CBL's 2025 Categories

Hi! I’m Carrie in East Tennessee. Librarian, reader, knitter, musician, dog lover. 2025 is starting with a major transition for me. I just said goodbye to my much-loved fur baby, Adrian, a couple of days after Christmas. It remains to be seen how this will affect my reading since Adrian was usually curled up by my side while I read. I’ll be starting a year-long mystery knit-along blanket project in a couple of days and I’ve got several BritBox and Acorn shows queued up to watch, so I may be doing more knitting and TV watching than reading for a while. Time will tell. I’m keeping my categories very simple, and I’m only planning on the MysteryKit this year in addition to the American author, British author, and nonfiction challenges in the 75 books group.

American Authors Challenge

JANUARY - Pacific Northwest
A Chill Rain in January by L. R. Wright (3.5) - completed 1/10/25
The Light on the Island: Tales of a Lighthouse Keeper's Family in the San Juan Islands by Helene Glidden (4.5) - completed 1/24/25

FEBRUARY - American Muslim authors
The Return by Hisham Matar (4) - completed 2/26/25

MARCH
Stewart O'Nan - Songs for the Missing (4) - completed 3/30/25

MAY - Pulitzer in history
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution by Bernard Bailyn (4) - completed 5/31/25

JUNE
Willy Vlautin - The Free (4) - completed 6/23/25

JULY - Romance
Austenland by Shannon Hale (3) - completed 6/30/25
Book Lovers by Emily Henry (3) - completed 7/10/25
The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig (2) - completed 7/20/25

AUGUST - True crime & its fictional offspring
Birdman: The Many Faces of Robert Stroud by Jolene Babyak (4) - completed 9/3/25

SEPTEMBER
Alice Hoffman - The World That We Knew (4) - completed 9/6/25

OCTOBER - Westerns
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (4) - completed 10/31/25

NOVEMBER
David Treuer - The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee (4) - completed 11/29/25

DECEMBER
Meg Wolitzer - The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman (4) - completed 12/27/25

WILDCARD
Anne Tyler - Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (4.5) - completed 5/14/25

British Authors Challenge

JANUARY - Show Biz
The Bad Quarto by Jill Paton Walsh (4) - completed 1/11/25

FEBRUARY
Kia Abdullah - Take It Back (3.5) - completed 2/21/25

MARCH
Gerald Durrell - My Family and Other Animals (5) - completed 3/22/25

APRIL
P. D. James - The Mistletoe Murder: And Other Stories (4) - completed 3/29/25
P. D. James - Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales (4) - completed 4/18/25

MAY
Nancy Mitford - The Pursuit of Love (3.5) - completed 5/16/25

JUNE - Tudor & Jacobean authors
Henry IV, Part I by William Shakespeare (4) - completed 6/8/25
Henry IV, Part II by William Shakespeare (4) - completed 6/22/25

JULY
Dodie Smith - The 101 Dalmatians (5) - completed 7/7/25
Mervyn Peake - Titus Groan (3.5) - completed 7/30/25

AUGUST
Alex Wheatle - Cane Warriors (4) - completed 8/23/25

SEPTEMBER
Alan Moore - Watchmen (3.5) - completed 10/8/25

OCTOBER
Sarah Moss - Summerwater (3) - completed 10/14/25
Christopher Isherwood - The Berlin Stories (3.5) - completed 10/19/25

DECEMBER - Historical mysteries
The Winter Garden Mystery by Carola Dunn (3.5) - completed 12/17/25

Nonfiction Challenge

JANUARY - Prize winners
Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore (Mark Lynton History Prize)
The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot by Robert Macfarlane (4) (Dolman Best Travel Book Award) - completed 1/18/25
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (4) (Southern Book Critics Circle Award, among others) - completed 1/31/25

FEBRUARY - Cartography
Map Guide to American Migration Routes, 1735-1815 by William Dollarhide (3.5) - completed 2/28/25
Map Basics by Maxwell Baber (4) - completed 2/28/25

MARCH - Espionage and counterespionage
A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre (3.5) - completed 3/24/25

APRIL - Revolutions
Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer (4) - completed 4/14/25

MAY - Modern China
Wuhu Diary: The Mystery of My Daughter Lulu by Emily Prager (3.5) - completed 5/24/25

JUNE - Natural disasters
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (4) - completed 6/13/25

JULY - Fish & fishing
The Hungry Ocean by Linda Greenlaw (4) - completed 7/12/25
The Lobster Chronicles by Linda Greenlaw (3.5) - completed 7/31/25

AUGUST - Movies, movies, movies
My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business by Dick Van Dyke (4) - completed 8/16/25

SEPTEMBER - Transportation
Station to Station by James Attlee (4) - completed 9/30/25

OCTOBER - Bibliophilia
Book Lust by Nancy Pearl (3.5) - completed 10/19/25

DECEMBER - As you like it
The Reporter Who Knew Too Much by Mark Shaw (2) - completed 12/16/25
Secret Sister: From Nazi-Occupied Jersey to Wartime London, One Woman's Search for the Truth by Cherry Durbin (3.5) - completed 12/31/25

MysteryKit

JANUARY - Winter mysteries
A Chill Rain in January by L. R. Wright (3.5) - competed 1/10/25
Snowblind by Ragnar Jonasson (3) - completed 1/25/25
Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger (4) - completed 2/5/25

FEBRUARY - Vintage mysteries
The Unfinished Clue by Georgette Heyer (4) - completed 2/9/25

MARCH - Espionage
London Match by Len Deighton (3.5) - competed 3/28/25

APRIL - Paranormal
The Houdini Specter by Daniel Stashower (3.5) - completed 4/28/25

MAY - Mystery not set in my country
Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson (5) - completed 5/22/25
Murder Being Once Done by Ruth Rendell (3.5) - completed 5/31/25

JUNE - LGBTQ+ detectives
The Long Call by Ann Cleeves (4) - completed 6/16/25

JULY - Series sleuths
Prisoner's Base by Rex Stout (5) - completed 7/16/25

AUGUST - Legal thrillers
Lethal Legacy by Linda Fairstein (3.5) - completed 8/30/25

SEPTEMBER - Silver age mysteries
Dead Cert by Dick Francis (3.5) - completed 9/23/25

OCTOBER - Police procedurals
Prey on Patmos by Jeffrey Siger (3.5) - completed 10/9/25

DECEMBER - Cozies
The Winter Garden Mystery by Carola Dunn (3.5) - completed 12/17/25

Group Reads

First Frost by Craig Johnson (3.5) - completed 1/5/25
Boardinghouse Women by Elizabeth S. D. Engelhardt (4) - completed 1/10/25
Recasting the Vote by Cathleen D. Cahill (3.5) - completed 2/9/25
Three Hands in the Fountain by Lindsey Davis (3) - completed 2/19/25
A Refiner's Fire by Donna Leon (3) - completed 3/9/25
Wanderers: A History of Women Walking by Kerri Andrews (3.5) - completed 3/9/25
When Women Ran Fifth Avenue by Julie Satow (3.5) - completed 4/13/25
Two for the Lions by Lindsey Davis (3.5) - completed 4/24/25
Dear Miss Perkins by Rebecca Brenner Graham (2.5) - completed 5/4/25
A Grave in the Woods by Martin Walker (3) - completed 6/2/25
Assassins of Athens by Jeffrey Siger (3.5) - completed 6/25/25
Looking for Miss America by Margot Mifflin (3.5) - completed 7/5/25
When Women Invented Television by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong (3.5) - completed 8/13/25
One Virgin Too Many by Lindsey Davis (4.5) - completed 8/19/25
The Impostor Heiress by Annie Reed (3) - completed 9/15/25
An Enemy in the Village by Martin Walker (3) - completed 9/20/25
Prey on Patmos by Jeffrey Siger (3.5) - completed 10/9/25
The Great Stewardess Rebellion by Nell McShane Wulfhart (4) - completed 10/12/25
Ode to a Banker by Lindsey Davis (4) - completed 11/24/25
Tooth and Claw by Craig Johnson (4) - completed 12/1/25

Reading Projects: 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die

Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore (4)
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (4) - completed 1/31/25
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (5) - completed 3/22/25
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler (4.5) - completed 5/14/25
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford (3.5) - completed 5/16/25
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution by Bernard Bailyn (4) - completed 5/31/25
Henry IV, Part I by William Shakespeare (4) - completed 6/8/25
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (4) - completed 6/13/25
Henry IV, Part II by William Shakespeare (4) - completed 6/22/25
How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand (4.5) - completed 6/29/25
Old Herbaceous by Reginald Arkell (4.5) - completed 6/30/25
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake (3.5) - completed 7/30/25
The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood (3.5) - completed 10/19/25
Book Lust by Nancy Pearl (3.5) - completed 10/19/25
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (4) - completed 10/31/25
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (4.5) - completed 11/18/25
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart (4) - completed 12/30/25

Reading Projects
Agatha Christie
The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict (3.5) - completed 7/29/25
Verdict by Agatha Christie (3) - completed 8/23/25
Double Sin and Other Stories by Agatha Christie (4) - completed 9/10/25
Five Found Dead by Sulari Gentill (2.5) - completed 10/2/25
The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (3.5) - completed 10/24/25

Rex Stout
Curtains for Three (4) - completed 1/2/25
Murder by the Book (3.5) - completed 4/30/25
Triple Jeopardy (4) - completed 5/10/25
Prisoner's Base (5) - completed 7/16/25
The Golden Spiders (4) - completed 9/7/25
Three Men Out by Rex Stout (4) - completed 11/8/25

Jane Austen
Austenland by Shannon Hale (3) - completed 6/30/25

Potpourri

A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage by Mark Twain (3.5) - completed 3/26/25
Orphan Train Rider by Andrea Warren (4) - competed 4/22/25
Saki by Saki (3.5) - completed 4/24/25
Who Was Johnny Cash? by Jim Gigliotti (4) - completed 4/25/25
Twenty and Ten by Claire Huchet Bishop (4) - completed 5/24/25
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams (2.5) - completed 6/7/25
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (3.5) - completed 6/7/25
The Author's Guide to Murder by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, & Karen White (4) - completed 7/17/25
The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner (3.5) - completed 8/6/25
Everybody Is a Liar by Liv Constantine (3.5) - completed 8/19/25
One Shot at Forever by Chris Ballard (4.5) - completed 8/28/25
Behind Closed Doors by B. A. Paris (3.5) - completed 9/18/25
The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra (3.5) - completed 9/26/25
Big Bad Wool by Leonie Swann (3.5) - completed 11/5/25
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (3.5) - completed 11/5/25
Bellwether by Connie Willis (5) - completed 11/25/25
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (2) - completed 12/3/25
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson (4.5) - completed 12/10/25
The Great Cake Mystery by Alexander McCall Smith (4) - completed 12/11/25
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson (5) - completed 12/18/25
Miracle, and Other Christmas Stories by Connie Willis (4) - completed 12/25/25
Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien (4) - completed 12/26/25
Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife by Martin Edwards (3.5) - completed 12/30/25

Wish you a happy New Year and a 2025 filled with great reads!

>11 DeltaQueen50: Thank you Judy!

Hope you have a good reading year, Carrie.

>13 dudes22: Thank you! The same to you!

One of my favorite things about January is the meme from 2024's reads. Here is my 2024 meme:

Describe yourself: Sister Carrie

Describe how you feel: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Describe where you currently live: Avenue of Spies

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Jane Austen’s England

Your favorite form of transportation is: American Flygirl

Your favorite food is: A Morbid Taste for Bones

Your favorite time of day is: A Slant of Light

Your best friend is: The Man Who Invented Christmas

You and your friends are: Mischievous Creatures

What’s the weather like: In Cold Blood

You fear: The Consequences of Fear

What is the best advice you have to give: What You Are Looking for Is in the Library

Thought for the day: Love That Dog

What is life for you: Wandering through Life

How you would like to die: Home

Your soul’s present condition: Caprice

What was 2024 like for you? Trouble in Triplicate

What do you want from 2025? Ancestors

Sorry to learn that Adrian is no longer with you, Carrie. I know it is hard to lose a loved pet. It was a pleasure to see his pictures and read about him on your thread over the years.

>15 cbl_tn: I gave the exact same advice in my 2024 meme.
Happy New Year and good luck with your reading.

So very sorry to hear about Adrian, Carrie. I loved seeing his photos.

Great meme responses, especially Thought for the Day.

>16 sallylou61: Thank you. He brought a lot a joy to my life.

>17 lowelibrary: It's hard to improve on that advice, isn't it?!

>18 VivienneR: Thank you. I really miss the little fellow.

Great meme answers! Ours differ a lot more than they used to.

>20 thornton37814: Yes, they're very different!

Here's my dinner party guest meme with 2024 books:

What would you call the event? Last Act in Palmyra

How did they find their way? The Salt Path

How did they know they'd arrived? The Da Vinci Code

Any special activities? The Fire Dance

Did your guests stay over? Time to Depart

Were there servants to help? Right Ho, Jeeves

Was there turn down service? Maybe

How were the guests greeted? My Dog Tulip

Was dinner held for late comers? The Late Mrs. Willoughby

And dinner was? The Golden Calf

Afterward? A Walk in the Woods

Fun dinner theme!

>23 thornton37814: Thanks! I was really fortunate to have Jeeves to help!

Nonfiction Challenge; Reading Projects
Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore

Benjamin Franklin left Boston as a young man. His youngest sister, Jane Franklin Mecum, spent nearly her entire life in Boston. The siblings corresponded throughout their lives. Their surviving correspondence reveals a more intimate side of Franklin and illuminates the lives of New England women in the Colonial era.

It’s clear from their correspondence that Franklin cared about his sister’s good opinion. It’s also clear from their discussion of books and essays that Franklin respected his sister’s intellect. Jane Franklin Mecum raised a large family and continued to care for grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and other relatives, yet she found time for reading. It’s sad that so much of her life has been lost to time, yet it is fortunate that a portion of her history has been preserved.

4 stars

Curtains for Three by Rex Stout

Nero Wolfe solves three impossible crimes with the help of his assistant, Archie Goodwin. In the first, an opera singer dies alone in his studio, apparently of suicide. But there is something odd about the gun. In the second, Wolfe must find a killer among a half dozen suspects with motives but seemingly no opportunity. In the final story, Wolfe must find a killer close to home when a woman is strangled in his office.

Stout writes like a magician. The clues are there, but he distracts the reader from their importance by focusing their attention on other things. The first mystery had me stumped but the solution was so simple once Wolfe described it. In what may be a first for me, I spotted the murderer in the second story. I came close to picking out the murderer in the final story, too, but, like a magician, Stout drew my attention away from the important clue I’d noticed.

4 stars

>26 cbl_tn: I really need to read more Rex Stout! I read Fer-de-Lance years ago and remember liking it, but for some reason I never continued with the Nero Wolfe books.

>27 christina_reads: I am trying to read them all. Rex Stout is my 3rd cousin 3x removed - my great-grandpa Stout's 3rd cousin.

I am sorry about your dog, it is so hard to lose a pet. I still hope you find some good books in 2025! I am slowly making my way through all the Agatha Christie novels, too.

>29 MissBrangwen: Thank you. I keep thinking he's asleep somewhere else in the house and have to remind myself that he's not here.

Group Reads
First Frost by Craig Johnson

Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire faces a judicial inquiry into his actions in The Longmire Defense, when he crossed some very powerful people. Meanwhile, now that Vic has moved into Walt’s place, she is cleaning out the basement. When she finds Walt’s old surfboard and asks him how it became damaged, Walt tells her it’s a long story. It is in fact a long story, and it takes most of this book to tell it. The story takes place in late May of 1964, when Walt and his best friend Henry Standing Bear have just graduated from California universities and set out on a cross-country road trip to the military bases where they’ll go through basic training before being deployed to Vietnam. A detour that Walt soon regrets strands Walt and Henry in a desert ghost town (or nearly that) with a host of unsavory characters.

This is at least the third book that I’ve read in the past 3-4 months about Japanese internment camps in World War II. Two of the books, including this one, have been group reads, and each book has delved into different aspects of the history. As for the contemporary story line, this is the 20th novel in the series, not counting several short stories, and the higher ups are only just now noticing the high body count for Absaroka County law enforcement?

3.5 stars

I am sorry to hear you lost Adrian, he always looked so happy in his photos. I hope the knitting project goes well!

>32 MissWatson: Thank you! I finished the first square a few days ago and I've already made good progress on the second square. I shouldn't have a problem finishing it by the end of the month!

The entire state is under a winter storm warning with snow expected to start at my location around lunchtime tomorrow. I'll be working from home tomorrow if I'm able to. I had a cold that has now morphed into a sinus infection. I went to the doctor today and got a steroid shot and a Benadryl shot and I started on an antibiotic. I'm on the road to recovery but I'm not there yet.

>33 cbl_tn: That’s a lovely colour! And I hope the cold passes quickly. We’ve had a few snowflakes today, nothing to compare with your snowstorms. Stay safe and warm!

>35 MissWatson: Thank you! This is the primary color for the throw. I needed 6 skeins of this color, and no more than 4 skeins of any of the other colors.s

It's completely overcast this morning but the snow hasn't started here yet.

>33 cbl_tn: Beautiful work! Love the colour too :)

>37 rabbitprincess: Thank you!

>33 cbl_tn: The color and the pattern are both lovely. I look forward to seeing the finished product!

We had snow up here in Illinois, too. It started last night and is still going, about three inches so far. It's so pretty. I hope your sinus infection clears up quickly.

>39 RidgewayGirl: Thanks! We got about 3 inches this afternoon and we're supposed to get more tonight. I felt rotten most of the day, mostly from the side effects of the steroid shot I got yesterday. I'm feeling much better this evening, and the congestion seems to be gone. The antibiotic seems to be helping already!

Group Reads
Boardinghouse Women: How Southern Keepers, Cooks, Nurses, Widows, and Runaways Shaped Modern America by Elizabeth S. D. Engelhardt

Southern studies scholar Engelhardt examines the history of Southern boardinghouses and the women who operated them from the 18th to the 20th century. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of the boardinghouse experience through the lens of two women. Many of these women were widows who used their existing skills and resources to support themselves and children, parents, grandchildren, or other relatives. Engelhardt contends that these boardinghouse women influenced the development of Southern cuisine. It’s hard to argue with this. What do celebrity chef authors Craig Claiborne and James Beard, and novelist Thomas Wolfe have in common? Their mothers all ran boardinghouses in the South. The boardinghouse living experiences of author Carson McCullers and playwright Tennessee Williams influenced their writing. Recommended for readers with an interest in women’s history, Southern history and culture, and Southern literary history.

4 stars

>33 cbl_tn: The color and the pattern are "delicious"! I'll look forward to each square.
>41 cbl_tn: This book sounds fascinating...BB for me! Thank you.

>40 cbl_tn: A lot of our snow evaporated before it hit the ground. The National Weather Service said there was a line (and they drew it on a map) where there was a difference in atmospheric conditions. You all had more moisture in the air so you got more snow. We had a cold dry atmospheric conditions in place so a lot of ours evaporated before hitting the ground. I guess I'm a little disappointed we didn't get more, but it will make it easier to "dig out" more quickly, especially since I pre-treated the driveway and have very little snow on mine. (The road is covered.)

>43 thornton37814: We were actually in the snow band for several hours before any of the snow started reaching the ground. We had the same thing with the snow evaporating due to the dry conditions. Most of our accumulation was between noon and 4 pm. It's snowing again now so we may get a little more accumulation.

>44 cbl_tn: I know we still have a chance for more, and I haven't checked since I ate supper a long time ago, so I don't really know how much is out there now.

>45 thornton37814: I just checked a few minutes ago. It's still snowing, but not very heavily, and it doesn't look like there's been much more accumulation.

American Authors Challenge; MysteryKit
A Chill Rain in January by L. R. Wright

Divorced, forty-something Staff Sargeant Karl Alberg has two cases to investigate in Sechelt, British Columbia. An elderly woman with dementia has “escaped” from the hospital where she had been living, and a local woman’s visiting brother has died in a seemingly-accidental fall down the basement stairs. The two cases eventually merge in a surprising way. Meanwhile, Alberg must deal with his feelings about his daughters’ college graduation and his ex-wife’s new plans, while also tentatively re-establishing a relationship with his new love interest, Sechelt librarian Cassandra Mitchell.

This series is similar to the television show Columbo in that readers know the identity of the criminal from the beginning. The tension comes from the uncertainty about whether Alberg and his colleagues will figure out what’s happened, will be able to find the evidence to arrest the culprit, and prevent any more damage from being done. I much prefer whodunits, so it had one strike against it from the beginning. Alberg isn’t a particularly likeable protagonist, either. However, the Sunshine Coast setting is a draw, and the elderly woman with dementia as well as another character she meets along the way are both characters I’m glad to have met.

3.5 stars

I'm interested in Boardinghouse Women and have just ordered a copy. As I've done research on local/regional history of Western Arkansas/Eastern Oklahoma I've become increasingly interested in boarding houses, the women who had them, and their contribution to the economy. Before Oklahoma became a state (1907) it was Indian Territory and a large number of Deputy Marshals working out of the Federal Court in Ft. Smith, Arkansas worked and lived there (think of True Grit). The pay was paltry and a surprising number of them along with their wives owned boarding houses that supplemented their law enforcement wages. Knowing this started my interest in the women who owned boarding houses and their contribution to their communities. Bordellos are somewhat similar, but another story! Thanks for the BB!

>48 clue: I'm so glad that my review brought this to your attention. It sounds like a great fit for your research interest!

British Authors Challenge
The Bad Quarto by Jill Paton Walsh

When a dangerous Cambridge tradition of jumping the gap between a tower and the corner of the New Library results in the tragic death of a promising fellow, St. Agatha’s College nurse Imogen Quy arrives on the scene just in time to hold the dying man’s hand. “Harding’s Folly” has claimed another life. A year later, Imogen is drawn into the orbit of a theatre company as they prepare for an unusual production of Hamlet. As the result of a bargain with an undergraduate, the company will be performing from the “bad quarto,” a shorter and possibly pirated version of the famous play. The undergraduate has his own agenda, and he uses the play to allege the murder of his good friend, the fellow who fell to his death a year earlier. Imogen’s cool head and logic help to diffuse the initial turmoil and reevaluate the accident in light of the new allegation.

This novel contains a lot of elements that I love in a mystery – an academic setting, the performing arts, canal boats, and a female sleuth who acts on reason rather than impulse. The ending was a disappointment since Imogen and others in the know allowed the murderer to get away with the crime.

4 stars

Nonfiction Challenge
The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot by Robert Macfarlane

This book makes a good case for walking as a way of knowing. Author and Cambridge professor Macfarlane reflects on walks and boat journeys in eastern and southern England, Scotland and its islands, the West Bank, Spain, and Tibet. Through careful attention to the pathways and their geology, Macfarlane gains insight about the ancient peoples and cultures whose movements created these pathways and connected these spaces. By the end of the book, many readers will feel an urge to get out and explore the pathways in their own neighborhoods.

4 stars

American Authors Challenge
The Light on the Island: Tales of a Lighthouse Keeper's Family in the San Juan Islands by Helene Glidden

When the author was five years old, her parents and twelve siblings moved to Patos Island in the San Juans off the coast of Washington, where her father would be the lighthouse keeper for the next several years. Her father agreed to this very reluctantly since the house and provisions that came with the position would allow him to support his large family. He never lost the hope that he might capture the legendary smuggler Spanish John, who was rumored to have a connection to the island, and use the bounty money to move back to the mainland and a different, less isolated, way of life.

The author, who calls herself Angie/Angel in the book, was drawn to outdoor life on the island. She and a couple of her brothers happily explored the flora and fauna of the island and the surrounding sea. Life on a remote island in the early 20th century had its dangers, and the family experienced more than one tragedy during their years on the island. Angie regularly encountered God in an unusual way during her explorations, which caused her to be greatly misunderstood by her parents and siblings, but also resulted in some laugh-out-loud funny episodes.

4.5 stars

MysteryKit
Snowblind by Ragnar Jonasson

When Ari Thór Arason accepts his first police posting at Siglufjörður, a small town in the north of Iceland, it sounds like it will be about as challenging as policing in Mayberry. Upon his arrival, he is told that no one in Siglufjörður locks their doors. If the separation from his girlfriend, Kristin, left behind in Reykjavik, hadn’t already been giving Ari Thór second thoughts, two back-to-back suspicious events soon would. First, an elderly author falls to his death in the theater where the local theatrical society has been practicing for a new production. Did he fall, or was he pushed? Then, a half-dressed woman is found lying in the snow, near death from a stab wound.

While the setting and characters are interesting, the execution is flawed. The narrative jumps all over the place, with frequent shifts in third-person point of view. The author doesn’t play fair with readers by withholding Ari Thór’s significant discoveries in real time within the narrative. I’m willing to give the series another try to see if the writing improves as the author gains experience, but I’m not in a hurry to pick up the next book.

3 stars

Nonfiction Challenge; Reading Projects
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

After vacationing in Savannah, New Yorker John Berendt was drawn to return again and again. The atmosphere and some of the eccentric figures who were a part of Savannah’s elite intrigued him enough that he eventually wrote a book about them. The first half of the book consists of character sketches. The mood shifts abruptly with a murder in one of Savannah’s finest residences, Mercer House. There was never any question that antiques dealer Jim Williams shot the gun that killed 21-year-old Danny Hansford. The subsequent trials revolved around the motive and the circumstances. Was it murder or self-defense, or maybe something in between?

While the book is well written and deserving most of its acclaim, it pushed the limit of my tolerance for sexual content and coarse language. Some of this content is necessary to explain the circumstances surrounding the crime, but I feel like other parts are gratuitous and sensationalist.

4 stars

January Recap

American Authors Challenge
A Chill Rain in January by L. R. Wright (3.5)
A Light on the Island: Tales of a Lighthouse Keeper’s Family in the San Juan Islands by Helene Glidden (4.5)

British Authors Challenge
The Bad Quarto by Jill Paton Walsh (4)

Nonfiction Challenge
Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore (4)
The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot by Robert Macfarlane (4)
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (4)

MysteryKit
A Chill Rain in January by L. R. Wright (3.5)
Snowblind by Ragnar Jonasson (3)

Group Reads
First Frost by Craig Johnson (3.5)
Boardinghouse Women by Elizabeth S. D. Engelhardt (4)

Reading Projects
Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore (4)
Curtains for Three by Rex Stout (4)
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (4)

Potpourri

Books owned: 4
Books borrowed: 3
eBooks borrowed: 2
eAudiobooks borrowed: 1

Best of the month: A Light on the Island: Tales of a Lighthouse Keeper’s Family in the San Juan Islands by Helene Glidden (4.5)
Worst of the month: Snowblind by Ragnar Jonasson (3)

MytsteryKit Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger

The disappearance of a Native American paperboy during his paper route launches an investigation that becomes increasingly personal for former Aurora, Minnesota sheriff, Corcoran “Cork” O’Connor. After an incident that led to the end of his career as sheriff and a separation from his lawyer wife, Jo, and their children, Cork has been drifting. As he unwinds the thread of corruption following the boy’s disappearance and the murder of a local judge, Cork discovers that he can still rely on his instinct and training. That’s a good thing, because it’s becoming apparent that the corruption is so widespread that there may not be anyone else that Cork can trust.

This first-in-series book got off to a slow start for me. At first, I wasn’t sure that I even liked Cork, which is a problem since the series is named for him. My opinion of Cork shifted with his opinion of himself, which is a testament to the author’s characterization skills. This series has some similarities to Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series. I’m all caught up with Walt’s adventures, so it’s nice to have so many books in this series to look forward to reading.

4 stars

Group Reads
Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement by Cathleen D. Cahill

To mark the centennial of the ratification of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, social historian Cahill explores the experiences of underrepresented minorities in the history of women’s suffrage. For some women, the 19th amendment did not mark an end to their fight for voting rights. In 1920, many native Americans were considered wards of the government rather than citizens. Also in 1920, most Asians did not have a path to citizenship. Jim Crow laws disenfranchised southern African Americans.

Organization of the material about the women at the forefront of these groups was always going to be problematic. They seemed to have as many differences that set them at odds with each other as similarities that united them, as well as different points of tension with their fellow suffragettes in the white majority. Cahill chose to organize the material chronologically, which makes it easy to see that the battle for suffrage for women of color did not end in 1920. She could have also organized the material around each ethnicity, or by state or region. No matter how the material was organized, it was always going to be a complex and difficult to follow history.

The best thing about this book is its bibliography of primary sources. Several of the women wrote autobiographical articles and memoirs about their experiences in the suffrage movement. I made note of several of these that I would love to read at some future date.

3.5 stars

MysteryKit
The Unfinished Clue by Georgette Heyer

When a man with more enemies than friends is murdered in his study during a weekend house party, the local constabulary calls in Scotland Yard. Everyone in the house had motive and opportunity, with the exception of one person. After reading the reports and reinterviewing all the suspects, Inspector Harding makes a surprising discovery that leads to the murderer.

The book’s title is a spoiler. As soon as the unfinished clue was introduced, I knew what it meant. I spent the rest of the book trying to figure out which of the women it pointed to.

Characterization is Heyer’s strength, whether she’s writing Regency romance or detective fiction. Her plotting isn’t as strong as Christie’s or Sayers’s, so re-reads of Heyer’s detective novels probably aren’t in my future.

4 stars

Group Reads
Three Hands in the Fountain by Lindsey Davis

Falco and Helena are back in Rome with their infant daughter, Julia. When Falco and his best friend, Petronius, slip out of a family party celebrating Julia’s birth, they make a gruesome discovery in one of Rome’s fountains. How did a severed hand get into the water supply? When a second hand is discovered in another fountain, Falco and Petronius suspect that there may be a serial killer at work. Ex-consul Frontinus hires Falco and his new partner, Petronius, to search for the killer. The discovery of a third severed hand provides them with more information, but will it be enough for them to track down the killer before he takes his next victim?

Rome’s water system is at the center of this book. The mystery feels forced to fit what Davis wanted to tell her readers about the aqueducts that supplied Rome’s water. Falco and his partners in the investigation are obsessed with figuring out how and where the murderer commits his crimes, with no interest in the motive behind the crimes. Falco and Petronius must search among the crowds attending Rome’s festivals, yet there is very little description of what takes place at the festival. We only get descriptions of the crowds coming and going. I wish that Davis had put as much effort into the mystery plot as she did in her research into Rome’s water supply.

3 stars

British Authors Challenge
Take It Back by Kia Abdullah

Former barrister Zara Kaleel left a high-pressure job for a position at an agency that provides support for victims of sexual assault. Zara champions the case of Jodie, a teenage girl with facial deformities who claims that she was gang raped by several Muslim boys in her class. Zara’s involvement with the case leaks and a media circus soon develops. The case pits Zara against her more traditional family members and their Muslim community.

This book explores multiple contemporary social issues, including race and immigration, disability, economic status, and sex crimes. It is not for the faint of heart. Is Jodie telling the truth about what happened that night, are the boys telling the truth, or is the truth somewhere in between? The author leaves readers guessing right up to the end.

3.5 stars

American Authors challenge

Nonfiction Challenge

Nonfiction Challenge

February Recap

American Authors Challenge
The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar (4)

British Authors Challenge
Take It Back by Kia Abdullah (3.5)

Nonfiction Challenge
Map Guide to American Migration Routes, 1735-1815 by William Dollarhide (3.5)
Map Basics by Maxwell Baber (4)

MysteryKit
Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger (4)
The Unfinished Clue by Georgette Heyer (4)

Group Reads
Recasting the Vote by Cathleen D. Cahill (3.5)
Three Hands in the Fountain by Lindsey Davis (3)

Reading Projects

Potpourri

Books owned: 3
Books borrowed: 2
eBooks borrowed: 1
eAudiobooks borrowed: 2

Best of the month: The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar (4)
Worst of the month: Three Hands in the Fountain by Lindsey Davis (3)

Group Reads

Group Reads

Those of you who have been around for a while remember my Shih Tzu, Adrian, who passed away a couple of days after Christmas. I decided to give myself until Spring to start looking for another dog. Preferably a Shih Tzu, because I love the breed and I loved Adrian.

Life had other plans. My neighbor, who lost her dog a couple of months before I lost Adrian, got a call from her dog's groomer a few weeks ago. She was grooming a then 10-month-old Cavapoo whose family needed to rehome him and wanted it to happen that day. Did my friend want another dog? She would love one, but she is at a stage in life where she doesn't want to commit to a dog long-term, so she called me. I wasn't quite ready for a dog and needed a dog who was already house trained. She brought him over so we could meet him and we both thought he was great, so we've been "co-parenting" Wally. She had minor surgery yesterday so we've had a trial run at my house and it's gone well. This arrangement has given me time to get to know Wally gradually. A few weeks ago I wasn't ready for any dog that wasn't Adrian. Now that I've gotten to know Wally, he has his own personality and he's formed his own space in my heart.

Meet Wally.

>67 cbl_tn: Carrie, I'm so happy for you! And for Wally, who has no idea how lucky he is.

>67 cbl_tn: That worked out well for you and for Wally. He's a lucky boy to have found you.

>67 cbl_tn: I am sure Wally is glad to have found you, Carrie.

Awww what a handsome boy!

>68 RidgewayGirl: >69 VivienneR: >70 MissWatson: >71 rabbitprincess: Thanks, everyone! I had a nice visit with the vet yesterday when I stopped to pick up Wally's vaccination record so that I can enroll him in leash training class. The vet just happened to be in the front office and it was lunchtime so there weren't any patients waiting. I hadn't seen her since Adrian passed, and she wrote in the card that the practice sent that he was her favorite patient, even though she's not supposed to have favorites.

The groomer who facilitated Wally's rehoming says he is the smartest dog she has ever groomed, and she isn't a young person. That means we'll need to work hard to keep him busy.

Congratulations to both you and Wally. Enjoy each other!

>73 DeltaQueen50: Thank you! He's been like glue so far!

British Authors Challenge; Reading Projects

Nonfiction Challenge

Potpourri

MysteryKIT

British Author Challenge

How are your allergies doing this Spring, Carrie?

>80 RidgewayGirl: I have co-workers and several neighbors who are having a rough time with allergy symptoms, and it seems to be peak allergy season. Just a few years ago I would have been struggling right along with them. I'm actually feeling great, and my allergies seem to be well under control. I am so grateful for that.

How are yours doing?

American Authors Challenge

March Recap

American Authors Challenge
Songs for the Missing by Stewart O’Nan (4)

British Authors Challenge
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (5)
The Mistletoe Murder: And Other Stories by P. D. James (4)

Nonfiction Challenge
A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre (3.5)

MysteryKit
London Match by Len Deighton (3.5)

Group Reads
A Refiner’s Fire by Donna Leon (3)
Wanderers: A History of Women Walking by Kerri Andrews (3.5)

Reading Projects
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (5)

Potpourri
A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage by Mark Twain (3.5)

Books borrowed: 2
eBooks borrowed: 2
eAudiobooks borrowed: 4

Best of the month: My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (5)
Worst of the month: A Refiner’s Fire by Donna Leon (3)

>81 cbl_tn: Allergy season is just starting where I am and thanks to allergy shots, things are fine so far. I'm looking forward to a Spring where going outside doesn't turn me into a ball of weeping mucus.

>84 RidgewayGirl: Fingers crossed for continued success! For me, it's been worth the commitment to the shots to feel as good as I do now.

Group Reads

Nonfiction Challenge

British Authors Challenge

Potpourri

Potpourri

Group Reads

Potpourri

MysteryKit

Reading Projects

April Recap

American Authors Challenge

British Authors Challenge
Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales by P. D. James (4)

Nonfiction Challenge
Paul Revere’s Ride by David Hackett Fischer (4)

MysteryKit
The Houdini Specter by Daniel Stashower (3.5)

Group Reads
When Women Ran Fifth Avenue by Julie Satow (3.5)
Two for the Lions by Lindsey Davis (3.5)

Reading Projects
Murder by the Book by Rex Stout (3.5)

Potpourri
Orphan Train Rider by Andrea Warren (4)
Saki by Saki (3.5)
Who Was Johnny Cash? by Jim Gigliotti (4)

Books owned: 3
eAudiobooks borrowed: 6

Best of the month: Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales by P. D. James (4)

Group Reads

<96 I read a novel on Francis Perkins last year, Becoming Madame Secretary by Stephanie Dray that I liked. I apparently didn't write a review, must have been busy at the time, but gave it 4*. I don't remember the issue of Jews in Nazi Germany being covered , but I learned a lot more than I knew before about her contributions both before and during her years with Roosevelt.

>97 clue: One of the chapters is a literature review of books about Frances Perkins, and I think the Dray book is mentioned. I made note of a biography by Kirstin Downey. If my recollection is correct, the author of the biography I read was one of Downey's students and I think was also her research assistant while Downey was working on the Perkins biography. I have a feeling I would get more out of Downey's biography.

Reading Projects

<96 I agree. have one of Downey's books on my wishlist, The Women Behind the New Deal.

>100 clue: That's the one!

American Authors Challenge; Reading Projects

British Authors Challege; Reading Projects

MysteryKit

>102 cbl_tn: I think I was still in high school when I read this and I remember loving it. I should revisit it. Thanks for your review. I still dislike a winter tomato.

>104 cbl_tn: It was a lot of fun.

>105 RidgewayGirl: I expect a reread of the Tyler book might hit you differently now and you would find new things about it to love.

I listened to the audio version of the Brodie novel read by Jason Isaacs, who played Brodie in the TV series based on the novels. You can tell he enjoyed narrating it!

Potpourri

Nonfiction Challenge

American Authors Challenge; Reading Projects

MysteryKit

May Recap

American Authors Challenge
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler (4.5)
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution by Bernard Bailyn (4.5)

British Authors Challenge
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford (3.5)

Nonfiction Challenge
Wuhu Diary: The Mystery of My Daughter Lulu by Emily Prager (3.5)

MysteryKit
Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson (5)
Murder Being Once Done by Ruth Rendell (3.5)

Group Reads
Dear Miss Perkins by Rebecca Brenner Graham (2.5)

Reading Projects
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler (4.5)
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford (3.5)
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution by Bernard Bailyn (4)
Triple Jeopardy by Rex Stout (4)

Potpourri
Twenty and Ten by Claire Huchet Bishop (4)

Books owned: 1
eBooks owned: 1
eBooks borrowed: 3
eAudiobooks borrowed: 4

Best of the month: Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson (5)
Worst of the month: Dear Miss Perkins by Rebecca Brenner Graham (2.5)

Group Reads

Potpourri

Potpourri

British Author Challenge; Reading Projects

Nonfiction Challenge; Reading Projects

MysteryKit

British Author Challenge; Reading Projects

American Author Challenge

>119 cbl_tn: I heard Vlautin speak at a recent book festival and, as the friend who was with me said, he is exactly how you'd imagine him after reading one of his books.

>120 RidgewayGirl: What a wonderful opportunity! I bet his talk was interesting.

Group Reads

Reading Projects

Reading Projects

American Authors Challenge; Reading Projects

June Recap

American Authors Challenge
The Free by Willy Vlautin (4)
Austenland by Shannon Hale (3)

British Authors Challenge
Henry IV, Part I by William Shakespeare (4)
Henry IV, Part II by William Shakespeare (4)

Nonfiction Challenge
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (4)

MysteryKit
The Long Call by Ann Cleeves (4)

Group Reads
A Grave in the Woods by Martin Walker (3)
Assassins of Athens by Jeffrey Siger (3.5)

Reading Projects
Henry IV, Part I by William Shakespeare (4)
Henry IV, Part II by William Shakespeare (4)
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (4)
How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand (4.5)
Old Herbaceous by Reginald Arkell (4.5)
Austenland by Shannon Hale (3)

Potpourri
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams (2.5)
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (3.5)

Books borrowed: 3
eBooks owned: 1
eBooks borrowed:1
eAudiobooks borrowed: 7

Best of the month: How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand (4.5)
Worst of the month: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams (2.5)

>124 cbl_tn: I read this a few years ago due to the Mustich
book and I loved it. He's led me to several good things I probably would not have read otherwise.

>127 clue: I know! My other top read for June was also a Mustich recommendation - How Buildings Learn.

>125 cbl_tn: I really like the movie version of Austenland; it's got Keri Russell and Jennifer Coolidge and is completely bonkers in a really fun way.

>129 christina_reads: I haven't watched the movie yet, but it's in my queue to watch soon. I have a feeling this may be one of those rare books when I like the movie better than the book. We'll see!

Group Reads

British Authors Challenge

>132 cbl_tn: Woof!

>133 thornton37814: Wally says back at you!

American Authors Challenge

Nonfiction Challenge

>136 cbl_tn: I really liked this book when I read it quite some time ago. I'll have to look for her other memoirs.

>137 RidgewayGirl: I've already put a hold on The Lobster Chronicles!

MysteryKit; Reading Projects

Potpourri

American Authors Challenge

>141 cbl_tn: I loved that series when it first came out, to the point that I was buying each new book in hardcover. But I did a series reread a couple years ago and found that my feelings were much more lukewarm. I ended up getting rid of most of the books, just keeping my two favorites.

>142 christina_reads: Good to know! What happened in Jane's book? I'm wondering if I might like that one a little better, but I'm also afraid that I won't.

>143 cbl_tn: Jane's book, The Lure of the Moonflower, is the last in the series. Jane is in Portugal on a mission and has to team up with Jack Reid, a British agent who was formerly a French agent. So as they fall in love, the central question is whether she can really trust him. I liked the romance (the characters are a lot more mature than Richard and Amy) but felt the plot was pretty low stakes. There are also several references to events and characters from previous books, so that might be annoying since you haven't read them!

>144 christina_reads: I think I'll skip it then. Thanks!

Reading Projects

British Authors Challenge; Reading Projects

Nonfiction Challenge

July Recap

American Authors Challenge
Book Lovers by Emily Henry (3)
The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig (2)

British Authors Challenge
The 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith (5)
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake (3.5)

Nonfiction Challenge
The Hungry Ocean by Linda Greenlaw (4)
The Lobster Chronicles by Linda Greenlaw (3.5)

MysteryKit
Prisoner’s Base by Rex Stout (5)

Group Reads
Looking for Miss America by Margot Mifflin (3.5)

Reading Projects
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake (3.5)
The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict (3.5)
Prisoner’s Base by Rex Stout (5)

Potpourri
The Author’s Guide to Murder by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, & Karen White (4)

Books borrowed: 3
Books owned: 2
eBooks borrowed: 2
eAudiobooks borrowed: 3

Best of the month: The 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith (5)
Worst of the month: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig (2)

Potpourri

>147 cbl_tn: The Gormenghast Trilogy is such a weird reading experience, but it's also so wonderfully atmospheric. I would say that the first book is the best one and if you didn't love it, fair game skipping the others.

>151 RidgewayGirl: I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. I'm curious to see how things will play out, but I need a break first!

Group Reads

The husband on the Donna Reed show was Carl Betz. I don't remember him in anything else.

>154 clue: I'd give you a prize if I had one!

>153 cbl_tn: I just have to add one more. I don't know how I could forget The Flying Nun. Nuns. And one of them flies. I loved it as a child.

>153 cbl_tn: Great review! It sounds like an interesting book, but I like how you listed a bunch of shows that run counter to the narrative. I also thought of "I Love Lucy," which ran for six seasons in the '50s, and Lucille Ball was indisputably the star.

>157 christina_reads: Yeah, I should have mentioned that she excepted Lucille Ball from her thesis. From I Love Lucy she went on to several seasons of The Lucy Show and then several seasons of Here's Lucy.

>153 cbl_tn: PBS's American Masters aired a very good documentary on Hazel Scott earlier this year. I don't know how much of their stuff PBS makes available for streaming, but The Disappearance of Miss Scott is worth seeking out.

>159 KeithChaffee: Thank you for the heads-up! I'll see if I can find it!

Nonfiction Challenge

>161 cbl_tn: I love Dick Van Dyke, and I was born in Danville, Illinois. Taking a BB to remind me to read this one.

>162 lowelibrary: You definitely need to read it then! My dad grew up in southern Illinois and he and his brother were familiar with the Van Dykes before they became household names. My uncle was a couple of years younger than Jerry, and I'm told that my uncle used to play in a band with Jerry. My uncle played the ukulele and Jerry played the banjo. Also, I'm partly named after Dick Van Dyke's youngest daughter, and partly after characters in a book my mother read just before I was born.

>164 lowelibrary: My mom and dad grew up in small towns about an hour south of Danville. Danville was the big city nearest them. We have no connection to the Van Dykes other than geographical. My grandma told me he was from Danville when I was fascinated with Mary Poppins.

>163 cbl_tn: >164 lowelibrary: I had no idea so many famous people, and so many Category Challengers, were from Danville, which is in my neck of the woods in East Central Illinois.

>164 lowelibrary: >165 Charon07: How about that! My dad grew up in Southern Illinois, not far from Vincennes, Indiana. My uncle and my dad's cousin both went to Eastern Illinois University back when it was Eastern Illinois Teachers College.

>161 cbl_tn: I was lucky enough to have met Dick Van Dyke -- he came into the bookstore I worked in as a teenager and my co-worker and I were determined to play it cool and allow him to be treated like any other customer, a guy in line behind him was unable to contain himself. "They don't make shows like yours anymore," he exclaimed. Van Dyke replied, "Yes, for one thing, they're in color."

>167 RidgewayGirl: What a great story! From his memoir, it sounds like he wouldn't have minded. He started singing with a barbershop quartet with a fan who introduced himself at Starbucks. At the time the memoir was written, they had been singing together for 10 years and had recorded a couple of albums.

Potpourri

Group Reads

British Authors Challenge

Reading Projects

>172 cbl_tn: Ms Christie herself admitted writing some "pot-boilers" out of necessity. Still, Verdict must have been pretty funny, even if unintentional.

>173 VivienneR: I love the way you put it - funny but unintentional! That's it in a nutshell!

Potpourri

MysteryKit

August Recap

American Authors Challenge

British Authors Challenge
Cane Warriors by Alex Wheatle (4)

Nonfiction Challenge
My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business by Dick Van Dyke (4)

MysteryKit
Lethal Legacy by Linda Fairstein (3.5)

Group Reads
When Women Invented Television by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong (3.5)
One Virgin Too Many by Lindsey Davis (4.5)

Reading Projects
Verdict by Agatha Christie (3)

Potpourri
The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner (3.5)
Everybody Is a Liar by Liv Constantine (3.5)
One Shot at Forever by Chris Ballard (4.5)

Books borrowed: 1
Books owned: 2
eBooks borrowed: 2
eAudiobooks borrowed: 4

Best of the month: One Shot at Forever by Chris Ballard (4.5)
Worst of the month: Verdict by Agatha Christie (3)

American Authors Challenge

American Authors Challenge

Reading Projects

Reading Projects

Group Reads

Potpourri

Group Reads

MysteryKit

>178 cbl_tn: Burt Lancaster's performance in the movie was a gift for Stroud's reputation. That's an interesting connection you have.

Potpourri

Nonfiction Challenge

September Recap

American Authors Challenge
Birdman: The Many Faces of Robert Stroud by Jolene Babyak (4)
The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman (4)

British Authors Challenge

Nonfiction Challenge
Station to Station by James Attlee (4)

MysteryKit
Dead Cert by Dick Francis (3.5)

Group Reads
The Impostor Heiress by Annie Reed (3)
An Enemy in the Village by Martin Walker (3)

Reading Projects
The Golden Spiders by Rex Stout (4)
Double Sin and Other Stories by Agatha Christie (4)

Potpourri
Behind Closed Doors by B. A. Paris (3.5)
The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra (3.5)

Books borrowed: 2
Books owned: 3
eBooks borrowed: 1
eAudiobooks borrowed: 4

Best of the month: Double Sin and Other Stories by Agatha Christie (4)
Worst of the month: An Enemy in the Village by Martin Walker (3)

>188 cbl_tn: So many book would be improved by the addition of a map!

>190 RidgewayGirl: Even one would have helped! How is it possible to publish a book about a railroad and not include a map?!

Reading Projects

British Authors Challenge

MysteryKit; Group Reads

Group Reads

British Authors Challenge

British Authors Challenge; Reading Projects

Nonfiction Challenge; Reading Projects

>197 cbl_tn: And this and another Isherwood novel were the basis for the very popular musical play and movie Cabaret.

Reading Projects

American Authors Challenge; Reading Projects

October Recap

American Authors Challenge
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (4)

British Authors Challenge
Watchmen by Alan Moore (3.5)
Summerwater by Sarah Moss (3)
The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood (3.5)

Nonfiction Challenge
Book Lust by Nancy Pearl (3.5)

MysteryKit
Prey on Patmos by Jeffrey Siger (3.5)

Group Reads
Prey on Patmos by Jeffrey Siger (3.5)
The Great Stewardess Rebellion by Nell McShane Wulfhart (4)

Reading Projects
Five Found Dead by Sulari Gentill (2.5)
The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood (3.5)
Book Lust by Nancy Pearl (3.5)
The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (3.5)
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (4)

Potpourri

Books borrowed: 4
Books owned: 1
eAudiobooks borrowed: 4

Best of the month: The Great Stewardess Rebellion by Nell McShane Wulfhart (4)
Worst of the month: Five Found Dead by Sulari Gentill (2.5)

Potpourri

Potpourri

>204 cbl_tn: I just read this as well! And I agree. I really liked the first half or so, but the end was just way too over the top for me. It really lost me. It was a shame, because I thought the set up and how the plot was building up in the first half was really promising.

>205 japaul22: I'm in good company then!

Reading Projects

Reading Projects

Group Reads

Potpourri

American Authors Challenge

November Recap

American Authors Challenge
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by David Treuer (4)

British Authors Challenge

Nonfiction Challenge

MysteryKit

Group Reads
Ode to a Banker by Lindsey Davis (4)

Reading Projects
Three Men Out by Rex Stout (4)
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (4.5)

Potpourri
Big Bad Wool by Leonie Swann (3.5)
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (3.5)
Bellwether by Connie Willis (5)

Books borrowed: 2
eBooks borrowed: 2
eAudiobooks borrowed: 3

Best of the month: Bellwether by Connie Willis (5)

Group Reads

>210 cbl_tn: I love Bellwether -- glad it was a five-star read for you!

>214 christina_reads: I have yet to read anything by Connie Willis that I haven't loved!

Potpourri

Potpourri

Potpourri

Nonfiction Challenge

British Authors Challenge; MysteryKit

Potpourri

>221 cbl_tn: My father read this out to us every Christmas until we were teenagers. It is a perfect book.

>222 RidgewayGirl: That's a wonderful memory to have!

>223 cbl_tn: I should get a copy to put in his stocking!

>224 RidgewayGirl: You should! I bet he would love that! I'm sure he enjoyed that tradition as much as you did.

Potpourri

Potpourri

>227 cbl_tn: That sounds lovely! I'm adding it to my wishlist for next year!

Wishing you peace, health, and happiness in the New Year!

>228 VivienneR: Thank you, Vivienne! It is indeed a lovely book.

American Authors Challenge

Reading Projects

>231 cbl_tn: I looked back and see it was 2018 when I read this. Iremember it well so that shows how much I liked it. Most of my casual reading gets foggy after 7 years!

>232 clue: I think it will be memorable for me, too!

Potpourri

Nonfiction Challenge

December Recap

American Authors Challenge
The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman by Meg Wolitzer (4)

British Authors Challenge
The Winter Garden Mystery by Carola Dunn (3.5)

Nonfiction Challenge
The Reporter Who Knew Too Much by Mark Shaw (2)
Secret Sister: From Nazi-Occupied Jersey to Wartime London, One Woman's Search for the Truth by Cherry Durbin (3.5)

MysteryKit
The Winter Garden Mystery by Carola Dunn (3.5)

Group Reads
Tooth and Claw by Craig Johnson (4)

Reading Projects
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart (4)

Potpourri
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (2)
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson (4.5)
The Great Cake Mystery by Alexander McCall Smith (4)
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson (5)
Miracle, and Other Christmas Stories by Connie Willis (4)
Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R.Tolkien (4)
Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife by Martin Edwards (3.5)

Books owned: 1
Books borrowed: 2
eBooks owned: 1
eBooks borrowed: 3
eAudiobooks borrowed: 6

Best of the month: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson (5)
Worst of the month: The Reporter Who Knew Too Much by Mark Shaw (2)

>226 cbl_tn: I'm so glad you enjoyed the Connie Willis collection! I agree, "Inn" is the best story, but there isn't a bad one in the bunch. And her introduction really convinced me that "Miracle on 34th Street" is a superior Christmas movie to "It's a Wonderful Life"!

>237 christina_reads: I've never been a fan of "It's a Wonderful Life" and I'm not sure I've watched it more than once. On the other hand, I love "Miracle on 34th Street"!