georges simenon – Page 2 – Cannonball Read 17

Some Award Nominees and other books

Maria Maria and Other Stories by Marytza K. Rubio

The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai

If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery

Shutter by Ramona Emerson

The Bird Catcher by Gayl Jones

The Shadow Puppet by Georges Simenon

September 25, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Maria Maria and other stories – 3/5 I picked up this book because it was nominated for the National Book Award, and it reminds me of how dubious I often am of story collections being nominated for fiction prizes that should probably go to novels. This is a perfectly good collection of stories, with some stories really standing out like the opening story in which a witch is dealing with a troublesome class of new students in a college witching class. Other stories that stand […]

Grab Bag

Madame Maigret's Friend by Georges Simenon

The Undiscovered Self by Carl Jung

The Hedgehog and the Fox by Isaiah Berlin

The Art of Controversy by Arthur Schopenhauer

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy

Inspector Cadaver by Georges Simenon

Mrs Bridge by Evan Connell

The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson

Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut

The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck

April 18, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Madame Maigret’s Friend – 4/5 Stars I liked this Maigret more than a lot of others I’ve read. Our mystery involves someone being arrested with a bloody coat hanging in his closet and the burnt remains of a body in his furnace. HIs lawyer maintains that he’s completely innocent of any wrongdoing (including questioning whether or not it’s actually known for sure that wrongdoing has occurred) because of the failure to link physical evidence to the crime. This becomes a bit of a musing on […]

Thanksgiving Short Books

The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nahisi Coates

Buck by MK Asante

Yellow-Back Radio Brokedown by Ishmael Reed

Guerilla Warfare by Che Guevara

The Crazy Kill by Chester Himes

The Double Helix by James Watson

Pafko at the Wall by Don Delillo

Williwaw by Gore Vidal

The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By by Georges Simenon

The Mahe Circle by Georges Simenon

The Hand by Georges Simenon

The Engagement by Georges Simenon

Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata

Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata

Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata

The Promise by Damon Galgut

Consider This by Chuck Palahniuk

Gerald's Party by Robert Coover

November 23, 2021 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

The Beautiful Struggle – 5/5 Stars I never taught in Baltimore City, but I did teach in Baltimore County, where Ta-Nehisi Coates spends part of high school. (I was two schools over, but the idea was pretty much the same there). So the result is some familiarity here. If I ever met Ta-Nehisi Coates, I think what I would want to tell him is when I was brand new to Baltimore, so when I scheduled my meeting with the MVA (DMV) I went to the […]

The room was divided in two by a black railing.

Maigret's First Case by Georges Simenon

Maigret Defends Himself by Georges Simenon

July 5, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Maigret’s First Case It should be noted that if you start with this book, you’re jumping into a 75 book series at book 30. Oddly, this doesn’t matter all that much except for this book, and the other book I read recently Maigret Defends Himself. The reason for both of these weird facts is that one, the first ten or so of the Maigret novels were also published in same year (1931) and they are almost interchangeable in terms of order. They also all start years […]

Did I hurt you?

The Blue Room by Georges Simenon

May 22, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This is a non-Maigret novel by Georges Simenon who I legally have to mention wrote 200+ novels and 80 or so mysteries starring the detective Maigret. I’ve read one other “non-Maigret” novel by Simenon, and also thought that one was quite good. This book is still structured like a mystery, where the tone and level of seriousness that the narration involves clearly indicates that something has occurred that is much more intense than the few scant details we initially have. We know that Tony and […]

Crime and Morality

The Saint-Fiacre Affair by Georges Simenon

February 21, 2020 by blauracke Leave a Comment

An anonymous letter announcing that a murder will happen on All Souls’ Day during early mass brings Inspector Maigret back to his hometown. While being dogged by memories of his youth he tries to find out the truth about an act leading to a death that may be immoral but not necessarily criminal. The setup of the mystery is rather strange because the success of the deadly plot hinges on the assumption that a fatal heart attack can be induced by a big enough shock. […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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