Kathy's (kac522) 2024 Reading

"Afternoon Respite"
Mabel May Woodward (1877-1945), American

The greatest gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination.

--Elizabeth Hardwick (1916-2007), American novelist, essayist, literary critic

Welcome to my 2024 Reading. I read lots of classics, some comfort books and whatever looks interesting from my public library.

I am a huge re-reader and re-reading gives me some of the best and most comforting reading every year; these books are marked RR.

I participate in various challenges on LT and elsewhere. I have a 2024 Category Challenge thread here to help me manage them all:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/355880#

And I’m keeping track of the books I’ve owned before 2024 and that I read this year (my “Roots") with this ticker:



This year I'm making a conscious effort to read books that I've acquired published by Virago (https://www.virago.co.uk/) and Persephone Books (https://persephonebooks.co.uk/).

Comments and thoughts are always welcome.

Ready, Set, GO to the books!

Favorite Reads of 2023

In no particular order....

Favorite Fiction
The Forest of Wool and Steel, Natsu Miyashita
Maud Martha, Gwendolyn Brooks
All Passion Spent, Vita Sackville-West
The Girls, Edna Ferber
Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell
A Child of the Jago, Arthur Morrison
*Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
*The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
*Washington Square, Henry James

*These last 3 are all classic works that I should have read years ago, but I was positive I wouldn't like them...and I was SO wrong. It pays (once in a while) to read stuff you think you won't like.

Favorite Nonfiction
The Anthropocene Reviewed, John Green--essays that made me think in new ways about random stuff
Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days that Changed her Life, Lucy Worsley--an entertaining walk through the life of the Queen
Secret Harvests, David Mas Masumoto--a memoir about secrets, separation and a family farm
Unearthing the Secret Garden, Maria McDowell--the life and gardens behind the classic children's book The Secret Garden
My Life in Middlemarch, Rebecca Mead--a memoir interweaving the author's life and George Eliot's masterpiece
Aspects of the Novel, E. M. Forster--classic lectures from 1927 given at Cambridge; entertaining and thought-provoking

Favorite Re-reads
The Return of the Soldier, Rebecca West
A Month in the Country, J. L. Carr
The Last Chronicle of Barset, Anthony Trollope, on audiobook
Barnaby Rudge, Charles Dickens, on audiobook
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens, on audiobook

Some end-of-year stats for 2023:

Total books read: 137 -- most books ever--averaging 11 books per month.

"Roots" read: 79 (58%)
Bought & read in 2023: 11 (8%)
Library books: 47 (34%)

Re-reads: 34
Translated: 5

Books by a male author: 58 (42%)
Books by a female author: 74 (54%)
Books with several authors: 5 (3%)

Fiction: 95 (69%)
Non-fiction: 34 (25%)
Other: 2 plays; 2 graphic; 1 poetry; 1 mixed fiction/nonfiction (6%)

Breakdown by years published:

before 1800: 3 (2%)
19th century: 43 (31%)
20th century: 61 (45%)
21st century: 30 (22%)
I'm clearly stuck in the past with my reading!

2024 Reading: January through June

January
❤️1. 84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff (1970); RR; Root from 2021
2. Dear Mrs. Bird, AJ Pearce (2018); library book
3. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015); Root from 2021
❤️4. A London Child of the 1870s, Molly Hughes (1934); Root from 2023
5. The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman (2020); library book
❤️6. North and South (Norton Critical Edition), Elizabeth Gaskell (1855); RR; Root from 2022
❤️7. "The Manchester Marriage" (1858) from Right At Last and other tales and "Mr Harrison's Confessions" (1851); RR; from The Cranford Chronicles, 2 stories by Elizabeth Gaskell; Roots from 2022
8. The White Company, Arthur Conan Doyle (1891); Root from 2022
❤️9. Carnegie Libraries Across America: A Public Legacy, Theodore Jones (1997); library book

February

10. Evil Under the Sun, Agatha Christie (1941); Root from 2023
❤️11. Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather, Benjamin Taylor (2023); library book
❤️12. Bleak House, Charles Dickens (1853); audiobook read by Simon Vance; Re-read; Root from 2017
13. Nina Balatka, Anthony Trollope (1867); Re-read; Root from 2019
❤️14. The Blush and Other Stories, Elizabeth Taylor (orig publ 1958; this edition 1987); Root from 2020
15. John Bull's Other Island, G B Shaw (1904); Root from 2021; drama
16. Hard Times, Charles Dickens (1854); audiobook read by Martin Jarvis; Root from before 2024; Re-read
17. Home/Land: A memoir of Departure and Return, Rebecca Mead (2022); library book
❤️18. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (1883); Root from 2017; Re-read
❤️19. Lady Susan, Jane Austen (1871); audiobook; Root; Re-read
❤️20. Pygmalion, G B Shaw (1914); play; Root from 2011; Re-Read
21. Shaw on Music, G B Shaw (1955); essays; Root from 2014
22. Angel, Elizabeth Taylor (1957); Root from 2014
23. The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach, Peter Schickele (1976); acquired 2024

March

24. The Fair Miss Fortune, D. E. Stevenson (2011 post; orig written 1938); library ebook
25. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Helene Hanff (1973); library book; Re-read
26. My Uncle Silas, H. E. Bates (1938); library book
27. Waverley, Sir Walter Scott (1814); Root from 2013
28. Q's Legacy, Helene Hanff (1985); library book
DNF Readings on Hard Times, Jill Karson, editor (2002; library book; DNF--read intro & 6 essays
❤️29. Funny Things: A comic Strip Biography of Charles M. Schulz, Luca Debus and Francesco Matteuzzi (2023); library book; graphic/comic strips
DNF The Penguin Book of Welsh Short Stories, Alun Richards, Ed. (1988); Root from 2015; DNF--read 6 of 24 stories
30. A Journal of the Plague Year, Daniel Defoe (1722); Root from 2021
31. The Quiet American, Graham Greene (1955); library book
❤️32. Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens (1857); Re-read on audiobook read by Simon Vance; Root from 2020
33. N or M?, Agatha Christie (1941); Root from 2021

April

34. The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope (1875); Root from 2011
❤️35. John Adams, David McCullough (2002); Root from 2002; on audiobook read by Edward Herrmann
❤️36. Mad Monkton and Other Stories, Wilkie Collins (1881); library book
❤️37. Quartet in Autumn, Barbara Pym (1977); Root from 2014 (this copy); Re-read from 2013
38. "Oedipus the King" from The Three Theban Plays by Sophocles (ca. 432 B.C.E.); translated by Robert Fagles; re-read; library book
❤️39. Young Anne, Dorothy Whipple (1927); Root from 2023
40. The Dead Secret, Wilkie Collins (1857); Root from 2022
41. How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis (1890); Root from 2016

May

42. 101 Things I learned in Urban Design School, Matthew Frederick and Vikas Mehta (2018); library book
43. Music in the Hills, D. E. Stevenson (1950); Root from 2023
❤️44. They Came Like Swallows, William Maxwell (1937); Root from 2023
❤️45. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (1813); re-read on audiobook, read by Juliet Stevenson; Root from 2021
46. Leonardo da Vinci, Sherwin Nuland (2000); Root from 2018
47. The Perfect Passion Company, Alexander McCall Smith (2024); library book
48. The Silverado Squatters (1883) from the collection From Scotland to Silverado, by Robert Louis Stevenson and edited by James D. Hart (1966); library book
❤️49. High Wages, Dorothy Whipple (1930); Root from 2021
50. The Moving Finger, Agatha Christie (1942); acquired 2024
❤️51. Washington Square, Henry James (1881); Root from 2015; re-read from 2023
52. Winter and Rough Weather, D. E. Stevenson (1951); library book
❤️53. Roman Fever, Edith Wharton (1899-1934); Root from 2022
54. Picture Miss Seeton, Heron Carvic (1968); library book
❤️55. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (1859); Root from 2022; re-read on audiobook read by Simon Vance

June

56. Greenery Street, Denis Mackail (1925); library book
57. Revolutionary Summer, Joseph J. Ellis (2013); audiobook read by Stefan Rudnicki; Root from 2023
58. A Day of Pleasure, I. B. Singer (1969); Root from 2018
❤️59. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911); audiobook read by Finola Hughes; Root from 2023
60. The Prussian Officer and other Stories, D. H. Lawrence (1914); Root from 2012
61. Five Little Pigs, Agatha Christie (1942); Root from 2023

2024 Reading: July through December

July

62. Celia, E. H. Young (1937); Root from 2020
63. Five Windows, D. E. Stevenson (1953); library book
64. Domestic modernism, the interwar novel, and E.H. Young, Briganti and Mezei (2006); library book
❤️65. Jane Austen's Wardrobe, Hilary Davidson (2023); library book
❤️66. Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen (1811); Root from 2012; re-read
67. Burning Questions, Margaret Atwood (2023); acquired 2024
❤️68. Little Women: An Annotated Edition, Louisa May Alcott (1869); library book; re-read
69. Two Days in Aragon, Molly Keane (1941); Root from 2017
70. Mr Mac and Me, Esther Freud (2014); Root from 2019

August

❤️71. Greenbanks, Dorothy Whipple (1932); Root from 2023
❤️72. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor (1971); Root from 2020; re-read
73. The Last Bookshop in London, Madeline Martin (2021); Root from 2022
74. Towards Zero, Agatha Christie (1944); Root from 2017
❤️75. Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens (1865); audiobook read by Simon Vance; Root from 2009; re-read
76. Sylvia's Lovers, Elizabeth Gaskell (1864); Root from 2016
77. The Feather Thief, Kirk W. Johnson (2018); library book
78. The Rector's Daughter, F. M. Mayor (1924); Root from 2023
79. The Cross of Redemption, James Baldwin (2011); Root from 2019

September

80. Poems of the Great War: 1914-1918 (1998); acquired 2024
81. The Little Virtues: Essays, Natalia Ginzburg, translated from the Italian by Dick Davis (2016); library book
82. The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey (1951); Root from 2019; re-read from 1987
83. My Mortal Enemy, Willa Cather (1926); Root from 2018
84. A Bad Business: Essential Stories, Fyodor Dostoevsky; translated from the Russian by Nicolas Pasternak Slater and Maya Slater; Root from 2023
85. Hotel du Lac, Anita Brookner (1984); re-read from 1996; Root from 2023
86. A Month in the Country, Ivan Turgenev (1855); a play, translated from the Russian by Isaiah Berlin for the National Theatre (1981); Root from 2021
❤️87. A Particular Place, Mary Hocking (1989); Root from 2020
❤️88. Can You Forgive Her?, Anthony Trollope (1865); audiobook re-read by Simon Vance; Root from 2014
89. Great Short Stories by American Women, ed. by Candace Ward (1996); Root from 2021
90. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton (1911); Root from 2021; re-read from 1991
91. The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, Ann Radcliffe (1789); Root from 2023
92. By and About Women: An Anthology of Short Fiction, Beth Kline Schneiderman, editor (1973); Root from 1980s
❤️93. The Annotated Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery (1908), annotated by Margaret Doody and Wendy Barry (1997) and Anne of Green Gables, audiobook read by Barbara Caruso
94. At Freddie's, Penelope Fitzgerald (1982); Root from 2023
95. Wednesday's Child: Stories, Yiyun Li (2023); library book

October

❤️96. Brief Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell, Alan Shelston (2011); acquired 2024
97. The Heir of Redclyffe, Charlotte Mary Yonge (1854); library book
98. Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, Robert Louis Stevenson (1879); Root from 2023
99. Phineas Finn, Anthony Trollope (1869); audiobook read by Simon Vance; Root from 2014; re-read from 2015
100. Man and Wife, Wilkie Collins (1870); acquired 2024
❤️101. An Eye for an Eye, Anthony Trollope (1879); Root from 2015
102. My Lady Ludlow and Other Stories (Round the Sofa), Elizabeth Gaskell (1859); acquired 2024
103. Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume 1, "A Study in Scarlet" (1887), A C Doyle (Root from 2023); audiobook read by Simon Vance
❤️104. The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow, and Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond, Margaret Oliphant, two novellas (1890 & 1886); Root from 2023
❤️105. Father, Elizabeth von Arnim (1931); re-read; Root from 2021

November

DNF--The Phantom of the Opera, G. Leroux (1910); library book
❤️106. Fanny Herself, Edna Ferber (1917); Root from 2021
107. Thank Heaven Fasting, E. M. Delafield (1932); Root from 2020
108. Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume 1, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1892), A C Doyle (Root from 2023); audiobook read by Simon Vance
109. The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare (1600); acquired 2024
❤️110. All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot (1972); Root from 2023
111. The Spinoza of Market Street, Isaac Bashevis Singer (1961); Root from 2016; short stories
❤️112. The Provincial Lady in London, E. M. Delafield (1932); acquired 2024; re-read

December

113. Anne of Avonlea, L. M. Montgomery (1909); re-read; Root from 2023
❤️114. Composers Who Changed History, DK Publishing (2024); library book
❤️115. A Winter Away, Elizabeth Fair (1957); acquired 2024
116. The Sunny Side: Short Stories and Poems for Proper Grown-Ups, A. A. Milne (1921); acquired 2024
117. On Freedom, Timothy Snyder (2024); library book
118. Death Comes as the End, Agatha Christie (1945); Root from 2018
❤️119. Christmas at Thompson Hall and Other Christmas Stories, Anthony Trollope (collection published 2014; stories range from 1866-1882); Root from 2016; re-read
120. The Eustace Diamonds, Anthony Trollope (1872);on audiobook, read by Simon Vance; re-read; Root from 2015
121. A Girl of the Limberlost, Gene Stratton-Porter (1909); Root from 2022

January Reading Plans/Possibilities



This month I'm leading my RL book club in a discussion of Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South (1855), so this will be my prime focus for the month. I've read this novel several times and it is one of my all-time favorites. I recently acquired the Norton Critical Edition, so I hope I'm prepared for our meeting on the 25th.

On New Year's Day I indulged in a re-read of 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (1970), which always inspires me.

Currently reading:
--Bleak House, Charles Dickens, (1853) on audiobook
✔Dear Mrs. Bird, AJ Pearce (2018) for RandomKIT

Other possibilities for January include:
✔The White Company, Arthur Conan Doyle (1891) for British Author Challenge (BAC)
✔Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015), for the 75ers Nonfiction Challenge
--Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor (1971), a re-read, a Virago title
✔A London Child of the 1870s, Molly Hughes (1934), a Persephone title and one of the newest on my TBR
--The Chisellers, Brendan O'Carroll (1995), one of the oldest books on my TBR
✔Short Selections from Mark Twain for the American Author Challenge (AAC)

and these library books:
--Orwell's Roses, Rebecca Solnit (2021)--George Orwell, his gardens and his writing
--Home/Land, Rebecca Mead (2022)--memoir
--Esther Waters, George Moore (1894)--classic portrayal of lower class life in Victorian London
--Index, a history of the, Dennis Duncan (2021)--nonfiction about The Index

>7 kac522: Good all round advice, Kathy.

Happy new year dear lady.

Dropped my star in your direction as usual.

Happy reading in 2024, Kathy!

Starred!

Welcome back, Kathy!

>8 PaulCranswick:, >9 FAMeulstee:, >10 fuzzi:, >11 drneutron: Happy new reading year, everyone! Thanks for stopping by.

Happy New Year, Kathy. It looks like you have some great reading planned.

Happy New Reading Year!

>4 kac522:- 84 Charing Cross Road is on my all time favourie list and is one of probably only a handful of books I have reread (I am not generally a rereader). Love it.

Happy new thread and new year, Kathy.

>13 BLBera: Thanks, Beth; as always, I have planned more books than I can possibly read.

>14 EllaTim: Thank you; and back at you!

>15 jessibud2: Shelley, I've heard of people who re-read 84, CCR at the beginning of every New Year. I don't know if I'll keep that up, but it made a nice jump-start to the New Year. It's a book my mother recommended decades ago. I also have a great audiobook copy, with an actress who does a spot-on NYC accent.

>16 kac522: - On the off-chance you haven't seen it yet, Kathy, you have to get hold of the film adaptation that was made from 84 CC and its sequel, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street. It's one of only a few movies I have actually purchased to own. The casting couldn't be more perfect: Anne Bancroft as Helene and Anthony Hopkins as Frank. And is one of the few truly excellent adaptations from a book I have ever seen.

>17 jessibud2: I've seen the original film many years ago. But thanks for reminding me--I'm putting a request in at my library right now!

Dropping off a star, Kathy. I hope you enjoy Index, History of the. I had a good time with it when I read it a couple years ago.

>19 MickyFine: Thanks for stopping by! Just picked up the Index book today at the library and hope to dig in soon!

Hi Kathy! I found your thread, and I'm dropping a star.

I did not care for Something Wicked This Way Comes when I read it when I was young. I'm not sure I want to try it again.

Wishing you a year full of good reads!

Happy New Year, Kathy. Wishing my Chicago buddy a warm and healthy 2024. How much snow did you get? I think we got around 4 inches...so far.

>21 atozgrl: Thanks for stopping by, Irene. I'm sure I would not have liked SWTWC when I was younger, and I only read it last year because it was the October book for my RL book club. As an adult I was able to appreciate it better. The writing is not always easy; I found myself re-reading sentences to understand them. There's a lot about parent/child relationships and friendship. But also for me this felt like Bradbury's comment on the evils of Nazism and totalitarianism. I really enjoyed Dandelion Wine a lot more.

>22 msf59: Hey Mark! Happy New Year. We have mostly slushy snow--maybe 2 inches?--and it's still snowing lightly at 10:30pm. I stayed in today but I may venture out tomorrow.

Hi Kathy my dear, a belated Happy New Year, i will be visiting throughout 2024 dear friend.

>24 johnsimpson: Happy New Reading Year to you John. Hope things have settled down a bit for you and you've got some time to get into some BFBs. I'll be keeping an eye on your thread as well.

>23 kac522: Hmmm, that's an interesting take on SWTWC. Not something I would have thought of. Maybe I might have to do a reread after all.

>26 atozgrl: It's not long, just sometimes the prose is, well, different. You definitely get the feel of people slowing being put under the control of one dictator-type person.

Bradbury based the town in the book on his hometown of Waukegan, IL, and the dad in the story works at the public library. Bradbury based the library on the real Carnegie Library in Waukegan where he spent a lot of time when he was growing up.

So, of course, I had to drive up to Waukegan when I finished the book. I cruised past his home & his grandparents' home. There is a new library (with a sculpture dedicated to Bradbury in front), but the old Carnegie building is still there, and in the process of renovation. I think they're going to make it a museum dedicated to Waukegan history, with a special section for Bradbury stuff (and Jack Benny--another Waukegan lad).

>27 kac522: That's interesting! We had a Carnegie library in my home town in central/eastern Illinois, just up the street from our house. They've added onto it a couple of times I think. It was still there the last time I visited.

>28 atozgrl: Here's the scoop on the renovation and some pictures:

https://www.waukeganhistorical.org/carnegie

It's on Sheridan Road and only a few blocks from Lake Michigan.

>28 atozgrl: What town did you live in? My husband's father grew up in Roberts and his grandfather worked for the IC railroad as the station master there. Roberts is about 50 miles east of Bloomington.

>29 kac522: Not surprisingly my home town library looked pretty similar to that one, before the new wings were added.

I had a surprise too--the article mentioned an Oakwood Cemetery in Waukegan. We've got a big Oakwood Cemetery in downtown Raleigh too, in the center of the old town.

>30 kac522: I grew up in Charleston.

>31 atozgrl: I wonder if the Carnegie libraries had similar designs? Hmmm, will have to look that up.

There's an Oakwoods Cemetery in Chicago--it's famous for the burial place of several hundred Confederate prisoners who died at the prison camp called Camp Douglas a couple of miles away.

>32 atozgrl: Ah, OK. College town, right?

>33 kac522: Yes, it's a college town. Eastern Illinois University. My dad taught there.

>34 atozgrl: Yeah, I worked for Northeastern Illinois University for way too many years. And I even remember when there were the five "Board of Governors" schools: EIU, NEIU, WIU, GSU and CSU, before each school got their own Board of Trustees. Those were the days.

>33 kac522: Yes, Carnegie libraries often had very similar designs (I did a project on Carnegie in library school and this small fact has stuck).

>36 MickyFine: Thanks! I just searched for books about Carnegie libraries at my library, and looks like the important ones are reference only, but I did request one by Theodore Jones, Carnegie Libraries Across America.

And it looks like my hometown of Chicago didn't have a single one, although several suburban communities did.

I miss decent libraries full stop, marooned here in Malaysia, Kathy!

Have a great weekend.

>38 PaulCranswick: I can't imagine life without a decent library, Paul. You have my true sympathy there. You could probably lend out your own library and do Malaysia a service!

Happy Saturday, Kathy. It was a rough weather morning yesterday but we didn't get as much snow as they predicted. Maybe 6" or a little more. Now we brace ourselves for the arctic plunge. Have a good weekend.

>40 msf59: Hey Mark, over here the rain yesterday washed away a lot of the snow we got, and last night was just a dusting. We're getting a little bit now, but not enough snow for the annoying "dibs" chairs, thank goodness.

And thanks for posting the picture of Julia (rosalita) on your thread. I was so shocked to read about her passing.

Time to think about February reading. Of course I have many more books than I can possibly read in the shortest month of the year (21 titles in 29 days--yeah, sure!), but here goes:

✔Treasure Island, R L Stevenson--audiobook read by Michael Page; a re-read for my RL book club
✔Home/Land, Rebecca Mead--library book
Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Library books:
Esther Waters, George Moore
✔Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather, Benjamin Taylor
✔Carnegie Libraries Across America, Theodore Jones

From my shelf--listed in order, from most likely to read, to least likely:
✔Hard Times, Charles Dickens--audiobook, read by Martin Jarvis
✔George Bernard Shaw's Plays--"John Bull's Other Island"
✔Bleak House, Charles Dickens, on audiobook
✔Evil Under the Sun, Agatha Christie
✔Nina Balatka, Anthony Trollope--a re-read for Liz's Trollope Group read
✔Angel, Elizabeth Taylor
✔The Blush, Elizabeth Taylor--short stories
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor--a re-read
Music in the Hills, D. E. Stevenson
If Not Now, When?, Primo Levi
Celia, E. H. Young
Waverley, Walter Scott
No Name, Wilkie Collins
Sylvia's Lovers, Elizabeth Gaskell
The Edwardians, Vita Sackville-West
At Freddie's, Penelope Fitzgerald

I might take a Long book/Short book approach, where I alternate between long and short books, which may put some of the less likely books towards the top. We shall see.

January Reading Recap:



1. 84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff (1970); memoir; re-read
This was a re-read of the short but wonderful letters from TV script-writer Hanff to a London bookseller in the 1950s & 1960s. It was a great way to start out the new year.

2. Dear Mrs. Bird, AJ Pearce (2018); historical fiction

It's 1940 London and Miss Lake lands a job at a women's magazine working for Mrs Bird, the over-bearing advice columnist. Our Miss Lake also volunteers at the local Fire Service, manning the phones during bombing raids. Between the two jobs, she manages to upset her employer and her friends by trying too hard to do the Right Thing.

The book had some funny lines, but at first seemed too light for a story about the Blitz. It eventually took a more serious turn, focusing on the complications of friendship and loss and carrying on in adversity. I wanted to love this, but compared to other novels I've read about the Blitz, it seemed almost frivolous. But I can understand how it is an entertaining and comforting read for many.

3. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015); essay/memoir

Coates has a powerful voice here and gives an idea what it is like to live in his skin. But it felt repetitive to me. I wish it had been more broken up into separate essays instead of a very long letter to his son. It is truthful but also devastating. It didn't give me much hope.

4. A London Child of the 1870s, Molly Hughes (1934); memoir; from my Persephone collection

This is the first volume in a memoir trilogy by Molly Hughes. Born in 1866, this first book covers Molly's memories from about age 4 until about age 12. The youngest of 5, Molly was the only daughter and adored her 4 big brothers. We hear of their games, their studies, their plays, their scrapes, vacations in Cornwall and much more. I'm amazed at her fantastic recall of so many details of her life.

This was totally enjoyable and I hope I can find the next book in the trilogy.

5. The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman (2020); mystery

I've heard so many raves of this series and I wanted to love it, but it didn't work for me. Set in a retirement home, it had too many characters and felt too long. I think it will make a great TV mini-series, as it was written with 95% dialogue/voice-over and in short scenes. So I'll wait until it gets adapted by the BBC (or wherever) and enjoy the characters on the screen.

6. North and South (Norton Critical Edition), Elizabeth Gaskell (1855); re-read

This was my fourth re-read of this beloved 19th century novel about industrialization and change in the North of England. Margaret Hale, from a small village in the south of England, moves to Milton-Northern (based on Manchester) and learns to confront her own prejudices and pre-conceived notions. The novel touches on differences of region, religion, class, education and owners vs. workers, with a great love story weaving through it all.

On this reading I noticed how many times an ethical decision by a character marks a movement of the plot. I read the Norton Critical Edition, which has additional material including letters to & from Gaskell and contemporary criticism. One of my favorite novels of all time, and only gets better on each reading.

7. Two stories: "The Manchester Marriage" from Right At Last and other tales (1858) and "Mr Harrison's Confessions" from The Cranford Chronicles (1851), by Elizabeth Gaskell; fiction

"The Manchester Marriage" (1858) concerns Mrs. Frank Wilson, a shy young widow who is "wooed" by Mr Openshaw, a stiff Manchester business man. His romantic proposal (from behind a newspaper): "Mrs Frank, is there any reason why we two should not put up our horses together?" She eventually accepts. This story starts out rather humorously, but when the couple move to London, darker events occur, where Mr Openshaw's full character and good heart are revealed.

"Mr Harrison's Confessions" (1851) is a longer story (about 80 pages) and concerns a new young doctor in town. As he settles in, it becomes apparent that 3 slightly older women believe he has feelings for them, while Mr Harrison only has eyes for the vicar's daughter. The confusion is funny, but the story takes a more serious turn when the doctor faces real medical emergencies.

These were delightful and moving, and show Gaskell's knack for effortlessly interweaving humor and sadness into her stories.

8. The White Company, Arthur Conan Doyle (1891); historical fiction

This is an early piece of historical fiction by Arthur Conan Doyle set in 1366-67 during the Hundred Years' War. Alleyne Edricson is an orphan and has been raised in a Hampshire abbey. Under his father's will, the abbey received money and land as long as Alleyne was kept at the abbey until his 20th year. At that time his father's will specified that Alleyne must spend at least one year "in the world" and then may decide if he wishes to remain in the world or return to the abbey.

Alleyne ventures out and is eventually drawn into the ranks of The White Company, led by Sir Nigel Loring, to re-capture the throne of Spain at the Battle of Najera. These last are all real events and The White Company and Sir Loring are real characters in the war whose history fascinated Doyle. Our young Alleyne (a fictional character) shows his mettle and by the end of the book joins the ranks of the knights. My edition from 1965 has some wonderful water-color illustrations by N. C. Wyeth:



This started out well, but I must admit all the adventures, fights and capers just got repetitive. We don't get the decisive battle until the last 30 pages of the book. I did enjoy the writing and the characterizations, but it was just over-long for me, and I ended up skimming some of the middle chapters.

9. Carnegie Libraries Across America: A Public Legacy, Theodore Jones (1997); nonfiction

This was a good overview of Andrew Carnegie's project to fund over 1600 libraries in (mostly) small-town America. The book covers how it evolved, how towns applied for grants, the stipulations by Carnegie and how the libraries were implemented. For every library there is a unique story. Interestingly, there appear to have been quite a number of architectural styles and floor plans. The book also has a list of all the libraries and their status as of the book's writing (1996). A significant number were still used as libraries, although many have been re-purposed or razed. Lots of archival photos of the buildings from all over the U.S. makes it an interesting read.

>43 kac522: N.C. Wyeth...drool...

>44 fuzzi: Yes, they are lovely. It's what kept me going when I was getting bored. Truthfully, I am not an adventure story reader, so it's probably my issue. The story is probably rip-roaring for most.

I posted this on the "This Just In" thread, but thought I'd share it here, too:

I don't usually post my acquisitions, but I had to share this story.

Today I went to Powell's Books Chicago on 57th Street in Hyde Park, near the University of Chicago. It is a used bookstore and years ago was affiliated with the Powell's of Portland, but no longer.

As I was browsing I saw this book, with cover facing out, on the shelves:



I pulled it off the shelf, to get a better look at the title: It All Adds Up by Saul Bellow. But as I was looking at the photograph, I had a weird experience, because those shelves looked eerily familiar. I looked at the photo, and then looked up to my right, and saw the exact same shelves AND that big heating duct up on the ceiling, with some very similar strips hanging down!

I was in the EXACT same aisle as in the photograph! I checked with the staff, and indeed the photograph was of aisle #6 in the store and the man in the photograph is Saul Bellow. I don't know what year the photo was taken, but it was probably in the 1990s. And I was standing in just about the same place as Bellow, bending over the stacks. So, of course, I had to buy the book.....

>46 kac522: What a coincidence, Kathy, of course you had to buy the book!

>46 kac522: wow...I love stories like that.

>47 FAMeulstee:, >48 fuzzi: The more I think about it, I'm certain the store placed that book in that particular spot on purpose. It was in the middle of the "G" fiction section, yet it's a collection of essays by Bellow. Anyway, I was a sucker for their strategic book placement. I'm sure the essays will hold up. Plus, these days, you never know how long bookstores will last, so it's nice to have a book with a photo of shelves I've browsed.

>46 kac522: - Wow!! I LOVE when serendipity like that happens! I'm sure the staff, whoever stocks the shelves, must have placed that book right there on purpose, cover facing out but seriously, you should have got a prize for noticing! At least, no charge for the book, lol!

Ha! I didn't read your comment in >50 jessibud2: when I just wrote this. :-)

>50 jessibud2: Yeah, it was still cool at the time and I don't regret buying the book.

>46 kac522: That is an amazing story, Kathy.

By the way I would have bought it too!

Have a lovely Sunday.

>52 PaulCranswick: Lovely Sunday to you, Paul.
I was wondering if you can help me. Over the last few years I have been trying to read a book that is (at least partially) set from every county in England. I've done pretty well so far, but need ideas for books set in the following places:

Gloucestershire (excluding Bristol)
Leicestershire
Nottinghamshire
Rutland
Tyne & Wear
West Midlands
Worcestershire

I'm not a big fan of thrillers or true crime, but if you can think of books (fiction or nonfiction) set in these places, let me know.

I will do my best off the cuff:

Gloucestershire - Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee

Leicestershire - The Adrian Mole books by Sue Townsend are set in Leicester

Nottinghamshire - Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence or Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe

Rutland - Misspent Youth by Peter F. Hamilton

Tyne & Wear - Border Crossing by Pat Barker

West Midlands - The Rotter's Club by Jonathan Coe

Worcestershire - Mapp and Lucia by EF Benson

>46 kac522: that is a great story, Kathy.

You had a great month of reading in January; I loved your recap. Good luck with your Feb. plans.

>54 PaulCranswick: Whoa! Thanks, Paul!

I read Cider with Rosie (a BB from you), Sons and Lovers and Mapp and Lucia before I started keeping track. But I see that both Laurie Lee and E. F. Benson wrote other books, so I'll try those. Down in the Valley: A Writer's Landscape looks particularly interesting.

>55 BLBera: Isn't that a great story, Beth? I think only booklovers would truly appreciate it.📚😊

>54 PaulCranswick: The first Lucia-only books were set in Worcestershire but those with Mapp and Lucia are set in Rye, which is East Sussex.

>58 CDVicarage: Thanks for the clarification. I decided to try searching on "Places" in LT and that's giving me more ideas.
And I realize I have Ivanhoe on the TBR shelf for Nottinghamshire.

>59 kac522: oh, I loved Ivanhoe!

>60 fuzzi: Glad to hear it--yes, I am determined that this is the year for Walter Scott. I'm going to start with Waverley, I think, and then move on from there.

>60 fuzzi: >61 kac522: As I recall, I loved it too, though I read it so long ago that I don't remember much about it. I need to do a reread.

February Reading Recap: Part I

Hard to believe, but I finished 14 books in February, although 6 were re-reads. So better get started....



10. Evil Under the Sun, Agatha Christie (1941); mystery
A holiday setting on the sea, with an off-shore island. Great characters as always and Poirot is in from the beginning. I was able to follow his solution and it seemed to make sense from what we are told.

11. Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather, Benjamin Taylor (2023); biography
This is a loving, short biography of Willa Cather. Taylor weaves important events in Cather's life with summaries, extracts and analyses of her works as reflections of her life experiences. Bringing the woman and the writer together are quotes from Cather's letters, only recently available to scholars.

At only 180 pages, this is not a mammoth, all-inclusive tome, but rather a gentle and comforting introduction to her work, her loves and her character. If you're new to Cather, this is a wonderful place to start. If you know and love Cather, this is a real delight to read, like a visit with an old, beloved friend. My only disappoint was that there wasn't a chronology of important dates and works, but that is a minor flaw.

12. Bleak House, Charles Dickens (1853); fiction; re-read on audiobook

Dickens' long and scathing tale of the decades-old law case Jarndyce & Jarndyce, and how the legal system can leave families in ruin. The way things are working in our legal system today, I'm not sure all that much has changed. It's also about class, illegitimacy, forgiveness and so much more. I do love Mr Jarndyce. I can't say I had many new revelations on this reading, although I still loved it all the way through. I did not get bored with any section or side-plot (maybe only the droning of Mr Vholes). Because I'm currently re-reading Dickens in publication order, I noticed this time that at the end of David Copperfield, Traddles has a long monologue on the absurdities of the law, foreshadowing Dickens' next book, Bleak House. And near the end of Bleak House, Mr George goes to the Iron Country to visit his brother and we get a long description of the industrial north, foreshadowing Hard Times.

13. Nina Balatka, Anthony Trollope (1867); fiction; a re-read

Set in Prague, this is the love story of Nina Balatka, a Catholic and Anton Trendellsohn, a Jew, and their struggles with family and society because of their different faiths. Published anonymously, along with his next novel Linda Tressel, Trollope provides some detailed descriptions of Prague, which he had visited. The writing style is simple, and the characters are typical Trollope, showing sympathy for both of the lovers.

Before this re-read I had remembered the descriptions of Prague, but was vague on the story. I had particularly forgotten the friendship with Rebecca, a Jewish admirer of Anton's and the very dramatic ending. I found Rebecca's selflessness a bit hard to believe, but otherwise the story felt true. In particular, Trollope's passages inside of Nina's head were well done and more extensive than I remembered.

14. The Blush and Other Stories, Elizabeth Taylor (1958); short stories

Short story collections can be hit or miss for me. This collection has one gem after another. As Paul Bailey notes in the Introduction, Elizabeth Taylor's writing has an "effortlessness" that is truly remarkable--you are never aware of how concisely yet easily her stories unfold. I think my favorites were "The Ambush", "The Letter-Writers", "You'll Enjoy it When you Get There" and "The Blush." There was only one story that I didn't enjoy, but the writing was still exquisite.

15. John Bull's Other Island, George Bernard Shaw (1904); play

An Englishman and his Irish engineering partner leave London to visit the home town of the Irishman. Although the plot on the surface is about the engineering firm developing land in Ireland, it's really a discussion of the English and Irish. Shaw manages to satirize and criticize both. The play was not well received, either by English or Irish audiences, and it was rather so-so for me.

16. Hard Times, Charles Dickens (1854); re-read on audiobook

I am still processing my re-read of this novel. Set in the industrial north of England, it is thought by some to be his greatest achievement, but to me it feels like a didactic morality fable. The characters are stereotyped (both good and bad) and spout ideas that seem to come directly from Dickens himself, instead of from the characters themselves. Mercifully, it is one of his shortest novels. I can't help comparing it to Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, published right after Hard Times, which presents rounded and thoughtful characters in the industrialized North, who don't always have the answers.

February Reading Recap: Part II



17. Home/Land: A Memoir of Departure and Return, Rebecca Mead (2022); memoir
I picked this up because I enjoyed My Life in Middlemarch, in which Mead weaves the structure and themes of George Eliot's book with her own journey. Born in London, but raised in a small sea-side English village, Mead moved to New York City after university and has had a successful career in journalism. Around 2017 she and her American husband decided to move to London. The book starts out with thoughts and memories of New York; it slowly shifts to the move, musings on being "rootless" and finally wraps up in London. I wasn't as taken with Home/Land as her previous work, however, perhaps because by the end of the book I don't think I completely understood why Mead and her family decided to move to London. I found the book compelling to read because of the writing, but felt it was untethered in purpose. It wandered about for me, feeling more like a series of loosely connected essays.

18. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (1883); fiction; a re-read on audiobook.
I enjoyed this classic children's adventure tale of young Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver so much more than my first reading about 10 years ago. I listened to about half on audiobook which helped and this edition & the Modern Library edition I picked up at the library had more background info, which greatly enhanced my reading. I think on my first reading I didn't always follow what was going on, but this time I did. After reading Conan Doyle's "White Company" in January, I'm impressed by how superior Stevenson's book is as an adventure tale and keeping my interest. It's also shorter, but every piece of action is leading to the eventual conclusion. Plus I think the first person narration here helps keep our interest and suspense.

19. Lady Susan, Jane Austen (1871 post.); fiction; re-read on audiobook

The delightful short epistolary novel about the scheming Lady Susan. Always a comforting re-read.

20. "Pygmalion" from George Bernard Shaw's Plays (Norton Critical Editions), George Bernard Shaw (1912); play; a re-read

I re-read Pygmalion from this Norton Critical Edition of Shaw's plays, which included the Preface and Epilogue written by Shaw. Probably Shaw's most famous play (later adapted as the musical "My Fair Lady"), it's the story of flower girl Eliza Doolittle and her encounter with speech teacher Henry Higgins. It's a play about class, language and strong vs. weak personalities. Shaw's original ending is completely different from the movie (and musical) versions. In Shaw's epilogue he makes it clear that he intends NO romance between Eliza and Higgins. In fact he imagines that Eliza marries Freddy and they set up a flower shop (financed by Colonel Pickering). Lots to think about here in its original version.

21. Shaw on Music, George Bernard Shaw (1955); essays and reviews from the 1890s to 1930s

I skimmed through these essays, stopping to read ones that I found interesting. Most of the essays date from the 1890s, but there are a scattered few up to the 1930s. Shaw adored Wagner, and Herr Richard shows up in almost every essay, either as a subject or as a comparison to shame lesser beings attempting composition. There are also many essays on opera. The most interesting essay was the beginning piece on his own upbringing and musical education. His description of Messiah being sung (badly) by a cast of thousands is memorable. Paderewski makes an appearance as someone who hammers the piano to death while the orchestra competes and just about wins. There are a few positive reviews: a performance of Mendelssohn's "Elijah"'; The Hallé orchestra of Manchester performing Symphony Fantastique by Berlioz; and a review of a concert by locals in a remote Welsh village which Shaw found charming and surprisingly good.

22. Angel, Elizabeth Taylor (1957); fiction

Loosely based on the life of the Edwardian popular novelist Marie Corelli, this novel follows the life of Angel Deverell from age 15 to her death. At age 15 Angel begins writing sentimental romantic novels set in aristocratic settings and becomes a smash hit. But Angel is selfish, self-absorbed and essentially lives in the dream world of her creations. Taylor's novel is an excellent character study, but half-way through the book I was bored with Angel, her life and the people around her. I only finished the book because of Taylor's brilliant writing style, but the people and story line did not keep me wanting more. This may have worked better as a novella, or even parts as a short story, but it went on way too long for me.

23. The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach (1807-1742)?, Prof. Peter Schickele (1976); musical humor or humorous music--take your pick!

The great Peter Schickele died in January 2024 and I was fortunate to snag this book at a library sale in February. I can remember hearing his bits on radio (WFMT/Midnight Special) and loved them. Prof. Schickele "discovered" this "strangest stop on the Bach family organ." Schickele presents a life history, pictures, and descriptions of some of his works ("Such a Horrid Clang"), including the "Gross Concerto"; "Pervertimento" for Bagpipes, Bicycle and Balloons; "Serenude" for devious instruments; "Schleptet"; and "Concerto for Piano Versus Orchestra", just to name a few.

So much fun here--even in the footnotes, and the Index is a stitch on its own. I read it in bits & pieces throughout the month whenever I needed a good laugh.

Coming up in March...

Currently reading:
✔Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens (1857), a re-read on audiobook, read by Simon Vance
✔DNF Penguin book of Welsh Short Stories for the BAC
✔Waverley, Sir Walter Scott (1814); the Monthly Author for March

From my shelf:
✔A Journal of the Plague Year, Daniel Defoe (1722); my first Defoe, for HistoryCAT and RTT (medicine/epidemics)
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852); for the "Read for Julia" Memorial (for LTer rosalita)
✔The Quiet American, Graham Greene (1955); for my RL book club
Young Anne, Dorothy Whipple (1927); from my Persephone/Virago shelf
Mary O'Grady, Mary Lavin (1950); from my Persephone/Virago shelf and St. Patrick's Day/Irish Readathon
This is Happiness, Niall Williams (2019); set in Ireland for Irish Readathon/St. Patrick's Day

From the library:
✔ Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Helene Hanff (1973)--sequel to 84, Charing Cross Road
✔ The Fair Miss Fortune, D. E. Stevenson (2011 post.); ebook; written in 1930s, first published 2011
✔ My Uncle Silas, H. E. Bates (1938); set in Bedfordshire, England--attempting to read a book from every county in England
Esther Waters, George Moore (1894); Irish author for Irish Readathon/St. Patrick's Day
Index, a History of the, Dennis Duncan (2022); nonfiction
The Long Loneliness, Dorothy Day (1952); autobiography

and if time allows, or the whim seizes me:
✔N or M?, Agatha Christie (1941)
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor (1971); re-read
The Ladies of Seneca Falls, Miriam Gurko (1976)--history of the famous Women's Rights convention in the 19th century
The Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue--Irish author AND about an epidemic--if A Journal of the Plague Year doesn't work out.

Happy Friday, Kathy. I NEED to get to North and South. I cannot believe I put this one off for so long. Bleak House might be my favorite Dickens novel. I have not read Little Dorrit or Hard Times.

I really enjoyed The Pull of the Stars. Have a good weekend.

>66 msf59: Hey Mark, thanks for stopping by! Thanks for the rec on The Pull of the Stars; I'll move it up the pile.

Hard Times is different from most Dickens: a bit dark and not much humor. But it is a lot shorter.

I'm listening right now to Little Dorrit (about my third or fourth time, I think), and I have a hard time deciding which I love more: Little Dorrit or Bleak House.

Even if you never get to Gaskell's novel North and South, check out the BBC Mini-series that came out in 2004 with Richard Armitage. It's my all-time favorite adaptation of a classic. It might even give you the incentive to read the book 😉:

I started to work my way through Dickens on audio in 2012, spurred on as a way to mark the bicententenary, and most of the ones I have read (listened to) were read by Anton Lesser, who became one of my favourite readers. However he hasn't done all of the works (neither have I!) so I have also listened to Martin Jarvis, David Troughton, and David Thorn. My grand project is nowhere near finished but one day...

>68 CDVicarage: I'm _mostly_ reading all of them this time. I have read them all in the past, but this time I skipped the first few books and started with Nicholas Nickleby and have been listening to all of them in order. You start to see patterns, too--I've noticed the pairing of a somewhat cold female with a younger sensitive one. I'm thinking Edith Dombey with Florence in Dombey and Son; Lady Dedlock with Rosa in Bleak House; Louisa Gradgrind with Sissy in Hard Times; and Mrs Clennam with Little Dorrit in Little Dorrit. But then Dickens takes that trope and makes it dark, like Miss Wade with Tattycoram in Little Dorrit and Miss Havisham with Estella in Great Expectations.

Marvin Jarvis did a good job with Hard Times, but my absolute favorite Dickens reader is Simon Vance (sometimes listed as Robert Whitfield). He hasn't done all of them either, but I'm listening to him now reading Little Dorrit and I just love the way he does Mr Dorrit and the villain Rigaud. Vance does all of Trollope's Barchester and Palliser books, too; I listened to the Barchester books last year and will start the Pallisers after I finish Dickens.

Right now I started The Fair Miss Fortune after I saw it on your thread and I found it in my library's system as an ebook. OK so far, but not outstanding.

>69 kac522: I listened to Timothy West's readings of the Barchester and Palliser novels.

The Fair Miss Fortune is lovely and light and esay to read but not D. E Stevenson's best, I think!

>70 CDVicarage: Oh, I'm sure Timothy West is superb. I don't have an Amazon or Audible account, so it's mostly what I can get from library resources. I just watched the Bleak House BBC mini-series from 2005 and Timothy West plays Sir Leicester Dedlock, baronet😉. What a great adaptation, with so many talented actors. Charles Dance as Tulkinghorn makes me shiver.

I finished 10 books in March and it was a pretty good reading month.

March Reading--Part I


24. The Fair Miss Fortune, D. E. Stevenson (2011 post.; orig written 1938); fiction

Moving along in my D. E. Stevenson reading, this is one that was originally written in 1938 but Stevenson could not get a publisher, and was first published in 2011. Basic premise is mistaken identity with a set of twins. A pleasant romp, with a few funny lines. The twin deception went on until the very last chapter, which was way too long (and somewhat unbelievable). I can see why it wasn't published at the time--perhaps a bit too frivolous as the country was heading toward war? I can see how it could have been the basis for a decent 1930s screwball comedy movie, with the right script and actors.


25. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Helene Hanff (1973); memoir; Re-read from 2004

Following up on my January re-read of 84, Charing Cross Road, I decided to re-read the sequel. Such a fun book about London from a rapturous New Yorker's perspective. After a while all the people she meets got confusing, but the places and comments were brilliant. 50+ years on it's still a great memoir.


26. My Uncle Silas, H. E. Bates (1938); fiction

Set in Bedfordshire, England, these are stories told by a narrator of his colorful Uncle Silas and rural life in Bedfordshire at the turn of the century. Uncle Silas is a teller of tall tales and Bates is an author with wonderful country descriptions, understated wit and affection for his characters. A lovely little book.


27. Waverley, Sir Walter Scott (1814); fiction

Considered to be the first full novel of historical fiction, it's set in 18th century England and Scotland, and contains a few real characters from history. Our hero, the fictional Edward Waverley, is a young Englishman without a clear purpose. Heir to his uncle's estate, Waverley-Honour, Edward enters the British army and is posted to Dundee, Scotland. While on leave he visits friends of his uncle's, where he meets men of strong Jacobite sympathies. While traveling and visiting, he is taken into custody by British officials because reports have circulated that he has deserted his company and has now aligned with the rebel Jacobites. Edward is later rescued by his new Jacobite friends and makes the decision to don the tartans and join the gathering rebellion to re-instate Prince Charles Edward (Bonnie Prince Charlie) to the throne, and the story continues from there.

This was my first full-length novel by Scott and I had a hard time following this book at first. This was Scott's first novel and his language is sometimes difficult to follow; the Scottish dialects of some characters was almost impossible for me to decipher (these bits may have worked better on audio). I didn't feel engaged with the story until Edward's capture and then the novel seemed to fly by. Scott provided long and detailed extra notes on various real-life characters and events. Scott's writing in these short explanatory texts was so much easier to read and understand than his more flowery prose in the novel. I'm glad I read it, even if it took nearly half the book before I was enjoying it. I haven't given up completely on Scott and plan to read at least one more.


28. Q's Legacy, Helene Hanff (1985); memoir

The last installment of Helene Hanff's memoir provides background on how her wonderful book 84, Charing Cross Road, changed her life. Entertaining, funny and honest. This was written before the film adaptation; I'd be curious to find out how she felt about it, as I think it does the book justice.

March Reading--Part II


29. Funny Things: A comic Strip Biography of Charles M. Schulz, Luca Debus and Francesco Matteuzzi (2023); graphic/comic strip biography

This very creative and enjoyable biography of Charles M Schulz of Peanuts fame is told in comic strip form -- six daily black & white "strips" followed by a "Sunday" page in color, extending over 400+ pages. It's told by an elderly Schulz looking back on his very full life.

Debus & Matteuzzi capture Schulz's range of personality: you laugh and cry with him, and maybe get a little angry and frustrated with him, too. My own quibble with the structure was that it wasn't always clear when in Schulz's life the "strips" happened. I wish there had been more markers of the years of the events--especially post WWII until the 1970s--to get a sense of Schulz's age and what's happening in the world. Otherwise, it's an amazing achievement and I think surprised me how well it told a life-story with comic strips alone.


30. A Journal of the Plague Year, Daniel Defoe (1722); fiction

Set during the London plague of 1665, Defoe wrote the novel as if it were a newly discovered manuscript by an observer/narrator ("H.F.") living in London at the time. Defoe did much research on the plague and includes real statistics that are reported by "H.F." in the journal. (The endnotes of this Oxford edition were invaluable and pointed out how nearly all of Defoe's narrative was true and recorded in other treatises of the day.) Overall, this was much easier to read than I was expecting from an 18th century text.

It's amazing how some things were so much like our own pandemic and yet how things were so, so different. He de-bunks quacks and crazy transmission theories, notes the economic hardships the plague created and offers lots of anecdotal stories. Brilliant observations on the attitudes of people and the "opening up too soon" factor. On the "differences" side, dead bodies were taken away and only buried during the night. Families in sick households were nailed into their homes to die, with guards to prevent them from anyone going in OR out. It was dangerous to leave a plague area and attempt to escape to an uninfected area, as travelers would be ostracized and even worse. I'm not sure I would have appreciated this novel as much if I had read it 10 years ago, but today it is eerily relevant. I'm glad I read it, but I probably will not read it again...until the next pandemic😧


31. The Quiet American, Graham Greene (1955); fiction

I hated this. Great writing, but the sexism and racism completely ruined this book for me. I only finished it because it was for my real life book group. I was definitely in the minority. The less said about this the better, but I will never read another Graham Greene novel.


32. Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens (1857); Re-read on audiobook read by Simon Vance

Probably my second favorite novel of Dickens (after David Copperfield). The story is too long and involved to summarize here, but among other things it is about prisons: both real and self-imposed. Listening to it on audiobook (25 CDs!) was an emotional experience; some of the narration was so poignantly done. I could re-read this over and over; it never gets old for me.


33. N or M?, Agatha Christie (1941); mystery

Set during WWII, this installment in the Tommy & Tuppence mysteries takes our couple to a holiday retreat on the east coast of England, where they have assumed identities and are trying to smoke out German spies. I love Tommy & Tuppence's characters, their relationship and how they work together. Christie makes me feel like I'm part of the process to solve the crime, rather than waiting for the big reveal, as in a Poirot novel. I've been reading Christie in publication order, but I may skip ahead and finish up the T&T books, just for fun.

I have two books that I DNF'd in March:
DNF: The Penguin Book of Welsh Short Stories, Alun Richards, ed. (1988)
I read 6 of the 24 short stories in this collection, but none really grabbed me and I couldn't get past the first page of the rest.

DNF: Readings on Hard Times, Jill Karson, ed. (2002)
This is a collection of literary essays on Dickens' novel Hard Times. What I read of this was quite good: I read the Introduction and about half the essays that had topics of interest to me. These included George Bernard Shaw on Dickens and the Modern World; F. R. Leavis' assessment that Hard Times is Dickens' greatest novel; Malcolm Pittock, essentially refuting most of Leavis' conclusions; and a couple of others. Some interesting thoughts here that helped me understand the novel better, which I re-read in February and did not like very much.

April's Pile of Possibilities:

Way too many as usual, but what else is new?

Done:
✔ Mad Monkton and Other Stories, Wilkie Collins--for the April Monthly Author challenge and the 200th anniversary of Wilkie Collins birth
✔ John Adams, David McCullough (2001), on audiobook--for the April AAC nonfiction challenge and the Reading Through Time April Riots & Revolutions; fascinating and eye-opening
✔ The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope (1874)--for the April BAC and loving it so far.

Currently Reading:
--Quartet in Autumn, Barbara Pym (1977), for the April BAC
--How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis (1890), classic nonfiction journalism about poverty in NYC; more nonfiction for the AAC
--So Late in the Day, Claire Keegan; stories

Upcoming reads (from my shelves):
--Dead Secret, Wilkie Collins (1857), novel for Monthly Author Challenge
--Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852), Memorial read from Julia's TBR (LTer rosalita)
--Music in the Hills, D. E. Stevenson (1950), next DES on my list
--Oedipus Rex, Sophocles (Fagles translation), a re-read, for my RL book club
--In This House of Brede, Rumer Godden (1969), for Virago April Challenge
--Young Anne, Dorothy Whipple (1927); my Virago/Persephone Challenge

From the Library, as time permits:
--The Light of Truth, Ida B. Wells; essays and other nonfiction selections
--Esther Waters, George Moore, novel
--Dream Angus, Alexander McCall Smith, myth re-telling
--The Perfect Passion Company, Alexander McCall Smith; novel; 2024 release
--In the Upper Country, Kai Thomas; 2024 Longlist for the Walter Scott Prize; Canadian author
--Index, a History of the, Dennis Duncan; nonfiction

Hi Kathy my dear, hope all is well with you dear friend, you had a good reading month in March, mine was a bit more sedate although i think April will be a lot better.

Sending love and hugs dear friend.

>75 johnsimpson: Thanks John. I did have a good reading month. April is starting out slow because I have 2 BFBs on the go (one audio, one print), but I hope by the end of this week I will have both finished and can move on to shorter things.

For Jane Austen fans:

Amanda Fagan is an American singer-songwriter who has just released an EP of 6 songs, with each song based on one of Jane Austen's novels.

Katie Lumsden introduces & reviews Amanda's EP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ3wztwn6NM

and you can listen to it in full here:
Love, Jane playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8B-BzufZvrMN8A8r44kp_GMqHYmUp0xE

>73 kac522: I am pretty sure, Kathy, that I haven't read any of the Dame's Tommy & Tuppence books but wasn't there a TV series of the stories fairly recently?

>79 kac522: Not sure, Paul. I don't keep up with the Agatha Christie TV adaptations.

I was at a book sale today and picked up a paperback copy of Cider with Rosie. Not as lovely as the one I read from the library, but I wanted to have this on hand when I need a comfort read. It was a BB from you years ago.

>73 kac522: You've been doing some great reading. I have the Defoe on my shelf; I thought it would be relevant. I do enjoy Tommy and Tuppence.

>74 kac522: Good luck with your ambitious plan!

>80 BLBera: Thanks for visiting! I had put off the Defoe thinking it might be hard to understand, but it was surprisingly readable. The Oxford edition had useful notes & explanations, which helped. A bit repetitive, but very interesting overall.

I'm a little behind in my plans, but I've got all 3 of the "Currently reading" books finished and almost done with one more. Most of the other books are shorter, so I'm hopeful I can finish a good chunk, but probably not all the library books.

A first for me in Wordle!

Wordle 1,035 1/6

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Woohoo! Congrats, Kathy!! I haven't done wordle yet today. I don't think I ever got a one though

>83 jessibud2: It's one of my standard "starter" words, too: RAISE

Amazing! I doubt I will ever get it in one but at least I didn't bomb today. It took me 4.

I was hoping to finish more books in April; 2 chunksters and one deceptively slim volume took up much of my reading:

April


34. The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope (1875); fiction

With a few minor exceptions, I generally love Trollope or at least find things to enjoy in his novels. Although this is supposedly Trollope's "magnum opus" at 800+ pages, I can't say that I enjoyed it very much. The book starts out following Lady Carbury, a mediocre novelist with little money who is attempting to get good reviews (and hence good sales) for her books and to get her son and daughter into advantageous marriages. The novel slowly shifts focus to the great financier Augustus Melmotte, whose background and source of great wealth are a mystery. (From what I've read, Melmotte's portrait was a conglomeration of real-life men of wealth during the Victorian era.) The more that is revealed about Melmotte, the more unlikable he becomes. Trollope can often portray unlikable characters but still get me to have pity or sympathy with them (Louis Trevelyan in He Knew He Was Right, for example), but not here. I felt I knew Melmotte too well and the more I knew him, the less I pitied him.

Trollope's intent, I think, was to portray a society that has become so corrupt that it has lost all sense of honesty and integrity. Laudable aims, but overall I can't say that I enjoyed this book very much. Trollope's portrayal of Melmotte is compelling, but once his downfall is complete, the other minor characters and their resolutions seem insignificant by comparison and not all that interesting to follow. There really wasn't a character that I liked or even appreciated, except possibly Roger Carbury (Lady Carbury's distant relation) and to a lesser extent minor characters Mr Breghert, the Jewish banker, and Mr Broune, Lady Carbury's friend.

This was a disappointment for me. At some distant time I may re-read it, and perhaps knowing the outcome I will better appreciate what Trollope was trying to do.


35. John Adams, David McCullough (2002); biography; audiobook read (mostly) by Edward Herrmann

I felt like I really knew the personality and character of John Adams when I finished this book. McCullough used quite a bit of Adams' correspondence with his wife Abigail and others to bring him to life. Adams felt most proud of his work for independence during the early revolutionary years and his part in constructing the Massachusetts constitution, which later became a model for the U.S. Constitution. I love McCullough's narrative style and it made the book move quickly despite its 600+ pages.

I listened to this abridged audio edition and supplemented by reading the print copy for some material that was skipped, which was mostly his VP and Presidential years, and background information on Thomas Jefferson (McCullough had originally intended this book to explore the relationship between Adams and Jefferson). I was annoyed, however, when the audiobook narration sometimes switched to a woman who sounded like an automated voicemail machine. Fortunately, most of the recording was done by Herrmann.


36. Mad Monkton and Other Stories, Wilkie Collins; short stories from throughout Collins' career

This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Wilkie Collins. I plan to read several of his works throughout the year, and this collection was the perfect way to begin. This was a fantastic collection of 12 ghost, mystery and detective stories throughout Collins' career. All of the stories (except 1, and that one was the least engaging) were written in first person, and often there is a narrative within the narrative. I think my favorites were "The Diary of Anne Rodway" (the first female "detective", told in diary format), "A Terribly Strange Bed" (his first published mystery story) and "The Biter Bit" (featuring an over-confident new detective told in letter format). His narrative style works perfectly in the short story format. Short stories can be hit or miss for me, but most of these were definite hits! I'm so glad my library had this older Oxford edition, as I doubt if it's still in print.


37. Quartet in Autumn, Barbara Pym (1977); fiction; a re-read

I first read this in 1987, loved it and have since re-read a couple of times. This re-read did not disappoint. The story, contemporary to the 1970s, is about four elderly single people--Letty, Marcia, Edwin and Norman--who all work in the same London office and are approaching retirement. Their contact with one another is almost entirely at the office. They maintain a courteous distance and each one is a bit odd in their own way. When Letty & Marcia decide to retire, the shift in relationships and what the future looks like for each of the "quartet" is the focus of the novel.

As I've now been retired 15 years, Pym's gently funny and quiet, but wry, observations of older people alone and how they are perceived by others are spot-on. Each has their irritating quirks, but Pym gives them sympathetic and universal appeal, too, as they struggle to do the right thing and maybe find that life still has possibilities ahead. A gem.


38. "Oedipus the King" from The Three Theban Plays, Sophocles (5th c. B.C.E.); translated by Robert Fagles; play; a re-read

This was a re-read for me for my RL Book Club. I appreciated the Fagles translation which was very readable and understandable, and gave the play life.


39. Young Anne, Dorothy Whipple (1927); fiction

This was my first book by Dorothy Whipple, who has been on my radar for quite some time. Persephone Books have re-printed all of her novels and it seems nearly every review I've read of her books has been glowing. Fortunately for me, this book lived up to all the hype!

I absolutely inhaled this novel in 2 sittings. Set in a medium-sized town in northern England in the late 1890s, we follow Anne from age 5 into the first few years of her married life. We see her within her family with a critical father, a distant mother and a loving, motherly servant; we follow her in school as the only Protestant in a convent school; we see her first love and first break-up; we witness her first job, first boss and first paycheck; thrill to her first car and then first car accident; and finally her complex marriage.

I loved Whipple's writing; I just couldn't stop reading. She is sometimes tongue-in-cheek and sometimes quite serious. Often it's what is left unsaid that is almost as important as what is revealed. Much of the novel reflects Whipple's own experiences in her early years. I think the ending was a bit awkward and melodramatic, but on the whole, as a debut novel, this was wonderful, and I've got her next novel, High Wages, all lined up for May reading.


40. The Dead Secret, Wilkie Collins (1857); fiction

This is one of Collins' early novels with true "sensational" elements. A wealthy woman is dying; on her deathbed she writes a mysterious letter witnessed by a servant and it is the intention of the mistress that this letter should be given to her husband upon her death. She dies, leaving her husband and a 5 year old daughter. The servant, however, hides the letter in a remote room of the large manor house and vanishes the next day. Fifteen years later, the surviving daughter Rosamond, now married, is made aware of this mystery while in childbirth with her first child, and, along with her blind husband, is determined to uncover the Secret.

This was quite a page-turner, and has a lot of interesting elements, including ghosts and visions, an old decrepit house and a spiteful reclusive relative. It's clear that Collins intends the reader to have a good idea of what the "Secret" is from the beginning, and that the purpose of the story is to follow young Rosamond (headstrong and quick to react) and her loving husband (blind, reserved and thoughtful) as they slowly pursue the Secret. I really enjoyed how they worked as a team uncovering each "clue" and revelation and what to follow-up next. Another strength, which is found in many of his novels, is how well Collins draws female characters; both Sarah Leeson (the servant) and Rosamond (the daughter) are amazing rounded characters. Collins keeps the spooky atmosphere throughout the novel, but there are also some funny bits, too, to break up the intensity.

What's frustrating is that this was written for serial publication, so Collins prolonged just about every scene imaginable with as much melodramatic sensibilities and for as many words as possible. I enjoyed it, but it could have been half the length and still have been a great novel.

My last read for the month deserves its own post, so.....

41. How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis (1890); nonfiction text with photographs

This classic of late 19th century journalism was a difficult book to read; it took me nearly the entire month to finish, even though it is only 218 pages. I could only read a chapter or two at a time because the material overwhelmed me.

Jacob Riis (1849-1914) was a Danish immigrant who arrived in New York in 1870. Like many of the subjects in his book, his first years in New York were spent on the street or in miserable lodging houses. After a series of jobs, he finally became steadily employed in 1877 as a journalist on the New York Tribune and later at the Evening Sun. His beat was in the Lower East side slum district, and so began his concerted effort to raise awareness of the living conditions of the neighborhood.

Riis wrote many short articles about the conditions, but they seemed to have little or no effect. It was the invention of flash photography that changed everything. He employed photographers and later learned the skill himself, and went into neighborhoods, tenements and alleys to document the living conditions. When his book came out in 1890, it had an immediate impact, due largely to the photographs.

The text is dense. Riis includes loads of statistics, intense narrative and personal stories along with the photographs to document conditions. Riis felt that the first step to improving the slums was better housing, where every room had light and air and every living space had adequate plumbing, all things that were woefully inadequate in 1890s tenements. He goes block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, ethnicity by ethnicity, to describe the inhumane living conditions of the men, women and children, nearly all immigrants.

Riis has definite views on various ethnic groups and seems to rely on some stereotypes. But he went everywhere, no matter how horrible the living situation. As was the practice at the time, he did not ask permission to take his photographs; he just set up and shot. The photographs were taken by him and by other photographers working with him.

There is much written about his work, so I will refrain from adding any more. If you are interested here are three websites with photographs and more information:

This has a selection of some of the photographs:
https://www.americanyawp.com/text/how-the-other-half-lived-photographs-of-jacob-...

At this PBS website, there are 2 clips from a documentary about Riis:
https://illinois.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/jacob-riis-video-gallery/new-york...

This short video is from the 2016 Library of Congress exhibition about Jacob Riis. I learned quite a bit of background info:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqpQzyK96uk

It's here, the lovely month of May! Piles and piles on the TBR; most of these are fairly short, so the chances are a bit better I may get to at least half 🤣:

Titles finished--woo-hoo!:
✔ Music in the Hills, D. E. Stevenson (1950)
✔ 101 Things I Learned in Urban Design School, M. Frederick and V. Mehta (2018)
DNF Index, a History of the, Dennis Duncan; nonfiction--too dense for what I was in the mood for
✔Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen--my annual re-read on audiobook, read by Juliet Stevenson
✔They Came Like Swallows, William Maxwell--for the AAC
✔The Perfect Passion Company, Alexander McCall Smith
✔Leonardo da Vinci, Sherwin Nuland for RandomKIT May: Art & Architecture
✔The Silverado Squatters, Robert Louis Stevenson (1883)-- 75ers NonFiction "Wild West" theme
✔High Wages, Dorothy Whipple; for RTT May International Labor Day
✔The Moving Finger, Agatha Christie
✔Washington Square, Henry James--for my RL book club; a re-read
DNF The Pinecone, Jenny Uglow--for RTT May International Labor Day and RandomKIT May: Art & Architecture
✔Winter and Rough Weather, D E. Stevenson; next up in DES reads
DNF The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Maggie O'Farrell--for the Monthly Author reads
✔A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens, on audiobook--for the Dickens Mega readalong
✔Roman Fever, Edith Wharton: For the Virago May Challenge
✔Picture Miss Seeton, H Carvic; library book

Upcoming reads (from my shelves):
--Mr Mac and Me, Esther Freud for RandomKIT May: Art & Architecture

As always, the "As Time Permits" list:
--No Fond Return of Love, Barbara Pym--another Pym I want to re-read
--Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor--a Taylor I want to re-read
--The American Senator, Anthony Trollope--next up in my Trollope reads

May Reading

It was a lusty month for me--14 titles completed--so this will be a bit of a lightning round of reviews:


42. 101 Things I learned in Urban Design School, Matthew Frederick and Vikas Mehta (2018); nonfiction
Part of a larger series about basic principles of professional schools, this book uses text of a basic urban design principle on one page, and a design sketch illustrating that principle on the facing page. Some of the 101 principles were generic for design and others opened my eyes to looking at architecture and urban spaces, like: "We prefer enclosed spaces."; "Space doesn't make space. Forms make space." "If the edges fail, the space fails." "Suburbanites walk perpendicular. Urbanites walk parallel." "A design scheme is an argument." "At the 4th floor, we tend to lose identity with the street."; and many more.

Read this in one evening and found it fascinating. Thanks to Joyce (Nickelini) here on LT who reviewed this book (in more depth) and sparked my interest: https://www.librarything.com/topic/356846#8511337


43. Music in the Hills, D. E. Stevenson (1950); fiction
This continues with some of the characters from Vittoria Cottage. James is a WWII vet who has decided he wants to learn to farm, and arrives in the Scottish Border country to live with his aunt Mamie and Uncle Jock to learn farming. This is a quiet post-WWII book; I particularly liked the character of Mamie and the description of the Scottish Borders. which was well done. It was a pleasant diversion.


❤️❤️44. They Came Like Swallows, William Maxwell (1937); fiction
It is Sunday November 10, 1918 in Logan, Illinois, a small town in central Illinois. The book is divided into 3 sections: the first from the perspective of 8 year old Bunny (Peter); then from 13 year old Robert; and lastly from James, their father. We soon come to realize, however, that the book is really about mother and wife Elizabeth, who is the center of their world.

Each quiet section has its moments of joy, anger, grief, day-dreams, wistfulness for the past, and perhaps more than anything else, guilt. This is a beautifully written book, and yet sometimes it's not what's said that is important; it is the unsaid, the implied feelings. I read it in 3 sittings, making myself stop to process what I'd read. A gem.


❤️❤️45. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (1813); re-read on audiobook, read by Juliet Stevenson
I was needing a comfort read, so decided this was the time for my annual re-read of my favorite. 'Nuff said.


46. Leonardo da Vinci, Dr. Sherwin Nuland (2000); biography
At 170 pages, this is a short overview of Leonardo's life and work. Besides his artistic studies Leonardo studied geometry, mechanics, the flight of birds, animal and plant biology, optics, military engineering, hydraulics, and architecture. From this, Nuland says, Leonardo "began to see art from what might be called the scientific point of view. And the converse was also true: he was seeing science from the viewpoint of an artist." (p.27).

Dr. Nuland, a surgeon and medical school professor, brings a special focus on Leonardo's amazing anatomical sketches, and how they were centuries ahead of their time. I enjoyed this biography and the aspects of Leonardo's genius using his artistic talents to explore science.


47. The Perfect Passion Company, Alexander McCall Smith (2024); fiction
Had a hard time with the premise (an in-person dating/introduction service in Edinburgh) and it's way too long, but as always McCall Smith reminds us to be kind, be generous and think the best of others whenever possible. And it ends happily.


48. The Silverado Squatters (1883) from the collection From Scotland to Silverado, by Robert Louis Stevenson; James D. Hart, editor (1966); memoir
This is Stevenson's memoir of his 2-month honeymoon amidst the abandoned Silverado mines in California. I liked the writing, but how they endured living in an abandoned mine building is beyond me. Stevenson would later use descriptions of some of the landscape in Treasure Island.


❤️❤️49. High Wages, Dorothy Whipple (1930); fiction; Persephone collection
Written in 1930 and set in a northern English milltown beginning in 1912, the story follows 18 year old Jane Carter who gets a job as a shopgirl in a draper's shop. Whipple does a brilliant job of giving us many of the details of a young woman's life in such a shop. Working from early in the morning until late at night (with only Sundays off), Jane gets 5 shillings a week plus room & board to clean the shop and assist customers She shares a cold, dingy room above the shop with another shopgirl; they are constantly hungry, cheated out of wages and in constant fear of being sacked.

Jane works very hard and by the end of WWI, she is able to open her own shop with the newest thing: ready-made clothes. Along the way Jane makes friends and falls in love. This is a fascinating look at the lives of young women at this time and the extreme effort and hard work it took for a young woman to open her own shop. Brilliant!


50. The Moving Finger, Agatha Christie (1942); mystery
This was OK, but too many characters for me to keep straight. Miss Marple is delightful, but there's too little of her and too late.


51. Washington Square, Henry James (1881); fiction, re-read from 2023
In general I'm not a Henry James fan, but this slim novel from his early years has some very clean writing and excellent descriptions of 1840s New York society. I didn't really like any of the characters, and yet I kept reading for the insights into their personalities. In fact it was an interesting exercise to determine who I thought was the worst human being of the bunch; not sure if James and I would agree.


52. Winter and Rough Weather, D. E. Stevenson (1951); fiction
This is a continuation of the characters in Music in the Hills. James and Rhoda are newly married and beginning life on a sheep farm in the Scottish Borders. The side story "secret" was fairly easy to figure out, so the ending was not a surprise. As with all of her books, Stevenson has the good characters and the utterly despicable, so the plot and characters are entirely predictable. But what does come through is her love of the Scottish countryside, life and language, so it's worth the read for those elements.


❤️53. Roman Fever, Edith Wharton (1899-1934); short stories; Virago collection
This is a collection of 8 stories by Wharton, ranging from 1899 to 1934. All of the stories were very good and most of the stories turn societal conventions on their heads. I especially enjoyed the title story "Roman Fever" (1934), which has the best last line ever. Other good ones were "Xingu" (1916) and "The Other Two" (1904). I also enjoyed "The Angel at the Grave" (1901), about a young woman dedicated to her famous father's memory, which was in a completely different style, but carried off the atmosphere perfectly.


54. Picture Miss Seeton, Heron Carvic (1968); mystery
Started out fun, but drifted into too many details. Miss Seeton uses her drawing ability (and her umbrella) to solve crimes. I would have liked more Miss Seeton in the story, who is supposedly a spoof of Miss Marple. I won't be going on in the series.


❤️55. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (1859); historical fiction; re-read on audiobook read by Simon Vance
When I first read this in 2013, I wasn't impressed--found it too sentimental, emotional and confusing. In 2022 I listened to this on audiobook, and the power of the book grabbed me more than I expected. This re-listening was also very good, although I still had to re-listen to chapters to keep some of the details straight. Dickens skillfully weaves an intricate story into an abbreviated version of the real events--his knowledge and research are on display here. And, of course, the absolute best ending in all of Dickens, perhaps in 19th century British literature.

What's up for JUNE?

Completed
✔Greenery Street, Denis Mackail
✔Revolutionary Summer, Joseph J. Ellis
✔A Day of Pleasure, Isaac Bashevis Singer; childhood memoir
✔The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett; audiobook re-read
✔The Prussian Officer and Other Stories, D. H. Lawrence; for June BAC
✔Five Little Pigs, Agatha Christie; for June RandomKIT--your initials
✔They Came Like Swallows, William Maxwell; re-read for my RL book club
DNF: In This House of Brede, Rumer Godden; for Virago read

Currently Reading....
--Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2022, Margaret Atwood; for June Monthly Authors
--Composers who Changed History, DK Publishing--a huge, gorgeous coffee-table book with wonderful glossy illustrations highlighting composers throughout time.

Upcoming Reading

--Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe; for ROOTS Read for Julia challenge
--The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, Dan Egan; June Reading Through Time--natural wonders
--The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings, James Baldwin; June AAC

The Possibilities Pile from the TBR
--Turtles All the Way Down, John Green
--Greenbanks, Dorothy Whipple (Persephone)
--No Fond Return of Love, Barbara Pym (re-read)
--Mandoa, Mandoa, Winifred Holtby (Virago)
--Celia, E. H. Young (Virago)
--The American Senator, Anthony Trollope
--Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy (re-read)
--The Song of the Lark, Willa Cather
--Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor (Virago re-read)
--Miss Pym Disposes, Josephine Tey

Library books:

Finally, from the "New Books" shelf of my public library branch:



Composers who Changed History, DK Publishing--a huge, gorgeous coffee-table book with wonderful glossy illustrations highlighting composers throughout time.

>89 kac522: I really like your reviews. I'm considering tracking down Roman Fever for my own TBR.

>91 elorin: Thank you for that kind comment! I try to get the essence without going on too long.

There are a lot of collections of Edith Wharton's stories, and I've seen some of the stories from Roman Fever in other collections, including the title story "Roman Fever." If you like Wharton's style, she is a master of shorter formats, like stories and novellas.

>89 kac522: For what it is worth, Kathy, I place A Tale of Two Cities very highly in the canon of Dickens' work.

>93 PaulCranswick: I think it's a very tight and well-plotted story. The characters in general are a bit flat & stereo-typed, except for perhaps Sidney Carton, who steals the show. I also like the portrayal of Mr Lorry (the English banker) and his "assistant" Jerry Cruncher.

This time I read the notes from the Oxford Classics edition while listening to the audiobook, which pointed out how meticulously Dickens researched the history, albeit with a lot of help from Carlyle's account. It helped me appreciate the novel as historical fiction. I also consider Barnaby Rudge one of my favorites, his other historical fiction, which blew me away in parts. Not quite as tight, but very effective at showing mob action at its worst.

June Reading

Well, it's feast or famine with me--and this month is famine. A paltry 6 books finished; these were all enjoyable, but none were outstanding.


56. Greenery Street, Denis George Mackail (1925); fiction
Greenery Street, London, is where newlyweds find their first home, or so this novel implies. Felicity & Ian are the newlyweds going through all the usual trials and tribulations with relations, neighbors, servants and each other. This is a fun, fast & tongue-in-cheek novel that felt like a 1930s screwball comedy movie or maybe a witty play of the 1920s. The narrator occasionally inserts himself, but the novel is probably 80% dialogue. Nothing over-taxing and no major truths of life are revealed, but it's a delightful escapist ride.


57. Revolutionary Summer, Joseph J. Ellis (2013); audiobook; nonfiction--U.S. history
Ellis concentrates on March 1776 through October 1776, and shows how the events and decisions in those pivotal months would lay the groundwork for independence. Ellis makes it clear that it was a long process to get the colonies to agree to full Independence, rather than just being a self-governing arm of the British Empire. He also pointed out how decisions in the Continental Congress depended on what Washington's "army" was doing, and at the same time, the military choices depended on decisions made by the Congress. Ellis has a great writing style and I appreciated the narrow focus. However, I found my mind wandering with the audiobook--not sure if it was the reader or my own lack of attention. At some point, I want to read the physical book.


❤️58. A Day of Pleasure, Isaac Bashevis Singer (1969); memoir
I was "pleasurably" surprised by this book, which I had picked up on a whim at a library sale. This is a wonderful collection of stories from Singer's childhood. They were originally selected from his memoir In My Father's Court and then re-fashioned by Singer for older children and young adults, and collected into this volume. The stories cover his young childhood through the First World War. The characters include family members (his rigid father, clever mother, rebel older brother Israel), friends, and people who seek his father's advice as a rabbi. Each scene is complete unto itself. They reflect a child's perspective and questioning of the adult's world. This 1969 edition includes photographs of pre-WWI Warsaw and rural Poland.


59. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911); re-read on audiobook, read by Finola Hughes
I was needing a comfort audiobook read, so this fit the bill. Ms Hughes does a decent job of narration, except that she doesn't know how to pronounce "Ayah", which occurs throughout the book.


60. The Prussian Officer and Other Stories, D. H. Lawrence (1914); short stories
These 12 stories were written from about 1900 to 1914; all were revised for publication as a collection in 1914. Lawrence does a brilliant job of describing the natural surroundings; most of these stories are set in his native Nottinghamshire. About half the stories are set in the 1870s-1890s and concern rural and coal mining families. All of the stories involve difficult personal relationships and "this horrible nothingness of their lives." (from the story "Daughters of the Vicar"). Men and women both love and loathe each other at the same time. Overall I found these stories well-written but difficult, depressing and almost hopeless.


61. Five Little Pigs, Agatha Christie (1942); classic mystery
An unusual premise and structure. Poirot is asked to investigate a murder that happened 16 years ago. The convicted murderer is now deceased and Poirot interviews the 5 living persons who were at the scene of the crime and knew both murderer and victim. This was more psychological probing than anything else, but the final solution includes lots of twists and turns. This was an interesting twist on the usual Poirot "house" murder mystery. One of Christie's better ones.

I had a couple of re-reads that I read earlier this year that I'm not counting in my total:
Lady Susan by Jane Austen on audiobook
They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell; re-read in June for my RL book club

Had one DNF: In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden (1969). I read 200 pages of this book (I really tried), but it is a 600 page book, and it just wasn't working for me.

And books I'm still currently reading that I started in June:
--Burning Questions by Margaret Atwood (2023); a collection of essays, lectures and reviews from from 2004 to 2022. I'm enjoying these quite a bit--they are varied and funny and relevant. But I'm reading them slowly--I'm about 360 pages and have about 100 left to read. Hope to finish in June.
--Composers Who Changed History by DK Books; a giant coffee-table sized book of composers throughout music history. Again, reading a bit at a time to appreciate the information and wonderful illustrations.

July Plans:

It's Jane Austen July, so I have a line-up of JA reads. More here if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ6CqZ1Zst4

Completed:
I've started my JA reading early last week with:
✔ The Watsons, an unfinished book by Austen
✔ Lady Susan, on audiobook, re-read

Currently reading:
--Burning Questions, Margaret Atwood (2023)
--Composers Who Changed History, DK Publishing (2024)
--Pride and Prejudice, Austen, on audiobook, read by Juliet Stevenson, re-read

Jane Austen reads:
--Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen (1811)
--Jane Austen's Wardrobe, Hilary Davidson (2023)
--Jane Austen at Home, Lucy Worsley (2017); read parts of this last July and hope to finish this year
--What Matters in Jane Austen, John Mullan (2012); a re-read
--Evelina, Fanny Burney (1778), a book read by Austen
--One of these contemporary JA mysteries: The Murder of Mr Wickham by Charlotte Gray OR Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, Stephanie Barron

Other stuff:
I also have a bunch of other reads, which I know I'll never finish, but hope springs eternal:
--Therese Raquin, Zola for monthly authors
--Mr Mac and Me, for July HistoryCAT (spies)
--Little Women, Louisa Mae Alcott, a re-read for my RL Book Club
--Devoted Ladies, Molly Keane--Virago July author
--All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot--BAC July--animals
--Celia, E. H. Young

Library books
I have a couple of inter-library loan requests that I will need to prioritize once they arrive.

Let's hope this is a "feast" month, not famine.

Highlights so far this year:

Nonfiction:
Chasing Bright Medusas by Benjamin Taylor--a biography of author Willa Cather (2023)
John Adams by David McCullough (2002)
Funny Things: A Comic Strip Biography of Charles M Schulz by Debus and Matteuzzi (2023)

Fiction:
They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell (1937)
Young Anne and High Wages by Dorothy Whipple (1930)--Dorothy Whipple (1893-1966) is my "new" favorite author.

And I had some great classic re-reads, mostly on audio like:

Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities and Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens
Treasure Island, R L Stevenson
Pygmalion, G. B. Shaw

Some Mid-Year Stats:

61 books read
67% fiction
66% from my TBR/33% from the library
50% published in the 20th century

Here's my (semi-) quick wrap-up of July reading:



62. Celia, E. H. Young (1937); fiction, from my Virago collection
It took over 100 pages before I felt in the rhythm of this book. Through the eyes of Celia, we explore marriages and relationships of family and friends, as well as her own. Often the dialogue seems cryptic, particularly for the first chapters. Sometimes I felt like I was in the middle of a room of complete strangers who all know each other, without introductions or reference. This has much to say, but I definitely need to read this one again to absorb it all.



63. Five Windows, D. E. Stevenson (1953); fiction
Stevenson's later novels are becoming hit or miss for me. Five Windows is a better one: it appears to be Stevenson's modern take on the David Copperfield story. Told in the first person, David Kirke is an only child in a loving, but modest family living in rural Scotland just before WWII. David goes to school, joins the military and eventually moves to London where he becomes a clerk, while writing stories in his free time. Although simplistic (WWII and David's service are never mentioned), I liked David and his story.



64. Domestic modernism, the interwar novel, and E.H. Young, Briganti and Mezei (2006); literary criticism
This analysis looks at women authors in the interwar years, with particular emphasis on E. H. Young. I read relevant chapters about E. H. Young and scanned others. The authors present an interesting premise of the "domestic" novel in the interwar years and how specifically E. H. Young brings that into her novels. A lengthy amount was dedicated to Young's novel Celia, which I finished earlier in the month.



❤️65. Jane Austen's Wardrobe, Hilary Davidson (2023); fashion history during the time of Jane Austen, for Jane Austen July
In a way, the title is a misnomer, as there are only a handful of surviving items of fashion that have been documented to have been worn or belonged to Jane Austen. Fashion historian Hilary Davidson has used relevant excerpts from Jane Austen's letters as jumping off points to describe and document fashion in the Regency era in this beautiful book. Davidson organizes the book by categories: gowns, outer garments, hats, gloves, jewelery, etc., and provides a detailed description of these items: the fabric and construction; when it would be worn; how much it might cost; and more. Each category includes multiple illustrations of that piece from the period or photographs from current museum collections. The few items that have been authenticated as belonging to Jane Austen are described in great detail.

I'm not particularly interested in fashion, but this book was fascinating, particularly as Davidson describes who, how & where the garments would be worn in Jane Austen's time. It's a great book to dip in & out of, is well documented and includes items from the author's own collection. This was by far my favorite read this month.



66. Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen (1811); fiction, for Jane Austen July
This was, I think, my 6th re-read of this classic. I did enjoy it and had forgotten how many funny lines are in this sometimes melodramatic story. Not my favorite Austen, but it's still Jane!



67. Burning Questions, Margaret Atwood (2023); essays and other nonfiction from 2004 to 2022
Over 60 of Atwood's essays, lectures, obituaries and other nonfiction pieces from 2004 to 2022. Atwood has a round-about way of getting to a topic that I find interesting and witty. No matter what the topic, she touches on the environment and climate change, directly or in passing. As the daughter of a university science professor, this is part of her DNA. Some of my favorite essays were "Anne of Green Gables" (reflecting on the 100th anniversary of the Canadian classic), "Frozen in Time", "Literature and the Environment", "Shakespeare and Me", "Reflections on The Handmaid's Tale" (30th anniversary); and "Caught in Time's Current" (describing how she came to write the poem "Dearly"). An eclectic and mostly excellent collection.



❤️68. Little Women: An Annotated Edition, Louisa May Alcott (1869); children's classic
This is an excellent annotated edition which added so much to my enjoyment of the book. Besides explanations of archaic terms, most of the notes were about Alcott herself: her life and how the events in Little Women were similar (or in some cases, different) to her own experiences. Also there were excerpts from letters and other writings by Alcott that emphasized the points she is trying to make in the book. Sometimes this book feels preachy and melodramatic, but I think the annotations gave me a completely different perspective on what Alcott was trying to do within the restrictions of her era. An excellent resource for anyone reading Alcott's book for the first (or hundredth) time.



69. Two Days in Aragon, Molly Keane (1941); fiction from my Virago collection
Set in southern Ireland during two eventful days in April, 1920 during the Troubles, the house of Aragon is really the main character of this book. Across its path come aristocratic Anglo-Irish families, Catholic servants, British soldiers and members of Sinn Fein (IRA rebels or "shinners"). Relationships develop across faiths and classes, while ghosts of the past loom over the events. Much happens in this book and it can be quite a page-turner. The characters are skillfully drawn. Yet there isn't a single character that I really liked or admired or would ever want to know. So although this is a well-written story, it is not one I will want to re-visit or remember fondly.



70. Mr Mac and Me, Esther Freud (2014); historical fiction set in Britain during WWI
This started out slowly for me. The story is told in first person, present tense by Thomas Maggs, a young teen living in a small village on the southern coast of England at the beginning of World War I. His parents run a local pub and his father is often drunk. Thomas discovers an older couple who have recently moved to the area. They stay separate from the villagers, seem to wander the beaches at all hours and have strange ways. Thomas discovers Mr Mac is the celebrated Scottish architect Charles Rennie Macintosh, who takes kindly to the boy and encourages his exploration of drawing ships and other pieces of art.

This is based on a true story of the artist, who lived in southern England at the beginning of WWI and who would be accused of being a German spy. I thought Freud did a good job of interweaving all the story lines, filling in about the Macintoshes and a vivid sense of place. I was completely baffled and disappointed by the last few pages of the book, in which it's unclear if Thomas drowns (is he dreaming?) or is rescued. Overall it was a good book, but the ending left me flat and confused, spoiling my final feelings.

Closing in on the magic 75, Kathy.

Some good reading in July, for sure.

August reading is going to be unpredictable. I have a few books I need to read for challenges, etc., but the rest will depend on my mood.

Currently reading:
Anne of Avonlea, L. M. Montgomery, re-read
The Cross of Redemption, James Baldwin; essays for the Monthly Author Read
All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot--a multi-month read
Composers who Changed History, DK Publishing--a multi-month read
Can You Forgive Her?, Anthony Trollope; re-read on audiobook

Completed/DNF
❤️✔Greenbanks, Dorothy Whipple
❤️✔Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens, on audiobook, a re-read
✔The Feather Thief, Kirk Wallace Johnson, nonfiction for my RL book club
✔The Last Bookshop in London, Madeline Martin, Reading Through Time and RandomKit
✔Sylvia's Lovers, Elizabeth Gaskell
✔Towards Zero, Agatha Christie
❤️✔Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor (Virago re-read)
DNF-The Murder of Mr. Wickham, Claudia Gray; leftover from Jane Austen July
DNF-Sipsworth, Simon Van Booy--library book

Other planned reads:
Chatterton Square, E. H. Young--All Virago, All August

On the possibilities pile:
Evelina, Fannie Burney--leftover from JA July
No Name, Wilkie Collins--200th anniversary of Collins' birth
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe (Julia's Reads)
The Ghostly Lover, Elizabeth Hardwick (Virago)
The Light Years, Elizabeth Jane Howard, family saga
Turtles All the Way Down, John Green, YA
Miss Pym Disposes, Josephine Tey, mystery

Any I should move to the top of the pile? Let me know!

>99 kac522: Ooh, I may have to look for a copy of the annotated edition of Little Women. That sounds fascinating. It has been a while since I've done a reread of that book, and the annotated version sounds like just the thing to try.

>102 atozgrl: I would just say that it's a big and heavy tome, Irene, and that I had to keep it in my lap. In fact, I actually listened on audiobook, and at the end of each listening session, I just read the sidebar annotations. But they were all worthwhile, and gave me new perspective on the book and Alcott. Great illustrations and photographs, too.

>103 kac522: Sounds good to me! I don't mind big books; I've got quite a few of them.

>104 atozgrl: I borrowed my copy from the library; I'm not sure if it's readily available for purchase.

Hi, Kathy. Hooray for a cool down. I finally made it over to the Baldwin thread. I plan on participating. Have you selected something?

>106 msf59: Yes, I am so relieved it's cooler. I'm not sure how you & Sue made it through southern IL, although I'm sure it was lovely.

I've started The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings, which is one volume of various essays, reviews, interviews and one short story. I think these are pieces that were not included in the Library of America volumes of Baldwin's works.

So far the essays are a bit rambling, but good, and sadly, still relevant today. As I'm reading I'm wondering what he would think of us today, having had one black president and hopefully, another one soon.

I'm done with my August reading, and will post my summaries in a few days.

I'm already planning my Victober (Victorian October) reading and it includes several chunksters.

So for September, I've decided to make it a "Shorty" September: all the books will be under 300 pages, most under 200 pages. I've stacked up about 25 possibilities, including some short story & essay collections.

Completed:
✔️Poems of the Great War 1914-1918, 145 pages
✔️The Little Virtues, essays by Natalia Ginzburg, 137 pages
✔️A Bad Business: Essential Stories, F Dostoevsky, 284 pages
✔️A Mortal Enemy, Willa Cather, 85 pages
✔️Hotel du Lac, Anita Brookner, 184 pages, a re-read from the 1990s
✔️At Freddie's, Penelope Fitzgerald, 160 pages
✔️The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey, 206 pages
✔️A Particular Place, Mary Hocking, 216 pages
✔️Great Short Stories by American Women, 200 pages
✔️The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, Ann Radcliffe, 113 pages
✔️A Month in the Country, a play by Ivan Turgenev, 123 pages
✔️Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton, 181 pages, a re-read

Possibilities:
Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, R L Stevenson, 149 pages
March, Geraldine Brooks, 273 pages
The Doctor's Family and Other Stories, Margaret Oliphant, 205 pages, a re-read
The Sunny Side: Short Stories and Poems for Proper Grown-Ups, A. A. Milne, 312 pages (has short pages and lots of illustrations, so will be quicker than it looks)
The Edwardians, Vita Sackville-West, 222 pages
The Violins of Saint-Jacques, Patrick Leigh Fermor, 139 pages
At Fault, Kate Chopin, 130 pages
Moon Tiger, Penelope Lively, 208 pages
So Long, See You Tomorrow, William Maxwell, 135 pages
Human Voices, Penelope Fitzgerald, 144 pages

These are the most likely candidates, and I'm going to try to get to as many as I can!

I do have one big book: I've finished ✔️Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope.

Finally! My August reading...



❤️71. Greenbanks, Dorothy Whipple (1932); fiction, from my Persephone collection.
I finished (inhaled!) and absolutely loved this book set around a house, Greenbanks, before, during and immediately after the Great War. The story centers around widowed Louisa, her adult children and their relationships. Most important is the wonderful portrayal of Louisa with her granddaughter Rachel, who have a special bond.

This is my 3rd Dorothy Whipple and I am in heaven! There is something so wonderful to be completely absorbed with a book; I can't really tell you why, but I can't put her books down. The characters are so interesting and nuanced, and I feel for them even when they're flawed. Not much happens and yet everything happens.



❤️72. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor (1971); fiction, from my Virago collection
Widowed Mrs Palfrey comes to live in a retirement hotel and along the way we meet the various other residents. During her stay Mrs Palfrey meets a young writer and the two form an interesting friendship.

It's amazing what Taylor can communicate with the sparest of prose. Like a very good short story, everything in this book has a purpose. This was a re-read of the first novel I ever read by Elizabeth Taylor. I've gone on to read more, but I think this still remains the best for me. I thoroughly enjoyed my re-read.



73. The Last Bookshop in London, Madeline Martin (2021); fiction
Set during the London Blitz, this book has great detail about the time period from an everyday person's point of view. However, it didn't feel particularly British to me and the writing left a bit to be desired, especially after finishing a re-read of the exquisite Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor. I skim-read the last half of the book. I thought Frances Faviell's memoir, A Chelsea Concerto, a much better book about the Blitz.



74. Towards Zero, Agatha Christie (1944); mystery
A fairly decent mystery with Inspector Battle. He doesn't get much personality here but the whole case is fairly twisty-turny and there were enough clues to make the solution believable. What wasn't believable was a silly romance in the last few pages. Christie has done this before, and every time it irritates me.



❤️75. Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens (1865); fiction; re-read on audiobook, narrated by Simon Vance
This was my 3rd re-read and there were so many details I had forgotten. I was so immersed in the book, I couldn't stop listening sometimes. There are too many storylines in this final full novel by Dickens that it's impossible to give a synopsis, but it is set along the Thames with high-brow and low-brow characters and all those in-between. Two characters, Eugene Wrayburn and Bella Wilfer, stand out for their character arc over the course of the novel. I consider Bradley Headstone the most creepy villain in all of Dickens.

One of the many things I noticed on this reading was how individual Dickens makes each person's style of speech and word choices unique and individual, and so different from all the other characters. Even on the page, it is always clear who is speaking. This is still not my favorite Dickens, but it is probably among my top 5.



76. Sylvia's Lovers, Elizabeth Gaskell (1864); fiction
I'm still conflicted about this book; I think Gaskell did a lot of interesting things here, but I'm not sure it quite comes off well as a whole. Briefly, it is set during the late 18th century along the North-east coast of England during the time of the "press-gangs", legitimate gangs, sanctioned by the Government to impress (i.e., kidnap) men into the Navy. Gaskell based some of the book on real characters and events. Amidst this strife we follow Sylvia, a young woman who is in love with the "bad boy" of the neighborhood, but eventually marries the boring but reliable man who has been in love with her since childhood. As with most of Gaskell's works, the crux of the novel revolves around a falsehood, how it precipitates events and how the characters struggle with the consequences.

I can't say I really liked any of the characters, but the way Gaskell weaves the real events and issues around these characters was impressive. It is a sad, sad book, as there is no even remotely happy ending for anyone here.



77. The Feather Thief, Kirk W. Johnson (2018); nonfiction, true crime
About a young brilliant American kid who perfects fly-tying and then as a college student goes on to steal birds and feathers from the British Museum. And gets away with it with the "Asperger's" Defense. This is a whole obsessive cult with many followers which I knew nothing about, and yet I found the first half of the book surprisingly interesting. Indeed, the author knows how to build suspense. Because not all the specimens were recovered (because they were sold online or split apart). the author felt his own "need" to try and find the missing pieces. This part of the story became tedious for me and ultimately meant the last third of the book was just a let-down.



78. The Rector's Daughter, F. M. Mayor (1924); fiction
Mary Jocelyn is 35 years old and has spent her life caring for her disabled sister and domineering Rector father. She is quiet, obedient and constantly criticized by her father. But into her life strolls Robert Herbert: she is smitten, but the path of true love does not run smooth. Herbert himself becomes smitten with another woman who seems completely wrong for him, and the majority of the book examines their marriage and the effect upon Mary.

This is a quiet book; well-written and perceptive about human relationships. But none of the characters (even Mary) are entirely likable and I'm not sure it's a book that I want to read again--I think it might be too frustrating and painful.



79. The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings, James Baldwin (2010); essays and misc. non-fiction
This collection includes essays, lectures, letters and book reviews not previously included in other collections. I found the essays and lectures sometimes haphazard and rambling, but I did enjoy the letters and book reviews. My favorite pieces were profiles of Patterson vs. Liston; Sidney Poitier; all of the letters; and books reviews of Robert Louis Stevenson, John Hope Franklin and Roger Wilkins. An eclectic, if uneven, collection.

As I mentioned above in >108 kac522:, I'm reading a bunch of "shorty" books in September. Since I'm hoping to read quite a few, I plan to summarize every week or so as I finish a couple of books.

September Reading begins:



80. Poems of the Great War: 1914-1918, (1998)
This is a short compilation of poems written by Great War poets. Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon are probably the most represented. I did not understand Owen's poems at all, but I did get something out of Sassoon and some of the others. "Flanders Fields", the only poem by John McCrae, was actually one of my favorites.



81. The Little Virtues: Essays, Natalia Ginzburg, translated from the Italian by Dick Davis (2016)
Ginzburg is a wonderful writer, and I particularly loved her essays about her childhood and writing ("My Vocation"), her marriage ("La Maison Volpe") and about England ("England: Eulogy and Lament").

However, the last 2 essays, including the title essay "The Little Virtues" are curious in that the author constantly uses the plural "We" and in present tense--"we do this, we do that, we say this", etc., yet she seems to be talking about the universal "we". I'm not sure if this is normal Italian structure for essays, but I found it annoying because in many cases, I'm not part of that "we" that she's referencing. These essays are also about how to raise children, and as my children are well into their 40s, that train has passed, so they did not feel relevant to me.

Currently reading:

A Bad Business: Essential Stories, Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey

Congrats on zipping past the goal@

>111 drneutron: Thanks--I didn't even notice it until I was writing up the summaries! I feel so lucky to be able to read so much now that I'm retired. When I was working I was lucky to finish 20 books in a year; to read 75 books in a year seemed impossible. There are so many people here with full-time jobs and still read an incredible amount of books. Very humbling.

Two more short books finished yesterday:



82. The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey (1951); mystery
Often considered one of the best mysteries of all time, this story is set in a hospital where Inspector Grant has been laid up with a broken leg. Bored with staring at the ceiling, he becomes intrigued by a portrait of Richard III given to him by a friend and sets out on a quest to discover the true facts behind the murder of the Princes in the Tower.

This is a page-turning historical mystery read. Assisting the Inspector is a young American researcher who does all the running and researching, and together they discuss the who, what, how and whys of the case. I can't say I always followed their arguments, nor was familiar with many of the names thrown out. But was interesting to me was the examination of how the truth of "history", whether in children's history schoolbooks or in respected classic works, can be distorted by perspective, myth and time.



83. My Mortal Enemy, Willa Cather (1926); novella

This short novella which I read in a few hours is a portrait of a woman, a marriage and human relationships. The story is told by Nellie, a 15-year old from a small town in Illinois. Nellie has heard the romantic stories of Myra Henshawe, a contemporary of her mother and aunts, who left her cruel uncle, gave up fortune and ran away for love with a poor clerk. When Myra & her husband Oswald come back to visit, she & young Nellie get along. Myra is charming, witty and strong, but can be sarcastic, even cruel. The rest of the novella is Nellie's observations of the couple when she visits them in fashionable New York, and some 10 years later in a run-down apartment hotel on the West Coast.

This novella is full of observations of people, relationships, nature, youth and old age in Cather's spare, pure style--every word counts. These are not characters I loved, but it's a portrait of a complicated woman I'll think about for a long time.

Currently reading:
A Bad Business: Essential stories, F Dostoevsky
Hotel du Lac, Anita Brookner

and my long-term audiobook is Can You Forgive Her?, Anthony Trollope, read by Simon Vance

Some books acquired in the past week:

Ordered from Blackwell's: new copies to replace older ones:


I had beat-up copies of these favorite classics, so it was time for new copies. The middle book is a Picador Classic, the other two are new Virago Classics editions.

From the Lake Forest Public Library book sale ($2 each)--all in excellent condition:


I was pleased to find 2 Dean Street Press books that I haven't read, another Barbara Pym replacement copy and The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler. I loved his novel A Whole Life.

And found at Half-Price Books:


This is a short (about 100 pages--text-only, no pictures) biography of Elizabeth Gaskell, with an excellent bibliography. It is part of the Hesperus Press "Brief Lives" series. The author, Alan Shelston, is a past president of the Gaskell Society, Manchester.

Finally, from worldofbooks.com, two used short story collections of Elizabeth Gaskell:

Two more short books finished this week:



84. A Bad Business: Essential stories, Fyodor Dostoevsky; translated from the Russian by Nicolas Pasternak Slater and Maya Slater; collection published 2021; 6 stories original published 1862, 1865, 1873, 1876

All of these stories, with the exception of one, have a satiric tone that keeps the reader at a certain distance. In "A Bad Business" we are inside the head of a man who spends his time imagining how he will be received in social situations, and then his reflections on what actually happens. In "The Crocodile" a clerk is swallowed whole by a crocodile but is able to talk to his friends and reflect on his work. The only story that truly engaged me was the shortest: "A Heavenly Christmas Tree", about a poor mother & son seeking food & shelter on Christmas. Very moving, without a hint of satire.



85. Hotel du Lac, Anita Brookner (1984); fiction; re-read from 1996

This is the story of Edith Hope, a woman writer of romantic fiction, who has been convinced by her friends to seek out Hotel du Lac, a Swiss resort hotel off the beaten path. We slowly learn that Edith is here "recovering" from the past, and we get bits and pieces along the way, until the actual incident is revealed.

Brookner's introspective writing and wry observations are the draw here. Sentences are meticulously constructed. Narration seamlessly weaves into Edith's thoughts and back out again. The weather and the sun, in particular, seem to set the moods in the book. This was a re-read for me and it was my first Brookner that I read in 1996. I quickly read all of her books in order in the 1990s and early 2000s. They are of their time and place, I think. Brookner's stories are of women from the post-WWII era who were navigating women's increased freedoms but still felt restricted by their upbringing and society's traditional expectations that they cannot completely shake off.

Currently reading:

Great Short Stories by American Women, which includes stories by authors such as Louisa Mae Alcott, Sarah Orne Jewett, Kate Chopin, Willa Cather, Zora Neale Hurston and Nella Larsen.
A Month in the Country, a play by Ivan Turgenev (written 1848-50; first published in 1869 & first performed in 1872)

This week's reading--3 short, one long:



86. A Month in the Country: A Comedy in Five Acts, Ivan Turgenev; a play, (1855); translated from the Russian by Isaiah Berlin in 1981 for the National Theatre (UK)

A love triangle that is at once comic and tragic, and which subtlety mocks the aristocracy and laments the slights to the self-made working man. Probably comes off better when performed than it did on the page. Translation by Isaiah Berlin was smooth and felt effortless.



❤️87. A Particular Place, Mary Hocking (1989); fiction

Mary Hocking (1921-2014, UK) wrote 24 novels between 1961 and 1996. Last year I read her Fairley family trilogy (Good Daughters, Indifferent Heroes and Welcome Strangers), which are set before, during and after WWII. I enjoyed these books, particularly the first & last.

At first I wasn't sure where this novel was going, but it gradually grew on me and in the end, I loved it. It's the 1980s and newly appointed vicar Michael Hoath and his wife Valentine come to a small West country village to serve the Anglican congregation. The vicar and his wife don't seem terribly suited to one another: he is studious, thoughtful and a lover of nature; she is tall, remote, chic and beautiful, and completely uninterested in religion or church affairs. Theirs is a strained relationship at best.

Michael eventually finds a kindred spirit in the village: kind, drab and newly-married Norah, a former nurse, who is dealing with a selfish & wrathful husband. The close friendship between Michael & Norah threatens the vicar's marriage. All this is wryly observed by Michael's Aunt Hester.

There's a lot about women's place in the church and in the world (after all, it's the 1980s), but also about relationships and marriage and doing our best with what we are given (and what we have chosen). As Norah says "I have learnt that we have to do what we can in the particular place where we find ourselves....Here is where you are, Norah Kendall, and all that is asked is that you make your best of it."



❤️88. Can You Forgive Her?, Anthony Trollope (1865); fiction; re-read on audiobook, read by Simon Vance

Just like my re-read of Trollope's Barsetshire books last year, this re-read of the first of his Palliser series was such a delight. I had forgotten so much of the plots, and was again surprised by Trollope's humor. In this story Trollope portrays three different women, with three different problems with men, and each one felt sympathetic and well-rounded. We are introduced to Plantagenet Palliser and his wife Lady Glencora, who will be important throughout the Palliser series. And in the end, I think I can forgive all 3 women 😊

This first book, along with the last book The Duke's Children in the series, were my favorites on the first time reading this series. I am anxious to start the next book, Phineas Finn, to see if it goes up in my estimation on a second reading.



89. Great Short Stories by American Women, Candace Ward, editor (1996)

On the whole, I thought this was an interesting and representative collection of stories by American women through 1930. The 13 stories range in publication from 1861 (Rebecca Harding Davis) through 1930 (Nella Larsen). I read 7 of the 13 stories; 4 of the stories I had read before, and did not feel the need re-read, and I decided to pass on 3.

My favorites of the ones I read this time were "A White Heron" by Sarah Orne Jewett (1886); "A Jury of Her Peers" by Susan Glaspell (1917) and "Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston (1926). I need to find more of Susan Glaspell's work; it's a name that's relatively new to me and "A Jury of Her Peers" was the best story of the ones new to me.

Of the ones I've read before, I would recommend "The Angel at the Grave" by Edith Wharton (1901) and the brilliant "The Yellow Wall-Paper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892), which I've read several times.

Current "shorty" reading:

--Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery, on audiobook, and supplemented with The Annotated Anne of Green Gables, edited by Margaret Doody, Mary Doody, and Wendy Barry (1997)
--By and About Women: An Anthology of Short Fiction, edited by Beth Kline Schneiderman (1973)--a collection of 19 stories by women in the 20th century (up to the 1970s).
--Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (1911); a re-read from 1991--and I don't remember a thing about it.

It's comin' on October, and that means Victober (Victorian October) is almost here, my favorite reading challenge of the year. It's about reading books written by British authors during the Victorian era (1837-1901). It's hosted by several booktubers, and you can watch the announcement video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynyQHVDh190&t=25s

To participate the only requirement is to read 1 book from the Victorian era. For people like me, it's just too hard to choose just one, so the hosts have come up with challenges. They are:

Serialized: Read a Victorian book that was serially published
Format: Read a Victorian book with an unusual format structure
Religion: Read a Victorian book that has religious themes or characters
Play: Read a Victorian play
Honor two booktubers who passed away this year (Jennifer & Alice) by reading something by their favorite Victorian authors:
Wilkie Collins: Jennifer's favorite
Arthur Conan Doyle: Alice's favorite

There is a Group Read: The Doctor's Wife by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. I read this a couple of years ago, and have chosen not to re-read it now.

After much shuffling of books and changing of mind, here are my (pretty) firm selections:
✔️Serialized: Phineas Finn, Anthony Trollope, a re-read on audiobook
✔️Serialized: The American Senator An Eye for an Eye, Anthony Trollope
✔️Format: Round the Sofa, Elizabeth Gaskell (stories with connecting narrative & themes)
✔️Religion: The Heir of Redclyffe, Charlotte Mary Yonge
✔️Play: I'll be watch 1 or 2 plays by G. B. Shaw from the 1890s, still undecided on which ones
✔️Wilkie Collins: Man and Wife, also fits serialized
Arthur Conan Doyle: A Study in Scarlet, also fits format

In my pile of additional possibilities:
Red Pottage, Mary Cholmondeley, from my Virago collection
The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow, Margaret Oliphant, from my Persephone collection
The Master of Ballantrae, Robert Louis Stevenson
Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy, a re-read

and 3 non-fiction possibilities:
✔️Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, Robert Louis Stevenson, travel memoir
✔️❤️Brief Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell, Alan Shelston, biography
Can Jane Eyre Be Happy? More Puzzles in Classic Fiction, John Sutherland, fun(!)literary analysis of (mostly) Victorian novels

Just delurking to say hello. You certainly have a lot of great reads this year

>118 figsfromthistle: Thanks! I'm really looking forward to October to get into some Victorian classics that I've put off for a while. Of course, I may chuck all of it & just re-read (for the umpteenth time) Jane Eyre!

>119 kac522: That sounds like a great idea.

>120 BLBera: Well, Day 2 and I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet. I've started:

--Phineas Finn, Trollope, a re-read on audiobook
--The Heir of Redclyffe, Charlotte Mary Yonge--wildly popular in its day, but fairly obscure today, and so far it's keeping my interest
--Brief Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell, Alan Shelston, a slim (about 100 pages) bio

Finishing off September reading:



90. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton (1911); fiction

This was a re-read for me from the 1990s and I had completely forgotten what this novella was about. The story is set in rural New England, perhaps 1880s or 1890s, and focuses on a married couple and their niece, who has come to live with them to help out with the household. Wharton builds tension from the very beginning and it never lets up. This was dark and gripping, and is not like anything else that I have read by Wharton.



91. The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, Ann Radcliffe (1789) fiction

Set in the medieval Scottish Highlands, this is the story pf two rival chieftains. Now come of age, Osbert of Athlin feels compelled to revenge the murder of his father by the evil Baron Malcolm of Dunbayne. Castles, feuds, romance, kidnappings and escapes are all packed into this very short work (112 pages), the first of Ann Radcliffe's Gothic novels. Although I'm not a gothic fan, this was entertaining. Although the emphasis is on the men, the female characters do more than just faint. I was able to follow the story and never felt bored, although the final twists at the end seemed contrived and rushed. I think I liked it better than The Italian, just because the brevity kept it from dragging. If you just want to get a taste of the original Gothic novels of the 18th century, this might be the book for you.



92. By and About Women: An Anthology of Short Fiction, Beth Kline Schneiderman, editor (1973); short stories

This is one of the oldest books on my TBR--I'm sure from the 1980s. This collection contains 19 stories from the 20th century up to the 1970s. A couple I have read previously and a couple I have in other collections. Of the remaining stories, I chose 6 authors that I wanted to read. My favorites were Dorothy Parker's "The Waltz" (funny and snarky); Elizabeth Taylor's "Girl Reading" (poignant); and Shirley Jackson's "Island' (almost creepy). The stories I read by Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield and Doris Lessing were good but not memorable.



❤️93. The Annotated Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery; edited by Margaret Doody, Mary Doody Jones, Wendy Barry (1908; this annotated edition 1997); fiction

This was a re-read for my RL book club. I read the notes in this annotated edition while listening to the audiobook, read by Barbara Caruso. This over-sized book contains a lot of additional background material, including sections on education at the time, history of Prince Edward Island, home life and cooking, and all of the recitation pieces and shorter poems mentioned in the novel. The introduction was almost overwhelming in its detail of Montgomery--sometimes more than I wanted to know. But the notes throughout the text gave background to terms, places and events that were contemporary to turn of the century Canada, so it was helpful. This would be a great gift for a true Anne fan.



94. At Freddie's, Penelope Fitzgerald (1982); fiction

This is set in 1960s London at a "Stage School" (the "Freddie's" of the title), which taught and trained children for acting roles in the London theater, where children were needed. While not performing, the children were supposedly taught drama, dance and singing, along with regular classroom subjects. The book concentrates on Freddie, the famed and imperious elderly female director of the school, two teachers (not much teaching gets done), several students, a few has-been actors, and some behind the scenes bits when the children are performing. Fitzgerald has a bit of a tongue-in-cheek attitude here; apparently she (briefly) was a teacher in one of these schools. It's hard to take much of it seriously, although it apparently wasn't too far from the mark, from what I've read.

Previously I've read two novels by Fitzgerald (The Bookshop and The Gate of Angels), both of which I thoroughly enjoyed, and a collection of short stories (The Means of Escape) which were so-so. I wasn't terribly interested in this book; the whole acting world is outside my experience, so it was hard to have any sympathy or interest in the characters, settings or plot (what little there was). It might resonate more with someone familiar with this world.



95. Wednesday's Child: Stories, Yiyun Li (2023); short stories

These are intense stories, and I found I could not read the entire collection. Of the 5 that I read, the best stories were "On the Street Where You Live" and "Wednesday's Child." Both stories focus on a mother and her child; one wondering what might have been and the other, anxious for her child's future.

I previously read Li's short story collection Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I think this current collection was just a bit too intense for me, so 5 stories was enough.

I'm fairly pleased with what I finished in September: 16 books, which included 4 collections of short stories (reading 24 stories total) and 1 audiobook. And the best news is that for those that were not library books (12), a majority (8) are now in my donation bag, ready to be dropped off for someone else to read.

As always, the best reading experiences for me this month were my re-reads: Hotel du Lac, Can You Forgive Her?, Ethan Frome and Anne of Green Gables. I can't say I adore all of these, but there is something about re-reading them that makes the experience so much richer, particularly Ethan Frome and Hotel du Lac, which I barely remembered, but knew they had left an impression.

Of the new-to-me reading, A Particular Place by Mary Hocking was surely the best, and it's definitely been marked in my catalog as "To Read Again."

I've started my Victober (Victorian October) reading and so far, so good:

--Phineas Finn, Trollope (1869), making my way through a re-read of the Pallisers on audiobook
✔️The Heir of Redclyffe, Charlotte Mary Yonge (1854)
✔️Brief Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell, Alan Shelston, a slim (about 100 pages) bio, by a prior President of the Gaskell Society

October reading, first half:

Well, two weeks left in Victober and I've finished 3 books and well on my way in 3 more:



❤️96. Brief Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell, Alan Shelston (2011); biography

As the title says, this is a brief (104 pages) biography of Elizabeth Gaskell. I thought the bio was well done and gave a good overview of Gaskell's life. I've been slowly making my way through a long and detailed biography by Jenny Uglow, but I think after reading this it will make the Uglow work a bit easier to digest. There's a fairly thorough list of Gaskell's works and a detailed bibliography. There are no pictures, but I would have appreciated a chronology of Gaskell's life. The author is a past president of the Gaskell Society and had access to archives of letters and records.

This doesn't meet any prompts, but I wanted a few "short" selections to finish in-between longer ones.



97. The Heir of Redclyffe, Charlotte Mary Yonge (1853); fiction

This novel has a complicated set-up. It tells the story of Guy Morville of Redclyffe, the soon-to-be heir of the book's title. An orphan from birth, he has been raised by his grandfather. When the story opens, he is 17, his grandfather has died and he comes to live with distant Morville relatives, the Edmonstone family. The Edmonstones include the parents and their 4 children ranging in age from 19 to 12. Also often living with the Edmonstones is another orphaned Morville cousin, Phillip, also 17. Eventually, romance develops between these 2 young men and their 2 Edmonstone cousins, Amy and Laura. Other important characters include Charles, the eldest Edmonstone child, who is disabled and a bit spoiled and sarcastic.

Much of the story centers about Guy the heir, generally good and likable, growing into adulthood and his struggle to overcome the "curse" of his ancestors: an impulsive nature and uncontrollable temper. Charlotte Mary Yonge was strongly influenced by the Oxford Movement of the 19th century and her book emphasizes heart over head, and striving for goodness over intellect and logic. Although most prominent in Guy, all of the characters acknowledge their character flaws and attempt to be the best person each can be. There is a lot of sincere soul-searching and questioning, and reliance on their faith for strength.

One of the most interesting characters is the disabled Charles, who is presented in a realistic and yet not overly sympathetic or simplistic fashion. We are matter-of-factly told when Charles needs assistance, yet we never feel sorry for him; in fact, we tend to cheer him on, like the rest of the family, despite his tendency to sarcastic one-liners.

Overall I enjoyed this book, although I didn't adore it; in particular, the first 3/4 of the book the writing was engaging and events moved along. This is a 600+ page book, and the main crisis of the book hits about page 450. The latter 150+ pages, however, went on a bit too long for me, as the characters react to this crisis. In some ways it felt like Yonge didn't know how to bring her story to a close. While the first half of the book has a subtle religious overtone, by the end it felt a bit heavy-handed. As a 21st century reader, I also had issues with Guy's ancestral "curse" that all the characters, especially Guy himself, completely believe in.

This book meets the "religion" prompt.



98. Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, Robert Louis Stevenson (1879); travel memoir

In 1879 Robert Louis Stevenson spent 12 days traveling in the Cevennes mountains in France, with a donkey as his "working" companion to carry his supplies. I enjoyed Stevenson's descriptions and observations of the people he met along the way, and his comical struggles with his donkey. According to my book's intro, Stevenson went there to research a book he intended to write about the Camisards (but never did). The Camisards were Protestant Huguenots from the Cevennes who fought for their religious independence against royal troops during the early 18th century. Visiting in 1879, Stevenson spends some time recalling the history of the area and observing Catholic and Protestant descendants still living there some 175 years later.

I think I might have gotten a little more out of his observations if I'd known more about this history, but it was still an enjoyable read, mostly due to Stevenson's wonderful writing.

This doesn't meet any of the prompts; another short Victorian nonfiction to read between longer books.

Currently reading:
I'm in the midst of 3 books:
"Round the Sofa" stories by Elizabeth Gaskell, mostly contained (with connecting narrative) in My Lady Ludlow and Other Stories. I've got about 130+ pages left to read here. This meets the prompt for "format."

Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins (1870); I've just started this and am about 120 pages in. It's moving along VERY quickly, although I have to keep track of the characters, as there are a lot introduced right away. This is in memory of Jennifer Brooks, but it also meets the "serialized" and "format" prompts, as it's organized into scenes, as well as Parts and Chapters.

Finally, I have about 100 pages left to listen to Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope. This is a re-read for me. I hope to finish it by the weekend.

I still need to:

--watch a Shaw play--I have BBC videos of 5: "The Devil's Disciple" (with Patrick Stewart), "Mrs Warren's Profession", "You Never Can Tell", "Arms and the Man" (with Helena Bonham Carter), and "Man of Destiny" (with Simon Callow). I think I've only read or seen Mrs Warren's Profession, and that was years ago.

--listen to A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle. I've got the audio ready, which also includes "The Sign of Four" and "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." I hope I'll be with Sherlock starting next week.

And some other possibilities I want to get to, but will have to see:
--An Eye for an Eye, Anthony Trollope (a short Trollope!)
--Red Pottage, Mary Cholmondeley, from my Virago collection
--The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow, Margaret Oliphant, from my Persephone collection

Oh, and a few non-Victorian reads:
--Phantom of the Opera, for my RL book club on Oct 24
--Vera, by Elizabeth von Arnim, for Virago monthly read
--a few short stories by Katherine Anne Porter for the AAC challenge

Overall, I had a very good Victober, probably the best ever. My highlights were:

Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins, a real page-turner, that looks at the absurdities of Victorian marriage laws
The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow & Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond by Margaret Oliphant. Two novellas about marriage; I wasn't expecting much, and Oliphant really surprised me with two thoughtful looks at marriage in the Victorian era.
An Eye for an Eye by Anthony Trollope, short, sad and uncharacteristically dark (for Trollope).

Here's the full list of titles I finished during Victober 2024:

✔️Serialized: Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope, a re-read on audiobook, read by Simon Vance
✔️Form: Round the Sofa by Elizabeth Gaskell, linked short stories, which were good; several of the stories I had read before.
✔️Religion: The Heir of Redclyffe by Charlotte. M. Yonge; I liked this, but didn't love it. Has a very interesting and enlightened portrayal of disability
✔️Play: G. B. Shaw, I watched "Mrs Warren's Profession" and "You Never Can Tell", both were amusing and thought-provoking.
✔️In memory of Alice: A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle on audiobook, read by Simon Vance. A first-time read for me--I was surprised by some of the content, part of which is set in Utah.
✔️In memory of Jennifer: Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins, one of my highlights for the month.

Additional titles I finished:
✔️The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow & Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond, Margaret Oliphant--one of my Victober2024 highlights.
✔️Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes by Robert Louis Stevenson--nonfiction travel memoir that was actually laugh-out funny in parts.
✔️Brief Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell by Alan Shelston, short biography (less than 100 pages) and gives a good sense of Gaskell's life and work.
✔️An Eye for an Eye by Anthony Trollope, another highlight, though sad.

I did not read The Doctor's Wife, as I read that last year.

The only book I didn't get to that was on my TBR was Red Pottage, by Mary Cholmondeley, a "New Woman" book which I didn't get to last Victober, either. 😖 Maybe in 2025????

I'll do longer reviews in a day or two.

Now that election anxiety has turned into post-election depression, I'll try to divert my thoughts back to Victober and finish off my reviews of my last 7 books:



99. Phineas Finn, Anthony Trollope (1869); fiction; re-read on audiobook, read by Simon Vance

This second book in Trollope's political "Palliser" novels follows young Phineas Finn's journey through politics and love. On my re-read I felt Phineas made some good decisions in politics, but I was repeatedly frustrated following his love life. The book introduces one of my favorite Palliser characters, Madame Max, and one of the Palliser characters that I love to hate, Robert Kennedy.



❤️100. Man and Wife, Wilkie Collins (1870); fiction

The plot is entirely too complicated and twisty/turny to do it justice here, but it includes mistaken identities; creepy houses; a mute servant who has visions; a murder plot; a healthy dose of fainting; and "missed" chances at every step. It was quite the page-turner.

Amidst all of this, Collins criticizes the strange marriage laws of Ireland; the stranger marriage laws of Scotland; the plight of a British married woman who must give up all rights and property to her husband, no matter how cruel; and the obsessive male physical fitness craze of the mid-Victorian era.

It starts out a bit slow, but ramps up quickly. The first half has some funny moments (which surprised me), but the second half gets pretty gothic. There's even an Appendix which Collins included, citing the specific marriage laws that he was condemning.



❤️101. An Eye for an Eye, Anthony Trollope (1879); fiction

This is one of Trollope's shorter novels dominated by the setting, the Cliffs of Moher on the Atlantic coast in County Clare, Ireland. Young Fred Neville is the heir to his uncle's grand estate in southern England. Before settling down with his uncle to learn the ropes of the property, Fred takes a year with his regiment and is stationed in Ireland. There he meets a poor young woman and her fiercely protective mother living in a remote house on the coast, and falls in love, without thinking of the consequences ahead.

This is a sad, sad story and Trollope does not give us any good outcomes. For such a short book, it was very powerful.



102. My Lady Ludlow and Other Stories (originally published as "Round the Sofa"), Elizabeth Gaskell (1859); short stories with narrative links.

"Round the Sofa", published in 1859, contained 6 short stories previously published separately, now connected by Gaskell with a narrative link. Gaskell's new narration introduces Mrs Dawson, a disabled woman who must entertain her guests while laying on her sofa. Her Monday "evenings" involve inviting good friends in to share stories.

This volume from Oxford World's Classics has all of the stories except one (which I have in another collection), and also the narrative linking text in the Appendix. I had actually read 4 of the stories before in other volumes. Of the stories I read before, I think the best is "The Poor Clare" about a religious group in Belgium. "The Half Brothers" was a story new to me, about 2 brothers who are not particularly close or equivalent in understanding, and the story that haunts one of them. Overall this is an interesting group of 4 connected short stories and 2 longer stories (almost novellas). I only wish Oxford had published them in their original 1859 form, and not scattered them about.



103. "A Study in Scarlet" from Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume 1, Arthur Conan Doyle (1887); short fiction; on audiobook read by Simon Vance

I'm a little late to the party with Sherlock. I had read a few of the stories as a teenager, but that was a life-time ago. "A Study in Scarlet" was a first-time read for me. It introduces the characters of Watson & Holmes, but I was very surprised by some of the content, part of which is set in Utah. Glad to have finally read this classic.



❤️104. The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow, and Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond, Margaret Oliphant (1890 & 1886); two novellas

Published in one volume by Persephone Books, these are two novella-length stories from 1890 & 1886 that both deal with marriage "scandals." They could have been treated in a sensational way, but Oliphant presents realistic consequences for the women involved.

Apparently Oliphant was using the model of the relationship between Queen Victoria and her servant John Brown for Mrs. Blencarrow's story. The second story, as expected, is a contemporary re-telling of Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II, and Rosamund Clifford, Henry's mistress. In both stories the wronged women are more concerned about the effect upon their children than about their marriages. Typical of Oliphant, both stories end in a rather vague and ambiguous way, letting us muse for ourselves as to how these women will fare in life.

Margaret Oliphant can be hit or miss for me, but I really enjoyed both of these, and appreciated the pairing of the two stories in one volume. The Afterword by Oliphant scholar Merryn Williams was particularly enlightening.

And to end the month, a non-Victorian title:



❤️105. Father, Elizabeth von Arnim (1931); fiction

This was a re-read of one of my favorite novels by Elizabeth von Arnim. Jennifer, 33, has been her father's secretary and household manager in London since her mother's death 12 years earlier. She loves her father but feels trapped in this role. One day her father waltzes in with a new bride, many years younger than Jennifer.

Feeling that "three's a crowd", Jennifer jumps at the opportunity to take her mother's small legacy and strike out on her own. She finds a small country cottage to let from a young vicar, James, and his bossy elder sister, Alice. Jennifer and James begin to understand each other, as they both are attempting to free themselves from over-bearing relations, and the story moves on from there.

Funny, touching, with lovely descriptions of the cottage and surrounding gardens, this book looks at unequal family relationships. But it also touches on the lives of women between the wars who must depend on the support and good graces of a man, whether by marriage or family connection. This is von Arnim at her best, and I am so thankful that the British Library chose to re-publish it in their Women Writers Series.

Not much reading has gotten done around here this first week in November. I've got plans, though (I always have plans....):

Currently reading:

On Freedom, Timothy Snyder--just in from my library hold which I am going to start tonight.
Composers Who Changed History, DK Publishing, a library book I've been working on & off for months--a one-volume encyclopedia of composers, with fantastic illustrations and informative text
The Eustace Diamonds, Anthony Trollope, on audiobook, read by Simon Vance
The Song of the Lark, Willa Cather, for the Virago monthly challenge

Completed:
✔️Fanny Herself, Edna Ferber, for Nov AAC
✔️"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", on audiobook read by Simon Vance, from The Complete Sherlock Holmes (The Heirloom Collection)
✔️Thank Heaven Fasting, E. M. Delafield, for Nov BAC
✔️The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare, for my RL book club
✔️All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot, RandomKit & RTTN--first person & memoir
✔️The Spinoza of Market Street and other stories, Isaac Bashevis Singer for Nov AAC
✔️The Provincial Lady in London, E. M. Delafield, BAC and first person

On the Possibilities Pile, as the mood suits:

Benjamin Disraeli, Adam Kirsch, biography
Chatterton Square, E. H. Young, last book by one of my favorite authors
Mandoa, Mandoa and South Riding, Winifred Holtby, finish up my reading of her works
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, for the Read for Julia challenge

November reading--very much overdue:



❤️106. Fanny Herself, Edna Ferber (1917); fiction

Loosely based on Ferber's early life, the story begins around 1900 and is a coming of age story of Fanny Brandeis, age 13, living in Winnebago, Wisconsin (based on Ferber's own Appleton, WI). While going to school, Fanny helps out at her parents' struggling general store. After her father dies, her mother Molly takes over the store and makes it a success. We follow Fanny through high school and her years helping her mother run the store. After her mother dies, Fanny sells the store and takes an entry-level job at a large mail-order catalogue firm in Chicago (probably based on Sears Roebuck), where she becomes a rising star. On her journey she struggles with her Jewish self and determining what's really important to her in life. The book ends soon after war is declared in Europe in 1914.

Some have called this an "old-fashioned novel" and I guess it is. I found it readable and light-hearted, but without ignoring some serious themes. Ferber describes lots of America: small town Wisconsin, walking Michigan Avenue in Chicago, spending a day at the Indiana Dunes, watching suffragettes march down Fifth Avenue in New York City and ending the novel in the mountains of Colorado. She describes Jewish life in small-town America (lesser known to us today than big-city Jewish life), and one of the most moving scenes is Fanny's first Yom Kippur fasting after her father's death, attending services and rising to say Kaddish for her father.

I was a bit disappointed with the ending, which seemed unrealistic. A cautionary note: typical of its time, there are some ethnic phrases used that are uncomfortable today, but these are few and far between. I've read three of Ferber's novels: So Big, The Girls and now Fanny Herself, and all three were wonderful reads about strong women in business, trying to make their way in early 20th century America.



107. Thank Heaven Fasting, E. M. Delafield (1932); fiction

“Thank heaven fasting for a good man’s love”, Rosalind, in As You Like It, Shakespeare.

Monica is 18, an only child and about to embark on her first "season." She has been brought up knowing that in her social class there is only one thing expected of her: to marry "the right sort" and to avoid scandal. She has been protected, coddled and heavily monitored by her parents; her mother is constantly hovering about and occasionally laments that her only child was a daughter instead of a son. As she moves into "society" she struggles with wearing the right clothing, saying the right things to the right people, and taking in her mother's constant advice. When Monica makes an error in judgment with a questionable young man, her life in society begins a gradual decline. We follow Monica through the next several years, eventually leading to an ironic "Happy Ending."

Although the timeline is unclear, the story appears to be set in pre-WWI London. The novel starts out as typical Delafield: light-hearted and even innocuous. Gradually, however, we watch as Monica's independent actions and thoughts whittle away, completely absorbing her mother's expectations and Monica's own acceptance of her restricted life and limited options. For all of the light touch, there is a serious comment on society, independence and the limited choices of young women in the early 20th century.

One thing struck me while reading this is how this novel and my previous book, Fanny Herself, are set in roughly the same time frame (1900-1914) and about young women roughly the same age (18-25), but their class differences make their lives very, very different. As difficult as Fanny's life is in Ferber's book (she must work very, very hard to earn her living and has only herself to rely upon), Fanny has more independence and confidence than poor little rich girl Monica in Delafield's book. Monica's wealth, in essence, limits her opportunities, rather than expands them. What a difference class makes.



108. Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume 1, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", Arthur Conan Doyle (1892); fiction; short stories; audiobook read by Simon Vance

Told in the first person as a memoir of Dr John Watson about his great detective friend. I had read one or two of the stories before, but that was many lifetimes ago. I listened to these on audiobook and they make great listening, as there is so much dialogue in the stories. Plan to listen to the entire canon over the next year or so.



109. The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare (1600); drama

Read this for my RL book club. We had an interesting discussion. I read this way back in high school, but had not re-visited since. Always amazes me how much of the characters, phrases and scenarios are still with us today, centuries later.



❤️110. All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot (1972); memoir

Sadly, I'm a little late to the James Herriot love fest--but better late than never! I devoured this memoir it in a few days, and I'm not an animal person at all. It's as much about the people and the place, as it is about the animals, I think. How I have not read this book before, I don't know, but I will definitely be going on with the series. What a delight!



111. The Spinoza of Market Street, Isaac Bashevis Singer (1961); short stories

This is a collection of short stories, mostly set in turn of the century Eastern Europe. The title story was an interesting portrait of a Spinoza scholar, attempting to model his life on Spinoza's philosophy. But his life takes an unpredictable turn, and he falters. Dr Fischelson has been studying a copy of Ethics (in Latin) for 30 years. When he goes to the market, he carries a basket in one hand and a copy of Ethics in the other:

"He knew every proposition, every proof, every corollary, every note by heart. When he wanted to find a particular passage, he generally opened to the place immediately without having to search for it....The truth was that the more Dr. Fischelson studied, the more puzzling sentences, unclear passages and cryptic remarks he found."

Many of the stories are like this--fate, "the Evil One", "Satan", all seem to turn mediocre people into borderline evil ones. This got wearing over time, and I decided to skip the last longish story, "The Destruction of Kreshev", when I realized the narrator is Satan himself. Only one story, "The Beggar Says So", had some gleam of faith in humanity. Overall I was disappointed, as I was hoping for stories more like in A Day of Pleasure, which I loved, or at least something touching, like his novel Shosha, which I read some years ago.



❤️112. The Provincial Lady in London, E. M. Delafield (1932); fiction

This is the second in the wonderfully funny Diary of a Provincial Lady series. Like the first book, this book is in diary format. The Provincial Lady has sold her first book and now has a little money to spend, so she decides to rent a flat in London, where she can occasionally flee from her husband, kids and house to do some writing. Her adventures along the way are very funny; I particularly enjoy when she thinks of a much better "come back" remark when it's too late. I especially appreciate all the times she says "yes" to things that she really doesn't want to do or agree to. How often we do this in life, just to be "agreeable." I also loved the part where she goes scrambling around the flat to find enough spare change for carfare. Lots of fun; written the same year as Thank Heaven Fasting (see above), and in a completely different tone.

November books that didn't work for me:

--I DNF'd The Phantom of the Opera by Leroux, which just was way over the top for me. I read about half, and skimmed the rest to get the gist of the story.

--I also paused my reading of Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark. After about 100 pages, it was not grabbing me like her other books have, so I decided that perhaps it was the wrong time for this book. I will eventually give it another try when I can give it more concentration and attention.

What's up in December?
Too much, actually.

Currently reading:
--A Girl of the Limberlost, Gene Stratton-Porter, for the AAC
--A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, on audiobook, read by Jim Dale; re-read

Completed:
✔️Anne of Avonlea, L. M. Montgomery--re-read, started on Nov. 30, which was Montgomery's 150th birthday. I re-read Anne of Green Gables earlier this year, and hope to spend the next 12 months re-reading the series.
✔️Composers Who Changed History by DK Publishing; gorgeous oversize book, covering all the major composers through history
✔️A Winter Away, Elizabeth Fair, Dean Street Press find; an enjoyable quick read.
✔️The Sunny Side, A. A. Milne--short stories, poems, essays, etc. Published in 1921, this collection is from Milne's pieces written for Punch, well before he wrote Pooh.
✔️84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff, for RL book club, a re-read
✔️On Freedom, Timothy Snyder--another slow one; I'm skimming some as Snyder seems to wander in this book, unlike his very focused On Tyranny.
✔️Death Comes as the End, Agatha Christie, historical fiction mystery, set in ancient Egypt
✔️Christmas at Thompson Hall, Anthony Trollope; re-read
✔️The Eustace Diamonds, Anthony Trollope, re-read of the 3rd Palliser series book on audiobook, read by Simon Vance

DNF:
Peace Like a River, Leif Enger, Midwest author for the AAC

Priorities for December:
This month's British Author Challenge (BAC) is to read a book (by a British author) that you acquired in 2024--NO PROBLEM!! Just a few titles to consider:

The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage, Enid Blyton (children's vintage)
The Light Years, Elizabeth Jane Howard, the first in the Cazalet trilogy
No Fond Return of Love, Barbara Pym
Nothing Venture, Patricia Wentworth, Dean Street Press
Arrest the Bishop?, Winifred Peck, Dean Street Press

Moved to January--->Green for Danger, Christianna Brand, British Library Crime series
Moved to January--->Rhododendron Pie, Margery Sharp, Dean Street Press find
Moved to January--->O, The Brave Music, Dorothy Evelyn Smith (British Library Women Writers Series)

Other priorities:
Felix Holt, George Eliot, for Monthly Authors

Other possibilities:
They Knew Mr Knight, Dorothy Whipple, Persephone Books
So Long, See You Tomorrow, William Maxwell, re-read
Our Spoons Came from Woolworths, Barbara Comyns, nyrb

No lack of choices....

Happy Friday, Kathy. Just checking in. I hope all is well. How about this early cold snap? Feels more like January. Maybe that month will be milder. If you would like to do a shared read of So Long, See You Tomorrow sometime in the future, let me know. I have always wanted to read that one.

>130 msf59: Hi Mark, thanks for visiting. Yeah, I'm not ready for this cold quite yet. Our landlord is still figuring out the heat--it's either 60F or 80F in here. I'm sure by March she'll have it right. ;)

Sure, a shared read of Maxwell would be great. I read it some years ago, but don't remember much, except that it features Senn High School, I think, where Maxwell attended when he lived here. Just let me know when you want to read it--it's pretty short and I can fit it in anywhere. It's on my possibilities this month for the AAC "Midwest" theme in December, but I can do it some other time.

I'm delighted you enjoyed the Herriot book, Kathy. They are very charming. I can also recommend the television adaptations, both the one from the 70s and the current series, as solid viewing options.

>132 MickyFine: Thanks! I so enjoyed them that I went ahead and ordered the next 3 books in the series... an early holiday gift to me! Actually, watching the current series is what prompted me to read the book--in the past, I was so positive that I wouldn't enjoy a book about animals, and I was so wrong! I tried watching the first series, but it didn't grab me as much. I understand it's a lot more faithful to the books, so I may try it again after I've read more.

December reading so far....as I've finished 5 titles, I thought I'd post them now.



113. Anne of Avonlea, L. M. Montgomery (1909); fiction; re-read

Not the same vibe as the first book, but still enjoyable. I liked Anne and the older characters, especially Miss Lewis and Mr Harrison, but I didn't get on with the portrayal of the two young boys, Davy and Paul. They didn't seem real to me.



❤️114. Composers Who Changed History, DK Publishing (2024); nonfiction, biographies, reference

This is a massive, coffee-table style book with glorious photographs, insets, timelines, etc. about the major composers, up to the present day. It took me 6 months, reading a little at a time, to finally finish the book, but I think it was well worth it. The composers are organized by year of birth (earliest to latest). It's probably not meant to be read cover-to-cover, but that's what I did and in the end, it was interesting to understand who was contemporary to whom. Often in these types of works, composers are grouped by country or style (Baroque, Romantic, etc.), but this strict chronological order shed some different light.

Each entry has a short biography (either 2-page or 4-page) which includes an overview of their life, their musical education and their works. There are sidebars that give added perspective on the era. The books are divided into centuries, and at the end of each group, there are very short bios (a few paragraphs) of lesser-known composers from that year range. I quibbled with the book's choices here; some of the "featured" composers were less familiar to me than some of the "minor" composers. But overall this is a very professional and well thought out reference work.



115. A Winter Away, Elizabeth Fair (1957); fiction

Charming quick read set in a southern English village post WWII. Maud, just out of secretarial school, comes to live with her father's Cousin Alice and her fussy friend Miss Conway, to take a job as a "secretary" to a curmudgeonly old neighbor living on his ancient deteriorating estate. This book is full of misunderstandings, both humorous and not so humorous, but it all comes right at the end. There's not much of a story, there's a little romance, but what keeps the book going is Elizabeth Fair's ear for dialogue and observations of small-town characters, which moves the book along and kept me turning pages. Probably won't appeal to everyone, but I enjoyed my time with it.



116. The Sunny Side: Short Stories and Poems for Proper Grown-Ups, A. A. Milne (1921); short pieces

A. A. Milne contributed humorous articles to Punch for many years. In 1921 (some years before Winnie-the-Pooh), he collected in this volume some his favorite articles from 1912 through 1921. Some of these were fun; some were just silly. My favorites were "The Arrival of Blackman's Warbler" (bluffing your way through bird calls), "The Complete Dramatist" (how to write a play) and "A Poetry Recital" (attending a poetry reading). A quick and diverting read.



117. On Freedom, Timothy Snyder (2024); nonfiction; political philosophy

I was looking forward to this book. I thought Snyder's On Tyranny was excellent. But this book was a disappointment. Snyder starts out with a structure: that Freedom needs these components: Sovereignty, Unpredictability, Mobility, Factuality, Solidarity. In each section he attempts to explore these concepts as they relate to freedom. But there is a lot of rambling, reminiscing, and philosophical musings that went way over my head. It was exactly the opposite of the very focused and concise On Tyranny.

I did read half the book, but then realized I wasn't absorbing even one-quarter of what he was trying to get across, so I skimmed the rest of the book. Perhaps this will be more accessible for other readers or maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind for this type of book right now. I feel like I read enough to count it as "read" and I don't plan to re-visit any time soon, if ever, unless he comes up with a much shorter and more focused version.

Currently reading:
The Eustace Diamonds, Anthony Trollope (on audiobook)
Death Comes as the End, Agatha Christie

Coming Up:
Peace Like a River, Leif Enger
Felix Holt, the Radical, George Eliot
O, The Brave Music, Dorothy Evelyn Smith (British Library Women Writers Series0
No Fond Return of Love, Barbara Pym (re-read)

Happy Friday, Kathy. I have 2 big shared reads in both January & February. In regard to So Long, See You Tomorrow, if you wouldn't mind waiting until March, that would work for me. If you would rather knock it out sooner, that would also be fine with me. I can catch up with it later.

>134 kac522: - I've not read that particular Montgomery, Kathy but I was downtown at the Toronto Reference library the other day and noticed that there is currently a small exhibit in their little gallery, called *Patterns and Puffed Sleeves - Celebrating costume design through Anne of Green Gables*. Looks interesting and since it's on till January 12, I will go back and have a look. I have seen quite a few really interesting exhibits in that gallery over the years.

Too bad about the Snyder book. I have read 2 of his previous books, On Tyranny and Our Malady and thought both were excellent.

Oh, I had not heard of that A.A. Milne book! It looks fun! I will have to check my local library to see if they have it!

>135 msf59: Fine with me, Mark--later in the year is OK for the Maxwell. I'm a little anxious about The Count anyway--hope I can stick with it. I have tried before and only made it to page 120, which in that book is a drop in the bucket ;)

>136 jessibud2: Oh, that exhibit sounds excellent! Earlier this year I read an annotated edition of Anne of Green Gables and there was so much extra material in it, including stuff about schools in Canada during that time. Well worth your time if you can find it, just to read the extra historical stuff.

Yeah, I was disappointed in the Snyder book as I've read the other 2 as well. Oh well.

The Milne book was funny and quick to read. I had not heard of it either--spotted it at a library sale and it looked like a nice diversion from more serious stuff, and it was.

>136 jessibud2: I've been seeing ads on social media for the exhibit at the TRL and I'm so sad that it's so far away from me.

>134 kac522: I think the third through fifth books of the Anne series are my favourites (I'm a Gilbert Blythe fangirl forever). Are you planning to do the whole series, Kathy?

>138 MickyFine: Yes, doesn't that exhibit sound good? Maybe if Shelley gets to the exhibit she'll post a few pics on her thread (hint, hint😉 ).

Eventually, I do plan to go on with the Anne books. Years ago I read the first 3 books, but I didn't remember much of #2 & #3. I was a bit disappointed in #2, so it's encouraging to hear that 3-5 are good--I like Gilbert, too. I've picked up paperbacks of #3 & #6 at library sales--I'll probably fill in with library copies. I've also heard good things about Rilla of Ingleside (not sure where that fits in the chronology).

>138 MickyFine:, >139 kac522: - Yes, I will, for sure. I'll let you know when I go. Next week, I have Wed and Friday free so maybe one of those days. It is not a large gallery at the Reference Library but still, they manage to do well with the exhibits I have seen there, even in a smallish space.

>139 kac522: Rilla is book 8 and it is very well done, but I'd advise keeping tissues handy when you read it.

>140 jessibud2: Thank you, Kindred Spirit!
>141 MickyFine: Tissue requirement noted....

Thinking of you at this time, Kathy.

Thanks, Paul. Happy reading in 2025!

>145 Whisper1: Lovely image, Linda. All the best in the new your to you.

Sweet Thursday, Kathy. I hope you had a nice and chill Christmas with the husband. Enjoy your day with the in-laws. Hey, 50F for the next few days. I like this winter weather.

>147 msf59: Yep, can't complain, Mark. As long as I don't have to dig out my car & pull out my "dibs" chair, I'm a happy camper in winter in Chicago.