My May books

This is an overview of the books I have finished in a month (not necessarily started in the same month) and those I have read to Gundel (marked with 😸).
I will be adding a short explanation why I chose a book or how I found it and possibly if it's a re-read candidate, but I'm usually not going to add real reviews or ratings (Gundel also refuses to give ratings). Should you want a little more information on a book you're interested in, though, just let me know.


"Die Jungens von Burg Schreckenstein" by Oliver Hassencamp, first published in 1959

What a surprise for the pupils of an overcrowded boy school when they are told that they are going to move to a boarding school - in a castle!
After having explored "Burg Schreckenstein" (translated in the book as Horror Rock Castle (as a name for their jazz band)), the boys start calling themselves Knights and decide to follow a knightly code.

When I was a child, we - my guess is my brothers - had the first three volumes of this series which Hassencamp wrote between 1959 and 1988 (when he died in a car accident). The series has 27 volumes and has still been popular in Germany in the 2000s, possibly still now. The other day I noticed I had only inherited volume 2 and 3, therefore I bought volume 1 now and re-read it.

"The Gift of Not Belonging: How Outsiders Thrive in a World of Joiners" by Rami Kaminski, first published in 2025

In this book, psychiatrist Dr. Kaminski introduces a new personality type, no introvert, no extrovert, but the otrovert - "one who faces a different direction" according to his definition.

If my copy weren't missing the jacket, you could see a group of green chameleons on a branch and above them a blue one - the otrovert who can mingle with a group better than an introvert, but still stands outside of it as a kind of observer.
My problem with the book is that while some passages seem to describe me, I found others extremely generalizing, sometimes repetitive, sometimes contradictive in the description of what defines "the" otrovert - which I totally am according to the test in the book which I can believe or not just like a personality test in a magazine in a doctor's waiting room as we get no clue what exactly it's based on.
There are anecdotes about patients, but nothing concrete, studies or references, that would make me feel as if this could be more than someone telling me about having a kind of superpower by being different from people who live a more community-based life which the author (who is of course an otrovert) seems to frown upon. This is only one example: "Tuned in to their rich, multilayered inner worlds, they gain access to a fantastically complex universe of thought, memory, and imagination that the communal person cannot access." Come on now, seriously?
So yeah, to me this seemed just like a new drawer to store people in (tempting superpower included), but I don't believe in such drawers. I got the book used and wonder if the previous owner felt the same about it as I did.

"The Silent Bullet" by Arthur B. Reeve, first published in 1910
(Craig Kennedy, Scientific Detective 1)

Craig Kennedy is a professor at Columbia University and he's convinced there should be a professorship in criminal science.
With the help of his journalist friend Walter James - yes, they are flatmates -, he uses his scientific expertise to help out the police and private clients.

I have the "leaping fish" to thank for discovering the "American Sherlock Holmes" (there wasn't much in German, it seems) as someone commented on the video that Coke Ennyday may be a Sherlock Holmes spoof, but that the name is definitely inspired by Professor Kennedy.
Initially the stories were published in "The Cosmopolitan".
This book has 12 stories in which Kennedy uses hidden microphones, lie detectors, a defibrillator, magnets, and more ("Murdoch Mysteries" anyone?).
I still prefer Sherlock Holmes, but it was a fun read, and as Reeve wrote loads more my vintage crime folder has grown again.

"Last Ditch" by Ngaio Marsh, first published in 1977
(Roderick Alleyn 29)

Alleyn's son Ricky is on one of the Channel Islands in order to write a book.
The peace is disturbed, however, when a young woman is found dead after a riding accident. Or wasn't it an accident?

This is still part of my vintage crime project for which I keep getting books by Marsh and Allingham.

"The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus" by Emma Knight, first published in 2025

A coming-of-age book about two friends, Pen and Alice from Canada who study in Edinburgh.

The book was mentioned on a blog and I have to admit that the words octopus (spoiler, it's a metaphor) and Edinburgh made me read it. It was okay, but not substantial enough to be sticking with me for long.

"Photo Finish" by Ngaio Marsh, first published in 1980
(Roderick Alleyn 31)

When his wife Troy is invited to a millionaire's luxury residence on an island in a New Zealand lake to paint the portrait of famous opera singer Isabella Sommita, Alleyn is invited along to look into the affair of a paparazzo following her.
After the performance of an opera written by Sommita's lover, part of the group is stuck on the island due to a heavy storm. Then the singer is found in her room ... murdered ...

This is still part of my vintage crime project and I have now read all 33 Roderick Alleyn books.

"An American Comedy" by Harold Lloyd (in collaboration with Wesley W. Stout), first published in 1928 (this edition was reproduced with minor corrections plus an interview from 1966)

This is the autobiography of Harold Lloyd at the height of his career. Kind of. I found it to be a mix of some life stories without getting too much in details unless they were light enough and stories of how his film career developed and how he developed films. That was actually quite interesting (if a bit dated which is no surprise), but I know there have been things left out (in regards to his accident with a bomb, for example), so I will read a "real" biography when possible.
What I liked was that someone really worked with this copy. There are loads of asterisks, marked paragraphs, and a few marginal notes. To me, it looks like someone tried to research how to do comedy.

I'm having fun with making my way through film-related biographies.

"The Ex Hex" by Erin Sterling, first published in 2021
(Graves Glen 1)

After breaking up with Rhys, the witch Vivienne puts a curse on him. It's not supposed to be serious, but when Rhys comes back to Vivienne's hometown after nine years to charge the town's ley lines, the magic goes crazy because of the curse and both the town and Rhys are in danger.

I found the book on OverDrive by accident and liked the idea of magic going crazy. Unfortunately it was mostly about the love story, but not in a way that captured me. I won't be reading the other books in the series.

"Bury Your Secrets" by Kerry Watts, first published in 2024
(DI Fraser Brodie 1)

A man well liked in the community is murdered in a gruesome way. The next day another body is found. A third man disappears.
DI Brodie and the isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides have to deal with a serial killer - again. Brodie is reminded of the murders his own twin brother has committed decades ago.

The book was recommended on a blog and sounded like one of the police thrillers I like to watch on TV sometimes.
It was a quick read, but "the secret" was mentioned so often that it got boring, and honestly, after not even half of the book I was quite sure I knew who the killer was (I was right). I would probably give the second book in the series a try to see if that improves, but my library doesn't have it, anyway.

"Celia's House" by D. E. Stevenson, first published in 1943 😸

The book spans about 40 years of Dunnian House, a Scottish country estate. There have always lived Dunnes in the house, and the book starts with the unmarried Celia in 1905 and then tells the story of her nephew and his family who move in after Celia's death.

I hadn't known DES before I came across a review of a different book of hers on Liz's blog "Adventures in reading, running, and working from home". I think I marked both books to remind myself that DES wrote a lot, but randomly chose this one first. 
It was gentle, charming, and just what I needed at the moment. Afterwards I found that Liz has a short review of it on her blog, too. It will definitely not be the last book by this author for me.

"A Handful of Time" by Helen Foley, first published in 1961

Frances is asked by the police to travel to Cornwall to identify the body of her friend Fanny who has drowned in a sailing accident.
On the way, she remembers the story of her friendship after meeting as undergraduates in Cambridge in the 30s, of living together and making it through the war - Fanny is Austrian, but has been living in England since she went to school -, of friends and lovers.

I found this book mentioned on "The Neglected Books Page" and thought it sounded interesting - which it was, but eventually it started dragging.

"The Mysterious Mr. Badman : A Yorkshire Bibliomystery" by William Fryer Harvey, first published in 1934

When blanket manufacturer Athelstan Digby offers to mind the bookshop of his hosts while they are out of the house, he doesn't expect three men to ask for the same ominous book within a few hours.
Little does he know about the secret connected with this book, but after a body is found, there's no stopping him from investigating.

This is one of my random finds, a vintage crime with quite a bit of fun mixed in.

"The Cat Who Came in From the Cold" by Deric Longden, first published in 1991 😸

A tiny kitten on a bucket in the neighbor's garden during the rain ... writers Deric and Aileen can't help falling in love.
This is the story of Thermal and his adventures in a Huddersfield neighborhood.

I had an urgent need for a familiar feel good book and this one which started my cat book collection decades ago is always a good choice!

"Robert My Father" by Sheridan Morley, first published in 1993

The biography of British actor Robert Morley written by his eldest son who was a drama and film critic and a writer.

I knew Morley from old movies of course, but I hadn't known about his long career in theater both as actor and playwright. As someone who knows next to nothing about theater, it was sometimes hard for me to wade through lists of unfamiliar names, but the stories made up for it.

"Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths" by Natalie Haynes, first published in 2022

In ten chapters, Haynes features women from classical literature and mythology, for example Pandora, Medea, Medusa, and tells the stories shining a light on them instead on the male point of view.

I had a look at the non-fiction books on OverDrive and picked this one because it sounded interesting. Good choice, I really enjoyed it!


DNF:

"The Frozen River" by Ariel Lawhon, first published in 2025

Midwife Martha Ballard is called to examine the body of a man found in the ice of the frozen river. He's one of two men having been accused of rape and Martha finds he was hanged before he got thrown into the river. Not everyone wants this murder to be solved, but Martha is determined.

I gave up at about a third. I wanted to like Martha for being strong and fighting for justice, but I didn't and even worse, the book started dragging for me.
It's inspired by real life events and the real Martha sounds very fascinating. I'd rather read the biography about her instead of this book.

My April books

This is an overview of the books I have finished in a month (not necessarily started in the same month) and those I have read to Gundel (marked with 😸).
I will be adding a short explanation why I chose a book or how I found it and possibly if it's a re-read candidate, but I'm usually not going to add real reviews or ratings (Gundel also refuses to give ratings). Should you want a little more information on a book you're interested in, though, just let me know.
It's posted one day early as the Thursday is reserved for my silent movie posts.


"Catweazle" by Richard Carpenter, first published in 1970 😸

Catweazle is a sorcerer living in 11th century England. Chased by Norman soldiers, he escapes by jumping into a lake - and coming up in the 1970s!
Luckily he meets the boy Edward, called Carrot, who does his best to keep Catweazle hidden and safe. Together they have some hilarious adventures while Catweazle tries to find a way back into his own time.

This was a re-read for a blog post.

"The Alington Inheritance" by Patricia Wentworth, first published in 1958
(Miss Silver 31)

Raised by her mother's old governess, Jenny never even knew that her late parents had been married and she therefore is heiress to the Alington riches. Her distant cousin Mac and his mother are not ready to give up the money so easily, so when she overhears Mac's plan to marry her to keep control over it, Jenny runs away.
It doesn't end there, though ...

More ear ringing for Liz on whose blog I came across Wentworth whose Miss Silver series fit right in with my vintage crime reading.

"The Art of Annemieke Mein: Wildlife Artist in Textiles" by Annemieke Mein, first published in 1992

Annemieke Mein is an Australian textile artists born in Holland. The book shows some of her works created in different techniques and from a variety of materials. She has added explanations about the inspiration and the artworks themselves.

I first learned about Mein thanks to a Style Imitating Art challenge post on Marsha's blog with the artwork "Whirlpool Frog" chosen by Salazar.
Mein's art is fascinating and of course the book can only give you a small idea. I wish I could see some of it in person.

"O diese Rasselbande" by Rosemarie Ditter, first published in 1953

A story of school and friendship.

Re-read for a future blog post.

"Stan: the Life of Stan Laurel" by Fred Lawrence Guiles, first published in 1980

The biography of Stan Laurel, about his beginnings in vaudeville, his film career without and then with Oliver Hardy, and his private life.

One of the movie biographies on my list (there's also another one on Laurel and Hardy on it).

"Meet the Newmans" by Jennifer Niven, first published in 2026

Del, Dinah, and their sons Guy and Shep have been America's favorite family for 12 years - on screen in black and white.
It's 1964 now and times are changing.
Then Del has an accident and Dinah has to take over.
Will it change the family, the real one and the one on TV?

A new entry on OverDrive.
For me it was a quick and easy read and I could relate to some of the issues, but it had a lot of those which got wrapped up a bit too neatly and quickly for me in the end which was a pity.

"Poirot and Me" by David Suchet and Geoffrey Wansell, first published in 2013

David Suchet played Agatha Christie's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in 70 episodes over 25 years - shorter ones, but also longer films. In this book he talks about how he approached the role and what Poirot means to him.

I'm not a fan of Christie's books, I'm not a fan of all adaptations, I'm not even a fan of all the 70 episodes, but a huge fan of David Suchet's Poirot, so this was really interesting.

"Steeple Folly" by M. E. Atkinson, first published in 1950
(Locketts 14)

The three Lockett kids are in quarantine because one of them had German measles (although it says diphteria once at the very beginning?). As Bill needs to cram for an important entry exam, they are sent to a village where a highly regarded tutor lives.

What luck that this is where the Roberts children have written from to taunt the Locketts about their adventures!
Time for a new adventure.

After writing a blog post about the first book, a childhood favorite of mine, I got myself the books I was still missing from the series. This is the last one. 

"Why the Whales Came" by Michael Morpurgo, first published in 1985 😸

Like all the other children on the Scilly island Bryher, Gracie and her friend Daniel are not allowed on the side of the island where the mysterious and feared Birdman lives.
Of course, they go there anyway and become friends with the old Mr. Woodcock who lives a quiet life in his cottage carving birds from wood. He warns them to never visit the island Samson which is close by because there's a curse on it.
Then World War I begins and Gracie's father gets lost at sea ...

The book was a random find on the Internet Archive.

"The Penguin Pool Murder" by Stuart Palmer, first published in 1931
(Hildegarde Withers 1)

Hildegarde Withers has taken her school class to the New York Aquarium. Little does she know she will be drawn into a murder case there, but she can't resist offering Inspector Piper her help.

The movie adaptations were mentioned in a silent movie blog I'm following, so I looked for Palmer's books as I had never heard of Miss Withers before.

"Magpie Murders" by Anthony Horowitz, first published in 2016
(Susan Ryeland 1)

When editor Susan Ryeland reads the manuscript for the latest Atticus Pünd mystery by bestselling author Alan Conway, she's surprised to see that the last chapter is missing.
Then Conway is dead and Susan starts investigating.

I found the book easy enough to read although there's a complete book in a book, but I couldn't get rid of the feeling that the author was really proud of all the little Easter eggs, references (which I usually enjoy), and hints. All that did for me, however, was that I didn't like any of the characters, that I kept wondering if the "Midsomer Murders" episodes I was reminded of came before or after this book, and that I don't feel the slightest urge to read any of the sequels.

"Darling Girls" by Sally Hepworth, first published in 2024

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are not biological sisters, but living as foster children together in the house of Miss Fairchild has made them feel like sisters.
When a body is found under the house years later, old childhood memories return. Whose bones are they and who put them there?

That was intense. I finished it as it was another recommendation along with my DNF and I didn't want to DNF this as well.
I had expected a thriller, but it's not really although there was a murder. Reading about the memories of children being abused in the foster system got really hard for me after a while.

"When in Rome" by Ngaio Marsh, first published in 1970
(Roderick Alleyn 26)

While in Rome to investigate a drug ring, Roderick Alleyn joins one of Sebastian Mailer's tours with a quite illustrious group of tourists to learn more about him.
During the tour Mailer disappears and later a postcard seller who had spat at him is found dead in the basilica they visited. Is Mailer not just a drug dealer and blackmailer, but also a murderer?

This is still part of my vintage crime project for which I keep getting books by Marsh and Allingham. The last two Marsh books are already on the way!

"Going Gangster" by M. E. Atkinson, first published in 1940
(Locketts 5)

This time it's only Jane and Bill who have an adventure as Oliver is already in school while Jane keeps the reconvalescing Bill company for a week.
They are dragged into this one by an old acquaintance, bound by a promise. She recuits their help in taking a girl from the school she hates back to her parents who are Romani (probably, with the book being from the 40s that's not the word that is used).

After writing a blog post about the first book, a childhood favorite of mine, I got myself the books I was still missing from the series.

"The Three Investigators in The Secret of the Crooked Cat" by William Arden (the books were published attributed to Alfred Hitchcock), first published in 1970 😸
(The Three Investigators 13)

Why should someone want to steal a carnival prize? Does the crooked cat hold a secret and is therefore more valuable?
Jupiter, Peter, and Bob soon learn that a carnival can be dangerous ground.

I read this series a long time ago and am going through it again bit by bit after writing a blog post about it. This book is the thirteenth in the series.

"Mistresses : True Stories of Seduction, Power and Ambition" by Leigh Eduardo, first published in 2005

Eduardo tells the stories of eight famous mistresses from the 17th to the 20th century, from Barbara Villiers to La Belle Otero.

I stumbled upon this book because one chapter is about Marion Davies. It woke the interest in me for reading up on one or the other person in more detail (not necessarily the women the book is about), but parts had more of a tabloid character for me - meant to shock the readers? I also wondered why these eight were chosen, it seemed a curious mix.

"Vanishing Culture: A Report on Our Fragile Cultural Record" by Luca Messarra et al., first published in 2026 😸

Have you ever wondered about the preservation of materials in libraries and archives and the possibility to access the information easily? We often take for granted that physical and digital media are archived in some way, but is that really the case?

The Internet Archive had announced their book (CC BY 4.0) on Instagram and as a librarian I thought this was a really interesting topic.
I'm not sure how interested Gundel was in it, but reading it to her snuggled up or next to me helped me concentrate on the chapters about media I knew not much or nothing about.


DNF:

"The Maid" by Nita Prose, first published in 2022
(Molly Gray 1)

Molly is a maid in a high class hotel.
One day she founds one of the regular guests dead on his bed.

I followed a recommendation and really wanted to finish it to talk about it to a new friend, but DNFed at about a third because I sadly didn't like the style or the way the protagonist was portrayed.

"Yesteryear" by Caro Claire Burke, first published in 2026

One morning, Natalie, a successful "tradwife" influencer, wakes up in a place that is her home but also isn't, with a husband and children who seem familiar yet not like hers, in an environment without technology and convenience.

I hadn't expected a second DNF this month. Maybe I'm missing something, but this just wasn't what I had anticipated and it didn't work for me for several reasons, so I gave up eventually although I had come pretty far.

Silent movies - Suspense

Comedy, science fiction, horror, romance, crime, adventure, fairy tale, slapstick, animation, is there something that is still missing in my silent movie journey? There is indeed - documentary.

An obvious choice would have been the first film to be called a documentary (which is debatable as a lot of it was staged due to the realities of film making in 1922 and also represented the Inuit life as it had been, not as it was at the time of filming) - "Nanook of the North" - but I'll be honest, I wasn't ready to deal with hunt scenes and the life of polar dogs at the time.
Instead I called up a list of silent documentaries and picked "The Epic of Everest" without knowing what exactly it was about although it was not difficult to guess that it would involve mountaineering, a topic I'm not really interested in.
Of course I'm fascinated by the majesty of the Himalaya and Mount Everest - known as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet - how could you not be, but why someone would want to climb it, is beyond me and my strictly non-adventurous mind.
I had of course forgotten about donkeys and yaks carrying heavily loads, and a half hour into the film they had lost me when they showed a baby donkey born on the trail and said how many miles this poor baby allegedly had to walk. It hadn't signed up for this!

What to do now?
I went back to the list, but nothing sounded as if I was up for watching it.
Understandably, that was still the time of the great explorers and exploring something always involved animals, livestock or wild ones and therefore inevitably scenes I didn't want to see. Even those filmmakers who wanted to point out what humans did to wildlife used that same wildlife to stage situations for their documentaries - for example Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack of "King Kong" fame.
I know those were different times and therefore those films are interesting in more than one regard, not just for their content, but also why or how that content was collected, but my skin is not thick enough for it these days.

I will keep searching and have one movie on my list, but for this post I needed something short and quick now.
What I found was "Suspense" by Lois Weber from 1913 which is in the public domain and which you can watch here.

As this is a silent short film of 10 minutes, the plot is told rather quickly (spoilers as usual!).
At a remote house, a maid quits letting her employer, a mother with a small baby, only know by note. She leaves the key under the mat. When the mother finds the note, she locks doors and windows.
A tramp has seen the maid leaving, goes to check out the house and finds the key. When the woman notices him, she calls her husband who has to work late, but the tramp cuts the line.

The husband hurries to help her by taking the first car parked in the street and racing off followed by the owner and police.

While the woman has locked herself in the bedroom with her baby and put a dresser in front of the door, the tramp looks around the house, and the man gets held up when he hits a man standing in the middle of the road and helps him up again.
The tramp hears sounds from above, and armed with a knife, he breaks into the bedroom. Just then the cars arrive at the house. Shots aimed at the husband panic the tramp, he runs downstairs where he gets overpowered by the husband and police.
The man runs upstairs to find his wife and baby unharmed. He explains everything and is of course forgiven.

I have to admit that I had never heard of Lois Weber before, another example of not just an early maker of silent films, but a woman whose achievements had been forgotten.

Public domain

Actually, Weber was a pioneer in early film, the "first American woman to direct a feature film" and the "leading female director-screenwriter in early Hollywood", not to mention that she also acted, for example as the mother in "Suspense". Eventually, she even had her own studio.

This isn't supposed to be a post about Lois Weber (and her husband Phillips Smalley with whom she mostly worked until their divorce), though, especially as I haven't seen any of her other movies yet that have survived. She had a large output, but a lot is lost like so many silent films.
There are four links at the bottom if you would like to know more about her, and who knows, maybe she'll be turning up in another post of mine eventually.

To the movie now.
The title doesn't promise too much.
Like other films, "Suspense" was likely inspired by a French Grand Guignol play from 1902 - "Au Téléphone" by André de Lorde and Charles Foley - which didn't have a happy ending, though. The husband has to listen to his family getting murdered without being able to help.

Weber used different techniques to build up suspense, for example the split screen showing the three narratives - the husband at the office, the wife and baby at home, and the tramp breaking in.
In the car chase, there is the mirrored image of the pursuers coming closer.
You have interesting angles like when the wife looks out of the window and sees the tramp outside.

There is a lot more to say about the technical side of the film of course, but I leave that to the experts. Instead I want to tell you what I thought when I watched it a second time as there is rather a lot to see for a short of 10 minutes and you know me and my weird brain. I always have questions.

- The maid who contemplates announcing her leaving, but decides against it. Does she think she can't pull it through when she's looking the mother in the eye?
Without seeing her, the tramp might not even have got the idea to take a look at the house, and she unknowingly made it easier for him by putting the key under the mat. What did she do that for, anyway? Why didn't she just leave it on the table with the note?
And why does the mother not go and get the key from under the mat when she locks all the doors?

- The tramp eating the sandwiches, rummaging around a bit, not very convincingly, and then going for the woman. I've heard of people eating or drinking at crime scenes, but usually after the deed is done.
Why the sudden urge for making a "simple" break-in even worse?

- The husband hitting the man in the road. I find it rather nice that he doesn't just drive off, but gets out, pats him down, asks him if he's okay, but then he stops to look out for his pursuers twice (!) before getting back in the car and driving on. Oh, my wife is in danger, la-di-da ....

Does that make it sound as if I didn't like the movie? Not at all. Those are just things I started thinking about after watching it a second time.
Of course all of those things had to be just like this to increase the feeling of suspense which worked just perfectly.

From what I read, Weber's other movies often revolved around social issues, so "Suspense" seems to be an exception, and of course a lot of her work is lost, but I'm definitely putting her on my watch list for more.


Sources:

About "Suspense"
1. Fritzi Kramer: Suspense (1913) A Silent Film Review. On: Movies Silently, April 24, 2016
2. Short of the Month: Suspense (dir. Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley, 1913). On: Nitrateglow, February 11, 2022
3. "At the telephone" - English translation of "Au téléphone" by André de Lorde. In: "One-act plays for stage and study, second series, 1925, edited by Walter Prichard Eaton"

About Lois Weber:
1. Angelica Aboulhosn: Lois Weber: An Early Hollywood Filmmaker with Her Own Studio. In: Humanities, vol. 44(2023), issue 4
2. Shelley Stamp: Lois Weber. On: Women Film Pioneers Project. October 15, 2019
3. Lea Stans: "The Muse Of The Reel" - The Pioneering Work of Director Lois Weber. On: Silent-ology, January 25, 2018
4. Travis Lee Ratcliff: A History of Silence: The Cinema of Lois Weber. On his YouTube channel