Fourpawz2 - 75 Books - Good Grief, It's Year 17!

I am looking forward to a better year - book number-wise. 2023 was an improvement over 2022 - I increased the number of books read by 6 - but that is still a very paltry number and still 9 books short of the minimum 75 books that I would like to read in a year. In my head I know it isn't about the numbers, but about the actual reading - but it still doesn't make me happy.

Things are moving ahead here in the little city where I was born. The Whaling City is a significant part of the offshore wind farm that is being built not very far out to sea. And - wonder of wonders - later on this year passenger train service is returning here after an absence of many decades. In fact, my whole life long (and I am an old coot now) there has never been passenger service available. I can hear the train whistle at my house now. It used to be something you'd only hear a very few times a year, but now I expect to hear it multiple times a day. There's a possibility I'm going to find that state of affairs as either depressing or annoying. Or maybe both. Am hoping for neither.

Haven't given up the house cleaning racket. Thank goodness my people are a pretty decent lot. And every now and again I find myself pet sitting. Considered returning to my old job when it was offered to me a few months ago, but decided against it in the end. In 6 days it will be ten years since I was laid off/fired from the real estate law office where I worked. Ten years is a long, long time in the real-estate closing world and things have moved on. It was nice to be considered though.

My dear kitty, Jane - seen above after she successfully drew a nice right angle on her nose, kind of unintentionally - still rules supreme in our tiny house. She has more hobbies than I do - crashing into the window when the autumn leaves begin to fall (she still thinks she can catch them), chasing the occasional, random mouse, licking all kinds of fabric (wool throws are her favorite), tearing plastic bags to shreds (with or without catnip inside), growling at the mail delivery people when they dare to approach 'her' front door. (I think she has a uniform phobia) and generally just being the best doggone kitty ever.

And that's about it. I will, once again, promise to be good and post my books immediately after finishing them as well as swear that I will keep up with everyone's thread and will - most likely - fail miserably at both. Or possibly not. Who knows? Certainly not I.

Best Books of 2023

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny
The Spoilt City by Olivia Manning
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Travels With Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski

Worst Books

Not sure which one of these I disliked more. Both were audiobooks. Gave the first one the worst rating of all the books I read, but the second one was almost as bad, but in a different way. Calling it a toss-up.

The Lost Summers of Newport
I'm Glad My Mom Died

Best Covers



This one has been stuck in my head ever since I read it. There's just something about the color, the view of the buildings and even the feel of the cover that I really, really liked.



Although the print on this cover is really in the way, the beauty of the cover in back of the words also stuck in my head. For me I could easily imagine the location of the story being in the vicinity of these trees and the light shining through them was so - beautiful.

Worst Cover



Not much of a struggle to figure out which cover was the worst. This one was the clear 'winner'. The colors - OMG - such horror!

Books Read in 2024

JANUARY

1. Romney A Reckoning by McKay Coppins - Finished on 1/6/2024 - 5 stars
2. Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant - Finished on 1/12/2024 - 5 stars
3. Rhubarb by H. Allen Smith Finished on 1/16/22024 - 4 stars
4. The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie Finished on 1/23/2024 - 4 stars
5. American Sphinx by Joseph J. Ellis Finished on 1/24/2024 - 4.5 stars
6. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo - Finished on 1/26/2024 - 5 stars
7. Willful Behavior by Donna Leon - Finished on 1/30/2024 - 4.5 stars

FEBRUARY

8. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver - Finished on 2/18/2024 - 4 stars
9. Prequel by Rachel Maddow - Finished on 2/24/2024 - 4 stars

MARCH

10. Come In Spinner by Dymphna Cusack and Florence James - Finished on 3/7/2024 - 4 stars
11. The Bat by Jo Nesbo - Finished on 3/17/2024 - 3.75 stars
12. Oath and Honor by Liz Cheney - Finished on 3/26/2024 - 4 stars
13. 1222 by Anne Holt - Finished on 3/31/2024 - 3.5 stars

APRIL

14. The Color of Water by James McBride - Finished on 4/6/2024 - 5 stars
15. The Country Girls by Edna O’Brien - Finished on 4/13/2024 - 3 stars
16. The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason - Finished on 4/27/2024 - 3.25/3.50 stars

MAY

17. The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks - Finished on 5/1/2024 - 3 stars
18. Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie - Finished on 5/2/2024 - 3.5 stars
19. Midwives by Chris Bohjalian - Finished on 5/2/2024 - 4 stars
20. Astor by Anderson Cooper - Finished on 5/15/2024 - 4 stars
21. Winter Woman by Jenna Kernan - Finished on 5/16/2024 - 3.25 stars
22. The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston - Finished on 5/31/2024 - 3.25 stars

JUNE

23. Tired of Winning by Jonathan Karl - Finished on 6/12/2024 - 4 stars
24. The Ghost Tattoo by Tony Bernard Finished on 6/21/2024 - 3.5 stars

JULY

25. Of Time and Turtles by Sy Montgomery - Finished on 7/9/2024 - 5 stars
26. Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin Finished on 7/12/2024 - 5+ stars
27. Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier Finished on 7/13/2024 - 5 stars
28. Death of a Bore by M.C. Beaton - Finished on 7/24/2024 - 4 stars

AUGUST

29. Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy - Finished on 8/13/2024 - 4 stars
30. The Reason Why by Cecil Woodham-Smith - Finished on 8/18/2024 - 5 stars

SEPTEMBER

31. The Light Gets in by Louise Penny - Finished on 9/2/2024 - 5 stars
32. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney - Finished on 9/6/2024 - 3.25 stars
33.The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy - Finished on 9/13/2024 - 5 stars
34. The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom - Finished on 9/14/2024 - 3.25 stars
35. motherland by Maria Hummel - Finished on 9/28/2024 - 4.5 stars

OCTOBER

36. The Wife by Meg Wolitzer - Finished on 10/17/2024 - 4 stars
37. Dead Water by Barbara Hambly - Finished on 10/19/2024 - 4 stars
38. The Boys of Riverside by Thomas Fuller - Finished on 10/26/2024 - 3.75 stars
39. Snow in April by Rosamunde Pilcher - Finished on 10/28/2024 - 3 stars

NOVEMBER

40. History of Mishaum Point by Edith Steel Swift - Finished on 11/02/2024- 3.25 stars
41. 1984 by George Orwell - Finished on 11/11/2024 - 5 stars
42. Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid Finished on 11/12/2024 - 3 stars
43. Broken Harbor by Tana French - Finished on 11/24/2024 - 5+ stars

Books Added to My Library in 2024

1. Diary of an Ordinary Woman by Margaret Forster - TPB in good average condition - acquired from Thrift Books on 1/19/2024
2. Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times by David S. Reynolds Hardcover in very good condition acquired through Thrift Books on 1/19/2024. Former library book from the St. Louis Public Library.
3. In The Name Of The Family by Sarah Dunant Hardcover in excellent condition acquired through Thrift Books on 1/20/2024. Former library book from the Montgomery County Maryland Library. Don’t think many people borrowed this one.
4. Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo TPB in excellent condition acquired on 3/27/2024.. am very sure no one has ever read this copy.
5. The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason - Hardcover in pretty good condition acquired from Thrift Books on 3/27/2024. Has one of those annoying 20% off stickers that is impossible to scrape off the dust jacket. Don’t understand why bookstores put those horrible things on books.
6. The Divine Comedy Part I - Hell - by Dante Alighieri (translated by Dorothy L. Sayers) - Penguin paperback printed in 1960 in really good condition acquired through pangobooks on 6/12/2024. Feels lovely in my hands
7. The Divine Comedy Part II - Purgatory - by Dante Alighieri (translated by Dorothy L. Sayers) - Penguin paperback printed in 1960 in really good condition acquired through pangobooks on 6/12/2024. This one also feels lovely in my hands. If Sayers had not died before completing her translation of Paradise and the seller had had a copy for sale I would have bought that too. Must buy a copy of Paradise of course, but which translation to get - that is the question.
9. Friends and Heroes by Olivia Manning - Penguin paperback acquired from the UK through Abebooks on 7/12/2024. This is the third book in her Balkan Trilogy series. I was looking for this edition printed in 1965 because it matched the previous two books. It’s in very good shape given the fact that it is 59 years old; there is yellowing of the pages going on but otherwise it is perfect. Don’t think it has ever been read. Penguin is/was probably the best publishing house of this kind of book. Really looking forward to reading it, as the previous books in the series were really, really good.
10. Suffer the Little Children by Donna Leon - hardcover copy in very good condition acquired from Thrift Books on 9/4/2024 that I needed for my Commissario Brunetti series collection.
11. Glass Houses by Louise Penny - hardcover copy in very good condition acquired through Thrift Books (on 9/4/2024) that I bought because I always buy another Armand Gamache book when I've finished my annual read of the next book in the series. I think this one is number 13 so I have a nice cushion of books ahead of me as the one I just finished was number 8.
12. Pax Romana by Adrian Goldsworthy - a TPB which, from the look of the spine, has never been read but is a little mangled front and back at the lower right-hand corners. Acquired from Thrift Books on 9/5/2024.
13. Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson - this so-called 'used' hard cover copy has plainly never been read. It is in pristine un-used condition. I bet I am the first person to have ever riffled its pages. Acquired from Thrift Books basically for free (used reward points for its purchase) on 10/18/2024.
14. Pensees by Blaise Pascal - a used Penguin Classics paperback copy in good condition acquired from Thrift Books on 10/19/2024. Its previous owner has written in it, but the handwriting is so wretched that I don't think I will ever decipher it. Was happy to get it for a little over 4 bucks.
15. Those Who Hunt The Night by Barbara Hambly - a used 1988 MMPB copy in fairly decent condition acquired from Thrift Books on 10/19/2024. I've long enjoyed Hambly's Benjamin January historical fiction mystery series and thought I would branch out a bit - even though I swore off vampire books a very long time ago - as I am curious to see what she can do with the subject.
16. Stettin Station by David Downing - another so-called 'used' book which is in perfect, unread condition from Thrift acquired on 10/22/24 for a very decent price. It is the next book in the series and will be read sooner than later, I hope.
17. No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin - acquired from Thrift Books on 10/22/2024 for somewhere in the $6+ range if I recall correctly. It's in pretty good condition, but it does have some wounds to a couple of pages - mashed and crinkled - but certainly not enough to matter to me. Bought this because I am making good on my intention to acquire more DKG books for my library.

Books I Ditched in 2024 and Why

1. The Demanding Dead by Edith Wharton - The title is the best thing about this book. Decided I did not want to continue after dragging myself through the first two stories. Found them confusing and realized that I did not give a rat's butt about continuing on to number three. I don't think this type of story was ever Wharton's forte. It's going into the little pile to be donated to the library.
2. The Year of the French by Thomas Flanagan - bought this book back in 2012 on the recommendation of some person - don’t remember who it was just now. I did try to read it once - circa 2014 or so and it did not grab me at all as I recall, but I held onto it hoping I might feel differently some day. Some day never came so I toted it to the library and set it free.
3: The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Shreve - bought this one in 2014 and it has been slowly rising to the top of the TBR pile. Its time finally came this last January, but after about 100 pages I was done. Maybe it is the times but it was really not anything I could enjoy so it made the trip to the library today.
4. The Thurtell-Hunt Murder Case by Albert Borowitz - bought this one in 2012 too and this time the fault rests entirely with me when I bought it as I did not pay attention to the fact that there is a lot of talk about boxing right from the get-go. I am not a fan. Generally I like sports (except basketball as I can’t stand the sound of basketball shoes squeaking on the court - *shudder*), but boxing does nothing at all for me. It’s boring and brutal at the same time. Thought I might be able to get past the boxing and concentrate on the true crime aspect, but it became clear to me after about 40 pages in that I wouldn’t ever be able to do that. Buh-bye THMC!

Books I Borrowed in 2024

1. Romney A Reckoning by McKay Coppins - borrowed from the Fall River Public Library - 1/2/2024
2. The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham - borrowed through Libby - 1/21/2024
3. Oath and Honor by Liz Cheney - borrowed from the Wilks Branch Library - 3/13/2024
4. Country Girl by Edna O’Brien - borrowed from Carver Public Library - 4/3/2024 -only read a bit of it as I’d ordered the wrong book. Am returning it asap
5. The Country Girls by Edna O’Brien - borrowed from the Holmes Library on 4/19/2024
6. The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks - borrowed through Libby - 4/9/2024
7. Astor by Anderson Cooper - borrowed through Libby - 5/3/2024
8. The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston - borrowed through Libby - 5/15/2024
9. Tired of Winning by Jonathan Karl - borrowed through Libby - 6/4/2024
10. The Ghost Tattoo by Tony Bernard - borrowed through Libby - 6/14/2024
11. Of Time and Turtles by Sy Montgomery - borrowed through Libby - 6/18/2024
12. Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy - borrowed from Fiske Public Library - 8/3/2024
13. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney - borrowed through Libby - 8/28/2024
14. The Boys of Riverside by Thomas Fuller - borrowed from the Boyden Library in Foxboro, MA - 10/16/2024
15. 1984 by George Orwell - borrowed from the Wilks Branch Library for RL Book Club on 10/28/2024

Books Recommended to Me
The Reason Why by Cecil Woodham-Smith (a couple of years ago)

Books Recommended by Me

Oath and Honor by Liz Cheney
The Color of Water by James McBride
Of Time and Turtles by Sy Montgomery
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Reason Why by Cecil Woodham-Smith

Welcome back!

Thanks very much, Jim!

Finally, Charlotte.

Happy new year, dear lady.

Star dropped of course.

Happy reading in 2024, Charlotte!

>10 PaulCranswick: - Thank you, Paul, for your star and your kind thoughts always.

>11 FAMeulstee: - And thank you, Anita. Thanks for de-lurking. I will try to keep up with you and hope to see you here again.

2024 Book Number 1/Lifetime Book Number 1,897 - Romney A Reckoning by McKay Coppins - borrowed from the Fall River Public Library

Was on a library wait list for about a month for this one. Worth the wait.

I've never read a biography quite like this one; the personal bits that one usually gets in a biography are there - to some extent - but not in huge detail. Mitt admired and loved his father, the late George Romney. He aspired to be as good a man as George was and in many ways over many years of trying he has succeeded. He loves his wife - has done so almost from the moment he met her. Ditto his family. He is a sincerely religious man. A successful businessman. A good neighbor and an admirable member of the community at large. But beyond all those things, he seems to have struggled. Worried that he did not measure up. That he could do better for people. For his party, For the country. Some of the time he made compromises that bothered him in order to accomplish the next goal in his political life so that he could do more. And eventually he had to stop that behavior when he realized that the Republican Party that he had grown up loving had somehow disappeared and he and the other decent Republican men and women were left standing alone as the crazies ran away with their party. Make no mistake - Mitt is very angry about those horrible people who have kidnapped the Republican Party and pretty much stomped it to death. Can't blame him for that.

I know I'm not doing this book justice. I hardly understand what has happened myself, but I did not worry much about it until the last ten years or so. They did not leave me behind. I left them - a very different experience from his. He has been left mourning the Republican Party that he loved, wondering where things went wrong, doing the decent thing whenever and wherever he could and accepting the fact that the political life he knew was over and done with. As his time as an elected politician draws to a close - I think for good - he should be happy that his father would agree with what he has done and he would be proud.

Gave this one 5 stars.

Has a really good Index and a hefty Notes section.

COVER ART - This gets a 6 out of 10 rating - a smidge more than I usually give the customary photo of a biography's subject. All that he has been going through is there on his face and in his eyes.

2024 Book Number 2/Lifetime Book Number 1,899 - Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant - from my shelves

It's 1570 in Ferrara, Italy and the doors of the Benedictine convent of Santa Catarina have just closed behind the new novice nun - Serafina - who, having been jilted by the man she was supposed to marry - because he preferred her younger sister to her - is really, really, really furious about what has happened to her. It's not losing her future husband to her sister that she minds. And it does not matter to her that Santa Catarina is a convent that houses a number of women from aristocratic families whose lives are vaguely like the lives they had before. They can sing in the choir and put on performances for outsiders at Easter and Carnival. They receive visitors from the outside once a week and there are a variety of occupations inside the convent for them. And someone like Serafina, who has a remarkable voice, is considered to be a quite desirable addition to the convent. (Indeed, her voice is one reason why she was admitted to Santa Catarina. The other was her hefty dowry.) No, she does not care one bit about what her family wants, or how much she is wanted by the convent and certainly not the loss of the life as a wife and mother that was supposed to have been her future. For Serafina, the only thing that matters is that she gets out as quickly as possible because there is someone she loves outside the convent's walls.

Given over to Zuana, the dispensary sister - who had had to drug her on her first night there because she was so disruptive - to help her with her work, the novice eventually proves to be somewhat helpful and interested in their work. The sisters and the abbess think that she is going to settle down - as most novices finally do when they begin to accept what has happened to them. But Serafina has a plan, concocted with the man she loves, and a bucket load of determination. She will get out. But she does not know that the newly born Counter Reformation has sprung up and it will break all rebellion by anyone. Or else.

I really, really liked this book of Dunant's as I have all of her others. Would have cheated and nudged it to the top of the pile if I'd known how much I was going to like it. Did not realize quite how political a Medieval convent was or that nuns could be so manipulative.

Dunant included a nice and very enticing bibliography. Would like to take a crack at some of those titles.

Gave this one 5 stars

Keeper

COVER ART - Quite liked the photograph which looks very like a painting to me. Gave it 8 out of 10. Would definitely have taken it off a shelf for a closer look, but I remember looking for it on purpose, thirteen and half years ago (ack!), because I'd skimmed some reviews and it looked promising.

Expecting an unpleasant amount of snow here next week. Going to totally ruin my work week. Wish I was a bear and that I could miss all of that. They are so lucky - getting to sleep through the bad weather.

2024 Book Number 3/Lifetime Book Number 1,899 - Rhubarb by H. Allen Smith - from my shelves

I bought this book some years ago because I remembered reading it a long time ago. H. Allen Smith was a favorite of my grandfather's and I believe my mother was also a fan. In fact she insisted that I read this humorous 1946 novel about a fairly vicious cat who inherits a fictitious New York baseball team when his owner leaves his estate to the one-time stray that he loved (and disinheriting his odious daughter at the same time). I saw in the description of this book on some used book website that it is a children's book - which it most certainly is not. It's loaded with lots of double entendres, a bevy of women with fairly sketchy morals and gentlemen who are very happy about that fact. I don't think that at the time I read it that I got a lot of the humor, but even so, I enjoyed it at that time. And it was still pretty funny this time around.

Gave this one 4 stars as it did make me laugh several times.

A keeper.

COVER ART - It did not come with the dust jacket, but I do like this un-jacketed cover, a lot better than the actual jacket which has a pretty terrifying looking drawing of a cat. That cover I would have not rated very highly, but this one is pleasant and so gets a 5 out of 10 from me. Of course if it had come with the dust jacket this first edition would - supposedly - be a $100 book. Jacketless its worth drops to a mere $16.

Can't wait for Monday to arrive when presumably the temperatures will finally stop hanging out in the freezing and next-to-freezing neighborhood they've been in lately. I like colder weather, but do not love it to be so cold that my ears and nose are cold all the time. Upper 30s are tolerable and upper 40s pretty doggone good. But the 20s are just too stinking cold. This is southern New England - not the Canadian border.

2024 Book Number 4 - The Body In The Library by Agatha Christie - from my shelves

A Miss Marple book. This is the second book in the Miss Marple series. It's been a long time since the previous book in the series popped up. I remember reading several of Granny's Miss Marple books a long, long time ago, but I don't remember that she had this one. I am sure if she had had a copy I would already have read it as I think I read almost all of the books that she kept on the high, high shelf in the back kitchen. It was such a high shelf that I had to get a rickety chair from her studio to reach it, but almost all of the time it was worth raiding that shelf in spite of the danger of chair collapse. (Don't remember, at this distance, if the ricketyness came from the age of the chair or the floor beneath it. Could have been either or both.)

Anyway - there is a dead body of a young woman with platinum blonde hair in Colonel and Mrs. Bantry's library and they have no idea who she is. And neither does anyone else for a while. Eventually the police do get an I.D., but by that time Dolly Bantry has fetched her good friend Jane Marple to the house to see the body and get her to turn her detecting talents to helping solve the mystery.

Ruby Keene is the dead girl. She is not from St. Mary Meade so it is no wonder that it is not really easy to figure out who she is. She has been called to fill in for her cousin Josephine at the hotel where she works organizing entertainments - in particular the dances which are a problem for Josie as she has hurt her ankle and can't perform. Ruby is seen as a sweet, innocent girl by a wealthy, invalid guest and he wants to adopt her and plans to settle a largish fortune on her - probably to replace his dead daughter who was killed in a tragic airplane crash.

There are several good suspects, but everyone has a very good alibi. Lots of flailing around by the police. And Miss M - as per usual - figures it all out fairly early.

Enjoyed this mystery. Nice not to have to have Hercule Poirot underfoot. Gave it 4 stars.

A Keeper.

COVER ART - This one rates an 8 of 10 for me. I love this cover with the broken glasses and the books in the background. But - and this is why I didn't give it a better rating - those broken glasses have absolutely nothing to do with the story. But, knowing that I would have pulled it off a store bookshelf because of it being a Miss Marple mystery, I can't penalize the cover art a whole lot even though it does show something that is a big ol' lie.

2024 Book Number/Lifetime Book Number 1,901 - American Sphinx by Joseph J. Ellis - from my shelves

I only realized how little I knew about Thomas Jefferson once I started this book. His authorship of the Declaration of Independence, his time in France as ambassador, that he pushed for the Lewis and Clark expedition, and a bit about Monticello (but not much) - those were about it. Kind of pitiful.

This is a biography - mostly in terms of his life as a political thinker and revolutionary. I had no idea of how much of a revolutionary he really was and that he harbored a lot of very impractical ideas - a lot of them on account of his "pure Republicanism" which made him hate the Federalists and pretty much all aspects of the government. The Supreme Court, the banking system, the Navy (which he was always trying to destroy) - he detested them all and anything that was not all about States Rights. I was raised to think of him as a Democrat (probably because of the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner which used to be a thing), but he was no more of a Democrat than my cat is. From what I read, I am pretty well convinced that TJ would feel very much at home in our present political climate.

And as for that famous quote "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal", etc., etc., - did he ever believe what he wrote or was it more of a flourish meant to catch the ear? I don't think he ever really meant to include the slaves in it. He never did anything to end slavery; he only imagined that it would fade away - somehow - and easily fell into believing that he could forget about and let it be someone else's problem.

I think Ellis reveals the true Jefferson - and I don't like that man much.

There is a really good Notes section and a good Index. It also has an Appendix addressing the whole Sally Hemings thing. I did not read it as it was written before the DNA of the Hemings and Jefferson families were done, so it is pretty much irrelevant. (Ellis changed his mind after the evidence came out.)

Gave this 4.5 stars.

Keeper

COVER ART - the usual 5 of 10 rating for this kind of cover.

2024 Book Number 6/Lifetime Book Number 1,902 - The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo - from my shelves

What a great kids story. Just the sort of thing I would have loved at around 8 years old or so. A tiny mouse with great big ears, armed with a needle-sword and on a quest to save the Princess Pea and opposed by the castle dungeon rats - rats who feast on the prisoners of the castle and most especially on their despair and their tears (being the things that rats love best). Really, really liked this one.

Gave it 5 big ol' stars.

A definite keeper.

COVER ART - Despereaux dashing into the dungeons on a mission - a winner! 9 of 10 for me.

Took a bunch of unexpected time off this past week with a bad knee that was caused, I think, by the inhumanly cold temperatures of the previous week. Am slowly walking less like a stepped-on bug and hope not to miss any more work this week. Too the good - I got a bunch of reading done.

Am primarily reading Prequel by Rachel Maddox and Willful Behavior by Donna Leon right now. The Golden Compass is teetering on the edge of eviction and I am eyeing We Need to Talk About Kevin as the next book in the TBR pile.

Wow you are on a reading roll, Charlotte - nothing less than four stars going on over here.

Have a great Sunday.

>17 Fourpawz2: This is an excellent review ... especially with the line "no more of a Democrat than my cat is"!!! Love it - and the review: thanks for sharing!

>19 PaulCranswick: - Thank you, Paul. If I appear to have slowed down it is because my cat Jane swallowed a piece of metal which resulted in a two week surgery drama which was preceded by a week of futilely trying-to-make-the-dang-thing-pass' drama. In that time period just about all reading stopped. Instead I spent lots and lots of time pleading with her to please not jump up or jump down, or run, or stretch or pull off the cone of shame and feverishly checking several times each and every day to see whether or not she was able to reach her stitches in spite of that stinking cone. And then there was the learning to sleep with the light on and the resultant lack of sleep while trying to watch her 24/7. But all of that is over now. Mercifully.

>20 PocheFamily: - Thanks for dropping by, Leslie. Yup - Jane is no Democrat. I suspect she is entirely sick of politics and me shouting at the TV during the news and just generally raving at other times of the day. Lucky she has no access to any weaponry worse than her claws.



2024 Book Number 7/Lifetime Book Number 1,903 - Willful Behavior by Donna Leon - from my shelves

Claudia Leonardo comes to Commissario Brunetti hoping to get her grandfather's World War Two-era crime pardoned. (The grandfather is long dead, but Claudia wants to do this thing as a kindness to her courtesy grandmother who was the grandfather's lover.) It is not the kind of thing that Brunetti usually does, but since Paola, his wife and Claudia's professor, directed the girl to him, he does begin researching the process. However, before he can get her any information that might help her, Claudia is murdered in her apartment.

I liked how Leon uses this sad crime to reveal Italy's history at the time of the war while continuing at the same time to discuss the entrenchment of the country's modern-day bureaucracy/corruption. And I liked how she had me believing that the dead grandfather's history (his crimes) played a serious part in Claudia's murder when actually it was a fairly commonplace kind of crime and in many ways the worst kind - the kind caused by a mistaken motive.

Gave this one 4.5 stars. I know that Leon's books began to lose favor here on LT at some point, but am guessing that I am not at that point yet as I still find them very, very good.

A definite keeper.

COVER ART - I don't know what it is that I am looking at, so am rating it at a 6 out of 10 - probably because I really like the nice colors.

2024 Book Number 8/Lifetime Book Number 1,904 - We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver - from my shelves

I was all over the place with this one. This epistolary novel - a device I dislike - did make sense by the end, but virtually all of the characters are unlikeable at some point or other - especially Kevin. (I did not care that he was a child; he was just awful.) Toward the gruesome end Shriver finally lets the reader in on what is really going on and I was kicking myself because I did not pick up on it sooner. And then on the last page - when Eva says that she will welcome Kevin into her house in 5 years time - I was horrified.

But I would read it again - this time in search of whatever it is that makes Eva decide to do such a crazy thing.

Gave it a bare 4 stars in spite of all the things I did not like.

A keeper.

COVER ART - this cover made sense to me by the end, but it did not appeal to me even then so it gets a 3 out of 10.

Have to add here that it was at the beginning of reading this book - that my winter really went all to pot. I don't remember ever suffering through a worse one as whatever could go wrong did - and in spades.

First there was the ten days of missed work when arthritis settled into both knees during a particularly vicious cold spell in January.

Next the dryer died a horrible death.

On February 3rd Jane swallowed a metal bookdart which required surgery to remove and followed by 16 days of life with the Cone of Shame for a cat whose number one favorite activity is jumping onto just about everything. Jumping is the most forbidden of all of the forbidden post-surgery activities for a cat.

So on account of that there ensued 16 days of zero work for me. Definitely not a good thing for the ol' income. Abdominal surgery for Jane was not cheap.

In the middle of Jane's recuperation the toilet croaked - it's the only one in the house - and so I met my new plumber who installed a new toilet quickly, if not cheaply.

And about 10 days ago the iPad died.

Have not replaced the dryer yet - partly because the washer must go too. Washer and dryer were both geriatric appliances so there's no point in replacing the dryer now and then the washer soon thereafter. Waiting for slightly nicer weather so that I can clear out the English ivy undergrowth at the back of the house and the multitude of small and medium sized branches in the side yard. So fun drying clothes, towels, etc. on hangers distributed all over the house.

Winter is usually my slow time when my Florida people are gone away for the season, but they are due back next month so basically this winter of 2024 is over and done without any real down time at all for me.

Will stop whining now.

>22 Fourpawz2: Sorry to read you had a rough time, Charlotte. I hope things will clear up for you!

>23 FAMeulstee: - Thank you for your kind words, Anita. I too am hopeful that things will straighten out and head in a good direction now.

Have been MIA for a very long time. How odd that I read the awful news about Anita today and coming back to my thread to get something done, I realized that she was the last visitor here. Life is so strange.



2024 Book Number 9/Lifetime Book Number 1,905 - Prequel by Rachel Maddow - from my shelves

Rather comprehensive history of the (to me) murky period before World War Two in the 1930s of the many attempts by the Nazis to keep the US out of the coming war by employing a collection of red-hot anti-semites, racists, early Christian Nationalists, Nazi fan-boys and girls plus a repulsive collection of grifters like Father Coughlin. Most disturbing/alarming of all were the politicians who joined in with the franking scheme that made a lot of congressmen look very bad indeed.

I see many echoes of that time in the present which is not very reassuring to me even if things turned out mostly right back then. There is no guarantee that we will be lucky twice.

Gave this very good book 4 stars.

A definite keeper, of course though right now it is not in the house as I have lent it out to a customer.

COVER ART - A alarming looking cover. Very red. And black. These are always eye-catching colors for me, but they did not play a part in my literally pulling this book off a shelf in the local Barnes & Noble as I went there, armed with a couple of gift cards, intending to buy this particular book (and one other). Giving it a 9 out of 10 rating.

>25 Fourpawz2: Nice to see you back posting, Charlotte.
I will miss Anita too.

2024 Book Number 10/Lifetime Book 1,906 - Come In Spinner by Dymphna Cusack and Florence James - from my shelves

I've read this book - which originally belonged to my mother - several times over the years. It was an odd sort of book for her to have.

The story takes place in Sydney, Australia sometime during World War II. There are five main characters - most of them women working at the Marie Antoinette Salon in a hotel (the South Pacific, I think it was called) and they all have serious problems and choices to make. Val's American husband is missing, but she believes he is still alive. Deb's husband is returning on leave and she is braced to demand a divorce so that she can marry a wealthy, older playboy creep. Guinea is coldly planning to marry an American - any American - just so long as he has money, but gets sidetracked by the return of her first love and the crisis of her missing sister Monnie who has just been dragged off into a life of prostitution. And then there is Claire, owner of the salon, who wants desperately to be an ordinary married woman, but that dream is being threatened by her spineless fiance's gambling addiction that is going to ruin everything.

Ordinary working people are still suffering from the lingering effects of the Great Depression and almost everyone is fearful that another depression will follow hard on the heels of the end of the war. Meanwhile Australia's one percent are entirely self-involved - really, really rude, snobbish (not mention, in some cases crooked as a dog's hind leg)- as way too many one percenters in every place and time are.

It sounds awfully romancey, but it is a little deeper than that. I've read it several times over the years and always enjoyed it.

Gave it 4 stars again. And it's still a keeper.

No cover art rating for this one as there is no dust jacket and so - no art.

2024 Book Number 11/Lifetime Book Number 1,907 - The Bat by Jo Nesbo - from my shelves

Not my first Jo Nesbo but this one was my first Harry Hole book. Harry is sent to Australia to investigate the death of a woman named Inger Holter - not independently, but along with the Sydney police. (Just realized that this book and the previous one both take place in Sydney which is so strange because I do not read a lot of books that take place down under.) Anyway...

This was a complicated mystery, but not overly so. There was a bit of misdirection - what mystery is complete without that - and Harry falls in love. Was hoping for a different outcome there.

And there is a grisly clown murder. Couldn't be sad about that. Clowns - *shudder*!!

Someone was on my radar as the killer - mostly because Harry made what seemed like a purposeless trip to a boxing gym, but I put that person aside mostly because I am bored by boxing. (It doesn't really seem like a sport to me.)

Liked the way Nesbo ended the story and so bought the next book in the series.

Gets 3.75 stars - pretty good for the first in a series.

Most definitely a keeper.

COVER ART - This cover not have enticed me to pick it up, but I did come to like the bat wing/Opera House combo and so gave it a respectable 6 out of 10.

2024 Book Number 12/Lifetime Book Number 1,908 - Oath and Honor by Liz Cheney - Borrowed from the Wilks Branch Library

Liz Cheney has a noble heart. She is steadfast and strong, a true patriot and highly admirable. I don't doubt that there are likely many things we would not ever agree on, but those don't matter. If we lose our country, nothing matters.

Her voice and beliefs come through clearly. I wish that the supporters of that man - the salvageable ones - would go to some quiet place, read this book, think about what they've read and heed her words.

I want a copy of my own.

Gave this one 4 big, big stars.

COVER ART - a 7 out of 10. So determined.

2024 Book Number 12/Lifetime Book Number 1,909 - 1222 by Anne Holt - from my shelves

Anne Holt is really good at evoking what it must be like to be trapped by and at the mercy of a howling blizzard/hurricane. She also did well with the unpleasantness/paranoia of being confined with a variety of strangers - one of whom is a murderer. I liked her wheelchair-bound protagonist - Hanne Wilhelmsen.

The ending was not quite clear to me, but that did not matter. Hope this is the beginning of a nice long series.

Gave it 3.5 stars

Keeper

COVER ART - Not good. Too blue and I don't like the florescent orange. Only a 3 out of 10 rating for this one.

Moving on toward late afternoon and it is warm here on the south coast, but not big-city-hot. Kind of humid, but not jungle-humid. In other words it is the best thing about living on the coast.



2024 Book Number 14/Lifetime Book Number 1,910 - The Color of Water by James McBride - from my shelves

This memoir of James McBride's mother - Ruth McBride-Jordan - did not grab me right away. It read so much like fiction, that it was hard for me to remember that it was not. But around Chapter 8 it took off for me. What a woman and what a family she made! Loved this book. She had the heart of a lioness.

Giving this one 5 stars.

A keeper without a doubt and I will be re-reading it sooner rather than later. Too bad the Real Life Book Club is dead and buried; I would be making them read this if it weren't.

Recommended.

COVER ART - It is a nice dignified cover. Restrained - like the books of old. But even if the cover did not move me to take a closer look, the title certainly would have. A very good title. So the cover gets a four, but the title is a very respectable 8. So - a six overall.

2024 Book Number 15/Lifetime Book Number 1,911 - The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien - Borrowed from the Holmes Library (Yes, it would appear by the cover that I read the three novels contained within this book, but no library in my local system had the first book so I was forced to borrow the omnibus book.)

First stinker of the year - aside from a few audio books that I ditched before getting anywhere near the end of them.

This novel - written in and taking place in 1960s Ireland was - for me - really depressing. It was about an Irish girl named Cait whose mother drowns. She is left with only her father who is a drunken ne'er-do-well. They are very poor. She gets sent to a horrid convent school - the Dickensian kind - and it is seen as a good thing because she will be furthering her education. There is a married man in the community who has been fiercely lusting after her from the time she was quite young and she - apparently - has feelings for him. For some reason O'Brien gave him the last name of Gentleman - which he certainly is not. I found that name both weird and disturbing. Even more disturbing - it seemed as if Gentleman's wildly inappropriate crush on her was pretty obvious to the other adults in the community, yet no one did anything to stop this perv from pursuing her. Cait has a friend - her best friend kind of by default because she is Cait's only friend - Baba by name. Baba is a horrible girl being selfish, greedy, often mean, a big ol' liar much of the time, no better than she should be and most of the time a lot worse. Baba's father - Mr. Brennan, the veterinarian - is not too bad, but then the competition in that area is not awfully stiff. I was happy to return it to the library.

And I must confess here that I did not completely finish this book and that I know I should have done. But I am counting it here as read because I was sooo very close to being done, but there was no chance in hell that I was going to finish without some permanent damage being done to my spirit if I'd had to read anymore of it. So there.

Originally I gave this one 3 stars. No idea why I did that as for me it clearly deserves no more than about 2 stars.

COVER ART - Well - just look at it. Yuck. 1 of 10. As ugly a cover as the story itself.

>31 Fourpawz2: I loved that one when I read it several years ago. I am glad to see that you enjoyed it as well.

It is hard to believe that I am just now stumbling across your thread!

2024 Book Number 16/Lifetime Book Number 1,912 - The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason - from my shelves

1880s England. Edgar Drake, a professional piano tuner, specializing in Erard pianos, is contacted by the army and sent to Burma and the Shan States so that he can repair the Erard piano that was previously sent to Dr. Anthony Carroll, their man in the Shan States. Drake goes because of the Erard, leaving his wife - who he dearly loves - in London. It is, as one can well imagine, a really long trip. There is a great deal of mystery about Carroll who is either more than a doctor or a doctor with amazing powers of diplomacy - that is clear from the start, but Drake does not care; he would go anywhere to fix an Erard. Especially an Erard in such an inhospitable climate. I don't know much about pianos, but I know enough to know that any piano would be in deep trouble in such a place. Massive humidity and wood - not a good combination. Drake finally arrives and immediately falls for the place, Dr. Carroll and a woman called Khin Myo and sets to work on the Erard as soon as possible. (His trip halfway around the world to Burma did drag a bit for me, but I stuck with it.)

Terribly atmospheric. Wish I knew about British/Burmese history, but I expect there are some books out there that can fill me in on the things I don't know. I did find it a little hard to believe that the Erard played a part in the ongoing delicate political situation among the Brits, the Shan States and a group of dacoits (criminals? revolutionaries? - not sure). But it was easy to admire Carroll's unconventional methods, mindset and beliefs and to believe that his followers loved and trusted him.

The ending was abrupt, but not unexpected. I enjoyed this book and gave it 3.25 stars. Am looking forward to rounding up a copy of North Woods.

COVER ART - I found this cover to be very attractive. Gave it an 8 of 10 rating.

>33 alcottacre: - Hi Stasia! It was an excellent book. Need to track down more McBride.

It's really easy to miss my thread, so no worries. I have been so very, very bad about keeping up the last several years. I want to be better, but I keep dropping out of sight -first for a week and then a month and then suddenly a good three months have passed by before I surface again. Maybe this year I should just blame it on Jane and her bookmark/medical adventure. She won't care. She never reads my thread.

2024 Book Number 17/Lifetime Book Number 1,913 - The Making of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks - audio book borrowed through Libby

O. M. G. - what a tedious book!

Am hoping this was Tom Hanks' intent. He's been in lots of movies, so he must have been through lots of tedium. I understand that the making of movies is just chock full of tedium. But somehow I'd hoped for something - well, better. I really liked his book of short stories revolving around typewriters that I read several years ago, but this - yikes! It could be that it was a testament to my stick-to-it-tiveness that I did finish it, I guess, but if I'm going to be honest I think I was hoping for awhile that it would get better and then when I finally admitted to myself that it was never going to get any better (or move much faster than a three-legged tortoise) I was not willing to quit because I was so close to the end.

At least Hanks was the Reader - something he does very well - even if the book in question is pretty dang dull.

Gave this one 3 stars - mostly for Tom's reading of this snoozer of a book.

COVER ART - Pretty awful. Gave it a mere 2 out of 10 rating. Palm trees don't do a thing for me.

>35 Fourpawz2: I have McBride's The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store slated to read this month, which will be only the second of his books that I have read. I need to track down more too although I do own Deacon King Kong - I just need to get it read!

>36 Fourpawz2: Sounds like one I can safely bypass!

>37 alcottacre: That sounds like a good one, Stasia. Must add it to the ol' wishlist.

Getting them read - that's the hard part. There is just not enough time. And it doesn't help that I really enjoy re-reading the really good old favorites. Am doing a re-read right now of Rebecca because a school teacher friend mentioned to me that she has put it on the summer reading list for her AP English class. And I'm half-way through Team of Rivals after letting it sit in one of the many monstrous non-fiction piles for about a decade. Also restarted volume one of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the first book of The Divine Comedy and am trying to finish two audio books during work time. And there are still hundreds of books that I know exist in the world that I want and countless thousands of books that are unknown to me right this second, that I am certain I will end up lusting after one day. I feel sorry for whoever it is that ends up having to do something about all the books that are stashed away in my little hovel.

Oh yes - that book can most definitely be skipped over. Hope Tom's next one is better.

Beautiful day here in the south coast. There were some horrible, humid days toward the beginning of the week, but now it's almost crisp and breezy out there. I'd be a fan of summer if it were always like this. Have to confess that I'm lucky to live in this part of the state on those horrible hot days when things upstate are pretty much unbearable.



2024 Book Number 18/Lifetime Book Number 1,914 - The Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie - Poirot is hired to solve the 16 year old murder of an artist - Amyas Crale - by the man's daughter. Carla is not trying to find the 'real' killer; she is getting married and only wants Poirot to prove that her mother - Caroline Crale - did not kill Amyas - that she was executed wrongly. There are five possible suspects who were present on that day when Amyas drank the contents of a poisoned bottle of beer
and Poirot interviews them all. He even has them write down their recollections of the day the murder took place.

Eventually - unsurprisingly - Hercule knows who the murderer is, but the murderer claims he/she will never be punished for the crime. Clever.

Gave this one 3.5 stars which, for me, is a pretty good rating for an HP novel.

Keeper.

COVER ART - As far as being an attractive cover, for me it only rates a 2 out of 10 rating, but the cover does contain things which are all mentioned within the story. But I still think it's ugly.

I have survived the most humid and worst July weather on the Massachusetts coast I have ever known! I could hardly read it was so nasty and damp. August seems pretty normal so far with a few actually decent days that make one think it might just be possible to get to autumn. Can't wait to see my first red leaf of 2024 and hope it happens soon.



Book Number 19/Lifetime Book Number 1,915 - Midwives by Chris Bohjalian - from my shelves

One of Bohjalian's early novels. It is about a Vermont midwife - Sybil - who loses a patient - Charlotte - in childbirth during an ice storm. The story is told by Connie, Sybil's only child. Sybil is charged with manslaughter because of her assistant's assertion (which is backed by Charlotte's husband) that Charlotte was still alive when Sybil sought to save the baby by taking a kitchen knife to her.

A well-told tale. Bohjalian avoids sensationalism and high drama, but allows the creeping of doubt to ooze onstage as Connie tells the story. By the end no one can be really sure what happened. Even Sybil doesn't know.

A definite keeper.

Gave this one 4 stars. Need to read more of Bohjalian's books.

COVER ART - Gave this cover an 8 out of 10 rating. It perfectly renders an icy night in New England.

2024 Book Number 20/Lifetime Book Number 1,916 - Astor by Anderson Cooper - audio book borrowed from Libby and read by Anderson Cooper

A complete history, almost exclusively of the American branch, of the Astor family which was founded by John Jacob Astor who began his fortune via the acquisition of the almost unimaginable numbers of beaver pelts taken from all over North America on both sides of the US/Canada border.

Cooper does a thorough job of recounting the astounding (for its time) expansion of the Astor fortune through to said fortune's inevitable and utter decline. I think the family peaked, in terms of character, when William Backhouse Astor (John Jacob's son) stepped into his father's shoes, but once William was gone the rot set in. After the American part of the family reached its zenith, the long, slow slide into moral decay began and the Astors finally disappeared in the wake of the sterile Vincent Astor's death in 1959.

A very interesting story and well done.

Gave this one 4 stars. It would be a keeper if it hadn't been borrowed.

COVER ART - 4 out of 10. Nothing particularly enticing about it.

2024 Book Number 21/Lifetime Book Number 1,917 - Winter Woman by Jenna Kernan - from my shelves

Have had this book on my shelves for donkey's years. It is the only Harlequin book (from their Harlequin Historical books line) that I have ever owned.

It is a fairly predictable Historical Fiction romance, placed generally in the Rocky Mountain fur trapping areas of the western United States in 1835. It was kind of overly focused on the protagonists' preoccupation with each other's nether regions, but I was not inclined to hurl it to the floor and kick it across the room - mostly because the bits involving the harsh conditions they endured and Kernan's descriptions of the natural world around them were good.

Not sure if it's a keeper yet so I'll leave it on the shelf for now.

Gave it 3.25 stars

COVER ART - Gave this one a 6 out of 10 - it is not a misleading cover and I think I might have been inclined to give it a second look if I'd seen it on a shelf

The temperatures here have gotten quite good over the past two weeks and so my reading has picked up a bit. The Real Life Book Club has been resurrected (with just three members again - thank goodness) and we are reading The Mayor of Casterbridge with an eye to actually meeting in late September.

And - I saw a tree with leaves just beginning to turn orange on my way home from the supermarket on Wednesday. As far as I am concerned autumn is here.

2024 Book Number 22/Lifetime Book Number 1,918 - The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston - audio book borrowed through Libby, read by Bill Mumy

The Lost City of the Monkey God (known also as The White City) appeared to be about an ancient city hidden in the jungles of Honduras and forgotten for many centuries. The author joined a National Geographic expedition to find it (and caught a dreadful disease while doing so.)

In this book there was a lot of slogging through jungles, legions of bugs (and bug bites, of course), horrific snakes - including the particularly scary fer-de-lance pit viper and generalized jungle horrors. Then, about three-quarters of the way through the book Preston took an abrupt turn away from the Lost City to talk all about a horrible disease called leish maniasis - which is hideous beyond belief - and turning it exclusively into a book about civilization-ending pandemic disease. (Not surprisingly, in the last several years I have become very skittish about such things.)

Wound up giving the first 75% of this book a bare three stars as I do not much care for lost civilization books. The last 25% of it got 3.5 stars and a lot of resentment from me over being scared pant-less by the mere thought of the things that are currently creeping out of spooky South American jungles and headed right for me.

Bill Mumy read every word of this book in a "I-am-filled-with-wonder-and-amazement" fashion which was - for me - pretty annoying. And yes, Bill Mumy is Billy Mumy of the "Lost In Space" TV program from a thousand years ago. I don't remember a lot about it, but I will never forget the phrase "Danger Will Robinson!" shouted out by the weirdly excitable robot on said program. I often holler this at Jane when trying to warn her against risky chances that she seems to be about to take. So far she has not taken this warning to heart.

COVER ART - Terrible. A mere 1 of 10.

2024 Book Number 23/Lifetime Book Number 1,919 - Tired of Winning by Jonathan Karl - audio book borrowed through Libby and read by the author

There are three books in this series that Karl has written about our former, un-lamented and - I hope - washed up president. This is the 3rd one. I think I missed book Number 2, but I will probably read it at some point.

There was nothing hugely surprising in it - except, maybe for the intelligence - unknown to me back in May when I listened to it - that Trump is a big ol' cheater at golf which says worlds about him. Have always wondered how anyone can cheat at a sport or cards or a board game and be okay with it. Even if the people you are playing against, or with, never figure out what you have been doing you know you are just a big ol' cheater and have no business gloating over your great so-called victory. To me that would certainly have to take all the enjoyment out of it. Plainly cheaters have got something seriously wrong with them upstairs.

It was still an interesting book, but I don't think I'll buy it. It's so disheartening to read about what a weasel he is. Guess the only book about him that I am interested in reading these days, is the one where all the Maga-ites admit that they were wrong about him all along and are beating themselves over the head for ever having been a part of his slavish cult.

Gave it 3.5 stars at the time, but now want to ratchet that rating down to about 3.25.

Karl is a good reader which is always a relief when the author is reading his own material.

COVER ART - It's a very expected cover that neither excites nor repels. Giving it a 5 of 10 rating.

2024 Book Number 24/Lifetime Book Number 1,920 - The Ghost Tattoo by Tony Bernard - audio book borrowed through Libby

This was the story of Bernard's father Henry and his experience as a Polish Jew caught in the Nazi web of horrors. It was a miracle that he survived. And those Henry has a life - most of it in Australia - he never shakes his experiences. They are always with him; haunting him.

Bernard saves, until the last, the story of how Henry was a Jewish policeman charged with keeping the Jews of his town in line until the Nazis turned on everyone. Henry had only agreed to police his friends and neighbors in the misplaced belief that he would be able to keep his mother, Theodora, safe from the Nazis. No one was safe and Henry (who was also sent to one of the famously horrific death camps) blamed himself for his whole life for what happened to her.

I have read a number of this type of Holocaust book and I still don't understand why - why this happens and why it keeps on happening. There is never an answer and I am pretty sure there never will be one. Would like to think that people doing evil to other people will end some day, but I think that is just wishful thinking on my part. We never seem to run out of monsters.

Was not sure how to rate this one. It's readable, - I can say that. Guess it gets 3.25 stars.

COVER ART - No appeal for me in this cover. It is so chopped up. Too much going on. Cannot imagine taking it off a shelf. A 3 out of 10.

2024 Book Number 25/Lifetime Book Number 1,921 - Of Time and Turtles by Sy Montgomery - audio book borrowed through Libby

In Covid Time Sy got very much involved in the Massachusetts non-profit, TRL (Turtle Rescue League) based in Southbridge in the central part of the state, working with turtle rescuers and saving all sorts of turtles from reckless drivers, human evil-doers, their own bad luck, well-intentioned 'owners' who had no idea what they were doing, the effects of Climate Change, etc.

This book is full of fascinating turtle lore. My favorite bit of turtle lore is that though a turtle can appear to have died hours and hours ago they can still be revived and go on to live for many years.

Sy writes this turtle tales book against the backdrop of a world trying to cope with Covid and this meshes well with the main story. If I could do it all over again I would like to be Sy Montgomery. (Except for the messing around under water part; I am very much a dry land kind of girl.)

Need to get this book. In fact I probably need to get every book she has written. Recommended for anyone who enjoys reading about animals and the people who love them.

COVER ART - It's a lovely turtle on the cover. I would definitely take it down off the shelf in any bookstore in the land for a closer look, so it gets a 9 out of 10 from me. Or maybe a full 10.

2024 Book Number 26/Lifetime Book Number 1,922 - Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin - from my shelves

Am embarrassed to admit that this book has lingered on my TBR table since sometime in the Obama administration - mainly on account of its size. I specifically requested it as a gift one Christmas and my late aunt gave it to me. But I always passed over it because the thought of cracking open such a huge book was so daunting. But finally on May 18th of this year it was chosen as it was book number 18 in its particular pile. There was no putting it off any longer. And I could kick myself for not breaking TBR book protocol and choosing it long ago - back when I could have told my aunt how much I enjoyed it. The so-called "daunting" book got read in 25 days and not only did I love every paragraph, I learned so much! I finally understand why Lincoln is held in such high regard. I've got a tiny list of presidents who I believe are truly great presidents (3) and I just might have to move him to the top. For sure he is tied with FDR.

Must read more of Goodwin's books, but I think I have to actually purchase them as I suspect they are every bit as good as this one.

Keeper without a doubt.

Gave this one 5+ stars.

COVER ART - 5 out of 10. A very expected cover and the only ordinary thing about this book.

2024 Book Number 26/Lifetime Book Number 1,923 - Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier - from my shelves

Only mentioning this here because for the umpteenth time since the late sixties/early seventies I re-read this book. This time it was because a friend had assigned the book to one of her English classes for summer reading and it seemed like a good time for me to do a re-read as it has been 7 years since the last one. I am sure it is still just as good now and as it always been before, but I was somewhat distracted by all the horrible crap going on in the world - and suffering from the awful humidity we had in July. Don't expect July will ever be a decent month again, but am hopeful the distractions will fade away and I will be able to read Rebecca yet again and enjoy it.

Five stars as always.

It will always be a keeper, but I think I need a new copy as this one is getting a bit tattered and certain pages keep wanting to flutter away.

2024 Book Number 28/Lifetime Book Number 1,924 - Death of a Bore by M. C. Beaton - from my shelves

John Keppel, a 'writer', moves to Cnothan (a little village near Lochdubh) and begins offering writing classes to the villagers in the area. He gets a lot of takers. But he is a terrible teacher and so stuck on himself that Hamish MacBeth gets the wind up immediately. It is not long before Keppel is murdered, Lochdubh's villagers are suspects and Hamish is on the case.

Elspeth Grant is back as a reporter - assigned to the case by the newspaper where she works now. Hamish finds that he still loves her, but just can't bring himself to propose to her.

Of course Hamish solves the case and once again avoids being transferred to Strathbane - a fate that would be worse than death as far as he is concerned. He also acquires a Scottish Wild Cat with a broken leg, very close to the story's end, who names Sonsie. I have to wonder how his dog will get along with her in the next book.

Gave this one 4 stars. For me this series has always kept my interest and is very consistent.

A keeper of course.

COVER ART - a 7 out of 10 for me. It would get easily get a 8 out of 10 if it weren't for the deer that is shown off to one side. No deer appeared in the story at any point and a serving of venison just does not qualify as a deer in my mind.

2024 Book Number 29/Lifetime Book Number 1,925 - Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy - borrowed from

I am always a sucker for anything with a little, appealing animal in it so it was no surprise to me that I borrowed this from the library and liked it. A nice elderly lady, who has returned to the UK from Australia after many decades, is all alone and lonely. Her husband and son are dead and she has no relatives in her native country. Basically she is just waiting to die.

She brings a small mouse into her house when cleaning debris in the yard of the house she bought and decides to get an animal rescue to take the animal and re-home him. But the little mouse is not well and the rescue people are impossible to deal with so the old lady has to deal with the mouse's health crisis herself.

Weirdly she turns out to be a world famous medical doctor (of humans) who does not hesitate to trade on her reputation and impose upon medical people at a nearby hospital to help her save Sipworth's life. I think this sort of thing pretty much never happens in real life, but I still rooted for the mouse to live. Can't help it - I am just wired this way. And even though I know it was pretty implausible, I did not care. It was a sweet story and I enjoyed it.

Gave this one 4 stars - that weakness for animal stories again.

COVER ART - the colors are sooo purple/lavender/lilac - not my favorite color group by far, but I liked the figure of the old lady in her doorway at dawn (or is it sunset?) and the itty bitty bitty mouse down at the bottom so am giving it a 7 out of 10 for its shelf appeal to me which is the point of this cover art rating, after all.

2024 Book Number 30/Lifetime Book Number 1,925 - The Reason Why by Cecil Woodham-Smith - from my shelves

This book about the Crimean War was recommended to me by the husband of a friend. He read it in school many years ago and was very enthusiastic about it; I think it is one of his very favorite books.

I had a devil of a time buying it. The first copy I bought was apparently the right title according to the cover, but I found a completely different book inside the covers. Plainly it was the result of some kind of printing error and I don't know how it escaped destruction by the publisher, for it clearly had nothing to do with the Crimean War. But I persisted and finally landed this very excellent history. I knew anything about how this s muddled mess of a war and knew even less about how much of what went on there came about. I learned that by the mid-19th century British armies were hopelessly outdated and unsuited to wage war in the way that had been doing for many years. They clearly had no idea that the great General Wellington's way of treating his soldiers and conducting a war, which had worked so well in the Peninsula War and at Waterloo, was over and done with - a dead duck - by that time. And what made everything even worse was the ridiculous lifelong feud between the particularly insufferable Earl of Cardigan, James Thomas Brudenell and his brother-in-law, George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan. And one cannot forget the highly ineffective Lord Raglan who was blamed for the suffering of his soldiers and rightly so.

It is altogether an extraordinary tale and I enjoyed it tremendously. Felt much smarter at the end of this fairly short book and am looking forward to reading it again.

Gave it 5 stars. Highly recommended

Very much a keeper

COVER ART - A paltry 2 of 10. It is just so expected.

Well, it is Thanksgiving Day and as I have nothing going on today, Jane and I are having a pajama day. (Really wish I really could dress her in a pretty pair of flannel jammies, but she won't even tolerate a collar so I will not try it. She sure would look cute though.) I hope to get caught up, but think that is unlikely to happen.



2024 Book Number 32/Lifetime Book Number 1,926 - Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney - audio book borrowed through Libby

Obviously I was desperate to find something that I could listen to while cleaning and this was all I could find. For the most part I am not a fan of children's books, which surely does not matter as they are written for kids and not me. I was able to see why a kid might like this one. It was kind of amusing some of the time and I'll bet a child of a certain age might think it was downright hilarious. Unfortunately, as I finished it back around Labor Day, examples of juvenile hilariousness almost 3 months after the fact, escape me now. I listened to the end of this rather short book, so for me, this year, that makes it a decent book. Can't count the number of audio books that I have let wither on the vine this year. There were a lot of them that I never even listed up top, among audio books that I borrowed.

Giving this one 3 stars.

Will not be going ahead with the series. Am kind of sick of audio books anyway. Think I will have to find something else to occupy my mind at work next year.

COVER ART - 2 of 10. Doesn't do a thing for me so I am very sure I would never pick it from a bookstore's shelf.

2024 Book Number 33/Lifetime Book Number 1,927 - The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy - from my shelves

Real Life Book Club is back. It was disbanded about a year ago - September 2023 - and oh, how I mourned its loss in all the many months that followed. I always hoped it would revive and then suddenly it was on again, but with a big change. We, the core three, dumped the other two members who were added in pre-Covid time - probably somewhere around 2017 or so. They were always a drag on book club - pissing and moaning about the books chosen and constantly backing out and postponing.(Not to mention picking just the most wretched books ever.) And - worst of all - we were not a good fit politically - they being a step away from radical Republicans and we three being somewhere just to the left of center.

So the first book of the Rejuvenated Real Life Book Club was The Mayor of Casterbridge - one of my absolute favorite books of Hardy's. I hadn't read it in about fifty years and I was so, so happy to re-read it now. How very good it is.

Hardy's handling of Michael Henchard is masterful. Henchard makes a terrible mistake when a young man - a mistake that changes everything - not only for him, but for his wife and child as well. Realizing what he has done, he tries to make amends, but it is too late. And so he sets about the business of becoming a better person, a change that seems permanent. And then his past comes to town.

Hardy is honest about the mayor's flaws - and they are many - but he did not allow him to be a one-dimensional, evil man. Henchard is a human being with human faults. At the book's end- once again - I was so very sorry for him.

The other two book club members liked it a lot. I do love it when others enjoy books that are my favorites - especially old classics. I think I want to re-read Far From the Madding Crowd next year.

Gave this one 5 stars as I have before.

A Keeper - forever.

COVER ART - Well, obviously there is nothing I can say about it. This is actually my second copy of The Mayor of Casterbridge which I bought at some book fair - probably the one at the Central Village Book Sale in Westport. It is an old one - published sometime in the early 20th century by Harper & Brothers. I have another copy -
which I have owned for decades. I'd rate it at a pleasing 6 of 10. I probably should give it away, but we have a history, so I will probably hang onto it.

2024 Book Number 34/Lifetime Book Number 1,928 - The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom - from my shelves - finished in mid-September

This Historical Fiction book set in late 18th/early 19th century America started pretty well. Little Lavinia is brought, as an indentured servant, to a Virginia plantation by its owner - a sea captain - whose home it is. She and her family took ship in Ireland, headed for America, but her parents die and she and her brother are left alone in the world. Arriving in America, Lavinia and her brother are separated.

Initially Captain Pyke turns the little girl over to his slaves in the Kitchen House (kitchens were separate from the main house in case of fire - a sensible arrangement, I think) and Lavinia grows up there, coming very quickly to think of the people there as her family. Things are just fine as long as Captain Pyke lives, but the plot demands that Pyke be killed off and then things go to pot.

At this point Lavinia is maturing and everything becomes rather predictable. Lots of drama - drunkenness, laudanum (of course), violence, an evil overseer, rape (both female and male), insanity, profligacy and gambling which inevitably leads to plantation neglect and slave-selling to recoup losses, etc., etc., etc. Reminded me very much of the Falconhurst series.

The first half of the book was not awful, but the second half was just a big ol' yawn. And I really did not like Lavinia's voice. It bore absolutely no relation to her Irish origins or the many years spent in the kitchen house among slaves who were people that she really saw as her family. It was as if puberty came along and just made Lavinia a very blah, 19th century female character that I have seen a million times before. And I never did know what purpose the brother was supposed to serve as, when Lavinia gets around to trying to find him, many, many years later, it is revealed that he died shortly after separation from his sister. Why bother? Might as well have pushed him into the ocean and be done with that pesky little detail.

Gave this one 3.25 stars - most of it for the first half of the book. The second half was a very lame 3 stars. Barely.

A Keeper? In the end - no. I was thinking I would in case one of the two Real Life Book Club members, who were likely to choose this kind of of book one day did, but hey - they have been jettisoned, so guess I will send it on its way.

COVER ART - a 7 out of 10. The colors are nice and the pictures are relevant.

2024 Book Number 35/Lifetime Number 1,929 - Motherland by Maria Hummel - Lent to at first by a friend but after I was done she gave it to me.

This book takes place in the end days of Nazi Germany in the final months of World War II and the months just after its end (December 1944 to August 1945) in the (fictional) town of Hannesburg, Germany.

Liesel Kappus is newly wed to a doctor, Frank. Frank has been sent off to a military hospital and Liesel lives in the Kappus family home where she is caring for Frank's three sons - Hans (10), Ani (8?) and Jurgen, an infant. She and Frank were only married for a very short while before they were separated. And the boys' mother - obviously - died only a short while before Liesel and Frank were married. Has he married her because he loves her or because he really needs someone to take care of his children? Or both?

There are always problems for every new bride (I would imagine), but life in this last winter of the war is hugely difficult. War is all around them and of course it only gets worse as time goes on. Hans is headstrong and smart-alecky, their neighbor is a problem. Orders come down that the Kappus family will have to share the house with two refugee families (who turn out to be difficult, of course). And Ani is acting strangely. At one time Liesel thought that Hitler was looking after everyone, but she doesn't think that anymore. She is trying hard to keep Ani from being sent away to Hadamar - a place where those judged "not fit to live" are sent. Ani is behaving peculiarly, but she is sure he is not insane. If only Frank were there he could discover what the trouble with his son was. When Frank left they arranged for Liesel to send him items that he would need should he ever have to desert the hospital and make his way back to Hannesburg. Everyone knows that the Americans and the Russians are coming soon and no one wants to be taken by either army.

Frank is a surgeon of some talent. At his current hospital he is told that he is being considered for transfer to Berlin where he will be able to hone his talents in plastic surgery. (I don't think it was called plastic surgery then, but it is the only way I can describe what he does.) But he has a patient whose injuries are horrific and Frank is dedicated to repairing this man, who it turns out, he knew well when they were boys. (They didn't like one another, but petty things of that nature do not matter anymore.) He wants, very much to help this man from his past and to perform the surgery that he has been planning in order to repair his terrible injuries, but Frank also wants to go to the hospital in Berlin where he is sure he will learn amazing things, yet with every day that passes he grows more and more sure that above all else he ultimately must desert and return to his family.

I really liked this book. I've long been curious about the civilian population of Germany, but I don't think I've seen any fiction dealing with this portion of the population before. I knew it had to have been a horrible thing to live through - those end days of the war - of any war - and Hummel handles this story very well. Really liked all of the characters and want to search out other things that she has done.

Gave this one 4.5 stars

A keeper.

COVER ART - 8 out of 10. The boy, the plane and the sky were intriguing to me and I know I'd have pulled this one off the shelf.

2024 Book Number 36/Lifetime Book Number 1,930 - The Wife by Meg Wolitzer - from my shelves - read for the Rejuvenated Real Life Book Club

I don't usually see the movie before I've read the book, but in this case I saw the movie about two or maybe three years ago. Loved the movie, but wondered how the book would read. And I was quite amazed after reading it that the movie was ever made because Wolitzer wrote this book in the first person. So, it seemed to me - a person who does not know much of anything about turning books into movies - that it would be very difficult to turn such a book into a decent movie. But they did it.

I did wonder as the book went along, how Joan could let the fraud go on for so long, but, as I read, it was apparent that although she was seemingly a person who knew her own mind and was never afraid to express herself, the advice given to her by the female author who discouraged her from trying to write professionally had a huge impact on her.

And I was surprised by her failure to out Joe and reveal the truth about 'his' work to Nathan Bone, the unauthorized biographer. Must be one of those marriage things that I don't understand. Can't help but think that if she authored anything after Joe she would always be compared to her husband. Wolitzer must have an idea about that, but will she ever let on? I'm thinking not.

Gave this one a good solid 4 stars.

A Keeper for sure.

COVER ART - 1 of 10. Truly hideous. I didn't even realize at first that those blobs of color all stacked one atop the other were supposed to be books.

2024 Book Number 37/Lifetime Book Number 1,931 - Dead Water by Barbara Hambly - from my shelves - Finished mid-October

This time Benjamin January, wife Rose and their friend Hannibal Sefton are on a Mississippi riverboat - the older kind. I didn't know there was an older kind before reading this book, but Hambly's history is very good so I'm sure that there was such a thing.

The three of them are tracking Banker Weems who is suspected of having made off with the assets of the Bank of Louisiana. Ben and Rose have an especial interest in recovering the money as it includes the money that they earned in the book just previous to this one. If they fail and word gets out about the theft, the value of what is left will be reduced to just pennies on the dollar and they will lose their house.

There are lots of characters/suspects here - including Jeff Davis, future president of the Confederacy - so it was hard to sort through them to get them whittled down to a reasonable number.

And in a way this story resembled a kind of locked-door mystery, in that, once Weems is killed, everyone - for one reason or another - is pretty much confined to the boat.

A good story overall. Was kind of surprised to find Jefferson Davis as a character here which led me to read a bit more about him. Apparently the Davis family was thought to be better than your usual southern planter of the time.

Gave this one 3.5 stars. Would have given it a full four if there hadn't been quite so many suspects.

Keeper

COVER ART - This gets only a 4 out of 10. Again - way too much print and then they've got that headless woman gambit going. Really don't like that. Only liked the boat.

2024 Book Number 38/Lifetime Book Number 1,932 - The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory by Thomas Fuller - borrowed from library

This is the story of the Riverside, California School for the Deaf (CSDR) and its football team's undefeated 2022 season.

It was considered pretty amazing when they accomplished this as they had never come even close to this kind of football glory before 2022. Their team played eight man football - a thing I'd never heard of before reading this book. In eight man everybody plays on both the offense and the defense for the whole game. Offense and defense. That to me is an amazing accomplishment all by itself, but for a deaf team to so completely slaughter the opposition (it was not uncommon for them to obliterate the competition by crazy scores like 72 to 0) seemed unbelievable to me. But they did. Apparently deafness is almost an advantage for deaf players, who, deprived of hearing, are much more visual than regular, hearing players. Not hearing enables them to see more. Makes sense.

Fuller provides a nice amount of history about things - including the fact that users of American Sign Language (ASL) and the users of British Sign Language (BSL) cannot sign to one another without an interpreter. The reason for this is that ASL signing is based on the signing that originated in France in the 18th century (and maybe earlier than that). BSL has a different origin. And I also learned that the football huddle was invented at Gallaudet University as a defense against the other team stealing their signs.

I don't usually read many sports books, but this was interesting. Still can't get over how they play both offensive and defensive positions. Sounds exhausting - probably because I am an old poop.

Gave this 3.75 stars

COVER ART - 3 out of 10. It is fairly meh.

2024 Book Number 39/Lifetime Book Number 1,933 - Snow In April by Rosamunde Pilcher - from my shelves

This 52 year-old love story is extremely out-dated. Women are only interested in landing a man. The only women in this book who have jobs are housekeepers or cooks in the homes of the wealthy. There are lots of dinner parties and frequent mention of the clothes being worn.

The main character is one Caroline Cliburn who is engaged to her step-mother's brother, which sounds just a bit incestuous to me. She is getting married very, very soon, but seems pretty scatter-brained about everything and just a week before her marriage goes scampering off to Scotland with her much younger brother so that they can see their older brother before their step-mother can take younger brother off to Canada once she is married to her fiance where younger brother knows he will be miserable. On the way to Scotland, it being April, there is a terrible snowstorm. They get caught in it, have to walk to a nearby estate after the car plows into snow drifts and they are taken in because they are half-frozen. The home owner - an eligible bachelor whose brother has just died - is immediately taken with Caroline (even though he does not admit it to himself) and the snowbound siblings hang about for several days still intending to visit older brother in wherever the heck town it is where he is working. (Sorry to keep calling them older and younger but I was so bored by this book that I did not even bother to write their names down in my journal. And - yeah - I forgot Eligible Bachelor's name too)

Of course the Eligible Bachelor has a friend - who thinks she is his girlfriend - and there is a huge coincidence that enables Caroline's step-mother to find out where she and younger brother are. So - blah, blah, blah - EB and Caroline fall in love, her fiance is disposed of and younger brother doesn't have to go to Canada with step-mother and her new husband. That's pretty much it.

Bleech!!!

Gave this one 2 stars - because I read it all.

Not a keeper

COVER ART - I did like this cover and am giving it 8 of 10 in terms of a rating - even though it has nothing to do with anything - as I do like a floral print. I might have given it more if it hadn't been for all that bloody printing.

2024 Book Number 40/Lifetime Book Number 1,934 - The History of Mishaum Point by Edith Steel Swift - borrowed from the Southworth Library

This book does not appear anywhere on LibraryThing which does not surprise me. It was privately printed in the 20th century by one of the residents of The Point and I borrowed it from the Dartmouth, MA library noted above. My uncle was once the caretaker there as both his brother and their father had been before him. My father worked there for a while and, upon occasion, I spent a bit of time there with my cousins. I've included it here in spite of the fact that barely anyone in the world will have read or will read it in the future. It is still an honest to goodness book.

I found a couple of anecdotes in it which were attributed to my cousins' grandfather which is not the first time that has happened. There is also a story about him in A Wind to Shake the World; The story of the 1938 Hurricane by Everett S. Allen a book I really enjoyed. I guess from reading that book and this one that ol' Henry was quite the character.

Giving this book 3 stars. Had some interesting stories about manufacturing salt the old-fashioned way and the days before the place became infested with the summer homes of people of means.

No cover art as it is from the days before that was a thing.

2024 Book Number 41/Lifetime Book Number 1,935 - 1984 by George Orwell - borrowed from the Wilks Branch Library for the Rejuvenated Real Life Book Club

I cannot imagine a stranger or more coincidental choice of book in this particular year, than the one that was chosen for our November book club read. Seriously.

I read 1984 a very long time ago in high school at my mother's insistence - as some kind of warning against communists, I believe - and did not care for it. (She was always finding communists and making a big stink about them.) The main thing I remembered from it was what I considered the all too frequent mention of Winston Smith's leg ulcer. But I was in the middle of my medieval castle/romance addiction and the goings on in Oceania was probably about as far away from my preferred genre as they could have been.

This time around, given recent developments, I had an entirely different reaction to it. Probably despondency would be the best one word description of my reaction. You know - after the whole November 5th thing. It is, I admit, a much, much better book than I remember it being - barely noticed the leg ulcer thing - this time, but oh, such a weight on the spirit. It is well-written and should be read by all - not as a warning against communists but something far worse. I hesitate to give it a name just now; I think we don't quite know what we are facing yet. But we will find out soon. Far too soon.

Gave this one a full 5 stars in spite of how low in spirit it made me.

COVER ART - 1 out of 10. Never would have picked this book off a shelf with its blue eyeball looking thingy.

>61 Fourpawz2: Yes it was indeed a very prescient book, Charlotte.

Thank you for always being such a good friends in the group. I will be thinking about you during your long weekend holiday.

2024 Book Number 42/Lifetime Book Number - Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid - audio book borrowed through Libby

I've been fiddling and diddling around and doing anything and everything to avoid posting this book. - which I suppose was meant to be a sympathetic account of Lady Macbeth - because of the audio format, but I am pretty much sure that I wouldn't have liked it any better in any other form.

I did not care about this reformed version of Gruoch in which an effort was made to show her in a romantic light. But for me she was just not a character I could like awfully well. Maybe it is because Lady M as written by Shakespeare is so ingrained with me that I just can't accept or believe in another version of her. Sometimes, I think that a villain should be left as he/she is and there should be no effort made to redeem him/her. This was one of those times.

To the good it was quite short - only 4 hours - but that hardly made up for the meh-ness of it.

Giving it a mere 2.75 stars

COVET ART - 4 of 10. It's okay.

Thinking of you at this time, Charlotte.

Thank you Paul and Linda for kind wishes.



2024 Book Number 43/Lifetime Book Number - Broken Harbor by Tana French - From my shelves

This fourth book in the Dublin Murder Squad series revolves around Detective Michael Kennedy. A family of four has been attacked in their home in Broken Harbor and the father and the two children are dead while Jennifer Spain - wife and mother - clings to life. Detective Kennedy and newbie Richie Curran have been assigned to the case. Kennedy is pleased with his rookie partner; Richie seems to have a natural instinct for handling witnesses. A murder suspect emerges fairly quickly and it looks as if the murders will be wrapped up very soon. At first. Then things grow complicated. Their suspect seems good for the murder, but doubts creep in. Questions arise that can't be put to rest. Weird things happened in the Spains' house - things that absolutely need to be explained.

There is lots of depth and detail and so many questions about everyone. Wish I could say more about it here, but it would be very easy to say too much.

Gets 5 plus stars from me. Might be my favorite fiction book of the year.

A keeper as all of the books from this series have been.

COVER ART - 4 out of 10 rating. This cold room really works, but all that overpowering print ....

2024 Book Number 44/Lifetime Book Number - The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier - from my shelves

Historical Fiction book about a young Quaker woman named Honor Bright. It is halfway through the 19th century when Honor arrives in America in the company of her sister who is traveling to Ohio to marry her fiance. Well before the two of them get to Ohio, the sister falls sick and dies in Pennsylvania. At this point Honor would have gone back to England, but she suffered from such severe sea sickness that she knows she cannot repeat that experience so she is doomed to stay in America and must now travel to the little town in Ohio where her sister's almost husband is waiting.

I was hoping that the story would not send Honor in the obvious direction - into marriage with Adam and - mercifully - Chevalier did not go in that direction. Instead she has Honor - become involved with aiding the many runaway slaves who travel through Ohio on their way to freedom and a better life in Canada. This creates a good deal of trouble for Honor; the Fugitive Slave Law has just gone into effect and anyone involved in flaunting the law stands to lose a lot. Honor's mother-in-law (Honor is newly married) demands that Honor obey the law - stop helping the runaways by giving them food, shelter and help finding their way to people further on who will aid them. And Honor just can't do that even though threatens her marriage and the farm.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. I used to be a huge HF fan, but I am less so these days. But I liked this one just the same.

There is a lot of talk about quilts. Honor has always made quilts and keeps on doing so in America. I did not realize that there was such a difference between English quilting and American.

Gave this one 4 stars

A Keeper - for the present.

COVER ART - This is an attractive cover, but all wrong for a book about a seriously Quaker girl. All that color - it is so un-Quaker. and so very un-Honor. The bonnet is correct - it looks just the way Chevalier describes it, but the rest of her outfit - no. So I have to give it a mere 4 of 10.