Mabith's 2016 Reads (Meredith)

Welcome to my very eclectic reading list. I read a bit of most genres (barring horror and thriller and dedicated romances), and read a bit more non-fiction than fiction. I'm a history junkie mainly. This year I'm hoping to read more books in translation and be properly active in the Reading Globally group. It's rough as fewer books in translation are made into audiobooks and that's mainly how I read due to chronic pain (and a need for as much distraction as possible).

I write rough reviews for each book I read and will keep the master list in this post.

Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Trick or Treat by Carl Barks
Radioactive: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss
Rat Queens Volume 2 by Kurtis J. Wiebe
The Phoenix Program by Douglas Valentine
The Alleluia Files by Sharon Shinn

Saga Volume 5 by Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Foundation: A History of England Volume 1 by Peter Ackroyd
Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip Book One by Tove Jansson
The Mouse and his Child by Russell Hoban

Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip Book Three by Tove Jansson
Dictator by Robert Harris
Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

They Do it With Mirrors by Agatha Christie
Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Most Wanted Man in China by Fang Lizhi
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

All Decent Animals by Oonya Kempadoo
The Upstairs Wife by Rafia Zakaria
Tower of Thorns by Juliet Marillier
Fashion Victims by Alison Matthews David
Loneliness by John T. Cacioppo and William Patrick

Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl by Daniel Pinkwater
The Log From the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck
The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt by Caroline Preston
Freddy Rides Again by Walter R. Brooks

The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande
The House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
Queen of the Air by Dean Jensen
Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton
Capital by John Lanchester

The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
Simon the Dictator by Walter R. Brooks
Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull
Going Solo by Roald Dahl

The Beauty and the Sorrow by Peter Englund
The Lunatic Cafe by Laurell K. Hamilton
The Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett

Evicted by Matthew Desmond
Bloody Bones by Laurell K Hamilton
Love, InshAllah by Nura Maznavi, Ayesha Mattu (editors)
The Killing Dance by Laurell K. Hamilton
The Bridge of Beyond by Simone Schwarz-Bart

Only for a Fortnight by Sue Read
Bolivar by Marie Arana
Alchemy and Meggy Swann by Karen Cushman
The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett
Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock

A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Burnt Offerings by Laurell K. Hamilton
Bellwether by Connie Willis
Sabriel by Garth Nix

Know the Mother by Desiree Cooper

Lovely start to your new thread!

Best Non-Fiction I read in 2015:
1914: The Year The World Ended – Paul Ham
On the Brink – Ryusho Kadota
Sex At Dawn – Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha
Islam: A Short History – Karen Armstrong
A World Undone – G.J. Meyer
Kitty Genovese – Kevin Cook
Rain: A Natural and Cultural History – Cynthia Barrett
Open Veins of Latin America – Eduardo Galeano
The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap – Matt Taibbi
Gulag – Anne Applebaum
When Books Went to War – Molly Guptill Manning
Being Mortal – Atul Gawande
Servants – Lucy Lethbridge
Austerity – Mark Blyth
The Half Has Never Been Told – Edward Baptist
Neurotribes – Steve Silberman
Ravensbruck – Sarah Helm
Red Land, Black Land – Barbara Mertz
Wrapped in Rainbows – Valerie Boyd

Best Fiction Read in 2015
Coventry – Helen Humphreys
A God in Ruins – Kate Atkinson
Katherine – Anya Seton
The Dust That Falls From Dreams – Louis de Bernieres
Beloved – Toni Morrison
Pushkin Hills – Sergei Dovlatov
All the Birds, Singing – Evie Wyld
Rubyfruit Jungle – Rita Mae Brown
The Fair Fight – Anna Freeman
The Voices of Glory – Davis Grubb
Brooklyn – Colm Toibin
Brat Farrar – Josephine Tey
Sea of Poppies – Amitav Ghosh
Life After Life – Kate Atkinson
Doc – Mary Doria Russell

Best Children's and YA Read in 2015
Lumberjanes - Noelle Stevenson and others
Moon at Nine – Deborah Ellis
El Deafo – Cece Bell
Listen, Slowly – Thanhha Lai
Finn Family Moomintroll – Tove Jansson
The Call of the Wild – Jack London
Coot Club – Arthur Ransome
Walk Two Moons – Sharon Creech
A Corner of White – Jaclyn Moriarty

>2 avidmom: It's the new New Year's Day tradition in my life - set up book threads and attempt to catch up on the zillion posts already in Club Read 2016!

Happy New Year, Meredith. I've enjoyed several of the books on your best fiction list. I did a pretty poor job of reading non-fiction in 2015. I'm not sure why, because I do enjoy it.

The process of which books we choose is always interesting. Until I started looking back on my whole list of books I felt like I hadn't found as much really great non-fiction this year. I think there were fewer that I became an evangelist for, maybe. And plenty I wanted to re-read but making the time for that is somehow harder than for fiction re-reads.

I think it all balances out in the end, even if year-to-year we skew one way or the other.

Happy New Year. Great lists. I think I've read or have wanted to read most of them. Life After Life is an all time favorite.

Happy new year. Looking forward to your reads this year.

>3 mabith:. I've been fascinated (horrified?) by the Genovese murder since I read about it as a young teen. I'm pretty sure it was the first time that I really considered human indifference on that scale. I'll have to look for the book and learn more about it.

Happy new year all!

>7 theaelizabet: I'm at the point where I think Kate Atkinson can do no wrong.

>8 h-mb: Likewise!

>9 nancyewhite: I was the same with the Genovese case. Turns out what's taught about it isn't particularly accurate, though in many ways I think that's a positive thing because it spawned so many psychological studies and I hope helps people be on their guard to not be part of a similar problem. It's interesting though, my mom and her family were in New York soon after the murder but it wasn't really on the public radar then as far as she was concerned. Learning about the real Kitty was nice and seemed important.

Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Trick or Treat by Carl Barks

This collection is a bit different in that it includes a pieces that Disney heavily edited or didn't run (until the 80s, I believe), including a number of Halloween themed comics. The title strip with Witch Hazel was actually written after the cartoon of the same name. As usual, another fun collection. Barks really was a genius.

My brother was just visiting and I realized I could predict his response 70% of the time during jokey conversations (especially after he was a couple beers down) largely because we both think in Carl Barks and Walt Kelly humorous arcs.

Radioactive: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss

This is an exceptionally beautiful book, a biographical sketch of Marie Curie which takes side trips into related areas of science. The whole thing is painted and illustrated chiefly with cyanotypes which are the perfect medium really. Because of how they're developed they have an x-ray type quality.

The book loses almost a full star however for NOT ONE mention of Curie's younger daughter, Eve, barring to note when she was born. I know she didn't become a scientist, but I believe (harking back to Marie Curie and her Daughters) Eve was instrumental in helping her mother fundraise in the US when Marie was quite ill.

It is just a wonderfully beautiful book, though the more extreme meandering might annoy you. I think it's a great gift for a children's biography collection because it's relatively short and encouraging children to see art and science as linked is no bad thing in my opinion.

I often moan about no one in my family getting me books for Christmas, but this one was a gift from my sister-in-law, and pretty much perfect (something I'd been wanting to read and a little out of the ordinary).

Rat Queens Volume 2 by Kurtis J. Wiebe

I love this comic (warning, it is absolutely not for little kids, though this volume seemed to have decidedly less swearing). It is a tribute to Dungeons and Dragons play, but with a twist and with four female main characters who have a bit of a 'shared college house' vibe. The humor in it is wonderful, but it's also just an interesting story and world. In this volume some backstory got slipped in very nicely.

Of the modern issue comics I've been reading this is the one I'd be most likely to subscribe to in single issues because I just love the concept and characters so much. I should be sensible and subscribe to Lumberjanes though, since it will be fine for my nieces and nephews to read sooner.

I loved Radioactive. I have her next book, borrowed from the library, but somehow I'm not really drawn to it. But Radioactive was, I thought, really special.

Ah, the Century Girl one? I can see that focusing on a single individual but a broader history would be trickier to make work.

The Phoenix Program: America's Use of Terror in Vietnam by Douglas Valentine

This book details the Phoenix Program in Vietnam, both what went on and why, and the effort made to conceal US involvement in it and the silencing of the US soldiers it used. The author also briefly talks about how this program spawned agendas in Homeland Security and became a blueprint for CIA use in other countries.

It's a necessary history, though the book is very dry. The author rarely steps into the narrative, and spends little time on the connections to modern policy simply telling the story of Phoenix. I appreciated the straight-forward nature of it, though I can see that this one might be a chore for some people to get through.

One of the bottom lines, however, is that Phoenix targeted civilians first and foremost, and a reminder that using quotas when it comes to capturing enemy agents or domestic criminals is ALWAYS THE WORST IDEA EVER and will always lead to widespread abuse and victimization of people on the bottom of the social order.

>15 mabith: oops, I actually have Thunder and Lightning - (wrong touchstone)

>16 mabith: interesting. Maybe the dry aspect turns me off, but it sounds like an important book.

That's a bit of a relief on the Lauren Redniss book. I was only vaguely drawn to Thunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present, Future but am very interested in Century Girl.

I think with the Phoenix Program a long article could provide the bare bones outline, or possible getting the book but skipping around to the chapters you were most interested in, perhaps.

The Alleluia Files by Sharon Shinn RE-READ

The final book in Shinn's Samaria trilogy. Very satisfying read. It's been long enough that I'd forgotten all but the barest bones of plot outline. As usual Shinn writes another stubborn, slow-to-love woman, and a brusque man. Samaria deals with the clash of science and religion, and the fact that knowledge of their earliest years had been forgotten or transfigured into myth (also apparently there are no historians there).

Shinn always writes a satisfying tale, and there are usually issues or morals involved. There's a bit of a love story, though it's not the main show (as with most of her books). I just love the path of the trilogy, and the transformation of the society.

Saga Volume 5 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Still enjoying this comic, but not with the same drive as the early issues. We've jumped ahead a fair bit and that took some adjustment. My dislike of serials and waiting has really come into play now. I just want to read all of a story and I want everything to eventually end. Is that too much to ask?

I've found comics are really helping to break up my audio listening and reading of ER books and such.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

I have a new online book club run by a friend and she's got a distinct knack of choosing books I've been meaning to read for ages.

This is the first book I've read by Virginia Woolf (barring some of her diaries), and it was... interesting. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it. I wasn't bothered by long sentences and lots of semi-colons as I listened to the audio edition (though I don't think that stuff bugs me much in print anyway). I just floated along with it but didn't engage all that much. I enjoyed the going back and repetition of certain bits when the focus switched to a different character. The book certainly established and held a mood.

I wonder if enjoyment of stream of consciousness works is something that fades as we age? Or is it just that I went in quite certain nothing would be resolved or changed for any of the characters? Despite being character driven and stream of consciousness I don't think we get to know any of the characters all that well.

Even with my semi-mixed reaction I am still thinking about the book, and I do think it's something I'll want to re-read, maybe in print next time.

>22 mabith: I read that a few years ago (2014 I think) and loved it. But I had to start and start over again a few times before I got the "hang" of it.

Maybe it would be better in print.

I think Mrs. Dalloway will always be a hard one for me to love. There's very little in it that I can relate to. I will re-read at some point, maybe after some other Woolf reads though. I had moments of higher enjoyment, but again, just felt like I was floating on the surface mostly.

>24 baswood: With this one I don't think print vs audio will make a difference for me. There's nothing about it that renders the audio difficult for me (though likewise I don't think it added much, except for the people who just dislike her writing style), and realistically I know I'd start skimming or going too quickly through a print version.

Interesting review of Mrs. Dalloway. I think it's the subtle, yet pointed, social commentary that makes the book.

True, Jane, but I suppose that commentary is already so incredibly familiar to me that it somewhat loses its meaning.

>20 mabith: I'm a big Shinn fan. I just got her newest (was waiting for me in the mail when I got home while my book in my bag had only 3 pages left, best feeling ever!). The Samaria series is my favorite, but I generally just like her characters.

Jane, is that the Jeweled Fire one? I read the first in that series but haven't picked up the others.

After I'm done with my current audiobooks (both non-fiction, both dealing quite a lot with the middle ages) I need something fun or light. I'm transcribing my maternal grandmother's letters from when they lived in Egypt and it is killing my mood. She died when my mom was 15, due to melanoma, and the letters are a journey through all these surgeries and I can feel how frustrated she is and her sister died a year before her and she doesn't know she's next and UGH. There are so many little heartbreaking things.

>29 mabith: Yes, that's the one. I liked the first in the series quite a lot. Second I don't remember as much about but high hopes for this one.

That's a hard project though sounds like it's worth it despite the difficulties. I know I appreciate what we have of our family history and stories.

It's hard when a favorite author has a few books you absolutely love, because other series won't quite measure up. I think my next favorites of hers are the Twelve Houses books. I see you haven't read any Juliet Marillier yet. I feel like I can safely say you'll love her if you like Shinn. Her first three Sevenwaters books and her Norse duo (Wolfskin and Foxmask) are my favorites.

My trouble is that after working on family projects I frequently dream about family members I've never met. Sometimes it's nice, but I usually end up getting upset on behalf of my mom's fifteen year old self (and she's the oldest of her siblings) and then upset on my behalf because I love my mom and what will I do when I lose her etc etc.

>22 mabith: Mrs Dalloway seems to be most people's favourite Woolf novel, but it didn't do it for me. I much preferred To the Lighthouse and Between the Acts.

That's good to know, Alison! I want to like Woolf (and it's not like I've disliked her so far, it's probably more the subject than anything else, and having reading some fiction lately that I absolutely loved).

I decided long ago Woolf wasn't for me, and I haven't been tempted to try her again.

Rebecca, I think that's how much of the book club is feeling! Someone said they had better luck by finally sitting down to read the whole thing within 24, which probably does help with stream of consciousness writing, maybe? I'm mostly just happy to be in a new book club where people are more open though (and less prone to "I dislike it therefore it's the worst book ever and if you like it you're an idiot" and vice versa regardless of the quality of writing, etc...). Plus the list so far has pulled a lot of "I've been meaning to read that..." titles for me.

>29 mabith:/>31 mabith: - what a great project, but also how difficult that must be for you. I briefly had my grandfather's diary and wanted to transcribe it, but my father wanted it and I couldn't say no to that. Well, he's lost it!

Dan, oh no! That's so hard! I hope it resurfaces at some point. I was 99% sure my sister had lost the army promotion certificate for our great-great-uncle (passed along to her about fifteen years ago) but she pulled it out of the void the other week, so you never know.

I decided to make one big push to finish the letters yesterday and I'm really glad they're done. Though now I really need to read through them again for typos that spellcheck won't catch, of course. Always something to do!

Foundation: A History of England Volume 1 by Peter Ackroyd

I was not blown away by this volume in the history of England. The writing was fine, but I felt the pacing and time spent on specific periods was off in addition to having very very little information about daily life (either for the common people OR the nobles). He tries to cram too much into one volume. I think my mediocre feelings on it are also influenced by having read a very detailed book about the Plantagenets last year by a somewhat more serious historian.

It felt a bit like Ackroyd wanted to write this series but wasn't as interested in this period as he was in the later ones (for instance, the English Civil War gets an entire volume to itself).

I'm not really sure what audience this book is best meant for. The serious history reader should probably pick up a few separate volumes breaking up the period covered and getting more detail. I don't think it's worthwhile reading first to get an overview of the period (I'm sure there are good timelines online) as it's just too uneven in where he spends more/less time.

Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip Book One by Tove Jansson

My library randomly had the second book in this series (as the ONLY thing by Jansson in the system, which is a crime), and I loved it so much I decided to buy the first three volumes of the comic for myself.

The first volume wasn't quite as funny for me, maybe partly because it's less about poking fun of certain personality types, but still quite fun and I'm glad to own them. They'll be nice volumes to share with my niece and nephew in a few more years.

The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban

I grew up on the Hobans' Frances picture books, which are still some of my favorites for the way they impart a lesson. This is one of Hoban's earlier children's novels, and Russell Hoban's website (he died in 2011) places this in the "young adult" age range rather than children's/juvenile presumably because it's SO dark and strange. It really isn't a young adult book by any definition though.

It is by far one of the strangest children's novels I've ever read. I feel like maybe Hoban had just spent 10 years reading Kirkegaard and Sartre when he wrote this. Here's the (only slightly cut down) synopsis on the website, which gives you a perfect idea of how nuts this book is.

The Mouse and His Child is the story of two clockwork mice, a father and son. When the key in the father's back is wound, he dances in a circle, swinging his son up and down. They begin their existence in the warmth of a toy shop at Christmastime. ... Soon they are sold to a family, and for several years are only brought out at Christmas. On one such night, the mouse child is overcome with longing for the...toyshop, and, breaking the all-important "rules of clockwork," he begins to cry. The family cat is so startled she knocks a vase onto the toy mice, and soon they're in the garbage can, smashed out of shape.

But their story is only just beginning. A passing tramp finds them in the garbage can, repairs them, and sets them on their way with the command, "Be tramps." Soon they've fallen into the murderous clutches of Manny Rat, a sleazy, tyrannical crook who uses wind-up toys for slave labor and doesn't hesitate to smash the ones who get out of line. The mice escape him with the intervention of a snake-oil-peddling, fortune-telling frog (conveniently named "Frog"), who startles Manny Rat (and himself) by uttering a terrible prophecy regarding the linked fates of the mice and the rat: "A dog shall rise; a rat shall fall."

After a brief dust-up involving some militant shrews, the mice are off, with Manny Rat, vowing vengeance on them for making him look like a fool, in hot pursuit. ... Along the way they encounter the professorial Muskrat, who promises to help them become self-winding; trade philosophy with C. Serpentina, the snapping turtle thinker, scholar, and playwright who lives at the bottom of the pond; and, in a twist straight out of Nicholas Nickleby, fall in with a traveling theater company called The Caws of Art. (It consists of two crows, a parrot and a rabbit.)

The Caws of Art are performing an experimental play called The Last Visible Dog, written by C. Serpentina, inspired by the image on the label of Bonzo Dog Food cans. The dog on the label is holding a can of dog food, on the label of which there is a smaller dog, holding a smaller can on which there is an even smaller dog, and on and on as far as the eye can see. The recurring concept of "The Last Visible Dog" becomes an eloquent metaphor for patience, persistence and determination, as the mouse and his child find that in order to realize their dreams of domestic contentment they must remain focused on a goal that seems further away than the eye can see, and travel farther than they ever dreamed.

That doesn't even deal with the totally strange ending with Manny Rat and his being trusted and breaking the trust but accidentally making it coming out all right (twice in a row, I think). I really want to know how was responsible for getting this published and why they hate children. Keep in mind that through the whole ridiculous journey they have to keep getting people to wind them up! Also I think you either go with toys are sentient or animals talk to each other, combining both of those common tropes definitely added to the strange feeling.

Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip Book Three by Tove Jansson

Another brilliant volume. I absolutely love this strip. It's one of those undertakings where you can't place the year while reading because it could have been written any time in the past 70 years basically. Very timeless.

Jansson's art style for these is also just wonderful. Simply done, but with such perfect impact and emphasis that you know it's by a seriously talented artist.

Dictator by Robert Harris

This is the third in Harris' trilogy about Cicero. My completest nature led me to pick this up, but I wish I'd skipped it. I absolutely loved Harris' book Pompeii, and read the other two Cicero books not long after. Then I found out that Harris is a supporter of Roman Polanski and ugh. So read Pompeii but only if it doesn't involve giving Harris money...

This ending book was less interesting and dramatic, though it really shouldn't have been given the events it covers. I'm also just not a great Cicero fan, so there's that as well.

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

Deraniyagala was in Sri Lanka with her family, parents, husband and two children, in 2004 when the tsunami hit. She was the only one to survive and the book documents her life afterwards. She is in pretty severe shock for sometime, and was then actively suicidal. Her family and friends worked around the clock to try to keep her safe and help her recover. It took three years before she was able to go back to London to the house she, her husband, and children lived in (she's originally from Sri Lanka).

The book is well written and so incredibly honest. She talks about her guilt, and the difficulty of a loss so substantial that people can't really believe it (including the psychological effect of so many people saying they just can't believe it).

I listened to the audiobook in a single sitting. It's a devastating book, and I think her honesty about it is so important. Highly recommended.

Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe by Thomas Cahill

This book didn't stand up for me. Aside from not at all living up to its subtitle, it was just too scattered and contained some misleading information, some infuriating information, and some strange conclusions.

I had to skip part of a chapter when Cahill somewhat randomly starts talking about terrorism in a way that is anti-Islamic and which puts the blame on all of Islam, basically. Which, uh, has he MET Christianity? Of course it's not okay for any group to kill innocent civilians but terrorism is not the province a single religion. He is a New Yorker and I know that makes 9/11 different for him than for me, but he's not writing a memoir, this is supposed to be a history book. I almost stopped reading entirely then, but since I was over halfway through I just skipped the rest of that chapter.

His claims of the rise of feminism... Well, we can pick out any period in history and find a few exceptional women who have been able to rise and command some power, which seems to be his definition of early feminism despite the fact that these are extreme outliers. Not to mention the fact that I don't think he ever actually uses the word feminism in the book and talks about very few women overall.

There are some interesting things about medieval Christianity in the book, but not enough to make this a worthwhile read, in my opinion. There are plenty of other books that deal with the subject. Not recommended at all.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

If you haven't read this yet or read it and disliked it, I'm sure you're tired of reading glowing reviews. Well, sorry, but I loved it.

The books is sort of "anti-feel-good-books author writes feel-good-book," if that makes sense. Ove is cranky, cantankerous, set in his ways, and incredibly impatient. He is absolutely in an 'old mold' and that shows in some of his thought processes and language but it works and just feels realistic.

I mostly skimmed reviews of this that included much detail (and haven't read one for a long while) and I think that was really good, coming into the book quite unknowing of even the most basic bits of the plot. It made everything a surprise, so I'm not going to include any plot details here.

Recommended.

Mysteries of the Middle Ages Thanks for the warning Meredith

>45 mabith: That sounds so incredibly like the movie, "St. Vincent" we watched here the other day!
Thanks for the review, it's been on my list for a while.

I've been sitting here for a few minutes trying to think of a way to describe what reading Virginia W. does to me. It's very sensual response, surprisingly, perhaps, as one thinks of her as being so intellectual and removed. At the same time, there are intense ideas embedded everywhere. And she creates what are almost "tableaus" - Mrs. Dalloway on the street with her flowers, the full drawing room of the party and the moment she looks across the street into a lighted window, her tete a tete with Peter Walsh. Which of course is about the past, and the choices one makes not knowing how final they are. . . And really, it's hopeless, I can't explain why I love her writing so much!

Cahill wrote better books earlier, I think, but now he just churns stuff out.

A Man Called Ove does sound like a book I'd like.

I love your review of A Mouse and His Child.

And I read A Man Called Ove for my book club. I was prepared to hate it, and did my best, but it sucked me and I loved it, despite trying hard not to.

Sibyx, I totally know what you mean about tableaus in her writing, and I think I can see why people are passionate about Woolf. I've definitely still been thinking about the book, partly because my new bookclub is really great.

Alison, that is pretty much exactly how I felt. By the time my library hold came in I was really on the verge of not even starting it. I do hate that my reading brain goes "Well this is so popular it must not actually be good."

A few years ago, I bought a 3-volume set on the history of Britain by Simon Schama (unread and, apparently, uncatalogued).

I think the merit of such books is to refresh one's memories and introduce new archaeological and historical details.

In 2008, I read Colin Renfrew's Before civilization. The radiocarbon revolution and prehistoric Europe and was astounded by the amount of new evidence and theories that overthrew all my ideas and knowledge of the prehistory up till then. It became clear that that knowledge, most of it acquired 20 to 25 years ago, was fantastically outdated.

Do you have any idea how Ackroyd's series holds up against Schama's 3-volume series?

They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie

A classic Miss Marple tale. Marple is sent by a school friend to stay with her sister (also an old school friend) as there's something wrong in the house and she's worried. Marple goes to find Carrie Louise her usual drifting self, occupied with her husband's philanthropic efforts involving juvenile delinquents (the reforming of them).

The usual Christie set up, though this one is perhaps more predictable than many. I kind of wonder if there's an inherent internalized sexism in Christie's writing that makes Marple's mysteries simpler and easier for the reader to solve.

Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum

Published in 1900 it is the account of Slocum's solo circumnavigation of the earth, and he was the first person to do it. An experienced sailor and navigator, his ship, Spray, was a derelict that he refitted himself.



I feel like Slocum's ideas changed as the book went on, particularly his reporting on and dealings with various native cultures. There's a lot of 'savages' talk at the beginning that disappears towards the end along with what seemed like an attitude change.

In general it was a very interesting read. I'm wondering if the children in the Swallows and Amazons books will read Slocum's text at some point in the series! Seems right up their alley.

Room by Emma Donoghue

While I mostly don't feel much need to read hyper-popular books, sometimes with certain titles it does override my normal reading brain. Room fits this description, I think partly because it was advertised as being different and unique in some way. I feel like everyone knows the premise now - woman kidnapped and held in a small free-standing room and raped regularly, eventually has a baby. We come into the story just as he turns five. He narrates the book and has only known this single room, though they have TV and some books.

This book didn't really work for me for a few reasons. I couldn't really suspend my disbelief. This free-standing room/shed is fully wired for electricity and plumbed, and there's chain link fencing under and around it. But the implication is that the guy did it all by himself and none of the neighbors noticed. There's a reason that in real-life cases like this the women tend to be held in basements - they're already plumbed/wired! There's even 'central' AC in this room! Not that you can't do that kind of thing by yourself, it's just kind of unlikely.

Then the narration, there are some language things that don't make sense for me in a boy of five who can read, has a large vocabulary, has an adult speech model, and who watches TV. A five year old in that situation is unlikely to say "forgetted" instead of "forgot" (numerous examples in the book where it just felt too twee and forced). You can show youth without those language mistakes. I feel like the pacing was also a bit odd and some reactions just weren't believable.

I've found I really enjoy when a young narrator is recording things that they can't make sense of but the reader can, but to me this book was only okay. Not horrible, but not great, and not worth the award nominations it got.

You've done some interesting reading this month, Meredith. Room is on my Kindle, and is one I've thought about reading several times. Now, I'm not so sure. Even though I can usually figure out the mysteries in Agatha Christie's books, I really do enjoy them.

>54 mabith: Wasn't it Jaycee Dugard that was found living in her kidnappers backyard with no one the wiser? I'm not sure how unlikely that kind of kidnapping really is. Even Elizabeth Smart was hidden in plain sight. She spoke about having been feet from the searchers at her kidnapper's encampment.

>55 NanaCC: I dithered a lot before starting it. I ended up giving it 3 1/2 stars because I think the concept was good and some aspects were handled very well.

>56 lesmel: If I recall correctly both Smart and Dugard were kidnapped as children, and were held in isolation at the beginning of their ordeals. Also, I think it was Smart (definitely one of them) who had a younger sister and that was used as a threat against her that kept her in check for some time (that her captor would go back and also take her sister if she tried to escape etc). Very different psychology with children vs a 19 year old college student. The book makes a big deal of the construction and secrecy of the Room which make the idea that it was constructed in total secrecy too far-fetched (it could have been done in various other ways to make it more plausible).

>54 mabith: I felt manipulated by Room.

>56 lesmel: Just re-read your comment more closely. It's not the type of kidnapping or the fact that neighbors didn't know someone was being held that is unrealistic to me, it's the building of the room without anyone noticing/being able to do it all yourself that was implausible. Major plumbing and electric work and all that.

>58 rebeccanyc: By what aspect precisely? By the end I was unsure what Donoghue wanted anyone to take from it so can't say much manipulation got through to me. (Not sure what's considered spoilery for this one, so feel free to reply on my profile page!)

>51 edwinbcn: Just realized I'd missed your comment! I haven't read any of Schama's works, so I'm not sure how they compare. As Ackroyd isn't a trained historian I didn't feel like he was really updating the record or equipped to handle such a long period of history (I think popular history writers do better when there's a more narrow focus).

>59 mabith: I don't know--I have a neighbor two doors down who always seems to be running power tools in his back yard at night. I have no idea what he is doing, but I've never investigated. For all I know, he could be doing major construction. Plumbing could be explained by a sprinkler/irrigation system. A plausible reason for running electricity to a shed or detached garage could be that it's his "workshop." I realize that you should have permits for this sort of work, but I've never checked into whether any of my neighbors had permits when they did renovations. I can't remember if we learned what Old Nick did for a living, but perhaps he was an electrician/plumber/handyman. (Full disclosure: I liked Room.)

No, Donoghue doesn't specify Old Nick's job. But that's the thing, she could have inserted that detail with no effort and it would have made it much more plausible. I am somewhat of the mindset that if it wasn't written down it didn't happen and I'm not going to assume anything if I'm not already convinced by the book. (Also, why no webcam set up showing the area around the door? Which I'd surely want if I were keeping someone hostage and wanted to be sure they weren't close enough to the door to be able to hurt me. Plus it's such a simple thing to do after all the effort of a full electrical and plumbing system.)

The closest real life case to the situation in Room seems to be that of Elisabeth Fritzl.

Josef Fritzl locked his daughter up for 24 years and fathered seven children, one of whom, Felix, was five years old when he and his mother were finally released. Donoghue has said the book isn't based on that case in Austria, but was triggered by it, specifically the idea of Felix "... aged five, emerging into a world he didn't know about... That notion of the wide-eyed child emerging into the world like a Martian coming to Earth: it seized me."

Here is an article that discusses the connection: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/13/emma-donoghue-room-josef-fri...

>59 mabith: Sorry, I read it so many years ago I don't remember why I felt manipulated.

Catching up here. Really interesting comments on all the reading you've done.

>59 mabith: As scary as this is to say, I know someone that could pull off building a fully plumbed/electrified shed. Granted, that's one person out of how many dozens I know? Hrm. I might know two that could build a room/shed like the kidnapper had. Plus, the majority of the book is from the kid's perspective -- he doesn't have a clue about the outside world. Granted after they escape; the police could have said: "Oh, he's an ENGINEER!" That would have been...a little obvious for me.

>62 mabith: Maybe a camera would make people too curious? Plus, Old Nick has broken her wrist once when she tries to knock him out with the toilet lid. Then he threatens to starve her to death if she tries anything ever again.

Maybe it all comes down to reader experience/knowledge?

Oh, a lot of my family could do that amount of building on their own, and have, though totally on their own and with no larger . It's more the combination plus no one had any idea plus how big a deal the secrecy is made (they point out that the ac unit is hidden, a pointless remark except to illustrate how careful he was and help explain how no one found out. In real life we know people get away with that sort of thing with nowhere near the effort it would take to build and equip the room, so that adds to my feeling of unreality with this setup, honestly), etc... While it is from a child's perspective, Ma says many many things that are beyond his understanding, that's what I mean about the detail could have been put in there easily, even as a passing metaphor in a story she made up. The dialogue isn't half remembered or rendered into a child's understanding after all.

The camera would be on the inside of the door, so no one would see it. Webcams that people can view the feed of remotely via computer have been common for a long time, and in 2010 I think could viewed on smartphone apps as well.

>63 SassyLassy: I thought about that case when starting the book and wondered if it had provided some inspiration. I'm still confused how in the 1990s three children left on an individual's (vs organization's) doorstep didn't seem odd. (edit: just looked it up that they were left with notes he made his daughter write or a phone call, but still a bit odd)

I have to admit that other things occupied my mind when I read Room, so I didn't notice the objections to the secrecy of the hiding place that you did. I think I assumed there were some very high hedges around the property and this was all going on inside. I completely see all your points though, and I'm glad you raised them. A less famous case was a girl my age taken where I live (Greater Vancouver area) that was kept for 6 months in a dungeon that the guy dug in his garage. So many combinations of these prisons, so I didn't question the logistics of this one.

I was more bothered by the child's voice. As a mother, and someone who has spent a lot of time around other children, I found it less than authentic. But the author says she used lots of dialogue straight from her own child. So who am I to complain?

Overall, I decided to just go with it and enjoy what I could get out of it. I do that often with best sellers I'm skeptical about. Sometimes I end up liking them (Girl on the Train, Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society) and sometimes not as much (Water for Elephants shudder). Hmmm, Every one of these books I read for book club.

I agree, the child's voice didn't ring true at all for me. Maybe we're just around exceptional children? They did say there were hedges around the property, but anyone with a second floor could have seen everything. I felt like the mother/grandmother had some strange reactions, but believable in the sense that most people have little understanding of basic psychology or how trauma affects people. I think Room is one of those books where if you're not completely taken in by the idea and style all the little things get to you.

That was me with A Man Called Ove. I'm happy my new online bookclub is picking classics and books about immigration so far.

> Maybe we're just around exceptional children?

Well obviously that's true about my children and the ones I like, but the others . . .

Ha! I have eleven nieces and nephews who are all geniuses, OBVIOUSLY, I mean how could they not be...

>70 Nickelini: & >71 mabith: I'm not around ankle biters enough (thankfully) to judge Jack's "voice." Heh.

The Most Wanted Man in China: My Journey from Scientist to Enemy of the State by Fang Lizhi

This is a memoir covering Fang Lizhi's life mostly from his student days to pretty much the present (he died in 2012). While it covers his earlier childhood his life in science is the focus. He started studying physics at Peking University in 1952, where he and his future wife were two of the top students in the department. He joined the Communist party quite young and worked on their secret atomic program but events during the Hundred Flowers campaign saw him labeled as a Rightist element. His standing in China rose and fell, and his ability to teach freely and publish was heavily impacted (as well as his ability to live with his wife and their children, they had to live in different cities for something like twenty-six years, starting only a few months after their first child was born).

I come to this biography after reading a number of books about 20th century China, so I can't be 100% sure how the details of the Communist system (specifically the language used about and around the purges) will read to someone unfamiliar with the period. I think Lizhi explains everything well and understandably though.

The translator of this was a close, longtime friend of Lizhi's, and I felt the work had a very strong, consistent voice to it, which made it easy to read and connect to. He reminded me so much of my grandfather, who also studied physics. Like many of the period, Lizhi struggled with Mao's decisions and their initial belief in the ideals he professed. He is straightforward about it, and manages to keep a sense of humor about his struggles and the regime's totally hyperbolic fight against him just before he had to leave China.

I definitely recommend this, especially to anyone interested in China during this period, of course. It's an important part of a history, especially the regime's love/hate relationship with universities and education in general. Lizhi points out that Mao couldn't understand why 'true believers' suddenly began to question things once they went to university and that a scientific education does not allow for absolutes that go unquestioned. This is a theme of the book, and Lizhi always puts it so well.

It rather makes me want to start a list of books I wish I could share with my grandparents (all dead for some time now).

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

One of those books I've been meaning to read for at least fifteen years. I hadn't realized that it was published in 1969, for some reason thinking it was more recent (probably due to usually seeing it with a cover done in the 80s or 90s).

It's beautifully written, and the audio edition read by Angelou is wonderful. It covers her childhood up to age 16 or 17 when she's giving birth to her first child. There are aspects that are very hard to read, particularly the sexual abuse she went through as a young child. I knew that was in her past, but if I'd known more of the specific details I might have been a bit more careful about when I picked the book up (as it was particularly triggering to me).

It has been a classic for a long time and will continue to be one. Angelou's voice is so important, and her autobiographies are so valuable. I keep forgetting that she died in 2014.

All Decent Animals by Oonya Kempadoo

I picked this up after going through lists of authors for the Caribbean theme in Reading Globally for the first quarter of this year. This had the benefit of being available at my library. After publishing her first two novels relatively close together (1998 and 2001) there was a twelve year gap between the second and this, her third novel. Kempadoo was born in England to Guyanese parents and brought up in Guyana from the age of five onward. While Guyana is part of the South American continent it is considered part of the Caribbean both linguistically and culturally, and is part of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

The book centers around a Ata, an artist who has returned to Trinidad to live (she is not from Trinidad but has considers 'Caribbean' to be her nationality). She has worked with Carnival costume designers and is now starting an office job. The book focuses most on her, I'd say, but the always-third-person narration floats around between her and her group of friends representing a wide variety of people, backgrounds, classes and views. The book takes place mostly just before, during, and after Carnival. Some reviewers have said it felt like she tried to cram every aspect of Trinidad into a relatively short book, but I felt like that worked because of being set around Carnival.

As the focus of the narration changes so does the language, going from no Creole slang/dialect to using a fair bit (most of it totally understandable to the outsider). Having the mix change really works, though had me wishing over and over there were an audio edition (it would be an excellent audiobook, with a good reader, of course). I'm really curious about the simultaneous usage of youall and allyou and why one is chosen over another at any given time since externally they mean the same thing (for the corollaries in my part of Appalachia and the upper Ohio River valley I'd be tempted to say that 'allyou' is more personal and 'youall' more general).

The biggest plot part of the book is one of Ata's group, an architect and gay man, Fraser, having a serious medical collapse which turns out to be due to AIDS, which has already seriously damaged his kidneys. The rush to help him, but also judgement of his choices and difficult decisions, is a key part of the book, with Ata seemingly taking on more of his care than anyone else. His sickness sets some cracks running through their group.

It is a busy book, a full book, and a swift book. Towards the end there are some things that I don't really get, one of which seemed totally unnecessary and goes unresolved, but otherwise I think it's a pretty solid novel with beautiful writing. The hills are almost a character themselves, which, being a West Virginia girl, I appreciated and related to. There aren't any reviews here on LT but the top four or five reviews on Goodreads give you a good sense of it, I think. Ended up being a 3 1/2 star read for me.

Enjoyed your excellent reviews of The Most Wanted man in China and All decent animals

Great reviews of The Most Wanted Man in China and All Decent Animals, Meredith. I own the Kempadoo, and I may read it in March for the Reading Globally first quarter theme.

Thanks, guys! I wish I were able to spend as much time and care on all my reviews, but it is exhausting. Plus, not every book needs the care, of course.

I think I'm going to try to listen to an opera every day, while I read my print books and do my internet browsing and LT catch-up and such. I wouldn't say I have a favorite composer or style, I just enjoy opera. Starting with a few by Rossini as I don't think I've ever listened to the entirety of any of his (and my dad is a big Bel Canto fan). If you have any favorite operas, let me know!

Mozart's Don Giovanni or Figaro come to mind. I particularly like the "ensembles" (I don't know the word in English : when the soloists sing together).

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is one of those books that I can't believe I haven't read yet. I like the idea of the audiobook read by Angelou. I'll have to see if my library has it.

I'll have to look for a copy of All Decent Animals. Good review. Will you post it to the book's page?

>79 mabith: I'm an anomaly, I really love Satyagraha by Philip Glass. Other operas that come to mind are the ones for which I have seen fun productions, not necessarily because I like the music....

>80 h-mb: I think it depends on the number of soloists singing: duet, trio, quartet, quintet, sextet...

>80 h-mb: I'm slightly expecting to be partial to Mozart as one opera I would name as a favorite is Cosi fan Tutte (partly due to an Australian movie, Cosi, but I've listened to the whole thing a lot, and a favorite bit used to be my medication alarm on my phone).

>81 japaul22: She's a great reader, as one might expect, and sings the song lyrics.

>82 RidgewayGirl: Ah yes, I meant to do that yesterday and forgot, since there aren't any other reviews.

>83 ELiz_M: That's my sadness, I've only seen one opera performance in person and since it was Carmina Burana and that's a bird of a different feather really. I have chronic pain and can't sit upright for too long, so I doubt I'll get to see any more in person. I haven't tried anything by Glass since a family friend tried to interest me - I was in a big folk music and bluegrass phase though, so it was just too minimalist for me right then. I'll definitely put Satyagraha in the queue. I generally just love the vocal control and ability of the singers.

I always liked Carmen. I also like the Mozart and Rossini ones that I've heard, though I'm not sure I've heard any in their entirety.

>83 ELiz_M: I keep meaning to give Philip Glass another go and maybe I should try that one. I listened to Einstein on the Beach a couple of years ago and when it started I expected to hate it, with all the repetition, and yet something sucked me into it and before I knew it I'd listened to the entire thing. I'm still not sure what to make of it, but it was certainly an experience.

I remember reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, but I didn't remember that is was almost 20 years ago when I was a grad student (so not even all that young). My reading log reminds me. Angelo had quite a story to tell.

Enjoyed catching up on these latest reviews.

Excellent review of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. I read the book a few years ago and I liked it a lot. I could not agree more that her voice is still important.

The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan by Rafia Zakaria

Zakaria gives us a history of Pakistan, and especially of Karachi, tied in with her family's history there and especially her aunt Amina's life after her husband took a second wife. The choice to layer and organize the book in that way was particularly successful, I think.

The book is more history than biography/memoir, so if you're looking for a straight memoir of this period in Pakistan I would look for something else. The balance of the book worked very well for me, and through her own and her family's experiences Zakaria is able to keep the focus largely on how individuals are affected, and how individuals in the government have acted and reacted. The result is deeply human history, and an important read right now especially.

Certainly recommended, though I'd advise against the audiobook. Zakaria reads it herself, and while she's not an awful reader she's really not the best either. In focusing on enunciation, the words often sounded disconnected from each other and have less impact than they might otherwise.

Tower of Thorns by Juliet Marillier

This is the second in what will at least be a trilogy (the first was Dreamer's Pool). Marillier has sort of invented the historical fantasy mystery genre, as far as I know, and I love it. Blackthorn, and a healer and wise woman, was saved from death and removed from prison by a fey man, tasked with setting up as healer near the future Dalriadan king's residence, Winterfalls. She has to stay in the area for seven years and give help to anyone who asks it of her. Grim, a man who was in prison with her tagged along, and both are still trying to deal with the trauma of their experiences (both in prison and before). Grim is clearly stated to have PTSD, and while we learned Blackthorn's story in the first book now we learn Grim's.

The folk tale at the heard of this book is a much more familiar one to me (in numerous variations), so this book was much more predictable than the previous one. As usual, however, where Marillier really excels is in character building, and all of her books are very character-driven.

I'm eagerly awaiting the third book, especially as Marillier thinks there might be more than three so that the next book must serve as a real ending for the series as well as a jumping off point. Most of her other books can stand alone quite easily, as well as work in a series. This series is a bit more connected, in that Blackthorn has a time-specific task laid upon her, but also a drive toward vengeance that she fights. This and the previous book still have self-contained main plots though.

Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present by Alison Matthews David

RidgewayGirl's excellent review of this book made me immediately order a copy for myself, which is a small miracle ($30 is about six times more than I'll usually pay for a book I've never read), and I'm so glad I did. This was a great read and an extremely well done book. It's not short of text content or hard facts but includes a great selection of images, both of the fashions themselves but also advertisements, satirical cartoons, etc... The book is also neatly organized into sections covering different toxins and further organized with that, which I appreciated.

David doesn't just tell the (largely) same-old same-old stories of dangerous clothes, but brings us into the present as well. She brings in the misogynistic treatment of dangerous women's fashions vs men's, and the fact that almost identical things still happen, we've largely just moved them to different countries rather than occurring down the road.

It has slightly made me feel like burning all my clothes and knitting a new wardrobe from local wool, but it was a really fantastic read. Actually I'd also like to set some tulle on fire to see how it goes up, and maybe some old celluloid too. Not recommended for arsonists.

>90 mabith: Not recommended for arsonists.

Ha ha! That's great. I'm not an arsonist, luckily, because I have this book on order.

>90 mabith: sounds fascinating.

>86 dchaikin: >87 OscarWilde87: I imagine Angelou's memoirs will always speak to something in our lives, no matter when we read them.

>91 Nickelini: It's probably good for everyone I didn't read about quick burning net and tulle fabric as a teenager (I was a very careful, contained fire starter, but still...).

>92 wandering_star: If your library has a copy it's worth borrowing even just to skim over.

I'm glad you liked Fashion Victims, too. I'm still thinking about that book. The willingness to do permanent damage to working people's health for something pretty for the upper classes was horrific.

It hadn't occurred to me to set fire to fabrics, but now I'm curious...

>90 mabith: Enjoyed your review of this one as well. I'm somewhat tempted to add it to the wishlist but not sure I'll ever get around to getting it.

Enjoyed your review of The Upstairs Wife. That one looks interesting.

>93 mabith: good idea!

Tempting review of The Upstairs Wife -- a brief google search of Rafia Zakaria points to a very interesting woman.

>94 RidgewayGirl: I just feel a need to confirm the flammability of tulle, net, etc... You know, for science.

>96 baswood: >98 janeajones: Barry, Jane, The Upstairs Wife is definitely well worth a read. I think it's important to read those kinds of books when they're written by the people who have lived through these events. The progression of history within one sphere can have such a different speed to it viewed in relation to that specific place vs the perspective of people living halfway around the world from it.

Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection by John T. Cacioppo and William Patrick

A good popular science read, and nice to read one that's more focused on one topic than the general "our brains are so weird" ones proliferating now. Though the topic was a bit depressing for me at times as I live alone and I am not a human who does well living alone (unless I were in a building or neighborhood where I had some friends right there).

Much of the book was just confirming things I was already pretty sure of (like the fact that being alone and lonely actually makes one MORE judgmental of strangers). It was a good read though, well written and organized.

Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl by Daniel Pinkwater

I am devoted to Daniel Pinkwater, and have been since I was a child. His children's and YA novels have this perfect mix of the silly, the bizarre and the philosophical and they made me excited about the world during a very dark period when I was age 12-13. He wrote no children's or YA novels for some years (only published two between 1984 and 2006), because for quite a period publishers just weren't willing to take the chance on something so different. Thankfully that changed and he published the first of a new trilogy in 2006 (The Neddiad, which he felt was the best novel he'd written).

Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl is the third in the trilogy, and my favorite of the bunch. The trilogy (well, the second and third at least) take us back to the idea of different existential planes, which I generally love, particularly his explanations of them. I could barely put this one down. It's classic Pinkwater but perhaps with a new refinement (the whole trilogy is, really).

I haven't read the first one since it came out, so I'm hoping to re-read that later this year.

The Log From the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck

Steinbeck is always good, and this account of a few months sailing around collecting specimens is very good. They were sailing in 1940, I believe, and there's a fair bit of preoccupation with the war, though of course the US was not officially involved yet. I think being on a ship generally leads to philosophizing and that's evident here.

The blemish on the book was in the last section, which is a celebration/brief biography of Ed Ricketts (whom the character Doc in Cannery Row was based on, and who maintained the scientific purpose of the trip). Steinbeck describes Ricketts' sexual habits which boil down to picking out vulnerable young women who are tied up enough (by husbands, children, etc) that they won't be able to make trouble for Ricketts when he gets tired of them. Steinbeck describes this as though it's just a humorous quirk and that's pretty gross, all in all.

The Price of Salt/Carol by Patricia Highsmith

This is a beautifully written book. It follows Therese, a theatre set designer, while she's working at a department store before Christmas. She is captivated by an older female customer, Carol, to the extent that she contacts her directly. They begin a tentative, nerve-wracked (for Therese) friendship which creates fallout in both their personal lives.

It says something that this one is considered to have a happy ending (compared to other books of the period involving homosexuality). I would say it's not happy or totally grim (in part because it ends quite suddenly).

It was a very good read, and I loved Highsmith's writing. Really disappointed when I was looking her up to find that she was more than latently racist and particularly vehemently anti-Semitic. I guess as least she's dead and I'm not monetarily supporting her, but it was upsetting to learn that.

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures by Caroline Preston

I absolutely loved this book. It's a bit thin on the writing side, but each page is a scrapbook page with period ephemera (Preston has been a long-time collector of vintage scrapbooks). It's a joy to look at just for those wonderful vintage pieces she's found.

The premise and the way things run are a bit too sweet, maybe, but I loved looking through the book. It felt extremely honest as well. I've made accidental scrapbooks out of journals and I saw shadows of them in this. Preston captures a reality and because the images and things are all actual period pieces it does hit you as a True Thing.

I've been so good this year about writing down books I learn about (and want to read) from LT threads, but I slipped with this one. I could have sworn I learned about it here but can't find the thread anywhere now (and it could have come from BookRiot). So annoying not to know.

>104 mabith: Good to hear it's a good one. I bought it years ago without knowing a thing about it, but I really like illustrated novels so it was hard to resist. One of these days I'll get to it. I'm sure it doesn't take a lot of time.

Nah, It's a pretty quick 'read in one sitting' kind of book.

>103 mabith: Sometimes it is best not to know the characters of authors that we like, or if we do find out then forget about them as soon as possible but still enjoy the books.

I have enjoyed Patricia Highsmith's crime thrillers

True, Barry. Though, all in all, I'd rather know early on than after I've become a huge fan and feel invested in the author.

Freddy Rides Again by Walter R. Brooks

One of my favorites of the Freddy books I've read recently. I love that the animals dream of being cowboys, just like every other kid in the 1950s. Rich neighbors move nearby and disrupt everyone's life. Freddy works to teach them a lesson or at least get their son to stop being a jerk. A great one for people who love Mr. Bean.

I do so heartily recommend these books. They're great fun and have a lot of good lessons in them delivered without hammering them.

For atmosphere here is a picture of my mother in 1955, in her own cowgirl outfit.

The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande

This is a memoir of Grande's life going about through her college years. She was born in Iguala, Mexico and before she is old enough to remember her father goes to work in the US (el otro lado - the other side). When she is six or seven her mother leaves as well, leaving Grande and her older sister and brother with their paternal grandmother. This grandmother does not care for them or treat them well.

Later Grande and her siblings cross the border illegally with their father, having to make multiple tries before succeeding. The US is not the dream they imagined. Their father is abusive and Grande struggles to get by in school and learn English. Their lives are harsh and their father's girlfriend resents them living there while her own children cannot. Soon they learn their mother has come back to the US but has not bothered to try to contact them.

The title of the book refers to both the physical and emotional distances between Grande and her parents. It is a very good memoir, and I really recommend it. I would avoid the audio edition though, if you can. The reader is largely good but struggles with doing voices for the dialogue and ends up sounding very cartoony.

>110 mabith: This sounds really good and I am so glad my library has it.

>109 mabith: I think I had an outfit just like that one at about the same time. :)

The House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre

This was a really interesting novel, with a fairly original format. Isabel is writing the story of her and her husband Quintin's families and their histories in Puerto Rico. Every few chapters her tale is interrupted by her husband's narration when he finds and reads various parts of her work, and writes notes in the margins. There are also chapters set in the present where Isabel talks directly about Quintin's reading her manuscript.

I definitely made liberal use of the family tree in the front of the book, but even with a few moments of confusion, it was a very interesting, enjoyable read. It deals with a lot of different issues in a very personal, family way (Puerto Rican nationalism vs statehood, colonial legacy, racism, etc...).

Reviewing it I feel like I should be raving about what a good read it was, but it's a quiet, subdued read in many ways. It is about the storytelling and the characters more than beautiful language. Definitely one I haven't stopped thinking about since I finished it.

Queen of the Air: A True Story of Love and Tragedy at the Circus by Dean Jensen

While the subject was very interesting this book mostly just got on my nerves. It is very narrative non-fiction, and feels totally geared for people who don't like non-fiction at all. Jensen speaks so much for the people involved, their moods, their inner feelings, without saying a single word about how he knows this is how they felt. No mention of any source material at all in the body of the book.

I like sources. I love being swept up in a story, but good writers do that all the time while still filling a book with primary source material (Caroline Alexander, Candice Millard, Tom Reiss). Where did he find out the story of Nellie Pelikan's early life, for example? There are only a handful of mentions of letters in the entire book. Jensen's gives us nothing, no reason to believe that this is remotely close to being accurate vs one person's prejudiced memories or largely his own imaginings.

This is a book I thought I'd love but was feeling disenchanted with during the first 50 pages. Like the fool I am though I didn't decide to give it up. It's just so much harder to call it quits with an audiobook for some reason.

>111 Tara1Reads: It's one of those stories that really needs its own mini-series.

>112 NanaCC: It was a great look! I'm not sure it tops my childhood belly dancer outfit, because those pants were amazingly comfortable, but it seems more appropriate!

>113 mabith: Nice review of The House on the Lagoon. It's a book I've pressed on a few people.

>112 NanaCC: I thought of you immediately when I saw that picture!

I am very behind on a number of threads, and have really enjoyed catching up on your reading. Loads of great reviews - a few have gone on the TBR pile.

Was quite touched about your tale of transcribing your grandmother's letters. I've had a malignant melanoma, and oddly enough Egypt was my first holiday after being diagnosed (I joked with my husband that he was trying to finish me off). For a Westerner with paler skin it's very difficult to protect yourself adequately in that kind of heat, and your poor grandmother was probably living in an era when sun protection wasn't much discussed.

Thanks for commenting, Alison! Yes, while sunscreen did exist at the time it seemed to largely be used in the army for overseas troops. My mom doesn't remember ever wearing it. My grandmother was a redhead to boot, which I'm sure didn't help (and going by her pictures preferred to be outdoors as much as possible).

What's striking to me is that two of her siblings also died as a result of cancer. It seems so unlikely that three siblings would go through that (all at a similar age, within eight years of each other). Makes me wonder if there was some environmental factor they were exposed to as children. My mom had a benign cyst removed when I was a kid, and I wonder what her thought process was when she first noticed it.

>116 cabegley: I have a feeling that if I'm giving recs of Caribbean literature The House on the Lagoon will end up being my go-to recommendation (beyond the more well known authors like Edwidge Danticat).

I'm off to a southern North Carolina beach on Saturday, and going through my books for ones I don't want to keep. We pass a great used bookstore on the way so I always trade mine in for credit so I'm not spending actual money on books.

My mom was looking through them and noticed The Good Spy by Kai Bird. Turns out he was in her ninth grade class at the American school in Cairo. Such a funny coincidence. Last year it was her and Kim Gordon attending Santa Monica College at the same time, now this.

>100 mabith: Hi mabith - a book to counteract the negativity of Loneliness that might interest you is Solitude: A Return to the Self by Anthony Storr.

>118 mabith: I'm kind of a redhead too. We're designed for cold northern climates with no hot sun.

The Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton RE-READ

I feel like maybe I need some more fluff reading in my life (or more children's books, they break up the rest of my fiction reading in the same way). This is the third in the Anita Blake series, I picked it up thinking it was the second. Re-read the first last year and thought I might as well go through the first nine again. They're fun, they're not horribly written (they're in first person with a very distinct, casual voice which if you hate you'll hate the books, but it's fine for me), Anita has a double career, and a whole lot of agency. I tried to read the first book in series the show True Blood is based on and found the writing to be awful and the heroine to have so little character and such little life outside her love life.

While the series as the reputation for smut now, there's really not much/any of that until book six (book ten is where there's suddenly loads of it, and by book twelve there was so much that I had to stop reading them - the crime investigation and the fights for survival are what I really liked). I'm catching myself back up reading the second book now.

Capital by John Lanchester

I really loved this novel. It follows a number of people/families on a single "suddenly worth millions" street in London, set before and during the 2008 financial crisis. It is so nuanced and carefully told and just a really great read. For me it felt incredibly authentic and realistic.

If you seen the previews for the mini-series based on this book, they make it seem like a thriller which it absolutely isn't. I'm also astounded they tried to break this beautiful book into only three episodes. Unless those episodes are 2 hours each, that's just not enough. Inner thoughts are such an important part of it that adapting it will be difficult anyway. They needed the person who adapted The Slap to do this one (that adaptation had the fewest changes I've ever seen in book-to-TV/movie). Also, having seen Toby Jones in the comedy The Detectorists I cannot make my brain imagine him as a city banker.

Highly recommend the book, it really was just an absolutely wonderful read, a great contemporary novel.

So my book club has picked Capitol for the April meeting. I'm pleased.

>121 ChocolateMuse: Well, in Loneliness they distinguish between feeling lonely and being alone. It was depressing not because I happen to live alone and am alone most of the time but because I am lonely and that really does impact health and well-being. I don't think it was any more negative than any other psychology book.

>122 AlisonY: I have the redhead skin but because of a chronic illness I can't be in the sun at all anymore. I was a sunscreen nut when I could still be out in it though, thankfully.

>125 RidgewayGirl: I hope you and they enjoy it as much as I did!

Since I'm around a TV now I will probably be binge-watching HGTV and complaining about all the people buying houses. Fingers crossed Thursday is still Rehab Addict marathon day.

>126 mabith: It's hard not to binge watch HGTV! I only stopped because my addiction was becoming a real problem.... as in I had to talk myself down from going to the local Home Depot and buying a sledge hammer... and some paint ... and new fixtures... and... and... (And I can't afford any of that right now!)

>complaining about all the people buying houses.

Ha ha ha. I hear you. I stopped watching that channel for that reason. The number of people who don't realized that if you don't like the colour of a room, well, you can do this easy thing called "paint it" just makes me scream.

>124 mabith: Glad you liked Capital too. I'll look out for the show.

>124 mabith: Adding Capital to my wish list based on your review. I am also curious about the series.

>127 avidmom: I live in an apartment where I can't paint/change anything so it's all moot for me anyway! I just want Design on a Dime to come back, or maybe some actual garden shows? No, that's madness, everything must be about buying houses. This week does always reminds me why I'll probably never pay for cable TV again though. I've been struck by how 90% of the Animal Planet programming is now about killing or capturing animals or, even weirder, building tree houses.

>128 Nickelini: It's shocking how stuck people get on minor things. Like I know they try to lead people into complaining, but a lot of those people seem to genuinely find a paint color to be a huge barrier (not to mention the apparently literal TORTURE of appliances which are not stainless steel).

>129 Nickelini: >130 cabegley: The TV version sounds off enough that unless you watch it first I don't think there's any way to enjoy it (until it's been long enough that I've forgotten 90% of the book). In my other thread James (eyejaybee) says it's really rushed, getting through about half the book in the first episode, and definitely mis-cast in some places. I'm not going to bother with it, since I know I won't be able to enjoy it or be fair to it as a TV show in its own right.

>131 mabith: (not to mention the apparently literal TORTURE of appliances which are not stainless steel).

Oh, the horror, the horror! Also, the tragedy of counter-tops that are not granite. I don't know how people can live like that.

I live in a housing market where currently rip-down houses go for over a million dollars, and where you could spread manure all over your floors and sell it in 24 hours for more than you asked. Holding out for your favourite paint colour, stainless steel, and granite will just leave you homeless.

I was watching an episode of "House Hunters" (I think that's what it was) where the lady said "I don't want stainless steel appliances and I don't like open concept. And I thought "my hero!" LOL

I always wonder what people possibly think granite or marble counter-tops are adding to their lives. Like, it's great to live in a space you 100% love, but that's a process. The landlords in my old building lived out of town, so my mom showed the empty apartments for a while. People who want to live in a 100 year old building but then don't understand people didn't have the same closet needs... Or that yes, street parking is all there is in the historic neighborhood.

I'd much rather have original art or a good mattress or go on a nice vacation than pick pricey counter-tops (plus I'm a klutz, I'd be breaking glass and ceramics on the counters constantly). Also, fingerprints on the shiny black or stainless steel - so annoying.

>133 avidmom: So nice when the trend-buckers are on! There was one with a woman who'd been living on a sailboat and she was just ecstatic over how much space a tiny one-bedroom had. She'd initially looked for a two-bedroom for her son when he was there but then said, hell with it, he can sleep on a couch, and went with the cheaper one bedroom. Loved her. A distant cousin of mine did House Hunters International, but we haven't gotten to see the episode.

The first Marillier has gone onto the wishlist! And the John Lanchester. You are dangerous!

It is disappointing to learn that a writer one wants to like is a bigot or worse - both Steinbeck and Highsmith were not "bigger than" the times they lived in.

Big Freddie fans here. They were the books that convinced my spousal unit that learning to read was worth the trouble (so he could then read them under the covers with a flashlight, of course.)

Oh even currently writing authors struggle to be decent people. Steinbeck not noticing his friend's predatory dating habits is mirrored in millions of people today (those issues are often still quite buried, and not talked about when we discuss healthy relationships). I just always want to know. No one is perfect, no matter how hard we try, but it's important to acknowledge how those issues show in the work and to avoid hero worshipping anyone, really.

So glad to meet another Freddy fan! It's interesting that their spread wasn't very wide though? My parents were both huge readers, most of their childhood was in the 1950s, one grew up near Pittsburgh one in New Jersey, but neither knew about the Freddy books until the 1980s. I've so enjoyed re-reading them/reading ones we never had and they still make me laugh loads.

Glad I'm not the only HGTV addict (though I do all my watching through streaming). And glad to hear that it's not just me as a designer that is floored by the fact that people can't get over a paint color, faucet, carpet, etc. I understand not being able to visualize a space if you're talking about removing/relocating walls or re-configuring the floor plan in general. But seriously if you don't like that carpet you can get rid of it.

Thanks for the reminder about Capital, Meredith. I own it and have been meaning to get to it for awhile, so I'll try to do that this year.

Jane, definitely not just you! It makes it so hard to take those shows. Though I've had a thing for design since I was pretty young and my parents are both artistic. It seems like such a failure of imagination.

Hope you like it when you get to Capital, Darryl! I think it will easily make my top five fiction books for 2016.

Since we only went into one bookstore I only acquired four books this vacation (and I sold at least 20 to the bookstore so I'm ahead of the game).




Midaq Alley, The Thief and the Dogs, and Miramar in one volume by Naguib Mahfouz
Honey Bunch: Her First Summer on an Island by Helen Louise Thorndyke (well, technically written by faceless goons at the Stratemeyer Syndicate who think young kids can't describe what an island is)
Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars by Margaret Higonnet
Return to the Middle Kingdom: One Family, Three Revolutionaries, and the Birth of Modern China by Yuan-tsung Chen

I feel like that is the most eclectic combination of books I could have possibly picked up.

The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton RE-READ

Since I accidentally read the third book in the series second I had to half-rectify that by reading the second quickly. Also I was on vacation, and while I don't really believe in "vacation reading" I do believe in "books that are light enough and engaging enough to read in an uncomfortable bathtub during necessary soaking." Wish I'd brought the fourth book with me rather than my bulky WWI tome I've been reading!

While I think the writing in this series is far better than a lot of 'trashy' series, I did identify one writing tic that drives me a bit nuts. Hamilton is fond have having Anita say "Damn you, insert name, damn you," in serious situations. It feels so incredibly unnatural to me with the repetition. That's how sarcastic people say it, not seriously annoyed people. I'm pretty sure this happens less and less as the books go on at least (hopefully).

That aside, the books are fun and they are engaging. The way Hamilton turns everything supernatural rather banal and everyday for Anita appeals to me. In her universe it's not just witches, vampires, fairies, and shapeshifters who are real. Trolls, giants, lamias, lots of creatures make it in too. Re-reading them is hitting home why this series kept me interested for a good while when I had no inclination to read similar things. The wide adoption of the supernatural, the criminal investigation aspect, and the fights are all part of that. For whatever reason I like a good bit of fictional violence (more in TV/movies than books admittedly), even while being quite the pacifist. Life's little mysteries...

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

One of the must-read books of US history both for the content and the good writing and organization. It is made a harder read for me now simply because of how little has truly changed. Treaties are still violated for commercial reasons, fashion campaigns use specific tribal dress as a prop, non-native actors are still cast in native roles (even the 1950s Long Ranger TV show got that one right whereas the recent movie did not).

Children are still suspended for talking in native languages in school (and I mean in between class and at lunch, not during class though that also wouldn't be reason for suspension), native kids who adopt traditional hair styles get in trouble in the same school where non-native kids wear the same styles without issue. Obviously those things don't happen at every school, but that it EVER happens is patently ridiculous and wrong.

Read the book if you haven't already, particularly if you live in the US. Pair it with Rez Life.

Freddy and Simon the Dictator by Walter R. Brooks

Another encounter with Freddy's oldest enemy, Simon the Rat, this time working in collaboration with a human farmer to create an animal uprising that would displace the human farm owners. Why a human is helping with this isn't totally clear. There are a lot of references to Russia, which isn't surprising in a 1956 book. This is also the third from last novel in the series.

It's fun, though not one of my very favorites. Also the rabbits are mad because of a rumor that the Beans eat rabbit stew. Made me think that the Beans must be vegetarians or only eat mutton (no sheep on the farm). Obviously the fact that they're apparently just keeping Freddy, a pig, for a garbage disposal comes to mind early in the reading, in part because that's the only animal with no dual purpose. Maybe they eat a lot of seafood... In general though I respect Brooks for not attempting to explain any of that, it's a fantasy children's book, children know that.

I read Bury my heart at Wounded knee some time ago, thanks for the reminder.

What Barry said. I read it decades ago.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee has been on my wish list for some time, but I've now added Rez Life.

It's definitely one of THOSE books. The edition I read had a recent introduction but I don't think there were any substantial text updates.

>146 RidgewayGirl: They're both books with specific focuses chapter by chapter (or perhaps section by section), so I think they're easy ones to read in stages.

Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull

I put this book on my library hold list when I was just reasonably curious about it. When it actually came in I wasn't eager to start, but once I began I just loved it.

Catmull is one of the founders of Pixar and the book is largely about the running of that company, the ideals they wanted to firmly plant in the workplace, their successes, and their mistakes. Catmull is proud of Pixar, but he is not egotistical or arrogant and in the book he shares with us the hard work of maintaining a creative workplace.

It was just fascinating to read, and especially hit home for me as I design and sell cross-stitch patterns. It can be hard to separate my joy in the act of design and stitching from the business side of things, and I've definitely stifled creativity sometimes due to what will actually sell.

Really interesting read, highly recommended.

Going Solo by Roald Dahl

The second of the slim memoirs Dahl published. He is quite picky of what seems 'worthy' of going into a memoir and I wonder if he had to be goaded into writing them at all. This one basically picks up where Boy left off. Dahl is working for Shell in Kenya and Tanzania. Despite being considered far too tall (6'6") he joins the RAF and learns to fly. He survives a horrific crash early in his career due to being given incorrect information.

What is most striking about the book is the utter lack of care for pilots not stationed in the UK. They're expected to take up planes of types they've never flown before and go out solo on raids without being taught even the basics of fighter plane flying. The high death rate for the RAF overseas is immediately understandable and I felt sick reading about it.

Recommended. His memoirs are so slim and such quick reads.

I also found myself having a strange disconnect about Dahl and Spike Milligan being about the same age. Milligan's work is centered so firmly in the immediate post-war period for me whereas Dahl's children's books are timeless in many ways (they feel both newer than they are but also older than they are all at once).

The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War by Peter Englund

This is a really interesting take on a WWI history. Englund has chosen 20 individuals, none of whom became well known, and takes us through their war. They come from a variety of countries, and fight or live on a variety of fronts. Englund uses diary and memoir excerpts but also tells us about their lives and the world events himself. My dad was over the moon about this book, absolutely loved it. I had a hard time settling down with it, I think because the focus switches to a different person every few pages or less. It was hard to get into a rhythm.

There's an ordinary Tommy, the American wife of a Polish aristocrat, a dedicated Scottish social worker, an English nurse serving with the Russian army, a Brazilian man who was turned down when he tried to enlist with the allies so enlisted with the Ottoman army instead, a Danish man fighting in the Germany army, a German school girl, a French civil servant, a Scot serving with the British army in Africa, etc...

The book is done really well, and Englund manages to get home points which I don't remember picking up from other WWI reads. Like the fact that when the Germans entrenched themselves they had mostly been retreating and were able to pick and choose the most defensible ground to stop at.

Very interesting book, and really well done. It is truly a personal look at the war. I can't really place whether this will appeal more or less to people who've read very little about the war. If you like social history definitely pick it up.

The Lunatic Cafe by Laurell K. Hamilton

Well once I started rereading the first bit of the series I had to continue. Part of the addictive effect of these books is the fact that they occur over quite brief periods of time. Like the first four books represent about one year in Anita's life. This is the fourth book and her personal life begins to get messy.

Apart from Anita's expressions of annoyance with people just not feeling right ("damn you, so-and-so, damn you" rather than "damn it, so-and-so" which feels much more natural), the books aren't horribly written (though she does describe clothing a lot).

Fun, silly, addictive reading. Attempting to own my enjoyment of the first nine or so in the series and banish my embarrassment. I've almost convinced myself.

The Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters

The second book in the Amelia Peabody series. Amelia and her now-husband Emerson basically hate everyone in the world except each other and they even hate each other a bit. Which makes me love them and love Peters so much. They are snarky and ridiculous and in love.

I do feel that Peters in wishing to keep the characters feeling Victorian is sometimes putting too many stereotypes on the Egyptians. She fought that more in the first book, I think, though I can't be 100% sure. We'll see how it continues. It's not over the top in this one, just some instances really rubbed me the wrong way. Still a deeply enjoyable book with lots of laughs in it for me.

The Beauty and the Sorrow looks interesting

>149 mabith: Thank you for your comments on both of these volumes. I am in a WWI frame of mind as I just completed the audio of Larsen's Dead Wake. This sounds interesting though I can understand the frustration of changing perspectives so often.

>150 mabith: I will have to pick this one up. It sounds intriguing, if sad due to the negligence the RAF showed their pilots in foreign lands.

>148 mabith: I think it's Pixar that lost one of their 90% completed films. The files were totally erased from their system. The back-up(s) failed. By sheer luck, one of their staff members took home a copy of the film that was like 75% complete; and they were able to recover from near disaster. I listened to this story on NPR, so I can't remember if it's Pixar. Was that mentioned in the book?

I understand the Roald Dahl didn't suffer fools gladly.

Not that many of us do! Just that we are quieter about it!

>150 mabith: This sounds really interesting to me, thanks for highlighting it.

>154 brodiew2: With The Beauty and the Sorrow I think it's partly that I'm in a high pain periods (I have two chronic illnesses), and that makes reading in print harder unless I'm really wrapped up in the story. If I'd read in a lower pain time I think that would have made all the difference. I've also just read a lot about WWI for the last few years, so maybe I needed a break. I've enjoyed all of Roald Dahl's adult writing so much, I should really pick up more.

>155 lesmel: Yup, that story was in there! Such an incredibly close call for them (and the danger of computer animation). It was also a good reminder of how long these movies take to make, and incredibly that Pixar doesn't seem to have ever had a flop (though as an adult viewer I had absolutely zero interest in the Cars franchise).

>156 sibylline: I don't feel like in either of his memoirs he comes across as particularly quick to anger or vehement though. With the RAF issues it's all quite blatant, nothing that needed huge calling out to get your attention as a bad decision.

>157 ursula: Though it wasn't the right read for me at this exact time, I certainly feel I can recommend it.

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

I've been meaning to read Allende since I started working at a bookstore in 2003, and finally my new book club made me do it.

The book follows a family through marriages, deaths, affairs, births, and the varying political climate in Chile. It's dense but flowing, and I enjoyed it. It reminded me a little of Beloved (which I loved). While it's a great first novel I think the inexperience does show a bit. I also felt very sure while reading that if published today it would have been split in half, a first novel and a sequel.

Definitely want to read more Allende after this.

I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett RE-READ

This is the fourth book in the Tiffany Aching series. I re-read it now as a refresher before starting the fifth book in the series, and the last Discworld book, The Shepherd's Crown.

I've only read this once before, I think because I find Tiffany and her struggles so affecting. Something in these books feels MUCH more personal to Mr. Pratchett than in the regular Discworld offerings. Partly because of Tiffany's fascination with words, especially susurration (which I'm pretty sure appears in every single Discworld book).

In this volume people are suddenly very against witches, and Tiffany confronts a foe who can track her without solid form and turn people against her. She also confronts her own relative lack of experience dealing with people as she tries to help them.

It's a lovely book, and I thought a perfect ending to Tiffany's story. Now I've started The Shepherd's Crown, which is starting on quite a dramatic note. Authors never trust me about where to end their series.

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond

This is a very important book. Desmond followed and lived with people longterm, in their neighborhoods, recording conversations often via digital recorder so the dialogue within in frequently verbatim. He spent immense time gaining the trust of people who have mostly been trained to trust no one.

I would recommend reading the "about this project" bit at the end before you start. Otherwise it might seem like Desmond is dramatizing, or putting words in people's mouths. It's a very well done book, heartbreaking in so many ways.

Since the big recession and the relatively swift decimation of the middle class, I think books like this are particularly necessary. Growing up in this kind of grinding poverty and then attempting to live in it as an adult, often with children of your own, has been shown to cause PTSD. It is an extremely different situation than someone who was raised middle class being relatively poor (in part because they likely have more resources to draw on). I have lived in abject poverty before, when my rent was eating up 70% of my income, with bills and non-food necessities taking the rest (and that was in an apartment where the electricity was paid for by the landlord). It is incredibly hard on a person, and I entered with the privilege of a thrifty middle class upbringing and the very good finance example of my mother (and I'm a strict budgeter by nature).

Desmond does a great job with this one.

Bloody Bones by Laurell K. Hamilton RE-READ

Fifth in the Anita Blake series. First one to feature Anita smooching Jean-Claude. She finds out more about him in this book, and they encounter some vampires from his past.

This one is quite a bit longer than the previous books, and focuses a bit less on the police parts (mainly because Anita's out of town and the local cops take a dislike to her so she's working outside the law). It's a darker book in some ways.

While I enjoy these, and at the time it was fun having a big series, I'm kind of glad my addictive reading now is stuff like Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom children's fantasy series. I've never been much for binge reading series books. These I've been making my night time bedroom book, and admittedly I have had some late nights because of it. It's been a long time since I've read them.

I have a copy of Evicted sitting next to me on the table right now. I heard it discussed on the NYT Book Review podcast. I'm hoping to get to it this week.

Some great books you've been reading recently - have popped a few on my wish list. Particularly interested in the Pixar book; I'm co-founder in a tech company, and we were talking a couple of weeks ago about some of the elements of how Pixar run their business. Must move that one up the list.

Catching up a bit. Lots if books showing up here. The Pixar one caught my attention too.

>163 RidgewayGirl: It's a slightly addictive read, or was for me, since I wanted to know what happened to all the people.

>164 AlisonY: Given your job I think you'll find a lot of value in the Pixar book.

>165 dchaikin: It was such a good read, and such a surprising one for me. I'm glad I tend to read a book if it's a library loan even when I can't imagine why I reserved it in the first place.

>161 mabith: sounds really interesting. Have you read Gang Leader For A Day? You might enjoy that too.

>160 mabith: I have started listening to Pratchett and am loving it so much! I'm trying to go in order, more or less. Had to search for a copy of Mort as for some reason that one is not on audio. It all started when we took out an audio of a singleton book (a shipwreck, I forget the title) to listen to as a family on a long car ride (the only book we could agree on). I realized that I would love Pratchett! I have listened to one or two of the ones set in Ank-Morpork (how did he come up with those names!!!) about the postal service fiasco. Then I decided to get serious and start from the beginning!

>167 wandering_star: I haven't! I'll have to look for that one.

>168 sibylline: There definitely was an audio edition produced, as that's how I've read it! They're such wonderful books, and most have such good audio editions (the first two witches books being read by Celia Imrie don't work for me). Pratchett is certainly a master of names. My favorite person name of his is Bewilderforce Gumption.

Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women by Nura Maznavi and Ayesha Mattu (editors)

This was a really wonderful collection. I wasn't sure what to expect from it, but it turned out to be a great read. The essays all come from women who identify as both Muslim and (US)American, but they are incredibly diverse, coming from many different backgrounds, coming to Islam at different periods, some straight, some gay, some bisexual, conservative or liberal, etc...

In the end it reminds us that love is love, and people are all basically act the same, no matter what their religious or cultural influences. In the US I think many white folks, especially those for whom immigration lies many generations back, like to believe that they don't put strictures on their children in terms of choosing a spouse. They outwardly rebel against people specifically looking for a certain cultural or religious criteria in a mate, while managing to hold the same expectations for their children. The number of white people on OkCupid who say they wouldn't marry outside of their race is astounding and frankly horrifying (more so since they are the dominant culture), and I've seen many who refuse bisexuals (which is quite rich when they message me, a bisexual myself, I have no interest in marriage, but if you wouldn't marry me based on that then kindly leave me be).

The essays were great, in any case, and I highly recommend this book. It would be a good one to pick up over a longer period, since each essay isn't too long. The book is also a bit dear to my heart since one of my aunts is an Egyptian Muslima (and, due to various readings, if I ever started believing in one god I'd head to Islam).

The Killing Dance by Laurell K. Hamilton RE-READ

Sixth book in the series. Why can't I stop re-reading these?! Still haven't manage to jettison my embarrassment over these. It might be lessened if I read more similar books, but I just don't, and don't have any desire to. In this one Anita spends a lot of time being told what's going on with the werewolf power struggle involving her beau Richard's reluctance to kill the current pack leader. Edward her assassin friend is in it, as someone has taken out a contract on Anita. She is very hard-hearted and numb to the death she leaves in her wake in this one.

The Bridge of Beyond by Simone Schwarz-Bart

Read this for the Reading Globally Caribbean theme. A good, solid, enjoyable read, though not quite five stars amazing.

It follows a line of women, spending most of the book with Telumee, who mostly grows up with her grandmother. She goes from luck to trouble several times.

SassyLassy wrote a great review here.

I did copy out several quotes:

"For the first time in my life I realized that slavery was not some foreign country, some distant region from which a few very old people came, like the two or three who still survived in Fond-Zombie. It had all happened here, in our hills and valleys, perhaps near this clump of bamboo, perhaps in the air I was breathing."

"I wouldn't say a word or utter a sigh in case I gave voice to some evil influence that might prevent the dream from ever coming true. Elie's words made me proud, but I would have rather he'd kept them to himself, carefully sheltered from bad luck."

"Everyday you must get up and say to your heart, 'I've suffered enough, and now I have to live, for the light of the sun must not be frittered away and lost without any eye to enjoy it.'"

"...people gathered in silence outside, gazing at the scene unfolding before their eyes and trying to puzzle out a story, a story with a meaning with a beginning and an end, as you have to do here below if you want to know where you are amidst the chaos of men's desires."

Only for a Fortnight: My Life in a Locked Ward by Sue Read

Sue Read spent a good chunk of her childhood in an adult mental institution, during the 1960s and 1970s. The book was published in 1989. She writes in a very raw way, and seems off-putting, but given what she'd been through it's not surprising. A good part of the book deals with her life for the few years after she'd left the institution.

What is striking is that diabetes, and inability to control it, are a relatively big part of the reason she was institutionalized. She was also struggling badly with the sudden death of her father, as was her mother who found it hard to cope. She was supposed to be in the institution "only for a fortnight." She was 12 when put into an adult ward, and suffered sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. There never seemed to be much effort to help in terms of medication or talk therapy.

Some medical notes are in an appendix at the end, and they shine rather favorably on the doctors involved, but those doctors were not the people who dealt with the patients every day on the wards. They are not medical notes in terms of health details we usually think of but mostly doctors writing back and forth about how it's not okay to have a child in an adult ward.

Bolivar: American Liberator by Marie Arana

This is a very detailed, thorough biography of Bolivar, which attempts to redress some of the misconceptions about him (both positive and negative mythologies).

It was a really interesting read, but maybe a bit too sprawling for me. My brain would probably do better with the history broken up into a few volumes with more specific focuses.

One of the things that stood out for me was a similarity between Bolivar and Julius Caesar, which isn't a comparison I thought I'd be making.

I'm definitely still digesting this one, and feeling like I'm not grasping all the pieces of the history. Hopefully it's the start of more reading about South America.

>172 mabith: I loved The Bridge of Beyond too.

>172 mabith: Thanks. It was rebecca's review that got me reading it.

>175 rebeccanyc: >176 SassyLassy: Ha, I'm pretty sure it was Rebecca's review that initially made me purchase it too (or put it on my wishlist, and then the Caribbean theme that made me purchase it) and then yours, Sassy, that made me open it up. The language was just gorgeous.

Alchemy and Meggy Swann by Karen Cushman

I've been reading Cushman's books since I was nine or ten and received Catherine, Called Birdy as my Scholastic book of the month. She's not a hugely prolific author, so I just check every few years for new books. However much I love Cushman's books I might have hesitated if I'd read the description of this one and realized it was about a physically disabled girl, as disability is often handled very poorly, particularly in historical settings. (I'm disabled myself.)

Cushman soon erased all of my doubts. She was so smart in how she went about writing this. First, she chose a real condition and researched it - hip dysplasia, which can be corrected without too much trouble, but if left means the legs don't develop in the usual way and the person is left crippled and in pain. This often results from a certain type of breech birth, and of course couldn't be corrected in the early Elizabethan period when this book is set. Cushman's choice to allow Meggy to be angry, at other people, not at herself or necessarily because of her disability, was equally wondrous. In fiction, there are two prominent disabled tropes - the Pollyanna and the bitter cripple. We are rarely allowed to be outspoken and angry and grouchy and be a protagonist. Meggy's disability impacts how she goes about things but it has little to nothing to do with the main plot of the book. Third, Cushman lets Meggy sometimes use typical historical perceptions of disability as a result of curses or demonic possession to her own advantage when trying to get people to leave her alone (I say historical, but the Catholic church still wasn't accepting men with epilepsy into the priesthood in the 1960s due to the old 'demonic possession' explanation).

After Meggy's grandmother dies, her mother sends her to London to live with her father, who she doesn't know. He's an alchemist and takes little notice of her, never even using her name. As she learns the streets and makes herself useful running errands, she befriends a variety of people. Soon she overhears men buying poison from her father with the intent of killing an Earl. She's shocked and tries to talk her father out of it, but soon must find a way to foil the plot herself.

I really loved this book, and I'm so relieved and pleased that Cushman took this representation seriously. My love for her remains undiminished.

The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett

First off, please read all the Tiffany books before you read this one. Her development as a character is important, and these books do have a slightly different style to most of the other Discworld books (fewer pithy one-liners in the narration, a more traditional narrative style). I think because the Tiffany books have always been a bit different this one was easier to keep up to standard than some of the last adult novels (Raising Steam felt so odd to me, but I loved Snuff, so I'm not sure what was going on there).

The book opens with a pretty powerful punch to the reader, Granny Weatherwax's death (literally in the first 15 or so pages, not a spoiler, and Pratchett actually made it obvious that's where it was going in the dedication). She has chosen Tiffany to succeed her, a heavy burden which Tiffany tries to uphold. Add to that the elves are trying to break through again.

I think towards the end the pacing went off the rails a bit, but I have a feeling Pratchett knew this would be his last book. Otherwise I think it reads as solidly as the other Tiffany books, though I was dubious at using the elves again.

Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock RE-READ

I'm the baby of a big family, and my closest-in-age sibling is still four and a half years older than me. I worshiped her, and liked everything she liked, but the age gap meant she didn't particularly want to share her favorites with me and would actively try to prevent me reading her books.

She did, however, share Griffin and Sabine with me, when I was 13 or 14, and I fell in love with the books, the art, and the world Nick Bantock created. They will always have a special place in my heart.

Reading them as a proper adult, perhaps a rather cynical one, I found the nearly instant love between Griffin and Sabine a bit much. Going from strangers to explaining Sabine's strange gift of seeing what Griffin draws, to “you've made life worthwhile” in a few letters and postcards was too rapid for me. The art remains absolutely enjoyable though, and there's an extreme tactile glee I still feel pulling the letters from their envelopes.

Bantock remains a wonderful artist, with a true gift for creating unique books and combining his art and writing. I would most recommend the Griffin and Sabine books to the 12-24 age range, or older if the recipient is a sensitive romantic.

If I recall correctly, his The Museum at Purgatory, was more enjoyable as a slightly older kid (read when I was 21, so my memories are not that reliable).

Sigh. I loved Griffin and Sabine. I've moved my copies into my 16 yr old's room, but her TBR is almost as big as mine so she hasn't made her way to them yet. She bought the new Bill Nye book today and is excited about it -- she may be more of a science nerd than a romantic, I think.

Being a science nerd may be the better road in high school! I was an extremely closeted Romantic who was actually sort of paralyzed around real-life romance.

Beverly Cleary, author of the Ramona Quimby books, on turning 100: “I didn’t do it on purpose.” (http://www.vox.com/2016/3/25/11305480/beverly-cleary-ramona-100)

Cleary's still got it.

Great quote

>183 mabith: I know who I want to be like when I grow up now. LOL! :)

>183 mabith: I loved those books!

I think it's impossible to dislike Beverly Cleary. Her work really helped effect a sea change in children's books, writing about normal, every day families. Beezus and Ramona was published in 1955 but it has such a timelessness. The Canada tv adaptation of the books was also really spectacular, and also timeless, I think.

You've done some great reading, Meredith.

Beverly Cleary's books are still holding up. 100, and it sounds like she is still pretty sharp.

I loved Beverly Cleary too, read all of the Ramona books as a child. I've also read The Mouse and the Motorcyle, Runaway Ralph, and Socks to my son and he has loved them all.

A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous (possibly Marta Hillers)

An incredibly important account of life in Berlin just before and after the surrender. It is obviously the work of a practiced journalist, and she tries to keep a very even tone even throughout fraught events (basically the whole book!). Food is scarce, rapes are incredibly common and frequent, electricity and water are mostly cut, and many have been bombed or burned out of their homes.

The book was published in Germany in 1953 were it was either “ignored or reviled.” The author did not want it republished in her lifetime so the recent edition only came out in 2003. It is widely believed that the author was Marta Hillers, but only one person actually knows, so it's ridiculous that so many spaces on the internet credit it to Hillers without reservation.

Again, a work of great importance, documenting a period and events that are frequently glossed over or not studied at all.

Silas Marner by George Eliot

This is the book that put my dad off reading anything else by Eliot after it was assigned in high school, and a good reminder that choosing a particular book by a classic author because it's short. It's a shame, as I think he'd enjoy Eliot's work I'm glad high school only ruined me on the work of Wade Davis.

Silas Marner is Eliot's third novel, published in 1861. I didn't enjoy it as much as I did The Mill on the Floss and it didn't always hold my interest in the first quarter, but I do like Eliot's writing. Marner's story just seems more traditional and certainly more predictable (as are most Victorian novels, frankly, and that's not necessarily a shortcoming but Mill stood out to me for being less so).

Definitely going to keep on with Eliot.

Burnt Offerings by Laurell K. Hamilton RE-READ

Seventh book in the series, trouble begins when the vampire council come basically to get rid of Jean-Claude and/or Anita. Much posturing, many clashes between Anita and Richard as she's still technically Lupa of the werewolves but he's forbidden them to talk to her and then there are wereleopards and an arsonist and coordinated attacks against all vampire owned businesses and Dolph (head of the preternatural crime division that Anita works with) doesn't like her anymore because she's dating a vampire etc etc etc...

Things start to get a bit too packed and silly and the crime aspect takes up less of the book (and without it I think the books are far inferior). This book and the next one are ones I've rarely re-read, but I'm looking forward to the ninth book, Obsidian Butterfly as it was a favorite. Anita leaves town to help Edward so it's basically all crime-based and that's the point where I will stop the re-reads.

Bellwether by Connie Willis

I've really enjoyed Connie Willis' time travel books, and had been planning to re-read one when I noticed my library had an audio edition of this title. So glad I picked it up, as it was immensely fun and funny. The narrator is a scientist who studies trends working for a relatively terrible company with a bad case of bureaucratic over-reach. She's attempting to figure out why suddenly millions of women bobbed their hair, and as the book goes along mentions various strange (and largely short) trends throughout history.

Published in 1996 you'd think the biting commentary on the current trends would be dated, but it's absolutely not. If you didn't tell people the actual publication date I think they'd believe 100% that it could have been written this year. Well, maybe you'd have to say it took place in a slightly alternate universe where cellphones aren't so advanced (or just give excerpts), but her commentary on restaurant trends, body modification trends, language, coffee, etc... is all totally on point.

I can't express how much I enjoyed this and I highly recommend it.

>191 mabith: What I liked most about this book was the slight twist on the predictable ending the adopted child staying with the adopted parent rather than removing herself to the rich life-style.

A Woman in Berlin is added to my wishlist.

Hmm, I will have to track down Bellwether!

Sabriel by Garth Nix RE-READ

I absolutely loved this book when I read it in 2008 and time hasn't changed my feelings about it. Every time I review a book by Nix I say that he's the heir to L. Frank Baum when it comes to world building. Frankly, I don't understand a world where The Golden Compass (UK title Northern Lights) is more known and read than Sabriel, which I feel is a much more original and interesting book.

Sabriel is the first of a trilogy, since expanded into four with the publication of Clariel, which I thought lacked some of the thrill and even pacing of the original three. They are in the YA market, but suitable down to age ten or so, depending on the child, and just as enjoyable as an adult reader.

Two countries are divided by a wall, and on one side, in the Old Kingdom, free magic and charter magic are strong. To the south, in Ancesltierre, magic is only found at the border and is denied by much of the country. One necromancer under the title of Abhorsen keeps the undead and other forces in check. Sabriel's father has been the Abhorsen but when he falls and sends his tools, a set of bells and sword, to Sabriel, she must cross the border and stop Kerrigor, a powerful free magic necromancer.

I suppose that might sound typical, but it's a quality book, and really good YA/children's fantasy can be tough to find. This was initially published in 1995 and would have stood out HUGELY from the crowd then, as it did in the early 2000s when it became more well known in the US. I'm excited to re-read the other books in the series now.

Know the Mother by Desiree Cooper (Made in Michigan Writers Series)

I've been attempting to pay more attention to small press publications and thankfully BookRiot has a monthly series about small press books to watch for. This one was on their March list and caught my eye. Their description:

Michiganders will be especially interested in this collection from a Detroit community activist. Women will be especially interested because this book explores what looks to be some pretty gut-punching moments in the life of women (and women of color, specifically). Mothers are humanized in this collection; the archetype of Mother is explored against the complex needs of the individual.

These are all quite short vignettes, some only a page long, but they are extremely well done and powerful. Cooper comes at some angles sideways, and you need to be on your toes to catch all of the nuance or even the main point in some. Covering these in a writing class I think you could take two weeks discussing some of the vignettes. I'm really impressed with Cooper's skill in crafting these, and I know I'll want to re-read them.

Because of the shortness I feel less certain of giving a general recommendation. I'm not a huge fan of short stories, but these shorter pieces (they can't be called short stories, mostly) appealed to me more. Sadly, it's probably not a book that will be widely available in libraries, but if you see it, give it a go. The pieces being so short the book sucks you in, and much as I wanted to savor them I read it in two sittings.