Chatterbox Waltzes Through 2023 -- Episode II

Today
by Billy Collins
b. 1941

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.

Still hoping for the kind of days that Billy Collins writes about and David Hockney illustrated here in New England! But the lilacs are blooming, the leaves are coming out on the trees, even if it remains grey, dreary and a bit too chilly for my taste.

Back again for thread #2. In case anyone drops in who doesn't already know me, I'm Suzanne, and I've been hanging around this group with varying levels of activity since 2010. This year, both my reading AND my posting have fallen behind as life has taken over cyber-life and swallowed up reading time.

Still haven't finished sorting out all my books after my move into a very small new apartment in Rhode Island, as I spent about half of the first few months of the year in Canada caring for my father in the final weeks of his life. He died on March 26, and now it's all a question of settling things, organizing a memorial service online, and coordinating the disposal of his ashes. As someone I know described it, the "sadmin."

Thankfully, I have the resident felines, Sir Fergus the Fat (although he's starting to lose weight as he is about to turn 13 or so, which is slightly worrying) and Minka the Velveteen Kitten (well, my house panther is three years old, but still behaves like a kitten, so...)

While I've fetched up in New England, I'm not "from" anywhere in particular. I'm a dual US/Canadian citizen; was accidentally (acc. to my version) born in the USA to Canadian parents, but spent more than half of my life elsewhere, growing up in Europe, university in Canada, grad school in Japan, yadda yadda. I'm a former staffer with the Wall St. Journal in Toronto, NYC and London, have lived all over the place, still work as a freelance journalist and ghost writing. One of the most interesting new gigs: working with other former WSJ people to mentor and advise young journalists working in smaller local newsrooms. I'll be working closely with a team of young (all in their 20s) newsroom staff in New Hampshire. As with all the most fun stuff, it's unpaid, but valuable in a non-monetary sense!

Still working on regaining some financial stability after the outsize expenses of moving and assisting my father financially in the last 12 months. Fingers, toes and paws all crossed.

I rarely post mini-reviews, but promise to try harder to flag the most compelling or disappointing books. My ideal book? Anything in which I can completely immerse myself, and at the end, wish I hadn't read it, so that I could read it again for the first time... very year, I set out to imagine my thread as being a cyber version of my ideal literary salon would be like.

My resolutions for the remaining months of the year? To keep up with the non-fiction challenge I've hosted/coordinated for the last eight years. To catch up with my reading and slowly return to more challenging fare from the comfort reading that has dominated the year to date. And to get my bookshelves and apartment in order!!

As always, the only "rules" of the road for this thread: please treat each other and everyone else's views with courtesy, civility and thoughtfulness, and leave the politics and drama for other kinds of social media. Pretty please.

Here's my current reading list...

This is where you can find an ongoing list of what I'm reading. I always read far more than 75 books; this year, as before, I'll set my target at 401 books. In 2022, I blew past that, but felll short in 2021, and this year is looking more like 2021, alas. As long as I find a lot of enjoyable tomes, the quantity is less important. My reading each year always includes re-reads of some old faves (marked by an asterisk on the list).

To see what I have been reading in real time, your best bet is to go to my library on LT, and look at the dedicated collection I've established there, under the label "Books Read in 2023". As I complete a book, I'll rate it and add it to the list. I'll also tag it, "Read in 2022". You'll be able to see it by either searching under that tag, or clicking on https://www.librarything.com/catalog/Chatterbox/booksreadin2023.

I do have some reading objectives, noted under a variety of categories in subsequent posts, below. I continue to fall short of completing these, as new books or book bullets distract me!

Here's a quick guide to my star ratings, which are very definitely personal and idiosyncratic.

My guide to my ratings:

1.5 or less: A tree gave its life so that this book could be printed and distributed?
1.5 to 2.7: Are you really prepared to give up hours of your life for this?? I wouldn't recommend doing so...
2.8 to 3.3: Do you need something to fill in some time waiting to see the dentist? Either reasonably good within a ho-hum genre (chick lit or thrillers), something that's OK to read when you've nothing else with you, or that you'll find adequate to pass the time and forget later on.
3.4 to 3.8: Want to know what a thumping good read is like, or a book that has a fascinating premise, but doesn't quite deliver? This is where you'll find 'em.
3.9 to 4.4: So, you want a hearty endorsement? These books have what it takes to make me happy I read them.
4.5 to 5: The books that I wish I hadn't read yet, so I could experience the joy of discovering them again for the first time. Sometimes disquieting, sometimes sentimental faves, sometimes dramatic, sometimes so astonishingly well-written that they make me swoon. Always transformative and memorable



My Q2 (second quarter of 2023) reading list!

The April list:

98. Dark Mirror by Barry Maitland (finished 4/1/23) 4.2 stars
99. *Dead Wake by Erik Larson (finished 4/2/23) 4.7 stars (A)
100. Red London by Alma Katsu (finished 4/4/23) 3.7 stars
101. The English Experience by Julie Schumacher (finished 4/5/23) 3.6 stars
102. The Kingdom of Ashes by Robert Edric (finished 4/6/23) 4.1 stars
103. Fragile Cargo: The World War II Race to Save the Treasures of China's Forbidden City by Adam Brookes (finished 4/9/23) 5 stars
104. The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys―and One Senator's Fight to Save Democracy by James Risen (finished 4/10/23) 4.8 stars
105. Starter Dog by Rona Maynard (finished 4/11/23) 4.7 stars
106. Nightwork by Nora Roberts (finished 4/13/23) 3.4 stars
107. You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott (finished 4/14/23) 3.6 stars
108. Field Notes From an Unintentional Birder by Julia Zarankin (finished 4/15/23) 5 stars
109. The Island of Lost Girls by Alex Marwood (finished 4/16/23) 4 stars
110. Magnificent Rebel: Nancy Cunard in Jazz Age Paris by Anne de Courcy (finished 4/18/23) 3.85 stars
111. *Frederica by Georgette Heyer (finished 4/19/23) 3.75 stars (A)
112. The Gran Tour: Travels with my Elders by Ben Aitken (finished 4/20/23) 3 stars
113. *Here Be Dragons by Sharon Penman (finished 4/21/23) 3.7 stars
114. The Helsinki Affair by Anna Pitoniak (finished 4/22/23) 4 stars
115. *The Main Enemy by Milton Bearden & James Risen (finished 4/22/23) 4.15 stars (A)
116. Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading by Maureen Corrigan (finished 4/24/23) 4.35 stars
117. *Shining Through by Susan Isaacs (finished 4/25/23) 4 stars
118. Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them by Sian Evans (finished 4/27/23) 3.5 stars (A)
119. Hammer to Fall by John Lawton (finished 4/27/23) 4.25 stars (partly A)
120. A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie (finished 4/28/23) 3.4 stars (A)
121. Chelsea Mansions by Barry Maitland (finished 4/30/23) 4.2 stars
122. The Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption and Baseball's Longest Game by Dan Barry (finished 4/30/23) 4.5 stars (A)

The May list:

123. The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix (finished 5/1/23) 3.7 stars
124. *The Secret Island by Enid Blyton (finished 5/1/23) 3.45 stars
125. The Traitor by Ava Glass (finished 5/3/23) 3.7 stars
126. The Color Storm by Damian Dibben (finished 5/3/23) 4.5 stars (partly A)
127. *Hotel Pastis by Peter Mayle (finished 5/4/23) 3.6 stars
128. The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths (finished 5/5/23) 4.4 stars (A)
129. Revenge of the Vinyl Cafe by Stuart McLean (finished 5/6/23) 3.8 stars
130. Of Ice and Men: How We've Used Cold to Transform Humanity by Fred Hogge (finished 5/6/23) 4.75 stars
131. *Daughters of the Storm by Elizabeth Buchan (finished 5/7/23) 3.9 stars
132. Die Around Sundown by Mark Pryor (finished 5/7/23) 3.5 stars
133. The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng (finished 5/8/23) 5 stars
134. Rules at the School by the Sea by Jenny Colgan (finished 5/9/23) 3.5 stars
135. In at the Kill by Alexander Fullerton (finished 5/10/23) 3.75 stars
136. The Sinister Booksellers of Bath by Garth Nix (finished 5/11/23) 3.3 stars
137. The Unkept Woman by Allison Montclair (finished 5/12/23) 3.8 stars
138. A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie (finished 5/12/23) 3.5 stars (A)
139. The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing by Mark Kurlansky (finished 5/13/23) 3.65 stars
140. *Fatal Majesty by Reay Tannahill (finished 5/13/23) 4.3 stars
141. Showstopper by Peter Lovesey (finished 5/14/23) 4.2 stars (partly A)
142. Code 6 by James Grippando (finished 5/15/23) 4.15 stars
143. *The Russians Among Us by Gordon Corera (finished 5/17/23) 4.2 stars (A)
143. The Company of Heaven by Catherine Fox (finished 5/18/23) 4 stars
144. Yellowface by R. F. Kuang (finished 5/18/23) 5 stars
145. The Final Curtain by Keigo Higashino (finished 5/20/23) 4.2 stars
146. The Fur Person by May Sarton (finished 5/20/23) 5 stars
147. The Daughters of Yalta by Catherine Grace Katz (finished 5/21/23) 4.15 stars (mostly A)
148. A Village in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd (finished 5/21/23) 4.35 stars
149. A Murder at Black Oaks by Philip Margolin (finished 5/22/23) 2.5 stars (A)
150. *The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (finished 5/23/23) 5 stars (A)
151. The Starlet and the Spy by Ji-Min Lee (finished 5/25/23) 3.9 stars
152. Tom Stoppard by Hermione Lee (finished 5/26/23) 4.2 stars (A)
153. The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackermann (finished 5/28/23) 4.1 stars
154. The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra (finished 5/28/23) 3.4 stars
155. *The Darcy Connection by Elizabeth Aston (finished 5/29/23) 3.8 stars (A)
156. Daughters of Paris by Elisabeth Hobbes (finished 5/29/23) 2.8 stars
157. Blood Sugar by Sascha Rothchild (finished 5/30/23) 4.4 stars
158. The Cliff's Edge by Charles Todd (finished 5/31/23) 3.85 stars
159. Murder Under a Red Moon by Harini Nagendra (finished 5/31/23) 3.65 stars

The June list:

160. The King's Grave by Philippa Langley (aka 'The Lost king') (finished 6/2/23) 3.9 stars
161. The Raven's Eye by Barry Maitland (finished 6/3/23) 4.15 stars
162. Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates (finished 6/4/23) 3.75 stars (A)
163. China Unbound: a New World Disorder by Joanna Chiu (finished 6/5/23) 4.8 stars
164. Killing Me by Michelle Gagnon (finished 6/5/23) 4.4 stars
165. The King's Spy by Andrew Swanston (finished 6/6/23) 3.5 stars (A)
166. The Promised Land by Barry Maitland (finished 6/7/23) 4.2 stars (A)
167. Identity by Nora Roberts (finished 6/9/23) 3.7 stars
168. *Trustee From the Toolroom by Nevil Shute (finished 6/9/23) 3.6 stars (A)
169. *On the Beach by Nevil Shute (finished 6/11/23) 4.3 stars (A)
170. Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six by Lisa Unger (finished 6/13/23) 3.75 stars
171. The Unquiet Grave: the FBI and the Struggle for Indian Country by Steve Hendricks (finished 6/14/23) 4.2 stars (A)
172. Mr. Texas by Lawrence Wright (finished 6/15/23) 4.1 stars
173. Café Unfiltered by Jean-Philippe Blondel (finished 6/16/23) 4 stars
174. Feral City: On Finding Liberation in Lockdown New York by Jeremiah Moss (finished 6/17/23) 4.2 stars
175. Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump by Michael Isikoff & David Corn (finished 6/18/23) 4.1 stars
176. Shadow of a Doubt by Ted Allbeury (finished 6/18/23) 3.65 stars
177. Marco Polo: The Journey that Changed the World by John Man (finished 6/19/23) 4.1 stars (A)
178. The Russian Wife by Barry Maitland (finished 6/19/23) 3.9 stars (A)
179. The Murder of Diana Devon by Michael Gilbert (finished 6/20/23) 3.5 stars
180. Fatal Legacy by Lindsey Davis (finished 6/21/23) 3.7 stars
181. Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen (finished 6/22/23) 3.6 stars
182. Fancy Bear Goes Phishing by Scott Shapiro (finished 6/24/23) 3.8 stars
183. Single to Paris by Alexander Fullerton (finished 6/26/23) 3.45 stars
184. *Mr. Cat by George Freedley (finished 6/27/23) 3.5 stars
185. Blood Lines by Murray Davies (finished 6/27/23) 4.2 stars
186. To Kill a Troubadour by Martin Walker (finished 6/28/23) 3.8 stars
187. Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America's Culture by Chip Colwell (finished 6/28/23) 4.1 stars (A)
188. The Good, the Bad and the History by Jodi Taylor (finished 6/29/23) 4.25 stars (partly A)
189. Who Killed Truth? A History of Evidence by Jill Lepore (finished 6/29/23) 4.2 stars (A)
190. Still Life With Bones by Alexa Hagerty (finished 6/30/23) 3.7 stars
192. I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (finished 6/30/23) 5 stars

The July list:

193. Zero Days by Ruth Ware (finished 7/1/23) 4.3 stars
194. The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America by Monica Potts (finished 7/1/23) 4.65 stars
195. The Labors of Hercules by Agatha Christie (finished 7/2/23) 3.2 stars (A)
196. Atalanta by Jennifer Saint (finished 7/2/23) 3.85 stars
197. Traitors Gate by Jeffery Archer (finished 7/3/23) 3.6 stars
198. A Murder in Time by Julie McElwain (finished 7/4/23) 3.5 stars
199. The Divider: Trump in the White House by Susan Glasser & Peter Baker (finished 7/5/23) 4 stars (A)
200. Lessons at the School by the Sea by Jenny Colgan (finished 7/5/23) 3.45 stars
201. *Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (finished 7/6/23) 3.65 stars
202. One Woman Show by Christine Coulson (finished 7/6/23) 3.7 stars
203. All the Queen's Spies by Oliver Clements (finished 7/8/23) 3.9 stars
204. Hold Fast by J.H. Gelernter (finished 7/8/23) 4 stars
205. *Men At Arms by Terry Pratchett (finished 7/11/23) 4.25 stars
206. The Magic Kingdom by Russell Banks (finished 7/12/23) 4.5 stars
207. *Checkmate in Berlin by Giles Milton (finished 7/12/23) 4.3 stars (A)
208. Union Station by David Downing (finished 7/13/23) 4.15 stars
209. These are the Plunderers by Gretchen Morgenson & Joshua Rosner (finished 7/15/23) 3.5 stars
210. Captain Grey's Gambit by J.H. Gelernter (finished 7/15/23) 3.85 stars
211. Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution that Made China Modern by Jing Tsu (finished 7/16/23) 4.4 stars
212. *Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow (finished 7/16/23) 4.5 stars (A)
213. A Killing of Innocents by Deborah Crombie (finished 7/17/23) 4.15 stars
214. The King's Exile by Andrew Swanston (finished 7/17/23) 3.8 stars
215. We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama (finished 7/18/23) 5 stars
216. No Ordinary Assignment by Jane Ferguson (finished 7/19/23) 4.35 stars
217. The Forger's Spell by Edward Dolnick (finished 7/20/23) 4.3 stars (A)
218. The King's Return by Andrew Swanston (finished 7/20/23) 3.6 stars
219. Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri (finished 7/20/23) 4.1 stars
220. *Banishment by Dinah Lampitt/Deryn Lake (finished 7/21/23) 3.5 stars
221. Hell and Good Company: The Spanish Civil War and the World It Made by Richard Rhodes (finished 7/22/23) 4.5 stars (A)
222. The Book of Eve by Constance Beresford-Howe (finished 7/22/23) 4.15 stars
223. *The Paladin by David Ignatius (finished 7/23/23) 4.2 stars (A)
224. Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death by Laura Cumming (finished 7/24/23) 4.45 stars (A)
225. Past Lying by Val McDermid (finished 7/25/23) 4.2 stars
226. The Deepest Map: The High-Stakes Race to Chart the World's Oceans by Laura Trethewey (finished 7/26/23) 4.4 stars (A)
227. The Beach at Summerly by Beatriz Williams (finished 7/28/23) 3.85 stars (A)
228. Julian by Gore Vidal (finished 7/29/23) 4.4 stars
229. A Person of Interest by Susan Choi (finished 7/31/23) 3.5 stars

The August List:

230. Playing it Safe by Ashley Weaver (finished 8/1/23) 3.55 stars
231. The Art Thief by Michael Finkel (finished 8/2/23) 4.35 stars
232. The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis (finished 8/2/23) 4.1 stars
233. Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland (finished 8/3/23) 4.2 stars (A)
234. *Irena's Children by Tilar Mazzeo (finished 8/4/23) 4.1 stars (A)
235. My Murder by Katie Williams (finished 8/4/23) 4.3 stars
236. The Goodbye Cat by Hiro Arikawa (finished 8/5/23) 3.65 stars
237. Trial by Richard North Patterson (finished 8/6/23) 3.4 stars
238. The Heat Will Kill You First by Jeff Goodell (finished 8/6/23) 4.2 stars (A)
239. Berlin 1936: Sixteen Days in August by Oliver Hilmes (finished 8/7/23) 4.4 stars
240. The Ferryman by Justin Cronin (finished 8/8/23) 4.1 stars
241. The Montevideo Brief by J.H. Gelernter (finished 8/8/23) 3.75 stars
242. The Forever Witness by Edward Humes (finished 8/9/23) 4.15 stars (A)
243. The Wedding Dress Repair Shop by Trisha Ashley (finished 8/10/23) 3.7 stars
244. So Much For That by Lionel Shriver (finished 8/10/23) 4.1 stars
245. A Chateau Under Siege by Martin Walker (finished 8/11/23) 3.65 stars
246. The Viper of Milan by Marjorie Bowen (finished 8/11/23) 3 stars
247. Lady Caroline Lamb: A Free Spirit by Antonia Fraser (finished 8/12/23) 4.1 stars
248. The Bucharest Dossier by William Maz (finished 8/13/23) 3.6 stars
249. The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz (finished 8/13/23) 3 stars
250. Watch Her Fall by Erin Kelly (finished 8/14/23) 3.7 stars
251. No Time Like the Future by Michael J. Fox (finished 8/15/23) 3.3 stars
252. Trespasses by Louise Kennedy (finished 8/15/23) 4.2 stars
253. Darkness Visible by William Styron (finished 8/17/23) 4.4 stars
254. Proud Sorrows by James Benn (finished 8/18/23) 3.7 stars
255. The Sentence by Christina Dalcher (finished 8/18/23) 4.2 stars (A)
256. An Honorable Man by Paul Vidich (finished 8/18/23) 3.65 stars (partly A)
257. The Collector by Daniel Silva (finished 8/20/23) 3.9 stars (A)
258. Murder in Maastricht by Graham Brack (finished 8/20/23) 3.7 stars
259. The Last Bookseller by Gary Goodman (finished 8/22/23) 4.2 stars
260. Mr. Standfast by John Buchan (finished 8/22/23) 3.35 stars (partly A)
261. Prom Mom by Laura Lippman (finished 8/23/23) 3.65 stars (A)
262. Waiting to be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet's Memoir of China's Genocide by Tahir Hamut Izgil (finished 8/24/23) 4.3 stars
263. Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslaam (finished 8/25/23) 4.4 stars
264. Battle of Ink and Ice by Darrell Hartman (finished 8/26/23) 4.1 stars (A)
265. The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell (finished 8/26/23) 3.8 stars
266. As Time Goes By by Ted Allbeury (finished 8/27/23) 3.65 stars
267. The Break by Katherena Vermette (finished 8/27/23) 4.5 stars
268. Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater (finished 8/29/23) 3.8 stars
269. Disobedient by Elizabeth Fremantle (finished 8/30/23) 4.2 stars
270. Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman (finished 8/31/23) 4.25 stars

The September list:

271. Prophet Song by Paul Lynch (finished 9/1/23) 4.65 stars
272. The City of God by Michael Russell (finished 9/2/23) 4.2 stars
273. Mr. Wilder and Me by Jonathan Coe (finished 9/2/23) 4.4 stars
274. Kennedy 35 by Charles Cumming (finished 9/3/23) 4.15 stars
275. The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds and Democracy by Anand Giridharadas (finished 9/4/23) 4.3 stars
276. The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis (finished 9/4/23) 3.7 stars
277. The Peking Express by James Zimmerman (finished 9/5/23) 3.8 stars (A)
278. An Evil Heart by Linda Castillo (finished 9/5/23) 3.6 stars
279. Hero by Thomas Perry (finished 9/6/23) 4 stars
280. *The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst (finished 9/7/23) 4.2 stars (A)
281. The Temple of Fortuna by Elodie Harper (finished 9/8/23) 4.2 stars
282. Thirty Days in Paris by Veronica Henry (finished 9/9/23) 3.5 stars
283. The Dark Edge of Night by Mark Pryor (finished 9/10/23) 4 stars
284. A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon (finished 9/13/23) 4.3 stars
285. *Two Brothers by Ben Elton (finished 9/14/23) 3.9 stars
286. Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris (finished 9/16/23) 4.35 stars
287. The Detective Up Late by Adrian McKinty (finished 9/18/23)
288. Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt by Sarah Jaffe (finished 9/19/23) 3.2 stars (A)
289. Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll (finished 9/20/23) 4.2 stars
290. *Jackdaws by Ken Follett (finished 9/21/23) 3.6 stars (A)
291. This Other Eden by Paul Harding (finished 9/23/23) 4.4 stars
292. *The Decent Inn of Death by Rennie Airth (finished 9/24/23) 4.2 stars
293. The Last Colony by Philippe Sands (finished 9/25/23) 3.65 stars
294. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein (finished 9/26/23) 4.5 stars
295. *The Reckoning by Rennie Airth (finished 9/27/23) 4.2 stars (A)
296. Life and Otter Miracles by Hazel Prior (finished 9/29/23) 3 stars
297. The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber (finished 9/30/23) 4.3 stars

The October List:

298. When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut (finished 10/2/23) 4.3 stars
299. *The Dead of Winter by Rennie Airth (finished 10/2/23) 4.3 stars (A)
300. Starter Villain by John Scalzi (finished 10/3/23) 4.15 stars
301. Hannah's War by Jan Eisenberg (finished 10/5/23) 3.2 stars
302. The Armor of Light by Ken Follett (finished 10/7/23) 3.4 stars
304. The Scarlet Papers by Matthew Richardson (finished 10/9/23) 4.15 stars
305. Mrs. Zant and the Ghost by Wilkie Collins (finished 10/10/23) 3.5 stars (A)
306. Suzanne's Children by Anne Nelson (finished 10/12/23) 3.8 stars (A)
307. The Motion Picture Teller by Colin Cotterill (finished 10/14/23) 3.9 stars
308. *Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett (finished 10/15/23) 3.85 stars (A)
309. Avid Reader by Robert Gottlieb (finished 10/16/23) 4.15 stars
310. Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson (finished 10/17/23) 4.25 stars (A)
311. Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond (finished 10/18/23) 5 stars
312. Jane and the Final Mystery by Stephanie Barron (finished 10/19/23) 3.85 stars
312. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa (finished 10/20/23) 4.1 stars
313. Still See You Everywhere by Lisa Gardner (finished 10/21/23) 4 stars
314. The Last Dance by Mark Billingham (finished 10/22/23) 4.15 stars
315. Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan (finished 10/22/23) 3.9 stars
316. Hunting the Falcon by Julia Fox & John Guy (finished 10/26/23) 4.65 stars (A)
317. The Collaborators by Reginald Hill (finished 10/27/23) 3.9 stars
318. Treason at York by John F. Hayes (finished 10/29/23) 3.4 stars
319. The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman (finished 10/30/23) 4.3 stars (partly A)
320. Deacon King Kong by James McBride (finished 10/31/23) 4.25 stars

The November list:

321. The Stellar Debut of Galactica MacFee by Alexander McCall Smith (finished 11/2/23 3.7 stars
322. So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan (finished 11/3/23) 4.5 stars
323. Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System by Ryan Reilly (finished 11/4/23) 4.2 stars (A)
324. *The Clairvoyant Countess by Dorothy Gilman (finished 11/5/23) 3.6 stars (A)
325. Locked in Pursuit by Ashley Weaver (finished 11/6/23) 3.75 stars
326. Godmersham Park by Gill Hornby (finished 11/7/23) 4.2 stars
327. *The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir (finished 11/10/23) 3.8 stars (A)
328. The Bridesman by Savyon Liebrecht (finished 11/11/23) 4.1 stars
329. The House of Odysseus by Claire North (finished 11/12/23) 4.15 stars
330. The Pole by J.M. Coetzee (finished 11/13/23) 4.4 stars
331. The Venetian Affair by Helen MacInnes (finished 11/15/23) 3.5 stars (A)
332. Don't Trust the Cat by Kristen Tracy (finished 11/16/23) 3.3 stars
333. Evergreen by Naomi Hirahara (finished 11/17/23) 3.7 stars
334. Shot With Crimson by Nicola Upson (finished 11/18/23) 4.2 stars
335. Ghosts of Honolulu by Mark Harmon (finished 11/19/23) 3.7 stars (A)
336. Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight by Riku Onda (finished 11/20/23) 4.35 stars
337. American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever (finished 11/21/23) 4.3 stars
338. Mistress of my Fate by Hallie Rubenhold (finished 11/23/23) 4 stars
339. The French Lesson by Hallie Rubenhold (finished 11/23/23) 4 stars
340. Love and Murder in the Time of Covid by Qiu Xialong (finished 11/24/23) 3.5 stars
341. Ride a Pale Horse by Helen MacInnes (finished 11/24/23) 3.4 stars (A)
342. The Injustice of Place by Kathryn Edin, Luke Shaefer, Timothy Nelson (finished 11/25/23) 4.4 stars
343. Enough by Cassidy Hutchinson (finished 11/26/23) 3.65 stars (A)
344. Death and Glory by Will Thomas (finished 11/27/23) 3.9 stars
345. The Backyard Book Chronicles by Amy Tan (finished 11/27/23) 4.15 stars
346. The Displacements by Bruce Holsinger (finished 11/28/23) 4.75 stars
347. Dinner With Joseph Johnson by Daisy Hay (finished 11/28/23) 5 stars (A)
348. The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt (finished 11/30/23) 4.3 stars

The December list:

349. The Covent Garden Murder by Mike Hollow (finished 12/2/23) 3.45 stars
350. Christmas at the Crescent by Veronica Henry (finished 12/3/23) 3.35 stars
351. Tutankhamun by Nick Drake (finished 12/4/23) 4.2 stars
352. Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfield (finished 12/4/23) 4.3 stars
353. The Psychology of Christian Nationalism by Pamela Cooper-White (finished 12/6/23) 3.65 stars
354. Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks (finished 12/7/23) 4 stars
355. Network of Lies by Brian Stelter (finished 12/8/23) 3.85 stars (A)
356. Egypt by Nick Drake (finished 12/9/23) 4.1 stars
357. Traitor's Gate by Catherine Gavin (finished 12/11/23) 3.4 stars
358. Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon (finished 12/12/23) 4 stars
359. The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray (finished 12/17/23) 4 stars
360. The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction by Robert Goddard (finished 12/19/23) 4.35 stars (partly A)
361. The Late Mrs. Willoughby by Claudia Gray (finished 12/21/23) 3.85 stars
362. The Great Displacement by Jake Bittle (finished 12/23/23) 4.4 stars (A)
363. A Christmas Vanishing by Anne Perry (finished 12/25/23) 3.2 stars (partly A)
364. *Dead Sea Cipher by Elizabeth Peters (finished 12/27/23) 3.6 stars
365. Dissent by Jackie Calmes (finished 12/27/23) 4.4 stars (A)
366. The Future by Naomi Alderman (finished 12/28/23) 4.65 stars
367. *The Children of Men by P.D. James (finished 12/29/23) 4.4 stars (A)
368. Blind Spots by Thomas Mullen (finished 12/29/23) 4.3 stars (partly A)
369. The Future is History by Masha Gessen (finished 12/30/23) 4.6 stars (partly A)
370. The Piano tuner by Daniel Mason (finished 12/31/23) 4.8 stars
371. The Mistress of Bhatia House by Sujata Massey (finished 12/31/23) 4.2 stars

(A) -- audiobook
* -- re-read

My Q1 (first three months of 2023) reading list:

The January list:

1. Blitz by Daniel O'Malley (finished 1/2/23) 4.2 stars
2. *The Garden of Forgotten Wishes by Trisha Ashley (finished 1/3/23) 3.75 stars (A)
3. Twenty by James Grippando (finished 1/4/23) 3.9 stars (A)
4. The Case of the Married Woman: Caroline Norton and her Fight for Justice for Women by Antonia Fraser (finished 1/6/23) 4 stars
5. A Death in Tokyo by Keigo Higashino (finished 1/6/23) 4.3 stars
6. The Heights by Parker Bilal (finished 1/7/23) 4.1 stars
7. *The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope (finished 1/7/23) 3.85 stars
8. My Fourth Time, We Drowned by Sally Hayden (finished 1/8/23) 4.7 stars
9. Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (finished 1/9/23) 3.6 stars (A)
10. Blood and Ink: The Scandalous Jazz Age Double Murder that Hooked America on True Crime by Joe Pompeo (finished 1/10/23) 3.75 stars
11. Scorpionfish by Natalie Bakopoulos (finished 1/10/23) 4.6 stars
12. Queen High by C.J. Carey (finished 1/11/22) 4 stars
13. The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff (finished 1/13/23) 4.3 stars
14. Putin by Phillip Short (finished 1/14/23) 4.2 stars (A)
15. The Double Agent by William Christie (finished 1/15/23) 4.15 stars (A)
16. Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka (finished 1/16/23) 4.35 stars
17. The War Against the Jews 1933-1945 by Lucy S. Dawidowicz (finished 1/16/23) 4 stars
18. The Camden Murder by Mike Hollow (finished 1/16/23) 3.7 stars
19. The Mitford Secret by Jessica Fellowes (finished 1/18/23) 3.8 stars
20. Early One Morning by Robert Ryan (finished 1/18/23) 4.25 stars
21. *The Kingdom of Carbonel by Barbara Sleigh (finished 1/18/23) 4.2 stars
22. Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit (finished 1/19/23) 5 stars
23. The It Girl by Ruth Ware (finished 1/20/23) 4.25 stars
24. The Italian by Shukri Mabkhout (finished 1/21/23) 3.9 stars
25. Augusta Hawke by G.M. Malliet (finished 1/22/23) 4.15 stars
26. I Will Find You by Harlan Coben (finished 1/23/23) 3.4 stars
27. We Don't Know Ourselves by Fintan O'Toole (finished 1/25/23) 4.5 stars (A)
28. The Last Sunrise by Robert Ryan (finished 1/26/23) 4.2 stars
29. *The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (finished 1/26/23) 4.4 stars (A)
30. Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse (finished 1/27/23) 4.5 stars
31. Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb (finished 1/27/23) 4.15 stars
32. Rupert of Hentzau by Anthony Hope (finished 1/28/23) 3.4 stars
33. The Trenches by Parker Bilal (finished 1/29/23) 4.1 stars
34. Revolutionary Roads by Bob Thompson (finished 1/30/23) 4.2 stars
35. *Making Money by Terry Pratchett (finished 1/30/23) 4.2 stars (A)
36. Tokyo Rose: Zero Hour by Andre Frattino (finished 1/31/23) 4.2 stars
37. *Carbonel and Calidor by Barbara Sleigh (finished 1/31/23) 3.5 stars
38. Members Only by Sameer Pandya (finished 1/31/23) 4.3 stars

The February list:

39. Bloodbath Nation by Paul Auster (finished 2/2/23) 4.35 stars
40. The Traveling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa (finished 2/3/23) 4.45 stars
41. *Dying Day by Robert Ryan (finished 2/4/23) 4.2 stars (A)
42. The English Fuhrer by Rory Clements (finished 2/5/23) 4.1 stars
43. Sanditon by Jane Austen, etc. (finished 2/7/23) 4 stars
44. Enslaved: The Sunken History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade by Simcha Jacobivici (finished 2/8/23) 3.1 stars
45. The Falcon's Eyes by Francesca Stanfill (finished 2/9/23) 3.85 stars (partly A)
46. A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley (finished 2/10/23) 4.3 stars
47. The Red Balcony by Jonathan Wilson (finished 2/10/23) 4.2 stars
48. *Second Violin by John Lawton (finished 2/12/23) 4.15 stars (A)
49. Red Widow by Sarah Horowitz (finished 2/13/23) 3.65 stars
50. The Angel of Rome and other stories by Jess Walter (finished 2/13/23) 4.5 stars
51. The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman (finished 2/14/23) 4 stars
52. Judgement Day by Penelope Lively (finished 2/15/23) 4.35 stars
53. Agent in the Shadows by Alex Gerlis (finished 2/16/23) 3.35 stars
54. *Icon by Frederick Forsyth (finished 2/17/23) 4 stars
55. Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories (finished 2/17/23) 3.7 stars (A)
56. Six Ostriches by Philipp Schott (finished 2/18/23) 3 stars
57. The Helsingør Sewing Club by Ella Gyland (finished 2/19/23) 3.1 stars
58. The White Mosque by Sofia Samatar (finished 2/19/23) 4.85 stars
59. Good Citizens Need Not Fear by Maria Reva (finished 2/20/23) 4.4 stars
60. Horse by Geraldine Brooks (finished 2/20/23) 5 stars
61. *Time and Time Again by Ben Elton (finished 2/21/23) 3.8 stars (A)
62. Blood & Sugar by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (finished 2/22/23) 3.7 stars
63. Shadow State by Luke Harding (finished 2/23/23) 3.85 stars (A)
64. Pegasus by Laurent Ricard & Sandrine Rigaud (finished 2/24/23) 4 stars (A)
65. *Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey (finished 2/24/23) 4.5 stars (A)
66. Agent Josephine by Damien Lewis (finished 2/25/23) 3.5 stars
67. The Return by Dulce Maria Cardoso (finished 2/26/23) 4.4 stars
68. Selection Day by Aravind Adiga (finished 2/26/23) 3.3 stars
69. Stone Blind by Natalie Hynes (finished 2/28/23) 4.7 stars (partly A)

The March list:

70. Homegrown by Jeffrey Toobin (finished 3/1/23) 4.3 stars
71. The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman (finished 3/2/23) 4.2 stars
72. Pitch Perfect by Mickey Rapkin (finished 3/3/23) 2.8 stars
73. *The White Russian by Tom Bradby (finished 3/4/23) 4.15 stars
74. Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See (finished 3/5/23) 4.1 stars
75. Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes (finished 3/5/23) 4.3 stars
76. All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin (finished 3/6/23) 3.35 stars
77. Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay (finished 3/7/23) 4.1 stars
78. The Road to Lichfield by Penelope Lively (finished 3/8/23) 4.6 stars
79. The Verge Practice by Barry Maitland (finished 3/8/23) 4.2 stars
80. A Winter Grave by Peter May (finished 3/10/23) 3.85 stars
81. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom by Stephen R. Platt (finished 3/12/23) 4.35 stars (A)
82. The King's Pleasure by Alison Weir (finished 3/13/23) 2.9 stars
83. Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett (finished 3/14/23) 4.1 stars
84. The Ugly History of Beautiful Things by Katy Kelleher (finished 3/16/23) 4.75 stars
85. The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh (finished 3/18/23) 4.35 stars
86. Bitter Orange Tree by Jokha Alharthi (finished 3/19/23) 4 stars
87. The Sea Between Two Shores by Tanis Rideout (finished 3/20/23) 4.3 stars
88. *An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris (finished 3/21/23) 4.8 stars (A)
89. Spider Trap by Barry Maitland (finished 3/22/23) 4.1 stars
90. The Shadows of London by Andrew Taylor (finished 3/23/23) 4.3 stars
91. *The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson (finished 3/24/23) 4.5 stars (A)
92. The 42nd Parallel by John dos Passos (finished 3/25/23) 4.1 stars
93. *The Hippopotamus Marsh by Pauline Gedge (finished 3/26/23) 4.15 stars
95. *The Oasis by Pauline Gedge (finished 3/27/23) 4.2 stars
96. Where the Wild Winds Are by Nick Hunt (finished 3/29/23) 4 stars
97. *The Horus Road by Pauline Gedge (finished 3/31/23) 3.95 stars

Best Books of 2022 Part I

Overdue; still under development & review!

Reading Goals I

Climbing Mt. TBR: New, New Shiny Books!

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin Read
The Imposters by Tom Rachman
Mercury Pictures Present by Anthony Marra
The Future by Naomi Alderman Read
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai Read
Blind Spots by Thomas Mullen Read
The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng Read
The Displacements by Bruce Holsinger Read
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Briefly, a Delicious Life by Nell Stevens

Climbing Mt. TBR: The Wall of Shame

Horse by Geraldine Brooks Read
The Foundling by Ann Leary
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon Read
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks Read
Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
Apeirogon by Colum McCann
Good Company by Cynthia d'Aprix Sweeney
The Last and the First by Nina Berberova
Ocean State by Stewart O'Nan

Canadiana

The Sea Between Two Shores by Tanis Rideout Read
We Should Not Be Afraid of the Sky by Emma Hooper
The Revenge of the Vinyl Cafe by Stuart Maclean Read
A Suitable Companion for the End of Your Life by Roger McGill
The Winter Wives by Linden Macintyre
The Break by Katherena Vermette Read
This Eden by Ed O'Loughlin
We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama Read
Here the Dark by David Bergen
Lear's Shadow by Claire Holden Rothman

Non-Fiction

We Don't Know Ourselves by Fintan O'Toole Read
Putin by Philip Short Read
My Fourth Time, We Drowned by Sally Hayden Read
Dinner With Joseph Johnson by Daisy Hay Read
Young Bloomsbury by Nino Strachey
Kingdom of Characters by Jing Tsu Read
Mussolini's Daughter by Caroline Moorehead
Mapping the Great Game by Riaz Dean
Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond Read
Fancy Bear Goes Phishing by Scott Shapiro Read
Hotel Florida: Truth, Love and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Valli

Reading Targets II

Travel

Revolutionary Roads by Bob Thompson Read
The Gran Tour: Travels with my Elders by Ben Aitken Read
Shadowlands: a Journey Through Lost Britain by Matthew Green
The White Mosque by Sofia Samatar Read
Ottoman Odyssey by Alev Scott
Roads to Sata by Alan Booth
Mad About the Mekong by John Keay
Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris
To the Lake by Kapka Kassabova
Marco Polo: The Journey That changed the World by John Man Read

Series & Sequels

Showstopper by Peter Lovesey Read
Moscow Exile by John Lawton
The English Fuhrer by Rory Clements Read
Murder Most Royal by S.J. Bennett Read
All the Queen's Spies by Oliver Clement Read
Cast Iron by Peter May
A Death in Tokyo by Keigo Higashino Read
The Company of Heaven by Catherine Fox Read
The Shadows of London by Andrew Taylor Read
A Chateau Under Siege by Martin Walker Read

Climate Stuff: Fact and Fiction

Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds by Thomas Halliday
The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration by Jake Bittle Read
Of Ice and Men: How We've Used Cold to Transform Humanity by Fred Hogge Read
The Heat Will Kill You First by Jeff Goodell Read
The Deluge by Stephen Markley
Clean Air by Sarah Blake
The Deepest Map by Laura Trethewey Read
The Water Will Come by Jeff Goodell
Vigil Harbor by Julia Glass
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Mysteries & Thrillers

The Skeleton Key by Erin Kelly
Queen High by C.J. Carey Read
Trapped by Camilla Läckberg
The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz Read
Code 6 by James Grippando Read
The Heron's Cry by Ann Cleeves
Agent in the Shadows by Alex Gerlis Read
Survive the Night by Riley Sager
Augusta Hawke by G.M. Malliet Read

Reading Targets III

New-to-Me and Debut Authors

Trust by Hernan Diaz
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy Read
Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser
Flowers Over the Inferno by Ilaria Tuti
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang Read
The Color Storm by Damian Dibben Read
Calling Ukraine by Johannes Lichtman
Tutankhamun by Nick Drake Read
The Removed by Brandon Hobson
In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova

Around the World in Ten Books

Lost Believers by Irina Zhorov (Russia)
Zone by Mathias Enard (France)
It's Getting Dark by Peter Stamm (Switzerland)
Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri (Japan) Read
Bitter Orange Tree by Jokha Alharthi (Oman) Read
The Day the Sun Died by Yan Lianke (China)
The Return by Dulce Maria Cardoso (Portugal/Angola) Read
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch (Ireland) Read
River Spirit by Leila Aboulela (Sudan)
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak (Turkey)

Europa Mania

The Bridesman by Savyon Liebrecht Read
Red Crosses by Sasha Filipenko
Pet by Catherine Chidgey
Mr. Wilder & Me by Jonathan Coe Read
The Long Corner by Alexander Maksik
You Will Never Find Me by Robert Wilson
Cathedral by Ben Hopkins
The Italian by Shukri Mabkhout Read
Ghost Town by Kevin Chen
The Slowworm's Song by Andrew Miller

Light & Fluffy Reading!

Bad, Bad Seymour Brown by Susan Isaacs Read
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld Read
The Shadow of Perseus by Claire Heywood
To Kill a Troubadour by Martin Walker Read
The Pink House by Catherine Alliott
Mistress of My Fate by Hallie Rubenhold Read
Thirty Days in Paris by Veronica Henry Read
Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See Read
The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis Read
Has Anyone Seen My Toes? by Christopher Buckley

Final Reading Targets

Livres en Francais

L'homme qui regardait la nuit -- Gilbert Sinoué
Juste avant l'oubli - Alice Zeniter
Retour indésirable - Charles Lewinsky
Le mage du Kremlin - Guiliano da Empoli

Re-reads

The Romeo Flag by Carolyn Hougan
Black Eagles by Larry Collins
House of Cards by Stanley Ellin
Berlin Solstice by Sylvia Fraser
The Hippopotamus Marsh by Pauline Gedge Read
Icon by Frederick Forsyth Read
The Bestseller by Olivia Goldsmith
Time and Time Again by Ben Elton Read
Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher

Work-related books

Saving this one for later...

Happy new thread, Suzanne! I certainly understand real life taking over your cyber life. Let's hope that things calm down for both of us!

Happy new thread, Suzanne. What Stasia said!

Happy new thread, Suzanne. Also what Stasia said!

Absolutely, Stasia!!

One very good thing: finally, after nearly a year, was able to put an order with Amazon for a new loveseat. I've had no chairs to sit on (except a rocking chair) since my move, and have been working sitting cross-legged on my bed. Really suboptimal from an ergonomic and productivity POV! It will be delivered on Monday, so that's a deadline for me to finish clearing space in my tiny living room for it to move in. It's a storage loveseat from one of Amazon's brands, so I'll be able to stick spare pillow covers, quilts, throws etc. in there, which is a big bonus.

>14 Chatterbox: Ouch! Your poor aching back! The new loveseat sounds wonderful!

Happy New Thread, Sun! Hoping you have the opportunity to really settle in and relax now, and that loveseat should help a lot. Spring is sprung here, and we're heading into a week of summer with temps in the mid to upper 80s forecast.

Happy new thread, Suzanne.

>14 Chatterbox: I am sure your back will be grateful for this purchase!

Happy new thread, Anita.

>18 PaulCranswick: LOL, I'm not Anita, but thanks anyway, Paul!

I'm not sure that the thread is still new, but I look forward to whatever you have to say, SUZANNE!!!!!

good to see you in these parts Suzanna

Just finished a very satisfactory read of the final Ruth Galloway mystery by Elly Griffiths -- I loved the tension about what the outcome of the relationship between Ruth and Nelson might be, the suspense about Cathbad, the echoes of several previous books, and the descriptions of the Norfolk coast. And the mystery was pretty good too! While I'll be sad to say goodbye to these characters, I have really enjoyed the author's new series featuring a gay Sikh woman cop trying to make her way (in the latest book) in London.

Also -- a shout out for The Color Storm by Damian Dibben. A gripping yarn set in Venice circa 1510, featuring the painter Giorgione and his pursuit of new colors and of commissions from wealthy patrons, like the richest man who ever lived (as he was known), German tycoon Jakob Fugger. (A friend/former colleague of mine wrote a bio/history of Fugger...) Everything hangs together beautifully, and the novel blends all its elements -- the story of Venice as a city, the history of art and all the elements that combined to make Venetian painting so critical, the historical shift to a mercantile world, etc. etc. And it's all incredibly entertaining. This was unputdownable for me.

If you're interested in the latter book, read this article by Dibben for some context: https://perspectivemag.co.uk/hue-and-cry/.

Happy new one!

Hi Suzanne. Hope all is well.
I picked up Hotel Pastis after you mentioned it on your last thread. A delightful read, a bit of a throwback but I enjoyed it for that too. I really loved Mayle's memoirs set in Provence years ago.
I just finished my worst Europa Editions read as well, it was a random off the library shelves pick, It ticked two boxes for me, French writer and a road trip but was a 2.5 star read, The Best Thing That Can Happen to a Man Is to Get Lost by Alain Gillot.

>24 avatiakh: It had been a while since I'd read Hotel Pastis and I have to say that while it was amusing, it didn't age well, especially the way Mayle writes female characters. I enjoyed the Mayle memoirs, but not to the extent of re-reading them.

Sorry to hear about the bad Europa read. I'm more willing to take chances with their offerings, since the good so often exceeds the bad. But since many of these books are by new-to-me authors, inevitably there are some that just don't work...

>25 Chatterbox: Yes, lots of older fiction doesn't read that well now. I'm happy enough to put the poorly done treatment of female characters to one side when I'm reading these types of reads. I found Peter May's Extraordinary People also had these issues, another recent read. I seem to be on a run of picking up less than stellar fiction.
Agree that the Europa books are generally high standard so worth taking the plunge.

>24 avatiakh: >25 Chatterbox: I read Hotel Pastis recently too and did not feel like it held up well at all. I have also enjoyed Mayles nonfiction in the past, but do not think I will be revisiting it any time soon.

>26 avatiakh: I've had some good luck with fiction, although from books written by the Peters (May and Mayle) I don't expect anything more than to be diverted and not irritated. Sometimes, enough of the former can offset too much of the latter.

In terms of entertainment, I've enjoyed Barry Maitland's mysteries this year; but I've also found a lot of more serious writing has really engaged my attention: Horse by Geraldine Brooks, The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng, Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes. Also, Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes, Scorpionfish by Natalie Bakopoulos, and two books by Penelope Lively, and The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh. And new-to-me writers have been great: The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff, The Color Storm by Damian Dibben, The Return by Dulce Maria Cardoso are three of my top reads so far this year.

>28 Chatterbox: That's quite a useful list, and I thank you, Suzanne. I don't know when I'll be able to read more serious writing, but I have that post among my favorites when the time comes!

I hope you're letting some of your stress go and finding better balance these days.

>29 LizzieD: Take note, Peggy, that "more serious" does not mean Joyce, or even Kundera. Just very good writing, solid and interesting plots and convincing characters. As opposed to predictable but enjoyable brain candy, whether that be mystery, thriller, chick lit or whatevah.

Trying to shed the stress, and may slowly be getting to a point where I can cope.

I did have my patch test at my dermatologist's last week, which was distinctly unpleasant and not terribly productive. My back erupted in hives but NOT from any of the patches. So rather than allergies, I may have developed some kind of inflammation-based, pressure-induced hypersensitivity. There's some kind of scientific name for it, I think. I'm annoyed that I'm still baffling the dermatologists, though pleased that I'm not allergic to specific fabrics (or fragrances, or -- horrors -- cats), just to the way my clothes hit my body. Any kind of friction is going to produce these hives, which is disconcerting. Meanwhile, am high on Benadryl as I try to banish those that erupted last week.

Suzanne, I think you know that really serious writing is far beyond me right now. I'm trying. I did order a copy of the Ghosh that you just read and hope that it won't be beyond me when I try it.

I am very, very interested in your patch test. When I was 5, I was a patient of the first woman pediatric allergist at Duke. That would have been 1949. I remember how awful my back felt when I reacted to every single patch and wonder whether I was allergic to everything, as Dr. Dees thought, or hypersensitive as you have been diagnosed. I had massive doses of B12 as a result, which I suspect didn't help whichever condition I had. I also have reacted with great red blotches, which aren't raised, to tuberculin tests; likewise, the shingles shot before Shingrix. Some people read them as negative; some, positive. You've given me something to think about and I thank you!

I wish you decreasing stress and increasing balance! And NO HIVES! AND good reading!

>31 LizzieD: I do, indeed, understand the background of the need for lighthearted or straightforward books at this stage. I've kinda been in a similar place, grappling my way toward some kind of next-stage normal. Meanwhile -- I'm heading to ALA in Chicago at the end of June and will keep my eyes open for a magic book bullet for you.

Wowza re your own patch test... The oddity is that I didn't have an allergic reaction to any of the substances, but to the edges of the blocks, where they were taped to my skin. It wasn't the tape, as it wasn't everywhere the tape was. Just in some spots, where motion would have aggravated whatever hypersensitivity is going on. I so hate being a medical mystery, even in such a banal way. Until three years ago, I'd never even had to see a dermatologist for any reason. Gah. I knew that something major was happening as my back was tormenting me until I got the stuff off the day before my appointment, but even the senior elder statesman guy hadn't seen something that severe in that kind of pattern. Really deeply annoying. So we're treating it "as if" it were a specific kind of dermatitis and will escalate our way up to the silver bullet of monoclonal antibody treatments, which I hope we never reach since I really truly don't relish that battle with my insurer.

Oh dear. I hope whatever you're getting now does the trick too. I guess that's not what I had.....and in my case, it's always been the tape too. I look forward to your settling down into your own skin and retrieving your balance. I look forward to our doctor saying that I can go out more, wearing a mask, as risks of infecting my mom with something that would be dire for her have gone back to their pre-COVID levels.

Just finished reading Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. I laughed, I winced, I recoiled, I empathized... and over and over again, I kept telling the narrator/main character, nope, you really, REALLY don't want to do that! Damn, I love unlikeable characters. Kuang avoids all the easy plot devices, while having tremendous fun poking fun at the whole publishing industry and 'diversity' mania. Somehow, she manages to bridge the gap between honoring real diversity and diversity in name; between plagiarism and the myriad forms literary creation can take, etc. Ultimately, there are NO 'likable' characters in this novel, which is what makes it so entertaining and real. Because all of us are flawed in one way or another. Juniper/June's flaws may or may not include racism, but they definitely include self-deception and the way that isolation skews our sense of what's important. Best of all, Kuang avoids any temptation of ending the novel in a neat, tidy way. And all of that is the reason I gave this page-turner 5 stars. Well, that and the fact that it's a great book for people who love to both read and write to dip into.

I've been making may way very, very slowly through Hermione Lee's massive bio of Tom Stoppard. And because I'm alternating between Kindle and audiobook, I've just realized how massive it is -- more than 1,000 pages. And yes, that's too long. Lee is making the same points about Stoppard in different contexts over his lifespan, and as a result I'm finding it frustrating. Especially when she gets bogged down in needless details -- scriptwriting projects that never really get off the ground, name-dropping, stories of "luvvie" parties... Thankfully, I'm now about to read the chapter devoted to what remains my fave Stoppard play, Arcadia. This makes me wonder about the perils of writing an 'authorized' bio at the request of a living subject?

>34 Chatterbox:
I haven't read anything by R. F. Kuang and that is surprising since she started out as a YA author. We had several of her YA series in the library and one would think that I would have read at least one of the series - but, NO. Your description of this book makes it a BB for me. Our local public library is on a short budget this year and they don't get as many new titles in as they once did. However, I will watch for this one.

I finally finished that long biography of Beatrix Potter. Well, I thought it was long - 500 pages. That was about right for this focused look at her interactions with nature and the natural world. I think that Arcadia is the only play by Stoppard that I have seen.

I am listening to the Tatiana De Rosnay biography of Daphne Du Maurier and am not sure what to think of it. It was originally written in French for the French market and then translated into English. I wonder how that affects the content? Have you read this one?

>35 benitastrnad: I'm not a big fan of the de Rosnay bio of Daphne du Maurier; there was a LOT of the authorial voice there, which annoyed me. It was interesting, but... Not sure about translation issues. She is effectively bilingual and has written in both English and French (had an English mother) so I would assume that she's able to oversee a translation well.

I love Stoppard's writing -- he really does play with ideas, but is also great at banter and wordplay.

Heard a great interview with Kuang on NPR this week. It’s probably on line somewhere.

>37 drneutron: Yes, I heard it too, when I was in the middle of reading the book! :-)

>36 Chatterbox:
The use of the first person in the Du Maurier biography bothers me. It makes it sound like a memoir, but since parts of it are told by the author Tatiana De Rosnay I find it confusing and I would not classify it as an authoritative biography. It is not at all in the same class as the biography I read of Beatrix Potter. However, Daphne Du Maurier was such an interesting person that I do want to finish it. I just wish I had chosen a different biography of this woman.

>39 benitastrnad: I think Margaret Forster wrote a bio of du Maurier. It's a bit older than de Rosnay's attempt, but probably better -- certainly, Forster was a MUCH better writer.

>39 benitastrnad: and >40 Chatterbox: There is also a recent biography of DDM by Jane Dunn - I read it in 2014. It was academic in style with lots of endnotes, but published (in the UK) by a fairly mainstream publisher, I think. And Helen Taylor edited the DDM companion, which I think contains a lot of the introductions to the early 21st century Virago Modern Classics reissues of DDM's work, which I have collected most of.

>41 elkiedee: I'd be interested in reading that companion book! I vividly remember reading Rebecca the summer of 1976, when we moved to Belgium. Those old enough who lived in Europe will remember how incredibly hot that summer was, and the drought that led to the ground cracking, etc. There was little for us to do; while my father would go to work at the Canadian embassy, we were stuck living in a residential hotel in the commune of Saint Gilles. Back in the days before the Internet, as a 14-year-old, wow, it was tough! (by privileged standards, natch.) I was grumpy, missing friends horribly, etc. And I took refuge in reading. And one of the first books in which I immersed myself was Rebecca, and when I finally persuaded my mother to make a foray to the House of Paperbacks way down the Chausée de Waterloo, I found some more of her books.

I think the seeds of my bibliomania were really fertilized that summer, having been planted during our first European sojurn in London. (We'd go on driving holidays through various parts of western Europe, the UK, Ireland, etc., and my mother would have to ration my books. I'd end up re-reading books three or four times per trip...) No English-language public libraries? Eeek. It wasn't until two years later that I reached the point of French-language fluency that I could easily read books in French. And the manic obsessive book acquisition phase happened when we were in Japan, and English books were as scarce as hen's teeth. Thankfully, my father had a membership to the Tokyo American Club, which had a LIBRARY!

Which is a long rambling way of explaining why DDM ended up being a memorable author for me. The following summer, I read Csardas by Diane Pearson. The summer of 1980, which was another isolated/disconnected summer (my parents were moving to Japan, I was in the gap between first and second years of university), I read Class Reunion by Rona Jaffe. Throughout my youth and childhood there were books like this.

What was distinctive about DDM for me was that her books seemed to bridge a kind of gap between potboilers (like Pearson and Jaffe) and something more 'literary', both in terms of writing and character. Nope, not 'literary' in the sense of something one would study, but a notch above brain candy. Later, when I fell in love with Cornwall, and discovered that the particular part of the coast I'd fallen for also had happened to be DDM's home, it felt like a kind of fate. I had ended up in Fowey by accident -- that's where I could get a train ticket to. I had no idea until I got there that it was home to DDM, and the site of 'Menabilly', and the setting of books like The King's General and The House on the Strand. Only later, after DDM's death, did Fowey really embrace her as a kind of literary personality. At the time I first went there, in the mid 1980s, I was equally surprised to discover it had been home to 'Q', aka Arthur Quiller-Couch, famous as the editor of the first Oxford Book of English Poetry and posthumous muse of Helene Hanff, author of 84 Charing Cross Road. (Read her other memoir, Q's Legacy.

I read a lot of Daphne Du Maurier books as a teenager too, mostly 70s and 80s paperback editions from Oxfam, Penguin and Fontana. I hadn't kept all of them, but also, the VMC editions are much more attractive. And I really like editions with introductions by other writers too - I think reading about the writer as herself (or himself) a reader is always interesting.

Welp, I've hit 150 books. Kind of suitable that the most recent was yet another re-read of The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey, which I first read when I was about 10. The catalyst for revisiting this audiobook (oh, there's a new audiobook of it available from Audible, but I have one I bought 10 plus years ago that is read by Derek Jacobi, which I really enjoy) was watching "The Lost King" over the weekend, about the discovery of Richard III's burial place by Philippa Langley. In a lot of ways, it was tremendously entertaining, but made me want to read a non-fiction account of this quest. Still, her joining the Ricardians was a real hoot. And of course, this was one of the early entrants in the Ricardian canon. That said... this time around I found myself (bloody minded person that I am) picking holes in Tey's case. For instance, her characters put a great deal of weight on the fact that no mother would allow her daughters to emerge from sanctuary and go to the court of a king who had murdered her sons. Regardless of whether the two young boys (the princes in the Tower) were alive or not, Richard III had already 'murdered' one of her two sons by her first marriage, Richard Grey -- beheaded alongside Elizabeth's closest brother. So I found myself talking back to the characters on the audiobook.

>44 Chatterbox: Congratulations on reaching 2 x 75, Suzanne!

I missed the broadcast of "Lost King" over the weekend. Darn. I read Daughter of Time a long time ago and really enjoyed it. Actually, I listened to it, it was the old Derek Jacobi recording and it was very well done. I find the whole "Princes in the Tower" thing interesting but I don't really understand the fascination with it. At that time in English history people got murdered all the time. Of course, they were murdered. Who did it seems a bit irrelevant to me, and I am inclined to say that Richard was responsible for ordering it done. They were a clear threat to his kingship, so it was best to get rid of the problem.

The story of finding the body of Richard is also fascinating. I will have to watch that program at some point. Now that I have time to watch things. I finished my first binge watching. I choose to watch the first three seasons of Star Trek: Discovery. The star of that show was a student here at UA, and I am a fan of Star Trek. It was also interesting to watch the extra stuff that was on the DVD's. How they make those costumes and build the sets was very interesting.

>44 Chatterbox: Yes Tey's case for Richard does have a few holes in it despite the articulate pleading of the good Inspector Grant.

The boys were fond of their Woodville relatives and might have been coaxed into throwing their tacit support to someone (not Richard) on the throne. And Richard went from "Lord Protector" to King awfully quickly, some say.

Tey got me interested in the Richard III controversy but she's not the last word on the subject.

I liked Sharon Kay Penman's The Sunne in Splendour a lot.

Suzanne good to have you posting here more regularly. You were missed.

>44 Chatterbox: The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
I read this as a teenager I'm pretty sure, don't remember more than the gist but it got me to pay attention to Richard III. I've added "The Lost King" to my queue.

>46 benitastrnad: Aha, but WERE they a threat to his kingship?? LOL you've got me on my hobbyhorse... As Tey has her characters point out, once Richard had bastardized the children, he had more to lose than gain by murdering them -- especially since the claim to the throne could be passed on via Edward's five daughters (and indeed, Henry VII did marry the eldest). I suspect it was someone like Buckingham trying to curry favor with Richard, or perhaps the eldest boy died of an illness. If the boys were that important, than it would have been great propaganda for Henry Tudor -- unseating a child murdering usurper.

Really, if I think about it (and I've probably read far too much about it...) Richard benefitted from the reluctance to have yet another child king on the throne after decades of strife, civil wars, etc. Richard II had been a child king, manipulated by his uncles and relatives and favorites; the throne was then usurped by his cousin, the first Lancaster king, Henry IV. But Henry V died when his own heir was just a toddler, and Henry VI was weak-minded (likely inherited some kind of mental illness via his mother's family) and couldn't hold the country together, leading to the wars of the Roses. No one wanted a return to that kind of instability. So I suspect that even those who may have questioned the narrative of a precontract with another woman by Edward IV, making his marriage bigamous, would have reconciled themselves to this as something pragmatic (just as, 40 years later, most of Henry VIII's courtiers reconciled themselves to the probably illegal divorce from Catherine of Aragon.)

Whether it was a deliberate order or a "will no one rid me of (these turbulent princes)" (a la Henry I and Thomas Becket) wish fulfillment, there's just as much evidence pointing to Henry Tudor as to Richard. Henry had a remarkably weak claim to the throne (via female succession AND a line of descent that had been explicitly barred from the throne -- more bastardy! -- by Richard II.) To consolidate it and to reunite the country, he had to marry Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Edward IV. And she had to be legitimate. But if she was legitimate, then so were her brothers...

Why are people so interested? I think to me it's about mysteries that we can never solve. Also, it's a story I learned about as a child, and that stuck with me. Heck, we don't even know for sure that they WERE murdered. There were never any bodies proven to be theirs (skeletons discovered 200 years later in the reign of Charles II may have been, but forensics back then clearly didn't exist...) The confession was deeply suspect. There is no evidence. Sure, this happened then as it happens today. But this changed the course of history. If you trace cause & effect, you start wondering about whether England would have become Great Britain, about whether it would have become a Protestant nation, about whether there would have been a British Empire. Yes, absolutely, lots of counterfactuals there. But "for the want of a nail, a kingdom was lost..." And I think this period between Edward IV's death and Bosworth was pivotal.

*climbing down off my podium*

>47 magicians_nephew: I should re-read Penman's take on Richard. I did just finish a re-read of her first book about 12th century Wales, which I think is the series I like best. That said, I struggle with her "forsoothly" writing -- the overuse of faux medievalisms, having characters call each other "lad" and "lass". Also, too much of her dialog seems to involve "data dumps" of background information for the reader. So I don't enjoy them as much as I did when I was first reading them back in the 1980s/early 1990s.

I finally, finally crossed the finish line reading Hermione Lee's bio of Tom Stoppard. I like Lee as a biographer, and Stoppard's plays are amazing -- I relish the badinage/verbal wordplay and the demands on my brain. BUT -- this too often felt as if Lee had downloaded Sir Tom's diary and written it up, and added well-written summaries of the plays and their critical reception. It was certainly authoritative and will be a great starting point for another biographer in a few decades to delve into his life and his work, but felt like an overwritten (if often exceptionally well written) CV. The insights are the kind I would have expected, and little felt tremendously revelatory, even if the kind of detailed insight into casting decisions, work process, etc. were very intriguing.

The best thing about this book is that it made me want to revisit some of Stoppard's plays, and especially to catch as many as possible in production, since I think they 'play' better than they 'read'. I'm supposed to be in NYC in about two weeks' time, and I may try to find a ticket to "Leopoldstadt" before it closes.

The other bonus from making my way through all the relentless name dropping and calendar entries is that I found myself thinking a lot about what DOES make for a really great biography, and the challenges of writing an authorized bio of a living person that is really critical/analytical. So, I'm glad I read/listened to this and have it to refer to, but will be in no hurry to re-read it.

On a related note: in a few recent books, it's been fun to link my own life to the events/locations described there. For instance, in Lee's bio, I enjoyed the backstory to the NYC production of Arcadia, which I saw in its Lincoln Center debut in the mid-1990s. Ditto, Rufus Sewell as a key character in Rock and Roll, which I saw in London, and his later translation of The Cherry Orchard by Chekhov, featuring Simon Russell Beale, which I saw at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music). I was lucky enough to go with friends to a discussion with Stoppard and Beale at BAM -- perhaps it was a night that the stage was dark or it was before a performance? -- and as a BAM member, got an autographed copy of The Coast of Utopia. And reading a completely different kind of book, Chelsea Mansions by Barry Maitland, a key scene is set outside the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Knightsbridge/South Kensington in London. Which happens to be located on the same cul-de-sac where my elementary school is/was! We had all our class pictures taken in their adjacent gardens, and I remember one spring illicitly feeding a group of kittens living in the undergrowth there...

Blood Sugar by Sascha Rothchild was an unexpected 'pleasure'. I got an e-galley via the publisher, and picked it up as I've been needing to read lightweight stuff recently. This was precisely the right blend of suspense, good writing, strong characters and captivating plot. The reader meets Ruby at the age of 5, drowning a 7-year-old boy in the surf. Then we skip ahead a few decades, to Ruby sitting in an interrogation room, facing an incredulous detective who tells her that he's never been in close proximity to a single sudden death in his life, outside of his work -- and that she's been present at the scenes of four such deaths. The author does a great job of unfolding the narrative, revealing just a bit at a time of Ruby's story. It's one of those books left me willing to suspend all disbelief and just go along for the ride, and had an intriguing main character -- self aware to some extent, but probably deceiving herself as to just how self-aware she is. This consolidated my enjoyment of unlikeable main characters, or characters whom the world is likely to view as villainous. To some extent (as Ruby herself notes) we all are less pleasant human beings than we'd like the world to think; to varying degrees we learn to edit ourselves as we move through the world and age and mellow. Ruby's actions may be incomprehensible and amoral to us, but the author does a great job of showing how they seem to be the logical course of action to her -- which makes for a fascinating story. Not to be read, however, by those who need to feel sympathy/empathy/liking for a book's narrator...

>44 Chatterbox: Way behind here, but congrats on hitting double 75 already!! Blood Sugar sounds repellently fascinating.

>52 Berly: "Repellently fascinating" seems to have been a theme with me this spring! Add that to Yellowface and another book I just finished, Killing Me by Michelle Gagnon, all of whom have narrators you really don't like or disapprove of but who I (at least) found myself kinda rooting for, and there's a definite trend in place. Good writing, good suspense and all three take the story in unexpected directions. When brain candy is as unusual as these three books, it's even more fun.

I made it to ALA in Chicago!! After the opening bonanza, I have scored about 40 books for myself, six to pass on to Mark & Joe when I see them Sunday, and another couple for Marianne! Friday evening tends to be the big rush, but I still may end up with 80-odd books. Have begun adding them to my library, so if you're curious, you know what to do!

Also had some quality time to spend at the Art Institute, and saw the Van Gogh exhibit -- all about landscape painting along the Seine, included Seurat, Signac, etc. etc. Excellent. Then had a Wiener schnitzel for lunch with an academic friend who has retired from university of Chicago and will be going to live in Montreal with her husband.

So a great day! Tomorrow I'll have lunch with my wonderful cousin Nancy, who lives out in San Francisco.

>54 Chatterbox: I'm so envious, Suzanne! I was just reading about the conference today and imagining what a good time it must be. Enjoy yourself!

>54 Chatterbox:
I am disconsolate. I am bereft. I am also very jealous. I wish I was there instead of in a Starbucks in Kentucky on my way back to Alabama. You can bet that next year I will be in San Diego.

I am glad that you are having a good time. And that you are picking up books. I am getting the e-mail bulletins from the publishers and know that they are distributing ARC's once again. I contacted a few of the people I know from a few of the publishers and will get some ARC's that way, but if you get extra's send a couple my way.

>56 benitastrnad: I was a bit dismayed today (Saturday) that there seemed to be so little left... I will keep my eyes open tomorrow for you. And of course, happy to share when I've finished reading...

I will NOT be in San Diego, so will be jealous in my turn next June... :-)

Aha! you got to Chicago! I'm so pleased for you. I knew beforehand, of course, since the picture at Joe's was posted here and on Facebook.

Blood Sugar sounds good - I don't have to like the characters to enjoy a book. Sometimes not liking them is part of the fun.

>58 ffortsa: I probably shouldn't have gone, since on my return I ended up having to pay full retail price for my Aimovig (insurance stopped covering it...) but honestly, it was a boon for my mental health AND it seems to have jumpstarted my energy levels -- I've been much more productive this week than I have for most of the spring, which is good. Now I can just relax and enjoy the rest of the summer in poverty, lol!

My Chicago haul was about 65 books for me, one for Judy, two for Marianne, and about 7 (I think?) for Joe, Mark and Becca. And another two or three for my neighbor who looked after the cats for me. A bit on the low side for me, but there's good stuff there, so I'm content. Having nabbed the next two novels by Ilaria Tuti, I see a binge of her mysteries coming. And the guy I met at the Norton booth managed to persuade me to double down on a Patrick O'Brian wannabe -- adventures set in the Napoleonic era. A friend of mine's new book about cities and urban life was available via ARC, and I picked up some good stuff at Grove and Europa.

>59 Chatterbox: How ever do you get them home?

I shipped a box containing half of them! And I had two checked bags on my return...

Patrick O'Brian wannabe??? Do tell

The name (the publishers told me it's a pseudonym) is J.H. Gelernter. The hero is one Thomas Grey. They were handing out ARCs of The Montevideo Brief, so I had to nab the first two for my Kindle... *sigh* Oh ye of absolutely NO resistance! (The blurb on the back of the ARC even cites Jack Aubrey...)

Devouring Rebecca Makkai's I Have Some Questions For You. Have been a big fan of hers since reading one of her short story anthologies (Music for Wartime) and I find myself thinking, AHA, THIS is what happens when a writer with above-average talent tackles a staple of the genre fiction category! (It's a thumping good read... and Makkai really has the effortless writing thing nailed. I believe absolutely in her narrator's existence, and never get a hint that this is actually fiction -- a home run for me, as a reader.)

Just swinging by to say hello on my circuit of threads that I'm trying to catch up on!

>64 thornton37814: Thanks for the visit! I'm a constant lurker, but rarely post -- even here... So it's nice to get a comment showing that I'm not completely invisible, LOL...

OH, no! You're never invisible, Suzanne. I lurk and lurk and follow up on your books that strike my fancy. I'm happy that you were able to get to Chicago, meet some folks, and pick up some winners for you!

>66 LizzieD: Oh, so am I, Peggy -- it was a delightful interlude. Possibly saved my sanity, even if it ruined my budget!! Another highlight was an exhibit at the Art Institute featuring Van Gogh's work on painting "avant garde" landscapes in the Parisian suburbs. It also included works by Seurat (who is interesting, but who intrigues me less than the other painters included here), Signac (whose work I love), Emile Bernard and Charles Angerand (both relatively new to me, but fascinating). Thankfully, it wasn't overly crowded (I vividly remember a Monet exhibit there back in the late 90s, horribly crowded, with everyone plugged into their audiocasette guides, each of which was at a slightly different point in the narrative, as we all could tell because of the sound leaking from the headphones, so that there was a constant burble of the recording all around).

I didn't have time to drop by the Asian galleries to see a Japanese print exhibit or a Chinese ink brush painting show, and the Ellsworth Kelly drawings exhibit was still being installed, but I managed to visit some of the sculpture from SE Asia, which made me ponder the curious paths those objects must have taken to reach their current 'homes' in Chicago. Next time I'm in Chicago, I must make time to spend more hours there exploring the collection AND returning to the Field museum.

So that, my lunches with Lucy and with my cousin Nancy, the schmoozing with Mark and Joe as talked books and setting the world to rights and enjoying the wonders of Joe's garden, were even better (gasp) than the books. It reminded me that I'm a human being, not a hermit crab!!

Ended June and began July with some noteworthy reading.

First, my five-star book: I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai. She really is a remarkable author, and I suspect the reason I dither about reading her books is that they are so well crafted I feel like wilting in face of them. The plot at the heart of this one isn't new -- woman returns to school she attended, and now she's an adult she can discover hidden truths about something that happened there -- but Makkai does this SO WELL that it feels fresh. You can enjoy it as a mystery, as a coming-to-grips-with-one's-past story, or on a much deeper level, as the characters grapple with the nature of truth and "one's own truth". Those characters are completely believable, even amidst the familiar tropes.

Then I was pleasantly surprised by Zero Days, which was a book bullet from Becca, Joe's daughter, who told me she was relishing it. I had felt Ware was falling into too much of a pattern recently, but this book's pacing was lightning fast and the plot very intriguing. Above-average genre fiction.

Finally, The Forgotten Girls by Monica Potts. I'm not a massive fan of memoir, but this transcends that category, as the author sets out to tell the story of a childhood friendship against the backdrop of the Ozarks in Arkansas, and how those two young women -- herself being one of them -- ended up on two very different paths in spite of their bonding over similar dreams and goals. Potts avoids easy/glib answers and prescriptions, and is empathetic. The only thing that stopped this being a five-star book for me was that at times it still felt somewhat exploitative, even if it was honest (and even if the other woman, Darci, gave her consent to being written about; one wonders whether she understood what would follow?) It's much more insightful than other books that purport to explain the country's most overlooked rural corners, like Hillbilly Elegy.

Otherwise, my reading has been OK but little that has stood out. Some things that have been interesting, some that have been disappointing, but not much noteworthy. Partly because of what I've chosen to read -- I've done little to challenge myself intellectually as I keep trying to plod along from one day to the next.

Congratulations on making Chicago, Suzanne! Sounds like a wonderful haul both for you and others.

>68 Chatterbox: Adding I Have Some Questions for You and Zero Days to the BlackHole. Thanks for those recommendations!

>69 alcottacre: I wish I had "real" copies of both that I could send you, Stasia, but increasingly I'm relying on my Kindle for reading, where I can adjust the font size and not have to fuss over using my glasses in order to read. (It's been two years now, and I'm still not reconciled to them...) Thankfully, I got an e-galley for the Makkai, and used my Kindle Rewards to cover a chunk of the cost of Zero Days.

I can't remember who warbled about Metropolitan Stories by Christine Coulson a year or two ago -- it may have been by non LT friend Harlan (a dear friend from my high school days who is a booklover, although not as ferocious a reader as I am...) In any event -- the author is a former Metropolitan Museum curator, whose debut was that anthology of rather delightful linked short stories set in the Met's world, and I really enjoyed it. Her upcoming book (one of the tomes I picked up in my ALA jaunt) is One Woman Show, which is a little too precious for me, sadly, although entertaining in its own way. She imagines a woman's 20th century life as if it were a series of museum labels, and as if the woman itself were a museum exhibit (a sort of fragile display item) that forms part of a series of "collections" (parents/husbands). The parts that make the whole work are snippets of dialogue between the "characters" (subjects of other faux paintings in the main chunk of the book) about Kitty's life. It's more intriguing than compelling, and then because of the Big Idea about form and the not-really-all-that-new idea that women are trapped by the views of others of what their lives should be. Just flagging it because I enjoyed the debut short story collection much more, and because this is an interesting/short/quirky addition. The more you've picked up about museums, the more you'll enjoy the snark underpinning some of the narrative. (It's also short, more novella length.) Will be out in October.

It is Saturday and I am not working for a blessed change so I won't get your name wrong today.

Have a lovely weekend, Suz.

>72 PaulCranswick: LOL, Paul... Brains moulting with age and heat...

I've been reading more slowly in the last week, struggling with beastly headaches and focusing more on "re-listens" to favorite (soothing) audiobooks.

Read my first book by Russell Banks; very intriguing. The Magic Kingdom was the ultimate in a slow-burn read. Initially hard to get engaged with, both because of the narrative style and the topic. But with each page/chapter, I became more intrigued in what was, to me, an unlikely novel: set in Florida circa 1900-1910, in a Shaker community, with a backdrop of agriculture and tuberculosis. Go figure. But Banks was a master of the slow reveal, and each page lifted the curtain another inch, whetting my curiosity still further and bringing me into the world of Harley Mann, a self described isolated wealthy real estate developer chronicling his life in the 1970s. He drops hints along the way of how his life fractured, so none of the plot twists is unexpected, but each is somehow surprising and galvanizing.

I'll def. be looking out for more by Banks, one of a number of authors I've been delaying reading for inexplicable reasons.

So, I've added to my reading wish list two gargantuan biographies, both of them because of movies.

In the first case, I feel that I absolutely must read Robert Caro's book about Robert Moses after watching "Turn Every Page", which highlights the collaboration between Caro and his long-time editor, Robert Gottlieb, who died last month. The documentary was wonderful and startlingly insightful into the perils of both writing and editing, and demonstrates just why the two skill sets are so different.

The second is due to a movie that isn't yet out yet -- "Oppenheimer", which is based on American Prometheus. I just read something on the NY Times website about how two authors collaborated to get a much-delayed magisterial bio across the finish line.

The only question is whether the release of "Oppenheimer" will be enough to convince me to return to movie theaters for the first time in four years or so??

>73 Chatterbox:, >74 Chatterbox: You zip through books so quickly that I don't keep up, but you've just hit me with 2 BBs in 2 posts... If only I were reading anything these days... but I happen to have an Audible credit to spare and I do listen consistently on daily walks. 26 hours at about 30-45 minutes per day.

>75 qebo: If it's any consolation -- the Caro mega-tome and the Oppenheimer bio are both massive books that I have not yet read myself??

I also am still a Scribd subscriber, although I find myself still annoyed that partway through each month suddenly some of my "saved" books disappear and aren't available until the beginning of the next month's subscription. I've learned to kind of ration and select what I most want to read, and not to count on anything really sticking around... I use it primarily for audiobooks, although I'm sometimes turning to it for e-books as well. I can read them on my Kindle Fire, but not on my "real" Kindle, so that means a bit more unwieldy and less reader-friendly device. Hoopla also has been a boon, although the options are less numerous.

I just can't believe you haven't read The Power Broker. I hope you find it as amazing as I did.

>77 ffortsa: In my defense, I don't think I really understood how important Moses was until I moved to NYC in my early 30s. So it registered lower on my "must read meter" than other mega-tomes and biographies! It was the way the book was described -- as much social/economic history as biography -- that resonated with me...

Finished These Are the Plunderers, by Gretchen Morgenson with an assist from a younger NYT colleague. It was a disappointing mishmash, I have to admit. I think Morgenson and I share a fundamental POV about the private equity/LBO universe -- that it is reckless in terms of how it sets about profit maximizing -- but her chronicle is too scattershot and lacks the kind of rigor that would make it truly damning. For instance, she dismisses out of hand the idea that publicly-traded companies (think, Walmart) are as bad at socializing the costs and privatizing the profits of business as are private equity funds/firms but never backs that up with an analysis. And she damns all private equity, using the most egregious (and yes, they're bad...) deals to characterize the entire landscape. I kept finding myself wondering, what percentage of transactions involve secondary buyouts or dividend recapitalizations (two kinds of transactions that generate big windfalls for the private equity owner and devastate the operating business. She never takes a step back to ask well, WHY has this model endured? What needs does it meet, on the part of both investors and business owners? For instance, while she delves into the question of how PE has helped keep fossil fuel companies going, she never analyzes why buyouts have been so appealing for people in this industry. It's never JUST greed -- it's about where they can get capital, and at what cost. And with ESG gaining momentum, capital (including bank loans) has been tougher to source and that has made buyout shops more appealing financiers for those in this industry -- or sometimes, the sole option. Then, too, there's the question of whether private equity folks are responsible for the mayhem or just the ones who profit from it at the end of the chain -- as in the first case studied here, of an insurance company whose owners decided to invest in junk bonds and made themselves a great target for opportunist buyout shops when those investments torpedoed.

In some ways, a better title for this would have been "The Enablers" -- because the people it really damns are those who could and should have known better, from insurance commissioners to securities regulators and legislators to investors doing due diligence on their investments. I won't go into the several ways in which Morgenson's anecdotal evidence really falls short in several key examples (she uses another anecdote about the death of someone from Covid in a nursing home, and then follows that up by noting that death rates at that time in that PE-owned nursing home were below the national average for all nursing homes -- it isn't until much later that the data points that ARE convincing are introduced.)

Sigh. This could have been a good book. As it is, there's a lot of snark, a lot of damning anecdotes that lack analysis or context that the industry's opponents will seize on gleefully. What I worry about is that the book's flaws will undermine some of its major arguments -- for instance, that the debate over the tax treatment of PE profits by buyout fund owners (it's known technically as the carried interest tax provision) has been systematically undermined by members of Congress who get big bucks from private equity donors.

It's unfortunate when I finish a book whose best parts are its last chapter and conclusion. Especially when every solid argument or well reasoned point is offset by one that is poorly conceived or based on flawed evidence. And I hate the fact that I couldn't stop myself from thinking about the ways to explore this that would have been better/more robust, even as I read it.

I suspect this will get rave reviews from populists, but if it's easy for me to push back on some of its conclusions -- as someone likely to be sympathetic to the central argument -- I kept thinking how simple it would be for those more knowledgeable to debunk the whole thing.

So, 3.5 stars. Probably should be more, but sometimes a book that draws the right fundamental conclusions just doesn't set about it in a coherent/logical way, or pursue its analysis rigorously enough. Piffle.

>70 Chatterbox: I appreciate the thought, Suzanne! In this case, however, my local library has copies of both books.

>73 Chatterbox: Completely agree with your comment that The Magic Kingdom is "the ultimate in a slow-burn read." I am just finishing it up and I have enjoyed the read, but it was denser than I thought it would be on first blush. You might try Banks' Cloudsplitter if interested in reading more of him. I cannot make further recommendations as Cloudsplitter is the only other one of his I have read.

Some good news; hopefully the final stuff will be finalized next week.

Reuters reached out to me about 14/15 months ago about a temporary and part-time gig developing coverage of ETFs (exchange-traded funds), a new "vertical" on their news website. But then in late June or July, after filling out the formal application and going through the interviews, etc., they told me thanks, but we're not going to be filling the position. Then radio silence until early June this year, when I heard back from them. Apparently I had been their first choice, and was I still interested? I said, sure. But they spent the next two months trying to line up a sponsor to underwrite the new "vertical" -- and that only clicked into place in the last few days. Indeed, as recently as two or three weeks ago, they'd warned me they might not get that backing. But it all clicked into place -- a big asset management firm will support it on a trial basis. Important to note that this is not sponsored media -- I'll face no restrictions beyond news judgments on what I write, who I quote or what data I use. Which is precisely as it should be (and as it is with most news, with companies buying ads but not paying for coverage.)

Unless anything goes awol at the last minute, I'll go on the payroll (it's a Newspaper Guild position) right after Labor Day, and the new home page for ETFs will go live September 15. IF it goes well (lots of eyeballs, etc.) and there's backing both internal and external, there's a chance this could turn into a permanent, full-time position and that I'd be first in line for that if I want to abandon the freelance world.

Pay is good, although probably no healthcare as long as it's a temp position (will see what the formal offer letter says.) I'll have to finally give up my periodic Wall St. Journal articles -- my first time NOT writing for them since, gulp, 1988. But it would be a conflict for the WSJ and I assume for Reuters as well. I could keep doing stuff for the History Channel (history.com) and other freelance stuff that doesn't conflict, either in terms of who is paying me or the subject matter.

But I'm excited to create a whole new coverage area for a news organization like Reuters, one I've admired for nearly 40 years. I remember editing Reuters copy for the Japan Times back in the mid-1980s, and walking past their offices (then on Fleet Street) in the 80s and 90s. I almost took an offer there in Toronto in 1989 but accepted a counteroffer from the WSJ. So this feels right. And hopefully nothing will derail it at the last minute!

Congrats, Suz!!! That's really exciting.

What great news! Congratulations to you and Reuters. For some time I've thought you were due an offer to better use your talents, and I'm delighted that it's on the way.

Congratulations!

>81 Chatterbox: Congratulations! Sounds like a very frustrating process so I hope it stabilizes.

Oh this is good news. I'd love to read what you write.

This is fantastic news.

>81 Chatterbox: That is great news, Suzanne, I hope it works out into a permanent position.

Thanks for the good wishes! That said, I'm still waiting for the formal offer letter to materialize... LOL.

This is great news. Great opportunity. I hope you get the formal letter and that you can get started on those benefits as well - like the medical stuff. I also hope you keep reading as some of us are dependent on your reviews and opinions regarding the books you have read.

You go Girl!

Congratulations!

I've got the formal letter, but there's a 50/50 chance I won't survive the background screening, as it involves a credit check, and my credit (thanks in large part to family stuff) is toast. So, I was premature in celebrating. Keep fingers & toes crossed...

I have never heard of a job requiring a credit check. How does that make sense? It's not like you'd be paying them...?!?!

Unreal. I hope they figure you're just a crazy (Canadian) American racking up the credit cards like everyone else, and let it go.

>93 katiekrug: It's now a routine part of a pre-employment background check. I suppose they want to be sure I don't have any motivation to embezzle money (technically impossible) or to pull a Foster Winans (he sold the topics of his market moving WSJ "heard on the Street" columns waaay back in the 1980s to a trader) or commit some other financially-induced conflict of interest. I'd never apply for a personal finance gig for precisely this reason, but.... Well, we shall see. But I'm not going to count on anything panning out.

Plan B is to finish my bestselling novel, LOL.

Well, I'll join the chorus hoping for an outcome on the good 50% side. Surely, surely your sterling reputation counts!

The Reuters gig is FINALLY official (as of yesterday) and I start work on Monday!

Expect my "books read" count to diminish as I juggle 30 hours a week on that with 20 hours or so on other stuff...

>97 Chatterbox: Congratulations!

>97 Chatterbox: Congratulations!

>97 Chatterbox: Good news!

Great!

Congrats, Suzanne. It must be a huge relief to not be *waiting* any longer!

Just dropping in to wish you a wonderful weekend!

>97 Chatterbox: Congrats!

Thanks, all! And my new dedicated Thomson Reuters laptop arrived via FedEx today, to my surprise!

This is really good to hear. So glad that you got the job and all the benefits that go with it.

Congrats on the new job!

>97 Chatterbox: Good for you, Suz.

Did I say that this would hamper my reading?? That may well turn out to be the understatement of the decade! Between 8/9 hours of nonstop work at wire service pace daily, and exhaustion at the end of it, and freelance stuff lurking in the background... Just, argh. And my living room, aka office, is in a horrible mess, paper everywhere! Cats are very amused, though...

>108 Chatterbox: 50 hours a week (per your estimate up a few posts) is a lot, and plunging into it you are sure to feel the strain. Hope it becomes easier as it goes along.

>109 ffortsa: This week is going a little more smoothly, thankfully...

Well, I really have been AWOL, haven't I???

I've been reading, but I've also been working. And it has paid off -- Reuters has extended my contract by a full year, to mid-December 2024. Still a temporary employee (which means I'm first in line for any job cuts, and would have to pay 100% of all healthcare premiums), but a year of full employments. First real stability since 2016.

>111 Chatterbox: Glad to see a message on your thread, Suzanne!
Of course I do see your updates regular at the TIOLI pages.

Good your contract is extended, stability is so important!

Nadolig llawen a blwyddyn newydd dda i ti!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you!

Thinking about you during the festive season, Suz

Merry Christmas!