Fourpawz2 - 75 Books - Year 14

Charlotte from the south coast of Massachusetts here. Hard to believe I've been in the group for 14 years, pushing my "75 books read" boulder up the hill - successfully - every year but one. It's not been lost on me that, like Sisyphus, that particular boulder rolls back down the hill every December the 31st and I have to start all over again. For me, that return to the beginning of the count is kind of discouraging. So - I spent the last week or so compiling the list - as best I can remember - of every book I've ever read. I may have missed one or two, but I've settled on 1,695 as being my lifetime total - excluding textbooks and re-reads. From now on every book gets the usual number for it's place in the current year, but it will receive a lifetime number as well. As for re-reads, I can't possibly remember the number of times I've read some of them, so I'll just start fresh and from this point on they will be counted again.

My dear Jane will be with me for another year of reading - although most of the time I am pretty sure she will be on my lap, snoozing her way through it and doing her best to ignore the drone of me reading out loud. Yes, I am an out-loud reader. It's a habit I've had ever since I was a child when I started reading to my cat Kimberley - the greatest hunter ever - and I've not been able to break it. I'm really going to try harder this year to stop doing it - at least with fiction books.

Hope this year turns out to be better for all of us in every way possible. For myself I am excited to be on the almost-cusp of vaccination, Joe Biden, sanity, and the possibility of a better world.

BOOKS READ IN 2021

JANUARY

1. Washing the Spears by Donald R. Morris - 1/1/2021 - 4 stars - from my shelves
2. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn - 1/15/2021 - 2 stars - from my shelves
3. Hungry For You by Lynsay Sands - 1/17/2021 - 2 stars - from my shelves
4. Collecting the World by Jame Delbourgo - 1/18/2021 - 3.25 stars
5. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney - 1/19/2021 - 3.5 stars
6. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan - 1/25/2021 - 4 stars
7. The Vanished Child by Sarah Smith - 1/30/2021 - 4 stars - from my shelves

FEBRUARY

8. Easy to Kill by Agatha Christie - 2/2/2021 - 4 stars
9. The Rainbow Comes and Goes by Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt -
2/7/2021 - 3 stars
10. Bride of the Rat God by Barbara Hambly - 2/16/2021 - 5 stars - from my shelves
11. Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple - 2/19/2021 - 3.25 stars
12. Fatal Remedies by Donna Leon - 2/27/2021 - 4 stars - from my shelves
13. True Adventures on Westward Trails by Alfred Powers - 3.50 stars - from my shelves

MARCH

14. His Excellency George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis - 3/3/2021 - 4.5 stars - from my shelves
15. Desert Heat by J.A. Jance - 3/4/2021 - 2.75 stars
16. Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear - 3/16/2021 - 3.25 stars - from my shelves
17. Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen - 3/22/2021 - 4 stars
18. Watcher in the Woods by Kelley Armstrong - 3/25/2021 - 3.25 stars

APRIL

19. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab - 4/09/2021 - 5+ stars
20. Death of a Village by M.C. Beaton - 4/14/2021 - 3.5 stars
21. Camille by Alexandre Dumas, fils - 4/18/2021 - 3 stars
22. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones - 4/22/2021 - 3.25 stars

MAY

23. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh - 5/01/2021 - 5 stars
24. The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths - 5/5/2021 - 3.25 stars
25. The Deadly Doll by J. Burke - 5/10/2021 - 2.75 stars
26. The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson - 5/20/2021 - 3.50 stars
27. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain - 5/18/2021 - 3.75 stars

JUNE

28. The Romanov Bride by Robert Alexander - 6/02/2021 - 3 stars
29. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - 6/05/2021 - 3.75 stars
30. Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance - 6/08/2021 - 4 stars
31. Absolute Monarchs by John Julius Norwich - 6/12/2021 - 5 stars
32. The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern - 6/26/2021 - 3.5 stars
33. The Devil's Pool by George Sand - 6/27/2021 - 4.5 stars
34. Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman - 6/28/2021 - 3.5 stars

JULY

35. Fear on Friday by Ann Purser - 7/04/2021 - 3.25 stars
36. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson - 7/09/2021 - 5 stars
37. The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball - 7/16/2021 - 4 stars
38. Leningrad: State of Siege by Michael Jones - 7/18/2021 - 5 stars
39. Life Itself by Robert Ebert - 7/27/2021 - 5 stars

AUGUST

40. Born With Teeth by Kate Mulgrew - 08//3/2021 - 3.5 stars
41. Mary's Neck by Booth Tarkington - 8/5/2021 - 5 stars
42. The Paris Secret by Karen Swan - 8/14/2021 - 1/2 star
43. The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker - 8/19/2021 - 5 stars
44. Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny - 8/28/2021 - 5 stars
45. Vincent & Theo by Deborah Heiligman - 8/28/2021 - 3 stars
46. West With the Night by Beryl Markham - 8/29/2021 - 4.5 stars

SEPTEMBER
47. Mary Renault: A Biography by David Sweetman - 9/06/2021 - 3.5 stars
48. Otherland: Mountain of Black Glass - by Tad Williams - 9/11/21 - 5 stars
49. Gap Creek by Robert Morgan - 9/15/2021 - 4 stars
50. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie - 9/19/2021 - 4.5 stars
51. The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware - 9/23/2021 - 3.75 stars
52. Missing Joseph by Elizabeth George - 9/26/2021 - 3.5 stars

OCTOBER
53. Montana 1948 by Larry Watson - 10/01/2021 - 5 stars
54. Fire from Heaven by David Underdown - 10/09/2021 - 4.5 stars
55. Evans Above by Rhys Bowen - 10/09/2021 - 3.5 stars
56. Murder in Mink by Evelyn James - 10/12/2021 - 3 stars
57. If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin - 10/18/2021 - 4 stars
58. Mrs. Jordan's Profession by Claire Tomalin - 10/19/2021 - 4.5 stars
59. Nancy Astor: A Lady Unashamed by John Grigg - 10/23/2021 - 3 stars
60. National Velvet by Enid Bagnold - 10/25/2021 - 5 stars

NOVEMBER

61. Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe - 11/3/2021 - 1/2 star (only because LT won't do zero)
62. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker - 11/11/2021 - 5 stars
63. How to Write a Mystery, Lee Child, Editor - 11/13/2021 - 4 stars
64. Chasing the Thrill by Dan Barbarisi - 11/19/2021 - 3 stars
65. A Share In Death by Deborah Crombie - 11/21/2021 - 3.25 stars
66. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling -

DECEMBER

67. Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand - 12/1/2021 - 5 stars
68. Sad Cypress by Agatha Chistie - 12/04/2021 - 3.25 stars
69. Christmas Without Johnny by Gladys Hasty Carroll - 12/10/2021 - 3.5 stars
70. Monk's-hood by Ellis Peters - 12/19/2021 - 3.5 stars
71. A Highland Christmas by M.C. Beaton - 12/20/2021 - 4 stars
72. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman - 12/22/2021 - 3.25 stars
73. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild - 12/23/2021 - 3 stars
74. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan - 12/26/2021 - 5 stars
75. One More Thing by B.J. Novak - 12/30/2021 - 3.25 stars

REAL LIFE BOOK CLUB

January - The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi - Finished
March - Camille by Alexandre fils Dumas - Finished
June - The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern - Finished
September - The Paris Secret by Karen Swan - Finished
October - Montana, 1948 by Larry Watson - (my choice) Finished
October/November Classics read National Velvet by Enid Bagnold- (my choice) - Reading
November - Love, Nina by Nina Stebbe - on order from Library

RECOMMENDED BOOKS

Recommended by Susanj67

We'll All Be Murdered In Our Beds by Duncan Campbell - can't seem to find this at any library
Rush Oh! by Shirley Barrett
Incarnations: A History of India in Fifty Lives by Sunil Khilnani
The Allegations by Mark Lawson
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived by Adam Rutherford
The History Thieves by Ian Cobain
The Life Project by Helen Pearson
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
The Vanished City: London's Lost Neighbourhoods by Tom Bolton
The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu by Charlie English
Collecting the World by James Delbourgo - Completed - 1/18/2021
Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag
This Is How It Ends by Eva Dolan
Emigrants: Why The English Sailed To The New World by James Evans
Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker - Completed - 11/11/2021

Recommended by Chatterbox

Every Man Dies Alone: A Novel by Hans Fallada
War at the Wall Street Journal by Sarah Ellison
Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan - Completed - 1/25/2021
Assignment in Brittany by Helen MacInnis
The King's Hounds by Martin Jensen
Fallen Land by Patrick Flanery
Elders: A Novel by Ryan McIlvain

BOOKS ACQUIRED IN 2021
1. A Promised Land by Barack Obama - Christmas Gift - rec 1/6/2021
2. Camille by Alexandre fils Dumas - Kindle edition, bought because it was only $1.99 and it might be picked by someone for RL Book Club - 1/12/2021
3. Fatal Remedies by Donna Leon - used MMPB edition in average used condition acquired through Abebooks - 1/20/2021
4. Former People by Douglas Smith - allegedly used Hardcover edition in pristine condition acquired through Abebooks - 2/8/2021
5. Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee - used TPB in excellent, apparently unread, condition acquired through Abebooks - 3/1/2021
6. A Sea of Troubles by Donna Leon - used TPB in acceptable condition acquired through Abebooks - 3/13/2021
7. Evans Above by Rhys Bowen - used MMPB in acceptable condition acquired through Abebooks 3/13/2021 (Can't remember the last time I received two books on the same day.)
8. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - used TPB in very good condition acquired through Abebooks 3/27/2021
9. Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin - new TPB bought at Barnes & Noble with Christmas Gift Card from 2019 - 4/2/2021
10. The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara by David I. Kertzer - used TPB in good condition acquired through Abebooks - 4/23/2021
11. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry - used hardcover in very good condition acquired through Abe Books. This one came previously belonged to a library in Washington D.C. - 5/10/2021
12. Jeremy Poldark by Winston Graham - used TPB in very good condition, acquired through Abebooks - 5/24/2021
13. Blood River by Tim Butcher - used TPB in good condition, acquired through Abebooks - 6/12/2021
14. Winters Bone by Daniel Woodrell - used TPB in very good condition - 6/21/2021
15. The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny - TPB acquired through Abebooks, in very good condition which is likely due to some kind of reinforcing treatment by the Ocean County Library of Toms River, NJ (its last owner) - 7/03/2021
16. The Ice Museum by Joanna Kavenna - used TPB - presumably - in good condition, but this was not the book I thought that I had bought. The cover was the of the one I wanted to buy, but the pages were from this book, of which I've never heard. Fortunately the seller refunded my money and as they did not want this abomination back, I am kind of stuck with it. -7/23/2021
17. The Reason Why by Cecil Woodham-Smith - used hardcover and the book that I thought number 16 was supposed to be. 7/18/2021
18. Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault - used TPB in pretty good condition acquired through Abe Books - 9/18/2021

... AND BOOKS GIVEN A ONE WAY TICKET OUT OF TOWN
1. Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan - This one is way too depressing. I can accept that in a work of non-fiction, but there is a limit to how much misery I will put up with in a work of fiction
2. Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish - by Morgan Llewelyn - I have outgrown this kind of book, I think - a middling sort of semi-HF about druids and similar things. I am less enamoured of dynastic fiction than I was when I was young.
3. Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail by Theodore Roosevelt - not terribly interested in this subject told by an American aristocrat, no matter how 'regular' a sort of fellow he believed himself to be. When you have a fortune, you are never ordinary.

...AND BOOKS SENT BACK TO THE LIBRARY IN UNFINISHED SHAME

1. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead - I am so not a lover of magical realism, but I had hoped that it would not be a problem with this book. However, when the ten story "skyscraper" and the hypodermic needle came into play in pre-civil war Charleston, SC, I knew I could not carry on. Will be returning this one to the library at the first opportunity.

BOOKS BORROWED IN 2021

1. Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Book Store by Robin Sloane - borrowed from Overdrive - 1/19/2021
2. Easy to Kill by Agatha Christie - borrowed from Millicent Library - 1/29/2021
3. The Rainbow Comes and Goes by Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt - borrowed from Overdrive - 2/2/2021
4. Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple - borrowed from Overdrive - 2/8/2021
5. Desert Heat by J.A. Jance - borrowed from Overdrive - 2/23/2021
6. Men to Match My Mountains by Irving Stone - borrowed from the Keeley Library (BMC Durfee High) - 3/3/2021
7. Watcher In the Woods by Kelley Armstrong - borrowed from Overdrive - 3/5/2021
8. Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen - borrowed from the Wilks Branch Library - 3/15/2021
9. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab - borrowed from The New Bedford Free Public Library - 3/27/2021
10. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones - borrowed from Overdrive - 4/7/2021
11. The Splendid and the Vile by Eric Larson - borrowed from Overdrive 4/24/2021
12. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain - borrowed from Overdrive - 5/11/2021
13. The Romanov Bride by somebody-or-other - borrowed from Overdrive - 5/20/2021
13. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead - borrowed from the Wilks Branch Library, May, 2021
14. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - borrowed from a friend - 5/24/2021
15. Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance - borrowed from Overdrive - 6/3/2021
16. Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman - borrowed from Overdrive - 6/8/2021
17. The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern - borrowed from the Wilks Branch Library - 6/12/2021
18. The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball - borrowed from Overdrive - 7/01/2021
19. Born With Teeth by Kate Mulgrew - borrowed from Overdrive - 7/18/2021
20. Vincent and Theo by Deborah Heiligman - borrowed from a friend - 7/20/2021
21. The Paris Secret by Karen Swan - borrowed from the Wilks Branch Library - 7/30/2021
22. The Pioneers by David McCullough - borrowed from Overdrive - 08/03/2021
23. The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware - borrowed from Overdrive - 9/03/2021
23. Murder In Mink by Evelyn James - borrowed from Overdrive - 9/28/2021
24. If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin - borrowed from Overdrive - 10/12/2021
25. Love, Nina by Nina Stebbe - borrowed from the library for Book Club- 10/22/2021
26. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker borrowed from Overdrive - 10/22/2021
27. How to Write a Mystery Edited by Lee Child - borrowed from the Wilks Branch Library - 11/12/2021
28. A Share in Death by Deborah Crombie - borrowed from the Mattapoisett Public Library - 11/20/2021
29. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand - borrowed from Overdrive - 11/18/2021

SPUR AWARD BOOKS

Reading these award winners - as many of them as I can find - to see if they have held up since they were originally published

1953 - 1959

Lawman by Lee Leighton (Fiction Winner - 1953) - Read in 2019
The Wheel and the Hearth by Lucia Moore (Historical Fiction Winner - 1953) - N/A
The Violent Land by Wayne D. Overholser (Fiction Winner - 1954) - Read in 2019
Journey By the River by John Prescott (Historical Fiction Winner - 1954) - N/A
Bent's Fort by David Lavender (Non-Fiction Winner - 1954) Completed - 2/23/2020
Somewhere They Die by L.P. Holmes (Fiction Winner - 1955) - Completed - 5/31/2020
Whoop-up Country by Paul F. Sharp (Non-Fiction Winner - 1955)
High Gun by Leslie Ernewein (Fiction Winner - 1956) - Completed July, 2020
Generations of Men by John Clinton Hunt (Historical Fiction Winner - 1956)
Men to Match My Mountains by Irving Stone (Non-Fiction Winner - 1956) - DNF This is the first Spur Award book that I have given up on.
Buffalo Wagons by Elmer Kelton (Fiction Winner - 1957)
Silver Mountain by Dan Cushman (Historical Fiction Winner - 1957)
This is the West by Robert West Howard (Non-Fiction Winner - 1957)
Short Cut to Red River by Noel Loomis (Fiction Winner - 1958)
The Fancher Train by Amelia Bean (Historical Fiction Winner - 1958)
Cripple Creek Days by Mabel Barbee Lee (Non-Fiction Winner - 1958)
Long Run by Nelson Nye (Fiction Winner - 1959)
The Buffalo Soldiers by John Prebble (Historical Fiction Winner - 1959)
Day of San Jacinto by Frank Tolbert (Non-Fiction Winner - 1959)

1960 - 1969

The Nameless Breed by Will C.Brown - (Fiction Winner - 1960)
From Where the Sun Now Stands by Will Henry - (Historical Fiction Winner - 1960)
South Pass 1868 edited by Lola M. Homsher - (Non-Fiction Winner - 1960)
The Horse Talker by Jeanne Williams - (Juvenile Fiction Winner - 1960)
The Honyocker by Giles Lutz - (Fiction Winner - 1961)
The Winter War by William Wister - (Historical Fiction Winner - 1961)
Lives and Legends of Buffalo Bill by Don Russell - (Non-Fiction Winner - 19610
Comanche Captives by Fred Grove - (Fiction Winner - 1962)
Moon Trap by Don Berry - (Historical Fiction Winner - 1962)
Great Surveys of the American West by R.A. Bartlett - (Non-Fiction Winner - 1962)
The Western Horse by Natlee Kenoyer - (Juvenile Fiction Winner - 1962)
Follow the Free Wind by Leigh Brackett - (Fiction Winner - 1963)
Gates of the Mountains by Will Henry - (Historical Fiction Winner - 1963)
The Bonanza West by William S. Greever - (Non-Fiction Winner - 1963)
The Story Catcher by Mari Sandoz and By the Great Spoon by Sid Fleischman - (tied for Juvenile Fiction Winner - 1963)
The Trail to Ogallala by Benjamin Capps - (Fiction Winner - 1964)
Indian Fighter by F.F. Halloran - (Historical Fiction Winner - 1964)
Field Notes of Capt. William Clark by E.S. Osgood - (Non-Fiction Winner - 1964)
Ride a Northbound Horse by Richard Wormser - (Juvenile Fiction Winner - 1964)
Sam Chance by Benjamin Capps - Fiction Winner - 1965)
Gold in California by Todhunter Ballard and Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher (tied for Historical Fiction Winner - 1965)
The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest by Alvin M. Josephy - (Non-Fiction Winner - 1965)
The Stubborn One by Rutherford Montgomery - (Juvenile Fiction Winner - 1965)
My Brother John by Herbert J. Purdum - Fiction Winner - 1966)
Hellfire Jackson by Garland Roark and Charles Thomas - (Historical Fiction Winner - 1966)
America's Frontier Heritage by Ray Billington - (Non-Fiction Winner - 1966)
The Burning Class by Annabel Johnson and Edgar Johnson - (Juvenile Fiction Winner - 1966)
Valley of the Smallest by Aileen Fisher - (Juvenile Non-Fiction Winner - 1966)
The Valdez Horses by Lee Hoffman - (Fiction Winner - 1967)
The Wolf is My Brother by Chad Oliver - (Historical Fiction Winner - 1967)
America's Western Frontiers by John Hawgood - (Non-Fiction Winner - 1967)
Half Breed by Evelyn Lampman and The Dunderhead War by Betty Baker - (tied for Juvenile Fiction Winner - 1967)
To the Pacific With Lewis and Clark by Ralph Andrist - (Juvenile Non-Fiction Winner - 1967)
Down the Long Hills by Louis L'Amour - (Fiction Winner - 1968)
The Red Sabbath by Lewis Patten (Historical Fiction Winner - 1968)
Gold Rushes and Mining Camps of the Early American West by Vardis Fisher and Opal Laurel Holmes - (Non-Fiction Winner - 1968)
Middl'un by Elizabeth Burleson - (Juvenile Fiction Winner - 1968)
Rifles and Warbonnets by Marion T. Place - (Juvenile Non-Fiction Winner - 1968)
Tragg's Choice by Clifton Adams - (Fiction Winner - 1969)
The White Many Road by Benjamin Capps - (Historical Fiction Winner - 1969)
Boss Cowman by Nellie Snyder Yost - (Non-Fiction Winner - 1969)
The Meeker Massacre by Wayne Overholser and Lewis Patten - (Juvenile Fiction - 1969)
Conquistadores and Pueblos by Olga Hall Quest - (Juvenile Non-Fiction - 1969)
Big With Vengeance by Cecil Snyder - (First Western Novel - 1969)

1970 - 1979

The Last Days of Wolf Garnett by Clifton Adams - (Fiction Winner - 1970)
The Buffalo by Francis Haines - (Non-Fiction Winner) - 1970)
Cayuse Courage by Evelyn Lampman - (Juvenile Fiction Winner - 1970)
Retreat to the Bear Paw by Marion T. Place and Search for the Seven Cities by John Upton Terrell - (tied for Juvenile Non-Fiction - 1970)

1980 - 1989

1980 -
1981 - Cowboy Culture by David Dary - Nonfiction Winner - Completed - 1/6/2020
1982 -
1983 -
1984 -
1985
Lonesome Dove - by Larry McMurtry - (Fiction Winner) Completed - 1/28/2020

1990 - 1999

2000 - 2009

2010 - 2019

BEST AND WORST OF 2020

Best Books

Bent's Fort by David Lavender was a surprise to me. Included here because of that.

The Motion of Puppets by Keith Donohue - an audiobook (read by Bronson Pinchot) that I read in February. My thoughts returned to it repeatedly over the next 10 months of 2020, so it has to go on this list.

and

Mistress to an Age by Christopher Herold - my absolute favorite book from this year and it is probably right up toward the top of my all-time favorite non-fiction books.

Worst Books

Ordinarily I'd say that that giant pile of crap - Wyoming Heart takes this honor, but it is really too easy to hang the worst book of 2020 designation on it. So, I'm going to have to say that My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh wins for my most disliked book of the year. Absolutely pointless. I probably only finished because it kind of went with the toilet cleaning that I was doing at the time I was listening to it.

And - new category - Most Disappointing Book goes to The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. I had expected it to be so much better.

Worst Cover



Such a bad cover. No idea what the people at Time Life Books were thinking when they pulled this one out of their hats. For me it screams "Don't bother picking me off this shelf!" And it was my favorite book. Weird.

Best Cover



I wanted to pick the cover for Dorothy Sayers' Clouds of Witness, but it did not seem fair as I chose that one as a stand-in for the cover on my cheapo kindle copy of Sayers' so-so second mystery in the Lord Peter Whimsey series. So, with that said, this 10 of 10 cover was the clear choice for best cover honors.

CURRENTLY READING

I've got two categories of books that I am currently reading - Giant Books and Regular Books. No matter how good they are the Giant Books take me a long time to finish. Big or little I read all books at the same rate so GBs take me months to finish while Fiction RBs can be wound up in a week to ten days - usually. If a fiction regular book is still around after 2 weeks that's a very good indication that I am having a problem with it.

Giant Books

1. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens - This one has been on the go for a few months. Have had to put it aside a few times to pay attention to library books. Am surprised that I am sticking with it. Am currently at the beginning of Chapter 31 and it is only a few pages until the half-way point. I am very sure that I am going to jettison this book when I am done.
2. A Promised Land by Barack Obama A Christmas present from a customer. Plainly I am going to be a while with this. Had set a goal to be done with it by year's end, but the summer was so miserable that I only picked it up again around Labor Day. I think it will probably be next winter sometime (or later) before I finish.

Regular Books

3. Homosexuality & Civilization by Louis Crompton - Bought this in error from the History Book Club, many years. I say "in error", but it was really carelessness as I did not send the notification card back in time. It is dense, so I am reading additional non-fiction. Have made some progress. Will be a while before I am done with this. This paper used for this book is that heavy, slick kind, so all-in-all I am finding the physical book incredibly heavy. Hope I don't drop it on Jane.
4. Mrs. Jordan's Profession by Claire Tomalin - Am many chapters into this and am really liking it.
5. Lady of the Forest by Jennifer Roberson - Started this one a week ago. Read a book by her some years ago and found it to be a cut above the usual of the Historical Romance Fiction genre. Hoping for the same again and so far am quite liking it.
6. National Velvet by Enid Bagnold - reading this for RL Book Club additional fiction choice and am about half-way through. Have read it probably a couple of dozen times before now. As ever it does not disappoint.
7. If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin - Audio Book borrowed through Overdrive. Have never read anything by Baldwin before and am really liking this.

Tried The Gift of Rain at the beginning of the month, but put it to one side almost immediately as it was doing nothing for me at all.

Welcome back!

Here's to ambitions (and those first 9 reserved slots filled) in the New Year!

Thank you, Jim! And thank you for this group and your faithfulness in making it happen.

And thank you, Judy. Hoping to have it all filled in and my first book listed by tomorrow.

Enjoy your 2021 reading!

Happy reading in 2021, Charlotte!

And keep up with my friends here, Charlotte. Have a great 2021.

Hi cousin! I look forward to seeing what you post (and read).

>13 thornton37814:, >14 FAMeulstee: -Thank you, Lori and Anita. You are so kind to drop by my quiet little corner.

>15 PaulCranswick: - I'm on board with all of those things, Paul. Ordinarily I would beg off on the tea, but I'm trying to make myself like it - I've drunk two whole cups in the past two weeks (or is it three?), and am hoping that this will be as successful as my previous program to make myself like mysteries.

>16 PawsforThought: - Hey Cousin Paws! So good to see you. Must hustle over to your place and take a look around. :)

Hi Charlotte, good luck with your reading goals. Looking forward to seeing what your reading.

Book Number 1 - (Lifetime #1,696) - The Washing of the Spears by Donald R. Morris

One of my favorite movies from the 'olden days' is Zulu - Michael Caine's first big role from back in the days when he was cute as a button. I remember watching it with my Granny, late at night (or what seemed like late at night) and being riveted by it. I tracked down this book which included the real story of the conflict at Rorke's Drift (which was just as exciting as the movie version) about ten years ago and it finally made it to the top of its pile a few months ago.

It's a very comprehensive history of the short-lived Zulu Nation in the days of the founder, Shaka,when innumerable southern African clans were overrun, ground up and their people and lands were absorbed by him. Two generations later, under Shaka's grandson Cetshawayo, it was all over when the British imperial forces crushed the Zulus - partially as payback for the slaughter at Isandlwana and mostly to take control of Zululand.

Admittedly there is a lot of the early political history - the dance of power and greed between the British and Boers that I do not yet fully understand, but I do not fault Morris; it's my first stab at the history and politics of this small section of Africa, so I know that I need to seek out a lot more books on the subject. And, assuming that I ever get that done, I'll still be looking at about 55 subsequent years of history, in just this portion of Africa, that I know little about before I am even minutely caught up. Will try not to dwell on how unlikely it is that I'll ever be truly caught up on just about anything.

A definite keeper - no doubt about that.

Gave it 4 stars. Might have given it even more if I'd gotten all the complicated bits all sorted out in my brain.

Cover Art - It's certainly eye-catchingly colorful so that might have made me take it off the shelf for a good look inside. So I'm giving it 6 of 10. But for some reason I don't like the number of colors used - not sure if there are too many colors or not quite enough. I don't know - something about it is a little off-putting and I'm finding it annoying that I can't figure out what it is.

Although it may appear that I have - once again - gone AWOL from my thread, that is not actually the case. I am just having trouble, what with work and all the horrible everything going on in the world getting to the end of either of the two main physical books that I am reading. Audiobook is taking a while too.

I will persevere....

>20 Fourpawz2: Completely understandable to have trouble reading when the world (and the US in particular) looks the way it does. I'm making painfully slow progress with my reads too.

>21 PawsforThought: - Sorry you are having difficulties too, Cousin. Somehow or other I did manage to finish my second book last evening.



2021 Book Number 2 (Lifetime Book Number 1,697) - Geek Love by Katherie Dunn

Hmmmm. What to say about this one.

I certainly can say that it was well-written for otherwise I know I would have bailed on it.

I've never found the idea of a carnival sideshow at all appealing and this book did nothing to change my mind about that. But the real problem I had with this story of a family of true carnival freaks was how out of control the tale was. It wasn't enough for Dunn to just write about the Binewskis and how it was to live in such a setting (which would have been a pretty good way to go, I would think); she had to go ahead and make everything about them so far, far beyond the pale. Arty Binewski, the Aqua Boy and star attraction of the carnival was a frightening tyrant (and don't get me started on his cult of "Arturans" and all of that weirdness) and the elder Binewskis clearly should have been prevented from spawning in the first place. The younger siblings, had they been rescued from the carnival, would have required a lifetime of therapy in order to achieve a bare minimum of mental health. Even the people working for the carnival were a wretched lot. I know this barely helps anyone to have a clue of what goes on in this book, but know that it is a dark book and not for the weak-stomached.

I'm pretty sure Geek Love is not going to find a place on my shelves. Well written or not, I do not think I could ever bring myself to read it again.

Giving it four stars for the writing, but I'm throwing a penalty flag worth minus two stars onto the field of play for all of the awful images it put in my mind. Guess that makes a final total of 2 stars for this one.

Cover Art - Orange neon not being a favorite color of mine (this pretty much holds true of neon-anything) it gets a blah 3 of 10 rating.

Happy New Year, Charlotte! Looks like you're off to a good reading start.

>23 jnwelch: - Thanks, Joe. I'm trying, but I am already behind last year's numbers.



2021 Book Number 3 (Lifetime Book Number 1,698) - Hungry For You by Lynsay Sands

This has been in my TBR piles for - no exaggeration - 10 years. At this distance I have no idea why it is in my library. But it finally rose to the top of the heap and I am a slave to my ridiculous what-book-do-I-read-next protocol, so I picked it up last weekend.

Basically it is a very dopey vampire romance tale that was really more like porn than anything else and the 18th in a series of what I can only assume is a whole slew of similar tales. An ancient vampire, by the name of Cale, is in Canada and presumably visiting relatives. But actually he is there looking for his "life's mate". Alex, restaurant owner and head chef appears to be his girl - at least according to Marguerite who is a kind of Vampire Yenta. Alex seems at first to be a hard nut to crack, but once Cale works his vampire seducing magic on her, she crumbles like a stepped-on potato chip. Athletic capering between the sheets (and on the floor, restaurant prep tables, dining room, etc.) ensues.

Giving this a bare 2 stars and there is no doubt in my mind that this one is not a keeper.

Cover Art - Predictable and lame. It does relate to the story, but on a shelf I would not give it a second look. 2 of 10

2021 Book Number 4 (Lifetime Book Number 1,699) - Collecting the World by James Delbourgo - a Susan recommended book

A biography of Sir Hans Sloane, apothecary, medical doctor, naturalist, slave owner and collector of just about anything and everything. For some reason I thought there was going to be more emphasis on the actual collection - my error. Sloane was a man with a yen for collecting lots of stuff and thanks to the Jamaica plantation he acquired by his marriage to a wealthy widow, he had plenty of dough with which to pay for everything he hungered for. (He also made a good deal from his medical practice once he returned to England from Jamaica - but the plantation was, by far, most responsible for his hefty fortune.) He was quite the noted naturalist and published a horrifically expensive book (in two volumes) on his finds.

Sloane left his collections to the nation - or to be more exact, he allowed them to be bought from his estate for a tidy sum. Once acquired they became the foundation of the British Museum, British Library and the Natural History Museum.

Delbourgo included several pages about the transition point of European thought regarding slavery which I am going to make a copy of so that I can read it again - more thoroughly this time - as it is a thing which interests me.

Giving the book 3.25 stars

I don't think I'll be getting a copy for my shelves

Cover Art - I like this cover. The cover, in fact, may be responsible for why I thought it would be a slightly different book. Giving it an 8 of 10 - the best cover of the year, so far.

2021 Book Number 5 (Lifetime Book Number 1,700) - Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney - audio book - read by Xe Sands

It's New Year's Eve, 1984, in Manhattan and Lillian Boxfish, eighty-four year old former copywriter for RH Macy decides to go out to dinner and then to a party being given by a young acquaintance. Lillian has eaten a lot of Oreo cookies before setting out and decides that she will go to the restaurant on foot in order to walk off the calories. Having lived in NYC since the 20s, she is a great walker and this does not seem to be a daunting task to her.

Lillian does a lot of reminiscing along the way - New York has changed a lot since her youth and she can't help but mentally revisit her life. RH Macy's was a giant deal to her - she has many memories of her time there. She prides herself on having been the highest paid female copywriter in the country, a published poet (whose books, unfortunately, have now gone out of print) and a woman with a quick and cutting wit - a Dorothy Parker kind of woman. She reminisces about her husband - the great love of her life - from whom she has long-since been divorced. Marrying him led to having her child and to the loss of her job with RH Macy - a major blow to her.

She seems like a strong old gal - quite capable of coping with New York and her life as an octogenarian, but there are parts of her past that were very challenging - parts that almost broke her. Still - she came out of it all mostly in one piece.

For the most part I liked this book. (She was what my mother believed herself to be - but wasn't. Not by a long shot.) Even after the bad parts of her life, Lillian is quite capable of dealing with any bumps in the road and coming out mostly on top. I would like to be this together when I am an ancient old thing (in two or three years).

Giving this book 3.5 stars

Don't think I will add it to my shelves - makes me think of my un-maternal, maternal parent a little bit too much - but I think it was certainly well-worth reading.

Cover Art - Only a 3 of 10 for this one. I'd never take it off the shelf for a closer look.

she crumbles like a stepped-on potato chip

*snork!*

>26 Fourpawz2: Isn't it funny because I find that cover really attractive.

>28 PaulCranswick: - Choosing the cover for a book must be a stressful job. Especially as covers really do seem to have a part in whether or not a potential buyer likes the look of it and might pass on the less appealing cover of a book for another one that they find more appealing.

>6 Fourpawz2: Ohhh I liked this one..quirky but fun

>30 jecarney64: - So did I. Finished it a couple of days ago and it held up throughout.

I am officially giving up on this book. I have tried to read it twice in physical form and two different times in audio book form. And I fell asleep on the movie the only time I tried to watch it. This morning I gave up on the audio that I borrowed from the Boston Public Library with the incomparable Juliet Stevenson as the reader. If I can't stand this book with her reading it, obviously there is no hope at all. I loved Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility, but only feel so-so about Pride and Prejudice. I'm thinking that this may mean that I am not the world's biggest Austen fan and that it may be that I like the idea of her better than I like all of her books. I still have a few more of hers to read. Will see how that goes.

Book Number 6 (Lifetime Book Number 1,701) - Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan - a Chatterbox recommended book

A nice blending of Tech and Fantasy - and Books, of course - that I resisted for a long time. Another case of me being repelled by a book that the whole world was busy raving about. When will I learn?

This book moves well, was very entertaining and though I should, perhaps, have been disappointed that there was no big, magicky payoff, I wasn't.

It appears that Sloan has not yielded to the temptation to somehow turn this into a series (though there does seem to be an itty-bitty prequel about Mr. P out there somewhere) and I hope that it stays that way. Everything fantastical does not have to go forward into the land of trilogies where the risk of ultimate failure is rife. Some of the time it is okay for a wildly successful book to stand all by itself.

Gave this one a solid 4 stars and at some point I might actually buy it.

The Cover Art is wretched. Would not have touched this one in a store. And truthfully - the title is pretty awful, too. 2 of 10 for the cover.

Book Number 7 (Lifetime Book Number 1,702) - The Vanished Child by Sarah Smith - This book has been waiting in my TBR piles for eleven mortal years and turned out - overall - to be surprisingly good.

In rural New Hampshire, many years before the beginning of this book, there is a terrible murder of the patriarch of the Knight family and his heir - a young child - goes missing. Now it is 1906 - time and past time to declare the child dead, so that the estate can be distributed to the new heir. Then news filters back to New Hampshire - the child, Richard, may be alive.

At the heart of the book were four mysteries - Who killed William Knight? Was Jay French, William's secretary, dead or a fugitive? Was the child, dead or lost? And who was Alex Reisden? The answers were mostly complex and at the story's end I was still not sure about the answers to the last two. The book begs to be read again with particular attention paid to those items.

For a mystery, Smith's writing seemed above average and she held my attention very well - even through the most obscure bits. I even enjoyed the love story she tucked into it. There are two books that follow this one and I think I'll be tracking them down.

Gave this one 4 stars.

Love the physical size of this edition - it fits into my hands nicely - and I've given an 8 of 10 rating to the cover. It's a simple cover, but when I saw it on the table at that library book sale eleven years ago I bought it - even though, at that time, I was decidedly hostile to mysteries. Surely proof that covers are very important.

>27 scaifea: - Glad you liked that line, Amber!

It's a rainy afternoon here. The perfect kind of weather for reading. Checked for crocuses day before yesterday and found nothing. Guess it really is going to be several more weeks until Spring; they usually show themselves by this time...



Book Number 8 (Lifetime Book Number 1,703) - Easy to Kill by Agatha Christie

Lavinia Fullerton is on her way to London to report her suspicions about a rash of deaths in her home village of Wychwood Under Ashe to Scotland Yard. Alas, she is run over and killed before getting there, but on the train she confides her suspicions to Luke Fitzwilliam, a policeman who has recently returned from the Far East and when he learns of her death later on he is compelled to make his own investigation.

This might be my favorite Christie mystery to date. At worst, it is my second favorite. (I really liked The Murder at the Vicarage a lot, too.) Agatha was very clever here; I did not catch on to the real killer until 7/8 of the way through.

This one is listed as a Superintendent Battle mystery, but Battle does not turn up until Page 187 - 13 pages before the end. He really did not need to show up at all; Luke had everything all sorted out by then.

Gave this one 4 solid stars. Wish now that I had not chosen to borrow this one from the library. I'd like a copy for myself. Will have to keep an eye out for a reasonably priced copy.

Cover Art - this one is from the Leatherette Collection. It only gets a 2 of 10. At least it's not repulsive.

2021 Book Number 9 (Lifetime Book Number 1,704) - The Rainbow Comes and Goes by Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt - Audio Book

This dual memoir by mother and son, Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt, was likely not a good choice for me at this particular time. Generally I found it to be such a sad book dealing with the story of Gloria's ruined childhood - her father lost early in her childhood, the most disinterested of mothers and finally what was probably the most notorious custody case of the twentieth century.

No doubt - Gloria Vanderbilt was dealt a rotten hand - starting at a very tender. And yet somehow she had love in her life. Children. A career. But I found it all very sad.

She and her son, Anderson Cooper, did a good job here - sending one another nearly a year's worth of emails in which they go back over their lives and losses and dealing with some very very painful topics.

Gave this 3 stars.

Cover art - a 5 out of 10 for this perfectly pleasant photograph of mother and son.

>35 Fourpawz2: Ooh, you say it's your favourite Christie - possibly after The Murder at the Vicarage?
According to LT, I've read this one but I have no immediate memory of it, so I'll just have to read it again, won't I? I really liked The Murder at the Vicarage as well.

>37 PawsforThought: - Yup, it was. Much better than those mysteries that she wrote that seemed more like espionage tales and the Poirot books that I have to force myself - some of the time - to keep on reading.

>9 Fourpawz2: - Finally sorted out to do with this spot. In the past I have done a "Currently Reading" update as I went along, but I was not consistent about updating it so it always ended up being neglected. Hope to be better about keeping with it now that it has its own place.

2021 Book Number 10 (Lifetime Book Number 1,705) - Bride of the Rat God by Barbara Hambly

The world of Silent Movies in Old Hollywood, 1923.

Chrysanda Flamande (aka Christine Flint, aka Chava Blechstein) star of a plethora of terrible silent films, is pursued by the ancient Chinese Rat God in order to possess/kill her in time for the Lunar New Year - all because she has worn the "Moon of Rats" necklace in her latest film. Of course Chris is entirely unaware of the danger; it is only when an ancient Chinese man keeps appearing in her life that she learns of the Rat God's intent and how very much danger she is in. People all around the star are being possessed - a couple of actors, a troubled acolyte from down the road - and people are dying. Very messily. Fortunately Chris is being protected by her valiant little Pekingese dogs and Shang Ko - the old man who relentlessly keeps turning up - is doing everything he can to protect her.

I really enjoyed this fantasy set in a most unusual time and place. So very different from your usual kind of fantasies - no quests, or witches, or dragons or orphaned boys (or girls) with unrealized magical powers. Very refreshing.

And then there were the two odd coincidences. The story takes place during the Lunar New Year and Chinese New Year 2021 happened right in the middle of my reading BotRG. Also the back story of Christine's sister-in-law, Norah, (who is a major character) includes the pivotal information that Norah had lost all of her family (and came close to losing her own life) in the Spanish Flu Pandemic. So weird.

Anyway - it was a very enjoyable book. For once a book that I have looked forward to reading ever since I bought it - ten years ago this last Monday - turned out to be every bit as good as I had hoped it would be.

5 stars for this one. Definite keeper

Cover Art - a 10 of 10. This is the perfect cover. There is nothing here that is deceptive - everything depicted is to be found within the covers. Plus, it is colorful and so true to movies of this era. It will be very hard for any other book to beat this cover.

Been snowing here on the south coast of Massachusetts for more than 24 hours now, but there has not been much accumulation. This is a good thing as it is supposed to continue snowing all the rest of today and into tomorrow. Just the same, I think Spring is not very far away; I found crocuses coming up next to the house foundation and bugs scampering around under some leaves. To the bad - my old MacBook has given up the ghost. Pondering what to do about that.



2021 Book Number 11 (#1,706 Lifetime) - Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple - Audio Book

Seattle housewife, Bernadette Fox, hires a virtual, personal assistant, Mandjula Kapoor *, for 75 cents an hour, to do all of the things that Bernadette does not want to deal with. Prime among the many things Bernadette is not interested in is the arrangement of a Christmas trip to Antarctica for the family. Bernadette's life is a chaotic mess, but she doesn't seem very bothered by that. Her husband, Elgy Branch, works for Microsoft - most of the time that seems to be all that he does - and their daughter, Balakrishna (called B by everyone) is going to leave Seattle for boarding school. Bernie is also feuding with her neighbor, most everyone at B's current school, Elgy's PA is circling around him with romantic intentions and the enormous house that the Fox-Branches live in is sinking further and further into decrepitude. No, what really bothers Bernadette is that she really does not want to go to Antarctica and she tries to move Heaven and Earth to find a way out.

Semple clearly intended an amusing story and to some extent she succeeds, but I did not like Bernadette very much. She was constantly running off the rails and was pretty mean-spirited. She made me think unpleasantly of my own mother - so it is no wonder that I am only giving this 3.25 stars. The Reader - Kathleen Wilhoite - did a great job. Giving her 4 of 4 stars.

Cover Art - Wouldn't have taken this book off a shelf. To me it looks just like a beach read - and I do not like beach reads. Nothing about this cover says either Antarctica or Seattle to me and the cartoon woman does not make me think of the Bernadette that Semple describes. For these reasone it gets a mere 4 of 10 rating - even though I did like the background color.

*I'm guessing, of course, about the spelling of the characters' names - one of the drawbacks to an audio book.

2021 Book Number 12 (Lifetime Book Number 1,707) - Fatal Remedies by Donna Leon

Brunetti's wife, Paola, throws a rock in anger through a travel agency window because she believes sex-tours to third world countries are being booked through the agency. And then she does it again.

Days later, Dr. Mitri, the agency's owner, is murdered. There is speculation that Mitri's murderer was inspired by Paola's action. Much public attention is focused on the Brunettis.

I expected some connection between the sex-tours and Dr. Mitri to turn up, but whatever led me to believe that was a red herring. The death is about thievery - plan and simple.

With its overriding air of corruption and fear, this Venice is a very sad place. Yet somehow I have faith in Brunetti and his family which is naturally followed by the thought that doubtless they cannnot be the only decent people in the city and that there is hope. I suppose that is true, generally, the world over, but it's just a little bit difficult to see some of the time.

Giving this one 4 stars
A definite keeper.

Cover Art - The standard being shelf-appeal, this can only be a 5 of 10. It's nothing special, but neither does it repel. It's okay and nothing more.

2021 Book Number 13 (Lifetime Book Number 1,708) - True Adventures on Westward Trails by Alfred Powers - I've owned this book since February 3, 1962 when I was 8 years old. It is one of the few books bought for me by my mother. Have no idea why she bought it. The only other book that I remember her buying for me - Tom Sawyer was purchased at Liggett's Drug Store just before we were to meet my aunt (her sister) for lunch in the old New Bedford Hotel in order to keep me quiet while they discussed their sex lives.

I probably read this book a dozen times - at least - when I was young. It is composed of a number of stories about different people in different situations in the Old West. Most of them are extremely short, but I found practically all of them very interesting when I was a kid. In particular I remember loving "John Colter's Rocky Mountain Escape", Three Dangers of Kit Carson", "Alone on a Texas Prarie", " 'Pony Bob' of the Pony Express", "The Alcalde of Thompson's Diggings" and "A Cold Winter at Leadville". I have to say - almost 60 years later - that those same stories did not let me down.

Giving this one 3.5 stars

Wouldn't dream of ever getting rid of this one.

Cover Art - gets a 7 of 10 from me. The dust jacket of my book went missing decades ago, but this is the one I remember it having. It shows Kit Carson and his wife-to-be - Alice - fleeing for their lives from a prairie fire. I remember thinking that it was very exciting - just like the story.

>42 Fourpawz2: A bit harsh on the cover mark. Thought it was quite attractive.

This was mine which would get an 8?

Oh, I like yours, much better, Paul! The colors are good on mine, but I just can't see it catching my eye in a store. To the good for both of them - neither one of them is at all misleading with regard to the story; they are both, obviously, set in Venice and the city is, when all is said and done, the primary character in the series. (After Brunetti, of course.)

2021 Book Number 14 (Lifetime Book Number 1,709) His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis - A short, very good, biography of George Washington. It filled in a lot of holes for me regarding Washington and also regarding the politics of the last two decades of the 18th century.

Washington had his flaws of personality and thinking - who doesn't - but I came out still believing that he was a good - even great - man and was happy about that. It took him a long time to get to the point where he rejected slavery, but he did get there. Almost a miracle really, in a time when so many never, for the merest instant, even thought of questioning slavery. For a Virginia landowner of his time he displayed a pretty large quotient of enlightenment.

I like the Ellis books that I've read so far. And I kind of marvel at how he is able to tell the story without resorting to piling up hundreds and hundreds of pages while doing so. (I am thinking particularly of Chernow's massive book about Hamilton which I have already failed at once.) I think I will buy his book about Jefferson next...

Giving this one 4.5 stars and it has earned a place on the shelves.

Cover Art - A 6 of 10 for this one. I do like the very dark background of this standard cover.

2021 Book Number 15 (Lifetime Book Number 1,710) - Desert Heat by J.A. Jance -

Was hoping to find a mystery series that would be a good fit for me while I was working. Sadly, this is not that series. Predictable story - drugs in rural Arizona leading to the murder of a local deputy sheriff and then allegations of corruption. There is a despicable hit man with a dumb, but good-hearted girlfriend, a kindly sheriff who turns out to be corrupt. A widow - red-haired and hot-tempered - who is outraged by the charges being made against her late husband and who is obviously going to end up filling the dead man's shoes - after she solves the crime, of course. Because in Real Life this sort of thing happens all of the time. And there is a DEA agent who I am about 1,000% certain is eventually going to replace the dead man and make the widow a wife again. (And when, oh when, is this linkage of personality and hair color going to go awaaaaay??? I am so sick of it!!!!)

Added to that was a Reader who was not awfully good at reading. I had not planned to mention her name, but I see that it is emblazoned upon the audio book cover for this book. She seemed to have a bad case of dry mouth and I could literally hear pages being turned as she read. Don't know much about the recording of audio books; probably these are things that should have been addressed by the professionals in charge at the time of recording and are not the Reader's fault. But the thing I could not forgive were the mispronunciations, the last of which drove me into a fury. I'm sorry - it's "pall of smoke" not "pail of smoke"! Grrrrr!!!

So, for these reasons, I will not be continuing with this series.

Gave it 2.75 stars.

Cover Art - Could not give it anything better than a 2 of 10. With that red border it reminds me unbearably of a Time magazine cover. Would never have picked it up off of the shelf.

My 'Currently Reading' section has been updated - >9 Fourpawz2:

2021 Book Number 16 (#1,711 Lifetime) - Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear - I've been aware of this series for years, but have never gotten around to beginning it. A few years ago I ran across the first book in a library book sale and picked it up, but then it languished in amongst the other multitudinous series books kicking around in my TBR chests until the beginning of this month when I hauled it out.

I'd expected a historical mystery and it was that - sort of. I've never read one quite like it before - that is to say I don't ever recall an author starting out with a sort-of-mystery for some 60-plus pages and then launching into 137 pages of pure historical fiction before getting back to the resolution of the 'mystery' in the last 91 pages. The mystery was not overly interesting. (Maisie is hired by a man to get proof that his wife is cheating on him, but it turns out that Wife is spending the time that can't be accounted for visiting the grave of her late sweetheart who died from injuries in the Great War. At this point Maisie goes off the track and is resolved to find out why William's gravestone shows only a first name and what happened to him after the war.) Winspear then plunges into Maisie's 137 page backstory. It was a pretty average story - young girl whose mother has died is sent into service by her economically struggling father where it is discovered that she has a very promising mind and her kindly employers arrange her schooling via a private tutor followed by years at university. Then she goes off to a number of years spent nursing near the Front during the Great War, falls in love and suffers a tragedy. Standard stuff. Once that is mostly done it is back to the present and the 'mystery' which Maisie solves - inside of two weeks - with the help of another veteran who just happens to work in the building where Maisie has her offices. Then she moves her offices - which were in a not very prosperous neighborhood - to a much better location and it is implied that her business takes off.

I was not entertained or intrigued.

Giving this one 3.25 stars - mostly because it was readable and not overly long.

Will not be buying any other Maisie Dobbs novels although I might listen to them on audio while working.

Cover Art It has a Twenties kind of feel to it which is right for something set in this time period, but it was not appealing to me. Giving it a 4 of 10 rating as I would not have looked at it twice on a book shelf. Faded orange and dark grey. Depressing.

2021 Book Number 17 (#1,712 Lifetime) - Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen - Some have categorized this as a cozy mystery, but I found no quaint villages with your typical, expected denizens - i.e. vicars, gossipy neighbors and sweet old ladies. However, there was a mystery - dead body in the bathtub - and an amateur sleuth/impoverished member of the nobility, who stumbles into this, her first case. Additionally it had humor and a light touch and a fun attitude about what it is like to be the 34th in line to the throne. Really enjoyed Bowen's uppercrust names - Binky and Fig, and the great last names of Asquey d'Asquey and Featherstonehaugh which, somehow or other is pronounced as Fanshaw.

Gave it 4 stars.

Borrowed this one from the library and will now have to purchase the rest of the series.

Cover Art - A mere 4 of 10. Even though it does have a 1930s look it is just waaaay too purple. (I have not been a fan of purple since about 1972.) Additionally - although it has nothing to do with the cover art - I just hate the title. Yes, I get the Spyness/Highness thing, but it just sounds stupid.

>49 Fourpawz2: I read Maisie Dobbs a couple of years ago and didn't particularly like. I wanted a historical mystery novel (something along the line of the Miss Fisher stories) but it was a strange mix of mystery, historical fiction and romance novel. I also felt that the author let the main character down in terms of character development. She started out strong and can-do but ended up a stereotype of a woman who just wants love. Not appealing to me and I have no interest in reading the rest of the series.

>50 Fourpawz2: Oh, that sounds interesting. I'll keep an eye out. And I'd rate that cover a little higher, but then I love purple. Completely agree on the terrible title, though.

>51 PawsforThought: Glad I am not alone in my feelings about Maisie Dobbs. It just seemed to be very confused about what it was supposed to be.

Hope you like HRS and that I have not led you astray.

My 'Currently Reading' section has been updated - >9 Fourpawz2:

Book Number 18 (2021 (Lifetime Book Number 1,713) - Watcher in the Woods by Kelley Armstrong - With this fourth book in the Casey Duncan series I found that the series has suddenly plateaued for me. It is more of the same thing - a human menace in the forest that is threatening the criminal citizens of the remote, way-off-the-grid town of Rockton located in the Canadian Yukon with only Detective Casey Duncan, her boyfriend Sheriff Eric Dalton and a couple of other semi-law enforcement types to protect the citizens and round up the menacing human. And once more everyone seems to be a suspect - even Casey's sister (and surgeon), April, who has been flown up to Rockton in order to treat a man injured in Book 3.

Nothing has changed about the series - which might be the problem I am having with it. I foresee a long series of books about this place in which this same thing continues to happen. The Council that runs the place continues to be fairly evil and only interested in lining its own pockets and Casey and Eric will keep plugging away in Rockton on permanent guard duty.

So, I think I'm going to stop reading Rockton novels.

Giving this one 3.25 stars

Cover Art - Giving this a 7 of 10 rating. Of course all of the print is trying its best to obscure the moonlit path through the woods that I can see behind it, but what I can see of it still makes it a pretty good cover. For me it would be a lot more appealing if it had been allowed to stand out, but the cover art rarely gets a chance to dominate.

2021 Book Number 19 / Lifetime Book Number 1,714 - The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab - Had to get on a library wait list for this one, but did not have to wait for very long. However, I did have to hustle to get it read because even though it was released last October, there are still a lot people in my library system who are waiting to read it.

And I could see why people are anxious to read it. Really, really enjoyed this Faustian tale of a 17th century girl who makes a deal with the devil so that she can have a life that is not the life her parents are trying to push her into - marriage to a village boy, children, hard work and death with no room for herself and the life she wants. It is a bargain she happily makes on her wedding day with a thing she calls The Darkness - aka the devil aka Luc - the name she gives him.

And very nearly as soon as she makes the bargain she regrets what she's done - but it is far too late.

The Darkness will wait for her soul while she lives a different life, but she will live her days unremembered by anyone and everyone she meets. If she is out of their sight for a second, no one seems able to remember her - even if she has just passed hours and hours with them - they will swear they have never seen her before. No matter how many times she meets the same person, for them it will be as if it were the first. She is just not memorable. She is not even able to say her own name or write it. Even when she goes back to her home village, her parents do not know her. Not even her dearest friend and mentor has one shred of memory of her. But Addie is stubborn; she will not give in to The Darkness - will not let him have her soul so that she can just have the peace of death.

This goes on for 3 centuries - until finally Addie meets someone who remembers her. Somehow The Darkness has messed up and one human being has slipped through the cracks.

Really liked this book a lot and i was sorry to get to the end. It was clever. And rich. Held my attention through the last page. And I was left wondering what happened after and hoping that Schwab never tells us. It is a definite candidate for best book of the year.

And it is yet another library book that I will have to buy at some point. Part of me is tempted to make the RL book club read it, but I hesitate to do so as I'm pretty sure that a few of them would not be open to a fantastical read.

Giving this one 5+++ stars

Cover Art - a seven of ten, which is pretty high for something that is mostly just title and the author's name. However, I really do like the black matte background and the slight sparkle of the printing. Seems perfect for this book. And I know I would have taken this one off of the shelf.

My 'Currently Reading' section has been updated again >9 Fourpawz2:

Hi Charlotte!

First time visitor here. I finally decided to come on over for a visit after seeing you post about Agatha Christie on PawsForThought’s thread.

I’ve got a calico, too, although mine hasn’t ever shown interest in my cellphone.

>2 Fourpawz2: I’ve read 7 of your 21, and have 2 more on my shelves. I just recently finished The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and loved it, too. It’s now on loan to a dear friend of mine.

>32 Fourpawz2: Well, darn. I re-started Emma last year with the idea of an Austen re-read, but this is the third time I’m stuck on it. I’m wondering if I’m like you – not an Austen fan per se but a fan of the idea of Austen. I need to think that over for a bit, but I still haven’t officially given up on Emma yet.

>35 Fourpawz2: I have all the Leatherette editions – given to me by my mother over the course of 10 years. Boring covers yes, but all lined up on 3 shelves, they are pleasing to look at.

>47 Fourpawz2: I read it too, and never continued with the series. I liked a couple in the J.P. Beaumont series, and have acquired but not ever read any of the Ali Reynolds series. Looks like I can win lots of cull points by getting rid of all 15 books on my shelves. Thanks!

>49 Fourpawz2: And I also did a hard pass on the Maisie Dobbs series after this first one, too.

>55 Fourpawz2: The cover art is her freckles, of course…

>56 karenmarie: - Hi, Karen - lovely to see you here!

I see that your calico is a muted calico, just like my Jane. And - unlike Jane - yours is willing to actually curl up in a designated cat bed.

Why did I not think of the freckles? It is so obvious to me - now that you've pointed it out.

Suspected that I couldn't be the only person who does not lovelovelovelove Austen to death; so nice to know I am not entirely wrong in that. I wish you the best in getting to the end of Emma.

I can well imagine that a whole slew of the leatherette Christies all cluthered together on a shelf would look pretty good. Wonder why my local library system decided to invest in them though. When you order up an Agatha Christie here you usually get the cheapest grocery store edition - the kind that my grandmother used to pick up at Stop & Shop, but every so often one of the leatherettes shows up for me at library.

Glad to be of help with the culling.

It's spring and I'm falling behind - again - in reading and in posting. Kind of busy working and what with Covid on the wane, I'm back working at every location. A mixed blessing.

Almost every plant from the shade garden I planted last year - with plants given to me by a good friend - has survived. I was very sure, after last year's horrible drought, that virtually would survive, but I was almost entirely wrong. Even a plant that never made it into the ground is chugging along nicely in its pot. Only one hosta and a brown-eyed susan (possibly) have not shown up.



Book Number 20/ Lifetime Book Number 1,715 - Death of a Village by M.C. Beaton - No village actually died in the this book, but the village of Stoyre was very nearly wiped out in a bad storm.

This time Hamish is involved in getting to the bottom of several different crimes - a couple of them related. Hamish solves all of them by himself, which, of course, brings him to the attention of the Strathbane Police Dept and he is threatened with promotion again. And he still has woman-trouble. Elsbeth Grant is very interested in him, but Hamish can't seem to commit which I still suppose is caused by his old romance with Priscilla. I suspect that P will be back in the picture at some point, but am not certain.

Beaton does not write great mysteries, but it does not matter because I find Hamish to be be such a great character that he overcomes the lack of genius in her mystery writing.

A definite keeper.

Cover Art - 7 of 10. It would have been an 8 of 10, but the dirt and shovel in the lower left-hand corner made no sense to me. Also the thatched-roof cottage presents a problem too, I think, as I don't remember ever hearing that this is the sort of thing one finds in a Highland village. (Perhaps I am wrong about this. Anyone?)

My 'Currently Reading' section has been updated - >9 Fourpawz2::

>58 Fourpawz2: Glad to hear your plants have survived. I bought some seeds for the veggie garden but it's still too early to even think about putting them in the ground (nights are treacherous this time of year. I've also been daydreaming about what plants I'd have on my balcony in my future flat - definitely a hydrangea or two.
Sorry about the hosta probably not surviving, I love hostas and saved one from the garden waste dump last year. We planted it at our summer house and it's thriving.

>60 PawsforThought: When I was a kid I thought that hostas were the ugliest of plants - nothing but leaves! And the so-called flowers did not amount to much as far as I was concerned. But now with maturity and wisdom, I love them. Such a wide variety of leaves in so many different patterns and colors. I'd love to grow one of those really massive ones someday.

Book Number 21/Lifetime Book Number 1,716 - Camille by Alexandre fils Dumas - Read this classic for the Wednesday Night Book Club. Can't imagine why it is thought to be a classic; classics should be good, shouldn't they? Neither the so-called plot nor the writing seemed at all good to me. There is no suspense as to what is coming. Marguerite has TB and she is plainly dying. In fact, it is made clear, almost immediately by the author, that she is already dead.

I imagine that much of its popularity must have come from the fact that Marguerite was a courtesan and that - for the time period - Dumas wrote fairly plainly about her occupation and relationship to the men in her life. For me, I think if he'd focused on just that part of her life with less attention paid to the frankly boring (and doomed) love affair between Marguerite and the hideously juvenile Armand it would have been a better book. But that, I imagine, would likely have led to its complete obscurity.

Even with the love story bit, it seems awfully surprising that it was so immensely popular in the UK and the US where such a thing had to have been seen as mostly intolerable.

For the me, the best that can be said for this book is that it is a good example of the overwrought Victorian novel.

Gave it 3 stars - which, for me, is my very lowest of tolerable book ratings.

And as it is a kindle book, there is no getting rid of it. This is the fourth, utter crap book that I've invested in for book club, but at least it cost only $1.99. The other books were, I thought, much worse and cost much, much more.

COVER ART - a mere 4 of 10 rating; in a physical book this random woman would have held no shelf-appeal for me.

My 'Currently Reading' section has been updated - >9 Fourpawz2:

My 'Currently Reading' section has been updated - >9 Fourpawz2:

Also contained at >5 Fourpawz2: is the explanation for my abandonment of The Underground Railroad, a book I've had had on my wishlist for years.

Book Number 23/Lifetime Book Number 1,718 - Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh - Tried reading this one several years ago, but it was not the right time. Then during Covid one of my book club friends was waxing poetic about her re-read of the book, so I decided to give it another try. And the second time around proved to be the charm. It really is just as good as she said it was.

It is the story of Charles Ryder's relationship with the aristocratic Flyte family over some twenty plus years starting with Sebastian - the younger son of the family - at Oxford and ending with Sebastian's sister, Julia, the older daughter of the family, a number of years later.There is a strong undercurrent concerning the tight grip that Catholicism has on the family. Ultimately it is the reason why Charles and Julia do not marry.

Waugh produced a lot of beautifully written passages. Am thinking that his own status as a converted Catholic made a lot of what he wrote happen.

Definite keeper. Might want to trade up to a fancier copy of BR if I come across one.

Cover Art - a mere 3 of 10. Yes - it does show Brideshead on the cover, but to my eyes this bit of art would never have moved me to purchase this book if I had not been been familiar with the title already.

My 'Currently Reading' section has been updated - >9 Fourpawz2:

Book Number 24/Lifetime Book Number 1,719 - The Crossing Places by Elly Griffith - (1st in the Ruth Galloway Series)

A "Missing Girls" story that introduces Ruth Galloway and sets the stage for the future novels. This is a common kind of story from the past ten or so years - girls who go missing and it is a big mystery until someone connects the dots.

Knew who the criminal was the moment Griffiths introduced him. Either I am getting better at this or the author was not great at not giving things away. Would like to think that it is the former.

Gave this one 3.25 stars. Eminently readable and I intend to keep on with the series. I expect not to be able to figure out who the bad guy is.

COVER ART - Finished this one exactly two months ago and I can't really remember, at this distance, if an owl figured in the story so it is possible that the cover is at least relevant. But I don't think this lone owl on a turquoise field would have moved me to take this one off a shelf. So, a 5 out of 10, I guess, would be the obvious rating.

Tropical storm Elsa is blowing around outside. Hope it has abated by the end of the afternoon because I have to go feed some cats and don't like having my car blown all over the road.

Book Number 22/Lifetime Book Number 1,717 (yup - I've my book order all screwed up) - An American Marriage by Tayari Jones - Roy and Celestial Hamilton have been married for only 18 months when Roy is accused of raping a woman in a Louisiana motel and is shunted off to prison with a 20 year sentence. He has an attorney - a good one - paid for by his wife's family, but it is five years before he is set free. (I must say that I found the part about where Roy's biological father turns up in the same prison a bit much.)

In the meantime, Roy loses his job (of course), his mother has died of cancer and Celestial has taken up with Andre - her best friend from childhood who still lives next door. (Celestial came from a wealthy family and upon her marriage to Roy, her parents gave the couple the house where she grew up.)

Anyway, the lawyer is finally able to get Roy released from prison and he comes back to Atlanta hoping to pick up his life and his marriage.

This is not my kind of novel, but that said, it wasn't bad and I think a person who likes this sort of thing would find it pretty enjoyable, even if a great deal of the book is given over to the couple's backstory.

Gave this one a solid 3.25 star rating.

COVER ART - Another unappealing turquoise cover with - my old complaint - waaaay too much in the way of intrusive text. However, the tree is 100% relevant to the story, so I have to give it a 6 of 10 rating, even if I would never have taken it down from a shelf.

Book Number 25 (2021)/Lifetime Book Number 1,720 - The Deadly Doll by J. Burke - No clue why I bought this book, other than it was recommended by someone on LT.

It's a child's book - a child's horror book - involving a murderous, antique doll. Little Lizzie is focused upon little human girls named Annie and is consumed by her jealousy of them. It is a simple story and not overly grisly, but the very idea of a horror story for kids is unsettling. And upon finishing this book I had to question why Dad and his daughter, Caroline, only threw Little Lizzie away instead of chopping her into little bits and then setting fire to what remained, as I would have done. But then, I have a longtime dislike of dolls, puppets, and clowns, so maybe my reaction is extreme.

Gave this one 2.75 stars - mostly for the creepiness factor

Not a keeper. It has been sent out into the world. Maybe I should have chopped it into little bits and set fire to the remnants, but I am opposed to book burning.

COVER ART - 8 of 10. It's a good cover, but somehow the doll does not seem (to me) to have that "life spark" that the author specified Lizzie has.

We've had rain many days this week and thick fog every morning - kind of weird for July and such a contrast to last summer when it did not rain much more than an inch or two for more than 3 months. I'd rather have rainy, grey weather all summer long, but I don't want temps in the 80s to go with it. Hot, humid weather is the worst.

My little city may actually be on the cusp of breaking out of its decades long - maybe century long - economic down-slide/depression with the advent of becoming (if all goes right) the staging area for a really big wind-farm off the coast. I am pretty excited about it and the idea that this city that once "lit the world" with whale oil, might redeem itself somewhat by being a part of this project that will help combat our massively screwed up environment.

>68 Fourpawz2: Sorry the book wasn’t you thing, always a bummer.

We seem to be having opposite summers. Last year we had almost nothing but rain, but this year has been hot and sunny. A little too hot for my taste, at least in the long term. It’s certainly not normal. Hope your weather improves.

Book Number 26/Lifetime Book Number 1,721 - The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson - audio book

This covers the period from just prior to the commencement of World War Two to December 7, 1941 - the moment when Pearl Harbor caused the United States to enter the war. It was - understandably - the moment Winston Churchill had been waiting for - praying for. If I'd been in his shoes, I would have been doing the same.

Very anecdotal. Larson follows a few people in particular (and naturally) Churchill, his daughter Mary, daughter-in-law Pamela, Lord Beaverbrook, and John Colville, his aide/secretary.

Interesting, though there was little in it that I did not already know.

Gave this one 3.5 stars

If it was actually a book of mine and not borrowed, I might be on the fence about keeping it; space on my shelves is too precious to give a good chunk of it to a book that did not hold any surprises.

COVER ART - Giving this a mere 6 of 10. I liked the plane in front of a full moon, but this cover had too much print, thereby removing the likelihood that I might have been drawn to it on the shelf. It would have been a better cover if the plane and moon had been larger. I feel that then it might have been a certain thing that I would have snaked it off the shelf in a store.

A really nice day today - second one in a row. If only summer could always be like this. Expect all these dry, relatively cool temperatures to be gone in a little over 24 hours. Longing for October.



Book Number 27/Lifetime Book Number 1,722 - audio book
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain - Know absolutely nothing about the late Mr. Bourdain so I did not begin this book with any prejudice one way or the other concerning him. Mostly I read it because I needed something else for listening to while at work and this was available. And the fact that my parents ran a restaurant in a nearby village for the better part of a year when I was 4 may have entered into the choice. They very nearly lost their shirts. Luckily they found some poor fool who, like them, decided he was qualified to own and run a restaurant because he had eaten in lots of them. That man did so badly that he wound up fleeing the country for the Mediterranean where he remained until the statute of limitations concerning his unpaid taxes ran out - or so I was told. There was a long string of owners after my parents and none of them had any luck. Fortunately the building was torn down and a nice set of condominiums with a harbor view was built in its place.

But enough about the past. Was not terribly shocked by Bourdain's revelations of the underbelly of the restaurant/professional cooking biz. But I could certainly see where the truths he revealed about the state of freshness - i.e. edibility - of the grub to be found in eateries, both high and low, might make some people resolve never to eat almost anywhere outside of their own kitchen.

Was entertaining and it moved quickly. Read it in 7 days and only when I was working, so it definitely qualified as a quick read.

Gave this one 3.5 stars

If it had been my book and not borrowed, I would have sent it into the world.

COVER ART - a paltry 2 of 10. To me, nothing about it says "Take this book home with you".

Book Number 27/Lifetime Book Number 1,723 - The Romanov Bride by Robert Alexander - audio book

Chose this book rather quickly when I was looking for yet another book to occupy me at work.

This was a rather pedestrian historical fiction set in the time of the Russian Revolution and the 25 years or so that preceded it. The Grand Duchess Elisabeth of Hesse by Rhine married to Tsar Nicholas II's uncle, Grand Duke Sergei (until she was widowed when her rather unlikable spouse was assassinated by a revolutionary), is one half of the focus of the story. The other person focused upon is a fictional revolutionary - Pavel - (who the author has trying and failing to assassinate the Grand Duke and his wife as they drive to the opera) is one of Elisabeth's guards in her final days. He is drawn to her because of the assassination attempt that did not work out and some other minimal contact with her in the days before the revolution. He is poor, obscure, and obsessed with avenging the death of his beloved wife who was killed in a street demonstration. It is this event that has launched Pavel into his life as a revolutionary. (Wonder why Alexander chose to name him Pavel. That was the name of the revolutionary who was married to Lara in Dr. Zhivago. All I could see in my mind while I was listening to this book was the actor, Tom Courtenay.)

After Sergei is cut down (it was virtually impossible for me to be sorry about that - he was a classic unlovable Romanov who seemed to deserve what happened to him) Elisabeth devotes herself to her Orthodox religion which she acquired at the time of her marriage. She is entirely taken up with caring for others - mostly the terribly poor and unfortunate ordinary Russians - and divesting herself of her money, her jewels, her real estate and the many perks that came with her role as a Grand Duchess of Russia. Very commendable. But I could not like her very much or identify with her at all, for in spite of all of the good things that Alexander tells us she did, she comes across as very two-dimensional. And - well - dull.

Her end was not a surprise to me. Neither was Pavel's involvement in her final days. After all, there had to be some reason for including him in the story.

In the end, although Alexander hit all of the facts about Elisabeth, he did not/could not breathe any life into her. (Pavel was pretty two-dimensional, as well.) So boring.

Gave this one 3 stars because I made it through to the end.

If this book had been one from my shelves it would already be on its way to the library as a donation.

COVER ART - 1 of 10 rating. A photograph of Elisabeth set against a boring background is beyond dull. Would never in a thousand years have pulled this one from the shelf.

SO ANNOYED!!! - Bought a used copy of The Reason Why by Cecil Woodham-Smith after a friend's husband told me about it - it's one of his favorite books and I was really looking forward to reading it. It arrived late yesterday afternoon, just as I was leaving to go to Book Club. Was excited to see it; I even took it with me so that I could show it to Laura.

This morning - contrary to my usual habit of just putting a newly arrived book on one of the piles to be read eventually (sometimes, for me, eventually means upwards of 10 years+) I actually took a peek inside and discovered that I had the wrong book! The cover was right, but the guts of thing was a book called The Ice Museum by Joanna Kavenna. What the hell?!?!?!

But I contacted the used book dealer I got it from and they refunded my money in just an hour or so which was great. Obviously Penguin screwed up, and I suppose that kind of stuff happens. (Will never forget my messed up copy of Wolf Hall). But - *sniff* - I really want to read TRW. Dang.

Book Number 29/Lifetime Book Number 1,724 - The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - borrowed from a friend

This one is spread out over decades. It is about two African-American sisters - identical twins - named Stella and Desiree. They are close, as twins usually are, but in early womanhood they separate when Stella leaves Desiree and their small hometown in Louisiana forever (as it turns out). Stella tells no one her plans. How could she when her intention is to cross over into the white world where she means to pass? Stella lives a life of privilege - which was what she was after - marrying a white man from a wealthy background - someone she knew in New Orleans when she first began to pass. She never tells her husband the truth about her background. In fact she lies about everything, telling him that she has no family at all. Her choice means a lot of suffering for Stella. It majorly affects her relationship with her daughter - and not in a good way. She can never relax and really cannot enjoy the privileged life she went after.

Desiree and the twins' mother have no idea what became of Stella. Their life in Louisiana seems a better one than the life of the missing twin even if they are poor. Desiree returned home with her daughter - Jude - from her wreck of a marriage, never telling her mother the truth about her wife-beating, attorney husband and basically hiding in the little town she grew up in.

Eventually Jude and Stella's daughter, Kennedy, meet in LA. And they keep meeting over the years. Finally Jude is able to convince Kennedy (whose life seems to be going pretty much to hell because of her poor relationship with Stella) that they are indeed cousins. I found this meeting of the cousins extremely far-fetched. Los Angeles is an immense place and they just happen to run into each other at some random party where Jude is a server and Kennedy, a guest. (I could accept that Jude recognized her cousin, because she is supposed to look very much like Stella, but the two of them just running into each other in the biggest city in the country - not so much.)

There is also a relationship that springs up between Jude and a transsexual by the name of Reese that I found a lot more interesting than the main event. I thought that it could have/should have been another book and not tacked onto this one.

I gave it a higher rating when I finished it back in early June. Thinking about it now, I'm thinking that it is really more of a 3.25 star book.

If it had been mine to keep or give away, I'd be leaning now toward sending it on its way.

COVER ART - Only a 3 of 10. I get what is being depicted, but I don't like these colors. Together, they kind of set my teeth on edge.

2021 Book Number 30, Lifetime Book Number 1,725 - Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance - audio book

This is a very 'in the spotlight' kind of memoir - kind of in the vein of Educated and The Glass Castle, only with family-approved education and very minimal mention of religion. JDV's mom is a train wreck and his grandmother, while moderately better, was also hard for me to like.

I was most interested in his take on hillbilly society and its people. With the way things were lined up against him, the fact that JDV made it out and though college and Yale Law School was impressive.

Over-all it was a thought-provoking book and so interesting. That JDV is currently involved in politics and running for office as a proponent of the malignant conservative right is a disappointment to me, however and I was surprised to learn of it very shortly after I finished listening to this book. I do not and never will understand people who have allowed themselves to be lured into supporting this faction.

Gave this one 4 stars.

If I had bought it, it would surely be a keeper.

COVER ART - This particular cover gets a 2 of 10 from me. I much prefer the cover with the building with the red roof. This one just looks like the satellite view of any eastern rural area on Google Maps. Would not have gotten me to pull it off the shelf based on this cover alone.

2021 Book Number 31/Lifetime Book Number 1,726 - Absolute Monarchs by John Julius Norwich - from my shelves

I have owned this book for years and it was on my wish list for more than a few years before I actually purchased it. It is not for want of desire to read it that I did not get to it before 2021 as I truly hungered to read it, but, rather, it was because it just did not get picked because the truly goofy system I employ for choosing my next non-fiction read. In April of this year, however, at long last, the system finally worked and it was time to read AM.

There are 2,000 years of papal history, wherein every pope's background and doings are covered, in this book. Of course some of the popes got more attention than others. Some died rather quickly and did not have a chance to do anything good or bad, but Norwich does not skip anyone. Some of them were, beyond question, bad acters and some them were very bad acters, However, some of the popes were truly good and more of them were somewhere in the middle, as are most of us.

The corruption was the worst and for me - the most despicable. And it went on and on. At times it seemed almost a miracle when someone rose above the usual cut of pope and behaved decently and/or intelligently. And the rivalry of the powerful families of Rome - the 'civilians' who wielded so much power in the centuries before Church nepotism began to diminish - caused a lot of trouble. Generally, they were unspeakably disgraceful.

I find the history of the Church awfully interesting and am always looking for books about all aspects of the subject. I thought Norwich did a great job and I am very interested in tracking down more of his books.

Gave this one 5 stars and would like to read it again in a year or two.

A definite keeper.

COVER ART - A 7 of 10 for this one. I've seen many, many covers with a headless woman on them, but this is the first time I've seen that kind of cover masculinized.

Book Number 32/Lifetime Book Number 1,727 - The Devil's Pool by George Sand - This short novel was published in 1844. It is the story of Germain, widowed ploughman in the French province of Berry. Encouraged by his in-laws to marry a certain widow in a nearby town, he embarks upon a journey to court her. Along the way he runs into Marie, a young shepherdess from his village who is traveling to her new job which is close to the widow's home. Germain falls for Marie immediately. However, Marie does not love him; she thinks he is too old for her (28 to her 17).

This was a sweet and gentle tale. It being my first Sand, I did not know what to expect. I understand that the area she writes about in this novel is her home area and that she wrote about this part of France often. I look forward to reading more.

A definite keeper.

Gave it 4.5 stars.

COVER ART - 8 of 10. This cover relates perfectly to the subject.

Book Number 33/Lifetime Book Number 1,728 - The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern - Read for RL Book Club

Two rival magicians challenge each other to an amazing contest - by proxy. The proxies are kids at the beginning.

After years of build-up concerning the training of the children to be world-class magicians, it is finally settled, more less, that the challenge will be resolved at the brand new Night Circus, that has just come into being, which plays in various locations in the world. And Morganstern does a good job - initially and especially - with her descriptions of the many tents and of what goes on in them. However - the way her Night Circus suddenly appears in the different locations seemed like a total rip-off of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes and it only goes downhill from there. The tents and the amazing things that happen in them cannot, in the end carry the book to its finish and when that became obvious to me, the whole book seemed to lose its focus. Morganstern never brought the proxies' contest to a head, choosing to have them fall in love instead. At the end I felt as if she had deprived me of the big ending that she had promised. So, instead of the really good fantasy with a big ending that I thought I was getting at the book's start, I only got a really average story with some excellent descriptions.

Disappointing.

Gave this one a mere 3.5 stars - exclusively on account of those really great early descriptions. If not for them this would have been a really lame 3 star book.

Cover Art - a 7 of 10 rating, mostly because I still like a red, black and white color combo.

Book Number 34/Lifetime Book Number 1,729 - Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman - Audio Book borrowed from Overdrive

Born into the Williamsburg, NY Satmar community, Deborah Feldman came from a broken family. Her father was "mentally impaired" and her mother was not fully informed about the situation before she married. The marriage was arranged; the groom was American while the bride was British and had never seen her husband-to-be. While this was true in all marriages in this community, in the case of Deborah's parents, the groom's parents seem to have used this custom to deliberately conceal the fact of their son's problems in order to get him married off.

The marriage fell apart almost as soon as it began, but not before the bride got pregnant. Deborah's parents divorced very early on and she grew up in the house of her grandparents with a paternal aunt as her guardian.Her grandparents were extremely conservative and restrictive as was the norm in the Satmar world. Girls did not go to an actual school - at least not as most American children know school to be. It seemed to be more of a private school where the focus was a religious, not an academic education The teachers did not even seem qualified to teach.

As Feldman grew she began to question the world she lived in more and more and when she married and became a mother, she was in full rebellion. It came as no surprise that she divorced and left the Satmar world.

Thought this memoir was well written and it held my attention. No surprise there; I found this to be such a bizarre world that I could not help but be riveted by Feldman's story.

Gave this one 3.5 stars

If it hadn't been borrowed, it would definitely be a keeper.

COVER ART - Gave this an 8 of 10; the woman removing her wig was absolutely perfect for this book. Am certain that I would have taken it off the shelf to take a closer look if I'd found it in a store.

2021 Book Number 35/Lifetime Book Number 1,730 - Fear on Friday by Ann Purser - from my shelves, book number 5 in the series

Lois Meade doesn't really clean houses anymore, unless she is in search of information relating to the latest murder in the area. (This time she comes almost too close to being shot by the killer.) Her main interest in life is her business now - which makes her less interesting.

Her 'admirer', Inspector Cowgill, is getting to be almost creepy these days. Can't help but think that - at the very least - he is going to damage her marriage or something worse.

This mystery revolves around the soon-to-be ex-mayor of the nearest large town, who is plainly a sketchy character. The mayor is killed and there are a number of possible suspects. Previous to his murder the mayor and his wife decide to retire to the village where Lois and her family live and when Mrs. Mayor is made a widow, she goes ahead with the move, hiring Lois' company to help her with her cleaning needs.

There is another bit of criminal activity that is going on across the street from Lois' new office in the nearby large town and many of the murder suspects are involved with that. I suppose said criminal activity is necessary to the Mayor's murder, but I am not always a fan of mysteries where the main character is always coincidentally next door, down the street or in the next room.

I've never found Lois, as a character, to be especially appealing; I mostly read this series for the peripheral characters who are the ones who make it interesting for me.

Gave this one 3.25 stars

It is a keeper.

COVER ART - Pretty good, but I still only gave this one a 7 of 10 rating. There should be fish in the pond (they are in the story and mentioned frequently) and personally I am not a fan of black and white timbered houses.

2021 Book Number 36/Lifetime Book Number 1,731 - Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson - from my shelves

This is the third time I've read this book over about the last decade. I first read it at Christmastime, then in March for RL Book Club when someone else picked it and then finished it again this year during Tropical Storm Elsa. No matter what time of year I've read it in, it always satisfies. It's probably one of my top 25 lifetime favorites.

Somehow I always picture Anton Lesser cast in the role of the Major. I understand that someone bought the rights to this book some years ago. Hope if they ever do make it that they do not bollix it up.

Another rating of five stars for this lovely book. Maybe I should just up it to 7 stars - extra stars for the additional number of times I have read it.

An absolute keeper and Deserted Island Book.

COVER ART

Even the cover is perfect - a 10 out of 10 again. I know that the cover was not done for this book, appearing on a magazine cover from the 1920s (Life magazine?), but I think it was the perfect choice for this book.

2021 Book Number 37/Lifetime Book Number 1,732 - The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball - Audio Book borrowed from Overdrive

Kimball does not mince words - small farming operations are hard work. And as she did not come from a farming background it was especially difficult for her. Fortunately, Mark, her future husband, is one of those people who never wavers a jot once he has made up his mind.

Kimball was the reader for this book. She reads in a bit of a monotone, so for a long while I was not sure how things were going to turn out; expected by her tone that it would be a bad ending.

Overall it was a satisfying read that makes me appreciate my farming forbears even more. Wish that tradition had been carried on, hard though it is.

Gave this one 4 stars

Would not be averse to owning a copy of this one somewhere down the road.

COVER ART - Giving this one a 7 of 10 as I think I might have snaked it down off a shelf in the bookstore. Weathered red barn, farm girl (or farm guy - either is good) and a red hen - all very appealing and relevant.

of
Book Number 38 - Leningrad: State of Siege by Michael Jones - from my shelves

A fully fleshed-out account of what seems to me to have been the worst siege in history, running from 1941 to the winter of 1944. The level of calculated evil on the part of the Nazis took my breath away. Not to take anything away from the Holocaust, but somehow the things perpetrated upon Leningrad seemed almost worse to me. The civilians of Leningrad and certain elements of the Red Army were the heroes here. The city government was a corrupt disgrace while Stalin and some of the Soviet high command were likewise reprehensible.

Jones covered both the siege and the military action well. I was interested to learn about the heroic nurse, Elena Svetkova, who had set up a rudimentary medical station on the banks of the Neva River where she cared for Soviet soldiers in the late autumn of 1941. One of the lives that she saved - unfortunately - was that of the father of Vladimir Putin. Sad to say, but some of the time evil does result from doing good.

There is a good Notes section and a good index.

Gave this one 5 stars.

It is a keeper.

COVER ART - The cover did nothing for me one way or the other - a five of ten for it.

Book Number 39/Lifetime Book Number 1,734 - Life Itself by Roger Ebert - from my shelves

Loved this memoir. Ebert looked at his life honestly - full in the face. I recognized things in him, in his life. He raised many interesting questions; I was particularly interested in his thoughts on religion.

Hope to read this one again. And again. And, hopefully, again.

Gave it 5 stars.

It is an obvious keeper.

COVER ART - I actually did pull this one off of a shelf in the long gone, Baker Books - the last independent bookstore in the area. However, the look of this cover was irrelevant to me as his name was the draw for me. A 5 of 10 rating for this one.

>81 Fourpawz2: I always love that you comment on the cover, Charlotte, and agree that it does have some importance that can enhance our enjoyment. Agree with your assessment of that particular cover too.

Font and the general appearance of a book are factors that will help determine my reading experience and I am grateful that you pay it some passing heed. xx

>85 PaulCranswick: - Thank you, Paul. I've purchased so many books with really appealing covers that turned out to be very bad books. Blurbs never have any effect on me, but a beautiful and appealing cover is hard for me to resist. If a cover can make a person buy a bad book, I've always wondered why publishers do not take more care with the covers of the books they sell. Ugly and/or uninteresting do not sell books - at least not to me. Thank goodness for LT where the recommendations have my attention instead of the covers. Usually.



Book Number 40 (2021) Lifetime Book Number 1,735 - Born With Teeth by Kate Mulgrew - audio book borrowed from Overdrive

I sought out this memoir after hearing about the author's follow-up memoir; felt I had to read these in order, of course, as I do not like reading things out of order. Some of the time I do read things out of order, but it is never intentionally.

This is a no-holds-barred memoir of her life beginning in early childhood and going through to some point in the 90s. Kate had difficult parents and a mob of brothers and sisters - the quintessential large, Irish Catholic family - raised, unexpectedly, in rural Iowa.

Kate's life was full of drama and quirkiness from the beginning. One of her sisters dies as an infant (Kate, a small child at the time and charged for some reason with caring for her baby sister for the afternoon, believes, for a while, that she killed her) and a second sister dies when Kate was in her teens. Kate seems to have known from an early age that she was meant to be an actor and leaves home, with all its chaos, for New York and - inevitably - the stage.

She is quickly successful and has a life full of relationships that are often/always/eventually messy. She gives up a child for adoption and regrets it almost instantly. As the book's end draws near, her mother seems to be slipping into senility and the love of Kate's life leaves her. This is not usually the kind of story that interests me; the endless ups and downs of a woman who, though talented and interesting, can never seem to find the person who makes her happy and who she, in turn, makes happy. But it was well written enough that I mean to continue on to the next book next year.

Mulgrew reads her book perfectly (as all authors should> be able to do) with that very distinctive voice she has.

Gave this one 3.5 stars - 5 stars for her reading of it

COVER ART - a nice photograph of Kate from her early days in the acting biz. Giving it a 6 of 10

And if I were giving out ratings for titles, I think I would give this one a 10 of 10. "Born With Teeth" - a title like that, seen by me in a bookstore would have led to me instantly snatching it off the shelf. Titles matter to me, too. This explains Bride of the Rat God from earlier this year. Perhaps I should be handing out ratings for titles as well.

BTW - Kate was born with teeth - a truly dreadful prospect for any mother, I should think.

2021 Book Number 41 (Lifetime Book Number 1,736) - Mary's Neck by Booth Tarkington
This one never fails to amuse. and never gets old for me. This is probably the 7th or 8th time I've read it.

Still a 5 star read for me and will always be a keeper.

COVER ART - This is the cover of my copy of Mary's Neck. It did not have a dust jacket when I bought it in the used book department of the long-gone Saltmarsh's book store. However, I quite like the little grouping of Mr. Massey, daughter Enid and Eddie Bullfinch. I can tell just by the young people's attitude who they are meant to be and so give this one a 7 of 10 rating.

A Thanksgiving to Friends (Lighting the Way)

In difficult times
a friend is there to light the way
to lighten the load,
to show the path,
to smooth the road

At the darkest hour
a friend, with a word of truth
points to light
and the encroaching dawn
is in the plainest sight.

Charlotte, to a friend in books and more this Thanksgiving

Book Number 42 - The Paris Secret by Karen Swan - read for the RL Book Club

Oh, what a dreadful book! Only finished it because it was for book club.

The author uses Nazi art theft from Jewish families during WW2 as her hook, but doesn't follow through because, it seems to me, that what she really wanted to write was a lame, shallow ro-mance where every move/development can be seen coming from a mile away. Tedious in the extreme. And making it even worse was the constant mention of fashion labels. Hugely irritating. If I'd known that there were going to be so many of them I would have begun counting them at the beginning, but once I realized that this was going to be a thing I was in too far to make myself go back to the beginning and commence a count. Yes, Ms. Swan was drawing upon her experience and time spent in the fashion world, but did knowing the name of the designer of the protagonist's shoes do one single thing for the actual so-called story that I spent 15 mortal days tormenting myself with? Decidedly not.

Now I know that it is not nice of me to be so very, blatantly critical and that it might be hurtful to the author and I feel a bit of regret for that, but truly I can think of not one thing complimentary to say about this book. Just hope that when I finally check into my quarters in Hell, that this kind of book will not be the only reading material available.

Gave this one 1/2 star of 5.

COVER ART - Far too pale. And the Eiffel Tower is so expected. I get it already, it's Paris!
A 1 of 10 rating.

2021 Book Number 43 (#1,738 Lifetime) - The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker - from my shelves

Really liked this one - an excellent Viking tale built around the early days of Harald Fairhair and the beginning of the building of Norway, but focusing on Ragnvald and Swanhild, brother and sister, who are disinherited when their father is murdered and their mother is forced to marry the man who in all likelihood killed him. My notes for this book are extremely sparse because I had to take a break from reading (Weather, other books, work? Don't remember.) and when I got back to reading it just took off and I just wanted to read and not be bothered with notes. Very enjoyable and I just flew through it.

Kudos to Hartsuyker for her battle writing. She hardly flinched at all.

Gave this one 5 big stars and didn't fiddle around in ordering the next book in the series.

A definite keeper.

COVER ART - a 6 of 10. The title takes up too much space for me to really love it.

2021 Book Number 44 (Lifetime Book Number 1,739) - Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny - from my shelves

Best Inspector Gamache so far. (Yes, I know that I've said that about all of them.) Three mysteries are tackled & resolved - a recent terrorist plot, the murder of a Samuel Champlain fanatic, and the final resolution of The Hermit's murder (from Book 5). I was surprised to find that The Hermit's tale was not done and wondered how Penny was going to get through it and if the really, truly solution could possibly measure up to The Brutal Telling. Needn't have worried. It did.

Tightly written with no holes. I was thoroughly engaged in spite of the heat and horrible humidity of late August.

Gave it 5 stars

A definite keeper.

COVER ART - 8 out of 10. I love autumn leaves - especially when I am being boiled alive in August.

2021 Book Number 45/Lifetime Book Number 1,740 - Vincent and Theo by Deborah Heiligman - borrowed from a friend

This book had a lot of extremely short chapters and lots of blank spaces - a very unusual layout. Have never seen anything like it before. Ultimately, though, I thought that this arrangement was a blessing as a more academic treatment would have been intolerable to me. The VanGogh brothers - Vincent and Theo - were hard for me to take. They both had serious mental health issues - Vincent's were come by naturally and Theo's developed his on account of his terminal syphilis infection. Very depressing. And of course I always knew that the fact that I am so not a fan of Vincent's art was going to be problem as well. Nevertheless, I did not mind reading this book as it has filled in a lot of Vincent's history for me.

Gave this one a big ol' 3 stars out of 5 as it was readable and informative.

COVER ART - 1 out of 10 for me, but a lover of Vincent's art would likely rate it at a 9 of 10.

2021 Book Number 46/Lifetime Book Number 1,741 - West With the Night by Beryl Markham - from my shelves

I've been sitting on this memoir since 2015 and it finally rose to the top of my TBR non-fiction piles. Markham writes of her childhood on her father's farm in East Africa, her time as a horse trainer and her early days as a pilot. She was out on her own at 17 - an unusually independent female for 1919, working as a horse trainer after her father moved to Peru. She was basically alone, but apparently not lonely or unsure of her future. She seems to have been the kind of person who knew what she wanted to do and then went ahead and did it.

I don't think that she ever wrote anything else, but this one book is a gem. Only the bits about flying and airplanes did nothing for me as I find the mere idea of either one uninteresting. An excellent read.

Gave this one 4.5 stars

A keeper.

COVER ART - 5 of 10 - photo of Markham in flying rig is what one would expect to find on this cover and for me it is neither here not there as far its enticement value goes.

2021 Book Number 47/Lifetime Book Number 1,741 - Mary Renault: A Biography by David Sweetman - from my shelves

I read The King Must Die at the instance of my best friend after she came back from a trip to Greece when we were in junior high school and The Persian Boy in recent years, but I never actually knew anything about Mary Renault. She came from a broken family that stayed together for the sake of her father's medical career, and she trained as a nurse prior to WW2 because it was the practical thing to do. Medicine was never her passion, however.

From the time she discovered Ancient Greece at Oxford, it was her passion. It was all she really cared about and she devoted most of her writing life to historical fiction centered in that time. (She was also one of the earliest published authors of gay literature and a mid-20th century English voice against apartheid in South Africa which was where she lived after the end of the war).

Sweetman delves into her life in depth, but he did not weigh this book down with dreaded academic tonnage. Very readable and interesting book about an interesting woman whose work I've enjoyed for a long, long time. Looking forward to reading her other books that I have on my TBR shelves and have not gotten to yet.

Gave this one 3.5 stars.

It is a definite keeper.

COVER ART - a 6 out of 10 for this one. The cover is appropriate to Renault, but I don't think I would have pulled this one from the shelf based on the cover alone.

2021 Book Number 48/Lifetime Book Number 1,743 - Otherland: Mountain of Black Glass by Tad Williams - from my shelves

The quality of this series at the end of Book Three is still high. Although at times I've been confused, I've never considered for an instant ditching the series even though it is complex with many, many characters. It is a truly amazing virtual world that Williams constructed here and though I've taken a long time to read these books, I've enjoyed them all very much. Only one book left to the series now - I am very interested to see where Williams will take the story.

The biggest surprise for me in this one was the suddenly revealed importance of Emily from the Oz world in the previous book. She seemed like a minor character for a long time; I should have known that Williams had something up his sleeve when she tagged along (sniveling and complaining all the while) with the group on their long journey. I am sensing that Olga Pirofsky is going to be a pivotal character in the final book, but have no reason in particular to think so. Just a feeling.

Gave this one 5 stars.

A definite keeper though I wish I had the series in hardcover rather than MMPB.

COVER ART - On a hardcover I think I'd give the cover an 8 or 9 of 10; on my MMPB it gets less.

So many books read, cousin!

>93 Fourpawz2: I am a Van Gogh fan and would probably really like that book, but I actually am not too keen on the cover. Feels somehow like a pirated copy.

Have a lovely holiday, Charlotte.

2021 Book Number 49/Lifetime Book Number 1,744 - Gap Creek by Robert Morgan - from my shelves

Generally, I avoid celebrity recommended books, but I saw this one at a local book sale and picked it up - probably on account of the cover - and I was pleasantly surprised.

Julie Harmon is the backbone of her family, doing the work of two men from the time she is a young teenager. Her little brother dies and then her Pa and everything is up to Julie.

She marries Hank Richards at 17 and they move down the mountain to Gap Creek and the house of an old fellow by the name of Prendergast where Hank works the farm and Julie takes care of the housekeeping and cooking - all of which have been sorely lacking around there for many years. Prendergast is a horrible ingrate of a creature; for all that the young couple does around there he should have been paying them, instead of Hank and Julie working like dogs for zero wages.

Disaster after disaster ensues. Literally - fire, flood, famine and death. All of the things that go wrong start to wear on Hank and he falls apart a bit, but Julie is still quite the stalwart.

Morgan does a great job with this story and especially in describing all of the hard work and very necessary done by Julie. I was often very tired while reading this book.

Gave this one 4 stars

It's a keeper.

COVER ART - an 8 of 10. I'll bet the hardcover is a lot more impressive and probably does not have all that annoying writing along the bottom.

I am once again connected to the interwebs after years away from it and I mean to finish posting all of my books from last year - as punishment. Have never been so late getting started with the new year and I cannot allow myself to just abandon this thread until I am done! Hopefully Jane will cooperate and not try to loll around on my keyboard.

Book Number 50/Lifetime Book Number 1,745 - And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie - from my shelves

I understand that Christie was very excited to write this book. She had many mysteries under her belt by the time she tackled this one and likely she enjoyed the challenge of writing it. It is more complicated than a lot of her other mysteries; I expect figuring everything out kept her up late on many occasions.

I like how she resisted making the murder house an old spooky one; she achieved plenty of spooky even though she put all of her suspects (and victims) in a new, modern house.

I was right about who the last two survivors would be and I should have had the murderer pegged as well. The giveaway was right there in front of me.

Gave this one 4.25 stars - probably my highest Christie rating ever.

A definite keeper

COVER ART - On the face of it, it is a great cover, but it is, in the end, all wrong and so I don't feel I can give it more than a 6 of 10. For me it is very wrong to depict things that do not match up with the story.

Book Number 51/Lifetime Book Number 1,746 - The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware - audio book

Hal Westaway receives the glad news that she has been left a bequest by Mrs. Westaway - her grandmother. And not only it is it glad news it is tremendously welcome news as the money will help tremendously with the her outstanding bills and the persistent, unpleasant loan shark who is making her life miserable. Problem is - Mrs. Westaway was not her grandmother and Hal knows it. But - she goes to the funeral in Cornwall anyway, meets her 'relatives' and stays at Trepassen House expecting, at any moment, to be found out. And then the will is read and instead of scoring the modest amount of money she had been hoping for, she finds out that she has inherited the majority share.

Hal is guilt-ridden and a mystery regarding her parentage and what actually happened at Trepassen House complicates everything.

This story has a lot of very Rebecca-like elements. Mrs. Warren, the evil housekeeper. A boathouse. Trepassen House, like Manderley, is almost a character all by itself. But the story does have its own unique plot twists that made it worth reading. Over-all - a good read.

Gave this one 3.75 stars.

COVER ART - Got a 7 of 10 from me. Liked the ornate iron gate, the magpies and the creepy lighting very much.

Book Number 52/Lifetime Book 1,747 - - Missing Joseph by Elizabeth George - from my shelves

Joseph, from the title, is a bit of a trick on George's part. Right off the bat she had Deborah St. James at the National Gallery in conversation with a stranger regarding a cartoon in which St. Joseph does not appear.

The stranger - a vicar - is later poisoned in Lancashire via water hemlock. Lynley becomes involved because Deborah and Simon who are in Lancashire discover that he has just died and think it is likely a case that His Annoyingness should be involved in - or at least that is how I recall it at the distance of 3 and a half months. (Have never heard of water hemlock before; don't know if this is just another name for plain ol' hemlock.) Juliet - the person serving him the plant - is absolved. An accident, says the coroner's inquest. Silly coroner.

Everyone in this book seems unhappily engaged in a relationship (except Havers, who hardly appears) including Inspector Lynley (Helen, of course). Nevertheless much sex abounds everywhere - including between a thirteen year old and a fifteen year old.

Lynley solves the case, but no one is happy. It was actually a pretty depressing story. I did figure out part of the mystery.

Gave this one 3.5 stars.

A keeper

COVER ART - Only gave this cover a 2 of 10 rating. Though the cover shown here is pretty clear, the cover of my MMPB it is actually pretty muddy looking.

Book Number 53/Lifetime Book Number 1,747 - Montana, 1948 by Larry Watson - a re-read from my shelves

Chose this one for my RL Book Club when it was my turn to pick back in October. I think most of them liked it, although someone hinted that they thought it was a little depressing. But the three other members thought it almost as wonderful as I thought when I first read it a couple of years ago.

Still a five star read.

And a keeper, of course.

COVER ART - Don't remember how I rated this originally, but if I'm remembering correctly, I was not a huge fan. Just a five of ten.

Book Number 54/Lifetime Book Number 1,749 - Fire From Heaven by David Underdown - from my shelves

A close look at 17th century Dorchester (Dorset, not Massachusetts) and its people with especial attention paid to the Protestant hierarchy and their consolidation of their power and control of the town.

While the Dorchester Protestants had good ideas and programs that helped the poor, they were grim and insufferable. Find the whole idea of the 'elect' highly offensive.

Underdown did a good job; I think I may finally be successful at my soon-to-come 3rd attempt to read Antonia Fraser's biography of Cromwell.

Gave this one 4 stars

Definite keeper

COVER ART - This sepia drawing of the town did not catch my eye and so would have failed completely to entice me into pulling it off the shelf. A three of 10.

Book Number 55/Lifetime Book Number 1,750 - Evans Above by Rhys Bowen - from my shelves

Am hoping to find another cozy mystery series, but am not sure that this is it.

Three dead guys in the mountains of Snowdonia. Welsh policeman, Evan Evans, stationed in the village of Llanfair is determined to find their murderer. As I was able to see the significance of the train robbery that occurred some years before these murders, I think that it could have been a bit better - a bit less obvious. But it is only the first book, so I think I will continue.

Gave this one 3.25 stars.

A keeper - for now.

COVER ART - a 7 of 10 for this cover, which I actually liked very much. I am very drawn to goats in general and love a good goat cheese. But - a really big but - I don't remember any goats or boots figuring in the story - hence the rating. If there had been a goat hobbling around in boots in the story, I surely would have upped the rating by a couple of points.

Book Number 55/Lifetime Book Number 1,751 - Murder in Mink by Evelyn James - audio book, borrowed from Overdrive

Did not care for this girl private detective novel much. She and her crippled brother are attending a family wedding. Said wedding falls apart when an undisclosed wife of the groom shows up at the church and objects to the marriage. Next day wifey turns up dead - murdered - leaving the groom as the suspect. There is also an illicit abortion operation in the neighborhood - run by the local vicar -, a pregnant, suicidal girl and sister to the groom, and a boorish uncle who gets himself murdered by the groom's other sister (to whom Uncle has left a pile of money). All very dull and predictable.

Giving this an unenthusiastic 3 stars - because I did listen to the end.

Will not be reading any more of these.

COVER ART - a mere 4 of 10 rating. Not my cup of tea.

Book Number 57/Lifetime Book Number 1,752 - If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin - audio book borrowed from Overdrive

Mostly enjoyed this alternately happy/grim story of Tish and Fonny - their friendship (dating from childhood), and their romance through to Fonny's arrest for a rape he didn't commit. However, what happened at the end seemed to happen too quickly and I was not really certain what it was that actually happened. I was listening to the end while I was working, so it is possible that I was distracted and not listening closely enough. Think I'd like to read it again, but in actual book form.

Still gave it 4 stars as it was well-written

COVER ART - I did not care for the cover of the audio book that I borrowed at all. That cover was not the one I've used here. Can't find the one I had. This is a better cover - the one I like the best of the ones I've seen.

Book Number 58/Lifetime Book Number 1,753 - Mrs. Jordan's Profession by Claire Tomalin - from my shelves

The life of Dorothea Bland (whose professional name was Dora Jordan), a famous actress of the 18th/19th century who was extremely popular - top tier popular - and particularly admired for her legs which were often on display when she was performing in one of her popular male roles. She was also wife, in all but name, to William, Duke of Clarence (later King William IV) and mother to his ten children. She and Clarence were together for 20 years, but eventually their relationship fell victim to the Prince Regent's failed marriage which had produced only one child, Princess Charlotte, who died at 21 after delivering a stillborn child. Clarence dumped Dora at the direction of the palace and finally married in order to produce a legitimate heir (which did not happen) and Dora was on her own. I did not doubt that Clarence loved Dora, but as a Royal, he was powerless to resist the orders of the palace. It was all very sad - for them both, really.

Dora returned to the stage - which she'd given up to be with the Duke - and died in France not much later - alone and in poverty.

Tomalin always does a great job with her biographies and this one is no exception. Really enjoyed it.

Gave this one 4.5 stars

Most definitely a keeper.

COVER ART - One of Dora's many portraits. Have to give it the usual 5 of 10 that I dole out for pictures of biography subjects.

Book Number 59/Lifetime Book Number 1,754 - Nancy Astor: A Lady Unashamed by John Grigg - from my shelves

Thinnish biography (with lots of photos) - the Virginia born-woman who married Waldorf Astor and became not only a Member of Parliament, but the first woman MP. (She was in office for some 23 years.)

She was known for her wit and clever sayings, but she did not seem kind to me (although she did have a rep for being kind to some) particularly when it came to most/all children. And she was a bit of a Christian Scientist fanatic.

Gave this one 3 stars

A keeper - for now.

COVER ART - Neither here nor there - a 5 of 10.

Book Number 60/Lifetime Number 1,755 - National Velvet by Enid Bagnold - a re-read from my shelves

At the time that I had the pick of the book for the RL Book Club I also chose a classic children's book (we do that some of the time) and picked National Velvet which has always been a favorite of mine. I bought it back when I was in grade school through the Scholastic Book Services program that we had back then in the days when the wheel was newly invented, mainly because it was about a horse. (I was horse crazy then.) But I've always loved it because it was not one of those impossible, sloppy children's books where everyone loved one another, parents were two-dimensional and the children always behaved. Velvet and her siblings had real personalities. And there was a suicide early on in the book. I don't remember sudden death being part of anything that kids read back then. It was a very real book.

I was surprised that no one in the book club had read NV before, but they all seemed to have liked it so I considered it a successful choice.

Bumping its rating up to a full 5 stars.

A keeper. I think I've read this one about 20 times before. My copy cost me 50 cents way back when. Plainly I have gotten my money's worth.

COVER ART - Terrible cover as far as the colors are concerned. But Pie (the horse) was apt to just go ahead and jump any ol' fence in his way, so, in that, it is truthful. But the horse depicted is the wrong type. Pie was a piebald and that cover horse ain't no piebald. So - I guess I can only give it a 5 of 10.

Book Number 61/Lifetime Book Number 1,756 - Love, Nina by Nina Stebbe - borrowed from the Millicent Public Library

Oh, my - another RL Book Club stinker! And an epistolary memoir, to boot. Not a fan of epistolary novels or memoirs. Especially when they are fashioned as Ms. Stebbe has done. It consisted of nothing but letters written by her to her sister during the time when she lived in London working as a nanny and going to school, but there was no context. Clearly she was writing in reply to the letters that her sister was writing to her, but as those letters are not in the book, a lot of the time I was completely in the dark, for I could not tell what the things she was commenting upon or answering were about. It was like listening to someone talk to someone else on the phone; no way to know what was being said on the other end. Even the person who picked this one did not like it. This is why I have not, since the early days of book club, picked books that I've not read before. I don't want to be sand-bagged by some piece of tripe and cause others to read something that is horrible.

Gave this one 1/2 star on LT, but in my journal it is getting a big ol' zero.

So glad it was a library book so that I don't have the burden of figuring out what to do with it. (And bemoaning the fact that I paid actual money for it.)

COVER ART - A 3 of 10. Too cartoony.

Book Number 62/Lifetime Book Number 1,757 - Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker - audio book borrowed from Overdrive

This was the story of the Galvin family of Colorado - a family of 12 children - 10 boys and 2 girls, all of them born between the mid 1940s and mid 1960s. The first ten children were boys and six of them were schizophrenic.

It is a really interesting story until one realizes how horrific it must have been to have grown up in that family - no matter whether one was among the sick or was one the children who was not afflicted. And when one son after the other manifested appalling symptoms and behaviors it must have been terrifying for everyone. It did not help matters any that it took quite a while for the Galvin parents to admit that anything was actually wrong. Not that there was anything - medically speaking - that could have been done for the sick children, but it might have helped a little if at least a name could have been put to whatever it was that appeared to be stalking the family. But the elder Galvins felt that everything that was afflicting them was a private matter, best dealt with in the family.

Eventually the Galvins had to acknowledge that something was wrong, but though the medical establishment finally got to take a crack at the boys, it was really too early for anything helpful to happen. It was the age when drugs were the cure-all and most of the six boys ended up on drugs of many different types, but to no avail, for the drugs prescribed did not work perfectly and often ended up shortening their lives. There is still a lot to be done in this area and there is at least one long term study (involving the Galvins among other families) launched many years ago that has still not reached its planned end.

Gave this one 4.5 stars.

Might like to read this one again some day - especially if that study ever yields answers to this trickiest of afflictions.

COVER ART - This picture of the Galvin parents with all of their boys standing on the staircase of their home on Hidden Valley Road (Mrs. G. is pregnant with one of the two girls) is a good choice and I might have given something in the 7 of 10 range in terms of a rating if all of that bloody printing was not laid on top of it. So - it only gets a 4 of 10.

Book Number 63/Lifetime Book Number 1,758 - How to Write a Mystery ed. by Lee Child - Library book borrowed from the Wilks Branch

A pretty good collection (most of it) of pieces concerning the wide-ranging mystery genre. Some of the pieces were exceedingly skimpy, but there were a lot of very good ones. I had intended to make copies of a number of them, but was diverted and my time monopolized by the whole mess that resulted from the tree that fell into my yard and wiped out my fence and a couple of trees that were mine. You know - insurance company, neighbor, tree guy hiring - that kind of thing.

Anyway - I particularly liked the two bits written on the subject of whether or not one should always do an outline (Jeffrey Deaver) or never, ever do an outline (Lee Child). Deaver's pre-occupation with the "efficiency" that would be achieved by outlining convinced me that I would never be an outliner. Efficiency is meant for the manufacture of toasters, not fiction of any kind.

Gave this one 4 stars to this book that I borrowed on impulse on my way out of the library.

And if I hadn't borrowed it, I would probably keep it.

COVER ART - A black crow on a red background gets an 8 of 10 rating from me, BUT I'm taking away two stars for the plethora of annoying printing on it. So it only gets a 6 of 10.

Book Number 64/Lifetime Book Number 1,759 - Chasing the Thrill by Daniel Barbarisi - audio book borrowed from Overdrive

The author was a participant in the treasure hunt begun in 2010 by Forrest Fenn in the far western states of the US as some kind of diversion meant to entertain/soothe him as Fenn faced his mortality after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis. He had long been a collector of all sorts of rare/rare-ish items, many of which he stashed on his property and for his treasure hunt he gathered up a number of different items from said collection (which were, according to Fenn, worth a pretty large amount of money), stuffed them into a chest, and drove the chest out to a secret location where he hid it. Then he gave out a number of clues as to the chest's location and sat back to enjoy the hunt that a surprisingly large number of people became a part of. I don't think that previous to the internet the hunt would have attracted anywhere near the numbers that it did. Several treasure hunters died in the course of the hunt - mostly on account of their own carelessness - but the deaths did not seem to deter the rest of the hunters much of any. For ten years this went on. Ten. Mortal. Years. There are those who think that Fenn may have given the directions to the chest to someone at last because his family had been threatened and menaced by a few nutcases in pursuit of the treasure and I was not entirely convinced of that theory, but knowing that neither the person who found the treasure nor the treasure's location were ever to be revealed by Fenn made me wonder. A lot of the people who'd been searching high and low were pretty ticked off when it turned out that they were not going to be told the who and the where of matters. Ultimately that information came out; you can't hide anything in the Internet Age.

Found this story largely uninteresting; the hunters seemed to be either childish, greedy or screw-ups - or all three. And Fenn's treasure hunt seemed like an act of sheer ego. For me the story did not need telling.

Gave this one 3 stars. It was just too long.

COVER ART - a 5 of 10 rating from me. Didn't love it and didn't hate it. If I'd seen it on a shelf, I probably would not have given it a second look.

Book Number 65/Lifetime Book Number 1,760 - A Share in Death by Deborah Crombie - borrowed from the Wilks Branch Library

The first book in the Kincaid/James series. Ordered it from the library while I was reading Book Number 63 hoping that it might be the new mystery series that I was looking for. Based on this book, it misses a little bit. All of the bits and bobs are there. It was good enough, though, for me to give Crombie another chance so I will take a gander at the next book in the series in 2022.

I did figure out who the murderer was at practically the last minute, but only because there wasn't really anyone left to point the finger at.

Gave this one 3.25 stars

COVER ART - Hated this cover and it gets zippedy-do-dah from me. Did not like the colors - the shade of blue in particular - nor did I like the ripped cover effect. And of course there was waaaay too much print on the cover. Would have passed right by this one on the shelf without a moment's hesitation.

2021 Book Number 66/Lifetime Book Number 1,761 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling re-read from my shelves

By late November I had more or less accepted that I did not have a chance in hell of reaching 75 books for this year, but in hopes of a book-reading miracle I began gathering a group of last ditch reads that I hoped would somehow catapult me to where I wanted to go. This was the first of those books and as ever (this is the fourth time that I've read this one) it was still entertaining and holding up very nicely.

Gave it four stars, as ever.

Of course it is a keeper.

COVER ART - Only a 4 of 10 - I've finally admitted to myself that I don't really like these covers awfully well. What I do like about my copies of the series, though, is the fact that they are all done by the same artist and so they go together very well.

>116 Fourpawz2: Always a comforting re-read. I actually recently ditched my English language version of HP (same covers as yours) because I disliked the covers so much. I have them in Swedish and those covers are way better in my opinion (Philosopher’s Stone below) and I’ve stared buying the illustrated version with illustrations and cover art by Jim Kay because they’re also pretty. I don’t like unpretentious books.

2021 Book Number 67/Lifetime Book Number 1,762 - Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand - audio book borrowed from Overdrive

I know from the reading of Seabiscuit that Hillenbrand is a amazing non-fiction writer, but I have resisted reading Unbroken, mostly because World War II is one of those things that is pretty low down on the list of topics I want to read about. But I was working on a yard project (don't ask) and I decided that I might as well listen to something that I was pretty sure was going to be well done.

It was well done. Very well done. I know everyone else in the world has already read this one so there is little point in me going into matters in detail, but I am pretty sure that I am just one among millions of readers who found Louis Zamperini's story utterly amazing, horrifying, heartbreaking, impressive and one of the best war stories ever as well as doing a damn good job of demonstrating to anyone halfway sensible why we need to stop tearing each other apart, century, after century, after century.

5 big ol' stars for this one.

Need to get a copy of the physical book. And this is one among not very many audio books that I wouldn't mind listening to again.

COVER ART - A 9 of 10 rating for this one - even with all that printing on the cover. Less printing would have made it just about perfect for me.

>118 Fourpawz2: - Hey Cousin Paws! Nice to see you here as I try to wind things up so I can come and play in the brand new Book Playpen with all the other kids. (Paul has been trying to coax me to come over now, but I feel I must, must, must finish this first or else it will remain forever undone.) I will admit to having stuck my toe in the 2022 waters by visiting just 3 threads (yours, among them), but just a little bitty bit.

Yeah, those original covers are just so dark and generally unappealing to me. I know I would not have liked them any better as a child. Yours look much better to me - better colors and not so gloomy.

2021 Book Number 68/Lifetime Book Number 1,763 - Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie - from my shelves

A Hercule Poirot mystery - approximately the 20th one I've read

Elinor Carlisle is thought to have killed both her Aunt Laura (for her money) and young Mary Gerrard (out of jealousy). The case seems to be open and shut, but it is much more complicated than anyone suspects.

This time around the killer does serve a purpose, so I could not figure out who it was by using that method. Not as clever as the last Christie I read - And Then There Were None - as the killer, in order to be successful in bringing off the complicated plan governing the two murders, had to depend on a good deal of luck. Mysteries that depend on luck are often a bit lame.

Gave this one 3.25 stars - for the depending on luck thing.

It is a keeper.

COVER ART - Another big ol' zero of a cover. I don't ever think I've seen a worse one - and it's supposed to be celebrating the 100th anniversary of Christie. (As I don't have the copy close at hand, I'm assuming that it celebrates the 100th anniversary of her birth in 1890 as that is the only thing that makes sense.) And this is what Dame Agatha gets for her 100th year - one of the most ugly-ass covers that I have ever seen. And - it is absolutely useless to me in solving one of my primary questions regarding this book for there is not a clue as to why the book is titled as it is. Sad Cypress???? What the hell does that mean? A terminally depressed cypress tree? No idea. A cover relating to the story might possibly give me a bit of help figuring the title out.

Am now thinking of regularly critiquing the titles of books as well. Some of them are great (Bride of the Rat God, for instance from last winter), but this title makes absolutely no sense to me.

>119 Fourpawz2: I look forward to your 2022 thread whenever you start it.

>120 Fourpawz2: I know I’ve read that one, but as always I don’t remember the details of the story. I had a hunch this title was a literary reference, as Dame Agatha’s titles often are, so looked this up, and it’s a reference to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. I agree that the cover is horrendous.

>121 PawsforThought: - Thank you, Cousin Paws. I'd not thought to go looking for a literary reference. Silly me.



2021 Book Number 69/Lifetime Book Number 1,764 - Christmas Without Johnny by Gladys Hasty Carroll - re-read from my shelves

Another tiny book that I have had on my shelves since forever. Basically it is a story about bullying that takes place just prior to Christmas in a fictitious town in rural Maine. Johnny Lee is a timid little boy who has always lived in the country - a long bus ride away from the town where his school is located. His parents have chosen this time to move Johnny and his baby sister from the farm to a nice house in town with all the modern conveniences. One reason for the move is so that Mr. Lee won't have to work the farm anymore and the other is that Johnny will now be able to walk to school, go the library and church and play with the little boys from his class instead of virtually being alone in the country. His parents don't realize that he doesn't want to be in town, that his only playmate in the country, Linda, is his best friend and all of the little boys in town are terrible bullies. Johnny is a very quiet and timid child, who never speaks up, is always afraid of breaking the rules and is often misjudged by the adults around him. When an adult drops his wallet on the sidewalk outside of the school, Johnny rushes to restore the wallet to him (the owner of the wallet does not know he has lost it) Johnny suddenly realizes he has broken the cardinal school about never leaving the school grounds during school hours and is too afraid to return to school. So he ends up running away to the next town.

This is very much a 1950s kind of children's book. It all comes right in the end. All the adults feel badly that they have not paid enough attention to Johnny and his feelings and resolve to do better.

Still giving this one 3 and a half stars - even though it is overly sweet in many ways. I'll hold onto it as it takes up virtually no room on my shelves, but I am not sure that I will ever read it again.

COVER ART - The cover shown above is not the one on my copy of the book. I don't care for this one at all - too sweet. The one on my book shows a set of young parents looking upset and a little boy who is unhappy and ignored off to one side. That cover gets a 6 of 10 from me.

2021 Book Number 70/Lifetime Book Number 1,765 - Monk's-Hood by Ellis Peters - from my shelves

Murder and forgiveness and Brother Cadfael's own way of solving the first and then doling out the second.

Cadfael's lost love - Richildis - appears. Her family is at the heart of the crime. All of the action took place at Christmas which was unexpected.

Figured out the murderer's i.d. before page 100

Gave this one 3.5 stars

It's a keeper.

COVER ART - I have several Brother Cadfael books with similar covers and I like them. Giving it a 6 of 10.

2021 Book Number 71/Lifetime Book Number 1,766 - A Highland Christmas by M. C. Beaton - from my shelves

A rather sweet, but not saccharine Christmas story, where Hamish tries to bring a little Christmas cheer to a little girl with grim, non-Christmas celebrating, religious Scottish parents, a woman living alone and in fear on her croft, and generally to the villagers of Lochdubh. Enjoyed it quite a bit.

Gave it 4 stars

A Keeper

COVER ART - The cover art was pretty much spot on, but the color of the cat in the window is wrong - so can only give it a 7 of 10 rating.

2021 Book Number 72/Lifetime Book Number 1,767 - My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman - audio book borrowed from Overdrive

Picked this one to listen to because I'd previously listened to Britt-Marie Was Here by Backman and enjoyed it. (Did not know that Britt-Marie would also be a character in this one - although she was not a major, major character.)

This one was pretty long and it almost seemed to me that it was a bit too long. Elsa (8 years old, I believe or maybe 10) lives with her pregnant mother and her boyfriend, but has a relationship with her father. Her grandmother is a big presence in her life - her best friend and the person Elsa loves best of all - but Granny dies early on in the story, leaving her granddaughter with the job of delivering a series of letters of apology to various people that Grandmother had offended when she was alive. (Granny could, indeed, be offensive.) Elsa is dedicated to the job her granny left her with; she is hoping at the end to uncover a letter to her own mother from Granny. Elsa and her grandmother were very close; Granny told her stories of a fictional land called Myamus that comes with its own special (and secret) language and is full of many characters and adventures. Elsa is very protective of the stories and the secret language of Myamus.

Along the way various characters turn up - an OCD man who is a germaphobe, a psychologist(psychiatrist?) who has suffered great loss and others. There is also a great beast of a dog called The Wurse who has to be hidden in various places about the property so that Britt-Marie and her husband Kent can't get rid of him. B and K are intent upon turning the multi-flat property into a condo (so of course The Wurse does not fit into their plans) and in being general pains.

Anyway, it was unexpectedly entertaining, but, as I said just a bit too long for me. Was a bit pushed for time and tried listening to it when I went to bed which is always a mistake. May have missed something important as I usually do when I try to do that.

Gave it 3.25 stars

COVER ART - Gets an 8 of 10 rating. Really liked the picture of Elsa and The Wurse.

2021 Book Number 73/Lifetime Book Number 1,768 - Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild - audio book borrowed from the Boston Public Library.

Casting around desperately on December 23rd for something to listen to while I did the pre-Christmas cleaning for a customer, I came up with this. I remembered the name from the movie "You've Got Mail".

Excessively sweet (and improbable) story about 3 infants who are adopted by an eccentric explorer, who disappears almost immediately and does not return for many years after saddling his daughter with the care, feeding and raising of the little girls. I am pretty sure that I would not have liked this one much back in the days when I was the age of the children in the target audience. The good thing about it was it took the reader a mere two hours to get through it.

Gave it a generous 3 stars - mostly because it was not written for someone of my great age.

COVER ART - This is not the cover of the audio book I read, but it is approximately as ugly as that one was. Will not rate it, of course.

2021 Book Number 74/Lifetime Book Number 1,769 - On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan - from my shelves

Snatched this one from the shelf, based solely upon its obvious small number of pages. It has been sitting there for quite a while.

Really liked this story of two people in the early sixties who marry one day and separate forever the day after the wedding. They have been together for years, but have never been intimate - mostly because she is about as skittish as they come. Not surprisingly the wedding night is a disaster and though there is a moment when they might have repaired the damage, they fail to act and their lives are changed forever.

Want to read this one again and soon. Am pretty sure that it will be a favorite of mine.

Giving it a big ol' 5 star rating.

Definite keeper.

COVER ART - In a way I am thinking that this is a good cover. Have no idea what Chesil Beach really looks like, but I've always thought - on account of this cover - that it must be a desolate and grim place. And after having read the book, I think this has to rate in the upper echelons for 2021 so am giving it an 8 of 10. But it still looks plenty unpleasant to me. Perhaps it is because I've never been a fan of beaches.

2021 Book Number 75/Lifetime Book Number 1,770 - One More Thing by B.J. Novak - audio book borrowed from Overdrive

A collection of short stories that were mildly funny. Some of them. Was a little disappointed as I'd hoped for something a bit better.

The best thing - I got to 75 books once again with a day and half to spare.

Gave this 3 stars

COVER ART - Just about the most minimalistic cover I've ever seen. Not a fan. Zero appeal for me.