Katie Reads... and Reads Some More!

Hi Everyone -

I'm Katie, an on-again/off-again member of the Category Challenge, definitely back on (or in!) for 2021. I live a few miles outside of New York City, in Northern New Jersey, with my husband (The Wayne), our cat (Leonard), and our rescue lab mutt (Nuala, aka Noodles).

I plan to track 5 "categories" - my reads for the Around the Year in 52 Books Challenge; BingoDOG; nonfiction; various CATs, KITs, and other LT challenges and prompts; and books that I've owned for 10+ years. There may be some overlap in categories, and I'm okay with that. I'll also keep a list of any books I read that don't fit any of the 5 categories above.

Here's to a year of great reading for all of us!

Around the Year in 52 Books

1. A book related to “In the Beginning...”
The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
2. A book by an author whose name doesn't contain the letters A, T or Y
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
3. A book related to the lyrics for the song "My Favorite Things"
Summerwater by Sarah Moss
4. A book with a monochromatic cover
The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley

5. A book by an author on USA Today's list of 100 Black Novelists You Should Read
Love by Toni Morrison
6. A love story
The Rogue of Fifth Avenue by Joanna Shupe
7. A book that fits a prompt suggestion that didn't make the final list
Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger
8. A book set in a state, province, or country you have never visited
Island of the Lost by Joan Druett

9. A book you associate with a specific season or time of year
Wish You Were Here by Stewart O'Nan
10. A book with a female villain or criminal
One By One by Ruth Ware
11. A book to celebrate The Grand Egyptian Museum
The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths
12. A book eligible for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation
The Bird Tribunal by Agnes Ravatn
13. A book written by an author of one of your best reads of 2020
Anywhere For You by Abbie Greaves

14. A book set in a made-up place
How to Break a Dragon's Heart by Cressida Cowell
15. A book that features siblings as the main characters
Dodgers by Bill Beverly
16. A book with a building in the title
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
17. A book with a Muslim character or author
The Other Americans by Laila Lalami

18. 3 books related to "Past, Present, Future" - Book 1
Jazz by Toni Morrison
19. 3 books related to "Past, Present, Future" - Book 2
The New Yorkers by Cathleen Schine
20. 3 books related to "Past, Present, Future" - Book 3
Born in Death by J.D. Robb
21. A book whose title and author both contain the letter "u"
When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors
22. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

23. A cross genre novel
Memory in Death by J.D. Robb
24. A book about racism or race relations
Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke
25. A book set on an island
Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
26. A short book (less than 210 pages) by a new-to-you author
Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls

27. A book with a character who can be found in a deck of cards
A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught
28. A book connected to ice
The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys
29. A book that you consider comfort reading
The President's Daughter by Ellen Emerson White
30. A long book
Cashelmara by Susan Howatch

31. A book by an author whose career spanned more than 21 years
Paradise by Toni Morrison
32. A book whose cover shows more than 2 people
The Weirdies by Michael Buckley
33. A collection of short stories, essays, or poetry
Emperor of the Air by Ethan Canin
34. A book with a travel theme
Siracusa by Delia Ephron
35. A book set in a country on or below the Tropic of Cancer
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

36. A book with six or more words in the title
13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad
37. A book from the Are You Well Read in World Literature list
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
38. A book related to a word given by a random word generator
Outlawed by Anna North (word generated = north)
39. A book involving an immigrant
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

40. A book with flowers or greenery on the cover
Unleashing Mr. Darcy by Teri Wilson
41. A book by a new-to-you BIPOC author
Passing by Nella Larsen
42. A mystery or thriller
The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie
43. A book with elements of magic
The Vanishing Point by Mary Sharratt

44. A book whose title contains a negative
You Deserve Nothing by Alexander Maksik
45. A book related to a codeword from the NATO Phonetic Alphabet
Whiskey and Charlie by Annabel Smith
46. A winner or nominee from the 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards
A Burning by Megha Majumdar
47. A non-fiction book other than biography, autobiography or memoir
Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David Von Drehle
48. A book that might cause someone to react “You read what?!?”
Pride and Promiscuity by Arielle Eckstut and Dennis Ashton

49. A book with an ensemble cast
Another Kind of Life by Catherine Dunne
50. A book published in 2021
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
51. A book whose title refers to person(s) without giving their name
New Boy by Tracy Chevalier
52. A book related to "the end"
On the Way to the Wedding by Julia Quinn

BingoDOG



1. Book less than 200 pages - New Boy by Tracy Chevalier
2. Time word in title or time is the subject - The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley
3. Set in or author from the Southern Hemisphere - The Secret River by Kate Grenville
4. Book with or about magic - The Vanishing Point by Mary Sharratt
5. Arts and recreation - Shit, Actually by Lindy West
6. Classical element in title (Western: earth, air, wind, fire, aether/void. Chinese: wood, fire, earth, metal, water) - Emperor of the Air by Ethan Canin
7. Book with the name of a building in the title - The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
8. By or about a marginalized group - Paradise by Toni Morrison
9. Senior citizen as the protagonist - Blessings by Anna Quindlen
10. Suggested by a person from another generation - Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls
11. A book about nature or the environment (includes the sea) - Island of the Lost by Joan Druett
12. A book that made you laugh - Fat Chance by Nick Spalding
13. Book you share with 20 or fewer members on LT - The Weirdies by Michael Buckley
14. Book about history or alternate history - The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson
15. Book with a title that describes you - Normal People by Sally Rooney
16. Book you heartily recommend - Siracusa by Delia Ephron
17. Author you haven’t read before - 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad
18. Impulse read! - One By One by Ruth Ware
19. One-word title - Jazz by Toni Morrison
20. Book with a character you think you'd like to have as a friend - The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
21. Dark or light in title - Darkside by Belinda Bauer
22. Set somewhere you’d like to visit - Another Kind of Life by Catherine Dunne
23. Book by two or more authors - When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele
24. Book with a love story in it - Anywhere For You by Abbie Greaves
25. Read a CAT or KIT - Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David Von Drehle

Nonfiction
1. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David Von Drehle
2. When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele
3. The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson
4. Shit, Actually by Lindy West
5. Island of the Lost by Joan Druett
6. Eat Cake. Be Brave. by Melissa Radke
7. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
8. Becoming by Michelle Obama
9. Home Sweet Anywhere by Lynne Martin
10. The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff
11. All the Young Men by Ruth Coker Burks
12. Bookmarked by Wendy Fairey
13. The Office: An Oral History by Andy Greene
14. Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry
15. The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson

CATs, KITs, and Other LT Challenges/Prompts

RandomCAT:
April - Read a Book Shared with an LT Friend - Dodgers by Bill Beverly

KITastrophe:
Q1 - Industrial/Technological/Man-Made - Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David Von Drehle
Q2 - Planes/Trains/Boats - Island of the Lost by Joan Druett

Reading Through Time:
January - Shakespeare's Children - New Boy by Tracy Chevalier
February - Fashion - N/A
March - Pirates - Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
April - British Empire - The Secret River by Kate Grenville

Shared Reads:
Jazz by Toni Morrison (with Laura, Ellen, Beth, and Kim)
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (with Mamie)
Paradise by Toni Morrison (with Laura, Beth, Ellen, etc.)
Love by Toni Morrison (with Laura, Beth, Jennifer, etc.)
Passing by Nella Larsen (with Julia)
1984 by George Orwell (with Mamie)

American Authors Challenge:
January - Writers Related to Other Writers - Siracusa by Delia Ephron
February - Ethan Canin - Emperor of the Air
March - Roxane Gay - Difficult Women
April - Musicians Who Write - Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin
September - Howard Norman - What is Left the Daughter

Nonfiction Challenge:
January - Award Nominees/Winners - Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David Von Drehle
February - Minority Lives Matter - When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele and The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson
March - Comfort Reading - Shit, Actually by Lindy West

10+ Years on the Shelf

1. Waterland by Graham Swift (DNF but now it's off my shelf!)
2. Blessings by Anna Quindlen
3. Paradise by Toni Morrison
4. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
5. Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
6. The Vanishing Point by Mary Sharratt
7. Another Kind of Life by Catherine Dunne
8. Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger
9. Wish You Were Here by Stewart O'Nan
10. The President's Daughter by Ellen Emerson White
11. The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys
12. I'm Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti
13. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
14. What is Left the Daughter by Howard Norman
15. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
16. Not Another Bad Date by Rachel Gibson
17. Faithful Place by Tana French

Everything Else
1. It's In His Kiss by Julia Quinn
2. The Crucible by Arthur Miller
3. The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare
4. Lord the One You Love is Sick by Kasey Thornton
5. The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare
6. In the Morning I'll Be Gone by Adrian McKinty
7. The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
8. People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
9. All Systems Red by Martha Wells
10. Pack Up the Moon by Kristan Higgins
11. Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
12. Falling by T.J. Newman
13. Lizzie & Dante by Mary Bly
14. Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
15. The Black God's Drums by P. Djeli Clark
16. West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
17. Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan
18. Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare
19. Animal Farm: The Graphic Novel by Odyr and George Orwell
20. Amethyst by Lauren Royal
21. The Colour of Milk by Nell Leyshon
22. The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman
23. No Mark Upon Her by Deborah Crombie
24. That Night by Alice McDermott
25. Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym
26. The Round House by Louise Erdrich
27. Loud Mouth by Avery Flynn
28. Matrix by Lauren Groff
29. A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton
30. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
31. A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee
32. The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams
33. Enter the Aardvark by Jessica Anthony
34. The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.
35. Home for Christmas by Holly Chamberlin
36. Comfort & Joy by Kristin Hannah
37. Trashlands by Alison Stine
38. Innocent in Death by J.D. Robb
39. The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
40. Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan
41. Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
42. Cut and Run by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker
43. A Very Austen Christmas by Various Authors
44. Finders Keepers by Belinda Bauer

So that's that. Come on in and make yourself comfy!

Welcome in Katie, nice to see you in here!
>:-)

>9 Helenliz: - Thanks, Helen!

Welcome back! Looking forward to seeing how you fill the Around the Year prompts. It looks like a fun challenge!

>6 katiekrug: Your 10+ Years on the Shelf is extremely apt, but for some reason it's making me feel guilty.... ;-)

Good luck with your reading in 2021!

I'll be keeping an eye on your non-fic category in particular!

Glad to see you! I'm sure most of us have older TBR piles that are languishing and could use some attention.

>11 rabbitprincess: - Thanks, rp! I did the ATY challenge this year, and it is fun. Next year's has some prompt overlaps with BingoDOG, so I hope I can complete both.

>12 spiralsheep: - I understand about the guilt! I have some books going back to the early 2000s I haven't touched yet. Oops...

>13 Jackie_K: - Thanks, Jackie. Don't expect anything too heavy in there. I'm not as smart as I used to be ;-)

>14 dudes22: - Betty, we'll see how successful I am in giving those books some attention. Best of intentions and all that....

>15 katiekrug: Oh I'm with you on that! I might be into non-fic, but it can still be epic comfort reading :)

*waves*

>16 Jackie_K: - Agreed!

>17 scaifea: - Helllllloooooooo!

Hi! Love the plain set-up and I'll be avidly watching how you fill the ATY challenge!

Sweet, 2021 is definitely going to better with 2x the Katie!

>19 MissWatson: - Thanks!

>20 ELiz_M: - Back at ya, Liz!

Good luck with your challenge!

>22 hailelib: - Thank you!

Seeing your thread here this morning was a lovely way to start the day - I am looking forward to all the good reading that is coming our way next year. I am also wondering how many of your "10+ years on the shelf" are also sitting on mine!

Welcome back! Have a great year of reading.

Howdy KAK!

>24 DeltaQueen50: - Aw, thanks, Judy! I'm excited to be here. I'll still keep a thread over in the 75ers, but I'm hoping to make some new bookish friends, too :)

These are the shelf-languishers that I am hoping to prioritize:

Waterland
The Evening News
A Different Kind of Life (can't find correct touchstone. It's by Catherine Dunne.
You Must Remember This
Horse Heaven
A Painted House
The Poisonwood Bible
The Patron Saint of Liars
Blessings
Meet John Trow
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Chasing Shakespeares
North and South
No Safe Place
The Bean Trees
The Vanishing Point
Empress Orchid
Baker Towers
The Shadow of the Wind
Transgressions
Leeway Cottage

>25 thornton37814: - Thanks, Lori!

>26 luvamystery65: - Howdy, Ro!

>27 katiekrug: Three from your list - The Poisonwood Bible, Behind the Scenes At the Museum, and Empress Orchid - are long time residents of my shelves. The Poisonwood Bible is definitely in my sights and perhaps you'll give me the push to get the other two read as well.

I loved Behind the Scenes at the Museum. I couldn't finish The Poisonwood Bible, but it was more the wrong book for the time, I think - the writing was great, and I've loved her other books that I've read.

>29 DeltaQueen50: - The Poisonwood Bible seems to be one people either love or can't get through. I'm eager to see where I fall!

>30 Jackie_K: - The only Atkinson I've read is the Jackson Brodie series (all but the last) so I'm excited to try something different of hers.

>31 katiekrug: - Funny, but her Jackson Brodie series is one I just couldn't fall in love with.. I managed 2.5 books before I gave up. But I have liked her stand-alones.

>31 katiekrug: Life After Life is a very inventive story, I just felt that she couldn't decide how to finish it, so it just ended. I do want to read more of her work, based on that one.

>32 dudes22: - Here's hoping her stand-alones work for me, too!

>33 Helenliz: - I have Life After Life on my Kindle, Helen (but it hasn't been on there for 10+ years!).

So great to see you here, Katie!

>35 Crazymamie: - Thanks, Mamie!

Good luck with your 2021 reading!

>37 Tess_W: - Thanks, Tess!

Hi Katie, Happy New Year! Having a category to tackle some of your long-term TBRs is a great idea. I have only read two of the books on your list >27 katiekrug:: The Poisonwood Bible and The Shadow of the Wind. Love both.

>39 lkernagh: - Nice to see you, Lori! We'll see how that goal goes....

I'm starting off the new reading year with a shared read with some LT friends. I'm trying to fill in gaps in my Morrison reading...

>41 katiekrug: Toni Morrison is one of very few prose authors who stays in my mind so I can quote her work like poetry.

>42 spiralsheep: - I'm not that adept, but I do love her writing. I think I have 4 or 5 more of her novels left to read. Do you have a favorite?

>41 katiekrug: For many years I was intimidated by Toni Morrison, but I picked up Jazz to read last year and enjoyed it. I think I have The Bluest Eye, Home and Paradise on my shelves to read also.

Happy new year and welcome back! I'd love your thoughts on Jazz. I have The Bluest Eye on my shelf and I'd like to get to it this year.

>43 katiekrug: Despite often having quirky tastes, in this case I'm with the majority and think Beloved is Toni Morrison's best novel.

"She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order."

Poetry in prose!

And every time I think of it then my lifelong best friend comes to my mind.

>46 spiralsheep: Oh my, that's beautiful! So beautiful!!! I've never read Toni Morrison, although of course she's on my list of writers I absolutely need to read one day, but now I know I really must.

>1 katiekrug: Nice to meet you and Happy New Year! I like the picture you have chosen for (6) 10+ years on the shelf. I fear some of my books will look like that soon if I don't get to them ;-)

>44 lsh63: - The Bluest Eye is a favorite of mine. I haven't read the other two, but I don't think you can go wrong with Morrison.

>45 pammab: - Thanks for the welcome! I'll be sure to post my thoughts on Jazz when I'm finished.

>46 spiralsheep: - So beautiful. Beloved was my first Morrison, read when I was about 16. I loved it then and want to re-read it, as I am sure I'd get more out of it now.

>47 MissBrangwen: - One of my LT friends in the 75ers group has been reading Morrison's novels in publication order. I am tagging along for shared reads of ones I haven't yet read.

Thank you for the welcome and nice to meet you, too!

I have one read one Morrison - Paradise.

>46 spiralsheep: I love this quote!

>49 Crazymamie: - I haven't read Paradise, Mamie. If you want to read more, my favorites (so far) are Beloved, The Bluest Eye and Sula.

Making a note of that - I do want to read more but can never decide where to start, so thanks for that.

The Bluest Eye was her first novel. It's gut-wrenching but excellent.

Not sure I'm up to gut-wrenching at the moment, but I am making a note of it.

Understandable.

>47 MissBrangwen: Toni Morrison has achieved classic status in a remarkably short time.

>48 katiekrug: 16 is an optimal reading age for books that will stay with you for your whole life. :-)

>49 Crazymamie: I read that quote once and had to read it through a second time and I've remembered it ever since.

>55 spiralsheep: - Very true. It helped that I had amazing English teachers all 4 years of secondary school.

Jazz by Toni Morrison

I’m slightly unsure what to say about this novel. It is not destined to be a favorite of Morrison’s for me, but the writing is so damn good I don’t want to turn people off of it. It’s a fairly straightforward story about a marriage and an affair but told in a non-linear way. I don’t know much about jazz music, but I think it has a lot to do with a central melody and then instrumental and vocal riffs off that center - which perfectly describes the novel. This is Joe and Violet’s story, but then a lot comes off of that – about the city, about their pasts, about their origins, about slavery and the unfulfilled promise of the post-Civil War South and the post-World War I North... It all comes together in a sort of chaotic whole that can be disorienting at times, but then Morrison returns to Joe and Violet, and the reader finds that center again. It is really remarkable as a piece of writing, even if as a story it didn’t fully engage me.

3.75 stars

Currently Reading

>57 katiekrug: What an excellent review Katie! I've given it a big thumb.

>59 DeltaQueen50: - Thank you, Judy!

>57 katiekrug: I'm a Tony Morrison fan, but have not heard of this book. I'm putting it on my wish list--great review!

>61 Tess_W: - Jazz was her 6th (I think) novel - published in 1992. It was the first one after Beloved. It's worth reading if you are a fan!

One By One by Ruth Ware

This suspense novel started off really well with a fun setting - the French Alps - and an interesting premise - a corporate retreat for a tech start-up. There are two alternating viewpoints - one from a former employee who still holds shares in the company, and the other from the chalet "hostess" who is not a part of the company. As the bodies stack up, the back and forth works to build tension, but at some point it just stops working. Maybe it was too rapid, or maybe by focusing on these two characters' voices, Ware backed herself into a corner. Whatever the case, the last 100 pages or so weren't nearly as interesting as the first 250, and I found myself getting bored, even as the story came to its climax.

3.5 stars

>63 katiekrug: Sorry that one fizzled out.

>64 thornton37814: - Yes, it was disappointing, Lori. Especially given the good premise!

Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls

A good novella tells a full story in an economy of space. Well-developed characters, a strong story arc, and writing that will immediately pull the reader in. Ingalls has achieved all three in her odd little work about an unhappy woman who falls in love with a sea monster escaped from a research institute. Yeah, I know. But it works! From the first pages, I was completely engaged in the story and eager to see where it would go.

4 stars

Well, that was fast! Morning, Katie!

>67 Crazymamie: - You mean the read? It was only 94 pages, according to my Kindle...

Yep - I thought I was posting on your other thread. Heh. I knew it was short but didn't realize it was just 94 pages.

I think you'll like it (do I remember correctly that you also bought it recently?).

Yep.

You got me with Mrs. Caliban but when I went to get it for my Kindle I find I have to pre-order it as it won't be available in Canada until August, although there is a french version available now. This isn't a problem as it's not like I need something to read right now!

>72 DeltaQueen50: - I hope you're still interested in it by the time August rolls around, Judy :)

Siracusa by Delia Ephron

The lesson here is to never go on vacation with your ex-lover, his wife, and their daughter. And you're assh*le of a husband. That's my takeaway.

Ephron gives us two couples, four people so well-drawn with faults, weaknesses, quirks, and strengths that you quickly feel like you know them. You may not *want* to, because they are kind of loathsome, but they are very, very real. Each chapter is told in an alternating voice - all 4 adults get to tell the story, or a piece of it (maybe a perception of it?). The central character, though, is Snow, one couple's ten year old daughter, and she has no voice. At least not at first.

We follow these people for a few days in Rome and a few days in Siracusa, and we know almost right from the start that something goes wrong. We're just waiting for the train wreck, anticipating it, hoping and dreading it. The book was, for me, a compulsive read. Multiple narrator/POV books often are, but this one was especially good. I just loved the characterizations and interactions, and I appreciated Ephron's talent in giving each character a very strong and unique voice that made them equally compelling.

4.5 stars

73 I think it will be a pleasant surprise. :)

>75 DeltaQueen50: - Hope so!

13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad

In 13 linked stories, we follow Elizabeth (sometimes known as Liz, Beth, or Lizzie) from a young teenager to a divorced woman. Through it all, she battles her weight and dissatisfaction with her own body. Even as she sheds pounds, her psychological issues come into sharper focus and the legacy of parental disapproval, body shaming, and self-hatred is made clear. This was not a fun or easy read, but Awad's writing is sharp.

4 stars

>77 katiekrug: I think you got more out of this book than I did. I hated it.

>78 DeltaQueen50: - Judy, I'm surprised I liked it to the extent that I did given how much I didn't like the primary character!

New Boy by Tracy Chevalier

Part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, New Boy is Tracy Chevalier's reimagining of Othello set on a middle school playground in a suburb of Washington, DC in the 1970s. Tweens aren't a bad stand-in for the petty, vengeful, and easily influenced characters of Shakespeare's play, but I did find some of the actions, motivations, and inner thoughts of them to be unrealistic for the age. That said, the novel is a clever piece of writing with all the principals present - outsider Osei (Othello), pretty and kind Dee (Desdemona), and sly villain Ian (Iago). And it's just as tragic as the original.

3.5 stars

Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David Von Drehle

In 1911, a fire at the Triangle Waist Company in New York City killed 146 people, mostly young immigrant women who were unable to escape the 8th and 9th floors. Some of them jumped from the factory's windows; some jumped down the elevator shaft; some burned a few feet from a door that was likely locked. I'd heard about this disaster and how it led to major labor reforms in the United States, but I knew little of the specifics. Von Drehle has written a solid history, which covers a major strike at the factory in 1909, conditions under which so many Eastern European immigrants came to the US, reform efforts before and after the fire, and the influence of the fire on American politics through the New Deal. Parts of the book are a bit dry, but the background stories of some of the major figures involved and of the victims is interesting, and the description of the fire itself is harrowing.

4 stars

>81 katiekrug: I enjoyed that one a couple years ago.

>82 thornton37814: - I thought it was well done, Lori, and I learned a lot.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Once I realized this was more horror than gothic, I knew it was not going to work for me. I'm not scared or discomfited by horror. I just don't find it very interesting. And this novel took forever to get going, so I was already slightly annoyed. And the writing was weird in parts and took me out of the story.

"Florence drank from her wine, the slim stem carefully lifted and pressed against her lips." Um, why was she pressing the stem to her lips?

The phrase, late in the book, "Church of the Incestuous Mushroom was just so on-point but also ridiculous that I laughed out loud. It would have worked in a review panning the book, but having a character say it just highlighted the nonsense nature of the whole endeavor.

All that said, I did appreciate the unique setting and context, and despite the occasional odd word choice or turn of phrase, Moreno-Garcia obviously has talent. So it wasn't a total loss, but overall, I'm not thrilled that I spent 5 days with it.

Also, mushrooms are gross. I've always thought so, I never eat them, and this book was a total vindication of my position on fungi.

2.75 stars

Month in Review: January

Books Read: 8
Mine vs Library: 5 vs 3

Non-US/UK Authors: 2 (Mexico, Canada)
Own Voices: 2
New-to-me Authors: 5

Best of the month: Siracusa by Delia Ephron
Worst of the month: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

DNFs: 2

>84 katiekrug: Sounds like a good one to skip.


"Florence drank from her wine, the slim stem carefully lifted and pressed against her lips." Um, why was she pressing the stem to her lips?

LOL! Maybe because she was drinking through her nose?

>86 DeltaQueen50: - The book was so weird, you might be right, Judy!

>84 katiekrug: Well, I'll just move that to the back burner on the Kindle. Now I'm wondering where I heard or read that it was good. It was probably one of those best of the year or favorite book of the year emails I get.

>88 lsh63: - It made a lot of those lists, I think, but the reviews from "regular" readers that I've seen have been very mixed.

>86 DeltaQueen50: Bahahaha!

>84 katiekrug: I am also Team Mushrooms Are Gross! I feel vindicated :)

>90 rabbitprincess: - Amber (scaifea) and I decided we needed anti-fungal t-shirts. You obviously need to join our gang!

>84 katiekrug: I had this book on my WL, but after several reviews, it's off! But, P.S. I mushrooms and use them weekly in my cooking.

>92 Tess_W: - Tess, you can have ALL my mushrooms! :)

>92 Tess_W: glad someone else does, I was feeling outnumbered there for a moment.

I'm on Team Mushroom too!

>94 Helenliz: and >95 Jackie_K: - I'll leave it to you three to divide up my share of the fungi! :)

Yes, more mushrooms for the rest of you! ;)

>97 rabbitprincess: - *grin*

Blessings by Anna Quindlen

"And here she sat in solitary splendor with a tuna fish sandwich and two olives, as she had done for years and years, happily, or at least contentedly. All broken now, the happiness or contentment or resignation or whatever it was a person felt when the repeated customs of her life had become that life itself."

Lydia Blessing is 80 years old and lives a rigid life. She is disapproving of most things and people and seems to exist on a steady diet of memories and unacknowledged regrets. So it's surprising, not least of all to herself, that when her caretaker finds an abandoned baby girl on his doorstep, she decides to help him take care of her. What follows is a lovely, gentle story of two people doing the wrong thing for the right reasons and learning what it means to connect and grow and finally face those unacknowledged regrets. Blessings is a novel about families - lost ones, found ones, and made ones. Reading it was like slipping into a warm bath - relaxing and comforting and escapist.

4.5 stars

>99 katiekrug: definitely going on my WL!

>100 Tess_W: - Yay!

When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele

“That was the year that I learned that being Black and poor defined me more than being bright and hopeful and ready.”

“There are more people with mental health disorders in prison than in all of the psychiatric hospitals in the United States added up.”

This memoir of one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement is simultaneously moving, heartbreaking, and infuriating. Khan-Cullors has devoted her life to addressing issues of police violence, mass incarceration, inequality, gender roles and expectations, and queer identity. It’s a lot. But when you learn her backstory, about growing up poor and Black in Southern California, you understand her passion for righting so many of the injustices that keep people in a cycle of poverty and violence. It’s not just one thing. Khan-Cullors illuminates the tangle of public policy, biases and prejudices, and structural inequalities that serve to obstruct progress and empowerment. It is a hard read but an important one, and one I encourage all of you to seek out.

4 stars

“In the state of California a human being is killed by a police officer roughly every 72 hours. Sixty-three percent of these people killed by police are Black or Latinx.”

“Living in patriarchy means that the default inclination is to center men and their voices, not women and their work.”

Emperor of the Air by Ethan Canin

I have nothing bad to say about this slim collection of short stories. They are well-written and mostly kept my attention. But beyond that, I have little to say. I often don't "get" short stories - I can enjoy them, sure, but I usually feel like I miss the larger point or subtle themes the writer has included. If forced to say what these were "about," I guess I'd go with family, legacy, and understanding oneself within the confines of both.

3.5 stars

Paradise by Toni Morrison

Paradise begins with a shocking crime and then for 300 pages, Morrison provides the background and context for what happened on page 1. She details life in the small, all-black community of Ruby, Oklahoma and the “convent” outside of town that has become a haven for women in trouble. There is a lot going on in this novel with issues of gender and generational expectations at the fore and race and colorism providing the backdrop. It’s very complex, the language rich and nuanced, and the stories of the convent women and citizens of Ruby compelling.

4.25 stars

I have been having trouble formulating articulate comments on the book, because several disparate threads seem important to me, and I can’t seem to wrangle them into much coherent thought, so I’m just going to lay them out:

- The convent is a haven for the women; the founders of Ruby fled a town called Haven and tried to recreate it. The idea of haven, safety, security is personal; one’s own haven can be seen as a threat to another’s?
- The fertility of the garden at the convent, “early melons,” abundance – like the garden of Eden, Paradise
- Generations/time/progress - the leaders of Ruby reliving/recreating the past, distrustful of new ideas/people; the convent women escaping their pasts and trying to realize a way forward.
- At first, I was frustrated with the number of named characters and trying to keep them straight, but I wonder if there was a point to it. Was Morrison illustrating the tangled relationships in Ruby and making a comment on the insignificance of keeping it all straight, despite the town’s insistence on maintaining a hierarchy of families and individuals and who married who and who is important and not?
- The ending - the murdered women appear to people from their pasts in a kind of benediction, as if they’ve broken free of that past and can forgive? Unlike in Ruby where the past is ever-present?
- A question: What happened to the baby? Connie leaves the baby in the basement room at the end when she goes upstairs and is shot. I don’t think further mention is made of the baby? So it, too, just disappeared, like the women? That was confusing to me.

"Over and over and with the least provocation, they pulled from their stock of stories tales about the old folks, their grands and great-grands; their fathers and mothers. Dangerous confrontations, clever maneuvers. Testimonies to endurance, wit, skill and strength. Tales of luck and courage. But why were there no stories to tell of themselves? About their own lives they shut up. Had nothing to say, pass on. As though past heroism was enough of a future to live by. As though, rather than children, they wanted duplicates."

Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke

This is a solid second entry in Locke's Highway 59 series, which follows Black Texas Ranger Darren Matthews as he investigates crime and racism in East Texas. Locke knows well how to plot and pace a mystery - I tore through this one in a couple of days. What I love most about this book - and the previous Bluebird, Bluebird - is how it is so well-grounded in its setting and time. In Heaven, My Home, she leans in hard to the timing - Donald Trump has just been elected President and the racists have become even more emboldened. As Matthews investigates the disappearance of a 9 year old boy, son to a leader of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, he contemplates his role as a Black man in law enforcement and the potential for divided loyalties. Some of the plot of the first in the series is carried over here, so it would be good to read Bluebird, Bluebird first.

4 stars

"... because in an act of blind fury, white voters had just lit a match to the very country they claimed to love - simply because they were being asked to share it."

"The feds want this in front of a grand jury before the change of power in Washington. Before a Trump Justice Department mistakes the Aryan Brotherhood for some sort of honor guard."

"His own read of history told him a black man should have a right to his own fear. Otherwise, he would forever be dying because of someone else's."

>105 katiekrug: Those are some excellent pull quotes.

"... because in an act of blind fury, white voters had just lit a match to the very country they claimed to love - simply because they were being asked to share it."

OUCH. I wish I could say there aren't a significant proportion of voters in my own place who'd rather burn everything down than share with Those Other People (whoever is designated Other at the time) but it seems to be a widespread attitude, unfortunately for us all.

>105 katiekrug: I just added Bluebird, Bluebird to my collection because of Mark's praise and now I think I have to go ahead and get this second one as well!

>106 spiralsheep: - Yes, I don't think this is a uniquely American phenomenon at all, sad to say.

>107 DeltaQueen50: - Excellent, Judy! I hope you like the series.

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley

"When you young you think about tomorrow, but when you old you turn your eyes and ears to yesterday."

Ptolemy Grey is an old man, slowly succumbing to dementia, and stubbornly living on his own amid the detritus of his long life. His life changes with the entrance of a young woman who insists on helping him and a doctor who promises to get his memory back. What he does with these gifts is the heart of the novel, and after a bit of a slow start, we get to follow a man reclaiming his life, his memories, and his agency.

Mosley has written a sharp and detailed character study that encourages the reader to ponder issues of aging, grief, memory and redemption. The writing is concise but impactful, spare but rich. Ptolemy is a wonderful character and one that will stay with me.

4.25 stars

>109 katiekrug: - I may have to take a BB for this.

>110 dudes22: - I hope you like it, Betty!

>109 katiekrug: A BB for me!

>112 Tess_W: - Great! Happy to spread the love.

The Weirdies by Michael Buckley

Barnacle, Garlic, and Melancholy Weirdie are triplets who wake up one day in their enormous family mansion to find everyone gone - all the servants, all the house guests, and both their parents. Eventually, they are taken to an orphanage - Our Lady of Perpetual Side-Eye (love it!) - where their different-ness turns off prospective adoptive parents. Luckily, their caseworker, Miss Emily, sees something special in them and adopts them herself.

This is a funny, sweet, totally odd, and endearing tale of what it means to be different and what, actually, is "weird" anyway. I laughed out loud in parts during the short listen (it's only about 90 minutes long), and reveled in Kate Winslet's absolutely wonderful narration. Definitely one I'll listen to again, and if the ending is any indication, I may get to learn more about The Weirdies in another volume.

4.5 stars

The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson

I knew, of course, the bare facts of the lynching of Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955: a 14-year old black boy from Chicago, visiting relatives in the Delta, supposedly offended a white woman at a store, and a group of men kidnapped him in the middle of the night and killed him, dumping his body in a river. Till's mother insisted on an open casket funeral so the world could see what had been done to her child, and the reality of it helped to galvanize the civil rights movement. To this bare outline, Tyson has added a lot of rich and disturbing detail, including an interview with the white woman - Carolyn Bryant - decades later, an interview in which she admits nothing that Emmett Till did justified his murder.

The strength of this book is in the connections Tyson makes between the Till case, the early fights for voting rights and school desegregation, and the importance of the case for drawing national (and international) attention to the horrors taking place in the South. It's a terrible story, one with wide implications, but it's also a heartbreakingly personal one, and the sections of the book about Emmett's early life and the bravery of his mother, were some of the best parts. I also appreciated the ending, in which Tyson draws a direct line from the Till case to the continued devaluation and destruction of black bodies in the United States today, saying, "We are still killing black youth because we have not yet killed white supremacy." Recent American history is a clear indication of the continued hold white supremacy has in America, despite the lies we tell ourselves about the progress made.

4 stars

(The Blood of Emmett Till is currently available for just $3.99 on Kindle, for those interested in reading it.)

>115 katiekrug: Thanks for letting us know about the reduced price of The Blood of Emmett Till, Katie, I picked up a copy this morning.

You're welcome, Judy! I'm glad that deal crossed the northern border :)

>115 katiekrug: I always opened my civil rights unit with the story of Emmett Till. I've read a lot about Till, but not this book--I'm off to pick it up on Kindle; thanks for the tip! I also used the song "The Death of Emmett Till" by Bob Dylan.

>118 Tess_W: - Oh, that's great! I hope you find the book worthwhile.

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

I loved this novel. It is full of humor and wisdom and compassion, with likeable and relatable characters. It's about community, made and found, and learning that all we can do is our best for ourselves and others, and to see the connections among all of us. It's deceptively simple, but Kingsolver imbues the story with politics and issues of social justice in a nuanced way that sneaks up on the reader.

I'll be reading the follow-up, Pigs in Heaven, sooner rather than later.

4.5 stars

"I thought I'd had a pretty hard life. But I keep finding out that life can be hard in ways I never knew about."

"{I}n a world as wrong as this one, all we can do is to make things as right as we can."

>120 katiekrug: I loved The Bean Trees as well, Katie. I've also read Pigs in Heaven and enjoyed it but not as much as the first. These were my first two Kingsolver books and I am looking forward to reading more of her.

>120 katiekrug: I enjoyed that one when I read it.

>121 DeltaQueen50: - I've read a few Kingsolvers, Judy, and she hasn't disappointed me yet! I've pulled PiH off the shelf and put it on my Read Soon cart.

>122 thornton37814: - Hi Lori - have you read the sequel? I'm eager to spend more time with Taylor and Turtle...

>115 katiekrug: I'm looking forward to reading this as well. Thank you for letting us know about the Kindle deal also. Sometimes I miss bargains in my daily stalking. I just went through the monthly Kindle deals- such fun!

>120 katiekrug: I usually enjoy Kingsolver, but there was one book that I borrowed from the library and returned unfinished, Unsheltered. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for it at the time.

>124 lsh63: - It's easy to miss deals, Lisa! And I always start my month with a long scroll through all the monthly deals :)

I haven't read Unsheltered yet. It's on my shelf because it sounded right up my alley, but then I saw a lot of mixed reviews and my enthusiasm waned....

>123 katiekrug: No, but I do have a copy of it somewhere in a box.

>126 thornton37814: - Ah, well, maybe someday!

Love by Toni Morrison

I always seems to struggle a bit at the start of a Morrison novel. She often drops the reader into the heart of the story, introducing elements and characters, without making the connections or providing the context one needs for a coherent picture. But what she is so good at is writing a novel where these pieces are slowly teased out, threads of a story meet up with others, characters develop, connections are illuminated, and the reader finally begins to see and understand the complex web she is weaving as a whole.

Love took a bit longer than usual to show itself to me to the point where I felt like I was "getting" it. But once I did, the book was difficult to put down. At heart, it's about the various forms of love that can shape and distort a life, and about the opposite face of the same coin - the enmity and hatred that can do the same. It's a story of several women who orbit around one man and how they are both drawn to and repulsed by him, and what those conflicting emotions do to them and to their relationship with each other.

It is barely 200 pages in length but Morrison can do more in those pages than most authors do in twice the number.

4 stars

>128 katiekrug: - Skipped right over your review, but will return when I've finished it.

Memory in Death by J.D. Robb

Another solid entry in the series, which is reliably entertaining for me. This time, part of Eve's past comes back to complicate her life, right at Christmastime. As usual, the secondary characters add a lot to the story, including humor and warmth.

3.5 stars

Fat Chance by Nick Spalding

This was a mostly mildly amusing (occasionally laugh out loud funny) novel about a married couple who participate in a radio competition to lose weight. What I liked about it was the couple themselves - they are funny and down to earth and they love each other at the start, love each other throughout, and end up still loving each other. So there was no relationship angst, misunderstandings, and all that annoying stuff. The send-up of specialty exercise equipment and fad diets was also pretty funny. There is nothing earth-shattering here, but it was a fine way to spend my listening time.

3.5 stars

ETA: I gave it an extra half star because none of the laughs came at the expense of the couple and their weight, which I appreciated.

Anywhere For You by Abbie Greaves

I read Greaves' debut novel, The Silent Treatment, last year and really loved it, so when I saw her newest book on offer through LT's Early Reviewers program, I hit the "Request" button pronto.

Anywhere for You is about Mary, who spends every evening outside her local tube station holding a sign that reads "Come Home Jim." Who Jim is, his relationship with Mary, what happened, and what now are all questions that inform the novel. It's an intriguing story and mostly well-written, but some of the characters and their actions were very frustrating to me, and I found some of the narrative boring and repetitious. That said, I was invested enough to keep reading and to keep hoping for a satisfying conclusion, which I sort of got.

3.5 stars

Difficult Women by Roxane Gay

This collection includes 24 short stories, all of which tackle issues of power, trauma, connection, and pain in one way or another, and sometimes in multiple ways. It's not an easy collection to read, and I was glad to pace myself, reading 3 or 4 stories at a time in between other books. There is a lot of brutality, physical and mental abuse, and rape - almost every story could come with a trigger warning of some kind. Gay is a powerful writer, no more so than in "Strange Gods" which is at least semi-autobiographical (having read her memoir, Hunger, I was familiar with the trauma she underwent as a young adult). But her power comes not just from the topics she addresses, but how she can balance them with humor and tenderness. My favorite story was probably "North Country" which is sad and sometimes angry, but also funny and touching.

Gay is one of my favorite writers, and I am glad to have finally tackled some of her fiction.

4 stars

Shit, Actually by Lindy West

If you like movies and snark, then I highly recommend this one (I listened to it on audio, read by the author). West watches/re-watches 23 movies and then summarizes their plots with a lot of asides, snarky comments, pointing out of plot holes, and the like. It was fun to re-visit movies I've seen, but I also enjoyed her take on films mostly unfamiliar to me. Some of my favorites were "Harry Plot Hole" (HP and the Sorcerer's Stone), "Big Boy Freaky Friday" (Face/Off), "Manual for Shitheads" (Reality Bites), and "I'd Prefer a Highway Away from the Danger Zone But Okay" (Top Gun). West rates all the films on a scale of 1-10 copies of the DVD of 'The Fugitive,' which she claims is the only good movie (and which I now want to watch again).

3.5 stars

ETA: She hates 'Love, Actually' (obvs; see book title) but I don't hold that against her. And she actually makes some good points about it...

>134 katiekrug: I like "Harry Plot Hole" and especially "I'd Prefer a Highway Away from the Danger Zone But Okay". :D

>135 spiralsheep: - There were some real gems!

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

As an avowed Steinbeck fan, I'm embarrassed it took me so long to read this classic. It's a short work about the denizens of Cannery Row in Monterey, California who live on the edges of society but have formed their own community. There is humor and sadness, lovely passages about the natural world, and a sensitive depiction of the human condition when lived on the margins.

4 stars

>137 katiekrug: I haven't read any Steinbeck so far! But your review makes me curious. So far, I only have Of Mice and Men waiting on my shelf.

>138 MissBrangwen: - I love Of Mice and Men but it's very sad, just FYI.

Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton

Meh, this was fine for what it was - an adventure story set in the Caribbean in the 17th century. The manuscript was found on Crichton's computer after his death, and I think had he lived to polish it and flesh it out a bit, it would have been a really fun book. As it was, it seemed very bare bones, with some random plot holes and events that seemed important but were never referred to again... Still, it kept me interested enough to turn the pages...

3 stars

>134 katiekrug: I had this out from the library but ran out of time to read it. Also was reluctant to pick up the physical copy because of the ants on the cover. Maybe I'll see if the library has the ebook...

A nice lot of reading these past few weeks! Really appreciate you sharing it. A lot of the books you've read and comments struck chords with me.

>102 katiekrug: I'm very curious how When They Call You a Terrorist and The Purpose of Power relate. They seem like very different books written by people experiencing very similar events. I appreciated your comments and the reminder to keep an eye out for Khan-Cullors' book.

>104 katiekrug: >128 katiekrug: I'm just about to embark on Sula, which is my first Morrison since I tried Beloved on audiobook almost exactly ten years ago. I mostly remember Beloved leaving me swimming with shadows (like your review of Paradise), so I'm getting a paper copy -- which will hopefully also help with the same "dropped into the thick of it" feeling you mention in your review of Love.

>131 katiekrug: Fat Chance sounds fun! I love reading about people who are happy.

>141 rabbitprincess: - I hadn't even noticed the ants until you pointed them out!

>142 pammab: - Hello!

I'm not familiar with The Purpose of Power, but I've looked it up and it sounds interesting. There have been recent stories about some families of black victims of police violence speaking out against Khan-Cullors and others in the BLM movement, so read her book with a grain of salt...

Oh, I LOVED Sula! It is much more accessible, I think, than Beloved or Paradise or Love. I hope you end up liking it.

It's nice sometimes not to have all the angst and drama in a book. Fat Chance fit the bill for me and what I needed at the time...

>143 katiekrug: I didn't notice them for a while myself, and when I did finally notice them, they were all I could see! But I am weird that way about bugs on the covers of books; part of me hopes they weren't drawn with a magic paintbrush or something else that would make them come to life...

>140 katiekrug: I had much the same thoughts about Pirate Latitudes as you, Katie. Can't help but be sad that he didn't get a chance to finish the book and polish the plot.

>144 rabbitprincess: - Yup - I can't un-see them now either!

>145 DeltaQueen50: - So true, Judy. I think it would have been a lot more fun to read.

>133 katiekrug: a definite BB for me. I've been wanting to read her for quite some time and never got around to it.

>147 lsh63: - I've loved everything I've read by her. I hope you do, too!

The Rogue of Fifth Avenue by Joanna Shupe

This is my first novel by Shupe and won't be my last. For one thing, I appreciate the time period she focuses on - late 19th century and the Gilded Age. For another, she focuses on New York City, which is a nice change of pace from my usual London-set historical romances. I find Gilded Age New York a fascinating time and place, and Shupe makes good use of the setting - using the division of classes, extreme wealth, evolution of social justice, and other apt details to inform the story. In this one, the first in a series about three sisters, she pits the daughter of an old money family against the tenement-bred son of an abusive drunk who's overcome his circumstances. They clash (of course), find common ground (of course), and fall in love (of course). And, OF COURSE, live happily ever after. It's a romance novel, after all. While there isn't the humor so prevalent in the historical romance I tend to prefer, I think the different era and setting was enough to set this one apart for me. We'll see if it's enough to carry on with the series and to explore more of Shupe's work.

3.5 stars

Dodgers by Bill Beverly

I really loved this gritty crime novel about a 15 year old boy caught up in activities that have stolen his innocence but not his humanity. East is charged by his uncle and gang leader to head out from Los Angeles to Wisconsin with a few others to kill a man. It's an interesting twist on the classic road trip/coming of age novel, and despite everything, the reader is rooting for East. My only quibble, and what kept this from being a 5-star read for me, is that East's little brother's speech, thoughts, and actions seemed totally out of character for one so young.

4.5 stars

>150 katiekrug: Hooray for some Dodgers praise. Apparently the author is going to put out a sequel, which I have mixed feelings about. I loved the story but not sure if it needs to be continued. Of course, that said, I will definitely be reading it!

>151 DeltaQueen50: - I agree that I'm not sure a sequel was necessary, Judy. I'll probably let you read it and tell me if I should give it a whirl!

The Secret River by Kate Grenville

This novel, the first in a trilogy, tells part of the tale of Australia's colonization by the British, so it's both uniquely Australian but universal in many ways. Change a few details, and the story of the clash of colonizers with indigenous inhabitants could take place in many parts of the world. Grenville doesn't shy away from brutality, and it can be a tough read. What really impressed me was the complexity of her main character - an English convict sent to Sydney with his family in lieu of hanging, who sees this opportunity as the start of a new life. And it is, but at what - and whose - expense? The reader starts with a lot of sympathy for William Thornhill, and that sympathy remains but is eventually tempered by the reality of what he does to build a good life for himself, his wife, and his children. Grenville handles his characterization and evolution deftly, creating neither a hero nor a total villain.

4 stars

>137 katiekrug: I am in the same position with Cannery Row. It's going on the tbr pile immediately.

Just noticed in your opening post that you have a cat named Leonard. I just read a fabulous book Leonard (My Life as a Cat) by Carlie Sorosiak. For middle grades but I enjoyed it enormously.

>153 katiekrug: I've heard about this one before, but now it's definitely a BB!

>154 VivienneR: - It's a quick read, so won't impede that TBR pile too much!

I'll have to look for that book. It sounds like something we should have in the house :)

>155 MissBrangwen: - I hope you like it!

>153 katiekrug: The name William Thornhill strikes me as vaguely familiar, is he a real person? I seem to remember him from Carrion Colony...

>157 MissWatson: - I'm not sure if the character was based on a real person or not...

>158 katiekrug: The book sounds interesting enough on its own.

>160 katiekrug: - I think so!

It's In His Kiss by Julia Quinn

I am not sure why I remembered not liking this when I first read it. Maybe I was on romance novel overload at the time? Truthfully, very little of the story felt familiar, so it was a fresh (re)reading experience and one I thoroughly enjoyed. There was lots of great banter, lots of Lady Danbury, and Gareth St. Clair is now among my favorite heroes of the series. The central plot was rather silly and full of holes (Why would the grandmother leave clues to the hidden jewels? Why would she hide them in the London townhouse when it's mentioned that she spent most of her time in the country? How could Gareth's "father" not suspect his brother in his cuckolding?) but does one really read a romance novel for the plot beyond the love story? Not really. And Hyacinth and Gareth's story is a fun one.

4 stars

>161 katiekrug: Looking forward to getting to that one!

>162 DeltaQueen50: - Where are you in the series, Judy?

Island of the Lost by Joan Druett

I'm a sucker for survival stories, and this is one I knew nothing about. A ship founders just off the Auckland Islands (south of New Zealand) and 5 men make it to shore. How they survived for 20 months makes for good reading, though I could have done with a bit less zoology and botany, but that's probably just me. The men's remarkable ingenuity and perseverance was highlighted even more by the inclusion of the story of another shipwreck not far from them around the same time. The parallel narratives were really well done.

4 stars

>164 katiekrug: - My husband likes boat/ship disaster stories and I usually depend on rabbitprincess to send me a few BBs. I'm going to put this one on the list too. I like to have enough for birthday and Christmas gifts.

>165 dudes22: - It should be right up his alley!

My last Bridgerton read was When He Was Wicked which featured daughter Francesca so it looks like my next read will be the above It's In His Kiss which I was thinking of saving for when Q comes up in the AlphaKit - but that isn't until December and I don't know if I can wait that long for a Bridgerton fix!

>164 katiekrug: >165 dudes22: Heck, I want to read this too! Sounds great :)

>169 katiekrug: - I love doling out BBs!

Pride and Promiscuity: The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen by Arielle Eckstut and Dennis Ashton

This is labeled on the cover as "Humor" and it should have been funny. It should have been clever. It should have been entertaining. In the end, though, it should never have been published, and it should never have been read by me.

2 stars



The Vanishing Point by Mary Sharratt

In the late 17th century, Hannah Powers leaves England for Maryland to join her sister, May, who was married off to a distant cousin there a few years before. When she arrives, she finds only her brother-in-law, living in isolation in a cabin on a failed tobacco plantation. What happened to May, and what happens to Hannah and to Gabriel, is an engrossing story in which Sharratt weaves history, romance, mystery, and folklore. While some it got a bit repetitive, I enjoyed this novel of women's choices and lives in a long-gone era. Like all good historical fiction, Sharratt's novel doesn't overwhelm the reader with Research and History - the story comes first and is informed and deepened by the truth of the times.

4 stars



The Crucible by Arthur Miller

A wonderful audio production of a play I enjoyed studying in school but haven't revisited since. The full cast was excellent, and the themes still timely.

My thanks to Micky for reminding me to give an audio play a try. I am a fan.

4.5 stars

>170 katiekrug: "it should have been funny. It should have been clever. It should have been entertaining. In the end, though, it should never have been published, and it should never have been read by me."

We've all read our own personal version of this book, lol.

>170 katiekrug: Ouch. I hope venting your disappointment in such an elegantly-phrased putdown provided relief.

>171 spiralsheep: and >172 MissWatson: - Sometimes it is good to read a bad book because it reminds you of what a delight a good book is!

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie

A later entry in the Miss Marple series, this follows the usual pattern. It wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible, and there are some great lines that make me thing Dame Agatha was getting cranky in her old age.

3.5 stars

Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin

OOOF. I just loved this, but man. It's a tough read. Charley has a hard life even before his father dies, and when he's left on his own, the only choice seems to be to find his aunt in Wyoming. Before that, though, he needs to save his best friend, a broken-down race horse named Lean on Pete. They take off from Portland, Oregon and what happens along the way is the heart of the story. Vlautin successfully navigates this mash-up of coming of age story and road story, and his spare prose packs a punch. Great book.

4.5 stars

Has anyone seen the film made of the book? I think I'm going to have to watch it...

>175 katiekrug: ... and I think I am going to have to get myself a copy of Lean on Pete!

>176 DeltaQueen50: - I definitely think it's your cuppa, Judy!

The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare

This historical romance has everything I want in the genre - humor, banter, chemistry, very little angst, and the sweet, small moments that tell of deep feeling. And my favorite trope: the marriage of convenience. Emma Gladstone and the Duke of Ashbury are a wonderful couple, and I appreciate how Dare doesn't prolong their misunderstandings and conflicted emotions. I hate drawn out angst, and this was blessedly free of it. I have one more to read in the series and then will eagerly await the publication of the next!

4 stars

Stories from Suffragette City by Various Authors

This collection of stories focused on the 1915 suffrage march in New York City, is quite a mixed bag. Some of the connections to that particular event are tenuous, at best, and the quality of writing varies a lot. The story I found most interesting was actually set in Chicago, on the day of the march, and focuses on Ida B. Wells and the tension between white and black women in the suffrage movement. The weakest of the bunch was a story by Steve Berry who is, I believe, a thriller writer. His entry about a plot to bomb the march was badly written and pretty lame. I did appreciate the effort to reflect the diversity of the movement, especially in terms of class and age.

3.5 stars

Unleashing Mr. Darcy by Teri Wilson

It's Pride and Prejudice with dogs, so really, what's not to like? After a bit of a slow start, this turned out to be a pretty decent contemporary homage to P&P. It's not a re-telling, which is good as those rarely work, IMO, but the bits that Wilson has chosen to highlight work well within her story. I appreciate that we get a lot of Mr. Darcy's perspective, and, to be quite honest, he was a much more likeable character than Elizabeth. I deducted half a star because she was a bit whinge-y and her big emotional drama seemed blown out of proportion. But still, a nice feel-good story for anyone in need of something light.

3.5 stars

Lord the One You Love is Sick by Kasey Thornton

Drug addiction. Mental illness. Child abuse. A trifecta of misery informs these linked stories set in a small town in North Carolina. And while it is dark and bleak and despairing, I very much liked this collection. I can't say I enjoyed it, but Thornton's writing is good (though occasionally marred by typos and odd formatting of the Kindle edition) and her characters are compelling. Hands down, the best story was also the most upsetting - one narrated by a child who is witness to and then victim of abuse at the hands of her father. It's unsettling and heartbreaking, and when I came to the end of it, I said quietly out loud, "Nooo..." and took a break from reading for a bit.

Lord the One You Love is Sick peels back the layers of small town America to show how even the quietest, most nondescript places can have deep rot at the core.

My thanks to Kay (RidgewayGirl) for bringing this one to my attention.

4.5 stars

Note: Trigger warnings abound, so I definitely would not recommend this for everyone though I would like to see it get a wider audience and encourage more from the talented author.

Eat Cake. Be Brave by Melissa Radke

I had never heard of this person, but I borrowed the audio from the library because I usually enjoy humorous essay collections. This one started off okay, even if I found her thick East Texas accent grating. But then it got kind of God-y and focused on her infertility and because I am a bad person, I just didn't care. Also, she is not as funny as she thinks she is. But I kept listening, so I guess it deserves a decent rating - the "Eh, okay" on my rating scale.

3 stars

Another Kind of Life by Catherine Dunne

This book was frustrating. It started off very slowly and I was tempted to give up on it, but I kept going and the story finally picked up and became interesting. But the shifting perspectives made it very hard for any character development or complex storytelling to take hold. It is set in Ireland at the turn of the 20th century and focuses on 3 sisters and their paths in life. But it also tells a bit about another set of sisters, and for good measure, a few chapters are told from the perspective of a couple of minor characters. Things are hinted at, alluded to, and then never come up again except in passing - hence the frustration. I know Dunne was trying to tell a story about women's choices and the limits put upon them, but the book reads as a series of episodic entries that never quite hang together into a coherent, compelling whole.

3 stars

>183 katiekrug: Sounds like one to avoid!

>184 DeltaQueen50: - It wasn't terrible but not worth the time, Judy!

Darkside by Belinda Bauer

This is my 4th (5th? Too lazy to look it up...) novel by Bauer, who writes smart, compelling crime fiction, and it was another winner. It's set in the same landscape as the first book of hers I read (and still my favorite), Blacklands, and the events from that book are alluded to but Darkside can stand on its own. Jonas Holly is the local policeman, responsible for a few remote villages around Exmoor - he grew up there and has returned to allow him to care for his wife, who has MS. When a local woman is murdered in her bed, Jonas has to play second fiddle to "real" cops who come to investigate. And then another person dies. And this quiet village roils with tension, suspicion, and fear.

It's all very well done and makes for compelling reading. I don't want to say more lest I give too much away, but if you like good crime fiction, I recommend it. I look forward to the follow-up, Finders Keepers which is sitting patiently on my shelf.

4 stars

>181 katiekrug: That book looks really good, and I do enjoy linked stories. And, I found Finders Keepers hiding on my Kindle, so that's getting moved up to this month's rotation.

>187 lsh63: - I hope you like Lord the One You Love is Sick as much as I did!

And if you can, you might read Darkside before Finders Keepers as there is a sort of major thing that happens in DS that I am sure informs FK...

>188 katiekrug: I read Darkside three years ago, I hope that I can remember the plot point that you are referring to when I read Finders Keepers. If it's major I should, I hope.

>189 lsh63: - Let me know if you want me to tell you. I can hide it inside a spoiler tag :)

>190 katiekrug: Yes please! I’m hoping it will save me a reread.

>191 lsh63: - The main character, Jonas, kills his wife in the end, apparently suffering from a split or dissociative personality disorder caused by childhood abuse.

>192 katiekrug: Thank you! I totally remember it now.

>193 lsh63: - You're welcome!

On the Way to the Wedding by Julia Quinn

This is the 8th and last installment in the original Bridgerton series, and it is my least favorite. There just isn't much sparkle, the banter is strained, and while I like the heroine, Lucy, Gregory Bridgerton is just kind of boring.

That said, any romance by Quinn is a lot better than much of what gets published in the genre.

3 stars

How to Break a Dragon's Heart by Cressida Cowell

Much of the same as the other books in the series, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The humor isn't quite as fresh, but David Tennant's narration is just perfection, as usual.

3.5 stars

The New Yorkers by Cathleen Schine

If you're not a dog person, this book probably won't hold much interest for you. (Also, what is wrong with you?) It follows about half a dozen residents of a nondescript block on the Upper West Side of Manhattan - human residents and canine ones. The dogs bring people together in unexpected ways and their interactions help forge a community of sorts. The dog characters are wonderful, especially Beatrice, a white pit bull with a big heart and a worrywart of an owner. The humans are wonderfully drawn, too. From the self-described spinster at 40 to the just-dumped 26 year old and her underachieving brother to the newly-divorced man trying to figure out how to be alone in his 50s, Schine treats each of her characters with affection and - often- bemusement. Doris, the "antagonist" of the story, is especially well-done in all her self-righteousness and hypocrisy.

The New Yorkers is a love letter to the city, as well as a paean to the special way dogs have of bringing us out of ourselves and to each other.

4.25 stars

A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught

Published in 1989, this historical romance has the typical issues of the genre of the time around coercion/consent. It's not the most egregious example, but it certainly raises some issues, at least for a contemporary reader. I actually first read this ages ago, probably when I was around 14 or so, but very little of it seemed familiar. I did like the setting of 15th c. Scotland and England, though I'm not sure how historically accurate some of the details were. Overall, a mostly meh read for me.

3 stars

Normal People by Sally Rooney

I don't think this book would have worked for me in print, as much of what I liked about it was the warmth and humanity with which the audiobook narrator (Aoife McMahon) imbued the main characters. I had previously tried to read Rooney's debut, Conversations with Friends, and could not get through it. I am now wondering if I should give it a try on audio...

Normal People is the story of Marianne and Connell who go to school together near Sligo. Connell is a popular kid, while Marianne is a bit of an outcast. They are friends and lovers and friends again and lovers again - the whole book is about their ever-changing relationship and what it means to belong. It's a bit angsty, and in print I think it would have annoyed me. Maybe I'm just a sucker for an Irish accent, of maybe Aoife McMahan is just *that* good, but the confusion, longing, and emotional extremes of Connell and Marianne are rendered beautifully on audio, where the words are laden with more meaning through the choices McMahon makes in the performance.

This won't be a book for everyone, but I am glad I gave Rooney another chance.

4 stars

Note: My best friend, who struggles with often-severe depression, gave me the impetus to pick up the book, because she really wants me to watch the TV adaptation, which she says has some of the best depictions of depression and what it feels like that she's encountered. So I'll be watching that soon.

>199 katiekrug: I think there are definitely many books where the audio version is preferrable to the print. I know Trainspotting was one for me. I doubt if I would have been able to read through the dialect that the author used, but it worked well in the audio version.

>200 DeltaQueen50: - The biggest surprise I had when I started listening to audios was just how much of a difference the narrator could make. I mean, it makes sense - it just wasn't something I had thought about before!

>201 katiekrug: Yes - it only takes a couple of listens and then you find yourself searching not just for titles but for specific narrators as well.

>202 DeltaQueen50: - So true.

My RL book group met for the first time in over a year last night. We returned to our usual meeting location - a local Greek restaurant - and sat outside and had a nice catch-up. We didn't talk about the book (The Other Americans) all that much. Everyone liked it to varying degrees, but we all agreed that there were maybe too many POVs, and for that to work well, each one needs to be very distinct, and we didn't feel like Lalami was entirely successful in that. I appreciated the story she was telling, but I think she was trying to weave in too many threads. Still, definitely not among the worst that we've read, so hooray for that since it was my pick :)

I think I'll just let this post serve as my "review"...



3.5 stars

>204 katiekrug: "definitely not among the worst that we've read, so hooray for that since it was my pick :)"

I would honestly be terrified to have to suggest a book for a reading group.

I'm glad you all managed to meet up. :-)

>205 spiralsheep: - I actually like picking because some people in my group have a tendency to go for the really obscure, inaccessible stuff and I hate that.

My book group never really stopped. At the beginning of covid, we did a few zoom meetings in spring 2020. Then, when the weather improved, we met outside with masks and distancing. As the weather turned to fall and winter, we decided we'd meet outside if the temp didn't go below 40F. There were months that the weather didn't co-operate but overall we made it work. I kind-of "run/organize" the book club. Last year we drew genres from a hat and the "hostess" for the month picked the book. This year, I did themes like the kinds on the Bingo cards (Color in the title...). Next year, I'm thinking of a variation on Jackie's Jar of Fate. I too like to pick books.

>207 dudes22: The Jar of Fate was actually inspired by my book group, which had a small box with book titles on bits of paper, we'd pick out a title for the big reveal at the end of each meeting. We'd all suggest a few titles, so everyone had the chance of their suggestion being chosen. It worked really well. I think they still use the box, over a decade later!

>208 Jackie_K: - I'm going to do something similar except I think we'll pick a whole year's worth of books all at once.

>209 dudes22: I used that approach in the book group I used to run. everyone could suggest titles and nothing was off limits, but the choice was random. Doing the year at once gave people the chance to get hold of the books in advance.

>207 dudes22: - We decided not to meet virtually because we all had too much of virtual meetings through work, and we didn't want our group to become yet more work. And we had pretty strict limitations on what we could do in our state, and different levels of comfort among the group, so we just went on hiatus.

I love the idea of themes for picking books!

>208 Jackie_K: - That's so cool!

>209 dudes22: - We pick our books one at a time, which I sometimes find annoying...

>210 Helenliz: - That makes sense.

I love hearing about everyone's different groups!

I love hearing how different clubs choose books too because ours needs a change. Originally we were part of the International book group Pulpwood Quens (founder lives in EastTexas) but we moved on. In 2019 we didn't have an organized read but instead everyone read what they wanted to and at the meetings each member "presented" something they had read. Very little discussion. Now I think most want to go back to having a selection every month but we need to find a way that suits us to do it.

>211 katiekrug: - We're all in a retirement community so it was probably easier for us to meet virtually. I'm sure if I was still working, I wouldn't have wanted to either.

>212 clue: - I hope you've gotten some good ideas from the discussion!

>213 dudes22: - That makes sense.

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

This is one of those books that will be on summer must-read lists. It's a literary thriller, exploring the nature of stories and who owns them. A one-hit wonder novelist takes the plot of one of his students who has died, and it becomes a bestseller, Oprah selection, and the talk of book clubs everywhere. And then someone accuses him of stealing the story - but whom? Korelitz's novel starts off really well with humor and insight, and though I sort of figured out the twist before it happened, it was a fun ride to have my suspicions confirmed.

4 stars

Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger

I've had this book on my shelf since June 2005, and I'm so glad I finally got around to reading it! It's a charming coming of age novel about a boy in need of a hero and the baseball player who reluctantly assumes that mantle. Set in the early 1940s in Brooklyn, the time and place are wonderfully evoked through letters, newspaper headlines, and other documents. Joey Margolis is a wise-ass who finds his match in 3rd baseman Charlie Banks of the New York Giants. As war looms, Joey and Charlie both learn the importance of friendship and what really matters. Yes, it's cliched, but it's also funny, touching, and warm-hearted. Highly recommended.

4.5 stars

And it's currently on sale for $1.99 on Kindle! Snap it up.

>216 katiekrug: -Doesn't finding an old book in your TBR make you wonder what else has been lurking there that you need to find?

Taking a BB for this and off for the kindle sale.

Hey, when Katie says "Snap it Up!" I listen! Last Days of Summer is now sitting on my Kindle. :)

>217 dudes22: - I have around 2000 books in the house/on my Kindle, so I am sure there are a lot more gems waiting to be discovered! It's a nice feeling :)

>218 DeltaQueen50: - Ha! I hope you like it, Judy!

Wish You Were Here by Stewart O'Nan

A widow and her two children and their families, along with her sister-in-law, spend one last week at the family's summer cottage on Lake Chautauqua in western New York. Like every family, they all carry some baggage - childhood resentments, petty jealousies, failed marriages, etc. The matriarch is seemingly aloof, her children a bit of a disappointment, her grandchildren not of much interest. The surface interactions and story threads are very basic. What O'Nan (one of my all-time favorite authors) has done so well is to give each character - even the children - profound interior lives and character depth. As always, his everyday details of life add richness and reality to the story, which is almost entirely character-driven. If you need a fast moving plot, don't bother with this novel. But if you like complex characters and relationships, as well as acutely depicted settings and atmosphere (his depiction of that claustrophobic feeling of a rainy day stuck inside on vacation where you look for any excuse to get out and have some alone time is just pitch perfect), then Wish You Were Here will be a winner.

4 stars

Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

I knew very little about the Spanish Civil War before reading this, and now I guess I know a bit more? But it was kind of a slog, an alphabet soup of acronyms and confusing in-fighting. As he says at the end, Orwell saw only a small piece and one side of the war, so this is certainly no definitive history of the conflict. It didn't really make me want to learn more, either. Still, the writing is strong and evocative and I'm not sorry I read it.

3.5 stars

>220 katiekrug: It's always good to hear about a Stewart O'Nan book! Will be adding this one to my list.

>220 katiekrug: I found this behind the bookcase during the pre-Covid vaccine cleaning. A lucky find, but it's been on the TBR since 2013! Spurred by your review, I'll read it soon.

>220 katiekrug: - Thought you should know that your touchstone leads to a Rita Mae Brown book.

ETA: Looks like I took a BB from Judy for another one of his books a few years ago. I really should get to reading one. Also -I see this is part of a series.

>222 DeltaQueen50: - Hope you like it, Judy!

>223 clue: - It had been on my shelf since 2009, if it makes you feel better :)

>224 dudes22: - Thanks, Betty! I've fixed the touchstone. O'Nan is great - I've loved everything I've read by him.

It's not a true series. He wrote Emily Alone several years after WYWH, I believe, and it can stand alone, as I understand it. And then he wrote about Henry (Emily's husband) a few years after that. Sort of a prequel - but I think it can also stand alone.

>225 katiekrug: - Thanks for the clarification. Still a BB.

>226 dudes22: - Hope you enjoy it!

Outlawed by Anna North

In the 1890s, the United States no longer exists, a Great Flu devastated society some years back, and the ability to bear children is paramount. Anna North has created an interesting alternative history that doesn't feel outlandish, and in it she places Ada, who is married to a childhood friend but is not a mother. Her inability to conceive and the attendant suspicions of her community cause her to flee, first to a convent and then to the Hole in the Wall in Wyoming where a community of women, led by The Kid, are hoping to build a kind of feminist utopia.

It's an interesting story and moves along at a good clip. I enjoyed the glimpses of and references to the wider society and how things worked - racism is still rife (shocker!) and outsiders viewed with suspicion. The placing of Motherhood on a pedestal, which our own society does in many ways, is taken to an extreme and barren women are assumed to be witches, men can cast out a wife who fails to fulfill her one important duty, and victims of rape and incest are forced to bear their abuser's children. Some of this sounds awfully familiar...

The brilliance of the society North creates is that it places women at the center because of their ability to have children. Mothers of multiple children are lauded. But in this women-centric world, the women actually have no power - they are merely a vessel by which this dark and twisted society is perpetuated.

So why only 3.5 stars? Well, I found some of the characterizations to be shallow at best. We are introduced to several members of The Kid's community, and I had a hard time remembering who was who because they were drawn so thinly. I also felt like there were some aspects to the story that could have been developed more fully, including the ending which was very abrupt and not at all satisfying to me.

3.5 stars

Summerwater by Sarah Moss

Similar to her earlier novel, Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss' newest takes relatively few pages and uses each one to expertly build a sense of tension and unease. I loved the changing perspectives, each chapter an internal monologue of a different character, all of whom are staying at an out-of-the-way Scottish holiday camp. Some of the monologues are rich in humor, keenly observant, and at times, disturbing. Moss has a gift for capturing the rhythm of the conversations a person has with themself - it makes the reader feel intimately acquainted with the characters in just a few pages.

And then there is the ending. This slow smoldering finally explodes and the characters we've come to know are forced into action and communion with each other. Immediately after finishing, my reaction to the ending was "meh." I expected something more. But in thinking it over and re-reading a few pages, I like the creepy ambiguity (no spoilers here!).

4 stars

The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Duke

This is the third in the Girl Meets Duke series and is just as delightful as the previous two. It is typical romance fare, with attraction, misunderstanding, sex, and a happily ever after, but Tessa Dare brings a boatload of warmth and humor to her stories. I also very much appreciate the distinct lack of angst - miscommunications are straightened out fairly quickly, there isn't a lot of dithering about, and I never muttered to myself, "Get on with it already!" This novel will especially appeal to animal lovers, as it features a dog, some kittens, a goat, a headgehog, a (foul-mouthed) parrot, a Highland steer, and an otter.

I can't wait for the fourth entry in the series, which - frustratingly - keeps having its publication date pushed back. I hope that doesn't bode ill.

4 stars

"'A little old lady who lived in a brothel.'

Penny put a hand to her brow, realizing she might have just coined the worst nursery rhyme ever."

In the Morning I'll Be Gone by Adrian McKinty

This is such a great series. Sean Duffy is a Catholic cop in the predominantly Protestant Northern Ireland police force in the early 1980s. This entry follows him as he's recruited by British intelligence to try to track down an IRA bomber he knew when they were both in school. That work leads him to also look into a cold case - a locked room murder mystery. As usual, there are great cultural references, a ton of music, and black Irish humor. I can't wait to get to #4!

4 stars

"You noticed the hair first. Kennedy hair was far in advance of anything Ireland had to offer. It was space-age hair. It was hair for the new millennium. Irish hair was stuck somewhere in 1927. Kennedy hair had put man on the fucking moon."

I have the first three in the Sean Duffy series sitting on my Kindle. Sounds like I need to push the first one a little closer to the top of the list!

>232 DeltaQueen50: - Yes, you do, Judy!

>231 katiekrug: I've read the first one, thought it was really good. That was sometime last year. Time to move on to the second for sure.

>230 katiekrug: After reading your review I had another go at The Wallflower Wager, which I'd forgotten I owned. It wasn't at all my cup of tea, but worth a shot just in case. There's such a variety in this genre and I lean towards the very, very British, follow the rules variety, which is at the other end of the spectrum from this one.

So many books, Katie.

I am tempted to reread The Wallflower Wager as the new book doesn't seem to be appearing (I think she said her family had been pretty hard hit by COVID, as her partner works in healthcare). My favourites will always be the first Spindle Cove trilogy though.

I do enjoy the black humour in the Sean Duffy books. (Talk about a contrast!)

I have Outlawed in the pile from the library. Too many books!

I still haven't watched Normal People - the actors looked nothing like the people in my head from the book, and with lockdown I am not sure I can watch beautiful Italian scenery without feeling extremely bitter! (I like Dublin, but there's less of an issue there.)

ETA This post highlights why exclamation point rationing should be a thing on my phone editor.

>234 clue: - It's a great series and only gets better, I think.

>235 pamelad: - I know what you mean. What are some of your favorite "very, very British, follow the rules" ones? I like the playfulness of this series but also enjoy more traditional romances.

>236 charl08: - Yes, her husband is an ER nurse, I believe, and it was a rough year. I follow her on Twitter, where she's been pretty open about it. I really need to get to the Spindle Cove books!

Ooh, I hope you like Outlawed! I'll wait patiently for your thoughts on it :)

>237 katiekrug: Georgette Heyer predictably, particularly Venetia, Frederica and Arabella; Escapade by the Canadian Heyer imitator Joan Smith; The Tyrant by Patricia Veryan; the Rockliffe series by Stella Riley. Some American writers really try to make their characters seem English and of the time, and to provide some historical context e.g. The Lost Letter by Mimi Matthews (Victorian), Jane Ashford and I appreciate the effort although it's not always successful.

>238 pamelad: - I've enjoyed the few Heyers I've read - and I have several more on my Kindle. I tend not to think of her as part of the same genre of romance as the newer ones. I've read one Mimi Matthews and enjoyed it.

The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman

Lili is a single mother to two young girls, her husband having died a few years ago in a car accident. She had a bit of a breakdown after that, but she's all better now and focused on making a stable life for her girls and for herself. Then she loses her job, starts taking a gardening class, and makes new friends. Lili likes the rut she's in, but she's now seeing new possibilities for her life and struggles to figure out if it's worth taking risks.

Much like The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, 'Garden' tells the story of a woman confronted with change and the push-and-pull of what one knows and what one (maybe?) wants. And much like Nina, Lili has a wonderful community of family and friends (awful mother notwithstanding) to help her figure out her life. Both novels are charming and, at times, laugh out loud funny. I'm so pleased to have a couple more of Waxman's novels to enjoy.

4 stars

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Champagne wishes and caviar dreams.... Poor Lily Bart is raised to expect a lot and when circumstances change for her, rather than changing with them and finding the strength to re-order her life, she just digs herself deeper and deeper. How much is Lily's fault and how much is society's? Wharton seems to apportion near equal blame, though as the novel moves forward, the pity one feels for Lily increases, even as she continues to be an incredibly frustrating character.

I enjoyed this novel, though not quite so much as the two shorter Wharton works I've read (Ethan Frome and Summer). I have several more on my shelves to get to and certainly don't dread the prospect.

3.5 stars

I've completed my Bingo card! Details in >3 katiekrug:.

>242 katiekrug: well done you!

Thanks, Helen :)

Congrats on finishing your card!

Congrats on completing your Bingo Card, Katie. I liked House of Mirth as well but so far have much preferred her shorter offerings like Ethan Frome, Summer and more recently, The Glimpses of the Moon.

>245 MissWatson: - Thank you!

>246 DeltaQueen50: - I noted your positive review of Glimpses of the Moon, Judy. I am pretty sure I have it on my shelf :)

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

Nella is the only Black editorial assistant at the publishing house where she works. She's thrilled to find out the new editorial assistant with the cube just across from hers is also Black. Maybe things are finally changing. Aaaaaand maybe not. Or maybe they are, just not how Nella imagines or hopes or needs.

This was an interesting read. It was fast-paced and has been described in a few places as a thriller. I don't know about that, but there is a sense of creepiness that develops over time. We know all is not right and clue into it before Nella does. It's an interesting exploration of race and gender and the obligations and competition we feel to others like us. It didn't all hang perfectly together for me, and I can't quite pinpoint why. I think part of it was due to a secondary story line that never fully developed and took away from the pace and intensity of the primary one. Still, a good read and one I'd recommend, especially because it takes on difficult and uncomfortable topics.

3.5 stars

Born in Death by J.D. Robb

Not much new to say about this series. It's reliable and entertaining and has a lot of unexpected warmth. This wasn't a favorite, but it was a solid read.

3.5 stars

>248 katiekrug: I’ll be reading this shortly and am curious about the thriller aspect.

Just catching up on your thread. Congrats!

>250 lsh63: - It's definitely not super thriller-y!

>251 VictoriaPL: - Nice to see you!

I've been on a business trip so trying to get caught up....



The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

A bittersweet but charming collection of vignettes about a young girl and her grandmother. It was a bit darker than I was expecting from others' reviews but also funny and sweet. I can see myself returning to it from time to time.

4.5 stars

The Bird Tribunal by Agnes Ravatn

I forget how this came on to my radar, but I'm glad it did. It's translated from Norwegian and is creepy and intense. Two people keeping secrets live together in an isolated house and slowly come to depend on and obsess over each other. The translation is really well done, with few - if any - awkward spots.

4 stars

The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths

Another solid entry in the series. It is not a favorite, as I thought the ending was a bit too pat and out of left field in a way. But Ruth and friends are always a delight to spend time with. My only grumble is that Ruth seems to think "Katie" is the worst name in the world ;-)

3.5 stars

>254 katiekrug: I think I just bought this not too long ago as a daily deal.Creepy and intense sounds like I should move it up in the book rotation!

>255 katiekrug: I just read this too and I thought it was a little shorter than all of the previous books. I was looking for something a little more at the end also.

I'm glad that you enjoyed The Summer Book, Katie. I think that for me, the darker parts helped it from becoming too sweet. The Bird Tribunal sounds interesting ...

>256 lsh63: - Oh, do move The Bird Tribunal up! It's pretty short and reads fast.

The Night HAwks was shorter than others in the series. I kind of felt like she was phoning it in a bit.

>257 DeltaQueen50: - Totally agree about TSB, Judy. And I think TBT would be right up your alley!

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

This one started strong but fizzled a bit in the middle before (somewhat) recovering. It's the story of best friends, Poppy and Alex, who take an annual trip together. Until they don't. And then Poppy tries to resurrect the tradition. Various chapters tell of previous trips until the One That Went Wrong. It was a fun device until it got a bit repetitive. Not a bad sophomore effort from the author of Beach Read, which I really enjoyed last year.

3.5 stars



All Systems Red by Martha Wells

I'm not much of a sci-fi reader, but this was an enjoyable listen while trapped in traffic on I-95. The Wayne really enjoyed it. I won't be rushing out to seek the next in the series, but I have a feeling we'll listen to it on our next road trip.

3.5 stars



Becoming by Michelle Obama

I have precisely nothing to add to the gazillion reviews of this memoir. It was very good, especially the parts about her childhood and early professional years. And she reads it very well.

4 stars

The President's Daughter by Ellen Emerson White

I must have read this book at least a half dozen times as a tween. And I can date much of my interest in politics and the behind-the-scenes of life in Washington to that time and to this book. It follows the 16 year old daughter of the first female President as she adjusts, first to her mother running for President and then to life in The White House. It was first published in 1984 and then updated in 2008 (no doubt in connection with Hillary Clinton's first Presidential run). The updates seem to have been mostly to include cell phones and the internet and to smooth out some of the more dated cultural references. It wasn't as good as I remembered, but it's been, um, a lot of years since I was 11 and 12 :)

3 stars

Pack Up the Moon by Kristan Higgins

Josh Park has been widowed at age 30. His wife, Lauren, suffered from a pulmonary disease that took her after only three years of marriage. But Lauren left Josh letters for each month of his first year without her - reminding him of her love for him, encouraging him, and giving him tasks to do to keep him connected to other people and to the world. It's a cheesy premise, sure, and some of it made me roll my eyes because the sap level got a bit high at times. That said, Higgins is a favorite author for a reason (though I prefer her contemporary romance novels to her more recent popular fiction stuff) - she has a sense of humor similar to mine, she always manages to include love for the New York Yankees, and she writes wonderful secondary characters that often are more interesting than the main ones. This novel probably could have been at least 50 pages shorter, and I did get a little antsy every time I was hit over the head with how perfect Lauren was, but the ending made me ugly cry, so I bumped the rating up from 3.5 stars.*

4 stars

* I'm tempted to bump it further because I just learned that Higgins and I went to the same college. Go 'Saders!

>261 katiekrug: I also prefer Higgins's earlier romances to her recent women's fiction. I haven't even read the last few of her books...I was so turned off by the unrelenting misery of Life and Other Inconveniences that I haven't wanted to try any more! This one also sounds quite depressing, but your review is somewhat tempting me anyway...

>262 christina_reads: - I loved her Blue Heron series especially.

This one is sad in a lot of places, but ultimately it's life-affirming (hello, cliche).

I haven't read LaOI. I really did not like Good Luck With That, but I did very much like her first non-romance, If You Only Knew.

I also liked If You Only Knew, as well as On Second Thought. After that I started to lose interest a bit. But I'm with you on the Blue Heron series -- and I also really enjoyed some of her earlier stand-alones, like Too Good to Be True and All I Ever Wanted.

I still haven't gotten to OST. Bad Katie! I also liked the early stand-alones I've read - I can never remember the titles. I still have a few more waiting for me on my Kindle.

The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys

I've read two novels by Helen Humphreys (Afterimage and Coventry) and really liked them both. This book is not a novel but a series of vignettes, each set during a different year when the Thames froze over. They are very short and spare but beautifully written. All deal with themes of loss or transition, and the period artwork that is included is a wonderful addition to a book that is lovely as an object itself.

4 stars

>266 katiekrug: Ooh that's a very nice edition! I don't think the one I read was quite as fancy.

>267 rabbitprincess: - It is lovely.

Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa

"'Everyone's hands are bloody and dirty in this place,' Bilal said."

This is a powerful novel, one that doesn't shy away from complexity and ambiguity. It is narrated by Nahr, the daughter of Palestinian refugees who grows up in Kuwait and eventually finds her way to her ancestral homeland. Nahr is tough, often unlikeable, and a victim of forces - religious and political - that she is helpless to fight against, despite her best efforts. Married, abandoned, brutalized, she makes her way through the contemporary Middle East - forced out of Kuwait after the first Gulf War, at loose ends in Jordan, and finally at home in a land that is not hers, despite deep ancestral roots there.

Like so many, most of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is confusing to me - it seems hopeless and unsolveable and so gets put in a box in my mind of things labelled "Too hard." This novel is distinctly pro-Palestinian but Abulhawa does not shy away from showing the brutality on both sides. It was certainly eye-opening to me in many ways and forced me to confront that "Too hard" box, making me want to learn more. And while Nahr commits and abets some heinous acts, I still felt a great deal of sympathy for her, which is, to me, the mark of a good novel. I return to that complexity and ambiguity.

The title is taken from a James Baldwin essay - the full quote: "Here you were: to be loved, baby, hard, at once, and forever, to strengthen you against the loveless world."

4.5 stars

"I had to become another person, someone at the other end of disgrace, rape, and exile, to fully appreciate that my mother, a simple widow with an elementary education, was an extraordinary artist. My mother was a maker of beauty, a brilliant custodian of culture and history."

You Deserve Nothing by Alexander Maksik

You Deserve Nothing alternates narration between three characters - Will, a teacher at an international school in Paris; Gilad, a new student at the school; and Marie, a returning student. Will is a popular teacher, Gilad is an outsider, and Marie is the beautiful sidekick of a more glamorous girl. As Will challenges his students to think critically about literature and philosophy and the world and their lives, he represents - to many of them - a kind of ideal. That he is harboring a secret is no surprise to the reader, but the way the whole thing plays out makes for a propulsive read.

I really enjoyed this novel - the scenes of Will teaching are really well done, as is the high emotion, angsty, edged-in-darkness feel of the teenagers in the book. It rang very true to me. My only real quibble is that Marie was much less present in the narrative. Her sections were shorter than the other two and there were fewer of them. Maksik might have done this on purpose for a reason unknown to me, but it just felt like maybe he was comfortable writing her perspective, in which case, I feel like he should have left it out. Overall, though, a great read.

4.25 stars

"Faces that seemed to radiate certainty, a passion for their cause, they were out there doing what they believed in. Living their beliefs, assuming responsibility, acting in accordance with their desires. They were all the things I was sure I was not. They were all the things that Silver expected us to be... I watched the faces, the backslapping camaraderie, and felt, yet again, challenged by a world that existed outside of myself, by a version of life I was not part of, a version of life I saw as infinitely more pure than my own, and by the growing sense that it was a life I'd never possess."

The Trials of the Honorable F. Darcy by Sara Angelini

A competent take on Pride and Prejudice set in contemporary San Francisco. Lizzy is a lawyer; Darcy is a judge. The writing is serviceable, the story follows the main plot but thankfully omits enough so as not to get bogged down in strangled modern takes on Wickham, Lydia, etc. There's a bunch of sex, and the romantic tension really only lasts through the first half or so. After that, it's endless angst and misunderstanding, and the whole thing could have been at least 30 pages shorter.

3 stars

Whiskey and Charlie by Annabel Smith

I picked this book up in a Kindle sale at some point and didn't know much about it. I ended up enjoying it a lot, which is always nice :)

It's the story of twin brothers who were once close but became estranged. When one is involved in an accident that puts him into a coma, the other brother finally confronts their relationship, and the novel moves back and forth in time, charting the ebbs and flows of life and family. The ending was a little too neat, but overall this was a great read and an unexpected surprise.

4 stars

The Strawberry Hearts Diner by Carolyn Brown

If you like schlocky, small town, Southern slices of life in your novels, might I recommend this one? Jancey I-Don't Remember-Her-Last-Name finds herself stranded in Pick, a small town in East Texas, while on her way to Louisiana. She lived in Pick for 2 years as a teenager, but her parents' peripatetic lifestyle never kept in her one place for long. She plans to stay in Pick just long enough to make some money as a waitress at the local diner and then be on her way. But the too good to be true owners of the diner, plus all the citizens of Pick, make it hard for her to leave. And when her high school crush shows interest, Jancey is torn between putting down roots and stretching her wings.

It's all very predictable and cliched and kind of dumb. But there is some genuine heart to the story, and I gave it an extra half star because I enjoyed the audio narration.

3 stars

>272 katiekrug: I have been meaning to read this since it was shortlisted for the Most Underrated Book Award in 2013. It is an Australian book, but here it was published with the title Whisky Charlie Foxtrot. Not sure why it would have been changed.

>274 JayneCM: - Title changes are so weird, aren't they? The two brothers are named Whiskey and Charlie, and each chapter ties into a word from the NATO phonetic alphabet, so there is a whole theme going on, but no reason to change the name as far as I can see.

>275 katiekrug: My idea is maybe that Whiskey and Charlie was released in the US just after David Schafer's Whiskey Tango Foxtrot came out. Maybe they sounded too similar?

>276 JayneCM: - Oh, that could be! I hadn't heard of the Schafer book.

Cashelmara by Susan Howatch

Holy soap opera, Batman! Parts of this book were ridiculous, but other parts were wonderful, particularly the descriptions of western Ireland. It tells the story of three generations of an Anglo-Irish family in the second half of the 19th century. There is intrigue and lust and insanity and murder, double-crosses and betrayals, and also, I think, the kitchen sink was in there somewhere, too. It was wildly entertaining despite, or maybe because of, the ridiculousness.

3.5 stars

>278 katiekrug: You bring back memories with your reading of Cashelmara, Katie. I read that book when it was first out so I would have been 14 or 15, and I loved it. I wouldn't want to re-read it today cause the practical side of me would probably find it ridiculous as well. Some things are better left in the past!

>278 katiekrug: I read it on a trip to Sri Lanka. It's an excellent choice for a holiday read.

>279 DeltaQueen50: and >280 pamelad: - It has the perfect escapist quality for a teenager or vacationer!

A Burning by Megha Majumdar

I loved this novel of politics, class, and prejudice in contemporary India. The story itself - of a young woman swept up by the police after a terrorist attack - is compelling enough, but Majumdar has created three fascinating characters with distinct voices, each of whom brings an important perspective to the book and each of whom is an outsider in some way. Add to that a strong and very real sense of place and this book went from very good to great for me. I was completely immersed in a culture and society mostly foreign to me but which felt immediate and authentic. I can't wait to see what Majumdar does next.

5 stars

I'm Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti

Michele is 9 years old and lives in a tiny village in southern Italy. He has a younger sister and a couple of other children in the town that he hangs out with. He discovers something terrible in the countryside near his village, but he is too young to really understand it. His confusion and concern and fear are all made palpable through Ammaniti's pitch-perfect prose, as is the harsh landscape and odd dynamic among the few families in the village.

This is a short novel but packed with an excellent story. My only quibbles were a couple of odd choices in the translation (I assume) and a very abrupt ending that left several questions unanswered. Still, highly recommended.

4.25 stars

Falling by T.J. Newman

This book first came to my attention thanks to a tweet from Adrian McKinty, who was eagerly awaiting its publication (turns out he had blurbed it for the cover and was also acknowledged by the author at the end of the book). I then kept seeing it hyped all over the place. I put it on my library list based on the interesting premise but expected it to fall a bit short of my expectations. I'm glad to say it was actually better than a lot of what's available in the genre.

The premise: an airline pilot is informed mid-flight that his family has been kidnapped and will be killed unless he crashes his plane. Yes, it's a bit far-fetched but it's a thriller, so go with it. As events unfold on the plane and on the ground, we are treated to a propulsive narrative encompassing the pilot, an FBI agent, the pilot's family, the terrorists, and the flight attendants. Newman is a former flight attendant, and the sections of the book dealing with the passengers, cabin, and FAs were my favorites of the book. The writing is strong, if not excellent, and Newman's ability to humanize even the worst of the characters is impressive.

I gobbled up this book in two days - a perfect summer read.

4 stars

I put this on my library wishlist last night. I was a little skeptical of the reviews too. I'll have to reserve it as soon as I have an opening of my current pile.

>284 katiekrug: When I first heard about this I was a bit skeptical, but I do like that the author is a former flight attendant. I'm like 200-something on the list at the library.

>285 clue: and >286 rabbitprincess: - I hope you both like it!

>284 katiekrug: I was hit by the same Adrian McKinty BB and was the first in line for the book when it arrived at the library. It's been sitting on my night table for a week now and I just can't get interested in it. Too much hype puts me off. You make me want to give it another try.

You've had some really great reads recently, Katie. I am glad that you enjoyed I'm Not Scared. I have A Burning on my Kindle and Falling as an audio (I hope it works well that way) so I will be getting to them eventually.

>288 VivienneR: - I totally get that. The good thing is, it will be there when you feel like it :)

>289 DeltaQueen50: - I think Bonnie listened to Falling and enjoyed it. There are some changes in narrator and flashbacks, which I find difficult on audio, but that's because I rarely have solid listening time and so only get to grab a few minutes at a time, or 20 at most...

>290 katiekrug: Well, if I can "gobble it up in two days" as you did then I have nothing to lose!

Flashbacks can be confusing on audio even if it just takes a few sentences to catch on that it's a flashback. It seems to be a common device in contemporary fiction.

>291 VivienneR: - Right on both counts :)

Lizzie & Dante by Mary Bly

This is historical romance author Eloisa James' first contemporary novel, and it's a good one. Filled with humor, a wry take on life and death, and great characters (and some amazing food), it tells the story of Lizzie who is battling some demons, one of which is stage 3 cancer. She accompanies her best friend and his boyfriend to Elba for one last fling before she gives in to what she sees as the inevitable. But on Elba, she meets a man and his daughter and his dog and maybe the connections she forges are enough to make her keep battling.

I wasn't sure about reading this one - I love Eloisa James' historicals and I'm usually up for a good, frothy summer read, but this one seemed like it might go a bit dark. Instead, I was enchanted by the setting and the characters, and while some of it is a bit over the top, overall it's a lovely story about making the hard choice to keep living and loving.

4.5 stars

Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller

Once again, my LT friends did not steer me wrong. I loved this novel. There are lots of good reviews of it, so I'll just copy and paste my short comments from Instagram/Facebook:

Beautifully written story of two adult siblings set adrift by the death of their mother. Poverty and life on the fringes told with sensitivity and grace.

4.5 stars

>294 katiekrug: That was a good one! I read Swimming Lessons and Unsettled Ground this month and enjoyed them both. I think I loved Swimming Lessons just a smidgeon more.

>295 lsh63: - I have Swimming Lessons on my Kindle and hope to get to it soon!

The Black God's Drums by P. Djeli Clark

Definitely not my usual sort of read, but I need a book for a reading challenge prompt related to Afrofuturism, and this one was on a few lists, and it was short, so I went with it.

It's a novella set in an alternative late 19th century steampunk-y New Orleans, where a teenage girl living on the streets helps to save the city from a dangerous new weapon. At first, I was pretty "meh" but Clark builds this world very convincingly (and quickly), and I was soon caught up in the story. There were a lot of interesting elements, and I almost wish the book had been a full length novel so that they could be developed more fully.

4 stars

Home Sweet Anywhere by Lynne Martin

This was a bit of a mixed bag for me - so! many! exclamation! points! and I found Martin's style a bit twee, but I love the idea of giving up homeownership and making the world your home. She and her husband spend weeks or months in a particular place, usually in a rented apartment so they can live like the locals. Her experiences in various places confirmed my desire to visit - Istanbul, Lisbon, Ireland, etc. Their travels, at least as covered in this book, were very Euro-centric, which is a bit of a cop-out. Yes, every country is different, but Western Europe is pretty easy to navigate. I'd love a follow-up where they go farther afield, but I'm not sure I! can! take! that! much! more! of! her! writing! style!

3.5 stars

West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge

This was a great story of an 18-year old Depression-era orphan who comes to drive two giraffes from New York to San Diego. The writing was strong, and the sense of time and place well done. Woody's coming-of-age story, assisted by the two beautiful beasts in his care, made for a great read.

4 stars

>300 katiekrug: - I have this on my TBR. Glad to see a good recommendation.

>302 katiekrug: - I was surprised how much I liked it.

Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan

This is, apparently, being made into a Netflix limited series, and I can see why. Sex, twists, politics, etc... It's reasonably well done - an up-and-coming British politician is accused of rape by a former lover and the story is mostly told from the perspectives of his wife and the barrister tasked with prosecuting him. But everyone has secrets, because of course they do. I could have used Susan's expertise in navigating the nerdy legal bits, since the British judicial system is a bit of a mystery to me, but I understood enough to enjoy the read. One of the major plot twists was a bit obvious, but Vaughan does her readers a favor by not dragging it out and it's revealed halfway through. I appreciated that.

4 stars

Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare

I rarely rate romance novels this highly, but this one is near-perfect in my book and hit just the right spot for my addled brain right now... Tessa Dare may usurp Julia Quinn as my favorite historical romance author - I love her characters, their banter, that there isn't an excess of angst in their relationships but enough tension to keep things interesting, her supporting casts, just... everything. Oh, and her pacing! The book moves along at a nice clip without a lot of boring filler :)

Anyway, this one tells the story of Pauline, a farm-raised bar maid, and Griffin, an emotionally haunted duke. There's some Cinderella in the story, along with Cinderella's modern-day cousin, Pretty Woman (the film)*, but it still reads fresh and not like a tired re-tread of a well-known story. Many, many thanks to Micky for encouraging me to read this one. It's now a firm favorite.

4.5 stars

* The scene when Griffin takes Pauline back to a bookstore where she was treated badly... Even better than the similar scene on Rodeo Drive in PW...

>303 katiekrug: I've had it on Kindle since 2018, definately time to read it!

>304 katiekrug: As good if not better than Julia Quinn!! I am off to Amazon to pick me up some Tessa Dare.

>305 clue: - It's a fast read!

>306 DeltaQueen50: - Judy, I am confident you'll love her books. I've only read this one and a trilogy, but I loved them all.

>304 katiekrug: After reading your review I'm giving Tessa Dare another try and am going along nicely with Romancing the Duke. I'd given up on her after The Wallflower Wager, which had kittens and baby goats. Bah, humbug.

>308 pamelad: - Welp, I love the series TWW is a part of, so you might take my thoughts on >304 katiekrug: with a grain of salt!

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Just as charming as everyone says, I Capture the Castle tells the story of 17-year old Cassandra Mortmain and her eccentric family who live in a crumbling castle in the English countryside. The novel is narrated by Cassandra and is something of a coming of age story as she moves into adulthood and begins to understand the joy and challenges of growing up. Through everything, she never loses her vibrant imagination or talent for observation.

I remember seeing the film of this many years ago and not finding it very interesting, but I think I'll give it another go.

4.25 stars

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff

Over 15 hours long on audio, this riveting account of September 11 tells the stories of ordinary people, first responders, rescue workers, and politicians in their own words. It covers the lead-up to the attacks, what went on in the three planes that were crashed, how the government reacted, how people searched for loved ones - nearly every facet one can think of is covered, at least in part. Parts of it are harrowing, some inspiring, some heart-breaking, and some rage-inducing. The whole thing is very well done, but it took me over a month to listen to because it is extraordinarily detailed and truly took me back to that day, so much so that I could only listen in small pieces lest I get overwhelmed all over again.

4.5 stars

>260 katiekrug: I've never heard of The President's Daughter! Sounds like something that might appeal to fans of "The West Wing" and "Madame Secretary". Thanks for bringing it up!

>311 katiekrug: I appreciate your review of The Only Plane in the Sky, but I don't think I could read such a book myself yet.

>312 pammab: - You're welcome!

And I totally understand about the 9/11 book.

Amethyst by Lauren Royal

Meh. There was nothing particularly interesting about this one - very standard fare and I've become accustomed to a little more from the historical romances I read.

3 stars

NB: This was re-issued at some point with a different title, When an Earl Meets a Girl.

The Colour of Milk by Nell Leyshon

This is a difficult book to describe, as very little happens until something does. It is the story of Mary, the youngest daughter of a farming family in England in 1830. She leaves the farm to work in the nearby vicarage, where she is taught to read and write. I found it to be oddly compelling, though bleak, and while it was obvious what the "surprise" was going to be, I still appreciated the book with its emphasis on the power of words and books and writing.

4 stars

Note: The style of the novel will put some people off, as there is no capitalization and little punctuation beyond periods at the end of sentences. So if you are among those who hate not having quotation marks to set off dialogue, you should probably avoid this one.

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman

Alice Hoffman novels are comfort reading for me. She is probably best known for Practical Magic, which is actually my least favorite of the books by her that I've read, but I like to be contrary like that. The Red Garden is very similar to Blackbird House in that it tells the history of a place over time through loosely connected stories. This time, it is a small town in western Massachusetts, and the book traces its history, founding families, and inhabitants from the mid 18th century to the late 20th. Like many of her novels, this one is touched by magical realism, but not in an obtrusive way, where one is shaken out of the story. She uses a light touch, much like Sarah Addison Allen, another comfort author for me. I could have used a family tree of some sort to keep the various connections straight in my head, but that's probably just due to my terrible memory.

4 stars

I was doing an inventory of my unread books the other day and realized that I have a few by Hoffman that I haven't read yet. I think I'll try to fit at least one in next year.

>317 dudes22: - I still have lots of hers to read. She is certainly prolific!

No Mark Upon Her by Deborah Crombie

This remains my favorite mystery series, though this particular entry is not a favorite. There were just a few too many coincidences and happy accidents for my taste. As usual, though, the best bits of the book were the developments in the personal lives of the characters. I love Duncan and Gemma and their community of friends and family.

3.5 stars

>319 katiekrug: I love the series as well, Katie, but it's always a disapointment when the current issue doesn't quite live up to our expectations. Hopefully, the next one will do the trick!

>320 DeltaQueen50: - I guess they can't all be winners, Judy :) I just checked and the next in the series comes out (in the US at least) next June.

What is Left the Daughter by Howard Norman

"Your mother was the love of my life. I was not the love of hers. You became the love of both of ours."

This is a difficult book to describe - there is wry humor, bleakness, plenty of pathos, and a wonderful narrative voice. The story is told as a letter from a father to his daughter, whom he has not seen since she was a child. It tells of his life in Nova Scotia primarily during World War II and the post-war period, and what a story it is - love triangles, suicide, unrequited love, murder... It may sound melodramatic but it isn't. And the story is populated by fascinating, complex characters. I relished every page of this book, and it is now very much a favorite.

5 stars

>322 katiekrug: Good aim with this BB, I checked to add it to my wish list and library had it so…. I’ll be reading it shortly. As much as I love mysteries and thrillers I needed something else to read this month to vary things a bit. It looks like it will be a good one!

I hope you like it!

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I may be the last person in the world to read this wonderful novel, but after one false start with it several years ago, I'm glad I gave it another go. The story is well-known by now so I won't rehash it, but I loved Zusak's imagination, his writing, and his ability to put into words what so many of us find powerful and important about books and stories. That simple words can do so much - inspire good and evil, preserve stories, perpetuate legacies - never ceases to amaze me. I think Zusak must feel the same way.

4.5 stars

That Night by Alice McDermott

I had mixed feelings about this short novel. The writing was superb - evocative and powerful - but I had trouble getting past the 10-year old narrator as somehow omniscient. It just kept removing me from the story. Maybe having a quasi-unreliable narrator was part of the point, but if so, it didn't enhance my reading. That said, I come back to the writing which made me pause several times in appreciation. McDermott's evocation of a suburban childhood in the early 1960s seemed spot on (I say "seemed" since my own childhood was two decades later in a rural setting) and certainly her evocation of childhood and the mystery of the adult world was well done.

3.75 stars

>325 katiekrug: Katie, I am glad that the second try worked! The Book Thief was one of the first books I read when I joined LibraryThing - recommended to me by non-other than Joe. He told me about The Book Thief and Hunger Games - two solid hits!

>327 DeltaQueen50: - I think I first heard about TBT here on LT, Judy...

Not Another Bad Date by Rachel Gibson

I loved the first novel by Gibson that I read - See Jane Score. It nicely combined romance, sports, and humor for a satisfying read. Ever since, I've tried to find something equally good among her many contemporary romances and have not been able to. I think I'm done trying.

Not Another Bad Date isn't terrible. It was just the definition of meh - writing that was merely serviceable, not much believable chemistry, and - horror of horrors! - riddled with minor details that made no sense like a character inviting a friend over to watch an NFL game in the fall on a Saturday night, when anyone who knows anything about it knows the NFL doesn't play Saturday games until the post-season.

3 stars

All the Young Men by Ruth Coker Burks

If, like me, you often despair at the world and think most people are garbage, then you should read this book. Ruth Coker Burks was a single mother living in Hot Springs, Arkansas when she first came face-to-face with the AIDS epidemic in the mid-1980s. From her initial encounter with a young man close to death in a hospital, where the nurses and doctors, in fear and ignorance, provided only minimal care, Ruth became an advocate, caregiver, and friend to dozens of young gay men ravaged by the disease. She also became something of a pariah in her community, her church, and among the supposed Christians in Hot Springs. Her memoir of compassion, education, and advocacy is both infuriating and inspiring. Among so much hate and ignorance, she provided hope and light to people in desperate need. I admire her courage, persistence, and heart, and am glad to be reminded that people like her exist.

4.5 stars

Bookmarked: Reading My Way from Hollywood to Brooklyn by Wendy W. Fairey

This is a mash-up of a memoir and literary criticism, where Professor Fairey endeavors to share her life's story through works of literature she has loved and taught for decades. Some of it was very interesting and some of it... not. Her family history is fascinating - she is the daughter of Hollywood gossip columnist Sheila Graham, in whose living room F. Scott Fitzgerald dropped dead. She was in her 40s when she learned her father was British philosopher AJ "Freddie" Ayre. She's taught English literature at various colleges and universities around the country, been married, had children, and now lives with her wife in the Hamptons. On its own, her life story might make for mildly interesting reading, but she frames it around literature and this both works and doesn't. Some of the parallels she draws, especially when discussing "The New Woman" as an archetype are interesting. The last section where she talks about immigrants and displacement and her first trip to India seem tacked on and the connection strained for the purpose of the book.

I listen to this on audio, and it took me a good while to get through it. She's a professor and so some of her analysis seems to drag on a bit and can make for dry listening/reading, but the bits that were interesting were very interesting. And I did add several titles to my mental TBR list.

3.5 stars

1984 by George Orwell

Well, now I can say I've read it. And I get it and its brilliance, but it was painful to read and I'm glad it's over.

2.5 stars

The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

I love the audios of the Jeeves books read by Jonathan Cecil. This was another great one, dealing mostly with Bertie and his friend Bingo, who falls in love (usually with someone inappropriate) at the drop of a hat. Good fun.

4 stars

Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym

This novel is a quiet rumination on ageing and loneliness. There is also some dry humor which alleviated what could have been a rather depressing read about 4 colleagues facing the inevitability of time and how to connect to others. This was my first book by Pym but won't be my last.

4 stars

>334 katiekrug: - Love that cover.

>335 dudes22: - It's pretty, isn't it?

______________________________



Loud Mouth by Avery Flynn

An average contemporary romance with two likable characters. The conflict seemed a bit overblown to me, so the tension and angst didn't totally ring true. I did like that one of the characters is a recovering alcoholic, which you don't often see in this genre.

3.5 stars

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

A wonderful novel framed around a typical coming of age story, but with the brutality of the central event hitting like a punch to the gut. As 13 year old Joe navigates life after an attack on his mother, he learns the nature of injustice, suspicion, and fear. Erdrich also includes some vivid Native American themes, thus telling a complex and authentic American story.

4.5 stars

Matrix by Lauren Groff

I wasn't rushing out to read this novel. I've never read anything by Groff (her books tend to seem a little too off-beat for me) and I'm not big into religious-y stuff. But I do love historical fiction, and there was no wait for the e-book from the New York Public Library because it was the October pick for a WNYC book club. And people I trust were raving about it, so I gave it a whirl. And wow. Just wow. It's beautiful and stunning and so, so compelling. Which is funny, because it's about a nun in the 12th century. Who'd a thunk it?

Marie de France is a little known historical figure - little known by the contemporary world and one about whom little is known. From the hazy details we do have, Lauren Groff has created a remarkable and powerful woman and given her a story worthy of her and worthy of all the women whose stories have gone untold for too long. The writing is lush and gorgeous - I read bits of it out loud because they seemed to have a kind of rhythm to them that I wanted to hear - and the details about life in an medieval abbey grounded and made real a story which seemed at times fantastical. I love how Groff has centered the female, not just in Marie but in the other nuns, in the themes of religion and faith and Christian origins and in the multiple meanings of the title.

There are a lot of things that struck me about the novel - the almost total absence of men, except as looming presences off-stage; the narrative voice where conversations don't so much as happen but are relayed; the reality of life for women in this time period, even intelligent, educated, wealthy ones like Marie... Much of this is addressed in a great interview Groff did with the WNYC book club host, available here: https://youtu.be/DSoqCLBk5T4.

5 stars

A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton

A solid opening to a series that I plan to continue. My sister-in-law is a fan, and I remember my mom reading the series, so I am already pre-disposed to like it.

3 stars



Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Everyone who said the story is nothing like you think it is was correct. I kept waiting for villagers carrying torches and pitchforks... Anyway, this was a good listen with excellent narration by Dan Stevens. I don't really have anything new to say about the book - it's a classic for a reason, I guess.

3.5 stars

A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee

This was the November pick for my book group, and I was excited to read it as the description sounded like it would be right up my alley. Alas, it was not. Less a novel than interconnected stories about individuals in India trying to make new and better lives for themselves, the tenuous connections between the stories were not enough to make the whole of it hang together well. I don't mind bleak in my reading if there is some point to it, but whatever Mukherjee's point (beyond "life is hard") was was lost on me.

3 stars because I'm feeling generous

The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams

“Modern romance novelists use the patriarchal society of old British aristocracy to explore the gender-based limitations placed on women today in both the professional and personal spheres. That shit is feminist as fuck.”

“Don’t be ashamed for liking them. The backlash against the {pumpkin spice latte} is a perfect example of how toxic masculinity permeates even the most mundane things in life. If masses of women like something, our society automatically begins to mock them. Just like romance novels. If women like them, they must be a joke, right?”

In addition to being a fun novel, The Bromance Book Club is a great defense of romance as a genre and the validity of women-centered stories. What puts it a cut above is that in addition to the female point of view, we are given a strong male one, too. And much of the understanding of the power of the novels comes from the title group - several men who have improved their relationships by reading romances so that they can better understand their partners. The two quotes above come from male characters.

It’s a cute premise and wouldn’t be more than that except that Adams is smart enough to not make this into a male-bashing story or faultless-woman-saves-bumbling-man narrative. Both her leads are fleshed out and nuanced with believable baggage that threatens their relationship. For a time, I was afraid it was veering into “Happy wife, happy life” territory, but it ultimately didn’t. (And if you ever want to hear my rant about that abhorrent little phrase, let me know.)

4 stars

Faithful Place by Tana French

This was a great read - a compelling main character, fully developed secondary characters, a strong sense of place, and questions of family, loyalty, and justice. Frank Mackey thinks he's left behind his working class roots and dysfunctional family; he's not been home for over 20 years and maintains only a tenuous connection with one of his sisters. But he's pulled home for a cold case involving his old girlfriend who stood him up 22 years ago on the verge of their departure together for England.

There's a lot going on in the book, and I loved how French managed to weave all the strings together and to draw parallels and connections between Frank then and now. The scenes with Frank and his daughter are so well done, and his inner turmoil about how to be a good father when he had no example is heartbreaking in many ways. This is a pretty dark book in its take on one's ability to move beyond one's past only so far. And how as much as we'd like to leave certain things behind, it's impossible because they helped to form us and so stay with us, woven into our very beings.

4.5 stars

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.

- Philip Larkin
"This Be The Verse"

>342 katiekrug: I loved Faithful Place too! I really need to get back to that series...still haven't read the next book, Broken Harbor, yet!

>342 katiekrug: - That's next up for me in the series. Hopefully soon.

>343 christina_reads: - I've heard BH is one of the best of the series, so I'm looking forward to it!

>344 dudes22: - It's a great, absorbing read.

The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s by Andy Greene

I get that The Office is not everyone's cup of tea. It can be cringe-inducing, though it doesn't rely solely on cringe humor, but I love its observational humor. I think many people don't like it because the pilot was so terrible, and the first season made Michael Scott so loathsome. But seasons 2 through about 5 have some of the funniest episodes of any TV show I've ever seen.

Anyway, this was an interesting oral history of the show, with a brief overview of the original UK version and how it came to be adapted for a US audience. The author interviewed scores of people from producers, writers, actors, crew members, and arranges the book season by season. Much like the show, it went on a bit too long... Unsurprisingly, I lost a lot of interest when it moved into the final two seasons. But I do love "how the sausage is made" stuff, especially about something I am very familiar with. Apparently, there is a new oral history out just this week - I will probably put it on my Audible list and get to it sometime, when this one is less fresh in my mind.

4 stars

The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander

I should have known I'd end up having a problem with this book from the very beginning, where we have the framing device of contemporary people connected to a historical event. For some reason, this annoys me. Like, just tell the damn historical story! But lesser authors like to do this because then they can throw in a twist meant to be shocking but that most people will see coming from a mile away. And then the book will become a shitty book club darling and everybody will say how clever and surprising it was, except it wasn't.

Okay, sorry for the rant.

ANYWAY, this book about the last days of the Romanovs in 1918 was pretty good, as far as the main story went. Despite knowing the ultimate outcome, Alexander managed to make the narrative interesting and compelling. And then, instead of ending it with a bit of an "aha," he decides to go for broke with a DOUBLE TWIST! Isn't he so clever?!!? It was dumb and unnecessary.

3 stars

>347 katiekrug: Loved the rant!

Always love your rants, Katie! Keep 'em coming.

>348 pamelad: and >349 DeltaQueen50: - Reading (and writing) rants is always more fun than raves, I think :)

>350 katiekrug: Writing rants can be so cathartic!

Love the rant! It always feels good to let off steam.

>351 MissWatson: and >352 VivienneR: - So true!

Enter the Aardvark by Jessica Anthony

This was absurd and funny and a great audio to spend time with, though I'm sure it would also be good in print. There are two stories being told - that of a current day closeted gay Republican Congressman and that of a 19th century British taxidermist. A stuffed aardvark is the glue holding the book together. If it sounds a bit offbeat, it certainly is. But it is also very funny, especially the contemporary storyline which is told in the second person with a smug and smarmy narrative voice that the audio narrator hit perfectly. An unexpected gem of a book.

4.5 stars

The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.

This National Book Award finalist is a powerful story of love in a hateful world. It is also a story of legacy and memory and community, but the love between the slaves Samuel and Isaiah on an antebellum plantation is the heart of the book. I didn't love the novel as much as some have - I felt that Jones fell into the trap of so many debut novelists of trying to do too much. I didn't mind the perspective shifts among the characters on the plantation, but there were other voices included that drew me out of the story. I understand what Jones was doing with it, but it didn't quite work for me. Quibbles aside, this was a worthwhile read.

4 stars

"She found herself molded into the shape that best fit what they carved into her. Water done wore away at her stone, and the next thing she knew, she was a damn river when she could have sworn she was a mountain."

NB: I found the Acknowledgments section really annoying. Jones thanks everyone and their mother, living and dead, famous and not, who ever touched his life. By name. It goes on for 10 pages. I found it self-indulgent and off-putting.

Home for Christmas by Holly Chamberlin

Cozy holiday reads are a favorite sub-genre of mine, and I don't mind a little cheese and schmaltz with them. But I do mind terrible writing and wooden characters, so this one was a miss for me. I just wanted to shake the main character and tell her to get a life.

2.5 stars



Comfort & Joy by Kristin Hannah

This one was marginally better, but by calling it "A Fable," I think Hannah decided she could get away with a bunch of nonsense that didn't make any sense. Still, the writing was serviceable, at least.

3 stars

>356 katiekrug: I also love a cozy holiday read, so I'll be interested to see what else you read this month! Too bad neither of those was really a winner.

>357 christina_reads: - It's hard to find really good ones, I think. I'll keep trying, though!

Some brief comments on recently completed books...



Trashlands by Alison Stine

A strong entry in the "cli-fi" genre. It's set in the future, when environmental disaster has wreaked havoc on the world and plastic is the currency of choice. A woman and her community in Scrappalachia eke out an existence on the margins, all dreaming of something more. Stine built an intriguing world and people it with interesting characters.

3.75 stars



Innocent in Death by J.D. Robb

This series is always reliably entertaining, but this entry was better than average. I'm always impressed by Robb's ability to continue to develop her characters in believable ways.

4 stars



Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry

A beautifully written and sympathetically told account of the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami in Japan. Parry focuses on the parents of children lost when a school was overtaken by the flood and weaves in reflections on grief, loss, and Japanese culture. A really interesting book.

4 stars

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

A friend of mine from my RL book group recommended this book to me ages ago, and I finally got around to it, thanks to the Hulu adaptation that recently dropped. I want to watch it and OF COURSE I had to read the book first because I'm not a monster.

And it was... fine. I guess? I liked the male lead but found the female one kind of annoying. And since it's told entirely from her perspective, it was a lot of kind of annoying. The plot is standard enemies-to-lovers in the work place. One thing I felt it was lacking was any sort of memorable secondary character to add some punch to the narrative. It was just Lucy and Josh for 350+ pages. Some of their banter was excellent but Lucy's endless woe-is-meing grated on my nerves after a while.

I'll watch the TV adaptation because I think it might actually work better for me on the screen than it did on the page.

3.5 stars

Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan

I will never not love this book. This is my fourth read of it and it is just as bittersweet and deeply moving as the first time. If you have not yet discovered any of O'Nan's work, which is excellent, this is a great place to start.

5 stars

>361 katiekrug: - Your mention of this reminds me that I took this as a BB a while ago. I think I'll put it on my Thingaversary list. (Hoping to get gift cards for Christmas)

>362 dudes22: - Oh, I hope you like it when you get to it!

Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels

Anne Michaels is a poet, and the lyrical, often breathtaking prose of this novel is evidence of her talent. Fugitive Pieces is the story of Jakob Beer, a Polish Jew rescued as a boy near the start of World War II by a Greek archaeologist. He is raised in Greece and Canada, surrounded by history and books and language. He becomes a translator and poet, always using language to examine the world around him and to understand his own history and place in the world. This is not a plot-driven novel, and in the beginning, I was unsure about finishing it. I am glad I stuck with it, as the language was its own reward. I didn't love the second part of the novel about a young man on the outskirts of Jakob's orbit. But altogether, it's a lovely book - thought-provoking and beautifully written.

4.25 stars

>364 katiekrug: As this one is on the 1,001 List and by a Canadian author, it is definitely in my future. I often struggle with non-plot driven stories so I am glad that you rated it highly.

>365 DeltaQueen50: - You just have to be patient with it, I think, Judy. And don't expect it to be a real page-turner :)

>361 katiekrug: I was just thinking about this book last night. My book club met to discuss selections for the first quarter and when I was trying to go sleep i couldn't quit thinking about future selections. Lobster immediately came to mind, I'd like for us to read it in the late fall. Like you, it's on my go to list.

>367 clue: - I've made two separate books clubs read it in the past, and it always generates a good discussion!

I have 4 books finished in December that I haven't reviewed or commented on. I think it's time for a Lightning Round (h/t to Mark)!



The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson

This was a great nonfiction read about the theft of hundreds of rare bird skins and feathers. Johnson skillfully interweaves some history and personal experience into the story. Very well done on audio. 4 stars



Cut and Run by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker

A great tale about a pair of best friends who harvest kidneys for a Midwestern crime boss. The various voice actors were great, including Meg Ryan as The Narrator. I laughed out loud several times. 4 stars



A Very Austen Christmas by Various Authors

Some day I will learn to not buy Austen fan fiction because it's cheap on Kindle. 2.5 stars



Finders Keepers by Belinda Bauer

An excellent conclusion to the Exmoor trilogy. Bauer is one of the best crime fiction writers I've encountered, and I am glad to have several more of her books still to read, plus whatever she publishes in the future. Note: it is important to read this trilogy in order. The first book is Blacklands, followed by Darkside. 4.5 stars