This is the first Post-War Maigret I have read. The are good easy reads that keep you interested. They are quite short so can be easily read in one long sitting - or over a weekend. I rate Georges Simenon as a writer - his non-Maigret crime is excellent.
Maigret and the Ghost, Georges Simenon
This is an engrossing autobiography by Howard Zinn. Through his life of activism he has shown episodes and incidents which give him hope when faced with the oppressive tyranny of government. The reasons for this hope have two main aspects, that there are people who will preserve despite the odds and that a movement for change is made up of such individuals. Change is rarely about one event, one rally, one person, it is about many small changes, it involves many failures, and at first may appear to be an act in isolation.
This book is well written and well thought through. It helps perhaps that I agree with Zinn politically.
You can't be neutral on a moving train, Howard ZinnBritish Sci-Fi survivor novel – first published 1965. It's a format I enjoy and John Christopher is good at it - HG Wells pretty much invented this sub-genre and Christopher turned it into the format we know now. With HG Wells it is about forming a better world after the destruction of the old. With Christopher it is about lowest common denominators, gangs getting together being told what to do by the most brutal of leaders. Intelligence is no match for force - in the short term at least. Longer term they thoughtful, if they are still alive, may have the chance to establish themselves.
In this book the earth is hit by a series of earthquakes – the English Channel is now more. The hero is living in Guernsey at the time of the quakes. The story is his story as he learns to adapt to the new, post-quake, world.
This book is good but if you haven't read it The Death of Grass, also by John Christopher, is probably better.
A Wrinkle in the Skin, John Christopher.
This is the fourth of the Nestor Burma detective storied I have read. Ther previous two were, 120 Rue de la Gare(book 1), Dynamite Versus QED (book 2), and Rats of Montsouris (book 15). This one was book 4. They are funny, flipant, french, and now a little old - this one was written in 1946, set in 1942.
I'd love to read all Mallet's books but the ones which have been transalted seem to be out of print - or too expensive. Still they crop up on amazon now and then.
Mission to Marseilles, Leo Mallet
