What Are You Reading the Week of 5 October 2013?

Kennedy at 93

William Stetson Kennedy (5 October 1916 – 27 August 2011) was an American author and human rights activist. One of the pioneer folklore collectors during the first half of the 20th century, he is remembered for having infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s, exposing its secrets to authorities and the outside world. His actions led to the 1947 revocation by the state of Georgia of the Klan's national corporate charter. Kennedy wrote or co-wrote ten books.

Kennedy was named for a member of his mother's family, the hatter John Batterson Stetson. As a teenager, he began collecting folklore material while seeking "a dollar down and dollar a week" accounts for his father, a furniture merchant. While a student at the University of Florida, Kennedy befriended one of his professors, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

In 1937, he left the University of Florida to join the WPA Florida Writers' Project, and at the age of 21, was put in charge of folklore, oral history, and ethnic studies. Kennedy traveled throughout Florida with African-American novelist and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston as her supervisor, visiting turpentine camps near Cross City and the Clara White Mission soup kitchen in Jacksonville. Hurston later chronicled these experiences in her book Mules and Men. The two were forced to travel separately because Jim Crow laws prohibited them from working together. Because of segregation laws operative in Florida at the time, "You could get killed lighting someone's cigarette," Kennedy told independent producer Barrett Golding. "Or shaking hands -- both colors, white and black." Hurston was not even allowed to enter the Federal Writers' Project office in Jacksonville through the front door and did most of her work from her home. Kennedy had a large hand in editing several volumes generated by the Florida project, including The WPA Guide to Florida: the Southernmost State (1939), from the famed WPA American Guide Series, A Guide to Key West, and The Florida Negro (part of a series directed by Sterling Brown). Kennedy also studied at New College for Social Research in New York and at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Kennedy's first book, Palmetto Country, based on unused material collected during his WPA period, was published in 1942 as a volume in the American Folkways Series edited by Erskine Caldwell. Legendary folklorist Alan Lomax has said of the book, "I very much doubt that a better book about Florida folklife will ever be written." To which Kennedy's self-described "stud buddy", Woody Guthrie, added, "Palmetto Country gives me a better trip and taste and look and feel for Florida than I got in the forty-seven states I've actually been in body and tramped in boot." The Library of Congress has placed the recordings and pictures from the project online. Kennedy has been called "one of the pioneer folklore collectors during the first half of the 20th century," and his work is a keystone of the library's presentation.

In 1942 Kennedy accepted a position as Southeastern Editorial Director of the CIO's Political Action Committee in Atlanta, Georgia, in which capacity he wrote a series of monographs dealing with the poll tax, white primaries, and other restrictions on voting that limited democracy throughout the South. Kept from military service by a bad back, Kennedy resolved to perform his patriotic duties in Georgia by infiltrating both the Klan and the Columbians, an Atlanta-based neo-Nazi organization.

After World War II, Kennedy worked as a journalist for the liberal newspaper PM. His stories appeared in newspapers and magazines such as the New York Post and The Nation, for which he was for a time Southern correspondent, and he fed information about discrimination to columnist Drew Pearson. To bring the effects of Jim Crow in the South to public awareness, he authored a number of exposés of the Klan and the racist Jim Crow system over the course of his life, including Southern Exposure (1946), Jim Crow Guide to the USA (1959), and After Appomattox: How the South Won the War (1995). During the 1950s, Kennedy's books, considered too incendiary to be published in the USA, were published in France by the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and subsequently translated into other languages. Kennedy coined the term "Frown Power" when he started a campaign with that name in the 1940s, which simply encouraged people to pointedly frown when they heard bigoted speech.

In 1947, Kennedy provided information - including secret codewords and details of Klan rituals - to the writers of the Superman radio program, leading popular journalist Stephen J. Dubner and University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt, in their 2005 book Freakonomics, to dub Kennedy "the greatest single contributor to the weakening of the Ku Klux Klan." The result was a series of 16 episodes in which Superman took on the Klan. Kennedy intended to strip away the Klan's mystique; and the trivialization of the Klan's rituals and codewords likely had a negative impact on Klan recruiting and membership.

In 1952, when Kennedy ran for governor of Florida, his friend and houseguest Woody Guthrie wrote a set of lyrics for a campaign song, "Stetson Kennedy." Kennedy says he became "the most hated man in Florida," and his home at Fruit Cove near Lake Beluthahatchee was firebombed by rightists and many of his papers were destroyed, causing him to leave the country and go to live in France. There, in 1954, Kennedy wrote his sensational exposé of the workings of the Klan, I Rode With The Ku Klux Klan (later reissued as The Klan Unmasked), which was published by Jean-Paul Sartre. Questioned in later years about the accuracy of his account, Kennedy later said that he regretted not having included an explanatory introduction to the book about how the information in it was obtained. The director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, Peggy Bulger, the subject of whose doctoral thesis was Kennedy's work as a folklorist, commented in a 2007 interview with The Associated Press, "Exposing their folklore – all their secret handshakes, passwords and how silly they were, dressing up in white sheets ... If they weren't so violent, they would be silly."

A founding member and past president of the Florida Folklore Society, Kennedy was a recipient of the 1998 Florida Folk Heritage Award and the Florida Governor's Heartland Award. His contribution to the preservation and propagation of folk culture is the subject of a dissertation, "Stetson Kennedy: Applied Folklore and Cultural Advocacy" (University of Pennsylvania, 1992), by Peggy Bulger, who assumed the directorship of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in 1999. Kennedy is also featured as one of the "Whistle Blowers" in Studs Terkel's book Coming of Age, published in 1995.

In 2005, Jacksonville residents attended a banquet in honor of Kennedy's life, and afterward a slide show with narration at Henrietta's Restaurant, located at 9th and Main Street in Springfield. This event was largely coordinated by Fresh Ministries. The slides included numerous pictures of his travels with author Zora Neale Hurston, and direct voice recordings which were later digitized for preservation.

In 2006, on November 24, the ninety-year-old Kennedy was wed to former city commissioner Sandra Parks at a Quaker-style ceremony at the William Bartram Center on the Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida. Parks and Kennedy met when she came to Beluthahatchee to recruit him for the 40th anniversary observance of the St. Augustine civil rights marches which he participated in with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Kennedy, who admits to at least five previous marriages, commented, "I’ll leave it to the historians to decide how many times I’ve been married."

Kennedy participated in the two-day New Deal Resources: Preserving the Legacy conference at the Library of Congress on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the New Deal held in March 2008. Kennedy's most recent book, Grits and Grunts: Folkloric Key West, was issued by the Pineapple Press in 2008.

In February 2009, Kennedy bequeathed his personal library to the Civic Media Center in Gainesville, Florida with which Kennedy had worked since the center's inception.

Kennedy died on August 27, 2011 at Baptist Medical Center South in Jacksonville, Florida, where he had been in palliative care for several days.

Kennedy's stated wishes were that upon his death there be a party held rather than a funeral; therefore, a celebration of Kennedy's life was held on October 1, 2011 (four days before Kennedy's 95th birthday) at Kennedy's homestead, Beluthahatchee Park. Several hundred relatives, friends, and admirers gathered for the events which commenced with an hour of musical performances. The performances included several pieces written by Kennedy’s friend Woody Guthrie, who composed many songs at Beluthahatchee, including several about Kennedy, e.g., "Beluthahatchee Bill," culminating with all present singing Guthrie’s "This Land Is Your Land." This was followed by and hour of eulogies. Then all present walked down to Lake Beluthahatchee and viewed Kennedy’s ashes being scattered thereon from a canoe by his daughter.

Books

Mister Homer, 1939
Southern Exposure, University of Alabama Press 2011 reprint, ISBN 978-0-8173-5672-9
The Klan Unmasked, University of Alabama Press 2011 reprint: ISBN 978-0-8173-5674-3
Jim Crow Guide to the U.S.A., University of Alabama Press 2011 reprint: ISBN 978-0-8173-5671-2
Palmetto Country, 1942, University Press of Florida 1989 reprint: ISBN 0-8130-0959-6, Florida Historical Society Press 2009 reprint with a new publisher's preface, updated Afterward and eighty photographs ISBN 1-886104-38-7 ; ISBN 978-1-886104-38-9
The Jim Crow Guide: The Way It Was Before the Overcoming, 1956 at Paris, 1959, Florida Atlantic University 1990 reprint: ISBN 0-8130-0987-1
South Florida Folklife, 1994, (coauthors Peggy A. Bulger and Tina Bucuvalas), University Press of Mississippi, ISBN 0-87805-659-9
After Appomattox: How the South Won the War, 1995, University Press of Florida 1996 reprint: ISBN 0-8130-1388-7
Grits and Grunts: Folkloric Key West, Pineapple Press, 2008
The Florida Slave, The Florida Historical Society Press, September 29, 2011, ISBN 978-1-886104-48-8

Civil rights and free speech are always under siege by people who have something to hide, something to protect, or something lacking in their mental powers. Stetson Kennedy is a role model to me, and after learning about his depressingly underknown life and activities, I hope to a few of y'all as well.

All text and photos adapted from Wikipedia.

Wow, thank you, Richard. That is some bio. How much courage would it take to infiltrate and expose the Klan at the height of their powers?! I didn't know about Stetson Kennedy, so extra kudos to you for doing this. I didn't know Superman, with his help, took on the Klan either. That would be interesting to listen to, as all the passwords and other nonsense got exposed.

Traveling with Zora Neale Hurston, the other aspects of his life, all fascinating.

I'm near the end of The Light Years, which I've enjoyed very much.

Wow, Richard! I loved this week's bio even more than most! (Although they're all pretty darned wonderful). I think I'd vaguely heard this author's name, but thanks so much for shining a light on him. We need more like him.

As for what I'm reading, though it now pales in significance, I've finished The Shining by Stephen King, and thought very highly of it, indeed.

Now I'm just beginning Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. I've just started it, but it seems geared for a bit younger of an audience than I'd have thought. I wonder when YA books became so easy to read, with large illustrations? I guess the fact that Coraline was in the YA section of the library should have been a clue.

Mind you, I'm not really complaining in regards to myself. I'll probably enjoy it immensely. Like a crotchety old woman, I'm just a bit concerned for the state of kids' reading abilities these days.

Thanks Richard. I'll be doing some more exploring about this gentleman.

I'm reading The Master: A Novel by Colm Tolbin and very much enjoying it.

>4 snash: The Master is one of my favorites snash. Enjoy!

Mr. Kennedy featured prominently in Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston, a wonderful biography. It was nice to hear about the rest of his life, post Zora.

Thanks Richard!

I'm starting Dexter's Last Cut by Jeff Lindsay

I just finished reading Erec by Hartmann von Aue for the second time. I wrote a review, but I'm not sure how to post the link here. It's amazing that something written around 1190 can still be a compelling narrative. Our culture has been influenced greatly by the "chivalric" aspects of medieval courtly culture, and yet this work is so culturally alien to ours. It is a challenge to get passed my 21-st century-conceived notions and to try to comprehend it from a more medieval perspective.
Reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen for bedtime reading.

Fascinating, Richard! What a courageous thing to do...infiltrating the KKK.

Almost done with A Fine Balance, which I've really enjoyed. What a heartbreaking, mesmerizing, and many-layered tale of the lives of a group of Indian people who endure misfortune at a level many don't know in one lifetime.

I am so pleased everyone's getting a bit interested in Stetson Kennedy! He's such an important, but not very prominent, figure in American civil-rights history.

Yes, thank you so much, Richard. Kennedy seems such an interesting and courage person, and I'm happy to now know a bit about him.

Cool bio. I'm still enjoying Eyes of a Child, the third entry in Richard North Patterson's Christopher Pagett mystery series.

I think I might try Help for the Haunted this week. And perhaps Longbourn as well.

#13 - I loved Help for the Haunted! The writing was marvelous and the story unfolded so well. I really felt like I was in the hands of a master storyteller.

I'm steadily making progress through Doctor Sleep which is much different from The Shining thus far, but still magical. Also, I picked up The Unseen by Alexandra Sokoloff yesterday, which is quickly turning into a very spooky and ominous ghost story. I can't wait to read more!

I've just finished and reviewed Catherine Merridale's new book Red Fortress: History and Illusion in the Kremlin. An absolutely terrific read.

This past week, I also finished Andrea Camilleri's The Treasure Hunt, the sixteenth volume in the Inspector Montalbano series. My review: Holy Crap!

Camilleri can be a sly bugger. Treasure Hunt begins with a deranged elderly brother and sister opening fire on the people of Vigata from their apartment window. As creepy and unnerving as the opening may be, the book then settles into a lazy stroll as nothing much of importance seems to happen. At first the story borders on slapstick until it finally bursts into a violent, grisly climax. This book is not for the squeamish. And as a warning, don't read the final chapters just before turning out the lights and going to bed. You won't sleep. And if you do, you'll regret it.

Now I've started Ivan the Terrible by Robert Payne and Nikita Romanoff. What Shakespeare could have done with this man's life. *sigh*

# framboise the ending to this wonderful novel A Fine Balance is so very moving, my husband after it ended had tears in his eyes.

Oh dear. Can't even give three stars to We Need New Names.

I had a spirited chat with a fan of this book. She (naturally) stated I was behaving in a sexist manner and implied, with dark tones of voice, that I was probably a racist too, because I don't think this is a particularly good book, and *certainly* don't think it's Booker-worthy.

See the whole thing Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud or on the book's reviews page here.

I really enjoyed We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. Next up for listening is The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann. I continue reading The Obscene Bird of Night.

I have just started Crusoe's Daughter by Jane Gardam.

# Enjoy, it was my first Jane Gardam book, which led me to read many more.

richard, sorry about your experience.

I don't care for the actions of those who label others in negative terms, just for having a differing view.

Name-calling is so childish.

FYI, I liked your review.

#20 hazeljune This is my third Jane Gardam and I already count her among my favorite authors. I own eight of her books, so there is much pleasure ahead for me.

Thanks for the introduction to Stetson Kennedy!

I am still reading Beloved by Toni Morrison. I started reading it for Banned Books Week but it also fits into my October reading list since it's also a ghost story. Can't wait to see how it ends!

>18 hemlokgang: Ooo ooo ooo THE LOST CITY OF Z! I loved that book. So exciting to read, and yet I knew the ending. I treasure books like that, because the author's done a very good job when I feel that way.

>21 fuzzi: Thank you for the kind sentiments, fuzzi. It's not that unusual, I find, although it's always a surprise to me. I expect more tolerant and considerate behavior out of the book-loving people on the internet.

#21--Fuzzi, I am Republiican after a while you get used to it. :)

#24
I think the reason why people get so passionate about what others say about books is because they love them and feel that what is said about a book they liked is a personal attack on them - rather than the book. (although it is often hard to separate the two). I was surprised at the venom that came my way when I said that Hunger Games was an inferior piece of literature. I called it low-brow entertainment that was meant to titillate prurient interests, but I did not advocate for it to be expunged from the shelves. I could not believe the invective, that included calling me a censor, that came my way for merely stating my opinion.

@corgiiman, I'm conservative/libertarian, and am also a born-again Christian...so I'm used to it as well... ;)

@richardderus, you're welcome. I do try to be kind.

BTW, I meant to say that I loved the picture on the OP...all those books... :D

>26 benitastrnad: Censor? Srsly. Someone calling a tendentious opinion possessed by a librarian "censorship" is someone who needs a good dictionary. I'm hoppin' mad about censorship just now, and the ridiculous uses I've seen the word put to are MIND-BOGGLING to me. Much like "bullying." So very overused and misused.

>27 fuzzi: I oppose every single thing you're for, and publicly, which makes your effort all the more notable in its kindness!

(28) So, we disagree? No need for us to be rude, right? :)

Precisely! No need, no desire, no purpose in being rude even...I contend especially...in personal disagreement.

I loved We Need New Names but didn't see anything racist or sexist in your review, Richard. I thought it was very good even though I don't agree with your viewpoint; I just have a different opinion of the book than you. (I'm a fairly liberal Democrat, and I get slammed, too. I think anyone who expresses an opinion of any sort is open to name-calling and rudeness by people who disagree.)

On the other hand, I absolutely loved The Lost City of Z, so we don't disagree on everything.

I've finished and lov The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. It was very Harry-Potteresque, yet definitely not a carbon copy.

>25 corgiiman: and >29 fuzzi:: Just to be clear, the name-calling goes on on both sides of the aisle. As a liberal, I've certainly had to get used to it, too. And yes, whoever does it, it's wrong.

>31 TooBusyReading: Beats there a heart that is so dead to adventure as not to enjoy The Lost City of Z? I hope not. Glad yours isn't one.

>32 bookwoman247: What drives the trolls who come after me so crazy is they hurl "liberal! socialist! tax-and-spend supporter!" at me, expecting me to quiver indignantly; and I then say, "yes indeed, all of the above, because people before profits."

>33 richardderus: I would consider those epithets a badge of honor. I was recently called "a person deluded by the PRO-Rape/incest, ANTI-Paedic, Misandric, bigotry of the "Amazonian Chauvinists" who belong to the EVIL Democratic Party - fascist bigots that they are..."

I actually thought that was pretty funny, but somewhat inaccurate, and it has nothing to do with reading good (or bad) books. Shame on me for getting off-topic.

>32 bookwoman247: : people before profits. Yes, indeed!

Read Fangirl yesterday and today. Enjoyed the main storyline well-enough. But I skimmed the fanfic.

Now reading Bill McKibben's Oil and Honey. How is that for variety?

Finished and truly loved A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki. I got this one out of the library but then went out and bought it; I knew it was the kind of book I'd read and lend out again and again.

Finished The unbearable lightness of being tonight and felt very ambiguous about it. I thought the relationship between the two main characters was very interesting, but the philosophical ideas of the author didn't spoke to me at all. I will admit I couldn't even follow them half of the time. Just not my thing. Also, the story moved nicely along until about 4/5th of the book, and then came to a screeching halt. I really struggled through the last part. Glad to be done with that then, now on to better reads!

I finished and enjoyed The Dog Lived - although it was not all that well written it was a sweet dog/love story with two happy (real life) endings, and that was simply ... really nice.

I once reviewed The Help on A-- and thought it was rubbish written by a person least able to actually understand the plight of those depicted therein. I got so viciously and personally attacked (why, I still do not know), I decided it was a whole lot better reviewing for a site where I did not have to open myself up to that. Not fun and certainly not worth it.

Why I love it here!

I'm reading Thanksgiving by Ellen Cooney.

Today I started and finished The Reason I Jump, and I'm not a fast reader. I knew it was short, but didn't realize it was *that*short.

#16: Finished A Fine Balance today which has to be one of the top 3 all-time saddest books I've ever read. Utterly heartbreaking. Definitely worth the time (took me weeks to read) and emotional effort though.

I've read...make that immersed myself in...Catherynne M. Valente's delicious THE GIRL WHO RULED FAIRYLAND -- FOR A LITTLE WHILE in the Kindle Originals tab at my blog, and on the book's reviews page.

>37 NarratorLady: Oh good, Anne. That's what I needed to hear re A Tale for the Time Being. I know from experience your taste on these kinds of books is similar to mine. Now I can look forward to this one.

I finished the book snack Innocent in Death, which is about 2/3 of the way through that series, and now I'm enjoying the Richard-recommended Six Months, Three Days.

Richard ~ I just finished reading Valente's novella and absolutely loved it! A lighthearted tale with a heart of darkness. Can't wait for The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two, the third book in the Fairyland series!

Finished Dust by Hugh Howey and started Boneshaker by Cherie Priest.

I'm about 150 pages into The Book of Secrets by Elizabeth Arnold, and am enjoying the story.

>44 jnwelch: Oh good! Enjoying is a good word.

>45 Storeetllr: Hooray Mary! I'm battin' 1.000 right now on the novellae. I am really looking forward to #3 as well. Which reminds me, I need to write my review of The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There. Which means re-reading it. Oh woe, oh waah, poor widdle me!

I finished and REVIEWED S. C. Gwynne's wonderful take on U.S. history Empire of the Summer Moon. Now I'm reading my ER copy of Larry Watson's Let Him Go.

Brenzi - anxious I hear what you think! I am a big Larry Watson fan.

>44 jnwelch:: Joe, I think there's a good chance you will enjoy A Tale for the Time Being. In a review I read, someone compared it to Murakami's writing. I know he's a big favorite of yours.

I finished James Goodman's But Where is the Lamb?. I admire this book and am very glad I read it.

Next I'll be reading Margaret Drabble's first novel (from 1963) -- A Summer Bird-Cage. I read several of Patricia Highsmith's short stories yesterday -- "The Terrors of Basket-Weaving" is a particular favorite. Patricia Highsmith: Selected Novels and Short Stories

i have just started "the zahir' by PAULO COElho

I'm working on my TBR pile this week:

The Faded Sun: Kesrith - completed and reviewed
The Faded Sun: Shon'Jir - completed and reviewed
A Horse Called Mystery - completed and reviewed
Gray Wolf - completed and reviewed

The Faded Sun: Kutath - currently reading

>54 fuzzi: *envious awe at TBR reduction*

Finished Doctor Sleep this morning.. loved loved loved it. Now starting Whistling Past the Graveyard- the style of writing between these 2 could not be more different - I know I will like this book but seem to be having a difficult time with the transition. Do you ever feel that way after finishing something you enjoyed so much? That it is hard to get into the "grove" of your next read? :) Happy Tuesday all!

(55) You can do it too! :)

BTW, the picture in the OP reminds me so much of my "uncle" Ed, who was my grandmother's boyfriend for 20 some odd years.

>57 fuzzi: Heavens! They're certainly like brothers, if not twins!

I can't reduce Mount TBR...I send books out the door (over 100 to the local liberry alone this past weekend) and then get horrible anxiety that I won't have anything to read and order more books.

#58-that sounds like me!! With everything I have on my bookshelves, kindle and iBooks I can't seems to keep making lists of books I want

>51 NarratorLady: Oh, with the Murakami comparison, you've really got me hooked, Anne. Did you see he's being considered for the Nobel Prize?

>59 cdyankeefan: I'm constantly bemused that *everyone* isn't like that.

>60 jnwelch: I hope he wins it, if it means writers' block will descend. meeeee-ouch

You're a terrible lad, Mr. D. There may be an embargo on chili cheese fries coming up.

Go Haruki! Go Haruki! Fight! Fight! Fight! WIN THAT NOBEL!!

Now that's more like it. :-)

Perfect, Richard!

Currently reading Entwined with you, the last in the erotic Crossfire series. I am enjoying it, even though not much seems to be going on and I'm already halfway through.

Also for a book review for my website I'm reading Inner strength by the medium Char Margolis. It's full of anecdotes, not the tips and advice it advertises with. It does have some though and it's an interesting enough read so I might put it on the website nonetheless.

Back to my Halloween theme, I'm just starting Haunted by James Herbert.

>65 hemlokgang: I got my virtual chili cheese fries today, so I'm back to hoping Murakami dries up soon. But no one tell Joe, okay?

Oops, my mistake. I never should have brought out those ccf's. But you'll get hungry again - and then we'll expect to see more Murakami cheerleaders, right?

I'm enjoying Queen Lucia, a satirical tale of pretentious one-uppery in a middle class English town.

I'm enjoying Margaret Drabble's A Summer Bird-Cage, but I also found I couldn't keep myself from starting a book that arrived yesterday, Jill Lepore's biography of Jane Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's sister . . . Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin.

It's wonderful. The book begins with this note to the reader:

"All original English spellings have been retained. Spelling is part of the story."

And it is, which is another reason to love it.

I finished and REVIEWED Larry Watson's Let Him Go. Oh. My. God. Absolutely phenomenal.

Now I'm reading Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland but I'm afraid she doesn't stand a chance with Mr. Watson still on my brain.

Thanks for the nod brenzi/71 - I will get that one out of the library tomorrow!

I am reading the really good, surprisingly good Best New American Voices 2001 edited by "guest editor" Charles Baxter (who I like very much). I had almost given up on short story anthologies and this one makes me happy I did not.

Hello there, everyone! :) I just wanted to catch you all up on what I've read this week. :) So, I started reading The Resort by Bentley Little on Tuesday, October 1st and finished it on Saturday, October 5th! Bentley Little is a new author for me, but this was a very satisfying dose of horror in keeping with the Halloween season! :)

After spending a couple of days choosing my next book to read, I started reading Summer House: A Novel by Nancy Thayer on Monday, October 7th. I really like books that deal with family dynamics, and this book was no exception. I finished it this afternoon - Wednesday, October 9th! :)

Up next, I just started reading The House by Bentley Little this afternoon, which despite not getting that far into yet, I have great hopes for! :)

Finished up the enjoyable if flawed Eyes of a Child, the 3rd book in Richard North Patterson's Christopher Paget series. You can find my review on the book's work page or on my 50-Book Challenge thread.

>1 richardderus: What a remarkable man!

I recently finished two very good (and different) non-fiction books, Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology and Midnight Assassin: A Murder in America's Heartland.

Currently reading Doctor Sleep.

73-I'm also a fan of Little's-I need to go find some of his books and read them.

Finished listening to two completely different , yet equally marvelous books, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie. Next for my listening pleasure, I hope, is Deception by Jonathan Kellerman. I continue reading The Obscene Bird of Night.

In honor of Alice Munro winning the Nobel Prize, I'm rereading favorite stories from one of her books, Open Secrets.

I started Road from Gap Creek by Robert Morgan my ER book today I also started a reread of The Shining in anticipation of Reading Foctor Sleep by Stephen King in the not too distant future

I've posted my review of Catherynne Valente's 5-star deliciousness at Shelf Inflicted, the group blog I post at. THE GIRL WHO CIRCUMNAVIGATED FAIRYLAND IN A SHIP OF HER OWN MAKING is superb, jaw-dropping writing. I'll be very surprised if this isn't a lot of people's favorite childhood read in the year 2040. (Which I hope to be around to see.)

Dangit Richard, Mount TBR grows. HOOORRAAAYYY for Alice Munro!!! What a surprising "literary" choice! This will put even more spring in short-story writers' steps.

I just finished The Master which I very much enjoyed. It is a meticulous exploration of a sensitive but very guarded person, only able to deal with his feelings (and then not all of them) by writing fictional accounts. The fact that the subject, Henry James, and his family are well known real people added to the enjoyment. Not a book for someone who like a lot of action. It is slow and lush, like a Henry James novel.

Finished Confessions of Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey

Now reading: King Breaker by Rowena Cory Daniells
Didn't know she had written a final installment to the "King Rolen's Kin" series!

>82 snash: snash: I thought The Master was a masterpiece. Even though I've never read Henry James (and therefore couldn't appreciate the references to his plots) the ability of Colm Toibin to bring this character so poignantly to life amazed me. On my TBR list: Henry James, of course, followed by a reread of The Master.

Even though they have nothing to do with each other, I had the same experience with Nick Hornby's High Fidelity and Fever Pitch, which I very much enjoyed despite knowing virtually nothing about rock music or soccer.

Almost done with The Virgins by Pamela Erens, a novel about a high-school couple at a prestigious boarding school and their love, lust and loss. It is a delicate, intricate and carefully woven tale.

I was surprised by the choice of Alice Munro. She is not the Canadian woman writer I would have picked. Especially since I have read nothing by her and have read several things by that other famous Canadian woman writer.

But I still think Murakami should have won.

Also listening to Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: My Life in Music by Judy Collins.

I am currently reading Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. Very creepy so far.

I'm starting The October List by Jeffrey Deaver

I've finished The Book of Secrets by Elizabeth Arnold, and am listening to W is for Waste (no touchstone?) by Sue Grafton.

I'm also listening to Outlander by Diana Gabladon, but that is slow going because I listen to it after I go to bed, fall asleep while listening after a few minutes, and then have to find my place again the next night.

I'm also still reading The Great Santini by Pat Conroy but that is slow going, too, because it's the book I take with me when I have appointments and know I'll have to wait. I enjoy Conroy's writing, but never got around to this one before now.

All pretty light reading, but enjoyable.

Part of the reason that two of the books are going so slowly is that I own them and don't have to return or review them, so they get pushed to the back of the line. The cobbler's children have no shoes.

#76 - Yes, I have several of Bentley Little's books on my TBR pile! :) I tend to go on an 'acquisition spree' to get more books by authors I've liked. :)

Excellent Women was excellent, and I'm now enjoying Longbourn, a novel based on a "downstairs", servants' view of the events in Pride and Prejudice.

Hopping on the Bentley Little discussion - I love his books, and The Store was one of the most frightening books I've ever read. I'll have to add The Resort and The House to my list too!

#94 - I'll have to check out The Store, coloradogirl14 - thank you :) In my opinion, The Resort was really scary and very enjoyable. And The House was quite frightening also, although I found that the fear sort of plateaued at a certain point - for me at least. :)