July AlphakKIT: I and S

Welcome to the 2024 AlphaKIT.
This is an unofficial challenge for the 2024 Category Challenge Group. Each month has two letters selected for you to use however you choose.

There are no rules. Have fun and enjoy reading. July letters are: I and S

and

If you like, update the AlphaKIT wiki with your reading.

I have enough of both to wait for other challenges before deciding.

A first look led me to Standing In the Shadows, the last book by Peter Robinson.

I'm planning on Summertide by Charles Sheffield and a re-read of Consider Phlebas by Ian M. Banks. Others as well, I'm sure.

I'll be away for most of July, so my choice will largely be determined by what is on my kindle. So far my plan is to read Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas for S and The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman for I.

Current plans:

S -- Steal Across the Sky, Nancy Kress (which will also serve for July's SFFKit theme of first contact)
I -- The Death I Gave Him, Em X. Liu (which will also be my AlphaKit X and my July MysteryKit cross-genre mystery)

My plan is currently to read:

Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls
Cut Nose by Ron Schwab
The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

I think I'll probably be reading The Velocity of Honey by Jay Ingram and The House of Unexpected Sisters by Alexander McCall Smith.

I've decided on Bad Bad Seymour Brown by Susan Isaacs for the double

Really hoping I can get some of these read!

Bookman Dead Style ✅
Bridge Cardplay by Marc Smith ✅
Comic Sans Murder
Death by Chocolate Raspberry Scone ✅
Intrigue of Witches ✅
Little Shop of Found Things
Murder at the Spelling Bee ✅
Murder on the Italian Riviera ✅
Serving Up Spite ✅
Snow Place for Murder
Stately Holmes ✅
Sweet Tea and Sympathy
To Slip the Bonds of Earth ✅

I've got a number of 'S' reads planned--Slither by Edward Lee, Contact by Carl Sagan, and Another Dead Intern by Joel Spriggs. My lone 'I' book will be The Witchery by S. Isabelle.

I read Ill-Fated Fortune by Jennifer Chow which was an early start for July, and I just finished A Rolling Scone by Nancy Warren.

Starting "Servant of the Underworld" by Aliette de Bordard

I read Standing In the Shadows by Peter Robinson. This final book from Robinson has an excellent plot and provides a satisfying finish for the character and the author.

COMPLETED Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard.

Starting the next in the series, "Harbinger of the Storm."

Read The cat who caught a killer by LT Shearer for S.

Finished The Witchery by S. Isabelle last night, and would absolutely recommend it to anyone in the mood for witchy YA. It was fantastic! (Full review written, and about to add it to the wiki).

Starting The Complete Robot by Isaac Asimov

I read The Amen Effect by Sharon Brous.

Science Comics: Cats: Nature and Nurture / Andy Hirsch
4 stars

The “Science Comics” are a series of graphic novels aimed at young readers (middle grades?), but they all have interesting information for adults, too. This one follows a calico kitten left on the street to fend for herself, so she looks for food and finds other cats to befriend on the street. There is all kinds of information on wild cats, in addition to domestic.

I love these books. Really enjoyed this one, as well. The colour illustrations are so nice. I also love cats, and I knew the basics of much of what was mentioned, but not the details. It talks about cats’ senses, how they became domesticated, and more.

I have finished Geschichte der Spätantike, a very hefty non-fiction tome about late antiquity.

Finished Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi. Excellent. Funny as heck yet poignant at times. First Contact done right.

COMPLETED Harbinger of the Storm by Aliette de Bodard

I read Slow AF Run Club for another S.

I have finished À bicyclette by Su Tong (to give the Chinese way of writing the name).

I read Ben Macintyre's Agent Sonya: The Spy Next Door for S.

For S, I read Steal Across the Sky by Nancy Kress.

Starting "Small Town Sonata" by Jamie Fessenden

I have completed both my reads for July's AlphaKit with The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See and Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls.

COMPLETED Small Town Sonata by Jamie Fessenden

I just finished A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab.

For S I have finished: Shadows Linger by Glen Cook and A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan.

Behold the Dreamers / Imbolo Mbue
3 stars

Jende and Neni have immigrated to the United States from Cameroon with their young son. Jende is excited to soon find work as a chauffeur, something he has wanted to do for a long time. Of course, they are also in the US to make a better life for themselves and their son. Jende’s boss, Clark, is a good and generous man, and Jende is a good worker. But things get a little tricky when Jende is asked to do something he really doesn’t think he should. But he doesn’t want to lose his job.

It listened to the audio and it was ok. The narrator did a very good job with accents (at least as far as I could tell). It seems I did miss some of the goings-on in the book, but I’m pretty sure I caught the main things happening. Overall, I’m rating it ok.

August AlphaKIT is up.

S: Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen.

Another S book is Spy's Honour.

Two more S books read: Fortune Favors the Dead by Stephen Spotswood, and You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian.

COMPLETED Russell: A Very Short Introduction by A. C. Grayling

Cell / Stephen King
3.5 stars

Clay is in Boston from Maine when, on the street, people start going crazy and violent! Someone rips off a dog’s ear and people start attacking (and killing) one another. Initially not sure what is happening, after a bit, Clay realizes those who went “crazy” were all on their cell phones just before it happened. Clay doesn’t have a cell phone. He meets up with Tom, who seems ok, and 15(?) year old Alice, who ran after her mom was affected. Initially they hide out in Clay’s hotel lobby with one of the staff. But Clay wants to get home to Maine to check on his (estranged? ex?) wife and son, Johnny. Sharon doesn’t have a phone, but little Johnny does, though he doesn’t use it often… but sometimes Sharon uses it.

I thought this was good. A bit slow-moving, but good. I really liked the climax of the book, but the actual end itself… I’m not too sure. It was pretty open-ended.

I have finished another S book: Kriegsausbruch by Sönke Neitzel.

I've got another S book, Starter Villain by John Scalzi. Such a fun read!

I've finished The House of Unexpected Sisters by Alexander McCall Smith for my "S" book this month.

S: The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch by Melinda Taub.

I: I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O'Farrell

What Have You Done? / Shari Lapena
4 stars

Popular 17-year old Diana is found murdered in a farmer’s field. Things like this don’t happen in small towns where everyone knows everyone!

There are multiple points of view, including a few of Diana’s friends, a teacher and principal, her mother, the suspects, and Diana’s ghost. Diana doesn’t actually remember how she died, so it’s a reveal for her, too. There are three main suspects and it could be any of them. It’s a small town, so everyone is connected in some way. It didn’t feel fast-paced, but it was fast to read, and I quite liked it.

I've read two more S books and an I:
The Double by Jose Saramago
The Salvage Crew by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
Proud: My Fight for an Unlikely American Dream by Ibtihaj Muhammad

I finally finished an "I" book, The Reluctant Heiress by Eva Ibbotson.

Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography / David Michaelis
4.25 stars

Charles “Sparky” Schulz created the Peanuts comic strip and wrote one daily comic for over fifty years. He was born in 1922 in St. Paul, Minnesota and died in 2000 in California. His father was a barber and though friendly with his customers, he didn’t like to travel or really leave home at all. Sparky was shy and grew up to be much like his father. His mother died when he was in his early 20s. Sparky was married twice and had five children.

There is so much detail! It is almost 700 pages long, and nonfiction, so it took a long time to read. Because I had other books to get to, although it’s a very good book, I did put it down for close to two months before getting back to it again. There are plenty of Peanuts strips peppered throughout the book, as Schulz often included autobiographical stuff in his strips; there is also two sections of photographs. The book itself, I’m giving 4 stars, but for the immense amount of research (much information given with help from the family) and detail, it gets the extra ¼ star.

I: Ingathering: The Complete People Stories, Zenna Henderson

COMPLETED The Complete Robot by Isaac Asimov

I finished Home Is the Sailor by Lillian Marek for another I.

Piranesi / Susanna Clarke
2.5 stars

“Piranesi” is in some world where there are multiple connected Halls and there are statues everywhere. There is only one other (live) person (whom he calls The Other), but Piranesi has found bones of about thirteen other people, so includes them in his count, as well. Piranesi and The Other are scientists.

This was odd. It got slightly more interesting toward the end, but still odd. Combine some parts fantasy (and/or magical realism) and literary fiction (and maybe some philosophy?) and it’s mostly not my thing.

My I book is Le carrefour des Écrasés by Claude Izner.

COMPLETED An Awkward Lie by Michael Innes, pen name of J. I. M. Stewart

Adding Payment deferred by CS Forester for S.
Excellent phycological study of a man losing his mind.

It appears that I and S were really good letters for me. I read the following books:

For I:
Lord Muck and Lady Alice by Isabella Hargreaves
Love and Other Addictions by Isabella Hargreaves
Love at Lost Lagoons by Isabella Hargreaves
The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

For S:
The Sea Rose by Mariella Hunt
The Sea King by Mariella Hunt
Steeped in Suspicion by Eryn Scott
Stuck With You by Ali Hazelwood
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne

>51 christina_reads: I literally just realized that Home Is the Sailor also works as an S book! D'oh!

Finished out the month with one more I and 3 more S books:
In the Labyrinth of Drakes by Marie Brennan
One Second After by William R. Forstchen
The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer
Brother Wind by Sue Harrison

I books in July:
Domestic Modernism, the Interwar Novel, and E.H. Young, Chiara Briganti (2006)
Two Days In Aragon, Molly Keane (1941)

S books in July:
Five Windows, D. E. Stevenson (1953)
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen (1811)

And on the last day of July, I finished When we were orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Index, A History of The / Dennis Duncan
2.5 stars

The title pretty much sums this one up. This is a history of the index that we usually currently find at the back of a nonfiction book that places topics from the book in alphabetical order. (Not all of these things have always been the case for an index!)

I listened to the audio and my attention waxed and waned. Some of it was interesting, but I got distracted and lost interest quite a bit, as well. I think it’s not the best book for an audio, anyway, as there were examples of indexes that had to be read out, which would be much easier to look at.