Rounding Up: Seeds, Christie Mysteries, and the Brennans

Time for another roundup of books I've been reading...

Seeds: One Man's Serendipitous Journey to Find the Trees That Inspired Famous American Writers from Faulkner to Kerouac, Welty to Wharton, by Richard Horan - I cannot remember where I heard about this one, from a fellow blogger or from one of the many gardening sites that I follow? Anyway, I wanted to love it and did...sporadically, which means it was a 3-star read for me. The idea is that English teacher and novelist, Horan got the idea to make pilgrimages to the homes of literary luminaries and other noteworthy people who have inspired him and collect seeds from the trees in their yards and then plant and nurture them. A cool idea, a great notion that naturally leads to a book about the pilgrimages and the trees and the challenges with gathering seeds. 

Among my favorites is the first featured in the book when Horan and his family visit Lincoln's home in Springfield, IL and he recognizes the tree in the front yard from a photograph of Lincoln. Turns out, the tree from 1860 is still alive and gracing the property. Cool, right? My other favorites were his visit to Gettysburg where he shows off his writing chops and writes a beautiful tribute to this hallowed ground, his visit to several of Robert Frost's homes, and the trip to Herman Melville's farm. I got a bit bored towards the end and will confess to skimming a bit. I like visiting favorite author's homes and seeing landscapes that inspired or influenced their work, and with my interest in gardening and trees this was a natural. I learned a lot, gained some interesting factoids, and got itchy feet that long to be on the road. Speaking of which, his bit about Kerouac has made me think maybe I should reread On the Road, which I read as teen in the 1970s and loathed, but maybe I might appreciate it as an adult. Maybe.

We Are the Brennans, by Tracey Lange - Unlike Seeds, I know exactly from whom I heard about this novel, JoAnn of Gulfside Musing. She raved about a reread of it, and JoAnn has not steered me wrong yet. This is a wonderful story about an Irish-American family in New York that is navigating the troubled waters stirred up by secrets from the past. I enjoyed getting to know each of the family members, from only daughter Sunday to her various brothers, her senile father, and the larger extended family. I would like to read more by this author.

And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie - a chilling study in psychological warfare in which a sociopathic killer systematically accomplishes ten murders, following the recipe of an old nursery rhyme. The racism of the original version has been cleaned up. Not a fun read but a good look at why Christie is still the queen of the mystery.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by Agatha Christie - Audible offers members freebies and when I saw that Richard Armitage was the reader of this first Hercule Poirot mystery and it wouldn't cost me a credit, I jumped at the chance to listen to Richard and fill in my backlist of Christie mysteries. It was actually more fun than the other Christie I read at the same time, although I must say that Hercule Poirot gets on my nerves a bit and his foil, Hastings, must be the stupidest man on the planet. Published in 1920, it is a between-the-wars story with a good cast and lots of admirable red herrings and a clever ending.