Alcott Acre's Home, Room 9

Well, let's get the introduction out of the way. My name is Stasia and I have been happily married to the recently retired Kerry for 36 years. We have 6 children, 4 of whom are my stepchildren and 2 of whom are ours together. We also have 8 grandchildren. 2023 was a tough year for our family as we lost my father and stepdaughter, Nichole, within days of each other back in February.

I love to read and it has been a huge solace to me over the past year - I call it "burying myself in books." Since Kerry retired December 29th, it is going to be interesting to see how his retirement affects my reading! I am playing it safe and just shooting for 100 books read this year. I also suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (known to me familiarly as 'stupid CFS') and it seems like my bouts are becoming longer each time it springs up, so it affects my reading for the worse. CFS drives me crazy because I hate sleeping!

That's about it, I think, so come on in and grab a cuppa!

Excellent Reads from 2024 (in the order in which I read them):

5 Stars
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Before She Was Harriet by Lesa Cline-Ransome
Cold Crematorium by Jozsef Debreczeni
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina
The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard
Woman, Life, Freedom by Marjane Satrapi
Sacred Legacy: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian
The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson
999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz by Heather Dune Macadam
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

4.5 Stars
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs
A Man's Place by Annie Ernaux
Heading North by Holly M. Wendt
Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi
Derring-Do for Beginners by Victoria Goddard
Thirteen Doorways Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger
The Postcard by Anne Berest
A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
An Interrupted Life and Letters from Westerbork by Etty Hillesum
Foster by Claire Keegan
Life Laid Bare by Jean Hatzfeld
The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech That Inspired a Nation by Drew D. Hansen
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by T. E. Carhart
The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard
Table for Two: Fictions by Amor Towles
Symphony for the City of the Dead by M. T. Anderson
My Friend Anne Frank by Hannah Pick-Goslar
The Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman
The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony with Graham Spence
Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown
Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe
The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater
Jewish Literacy by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan
The Game of Courts by Victoria Goddard
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Treachery in Death by J. D. Robb
Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew by Bart D. Ehrman
The Grand Alliance by Winston S. Churchill
When We Ruled by Robin Walker
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
Sinister Twilight: The Fall of Singapore by Noel Barber
Pacific Crucible by Ian W. Toll
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Watership Down by Richard Adams
April 1865 by Jay Winik

4.25 Stars
The Serial Garden by Joan Aiken
Freezing Order by Bill Browder
A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
My Hair Is a Garden by Cozbi A. Cabrera
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martinez
Code Girls by Liza Mundy
Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May
Strangers in Death by J.D. Robb
The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts by Loren Grush
The Art of the Wasted Day by Patricia Hampl
English Creek by Ivan Doig
Gin, Turpentine, Pennyroyal, Rue by Christine Higdon
Eden Mine by S. M. Hulse
Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher
Promises in Death by J. D. Robb
At the Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard
Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir by Natasha Trethewey
Absolution by Alice McDermott
The Return of Fitzroy Angursell by Victoria Goddard
I Shall Not Hate by Izzeldin Abuelaish
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich
Between the Woods and the Water by Patrick Leigh Fermor
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
Go As a River by Shelley Read
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Confusion by Elizabeth Jane Howard
A Reader's Delight by Noel Perrin
Classic Crimes by William Roughead
Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig
Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner
The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason
The Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
James by Percival Everett
Virginia Woolf in Manhattan by Maggie Gee
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
Casting Off by Elizabeth Jane Howard
An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
New York to Dallas by J. D. Robb
Trust by Hernan Diaz
The Book of Lamentations by Rosario Castellanos

For the past 2 years, I have concentrated on reading the works of one author in particular. In 2022, I read through all of Jane Austen’s works. In 2023, I read all of the volumes of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. For 2024, I have decided to do something a bit different and, using Classics for Pleasure by Michael Dirda as a guide, am going to go through each of the chapters of the book and select one work from each.

So for September we have:

The Way We Live Now:

The Satyricon by Petronius
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov
The Crime of Father Amaro, Cousin Bazilio, and The Maias by Jose Maria Eca de Queiros
Short stories, letters, and plays by Anton Chekhov
Cane by Jean Toomer
Death Comes for the Archbishop and A Lost Lady by Willa Cather - My pick for the month is A Lost Lady - Completed September 7, 2024
Death on the Installment Plan and Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Collected stories by Eudora Welty

What would you have chosen? Why?

So for August we have:

Traveler's Tales:
Utopia by Thomas More
A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain by Daniel Defoe
A Journal Around My Room or A Nocturnal Expedition Around My Room by Xavier de Maistre
A Journey to the Center of the Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in 80 Days or The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
A Rebours or La-Bas by J. K. Huysmans
Out of Africa or Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen - My pick for the month is Out of Africa Completed August 23, 2024
The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron

So for July we have:

The Dark Side:
The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg
Uncle Silas and ghost stories by Sheridan Le Fanu
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Collected Ghost Stories by M. R. James
Tales of the Criminous (AKA Classic Crimes) by William Roughead - Completed July 27, 2024
Selected short stories, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, and At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft

So for June we have:

Lives of Consequence:
Parallel Lives of the Greeks and Romans by Plutarch
The Book of My Life by Girolamo Cardano
Brief Lives by John Aubrey
Selected Poems by Alexander Pope
Discourses, The Social Contract, Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass - Completed June 17, 2024
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy by Jacob Burckhardt
Collected Letters, Collected Essays, The American Scene, Italian Hours, A Small Boy and Others by Henry James
Selected Poems, The Dyer’s Hand, The Enchafed Flood, Forewards and Afterwards by W.H. Auden

So for May we have:

Everyday Magic:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Classic Fairy Tales
Short Stories by E. T. A. Hoffman
Short Stories by Prosper Merimee
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett - Completed May 17, 2024
Five Children and It by E. Nesbit
The Box of Delights by John Masefield
Memoirs of a Midget by Walter de la Mare

So for April we have:

Words from the Wise:
Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tse
Philosophical fragments by Heraclitus
On Duties, Discussions at Tusculum, The Dream of Scipio, and letters to Atticus by Cicero
The Praise of Folly by Erasmus - Completed April 7, 2024
The English Religious Tradition including the King James version of the Bible, The Book of Common Prayer, The Pilgrim's Progress, hymns of writers like Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley
Ethics and Theological-Political Treatise by Benedict de Spinoza
"The Vanity of Human Wishes", Rasselas, Essays from the Rambler and the Idler, and Lives of the Poets by Samuel Johnson

So for March we have:

Love's Mysteries:
Poems and Fragments by Sappho
Arthurian Romances: The Knight with the Lion by Chretien de Troyes, Tristan by Gottfried von Strassburg, or Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach
The Princes of Cleves by Marie-Madeleine de la Fayette
Diary of a Seducer by Soren Kierkegaard
Modern Love by George Meredith
Collected Poems by C. P. Cavafy
The Grand Sophy, Venetia, Friday's Child, Cotillion, or A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer - My pick for the month is Cotillion - Completed March 29, 2024
Selected poetry by Anna Akhmatova
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

So for February we have:

Heroes of Their Time:
Beowulf
Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings by Abolqasem Ferdowsi
Njal Saga, Laxdaela Saga, Grettir Saga, Egil Saga (The Icelandic Sagas)
Plays and Poems by Christopher Marlowe
Germinal and other novels by Emile Zola
Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger - Completed February 28, 2024
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee

So for January we have:

Playful Imaginations:
The True History; Lucius, or The Ass; Dialogues of the Dead by Lucian
Rameau’s Nephew by Denis Diderot
Crochet Castle by Thomas Love Peacock
Seven Men; A Christmas Garland; Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek
Brothers and Sisters; Manservant and Maidservant by Ivy Compton-Burnett
The Best of S.J. Perelman by S.J. Perelman - Completed January 9, 2024
Invisible Cities; The Castle of Crossed Destinies; If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino
Amphigorey; Amphigorey Too; Amphigorey Also; Amphigorey Again by Edward Gorey

Shared reads:

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman - Completed February 14, 2024
Derring-Do for Beginners by Victoria Goddard - Completed February 12, 2024
The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne - Completed February 18, 2024
An Interrupted Life by Etty Hillesum - Completed March 30, 2024
Martin Dressler by Steven Milhauser - Completed March 5, 2024
The Hand of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard - Completed March 25, 2024
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell - Completed March 16, 2024
The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki - Completed April 16, 2024
At the Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard - Completed April 21, 2024
The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham - Completed May 8, 2024
The Return of Fitzroy Angursell by Victoria Goddard - Completed May 12, 2024
Those Who Hold the Fire by Victoria Goddard - Completed June 8, 2024
The Game of Courts by Victoria Goddard - Completed July 4, 2024
The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason - Completed August 3, 2024
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson - Completed September 18, 2024
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - Completed September 19, 2024
Traveller's Joy by Victoria Goddard - Completed September 21, 2024
Ride with Me, Mariah Montana by Ivan Doig - October with Mark
How Music Works by David Byrne - October with Kim
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray - November with Deborah
The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham - November with Mark, et al
Bound to Please by Michael Dirda - December with Ellen and Benita

September TIOLI Challenges:

Challenge #1: Read a book in which the author's four-letter surname ends with double letters
New York to Dallas by J. D. Robb - Completed September 1, 2024
Passions in Death by J. D. Robb - Completed September 8, 2024
Pacific Crucible by Ian W. Toll - Completed September 17, 2024

Challenge #2: Read a book in which the word "book" appears in the title or author's name
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa - Completed September 23, 2024
Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington - Completed September 20, 2024

Challenge #3: Anita Memorial Reads: 1960s & 1970s
The Night in Lisbon by Erich Maria Remarque - Completed September 21, 2024
Watership Down by Richard Adams - Completed September 20, 2024

Challenge #4: Inspired by Anita – Title Starts with one of the capital letters from the phrase “Having Fun With TIOLI” (H,F,W,T,I,O,L,I)
Life Is With People by Mark Zborowski and Elizabeth Herzog - Completed September 4, 2024
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón - Completed September 19, 2024
Traveller's Joy by Victoria Goddard - Completed September 21, 2024
Way Station by Clifford D. Simak - Completed September 29, 2024
Wonderlands by Charles Baxter - Completed September 28, 2024

Challenge #5: Read a book that alternates with a person's name and description
April 1865 by Jay Winik - Completed September 28, 2024
The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky by Ken Dornstein - Completed September 15, 2024
A Lost Lady by Willa Cather - Completed September 7, 2024

Challenge #6: Read a book set on an island
Red Bones by Ann Cleeves - Completed September 24, 2024

Challenge #7: Read a book whose title contains an "ing"
Laughing Boy by Oliver LaFarge - Completed September 5, 2024
Sing Down the Moon by Scott O’Dell - Completed September 18, 2024

Challenge #8: Pick a topic then read a book on that topic suggested by Talpa (LibraryThing’s AI search found on the right side of your home page)
Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard - Completed September 29, 2024
Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman - Completed September 22, 2024
Thunder Dog by Michael Hingson - Completed September 10, 2024
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson - Completed September 18, 2024

Challenge #9: Read a book with devils or angels in the title.
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara - Completed September 26, 2024

Challenge #10: read a book by an author you're not particularly fond of
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez - Completed September 16, 2024

Challenge #11: Read a book for the Zodiac challenge (Virgo - read a book with a theme relating to communication)
Babel by R. F. Kuang - Completed September 26, 2024
Crosstalk by Connie Willis - Completed September 14, 2024

Challenge #12: Read a book from the NYT's list of the best books of the 21st century, or a suggested substitute
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson - Completed September 17, 2024
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward - Completed September 30, 2024
Trust by Hernan Diaz - Completed September 14, 2024

Challenge #13: Read a book with a four word title of the form (article) word (conjunction | preposition) word
The Book of Lamentations by Rosario Castellanos - Completed September 29, 2024
A Diary from Dixie by Mary Chesnut - Completed September 24, 2024
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley - Completed September 30, 2024
The Soul of Baseball by Joe Posnanski - Completed September 3, 2024

Black Studies Reading
Must reads for this year: King: A Life by Jonathan Eig and When We Ruled by Robin Walker
1. Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho - Completed January 5, 2024
2. Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martinez - Completed February 2, 2024
3. Before She Was Harriet by Lesa Cline-Ransome - Completed March 1, 2024
4. King: A Life by Jonathan Eig - Completed March 6, 2024
5. The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech That Inspired a Nation by Drew Hansen - Completed April 29, 2024
6. T.R.M. Howard: Doctor, Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Pioneer by David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito - Completed May 30, 2024
7. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson - Completed June 12, 2024
8. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass - Completed June 17, 2024
9. Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward - Completed July 29, 2024
10. When We Ruled by Robin Walker - Completed August 13, 2024
11. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson - Completed September 18, 2024
12. Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington - Completed September 20, 2024

Jewish Studies Reading
Must reads for this year: The Instructions by Adam Levin and Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History by Joseph Telushkin
1. 28 Days by David Safier - Completed January 25, 2024
2. The Archive Thief by Lisa Moses Leff - Completed January 28, 2024
3. Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi - Completed February 3, 2024
4. Cold Crematorium by József Debreczeni - Completed March 4, 2024
5. Etty Hillesum: An Interrupted Life the Diaries, 1941-1943 and Letters from Westerbork by Etty Hillesum - Completed March 30, 2024
6. Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure by Menachem Kaiser - Completed April 6, 2024
7. Ordinary Men by Christopher R. Browning - Completed April 25, 2024
8. My Friend, Anne Frank by Hannah Pick-Goslar - Completed May 30, 2024
9. Jewish Literacy by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin - Completed June 14, 2024
10. 999 : The extraordinary young women of the first official transport to Auschwitz by Heather Dune Macadam - Completed June 16, 2024
11. They Were Good Germans Once by Evelyn Toynton - Completed July 18, 2024
12. Sacred Trash by Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole - Completed August 10, 2024
13. Life Is With People by Mark Zborowski and Elizabeth Herzog - Completed September 4, 2024

Series Reading - I will post these as I read them:

The In Death series by J.D. Robb
Creation in Death - Completed January 3, 2024
Random in Death - Completed February 6, 2024
Strangers in Death - Completed February 22, 2024
Salvation in Death - Completed March 24, 2024
Promises in Death - Completed April 19, 2024
Kindred in Death - Completed May 13, 2024
Fantasy in Death - Completed June 9, 2024
Indulgence in Death - Completed July 12, 2024
Treachery in Death - Completed August 3, 2024
New York to Dallas - Completed September 1, 2024
Passions in Death - Completed September 8, 2024
Celebrity in Death -

The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon
A Breath of Snow and Ashes - Completed January 18, 2024
An Echo in the Bone - Completed August 25, 2024
Written in My Own Heart's Blood -

The St. Mary’s books by Jodi Taylor
What Could Possibly Go Wrong? - Completed February 29, 2024
Lies, Damned Lies, and History -

The Decker/Lazarus series by Faye Kellerman
Grievous Sin - Completed January 31, 2024
Sanctuary -

The Three Pines series by Louise Penny
The Brutal Telling - Completed March 22, 2024
Bury Your Dead -

The Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear
An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear - Completed June 29, 2024
Among the Mad -

The Jackson Brodie series by Kate Atkinson
One Good Turn - Completed May 28, 2024
When Will There Be Good News?

The Shetland Series by Ann Cleeves
White Nights - Completed July 6, 2024
Red Bones - Completed September 24, 2024
Blue Lightning -

The War Literature Challenge - I will be attempting to read at least 2 books toward each monthly challenge.

JANUARY - The Ancients (Greeks, Romans etc)
A War Like No Other by Victor Davis Hanson - Completed January 9, 2024
The Battle of Salamis by Barry Strauss - Completed January 31, 2024
Persian Fire by Tom Holland - Completed January 29, 2024

FEBRUARY - The American War of Independence
Killing England by Bill O’Reilly - Completed February 3, 2024
Unlikely Allies by Joel Richard Paul - Completed February 22, 2024

MARCH - WILDCARD - Pick your own fight!:
An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina - Completed March 10, 2024
Life Laid Bare by Jean Hatzfeld - Completed April 28, 2024

APRIL - Wars of Religion
The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy by Peter H. Wilson - Completed April 27, 2024

MAY - The Napoleonic Wars
The Illustrious Dead by Stephen Talty - Completed May 10, 2024
Mirage by Nina Burleigh - Completed May 21, 2024

JUNE - The English Civil War
The origins of the English Civil War: conspiracy, crusade, or class conflict? by Philip A. M. Taylor - Completed June 13, 2024
The White Witch by Elizabeth Goudge - Completed June 24, 2024

JULY - Colonial Wars - Not Participating

AUGUST - World War Two
Code Name Pauline by Pearl Witherington Cornioley - Completed August 5, 2024
The Grand Alliance by Winston S. Churchill - Completed August 12, 2024
Sinister Twilight: The Fall of Singapore by Noel Barber - Completed August 28, 2024
War Diaries 1939-1945 by Lord Alanbrooke - Completed August 15, 2024

SEPTEMBER - The American Civil War
April 1865 by Jay Winik
A Diary from Dixie by Mary Chesnut - Completed September 24, 2024
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara - Completed September 26, 2024

OCTOBER - American Follies (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and the Gulf Wars)

NOVEMBER - World War One

DECEMBER - The Spanish Civil War

The “Read More Sci-Fi” Challenge - using the Esquire list found here (https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/g39358054/best-sci-fi-books/) - which has now been expanded - and the book Science Fiction, The 101 Best Novels, 1985-2010 by Damien Broderick and Paul di Filippo as guides. Also adding in Hugo Award winners and nominees.
1. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - Completed January 22, 2024 (Esquire List #29)
2. The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut - Completed February 25, 2024 (Esquire List #18)
3. Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut - Completed March 3, 2024 (From the book - 1985)
4. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell - Completed March 16, 2024 (From the book - 1996)
5. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury - Completed May 25, 2024 (Esquire List #3)
6. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - Completed June 14, 2024 (Esquire List #14)
7. A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine - Completed June 29, 2024 (Hugo Award Winner, 2020)
8. Soldiers of Paradise by Paul Park - Completed July 19, 2024 (From the book - 1987)
9. A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine - Completed August 22, 2024 (Hugo Award Winner, 2022)
10. Way Station by Clifford D. Simak - Completed September 29, 2024 (Updated Esquire List #65)

The Around the World in 80 Novels Challenge inspired by the book of the same name. I want to try and expand my reading horizons to places I have rarely or never been. In addition to reading from the book that inspired this challenge, I will also be using Around the World in 80 Books as a reference.
1. The Missing File by D.A. Mishani - (Israel) Completed January 31, 2024
2. Bleak House by Charles Dickens - (England) Completed February 16, 2024
3. Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier - (England) - Completed March 8, 2024
4. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck - (China) Completed April 4, 2024
5. The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney (Canada) - Completed June 8, 2024
6. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (London, England) - Completed July 5, 2024
7. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (Iran) - Completed August 9, 2024
8. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Spain) - Completed September 19, 2024
9. The Book of Lamentations by Rosario Castellanos (Mexico) - Completed September 29, 2024

The Monthly Nonfiction Challenge - I try to read at least 100 nonfiction books a year and this challenge is instrumental in helping me achieve that goal. Last year, I was just short with only 96 nonfiction reads in the year, so I am hoping to improve that number in 2024!
January The Archive Thief by Lisa Moses Leff - Completed January 28, 2024
February Code Girls by Liza Mundy - Completed February 12, 2024
February The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts by Loren Grush - Completed February 24, 2024
March Written in Bones by Paul Bahn (editor) - Completed March 16, 2024
April Vermeer's Hat by Timothy Brook - Completed April 19, 2024
May Sacred Legacy by Edward S. Curtis - Completed May 19, 2024
June Between the Woods and the Water by Patrick Leigh Fermor - Completed June 19, 2024
July Never Home Alone by Rob Dunn - Completed July 30, 2024
August Sacred Trash by Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole - Completed August 10, 2024
September Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman - Completed September 22, 2024

The American Authors Challenge - This is one that I dip into and out of as the case may be
January The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain - Completed January 11, 2024
February Reborn: Journals & Notebooks 1947-1963 by Susan Sontag - Completed February 8, 2024
March A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote - Completed March 2, 2024
April Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure by Menachem Kaiser, Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning, The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech That Inspired a Nation by Drew D. Hansen, The Town That Food Saved by Ben Hewitt, and The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by T. E. Carhart
May The Heavenly Tenants by William Maxwell - Completed May 12, 2024
June Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson - Completed June 12, 2024
July A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power - Completed July 21, 2024
August The Blue Jay's Dance by Louise Erdrich - Completed August 29, 2024
September Trust by Hernan Diaz - Completed September 14, 2024

The British Authors Challenge - I have never participated in this one before and I suspect that, like the American Authors Challenge, it will be one into which I dip only on occasion
January The Serial Garden by Joan Aiken - Completed January 4, 2024
February Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman - Completed February 16, 2024
April An Eye for an Eye by Anthony Trollope - Completed April 9, 2024
May The Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman - Completed May 31, 2024
June The Island at the End of Everything by Kiran Millwood Hargrave - Completed June 4, 2024
July Animal Farm by George Orwell - Completed July 8, 2024
August The Grand Alliance by Winston S. Churchill - Completed August 12, 2024

Touchstone loading time. . .

Books read while at my mother's:

250 - The Soul of Baseball by Joe Posnanski - Highly Recommended (4.5 stars) Hoopla - Kindle Edition

251 - Life Is With People by Mark Zborowski and Elizabeth Herzog - Recommended (4 stars) Mine

252 - Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge - Recommended (4 stars) Hoopla - Kindle Edition

I want to be first so bad that I'm going to hope you're finished moving in or interrupt that process. I just checked your last thread, and I think you've finished.

GLAD you're back!!!!!!!!

Yes, I was finished, Peggy, other than loading Touchstones and putting in the September TIOLI challenges.

Thanks! I am very happy to be back!

Happy New Thread, Stasia ! Great to have you back .

Happy new thread Stasia!

Those touchstones do take their time.

Happy new thread Stasia!! Welcome back. : )

>15 vancouverdeb: Thanks, Deborah. I am so very glad to be back!

>16 quondame: Yeah, the Touchstone loading is a pain for sure. Thanks, Susan!

>17 Berly: I appreciate it, Kim!

Happy New Thread!

Welcome home, happy new thread, Stasia. Rest up now. Bet you are happy to be home.

Happy new one, Stasia and welcome home!

Hi Stasia, Happy September and Happy New Thread!

>19 SilverWolf28: Thanks, Silver!

>20 Kristelh: Yes, I am extremely happy to be home. I love my family but I needed to come home just to decompress. Next stop for me is Joplin in October (I hope!)

>21 jessibud2: Thank you, Shelley!

>22 Carmenere: Wow, all of that! Thanks, Lynda.

This morning has already been busy. Just going through the mail (and several packages) took a while. I got some new books and new games too, which is always nice.

Kerry's 70th birthday was yesterday - one of the reasons that I was coming home early from my mother's rather than staying at least a week as I normally do. We are having a "surprise" birthday party for him tomorrow - and, of course, everyone knows about it.

In addition to Kerry's birthday yesterday it was also his daughter Felisha's birthday. Her son, Axel, who is going to turn 4 on Sunday, is having a party so Kerry will be off to that Sunday afternoon.

Busy times around these parts! I am hoping to get at least some reading in as I try and catch up with everything from the past couple weeks.

I hope everyone has a fantastic Friday!

Happy new thread, Stasia, and welcome home from your travels! Also, happy birthday wishes to all those having birthdays. That's quite a group bunched together!

>25 atozgrl: Thanks, Irene! Yeah, it is. It is funny because in our immediate family we are all spread out - Catey in January, me in March, Beth in June, and Kerry in September.

Happy new thread dear Juana.

Happy birthday to Kerry, happy homecoming to you, and new-thread orisons! *smooch*

>27 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Juan!

>28 richardderus: Thank you for all that, RD!

Happy new one!

Happy new thread, Stasia!

Happy new thread!

>30 figsfromthistle: >31 drneutron: >32 foggidawn: Thank you, Anita, Jim, and foggi!

Finished today:

253 - A Lost Lady by Willa Cather - I chose this book for my "Classics for Pleasure" challenge reading for September. I have enjoyed several of Cather's books, including Death Comes for the Archbishop and one of my all-time favorite books, My Antonia. Unfortunately, this book - which is little more than a novella, to be fair - is not nearly as good as either of those others. The prose is very good but the story behind it is just not up to what I have read previously of Cather's work. The book tells a 'coming-of-age' story of Niel Herbert, who is a child at the beginning of the tale when he first meets Mrs. Forrester. As he ages, his perceptions of the lady change; Guardedly Recommended (3.5 stars) Library Book

>34 alcottacre:, I have that down as a potential shared read with you. I have Willa Cather on my lists but never seem to get to her.

Happy new thread, Stasia!

I perused all your lists and love your project in >3 alcottacre: . I’m a fan of Michael Dirda and have enjoyed reading all of his books. What a great idea you have there!

Have a wonderful, peaceful Sunday.

>34 alcottacre: I thought it was tedious when I read it in the 1980s, after loving Death Comes for the Archbishop. I see we basically agree. Happy week-ahead's reads! *smooch*

Hi Stasia, and happy new thread.

>24 alcottacre: Belated Happy Birthday to Kerry.

>34 alcottacre: I have 5 on my shelves by Cather, but haven’t ready any of them yet. Sigh.

>34 alcottacre: I had exactly the same reaction to A Lost Lady, Stasia. Like you I'm a Cather fan. This one just didn't measure up.

Happy Birthday to Kerry, Stasia! And Happy Birthday to Axel as well. Today is Mile's actual 4 th birthday. We got together last Sunday as they were afraid that kids would pick up a bug at school, but they didn't and we saw them for a 1/2 hour again today, which was nice.

Whew! We can get back in here, Stasia, although I see that you haven't made it to your thread yet.

Hope you're having a good day anyway! I also hope that Kerry is enjoying time with Axel crowd. I know the cats appreciate your staying home!!!

I have been trying for 2 days to get on to LT with little success. I was able to answer a couple of PMs and that was about it. When I tried to get into the group, all I got was CloudFlare errors. I felt like my right arm had been cut off! I know nobody else felt like that, right? Lol

>35 Kristelh: I hope you get to Cather at some point, Kristel. She is well worth reading!

>36 Matke: It has been an interesting reading year and a lot of the credit is due to the books that I have read because they were recommended by Dirda, whose books I also enjoy! I hope you give my "experiment" a try, Gail!

>37 richardderus: Thanks, RD!

>38 karenmarie: Get to the Cather, Karen. Come on, you can do it!

>39 lauralkeet: Yeah, I guess Cather has set the bar so high for herself that I expected more from A Lost Lady than I got.

>40 vancouverdeb: Happy birthday to Miles! I am glad you got to spend time with your grands, Deborah.

>41 LizzieD: I decidedly do not like it when I cannot get on LT, Peggy, even on Sundays where I spend little time here.

I actually finished a book on Sunday:

254 - Passions in Death by J. D. Robb - This latest entry in the In Death series finds Dallas investigating the death of a bride-to-be at Crack's club, The Down and Dirty. It turns out that the victim was killed in the same room in which Eve was attacked at her bachelor party the night before her wedding, so memories of Casto are triggered in her. So who did this bride trust that she should not have?; Recommended (4 stars) Mine

Marking a spot here, Stasia. I'm guessing that graffiti on the library wall is unwelcome. I'll just wave and shout.

HI.

New-week orisons, smoochling.

A belated happy new thread and happy return from your travels! Sounds like a busy-but-good last several days with all the birthday celebrations.

Hope your day with your girls was a good one.

>45 weird_O: Hi, Bill! Thanks for dropping by.

>46 richardderus: ((Hugs)) and **smooches**, RD!

>47 bell7: It has been busy but good, Mary. I am just fighting exhaustion - not of the CFS variety though - over the past few days. I was in bed at 5PM last night!

>48 Kristelh: It was a good one, Kristel. Thanks!

Finished tonight:

255 - Thunder Dog by Michael Hingson with Susy Flory - Nonfiction; Michael Hingson, a blind man, was high in Tower I of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Luckily, he had his guide dog, Roselle, with him and they, together with his friend Dave, made it down 70+ floors to safety on that fateful day. Interwoven with the story of his experiences on 9/11 is Hingson's autobiography. Both the story of 9/11 and his autobiography are inspiring so I can see why the book was written as it was, but sometimes I feel like the author goes a little too far adrift. Overall I would still recommend the book though; Recommended (3.75 stars) Library Book

Happy new one, Stasia. I don't remember the same room in which Eve was attacked at her bachelor party the night before her wedding looks like I should read that one again. Was it in book 2 or 3?

>42 alcottacre:
I experienced the same feelings over the weekend regarding LT. It was frustrating and I certainly didn't make the rounds like I should have - not to mention not being able to get it to accept my book entries. I did take time to read the talk thread that the LT Gods started and it explained the whole problem. I am glad that they got it fixed.

>51 Familyhistorian: Meg, it is book three in the series, Immortal in Death.

>52 benitastrnad: Yeah, I am already struggling to keep up after being out of town so long and LT certainly did not do me any favors over the weekend either, Benita! I am very glad that they got it fixed too!

I am really struggling with my sleep schedule right now. I have never been a good sleeper but right now it is particularly disastrous and it is messing up my days no end. I apologize that I have not been around more but between LT issues and my sleep, it has been a recipe for disaster!

>54 alcottacre: Oh no! i hope you are able to find your normal sleeping pattern again.

Sorry that you off kilter. Hope your able to reset that clock!

>54 alcottacre: I hope you're getting the problem under control, Stasia. *smooch*

>52 benitastrnad: >42 alcottacre: I thought LT got hacked by the Russkies on behalf of Moms for Liberty.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/363280

Stasia, hope things are getting better. Have to admit I am worrying about you.

>55 figsfromthistle: Not yet, but I hope I am getting better. I will point out though that my sleeping patterns have never been "normal," lol.

>56 Kristelh: I am trying, Kristel!

>57 richardderus: I hope so too, RD!

>58 weird_O: Stranger things have happened, right?

>59 SilverWolf28: Thanks, Silver!

>60 Kristelh: Thanks for worrying, Kristel, but I am OK.

Well, this has been one of the weirdest weeks ever for me (and that is saying something!) I am hoping that my sleeping is straightened out soon - last night was the most "normal" yet, but I am still not there. I am just happy that CFS has not made an appearance!

Today, Kerry and I are going to have our monthly gaming marathon so lots of board games. I am also going to take part in the weekly Readathon. Despite the sleeping issues I have still been reading. I feel like I am behind on my reading!

It does not look like I am going to finish anything today as far as books go. I have several large ones going on including The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (a shared read with) Mary and Pacific Crucible by Ian W. Toll, both of which I am finding to be excellent.

I hope everyone has a fantastic Friday!

So glad to see your presence here of LT. Have a fun game marathon, great reading, and normal for you sleep.

Hope things return to a more normal place for you, Stasia!

May the coming weekend and week be only as weird as you would like.

I hope your sleep soon returns to normal very soon Stasia. I had every expect ion of finding that you had read several books as I know the pace you keep with reading, but your sleep and game marathon has slowed your reading for the moment. It's great having you back on LT.

>63 Kristelh: Thanks, Kristel. We did have a good day gaming yesterday, I did get some reading in (although not as much as I would have liked, lol), but normal sleep is still eluding me.

>64 katiekrug: Thank you, Katie! I hope so too.

>65 quondame: I would settle for no weirdness at all, Susan, lol.

>66 vancouverdeb: Thanks, Deborah. Currently I am not sure that my sleep is ever going to return to "normal." I have tried several things but nothing is helping. *sigh* However, I am hoping to finish a couple of books today, so that is all to the good.

Kerry and I are currently watching the LSU-SC football game (we are big LSU fans!) I love college football season and will likely be watching at least one game every weekend.

After the football game is over we will likely get a board game to the table - Fantastic Factories today - and then I will read until my eyeballs give out on me like I did yesterday. I am hoping to finish both Trust by Hernan Diaz and Crosstalk by Connie Willis. I am currently listening to The Shadow of the Wind, one of my all-time favorite books. On the reading front, I am reading Life After Life, Love in the Time of Cholera, The Warmth of Other Suns, and Pacific Crucible.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Stasia, I would never, ever have called your most common sleep patterns "normal." I wish that you may find a good balance though!!!!!!!

Do we ever read as much as we want to? I hardly read anything yesterday, and I may use today to catch up. We walked and had breakfast, and then I came here, so I'm behind by quite a lot.

You're reading 3 that I enjoyed: *Cholera* (don't you like it a LOT better than *Solitude*??), Crosstalk, and *Warmth*. I very much need to read Caste, which I'm pretty sure that you have read already.

Supremely Super Saturday to you and Kerry!!!

>69 LizzieD: No, my sleep patterns have never been "normal," but I do have normal-for-me ones and I am just not in them right now and the lack is throwing me off my schedule completely which is then wreaking havoc with my life in general and I am not a happy camper. . .

No, we never read as much as we want to! At least I never do.

As far as *Cholera* goes, YES, I am enjoying it a LOT better than *Solitude,* which I have decided at this point I will never finish - after 3 attempts to do so. No, I have not read Caste yet although it is in the BlackHole.

Thanks! Same to you and G!

Finished this evening:

256 - Trust by Hernan Diaz - This book made it onto my radar a couple of years ago because it was on the Booker Prize Longlist (2022) and won the Pulitzer Prize the following year (2023). I am very glad that I finally got around to reading it as I very much enjoyed this story-within-a-story. There are 4 chapters in the book, each with a different "author" and told in a different voice. Although the first chapter sets up those that follow, I am not into the stock market at all, so there were things that I could not appreciate there, which brings the book's rating down slightly for me, but the rest of the book is so good it makes up for my indifference to all things stock-related. If you have not tried Trust, I recommend it, but be aware going in that it is not a straightforward narrative; Recommended (4.25 stars) Library Book

>71 alcottacre: I must get around to that one soon.

Have a lovely weekend, Stasia. xx

I'll be reading Trust in October for my RL book group. Glad to hear you enjoyed it.

>72 PaulCranswick: I hope that you enjoy Trust if and when you get around to it, Paul! Thanks. xx

>73 katiekrug: I would be curious as to the conversations about the book, Katie. I hope it works for everyone, but suspect it will not.

Finished tonight:

257 - Crosstalk by Connie Willis - I am a huge Connie Willis fan and was long before my current 'Read More Sci-Fi' challenge thanks mainly to her Oxford Time Traveling Historians series. However, this book and my other most recent read of hers, The Road to Roswell, are in a different vein than the Oxford books - they are funny. I think this book takes itself a bit too seriously despite the humor and goes on a bit too long for my taste. Subjects such as invasion of privacy, overwhelming information, and mental telepathy all come up as we learn Briddey's, C.B.'s, Trent's, and Maeve's stories; Recommended (3.75 stars) Mine

>75 alcottacre: I enjoyed The Road to Roswell for what it was, but Crosstalk is probably my least favorite Connie Willis book. Certainly the least favorite novel she's written since 1990. But then I cringe every time the telepath is a red haired Celt. MZB has much to answer for.

>76 quondame: I am not familiar enough with MZB to comment as I do not think I have ever read a single one of her books!

>77 alcottacre: She's the first I remember specifically tying mental powers - called laran - to Celtic ancestry, specifically red haired individuals. But by no means the last. McCaffrey wrote up a number as well.

>78 quondame: I have read several of McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern books, but it has probably been 35 years since I read her last. Unsurprisingly, I do not remember anything about redheads in those books.

Today being Sunday, it is my day off technology. I doubt I will finish any books today, but you never can tell.

I hope you all have lovely days!

>80 alcottacre: Lovely-Sunday *smooch*

>79 alcottacre: Although Dragonriders does include a type of telepathy, it's really the The Tower and the Hive series that bugged me. I don't think I've ever encountered any one but James H. Schmitz that really figured out that telepaths probably don't want to automatically be part of some government bureaucracy or criminals.

Happy Sunday, Juana

What , Stasia! You don't like Flavia de Luce! A travesty! I'll forgive because we like so many other books and authors in common. :-)

>81 richardderus: Thanks, RD!

>82 quondame: I don't think I've ever encountered any one but James H. Schmitz that really figured out that telepaths probably don't want to automatically be part of some government bureaucracy or criminals. I have never read anything by Schmitz. It sounds like I should give him a try. I know that if I was a telepath I would not want to be part of any government bureaucracy or be a criminal!

>83 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Juan!

>84 vancouverdeb: OK, I will count myself as forgiven :)

My sleeping is still messed up. I am really getting exasperated with the whole thing. Anyway today is just going to be a normal Monday around here - balancing the bank statement, groceries arriving, games being played, books being read. . .

I am hoping to finish Love in the Time of Cholera, which I am liking more than 100 Years of Solitude, but Gabriel Garcia Marquez is never going to be a favorite of mine. I am still reading The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky, Watership Down, Life After Life, Pacific Crucible, and The Warmth of Other Suns. I am also listening to The Shadow of the Wind. I am anticipating that I will finish a couple of my 'big' books (500+ pages) this week so maybe my reading will pick up a bit and I will have something to report.

I hope everyone has a marvelous Monday!

I don't know whether you'll remember, Stasia, but you sent me your ARC copy of the first Flavia de Luce many years ago. I was glad to get it (still am), but I still haven't read it. Holy moly! Back to The Half-Drowned King, and I'm wondering who it was here who sent me to it.
Marvelous Monday to you!

>87 LizzieD: No, I did not remember, Peggy. I can tell you for sure that I did not send you The Half-Drowned King though!

Hope you had a good Monday, Stasia! *whispers* I didn't like Flavia either. The first book was a DNF for me.

>89 bell7: I think we should form an "Anti-Flavia" fan club, Mary :)

Finished tonight:

258 - Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Yes, I finally made it through one of Marquez's books! After 3 attempts at One Hundred Years of Solitude, I feel like it is quite an accomplishment. However, I am never going to be a big fan of his writing and I realize that I am an outlier there. This book in contrast to the other is told in a much more straightforward fashion. I will give it to him, Marquez did a great job of setting the time and place in the book. I also thought he did an excellent job in giving the characters their own voice. That was the good stuff for me, but the bad outweighed the good. I thought the book went on way too long. It is dense, to be sure, but it is also long and dense which is never a good combination, IMHO. I also had major issues with Florentino Ariza, who I came to think of as little more than a pedophile given his propensity for young girls, and a rapist to boot. I have no idea why he believes that Fermina Daza would ever want his attention; Not Recommended (3 stars) Library Book

>90 alcottacre: Can I join?

What! At anti Flavia Club! Argh! :-) I'm glad you finished a book, even though your weren't keen on it. I've never read anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, so I can't comment. It does not sound appealing at all.

Happy Tuesday, Stasia. I am back in town and very slowly catching up around here. Quite a task. I hope all is well. I'm also a big fan of Trust. I know not everyone around here, liked it as much as we did. I also remember enjoying Love in the Time of Cholera. I thought it was an easier read than 100 Years.

>92 quondame: Absolutely!

>93 vancouverdeb: Well, you could make a "Pro-Flavia" fan club, Deborah! There are a lot of people who like Gabriel Garcia Marquez so you might want to check him out at some point. I just happen to be one of the people who do not care for his stuff.

>94 msf59: Welcome back, Mark!! I completely understand about the task of trying to catch up around these parts. Love in the Time of Cholera is an easier read than One Hundred Years, but by no means an easy read.

I am meeting up this morning (in about 15 minutes) with Catey to play Ark Nova since we missed our play a couple of weeks ago. Then later on Beth will be joining in on the fun.

I am hoping to finish 3 books today. We will see if that will actually happen. Of course, Kerry and I will be fitting in lunch and a board game too. . .

Hi Stasia - I have also never made it through One Hundred Years of Solitude and have not been tempted to try others by him, despite the fact that he is the very favorite author of a friend of mine.

>91 alcottacre:
I will agree that Marquez's books are not for everybody. However, I would add that, like Murakami, almost all of his books are magical realism. It is not straightforward fiction. It is out-there stuff and that is not what we often want in fiction. I know that I want a book that I can understand and grasp immediately. I may not know where the action is headed but I do have some idea of how the format for a novel works. Magical realism tips that idea on its head and therefore, is not a writing style that many people like. As a literary device, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.

The other aspect of magical realism is that often the reader has to know the real events in order to understand the transformation done to those events in magical realism. I just read an essay this morning by Daniel Mendelsohn in which he was dealing with the sinking of the Titanic. In the essay he wrote of a survivor who was 9 years old when he survived the sinking of the Titanic. For the rest of his life he couldn't stand to be outside of his midwestern home in the late summer when the locusts were out. He was in his 50s before he made the connection that the buzzing of the locusts reminded him of the noise in the water when the Titanic was sinking. This is the kind of element that an author using magical realism would play up on. However, if you didn't understand that it would be a reference to the sinking of the Titanic then it wouldn't make sense.

Marquez writes, almost exclusively about his home countries of Columbia and some about Panama and Venezuela. The histories of these countries are not well known in the US so many of the events that are highlighted in Marquez's work are very obscure to US readers and often leave us bewildered and confused about what is going on when we are reading about them. This is especially true when reading novels that use magical realism as the vehicle for telling the story. For instance One Hundred Years of Solitude is about the Thousand Days War, which was basically a war between the conservative government of Columbia, then in power with the support of US business interests, (shipping and banana companies included) and the Socialists. Marquez's grandfather was one of the leaders of the socialist movement in Columbia at that time. How many of us have even heard about the Thousand Day's War? Or the Treaty of Wisconsin? (a treaty written on the deck of the US Battleship Wisconsin.) We should - because it is these events, and the treaties, that lead directly to the US being able to build the Panama Canal and have ownership of the Panama Canal. The main character in 100 Years ... is based on the life of Marquez's grandfather who witnessed these events.

Love in the Time of Cholera is still magical realism but it is based in the Spanish meaning of the word Cholera. In Spanish Cholera means "passion, or human rage and ire in its feminine form." (that is quoting from Wikipedia.) The novel is still magical realism but given that meaning for the word "cholera" changes the context of the novel. The title becomes a pun: cholera as a disease, and cholera as passion. After that the central question of the book becomes is love helped or hindered by extreme passion?

Since the publication of 100 Years ... magical realism has become a valued literary device and it seems to work especially well in certain cultures and languages. It may be that magical realism is a literary device that doesn't work all that well in English, whereas it seems to work better in the Latin American cultures and, in the case, of Murakami, in Japan. I have also read several of Jose Saramago's works and magical realism is also used in several of his books. But, again, Portugal is closely related to Brazil, and through that country to the rest of Latin America. Richard spent last month reviewing many translated books and in his reviews he talked about the difficulties of translating in that it is not only about getting the words right, but in getting the cultural nuances correct. It is extremely difficult to get translations to convey all that is, or was, going on in a culture so that readers embedded in other cultures can understand literary works.

Marquez won the Nobel prize for Literature in 1982 and both of the above mentioned books are hugely popular, (and I don't mean the Trump version of the word huge) all over Latin America. I would like to believe that the Nobel committee gave him the award in recognition of his giving a literary voice to the Hispanic countries an cultures of the Western Hemisphere through these works of historical fiction, but given what we now know about the Nobel Literature committee I wonder about the validity of my thinking. However, what I don't doubt is that these two novels in particular, are essential reading for anybody trying to understand the modern LatinX culture in our hemisphere. I think that you will be surprised at how long some of the things you read about will stay with you. I still remember the scene in 100 Years ... in which Marquez describes the massacre in the railroad yard where he describes the blooming flowers on the bodies of the protesters. I had to reread that passage several times before I realized that he was describing the machine gunning of people. That kind of metaphor is the power of magical realism in storytelling when it is done by a master of the form.

I am not saying that you have to love Marquez as an author, but I am saying that sometimes we have to work towards a more complete understanding of the literature of a culture. That in turn should help us understand cultures other than our own.

Somehow I've missed this entire thread so far, Stasia! I hope your sleep schedule is straightening out somewhat. I will also join the anti-Flavia club :)

>97 streamsong: It is funny how reading tastes differ, isn't it?

>98 benitastrnad: Thank you for your post, Benita. For some reason, I enjoy Murakami's magical realism (I call him one of my 'LT discoveries') and that of other authors but Marquez's just does not. I cannot explain it. I am not any more familiar with Japanese culture than I am with South American culture (unfortunately) but one works for me and the other does not.

As an aside, I am reading a couple of other Spanish authors this month: Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Shadow of the Wind), which is one of my all-time favorite books, and Rosario Castellanos' The Book of Lamentations, which I have never read before. Zafon was from Spain and Castellanos was from Mexico. I am not sure how I managed to be reading three Spanish/Latino authors in the same month, but that is the way it has worked out. We will see if I enjoy Castellanos any more than I like Marquez.

>99 curioussquared: Last night was the most normal sleep night I have had in the past couple of weeks, Natalie, so I am hoping that maybe it is going to straighten out soon! Thanks for checking in.

Finished tonight:

259 - Pacific Crucible by Ian W. Toll - Nonfiction; One of my personal goals in all of the War Literature reading for this year is to learn more about the war in the Pacific as my knowledge of the European theater of the war is definitely better. Hence, this book - and hopefully the other two which complete the trilogy. This initial volume covers the war from Pearl Harbor in December 1941 to Midway in June 1942. I thought Toll did a wonderful job of presenting not only the American point-of-view, but is mindful of including the British and Japanese points-of-view as well. The "Notes" section of the book is excellent and includes sources from the 3 principal nations involved - and includes Australian sources as well. I do not care how hardened a person you are, you cannot read the accounts of combat as Toll describes them and not be sorrowful for the young men of whatever nation who had to go to war, many of them paying the ultimate price. Toll makes the admirals real as both soldiers and as human beings and I think that is important. Yes, they made mistakes and some of those mistakes cost lives, but they did what they thought was the right thing with the information that they had on hand if they could; Highly Recommended (4.5 stars) Mine

Now, I have to look to see if I actually own volume 2 or not. My local library only has books 1 and 3 of the trilogy (of course!)

Finished tonight:

260 - The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky by Ken Dornstein - Nonfiction; Author Ken Dornstein's world took a turn for the worse when he found out that his brother, David, was on board Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. Ken, who is about 6 years younger than David, took on the self-appointed task of the 'Dave Oral History Project,' determined to find out all he could about his older brother and his life. Ken finds an older brother who was 'lost' - David really was little more than a boy in the way he lived his life even though he was 25 at the time of his death. I am not sure that he was really mentally ill, although there is some indication of that in the book, or he was just unfocused as to what he really wanted to do with his life. His demise (and it goes without saying, those of the other passengers killed on the plane) is heartbreaking. So much wasted potential! But the reader is made to wonder, in Ken's telling of David's story, if David would have done anything with that potential because David spent so much time in seemingly wasting it. The book I found to be just OK. I thought the writing was uneven and that could possibly be because of the manner in which it was written. Some of the book I found to be downright creepy, but that may be just me; Guardedly Recommended (3.5 stars) Library Book

"I was imagining David sitting in his seat in row 40 at 7:02:50 on the night of the twenty-first, reading his Baudelaire maybe, and I was still wondering what had happened to him in the seconds and minutes before he landed in Ella Ramsden's yard."

Last one for tonight:

261 - Life After Life by Kate Atkinson - I missed out on the initial furor for this book back when it came out 10+ years ago. I read the first few pages, was not impressed, and basically shelved it - until now, when one of the TIOLI Challenges ("Read a book from the NYT's list of the best books of the 21st century") had me giving it another go, which went much better than my first attempt did. Atkinson plays on the theme of reincarnation as the main character, Ursula, lives one life and then another and then another. . .I actually thought this was rather interesting as people come and go from one life to another (I will confess that sometimes I was scratching my head and asking myself "Who was that again?") although the main framework of her family is stable throughout (for the most part). I had good fun with this one when all is said and done although I would not have labeled it "one of the best books of the 21st century" myself. It was a darn good read though, in the end; Recommended (4 stars) Mine

"The past seemed to leak into the present, as if there were a fault somewhere. Or was it the future spilling into the past? Either way it was nightmarish, as if her inner dark landscape had become manifest. The inside become the outside. Time was out of joint, that was for certain."

>261 I'm so glad you enjoyed Life After Life,Stasia. I did too and I caught the initial furor. I think I gave it 5 stars. I'm glad you are back reading at your usual pace!

>100 alcottacre: Like >98 benitastrnad:, I'm a Márquez fan. I really, really dislike Murakami. Funny how these things go.

>103 alcottacre: A book I've always felt was aa smidge too close to how I think reality actually works for my comfort....

>103 alcottacre: This is one of my faves of hers Stasia, along with Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

>104 vancouverdeb: My reading has been slowed by a couple of factors, not the least of which is that I was reading multiple books at either 500 or more pages, Deborah. Now that most of my 'big' reads are out of the way, I should be getting back on track - although I do still have 2 more large books to read this month yet. I am glad to hear that you enjoyed Life After Life so much.

>105 richardderus: And yet we remain friends. . .

I can see your point about it being close to how reality works, RD. I kept thinking as I was reading, "I wonder if I had done this instead of that how my life would have turned out."

>106 Caroline_McElwee: I own Behind the Scenes at the Museum but I have not read it yet. I will have to do so!

There is a lot going on here today. Two days ago, my stepdaughter Felisha was involved in a minor car accident (other than some bumps and bruises she is unharmed, but her car is a different matter) and, of course, the other driver had no insurance. To top it off, yesterday she walked into her home to find a man trying to steal her television set. She was there alone with Axel (who is 4) and she told the man he could take the TV if he would just leave her and her son alone. The man promptly threw the TV at her and fled.

Kerry is heading to Nacogdoches first thing in the morning and much of today has been taken up with getting him ready to go - laundry, money, snacks, etc. - plus just the normal everyday stuff, which is why I am behind getting on LT today.

I hope to squeeze some reading in today as I would like to finish The Warmth of Other Suns, a shared read with Mary, and Sing Down the Moon, a recent recommendation from Benita.

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!

>108 alcottacre: Cripes, Stasia...it's always something, no? I hope Kerry has a safe trip, and helps get things sorted out for Felisha. An accident is bad enough, but I can't imagine the fright of finding an intruder in your home. Thank goodness he had the wits to just flee.

>108 alcottacre:. So sorry that your step daughter is having a tough time. That sounds absolutely scary after dealing with an accident that wrecked her car. Safe travels for Kerry.

>108 alcottacre: I am so sorry to hear that your stepdaughter has had such a series of difficult events! Finding a stranger in your home would be terrifying. I hope she is able to recover well from what happened. Sending safe travel wishes for Kerry!

>109 laytonwoman3rd: Yeah, it does seem like it is always something around here, Linda! Thanks.

>110 Kristelh: Kristel, Felisha's car is not completely wrecked, but it is currently undrivable and since it is her only vehicle, it is very needed. Thanks for the concern for Kerry and I will pass along the 'safe travels' wishes.

>111 atozgrl: Thanks, Irene. The way Felisha tells it, she sounds like she kept calm (I would definitely not have done so, especially if I was trying to protect my 4-year-old child) and maybe that is what made the intruder flee without harming either her or Axel. I hate to think of how much worse things might have been.

Finished this evening:

262 - The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson - Nonfiction; Mary and I shared the read of this one, a book I am glad to have finally gotten around to reading. Her thoughts on the book pretty much echo mine (her review can be found on her current thread, https://www.librarything.com/topic/363421, at post #27). I thought that Wilkerson did a fantastic job of giving The Great Migration a face by choosing 3 different individuals of different backgrounds with differing education levels. Ida Mae came in from the fields to head north with her husband. George Starling achieved a college sophomore education but never progressed any further with his education. Robert Foster became an M.D. and rather than heading north, he headed west to California. Wilkerson gives us the details of their lives and experiences while explaining what was going on in the U.S., not just in the South but around the country as race relations continued to change. The Great Migration went on for about 50 years and the country was changing a lot during the period from WWI to the mid-1960s. Wilkerson continues to follow the three people all the way through; Highly Recommended (4.5 stars) Mine

"Perhaps the greatest single act of family disruption and heartbreak among black Americans in the twentieth century was the result of the hard choices made by those on either side of the Great Migration."

Finished tonight:

263 - Sing Down the Moon by Scott O'Dell - Juvenile; For the past 2 years in a row, I have had the privilege of visiting the Bosque Redondo Memorial at Ft. Sumner, NM. Prior to that, I do not think I had ever heard about the Long Walk, in which thousands of (primarily) Navajo Indians were forced to abandon their homeland and move into the very ill-prepared fort. O'Dell takes this piece of historical fiction and weaves a story around it. We meet the narrator, a teenaged Indian girl, as she and her family are living in Canyon de Chelly. Soon, however, Bright Morning (the narrator) is kidnapped by the Spanish until she and a couple of others run away. However, looming on the horizon is the threat of the Long Knives who soon force them to walk to Fort Sumner. All in all, I enjoyed this book (a Newbery Honor book) but with a couple of quibbles: the segue to the second part of the book is uneven and the timeline, especially toward the end of the book seems 'squished.'; Recommended (3.75 stars) Library Book

Thanks, Benita, for this recommendation!

"The other men were also idle most of the time, once the fields were planted and the water ditches dug. . .They sat around and bragged about things they had done. They made threats against the Long Knives, but the threats were weak and spoken quietly. They gossiped worse than women. The heart had gone out of them. The spirit had left their bodies."

The Bosque Redondo Memorial has photographs hung on its walls of the Native Americans who were forced to move to Fort Sumner. In not one of them do I remember seeing a smiling face. . .

Oh, Stasia! I'm sorry that Felisha has been hit by a double whammy. The man in her house still has me shaking as I sit. I'm glad that Kerry can go to her, and I also wish him a safe, non-eventful trip.

I'm admiring all the reading you've done this week - and we are only just finishing Wednesday!

I more often than not enjoy magical realism, but Mario Vargas Llosa remains my favorite practitioner. I need badly to reread War of the End of the World because I remember so clearly how awed I was by it. I need to read Conversation in the Cathedral if I ever get my reading chops back. Love Murakami! Like some Garcia Marquez more than you. Then there are the others!

I enjoyed Life After Life too, but A God in Ruins not so much. I'm glad I read it though.

And LOVED *Other Suns*.

And that's the best I can do in reaction to your shelf of books finished this week!

Having an intruder is really scary. When I lived in Derby, many, many years ago - I came home to a burglar ransacking my house. As I opened the front door he was legging it out through the back door. Not a nice feeling.

>115 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy. I will let Kerry know.

I also enjoy Mario Vargas Llosa and read several books of his a few years ago including both War at the End of the World and Conversation in the Cathedral.

I do not know anything about A God in Ruins and really have no plans to read it unless I stumble across it somewhere.

Thanks for your *reactionary* post!

>116 PaulCranswick: I would not think it would be a nice feeling at all, Paul! I am glad to hear that nothing untoward happened.

Yikes, poor Felisha. Good for her though, keeping a level head with the intruder. That's impressive. I'm sure Kerry will provide much-needed moral support, and I hope he can help sort things out with the car, too.

You've had some good reading lately. I loved Life After Life (and second Peggy's comment about A God in Ruins). I thought The Warmth of Other Suns was also excellent.

Oh boy, I hope Felisha is doing OK.

The Warmth of the Sun as well as Caste are inthe tbr mountain. Hope to get to one over the winter Stasia.

Yikes! Never a dull moment. I am relieved to hear that *fright* was the worst of it and nothing worse. Still. Wishing you and the family a quiet and boring, uneventful weekend!

>119 lauralkeet: Yep, he is just on his way. I really think that the moral support is more needed than the help with the car :)

I think I am not going to get to A God in Ruins any time soon, if ever!

>120 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline. If you care for a shared read of Caste, let me know! I would definitely like to read it.

>121 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley. Let us hope that the weekend is just that!

Kerry left about 10 minutes ago and it will take ~3+ hours for him to get to Nacogdoches.

While Kerry is gone, I hope to get a ton of reading done. I would like to finish The Shadow of the Wind today - I only have about 60 pages to go. I started four more books yesterday, Up from Slavery, Babel, The Night in Lisbon, and A Diary from Dixie. I am also continuing on my re-read of Watership Down for the Anita Memorial Reads this month.

I hope everyone has a great day!

>108 alcottacre: *bleurgh*

No one being hurt is good, but really, is this just not the worst imaginable day?!

I'm sending smooches and hugs!

>124 richardderus: Yeah, I bet Felisha would agree that it was the worst imaginable day!

Thanks for the smooches and hugs!

Finished this morning:

264 - The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón - Audiobook; This makes at least 3 (possibly 4) reads of this book for me. It is one of those books that, every time I read it, I discover something new. We are introduced to Daniel, age 10, who wakes up one day and cannot remember the face of his mother, who died when he was 4. His father takes him to a secret, magical place (that I want to go to!) called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books where he discovers a books by the mysterious author Julian Carax. Daniel, who loves Carax's The Shadow of the Wind, is determined to track down more of the author's work only to find that most of it has been destroyed. So the rest of the book we are following the shadow figure of Julian Carax in the past along with Carax's shadow, Daniel, with whom he shares a lot in common, as Daniel grows up; Highly Recommended (4.5 stars) Mine

Thanks for the shared read of this one, Mary!

Quite brave of Felisha but is she feeling like her personal space has been invaded? Hope you get a lot read while Kerry is away. I have finished The Night in Lisbon. Looking forward to what you think.

Wow, that is too bad about Felisha. Bad enough to have your car in an accident, but someone inside burgling your house? That would be scary. I hope she is managing okay and it's great that Kerry is there helping her sort things out.

Happy Friday, Stasia. Hooray for Warmth! Glad you got to it. Joe and I are meeting up with Mary (bell7) and her family today for a Cubs game. They are visiting from western Mass.

Funny, I loved A God in Ruins more than Life after Life. Different strokes...

>127 Kristelh: Kristel, Felisha has not mentioned feeling like her personal space has been invaded, but it probably does. I did get quite a bit read during the day yesterday, so that was nice. I am at about the halfway point of The Night in Lisbon I think and I am very much enjoying it.

>128 vancouverdeb: Thanks, Deborah!

>129 msf59: Yes, hooray for Warmth, Mark. Have you read Caste yet? Mary told me she likes it even better, so I hope to get to it before the end of the year. Congratulations on the meet up! It goes without saying that I wish I could be there. Go, Cubs, go!!

It is a good thing that there are different strokes, right?

Kerry is heading home today after enjoying his impromptu visit with Felisha and Axel (who just loves his Papaw). She seems to be doing OK after the scares of the past few days.

It is pretty much going to be a 'Do nothing but read' day for me at least until Kerry gets home. I made good strides in my books yesterday and would like to finish Up from Slavery and Watership Down, a re-read I am greatly enjoying, today. I will continuing Babel and A Diary from Dixie. If all goes well, I will also be starting A Visit from the Goon Squad.

I calculated yesterday and I have to read 590+ pages a day to get all the books I have on tap completed by the 30th. Yeah, that is not happening. . .

I hope you all have a fantastic Friday!

Finished this morning:

265 - Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington - Nonfiction; Washington's autobiography is still a good read almost 125 after its initial publication. I also consider it timely reading. I can see why W. E. B. DuBois felt the need to break away from Washington's philosophies, but I can also see why Washington was so well-respected in what he was trying to do, not just for his race, but for whites as well. As far as the book itself is concerned, my major problem was that Washington is loose with the chronology. On one page, he mentions that he married a Miss Davidson and not 2 pages later, his wife was a different lady. It turned out that Washington was married three times and Miss Davidson was his second wife. The lady mentioned 2 pages later was his first wife, but no way you could tell from the way it was written - I had to check Wikipedia for clarification, lol. Also, Washington makes references to "the war," and this was indeed the Civil War - this book was published in 1900, before both of the world wars. Of course, there was no way that the author could have known about the upcoming tragedies. If you have any interest in U.S. race relations, Washington and his story, especially concerning the Tuskegee Institute, this book is worth the read - not for its literary quality, which it really does not have - but for the story that it conveys; Recommended (4 stars) Library Book

"The temptations to enter political life were so alluring that I came very near to yielding to them at one time, but I was kept from doing so by the feeling that I would be helping in a more substantial way by assisting in the laying of the foundation of the race through a generous education of the hand, head, and heart."

"I had a strong feeling that what our people most needed was to get a foundation in education, industry, and property. . ."

I'm glad that Kerry can leave Felisha - speaks well for her maturity - and very glad that he'll get home today!

Holy Moly! You read almost 700 pages yesterday???? I'd have to read all day long, and nothing very challenging either, to get that read in four days. No wonder you always pass me when we're sharing a read. That said, when you get around to Caste, please let me know. I want to get to it, but haven't nudged myself over to it yet.

Fabulous Friday to you!

>133 LizzieD: Peggy, NO, I did not read almost 700 pages yesterday. I am not sure where that came from, lol. I would have to read almost 600 pages daily until the end of the month to finish up all the books that I am supposed to have read by then. Since most days I read between 400-450 pages, 600 is just not going to happen!

Kerry called me about 40 minutes ago to let me know he was heading home, so I should see him about 3pm or so.

Oh brother. I seriously misread. That happens when I'm not completely IN THE MOMENT. 400-450 pp is still way more than I read. If I'm at home, I can generally read about 100 pp, and that's of stuff that's not particularly challenging like this Viking novel I have going.

Glad Kerry is getting a good start! I know that all four of you will be glad when he arrives.

400 pages a day is still beyond my comprehension, Stasia. Words fail me to describe your reading pace. As much as I love to read, I have trouble sitting still for very long at one time, which naturally affects how much I read in a day, and I don't think I have a rapid rate of consumption anyway. I have, occasionally read a whole book (Robert B. Parker being the most likely prospect for this) in a single day, but you amaze.

>135 LizzieD: No problem, Peggy. I just could not imagine where the 700 page number came from, lol.

>136 laytonwoman3rd: I try to have a wide variety of books going, Linda, which helps with my reading pace. I could not read that much if they were all Pacific Crucible, for example. I also try and plan for the bigger books early in the month because they are slower going. Nothing amazing about it.

Finished this afternoon:

266 - Watership Down by Richard Adams - I am so glad that this month's Memorial Read for Anita had me picking this one up again. I originally read it when I was in my 20s so it has been a while. Back then, I thought that the book was for children or teens and did not know better until after I had finished it. Nope, this one is definitely for adults despite the fluffy bunnies running around everywhere in it :) I feel like it definitely deserved all of the awards and nominations it received. This story of Fiver, a seer rabbit, and his brother, Hazel, is so good. Adams not only gives personalities to all of the rabbits but he gives them a language and a mythology (not sure what else to call their stories) as well. He does not have these rabbits staying home in their own warren (soon to be torn down by men) but exploring the wider world trying to make a new home for themselves despite the hardships along the way; Highly Recommended (4.5 stars) Mine

You were about 100 posts ahead of me, Stasia. I'm glad I buckled down and did more than a scan of all the posts.

>98 benitastrnad:. Thanks for this long and informative post, Benita. I read Love in the Time of Cholera quite a few years ago. I was proud of myself for reading it, but I can't say that I got much out of it. But now, well, now I have to return to it and see if I can appreciate it more. Murakami and Salmon Rushdie also. (Trivia: I think I have three or four copies of "Cholera" because at book sales, I can't remember whether it is " Cholera" or "Solitude" that I have in multiples. It's "Cholera" you have in bulk, ya weirdo you!)

>103 alcottacre:. I read and liked Life After Life as well as several of Atkinson's Jackson Brodie stories. I have A God in Ruins and that "Museum" book. Now I'm inspired to read them...well, soonly. Heh.

>126 alcottacre: Another inspiration. Read The Shadow of the Wind on the enthusiastic recommendation of my daughter, who was inspired to read it on Stephen King's enthusiastic recommendation. I acquired the next two books, but, shockingly, have never read them. Nor have I acquired the final book of the series. Geez. More must-reads.

Yes to Wilkerson's two mammoth histories. Got 'em. Haven't read 'em.

My condolences to Felisha. My daughter has lived in the greater Boston area since college. At one point, she shared a house in Somerville, a largely Portuguese community tucked into NW Boston. They were robbed twice, and on the second occasion, Becky was at home, tucked into her bed on the second floor. One of the thieves came in her bedroom and got all apologetic and averred that they wouldn't broken in if they had known anyone was at home. But that sentiment didn't extend to leaving empty handed. For Becky, the trauma lingered for months and months, even after the living group drifted apart.

>139 weird_O: Now I'm inspired to read them...well, soonly. I understand that sentiment completely, Bill.

I have never read beyond The Shadow of the Wind in the series. It is so good that I am afraid the other books will be a disappointment.

Yeah, I am afraid that Felisha is going to be a while before the happenings of this past week leave her. All Kerry and I can do is provide support.

Kerry arrived back home safely yesterday afternoon so all is right with my world again. Nothing much going on here today. We will be watching the LSU football game in a few hours, possibly getting in some game playing, and lunch is coming up here shortly.

On the reading front, I am hoping to finish my second Anita Memorial Reads for this month, A Night in Lisbon, which is pretty good but not as good for me as I had hoped. Mary reminded me this morning that I need to read Traveller's Joy so I need to get to that one too. Still working on A Diary from Dixie and Babel. I also started a book of essays yesterday that I will be reading slowly until the end of the month, Charles Baxter's Wonderlands: Essays on the Life of Literature. I did not get started on A Visit from the Goon Squad yesterday as I had hoped, so maybe today?

I hope everyone has a super Saturday!

Glad Kerry is safely home and that you have a Super Saturday lined up.

I'm curious as to what you're making of Babel.... give us a hint!

>142 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy. As far as Babel goes, I am not even quite to the halfway point I do not think, but I am enjoying what I have read thus far - although there are times that I feel like Kuang is putting stuff in the book just because she learned it.

Finished this afternoon:

267 - Traveller's Joy by Victoria Goddard - Another shared read with Mary as we continue traipsing through Goddard's Nine Worlds. This novella is in the Greenwing & Dart series just after Jemis' disastrous finals as his friends Hal and Marcan try and come up with a way to get Jemis' mind off said finals. They decide to go on a walking tour, which is sure to be right up Hal's alley as he can study the flora along the way. Told from Hal's point-of-view, this novella highlights the friendship between Hal and Jemis especially. As with all of these novellas, they are not long enough! I want to know so much more! I hope Goddard continues to fill in the 'chinks' along the way though; Recommended (4 stars) Mine - Kindle

Finished tonight:

268 - The Night in Lisbon by Erich Maria Remarque - As far as I know, the only other book of Remarque's that I have read is All Quiet on the Western Front, which I thought was a masterpiece. I was pretty sure that this book, based on Remarque's and his friend, Hans Habe's experiences as refugees during WWII, would not live up to the other one and sadly, it did not. That being said though, I am glad I put the time into reading it - and even though it did not measure up to *All Quiet* I am keeping it to re-read in future now that I know what to expect from it. The title basically says it for the reader - this is one night in Lisbon as a man and his wife are trying to escape to anywhere that the Nazis are not - and encounters a man (Schwartz) who is giving away his visa and 2 tickets to America. All the man has to do is sit and listen to Schwartz's tale of his and his wife's peripatetic travels around Europe as they too were trying to escape. My biggest complaint is that I found parts of Schwartz's tale unbelievable - and yes, I know it is based on real life experiences - so I think that is on me as the reader, which is why I think that this book demands a re-read from me in future; Recommended (3.75 stars) Mine

"We were human beings until September. . ."

>108 alcottacre: oh my! What a double whammy of awful. I hope your stepdaughter has a better week ahead,

>145 alcottacre:, I rated Night in Lisbon 3 stars. I think it was a good idea that maybe would have been better if it had been shorter. It wasn’t as good as I had hoped.

>146 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita!

>147 Kristelh: It was not as good as I had hoped either, Kristel. I think my expectations were just too high since I loved All Quiet on the Western Front so much.

Well, I finally started on A Visit from the Goon Squad and at almost 50 pages in, am giving up on it. The book is just not doing anything for me. I do not care for either of the main characters at all. *sigh* It is a shared read and I really hate giving up on those, but life is too short and the list of books I need to read is too long!

Today being Sunday, it is my traditional day off technology. Not sure if I will get any reading done as I had less than 3 hours of sleep last night, but we shall see.

I hope you all have a lovely day!

Get some sleep!

>151 The_Hibernator: Thanks, Rachel. I will try!

Finished this afternoon:

269 - Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman - Nonfiction; This is one of my all-time favorite books so I am heavily biased in its favor. Fadiman comes from a literary background: her father, Clifton Fadiman was at one time an editor with Simon & Schuster and her mother, Annalee Jacoby was a war correspondent, screenwriter, and author. To say that Fadiman has literary roots is an understatement. In this book, she builds on those roots detailing her lifelong love affair with all things book-related. I recognize myself in so many of these essays it is not even funny; Highly Recommended (5 stars) Mine

If you read nothing else in this book, do not miss the "Recommended Reading" section!

>153 alcottacre: I'm amazed you got anything read on so little sleep! Of course its five-starness helped, I'm sure.

*smooch*

>153 alcottacre: How serendipitous Stasia, I took this off the shelf for a reread just yesterday, maybe because I enjoyed my reread of Helene Hanff's books, staying in books on books land appealed. I'll get to it in another day or two.

>153 alcottacre: - I read and loved the Fadiman book years ago, Stasia. Have you read her book about her father, The Wine Lover's Daughter? I don't drink wine (or alcohol) but I loved that one too. And my favourite by her was The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. That was my first by her. I own 2 others but have not yet got to them.

Do we know why there wasn't a weekend Read-a-thon this weekend?

Happy Monday, Stasia. Yes, I thought Caste was excellent. You are in for a treat. Hooray for Ex-Libris. I can never understand the divisiveness of Goon Squad. I thought it was excellent. Hey, you gave it a shot.

>154 richardderus: It certainly helped that the book is one familiar to me (although I did read other books yesterday as well.) **Smooches** back at you!

>155 Caroline_McElwee: I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, Caroline!

>156 jessibud2: I have read all of Fadiman's books, Shelley, except for The Wine Lover's Daughter. Thank you for the reminder that I still need to get to that one!

>157 benitastrnad: No idea, Benita. I checked Silver's thread on Friday, but nothing was posted there about it.

>158 msf59: Happy Monday to you too, Mark!

I have been up and about and doing chores this morning and running errands as Kerry and I are taking a day trip tomorrow and need to be out the door about 6am. We are going to spend the day in Tyler - and visiting with Catey who is coming over from Longview. I will not be online at all tomorrow until late in the evening.

I hope everyone has a marvelous Monday and a terrific Tuesday!

I have The Warmth of Other Suns firmly on my tbr list. Thanks for the great review.

I am sorry to hear about Felisha's double whammy. Both individually are quite disturbing - together make a nasty week for her - and for you too I am sure.

I also really enjoyed Caste. I love all the reading of black history that you've been doing.

>161 streamsong: I hope you get to The Warmth of Other Suns soon, Janet, and enjoy it.

Yeah, last week was pretty bad around these parts, but luckily Felisha's car is now fixed and no one was seriously hurt.

I am hoping to get to Caste before the end of the year. Thanks. My Black History reading is an ongoing project that will continue into next year as well. I have been doing it for 3 (I think?) years now and there is no end in sight. Same for my Jewish reading although I have been doing that for a lot longer.

A day trip - NICE! Y'all be safe on the road and have fun. Greetings to Kerry and Catey! (I just learned that the Greek root for the "greeting" that was the standard opening of a Koine Greek letter in the 1st century CE, was "rejoice.") So, rejoice!

>163 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy. We will try and be safe. I am sure that we will have fun!

Finished tonight:

270 - Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa - This book was a recommendation from Richard who called it 'fine.' That is about the summation of my review as well - I did not feel there was really anything special about the story of Takoko, whose boyfriend is cheating on her, and decides to quit her job. Her uncle calls her up and offers her some sanctuary at his bookshop. As she spends time at the shop she grows, not only in her reading, but in herself as well. After time at her uncle's shop, she finally gains enough confidence to emerge into the 'real' world again, taking a new job and moving back to Tokyo. I wish I had more familiarity with modern Japanese authors and their books because most (if not all) the references in the book went right over my head. Some of the translations in the book seemed a bit rough to me; Recommended (3.75 stars) Mine

"I happened to find a pressed flower someone had left as a bookmark. As I inhaled the scent of the long-ago-faded flower, I wondered about the person who had put it there. Who in the world was she? When did she live? What was she feeling?

It's only in secondhand books that you can savor encounters like this, connections that transcend time."

>138 alcottacre: I love that book, Stasia. One of my absolute favourite reads from my teenage years.

>166 PaulCranswick: I always knew you had good taste, Paul! Lol

Kerry and I are leaving shortly for Tyler. I will see you some time this evening!

Have a terrific Tuesday!

>165 alcottacre: I love reading secondhand books for those very reasons, Stasia.

>165 alcottacre: It really was just...fine, wasn't it. Passed some time more pleasantly than TV would. I'm so pleased it didn't hit you wrong, since I did it to your TBR.

*smooch*

>169 Kristelh: Yep, me too, Kristel!

>170 richardderus: Pretty much anything passes time more pleasantly than TV does, IMHO, Richard, but I am not sorry to have read the book at all and am contemplating getting the follow up book, which I have heard is better.

Finished on the drive back home this afternoon:

271 - Red Bones by Ann Cleeves - Audiobook; This is the third entry in Cleeves' Shetland series and it is the one that I have enjoyed the most thus far. I suspect that is because I am coming to know more about Jimmy Perez as a character and a police officer. In this one, Perez is investigating what appears to be an accidental death - a young man shoots an elderly woman thinking she was a deer. The young man has been drinking so he is given the benefit of the doubt especially given that there is no evidence to the contrary. However, when a second body is found, Perez begins to question the initial conclusion; Recommended (4 stars) Mine

Finished tonight:

272 - A Diary from Dixie by Mary Chesnut - Nonfiction; Mary Chesnut first came to my attention when I viewed Ken Burns' excellent documentary on the Civil War. Chesnut was married to General James Chesnut, Jr., who served for the South in the Civil War. Mary Chesnut was well-known in society circles including to Jefferson Davis and his wife, Varina; General Wade Hampton III, General John Bell Hood, among others. Chesnut does not strike me as either a silly or unintelligent woman based on her diary material, which is well-written, but I do think she is a bit delusional at times. She writes well so I have no problem with the way the diaries are written, but I do have a problem with the way they were edited - large chunks of time are missing from them - and there were passages that I would love to have been able to read; Recommended (4 stars) Mine

It has been a very long day and I am heading to bed now. . .

Well, I finally got a good night's sleep this week. Of course, that means I got up late and everything for the day has been pushed back. Ah, well.

Nothing much going on here today. Normal stuff - laundry, cooking lunch (Cajun Mac today), and Kerry and I are getting some game playing in today. We have already played Project L, which is a short game that we can play in about 30 minutes (he beat me by 1 point!) and are hoping to play Raising Robots (which is not short) after he takes his afternoon nap, lol.

I am starting another board game auction tomorrow which will run for 10 days or so. Lots of stuff to be done for that yet.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday!

>174 alcottacre: Great to have some decent rest to top up your energy, innit?

May it continue, smoochling.

>175 richardderus: Yes, decent rest for a change was wonderful.

Thanks, RD!

>165 alcottacre: Hmm I think I will pass on that one.

I enjoy finding things in used books. Unfortunately a lot of used stores Check them before and take the discoveries out.

I've never read Watership Down, Stasia, if you can believe it. I'm glad you finally got a good nights sleep. Somehow I've gotten behind, nothing special, just reading , walking etc . I did enjoy this Wednesday - a good long walk in the drizzle which eventually turned to rain, and then a bit of reading.

>177 figsfromthistle: I love finding things in used books. Too bad about stores taking stuff out of them.

>178 vancouverdeb: I would suggest getting to Watership Down, Deborah. I think you would enjoy it.

Today is 'working on auction' day for me. I hope to have it up and running tonight but I am taking a break for a bit.

I hope to be back later today with a report of some books that I have finished!

Finished tonight:

273 - Babel by R. F. Kuang - I had only ever read one other of Kuang's books to this point, Yellowface, but I enjoyed it enough to be willing to try her again. My daughter, Beth, absolutely loved this one, so I decided to give it a shot, especially since other people were reading it for one of this month's TIOLI Challenges. I am glad that I did. Kuang postulates an alternative universe Oxford/Britain in this one and I thought she did a great job of world building especially in the first part of the book. We are introduced to the character of Robin, who we first meet as a motherless boy (his mother has died of cholera) taken to England by the enigmatic Professor Lovell to be raised as a linguist, destined to go on to Oxford, where he gets approached by a mysterious society known as Hermes, to join its ranks. There are quite a few twists and turns along the way. Despite my enjoyment of the book overall, there are a couple of negatives for me: Kuang seems bound and determined to let us know everything that she knows about the subject of linguistics. Some of these sections could definitely have been edited with no wide effect on the book IMHO. Also, there were points where I felt like I was being beaten about the head by the themes of the book (Racism is bad. Colonialism is bad.). Still, I would read this one again; Recommended (4 stars) Library Book

"The dream was shattered. That dream had always been founded on a lie. None of them had ever stood a chance of truly belonging here, for Oxford wanted only one kind of scholar, the kind born and bred to cycle through posts of power it had created for itself. Everyone else it chewed up and discarded."

>178 vancouverdeb: Deborah, you are not the only one. I really *must* get to Watership Down.

>174 alcottacre: I'm glad to see you finally got some good sleep, Stasia. I hope that continues. Good luck with your auction.

>182 atozgrl: Yes, you really must get to Watership Down, Irene. I do not think you will be disappointed in the read.

As far as a good night's sleep goes, pretty much anything over 5 hours qualifies for me. Unless it is because of CFS, of course.

Thanks for the good wishes regarding my auction!

Finished tonight:

274 - The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara - The first time I read this novel, I was in my late 20s/early 30s, and I distinctly remember saying to myself "I wish I could write like that." To my recollection, this is the first time I ever said that about a book, this book made that big of an impression on me. I did not even know at the time that it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1975. This book is concentrated on one battle during the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg from July 1-3, 1863. Shaara lets us see inside the minds of officers on both sides of the conflict and in doing so, he gives each of these men a unique voice - they do not sound like each other, they sound like themselves - and that is the magic in the book for me. Yes, Shaara makes sure that the battle is historically accurate - and thank goodness for the maps included in the book - but his ability to get inside the minds of the main characters is what sets this book apart; Highly Recommended (5 stars) Mine

>274 i just finished the book too. I liked the different POV that he used to get us into the nuances of the battle. I also felt he did this so beautifully without making any political statement but telling the story as it was. The good and the bad decisions.

Someone has said that this would not win a Pulitzer today. I guess that would be true but sometimes I really dislike what wins in the current time.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/364564

>185 Kristelh: I knew you were reading it too, Kristel. I will have to check out your thread to see your final thoughts on it.

I am not sure it would win a Pulitzer these days either, which I think would be an unfortunate loss to the Prize.

I guess that would be true but sometimes I really dislike what wins in the current time. I get that!

>186 SilverWolf28: I am definitely in, Silver. I still have several TIOLI books I would like to finish this month.

>174 alcottacre: Stellar Night for Stasia! I only wish you could have a few of them in a row and get into something like a normal balance. I know that sleep is feast or famine with you. *sigh*

I'm glad you enjoyed Babel 4 stars worth. I disliked being beaten by the Big Themes a half star less than you. I will read more Kuang though.

>189 LizzieD:
I think that Kuang has a tendency to beating a drum long after the rest of the music has ended. I thought that about Yellowface and so didn't think as highly of it as many people did. It was OK, but it wasn't that great and the plot fell apart at the end.

>190 benitastrnad: I can easily see why you would think that, Benita, after the two of her books that I have read.

I still have Babel on my list, Stasia, so hopefully when I get to it I like it at least as well as you do. I really enjoyed Yellowface last year.

Sorry to hear about Felisha's awful day, and hope she's doing okay.

>192 bell7: I will be curious to see your thoughts on Babel when you get to it, Mary.

At last report, Felisha is doing fine. Kerry talked to her a couple of days ago. Thanks.

Happy Saturday, Stasia. I also loved Yellowface but I am on the fence about Babel. I should also reread The Killer Angels. 5 star read for sure.

We are set with the Doig for the 10th. I will post something about it on my thread.

>194 msf59: Oh, yeah - you definitely need to re-read The Killer Angels, Mark! I would love to see what you think of it on a second read. I was so sure before I started it that I would not be giving it 5 stars on my re-read that I mentioned it to Beth and Catey. Well, it turned out I was wrong.

Have a super Saturday!

Well, I got next to no sleep again last night (it is sad when your Fitbit records nothing for your sleep for the night!) so I imagine at some point today I will be taking a nap. On the other hand, I already have all my chores done for the day and the game set up for Kerry and I play later.

Kerry and I are going to start a campaign of Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle today. We had planned on playing it in October but with the death of Maggie Smith earlier this week, we decided to move up our first play to this week.

I am hopeful of finishing 3 books today: Wonderlands: Essays on the Life of Literature by Charles Baxter, Way Station by Clifford D. Simak, and April 1865 by Jay Winik, the last of my Civil War reading for the month. I am still listening to Empire of the Sun and continue reading The Book of Lamentations by Rosario Castellanos, which I am finding to be very good. I will be starting something up else today if I get the books finished that I want to, but there is no way I am going to finish up everything that I need to by Monday. *sigh*

I hope everyone has a super Saturday!

Finished this afternoon:

275 - Wonderlands: Essays on the Life of Literature by Charles Baxter - Nonfiction; This is one of those books that I knew, going in, that was going to make me feel stupid. I accepted that from the outset. I bought it because I like to learn - especially about reading, this hobby that I love. The back cover states that the book "arises from years of wisdom and reflection on what makes fiction work." I can honestly say that, while I enjoyed reading these essays and learning from them, I wish I was more familiar with that Baxter uses in his examples. He assumes that the reader knows them. He can quote some of them at length, but not all of them, and in some instances that hampers the point he is trying to make - or maybe it really is just me and I am stupider than I think I am. I can see myself returning to this book and re-reading it in future when I have more literary fiction under my belt - up until I joined the 75ers, I had never even heard of literary fiction. A lot of people whose reviews I have read ranked this book a 5. It is not there for me yet but I think one of these days, it could very well be; Guardedly Recommended (3.5 stars) Mine

>197 alcottacre: Well, you got me with a nice BB for Wonderlands. Hope you have a great weekend, including some good rest!

Karen O.

>198 klobrien2: I hope you enjoy the book if and when you get to it, Karen. I hope I get some rest too.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Finished this afternoon:

276 - April 1865 by Jay Winik - Nonfiction; This book caps a trilogy of great reads for me on the American Civil War for the War Literature challenge. I originally read this book about 15 years ago and absolutely loved it. Winik does a great job with narrative nonfiction here. The book is about the last month of the Civil War and the difference it made in this country, but Winik does not begin there. No, he begins with introducing Thomas Jefferson to the reader. Why? Jefferson illustrates the problem with slavery from the outset of America. This sets the stage for all that comes after. From there, Winik begins to introduce the major personages of the war. I thought he did a great job here because it is all too easy to get wrapped up in which side each person was on and not get to know them individually. The most telling part of the book deals with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the consequences for the country. All in all, I think the book is just a terrific read; Highly Recommended (4.5 stars) Mine

"There is 'no greater {task} before us,' Lincoln bluntly told his cabinet, or for that matter, before 'any future Cabinet.' In truth, this was the foremost challenge of April 1865. This accomplishment - two nations becoming one - perhaps among the most momentous of all time, makes the story of April 1865 not just the tale of the war's denouement but, in countless ways, the story of the making of our nation."

>200 alcottacre: Well, shucks, that's one more book for Mt. TBR. When am I ever going to find time to read everything?

>201 atozgrl: Well, you just have to plan ahead like me. I have decided that I can never die as long as there are books in the BlackHole :)

>202 alcottacre: In that case, I'll be here for a long time.

>203 atozgrl: Yeah, me too! Isn't it nice to have company? Lol

I am heading to bed early tonight in the hopes that I might actually sleep. . .

Sweet dreams, Stasia!

Karen O

Best wishes for a good sleep, Stasia. I have fit bit too, but I have only worn it out once or twice when I have gone to bed to sleep. It's uncomfortable, and I don't want to stressed out finding out whether it rates my sleep as poor , fair, good etc. I was looking at your introduction just now, and about how Kerry's retirement might affect your reading. I have not quite a stuck to purchasing one a book a month, more like two books a month , but I sure use the library a lot more. It really does save money.

>206 klobrien2: Thanks, Karen!

>207 vancouverdeb: I do not stress out about my sleep as far as my Fitbit goes. I have never been a good sleeper, it has just been worse here lately, lol.

I use my local library quite a bit although I am concentrating on reading off my own shelves these days. I think I have a good balance going right now - a good balance for me anyway.

Well, since I have been up for almost 90 minutes now I guess I am officially done sleeping and need to get on with reading since I have several TIOLI books I need to finish yet, including the one that I did not finish yesterday.

I hope everyone has a lovely Sunday! Hopefully I will be back at some point to talk about the books I have completed.

Finished this afternoon:

277 - Way Station by Clifford D. Simak - This book is #65 on the Esquire list of all-time best sci-fi books. It was also recommended to me by Joe, whose word I will take over Esquire's any day of the week, lol. I very much enjoyed this one although I was not exactly sure going in what "pastoral" sci-fi meant. Now I know. This is not a space opera kind of book. It is not a book where the aliens have invaded and now Earth must defend itself. No, this book centers on one man, Enoch Wallace, who was alive to fight during the U.S. Civil War and is still alive 100+ years later. However, the government has taken notice of Wallace and wants to know why and how he is still alive. Well, it turns out aliens did it and are continuing to do it. That is, until the government makes a stupid mistake. . .; Recommended (4 stars) Mine

>210 alcottacre: A book I adored in 1977, so I'm glad you enjoyed the read.

Sunday *smooch*

>211 richardderus: RD, I am convinced that you have read every book ever written! Lol

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today

Finished this afternoon:

278 - The Book of Lamentations by Rosario Castellanos - This is one of the books that David Damrosch chose in his Around the World in 80 Books. I had never heard of the book or the author, so I took a chance on it. I am very glad that I did although this is by no means an easy read especially if, like me, you are not familiar with Mexican history. The translator of the book, Esther Allen, wrote in the Afterword, "If we know how to read it, this novel can help us stop looking for innocence and start trying instead to understand the ways that force destroys the soul." I can definitely see her point. Unlike Way Station (above) this book is epic in scale as it pits the political against the religious, men against women, the indigenous Indians against the Spanish. There are also a lot of people in the book although I found it fairly easy to tell who was who and not get them confused. The book begins with a rape and ends with the child of that rape being sacrificed. Along the way, we are meeting the people of Mexico in all of their realities. There is no magical realism in this one - it is realistic realism all along the way. The most complex central character in the book is not Spanish nor is she male, which surprised me, but rather an Indian woman, Catalina Diaz Puilja, and she is not fault free, but rather portrayed warts and all. No way can I convey the depth of this book here. All I can say is that you need to at least give this one a try; Recommended (4.25 stars) Mine

"And what was Mexico for the Mexican people but an enigma, a vague specter, a nameless monster? It had to be reduced to clear notions, exact figures. As fall an awareness as possible had to be gained of the natural resources available, the quantity of persons among them whom they had to be distributed, and the way in which they had to be exploited in order to give the greatest possible yield."

Finished tonight:

279 - Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard - Audiobook; I have never seen the film version of this book so when it appeared on the list of books for September's BAC, I decided to give it a shot. I enjoyed this semiautobiographical novel of the author's experiences as an early teen during the fall of Shanghai in WWII. I think Ballard does a great job of relating the childlike wonder of encountering the Japanese, his innocence in helping those who were enemies even though he did not realize it, and how he was levelheaded enough to survive despite being separated from his parents until after the war was over. He was taken to a camp and survived disease and starvation. There is no plea for sympathy in his telling of Jim's story - it is pretty much told in a straightforward manner; Recommended (4 stars) Mine

>214 alcottacre: I read this years ago and liked it. I thought the film did it justice Stasia.

Morning, Stasia. I had not heard of April 1865. It looks like it would make a good bookend to Demon of Unrest. I remember really liking Empire of the Sun, which I read back in the 80s, before the film came out. Glad you finally got to it.

Sorry about the lack of sleep, Stasia. I have recurring issues with insomnia myself and it's no fun.

Your reading is as impressive as always - and some interesting books too!

Hi Stasia!

>43 alcottacre: Get to the Cather, Karen. Come on, you can do it! Yes, ma’am.

>67 alcottacre: I’m sorry about the sleep issues and can definitely relate to them, at least recently again. I’ve tried lots of stuff, but need to see what makes sense with my meds and supplements. I see my doctor today, and that topic is on the list.

>103 alcottacre: I barely liked this book, had it on my shelves and got rid of it a long time ago. I’m also meh about the Jackson Brodie series. I did, however, absolutely love Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

>132 alcottacre: A BB for me, Kindle for 99¢.

>153 alcottacre: I have this one by Fadiman, as yet unread. I read and was profoundly moved by The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down.

>165 alcottacre: "I happened to find a pressed flower someone had left as a bookmark. As I inhaled the scent of the long-ago-faded flower, I wondered about the person who had put it there. Who in the world was she? When did she live? What was she feeling? I find the most amazing things as I sort book donations for the Friends of the Library, including pressed flowers, receipts, bookmarks, notes, thank yous, and one time, a $100 bill, which, as Treasurer, I put in as revenue for the upcoming sale.

>173 alcottacre: I have Chesnut’s A Diary of the Civil War on my shelves, rather daunting at 892 pages, as yet unread. If you want to pursue her diaries, it’s probably a good idea to check it out.

>184 alcottacre: One of my few 5* reads, I was shattered by it.

I was sorry to read about Felisha’s accident and then coming home to a man trying to steal her TV. I hope things have settled down for her.

>215 Caroline_McElwee: Yeah, I am now curious about the film version and may seek it out.

>216 msf59: I will be curious as to your thoughts on April 1865 if and when you get to it, Mark! I agree that it would be a good bookend to Demon of Unrest. I am glad I finally got to Empire of the Sun. I read it for the September British Authors challenge otherwise it would still be languishing in the BlackHole.

>217 PawsforThought: Thanks, Paws, for the commiseration regarding insomnia. I think it is absolutely no fun and I am sorry that you suffer with it too. Sometimes it really makes me wish that my CFS would flare up just so that I could get some sleep, lol.

I try hard to read interesting books! Of course, what is of interest to me is probably not of interest to anyone else because I tend to read weirdly.

>218 karenmarie: Hey, Karen! It is so good to see you up and about in the threads!!

The version of A Diary from Dixie that I read came in at about 500 pages and yes, I would love to read the 892 page one :)

Glad we agree on The Killer Angels! It is such a good book, isn't it?

This is absolutely my favorite time of the year: Baseball Playoff Season. I get caught up in rooting for my favorite teams to win (Boo Yankees!) and just in the dramas that play out throughout the playoffs. However, this afternoon there are 2 games being played that have implications for the playoffs yet (and they start tomorrow!) so I will definitely be tuning in to the Braves-Mets doubleheader.

My chores are done for the day. Kerry and I played Yedo this morning, a new favorite for him.

On the reading front, I am going to try and finish Sing, Unburied, Sing and The Ministry of Time for my September reading (I am pretty sure I will finish the former, but have doubts about the latter.) We will see. I have had to take several books off my TIOLI reading list, which happens every dadgum month and you would think I would know better than to overcommit, but No. *sigh*

I hope everyone has a marvelous Monday!

Finished this afternoon:

280 - Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward - I have had this book sitting unread on my shelves for a good 5 years. However, Kristel put it on one of the TIOLI Challenges for September and I decided it was high time that I finally read it. I am so glad that I did. I really got caught up in the story of Jojo (him especially), Pop, Leonie, Kayla, Michael, Mam, etc. Jojo is a 13-year-old boy who is really trying to make sense of it all. He lives with his grandfather, Pop, who he dearly loves and his grandmother, Mam, who is dying of cancer. His little sister, Michaela (who he calls Kayla), a toddler lives with them too and occasionally (very occasionally) his mother, Leonie, shows up. His father, Michael, is in prison but getting released so the family dynamic is changing - and Jojo is not sure whether he likes it or not or what he can do about it. However, once Michael is released, things change and not for the better. The one thing that I really was not sure about when I started this book was the introduction of the ghosts. By the end of the book though, I was glad of the presence of Given and Richie. All in all, I thought this was a very good read; Recommended (4 stars) Mine

Thanks, Kristel, for the encouragement to finally read this one!

>220 alcottacre: I had the Braves/Mets on this afternoon as background while I was trying to catch up some here on LT. That first game was crazy! I thought the Braves had it locked up, but the last two innings were absolutely insane! I didn't see a whole lot of the second game because I switched over to the evening news. They're finally able to report on more places in western NC than just the damage in the Asheville area. It's very hard to reach so many of the places because the roads and other infrastructure is just *gone*.

And then I saw that Pete Rose died. What a day!

ETA: I meant to say that I don't like the Yankees either, but these days I hate the Dodgers and Astros more--which is a change because the Yankees used to be at the bottom for me. The super-rich Dodgers have taken their place.

>222 atozgrl: You have named the three teams that I really hope do not win the WS, Irene: the Astros, Dodgers, and Yankees. I have not - and probably never will - forgiven the Astros for cheating to win the WS (and why they still get to claim the title for that year I will never understand.) I have been a lifelong Yankee hater and none of the California teams have ever been a favorite of mine either.

I watched both games of the double header. Baseball is a funny thing, isn't it?

I was a huge fan of the Big Red Machine back in the day. No matter what I think of Pete Rose personally, he was a heck of a ball player.

Finished tonight with time to spare:

281 - The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley - Oh, did I have a good time with this one! Thank you, Mark, for your recommendation of the book. It is kind of a new take on time travel with a woman who works for the Ministry being hired as a 'bridge' to take people who have died in the past and integrating them into the here and now. I love the premise of the book and the first part moves along smoothly, but the second part slows down some and throws in (at least to me) an unnecessary romance between the woman and her charge, a man who was a Commander in the Franklin expedition. One of the most appreciated parts of the book is the sense of humor that Bradley displays throughout. A fun read!; Recommended (4 stars) Mine

"The journey to and from the ship exhausts all but the most determined hunters, and one can recognize the most determined hunters by their disfigured faces. Gore isn't sure what he looks like anymore and that suits him fine. Perhaps frostbite will take a half inch off his nose."

>223 alcottacre: Wow, we're very similar with our baseball likes and dislikes! When I was a kid, I was a Cubs fan first and always, but the Big Red Machine was my second favorite team. There were so many players I liked on that team, especially Johnny Bench. I always liked Pete Rose as a player, and I was so disappointed that he ruined his post-playing career with the gambling. I never will forget the 1975 World Series. What a classic!

I guess they can't go back and change history with the 2017 Astros. But I am sick of them. With the Dodgers, their offseason last year was the last straw for me. First they sign Ohtani to a $700 mil contract, but Ohtani defers most of the money so they can still afford to go out and sign all the top players? Spending that kind of money on a player is supposed to hurt when it comes to having the ability to sign more players. And then they get Yamamoto too? Enough already. I don't want to hear anything about them. I wasn't happy that they previously signed two players I liked (Betts and Freeman) either.

The 2019 playoffs were fun. The Nationals unexpectedly wound up beating all the teams I don't like on the way to the championship.

>225 atozgrl: My favorite player growing up was Johnny Bench. He was the reason that I played catcher in softball despite my (already bad) knees. Those Reds teams were fantastic. You are right, there are so many players on that team to like! I have a soft spot in my heart for Joe Morgan and that arm twitch of his.

I refuse to discuss the Astros. Cheaters. Enough said. I felt badly for the Dodgers when that WS was essentially stolen from them, but no longer. I agree with you there - I do not want to hear anything about them either.

I loved the 2019 playoffs! Max Scherzer has always been one of my favorite players and it delighted me no end to see him get a ring.

>12 alcottacre: oh this is very late, but I am so thrilled to hear about someone reading one of my favorite SW books. La Farge has a very interesting background for his time. and used his antropology skills to write about the the Navajo people in Az and Utah.Hiswork earned him His first novel, "Laughing Boy", won the Pulitzer Prize in 1929 Thrilled that he won he has several short stories collections that are quite good that you might enjoy including Yellow Sun, Bright Sky