LyndaInOregon's 2023 Yarns #3

Starting a new thread, same topic.

Happy new thread, Lynda!

Happy new thread, Lynda. Great to see you chugging along nicely this year on your thread. xx

Happy new one!

Happy new thread, Lynda!

#96 - Scorched, Cam Torrens
Beta read

#97 - The Greatest Man in Cedar Hole, Stephanie Doyon
2.5 stars

Almost DNF'd this several times. The story of a boyhood rivalry that extends through the rest of their lives (and beyond) in a small midwestern town never really takes off.

#98 - One of Us Is Gone, Shauntel Anette
2.5 stars - LTER

This one just never grabbed me, possibly because I'm about as far from the main characters demographically as it's possible to be. Designed to be a mystery novel about the disappearance of a young college woman, there's way too much padding here and a cripplingly slow pace. If you're really interested, the full review is here.

>7 LyndaInOregon: >8 LyndaInOregon: Ouch! Hopefully your next read is much better!

>9 figsfromthistle: I know! August was a great month for me, but September is not looking too good so far!

#99 - The Joy of Yarn, Marie Greene
5 stars

This one isn't linking in Touchstones, though it does have an ISBN number. It's a new release, however, so eventually may make its way into the database.

It's essentially an organizing method for knitters, crocheters, or other hobbycrafters whose yarn stash is threatening to take over their living space. (Who, me?) Has some interesting ideas, but it lacks the one tip I would need to follow the other instructions -- how to get my hubby out of the house for at least a week in order to take the first step ... remove every single scrap of yarn in the collection and put it out into the open so you can see exactly what you have. (She suggests putting it on top of a bed. ***A*** bed! How about every bed, couch, tabletop, and countertop in the house?)

#100 - Anything Goes, Richard S. Wheeler
3 stars

This is an odd and unexpected book for the 100-book milestone. It's set in the mining towns of Montana and Idaho in the late 1890s, and is about a traveling variety show. More character-driven than plot-driven, it looks at the relationships among the entertainers and gives some interesting background on just what it took to keep these bare-bones groups going, especially as the giant Orpheum chain started taking over the industry.

Personal note -- my maternal grandmother traveled briefly in her teens with an itinerant theater group, married my grandfather on the stage after a show. They left the show at the end of the summer of 1923 and settled into "respectability", but I always wished I knew more about that portion of her life!

#101 - If That Was Lunch, We've Had It, D.J. Colbert
4 stars - LTER

This was a fun, quick read with lots of laugh-out-loud moments as a couple of young New Zealanders look for ways to "make a squillion dollars" without actually, you know, working for it.

Full review is over here.

#102 - Thai Die, Monica Ferris
3 stars

An okay cosy mystery centering around a mysterious piece of antique silk. Part of the "Needlecraft Mystery" series.

#103 - If You Tell, Gregg Olsen
4 stars
September selection for my Wish List Challenge

Listed as true crime (which it is) and a tribute to the power of sisterhood, it is more compelling as a study in abnormal psychology. Shelly Knotek's daughters had little defense against their mother's horrific physical abuse, backed up by insidious mind games, but she also abused and manipulated many of the adults around her.

I always wonder, when I read about people like Shelly, how it is that they manage to hone in on and perfect those manipulative skills which are reported time and time again in case studies of sociopaths. I mean, is there a school somewhere? How does a 14-year-old know how to convince a loving grandparent that her equally loving parents are monsters? As an adult, how does she locate the "friends" whose own insecurities make them prime targets for her abuse, and how does she convince the essentially normal people in her life to help carry out her vicious -- even fatal -- abuses?

None of these questions are answered in Olsen's book, but that wasn't the book he wanted to write, so he gets a pass.

>6 LyndaInOregon: Which has been incredibly helpful!!!!

#104 - The Way I Heard It, Mike Rowe
3.5 stars

Short collection, riffing on the old Paul Harvey "Rest of the Story" concept, enlivened by personal connections between Rowe and the people or events featured. It was a good pick up & put down book for times when you know you'll only have short spans of time to read.

#105 - Eugene J. McGillicuddy's Alien Detective Agency, George Allen Miller
3.5 stars
LTER

If you are the kind of reader who needs to have a clear vision of what is happening in a novel, you’re going to want to give this one a pass. The breakneck pace never lets up as the major character, a 23rd-century human on an Earth that is being managed by a Galactic Congress, searches for the possibly mythical site of the very first alien contact with humans.

Miller has created an amazingly complex background, but the reader is never given a moment to really examine it or think about the ramifications. There are a couple of really funny ideas (a sentient parking meter?) and brilliantly original ideas, but it just verges on overload.

Just now getting around to the September report, and I can see why it almost got overlooked. I read 10 books, but nothing was really memorable.

Marie Greene's The Joy of Yarn gets top honors, but it's not going to be of much interest to folks who don't indulge in some kind of needlecraft hobby.

I also did a Beta read of Cam Torrens' upcoming Scorched, which isn't going to show up in the Touchstones. Won't review that, since it wasn't in final form, except to say that he's continuing to explore possibilities within the suspense/adventure genre.

Others, more or less in descending order, included
- If That Was Lunch, We've Had It, an LTER by David Colbert
- If You Tell, by Gregg Olsen
- The Way I Heard It, by Mike Rowe
- Eugene J. McGillicuddy's Alien Detective Agency, an LTER by George Allen Miller
- Anything Goes, by Richard W. Wheeler
- Thai Die, by Monica Wheeler
- The Greatest Man in Cedar Hole, by Stephanie Doyon
- One of Us Is Missing, an LTER by Shauntel Anette

#106 - The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock, Imogen Hermes Gowar
3.5 stars

For some reason, I was expecting a light fantasy -- boy, was I wrong. It's a dark fantasy, a morality tale, and an extended metaphor on desiring that which will ultimately destroy us unless we have the strength to set it free.

Thanks to Whisper1 for sending this to me. I will be chewing on its many meanings for a while.

#107 - Boleyn Time, by Deborah Cohen
2.5 stars
LTER

This one just didn't work for me, as noted in my full review, here.

Anne Boleyn as a brilliant apprentice to Leonardo da Vinci rings about as true as Nuclear Physicist Barbie, and even the original characters peopling the modern portions of the novel don't have much depth. Maybe if I'd read "Book One" of this two-novel mini-series, I'd have understood their motivations, but I have this weird notion that a book -- even as part of a series -- really ought to be able to stand on its own.

#108 - Dreaming Southern, by Linda Bruckheimer
3.5 stars

The first part of this book was great fun, as a somewhat scatterbrained Kentucky housewife sets off to drive her four kids and remaining worldly possessions to California to join her husband. Lila Mae's tendency to get sidetracked leads them into various adventures along a route that winds through Alabama, Louisiana, and Minnesota, among other places not normally appearing on a Kentucky-to-California road map. There's a climax, but not really a resolution, and then there's a novella-length epilogue about the character, decades later. Bruckheimer loses points for that distraction.

#109 - Thief of Time, by Terry Pratchett
3.5 stars

As we wind up the Discworld group read for this year, I've come to the realization that I really prefer the pun-filled and off-the-wall humor of the Unseen University subseries and the social commentary of the novels like Moving Pictures and Pyramids.

I'm glad I did the group read, and will repeat it next year, when it looks at the Witches subseries, but left to my own devices, the Discworld re-reads I choose will always be the earlier ones.

#110 - The Journal of Mortifying Moments, Robyn Harding
2.5 stars
October Wish List Challenge Book

~meh. Another one whose reason for being on my wish-list remains a mystery after it's been read. I'm really not the target audience for chick-lit, and this one fits firmly into that niche, unspooling the tale of a young woman who's been a doormat to her romantic partners all her life who finally grows a backbone. Predictable, trite, and just not that entertaining.

#110 - J. Robert Oppenheimer, Peter Goodchild
4 stars

This biography predates Kai Bird's American Prometheusby 40 years but covers much of the same ground. It's a balanced and well-done biography of a complex man who was both lauded and excoriated by a country at war -- first on the battlefields of Europe and Japan, and later on the floor of the U.S. Senate as the Red Scare of the the early Cold War destroyed countless lives and careers.

#111 - Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann

This was a re-read for me, which I felt compelled to make after seeing (and being largely disappointed by) the recent film based on it. It definitely holds up on the second reading.

I don't see any reason to change my original review, reprinted here because I can't seem to make the link work.

In this astonishing and heartbreaking work, Grann traces the true story of a series of murders committed in Oklahoma early in the 20th century. Largely ignored at the time by the local white power structure, the crimes only began to be seriously investigated when J. Edgar Hoover sought to utilize them in developing the agency ultimately known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

By the end of the 19th century, the Osage Indian tribe had been largely confined to a reservation in northeast Oklahoma. It seemed almost a grand joke of fate when vast reservoirs of oil were discovered under this previously "worthless" property, and members of the Osage Nation became, per capita, the richest people on earth. Newly-acquired wealth, however, seems to bring out the worst kinds of predators, and the official government stance that the Osage were, by definition, incapable of managing their own affairs, exacerbated the situation. As members of the white power structure were assigned as guardians to the Osage, many estates were systematically drained through fraudulent means. That wasn't enough, however, for the boundless greed of the swindlers, who coveted ownership of the "headright" itself. But headrights, unlike land, couldn't be sold. They could only be passed through inheritance.

This made many Osage, who had married whites, prime targets for murder. Once the rights passed to a spouse, or to minor mixed-blood children, there was a clear path to headrights passing into non-Indian hands.

And that's just what happened -- beginning perhaps as early as the 19-teens and extended into the 1930s, as many as 600 Osage were murdered or died under suspicious circumstances. Local law enforcement simply looked the other way or enlisted county coroners and Indian Agents to help cover up the murders.

Grann concentrates on one particular family, that of Mollie Burkhart, whose first husband, mother, and three sisters all died -- by gunshot, by poison, by suspicious and vague "wasting illness". When the acknowledged death count around Mollie's family and friends reached 24, the killings finally drew the attention of the nascent FBI. The subsequent investigation and series of trials forms a large part of the second half of the book.

The story does not end with the incarceration of the men who preyed on Mollie Burkhart. Grann goes on to investigate old records and family histories handed down to modern-day Osage men and women, to find a truly stunning pattern of crime and abuse.

Fascinating, chilling read.

#112 - The Magic of Ordinary Days, Ann Howard Creel
3 stars

~meh~

Not a bad book, but not a very good one. Whoever wrote the bacover blurb comparing it to Kent Haruf's Plainsong needs to go back and reread the Haruf.

Because the story is told in flashback, there's not much question as to what decision the main character will make about her arranged marriage. Mostly the book deals with "the Home Front" during WWII and her unexpected friendship with two young Japanese-American girls interned at Granada, Colorado.

I really wish I could find a good read. It's been a long spell of so-so books.

#113 - All Wound Up, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
5 stars

As a knitter, I always appreciate Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's books. This early collection of her blogs (published 2011) is no exception.

Knitters will identify with swatches that lie, unfortunate matches between pattern and yarn, random mathematical oddities (such as the inability to count up to two), patterns with land mines embedded in them, and other hazards of the hobby.

Non-knitters will have to satisfy themselves with domestic humor (how replacing a washing machine essentially led to the deconstruction of a large portion of her house), a break-up letter written to an inanimate object, musings on family life, and how even the dorkiest kid in high school can eventually end up sitting at "the cool table".

This one goes into the permanent library.

#114 - Who to Believe, Edwin Hill
3.5 stars
LTER

The answer is "none of the above". The biggest problem with Hill's untangling of the secrets, lies, and betrayals uncovered by the murder of a woman in a small seacoast town is that everybody lies to pretty much everybody else, and it's hard to find anyone to root for.

Full review is over here, if you're interested.

#115 - Fierce Creatures, Iain Johnstone
3 stars

This novelization of the 90s movie starring John Cleese mostly made me want to track down the movie. There are a few grins, but they do require (at least for me) the ability to mentally see the action in many of the scenes.

I have not visited your thread before, Lynda, and thought I should rectify that.

>27 LyndaInOregon: I completely agree with your assessment of the book as a "Fascinating, chilling read."

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

>32 alcottacre: Hello, alcottacre!

I can't remember how to do the "compare libraries" thingie, but looking at your top 250 list, I can see we have a fair amount of overlap! Hope you'll drop by from time to time.

#116 - The Midnight Library, Matt Haig
3 stars

Nicely-written fantasy about how every choice we makes opens up a different future, and follows a young woman who is offered the chance to follow them.

#117 - The Cat Sitter's Cradle, John & Blaize Clement
3.5 stars

Fun cozy mystery in the "Cat Sitter" series. This time, Dixie is dealing with a dead body in a swimming pool and an apparent undocumented alien who just gave birth in a local park.

>33 LyndaInOregon: Well, I am dropping by again :) I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, if you celebrate the day.

>34 LyndaInOregon: Dodging that BB as I have already read that one!

>35 LyndaInOregon: I am not familiar with the "Cat Sitter" series. I will have to check it out!

Hope everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday had a wonderful day.

I passed the baton (the turkey baster?) to my daughter a couple of years ago, and we had a lovely time there with three generations present. (Next year, there will be four....) Came home well supplied with left-overs.

Does anybody do mince pies any more? When I was a kid, there was usually "mincemeat pie" at Thanksgiving, though I think it was mostly fruit mixture with little or no meat in it. My grandmother also always made scalloped oysters, which I could never abide and was not at all unhappy to see disappear.

What other only-at-holiday foods from your childhood seem to have disappeared? And do you miss them or not?

>37 LyndaInOregon: What other only-at-holiday foods from your childhood seem to have disappeared? And do you miss them or not?

My grandmother used to make us Belgian cookies at Christmas, wooflets and gullets. I made them a long time ago in order to keep up the tradition, but they are extremely time consuming - each cookie is made individually on an iron - and when I was working, there was just no time for them. Now that I am retired, I just have no desire to pick up the irons again, especially since it is just my husband and myself at home now. We certainly do not need those calories, lol.

Apparently, the cat decided to help me with my book review when I left the keyboard to eat lunch:

Stay tuned for the revised version!

#118 - The Immortalists, Chloe Benjamin
3.5 stars

Despite the cat's "assistance", I did manage to salvage a review. It's here, if you're interested.

This novel about four siblings who, as children, are each told precisely how long they will live, never really tackles free will versus fate, but it's an interesting look at how each one responds differently to the prophecy.

#119 - Baby Catcher, Peggy Vincent
4 stars

Think "All Creatures Great and Small", but with babies, home birth, and midwifery. No, seriously, this was a good read, though probably not of great interest to folks whose only experience with childbirth has been being the child.

Vincent progressed from nursing through midwifery at a time (1970s-90s) when the medical field flirted briefly with licensing midwives as independent practitioners. Her tales of various home births are interspersed with observations about the growth of the craft and its eventual fall from favor, driven largely by insurance issues and the nearly-ubiquitous resistance of Big Med.

>40 LyndaInOregon: I think I liked the one with the cat's assistance better ;-)

>42 FAMeulstee: The cat's review did have the virtue of originality!

#120 - The Book of Bright Ideas, Sandra Kring
4.5 stars

Using a child narrator for a novel intended for adult readers is a tricky proposition, but Sandra Kring pulls it off with perfection in The Book of Bright Ideas.

Evelyn Peters (aka “Button”) is the heart of this tale of childhood friendship that grows with the intensity that only eight-going-on-nine can muster when an unconventional pair of siblings burst into their staid midwestern town like the fireworks on “Marty Graw”. Freeda Malone is a fiery redhead with the mouth of a sailor, the body of a temptress, and a perhaps too-healthy appetite for male company. Her baby sister Winnalee is an impatient bundle of energy, dubious fashion choices, and big ideas (which she writes down in the titular book). That the two girls should instantly become best of friends is almost inevitable, as Button’s imagination is nurtured by Winnalee’s flights of fancy, and Winnalee finds stability and loving acceptance from Button’s Aunt Verdella.

What’s perhaps less to be expected is that the free-spirited Freeda also opens doors for Verdella and for Button’s mother, Jewel – a process Button sees and describes, without fully understanding what’s at the base of it all. She knows only that, bit by bit, her world is getting just slightly bigger, though sometimes the grown-ups around her make choices she can’t really comprehend.

Kring keeps the point-of-view firmly with Button, even as events unfold in the adult world that will change everything in heartbreaking ways. Most readers will have winkled out the main revelation long before it’s made, but can still feel the pain the knowledge brings to everyone touched by it.

Definitely worth the read.

Just stopping by to say hello, Lynda and also a well done for passing 200 posts on your threads in 23.

>45 PaulCranswick: Back at you! Hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a great reading year in 2024.

>46 LyndaInOregon: Thanks Lynda. It has been very interesting to see you chug along nicely with your reading this year.

#121 - Early Morning Rounds, Burnham Holmes
3 stars

Not quite what I expected. It's written for the juvenile market and gives a quick overview of various hospital specialties. Some material is badly outdated, as the book was written in the early 80s.

#122 - The Girl in the Glass, Jeffrey Ford
4 stars

A trio of fake spiritualists in the 1930s have one of their readings spin out of control when what appears to be a very real ghost intrudes on the proceedings. From there, the novel wanders into murder mystery territory and then doubles back onto something even more bizarre.

#123 - Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir
4.5 stars

Fans of The Martian will also enjoy this new man-in-hostile-space adventure, where science trumps space opera as the sole survivor of a mission to literally save all life on Earth struggles against the odds. My full review is over here, if you're interested.

#124 - Let Him Go, Larry Watson
5 stars
December selection for my Wish List challenge.

Amazing book, very reminiscent of Kent Haruf's use of locale and spare writing style. Full review is here.

The story is definitely high tragedy, but my favorite line describes a supper which the main characters share with another couple: "The meal set out is by and for people whose only confident judgment about food is based on its quantity." That brought such an instant moment of recognition to me.

Strongly recommended.

Back in January, I set myself a personal challenge to acquire one book a month from my Paperback Swap Wish List and read it.

I put books on that list for a variety of reasons ranging from a deep and abiding desire to read that particular book to having seen a review or heard a mention that made it look interesting. Not surprisingly, there's a lot of variation in the quality, and most of the time the books just sit there on the list. If one of them becomes available for trade, that's fine. If not, or if nobody takes the hint and gives me one of the titles for birthday or whatever, that's fine, too. Often, by the time a wish gets filled, I've completely forgotten why I put it on the list.

Anyway, I decided I would make a concerted effort to acquire one Wish List title per month in 2023 and read it. Just finished November's tonight (slightly out of order because it got buried in the TBR). Anyway

* * * * * * * * * * CHALLENGE COMPLETED * * * * * * * *

Titles and ratings below. Some got full reviews, others just a brief mention.

January - Adult Assembly Required, Abbi Waxman: C+
February - More Bad Days in History, Michael Farquhar: C
March - The Cadillac Cowboys, Glendon Fred Swarthout: D
April - The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Silvia Moreno-Garcia: C
May - The Echo Wife, Sarah Gailey: A
June - A Fine and Private Place, Peter S. Beagle: C+
July - Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, Sheila Weller: B-
August - He Was Some Kind of Man. Roderick McGillis: C-
September - If You Tell, Gregg Olsen: B-
October - The Journal of Mortifying Moments, Robyn Harding: C-
November - Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami: C-
December - Let Him Go, Larry Watson: A

As you can see, two out of the 12 turned out to be very good reads indeed. one was above average, eight were so-so, and one was a turkey. I'm not sure there's a moral here, except the one Mr. Spock gave us 50+ years ago: "...you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting."

#125 - Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
3 stars
November selection for my Wish List Challenge

I almost bailed out of this after the scene that graphically described animal torture. I wouldn't have missed much if I'd followed my initial impulse.

Yes, it's all symbolic and surreal and experimental and psychologically intense, but it just didn't do the job for me. And I still don't know who the heck his sister was. Nor do I care.

#126 - Five Days in November, Clint Hill
4 stars

If you remember where you were when you heard the news of President Kennedy's assassination, you will want to read this first-hand account, written by the Secret Service agent assigned to Jackie Kennedy. As Hill says in the Afterword, "I fear that once all of us who were witnesses to history are gone, the truth will be buried along with us."

It's not always an easy read, particularly the section describing the moments between the first shot fired at Dealey Plaza and the arrival of the President's coffin in Washington D.C. My full review is over here, if you're interested.

Hmmm ... my numbers don't match the year-end summary. They say I've added 129 books. I've got 126 listed here ... which matches my database.

Oh, well. It was a buncha books ... and (to paraphrase Curly in City Slickers) ... "Year ain't over yet." Flying to Hawaii on the 23rd, including a 3+ hour layover in Seattle, so I will probably pick up at least one more title.

Thinking about you during the festive season, Lynda

>56 PaulCranswick: Happy New Year to you, and thanks for the greeting. We just got home (1/3/24) from the Hawaiian trip, so I am way behind. Will start my 2024 thread tomorrow or the next day. Have a couple of good reads already, and want to do the 2023 lookback here before I start the 2024 thread.

Wrapping things up for 2023 - the year in review.

I read 128 books in 2023, up a tad from last year, with roughly an 80/20% split between fiction and nonfiction. That’s trending a little more toward fiction than in the last several years. The total fiction count was 102 titles and the total nonfiction count was 26. If I really wanted to be precise about it, I should probably do a page count comparison, but I’m not that motivated!

TOP 10 OF 2023 (in alphabetical order)
All Wound Up, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee – Humor and knitting, in more or less equal measure.
The Echo Wife, Sarah Gailey – Fine and scary futuristic tale.
Homeland, Barbara Kingsolver – Collection of early short stories, beautifully crafted.
The Joy of Yarn, Marie Greene – Technical advice for yarn collectors of all crafts.
Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann – This is actually making its second appearance on my “year’s best” list, debuting in 2018 when it first came out, and still standing up to the re-read following the disappointment of seeing the movie.
Let Him Go, Larry Watson – An ultimately heartbreaking tale of obsession.
Mort, Terry Pratchett – My favorite of the “Death” subseries.
On the Clock, Elly Guendelsberger – Guendelsberger’s work is right up there with Evicted and Nickel and Dimed as she looks at the realities of modern economics for the working class.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce – Just a pure feel-good read.
You’re Safe With Me, Soundar & Mistry – Perhaps the most beautiful children’s book I’ve ever seen.

Honorable Mention
The Baby Thief, Barbara Raymond – The nonfiction story of Georgia Tann, whose corrupt baby-adoption business stole thousands of children from their birth families and basically sold them to the highest bidders.
The Book of Bright Ideas, Sandra Kring – Charming tale of childhood friendship.
Buffalo Soldier, Tanya Landman – YA novel about a young enslaved woman who masquerades as a man to join the Union Army in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Educated, Tara Westover – Another nonfiction piece, this time a memoir reminiscent of Jeanette Walls’ Glass Castles.
Othersyde, J. Michael Straczynski – Truly scary supernatural thriller somewhat reminiscent of Carrie.

HALL OF SHAME Award goes to Glendon Swarthout’s The Cadillac Cowboys, a leaden satire about East Coast intellectuals moving to 1950s Arizona. When satire doesn’t work, it’s absolutely painful, and this one is mean-spirited to boot.

Overall, I had 6 DNFs this year, the same as last year.

My most-read author in 2023 was Terry Pratchett with five titles, courtesy of the Discworld group read. Robert B. Parker is right behind him with four titles. (Parker’s Spenser series is one of my “popcorn” reads – something I know I’ll enjoy even though I know there’s not going to be much nourishment in it.)

So 2023 is "in the books" (you should pardon the pun). Will be setting up my 2024 thread, probably tomorrow, and have some interesting entries already waiting to be added.

Happy New Year and Happy New Reads to All!