mstrust ROOTs Through the Shelves

Hi, I'm Jennifer, and I believe this is my fourth year of ROOTing. I made my goal for ROOTs last year and that felt good, especially the part about reading what I already own since I have right around 3500 books in the house. My goal again is to hit 50% ROOTs.
Thanks for visiting, and I'm going to try to get round ROOTs and visit you too!
Current Tally as of the end of February: 9 ROOTs out of 20 total reads

2024 ROOT Reads

1. The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread
2. The Dinner
3. Phoenix Noir
4. Living Like A Runaway
5. Joe Gould's Teeth
6. The Bookshop
7. Death in the Sunshine
8. The Eyeball Collector
9. The Devil's Rooming House
10. H.P. Lovecraft: Great Tales of Horror
11. Don't Point That Thing At Me
12. Lost Hills
13. Dearly Devoted Dexter
14. Last Night at the Lobster
15. Famous Writers School: A Novel
16. The Rising of the Moon
17. Homesick For Another World
18. A Skeleton at the Helm
19. Throttle
20. Wild
21. The Pallbearers Club
22. The Gutter and the Grave
23. Art Hiding in New York
24. Kiss Me, Kill Me
25. The Last Kids on Earth: Zombie Parade
26. The Troop
27. Cold in July
28. A Treasury of Great Recipes
29. Hell
30. Guest: A Changeling Tale
31. The Sugar Season
32. The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches
33. The Best Halloween Ever
34. Off Season
35. Nowhere USA
36. If It Bleeds
37. The Inheritor's Powder
38. Dark Harvest
39. The Spite House
40. Monster Blood
41. Before You Sleep
42. The Woman in the Library
43. Diary of an Oxygen Thief
44. Back From the Dead
45. Haunted Hotels
46. Nightmare in Pink
47. George Jones: Why Baby Why
48. Halloween Treats
49. Schott's Food & Drink Miscellany
50. The Fran Lebowitz Reader
51. Death by Darjeeling
52. Norwich

>1 mstrust: Sounds like you have plenty of reading material, Jennifer! Love the gif! Happy New Year and happy reading!

Hi Jennifer! Happy new year and Happy ROOTing. Just curious what your goal is in numbers.

>2 Cecilturtle: I have more than enough, yet I'm buying more books for the new year. Happy New Year to you!
>3 connie53: Hi, Connie, Happy New Year! I never have a number for my goal, just 50% of my total reads.

Welcome back, Jennifer! Looking forward to seeing what gems you unearth from your shelves!

Thank you, Princess!

Hi Jennifer. I can't find you as a member of this group. If you want to you can sign up on the upper right side of the group page.

You're right, I forgot to join. Done!

Yay! Happy to see you back this year!

>9 mstrust: Good job

Good to see you again! Good luck with your 50% goal!

Thanks, Jackie, and good luck with your ROOTs!

Happy ROOTing, Jennifer!

Thanks, and to you too!

1. The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread by Don Robertson.

Set in Cleveland in 1944, this is the story of nine year-old Morris Bird III, who is a good athlete and a nice kid, though he unintentionally causes an uproar at school with "the salami sandwich incident" and allows the school bully to be blamed. Morris is an independent thinker, choosing a strange kid named Stanley Chaloupka as his best friend when the other kids think Stanley is weird. Morris is also loyal. When Stanley moves to a far away neighborhood, Morris tells him he will come see him, ditching a class field trip to spend the afternoon walking to Stanley's new home. He had expected to go alone, but at the last minute, he's saddled with taking his annoying six-year old sister with him and renting a classmate's wagon to pull her across town. Along the way the two bicker while encountering unusual and comedic situations. This is the story of a boy's daily life, and it reminded me of Jean Shepard's In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash, the basis of "A Christmas Story".
*SPOILER* And then, three-quarters of the way through, it was as if the story was passed to Stephen King, because a horror befalls Cleveland and Morris and his little sister have front row seats. The characters, including children, are decimated. It's rare to find a book that goes along as a humorous slice-of-life tale, then turns on a dime like this. If Robertson wanted to startle his reader, he did it. 3.5

I've had this on the shelf for three and a half years, so it's a real ROOT.

>16 mstrust: Goodness, that sounds like quite the head-snapper, Jennifer! I'm tempted to see if the library has it, just so I can experience the dissonance for myself. Although I wonder how knowing about the twist ahead of time would affect the experience of reading the first part?

Did I give too much away? I'm always afraid of doing that, but I felt that this one needed to have the abrupt turn acknowledged. I'll place a warning in.

>18 mstrust: No, I don't think you gave too much away, because you didn't say what the big twist actually was! And I don't know how you would write a review without mentioning it, to be honest. So I think you did fine.

:-D Thanks!

This week's Autumn Lives Here looks at the Women of Horror, including Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Darcy Coates and more. Also, listen and watch stories about unbelievable scammers. I love it when they get caught!
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2. The Dinner by Herman Koch.

The narrator and his wife are meeting another couple in an exclusive, trendy restaurant that the narrator doesn't want to eat in, but the other couple chose it. He doesn't like anything about the restaurant, seeing it as snobbish and expensive. He also doesn't like the man of the other couple, who is stupid and snobbish. This turns out to be his brother. As the night wears on, the reader is given more and more reason to dislike our unreliable narrator, but we discover that the two couples have a very important matter to discuss over dinner, one that involves the future of both their families.
Taught and intense, these four diners should have been kicked out of the restaurant by the time the main course arrived.

Herman Koch is a Dutch writer and I've read that one too. You are right by calling it intense, Jennifer.

Yes, he's Dutch. I'll look for more from him, he's excellent.

3. Phoenix Noir edited by Patrick Millikin

This collection of sixteen noir short stories placed in Phoenix and the surrounding areas by authors including Megan Abbott, Lee Child, James Sallis, Diane Gabaldon and other known writers. Some stories, such as Gabaldon's and Child's, are more traditional detective stories. Luis Alberto Urrea's has a modern Romeo & Juliet angle, and Abbott's is a fictionalized account Bob Crane's death in Scottsdale.
Good writing, though some of the stories just peter out to an unsatisfying end, and I skipped over most of Sallis' because it featured graphic child abuse that was gross.

>25 mstrust: Cool - years ago I bought Tel Aviv Noir in the series; maybe time to dig it up!

I looked it up. The Akaschic Noir series runs to 123 books right now!

>27 mstrust: wow - that's nuts! There no Ottawa Noir but Paris Suburbs Noir - neat list :)

wow - that's nuts!
Isn't it? I'm surprised there's no Ottawa edition already. At this point they've got to be looking at smaller markets, like Elko, NV Noir ;-D
This is probably the third of the series that I've read, and it featured much better writers. And I also discovered that I owned two copies.

4. Living Like A Runaway by Lita Ford

I can't say that I followed Ford's solo career that much, but I'm a Runaways fan and she was the guitarist. I've read Cherie Currie's book, along with Queens of Noise, so now I've gotten to Ford's version of the Runaways years. And any way you look at it, they were tough on these teenage girls who were breaking the gender barrier in rock music, traveling over the world and going from high school kids to being idolized in other countries, while being hugely ripped off by their manager. And I have to comment on how creepy men were around teenage girls in the 70s. There are people who should be in jail.

Ford discusses the difficulties she had at a time in the industry when she was one of just a handful of female musicians who had a name. If you're interested in the names and circumstances of the famous men she's slept with, she delivers more than you might have expected. But she also has a tendency to deflect blame, whether it's for damaging a stranger's car or being fired by Michael Jackson for "having too much credibility". She's had an interesting, fast-paced life, and once she became famous, she seems to have hung out with every famous rock star. Don't expect Hemingway here; she uses an awful lot of exclamation points and sounds amazed by everyone she meets, and even amazed by herself, but it feels like she actually wrote this book on her own.

I've had this on the shelves for 3 years. It's my 4th ROOT out of a total of 9 reads so far.

The new Autumn Lives Here is celebrating Poe, new book releases and jiggly cocktails. Plus, read about "Sahara Sue Doe", a cold case from the 70s that can still be solved.
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5. Joe Gould's Teeth by Jill Lepore

Joe Gould was well-known among the Greenwich Village literati of the 1920s-40s, counting e.e. cummings, Ezra Pound, John Dos Passos and William Saroyan among his friends. For decades, Gould called himself a historian who was writing the longest book ever written, "The Oral History of Our Time". Some friends claimed to have read chapters, some even had bits that Gould gave for safekeeping, but when editors or publishers asked to see a manuscript, he dodged them.
A profile of Gould in The New Yorker in 1942 created an image of him as New York City's lovable, eccentric uncle, and Gould used this to his great advantage, constantly hitting up people in the literary world for money. The problem was, that when people cut off contact with Gould, his bad side appeared. He frequently harassed people for years.
Gould was a man of contradictions. He had many famous friends who believed he was a genius in the making, that once his book was published, he would be celebrated. But many people, including the author of The New Yorker piece, who had helped create his image of a friendly eccentric, came to believe there was no book, just a figment of Gould's grandiose imagination.
Gould believed in eugenics, even working as a field researcher, but was a hanger-on among the Harlem Renaissance. He was obsessed with Augusta Savage, a sculpture whom he stalked for decades, harassing her very badly and, even roping his famous friends into keeping tabs on her. When one friend finally told him to leave Savage alone, Gould responded by harassing the man and his family non-stop, calling and sending vile and threatening letters, even addressing some to their child.
Gould had several stays in mental institutions, but even there, one psychiatrist said he was eccentric, not insane, while another said he was a psychopath. It depended on which Gould was present that day.
People have searched for the complete manuscript of "The Oral History of Our Time". Though he did not go down in history as a literary genius, Gould is credited with coining the phrase "oral history".

This is my 5th ROOT out of 10 total reads.

6. The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

Widowed Florence Green has decided that she must do something with herself, and so opens a bookshop in her little English coastal town. She expects to just make enough to get by while providing some entertainment to a town that hasn't had a bookshop in a very long time, but the importance of the shop grows among the locals. It also makes quiet, polite Florence an enemy in the form of the wealthiest woman in town, and because she must, Florence finds that she's capable of standing her ground.
It's a slim book that is packed with a lot of story and some book talk, especially about the merits of Lolita.

#6 out of 12 total reads, and I'm still on track for 50% ROOTs. I've had this one for two years.

>33 mstrust: I remember enjoying this book. I read it in French. Interestingly the title was translated to The Lolita Affair!

That is unexpected. The book was a portion of the story, but not that much. I liked this book, but really expected the ending to go a different way.

It's a free week at Autumn Lives Here. Isn't it time you warned the kids about the Chomper?
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7. Death in the Sunshine by Steph Broadribb

Moira took an early retirement from the London police and moved to a planned retirement community in Florida. She intends to start a new chapter, one where no one knows that she was an undercover officer who left the job under a dark cloud. But then she meets Lizzie and her husband Philip, both of whom are also retired detectives from the UK. Moira does everything she can to avoid them, until she discovers the body of a woman in the community pool and Lizzie and Philip are all over Moira. They bring in their retired DEA friend. Moira is again working a case, but this time her team is competing with the police to find information.

Good murder mystery with physically active retirees who have investigative skills. Moira seems too emotionally fragile to have been a career detective and the local cops are written with a heavy hand, but overall, entertaining.
This has been on my Kindle a few years.

18. The Eyeball Collector by F.E. Higgins

Hector Fitzbaudly is fascinated by the bad side of town until his wealthy father is ruined by a one-eyed blackmailer. Forced to sell everything they own, Hector is soon left an orphan and has to live among the desperate people he had been so curious about. He finds friends, but he swears to avenge his father by making the man responsible pay. As it turns out, the villain is currently living among the depraved local nobility, and Hector finds there's a job opening. Living among them, he can observe and carry out his revenge.
A grim and well-written tale of revenge set in a fictional version of the Victorian era. I've had this for a year.

9. The Devil's Rooming House by M. William Phelps

This is the true story of the Archer Home in Windsor, Connecticut, run by Amy Archer in the early 1900s. Billed as a home for the elderly and invalid, Amy charged $1000 for total care for the rest of a person's life, a business plan that only worked out for her if she kept bodies coming in with money and going out in body bags. Because of her saintly persona in the small town, and her constant letters telling relatives and officials how "hurt" she was whenever someone pointed out how high the death rates were in her house, she was able to hold off a real inspection of her house for too many years.
This is the basis for Arsenic and Old Lace, but there is a psycho, dead husbands, and a lot more dead people in the real story.

A new Autumn Lives Here is up! You'll meet a popular undertaker, make a cocktail inspired by Lovecraft, and we'll go over the movie that caused me childhood trauma. Come get creeped out!
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10. H.P. Lovecraft: Great Tales of Horror

Reading Lovecraft, you'll see exactly where American horror of the 20s and 30s made a turn, and it was with him. At the time, scary stories were something for children, still primarily Victorian in style, and written with the bloody parts alluded to but rarely shown. Though he had limited success in his lifetime, Lovecraft wrote stories of horror, but also of strangeness. Here you have multiple stories of odd young men being drawn to the odd behavior of neighbors, of devoted friends who are dealing with body invasion, reanimating the dead, and the raising of the great sea creature Cthulhu. "The Thing on the Doorstep" is one of the few that straddles the old, Victorian style while dealing with Lovecraft's modern weirdness. "Pickman's Model" deals with acute mental illness in the art world, but "The Dunwich Horror" is the greatest of Lovecraft's stories, managing to feel modern even though it's nearly 100 years old.
This volume has his greatest hits, and probably a few that are deep dives.

11. Don't Point That Thing At Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli

Alcoholic, unethical, and having received a good, if abusive, British education, Charlie Mordecai is an art historian who writes on the subject and facilitates sales of great art. But he's also willing to dabble in blackmail and murder.
In this first of the series, Mordecai is persuaded, through extreme torture, to travel across America in a Rolls Silver Ghost that will be delivered to the man who is the hit.
If you enjoy the snappy British dialogue of Wooster and Jeeves but would like it raunchier and more violent, Mordecai is a fun alternative.
This is my #11 ROOT out of a total of 22 reads, so right on track.

12. Lost Hills by Lee Goldberg

Eve Ronin has just been promoted to the robbery-homicide department in the Greater Los Angeles area police because of a viral video of her arresting a famous and violent actor. The other detectives don't like that she got there in that way, and Eve knows she has to prove herself. When she and her partner are sent to look over a blood soaked house, it's clear that multiple murders happened here, but that's all they have to go on. No bodies, no DNA. Eve, along with the task force she's heading for the first time, must find enough evidence before they can make a case of who did it.
This is the first of the Eve Ronin series, written by the author who wrote the best of the Monk novels, and the characters here briefly discuss the show. This is a gritty crime story, with both children and animals faring badly, but I'd like to continue with the series.

Happy Easter!

Thanks Jennifer. I hope you had a nice Easter too.

:-D I did, thanks.

13. Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

The second in the Dexter series, this time the Miami PD and Dexter, our charming psychopath serial killer, are trying to find "Dr. Danco", a nickname that refers to his method of turning ex-Special Ops into vegetables. Sergeant Doakes, the man who hates Dexter the most but can't figure out why, has a history with Dr. Danco and may be on the list of men being hunted. That leaves him with no choice but to work with Dexter.
It seems implausible to say these are fun reads, but Dexter is such a witty guy that they are fun.

14. Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O' Nan

While a blizzard rages outside, Manny, the manager of a Red Lobster restaurant, conscientiously goes through all the hassles and policies as if it's a normal day, but it isn't. Just days before Christmas, this is the last day of operation for this location, a place Manny has worked for years. Though he's been placed elsewhere by the corporation, he believes he will never again see Jacqui, the server he loves.
Told from hardworking Manny's POV, it's the story of a man who knows the most joy he's found is in the past, so he tries to keep his mind on his work. 3.5

>48 mstrust: I'm reading Henry, Himself by Stewart O'Nan right now. It took me a bit of time to get used to the slow pace of the novel but now I'm really enjoying it. How to you find Last Night at the Lobster ?

Lobster certainly isn't slow, in fact Manny is moving at a an incredible pace throughout the story, taking up the slack of employees who don't show up on the last day. Much of the book is about all the tasks he's doing on this last shift, which makes his despair over Jacqui more acute.

15. Famous Writers School: A Novel by Steven Carter

Wendell Newton advertises his writing course in the back of a literary magazine, stating that he will help aspiring writers through his structured lessons. He begins working with a small collection of writers, sending out assignments that are explained through personal stories, such as the time when he was a young soldier working as a secretary to a general and was able to blackmail his superior into giving him a European vacation. In turn, his students send him whatever writing they want to, such as the ex-model and stripper who writes about the people who become obsessed with her, which quickly includes Wendell. Or Linda, who sends Wendell essays about stalking him and breaking into his house. The only student who is actually writing fiction, a tense crime novel that he sends in chapters, is the one who receives Wendell's strangest replies. Over weeks of correspondence, we find Wendell to be shadier than his early professionalism let on.

A satire of the snail mail writing schools of the past, the reader is plunged into slice-of-life stories from each character that may last a few paragraphs or ten pages. It may be a kidnapping, a romance, or a snotty reply from Wendell. Expertly woven together, it's both fun and remarkably well-written. I've never heard of this book or the author. I think I picked this up at the giant booksale one year.

16. The Rising of the Moon by Gladys Mitchell

Young brothers Simon and Keith live with their older brother Jack and his wife June, a couple who are barely staying together. Their village is shocked when a performer in a traveling circus is murdered, quickly followed by another dead woman and another. The brothers begin their own investigation into these Ripper murders because much of the evidence points to Jack, but Scotland Yard sends a detective, Mrs. Bradley, who is surprised to find two young boys who can be so helpful to the investigation.

This is my first finished Mitchell, as I attempted Death at the Opera first but didn't make it past the first chapter. Going into this one, I assumed that it being a British mystery published in 1945, taking place in a village with an elderly female detective, that it would have a passing resemblance to an Agatha Christie. It really doesn't, as this village is peopled with characters who are far more broken than what you'd find in Christie. Jack and June are constantly barking at each other, miserable but unable to part. Jack, Simon and Keith are all in love with their pretty lodger Christina, who is portrayed as both intelligent and kind, yet wrestles around on her bed with the two young boys and allows them to grope and kiss her. Keith is just eleven. Mitchell's village is populated with people who are sometimes sad, angry, or jealous, so this sets it apart from the polite mysteries usually found in this era.
This is my 16th ROOT out of a total of 32 reads, so I'm doing okay.

Congrats on reaching the halfway point!

Thanks! I'm moving slowly...

17. Homesick For Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh

A collection of short stories that focuses on strange people, or people who have lived safe lives but suddenly do something totally out of character. There are a few stories about widowers who are discovering that they had spent years living in their wife's shadow, while 'An Honest Woman' is about an older man who turns predatory when a young woman moves next door. 'The Weirdos' is hilariously told by a woman who is likely a sociopath, but a lazy unambitious one, and 'Slumming' is the story of a high school teacher who buys a summer cottage in a low-income river town that has been hit hard by the drug crisis. While describing the locals with disgust, she's unaware that she's quickly turning into one of them.
I've read My Year of Rest and Relaxation from the author and enjoy her strange plots, the characters who do the oddest things without a thought, but I have learned that Moshfegh clearly revels in writing absolutely disgusting passages meant to make the reader cringe. There are just a couple of stories here that don't have that trademark, but most do, and I don't know what to make of it, but to say that she's an excellent writer despite it.
I bought this at The Writer's Block in Vegas in February.

18. A Skeleton at the Helm edited by John Richard Stephens

A collection of short stories and poems that marry tales of the sea with the spooky and deadly. The editor has an extensive introduction that explains piracy, phantom ships, funerals at sea, sea monsters and just about anything dangerous or disturbing that is rumored to happen at sea. It's a very interesting discussion on its own, but then the reader then gets the spooky sea stories of Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, F. Marion Crawford, Bram Stoker and many others, but best of all, several from William Hope Hodgson. His stories are 'The Voice in the Night', 'The Thing in the Weeds' (in my Top Ten for story titles), and 'The Derelict', a story first published in 1912 that must have been read by the screenwriters of The Blob because the creature found aboard the seemingly abandoned ship is so similar.
This book has a fabric cover with an inset showing a skeleton pirate, which you'll find plenty of in the stories. The paper is thick with an aged appearance and there are some illustration and woodcuts throughout. Highly recommended if the subject interests you.
This has been on my shelf for a few years, one that I kept eyeing and saying, "Someday..." Finally!

35. Throttle by Joe Hill and Stephen King

This novella/long short story was inspired by Richard Matheson's Duel. Here, King and Hill have a biker gang called The Tribe who have just committed a double homicide over drug money. Led by Vince and made up of Vietnam vets, including Lemmy from Motorhead recreated here as an American, The Tribe has never gotten into murder or meth, but Vince was persuaded by his son, the newest member of the gang. Now they are riding the backroads of Arizona trying to put distance between themselves and the crime scene, but the semi barreling down the highway with them is the more immediate problem. 4 stars
This is available on Kindle.

20. Wild by Cheryl Strayed

A memoir of Strayed's largely solo hike along California's Pacific Crest Trail, which she began in the Mojave Desert, skipped the unpassable snow in the High Sierras, picking it up north of the mountains and continuing to the edge of Washington. Along the way, she met fellow hikers that she traveled and camped with for short periods, gaining much needed knowledge about how to survive this hike that she was unprepared for, having bought boots that were too small and destroyed her feet, and packing so much that she carried a pack that was too heavy.
Throughout the thousands of miles, she recalls memories of her abusive childhood, her recently ended marriage and her ex-husband, the death of her mother, her drug use, and if that isn't hard enough, a horrifying couple of pages that cover the family's neglect of their horses, which resulted in the ham-fisted euthanizing of one. I admit she lost my sympathy for her thirst and torn-up feet. I continued reading because it's an interesting, well written first-hand account of the hike, the people, and the hardships.

This is #20 out of a total of 36 reads. I bought it four years ago.

>58 mstrust: Wow, you are reading a lot of ROOTS, half way point already surpassed, great job, Jennifer.

Thank you, Connie! I am reading from my shelves first, though I have quite a few books that have been on my Kindle for a long time and I'm trying to get through those too. So many good books.

21. The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay

Art comes up with the Pallbearers Club in high school as a way for him, an introvert with scoliosis, to pad his college applications. Through their weekly visits to the funeral home to witness services, he meets Mercy, a woman who introduces Art to punk music. Little by little, Art builds up the idea that Mercy is a vampire. Or a long-dead witch. Or it maybe it's all the meds he's on because of his back pain.
The plot sounds like a horror and I believe it's listed as one. Look at that creepy cover. But this is actually a coming of age memoir with brief creepy interludes. You'll find a lot more talk about the local music scene and scoliosis, Art's school years and his severe acne. The dialogue is sometimes so clunky that it's remarkably unrealistic and it seems like the author was working through an 'obscure word of the day' calendar. It's less than 300 pages but took me so long to get through because it repeatedly bored me to sleep after a few pages.
I've read several works by Tremblay now and he's 50/50 for me, with his earlier stuff being more to my taste.
I've had this on my Kindle for several months.

22. The Gutter and the Grave by Ed McBain

Matt Cordell is a Bowery drunk sitting in the park when an old friend finds him and begs for help. Until a few years ago, Cordell had been a good private detective, but then he lost his wife and his license and is spending his life in a stupor until the old friend drags him to his tailoring shop and they discover the business partner dead. All the evidence is pointing to the man Cordell was trying to shake off. Because Cordell is involved in a murder now, he has to prove that the evidence is a red herring.
First published in 1958, this is a pulpy gumshoe detective story, and a good one. There's jazz music, snarling police and every woman Cordell meets throws herself at him.
I've had this for three years.

23. Art Hiding in New York by Lori Zimmer, illustrated by Maria Krasinski

An exploration of all the secret or overlooked artwork in NYC, along with a few very famous works that can be viewed for free because they are technically public art. In this category, you'll find Maxfield Parrish's "Old King Cole" artwork at the St. Regis. A lesser known art installation is found at the 34th Street subway station, a row of sensors that play musical instruments, or the sound of rain and birds when you stand in front of them.
Famous art locations are included, such as all the addresses of Andy Warhol's Factories. or Diane Arbus' apartment, but most of the artworks included can be sought out on the streets, in subway stations and hotel lobbies. It's a thick book, so not handy for carrying, but it does point out that art is everywhere in NYC, you just have to pay attention. Each entry has the backstory and an illustration.
I bought this in February.

24. Kiss Me, Kill Me by Ann Rule

An anthology of her Crime Files, Rule recounts many true crime stories she wrote up over the years, some solved and some not. She discusses the detectives who worked each case. This one runs to nearly 400 pages and includes a section of photos. These tend to be forgotten or lesser-known cases from decades past. My one gripe is that she has changed the names of so many people involved, including some of the convicted murderers. Why?

25. The Last Kids on Earth: Zombie Parade by Max Brallier

Pre-teen Jack was left behind by his foster family when Earth's atmosphere was ripped open and all the monsters of space fell through. Now Jack lives in the family's huge treehouse, along with three other kids, the only humans that may be left. Not only do they have to fight to survive the monsters, but all the people who died are now flesh-eating zombies.
In this volume of the series, the kids find a monster named Thrull who is willing to help them out. They also discover what is shrieking all through the night, a piercing sound that creates the zombie parade.

26. The Troop by Nick Cutter

A small boy scout troop of fourteen year-olds, led by their longtime Scoutmaster, take their yearly excursion to isolated Falstaff Island, off the coast of Prince Edward. A few days of hiking and boating turns into a nightmare as a starving stranger arrives, and he is both aggressive and sick. Scoutmaster Tim does his best to help the man, but it's soon clear that this illness is highly contagious.
A story about gain-of-function research in the hands of a psychopath and the people who have to deal with the results. This is both a gripping read and a shockingly brutal one. It's more disturbing that what I usually read, but the writing is strong.

27. Cold in July by Joe R. Lansdale

Richard Dane wakes in the middle of the night and confronts a burglar in his home. Dane kills the man, who is known to the police as a career criminal, and Dane's already traumatic event gets worse when he's told that the burglar's father has just been released after 20 years in prison. Now, Dane and his family are targets for a man who has nothing to lose.
This being a Lansdale crime novel, there is humor and twists you don't see coming, but also the crimes committed get really dark.

28. A Treasury of Great Recipes by Mary and Vincent Price

Vincent Price was a famous gourmand, and with his first wife Mary, he traveled the world eating at the best restaurants and begging recipes off the chefs. He managed to get a surprising number of recipes for signature dishes, and they are in this thick coffee table book, along with many photos of the Prices and their friends gathered round the table.
Published in 1965 and now a collectible, this book contains recipes from the highest-brow restaurants of France, Italy, Holland, Mexico, Scandinavia, England, Spain and the U.S. It's a time capsule of both the delicacies of the period, and world travel, as the Prices include introductions to each country and nearly every recipe.

29. Hell by Kathryn Davis

The lives of three families at three different time periods in the same house. One family lives during the Civil War, the wife being a famous home economist, the eldest daughter is bed-ridden and being starved. The second family is here during the 1950s, an unhappy family with marital strife and unhappy daughters, the third family being the inhabitants of a dollhouse that has been passed down for generations and is now relegated to the basement. This family is also unhappy and aware that they are dolls who can be placed anywhere and forgotten.

This is a strange one, listed by some as experimental. Though a lot of it is really interesting, especially the doll family, it can be difficult to figure out which of the three mothers, two fathers, or many daughters are speaking. The reader also has to dig through some densely written sentences to parcel out what information is given, making the book swing between being fun and being a slog.

This is #29 of my ROOTs of a total 51 reads so far. With my goal being 50% ROOTs, I'm doing okay.

>63 mstrust: I've never been to New York, but I'd definitely want to check this book out if I do ever go. This sort of thing would be a brilliant book to have for very many cities around the world.

Edited to add: I've just looked on amazon and it appears the author has done a similar book for Paris too. I think she's on to a winner!

I wished I'd had that book the last time I was in NYC, it would've led us to some cool hidden stuff. I've seen that the author has done more, it's a very good idea.

30. Guest: A Changeling Tale by Mary Downing Hahn

I don't think the main character's age is ever mentioned, but I'd place her as 10-12 years old. After she accidentally calls the attention of the evil Kinde Folke to her beautiful baby brother, he's stolen and replaced with their ugly, bad-tempered changeling, which causes her family to fall apart. After a year, Mollie sees it as her responsibility to go to the Dark Lands and get her brother back while leaving the changeling behind.
It dragged in parts and isn't the best from Hahn.

Hi Jennifer. Visiting a few threads on this rainy Saturday morning. Good to see your reading is going well.

Hi Connie! Thanks for dropping by. I wish we had some of your rain!

>74 mstrust: You can have lots!

Got it, it's raining right now. Thanks for sharing!

>76 mstrust: Great, enjoy!

31. The Sugar Season: A Year in the Life of Maple Syrup and One Family's Quest for the Sweetest Harvest by Douglas Whynott

The title gives the impression of a small family maple business, something that involves buckets and kids. The real story is about the big business of supplying the world with syrup, the business of sap boils and selling tubing (the modern way of gathering sap), and keeping thousands of gallons in reserve. The kids are involved, but they are adults who are in charge of important branches of the business.
The author shadowed the owners of Bascom's in Vermont, one of the largest syrup buyers in the country, and he also visited with Butternut Mountain, the other high-volume syrup buyer and Bascom's competitor.
A lot of this book would be interesting only to people in the business. The talk of evaporators and tubing wouldn't hold most readers, but the inside look at the big business of maple syrup is interesting, and the family dynamics of the Bascom family is too.

32. The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley

Just before her twelfth birthday, Flavia's long missing mother, Harriet, is found frozen on the mountain she had been climbing. The British government sends the body home to Buckshaw with much fanfare, and she's even accompanied by Winston Churchill. It's clear to child genius Flavia that her mother was much more than just an adventurer.
Determined to have a better idea of who her mother was, Flavia makes a plan to raise her mother from the dead. She also needs to unravel why it seems that her parents, and practically every adult she knows, are involved in espionage.
This is the sixth book in the series, and we see that Flavia is maturing. While she's still full of outlandish "science will solve everything" ideas, she shows empathy where she hadn't before.

This is #32 ROOT out of 54 overall. I'm doing a-okay.

33. The Best Halloween Ever by Barbara Robinson

The six Herdmans are the local family of kids that are just set loose like wild dogs, and every year they find a way to ruin Halloween for everyone. To combat this, the school decides to prohibit Halloween during school hours and have a parent-organized event that night in the hopes that the Herdmans will stay away.
Featuring the build up to Halloween and the excitement and disappointment of that one night, this is a fun story.

34. Off Season by Jack Ketchum

Three couple go to a rental cabin in Maine for sexy time, unaware that they are being stalked by a family of cannibals. When the attack comes, the people in the cabin can only fight with makeshift weapons, but they are outnumbered by the inbred clan where even the children are homicidal.
This story was based on the Sawney Bean clan, and it's bloody and brutal. Don't read at night. This sat on my Kindle for a few months.

35. Nowhere, USA by Ninie Hammon

In a small mountain town in Kentucky, citizens find themselves landing at the old bus stop in the center of town, either vomiting their guts out or bleeding from the nose and ears. Enough people materialize at the bus stop that they begin helping each other, trying to piece together what happened, and they realize that people are ending up at the bus stop when they try to leave town.

A good dark mystery when it sticks to the storyline of the town being cut-off from the outside, but the whole angle with one of the locals going nuts and taking a hostage was an eyeroll.

36. If It Bleeds by Stephen King

A 2020 collection of short stories, the best known being "Mr. Harrigan's Phone", which was quickly turned into a Netflix movie. Other stories are "Rat", with King returning to the "struggling writer in a cabin in the woods" trope, this time, a writer who has caught a vicious virus while a terrible storm is coming. He makes things worse by saving an injured rat.
In the title story, Holly Gibney and the crew from Finders Keepers have plenty of cases, but she becomes intrigued by a local tv reporter who seems to always be first at disasters. This one dragged a bit and could have been shorter. The reader should also have read the previous works of Holly, as they are referred to quite a bit.
"The Life of Chuck" is told backwards and in three parts, and I liked this strange story of a world that is reverting back to pre-cell, pre-internet and tv days, all because of regular ol' Chuck.
Has King always made his characters spew his political views? He's really turned into an angry old man in the last few years and I think his politics showed up in each of these stories, wedged in because he can't help himself. Otherwise, an enjoyable collection of stories.

37. The Inheritor's Powder: A Cautionary Tale of Poison, Betrayal and Greed by Sandra Hempel

This is the story of the infancy of forensic science in England during the first half of the 19th Century. Within this research is the true crime story of three generations of farmers, a family where the men were at odds with one another. Older, hardworking George became violently ill and died, while his son-in-law and grandson, both shady beneficiaries, became suspects.

There's so much interesting information here about where both medicine and police work were in 1833, at the time of the crime, and who was instrumental in advancing the sciences. However, the writing style keeps this from being a page-turner. The author goes down so many winding diversions, and much of these were unnecessary. I think it would have been a better read to give us the account of George Bodle's horrible family and his death, then launch into the wider world of science and police work.

This is my 37th ROOT of a total of 59 reads.

>82 mstrust:. Hi Jennifer, that sounds really gruesome. A bit Stephen King-like.

I can see that. It was a good story with a sinister feel, aside from the hostage angle. But so much vomit ;-D
I'd read another from the author, and I believe this was the first in a series.

38. Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge

Set at Halloween 1963, in a small town with a strange ritual. For five days, parents lock their teenage sons up and starve them so that when they are let out Halloween night, the boys are so hungry that they'll hunt down the candy-filled October Boy. The one who kills him is the winner, the only person allowed to leave town.

39. The Spite House by Johnny Compton
A mystery within a mystery, this is the story of dad Eric and his two daughters. We know they've been driving around the country, living in motels for over a year. With money running low, Eric answers an ad for someone to live in a haunted house in Texas. The Spite House has an extensive reputation for paranormal happenings, but now the elderly owner wants more concrete proof, and it seems that she doesn't care if her tenants are in danger.
This is a haunted house story, and it also looks into family histories, race and economic status.

40. Monster Blood by R.L. Stine
Evan has been dumped on a very elderly, deaf great-aunt whom he doesn't know while his parents house hunt in a new city. That she's mean, doesn't have a tv and doesn't like Evan's dog sends him outdoors looking for something to do, where he meets a new friend and the neighborhood bullies. He also buys a can of something labeled "monster blood", which is a bad decision.

>88 mstrust: That sounds really like my kind of book.

And it's the author's debut novel. Very spooky!

>91 mstrust: That promises some nice books for the future

41. Before You Sleep: Three Horrors by Adam L.G. Nevill
Each of these stories has a house at the center. In one, three schoolboys think they'll gain reputations as tough guys if they break into the notoriously haunted local house. In another, a Japanese family settle into a house so the father, who seems to be having a nervous breakdown, can relax. The little girl quickly makes friends with all the toys left behind by previous children.
The last story involves a young man who has bought his first home. The interior had never been updated past the 1970s, and he quickly finds himself putting off the renovation and becoming comfortable in the old lady vibe.
These are spooky, atmospheric stories from the author whose work inspired the movies "The Ritual" and "No One Gets Out Alive".
This was on my Kindle for at least 6 months.

Lots of great reading, here! Having just moved to New York City, I am definitely going to be picking up a copy of Art Hiding in New York. Thanks for bringing that book to our attention.

You're welcome, glad one of my reviews was helpful!

42. The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill.
Four strangers, two men and two women, are sharing a table in the reading room of the Boston Public Library when a scream rings out. The body of a murdered woman is found in an adjacent room, and this experience, and the ensuing theories each shares, bonds the four. They become joined at the hips as they think about the murder, but the more they learn about each other, the more they question each other's motives for being in the library.
The reader is actually reading chapters written by a famous Australian mystery writer who has enlisted a fan from Boston to help with getting the details of the city correct, a fan who feels that he and the author have a deep connection.

I liked the first half of the book, which centered on the original murder, more than the second, which was so bogged down by the two women, Freddie and Marigold, having fallen in love with the two men to the point that they are willing to risk their lives to prove their devotion. But overall, a not-too-scary mystery set in Boston that travels all over the city.

This has been on my Kindle for months, maybe a year.

43. Diary of An Oxygen Thief by Anonymous

A loutish Irishman recalls his life in London, when he was an alcoholic in his twenties who truly enjoyed crushing the happiness of women.
He discovers AA and becomes sober with equal enthusiasm, building a career and ending up in Minnesota. That job takes him on a business trip to Manhattan, where he meets a woman from his hometown, someone who is just as adept of destroying happiness as he used to be.
Funny and infuriating, these are the memories of an unnamed self-centered, but honest, narrator.

This is my 43rd ROOT out of a total of 65 reads so far. I'm doing better than my goal of 50% ROOTs.

44. Back From the Dead: And 350 Other Stories of Amazing Luck by Steve Moore

The title says it all. This British book collects incredible tales of survival against the odds. Babies that fall from apartment windows to have their falls broken by clotheslines, people who feel the urge to walk out of the house seconds before it collapses, and people who have been shot in the head with little damage afterwards. Almost every story here has a happy ending.

45. Haunted Hotels: Eerie Inns, Ghoulish Guests and Creepy Caretakers by Tom Ogden

Divided by regions, you'll find the most infamously haunted hotels in America here. The stories include the hotel's history and amenities, along with a rundown of otherworldly guests and employees who never clock out. The reader gets a lot of ghosts who loom over beds in the middle of the night and old men who bring the scent of cigars when they appear, but there are some who like to get their hands on people, such as the spirit at the Chateau Bourbon Hotel in New Orleans who slaps men, or one at the Hotel Colorado who kept pulling off the new wallpaper until a pattern was offered that the spirit approved of.

I bought this book at the Cracker Barrel a few months ago when they had all their Halloween stuff in. It could have used a closer proofreading as there are dropped words here and there, and a couple of pages are almost too faded to read. Otherwise, a fun book of ghostly travels.

>100 mstrust: Sounds super fun! Does it include Canada too?

Unfortunately, no. But I'd bet there's a Canadian version.

>100 mstrust: Oh, I saw this one at the Cracker Barrel but didn't pick it up. Would love to know if I have stayed in any officially haunted hotels (I swear we had a ghost at Palmer House in Chicago)

Yeah, I couldn't pass up that title, ha!
I've been to the Menger Hotel in San Antonio, which is included in the book. Didn't stay there, but had some drinks at the beautiful, teeny bar.
The Jerome Hotel is included and it's about two hours from us. We can't go right now, too many family obligations coming up, but maybe in a few months when the economy is better. The area is pretty in spring.

46. Nightmare in Pink by John D. Macdonald

The second in the Travis McGee series, this sees Trav going to NYC as a favor to his best friend. Blind and damaged, Mike is worried about his younger sister, whose fiancée has recently died and left her with a ten thousand dollar payout. Nina is young, talented and sure that there was more to her fiancée's death than an accident. When Trav investigates, just to ease her mind, he becomes suspicious too.

I didn't like this one quite as much as I liked The Deep Blue Good-Bye, but you still get snappy dialogue, cougars, and those so-vague-but-you-still-get-the-picture 60s sex scenes.

#46 out of a total of 68.

47. George Jones: Why Baby Why by Jim Brown

A bio about the country music legend that draws on many previously published and filmed sources, including Jones' autobiography.
It covers his whole complicated life, up to its 2001 publication, which includes the combative marriage to Tammy Wynette and Jones' years of addiction.
I bought this, I believe, at the Summerlin, NV library, two or three years ago. Jones was my dad's favorite, and we often teased him that George Jones was his hero. I was very surprised when I finally pulled this from the shelf a few days ago and saw that it had been signed by Jones.

Here's one I forgot about:
48. Halloween Treats: Recipes and Crafts for the Whole Family by Donata Maggipinto

A hardcover book of recipes and unusual crafting ideas, such as making decorated masks, lantern attachments for flashlights and flying ghosts. Their are both alcoholic and virgin cocktails and a how-to section for pumpkin or squash carving.

49. Schott's Food & Drink Miscellany by Ben Schott

A book of facts and trivia, with lots of stuff most of us wouldn't know: the wages of household servants in the Victorian era, the ingredients of various sauces every French chef would know, George Washington's rules for civility at the table, and the meaning of unusual pub names in the U.K. It's the little bits of info that you've gotten by without, but I love this type of trivia.

>106 mstrust: "I bought this, I believe, at the Summerlin, NV library, two or three years ago."

Wow! I was just in Summerlin on a family visit. My sister and brother-in-law, their kids (my niece and nephew) and their kids (all told, three grand nephews and a grand niece!) all live there. I spent many happy hours in that library when my mom was still alive. She loved it there.

My mom lives in North Vegas, so Summerlin isn't far. The library looks like a mirage in the desert, and they have an excellent cookbook section.

Happy Thanksgiving to all American LTers, and Happy Thursday to everyone else!

50. The Fran Lebowitz Reader

I've wanted to read Lebowitz's work for a few years since seeing the Netflix doc series about her, Pretend It's A City, which is so funny that I watched it twice. She's quick-witted and curmudgeonly, yet so active with friends and speaking engagements. This is a collection of published columns from Lebowitz's early career, spanning her twenties and thirties. The publications run from 1974 to 1994, the year this collection came out.
I suppose the writing is of the style of newspaper columnists of that period. What we would likely call "wordy" and "esoteric", as much of her observations are specific the NYC and she was writing for the Manhattanites who saw themselves in her complaints about people. She's funny and willing to call out annoying people, though there are some columns that I'm surprised were included here as they represent a very different time.
Anyway, I think I prefer listening to her grumpiness than reading it.

>112 mstrust: Good to know - I would have been tempted to read it. She's hilarious to watch!

She is, and if I come across it, I would try her more recent work. But just listening to her talk is great.

51. Death by Darjeeling by Laura Childs

The first in the Tea Shop Mysteries series, this introduces Theodosia Browning, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop in old Charleston. She has a thriving business with locals and tourists, and a staff of loyal employees. With her tea blends included in "The Lamplighter Tour", a historical event, the tea shop can expect even more sales, but a hated land developer attends and is found dead with one of Theodosia's tea cups in his hand. With the news that his tea was poisoned getting out, Theodosia begins investigating herself in order to save her business.
In this murder mystery you get a hefty amount of Charleston's layout and architectural history, and lots of tea talk. It can be silly at times, but it's mostly a complete look at Theodosia's life, from trying to clear her professional name from suspicion to employee issues and trying to build a brand.

52. Norwich by Karen Crouse

The story of Norwich, Vermont, a town of about 3000 residents that has been extremely prolific in producing Olympians. They've had at least one athlete in the Winter Olympics for over 30 years, mostly in skiing, though some athletes have dual sports.
The author was able to interview many of the Olympians and their parents, coaches and schoolmates. While some of the athletes are the Type-A personalities that pushed themselves, most came from families that participated in the sport because they enjoyed it.
Then there is the sad story of the Snite sisters, Sunny and Betsy, who were pushed mercilessly to become Olympic skiers by their father in the 50s.
I really have no interest in sports and I've never skied, but a town this small that has produced so many world-class athletes is something unusual.

This was my 52nd ROOT out of a total of 78 reads. This may be my last read of 2024, and with my goal of 50% of my reads being ROOTs, I made it!