October AlphaKIT: H and E

Welcome to the October 2021 AlphaKIT, an unofficial challenge in the 2021 Category Challenge Group.

The rules are: 1. Use these letters any way you wish to select reading for the month. 2. Enjoy your reading.

and

The letter images are thanks to @helenliz ! Thanks so much, they're lovely.

Please remember to update the wiki: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2021_AlphaKIT#October:_-_Letters:_H_and_...

My book club's choice for October is "Max Havelaar" by Multatuli, the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker, while my reading group's choice is The Unwilling Vestal by Edward Lucas White.

Here's what I found for HE!

✔Beach House
✔Calculated Whisk by Victoria Hamilton
✔Camp Half-Blood Confidential:
✔Chapter and Curse by Elizabeth Penney
✔Death with a Double Edge
✔From Port to Rigor Morte by J. C. Eaton
✔Halloween Tree
✔Hammet Hex
✔Hollow of Fear
✔Hollywood Spy
✔Lyin' Eyes
Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel
Mystery of Albert E. Finch by Callie Hutton
✔On the Fringe by Aaron Elkins
✔To the Tome of Murder by Lauren Elliott
✔Without a Brew by Ellie Alexander

I am thinking of reading Pirate Code by Helen Hollick and Watching the Ghosts by Kate Ellis.

I think I will probably be reading Hardcore 24 by Janet Evanovich and Eventide by Kent Haruf.

I'll be reading Glimmering by Elizabeth Hand.

I'm planning on Hosts, Valor's Trial by Tanya Huff, and A Traitor to Memory by Elizabeth George.

I plan to read a couple of books from a series I own, which is Home to Heather Creek. For 2022 challenge, I want to read more of the series books I own and still need to get through.

>8 LadyoftheLodge: - That's what I did for the Alpha Kit this year. I figured it would help me get through 26 series books. (Not that it will help me catch up much)

>8 LadyoftheLodge: >9 dudes22: This year I added quite a few series I wanted to concentrate on. I'm doing okay, but not as well as I'd hoped. Those darn shiny new books....

>10 majkia: I am currently going through book mourning. Now that I have unpacked my books and shelved them, I am noticing that I got rid of some that I should have kept. Now I am buying used copies of some of those. I think I weeded the shelves ruthlessly and now I am remorseful.

Just a note of thanks to @majkia, for all she does with this challenge!

AlphaKIT is my favorite challenge, and the one I use to set up all my other challenge choices.

And I apologize for being slack about the wiki...

so far; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley for H
The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers for E.

Currently reading "The Hurricane Party" by Klas Östergren

I'm reading Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution.

COMPLETED The Hurricane Party by Klas Östergren

I've finished Hardcore Twenty-Four by Janet Evanovich.

The Husband / Dean Koontz
3.5 stars

Mitch is a gardener… makes less than $40,000/year. What a shock when he gets a phone call from his wife (and her kidnapper) that she is being kidnapped and they expect Mitch to come up with $2 million! And to prove they aren’t kidding around, they shoot the pedestrian walking his dog across the street from where Mitch is on the phone…

This started off really tense. It slowed down in the middle, though there were definitely some surprises thrown in there. Although the end ramped up again somewhat with a race against time, it didn’t pull me back in like I was pulled in at the start, but I’m not sure why that was. I did listen to the audio, and for the most part it kept my attention.

I finished listening to Horrorstör (by Grady Hendrix; narrated by Tai Sammons and Bronson Pinchot) over the weekend - Set in a big box, IKEA-rip off retail space, this story is about the odd goings-on after the customers have left for the day. Part horror, part satire, I found myself engrossed in the original story, but paradoxically not feeling like either of the narrators were particularly great in their respective performances (Ms Sammons reads the bulk of the text (POV1) while Mr Pinchot reads the chapter breaks-- ads for various offerings from the store.) I also got a print copy of the title and love the design that went into the layout. Usually, I rate downwards when I have mixed feelings, but in this case four-stars doesn't feel wrong and I'm not adverse to reading/listening to another Grady Hendrix title :-)

I started Locke & Key (by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez; narrated by Haley Joel Osment, Tatiana Maslany, Kate Mulgrew and a full cast) yesterday. Two juveniles invade a home, looking for a key and the situation goes sideways quickly when the father is fatally wounded. The surviving Locke family members move to East to Lovecraft, MA where there are paranormal shenanigans afoot! This is an adaptation of the graphic novels (which I have admittedly not read) and is overall okay, if a bit confusing in parts (e.g. sounds of scuffling which may or may not be immediately explained as to who is fighting or what exactly is happening...). Not as slick of a production as the Sandman audios, but interesting enough to keep me on the hook and finish.

I read The Horizontal Man by Helen Eustis.

I read Prayers and Promises (Home to Heather Creek) by Robert Elmer, which gave me a CAT trick for this challenge (both letters completed with one book). Or maybe it is a KIT Trick??

I read Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound.

COMPLETED four novels by Kate Ellis:

The Blood Pit
A Perfect Death
The Flesh Tailor
The Jackal Man

Starting "The Last Human" by Zack Jordan

I read One for the Money by Janet Evanovich. It was a lot of fun so I know I'll be reading more.

I have completed both my October reads with Pirate Code by Helen Hollick and Watching the Ghosts by Kate Ellis.

I just read an H book, How to Walk Away by Katherine Center. And now I'm starting my E book, The Escape by Mary Balogh.

I decided to do a reread of Plainsong by Kent Haruf for my "H" read this month.

November thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/335999

I completed Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi for E.

I'm about 50 pages from completing The Midnight Library by Matt Haig for H.

Both are very good and could hardly be more different from one another.

Starting "Boy Meets Hamster" by Birdie Milano

COMPLETED Boy Meets Hamster by Birdie Milano

My H read is A Witch Too Late by M.E. Harmon and Paula Lester and my E read is Bon Jovi Encyclopaedia by Neil Daniels

Another H Coyote Waits by Tony Hilllerman

I read They Went Left by Monica Hesse for H

Lilac Girls / Martha Hall Kelly
3.75 stars

This follows three women during the time of WWII. Kasia was a young girl/woman in Poland who ended up in Ravensbruck, a concentration camp for women where experiments were done on some of those women. Herta was a woman doctor who initially had trouble finding work, but took a job at Ravensbruck, initially not realizing what she was getting into. Caroline was a wealthy woman in the US involved somehow with orphaned children in France, and later with helping women who had survived Ravensbruck.

It took a while for me to get “into” the book. I was listening to the audio, so that may have contributed, but I did like both Kasia’s and Herta’s stories. All the stories skipped forward in time fairly quickly, and I would have liked for it not to skip so much time so fast, as I felt like things got missed.

I could have done without Caroline’s story altogether, and definitely without Paul (her married-to-someone-else French lover). He was creepy (though this may, in part, have been due to the woman’s voice narrating a man’s voice with a French accent – I’ve thought this before with a woman narrating a man’s voice with a French accent). In any case, I did not like Paul at all and found he and Caroline extremely boring. All her pining (and later his) just made me roll my eyes. Ugh! The only time Caroline’s POV was interesting to me was later in the book when she was more involved with Kasia’s story.

I also had never heard the term “rabbits” before when referring to women who had been experimented on. I looked it up part-way into the book (if it was addressed in the book, I missed it), and there is a reason that it referred only to these particular women and experiments. It is also addressed in the author’s note at the end.

Author’s note at the end: Herta and Caroline were real people (though Paul was made up). Kasia and her sister were also fictional but based on real sisters who had been imprisoned at Ravensbruck and who had been experimented on.

The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg / Helen Rappaport
3.25 stars

This book really does focus on the last two weeks of the lives of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife and children (4 daughters and 1 son) as they were imprisoned and later murdered. It does back up in time, though, to detail how they got where they were.

There was a lot more politics in the book than I’d expected, so that was not as interesting to me as the parts that did focus on the family itself. I will say, though, that this seemed really well researched, with a lot of primary sources being used, most notably (I think) writings by the last head guard of the Romanovs in Ekaterinburg (Yakov Yurovsky), who was also one of the main murderers. This book may have included the most detailed description of the murders themselves, likely due to the writings of Yurovsky.

Finished Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb, for H.

I'm trying to squeeze in one more book that would count for both letters, People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry.

I still haven't done an E this month. The book I'd picked out had a longer hold list than I'd expected. Still waiting on it. I plan to come back and post here once I get to it! (I am waiting on that hold...)

>37 Kristelh: I loved that book.

Ha! And when I posted yesterday, it did not occur to me that I was in the middle of listening to an E book! So, E is done (this month) after all!

No One Goes Alone / Erik Larson
2 stars

In 1905, a group of people come together to head out to an isolated house on an island where a family disappeared (I think). The people seem to be investigating paranormal activity. Part-way through, I was confused when it sounded like the group of people was shipwrecked, but I think the boat was taken or it disappeared or something, but the original intent for heading out to the island was still the paranormal activity (I think).

This was “published” as an audio book only, as Larson felt that ghost stories are meant to be told aloud. Great idea! Also great title, and (usually) great author. I was more interested in the author’s note at the end (at least it held my attention more) than the story itself.

This one, though, for me, did not hold my interest. It felt like a “classic” – slow, not much happened (I don’t think; what did happen, I missed much of). Probably the male British narrator did not help for me (for whatever reason, just that type of narration/voice will tune me out.) Like some others, it reminded me of The Haunting of Hill House, with a bit of And Then There Were None thrown in (but both of those are better – or maybe it’s because I didn’t listen to the audios of those?).

My E book is by Louise Erdrich, Future Home of the Living God published 2017.

I read The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths which was a twofer...H and E

I finished Locke & Key, the audio drama by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez; narrated by a full cast starring Haley Joel Osment, Tatiana Maslany & Kate Mulgrew) :-)

Ending the month with two books read for H:

The House of Ashes, by Stuart Neville
The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien

COMPLETED last night: The Hurtle of Hell by Simon Edge