Chatterbox Launches Into 2025 With New Resolution(s)!

No poems this year, just a random thoughts that tie into some of my personal resolutions...

From Goethe:

" 'One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words."

Here I am yet again, even though I did almost no posting (except to keep track of my reading) and (by my standards) less reading that I had hoped to in 2024. Joined this group in 2010; blink and suddenly it's 2025?! Would whoever has their foot on the fast forward pedal kindly remove it, pronto?

My name is Suzanne; I live in Rhode Island with two cats (Sir Fergus the Fat, although he's not as fat as he used to be, and Minka the minx, a jet black velveteen prima donna) and lots of books. Far too many books. Happily, I have achieved my goal of possessing more books than I can possibly read in whatever years remain to me, even at my pace.

This past year brought a lot of new and unexpected changes, but I'm hoping that by the time I welcome 2026, I'll still feel as upbeat and positive as I do now. Last year, I made the leap from having a three-month gig at Reuters covering ETFs to, by January, having my contract extended to the whole of 2024. And now, as of December 16, I'm a full-time Reuters employee, with health care and all kinds of other benefits. Still a bit in shock but quite pleased. Of course, on December 17, my editor resigned to join Bloomberg, which does NOT make me happy, but I'll survive. But I really enjoy my team, they appreciate me (or at least my longevity doing this kind of financial markets reporting, which I started in 1988 at the Wall Street Journal in Canada).

I celebrated the news of the permanent job by taking my first paid vacation in more than 20 years; went to London for a week and saw some great museum/gallery exhibits (Silk Road at the BM; the Moghuls at the V&A, drawings by Michelangelo, Leonardo & Raphael at the Royal Academy), did a little bit of bookshopping, listened to some great music, went to the theater, caught a REALLY bad cold and came home!

The other big change is that my erstwhile landlord and his family sold the house I live; he took a new job in DC about a year ago and they opted to cut ties with Rhode Island. Amusingly, the new owner is the author of a book about the Franklin Expedition to the Canadian Arctic that I had read just days before he showed up to see the house. So I get along like a house on fire with him, his wife and his 20-something son. One of the two Labs is coming around, since I give her lots of head scratches; the other clearly believes I'm demonic.

Cats are fine; Minka persists in treating me as her personal, portable heating device and using her "velcro claws" to drape herself around my neck. Sir Fergus persists in hissing at Minka. Situation normal.

Having a demanding full-time job has eaten into my reading -- for the first time in at least a decade I fell well short of my target of 401 books (or at least 365... one daily). It's looking as if the 2024 total will be about 340. You can see how I do by checking the lists below or searching my library for the "Read in 2025" tag.

Bracing myself for a new year of reading, a new(ish) job, a new(ish) president (sigh). And some old new resolutions -- see Goethe's comments in post #1. Oh, and the art? That's a seasonally appropriate image from Lawren Harris, a Canadian artist and member of the Group of Seven.

Happy reading to all!

Here's my current reading list...

This is where you can find an ongoing list of what I'm reading. I always read far more than 75 books; this year, as before, I'll set my target at 401 books. In 2023, the total fell significantly to 371, thanks ot the new job, so I can't mourn too much. Also, vision problems (and trying to adjust to relying on glasses) is imposing new constraints. As long as I find a lot of enjoyable tomes, the quantity is less important. My reading each year always includes re-reads of some old faves (marked by an asterisk on the list).

To see what I have been reading in real time, your best bet is to go to my library on LT, and look at the dedicated collection I've established there, under the label "Books Read in 2024". As I complete a book, I'll rate it and add it to the list. I'll also tag it, "Read in 2024". You'll be able to see it by either searching under that tag, or clicking on https://www.librarything.com/catalog/Chatterbox/booksreadin2024.

I do have some reading objectives, noted under a variety of categories in subsequent posts, below. I am very sure that I'll fall well short of completing these, as new books or book bullets distract me!

Here's a quick guide to my star ratings, which are very definitely personal and idiosyncratic.

My guide to my ratings:

1.5 or less: A tree gave its life so that this book could be printed and distributed?
1.5 to 2.7: Are you really prepared to give up hours of your life for this?? I wouldn't recommend doing so...
2.8 to 3.3: Do you need something to fill in some time waiting to see the dentist? Either reasonably good within a ho-hum genre (chick lit or thrillers), something that's OK to read when you've nothing else with you, or that you'll find adequate to pass the time and forget later on.
3.4 to 3.8: Want to know what a thumping good read is like, or a book that has a fascinating premise, but doesn't quite deliver? This is where you'll find 'em.
3.9 to 4.4: So, you want a hearty endorsement? These books have what it takes to make me happy I read them.
4.5 to 5: The books that I wish I hadn't read yet, so I could experience the joy of discovering them again for the first time. Sometimes disquieting, sometimes sentimental faves, sometimes dramatic, sometimes so astonishingly well-written that they make me swoon. Always transformative and memorable

The January List:

1. Patriot by Alexei Navalny (finished 1/1/25) 5 stars (mostly A)
2. The Throne by Franco Bernini (finished 1/1/25) 4.3 stars
3. Looking for You by Alexander McCall Smith (finished 1/2/25) 3.45 stars
4. Foster by Claire Keegan (finished 1/2/25) 4.15 stars
5. Manhunt by James L. Swanson (finished 1/4/25) 3.9 stars (A)
6. Murder in Constantinople by A.E. Goldin (finished 1/6/25) 3.1 stars
7. A Northern Light in Provence by Elisabeth Birkelund (finished 1/7/25) 3.35 stars
8. Fierce Ambition: The Life and Legend of War Correspondent Maggie Higgins by Jennet Conant (finished 1/7/25) 4.1 stars
9. *They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie (finished 1/8/25) 3.8 stars (A)
10. *Farthing by Jo Walton (finished 1/9/25) 4.1 stars (mostly A)
11. The Rushworth Family Plot by Claudia Gray (finished 1/10/25) 4.15 stars
12. With One Lousy Free Packet of Seed by Lynne Truss (finished 1/11/25) 3.85 stars
13. The Doorman by Chris Pavone (finished 1/12/25) 4.1 stars
14. *Devil Water by Anya Seton (finished 1/14/25) 3.9 stars (A)
15. The Mosquito Bowl by Buzz Bissinger (finished 1/15/25) 3.8 stars
16. Pro Bono by Thomas Perry (finished 1/16/25) 3.8 stars (partly A)
17. The Map of Salt and Stars by Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar (finished 1/17/25) 3.4 stars
18. *Ha'Penny by Jo Walton (finished 1/18/25) 4 stars (A)
19. Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent (finished 1/19/25) 4.35 stars
20. Grave Danger by James Grippando (finished 1/20/25) 4.15 stars
21. The Thinking Heart by David Grossman (finished 1/20/25) 4.7 stars
22. Murder Crossed Her Mind by Stephen Spotswood (finished 1/21/25) 3.9 stars
23. *Isaac's Army by Matthew Brzesinski (finished 1/23/25) 4.2 stars (A)
24. James by Percival Everett (finished 1/26/25) 4.4 stars
25. Dead in the Frame by Stephen Spotswood (finished 1/28/25) 3.8 stars
26. The Angel's Mark by S.W. Perry (finished 1/29/25) 3.5 stars
27. Time of Trial by Hester Burton (finished 1/30/25) 3.7 stars
28. Signal Moon by Kate Quinn (finished 1/30/25) 3.4 stars
29. *Below the Salt by Thomas B. Costain (finished 1/31/25) 3.9 stars

The February List:

30. A Reluctant Spy by David Goodman (finished 2/2/25) 4.15 stars
31. Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left by Eoin Higgins (finished 2/6/25) 4.25 stars (A)
32. Tyranny of the Minority by Steven Levitsky (finished 2/7/25) 4.3 stars
33. The Curious Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen by Yuta Takahashi (finished 2/7/25) 3.6 stars
34. A Cold Wind From Moscow by Rory Clements (finished 2/9/25) 4.2 stars
35. *The Land Beyond the Sea by Sharon Kay Penman (finished 2/11/25) 3.7 stars (A)
36. Blood Betrayal by Ausma Zehanat Khan (finished 2/12/25) 3.85 stars
37. *Final Settlement by Linda Davies (finished 2/13/25) 4.3 stars
38. The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths (finished 2/15/25) 4.2 stars
39. The Oligarch's Daughter by Joseph Finder (finished 2/16/25) 4.15 stars (A)
40. Our Daily War by Andrey Kurkov (finished 2/18/25) 4.3 stars
41. The King's Messenger by Susanna Kearsley (finished 2/20/25) 4.3 stars
42. The Wildes by Louis Bayard (finished 2/21/25) 4.3 stars
43. Woodsburner by John Pipkin (finished 2/22/25) 4.4 stars
44. *The Songs of the Kings by Barry Unsworth (finished 2/22/25) 4.65 stars
45. Kiss Her Goodbye by Lisa Gardner (finished 2/23/25) 3.8 stars
46. *Munich by Robert Harris (finished 2/24/25) 4.2 stars (A)
47. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (finished 2/26/25) 4.3 stars
48. The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe (finished 2/28/25) 4.4 stars
49. Mornings with Mii by Mayumi Inaba (finished 2/28/25) 3.8 stars

The March list:

50. Daughter of Gloriavale by Lilia Tarawa (finished 3/1/25) 3.4 stars
51. The Prosecutor: One Man's Battle to Bring Nazis to Justice by Jack Fairweather (finished 3/2/25) 4.6 stars (A)
52. Jane Austen's Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney (finished 3/4/25) 4.7 stars (A)
53. The Concubine's Tattoo by Laura Joh Rowland (finished 3/5/25) 3.6 stars
54. Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister (finished 3/7/25) 4 stars
55. Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel's Messiah by Charles King (finished 3/9/25) 4.85 stars (A)
56. The Searcher by Tana French (finished 3/10/25) 4.15 stars
57. The Envoy by Alex Kershaw (finished 3/11/25) 4 stars (A)
58. Murder the Truth by David Enrich (finished 3/12/25) 4.5 stars (A)
59. The Cannonball Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu (finished 3/13/25) 3.4 stars
60. The Trunk by Kim Ryeo-ryeong (finished 3/14/25) 3.65 stars
61. The Players by Minette Walters (finished 3/15/25) 4.35 stars
62. *The Coffee-Trader by David Liss (finished 3/15/25) 4.3 stars
63. *Above Suspicion by Helen MacInnes (finished 3/16/25) 3.9 stars (A)
64. The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise by Olivia Laing (finished 3/17/25) 5 stars
65. Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams (finished 3/19/25) 4.65 stars (A)
66. The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark (finished 3/19/25) 3.6 stars
67. The Samurai's Wife by Laura Joh Rowland (finished 3/21/25) 3.7 stars
68. The Successor by Ismail Kadare (finished 3/21/25) 3.85 stars
69. Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (finished 3/24/25) 4.2 stars (A)
70. The Human Scale by Lawrence Wright (finished 3/25/25) 3.2 stars
71. *Night Crossing by Robert Ryan (finished 3/27/25) 4 stars
72. The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens (finished 3/28/25) 4.2 stars
73. The Story of a Murder by Hallie Rubenhold (finished 3/29/25) 4 stars (A)
74. Black Box by Shiori Ito (finished 3/29/25) 3.7 stars
75. Kills Well With Others by Deanna Raybourn (finished 3/30/25) 4.2 stars
76. The White Crow by Michael Rowbotham (finished 3/30/25) 4.3 stars
77. I Hear Your Voice by Young-ha Kim (finished 3/31/25) 3.2 stars
78. Death of a Teacher by Lis Howell (finished 3/31/25) 3.75 stars

The April list:

79. V13: Chronicle of a Trial by Emmanuel Carrère (finished 4/3/25) 5 stars
80. Children of Ash and Elm by Neil Price (finished 4/4/25) 4.5 stars (A)
81. An Excellent Thing in a Woman by Allison Montclair (finished 4/5/25) 3.8 stars
82. Holmes, Marple and Poe by James Patterson (finished 4/6/25) 3.35 stars
83. The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami (finished 4/7/25) 4.5 stars
84. Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto (finished 4/8/25) 4.2 stars
85. Peacocks of Instagram by Deepa Rajagopolan (finished 4/9/25) 4 stars
86. The Mare by Angharad Hampshire (finished 4/10/25) 4.2 stars
87. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (finished 4/11/25) 4.5 stars (A)
88. The Place of Tides by James Rebanks (finished 4/12/25) 4.15 stars
89. What to Do When Someone Dies by Nicci French (finished 4/13/25) 4 stars
90. *The Devil's Light by Richard North Patterson (finished 4/13/25) 3.4 stars (A)
91. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang (finished 4/14/25) 3.85 stars
92. When a Child is Born by Jodi Taylor (finished 4/14/25) 3.5 stars (A)
93. Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet by Taylor Lorenz (finished 4/15/25) 4.4 stars (A)
94. Holmes is Missing by James Patterson (finished 4/16/25) 3.4 stars
95. The Illegals by Shawn Walker (finished 4/18/25) 4.2 stars (A)
96. Sisterhood by Cathy Kelly (finished 4/18/25) 3.35 stars
97. Trust Her by Flynn Berry (finished 4/19/25) 4.2 stars
98. Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (finished 4/19/25) 4.2 stars
99. The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue (finished 4/20/25) 4.8 stars
100. Book and Dagger by Elyse Graham (finished 4/20/25) 3.85 stars (A)
101. Murder on the Oxford Canal by Faith Martin (finished 4/21/25) 3.4 stars (A)
102. The Mushroom Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu (finished 4/23/25) 3.35 stars
103. The Volunteer by Gianna Toboni (finished 4/23/25) 4.2 stars (partly A)
104. When Sleeping Women Wake by Emma Pei Yin (finished 4/24/25) 3 stars
105. The Unraveling of Julia by Lisa Scottoline (finished 4/25/25) 3.85 stars
106. The Book Censor's Library by Bothayna Al-Essa (finished 4/26/25) 4.7 stars
107. Murder at the University by Faith Martin (finished 4/27/25) 3.6 stars (A)
108. Black Lotus by Laura Joh Rowland (finished 4/27/25) 3.6 stars
109. The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick (finished 4/29/25) 3.4 stars
110. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (finished 4/29/25) 5 stars
111. Murder of the Bride by Faith Martin (finished 4/30/25) 3.5 stars (A)

The May List:

112. Runner 13 by Amy McCullough (finished 5/1/25) 3.85 stars
113. *Circles of Time by Philip Rock (finished 5/2/25) 4.15 stars
114. Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number by Jacobo Timmerman (finished 5/4/25) 4.1 stars
115. The Interior Silence by Sarah Sands (finished 5/4/25) 4.2 stars
116. White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht (finished 5/4/25) 3.9 stars
117. Is Mother Dead by Vigdis Hjorth (finished 5/6/25) 4.4 stars
118. Kingsblood Royal by Sinclair Lewis (finished 5/8/25) 4.6 stars
119. How Hard Can It Be? by Allison Pearson (finished 5/9/25) 2.85 stars
120. Master Cornhill by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (finished 5/9/25) 3.7 stars
121. Pariah by Dan Fesperman (finished 5/9/25) 3.85 stars
122. *Singing in the Shrouds by Ngaio Marsh (finished 5/10/25) 3.8 stars (A)
123. When Paris Went Dark by Ronald Rosbottom (finished 5/11/25) 4.15 stars (A)
124. Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life by Jason Roberts (finished 5/13/25) 5 stars
125. Season of Death by Will Thomas (finished 5/15/25) 3.9 stars
126. The Magnificent Ruins by Nayantara Roy (finished 5/16/25) 4.2 stars
127. *A Future Arrived by Phillip Rock (finished 5/17/25) 3.6 stars
128. The Dark Maestro by Brendan Slocumb (finished 5/18/25) 4.3 stars
129. 10 Marchfield Square by Nicola Whyte (finished 5/19/25) 3.5 stars
130. The Writing on the Hearth by Cynthia Harnett (finished 5/20/25) 3.3 stars
131. False Value by Ben Aaronovitch (finished 5/23/25) 3.35 stars (A)
132. The Judgement of Stars by Jane Thynne (finished 5/25/25) 3.75 stars
133. Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horwitz (finished 5/26/25) 4.15 stars (partly A)
134. The Hidden Hand by Stella Rimington (finished 5/27/25) 3.4 stars
135. The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (finished 5/29/25) 4.35 stars
136. Buddha's Orphans by Samrat Upadhyay (finished 5/30/25) 4 stars
137. The Final Sacrament by James Forrester (finished 5/31/25) 4.15 stars

The June list:

138. Aflame: Learning from Silence by Pico Iyer (finished 6/2/25) 4.25 stars
139. Closely-Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal (finished 6/3/25) 4.2 stars
140. A Wedding in Provence by Katie Fforde (finished 6/4/25) 3.2 stars
141. *The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough (finished 6/5/25) 4 stars
142. Putin's Sledgehammer by Candace Rondeaux (finished 6/6/25) 3.8 stars (A)
143. Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict (finished 6/6/25) 3.15 stars
143. Question 7 by Richard Flanagan (finished 6/7/25) 4.5 stars
144. Mona's Eyes by Thomas Schlesser (finished 6/8/25) 4 stars
145. Tokyo Suite by Giovana Madalosso (finished 6/9/25) 4.1 stars
146. The DeMaury Papers by Isabelle Holland (finished 6/11/25) 3.4 stars
147. New Cold Wars by David Sanger (finished 6/13/25) 4.1 stars (A)
148. Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves (finished 6/14/25) 3.8 stars
149. Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks (finished 6/15/25) 4.8 stars
150. *Original Sin by P.D. James (finished 6/17/25) 5 stars
151. Lessons From Cats for Surviving Fascism by Stewart Reynolds (finished 6/18/25) 3.7 stars
152. The Silence of the Choir by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr (finished 6/18/25) 5 stars
153. Circle of Days by Ken Follett (finished 6/19/25) 3.2 stars
154. Numero Zero by Umberto Eco (finished 6/19/25) 3.8 stars
155. The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (finished 6/20/25) 4.4 stars
156. The Translator by Harriet Crawley (finished 6/22/25) 4.2 stars
157. Ellie and the Harpmaker by Hazel Prior (finished 6/23/25) 3 stars
158. *The Silent Boy by Andrew Taylor (finished 6/25/25) 4.15 stars
159. Aurais-je été résistant ou bourreau? by Pierre Bayard (finished 6/28/25) 4. 1 stars
160. The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen (finished 6/30/25) 3.7 stars

* -- A re-read
(A) -- audiobook

The July list:

161. An Enemy in the Village by Martin Walker (finished 7/2/25) 3.85 stars
162. Waiting for Doggo by Mark D. Mills (finished 7/2/25) 3.7 stars
163. *And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts (finished 7/3/25) 4.8 stars (A)
164. A Bitter Wind by James Benn (finished 7/3/25) 3.65 stars
165. The Cardinal by Alison Weir (finished 7/4/25) 3.1 stars
166. The Summer Guests by Tess Gerritsen (finished 7/5/25) 3.7 stars
167. The Lost Language of Oysters by Alexander McCall Smith (finished 7/6/25) 3.4 stars
168. The Man Who Would Be King: Mohammed bin Salman and the Transformation of Saudi Arabia by Karen Elliott House (finished 7/6/25) 3.7 stars
169. The Sea Captain's Wife by Tilar Mazzeo (finished 7/6/25) 4.4 stars
170. Better the Blood by Michael Bennett (finished 7/7/25) 4.4 stars
171. The Woman Dies by Aoko Matsuda (finished 7/7/25) 4.5 stars
172. Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages by Jenny Colgan (finished 7/8/25) 3.8 stars
173. Invasion: Russia’s Bloody War and Ukraine’s Fight for Survival by Luke Harding (finished 7/9/25) 3.7 stars (A)
174. Little Cyclone by Airey Neave (finished 7/9/25) 3.45 stars
175. The Director by Daniel Kehlmann (finished 7/11/25) 4.3 stars
176. Hidden Nature by Nora Robers (finished 7/13/25) 3.3 stars
177. The Unquiet Grave by Dervla McTiernan (finished 7/13/25) 4.2 stars (A)
178. One Night at the Chateau by Veronica Henry (finished 7/14/25) 3.4 stars
179. Traitor's Legacy by S.J. Parris (finished 7/16/25) 4.1 stars
180. Rage by Linda Castillo (finished 7/19/25) 3.8 stars
181. Royal Gambit by Daniel O'Malley (finished 7/22/25) 4.2 stars
182. Mina's Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa (finished 7/23/25) 4.4 stars
183. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan (finished 7/25/25) 4.1 stars
184. Blood Rubies by Mailan Doquang (finished 7/26/25) 3.65 stars
185. Dead of Summer by Jessa Maxwell (finished 7/27/25) 3.8 stars
186. This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud (finished 7/28/25) 4.4 stars
187. The Passengers on the Hankyu Line by Hiro Arikawa (finished 7/29/25) 3.5 stars
188. I Am Cleopatra by Natasha Solomons (finished 7/29/25) 3.85 stars
189. Becoming Inspector Chen by Qiu Xiaolong (finished 7/30/25) 3.45 stars
190. *The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery (finished 7/31/25) 4.1 stars (A)

The August list:

191. Bring the House Down by Charlotte Runcie (finished 8/1/25) 4.3 stars
192. The Art Spy by Michelle Young (finished 8/2/25) 3.7 stars (A)
193. Show Don't Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld (finished 8/3/25) 4.2 stars
194. The Haves and Have-Yachts by Evan Osnos (finished 8/4/25) 4.45 stars (A)
195. Return to Blood by Michael Bennett (finished 8/6/25) 4.15 stars
196. Witness 8 by Steve Cavanagh (finished 8/7/25) 3.6 stars (A)
197. The Verifiers by Jane Pek (finished 8/9/25) 3.55 stars
198. The Afghans: Three Lives Through War, Love and Revolt by Åsne Seierstad (finished 8/10/25) 4.35 stars
199. The South by Tash Aw (finished 8/11/25) 4.2 stars
200. Archipelago by Natalie Bakopoulos (finished 8/13/25) 4.5 stars
201. Bertie's Guide to Ice Cream by Alexander McCall Smith (finished 8/15/25) 3.7 stars
202. *The Hills of Varna by Geoffrey Trease (finished 8/16/25) 4.4 stars
203. The Second Traitor by Alex Gerlis (finished 8/16/25) 4 stars (A)
204. Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life by Neil Strauss (finished 8/17/25) 3.9 stars
205. The Convert by Stefan Hertmans (finished 8/18/25) 4.3 stars
206. A Death in Diamonds by S.J. Bennett (finished 8/19/25) 3.7 stars (A)
207. Katabasis by R.F. Kuang (finished 8/21/25) 4.35 stars
208. Stop Them Dead by Peter James (finished 8/22/25) 3.9 stars (A)
209. Guide Me Home by Attica Locke (finished 8/23/25) 4.4 stars
210. Canoe Lake by Roy MacGregor (finished 8/24/25) 4.3 stars
211. *Stay of Execution by Michael Gilbert (finished 8/24/25) 4.15 stars
212. Boudicca's Daughter by Elodie Harper (finished 8/25/25) 4.2 stars
213. Audition by Katie Kitamura (finished 8/26/25) 4.2 stars
214. The Finishing School by Joanna Goodman (finished 8/27/25) 3.1 stars
215. The Widow by John Grisham (finished 8/27/25) 3.65 stars
* -- A re-read
216. The Poet's Game by Paul Vidich (finished 8/28/25) 4 stars (partly A)
217. A History of Canada in Ten Maps by Adam Shoalts (finished 8/29/25) 5 stars
218. The Truth by Terry Pratchett (finished 8/30/25) 4.2 stars
219. While the Gods Were Sleeping by Erwin Mortier (finished 8/31/25) 3.75 stars
220. What We Can Know by Ian MacEwan (finished 8/31/25) 4.8 stars

The September List:

221. Swap: A Secret History of the New Cold War by Drew Hinshaw & Joe Parkinson (finished 9/1/25) 4.3 stars (A)
222. A Flower Traveled in My Blood by Haley Cohen Gilliland (finished 9/2/25) 5 stars (mostly A)
223. Annabel and Her Sisters by Catherine Alliott (finished 9/3/25) 3.75 stars
224. The Dalai Lama's Cat by David Michie (finished 9/3/25) 3.5 stars
225. Silent Bones by Val McDermid (finished 9/5/25) 4.3 stars
226. Linnets and Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge (finished 9/6/25) 3.45 stars
227. An Inside Job by Daniel Silva (finished 9/6/25) 3.7 stars (A)
228. Goodnight Tokyo by Atsuhiro Yoshida (finished 9/7/25) 3.9 stars
229. Red Joan by Jennie Rooney (finished 9/8/25) 4.15 stars
230. Blood and Champagne: The Life and Times of Robert Capa by Alex Kershaw (finished 9/10/25) 4 stars
231. Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson (finished 9/12/25) 4.1 stars
232. Into the Leopard's Den by Harini Nagendra (finished 9/13/25) 3.55 stars
233. We'll Prescribe You Another Cat by Syou Ishida (finished 9/13/25) 3.45 stars
234. A Murder in Paris by Matthew Blake (finished 9/14/25) 2.9 stars
235. The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood (finished 9/15/25) 3.7 stars (partly A)
236. *Eyes of a Child by Richard North Patterson (finished 9/16/25) 3.8 stars
237. The Heart by Maylis de Kerangal (finished 9/17/25) 4.15 stars
238. Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan (finished 9/19/25) 4.35 stars
239. *Night & Day by Elizabeth Edmondson (finished 9/20/25) 3.6 stars
240. Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival by Stephen Greenblatt (finished 9/21/25) 5 stars (A)
241. Girls of Summer by Nancy Thayer (finished 9/23/25) 2.9 stars
242. No Country for Love by Yaroslav Trofimov (finished 9/23/25) 3.65 stars
243. Amok by Stefan Zweig (finished 9/24/25) 3.6 stars
244. *Thornyhold by Mary Stewart (finished 9/25/25) 4.1 stars (A)
245. The Typewriter and the Guillotine by Mark Braude (finished 9/26/25) 4.35 stars
246. The Six: the Lives of the Mitford Sisters by Laura Thompson (finished 9/27/25) 4.2 stars (A)
247. *The Magicians by Lev Grossman (finished 9/28/25) 4.3 stars (A)
248. A Tiger for Malgudi by RK Narayan (finished 9/28/25) 4.4 stars
249. The Arctic Fury by Greer MacAllister (finished 9/29/25) 3.8 stars
250. 38 Londres Street by Philippe Sands (finished 9/29/25) 3.85 stars
251. The Last Days of Budapest by Adam LeBor (finished 9/30/25) 4.2 stars (A)
252. The Goldenacre by Phillip Miller (finished 9/30/25) 3.6 stars

The October list:

253. Central Park West by James Comey (finished 10/03/25) 3.8 stars
254. Evil in High Places by Rory Clements (finished 10/04/25) 4.2 stars
255. The Cat and the City by Nick Bradley (finished 10/5/25) 4.3 stars
256. The Tree of Light and Flowers by Thomas Perry (finished 10/8/25) 4.15 stars
257. The Shadow of the Empire by Qiu Xiaolong (finished 10/9/25) 3.4 stars
258. Appointment in Paris by Jane Thynne (finished 10/10/25) 4.2 stars
259. All His Spies: The Secret World of Robert Cecil by Stephen Alford (finished 10/11/25) 4.35 stars
260. *The King's Witch by Tracey Borman (finished 10/12/25) 4.3 stars (A)
261. With a Vengeance by Riley Sager (finished 10/12/25) 3.5 stars
262. The Marionette by Terry Fallis (finished 10/13/25) 3.7 stars
263. Carved in Blood by Michael Bennett (finished 10/13/25) 4.2 stars
264. Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman (finished 10/16/25) 4.1 stars
265. Bad Actors by Mick Herron (finished 10/17/25) 4.35 stars
266. The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon (finished 10/18/25) 4.4 stars (partly A)
267. Boleyn Traitor by Philippa Gregory (finished 10/19/25) 3.85 stars
268. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (finished 10/19/25) 4.3 stars
269. *Debutante by Anne Melville (finished 10/20/25) 3.3 stars
270. Culpability by Bruce Holsinger (finished 10/21/25) 4.4 stars
271. The Note by Alafair Burke (finished 10/21/25) 3.75 stars
272. The Dalai Lama's Cat and the Art of Purring by David Michie (finished 10/22/25) 3.65 stars
273. The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman (finished 10/23/25) 4.25 stars
274. Revenge of Odessa by Frederick Forsyth (finished 10/25/25) 3.75 stars
275. Close Knit by Jenny Colgan (finished 10/26/25) 3.8 stars
276. The Feeling of Iron by Giaime Alonge (finished 10/28/25) 4.3 stars
277. Out of Time by Jodi Taylor (finished 10/29/25) 4.2 stars
278. The Hour of the Predator by Giuliano da Empoli (finished 10/30/25) 3.7 stars
279. Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood (finished 10/31/25) 3.7 stars

The November list:

280. The Traitors Circle by Jonathan Freedland (finished 11/1/25) 3.9 stars (A)
281. The Marchesa by Sarah Dunant (finished 11/2/25) 4.4 stars
282. A Slowly Dying Cause by Elizabeth George (finished 11/4/25) 3.7 stars
283. The Zorg by Siddharth Kara (finished 11/5/25) 4.35 stars (A)
284. The First Husband by Laura Dave (finished 11/6/25) 3.65 stars
285. The Winds from Further West by Alexander McCall Smith (finished 11/7/25) 3.5 stars
286. Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite (finished 11/9/25) 4.2 stars
287. *The Mark of the Assassin by Daniel Silva (finished 11/9/25) 3.7 stars (A)
287. The Bloomsbury Murder by Mike Hollow (finished 11/10/25) 3.4 stars
288. Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice (finished 11/11/25) 4 stars
289. Raising Lazarus by Beth Macy (finished 11/11/25) 4.15 stars (partly A)
290. The Christmas Retreat by Trisha Ashley (finished 11/12/25) 4.2 stars
291. The Dalai Lama's Cat and the Power of Meow by David Michie (finished 11/13/25) 3.8 stars
292. Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice (finished 11/15/25) 4.3 stars
293. The Collaborators by Michael Idov (finished 11/16/25) 4.1 stars (A)
294. The Headache: The Science of a most Confounding Affliction by Tom Zeller (finished 11/16/25) 4.15 stars
295. A Dog in Georgia by Lauren Grodstein (finished 11/19/25) 4.3 stars
296. *The Grass Crown by Colleen McCullough (finished 11/21/25) 4.1 stars
297. Everyone Who Is Gone is Here by Jonathan Blitzer (finished 11/22/25) 4.8 stars (A)
298. The Siberia Job by Josh Haven (finished 11/23/25) 3.35 stars
299. Citizen 865 by Debbie Cenziper (finished 11/25/25) 4.15 stars (A)
300. Oxygen by Andrew Miller (finished 11/27/25) 4.3 stars
301. Lucky by Jane Smiley (finished 11/28/25) 3.85 stars
302. *The Cactus and the Crown by Catherine Gavin (finished 11/29/25) 4 stars
303. Jungle of Stone by William Carlsen (finished 11/30/25) 4.35 stars

The December list:

304. The Burning Library by Gilly Macmillan (finished 12/1/25) 3.8 stars
305. *The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer (finished 12/2/25) 4.15 stars
306. Great-Uncle Harry by Michael Palin (finished 12/3/25) 4 stars (A)
307. Banquet of Beggars by Chris Lloyd (finished 12/4/25) 4.2 stars
308. Anonymous Male by Christopher Whitcomb (finished 12/5/25) 3.45 stars
309. The Ivory City by Emily Bain Murphy (finished 12/7/25) 3.55 stars
310. The Museum Detective by Maha Khan Phillips (finished 12/8/25) 4.25 stars
311. Furious Minds: the Making of the MAGA New Right by Laura Field (finished 12/9/25) 4.5 stars (A)
312. The Witch in the Well by Sharan Newman (finished 12/10/25) 3.7 stars
313. Lionessheart: the Life and Times of Joanna Plantagenet by Catherine Hanley (finished 12/12/25) 4.1 stars (A)
314. Family of Spies by Christine Kuehn (finished 12/13/25) 4.2 stars (A)
315. The Dalai Lama's Cat and the Four Paws of Spiritual Success by David Michie (finished 12/13/25) 3.8 stars
316. Germinal by Emile Zola (finished 12/14/25) 4.6 stars
317. Stranger in the Shogun's City by Amy Stanley (finished 12/15/25) 4.5 stars (A)
318. A Christmas Witness by Charles Todd (finished 12/18/25) 2.3 stars
319. *A Prince and a Spy by Rory Clements (finished 12/18/25) 4.1 stars (A)
320. Miss Winter in the Library With a Knife by Martin Edwards (finished 12/20/25) 3.85 stars
321. The Nightingale Affair by Tim Mason (finished 12/22/25) 3.9 stars
322. The Eleventh Hour by Salman Rushdie (finished 12/23/25) 4.65 stars
323. *The Defector by Evelyn Anthony (finished 12/23/25) 3.6 stars
324. Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician by Anthony Everitt (finished 12/24/25) 4.5 stars (A)
325. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (finished 12/25/25) 4.35 stars
326. The Secret Christmas Library by Jenny Colgan (finished 12/25/25) 3.5 stars (A)
327. *The Avenue of the Dead by Evelyn Anthony (finished 12/25/25) 3.6 stars
328. Murder at Martingale Manor by Jodi Taylor (finished 12/25/25) 3.9 stars (A)
329. That Librarian by Amanda Jones (finished 12/26/25) 3.5 stars
330. Battle of Brothers by Robert Lacey (finished 12/28/25) 3.6 stars (A)
331. A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging by Lauren Markham (finished 12/28/25) 5 stars
332. *Albatross by Evelyn Anthony (finished 12/29/25) 3.65 stars
333. The Secret Hours by Mick Herron (finished 12/30/25) 4.3 hours
334. Gabriel's Moon by William Boyd (finished 12/31/25) 4.65 stars
335. Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics by Andrea Wulf (finished 12/31/25) 5 stars (mostly A)

(A) -- audiobook
* -- Re-read

Best Books of 2024:

Smoke and Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories
By Amitav Ghosh
From India to China, the story of the British Empire’s opium ‘farming’ and the wars and devastation wreaked as a result.

Nuclear War: A Scenario
By Annie Jacobsen
Well, this was chilling. Growing up in the Cold War, with talk of the arms race and détente, I thought I was suitably worried about the nuclear peril. Even after watching “The Day After” in my early 20s, that is a “nope, I didn’t know the half of it.”

The Housekeeper and the Professor
By Yoko Ogawa
Every book of Ogawa’s that I’ve read so far stuns me with the author’s delicate touch, which runs alongside an ability to tackle some of the most difficult human situations. Brilliant.

Heart, Be At Peace
By Donal Ryan
If I could persuade people to discover one new-to-them author, it would be Ryan. This series of vignettes that together, slowly, piece together a mosaic of the lives of an Irish community in the aftermath of his brilliant “The Spinning Heart”, was a joy to read.

The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean
By Susan Casey
In one of my imagined alternative lives, I’m an oceanographer, or a maritime archaeologist. Such a pity that I get claustrophobic even in a snorkel mask… So I rely on chronicles like this to take me deep below the ocean’s surface – in this case, very, VERY deep indeed.

The Slowworm’s Song
By Andrew Miller
If I look at the novels I loved most in 2024, a remarkable number were what I’d call “slow burns”: the reader has to trust the author that what is being unfolded isn’t just well written but also shatteringly revelatory and thought-provoking. This falls into that category.

The World of Yesterday
By Stefan Zweig
I’ve read so many of Zweig’s novellas, and some of his short stories; I’ve read George Prochnik’s amazing “The Impossible Exile” about Zweig’s final years. Finally picked up and devoured his memoirs. As with the best autobiographical works, Zweig ends up shedding light on those aspects of his personality that would probably have driven me nuts as well as those that I appreciated and enjoyed, all while capturing the WW1 to WW2 era.

Babel
By R.F. Kuang
Having read “Yellowface” in 2023, I wanted to read more by this author, and opted for this fantastical alternative history of the British empire. The richly-detailed world, and attempts to bring social justice to a world of elites, is one I can’t do justice to in a few words. Just read it.

The Bluestockings: A History of the First Women’s Movement
By Susannah Gibson
Before the suffragettes, the Pankhurts, Seneca Falls and even before Mary Wollstonecraft, there were these women, like Hester Thrale Piozzi, who fought to carve out a tiny space for themselves and a world of ideas. Gibson shows that even material privilege can’t make up for not being viewed as more than something needed to create the next generation.

Orbital
By Samantha Harvey
You’ve probably heard all about this either before the Booker, or after this short novel won. Of the short list books that I’ve read thus far, it’s the one I loved most.

Fire Weather
By John Vaillant
A triumph of narrative non-fiction: how did the Fort McMurray wildfire become such a horrific catastrophe? What led to this, from on-the-ground decisions about urban ‘planning’ to climate change? And what does this say about where we’re heading?

Burma Sahib
By Paul Theroux
I’m a fan of Orwell’s and so, clearly, is Theroux, who chronicles the evolution of a confused and directionless youth heading off to serve in Burma’s colonial police force, into a man with an independent mind and a clear direction. Evocative.

Brooklyn Crime Novel
By Jonathan Lethem
Perhaps because this is set in the Boerum Hill neighborhood that I used to call home, I found myself caught up in the slowly-unfolding saga of the impact of social change on its myriad characters.

Four Shots in the Night
By Henry Hemming
Another book where my personal history kicked in. The London I lived in as a child in the early/mid-1970s was one where IRA bombing campaigns felt like real threats; only as I grew older and read and traveled more did I begin to get a deeper understanding of the trauma of the people who endured the Troubles in Northern Ireland, forced into unwilling compromises and choices.

We Solve Murders
By Richard Osman
A whimsical, entertaining mystery? Yup. Osman never lets the whimsy topple over into achingly arch, or the narrative become ponderous. A super antidote to winter doldrums for crime fiction fans.

The Sequel
By Jean Hanff Korelitz
The same is true of Korelitz’s, ahem, sequel to “The Plot” – but there’s no whimsy here. But she does a marvellous job of crafting an unputdownable book that stands on its own merits and features one of my fave things in fiction: an unlikeable main character/antihero who readers will marvel at even as they’re astounded by the fact that they’re cheering her on.

Evicted
By Matthew Desmond
A reader may not end up sympathizing with some of the (real, very human) people Desmond deftly profiles in his devastating takedown of the rental real estate business, that earns the bulk of its profits delivering substandard housing at lofty prices to desperate people. Underlying it all is the harsh truth that the state of affairs Desmond describes is one that will keep so many trapped in the cycle of poverty that he tackled in his previous book.

Forgotten on Sunday
By Valerie Perrin
Another slow burn of a novel, revolving around the question of aging and its indignities, which I have become more aware of after helping care for my father in his final year and looking ahead to what may lie in wait for me. This is the second superlative book by this French novelist, who manages to avoid sentimentality and glibness in novels tackling difficult human topics.

READING GOALS I

New, new things
New/just-published/upcoming books

The South – Tash Aw Read Read
The Paris Express – Emma Donoghue Read
Dream Count – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Eleventh Hour - Salman Rushdie Read
What We Can Know - Ian MacEwan Read
Wild Dark Shore - Charlotte McConaghy Read
Audition - Katie Kitamura Read
All This and More – Peng Shepherd
This Strange Eventful History – Claire Messud Read
Archipelago by Natalie Bakopoulos Read

New -- to me, at least
Books by debut writers or new to me authors

The Mare by Angharad Hampshire Read
When Sleeping Women Wake – Emma Pei Yin Read
The Winding Stair – Jesse Norman
Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan Read
The Magnificent Ruins – Nayantara Roy Read
Cities of Women – Kathleen Jones
Come to the Window – Howard Norman
Bring the House Down - Charlotte Runcie Read
Our Narrow Hiding Places – kristopher Jansma
Hard by a Great Forest – Leo Vardiashvili

The real thing
Nonfiction reading

Tyranny of the Minority by Steven Levitsky Read
Ukraine Diary – Andrei Kurkov Read
How the World Made the West – Josephine Quinn
Rural Hours by Harriet Baker
All His Spies – Stephen Alford Read
The Age of Melt by Lisa Baril
Question 7 – Richard Flanagan Read
Patriot – Alexei Navalny Read
Blood and Champagne – Alex Kershaw Read
A Flower Traveled in My Blood - Haley Cohen Gilliland Read

Canadian content
Books by Canadian authors

Peacocks of Instagram by Deepa Rajagopaian Read
The Capital of Dreams by Heather o’Neill
(non)disclosure by Renee Bondy
The Future – Catherine Leroux
This Eden by Ed O'Loughlin
The Marionette by Terry Fallis Read
The Strangers by Katherena Vermette
Undersong by Kathleen Winter
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice Read
Canoe Lake by Roy MacGregor Read

READING GOALS II

Around the World in 10 Books
Books published outside North America/the UK

Mina’s Matchbox – Yoko Ogawa (Japan) Read
There are Rivers in the Sky – Elif Shafak (Turkey)
A Horse Walks Into a Bar – David Grossman (Israel)
The Director - Daniel Kehlmann (Germany) Read
The Book Censor’s Library – Bothnaya Al-Eissa (Kuwait) Read
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (Poland) - Read
The Tokyo Suite by Giovana Madalosso (Brazil) Read
Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Nigeria) Read
Is Mother Dead by Vigdis Hjorth (Norway) Read
The Trunk by Kim Ryeo-ryeong (South Korea) Read

Europa Mania
Books published by Europa editions, a fave imprint

The Axeman’s Carnival – Catherine Chidgey
Mona's Eyes by Thomas Schlesser Read
The Colony – Annika Norlin
Goodnight Tokyo – Atsuhiro Yoshida Read
The Silence of the Choir - Mohamed Mbougar Sarr Read
The Feeling of Iron - Giaime Alonge Read
The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen – Shokoofeh Azar
Fifteen Wild Decembers – Karen Powell
The Feeling of Iron -- Giaime Alonge Read
A Calamity of Noble Houses – Amira Ghenim

Get those ARCs off my shelves!
Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) that have been lingering unread

The Siberia Job by Josh Haven Read
The Nightingale Affair by Tim Mason Read
Alternative Remedies for Loss by Joanna Cantor
The Heart by Maylis de Kerangal Read
Deliver Me by Malin Persson Giolito
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett Read
The Secret Hours by Mick Herron Read
The Disinvited Guest by Carol Goodman
The Lost Diary of Venice by Margaux DeRoux DNF

READING GOALS III

Series & Sequels
Because I'm a big fan of mysteries and other things that tend to be long strings of books

The Cannonball Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu Read
Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz Read
The Unquiet Grave by Dervla McTiernan Read
The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware
Grave Danger by James Grippando Read
An Enemy in the Village by Martin Walker Read
Death of a Teacher by Lis Howell Read
The Samurai’s Wife by Laura Joh Rowland Read
Guide Me Home by Attica Locke Read
Dead in the Frame by Stephen Spotswood Read

Cold Wars
The literal, actual Cold War, and other espionage sagas

A Cold Wind From Moscow by Rory Clements Read
A Spy at War by Charles Beaumont
How the Cold War Began by Amy Knight
Spies by Calder Watson
Family of Spies by Christine Kuehn Read
The Poet's Game by Paul Vidich Read
The Illegals by Shaun Walker Read
The Sisterhood by Liza Mundy
The Russia House by John le Carré
The Liar by Benjamin Cunningham

Light & Fluffy
Because everyone needs a mindless marshmallow of a book sometimes

The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge by Rachel Hore
Annabel and Her Sisters by Catherine Alliott Read
One Night at the Chateau by Veronica Henry Read
Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages by Jenny Colgan Read
Looking for You by Alexander McCall Smith Read
Ellie and the Harpmaker by Hazel Prior Read
Girls of Summer by Nancy Thayer Read
The Liberation of Brigid Dunne by Patricia Scanlan
Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan

1,001 Books
Some of those that I haven't read yet...

Rabbit, Run by John Updike
The Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar
Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal Read
In a Free State by V.S. Naipaul
The Diviners by Margaret Laurence
Leaden Wings by Zhang Jie
Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd
Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
New Grub Street by George Gissing
Manhattan Transfer by John dos Passos

READING GOALS IV

The World We Live In
Current affairs/politics; issues that jump into the headlines

Everything Must Go by Dorian Lynskey
What Truth Sounds Like by Michael Eric Dyson
A Map of Future Ruins by Lauren Markham
American Gun by Cameron McWhirter
Ours Was the Shining Future by David Leonhardt
Raising Lazarus by Beth Macy Read
Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet by Taylor Lorenz Read
Glass House by Brian Alexander
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams Read
The Next Great Migration by Sonia Shah

Travel
Books that take me place I've never been or show me a place in a new way

The National Road: Dispatches from a Changing America by Tom Zoellner

Big Fat Books
Challenging (by length!) books sitting on my shelves...

Napoleon by Andrew Roberts
The Lunar Men by Jenny Uglow
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

Historical Fiction
My first love as a reader

Boudicca's Daughter by Elodie Harper Read
A Hollow Crown by Helen Hollick
The Throne by Franco Barone Read
The Glassmaker by Tracey Chevalier
The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd Robinson Read
The Marchesa by Sarah Dunant Read
Miss Austen by Gill Hornby
The Fugitive Colors by Nancy Bilyeau
The King’s Messenger by Susanna Kearsley Read
James by Percival Everett Read

Welp, I ended up with a surplus saved post thanks to the vagaries of LT (specifically snafu with trying to deal with touchstones, so I'm giving up on that and on entering more books until it actually IS the new year! Sufficient unto 2025 are the burdens thereof...

Happy New Year to all!

Happy New Year Suzanne. So happy for you with your permanent posting at Reuters and your London vacation sounds fun apart from catching cold.

Happy New Year, Suzanne. So happy about the permanent job!

Happy 2025, Suz

Happy New Year Suzanne! Great to hear that your work situation has taken such a turn for the better.

Hi Suzanne. I love your life summary in >1 Chatterbox:, congratulations on your job and holiday. So you get to stay in your home? Owing to the new landlord being a book fiend? I'd certainly be more willing to keep someone on who was bookish. :)

I am sorry about the upcoming 4 years though, I hope to try and not get so angry at the shameless broadcasting of all his shenanigans on news outlets. It rarks me up (kiwi saying maybe?....gets on my goat. I am sure you know what I mean).

Anyway, good tidings for upcoming reading, and I hope you hit your goal! I was pretty much at one a week last year, which was great for me.

Congratulations on the new job.

I enjoyed meeting you in London some years ago and I'm sorry I missed you on this trip - by the time I realised I think you were already here, and I thought you probably had a lot planned to fit in already. Hope all goes well and you can afford another visit here in the not too distant future.

Welcome back, Suzanne! Glad you go to spend some time in London and that things are taking a good turn in 2025!

Lovely to hear about the permanent gig Suzanne. Very best wishes.

Happy new year and new thread, Suzanne

Hello all!

>15 LovingLit: I'm trying to view the political outlook as basically a full-employment act for journalists. That's really about the only positive element I can think of. Well, that, and the fact he can't run again. Btw, love the kiwi saying...

>16 elkiedee: London was fab, but v. much last minute. So much so that I literally got the LAST ticket to see Klaus Makela (the 28-year-old Finnish wunderkind orchestral conductor) in his debut with the LSO. And am very glad I did! It's astonishing -- by the time he is 30, he will be heading the Chicago Symphony, occupying Solti's shoes.

But the nasty cold really ruined things. Ended up spending two days in bed and having to cancel some plans. And I walked far too much for my arthritic joints to be happy with.

All that makes me wonder what kind of travel plans I should think for 2025. I do need to get to Northern Ontario to scatter my father's ashes. I'd like to head to Scandinavia -- see Norway (one of the only places in Western Europe I've never visited), visit an old friend in Stockholm, and maybe venture to Helsinki. Or -- I really miss Paris. And then, on my bucket list, are places like Sri Lanka and New Zealand. But -- paid vacation?! Quel luxe...

So, first book of 2025, and don't expect me to keep making notes on my reading throughout the year, I'm doing it because today is a VACATION and I am not exhausted or overwhelmed because I would have to update people on four or five books.

And because the first book was:

Patriot: a Memoir by Alexei Navalny
Hard to realize that it now has been nearly a year since Navalny's death/probable murder. This book makes me realize what Russia lost. Not a flawless hero, but someone who genuinely loved his country and wanted so much better for it. Someone with a sense of humor and a sense of awe. Why did he make some of the decisions that perplexed me, from urging Russians to vote for anyone BUT Putin's party, to returning to Moscow after nearly dying from a botched poisoning? Navalny clearly thought through all of these questions -- or the choice was so self evident to him -- but explains them carefully nonetheless. What a loss for Russia. He may have ended up as yet another failed politician, but will never have the chance to try to steer his country away from totalitarianism and towards stability.

Happy New Year Suzanne and congratulations on the new permanent job!

It sounds like you spent about as much time on LT is 2024 as I did--I'm hoping to do better in 2024. Already I see some books I need to read.

Happy New Year, Suzanne. Best wishes.

Hope your 2025 is filled with good reads!

>22 AnneDC: Hey Anne! I remember our discussion about Masha Geesen's bio of Putin years and years ago -- would be curious to hear your take on the Navalny memoir...

I see that you have one of Ovidia Yu's books on your TBR list up top. I have a copy of the Yellow Rambutan Tree Mystery that I have finished. If you want it let me know and I will pop it into the mail.

I am glad you are still in your same house. That had to be another worrisome thing for you.

>25 Chatterbox: I've added Patriot to my list and look forward to getting to it (and comparing notes). I saw a play several years ago called Kleptocracy that was about Putin's rise to power--there was a character that I thought at the time was a fictionalized version of Navalny. I'm also overdue to catch up with my State Department friend who just returned from 4 years in Ekaterinburg. Not a quiet time to be stationed in Russia!

We saw an amazing play last year titled 'Vladimir', about a journalist who keeps getting into trouble with Putin's government for reporting on Chechnya. Very powerful and brilliantly acted and staged. If it travels, I highly recommend it.

>3 Chatterbox: Congrats on the full time employment!

I hope you have a wonderful 2025

Belated congratulations on the job.

The longlist for the Women's Prize for Non Fiction is out

https://womensprize.com/prizes/womens-prize-for-non-fiction/

One of the books is The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke which I see you rated highly. I've read her first book and heard parts of this one on the radio, hope to read it at some point.

Looks like yo have been busy with work!
Just checking in :)

Thanks for the visits! Yes, work has been crazed, thanks to the White House's new occupant. I've been scrambling to cover my beat and also tackle breaking news on tariffs, inflation data and all kinds of similarly fun stuff.

Luci, yes, I thought Rachel Clarke did an excellent job tackling something that could have been done in a mawkish way, or overly distanced from the lives of the people involved. I'll check out some of the other books on the list that I haven't yet read -- Anne Applebaum did not disappoint and I liked Helen Castor's book as well. And I have Rebecca Nagle's book about indigenous/native communities and justice on my audiobookshelf.

>32 Chatterbox: See that the new job is keeping you occupied, Suz. Exciting times!

Oh my lord. Every time I think I'm too exhausted, I have another day of turmoil. Curse Trump and his tariffs....

"May you report on interesting Times"

What I'm finding (mildly) amusing are all the synonyms people are coming up with in light of the market debacle -- Conflagration Day, Obliteration Day, Annihilation Day, Devastation Day. And so on and so forth...

And now we are up from 8% to 11%. In a SINGLE DAY. Biggest one day rally since Covid. *bemused* and exhausted.

>37 Chatterbox: The puppet master must be enjoying his effects.

Cheers to you. The only thing worse than living all this would be living it and having to write about it intelligently and helpfully.

I think the Chinese analyst on PBS had it right: The Donald blinked. It doesn't matter if he was forced to do so. He is exhausting and senseless.

Just finished 10 straight hours of work (with two bathroom breaks) on a Saturday. It figures that the first annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway that I had to cover (remotely as part of a team) was the one where Warren Buffet resigned. Crawling into bed now....

>41 Chatterbox: It’s also exhausting to read about what you have to do now, Suz! I’m sure you’re doing a great job! Rest up and carry on!

For most of the year so far, my non-fiction reading has been more rewarding than the fiction I've picked up to read. That seems to be changing, thanks to a few books...

The Book Censor's Library by Bothayna Al-Essa
I now can't even remember how I heard of this Kuwaiti novel but I'm glad I added it to my Kindle. It's a dystopian, fantastical tale, with knowing nods in the direction of Orwell and Bradbury.

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
I swear, I don't think this woman is capable of writing a bad novel, or even a bad sentence or paragraph. I had to ration the number of pages I read each day to savor it. All her novels have a common theme -- climate change -- but each is unique and distinct. This one is about a family and a castaway who is more than she seems, on a remote Antarctic island.

The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue
This was a challenge, in that Donoghue had to imagine the lives (and interior lives) of a host of random individuals all on their way to Paris on an express train to Montparnasse, en route to a confrontation with disaster. But wow....

Is Mother Dead by Vigdis Hjorth
A Norwegian author, again, I can't remember why I picked this up or even why, except that I got it via a Kindle deal. A widowed artist, estranged from her family for reasons that remain maddening incomplete, returns to Oslo and finds herself trying to imagine their lives -- and then more -- and to get answers to questions that torment her. It's one of those novels where you can empathize with the narrator even as you cringe in horror at the steps she takes.

Yes, I realize that all these are by women, and all are dark and somewhat bleak. Not sure if that's a comment on anything??

But I also relished Kingsblood Royal by Sinclair Lewis. A book group read that I picked up dutifully and then couldn't put back down again. It's bleak in a different way -- set in the U.S. of the mid 1940s, in the immediate aftermath of WW2, and with a returned wounded serviceman as the main character -- who suddenly discovers he is 1/32nd Black, which in that era, makes him a Negro or various other words that I'd never even heard of. Lewis tamps down his anger and turns to satire to explore what unfolds. But there's no way for him to make this a "light" story -- it's wearying and depressing. On the other hand, Lewis is a master of "what if?" scenarios -- what would it be like for someone in the shoes of Neil Kingsblood to make this kind of discovery? To suddenly become a pale, freckled, red-headed "Black" man? Thought provoking.

>43 Chatterbox: Interesting that you liked the Sinclair. I'm finding it sets my teeth on edge and long for escape. Hence, might not finish it.

Is Mother Dead was longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023, apparently.

>44 ffortsa: the jargon sets my teeth on edge, but the not the underlying plot, which I found intriguing and compelling. I kept wanting to know what happens next... I did get VERY tired of the 1940s lingo.

>45 elkiedee: That's probably where it came from!

Ooof, can't believe that it's been so long since I posted a thing. Mind you, I can't believe that time has zoomed by so fast. Completely bonkers crazy pace of news, like playing whack-a-mole.

So, what's new? I'm still reading, but it gets hard to carve out time, I confess. If you check the (long) list above, you'll find my books and their ratings. right now I'm reading a book from the UK, All His Spies by Stephen Alford, about Robert Cecil and his political role in the late Elizabethan/early Jacobean world. Really interesting.

Managed to get to ALA in June, which was mostly fab. Met up with my lovely friend from high school in Belgium decades ago, who traveled up from DC. We had some great dinners out (including the best Indian food I've had in a long time) and had a dim sum lunch with another high school friend I've not seen in decades. A lot of chatter and dismay about the firing of the chief Librarian of Congress; angst about First Amendment issues and book banning. Shipped home three boxes of books, which I'm reading my way through!

Cats are doing OK. Minka had dental surgery (teeth removed...) and at age of about 15, Fergus is OK, but no longer fat as he is battling thyroid issues. He's quite skinny but still mostly alert and engaged with the world, though I worry about him a lot.

Took a trip back to Canada in mid-July, to scatter my father's ashes up by the cottage in French River, Ontario that my grandparents and the parents of my father's oldest friend built back in the late 1940s. It was sold in the mid-1980s, and I hadn't been there since I was 13 or so, so it was pretty fabulous to be there and realize how much I love it. I got my Ontario pleasure craft permit (though I still have no driver's license, LOL) so I had fun driving the outboard motorboat (sometimes in circles...) Found an Airbnb that literally was across an inlet of Dry Pine Bay from where the cottage still stands, and that's where we scattered the ashes. A very motley crew -- a close friend of my dad's from San Antonio, my brother and my niece and elder nephew, one of my oldest friends from elementary school in England, who now lives not far away in Sudbury and is a big outdoorswoman, my father's ex-gf who helped a tremendous amount in his final years, and her current partner. But everyone got along and even had fun together. Was wonderful to see my niece and both nephews, and then I had a couple of days with a dear university friend in toronto, who has just had to retire from being a judge because of long Covid.

Only other news is incremental progress on the health front. I'm now on Ozempic for the diabetes diagnosed a year ago, and today discovered that I'm back to prediabetic in terms of blood sugar, which is fab. I've lost some weight, but slowly and steadily which is better. I'm also not really weighing myself, so the only way I know is from how clothes fit. But today I also got a formal diagnosis from my new orthopedist about my hip pain and mobility issues. I've been going to physio since early August, and while it's helping me with strength and flexibility, it hasn't tackled the underlying problem. Which turns out to be arthritis in both my hip and spine that is quite bad (the phrase "bone on bone" is kinda scary) and spinal stenosis. I'm going to try to avoid surgery for now, since it would be spinal surgery which apparently has a longish recovery period, and opt instead for cortico-steroid injections, starting in about a month's time, after they get a follow-up MRI. I'm just SO relieved to have a diagnosis, after years of being told that I was imagining stuff and all I needed to do was lose weight. Which I have (about 30 lbs from my pandemic-era high) and the pain is getting worse. Ho hum.

Work at Reuters continues to go very well. I keep being told how valuable I am, which is kinda cool after years in the wilderness, though the pace is sometimes exhausting. This week alone, we've dealt with two giant moves by the SEC, one approving a new stock exchange, and the government shutdown stories. I was involved with Buffett's surprise retirement announcement, writing about crypto, etc. etc, so I feel like I'm in the middle of the action. Such a difference from two years ago, when I was just on a three-month temporary contract. So very grateful...

And that's about all the news that's fit to print! Plan to spend a relaxing weekend watching the Blue Jays trounce the Yankees in the baseball playoffs (I hope...) and reading.

>47 Chatterbox: So happy about your work situation after following your troubles over the recent years. Getting a diagnosis for your health is good too even when it is what it is.
Do you still have noisy neighbours or have they moved on?

Blue Jays won, by a landslide. That's game one down, two more wins and it's on to the next round (likely the Mariners...)

I moved away from my ultra-noisy neighbors to a quieter corner of the neighborhood. There's still some noisy, but it only comes from my landlord upstairs, and they're pretty good. Although there are two very barky Lab mix rescues upstairs who can't let me go in or out without informing the neighborhood. One of 'em also wants to knock me down so he can love me to death. Ho hum...

>49 Chatterbox: Good to hear from you Suzanne. All best wishes

It is good to see your post bringing us up-to-date. I am glad that you made it to ALA. I wanted to go, but had taken time off to attend my niece's wedding in Bozeman, MT that was the week before ALA. I didn't feel right about taking that much time off so didn't go to ALA. I am going to try to get to ALA in Chicago next summer.

It has been one year since I left Tuscaloosa and moved to Munden. Well not quite. I had to be out of my house in Tuscaloosa October 31 of 2024. I got here to Munden November 2, and my stuff got here on November 28. In February I got a part-time job. This one is with the Post Office in the tiny village of Munden, KS. The job is supposed to be 2 1/2 hours a day 6 days a week, but it is usually 3 -3 1/2 hours a day. It has cut into my moving time, so I am still moving into the house. I am trying to get my kitchen stuff moved into the house and along the way a box or two of books comes in as well.

I am glad that you have a job you like and that you are also making progress on the medical front. It is good to hear that you are feeling better and that you are making progress. Keep in touch and let us know what is outstanding reading for you.

Tee hee. Jays just whipped the Yankees, 13-7. And the starting pitcher, Yesavage, is only 22 and started the season in A-ball. Ooof. Gotta love it. (Or at least, if you're a Blue Jays fan, which I have been for 40 years this season...)

Tee hee. Jays just whipped the Yankees, 13-7. And the starting pitcher, Yesavage, is only 22 and started the season in A-ball. Ooof.

It's good to see an update from you Suzanne. I hope you find the steroid injections helpful...my husband has benefited from them. Hugs to the kitties.

I'm also happy to see action on your thread, Suzanne - and very, very glad to find most of your news upbeat. Enjoy the good time and down with the pain!!!

Next Monday is the MRI; a week from Friday is the ortho appointment to make next treatment decisions! It must be a sign of advancing age that this makes me happy, if not as happy as a Blue Jays home run hit does...

>55 LizzieD: As Peggy says, Suz, it is good to see you back posting. Fingers crossed that your health issues get resolved positively.

>47 Chatterbox: shocking that your diagnosis came after being chastised for non-related weight and fitness things. That stuff makes me livid. Bone on bone arthritis I can relate to (I had a hip replacement and reconstruction in my late 20s and am now adjusting to related buy all new to me arthritis now in what was previously my 'good' leg!!).
I hope you have insurance and support for your medical journey.

And I hope that the whack-a-mole work/life situation keeps on working out (without you getting tennis / whack-a-mole elbow).

Just had a cortisone shot for my shoulder, arthritis related, so I can relate! Glad the work is going so well and that you are valued the way you always should have been. And I don't have a dog in this race so I have been cheering on the Blue Jays because it makes you happy!

>47 Chatterbox: Late in dropping off my acknowledgement but I just wanted to say how happy I am that the Reuters gig is working out so well. Totally remember some of the time in the wilderness and so happy to hear that that has changed.

The health stuff is never fun and I hope it is manageable - I, like a lot of people here, know a thing or two about arthritis and the persistent pain that can be part of that. I am just so happy that you are in a place where you can address health challenges from a place of options rather than having to fend without options. All the best.

Thanks for all the visits!

I'm simultaneously mourning the Blue Jays defeat, while delighting in their achievement. Not only did they trounce the Yankees, they battled back against the Mariners to win decisively and then went on to force the Dodgers to play not only 7 full games, but extra innings in two of those games -- 18 innings in LA and a nearly-unprecedented Game 7 World Series game that went to 11 or 12 innings (I think 11, but honestly, I lost track). Victory for the Dodgers was very very narrowly grabbed, the result of two flukes, a dead ball in game 6, and a surprise homer by the guy who should have been the penultimate "out" of the ninth inning.

Oh well. Onward, ever onward.

MRI tomorrow, just hoping that my deductible for it is low enough that I can pay using my HSA (health savings account) as my editor hasn't approved time sheets for more than three months, meaning that I'm owed a whole lot of holiday/overtime pay and that I'm very strapped for cash ahead of payday on Friday. Fingers/toes/paws crossed, please...

Lucky that being on Ozempic not only has brought my blood sugar into line within four months, but that I now only eat one meal a day and one or two snacks, so I don't have to buy many groceries!! But I do have to go to NYC on Weds for a conference and some meetings, sigh.

MRI done. I ended up doing it without sedation, as I would have had to have someone else pick me up and take me home, and it was like spending 45 minutes in my future/eventual coffin. Yuck.

Curled up on my bed with purring cats and listening to the rain now.

Sure hope a coffin isn't as loud as an MRI Migraine inducer.

I haven't had an MRI - yet. I hope that the results are helpful enough to make those 45 minutes worthwhile.

I am with you sort of.... I eat two meals a day and maybe a snack at night or maybe not. Those troublesome 15 pounds or so have disappeared with no trouble.
Here's to purring cats and rain on the roof now and then!

Hope your editor came through with the $ for your trip. Travel safely.

Good to see you posting here again Suzanne

Hi Suzanne,

Its Christmas Book Swap season. This year, I'm trying a different tact to make sure the word gets out. I'm just going to spam the threads of those who have participated in the past, and since you've done so, I'm going to use this opportunity to remind you about it, in case you haven't seen my thread recently, or the General Announcements thread. If you're in, come on by and join, if not that's fair and then thanks for letting me use your thread to make sure all that might be interested see it.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/375139#n8992303

>67 Chatterbox: I'm in.

So, orthopedist tells me I almost certainly will need spinal surgery in the new year. He says I can try cortisone injections but cautioned I should manage my expectations. Still digesting this news.

>67 Chatterbox: Nuts

>67 Chatterbox: I surely wish that were not so.

>68 ffortsa: Yup, and not even pistachios. Giant walnuts.

I wondered if you had read House of All Nations by Christina Stead. I just read a review on the ANZLitLovers blog and thought the book might be of interest.

Wishing you a healthy New Year, I see you have a lot of pain issues to deal with currently.

>71 avatiakh: Thanks for the suggestion! I haven't heard of it, although the author's name is vaguely familiar. Will add it to my 2026 reading list as a book bullet!

Thanks also for the good wishes. I'm a bit astonished at how much the mobility has decreased and pain has increased this month alone, and am pinning a lot of hopes on my first cortisone epidural, scheduled NEXT WEEK! :-)

Happy 2026 to all!