June AlphaKIT - J and D

Welcome to AlphaKIT for June

The rules are... none! Use the letters however you like to choose your reads for the month. Well, okay, there is one rule: Have Fun!

June AlphaKIT letters are : J and D.

and

Please remember to update the wiki and enter books alphabetically:
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2019_AlphaKIT#June:_-_Letters_J_and_D

Definitely planning reading Death Mask by Jane Dentinger since it also works for the SeriesCAT. I'll also probably read Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym.

I will probably go for "The Building of Jalna" by Mazo de la Roche as it also fits SeriesCAT. I'm not sure whether I want to use the 'd' in de la Roche or to choose something else.

The DEVIL is an Ass and other Plays
by Ben JONSON

Jocasta: the Mother-Wife of Oedipus
by Victoria Grossack
(historico-mythological fiction)

Demosthenes' Legacy by Jonathan Monroe

Haven't yet figured out all my other CATs, but I already have a few options in the ones I have figured out that will fit here:

- Inferno / Dan Brown
- Silvery Sparrow / T. Jones
- The True Tales of Baker and Taylor

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
-- definitely a RE-read for the --I don't know:
__ __ eth time! First read, sophomore year in H.S.

Journey to the Far Pacific by Thomas E. DEWEY}; sort of a
campaign partial-biography.
(Dewey ran for president twice, and was campaign manager
for Dwight D. Eisenhower). Though it's of the 1950s, it might
have some insights on how the Pacific of the 2000s got that
way.

I'm scheduling The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson and The Day the World Came to Town by Jim Defede.

I am slotting in Classified as Murder by Miranda James, which was a BB from another LibraryThing-er. Maybe Deadly Deception by Hope Callaghan--I enjoyed the sample I read.

I'm going to start the month off with The Black Tower by P. D. James. I may or may not have read this decades ago. I'll find out in a few weeks.

>9 LadyoftheLodge: Not sure if it was a BB from me or not, but I read it recently! I hope you enjoy it!

No promises but I have a book on my shelf, Defending Jacob that would work for both letters. I've been reading 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die by James Mustich a few pages a day for several weeks, it's over 900 pages. I'll have it finished next month and can use it for J also.

My 'J' book is going to be I was Looking at the Ceiling and then I Saw the Sky by June Jordan. I've got plenty of 'D' options, but haven't determined what direction I'm going in there quite yet.

I'm hoping to get to the Price of Valor by Django Wexler and finishing up Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien

I'm going on a two week trip in June ad these are the books that I'm loading on my e-readers!

And Then They Were Doomed
✔Body in the Attic by Judi Lynn
Chasing Down a Dream
Chocolate Cream Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke
Death by Chocolate Malted Milkshake
✔Died in the Wool
Digging for Trouble
Dressed for Death in Burgundy
✔Expiration Date
✔In Cold Chocolate by Dorothy St. James
✔Leave No Scone Unturned by Denise Swanson
✔Murder at the Marina by Janet Finsilver
One Potato, Two Potato, Dead
Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn
Pinot Red or Dead?
Sifting Through Clues by Daryl Wood Gerber
✔Sweet Tea and Secrets by Joy Avon
✔Telephone Line by Julie Mulhern
Triple Jeopardy: A Daniel Pitt Novel

Hopefully, I'll get a few read.

I'm planning to read Death of an expert witness by P.D. James. I also have Just what kind of a mother are you? a debut mystery by Paula Daly. Both books hit both letters.

I am planning on reading The Divine Wind by Gary Disher and The Sultan's Wife by Jane Johnson for my D and J reads.

I have a few planned:

Dead Beat by Jim Butcher
A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan
Daemon by Daniel Suarez
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

I've begun Dark Alchemy for this challenge.

Looking at what's on my shelves, some of my possibilities for June are:

One of the Miss Zukas mysteries by Jo Dereske
Something by Jeanne M. Dams
Something by Joan Didion

The Cold Dish (Walt Longmire #1). Craig Johnson
Dark Sister. Graham Joyce
The Dead of Jericho (Inspector Morse #5). Colin Dexter
James and the Giant Peach. Roald Dahl
Judgment Day. Penelope Lively
Tales for a Dark Evening (Stories). Graham Joyce
Talking About Detective Fiction. P.D. James

I've finished When the English Fall by David Williams.

I'll read Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E. Smith for "J" . . . and for "D," I have a ton of books with "Dead" or "Death" in the title, so it should be easy to pick one! :)

Two J's down and a J/D combination almost complete.

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan Howard
Vacationland by John Hodgman
Death Mask by Jane Dentinger

J'Accuse by Emile Zola

The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes

Finished Report to Megalopolis by Tod Davies. Full review written, but alas, I wouldn't recommend the book.

Finished Deadly Deception: A Cruise Ship Cozy Mystery by Hope Callaghan and also Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer Holm.

DALMATIA: the Land where East Meets West
by Maude Holbach

Structure-based Drug Discovery by Harren JHOTI

>23 LittleTaiko: Oh! You just reminded me that I have had Johannes Cabal the Necromancer in my TBR stacks for years! Not sure why I haven't tackled it before now but definitely reading it this month :-)

Inferno / Dan Brown
4 stars

When Robert Langdon wakes up in a hospital, he doesn’t realize he’s in Italy and when he finds that out, he has no recollection of why he’s there or how he got there. He quickly finds out someone has shot him in the head, and whoever it is is still coming after him! He and a doctor helping him escape together and try to find out why he is there and why someone is trying to kill him.

I quite liked this. It did slow down for me in the middle, but it picked up again at the end. I almost never say this, but I was, in this instance, cheering for the bad guy!

I finished reading my first book for this month's challenge: God's Secretaries: the Making of the king James Bible.

I have started The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing. I had planned to read it for the May Calendar CAT because Lessing's middle name is May, but it's an inter-library loan that took its time and arrived in June.

One more J book down - Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym. I love a good excuse to read a Pym novel.

I finished Dead Beat by Jim Butcher for J and D.

I finished Dark Alchemy by Laura Brickle which was imaginative and very good

Starting The Last Romeo by Justin Myers.

Just finished Death of an expert witness by P.D. James hitting both letters.

COMPLETED The Last Romeo by Justin Myers.

Starting "The Building of Jalna" by Mazo de la Roche.

July thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/308046

Read How to Set a Fire and Why by Jessy Ball.

Just finished Chariot on the Mountain by Jack Ford.

So I finished Johannes Cabal the Necromancer (by Jonathan L. Howard) this weekend for the J part of this month's challenge.:-)

It's a story about a necromancer who makes another deal with the Devil: The first deal was a trade of Cabal's soul for the secrets of life & death; In this deal, Johannes wants his soul back-- and the Devil agrees. For a price. This is a humorous Faustian tale set in the UK in a deliberately undefined time period.

There were a couple of nicely written and poignant moments (Ch 6, “In which Cabal Makes an Unplanned Stop and Talks About the War” and the last chapter) but overall the humor wasn‘t dark enough for me. Howard‘s writing style reminds me of Tim Robbins (w/o the sexual prurience) and while presenting interesting ideas, the “quippiness” seemed to be covering for a lack of depth— a lid on a jar if you will. So, overall, it was okay, but I'm probably not going to continue with the series.

I started Empaths (The Pyreans #1; by S.H. Jucha) last night. It's 400+ pages but it goes very quickly so I think I'll manage to get it in before the month is out! :-)

DANIEL Boone Master of the Wilderness
by John Bakeless

JANE Austen by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Another D: Daemon by Daniel Suarez.

I've just begun Georgette Heyer's Duplicate Death for "D."

I just completed my 'J" read for the month, The Sultan's Wife by Jane Johnson was an excellent historical fiction novel.

The Range Detectives by William W. JOHNSTONE

COMPLETED Jalna: Books 1 - 4 by Mazo de la Roche.

Starting The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond.

Finished Exiles by James Joyce earlier this month. A short, strangely intimate-feeling play, and my review is also short, but I will say it was really interesting and enjoyable to read this, especially having read some of his short stories in the past.

I've finished Junkyard Dogs by Craig Johnson

The Circle / Dave Eggers
4 stars

When Mae manages to get a lucrative job (well, the job itself isn’t lucrative, just the chance to work there) with The Circle, she is thrilled! The Circle is a huge tech company and, to her surprise, there is so much more going on at The Circle than just work, so many social events. As the days go on, Mae is expected to be more and more social, online and in-person. Though it seems very difficult to keep up, Mae manages to do so, but there are drawbacks to all this online activity…

I listened to the audio, and had no trouble following without losing interest. I really liked this. It was hard to fathom how she could get more and more sucked in to that life and not realize the implications. I guess I felt like she had been brainwashed, like a cult. In fact, pretty much all of them had “drunk the Kool-Aid”! It was an interesting tale of taking social media way too far.

The True Tails of Baker and Taylor / Jan Louch
4 stars

Baker and Taylor were two library cats (Scottish folds) in small-town Nevada, who lived in the 1980s and 90s and were named after the bookselling company, Baker & Taylor. When the company found out about the cats, they decided to use them in the company’s promotional material, propelling the cats to stardom and creating a lasting image for the company, as they still use the cats’ likenesses 20+ years later.

Books and cats – my two favourite things! I also have three Baker & Taylor shopping bags, where I store unread books! I really enjoyed this. There is a section of photos in the middle of the book. Baker and Taylorare so cute, and each had their own personalities. They even had a fan club made up of a grade 2 class elsewhere in the country. The teacher had her class write letters (to help them with their writing) every year to the cats, and send gifts. These were quite cute. There was (like with Dewey’s book) some biographical information about the librarian (and author) who mainly took care of the cats, as well.

My J selection:



Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
Set in 1929 (with flashbacks to WWI), this is the first in a series about the eponymous character, a female detective/psychologist of sorts. Here, she's setting up shop in post-war London and taking on one of her first cases: a man suspects his wife of infidelity, but it turns out to be something much different than that, and leads to a much more complex case for Miss Dobbs. It started out a little slow for me (or maybe it was just I who was a little slow to take up the story), but by the halfway point, I was completely absorbed both in the mystery at hand and in Maisie's own fascinating backstory. Lots of levels of storytelling going on here, and it's well done on each one. I'll certainly be seeking out the rest of the series.

Victoria Victorious / Jean Plaidy
3.75 stars

This is a fictional biography of Queen Victoria. She had an unhappy childhood, but she married someone she loved (Albert), they had 9 children, who all lived.

This is a long book. It’s only the second book I’ve read on Queen Victoria, the first was only a month ago, and also written by Plaidy, but that one only included her childhood (there are sequels to that, so I will continue, but with larger gaps in between). Most of what I’ve read about British royalty was from the Tudors and earlier on, so 300+ years earlier. Some differences that happened in between included Royals being able to choose their spouses, and I found it interesting how much travel they did to see each other after Victoria’s children moved away to other countries. England now also had a Prime Minister, so decisions were not made by the monarchy, though they were discussed between the PM and the monarchy.

It was interesting to learn about Queen Victoria, as well as the different world that England had become over 300 years. I’m not sure, historically, how her husband, Albert, is regarded, but I was not a big fan, given how he’s described in this book. Victoria loved him, but I didn’t like him much. I found her family life (both as a child, and as an adult) more interesting than the politics in the book.

Have read a few more books that fit here.

- Young Zaphod Plays It Safe by Douglas Adams
- Death in Brittany by Jean-Luc Bannalec
- Aunt Bessie Needs by Diana Xarissa

I've just begun The Golden City by J. Kathleen Cheney and am liking it so far.

My D selection:



Going Solo by Roald Dahl
Dahl tells of his travels to Africa for his first job, and then his time in the RAF during WWII. Not as interesting, to me, as his account of his earlier years, but still a pretty interesting read.

COMPLETED The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond

>58 Robertgreaves: I saw your review on Litsy and, I'm really torn about whether to stack this or not! I loved his book, Guns, Germs and Steel when it came out but I haven't re-read it since; And now I'm wondering if both books are too dated.

>59 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I think his later books are expansions of themes he first explores here. The only theme I didn't recognise from his other books is the history of genocide. If you want an overview/primer on his ideas, this is a good place to start and it's interesting for completists like me.

Read Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays by Joan Didion. (Also a TBR!)

Starting The Italian Girl by (Jean) Iris Murdoch.

Might be able to sneak one more in under the wire this month -- Duels & Deception by Cindy Anstey.

I read The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James which works for J.
I read Moby Dick which works for the D.

COMPLETED The Italian Girl by (Jean) Iris Murdoch

Checking in with my AlphaKITS for June:

J
The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair

D
Death on the Ice: The Great Newfoundland Sealing Disaster of 1914, by Cassie Brown with Harold Horwood
Dalek Empire 1.3: “Death to the Daleks!” (Big Finish audio drama)
Dalek Empire 1.4: Project Infinity (Big Finish audio drama)

Just realized I never posted my AlphaKIT for June. While I never read a "D", for the "J" I read A Kentucky Cardinal by James Lane Allen. I was fine with its gentle, bucolic love story until . . . something happened. Not for those sensitive to violence towards living creatures.

>67 NinieB: I have a hard time reading violence towards animals or children, especially if graphic.

Thanks for stopping by and letting us know of your read. :)