AlphaKIT: January: S and O

Welcome to a shiny new year of reading! Each month AlphaKIT selects two letters to help you pick books to read. Use them in any way you choose!

January letters are S and O:
and

Update the January wiki here

I know my O read will be The Only Woman In The Room as that is the January pick for another reading group. Not sure on S yet.

I think my S is going to be "Six Tudor Queens: Jane Seymour The Haunted Queen" by Alison Weir.

I've got a couple of O's but I think I'll wait and see what other challenges bring before I decide.

I've got Kindred by Octavia Butler which hits O, not sure about S quite yet.

I'll be reading Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield. Also Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne, and The Suspect by L R Wright

Planning to read Benjamin Stevenson's Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret (also hits the MysteryKit "winter mysteries" theme, and the BingoDog "holiday in title) for S, and J. W. Ocker's A Season With the Witch (also hits the BingoDog "set during your favorite season," which is autumn) for both letters.

I'm planning on On Directing Film for my 'O' book and Sweet Tea and Spirts as my 'S' book. Looking forward to another year of reading the alphabet with you all!

>1 majkia: Always love the graphics you choose.

Right now, my O choice will be Oliver Twist; S still up for consideration.

I'm going to start the year off with Orphan's Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian for "O" and either All the Colors of the Cattle by Alexander McCall Smith or My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout for "S". Or maybe both since I'm planning on reading the Elizabeth Strout series in total this year.

Don't know how I'd function without the AlphaKit!

Here's my selections for the start of 2025!
Currently Reading
✅ completed

Comic Sans Murder✅
Flower Sisters
Little Shop of Found Things
Magnolias, Moonlight, and Murder by Sara Rosett ✅
Marriage, Monsters-in-Law, and Murder by Sara Rosett
Milkshakes, Mermaids, and Murder by Sara Rosett
Mimosas, Mischief, and Murder by Sara Rosett
Mint Juleps, Mayhem, and Murder by Sara Rosett ✅
Mistletoe, Merriment, and Murder by Sara Rosett
Mother's Day, Muffins, and Murder by Sara Rosett
Murder Once Removed
Secrets to a Rome Apartment ✅
Spirited Blend ✅
Written in Stone ✅

I am thinking of readingSouth Pole Station by Ashley Shelby for S and for O, Triumph of the Spider Monkey by Joyce Carol Oates.

I've earmarked One Summer by David Baldacci and Black Orchids by Rex Stout both conveniently covering both letters.

I'm thinking of trying again to read S. by Doug Dorst and J.J. Abrams.

Perhaps I'll count my current read, The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester, for O as it's about the creation of the OED.

>13 GenevieveAOK: That's a great idea for O.

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

>15 bookworm3091: January isn't here yet!

>16 cyderry: Well, it was what I planned for January... but got to it a bit early :)

My first book of the year: The Suspect - L R Wright

I read Once Upon A Christmas by Diane Farr as my first O book.

S: The New Voices of Science Fiction, Hannu Rajaniemi & Jacob Weisman, eds. (I suppose technically I could also count this as an O, but I feel weird counting "the," "a," "of," and other little words as title words for this game. Others may draw the ilne differently, which of course is perfectly OK.)

I read two nonfiction books over the past few days, saving the last chapters of each to read this morning, and not-so-coincidentally one of them is an S and the other an O:

Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody
On the Noodle Road by Jen Lin-Liu

For a library book club I'll be reading What an Owl Knows byJennifer Ackerman.

I've finished The Colors of All the Cattle by Alexander McCall Smith.

Read A Nice Class of Corpse by Simon Brett.

I just finished Of Paupers and Peers by Sheri Cobb South, a sweet Regency romance that works for both letters.

Instead od Triumph of the Spider Monkey, I read Country Dark by Chris Offutt for an "O" book.

I finished Ilium by Dan Simmons. Wiki not working yet so will try to remember to post it when it returns. Currently reading Once Upon a River , Zodiac and SpecOps.

Finished A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman for O and The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino and The Hive Queen by Tui T. Sutherland for S

Another S: Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson.

I read A Wreath of Snow which I found depressing, Shepherds Abiding which was much better, and You're Only Old Once with lots of letter "O's".

I was very disappointed in my choice of One Summer by David Baldacci. Mawkish, not what I expected of Baldacci.

I read Mystery Stories by Stanley Ellin, for the S.

I finished an S book, Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen.

I'm reading Miss Morgan's Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles, the fascinating story of the American librarian who introduced children's libraries in France during WWI.

I have finished Der Schattenmann by Kester Schlenz and Jan Jepsen for S.

COMPLETED The Secret of Bow Lane by Jennifer Ashley

Starting the next in the series, Speculations in Sin

For my first S book, I read Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice.

I read Witch Hat Atelier Volume 1 by Kamome Shirahama for another S.

I have read If Clouds Were Sheep by Sue Anderson by for S.

COMPLETED Speculations in Sin by Jennifer Ashley

I have completed both my S and O reads with South Pole Station by Ashley Shelby and Country Dark by Chris Offutt.

Finished Sweet Tea and Spirits by Angie Fox for my 'S' read, and it was so much fun, just like every other book in the series so far. I've written a full review, but in short, if you like cozy paranormal mysteries, you'll enjoy Fox's Southern Ghost Hunger Mysteries!

(And apologies for folks seeing this message more than once--this book somehow fulfilled four different challenge spots for me this month!)

Sweet Fury / Sash Bischoff
3 stars

Lila is an actress who has come to psychologist Jonah to help unpack some childhood trauma as she embarks on a new movie with her director fiancee, Kurt. The new movie is based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, but with a feminist twist. It seems, though, that Lila has more going on than the childhood issues; is Kurt mistreating her, as well? Plus, there are things Jonah hasn’t told Lila about knowing her when they were at Princeton together.

This started very slowly for me. I wasn’t interested in all the movie scenes, nor am I much interested in F. Scott Fitzgerald. I have read “The Great Gatsby”, but nothing else by him and the author tells us early on there are a lot of Fitzgerald references (and Easter eggs). I wasn’t a fan of the writing style. The first bit of the book was a mix of the movie scenes and letters written by Lila to Jonah (as a way to put down her thoughts). Now, it did pick up in the last half or 1/3 of the book or so, and there were some tense moments, but it wasn’t enough to bring my rating up by much (though it did a little). The end was also ambiguous to me; I wasn’t quite sure what happened there, so I didn’t like that, either. Overall, I’m rating it ok, but only for the twists and extra suspense close to the end of the book.

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.

Read The Poison Jungle by Tui T. Sutherland for another S

I have finished Stoner which was every bit as good as the reviewers said.

Another S: Dead Men Don't Ski, Patricia Moyes.

I listened to another S book: The Second Mrs. Astor by Shana Abé. I enjoyed this very much!

O: The Evolution of the Gospelettes, Tammy Oberhausen.

The Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke

Two more S books: The Secret of Chimneys and The Man in the Brown Suit, both by Agatha Christie.

Currently reading "A Snapshot of Murder" by Frances Brody

The Wisdom of Sheep for S

I suppose the subtitle should have clued me in that this wasn't a scientific enquiry on the psychology of sheep. It was a collection of observations, quotes, and sometimes political rants from a family farmer, and probably less than half the book was about sheep. I was rather disappointed by the lack of cohesion in the book overall; many of the anecdotes seemed to end abruptly, mention details that seemed irrelevant, or veer into non-sequitur, and I couldn't figure out the logic in the order of the entries, which skipped around in chronology, tone, and subject. The politics, when they were brought up, were sometimes contradictory, and often so heavy-handed I could barely get through them, even when I agreed with the author, and the pseudoscience that occasionally graced the pages, such as sending unpasteurised milk to a recipient who had serious autoimmune conditions because 'she needs stress-free foods,' shocked and disquieted me.

However, the prose of the author was incredibly vivid and evocative, at times even poetic. Most, though certainly not all, of the entries were about cosy, down-to-earth, honest farm living. I did learn some things about sheep (and cows). The book is divided into very short 'chapters,' the longest of which, in my edition, were perhaps four pages long, which made for perfect bite-sized reading, and the book overall was just a little over 200 pages, made considerably shorter by quotes, poems, or short entries which took up only half a page and were formatted with ample blank space.

Finished Zodiac by Neal Stephenson. A Double AlphaKIT.

I read a couple more S books, Scales and Sensibility and Claws and Contrivances by Stephanie Burgis. If "Regency romance plus dragons" sounds fun to you, give these a try!

February thread is up.

COMPLETED A Snapshot of Murder by Frances Brody

I have completed an O book: Burmese Days by George Orwell.

Read two more S books - The Dragon Awakes by Sarah Dalton and The Dangerous Gift by Tui T. Sutherland

>55 christina_reads: Sounds interesting... Will try them

Starting "Six Tudor Queens: Jane Seymour The Haunted Queen" by Alison Weir

Also reading Heartstopper Volume 1 by Alice Oseman

Oh No He Didn’t: Brilliant Women... / Wendy Murphy
3.5 stars

This is a collection of essays highlighting different women in history (mostly the 19th and 20th centuries, but at least one earlier than that) who were inventors, scientists, architects, artists, and more, but had their work “stolen” by men, and the men got the credit (and often, the men were awarded prestigious prizes for that work, including a number of Nobel prizes).

This was good. The stories/essays were short, so it’s hard to remember them all. There was biographical information included about the women, as well. And, sadly, a few women whose husbands took advantage and took credit for their wives ideas/inventions/art/etc. (some of those marriages also ended later). A couple of memorable ones for me was who invented Monopoly and the discovery of two-strand DNA. There were also chapteres on Einstein and his wife, Mileva, as well and F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda.

Another S book: Der Gin des Lebens by Carsten Sebastian Henn.

COMPLETED Heartstopper Volume 1 by Alice Oseman

Also currently reading "The Ship Who Sang" by Anne McCaffrey

Just finished Black Orchids by Rex Stout that hits both letters.

Finished On Directing Film by David Mamet -- somewhat dry, but useful for folks thinking about delving into screenwriting or wanting to think more deeply about movies' design on screen.

I read The Portrait of a Duchess by Scarlett Peckham for another S.

I have finished Transit by Anna Seghers.

Another S: Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories, by (I bet you can guess) Fritz Leiber.

I've finished Ocean State by Stewart O'Nan for my "O: book this month.

I should have mentioned that I read From Sarah to Sydney, a biography of the author of All-of-a-Kind Family, which, of course qualifies for S.

One more S book: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

I just finished reading Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson.

Finished On Chapel Sands for both letters.

I've been on an Alice Oseman binge with too many to list here, but I will mention Solitaire since that fits both of this month's letters.

Starting "In the Company of Others" by Julie E. Czerneda

Another S : Scales and Sensibility by Stephanie Burgis

I've finished another "S" - My Name is Lucy Barton by ELizabeth Strout

I've finished a few for both letters:
S
Within the Sanctuary of Wings by Marie Brennan
In the Heart of the Seas by Shmuel Yosef Agnon
The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones
O
The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

Another S: Short Stories by Jesus by Amy-Jill Levine.

One more S is Armance by Stendhal.

I just read Simple Jess by Pamela Morsi.

I finished another S, The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey.

Yet another S for me: Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adams.

Another S: Cue the Sun, Emily Nussbaum.

O: Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD

I had glanced through this one a few times but never sat down to read it all the way. This was a good book with lots of helpful tips, and I would definitely recommend it, although there were a few things I know I'd never do.

For example, the author reiterates a lot about getting rid of anything you aren't sure you'll need, never buying things in bulk, etc. I have always been someone who would 'rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it', and while I recognise the need to tone that back in general, I'm never going to do exactly what she has prescribed here.

She also recommended going through your child's toys, clothing, etc and getting rid of things you don't think they'll miss, because they simply can't be asked to hold the attention required to determine for themselves if they need something or not. For anyone who wants to control their child's clutter, I would recommend purging after birthdays and holidays, and then storing those items somewhere kids can't see (top of your own closet, maybe) to see if they ask 'have you seen my...?' and if they don't miss it after six months or so, then I would take it to the charity shop or sell at a rummage sale. I'm a firm supporter of allowing children, even really little ones, at least some autonomy over their possessions.

Some of her more prudent tips, at least to me, include: open shelving, especially in closets, to reduce 'use it/wash it/buy it and then don't put it away' syndrome; storing things as close to the spot where they're used as possible, including buying duplicates if necessary of items like cleaning products, so that they're more likely to be put away; getting multiple laundry, recycling, and garbage bins, and putting them in every spot where those things begin to pile up; and creating 'staging areas' where the complex art project can sit for months without being in anyone's way, where things can sit while they await being moved to the correct location, and where stuff like purses and keys can be easily dumped without interrupting anyone else. She puts emphasis on systems that might work and look a little ugly (open shelving with towels and toiletries in the washroom) over systems that look perfect but which can't be maintained, and on reducing the amount of steps it takes to perform tasks and clean up afterwards.

The Incredible Journey / Sheila Burnford
3.5 stars

When their owners leave for months, two dogs and a cat are boarded with a friend many miles away, but when that person leaves for a few days, the pets (after a mixup with the people meant to care for them for those few days) head out to find their way to their owners’ home through the wilderness in Ontario. One of the dogs is older, one younger, but they all have bumps and bruises along the way and sometimes come close to death as the three do their best to survive and take care of each other as they encounter water to swim across, various humans (most who help), and various wildlife.

I enjoyed this. It was quick to read. I do suspect the author had pets herself as many of the descriptions of the animals seemed pretty true to life. Despite this being a Canadian “classic” (I think), I’ve never read it before, nor have I seen any of the movies.

COMPLETED In the Company of Others by Julie E. Czerneda

For O: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

One final S: A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows.

my AlphaKIT reading for January yielded a plethora of S's along with two O's:

Self-Portrait With Nothing - Aimee Pokwatka
Shiver - Allie Reynolds
A Sorceress Comes to Call - T Kingfisher
The Stardust Grail - Yume Kitasei
Sugar Cookie Murder - Joanne Fluke
Orbital - Samantha Harvey
The Overnight Guest - Heather Gudenkauf

I squeezed in one last S book, Wagering on the Wallflower by Eva Shepherd. Okay but nothing special.

I read Pearce Oysters and Harlem Shuffle

S was a popular letter for me in January.

S titles
The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World, by Ben Macintyre

S authors
A Man and His Cat, Vol. 12, by Umi Sakurai (translated by Taylor Engel)
Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson

All the Sinners Bleed / S. A. Cosby
4 stars

It started as a school shooting in a small town in Virginia. A white teacher was shot and killed by a black man. The black man came out of the school to confront the black sheriff and was shot by two white officers. Then they found the pictures and videos on the teacher’s phone and it gets messy in this religious Virginia town with religion and racism all mixed together.

Titus is the black sheriff. He once worked for the FBI and something happened there. He came home to help out his elderly father, and ran to be sheriff, hoping he could make some changes from the inside to this racist area.

This was very good. Definitely some tense moments. The book is very dark and some awful things happen. On the personal side (Titus’ personal side) of the book, I have to agree with his girlfriend – what did he ever see in his ex!?

I squeezed in one last S book yesterday: The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré.

I finished a few more and am only now getting around to sharing them:

Both letters: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
O: The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
S: Slightly Sinful by Mary Balogh

My O and S books this month--a little late, due to internet interruption:

O:
A Happy Prince and Other Stories, Oscar Wilde (1888-1892)

S:
The Conditions of Unconditional Love, Alexander McCall Smith (2024)
World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, Aimee Nezhukumatathil (2020)
Rhododendron Pie, Margery Sharp (1930)
Lady Susan, Jane Austen (1871)
A Shropshire Lad, A. E. Housman (1896)

O and S
O, the Brave Music, Dorothy Evelyn Smith (1943)