January 2025 ColourCAT: Green

January's colour is green, and there's plenty of choice.

Author's Names Containing Green

Graham Greene Our Man in Havana
Henry Green Loving, Living, Party-going
Joanne Greenberg aka Hannah Green I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Kerry Greenwood Cocaine Blues

Book Titles Containing the Word Green

How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
All the Green Year by John Charlwood
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
The Green Mile by Stephen King

Books with Green Themes e.g. nature, conservation

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler
The Value of a Whale: On the Illusions of Green Capitalism by Adrienne Buller
Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet by George Monbiot

Books with Green Covers



Penguin's Green Book List
Green Popular Penguins

Happy Green Reading!

Here is the Wiki.

Nice job, Pam! I think I will read The Leavenworth Case: A Lawyer's Story by Anna Katharine Green.

ETA......ooooooooooo, the new & shiny! How about The Fault in Our Stars by John GREEN!

Title: Gossip from Thrush Green by Miss Read

Cover Colour: A Snapshot of Murder by Frances Brody

Still looking for authors

I'm going to read Brighton Rock by Graham Greene and read Hide my eyes, the next in the Campion series as it has a Penguin crime green cover.

I'll be reading The Suspect by L. R. Wright..

Beautiful intro, Pam!

I have earmarked a few but haven't decided yet:
The Guilty Plea by Robert Rotenberg in the Ari Greene series
Hot to trot by R.W. Green who took over the Agatha Raisin series after M.C. Beaton died.
Murder on the Oxford Canal by Faith Martin in the Hilary Green series
The Green Road by Anne Enright

I'm being slow to set up my thread, but I've got Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender earmarked for this green month, its cover is so green!

I’m probably going to read Pothos by Rosa Campbell,

but I think my pick for the January NatureKIT might also count since the green is especially notable even if not the largest area of the cover:

I'll be reading Vanishing Fleece by Clara Parks which I took a BB for in 2023. Also works for the NatureKit this month.

Here are my choices for GREEN on the cover!
Currently Reading
✅ completed

Knife Before Christmas ✅


Mint Juleps, Mayhem, and Murder ✅

I have had a book called Green Willow on my Kindle for some time and I plan on reading it in January.

Green for Danger by Christianna Brand will be my pick--a hold-over from December plans.

>3 Robertgreaves: Thanks for the suggestion! Miss Read is my go-to author. I have all the Thrush Green novels.

ETA: Two novels I am currently reading have winter greenery on the covers: Death on a Winter's Day and Shepherd's Abiding so will probably use those.

I'll be reading Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King.

I have Gracelin O'Malley on my Kindle TBR. IRL it has an almost all green cover and of course, Ireland is the Emerald Isle.

Planning to read The Garden of Evening Mists which I will count for the CoverCAT as well because it has a tea plantation on the cover.

I will read Eggs in a Casket by Laura Childs for Cover and Color:tea and green.

I might go with Benazir Bhutto by Brooke Allen

I've got a few good green options in my TBR:

Homicide and Halo-Halo



The Water Outlaws



A Spirited Affair

I will probably read Winter at Thrush Green by Miss Read.

The Greenwitch part of Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series.

I'm going to go with Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett (and I will also be using this book for SF&FKIT Cozy Fantasy).

Just finished Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp for this

I'm planning to read Anything Goes by Jill Churchill, it has a green spine and a dark green rosebush on the cover.

I'm going to use The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo because it has a formal bright green gown on the cover. If time permits I'll also read the next in the Thrush Green series.

I'm planning to read Morgan Is My Name



COMPLETED

I'm hoping this category will help me pick up some of the books from my shelves that are waiting to be read. Not sure which / how many of these I will pick up in January, let alone *finish*...

The Wind Knows My Name


Lucie Rie


Occasion for Loving (Virago green spine, which I'm hoping counts!)

>27 charl08: Virago Green ALWAYS counts in my world! My absolute favorites to collect, and I have lots of unread titles which I may add later in the month.

Finished my first book of the year, The Suspect which fits here and for CoverCAT.

Started Hide my Eyes, which has a Penguin crime green cover.
Mostly as David Copperfield is not a take shopping book, whereas this would, and did, fit in the handbag!

I will be reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I finished Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender, and wrote a full review, but I'm no more sure of what to say about these strange stories than I am about the sickly olive color that makes up most of the cover.

Full review written, but it's probably not one I'd recommend...

Well I certainly lucked out! I finished A Chainless Soul by Katherine Frank, and with both a green cover and the moors of Yorkshire where she went for her walks, this book fits this category.

I reread Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, which has a predominantly green cover.

Just finished Amari and the Despicable Wonders by B.B. Alston which has a green cover

I have finished Brunos Weihnachten, a children’s book which has two stories about a boy with green hair.

edited for touchstone

I read A Bakery in Paris by Aimie Runyan This book had a dual timeline. Lisette’s story takes place following France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the resultant rule by the Commune for two months until its defeat by the French Army. Micheline’s story occurs in post WWII when both of her parents had gone missing, but in reality, killed. The link to Lisette and Micheline is a bakery and recipes contained therein. The bakery was life for both women, who never knew each other. I listened to this on audio. (10 hours 16 mins=384 pages) CATS: Color (Green) /Cover (Tea Party) 4 stars

I read the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

The cover of the audio version I listened to has some green

Galileo's Daughter / Dava Sobel
2 stars

(One of) Galileo’s daughters wrote letters to her father, so this includes those letters. She was a nun (as were her other sisters, I think, though one not by choice, I think). Primarily, though, I think this followed Galileo himself more than his daughter.

This is nonfiction, and I listened to the audio (which may explain why I’m not too sure what all happened). It just didn’t hold my interest. I caught bits and pieces of things… Galileo was still religious despite the conflict his science brought to religion; somewhere along the way he was on trial and I think he went to jail? I haven’t read anything else about him, so I’m not sure, and either this book or the audio or both just didn’t interest me enough to pay attention. One word I heard far too many times was the odd pronunciation of Soeur (sounded like “sewer” or “sewar”), so I feel like I heard him say “Sewer” Maria (whatever the rest of her nun name was). That definitely bothered me! (And as I read the summary now, of course, it’s Italian, not French so the word is Suor… so I’m not sure how that should be pronounced.) Anyway, I might be willing to try a different book about Galileo, but this isn’t the one for me.

I read Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg.

I read Hot to Trot by M.C. Beaton & R.W. Green
Agatha Raisin, shocked by the news that her one-time lover, Charles Fraith, is to be married, crashes the wedding. In doing so, she didn’t make any friends so when the bride is later found murdered, Agatha is at the top of the suspect list.

After Beaton's death, Green has taken on her characters and faithfully produced a new story in the series, one that satisfies Agatha’s many fans.

Another book with a green cover that I just finished is The Poison Jungle by Tui T. Sutherland

I just finished Blackveil by Kristen Britain, which I'm perhaps counterintuitively counting here because it's part of the Green Rider series.

Read You should be so lucky, about a romance between a baseball player and the journalist reporting on his games. Counted here as baseball fields are very green, and a lot of the story takes place at baseball stadiums.

I read Pothos by Rosa Campbell, with the green cover posted in >8 Charon07:. It was a memoir of grieving the death of the author’s father.

I have completed my read of Greenwillow for this month's Cat. A gentle fable, I enjoyed his book a lot.

I originally planned another, but this book came into my life and made its way to the top of my TBR this month. The cover is stunning and a wonderful depiction of the storyline. Green in all its incarnations is a prominent presence throughout.

I have finished The Quiet American by Graham Greene. I wasn’t exactly blown away by this, but the introduction by Zadie Smith decided me to keep it for now, and to re-consider it at some point.

I finished the short book Lucie Rie about the beautiful work of this potter. This book series reminds me of the ladybird books I used to read as a child. It has wonderful illustrations, and just enough information to act as a starting point to find out more.

Currently reading A Snapshot of Murder by Frances Brody, the cover of which is in various shades of green

Benazir Bhutto: Favored Daughter / Brooke Allen
3.5 stars

Benazir Bhutto was the first female prime minister of Pakistan in 1988 (she was also the youngest at 34-years old). Her father had been prime minister earlier on before the country was taken over by the head of the military. Her father was a socialist and believed in democracy. He made sure his children were well-educated in the US and England. Benazir was attractive and charismatic. When she was elected, she promised health care, education, and more housing.

But underneath it all, Benazir herself wasn’t really democratic nor socialist, despite her adoration of her father and being groomed by him to become a politician. With her feudal family background, she felt she had a God-given right to rule as she wished. She and another party leader switched leading Pakistan throughout the 1990s, but Benazir and her husband were actually quite corrupt and stole/skimmed a lot of money from Pakistan. She was later arrested and forced into exile. But she came back to devastating results (for herself): she was assassinated in 2007.

I’ve left out quite a bit and there is a lot of detail in this short book (it’s under 200 pages). The history of Pakistan is not something I know much about, so I feel like I learned a lot, but there was also so much information that it was also hard to take it all in. It is a good book; I do feel if I’d already known more about Pakistan, I might have been able to absorb even more.

I've finished The Garden of Evening Mists.

Ghost of A Chance by Simon R Green ★★★

The Carnacki Institute exists to Do Something About Ghosts. Lay them to rest, send them packing, or kick their nasty ectoplasmic arses with extreme prejudice. The Institute's operatives are the best of the best: JC Chance: sharp, brave, charming, and almost unbearably arrogant. Melody Chambers: science-geek, techno-wizard extraordinaire who keeps their anti-supernatural equipment running smoothly. And Happy Jack Palmer: the telepath with the gloomy disposition, the last person anyone would want navigating through his head. Their current assignment: investigate a major haunting deep underground at London's Oxford Circus Tube Station. Difficult - and dangerous - enough without the added interference of a pair of agents from the infamous Crowley Project whose mission is much simpler: eliminate Chance, Chambers, and Palmer whatever the consequences.

This book is written well, it just is not my type of book. I enjoy my ghosts more cozy and inviting and am not a huge fan of ghost hunters.

I selected this book for the bits of green coloring on the cover and for the author's name - Simon R Green

>53 lowelibrary: I'm sorry to hear you didn't enjoy the book, but it does sound intriguing so I've wishlisted it

>54 Robertgreaves: I hope you enjoy it more than I did.

I finished Hide my Eyes which has a penguin crime green cover.

COMPLETED A Snapshot of Murder by Frances Brody.

Reading the next in the series, The Body on the Train, on the cover of which Kate Shackleton wears a green coat:

I have finished Burmese Days, and my copy shows a vivid emerald green as the main colour.

COMPLETED The Body on the Train by Frances Brody

Finished The Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene.

I read Murder on the Oxford Canal by Faith Martin - first in the Hillary Green series.

I finished Green for Danger by Christianna Brand (1944), a mystery set in a Kent hospital during the air raids of WWII.

I've finished Vanishing Fleece: Adventures in American Wool by Clara Parkes, a look into the American wool industry.

I've finished two books with green covers: The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman and The Hermit of Eyton Forest by Ellis Peters.

I finished my book just in time, Moïra by American-French writer, Julien Green.

Another late one: Green Lion about a rewilding scheme in a fictional version of Cape Town.

I read Paladin's Faith by T Kingfisher - several greens on book cover; also a lot of green landscape that at least one character found extremely annoying and oppressive. :D

>64 staci426: I *just* finished The bullet that missed too. I hadn’t thought about it fitting this challenge before I read your post, but you are right, it does:)

Last night, I finished The Honourable Schoolboy in a pale green Penguin edition. ETA: the back is green, on the front there's lots of red.

I read Self-portrait in Green - green cover and in the title.

Late to cross the finish line but here I am!

Green Grass, Running Water

This was a wonderful book. In a non-linear style, King masterfully weaves indigenous oral tradition, Western canon, and the lives of five realistic, dynamic Blackfoot characters with his own wry brand of humour. The book sort of hits the ground running, so at times I got some characters mixed up, but I was sad to see this book end. The unique narrative structure really pulled at me: we would have a scene in the present, which would remind a character of something in the past, and at the end of the scene from the past, we would get an echo of the action happening back in the present. My description doesn't do it much justice; it isn't as confusing as it seems when you actually read the book. Catching cultural references or references to small details from earlier in the book, and seeing them all 'pay off' eventually, made this book a real treasure. I may have to revisit it another time.