October AlphaKIT: D and V

Welcome to AlphaKIT for October. Not that I won't be happy to be rid of 2020. but October!

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!

October AlphaKIT letters are : D and V.

and

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

I am planning on reading The Golden Prince by Rebecca Dean and The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman

>2 DeltaQueen50: - Padma Venkatraman is a local author for me. I'v been to a couple of her author talks at the library. I haven't read her latest book yet, but there's a long list here for it. I'll get to it eventually. It's been nominated for the 2021 Rhode Island Middle School Book Award.

I'm planning on reading Dog Years: A Memoir by Mark Doty and The Dressmaker's Gift by Fiona Valpy.

I'm planning on The Dispatcher, and Vicious. Also, if I can get to it Two Graves by Douglas Preston.

>2 DeltaQueen50: That's cool, Betty. I am looking forward to reading her for the first time.

>5 DeltaQueen50: - I'll be waiting to see what you think, Judy.

Lots of choices here. I think I will have to wait and see how they fit with other challenges.

Last month with M as a letter I saw a lot of Murder, this month with D, I foresee a lot of Death!

✔Better Odd Wed by Laura Durham
✔Chasing Down a Dream
✔Connect the Dots
✔Death by Chocolate Frosted Doughnut
✔Death, Dismay, and Rosé
✔Digging for Trouble
✔Diva Frosts a Cupcake
✔Dough or Die
Eat, Drink and Be Wary
Gourd to Death
✔Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Murder in Venice
Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn
✔Red Dragon and the West Wind
Southern Double Cross
✔Tea & Treachery by Vicki Delany
Trace Elements by Donna Leon
Veiled in Death

I have at least these two that I'm planning:

- Where the Crawdads Sing / Delia Owens
- The Venetian's Wife / Nick Bantock

I've got a few planned reads for this month -- definitely more D's than V's!

- Evie *Dunmore, A Rogue of One's Own
- Mary *Doria Russell, The Sparrow
- P.*D. James, Talking about *Detective Fiction
- Mimi Matthews, The *Viscount and the *Vicar's Daughter

For this one I plan to read
The Southern Book Club Guide to Slaying Vampires
The Vice-Consul by Marguerite Duras which has both V and D. Spose one could read books about VD.

I read The Lost Diary of Venice by Margaux DeRoux which counted for both letters this month. I will probably read a few others though.

Starting "Deception in the Cotswolds" by Rebecca Tope

Covered both letters with Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien - a fun cozy mystery.

Finished The Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, for my V.

Voyage in the Dark is a short, powerful novel by Jean Rhys. This one will stay with me for a while.

Where the Crawdads Sing / Delia Owens
4 stars

In the early 1950s, 5- or 6-year old Kya watches her mother walk away from the shack Kya and her siblings are growing up in. She doesn’t come home. Over the next few years, Kya’s older siblings also walk away, until it’s only Kya and her neglectful (and sometimes drunk and abusive) father. When Kya is 9 or 10, her father leaves, too. Kya spends all her time in the marsh and doesn’t feel comfortable with other people, who tease her and call her “Marsh Girl”. In 1969, a young man is found at the bottom of a fire tower. They aren’t sure if it was an accident or not, but the sheriff is investigating as if it’s not.

The book brings us up in time to the event in 1969, and slightly beyond. It’s pretty slow-moving, but the last quarter or so of the book, I found really dramatic and I upped my rating due to that.

For D, I read Durable Goods by Elizabeth Berg.

For V, I am planning to read The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone by Felicity McLean.

COMPLETED Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Starting "Galileo: A Very Short Introduction" by Stillman Drake

COMPLETED Galileo: A Very Short Introduction by Stillman Drake.

Starting "Doubt" by C. E. Tobisman

Completed Sixty Degrees North by Malachi Tallack for D.

I finished The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea. I hope to read Voss sometime this month for my V book.

COMPLETED Doubt by C. Tobisman

Starting "Pamela, Or Virtue Rewarded" by Samuel Richardson

The Venetian's Wife / Nick Bantock
3.5 stars

Sara works at a museum and isn’t looking for a new job when she is contacted by email, out of the blue, but someone she doesn’t know. This man is offering her a mysterious well-paid job, and their contact is to only be via email. It turns out he would like her to help him find and acquire 4 original sculptures from the 15th century. Meanwhile, she does miss seeing the man at work she has a crush on.

This is something very different, with illustrations peppered on most (if not all) pages; it was part in diary form and part email. This surprised me. I was a bit doubtful about it and could not remember why I added it to my tbr. I’m not that much into art, and it has an odd subtitle. It was good, though. It moved quickly, so was not very long and did not take long to read.

I've also read a couple more mysteries by Victoria Thompson:

Murder in Morningside Heights and Murder in the Bowery

November thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/325353

Finished All the Devils are Here by Louise Penny for D.

COMPLETED Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

I completed both my AlphaKit reads for the month with The Golden Prince by Rebecca Dean and The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman

The Dark Heart: A True Story of Greed, Murder, and an Unlikely Investigator / Joakim Palmkvist
4 stars

This is true crime in Sweden, a translation. In 2012, a man, Goran, disappears. His oldest daughter (in her 20s), Sara, is set to inherit her father’s forestry business. Goran was very well off (though stingy with what he spent). Goran had had a feud with his neighbour for a long time, and he had been upset with Sara for dating the neighbour’s son. It was longer than one would expect before Sara even reported her father missing. In the meantime, a woman named Therese had recently set up “Missing Persons”, a volunteer group who help police with searches.

The book gave a lot of info about police procedure -- what the police need to do and how they need to do it while investigating -- which I found quite interesting. I did think Therese took a few too many chances, though! Yikes! Overall, I found this really interesting and quite enjoyed reading it.

COMPLETED:

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
A Distant View of Everything by Alexander McCall Smith

Currently reading "Seeing Voices" by Oliver Sacks

Phantoms / Dean Koontz
4 stars

When Jenny, a doctor, arrives in her small town of about 500 people with her much younger sister Lisa, to whom Jenny is now guardian, the place is still like nothing she’s ever experienced. When they arrive at home, they find her housekeeper on the kitchen floor, dead. The phone is not working, so they head next door to use the neighbour’s phone to call the police, but the neighbours are no where to be found. And no working phone. Jenny and Lisa investigate a bit further to find people either missing or dead.

I really liked this one. A bit creepy to be reading by myself after dark, but isn’t that what horror is for!? The author has a note at the end about the writing of the book, which was also interesting.

COMPLETED Seeing Voices by Oliver Sacks

Starting "The Supplicating Voice" by Samuel Johnson

I finished The Vice-Consul by Marguerite Duras. For V and D.

I finished reading Prince Valiant, Vol. 9: 1953-1954 by Hal Foster last night, a 4 star for me.

COMPLETED The Supplicating Voice by Samuel Johnson (touchstones?)

Managed to get three D books in for October:

Dalek Empire 2.4: Dalek War, Chapter 4, by Nicholas Briggs (Big Finish audio drama)
The Mark on the Door, by Franklin W. Dixon
Death Under Sail, by C. P. Snow

Well, it's the last day of Oct and I didn't manage to finish my books this month. I'm in the middle of my "D" book but haven't even started a "V" book. I'm hoping to catch up before the end of the year though.

I finished Vicious. Which was.... different.

Finishing up The Murder at the Vicarage, by Agatha Christie, for my "V" book. For "D" I read Dear Mr. Henshaw, by Beverly Cleary. I seem to read nothing but mysteries and children's books lately.

>40 jlshall: now you need to read the sequel to Dear Mr. Henshaw, Strider.

>41 fuzzi: I know! I've got it on my "must read" list. I've always loved Beverly Cleary.

>40 jlshall: That sounds like my kind of reading too. I have been reading Beverly Cleary since I was a child, and I love to re-read her books. Ellen Tebbits and the Ramona the Pest books are my faves.

>1 majkia: I promise I'll update the Wiki, soon!

>43 LadyoftheLodge: I've never read Ellen Tebbits, but it's on my TBR list. I read most of the Henry Huggins books when I was a child, but only discovered the Ramona books as an adult. I'm sort of glad I saved them for now!

I've finished one of my Oct Alpha books: Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas.

>45 jlshall: me too, finding Ramona as an adult. I also recall Ellen Tebbits which is more dated, but still a fun read.