Jill's 2025 Reading, Rummaging, and Sorting Continues - Part Six

Things were getting a bit long on the other thread and a new month begins in less than a week, so I've just gone ahead and started a new thread. A nice new shiny thread, full of reading recommendations and shiny distractions. (By doing it this way, I am circumventing LT's system. Because this new thread will show the correct segment (part six) without the system getting confused or needing to get the group administrator involved. They have more important things to do.)

For the record, I'm currently reading The Demon of Unrest. Other non-fiction includes The Mansion of Happiness. More to come later in the day.

One quick follow-up. I heartily recommend a different work of non-fiction: On Book Banning by Ira Wells. If you read no other piece of non-fiction this year, read that one.

Happy New Thread!

Curious as to why didn't you use the Continue Thread feature? Because now your threads aren't linked.

Happy new thread! Stop tempting me with fascinating non-fiction books!

Happy New Thread. I look forward to reading your literary journal as it continues to track your progress through fiction and non-fiction.

>3 clamairy:
@jillmwo was worried that I was lurking and ready to steal her new thread once she hit the continue button.

Happy New Thread! :)

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread :)

Happy new thread! May it bring you many great books!

Many thanks for the kind thoughts, >3 clamairy: >4 Karlstar: >5 pgmcc: >7 Alexandra_book_life: >8 haydninvienna: >9 Narilka: >10 Sakerfalcon:. Clam, the numbering of the thread was off kilter and when Peter went in to correct it, the thread ostensibly fell under his ownership.

From a press release out of AAP:

Today, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) released the StatShot Annual report covering the calendar year 2024, estimating that the U.S. publishing industry generated a robust $32.5 billion in aggregate publishing revenue for books and course materials across print and digital formats, an increase of 4.1% as compared to $31.3 billion in 2023.

“This year’s report shows encouraging levels of year-over-year growth across multiple categories during 2024 and paints a picture of an industry that is dynamic, fast-moving, and continuing to evolve,” commented Syreeta Swann, Chief Operating Officer, Association of American Publishers. “In reference to the five-year period covered by StatShot Annual, we saw the continuation of some long-term trends, including the dominance of print formats, which accounted for more than half of the overall market for each of the five years, and sustained growth for the Digital Audio format, which has seen a revenue increase of nearly 80 percent since 2020.”

Calendar Year 2024 StatShot Annual Report Highlights:

During 2024, Trade (consumer books) increased by 4.4% to an estimated $21.2 billion.
Higher Education Course Materials revenue increased by 1.8% to $4.3 billion.
PreK-12 Instructional Materials increased 5.1% to $5.3 billion.
Professional Books increased 2.5% to $1.4 billion.
University Presses increased 3.1% to $350 million.

For more details, see: https://publishers.org/news/aap-statshot-annual-report-publishing-revenues-total...

>11 jillmwo: It was your thread, even if someone accidentally changed that first post.

Interesting stats!

>12 clamairy:. The publishers are not hurting. They haven't had a break-out success like Harry Potter in recent years, but that might have been a once-in-a-career-lifetime thing.

>12 clamairy:
Don’t worry, Clare. I am used to being blamed for everything. What is another arrow? What is another sling shot? I can take it.

ETA: Jill’s Part 5 still links right back to her Part 1, including passing through Part 3 that I deliberately accidentally usurped.

>11 jillmwo: That's good news.

On the opposite end of that news spectrum, I read someone post yesterday that paperbacks (I assume large/trade size) are $50 to $70 NZ dollars now. That seems extreme, even in US $.

>14 pgmcc: I know. Everything was still connected, which is why I was so surprised when she abandoned it.

>16 clamairy:
We have to be understanding. She has recently had roof work done.

I can’t wait to see Jill’s devastating riposte. It will probably melt me where I stand.

One could, however, put the link to Part 6 in a post at the end of Part 5.

>17 pgmcc: One could, but it messes up the Wiki. Her new thread will have to be added manually.

>17 pgmcc: and >18 clamairy: Is there a penalty/ransom/sacrifice that I can pay to get out of the doghouse? Or are enforcers about to show up at my door and demand that I add 1,742 new titles to my catalog while also spinning straw into gold before tomorrow's sunrise? (FWIW, my first born turns 40 today; is it too late to offer him up?)

>19 jillmwo:
Happy Birthday to your first born. Our firstborn will be 40 on Sunday. Exciting times.

Have the enforcers not already called?

>20 pgmcc: I thought you and >18 clamairy: were the enforcers?

Happy new thread Jill!

Happy birthday to your son (is he aware that you're offering him up?)

>22 humouress:
...(is he aware that you're offering him up?)

I was avoiding the issue of Jill's relationship with her eldest, but you just jump right in there.

>23 pgmcc: I have 2 boys; I've noticed they can get a bit touchy about these things.

>24 humouress:
Have you tried to sacrifice them before?

>25 pgmcc: No. They're not cooperative.

>26 humouress:
Children these days! What can you do with them?

>27 pgmcc: Offer them up?

My first born and I did have a conversation, but I failed to inquire if he would object to the idea of being the sacrificial lamb. Being at the age of 40, that would essentially mean that he'd probably fall into the category of being "mutton dressed as lamb".

Not to thwart the lively conversation regarding one's first born, you all might find this piece to be enjoyable: https://daily.jstor.org/how-libraries-stand-the-test-of-time/.

Detritus from the Reading Piles (or what I'm currently reading):

1. The Demon of Unrest. This is by Erik Larson and it specifically covers the six months building up to the firing on Fort Sumter and the military launch of the Civil War. It is interesting and some of what it covers includes accounts tied to Mary Chesnut's Diary. I can't for the life of me recall what prompted me to pick this one up, but it's here and he tends to favor short chapters.
2. Ten Teacups by Carter Dickson (published in the U.S. as The Peacock Feather Murders). A nice, easy two chapters per evening featuring Sir Henry Merrivale as the sleuth. At the same time, it feels rather implausible.
3. The Noh Mask Murder alternates with #2 above. It's a post-war work and with an interesting approach to the narrative set-up.
4. The Mansion of Happiness by Jill Lepore (this one is for a book group).
5. The Philadelphia Murder Story by Zenith Brown (pseudonym of Leslie Ford). This one is for a second book group. This is by an American female writer and as one might imagine, Philadelphia as a city looms large in it. Also a post-war work.

From a news story regarding public libraries in Indiana:

“I think a lot of libraries are looking at their electronic offerings,” Martin said, “So, Overdrive, Libby, Hoopla,” she named three widely used ebook and streaming services libraries use, “any databases that aren’t getting used as much. Those aren’t things that we necessarily want to completely cut out,” she emphasized, noting use of many databases has increased, “but we might have to limit more.”

For more, see https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2025/09/02/libraries-prepare-for-financial-h....

What makes the story interesting is the glimpses provided into how the local libraries are funded. It's actually a rather substantive piece of coverage.

>31 jillmwo: I am very interested in this topic, but I do not have time for deep dive right now. I will try to remember to come back and read it over dinner.

>31 jillmwo: Do you know what 'databases' they are referring to?

>33 Karlstar: Well, she's referencing the variety of databases found on platforms like EBSCO or ProQuest. There are some fairly basic ones -- ranging from ones on Hobbies and Crafts ot Auto Repair, on to Book Review Digest or Essay and General Literature Index, etc. These may be full text databases or they may be bibliographic databases. These would be licensed content and with funding cuts, the libraries want to keep the most used databases available while eliminating those less frequently accessed.

>34 jillmwo: Thanks, I looked up EBSCO and started looking around, there is certainly a lot there!

>31 jillmwo: That is a bit disheartening, to say the least. Of course it looks to me as though lower income library patrons will be the hardest hit.

>36 clamairy: Considering how low the taxes were already, I wonder how they are going to be funded.

I had a thought today. I'm thinking of a quiet little reading experience in honor of @MrsLee. Some while back (Two years? Three?), she made reference to a detective series by author Hugh Pentecost. The main sleuth is the manager of a very high-end hotel. At any rate, I picked up the "first" in the series in ebook form from AMZ. (And by "first". you should understand that I mean the second book in the series, but it's what was available for purchase.) It's entitled as The Shape of Fear and the first chapter features Pierre Chambrun, the aforementioned manager of the Beaumont Hotel, having a conversation with a very interesting guest who has been caught rifling the belongings in the suite of a different set of guests. It's very readable. But I think this is one means of remembering Lee that would be in keeping with her reading preferences and perhaps a way of underscoring some of the ways in which she was an influencer.

>38 jillmwo:
It is very appropriate given Lee's working in hotels. She loved to leave books in the rooms so that guests would have something to read.

>38 jillmwo: What a wonderful idea.

I was bemoaning the fact that I never got to discuss the Diane Keaton book that she recommended with her. I listened to it, but by the time I got around to posting about it she was already gone, even though none of us realized it yet.

>38 jillmwo: That's really nice. I'm still wrapping my head around the news. I need to keep up with threads better.

>38 jillmwo: Great idea.

Remember how I told you all at the top of this thread (#2) that you should read On Book Banning? This is why I am so adamant about doing so. I hadn't thought I was living under a rock when it came to issues facing public libraries, but this is the first I've been made aware of "Lori the Librarian". Visit: https://www.lorithelibrarian.com/ Go check out the navigational menu at the top of the site and see what the group is advocating.

Then suit up and go to the bookstore and buy Ira Wells' book. I can't even...I am speaking to the choir here, but I am torn between my stomach churning and incandescent fury over marketing like "Lori" being used as a form of advocacy.

A quote from Ira Wells' book:

...education is not indoctrination: The first involves the building of critical thinking abilities, the second involves breaking them down...The first involves developing skills and capacity for independent thought within a field of study; the second involves blind submission to a doctrine that must be accepted without criticism or question. Teachers must be empowered to teach about historical and present forms of injustice, and to empower their own students to identify and think critically about the sources of indoctrination everywhere vying for their attention. Public education and indoctrination are mutually exclusive: The integrity of the former hinges upon its repudiation of the latter.

>43 jillmwo: For dear Lori, no need to look at the menu. Just “Protect, Don’t Pervert” on the home page is enough.

>43 jillmwo: I will have to come back and look at this. I have house guests and don't want to be in a snit all day.

>43 jillmwo:
Pretty pathetic stuff on that website.

Just trying to keep things flowing along in something like a normal fashion. In a DM, @pgmcc had noted that this book had all the Gothic elements. See https://wronghands1.com/2021/09/24/gothic-novel-essentials/ He's absolutely correct. But here's what I took away from it.

>44 haydninvienna: >45 clamairy: >46 pgmcc: Absolutely agree, but for whatever reason, I just can't let these things go unseen.

>47 jillmwo:
I like your review. Well described structure convolution and genre allusions.

>48 jillmwo:
Rightly so.

>47 jillmwo: Thank you for this review! I am looking forward to reading The Noh Mask Murder :)

Here's a new wrinkle: (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rXGyV3m5oOcFcum4V7K8SndsIFeNxWdFFHimaJIzHQA/edit?tab=t.0) A young woman had posted an announcement of her completion of a syllabus for her personal planned curriculum on the topic of Gothic literature. Now some of you here in the pub will scan that document and immediately grant yourselves full credit for the coursework. But I thought it was interesting that someone would actually formulate to this extent a reading list about a topic.

In her syllabus, the woman includes the following statement:

In addition to completing these readings, my goals are to maintain a practice of writing reflections on all listed texts, to conduct research based on any curiosities or connections that arise during the semester, and ultimately to create a YouTube video essay detailing the semester’s work.

. Even more intriguing, I subsequently discovered via other social platforms that she's not the only person doing this kind of formalized plan of study. A bunch of them are on TikTok. We all follow personal interest reading over time, but this is really a step beyond.

The YouTube video (about 20 minutes in length) is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV9DeeSLN-4

There's a portion of my brain poking me about being a slacker by comparison.

>51 jillmwo:
Stop listening to that little voice in your head. "Slacker" is not a term that could be attached to you in any way.

>52 pgmcc:. I dunno 'bout that. I've never plotted out or published an entire syllabus / curriculum as a guideline for pursuing any personal research topic. I just follow my inclination down rabbit holes. Imagine if I'd actually ORGANIZED myself. Seriously, I think it's an interesting (albeit possibly odd) way of thinking about one's personal self-education / research process. Did you look at her document? It's fairly sound as a reading list (until you get to the final week where she went with the more modern stuff).

>53 jillmwo:
I will look at it. Perhaps there is a clue to the AI she used. :-)

>54 pgmcc: I think it is an outgrowth of the emphasis that schools in recent decades have given over to hand-written student planners and time-management. If you've got a long term project, work out a schedule for getting through it. I think this young woman might have absorbed that lesson and possibly too well. I don't think it does any great harm if this is how she managed her own interests. I was just *very* surprised at seeing the written syllabus.

The other factor is that she's an influencer of sorts on YouTube and this is how she builds her audience. Analog planners kind of like this sort of thing. I think it may be a product of growing up in a digital environment. As a cultural "thing", it becomes intriguing to watch. One thing I did see (whether in a comment or something) is that this is an outgrowth of the "dark academia" crowd -- again, younger generation.

>55 jillmwo:
I have looked at her syllabus and some of her video. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said she is an influencer. I have recently been amazed to learn how much some influencers earn from their projects and videos. As you say, she is building an audience.

I was a bit confused by her question, "How do contemporary writers problematize, interpolate, and reinterpret the foundations of gothic literature?" Why do they want to see the foundations of gothic literature as a problem?

Moving on, she has some of the key Gothic texts in her list. I am interested in the end piece where she is comparing, at least I think that is what she is doing, Carmilla with a more recent text, "Hunger Stone" by Kat Dunn. I may have to have a look at this "Hungerstone". I am very familiar with Carmilla, as you might imagine, so it will be interesting to see what Kat Dun has written that bears comparison with the original.

One key theme in Gothic that she has missed is what is often referred to as the Black Spain concept. Key examples of this are The Monk and Melmoth the Wanderer. Much Gothic literature was written by British authors and many of these authors were patriotically writing stories that were creating the image of Catholic Europe as evil. Remember that in those days England was greatly opposed the the mainly Catholic forces in Europe. When you read the Gothic there is a lot of horror around churches and cemeteries, that all tend to be Catholic. In The Monk and Melmoth the Wanderer evil is carried out by Catholic clergy. The Spanish Inquisition is particularly highlighted and broadcast in these stories. Also, the influence of senior clerics in influencing wealthy families and ensuring their own wealth and power is presented. This is quite a big theme for academics studying Gothic literature here. As it happens, the English department in Trinity College has a very healthy and popular Gothic studies group. I know several people who have obtained their PhDs with studies on the Gothic in Trinity College.

By the way, you may recall that I discussed, and I think I provided the link, an article that was written by one of the Gothic scholars in Trinity on how Dorothy L. Sayers' The Nine Tailors is a Gothic novel.

The article can be found HERE

ETA: I just picked up the Kindle version of Hungerstone for £0.99 on Amazon UK. On the US site the same e-book is priced at over $13.

ETA: You are getting very clever with your indirect BBs. You got me there.

ETA: On the topic of Gothic and AI, I have just read an AI overview of The Nine Tailors and the AI goes to great lengths to state that the book is not a Gothic novel, that it is a murder mystery. In so doing the AI has demonstrated that it obviously does not have a clue about the Gothic. It also demonstrates a lack of insight that a book can be both a Gothic novel and a murder mystery.

>51 jillmwo: That's a very interesting pairing of
Rebecca and Beloved. Both are about people who are haunted but in very different ways.

I'm not motivated enough to watch her YouTube video. I'd rather be influenced by the people in here.

"Problematize" doesn't exactly mean "make into a problem". It's more like "consider that your assumptions around this thing might be inaccurate or motivated by someone else," sort of.
https://style.mla.org/problematize/
Does that help? I love me some Gothic books but I wouldn't say The Nine Tailors is one of them. The Darkling Bride is.

>58 reconditereader:
Thank you for the definition. Apparently it was first found in the writings of Ben Jonson in 1631. Not a word I have come across before. I must ask my academic friends if it is common usage in their world. I see the definition you linked to states that some people regard it as jargon.

>58 reconditereader:. Glad to see you decide to delurk and come out from behind the tapestries. And thank you for responding to Peter's question, because you provided a much better explanation than I might have done. I am definitely interested now in getting my hands on a copy of The Darkling Bride.

>57 clamairy:. My interest was entirely centered on her presentation of the idea of a "personal curriculum" and the formalized syllabus. I don't necessarily NEED new people thrusting books into my hands (although again, I am intrigued by the book recommendation from @reconditereader).

I mean the farthest I've ever gone is to occasionally provide ideas for little book reading projects here in the Pub. Three or four book titles that are linked together in terms of concept or theme. Only once has anyone ever come back to me and said that they'd actually followed up on such a "list". But the idea that someone -- an influencer -- would do some of the research necessary and then construct a syllabus and map out exactly the titles and the time frame for a semester length thing would not have occurred to me. I still most likely wouldn't do that, but it is a rather striking approach. It's a different kind of output -- a syllabus, a video, etc.

Your point about the haunting is an interesting one.

>56 pgmcc:. I was muddling about in some of my background info on Sayers a night or two back. I do remember that you pointed to that document and I will take the time to carefully review. I also went so far as to re-read the first chapter of The Nine Tailors and I settled in quite cozily. Buttered muffins appearing at point of need! And now you want me to consider the falling darkness...

>58 reconditereader: & >60 jillmwo: Oh, that does look good. Adding it to my Libby wishlist!

>60 jillmwo:
It is full of allusions to M. R. James’s ghost stories and there are several Le Fanu quotes at the start of chapters. Apparently Sayers studied Le Fanu’s work the way Harriett Vane pretended to in Gaudy Night. She was quite the Gothic and ghost story enthusiast.

>62 pgmcc: Well, this afternoon I successfully located and dug out the hardbound copy of The Nine Tailors. You are correct that she has several Le Fanu quotes as epigraphs at the beginning of chapters. I shall endeavor to pay attention to those as I read. Another friend of mine is always so good about reading epigraphs and adding them into her thought process when reading and I need to remind myself to make a special effort to think about why they would have been included, what they indicate about the author's intent...

>60 jillmwo: The Pub has tapestries now?

>64 haydninvienna: Well, I don't know about your particular booth in the Pub but mine is fully decorated. (Actually, the reference comes from one of the threads I started (at some point in the past ten years or so) where I warned visitors to my thread to be wary of the tapestries because dangerous characters from Shakespeare had been known to hide behind them.

I had a bit of a binge haul here today: Carmilla, C.S. Lewis's Oxford from the Bodleian, and one of the Anthony Award winners, The Murder of Mr. Ma. I sat on the couch briefly and kept breathing in the wonderful page smell from the Bodleian one. High quality paper stock. However tomorrow, I hope to provide everyone with two reviews of books by John Dickson Carr (written under one of his three or four pseudonyms).

Meanwhile, the consultant gig came through and a contract got signed today. Beers for everyone!

>66 jillmwo: Congrats on getting the consultant gig!

After reading some of comments on The Darkling Bride, I looked online for a copy. Currently I could only find an ebook, an audiobook, and a hardcover, which I don't really mind but prefer to start new authors with a paperback. Seems it's been out for some years now, and a paperback has yet to be published. Boo.

>66 jillmwo:
Congratulations on the contract. I hope it works well for you.

>66 jillmwo: Congratulations!

Your book haul is really nice too :)

And thanks for the beer!

>67 terriks: I started reading it from the library, then got a hardcover as a gift. You could see about having your library order the hardback.

>66 jillmwo:
I look forward to your comments on Carmilla.

>66 jillmwo: Congrats on the new job!

>70 reconditereader: That’s an excellent idea!

>66 jillmwo: Oh! Congrats! So happy for you.

>66 jillmwo: Congrats on the new gig!

>65 jillmwo: My booth has a circular black carpet, made by the Voyd Carpet Company*, which is black enough to reflect no light at all, and looks like an opening into the Dungeon Dimensions. Which, oddly, is exactly what it is. One-way, fortunately.

Congratulations on getting the consultancy gig.

*This harks back to a story, "There Is A Crooked Man" by Jack Wodhams, an Australian who published a few decent stories in Analog back in the late sixties.

>66 jillmwo: Congratulations! That's great news!

>43 jillmwo: My reaction upon opening that website is not suitable for sharing in either polite or impolite company. Suffice to say that as a librarian I am OUTRAGED!

>77 Sakerfalcon: Thank you. Outrage, fury, sick at heart. "All the feels" is a dreadful phrase but I was so horrified when I explored that site. I do understand what their concerns are, but that is such a horrible piece of advocacy on so many levels.

While I'm grateful for the consulting gig, I'm hoping it won't cut too deeply into time spent here in the Pub.

>76 haydninvienna:. What an interesting interior design choice... Just know that from here on in, we hang out in my booth rather than yours. One can generally move to duck an incoming swipe of a dagger, but how does one avoid a VOYD?

>66 jillmwo: Congratulations!

Thanks. Pulling up a stool.

ETA: bt not too close to >76 haydninvienna:

>79 humouress: It's OK, the VOYD is pre-set to dump only advocates of censorship into the Dungeon Dimensions. It's where they belong.

Seriously, I refuse to go further than the landing page with that website, partly because I already have far too much to be outraged at and partly because I don't want to grant them the clicks. It would be optimistic to proclaim that Australia is a bastion of free thought, but I checked to see whether the Brisbane City library system has copies of And Tango Makes Three, using that much-challenged title as a proxy for how liberal the Brisbane system is. It does — 21 copies, 10 of which are "on shelf in library", according to a catalogue search.

>80 haydninvienna: Same here. That site was very slick, but I don't want to spend any time on it and boost their metrics.

The White Priory Murders and The Ten Teacups,

So a week ago I had posted a brief review of The Noh Mask Murder, (see #47 above at https://www.librarything.com/topic/373353#8944386). Reading that sent me off to finish The Ten Teacups and to rush through The White Priory Murders because Takagi had referenced Carter Dickson as author of those two titles in his mystery. (Following such trails is one of the more rewarding aspects of reading as it can take one fairly far afield.)

I don’t find John Dickson Carr to be particularly immersive -- essentially for the same reason I don’t find S.S. Van Dine immersive. Both authors are too busy constructing something artful to remember that sometimes a reader just wants to be entertained rather than challenged. The White Priory Murders is not immersive, but some readers will find it entertaining as an intellectual puzzle. That said, I found it more interesting than Ten Teacups. The problem with both is that they’re rather implausible. Priory gets away with it more successfully than Teacups because the time frame is so compressed – perhaps three days in December and then a final chapter set in June of the following year. Teacups plays out across a short time frame of roughly a week, but even with a variety of locations involved, it’s largely claustrophobic even when the investigation is away from the actual murder site.

I should retrace a bit. The plot of The White Priory Murders centers around a group of theatre professionals - a director, a publicist, a backer or “Angel” with money, and a femme fatale of an actress. Trying to get financial backing for a play, a group gathers at a traditional country house estate, the kind with many guest rooms, secret doors and passages, big staircases, and a full staff of servants. The murder takes place out in a pavilion set a slight distance from the main house. There is snowfall (with a single set of footprints visible) and a dog howling in the wee small hours of the morning. There are a few female characters in this one but they seemed to me to be largely decorative. One is there as the victim, one is there as the love interest, and a third seems to me to be remarkably flimsy – barely there and likely to faint if sneezed at.

From there the whole thing becomes quite complicated. But this is the first of John Dickson Carr’s locked room stories where he lays out his theories about how locked room murders happen (which is how it tied into The Noh Mask Murders). In this one, he comes up with three means or avenues of how one constructs such a thing. In the next book, he comes up with five and finally, in The Three Coffins, he devotes an entire chapter to the topic by listing eight such
possibilities.

The problem with The Ten Teacups is the absurdity of the crime itself. No criminal would jump through so many hoops just to kill someone off. There’s suspicion of a secret society of some sort. invited to attend, they’ve staked out an empty residence with just a single furnished room in the house with an expensive tablecloth set with a set of majolica cups. There’s at least two bodies, but I am afraid the only aspect that stuck with me was the unsatisfactory nature of the two women involved in the case. One’s a sweet young thing and the other is a floozy – neither are particulathyrly positive as role models.

These are still in print and frankly are much praised by critics. Dorothy Sayers gave The White Priory Murders a very positive review. I am glad I read them, but I’m teetering back and forth as to whether they ought to be kept as reference.

Instead, I read the first 30 pages of C.S. Lewis’ Oxford at lunch today and learned more about how Oxford operated back in the 20s and 30s than from anything else I’ve ever read about the University. (How very arcane some of the practices are!!)

ETA: I also started reading some short stories by Le Fanu. "Green Tea" was certainly evocative in its descriptions.

Just read this bit of breathless prose from a Publishers Weekly newsletter:

This week, Readerlink expanded into library distribution with its acquisition of Baker & Taylor—the fourth time the wholesaler has changed hands in less than 10 years. A judge pulled the brakes on Anthropic’s proposed $1.5 billion settlement with rightsholders in their class action copyright suit, saying that too many details about how the money would be distributed were still up in the air. This year’s National Book Award nominees have been announced in the categories of young people’s literature, translated literature, poetry, nonfiction, and fiction, with the finalists to be named next month. An appeals court temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s attempts to remove Shira Perlmutter as register of copyrights. And, in a win for the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, another appeals court upheld an injunction against the Trump administration’s attempted gutting of the institution.

The wheels of time grind on...

I saw some interesting news that Amazon is making Kindle Unlimited available for Libraries. That seems like something that will be pretty great. Here's the article: https://newshelves.com/kindle-unlimited-authors-can-now-distribute-to-libraries/

>83 jillmwo: How is that all one paragraph?

>84 Narilka: That's an interesting piece of news. I'll look around to see if there's more information available. I hadn't encountered that before.

>85 Karlstar: That had crossed my mind as well, However, the theory is that you will be so desirous to gather additional details that you will continue to across down to the individual linked headlines that will take you to the various separate stories. I agree that as a paragraph it leaves something to be desired, but by doing it that way, they think they're conveying breathless excitement. You wouldn't have felt that way if they just gave you bullet points, now would you. They're sure you will forgive the oddness because you'll be so interested in ALL the IMPORTANT news.

>83 jillmwo: There are several things to celebrate in there!

>84 Narilka: I am very curious as to how that would work! Are they trying to undercut Libby /Overdrive?

>86 jillmwo: I'm an IT nerd, I like bullet points! It is my primary language.

>87 clamairy: Don't know! Hopefully Jill finds out more and reports back :) On the surface it seems to be very positive at least for KU Authors, their fans and libraries.

Argh -- the time spent this far this week on spreadsheets and technical documentation. But I'm glad you reminded me, >88 Karlstar: about the preference for a stripped-down approach.

>89 Narilka: I haven't turned up any new info on that front.

Meanwhile, I have read the first two chapters of The Nine Tailors and revisited some of the Lit Crit. What I really made use of was a glossary of terminology unique to the architecture and interior design of Great Cathedrals. (Yes, I know Lord Peter did call it a "young" Cathedral rather than a great one, but there are few subject-specific resources on that particular subset.) But Mrs Venables drops all kind of jargon in that second chapter...

From a professional working in the information community:

The University of Waterloo in Canada reported experiencing occasional tariff issues on incoming items but planned to continue sharing with US partners. Pennsylvania State University established review processes for international requests and began using specific language on customs forms—”Any value stated is for insurance purposes only”—with some initial success. The University of Pennsylvania, a prolific borrower and supplier of library materials across borders, took a more cautious tack, temporarily pausing all international sharing after having an item stuck in Hong Kong customs, requiring $500 for its release. The University of Glasgow began changing their customs forms from “temporary export” to “personal, not for resale,” which seemed to help avoid additional shipping charges on packages shipped to the US. Yale University and the University of Michigan reported receiving direct notifications from additional European suppliers about temporary service suspensions.

For the full story, see https://hangingtogether.org/rising-to-the-challenge-how-the-shares-resource-shar...

>91 jillmwo: I'm glad they are finding workarounds, the fact that they are forced to do this is infuriating.

From Columbia Journalism Review comes more analysis of ebooks, licensing and the question of corporate control: https://www.cjr.org/analysis/the-bigger-threat-to-books-than-bans-is-distributio...

>93 jillmwo: Not sure I understand their point here: "The potential cost of leaving your e-books in the hands of Amazon was dramatically illustrated as early as 2009, when the company deleted e-book copies of 1984 and Animal Farm from the Kindles of people who had bought them. (The company explained that these particular e-books had been pirated through a self-publishing option on Amazon, and sold on without permission from rights holders.)"

Isn't this exactly what should have happened? Amazon is just the distributor, not the publisher.

>94 Karlstar: I think that's why it says "potential cost," which is that Amazon *can* delete e-book copies of people that bought them, not that it was wrong to do so in this case.

More cause for concern as requests for AI-generated (or else hallucinated) titles enters the library environment:

Jaime Taylor, an academic library resource management systems supervisor with the University of Massachusetts, says vendors are shoehorning Large Language Models (LLMs) into library systems in one of two ways. The first is a natural language search (NLS) or a semantic search that attempts to draw meaning from the words to find complementary search results. Taylor says these products are misleading in that they claim to eliminate the need for the strict keyword searches or Boolean operators when searching library catalogs and databases, when really the LLM is doing the same work on the backend.
“These companies all advertise these tools as knowing your intent,” Taylor told 404 Media. “Understanding what you meant when you put those terms in. They don’t know. They don’t understand. None of those things are true. There is no technical way these tools can do that.”

Full story is here (no paywall): https://www.404media.co/librarians-are-being-asked-to-find-ai-hallucinated-books...

>94 Karlstar: Amazon wears a bunch of different hats these days, being (1) platform provider, (2) distributor, and to some extent, (3) as publisher. The writer of the article is primarily concerned with their activity as both publisher as well as platform provider. The bit about the removal of purloined content (where AMZ did indeed do what they were legally obligated to do) isn't perhaps the best support for her general concern. Except as >95 jjwilson61: points out, it is possible grounds for concern that they CAN zap content from the consumer's library. She doesn't like the fact that corporate entities (particularly in the current environment) are subject to outside pressures when it comes to what they release or don't release, license or don't license, etc. They will control what a consumer accesses, unless the consumer is smart enough to buy print where the doctrine of first sale still holds.

>95 jjwilson61: >97 jillmwo: I would have preferred the article writer put it in a different light, since that was the correct action in this case. I've always been concerned about the possibility of Amazon doing the wrong thing and deleting content I should own legitimately. It is one reason I prefer my Nook for an e-reader, but what says B&N will behave better?

I still prefer print, but my bookshelves are complaining.

>96 jillmwo: That is an excellent and very worrying article. The new CTO at the university where I work wants to embed AI throughout the curriculum and digital services which I and my colleagues are firmly against. Even those of my colleagues who were initially very excited and positive about AI have become far more cautious and wary over the past year as its flaws and the environmental and moral costs become clearer.

I said the article was worrying; I also found it heartening to know that other librarians share my feelings on this topic.

>99 Sakerfalcon: Ack! No, no, no. (Can we find a good reason to promote/sideline the new CTO to some less horrifying place of influence in the hierarchy?) Like you, I have a healthy degree of scepticism regarding AI and I can't believe the ways in which it is working itself to the light of day. It's like a really bad invasive species of plant.

>100 jillmwo: Everything I read about it just makes my heart sink further. I've just read a piece in the Financial Times about medical AI tools "downplaying symptoms in women and ethnic minorities". It gets worse and worse. Your invasive plant analogy is perfect.

>101 Sakerfalcon: I wonder how it learned that?

>100 jillmwo:, >101 Sakerfalcon: Just, Ugh...

>102 humouress: Ha!!!

As I understand it, today being September 22nd, we should all be out celebrating Hobbit Day. https://bookriot.com/hobbit-themed-goods-for-hobbit-day

It's shameless marketing "stuff" but the tea towel or the hobbit meal sign might appeal to those starting their Christmas shopping early. There are shirts, vests, etc. I liked the shirt that reads "I'm actually quite tall for a hobbit."

>104 jillmwo: Yes, it is Bilbo's and Frodo's birthday! There's some fun stuff there, Jill. I really like the T-shirt that "I'm actually quite tall for a hobbit."

>104 jillmwo: I will have to tell my sister next year that her birthday falls on Hobbit Day.

George Takei Has Been Named Honorary Chair of Banned Books Week 2025
https://www.ala.org/news/2025/09/legendary-actorauthoractivist-george-takei-name...

This year's Banned Books Week occurs October 5-11, 2025.

It may be that I'm beginning to edge towards obsession with the topic.

>107 jillmwo: Oh, that's awesome!

And I understand your obsession completely. I had no idea his amazing graphic novel They Called Us Enemy was being banned in various school districts. This makes my head explode.

Jill, THIS STUDY explains to me why you have such difficulty with Dickens.

:-)

>109 pgmcc: That study has been ALL OVER my feeds today. And I'll have you know, I parsed that infamous paragraph without any problem whatsoever. There is a HUGE difference between being confused by Dickens' sentences and simply not finding him as engaging as Wilkie Collins. I fall into the latter camp rather than the former.

>110 jillmwo: I'm with you. I can understand Dickens, I just don't like him.

This week's PITA -- the Moderna version of the COVID vaccine always knocks me for a real loop. No sleep last night. Blurred brain. *murfle*

>112 jillmwo:
Get well soon. A blurred brain is not something I would associate with you under normal circumstances.

>112 jillmwo: Sorry to hear that, I hope it passes soon.

>112 jillmwo: Ugh. Feel better soon. Which one are you getting? I switched from Moderna's to the Novavax a few shots ago. I have had no side-effects other than a little site tenderness.

>112 jillmwo: Get well soon!

I'm fine at this point, but it was an uncomfortable 24 hours. Got the shot yesterday morning at 9:30am. Then within 12 hours, I was feeling the reaction and then by noon today, I was "okay". Sufficiently okay to sit at the desk and work for a few hours. I'll still go to bed early tonight. Geez louise...

At the moment, our local pharmacy only offers either Moderna or Pfizer. But thanks for the heads up, >115 clamairy: I'll keep an eye open for the Novavax. As it is, we've just been informed that our provider's drug plan will be changing come the new year. The costs have increased by a ridiculous percentage.

>117 jillmwo: It's disgraceful, isn't it?

Something to share -- perhaps loosely related to the group read of The Nine Tailors but one can enjoy it on it's own. Poetry for those who might feel we've been missing some of that. And it comes with an aura of humor as well as truth. The poem is "Diary of a Church Mouse".

Here among long-discarded cassocks,
Damp stools, and half-split open hassocks,
Here where the vicar never looks
I nibble through old service books.
Lean and alone I spend my days
Behind this Church of England baize.
I share my dark forgotten room
With two oil-lamps and half a broom.
The cleaner never bothers me,
So here I eat my frugal tea.
My bread is sawdust mixed with straw;
My jam is polish for the floor.
Christmas and Easter may be feasts
For congregations and for priests,
And so may Whitsun. All the same,
They do not fill my meagre frame.
For me the only feast at all
Is Autumn's Harvest Festival,
When I can satisfy my want
With ears of corn around the font.
I climb the eagle's brazen head
To burrow through a loaf of bread.
I scramble up the pulpit stair
And gnaw the marrows hanging there.
It is enjoyable to taste
These items ere they go to waste,
But how annoying when one finds
That other mice with pagan minds
Come into church my food to share
Who have no proper business there.

There's more to the poem (found here https://allpoetry.com/diary-of-a-church-mouse), but I don't want to rob my source of any click through traffic that might be due them. I found the piece itself rather endearing, even charming. Having dealt with a mouse infestation, it's worth noting that I personally do not find the little live varmints either endearing OR charming. They made my life a living chore and the worst of it was when they decided to gnaw on books sitting on shelves.

The author of the poem is Sir John Betjeman, a British poet (1906-1984). I can't seem to identify the year of composition or publication. However I did find that it appears in this collection, Faith and Doubt of John Betjeman: An Anthology of his Religious Verse

>119 jillmwo:
Betjamin is an interesting character and his work is good fun. During WWII, known in neutral Ireland as The Emergency, Betjamin was assigned to Ireland as British press attaché in Dublin. In essence, he was spying on Dublin and gathering information and spreading rumours about the Germans. This article gives an overview of his role during The Emergency in Ireland.

>119 jillmwo: That's adorable. If I get a chance later I will go look for the rest.

>120 pgmcc: I had no idea Ireland managed to stay out of WW II!

>121 clamairy:
It was complex. When all is said and done it did things that favoured the allies more than Germany. German pilots crashing in Ireland were interned for the duration. Allied aircrew landing in Ireland were returned home.
The Irish decryption unit provided vital input to the effort to break the Enigma.

>120 pgmcc: Interesting tidbit and I look forward to reading that piece on him and learning more.

>120 pgmcc: That article was fascinating. Thank you for posting it. I'd never heard encountered "sibs" as a noun for planted rumors in wartime. And I have added the book of Betjeman poetry to my wishlist for Christmas. Definitely a poet from whom I want to hear more.

>124 jillmwo:
I had never heard that word either.

>119 jillmwo: That is delightful! Thankfully, my church is mouse-free, but we did have a single, rather confused bat in our belfry a few years ago!

Today's news story. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/25494522.scotlands-book-kells-return-home-50...

Quick blips from the story:

As part of the St Mungo Festival 2025, organised by The Mediaeval Glasgow Trust, the Blacader Blackadder Prayerbook Psalter, will go on show in Glasgow Cathedral in celebration of Glasgow 850 and the centenary of the National Library of Scotland...The volume is bound in tooled leather covers and is an example of the exquisite craftsmanship of the French artist calligraphers who created it.

Religious manuscripts – for use in church liturgy and in private devotion – were usually created at considerable expense. They provide the more colourful side of medieval manuscripts and tend to be much more pleasing to the eye than charters, chartularies and other administrative documents. The meaning they had for their owners was nevertheless deeply serious.

The Reformation in Scotland resulted in the loss or destruction of most of them. It has been estimated that out of all medieval liturgical manuscripts once in use in Scotland, no more than 1% are still in existence today, many of them only as fragments found, for example, in bindings.

Apparently it will be on view for just a single day (most probably, they don't want it to be exposed to light more than necessary) as a celebration of the anniversary festival(s).

Go read the full story and look at the picture!

>127 jillmwo:
That is a fascinating article.

Over ten years ago one of my nieces was married in Glasgow cathedral. It is an amazing building and well worth a visit for anyone in the city. One feature is a small basement chapel dedicated to Archbishop Blackadder. We were very pleased to have the chance to attend the wedding and to have time to have a quick tour.

>127 jillmwo: I saw the (Irish) Book of Kells itself this June in Dublin. I had a look at the article (partly because your touchstones confused me). ;0)

>127 jillmwo: Thanks for that, it was very interesting.

Been a busy period for me this week and tomorrow spouse and I are heading out to meet up with friends for a long weekend. I might drop something in here over the course of the next few days, but don't worry if you don't hear from me before Tuesday next.

>131 jillmwo:
Hey, Jill. Leaving the cloister house? You told me that was the basic sin I committed that led to my reduced reading time. Is this a case of goose and gander?

Have a great time.

>131 jillmwo: Have a good weekend!

>131 jillmwo: Enjoy yourself!

Another news item: https://www.404media.co/libraries-cant-get-their-loaned-books-back-because-of-tr...
So many unanticipated aspects to government policy...

>132 pgmcc: It is true that, while I took one novel (in print form) with me as well as having the Kindle app on my phone with me, I did not in fact open a book over the course of the weekend. I think I might need to note this down in my calendar, just as a benchmark.

>133 Karlstar: and >134 clamairy: Thank you. We did have a good time catching up with people.

Of course, then this morning the door knob with lock on the front door decided it was dead and refused to allow anyone in or out of the house. My husband recognized this as a PITA event requiring the immediate services of a locksmith and things got solved within 30-45 minutes. I am hoping that no additional home maintenance stuff will need to be handled for the rest of the year. These things only come in "threes" right? (Roof, fridge, and front door lock should finish up this little run.)

>135 jillmwo: Yikes. And...
>136 jillmwo: Even more yikes. Glad you had a good time, though.

>136 jillmwo: Let's hope that's the end of the issues for a while!

>136 jillmwo: If there's a fourth event, it's not a disproof of the rule, it's the first of a new series of three.

Your weekend sounds like one that most of us in the Pub would enjoy.

>135 jillmwo:
It makes you appreciate An Post all the more.

In relation to the value question the ILL books have no “commercial value”. That is the relevant term for customs forms regardless of a book being a tangible object.

Well, this is what happens when you go out of town to enjoy yourself. You sit down at the desk to do some work and some crappy industry news suddenly appears out of nowwhere. https://www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/2025-10-06/baker_taylor_struggling_ingr...

That story is a little out of date (but it's a freebie rather than Publishers Weekly's reporting). Because Baker & Taylor shut down officially on Friday, Oct 4. Roughly 500 people in Illinois are now literally out of work as there was no advance notice given. (The employees in India are awaiting their pink slips as well.) There are publishers whose invoices will not be paid despite having shipped their volumes to this distributor. Libraries who depended on B&T for their book acquisitions may now never see those titles. And the B&T library app for borrowing books (Boundless) will have disappeared for those library patrons who weren't using Libby or Hoopla.

This is a company that has been in business for well over 100 years. They were a staple at library conferences. (And I remember conferences where every other librarian in the exhibit hall was carrying a bag displaying the famous B&T cats.)

The times they are a'changin...

ETA: More coverage of the Baker & Taylor thing (https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2025/10/08/baker-taylor-to-cease-operations/
Original post time-stamped Oct 7, 4:03pm.

>141 jillmwo: That's so depressing.

>141 jillmwo:
Depressing.

Looking for something Gothic as the autumn leaves turn color and fall to the ground? Here's a reading list for you: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2025/10/06/spooky-season-reading-li...

>144 jillmwo:
Thank you for that list. I was scrolling through the list when I spotted a cover that looked familiar. It is the The Gothic Novel in Ireland by Christina morin. A couple of, or possibly three, years ago I attended a symposium on Charles Robert Maturin, author of Melmoth the Wanderer, that was organised by Christina. I looked up this book but it was prohibitively expensive so I decided not to get it just yet. Thanks to you I have been reminded about it and have been able to get the paperback at a reasonable price.

She also wrote a book about Charles Robert Maturin and I am tempted by this one too.

>144 jillmwo:
Thank you for that list. I was scrolling through the list when I spotted a cover that looked familiar. It is the The Gothic Novel in Ireland by Christina morin. A couple of, or possibly three, years ago* I attended a symposium on Charles Robert Maturin, author of Melmoth the Wanderer, that was organised by Christina. I looked up this book but it was prohibitively expensive so I decided not to get it just yet. Thanks to you I have been reminded about it and have been able to get the paperback at a reasonable price.

She also wrote a book about Charles Robert Maturin and I am tempted by this one too.

ETA: * It was actually four years ago and I reported on it HERE.

>145 pgmcc: and >146 pgmcc: Glad the list was worth your while. (And so nice that you grabbed the paperback.) I am notching another BB on my booth post here in the Pub on that basis.

>147 jillmwo:
And rightly so.

Sorry for the double post. I do not know how that happened.

>148 pgmcc: Gremlins. I blame the gremlins.

>147 jillmwo: Do be careful. We don't want the place caving in.

>150 humouress:. Well, my defense is that my booth has fewer notches on it than the booth that @pgmcc is sitting in. But I take your point.

>151 jillmwo: OMG. Maybe we should get a new pub.

It’s been very chatty here and due to a variety of factors, I’ve not posted many reviews since this thread was launched during the last week of August. As a result, this may be one of those “big wall of text” postings. Of course, I had refreshed my memory of Sayers’ The Nine Tailors in honor of Lee and last week, I was taken up with nightly chapters of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. In the background however, I’ve spent some time pursuing a bunch of stuff surrounding some of the Inklings.

Let me begin with a book about C.S. Lewis, entitled C.S. Lewis' Oxford. I think I only mentioned it in passing in September because it arrived with that wonderful smell you find in quality new books. It is a look at Lewis' life in the context of his professional life in Oxford. I find it is a surprisingly realistic portrait of the man. (In my view, he is usually portrayed as either the scholarly author of the classic Narnia novels or as a saintly Christian apologist. Neither view is generally a rounded one.) I'm only about two thirds of the way through it, but it's fascinating and I have learned so much about Oxford -- the circumstances under which living there in College was posh and when the experience really WASN'T posh at all. (Lewis would periodically leave tutorial sessions with his students to go into his bedroom to use a chamber pot. His rooms as a Magdalen fellow didn't include a full bathroom.) OTOH, his scout would bring him his morning cup of tea at 7:15am. Which seems very civilized.

As a follow-up, I was dipping in and out of The Gospel in Dorothy L. Sayers, one of half a dozen titles in a book series from Plough Publishing. It includes selections from Sayers’ novels, plays, letters and essays (as the subtitle of the book indicates word for word). It was edited by Carole Vanderhoof and includes an appreciation of Sayers by C.S. Lewis. Very interesting juxtapositions of extracts from her fiction and drama matched up with portions of her non-fiction. The author's intelligence comes through loud and clear. (I find some of it to be mind-blowing while other sections feel a bit over my head. I just don't think in those channels.)

I am finding the period of inter-war Britain and some of these people who lived during that time frame to be very interesting and very, very human in all their flaws. Sometimes, I wonder about the impact that a real education at Oxford might have resulted in. Clearly, for scholars like Lewis, it wasn’t intended as a lightweight approach to learning. It was rigorous. Sayers, having attended Somerville College, was 'way, 'way ahead of Christie in any number of ways; Christie was largely self-educated. Reading her material, Dorothy Sayers is not writing for the same mainstream readership in some ways that Christie was writing for. Christie's fan base likes things clear and definite and Sayers (while definite in her opinions) is probably not as clear as they would like. At the same time, both of these women worked in tandem professionally in projects launched via the Detection Club. I sit and wonder what a serious conversation over drinks and dinner with any one of these three (Lewis, Sayers, or Christie) might have been like. Or even more stimulating, a dinner with all three of them present.

Another book of interest is one I've not yet had a chance to get into. It's about Dorothy Sayers and the full title is Subversive: Christ, Culture, and the Shocking Dorothy L. Sayers. The author is Crystal Dowling, co-Director of the Marion E. Wade Center in Wheaton. The Center has a focus on Lewis and six other writers who were either influences on him or he was a major influence on them. Her book is very definitely focused on viewing Sayers through a religious lens and most particularly on Sayers' work in radio drama. As I understand it, The Zeal of Thy House was originally written as a modern epic poem but then she rewrote it as a play for the BBC. My copy only arrived on Friday and, as I say, I've not had time to get into it as yet.

I also thumbed through Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Biography when it arrived, but outside factors have kept me from that one as well.

Original post time stamped Oct 12, 7:22pm. Edited to fix a touchstone that was going to an entirely WRONG book. (Must be better about checking the damn touchstones!!!)

>153 jillmwo:
Glad to see you posting review like commentary. :-)

Your post is very interesting. I understand the work Sayers was proudest of was her translation of Dante’s work. I presume that has, or will, crop up in some of those books.

>153 jillmwo: Sounds like some very interesting reading, thanks for the write-up.

>153 jillmwo: In my view, he is usually portrayed as either the scholarly author of the classic Narnia novels or as a saintly Christian apologist. Neither view is generally a rounded one: Yes, this. If you read some of the stories about Lewis as a tutor, you get a more nuanced picture. Betjeman disliked him. Another student (A L Rowse? Don't quote me) described him as an intellectual bully. Even his admirers recognised that he could be overwhelming in argument. IIRC, A N Wilson's biography of him sets out a rather discreditable episode involving the bequest of The Kilns.

I mentioned once before a book called something like The Neglected Works of C S Lewis¹, which is about his strictly literary books, such as The Discarded Image and The Allegory of Love. For me those books are why Lewis still matters. The idea of them being "neglected" (or whatever it was) is extraordinary.

I yield to nobody in my regard for Lewis as a writer, particularly on literature and its history, but he wasn't a saint, any more than any other of us is.

¹ The actual title is The Neglected C. S. Lewis. The Goodreads reviews are fascinating: none of the reviewers seem to have been aware that Lewis ever wrote about literature. I see that i wrote about it in August 2023: it wouldn't touchstone then either.

>156 haydninvienna:. Simon Horobin is the author of C.S. Lewis' Oxford and he doesn't gloss over the manner in which Lewis could be harshly critical of students' essays. I think you might enjoy this particular treatment, although I don't know how challenging it might be for you to lay hands on a copy. While I, as a reader, am learning new information (as well as being reminded of things I'd forgotten), it might seem too elementary to you. But the writing is good and the peculiarities of Lewis' household set up are handled fairly well. The man really did -- in some ways -- live a privileged existence.

One of the things I also enjoyed about it had to do with his treatment of the Space trilogy. I am at least passingly familiar with the Community of St. Mary the Virgin, but hadn't realized the connection they had with regard to Perelandra.

Peter's right in noting that running commentary isn't the same as writing a short pithy review and I will do so soon. But for now, I'll just say that I think this is one of my five star reads in 2025. (And yes, there is information about her devotion to Dante and how it came about.)

Oh, and at some point, I need to write up something about The Nebuly Coat as it pertains to Dorothy Sayers and The Nine Tailors. Cathedrals can be so interesting. Very Gothic and terrifying at times, but during the light of day, amazing architecture with stunning elements.

Why should you care about The Nebuly Coat? Well, originally written back in 1903, it was in print from OUP back in 1988 and there was a more recent reprint from Ash Tree Press in 2004. Dorothy L. Sayers' found it a very good read herself. See quote from The Remarkable Case of Dorothy L. Sayers below.

John Meade Falkner’s The Nebuly Coat (1903), inspired The Nine Tailors (DLS, letter to Mr. Lakin, 27 Jan. 1935). There are obvious similarities between the two novels. Both are set in villages where a great old church is the center of the atmosphere and much of the action. In The Nebuly Coat, the cries of the church’s arches fill the air as does the sound of bells in Sayers’s book. Perhaps the architect’s restoration of the old church in The Nebuly Coat was also in the back of her mind when she wrote The Zeal of Thy House in 1937.

I hunted down a copy and while it takes some time to become lively, there's a good bit of the Gothic in it. There's this junior architect who has a professional obligation to work on the town's Cathedral. There's a nice girl who is without financial resources. There's a cranky organist and a young heir to the title. And there is a cathedral in dire need of maintenance. The building is described in loving detail. Just over the 60% mark, there's been a death in the Cathedral in mysterious circumstances. And I haven't got to the end yet, but I anticipate a disaster in the Offing. (This is great reading just before bed.)

>158 jillmwo: Sweet dreams.

>158 jillmwo:
You are working on collapsing the oaken beams holding up the roof of your booth in the pub. You knew I could not resist your description of The Nebuly Coat. I picked up the Kindle version for a song.

>158 jillmwo: I like getting recs for old books that are worth looking for, esp those with adventure or gothic elements. I’ve only read Moonfleet by J. Meade Falkner, so will add Nebuly Coat to the wishlist.

>161 ludmillalotaria: & >160 pgmcc: It does look intriguing. I see it's tagged gothic & supernatural.

I checked Libby first, and they only have it in an ePub which would force me to read it on my Kindle fire. And then I checked Amazon and they have a free copy.

Just checking back in here before I shut down things for the night to say that the ending of The Nebuly Coat is SPLENDID. JUST SPLENDID. I am still processing any ties to Sayers but there's reason why she had a fondness for it.

>163 jillmwo:
Good to know. I am looking forward to reading it.

darn it wont arrive till the 27th. Im assuming its worth waiting for :)

Well, chalk up another BB, Jill! I've just ordered a used copy of The Nebuly Coat. I can't resist this sort of book.

BTW - The Nebuly Coat is available on Project Gutenberg - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22943

>166 Sakerfalcon:
She has had a few hits with this one.

>167 Bookmarque:
Too late, but I got it very cheap.

>168 pgmcc: It's also free for Kindle, if anyone else is interested.

https://www.amazon.com/Nebuly-Coat-John-Meade-Falkner-ebook/dp/B0082PFBFO/ref=mp...

Just to further drive home the point....

>170 jillmwo: How many BBs can one book have? Asking for a friend :)
Thank you for reviewing!

I downloaded a copy from Project Gutenberg and will probably get to it after my current ebook.

I did one of those 4-ingredient kind of pumpkin spice loaf cakes today. Allowed it to cool and then took a "chunK" off of one end so that I'd be able to get the loaf out of the pan -- that part still hasn't gotten done. But let me tell you that it is requiring all of my self-control to not go back into that kitchen and hack off yet another "chunk" of it. It went so well with the coffee. And the pumpkin spice combo is hanging around on my taste buds.

Granted this is not information you need to know, but the rest of you are always going on about your cheeses and I suspect that I'm the sole individual who is hunting around for cake.

Maybe if I sit down and focus on a book, the impulse will pass. (Honestly, the fact that pumpkin qualifies as a vegetable is the only socially redeeming element here.)

>173 jillmwo:
I am not a great fan of pumpkin related edibles but a Texan colleague gave me some pumpkin bread and it was delicious. I suspect it was something like your spice loaf cake. It was very like the ginger bread I would be familiar with. Having had that experience I am very sympathetic towards your current feelings.

>173 jillmwo: Sounds good - is it something like a banana bread type of thing?

>175 Karlstar: The "recipe" does not truly deserve the name. You grab a box of spice cake mix off the shelf and add to it two eggs, a 15-oz can of pumpkin puree and a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice. Sprinkle in a bit of cinnamon as well if you so inclined. Put it into a greased loaf pan at the familiar oven temp of 350 for about 50-55 minutes and it's done. Rather cake like in texture, but not overly sweet.

>170 jillmwo: *sigh* On my B&N wish list.

New paperback for $7.50 - this will eventually be part of a multi book-buying spree.

Is this BB record?

>177 terriks: Fortunately for you, it looks like your Thingaversary is just around the corner so any acquisitions don't count against you. However, I'm sure that Jill can take full credit for BBs.

>176 jillmwo: I'll give it a try sometime!

>170 jillmwo: My copy arrived yesterday. I'm looking forward to starting it. It seems like a good one for autumn/winter reading.

>180 Sakerfalcon:
I can assure you it is well worth reading. It is very enjoyable.

Continuing with the theme of cathedrals, I read over the past two nights, Dorothy Sayers' dramatic play, The Zeal of Thy House. The language is lovely.

We are the master-craftsmen, God and I—
We understand one another. None, as I can,
Can creep under the ribs of God, and feel
His heart beat through those Six Days of Creation;
Enormous days of slowly turning lights
Streaking the yet unseasoned firmament;
Giant days, Titan days, yet all too short
To hold the joy of making. God caught His breath
To see the poles of the world stand up through chaos;
And when He sent it forth, the great winds blew,
Carrying the clouds. And then He made the trees
For winds to rustle through—oak, poplar, cedar,
Hawthorn and elm, each with its separate motion—
And with His delicate fingers painted the flowers,
Numberless—numberless! why make so many
But that He loved the work, as I love mine,
And saw that it was good, as I see mine?—

There are another 25 lines to that soliloquy. The full speech is breathtaking. It demands to be said aloud.

The play is about William of Sens who was an architect responsible for restoring Canterbury Cathedral following the fire of 1174 (I think that's the date).

I have not yet read all four of her religious plays but you can find a collection of them at The Faded Page -- https://www.fadedpage.com/books/20160509/html.php#Page_7 A freebie! Note that Amazon will charge you a dollar for the same content in the Kindle edition.

Well, darn. Neither The West Passage nor The City in Glass won the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Fiction Award. The prize went to a book I have not read -- Rakesfall.

See the announcement at https://www.ursulakleguin.com/prize25

Cheese news from the Curd Nerd today:

Philly Repping!! We've got a whole line up of Perrystead Dairy cheeses! Perrystead is an urban creamery located in Philadelphia. We've got their "Real Philly Schmear", Intergalactic, Atlantis, and Moonrise here right now and each one is tastier than the last! Stop in this week and see what Philly has to offer

I've been participating in another group's read of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers and this past week's set of chapters offered heightened discomfort.

The two couples, realizing imminent danger, go into escape mode. They pack things helter-skelter and jump into a car. When they discover alien pods in the trunk of the car, it is clear that there has been no escape. The danger is still with them. Soaked in gasoline, the pods go up in towering flames and Miles - in a panic - sees his own shadow as something oversized and fearful. But after a night in a dreary little motel (during which Miles and Becky reconnect via 1950's diplomatically phrased sex), the four decide to return to Mill Valley. They have to see if they can save others.

Once there, Miles recognizes a decline in human engagement and economic activity. The idyllic town of his childhood is dying. There is only a stagnant, unproductive existence. There’s a certain inexorability to the take-over process.

Outside of Becky’s family home, she and Miles overhear her family members talking. The mockery in their conversation and the sense of superiority show that it’s too late to reverse their condition. (I have an impression that, juxtaposed as the scene is with Miles’ recall of an incident of hidden racial animus, this chapter will remain with me as one of the most memorable and uncomfortable parts of the book.)

That part was even worse than the subsequent chapter where Miles and Becky (sitting in the dark, forced to peek through gaps in boarded up windows) see the next phase of the aliens’ plan begin – dispersion to other communities using all forms of mass transit (Before you ask, yes, I already know how the thing ends. But I'm easily creeped out and the chapter-a-day pace draws out the impact even as it allows me time to recognize how Finney is creating the dread.)

Whether this story is about a 1950’s sense of isolation, the take-over of ticky-tacky housing developments and urbanization, or general Cold War alienation, it's surprisingly nerve-wracking.

>185 jillmwo: I enjoyed The Invasion of the Body Snatchers more than I thought I would. As you said, quite nerve-wracking.

>185 jillmwo: & >186 Karlstar: Yes, it was quite well done I thought. In fact I could not stop myself from listening to the entire thing over the course of a couple of days instead of doing one chapter a day like I was supposed to. I needed to know how it ended.

I greatly appreciated that anecdote of Miles' about the shoe shine man.

One brief review. The book The Murder of Mr. Ma is fine as an action tale of mystery and suspense. I’m just not the target audience.

Just as Katherine Addison’s The Angel of the Crows offered a sort of revision to Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, this mystery also fits within the category of Great Detective Viewed Through Alternate Lens. S.J. Rozan, an experienced writer of mysteries, and John Shen Yen Nee, an entertainment executive from Marvel and DC, came together to create new versions of Holmes and Watson. Judge Dee (yes, that Judge Dee) and academic scholar, Lao She, partner together in solving a series of murders of Chinese men living in 1920’s London. There are some excellent fighting sequences told in a satisfying and visual way. Events are plausible in the context of 1920s British society and cultural assumptions. Dee and Lao offer a different set of perspectives through which their experiences in that society can be viewed. I made it all the way through the book and credit the writing.

I think both authors had in mind the possibility of turning this series into something with potential for either television or the movies. It wasn’t the right book for my particular mood, but it may have great appeal for other readers.

>185 jillmwo: and >186 Karlstar:. I did finally finish! I wasn't able to keep to the one-chapter-per-day schedule throughout the month due to the interference of real life obligations. I need to look at what I posted over on the group thread for the read-along and then I'll do a more comprehensive review. I am glad I took the time to read it, even if it was a scary book. (As I may have mentioned over the years, I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to books like this.I don't like chain-jerkers as a general rule.)

On a totally unrelated matter, I did turn in my report and multiple spreadsheets that were the deliverables for the consulting gig. Now all I have to do is create a Powerpoint presentation for delivery on November 7 and then invoice the client. Phew. (Lots of imposter syndrome anxiety in recent days...)

Then it will be all housekeeping and reading projects to close out the final two months of 2025.

This came across my social media feeds today: Mystery Fanfare: Day of the Dead Crime Fiction. Visit: https://mysteryreadersinc.blogspot.com/2025/11/day-of-dead-crime-fiction.html

One might also enjoy this interesting essay on The Lost Art of Research as Leisure
https://kasurian.com/p/research-as-leisure

>189 jillmwo: I enjoyed it too, even though it is not my usual.

>190 jillmwo: Congrats on completing it, I am sure it will exceed their expectations.

>190 jillmwo: Congratulations! :)

>190 jillmwo:
Well done in getting to the final straight with the consulting project. Enjoy the post work projects and housekeeping activities. Remember, imposter syndrome is the driving force behind making one do a professional job. You have this one. Have no doubts. Make that powerpoint hit the client right between the eyes. While they are suffering blurred vision from the impact hand them the invoice.

Keep well!

I still have a lot of catching up to do after so many months of skimpy participation, but I'm glad to see you're still going strong. I appreciate your perceptive commentary as well as your insider's view of book publishing.

From the Times Literary Supplement:

Before concluding that things have always been thus, however, consider a letter published in the Bookseller’s most recent issue. Twenty-three signatories, representing small presses in the UK such as Bluemoose, the Emma Press, Galley Beggar, Rough Trade and the87press, here spell out the full awfulness of the current situation. The cost of book production has doubled in the past decade, not helped by interruptions to paper supply since the invasion of Ukraine (a major supplier of paper pulp to the UK). Storage and distribution cost publishers a “minimum of 25% of the net value of sales”, and larger distributors “will only take on publishers with turnovers over a million pounds”. As for funding: you might as well, for now, forget about it. The strategy implemented by Arts Council England five years ago, “Let’s Create”, seems peculiarly averse to books; and since ACE has delayed any new applications for its National Portfolio Organisation grant programme, it will be 2028 before any new funding is received. Creative Scotland, at present, apparently supports no publishers at all via its Multi-Year Funding programme.

. (Paywalled article) In case you're wondering whether it's just those in the U.S. who are alarmed by the rise in prices for books.

For those with full access, visit: https://www.the-tls.com/regular-features/nb/nb-october-17-2025-column-mc