Lisa (labfs39) keeps her eye on the page in 2025

Currently Reading


A Kid for Two Farthings by Wolf Mankowitz


The Best American Short Stories 2009

AUDIO:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

2024 Year in Review

Books Read in 2025

January
1. Prince Joe by Suzanne Brockmann (R, 2.5*)
2. Forever Blue by Suzanne Brockmann (R)
3. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (F, audio, 3*)
4. The Paris Assignment by Rhys Bowen (F, 3.5*)
5. The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré (F, 3.5*)
6. Journey to the Heartland by Xiaolong Huang (3*)
7. How to Say Babylon: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair (NF, 4*)
8. Intimacies by Katie Kitamura (F, 4*)
9. So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan (F, 3.5*)
10. Haven by Emma Donoghue (F, 3.5*)
11. His Excellency Eugène Rougon by Émile Zola, translated from the French by Brian Nelson (TF, 4*)
12. Ex-Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman (NF, 4*)
13. Frisco's Kid by Suzanne Brockmann (R)
14. Everyday Average Jones by Suzanne Brockmann (R)
15. A Kid for Two Farthings by Wolf Mankowitz (F, 3.5*)
16. Harvard’s Education by Suzanne Brockmann

January's Short Stories
1. A Man Like Him by Yiyun Li
2. The Briefcase by Rebecca Makkai
3. Magic Words by Jill McCorkle
4. Eleven Numbers by Lee Child
5. The Slows by Gail Hareven (online version)
6. "Presence" by Gina Chung (online version)
7. "Home Range" by Ramona Ausubel (online version)
8. So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan
9. "The Long and Painful Death" by Claire Keegan
10. "Antarctica" by Claire Keegan
11. One Dog Year by Kevin Moffett
12. "The School” by Donald Barthelme (online version)
13. Modulation by Richard Powers
14. Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman
15. Them Old Cowboy Songs by Annie Proulx
16. "Mrs. Longfellow Burns" by Zsófia Bán, translated from the Hungarian (online version)
17. Into the Gorge by Ron Rash

Book Club
✔ January: The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
✔ February: continued
March: How to Read a Book by Monica Wood
April: The Women by Kristin Hannah
May: Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
June: James by Percival Everett

Holocaust Literature

Nobel Laureates

Graphic Works

Reading Globally

Books I've read in 2024 by nationality of author (a tricky business):

China/US: 1
England: 1
England/Australia/US: 1
France: 1
Ireland: 1
Ireland/Canada: 1
Jamaica/US: 1
Nigeria/UK: 1
US: 7

Check out my Global Challenge thread, labfs39 reads around the world, for a look at a cumulative list since around 2010. And I've broken out the US by state in my labfs39 tackles the states thread.

Book stats for 2024
I am trying to promote diversity in my reading and, for the lack of a more refined method, am tracking the following:

books:
total: 15 (4 in 1 series)
countries: 7
translations: 1
in French:
nonfiction: 3 (25%)

Authors:
women: 12 (83%)
men: 3 (17%)
nonbinary:

nonwhite and/or non-European/US/British Commonwealth: 4 (33%)
new to me authors: 6 (50%)

Genres:
literary fiction: 4
historical fiction: 3
romantic suspense: 4
short story collection: 1

memoir: 2
essays: 1

Welcome to my 2025 thread! Thank you in advance for accompanying me on my reading journey. Reading wouldn’t be as fun without the discussions we have in Club Read.

My goals this year are simple: read lots of good books, ditch the bad ones, and have the wisdom to know the difference, preferably in the first 50 pages. As always I will try to read literature from around the world from a diverse group of authors and with an eye out for good graphic works, books by Nobel Laureates, and books about the Holocaust. I also hope to return to my list of books (mostly your recommendations) about Chinese history, which I am not reposting here in the interests of brevity. If I stumble into a few Reading Globally theme reads, or Paul’s European Challenge, or the Zola group reads, it will be accidently on purpose, not definitely on purpose.

Happy New Year, and happy reading!

I sincerely wish you a happy, healthy and fulfilling new year. May all your wishes come true. Happy reading 2025.

I am continuing my goal of reading a short story a day and posting a short blurb about them, mainly to remain accountable. Here's the latest, still from The Best American Short Stories 2009.

A Man Like Him by Yiyun Li
Published 2008 in The New Yorker, 16 p.

Teacher Fei is retired and lives with his elderly mother so that she can remain at home despite her dementia. He becomes obsessed with the story of a teenage girl who is suing her father for having an affair.

This story is based on a news article the author followed for several months about a young girl in China who sued to have her father, as a member of the Communist Party, imprisoned for infidelity. The author created a character who was equally fascinated with the case, but for a different reason.

The Briefcase by Rebecca Makkai
Published 2008 in New England Review, 9 p.

A man escapes from a chain gang and impersonates the professor who gets swept up to take his place. Also based on a true event in which a relative of the author's was abducted to make up the numbers in a line of prisoners and is never seen again.

Edited to fix touchstone.

Happy New Year, Lisa. I hope 2025 is a good year for you. I look forward to following your reading.

>8 labfs39: Both of the stories sound good.

Happy New Year Lisa. Of course, i always look forward to your posts.

>7 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara.

>9 BLBera: It's interesting to me that two of the twenty stories in this collection have been set in China.

>10 dchaikin: Things are hopping over here, Dan. You've got things off to a great start!

---

Okay, so here's a question: Do you list ALL the books you read? Or do you have guilty pleasures which you keep to yourself? I read a book today which seems so quick and easy that it shouldn't even count, although it's 249 p. long.

>11 labfs39: You set the criteria! If you're going by merit, I'd bet your other books will balance it out and then some.

Happy New Year!

>11 labfs39: My personal view is that we read for many reasons and that can mean reading to relax or to be entertained. I say count it.

Good luck with your reading this year! I'm also hoping to more quickly ditch the not-great reads from here on, especially within popular non-fiction where there's a lot of dross.

>11 labfs39: I don't post about everything I read. Some of the webnovels are too embarrassing, or I've already read it and posted about it in that year and don't want to admit to re-reading it another two times... I used to not 'count' ANY re-reading in my book lists. I started keeping track of my reading in 2006 (mainly so I'd stop checking out the same Wodehouse and Christie books by accident), and didn't 'count' re-reads until 2015! I realized it was keeping me from re-reading plenty of worthy books, and I'm someone who LOVES re-reading.

Happy New Year! I look forward to following your reading this year.

>11 labfs39: i set my own rules on what i share. I think we all should (even if in my case i share about everything bookwise.)

Happy New Year! I look forward to following your reading

>11 labfs39: Any publication with a unique ISBN counts as a book for me. I don't have any guilty pleasures that come to mind, and an appropriate nickname for me, especially for some past and former LT members who know me best would be "The Grim Reader." 😂

I share all the "books" I read, but I don't share poetry, news articles, magazines, long form reporting, blogs, etc.

Thank for the responses to my query about whether to count guilty pleasures. It's always interesting to hear whether people count audiobooks, or graphic novels, or children's literature as "books" on their threads, but personally I don't give audio books, graphic novels, or children's novels a second thought. Of course, they are books! Because I read so many picture books to the girls, I did decide not to count those, although I have started to review the best ones. But for some reason, there are some books that I squirm to include. Why? As Darryl says, if it has an ISBN, it's a book. Is it the residual New England Puritan in me that says if it isn't a struggle to read, it's not worthy? Or my upbringing where I was called a slug for preferring books over physical labor? Or a snobby vein instilled during my years in academia?

Whatever it is, it doesn't feel great, and yet, on the other hand, like Meredith and Dan say, I set my own rules for participation. I'm not compelled to report on every book I read. There are no Club Reads police.

It's too thorny and introspective a question for first thing in the morning. Perhaps after I've had my coffee I'll come to a decision.

Happy Day Two of 2025!

>11 labfs39:
I try to finish reading all books through, that's why you often see low ratings on my thread. However, if books are really quite awful, I allow myself to strat skim reading, usually after page 150. I give the firstr 150 pages my full attention, but if the book hasn't lifted off by then, I start skim reading.

While skim reading, I may still find beautiful passages or revert to normal attentive reading.

In December, I read A little life by Hanya Yanagihara. Actually, by page 15, I already had a premonition that this wouldn't work out, and by page 30 that had changed into strong suspicion. By about page 80, I was pretty sure, so after page 130, I started skim reading. Since the book has more than 700 pages, it still kept me busy most of the day.

Yes, I list all the books I read, provided I read them through to the end, and did not abandon them.

>21 edwinbcn: I try to finish reading all books through, that's why you often see low ratings on my thread.

That's quite the accomplishment, given how much you read. I used to be more like that, but now I don't even start a book unless I'm pretty sure I'll like it, unless it's for book club, and even then I skip the months with a book that looks especially unappealing. Thus my ratings tend to be mostly 3-5*, with the occasional clunker. I'm not sure if this is a good thing (prioritize books that I will enjoy) or not (too narrow a focus). I do skim read all of your reviews, and stop to ponder some titles. Thank you for stopping by my thread.

Edwin brings up a good point. How much of a book do you have to read to count it as read? I would suggest that it's a subjective determination, but it also seems that a certain number of pages or percentage of the book ideally should be read to count, especially if you don't plan to return to the book. I counted Travelers to Unimaginable Lands: Stories of Dementia, the Caregiver and the Human Brain as a read book last year but I really shouldn't have, as I plan to return to it in the near future. However, I also abruptly stopped reading Oh William! after I was utterly sickened by a loathsome sex scene, and since I have absolutely no desire to return to that book I will stick tto my 1 star rating. I do try to at least skim the majority of the books that aren't grabbing me, save for any tomes, which I won't count as read.

>23 kidzdoc: Another good question. I generally don't count a book or give it a rating unless I've read the whole thing, but that means I never rate the real clunkers that I abandon. Perhaps I should, as a warning to other literary travellers?

>24 labfs39: I never rate the real clunkers that I abandon. Perhaps I should, as a warning to other literary travellers?

I would vote "yes," with the caveat that YMMV; I am definitely not a fan of Elizabeth Strout's novels, but I'm clearly in the minority here.

>18 kidzdoc: almost a non sequitur, but i find it odd that audible either doesn’t have isbns, or doesn’t share them.

>21 edwinbcn: that’s a lot of skimming.

>27 labfs39: I have only read Olive Kitteridge, but didn't like it either. Ratings and reviews are most helpful to me when they are by someone I know.

>26 dchaikin: No, Audible books have ASIN numbers (Amazon Standard Identification Number), although I'm not sure the number is on the Audible site. Using international ones is beneath Amazon evidently. You can add books by ASIN in LT.

New quest - how to find asin’s. Not simple, apparently. I just looked on audible

>23 kidzdoc: Just yesterday I put Oh William! in a bag to be given away (having finished it and thoroughly enjoyed it), but now I'm going to have to go and dig it out again because I'm intrigued that there was a sex scene so sickening that you stopped reading but which I seem not to have noticed!

Sorry, Lisa, I got distracted on my way in, you know how it is, but what I really came to say was this: Happy New Year! Really looking forward to another year reading alongside you.

>28 dchaikin: Yeah, I didn't see the ASIN on Audible's site either. They are on Amazon under product detail. I manage my audio and ebooks from the digital content page of Amazon, so I'm used to getting them that way.

>29 rachbxl: Ha! I guess we all have different tolerances for these things. Happy New Year to you too!

>29 rachbxl: I have Oh William! on my Kindle and the scene I'm referring to is on page 105 of that version. Assuming that I read it right that passage was vulgar and completely unnecessary, IMO.

Wow, Lisa, I didn't expect to find a discussion of sex scenes and where to find them on your thread! I do love how these discussions can go in any direction.

>32 RidgewayGirl: Do you feel like you've stumbled into a high school chat room? lol. It is interesting what people consider too much when it comes to sex scenes in books. I had a woman tell me once that The Song of Achilles was gay porn.

>33 labfs39: It's interesting how different we all are regarding sex in novels, but I will admit to being surprised that the contentious author was Elizabeth Strout.

Should you list all the books you read? Well, no, but since you've now mentioned it, enquiring minds want to know!!!

I'm a little late but sounds like the party's in full swing here already! Happy New Year, Lisa. Looking forward to your 2025 reads and reviews.

Hi Lisa, I finally got to your thread. I'm looking forward to following along!

>11 labfs39: I list all the books (including e-books and audiobooks) that I actually finish. I don't list the books I don't finish, although I sometimes mention them in my thread, but not often.

>20 labfs39: I do list my guilty pleasure books and comfort reads. It's embarrassing sometimes and doesn't improve my intended reputation as a Serious Reader, but it's okay to not take yourself too seriously sometimes :-)

>32 RidgewayGirl: >33 labfs39: LOL

>6 labfs39: Happy New Year, and these are great goals. I am adopting your plan of reading one short story every day.

>35 WelshBookworm: enquiring minds want to know!!! >37 Trifolia: "it's okay to not take yourself too seriously sometimes :-)"

You are right. Besides I'm sure you guys won't judge ;-) So here's the scoop. My cousin is friend's with Suzanne Brockmann, who has written A LOT of romantic suspense books about Navy SEALS. When I get in a reading funk, or just need something entertaining, I borrow some from my sister. I've read the entire Troubleshooters series, so New Year's Eve, after going to see Mike Super magician mediocre and soaking in her hot tub, I borrowed the first two in an earlier series. They are some of the first books she wrote, and it shows. And the steam is more steamy than I remember from her later books. But, I whipped through both of them and wish I had borrowed the rest, lol. So there's the truth behind the curtain, my guilty pleasure.

>34 RidgewayGirl: Darryl really wouldn't like books about hunky Navy SEALS :-)

>36 AlisonY: The threads are always hopping at the beginning of the year. I still haven't gotten to everyone's 2025 thread yet.

>37 Trifolia: I'm sure you will be more diligent with it than I am, but I did manage to read more short stories last year than probably the ten years before combined. I look forward to following your thread again this year.

You ARE having a party here! It is fascinating what people can tolerate as far as sex and violence in books. I am pretty squeamish, so after about ten pages of Chain-Gang All Stars, for example, I returned it to the library. I am tempted because so many people have praised it, but... I have no memory of sex in Oh William!

I don't post a book unless I finish it. Mysteries are my guilty pleasures. We all have them.

>40 BLBera: It is fascinating what people can tolerate as far as sex and violence in books.

True. For instance, I read a lot about war and genocide, but I cannot handle fictional torture/sadism like Girl with a Dragon Tattoo or serial killer books. I've often thought about why I object so strongly to that sort of violence (especially against women) as entertainment. Is it on principle? Partly, but it also just repulses me. Over identification? Weak stomach? Overthinking it? Who knows. Fortunately there are books for every reader.

Oh, and here's a link to my favorites for 2024. If you like data, you can scroll back from there and find my stats.

Looking forward to following along with your reading again this year.

>11 labfs39: I always list every book I read in full, but I don't count it as read unless I've got from beginning to end. I do try and mention them in my thread these days even if I've abandoned them, though that doesn't seem to happen very often.

>43 valkyrdeath: Thanks for visiting, Gary. Like you, I only count books I read in full. The ones I hope to return to I tag "bookmark stuck," I should start a DNF tag for the others. Someone made the good suggestion of adding a private comment on the work record so that I remember why I put it aside.

I listened to this on audio, and it was okay. A little too sweet for me perhaps, curmudgeon that I am. The bright cover caught my eye as I was scrolling for a new audiobook. I'm also interested in octopuses after qebo (I think) reviewed a nonfiction book about them. Unfortunately, I didn't learn anything about the Giant Pacific Octopus, as the one in the story both reads and understands English. I did hear mention of my former hometown, Woodinville, Washington. It's fun to listen to books set in your own locale.



Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, narrated by Marin Ireland and Michael Urie
Published 2022, 11 hrs and 16 minutes

Tove works as a cleaner at the small aquarium in a small Washington town north of Seattle. She is a quiet, inoffensive person, a bit standoffish perhaps, but then she is used to being alone. Her husband has passed, and her son died at the age of eighteen in a boating incident. She enjoys cleaning and often speaks to the animals in the tanks. Over time she befriends a Giant Pacific Octopus named Marcellus. After an injury, a young man is hired to fill in for her at the aquarium, but she can't stay away, and the three of them become friends. Sometimes life is better with company.

Chapters alternate points of view between Tove, Cameron, and the octopus. Marcellus makes for an interesting, if unrealistic, character. Altogether it's a sweet, heartwarming story of friendship and found family. A little too so for my taste, but a pleasant, unchallenging listen on audio.

>39 labfs39: I like that history of the Navy Seal novels, and I feel strongly that the way we think and talk about books written for and centered on women has a lot of internalized misogyny in it. Somehow all the other genre fiction is now mainstream, but romance and "women's fiction" are still spoken of as though they are something to be hidden away, as though two people falling in love is more distasteful than an evisceration. (I absolutely think the way horror novels are having a moment is a good thing.) Reading to unwind or for enjoyment is just as valid and valuable as reading to expand one's understanding of the world.

>39 labfs39: Darryl really wouldn't like books about hunky Navy SEALS :-)

Nopenopenope. 🤢

>46 RidgewayGirl: Interesting. For me, the "guilty" part of the pleasure is that they are not edifying, and I was raised that "wasting" time was, well, a waste. I feel the same "guilt" when I watch Asian dramas, which I started doing during the pandemic.

>47 kidzdoc: Ha, that's a no-brainer. Nor do I think a book about an octopus that can read would be in your wheel well. You're going to write my thread off as a hopeless case soon.

Tomorrow I leave for Florida, Lake Wales, to meet up with my dad and his wife. I hope to have an utterly relaxing week sans nieces. I love them dearly, but I am looking forward to a week away. The weather is supposed to turn cold on Tuesday, just my luck, but I would still rather be in the 50s than the teens and twenties it has been here. I don't think I'm going to bring a laptop (my old one is dead, and my new one is... new), so I may have very limited LT time. Please keep my thread warm for me while I'm gone, and I'll try to catch up on some of your threads, even if I can't comment at length.

Speaking of my nieces, today we finished up studying the Caral Supe Civilization, the oldest in the Americas. One of their accomplishments was building buildings that could withstand earthquakes. They carried the rocks in mesh bags of woven fibers and left them encased in the wall. They didn't use mud, the way the Middle Eastern civilizations did. The fibers allowed the rocks to sway without falling down. We replicated that idea by balancing a cookie sheet on four cans, then building two walls about 4" high. One wall was just rocks balanced on one another, the other was built of rocks in socks. Then we simulated an earthquake by shaking the cans. Even though I understood the science, I was amazed at how well it worked. My niece tried to re-engineer the rocks-only wall, but same result, despite vigorous can shaking.

Here is a beautiful photo book about Caral Supe. My older niece used the photos in it as reference for creating her replica pyramid and amphitheater in Minecraft. :-)



Caral : la primera civilización de América = the first civilization in the Americas by Ruth Shady

If you google Caral Supe you will find some amazing pictures.

>50 labfs39: What a great experiment! Safe Travels.

>49 labfs39: Smart move, booking your flight for the day before a winter storm is forecast. My son flies back to Florida Sunday so I'm hoping the storm ends up being much milder and plane-friendly than predicted. Enjoy your vacation.

>48 labfs39: Nor do I think a book about an octopus that can read would be in your wheel well. You're going to write my thread off as a hopeless case soon.

😂 I have mixed feelings about octopi. On one hand I respect them for being exceptionally intelligent. On the other hand, and at the risk of offending some people, the grilled octopus I've had in Portugal and Spain has been utterly delightful. Fortunately there are plenty of other foods I enjoy, and now that I can't travel to the Iberian Peninsula, given my current home situation, I can't foresee having octopus anytime soon, and I would probably feel some guilt about eating them.

Don't worry, I'll still follow your thread as before! I've been criticized for not reading anything humorous or light, so who am I to critique anyone else?

>51 SassyLassy: It was a fun one. Although since it was so cold today, well below freezing, and the girls weren't wearing their snowsuits, so we did the experiment on the kitchen floor. As the rocks warmed, all the dirt fell off, and my kitchen was a true disaster zone after the "earthquake". I almost called FEMA.

>52 RidgewayGirl: Huh. Sunny and cold here all week. Sunny and warm in Florida. I didn't realize you guys were going to be hit. Hope all goes well.

>53 kidzdoc: I have mixed feelings about octopi.

And that leads me to another segue. Did you know that there are three "correct" plurals for octopus? In English, most common now is octopuses. Others believe that Latin words should have Latin endings, so settle on octopi. However, the word is originally Greek, which would make octopodes! This article in Merriam-Webster is quite entertaining, as well as interesting.

As for noshing on their tentacles, I find them quite rubbery, but maybe I've never had them prepared correctly.

Finally, my daughter's first word was octopus (or rather oc'pus). I knew right then that I was in for a ride.

Great list of "best of for 2024," Lisa. Enjoy Florida and down time.

First word, huh?

>55 labfs39: That is very interesting; thanks for that link! I blame my two semester undergraduate course in Latin along with terminology in Microbiology (my undergraduate major) and medical school for choosing "octopi" as the plural of "octopus;" besides, does anyone say "alumnuses" instead of "alumni?!" I'll continue to use "octopi."

Rule of thumb: if English gets the opportunity to trip you up, it will.

Damn straight!

As for noshing on their tentacles, I find them quite rubbery, but maybe I've never had them prepared correctly.

I think I would have said the same thing until I had octopus in The Iberian Pig or Barcelona Wine Bar in Atlanta, or The Purple Pig or The Girl & the Goat, two fantastic tapas restaurants in Chicago.

Finally, my daughter's first word was octopus (or rather oc'pus). I knew right then that I was in for a ride.

😂

>33 labfs39: Ha! yes and Im sure that woman was right

>35 WelshBookworm: if I cant finish a book its a DFN and I usually dont count them

>55 labfs39: its octopi for me, like cacti; when I read 'cactuses' I feel like Im gonna have a stroke

>57 kidzdoc: >60 cindydavid4: It's funny that we default to the Latin and not the original Greek. Sometimes I feel like people are trying to be proper but landing slightly off-kilter, like when people say you and I when actually you and me is correct. For instance, You and I went to the ticket counter. They gave you and I (instead of the correct "me") different tickets. English is a hard language to teach a foreign speaker (I taught EFL for several years), and English spelling is a nightmare to teach anyone! My poor niece just shakes her head whenever I saw, "well, this one is an exception to the rule." And teaching the little one to read. Why is it no, so, go but to? Or low, blow, row but now, cow, how?

"You say tomato, I say tomato"

I do think english is the hardest language to learn as a second language. Its a composite of latin, german,greek and any other language spoken by people living in colonies. Its just a mess.

Hi Lisa and Happy New Year. Your thread is bubbling over with posts. I DNF quite a few books these years, mostly library books and I ditch them at different points, some after a few paragraphs and others take 100 or so pages.
I note every book I read on my 75 books thread including the DNFs though they aren't added to the count. Many of the DNFs are popular romance reads.
I can read fairly steamy bedroom scenes, can allow my eyes to glaze over some of the text at times. I was horrified by the explicit scenes in the popular fantasy, Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, I don't think I'd read anything quite like that before in that genre. Not needed, Ms Yarros, your readers are there for the dragons.

>61 labfs39: >62 cindydavid4: back in the 1990’s when i was doing my masters field work, my Chinese assistants told me it was easy to learn to write English, but very difficult to learn to speak it.

>39 labfs39: glad you shared. Hope you feel better now. And hope you get ahold of more Bromann

>53 kidzdoc: this made me laugh. Octopus can be delicious

>55 labfs39: how interesting about the plural for Octopus. Octopodes is such a charming word. I’ll have to use it.

>55 labfs39: Finally, my daughter's first word was octopus (or rather oc'pus). I knew right then that I was in for a ride.
Love this!

Happy New Year ! Looking forward to your thread, as always :-)

>49 labfs39: Have a safe trip and enjoy your week off in Florida.

>62 cindydavid4: English has so many irregulars and exceptions with its orthography. We are desperately in need of a language data cleanup!

>63 avatiakh: I note every book I read on my 75 books thread including the DNFs though they aren't added to the count.

That's a nice way of doing it. That way, you can capture why you stopped reading. Something I would like to do.

>64 dchaikin: I can imagine that writing English would seem easy, as opposed to memorizing thousands of characters. I found it interesting that Korea moved away from hanja (Chinese characters) and created hangul (14 basic consonants and 10 basic vowels) back in the 15th c., scholars still learn hanja in academia. After WWII and the Japanese occupation where Japanese was mandated, the Korean government standardized Korean grammar, spelling, and vocabulary in an effort to remove traces of the occupiers influence. I can never see Americans doing such a thing though, since we are wedded to the idea that whatever the "founding fathers" used is gospel, never mind de facto changes.

>65 Dilara86: I kept lists (of course) of both my daughter's and my youngest niece's word development (beyond syllabic babble). My niece's first word was book (both spoken and signed). I signed with both girls when they were pre-verbal, and it was fantastic. I really had no idea babies had so much to say. My niece knew 85 signs when she began blending them with spoken language.

>66 Trifolia: Thanks, Monica!

I leave in a few hours, but wanted to get one last short story blurb in before I do.

Magic Words by Jill McCorkle
Published 2008 in Narrative Magazine, 9 p.

A woman contemplates her upcoming assignation, as she fools her kids and husband. An elderly woman regrets the estrangement from her son. A violent teen assaults and terrifies those around him. In a mere nine pages, the author depicts three scenarios and how they intersect. At the same time, she explores the usage of the words "please" and to a lesser extent "thank you," from banal throw away niceties to heartfelt connections with others.

I benefited from the author's note about how she came to write the story, which I read afterwards to avoid spoilers. I then went back to the story and skimmed for the key words. A lot going on in 9 pages. Quite tense too.

My first DNF of the year is Strangers in their own land : anger and mourning on the American right by Arlie Russell Hochschild. I needed to return this library book before I leave, but my reading had stagnated anyway. It was well-written, interesting, and, despite being a little dated (Tea Partiers, Trump still in the wings), informative. I just couldn't handle the topic right now.

Already more than 68 postings...

>67 labfs39: Koreans are very happy with their hangul. My Korean colleagues claim it’s the best written language

>68 labfs39: terrific sounding story

>69 labfs39: i know it can be difficult, but i think that’s helpful to realize a book isn’t working right now. And you get to try another book!

I must have missed something as just now it sounds like you are going on a trip.

>63 avatiakh: I note every book I read on my 75 books thread including the DNFs though they aren't added to the count.

I haven't done this in the past, but I think I'm going to try it this year and see how it feels. My habit has been only to mention DNFs if I thought they were so incompetent or distasteful that I wanted to warn people away, but I think >67 labfs39: is right that it would be useful to have a record of why I stopped reading something.

>70 edwinbcn: January is always a fast moving month on CR.

>71 dchaikin: I was studying Korean for a while, and it’s so much easier to sound out Hangul than English. Fairly straightforward rules.

After I got to the airport, my flight was delayed so I got out my ereader only to find the book I wanted to read isn’t downloaded. I need to fix my settings. So I started an historical fiction novel about a woman who becomes a spy for the Resistance. A subplot follows her son to the English countryside and then to Australia. I need to do some research about how many children were sent from England to Australia. I didn’t know about it, assuming it’s true.

>72 JoeB1934: yes, I’m actually on a plane flying over Georgia at the moment. Headed to Florida to visit my dad and have a meetup with arubabookwoman, a former fellow Washingtonian.

>73 KeithChaffee: I had only read 80 pages of my most recent DNF, but I did add a tag and a private comment on the book page so I’ll remember why.

I do not count DNF but I might mention why, possibly to save others from a similar plight and partly because I obvouly read part of it. I dont have a number count to call it a DNF. If my gut says stop its usually rigthy

Have a great time!

Lisa, Happy new year and happy travels!
I could not follow your thread for the last part of the year in 2024 but hope to be better at it this year. It's always such a nice source of reading ideas for me.
I see your thread is already pretty busy, so I hope I'll be able to keep the pace!
Enjoy your travel time!

Enjoy Florida!

Happy New Year Lisa, and enjoy Florida!

>74 labfs39: That is so terrific a trip to take. I am especially interested in your visit with your dad. Being the father of two daughters I know your visit with him will be special to him. And to top it off by avoiding winter and getting to visit friends is terrific also.

Thanks, all! Today and tomorrow are in the 70s, then it’s going to be in the 50s, 30s at night. Still better than 10F!

Went to a bookstore today. Came away with another book by James McBride, Miracle at St. Anna, and Deep River by Karl Marlantes.

new books! Enjoy the soft side of this arctic blast. Houston has a light freeze overnight (30°)

>39 labfs39: Oh, I love the Tall, Dark and Dangerous series (I assume that's Suzanne Brockman's earlier one that you checked out). I've read a few of the Troubleshooters but even the ones I enjoy are too dense for the mood I'm usually in when I want to read a straight romance (as opposed to a mystery/SF/fantasy with a heavy romantic subplot). And I don't really enjoy thrillers - which is the second plot for Troubleshooters, most of the time.

Hmmm - it's been a long time since I read a TDD. My tolerance for sex scenes has gone down over time...I don't remember them being particularly steamy but maybe I shouldn't reread them (any more, I've reread the first few half a dozen times at least, but not in years).

I list everything* I read; if something is a DNF for a reason, I'll skim to the end and then count it. If it's DNF just because I can't get into it, it generally sticks around with a started but no finished date for...a long time. Depending on what the problem is, sometimes years.

*OK, not everything. Not news stories or blogs or the like. But if it's a story, I'll list it, even if I read it online...maybe even in a magazine, if it's a complete story (not factual articles, though). Which is kind of funny because of course I list my non-fiction books...but factual articles are not usually a complete piece, they're summaries or overviews or intros. I've been known to stand in a library or bookstore and read a picture or other short book, then take a couple pictures (ISBN and cover) and enter it on LT and post that I read it.

>81 labfs39: The two first acquisitions of the year?
I've read Deep River a couple of years ago and enjoyed it immensely. I wish you the same!
Karl Marlantes has a new book out, Cold Victory, released this january in France, but I do not plan to read it. Deep River was too good, I think!

Had a wonderful meetup with Deborah/arubabookwoman today! Lovely book collection and two adorable canine cuties. Trying to post a picture from my phone. Let’s see if it works.

>82 dchaikin: Thanks, Dan. It was sunny today but only 55F. Tonight in the 30s. Brr! But at home it was a high of 9F, so I’m not complaining!

>83 jjmcgaffey: Thanks for sharing, Jennifer. I do think it was the TDD series. I’m the opposite of you, I prefer the action/suspense of her later works. But I do think she has a knack for interesting characters, even in her early works.

It’s interesting that you think of nonfiction articles differently than short stories when adding them to LT. I created a separate account for children’s books when I started homeschooling, and I don’t count any of them on my personal thread. But I have started mentioning my favorites. I think my threads and lists would be too unwieldy otherwise.

>84 raton-liseur: I think they are my first two acquisitions, but I don’t track or try to limit my purchases (other than for budgetary reasons). I am grateful to bookstores and publishers for carrying on, and am happy to support them to the extent I can.

I loved Marlantes’ first book, Matterhorn, so much, that I’ve hesitated to read anything else by him. Crazy, huh? I’m looking forward to reading DR.

Fantastic guys. So awesome. I love to see this picture.

( >86 labfs39: I’m glad you’re ok with the cold. There must be a bunch of unhappy 🥶 Floridians)

Thanks for the photo, Lisa. Meet ups are so much fun.

What a wonderful photo. Thans for sharing it. I love meet ups.

>85 labfs39: How unique to see both my book sisters together in a photo!

Wonderful meetup photo Lisa!

>85 labfs39: That is a great meetup photo!

It was great meeting up with you yesterday Lisa. I really appreciate your willingness to drive up here, and hope the drive back was uneventful for you and your Dad. Even though we've met up before (back in Seattle when we both lived there, and at a major LT meetup in Portland at Powell) it was great catching up.
Coincidentally, in looking over my shelves Lisa found my copy of a book we each bought a copy of at that big Powell's meetup--Daniel Stein, Interpreter. You've read it Lisa, and as I recall liked it very much; I, per usual, haven't gotten to it yet!

>67 labfs39: . I signed with both girls when they were pre-verbal, and it was fantastic. I really had no idea babies had so much to say. My niece knew 85 signs when she began blending them with spoken language.
That is fantastic! My daughter looked into it, but never really took the plunge.

>85 labfs39: Great picture! It's always nice to put a face on a name!

>86 labfs39: It's fun to see we had the same reaction: not willing to read another book by Karl Marlante because the first one we read was so good! Maybe we need to tread: you read Deep River that I've read and loved, and I read Matterhorn you've read and loved!
So many people talk at the moment on their threads about reading more from an author they've liked (and I do agree, I also feel I read too many new-to-me authors compared to already known ones and would like to have a better balance), but here, it's working the other way round!

>87 dchaikin: Although it would be nice if it had stayed in the 70s, compared to Maine it’s still nice. I’m sure Floridians are chilly indeed.

>88 BLBera: >89 Ameise1: thank you! I like meet up photos too. I’m glad we remembered.

>90 Trifolia: You would have loved browsing Deborah’s shelves, Monica. I was like ooh, this was good, or ooh, I want to read this!

>91 markon: >92 kidzdoc: Thanks, Ardene and Darryl!

> 93 We had an uneventful return trip, and Dad and Bobbie enjoyed exploring the Brooker Creek Preserve, which I had visited last time I was in Lutz.

Yes, I did like Daniel Stein, Interpreter quite a bit. I’ve been meaning to read more by her. I had forgotten that we both bought it that day.

It was so nice to visit, Deborah. We must do it again!

>94 Dilara86: I recommend signing to everyone with babies in their life. It reduced frustration on everyone’s part when they can tell you their needs with something other than crying. Even if you only learn eat, drink, more, enough, and diaper, life is easier.

>95 raton-liseur: At first I didn’t think I would like Deep River, simply because it was so different (topic-wise) from Matterhorn. What’s his new book about? I won’t start DR until I get home, because I’m using my Kindle at the moment, but I’ll try to read it soon.

I’m struggling to write coherent posts on my phone, but I did want to say that I’ve read a couple of interesting e-books so far on the trip. Girl with the Louding Voice is another coming of age story from Nigeria, but written in non-standard English and includes a class element that was interesting. Journey to the Heartland is a memoir of a young man’s journey from a factory town in China to UCLA. His father was gay, and the author struggled both with his father’s sexuality and his own. I’ll try to write reviews when I get home.

>98 labfs39: both sound good and I look forward to what you have to say about them.

>97 labfs39: Karl Marlante's new book is titled Cold Victory.

From the publisher website (I'm too lazy tonight to translate the blurb in French...):
Helsinki, 1947. Finland teeters between the Soviet Union and the West. Everyone is being watched. A wrong look or a wrong word could end in catastrophe. Natalya Bobrova, from Russia, and Louise Koski, from the United States, are young wives of their country’s military attachés. When they meet at an embassy party, their husbands, Arnie and Mikhail, both world-class skiers, drunkenly challenge each other to a friendly – but secret – cross-country wilderness race.

Louise is delighted, but Natalya is worried. Stalin and Beria’s secret police rule with unforgiving brutality. If news of the race gets out and Mikhail loses, Natalya knows it would mean his death, her imprisonment, and the loss of her two children. Meanwhile, Louise, who is childless, uses the race as an opportunity to raise money for a local orphanage, naïve to the danger it will bring to Natalya and her family. Too late to stop Louise’s scheme, a horrified Natalya watches as news of the race spreads across the globe as newspapers and politicians spin it as a symbolic battle: freedom versus communism. Desperate to undo her mistake, Louise must reach Arnie to tell him to throw the race and save Mikhail – but how? The two racers are in a world of their own, unreachable in Finland’s arctic wilderness.

>99 dchaikin: Both were decent reads, but now I’m reading How to Say Babylon, and as you know, the writing is lyrical.

>100 raton-liseur: Ooh, Cold Victory sounds right up my alley. Adding it to my wishlist.

>101 labfs39: Sorry! :)

>25 kidzdoc: >24 labfs39: I agree with Daryl. I like to find out what members views on books are even if negative , as it saves me time, saves me finding out for myself.

I generally have a feel for individual members’s tastes so don’t think a caveat is necessary. I think I understood The meaning of Daryl’s ‘YMMV??? IDK. So many acronyms so little time.

>25 kidzdoc: Elizabeth Stout - yes not a writer of clangers but many like myself can’t understand what people see in her. Still I don’t think a caveat is necessary. There’s a reason that so many are just not into her and so though her works are not changers, taken with knowledge of the reviewers taste in literature a low rating is still worth knowing about.

>60 cindydavid4: Then avoid Australia where you might see some platypuses.😊

>101 labfs39: I’m happy to see that. Enjoy Sinclair!

>103 kjuliff: YMMY: your mileage may vary

Wow! I've been gradually checking in on folks' new threads and here I am finally getting to you at post 107! I missed the party, evidently, but I'm willing to help with the cleanup nevertheless. :)

>63 avatiakh: I note every book I read on my 75 books thread including the DNFs though they aren't added to the count.

This is me as well, on my CR thread. I rarely quit books without finishing them, but when I do I'll just mention it as a DNF, with my reason for dropping it, and move on, but I don't count a book not finished as a book read.

As for what I do post, it's the books and certain magazines. I will not include current magazines (we have the New Yorker delivered), but I will include the old magazines (1980s and older) that are on the stack in my closet that I'm slowly going through. I don't listen to audiobooks, but if I did I would definitely include them. I guess in my view that's expanding the meaning of the word "read." Maybe I would think of having "experienced" a book a listened to. But more generally I don't have any problem whatsoever of the idea of making the concept of "books read" more permeable such that it also takes in audiobooks. But that's just some semantics gymnastics on my part. Overall, like most here I guess, I consider our reading lists here a representation of our reading experiences. If anyone considers children's books, for example, as representing a significant portion of his/her/their reading experience at any given time, then I'd like to read about that.

>100 raton-liseur: "Louise is delighted, but Natalya is worried."

That's a great title for a novel or, at the very least, a great first line for a novel or short story.

Finally: The talk about octopus/octopi, etc., reminds me of a line from an Alan Sherman* song I've always loved:

"One hippopotami cannot get on a bus, because one hippopotami is too hippopotamus."

* For those who don't recognize the name, Alan Sherman was a folk singer/comedian who specialized in taking familiar songs and rewriting the words in humorous and/or satirical fashion. One of my favorites is The Streets of Miami:
https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/4326371

>85 labfs39: I love a meetup photo! How lovely that you and Deborah got to connect.

You picked a good time to get away from the northeast, Lisa... it's been cold, even here in NYC, though it's warming up a little today. I haven't read Marlantes either, though I've seen him interviewed and I liked his take on historical research/writing. Deep River looks interesting.

>102 raton-liseur: No need to apologize. Cold Victory sounds fantastic. I'm not worried about my TBR. I like choice. :-)

>103 kjuliff: I think I'm going to comment on DNFs on my thread, but also add a private comment on the work page.

>104 kjuliff: Platypus is a great example, Kate. Platypi (Latin) or platypodes (original Greek) would be bizarre.

>105 dchaikin: I found the last third of How to Say Babylon a little slow, but overall fascinating. Review to come.

>107 rocketjk: Thanks for dropping by, Jerry! I'm behind on everyone's threads, including my own. January is always hectic in Club Read.

>108 AlisonY: I love meetups, and for Deborah and me this was not the first, but the first in many years.

>109 lisapeet: I loved Matterhorn, Lisa. Stunning work. I was a good ways in when I realized I had missed the Percival connection, and had to stop, do some research, and start over. Not necessary to know the parallels in order to love the novel, but knowing adds another layer of appreciation.

I'm back! It's snowing and cold back here in Maine, and I already miss the fresh fruits and veggies from the Florida farm stands. But it's nice to be able to type on a laptop and not peck on my phone, so I'm going to try and catch up on reviews.

Since I only brought my e-reader with me on my trip, all four books I read were e-versions. Felt good to be able to cross off some titles from my unread e-books list.

I had read a short story by this author some time ago (What Child is This), and when this historical novel, also set during WWII, came up as a suggested read, I decided to try it.


The Paris Assignment by Rhys Bowen
Published 2023, 378 p.

Madeleine grew up straddling two worlds with a British father and French mother. While studying at the Sorbonne, she met and fell in love with the charming fellow student, Giles Martin. When France is invaded during WWII, Madeleine and their child, Olivier, flee to her father's house in London, while Giles joins the Resistance. When tragedy strikes her family, Madeleine accepts an offer to become a courier for British intelligence, a job with a very low survival rate.

I enjoyed reading about Madeleine's training and work for the Resistance, and Olivier's storyline, which took a surprising turn. I had not known about the huge number of British children who were sent to Australia post-war, in order to relieve crowded orphanages and to increase the population of British settlers in the bush. This article by the BBC describes the coverup of horrific sexual and physical abuses at these child facilities.

Trigger warning: rape and child abuse

I'm not sure where I heard about this book, Kay/RidgewayGirl perhaps.



The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré
Published 2020, 379 p.

Fourteen-year-old Adunni is stunned when her father marries her off to an older man with two wives, for he had promised her dying mother that Adunni would be allowed to pursue an education. But her father needs the dowry money, and the prospective groom needs a boy heir. From a child bride in a remote village to a domestic servant in Lagos, Adunni struggles to find her louding voice and break free of those who would silence her.

This debut novel by Nigerian-born Abi Daré is an interesting addition to feminist coming-of-age stories from the region. It is written in a nonstandard English that the author chose as Adunni's voice. Although awkward at first, it becomes a sign of her growing facility with English and an indicator of her relationship with the person to whom she is speaking. Another interesting element is the dichotomy between the wealthy business owners in Lagos (Nigeria has the highest GDP in Africa) and the domestic help who work for them. The author's own family employed such help, and it influenced her decision to write about the disparity. Finally, I liked how the author excerpted facts from a compendium that Adunni discovers and uses them as chapter epigraphs. I am tempted to look for another book featuring Adunni that Daré has since written called And So I Roar.

Trigger warning: child rape

>110 labfs39: Re Platypusses - yes when I was at a very academic high school we were taught to say platypodes. Sort of odd as the ancient Greeks could never have seen even one, let alone two or more of these remarkable creatures.

>8 labfs39: I read a short story I recommend, ages ago, by Israeli writer Gail Hareven, which was so good I’ve searched for translations of her work ever since, but to no avail. The story The Slows was in an old copy of the New Yorker.

ETA - found the short story online The Slows.

>112 labfs39: This book sounds interesting. I saw that my library has a copy of it in German. I wonder if the linguistic aspect of the translation is also recognisable.

>114 kjuliff: Wow, The Slows was a disturbing story. Thank you for sharing. There are so many parallels to what I was referring to in >111 labfs39: Taking children and forcing them to become productive adults as soon as possible.

>115 Ameise1: That's a good question, Barbara. I will be interested in what you discover, if you read it.

>104 kjuliff: Ha!

>107 rocketjk: Loved Shermann hello muddah hello faddah is a classic
need to go listen on youtube there are others I liked

>112 labfs39: The Girl With the Louding Voice is my book club read for next month. I have my doubts that my library loan is going to come through in time so I guess I'll listen to everyone talk about it. Your description does sound interesting, and I'd like to read it. However, your trigger warning also makes me hesitate. I don't need that in my head.

I also have to say . . . I really hate the title. Some titles just hit me wrong, and this is one of them.

A chilly welcome home. The Girl with the Louding Voices sounds quite interesting.

I'm finally visiting your thread and loving reading all the updates. How cool that you and arubabookwoman met up!!

You (and raton-liseur) have just sent me to the Libby catalogue for Wellington library, and I've downloaded Deep River onto my phone, and put a hold on Matterhorn. I forgot how much LT recommendations used to drive my reading. Looking forward to many more if I can not fall off the LT wagon in 2 weeks time when school's back.

>121 Nickelini: Hi Joyce, the "louding" voice is part of the nonstandard English. I got used to it, but it was awkward at first. From what the author has said in interviews, that is how many Nigerians speak. As for the trigger warnings, I don't usually include them, but with these two books I felt like a heads up was appropriate. Since this book deals with child marriage, it's probably obvious, but I thought I would call it out.

>122 dchaikin: I've read enough of these coming-of-age books, that the general plot was not surprising, but I felt as though the author did a few things that made it stand out. It's sad that in so many places in the world, education is seen as the only way out, and yet is inaccessible to so many girls. Yet here in the states, kids hate school and take it for granted.

>123 cushlareads: Hi Cushla! So when is our turn to meet up going to come? I'm ready! I hope you are able to sneak a little LT time in throughout the year, even if it's just to update your books read list or pop in to say hi. But I understand how easy it is to be inundated with RL.

This was an Amazon "First Reads" book, one that I chose out of a list of new books that Amazon makes available every month to prime members. Since I've been reading about China lately, I was curious about this fictionalized memoir about a Chinese boy with a gay father, not a topic I had run across in my reading yet.



Journey to the Heartland by Xiaolong Huang
Published 2022, 284 p.

Hanwei grew up in Chongqing, China, a factory town by the Yangtze River, during the 1980s. He had a close relationship with his mother, Rulan, and her large family who lived nearby. His father, Gaoming, however, was in and out of their lives, and when he was home, he often brought young men home with him, both individuals and groups, who sometimes stayed for weeks. Supposedly he was imparting advice and helping them to succeed, but in actuality he was grooming them as lovers. This became clear to Hanwei as he grew older and was drawn into sexualized experiences with these men by his father. Hanwei is smart and is able to escape to Hong Kong then UCLA pursuing a PhD in computer engineering. As he explores his own sexuality, he wonders how much is innate and how much is driven by exposure to his father's actions. His search for home, love, and acceptance from his mother are compelling themes throughout the book.

I found this fictionalized memoir interesting with a couple of caveats. First, I was unclear as to how true this "based on a true story" book was. Second, the English had surprising errors at times, although since it was initially self-published, perhaps the three listed "editors" were more acknowledgements than true editors. Despite these things, I did find myself engrossed, particularly at the beginning.

>121 Nickelini: I hate the title as well. I tire of seeing (not reading) titles such as “The Girl With the …” and “The ‘X’s Wife”.

>125 labfs39: i have a fear of Amazon’s free books. But this does sound really interesting

>127 dchaikin: Why? I have gotten several books from them and discovered authors and stories I would not have stumbled across otherwise. I don't find something every month, but I haven't gagged on any that I have read, even if the quality is not 5*. I especially like the short stories, because they are often by famous authors (Backman, Min Lee, Atwood, Lee Child, etc).

Last book review to catch up on. I purchased this one after reading Dan/dchaikin's review.



How to Say Babylon: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair
Published 2023 by 37 Ink, 349 p.

Safiya Sinclair is an accomplished poet and author of the collection Cannibal. Her memoir is an intimate look inside the Jamaican Rastafarian community, providing both a history of the movement and an account of her family's practice. The writing moves between an almost unemotional recitation to beautifully lyrical. I knew nothing about Jamaican Rasta beyond Bob Marley, so I learned a lot.

Safiya's father was thrown out of his family and became a Rasta man as a way to find his place in the world. Although he hated Babylon, the white world which colonized and ruined everything it touched, he earned his living playing reggae for the tourists that stayed in the resorts that ring the island. As time passed and his career dissolved, his obsession with the purity of his daughters became manic and violent. Safiya and her sisters had always been treated differently than their brother, but now they were isolated and abused. Safiya's mother protected them as best she could, but she herself was under her husband's control. Eventually education and for Safiya, poetry, became their way out of an increasingly small world.

Despite posting a glowing comment about Archipelago Books on Darryl's thread just this morning, I find that I need to comment here as well. My daughter just brought in yesterday's mail and handed me a package from Archipelago. My copy of Journal of an Ordinary Grief, which I read last month, had a misprint and was missing some pages. When I contacted AB, a customer service representative responded right away promising to send me a new copy ASAP. When the package arrived today, not only did I find a copy of JoaOG, but another book by Mahmoud Darwish as well! In the Presence of Absence is the author's self-elegy, written shortly before his death and in the same style as Ordinary Grief. Thank you Archipelago Books! I love you!

>129 labfs39: Nice review of How to Say Babylon, Lisa.

>130 labfs39: Archipelago Books is the best! I'm happy to support them, and considering that my $150 annual subscription gets me 12-14 new high quality books in translation per year it's a great bargain.

>128 labfs39: The short stories offered make up most of my audiobook listening.

And that's good to know about Archipelago Books. I do like their books, not only for the access to fiction in translation, but the books themselves are just really pleasing objects.

>130 labfs39: I used to subscribe to Archipelago Books. The problem was, I soon had an overflowing pile of books that I hadn't read. It was just one more source for too many books. :D

They are lovely though, aren't they?

It's where I found Jacques Poulin, who remains one of my favorite authors.

>131 kidzdoc: Thanks, Darryl. Archipelago Books are such a tactile treat. I love the textured paper and French flaps. I purchase books from AB, but prefer to choose the ones I want, and so have eschewed the subscription. I occasionally gift books from there as well.

>132 RidgewayGirl: Agreed, Kay. In addition to the tactile pleasure of the books, the art work adorning the cover is usually interesting as well.

>133 TadAD: You might be the person who first introduced me to Poulin. He is one of my favorite authors as well, and all of my books by him were published by Archipelago. I purchased Autumn Rounds on your suggestion, but I haven't read it yet. I've been saving it as though it were treasure to be hoarded. Maybe I'll read it next in honor of your return.

Here are my latest short story reads:

Eleven Numbers by Lee Child
Published 2025 as an Amazon Original Story

Nathan Tyler is a mathematician and college professor known in math circles for his PhD thesis on Kindansky numbers. When the US government gains access to a secret Russian military database, they need Tyler's assistance determining the passcode. Little does Tyler know what he is getting into.

Unlike Child's Reacher stories, this one is more cerebral than violent. I enjoyed it and didn't foresee the twists. It did feel a bit dated, as though it were set during the Cold War, and is completely implausible, but fun if you like that sort of thing.

The Slows by Gail Hareven
Published 2009 in The New Yorker

Thanks to Kate/kjuliff for recommending this one.

A researcher of The Preserves is surprised to find one of the Slows sitting in his office. The female is there with her larva to confront him about the rumor that The Preserves are about to be eradicated. On the face of it, The Slows are being persecuted for failing to turn over their young for rapid maturation, but it's also a story about Other, and motherhood, and nature. It's a story that begs discussion to dissect all its layers.

"Presence" by Gina Chung
Published 2024 in her short story collection, Green Frog

Amy Hwang was a medical researcher, married to the CEO of a biomedical company, and in charge of testing the company's flagship product. At the height of their success, however, Amy finds herself divorced, vilified in the press, and haunted by a Presence no one else sees. When she takes a vacation to a remote spa, several things become clear to her.

I wish they had come as clear to me! I liked this story quite a bit, although I'm mystified as to what exactly happens. I am looking forward to acquiring Green Frog, the collection of short stories of which this title is one.

>133 TadAD: I used to subscribe to Archipelago Books. The problem was, I soon had an overflowing pile of books that I hadn't read.

That's definitely the biggest downside of subscribing to Archipelago Books. Therefore I would like to keep up this year by reading new books shortly after I would receive them. (Why am I getting the sense that I'm biting off more than I can chew again?!)

>134 labfs39: I gave 4½ stars to Autumn Rounds, and I'm also a fan of Poulin's work.

Happy new year, Lisa! I hope it's a great one for you. I'm looking forward to reading your notes and taking some book bullets.

>126 kjuliff: yeah me too; cant they think of something more creative

>136 kidzdoc: It's the new year, I think we all bite off more than we can chew, book-wise. Reading Archipelago Books is a tempting tasty treat though.

>137 Jim53: Hi Jim, same to you!

>133 TadAD: I used to subscribe to Archipelago Books. The problem was, I soon had an overflowing pile of books that I hadn't read. It was just one more source for too many books.

I had that problem with And Other Stories: https://www.andotherstories.org/about-us/

I originally subscribed because they published a lot of contemporary translations. They introduced me to
great writers like
Juan Tomás Avila Laurel
Elvira Dones
Iosi Havilio
Nora Lange
Oleg Pavlov
Ivan Vlacislavic

However, they started introducing more writers from the UK, not a bad thing, but it was the translations and writers from elsewhere I was interested in. Books were mounting up, and so I cancelled.

Initially their books also had French flaps like Archipelago's (and Persephone), and spines which looked as if they belonged together, but these disappeared, presumably in the interests of economy.

>133 TadAD: >134 labfs39: More titles from Jacques Poulin: https://www.leslibraires.ca/auteur/jacques-poulin-5519?srsltid=AfmBOopm4DWwf1vcG...

>140 SassyLassy: I don't read French, but I've read all of Poulin's that are translated into English except for English is Not a Magic Language, which I had trouble finding. However, I recently found a bookstore in Montreal that had a copy in English, so I ordered it. It will probably take a month to get here, but that's okay.

>140 SassyLassy: I need to purchase a copy of Volkswagen Blues next.

>129 labfs39: Glad you enjoyed. It’s a beautifully written memoir. Crazy life she’s led so far.

That’s really cool about Archipelago books.

>133 TadAD: that’s why I can’t subscribe. The guilt.

Unfortunately Archipelago is US-only, so these books aren’t available for the International Booker award, unless they also find a UK publisher.

>140 SassyLassy: Thanks for sharing about And Other Stories. I checked them out today. I am unfamiliar with all of the authors you list with the exception perhaps of Ivan Vladislavić? Unless Ivan Vlacislavic is a different person. I learned about Vladislavić through Archipelago. They published his Folly and Exploded View, both excellent.

Thanks to Monica/Trifolia and Kay/RidgewayGirl for recommending this one. I love stories about interpreters, so this was a must read.



Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
Published 2021, 238 p.

An unnamed woman has come to The Hague from New York on a one year contract to interpret at the International Courts. Her work proves to be emotionally taxing due to the victim testimony and defendant's personalities. She falls in love with a man who is separated from his wife, but not yet divorced. Her friend, Jana, lives in a new apartment complex in a sketchy part of town, and one night a man is severely beaten in the street outside. Tension builds as these different parts of her life begin to intersect.

I didn't know what to expect from this novel. There seemed to be a tension building, and I was anxious trying to anticipate what was going to happen. It was not what I expected. I did enjoy the descriptions of a woman trying to adjust to life in a new city and the complexities of her job. The word "intimacy" or one of its variants was mentioned several times throughout the book and was used to indicate not only the intimacy between friends or lovers, but also

...it was the intimacy of the interpretation, she was interpreting for one man and one man alone, and when she spoke into the microphone, she was speaking to him.

The novel was longlisted for the National Book Award and was a recommended book by Barack Obama.

>145 labfs39: Interesting and inspiring review Lisa. I had this on my tbr till a recent tbr purge. Putting it back.

>145 labfs39: I read this in 2022 and found it to be disappointing. It just never came to any obvious definition by the time I got to the end.

>146 kjuliff: It was interesting and I liked the writing, but as Joe says in >147 JoeB1934:, it didn't come together in an altogether satisfactory way. I felt as though there was a lot of build up and then it ended.

>145 labfs39: I really liked this one - I was an interpreter (medical) at one time and found that part fascinating.

>149 BLBera: I found that part interesting as well. How accurate was the portrayal, do you think? I can't imagine doing simultaneous translation like that. Sometimes between two foreign languages no less. Wow.

RIP Ace. You were a good boy.

I'm so very sorry for your loss. Thinking of you.

>151 labfs39: I am so sad for Ace, You, and all of your LT friends.

I'm so sorry, Lisa. You'll be in my thoughts as you care for your daughter through this.

I'm so sorry for your and Katie's loss. Ace was such an important part of your lives, and losing our pet babies is always difficult. I will be thinking of you both.

>151 labfs39: Oh no! I'm so sorry.

its so hard when these pets leave us so sorry

I'm so sorry, Lisa. I'm sure Ace was a very good boy, and you will miss him very much. Hugs to you!

I am so sorry for the loss of Ace, Lisa. You will miss him. What a pretty boy!

I'm so sorry too, Lisa. I was going through your thread, preparing for things to comment on, but it's all irrelevant when I read this news about Ace.

I'm very sorry that Ace is no longer with you, Lisa.

I'm so sorry, Lisa. Losing a pet is losing a member of the family, and Ace seemed extra special.

I'm so sorry to hear the sad news about your doggo. I love that photo of him.

Thanks, all.

---

Thanks to Lois/avaland for the following book.



So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan
Published 2023, 119 p.

A slim collection of only three stories, this volume deals with the impact of misunderstandings between men and women, whether through a lack of generosity, blindness to intent, or self-interest. In the first story, "So Late in the Day," a man faces a long weekend alone, ruminating on the causes of the demise of his relationship.

That was the problem with women falling out of love; the veil of romance fell away from their eyes, and they looked in and could read you.

The second story, "The Long and Painful Death," is about a woman taking a writing sabbatical at the cottage of Heinrich Böll when a German man shows up wanting a tour. In the final story, "Antarctica," a woman leaves her husband and children for the weekend, ostensibly to buy holiday gifts, but in actually to seek out the thrill of a one-night stand.

I enjoyed this collection, in part because I had never read any of Keegan's short stories. The three stories worked well together because of a similarity in themes that is heightened when read back to back. Other readers have been disappointed at the lack of new material (two of the three stories have been published previously), feeling that the volume was a marketing gimmick, so ymmv depending on your previous exposure to the author's work.

Other books by this author that I've read:
Foster

>151 labfs39: I'm so sorry for your loss: thinking of you and of handsome Ace.

So sorry you lost Ace, Lisa. Such a handsome, handsome boy.

Hugs.

Sad news for you.

I'm so sorry. Losing a pet is so sad.

>164 labfs39: Keegan is one of the very few authors who can get away with publishing a hardcover containing only three stories and only one of them new, but this was such a pleasing small book, that looks so nice next to the other two published in that format.

I'm so sorry about Ace, Lisa. That photo is lovely - he looks like a wonderful dog.

>164 labfs39: I enjoyed this one as well, especially "The Long and Painful Death,' which I thought added a bit of levity to the collection.

I’m going to cry. I’m so sorry for your loss of Ace. I’m sure he always knew he was a lucky dog to have you guys.

I was just barely able to take in your Keegan review. It’s a terrific review and makes me want to read that book. Perhaps i finally will.

Hi Lisa. I found your thread over here in Club Read and I'm dropping off my star. I am so terribly sorry to hear about Ace; I know your heart is broken.

I have a few Archipelago editions on the shelves and I agree with you that they are lovely held objects. I love when a book is so lovely on the outside as well as being worthwhile within.

Take good care, Lisa.

>151 labfs39: Aww, Ace is so sweet. I'm sorry for your loss. If you haven't framed that picture already, that's one for the wall

It's always so hard to lose a beloved pet, even though we know that's the deal. It's a special experience, to get to know a beautiful creature so well, and give them a happy life.

Sending love to you and Katie while you grieve.

Och Lisa - poor Ace. I'm sorry - that's hard.

>170 RidgewayGirl: Keegan is one of the very few authors who can get away with publishing a hardcover containing only three stories and only one of them new, but this was such a pleasing small book, that looks so nice next to the other two published in that format.

Agreed, and agreed.

>172 BLBera: I hadn't thought of "A Long and Painful Death" as humor, but now that you say that... Although in light of the last story, it continues to be unsettling.

>173 dchaikin: Although I still remain lukewarm about Keagan, I did find the stories weirdly compelling.

>174 EBT1002: Hi Ellen, thanks for making the jaunt over to Club Read. I like the expression, "held objects," and the Archipelago Books are lovely examples.

---

Thanks all for your comforting words. It's still hard for me to talk about, but I appreciate the kind thoughts.

As I was waiting in line at the grocery store, I spied this in the bargain book bin, and snagged it. I've enjoyed Donoghue's books, and I have had this one on my wish list after hearing so many of you talk about it.



Haven by Emma Donoghue
Published 2022, 257 p.

In seventh-century Ireland, an odd monk arrives at the Cluain Mhic Nois monastery, upsetting their comfortable ways with his aestheticism. One night he wakes the abbot, claiming to have had a dream telling him to travel beyond the known islands to a land chosen for him by God. There he is to establish an outpost of Christianity with only two helpmeets: Cormac, an elderly convert, and Trian, a young, gawky nineteen-year-old. Both the abbot and the chosen are surprised by Artt's vision, but acquiesce. Vowing allegiance to their new Prior, the three set sail with few supplies and fewer notions of what lies ahead.

The story of the monks' journey, discovery of the Great Skellig, and attempts to survive on it make for an interesting story, if a strangely slow one. It's not an adventure story, but one of faith and obsession, obedience and its limits, austerity and abuse. The point of view switches between the three men, which provides for multiple interpretations of the same event, and it adds a nice layering effect. I quite enjoyed the story and look forward to learning more about the Skellig Michael, which inspired this novel, and it's more liberal inhabitants.



Other books by this author that I've read:
Room
Pull of the Stars
Akin

oh i hope you love it!

>180 labfs39: Haven made my listing of the books I most highly rated in my book reading journey. I found it to be an outstanding read.

>180 labfs39: How interesting! I've never been to the Great Skellig, but I have been to the ruins of Cluain Mhic Nois monastery. I have a photograph I took there of the River Shannon framed and hanging on my office wall. Glad to hear that the book is good.

>180 labfs39: Nice review. I am encouraged to try again. I still have this book downloaded. I might try it again.

>151 labfs39: What a nice guy... Hugs.

>180 labfs39: I'm not really into books about faith, but this book seems intriguing. Too bad it's not translated into English. Emma Donaghue is not even in my bookshop's database!

>181 cindydavid4: >182 JoeB1934: I didn't like it as much as a couple of Donahue's other books, but it was still interesting, and it's lingering in my mind.

>183 rocketjk: How interesting, Jerry. I have never been to Ireland, or the British Isles at all, but I would love to someday. Reading about places you have been is always fun.

>184 kjuliff: It's not a story with a lot of action, so I would save it for a time when you are in the mood for a more contemplative book.

>185 raton-liseur: To be honest, the book does not put faith in a very good light IMO, because it is about the extremes of faith. Men who place visions and obedience ahead of common sense or self-preservation. It does have a nice historical setting, however, and I enjoyed looking at photos of the Skellig while reading. The characters are nicely drawn too, I thought. I'm surprised that Room at least hasn't made it into French translation. It was a huge hit here for some time, including a movie, and has been translated into a dozen other languages.

>186 labfs39: You're right, I mispelled her name. Room is available in French as well as another few titles. I'll wait for the translation of Haven, then, as I do not want to read it badly enough to buy it and read it in Englsh....

I really enjoyed Haven although the situations that the monks encounter as they set up their " new " home are terrible and do show the problems with extreme faith.
Sorry about Ace. It is so hard to lose beloved pets.

>180 labfs39: Great comments, Lisa. I also liked Haven. There was such a vivid sense of the place and time. By the way, the photos are fantastic.

>186 labfs39: I’ve not a fan of Emma Donaghue though I really liked Room. Didn’t really enjoy a couple of her other books but have forgotten their names. What other of her books do you recommend?

>187 raton-liseur: I apologize if I mislead you, I spelled her name two different ways in my post, once incorrectly. I've fixed it now. Waiting to read a library copy makes sense. I don't think it's a must-read-now type of book.

>188 torontoc: And perhaps my use of the word faith is misleading, for I think all three monks have faith. It's the extreme aestheticism and fanaticism that is the problem, not faith per se.

>189 BLBera: Thanks, Beth. There are some beautiful photos online, but I limited myself to ones from Wikipedia for my post.

>190 kjuliff: That's funny, because although I appreciated the writing, I don't think of Room as one of her better books, because I dislike fictional violence of that sort. I like her historical novels better, especially Pull of the Stars and Akin.

Thanks to Rasdhar for introducing me to Electric Lit, a wonderful source for current short fiction. I've signed up for their newsletter and the first one highlighted this short story by Ramona Ausubel. I had reviewed Ausubel's first novel No One Is Here Except All of Us on Belletrista in 2012.

In her introduction to this short story, Ausubel writes Every once in a while, an inbox contains a little ray of light. Here was the request: If we send you a scientific article about an animal, will you write a piece of fiction about that beast, reflecting its situation in the wild? The request came from The University of Minnesota Press for an anthology they were publishing called, Creature Needs. The following short story is Ausubel's contribution.

"Home Range" by Ramona Ausubel
Published 2025 in Creature Needs
Online version of story

As a woman prepares to move into the house of her deceased mother, she reflects on their relationship.

I’m telling you all these things because you are not alive to see them. When I had a mother I wanted no mothering, I wanted to drift in total randomness through space and time as if I arrived here on the back of a comet. I wanted to be a particle or an atom in vastness. Too bad I was landbound, feet attached to the dumb earth, body full of needs... I stayed as far from Florida as I could, because you were there and I was the not-you. Even when I had a family, we kept our distance. Then you got sick and we moved closer. Now you’re dead and we are moving to the very spot you left.

To prepare her children for the move, she gives each of them a plastic panther and tells them they are moving to panther country. Her son worries about potential danger, but her daughter is fascinated and begins doing research. The panther becomes a symbol of something different for each of them.

>191 labfs39: I didn’t like Donoghue’s The Wonder at all. I don’t like Christian miracle things and t found the secret in the book unpleasant. But Akin sounds interesting and it’s now on my tbr.

Yes I understand about your not liking fictional violence but you and I have an interesting history on books with fictional violence. We differ both ways. Often I’ll like one with violence and you not, and vice versa. I think you are ok when the violence is about the violence of war.

ETA - Looking at Akin - seems to twin well with my current read East West Street

>193 kjuliff: I haven't read The Wonder, but from the description, I'm not going to run right out and buy a copy.

Yes, I have a high tolerance for violence when reading history or fiction about war, but I dislike reading true crime and fictional violence against women. So while I thought At Night All Blood is Black was powerful and amazing, I thought Girl with the Dragon Tattoo horrid. My own weird predilections.

>194 labfs39: Not weird but different. I don’t like crime books about murder either. I think what I don’t like about books with violence is when that violence is described in detail. And yes, I’m sure you wouldn’t take to The Wonder.

I recently read a new Holocaust novel , recently discovered - a first-person account of the person’s daily life in the camp,Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz . It was too much for me. I did read it to the end out of a sense of respect, but could not review it.

Ive read the ones you have (except Room; thats to much abuse for me to stand) kissing the witch are fairytales connected in some ways to make different stories. didnt care for wonder. I agree Pull of the Stars and Akin were wonderful . I liked Slammerkin too Looks like she has a new one out The Paris Express

>192 labfs39: I miss Belletrista. There were so many wonderful authors that I might not have found on my own, but encountered simply through reviewing them for the mag.

>192 labfs39: Also, your description of that story intrigued me, so I went and read it. You didn't say whether you liked it or not, but I really did. What a vivid portrayal of part of a family.

>195 kjuliff: Thanks for the heads up about Cold Crematorium. I had not heard of it. A definite addition to my Holocaust reading plans.

>196 cindydavid4: I haven't read Slammerkin yet. Now that I've read the four Donoghue I own, I need to start stocking up on more.

>197 TadAD: I miss Belletrista too. A labor of love on Lois and Maggie's part, but a gem for the rest of us.

>198 TadAD: I did like "Home Range", Tad. It had some great lines that I could relate to, the ebb and flow that brings mothers and daughters apart and together. She does a sense of estrangement within our closest relationships and communities well.

I noticed something odd in my reading so far this year. 90% of my book reading has been by female authors. The short story mix is about even. A short lived phenomena because I'm now reading Zola and Twain.

>180 labfs39: I've had this one in the queue for awhile, as I've read Room and The Wonder and both really drew me in. I may be too scattered these days.

>201 qebo: Haven might appeal to you, qebo, because there is a fair amount of nature description in it, especially of the birds on the Skellig, but the plants and fish as well. Be warned though that in order to survive, everything is subject to being used/eaten.

>200 labfs39: That sounds like a good mix. :)

She taught herself to read at five with the fervor of someone who needed to know the survival manual.

- "Home Range" by Ausubel

>199 labfs39: Slammerkin is wonderful. Donoghue's short story collections are also worth reading, although I think I remember you saying you're not a fan of short stories.

>203 BLBera: Ha! I'm not sure if you meant the gender ratio or the Zola/Twain combo!

>205 RidgewayGirl: Slammerkin and Frog Music are the pair of Donoghue's remaining novels that I have on my radar, although Cindy says she has a new one out.

---

Only four inches of snow last night, so on the low side of the predictions. Even with this latest snow we have received less than a third of what we normally have by now. I hope we don't have a bad drought this summer.

>206 labfs39: We're supposed to get an inch of snow tonight here in San Antonio. To my Northeastern sensibilities, that's a dusting. To those who've lived here a long time, it's snowmaggedon.

>207 TadAD: Houston is forecast to get 1-3", and possibly as much as 3-5" from Winter Storm Enzo; New Orleans is forecast to get 3-6", which is unfathomable. In contrast the Delaware Valley (metropolitan Philadelphia) got roughly 2" from Winter Storm Demi, half of what was predicted. I was set to use our snowblower today, but that clearly wasn't necessary.

>208 kidzdoc: It's all relative, isn't it? One of my sisters lives just outside Syracuse, which I believe is ranked as #1 for snowfall anywhere in the U.S. at an average of 114". When I used to say, "We got a foot of snow," she'd reply, "So, a typical weekend then?" :D

>209 TadAD: 😂 Right? I can't imagine New Orleans has more than a tiny handful of snowplows and salt for the roads, so it would be woefully unprepared for a snow of that magnitude.

I was in Atlanta during the Snowmageddon of 2014, which shut down the city for nearly a week. The hospital I was working in declared a Code White, and several of my partners and I who were working on the day the before the storm began ended up working four or five days in a row, working 12 hour shifts. Good times.

>208 kidzdoc: I’m awaiting that snow…

>199 labfs39: >195 kjuliff: I read Cold Crematorium last year and also found it quite harrowing, but I continue to read these books to respect those who suffered more than we can imagine.

Aw, sorry about your dog, Lisa. Such a beautiful face.

Just FYI, Cold crematorium is non-fiction, I discussed it (and its extremely belated appearance in the US) here if interested:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/356587#8620213

Seattle too was unprepared for snow, despite the Cascades getting tons of snow. I remember driving home one night in a storm and people were abandoning their vehicles right in the middle of the road, on a hill that they couldn't navigate. It was like doing uphill slalom trying to get home.

My college in NH, on the other hand, when I attended hadn't called a snow day in like 150 years. People just skied or snowshoed to class. Cross country skiers had two pair of skis, one for real use and one pair, called rock skis, just for getting around campus. We also had working fireplaces in our dorm rooms.

After one day (Saturday) of 32F weather, we are back in the deep freeze. Currently 1F/-17C.

>212 avatiakh: I have not been reading as much Holocaust literature in the last couple of years. Too many competing demands. I need to get back to it, starting with an ER book, Tunnel of Hope.

>213 LolaWalser: Thanks, Lola, it is indeed horrifying. Operation Paperclip gets a green light, but Holocaust memoirs from a Communist country? All they see is red.

It was a dungheap of compliments big enough for his huge body to wallow in at ease.

—His Excellency Eugene Rougon

>206 labfs39: :) Gender ration although the Twain/Zola combo is pretty amusing.

>212 avatiakh: I agree, and that is why I finished it. We must never forget.

I see you are from across the Ditch. I’ve stayed there several times, mainly around Roturua.Good to see another Antipodean here!

>151 labfs39: Sorry about Ace. I saw how much he meant to you and your daughter.

It was -17F/-27C this morning. The girls and I stayed in, but had fun mummifying a doll (complete with amulets in the wrappings, a death mask, and a decorated (shoe-box) sarcophagus). We left her internal organs intact, although tomorrow we'll make canopic jars. We are also doing an experiment where we put apples in four jars containing either salt, vinegar, baking soda and salt, or nothing (our control). We'll keep tabs for the next two weeks to see what happens.

I'm three-quarters of the way through His Excellency Eugene Rougon. It's much better than I anticipated.

Finally, here's some notes on the latest batch of short stories:

One Dog Year by Kevin Moffett
Published 2008 in Tin House, 13 p.

Moffett grew up in Ormond Beach, Florida, a few miles from the Casements, John D. Rockefeller's winter home. When Moffett learned that that's where JDR had his first airplane ride, he was inspired to write this story.

John D. Rockefeller sits in his wheelchair watching the festive crowds on the beach who are waiting for the arrival of a stunt biplane. He ponders the effort he is taking to prolong his life and wondering if it is worth it. He doles out dimes to the children, and sips the drinks his aide provides. His mind wanders, but he gamely agrees to take a ride when the pilot offers. A rather odd, quiet story about an aging man at the mercy of those around him, when in the past he was always in control.

"The School" by Donald Barthelme
Originally published 1976, published 2014 in Electric Lit
Online version

I loved this humorous short story and the not-so-funny implications of the ending. It's about a school teacher who has terrible luck with his class: their projects keep dying. It begins:

Well, we had all these children out planting trees, see, because we figured that… that was part of their education, to see how, you know, the root systems… and also the sense of responsibility, taking care of things, being individually responsible. You know what I mean. And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I don’t know why they died, they just died. Something wrong with the soil possibly or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn’t the best. We complained about it. So we’ve got thirty kids there, each kid had his or her own little tree to plant and we’ve got these thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these little brown sticks, it was depressing.

It wouldn’t have been so bad except that just a couple of weeks before the thing with the trees, the snakes all died. But I think that the snakes — well, the reason that the snakes kicked off was that… you remember, the boiler was shut off for four days...

And on it goes. I could relate since the girls' experiment growing lavender failed to produce a single sprout and their Earth Day tamarack trees lost all their needles within weeks.

Modulation by Richard Powers
Published 2008 in Conjunctions, 18 p.

This one went over my head. Perhaps I don't know enough about music to understand the subtleties. It's told from the perspectives of multiple people all somehow involved with music: a former hacker who now works trying to prevent illegal music file sharing, a journalist investigating the use of loud soul-crushing sound as a weapon in Iraq, a recently retired music professor who worries there is nothing left that he hasn't heard, and a musician on his way to a Chiptune Blowout. Then something happens that changes music for everyone.

>219 labfs39: Glad you like His Excellency Eugen Rougon. The first time I tried to read the whole series, it's the last one I read (the 6th according to the list I follow). It is not famous in France, compared to other ones in the series, but I remember liking it a lot!

Ace…I’m sorry.

-27C??? The mind boggles. I love the idea of mummifying the doll.

>220 raton-liseur: I think it was the sixth one published, but Tess, who is leading the group read, is following Zola's recommended reading order, which places it second. I'm not sure how much it matters except that The Fortune of the Rougons gives a background to the entire family. I have 60 pages left, and I feel sorry for Eugene, despite his being a despot.

>221 rachbxl: This morning the air temperature alone was -6F. Definitely a deep freeze. Fortunately we were able to bury Ace when we did.

The girls had fun with the mummification. May she rest in peace.

>180 labfs39: I don't always remember books I've read, even good ones. But I remember the story and the characters in Haven. It was a unique novel and for that I appreciated it.

>223 EBT1002: I agree, Ellen.

---

And here are our canopic jars, just because they are so darn cute.

The hieroglyphs on the jars spell out the organ that is inside.

Those jars are adorable

I think this cover is perfect for the book. It's a detail from a painting by James Trout called The Circle of the Rue Royale, 1868, housed at the Musée d'Orsay.



His Excellency Eugène Rougon by Émile Zola, translated from the French by Brian Nelson
Originally published 1876, Nelson translation 2018, 343 p.

Eugène Rougon, the eldest son of Pierre and Félicité, was a small-town lawyer who ventured to Paris to make his fortune. In the first book of the Rougon-Macquart cycle, Eugène was a key player in the coup d'état that made Napoleon III Emperor. When this novel opens, however, Eugène's fortunes are at an ebb, and he has just resigned from his position as president of the legislature. His friends are in a tizzy, because they have been riding his coattails as he rose in power. Led by the beautiful but ambitious and manipulative, Clorinde Balbi, they begin scheming to put the "great man" back in power.

Eugène is a blunt man, the powerful fist, as opposed to his nemesis, the Count de Marsy, who is the gloved hand. Eugène is forthright in his desire for power and authoritarian rule. When the Emperor needs him, Eugène's fortunes rise and he has almost unlimited power, when the Emperor needs to appease the populace, Eugène is pastured until the next time he is needed. Clorinde is in some ways his mirror—bold, intelligent, and ruthless—but she is hampered from participating openly in politics due to her sex. So instead, she works in the shadows, trading sexual favors for information and deals. When Eugène spurns her advances, she begins to plot against him.

She might have liked to try and strangle him with those slender fingers of hers, but she wanted to do it properly, and the patience with which she waited for her claws to grow was itself a form of enjoyment.

Although this novel was published sixth in the cycle, Zola recommended it be read second. I procrastinated beginning it, because the idea of a political novel about a time period of which I am ignorant, seemed daunting and uninteresting. Instead, I found the novel fascinating, with vivid characters, a fast-moving plot, and enough background information provided by translator Brian Nelson, to be easily digestible. Zola's writing feels modern, and the translation is crisp. In addition, I found Eugène a sympathetic character, despite his love of power, and am curious about what his life was like outside this five year snapshot. Altogether a surprisingly pleasant read.

>226 labfs39: Making progress!

Liked your thought on this, and Clorinde was certainly a great character.

The Brian Nelson translation wasn't published until most of the others in the Oxford editions, which were by and large the ones I read, so I had to read it later on than second.
Eugène seems to hover over many of the novels, especially in Money, without anyone actually engaging with him. I think I would, like you, have gotten more out of the novel if I could have read it in the correct suggested order.

>227 SassyLassy: Ha! 2 down, 18 to go! I've ordered La Curee/The Kill and hope to catch up to the group read by the end of February.

---

I started Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman this morning. I've only read the first few pages, but laughed in complete understanding:

A few months ago, my husband and I decided to mix our books together. We had known each other for ten years, lived together for six, been married for five. Our mismatched coffee mugs cohabited amicably; we wore each other's T-shirts and, in a pinch, socks.; and our record collections had long ago miscegenated without incident... But our libraries had remained separate, mine mostly at the north end of our loft, his at the south. We agreed that it made no sense for my Billy Budd to languish forty feet from his Moby Dick, yet neither of us had lifted a finger to bring them together.

>228 labfs39: Ah, yes, this is a famous essay and enduringly quite delightful. My wife and I went through the same process when we moved out of our San Francisco flat and into our Mendocino County house.

>228 labfs39: The Kill was one of my favourites.

Ex Libris is kicking around here somewhere. I must find it and finish it.

Terrific review of your second Zola.

>228 labfs39: I love this book, Lisa. And that essay is great.

>229 rocketjk: Did you immediately mingle your books? Or did you hold out for a while?

>230 SassyLassy: Ooh, that's good to know. I'm anxious for my copy to arrive. As for Ex Libris, it has some great ideas for Questions for the Avid Reader. I especially like the "courtly lovers" of books vs the "carnal lovers"!

>231 dchaikin: Thanks, Dan.

>232 BLBera: I have owned this book for a long time, and I don't recollect where I purchased it, although there was a bookmark inside from Books by the Way on Vashon Island, WA. I'm so glad I decided to read it for a TIOLI challenge (author named Ann/e). I've laughed out loud more than once.

>233 labfs39: "Did you immediately mingle your books? Or did you hold out for a while?"

Steph moved in with me into an apartment I'd been living in for around 15 years, first with a series of roommates and then by myself for several years. I didn't even meet her until I was 47, and I was more or less resigned to bachelorhood, though certainly not happy about it. With my large book and record collection, I thought, well, if anyone was to move in with me, I'd have to get rid of these. But when Steph moved in, it wasn't a question of my getting rid of my books, but instead a question of where we were going to fit all of hers. That was a much happier problem, and we made it work with just a bit of jockeying. But Steph still jokes about the look on my face as the boxes of books kept being carried up the stairs. According to her, at one point I said, "There are more?" Anyway, during the time we lived together in that apartment, the collections stayed separate. It just didn't seem worth it to make the effort to combine them. During that time, we got married (just a few weeks before my 50th birthday, in fact). But when we packed everything up and moved upstate to Mendocino, it just seemed natural to combine all the books together on our shelves as they came out of the boxes in our new house.

>234 rocketjk: Thanks for sharing, Jerry. Your marriage seems to have been worth waiting for. Your books thank you. :-)

Boy, am I late arriving over here. I swear I thought I had you starred and discovered that I did not. You are starred now. Hey, Happy New Thread anyway. I believe Ex-Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader was one of the first books I read after joining LT. (I was right- I joined in June of '08 and read it in September). Enjoying it?

I think it was the first book I bought on the topic, which lead me to other titles for books about books such as "A History of Reading, How To Be A Heroine,The Man Who Loved Books Too Much , Bound to Please: An Extraordinary One-Volume Literary Education (which i recently finished) ,Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult , A Gentle Madness (and all of his books) and......you get the idea; when I am stuck in my reading, I pick one and find the key

>236 msf59: Welcome, Mark. I am enjoying it, and although it is a slim book that I could read in one sitting, I'm enjoying spacing it out.

>237 cindydavid4: That's a great list of books about books, Cindy. I'm starting a list (of course).

Enjoying your Zola quest. The Fortune of the Rougons was a rare DNF for me last year, which I still don't feel happy about or comfortable with as I feel like I'm now missing out on a great series. I've still got the book - perhaps it was just the wrong time and I'll enjoy it more on a second attempt.

>139 labfs39: I got very bogged down in the middle of Fortune. Sylvere's story just didn't interest me and the writing verged on bucolic. But the last third, after the coup, was better. I put off reading His Excellency Eugene Rougon for a couple of months, because I wasn't sure I wanted to keep going. I liked Eugene's story much more though and am now re-energized and have purchased the next one. When reading Fortune, I found it helpful to keep a list of family members and their key characteristics, because I knew that they would all be showing up in later books. I also found a public domain e-book, A Zola Dictionary; the Characters of the Rougon-Macquart Novels of Emile Zola by J. G. Patterson that might be helpful. It would be much easier for me to own in print, but it is searchable.

I discovered a small bookmark in this book from Books by the Way on Vashon Island in WA. I don't remember going there, so it's possible I bought the book used from Third Place Books. Either way, it was a nice reminder of jaunts around the San Juans.



Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
Published 1998, 162 p.

Inspired by Virginia Woolf's The Common Reader, this slim volume contains eighteen essays on the role books and reading have played in Fadiman's life. Covering topics near to every bibliophile's heart, such as merging your library with a spouse's, marginalia, typos, shelving, and inscriptions, the essays are humorous, warmly written, and very personal. I love the stories of her childhood and family, from Wally Bookworm to their obsession with vocabulary trivia. A delightful book to be savored.

Anne Fadiman is also the author of the The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, a book I found fascinating. The essays in Ex Libris were published previously in Civilizations, the magazine of the Library of Congress.

>241 labfs39: I read that years (decades now?) ago and really enjoyed it. I think there's a copy buried somewhere. I should drag it out and revisit it.

>239 AlisonY: >240 labfs39: Had The Fortune of the Rougons been the first in the series I read, I don't think I would have gone on to read more either. However, I had read several of the more famous ones over the years, so when I began reading the series in order, I went ahead and plowed through The Fortune of the Rougons even though I did not care for it at all. Personally, I would say just skip it for now and proceed with the series. The second in the series His Excellency Eugene Rougon is very good, so I would at least try that before giving up on the series. You could also just read one or some of the better known masterpieces from the series, any one of which can be read as a stand-alone--Germinal, Earth, Nana, L'Assimoir, for example.

>241 labfs39: I also very much liked Ex Libris and The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down--two very different books.

>238 labfs39: I think there is a list of books about books somewhere on LT.

I found it. It's Bibliomemoirs. https://www.librarything.com/list/43806/BLBera

>242 TadAD: I could easily see myself revisiting some of these essays. They are so relatable.

>243 arubabookwoman: After reading Fortune of the Rougons, I fell behind in the Zola group read, but after reading Eugene Rougon, I'm eager to continue. My first Zola was Germinal, back in college, and it was amazing.

>241 labfs39: I had the impression that Spirit Catches You was written by a young woman, but I see now that that's not the case. Indeed a very different book, though equally good, IMO.

>245 BLBera: Ah, thanks Beth!

>238 labfs39: thanks forgot one readers delight

>238 labfs39: thanks. I forgot one, a fav of mine a readers delight

>243 arubabookwoman: Good to know, as I loved Germinal and was so disappointed with The Fortune of the Rougons. I think I have The Earth in my TBD pile too.

>145 labfs39: I don't remember a lot of details about this book, but I remember its atmosphere which I liked. Excellent review.

>164 labfs39: - added to the TBR list
>180 labfs39: and added too. Somehow those dark ages are always appealing to me but sometimes a bit too "muddy". This one sounds promising and just the sort of book I'll like (I think).

>226 labfs39: I'd love to immerse myself in these books, but I need time and that's what I lack right now. Although I've given up the thought of reading this kind of series before I retire, I secretly hope I'll get to them sooner than that.

>248 cindydavid4: Noel Perrin is a favorite New England author.

>250 Trifolia: I'll be curious to see what you make of Haven, if and when you read it. It's the fourth book I've read by her, and, with the exception of Room which I could appreciate but not like, I've enjoyed them all. I'm starting to think of her as a go-to author for a decent historical novel.

I too had always had the Rougon-Macquart series in the back of my mind, especially since readers like rebeccanyc, SassyLassy, and raton-liseur always sang its praises. When I saw the group read was starting, I thought maybe now was the time. I thought having a group to follow along with might keep me incentivized, but I fell behind after Fortune of the Rougons. When I finally read Eugene Rougon, I loved it, so I'm going to try and catch up by reading La Curee by the end of February.

Yesterday the house shook, and my niece asked what that was. I said I didn't know, but mentally made a note to have my furnace checked. Lo and behold, Maine had an earthquake. It was brief and uneventful, unlike the Nisqually earthquake of 2001, which I experienced while living in Seattle. We are going to read up on earthquakes for an impromptu geology class.

>252 labfs39: What a great lead in to your impromptu class.

>249 AlisonY: The Earth is really brutal; really well done, but brutal.

ETA: A furnace check may still be in order - it is winter!

>251 labfs39: so your suggestions which of his other books to start with ? Tho I alread am sure I will read childs delight

>253 SassyLassy: I did have my furnace cleaned this fall, but the rattle when the quake hit was not dissimilar to a furnace rumble. I guess many others thought the same thing.

>254 cindydavid4: It's been a while since I've read any Perrin, perhaps start with First Person Rural?