Linda Begins 2024 as She Means to Continue

My more or less constant companion, Molly, who likes nothing better than to interfere with my reading by parking her tiny self between by face and my book.

A brief introduction, or reminder of who I am: My name is Linda, and I am a retired paralegal, though that says very little about me nowadays, as my work life ended in 2015. I live in Northeast Pennsylvania, with the above four-footed tyrant, and my husband, flamingrabbit. Since giving up the legal grind, I have kept busy with volunteer work centered around libraries, cemeteries, and genealogy. I serve on the Board of Directors of the Scranton Public Library, and several of its committees. I am President of the Equinunk Cemetery Association, which is located in my home village along the Delaware River, and do as much grave-hunting and photographing as time and weather will allow for the website Find-A-Grave.com.

LT has been an essential part of my life since I joined in 2005, after my daughter lycomayflower told me about "this site where you can catalog your books." My response was something like, "Why would I want to do that?" HA! I simply can't imagine life without it anymore. I never knew how much I needed a reading community, until I found one. There are links on my profile page to my earlier reading threads.

Every year, it seems, I read more books in January than in any succeeding month. I suppose it's the post-holiday nothing-happens-in-January syndrome, but I mean to make an effort to devote more time to reading this year than I did in 2023 or 2022, when I fell below my usual average of 85-100 books for the first time in many years. THUS, my thread title.

I've been hosting an American Authors Challenge in the 75 Book Challenge Group since 2019, and details of this year's monthly challenges can be found downthread.

Finally, as some of you know, I'm averse to gifs and list-serve-type greetings, but I LOVE visitors who comment on my reading, or on other topics introduced here. Everyone is welcome to lurk or engage, as you see fit.

The ticker where I will keep track of my numbers, and how pitifully I fall short of my 100 book/year reading goal. (For four years after retiring, I routinely surpassed that goal. The pandemic, for some reason, plunged me back to the low 80s, which is less than I was reading those last several years when I was still working full time.) I actually made a list of my totals for the last dozen years, and was surprised by the consistency:

2023: 81
2022: 82
2021: 85
2020: 84
2019: 104
2018: 110
2017: 100
2016: 112
2015: 86
2014: 100
2013: 82
2012: 88

Here will be a list of the books I read in the current quarter of 2024.

I use some shorthand to help me keep track of my reading trends:

ROOT identifies a book that I have owned for at least a year at the time I read it.
CULL means I put the book in my donation box for the library book sale after finishing it, or otherwise gave it away.
DNF means I didn't finish the book, for one reason or another, usually explained in the related post.
ER means I received the book from LT's Early Reviewer program.
GN refers to a graphic novel, GM a graphic memoir This is not a category I use much.
An * asterisk indicates a library book.
LOA means I read a Library of America edition;
SF means the book was a Slightly Foxed edition, (NOT science fiction, which I so rarely read);
VIRAGO means it was an original green-spined Virago edition from my own collection;
FOLIO indicates a Folio Society edition.
AUDIO and e-Book are self-explanatory, and probably won't appear very often.
AAC refers to the American Author Challenge.
NF indicates a non-fiction read.
TR indicates a work in translation
RR means it's a re-read for me

Clicking on titles in this post will take you to the message in which I reviewed or commented on that book.

JANUARY

1. Sula by Toni Morrison ROOT, CULL
2. Heading North by Holly M. Wendt
3. In Between; Creativity Set Free by Don Freas NF
*4. Force of Nature by Jane Harper
5. Calico Lane by Judy Kiehart
*6 Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
*7. Dreaming of the Bones by Deborah Crombie

FEBRUARY

*8. North Woods by Daniel Mason
*9. Track of Sand by Andrea Camilleri
10. People of Darkness by Tony Hillerman CULL
11. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk CULL, TR
12. The Tree of Hands by Ruth Rendell ROOT
13. Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. ROOT, NF
14. The Commonplace Book of Pie by Kate Lebo ROOT, RR, NF
15. No, I Won't Bow Down on That Dirty Ground by Maurice Martinez ROOT, NF
16. Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe NF

MARCH

17. Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote AAC, ROOT, CULL
18. The Broken Shore by Peter Temple ROOT, CULL
19. Mr. Timothy by Louis Bayard ROOT
*20. Dry Bones by Craig Johnson
21. The Black Box: Writing the Race by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. NF

Here is where I will keep a list of my new acquisitions throughout the year. I assume in 2024, as usual, more will come in than I actually read, but apparently I'm powerless to change that.

January

1. In Between; Creativity Set Free by Don Freas
2. Conamara Blues by John O'Donohue
3. Blind Descent by Nevada Barr
4. The Dark Wind by Tony Hillerman
5. People of Darkness by Tony Hillerman
6. Colorful Palate by Raj Tawney
7. Upcountry by Chin-Sun Lee
8. A Widow's Curse by Phillip DePoy
9. James by Percival Everett
10. Sammy Two Shoes by Phillip DePoy
11. Sinister Graves by Marcie Rendon
12. Girl Gone Missing by Marcie Rendon

In an attempt to ameliorate the consequences of >4 laytonwoman3rd: above, and to prevent something like THIS from happening, I have an ongoing mandate to move books out of the house,
,

so I will keep a list of those titles here.

1. The Rag and Bone Shop by Jeff Rackham
2. Sula by Toni Morrison
3. The Optimist by Joshua Mehigan
4. Collected Poems of Edith Sitwell
5. Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon by Pablo Neruda
6. The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafron
7. Consolation by Garry Disher
8. Mercy of a Rude Stream by Henry Roth
9. A Diving Rock on the Hudson by Henry Roth
10. Requiem for Harlem by Henry Roth
11. From Bondage by Henry Roth
12. When the Frost is on the Pumpkin James Whitcomb Riley, Ill. by Glenna Lang
13. When a Wolf is Hungry by Christine Naumann-Villemin
14. Giant Treasury of Peter Rabbit
15. Giant Treasury of Beatrix Potter
16. Sarah and Simon and No Red Paint by Edward Ardizzone
17. A Wolf's Tale by Eva Montanari
18. The Weather in the Streets by Rosamund Lehmann
19. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
20. The Little Ottleys by Ada Leverson
21. Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamund Lehmann
22. Elegy for Iris by John Bayly
23. The Red and the Green by Iris Murdoch
24. Under the Net by Iris Murdoch
25. The Bell by Iris Murdoch
26. Changes at Fairacre by Miss Read
27. Cry Wolf by Aileen LaTourette
28. Dear Ijeawele by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
29. The Green Knight by Iris Murdoch
30. The Strange Necessity by Rebecca West

31. through 50. are itemized in >96 laytonwoman3rd: below. And I will continue here with:

51. Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
52. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
53. In America by Susan Sontag
54. Essays of the 1960s and 70s by Susan Sontag
55. Later Essays by Susan Sontag
56. Sontag by Benjamin Moser
57. Writing Lives ed. by Mary Chamberlain
58. Michael Chiarello's Bottega
59. The Mitford Girls by Mary S. Lovell
60. The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustved
61. Intuition by Allegra Goodman
62. A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie King
63. Gunnar's Daughter by Sigrid Undset
64. Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton
65. In Memory of Junior by Clyde Edgerton
66. Werewolves in Their Youth by Michael Chabon
67. The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
68. High Country by Nevada Barr
69. Borderline by Nevada Barr
70. Winter Study by Nevada Barr

Here's the final line-up for the 2024 American Authors Challenge:

JANUARY: Mark Twain
January thread is here.

FEBRUARY: Susan Sontag
Her thread is here.
Read and skimmed portions of the Moser biography and first section of "Against Interpretation" Enough.

MARCH: Truman Capote
The Capote Thread
Finished Other Voices, Other Rooms

APRIL: General Non-Fiction (with host Caroline Caroline_McElwee)

MAY: William Maxwell
JUNE: Queer Authors (with host Dr. Laura Koons lycomayflower)
JULY: Susan Power a/k/a Mona Susan Power
AUGUST: Jeffrey Lent
SEPTEMBER: Living American authors who were born outside the US but adopted this country as their home.
OCTOBER: Katharine Anne Porter
NOVEMBER: Jewish American Authors (with host Kristel kristelh)
DECEMBER: The Heartland (regional authors from the middle of the country)

WILD CARD : 2015 Redux Pick an author from the 2015 Challenge

EXTRA POINTS CHALLENGE
Complete the challenge by reading at least one work from the author or category featured each month AND one work from the Wildcard list each month.
(Just like the main challenge, this earns you no points whatsoever.)

The general discussion thread for the 2024 AAC Challenge is here.

I hope to update this post periodically with my personal choices and completions in the challenge. And I vow to put links here to each month's thread as it is created as well.

A little round-up of my 2023 reading:

I completed 81 books, Pearl-Ruled 8;
I read 18 non-fiction titles, and of those, 5 made it to my top 10 list for the year;
I read 73 distinct authors, and of those the male/female split is almost even.

My top reads of the year, in no particular order, were

Nineteen Reservoirs by Lucy Sante
The Cooking Gene by Michael Twitty
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Wreckage by Sascha Feinstein
97 Orchard by Jane Zeigelman
The Golem and the Jinni by Helen Wecker
Dinners with Ruth by Nina Totenberg
The General and Julia by Jon Clinch
This is Happiness by Niall Williams
The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich
The Art of the Chicken by Jacques Pepin

I'm guessing you're ready for company since nothing happened after yesterday afternoon....

>8 richardderus: Welcome, Richard...and you may hold the door for the rush I anticipate now that I am officially

I peeked in the door yesterday, Linda. Glad to see that you are open now. Best wishes for a Happy New Year!

Molly is a lovely thread topper, Linda!

Molly is adorable and a lovely greeter for the new year and new thread! Happy new one, Linda. I will try to get my own new thread up tomorrow.

>10 Familyhistorian: Hi, Meg! Good to have you here.
>11 thornton37814:, >12 jessibud2: Molly says thanks for the love! She has volunteered to top all my threads this year.

Happy new year, Linda!

>14 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie.

Bringing this over from my 2023 thread, which everyone has probably x'd out by now:

The annual book title meme/thingie:

1. Describe Yourself: Girl at War

2. Describe How You Feel: This is Happiness

3. Describe Where You Currently Live: 97 Orchard

4. If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Shore Road to Ogunquit

5. You favorite form of transportation is: The Carrying

6. Your favorite food is: The Art of the Chicken

7. Your favorite time of day is: Night Came with Many Stars

8. Your best friend is: The Beggar Maid

9. You and your friends are: Endangered Species

10. What the weather is like: A Serpent's Tooth

11. You fear: Murder on the Red River

12. What is the best advice you have to give: Mourn Not Your Dead

13. Thought for the Day: Wait for Signs

14. What is life for you: Time of Wonder

15. How would you like to die: Giving Up the Ghost

Happy New Year! Happy New Thread!

>15 laytonwoman3rd: Oo, a meme that I need to steal!

Hi Linda!

Wishing you a great one!

Happy New Year, Linda.

Hi Linda. Dropping of my star and wishing you a Happy New Year!!

Good luck with your 2024 reading. I may dip in and out of the author challenge.

And Happy New Year!!

Happy reading in 2024, Linda!

Happy New Year, Linda!

>15 laytonwoman3rd: Ogunquit? Hmmm

I think the weather's weird instability is more unsettling to me now than ever, even knowing it's one of those weird years with a Spanish name. Something about April weather followed by normal-January on the second day of 2024 flips me out.

Oooh...look at all the lovely visitors! Thanks for stopping in, Stasia, Susan, Beth, Ellen, Tess, Kim, Anita, Nora. (Hope I didn't miss anyone.)

>24 richardderus: Well, anywhere along the Maine coast is heaven for me. The book, however, was a dud. I certainly agree about the weather. December was ridiculously warm, but we may get a winter storm over the weekend.

Hi Linda, dropping a star. Wishing you a great reading year!

Happy new year, Linda.

1. Sula by Toni Morrison I am not going to say much about this little masterpiece of a novel. For many reasons, none of which are a reflection on the work, I didn't enjoy reading it, even though I could see Morrison's genius, insight and brilliance all through it. I even marked a couple passages where the prose or an observation made a particular impact on me. Overall, however, I was just not moved by the lives of Sula, Nel, their families and acquaintances. I don't feel that Morrison wanted to elicit sympathy for them, and that may be where she lost me.

>28 laytonwoman3rd: - Sorry that one didn't work better for you, Linda. It was a favorite of mine when I read it a few years ago.

I also love the Maine coast and have been to Ogunquit a few times, most recently, the summer before covid, I think. Pity that the book disappointed.

>26 vikzen:, >27 PaulCranswick: Welcome, Victoria, and Paul!

>29 katiekrug: I wish I could have appreciated it more, Katie. I know it's masterful, and it was pretty important to a lot of people when it was first published, for its portrayal of female strength and friendship. I have been wow'd by Morrison so many times, but I think this is just one of those books that wasn't meant for me.

>30 jessibud2: Shore Road to Ogunquit was a real clunker, Shelley. I'm the only person to have reviewed it on LT, so I get to say so, definitively!

Happy new year! I love the meme answers.

>25 laytonwoman3rd: I did hear mention of the possibility of snow for this weekend. Okay with me. I have some reading I can do.

Hope your 2024 will be fabulous!

Hi Linda. It is wonderful to see you here again! I look forward to visiting your thread more often this year and learning what you are reading.

All good wishes for a wonderful 2024!!

Beannacht (Blessing)
by John O’Donohue

On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.

And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The grey window
And the ghost of loss
Gets into you,
May a flock of colours,
Indigo, red, green
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
In the currach of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.

>33 weird_O: It's OK with me too.

>34 Whisper1: Hello, Linda! I hope to get to some more lovely illustrated books this year; it's been a while. I'll be watching what you find.

Sula sent me down a bit of an LT rabbit hole. I read it in 2020, when I decided to read all of Morrison's novels in publication order. I gave it 4 stars for didn't write a review. Why?! Hurray for the "Conversations" tab where I found mention on one of my 2020 threads. It seems I was just lost for words, not sure how to evaluate its merits. I did feel that Sula was more sophisticated than Morrison’s first novel, The Bluest Eye. Both novels explore disturbing themes, but in Sula the characters were better developed and the story arc was stronger. My 4 star rating fell short of Beloved and others, and was better than Jazz (and others).

>28 laytonwoman3rd: It's enough to see the genius, respect the expressive qualities, without necessarily going into fan mode, more and more in my own reading life, so I empathize with you. Maybe it's a corner we turn after a certain accumulation of years-read versus books-loved?

Feeling removed from the characters is a fast track to losing some stars with me, too. I hope #2 thrills and delights you.

>37 lauralkeet: AH....see...I went looking for your review before I posted, because I was sure you had read it fairly recently, and I wanted to know what you thought. I was surprised not to find it. But "was just lost for words, not sure how to evaluate its merits" pretty well described how I felt too.

>38 richardderus: Yes, Richard, I sometimes feel I've read too many books, and it's awfully hard for one to hit the sweet spot these days. No. 2 is challenging me in a good way, and it might be something you would enjoy. Not being a sports fan makes it a bit tough to get into, but the writing is outstanding: Heading North by Holly M. Wendt. Only available from the publisher at the moment, and no Kindle version I'm afraid.

>39 laytonwoman3rd: I'll keep an eye out for it, then.

Just dropping off a star for you and ear scritches for the adorable Molly.

Hi Linda! I hope you have a great reading year!

>2 laytonwoman3rd: I confess I look at these numbers and think WOW! Look how CLOSE she got to 100! …not the opposite!

… And I love your cat’s expression. Will be following you if only to improve my own Am. lit. reading list! Happy New Year!

>40 richardderus: There have been distribution issues...

>41 MickyFine: Hi, Mickey! Molly says "just a little to the left, please"

>42 cbl_tn: Carrie...good to see you here. Happy reading to you too.

>43 PocheFamily: Welcome, Leslie! I really try not to obsess about the numbers, but somehow, they seem to matter to me.

I hope you'll drop in to the American Authors Challenge too when you can.

Great meme answers!

>28 laytonwoman3rd: Hmm, I may wait on reading that one for a bit yet.

Have a fantastic Friday!

Hi Linda. I hope you have a terrific weekend ahead of you!

I read The Bluest Eye last year, but think Sula is one of only two I still haven't read.

It's not that I haven't been reading, but that I haven't been posting. I have finished 3 more books, which I am going to list out of order, because reviewing the best and most important of them, which was my second 2024 read, is taxing me a bit.

3. In Between; Creativity Set Free by Don Freas. Don is a relative on my husband's side, and one of the most creative people I've ever met. In this short volume, he discusses the processes that led to some of his artistic creations in wood and steel. It's mostly a visual work, beautifully illustrated, and just a joy to pick up and leaf through. For many years he designed and built furniture, staircases, shelving, fireplace surrounds, doorways, etc. on commission. In his spare time, often using scraps and bits left over from those jobs, he turned out unique wooden sculptures. Later he turned to metal work; at least two of his "ring dance" series of metal sculptures are on permanent display in public areas in Olympia, WA.

4. Force of Nature by Jane Harper The second of Harper's Aaron Falk series, this didn't work quite as well for me as The Dry, mostly because there was not enough Falk in it. It's divided into two parts, which alternate. First we see Falk and his partner being called in to an investigation of a missing woman, who had been working behind the scenes to obtain records that would substantiate claims of a decades-long money-laundering scheme. She disappeared while on a team-building wilderness outing with other employees of the business under investigation. The alternate sections take us from the trail-head where the hiking/camping expedition began, giving us varying points of view of what Alice Russell and the other 4 women in her group experienced up to the point where she went missing. All of it was well set out, and the pacing was good. I just could not stand any of the women, who had neither the inclination nor the ability to co-operate in the endeavor; even when things began to go wrong, and danger was a real possibility, they could not stop bickering, finger-pointing, and shirking responsibility long enough to exercise the good sense needed under the circumstances.

>50 laytonwoman3rd: I liked The Dry much, much, much better than Force of Nature.

>50 laytonwoman3rd: It seems fairly common for authors whose first novels get a lot of accolades to have a "sophomore slump" with the second novel. Maybe the next one will be better!

>50 laytonwoman3rd: For me every story I tried after the Dry, which I liked a lot and gave 4 stars, was a disappointment. I gave Force of Nature 3 stars (reacting like you did), Survivors a rare 1 star DNF and could not get interested in The Lost Man and bailed. Lots of readers rate the stories highly though.

>51 thornton37814:, >52 cbl_tn:, >53 RBeffa: I appreciate the validation...I wasn't entirely sure it was the author's fault I didn't care for Force of Nature. I'm still not sure about that. I think my utter lack of respect for corporate "trust-building" shams, and the petty bad behavior of the women involved in this one doomed it for me. Other readers might have enjoyed the "hen fights", but I just found them demeaning and pointless. I'm not even sure this was Harper's second novel; she seems to have published 2 in 2018, one in series and one not. In any case, I think I'm probably done with her.

So, as I mentioned in >49 laytonwoman3rd:, my second novel of 2024 was a difficult one for me to review, and I put it off pondered over it for over a week before coming up with what follows. I'm not entirely satisfied yet, but I believe I am finished. And I expect Holly would understand that.

2. Heading North by Holly M. Wendt

Disclaimer: I have known Holly Wendt since they were my daughter’s flatmate in grad school 20 years ago. I love Holly and follow their accomplishments and shenanigans with almost the same avidity as I follow my own offspring’s life events. All of that notwithstanding, I have tried very hard to be objective in this review. I will say that while reading Heading North there were times when I brought myself up short with a reminder that I actually KNOW the person who wrote it, because I truly forgot that fact for chapters at a time.

Going into this novel, which is set in the international milieu of professional hockey, I knew this about the sport: it’s played on ice, with sticks; it’s very popular in Canada; the local team where I live is affiliated with the Pittsburgh Penguins; and there’s all the fighting. I know a bit more about it now, and none of those things turned out to be wrong (although Canada and the Penguins don't enter into it for our purposes here). But the novel is by no means instructive in the technical aspects of hockey, and the story won’t wait for you to educate yourself. If you’re as clueless as I was about the sport, you may have now decided this book is not for you. Let me see if I can override that decision. (After all, I’m told you don’t have to understand soccer to love Ted Lasso...)

Viktor Mrynikov, a young and talented Russian player, has an opportunity to make a name for himself in American hockey circles. It means culture shock, leaving home, adjusting to different coaching styles, overcoming his deficiencies with the English language, leaving behind his teammates--in particular one other fast-rising hockey star, Nicolai Stepnov, whose future lies in Russia where his father and stepmother are powerful figures in the sport. It means choosing between two passions, one of which can only be indulged in secret and at the risk of losing everything. His parents, his coach, his mentors, all have their ideas about what he should do, and they do not all agree. Officially, none of them know what Viktor and Nicolai are to one another. While Viktor struggles to decide what he should be doing with his life, events outside his control alter the dynamics of his situation in tragic fashion. A plane carrying his coach and many of his Russian teammates crashes, taking the lives of all on board. Now he must not only hide his sexual identity and his love for Nicolai, but his grief as well. And he finds his conscience compelling him to take a step that would have been unthinkable before the crash.

The descriptions of the game of hockey and its business side slowed me down at times, but could not put me off. I have no doubt that they are accurately presented. The writing is exquisite, the characters so finely drawn that we know, for example, when Viktor switches from English to Russian, without being told. Every sentence does its job with precision and grace, like the pros on the ice. Varying points of view let us in on more than one moral dilemma.

This novel is not about hockey. It is not about being a gay man in a macho sports culture, although both those things are central to the story. It is about being a human facing guilt, loss, grief, confusion. It is about standing up for yourself and owning your life. It is about realizing when it’s your turn to make a difference. It is beautiful, heart-wrenching, surprising, affirmative. There is not a scrap of sentimentality in it. I beg you to read it.

>54 laytonwoman3rd: I just saw on someone else's thread where they'd abandoned a future book in the series, so being "done with her" sounds like a good option for all of us!

>56 thornton37814: Well...it works for me...I have SO many other things to read!

5. Calico Lane by Judy Kiehart I'm not sure how this memoir came to my attention, but it is written by a woman who grew up in one of the "up valley" communities a few miles north of Scranton, PA, so, a local author by my definition. After a rough start, where I thought I might give up on awkward sentences, episodic early childhood memories and odd word choices, something about the style changed completely about a third of the way through. I became thoroughly engrossed in Kiehart's exploration of her quest to understand her sexual identity and her longing for a "normal" life. Having been raised in a Russian Orthodox family and community in a small town in Northeastern Pennsylvania in the 1950s, homosexuality was an unknown concept to Kiehart in her childhood, and other religions were foreign territory even though the area was populated by immigrants of multiple faiths. Her own grandparents on both sides were early 20th century Polish immigrants, whose Old World traditions and beliefs were practiced virtually unchallenged until Judy's generation came of age during the late 1960s and 1970s. Sex and religion both remained highly mysterious to Judy until her high school years, when the "crushes" she occasionally had on other girls began to become more serious, leading to an intense relationship with a woman named Valerie. Keeping her sexual identity a secret from her family and most friends was, she felt, an absolute necessity, however troublesome. She dated young men from time to time, and was romantically pursued by one in particular, who wrote to her after entering the military, expressing hopes for a future together . When Valerie died suddenly, Judy decided she could "fix" herself by marrying Stan, and following the traditional path that her upbringing taught her she should have been seeking all along. Ironically, the marriage actually damaged her relationship with her family, when Stan "got religion" and began attending a protestant church where Judy herself found social contacts and lifestyle guidelines that helped her repress the parts of herself that made her uncomfortable. Her parents, initially overjoyed and relieved that Judy was behaving right at last, took her abandonment of their faith as a betrayal, effectively confirming the belief she had always held that it would certainly be impossible for them to understand her preference for women. Kiehart's life over the next several decades makes very moving reading. A difficult, though not entirely unhappy marriage; an unexpected pregnancy and the birth of a son who brought her joy; a new love interest; and eventual resolution of many of the issues she had alternately struggled with or tried to submerge, all very well presented. As one reviewer put it, the memoir is relevant and enlightening for anyone "trying to fight their way through the shame society has placed on their unconventional {inclinations}...such as atheists in religious families, homosexuals in homophobic climates, and people having identity crises generally". I recommend it even if you don't fall into one of those categories.

>55 laytonwoman3rd: Hi Linda! You are blessed to know so many creative people. Didn't your daughter do graduate studies at UT Knoxville? Is this where you met Holly, or was it somewhere else?

>59 cbl_tn: I think Mims will forgive me jumping in here (especially as I know her to be out visiting aged relatives this afty). I did do my PhD at UTK. Holly and I met in undergrad and then were roommates while we were both getting our master's degrees. So we've known each over 20 years, and thus LW3 has for about that long too. Holly did not attend UTK. I concur that Mims does, indeed, know a lot of very cool, very creative people, and I can only take credit for bringing a small handful of them into her life. ;-)

>59 cbl_tn: You have a heck of a memory, Carrie! And yes, I do know a lot of creative people...hanging out with the library crowd accounts for some of them, but I feel this has been true all my life, and I love it. I take FULL credit for bringing the cool creative person that is lycomayflower into my life. *whirls around* OH HAI, flamingrabbit ...what's that? She's YOUR daughter too?? Mmm...that IS true...

>60 lycomayflower: >61 laytonwoman3rd: That's wonderful! I'm sorry that we can't claim Holly as a UTK alum.

You would not have wanted to be at UTK this past week. It has been closed all week due to snow, and tomorrow's classes have been cancelled as well. Knoxville got 10 inches on Monday, followed by arctic weather with lows in the single digits and highs below freezing, then another winter storm Thursday into Friday. It is not supposed to get above freezing until tomorrow afternoon, and many of the secondary roads are still covered with ice. In true East Tennesssee fashion, we will have highs in the 60s by the end of this week. We'll be getting rain with it, but that's OK with me!

>62 cbl_tn: We have relatives living in Nashville, and that looked pretty horrid this last week as well.

Linda, I wanted to comment on your comment on my thread. I love that you want to share my public library story at your next board meeting. It was a perfect library adventure. I started explaining to the librarian why we wanted to use their wifi and she just looked at me like "lady, it's free, use the wifi." But she smiled and waved at us as we were leaving after downloading our ebooks from a different public library!

>64 EBT1002: Thank you, Ellen. I thought maybe I was being a little presumptuous after I posted that. But it was an absolutely perfect illustration of why libraries are so important. During the pandemic while we were closed, we made a point of posting on social media that our wifi was available from the street (we don't have a parking lot, unfortunately), and that anyone was welcome to use it. It's a thing a lot of people might never think of.

>63 laytonwoman3rd: I think conditions in Nashville must be better now. I had a FedEx package stuck near Nashville over the weekend and it finally arrived on Tuesday. Knox County Schools are reopening today. We're getting rain now and the high today is supposed to be in the mid-60s. That's East Tennessee for you!

>50 laytonwoman3rd: Nice to finally have a book on your thread to which I can give a pass. Mainly you hit me with BBs!

>55 laytonwoman3rd: I still need to read that one yet this month, so I am skipping your review for the moment. I will revisit it once I have read the book.

>58 laytonwoman3rd: Into the BlackHole it goes! Thanks for the recommendation, Linda.

Have a fantastic Friday!

>67 alcottacre: I think the warnings are as valuable as the recommendations, don't you?

6. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz A mystery within a mystery, a novel within a novel, an homage to the Golden Age---whatever you want to call this, it's entertaining but...

For anyone else who hasn't already been exposed to this one, I summarize it as briefly as possible.

A ninth novel in a popular detective series is left with the author's publisher, just before the author plunges to his death, an apparent suicide. Oddly, the last chapter or two, containing the resolution of course, is missing from both extant copies, and we are left up in the air after a little over 213 pages. Switch now to the editor who has worked on this author's previous novels, a woman who loves a good mystery, and thinks she might work out what the ending was meant to be, or possibly find the missing pages...and we're off on another investigation.

Lots of characters with motive, many of them lying about their movements; a locked room mystery; a will that didn't quite get altered in time; jilted lovers and failed marriages; an old tragedy with long-lasting effects; a small village up in arms over development----so many familiar elements, especially if you are a fan of Horowitz's Midsomer Murders TV series.

Both mysteries set forth here are pretty bog-standard, with an occasional nifty twist and lots of allusions to the genre and masters/mistresses thereof. I actually had figured out the "secret" of the first death, as well as the culprit in the frame story, long before the reveal, and that doesn't often happen to me. It was all fun, but I could very well have done without certain insertions, (letters, fragments of the dead author's other works, two excerpts from two other authors' stuff to prove one had stolen from the other) and a few of the red herrings. The length and format sort of dictated that the author would re-hash what's known and what's surmised several times when switching from the subject novel to the frame story...it just made the bloody thing take too long. When I read a mystery, I'm in the mood to blaze through to a satisfying ending (and contrarily then I will be sorry it's over). But that's me. It might be exactly what you're looking for.

>68 laytonwoman3rd: Yes, I do.

I posted my review of Heading North on my thread (and the book's review page) if you care to take a look. Thank you for encouraging me to read it.

>70 alcottacre: Very nice, Stasia! As I said on your page, I'm glad you enjoyed Heading North, and happy you're passing it on as well.

Jennifer Finney Boylan, who was featured in the 2022 AAC, is the new President of Pen America, and I thought I'd share this message here. If anyone is so inclined, support for the fight against book banning and other forms of censorship can be made through their website. https://pen.org/fall23-fight-back-against-book-bans/

7. Dreaming of the Bones by Deborah Crombie The format is very different, but in a remarkable coincidence of timing, this mystery (No. 5 in the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series) follows a very similar storyline to my previous read. An apparent suicide questioned years later; missing manuscript pages; a large cast of characters with tangled pasts and possible motives for killing a poet once part of their University circle; another woman determined to suss out what really happened, unwittingly putting herself in peril; twin mysteries with a single key. If I weren't already invested in this series, I think I would have said "No way" to this one, at least for now, but I was really in the mood to get back into the Scotland Yard world of these two detectives. I'm glad I didn't chuck it; the common material was put to much better use here than in Magpie Murders, in my opinion.

Out of the blue, Duncan Kincaid's ex-wife Vic contacts him after years of no communication, to ask his help. She has been working on a biography of a poet who died just five years before, an accepted suicide based on the manner of her death and her multiple previous attempts to take her own life. However, after reading through the private papers, most especially letters to the poet's mother, Vic has become convinced the other woman was murdered, and she wants Duncan to call in a favor to get the local constabulary to look into the death. No one wants to be bothered, naturally, but Duncan is persuaded that Vic's instincts might be valid, and takes it on himself to investigate without authority.

What follows presents multiple challenges to Duncan's view of himself and his life, as well as his relationship with Gemma. The past he's digging into contains any number of secrets that the people whose lives overlapped with Vic's and the poet Lydia Brooke's might want to keep suppressed. Fans of the Bloomsbury group in general, and Rupert Brooke in particular, will enjoy the many references to that literary enclave; fans of this series will find plenty to ponder as Duncan's personal life takes a dramatic turn or two. This was good, although the major underlying secret only came to light very near the end, and the conclusion felt a bit convoluted and rushed. Still, it satisfied my itch.

>73 laytonwoman3rd: That was my favorite book in the series until I got to Water Like a Stone!

>72 laytonwoman3rd: thanks for this, Linda.

>73 laytonwoman3rd: I started this series and decided it was one I'd like to continue, but haven't done so yet. I appreciate the reminder.

>73 laytonwoman3rd: - Good comments. Series books tend to run together in my head, no matter how much I love the series (and I adore this one), but Dreaming of the Bones is one I remember pretty well.

>69 laytonwoman3rd: This is a series that I quite enjoy. For the longest time, I had no idea that the author also wrote a 11 episodes of Midsomer murders.

Happy mid week!

>77 figsfromthistle: Not only did Horowitz write many of the Midsomer episodes, the whole concept was his, as I understand it.

>78 laytonwoman3rd: I believe the Midsomer Murders TV program is based on a book series by Caroline Graham. I read the first one years ago and it didn't grab me enough to continue reading the series. The TV show has been much more successful than the books.

I thought Magpie Murders worked better as a TV miniseries than as a book. Horowitz has written so many screenplays that I think their structure spills over into his novel writing.

>79 cbl_tn: You're right about Caroline Graham having "invented" the series, Carrie. I should have said Horowitz was the creator of the TV series, which we love in this household, btw. I have never read the books.

>76 katiekrug: I do like when the characters' lives in a series are at least as interesting as the mysteries. Developments in this one made it inevitable that I will read the next installment.

>75 lauralkeet: You know I live to serve!

Hi Linda. I read Magpie Murders but have not returned to the series. I did not guess the solution -- I almost never do, but part of that may be that I don't try to -- and I liked it less than some did. I have considered rereading it with a more, I don't know, focused attention to see if I like it better. I do enjoy the Midsomer Murders series on television!

>82 EBT1002: I hardly ever figure out solutions to mystery novels either, and like you, I'm often not even trying. I love the Midsomer Murders TV series too, and recently got my husband hooked on them, which means we are now watching early seasons that I've seen before but he hasn't...I don't always "figure out" who dunnit, even the second time around!

8. North Woods by Daniel Mason. I know there has been a lot of love for this novel in this parts, and lycomayflower strenuously urged me to read it. It certainly sounded like my sort of thing---multiple story lines tied to one spot in an ancient forest in Massachusetts, the past inhabiting the present, the present mirroring the past. It's the kind of thing I get utterly immersed in, usually. Although I really enjoyed parts of this one, (and have a lot of respect for that catamount!) for some reason the "magic" never took hold, and I wasn't as enchanted as I'd expected and hoped to be. I feel there may have been just too many casts of characters and too many plots, to the point where I sometimes lost the connecting thread. This is one of those times when I'm sure the book was better than my experience of it.

>84 laytonwoman3rd: That can happen Linda. I have it near the top of the tbr mountain, I'll wait for the right mood.

>85 Caroline_McElwee: Given unlimited time, I might give it another go one day and appreciate it more.

*9. Track of Sand by Andrea Camilleri A very quick outing with Salvo Montalbano and the gang as he works to discover who brutally killed a race horse and left it on the beach near his home. Some actual detecting, a lot of good food, and some beautiful women to complicate Salvo's already fraught relationship with the (un)fair Livia made this one a lot of fun.

10. People of Darkness by Tony Hillerman This one is all Jim Chee's show. He is introduced as a young Navajo tribal police officer, with a chance to join the FBI. He grapples with the need to understand how white people think so that he can deal with them professionally, without short-changing his own heritage and traditions. When a woman contacts him for help in finding a box that was stolen from her home during her husband's absence he hesitates to take it on, but is drawn in when the husband himself calls to tell him there's been a misunderstanding, and the box is not important enough to warrant an investigation. The wife was ready to pay Chee handsomely to find it, and the husband offers him a smaller amount, basically to forget about it. In an apparent sub-plot, a hired killer is doing away with people who might know something about an oil rig explosion years ago, and Chee himself becomes a target when he tries to make a connection. Fast-paced, and engaging. As with The Blessing Way, it suffers a bit from "first appearance" weaknesses---we just don't know Chee well enough yet, and after getting familiar with Leaphorn in the first three books in this series, I was disappointed to be back to square one, so to speak. Nevertheless, I know now what Hillerman can do with a character, and I'm here for it.

Haven't read that one yet by Hillerman. Should!! ; ) Happy Friday.

>89 Berly: Hi, Kim...thanks for the Friday wishes. Nice to have a visitor! I have the next in the Leaphorn/Chee series on hand, and may get to it soonish.

>87 laytonwoman3rd: I miss Camilleri and his wonderful creation Inspector Montalbano.

Have a lovely Sunday.

>87 laytonwoman3rd: Didn' get on with first Camilleri, and still not got to Hillman, though think I have a couple somewhere.

I hope you are having a good weekend Linda.

>91 PaulCranswick: Hi, Paul! So have you read all the Montalbanos? I still have a few to go, and I space them out. There are aspects of them that I don't care for, but once in a while they are just what I want to read anyway.

>92 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caro. I can understand not getting along with Camilleri, as I said. He has some unpleasant tendencies. I think you need to read at least two Hillermans featuring either of the main characters, in order to "get the feel". He develops the characters slowly, but well.

11. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk I simply don't know what to say about this oddity. Let me quote the NY Times Book Review: "A marvelously weird and fable-like mystery...a philosophical fairy tale about life and death..." That's good, except maybe for the "marvelous" part. Because there is SO much heavy-handed condemnation of humans who hunt or just eat animals, SO much astrology-gibberish that the intriguing mystery kind of gets short-changed. I admit I didn't see the reveal coming, and I think that may have been in part due to those distracting and detracting elements. Translated from the Polish.

This has been on my shelf since last November, but I read it now as part of the memorial for rosalita, who had it on her TBR list.

>94 laytonwoman3rd: I didn't realize that rosalita (Julia) had passed on. I don't think I have seen her posts for several years but my head is increasingly buried in the sand. Not everyone names themselves after a Springsteen song!

I have been taking a ruthless approach to book-purging in the last month or so. I've gone through my children's book collection, my poetry collection, and my Virago editions, and consequently have boxed up 50 books for donation to various organizations. In the process I came across a few others I thought I could live without. My list in >5 laytonwoman3rd: above was getting really long, so I've continued it here:

31. Saraband by Eliot Bliss
32. Marriage by Susan Ferrier
33. The Street by Ann Petry
34. Dusty Answer by Rosamond Lehmann
35. Chronicles of Carlingford/Miss Marjoribanks by Margaret Oliphant
36. The Camomile by Catherine Carswell
37. Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns
38. Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns
39. The Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns
40. The Salzburg Tales by Christina Stead
41. Marcella by Mrs. Humphry Ward
42. Rhapsody by Dorothy Edwards
43. The Fly on the Wheel by Katherine Cecil Thurston
44. That Lady by Kate O'Brien
45. Rumour of Heaven by Beatrix Lehmann
46. One Way of Love by Gamel Woolsey
47. My Brilliant Career/My Career Goes Bung by Miles Franklin
48. Year Before Last by Kay Boyle
49. Brother Jacob by George Eliot
50. Armour Wherein He Trusted by Mary Webb

There will be further additions as the year progresses, I hope.

>96 laytonwoman3rd: Congrats on making a lot of room for new books :-)

>97 norabelle414: Thanks! But if I'm smart, I will keep those new acquisitions to a minimum. The "room" I created is not visible to the casual observer, as many of the books I culled were either boxed or double-shelved. Still, I know myself...it won't last.

>96 laytonwoman3rd: good for you. I have been doing a rather heavy purge myself the last two years. I did not keep track of them, which I slightly regret, but they were all books I dnf or decided it was highly unlikley to read. I had a couple of changes of the heart afterwards, usually when I would run across someone praising the book, so maybe a few I didn't give a fair chance.

I am increasingly trying to just keep books I was very impressed with. I continue to receive a few books from friends but am keeping my buying to a minimum. I still have a ridulous amount of tbr.

>99 RBeffa: I'm sure something I've purged will rise up and scold me at some point in the future---it has happened before. But I can live with a small percentage of that.

>94 laytonwoman3rd: I started this a few years back, but could not get into it and DNF. So your review confirms I was right to desist Linda. I let it go, though I know a few who loved it.

>93 laytonwoman3rd: Yes I read all of them and was most disappointed by the final one. I really enjoyed them but remember little about the plots of any of them.

>96 laytonwoman3rd: Wowzer! I have only read the Miles Franklin from that list.

>101 Caroline_McElwee: It had the advantage of being relatively short, so I powered through.

>102 PaulCranswick: Wouldn't want you to think I'd read all of those I boxed up for donation, Paul. I decided I was unlikely EVER to read a fair number of them. I did read all the Barbara Comyns, the Eliot, and part of the Christina Stead.

12. The Tree of Hands by Ruth Rendell Two lost toddlers--one dead and one gone missing; two very different mothers--one bereft, one oddly unconcerned. A host of secondary characters, all with secrets, suspicions, and personal agendas, some with moral dilemmas, some devoid of any moral sense. It's a typical Rendell stew, and no one dare try to predict how the flavors will blend. Not my favorite Rendell, but an absorbing page-turner as usual with her.

I have a bunch of Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine books in my stacks... I need to read more.

Congrats on the successful purge, Linda. I've been doing a book or two at a time. Baby steps, I guess.

>105 katiekrug: I usually enjoy the stand-alone ones, but haven't got attached to her recurring character, Inspector Wexford, so far. I think I've read the first one or two, and years ago one way down the list in the series. I should try to get to those in order.

>106 BLBera: Mmm... I have to be in the right mood, and then I actually need to restrain myself a little. But one here and one there isn't a bad way to go at it either.

13. Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Excellent profiles of several prominent (famous or notorious) black men, which I'd love to see updated. It was published in 1997, so many of Gates's subjects have said and done things in the last quarter century that are worthy of further discussion. For instance, it was written after O.J. Simpson's acquittal on murder charges, but before he was found civilly liable to the family's of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman and well before he was arrested and sent to jail for other offenses; it was written long before Louis Farrakhan became a supporter of Donald Trump and vice versa....none of these things would have changed Dr. Gates's even-handed and insightful treatment of the men themselves, but I sure would be fascinated to hear his thoughts. A very worthwhile and enlightening read. It only loses 1/2 star for being a bit out of date.

14. A Commonplace Book of Pie by Kate Lebo A re-visit to a little gem of a book I previously reviewed in 2015. Despite my exhortation to "Buy it. It will do you and the world good", only 18 copies are catalogued here, and mine remains the lone review. Maybe a picture or two (the illustrations by Jessica Lynn Bonin are nearly as much of a treat as the pie itself would be)...





As for quotes, what about: "Bad bananas are like push-up bras..."; "All peach pie-lovers are men, if only on the inside." ; "The Swedish have a word for hunger that sounds like ice before it's scraped off a windshield..." ; "Only one woman alive today would say her favorite pie is mincemeat."

You see? You really need to know what follows each of those statements, don't you? Oh, and Lebo will tell you how to make a flawless flaky crust, whatever your favorite filling might be.

>109 laytonwoman3rd: You really got me with that one. I can't get it through my library (even the consortium has failed me!) but I found a cheap used copy online. I love making pie (I'd much rather make a pie than a cake), so I'm sure this will be a nice addition to my cooking shelf.

15. No, I Won't Bow Down on that Dirty Ground by Maurice M. Martinez, Ph.D The subtitle, "A History of the Black Mardi Gras Indians" tells you exactly what this self-published book is about. The author presents his subject matter as a conversation between himself as a young boy and his grandmother, alternated with purported excerpts from a book handed down through generations of his family--a handwritten, first-hand account of the life of the boy's great, great grandfather, born into slavery in 1795. Neither the conversation nor the slave narrative "work", stylistically, and that's unfortunate because it distracts from the content. Amazon calls this a "historical novel". Nowhere does Martinez hint that the book is anything other than history, although neither does he offer footnotes, end notes, or source material (except occasionally when he quotes from newspapers or other authors and gives credit in the text). A number of historical photos are included, as are maps and diagrams. Portions of the text are set in boldface, presumably to alert us to the fact that this is the author talking directly to the reader, but there are instances where that must be the case and the type does not change. The book was clearly put together without professional copy editing or even proof-reading. The ancestral autobiography reads as though it were translated from another language into colloquial 20th century English. As far as I can determine with a bit of quick research, the plantation referred to in the autobiography is fictitious, but many historical figures (John Horse, Wild Cat, Osceola) do play a role in the narrative. Despite the many flaws, I am glad to have read this account of the origins of the so-called Black Mardi Gras Indians, because it certainly has inspired me to read some of the more scholarly treatments of the Seminole wars and the relationship between formerly enslaved people and Native American tribes in Florida and Louisiana in the 19th century. Luckily, I have some titles on hand (including one that was quoted by Martinez, Our Land Before We Die).

Yeah, those are catchy—and sticky—quotes. So I will look for a copy. I DO want to make pie crusts, if only for pumpkin, shoofly, and pecan pies.

I'm commencing to begin.

>110 foggidawn: Oh, I'm glad you could find an inexpensive copy. Chin Music Press publishes some very cool stuff, but I don't think I'd ever expect to find them in my public library either.

>112 weird_O: GO, you. I had an uncle who made pie crust almost equal to his mother's. I have a spot of trouble with it myself.

>113 laytonwoman3rd: Butter, Mims. Butter.

>88 laytonwoman3rd: >89 Berly: I have not read any Tony Hillerman either, I do not think, although my mother is a big fan.

>94 laytonwoman3rd: I have that one in the BlackHole. Based on your description, I think I am taking it out as it does not sound like my cuppa.

>96 laytonwoman3rd: I have slowly but surely culling books (and games) over the past couple of years. I send them over to my daughter Catey's shop :) Good luck with your cull, Linda!

>104 laytonwoman3rd: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation.

>108 laytonwoman3rd: Already in the BlackHole or I would be adding it again. . .

Have a wonderful weekend, Linda!

>114 lycomayflower: Mmmm....well, perhaps you got the gene, and I didn't.

>115 alcottacre: Glad I could help you add AND subtract from your BlackHole, Stasia!

The March thread is up in the AAC We're reading Truman Capote this month.

16. Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe I wasn't a teenager at the right time to be smitten by Rob Lowe in his "brat pack" days. I came to admire him as Sam Seaborn in The West Wing, and loved his all-too-brief run in the British TV series "Wild Bill". Beyond those two shows, my only exposure to him was through his commercials for Atkins diet products. I picked this up at a Little Free Library recently without any previous intention of reading it, and it was a serendipitous find at a time when I needed something "nice" and unchallenging. This easy-reading autobiography (which only takes him to 2011) confirmed my impression that he is a talented actor, a funny guy with a heart, and a decent human being. He doesn't dish dirt, and pointedly leaves out names of "the innocent" in some of his tales. If you like him, you'll like his book.

>118 laytonwoman3rd: My wife and I really enjoyed the brat pack era of films, but when I think of actors and actresses I think really made the films sparkle, Rob Lowe would never come to mind. He has been a prolific actor (does that make sense?) over the years, much moreso than many of his contemporaries.

>119 RBeffa: I watched The Outsiders for the first time last week, after reading the section of Lowe's book where he talked about auditioning and shooting scenes for it. Unfortunately, most of his work on the film didn't make the final cut.

>120 laytonwoman3rd: You got me in the mood to read the Rob Lowe book now.

>121 RBeffa: It's a quickie...with pictures yet.

I forgot to mention that I finally got my hands on a Garry Disher novel you liked several years ago, Blood Moon. 5th in the series and I hope to start it shortly. The blurb on the flyleaf cracked me up, but the first few pages with the super controlling husband sounds like a nightmare.

>123 RBeffa: Let me know how that works for you, Ron. I'm always leary of plunging into a series mid-stream. I'm sorry Disher seems to have quit on Hal Challis.

>118 laytonwoman3rd: - I enjoyed that one, too, when I listened to it several years ago. I didn't like the follow-up, Love Life, quite as good.

>118 laytonwoman3rd: I do like him Linda. He came across just as you describe in the documentary 'I am Patrick Swayze', which I highly recommend if you haven't seen. It is rentable on Prime.

>125 katiekrug: I wish audio fit into my life better these days, because I think I'd enjoy hearing him read his memoirs.

>126 Caroline_McElwee: Oh, thanks for that, Caro. I'll look that up.

17. Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote For the March AAC

13-year-old Joel Knox leaves his aunt's house in New Orleans, where he has been comfortably cared for since his mother's death, ostensibly having been summoned by the father he has never met. His solo journey into the gothic environs of Southern decay leads him to an obscure backwater where he meets blighted characters haunted by the past, struggling with the present and dubious of the future. Joel has long been able to take himself to a "secret room" in his mind, and often has unbidden visions as well. He puts his observations of the new people in his life to good use, eventually realizing basic truths about himself and what matters to him. A brilliant short novel packed with elegant prose, atmosphere and humanity. If only Capote could have held on to the wise young man inside himself shown to us here.

"...only hypocrites would hold a man responsible for what he loves"

>124 laytonwoman3rd: I am enjoying the book quite a lot. Taking it slow. Googling places like Phillip island to see what they look like. Obviously I have missed some backstory by starting with book 5 but the author has introduced the characters very well and mentions some of the history. I will be on the lookout for more Disher novels.

>129 RBeffa: I've picked up another Australian police procedural, Broken Shore by Peter Temple. It's the first in a 2 book (so far) series, but feels like a lot of back story exists without being fully revealed. I'm only 1/3 of the way in, so reserving final judgment.

>130 laytonwoman3rd: I see Librarything is recommending Temple to me based on Blood Moon. Got to the end this morning. I kept asking myself how the woman could have been murdered when the obvious suspect, stalker husband, was following her everywhere. I really liked several of the characters in the novel, but oddly or not, Challis himself not so much of an impression. I will attribute that to jumping into the middle of the series. I plan to read more in this series since I really enjoyed a lot about it - on the other side of the world and down under and different, but also familiar enough.

18. The Broken Shore by Peter Temple As noted above, an Australian police procedural. Joe Cashin is a former member of the homicide squad in a city force; after a bad accident in the line of duty, which cost another officer his life, he's been assigned to run a station in a small coastal town where he knows the lay of the land from spending his childhood there. He suffers from chronic pain, PTSD, and survivor's guilt...the back story is parceled out to the reader in fragments as the main plot unfolds. A highly respected member of the community is found dead in his home, possibly the victim of a panicked burglar caught in the act. But a few things fail to add up for Cashin, whose suspicions prompt him to ask questions even his superiors don't want answers to. This is an intense and absorbing story, made a bit difficult for me at times by the uber-natural dialog between characters who clearly share history and inside jokes that might be more easily understood by Australian readers than American ones. (An Aussie slang glossary at the end of the book was helpful, but did not erase all the language mysteries for me.) Nonetheless, I quite enjoyed the rough ride, and everything came together in the end. This one is not for the faint of heart. Gritty, noir, very well done, but trigger warnings are warranted for graphic descriptions of mutilations, racial epithets, sexual abuse of children and general profanity. Some of these elements are ubiquitous throughout, and others come fairly late in the narrative, with the potential to take the reader somewhere they didn't expect to go.

19. Mr. Timothy by Louis Bayard Here's Tiny Tim Cratchit, all grown up, trying to find himself (to put a 20th century term to it) or claim his narrative (if we want to drag him all the way into this century), and getting mixed up in some pretty seamy stuff. Both his parents are dead, and he is somewhat estranged from his surviving siblings. Uncle Ebenezer is still doling out support, but Tim gets room and board in a brothel in exchange for teaching the "matron" to read, and spends many a night trawling the river and canals with a retired sea captain, hoping to haul up a dead body with treasure in its pockets. He "sees" his father periodically here and there, and writes letters to Bob trying to sort out his legacy. It's a very Dickensian existence. When Tim stumbles on evidence of a white slavery scheme victimizing very young girls, he finds a purpose. At first he hopes only to save one particular girl who seems to have temporarily escaped the clutches of the villains, but soon he begins to hope he might bring down the whole wicked undertaking. It's 19th century skulduggery, with lots of thrills, suspense and plot twists. I loved it. Grim subject matter, but well handled.

20. Dry Bones by Craig Johnson A remarkably complete T. Rex skeleton has been found by a young paleontologist on what may or may not be Cheyenne land, or land owned personally by Danny Lone Elk, who mysteriously ends up dead in the Turtle Pond where he often feeds and communes with the ancient creatures before feeding on them. The FBI gets involved because if it turns out the Cheyenne, individually or collectively, do not own the land, it might be federal property, and the government wouldn't want to lose out on the sale of that T. Rex. Lots of nasty business, Walt's family situation takes a turn, and he faces more than one crazy bastard intent on shooting, stabbing or otherwise maiming him. Miraculously, he escapes this time with nothing more than a possible concussion. Tragedy and comedy overlap in the best way, a character who has apparently served his purpose is "written out", and it looks like Cady is coming back to Wyoming. A definite improvement over the last installment.

>128 laytonwoman3rd: Fame and adulation have screwed up so many promising people.

Have a great weekend! *smooch*

>135 richardderus: Thanks, Richard. Good to have a visit from you.

>109 laytonwoman3rd: You've convinced me. I think the pie book will be one of this year's Thingaversary purchases. My grandmother taught me to bake pies the last summer before she died, and it's such a special memory.

>137 cbl_tn: Awww...good. My grandmother taught me to make bread, and she's right there at my elbow (in my head, anyway) every time I do it. The pie thing...I'm afraid I didn't quite inherit the gene that made that so effortless for so many women in my family.

>133 laytonwoman3rd: It has been a number of years since I read that one. It may be due a reread.

Have a wonderful Wednesday, Linda!

>139 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia. And here it is Friday already!

Don't miss the April thread in the AAC, General Non-Fiction, hosted by caroline_mcelwee. MANY thanks for the fill in.

21. The Black Box: Writing the Race by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. If you're looking for something to read for the April AAC, this one is a great choice. Gates writes in a scholarly but never dry, informative but never preachy style that gives his subject matter an excellent showing. This book is assembled from lectures Dr. Gates has given (revised many times over the years, in accordance with the kind of questions and responses he has received from his students) in his Harvard African American Studies courses. The basic topic here is how the Black community has worked toward acceptance, respect and identity through literacy and the arts since before the Civil War. He discusses in some detail the many sides of the question "What does it mean to BE African American?", including the evolution of both Black and white stances over time, and the moral, ethical and political complexities of even trying to define what it means to be Black in America. Exceptional, and difficult to process with a single reading, through no fault of the author. Highly recommended.

I enjoy watching Gates on his tv series so will add this title to the library list. Sounds like something I'd enjoy.

>141 laytonwoman3rd: Adding this to my list too Linda, if not for April.

>141 laytonwoman3rd: Hi Linda! I've read a couple of his other books, and I love his PBS series on genealogy. I'll have to keep an eye out for this one.

>142 jessibud2:,>143 Caroline_McElwee:, >144 cbl_tn: I was glad to get this book shortly after it was published, and to be able to read it right away. I find Dr. Gates very readable, informative, and level-headed about some pretty inflammatory history. Happy to have hit you all with this BB! And we love his PBS series here too---looking forward to tomorrow's episode after a couple weeks when it didn't air.

I should start a new thread, but a few more posts will activate the continuation link, so....hint, hint, lurkers emerge!

Helping out a friend here... ;-)

*waves at Linda*

*smooch*

and another just cuz *smooch*

And one more!

It's soup now!

*tosses confetti*

It's a party!

See, I KNEW you guys were out there!

The Black Box goes on my WL, Linda. I admire Gates. Great comments.

>141 laytonwoman3rd: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation, Linda!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

>155 BLBera:, >156 alcottacre: I feel like an influencer!

Thanks for the boost, everyone. New thread is up and ready for visitors!