*** Poirot Loses a Client by Agatha Christie. I used to make a habit of just staying up the whole night and reading a book if it wasn't too long. Feeling a bit nostalgic for this practice, I polished off this one in just under 6 hours (went to sleep at 3 AM). Probably not her best work. I had figured out the killer by about 40% through the book. Unfortunately, I was wrong. But I liked my ending better than hers (probably the only time that I've said that about an Agatha Christie mystery). Still, it was nice to read a novel.
**** Agroforestry Extension in Kenya by Bo Tengnas. This was another ICRAF book, and it was actually a good synthesis of much of the information in some of the other books that I had read. It gave me some good ideas for future directions to pursue. Also, he discussed the prospect of making charcoal from coconut husks. Definitely made me miss Abraham and the people of Onyansana in Ghana. The most enjoyable part was the fact that the book announced in its introduction that it had taken its illustrations from a variety of other sources, several of which I have read. One of these illustrations was a cartoon from Agroforestry in Dryland Africa. Except that the dialogue was completely changed. An identical drawing was used to discuss the environmental damage as people move into a forest, and explain the effects of trees on the microclimate.
You may notice that my list of books is much shorter this month. This is partially due to my workload and the fact that I am omitting reviews of textbooks and some of the technical manuals. However, it is primarily the fault of Dean Acheson (Truman's 4th Secretary of State) and his 750 page book about his years in the state department. I am 400 pages in so far. I will probably add a post just for that book in between my monthly book posts (Books 2.1, if you will)
No comments:
Post a Comment