inge87's Books of 2014

Welcome to my thread for 2014!

I'm Jennifer and in my free time I work as a library assistant at a community college south of Dallas. I read a lot of non-fiction, but also mysteries, fantasy, and YA. 2013 was a lot of fun, hopefully 2014 will be even better.



Currently Reading:
In Parenthesis by David Jones
Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and the Invention of The Great Gatsby by Sarah Churchwell

Books Read in April

67. Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking by Anya von Bremzen (3)
68. The Paradise War by Stephen R. Lawhead (3)
69. Venetia by Georgette Heyer* (5)
70. Delia's Shadow by Jaime Lee Moyer (3)
71. Beside the Ocean of Time by George Mackay Brown (2)
72. Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56 by Anne Applebaum (5)
73. The Wry Romance of the Literary Rectory by Deborah Alun-Jones (4)
74. The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer* (4)
75. Edmund Campion by Evelyn Waugh (3)
76. A Bitter Trial: Evelyn Waugh and John Cardinal Heenan on the Liturgical Changes by Evelyn Waugh (4)
77. Wanted—A Match-Maker by Paul Leicester Ford* (3)
78. Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers (5)
79. The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within by Stephen Fry (3)
80. Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers (4)
81. The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen by Elizabeth von Arnim (3)
82. Reports from a Parisian Paradise: Essays from France, 1925–1939 by Joseph Roth (2)
83. The Land of Dreams by Vidar Sundstøl (4)
84. Let Our Fame Be Great: Journeys Among the Defiant People of the Caucasus by Oliver Bullough (4)
85. The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke (3)
86. The Wild Geese by Bridget Boland+ (3)
87. Raising Henry: A Memoir of Motherhood, Disability, and Discovery by Rachel Adams (3)
88. Meditations for Lent by Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (3)
89. Atemschaukel by Herta Müller^ (3)
90. Passion and Resurrection: The Greek Catholic Church in Soviet Ukraine, 1939-1989 by Serge Keleher+ (4)
91. Hero by Alethea Kontis (2)
92. Excommunication and the Catholic Church by Edward Peters (3)
93. The Modern Rite: Collected Essays on the Reform of the Liturgy by Klaus Gamber+ (3)
94. The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart (3)
95. English Poetry, 1550-1660 by Fred Inglis (3)

Monthly Total = 29 Books

* = re-read
+ = owned and unread since before 2013 (Mt. TBR)
^ = foreign language book

1 star = Did trees really have to die for this?
2 stars = Almost a good book
3 stars = A solid, good book
4 stars = A very good book
5 stars = An amazingly good book

Books Read in January

1. The Ludwig Conspiracy by Oliver Pötzsch (4)
2. The Silence of St. Thomas: Three Essays by Josef Pieper (4)
3. Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-Earth by John Garth (5)
4. The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin (3)
5. The Birds of the Air by Alice Thomas Ellis (2)
6. The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy* (5)
7. Gods and Myths of Northern Europe by H. R. Ellis Davidson+ (4)
8. Advent and Christmas with the Church Fathers by Marco Pappalardo (2)
9. A Pedlar's Pack and Other Stories by Elizabeth Goudge (3)
10. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (3)
11. The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea by Callum Roberts (4)
12. The Death of King Arthur: A New Verse Translation by Simon Armitage (3)
13. Blue Highways: A Journey into America by William Least Heat-Moon+ (3)
14. A Subaltern's War by Charles Edmonds (Charles Edmond Carrington) (4)
15. Imperfect: An Improbable Life by Jim Abbott & Tim Brown (3)
16. The Lark on the Wing by Elfrida Vipont (4)
17. The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope* (3)
18. Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart* (4)
19. The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O'Shea* (4)
20. The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code by Margalit Fox (4)
21. Light on a Dark Horse: An Autobiography, 1901-1935 by Roy Campbell (3)
22. Greenvoe by George Mackay Brown (3)
23. Kleine deutsche Versschule by Wolfgang Kayser+^ (3)
24. I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven (3)
25. My Father's Glory by Marcel Pagnol (3)

Monthly Total = 25 Books Read

Books Read in February

26. The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbøl & Agnete Friis (2)
27. The Toll-Gate by Georgette Heyer* (4)
28. All Natural*: A Skeptic's Quest for Health and Happiness in an Age of Ecological Anxiety by Nathanael Johnson (3)
29. My Mother's Castle by Marcel Pagnol (3)
30. A Not So Perfect Crime by Teresa Solana (3)
31. A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience by Christopher Kaczor (3)
32. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino (4)
33. The Etruscan Smile by Velda Johnston (3)
34. So Bright and Delicate: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne by John Keats+ (3)
35. The Hooligan's Return: A Memoir by Norman Manea (2)
36. The Monks of Tibhirine: Faith, Love, and Terror in Algeria by John Kiser (2)
37. Dreamtigers by Jorge Luis Borges (4)
38. Magnus by George Mackay Brown (3)
39. The History of the Siege of Lisbon by José Saramago (4)
40. The Belief of Catholics by Ronald Knox+ (3)
41. Cosmas, or the Love of God by Pierre de Calan+ (4)
42. Erzähl es niemandem!: Die Liebesgeschichte meiner Eltern by Randi Crott & Lillian Crott Berthung^ (4)
43. The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge (3)
44. The Most Holy Eucharist: Our Passover and Our Living Bread by Fr. Thomas J. McGovern (3)
45. The Endless Knot by Wiliam L. Biersach (3)
46. How to Make a Good Confession: A Pocket Guide to Reconciliation with God by John A. Kane (4)

Monthly Total = 21 Books Read

Books Read in March

47. Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers (4)
48. The Lost Estate (Le Grand Meaulnes) by Alain-Fournier (2)
49. Converting Bohemia: Force and Persuasion in the Catholic Reformation by Howard Louthan (3)
50. The Lawless Roads by Graham Greene (4)
51. Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants by Douglas W. Tallamy (3)
52. Cotillion by Georgette Heyer* (4)
53. In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters (3)
54. The Last Man in Russia: The Struggle to Save a Dying Nation by Oliver Bullough (5)
55. A Midsummer Tempest by Poul Anderson+ (3)
56. The Cardinal's Snuff-Box by Henry Harland* (3)
57. Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison* (4)
58. How the Reformation Happened by Hilaire Belloc+ (3)
59. Ultraviolet by R. J. Anderson* (5)
60. Cranmer's Godly Order by Michael Davies (4)
61. We are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler (3)
62. The Extinction of the Ancient Hierarchy: An Account of the Death in Prison of the Eleven Bishops Honoured at Rome Amongst the Martyrs of the Elizabethan Persecution; Archbishop Heath of York, Bishops Tunstall, Bonner and Companions by G. E. Phillips (3)
63. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (2)
64. The Long Shadow: The Great War and the Twentieth Century by David Reynolds (4)
65. Barbarians to Angels: The Dark Ages Reconsidered by Peter S. Wells (3)
66. Die letzte Begegnung+^ by Gertrud von le Fort (3)

Monthly Total = 20 Books Read

Several Centuries of Reading (adopted from Dejah_Thoris who adopted it from souloftherose)

c. 1400 The Death of King Arthur: A New Verse Translation by Simon Armitage
1894 The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope

1900 The Cardinal's Snuff-Box by Henry Harland
1901 Wanted—A Match-Maker by Paul Leicester Ford
1902
1903
1904 The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen by Elizabeth von Arnim
1905 The Extinction of the Ancient Hierarchy by G. E. Phillips
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1912
1913 The Lost Estate (Le Grand Meaulnes) by Alain-Fournier
1914
1915 The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
1921
1922
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927 The Belief of Catholics by Ronald Knox
1928 How the Reformation Happened by Hilaire Belloc
1929 A Subaltern's War by Charles Edmonds
1930
1931
1932 Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers
1933
1934
1935 Edmund Campion by Evelyn Waugh / Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers
1936
1937 A Pedlar's Pack and Other Stories by Elizabeth Goudge / Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers
1938 The Wild Geese by Bridget Boland
1939 The Lawless Roads by Graham Greene
1940
1941
1942
1943 How to Make a Good Confession by John A. Kane
1944
1945
1946 Kleine deutsche Versschule by Wolfgang Kayser / The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
1947
1948
1949
1950 The Lark on the Wing by Elfrida Vipont
1951 Light on a Dark Horse by Roy Campbell / The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer
1952 Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison
1953 Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
1954 The Toll-Gate by Georgette Heyer
1955
1956
1957 The Silence of St. Thomas by Josef Pieper / My Father's Glory & My Mother's Castle by Marcel Pagnol
1958 Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart / Venetia by Georgette Heyer
1959 Die letzte Begegnung by Gertrud von le Fort
1960 Dreamtigers by Jorge Luis Borges
1961
1962
1963
1964 Gods and Myths of Northern Europe by H. R. Ellis Davidson
1965 English Poetry, 1550-1660 by Fred Inglis (ed.)
1966
1967 I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972 Greenvoe by George Mackay Brown
1973 Magnus by George Mackay Brown
1974 A Midsummer Tempest by Poul Anderson
1975
1976
1977 The Etruscan Smile by Velda Johnston / Cosmas, or the Love of God by Pierre de Calan
1978
1979 If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
1980 The Birds of the Air by Alice Thomas Ellis
1981
1982 Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon
1983
1984 The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
1985 The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O'Shea
1986
1987
1988
1989 The History of the Siege of Lisbon by José Saramago
1990
1991 The Paradise War by Stephen R. Lawhead
1992
1993 Passion and Resurrection by Serge Keleher
1994 Beside the Ocean of Time by George Mackay Brown
1995 Cranmer's Godly Order by Michael Davies
1996 A Bitter Trial by Evelyn Waugh
1997
1998 The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
1999 Reports from a Parisian Paradise by Joseph Roth

2000
2001 The Endless Knot by Wiliam L. Biersach
2002 The Monks of Tibhirine by John Kiser
2003 Tolkien and the Great War by John Garth / The Hooligan's Return by Norman Manea
2004 The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin
2005 The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry
2006 A Not So Perfect Crime by Teresa Solana / Excommunication and the Catholic Church by Edward Peters
2007 Bringing Nature Home by Douglas W. Tallamy
2008 The Boy in the Suitcase / Barbarians to Angels / The Land of Dreams
2009 Advent and Christmas with the Church Fathers / So Bright and Delicate / Converting Bohemia / Atemschaukel
2010 Let Our Fame Be Great by Oliver Bullough
2011 The Ludwig Conspiracy by Oliver Pötzsch / Ultraviolet by R. J. Anderson
2012 The Ocean of Life / Imperfect / Erzähl es niemandem! / Burial Rites / Iron Curtain
2013 The Riddle of the Labyrinth / All Natural* / A Defense of Dignity / The Most Holy Eucharist / In the Shadow of Blackbirds / The Last Man in Russia / We are All Completely Beside Ourselves / The Long Shadow / Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking / Delia's Shadow / The Wry Romance of the Literary Rectory / Raising Henry / Meditations for Lent / Hero / The Drunken Botanist
2014

LC Classification Spread My reading according to the Library of Congress Classification System.

B The Silence of St. Thomas (1)
BL Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (1)
BR Converting Bohemia (2)
BV Cranmer's Godly Order (2)
BX Advent and Christmas with the Church Fathers (9)

CB The Ocean of Life (1)

D A Subaltern's War (4)
DC Reports from a Parisian Paradise (1)
DJK Iron Curtain (1)
DK The Last Man in Russia (2)

E Blue Highways: A Journey into America (1)

F The Children's Blizzard (2)

GF All Natural* (1)
GV Imperfect (1)

P The Riddle of the Labyrinth (1)
PC A Not So Perfect Crime (2)
PF Kleine deutsche Versschule (1)
PN The Ode Less Travelled (1)
PQ My Father's Glory (7)
PR Tolkien and the Great War (26)
PS The Hunt for Red October (10)
PT The Ludwig Conspiracy (5)
PZ The Lark on the Wing (6)

QG A Defense of Dignity (1)
QK The Drunken Botanist (1)

RJ Raising Henry (1)

SB Bringing Nature Home (1)

TX Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking (1)

Books Acquired in 2014 Keeping myself honest

January
1. The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbøl (AbeBooks) - read 2/14
2. A Defense of Dignity by Christopher Kaczor (U. of Notre Dame Press) - read 2/14, re-homed 4/14
3. The Riddle of the Labyrinth by Margalit Fox (Mom - late Christmas present) - read 1/14
4. Japanese Farm Food by Nancy Singleton Hachisu (Mom - late Christmas present)
5. The Long Shadow by David Reynolds (BookDepository) - read 3/14
6. The Brandons by Angela Thirkell (HPB-NW Highway)

February
7. Gott und die Welt by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger & Peter Seewald (HPB-NW Highway)
8. The Last Man in Russia by Oliver Bullough (HPB-NW Highway) - read 3/14
9. Julia in Ireland by Ann Bridge (HPB-NW Highway)
10. The History of the Siege of Lisbon by José Saramago (AbeBooks) - read 2/14
11. Erzähl es niemandem! by Randi Crott & Lillian Crott Berthung (BookDepository) - read 2/14
12. Meditations for Lent by Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (B&N.com) - read 4/14
13. Native Texas Plants: Landscaping Region by Region by Sally & Andy Wasowski

total acquired - 13
total read - 8 - 61.5%

Okay, we're officially good to go here.

I'll still be using my old thread until the end of the year, but that's only 5 days away!

Hi Jennifer! I think I'm first! I'm looking forward to following another year of great reading, and I'm off to check out The Ocean of Life right now.

Hi Jennifer!

Hi Jennifer!

Happy New Year! Hope you have some great reads this coming year.

Welcome back!

Wow Jennifer that is a heady brew of reading you have up top....something to suit most palates I would have thought. I'll try a bit harder to keep up to date with you in 2014 although I regularly see you tearing a gaping hole in the TIOLIS.

Hi Jennifer, I have you starred!

Dropping a star for 2014!

Hello! I'm a fantasy and YA fan as well so I'll be keeping an eye on your thread. I'm more of a lurker unfortunately do to school and work, but I'll try to get a hello in here and there. :) Happy holidays and happy reading!

Starring your thread! :)

A fellow Dallas-ite! Must star.

Star!

Dropping a star!

::sweeping up all the loose stars on the carpet::

>8 susanj67:, Thanks, I found the The Ocean of Life through the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books 2013 Shortlist. Hopefully it will be as good as it sounds.

>9 wilkiec:, Welcome!

>10 SqueakyChu:, Thanks, I do too! TIOLI 2014 looks to be getting off to a good start.

>11 drneutron:, Thanks!

>12 PaulCranswick:, Thanks, The covers are a placeholder to supposed to represent what is to come. I work in a library, so some of the variety is to familiarize myself with what we have, but most of it is down to my inveterate curiosity and a weakness for shiny new books.

>13 UnrulySun:, :waives: Glad to see you stop by, I can't wait to see how you like your books.

>14 Morphidae:, Hi Morphy! 2014 is shaping up to be a great year.

>15 Kassilem:, Thanks for stopping by! Lurking is not a problem, as I'm a terrible lurker on other threads. So bad in fact that I've made it one of resolution this year to try better.

>17 katiekrug:, Yep, born in Dallas, went to high school in Flower Mound, skipped off to Massachusetts for college, and now I live in what the DFW weather people call "our southern counties".

>18 maggie1944: & 19, Welcome--Make yourselves at home!

>16 fuzzi:/20, Hi and thanks for tidying up; there does seem to be a lot of stardust in here.

Ha! I went to college in Mass. too! Holy Cross in Worcester, aka The Woo. Crappy college town if ever there was one...

Stardust...?

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DjU6ZjrQulc&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DDjU6ZjrQ...

Jennifer, I know all about a weakness for new and shiny books. The old ones are not half bad either.

Happy new year.

Found you! Happy New Year, Jennifer!

Happy New Year everyone and a very happy Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, to all my Catholic readers. I went to mass, watched the Rose Bowl parade, and have now settled down on the couch for a nice day of American football and reading. It's the perfect way to start a new year of good books.

>22 katiekrug:, I have some relatives who got stuck in Worcester on their way to go skiing in Vermont. Suffice to say one cousin decided to sneak out in the middle of the snowstorm, and they still joke about how it's impossible to pronounce the name correctly.

>23 fuzzi:, Yes, or Stardust if it's more of your thing.



>24 PaulCranswick:, Oh yes those too. I've found that the shiniest book is the one right in front of you, tormenting you with its presence until you give in and pick it up. A very happy New Year to you as well.

>25 lkernagh:, Yep, here I am. Glad to have you stop by.

2013 Stat Time!

Total Books Read: 274

Fiction: 181
Non-Fiction: 93

Books with Female Authors: 153
Books with Male Authors: 115
Books with Male/Female Author Teams: 6

Best of December:

Fiction: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Non-Fiction: The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend by Bob Drury & Tom Clavin

Best of the Year

Top 5 Non-Fiction
1. Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters by Kate Brown
2. The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light by Paul Bogard
3. The Secret Rooms: A True Gothic Mystery by Catherine Bailey
4. The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend by Bob Drury & Tom Clavin
5. The Ghosts Of Evolution: Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, And Other Ecological Anachronisms by Connie Barlow

Honorable Mentions
An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler
Lost World of the Golden King: In Search of Ancient Afghanistan by Frank L. Holt

Top 5 Fiction
1. Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth
2. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
3. The Lark in the Morn by Elfrida Vipont
4. The First Century after Beatrice by Amin Maalouf
5. Still She Wished for Company by Margaret Irwin

Honorable Mentions
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
High Rising by Angela Thirkell

Worst of the Worst
1. 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson
2. Mr. and Mrs. Bunny--Detectives Extraordinaire! by Polly Horvath
3. Chief Joseph Of The Nez Perce by Robert Penn Warren
4. The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys
5. Thomas Aquinas in 90 Minutes by Paul Strathern

Happy new year, Jennifer! I'm glad to see you back again this year.

The Ludwig Conspiracy by Oliver Pötzsch

#1 in 2014



Source: Corsicana PL
Recommendation: It got good pre-pub reviews, and I wanted to test it in English before I bought it in German
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Year of Original Pub.: 2011
LC Call #: PT 2676 O895 L8313 2013
Rating: 4 stars / 5

The Ludwig Conspiracy is a modern day thriller about the century-old mystery swirling around the fate of the Bavarian King Ludwig II, who was deposed for insanity and then found floating in waist-deep water. All Steven wants to do is run his antiquarian book store in Munich and live a quiet life. But after he finds a box containing a mysterious diary that belonged to one of Ludwig's doctors left on his shelves, his life will never be boring again. That is if he can live long enough to have much of a life--because other people want that book and now that they know he has it, they'll stop at nothing to get it back.

A fun thriller, the plot swings between Steven's present and Ludwig's past as retold in the diary. Recommended for those who like historical thrillers, German history, or just a little excitement.

>28 MickyFine:, Happy New Year! Hope you're staying warm in Canada.

I sure am. Of course, I didn't go outside today...

That was always my trick for dealing with New England winters, especially the year I was in a dorm with a dining hall inside it.

In the spirit of The Ludwig Conspiracy, here's a bit of Ludwig-mania from the Munich metro, circa 2011:

Jennifer, I came here from the nonfiction page in this group. I am reading LOTR right now; I'm looking forward to a review of the book you're reading on it. Tolkien is an amazing writer!

Jennifer, I'm happy to see The Ludwig Conspiracy holds up. I picked it up on Kindle a while ago since I like his Hangman's series.

>33 JDHomrighausen:, Welcome to the thread! We're in agreement on Tolkien, and while I'm only one chapter into Tolkien and the Great War right now, so far I'm enjoying it. And I will definitely let everyone know how it goes.

>34 UnrulySun:, I've never read his other books, so I can't compare them. But I did enjoy this one.

The Silence of St. Thomas: Three Essays by Josef Pieper



Source: work
Recommendation: I have a certain weakness for Thomas Aquinas
Original Titles: Über Thomas von Aquin and Philosophia negativa
Year of Original Pub.: 1940 & 1953 -- published in this form 1957
LC Call #: B 765 T54 P56 1999
Rating: 4 stars / 5

The Silence of St. Thomas is, as the title would suggest, a book of three essays by the late Josef Pieper on the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. Originally published as two essays, they were combined and translated into English as one book. The first essay gives a brief outline of the life of Thomas Aquinas, rather like an abbreviated version of Pieper's excellent Guide to Thomas Aquinas. The other two essays focus on Aquinas' "negative philosophy"--that is his philosophy of not knowing. Suffice to say, man can't know everything perfectly because everything is a creation of God, and we don't have the power that God has to see every aspect of his work. It's simply too great for us to fathom.

Most enlightening for me were some comments at the beginning of the second essay about how it's important to realize when reading that the authors often won't mention things that they think are self-evident. It's not a big deal with modern authors, because we share many of the same assumptions, but with those not of our era, to achieve a correct interpretation of the text, you need to realize that you might be missing things. (Pieper phrases it much more elegantly than I just did). I'd never thought about it that way before, even though it seems patently obvious in hindsight, so it's given me a lot to think about.

Highly recommended for those with an interest in Aquinas and/or philosophy.

My first book of 2014 arrived today in the mail: The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis. I've heard a lot of good things about the series, so when a sub-$4 copy turned up on AbeBooks, I pounced. Hopefully it will live up to expectations.

I enjoyed it a lot, Jennifer. In fact, I have book 2 here waiting on me!

>38 UnrulySun:, Good to know!
_________________

Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth by John Garth



Source: work
Recommendation: The World War I thread
Year of Original Pub.: 2003
LC Call #: PR 6039 O32 Z647 2003
Rating: 5 stars / 5

Tolkien and the Great War is an amazing, fantastic book, providing an intimate portrait of World War I as experienced by the well-known author J.R.R. Tolkien. It also shows how the events of the war served as the genesis of many of his greatest creations, from the Marshes of the Dead to Samwise Gamgee and beyond.

Tolkien, Christopher Wiseman, Robert Gilson, and G. B. Smith formed a tight-knit friendship as schoolboys at King Edward's School in Birmingham that continued after graduation. All were intellectually driven in one way or another and they passed each other's work around for comments and advice. However, their world irreparably changed with the onset of the First World War. Tolkien was the last of the bunch to join up, because he wanted to finish his degree at Oxford first. But the gloom of the war was everywhere, and it was impossible for him not to be affected. Eventually he was sent to France, where he would see many of his friends met their ends, before coming down with trench fever and being invalidated back home.

It was with this backdrop that Tolkien began developing the languages, cultures, and mythologies that would bring him fame. There are many excerpts of his early works (mostly poetry) in the book to support the thesis, and it is remarkable how much his experience crept in and influenced his creation (note that much of this disappeared in later edits). But although the focus is on Tolkien, and to a certain extent on those in his inner circle, the book would also serve well as an introduction to the everyday soldier experience, one of violence, incompetence, banality, and heroism.

Especially worth noting is the Postscript, which attempts to place Tolkien's writing in respect to that of his contemporaries, such as Robert Graves and Wilfred Owen as well as other veterans of other wars who also turned to fantasy to express the evil they'd seen in war, such as George Orwell and Kurt Vonnegut. Although he may seem an outlier to the canon of Great War writers, it is more that he made the same decisions they did, only chose differently. To quote:

"The book recounts the piteous predicament of the soldier down in the battlefield mud, but it also tackles the themes that Wilfred Owen ruled off-limits: deeds, lands, glory, honour, might, majesty, as well as courage, under such stress that they often fracture, but are not utterly destroyed. Mindful, no doubt, of the schism of war literature into propaganda and protest, Lewis called The Lord of the Rings 'a recall from facile optimism and wailing pessimism alike' that presides at 'the cool middle point between illusion and disillusionment.'" (p. 312)

Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the First World War, J.R.R. Tolkien, or the power of friendship when the whole world falls to pieces. There is much to appreciate, even for those with little interest in dwarves or fairies.

Wow, that does look like a fantastic book. :) I will have to look for it soon

I am afraid I'll have to add this to my already unreasonably long, given my age, wish list. When will I read all these books? I must resolve to live to at least 125.

Just doing a drive-by. Hope you are well and having a good start to 2014!

On my list as well...

We're teetering very close to the beginning of the spring semester, and things are getting crazy here. Nonetheless, the show must go on.

>40 Kassilem:, It's certainly worth seeking out.

>41 maggie1944:, The solution to the book:time ratio is one of the great mysteries of life. If only someone would solve it for us.

>42 Morphidae:, Thanks to popping by!

>43 drneutron:, Hopefully you'll enjoy it.

One of the great benefits of being on the University of Notre Dame Press email list is that every November they send out a 40% off coupon good through the end of December. (The other is a heads up on their annual summer $5, $10, $15 overstock sale.) It's a great excuse to buy something that I ordinarily would put off due to price. This year I picked up A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience by Christopher Kaczor, which I read good things about in CHOICE, one of our library review magazines. It arrived in the mail on Monday, making it book #2 of 2014.



Here's the back cover:

"Questions about the dignity of the human person give rise to many of the most central and hotly disputed topics in bioethics. In A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience, Christopher Kaczor investigates whether each human being has intrinsic dignity and whether the very concept of "dignity" has a useful place in contemporary ethical debates. Kaczor explores a broad range of issues addressed in contemporary bioethics, including whether there is a duty of "procreative beneficence," the ethics of ectopic pregnancy, and the possibility of "rescuing" human embryos with human wombs or artificial wombs. A Defense of Dignity also treats issues relevant to the end of life, including physician-assisted suicide, provision of food and water to patients in a persistent vegetative state, and how to proceed with organ donation following death. Finally, what are the duties and prerogatives of health care professionals who refuse in conscience to take part in activities that they regard as degrading to human dignity? Should they be forced to do what they consider to be violations of the patient's well being, or does patient autonomy always trump the conscience of a health care professional?

Grounded in the Catholic intellectual and moral tradition, A Defense of Dignity argues that all human beings from the beginning to the end of their lives should be treated with respect and considers how this belief should be applied in controversial cases."

The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin



Source: ILL (Plano PL)
Recommendation: Judy (DeltaQueen50) on my 13-in-13 thread last year
Year of Original Pub.: 2004
LC Call #: F 595 L37 2004
Rating: 4 stars / 5

The Children's Blizzard is the tragic history of a blizzard that swept across the Great Plains on January 12, 1888, (125 years and 356 days ago today), and killed hundreds of people caught away from home, many of them children caught at school. The blizzard was the result of a series of events that coincided at the worst possible moment, but the destruction was worsened by the inefficiencies and incompetence of the Army Signal Corps (then in charge of weather forecasting). When it came down to it, no one could resist the first warm day in weeks, and once the winds picked up and visibility went to zero, their fates were sealed. Except of course for those, whose miraculous survival stories that became front page news in the storm's aftermath.

Laskin's book is an extremely compelling and readable account of the disaster, using both personal stories of death and survival, as well as weather science and a comprehensive description of hypothermia. It's very much like the story in Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter (set in 1880-81) when a blizzard catches everyone in school and the teacher leads everyone out, only to almost miss the town (luckily Laura bumped into a building). It's the perfect portrait of an era, when the West was still viewed as tamable and people tied their dreams to prairie homesteads.

Highly recommended for those with an interest in good narrative non-fiction, American history, immigration, the Great Plains, or weather disasters.

Have a wonderful weekend, Jennifer!

Jennifer, I've just ordered Children of the Blizzard after your great review (the blizzard episode of Little House screened quite recently in the reruns here and was what I immediately thought of at the beginning of your review). I've got a 20p copy coming from Nevada. I hope "acceptable" isn't too bad a quality for a used book...

I didn't care for The Children's Blizzard all that much. I gave it 6 stars out of 10. While I found the history of meteorology and the culture of the time and area interesting, the fictionalized accounts of what was going on in people's heads was annoying. Especially since they then died! How would he know what they were thinking?

>47 wilkiec:, Thanks!

>48 susanj67:, Hopefully you'll like it. If not, at least it was only 20 pence.

>49 Morphidae:, I actually kind of liked that part. It added a bit of suspense, and was much better done than its spiritual cousin, the "It was only influenza" trick in The Great Influenza. I did think the author could have joined the Army and Homesteader segments a bit more fluidly, because after a while the people trapped in the snow were much more interesting than the bumbling weather corps.
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I finally got my last two Christmas presents yesterday, when my Mom came down from Plano to see my sister, while she was up from Austin (I live in the middle). So The Riddle of the Labyrinth and Japanese Farm Food have joined my shelves as books 3 and 4 of 2014.

the "It was only influenza" trick in The Great Influenza

Oh man, was THAT annoying!

#50: Oooh, I loved The Riddle of the Labyrinth! I hope you do too. I'm sure I'll enjoy Children of the Blizzard. You are one of my best recommenders :-) I'm still trying to find Plutopia after you recommended it last year. Or, more accurately, trying to find it at a price I'm not too cheap to pay (£16.70 on Amazon doesn't qualify!). I might make a suggestion to the library.

I just finished reading Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident and the Illusion of Safety, a compelling history of the nuclear weapons and an expose of how unsafe they really are, regardless of a deliberate deployment. So naturally, I had to go to Amazon to check out Plutopia, and ended up buying it. I live fairly close to one of the "atomic cities"--Hanford Washington.

>51 Morphidae:, It was, wasn't it.

>52 susanj67:, Your thread is where I discovered The Riddle of the Labyrinth and I'm looking forward to getting to it. Plutopia is an excellent book, and focuses equally on the US and the Soviet Union, so it might be worth asking your library to get a copy.

>53 arubabookwoman:, It sounds like Plutopia should be right up your alley, especially since you live nearby. Be prepared to get mad though, the drive for plutonium made people do some really stupid things. And they're still in denial today.

The Birds of the Air by Alice Thomas Ellis



Source: work
Recommendation: the cover is gorgeous
Year of Original Pub.: 1980
LC Call #: PR 6055 L4856 B57 1980
Rating: 2 stars / 5

One of these days I will stop reading biting satires. I never like them, but I keep reading them. I just can't see beyond the misery of the situation to laugh at the humor. The Birds of the Air is no exception. The lure this time was a pretty cover (ooh, birds!) while I was organizing shelves at work. Unfortunately, it worked, but luckily it's a quick read.

It's Christmas time somewhere in or near Wales, and Mrs. Marsh's daughters have returned home. Mary is deep in mourning for her son Robin, who died recently, and Barbara has just discovered that her professor husband is having an affair with another professor's wife (called the Thrush by students--notice a trend here?). Barbara has two children, Sam, a typical rebel teenager whom no one understands and who at one point dyes his hair green because he can, and Kate who is practically perfect in every way. And now there all at Grandma's chatting with the neighbors and driving each other crazy. If poking fun at British middle class pretensions circa 1979 sounds like fun, you'll probably this book, but it's really just a lot of unhappy people being miserable, and then getting drunk and being miserable. Not a jot of Christmas joy to be seen (which is rather the point).

Know yourself and read at your own risk.

The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy*



Source: me (1/2008)
Recommendation: TIOLI #13: Read a book by an author who died in 2013
Year of Original Pub.: 1984
LC Call #: PS 3553 L245 H8 1985
Rating: 5 stars / 5

The Hunt for Red October is one of my favorite books. Even though I know exactly how it's going to end, it's a joyride every time. If you've seen the movie, you pretty much know how it goes.

Jack Ryan is minding his own business in England researching his book on Admiral Halsey. He's asked to bring some some photographs to the CIA which appear to show a new Soviet Submarine. Meanwhile in Polyarny, Captain Marko Ramius, pride of the Soviet navy, prepares to take the Red October on her maiden voyage. But he has his own plans for the submarine, and they don't match up with the Kremlin's. When Ramius and his ship disappear into radio silence, the hunt to retrieve them begins on both sides of the Atlantic. If only someone could figure out what was actually going on.

It's not a short book, but the action never really drags in spite of its bulk. The Cold War may be over, but the excitement lives on. Highly recommended.

I found the library suggestion form and filled it out for Plutopia, so fingers crossed. I had to give my email address so I'm hoping I get an email letting me know they've ordered it, and then I can get it *first*. The form is scarily easy to fill out, so I might make a few more suggestions. I wonder how many I can make before the system thinks I'm a spam-bot?

The Hunt for Red October = Sam Neill. Sigh...

Hi, Jennifer! I've so enjoyed reading the reviews you've posted here! I may be a glutton for punishment, but The Birds of the Air sounds pretty good to me...

>57 susanj67:: Oh, Sam Neill - yum!

>57 susanj67:, Oh dear, I'd definitely be the one to test the limit. There are just so many books I want to read.

>58 scaifea:, Thanks! Don't let my review of The Birds of the Air stop you from reading it. I never enjoy bleak satires, so the fact that I made it all the way through the book without throwing it at a wall should stand as a testament to its potential for those who do like the genre.

Plus some Sam Neill:

Gods and Myths of Northern Europe by H.R. Ellis Davidson+



Source: me (3/2004)
Recommendation: ROOT Challenge & TIOLI #16: Read a book with an ugly cover
Year of Original Pub.: 1964
LC Call #: BL 860 D36 1990
Rating: 4 stars / 5

Gods and Myths of Northern Europe attempts to tease out the traditional beliefs of the Germanic peoples from antiquity until the last conversions to Christianity in the Middle Ages. Unlike with other strands of paganism, such as the ancient Greek and Roman religions, there is much less material to work with and much of it is either fragmentary, written by outsiders, or set to paper only in the Christian era when widespread belief in the old gods and goddesses was gone.

This doesn't stop Davidson, and she manages to produce a thorough of what we do know as well as provide much food for thought in terms of what has probably been lost to the ages. Starting with a basic overview of Snorri's Prose Edda, the author continues with biographies of all the major deities known to us and describes their roles in society. Suffice to say it wasn't all Vikings and Valhalla. From the beginnings of the world tree to the end of Ragnarök, it is all covered here.

Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the northern gods and goddesses, there is so much we don't know that it will only leave you wanting to learn more.

Advent and Christmas with the Church Fathers by Marco Pappalardo



Source: me (11/2013)
Recommendation: Advent/Christmas devotional reading
Original Titles: Avvento e Natale con i Padri della Chiesa
Year of Original Pub.: 2009
LC Call #: BX 2170 A4 P3613 2010
Rating: 2 stars / 5

Advent and Christmas with the Church Fathers is a book of readings for Advent and Christmas (and Epiphany) taken from the writings of the Church Fathers, eastern and western. And that part was fine. Where it failed though was in its organization. Before Christmas the readings are set up in terms of the weeks of Advent, i.e. "Monday in the 2rd Week of Advent", "Thursday in the 4th Week of Advent", etc. with a separate set of readings for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (8 December).

After Christmas, it all falls apart. There are readings for Christmas and major feast days in the Christmas season (St. Stephen, the Holy Family, Epiphany, the Baptism of the Lord, et al.) and then there's a series of readings tacked onto the end for the Christmas season. What you're supposed to do with them is up to you, I guess. Why they couldn't have done it like in Advent is rather beyond me. There are twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany, and then the next Sunday is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. It would have been more than possible to map it out that way. Which is disappointing, because I was really enjoying it up to that point.

Good for Advent devotional reading, the Christmas part is rather hit and miss and will take a bit more self-planning. There's also a volume for Lent and Easter, Lent and Easter with the Church Fathers, but I think I'll try something else.

>56 inge87: Cinema Sins on YouTube just did Hunt for the Red October, if you're interested. I'd include a link but I'm on the iPad. :(

>62 MickyFine:, Not a problem, here's the link for those interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwj1tGev0Z4

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A Pedlar's Pack and Other Stories by Elizabeth Goudge



Source: work
Recommendation: TIOLI #20: Read a book by an Elizabeth
Year of Original Pub.: 1937
LC Call #: PR 6013 O74 P42 1970
Rating: 3 stars / 5

A Pedlar's Pack is a charming collection of short stories, mostly in a sentimental style that borders on magical realism -- miraculous solutions and fantastic coincidences. It's rather old fashioned, but those who like such stories will find it a joy to read.

I'd never heard of Goudge before, but found the book due to a TIOLI challenge to read a book by an Elizabeth. Searching through the catalogue at work, this was the one that looked most interesting. I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for more of her work.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith



Source: Corsicana PL
Recommendation: TIOLI #12: Read a mystery book where the lead investigator is a professional sleuth
Series: No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (1/?)
Year of Original Pub.: 1998
LC Call #: PR 6063 C326 N6 2003
Rating: 3 stars / 5

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is the first of a well-known series of mystery novels featuring Mma Precious Ramotswe, who uses an inheritance to become the first female detective in Botswana. The book features a series of episodes that discuss social issues in the form of Ramotswe's cases and life story. Epic amounts of redbush (i.e. rooibos) tea are drunk in the process, a state of affairs of which I highly approve.

Mystery fans will enjoy this one, as will those with an interest in Botswana.

The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea by Callum Roberts



Source: me (12/2013)
Recommendation: Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books Shortlist
Year of Original Pub.: 2012
LC Call #: CB 465 R62 2013
Rating: 4 stars / 5

The Ocean of Life is a compelling, comprehensive account of man's relationship with the sea, and how it is standing at the brink of collapse. Warming and increasing acidification would be bad enough for the denizens of the waters, but man's pollution and incessant appetite for seafood only make things worse. If there's an issue you've been wondering about involving sealife, there's probably a chapter about it here. Also appreciated is the first appendix, which discusses what seafood you should eat and how to figure out if it is really sustainable.

We've been avoiding difficult decisions about the oceans and our actions for too long, The Ocean of Life is an excellent introduction to what we've done and what we must do in the future to ensure that life in the oceans will endure for future generations. Highly recommended.

The Death of King Arthur: A New Verse Translation by Simon Armitage



Source: work
Recommendation: TIOLI #6: Read a Book by a Yorkshire Born Writer (Armitage is from Marsden)
Year of Original Pub.: c.1400 (poem), 2012 (this translation)
LC Call #: PR 2065 M3 A325 2012
Rating: 3 stars / 5

The Death of King Arthur is a late fourteenth century epic written in alliterative verse concerning the adventures of King Arthur and his knights of the round table on the Continent after he is slighted by the Roman Emperor, Lucius. Just when he's defeated almost everyone, word arrives that his wife and his nephew have betrayed him, and Arthur returns home to meet his fate.

If you liked, Armitage's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, you'll like this one. Sir Gawain is probably the superior poem, but this one is a lot of fun.

Blue Highways: A Journey into America by William Least Heat-Moon+



Source: me (1/2009)
Recommendation: It was time
Year of Original Pub.: 1982
LC Call #: E 169 Z8 H385 1999
Rating: 3 stars / 5

In 1978, having lost his job and facing a broken marriage, William Least Heat-Moon set out in a refurbished van to go out and travel the backroads of the United States, which were marked in blue in his atlas. Blue Highways is his account of his trip. What struck me most reading it, was how much has changed since the late 70s. The journey was interesting enough, and his method for rating cafes by their calendars has become a classic, but at times I tired of the narrator and his philosophizing on random aspects of life. But when things get good, they get real good.

Recommended for anyone who has ever wanted to go out and look for America or ever wondered what would happen if they took that random exit on the interstate.

>64 inge87: They did a cable TV show based on the books that is now available on DVD. It's very well done.

I'm very fond of Elizabeth Goudge - she's rather unfashionable these days, but I grew up loving several of her books aimed at children/young adults (especially The Little White Horse which has become better known again recently since J K Rowling mentioned it as one of her childhood favourites) and have slowly been exploring her adult novels since then. I've not tried her short stories. A little bit sentimental perhaps, but she has a gift for making goodness attractive, and there is depth to her stories. The most recent one I read was a historical novel set during the English Civil War (a period which for some reason seems to feature infrequently in English historical fiction) - called The White Witch, which I very much enjoyed.

I have the same edition of that Hilda Ellis Davidson book, which I obtained and read just before I went to university since it was on the preparatory reading list. Hilda ended up being one of my tutors when I did a course on the sagas - she was a lively and encouraging teacher.

>67 inge87:, My boss mentioned something about that when I was reading The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency at work. I may have to seek it out.

>68 Morphidae:, We have a few more of Goudge's adult works in the dusty recesses of the library where I work, so I'm hoping to get to some later in the year. I've got a soft spot for the kind of sentimental style she uses, and so far she is my fiction discovery of 2014.

I can see how Hilda Ellis Davidson would have been a good teacher, it must have been fascinating to study under her.
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A Subaltern's War, being a memoir of the Great War from the point of view of a romantic young man, with candid accounts of two particular battles, written shortly after they occurred, and an essay on militarism by Charles Edmonds



Source: ILL (University of Dallas)
Recommendation: Tolkien and the Great War
Year of Original Pub.: 1929
LC Call #: D 640 C366 1972
Rating: 4 stars / 5

A Subaltern's War is Charles Edmond Carrington's memoir of his time spent as a subaltern (lieutenant) in the British army during the First World War written under a pseudonym under the advice of a lawyer.

The book itself was first published in 1929, but it is based on his wartime diaries. For the most part attempting to show his thoughts and experiences at the time, the terror and horror of war comes through in an excellent example of showing not telling. Joining up at the beginning of the war, Carrington found himself an officer at the front by age 19. His depiction of his time at the Somme and at Passchendaele form the bulk of the memoir. Somehow he survived the chaos to leave behind this book. The "Essay on Militarism" promised in the title is an interesting rejection of the post-war cynicism and as he sees it defeatism from what he maintains is the view of the majority of war veterans.

A readable, compelling account of one man's war experience in France and Belgium. If you can find a copy, it's worth picking up.

Imperfect: An Improbable Life by Jim Abbott & Tim Brown



Source: Corsicana PL
Recommendation: TIOLI #14: Read a book that is about an athlete or athletes
Year of Original Pub.: 2012
LC Call #: GV 865 A26 A3 2012
Rating: 3 stars / 5

Imperfect is the memoir of Jim Abbott, a pitcher who won an Olympic medal and threw a major league no-hitter despite being born without a right hand. The book alternates chapters between a chronological account of his life and an inning by inning account of his 1993 no-hitter for the New York Yankees against the Cleveland Indians.

Abbott definitely had an interesting life, and the book reminds me of R.A. Dickey's book, Wherever I Wind Up, which I read when it came out in 2012. But it's nothing particularly special. For those with an interest in Abbott or in stories of athletes with disabilities.

The Lark on the Wing by Elfrida Vipont



Source: me (11/2013)
Recommendation: I loved The Lark in the Morn
Series: Haverard Family (2/5)
Year of Original Pub.: 1950
LC Call #: PZ 7 F825 Las2 1970
Rating: 4 stars / 5

The Lark on the Wing finds Kit excited to have graduated Heryot and excited at the prospect of a singing career, only to have Laura squash her dreams as usual and wind up as her father's secretary. But patience is a virtue, and soon enough she finds herself in London rooming with friends and struggling to make her dreams come true. And, as always happens in these sort of books, eventually she does. In more ways than one.

Watching Kit grow up and struggle with a world she doesn't entirely understand is a gift. It's easy to see why the book won the Carnegie Prize (the UK Newbery) in 1950. The book's prose sings just as beautifully as Kit does, and the pen-and-ink illustrations in my edition are to die for. Highly recommended for anyone who liked The Lark in the Morn or vintage children's literature.

Wow, you been reading up a storm! I second the recommendation of The Little White Horse. I read it not too long ago for the first time and loved it.

>73 scaifea:, Thanks. I've been on a British juvenile fiction kick lately, and the RandomCAT for February is children's books, so I may try to get to The Little White Horse next month.
_________________________________

The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope



Source: me (pre-2006)
Recommendation: TIOLI matched read. I had it on the shelves and hadn't read it in a while.
Series: Ruritania (1/3)
Year of Original Pub.: 1894
LC Call #: PR 4762 P7 2000
Rating: 3 stars / 5

If identical strangers, random European kingdoms, scheming relatives, and political intrigue sounds like a plot you've heard before, that's because The Prisoner of Zenda is the mother of all political adventure novels.

Rudolf Rassendyll, like many of his forefathers, is living proof of the infidelity of one ancestor's wife with a prince of Ruritania, a small Central European kingdom. But he never realized how much until he travels there himself and meets the crown prince (conveniently also named Rudolf) . . . who could easily be his twin. Which comes in handy when said prince is drugged the day of his coronation as king, and Rudolf has to fill in. It's even more convenient after the king is kidnapped by his scheming half-brother Michael, and Rudolf is forced to play king while plotting his rescue. Considering that he's fallen head over heals in love with the kings prospective wife, not all of these duties are particularly burdensome for him. But how will he tell her that he's not the Rudolf she thinks he is, and what will happen if he can't rescue the royal prisoner from Zenda? Find out in this 1894 bestseller.

If you like classic adventure stories or enjoy novels set in fictional European principalities, this one may be for you.

Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart*



Source: me (June 2012)
Recommendation: TIOLI #5: Read a book set in France before the 21st Century
Year of Original Pub.: 1958
LC Call #: PR 6069 T46 N56 1958
Rating: 4 stars / 5

Nine Coaches Waiting is, along with Touch Not the Cat, one of my favorite of Mary Stewart novels. Seeking an escape from her current situation, Linda tells a few white lies to get a job as a governess in Eastern France. Her charge, the orphaned Philippe, soon finds himself suffering a series of near fatal accidents. Meanwhile, Linda finds herself falling under the spell of Raoul, Philippe's cousin, whose father is Linda's host. But can he be trusted? Especially when it seems like her own life is in danger as well?

A fun, retro thriller. Highly recommended.

Stopping by to get caught up after a few weeks pretty much off the LT grid. Great batch of reading, Jennifer! LOVE The Hunt for Red October - and Sam Neill! I found Nine Coaches Waiting to be quite a good read and it held up quite well for a retro gothic thriller.

>76 lkernagh:, I understand completely, since I'm massively behind on threads myself. Thanks for stopping by!

January Acquisition Update

5. On Wednesday, I received a book I'd ordered with Christmas gift cards from the BookDepository: The Long Shadow: The Great War and the Twentieth Century by David Reynolds, about how the war has been viewed over the course of the 20th century. It's been out in the UK since the fall, and will come out in the US in May with a slightly different subtitle.

6. Yesterday, I popped up to Dallas to run some errands, and picked up a 1939 US edition of The Brandons by Angela Thirkell at Half Price Books. It will be a while before I reach that point in the series but it was only $5, and I didn't think I'd be able to find another copy at that quality level and price (Plus, I sold them some books so it was "free").

The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O'Shea*



Source: me (early 2000s)
Recommendation: TIOLI #8: Read a book with a glossary
Publisher: HarperTrophy
Year of Original Pub.: 1985
LC Call #: PZ 7 O83 Hou 1999
Rating: 4 stars / 5

The Hounds of the Morrigan is a remarkable juvenile fantasy novel that should have great appeal to adult readers as well. Pidge and his sister Bridget live outside Galway with their father and aunt. One day Pidge finds a mysterious manuscript and accidentally looses an an ancient evil, attracting the attention of the Morrigan and her henchwomen, who set up house in a neighbor's greenhouse. If she gets her way, she'll be able to regain her old power and once again terrorize the world. It's up to the two children to save the world, but they get plenty of help along the way.

An excellent, well-written fantasy, that draws deeply from Celtic mythology. Highly recommended for anyone who loves a good story.

The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code by Margalit Fox



Source: me (1/2013)
Recommendation: Susan (susanj67)
Publisher: Ecco
Year of Original Pub.: 2013
LC Call #: P 1038 F69 2013
Rating: 4 stars / 5

The Riddle of the Labyrinth is a history of the decipherment of the Linear B script first discovered on Crete at the turn of the century. However it would be around fifty years before anyone would actually be able to read it. The book covers the three people who had the greatest effect on its modern history: the man who discovered it (Arthur Evans), the woman who laid most of the groundwork (Alice Kober), and the man who finally solved the mystery (Michael Ventris). The focus is on the efforts of Kober, who due to her early death has been mostly shut out of the story. However, her papers are now at the University of Texas, which allowed the author to fully reveal just how vital her efforts were.

An excellent real life mystery, for linguists and non-linguists alike. Highly recommended.

#80: Jennifer, I'm so glad you enjoyed The Riddle of the Labyrinth! I want to reserve The Long Shadow from the library but it's just a bit long at the moment, considering all the other things I have on their way.

I'm reading Ocean of Life and it's fascinating.

I read The Hounds of the Morrigan recently and loved it - glad to see that you enjoyed it, too!

Boy, sounds good. Now I just have to find time to read it.

>81 susanj67:, Yes, The Long Shadow does appear to be a bit of a clunker. I'm glad to see you're enjoying The Ocean of Life.

>82 scaifea:, It's a fantastic novel, isn't it.

>83 scvlad:, That's the great book conundrum. So many books, so little time.

Light on a Dark Horse: An Autobiography, 1901-1935 by Roy Campbell



Source: work
Recommendation: TIOLI #18: Read a book by an author from Sub-Saharan Africa (South Africa)
Year of Original Pub.: 1951
LC Call #: PR 6005 A418 Z52 1951
Rating: 3 stars / 5

Light on a Dark Horse contains the memories of irrepressibly infamous South African poet Roy Campbell, focusing on his childhood near Durban and his adult years leading up to the Spanish Civil War. There are far more holes in the last bit, especially his interactions with the Bloomsbury Group, but there is a good reason for that.

Originally mingling among the cultured sophisticates of the Bloomsbury circle, Campbell turned against them after Vita Sackville-West had an affair with his wife. Her husband, Harold Nicholson, threatened a libel suit and managed to get the publisher to cut parts of the book. Hence the abbreviated England sections. But Campbell's love of Africa and its animals, as well as of Provence and Spain, come through just as clearly. You can't trust a word he says, and it reads like a novel because much of it is probably fiction, but it's a lot of fun none the same.

For those with an interest in good storytelling. The last couple of chapters shine an interesting light on the situation in Spain at the onset of the Spanish Civil War.

Greenvoe by George Mackay Brown



Source: me (12/2013)
Recommendation: 75-er Secret Santa gift from maggie1944
Year of Original Pub.: 1972
LC Call #: PR 6052 R59 G74 2004
Rating: 3 stars / 5

Greenvoe is a haunting novel of destruction and survival in island village of Scotland. Greenvoe is a quiet village on the fictional island of Hellya in the Orkneys, where not much happens and life revolves around the fish, the inn, and the ferry. A cast of characters ranging from atheists and drunks to teetotaler Presbyterians populate the island. My favorite was probably the minister's mother who watches her judgement day play out before her eyes. But the introduction of a mysterious visitor presages the doom of the last chapter.

The bulk of the book is a interesting study of everyday village life. The drama of the mundane, so to speak. The children go to school, their mothers visit the store and deal with the bitter shopkeeper's wife, and their fathers go to sea (or not). There are moments of change, such as when the travelling salesman comes for his yearly visit, but overall little interrupts the passage of time until Project Black Star brings it to a sudden end. But even in the darkest night, there is light.

An interesting novel, full of local color. Brown spent most of his life in the Orkneys, and his grasp of the people is masterful.

Kleine deutsche Versschule by Wolfgang Kayser+^



Source: me (04/2011)
Recommendation: ROOT Challenge
Year of Original Pub.: 1946
LC Call #: PF 3505 K37 1974
Rating: 3 stars / 5

Kleine deutsche Versschule is a German introduction to poetry. I picked it up because it was suggested reading in a Vorlesung on Poetry that I took while I was in Bonn. It's pretty much a standard introduction, covering the subjects, like meter and rhyme, that you'd expect in such a book. Only being in German, the examples are from authors like Goethe and Klopstock instead of Shakespeare and Tennyson. It is what it is, and that's that.

Note: Mine is the 17th edition, not the 20th edition shown in the picture, otherwise the covers are identical.

Jennifer, I just had to stop by with big congratulations for sweeping the TIOLI challenges for January. Well done! You read a variety of interesting books and made thoughtful comments on all of them. I am in awe yet all I can do is offer a star at the top of your thread!

My Goodness, you certainly have started 2014 on a run!

Great job on sweeping the January challenge! Isn't it a fantastic feeling?

Congrats on sweeping the January TIOLI!

>88 Donna828:, Thanks, both for the congrats and for stopping by!

>89 cyderry:, I've actually read less than I did last year. It just has a better TIOLI distribution this time. :)

>90 Morphidae:, It is a most wonderful feeling.

>91 lkernagh:, Thanks!
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For the record, my total last January was 28 books, with a TIOLI spread of 2x3, 3x2, 7x4, 8, 9x2, 10x5, 11, 12x2, 14x2, 17, 19, 21x3, 22, plus 6(!) shared reads.

I've finished another short novel I'd been working on, I Heard the Owl Call My Name, about a minister sent to a remote village in British Columbia and the relationships he develops with the native inhabitants. I'm now moving on to The Ode Less Travelled, another book on poetry, this one by a rather dull and serious fellow named Stephen Fry.

I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven



Source: work
Recommendation: can't remember, but it was on one of my amazon wishlists
Year of Original Pub.: 1967
LC Call #: PS 3553 R277 I3 1986
Rating: 3 stars / 5

I Heard the Owl Call My Name is the story of Mark, who is about to die, but doesn't know it (the doctor tells the readers and Mark's bishop in the first couple of pages). An ordained minister, he is sent to the remote village of Kingcome, in order to learn enough about life to be able to die (not that that's what the bishop actually tells him). The village, in remote northwestern British Columbia, is home to a dwindling number of Native American/First Nations people, who are struggling to adapt to the modern world (the book was published in 1967). But though hard work and his good nature, Mark gradually earns their trust and respect. At the same time, he comes to love and respect them as well. And then, of course, he dies. (It's about the journey, remember?)

A haunting, melancholy book about life and acceptance. The author, a native of the Pacific Northwest, really captured the feel of the place, or at least it sounds like what I'd expect such a place to be like. Recommended for those with an interest in novels featuring native peoples, good missionaries, or the Pacific Northwest.

>92 inge87: I love Stephen Fry's writing. I read the second volume of his autobiography and its fantastic - as one would expect of Mr. Fry. :)

>94 MickyFine:, So far he's living up to expectations. It's very much a no fear poetry method.
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My Father's Glory by Marcel Pagnol



Source: ILL (U. of Texas at Dallas)
Recommendation: don't remember, some one liked it somewhere
Original Title: La gloire de mon père
Series: Memories of Childhood (1/4)
Year of Original Pub.: 1957
LC Call #: PQ 2631 A26 Z543 1986
Rating: 3 stars / 5

My Father's Glory is the first of Marcel Pagnol's autobiographical novels of growing up in the South of France at the turn of the 20th century. Told from the boy's perspective, everything is an adventure, even the most mundane tasks. But life truly begins when his family takes a summer house in Provence with his mother's sister and her husband. There life truly is an adventure, and the reader will finally find out just what his father's glory is.

A charming, nostalgic account of a happy French childhood. Recommended for anyone with an interest in the period, or those who like good stories.

January Round Up, or The Time of Stats

January was an interesting month. I swept TIOLI for the second time in my LT career, and developed a sudden interest in WWI and poetic forms. Stay tuned for my interesting plans for February.

Books Read: 25 (4 less than last year)

Sources
Work - 7 - 28%
Me (other) - 4 - 16%
Me (rereads) - 4 - 16%
ILL - 3 - 12%
Me (TBR) - 3 - 12%
Public Library - 3 - 12%
Me (Acquired this month) - 1 - 4%

Authors
Male 18 (one book had co-authors) - 69.23%
Female 8 - 31.77%
Both 0

Edition Language
German - 1 - 4%
English - 24 - 96%

Original Language
French - 1 - 4%
Italian - 1 - 4%
German - 3 - 12%
English - 20 - 80%

Series
Series Books - 5 - 20%
Stand-Alone Books - 20 - 80%

Average Original Date of Publication (including The Death of King Arthur)
1951

Average Original Date of Publication (minus The Death of King Arthur)
1974

Mean Original Date of Publication
1972

Ratings Distribution
1 star - 0 - 0%
2 stars - 2 - 8%
3 stars - 12 - 48%
4 stars - 9 - 36%
5 stars - 2 - 8%

Average Rating
3.44

Best of the Month



Fiction: The Lark on the Wing by Elfrida Vipont

Non-Fiction Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-Earth by John Garth

Adding Greenvoe to the wishlist - sounds very good!

Also, Stephen Fry! I love him.

>97 scaifea:, Greenvoe's an interesting book and has aged remarkably well. And Stephen Fry is quite the character.
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So far in February, the reading's been so-so. I've given up on Following the Sun, because I couldn't stand the author's personality, which is bad in a travelogue. But The Ode Less Travelled's been good, and I'm optimistic about A Defense of Dignity.

I was up in Dallas again yesterday to pick up the copy of the Colin Firth Pride & Prejudice that I'd checked out under my name from work for my mother in Plano and replace a defective bottle of Bath & Body Works soap that my aunt had given me as a gift. Somewhere in between all this, I stopped at Half Price Books again (that's twice in two weeks, pretty unheard of for me).

This time I picked up three books:

1. Gott und die Welt (German-language edition!), one of the interviews the then Cardinal Ratzinger did with Peter Seewald

2.The Last Man in Russia by Oliver Bullough, 2013 Russian contemporary history/travelogue from my wishlist.

3. Julia in Ireland by Ann Bridge - A nice 1973 hardcover US first edition that had been discounted. I now have half the Julia Probyn series (1, 2, 3, and 8) and only need to find 4, 5, 6, and 7.

The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbøl & Agnete Friis



Source: me (1/2013)
Recommendation: several places
Original Title: Drengen i kufferten
Series: Nina Borg (1/?)
Year of Original Pub.: 2008
LC Call #: PT 8177.21 A24 D7413 2011
Rating: 2 stars / 5

I tend to give two kinds of books two stars: flawed books with lots of potential and books that were just not for me. The Boy in the Suitcase falls into the latter category. There were simply too few characters that I could actually sympathize with, and Nina, the heroine, left me feeling cold. But the plot was tight and the pacing good.

Nina works at a UN refugee center in Copenhagen, when her friend calls her and tells her to pick up a suitcase from a locker. Inside is a boy, drugged, but still alive. Whoever could have done such a thing, and how was Karin involved? Soon enough, Karin turns up dead, and it's up to Nina to save the boy and solve the case before more people are hurt. Meanwhile, in Lithuania, single mother Sigita is looking for her son Mikas, who was kidnapped from the local playground. It soon emerges that some secrets from her past have come back to haunt her, but nothing will stop her from finding her son and bringing him back home.

Lots of people have liked this one. It just wasn't for me.

One exciting bit of new news was in this month's LibraryJournal: The Book of Life, book 3 of Deborah Harkness's All Souls' Trilogy, is due out July 15! I for one am very excited about this.

I just read the first one of the trilogy at the tail end of last year so I consider myself plum lucky to once again fall into a series that's (almost) complete. I have a tremendous knack for that. :)

>101 MickyFine:, You are lucky. I finished book two in January 2013; it's been quite a wait.
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The Toll-Gate by Georgette Heyer*



Source: me (9/2009)
Recommendation: sudden urge to reread it
Year of Original Pub.: 1954
LC Call #: PR 6015 E795 T655 2009
Rating: 4 stars / 5

The Toll-Gate on a remote road in Derbyshire is the site of much intrigue in this Georgette Heyer novel. Escaping from a boring family party to his friend's house 60 miles away, John Staple finds himself lost in a storm. When, exhausted, he arrives at a toll gate to find the keeper gone and his frightened son left alone, the ex-soldier's curiosity is piqued, and he decides to stick around and see what's going on. And then he meets the local squire's granddaughter and decides to stay longer, especially when it appears that the missing gate-keeper may be directly connected to the sudden appearance of two unexpected guests at her grandfather's. But will he be able to figure everything out before the wrong person figures out him?

A fun Regency mystery. The romance is mostly on the back-burner, but it is present. For Heyer fans and those who enjoy historical mysteries.

All Natural*: A Skeptic's Quest for Health and Happiness in an Age of Ecological Anxiety by Nathanael Johnson



Source: Corsicana PL
Recommendation: pre-pub reviews
Year of Original Pub.: 2013
LC Call #: GF 77 J64 2013
Rating: 3 stars / 5

Nathanael Johnson was raised by hippies in the California countryside, but eventually turned against his upbringing to find a more mainstream way of life. But what if they were right? All Natural* is his journey to explore whether or not the natural way is the best way, and what he learns in the process.

Divided into seven chapters covering topics as diverse as natural childbirth, raw dairy, environmentalism, mass-produced meat, and the health care system, the book provides several viewpoints as the reader and the author attempt to sort through the layers of conflicting viewpoints. The final verdict is, as one might expect, mixed. Some times modernism wins, sometimes the natural way, but the truth is somewhere in between. And it's up to mankind to find this third way, for everyone's sakes.

I have tried any of Heyer's Regency mysteries yet. I love the characters she creates and the settings so I think I will add The Toll-Gate to my library list and see if they have a copy.

>104 lkernagh:, The Toll-Gate is good, as is The Quiet Gentleman and her Gothic thriller Cousin Kate. I've found them all to be superior to her contemporary mysteries.

My Mother's Castle by Marcel Pagnol



Source: ILL (U. of Texas at Dallas)
Recommendation: don't remember, some one liked it somewhere
Original Title: Le Château de ma mère
Series: Memories of Childhood (2/4)
Year of Original Pub.: 1957
LC Call #: PQ 2631 A26 Z543 1986
Rating: 3 stars / 5

My Mother's Castle continues the fictionalized memoirs of Marcel Pagnol, after the events at the end of My Father's Glory, Marcel regularly joins in the hunting expeditions of his father and uncle. Then one day he makes a great friend, Lili, who shows him how to snare birds. However all holidays much come to an end, and soon it is back to Marseilles and school. But then the family decides to spend weekends there, which is only a few kilometers outside of the city, but made remote by issues with public transportation. Then by chance they meet a former pupil of his father's who lets them in through a short cut he has access to as part of his job with a canal company. But this has its own risks as they are technically trespassing. But Marcel has never passed up an adventure before, why would he stop now.

More of the same fun as the first book, a look back at a golden era of the author's childhood, and a lark for those who like child narrators. Highly recommended.

>102 inge87: I really just need to stick all of Heyer's bibliography on The List.

I'm thinking of just adding all of Heyer's books on Mount TBR as well. I'm not sure though. While I adored The Grand Sophy and Frederica, I REALLY disliked The Talisman Ring. I have a thing about idiotic people. They drive me crazy and she seems to have a lot of characters that are just stupid.

>107 MickyFine:, That's one way to do it. :)

>108 Morphidae:, I'm rather the same way. I like almost everything of Heyer's . . . except the spunky orphan / runaway girl books, which I find ridiculous and completely unreadable. No self-respecting man would ever do half the idiotic things that they do in those books after the meet the "heroine" (who herself is usually quite insipid). Luckily the local public library has a lot of Heyers, so I can test most of them for free.

A Not So Perfect Crime by Teresa Solana



Source: ILL (Irving PL)
Recommendation: online list of Catalan authors available in English translation
Original Title: Un crim imperfecte
Series: Eduard and Borja (1/?)
Year of Original Pub.: 2006
LC Call #: PC 3942.429 O63 C7513 2008
Rating: 3 stars / 5

A Not So Perfect Crime is the first a series of mystery novels featuring the not-quite-detective pair of Eduard and Borja. They are really twin brothers, and Borja's real name is Josep, but no one besides the two of them knows either of these things-- not even Eduard's wife. Together the two of them run an agency in Barcelona that helps the rich out of sticky situations. Eduard is basically a typical everyday leftist and his wife has an alternative therapy center, which Borja has created a new identity for himself as the impoverished member of the right-wing upper classes.

This comes in handy when a well-known politician, Lluís Front, comes into their office wanting them to trail his wife Lídia and see if she is having an affair. That's typical work for them. Investigating her death after she is found poisoned is another thing entirely. But the money is good and they definitely need the money, so off they go to sort things out and hush any scandal they might happen to discover.

A murder mystery and satire of Barcelona society in one, A Not So Perfect Crime was a lot of fun. There's at least two more books in the series, and I'll be interested to see where the author goes with the characters. Recommended for mystery fans or those interested in Barcelona.

Book #10 of 2014 (#4 of February) arrived in my mailbox yesterday from AbeBooks: The History of the Siege of Lisbon by José Saramago, in which a proofreader messes up a sentence and rewrites history.

A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience by Christopher Kaczor



Source: me (1/2014)
Recommendation: CHOICE Magazine review
Year of Original Pub.: 2013
LC Call #: QH 332 K323 2013
Rating: 3 stars / 5

A Defense of Dignity is a series of linked essays covering a wide range of bioethics topics from a Catholic perspective. From embryo donation and artificial wombs to determining death and organ donation, the range of topics covered is broad. Abortion receives only brief mention and doesn't even have an entry in the index, but that is probably because the author has already written a separate book on the subject.

For those with an interest in medial ethics and issues of conscience. It makes for accessible reading, although true beginners may want to start elsewhere.

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino



Source: work
Recommendation: Everyone seems to be reading it these days
Original Title: Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore
Year of Original Pub.: 1979
LC Call #: PQ 4809 A45 S3713 1993
Rating: 4 stars / 5

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a choose your own adventure novel where you are the Reader, and a lot of stuff happens to you in the second person. But the root of your troubles is that you decided to read Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, because there was a publisher's error and just when you were getting into the story the pages began repeating themselves constantly. On top of that you discover that the book you thought was Calvino's was really another book entirely, so you decide to read that book only to find problems with it too. Luckily, you're not alone on this adventure, because you have Ludmilla, also an avid reader who is on a similar mission to sort things out. There's also her sister Lotaria, who reads in a much more systematic way. But ultimately you find yourself on a quest to get to the bottom of this never ending chain of books in hopes of finding a complete copy of one of them. But your nemesis is sneaky, and once faking begins where does it stop?

A fun novel about novels, it goes off the tracks a bit towards the end. Definitely not for those who like straightforward things, but everyone needs a little adventure sometimes, even you.

>113 inge87: The only po-mo novel I have ever liked. Although it has left me with the paranoia of reading every book I acquire at some point to make sure the pages are all there. ;)

>114 MickyFine:, It happened to me last summer with Spider Woman's Daughter, but luckily the book I had started was indeed Anne Hillerman's, so my replacement copy matched up without any issues.

The Etruscan Smile by Velda Johnston



Source: work
Recommendation: I wanted something lightweight
Year of Original Pub.: 1977
LC Call #: PS 3560 O394 E87 1977
Rating: 3 stars / 5

The Etruscan Smile is a romance-thriller set in Tuscany. It's of the school where there are a lot of threats, but somehow you're never entirely worried that the heroine will die. In this case Samantha has come to Tuscany after receiving a phone call that her elder sister Althea was missing. It turns out that not that many people are sad that she's gone, but Sam is still determined to get to the bottom of things. Then the threats come. Luckily she's attracted the interest of a British academic studying the Etruscans, who comes to her aid. But will what happen to Althea happen to her sister too?

One of those books where you can see the destination long before you're halfway through the journey, but that's kind of the point. A nice rainy/sleety afternoon read.

Book #11 of 2014: Erzähl es niemandem!: Die Liebesgeschichte meiner Eltern by Randi Crott & Lillian Crott Berthung. An English translation of the title would be Tell No One!: The Love Story of My Parents. It's the true story of a half-Jewish German soldier in occupied Norway who falls in love with a young Norwegian woman during World War II. From BookDepository, my favorite place for new non-English titles.

So Bright and Delicate: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne by John Keats+



Source: me (5/2012)
Recommendation: ROOT Challenge / TIOLI #16: Read a book about love, or that has a "love" word in the title and/or author's name
Year of Original Pub.: 2009 (this edition--individual poems and letters c. 1818-1821)
US Title: Bright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne
LC Call #: PR 4832 A17 2009
Rating: 3 stars / 5

So Bright and Delicate is a collection of the poet John Keats' love letters to Fanny Brawne, with a selection of his love poetry attached at the end. The book is short, around 130 pages, of which around half are letters and half poems. Even if you're indifferent to early 19th century poetry, the letters make for excellent reading, and cover the period just before the end of his life. The poems are a mixed bunch, and I will admit to being unable to force myself through "Lamia", but you should probably read "The Belle Dame sans Merci" and "The Eve of St. Agnes" at least once, just to say you have.

For those looking for a real love story, the letters will be a treat. And for those in the mood, the poetry is good too.

The Hooligan's Return: A Memoir by Norman Manea



Source: ILL (U. of Texas at Dallas)
Recommendation: It was translated from Romanian, sounded moderately interesting, and was easy to get hold of
Original Title: Întoarcerea huliganului
Year of Original Pub.: 2003
LC Call #: PC 840.23 A47 Z466 2003
Rating: 2 stars / 5

The Hooligan's Return finds Norman Manea facing the prospect of returning to his native Romania for the first time since 1986. Manea, a Romanian Jew who was a writer in Romania and now teaches at Bard College in New York, would really rather prefer not to go, but the president of the college is going and wants him to come along. His imminent return causes Manea to think back on his previous life growing up in Bukovina, in northern Romania, as well his family's deportation to Transnistria by Antonescu's fascist government in 1941. The book then continues to document Manea's week or so in Romania and what happens to him there.

This would all be very lovely and interesting if it weren't written in a post-modernistic train of thought style, where you find events repeated over and over and over again. For example, Manea's parents met on a bus after leaving a fair. First we hear Manea tell this story, then we hear his mother tell this story to Manea and his cousin Ruti, and then we read the same story in the short memoir that Manea's father wrote for him. By the end of the first section you will know that story by heart and simultaneously never want to hear it again.

This style is very suited to getting into Manea's head, you if you want to know how it feels to be an exile, you'll probably like this book much more than I did. For those interested in Romania, Romanian Jewish life, or the psychology of exile.

The Monks of Tibhirine: Faith, Love, and Terror in Algeria by John Kiser



Source: work
Recommendation: It looked interesting and fit the GeoCAT Challenge for February
Year of Original Pub.: 2002
LC Call #: BX 4155 K47 2002
Rating: 2 stars / 5

The Monks of Tibhirine is one of those unfortunate books that has great promise but is strangled by it's author's voice. It colors everything in the book, so that you almost feel like you know him even though he only appears on fewer than 20 pages. The rose-colored glasses are on in this one, so if you think that Islam and Christianity are natural brothers and that if we could all just sit in a circle and talk to one another everything will get better, this is your kind of book, if not, you'll just get annoyed at the author's naïveté. Very, very quickly.

Somewhere underneath all the pathos is the story of the Trappist monks of the Abbey of Notre-Dame de l'Atlas in Tibherine, Algeria. This community had survived the Algerian War of Independence, only to be engulfed by the Algerian Civil War just as it was beginning to rediscover its equilibrium. The kidnapping and subsequent murder of 9 of the monks in 1996 made international headlines and was even turned into a movie, 2010's Of Gods and Men. All in all it makes for exciting reading, unfortunately the topic must await a more even-handed historian to attempt a more even-handed account.

Looks like the last couple of book haven't been all that great. Hope you are reading something fabulous now!

Dreamtigers by Jorge Luis Borges



Source: work
Recommendation: It looked interesting and was translated from Spanish
Original Title: El hacedor ("The Maker")
Year of Original Pub.: 1960
LC Call #: PQ 7797 B635 H313 1985
Rating: 4 stars / 5

Dreamtigers is a remarkable, uncatagorizable collection of short prose and poetry that the author once described as his most personal work. What seems at first to be a jumble of pieces turns out to be a powerful meditation on life, death, and dreaming.

From dream tigers to Shakespeare and even Borges on Borges, there's lots to take in. Allusion-rich text glides seamlessly from image to image as the reader seeks to discover the deeper mysteries of the text. Highly recommended.

>121 Morphidae:, That was an unfortunate slog. Luckily Dreamtigers and Magnus were much better.

Magnus by George Mackay Brown



Source: work
Recommendation: TIOLI #14: Read a book whose cover is dominated by the color red
Year of Original Pub.: 1973
LC Call #: PR 6052 R59 M34 1973
Rating: 3 stars / 5

Magnus is a fictionalized retelling of the life of Magnus, Earl of Orkney, who was killed during a civil war with his cousin over who should be the true ruler of those islands. He was also later canonized as a saint. Always a goodhearted person, Brown sets out the premise that Magnus was meant to die as a kind of sacrificial victim. Whether or not he makes that case, the reader can certainly understand why others might want to kill him. He is much more fit to be a monk than an earl and seems to have very little in common with the Viking society around him. For example, when he goes to war he does not bring a sword, he brings a psalter. Ultimately, when it comes down to it, his cousin, although annoying and treacherous, is the better leader of the two. But that does not mean that he is the better person.

By now some of you are wondering why a Nazi officer is on the cover of a novel about medieval Orkney. But that would ruin the suspense. Magnus is a poetic, thought-provoking book with an interesting narrative style. Recommended for those with an interest in medieval Scotland, as well as those who like stories that make you think.

The History of the Siege of Lisbon by José Saramago



Source: me (2/2014)
Recommendation: It was Portuguese, sounded interesting, and I was able to find a cheap copy
Original Title: História do cerco de Lisboa
Year of Original Pub.: 1989
LC Call #: PQ 9281 A66 H5713 1998
Rating: 4 stars / 5

The History of the Siege of Lisbon starts off slow, but those who persevere through Saramago's wordy prose are well-rewarded. Raimundo Silva is a proof-reader for a Lisbon publisher. One night, while reading over the final draft of a non-fiction work called The History of the Siege of Lisbon, is suddenly inspired to insert a "not" into the text where it does not belong, so that the text reads that the Crusaders did not stop and help King Alfonso defeat the Moors and capture Lisbon. Even when called out 13 days later by his bosses, he cannot explain his sudden impulse. Although he is not fired, the firm hires a manager to stand over the proof-readers and keep them in line, Dr. Maria Sara. She has a strange request for poor Raimundo: she wants him to write his own history of the Siege of Lisbon, where the Crusaders follow his edit and don't stop. And for some reason, Raimondo can't bear to disappoint her. The result will be a voyage of discovery, both for King Alfonso and for Raimundo himself.

An enjoyable book about books and the writing of books. Not for the faint of heart, but definitely worth the effort.

The Belief of Catholics by Ronald A. Knox+



Source: me (6/2008)
Recommendation: ROOT Challenge and TIOLI #13: Read a book you share with a LT Legacy Library
Year of Original Pub.: 1927
LC Call #: BX 1751.2 K68 1953
Rating: 3 stars / 5

The Belief of Catholics is a classic work of Catholic apologetics that wears its age remarkably well. While a lot has changed since 1927, quite a bit has stayed the same. The title is self-explanatory: if you want to know about the belief(s) of Catholics, Knox's book is an excellent place to start. Tracing the history of the Catholic Church and her teachings from Christ and the Bible down to the modern day, he also takes time to explain the nature of the sacraments and how Catholic and Protestant views differ.

Recommended for those interested in the Catholic Church, as well as Catholics wanting to deepen their knowledge of the Church.

Cosmas, or the Love of God by Pierre de Calan+



Source: me (4/2009)
Recommendation: ROOT Challenge and TIOLI #2: Read a book with a member of a religious order as a major character
Original Title: Côme ou le désir de Dieu
Year of Original Pub.: 1977
LC Call #: PQ 2672 A347 C613 2006
Rating: 4 stars / 5

Cosmas, or the Love of God is the story of a young man who seeks to join the Cistercian monastery of La Trappe (birthplace of the Trappist Order), but can't quite seem to manage it. But it's also the story of everyone who has ever made a decision and tried to stick with it not matter how wrong that choice may have been.

The novel is narrated by the former master of novices to a visiting retreatant in the present day (i.e. the 1970s), although most of the novel occurs in the 1930s. Time has given the narrator perspective, although even now the events surrounding Cosmas trouble him deeply.

When Cosmas arrived he appeared the model novice. However, it soon appears that his ideals concerning the monastery fail to match up with earthly realities, and he suffers a nervous break down and returns to the outside world for a period. Although he maintains he has learned his lesson, events soon begin repeating themselves on his return. This time he practically runs away. Stability is one of the most important values of the Benedictine rule, but it seems the one hurdle Cosmas can't jump. Is his vocation true or not? He wants it to be, but ultimately, he is not the one who decides.

An insightful, readable novel about life, choices, and fidelity. You don't have to be Catholic to enjoy it. Highly recommended.

Erzähl es niemandem!: Die Liebesgeschichte meiner Eltern by Randi Crott & Lillian Crott Berthung^

Tell No One!: My Parents' Love Story



Source: me (2/2013)
Recommendation: Saw it on amazon.de
Year of Original Pub.: 2012
LC Call #: D ??? 2013
Rating: 4 stars / 5

Erzähl es niemandem! is both the story of the author's parents meeting and falling in love during the German occupation of Norway, and the author's own attempts to discover her family's past after the death of her father. There's lots of forbidden love here: between Randi's father, German officer Helmut Crott and her Norwegian mother Lillian Berthung (the book's co-author), as well as between Helmut's "Aryan" father and his Jewish mother, whom he refused to divorce even at the cost of his livelihood.

Helmut never talked to Randi much about his family or the war. It was her mother who secretly revealed to her the fact that he was half-Jewish and that his aunt had died at Theresienstadt. So it was only after his death that she was fully able to begin piece the puzzle together. The two plotlines: the 1940s and today are mostly chronological, although there are flashbacks to Helmut's experiences as a student under the increasingly restrictive racial laws as well as to Randi's childhood memory of visiting her maternal grandparents and having to hide the fact that she was German. For once I can't really say which storyline one I liked better.

Lillian Berthung on the other hand, had everything to look forward to in the Northern Norwegian town of Harstad. But the German invasion of 1940 changed everything. Especially after she met Helmut. But having a German boyfriend meant social ostracization, so it had to be a secret, although it inevitably got out. What didn't get out was the secret that gave the book it's title, that Helmut was half-Jewish, illegal for a German soldier at the time. It would have been far easier for Lillian to give up Helmut, to regain friends and respect (she gets kicked out of her lodging at one point because of it, for example), but she remains true, and after months of trying he manages to arrange her getting smuggled into Germany after the war. You know the whole time that it is going to end up alright because of Randi's existence, but that doesn't stop the persistent fear that they might be broken apart.

Highly recommended for anyone who can read German (or Norwegian, as it appears there's a translation). Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge it hasn't been translated into English, because it's an extremely interesting book.

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge



Source: ILL (Waco-McLennan County Library)
Recommendation: thread recommendations (see posts 69 & 73 above)
Year of Original Pub.: 1946
LC Call #: PZ 7 G71 Li 2001
Rating: 3 stars / 5

The Little White Horse is a charming children's tale about Maria Merryweather, who is orphaned and left with only enough money to get her governess, her spaniel, and herself to her cousin's estate in the West Country. But like most literary orphans in similar circumstances, she doesn't let matters get the best of her. Luckily she likes her cousin, and she likes the local minister, and soon makes many friends among the local population. But there is a curse on the Merryweather family, and Maria soon finds herself in the thick of it. Determined to set things straight, it will take all her intelligence to bring happiness back.

A fast-paced fantasy that won the Carnegie Medal when it was published, it has aged well but some bits do stick out as a bit ridiculous (such as the bit at the beginning about the governess not sparing the rod on Maria). Don't expect a lot of unicorns based on the cover, because you'll be disappointed. It would have been more accurate if they'd put a dog on it instead. Recommended for fans of vintage children's literature.

Are there any unicorns? I was going to read it for a challenge because it had unicorns.

>130 Morphidae:, There are unicorns (the white horse of the title), but they play a relatively minor role in the main plot. One of the people involved in the original curse rode one, and unicorns live in the waves and help the heroine towards the end of the book, but most of the time they are elusive.

The Most Holy Eucharist: Our Passover and Our Living Bread by Fr. Thomas J. McGovern



Source: work
Recommendation: it looked interesting
Year of Original Pub.: 2013
LC Call #: BX 2215.3 M34 2013
Rating: 3 stars / 5

The Most Holy Eucharist is an excellent, highly readable guide to Catholic teachings on the Eucharist. Unfortunately, after an excellent discourse on the whys and hows of the Eucharist and a more in depth look at the Eucharistic theologies of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, there is a random long chapter on the British persecution of Irish Catholics. I kept hoping the reasoning for this extra section would be made clear in the course of reading it, but unfortunately I was just as confused at the end as I was at the beginning. But for anyone interesting in deepening their knowledge on this most important subject, I can highly recommend this book. You'll even learn a bit about Irish history in the process.

The Endless Knot by William L. Biersach



Source: work
Recommendation: Tim
Year of Original Pub.: 2001
LC Call #: PS 3552 I38 E53 2001
Rating: 3 stars / 5

The Endless Knot is a mystery with a very narrow target audience: traditionalist Catholic males of the sort who probably like A Confederacy of Dunces and who definitely admire Chesterton. I enjoyed it mostly because parts of it reminded me very much of my boss, who does fall into the target. But it's easy to see why its only rating on LT is "1 star". If you're a Catholic of the variety needled by the book, you won't enjoy it very much.

Someone is killing bishops in Los Angeles, and the archbishop turns to Father John Baptist, a former police officer, to investigate parallel to the actual police. What he discovers turns out to be a mash of every stereotype about liberal Catholics known to mankind. And a coven of witches turned bad. But mostly a lot of (semi-hilarious) generalizations of a Catholic Church that feels very 1990s (I'm so glad we're past that now!).

If you don't appreciate the motivations behind those who want to attend the 1962 mass, you won't appreciate this book and should probably skip it. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you should probably skip it too, because a lot of it won't make much sense. The 1% of the population who don't fall into either of the previous categories, on the other hand, may want to seek it out.

How to Make a Good Confession: A Pocket Guide to Reconciliation with God by John A. Kane



Source: me (12/2013)
Recommendation: It seemed like a good lead up to Lent
Original Title: The School of Repentance
Year of Original Pub.: 1943
LC Call #: BX 2265.2 K36 2001
Rating: 4 stars / 5

How to Make a Good Confession is about more than just making a good confession; it's about how to improve yourself and grow spiritually. There's a guide to making a confession in the appendix, but that's the only really step-by-step guide in the book. The text proper is a series of beautiful meditations on how to keep a proper mindset and avoid sin. The chapter titles form a good summary of the book's philosophy: "Cultivate true contrition", "Found your repentance on Christ's tender mercies", "Let sorrow for sin help you overcome your sins", "Combat your pride through sacramental profession", "Make reparation for your sins", and "Resolve to change".

Originally published in 1943 (Sophia Institute Press has retitled it a couple of times), it's full of good, old fashioned Catholic advice. Highly recommended for Catholics wanting to better experience the sacrament of reconciliation.

February Round Up, or Stats!

In February I made up for the rest of the country not reading books from other countries by reading books originally written in eight different languages that weren't English. Some were good and others so-so, but for the first time I can remember, I didn't give a single book a 5-star rating. Who knows what March may bring!

Books Read: 21 (2 less than last year)

Genre
Fiction - 12 - 55%
Non-Fiction - 9 - 45%

Sources
Work - 7 - 33%
ILL - 4 - 19%
Me (other) - 3 - 14%
Me (TBR) - 3 - 14%
Me (Acquired this month) - 2 - 10%
Me (rereads) - 1 - 5%
Public Library - 1 - 5%

Authors
Male 15 - 65%
Female 8 (two books had co-authors) - 35%
Both 0

Edition Language
German - 1 - 5%
English - 20 - 95%

Original Language
Catalan - 1 - 5%
Danish - 1 - 5%
German - 1 - 5%
Italian - 1 - 5%
Portuguese - 1 - 5%
Romanian - 1 - 5%
Spanish - 1 - 5%
French - 2 - 10%
English - 12 - 55%

Series
Series Books - 4 - 19%
Stand-Alone Books - 18- 81%

Average Original Date of Publication
1984

Mean Original Date of Publication
1989

Ratings Distribution
1 star - 0 - 0%
2 stars - 3 - 14%
3 stars - 11 - 52%
4 stars - 7 - 33%
5 stars - 0 - 0%

Average Rating
3.19

Best of the Month



Fiction: Cosmas, or the Love of God by Pierre de Calan

Non-Fiction Erzähl es niemandem!: Die Liebesgeschichte meiner Eltern by Randi Crott & Lillian Crott Berthung

It was over 80 degrees Fahrenheit Saturday (27 C), but by 8 am yesterday it had dropped to 31 (0 C). That afternoon we were hit by a surprise attack of thunder sleet, along with "sleet balls" that resembled marble-sized hail. This unfortunate weather (it's still below freezing as I write) has the happy result that school was cancelled today. So I've curled up on the couch and started The Lost Estate (Le Grand Meaulnes) by the French writer Alain-Fournier. It's much more fun than venturing outside into the ice.

Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers



Source: work
Recommendation: I felt like it
Series: Lord Peter Wimsey (8/15)
Year of Original Pub.: 1932
LC Call #: PR 6037 A95 H3 1936
Rating: 4 stars / 5

Have His Carcase is more of a Harriet Vane mystery than a Lord Peter one. She's off to the shore for a writer's vacation, when she takes a nap while tramping and wakes up to find a dead body. The tide is coming in, so she collects whatever evidence she can and then goes off to find a phone and call the police. By the time they get there the site is long underwater and will remain that way for sometime. So it's off to a resort to wait and drum up some extra publicity (although you'd think being framed for murder in Strong Poison would be enough). Her hotel is full of potential suspects, and Lord Peter drops by to help and try to get her to marry him. Will the body ever turn up again? And how could he have been murdered with Harriet sleeping only yards away?

More fun for Lord Peter, Bunter, and Harriet. There's a lot of waiting around in this one, but I guess that's what you're supposed to do at a seaside resort. Recommended for fans of the series.

The Lost Estate by Alain-Fournier



Source: work
Recommendation: Tim, last month when I was reading Romance languages
Original Title: Le grand Meaulnes
Year of Original Pub.: 1913
LC Call #: PQ 2611 O85 G713 2007
Rating: 2 stars / 5

The Lost Estate is apparently a cult novel in some circles. However it's one cult I'll have to skip. Perhaps I'm the wrong age, but I suspect it's much more due to my sex. My recommender compared it to My Father's Glory, but they are nothing alike except that they both deal with French boys running around the countryside.

Divided into three parts, the novel's hero is the young"Grand" Meaulnes, who arrives at the narrator's father's school to board and soon becomes his great friend. Everyone at school idolizes him. One day he gets lost in the country and ends up at a strange party at an unknown estate. He sees a beautiful girl and resolves to marry her. But after the party is over, he cannot find his way back. Part II is a random segment about a group of gypsies who camp out at the village and cause problems for Grand Meaulnes. Part III is supposed to resolve everything, but descends into absolute ridiculousness in the process.

The Lost Estate is supposedly about lost youth, but it's really more about youth who are lost. Meaulnes is like Peter Pan, he never grows up, and no one: not the narrator, not his lost love, ever calls him out on it. I read one review that compared it to The Great Gatsby, and I think that's a fairly accurate assessment. If only Meaulnes could have died at the end like you know who.

There are almost 2000 copies of this book on LT and it has 3.78 stars, so some people clearly love it. But I didn't. The first section is the only bit worth reading, if only the author had stopped there. He died in action on the Meuse in 1914, so this was his only novel. It would have been interesting to see what he might have become, because there is promise here, even if he never really delivers. Know yourself and read at your own risk.

Converting Bohemia: Force and Persuasion in the Catholic Reformation by Howard Louthan



Source: work
Recommendation: it looked interesting
Year of Original Pub.: 2009
LC Call #: BR 1050 C9 L68 2009
Rating: 3 stars / 5

Converting Bohemia is an academic study of how the Kingdom of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic and parts of Slovakia and Poland) was brought back to the Catholic fold from around two centuries of dissent. In 1620, the Protestants lost control of Bohemia following their decisive defeat at the Battle of White Mountain. Yet within a century, Bohemia was once again a bulwark of Catholicism without any major bloodshed. How did this come about? Part of the ease seems to be the fact that the native form of Protestantism, Utraquism, was very conservative and much closer to Catholicism than to anything promulgated by Luther, Zwingli, or Calvin. But it takes a while for the author to get to that point, which seems to me to be the root of the matter. Such are the perils of thematic histories.

For anyone who's ever wondered about the definestrations of Prague, this book will tell you more than you ever want to know. It's interesting stuff, but could have definitely been organized better. Only those with an interest in Early Modern Central Europe will want to try this one.

Ooh - Dorothy Sayers short stories. Another one to think about reading some time.

>140 thornton37814: Have His Carcase is actually a fairly long novel, but don't let that stop you from trying it.

The Lawless Roads by Graham Greene



Source: me (11/2013)
Recommendation: March GeoCAT
Year of Original Pub.: 1939
LC Call #: F 1215 G82 1982
Rating: 4 stars / 5

The Lawless Roads is Graham Greene's account of his journey through Mexico in 1938. His experiences during this trip inspired his famous novel, The Power and the Glory.

Beginning in San Antonio and crossing the border into Mexico at Larado, Greene finds himself in a nation that has still not recovered from the ravages of civil war. Travelling south towards Mexico City via Monterrey, his real goal is in the south, where the churches are still closed and priests banned. He wants to be at San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas for Holy Week to experience it in a place where the Catholic Church is banned. Since the south is still suffering unrest, the Mexican state allows few outside visitors, so Greene pretends he wants to visit the Mayan ruins at Palenque. Will he make it in time, or will he fall afoul of the authorities in anticlerical Tabasco first.

Throughout the course of the book, Greene struggles to balance his respect for some aspects of the native populations with his sense that they and their culture are inferior to that of White Europeans. Ultimately after suffering what today's traveller might call Montezuma's Revenge, he is more than ready to go home. Only to find that parts of Mexico may not have been that bad after all.

Recommended for anyone with an interest in 20th century Mexico or Graham Greene.

Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants by Douglas W. Tallamy



Source: ILL (Houston PL)
Recommendation: TIOLI #4: Read a Book with a Green Cover
Year of Original Pub.: 2007
LC Call #: SB 439 T275 2007
Rating: 3 stars / 5

Bringing Nature Home is an excellent introduction to why you should include native plants in your yard or garden--namely that your local wildlife has evolved alongside certain plants and to remove those plants is to remove their food sources. Think monarchs and milkweed. Even if you don't care about butterflies, you'll still want to care about insects, because they form the backbone of every ecosystem's foodweb. If you want birds, for example, you'll need insects so they can feed their young.

Those in the Mid-Atlantic region will get the most out of this one, since the author is based in Pennsylvania, and the plant lists in the back are based on the United States divided into vague general regions (Pacific Northwest, Southeast, etc.), which can lend to inaccurate recommendations. The paperback edition has been updated and expanded, so these issues have been addressed there.

Cotillion by Georgette Heyer*



Source: me (1/2009)
Recommendation: I felt like it
Year of Original Pub.: 1953
LC Call #: PR 6015 E795 C68 2007
Rating: 4 stars / 5

Cotillion is another fun Regency adventure from the woman who brought you Frederica among other such delights. Plot-wise, this one is rather a cross between that book and Arabella. Old Mr. Penicuik has a decided that he is dying and has summoned all his great-nephews to his estate. It turns out that he wants one of them to propose to his ward, Katherine. If she accepts one he will name her his heiress, but if she doesn't marry one of them she'll be left penniless. Unfortunately, the nephew he had in mind has declined to come. This leaves Kitty in a state of panic until she runs into Freddy. The dim-witted dandy had decided to eat before coming to his uncle's and was running. She convinces him to fake an engagement, so that she can go to London. But in a world where everyone seems to have ulterior motives, just what could Kitty be up to?

Naturally once in London, she creates a series of problems for Freddy to deal with, but it turns out there's some serious brainpower behind the empty facade. Those who like Heyer will certainly enjoy this one, and it's a fairly accessible book for those just getting started with her works.

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters



Source: ILL (Plano PL)
Recommendation: mamzel
Year of Original Pub.: 2013
LC Call #: PZ 7 W76673 In 2013
Rating: 3 stars / 5

In the Shadow of Blackbirds is an interesting YA historical paranormal mystery set in San Diego during the Influenza pandemic. Mary Shelley Black has been sent to her aunt in San Diego, because her father has been arrested for helping men avoid the draft in Portland. Eva spends most of her day working at the shipyard, which leaves Mary Shelley to her own devices.

Stephen, the love of her life is dead in France, but after she gets struck by lightning and dies for a second, she can feel spirits, more specifically Stephen's spirit. His brother Julius is a spirit photographer, and proving that the business is a fraud becomes the focus of Mary Shelley's life. Just what is he up to, and what does it have to do with what Stephen is trying to tell her? In a world where thousands are dying every day, what does it matter if she takes some big risks.

A fun read, but constrained a bit by being YA. Mary Shelley was also a bit too modern for my tastes, more steampunk than true historical. But it's a unique book and definitely worth checking out if you think it sounds interesting.

>144 inge87: Cotillion was my first Heyer and I agree it's an excellent introduction.

>146 MickyFine: Good to see we're in agreement :)

The Last Man in Russia: The Struggle to Save a Dying Nation by Oliver Bullough



Source: me (2/2013)
Recommendation: It seemed topical
Year of Original Pub.: 2013
LC Call #: DK 510.76 B85 2013
Rating: 5 stars / 5

The Last Man in Russia is a riveting history of Russia, played out in the present. The unfortunate situation in the Crimea has brought new focus on Russia, whose actions and motivations seem at times to be completely divorced from reality. But there is a reason for everything, and much of Russia's reasoning remains rooted in its recent Soviet past.

The book focuses on the story of Fr. Dmitry Dudko, who rose from an obscure village at the end of the Second World War to become one of the Soviet Union's most famous dissenters of the 1960s and 70s. Bullough, a journalist by profession, attempts to piece together Dudko's life by visiting the places he lived and talking to those who knew him. In the process he also shares his experiences of modern Russia, of a people drink themselves to death and who die in far greater numbers than they are born. While Moscow grows, village after village shrinks out of existence. What could cause such a state? And how does it relate to Fr. Dudko's legacy? At a time when iit seems like Russia is slipping back to the Soviet mindset, these are important questions and Bullough's answers are both sobering and hopeful at the same time.

A must read for anyone with an interest in Russia today. The only thing it really needs is a map. Highly, highly recommended.

I may have to read Cotillion next. I loved The Grand Sophy and Frederica.

>149 Morphidae: If you liked those two, you'll probably enjoy Cotillion too.

A Midsummer Tempest by Poul Anderson+



Source: me (8/2013)
Recommendation: Christina (@christina_reads) / ROOT Challenge
Year of Original Pub.: 1974
LC Call #: PS 3551 N378 M5 1975
Rating: 3 stars / 5

A Midsummer Tempest is a fantasy adventure set in a universe where Shakespeare is the "Great Historian" and everything he wrote is true. Prince Rupert of the Rhine is facing captivity and almost certain death from execution during the English Civil War, when he escapes his jailer by hopping on a steam train and finds himself on the adventure of a lifetime courtesy of Oberon and Titania.

The book's pace is slowed down by the use of historical speaking in the dialogue (thous, thees, thines, etc.), but it's a fun romp, and I'm very glad I picked it up. Recommended for anyone with a fondness for Shakespeare or historical fantasy set in the 1600s.

>151 inge87: Hmm, if you enjoyed that you might want to try the graphic novel series Kill Shakespeare. I haven't tried it yet, but a friend whose recommendations have yet to steer me wrong sings its praises highly.

>152 MickyFine:, Interesting. If I bump into it, I may have to pick that one up.

The Cardinal's Snuff-Box by Henry Harland*



Source: me (2/2009)
Recommendation: TIOLI #15: Read a book with something in the title that you might give up for Lent in the title
Year of Original Pub.: 1900
LC Call #: PS 1797 C37 2006
Rating: 3 stars / 5

The Cardinal's Snuff-Box is the first of Henry Harland's Catholic novels. If you ask me it's semi-autobiographical, but what do I know? The hero is an author who writes obscure books that no one reads. He is in love with a woman he's seen but never actually talked to and has immortalized her in one of his books. Now he's vacationing in Italy, and who should his landlady be but his anonymous ideal! But he's a rather annoying aesthete of the late 19th century variety, and it will take quite a bit of gentle persuasion by her Cardinal uncle-in-law (she's a widow) to get him to see the light and join the Catholic Church. Now if only those same avuncular skills could get those two together . . .

Much like Harland's My Friend Prospero, which I read last year, this is a book full of fluff. Don't read if you are in a serious mood, or looking for something deep and weighty, because this is not one of those books. However those looking for something quick and fun may want to seek it out (originally written in 1900, it's available for free on Project Gutenberg here)

Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison*



Source: me (8/2008)
Recommendation: I felt like it
Year of Original Pub.: 1952
LC Call #: PR 6025 I86 T73 1985
Rating: 4 stars / 5

"Travel Light, my child, as the Wanderer travels light, and his love will be with you."**

Hella has never had an easy life, first her stepmother tries to have her exposed and she ends up raised by bears, who have her fostered by dragons when she fails to hibernate. Life as a dragon is a load of fun except for the heroes who keep wanting to kill dragons and steal their treasure, but it is also a paranoid, fretful existence. Weighed down by their horde, it's difficult to know who to trust. But Hella trusts the All-Father, so when he tells her to lay down her prizes and travel light she does, all the way to Constantinople, where after several adventures she meets the Emperor himself. But where does she belong? She's neither bear nor dragon and she still doesn't understand humans. But those who travel light are never alone, and the All-Father is far from done will Hella.

A fantastic fantasy with a strong feminist bent, Travel Light is a lot of fun, while also giving the reader a lot to chew on. Highly recommended for anyone who appreciates a good story with well-drawn characters.

**p.57 my edition

How the Reformation Happened by Hilaire Belloc+



Source: me (3/2009)
Recommendation: ROOT Challenge
Year of Original Pub.: 1928
LC Call #: BR 305 B47 1992
Rating: 3 stars / 5

How the Reformation Happened is Hilaire Belloc's version of the events and motivations that resulted in the Reformation. And it is hardly an unbiased account. Much like his friend Chesterton, Belloc tends towards the Catholic polemic, so if you are looking for a Protestant-positive history, you should look elsewhere. To Belloc all Protestants were either crazed fanatics or avaricious nobles. Interestingly, some of his thoughts on the Reformation dovetail nicely with the revisionist historiography (Eamon Duffy et al.) that has come to the fore since the 1990s.

Overall, Belloc is preaching to the choir, since few non-Catholics are going to be reading this, but I thought his perspective on Elizabeth I was novel and interesting. It doesn't mean I'm going to think positively about her any time soon, but I do suppose I pity her a bit now. And I think Belloc would be just fine with that.

Ultraviolet by R. J. Anderson*



Source: work
Recommendation: It was there, and I thought a reread was in order
Year of Original Pub.: 2011
Series: Ultraviolet 1/2
LC Call #: PZ 7 A54885 Ul 2011
Rating: 5 stars / 5

Ultraviolet is a breathtaking YA science fantasy about Allison for whom words not only have sounds but colors and tastes as well. This makes her different from everyone else in her Canadian town, so she keeps it to herself. But then one day she wakes up in the hospital with no memory of how she got there. The police say she killed a schoolmate, and her mother has her committed to Pine Hills for treatment. There she keeps secrets from her doctor and tries to avoid making friends with the other patients, but the arrival of a researcher from South Africa gives her a new perspective about herself and her abilities. But what about Tori, the girl Allison supposedly killed? What happened to her? Read on and find out.

I love this book, but the twist at the end is not for everyone. A remarkable story of coming of age in a world that you don't understand and which doesn't understand you.

Could you PM me the twist? I don't mind knowing the ending - I read the end of books all the time. I do mind certain types of endings.

>158 Morphidae: Done.

>159 inge87: Oh, dear lord. No, that's not for me. *laughs*

Wellllll, maybe.

>160 Morphidae: Like I said: forewarned is forearmed. Now if you bump into it in the library, you won't be surprised by the last 50 pages.

Ok, now I'm curious...

For the curious: Let's just say several people turn out to be aliens sent to Earth by an unscrupulous scientist.

Oh, wow. I almost *have* to read it now... :)

>164 drneutron: :)
_______________________________________



As of yesterday, it's officially Spring! Just in time for the Crow Poison to bloom. They're one of my favorite wildflowers because they'll colonize lawns and cover them in beautiful white flowers. Happy Spring everyone!

*Happy weekend wave*

>163 inge87:. Well, I had to click, because I can't not click on spoilers. And, uh, yeah. Not for me, I think. Ha!

Stopping by to catch up on what you are reading. I'm pretty sure I read Belloc's book or at least used it in a term paper in seminary.

>166 wilkiec: Thanks!

>167 scaifea: I sometimes think spoiler tags dare you to look.

>168 thornton37814: Thanks for stopping by!

Cranmer's Godly Order by Michael Davies



Source: work
Recommendation: It needed to go back whence it came
Year of Original Pub.: 1995 (revised expanded edition -- first edition 1976)
Series: Liturgical Revolution 1/3
LC Call #: BV 193 G7 D38 1995
Rating: 4 stars / 5

Cranmer's Godly Order is not so much a history, but a detailed almost step-by-step explanation of how a few men in power managed to make England Protestant. In the process you pick up a good bit of Catholic and Protestant theologies as well as the kind of local history that does not usually make it into books. But as the name of the series hints, the focus is on liturgy and how changes to the mass preceded changes to the culture.

A remarkable book. Probably mostly for Catholics, but anyone with an interest in the English Reformation will find things to interest them here.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler



Source: Corsicana PL
Recommendation: various places on the internet
Year of Original Pub.: 2013
LC Call #: PS 3556 O844 W4 2013
Rating: 3 stars / 5

When Rosemary was five something terrible happened that destroyed her family as she knew it. Her father is an alcoholic psychologist, her fragile mother seems constantly on the brink of a mental breakdown, and no one has seen her brother or twin sister for years. But now, years later, the events she has tried so hard to forget have come back to haunt her. It may just be time for a family reunion.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is an original, well-written book about family secrets and belonging. Recommended for anyone who likes a good story with idiosyncratic, unreliable narrators. A quick search of the internet will give you the book's major twist, but I was spoilered for it months ago, and knowing what was coming didn't make a big difference to me.

I wanted to separate this from the main review, but for those who haven't been spoiled for the plot twist in We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves already and want to know what it is, Rosemary's twin sister Fern is a chimpanzee.

The Extinction of the Ancient Hierarchy: An Account of the Death in Prison of the Eleven Bishops Honoured at Rome amongst the Martyrs of the Elizabethan Persecution; Archbishop Heath of York, Bishops Tunstall, Bonner and Companions by G. E. Phillips



Source: Corsicana PL
Recommendation: Cranmer's Godly Order
Year of Original Pub.: 1905
LC Call #: BX 1492 P5 1905
Rating: 3 stars / 5

The Extinction of the Ancient Hierarchy is an account of eleven Catholic bishops who were deprived of their dioceses by Elizabeth I and thrown into prison where they died. There were actually twelve bishops who suffered this fate, but the focus is on the eleven featured in a contemporary mural, as the twelfth died almost 10 years after the last of his peers.

It was written to promote their cause as martyrs, and thus openly partisan, but the reader gets a good feel for what it was like to be a Catholic and try to hold onto the Faith. Recommended for those with an interest in the English Reformation and Recusancy.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent



Source: Corsicana PL
Recommendation: various LT threads
Year of Original Pub.: 2012
LC Call #: PR 9619.4 K467 B87 2013
Rating: 2 stars / 5

Based on the true story of the last person executed in Iceland, Burial Rites is the story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, who is accused along with two other people of killing her employer and a guest at his house and then setting the house on fire. While waiting for her execution, she is placed in the household of crofters who gradually bond with their captive. She is also put under the spiritual guidance of young minister, who is not entirely sure what he is doing but is determines to do his best by her. This is one of those books where you know the end when you pick it up and the joy is in the journey.

This book reminded me a lot of Alias Grace in its construction and isolated setting. If you enjoyed that one, you'll definitely like this book. As for me, it just didn't click. I don't know why, it just wasn't the book for me right now. But don't let that stop you from picking it up if you think it sounds interesting.

174> I think I'll avoid it just in case. There are too many other books out there calling my name to waste time on one that I probably wouldn't enjoy.

>175 thornton37814: Too true. There are so many books and so little time.

The Long Shadow: The Great War and the Twentieth Century by David Reynolds



Source: me (1/2014)
Recommendation: LibraryJournal
Year of Original Pub.: 2013
LC Call #: D 523 R39 2013
Rating: 4 stars / 5

The Long Shadow is a thought-provoking book about how the First World War affected the rest of the 20th century. The first half of the book is devoted to how the war changed various aspects of society in the decade immediately after the war. The second half focuses on the rest of the century and covers how the memory of the war was first eclipsed by the clear morals of World War II only to be rediscovered by the next generation of the 1960s and 70s.

I learned a lot from this book about how the war affected different nations differently. The cult of the war poet, for example, is a distinctly British phenomenon. Many nations base their national story around events that occurred during World War I, and the growth of this consciousness forms a key part of the book. Highly recommended for anyone who likes good non-fiction, with an interest in World War I, or with 20th century history.

Mine was the UK edition. It will be published in May 2014 in the US as The Long Shadow: The Legacies of the Great War in the Twentieth Century.

Barbarians to Angels: The Dark Ages Reconsidered by Peter S. Wells



Source: work
Recommendation: I needed one more history book to finish that category
Year of Original Pub.: 2008
LC Call #: D 117 W45 2008
Rating: 3 stars / 5

Barbarians to Angels is a short highly readable revisionist history of Europe during the period between the fall of Rome and the rise of the Middle Ages. The historical narrative has been that the end of the Western Roman Empire was a disaster and caused chaos across Europe, but Wells' book shows that the opposite is in fact true. There were no massive depopulations and people mostly carried on doing what they were doing. They just didn't do it the same way the Romans had.

Highly recommended for those with an interest in early European history. The author gives a lot to chew on but does so in a very non-threatening way.

Die letzte Begegnung by Gertrud von le Fort^+

The Last Meeting



Source: me (10/2010)
Recommendation: ROOT Challenge
Year of Original Pub.: 1959
LC Call #: PT 2623 E26 L47 1959
Rating: 4 stars / 5

Die letzte Begegnung is a wondrously worded novella about the supposed last meeting between the Marquise de Motespan and her formal rival for the attentions of Louis XIV, Louise de La Vallière who is now a Carmelite nun. The sparse elevated prose heightens the suspense at this meeting between two old foes who have forgotten nothing with the passing of time, even if it did cause me to resort to the dictionary a bit.

An excellent meditation on sin and grace, recommended for anyone who can read the German. Gertrud von le Fort is probably best known in English for The Song at the Scaffold about Carmelite nuns executed during the French Revolution.

March Round Up, or Stats!

I've read 11 fewer books so far this year than last, but a lot more non-fiction. It will all even out eventually.

Books Read: 20 (1 less than last year)

Genre
Fiction - 11 - 55%
Non-Fiction - 9 - 45%

Sources
Work - 7 - 35%
Me (rereads) - 3 - 15%
Me (TBR) - 3 - 15%
ILL - 2 - 10%
Me (other) - 2 - 10%
Public Library - 2 - 10%
Free Online E-Books - 1 - 5%

Authors
Male 12 - 60%
Female 8 - 40%
Both 0

Edition Language
German - 1 - 5%
English - 20 - 95%

Original Language
French - 1 - 5%
German - 1 - 5%
English - 18 - 90%

Series
Series Books - 2 - 10%
Stand-Alone Books - 18 - 90%

Average Original Date of Publication
1972

Mean Original Date of Publication
1985

Ratings Distribution
1 star - 0 - 0%
2 stars - 2 - 10%
3 stars - 12 - 60%
4 stars - 6 - 30%
5 stars - 2 - 10%

Average Rating
3.7

Best of the Month



Fiction: Die letzte Begegnung by Gertrud von le Fort

Non-Fiction The Last Man in Russia: The Struggle to Save a Dying Nation by Oliver Bullough

Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing by Anya von Bremzen



Source: ILL (Baylor U. Libraries)
Recommendation: March GeoCAT
Year of Original Pub.: 2013
LC Call #: TX 649 V66 A3 2013
Rating: 3 stars / 5

Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking is a memoir and history of the author's family in the Soviet Union told through the medium of food. Divided into decades, the book document's her family's methods of survival from the pre-Revolution days of the 1910s through to the present. Especially dominant is the story of the author's mother with whom she emigrated to the United States in the mid-1970s as Jewish refugees. But the story of her grandparents also play a large role. It is not so much a book about cooking, although the author and her mother do a lot of it in the course of the book, but about food in a land where there was usually not a lot of it. Attached to the end of the book is a recipe for each chapter, instead of the usual food memoir method of attaching recipes after each individual chapter.

Anya von Bremzen and her family have definitely living an eventful life that is highly reflective of the world that was evolving around them. Recommended for anyone with an interest in life in the Soviet Union, Russia, or food memoirs.

The Paradise War by Stephen R. Lawhead



Source: work
Recommendation: The rest of the series looked interesting, so I was waiting for book 1
Series: Song of Albion (1/3)
Year of Original Pub.: 1991
LC Call #: PS 3562 A865 P3 2006
Rating: 3 stars / 5

The Paradise War is the first in a Celtic fantasy trilogy featuring an American graduate student at Oxford who is drawn into a world beyond his own where he finds his life changed forever. One morning Lewis' roommate Simon reads about an aurochs supposedly discovered in a Scottish field and immediately drags his friend on an epic roadtrip across the Isle of Britain to visit the site. Lewis suspects he's up to something but doesn't quite know what. He's still not quite sure at the end of the book even after he's followed after Simon through a cairn and into another world. There Lewis becomes a warrior for the side of good, but finds his tensions with Simon only grow larger in time.

A fun Celtic fantasy, supposedly it's Christian, but it feels much more generic good vs. evil at this point in the trilogy. Recommended for fans of the genre.

>181 inge87: I thought that one was on my wish list, but it isn't. It must be a different Russian/Soviet cookbook.

>178 inge87: I'm sitting in New Zealand, reserving Barbarians and Angels from my library in London. The wonders of LT!

>183 thornton37814: It's much more of a memoir than a cookbook a bit like Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life, only a family history instead of a personal memoir.

>184 susanj67: Technology is an amazing thing, isn't it?

Stopping by to say hello and see how you are doing. What are you reading?

>186 Morphidae: I'm surviving. :) I'm terribly behind on reviews, but am slowing catching up.

Venetia by Georgette Heyer*



Source: me (12/2011)
Recommendation: felt like it
Year of Original Pub.: 1958
LC Call #: PR 6015 E795 V46 2009
Rating: 5 stars / 5

Venetia is an orphan who runs her family's estate, while her brother shirks his duties and idles on the Continent having fun in the army, and is also responsible for her extremely studious younger brother who was born with a hip defect and walks with a limp. She has two devoted suitors, on extremely righteous and worthy, the other young with a severe case of puppy love. Then one day the absent lord of the estate next door comes home and everything changes. Lord Damerel is a rake and not fit to be acquaintances—much less friends—with a lady of quality like Venetia, but of course that is exactly what happens. And then the fun really starts.

Quite possibly my favorite Heyer novel, it's the perfect blend of bitter and sweet to warm you up on a cold day.

Delia's Shadow by Jaime Lee Moyer



Source: work
Recommendation: work read, so I can recommend it to students
Series: Delia's Shadow (1/?)
Year of Original Pub.: 2013
LC Call #: PS 3613 O925 D45 2013
Rating: 3 stars / 5

Delia's Shadow finds our titular heroine returning home to San Fransisco from New York after a long absence. Delia can see ghosts and found life in the post-earthquake city to be impossible. But now one determined ghost has made it clear that it is time to return. Delia doesn't know why--she doesn't even know who the ghost is, but it turns out that a killer has returned to the City by the Bay after 30-years away, and only Delia can help the police find the killer.

A fun historical paranormal police thriller. I figured out the ghost's identity well before Delia and her friends did, but that didn't harm my enjoyment in any way. I'd ordered this book for the library at work as a stepping stone from YA to "adult" fiction, and I do think it would appeal to teen audiences, especially those who enjoy books like Anna Dressed in Blood. The sequel is coming out later this year, and I look forward to see what the fates have in store for Delia and her companions.

Beside the Ocean of Time by George Mackay Brown



Source: work
Recommendation: It looked interesting
Year of Original Pub.: 1994
LC Call #: PR 6052 R59 B47 1994
Rating: 2 stars / 5

Beside the Ocean of Time is a fairly well-crafted book that suffers from having virtually the same ending as Brown's earlier novel Greenvoe.

Thorfinn Ragnarsson is a lazy idle boy who spends most of his time dreaming about participating in historic events of his people's past. He travels with Vikings to Constantinople and with knights to the Battle of Bannockburn. It is only during his time as a German prisoner of war that Thorfinn is able to turn his dreams into something bigger after a camp officer encourages him to write them down. Meanwhile not all is well on his Orkney Island home, but is the end truly the end, or is it just a new beginning?

I appreciated what the author was trying to accomplish, but surely he could have come up with a different ending.

Of course the one with the severe case of puppy love is probably an absolute idiot. There always seems to be one in each Heyer novel!

>191 Morphidae: He actually gets packed off fairly quickly to make way for other rather obnoxious people to make Venetia's life difficult. But yes, there's always at least one.

Okay, I totally expected to get hit with a BB for the Heyer book, as I haven't read Venetia, but I end up walking away with a BB for Delia's Shadow as well.... now I just need to track down a copy as my local library doesn't have the Moyer book. ;-)

>193 lkernagh: Venetia is a treat. And if you ever happen to find yourself in the greater Dallas area, I'd be glad to hook you up with a copy of Delia's Shadow.

Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56 by Anne Applebaum



Source: work
Recommendation: TIOLI #18: Read a book written by an author born in 1964
Year of Original Pub.: 2012
LC Call #: DJK 45 S65 A67 2012
Rating: 5 stars / 5

Iron Curtain is a comprehensive account of how the Soviet Union managed to occupy both the territory and psyche of Eastern Europe in only a little over a decade. Fear played a large role, but it was not the only method used to bring formerly independent lands under the Soviet umbrella. Applebaum brings a nuanced understanding of the people involved and I especially appreciated her delicate and sensitive handling of the ethnic cleansing aspects of the period, a wound that is still very raw in many places.

I have background in the subject, but the writing style is accessible enough that you don't need to have anything besides an interest in the topic to succeed with it. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in 20th century history, Eastern Europe, or totalitarianism.

With Russia on the re-acquisition path right now, that seems a rather timely read.

>196 thornton37814: Indeed, it was. I'd still say It Was a Long Time Ago and It Never Happened Anyway and The Last Man in Russia are the best books for an insight to the Russian psyche, but if you've ever wondered why people choose/chose to live in totalitarian states, Iron Curtain will definitely enlighten.

The Wry Romance of the Literary Rectory by Deborah Alun-Jones



Source: work
Recommendation: It looked interesting
Year of Original Pub.: 2013
LC Call #: PR 109 A46 2013
Rating: 4 stars / 5

The Wry Romance of the Literary Rectory is a series of delightful biographical vignettes of various literary families and how living in a rectory inspired their lives and their work. This ranges from actual ecclesiastical families such as the Tennysons or the Bensons, as well as families that moved into former rectories such as the Betejemans or Rupert Brooke. The mystique of the rectory as a place of inspiration forms an important part of British literary culture, and it is interesting to see how the rectory's role evolved over the decades, while still retaining its old pull on the senses. Highly recommended.

For those with an interest in such things, here is a similar book on German literary rectories, Das deutsche Pfarrhaus: Hort des Geistes und der Macht by Christine Eichel. I've been wanting to read it since it came out in 2012, but haven't managed to get my hands on a copy yet.

>198 inge87: That one sounds really interesting - thanks for the review!

>199 scaifea: You're quite welcome!

The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer*



Source: me (11/2009)
Recommendation: TIOLI #23: Read a novel by a British author
Year of Original Pub.: 1951
LC Call #: PR 6015 E795 Q5 2009
Rating: 4 stars / 5

The Quiet Gentleman tells the story of the eventful homecoming of the new Earl of St. Erth after a military career fighting Napoleon. His stepmother and half-brother wish he had died in the wars and are hardly thrilled to see him come home, but things seem to be going smoothly enough—until someone starts trying to kill him. It will take all of Gervase's wits to keep himself alive long enough to find his adversary. Maybe he should have stayed in France.

A fun historical mystery. Recommended for Heyer fans and those who enjoy Regency-set mysteries.

Edmund Campion by Evelyn Waugh



Source: work
Recommendation: I seem to be on a Tudor Catholicism streak
Year of Original Pub.: 1935
LC Call #: BX 4705 C27 W384 2001
Rating: 3 stars / 5

Edmund Campion is a short biography of the Elizabethan martyr priest who gave up the opportunity for high office in the Anglican church to follow his conscious by one of the great British writers of the 20th century, Evelyn Waugh. It's quite readable, but definitely biased (as was Waugh) towards the Catholic side of things. For those with an interest in Elizabethan religion and/or Waugh.

I love the reviews for all the Georgette Heyer books you've read. She's an author I always mean to pick up and then never do. One of these days!

Happy Easter!

>203 RosyLibrarian: I resisted reading Heyer for a long time, but eventually gave in and the rest is history. Most public libraries should have several of her books, if you're looking for a low-risk first read.

>204 wilkiec: Thanks, Happy Easter to you as well!

A Bitter Trial: Evelyn Waugh and John Cardinal Heenan on the Liturgical Changes by Evelyn Waugh



Source: work
Recommendation: Waugh died on an Easter Sunday in April, so it seemed appropriate
Year of Original Pub.: 1996
LC Call #: BX 1970 W38 2011
Rating: 4 stars / 5

A Bitter Trial is a short volume of letters from Evelyn Waugh and John Cardinal Heenan concerning the changes to the liturgy during and following the Second Vatican Council. To say it was chaotic would be an understatement. Waugh was not appreciative of the changes, and you can watch the bitterness creep in over time.

Not just for those who prefer the pre-Vatican II mass, but for anyone interested in how people experience liturgy. Highly recommended.

Wanted—A Match-Maker by Paul Leicester Ford



Source: Project Gutenberg
Recommendation: felt like it
Year of Original Pub.: 1901
LC Call #: PS 1692 W37 1901
Rating: 3 stars / 5

Wanted—A Match-Maker is a rather fluffy turn of the century romance that disguises an interesting social commentary within its heart. Constance is waiting for the right man, but her stepmother is getting impatient. After all, there are her two half-sisters to consider. But Constance wants something more than a vacuous society existence. Then her coachman accidentally hits a newsboy, and in an instant her life is changed forever.

It is what it is, and I do think I like like Wanted—A Chaperon better, but for those looking for something fluffy and free, it wouldn't hurt to pick up this one.

Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers



Source: work
Recommendation: I thought it was the book discussed in The Wry Romance of the Literary Rectory. It wasn't, but it worked out anyhow.
Series: Lord Peter Wimsey (12/15)
Year of Original Pub.: 1935
LC Call #: PR 6037 A95 G3 1949
Rating: 5 stars / 5

Gaudy Night finds Harriet Vane returning to her alma mater for a Gaudy (reunion). Someone starts leaving her nasty notes, and then later sabotages the new library. The college asks her to look into things discretely, so that it can be solved without any public attention. However, all this seems to do is draw the poltergeist's attention to her. Lord Peter is in Italy, so it looks like Harriet will be all alone this time. At lest that will giver her some space to sort out her feelings for him once and for all.

My favorite Lord Peter mystery so far. The discussion of women's roles over the course of the book is still relevant today. Highly recommended for Lord Peter fans and those who like Golden Age mysteries.

The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within by Stephen Fry



Source: work
Recommendation: April is National Poetry Month
Year of Original Pub.: 2004
LC Call #: PN 1059 A9 F79 2006
Rating: 3 stars / 5

The Ode Less Travelled is a no-fear guide to writing verse by the well-known British comedian, Stephen Fry. Starting a syllables and working on from there, Fry covers almost everything you've ever wanted to know about the poetic craft. Even those with background will enjoy leaning along, and probably also pick up a few new tricks. If you've always wanted to try writing poetry but have been afraid to try, this is definitely a book to pick up.

I have just downloaded Wanted- A Matchmaker. Sounds like a goodie!

>210 lkernagh: Enjoy Wanted—A Match-Maker; free books are always fun.

Happy Easter everyone!


Anonymous artist, Kloster Fahr, Würenlos, Aargau, Switzerland

Happy Easter, Jennifer!

I hope to have the Barbarians book this week, as it is in transit in the system somewhere, along with...a few other things...

Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers



Source: work
Recommendation: I enjoyed Gaudy Night so much that I couldn't help continuing the series
Series: Lord Peter Wimsey (13/15)
Year of Original Pub.: 1937
LC Call #: PR 6037 A95 B8 1947
Rating: 4 stars / 5

Busman's Honeymoon finds Peter and Harriet finally tying the knot after several years of striving on his part. Harriet has convinced Peter to buy a house near the village where she grew up and they head there for their honeymoon. Only to find the former owner missing and no one expecting their arrival at all. Where could he be? Once he turns up dead, it seems that the honeymoon will be over for our favorite couple before it even began.

More fun from Dorothy L. Sayers. This was the last Lord Peter novel she completed in her lifetime, which is a shame, because the series was really beginning to pick up steam again. Highly recommended for Lord Peter fans and those who enjoy classic mysteries.

Vocabulary Note: A busman's vacation is where you do the same thing on vacation that you do in everyday life: like a bus driver taking a bus trip, me spending my vacation in a library, or in this case Peter and Harriet solving a murder on their honeymoon.

The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen by Elizabeth von Arnim



Source: Project Gutenberg
Recommendation: TIOLI #4: Read a book whose title contains a variant of the word 'adventure'
Series: Elizabeth and her German Garden (3/3)
Year of Original Pub.: 1904
LC Call #: PR 6035 U8 A24 1904
Rating: 3 stars / 5

The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen finds Elizabeth leaving her husband and children for a seaside vacation on the Baltic island of Rügen. She initially plans to travel around the entire island and describe what there is too see there, but is quickly distracted from her goal by her meeting her cousin Charlotte, who wants Elizabeth to travel with her on her own schedule. Charlotte married poorly and has become a bitter promoter of women's liberation, she spends most of her time avoiding her famous professor husband and those who want to meet her because of him. On Rügen this takes the form of the son and wife of an Anglican bishop on vacation from Britain. Much hilarity ensues.

This one is much, much better than The Solitary Summer and returns to the brilliance of the original Elizabeth and her German Garden. You don't have to have read either of the previous books to enjoy this one, but it wouldn't hurt either.

>213 susanj67: The pleasant agony of "In Transit". I've got at least one in the same situation right now.

Report from a Parisian Paradise: Essays from France, 1925-1939 by Joseph Roth



Source: work
Recommendation: TIOLI #21: Read a book by an author from one of the A P RI L countries (Roth was Austrian)
Original Title: Im Bistro nach Mitternacht: Joseph Roth in Frankreich
Year of Original Pub.: 1999
LC Call #: DC 715 R787 2003
Rating: 3 stars / 5

Reports from a Parisian Paradise is a collection of articles and essays written by the Austrian writer Joseph Roth in and about France. It could have been better edited, especially since the essays in the second section are mostly enlargements of articles contained in the first one. But if you have an interest in France between the wars, there may be something for you here.

The Land of Dreams by Vidar Sundstøl



Source: ILL (Plano PL)
Recommendation: April MysteryCAT–Scandicrime
Original Title: Drømmenes land
Original Pub. Date: 2008
Series: Minnesota Trilogy (1/3)
LC Call #: PT 8952.29 U53 D7613 2013
Rating: 4 stars / 5

The Land of Dreams is the first in a trilogy of Norwegian mystery/thrillers set along the shore of Lake Superior in northern Minnesota. Lance Hansen is a officer in the Forestry Police who uncovers a grisly murder on morning while on a routine patrol. The man and his travelling companion had been on the final days of a canoe trip, but having kept to themselves, who would want to kill him? Hansen is also the local historian and he soon finds a connection between this death and one around a century earlier, which only deepens his feelings of unease about the whole matter.

I enjoyed this one immensely. Unlike a lot of scandicrime, it's low on the gore and high on the psychological suspense. Book 2 is being released in the US this fall and the third book will come out in 2015. I'm very happy the University of Minnesota Press decided to pick this one up and bring it across the Atlantic and can't wait to find out what happens to Lance next.

Let Our Fame Be Great: Journeys Among the Defiant People of the Caucasus by Oliver Bullough



Source: ILL (McKinney PL)
Recommendation: I really enjoyed The Last Man in Russia
Year of Original Pub.: 2010
LC Call #: DK 509 B795 2010
Rating: 4 stars / 5

Let Our Fame Be Great is a travel history of Russian involvement in the Caucasus, from its beginnings in the 19th century through Chechnya and today (2010). Suffice to say, bloody and unfortunate would be an understatement. From the forced exile of the Circassians to the massacre and deportations of the Mountain Turks, Ingush, and Chechens under Stalin, to the recent Chechen Wars in the post-Soviet era, it is all described in remarkable detail. And, like Bullough's more recent book, The Last Man in Russia, it is highly readable; and still relevant even though it was published in early 2010.

Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in Chechnya, Russian History, the Sochi Olympics, Stalin-era totalitarianism, or current events. It would be interesting to see a second edition covering the Boston Marathon Bombing, since Chechen exiles and the societies they form there form a large part of the end of the book.

The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke



Source: work
Recommendation: There was an interesting chapter on him in The Wry Romance of the Literary Rectory / TIOLI #9: Read a collection of World War I poetry or a book about World War I poets or poetry
Year of Original Pub.: 1915
LC Call #: PR 6003 R4 1928
Rating: 3 stars / 5

The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke is exactly what the title says it is: the collected poems of Rupert Brooke. He is best known for two radically different poems: "Grantchester" ("Stands the Church clock at ten to three? / and is there honey still for tea?") and the sonnet sequence "1914" ("If I should die, think only this of me: / That there's some corner of a foreign field / That is for ever England."). Brooke himself died from an infected mosquito bite on his way to fight at Gallipoli in April 1915 and is buried on the Aegean island of Skyros. There's a lot of potential here, but some of the poems are rather awful, but it's touching in its own way that his friends thought so highly of his talents that they had this volume published before the year of his death was over. And one can only wonder what he might have accomplished if he had just had a little more time to hone his craft.

________________________________________________________________

From "1914"

III. The Dead

Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead!
There's none of these so lonely and poor of old,
But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold.
These laid the world away; poured our the red
Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to be
Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene,
That me call age; and those who would have been,
Their sons, they gave, their immortality.

Blow, bugles, blow! They brought us, for our dearth,
Holiness, lacked so long, and Love, sand Pain.
Honour has come back, as a kind to earth,
And paid his subjects with a royal wage;
And Nobleness walks in our ways again;
And we have come into our heritage.

IV. The Dead

These hearts were woven of human joys and cares,
Washed marvelously with sorrow, swift to mirth.
The years had given them kindness. Dawn was theirs,
And sunset, and the colours of the earth.
These had seen movement, and heard music; known
Slumber and waking; love; gone proudly friended;
Felt the quick stir of wonder; sat alone;
Touched flowers and furs and cheeks. All this is ended.

There are waters blown by changing winds to laughter
And lit by the rich skies, all day. And later,
Frost, with a gesture, stays the waves that dance
And wandering loveliness. He leaves a white
Unbroken glory, a gathered radiance,
A width, a shining peace, under the night.

V. The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds' dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts a peace, under and English heaven.

The Wild Geese by Bridget Boland+



Source: me (9/2009)
Recommendation: ROOT Challenge & Centuries of Reading
Year of Original Pub.: 1938
LC Call #: PR 6003 O458 W5 1988
Rating: 3 stars / 5

The Wild Geese is a novel of the mid-eighteenth century Ireland in letters, describing the struggles and adventures of the Catholic Kinross family and their Protestant Ahearne cousins. In Ireland, Catholics were not allowed to own land or do pretty much anything, which means that they are dependent on the good will of their Protestant friends and family to get by. Which is all well and good until someone gets greedy. Which is exactly what happens here. The author does a good job of expressing the kind of pressure that the British laws extracted on the Catholic population, even if the plot itself is a bit of a soap opera.

Recommended for those with an interest in Irish historical fiction, Irish history, or epistolary novels.

Raising Henry: A Memoir of Motherhood, Disability, and Discovery by Rachel Adams



Source: work
Recommendation: It looked interesting
Year of Original Pub.: 2013
LC Call #: RJ 506 D68 A33 2013
Rating: 3 stars / 5

Raising Henry is the author's story of how she unexpectedly give birth to a boy with Down's Syndrome (her tests had come back negative) and how Henry changed her life. Although Adams had been involved with Disability Studies for many years as an academic, raising a disabled child opened a whole new window for her into her field. It was interesting to see how her relationships changed as people reacted to Henry's existence. Especially Adams' OB-GYN, whose thoughts seem to change depending on who she talks to. It's not easy raising a child with disabilities in spite of, or perhaps because of, all the aid parents receive from the government. If an educated person with a flexible job had as many problems as the author did, it's a wonder anyone can navigate the system successfully.

For those with an interest in memoirs about raising children with disabilities, Down's Syndrome, and modern views of the place of the disabled in a world bent on perfection.

Meditations for Lent by Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet



Source: me (2/2014)
Recommendation: Lenten Reading
Year of Original Pub.: 2013
LC Call #: BV 85 B64413 2013
Rating: 3 stars / 5

Meditations for Lent is a collection of meditations written by the 17th century French bishop, and collected together for Lent. They are assigned one to a day, based on the weeks of Lent (1st Monday, 4th Sunday, etc.), as well as two separate readings for the two major feasts that fall during Lent, those of St. Joseph and the Annunciation, tacked on at the end of the book. I found the individual meditations thoughtful, and pertinent. Plus, the book was much better planned out than my Advent reading was.

Atemschaukel by Herta Müller^

The Hunger Angel



Source: ILL (Baylor U.)
Recommendation: GeoCAT / I'd had Müller on my to-read list for a while
Year of Original Pub.: 2009
LC Call #: PT 2673 U29234 A77 2009
Rating: 3 stars / 5

Atemschaukel is a fictionalized retelling of the forced enslavement of Romanian Germans by the Soviet Union as forced laborers in Eastern Ukraine. This was meant as reparation for the damage Germans had caused during World War II. The narrator is a Banat Swabian from southwestern Romania who is deported to what is now Horlivka, Ukraine (It's now an area of deep pro-Russia unrest so how long it will remain in Ukraine is open for question). What follows is a couple hundred pages of suffering and deprivation before the author is allowed to return home, where his experiences set him apart from everyone else.

An interesting book, but after a while I just grew numb to it. Which may have been the author's intent, but it did make for very slow going.

Passion and Resurrection: The Greek Catholic Church in Soviet Ukraine, 1939-1989 by Serge Keleher+



Source: me (11/2012)
Recommendation: ROOT Challenge
Year of Original Pub.: 1993
LC Call #: BX 4711.623 K454 1993
Rating: 4 stars / 5

Passion and Resurrection is the rather exciting story of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (eastern liturgically but acknowledging the Pope). Based in the former Austrian west, its home territories suddenly found themselves part of Soviet Ukraine after World War II (in between they were mostly contained in Poland and Czechoslovakia). The Soviet authorities decided , but the Western Ukrainians refused to give up and even extended their church's reach to new areas as they were exiled to Siberia and Central Asia. Ultimately in the 1980s under renewed pressure from the Ukrainian population and from Pope John Paul II, the Soviet Union had no choice but to acknowledge the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church's existence.

An interesting book written during interesting times about an interesting topic.

Hero by Alethea Kontis



Source: work
Recommendation: I liked Enchanted
Series: The Woodcutters (2/?)
Year of Original Pub.: 2013
LC Call #: PZ 8 K833 Her 2013
Rating: 2 stars / 5

Hero is the second book of a series that should have been left at one. Enchanted was a charming fairy tale mash-up, but Hero has a ridiculous plot, one-dimensional characters, and a large dose of insta-love. Skip it, it's not worth the time.

Excommunication and the Catholic Church by Edward Peters



Source: work
Recommendation: it looked interesting
Year of Original Pub.: 2006
LC Call #: BX 1801 P48 2006
Rating: 3 stars / 5

Excommunication and the Catholic Church is a short book in question and answer format to explain the Catholic laws on excommunication. Made up of 60 questions and written by a well-regarded canon lawyer, the reader soon discovers that the reality of excommunication is far different from the idea of it that people have in their minds.

An accessible introduction to the subject for anyone who has ever wondered what the rules are or how it happens.

The Modern Rite: Collected Essays on the Reform of the Liturgy by Klaus Gamber+



Source: me (11/2012)
Recommendation: I felt like it / ROOT Challenge
Year of Original Pub.: 1972
LC Call #: BX 1970 G3213 2002
Rating: 3 stars / 5

The Modern Rite is a collection of articles previously published in various German liturgical and theological journals edited into book form in the early 1970s. At the time of its writing, the state of the liturgy was still very much in flux, and Gamber suggests that it is all a bit too much, too fast. The fact that these changes are still being changed some forty years later lends credence to the idea that he was right, and keeps this book relevant to the point that it was only published into English in the first years of the 21st century.

Probably of interest to Catholics only, but if you are interested in topics like communion in the hand, liturgical direction, and the true meaning of active participation, you'll find quite a bit to chew on here.

The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart



Source: Corsicana PL
Recommendation: impulse grab
Year of Original Pub.: 2013
LC Call #: QK 98.5 A1 S74 2013
Rating: 3 stars / 5

The Drunken Botanist is everything you ever needed to know about the plants that mankind has used to create alcohol from commonplace grains to exotic fruits and plants that may or may not be poisonous. It's the kind of book where you pick it up and read bits for fun rather than one you sit down and read all the way through. Peppered with interesting trivia and the odd cocktail recipe, it's the perfect gift for the drinking reader.

English Poetry, 1550-1660 by Fred Inglis (ed.)

imagine a picture here

Source: work
Recommendation: April is national poetry month
Year of Original Pub.: 1965
LC Call #: PR 1205 I5 1965
Rating: 3 stars / 5

English Poetry, 1550-1660 is a collection of English poetry covering the period of 1550 through 1660 that has been modernized into standard English except when necessary for the meter. All of the big names like Shakespeare, Donne, and Herbert are here, but there are also many other works by more obscure authors. It is what it is and that's that.

I'm not dead, I just had a terrible reaction to the Italian soda at Easter brunch and then got overwhelmed dealing with the end of the semester. But fear not, I shall return to my normal self shortly.

Meanwhile, it's time for a new thread!