What are you reading now?: December 21, 2024.

Have just barely started Stalinist City Planning. The Tunis Crusade of 1270 and Descendant Machine will follow.

I don't read a lot at this time of year. I'm too antsy with Christmas preparations and post-holiday let-down. Nonetheless, I've read about a tenth of The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye, which has been one of my favourite books since I first encountered it as a teenager. My current audiobook is Villette by Charlotte Bronte, which I'm divided about, in turns loving the story and her almost-poetic language use, followed by boredom and irritation when her descriptions of a person or a scene go on forever.

I'm closing in on the halfway point of Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe. It's a long haul but mostly enjoyable so far.

I barely got to read Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by Jenny Bayliss this week because of parent/teacher conferences, report cards, and meetings, but I have 2 weeks of free time ahead of me!

Happy Solstice!

Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook – Celia Rees
Digital audiobook narrated by Stephanie Racine
3.5***

Edith Graham is a young single woman in search of purpose. It’s just after World War II and she applies for a job with the Control Commission in Germany, but she is quickly recruited to be a spy. Her quiet personality and the ease with which she blends into the background makes her an ideal candidate when coupled with her facility with the language. More importantly, she knew Count Kurt von Stavenow when he was a student in Britain. Now a war criminal, he has gone into hiding, and her job is to find him. Her cover story is that of a schoolteacher who likes to collect recipes – recipes she uses to send coded messages to her handlers in London.

This was an interesting twist on the typical WW2 story, taking place after the war. It is a spy novel at its heart, so there are twists and turns in the plot, betrayals and double (even triple) crosses. Rees does NOT use the ubiquitous dual timeline and I really appreciate the break from that device. However, she does bookend the central story with the first and last chapters taking place in 1989. I liked the central premise and enjoyed reading the recipes that Edith uses to convey information, though I never did crack that code!

The audiobook is narrated by Stephanie Racine, who does a marvelous job. She sets a good pace and I like the way she interprets the different nationalities.

A Fatal Inheritance: How a Family Misfortune Revealed a Deadly Medical Mystery
by Lawrence Ingrassia
4/5 stars
This is an interesting non-fiction book about a family who discovered that many of their family members came down with cancer and how they lived and coped with the disease. Non-Fiction

I'm about three quarters of the way through Shift by Hugh Howey. It's the second volume in the Silo series. Good, but not as good as the first book.

The Trouble With Christmas – Debbie Mason
2.5**

From the book jacket: Resort developer Madison Lane has been dubbed “The Grinch Who Killed Christmas,” after she spoiled a deal that would turn quaint Christmas, Colorado, into a tourist’s winter wonderland. Now the citizens want her fired but the company gives her one last chance, sending Madison to the small town to restore the holiday cheer. For Sheriff Gage McBride, no hotshot executive from New York City is going to destroy the dreams of the people he loves. But one look at this beautiful woman and it’s his heart that may be broken.

My reactions:
Yawn. If you’ve seen one Hallmark Christmas movie, you’ve seen them all. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy these sappy films and the books that inspire or are inspired by the movies. But they aren’t really memorable.

There’s a fairly slow burn here, though the attraction is pretty instantaneous between these two. They tiptoe around the possibility of being together, but cannot avoid one another, as Madison is staying with Gage’s Aunt (and local rabble rouser). There’s clearly some subterfuge going on involving Madison’s nemesis back in the home office, but, again, this is a frequently used trope.

It's a fast read and the “snowy” setting, helped put me in a holiday mood.

Enough – Cassidy Hutchinson
4****

Cassidy Hutchinson was an idealistic young woman fresh out of college when she landed a job in the Trump White House. Beginning as an intern while still in college, she was hired onto the staff of the Office of Legislative Affairs and forged strong relationships with key Republican legislators. When Mark Meadows became chief of staff, he hired Hutchinson as his aide. Giving her more and more responsibility, she became the “chief of staff to the chief of staff.” Still, she was relatively unknown outside the inner circle, until she made the decision to testify before the House Committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021.

I found this very interesting. Not just for the up-close-and-personal view of the goings on in the Trump administration during that last year of his presidency, but especially into her own growth and maturation. Hutchinson goes into her childhood, and we see how her upbringing helped shape her. Her volatile and unstable father certainly had a huge influence on her, especially her tendency to look up to and follow the “daddy figures” in her professional life. But she found the strength and courage to follow her own moral compass rather than continue to enable those who were abusing power. Good for her.

An early Merry Christmas!

Stuart Spouses: A Compendium of Consorts from James I of Scotland to Queen Anne of Great Britain by Heather R. Darsie
Includes illustrative plates of portraits of the Stuarts, royal genealogy tables, timelines, and poetry in modern English and original Scots language.

In the middle of Celia Fremlin's Appointment with Yesterday which is not a Christmas or holiday book at all. Eerie and odd story so I really like it!

I just finished a reread of Robert Harris's Pompeii and now I'm starting a Christmas present, The Shadow of Vesuvius: A Life of Pliny by Daisy Dunn.

Dragon Pearl – Yoon Ha Lee
Book on CD narrated by Kim Mai Guest
3***

First book in the Thousand Worlds series.

Thirteen-year-old Min dreams of the day she can follow her older brother into the Space Cadet program and escape her impoverished planet. She comes from a long line of fox spirits, but foxes are considered suspect. So, her mother insists that they refrain from using any fox magic, such as Charm or shapeshifting, and remain in human form at all times. But then word comes that her brother, Jun, has been accused of deserting his post in quest of the mythical Dragon Pearl. Min cannot believe her brother would do such a thing, so she runs away from home to find the truth.

This space opera is a quest, an adventure, and a coming-of-age story. Min is determined, resourceful and intelligent, but she is young and makes several mistakes. She also uses fox magic more than she has ever done before to search for her brother. She’ll encounter pirates, gamblers, police and vengeful ghosts. She’ll find allies in unexpected places as well. But mostly, Min will use her own wits and talents to find the truth, however painful.

I was intrigued by the world the author has created, melding traditional Korean folk tales / mythology with a futuristic space odyssey plot. I’d read the second book in the series previously, and felt a little lost, not having the background that this volume gives. I would recommend reading the series in order.

Kim Mae Guest does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. There are a lot of characters, and she is up to the task of making them sufficiently unique as to avoid confusion.

>2 ahef1963: Ditto here about not reading a lot at this time of year. However, I started Henry VIII by Scarisbrick well before the holidays, so I'm kind of stuck. Finally to about the 3/4 point. Some time next year, I'll finish it.

It's certainly not for everyone and is a slog of a read, but I'm enjoying it, just having to spend lots of time looking up the meaning of Latin phrases which are new to me or archaic words I've never heard of. (I almost said even I've never heard of, but that would be snooty, lol!).

Anyway, see you all next year! Hope it's a blessed & happy one.

The new thread is up over here.

Today I finished Crave by Cathy Yardley. I have basically been in bed all week reading, and it's been great!