August AlphaKIT: N and I

Welcome to AlphaKIT for August

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!

July AlphaKIT letters are : N and I.

and


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

I think my most likely for this will be "Nietzche: A Very Short Introduction" by Michael Tanner, especially as Nietzche died in August, so fitting CalendarCAT as well.

Thinking about Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey and a couple of Arnaldur Indriaason books - Reykjavik Nights and Into Oblivion.

planning on Weight of the Evidence by Michael Innes and Naughty in Nice by Rhys Bowen

Right now I'm thinking about Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, which would knock out both letters.

Well, I'll start with Women Rowing North by Mary Pipher. I'll find an I soon enough!

I think I'll be reading The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo for my "N" book and, if I get to it, Burning Marguerite by Elizabeth innes-Brown for my "I" book.

I will be reading a couple of mysteries for the AlphaKit in August. The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridason, a series I have long neglected. For my N read, Snow White Must Die by Nele Neuhaus.

I'm hoping for this for ScaredyKIT, and it fits N:
The Night Sister / Jennifer McMahon.

I haven't figured out all my other challenges yet, but there may be other Ns. I is trickier, so if I don't have something that fits the other challenges for it, some options include:
- Iced In / Chris Turney
- Into the Water / Paula Hawkins
- Missing / Frances Itani
- Iced / Karen Marie Moning

I have a few earmarked for August but it just occurred to me that an author from Northern Ireland, my country of origin, would fit too.

I'm planning on reading In the Woods as my 'I' book and A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul as my 'N' book.

I have already started Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal by Roy Horniman. The Alec Guinness film, Kind Hearts and Coronets, was based on it.

>12 pamelad: Oh, that book is great fun! As is the movie, too!

I'll be reading A Very Private Enterprise by Elizabeth Ironside. Also I want to read the Nexus trilogy by Ramez Naam. I read Nexus (the first book) 3 years ago but didn't get to the last 2 books.

I found an audiobook CD edition of The Ivory Grin (Lew Archer #4; by Ross Macdonald; narrated by Grover Gardner) at the FOTL book shop for fifty cents! The CDs are in very good condition and I've already loaded the first CD onto my old laptop. If I listen to a CD a day, I should be done by the end of the week/beginning of August :-)

(Gateway to touchstones keep timing out or telling me the title, author and, narrator generate "no results." I'll try again tomorrow.)

>15 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I wish I could read a Lew Archer for the first time. Enjoy!

My library hold for The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abby Waxman just came in, so that will be my "N" book. For "I," I'm thinking about Portuguese Irregular Verbs by Alexander McCall Smith.

Finished Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal a day early. Counting it!

I've started reading Romeo and/or Juliet: A Chooseable-Path Adventure (by Ryan North) This is an interesting take on Shakespeare's Classic play: Various action plots are laid out in segments, offering the reader a choice as to which arc to follow. Since this is a non-linear format, I'm not exactly sure I'll know when I'm "done"; but I plan on going through the various adventured through August or, until I've sensed that I have exhausted it.

EDIT: Problem solved! I'm using a color-coded Post-It Notes (R) to track what I'm reading! ;-)

Finally sorted out my books for August. Here are my possibilities:

Am I Guilty?
✔Buried In the Stacks
✔Murders by Leslie Nagel
COUNTRY INN MYSTERY
✔Death In Focus
✔Down In Flames
Dressed for Death In Burgundy
✔Immoral Certainty
Killer In the Carriage House
Lady In the Lake
Murder In Venice
✔Name of the Rosé
✔Nasty Breaks
✔No More Time

Finished Reykjavik Nights by Arnaldur Indridason for my first N and I of the month. Nice to get a double to start things off.

I'm planning Dr. No by Ian Fleming and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, both of which hit both letters.

I was trying to finish a book last night but sleepiness interfered. So I picked it up and finished it this morning first thing, as I'm on vacation. And, as it has an N, it's my first CAT/KIT of the month. Guilty, or Not Guilty is a short collection of a novelette and 4 short stories by a nineteenth-century author, Amanda M. Douglas. According to Wikipedia, "she was probably best remembered by young readers of her day for the Little Girl and Helen Grant series." What I will best remember her for is her weepy women characters who like having a man to lean on; I won't be reading more of her works any time soon.

I decided to go into August with some of my fave "teacher" reads in honor of back to school, especially since I am a retired teacher and "No more teachers, no more books!" (Unless they are books I choose to read, course.) These are all books for kids.

Oh, How I Wished I Could Read by John Gile (Letter I)
Franklin Goes to School by Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark
Dog Loves Books by Louise Yates
Miss Malarkey Leaves No Reader Behind by Judy Finchler and Kevin O'Malley (Letter N)

I've been disciplining myself to finish some of the books in my "Currently Reading" collection, and as luck would have it the two I've finished this month satisfied both N and I. My "N" book is above. My "I" book is The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald. I read the first half in February and the second half yesterday evening.

I finished The Ivory Grin (Lew Archer #4; by Ross Macdonald; narrated by Grover Gardner) last night. It's a good story, well told! Lew Archer (ex-cop turned detective) is hired by a rather unattractive but wealthy woman to track down a younger woman who used for work for her. This quickly escalates into something much bigger involving a missing heir, femme fatales and, enough similes to mark this as a mid-century noir. There are African-American characters and, I was afraid that there would be racist comments/language and, then I was surprised when there wasn't! Solid four stars and a keeper :-)

>1 majkia: question: would a subtitle qualify? I just picked up a copy of The Lives of a Cell which has an N in the subtitle, "Notes of a Biology Watcher".

So I'll do No Man's Land by David Baldacci and Instinct by Jeremy Robinson for N and I respectively

The Night Sister / Jennifer McMahon
3.5 stars

Amy, Piper, and Margot were friends in the 1980s when they were young (Piper and Margot are also sisters); Jason was an outsider who was in love with Amy. Amy lived in a motel that had been in her family for a while. At that same motel in the 1950s, Amy’s mother, Rose, and Rose’s sister Sylvie grew up. Rose and Sylvie’s grandmother told them stories of “mares”, humans who changed into monsters, but their mother told them it was just her grandmother telling stories. At the same time, weird things happened at the motel… As adults, Amy is married and calls Jason (who is now married to Margot) in a panic to come talk to her; a week later, tragedy…

I listened to the audio, so that often has some influence. To be honest, I found the first half of the book a bit slow, and lost interest at times, but I did pick up most of what was going on. Half way through, the pace picked up for me, and for the last third, it was much more riveting, I thought. When I heard the twist at the end, I didn’t believe that could work from what had already been told in the story, so I thought re-listening (or reading) would be helpful to figuring it out, but ultimately, I think things did all get explained. Overall, I’m rating it “good”, averaging out the slowness of the start, with the fast-pace of the end.

My N selection:



Naturally Tan by Tan France
My 10yo son and I both absolutely adore Queer Eye, and watching it together has led to so many fantastic conversations about acceptance and loving kindness and self-care and self-love. I'm so grateful and happy that this show exists and that the cast are all so loving and open. And so this memoir-loving gal was delighted to get her hands on this book; reader, it doesn't disappoint. France tells us about growing up as South Asian and gay in the UK and about the struggles inherent in negotiating those qualities with the world, then moves on to moving to the states, starting multiple businesses, battling the immense stress caused by running those businesses, and finally, of course, getting cast and being a member of the QE show. He manages to be honest about himself and the world as he sees it in a lovely and gracious way, and walks the humble-and-grateful line without tipping over into humble-brag territory or insincerity at all. It's well done and engaging, and (as all honestly-written memoirs are, I believe) brave, and I'm grateful to Mr. France for sharing a bit of his life with us.

I just finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, which was excellent and hit both letters.

I have completed by I read with The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridason.

I found this title on the Amazon Prime Reading list and grabbed for an evening's read:

Neanderthal Seeks Human: A Smart Romance (Knitting in the City #1; by Penny Reid) - This is a contemporary romance comedy novel about a woman who falls for the security guard who escorts her out of her last place of employment! Character depictions, setting (Chicago) and, off beat humor were well developed; though the knitting club aspect seemed out of place and, the character of the sister seemed bizarre. There were also two or three places where an important sentence was dropped from a paragraph so it didn't really make sense. Sexy times were alluded to but not graphically described. Cute and fun. 3.75 stars.

Adding a few more completed books for this challenge.

Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
Into Oblivion by Arnaldur Indridason
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

A Town Like Alice / Nevil Shute
3.5 stars

Jean is in her 20s when she is left an inheritance by an uncle she never knew; she is his only descendant. But, he didn’t trust women to take care of money, so it was left in a trust with the lawyer, Noel, until Jean turns 35. Noel gets to know Jean quite well and learns of her history as a prisoner of war in Malaya (Singapore) with other women and children who were forced to march on and on and on because there was no actual prison for them. Many died in the travels. Along the way, Jean met an Australian prisoner.

It was good. Odd point of view, told from Noel’s POV, though Jean was the main character, so it was pretty much her story told by him, but at a distance. There was racism (a heck of a lot to our 21st century eyes and ears), sexism, and the end, I thought, was pretty implausible. I don’t want to say too much, but Jean single-handedly doing as much as she did? I doubt it. Despite all that, though, it was a good story. The author’s note at the end was interesting – the prisoner march of women and children really did happen.

Nine Coaches Waiting. Great gothic horror story.

September thread is up" https://www.librarything.com/topic/310209

I read Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov for the N.

COMPLETED Empires of the Word by Nicholas Ostler

Starting "Nietzche: A Very Short Introduction" by Michael Tanner

COMPLETED Nietzsche: A Very Short Introduction by Michael Tanner

Into the Water / Paula Hawkins
4 stars

There’s a body of water that has been claiming women’s lives for centuries. In 2015, within a few months, 15-year old Lena’s best friend Katie, then Lena’s mom, both end up in that water. It appears to be suicide for both. Lena’s mom, Nel, has been writing about the deaths and that water. Nel was estranged from her younger sister, Jules, who has now come to look after the niece she’s never met.

It started off a bit slow, but I thought it picked up as it went on. A bit confusing, especially at the start, with not only a lot of characters, but each chapter being told from someone else’s viewpoint. Of course, it wasn’t a different character for every chapter all the way through, but it was difficult to get used to who was who at the start, and it seemed more so with the differing viewpoints, but it might just have been the number of characters overall. The chapters are short, which helps it feel faster to read. In any case, I quite liked it in the end. A few twists, but not too many, mostly at the very end.

I completed my "N" read with the excellent Collusion by Stuart Neville.

I am reading The Invisible Girls by Sarah Thebarge for the I.

Northanger Abbey (by Jane Austen; narrated by Juliet Stevenson) - This is a Classic tale that satirizes the sentiments of novels of early nineteenth century novels. The main character is Catherine Morland, a seventeen-year old girl who loves novels but whose imagination runs away with her as she navigates the social whirl of Bath and, later at Northanger Abbey. Told from Jane Austen's POV, the narrator's voice adds meta-irony into the story. The audiobook narrator's voice is that of Juliet Stevenson, noted British actress who delivers a performance with warm tones and the appropriate level of snark.

Dr. No by Ian Fleming
I haven't read this since I was a teenager so this month's AlphaCAT was a good excuse to resurrect it. As expected, there are some dated sections and language, and lots of silliness, but still it was an entertaining afternoon's read, although funny more than exciting (I remember the movie with Ursula Andress where there was an audible chuckle from the audience every time Bond used Honey's name). Because of our familiarity with Bond and the knowledge that he survives all challenges, the suspense has evaporated in the intervening decades.

The Long Winter / Laura Ingalls Wilder
4.5 stars

The Ingalls family has come to the Dakotas and is homesteading there. When there are early signs of a really bad winter, Pa decides they should move into town and live in their store, which is better insulated against the cold to come. This turns out to be a good choice, as this particular winter turns out to have blizzard after blizzard after blizzard hit, with few breaks in between. Due to all the blizzards, trains can’t get through to bring additional supplies – food, coal (for heat), etc.

I love these books! The series is so much fun to reread. This one, I thought, was so good at describing/capturing the cold of the prairie winters. I grew up on the Canadian Prairies and it can be cold. Of course, we are now very lucky to have the heating we do. I can’t imagine that kind of cold inside the house or the isolation they would have felt at the time, as well, with the trains not able to get to them! This really is an amazing series.

>46 LibraryCin: The Long Winter is my favorite of the Little House books.

Finished Last Train to Istanbul for my "I" book. I am nearly finished Women Rowing North for my "N".

Finished It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis on 8/31/19. Last book for August. Works for I.