The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder,Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

Who knew a book about how one of the most staid and respected reference books in the English language could be a tale of such intrigue and mystery?  I certainly didn't before my book club decided to read Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (#288).

I assumed when I started reading this book (and for about three quarters of the way through!) that the scholarly-looking gentleman in the cover photograph was James Murray, the eccentric Scottish polymath and eventual Oxford don who spearheaded the assembly and editing of the entries of what would become the Oxford English Dictionary over the course of more than twenty years.  I was wrong, however.  The man pictured is William Chester Minor, an American surgeon, veteran of the Civil War, murderer, major contributor to the nascent dictionary, and the true subject of this intriguing tale.

I also never realized until I read this volume how much we take the availability of a plethora of dictionaries and other word-related reference books for granted, and what a comparatively recent development they are.  What went into the creation of this standard work (which I am ashamed to admit I have never personally consulted, my bookshelves only being able to accommodate a single volume dictionary) is quite an eye-opener.  Since you yourself are a reader, too, I think you would find this book a little gem.

Not that it is without its faults: William Minor's main contribution to the OED (as we crossword puzzle fans know it!) was the myriad (Think thousands upon thousands!!!) of attribution quotes he mined from his own private library of early English language works included in every entry.  Yet at the beginning of each chapter, there is a related entry word from the OED itself which includes the etymology and the definitions, but omits the quotations which Minor was credited with contributing.  A rather curious omission, I thought.  I invite you to see what you think of it yourself.  I don't think you'll find your time wasted.

Mrs. Queen Takes the Train

I thoroughly enjoyed William Kuhn's novel Mrs. Queen Takes the Train (#287).  In fact, I gave it five stars on my Goodreads list, which I don't attribute to too many books.

It's a simple enough premise: The Queen has been feeling out of sorts lately.  On a cold, rainy afternoon, she leaves her office in Buckingham Palace to go visit her horses in the Royal Mews, leaving her beloved corgis behind.  When her young equerry comes to see her before he leaves for the day, he cannot find her.  He recruits her senior dresser, her butler and a lady-in-waiting to help him find her before the Press can raise any alarms.  A young groom from the Mews, and a young man on his Gap year working in an exclusive cheese shop prove to be the last ones to have seen Her Majesty, and the hunt is on.

What makes this book so special are the back stories of all these characters.  What binds them to the Palace and keeps them there?  As it turns out, The Queen  is not the only one suffering silently, yet carrying on.  Unlikely alliances are formed as the Members of the Staff (and the young Supplier to the Queen!) join together to spare The Queen any embarrassment in her present state of mind.  All are strengthened by these bonds and given new hope to carry on.  If awards were given to the characters in this cast, it would have to be an ensemble award, as no one character dominates here.

But of course, I have to get in my two cents' worth about the final cover art of Mrs. Queen Takes the Train.  I read a pre-publication copy which I think had much better cover art - a white oval featuring a sleek passenger train with discretely crossed Union Jacks surmounted by a small gold crown set into a subdued paisley print.  It made me want to pick up the book.  I got that Mrs. Queen was going to be THE Queen.  I can't say the same of the published cover.  It has way too much British kitsch.  It's way too cutesy to ever attract me in a bookstore.  And that's a shame, because I would have missed a fabulous read.   So keep in mind that old adage - You can't judge a book by its cover - and know that it holds true in this case!

The Racketeer

Somewhere back in the ancient mists of time, I vaguely remember reading one of John Grisham's early best sellers.  I couldn't tell you which one it was at this point.  Suffice it to say that it couldn't have made that much of an impression on me if it's taken me this long to get around to reading another one, The Racketeer (#286).  It's probably safe to say that it will take me an equally long period of time to get around to reading another one.

The eponymous racketeer of the title is small town attorney Malcolm Baldwin, who has wound up in a federal prison for innocently taking on the wrong anonymous client for a simple real estate transaction at exactly the wrong time, just as the government was closing in on that client with a host of RICOH charges, busily sweeping up anyone who had done business with him in its net.  Malcolm has done five years of his sentence, losing home, family and his career, when a federal judge is murdered in Virginia.  Malcolm finally has his literal "get out of prison" card since he knows who killed the judge and why.

I know several of my friends raved about this book, but although it was entertaining enough to keep me occupied on a plane, I will admit to feeling manipulated by the author as pertinent facts were deliberately concealed from the reader in such an obvious way that it was not possible to reasonably guess the outcome.  Of course then the book could have been a hundred pages shorter and nobody would have noticed.  But that's probably just me.  Grisham's a perennial best seller.  The mystery here for me is "Why?"

Suspect

Robert Crais's latest book, Suspect (#285) is on my library's "Most Wanted" list, and after reading it, I can understand why.  I was irritated when my husband tried to talk to me while I was submerged in this book.  I just had to keep reading to find out what happened next.

LAPD Officer Scott James was gunned down, and his partner killed when they witnessed a violent car-jacking murder on a quiet Los Angeles street.  Scott survived, but no one has been able to break or solve the case.  Despite attempts to make Scott take a Medical retirement from the force, he is determined to stay a cop until he can crack the case himself.  He is unexpectedly paired up with a new partner with an equally traumatic past: her gunshot wounds and lost partner echo his own.  What makes this pairing special and unique is that Maggie, his new partner, is a retired Marine Military Working Dog and veteran of two tours in Iraq who was wounded in Afghanistan trying to protect her handler.  Can these two wounded warriors ever overcome their suspect past and make an effective police team?

You bet they can!  Just how they do it makes for a compelling and frequently touching read.  I've never read any of Mr. Crais's work before, but I know I'll be checking out his backlog of work in the near future.

Gulp

My husband and I have a Friday night tradition: we never cook.  After a long week of work, we mostly order take-out, and pizza is a frequent choice.  We used to sit on the couch and eat while we watched a rental video.  That is, until the night many years ago when we rented RoboCop starring Peter Weller.  The movie was so fraught with gore that we had to put down our slices of pizza.  From that moment on, we rated things we watched or read that induced a similar "ick" factor as "not pizza material".  And much as I loved Mary Roach's latest venture into science Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (#284), I would definitely have to give it a "not pizza material" rating.  Some of it is just too gross to read about while eating, but with Mary's typical treatment of the fascinating facts she includes here, you also run a strong risk of experiencing nasal regurgitation.  In other words, you could find yourself laughing so hard that whatever you're eating or drinking spurts out your nose.  (Her footnotes are especially deadly in this regard!)  And thanks for giving me the precise scientific term to describe this particular phenomenon, Mary.

I don't want to sound as though I'm warning you off this book - in fact, just the opposite - I'm highly recommending it.  I learned more about the digestive tract and its functions (and malfunctions!) than I ever did after a year of anatomy & physiology (with lab!), foundations of disease, medical terminology and other assorted courses related to becoming certified as a Registered Health Information Administrator!  Mary Roach literally gives you an appetite to learn more, and makes it fun to boot.

So go out there and grab yourself a copy of Gulp and take your own adventure cruise down the Alimentary Canal.   (Hmm - sounds like this could be located in the Travel Section of your local bookstore!)  Just hold off on the refreshments while reading.

Murder at Mansfield Park

If Jane Austen hadn't been too gentile to include murder in her novels, I'm sure she would have written it in a similar fashion to  Lynn Shepherd's tribute mystery Murder at Mansfield Park (#283).  And Fanny Price is certainly a character JA's fans would rejoice to see in the role of victim.  (At least this one did!)

If you've ever read the original Mansfield Park, or seen any of the film adaptions of it, you know the general story and characters.  Even if you haven't, you can still enjoy Ms. Shepherd's story on its own merits, as my husband did (and he's not a JA fan!).

I recently read Ms. Shepherd's take off of Charles Dickens' Bleak House entitled Solitary House (See my post of  3/17/13.) and was so taken with it and the references to the older Charles Maddox's work in solving the murder at Mansfield Park during the Regency period, that I had to go back and read this first novel.  Much as I enjoyed reading Murder at Mansfield Park, I think Ms. Shepherd has really found her metier in the London of Dickens' time.  She has based her next novel on Charles Maddox the younger, and I think that's a wise choice.  That's not to say that I wouldn't welcome any further ventures into the world of Jane Austen - I'd be right there in line to read the next the one!

The Assassin's Mark

Do you have a fear of being trapped on a package tour with a group of difficult fellow tourists?  Then reading David Ebsworth's latest novel, The Assassin's Mark (#282) won't do much to change your mind. 

This murder mystery with a strong political component unfolds as a mostly British group of tourists embark on a tour of the Northern Battlefields sponsored by Generalissimo Franco's Nationalist Government during the Spanish Civil War in 1938 .  If you read my recent review of P.J. O'Rourke's Holidays in Hell (See my post of 2/28/13.) you know he'd be one of the first to sign up for this! 

Jack Telford's left-leaning newspaper has sent this ardent pacifist to report on the physical and political conditions in Spain, but he finds himself at odds with most of his fellow travelers and their Irish official tour guide.  Things are supposed to be safe here now (Of course there was that unfortunate accident at the hotel...), but the more Jack observes, and the more questions he asks, the more obvious it becomes to him that everything and everyone is not what they appear to be.  While Jack is fighting his own internal battles about what he believes to be the morally correct path for both Spain and the rest of Europe, he almost misses what is under his very nose.  It's almost like watching one of those horror movies when the audience knows there's a monster lurking behind that door, but the actor just has to open it...

This book made me want to dig a bit more into the history of the Spanish Civil War.  I remember visiting Spain in 1977 just after Franco died, and being struck as an American by the strong military presence everywhere in a way that I had never experienced.  It's hard for me to imagine what it must have been like for the Spaniards after forty years of living this way.  This book, as all good historical fiction does, helps put that in perspective for me.  It also helped that I had recently read Madeline Albright's memoir Prague Winter (See my post of 12/13/12.) for background on the Sudetenland crisis in Czechoslovakia.    The Assassin's Mark is not a fast read but it's a most interesting one.  That was also true of Ebsworth's first book The Jacobite's Apprentice (See my post of 10/27/12.); figuring out the politics takes some time and concentration.

But David Ebsworth paints such an appealing picture of Spain's northern Basque country, and Spanish cooking that it drove my husband to start researching a trip to Spain.  We're definitely not  taking a package tour, though!