July AlphaKIT:

Welcome to AlphaKIT for July.
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 : J and R.

and

Please remember to update the wiki and enter books alphabetically: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2020_AlphaKIT#July:_-_Letters:_J_and_R

My Reading Group choice of July is "Hero of Rome" by Douglas Jackson and my Book Club book is Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, so that's both letters taken care of.

Have the following set aside for July - hopefully I can get to some of them:

Unsolicited by Julie Kaewert
Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck
Though This Be Madness by Penny Richards
All the Names by Jose Saragamo
The Man in the Red Coat by Julian Barnes
Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles

I'm planning on reading Hell is Empty by Craig Johnson, next up in the Longmire series for me, and The Women of Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell.

I'm planning on:

The Ruin of Kings - Jenn Lyons
Crucible - James Rollins
Where the Hell is Tesla - Rob Dircks

I hope to read 2 books by Paulette Jiles for J, her new one Simon the Fiddler and an older one The Color of Lightning.

Not sure about R. If I need a short one it will probably be The Gauguin Collection by Estelle Ryan. If I have the time though I'll read Doc by Mary Doria Russell.

July?? How did that happen?

>6 clue: I loved Doc -- hope you enjoy it as well!

I'm definitely planning on Natalie Jenner's The Jane Austen Society for J. Not sure what I'll pick for R yet.

I am planning on reading Pride of Lancashire by Anna Jacobs and Holy Island by LJ Ross.

>6 clue: I loved Doc! Even when I do a rehoming purge of my shelves, Doc remains, and on my L'Amour shelves, too.

>7 christina_reads:, >9 fuzzi: Okay, that settles it, it has to be Doc. Thanks for the comments!

>10 clue: ain't LT grand???!!! :D

From what I've figured out for other challenges, I don't (yet) have an R, but for J, if I decide to do a curbside pickup at the library, I might go for:

Jane / Aline Brosh McKenna (graphic novel)

Here are some possible selections for me:

✔Body in the Apartment by Judi Lynn
✔Body in the gravel by Judi Lynn
✔Body in the Wetlands by Judi Lynn
Chasing Down a Dream by Beverly Jenkins
✔Dark Queen Rising
✔Deep Fried Revenge
✔Divide and Concord by J.C. Eaton
Jane Seymour, The Haunted Queen
✔Killer Queen by Julie Mulhern
✔Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
✔Murder at Royale Court
✔Murder in the Secret Maze by Judith Gonda
✔Murder in the Wine Country by Janet Finsilver
Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn
✔Playing the Devil by R.J. Lee
✔Seaside Café by Rochelle Alers

>12 LibraryCin: Ooh, my library has that too...

I hope to read Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. I have some J books on my kindle but I don't know which one(s) I'll pick yet.

I will probably read The Gown by Jennifer Robson.

>16 LadyoftheLodge: I really enjoyed that one especially the 1947 plot line. Hope you like it!

>17 beebeereads: It has been on my TBR list for awhile, and I snagged a decent copy for free from the Little Free Library near the local grocery store.

Just got this book The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen which would be perfect for this alphakit.

Finished my "J" book for this month: Hell is Empty by Craig Johnson.

I have also finished my "J" read with Pride of Lancashire by Anna Jacobs.

I read The Runaway Beignet by Connie Morgan for the "R" selection.

I finished Crucible: A Thriller by James Rollins.

COMPLETED Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.

Read a couple so far for this challenge:

Class Reunions are Murder by Libby Klein
Hid From Our Eyes by Julia Spencer-Fleming
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein

Starting "Rousseau: A Very Short Introduction" by Robert Wokler.

I have finished the sci fi audiobook Junkyard Cats and am in the progress of reading Revelation Space.

I finished The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West (for the R) Return and Rebecca.

I'm hoping to read Honor's Knight by Rachel Bach for my R book, but it's on hold at my local library, and I think they're quite delayed in processing holds right now. So in the meantime, I'm reading Murder Is Bad Manners by Robin Stevens, which looks like it'll be a fun MG historical mystery.

I've finished The Women of the Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell for my "R".

I read Five Ring Circus by Jon Cleary covering both letters.

I have completed my "R" read with Holy Island by LJ Ross. This book was a complete waste of time but at least here is one series that I can let go of quite happily.

August Thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/322335

Having finished Revelation Space, I proceeded to read Joseph Andrews and Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches… I am having good luck with these letters :)

COMPLETED two books by Gordon Jackson, Hero of Rome and Defender of Rome

Another completion for this month: The Gown by Jennifer Robson.

The Great Halifax Explosion / John U. Bacon
4 stars

On Dec. 5, 1917, two ships collided in the Halifax Harbour. One of them was loaded down with explosives, meant to head to Europe for the war effort. Instead, with the collision, a good chunk of Halifax and neighbouring Richmond were wiped out in an instant, along with a couple thousand (likely a low estimate) people, and more thousands injured.

This was very well researched. It does include some discussion of the war, and a soldier from Nova Scotia who ended up helping out after the disaster, as he was back home after being severely injured. Also includes a detailed account of the ships and crew involved in the collision, as well as tidbits of time of some of the civilians on shore who were affected (lost family members, lost homes, injuries...).

I finished The Ruin of Kings which I found disappointing.

I read She: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard. So another R for me.

I have completed Doc by Mary Doria Russell.

>40 clue: and? And? Didja like it?

>41 fuzzi: Oh yes, very much so. I'll read Epitaph and got The Women of the Copper Country in my library curbside pickup yesterday.

Deep Freeze / Lisa Jackson
4.5 stars

Jenna was an actress until an accident on her last movie. She quit and left for a small town in Oregon, after divorcing her husband and taking her two teenage daughters with her. Unfortunately, there seems to be a serial killer in the area, and Jenna seems to be the target of smaller crimes.

Probably not the most exciting summary, but I was really hooked on this one! I could call it a mystery, a thriller, suspenseful, and horror. I added in horror after reading one night before bed and having to convince myself to get up and do the nightly routine, including heading to the basement to clean the cat litter! Didn’t want to head down there... Although she wrapped up this book, at the end she started up what will be the second book in the series. I had already decided if it was a series, I’d be continuing; she didn’t need the cliffhanger to convince me.

>37 LibraryCin: That must have been a hard read. I did not know about that tragedy.

>42 clue: excellent! Epitaph is very good, but skip the last chapter. It's not needed, and a bit of a let down.

>44 mnleona: And I forgot to mention, in my review, the snowstorm that hit the next day, while they were still looking for survivors. It was very interesting.

I finally finished reading Messinants (Pyreans #2; by S. H. Jucha) and, sorry to say, it just wasn't very good. I've read and listened to more than a dozen of this author's works and, it's time to say "Good bye". I love the Silver Ships audiobooks but the two Pyrean ebooks I have really expose the writing flaws. It absolutely fails the Chekov's Gun test in that he spends a lot of time on meticulously explaining mechanics/technology, economy and deals, etc. that don't advance the plot. I found myself skimming through more than half the book, touching on plot points and vaguely recalling that this is what happened with Empaths, the first book in this series that I read last year. It's a shame, the idea held promise: The Empaths have the ability to send waves of emotion to other people. While therapeutic to the recipient, it also poses a danger when an empath's emotions turn dark. In the first book, one such empath is assaulted and she retaliates, sending her on the run. In the second book, she pretty much disappears as the focus turns to a time/space gate that is accidentally opened and First Contact between two alien species is established. I was hoping to get through the next two books in the series, after which it merges with Silver Ships, but now that I see the writing issues, I can't unsee them :-(

I read Johnny Get Your Gun by John Dudley Ball for my J.

I have finished several books that qualify for this KIT: Just Add Salt by Jinx Schwartz (1.5*); Relative Fortunes by Marlowe Benn (3*); Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit by P.G. Wodehouse {reread} (4*); and Raven Black by Ann Cleeves (4*)

>48 Kristelh: I thought that was excellent.

>47 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I don't know about technical aspects of writing, but I notice when an author gets sidetracked with explanations. I appreciate authors (CJ Cherryh comes to mind) that drop you into the story and explain things in bits and pieces along the way.

Few more reads for this challenge:

Wicked Redhead by Beatriz Williams
Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things / Randy Frost, Gail Steketee
4 stars

The authors are psychologists who were the first to really study hoarding behaviour. This tells of some of the psychology of hoarding and presents many case studies of people they worked with. Hoarding is usually associated with OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), but the authors feel that it should be its own category.

People who hoard show different symptoms of different mental health disorders, including OCD, perfectionism, anxiety, and more I’m forgetting. People have different reasons they present for not wanting to get rid of their things, including not wanting to be wasteful, growing attached to their belongings, and more. Their families are affected. The case studies in this book include children of hoarders and how they are affected, as well as children who are, themselves, hoarders. One chapter also looks at animal hoarding.

I can see myself, just a tiny bit in some of the traits the authors present in their case studies, but I don’t go anywhere near the extremes of people who really are hoarders. I found this so interesting.

Jane / Aline Brosh McKenna, Ramon K. Perez
4 stars

This is a graphic novel, modern-day retelling of Jane Eyre. Jane is an orphan who manages to leave the unloving home where she grows up to move to New York City to become an artist. While at school, she finds a job as a nanny to a girl whose mother has died and her father is never around.

This was really good. In addition to being a very well-told story, the illustrations are really well done and easy to follow.

This sounds like a winner. I have read some graphic novels that were really hard to follow because the illustrations did not lend themselves well to the story, or the print was too small for me.

>55 LadyoftheLodge: I hope you like it! From other reviews, it sounds like some who liked the original were disappointed in this one. I think I rated the original either 3 stars (ok) or 3.5 (good). I don't remember it well, though.

A couple more finished - The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths & The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez.

Red Bones / Ann Cleeves
3 stars

When this small Shetland Island sees two deaths in a very short time, one apparently accidental, and one a suicide, the police begin to wonder. Mima, an older lady who owns the land an archaeological dig is happening on, is accidentally shot and killed. And not long after, one of the people working on the dig appears to have committed suicide.

There are a lot of characters and I had a hard time keeping some of them straight, especially as to how they related to each other. I did think the book picked up in the second half when the second body was found. Or, really, when it appeared the person was missing. For the first half of the book, I thought it was time to give up on the series, but with the second half, I think I’ll do one more. Just not on audio. This one wasn’t, but I’ve read one of the others on audio, and that is definitely not the way to go for me for this series.

COMPLETED Arthur & George by Julian Barnes

Three books fit for the AlphaKIT this month.

J books
Journey to the Centre of the Earth, by Jules Verne, translated by Robert Baldrick (re-read)

R books
The Women of the Copper Country, by Mary Doria Russell
Thinking Inside the Box: Adventures with Crosswords and the Puzzling People Who Can't Live Without Them, by Adrienne Raphel