Venetian Vespers - A Novel

Venetian Vespers by John Banville, 2025. I just finished Banville's latest crime novel, a puzzling historical mystery that takes place in Venice 1899 which I read in six days. It is  a very strangely haunting noir novel in a fascinating location. Some interesting but creepy people too.

This is the 14th John Banville I've read.

Orson Scott Card - The Authors List

Orson Scott Card. The Authors List with 7 books read. Six of the seven books read were part of the Ender's Game series of science fiction novels. The series started out very interesting but starts to drag as they go on. The author also politicizes in some obnoxious social issues. He continues to write lots of science fiction novels but I'm just not into them or him anymore.

Orson Scott Card books I've read:

• Enders Game, 1985 - Mar 2000
• Speaker For The Dead, 1986 - May 2000
• Xenocide, 1991 - Aug 2000
• Ender's Shadow, 1999 - Feb 2001
• Shadow of the Hegemon, 2001 - Mar 2001
• Empire, 2006 - Dec 2006
• Ender in Exile, 2008 - May 2010

Have A Nice Day - Kitchen Listening

Have A Nice Day - Kitchen Listening. Super Hits of the 70's: Have A Nice Day Volumes 1-6.

An incredible collection of 70's hits from Rhino Records. This very entertaining set of 72 songs in about 4 hours and we played it in a couple of sessions while making meals and hanging out. A lot of crazy weirdly giant brain washed hit songs along with some great classics. There were a few really big hits on the radio that I never heard much because of my time at sea in the early 70's and these volumes here are from those early years of the decade. There are 25 CD volumes for the decade.

And the sign said long-haired freaky people need not apply. We had a great laugh eating dinner when the song "Timothy" from The Buoys came on. 

What It Is - Kitchen Listening

What It Is! Funky Soul and Rare Grooves: 1967-1977 - Kitchen Listening. A wonderful various artists compilation of funky soul music in a 4 CD set of 80 songs from that decade that was released in 2006 from Rhino Records.

This set makes for an incredible listening experience that goes on for a little over five hours. One of the things I loved about this collection was the deep cuts and the not well known but fantastic artists represented here.

I came of age musically as a teenager in Philadelphia and this was a lot of the stuff I listened to growing up into young adulthood. I started out with Motown and doo-wop but quickly got into that funk with James Brown and beyond. I saw a lot of soul and funk bands during this decade too including JB. More on the album on AllMusic.

Louis L'Amour - The Authors List

Louis L'Amour. The Authors List. I've read 7 of his Western novels. I read them all in 1972 while on a six month Navy Mediterranean Sea cruise. 

During those months at sea I read a lot of novels from Edgar Rice Burroughs and H.G. Wells. Also the first Godfather book and The Exorcist but I ran out of books and was looking around for something to read. A large number of my fellow sailors were Country Western dudes from the South and the West and they were reading lots Western novels so that's how I got into Louis L'Amour... a classic writer of that genre. I read 7 novels during that cruise.

He wrote 89 novels in his lifetime plus another 14 short story collections and a couple of non-fiction books. The author described his works as frontier stories.

Louis L'Amour books I've read:

• Sackett, 1961 - May 1972
• Hondo, 1953 - Jun 1972
• The Sackett Brand, 1965 - Jul 1972
• Killoe, 1962 - Aug 1972
• The Daybreakers, 1960 - Aug 1972
• Lando, 1962 - Sep 1972
• The Broken Gun, 1966 - Oct 1972

Banana Bread

It's been awhile since we made any Banana Bread but this evening Becky put one together and I can't wait to have some for breakfast tomorrow morning.

Update 3/29 - The banana bread is delicious.

Mexican Food Leftovers

Tonight for dinner we had some of the leftovers we brought home from La Fiesta Cantina last night. We added some rice we had leftover from the a couple of days ago and also a fresh salad. It was a nice meal.

Somebody's Fool - A Novel

Somebody's Fool - Richard Russo, 2025. Today I finished reading this third book in his North Bath series which takes place in that town in Upstate New York. I enjoyed the book a lot like I did the books of his that I've read but this one also kind of weirded me out with his descriptions of the characters and their relationships with each other. It was also odd the way the characters from the previous books in the series reemerged again years later. 

The first book of the series, Nobody's Fool, was written in 1993 and I read it in 1994. The second book, Everybody's Fool, was written in 2016 and I read it in 2017. And now here I am reading Somebody's Fool which was written in 2025. So each book came out about 10 years apart. 

Overall this is the ninth Richard Russo novel I've read and the first in almost ten years. I wrote about Russo in my Authors List series here. There are still a lot more of his books that I would like to read but right now I'm starting another John Banville novel... Venetian Vespers that was just published a few months ago.

Broadside - Kitchen Listening

The Best of Broadside 1962-1988: Anthems of the American Underground from the Pages of Broadside Magazine and released from the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. 

Today is No Kings Day and a great time to listen to the 5 disc compilation box set released in 2000. The album runs about five and a half hours of contemporary folk music of it's time with much of it very topical development of an American social consciousness in popular music.

This is a great collection of music and an awesome listening experience. Here is a breakdown of the album on Discogs and a little history of Broadside Magazine.

J. K. Rowling - The Authors List

J. K. Rowling. The Authors List with 7 books. Yep, the Harry Potter books. I had a Harry Potter moment in my life in the spring of 2012 when I decided to read all of the books which I checked out of the campus library one by one. I read all seven books between April and June. So yes I enjoyed my Harry Potter experience.

Then I continued that experience by checking out all of the movies from the library and watching them one after the other in just under two weeks.

J. K. Rowling books that I read:

• Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone, 1997 - Apr 2012
• Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, 1998 - Apr 2012
• Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, 1997 - Apr 2012
• Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, 2000 - May 2012
• Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, 2003 - May 2012
• Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince, 2005 - Jun 2012
• Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollows, 2007 - Jun 2012

Dinner at La Fiesta Cantina

Tonight Becky and I had a wonderful dinner at a fabulous Mexican restaurant on Allen Street... La Fiesta Cantina. Both the food and the service was great. The restaurant itself was very interesting and welcoming. This was our first time in this particular restaurant but a number of years ago we had been there once when it was another Mexican restaurant called Don Tequila. Was not impressed. For many years we went to the K Gallagher restaurant in that location.

We had two dinners that we shared. Two Chimichangas filled with shredded chicken with rice, beans and a delicious salad. The other main dish was Tex-Mex Quesadilla with steak, grilled onions, corn and black beans along with an order of fries. These dinners were spectacular. 

I also had a couple of Modelo Especial Mexican Lager. It's been a long time since I had one of these on tap. 

Acid Drops - Kitchen Listening

Kitchen Listening with Acid Drops, Spacedust and Flying Saucers: Psychedelic Confectionary from the UK Underground 1965-1969, 2001. 

This is an incredible four disc compilation box set put together by Mojo Magazine of obscure British psychedelia from the 60's. They also mix in some well known bands to give the collection a nice historical balance and context alongside the many one hit wonders and psychedelic obscurities. It really is a fun listening experience and I enjoyed every moment. The set runs for nearly four hours.

More about this compilation here on AllMusic.

Mark Twain - The Authors List

Mark Twain. The Authors List with 8 books I've read. Two of them I read in my early teens... guest which ones. Yep, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Then I read them again as an adult along with a few other ones. In the late 80's and early 90's I was interested in Mark Twain again. 

I especially liked his non-fiction autobiographical travel memoirs. He was a very interesting writer and I really liked that he was writing of his time and travels through the Old West and along the Mississippi River.

I particularly loved his autobiography which was more of a dictated collection of reminiscences, anecdotes and ruminations near the end of his life rather than a traditional written memoir.

Mark Twain books that I've read:

• The Prince and the Pauper, 1881 - Jan 1988
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, 1889 - Jul 1989
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876 - Aug 1991
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884 - Oct 1991
• Life On The Mississippi, 1883 - Jan 1992
• Roughing It, 1872 - Jun 1993
• The Innocents Abroad, Or, the New Pilgrim's Progress, 1886 - Aug 1993
• The Autobiography of Mark Twain, 1910 - Nov 1993

Cream of Chicken Soup

We had some left over chicken from the past couple of nights so Becky made some cream of chicken soup tonight. It was delicious especially with some smoked paprika liberally springled on it. We had some of that wonderful French peasant bread too.

A nice meal for those last cold days of the season.

Margaret Atwood - The Authors List

Margaret Atwood. On the Authors List with 8 books I read. The first one was her probably most well known novel... The Handmaid's Tale which I read in early 1987. I would read several more of her novels over the years and I would always be fascinated with her take on the dystopian world that we have heading into. It was also interesting reading her Canadian perspective.

It seems that America is heading closer and closer to her distorted maga vision unless we put an end to it now.

I liked her books that were an interesting science fiction social dystopian but she is much more than that. Apparently she has written 18 novels, 18 books of poetry, 11 non-fiction books, 9 collections of short stories, 8 children's books and a couple of graphic novels. She's won lots of awards too.

Margaret Atwood books I've read:

• The Handmaid's Tale, 1985 - Feb 1987
• Cat's Eye, 1988 - Jan 1989
• Alias Grace, 1996 - Mar 1997
• Oryx and Crake, 2003 - Oct 2003
• The Year of the Flood, 2009 - Feb 2010
• MaddAddam, 2013 - Nov 2013
• The Heart Goes Last, 2015 - Dec 2015
• The Testaments, 2019 - Apr 2020

Goldmund Quartet

This evening we went down to Kleinhans Music Hall for another chamber music concert. This is the second to last one of the season. The performance tonight was with the Goldmund Quartet, a Munich based German quartet. They have been touring recently with pianist Gloria Chien who performed with them for the second part of the concert.

It was a wonderful concert tonight and you could feel the Bavarian influence throughout the show. They started out with a piece by Franz Schubert who wrote it at the age of 16. Amazing. Then they performed a piece by Mieczyslaw Weinberg who is described as a Jewish Polish Russian. He had a very intense life between the Germans and the Soviets. His music was very intense.

After the break the quartet and the pianist performed an incredible piano quintet piece by Amy Beach an early 20th century modernist composer.

An interesting note to this performance was the substitution of the lead violinist. Apparently the regular violinist for the quartet had to leave the tour and a substitute was added. The violin player filling in is the husband of the guest pianist. The violinist was very good.

Chicken Tacos & Rice

Becky used some of the leftover chicken from last night and made very tasty Chicken Tacos and Rice for dinner tonight. We really enjoyed this wonderful meal.

Bruce Catton - The Authors List

Bruce Catton. On The Authors List with 8 books I've read. As an adolescent kid and early teenager I was obsessed with reading about the Civil War. I think it was all the TV shows, magazines, and books at that time documenting the 100 year anniversaries of the battles and events of the war that went on for several years from 1961 to 1965. In 1962 I first read Catton's overview of the war from 1960 book titled the American Heritage History of The Civil War and then over the next few years I read his Centennial History of the Civil War trilogy. Then 20 years later in 1984 to 1986 I read them again along with four other of his books on the war including another trilogy. 

Over the years according to my Goodreads app data categories I've read 35 books about the Civil War including novels. Most were from the mid 80's to the late 90's.

Bruce Catton books I've read:

• The American Heritage History of The Civil War, 1960 - Jun 1984
• This Hollowed Grown, 1956 - Nov 1984
• The Coming Fury, 1961 - Feb 1985
• Terrible Swift Sword, 1963 - May 1985
• Never Call Retreat, 1965 - Jul 1985
• Mr. Lincoln's Army, 1951 - Mar 1986
• Glory Road, 1952 - May 1986
• A Stillness at Appomattox, 1953 - Jun 1986

Nice Chicken & Rice

This evening we had a nice chicken and rice dinner with peas and carrots along with some of that wonderful French peasant bread. A very satisfying meal. 

Another nice thing about this dinner is the large amount of chicken that was cooked and not used tonight. We have plenty of chicken left over for some other meals... maybe some chicken soup. 

Backyard Woodpecker

Over the past couple of months we've had a red-bellied woodpecker hanging around our backyard. Every morning I've heard his pecking on our backyard trees. It's a regular sound of the start of the day and it continues all day too.

He has also learned how to get some seeds from our birdfeeder. For years now the red-bellied woodpecker in our yard has spent a lot of time on Mark's feeder next door but would occasionally come over to our feeder and stand around on the top like a lot of larger birds often do. However, this year and in particularly the past month or so he has learned how to cling to the bottom of our feeder and stretch his neck into the slot to grab some seeds with his long beak. It's actually very fun to watch.

Now he is a regular at our birdfeeder too. I did write about this woodpecker a few years ago and his frustration at our birdfeeder.

Octavia Butler - The Authors List

Octavia Butler. On my Authors List with 7 books read. The author here was an amazing science fiction horror novelist who wrote from a African-American and focused on stories of Afro-Futurism spiritualism.

I had been aware of her science fiction novels for a long time and she has been on my to read list for decades. Finally the first book I read in 2020 was the last she wrote before passing away in 2006. The Fledgling was a gripping science fiction horror novel about a vampire. I would go on and read five more of her books during that year. Then I read Parable of the Sower in 2024 and was planning to read the sequel last year but didn't get to it. I will read it this year.

Octavia Butler books I've read:

• Fledgling, 2005 - Apr 2020
• Bloodchild and Other Stories, 1995 - Jun 2020
• Dawn, 1987 - Jul 2020
• Adulthood Rites, 1988 - Sep 2020
• Imago, 1989 - Oct 2020
• Kindred, 1979 - Nov 2020
• Parable of the Sower, 1993 - Feb 2024

Martha Wells - The Authors List

Martha Wells. The Authors List with 7 books from a science fiction series... The Murderbot Diaries.

I enjoyed these books very much and the first five were particularly awesome. The series is told from the perspective of a cyborg security unit for a far future hyper-capitalist space faring society that hacked and disabled her corporate control system and goes rogue.

This author has written a lot of other books and many of them in the fantasy category such as the Raksura and Ille-Rien series.

Martha Wells books I've read:

• All Systems Red, 2017 - Aug 2018
• Artificial Condition, 2018 - Oct 2018
• Rogue Protocol, 2018 - Apr 2019
• Exit Strategy, 2018 - Aug 2019
• Network Effect, 2020 - May 2020
• Fugitive Telemetry, 2021 - Jun 2021
• System Collapse, 2023 - Apr 2024

Pirate Nests - A History

Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire, 1570-1740 by Mark G. Hanna, 2015.

This was a very interesting history of piracy in the North American colonies, the Caribbean, the Pacific and the Indian Ocean and the impact on the development of the American colonies and British Empire.

There certainly was a lot in this book about the development of America I never learned about in school especially the special collaboration between the pirates and the ports of the early American colonies. There were some thought provoking descriptions of the relationships between the pirates and Cotton Mather, Puritanism and Quakers. And the pirate's ongoing changing struggles with the British authorities.

As a kid I was very interested in pirate movies such as Treasure Island, Long John Silver, Captain Kidd, Morgan The Pirate, Mysterious Island, Swiss Family Robinson, A High Wind in Jamaica, The Light at the End of the World, etc.

Spring Salmon Dinner

It's March and Spring and time for some salmon. We always enjoy a nice salmon dinner any time of the year. Becky makes a wonderful salmon dinner. This time she cooked up some potatoes and corn. Very tasty. No leftovers from this meal... well except for some potatoes which will get used up quickly over the next couple of days.

Philip Roth - The Authors List

Philip Roth - The Authors List with 8 books I've read. I started off with Portnoy's Complaint back in 1972. I picked it up from a paperback display while traveling and then read it on a Navy cruise in the Caribbean. It was talked about a lot around that time but I remember not liking it very much. Then about ten years later I read another of his books... Goodbye, Columbus. That was OK, but not great. Twenty years later I tried again and then I read a couple of his books I really did like. In 2013 I read four more books.

There are probably a few more of his novels I might want to read but I doubt I'll get to them. There are just too many other novelist I want to check out.

Philip Roth books I've read:

• Portnoy's Complaint, 1969 - Feb 1972
• Goodbye, Columbus, 1959 - Jun 1983
• The Human Stain, 2000 - Apr 2003
• The Plot Against America, 2004 - May 2006
• Everyman, 2006 - May 2013
• Indignation, 2008 - Jun 2013
• The Humbling, 2009 - Jul 2013
• Nemesis, 2010 - Aug 2013

Michael Connelly - The Authors List

Michael Connelly - The Authors List with 8 books. This is another series of crime novels I read in 2022 and 2023 and were all part of the LAPD detective Harry Bosch series. The first book I read from this author was The Black Echo, a novel published in 1992 that I read in 2022. I've enjoyed every book that I've read from this author.

There are about 20 more books in the series and also several spin-offs.  I've watched several seasons of the Bosch television series too. 

Michael Connelly books that I've read:

• The Black Echo, 1992 - Sep 2022
• The Black Ice, 1993 - Oct 2022
• The Concrete Blonde, 1994 - Apr 2023
• The Last Coyote, 1995 - May 2023
• Trunk Music, 1997 - Jul 2023
• Angels Flight, 1999 - Oct 2023
• A Darkness More Than Night, 2001 - Nov 2023
• City Of Bones, 2002 - Dec 2023

Dinner at Mira with Dave & Donna

Becky and I had a wonderful dinner tonight at Mira a Mediterranean Restaurant on Elmwood Avenue in the old Pano's restaurant building.

We had five shared plates that included Rainbow Trout, Hanger Steak with sweet and soul onions, Lumache Pasta with sweet sausage ragu and pecorino, Culurgiones with sweet potato brown butter pecorino and Suppli with fried rice and mozzarella. All very amazing dishes. We had a good table with a nice view of Elmwood Avenue.

Had a couple of Wayland Especial Mexican Lager drafts.

The service was wonderful and the food was delicious. The place was hopping too. 

Bernard Cornwell - The Authors List

Bernard Cornwell. Another from the Authors List and another 8 books I've read by this author. I started off with his historical novel The Last Kingdom in the Saxon series which focuses on the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex during the late 9th and early 10th centuries. I've enjoyed reading the first seven books of this series and I really should read some more of them. I also watched the five seasons of the BBC television series adapted from these novels although I hadn't read the books of season 5. 

The last book of his that I read was a non-fiction history of the battle of Waterloo during the Napoleonic Wars.

He has also written several other series of historical novels that look interesting.

Bernard Cornwell's books I've read. 

• The Last Kingdom, 2004 - Jan 2019
• The Pale Horseman, 2005 - Jan 2019
• Lords of the North, 2006 - Feb 2019
• Sword Song, 2007 - Mar 2019
• The Burning Land, 2009 - Apr 2019
• The Death of Kings, 2011 - May 2019
• The Pagan Lord, 2013 - Jul 2019
• Waterloo: The True Story of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles, 2014 - Sep 2019

Guinness Beef Stew

Becky made some wonderful Guinness Beef Stew this evening for dinner. It was delicious and a nice celebration of my Irish heritage on St. Patrick's Day. Had some Guinness Stout too and we also finished up some of her amazing Irish Soda Bread... her slightly Americanized version that taste so good. 

Richard Russo - The Authors List

Richard Russo. The Authors List with 8 books that I've read. The first of his novels I read was Nobody's Fool in 1994. I read another one right away but then didn't continue with his books until the early 2000's. 

I found his novels which take place in upstate New York to be very interesting and amusing forays into the blue-collar heart of America.

I am also currently reading another of his novels... Somebody's Fool which I started yesterday.

The books I've read by Richard Russo:

• Nobody's Fool, 1993 - Jun 1994
• Mohawk, 1986 - Oct 1994
• The Risk Pool, 1988 - Jun 2000
• Straight Man, 1997 - Aug 2001
• Empire Falls, 2001 - Dec 2001
• Bridge of Sighs, 2007 - Jun 2013
• Everybody's Fool, 2016 - Feb 2017
• Chances Are..., 2019 - Dec 2019

Some Irish Vinyl Spins

Went up on the 3rd floor to spin some Irish vinyl this morning with a nice variety of music from Ireland.

Started off with some traditional instrumental Irish folk music from The Chieftains. I have several of their albums on vinyl. 

Then it was Clannad, an Irish folk, pop, new age band from Donegal. I love the singing of this band.

Finally I played my favorite album from the Celtic rock band Horslips. Their Book of Invasions record.

• The Chieftains - The Chieftains 7, 1977
• Clannad - Macalla, 1985
• Horslips - The Book of Invasions: A Celtic Symphony, 1976

Icy St. Patrick's Day 2026

It snowed last night. It seemed like it was snowing hard all night but it really wasn't. We got up this morning and there was about maybe an inch on the ground. It was a non-slippery crunchie icy snow. 

Becky had some errands to run this morning. So I cleaned off the car and then shoveled the ice and snow while the car was running and warming up.

Then after Becky left I went back out and put some salt down on the sidewalk and around the house walkways and steps.

Brain Awareness Week

The Aneurysm Foundation promotes Brain Awareness Week. This is a very important concept for me as brain aneurysm awareness saved my life. It led me to following up on what happened to my father and his brother and their father too. Doctors back in their day said their all having ruptured brain aneurysms was coincidental. So 18 years after the death of my father I had to insist that I get tested for the possibility of a brain aneurysm and not wait for a rupture some day. I was aware of the potential problem and it turned out I needed to be. And not just for me but 12 people in our family have had aneurysms now that we have an awareness of the need to be tested.

The Line of Demarcation

A photo of Mark creating what he told me was "a line of demarcation". Yesterday he and Jody were out there putting the recently discarded cuttings from their front porch vine that they use to block the view of their other neighbors porch. Now it is being used to somehow block the garden that the same neighbor planted in her backyard last summer which was actually just another weed patch. So I'm wondering how far they will be going with this demarcation line thing. It cracks us up. I guess we'll have to wait and see how this things turns out. Cue The Banjo!

E. L. Doctorow - The Authors List

E. L. Doctorow. The Authors List. I've read 8 books by this author and I really focused on his historical fiction novels. The first one I read was Ragtime in 1979. Then a couple more in the early 80's.

I've enjoyed reading his books over the years. The last one I read was in 2011. He wrote one more book in 2014 that was published just before his passing in 2015. I should probably read that one when I get a chance.

The books of E. L. Doctorow that I've read.

• Ragtime, 1975 - Sep 1979
• Book of Daniel, 1971 - Feb 1980
• Loon Lake, 1980 - May 1982
• World's Fair, 1985 - Sep 1988
• Billy Bathgate, 1989 - Oct 1990
• The Waterworks, 1994 - Jan 1995
• The March, 2005 - Oct 2005
• Homer & Langley, 2009 - May 2011

Peeling Paint

A few months ago I put some paint down where Dietrich had reworked the edges of our porch. This was going to be temporary until I could really do the job in the spring. Then suddenly this past week the paint I had put on the new replacement wood has begun to peel off. At the time I didn't put down a primer. I just covered the wood with some paint I had around because I was expecting to redo the entire porch this spring.

OK, now there is a little more urgency. Also there is a piece of the new wood that appears to be loosening up and making a slight gap. Dietrich will need to take a look at that when he comes by to do some more small jobs around the house this spring. Always something.

Into The Fire - Protest Songs FV

Into The Fire as the war goes on and more oil tankers burn. Another mix of protest songs from albums in my collection. Mix #14

Into The Fire - Protest Songs FV

1. Into The Fire – Bruce Springsteen
2. Final Straw – R.E.M.
3. Breathing – Kate Bush
4. Intervention – Arcade Fire
5. Seconds – U2
6. Russians – Sting
7. 21st Century Schizoid Man – King Crimson
8. Lucky Man – Emerson, Lake & Palmer
9. Sweet Cherry Wine – Tommy James & The Shondells
10. Wooden Ships – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
11. Soldier – Procol Harum
12. The Captain – Leonard Cohen
13. Soldier’s Angel – Stevie Nicks
14. All & Everyone – PJ Harvey
15. Searching For A Soldier’s Grave – Laura Cantrell
16. 16 Military Wives – The Decemberists
17. John Walker’s Blues – Steve Earle
18. Bombs Away – Eels
19. No War – The Ben Miller Band
20. Song Of A Soldier – Willie Nile

Philip Kerr - The Authors List

Philip Kerr. I've read 14 of this Scottish novelist's historical thrillers and almost overlooked him when I was putting together my Authors List. All of the novels of his that I've read have been part of his Berlin detective Bernie Gunther series. They are all set in Germany during the 1930's, the Second World War and the Cold War.

His first three books written between 1989-1991 were later published together in a trilogy titled Berlin Noir in 1993. That is how I read them during the summer of 2010. Then I read the rest of the books over the next few years. The last book of his I read was his last Bernie Gunther in 2019 published a year after he sadly passed away at 62. 

Philip Kerr novels I've read:

• March Violets, 1989 - Jun 2010
• The Pale Criminal, 1990 - Jul 2010
• A German Requiem, 1991 - Aug 2010
• The One From The Other, 2006 - Jan 2011
• A Quiet Flame, 2008 - May 2011
• If The Dead Rise Not, 2009 - Jun 2011
• Field Gray, 2010 - Sep 2011
• Prague Fatale, 2011 - Jul 2012
• A Man Without Breadth, 2013 - May 2014
• The Lady From Zagreb, 2015 - Jul 2015
• The Other Side Of Silence, 2016 - Jun 2016
• Prussian Blue, 2017 - Apr 2018
• Greeks Bearing Gifts, 2018 - Sep 2018
• Metropolis, 2019 - Jun 2019