September RandomKIT: A time to harvest

Image: from the Book of Hours of the Duc de Berry, courtesy of Wikipedia

September is traditionally associated with harvesting. The Anglo-Saxons called it gerstmonth for the barley usually harvested at the time. One of its German names is Herbstmond, which derives from an ancient word for harvest and now means autumn. It is the month of the equinox and the beginning of autumn. For the French, it also means the grape harvest, and the French Revolutionary Calendar has Vendémiaire starting on 22 September.

29 September is Michaelmas Day, which is the feast day of the three Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. It is also an ancient quarter day in the judicial, academic and financial year, when peasants had to pay their rents and labourers could look for new employment at fairs.

So, in September you could read a book about wine, beer, food, drink and the joys of reaping the rewards of labouring in the field.
You could read a book with a related word in the title.
You could read a book about angels.
You could read a book about autumn, about storms raging in the equinoctial nights, about hard work being rewarded with success, by an author whose name is Michael (Michelle), Gabriel(le) or Raphael(le), or whatever else occurs to you.

Some ideas:
The autumn of the patriarch by Gabriel Garciá Márquez
Dandelion wine by Ray Bradbury
The wine-dark sea by Patrick O’Brian or Leonardo Sciascia
Red harvest by Dashiell Hammett
What’s eating Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges
Harvest by Tess Gerritsen
Harvest Moon by Mercedes Lackey
Autumn by Ali Smith or Knut Ove Knausgard
Quartet in autumn by Barbara Pym
The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss
Not by bread alone by Vladimir Dudintsev

Apologies to our fellow LTers from the Southern Hemisphere now enjoying spring from us who welcome autumn after a scorching summer!

And here's the link to the Wiki: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php?title=RandomKIT_2022

This is the perfect opportunity for me to read Last Leaves, by Stephen Leacock. The title and indeed the cover of my edition are very autumnal.

The only book that leaps out at me at the moment is The Angel of History by Rabih Alameddine

I think I'll be reading Universal Harvester by John Darnielle. It came onto my radar a few months ago and I immediately picked up a copy, but haven't gotten around to it yet. This seems like the perfect time!

Great topic! I am planning to read Under A Harvest Moon by Sophie Lynbrook. This is a spin-off of Pride and Prejudice.

Thanks, this is a great topic. I will check out my shelves now.

Here are two possibilities:
An Amish Flower Farm which involves a honey harvest.
Starting Over by Jack Sheffield, about a teacher starting at a new school in autumn.

Wonderful topic! After a first glance at my collection, I'm planning Angels Flight by Michael Connelly. With angel in the title and author name Michael this seems to be a good fit.

A few options for me, I think:

- The War in the Country / Thomas F. Pawlick
- Stuffed and Starved / Raj Patel
- Twinkie Deconstructed / Steve Ettlinger

A cursory check of the the e-shelves and tree-shelves nets Random Harvest. I will continue to search for something with a more "harvest" theme.

I might read either Autumn by Ali Smith or A Farm Dies Once a Year by Arlo Crawford.

I'll read One-Woman Farm: My Life Shared with Sheep, Pigs, Chickens, Goats, and a Fine Fiddle by Jenna Woginrich. The cover art is of autumn leaves and according to the book description Woginrich takes readers through each season.

Interesting topic. No immediate ideas on what I'll read, but I am now mulling it over.

>11 clue: That one goes on my TBR list.

I’ve had First Person Rural: Essays of a Sometime Farmer by Noel Perrin on my shelves for a long time, so it is my choice for this month. Great theme.

I watched the service of thanksgiving at St. Giles yesterday and was oddly moved when Nicola Sturgeon read the first lesson, using the very text that I had in my head when I chose this topic. I never would have, could have thought then, that we would be looking back on the life of the Queen in this month.
I have been thinking a lot about what reading in English has brought to my life, and I hope to explore it more deeply over the next weeks – with books.

Just finished soul taken taking place at halloween, featuring a magical harvester of souls.

I just finished The Sweet Remnants of Summer by Alexander McCall Smith.

This latest installment in the Isabel Dalhousie series is set in early September as summer in Edinburgh is slowly fading. Isabel & Jamie's children are going back to school; Jamie is concerned about an issue in his orchestra; and Isabel is asked to intervene in a dispute between a father and his grown son. All along we are treated to McCall Smith's usual musings on life, love, art, music, food and the right thing to do. What is the line between helping and interfering? How do we teach children to play with kindness? And how can generational divides be mended? Amazingly, McCall Smith does touch on current issues and political/social divides, but in such a way that one feels that these problems may yet get a little closer to resolution if we each strive for kindness, gentleness and mutual understanding.

Just finished Soul Taken, the newest installment in the Mercy series.
About a magical sickle that harvest souls, taking place at halloween.
The usual drama ensues, leading to Mercy saving the day in yet another dramatic showdown with a recurring villain.

I have completed my read of Under The Harvest Moon by Sophie Lynbrook. This was a Pride and Prejudice retelling that was a light and easy read. I enjoyed my time spent with these familiar characters.

I completed a non-fiction, Living One One Acre or Less by Sally Morgan. I live on more yet still found this to be undoable, especially as in regards to livestock.

I think The Perfect Golden Circle fits here. It is a story of crop circles in England.

For this challenge I am reading The Black Cat Sees His Shadow by Kay Finch, a mystery that takes place at the annual Pumpkin Days, a fall event.

Finished Universal Harvester by John Darnielle. The writing was gorgeous, and the beginning was wonderfully creepy, but I wasn't as invested toward the end of the book, so I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I am looking forward to reading more from the author, though, which is no small thing.

I read Angels Flight by Michael Connelly.
Set in downtown Los Angeles and featuring detective Harry Bosch, this police procedural investigates a double murder. What made it particularly interesting was that the murders take place on Angels Flight, a funicular railway and landmark of Bunker Hill, Los Angeles. This was my first Harry Bosch novel and despite an intricate plot and the added appeal of the funicular railway, I don't think he is for me.

I read Dirt Under My Nails: An American Farmer and Her Changing Land by Marilee Foster.

I read Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett.

I completed another book that loosely fits the end of summer/beginning of autumn theme: The Fortnight in September by R. C. Sherriff.

This is a simple story about the Stevens family (Mr, Mrs, Mary, Dick and Ernie) on their annual September trip to the English seaside circa 1930. It is a pleasant re-telling without any real plot, but for some unexplainable reason, Sherriff's style and good humor kept me reading. We can tell he enjoyed the characters he created. It reminded me of times when friends would sit you down to watch slides or hand around photos of their latest vacation, as they tell you the details of all the places they went.

The book begins the day before the trip and ends a fortnight (and a day) later on the afternoon they leave. There is delightful detail of the packing, train ride, arrival, and boarding house, with its worn furniture and lumpy beds. During the holiday, each member of the family has a tiny "moment" of discovery. The only detraction for me was that I felt the main female characters, Mrs Stevens and Mary, did not feel true, or at least did not feel completely flushed out. Mr Stevens, Dick and Ernie all seemed to be more rounded characters, with more back story and detail.

Overall it is a gentle, heart-warming portrayal of an average, mostly happy family in a bygone era.

>27 kac522: I liked that one too, despite there being absolutely no plot. It's a refreshing change to read about a family where all the members love each other and try to be kind!

I also read Angels Flight by Michael Connelly (>24 VivienneR:), but for an adult education mystery novels course. As Vivienne mentioned above, Angels Flight is the name of funicular railway in Los Angeles; the book is not about angels although I think that a dead young girl may have been referred to as an angel. Also, Michael is the name of the author so that the book fits this challenge. There were too many murders (bodies) for my taste.

>27 kac522: Years ago I read Journey's End, a much more serious book. This one sounds fun though, and one I can definately relate to. I'll grab a copy when I see it.

>30 clue: According to an afterword by Sherriff in my book, after the success of Journey's End, he wrote several plays that did not do well. On a seaside holiday spent in Bognor Regis, he decided to try his hand at a novel and came up with The Fortnight in September. He only wrote a few novels and also collaborated on several movie screenplay adaptations, including Goodbye, Mr Chips.

I have finished Chatterton Square which didn't look like a candidate for this KIT at first. But most of the action is set in the September of 1938 and the last efforts of the Chamberlain government to keep the peace play a large, if anonymous role in this which gives it very much an autumnal feeling.

>29 sallylou61: I felt the same way about Angels Flight. I've only read one book by Michael Connelly before this one. It was a clever legal mystery from the Mickey Haller series.

I chose this one for the focus on farming

The War in the Country / Thomas F. Pawlick
4 stars

The author of this book is looking at life in rural areas with a focus on eastern Ontario. More specifically, he is looking at family farms vs factory farms, as well as mining rights vs indigenous land claims and sub- vs surface rights of landowners.

It seems the government is making things more and more difficult for smaller operations. Large corporations not only get subsidies, but smaller operations are hit with regulations they couldn’t possibly afford to meet, and in a lot of cases, regulations that just make no sense for what they are doing.

Some examples include the vegetarian restaurant told they needed to replace their cedar counter with stainless steel, stainless steel being needed for meat… but they don’t serve meat; but they might one day; well we’ll get stainless steel if that happens; nope, too bad, you need to do it now. Or the small butcher shop that doesn’t serve food to eat inside his shop but is suddenly required to install washrooms. These are just the tip of the iceberg. Both these businesses were asked to do much more than this, as their own expense, of course. Growing organic food is much more difficult than it should be, etc.

The author does end the book with lots of suggestions to fix these issues, but the political will is needed to do it and that’s currently not there, with large corporate lobby groups holding the purse strings of many politicians. Urban folks are asked to become educated to help rural folks stand up for these things.

The book I intended to read has gone into hiding. Once I find it or move to another, I'll post!

> I found it! I've finished One Woman Farm by Jenna Woginrich. This is a memoir about the author's experiences starting up and continuing to live on a small (6 acres) farm in upstate New York. The book is organized by month, beginning in October and running through the next October. In some cases she gives general information about work that has to be done annually during a specific month and in some cases recounts experiences she had during a month in the first year.