Murphy was born in Lismore, Ireland, in 1931, the daughter of the town librarian. It was the fodder for her first and best-known book, Full Tilt, published in 1965, and named one of the ten best cycling books in history by The Guardian, and one of the twenty best travel books of the 20th century by The Times. Her first big trip was to ride a casual several thousand miles from Dunkirk to India (technically she began in Ireland, where she lived, but the real bike traveling didn’t begin until she arrived in France). Riding a 3-speed Armstrong Cadet she called “Roz,” packed efficiently with a light sleeping bag and clothes and a notebook. Mostly by bicycle, or, at least, at first, and that’s how she gained her following. Incredible, because she didn’t begin traveling in earnest until she was in her early 30s. Throughout her career, Murphy wrote some 26 books about her travels. It was a moment of such fearlessness, confidence, and total disdain for bullshit, that it tells you a lot of what you need to know about Murphy, one of the most celebrated, beloved, and voluminous travel writers of the 20th century. Tired of being confused for a man and for the husband of her 20-something daughter she was traveling with throughout Cameroon, a 55-year-old Dervla Murphy began taking a frank and unusual tack-she unbuttoned her shirt the moment she sensed a gendered misunderstanding.
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Could it be a trio of mysterious Indian jugglers seen near the house? Or a love-struck housemaid suddenly behaving strangely? And there is Rachel herself, who becomes furious when her paramour, Franklin Blake, directs attempts to find it. When it goes missing later that night, suspicions are raised and accusations fly. But someone knows the secret of the Moonstone and will go to desperate measures to retrieve it. She is not aware that the precious gem, known as the Moonstone, has been missing since it was plundered from a sacred Hindu shrine in southern India where her uncle had served with the British army fifty years ago. At a party celebrating her eighteenth birthday, Rachel Verinder wears the stunning yellow diamond she unexpectedly inherited from her uncle, Colonel John Herncastle. The Moonstone is one of the most famous suspense novels of all time: a masterpiece of construction and the ultimate page-turner, it introduced one of the world’s most beloved genres, the detective story. He learns how secrets withheld generate blatant lies - the unknown woman who phoned him at midnight or Kumiko's passionate sex with her numerous lovers - to build steadily into a shimmering veil of deception, a patina of unreality between husband and wife that cannot be trusted as the true face of their relationship. Following Lieutenant Mamiya's (admittedly enforced) example, Toru begins meditating at the bottom of a dry well near his home. This is a hard lesson for the spiritually challenged and Murakami's bizarre allegories teach it well. "Everything was intertwined, with the complexity of a three-dimensional puzzle - a puzzle in which truth was not necessarily fact and fact not necessarily truth." Toru alone is "supernormal", trusting in appearances and face values until, as the comfortingly familiar is stripped from him - the wind-up bird that routinely creaks like an alarm clock outside the window each morning suddenly stops, Kumiko's cat disappears, Kumiko herself disappears - he drifts into a helplessly bewildered stasis. All these characters possess some psychic quality or have suffered some touchstone experience that taps into a parallel supernatural world. Here for a good time, not for a long time. ( Titles, titles, titles, announced in my best Robert Baratheon voice.) Lady Mulgrave, whose preferred name is Pip, or also literally any name that isn’t “Lady” Mulgrave, is a bit of a playboy with a Peter Pan complex. We’re introduced to a very flawed, sometimes infuriating protagonist Lady Phillipa Anne Marion Farne-Sacksley of Mulgrave. That said, from the synopsis I was generally expecting a pretty straightforward continuation but with more royalty, angst and motorcycles. (I somehow missed the release of Modern English, the second book – more on that later.) It doesn’t matter much if you read the three English books out of order, but it’s always fun to have that experience of already knowing some of the established cast. Plain English, the third book, features many of the same characters. I’d already read Full English last year, the first book in the English series, which is set in the small English town of Amberwick. But Spangler’s writing is much more diverse than that label gives them credit for, and their newest book Plain English showcases that range. In my mind, I often refer to Spangler as “the author who writes sports romance,” and yeah, I’m a big sucker for a feel-good sports story. Rachel Spangler is probably one of my most read authors of sapphic romance because they are so darn reliable. They are given unique headgear and matching names, but are far from one dimensional. The cast of supporting characters is also a delight. Their delightful and sometimes too-innocent seeming personality instantly makes them a protagonist you adore and want to see find happiness and success. Who else would make such a perfect self-insert character than a literal skeleton? We’ve all got one! That’s not to say that Honda-san doesn’t have their own distinct personality and thoughts, but the appearance of the character just works well with linking your own experiences to the situation they are in. Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san excels at being an extremely relatable story. The Good Customer Service An unusual request Take a peek behind the curtain at daily life in a bookstore, from stocking the shelves and handling sales reps to navigating foreign customers and recommendation requests. This skeleton bookseller recounts tales of the variety of customers they have seen in their days – the good and the bad. Journey into the romanticized land of working in a bookstore with Honda-san. Life as a bookseller is not as peaceful as you imagined |