July RandomKIT: "The hills are alive..."

The film version of “The Sound of Music” celebrates its 60th anniversary this year! For this challenge, select a book that in some way relates to this film. This includes words in the title, topics in the book, pictures or graphics on the cover, etc.

Suggested topics include music, musicals, theater, films, nuns, singing, governesses, Austria, musicians, Maria von Trapp, or any fiction/nonfiction/biographies/travel/history that fit the topic.

Some suggested titles:

Non-Fiction
And Then There Were Nuns: Adventures in a Cloistered Life--Jane Christmas
Family on Wheels--Maria Augusta Trapp
Famous Father Girl--Janie Bernstein
Forever Liesl--Charmian Carr
Gold Dust Woman--Stephen Davis
How Music Works--David Byrne
Lives of the Musicians--Kathleen Krull
Maria--Maria Von Trapp
The Mozart Effect--Don Campbell
Musicophilia--Oliver Sacks
Story of a Soul--Saint Therese of Lisieux
The Story of the Trapp Family Singers--Maria August Trapp
This is Your Brain on Music--Daniel J. Levitin
What Would Barbra Do?: How Musicals Changed My Life--Emma Brockes

Fiction
Abide with Me (A Sister Agatha and Father Selwyn Mystery)—Jane Williams
And Then There Were Nuns—Kylie Logan
Changing Habits--Debbie Macomber
Death Goes on Retreat—Carol Anne O’Marie
In This House of Brede--Rumer Godden
Maria: A Novel of Maria Von Trapp--Michelle Moran
Murder She Wrote: Close-Up On Murder--Donald Bain
Murder She Wrote: Knock ‘Em Dead--Donald Bain
Murder She Wrote: Murder Backstage--Donald Bain
Murder She Wrote: Murder in a Minor Key--Donald Bain
Murder She Wrote: Nashville Noir--Donald Bain
The Musician’s Daughter--Susanne Dunlap
Quartet in Autumn--Barbara Pym
Report for Murder—Val McDermid
Requiem for a Mezzo--Carola Dunn
The Sirens Sang of Murder--Sarah Caudwell
Unfinished Sonata--K.D. McCrite
The Vanishing Violinist--Sarah Hoskinson Frommer

Don't forget to update the wiki! https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2025_RandomKIT

Hmm, I was planning to read the comic mystery Six Nuns and a Shotgun (aka The Naked Nuns) this year. Looks it will work here!

The most obvious one from my TBR shelves is The Haunted Abbot by Peter Tremayne, the next in the Sister Fidelma series of mysteries with a nun as the detective.

"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens"..... I'm going to pick one of my "Favorite Things Books" to re-read in July!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IagRZBvLtw

Hmm. Well, I'd checked out Blues People from the library and been planning to get to that soon, so I think I'll aim to save that for July and read it then.

I think I’m going to read The Mountains Sing.

I have set aside a YA story called The Night Crossing by Karen Ackerman. It tells the story of an Austrian family who escapes the Nazi's much like the Von Trapp family did.

I plan to read Streetkid, a memoir by Jimmy Kelly. He is a member of the Kelly Family, an Irish-American band who were very popular in Germany in the 1990s. In their beginnings they were often compared to the von Trapp family.

I had planned on reading The Life of Haydn, in a Series of Letters Written at Vienna: Followed by the Life of Mozart, with Observations on Metastasio, and on the Present State... a non-fiction by Stendhal for another prompt in the RTT group. I think this will be a twofer!

I hope to read two books, Curtain by Agatha Christie and a middle grade book Which Way is Home? by Maria Kiely.

My favorite song from The Sound of Music is Do-Re-Mi. The song begins Do-a deer, so I will be reading Bambi by Felix Salten for the challenge.

I read The Sound of Murder which is a cozy mystery about a theater troupe performing The Sound of Music.

I read And Then There Were Nuns, a memoir of a woman exploring a potential late-in-life religious vocation.

I recently finished Just a Heartbeat Away by Cara Bastone, which has a similar plot to The Sound of Music. Both stories involve a romance between a young governess/teacher and an older, widowed father.

One of my all-time favourite movies!

I have a book on my tbr, but my library doesn't have it. I'll have to go with some kind of variation on the theme...

I've started 555 by Hélène Gestern about a new mysterious musical score found in a cello case. It is assumed to be written by D. Scarlatti.
The story is fictional but based on an assumption that Scarlatti's work has never been properly inventoried: he was incredibly prolific, he moved quite a bit and it's therefore quite possible that there is missing music, specifically sonatas. Whatever the reality, the book is gripping and I've already read a good 50 pages.

I have read Which Way Is Home? by Maria Kiely. Based on the experiences of the author's mother, it is about the escape of her family from Czechoslovakia after WWII. The family included her mother, her sister, and herself (12years old). A well written and engaging book meant for middle school readers.

>1 LadyoftheLodge: When this category was posted, I searched my catalogue and found The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan. I've no idea why this title came up and at first glance don't see any relationship with the theme.

Can anyone advise?

ETA: It was made into a movie, like The Sound of Music. That's the only connection I can see. Is that enough?

I read The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater, which like The Sound of Music is set during World War II. It also has a mountainous setting, though it's the West Virginia Appalachians rather than the Alps.

I had another look at my collection and found a Ken Bruen book in the Jack Taylor series set in Galway. Nuns are almost a certainty in Bruen's books.

I have finished Die allerletzte Kaiserin. We are in an inn in the less famous Austrian Alps, where an old lady tells her life story as the granddaughter of Crown Prince Rudolf, who faked his death at Mayerling and lived as a haberdasher happily ever after with his Mary. It also provides a nice potted history of post-monarchy Austria.

Finished Blues People by LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, and it was a fascinating 5* read for me.

LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka's classic work on the history of the blues is a powerful look at not just blues music, but the history of music in relation to race, as a method of tracing the development of culture and people. By examining music in relation to the historical progression from slavery up to civil rights, the author argues that self-identification as an African-American and/or American (as opposed to a displaced/enslaved African)--and a feeling of connection and cultural grounding in America vs. Africa--is directly tied to the development of music over these last centuries. It's the sort of nuanced look at history and development which, to be blunt, isn't offered in schools but should be. Examining race, politics, music, identity, and psychology as they are all tied up together in a progression of time, Baraka paints a fascinating history that's well worth reading even now.

Readers who are less familiar with blues music and different performers may find the very last section a bit more detailed than they'd prefer (in relation to intricacies of music and the blues and specific performers), but up through that point, the book is incredibly accessible to any reader who cares to move through history with a talented writer and thinker.

Absolutely recommended.

I found a book with nuns, so I am reading Holy Fools by Joanna Harris, instead of the stretch I chose in >12 lowelibrary:.

August thread is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/372303

>19 VivienneR: We are flexible, so if you see a connection, it works. Sorry to take so long to reply.

>26 LadyoftheLodge: Thank you for getting back to me. I took a pass on Amy Tan's book. I have no idea how LT came up with it and can't remember my search terms. Never mind, it'll keep. I have started In the Galway Silence by Ken Bruen. There are always nuns in Bruen's books.

I read Razzle Dazzle: The Battle for Broadway by Michael Riedel. This was a fun history of Broadway with a particular emphasis on the Shubert Organizastion and the revitalization of the theatre and cleaning up of Times Square.

I have finished Das Mozart-Mysterium which is a sort of historical fiction about Leopold Mozart (father of W. A.) who works for the Archbishop of Salzburg and is invited to join a select society of musicians. But first he must solve riddles...Didn’t live up to the promises made in the blurb, alas. But it could be a nice guide to the monuments of Salzburg.

I completed my read of The Night Crossingby Karen Ackerman. This short children's story tells about how one family escaped the Nazis by crossing the mountains from Austria to Switzerland.

In the Galway Silence by Ken Bruen
Jack Taylor is in his familiar surroundings, being taunted by the bad guys while attempting to live peaceably in Galway. His friend Maeve, a nun, introduced him to Marion although her nine-year-old son, Joffrey, does not make them a happy threesome. Then his wife and daughter show up. Bruen’s sparse, staccato writing style gives the story more life and style than any elaborate descriptions. He also manages mentions of church, politics, family matters, and the state of the world while keeping everything satisfyingly entertaining.

Using the song "My Favorite Things" as my guide, I listened to my all-time favorite novel: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813). The audiobook was read by Juliet Stevenson, one of my all-time favorite narrators.

Be Cool by Elmore Leonard
Chili Palmer, a former loan shark now Hollywood movie producer, claims he finds inspiration in anything that he experiences as the beginnings of a great movie. After meeting with a record producer an even bigger and better idea is spawned. It’s a humorous book, made more so by having the Hollywood-style slick language, but ultimately, not for me.

I read Penric and the Bandit, which takes place in a hilly part of The world of the five gods.

I read Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson.

Holy Fools by Joanna Harris ★★★

In the year 1605, a young widow, pregnant and alone, seeks sanctuary at the small Abbey of Sainte Marie-de-la-mer on the island of Noirs Moustiers off the Brittany coast. After the birth of her daughter, she takes up the veil and a new name, Soeur Auguste. But the peace she has found in remote isolation is shattered five years later by the events that follow the death of her kind benefactress, the Reverend Mother. When a new abbess -- the daughter of a corrupt noble family elevated by the murder of King Henri IV -- arrives at Sainte Marie-de-la-mer, she does not arrive alone. With her is her personal confessor and spiritual guide, Père Colombin, a man Soeur Auguste knows all too well. For the newcomer is Guy LeMerle, a charlatan and seducer now masquerading as a priest, and the one man she fears more than any other. Soeur Auguste has a secret. Once she was l'Ailée, "The Winged One," star performer of a troupe led by LeMerle, before betrayal forced her to change her identity. But now the past has found her. Before long, thanks to LeMerle, suspicion and debauchery are breeding like a plague within the convent's walls -- fueled by dark rumors of witchcraft, part of the false priest's brilliantly orchestrated scheme of revenge. To protect herself and her beloved child, l'Ailée will have to perform one last act of dazzling daring more audacious than any she has previously attempted.

The story builds slowly, but once it gets going, it keeps your interest. The manipulations are unexpected, and the ending leaves the reader stunned.

Fun Home

This book was also turned into a highly-acclaimed musical!

This graphic novel memoir by celebrated comic artist Alison Bechdel focuses mostly on her fraught relationship with her father, an emotionally-distant and controlling hobbyist Victorian home restorer, small-town funeral director, and 12-grade English teacher with a fondness for Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce. After Bechdel comes out as a lesbian to her parents, her mother reveals that her father had affairs with men — and boys — throughout their marriage. Not very much longer after that, he is struck by a truck and killed in what was highly suspected to be a suicide, leaving Bechdel with the puzzle of who her father really was and what legacy he has left her.

This was masterfully done and the symbolism was incredible.

>1 LadyoftheLodge: This was a great topic, with so many diverse & creative ways to meet the challenge. Thank you!

>41 kac522: Thanks for your kind words, and thank you to all who participated in this challenge.