September ColourCAT: Silver

Welcome to our month of silver! Here are some ideas as you think about what your silver read will be.

"Silver is associated with sophistication, modernity, and elegance. It often symbolizes wealth, high quality, and high tech, reflecting attributes of innovation and futuristic appeal." (figma.com)

When I think of silver and books, I think of two things.

Bestsellers! Mass market editions with flashy metallic silver on the cover.

Silver age mysteries! These are mysteries written in the 1960s and 1970s. Yes, if you read a book for this month's MysteryKIT, you are also reading a book for ColourKIT.

What does silver evoke for you? Let us know below. And let us know what you read for this month's color.

Wiki link

I'm sorry this month's post is up so late--real life has been a bit hectic.

>2 NinieB: Life can get that way sometimes, but happy you're here.

I am either going to read Hunt the Slipper by Violet Trefusis, with this crazy silvery cover:


OR try a Miss Silver mystery by Patricia Wentworth, most probably Grey Mask.

My book club is reading The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff in September. My copy is in an omnibus edition which includes The Silver Branch, so I may read that as well.

Alternatively, I could read When the Blue Shift Comes by Robert Silverberg.

My first thought for this (metallic silver cover) was the cover of The Shining by Stephen King from years ago! I've read it a couple of times already, though, so don't plan on it now, but it's where my head went when I thought of a silver cover.

I will be reading The Silver Rose by Jane Feather

>5 LibraryCin: I am reading The Shining for ScaredyKIT

>7 lowelibrary: Oooh, that could work, then (if you want to count it here, even if you haven't read the version with the metallic silver cover - you can pretend! LOL!).

>8 LibraryCin: This year I set my challenges to not read the same book for each CAT/KIT, so no doubling for me.

>9 lowelibrary: Ohhhh, ok. Good luck! With my eyes, it's a good thing I am not doing such a challenge! LOL!

I haven’t made up my mind yet. I have a few options:

Silver object(s) on the cover:
Still Life with Oysters and Lemon: On Objects and Intimacy by Mark Doty
Prophet by Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney

Title:
Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

Author:
The Positronic Man by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg

I am hoping to read Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George. The cover is a combination of black and silver,

I have 2 books on the shelf with metallic silver lettering on the cover, Our Game by John Le Carre and Defending Jacob by William Landry.

>3 kac522: Thanks Kathy--I'm happy to be here too!

I am thinking of reading a Miss Silver mystery for this challenge.

I'm planning on Babel by R.F. Kuang, which not only has a lot of silver on the cover but also involves some form of silver magic, I believe. And also Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher if my library hold comes in on time!

>9 lowelibrary: I did too! And no rereads count either.

>17 amberwitch: I am counting rereads as long as I read them the first time before I was 25.

>18 lowelibrary: Great addendum! Since that is 25 years ago for me, I think that makes a lot of sense.

I have a paperback copy of Fox’s Earth by Anne Rivers Siddon that has a flashy silver cover. It was a pretty good, pretty scary story.

>19 amberwitch: 25 is almost 35 years ago for me. I am rereading some of my childhood and early motherhood favorites to see if they hold up. So far only 1 or 2 have disappointed me.

I have completed my read of Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George. It was a fun take on the Dracula and werewolf legends.

I devoured Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher, a fantasy novel loosely inspired by Snow White. No silver on the cover, surprisingly, but it is right there in the title!

Finished The secret chapter, book six in The invisible library series.
A recurring character is named Lord Silver, and although he does not have a major role in this story, the book starts and ends with him.

I read Michelle Moran's The Second Empress where the Empress is wearing a silvery gown and silver jewels.

>23 christina_reads: I also read and loved Hemlock and Silver!

Just read Sunrise with the Silver Surfers which was fun although predictable, with wonderfully creative characters.

COMPLETED 3 Silver Age detective stories from the early 1970s:

The Open House
Appleby's Answer
Appleby's Other Story

all by Michael Innes

I am counting The River of Souls by Robert R. McCammon for this month. There are a lot of silver accents on the cover.

Starting the second novel in Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth Chronicles, The Silver Branch.

COMPLETED The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliff

I finished Impossible Saints which has a silvery grey cover in my edition (based on a photo by Julia Margaret Cameron).

I read Babel by R.F. Kuang, in which silver-based magic is crucial to the plot. My cover also has the title and author's name in silver, though it's a bit hard to see in the picture:

I read Kittentits by Holly Wilson for the September CoverCAT, but I now notice that the star stickers in the kitten’s eyes are silver (not gold, as in the book), so I’ll count it here too.



If I have time, I’ll try to get to Beowulf too this month.

I went with "flashy silver cover" and pulled Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H. F. Saint out of my TBR. And my bad luck of reading old books for this challenge that I end up absolutely detesting picks up again.

I ended up getting Hemlock & Silver from the library, so another one for this months colour. I agree, >23 christina_reads: and >26 susanna.fraser:, it is a pretty good story.

The Silver Rose by Jane Feather ★★★

Like the rose in the haunting tale of "Beauty and the Beast," a silver rose on a charm bracelet brings together a beautiful young woman and a battle-scarred lord. Ariel Ravenspeare has been taught to loathe the Earl of Hawkesmoor and everything he represents. Their two families have been sworn enemies for generations. But it's one thing to hate him, and another to play the part her vicious brothers have written for her-trapping Hawkesmoor into a marriage that will destroy him, using herself as bait. Forced into the marriage, Ariel will find her new husband unexpectedly difficult to manipulate, as well as surprisingly and powerfully attractive. But beneath the passion lurk the strands of a long-hidden secret...a secret embodied in a sparkling silver rose.

While listed with my Beauty and the Beast books, other than the Earl being scarred, this is not a retelling. An enemies-to-lovers story, this is the kind of book I read when I was a teenager. The story for me left too many gaps in the storyline to fully enjoy it.

A sparkly silver cover made this the perfect choice for this month.

I managed to finish Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney, before the end of the month. It was surprisingly enjoyable, a very different experience from reading The Aeniead. The cover features chain mail (technically iron, but silvery in color, not to mention the silver Whitbread Award seal):

I have finished a re-read of The Silver Mistress by Peter O’Donnell.

I didn't think I would get to it for this month since it just came out today, but I had a slow day at work so managed to read Silver and Lead by Seanan McGuire.

No Place Like



Lexie Brookner has begun to shift between different versions of her reality — one where the brother she lost in his 30s to a drug overdose as well as her late husband are alive, but her living and happily-retired sister was brutally murdered as a young adult, and occasionally one where the world seems to be, frankly, falling apart. She wonders if she might be hallucinating or maybe even have dementia, and her children — as well as her alternate husband and brother — are beginning to worry about her.

This was the kind of story I really enjoy about what one little thing many years ago might have done to catapult you into being a totally different 'you' with a different life. There were themes of love, loss, family — and of course, a very supportive Great Dane. I liked this story, and I don't think it gets 'too sci-fi' for your average reader.

As a separate note from the story, I was disappointed by the file I received. It wasn't formatted well, and showed up on my e-reader as 'Unknown' by 'Unknown', with no cover image. The chapter titles in the navigation pane were also all in caps, which may or may not have been intentional but was straining to the eye.