Best December 2021 Read

My best was Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone by Diana Gabaldon. It was book 9/9, thus far. However, Gabaldon did announce that a book 10 will be forthcoming--but not anytime soon. Although I rated this 4/5, it was not as satisfying as the other books in the series as it introduced a plethora of new characters (or some that hadn't been around in the last 4-5 novels) and much action took place outside of Frazer's Ridge.

Audiobook of The Worm Ouroboros by E.R.Eddison. I'm only halfway thru but both the book and the reader are very good.

George Gissing's The Odd Women. The "odd" women are surplus late Victorian gentlewomen who cannot find husbands and must support themselves at a time when few ladies of slender means had any practical training for anything outside of paid companionship or governessing. Stenography, typewriting, and motivational lectures are dispensed at a private training institute for women who have ambition, discipline, and talent. The novel is a nice blend of soap opera and social criticism, but you come away with the idea that Gissing feels that women are to be pitied, but they're kind of a problem.

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe. This was one of the best books that I read all year. It is a nonfiction account of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, centering on three or four Provisional IRA members and their possible involvement in the abduction and murder of the mother of 10. The author also exposes the ill conceived and executed oral history project about the Troubles at Boston College.

>4 vwinsloe: That was a very good book! I enjoyed that, too.

>5 nohrt4me2:. One of the interesting things about it, was that it really incorporated all of the mixed feelings and unreliable narrations involved. Although it reached a probable conclusion about the central whodunit, the reasons behind it, and the question of whether, in general, the unfocused resistance, hamfisted violence and political treachery was worth it in the end, was left up to the reader.

>6 vwinsloe: Yes, as someone whose family was deeply partisan--Irish-Americans are sometimes the most rabid--I appreciated the general even-handedness of the reportage. I passed the book along to my son.

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich.

>4 vwinsloe: put that on my WL

First of The Dublin Trilogy, A Man With One of Those Faces. Irish characters! Each bit player is fascinating all on their own. Might have to pony up for the sequels, as none of my libraries has them.

The Christmas Dress by Courtney Cole.