Mabith's 2024 Reads Part II

Part two! The picture is my mother at fifteen months old (my grandparents were wonderfully exacting on labeling photos).

Read in June-December 2024

Cold War Spy Stories from Eastern Europe – Valentina Glajar (editor)
Pure Wit – Francesca Peacock
Something's Not Right – Cyan Wings
Bunk – Kevin Young
Emperor of Rome – Mary Beard

After Transmigrating I Made the Antagonist Cry – Qiao Muli
Spells for Forgetting – Adrienne Young
Ex-Husband's Call – Qin San Jian
Mutiny on the Rising Sun – Jared Ross Hardesty
Rise of the Novel – Leo Damrosch

For Real – Alexis Hall
The Gulf – Adam de Souza
Bitter Orange Tree – Jokha Alharthi
Mexikid – Pedro Martin
Good Behavior by Donald E. Westlake

UPROAR! – Alice Loxton
Queer Africa – Karen Martin, Makhosazana Xaba and others
When the Earth had Two Moons – Erik Asphaug
The Antelope and Night Wolf – Li Xiu Luo
A Shilling for Candles – Josephine Tey

Paperback Crush – Gabrielle Moss
Glitterland – Alexis Hall
The Library: A Fragile History – Andrew Pettegree
Into Thin Air – Jon Krakauer
You'll Do – Marcia Zug

Cotillion – Georgette Heyer
Drowned Hopes – Donald E. Westlake
Perilous Question – Antonia Fraser
Don't You Like Me – Lu Tianyi
Who Dares Wins – Dominic Sandbrook

All Fours – Miranda July
Thinking About History – Sarah Maza
A Psalm for the Wild-Built – Becky Chambers
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy – Becky Chambers
Venerable Devil Also Wants to Know – Cyan Wings

Kintu – Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
American Eclipse – David Baron
What's the Worst that Could Happen – Donald E. Westlake
Medieval Maritime Warfare – Charles D. Stanton
The Circular Staircase – Mary Roberts Rinehart

In the Wake of the Plague – Norman Cantor
Guardian of the Horizon – Elizabeth Peters
Killers of the King – Charles Spencer
All the Knowledge in the World – Simon Garfield
Woman, Captain, Rebel – Margaret Wilson

Freddy and the Baseball Team from Mars – Walter R. Brooks
The Trolley to Yesterday – John Bellairs
Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak
He Lifted My Red Veil – Zi Jin
Milkman – Anna Burns

The Art of the English Murder – Lucy Worsley
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark
The Disabled Tyrant's Pet Palm Fish – Xueshan Fei Hu
The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum – Margalit Fox
We Solve Murders – Richard Osman

The Rise and Fall of Alexandria – Justin Pollard, Howard Reid
The Star Around the Sun – Jin Gang Quan
The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
The Lion in Winter – James Goldman
A Gentleman from Japan – Thomas Lockley

The Hunter – Richard Stark
The Man with the Getaway Face – Richard Stark
The Ninth – Harvey Sachs
Zapped – Bob Berman
Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton

The Outfit – Richard Stark
The Hot Rock – Donald E. Westlake
Those Wild Wyndhams – Claudia Renton
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches – Sangu Mandanna
Worn – Sofi Thanhauser

FOG – Man Man He Qing Duo
Confounding Oaths – Alexis Hall
New Times New Hell – Lin Zhiluo
Challenger – Adam Higginbotham
Dead Djinn in Cairo – P. Djeli Clark

The Mourner – Richard Stark
Skies of Thunder – Caroline Alexander
The Last Honest Man – James Risen
The Score – Richard Stark
On the Waterfront – Budd Schulberg

Nobody's Perfect – Donald E. Westlake
The Bean Trees – Barbara Kingsolver
Four Lost Cities – Annalee Newitz
The Banished Immortal – Ha Jin
Zoot Suit – Luis Valdez

All the President's Men – Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward
Waiting for the Flood – Alexis Hall
The History of the Ancient World – Susan Wise Bauer
In the Great Green Room – Amy Gary
Pansies – Alexis Hall

Inside Job – Connie Willis
The Masqueraders – Georgette Heyer
Vienna 1814 – David King
Looking for Group – Alexis Hall
Parable of the Sower – Octavia Butler

Keats: A Brief Life in Nine Poems and One Epitaph – Lucasta Miller
Writing on the Wall – Tom Standage
Lolly Willowes – Sylvia Townsend Warner
The House in the Cerulean Sea – TJ Klune
Freddy the Cowboy – Walter R. Brooks

I was going through threads from previous years to copy over reviews into a text document for easy looking up (I used to do this as I wrote them and then got out of the habit), and it really shows how much I've slipped on making global reading a priority.

In other years by June I might have already read authors from 40 unique countries, and while I did have to make some effort to look books up I wasn't vastly changing my reading habits or anything. Plus Hoopla access really helps with that, they have so many novellas in translation.

I'm going to make an effort to get to one of my never-read countries every month (I've read authors from 125 countries since I started tracking my reading in 2006). This month will be Uganda. I went to high school with a number of Ugandans so always feels extra odd I haven't read an author from there.

After my next library hold and book club book are finished I'll either start Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi or Queer Africa, an anthology featuring Beatrice Lamwaka. Or maybe I'll start both at once since one is audio and one is print.

Here are some of my Never-Read-An-Author-From... countries. If you have any suggestions for a good author, let me know!

Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Eritrea, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Eswatini, Tanzania, Gambia, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia

Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua
Panama

Paraguay

Bosnia, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Slovenia

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Jordan, Oman

Some of them I have books on deck for. When I'm looking up authors I 'count' a country for them if they spent at least 10 years of their childhood there, sometimes less if they've made clear statements about feeling from a particular place or had childhoods where they moved around loads I count the heritage country because honestly, you can't get too far in the weeds on this stuff. I have a spreadsheet to fill out after all but this is all incredibly individual.

Owned books:
Togo: Do They Hear You When You Cry - Fauziya Kassindja
Togo: An African in Greenland - Tete-Michel Kpomassie
Latvia: A Woman in Amber - Agate Nesaule
Latvia: With Dance Shoes in Siberian Snows - Sandra Kalniete
Nicaragua: The Country Under my Skin - Gioconda Belli
Paraguay: I, The Supreme - Augusto Roa Bastos

Cold War Spy Stories from Eastern Europe by Valentina Glajar and others

If you're looking for something with the more humorous or surreal stories of the period, this is not the book for you.

In many ways this collection feels a bit forced together, but it's quite interesting if you can go with the flow or treat each section individually. Surprisingly to me, I found the section on spy stories in film to be the most interesting.

Pure Wit: The Revolutionary Life of Margaret Cavendish by Francesca Peacock

Having learned about her somewhere and having a novel about Cavendish on my radar (Margaret the First), I really wanted a biography first. Now I think that was probably a mistake and I should have gone novel then biography, but I'd always rather have fact really.

Cavendish was the author of the 1666 proto-science fiction novel, The Blazing World, among other things, and did have quite the extraordinary life. I read that some years back and found it interesting and worth reading if not amazing (experimental philosophy will probably never be my thing). This biography was just published in January, and I'm glad I waited for it. It was well done and goes into a lot of the reasons why Cavendish is somewhat forgotten and has been sidelined in both literary and feminist history. In addition it talks about how and why she was distorted in many earlier biographies.

There really should be a lush period mini-series about her, plus you've got the English Civil War as a background which isn't a common setting. The only downside to reading this now was that I am again sorely tempted to re-read Rebels and Traitors, Lindsey Davis' most excellent civil war epic.

Uganda:
Waiting: A Novel of Uganda's Hidden War is focused on one household in the path of war, so not completely war-focused, but not violence-free either. My library system had it as an ebook, so it might be somewhat available.

Djibouti:
Abdourahman A. Waberi I read his Passage of Tears, which was a multilayered story told through three different texts. More head than heart.

Lesotho:
found in rebeccanyc's colletions - Singing Away the Hunger

Tunisia:
found in rebeccanyc's colletions - A Tunisian Tale

Belize:
Beka Lamb a solid coming-of-age story.

>6 ELiz_M: Thanks so much!

These are books I have read and liked. The asterisk indicates that it is translated to English. They are pulled from my list on The Global Challenge.

Guinea-Bissau
Abdulai Sila* - The Ultimate Tragedy

Tunisia
Yamen Manai* - The Ardent Swarm

Uganda
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi - The first woman

Slovenia
Prežihov Voranc* - The Self-Sown

Armenia
Antonia Arslan* - Skylark farm

Azerbaijan
Kurban Said* - Ali and Nino: A Love Story (this author may be problematic)

Edited to fix touchstone

>8 labfs39: Thanks!

Jokha Alharthi is an Omani author, although she now lives in the UK. I enjoyed Bitter Orange Tree.

Thanks, Kay! I started that one and will probably finish it tonight.

Something's Not Right by Cyan Wings

Another book by the author of Mr Melancholy Wants to Live a Peaceful Life (see >93 mabith:), and another interesting take on a common genre of webnovel. However, this was written four years earlier and it shows, being a much simpler story.

In this world a group of people have transmigrated into an ancient setting novel (set in the Western Xia or Great Xia which was a power prior to the Yuan dynasty when the Mongols took over, this is a popular choice for ancient setting novels for reasons I cannot explain). Their goal is to seduce the emperor so that he gives up the throne for them and then they'll win some large monetary prize. It's sort of a testing ground for game system as well. They're given aphrodisiac hallucinogenic incense so they don't have to compromise their morals and actually sleep with the emperor.

The emperor has a head injury and on waking no long recognizes the people the people who have transmigrated and their tricks stop working. He now only trusts his 'empress' who is actually a man sent into the game to find the lead researcher for it.

Again, it's a shorter, simpler novel, but pretty fun and solid. Interesting that this author has been playing with common genres and tropes for so long (this is from 2016). Chinese webnovels specifically are just a really interesting corner of the writing world. I've read Japanese, Korean, and Thai works as well but they don't stand out as much for creativity or plot development and certainly not for humor. That said, I do think generally the Chinese sense of humor suits my sense of humor very well so your mileage may vary.

It's too bad officially published translations are few and far between (and often done far less well than the fan translations along with being expensive and released slowly in multiple volumes). There have been more lately, but it's all small presses and again, not great translations (other than Female General and Eldest Princess, as the fan translator was given permission to post hers by the author and this is what is being used for the official English publication). Unfortunately $20 each for goodness knows how many volumes in paperback (at least three, it's not far off from the total word count of Lord of the Rings and the volumes tend to be under 400 pages).

Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News by Kevin Young

If you're looking for a book about earlier more 'fun' hoaxes, this isn't the one for you. There's a little covering Barnum stuff and that era but the majority is more recent history. I found it to be a very good read myself, if quite depressing about the state of humanity.

I have a feeling some readers are turned off by Young's frequent pronouncements in the later parts that he knew a certain person didn't smell right, HOWEVER, this ignores a key point. Most or all of those instances are talking about white people pretending to be black or native writers and poets, and Young is a black man (and poet). Of course what he sees in those acts is coming from a place of far greater knowledge than what I, for example, would see.

Many commiserations to him for being almost totally done with the book when the Rachel Dolezal news came out.

Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World by Mary Beard

I'm a fan of Beard's writing and presenting on the ancient world. If I had the power (and a time machine), I'd very much want her and Barbara Mertz to have some of sort of ancient history chat show or podcast.

This book ambles about quite a lot, in a way that might annoy some but it worked for me. Beard thinks about history the way I enjoy most, so it's usually an easy sell.

After Transmigrating I made the Antagonist Cry by Qiao Muli RE-READ

June has been a slumpy reading month for me. I've read a decent number of books but I've not been Excited about anything I've started other than Pure Wit. This is a hard state to bear, reading is my primary life activity and due to my disability there's not much I can replace it with when it fails to bring me enough joy.

So I got into some Chinese webnovel rereads again, particularly around this month's book club book which was dreadful.

This one there are Main worlds and for unexplained reasons the worlds created in novels also spring into existence and they must be kept on track and not allowed to collapse otherwise it affects the Main worlds. So our main character has come to this novel to correct things after the previous go was reset. The original novel is all dogblooded melodrama. His character marries the antagonist but ignores him in trying to win the heart of the person he actually loves and finally the antagonist loses his reason, collapses the world economy, and locks the husband in a small dark room. The transmigrator thinks the original character is an idiot as the antagonist is both incredibly handsome and the richest person on the planet (and quite a softie). So of course he's there working to be a good husband, not knowing that the antagonist accidentally kept his memories of the previous timeline. It's an uphill battle.

It's very silly and it's not one of the wonderfully written novels, but it's a quick fun bit of nonsense. The transmigrator is an actor in this world and ends up taking roles based on other worlds he's been in, so there's the added wrinkle of figuring out why those worlds are showing up here etc... Though it's not actually delved into in any meaningful way.

There are a significant number of novels where a transmigrator or a person who was reborn some years earlier or is given knowledge of the novel's original track, ends up deciding to get with the usually misunderstood villain. It's partly making fun of the poorer melodramatic novels where you think 'well this villain actually has quite reasonable complaints, these protagonists are awful.' Fortunately I've avoided such works by focusing on humor.

Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young

Billed as a unique mystery with a light fantasy bent, I wish I had a spell to forget how much this book annoyed me! I resent the time spent on it and I think it's part of what soured my reading for the month.

Featured all the usual suspects for poor contemporary mystery writing: Characters required to be dumb as box of rocks to string out the book and characters required to act totally out of character to make the final plot event work. It was also extremely predictable in basically every aspect.

I would not have read it but it was a book club pick. I don't think I actually cared about the mystery element at any point. The author was mostly writing YA and I think this was their first foray into adult novels. It kind of shows in a negative way. The writing generally grated on me, as pointlessly and overly descriptive in ways that often led to repetition in individual paragraphs.

Luckily at the meeting other people also had problems with it, so I didn't have to be a lone voice of negativity.

Interesting mix of books, Meredith. Sorry they've been hit or miss. You remind me to check out some Mary Beard. The girls and I are going to be studying ancient history in the fall. I should start doing some reading!

Sorry that June was so unrewarding for you. I hope July brings better reads!

>17 labfs39: >18 chlorine: Oh, they've been good books other than Spells for Forgetting, I've just been missing that excitement for starting a particular book (whether for the subject or a favorite author or something a friend loved etc...) for some months and June seemed particular bad for that malaise in general.

I feel like I have reverse seasonal affective disorder, as my particular body issues mean the heat and humidity are really difficult for me, and being in direct sunlight is painful, so I get out less in the summer than other seasons. It got properly hot this month, with a lot of days in the mid-90s, which I feel like is normally an August thing here so doesn't bode well.

Ex-Husband's Call by Qin San Jian RE-READ

Another re-read to get the previous book out of my brain. This one features a married couple who met on a blind date set up by their parents but agreed to divorce after a year if things weren't working out. Well, it hasn't worked out super well, as both are essentially pretending to be idealized versions of themselves since they think the other might not like their real selves. The one who asks for the divorce is a teacher and his partner, a police officer, doesn't want to get divorced but had made the agreement so just decides to chase him back as they'll both be more likely to be themselves.

It's always nice to find one of these novels with proper adult characters and there are a lot of good details in this one, with some actual stakes related to their jobs, but it's still mainly just a funny read. Some nice, sensible comments on teaching along the way though with a few serious moments.

The Mutiny on the Rising Sun: A Tragic Tale of Slavery, Smuggling, and Chocolate by Jared Ross Hardesty

This felt like a less typical mutiny story. For one, it really brings in background from a lot of areas. For another, the author was either a main or THE researcher on a key figure involved for a chocolate shop that was using his name in the shop name or for promotions or something but didn't really know much about him. I got quite behind on reviews, so I'm no longer as clear on the details as I'd like to be for this review.

It is a less narrative book than other authors might have made it, but also probably more ruthlessly factual. There are some authors who are good at making you feel like you're in a story while still giving you buckets of Facts but it's not the most common skill after all and I'd rather have the facts.

Again, the details have largely faded, but it was an interesting read for those interested in such tales.

Rise of the Novel: Exploring History’s Greatest Early Works by Leo Damrosch

What is a lecture series if not a series of essays, so I'm counting it as a book.

I enjoyed this and learned quite a lot I didn't know already. It mostly went chronologically (not 100% though) so it was also interesting to see how the works influenced each other. I did skip the Tom Jones chapter as Damrosch advised it if you hadn't read the novel but planned to.

The writing felt engaging to me, but I have a pretty high tolerance for dry non-fiction.

For Real by Alexis Hall RE-READ

I am aware I just re-read this in February, and I certainly didn't intend to re-read it again this year. HOWEVER, it was published in print for the first time with author annotations and an extra short story and I was lured into buying it. I mean, annotations from an author I find incredibly funny? That's all it takes to get my money apparently. After picking it up at the bookstore I was looking through the annotations then felt like I need to read them in the full context of the book and before I knew it was two-thirds of the way through so might as well finish it.

The annotations were so fun but also very thoughtful and smart and interesting, and showed me all the more subtle literary allusions I missed, further proving that Hall is a huge literature nerd, as I have previously proclaimed. There was even some Baudelaire he seemed to have translated himself. The only downside is now I know he's younger than me and despite being nearly 40 that still seems strange due to feeling about 25 in my head.

See the earlier in the part 1 of this thread for an actual review of the book itself.

>19 mabith: That's hot indeed! Fingers crossed that the rest of the summer will be tolerable.

>24 chlorine: Thanks!

The Gulf by Adam de Souza

I received this graphic novel through the ER program and it took me a shamefully long time to sit down and read it. It's quite a large format volume, which my hands do struggle with.

This is definitely a snapshot of a few teenagers, rather than a book with a fully developed plot. Most of it takes place in 2007 when a girl, Oli, and her best friend, Milo, are running away to a commune they learned about through an old pamphlet the girl's parents had. A third friend was supposed to come with them, but after a meh date and disastrous aftermath with Oli she has essentially cut him out of her life. Instead the shy Alvin, who Milo seems to have a crush on, comes along.

They are woefully ill-prepared for this, as they are hiking to the commune and must camp on the way, in a way that seemed fairly unbelievable to me for 18/nearly 18 year olds. Oli gets into a fight at school the day they're supposed to leave (the last day of school) and her backpack gets left there, but she's not actually in Trouble trouble about it, so you'd think they'd just leave a day later, but no. I was an anxious sort of teenager, so perhaps that's just me finding it stretching belief.

I really enjoyed the art style (though I'm currently pondering why the cover has Oli with dark hair when it's blonde through the whole of the book). For me at this moment, I think I wanted more than a snapshot of their lives. Oli goes about things in ways I could never really understand and there's not much space dedicated to understanding why she feels the way she does (or why she has pretty serious anger issues). Rather than someone who will be 18 in a month, her actions felt more like a younger teen.

Bitter Orange Tree by Jokha Alharthi

Kay recommended this for an Omani author and it was very accessible from the library so I got it out right away.

In many ways it's another snapshot book, of a young woman and her family with some extra focus on her grandmother. However, that's a very different prospect in a novel vs a graphic novel, and I really enjoyed this one.

The description of the book doesn't feel hugely accurate to me (or claims the book will delve into more than it really does), so I'm glad I didn't really read it before starting the book! It's a quiet, character driven novel, and I cared about the characters very quickly. I really enjoyed the narrator, Zuhour's voice and the language she uses and there is some humor in there. I haven't read enough of these quieter character books recently and this reminded me how much I do like them.

Mexikid: A Graphic Memoir by Pedro Martin

A good friend got massively into graphic novels and memoirs recently and recommended this to me. She and her kids have a sort of informal comics book club now and it just makes me happy every time I hear about it.

This one is about the author's large family and a particular road trip to Mexico to pick up their grandfather to bring him to live with them, with all the adventures and troubles along the way. I enjoyed the art style and getting to test my extremely rusty and limited Spanish knowledge (the random Spanish bits have translations in footnotes a lot of the time, but not all the time).

This takes place in the late 1970s or early 80s, so I don't envy my friend having to explain cassettes and Happy Days and such to her kids when they read this.

>27 mabith: >28 mabith: Ouch, the book bullets are flying this morning. I thought I had added Bitter Orange Tree to my wishlist when Kay/RidgewayGirl read it, but it's added now. Your line about cassette players and the picture of the motorhome reminds me of family trips in my youth, so I need that one too!

P.S. I think I thought Bitter Orange Tree was already on my wishlist because I own (unread) My Sweet-Orange Tree, but that's Brazilian.

We went on a trip with my mom's friend for a bit in their motorhome once when I was a kid, and it was so incredibly exciting. We camped all the time when I was a kid (it was our main form of vacation) but always in tents.

I have a theory that of all the fruits/fruit trees, oranges come up the most often in book titles.

Good Behavior by Donald E. Westlake RE-READ

Bedtime re-read of maybe my favorite 'fine to read stand-alone' Dortmunder novel (my actual favorite you really need to have read the previous eight books to fully appreciate). This is only a marginal favorite though, the first nine books really only have one weaker spot and it's still fun.

In this one we get Dortmunder beholden to some nuns after a robbery gone wrong (not at the convent), who need him to rescue their sister who has been kidnapped by her very powerful and wealthy father. He expects her to marry well and help run all the family businesses, not live in seclusion, silent except for Thursdays.

As with all the first nine Dortmunders (the only ones you need to read, ignore the later books), it is a book very much of its time, 1985, referencing American backed coups in central America, and including a cult deprogrammer. It's an incredibly solid, perfectly paced book with so many standout hilarious moments. I've literally been reading this once a year since 1997 or 1998 and it still cracks me up.

Here is a little excerpt of the kind of joy you get with Westlake's Dortmunder books:
The Avalon State Bank Tower, in addition to stretching seventy-six stories into the sky, also extended four stories down into the ground, nestling itself into a sliced-out pocket in the bedrock of Manhattan Island. The bottom two floors were all machinery and metal ladders, like the bowels of a great ocean-going passenger liner—which in many ways is what a skyscraper is, massive and self-contained and compartmented, except that the skyscraper is always moored in the same place, and of course it's standing on end, and come to think of it skyscrapers don't float, and maybe they aren't anything like each other at all. Forget the whole thing.

UPROAR!: Scandal, Satire and Printmakers in Georgian London by Alice Loxton

London, 1772: a young artist called Thomas Rowlandson is making his way through the grimy backstreets of the capital, on his way to begin his studies at the Royal Academy Schools. Within a few years, James Gillray and Isaac Cruikshank would join him in Piccadilly, turning satire into an artform, taking on the British establishment, and forever changing the way we view power.

I went into this expecting to love it but ended up being somewhat disappointed. Perhaps I would have been less so if I'd known that the author lists how many social media followers she has on her own website. She is 28, I guess that's normal, but to me feels (as the kids say) quite cringe.

One issue was Loxton seems to be trying very hard to write in a funny way and I don't think that's her strong suit (or her humor is not mine). Another issue was she periodically breaks the normal non-fiction writing to just imagine up scenes between real people. She is clear about doing this, she's not trying to sneak it through as fact, but it adds NOTHING to the book and simply distracts. In some of them she's adding modern inventions to these imaginings "if Gillray were listening to radio he might have heard..." Lady, what is the point!

There's good stuff in the book but Loxton really gets in her own way, as though she is mostly trying to appeal to a podcast audience vs a history reader audience.

If you pick this up, definitely get it in print and not audio as well. She reads it and her jolly tone trying to up the humor artificially does not help. She also pronounces a lot of words in ways I've never heard in my life. This is not simply UK vs American pronunciation, as I watch and listen to far more UK things than American ones.

>32 mabith: "as though she is mostly trying to appeal to a podcast audience vs a history reader audience" I see exactly what you mean. It's a very specific kind of narration.

>31 mabith: Love that quote! I might give this a try.

>33 rv1988: Seems like a mistake on the publisher's, since I think quite a lot of the young folks who have gotten into history podcasts and Tiktoks and such do not actually read non-fiction on any regular basis. So making the book more reminiscent of that world is not going to add to sales.

>34 FlorenceArt: They're really worth reading! Westlake is a brilliant writer in all ways, so the characters and plotting are just as well developed as the comedy. If you like Terry Pratchett's sense of humor, their core sensibility is quite similar (just start and end up in very different places in their novels).

Queer Africa: New and Collection Fiction by Karen Martin, Makhosazana Xaba and others

This is volume 1, there is a second volume out now as well. This was a good collection. The stories felt varied, and I liked most of them quite well. I wouldn't say there were any that hugely stood out to me, they're mostly snapshots of lives (and I'm not a big short story person generally).

Good collection, I'll probably read the second volume at some point.

When the Earth Had Two Moons: Cannibal Planets, Icy Giants, Dirty Comets, Dreadful Orbits, and the Origins of the Night Sky by Erik Asphaug

A palate cleanser after the imaginings of Uproar and my attempt to read two different non-fiction books about Cassie Chadwick (both failures due to more imaginings).

I will say this had a slightly more romantic tone about the universe than I was perhaps expecting. It didn't go into great depth and is definitely popular science, but was largely what I needed at that moment (actually I think I needed another Ignition! but we can't have everything).

The Antelope and the Night Wolf by Li Xiu Luo RE-READ

We've hit the absolutely high plateau of my grief season which starts with mother's day (then my dad's birthday, then father's day, then my mom's birthday). My mom's birthday was the 7th and it all feels particularly difficult this year. Her birthday is also when she first showed symptoms of anything at all being wrong (then diagnosed in August and she died in September), so it's just a dreadful time in addition to being hot enough I can't really leave the house.

I picked this as my 'can't/won't sleep' re-read, because it's especially silly. College student, Ling Yang, buys fully leveled account in the game he plays to start on a new server, that account was a couple with someone else and had scammed them. The account's former husband, Ye Lang, sees this new guy and insists he pretends to be the previous player (and say the account was hacked so 'she' wasn't the scammer). It's a great one for the public act vs the private interactions and of course they accidentally get to know each other in real life (and Ling Yang falls for Ye Lang and vice versa). There are a million other misunderstandings around things with Ling Yang's previous game friends and some less usual aspects to this novel, but the keynote is the absolutely silliness.

Hidden identity amateur gaming novels (vs professional e-sports settings), tend to be particularly fun. Though it leads to the embarrassment of my friend who plays a similar type of game telling me about it and me going "Aw, just like in my Chinese novels" as if it's a unique thing.

A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey RE-READ

On my mom's birthday I'd normally go out early in the morning at stare at the river for a while (my mom loved water), but even at 8 am it was already far too humid for me to go out without physical consequences.

I decided I needed to be watching/reading/listening to things my mom loved and this is also a bit difficult. She had many things she enjoyed or recommended, but was also not a person to come rave to you about some author or show or musician. Just wasn't her character (her serious excitement was reserved for activities and experiences rather than media).

However, I do remember as a kid when she found some collected editions of Josephine Tey that she hadn't read in years and was noticeably excited about it. I've read all the Tey novels before but mostly only once (other than Brat Farrar, my favorite). I really enjoy her style in them. It just feels incredibly unique and modern for the period. She manages to make everyone very human and quite mundane, which is how most crime is of course. Despite the realistic nature of the characters they're still very compelling books. This was the first Tey I read, back in 2009 (when I was forcing my mom to give me recommendations) and I remembered absolutely nothing about it.

This one suffers from some anti-semitism, though partly of the sort where I'm pretty sure the author thinks she's being more progressive than most (which given the times she might have been). It is depressing. It's not a major part of the book at all, but of course stands out.

>39 mabith: I've somewhat given up on these "Golden Age" mysteries because of the anti-semitism. I understand it's a part of the time period, but I just don't enjoy the mysteries enough to also accept the blatant anti-semitism.

I'm sorry the summer is a difficult time for you, Meredith. I hope you find some good books and good memories to help you through. The weather has been beastly this summer, I can't imagine what August is going to be like.

Thanks, Lisa. That's the real worry with the weather! I wouldn't be as surprised by a few weeks in the mid-90s in August here but that started in June... It got up to 99 degrees here today, and I had to miss my book club.

Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction by Gabrielle Moss

This was vaguely on my to-read list but I kept putting it off since though I'm the right age for them, I really didn't read these sorts of novels growing up. A friend just read it though and said it was interesting even without having read the books focused on and I'm considering giving a copy to my sister for her birthday. She definitely did read these books (she had a big Sweet Valley High period which rubbed off enough on me to the extent I read a couple of the middle school set ones before I got bored and gave up pretending in a vain hope she'd like me more).

It's a short book, and doesn't delve too deeply into the wider issues, which would be more interesting to me. Moss features a lot of quotes from the authors (and illustrators) involved, and does go into the earlier history of teen books and particular trends. I was slightly horrified to learn what was going on in those Sweet Valley High books, and maybe it's good I read very few 'teen' books and went straight from children's novels to adult books. The few teen-centric ones I did read (more serious, non-series books) definitely gave me the impression that this period of life would be stressful and perhaps generally unpleasant (not wrong).

>31 mabith: Thanks for the reminder about Westlake. Our library doesn't carry him; I'm going to try ILL.

>44 Jim53: Fingers crossed! I'm hoping to get to some more of his non-Dortmunder works this year. Certainly a lot to go at.

Glitterland by Alexis Hall RE-READ

I told myself I wouldn't re-read this yet, but here we are. The trouble is, this not-really-a-series series of books is getting their first print run and Hall did annotations for all of them, and apparently that's all it takes for me to need to buy the book. Then I made the mistake of looking at the first couple and before I knew it I was halfway through the book and then why not finish it.

This one has quite an unlikable narrator, Ash, who is largely too depressed and anxious to think anything he says will matter to anyone, only then he falls in love with a Very Essex model, Darian, who he meets in a night club he's been forced to visit (if you're familiar with UK TV personalities, Darian is very Rylan without the snark). You spend a lot of the book wanting to slap some sense into Ash, but how he behaves makes perfect sense for the character and what he's dealing with (and he does work on himself).

It's perhaps my least favorite of Hall's books that I've read, but still solid especially given it was his first or second book published (and I liked it enough to buy it and re-read it, so least favorite is not actually a helpful modifier). His facility with dialogue is already very present, which is one of the things I most enjoy about his writing.

No one tell any of my other favorite authors about this annotation trick, I don't have enough money for it.

The Library: A Fragile History by Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen

If there's one thing I'm all about, it's books about books. This was a good one, full of very interesting information going through the history of libraries chronologically (which I appreciate).

It's a good companion to A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books, perhaps, which I read way back in 2012 and remember loving.

Shockingly, the specific derangements suffered by children forced to spend eight hour stretches in libraries their parents work in over school breaks was not covered. That's clearly a book I'll have to write myself.

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

This is a memoir/reporting of a particular Everest climb that ended in a number of deaths which Krakauer, a keen climber but also outdoors journalist, took part in. It was a book club pick, though I ended up missing the meeting due to the heat today.

I have little time for Everest and extreme mountaineering. Anything where the altitude means you literally can't think clearly a lot of the time seems like a ridiculous thing to take part in if you have a family you love. Many hobbies aren't 100% safe, but this kind of climbing is uniquely dangerous for so many reasons (weather, snow/ice instability, effects of altitude and low-oxygen, etc...) it honestly seems like a selfish thing to do to your loved ones and I will never understand why people do it.

Krakauer writes well, and I do understand he needed to write this to process what happened, but it is just a baffling thing to do to me generally. The year this accident happened the death rate for Everest climbers (though he might have only been talking about people who actually reached the summit) was one in seven (as opposed to many other years where it's one in four).

Like a lot of us I've seen that NYT list of best 21st century books going around, and looked at similar lists from other publications. It is interesting the non-fiction that's fallen off the radar but surely would have made the list ten years ago (The Botany of Desire and Reading Lolita in Tehran seemed conspicuous by their absence).

I keep a spreadsheet of what I've read since 2006 which includes the publication year, so I sorted it by date and drew out some favorites. I tried to stick a little more to bigger titles (this is debatable, I know, but I promise I could have gone more niche) and I've separated fiction and non-fiction and ordered them chronologically.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
The Secret River by Kate Grenville
Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rebels and Traitors by Lindsey Davis
Capital by John Lanchester
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Lotus by Lijia Zhang
Fight Night by Miriam Toews
When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb
Babel by RF Kuang

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Triangle: the Fire that Changed America by David von Drehle
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Slavery by Another Name by Douglas Blackmon
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Gabor Mate
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
No Good Men Among the Living by Anand Gopal
1914: the Year the World Ended by Paul Ham
To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care by Cris Beam
All Joy No Fun by Jennifer Senior
Kitty Genovese by Kevin Cook
Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America by Rachel Hope Cleves
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
What You Have Heard is True by Carolyn Forche

>49 mabith: Great lists! So many books listed that I loved or that I still intend to read. I somehow never read Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrel and I still think I might try it someday.

>47 mabith: children forced to spend eight hour stretches in libraries

Unless you live in Idaho where some libraries are being forced to go 18+ (see https://bookriot.com/donnelly-public-library-adults-only/).

>49 mabith: Great lists, and I'm ashamed to say I've only read Persepolis, although I do own several others. Obviously I have some reading to do!

>50 japaul22: If you like that kind of book, it's one of those long books which went super quickly for me.

>51 labfs39: I have a feeling in an adults only library I'd still have been stuck there but confined to the break room/offices. Needs must when it comes to childcare.

That's one of those stories where I think, well, at least my dad doesn't have to see this. Although to be fair I'm sure he'd have some stories about small town library workers who had been there decades literally just hiding books they personally decided were inappropriate. It's not like all the employees loved books (some seemed to actively dislike them). It is more depressing when it's legislated though.

You'll Do: A History of Marrying for Reasons Other Than Love by Marcia A. Zug

The last few weeks have been so stressful that much of this book has gone out of my brain.

It was an interesting read, and especially that shift in history of when the idea (more than the fact) of marrying for love started coming to the fore and the reasons for it.

However the last third of the book especially was deeply depressing as we'd moved into Modern Times and the ways marriage can protect abusers (they regularly get shorter sentences/less punishment in court cases) among other issues. I had to take a break from the book at one point. Of course now we're seeing so many on the right in the US trying to get rid of no-fault divorce and UGH.

While it might seem partly off-topic, I'm surprised Zug didn't touch on restrictions on marriage for those receiving disability benefits (in regards to halving or ending your benefits) or the fact that disabled people unable to get benefits frequently end up in abusive marriages as the only way they can survive.

Cotillion by Georgette Heyer

I've been meaning to read a Heyer for a while, I remember a few people I followed when I first joined LT posted about her books a fair bit and they sounded fun. I'd had The Masqueraders pegged as the first to read, but then saw a post about an online book club set to read Cotillion and thought I'd go for it.

The set-up is Kitty's guardian has decided to leave her his fortune only if she marries one of his great-nephews. He has called them all to his home to announce it (though not all have appeared) and let them all propose (feeling certain she'll choose his favorite, who hasn't shown up). Kitty is insulted and is mid-running away when she meets up with her cousin Freddy who was late to the party. She convinces him to pretend to propose to her so she go to London for a bit and plan from there.

It was a great read, really fun and the character development was wonderfully done. I can see why people love Heyer so much. The end felt very abrupt, but I think that's partly just the genre. I am glad one particular ex of mine never read any because she would have been talking in Heyer's Regency slang for months. I introduced her to PG Wodehouse and Damon Runyon and her mimicking their speech styles got old quite quickly.

The book club also went really well and I think I successfully acted like a normal person and not the anxious wreck that I was.

>53 mabith: That does sound like a frustrating and depressing topic, although I would learn a lot in reading the book.

>53 mabith: Sounds interesting. Sorry it was so depressing though.

>54 mabith: I discovered Heyer some years ago and love her too. Her dialogues especially are brilliant. I can’t help picturing Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. I think Heyer wrote scenarios for Hollywood.

>57 FlorenceArt: Mmmmm Cary Grant. They don’t make them like that anymore

>55 labfs39: >56 FlorenceArt: You'll Do was definitely a great informative read, and gives a lot to think about that we don't normally think about.

>57 FlorenceArt: We did have that discussion in the book club, though I felt Miriam Hopkins (Design for Living, Trouble in Paradise) would be a better heroine for that particular book. Still good at the snappy dialogue but maybe better on the quieter emotional side.

>58 kjuliff: Sometimes I wonder if it's simply that I watch more old movies than current ones, but there's definitely just something about those old stars (and the more removed spotlight probably).

Drowned Hopes by Donald E. Westlake RE-READ

I shall continue to post about these re-reads to encourage you all to pick them up. They're just brilliant books.

This is the seventh and longest book in the Dortmunder series (which are all stand alone apart from What's the Worst that Could Happen, which you really must read most of the previous eight books to fully appreciate). In it, an old and particularly disliked cellmate has been unexpectedly released from prison due to his age.

Tom Jimson wants some help getting a coffin full of money out from under a reservoir, created some years after the stash was buried. Dortmunder is battling not only the fact that Tom's partners tend to turn up dead but also keep him from simply blowing up the dam. We get some particularly great new characters in this one as well.

I've transcribed for you a scene with the regulars in the bar they plan jobs in. In every book Westlake creates hilarious bits with them. My parents particularly loved this one.

When Andy Kelp walked into the OJ Bar & Grill on Amsterdam Avenue at six in the evening, the regulars were discussing the proposition that the new big buildings that had been stuck up over on Broadway, one block to the west, were actually spaceships designed and owned by aliens. “It's for a zoo,” one regular was suggesting.

“No no no,” a second regular said, “that isn't what I mean.” So he was apparently the one who'd raised the suggestion in the first place. “What I meant is for the aliens to come here.”

A third regular frowned at that. “Aliens come here? When?”

“Now,” the second regular told him. “They're here already.”

The third regular looked around the joint and saw Kelp trying to attract the attention of Rollo the bartender, who was methodically rinsing seven hundred million glasses and was off in a world of his own. The regular frowned at Kelp, who frowned back. The regular returned to his friends. “I don't see no aliens,” he said.

“Yuppies,” the second regular told him. “Where'd you think they came from? Earth?”

“Yuppies?” The third regular was a massive frowner. “How do you figure that?”

“I still say,” said the first regular, “it's for a zoo.”

“You need a zoo,” the second regular told him. “Turn yourself in.” To the third regular he said, “It's the yuppies, all right. Here they are all of a sudden all over the place, every one of them the same. Can actual adult human beings live indefinitely on ice cream and cookies? No. And did you ever see what they drink?”

“Foamy stuff,” the third regular said thoughtfully. “and green stuff. And green foamy stuff.”

“Exactly,” the second regular said. “And you notice their shoes?”

The first regular said, dangerously, “Whadaya mean, turn myself in?”

“Not in here,” Rollo said absently. He seemed to look at Kelp, who waved at him, but apparently Rollo's eyes were not at the moment linked up with his brain; he went on with his glass-rinsing.

Meanwhile, the second regular had ignored the first regular's interruption, and was saying, “All yuppies, male and female, they all wear those same weird shoes. You know why?”

“Fashion,” the third regular said.

“To a zoo, you mean?” demanded the first regular. “Turn myself in at a zoo? Is that what you mean?”

“Fashion?” echoed the second regular. “How can it be fashion to wear a suit and at the same time those big clunky weird canvas sneakers? How does it work out to be fashion for a woman to put on all kindsa makeup, and fix her hair, and put on a dress and earrings and stuff around her neck, and then put on those sneakers?”

“So what's your reading on this?” the third regular asked, as the first regular, zoo partisan, stepped slowly and purposefully off his stool and removed his coat.

“Their feet are different,” the second regular explained. “On accounta they're aliens. Human feet won't fit into those shoes.”

The first regular took a nineteenth-century pugilistic stance and said, “Put up your dukes.”

“Not in here,” Rollo said calmly, still washing.

“Rollo?” Kelp said, wagging his fingers, but Rollo still wasn't switched to ordinary reception.

Meantime, the other regulars were gazing upon the pugilist with surprised interest. “And what,” the second regular asked, “is this all about?”

“You said it isn't a zoo,” the pugilist told him, “you got me to answer to. You make cracks about me and zoos, we'll see what happens next.”

“Well, wait a minute,” the third regular said. “You got a zoo theory?”

“I have,” the pugilist told him while maintaining his fists-up, wrists-bent, elbows-crooked stance, one foot in front of the other.

“Well, let it fly,” the third regular invited him. “Everybody gets to say their theory.”

“Naturally,” the second regular said. He'd been gazing at those upraised fists with interest but no particular concern.

The pugilist lowered his fists minimally. “Naturally?”

“Rollo,” said Kelp.

“You got an idea that's better than yuppies,” the second regular told the pugilist, “let's have it.”

The ex-pugilist lowered his arms. “It is yuppies,” he said. “Only it's different.”

The other regulars gave him all their attention.

“Okay,” the zoo man said, looking a little self-conscious at being given the respectful hearing he'd been demanding, “the thing is this: you're right about those new buildings being spaceships.”

“Thank you,” the second regular said with dignity.

“But they're like roach motels,” the ex-pugilist said. “They attract yuppies. Little tiny rooms, loft beds, no moldings; it's what they like. See, the aliens, they got zoos all over the universe, all kindsa creatures, but they never had human beings before, because there weren't any human beings that could live under zoo conditions. But yuppies do it naturally!”

“Rollo!” insisted Kelp.

“So, what,” asked the third regular, “is your reading of the situation?”

“Once all the buildings are completely rented out,” the ex-pugilist told them, “they take off, like ant farms, they deliver yuppies all over the universe to all the different zoos.”

“I don't buy it,” the second regular said. “I still buy mine. The yuppies are the aliens. You can tell by their feet.”

“You know, but wait a minute now,” the third regular said. “Botha these theories end at the same place. And I like the place. At the end, the new buildings and the yuppies are both gone.”

With a surprised look, the second regular said, “That's true, isn't it?”

“Spaceship buildings,” agreed the ex-pugilist, “fulla yuppies, gone.”

This idea was so pleasing to everyone that conversation stopped briefly so they could all contemplate this future world—soon, Lord—when the yuppies and their warrens would all be away in some other corner of the universe.

Perilous Question: Reform or Revolution? Britain on the Brink, 1832 by Antonia Fraser

I was on a bit of a run with that book about reasons for marrying other than love and then the Heyer so thought I'd stick close-ish to the period Cotillion is set in with this one.

Good read if you're interested in the period. I've gotten behind on reviews so I've forgotten if there was anything specific I felt about this one other than it's a nice little history book, as you can generally expect from Fraser.

>60 mabith: Funny! I’m not a great fan of detective stories, but I like those with a sense of humor. I loved Raymond Chandler.

>62 FlorenceArt: Oh they're definitely not detective stories or even crime stories in the traditional sense. They're comic crime novels, the main recurring characters (other than Dortmunder and Kelp this varies somewhat book to book) all being very non-violent and just, jobbing criminals making a living (vs living the high life). Things never go quite right for Dortmunder (in the funniest ways), but also never go so wrong he's permanently back in jail. They're just pure fun with impeccable writing and comic timing and some genius heist planning.

I've been re-reading them for over 20 years and they still make me burst out laughing with his turns of phrase.

>60 mabith: Lol, that's funny, Meredith. The back and forth timing is well done.

>64 labfs39: Yes, he's excellent at the multiple conversations and doing that well in print.

Don't You Like Me - Lu Tianyi RE-READ

House stress has gotten on top of me and I've flung myself into a string of re-reads, most of which I won't actually be posting about.

In this one, Lin Feiran has started at a new boarding school on the wrong foot. His roommate is the school idol, a role he was used to having, so he's in an entirely one-sided, very childish cold war with Gu Kaifeng. After Feiran's grandfather dies, he can suddenly see ghosts, and is extremely frightened. Kaifeng has strong yang energy (yin energy is associated with ghosts), so after touching Kaifeng, Feiran is spared the ghosts for some minutes. After he started clinging to him, Kaifeng gets the wrong idea of what's going on, thinking Feiran is just embarrassed to admit his feelings.

It's interspersed with him getting more used to ghosts, and helping them. I am perhaps partial to this because there are also a number of ghost-based east Asian TV shows (and one UK sitcom) I really enjoy.

Who Dares Wins: Britain, 1979-1982 by Dominic Sandbrook

The most recent of Sandbrook's massive histories. This one came out after a longer gap compared to the time between previous volumes, and I slightly wonder if what was happening in the 2010s influenced his view back, given that things had gotten generally insane in politics (it was published in 2019, the previous volume was published in 2012). I don't think that's necessarily a negative thing, just something to ponder in how that changes our view on past politicians.

I found it as interesting as the other volumes I've read, and as usual, despite the great length I kind of want to immediately start another one. The way Sandbrook incorporates various aspects of life and culture in the period is always well done (for my tastes anyway). In this volume he had the restarted Mass Observation project to pull from as well. Plus I just enjoy the very tight focus on a short period of time, yet it feels broad because we're not ignoring pop culture or everyday life.

There are five books in this set, and I started with book three, so I'm greatly looking forward to going back to the 1950s-60s where things feel (to me personally as an 80s baby) mildly less harrowing.

All Fours by Miranda July

How to review this book... I love July's writing, and there is at times incredible realism in her characters. They are not Normal but they live and breathe.

It's the story of a semi known artist who is going to drive to New York City, on a very long cross-country journey from California. However, she stops for lunch about 30 minutes from her house, gets slightly entranced by a man at a gas station, and decides to hire his girlfriend to redecorate her crappy motel room (like, new flooring redecorate). It is insane and unbelievable, but of course this is an artist.

It is ultimately about a rejiggering of life, the acceptance of aging, a loss of control, the lies we tell ourselves, and incredibly intense emotions.

Never has a book made me feel more asexual. Partly perhaps because I'm not sex-repulsed at all this issue in fiction is usually mild, but the fact of sexual attraction is always a bit hard for me to understand and this book really relies on a lot of that. To be fair, I've also spent a lot of life deadening my own emotions, so I'm sure that doesn't help either.

Likely to be a love/hate book for many, but July's writing ability truly is glorious.

Thinking About History by Sarah Maza

I am frequently thinking about history myself, so this seemed like a good book to pick up. It focuses on how history has been studied and trends in writing history.

Definitely one of those books where each section could be a more in-depth work on its own, so go into this expecting an overview of many issues of history study and writing, rather than a deep dive.

If you have a look at the table of contents, that gives you a perfect idea of what to expect. Good read for me.

>69 mabith: I did have a look at the table of contents and the beginning of the introduction, and it sounds interesting.

.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

The first book of this duo was picked for my in-person book club. We read Chambers' The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet last year and were all impressed by her alien society building. None of the other species were just Humans In Another Shape, and while she didn't overload you with sociological detail, you felt she could write an encyclopedia on each. These books were similar, in the way the robots and their lifestyle were thought out.

In this world, robots previously used in factories develop consciousness and leave the human settlements to do their own thing (and humans, to their credit, let them go and do not seek them out again or build more). Sibling Dex is a tea monk who decides to go and work as a traveler through various communities, letting people come to them with troubles, giving them tea to suit. They worked very hard to become good at this new work but one day feel the urge to leave it. They decide to seek out an abandoned monastery and on the way run into the robot Mosscap who asks, what do humans need.

The two women who suggested the first book to the group found it a calming happy read, but I kind of think they skated past a lot of the philosophical musings. Not that it can't be a comforting read, but there's more than solarpunk idealism here. In the second book especially, as we learn more about how the society functions, I think there's a potentially very dark underbelly if you're a bit more cynical.

I did enjoy these, and it's a reminder that I should read more of Chambers' books.

Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know by Cyan Wings RE-READ

Thought I'd re-read the other book I have by this author since I re-read my favorite and a new-to-me one earlier this year. This is the author who always does really fun twists to common genres, and they're quite a funny writer as well. While Mr. Melancholy Just Wants to Live a Peaceful Life is superior, this one is still a fun read (and maybe it's not exactly superior, I just prefer that genre to xianxia).

In a Mary Sue xianxia novel, the online readers have grown fed up with the nonsensical plot and the way the female lead clings to her abusive 'true love' ignoring much better prospects and leading to the destruction of the world. When the villain of the work, demonic sect leader Wenren E, is given the first volume of the novel in question he also wants to know why he's supposed to fall in love with the female lead, even though she's clearly an idiot to make the choices she makes.

Wary of this situation, Wenren È didn’t destroy the book and, managing to look past the title, opened the cover and found a few lines on the first page: “Due to an overabundance of plot holes, this story has been rejected by its readers. Thus, the most popular character among the readers has been selected to personally verify the story’s consistency, and make suitable changes.”

This really covers so many tropes of that sort of novel, the female lead only finding the special magical items when she's about to die, saving all the right people at the right time, plot armor, etc... Wenren E's only goal is to the keep the world from being destroyed and helping Baili Qingmiao (you can immediately tell she's a Mary Sue because she has a two-character surname) break free of her abusive love (not to be with him instead, he is not one for love and has a very devoted subordinate thank you very much). Wenren E is overpowered in many ways but not brilliant at understanding people leading to some interesting choices.

The author really does brilliantly well playing with the tropes but also creating a quite compelling book with a lot of humor and no plot holes at all. Certainly one of the most talented writers on the webnovel scene. I also just love how meta webnovels get. I love the idea that sometimes readers are so annoyed, or an author is at their wit's end, and the book or characters just develop a consciousness of their own to save it. Or there are ones where the author basically curses a mean commenter (or publisher who has rejected the novel) INTO the book to prove the plot works just FINE, thank you very much. This style where a book character is given full plot access is a rarer sort.

Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

There were so many covers available for this book I thought I'd share a selection of them. I think the one with the bees is my favorite after reading the book, as it feels like it relates to the content a lot more than the others.

I have to disagree with the Marlon James quote that appears on some of these covers, I don't think it is an epic. Yes it covers multiple generations of a family, but if you go in expecting something similar to Homegoing or Roots, you'll likely be disappointed. It's not in that vein at all, in my opinion, and deserves to be appreciated for what it is. It didn't feel like other books I'd describe as epic fiction, it felt more like snapshots and scrapbooks which had gotten a little mixed up together (in a good way).

Divided into six sections, the novel begins in 1750, when Kintu Kidda sets out for the capital to pledge allegiance to the new leader of the Buganda Kingdom. Along the way, he unleashes a curse that will plague his family for generations. In an ambitious tale of a clan and a nation, Makumbi weaves together the stories of Kintu’s descendants as they seek to break from the burden of their shared past and reconcile the inheritance of tradition and the modern world that is their future.

I don't think they are seeking to break free from their shared past, many or most of them don't really know much about that past. They are all struggling in their own ways, but in some ways it's the story of changes in Uganda more than it is the story of this family. Many of us when we're struggling want some deeper cause that was not under our control, but I don't think that equates to firm knowledge of, or belief in, the curse for most of the characters we actually spend time with.

The book does not progress chronologically, we flit back and forth between people and times and you must be willing to sit in the boat of the book and go where the current takes you. You must not insist on firm and clear endings for all characters or situations.

I really enjoyed Makumbi's writing and I think she did a great job building the characters and their lives, their individual voices were very strong. I was happy to drift along with them. I've perhaps spent too much time talking about what the book is not, but for me that's usually the more important knowledge to have when starting a read.

>73 mabith: Wonderful review! The book was already on my wishlist following a comment from you. I like the cover with the bees. The ebook on the Kobo shop has yet another cover with a close-up of an African face.

>73 mabith: Yes, wonderful review! Did you read First Woman (A Girl is a Body of Water)? I read that one last year and enjoyed it. I'm wondering how Kintu compares.

>74 FlorenceArt: Hope you like it when you get to it! I think I was in precisely the right place for it, happily.

>75 labfs39: I haven't! Definitely on the list now though.

American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World by David Baron

I do enjoy a book about pre-20th century scientists trying to get it together to observe and study brief astronomical events (Chasing Venus being another in the genre}.

This one is also punctuated by Thomas Edison making insane claims and his usual 'yes I've invented this, just working out a few bugs now' before he's actually built/invented anything at all.

A good read, well written. I noted this rather too pertinent quote:

“In other intellectual nations, science has a fostering mother,” Simon Newcomb maintained. “In Germany, the universities. In France, the government. In England the scientific societies. The only one it can look to here is the educated public.”

In a democratic and egalitarian America, the citizenry was in charge of the nation's destiny, and therefore advancing science in the United States required convincing the populace of the value of research, that it was worth promotion and investment.

What's the Worst that Could Happen? by Donald E. Westlake RE-READ

The final of the really quality Dortmunder books, and the natural end point of the series. Dortmunder's lady friend May has received a lucky ring from a deceased uncle. Worried about his recent luck, she suggests he wear it since it fits. He's immediately offered an easy job, burglary from a corporate property guaranteed to be vacant to a bankruptcy ruling.

However, the corporate titan is in residence, apprehends Dortmunder, and to top it all off, steals the ring from him. This naturally can't be accepted, so Dortmunder is determined to retrieve the ring. It's an absolutely perfect comic novel, but largely if you've read at least four or five of the previous books.

Westlake excels at writing wealthy assholes, so I copy over for you his introduction to the villain of this piece - Max Fairbanks. If you're new to Dortmunder and want a different book with a rich asshole there's Nobody's Perfect and Good Behavior.

“Max Fairbanks,” Max Fairbanks said, “you're a bad boy.” The milky blue eyes that gazed softly back at him in the bathroom mirror were understanding, sympathetic, even humorous; they forgave the bad boy.

Max Fairbanks had been in the business of forgiving Max Fairbanks, forgiving his indiscretions, his peccadilloes, his little foibles, for a long long time. He was in his midsixties now, having been born somewhere and sometime—some-where east of the Rhine, probably, and sometime in the middle of the nineteen thirties, most likely; not a good combination—and somewhere and sometime in his early years he'd learned that a gentle word not only turneth away wrath, it can also turneth away the opponent's head just long enough to crush it with a brick. Smiles and brutality in a judicious mix; Mad had perfected the recipe early, when the stakes were at their highest, and had seen no reason for adjustment in the many successful years since.

As with so many self-made men, Max had begun by marrying money. He wasn't Max Fairbanks yet, not back then, the century in its fifties and he in in his twenties, but he'd long since stopped being his original self. Had there ever been loving parents who had given this child a name, their own plus another, no one by the 1950s knew anything about them, including Max, who having found himself in London, called himself Basil Rupert, and soon made himself indispensable to a brewer's daughter named Elsie Brenstid. Brenstid pere, named Clement for some reason, had found young Basil Rupert far more resistable than his daughter had, until Basil demonstrated just how the Big B Brewery's company-owned pubs could be made to produce considerably more income with just the right applications of cajolery and terror.

The marriage lasted three years, producing twin girls and an extremely satisfactory divorce settlement for Basil, Elsie being by then ready to pay anything to get away from her husband. Basil took this grubstake off to Australia, and by the time the ship landed he had somehow become a native Englishman called Edward Wizmick, from Devon.

Medieval Maritime Warfare by Charles D. Stanton

I had a need for non-fiction with zero relevance to our modern struggles or my life so plucked this off the to-read list.

It's pretty long, very dry, and probably not for the general reader, but it served its purpose for me.

>63 mabith: "Oh they're definitely not detective stories or even crime stories in the traditional sense. They're comic crime novels, the main recurring characters (other than Dortmunder and Kelp this varies somewhat book to book) all being very non-violent and just, jobbing criminals making a living (vs living the high life)."

Interesting! That's basically the opposite of Westlake's Parker series (written under the pseudonym Richard Stark) wherein the protagonist is a psychopath who doesn't particularly want to kill you but will do so without hesitation if you pose the slightest threat or even encumbrance to him. The books are great, escapist fun.

>80 rocketjk: Yes, the first Dortmunder was actually supposed to be a Parker novel, but it just kept going into comedy, so Westlake had to come up with another character. There's one more violent character in the semi-usual gang but never in the capers in those books, you just hear brief snippets. I've got a Parker on my list to read this year. I've read a number of Westlake's stand-alone novels (mostly more in the light humor vein) but feels very incomplete not to have a Parker on the list.

>81 mabith: Interesting. By the way, I strongly recommend reading the Parker novels in order, at least the first four or five.

>82 rocketjk: Thanks for the heads up! I'd looked at a few people's lists of best Parker books etc and was going to start with The Score but I'll go with the first one now.

The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart

This is one of the influential early mystery novels and Rinehart is associated with 'the butler did it!' trope, though it existed prior to her. Originally published in 1908, if you changed the wording of the casual racism (there's not loads of this, thankfully, but certainly there and immediately reminds you exactly when this was published) and some of the technological references you'd easily think it was written in the 1940s or 50s. The tone and style felt incredibly unusual for the time.

This novel also started the “Had I But Known” style of mystery narration, though I feel like it was fairly lightly done (I'm writing this review far too late however so my memory is fuzzy).

Rachel Innes is renting a summer house for herself and her niece and nephew (her wards, just adults) but the second night there she's awakened by a loud noise and finds a dead body at the bottom of the circular staircase (after talk of ghosts and a strange noise in the house the first night as well). Rachel is quite determined to do a lot of her own investigating and also refuses to leave the house until it's solved to her satisfaction, much to the annoyance of the people renting it to her. Of course there are characters hiding things and it's only the first dead body.

Rachel was a very entertaining narrator, and again, feels quite timeless in most ways. Adjusting for cultural differences, I think most of us have known a Rachel (Rinehart also being a child of the Ohio River Valley, as I am, she certainly felt familiar to me).

If you're interested in mysteries, particularly of the golden age, this is worth a read.

In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World it Made by Norman Cantor

I have a bit of a soft spot for older historians and I'm familiar with Cantor's best known work, The Civilization of the Middle Ages, a textbook my dad used in college which I'd pour through as a kid, because of course he'd held onto it.

This book was interesting in parts but felt extremely scattered and random and wasn't a satisfying read.

Guardian of the Horizon by Elizabeth Peters

This is the eleventh book in the Amelia Peabody mystery series, which are generally reliable for a fun time. They largely take place in Egypt, with a couple in Sudan, starting with the 1884-85 archeological season as one of the main characters is an archeologist. Peters herself, the pen name of Barbara Mertz, was an Egyptologist and wrote a brilliant book about ancient Egypt, Red Land, Black Land, which hasn't been out of print since being published in the 1960s. She knows her stuff and is rightfully scathing about the archeologists and their methods when these books are set.

This wasn't one of my favorites, going into the sillier/fantasy territory of the hidden civilization still speaking an ancient language and worshipping the old gods which they first visited in the sixth book, The Last Camel Died at Noon. This one required our leads to get rather naive for a while, though one could excuse it with a 'just in case our friend really is in trouble' attitude. It's also a bit dominated by romantic angst which I didn't love.

All the same, Amelia Peabody is such a fun character and her narration is so amusing that I couldn't dislike it. I do also think that Peters has gone a good job creating a more progressive character that isn't just a late 20th century person shoved back in time. Peabody is still very much a Victorian.

Today is the second anniversary of my dad's death (I do think he somehow purposefully went today so the date would be hard to forget, he was that sort), so it's a strange sort of day. I have eaten pie and ice cream for him, and indulged in a lunch time beer. I also reread The Trolley to Yesterday, as we were both big fans of John Bellairs and that's my favorite and the first I read.

He was a flawed parent (though very fun when I was a kid) and a flawed friend, but also responsible for so many of reading interests and tastes, and I think his confidence really rubbed off on me in how I interacted with peers in my childhood which was a help. If I'd been more together I might have finally reread Cards of Identity by Nigel Dennis before today. He 'saved' it for me until he thought I was old enough to appreciate it (age 17 or so), but I'm not sure I was at the time. It was one of those novels he and his college friends devoured and talked about endlessly.

I'm also awaiting delivery of a book one of his college professors wrote about theatre at the college. It was his favorite professor (who I heard about, at length, all my life, Dr Hill this, Dr Hill that) and the book has a number of show posters my dad drew in it, as well as pictures of him in productions.

Here he is in 1975 at the Cincinnati art museum, very indicative of how he was (pretending a statue was biting him, actually both my parents were Like That about pictures with statues).

I'm glad you were able to do some things to commemorate your dad's passing. I hope rituals like that are helpful in processing the good and the less good. The photo is quite funny, although I could see how it could get old if it was one's parent. Take care of yourself.

>87 mabith: Thanks for sharing about your dad. Those anniversaries can be hard - glad you found a way to spend it that was meaningful to you.

>88 labfs39: I found the silly posing confusing when I was little and then just amusing when I was older, which may be backwards from a lot of people. Little kids are largely more literal than people remember though!

>89 japaul22: Thanks. I think the second year is always just so much harder (when you didn't live with the person anyway), plus the adjustment to having neither parent.

I feel a bit guilty sometimes that my grief over my dad's death is very different from that for my mom, but we had very different relationships. I built as much of a relationship with my dad as he was able to though, and that's really all you can do.

Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I by Charles Spencer

Subtitle says it all about the subject really! I found this to be a great read, very dynamically written. Recommended if you're interested in the topic.

It led me to fighting off the urge to give Rebels and Traitors another re-read, as does everything set in this period. Can't recommend that novel enough. It's an epic work, covering decades and Davis' most brilliant writing (but not without her trademark humor).

All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia by Simon Garfield

I've enjoyed other books by Garfield (particularly Mauve), and figured I'd enjoy this as well, which I did.

Of course you could dive more deeply into a lot of what covers, but that's not the point of this book. For me it was a well constructed light non-fiction work about a varied and interesting topic. He goes the full course, into the early CD-ROM encyclopedias (which I certainly remember) and Wikipedia (the strengths and drawbacks).

One amusing thing I learned was that the dictionary selling scam bits at the beginning of the Westlake book Bank Shot are entirely accurate for how dictionaries were sold (in terms of updates and question answering services and a free bookcase etc...).

Woman, Captain, Rebel: The Extraordinary True Story of a Daring Icelandic Sea Captain by Margaret Wilson

This is about a Icelandic woman born in 1777, Thuridur Einarsdottir, who led a fairly extraordinary life, including as a well-respected fishing boat captain. She's a very interesting figure, but it was also just a fascinating resource for daily life in Iceland in this period.

Wilson writes it in a more novelized style than I'm a big fan of, but not to the point that it ruined the book for me. Wilson talks about sources and where quotes are coming from in the beginning, which helped. I'd have probably liked it more written less in that style, but one can't have everything.

Decent if not amazing read, but very happy to have learned about this interesting person who kept pushing to live her own life to her own morals, even when things were going wrong.

Freddy and the Baseball Team from Mars by Walter R. Brooks

Perhaps it seems picky that I can accept talking farm animals and a pig who can semi-convincingly disguise himself as a human but turn my nose up at the martians and Father Christmas showing up in the books. I'm afraid that's the kind of unreasonable person I am.

I needed a quick bit of nonsense before I started Doctor Zhivago, so grabbed this in audio, one of the rare Freddy the Pig books I'd not read yet. It's quite odd that there's an audio edition of this one, but apparently not of Freddy and the Men from Mars, which introduces the martians.

As I say, this is one of those that just gets too silly for me, but Brooks is always fun. I love his writing and his humor SO much, and in some ways he makes me laugh even more now than when I was a kid. I have precious few 'new to me' Freddy books left to read now, just four. My sister did not do her part in carrying on the love for Freddy to her kids, and I'm still pretty sour about it. It's a privilege to have had a Freddy childhood.

The Trolley to Yesterday by John Bellairs RE-READ

One of my standout authors and books from childhood. Bellairs' Johnny Dixon series are mostly firmly in creepy/horror territory (there are a couple I wouldn't read after dark even now), other than this one which has a historical bent. I loved them all, but this remained my favorite. Lots of folks seem to prefer Bellairs' Lewis Barnavelt or Anthony Monday books, and while I like them, this is really My series. I'm fairly certainly that as a child I just deeply wanted to be the Professor, Johnny's elderly neighbor and friend.

Johnny Dixon is a nerdy, shy, awkward kid who is living with his grandparents (his mother has died, his father is in the air force serving in Korea). The Professor is one of his key friends (along with Fergie, another semi-outcast but a much more cocky and outgoing one but tries to be cool). In this book the Professor is acting very strangely, and it turns out he's discovered a time machine in his basement and has gotten a little obsessed with trying to prevent a particular massacre during the 1453 fall of Constantinople (as one does).

This is one of those books where I vividly remember the first time I read it as a kid. I was already into history (thanks, Asterix) and this further pushed me along.

What an interesting mix of books! Woman, Captain, Rebel sounds fascinating, even if the writing wasn't as good as the subject matter.

>96 labfs39: The mix is definitely what keeps me going! And yes, Woman, Captain, Rebel definitely worth it just for the interesting subject.

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

Another book I've been meaning to read for far too long. I have rather a soft spot for the movie. Recently a Russian woman joined my local book club and had just re-read it so that spurred me on.

For me it's one that I'll benefit from rereading. I'm fairly good at keeping track of characters but definitely used a name sheet at times to help with the name variants. Knowing I will probably re-read it at some point, I felt like it was more important to just go with the flow and enjoyed the book that way. Zhivago is such a great character and I liked getting to know the real picture vs just movie Zhivago.

I don't have to sell this title to anyone, but if you've been putting it off for years as well, maybe take it as a sign.

>98 mabith: Nooo! Don't tempt me with more tomes! I just started the Rougon-Macquart saga. :-)

P.S. Which translation did you read?

>99 labfs39: Ha, well, one classic/set of classics at a time! I went with the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation. I remember an article some years back debating the translations (and their style specifically I think), but even with a different translation I think their afterword is worth reading, I found it very helpful.

And now today is the 7th anniversary of my mom's death. We only found out there was anything serious wrong in mid-August and then she died September 19th, so it was a severe shock. She had seemed in excellent health (and was just 66) and only a few months before had been in Croatia with a family friend, walking fifteen miles a day.

She remains the best person I've known. The most caring, the most genuinely curious and interested in other people and the world, incredibly smart and able to maintain a very zen attitude towards life (she worked for the postal service and then at an airport, so this was vital). She became the oldest person to complete whitewater raft guide training at her company (and in that area generally) when she was in her late 50s. She read voraciously, but rarely recommended books, which makes me a bit sad. She was an excellent parent and a wonderful friend, and the void she's left in my life only seems to get bigger every year. Although, I take some comfort in the fact that she hasn't had to see the political and world events of the last seven years.



I love this picture of her from her fourth birthday (1955). She's so seriously using her brand new toy lawnmower, and one feels the expression and stance (pushing it with her belly) is copied directly from her dad.

>101 mabith: Great accounts of your mom and dad. Sorry for your loss.

>101 mabith: She was lovely, Meredith. You were lucky to have been raised by a remarkable woman.

>102 icepatton: >103 RidgewayGirl: Thank you both.

He Lifted My Red Veil by Zi Jin RE-READ

Quick night-time re-read of a partly silly, partly serious gaming webnovel. Gaming novels are often interesting to me because you've got a whole hidden identity aspect you can use for all sorts of misunderstandings. This is a Future world, so there's magical gaming helmets where you're in the game and feel sensations etc.

Le Han just wants to be in a relationship, even if it's only online. He's shy however, so when the game he plays (based on China's warring states period) has a tie-the-knot event, he goes to the area for male brides and waits for someone to lift his veil (Chinese traditional wedding etiquette). Qi Xun meant to lift his friend's veil as the friend's sister had taken revenge on his account (and there's no way to divorce without the heart rating getting to 100), but gets Le Han instead. They quickly get on well. However, one is on a side account with a famous main account, the other is on his unknown main account but has a famous side account, which causes some fun misunderstandings down the line (and of course manage to run into each other in real life as well without realizing).

What makes this a bit different is that Le Han's sexuality was forcibly revealed in high school and he had a really horrible last couple years. The circumstances and the reasonings of the bullies are very realistic, and done well. Mostly the book is just fun getting to the two leads meeting and being together in real life, but it's also one where it feels quite clear that the author is part of the LGBT community, or is very close with those who are.

Milkman by Anna Burns

My pick for my book club this month, which was generally enjoyed. I remembered from when it came out there was some aspect people struggled with, but had forgotten that it was the fact that author didn't give anyone proper names. It's all third sister, first brother, Something McSomething, Milkman, the Real Milkman, etc... This didn't bother me, maybe partly because I'm so used to it in Chinese things and often wish it was standard in English so I could easily refer to my older brothers by age order but still indicating they're all older brothers. I say 'my youngest brother' and people think it's a younger brother when it's the youngest of my older brothers (and most people in my life do not need to keep track of these siblings by their names).

Anyway, I enjoyed the book. Middle sister is 18, and a bit of an odd ball (she walks around while reading books and this is just, beyond the beyond). When a man known as Milkman, a high-ranking paramilitary, starts paying attention to her, she gets stuck in the local rumor mill with no one listening to her about what's actually happening.

The construction of the book is interesting, in that it will give you an event, then double-back a ways before bringing you back to the event first mentioned. This felt very skillfully done, and I had the feeling of getting stuck in a long conversation with someone on a long distance bus ride (in a mostly good way).

I didn't like it as much as I hoped to though. I just didn't feel particularly caught up in Middle Sister's life, it didn't grip me or entrance me or transport me. Great writing, good story, interesting format, but maybe just picked up at the wrong moment.

The rest of the book club enjoyed it as well, though some struggled a bit with the no-names. I was a little surprised to see how ignorant of the Troubles the rest of the group were, especially given that at this meeting they were almost all essentially my age (39) or older.

The Art of the English Murder by Lucy Worsley

Using the cover from the British edition with the original title because it's a nicer one.

This book covers both real murders, and their place in social history (plus how they were investigated) and the birth of true crime as an interest, and themes and trends of British detective fiction. It's maybe a bit of a muddle, but of course they are related and many detective novels were inspired by actual events. A pretty good little read if you're interested in the subject.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

Since Gary (valkyrdeath on LT) has been reading loads of Spark this year, I decided to finally read my first by her. It seemed only right to start with the early classic.

Summary from Wikipedia:
In 1930s Edinburgh, six 10-year-old girls, Sandy, Rose, Mary, Jenny, Monica, and Eunice, are assigned Miss Jean Brodie, who describes herself as being "in {her} prime," as their teacher. Miss Brodie, determined that they shall receive an education in the original sense of the Latin verb educere, "to lead out", gives her students lessons about her personal love life and travels, promoting art history, classical studies, and fascism. Under her mentorship, these six girls whom Brodie singles out as the elite group among her students—known as the "Brodie set"—begin to stand out from the rest of the school.

A good read, and so well-constructed. Maybe particularly interesting to me since I went to a small boarding school and occasionally cliques or too-close one-to-one relationships did develop around specific teachers (less so when I was there than when my sister was there thankfully). Brodie's voice was so strong and she felt incredibly real.

It's hard to imagine its adaptation to film or TV being all that successful though (if faithful to the book). It feels like it would be difficult to get across a lot of the information in a way that felt natural.

The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish by Xueshan Fei Hu RE-READ

This is one of those books that when I picked it up, I thought "well this sounds stupid, let's read it." A young man, Li Yu (homophone for carp), transmigrates into a novel he's read, but he transmigrates as a fish--an ordinary kitchen carp as well, not even a colorful koi. He manages to get himself adopted by the tyrant (the fifth son of the Emperor), the male lead of the novel. Li Yu has a system in his head, giving him tasks so he can avoid turning into fish bones and fish ash and eventually be human again.

The characters are really fun, but it's also a good example of 'sure you've transmigrated into a book but you're changing the plot and will learn things never written in the book because that's a limited picture of this world.' It's a court politics drama at heart which is done very well and the pacing is excellent. There are mysteries to figure out and it's just very funny (as you can, tell I require humor). Another of those stupid premises that has been used well and to great effect. Li Yu is a bit slow on the uptake in certain areas, which makes him quite endearing.

Mostly read this again because official translations are being released and I wanted to compare to the fan translation. At first I was very huffy about the differences but then I gave it a proper try and the official one is fine. It's not a good as the fan one, but I wouldn't say avoid it. However, for some reason they've decided the e-book versions should follow the print versions, which in China are generally released in multiple volumes (the three volume novel is alive and well!). $8 for one volume of a three or four volume book as an e-book is both very annoying to have on a device as separate parts and very expensive for me.

The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum: The Rise and Fall of an American Organized-Crime Boss by Margalit Fox

I've enjoyed everything I've read by Fox (particularly, The Riddle of the Labyrinth), so it was a no-brainer to pick this up when I wanted a quick non-fiction read. I must say, Fox also doesn't stretch out a topic beyond the length it needs for a book. You wouldn't catch her turning what really only needs a long article into a 400 page book the way sometimes happens with the rise of popular non-fiction.

Fredericka 'Marm' Mandelbaum operated as a fence in New York City between 1862 and 1884, including involvement in financing and planning large burglaries and training pickpockets. The business was certainly organized, and Mandelbaum had a reputation for keeping her word. She also paid a sizeable amount in bribes to judges, politicians, and police officers, socializing with them at her home along with other known criminals.

Interesting little read, well done as with Fox's other books.

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

Osman has either ended or put his Thursday Murder Club series on hold (he says he might revisit, I'd kind of be surprised if he does really, though I'd love that) and given us a new one. I think this is also the start of multiple books, though I haven't actually checked.

The first series was definitely not a fluke, this one takes us to very different sorts of people and places and issues, but it's equally well done. What I've been particularly impressed by both in his first book and this one, is the depth he's able to get into his characters without making it feel forced or over-explained. It feels like he's been writing them for decades, they just feel so fully formed and established. I find it really incredible.

Here Osman takes us into the harder side of crime where Amy the bodyguard is currently guarding a famous author with a death threat against her. Unfortunately a series of murders in Amy's vicinity are showing a worrying pattern and they (Amy, the author, and her father-in-law Steve) need to figure out what's going on before anyone else catches up.

I adored Amy and Steve (and the author), and definitely want more of them. Recommended if you like modern mysteries or you've run out of classics. I don't actually care for most modern mysteries but Osman is the exception for me.

Gary (valkyrdeath) and I were pondering if Osman has read Donald E. Westlake, this book especially really feels like he has (and he should, he'd love him). More in reference to Westlake's stand alone books than his series, for the someone similar vibe in balancing the humor and the crime.

I stand corrected on the Thursday Murder Club, Gary said there was a note at the end of the ebook which implied the next Osman book would be back with them. I'm curious if that was just because Osman missed them, had a great idea for them that he couldn't put down, or had to bow to publisher pressure. It really did not sound like his intention in previous interviews.

He's plenty established he certainly doesn't need to be publishing a book every year as well, he's not a jobbing author, as it were.

>109 mabith: "This is one of those books that when I picked it up, I thought "well this sounds stupid, let's read it."

I have never come across a sentence that so perfectly explains half my reading choices. Haha! It is interesting, though, that the three-volume novel has survived in the form of Chinese transmigration novels, popularised by fan translations. It is in a way also the main form in which the serialised story has survived too!

>111 mabith: Great review. I'm looking forward to We Solve Murders. I think he's said the next Thursday Murder Club book will be out in 2025.

>113 rv1988: I must say that method for books is a new thing for me, sprung partly from watching Asian dramas. The Korean show Bring it On Ghost, especially I thought, this sounds like the dumbest thing ever, I'll watch it to make fun of it, and then I adored it.

The three volume format is common across all genres of webnovel once they hit a certain length. I'm sure partly driven by using small publishing companies or the books the being self-published. It's just the standard way they seem to come for webnovels that get a print edition in China and they've carried it over to the few recently available English publications. Lord knows how many volumes they'll want for Clear and Muddy Loss of Love, which is almost as long as all three volumes of Lord of the Rings.

The Rise and Fall of Alexandria by Justin Pollard and Howard Reid

I'm a little punchy from the exhaustion of testing my driving limits today (and using beer to combat the extra pain now) but wanted to get started on the heap of reviews I have to do.

I absolutely loved this book. I thought it was really well managed and organized, and enjoyed the writing. Perhaps I am slightly biased by a lot of it covering periods of history I'm particularly interested having almost been named Alexandria myself, partly after the city. My mom and her family lived in Egypt for a period when she was a kid. Amuses me that she thought of it as a name (which I've always greatly regretted not getting), because my maternal grandmother thought the rest of the Cairo anglophone community's obsession with "Alex" (as they called it) to be vastly misplaced. She much preferred Cairo.

Highly recommend this book to anyone wanting a nice dose of mostly ancient history presented in a very readable package. I happy for the whole ride and it was a fascinating story.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

After adoring The Moonstone, I wanted to get to another Collins this year and thought I'd stick with the other really big title. Like The Moonstone it's told in chronological order with the major characters (and some slightly less major ones) narrating different sections. Collins does this very effectively.

I'd probably have been better off starting with this one before The Moonstone, which was more my speed due to all the humor and not having such a melodramatic soap opera vibe, but I enjoyed this one as well. It won't be a favorite that I reread, but it's well constructed and reasonably suspenseful. I particularly enjoyed Fosco and some of the other negative characters.

Extremely predictably, I enjoyed Uncle Fairlie (problematically queer-coded hypochrondriac bachelor that he is) the most, and from his section I quote:

Nothing, in my opinion, sets the odious selfishness of mankind in such a repulsively vivid light as the treatment, in all classes of society, which the Single people receive at the hands of the Married people. When you have once shown yourself too considerate and self-denying to add a family of your own to an already overcrowded population, you are vindictively marked out by your married friends, who have no similar consideration and no similar self-denial, as the recipient of half their conjugal troubles, and the born friend of all their children. Husbands and wives talk of the cares of matrimony, and bachelors and spinsters bear them. Take my own case. I considerately remain single, and my poor dear brother Philip inconsiderately marries. What does he do when he dies? He leaves his daughter to me. She is a sweet girl—she is also a dreadful responsibility. Why lay her on my shoulders? Because I am bound, in the harmless character of a single man, to relieve my married connections of all their own troubles.

Being the sole long-term single one of my group of five siblings, the rest of whom have been married for decades, sometimes it does feel like that.

If anyone has other favorite Collins novels, do let me know which they are.

The Lion in Winter by James Goldman

Gary (valkyrdeath here) and I have a little movie club of a Sunday and some months back we watched the 1968 film based on this play. I really enjoyed it (I mean, Katherine Hepburn, come on) and wanted to get to the play as well.

They're extremely similar, not many changes that I particularly noticed (though the gap between seeing./reading them means I can't be 100% sure). Makes sense, as Goldman wrote the screenplay as well. I'd say just see the movie. You can't really beat Hepburn and Peter O'Toole, plus a young Anthony Hopkins.

It's an interesting amalgamation of feeling very 1960s and also very not.

A Gentleman From Japan by Thomas Lockley

NOT a good book. I almost dropped it in the opening chapters and very much wish I had. If I'd looked up anything about the author ahead of time I definitely would have.

The sections with the subject of this book, known as Christopher, are just totally novelized to a ludicrous extent. After the first section like that it went into some more normal non-fiction writing and I was hopeful that would continue so didn't drop the book, then I felt I was already halfway through I should finish the book. This was a mistake and I must do better about not subjecting myself to mediocre reads that aren't even historically trustworthy.

The subject left no interviews, no testimony, no writings of his own. References to him in primary sources are around but they're not deep or detailed or anything that would require a book of this length rather than a good article length piece. Other books by this author seem to be even worse for stretching material. I'm not sure who decided recently that narrative non-fiction meant novelized but I'd like to ring their neck. 'Narrative' does not mean you don't talk about sources in the text, it does not mean arbitrarily assigning actions your subject that another of his group might have done when sources aren't remotely clear about who did what, it does not mean attributing specific emotions to them based on your very modern feelings towards an issue.

Not recommended to anyone.

.
The Hunter and The Man with the Getaway Face by Richard Stark

These are the first two Parker books, published under Donald E. Westlake's most prolific pseudonym. The series is known for visiting every possible permutation of the heist novel. Parker is a largely successful criminal, and not averse to violence. In the first, he's out on the loose after having been betrayed by his wife at the behest of a partner in a job, and both believe he's dead. He's out for revenge and to get back what he's owed.

Very interesting to read given I'm such a devotee of Westlake's Dortmunder novels and have read a fair few of his stand-alone books. Dortmunder and Parker are two sides of the same coin (Dortmunder is very non-violent and doesn't want to run with violent folks either) and the former came about because Westlake was trying to write a Parker novel but it just kept going silly. You can really see that, and both are extremely good planners who suffer from a lot of semi-random bad luck (at least Parker does in these first two books). That's part of what makes the crime elements feel particularly realistic.

Fascinating as well to get a peak into an earlier era of Westlake's writing. The bones for greatness are all there, and some of his particular writing quirks as well (amusing bank names for one). The Hunter was published in 1962 and the next four Parker books all came out in 1963. There's quite a lot of misogyny and normalized violence against women that the characters engage in, but it is the period and the characters (and knowing Westlake's later writing as I do, it never feels like it's Him).

I read the first two together, since The Hunter is not a heist novel, and I rather wanted to keep going after the second as well. They're very quick reads. I don't know that I'll ever be reading all of them, but I'd like to get the beginning down so I can skip around to some later Parkers (particularly after he'd written a couple Dortmunders) and see how he develops. I will read the first five at least, since the fifth book, The Score seems to be a particular favorite.

>117 mabith: The Lion in Winter is one of my dad's favorite movies. I saw it several times as a teen, but haven't in a long time. I should see if my daughter will watch with me. I love Katherine Hepburn, and named my daughter Kate, partly in tribute.

>117 mabith: Ugh, sounds like a book that would drive me up the wall too. Thanks for warning us off.

>116 mabith: One of my favourite novels by Collins is Armadale. Lydia Gwilt has to be one of the most deliciously evil characters in all of Victorian literature.

Great quote from The Woman in White, which is long overdue for a reread here.

>120 labfs39: It's definitely worth a rewatch!

>121 SassyLassy: I shall put that on the list for next then. I do love an evil fictional lady (my ideal job in childhood was soap opera villain).

The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824 by Harvey Sachs

While the "and the world" section of this book felt a bit forced, it was a good read. I don't think Sachs successfully either looked at 1824 enough to justify the subtitle or really knew how to balance the two aspects of the book. I'm not sure why just a book about Beethoven and the ninth symphony wasn't enough. There's plenty of depth to go into regarding it's place at the time and then from a historical vantage point in the canon of classical music, in addition to the actual writing of it and performance wrangling.

I would say I'm a classical music dilettante. I enjoy it, and grew up listening to a fair bit of it, and my mom was one of those parents who would only buy me classical music or modern composer albums. I appreciate a skilled musician in any genre, and used to always put a symphony or opera on when I was reading in print back when I was a person who kept a schedule (and before I was so into one specific Chinese singer). But with all that, I don't know much about the background and history of specific pieces or composers, I don't worry about what operas are really about, etc... The book worked fairly well for me, and I remained interested throughout despite the focus issue. I wish I'd sat and re-listened to the ninth symphony before starting it rather than after, but enjoyable either way.

Zapped: From Infrared to X-rays, the Curious History of Invisible Light by Bob Berman

Just the kind of science non-fiction I was in the mood for. Interesting and varied book, well constructed. Convinced me I should really make more effort to be in the sun a bit every day even though it's painful (due to my nerve disease, doesn't matter if it's through glass so sunburn isn't a risk, it's painful no matter what).

Lots of interesting scientific history and new facts in this one. Recommended for a nice little science read.

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

A rare Wharton in a rural setting. I was in the mood for something classic but didn't want to start anything too long, so plumped for this as my second Wharton. I didn't enjoy it as much as The House of Mirth, but that's partly due to the content. Man falls in love with his hypochondriac wife's cousin who is boarding with them to be a help to the wife.

I wasn't able to muster up very much sympathy for our title character, for various reasons. Still enjoyed Wharton's writing style however, and I'll continue to read more. Next will probably be The Age of Innocence.

The Outfit by Richard Stark

The third Parker novel, he feels slightly more balanced in this one. After his plan to be hidden from the mafia fails in the last book and in this one they start out by trying to kill him, he decides to to make it clear what it will cost them to carry out this vendetta. You get glimpses of a number of heists in this one, carried out by his acquaintances. There are also a few "Hmm, bet he'll regret leaving that person unmurdered" moments.

These books are so short and punchy, making it very tempting to immediately read the next one. Westlake/Stark's writing style is as good as ever though. Even in these early Parkers you can see his humor poking out, and the bits he'd expand on when he started writing his Dortmunder novels. Really been interesting to go back to an earlier period in his writing.

The Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix RE-READ

I've been slowly re-reading these as my bedtime audiobook and decided to save the posting for one entry. There are seven books, starting with Mister Monday, and I think it's one of the best middle grade series out there. Nix is of course, a titan of fantasy writing, and his world building in this series is no less interesting or impressive than in his better known YA works. Middle grade books, and getting great ones into kids' hands, are so important in creating lifelong readers.

His Chosen One hero in these, Arthur, really doesn't want to be there. However, if he doesn't get involved, contamination from The House and its denizens cause huge problems in the regular world, plus people keep trying to kill him. He's a great character, extremely believable, and there's never any glamour to his situation. The books are really well constructed, with the pacing speeding up as you go along and Arthur gains power. Most of all I just love the world Nix built with this series. It's also a good balance of humor with messages about what's important, power corrupting, etc...

Highly recommended for the middle grade readers in your life.

The Hot Rock by Donald E. Westlake RE-READ

I was planning to revisit this anyway after the first few Parker books out of my own interest in Westlake's writing and development. I was also transcribing a not-too-long webnovel and found it easier doing it while listening to something very familiar so I could turn my brain off a bit and just leave the fingers on (vs just music). I'm a very good touch typist, but during transcription if I start thinking too much or slowing down the accuracy decreases. I've read or listened to this book pretty much once a year for 27 years, so you can't really get more familiar.

This is the first Dortmunder book and in some ways you can feel Westlake just slightly holding back on the comedy and some of the sheer silliness, though it grows with each heist (all for the same stone, all highly professional, yet circumstances conspire against the gang). For the next book, Bank Shot, I think that's where he just lets himself go fully into the comedy. I did feel like you could see where this was initially a Parker book.

Westlake never fails to delight me, even when the words are pretty much tattooed on my brain, there are still minor turns of phrase that I'll notice particularly on a re-read and it's an absolute joy. No one is funnier, though Pratchett is an extremely close second. I endlessly regret that I didn't get my mom to read these (she might have anyway, I checked them out myself so often and was reading them as a child, but if so she didn't tell me, not being a 'let's chat about this book' person).

Just a warning if you're tempted by these, the currently available audio editions are dreadful, stay away from them. Michael Kramer is only good reader for them.

Those Wild Wyndhams: Three Sisters at the Heart of Power by Claudia Renton

The Wyndham sisters (and their parents) were at the center of an elite intellectual social group known as The Souls, which also included people like Arthur Balfour, Margot Asquith, George Curzon, and Alfred Lyttelton. They were rather free romantically, and could easily foster one of those very dramatic soap opera-esque 'history' shows which have been so popular. The sisters used a heap of twee nicknames and an insufferable kind of baby talk slang and the whole group had their own complicated slang vocabulary unique to the Souls (with a lot of referring to themselves in the third person in letters).

Very interesting look at the more hipster center of late 19th and early 20th century British society with lots of important figures, but lord they largely seem dreadful to be around. The book was well constructed, relying on the heaps of letters left and being extremely clear when going into conjecture rather than fact (and using things in said letters as clear basis for the conjecture vs imagining whatever).

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

This was my bookclub read for October. It's a sort of cozy fantasy, which if you like that kind of thing and can really turn your brain off is a nice enough read I guess (according a lot of other group members).

It was not fun enough to result in me turning my brain off though. There were just a lot of key contradictions in character actions in order to get the plot to do what the author wanted (at least in my opinion).

In this world there are witches, and they're all orphans. Just parents automatically die of something or other after their born and it's largely insisted they be solitary for protection except for semi-regular meetings of small groups. Mika, wanting to feel connected, takes to witch-core Tiktok and makes aesthetic videos of 'pretend' magic. This leads to someone reaching out to her to tutor three young witches who are living together and can't control their magic.

The trouble is, Mika has been so strict with her personal life and connections, with no real longterm friends, moving every couple years, etc... That establishing a quite popular internet presence made no sense to me. There was a lot of that, because I don't think the author bothered to find a way to connect the two groups without that aspect. I'd have preferred a chance encounter, honestly. That's only the beginning of the 'does this make sense for the character, oh well we need it for the plot' issues.

Not a dreadful book, but extremely mediocre for me.

>130 mabith: For me it was a forgettable book, but I think I enjoyed it more than you did. I liked the "wokeness" of it. But then I'm never too worried about plot.

>131 FlorenceArt: Yeah, I don't see it sticking longterm for most people. I enjoyed the 'wokeness' as you say, as well, though the author's decision to be able to pick out Asian nationalities by sight alone... Given every Asian person I've known has talked about 'if I'm in a Japanese area people assume that's my heritage,' or 'for some reason when I wear white Vietnamese people assume I'm also Vietnamese but only when I wear white' and similar. Let alone someone not from those countries naming a nationality when looking at a stranger. It's so irrelevant, I don't think most people go around trying to classify strangers in their head unless they think the person shares their own background, I hope not anyway.

Worn: A People's History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser

A decent non-fiction read, though some areas where I felt like some brief comments were not necessarily the whole story from other things I've read by actual historians but instead the less correct common knowledge version. This is pretty common with popular history works by non-historians, but it makes it hard to put much faith in the areas where I don't already have some knowledge and tarnishes the read for me.

I would say it's a book to make you search out more in depth works on specific topics.

Confounding Oaths by Alexis Hall

Now here's a properly fun fantasy book. It's the second in a little duo set in the same world of very early 19th century Britain, where all the old gods and the fairy realm are known to be real. The first book Mortal Follies focused on Maelys who had been cursed and this second one focuses on her cousins, the Caesars. They live in a more difficult space in society as they're mixed race.

John Caesar gets into a fight defending his sister's honor at a ball and is rescued by a handsome promoted-from-the-ranks army captain, Orestes James. His sister, Mary, upset at always being overlooked in favor or her lighter-skinned younger sister, makes a wish which is granted by one of the fair folk. Of course, it is not a benign wish with no consequence and much of the book is spent trying to undo it against Mary's wishes and also still dealing with the consequences of his fight at the ball (which end up being rather serious) while falling for Captain James.

I really enjoy this world Hall created - regular historical world but with whatever mythology/religions being Real is my favorite sort of fantasy. I also love the way both books are narrated by a fairy who needs to record mortal adventures to earn a living/keep busy while being on the outs with Oberon. It adds SO much humor and makes it easy to put in exposition in a less forced way. It is very funny, as usual, though one shouldn't expect a romance novel the way his non-fantasy works are. These are more the usual 'fantasy novel with romance element' and I'd say the romance is even more low-key in this second book, partly due to the character's personalities and life situation's as compared to the leads in the first book.

These two also win the prize for best Hall book covers. He's been blessed with great audio readers but not so many good cover designs (in my very personal opinion), apart from these two books.

New Times, New Hell by Lin Zhiluo RE-READ

Re-read this now largely just to post about it, as it's one of my absolute favorites.

Yu Zhengdu is a programmer who has just finished university. Something has gone wrong with his recommendation to a top tier company, so he's looking for a short term job until that's sorted out. He finds a 'life management' company, which turns out to be the modern hell run by the Ghost King who is trying to simplify the reincarnation process. The previous Hell faced problems after the cultural revolution campaign to get rid of the 'four olds' and they are working on recovering (there's a lot of humor to be found in socialism's impact on ghosts).

It's SUCH a funny book, partly due to the ghost king, Shang Que. It's kind of a monster-of-the-week book, going through different work issues and ghost run-ins with Zhengdu making various technological advances along the way as a sort of scientific Daoism (the magical ghost exorcising side of Daoism). We run through these events getting lots of character development along the way, and there's also a larger overarching issue that comes in gradually and makes up the main end event. The characters are definitely the key joy.

As with all the Chinese webnovels I read there's a romance element, and the way Zhengdu and Shang Que get together is the most fun aspect of the book for me. It still makes me cackle while reading it, the author has built the characters so well and engineered it so amusingly.

The Ghost Emperor's entire face had turned green. He looked at Shang Que. "You actually added internet to the Hungry Ghost Path?!"

"It is the goal of socialism to push for informatization and modernization of distant and isolated areas. It is also the mission of our new Hell in these new times," Yu Zhengdu humbly replied.

"Exactly, exactly." It could be said that Ghost Mother was a big fan of her current leaders. She immediately expressed her loyalty by following up Yu Zhengdu's explanation with: "Under the leadership of the new Hell, not only has our Hungry Ghost Path been connected to the internet, we've also arranged for reeducation classes for the little ghosts. With the double guidance of cooking classes and socialist values, our education plans have achieved great success. I trust that in the near future, the little ghosts will be able to smoothly return into the paths of reincarnation."

Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham

A very comprehensive and well written book, covering a broad period, not just the disaster. This is necessary to put it in the full context, to understand what led to various decisions along the way, etc... For some people this will be a negative, but for me it was a definite positive.

I was one of the myriad children who wanted to be an astronaut, so perhaps this colors my enjoyment, but I also think you can't understand the disaster without this wider context. It's all interesting anyway.

Recommended for the dedicated non-fiction readers or anyone with a keen interest in NASA.

A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djeli Clark

I've been meaning to read this for a long old time, and finally got to it.

This book is more like an extra long short story than a novella even, but presents such an interesting world. I'm excited to get onto the longer works in the series.

>136 mabith: I started this while I was traveling and it was too dense for me and I was impatient with how slow it was moving. I'd like to give it another try though. It was such a memorable event in my childhood.

>138 japaul22: I imagine it splits readers like that a lot. I imagine there are some more to the point books about it which might suit more?

I really like being in the bowels of the space program, but I am definitely the target audience for non-fiction that goes out of its way to give you all the context generally.

The Mourner by Richard Stark

Parker is playing cleanup from the previous book, when a broad he'd hooked up with was in the room when an outfit (mafia) hitman attacked. It was legitimate self-defense, but it's best not to trouble the law with such details. Now Bett is holding on to the gun Parker used and in order to get it back he needs to steal a statue for her father, an enthusiastic art collector.

It's in the collection of Kapor, a diplomat from a fictional European communist country, who buys art just to have and doesn't know the value of the piece - one of the Mourners of Dijon. It's an actual set of statues, and we're given a potted history. This is one of Westlake's favorite things to do, and he rarely resists the urge. Even Parker complaining about getting the backstory isn't enough to stop him.

Things get a little mixed up along the way, with Kapor being sought by his own government for embezzlement and we spend a good chunk of the book with Auguste Menlo, a compatriot who has come to retrieve the funds.

Still finding it very interesting reading these. They're so tightly written and short it makes you want to keep reading them. Some may find Menlo's key mistake unlikely but it made sense for me in the circumstances. The older I get, the more impressed I am with Westlake's writing. The year this was published he had seven books come out.

Skies of Thunder: The Deadly World War II Mission Over the Roof of the World by Caroline Alexander

Alexander is one of my absolute favorite non-fiction writers, so I was very glad to see she had a new book out after a long break. It shines most in her book The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty, but this is the real narrative non-fiction, a gripping story but full of hard facts and solid background information.

This book is a slightly more scattered story, covering the air route for getting supplies from Myanmar (Burma, as it was then) into China and the complications around that. I had slightly forgotten how much I hate Chiang Kai-Shek before getting into this. It takes very little reading about him before you realize that even a leader with zero charisma could have ousted the Nationalists after WWII, let alone someone like Mao. Chiang Kai-Shek just treated the populace at large SO poorly, and remained focused on fighting the communists rather than the Japanese for most of WWII, to everyone's utter frustration.

It's a good read. Not necessarily the subject of my dreams for Alexander, but I'll read anything by her.

>141 mabith: I've read a little on this topic, but this looks good. I've read Alexander's book on the Endurance, and picked up a copy of Mutiny on the Bounty this summer.

>142 labfs39: Hope you like it when you get to it! The Bounty is one of my favorite books ever, perhaps partly because getting the real story vs the generally perceived and false one was so exciting.

>135 mabith: Sounds like fun. BBC used to run a series of Chinese Ghost Story movies late at night - always entertaining.

>141 mabith: I had slightly forgotten how much I hate Chiang Kai-Shek before getting into this. Well that's a sentence to catch the imagination!
Looks like the old war with the Nationalists may just flare up again.
I'll look for this book.

Hi. Doing a quick catch up. I’m always amazed by the number of books you read, and their variety. So much interesting nonfiction mixed in.

>144 SassyLassy: He really was dreadful!

>145 dchaikin: Have to fill the hours somehow, and I've found if I don't get enough non-fiction in there I start to feel burnt out on reading fairly quickly. Can't let that happen since it's the one hobby that doesn't make my pain worse.

The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys―and One Senator's Fight to Save Democracy by James Risen

This is about Frank Church, who led the once well-known Church Committee, established in 1975 to investigate abuses by the CIA, NSA, and FBI in the aftermath of Watergate. They brought out MKULTRA, COINTELPRO, and Family Jewels (a CIA program looking into covert assassination of foreign leaders), among other things.

Church is a fascinating figure, and one of those 'what might have been' people in US politics, as he died quite young. He was by no means perfect (no one is) but he was key in pushing these very necessary investigations. The book doesn't just lionize him, it seems to look at the full picture.

And he also had no time for Chiang Kai-Shek. So there.

The Score by Richard Stark

Now for something completely different. The fifth Parker novel, and the one I'd been waiting for as it seems to be a fan favorite among the earlier books. I can see why, Parker is going to rob an entire town and that's inevitably a fun concept.

Of course, there's a problem. The person who brought them the job has an unclear connection to the town that Parker knows will probably cause trouble. He just doesn't know what kind and takes the risk regardless.

A fun read.

On the Waterfront by Budd Schulberg

I didn't realize until after I'd finished this that the screenplay came first for this work and the play much later. If I'd known I probably would have just watched the film. I was largely familiar with the title, rather than anything else, and hadn't known it was the source for the oft-referenced line "I coulda been a contender."

An interesting relic but probably best to just watch the film or maybe read the later novel he wrote for a different focus. Feels a little like Schulberg was lost for ideas and trying to capitalize on known successes.

On the Waterfront is a classic, and I think it's my all time favorite movie.

>150 kidzdoc: Good to know! It's definitely on my list to watch now. I grew up a little too influenced by my dad's movie tastes so I've focused on the 1920s-1940s and largely eschewed the 1950s and after.

Nobody's Perfect by Donald E. Westlake RE-READ

I'm well behind on reviews, so these are from early November, and the fun and familiar distraction was/is certainly needed.

This is the fourth Dortmunder book, maybe slightly weaker than most of its peers in the first nine novels but still fun. Dortmunder has been caught in a minor burglary, and suddenly a high powered, famous defense attorney is there to get him off. Afterwards, the attorney instructs him to contact someone, which naturally Dortmunder doesn't wish to do. Forced, he finds a rich dilettante who wants to arrange a false robbery of a painting for an insurance payout.

Of course, things never go smoothly for Dortmunder, and this one even drags him overseas. There are some particularly funny bits (as ever), and Westlake always writes obnoxious rich people so well and with quite a bit of variety. Chauncey in this novel would not get along with our rich businessmen in Good Behavior or What's the Worst That Could Happen, and they wouldn't get along with each other either.

Bad lookout that Westlake is already talking about dead zones in shopping malls in 1977.

However, inflation and unemployment have affected the shopping centers at least as much as the rest of the economy, so that here and there among the brave enticements stood a storefront dark, silent, its windows black, its forehead nameless, its prospects bleak. The survivors seemed to beam the more brightly in their efforts to distract attention from their fallen comrades, but Dortmunder could see them. Dortmunder and a failed enterprise could always recognize one another.

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

I've read other Kingsolver books before but this is actually my first of her novels, which I've long meant to read. It was comforting to be with Appalachian characters - no matter how different from my life or upbringing there's just a sense of home.

This was a strange but enjoyable ride and I certainly enjoyed Kingsolver's writing style. Looking forward to reading more.

Also very strange that none of the covers I've seen for this book feature wisteria, which is what the bean trees refers to. Special place in hell for whoever did that now common cover which just has a silhouette of a tree on it.

Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age by Annalee Newitz

Ancient history is my main comfort with the election stress. I really wanted a full book about Çatalhöyük but couldn't find anything in audio. This one covers Çatalhöyük, Pompeii, Angkor, and Cahokia.

A good little read, if everything feels too brief. The focus of the book is definitely on the urban nature of these cities and how that impacted things. Just what I wanted at the time. Part of me kind of thinks she'd have been better leaving out Pompeii. It's so much more known as a City.

Left me feeling quite annoyed that when I was in school we did nothing on the moundbuilder cultures. I spent my childhood going to mounds, they're common enough in my region that on car trips they were a typical 'let the kids out to run up and down this mound for a bit' stop. Yet instead of learning about that in social studies we had to do the US colonial period and revolution every single year with precious little new information added each time. I mean, West Virginia's second largest mound is fifty minutes drive from where I grew up.

>149 mabith: "the screenplay came first for this work and the play much later."

So did you read a play version or the novel version (which was {also?} written after the screenplay). I remember reading the novel and being surprised by how different it was, especially in the book's final quarter or so, from the movie.

>155 rocketjk: I read the stage play since I'd naively assumed that came first (didn't know about the novel at all until I was looking things up after finishing it).

The Banished Immortal: A Life of Li Bai by Ha Jin

You can't really engage with current Chinese media without encountering references to Li Bai (also known as Li Po), which says something about his staying power (these are not necessarily named references that you can spot without an education in the Chinese classics but translators often point them out).

He was talented and ambitious and in many ways his talent got in the way of developing a proper career at court. Those who would have sponsored him often worried that he would overshadow them and so withdrew support. He's known for his drinking, and his drive towards perfecting older forms of poetry rather than creating new ones. It was particularly interesting hearing about his writing from women's perspectives and how that differed in his poetry compared to the others who occasionally did it.

This was a very good read for me. Interesting and well done.

Last year Gary and I watched the very long animated movie, Chang'an (also called 30,000 Miles From Chang'an), which is about the friendship between Li Bai and Gao Shi stretching from a prosperous period to the An Lushan rebellion (and slightly about Du Fu). I loved the way they included the poetry in the film and the background are so gorgeous. If you want a taste of Li Bai and this era of poetry, I'd recommend it.

Here among flowers one flask of wine,
With no close friends, I pour it alone.
I lift cup to bright moon, beg its company,
Then facing my shadow, we become three.

The moon has never known how to drink;
My shadow does nothing but follow me.
But with moon and shadow as companions the while,
This joy I find must catch spring while it's here.

I sing, and the moon just lingers on;
I dance, and my shadow flails wildly.
When still sober we share friendship and pleasure,
Then, utterly drunk, each goes his own way—
Let us join to roam beyond human cares
And plan to meet far in the river of stars.

—"Drinking Alone by Moonlight" (Yuèxià dúzhuó 月下獨酌), translated by Stephen Owen

>154 mabith: I only recently heard about Cahokia. Amazing all the history that isn't common knowledge.

>158 RidgewayGirl: It definitely deserves to be better known!

Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez

Another play, this one based on the Sleepy Lagoon murder of 1942 and the zoot suit riots of 1943. A good play. This is another of the LA Theatre Works audio productions, which are a great resource if your library subscribes to Hoopla.

I hadn't realized that Valdez also wrote and directed La Bamba, a movie I absolutely adore (Ritchie Valens biopic).

All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward

My book club thought I was very cleverly putting this book in November (I arrange the order of our picks because no one else can be trusted to care about genre variety) but actually it was accidental. It was almost quaint to look back at this given everything that's gone on in the last eight years. I was horrified to hear that one woman in our group was only vaguely aware of Watergate, and she's in her thirties. I mean, surely it's referenced in lots of popular media.

It's remained a popular book for good reason, it's very readable and carries you along the investigation like a mystery novel. Though, saying that, a number of people in my book club found it dry. I don't agree, but I love history and I do read a lot of non-fiction compared to those group members. The woman who suggested it didn't find it dry either.

I am glad I'd also just read that book about Frank Church which goes into the aftermath of Watergate and the impact on politics.

>158 RidgewayGirl: & >159 mabith: Are you familiar with the book Cahokia Jazz? It's a recent "alternative reality" novel in which Cahokia still exists as a Native American enclave within current-day U.S. I haven't read it yet but my wife read it recently and loved it.

>153 mabith: i have a copy of this around here. (The Bean Trees). Unread…
>154 mabith: my current audiobook has some issues, but cover Cahokia. I didn’t know anything about the mound other than that they exist. (The book doesn’t mention West Virginia mounds. But that’s cool you have visited them
>157 mabith: sounds like a terrific intro to Li Bai
>161 mabith: very interesting. You’re on a Watergate kick.

I had never heard of Cahioka or the mounds! I looked around on the internet and found this article in the Guardian, which is part of a series on lost cities that sounds very interesting:

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/aug/17/lost-cities-8-mystery-ahokia-illi...

>157 mabith: I read his The Woman back from Moscow this year, but didn't know about this one. Will look for it.

>147 mabith: >161 mabith: Good combination. Glad to hear All the President's Men still holds up.

A wonderful book for dipping in and out of is Incredible Archaeology: Inspiring Places from Our Human Past by Paul Bahn. It has a few pages on each site, going far beyond the typical, with beautiful pictures. I had limited time with it (it was an ILL book), it's a book I would love to own.

>157 mabith: I also just read this. Great review, and a book worth reading.

>162 rocketjk: I've had Cahokia Jazz on my tentative to-read list but I don't feel I'm the ideal target for alternate reality books (and I didn't connect with Spufford's Golden Hill at all), so I've put it off.

>163 dchaikin: I think if you don't live in Ohio (maybe particularly southern Ohio) or western WV then if people know about moundbuilder cultures in the US they really only know Cahokia. The surviving WV mounds are all from the Adena culture, which predates Cahokia by over 1000 years.

>164 FlorenceArt: Thanks for the link!

>165 SassyLassy: Definitely adding The Woman Back from Moscow to my to-read list.

>166 labfs39: My library makes ILL fairly annoying, but I'll definitely be looking for that book. Might be a good Christmas present for myself.

>167 rv1988: I will certainly be happy if Ha Jin starts doing more non-fiction.

Just to share more about mounds, here's one of my favorites, the Serpent mound, near Peebles, Ohio. My dad used to live there, and the area is chock full of mounds from the Hopewell and Fort Ancient cultures.



It makes a great trip if you're ever in southern Ohio. As a history loving kid it was wonderful to have such visible man-made structures that are Very Very Old.

>169 mabith: Back when we lived in England the first time, my husband could not get enough of the neolithic mounds and stone circles so I just told him about Cahokia and he's planning a road trip right now.

That's awesome, Kay! I'd really recommend that section in the Four Lost Cities book. Recent enough to bring up some newer information and the focus of the urban nature in that period is really important, I think.

If you like a sculpture garden/a hike with art I'd also recommend the Laumeier sculpture park in St. Louis. We went every year for a while on our way to Texas (we'd stay overnight in the area and then go right at 7 am in late November before driving the rest of the way to Texas, my mom was hardcore about sculpture gardens).

>168 mabith: "I've had Cahokia Jazz on my tentative to-read list but I don't feel I'm the ideal target for alternate reality books (and I didn't connect with Spufford's Golden Hill at all), so I've put it off."

For what it's worth, my wife is not particularly a science fiction/alternate reality novel fan either. She read Cahokia Jazz because her book group was reading it and found she enjoyed it very much. It's of a piece, I think, with Michael Chabon's novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, a humorous noir-ish book which takes as its premise the idea that the Jewish state was originally founded in Alaska rather than in Palestine. That's a book my wife and I both enjoyed a lot.

>169 mabith: that’s gorgeous

>167 rv1988: “The surviving WV mounds are all from the Adena culture, which predates Cahokia by over 1000 years.” - that’s new to me. My current audiobook, Native Nations: A Millennium in North America, doesn’t go back that far. (Consistent, admittedly, with what the title sort of implies)

>172 rocketjk: I did love The Yiddish Policemen's Union, though I wonder if that's partly because it wasn't making a change all that far back in time, but you've definitely piqued my interest on Cahokia Jazz more.

>173 dchaikin: Definitely adding that book to my to-read list anyway!

>174 mabith: I’m getting a lot out of it. (Native Nations) But struggling a lot with the heavily political wording.

Waiting for the Flood by Alexis Hall

Given the election and just being generally down for a few reasons I decided not to 'save' the annotated Hall books anymore. With this one it consists of two novellas, though the second is twice as long as the first. I'd already read the first but the second only got written for this print edition (they were only digital previously). I'd waited on this partly since I loved Edwin, the main character of the first novella, and I didn't want to like his ex Marius (the focus of the second part) or find out what his deal was.

Hall writes a fair few unlikable leading men, and Marius is certainly one of those. However, he's very good at the unlikable traits making sense given the character and creating a believable person (and generally those characters dislike themselves more than anyone else). I enjoyed that the thrust of these books together is that you can love someone, and keep loving them, while realizing you're not right together, you're too alike or too different and it doesn't mean the love isn't real.

A plot summary is sort of unimportant with these stories. Of all his books I've read, this one (two) maybe feels the most like a character study, perhaps because there's really kind of only one event in each. It's not my favorite of Hall's books or this little 'series' (they're not actually related, really, there's just occasionally some overlap in characters' friends groups) but it's still a good read and very funny in parts.

This passage really sums up what I want in any important relationship, romantic or platonic.

It's all I've ever wanted, really. Someone to make tea for. To know how they like to drink it, and share some pieces of time with them at the end of long days, and short ones, good days and bad, and everything in between.

The History of the Ancient World by Susan Wise Bauer

I read half of this, and it wasn't very good, but I just needed to not be thinking about anything current. I stopped, took a break for other books and decided to still finish it, curious what she'd say about the later areas where I do actually know a fair bit.

She does not really talk about sources as it goes along, and she takes a lot of ancient historians at face value in the text with no pushback about motives. It's a strange thing because it feels like my social studies (what they called history in school when I was young) books growing up - just very simplified and dumbed down. Only of course this is not a book aimed at children to give them an interest they can look into more deeply. I don't see the point of writing this way for adults.

Not recommended for anyone really.

In the Great Green Room: The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown by Amy Gary

What an interesting figure Brown was! She deserved to have had an easier life with more love in it.

These days we almost exclusively know her for those childhood staples Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, but she was extremely prolific and had ideas about children's books which were well ahead of their time. She had a long standing affair with a man who said he wouldn't marry and then married someone else, then one with quite a toxic woman writer, Blanche Oelrichs (pen name Michael Strange) who was always running down her work for children as unimportant. Those sections are so hard to read, Gary renders Brown so real to the reader you wish you could go yank her away. (She was of course not a perfect paragon of virtue or anything, don't expect that.)

Really enjoyed reading this and finding out more about her. When I get that time machine I'll go seduce her myself and keep her away from Blanche. I'd be much more help to a titan of picture books.

>177 mabith: sounds about how i felt

>179 dchaikin: It's a shame, but I do think it's a fool's errand anyway to try to cover SO much in a single book for adults. That's just not going to result in good history at the best of times (let alone the most mediocre of times).

Pansies by Alexis Hall RE-READ

The last of this now annotated 'series.' This is the hardest book of the group for me, for a variety of reasons.

Alfie Bell has done well - he got all the right degrees, moved to London, and now he's making all the money he could need as some sort of investment banker (it's not my area). He goes back to South Shields for a friend's wedding, accidentally comes out as gay to all the wedding guests, and while freaking out about it in a bar meets (and slightly falls for) a stranger who turns out to be a boy he'd bullied in school (for being noticeably queer, essentially).

Alfie is dealing with so much internalized homophobia, and struggling with the change this has brought in his relationship with his parents and fearing the change it will bring to his older relationships with his peers. Also making this a hard read for me is the fact that Fen, the boy he'd bullied, is dealing with the loss of his mother (and it's a very similar relationship/grief to mine for my mom).

Grief is a pretty constant theme for Hall. Whether it's a literal death or grieving a past self or grieving something that could have been. The literal deaths are also varied and represent very different kinds of relationships. In many ways Alfie is grieving as well, the self he was 'supposed' to have been if he weren't gay.

"But it feels lonely without someone in the world who knows who I am. Not just everything I pretend to be."

This is exactly how I feel about my mom.

Until he'd had to tell them he was gay, he'd always pretty much taken for granted that his parents loved him. But it was family that held them. A pattern of days spent together. The inevitability of ancestry. It was good, though. Important. A lot more than most people had. ... But it wasn't like this. The sort of love that gave you yourself and changed you with its loss. The sort of love you'd cling to, however you could.

It's a good book, and while I've gone for the serious aspects of course there are still a lot of funny moments. Hall makes me laugh more than anyone else since Westlake and Pratchett. The internalized homophobia does just stab me in the heart though. It feels like it would have been a tough book to live in while writing it.

Inside Job by Connie Willis

Reading any Willis is always a reminder that I should read more Willis.

This is a novella about a paranormal debunker and the actress who has glommed onto him as an assistant. She brings him to a new-ish channeler, and during the act she abruptly seems to start channeling a skeptic who insults the audience. They realize later it's HL Mencken (because of course).

It's not her greatest work, but a fun little jaunt.

The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer

Another fun little jaunt. This is an earlier work than the other Heyer I read (Cotillion), and rather than her well-known Regency romances it's set soon after the Jacobite uprising of 1745.

A brother and sister are somewhat on the run, waiting for orders from their rather wild father, when they get a little caught up in other's dramas and become more known in society than they meant to be. Enhancing it is that they're both cross-dressing (for hiding in plain sight purposes, though it doesn't really feel like that's actually necessary, honestly). Love and adventure abound in any case. It was fun, and interesting to read one of her early works (1928), though Cotillion (1953) is definitely more solid.

Vienna 1814: How the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War, and Peace at the Congress of Vienna by David King

Just what I needed after the ancient world nonsense - hard focus on a short period. Subtitle says it all really. Good, interesting read about a period where I have a lot of gaps in knowledge.

Looking for Group by Alexis Hall

You can tell it's really been a tough month, because here's another Hall book, though this time entirely new to me.

Given I've read so many gaming-set Chinese novels of course I had to read Hall's venture into the genre. He's quite a big gamer himself and it does show here. If I hadn't read all those Chinese novels I'd have been a bit lost with a lot of the gaming terms (there is a glossary though, which I did need).

It's a quick read, far less complicated than my Chinese ones, and focused on younger characters than he usually writes (first year of university). Drew leaves his guild in Heroes of Legend because their playstyle was making it Not Fun, joins a new guild, meets Kit, who he thinks is a girl and develops a crush on before finding out it's a boy. That's not actually much of an issue in the end. Instead he's struggling with expectations and peer pressure and trying to be someone who doesn't get teased basically and is doing uni "right." Fun one, if simple.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

I really loved Butler's Kindred and Fledgling, so I've been meaning to read more by her. The duo that this book is part of seemed a more manageable next step as compared to her earlier Patternist series or Xenogensis/Lilith's Brood series.

Reading this now it's even more evident what a strong writer we lost with Butler dying so young. Though it's also strange to come at this work from Now, after the strong rise of doomsday preppers (who generally only think about guns and storing canned food rather than more useful skills) and the increasing lack of regulations.

We're in a dystopian future, there's climate change and vast social inequality, but rather than springing from some big single event the US has just slid into this horror more gradually. Lauren and her family must stay in their formerly gated now walled community the vast majority of the time for safety. Water is incredibly expensive and they are better off than many, not needing to be purely subsistence farmers but they wouldn't survive without their gardens and preserving.

Lauren's father is a community leader and preacher, but Lauren develops her own sense of religion and ideas on where humanity needs to go.

A very good read and I'll look forward to the next one.

And with that I'm finally caught up on my November reads! I hope to never get that far behind again!

Such interesting and diverse reading as always, Meredith. I read the Parable books a couple of years ago and was also very impressed. I need to read more by her too. Kindred is the only other book I've read.

>178 mabith: I need that book - I love Margaret Wise Brown. An adult visiting this summer went through my collection of children's books and made of with one of my favourites, without asking: The Sailor Dog. It was in excellent condition and I miss it.

>188 labfs39: Always far too many books to get to!

>189 SassyLassy: Going off with a vintage children's book without permission is definitely a hanging offense in my house!

Keats: A Brief Life in Nine Poems and One Epitaph by Lucasta Miller

After seeing this one on Dan's thread I immediately grabbed it from the library. Sounded just what I was in the mood for and I really enjoyed another Miller bio, L.E.L.: The Lost Life and Scandalous Death of Letitia Elizabeth Landon, the Celebrated "Female Byron", so felt confident in the author.

Keats is one of those poets where small bits of his writing make it into common knowledge more than you might realize. I would certainly say in the US I grew up hearing/seeing references to Keats' actual poems far more than say, Byron (whereas I certainly got more references to Byron's life, mad bad and dangerous to know etc). My dad was very fond of saying 'a thing of beauty is a joy forever,' particularly about early 1940s cars, and I seem to remember encountering multiple parodies of the first few lines of The Eve of St. Agnes, most notably in The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror.

It's a very well-done, extremely readable book and I learned a lot. I'm looking forward to more interesting books by Miller, though I will wait on The Bronte Myth until I've read more Bronte novels.

Writing on the Wall: Social Media - The First 2,000 Years by Tom Standage

I feel like this is one of those books where the subtitle sort of puts you off it, or makes you defensive. It might be better to go into it thinking of horizontal news spreading (peer to peer as it were). I'm not sure he totally justifies it, but there's a lot of interesting tidbits about communication and how it's shifted over the centuries.

In general I've enjoyed Standage's books - fun popular history reads with interesting facts spread liberally throughout and this was much the same. I feel it suffers a bit in comparison to his excellent work, The Victorian Internet about the telegraph, where I think he really does justify the title with the actual history.

Not a bad read, but not his best. Good enough for my currently scattered and unhappy little brain.

>192 mabith: ❤️ how wonderful to see.

Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner

This came up recently on an LT thread but I can't remember where. It spurred me to look to see if it was more available now than the last time I checked and lo and behold the library had an audiobook. A friend's wonderful father recommended this me more than a decade ago, along a pile of other less well-known modern classics. I went into it knowing nothing about the plot and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Laura (Lolly) Willowes has lived in the family home with her father until his death, at which point she moves in with her brother Henry becoming the live-in aunt-of-all-work. As the children are grown she feels stifled by her role and that it has ended anyway, so makes a sudden decision to move to a small village. I won't say more about the plot, but it goes in a surprising direction for 1926.

This felt like a horrible 'what could have been' for me in some ways. I'm the only unmarried sibling of my family, I can't work due to a disability, and after my sister's first child was born she wanted me to move in with them (largely to help out, given that she was unhappy with my idea of maybe moving to the same city but not into their small apartment). I declined, because it was never going to work out well, but it gave a sort of there but the grace of god relevancy to Laura's struggles with her place in the family and in the world. In reference to the end of the book, if that had been my life I'd also very much be looking for Satan to rescue me.

I wrote down a number of quotes from this one but here's my favorite:

Indeed, Laura’s legs were very slim and frisky, they liked climbing trees and jumping over haycocks, they had no wish to retire from the world and belong to a young lady.

Just catching up on your thread, and I've enjoyed all your reviews. Such interesting reading, and I'm noting one more vote for Lucasta Miller's Keats book.

>195 mabith: strange cover, but sounds terrific. Im glad you’re not looking for anything evil to rescue you

>195 mabith: I have heard so many good things about this book. I really need to get to it.

>196 rv1988: Thanks! I've not been able to be as active on others' threads this year as I wanted to be, but for the first year back after a break I'm glad I stuck out my reviews at least.

>197 dchaikin: >198 labfs39: Lolly Willowes is definitely a 20th century classic that's worth getting to sooner rather than later.

Fire in the Valley: The Birth and Death of the Personal Computer by Michael Swaine and Paul Freiberger (Third edition)

The title says it all really! This is a book whose first edition was published in 1984, with the subtitle The Making of the Personal Computer. Sadly we're now in a world where people don't know what a folder is and are only familiar with the enforced ignorance and uselessness of knowing how to use a smartphone or tablet. Not to mention god knows how bad it is for their hands and wrists. This all depresses me so I wanted to go back to the joy of the earlier PC days. A good book, told well, and the type of thing I needed.

My first day working at the local bookstore, lightning struck the building and fried all the network cards in the store computers so we couldn't get online for anything. My fairly basic computer skills meant I could both pinpoint the issue and replace the cards myself, deeply impressing the elderly store owner and making me a computer god in her eyes (probably half responsible for the $250 bonus I got six months later, and thems 2003 dollars!). My poor nieces and nephews may never have that joy.

Freddy the Cowboy by Walter R. Brooks

One of the last few new-to-me Freddy books I've got left. This saddens me a bit, but they make excellent re-reading. Also, the earlier (and better) books are largely available as very well done audio editions on Hoopla.

Of all the children's classics that deserve to be well known today and continually read, these should be high on the list. They're far better than most and yet largely forgotten. My parents were a great age to have read these as kids yet never knew about them until they were being republished in the 1980s (my dad came across them largely due to being a librarian). I do wonder if both of them were a bit snooty in their reading tastes though, so might well have ignored a talking animal book if they'd seen them, particularly as the oldest of their siblings. The more I think about the more likely that feels.

The humor in these holds up wonderfully for the adult reader today. Brooks is so good at making the animals into well-rounded characters with a variety strengths and weaknesses.

This one isn't my favorite, though I like the rub of a horse Freddy buys (after seeing the owner beating him) teaching Freddy to ride well. It also introduces The Horrible Ten, who are a great invention. Still solid fun and ranks above when Brooks brings in martians and such (it was the 1950s after all).

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

I'm out of step with many others and didn't love this book. It was a book club read and pretty much everyone else really liked it. For my mood now, and for the audio version being distracting and not great, it was just too twee.

It's a fantasy book where a bureaucracy has taken charge of magical children and largely put them into 'orphanages' (though no one is ever adopted). Our narrator, Linus, is an inspector, looking to incidents at the homes and, to his mind, making sure the children are safe. Now he has a special mission to visit a more unique home where one child is the son of Satan and they're all seen as more dangerous than others. Linus is incredibly naive at the start and grows after meeting the children blah blah blah.

The tone of it feels like it should have been a children's book (it's listed in adult sections, not even YA), but you can't sell a children's novel with an adult narrator. The audio narrator's style didn't help this issue. I also couldn't tell if the author was being intentional with certain aspects. Two of the children make a lot of hyperbolic threats of violence and talk about murder a lot and to me that's just a lot of kids. It was certainly me. I learned how to make nooses to string up dolls and stuffed animals as sacrifices to various gods and goddesses I read about, and was always being told to stop picking up dead birds. One woman in my book club found her daughter looking at her wedding picture in the woman's bedroom, and the kid said when her parents died and this was her room she was going to move the picture.

So I kind of thought "these are honestly just normal kids with a few powers" would have been a bigger part of the book, but the focus was more 'even if they're dangerous they're still innocent children!' It kind of gave me the impression that Klune also hasn't really been around kids that much. I don't know if that's true or not (I do know it's hard to write good child characters and good 'adults interacting with kids' characters).

Again, most people I've talked to seemed to really like the book, and I think I'm rarely in the mood for quite this kind of book so your mileage may vary. I would say don't go near the audio version though (southern US accents where the home is but Klune, an American, has put British slang into the characters' mouths, plus being an overly theatrical reader). The book itself wasn't terrible, there were fun little bits, but just not for me.

I was on best behavior last night at book club and not doing my more typical 'but what if you thought about this more critically' thing so clearly still had a lot of complaints to get out. Whoops.

>200 mabith: Time continues to march on, doesn't it? When computers came out, we lamented the passing of an age of doing things by hand. Remember librarians' consternation at the demise of the physical card catalog? Now we are lamenting the passing of the PC. I'm not looking forward to the visual heads-up displays that are surely coming!

>201 mabith: Thanks for the tip about Hoopla. I'm always looking for something good to listen to on audio with the girls. I have never read the Freddy books.

>202 mabith: Interesting, the majority of discussion in our book club about this book was whether or not it deserved the YA label. I enjoyed the humor more than you, I think, "Extremely Upper Management", etc. Bad narrators are the worst.

>202 mabith: I really disliked this book as well so you're not alone. Spike Lee once talked about the trope of a 'magical Black man' who appears in Hollywood films (and in books) to support the main (white) character's emotional arc and has no other character development or narrative role. It's difficult to take this book seriously: an island is occupied by a group of superpowered people and the original inhabitant (a magical sprite) lives in the woods, welcomes the occupiers, and only emerges from her magical house to provide life advice for their problems. A bit difficult to take seriously - and that was before he said he was using the actual history of the abduction of Native American children to construct this poorly-written feel-good fantasy.

>203 labfs39: Ha, well, my dad was a librarian for most of my life and he was very happy about moving to computer catalogs! I do think we're due a turn around back to the PC just with how bad advertising online has become, since it's easier to block that on a PC. In the publisher information I've seen The House in the Cerulean Sea doesn't have a YA label, but an adult one, though this doesn't impact where bookstores or even libraries will shelve it. There are some dated things in some of the Freddy books, Freddy the Detective particularly, but in general they've held up extremely well, without all that much that warrants a 'let's talk about this problematic attitude' talk with kids.

>204 rv1988: Yes, knowing that he said he was specifically 'inspired' by the Sixties Scoop and then the resulting book felt a bit off to me. The happy ending was achieved so incredibly easily as well. Which again, if it were a children's novel I would have fewer quibbles about (still wouldn't necessarily like it but the expectations are different).

>195 mabith: Might have been me talking about Lolly Willowes? My (all-woman) book club read it and it made for a great conversation. I can see how that one would hit home for you... glad you didn't have to make an alliance with Satan to live an alternative life.

Lots of really interesting reading and good reviews here, including quite a few on my own physical and virtual shelves—thank you! And hope your holidays are good.

>195 mabith: I've been meaning to read Lolly Willow's for years. I think I got put off when I read The Corner That Held Them, which seemed to speak to just about everyone else but I didn't enjoy it. Maybe I should give Townsend Warner another try.