RidgewayGirl Reads Books in 2019 - Part One

I'm late to set up my thread and while I'd really rather just look around at what the rest of you have come up with, here I am, figuring out what categories to focus on in 2019 instead. I've been lucky enough in my half century to have lived in five different countries and visited several more, but books allow us all to travel around places both real and imaginary (and usually some combination of the two) without moving further than the bookshelf.

So here are my categories, largely unchanged from last year.

Let's hit the road!






Currently Reading



Recently Read



Recently Acquired (fine additions to the tbr)



Books purchased: 8 - the defenses are crumbling. The spirit is weak.

Owned books read: 6 - Yay!

Library books read: 12 -- the goal of reading at least 50% of my own books is not off to a great start.

Category One.

Around the World




Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

1. Lying In Wait by Liz Nugent (Ireland)

Category Two.

Diverse Voices



1. Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala
2. Our Man in the Dark by Rashad Harrison

Category Three.

Expats, Immigrants and Works in Translation



1. A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen
2. Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell

Category Four.

Published in 2019

Category Five.

The Rooster



1. Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
2. Milkman by Anna Burns
3. Call Me Zebra by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi
4. My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Category Six.

Debut Novels



1. Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St. Vincent

Category Seven.

CATs and My Book Club



1. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (RandomCAT and book club)

Category Eight.

Books by Women



1. Snap by Belinda Bauer
2. Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
3. Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession by Alice Bolin

Category Nine.

Books I Own



1. Desert Fabuloso by Lisa Lovenheim

Category Ten.

Crimes True or fiction, it's all deadly.



1. The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman
2. The Lonely Witness by William Boyle
3. The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

Bonus Category Eleven.

The Overflow

And my thread is open for business. Come see what it looks like when someone doesn't manage to come up with a cohesive theme beforehand. Come in and say hello.

Gorgeous pictures, I love the monochrome look! No doubt I'll get a ton of BBs from you again in 2019, if the last 2 years are anything to go by!

Hi, Jackie! I'm looking forward to following your reading next year, too. Now that I've put together something, I can go and see what everyone else is planning for 2019.

Oh, and here's my BingoDog card.



2. Our Man in the Dark by Rashad Harrison
3. Snap by Belinda Bauer
4. Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St. Vincent
7. Call Me Zebra by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi
14. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
16. Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession by Alice Bolin
21. A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen
22. Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell
25. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Love the monochromes! Good luck with your reading in 2019!

Very nice noir like images Kay! Got you starred for the new year.

Yes, those photos look exactly like film noir scenes! :) Glad to see you here in the 2019 challenge. Have a great reading year!

Hi, everyone! I'm glad you don't find the pictures I chose to be too depressing or cold. I do love a noir, either in film or book form.

As always, I look forward to seeing what you're reading in 2019!

Yay, your thread is now up and I love the images you have chosen for your categories! Looking forward to seeing the books you read in 2019.

Great "road" pictures.

Just stopping in to say hello.

Really love the pictures! As always I’ll be following along.

Love the pics! Happy New Year!

Glad you've finally made it here, Kay. And looking forward to your reading and the BBs I'll be taking.

Great categories!

Love your categories and their pictures! And a happy new year of reading to you!

Oh, hi everyone and welcome to my new thread! May this year be full of great books for all of us.

This is making the rounds and I could not resist seeing what I could do with the books I read in 2018.

Describe yourself: The Idiot
How do you feel? What Luck, This Life
Describe where you currently live: Refuge
If you could go anywhere, where would you go? Tampa, Florida
Favorite form of transportation: The Red Car
Your best friend is: Melmoth
You and your friends are: The Luminaries
What's the weather like? So Much Blue
Your favourite time of day is: Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
What is life for you? A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
You fear: Sunburn
Best advice: Give Me Your Hand
Thought for the day: Let's No One Get Hurt
How you would like to die: Some Trick
Your soul’s present condition: Grace

Hmm, I stopped by to see if you succumbed to the Pop Sugar Challenge yet. C'mon you know you want to.

Attention all: I'm doing the Pop Sugar Challenge, having given in to the immense peer pressure to do so, evidence for which can be found in >32 lsh63:.

Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2019

1 - A book becoming a movie in 2019
2 - A book that makes you nostalgic
3 - A book written by a musician (fiction or nonfiction)
4 - A book you think should be turned into a movie -- My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
5 - A book with at least one million ratings on Goodreads
6 - A book with a plant in the title or on the cover -- Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
7 - A reread of a favorite book
8 - A book about a hobby
9 - A book you meant to read in 2018
10 - A book with "pop", "sugar" or "challenge" in the title
11 - A book with an item of clothing or accessory on the cover
12 - a book inspired by mythology, legend or folklore
13 - A book published posthumously
14 - a book you see someone reading on TV or in a movie
15 - A retelling of a classic
16 - A book with a question in the title
17 - A book set on a college or university campus
18 - a book about someone with a super power
19 - a book told from multiple POVs
20 - a book set in space
21 - a book by two female authors -- Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell
22 - A book with a title that contains "salty", "sweet", "bitter" or "spicy"
23 - A book set in Scandinavia
24 - a book that takes place in a single day
25 - a debut novel -- Our Man in the Dark by Rashad Harrison
26 - a book that's published in 2019
27 - a book featuring an extinct or imaginary creature
28 - a book recommended by a celebrity you admire
29 - a book with "love" in the title
30 - a book featuring an amateur detective
31 - A book about a family -- A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen
32 - A book written by an author from Asia, Africa or South America
33 - A book with a zodiac sign or astrology term in the title
34 - a book that includes a wedding -- Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St. Vincent
35 - A book by an author whose first and last names start with the same letter -- Snap by Belinda Bauer
36 - A ghost story
37 - a book with a two-word title -- Desert Fabuloso by Lisa Lovenheim
38 - A novel based on a true story
39 - A book revolving around a puzzle or game
40 - Your favorite prompt from a past Popsugar Reading Challenge

>33 RidgewayGirl: - I admit to being tempted by it when I saw it on Judy's thread this last year. Maybe next year.

I figure it's like the BingoDOG in that I'll get the first third done right away, filled the second third in as the year progresses and leave the final third blank.

Good to see you here at last! Love your images, they are all so mysterious and noir. As usual, I look forward to following your reading.

ETA: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you, too, Vivienne.

Ah my work is done, seriously I think it will be fun though☺

Your favorite time of day sounds lovely! Well, except for the fact that I'm never up at midnight...

Lisa, it does look fun! I've been mentally fitting books in my tbr to the appropriate spots all day.

Stacy, the fantasy is 9:30. The reality is that by 10:30, I am asleep.

>33 RidgewayGirl: I'm doing Pop Sugar too! I have even filled in every category - now just to actually read them all! Look forward to seeing what you choose.

Like everyone else has mentioned, I really like the photos you've chosed for your categories.

I just finished setting up my thread and had mentioned wanting to figure out how to do one of those maps to track my reading around the world. Yours is the first thread I've visited, and you happen to have a map. I'll have to check out that site and figure it out. I'm also intrigued by the Pop Sugar Challenge. I'm not familiar with it, but I really like those categories, so will have to check it out.

Ooh, I love how you used two books for the "where would you go" answer! Well done :)

Good luck with the PopSugar challenge!

>31 RidgewayGirl: My boys really like your best friend answer. Your first answer is not a true statement.

Jayne, I can't fill in titles until I actually read the book. If I plan ahead and write it down, the planned books instantly become untouchable. My first year in the category challenge, I made lists of books for each category and by the end of the year, I'd only read two of the planned 100 books, and I suspect those were read because I forgot they were on my reading list. But I will add them as I read them.

Hi, Staci. I've had to change where I grab the maps from a few times, but this site seems stable and it's so much fun to try and fill in the map (and why I'll always make sure to read books by a Russian and Canadians each year). Last year, the entire continent of Africa stayed blank so I'll have to make sure to find several books this year.

Thank you for noticing, rp! I've been noticing all the people on Litsy who have gorgeously laid out reading journal pages set up for this year and I am so, so tempted. It would give me an excuse to buy a nice set of felt-tip pens, too. On the other hand, do I really need another activity to eat into my reading time?

Lori, ha! Thanks! And I put Melmoth's name down and then started to worry my other cats would feel slighted. And then I realized what an idiotic thing that was to think, so.

I just heard my son get up, so clearly he's preparing himself for school to start again on Monday.

Lovely pictures, Kay, as always. Have a wonderful reading year!

Thanks, Birgit. I look forward to adding to my German language wishlist over on your thread.

>45 RidgewayGirl: Hmm, tend to agree as I already have a ton more books that I have added to my TBR just from recommendations here. And now, where will I fit them?!
And I totally think the same way about my cat!

During the period when Vladimir Nabokov was writing his best-known work, Lolita, a high profile criminal case was in the newspapers. Eleven-year-old Sally Horner was abducted and kept captive for twenty-one months by a man who told her he was an FBI agent. Her escape and return home were cause for much media attention at the time and, in The Real Lolita, author Sarah Weinman examines what happened to Sally Horner as well as what the Nabokovs were doing during that time, and what Nabokov knew about the case. She looks at the details of Horner's ordeal that made it into the novel, as well as the Nabokovs's denials that there was a connection. Weinman finishes up with the history of the novel's publication and of the subsequent movies and adaptations.

This was an interesting book. Weinman was working with few hard facts and managed to make the most of it. I read the original long article she wrote on the subject and suspect that the material was more suited to an article than a book. Still, I enjoyed learning about Nabokov's life and work during his years in the United States and the photo of the author in shorts, marching along with a butterfly net was delightful. Weinman has put together a few anthologies of mid-century noir fiction and that is where her real strength lies, but this book was a diverting holiday read and there's no doubt that Weinman has an eye for interesting historical events.

>49 RidgewayGirl: I am about to read Lolita as it is in 1001 Books, but I must admit I have never wanted to read it. I just feels creepy to me - like the movie American Beauty made me feel.
I may read this first as I would be interested to read about the author first. Thanks for the book bullet!

>50 JayneCM: Jayne, Lolita is one of the best novels I have read. The language is so superlatively good and the story is compelling. While told from the tight POV of Humbert Humbert, a molester intent on excusing his behavior, there are hints and indications throughout that what he is doing to Delores Haze is horrific. The subject matter requires more than a few deep breaths, but it isn't purient, or graphic.

>51 RidgewayGirl: Phew! That is good to hear. Not sure why I have always avoided this one. I guess there are so many books to choose from that this one never made my list. I just picked it up from the library yesterday so I am committed to read it now!

>52 JayneCM: I spent years purposefully not reading it because of its reputation and then my best friend told me to read it for the language alone. Humbert Humbert is such an unreliable narrator, so the indications that what he was doing was horrific are subtle and easy to miss if you're not looking for them. Vera Nabokov complained after the book's publication that people were reading with the idea that it was a dirty book and so they missed the nuances of what Nabokov was doing.

>53 RidgewayGirl: That is true - having that reputation certainly would have taken away from the book's literary merit. I will read it with an open mind! It would be good if I could somehow suspend or forget all my preconceived ideas. It is good that there are quite a lot of books in the 1001 Books that I have never heard of, so can come to them completely fresh.

Ok I've settled in and I'm ready for the book bullets to come at me. Oof - I've already taken one! I am also working my way toward reading Lolita and I think The Real Lolita sounds interesting.

>55 DeltaQueen50: Funny, isn't it? I am wondering if Lolita will really be as bad as I have been expecting all these years I have avoided it!

Look at you being all dramatic with your "half century".
The Pop Sugar Challenge looks interesting. I'm half tempted.
See you tomorrow!

Jayne and Judy, I hope that both of you enjoy the Nabokov when you get to it.

Hi, Victoria, you know you want to do the Pop Sugar challenge! Lisa's doing it, we can all do it together.

>49 RidgewayGirl: a BB for me!

On a hot summer's day, two children and a baby wait in a car on the side of a highway. Their pregnant mother has left them there while she walks to an emergency phone box to call for roadside assistance. After far too much time has passed, they walk out to meet her and find only the phone, with the receiver dangling. Their mother has disappeared.

Belinda Bauer writes solid crime novels that are well-plotted and hard to put down. There's more depth to the characterizations than is usual. She's an author I'm always happy to read. Snap takes the familiar plot of a missing woman and moves it to the impact on the family left behind. The police investigating are less well developed but the tension between an arrogant big city detective in disgrace and his by-the-rules partner is not dull. And Bauer writes so convincingly about the conflicted nature of a teenage boy who is both full of rage and desperate to keep the shreds of his family together.

---

This is the crime novel that was long listed for the Man Booker Prize and which created a bit of controversy as a result. This really isn't a case where the author wrote both a crime novel and literary fiction. Bauer has here written a straight genre novel. It's a good one, but it isn't trying to do something new or doing anything that would make it suitable for the Booker. And it's unfortunate that the Booker committee attached themselves to this book - it makes it less attractive to someone looking for a solid crime novel and it does a disservice to the genre by putting it in the crosshairs of readers expecting not just literary fiction, but for it to be an outstanding exemplar thereof. There is an ample amount of novels written each year that are both crime novels and literary novels and one of those could have be easily chosen instead. Snap was a perfectly good crime novel, but a terrible literary one.

>60 RidgewayGirl: Luckily I have this on my shelf. I am looking forward to reading more from this author this year.

>61 DeltaQueen50: Judy, Belinda Bauer is one of my favorite crime novelists. I always enjoy her books.

. . . I felt the terrible freedom of this place. It was a fortress set down in a hostile environment. On one side the Mongols; on the other the Germans, Balts, and Vikings. So the Russians built this fortress here on a bend in the Yauza River, and hoped for the best. They built it big because they were scared. It was a gigantic country, and even now, in the twenty-first century, barely governed. You could do anything, really. And amid this freedom, this anarchy, people met and fell in love and tried to comfort one another.

In A Terrible Country, under-employed adjunct professor, Andrei Kaplan, moves to Moscow to care for his grandmother. He grew up as her adored grandson, but soon after he arrives, she says this:

"Andryusha," she said. "You're such a dear person to me. To our whole family. But I can't remember right now. How did we come to know you?"

And so begins Andrei's life in Moscow. He's teaching several on-line courses, so he spends hours in the only affordable coffee shop he can find. He cares for his little grandmother, someone he cares deeply about, but is nonetheless often frustrated by. He has trouble making any connections, and even finding a place to play hockey is an insurmountable task. But eventually he settles into Moscow, into the place his grandmother consistently reminds him is a terrible country.

I was utterly charmed by this novel, even charmed by the Moscow Keith Gessen presents, a violent place where might makes right and ordinary people are trampled, if not by the authorities, then by the gangsters who control much of what goes on. Because underneath that cold and disregard are ordinary Muscovites, quietly making lives for themselves, playing hockey, building a dacha, falling in love and working to change their country. This is an outlier for me, as usually a WMFuN* is not something I have tolerance for, but Andrei is such a warm, caring, struggling guy that I liked him and the setting, from Moscow, to the academics scrambling to find employment, to the Muscovites joining together to change Russia was just so fascinating and vividly described.

*White Male Fuck-up Novel

>63 RidgewayGirl: And that's a BB for me! It sounds fascinating and complex without being super dark.

>63 RidgewayGirl: It does sound like an interesting premise. I added it to the wish list at the library that owns the ebook!

Christina and Lori, it's just great. His grandmother is a fantastic character and he speaks about her with such love.

>63 RidgewayGirl: That's a BB for me too! All my reads about Russia tend to be Tsarist or revolutionary times, so something more modern would be great.

I found you! Happy new year!
And I second your recommendation for Lolita. I too avoided it for years because of the creepy subject, but Nabokov is a brilliant writer who made a fascinating story.

>63 RidgewayGirl: I took a BB for this one. The description of the character, "under-employed adjunct professor" in Moscow, appeals to me, for some reason. I've worked with a number of Russian academics over the years. They're all brilliant mathematicians and scarily good chess players.

>63 RidgewayGirl: It stayed on my wishlist momentarily, but now it's on my Kindle. The book purchasing moratorium will have to start a day later.

>70 pamelad: LOL pamelad......my book diet and food diet always start tomorrow!

>63 RidgewayGirl: I've added it to my wishlist too! The BBing is starting early!

>67 JayneCM: Jayne, this is the first novel about life in modern Russia that I've read and it was fantastic. Last year, I read Riot Days, a memoir by Maria Alyokhina, a member of the punk band, Pussy Riot, that was very interesting.

>68 mstrust: Jennifer, that was exactly my experience, too. Nabokov really does write brilliantly.

>69 mathgirl40: Paulina, it would be really fun to compare Andrei's experiences with those of the academics you've worked with. There's a dinner party full of Slavic Studies academics that is very funny.

>70 pamelad: Pamela, it really is impossible to stick to the "no new books" resolution, isn't it? I'm settling for "fewer books than last year maybe" as mine.

>72 Jackie_K: Jackie, it's really rooted in what's really going on in Russia, so maybe your non-fiction-loving heart will enjoy it.

>73 RidgewayGirl: Haha, yes I thought from your review that that sounded likely! As my own research was in eastern Europe, including a former Soviet state (though not Russia), and I have a lot of friends who do research in Russia, I'd be really interested in accessing more fiction from the region. I did read a novel from Ukraine a couple of years ago, but unfortunately it was awful!

>63 RidgewayGirl:

Another one for the wishlist.

>63 RidgewayGirl: Add me to the group of us hit by your bullet! Wonderful review!

In Warlight, Nathaniel looks back at his teenage years, a time just after the Second World War, when his parents left he and his sister in the care of their lodger, a man they named The Moth and who Nathaniel believed to be a criminal. The truth ended up to be much more complex than that, and years later, Nathaniel revisits those years and discovers what was really going on.

Michael Ondaatje has written a cloudy, atmospheric novel, where events are half-remembered and people's identities are uncertain. The writing is just beautiful. As Nathaniel moves through his memories, the second half turns into his suppositions based on what he has learned, pulling together disparate details to form a narrative about the people who were in his life during those years.

>77 RidgewayGirl: I have this on my list for next month. I've read mixed reviews of it but I think that's the norm with Ondaatje and I look forward to it.

>77 RidgewayGirl: - I am always a sucker for atmospheric reads. Having enjoyed Ondaatje's writing style when I read The English Patient, I am looking forward to reading more of Ondaatje's works. Great review!

>78 clue: clue, I can see how some people would not warm to Warlight. Things are very nebulous for the first half, until Nathaniel gets older and is able to discover what was really going on. I found I didn't mind this as the writing was just so beautiful.

>79 lkernagh: Lori, Warlight is definitely atmospheric, the the best possible way.

On book sites of various kinds, I'm finding a lot of vitriol directed at Marie Kondo, due to a poor interpretation of a single sentence in her book. It's a little frustrating to see so many sensible people just going off the deep end over something Kondo never said. So, in her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Kondo states that she only has around thirty books in her house. She never says that no one should have more than thirty books, just that she keeps around thirty books herself. But people are writing all sorts of snarky things about how horrible Kondo is and I just wish that people would take the time to actually make sure of something before they spend hours being upset about it.

I mean, her entire schtick is that you should only keep the possessions that give you joy. And if the presence of books in your house makes you happy, then you should have books in your house. She does suggest that you should not keep books that don't "spark joy," like outdated manuals or that book someone gave you that you don't want to read, but that's hardly a controversial position, is it? I'm not a devotee of the whole KonMari thing she has going, but it's just weird when book-lovers go all hot-headed and reactionary and I wish it didn't happen.

>80 RidgewayGirl: I totally agree! I read that and thought I cannot ever have only thirty books, but everyone's happy things will be different and as long as all my books are not weighing on my mind and dragging me down, then who cares?!
I quite liked the premise of the book, but the premise is basically the same for all these type of books. Just different methods of achieving it.
Do what suits you and don't worry about what other people are doing.
I too find it weird when people get all het up in discussions on various issues online. As it is online and therefore you feel anonymous, people make comments that they (hopefully!) would not make to someone if they were face to face. The perils of any online discussion, I guess!

>81 JayneCM: Exactly.

>31 RidgewayGirl: Your "How I would like to die" answer is my favorite I've seen for this :D

>33 RidgewayGirl: Gah! If I see this Popsugar list once more I may break down. So tempting.

>63 RidgewayGirl: Ha! Also not a fan of WMFuNs, but you made that one sound intriguing.

>80 RidgewayGirl: Oh it's so nice to see this. This outrage is even worse than when the book first came out! Somehow everyone seems to hear the "30 books" part without catching the "keep as many as make you happy" bit.
(I'll admit - the day the book came out a bookstore co-worker told us all about this insane woman who thought people should only own 30 books, and we all summarily denounced her. Then, being Bookstore People, we immediately started writing our lists of which 30 books we would keep. :)

I've read the book since and though not all of her ideas jibed with me, I thought most of it made good sense and the parts I tried worked well. I've also seen some of her show and find her very charming.

Thanks, Shauna. I was not sold on the whole KonMari method,but I can't see why she's a target at all. And it was off-putting to be scrolling through my feed on another book site, looking at what books everyone is reading, and then there was a series of comments right there, calling her names and fantasizing about punching her and I was surprised this exists. And I suspect that what works in a large American house is different than what works in a home in Tokyo. Go figure.

I saw a reference to that a while ago (although I don't remember where) and couldn't understand why people were so involved/upset. No one (she) ever said you have to do anything she suggests. Weird!

I'm doing the POPSugar challenge too - along with a lot of other challenges, lol. I'll never finish them all, but it's fun to think about them.

>85 dudes22: Betty, this confuses me, too. I wonder if some of it is down to them not feeling entirely comfortable with their own book hoards? I love mine, but it goes through periodic massaging and rearranging.

>86 The_Hibernator: Yes, I have no expectations of finishing the Pop Sugar Challenge, or the Book Riot Challenge (especially because I'm not reading a business book, thank you very much) or even the BingoDOG, if I'm being honest here. But I'm enjoying keeping the challenges in mind, along with the CATs, as I decide what to read next.

Amy lives quietly in a basement apartment in a working class part of Brooklyn. She dresses nondescriptly and spends her days bringing the Eucharist to elderly shut-ins and volunteering at church. She has a past, of dressing "like an extra in a John Waters film," bartending and partying with her girlfriend, but she left all that when Alessandra left her to pursue her acting career in Los Angeles. She seems to genuinely care for the elderly women she ministers to, but all that changes on a dime when she sees a man being murdered.

I picked up The Lonely Witness by William Boyle after seeing it described on a year-end "best of" list and seeing that Megan Abbott praised it. I was never able to get past the erratic nature of the main character. I like an unsympathetic character, but I do need that character to be believable. There was no telling what Amy would do next, whether that was help out a grieving mother or robbing an elderly parishioner, whether or not Amy was caring or criminal in her behavior was entirely random, and not in a fun, anarchic way. It was certainly fast-paced, though.

>88 RidgewayGirl: I know that it must have been terribly disappointing especially after Megan Abbott endorsed it!

>89 VictoriaPL: I know!

All caught up on your thread, and taking 3 book bullets away with me: Snap, A Terrible Country and Warlight.

I noticed you're reading Milkman - I just got that for Christmas and I'll be interested to see what you think; from the book jacket it looks very intriguing.

Lisa, Milkman is a bit different, but it's fantastically good. I can see why it won the Booker. I am finding it to be a book I need to concentrate on, so I'm not reading it when I'm tired or when I just have a few moments.

Speak No Evil is the debut novel of Uzodinma Iweala. It centers on Niru, a young man finishing up at an elite private high school in Washington, D.C. who runs track, has gotten an early acceptance into Harvard and is a responsible son. But it's not all easy. As one of the few black students, he isn't entirely accepted; he feels under enormous pressure from his parents, his coach and his church and when his only close friend, Meredith, wants to start a relationship, he's forced to come to terms with being gay. And when his parents find out, his life explodes.

Iweala is doing a lot in a short novel. He's looking at the immigrant experience, as well as that of their relationship with their country of origin, he's looking at the expectations placed on the children of immigrants to do well, racism, and what it means to be gay when your parents and their culture are hostile. For the most part, he pulls it off, although there are some awkward passages and scenes that seem pulled from a much longer novel. The ending is shocking, but more effective for its suddenness. Iweala in an author to watch. I'm eager to see how he develops as a writer.

Your book cover isn't showing, Kay. Probablly a > missing. I do it all the time.

>94 dudes22: Betty, it shows for me. But covers have been wonky this past week.

It isn't showing for me either. But I was just visiting another thread that had the last two covers missing too.

>95 RidgewayGirl: It's not showing for me; however, on someone else's thread I could see one someone else couldn't see. Strange!

Just making myself comfortable with a bowl of popcorn.

Jennifer, I wonder if the glitches with covers is related to last month's glitches with pictures in general? And why can I see them and you can't?

Hi, Joyce!

Ghost Wall is narrated by the teenage daughter of a Northumbrian bus driver who takes part in a reenactment of pre-Roman life as part of a class in experimental archaeology. Sylvie and her mother are there, wearing tunics and obeying Sylvie's father as he joins with the professor in guiding the project. As the two men become more and more involved in exploring possible spiritual rites practiced by early Britons, her father's controlling behavior amplifies.

Sarah Moss has here written a short novel that is exactly as long as it needs to be. There is a lot packed into the pages of this book, but it never feels rushed or condensed. Sylvie is a wonderful character to follow, combining an innocence with a knowledge of the world a seventeen year old should not have. There's a lot of subtle menace here, and the reactions and the interactions between the participants in this field trip are sharp and wonderfully written.

>100 RidgewayGirl: Still no cover!

>101 thornton37814: It's right there! I swear it is! Are the covers showing for you at the top of my thread?

>102 RidgewayGirl: Message 60 is the first one that doesn't show for me, but 63 shows. 77 does not show. 88 shows. 93 and 100 do not show.

Lori, I've reported this to the Bug Collectors forum. From the thread there, this seems to be an on-going issue that the admin is aware of and is working on.

>104 RidgewayGirl: Good to know.

It is odd. I can't see the ones at the top either except for one.

On another thread someone said their 2018 covers are gone today too. I'm sure the glitch will be found eventually.

Have you used https as opposed to http in the url?

Vivienne, I initially changed them when this glitch first appeared. It really doesn't seem to make a difference. And since all of my images and covers are showing up for me, it's too much trouble to futz around with them. I'm sure it will all be fixed in due time.

Yes, that does sound more like a bug.

Our Man in the Dark by Rashad Harrison is a solidly written, solidly plotted noir that varies from the usual by it's setting, Atlanta in 1964. John Estem is an accountant working for the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) where he occasionally encounters Martin Luther King, Jr. Estem had polio as a child, leaving him with a heavy brace on his leg and an inability to fit in with the men he works with. He spends his free time drinking and hoping for a little attention from Candace, a not very good singer in a club owned by a man with his fingers in many pies. Desperate to feel better, Estem embezzles money from the SCLC, which lands him the attention of the FBI and his actions from this point forward careen between reactions to realizing that he's about to be caught and his plans to manipulate his circumstances to his benefit.

There's something so perversely entertaining about watching a character utterly destroy his own life. Harrison expertly juggles the different elements of a good noir, delivering a fast-paced story about a very flawed character doing some very bad things that this reader was unable to refrain from rooting for.

I read this with VictoriaPL, when we found two copies on the shelf at a Friends of the Library booksale. We rarely agree on specific books, but we both love a good noir. I'm glad this book delivered.

>111 RidgewayGirl: I’m so glad it worked out!

>112 VictoriaPL: We'll have to do it again! As long as we stick to noir, we should be ok.

>111 RidgewayGirl: I've never heard of this one or the author, but it sounds like my type. Great review!

>114 mstrust: Thanks, Jennifer. It was fun to read a solid noir that really respected the genre. And I learned something weird about Atlanta I hadn't known.

On a November night in Dublin, Ireland, a man strangles a young woman. His wife is present. They bring the body home and bury her in their back garden. Told in chapters that alternate between the wife, the man's son and the sister of the dead woman, Lying in Wait tells a truly bonkers story that seems really reasonable, sort of. Liz Nugent does a great job delving into the three central characters and makes their choices appear reasonable.

This was a fun crime novel that never failed to keep my attention. And the final chapters are utterly insane, in the best, most twisted way.

>116 RidgewayGirl: Book Bullet taken for Lying in Wait!

Judy, it's a lot of fun. I'm going to read her other book, Unraveling Oliver, as soon as I get all the books I currently want to read out of the stack (this could be some time).

Book bullet for me too! I just put it on hold at the library. That's two down Kay lol. It sounds like a twisted fun book, right up my alley.

>116 RidgewayGirl: That's one we got through the leased book program. I may want to get to it soon!

>116 RidgewayGirl: Oh, this looks good. Her first book looks good too. A new author added to my ever growing list!

Lisa, Lori and Luanne, it was fun to discover a new crime thriller writer and I hope you enjoy her as much as I did.

Kay, there were no holds on it, so I got it Saturday. I'm trying to finish Transcription first, but I'm getting confused by it and frustrated.

>116 RidgewayGirl: - That sounds right up my alley!

Lisa, Transcription doesn't fall together until the very end, when a final piece of information is revealed that made me want to start over at the beginning.

I hope you like it, Stacy!

So Milkman won the Man Booker Prize and everybody was like, who is this Anna Burns and why has her pink book won the big prize, except for "everyone" substitute "me," because that was my reaction. Everyone else was probably fine.

So everybody's my next reaction to Milkman came a few pages in and can best be summarized as "wow, wow, wow," because this is a fantastic book with a unique and marvelous voice and I'm so happy to have read it, except I'd like to still be reading it.

Middle Sister lives in a city in Northern Ireland in the late seventies. She lives in a no-go area but survives by keeping her mind firmly in nineteenth century literature, her not quite relationship with maybe boyfriend and in her evening French class in the center of town. Then she is noticed by a man high up in the IRA, named Milkman, which throws her life into chaos as she tries to figure out how to protect herself. As his attentions are noticed by her neighbors, she's forced into ever tighter control of her actions and words.

What's so delightful about this novel is the protagonist's voice. It's impossible not to hear her accent as she speaks and my reading slowed down to the speed of a person speaking, telling a story of what happened back in the seventies. Here she is talking about maybe boyfriend's house, which is filled with parts of cars and various machines, to the point of being almost unlivable.

As for my reaction, I could bear the cluttered state of 'Come in and welcome, but you're going to have to squeeze a little' during times I stayed over because of the normality of the kitchen and of his bedroom and the half normality of the bathroom. Mainly though, I could bear it because of the 'maybe' level of our relationship, meaning I didn't officially live with him and wasn't officially committed to him. If we were in a proper relationship and I did live with him and was officially committed to him, first thing I would have to do would be to leave.

Milkman is told from deep within the musings of Middle Sister, and like thoughts do normally, themes and subjects circle in and out of her mind as she goes about trying to live her life in a place that isn't entirely compatible with life. This is a very, very good book, but it requires attention and a willingness to slow down and allow Middle Sister to tell her story in her own way.

>126 RidgewayGirl: I had been wondering what reviews (from real readers, not critics!) would be like on this one. Looks like I will be adding it straight to my list!

>126 RidgewayGirl: Glad to see you enjoyed that one. I plan to read it at some point.

Jayne, some people didn't like the way the writing mimicked the rhythm of thoughts, but for me the way the narration took on the cadences of Northern Irish speech was a large part of why I loved it.

Lori, I think you'd like it. It's very much about a specific time and place, and yet utterly concerned with ordinary life.

>129 RidgewayGirl: Sounds like I would like it. Assuming it is available in ebook, I'll see how long the wait list is at the library. I don't need it right away as I have one and another just came in today (plus I have a couple of ARCs), but I need to know when it might come in to stall it a bit if I need to do so.

ETA: I recommended it. If I'm first to recommend it and they buy it right away, it will be interesting to juggle everything.

>126 RidgewayGirl: - Only 12 more people to go before I get my hands on the book. The comments about slowing down the reading pace to their speed makes me a bit nervous because slow reading is not something I'm good at. Definitely intrigued to see what all the fuss is about though.

>125 RidgewayGirl: You were right Kay, I finished Transcription, I was exhausted with the brain whiplash and the abrupt ending. I wish I had time to start it over and pay closer attention. You never know when library holds will come in, but I wish that I hadn't rushed trying to return it to the library on time.

I'm going to PM you about Juliet's identity. I think I got it but I'm not sure.

Lori, I have four library holds that I placed at different times and they all had very different wait times, but now it appears as they will all be available at once.

Stacy, just because I had to slow down, doesn't mean you'll need to. I tend to read different books at different speeds.

Lisa, at some point I'll run across a copy of Transcription at a booksale of some kind and I'll grab a copy then and reread it. I feel like I missed so many hints.

>126 RidgewayGirl: I believe I commented on your excellent review of Milkman on your Club Read thread but it will stand a repeat! I can't wait to read it.

Have you found out yet why many of your images are not showing?

Vivienne, no, I haven't. I'm going to try and replace the amazon covers with member-loaded covers when I get a moment. It's very frustrating!

Kathleen works as the sole employee of a small convenience store in a national park in the mountains of eastern Pennsylvania. She's effectively hiding out; living in her hometown but spending all of her time at the store, which is frequented only by hikers and hunters, or at home, where she lives with her grandmother. Occasionally, her best friend can get her out for a few hours, but she insists she's content, recovering from the accident that took her husband's life. At the tail end of the season, when even the hunters are becoming scarce, a man shows up at the hostel next to the store. He's from Uzbekistan and clearly hiding from someone.

Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St. Vincent is a difficult book to describe. It's almost a thriller, but more of a character study and exploration of culpability and our responsibilities to each other, combined with a vividly described setting. The author has used her background to write a very well put together story that touches on the political situation in Uzbekistan and domestic violence.

>135 RidgewayGirl: I use many amazon covers. The only time I had a problem was when I used http instead of https. Have you looked at that? (I'm sure you have but just mentioned it to be sure.)

>137 VivienneR: It may actually be the security validation that's causing the problem. I tried to view the image separately using the link from the image info (which is an https one) but got the notice about an invalid security setting but once I added an exception all images now show in this thread. The majority of covers were not showing before I did this.

>138 AHS-Wolfy: Thanks for the information, Dave. I *think* I understand. :)

>137 VivienneR: Well, everything is showing up again for me. I'm just going to hope they will again for everyone at some point. I did try using images that had the https, but this worked for some and not for others so I've given up. And on other threads, mostly images show up, but some don't.

>140 RidgewayGirl: I hope it works out eventually.

>138 AHS-Wolfy: Adding the exception worked for me. This might help if you don't know how to find the settings: https://knowledgebase.constantcontact.com/articles/KnowledgeBase/6193-images-blo...

When I got to the add part, it showed me how it wanted me to add it to allow anything from a site (such as amazon.com) which uses multiple prefixes for images.

As a young girl, Zebra fled Iran with her father. The journey from their once comfortable, book-filled home to their eventual haven in a small New York apartment is a difficult one. After her father's death, Zebra decides to make the same journey in reverse, revisiting the places they traveled through on their way to America. Her first destination is Barcelona, where she meets an Italian professor, and changes her plans.

I've been examining my response to Call Me Zebra by Azareen van der Vliet Oloomi and trying to determine what factors caused me to hate it so very much. Sure, the writing was turgid and ponderous, with no noun left unmolested by a pair of adjectives, no sentence left without ample decoration, yet I love Victorian Lit, which tends towards embellished prose. Sure, the protagonist was just the worst, a self-involved pedant who spends the entirety of the novel treating others like things, stealing from them while contemptuously thinking about how much better she is than everyone else, but I do like novels about unlikeable characters, even the ones who are so without redeeming qualities that the reader spends the novel hoping to see them get what they deserve. There's a pretentiousness to the writing that feels unearned, names are dropped without much rhyme or reason, but this normally would not get more than an occasional eye-roll from me.

I don't know why I disliked this book so much. It's gotten some good reviews and, hey, it was published in the first place, so people more knowledgeable than myself clearly see something in it. Maybe read it for yourself and then come tell me what I missed.

I love a good bad review! :-)

If interested in book covers: I lost all of my covers too and this is what I eventually figured out:

I had to use the below for the first part of the formula:

img src="http://pics.cdn.librarything.com/picsizes/4c/0b/

and the Amazon book covers on LT wouldn't work so I downloaded my own:

d9b13385b446cd5636b375872774468414b6b41.jpg"

and add the .

and they have all worked and stayed in place a week so I think they are finally good. The first time I thought I had fixed them they didn't stay.

>143 RidgewayGirl: - Don't count on me to read it and tell you what you missed. That was one of the ToB selections I had no intention of even trying due to it getting so many bad reviews. Yours just confirms I made the right choice. Thanks for taking one for the team!

Joyce, I'd enjoy writing them more if I didn't have to read the book first.

clue, mine keep disappearing and reappearing. I repaired some of my covers with non-amazon ones with the https coding and then they disappeared, while the ones from amazon reappeared. Rather than play whack-a-mole every time I visit LT, I think I'll leave it all alone and just wait for the LT folks to fix whatever is going on. Right now, about half of my covers are gone, while when I first logged onto LT this morning they were all there. Of the six currently visible to me at the top of the thread, four are https and two are http, so I don't think that's the cause. It's clearly something internal to LT.

Stacy, this seems to be the least read of the ToB roster. Last year I managed to read all the books and that made the conversations so much more fun. With five books to go (reading two now) I hope to be done in time. If I skip one, it will be The Overstory.

I'm getting frustrated with the cover issue. It seems they should have figured out a solution by now. Even their checkmarks by books owned or read sometimes don't display.

>148 thornton37814: Yes, it is hard to be patient and wait.

Meanwhile, my husband knows me well and left this for me this morning:

Desert Fabuloso by Lisa Lovenheim is a book published in 1987 that tells the story first of John Aaron, who upon turning forty, divorces his wife and leaves the family business to move to Santa Fe, New Mexico to live openly as a gay man. Later, he meets Bradley Roberson III, a good-looking man with a fortune and a needy mother, and convinces him he'd find Santa Fe refreshing. Bradley is frivolous, fabulous and unhappy, and he manages to make himself the center of gossip as he drinks himself into oblivion and behaves terribly. But as time passes, his friendship with a neighborhood Latino boy and his mother, as well as a wooden statue of a Native American he steals from a local hotel, give him the impetus to change.

The chatty and casual voice of this novel, as well as its publication date, had me thinking that this book would be primarily a historical oddity. Set in that short span of time between when it became reasonably safe for some gay white men of means to live openly in a few places and when the AIDs crisis changed everything, I thought this novel, the only one Lisa Lovenheim ever published, would be a fun snapshot of fabulous gay life, of handsome men in snazzy pastel suits drinking champagne and making wry comments kind of thing. And there was a little of that, but it was a more interesting story about two people finding their place in the world. John Aaron becomes content with the friends he has and with his relatively quiet life, while Bradley's story is more poignant. Coming from Manhattan and buying a run-down adobe house in an established neighborhood, he discovers a love of gardening, and if that new interest is also accompanied by heavy drinking and a love of sun-bathing, it doesn't stop him from forming tentative friendships with a bored little boy and his very traditional Latina mother. The way that connection is strained by the actions of another member of that family serves to remind everyone that no matter how moneyed and popular, Bradley's space in the world is not a safe one, given his refusal to be anything other than who he is.

>149 RidgewayGirl: Haha, I love it!

>149 RidgewayGirl: Wait, there's a volume 2?! (I've got vol 1 on my wishlist already)

Christina, for Christmas he got me a book of photographs of obscure memorials built between 1960 and 1990 and found in countries that were formerly part of Yugoslavia. I don't know where this fascination for obscure structures located in places I'll never visit comes from, but he encourages this interest.

Jackie, the first volume covers the former Soviet republics and in this volume he travels around Russia, Ukraine and Georgia.

You're husband gets bonus points for finding the perfect gift for you! It couldn't have been easy to find that one.

You can't say he just goes out and buys the first thing he sees, I've known that to happen!

>154 mstrust: & >155 clue: He did very well. He's not usually one to plan ahead, so this was special.

That's a very niche present! Well done to the husband. Mine bought me Ferrero Rocher - he knows me equally as well!

>157 Helenliz: Chocolate is never a poor choice!

Dead Girls is a book of essays with the subtitle Essays on Surviving an American Obsession and rarely have a title and subtitle served a book less well. Alice Bolin's book opens with an introduction about the fetishization of pretty dead young women and the first essays are fantastic, taking on the way dead girls are used in both fiction and in the media as special objects of fascination. She looks at a journalist from Spokane, WA's work about a serial killer targeting prostitutes and how that part of the world has been a perceived refuge for those who don't want to live in society, from the previously mentioned serial killer to Randy Weaver of Ruby Ridge. Then she examines two Scandinavian crime series, the Martin Beck series of police procedurals, where the first novel involves a drowned woman, and the Millennium trilogy where, despite the author's avowed feminism, women are stalked, bludgeoned and tortured in increasingly violent ways.

But from there, this topic is abandoned in favor of the story of the author's difficulties in transitioning to adulthood, as exemplified by her attempt to move to Los Angeles, where she wanders directionless but read a lot of Joan Didion. While the writing in this two thirds of the book is fine, the expectations raised by the title, as well as the beginning chapters don't leave a lot of room to be charmed by a series of random essays, which include everything from a survey of the cemeteries of Los Angeles to a look at literary werewolves and vampires, all peppered with references to Joan Didion's work.

There was a good start at a cohesive book here. It's too bad that Bolin chose to pad it out with earlier essays instead of taking on the larger, teased at subject. I can't help but think that she was ill-served by whoever felt that this collection was publication-ready and whoever thought a misleading title would be just fine.

>159 RidgewayGirl: Bummer! From your 1st paragraph I was thinking it might be a TBR--but I think not!

>160 Tess_W: Exactly, Tess. I was so excited about this book that I failed to read up on it. But I probably would have picked it up anyway. There's definitely space in the world for the book this one said it would be.

My Sister, the Serial Killer is told from the point of view of a woman, a nurse, whose sister has the habit of killing her boyfriends. Each time, Ayoola calls Korede, and Korede goes to protect her sister from the consequences of her actions by disposing of the body and cleaning up the mess. But Ayoola is self-centered and demanding and when she meets the man who Korede cares for, will this be enough to break Korede's pattern of covering up her sister's crimes?

Oyinkan Braithwaite's debut novel is a lot of fun. It's short, with short chapters that make it fly by even faster. There's no question of pacing in this novel, it all speeds by. But this isn't a flat genre novel, meant only as entertaining, there's a lot going on. From the setting of Lagos, Nigeria and the peek inside of that culture, to explorations of how a strictly patriarchal society shapes and harms both men and women, to asking how responsible are we for our families, all of that is so wrapped in a fun package, that it never feels heavy-handed.

BB for me! It sounds like an unusual angle.

>162 RidgewayGirl: - I've been waiting so long for that one at the library and it's finally in! I'll be picking it up later this week and look forward to reading it soon.

>162 RidgewayGirl: I've been seeing a lot of good buzz for this one, but I've been hesitant to pick it up. But it sounds like it's not super dark, given the subject matter, so maybe I will add it to the TBR after all!

>163 mstrust: Jennifer, this is right up your alley.

>164 LittleTaiko: Stacy, be advised that it's hard not to read just one more chapter, and then one more...

>165 christina_reads: Christina, it's dark, but not grim. And she's not doing any of the murdering.

>166 RidgewayGirl: Thanks! "Dark but not grim" sounds doable for me. :)

>149 RidgewayGirl: Wow! Your husband is a keeper! I get cookies.

>162 RidgewayGirl: Great review! I read about Braithwaite's novel somewhere else and put it on my list. Sounds intriguing.

And the cover is fantastic, Christina. Designed to be noticed if you're reading it in a public place.

Vivienne, thanks, I like him.

Samanta Schweblin is an Argentinian author whose work is finally being translated into English, first with Fever Dream and now with a collection of short stories called Mouthful of Birds. The stories in this collection are varied, but share a sense of discomfort, of things being off-kilter, of the ordinary rules not applying. A man murders his wife and stuffs her body into a suitcase only to find that his actions are badly misunderstood. A father comes to terms with his daughter's changing diet needs. An unhappy woman meets a merman.

Each story is odd, unsettling, and none of them are interested in answering any questions a reader might have. Stories begin in the middle or stop before or during the the moment of crisis. Backstories are hinted at. These are not stories to rush through, but to read singly, with time to mull over what happened or didn't happen or might happen later. There's often the sense of the environment being destroyed or turning against the people living in it. Intriguing and not necessarily satisfying, I'm eager to read more by this author.

It's my 11th Thingaversary today!

While I highly endorse the tradition of purchasing a book for every year (and one to grow on), I'm saving my 12 books for the next local booksale, probably in April. I got so many books for Christmas, and spent my bookstore gift cards on the same day, so I'm still in a sort of post-binge stupor, book-wise. But once I'm fully recovered, I'll be buying 12 books in a single day, you just wait and see!

Happy Thingaversary!

Happy Thingaversary! Hug a book!

>171 RidgewayGirl: Happy Thingaversary! You are showing such control waiting for the book sale. I'm trying to hold off on major purchases until mine the end of next month.

>171 RidgewayGirl: Happy Thingaversary! You are smart to keep book-buying until additional rewards can be gained.

Happy Thingaversary! Mine is in January and I always wait til later in the year to make my purchases Actually this was my 11th too.

Happy Thingaversary!

Happy Thingaversary!

Happy Thingaversary!

Thank you all for the kind wishes. Betty, you beat me to LT by a month!

Happy Thingaversary!

I'm continuing to savour your thoughtful reviews of the ToB books. Your assessment of Call Me Zebra is pretty close to my own, and I agree that Uzodinma Iweala is an author to watch!

Hi, Paulina! Just eleven days until the ToB starts!

Happy thingaversary and good thinking about postponing the bookbuying!

Happy Thingaversary! Buying 12 books in 1 go is a challenge. I look forward to seeing you meet it.

>183 MissWatson: I'm only postponing because I had so many new books entering the house during the holidays. But it will be fun to challenge myself to no more or fewer books than twelve at the April booksale.

>184 Helenliz: Helen, I am more than up for this challenge.

The Ash Family is a farming commune in the mountains of North Carolina. Berie is a young woman who doesn't know what she wants and has let her mother and her boyfriend tell her what to do until the moment she leaves for university and decides not to go, turning around and taking a bus to Asheville. At the bus stop, she encounters the charismatic Bay, who brings her to the Ash family farm and where she learns to work with farm animals, and is drawn into the close and tightly controlled group led by Dice, who also leads the inner circle of his group in a little light eco-terrorism. Berie is desperate to be trusted enough to join them and throws herself into the endless tasks involved in pulling a living out of the land. She's also desperate to get time with Bay, who is often gone recruiting new members and desperate to be accepted and find a home within the Ash Family.

As Molly Dektar's debut novel goes on, it becomes increasingly clear that the Ash Family is not a benign group and equally clear that the members are being kept under tight control and surveillance. Berie's need for belonging can't entirely hide the less savory aspects of the commune from her, especially as her one friend is protecting a secret and Berie will not be able to remain free of the consequences. And, back in Durham, there are people worried about her and while they might be able to tell her that they want her to come home, whether or not Berie leaves is entirely up to her.

While the novel does sometimes feel predictable and research into cults makes itself known, Dektar's writing is strong and clear. Berie is a wonderful character, very much an eighteen year old, but also a young woman who has a moral compass and who develops into someone who knows herself over the course of this novel.

>186 RidgewayGirl: A little local flavor? A commune near Asheville is not very far-fetched.

>187 thornton37814: It all seems very plausible, especially in that part of NC. I did like that the author knew the area well and clearly loves it.

>188 RidgewayGirl: I might need to read it just for the "local" angle!

So I signed up for NetGalley. And then I requested titles and all were rejected. So I spiffed up my profile and added links and requested some more titles, and was granted the permission to read one of them. I read and reviewed the book and then requested more titles, hoping that I'd be given access to another title. I was granted access to four within a few hours. So a lot to read. I'll be careful to choose fewer books in the future, although all of these are ones I was interested in reading before seeing them on the NetGalley list.

How do the rest of you NetGalleyers manage to keep the number of books on hand under control?

>190 RidgewayGirl: I don't allow myself to look all that often and then only request the top ones. I probably won't look again until I have the two I haven't read reviewed. I'm auto-approved for several publishers. One of those has a division which publishes genealogy things so I look at those. I've really just started this policy this year. I have occasionally gone in to look for a specific forthcoming title to request. A lot of (but not all) of the "read now" titles are self-published so the quality may not be as strong, but occasionally a gem can be found there.

>191 thornton37814: Lori, I was already only requesting titles that I was already aware of and that I was looking forward to. I've ordered the books by publication date and will start reading. It's a good problem to have, but I can see that I will have to request books one by one in the future.

>192 RidgewayGirl: I wish we could view the "archive date" before we request them. You are unable to submit reviews to NetGalley after the archive date. Your downloads tend to last two months, but you can download again if the "archive date" is in the future. I pay attention to the archive date and the publication date when setting my reading/review order. Not sure if that helps you manage yours now, but that keeps me on track. I once downloaded a title one or two days before it was set to archive. I managed to finish it the next day, but I don't really like being forced to read something so quickly.

>193 thornton37814: Oh, no! One of mine is set to be archived on the 28th. Do I need to have the review in by the 27th, or do I have the 28th, as well?

>192 RidgewayGirl: >193 thornton37814: I think their rules are iffy. Last month I requested a book that shows archived Nov 28, 2018. Not only did it let me request it, I got it and reviewed it today. Go figure. I forgot this: I knew about it because I saw it at the library but they only had a hard copy, no ebook and for this book I preferred it in ebook format.

I only request or have 2 books at a time. When I review one, and it drops immediately from my shelf, I browse and see if there is something else I'd like to have.

How do the rest of you NetGalleyers manage to keep the number of books on hand under control?

Like >191 thornton37814:, I have learned to get selective with my requests. I am not a power reviewer so I still get requests rejected (which is fine with me). When I load the books for review on my e-reader, I start the book (flip through the title page, etc) so that the book shows up on my Currently Reading page and doesn't get lost. If I have more than one, I line them up and work left to right, making sure that the book on the left that I am starting with will be expiring soonest. Like >195 clue: said, I am not sure how firm they are with the archive date. I download to my e-reader through Adobe Digital Editions loaded on my computer and I can see the date when the book will "expire" and I can no longer read it.

>194 RidgewayGirl: Usually I find you can no longer submit the review after the date. It really depends on the exact time they have set. I've sometimes found I can submit on the date and sometimes I can't. It probably depends on the publisher.

>195 clue: I've never seen the option to request an archived book.

>195 clue: clue, that seems like a good way to keep it all from running away from me.

>196 lkernagh: Lori, I've put the books I was approved for in publication order. I'll read them well before they expire. But from now on, I'm going to request one book at a time.

>197 thornton37814: Lori, the book that archives on the 28th is reasonably short. I'll get it finished by Wednesday and write a quick review then. But I'll keep an eye on the archive date in the future.

Thanks, all, for answering questions from a newbie!

>186 RidgewayGirl: I think this is a book bullet for me. I am always interested in North Carolina books.

>199 sturlington: That's what prompted me to pick it up.

I've got a new thread. Come check it out. I'll make tea.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/304298