Linda Goes for the Heavy Stuff in 2025

My one and only New Year's resolution for 2025* is to read more of the chunksters that have been inhabiting my shelves in a neglected state for much too long. The photo above contains just a few of those I have to choose from. MAYBE I can knock off one each quarter? Doesn't sound impossible, does it? I am presently well into The Mirror and the Light, so that's a start.

*I may try to cuss a little less, but that probably IS impossible.

OH.... Hi! I'm Linda, a retired paralegal, though that says very little about me nowadays, as my work life ended in 2015. I live in Northeast Pennsylvania, with my husband, @flamingrabbit and our current four-footed tyrant, Molly Cat. Since giving up the legal grind, I have kept busy with volunteer work centered around libraries, cemeteries, and genealogy. I serve on the Board of Directors of the Scranton Public Library, and several of its committees. I am President of the Equinunk Cemetery Association, which is located in my home village along the Delaware River, and do as much grave-hunting and photographing as time and weather will allow for the website Find-A-Grave.com.

LT has been an essential part of my life since I joined in 2005, after my daughter @lycomayflower told me about "this site where you can catalog your books." My response was something like, "Why would I want to do that?" HA! I simply can't imagine life without it anymore. I never knew how much I needed a reading community, until I found one. There are links on my profile page to my earlier reading threads.

I've been hosting an American Authors Challenge in the 75 Book Challenge Group since 2019, and details of this year's monthly challenges can be found downthread.

Finally, as some of you know, I'm averse to animated gifs and list-serve-type greetings, but I LOVE visitors who comment on my reading, or on other topics introduced here. Everyone is welcome to lurk or engage, as you see fit.

Here's my last thread of 2024 in case you missed anything!

The ticker where I will keep track of my numbers, and how pitifully I fall short of my 100 book/year reading goal. (For four years after retiring, I routinely surpassed that goal. The pandemic, for some reason, plunged me back to the low 80s, which is less than I was reading those last several years when I was still working full time. I may have read a lot of children's books in those 100+ years, looking for good stuff for the littles in the family.) I actually made a list of my totals for the last dozen years, and was surprised by the consistency:

2024: 84
2023: 81
2022: 82
2021: 85
2020: 84
2019: 104
2018: 110
2017: 100
2016: 112
2015: 86
2014: 100
2013: 82

Here will be a list of the books I read in the current quarter of 2025.

I use some shorthand to help me keep track of my reading trends:

ROOT identifies a book that I have had on my shelves for at least a year at the time I read it.
CULL means I put the book in my donation box for the library book sale after finishing it, or otherwise gave it away.
DNF means I didn't finish the book, for one reason or another, usually explained in the related post.
ER means I received the book from LT's Early Reviewer program.
GN refers to a graphic novel, GM a graphic memoir This is not a category I use much.
An * asterisk indicates a library book.
LOA means I read a Library of America edition;
SF means the book was a Slightly Foxed edition, (NOT science fiction, which I so rarely read);
VIRAGO means it was an original green-spined Virago edition from my own collection;
FOLIO indicates a Folio Society edition.
AUDIO and e-Book are self-explanatory, and probably won't appear very often.
AAC refers to the American Author Challenge.
NF indicates a non-fiction read.
TR indicates a work in translation
RR means it's a re-read for me

Clicking on titles in this post will take you to the message in which I reviewed or commented on that book. This is true of my reading lists for the rest of the year in posts below as well.

JANUARY

1. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan ROOT
2. Grandfather Twilight by Barbara Berger
3. Small Town Sins by Ken Jaworowski CULL
4. The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel Folio
5. Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey ROOT
6. All That I Have by Castle Freeman, Jr. ROOT

FEBRUARY

7. A Widow's Curse by Phillip DePoy ROOT
8. The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig NF, ROOT
*9. The Ghostway by Tony Hillerman
*10. White Nights by Ann Cleeves
*11. Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger
*12. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini AAC
*13. City of Saints by Andrew Hunt
14. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin AAC, ROOT, CULL
*15. A Finer End by Deborah Crombie

MARCH

16. Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
*17. Wish You Were Here by Stewart O'Nan AAC
18. Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century by Peter Graham ROOT, NF
*19. Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
*20. The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green NF

APRIL

21.The Coal Tattoo by Silas House ROOT, AAC
22. Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson
23.Appalachia in the Sixties by David S. Walls NF, ROOT, AAC
24. Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz

My list of new acquisitions in 2025:

1. Small Town Sins by Ken Jaworowski
2. Grandfather Twilight by Barbara Berger
3. The Notebook, A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen
4. Life Work by Donald Hall
5. Prudence by David Treuer
6. Mountain Time by Bernard DeVoto
7. The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells
8. Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
9. Lightning Strike by William Kent Krueger
10. Little Snow Landscape by Robert Walser
11. Kilometer 101 by Maxim Osipov
12. Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
13. The Night in Question by Tobias Wolff
14. The Stories of Jane Gardam
15. Broken Fields by Marcie R. Rendon
16. When Women Ruled the World by Kara Cooney
17. The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
18. Conundrum by Jan Morris
19. My Grandmothers and I by Diana Holman-Hunt
20. Portrait of a Marriage by Nigel Nicolson

Sure...but sometimes one just has to sent a few off to new homes. I'll keep a list of those here as the year advances.

1. The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel original copy replaced by Folio edition
2. Small Town Sins by Ken Jaworowski
3. The Guardians by John Grisham
4. Disturbing the Peace by Richard Yates
5. The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber
6. The Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser
7. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
8. & 9. Titus Groan and Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
10. The Secret History of Las Vegas by Chris Abani
11. Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz
12. 14 Great Detective Stories

AMERICAN AUTHORS CHALLEGE

For the second year in a row, I have asked for volunteers to host a few months of this Challenge. As you can imagine, one runs out of ideas after doing it for 10 years, even though my own enthusiasm for American literature remains high.
Having someone else step up for several selections is amazing, and I'm really looking forward to 2025's AAC.

Here is the list of choices for the coming year (If you'd like to check out how we got there, the planning thread is here.)


JANUARY Pacific Northwest including Western BC and Southeastern Alaska
The January Challenge thread is here.
Read several Raymond Carver short stories and one essay.

FEBRUARY-- MUSLIM AMERICAN AUTHORS hosted by @PaulCranswick
Finished The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Finished In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin

MARCH STEWART O’NAN hosted by @KatieKrug
Finished Wish You Were Here

APRIL APPALACHIAN AUTHORS
Here is the Appalachian Authors Thread
Finished The Coal Tattoo by Silas House and The Appalachian Trail: Hiking the People's Path photog. by Bart Smith
Finished Appalachia in the Sixties:Decade of Reawakening collection of essays ed. by David S. Walls

MAY Pulitzer Prize Winners in HISTORY

JUNE Willy Vlautin

JULY ROMANCE hosted by @lycomayflower

AUGUST True Crime & its Fictional Offspring hosted by @Caroline_McElwee

SEPTEMBER Alice Hoffman

OCTOBER The Western hosted by @kristelh

NOVEMBER David Treuer

DECEMBER Meg Wolitzer

WILD CARD: Select from the 2016 list, which included Anne Tyler, Richard Russo, Jane Smiley, Ivan Doig, Annie Proulx, John Steinbeck, Joyce Carol Oates, John Irving, Michael Chabon, Annie Dillard, and Don Delillo. (We also did a poetry month, which is why there are only 11 names there.)

2024 IN REVIEW:

I finished 84 books in 2024. Not my best year ever, but I'm OK with that total. I Pearl-ruled another 5. A breakdown of my reading, using completely arbitrary categories, looks like this:

5-star reads:

An Owl on Every Post
Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness
The God of the Woods
Big Panda and Tiny Dragon
To Kill a Mockingbird (re-read)
Corelli's Mandolin
and these 4 1/2 star reads that round out my
top 10 for the year:
Heading North by Holly M. Wendt
The Tribal Knot
The March
Rain Breaks No Bones

DNF:
The Mythmakers by John Hendrix (graphic)
That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder by C. L. Miller
The Boy With a Bird in His Chest by Emme Lund

Best reading month, by the numbers (7 or more books finished), February, April, June, August, September, November.

No. of Non-fiction reads: 23 (more than a quarter of my total--I like that)

Male/Female Author ratio: 52/33 (A couple books have both) Not terribly happy with this, but I don't TRY to make it even, because that feels very artificial.

Borrowed from the library:23 books.

Books read from my own shelves (and owned for at least a year) 34

Best new author discovery: Sanora Babb

New Books IN (not counting those exclusively of interest to @flamingrabbit) 70
Old Books OUT 149 A Major accomplishment!

That MEME:

1. Describe Yourself: The Queen of Dirt Island

2. Describe How You Feel: Morally Straight

3. Describe Where You Currently Live: North Woods

4. If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Walk the Blue Fields

5. You favorite form of transportation is: A Cab at the Door

6. Your favorite food is: Northern Fried Chicken

7. Your favorite time of day is: Kickback

8. Your best friend is: A Force of Nature

9. You and your friends are: What Angels Fear

10. What the weather is like: The Dark Wind

11. You fear: Lost Nation

12. What is the best advice you have to give: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

13. Thought for the Day: You Never Know

14. What is life for you: The Journey

15. How would you like to die: Kissed a Sad Goodbye

16. Your soul’s present condition: Remembering Laughter

17. What was 2024 like for you: The Age of Doubt

18. What do you want from 2025: A Book of Hope

Welcome back, Linda!

>7 laytonwoman3rd: You are quick, Jim! Thanks.

Happy reading in 2025!
Also, your hobby of grave hunting and photography is very interesting! Do you ever post your photos?

>10 mstrust: Hello, Jennifer...welcome! I do post my photos, rarely here, but almost always on the website Find-A-Grave, which exists to document the final resting places of as many humans as possible. People can request photos of specific graves through the site, and I have been able to fulfill over 200 of those requests in the last 10 years or so.

Happy 2025, Linda3rd. May it not stink any worse than it is possible to avoid.

>12 richardderus: Oh, dear...your optimism, it dismays me.

>13 laytonwoman3rd: It won't last.

>1 laytonwoman3rd: I bought that edition of Prairy Erth many moons ago when I visited Boston Linda. No idea where in my chaos it now resides, still unread. Will have to look see.

Hi Linda, happy new year, and happy reading!

>1 laytonwoman3rd: In that pile of chunksters, there are several books I would like to read as well. Hope you can manage some of them.

>14 richardderus: Mmmm....
>15 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline. I really want to give Prairy Erth a try this year.
>16 EllaTim: Thanks! I think I'll go sit down with a book right now!

Here is the Pacific Northwest January 2025 AAC Challenge thread.

Happy 2025, Linda.

>6 laytonwoman3rd: Welcome back, Linda, and I am sure to be a regular here as always.

I am already thinking about next months, AAC with excitement.

Nice new thread, Linda! Here's to a great year of reading.

Happy New Thread, Linda. Happy New Year. I love that chunkster topper. I am also finally getting to a major chunkster this month with Monte Cristo. I also love the fact that you are still carrying on the AAC, quite creatively, I must say. Great job.

>1 laytonwoman3rd: Well, I have read a few of the 'heavy' books you have stacked there and can assure you that if you get to them all, you have some great reading there! I love A Gentle Madness.

>6 laytonwoman3rd: Looking forward to another year of taking part. I love being introduced to authors of whom I have never heard.

Happy New Year! Have a wonderful Wednesday!

>20 PaulCranswick: Hope to see you in the AAC, and here, often, Paul!

>21 lauralkeet: And the same to you, my friend.

>22 msf59: Hi, Mark! I have never read The Count of Monte Cristo either. I don't think there's a copy of that one here... I have dropped a star on your poetry thread in Club Read.

>23 alcottacre: I'm not surprised, Stasia...I think you read the most books per year of anyone I follow on LT. You amaze me. I love Nicholas Basbane, and read his column regularly in Fine Books and Collections, one of the remaining big glossy magazines in print. A Gentle Madness is a collection of some of those, from back before I discovered the magazine, so I'm looking forward to getting to it.

>11 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks for the information!

Happy new thread and new year, Linda!

Happy New Year, Linda!

>25 mstrust: You're welcome!
>26 jessibud2:, >27 jnwelch: Thank you, Shelley and Joe...thanks for stopping by!

Happy new thread, and

Happy New Year, Linda!

Happy New Year, Linda!I love your topper.

Happy New Year, Linda! Please don't hurt your back holding those books!

Hope you have a great year of reading! Sorry to be so late visiting your thread, but it's taking me a bit of time to catch up from the time I took off over the holidays.

>29 quondame: Thank you, Susan...that's some fiery reading, there!
>30 vancouverdeb: Thanks, Deborah. If I read nothing else, I might get through that stack in 2025! (That is not my intention, I assure you.)
>31 norabelle414: I will try to remember --one at a time! Thanks, Nora.
>32 thornton37814: Oh, not to worry, Lori. Keeping up at the end/beginning of years is nearly impossible. I'm not sure I've found you, yet.

Happy New Year of Reading, Linda. Another year and more good intentions. I mean that for me as I intend to hang out with you more often. We seem to like the same kind of books. Imagine that!

I also pulled out some chunksters from my shelves and hope to read one per quarter. Roots will be up first for Black History Month. I have a bookmark stuck in Prairy Erth from a previous attempt a few years ago. Good luck to both of us!

Hi. Good to visit, using your link from the first round of the All New, Discretely Improved American Author Challenge. Now I have more reading nudges rumbling in my head; just what I need!

Such a wall of chunksters. I've read only the Susanna Clarke, though Les Miserables and A Gentle Madness occupy considerable space on my shelves. My holidays were pretty darn good and I am grateful. Hope yours were as well.

Linda, I vow to follow threads more often this year. I wasn't as active in 2024 as I would have liked. Yours is a thread I will hope to follow, as well as the American Challenge.

Happy New Year!

>34 Donna828: Hi, Donna. Good intentions are important, but so often we just can't stick to 'em.

>35 weird_O: Ah, Bill. Good to see you, however you got here. Don't be a stranger.

>36 Whisper1: I know you had a tough year, Linda, and I'm glad you hope to follow me, and more importantly the AAC, in 2025.

Happy New Year, chum! You have the entire Mantel set in Folio now, you lucky ducky. Wow! I hope you have a glorious reading year and we all get to hear about it. Good health!

Quite impressive stacks of chunksters up top, Linda! Good luck with those. I'm another one who hopes (resolves) to visit more often in 2025.

Happy New Year! I've got a few chunksters on my shelf that I will continue to blissfully ignore until I have more time on my hands...

Hope you have a great reading year!

Happy New Year! I hope it's off to a good start for you.

>38 tiffin: Good to see you here, Tui! I am about 300 pages into the third Wolf Hall book (the only one I will actually have read in the Folio edition). It's a workout just to hold it, at 700+ pages, but it is surely beautiful.

>39 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg. The Canadian contingent is well represented now---I like that!

>40 kaylin_b: Welcome, Kaylin. I imagine your course work dictates your reading most of the time, but trust me, those chunksters will be there when you're ready for them.

>41 cbl_tn: Thanks, Carrie. It will be a while before I can log a finished book in the new year, but the reading is going well.

>40 kaylin_b: & >42 laytonwoman3rd: A good chunkster is a wonderful thing but quite a commitment too.

I believe John Simpson is the King of the clunksters! Good luck in following in his foot steps.

>42 laytonwoman3rd:: I call those "kitchen table reads" because I don't have to hold the book up and can have my cuppa at hand too.

>43 PaulCranswick: I find I've been cheating myself by avoiding the chunksters, because I used to like nothing better than to disappear into a long dont-want-it-to-end story.

>44 Whisper1: I'll have to check and see what John is reading these days.!

>45 tiffin: Well, now, that's a thought. Although it is hard to resist the comfy reading chair (with a side table for that cuppa) and a cat on the lap who occasionally tries to nudge that big "THING" out of the way for better snuggles.

>46 laytonwoman3rd: - I used to like nothing better than to disappear into a long dont-want-it-to-end story.


Me too!! I used to practically salivate at the thought of disappearing into a chunkster (think Michener, Gabaldon, etc). Now, I seem to try to get through the shortest books first because I know I can finish them before I run out of attention span...;-p

>46 laytonwoman3rd:: I haven't had a cat for a few years now, so I wasn't taking that component into consideration.

>46 laytonwoman3rd: One of my cats is protesting right now because I'm on the computer instead of holding him--or letting him sit in my lap. He's welcome to sit in my lap, and I'd probably drop what I'm doing, but he hasn't done that--yet!

>47 jessibud2: I have two Micheners in the stacks...old mass market paperbacks. They may have to come out into the light of day...

>48 tiffin: Ah, well. Doggos distract in other ways. But furry love is always a plus.

>49 thornton37814: If I pick up a book, or my Kindle, a cat usually magically appears from wherever and inserts herself between it and my face.

1. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan I have mixed feelings about this tale of a young boy, enslaved on a sugar plantation in Barbados, "rescued" by his owner's brother to assist with a somewhat ill-advised scientific project, and ultimately freed when slavery was abolished in the British Empire. Traveling with (and later without) his white protector, George Washington Black has multiple improbable adventures from the Caribbean to the frozen wilds of Northern Canada, from London to Morocco. There was magic in the language, but rarely--for me--in the story itself. I just found it all a bit too fantastical, filled with unlikely encounters, Dickensian coincidences and misunderstandings. I never quite felt immersed in the narrative, didn't connect with the characters, and didn't understand what we were meant to make of the ending. A number of "lessons" from a 21st century sensibility were laid out, but I don't think the story itself illustrated those, so much as the author waved them in the reader's face. Ultimately, I think this work was imaginative in a way that simply didn't resonate with me. YMMV, as it certainly garnered a lot of accolades and awards.

2. Grandfather Twilight by Barbara Helen Berger A simply beautiful, beautifully simple tale in few words of how the moon appears in the sky each night. The illustrations are the star here. A perfect bedtime story for the very young.

>51 laytonwoman3rd: I read this in 2019 and don't remember it in detail, but I gave it 4 stars. Here's a snippet from my review:

Some of Wash’s life experiences seemed a bit unrealistic for a young boy, requiring suspension of disbelief, but the adventures aren’t really the point. This tale is much more about identity and family, and the many ways they can be found.

A bit of criticism there, but ultimately positive. *shrug*

>53 lauralkeet: As so often, we seem to end up on the same page, as it were, Laura! I agree about the identity and family themes being important in the book; I don't think they were fully realized. I gave it 3 stars, which doesn't make it a dud, in my rating system. But it doesn't win a resounding recommendation from me, either.

I was going to say almost the exact same thing as Laura at >53 lauralkeet:. I also gave it 4 stars.

>52 laytonwoman3rd: How gorgeous! I love the art as much as the idea.

Happy weekend-ahead's reads.

>55 katiekrug: I keep wondering if I've just read too many things, at this point in my life, and am much too hard to impress. I think if I had read this book 20 years ago, it might have knocked my socks off. I probably didn't judge books as much while reading back then, and of course had close to 2000 fewer examples to compare.

>56 richardderus: And yet (see above) I am still wow'd by such simple images and ideas. So that's good.

3. Small Town Sins by Ken Jaworowski A brutal look at unraveling lives in a small town in Central Pennsylvania. Three main characters, their families and acquaintances, implode in tragedies worthy of Shakespeare. Their misadventures are each told in first person narrative, but even so, I found none of them sympathetic. So many bad decisions, with predictably nasty consequences, with one main exception. A teenage girl doomed by cancer when we meet her, finds a way to celebrate life in one final no-holds-barred push to fulfill a dream. She is not one of the three narrators, but if not for her presence in the story, I could not have finished this. I chose it for the familiar location, and the possibility of discovering a new author (this is a first novel) to follow. Jaworowski has some chops, but he's not doing my kind of stuff here.

>58 laytonwoman3rd:: I think that's a pass for me. Too much like real life these days, eh?

>57 laytonwoman3rd: I love your observations on a mediocre book and a delightful classic. I am also a big fan of Grandfather Twilight.

>59 tiffin: Oh, over and beyond any real life I've experienced, Tui! Drug addiction and that underworld, in its small town version, are prevalent topics, as is the despair of being "different" in a world that rates people based on their outsides more than their insides. But you are absolutely correct that it would not be your cuppa.

>51 laytonwoman3rd: It has been several years since I read Washington Black , but I gave it 4 stars, so I must have liked it. Small Town Sins sounds interesting. I'll keep it mind . I often like gritty books, but of course I need lighter books too.

>62 vancouverdeb: I know a majority of readers enjoyed Washington Black more than I did. It is certainly not a "bad" book, just not one that captured my imagination.

In an interesting coincidence (I should be keeping a log of these), that's two books in a row featuring a character with a facial disfigurement that affects the way they interact with other people.

>63 laytonwoman3rd: Re: facial disfigurement: I think the character I think of most is Rosa Dartle is David Copperfield, who has a long facial scar. The other one is George Vavasor's facial scar in Trollope's Can You Forgive Her?, which changes color when he gets enraged.

duplicate post deleted

>64 kac522: Oh, you're right--- had forgotten about Rosa Dartle. A long time since I last read Copperfield.

I'm coming into the home stretch with my first 2025 chunkster,...page 514 of The Mirror and the Light. Only about 200 pages to go.

>24 laytonwoman3rd: Nicholas Basbanes is one of my favorite nonfiction authors simply because of his choice of subject matter - mostly books about books. I hope you enjoy A Gentle Madness as much as I did.

>51 laytonwoman3rd: I have that one here to read at some point. It looks like it may be waiting a bit longer.

>52 laytonwoman3rd: OK, adding that one to the BlackHole just so that I can look at the pictures. What can I say? I am just a kid at heart.

>58 laytonwoman3rd: Giving that one a pass and hoping that you enjoy your next read more than that one.

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Some genealogical/bookish TV: this week's "Finding Your Roots" features author Amy Tan and poet Rita Dove. Our PBS station has it tonight at 7pm (CST).

>67 alcottacre: Basbanes is good reading...I have dipped in and out of A Gentle Madness over the years.

>68 kac522: Thanks, Kathy. We will be tuning in, as usual. 8pm here in the Eastern time zone.

>52 laytonwoman3rd: Oh, that sounds lovely.

>70 EBT1002: Yes. The kind of little thing I like to pick up and look at when I'm in need of "lovely" as an antidote.

**FANFARE**

4. The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel Weighing in at 740 pages, 4 1/2 pounds (in the Folio Society edition), this chunkster was a challenge to read on more than a literary level. The third installment of Mantel's treatment of Thomas Cromwell's life takes us right up to the moment of his execution---a denouement neither he nor the reader could fail to anticipate. Beginning in the moments after Anne Boleyn's beheading, we wade hip deep through the intrigues of Henry's quest for another wife who could finally produce a viable, legitimate male heir (preferably three or four), against the background of medieval Europe's power struggles. This book, dare I say, was not nearly as much "fun" to read as Wolf Hall or Bring Up the Bodies. There's no lack of wit, and the machinations of Cromwell & Co. are fascinating, if sometimes a bit hard to fathom. The recurring speculations about Henry's reproductive abilities or lack thereof are appropriately ribald. But comparisons between Henry's blame-seeking vengeful transactional style and current personalities on the world stage are impossible to ignore, difficult to contemplate. It ain't ancient history anymore, is it? Still, if you've read 1 and 2, there's no way you should pass this one up. Mantel's ability to transform mountains of mouldering documents (I'm making an assumption, reasonable to my mind) into living breathing actors in a complex drama was a gift that probably would have got her burned at the stake in the 16th century. The Folio edition is exquisite, as expected, with illustrations scattered throughout.

Excellent review, Linda!

>73 lauralkeet: Thanks, Laura. I forget, have you read this one?

>72 laytonwoman3rd: **Round of applause**

>74 laytonwoman3rd: Yes I have, Linda. I rated the book 4.5 stars, absolutely loved it. Your review inspired me to revisit my own review, which opens with a quote and then, "When I received my pre-ordered copy of The Mirror and the Light on the day it was released, I dropped pretty much everything to read it. I’m so glad I did; it was totally worth the 8-year wait"

Your comments about "current personalities on the world stage" also led me to check my reading dates: started March 13 2020, finished March 24 2000. So first of all, the same damn personality on the world stage. And second, how on earth was I able to read -- let alone enjoy -- a book at that precise point in history? I mean, March 13 was the day everything locked down. It must have just been a means of escape.

I passed my copy on to Kate at some point, must see if she's tackled it yet.

>75 norabelle414: Thank you!

>76 lauralkeet: "I dropped pretty much everything to read it." I guess you must have, if you finished it in 10 days or so! It took me most of three weeks. Admittedly, I read other things in there, and I did get somewhat bogged down in the Spain/France/England will-there-be-war parts.

>77 laytonwoman3rd: Well, if you remember we also couldn't go anywhere so one might as well read a long book!

>78 lauralkeet: True! I wonder why I didn't do that? I had the first edition right away too, but didn't plunge in until Santa left that Folio Society volume under the tree.

Please come join @PaulCranswick and the rest of the AAC participants reading American Muslim Authors in February.

5. Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey Former teacher, now celebrated author of a popular book on psychology, Lucy Pym accepts an invitation to lecture at a young women's physical training college run by an old friend she hasn't seen in decades. What was intended to be an overnight visit extends to cover the doings of finals week and the run-up to the year-end demonstration of skills the students have been preparing for all term. As a guest of the college, Miss Pym observes all this with rapidly diminishing objectivity, and finds herself on the horns of one moral dilemma after another. How she rationalizes her own responses to these situations comprises much of the narrative. The reader cannot avoid taking a stand, but will you agree with Miss Pym? I enjoyed this one immensely. I did have one quibble with the plot, as I do not believe a school of this sort would allow one of its students to work out alone in the gymnasium, and if they had not, a critical element of the story could not have happened as it did . Nonetheless, a treat, and I recommend it if this is the kind of thing you like.

>81 laytonwoman3rd: Another one on the TBR I've been meaning to read...glad you enjoyed it. Have you read any other Josephine Tey? I've only read Daughter of Time, which I enjoyed.

>82 kac522: Same here, Kathy. I read Daughter of Time a few years ago. I'm going to actively seek out more of Tey's work.

I liked that one, Linda. I picked it up thinking that the Miss Pym involved would be the author. Nope.

Lynda, When you wrote this in the beginning of your thread after reading Small Town sins responding to Tiffin's comment about the book:

"as is the despair of being "different" in a world that rates people based on their outsides more than their insides.

I re-read your comment over and over. It brought back memories of living in a small town (Bangor, PA) for the first ten years of my life. My parents had a nasty divorce when I was ten. Leaving me with the title of "the only kid in the school whose parents were not together." I understood how it felt to be on the outside (through no fault of my own.)

But, I know that the experience of being treated as an outsider, later in life, made me try not to hurt other people by judging them for things they could not have power to change.

Small town living is difficult, at least it was in the 1950's and '60s. It seemed that everybody knew the things about others lives, and the judgment was hard. And somehow, they forgot that it was a ten year old child who already was hurting and confused. But, their cruelty years later helped me. I know there were instances in my life when I wasn't always nice, but I felt badly and later tried to rectify my slip of the tongue.

In no way am I perfect, but having a nasty small-town experience of ugly cruelty where people were judged by the size of their house, the year of their car, and the clothes they were able to afford to dress their children, cut deeply when too often I cried.

But, there were also nice people who helped us, and I remember that as well. The landlady who knew my mother could not pay the rent, and let us live rent free. The 5th grade teacher who took me aside and told me I was very smart, and not to let others put me down. He told me I should be sure to get a college degree and not waste my brain. He followed that up by telling the class that I read a lot of books, and they might want to see how reading can impact on your life. I was embarrassed, but also very grateful for him.

That same teacher never told me that it was he who paid for my ability to have lunch every day in the cafeteria. Later, when I asked the cafeteria worker why I didn't have to pay, she told me there were angels in the world, and one of them taught the 5th grade!!

In closing, I'll say that your comment was beautiful, insightful and so lovely! Thank you!!

>72 laytonwoman3rd: I read all of the Wolf Hall books. For a long time, most of my reading was about Henry VIII and his wives. I was obsessed with Anne Boleyn and still have many books about her. I checked and found that I own The Mirror and the Light. I own a copy...now I need to find where it is in this house where the basement, and first and second floors are filled with books.

Sweet Thursday, Linda. I also liked The Mirror and the Light but the first 2 are on a whole different level for me. They were an absolute triumph of storytelling. The Folio edition does sound lovely.

>84 tiffin: I think I wondered that myself when I first heard of Miss Pym, Tui.

>85 Whisper1: I'm glad you could take a positive gift from a difficult situation, Linda. There are so many examples of a sensitive teacher making a great difference in a child's life. I have mostly very good memories of growing up in a small town, but looking back I can certainly see how some of its inhabitants may not have been treated kindly or fairly by the "better class of citizens".
>86 Whisper1: Finding that certain book I just KNOW is "here somewhere" occupies a lot of my time!

>87 msf59: Hi, Mark! Yes, I gobbled up the first two Wolf Hall books, and this one took some work. Nothing like what Mantel must have put into the writing....that is a true marvel.

>72 laytonwoman3rd: Yay for finishing that chunkster!



Dodging that BB as I have already read it - although not in the fancy Folio version :)

>81 laytonwoman3rd: It has been years since I read that one! High time I did a re-read.

>89 alcottacre: I feel pretty chuffed about finishing The Mirror and the Light...thanks, Stasia!

>90 laytonwoman3rd: I do not blame you at all!

6. All That I Have by Castle Freeman, Jr A very perceptive LT friend introduced me to Freeman over a decade ago, and although I stocked up on his titles, I only read one collection of his short stories. I loved that, so why has this one and another short novel remained tucked away all this time? I cannot say. But I am thrilled to have pulled it out yesterday and I blazed through it. As in Round Mountain, the main character here is a Vermont Sheriff, as he says, of a county comprised of "seventeen towns with no people". He never carries a sidearm, doesn't drive the county's cruiser around most of the time, and doesn't wear a uniform. He views his job as more social work than law enforcement, and he keeps getting re-elected without opposition. You gotta love him. But is he up to the job when the local perennial "bad boy" gets tangled up with some very dangerous Russian mob characters? His deputy doesn't think so---he thinks the "old guy" has had his day, and more modern techniques are called for. He is downright disrespectful, and probably is ignoring more orders than he follows. There's plenty of wit and humor here, plenty of common sense overcoming high-falutin' ideas, but don't mistake Sheriff Wing for Andy Taylor. He knows there comes a time when the "last resort" may have to be called upon.

7. A Widow's Curse by Phillip DePoy Usually, I love DePoy's outings with his somewhat bizarre protagonists, Foggy Moskowitz and Fever Devilin, in their separate series. I like Foggy a bit better than Fever, on the whole. But Fever's Appalachian setting and his folklore research are an automatic draw for me. This particular entry in his escapades was a bit of an unedited muddle, I felt. Too many repetitions as characters get filled in on details the reader has already learned; too much back story/family history that fails to get fully tied in to the central mystery (I STILL don't quite understand the motivation of the killer); overuse of the "I swore I would never tell"; "these people keep their secrets" and "Oh my god how did I never know this before" elements. Parts of it tore along, and other parts suffered serious pacing issues. The dialog needed work, AND there were multiple errors a proofreader shoulda woulda caught. I don't know where this leaves me as far as reading any more of the Devilin series. I really enjoyed the first three, so I will probably return after a reasonable interval and give him another chance.

>72 laytonwoman3rd: I am deeply impressed. Your fortitude and perseverance are exemplary.

I will never read it, but you told me all I needed to know about the reading experience. I've read my first five-star read of 2025, so that's a good thing. I'll post the review tomorrow. Stay warm!

>94 richardderus: Thanks, Richard. It did take a bit of perseverance. Looking forward to seeing what rang your bell already.

>80 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks for the plug, Linda!!

Actually I read a book of short stories by Daniyal Mueenuddin which absolutely blew me away so my hosting has been beneficial already in a slefish sense.

>96 PaulCranswick: I have just begun reading that Mueenuddin collection, Paul. So far, excellent indeed.

8. The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig
I came across this little paperback while trying to consolidate boxes and crates of books from my daughter's youth, several of which are still in her old bedroom closet. It called to me, and I'm glad. This is the reminiscence of a woman who spent nearly 5 years of her adolescence, 1941 to 1946, in exile in Siberia with her family, who the Russian government had declared to be "capitalist enemies of the people". They were Polish Jews who operated a "family business", the nature of which she does not specify. Before the war, their lifestyle in the city of Vilna was comfortable, but far from extravagant. After Hitler invaded Poland the Soviets rounded up thousands of Poles, and sent them off in cattle cars to mines and work camps in the Siberian steppes. The journey itself was an unimaginable ordeal; old women and children then being forced to work in gypsum mines a brutality; the vicious weather, the lack of decent food, housing or clothing all combined to make it unimaginable that many would survive. And yet Esther’s immediate family –mother, father and grandmother--did have a future together after the war. Being sent to Siberia was not equivalent to being sent to a Nazi concentration camp, as extermination was not an integral part of the overall plan. But comparing two such evils is futile. Looking back on the experience from an adult perspective, Esther has clearly filtered some of the horror out of her recollections by focusing on the strength, resourcefulness and optimism of her mother in particular, and on random moments of satisfaction and acts of kindness that made life bearable under such circumstances. Recommended.

9. The Ghostway by Tony Hillerman Driven by a romance that seems to require someone to adopt new ways, Chee once again wrestles with the choice between joining the FBI and sticking with the Tribal Police...ultimately a choice between two cultures. A missing teenager, a shoot-out on the street in broad daylight, a not-quite-right death hogan, and a boss who doesn't want Chee using his own initiative give him plenty of other things to think about. A very good entry in this series.

Linda, I have to say that the AAC is being really kind to me this month. After loving every minute of Daniyal Mueenuddin's book, I am now wallowing in the story of Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson.

Have a splendid weekend.

>81 laytonwoman3rd: One of my favorite Josephine Tey novels!

>99 laytonwoman3rd: I binge-watched the first two seasons of Dark Winds, a TV series based on the Leaphorn and Chee novels while I was down with a cold the last half of last week. I think season 3 is supposed to be out later this year.

>101 cbl_tn: Oh, that's exciting! I didn't realize there was going to be another season of Dark Winds. We absolutely loved that show. I just looked it up, and Season 3 begins on March 9th. Thanks, Carrie!

>100 PaulCranswick: I'm reading the short story collection a bit at a time, in between other things. I rarely read short stories back-to-back. So it may last me the month. Although I have a couple other things for the AAC I'd really like to get to.

>101 cbl_tn: >102 laytonwoman3rd: I, too, am thrilled to be anticipating a new Dark Winds season! Great show, terrific actors!

Karen O

>101 cbl_tn:, >102 laytonwoman3rd:, >103 klobrien2: Unfortunately, I see the new season of Dark Winds will not be available on Netflix, where the first two were...it will only be on AMC. We may have to wait until the whole series drops, and then take a free trial and binge it. Don't really want another subscription service...

>104 laytonwoman3rd: I watched seasons 1-2 on Acorn TV. Apparently Acorn is owned by AMC.

>105 cbl_tn: Interesting...we do have an Acorn subscription through Amazon Prime. And now that I look at my lists I see that it was through Prime that we watched the first 2 seasons. Fingers crossed.

Hi, Linda. I have also enjoyed a couple of books by Castle Freeman, Jr so I will add All That I Have to the TBR. I loved Round Mountain.

10. White Nights by Ann Cleeves Blazed through this second installment in the Shetland series. I got a little impatient with Jimmy agonizing over his love life, but that may just be because the last book I read contained a very similar element. The mysterious strangers, the unexplained disappearances, the sudden deaths, and the tangling of past and present relationships made this a very absorbing read. I have to say I didn't quite see how the detective came to his conclusion, but it did all fit nicely in the end. (I confess to having suspected another individual entirely.)

From Timothy Snyder: "Do not obey in advance.

Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do."

>109 laytonwoman3rd:: This. Absolutely. 1933 Germany case in point.

>72 laytonwoman3rd: one of my retirement reading plans has been to reread the first two and then dig into The Mirror and the Light but I've dragged my feet because of the echoes of today's political reality. Still, it sounds worthwhile. I loved Wolf Hall, especially.

>109 laytonwoman3rd: YES!!!!!

>11 laytonwoman3rd: I did find Henry rougher going than I used to, Ellen, because i kept picturing him with the Big D's face...

11. Iron lake by William Kent Krueger I've finally made the acquaintance of Cork O'Connor, and found him interesting, if not the stuff of heroes. In this initial installment of the series, O'Connor is an ex-sheriff, acting outside the law much of the time, and stirring up some pretty evil shit. Dead bodies seem to turn up just before he comes on the scene, and "natural causes" never describes the situation. But is there a supernatural element to what's going on in the town of Aurora and the deep woods surrounding Iron Lake? Reminiscent of the Longmire series in setting and characters, the novel features members of the Anishinaabe people, Indian casinos and the seemingly inevitable corruption associated with big pots of cash, and winter---always winter. No upright lawmen in this one, however, and Cork is in no way as indestructible as Longmire. When he's beaten, he falls; he hurts; he is impeded by injuries; his strength is NOT as the strength of ten; and his judgment isn't all that great either. He makes the same mistakes over and over. While these attributes don't make me love him, they do make him a slightly more realistic protagonist than Walt (who, btw, I do love), and one whose further adventures I will follow for a while, at least.

>113 laytonwoman3rd: Your reaction is pretty much the same as mine!

>114 cbl_tn: Well, as you may know, Carrie, it was your recent review that nudged me to read Iron Lake just now...although it had been on my TBR list for some time. Great minds, etc.!

12. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini This is one of those books I avoided when it was being talked about everywhere because...well, because it was being talked about everywhere. I'm just so skeptical of things EVERYONE is reading and hyping. For this month's American Authors Challenge, however, I decided to at least try it. I am glad to have read it; I mostly admire the way it was written, although I have a couple quibbles which I will mention later. Since it has been so widely reviewed, I won't go into the story line here (although I must say I knew very little about it other than its setting when I finally picked it up). It's powerful, often brutal, stuff -- especially disheartening to read at this point in time, knowing what has happened in Afghanistan in the two decades since the book was written, because for a while there seemed to be grounds for hope for a brighter future for that troubled country. Two things bothered me about this novel. First, I simply could not see the narrator as a sympathetic protagonist, no matter how honestly he portrayed his own failings and desire to overcome them. He repeatedly displayed a lack of empathy for people he purported to love, and so often did the wrong thing in the circumstances, even when trying to atone for his past. Forgivable in the child, much less so in the man who should have learned a few things from life. Second, I was put off by the "poetic justice" of the climactic events. Just too perfectly coincidental, too obviously authorial...not like reality at all. I can't say this was an enjoyable reading experience, but as a representation of what life is like in a country where fanatics rule, it feels essential, somehow.

>116 laytonwoman3rd: I read this during the hype period, and from the looks of things it was shortly before I joined LT. I added it to my library as a book I read that year (2006) with a 5-star rating but alas, no review. And yet I could see how the 5 stars might have been influenced by the hype and I would feel differently if I read it now. These days I'm a little more guarded about reading a book that's "all the rage."

>98 laytonwoman3rd: I need to read that one. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Linda. I will have to see if I can track down a copy.

>113 laytonwoman3rd: For some reason I have never made it beyond book 1 in that series - and I have read it twice. I really need to get back to it at some point. I do not own it though and am concentrating on reading the series that I do actually own :)

>116 laytonwoman3rd: Dodging that BB as I have already read that one.

Have a fantastic Friday, Linda!

>117 lauralkeet: I wonder if I would have reacted more positively to it if I had read it 20 years ago...it does end on a marginally positive note, which we now know to have been false, and I think that colors my response.

>118 alcottacre: I hope you can find a copy of The Endless Steppe, Stasia. I think you'll appreciate it. If this wasn't my daughter's book, or if she hadn't said she wants to re-read it now, I'd send it to you.

13. City of Saints by Andrew Hunt A murder mystery set in Salt Lake City in 1930, this is a fictionalized account of a long-forgotten unsolved murder. As the author points out in a note at the end, there simply wasn't enough primary source material to write a non-fiction account of what was a sensational crime in its day, so he used the puzzling murder of a wealthy doctor's wife as the basis for this story, told from the point of view of a Sheriff's deputy involved in the investigation. Arthur Oveson is a Mormon, the youngest of a family of lawmen who hold him in low regard for his seeming lack of ambition. He is partnered with a potty-mouthed irreverent deputy named Roscoe, who razzes him for his piety and calls him a choirboy, but deep down respects him for his integrity and determination. Although lauded and promoted for "solving" the socialite's murder, Art himself doesn't believe his own PR, and against orders continues to dig into the victim's life and associations until he gets down to the truth. A few first-in-a-series deficiencies, but a fine read, just the same.

Linda, here is the link to the March AAC thread. You ready for some O'Nan!?!?!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/368785

>121 katiekrug: Yeah! I just posted on Laura's thread that I have Henry, Himself on hold at the library, and expect it to come through before the end of the week, just in time for March.

14. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin A collection of loosely linked short stories set in more-or-less present day Pakistan. Highly illustrative of life in the decaying feudal system as younger members of well-placed families feel the pull of the wider world, and begin to reject the rigid social and familial structures of past generations. I found the interpersonal relationships very unsettling in most of these stories...so little real communication, or true affection, and despite many references to the contrary in reviews and blurbs, no lightness or humor that I could detect. I feel I learned quite a lot about this society, without coming to understand it very well. Some of this is down to my lack of enthusiasm for short fiction in general---I just get acquainted with characters and their situations when I have to leave them behind. And endings are so often abrupt, or ambiguous. Still, the writing here is outstanding, even brilliant at times. And if you have a better relationship with the short form than I do, by all means add this collection to your list.

>108 laytonwoman3rd: I finished Raven Black a few days ago, and started White Nights. I lost the thread of the group reading this series. I've spent a lot of time trying to find it, and simply gave up. I liked the way in which the author described the Shetland Island. At times, I grew a bit weary with all the work put into character development.

The root canal still is bothersome. I went to the dentist who did the work on the tooth. He could not find a reason for the pain and wants me to see a specialist. ugh!

Here’s a link to the Shetland thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/368081#n8771626

I am getting into Raven Black more…

Karen O

>124 Whisper1: I'm sorry you're still having pain from the root canal. My husband had one years ago, and as I recall he was uncomfortable for quite a while afterward. Sometimes, I think, the nerves get irritated and it takes time for them to calm down. I hope yours do it SOON.
Better drop a star on Karen's link in >125 klobrien2: !

>125 klobrien2: Thanks for posting the link here, Karen.

>125 klobrien2: Thanks for the link Karen.
>126 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks for telling me that you husband had uncomfortableness after his root canal.

15. A Finer End by Deborah Crombie No. 7 for Duncan Kincaid and Emma James. Duncan's cousin calls him to Glastonbury to help sort out some supernatural shenanigans. Naturally, he asks Gemma (recently promoted to Inspector, so no longer working at his side) to go along for a holiday. Of course, a holiday is not what they get, as something wicked has beat them to the Tor. Sorry to say this one just didn't work well for me. I don't know if Crombie was trying to be Anya Seton or Dan Brown, but the combination of new age practices, serious research into Grail lore, and otherwise ordinary people receiving messages from long- and not-so-long-dead souls felt bolloxed up and garbled in transmission. Way too much obsessions, irrationality and unclear thinking, as well as too many red herrings. I can enjoy this kind of thing in its Midsomer Murders tongue-in-cheek versions, but imposing it on a couple of Scotland Yard detectives I've come to know as well-grounded through six previous novels was a fail.

>128 laytonwoman3rd: I've only read 3 books in this series so far, so I might not remember your comments by the time I get there but that does sound like a depoarture from what makes this series so good.

>128 laytonwoman3rd: - That was definitely not one of my favorites in the series...

>129 lauralkeet: Hmm...I thought you'd read further, Laura. I'd say jump over this one, but there is some relationship development stuff that must matter later on, so...

>130 katiekrug: It seems to be a fairly common reaction in the reviews, Katie. I'm glad I didn't read any of them before I tackled this one. And in going back over my own reviews, I see I've had quibbles with the author in every book since No. 4. If I didn't enjoy the characters so much I might say I have better things to do with my reading time. I think I will give it one more title before deciding.

>131 laytonwoman3rd: jump over?! Noooo! My inner completist won't allow that. I'll just consider myself forewarned.

>132 lauralkeet: I could have guessed that!

16. Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson Just beautiful...a narrative told in a series of poems by boy who lost his parents in a tragic fire, then was separated from his little sister as they went into foster care. Sounds dreadful, and it is heartbreaking, but we can bear it because Lonnie's poet's soul is nurtured (mostly) by the adults in his life, because his grief never turns bitter, because we are better for having met him and heard his story. Brilliantly done.

>134 laytonwoman3rd: I do love Woodson's writing. She has never disappointed me. Enjoyed your review!

>134 laytonwoman3rd: Linda, I've read almost all of Jacqueline Woodson's works. Your review captures the way in which she writes. Thanks for your excellent review!!

>135 richardderus:, >136 Whisper1: Thanks, Richard and Linda. I just really want to believe Lonnie was gonna turn out OK.

17. Wish You Were Here by Stewart O'Nan An AAC selection. I've enjoyed O'Nan's work in the past (Last Night at the Lobster, The Night Country), and this hefty novel demonstrates many of the reasons why. The setting is familiar, and irresistible to me. There are multiple viewpoints in this story of an extended family's last summer vacation in their cottage on Lake Chatauqua: Arlene, an unmarried school teacher whose one and only love affair was decades ago and doomed; her sister-in-law, Emily, a fairly recent widow who owns the cottage and has decided she must sell it; Emily's daughter Meg and her two children, and son Ken with his wife and two children. Taking on the viewpoints of two aging women, a recovering alcoholic in the throes of divorce, a lost little boy in a grown man's body, his dissatisfied self-doubting wife, two teenage girls and two adolescent boys is beyond ambitious. Yet O'Nan nails every one of them. Within a paragraph or two, the reader knows these people, recognizes their faults, identifies with some aspect of someone's personality. They are all consumed with their own problems, many of them of their own making, and no one is really having much fun. A cloud hangs over everything--impending divorce, financial difficulties, grief, teen-aged crushes, Loss with a CAPITAL L. Two solid days of deluge do nothing to improve the situation. No one communicates well, the adults ride the children ceaselessly for things that ought to be overlooked on vacation fer cryin' out loud, Ken and Meg get high in the garage like guilty teenagers, the kids predictably act out because of course they know things aren't right AT ALL. As brilliantly as O' Nan renders all of this, I confess that 500+ pages of it got to be a bit much. I couldn't scare up much sympathy for any of the characters (except sometimes the children...living in a chaos not of their own making...but I didn't like any of them either), and I kept hoping for a little breakthrough of sanity, understanding or compassion somewhere. But no, self-absorbed they all remained. Even Emily's final generous offer to help her daughter came across as furtive and unfair. I am not at all put off from reading more of O'Nan, and I do want to get to Henry, Himself and see what that perspective might add, but I don't think I'm going to visit Emily, Alone any time soon. I feel I've had enough of her for...maybe always.

>138 laytonwoman3rd: - That's a great review, Linda. I gave it 4 stars and also found it overly long. I will say that Emily, Alone was a 5 star read for me and made her a fully-realized, more empathetic figure, though not always a likeable one.

>138 laytonwoman3rd: seconding Katie: great review! I gave 4 stars to both Wish you Were Here and Emily, Alone. And I think I liked Emily more than you did, Linda, I think because everyone was flawed so even though she's kind of the main character she's just as messed up as the rest of 'em.

>139 katiekrug:, >140 lauralkeet: Part of my problem with Emily is that she reminds me of someone I know quite well. And people who know ME might surmise of whom I speak.

lol I admit Wish You Were Here reminded me of a particularly epic family vacation that was rife with conflict.

>142 lauralkeet: Ouch!

18. Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century by Peter Graham This book has been on my shelves for a while...I remember putting it on my wishlist after hearing somewhere on LT about the fact that author Anne Perry had been involved in murdering a friend's mother when she was a teenager. I wasn't a fan of Perry's Victorian mystery series, but the real-life situation intrigued me. Our marvelous admin, @drneutron, sent the book to me in a Christmas swap a couple years back. It floated up to the top of my attention pool recently when @flamingrabbit was reading about Peter Jackson's movies, and came across Heavenly Creatures, Jackson's fictionalized version of the infamous New Zealand crime. It was a quick read, somewhat repetitive with its facts, but overall quite interesting. The author went to some trouble to distinguish what is known now about sexuality, mental health, and child development from what was believed in the mid-twentieth century; and to discuss changes in treatment as well as general attitudes toward these aspects of humanity.

>144 laytonwoman3rd: I was never a fan of hers, either, Linda3rd. I think something in her writing just...doesn't vibe right. An interesting read indeed.

>144 laytonwoman3rd: I learned this about Anne Perry some years ago, that Heavenly Creatures was her story, and it creeped me out. I had enjoyed several of her early mysteries before that but there was no way I could read any more after learning her history. I have this vague memory of author Ian Rankin confronting her about this. Then not long after I learned this she came to speak at our local library about a new book etc. I couldn't go to it even tho I sort of wanted to. In truth tho I am glad that she was still able to have a life. I can't judge most teenagers as adults.

>134 laytonwoman3rd: I really need to get to Woodson, I certainly have one of her books.

>145 richardderus: It's been so long since I read any of Perry's work that I can't recall why it didn't work for me. I just remember not being engaged with it.
>146 RBeffa: It was topic of conversation on the threads here at some point in the last 20 years, Ron, and that's how I learned about it. I don't recall just when, but I know I felt glad that I wasn't a big fan of her books.
>147 Caroline_McElwee: I hope you like Woodson when you make her acquaintance, Caroline.

>116 laytonwoman3rd: I have the on my shelf for ages. I also avoided reading it but perhaps now is the right time to start it.

Hope you are having a good week so far

>149 figsfromthistle: Glad to see you here, Anita. This is a week of accomplishments on the home front, and that's a good thing. Tomorrow should be low key...good for reading!

19. Warlight by Michael Ondaatje Wonderful exploration of memory, imagination and awareness. The narrator ponders the events of his adolescence just after the end of WWII, when both parents left their home in London on "business", leaving 14-year-old Nathaniel and his older sister Rachel in the care of a man who had been lodging in their home. "The Moth", as the children referred to him, got up to mysterious business himself, sometimes involving Nathaniel and Rachel without their full understanding. When Nathaniel discovers that the steamer trunk he watched his mother pack so carefully is hidden in the basement, everything he thinks he knows is called into question. Clearly Mother did not fly off to join Father who had been assigned to one of Unilever's overseas offices. The Moth assures him his mother is fine, but will not tell him where she is. Gradually, through various interactions and inquiries, including a job in the national archives where he is meant to assist in scrubbing evidence of such things, the adult Nathaniel pieces together a picture of his mother’s clandestine post-war activities, and begins to understand the part he and Rachel unwittingly played in some of them. A marvelous twisty tale.

>120 laytonwoman3rd: Oo, I can get that one through Hoopla. I will have to check it out sometime!

>123 laytonwoman3rd: Already read that one so I am dodging that particular BB.

>128 laytonwoman3rd: One of these days I will get around to that series!

>134 laytonwoman3rd: As I am a Jacqueline Woodson fan, I will have to read that one!

>138 laytonwoman3rd: I was disappointed in that book but, on the other hand, I loved Henry, Himself and Emily, Alone.

>144 laytonwoman3rd: Adding that one to the BlackHole although I was aware of the murder case long ago. Still, the book sounds like interesting reading.

>151 laytonwoman3rd: Already in the BlackHole or I would be adding it again!

I hope you are having a wonderful Wednesday, Linda!

>151 laytonwoman3rd: This one sounds terrific. A friend just dropped off 8 books for me today but I may have to go with Library Libby for this one first!

>152 alcottacre:, >153 RBeffa: Looks like my BB's found their mark!

I've taken a hit. Warlight. Your words make me want to read it. I've got a selection of Ondaatje novels, I think I've only read The English Patient, which required two reads for me to grasp.

Emily, Alone is an O'Nan story I read and liked, though I admit to having no memory of the plot. Henry, Himself awaits my attention.

>155 weird_O: I had the impulse to turn back to the first page and re-read Warlight too. I think it would benefit from a second visit, now that I know how it all fits together. I don't mind that in a book, sometimes.

>156 laytonwoman3rd: I'm listening to the library audiobook of Warlight. The narrator is excellent. My problem with audiobooks in general is that I can't page back to re-read stuff. Oh I can bounce around but a book is ten times easier that way. So I went to the library yesterday and got the physical book. I will "read" this twice.

>157 RBeffa: That's the way to do it! I can listen to straight-forward non-fiction stuff (David McCullough's books always worked well in audio for me), but I need the words-on-the-page version for most fiction.

>151 laytonwoman3rd: I really liked this one too Linda.

20. The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green A collection of "essays on a human-centered planet", at least partly gleaned from the author's podcasts, in which he discusses and gives star-ratings to a wide range of human "contributions" and experiences, from Diet Dr. Pepper to Piggly Wiggly supermarkets, with special appearances by the Canada Goose and Halley's comet. Fun, funny and sometimes thought-provoking. Recommended to all humans.

Here is the Appalachian Authors Thread for April's AAC. Apologies for its lateness.

21. The Coal Tattoo by Silas House. For the AAC.
The last, in publication order, of House's Appalachian trilogy, the action in this novel takes place in the late 1960s, in Kentucky coal country, as the failing industry is beginning to take advantage of "broad form deeds" in which mineral rights were sold for a song generations back. Two sisters, Easter and Anneth Sizemore, have struggled to craft lives without parents since they were teenagers. Their family home is a source of stability for both of them, though they are very different women with nearly incompatible views on what they want from life. Easter, who has taken responsibility for her younger sister all their lives, seems prematurely middle-aged in her mid-twenties, partly for being in loco parentis to a hell-raising teenager, and partly for her devotion to her Pentecostal church. Anneth, on the other hand, wants Life, with a capital "L", and rambunctiously makes one mistake after another, while clinging to her home, her faith, and her sister through it all. Having read Clay's Quilt previously made my reaction to the ending of this one quite different, I think, than it would have been if I had read the books in chronological order. I puzzle over House's decision to write them "inside out", as it were...but maybe he did not set out to do it that way. I think, now that all three exist, I would recommend starting with the earliest story, A Parchment of Leaves, and saving Clay's Quilt for last. But DO read them.

In line with the Appalachias theme for this month's AAC, I am also enjoying the photographs in Bart Smith's The Appalachian Trail: Hiking the People's Path, which I found by chance on the New Non-Fiction shelf of my library last week. It has virtually no text, so I am not giving it a number in my list. I recommend it to you, if you should be lucky enough to come across it. The photos are stunning.

22. Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson As an introductory post on his specialty bookshop's blog, Malcolm Kershaw put forth a list of what he considered the "best" murders in crime fiction--those most carefully plotted to be unsolvable, or to successfully misdirect investigators. Among the authors featured on that list were Patricia Highsmith, Agatha Christie, and A. A. Milne. Years later, Malcolm is visited by an FBI agent seeking his assistance in sorting out a series of seemingly unrelated deaths that just might be someone's attempt to re-create, in philosophy if not in detail, murders from the books on that list. Not another word shall I offer on the subject matter or storyline here, but I will say this was great fun to romp through for this mystery reader.

Warlight has turned out to be my favorite read so far this year. Talk about a bunch of tangles that mostly get woven together in very unexpected ways ... the more I think about the book the more I like it.

Oh my goodness, Linda. There's no way I can catch up. You read so much that I want to and haven't........ I think Warlight is the only thing in your reviews that I've read. I've been hoarding *Mirror/Light* so long that I almost think I need to read the first two again before picking it up. That's a bit discouraging.
Oh! *Miss Pym* I read long ago. Brat Farrar is the only Tey that I've reread more than once, but I do like her.

I'll try not to be so far behind. *sigh*

>164 RBeffa: Isn't it great when a book sticks with you and keeps you thinking after you've turned the last page?

>165 LizzieD: I re-read Wolf Hall when Bring Up the Bodies came out. Then I listened to the audio of WH and re-read BUB before The Mirror and the Light came out...and then I didn't read the M & L for years, although I had a copy the week it was published. I think reading the entire trilogy as a "unit" would be a treat....go for it!

>163 laytonwoman3rd: I own that one and really need to get it read as it sounds like one I would greatly enjoy. Thanks for the reminder, Linda!

BTW - I am starting on Mountain Path today. I will be curious to see if I enjoy Arnow's work since she is not an author that I have ever read.

>167 alcottacre: I hope Mountain Path lands well with you, Stasia. I don't know that one.

23. Appalachia in the Sixties by Davis S. Walls I found this at a yard sale ages ago, but I don't think I even cracked the cover until this month, when I decided it was good companion reading to the Appalachian author theme. These are academic and journalistic essays on various topics relating to life in Appalachia, most of them at least peripherally concerned with mining practices and government programs. Some are so specific to their time as to be fairly meaningless now, but others are disturbingly pertinent sixty years on. The entire thing is accessible here https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/232571737.pdf, should anyone wish to sample.

Cruising by -------- Hi, Linda. Read on, my friend, read on!

24. Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz
A psychological mystery that worked pretty well for me until the end, when it sort of fell flat. I mean, lots of secrets came to light in tantalizing fashion as the story progressed, but the "big reveal" of "What actually happened that night" wasn't so much, because by then we more or less knew the broad strokes. Still, an enjoyable escape with some interesting characters.

>170 LizzieD: Hi, Peggy! I certain mean to keep my nose between the pages as much as possible.

I need to start a new thread....maybe later this afternoon...

ETA: I did it...just follow the little continuation thingie, down below.

>163 laytonwoman3rd: I found a paperback of Eight Perfect Murders yesterday and put it on my "read this year" stack/shelf!

>174 RBeffa: Oh, good! I hope you enjoy it when you pull it to the top.