Nickelini 2024

Hi, I'm Joyce from Vancouver, Canada. I predict I won't be reading much in 2024, but I will try to keep up here.

Reading Stats

May

12. The Centaur's Wife, Amanda LeDuc

April

11. 101 Things I Learned in Urban Design School, Fredrick & Mehta
10. The Spoon Stealer, Lesley Crewe

March

9. Bass Rock, Evie Wyld
8. Spare, Prince Harry

February

7. Pull of the Stars, Emma Donohue
6. The Beaten Track, Louise Mangos
5. A Devil Comes to Town, Paolo Maurensig
4. Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen

January

3. Women Talking, Miriam Toews
2. Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu
1. The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O'Farrell

READING STATS (updated monthly)

Nationality of Author:

UK: 4
US: 2
Canada: 2
Italy: 1
Ireland: 1
Australia: 1

Language if not English:

Italian: 1

Gender:

F: 7
M: 4

Year Published:

1813: 1
2018: 3
2019: 1
2020: 3
2022: 2
2023: 1

Where my reading took me:

Florence & Ferrara, 1550s / Chinatown & Hollywood, 20th & 21st century / Mennonite Colony in Bolivia, 2009 / Kent, Hertfordshire & Derbyshire, 1810 / Switzerland 1980s / Switzerland, San Francisco, Hawaii, New Zealand, Sydney, Thailand, Nepal, 1988 / Dublin, 1918 / England, Scotland, Australia, Botswana, Vancouver Island, 1997 - 2021 / Scotland, 1700s, 1940s, 2019 / Nova Scotia & England, 1900 - 1970 /

2023 Conclusion

The year started out strong, but reading quickly fell away in spring and never recovered.

Total books read: 31
Fiction: 29
Memoir: 1
Non-fiction: 1

Female authors: 18 (58%)
Male authors: 13 (42%)

Different authors: 29
New to me authors (never read before): 19
Rereads: 1

Age of my books: 67% were written in 2016 - 2022
Oldest book was written in 1949

Author's nationality:

UK - 10 (32%)
Canada - 5 (16%)
US - 3 (9%)
Italy - 2 (6%)
Australia - 2 (6%)
France - 2 (6%)
Iceland - 1 (3%)
Netherlands - 1 (3%)
Ireland - 1 (3%)
Finland - 1 (3%)
Mexico - 1 (3%)
Denmark - 1 (3%)
Japan - 1 (3%)

Languages:
Translated books read - 10 = 32%
Italian - 2
French - 2
Icelandic - 1
Dutch - 1
Finnish - 1
Spanish - 1
Danish - 1
Japanese - 1

Best books of 2023:

In reading order:

January: Snowblind, by Ragnar Jonasson and Superfan, by Jen Sookfong Lee
February: Three Hours, by Rosamund Lupton and Lonely Hearts Hotel, by Heather O'Neill
April: English Animals, by Laura Kaye
June: The Glass Hotel, by Emily St John Mandel, and Empty Houses, by Brenda Navarro
November: The Chateau, Catherine Cooper

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Number of books I've read each year since joining LT

My reading is not consistent!

2007 - 85
2008 - 91
2009 - 102
2010 - 89
2011 - 75
2012 - 75
2013 - 90
2014 - 75
2015 - 68
2016 - 73
2017 - 31
2018 - 29
2019 - 40
2020 - 46
2021 - 83
2022 - 47
2023 - 31

Hi Joyce, happy reading 2024. I've sent you a PM.

Stopping by to drop a star!

Hello - I was wondering where you were! (See our matching minimalist thread titles ;-) ?)

I am watching the spaces and awaiting further instruction.

Watching.... Wait for it....

Happy New Year, Joyce. I'll be back.

Watching. Happy travels and reading where you find it.

Can't wait!

Happy new year!

>4 Ameise1:, >5 Caramellunacy:, >6 rachbxl:, >7 ursula:, >8 labfs39:, >9 BLBera:, >10 dchaikin:, >11 rocketjk:, >12 LolaWalser:

Greetings and salutations, everyone! I will endeavor to fill in my usual fields and keep up with LT. It's been such a big part of my life since 2008.

I am struggling to get time to get back to LT at the moment, and also now I'm struggling with my brand new laptop. It does such strange things. My old PC died in October and I was patching things between my phone, my husband's laptop, and occasionally firing up the other PC in the basement office. After 10 years of using laptops, including in the past year for work everyday, this one has a mind of it's own and buttons that are Greek to me.

Will be following along again this year!

>14 AlisonY: Hi, Alison! I'll be dropping by your thread too

1. Marriage Portrait, Maggie O'Farrell, 2022


cover comments: Initially I was disappointed in this cover as I thought the hard cover, with an actual portrait of the protagonist, made more sense. I certainly had to google her picture several times while reading and I would have preferred to just look at the cover. However, I did come around on this one and think it's good too. It reminds me of the opening credit art on the TV series "White Lotus," which I loved.

Comments: A great novel to start the year!

It's the middle of the 1500s, and a 13 year old third daughter of the Grand Duke of Tuscany finds herself in an arranged marriage with Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara. Understandably she's not thrilled about this and would rather be painting miniatures. Little is known about the real Lucrezia di Medici, and she died suddenly when she was 16. A fever and disease is considered the cause, but there have long been rumours that she was murdered by her husband. O'Farrell explores one version of what might have happened.

Why I Read This Now: this was my addition to my book club's selections this year and it was selected for January's book. We had a great discussion and everyone loved the book

Rating: 4.5 stars. Because I have no reading mojo, it took my 3 weeks to read and I think in normal times I'd have read it in a few days and rated it 5 stars

How I Discovered This: O'Farrell is a favourite of mine

Recommended for : readers who like well written historical fiction, and books set in the Italian Renaissance

>16 Nickelini: O'Farrell's a favorite author of mine as well, and I have a copy of this that somehow got pushed aside in the stream of new books. Now that I'm trying to read more spontaneously, I hope to read this one soon as I know I'll like it.

>17 RidgewayGirl: I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts when you get to it

>1 Nickelini: I love this painting! Who is the artist?

I love the cover of The Marriage Portrait, Joyce and loved this one as well. I will read anything Maggie O'Farrell wants to write.

>19 ELiz_M: It's just something I stumbled on while browsing Pinterest, but an internet search tells me it's "Woman Reading (the artist's wife)" Aaron Shikler. I am not familiar with this artist.

>20 BLBera: O'Farrell is pretty much an automatic-buy author for me too

Happy New Year, Joyce, a bit belated.

>23 Cariola: Hi, Deborah!

2. Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu, 2020. Audiobook read by Joel de la Fuente


Cover comments: I love it. It fits the book perfectly

Rating: 4.5 stars

Comments: Interior Chinatown will definitely make my "best of 2024" list.

Written as a script, this is a unique novel that is satirical, deep, and often very funny. Willis Wu works in Hollywood, often on a cop show called "Black and White," and dreams of being "Kung Fu guy," when he is usually offered only "delivery guy" or "dead Asian man #2". Willis strives to be the main character in his own life, but because of the racism he experiences as an Asian American, feels that part is never available to him. This book doesn't have much of a plot, but it does have a lot to say, and says it in a new and clever way.

Recommended for: readers who don't like this complain about the script format, which I guess wasn't quite as apparent in the audiobook. I think everyone should give this a try.

How I discovered this: Europa Editions social media when it was published (they published an edition simultaneously with one of the big 5 publishers). It went onto my wish list immediately because I thought it sounded terrific.

Why I Read This Now: The last audiobook I read was in 2015. I quit because the app that the library offered was beyond frustrating. I knew that there must be a better way by now, but I was busy listening to podcasts so never pursued it. My daughter has been using this library app, Libby, and talked me into trying audiobooks again. I'm happy to be back.

Note: Interior Chinatown is coming as a TV series later this year. I'm looking forward to it.

>25 Nickelini: I loved Interior Chinatown, and that got my daughter to read it, and she loved it too. I didn't realize it was going to be a series. Interesting.

>25 Nickelini: too short for an audbible credit. But sounds fun

>25 Nickelini: It worked very well in the form of a script. It took a few pages to adapt to the format, but it perfectly fits with the story.

I also loved Interior Chinatown, and I did not know that it was going to made into a television series!

>25 Nickelini: I read Interior Chinatown when it first came out and thought it was very original. He has a new novel coming out.

3. Women Talking, Miriam Toews, 2018. Audiobook read by Matthew Edison


Cover comments: this is the paperback that I own and I think this cover is perfection. Love the colours


Cover comment: a detail from this was my audiobook cover. I see now that it's a larger picture and is obviously the movie poster. People enjoy raging against movie tie-in covers, but this is an example of one that is perfectly lovely.

Comments: Between 2005 and 2009, over a hundred women and girls were routinely drugged and abused in a remote religious colony in Bolivia. This is a fictionalization of the aftermath of these events.

I remember when these abuse events came to light, and when I heard that one of my favourite authors, Miriam Toews, wrote a novel based on it, Women Talking became a must read. However, I was never in the mood to read about such horrific occurrences, as misogyny and victimizing makes me angry, and that isn't what I need in the little time I have to read. I'm relieved to report that in this novel the most horrific incidents are alluded to and the action of the novel follows the discovery of the culprits.

The bulk of the novel covers some of the women deciding among three options, including doing nothing, which was not an option for the characters featured here. This group of women had to decide if they should stay and fight or leave. Neither was optimal. Fighting was anathema to their pacifist foundations of their Mennonite religion, and they were unsure of how successful it would be, and whether they would end up committing murder. The problem with leaving is that the women were illiterate, had never left the village, and spoke only Plautdietsch (the Mennonite form of Low German), and had no reasonable destination. Although it was the 21st century, they would have to travel by horse drawn wagons with all their food, children, and belongings.

Rating: 4.5 stars. Did not disappoint, and wasn't as grim as I'd feared.

Why I Read This Now: It was featured on my audiobook app so I grabbed it.

How I Discovered This: Favourite author

Recommended for: I think the fact that this was made into a big budget movie (I haven't seen it yet) says that this will interest a broad audience. It will appeal in particular to readers who are interested in patriarchal societies or isolated communities.

Some readers didn't like that there was a male narrator, but I think this was an important element that gave the novel balance, realism, and widened its perspective. It would have been a weaker book with a female narrator. I imagine the author thought this through thoroughly before making this decision.

I found this novel is quite different from the other novels I've read by Miriam Toews. If you've read her before and didn't like the book, try this. Or if you've read her before and loved the book, prepare yourself for something different.

>27 dchaikin: Dan, when a book is too short for an Audible credit if it’s under $10 and I want it, I buy it.

>31 Nickelini: The film is excellent !

>31 Nickelini: BB, my library has got a copy of it. Thanks for the wonderful review. 😃

Great comments on Women Talking, Joyce. I am a fan of Toews, so you have prepared me for something different. Good to know it's not as grim as you expected, either. I was a little reluctant to read it because of the subject matter.

>31 Nickelini: I wasn’t aware of this story. Glad to have your review. (And great choice for an audiobook)

>31 Nickelini: Great review, I've added it to my list.

Hello everyone -- if you end up reading Women Talking, I look forward to your comments. And yes, Cyrel, now I'm ready to see the film

4. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, 1813


Cover comments: This is the Winchester Austen edition from Worth Press. It's from a lovely set of Austen novels that I bought for a reasonable price.

Comments: I'm not going to go through my regular spiel here, as I've talked about P&P a lot here over the years. This was a reread of possibly my all-time favourite book.

I was not very present on LT at the beginnig of the year and now I'm trying to catch up on people's thread. I've finally caught up with yours and will be gladly following along.
It seems the beginning of your reading year was very interesting and I hope it keeps being that way!

>39 Nickelini: i like the cover.

>40 chlorine: - Hello!
>41 dchaikin: - yes, nice for a classic

5. A Devil Comes to Town, Paolo Maurensig, 2018; translated from Italian by Anna Milano Appel, 2019


cover comments: I like this. There are notes about the cover design by Dutch typographer and art director Tessa van der Waals, and also about the photograph by French photographer Charles Freger, "whose images of 'tribal Europe' were captured over two winters of travel, through 19 countries. The transformation of humans into beasts is central aspect of centuries-old pagan rituals that celebrate the changing seasons, fertility, and life and death. The costumes vary between regions and even villages; they often represent devils, goats, wild boars, bears, or death itself. The character on the front is known as Habergeiss."

When I discovered this novella, this cover drew me in as it reminded me of the pagan and devilish elements that I've seen when I have travelled in the Alps. There is an unusual amount of Christian iconography that dominates, but if you pay attention, there are also counter balance icons of witches, devils, and weird monsters. I'm also fascinated by pre-Christian Europe, and how it survives into the 21st century. And I'm always interested in books (in English) about this, so recommendations are welcome.

That said, this figure, or anything like it, never appears in this book.

Comments: multiple bookends (much like Heart of Darkness) bring the reader to the core story of a young inexperienced priest in the 1980s(?) who is sent to a remote village in Switzerland (Graubünden region, I think). He's an outsider in this town where everyone knows everything about everyone else, and weirdly, they are all writing books. Memoirs, novels, non-fiction, everyone has a manuscript in the works. When their village comes to notice, a mysterious publishing representative from Luzern in a big black car shows up looking for the next Swiss literature masterpiece. Havoc ensues, and our young priest finds himself caught in the middle of it.

How I Discovered This: In 2021 I came across TripFiction.com (a fun website), and this was the first entry for Switzerland. As someone who has been trying to explore current Swiss fiction, this was a find. However, it's written by an Italian author who just happened to set his book in Switzerland.

Why I Read This Now: I was on a trip to Luzern, Switzerland to see Fasnacht (Carnival). This was a bucket list event since the 1980s when I saw a friend's pictures from Fasching somewhere in Germany. The stars aligned for me to take this perfect trip. I thought this was the best book to take along. I read most of it relaxing on a waterbed in the quiet room at my daughter's spa in Luzern on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I will keep this to read again in the future, as I'm interested in depictions of the devil in literature and art.

Rating: 4 stars. After I bought this in 2021, I saw reader reviews weren't great, despite the published accolades. I don't know why readers don't like this because I thought it was terrific.

Recommended for: a wide audience, actually.

>43 Nickelini: It seems like this was the perfect book for a perfect trip! :)

Sounds entertaining. Glad you found a good one.

6. The Beaten Track, Louise Mangos, 2022


cover comments: Well this is unfortunate. No scene like this happens in the book. I guess the cover designer heard the author lives in Switzerland, and they thought "That means snow? Or is that Sweden? What's the difference?"

Rating: 4.5 stars. There are only 4 copies of this in LT, and that's just sad. This was a terrific novel that a wide audience would love. It even has a blurb by Ian Rankin ("I really enjoyed this. A touch of Highsmith about it.")

Comments:: Sandrine, a young Swiss woman with a new born baby, is back home after a trek around the world. Things went bad and she had to rush home, but now she's met Scott and he seems to be the perfect man. The first few chapters of The Beaten Track are a bit flat, but then chapter 4 begins, and wham! we're off on a twisty, fascinating trip across the globe and through this novel. Sandrine doesn't realize it, but at her first stop in San Francisco, Jake sees her, and he stalks her the rest of the trip. The chapters alternate between the two, and the reader gets insights into a uber creepy man who follows her through New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, and Nepal. The Beaten Track is well written and the plot is tight.

Louise Mangos is a Brit who has lived over half her life in Switzerland, and has a Kiwi husband. I suspect she's traveled to the places she writes about here because she captured the feel of each location -- the ones I too know (San Fran, Hawaii, Sydney) and there is a vividness to the others that I haven't made it to yet.

How I Discovered This: Not sure, probably from one of the Switzerland accounts I follow. I'm always looking for popular fiction from Europe.

Why I Read This Now: I had this along on my trip the last few weeks to Switzerland, but didn't get very far. I read 80% of this yesterday when I was lying on my sofa with a cold.

Recommended for: Anyone who wants to read a quality thriller

>46 Nickelini: I don't usually read this genre, but you make it sound so enticing, and I like the travel aspect. It's probably not easy to find through the library though.

>47 labfs39: I think her ebooks go on sale on Amazon for very low prices sometimes

>46 Nickelini: I see her Strangers on a Bridge is available on audio which is necessary for me, but not this one. I might give it a try.

Interesting find on Switzerland and then some.

>43 Nickelini: That is a great cover. I love that you comment on the covers, Joyce. I usually only comment when the cover is particularly lovely.

The Mangos books sounds good; I am not familiar with her.

I hope your cold is better.

Well, I've just added two books to my wishlist. The Beaten Path is just 3.99 on amazon right now.

>43 Nickelini: Sounds exciting. Unfortunately, my library doesn't have it.

>46 Nickelini: Oh no, I'm sorry to hear that you have a cold and aren't feeling well. I wish you a speedy recovery and hope you feel better soon.

After starring a bunch of posts and immediately getting overwhelmed and not going back to the main group page, I realized "Wait a moment, I don't have Joyce's thread marked!" Glad to see you're still here and looking forward to seeing your reading.

My book club has a Miriam Toews book to read soon (Fight Night), and your review of Women Talking is making me look forward to it even more than I already was.

>49 kjuliff:, >50 dchaikin:, >51 BLBera:, >52 RidgewayGirl:, >53 Ameise1:, >54 mabith:

Aw, visitors!

You are all lovely to drop a comment.

Mabith, I hope you post on your page how your book group went

7. the Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue, 2019


Cover comments: At first glance this is nice. Colours are wonderful, feathers, wings. But if you look at it, a bit of mess and unrelated to the book. Fail. But nice colours.

Comments: Dublin, 2018. The Spanish flu is raging, and WWI is ending. Nurse Julia is doing her best on the small ward to handle maternity patients who also have the flu. She is joined by the naive but charming volunteer Bridie, and the in-control Dr Lynn (based on a real person). It's basically three important days in Julia's life. The depictions of childbirth are .... vivid. I myself had a horrific childbirth (actually quite similar to one of the births in this novel) so it was a bit . . . upsetting to revisit. Childbirth can be hell. That's a good message that this book sends, and it shouldn't be lost on "oh, that was a hundred years ago."

Recommended for: you know who should read this? Not the people who are drawn to it. It should be read by every single person who has ever posted on the internet, on any forum, in any form: "childbirth is natural and wonderful. Woman should embrace the experience," or anything remotely along those lines. There is so much toxic, disconnected-from-reality ideas of childbirth out there that need to be torched to the ground. (Please insert meme of Linda Hamilton from T2 here)

Why I Read This Now: my book club. I do not read every book my book club selects, because I don't have time for that. This was on my "not gonna read list," but then I found it on the library audiobook app, and it was okay to listen to while I was flat out sick on the sofa

Rating: as expected, "meh". It was okay. 3.5 stars if I'm feeling generous. But I knew this wasn't the book for me, so it did okay. The childbirth parts were really well done, and if anyone think childbirth is a toodle, they need to read this and realize the facts haven't changed.

How I Discovered This: everyone was talking about this when it was published

Sounds interesting.

>57 Ameise1:
Most readers like this more than I did

I really liked it, because I didnt know much about the spanish flu; Her writing brought me right into that center, and even tho Ive not had children, I had no illusions and thought she hit the nail on the head. I am sorry for your experiences, and agree with you, there are people that really need to read this,

>56 Nickelini: unfortunately Emma Donoghue doesn’t have the consistency of other good writers of fiction. It’s not like picking up an Ishiguro knowing you are in for a good read. Thanks for your review. I don’t think I’d really love this book either.

>56 Nickelini: Although it doesn't have anything to do with the book either, I do like the cover on my edition better than yours:



I think I liked the book more than you, mainly for the historical detail on the flu, shell shock, Dublin politics, etc, although I found the ending boringly predictable.

>60 kjuliff: well, I dont thing Ishaguro is all that....but as always YMMV

That being said, Its nowhere near as good as haven which I think is her best book

>56 Nickelini: “meh” is a rating I should use more often

How many stars is "meh"? I would guess 3.

>63 cindydavid4: not Room?

I have not read it due to the topic. But I suppose I should some time

>65 kidzdoc: guess it depends on how meh. ??

8. Spare, Prince Harry, 2023. Audiobook read by the author

Note: my family interrupted me at least 12 times while I was writing this so please be patient. I will return to correct egregious errors later


cover comments: perfect for this book

Why I Read This Now: I've been sick for a few weeks, and a week or so ago an explosion of royal family gossip (non-Prince Harry) hit the interwebs reminded me that I wanted to listen to this.

Comments: I listened to the audiobook, read by Prince Harry.

This memoir starts at age 12, when his mother died, and goes through his teen years, military years, partying years, meeting Megan Markle (sp?) years, and biding the royal family "adieu".

This book, and the author, is more well known than anything I can say here, so I'll keep it short. What made this worth reading is his insider's view of the British royal family -- unheard of, until this point. Also, he was born into an insane level of privilege, but was always kept on a very tight leash that limits his life. He really was put into an impossible spot, and this is his version of how that played out. Anyone born into this position would have also been in an impossible situation, but would have had a different story.

It's also interesting to hear his thoughts on the death of his mother.

I enjoyed listening to this. I'm still sick, so I found his voice and vignettes relaxing to listen to, and I sometimes fell asleep and had to rewind when I went back. I wasn't listening to this with a particularly critical ear. There were things that were obviously his opinion or perspective that I don't think were right, but that's the nature of a memoir, isn't it.

Rating: 4 stars

How I Discovered This: only those living under a rock didn't hear about it when it was published.

By the time Prince Harry was an adult, I hadn't paid much attention to the royal family in many years. When his engagement was announced to some American actress, I thought "ugh". Also, wasn't he the party boy who dressed up as a Nazi and also got a cushy spot in the British military? But gradually, I saw that the press and public comments against him and his bride were so unhinged and ridiculous that I swayed over to H&M's side. How does Piers Morgan have a job still? Does Jeremy Clarkson's family hate him so much that they can't get him institutionalized? Get help, people! (I've recently learned that the H&M nutjobs are collectively referred to as "derangers". So fitting.)

Anyway, back to the book release: At first I thought I might read this at some point, maybe buy it when it came out in paperback, but the extremely nasty, unrealistic, and foolish anti-H&M people made me buy this book in hard cover the first week it was released. Money sends a message, and since they were all saying that the book was going to be a huge fail, I enjoyed seeing it sell 1.4 million copies in North America and the UK right from the start and break first-day sales records.

Recommended for: people interested in an insider's peek at living in the royal family. It is quite long though. Don't think it needed to be so long.

>69 Nickelini: I don't really keep up with the royals, but I just don't get the utterly absurd levels of vitriol leveled at H&M. People need to get a grip...

>69 Nickelini: Fun review and, yeah, that level of hate is so weird. I know a person who has a YouTube channel where she makes quite a lot of money off of just talking about how much she hates Megan Markle. Spending any time with her became very unpleasant because it is the only subject she cares about.

>56 Nickelini: Great comments. The cover is pretty but puzzling. You are right in that it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the book. I love your comments on the covers, by the way. I usually only comment if the cover is striking. I felt pretty meh about this book as well. I loved the historical part, but the ending seemed to come too quickly and not really fit the rest of the novel.

>69 Nickelini: I'm not really interested in this but your comments are great.

I hope you are feeling better.

Hi Joyce, I finally got over here and got caught up with your reading. Of course I took a book bullet for The Beaten Track and have already snagged myself a copy for my Kindle. Hope your illness is long in the past, and the rest of the year bring only good things!

>71 RidgewayGirl: That's pretty sad, actually

>72 BLBera: & >73 DeltaQueen50: Thanks for the well wishes. It's been exactly a month. Still coughing a lot, but I have more energy so there is hope :)

I was just looking at the available covers for Jane Austen's Mansfield Park her on LT, and came across this cover:



If you know just a little about Jane Austen, I don't think you need to have actually read Mansfield Park to question this cover. I actually think it's fabulous . . . for another book in another time period.

Covers on public domain novels can certainly go to odd places. I saw a compilation of them for Swift's A Modest Proposal which all featured a couple midst-marriage proposal...

>75 Nickelini: That's so funny.

>76 mabith: LOL

With AI now gaining purchase, I suspect we'll see a lot more terrible cover choices.

HAHahahah!

>46 Nickelini:

Further to my comments about The Beaten Track, which I had fun with and gave 4.5 stars . . . my husband recently read it (because it was physically at the top of a pile of books). He's not a "reader" but likes to have something to relax with at night. Sometimes actual literature, sometimes more of what he calls a "chewing gum" book. Anyway, he said he didn't really like this one and thought the ending was disappointing. He was expecting a big twist and there wasn't one. So if you were interested, consider that it's somewhere between "hey that was good fun" and "meh".

9. Bass Rock, Evie Wyld, 2020


cover comments: I had to think about this one. In the end, it's a fail. Took me a while to figure out I didn't like it because I do like the painting style of the woman's face very much. But the disjointed shark and whatever the beast is in the lower corner are a big NO.

Comments: Bass Rock follows three women in different time periods, at the same spot -- North Berwick, Scotland and the Bass Rock, which is off the coast. In the early 1700s, Sarah is on the run from men who think she's a witch (and there were actual witch trials in North Berwick, although not mentioned in this novel); Just after WWII, Ruth has recently married a widower with two sons and has moved to Scotland from London; and Viviane is Ruth's granddaughter, cataloguing the contents of the house in preparation for sale. In addition to the location, the woman are linked through abuse they suffer from the men in their lives. And between these stories are further vignettes about anonymous women at the location and their abuse.

I immensely enjoyed Ruth's story, which was a bit of a surprise for me as the WWII era isn't my jam. But I found her relationships interesting, from her bond with her housekeeper, to her new sons, to her gaslighting husband and the sinister vicar who keeps showing up. I also liked Viviane's bits. The Sarah the witch part didn't work so well for me because I found it thin and insubstantial.

Bass Rock won the Stella Prize, which is an Australian women's writing award. The author doesn't live in Australia anymore and this is a very British book. It reminded me of Sarah Moss and Claire Fuller.

How I Discovered This: Jen Campbell reviewed this on you YouTube channel a few years ago and raved about it. She has good taste in books.

Why I Read This Now: This was actually a book I suggested to my book club last year, but they decided to read it the month that I was traveling to England and Italy. I'm sorry that I didn't get to take part in the discussion and I'll speak up next time so I get to actually talk about my book. Anyway, I guess it's been on my tbr-next pile ever since and I finally got to it

Rating: Solid 4 stars, maybe 4.5

Recommended for: Not sure. This book cycles between the three main stories, with the occasional vignette in between. It's a lot of jumping around and sometimes I had to go back and reread things. If you don't mind that level of shuffled story, then I highly recommend it. If you like a linear story, this one isn't for you.

>82 Nickelini: Cover not withstanding, this appeals; I'll add this is my list. How does the author do portraying the setting? Sounds like it could be an interesting one.

>83 labfs39: I felt like I could absolutely feel the setting, especially in the post-WWII parts. But I've never been to Scotland, so I don't know how accurate it is.

The Bass Rock to me is always the place where Davie Balfour is imprisoned after being kidnapped in Catriona, the sequel to Kidnapped. Having seen the rock itself, the idea of being imprisoned there, as many were over time, is not good.

You might like this:
https://special-collections.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2015/02/12/reading-the-collectio...

>85 SassyLassy: I didn’t realize that there were buildings on Bass Rock

>85 SassyLassy: Interesting article, Sassy

10. The Spoon Stealer, Lesley Crewe, 2020


cover comments: it's fine. It doesn't attract or repel me, and the scene actually features in the book.

Comments: Emmeline Darling was born on a farm in Nova Scotia in 1894. When her favourite brother is gassed in WWI and is convalescing in an English hospital, young Emmeline sails across the Atlantic to be with him. Unfortunately, he dies the day before she arrives. Emmeline stays on in England anyway, and finds employment as a companion for rich people with problems. The bulk of this novel takes place in the 1960s where Emmeline is looking back on her life. She has a pattern of appearing in people's lives and fixing them, in the style of Mary Poppins (which is actually spelled out once or twice in the book).

There is a huge cast of characters in England and in Canada, a talking dog, and a lot of words that for me did not ever seem to go anywhere.

Rating: 2.5 stars. I didn't hate it, and probably it should be a 3 star read, but it just took me so long to read because I'd get bored and put it down, or not actually pick it up. A very long 363 pages.

Why I Read This Now: Book club. I was going to skip this one, but a friend actually delivered a copy to my house, so I decided to give it a try. By the time the meeting came around, I had only made it half way through and I was fine returning it and finding out from our conversation what happens. But then I didn't go to the meeting, and I was curious enough to know how it ended, so I kept reading it for another 8 days. Sigh.

How I Discovered This: Book club. This is not a book that I would have noticed otherwise

Recommended for: Most readers enjoyed this one. It's heartwarming, apparently.

>88 Nickelini: "It's heartwarming, apparently." This made me smirk.

>88 Nickelini: LOL. I take it your heart wasn’t warmed 😉

>89 rhian_of_oz: ;-)

>90 FlorenceArt: Nope. More like bored.

Yes, the witch sections in The Bass Rock felt a bit like they were only there to justify the sort of ghosts in the house on the later parts. Still very good, but almost impossible to follow All the Birds, Singing, which at the time I felt was a perfect book.

11. 101 Things I Learned in Urban Design School, Matthew Frederick & Vikas Mehta, 2018


cover comments: the cover designer understand the assignment. Perfect

Comments: A book I read in one sitting after work today. 101 points from experienced urban designers. This is part of a series of "101 Things I Learned in Business School" . . . "Culinary School" . . . "Film School" (google to see if they discuss your school). I'm an arty type who enjoys design theory in general, whatever the subject, be it urban, interior, graphic, garden, whatever. Almost every one of the 101 points was interesting from an urban design viewpoint, but a bunch were pertinent to life in general. "Simple vs Simplistic," "Complex vs Complicated," etc. I enjoyed this immensely.

How I Discovered This: My daughter recently was accepted into a master's program in a presigious urban design program, and she went to our local library and brought home a huge stack of books on urban design because she is pumped! I pulled this little book from her pile and randomly read page 33 and thought it looked interesting

Rating: I gave it 5 stars because the only other review on LT is 2 stars. I guess they were looking for something else, or some entry offended them. Otherwise it would have been 4.5 stars for me. The information was good . . . I mean, it's a little book of points, so don't expect the deeper thoughts of Hegel. I thought there was a good range of topics within the points, and the visual arrangement was delightful. The book designer gets full kudos.

And now for a ramble (skip to next catigory if not interested) At first I was a bit disappointed that the authors are from the US and the examples were pretty US-centric. Hardly the epicenter of urban design. I was expecting the Netherlands level. But when I got into the content, the location wasn't all that relevant to their points. Also, one of the examples is from where I live (not the US): Robson Square in Vancouver with it's famous stairs with wheelchair ramp, which has been widely praised and also critiqued. Also a spot that I had a very romantic conversation with my husband when we were first dating. It was a perfect May Sunday evening, and it involved taking me to Tuscany (where his family lives) flash forward, we've been there 6 times since and we have two daughters who are Italian citizens.

Recommended for: Obviously people who are considering a career in urban design, but also people who are just interested in their urban surroundings and some of the many things to consider. I was never going to be an city planner, but it's always interested me. Also, it's a quick read -- took me a couple of hours with breaks to water plants and such.

Why I Read This Now: My daughter said "Hey, look at this cool book I found at the library"

>93 Nickelini: Sounds like a cool read! It’s an interesting subject I think. My own city is in the middle of replanning and is a bit of a mess right now. They are trying, despite difficult financial circumstances, to evolve from 1950’s to 70’s urban planning to a 21st century sustainable city.

>93 Nickelini: Sounds interesting reading for an evening or two--just put in a request at my library. The same author did "Architecture School" and there's a "Fashion School", too.

>93 Nickelini: That does sound interesting!

>93 Nickelini: your daughters recommendation could not be more inviting! Its not a subject Im interested in (since i live in a city that bulldozes everything older than 50 years, i know little about how urban planning should look) but I am intriged enough to see how it shoud be done

Hi Joyce:
The Bass Rock sounds like one I would enjoy. I will look for it.

>75 Nickelini: That is hilarious.

>82 Nickelini: I've had The Bass Rock sitting around for ages—I like Evie Wyld a lot, and the total unpredictability of her books, so that's a good reminder to bump that up the pile a few notches.

12. The Centaur's Wife, Amanda LeDuc, 2021


cover comments: Gorgeous, just gorgeous. The falling stars, the enchanted flowers and vines . . . perfect.

Comments: The Earth passes through a massive meteor shower and most of civilization is wiped out. This group of survivors meet up to help each other -- Heather, who has just given birth to twins, along with her spouse; Tasha and Annie who are a doctor and nurse team and also life partners; a young girl who was awaiting surgery named Elyse; and a few other refugees. Heather has cerebral palsy, which is not a large part of the story, but is something that sets her apart from others and gives her challenges.

Their town is situated beside a large mountain that is notorious for being inhospitable to humans. Unknown to the people below, this is home to mountain centaurs, who do not like humans at all. There are also three sibling centaurs -- Estajfan, Aura, and Petrolio--who are drawn to helping the humans.

On the back cover above the bar code, the publisher notes "Fiction - Magic Realism." I often love magic realism, so that was a draw for me. Now that I've read the book, I'm struggling with this descriptor. To me it's less magic realism and more fantasy. But I don't read adult fantasy, so I don't know what the rules are. Anyway, the story was incredibly original. I usually stay away from anything post-Apocalyptic, but there was enough other than the survival struggle to make me keep reading. In the end, I'm not entirely sure the author succeeded, but it was a worthwhile effort.

Why I Read This Now: the cover charmed me

Rating: 4 stars. This includes 1 star for originality

Recommended For: readers looking for a unique book; readers looking for books featuring a protagonist with cerebral palsy

How I Discovered This: I was browsing at the wonderful independent bookstore in Victoria, Bolen Books, and took a chance on this one. The blurb on the front cover from Heather O'Neill, one of my all time favourite authors, probably helped.

>100 Nickelini: It's so fun to choose a book at random and end up liking it. Of course, the bookstore's own curation probably helped. And I'd be tempted by a book with a blurb from Heather O'Neill. Making note.