41 & 42

After hearing so many comments about Dorothy Sayers' mysteries, I decided I needed to check one out for myself. One commentary warned that perhaps she was less popular than she should be due to the obscure references she makes in her stories.

I wonder if it's more likely due to the fact that she wrote closer to the other end of the 20th Century and so her books are a bit more difficult to read than say, oh most modern fiction. Not that I didn't enjoy Murder Must Advertise, it was a refreshingly different kind of mystery for me. Intelligent. Humorous. With a not-so-subtle commentary on society's consumerism. Actually, it surpised me how little the world has changed in the last 100 years.

There were enough references to Jeeves and Wooster that I've decided I definitely need to read some of P.G. Wodehouse's work and not just buy it for my brother. Oh. And I'm going to keep an eye out for more of Sayers' work too.

The other book I read was The Return Journey by Maeve Binchy. This was another anthology of short stories. I find these difficult at first because Binchy is so talented at characterization and story telling that is really hard to let go of the current story and move on to the next one. In her short stories I always feel like I've only just gotten to know the characters then I'm moving on to knew ones and new stories. Bleh. And yet I can't stop reading...