutout bad guys, jujitsu-action scenes), it turned out to be a decent read! Let me know if you like it. 📚🫶🏽
A light-purple cosmo flowering beside an old metal bollard, its thin green stem resting on the heavy chain, its delicate petals standing out against the rusted surface. Capitol Hill sidewalk. Washington, DC (June 2025)
Chains | 'Ketten’
#FotoVorschlag #Photography
#flowers #BloomScrolling
Thanks, Susan, you get a little spoiled by good suspense writers like Tony Hillerman whose mysteries are set out there in Navajo land. Even David Balducci does a decent job in his Atlee Pine series about a rogue FBI field agent stationed out near the Grand Canyon. 🙋♀️📚 #BlueBrewBooks
Good morning, Susan☕️ #BlueBrewBooks Happy March 1st! I’m reading a tedious book called Antelope Girl. Hard to ruin a mystery set in the Grand Canyon! But this one’s over filled with Russian oligarchs, Navajo tribal police, FBI agents, Hopi truth seekers, Fish & Wildlife specialists, & a newshound.🤷♀️📚
Sun sends a searchlight beam shining straight down on the grey sea. Overhead, clouds part after a rain squall. In the foreground, the beach is wet and dark. A wooden dock missing all its planks extends into eerily still water. Marmaris, Türkiye (May 2012)
#BlueSkyArtShow #peaceful #serene
#EastCoastKin #photography #seascape #Mediterranean #Sea #Marmaris #Travel
Serenity
A view looking down at a cocktail and three types of citrus fruit sliced in half on a cutting board. Inside the glass, thin slices of lime, orange, and grapefruit float in fizzy water, port, and ice. Capitol Hill, DC (April 2020)
Cheers🍹
Citrus fruit | 'Zitrusfrüchte’
#FotoVorschlag #Photography
#refreshing #tropical #cocktail #experiment
I still see you🙋♀️
My pleasure, Angela! Jon Clinch also wrote another good spin-off called Marley, which reimagines things from the point of view of Scrooge’s business partner... 👻📚🙋♀️ #devonbookhour
I tried James & have to say it didn’t appeal to me much, or at least not as much as Finn, which tells the story of Huck’s father from Huck’s point of view - it’s by a different author who didn’t get nearly the fanfare Everett got for retelling it from Jim the slave’s perspective. 📚🤷♀️ #devonbookhour
That’d be an interesting discussion! Maybe save it for next time? ‘Modern classics’ almost sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it📚✨ #devonbookhour
I think it takes a dab hand to tackle big social issues in fiction - White Teeth by Zadie Smith comes to mind and The Trial by Kafka along with a host of Dickens novels like Oliver Twist. Of course, some of his were total duds like Hard Times.📚🤷♀️ #devonbookhour
Yes, I did read ‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’ long ago. He (Solzhenitsin) wrote a wonderful little fable about an ant & a log that’s always stuck with me. Should’ve stuck with the short form! The Gulag Archipelago was too heavy-going however eye-opening at the time. #devonbookhour
Oh, yes, for sure, Ian, the anticipation is everything when choosing the next book to read. I think I’ll give the new Wuthering Heights a pass, based on the previews.🎬♥️ #devonbookhour
Well, they have depth as well as longevity. The writing is usually gorgeous and the themes are enduring, I’d say. Personally, I think books like Ethan Frome (Edith Wharton) & The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald) helped set the bar for the novella form & deserve to be “classics”.📚 #devonbookhour
Hi, all #devonbookhour Read a silly but amusing romance novel called Hello, Stranger! maybe because Valentine’s Day was coming up. I’m sort of between books now. I’ve got plenty on my shelves (actual & digital) but you have to be in the mood to start a new one, don’t you, at least for me.📚🙋♀️
The red rose Dark Desire blooming, its crimson petals edged with purple seen against green leaves. US Botanic Garden. Washington, DC (May 2024)
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” —Abraham Lincoln 🌹
#PresidentsDay #roses
thanks, Liv🐦⬛🎶🤍
Kind of you to say, Alan. Love the sound as well as sight of all these songbirds. They add so much to our world.🎶🐦⬛😊
True that.🦢🤍
A songbird perched atop a glass lamppost. Its open beak is lifted toward the sky overhead as small white clouds drift by on a spring day. Washington, DC (May 2017)
Here’s to all the songbirds doing their thing, singing their little heads off, broadcasting their whereabouts, establishing their territory, or maybe just trilling away for the sheer pleasure of it.🎶
#birds #LookUp #Photography #urban #EastCoastKin #SmallWonders #BirdOfTheDay #BirdsBeingBirds
