Bok Log 2019 #55: Seeing Further by Bill Bryson (editor)

This collection of essays was compiled for the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society, the UK's national academy of the sciences. Each of its authors goes into detail about a specific topic or area of scientific inquiry, looking mostly at where things stand today and what the future may hold. 

While there is some historical writing, this book is not a retrospective on how the Society furthered the cause of science over the last three and a half centuries. Which is probably in keeping with the idea of the Society and its promotion of learning and discovery.

Some of the essays are pretty heavy, and I'll admit to doing some skimming along the way. From what I've read this is probably something you'll want to tackle in print, as it's got a number of illustrations that, based on my experience, didn't translate well to an electronic format. 

Book Log 2019 #54: Slaying the Badger by Richard Moore

It was hard to follow the Tour de France in the US in the 1980s. You'd get an hour or so of coverage on a Sunday afternoon, getting what CBS thought was the highlights of the week. Even with this limited access, I was taken with the race pretty much the second I learned it existed. Which made it all the more exciting when an American - an American! - won the race.

This book covers that 1986 race, where Greg LeMond became the first non-European to win the overall title, besting teammate (and five time winner) Bernard Hinault (the Badger of the title), whose pledge to ride in support of LeMond was not apparent in the actual racing. The book follows the race and the growing animosity between the riders (which of course spread throughout their whole team), and then catches up with the riders in the present for their recollections and thoughts about what happened.

This probably isn't LeMond's best-known Tour win to Americans (that would probably be the 1989 win where he made up a 50 second deficit to Laurent Fignon on the last day's time trial into Paris), but for history and drama it's hard to top. Anyone with an interest in competitive cycling should read this. There is also a 30 for 30 documentary by the same name which I've not watched but will hopefully get around to someday.

Sadly, Moore passed away unexpectedly in March 2022. 

 Book Log 2019 #53: Faithful Place by Tana French

A teenaged Frank Mackey (who we met in The Likeness as the main character's handler in the Dublin police) makes plans to run away to London with his girlfriend, but on the night of their planned departure she never shows. Thinking she dumped him due to his family, he leaves home (on the titular Faithful Place) and never returns.

At least not until two decades later, when Mackey's sister calls him out of the blue to say that a suitcase was found behind a fireplace in the abandoned house where Mackey and his girlfriend were going to meet. That bring Mackey back to the old neighborhood, and into an investigation as to what actually happened to his girlfriend.

This might be my favorite novel in the Dublin Murder Squad series, due to how the case and Mackey's family history intertwine.  While all the cases to this point had a personal element to them, this one is the most personal, and that may be what elevates the story for me. As with Rebus, this is a series you should be reading if you aren't already (although be forewarned that it's a very different series in terms of tone and emotional impact).

 Book Log 2019 #52: Rather Be the Devil by Ian Rankin

Old and new cases entwine, as John Rebus picks up a 40 year old murder that has connections to an attack on Darryl Christie, the apparent new underworld boss in Edinburgh. As Rebus again teams up with Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox to investigate the cases, he has to deal with his personal health and long-time nemesis Gerald "Big Ger" Cafferty, who may not be as retired as he seems.

At this point I'm just happy we're still getting Rebus novels. Start reading them if you haven't already.

 Book Log 2019 #51: Milkman by Anna Burns

A girl growing up in Troubles-era Northern Ireland attracts the attention of a paramilitary member known as "milkman," though she is resistant to his advances as he's older and married and she has a kinda-sorta boyfriend. As the interest turns into stalking, the girl has to face increased gossip about her relationship with milkman, which also hurts her familial relationships, most notably with her mother. The story plays out in a very Troubles sort of way, though the ending does offer a bit of a surprise as to how the girl is able to return to a normal life (or as normal as could be during the Troubles).

I see I only gave this three stars on Goodreads, and I don't remember why. I do recall a feeling of annoyance at how the plot was driven by rumor and gossip, but that's probably true to how things would have gone at the time. I did like the book overall, so it could be my middle aged man's point of view that's the problem.

 Book Log 2019 #50: Unnatural Causes by P.D. James

Adam Dalgliesh is on holiday, spending some time in his aunt's cabin on the Suffolk coast. But of course someone has to turn up dead, and in this case it's a local crime writer. Suspects abound, from the local literary circle to the family of the deceased, and when the evidence points in contradictory directions, Dalgliesh is compelled to help the local detectives figure out whodunit.

Three books in and I'm still not really feeling this series. I may re-read the Morse novels again before moving on to the next installment here.

Book Log 2019 #49: Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel

This is Mandel's first novel, and if you've read other books by her prior to this one you'll feel comfortable with the transient and somewhat mysterious female protagonist Lilia . A criminal act committed by her father when Lilia was young leads to a life in motion, one which continues into her adulthood. This seems almost needless, except that a detective hired to find Lilia is still trying to find her, having become obsessed with finally finding her.

One night in New York, Lilia decides it's time to leave again, but in doing so her boyfriend Eli decides he needs to track her down to figure out why she left. As you might have guessed from the title, all parties wind up in Montreal, where things come to a head.

While the main character here is similar to those in later works, this is a very different book from Station Eleven, so adjust your expectations accordingly. I did enjoy it, although I was often at odds with the idea that the detective and Eli were both so committed to finding Lilia. Maybe I just don't understand obsession that well.

 Book Log 2019 #48: The Quiet American by Graham Greene

I haven't read a lot of Greene's work, but picked this up remembering how much I liked Our Man in Havana. This is a very different book from that one, but I enjoyed it just as much, just in a different way.

The book is set in the early days of the Vietnam War, in that time where the French were beginning to fade out but before the US started sending troops. A British journalist makes the acquaintance of a CIA agent, whose goal is to get Vietnam to fall under a "third force" that is neither capitalism nor communism, but a form a rule that combines local custom and tradition with a Western style government. The tension between the jaded journalist and true believer spy plays out both in how they experience and influence the war and in their common love for a local woman.

The book was inspired by Greene's time in Vietnam, and displays a good understanding of the country and its people, as well as an uncanny sense of how the war would wind up going. Reading it now, so many years after the war's end, makes it an even stronger indictment of the idea of American exceptionalism. It also makes me wish that more of the people who've been in charge of US wars over the last 30 years had read this. 

 Book Log 2019 #47: Fall or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson

I was not a huge fan of REAMDE, so I wasn't too thrilled that this novel brought back Richard "Dodge" Forthrast, the gaming company billionaire. But it turns out his presence in the novel is relatively short - sort of.

(Spoiler alert, inasmuch as you can have spoilers on a book three-plus years after it came out.)

Dodge winds up brain dead after a routine medical procedure goes sideways (when doctors tell you not to eat before going under, you should listen to them), and before taking him off life support his brain is scanned to create a connectome, a full structural mapping. Years later, a grandniece loads this connectome into a server and is able to reboot Dodge.

And it is a reboot. Rather than picking up where he left off, this new Dodge starts more or less from scratch, though over time it's clear that there are some memories (or something akin to memories) that help the cloud-based Dodge (now going by Edgod) develop a sense of self and a new world based on meatspace.

From there the book follows both the development of this new online world (and the introduction of new connectomes to it) and the struggle for control of the new world (which takes place both online and in physical space).

The novel ties together both the REAMDE and Cryptonomicon timelines, with characters from both making appearances (several of whom wind up in the cloud). I'm assuming this puts an end to this universe, which is a little disappointing if true (I would rather have had two more novels with the Waterhouse/Shaftoe family than the two Forthrast books).

I also wish this book was at least 200 pages shorter. At some point lush detail becomes overkill, and this book reaches that point several times. On the other hand, there was a decent ending to the book, which isn't always a guarantee for Stephenson. 

 Book Log 2019 #46: A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury

I picked this up so I'd have something to read while on jury duty (while waiting to get called, not during actual jury duty), and it was a good choice inasmuch as a short story collection is easier to get in and out of when you might have to stop reading on short notice. 

As for the stories themselves, it's a mixed bag. There are 32 stories, so it's not shocking that some of them aren't great. But with that many stories, you can easily pass on one of it's not working for you and move on to the next. All of the stories are typical of Bradbury's writing, so if you're a fan you may find the overall collection more to your liking.

This collection was originally published as The Golden Apples of the Sun.

 Book Log 2019 #45: The Dark Vineyard by Martin Walker

An agricultural research station just outside of Saint-Denis burns, with suspicion turning to local environmentalists who oppose its work on GMO crops. While local police chief Bruno investigates that, he also has to deal with the public outcry over a California winery's plans to buy up as many local vineyards as they can to create a larger, more industrial vineyard.  While Bruno tries to handle both events with his trademark informal investigating, a couple of bodies turn up, increasing the pressure on him to get everything back to normal.

I really do enjoy this series. Bruno is an excellent character, and the descriptions of the Dordogne region will make you want to visit. Or move there for good.

 Book Log 2019 #44: The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

The sequel to Old Man's War, it introduces us to the Ghost Brigades, the special forces units of the Colonial Defense Forces. Where their regular troops are elderly, living people who get their mind transplanted into young, new, enhanced bodies, the Ghost Brigades are created from the DNA of dead people, and optimized for combat. 

I won't go into too many plot details to avoid spoilers, but suffice it to say that creating new beings out of DNA doesn't always go as planned. 

Kind of funny that I read this after The Obelisk Gate, as they're complete opposites in many ways, but they both excel at the sort of reading experience they're aimed at giving, so maybe it's not that odd?  

 Book Log 2019 #43: The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin

I read this book two and a half years ago (I'm backfilling the Book Log, the publish dates are the finish dates I have on Goodreads), and I don't remember much about it, other than I really liked it. I'm also wondering if there was a lot of time between reading this and the first book in the trilogy, The Fifth Season (which I've not logged here as it looks like I didn't add start or end dates in Goodreads, so it's not showing up in the chronology of my read books), as I recall having to refresh myself a bit on characters and events. Anyway, you should read the trilogy if you haven't yet.

 Book Log 2019 #42: The Likeness by Tana French

Cassie Maddox - who we met in the first Dublin Murder Squad novel - has left the squad, but gets pulled back in due to a very unusual circumstance. Turns out that a body turned up that not only looks strikingly like Cassie, but has an ID with the same name the Cassie used in an undercover case. In order to find the killer - and figure out just exactly who the victim actually is - Cassie agrees to go undercover as the victim, an especially challenging role given that she shares a house with several other people. One of whom is most likely the killer.

I really enjoyed this, and if you've not read anything in this series (and are interested in contemporary murder mysteries) I'd highly suggest you start reading these.

 Book Log 2019 #41: The Fallen Architect by Charles Belfoure

At what should have been a highlight of his career, the theater designed by London architect Douglas Layton suffers a collapse. After serving a prison sentence for the deadly results of the collapse, Layton finds a new job in the theater - scene painter - but soon becomes involved in a series of murders which seem to be connected to the theater collapse. Layton thus begins to look for the killer, thinking that if he catches that person he'll also catch the person responsible for the theater disaster.

I thought Belfoure's first book, The Paris Architect, was good for a first novel, and was glad to see that this book didn't repeat some of the things that I thought detracted from the first one. I'm also still taken with the use of architecture in the mystery/thriller genre, and hope that future works will blend the two as well as this book (and the first one) did.

 Book Log 2019 #40: The Girl Who Takes and Eye for an Eye by David Langercrantz

The fifth book in the Millenium series, and second penned by Langercrantz, sees Lisbeth Salander in prison, where she protects a Bangladeshi prisoner from other inmates who want to do her harm. She also has a visit from her former guardian, who gives her information on her past. Salander was part of an experiment that took exceptional children and put them in different circumstances to see what effect it had on their growth. Salander asks journalist Mikael Blomkvist to investigate this, and if you've ready any of the previous books in this series you have an idea of what sort of hell this winds up unleashing.

I did like this book better than Langercrantz's first entry in the series, but I do agree with some of the criticism that the book focused too much on new characters and had a marked absence of Salander. Hopefully Langercrantz will return to the more established characters for the next book, which he's announced is his last in the series.

 Book Log 2019 #39: The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

A meteor hits the US right by Washington DC, demolishing the capital and leaving the country more or less without a government. This would be bad enough, but it's not long after the strike that scientists realize that the planet will eventually become uninhabitable. This leads to a worldwide effort to colonize space in an effort to save humanity, an effort that requires all hands. Including those of Elma York, a former WASP pilot and mathematician who just may become the first American woman astronaut.

There's a lot here that reminded me of Neal Stephenson's Seveneves, from the climate implications of an astronomical event to the role that women could play in saving humanity. In that book, though, the current day setting allowed for a much for technology-focused story than this one, which focuses much more on the people involved and on issues such as gender, race, mental health, and family. I'm assuming there's an impulse to attribute this difference to the genders of the writers, but I tend to think it's at least as much due to the timing and the nature of the emergency in this book. 

Anyway, I did enjoy this book and definitely recommend it, if only for the chapter about using a toilet in space (the research for which turned into a memorable Twitter thread).

 Book Log 2019 #38: A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre

This is a very engaging retelling of the Kim Philby spy case, enhanced by the personal storyline of how Philby's friends - most notably fellow spy Nicholas Elliott - kept supporting Philby, even while the web of lies he created to hide his double cross became increasingly tenuous.

There's also an interesting class angle here, as there was an assumption that Philby, who went to the right schools, knew the right people, and had the right background, couldn't be working for the Soviets. This assumption allowed Philby to operate for nearly 20 years, and underscores why the old boy network isn't a great operating principle.

Very much worth reading if you're into this sort of thing. You may want to squeeze this in before the TV version hits screens, with Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce in the starring roles.

 Book Log 2019 #37: Holy Orders by Benjamin Black

Dublin pathologist Quirke is back to investigate another murder, and this one is semi-personal as the victim was a friend of Quirke's daughter Phoebe. The victim was also a journalist, and apparently working on a story that put him against the Catholic church, whose sway in 1950s Ireland was substantial.

Between the personal connection and the chance to take the church down a peg, it's not surprising that Quirke would take this case on, even though his last case involving the church left him much the worse for wear. As the case progresses, we get as much (if not more) background on Quirke and his youth spent in a Catholic home for orphans, which was about as dour as you might think. In many ways this case is less about the actual whodunit as it is about getting Quirke to revisit his formative years and examine what sort of lasting effects that time had on him.

I like this book a little more than some of the earlier ones, as it did help to fill in some gaps about Quirke and why he is the way he is. It still doesn't explain his appeal to women, but that's a mystery that may never get solved. Maybe the next book will give us that answer.

 Book Log 2019 #36: Claws of the Cat by Susan Spann

When a samurai is killed in 16th century Kyoto, ninja Hiro Hattori is given three days to solve the crime, otherwise the geisha accused of the killing and Father Mateo, the Jesuit priest Hattori is sworn to protect, will be put to death. Hattori and Mateo delve into the samurai's life and find no shortage of suspects, though there seem to be even more people who want to thwart their investigation.

I liked this book quite a bit, both for the unusual setting for a murder mystery and the relationship between the ninja and the priest.  It reminds me vaguely of Brother Cadfael, though that may just be the religious aspects of the two series making a connection in my brain. 

 Book Log 2019 #35: The Roads to Sata by Alan Booth

This book chronicles Booth's 2000 mile trek from Soya, located on the northernmost point of Hokkaido, to Sata, located in the southermost part of the Home Islands. Having spent most of his life living in Tokyo, Booth's journey is mostly spent in the countryside, where he gets to see a very different side of his adoptive homeland.

For every experience Booth had with lovely vistas and helpful locals, he also seemed to have trouble with finding a place to sleep, fighting with cars for room on the road, and questions from people who couldn't understand why he didn't just drive. Having everything go his way wouldn't make for a very interesting story, but there were times where I wondered why he didn't just pack it in.

Still, it's an engaging travelogue and worth reading to get a period picture of Japan. 

 Book Log 2019 #34: Provence, 1970 by Luke Barr

Barr, the grand nephew of M. F. K. Fisher, one of the best known American food writers of the 20th century. In 1970, Fisher was in Provence at the same time as a number of other figures in American gastronomy - Julia Child and James Beard most notably - and they spent their time together eating, drinking, and discussing the state of food in France and America. Barr reconstructs these meetings through the journals and letters of Fisher, Child, and Beard, with embellishments of his own memories of Fisher.

While the jacket copy makes it sound like this period was pivotal in the history of American cuisine, I think the book is really most successful in the way it portrays how good food and lively conversation build on each other, leading to memorable moments that endure well after everyone heads home. It also makes me wonder why we all don't just live in Provence, enjoying the fruits of the farm, orchard, and vineyard during long evenings at a farmhouse.

If you have any interest in food you should read this, and probably seek out some of Fisher's writings as well (which I have admittedly failed to do, but will hopefully correct soon).

 Book Log 2019 #33: The Raven in the Foregate by Ellis Peters

There's a new parish priest for the people of the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul foregate, but his austere look and brusque manner makes his flock uneasy. Within the space of a week he's alienated pretty much everyone with his approach to pastoral affairs (which tends to involve the word 'no' and a stick).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the new priest soon turns up murdered, with no shortage of suspects, including a young man who was attached to the priest who isn't what he first appears to be.  As usual, Brother Cadfael steps in to help solve the murder while sorting out romantic and political entanglements.

Another solid outing for our favorite monk-detective.

 Book Log 2019 #32: Maeve in America by Maeve Higgins

I first encountered Maeve Higgins on the NPR show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, where her wit and humor far outpace her knowledge of current events (it's kind of a running joke that Maeve will finish last, even if she's not in last place going into the final game). From those appearances I decided to read her book, which is loosely based on her podcast of the same name.

I say loosely because most of the material in the book is apparently not from her podcast at all (admittedly I have not listened to it), but rather mixes essays on topics related to her podcast (like immigration and her decision to leave Ireland and move to New York) with personal and cultural reflections. On the whole it works really well, and I got a much better sense of who Higgins is and what challenges she's faced in her career, as a single woman, and as an immigrant. I also got to read the essays with her delightful accent in my head, which just added to the enjoyment.

 Book Log 2019 #31: The Malta Exchange by Steve Berry

You may remember that, in the past, I've said that the Cotton Malone series should return to Europe as the US-based books weren't that great. Well, be careful what you wish for.

In this installment, a papal conclave, the Knights of Malta, the Donation of Constantine, and a pair of scheming twins all come together to put the world in peril, and only Cotton Malone can stop things. It's all a bit clunky and unnecessarily complex, which is too bad as I'd think there's enough actual history to mine for a good thriller. I also thought that it wasted Malta as a setting, as the country's unique culture and history should also be able to help flesh out a good thriller.

For completists only.

 Book Log 2019 #30: A Mind to Murder by P. D. James

Adam Dalgliesh is back on the case, looking to solve the murder of an employee at a private psychiatric clinic. There are plenty of possible suspects between the clinic employees and patients, and as he begins to investigate he finds that there are plenty of goings-on at the clinic that could drive someone to murder.

I still kind of feel like Dalgliesh doesn't do much in the course of his investigations, and had a hard time really getting into the book. I have to say I'm not particularly compelled to continue the series, but may go back to it after a while. I did read some of the books that come later on and enjoyed those more, so it could just be me.

 Book Log 2019 #29: We That Are Young by Preti Taneja

This book takes King Lear and puts it in present day India, where the founder of a large and prosperous company suddenly calls it quits and pledges the leadership of the company to two of his daughters (a third daughter is missing). The book follows the two daughters, and the two sons of the father's right hand man, as they start to wield power and face conflict from an unexpected direction. Or wholly expected, if you are familiar with King Lear.

Which I was not, at least not in anything beyond a cursory understanding of the story. You really don't need to know anything about the play to appreciate and enjoy this book. I do think that the setting is perfect for such a retelling, with India continually straddling the line between tradition and modernity. It's a long book but well worth the investment of time.

 Book Log 2019 #28: Old Man's War by John Scalzi

The colonization of space is on, but the other races we've discovered along the way are less than happy that humans are claiming planets left and right. The ongoing war requires that the Colonial Defense Force find a new source of soldiers, which they do in an unexpected place: senior citizens. Through the magic of bioengineering and a mind-transfer process, humans who reach their 75th birthday can be transplanted into a new, young body, the idea being that the combination of years of wisdom and experience paired with a body made for battle will result in superior soldiers.

The catch: you can never return to Earth. If you survive your enlistment, you'll be given a homestead on a new planet. Even with that restriction, it's a winning deal for many, including John Perry, whose experience as a new CDF soldier make up this novel.

I really enjoyed this book, which is much more in the vein of pulp science fiction rather than, say, The Three Body Problem. It's nice to remember that not all science fiction needs to be a somewhat dire philosophical meditation on Big Issues. 

 Book Log 2019 #27: Into the Woods by Tana French

In 1984 Dublin, three children go missing, and in the ensuing search only one of them is found. He's in the woods, sneakers soaked with blood, and no memory of what happened. 

Jump forward to today. That boy is now a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad, and he's just been assigned a case with a number of similarities to what happened in 1984. Only his partner knows about his past, and if the higher ups learn about it he'll be taken off the case. Complicating matters is the very close relationship between the partners - they're not romantically involved, but everyone assumes they are. All of these personal and professional entanglements are pushed to the brink over the course of the investigation, with life-altering results.

This is the first of the Dublin Murder Squad series of novels, and if the others live up to this initial entry it's going to be a very good series indeed. It's one of the few books of this type that works as both a murder mystery and a psychological thriller.

 Book Log 2019 #26: The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson

Nombeko Mayeki, born and raised in Soweto, seemed fated to a short and miserable life. But her natural intelligence allowed her to succeed where other orphaned children did not. But it also landed her in some unusual situations, forcing her to find ways to outwit and outlast the people behind South Africa's secret nuclear weapons program, the Mossad, domestic terrorists, and a potato farmer, and eventually save the King of Sweden.

It sounds a little crazy, and it is, especially told with the book's great humor. I don't often audibly laugh when reading, but did so at least a couple of times with this book.  There are parts where being able to suspend disbelief comes in handy, but by and large the comedy supports and advances the story. It's very much worth reading.

 Book Log 2019 #25: Blood & Ivy by Paul Collins

In 1849, Dr. George Parkman went missing after making a visit to the Harvard Medical School. While the search focused on where he may have gone after the visit, the school's janitor had the thought that Parkman may have never left the school. What followed is a classic true crime story, complete with the sort of investigative twists and legal drama that helps flesh out the whodunit.

I enjoyed this more than expected, possibly due to the case being local and thus involving locations and people with which I have some familiarity. It's well-paced and doesn't delve into hyperbole as some true crime books do. If you're interested in historical crime it's worth picking up.

 Book Log 2019 #24: The Throne of Caesar by Steven Saylor

All good things must come to an end, as the saying goes, and this book represents the last case of Gordianus the Finder, the Roman detective who has been involved in most of the major events in the last years of the Republic. Fittingly for the last book in the series, this one is set during the assassination of Julius Caesar.

At this point Gordianus has moved into a kind of semi-retirement, and is about to be made a Senator. He is summoned by Caesar a few days before the Ides of March to see if there are any plots brewing, and while Gordianus does get the sense that trouble is brewing, he (spoiler alert!) doesn't uncover the full conspiracy, with the history-making results we all know. 

This isn't a mystery in the same vein as the previous Gordianus books, but rather the assassination story as seen through Gordianus and his investigations. This is an effective approach to the killing, as you can't change what happened, and any case created to run parallel to events would always pale in comparison.

I was surprisingly moved by finishing this series, sad that I would no longer enjoy the exploits of Gordianus and his family. I had been hopeful at one point that the finding would be taken up by Diana, Gordianus' daughter, but that wasn't to be. This series gave me great joy over nearly 30 years (!) of reading, which I suppose I can only recapture by starting the series all over again.

 Book Log 2019 #23 Masyryk Station by David Downing

It's 1948, and postwar Berlin is still unsettled. Still occupied by the four Allied powers, there's a sense that this arrangement can't last much longer, and that if it does collapse it will be in favor of the Soviets. Journalist and spy John Russell continues to play the major powers against each other by working for both the NKVD and the new CIA, trying to keep both at bay while he tries to figure out a way to free himself from both.

Aiding him in this quest is his Soviet handler, who appears to be looking for his own way out. Together they put together a plan where they gain the sort of intelligence that will buy their freedom from one service and the silence of the other. 

This is the last book of the series, and is a fitting finale. 

 Book Log 2019 #22: The Harvest Man by Alex Grecian

If it wasn't enough that Jack the Ripper is back on the streets, there's now a second serial killer working in London, putting maximum pressure on Scotland Yard's Murder Squad to capture both. This gets Walter Day back on the case after being deskbound due to an injury. Neville Hammersmith isn't quite so lucky, as he's off the force, but as a private detective he enlists his own motley crew of helpers in the pursuit of Jack.

I had mixed feelings about Jack the Ripper making a reappearance, and was further concerned about grafting a second high-profile serial killer onto the existing story, but it turned out better than expected. At least for me as the reader; it's a decidedly mixed bag for Day and Hammersmith. 

 Book Log 2019 #21: Cover Her Face by P.D. James

A summer church fete and the personal intrigues of the family whose manor hosts the event combine when, on the day after the fete, the fiancée of the family's son turns up dead. With the locals a bit overwhelmed at investigating a murder, they call in Adam Dalgliesh, who uses his powers of detection to solve the case.

This is the introductory novel for Dalgliesh, and to be honest it's a little underwhelming. I didn't feel like he did that much detecting, but waited until the pressure on the family caused enough of the truth to come out that he just needed to finish the job. It's not a bad book per se, it was just a little surprising when compared to someone like Morse, who seems much more involved in his cases.

 Book Log 2019 #20: Through Darkest Europe by Harry Turtledove

In this alternative history, changes in both Islamic and Christian theology see the Islamic world become what we would consider the First World, while Europe stagnates and becomes a breeding ground for fundamentalist groups. Into this, a couple of investigators go to Rome to protect an Italian duke and the Pope in the hopes of keeping the violence common in their part of the world from spreading into the Middle East.

There's not much to recommend about this book. The plot isn't particularly interesting, and while the investigative duo are entertaining they don't do that much actual investigating. It's all a bit ham-handed and clumsy. You'd be much better off reading The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson (which I apparently read before starting the Book Log), which approaches a similar idea with much better results. 

 Book Log 2019 #19: Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

In 1862, 11 year old Willie Lincoln died after contracting typhoid fever. He was interred at a cemetery in Georgetown, and Abraham Lincoln reportedly visited his crypt often. It's from this start that we get a story of how Willie's soul is in peril, and may be potentially stuck in this transitional space between death and whatever comes after death known as the bardo.

I don't think any explanation I can give here is going to do this book justice (not to mention it's been too long since I've read it to comment on it accurately). So I'm just going to recommend it highly.

 Book Log 2019 #18: Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker

Benoit Courreges, known to all as Bruno, is a former solider who has returned to the Perigord, an area of southwest France, to be the police chief in a small town. He enjoys coaching rugby, having great meals with his friends in town, and hanging out with his dog. He doesn't wear his gun, and will take the extra time to work out disagreements rather than arrest someone.

But when an elderly immigrant from North Africa is murdered, Bruno has to team up with an ambitious (and attractive) officer from Paris to investigate if the killing may be terror-related. 

While this does suggest the trope of small town cops who don't actually enforce the law, the book takes a more nuanced approach. Bruno has no problem with his job, but he sees greater value in maintaining harmony among the townsfolk and preserving the area's way of life when he can. The story is entertaining, with good characters who fit the setting. It also made me think for a hard second about moving to the Perigord. A strong start for what will hopefully be a fun series.

 Book Log 2019 #17: The Cloister by James Carroll

A young priest caught out in the rain takes shelter in The Cloisters, a New York art museum that specializes in medieval art and is designed to look like, well, a cloister. While there he meets a young French woman who works at the museum, and they strike up a friendship over time. The woman's father was a scholar in France who was trying to prove that medieval scholar Peter Abelard was the author of some anonymous works sympathetic to Judaism, which put him at odds with the Nazis after they invaded France.

The book uses three timelines to examine religion, politics, and the limits they can place on intellectual pursuit. There's also a fair amount of introspection by the priest, who is trying to figure out if the religious life is for him. 

Carroll is a former Catholic priest who has written extensively on the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, and is successful at weaving that knowledge into a fictional setting. It's very much worth a read if you're into this sort of thing.

 Book Log 2019 #16: The Bishop's Pawn by Steve Berry

This is last of the Cotton Malone novels to take place in the US (for now, at least), and that's probably for the best. A prequel, we get a lot of backstory about Malone's personal and professional life, notably how he winds up working for Stephanie Nelle and the Justice Department. The actual case (his first for Nelle) involves the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination, and you'll be surprised to learn that what the public thinks happened is not what actually went down.

I liked that the book spent time filling in the past, but the actual historical conspiracy fell flat. Maybe there just needs to be more World Heritage Sites in the US for Malone to shoot up. 

 Book Log 2019 #15: Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin

John Rebus is once again brought out of retirement to help with a case, this time the killing of senior prosecutor that appears to be connected to a shooting at the house of crime boss "Big Ger" Cafferty. The shootings may also be related by the arrival of a father and son team of gangsters from Glasgow, who may be looking to break into Edinburgh.

All of the usual trappings of a Rebus novel are present, and his continued friction with pretty much everyone - but most notably Cafferty and internal affairs officer Malcolm Fox - is a continued source of entertainment. It's always great to see Rebus at work, and given his advancing age I fear that we may not have too many of these stories left.

 Book Log 2019 #14: An Excellent Mystery by Ellis Peters

The eleventh book in the Brother Cadfael series sees a pair of monks arrive at the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul with bad news - the civil war has heated up again, with the fighting destroying much of Winchester, including their priory. The pair - one old and frail, the other young and mute - are given refuge. 

But as the pair settle in, it's clear that there's more to this pair than meets the eye, which piques Cadfael's interest. He then discovers who the older brother actually is, and things go on from there (while I won't go into detail, the story involves a canceled betrothal and the suspected murder of the potential bride).

It's another solid outing in the series, and different enough from the typical outing to keep things fresh.

 Book Log 2019 #13: How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr

We never really think or talk about the US as a physical empire. We know that we have overseas territories, but not really about how we gained them, or what we've done there (with maybe the exception of Alaska and Hawaii, which we think about mainly in the context of World War II and statehood). This book examines how the US came to collect the various possessions that extended American presence from the Caribbean almost into Asia.

It's not always easy reading, as the history of how a country acquires territory (and then what it does with that territory) comes with a body count. Mostly of the locals. But regardless of how you feel about the imperial nature of our expansion, this book at least brings the topic into conversation. It helps that the book is well-written and engaging. 

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 40: Easter Island

While the island may be named for the holiday, the locals on Easter Island do not share the sort of passion for it that their fellow Chilean citizens do. I suppose this shouldn't be a surprise, given the small population (just under 5800) and that the island is ethnically much more Oceanic than Hispanic (it's basically a 60/40 split between Rapa Nui and Chilean background, though even the Chilean fraction includes people of mixed Chilean-Rapa Nui ancestry).

There's not much out there about how residents of Easter Island (who are largely Catholic) celebrate Easter, but I did find this one account that makes it seem pretty low key. There's a mass, maybe some extra singing and blessing of foods, and then a communal meal afterwards (which appears to be common on holidays).

I suppose what makes Easter on Easter Island interesting are the ways in which Rapa Nui culture and mythology are worked into the church and the service. This page gives a good rundown on how the building's decoration reflects the local folklore, from the images that appear on the front of the church to the use of a Rapa Nui deity as the base of the baptismal font. Beyond decoration, the hymns appear to be sung in the Rapa Nui language, and (at least on Easter) local dress is also incorporated into the priest's ceremonial clothing.

While much of what makes Easter on Easter Island unique isn't specific to the holiday, it does reflect more generally those other countries we've seen that have taken local practice and found a place for it in Easter celebrations. Which really does make it a fitting place to wrap up this year's Lentorama.

I actually enjoyed this year's edition more than most (heck, this is the first year in a long time where it will actually be done before Easter!), and will hopefully find another good idea for next year.

 Book Log 2019 #12: The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

I don't know if I can add to what's already been said about this book, Wolfe's investigation into the test pilots who would bring the US into the Space Age and largely serve as the country's first astronauts. We get an idea not only of what drove these men to do what they did, how they internalized the danger, and how they functioned within the Mercury astronaut team.

Not that it's only about space flight. There's a significant chunk of the book about being a test pilot and the chase to break the sound barrier, and Chuck Yeager figures prominently even though he never became an astronaut. 

I really did enjoy this book, and found it especially compelling at a time when going into space seems kind of pedestrian. When you can send random billionaires and nonagenarian  actors into space, it's good to be reminded of the incredible peril that a handful of men endured in order to get there.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 39: France

Eggs are central to Easter, whether they're boiled and dyed, plastic and filled with jelly beans, or chocolate wrapped in foil.  It's likely that you'll buy more eggs around Easter than you would normally, which could lead you to have some left over. What to do with them?

If you live in Bessières, a town in southwest France, you make a giant omelette on Easter Monday. 

The story goes that Napoleon was passing through, and after enjoying a local omelette he asked for one to be made for his troops. And as you don't say no to the emperor, a giant omelette was made using all the eggs the locals could find.

Jump forward a couple hundred years, and the town brought the giant omelette back as part of a larger festival (though the official history suggests that the omelette tradition was kept alive by local kids, who would ask for eggs and then distribute the omelettes to the poor). The brotherhood that oversees the event does see it as a kind of charitable and cultural thing, and not only continue the practice of giving diners their eggs for free, but have established links with similar festivals around the world (if you're in the States like me you can stop by Abbeville, Louisiana, though theirs appears to be held in November).

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 38: Iceland

A law from the 1920s in Iceland bans a large swath of public festivities on Good Friday, as it's a day for solemn reflection and worship (as you can imagine, the law was enacted during a time when the Icelandic government and the local Lutheran church had a pretty cozy relationship). While the law is not enforced with any real vigor, it is still on the books, and does cause a lot of closures across the island.

To protest the law, a local atheist's group organizes an annual bingo game on Good Friday (so it's more of an anti-Easter tradition, but a tradition nevertheless). No one's been arrested yet, and the games seem to be having some impact, as there's talk of changing the law.  At which point the thrill of breaking the law by playing bingo will be gone, but hopefully the games will persist.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 37: Luxembourg

While most of the Easter celebrations are similar to those of their larger French and Dutch neighbors, there are two traditions specific to Luxembourg worth mentioning.

The first is specific to the town of Vianden. On Good Friday, they celebrate a festival called Jaudes, which refers to a bouquet made by boys out of flowers, twigs, ribbons, or whatever is on hand (the name specifically refers to the dog rose, but it doesn't seem to be a required element of the bouquet anymore). At noon, boys will take the bouquets and burn them, as a symbol of their displeasure with Judas.

On Easter Monday you have the Éimaischen, or feast of Emmaus. This historically coincided with the annual celebrations of the potter's guild, and eventually this developed into a festival. It's most notable now for the Péckvillercher, a terra cotta bird that you can blow into, making a sort of cuckoo sound.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 36: Italy

There is no shortage of Easter celebrations in Italy, spurred on by its regional nature and being the home of the modern Catholic church.  But my favorite may be the most explosive: the Scoppio del Carro, or Explosion of the Cart.

The story starts about a thousand years ago, during the Crusades. The son of a prominent Florentine family is in Jerusalem, and is the first to scale the walls of Jerusalem and raise the crusaders' banner. To honor his bravery, the young man is given three flints out of the Holy Sepulchre. The young man brings his relics back to Florence, where they are invested in a local church. The Easter tradition soon starts that a torch is lit by these flints, and the torch is used to light candles around the city.

At some point, the torch is replaced by a large candle on a cart, and later still that candle is replaced by fireworks, which are still the focus of the tradition today.

The modern procession starts at the church that houses the flints. They're used to light the "holy fire" (now typically some coals), which is put on the cart along with the fireworks. The cart, pulled by two white oxen garlanded with flowers, goes through the city and stops in the square outside the cathedral. A wire is strung between the cart and the altar in the cathedral, where a dove (representing the Holy Spirit) loaded with its own rockets awaits. At a specific point in the mass, one of the celebrants lights the dove (using a flame started by the holy fire), and if all goes to plan it shoots along its wire and into the fireworks, setting them off in a loud and colorful display.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 35: Senegal

Going into Good Friday, Christians in Senegal will prepare a dish called ngalakh which they'll eat to break the fast and over the holiday weekend. It's made with millet, nut paste (often peanuts), the fruit of the baobab tree, sugar, vanilla, and orange blossom. 

When they're not eating this dish, Senegalese are packing up containers of it to give to neighbors and friends, which is interesting as it's likely the vast majority of them aren't Christian (over 90 percent of the population follow Islam). It's not unusual in Senegal to distribute food at the end of any religious holiday, regardless of the religious background of the people you're feeding. Which is a nice reminder that we can all get along, and food probably helps.

 Book Log 2019 #11: Death's End by Cixin Liu

I'm not sure how to describe this, the last book in The Three Body Problem trilogy. Trisolaris and Earth have an unsteady peace, set when Earth threatened to broadcast the location of Trisolaris to the universe, putting them in jeopardy of being invaded by some other alien civilization. This works - for a while. And when it doesn't work, it really doesn't work. 

I think I had more moments of "what the hell is going on here" with this book than the other two, which speaks more to my ability to grasp concepts than any defect with the writing or translation (I also should have taken more time in reading, but it was hard to slow down, even when I was a bit lost). It's a fitting end to the trilogy, not a particularly uplifting one but true to the events and narrative of the whole.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 34: South Korea

South Korea has a small but significant (just under 28 percent) Christian population, so Easter is more visible than in many Asian countries but isn't a national holiday. Many of the typical Western trappings have made it over, though there's apparently an issue with decorating eggs, as most Korean eggs are brown. There is at least one effective, if not particularly eco-friendly, solution to this dilemma (though there are the occasional, more serious, problems with Easter eggs).

One thing that appears to be traditional is the large Easter service/rally at Yonsei University (a result of its heritage of Christian leadership and founding by various Protestant missionaries). I wasn't able to find too much information about the actual service, but odds are if you look at one of the "Easter around the world" slideshows you'll see either a picture of a large chorus or of large crowds outside attending the service.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 33: Sweden

Sweden's Easter celebrations are pretty similar to other Nordic countries. They have kids dressed as witches going door to door as in Finland, and those witches often bring letters to request candy, similar to what goes on in Denmark.  That being said, there are a couple of things that can make Easter particularly Swedish.

The first is going out to the country to open up the family cabin. Where Sweden is increasingly secular, there's more interest in using the long weekend to open up the summer cabin and give it a good cleaning. It also appears that what celebrations there are for Easter will happen there, as family and friends stop by for a meal and something to drink.

And the menu does include some traditionally Swedish dishes. One that stood out to me was Jansson's Temptation, which is a sort of casserole of onion, potato, and pickled anchovy. Not sure how tempting something with pickled anchovy can be, but it's a popular holiday dish (it also crops up at Christmas), so I'll take the Swedes' word for it. The other thing that caught my eye was a carbonated beverage called paskmust (which is the Easter version of julmust, the same drink but made for Christmas). It's similar to root beer in taste, but a review of the IKEA version suggests a much broader taste palate.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 32: Poland

Easter celebrations are pretty well focused on religion, which isn't surprising given that Poland is almost completely Catholic - and pretty devoutly Catholic at that. When you get to Easter Monday, though, things take a turn.

Easter Monday is known locally as Śmigus-Dyngus, or "Wet Monday." On this day, boys try to soak girls with water, using anything from buckets to squirt guns, and will also try to spank them with willow branches. Tuesday sees the roles reversed.

The origins of all this soaking and spanking is unclear. It appears that they may have been separate activities that eventually merged into one. There's also some thought that there's a pagan fertility ritual at the heart of things, with throwing water on women taking over from watering a Corn Mother doll as an offering to make crops grow. There's also some thought that it represents the baptisms of early Poles when Christianity arrived.

This tradition also takes place in a number of neighboring countries, so the idea that there's some common Slavic origin seems likely.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 31: Indonesia

Indonesia is the world's most populous Islamic country, but its colonial and trading history gave certain parts of the country a sizable Christian minority. One such location is Larantuka in the region of East Flores, whose Christian (largely Catholic) population is heavily influenced by the Portuguese sailors, traders, and missionaries who came through.

Legend has it that a statue of a woman was found washed up on shore in the early 1500s, and when the Portuguese arrived they recognized the statue as that of Mary, which fit nicely into plans to convert the local population.

Today, the statue (along with one of Jesus) is part of a notable Good Friday procession. Both statues are kept in sealed caskets, and on Holy Thursday the casket of Mary is opened, the statue washed, and then dressed in mourning clothes. On Good Friday, the statue of Jesus is taken out, and both are processed, including a segment where the statues are placed on boats and sailed around the bay. The two statues eventually join up at the local cathedral in time for mass.

This article gives a good look at some of the celebrations and activity in Larantuka's Semana Santa, though I'm not sure if the captions are all that accurate (for example, they have Holy Week running from Ash Wednesday to Good Friday).

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 30: Finland

In a tradition that I tend to associate more with fall, children in Finland dress up as witches and go door to door (either on Palm Sunday or Holy Saturday) and recite a poem asking to trade a willow branch for a treat. This apparently grew out of two separate traditions, one the use of willow branches in place of palm fronds to celebrate Palm Sunday (which is quite common in central and eastern Europe), the other the belief that witches would be about on Holy Saturday (which seems more specific to parts of Finland and Sweden). This is known in Finnish as virpominen.

Finland also has a couple of traditional puddings eaten around Easter. There's mämmi , a dark pudding made of malt and rye flour. As it can be kept for several days, it was often made ahead and eaten on Good Friday when cooking was considered off-limits. It can be eaten sweet or savory, and is apparently a bit of an acquired taste. The other is pasha (or pashka), which came over from Russia. It's a cheese or custard-based dessert, and usually served in a conical or pyramid shape.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 29: Trinidad and Tobago

While it's probably better known for its Carnival, Trinidad and Tobago does share a couple of Easter traditions with other countries. On Good Friday you have the beating of the bobolee, an effigy of Judas, which is reminiscent of the many countries that burn an effigy of Judas.  And as with much of the Caribbean, kite flying is a popular Good Friday pastime in Trinidad.

One tradition that's specific to Tobago is the Buccoo Goat Race, held every year on "Easter Tuesday." The races started as a response to horse races held on Easter Monday, which were really only open to the rich, but is now the centerpiece of a festival that attracts thousands (and now also includes crab racing).

 Book Log 2019 #10: Vengeance by Benjamin Black

Irish pathologist Quirke gets involved in another death, though this one is clearly a suicide. What's odd about it is that the deed was intentionally committed with a witness, the son of the dead man's business partner. The mystery, a question of why rather than who. A second death further confuses the issue, leaving Quirke (and police detective Hackett) to wade through the personal and professional entanglements of two families.

I was going to say I'm still on the fence about this series, but as I keep reading the books I can't be that much on the fence. The central mystery is fine, I'm still not sure why Quirke is as attractive to women as he apparently is, and I would like to spend a little more time with his family (specifically his brother, who was a significant character in earlier books but has since faded to the background). All things considered once you get five books into a series you're more or less committed.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 28: Ecuador

Ecuador has a Semana Santa similar to other countries in the Latin world, full of colorful processions (such as the procession of the Jesus del Gran Poder in Quito, as the name apparently translates to "Jesus of the Great Power," which makes him sound like one of the Avengers).

Outside of the religious traditions, the one that seems most uniquely Ecuadoran is the preparation of fanesca, a grain-based soup that can include things like salt cod, squash, fried bread, cheese, peanuts, and green banana. While the origin of the soup isn't known, many theories have it coming from Europe (either Spain or Italy), with the ingredients changing to reflect what's local.

Fanesca is a big enough deal that in Quito there's an annual competition between restaurants as to who makes the best version (though the article indicates there are other judging criteria, such as the use of sustainable ingredients), though there's widespread agreement that the best dish is made at home, typically by someone's grandmother.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 27: Greece

Many of the Easter traditions in Greece are going to be familiar to people either from that part of the world or who are familiar with Orthodox Christianity, from the preparation of red eggs (I have Greek Orthodox friends, and the quest to find the best red dye for the eggs is never-ending) to the church decorations and masses to the Easter Sunday feast featuring some sort of roasted meat (more often than not lamb).

If you want something specific to Greece, go to Corfu. On Holy Saturday, residents of that island celebrate by throwing clay jars full of water out their windows to smash on the street below. It's become a bit of an attraction, with spectators trying to get wet or hit by a (hopefully non-jagged) potsherd.

Why this is done is a bit of a mystery, though there are several theories that link it to former Venetian rulers, ancient Greek springtime practices, or Biblical references to smashing pottery.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 26: The Netherlands

The town of Ootmarsum has an unusual set of traditions centered around an Easter committee of eight men known as Poaskearls. These men are required to be born in the town, Catholic, and single. They also have to plan to remain single for four years, as once selected the person serves as a Poaskearl for four years.

They dress in a trenchcoat and hat getup that makes them look a lot like Inspector Gadget (the costume is modeled after that of a statue of eight men in the square near the church). 

The Poaskearls are responsible for collecting and arranging the wood for an Easter night bonfire and for an Easter Sunday procession that involves singing and another tradition called Vlöggeln, where, after singing the two songs that are sung during the Easter procession, eight children are raised up three times as a symbol of the resurrection.  There's a fair amount of drinking involved, and everything that happens on Sunday happens again on Easter Monday. 

This article gives a pretty in depth review of Easter in Ootmarsum and what the Poaskearls do (it's in Dutch, but the Google translation is pretty readable). What I would really love to know is how all of this got started. There is at least one reference to Vlöggeln going back to 1840, and a list of Poaskearls to 1900, but that's it. I'm also curious how the two new Poaskearls are chosen.

(And there's also this site for all of your Poaskearl needs.)

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 25: Romania

Easter in Romania is pretty similar to other countries in Eastern Europe, from the religious ceremonies to the fanciful decorated eggs. They also share traditions such as taking willow branches to church on Palm Sunday for a blessing and dousing unmarried women with water on Easter Monday.

One traditional belief with a basis in Romanian folklore involves Joimariţa, who seems to have evolved from some sort of local deity to a character in folklore. Her main interest (other than protecting the fire lit on Holy Thursday in memory of one's ancestors) was to make sure that Romanian women had been productive over the winter, with a special focus on weaving and making new clothes. Any woman who slacked off in that department runs the risk of being burned, beaten, killed, or cursed so they won't be able to do any work in the coming year (as noted here, as are several other Romanian Easter traditions).

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 24: Denmark

While Norway celebrates Easter with murder mysteries, Danes go for something less scary and more arts and crafty. Danes will write a letter called a gækkebrev, which is kind of like a cutout snowflake, but with a poem or riddle on it. It gets sent out a few days before Easter, with the sender's name represented on the letter by dots (one dot for each letter in the person's name). If the recipient can guess who sent the letter the sender owes them a chocolate Easter egg, if they can't they owe the sender an egg.

This apparently has its roots in letters sent by young people as a way of flirting (the letters would often include a flower called the snowdrop), but it's now more widely done among friends and families. This article suggests it came over from Germany as early as 1600.

 Book Log 2019 #9: Lehrter Station by David Downing

With World War II over, journalist/spy John Russell appears to finally be out, as he's escaped Germany with his girlfriend and son and looks ready to start over in London. At least until Russell's Soviet handler shows up to tell him he needs to accept an upcoming offer from American intelligence to return to Germany. Considering what Russell did for the Soviets in order to buy his way out of Berlin, he's not in a position to decline.

This wasn't the best book in the series, but I was interested to see how things would transition into the Cold War. It also does a good job of setting up the series finale.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 23: Fiji

Worshipers on the island of Viti Levu spend Holy Week on something called a Cross Walk, where they carry a replica of the cross from the capital of Suva to Nadi, a distance of about 200 kilometers (about 125 miles). It looks like the cross gets handed off from village to village, but I assume there are some especially devoted types who make the entire journey.

I've also found reference to a tradition where several islands share a cross, and it gets floated or swum between islands, but no real information on whether or not this is still done.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 22: Guatemala

In the town of Antigua, locals decorate the streets with "carpets" (or alfombras) made of flowers, colored sawdust, and other natural materials over which processions will travel during Holy Week. Preparation can take months, though the actual construction usually happens the day before (this article gives a little more info on materials and construction). That the carpet is ruined over the comparatively short duration of the procession supports the idea that their creation is a sacrificial act.

It's also not unusual for the carpets to reflect native themes, so there's a bit of a cultural mixing as part of the tradition, too.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 21: Switzerland

Three egg-related traditions from the Swiss.

1. Rather than the Easter Bunny, an Easter cuckoo brings the eggs for Swiss children to hunt. Why this is I have no idea, but the association of Switzerland and cuckoo clocks springs to mind. 

2. Heartier souls can participate in an Easter egg hunt swim in Lake Greifensee, putting a bit of a polar bear swim spin on the event. It's a fairly new event, but seems to have caught on.

3. On Easter Monday in Zurich you'll find people participating in Zwanzgerle, where adults throw 20 cent coins at eggs held by children. If the coin breaks the shell and lodges in the egg the adult wins the egg and gets their coin back. Otherwise, the kid gets to keep the money. Apparently it's pretty hard to get the coin to lodge in the egg, so it's a bit of a money-maker for the kids. 

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 20: Jamaica

Two food-related traditions from Jamaica for Easter.

The one you eat is bun, which is a bread similar to the traditional hot cross bun, except that it's made with molasses and in a loaf form. Locals eat slices of bun with cheddar cheese (the orange stuff), though no one seems to know why.

The one you don't eat involves cracking an egg into water (holy or not, I've seen both) on Holy Thursday, letting it sit overnight, and then seeing what shape the egg white took as a clue for what the coming year may hold (for example, if it looks like a heart you may find love). I wasn't able to find much of any history of this practice (called "egg setting"), but I did find this video saying it's done in Trinidad as well, so it may be something that started elsewhere but really caught on in Jamaica.

 Book Log 2019 #8: The Infatuations by Javier Marias

Every day, the main character stops at a cafe in Madrid on her way to work, and as part of her morning ritual she imagines the perfect life of the young couple who also frequent the cafe in those early morning hours. But then the husband is killed, prompting the woman to approach the now-widow. Their deepening friendship is further complicated by a new romantic relationship for our main character, with a man who may be involved in the murder.

This is the very basic synopsis of the romance wrapped around a mystery covered in philosophical inquiry that this book presents. I wanted very much to like the book based on its premise, but found it way too discursive. I got to the point where I would skim the 10 to 20 page digressions so I could get back to the story. I'm not necessarily a plot-driven reader, but there were times where it almost felt like I was reading two separate books.

The Onion's AV Club picked this as one of their best books of 2013, giving the plot as the launching point for the author's "signature digressions and ruminations," so if that's your sort of thing you'll probably like this book more than I did. Of course, the New York Times and NPR also lauded the book, so it could just be that I've gotten more lazy in my reading.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 19: Lebanon

On Palm Sunday, Lebanese Christians hold a procession called shanineh, where the clergy lead the congregation around the church, with children riding on their parents shoulders (though that may not be required, I've read a couple of sources that just say the kids process). The kids also hold candles decorated with things like ribbons and flowers. I don't know if the candles are lit, but if the kids are riding on their parents I hope not.

The other big tradition in Lebanon is the making of maamoul, a shortbread cookie stuffed with dates, nuts, or similar filling. There's a fair amount of symbolism involved in their preparation, from the wooden press used to shape them representing the cross to whether or not to dust them with sugar (not dusting them apparently represents the solemn nature of Lent). 

Maamoul isn't strictly Lebanese - it's made across the Arab world - but is apparently very traditional for celebrating Easter there. But it's also not strictly for Easter, as it's also popular during Ramadan. Honestly, any observance that ends with cookies is OK with me.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 18: Croatia

Easter celebrations in Croatia apparently have a more martial tone than you might expect. In Dalmatia, you have žudije, who guard the altar in their church from Holy Thursday until the bells toll for the Easter Vigil mass, at which point they fall to the ground in fear of the resurrected Christ. These guards could be dressed as Roman soldiers, but could also be in more contemporary military uniform or traditional dress. This is apparently a big enough deal that the men (it's always men) who serve as žudije meet in a kind of convention every year.

Another tradition is the firing of pistols called kubura. It's a practice that apparently dates back to the 16th century (this article gives a good description of the history and current practice in one town), and appears to be celebratory in nature. The kubura is a type of flintlock pistol (as seen here) that apparently is Turkish in origin and I'm guessing spread to Croatia during the Ottoman period. 

On the much less aggressive side, it's also a tradition on Palm Sunday to wash once's face in water that has fresh flowers in it, which has been going on long enough that locals also call the day Flower Sunday

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 17: The Phillipines

As a largely Catholic country with roots in Spain, it shouldn't be a surprise that Easter celebrations in many ways reflect the Semana Santa found throughout the Latin world. That being said, it's not hard to find traditions that are distinctly Filipino. And distinctly extreme.

On the less extreme side is a festival celebrating Longinus, the Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus with a lance. The story goes that Longinus was blind in one eye, but when a drop of blood from the lance wound got into that eye it regained sight. The festival has people dressing up as Roman soldiers (with brightly decorated masks and helmets), and culminates in Longinus himself going on the run to escape the people dressed as Roman soliders, hiding in houses and trying to lose himself in the crowd.

Which is all fun and games compared to the people who have themselves crucified. The Catholic Church officially denounced this as a form of worship, but it doesn't dissuade people from getting nailed to a cross as a sign of piety, to repay a prayer that was answered, or as penance. 

The practice is most associated with the province of Pampanga, which started hosting a Passion play in the 1950s. At some point some attendees thought it a good idea to add various mortifications to their trip (whipping themselves, making the journey in bare feet and/or carrying a life-size cross), which eventually led to actual crucifixions in the 1960s.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 16: Norway

Just in case there wasn't enough death in the Easter story, Norway has added on some extra with a tradition called Påskekrim, which literally means "Easter crime."

If you didn't click on the link, here's the short version. In 1923, a crime novel was released just before Easter, and the advertising campaign for it involved an ad in a major newspaper that used the book's title for a headline ("Bergen train looted in the night," which I imagine is catchier in Norwegian). The ad was so realistic that many people believed a train had actually been robbed, giving the book a ton of publicity. Sales go through the roof. 

Fast forward to today, and publishers plan major crime novel releases for the holiday and TV stations change their programming to lean heavy on mysteries (this article gives a little more background on how this whole thing started and how it might reflect on darker aspects of  Viking culture and the Easter story itself). Not sure how much stock put in those theories about the deeper roots of Påskekrim, but as the tradition hasn't really spread to other Nordic countries maybe I'm being too judgmental.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 15: Ghana

Most of what surrounds Easter in Ghana would be familiar to most everyone - church services, public processions, etc. Less familiar would be the national paragliding festival.

Promoted as part of an annual Easter festival in Kwahu, people now come from all over the world to enjoy what's billed as some of the best paragliding in Africa, thanks to thermal drafts that are consistent in duration and intensity.

There are apparently other things to do during the festival - the paragliding was apparently added to an older festival that was falling out of fashion - so you've got options.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 14: Uruguay

So Uruguay does things a little differently than the rest of South America. Uruguay instituted a strict separation of church and state in its 1917 constitution, and converted religious holidays into secular ones. So while other countries are celebrating Holy Week, Uruguay celebrates Tourism Week, during which time Uruguayans take some sort of trip, if not take their long vacation for the year. 

Churches do celebrate Holy Week and Easter, of course, but you won't get the sort of public spectacles that you'd see elsewhere in Latin America.

But if you are looking for something to do during the week, there are at least a couple options:

1. In Montevideo there's Creole Week, which celebrates rural Uruguay. It looks a bit like a combination rodeo and cultural festival, with a horse riding competition the main event (think bronco busting rather than show jumping).

2. For something more contemporary, you can head to Paysandú for Beer Week, sponsored by the town's major brewery. It combines a music festival with various cultural and arts and crafts displays. There are also a couple of thermal spas - one with natural salt water - so you can take the waters and relax if you're partied out.

Lentorama 2019: Resurrect My Globe!

Day 13: India

Christians account for a small percentage of India's religious make-up, at just over two percent. That does translate to nearly 28 million Christians, which when added to the history of colonialism means you can find Easter celebrations all across the country.

I opted to focus on Goa, a small state on India's west coast, which Portugal ruled for nearly 450 years when India annexed (invaded) it back in 1961. Even with Portugal's long history there, Goa is only about one-quarter Christian, which may be why the Easter celebrations, while more prominent than in other parts of India, is fairly similar to what you'd find back in Portugal. There is a procession called the Way of the Cross, in which locals carry a large wooden cross and an icon of Jesus through the streets as a representation of his march through Calvary, which is similar to the processions you'd find elsewhere.

One more specific tradition is a dish called sorpotel, which is a stew made of various organ meats from pigs (though it's not uncommon to find versions that don't rely on offal). I will say it looks delicious based on many of the pictures I've seen, but I think I'd ask how traditional it is before tucking in.