1. What are you currently reading? Franklin and Lucy by Joseph E. Persico. By strange coincidence, my WWW post is illustrated by one of history's most famous Presidential mistresses while I'm reading about FDR's romances. The difference between Kennedy and Roosevelt is that it seems FDR really did fall in love, and not even JFK's most charitable biographers would claim his extramarital activities were anything other than brief, sleazy encounters. This book, which I've just begun, puts Roosevelt's love life in a historic context. How did the women in his life influence his behavior? How did the events of the world influence his personal life?
2. What did you just finish reading? Three Blind Mice and Other Stories by Agatha Christie. This was very spotty. Some of the stories were obvious. Some stories were frustrating because Miss Marple and Poirot had facts we didn't, and that's not fair. But three were great and will stay with me. "The Case of the Caretaker's Wife" is a "puzzle" created for Miss Marple by her doctor to occupy the redoubtable old girl as she recovered from the flu. "Third Floor Flat" has two young men stumbling out of a dumbwaiter and onto a murder, and Poirot figures it out. This one was really well written. And then there's "Three Blind Mice," aka "The Mousetrap." I can see why that one is considered a classic. I thought I had it figured out, then Christie tossed a red herring at me and I wavered, and it turns out I was right all along. So she kept me guessing, but in the final analysis gave me the satisfaction of being right. What a crafty audience pleaser that Agatha Christie was!
3. What will you read next? Dunno.
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