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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
funny
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I enjoyed Zofia, her maid and the nuns. I got a bit lost woth the plot and mystery!
It's a very good, if super involved, mystery. I'm not sure what had attracted me to it originally, but I hadn't quite expected the rich and varied Polish culture of the late 1800's. It felt as though it had a Russian influence in the storytelling as well. I hope if it develops as a series that the maid will continue to earn her mistress' favor with her assistance. Perhaps Zofia and her husband should adopt a child ;), then she won't be quite so bored and seeking things to do
Not for me, I just didn’t like to leave it unfinished but it was a struggle to read.
I have read other reviews about the quality of the translation and do wonder if that was why I found it so difficult.
I have read other reviews about the quality of the translation and do wonder if that was why I found it so difficult.
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book would be well suited for someone who likes Agatha Christie style low stakes murder mysteries. Unfortunately that isn't me, and I would have realised this wasn't the right book for me if I'd read the whole synopsis. If I'm honest, I considered DNFing, but wanted to be able to tick Poland off in my Reading the World challenge.
I struggled to keep track of who everyone was - I read quite a lot of translated books, so I don't think it's the Polish names as much as it is that almost everyone is referred to as Mrs. So-and-so, and that they are all relatively indistinguishable from each other. I think this use of names is an indicator of the conservative society in which they lived, and that Zofia was probably a realistic representative of women of her class in this period, but this didn't help endear her to me. I did like Ignacy and Franciszka, and would have liked to hear their perspectives, but appreciate that would be quite a different book. I also thought the atmospheric descriptions of 19th century Krakow were great, and these saved the book from a one star rating from me.
What I absolutely loathed was the 'gathering of suspects' at the end, and the crucial information I would have needed to solve the crime myself being withheld. Because I don't read much crime nowadays, I didn't realise this was going to be the case until far too late.
I struggled to keep track of who everyone was - I read quite a lot of translated books, so I don't think it's the Polish names as much as it is that almost everyone is referred to as Mrs. So-and-so, and that they are all relatively indistinguishable from each other. I think this use of names is an indicator of the conservative society in which they lived, and that Zofia was probably a realistic representative of women of her class in this period, but this didn't help endear her to me. I did like Ignacy and Franciszka, and would have liked to hear their perspectives, but appreciate that would be quite a different book. I also thought the atmospheric descriptions of 19th century Krakow were great, and these saved the book from a one star rating from me.
I am going to start with an Ode to Book Catalogs:
Social network book review sites such as Goodreads are great, but their very size and variety means that I use them more to find out about something I've already heard of than to find a hidden gem. Publisher-specific sites and email lists are great, too, but they focus on newly-published books. I have my favorite book-oriented blogs, podcasts and weekly reviews (modernmrsdarcy.com, The New York Times Sunday Book Review, etc.), and a good portion of my reading lists is governed by their impassioned championing of favorites.
But if you want a hidden gem, a well-curated catalog by a bookseller can't be beat.
Of course, the days of bookseller's catalogs are mostly gone; I think they had their heyday in the couple of decades before the internet (and certainly before amazon.com). They were based on the enthusiasm of a small group of people; sometimes so enthusiastic that they'd start small presses to re-issue favorites. My children got dozens of books from Chinaberry Books, because I could read short, enthusiastic synopses with recommendations for the kind of kid who'd like this one. From Books of Wonder, I learned of a marvelously imaginative fantasy book from England, long before many others had heard of The Boy Who Lived. But most of the books were little-known treasures, often published decades earlier and forgotten--charming Margaret Wise Brown titles eclipsed by the success of Goodnight Moon, fantastically satisfying early reader's chapter book series like Mr. Putter and Tabby and My Father's Dragon, perfect editions of classics like The Night Before Christmas, whimsical stories made even more so to American readers because they were written in other places, like The Wild Baby and Finn Family Mumentroll.
I shopped from book catalogs for myself as well, reading a well-crafted paragraph that convinced me to buy all sorts of great books that did not achieve the solidity of the classics backlist. There was A Reader's Catalog, different from the current catalog of that name, that introduced me to Stella Gibbons's Cold Comfort Farm; to the sweet, wry, cheerful Barsetshire novels by Angela Thirkell (these would absolutely work for quarantine reading, with recurring characters who get star billing in one novel and then just appear like old neighbors, so you can stay involved with their lives while getting a different story)--this series went on across two decades, marking the changes of British country life; to the intrepid American writer Betty McDonald, whose memoirs The Egg and I and The Plague and I are like a farmhouse breakfast: hearty, cheering, delicious reads; to the Baroness Elizabeth von Arnim's fiction and memoirs, a woman whose adventures in a decidedly pre-feminist gilded culture that was turned upside-down during the 20th century are so fun to read. And so many more...
The one that remains and seems to be thriving is Bas Bleu. When I lived in Atlanta, Bas Bleu was located there as well, and I'd pore over the catalog for a few weeks, put together an order, and then run down to the warehouse to save myself shipping costs. Then they moved to Boston, and I still ordered, though my own many moves meant that I'd fall off their mailing list for years on end. They are now located in Ohio. They sell at least as many book-themed items as they do books. But with the books, they stick to the formula--a group of editors writes up short reviews of their favorites. I'd say about 1/3 of the books are current and recent fairly well-known publications, and the rest of the list is one hidden gem after another. I still pore over the catalog for a few weeks, starring one book after another, and then order about 6 at a time, and interleave my reading season with them.
It is have Bas Bleu to thank for Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing. Where would I ever have heard of this book? It was written by a pair of Polish writers, Jacek Dehnel, and Piotr Tarczyński. I've never heard of either of them. It is an amateur-detective novel set in 1890s Cracow. The Miss Marple of this second-tier city is a childless middle-class woman who is married to a professor--in other words, in an empire in which royalty still reigned, a second-tier distinction. She keeps house, does charitable work, hires and fires housemaids, and uses her acumen to promote her mild-mannered husband's rise at the university. It's a book that needs a historical preface just to help the reader get a basic sense of the backdrop of the story. In 2020, work-Zooming for hours, doom-scrolling for more hours, how would this book catch my attention if someone hadn't pressed it into my hands?
For those who enjoy the armchair-detective sub-genre, this is a treasure of a book. Unlike most of the detectives of fame, Zofia Turbotyriaska's foibles are on display from the first page. She is vain, she is a social climber, she is traditional, she is bored, she fancies herself poetic. And when she finds a small snag in the obvious tale of an old woman's death at a retirement facility she is visiting, she picks at that snag with all of her tenacity, concealing her interest behind the work she is doing for a charitable event.
None of this may sound promising, but you should trust me on this one. You'll be intrigued by the Imperial Hapsburg era, especially life far from the halls of power; you'll appreciate the way that the novel depicts a time and place that would change so radically over the next 50 years as such a forward-thinking and moving place; you'll enjoy Mme Turbotyriaska's mix of personal foolishness and strong character.
Maybe you'll get a copy of Bas Bleu yourself, and start reading the reviews and starring books.
Social network book review sites such as Goodreads are great, but their very size and variety means that I use them more to find out about something I've already heard of than to find a hidden gem. Publisher-specific sites and email lists are great, too, but they focus on newly-published books. I have my favorite book-oriented blogs, podcasts and weekly reviews (modernmrsdarcy.com, The New York Times Sunday Book Review, etc.), and a good portion of my reading lists is governed by their impassioned championing of favorites.
But if you want a hidden gem, a well-curated catalog by a bookseller can't be beat.
Of course, the days of bookseller's catalogs are mostly gone; I think they had their heyday in the couple of decades before the internet (and certainly before amazon.com). They were based on the enthusiasm of a small group of people; sometimes so enthusiastic that they'd start small presses to re-issue favorites. My children got dozens of books from Chinaberry Books, because I could read short, enthusiastic synopses with recommendations for the kind of kid who'd like this one. From Books of Wonder, I learned of a marvelously imaginative fantasy book from England, long before many others had heard of The Boy Who Lived. But most of the books were little-known treasures, often published decades earlier and forgotten--charming Margaret Wise Brown titles eclipsed by the success of Goodnight Moon, fantastically satisfying early reader's chapter book series like Mr. Putter and Tabby and My Father's Dragon, perfect editions of classics like The Night Before Christmas, whimsical stories made even more so to American readers because they were written in other places, like The Wild Baby and Finn Family Mumentroll.
I shopped from book catalogs for myself as well, reading a well-crafted paragraph that convinced me to buy all sorts of great books that did not achieve the solidity of the classics backlist. There was A Reader's Catalog, different from the current catalog of that name, that introduced me to Stella Gibbons's Cold Comfort Farm; to the sweet, wry, cheerful Barsetshire novels by Angela Thirkell (these would absolutely work for quarantine reading, with recurring characters who get star billing in one novel and then just appear like old neighbors, so you can stay involved with their lives while getting a different story)--this series went on across two decades, marking the changes of British country life; to the intrepid American writer Betty McDonald, whose memoirs The Egg and I and The Plague and I are like a farmhouse breakfast: hearty, cheering, delicious reads; to the Baroness Elizabeth von Arnim's fiction and memoirs, a woman whose adventures in a decidedly pre-feminist gilded culture that was turned upside-down during the 20th century are so fun to read. And so many more...
The one that remains and seems to be thriving is Bas Bleu. When I lived in Atlanta, Bas Bleu was located there as well, and I'd pore over the catalog for a few weeks, put together an order, and then run down to the warehouse to save myself shipping costs. Then they moved to Boston, and I still ordered, though my own many moves meant that I'd fall off their mailing list for years on end. They are now located in Ohio. They sell at least as many book-themed items as they do books. But with the books, they stick to the formula--a group of editors writes up short reviews of their favorites. I'd say about 1/3 of the books are current and recent fairly well-known publications, and the rest of the list is one hidden gem after another. I still pore over the catalog for a few weeks, starring one book after another, and then order about 6 at a time, and interleave my reading season with them.
It is have Bas Bleu to thank for Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing. Where would I ever have heard of this book? It was written by a pair of Polish writers, Jacek Dehnel, and Piotr Tarczyński. I've never heard of either of them. It is an amateur-detective novel set in 1890s Cracow. The Miss Marple of this second-tier city is a childless middle-class woman who is married to a professor--in other words, in an empire in which royalty still reigned, a second-tier distinction. She keeps house, does charitable work, hires and fires housemaids, and uses her acumen to promote her mild-mannered husband's rise at the university. It's a book that needs a historical preface just to help the reader get a basic sense of the backdrop of the story. In 2020, work-Zooming for hours, doom-scrolling for more hours, how would this book catch my attention if someone hadn't pressed it into my hands?
For those who enjoy the armchair-detective sub-genre, this is a treasure of a book. Unlike most of the detectives of fame, Zofia Turbotyriaska's foibles are on display from the first page. She is vain, she is a social climber, she is traditional, she is bored, she fancies herself poetic. And when she finds a small snag in the obvious tale of an old woman's death at a retirement facility she is visiting, she picks at that snag with all of her tenacity, concealing her interest behind the work she is doing for a charitable event.
None of this may sound promising, but you should trust me on this one. You'll be intrigued by the Imperial Hapsburg era, especially life far from the halls of power; you'll appreciate the way that the novel depicts a time and place that would change so radically over the next 50 years as such a forward-thinking and moving place; you'll enjoy Mme Turbotyriaska's mix of personal foolishness and strong character.
Maybe you'll get a copy of Bas Bleu yourself, and start reading the reviews and starring books.
challenging
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
This book is about a Polish gentlewoman who decides to investigate some recent murders at the retirement home she is attempting to organise a charity raffle at. I really enjoyed this book. It is a fun, quick murder mystery that kept me turning the pages. I really liked the final twist and the way everything came together at the end to form a very satisfying conclusion to this story. I thought the main character, Zofia, was a really interesting character and I did like her quite a bit. I also think the author did a very good job at bringing late 19th century Poland to life and transporting the reader to the setting. Overall, I really liked this book and I would definitely recommend it.