Karen (Witchyrichy) Reads the Days Away in 2026 Part 1

I am Karen Richardson, aka Witchyrichy, and this is my 12th year in the 75ers group, and in October 2025, I celebrated my 20th year on LibraryThing. I am continuing to try to retire but teaching online is just too easy to pass up. I get paid to work from home, often in my pyjamas.

I live with my husband of 34 years, Bob, Josie the dog and Circe the cat, in a 19th century farmhouse on 18 acres in rural southeast Virginia. Bottle Tree Farm, as we call it, is our own little bit of paradise and came with a library for my books. I have lots of hobbies in addition to reading: book binding, gardening. crocheting, gel printing, and junk journaling are just a few. This year, I want to add quilting to the list. I also play the piano and ukulele.

My husband and I share a love for the outdoors including gardening, birding and exploring. The header includes a picture of my little family sharing the sofa, our farmhouse in the recent snow, and two pictures from our travels around Virginia.

I am looking forward to another great year of reading and sharing.

Ticker

Bingo Card



Features Senior Citizens: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Micro-History: Paper: Paging Through History by Mark Kurlansky
Set Entirely Or In Part At Sea: The Wager by David Grann
Dead Author: The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
Tree On The Cover: Proving Her Claim: On the Dakota Frontier by CK Van Dam
Fairy Tale Or Myth Retelling
Something Living on the Cover
Award Winner
"End It": Studies At the School By the Sea by Jenny Colgan
Published Before You Were Born: Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
New-To-You-Author: Rachel Reid author of Game Changer
"Green" Book
Read a CAT or KIT
Beautiful Cover
Onomatopoeia in the Title: The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths
Difficult to Categorize
Female Author's Debut Novel: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Great First Sentence: Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
Indigenous Author: The Lost Journals of Sacajewea by Debra Magpie Earling
Set in Province/State Bordering Your Own
Road Trip Book: My Friends by Fredrik Backman
Mode of Transportation in the Title
Classic from Another Literary Tradition
Book of Poetry
From an LT Legacy Library

January - March

January

Lessons at the School by the Sea by Jenny Colgan (audio)
What You Are Looking For Is In the Library by Michiko Aoyama
Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan
Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force that Elected Lincoln and Spurred The Civil War by Jon Grinspan
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Studies At the School By the Sea by Jenny Colgan (audio)
The Queen Who Came in from the Cold by S.J. Bennett
Rez Life by David Treuer
The Something Girl by Jodi Taylor
The Time Hop Coffee Shop by Phaedra Patrick (audio)



February

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
The Briar Club by Kate Quinn
Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan
Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Investigator by Kelly Gardiner (audio)
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
Love In a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
The Devil's Bible by Steve Berry



March

The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict
The Wager by David Grann
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (audio)
Proving Her Claim: On The Dakota Frontier by CK Van Dam
Game Changer by Rachel Reid
My Friends by Fredrik Backman
The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker
I See You've Called In Dead by John Kenney
Death of a Wild Swimmer by Peter Boland
Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid

April - June

April

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
His and Hers by Alice Feeney
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
Vigil by George Saunders
In the Belly of the Anaconda by C. Arthur Ellis Jr.
The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths
Dear Debbie by Frieda McFadden
The Lost Journals of Sacajewea: A Novel by Debra Magpie Earling
The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston
Paper: Paging Through History by Mark Kurlansky

July - September

October - December

Top Five From 2025

Wounded Knee: Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre by Heather Cox Richardson
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench
Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller
The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick

Currently Reading:

In the Belly of the Anaconda by C. Ellis Jr

Welcome back!

Happy New Year, Karen! I hope 2026 is a great year for you.

>10 drneutron: Thanks! And thanks for all you do to make this happen. Happy new year!

>11 BLBera: Thanks! I am looking forward to 2026. Lots of possibilities. Happy new year!

New Year greetings from Kuala Lumpur. My project is at least physically completed and an addition to the city scape.

Look forward to keeping up with you in 2026, Karen

>13 PaulCranswick: Thanks! An amazing project, Paul.

>14 Berly: Thanks! Hope you have a great year.

I finished listening to Lessons at the School by the Sea by Jenny Colgan yesterday so I am counting it as my first book of the year. It was the third book in the series. Maggie and David, their love growing even as it forces them apart, continue to find their purpose in teaching. Veronica, head of the girls' school, learns more about her own past. And, the girls are becoming even more annoying as early teenagers. But, somehow, Colgan writes about them with love and humor that takes the edge off.

I just started the fourth and final book. I love listening to Colgan's books as the accent adds to the ambience.

Happy new year! I wish you a happy year full of great reads!

>17 mstrust: Thanks! Less scrolling, more reading is my mantra for the year.

What You Are Looking For is In The Library by Michiko Aoyama

A lovely collections of short stories that revolve around the library in the local community center. The characters--each feeling trapped in different ways--end up at the reference desk where an unusual woman helps them find what they are looking for. The stories are woven together seamlessly and unobtrusively with a sweet ending that ties everything together.

Happy New Year, Karen! Happy new thread!

>1 witchyrichy: Beautiful!

Found you and starred you, Karen! Beautiful photos up top!

Happy reading in 2026!

Happy New Year, Karen! What does "end it" mean on your bingo card??

Two books so soon, Karen! Happy New Year!

>20 Storeetllr: Thanks! Best wishes to your whole family.

>21 Copperskye: Thanks! Looking forward to reading with you this year.

>22 figsfromthistle: Thanks! Hoping to clear the shelves a bit.

>23 AMQS: Thanks! On the original planning thread they gave the options of finishing a DNF or reading a book about an ending (death, divorce, moving, etc.) They just started the thread for the card where people will start adding their plans. I am thinking the fourth and final book in Colgan's School By the Sea series fits. Here's the thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/377331

>24 vancouverdeb: Thanks! I was just on my way to your thread to say hello and drop a star. To be fully transparent, I started listening to the Colgan in 2025. I have been trying to listen to audiobooks rather than turning on the television when I'm crocheting or crafting.

Happy New Year, Karen! I look forward to following along with your reading adventures this year.

Hello Karen! Happy new Year and happy first thread of 2026.

>1 witchyrichy: My my. I did not realize you’d been on LT for 20 years. Congrats.

Hi Karen my dear, i have starred you again and look forward to dropping by to catch up with you.

>27 atozgrl: Thanks! I think it's going to be a good year!

>28 karenmarie: Thanks! I had just taken a Microsoft Access course and was itching to create my own. Thankfully, LT showed up before I got started and I never looked back. I didn't get involved with this group until much later as I just used it to track the books I read.

>29 johnsimpson: Thanks! I am heading to your thread right now. Took a short break to chase the birds.

We are fortunate to be just a few hours away from eastern North Carolina, known for its outstanding winter birding. We rented an old beach house in Nags Head with a fenced-in yard for the dog and planned two days of bird watching. We wasted a bit of time dealing with a bad tire but still got to our favorite spots. The mix of birds changes each year: last year, Pea Island was covered with white pelicans. This year, they had gotten pushed inland by a storm and we didn't see any of them. There were the usual suspects including tundra swans, buffleheads, mallards, shovelers, herons and egrets. The big surprise were the rafts of pintail ducks, long stretches of birds across the ponds.

We got home yesterday. I took Circe to the vet, always fun as she complains the whole way there and back. This time, she decided to pee in her cat carrier as revenge for the taking a sample. She is very nice to the vet and techs, however, purring and head butting. It is just me she blames. I haven't seen her since we got home. Her health is generally fine but she has low potassium and slightly high thyroid. Two medications! Hoping they are easy to feed her as part of her wet food. Wish me luck.

I am still sorting pictures and will post a few. I finished Maine and thoroughly enjoyed it. Review to come.

Now to take Josie for a walk: it is 70 degrees and sunny today at the farm.

Maine tells the story of the Kellehers, an Irish Catholic family from Massachusetts who spend their summers at the family home in Maine. Sullivan tells the story through the eyes of several women including Alice, the matriarch, Ann Marie, her long suffering daughter in law, Kathleen, her daughter that escaped to California, and Maggie, her granddaughter who seems to be the one who brings them together. The story spins out over the course of a summer as Alice makes a secret, life changing decision without consulting her family. She also confronts her guilt over the death of her sister. The final sentence continues to haunt me.

The library director recommended this as one of his favorite books of the year last year. I can't wait to talk to him about it at our next meeting and get his take on that last sentence!

Definitely recommended. My RLBG read The Cliffs and it was good, but this was better. I have added Sullivan's other books to my TBR list.

>31 witchyrichy: It sounds like you had a wonderful time in the eastern part of our state. We're going to have to do that ourselves one of these years. My DH loves watching ducks especially, and the other waterfowl as well. Do you do most of your birding at Pea Island? Or do you visit other places as well?

>31 witchyrichy: Sound lovely! I am not a birder, but where I live it's known as the Pacific Flyway. I see a lot of birders on my walks, and mainly water birds , but all sorts.

>32 witchyrichy: Karen, Maine sounds just like my kind of read. Thanks for your recommendation.

Glad you had a good trip, and hope Circe forgives quickly!

>33 atozgrl: We do a circuit of the Banks and inland NC. From our home in eastern Virginia, we head south along the west side of the Great Dismal Swamp. There is a nice boardwalk and bathrooms at the Washington Ditch. From there, we head south to the inland lakes: Pungo, Phelps and Mattamuskeet. Pungo is best for the swans. Years ago, we got a tip from a local that the time to go to Pungo was 4 PM as the swans began to come in for the night. He was right: it was amazing to watch huge flocks come over the trees and down into the lake, wooing as they go.

Lake Mattamuskeet has the best mix, I think, Tons of coots every year along with swans and ducks. I posted a couple videos from last year.

https://youtu.be/tsP2vcd622M?si=EgBI0W23Z-3HyEN2

https://youtu.be/FXZ8XwxAscg?si=YoD2GN8ytN6g2Smr

From there, we head onto the Banks. Pea Island is the main destination and that is where the ducks are usually found in abundance. We are amazed at the volunteers who keep that visitor center open and uncovered by sand dunes.

The boardwalk and observation deck behind Bodie Island Lighthouse usually yield something interesting. This year, we walked the Off Island Trail and mostly saw little brown birds including our favorites, Yellow Rumped Warblers, aka butter butts.

We often drive to the Hatteras Lighthouse and the ferry terminal but cut that short this year as we dealt with the tire. Fortunately, almost everything is open in the Nags Head area so getting service was easy.

So...there is the eastern North Carolina birding tour.

P.S. Don't miss the Weeksville dirigible hangar. When we first found it, it was in the middle of a cabbage field, Now, it is part of a company and on developed land.

>34 vancouverdeb: I know I have told you about our trip to your neighborhood. The birding is amazing, especially because the ducks we see in the winter are up there in the summer in their full mating plumage. I remember Rudy Ducks with their bright blue bills.

>35 AMQS: Really good. I put all the rest of her books on my TBR list.

>36 mstrust: She got over it, and the medicine isn't a problem. I haven't told her we need to go back in three weeks. We'll let it be a surprise.

>37 witchyrichy: Thanks so much, Karen! This is really good information. I have favorited the post so I can find it again.

I've seen a couple of shows about the dirigible hangar. One I'm sure was on PBS NC; the other was probably on one of the other local stations. It's fascinating. I had no idea that was there until the first story I saw about it. It's a part of WWII history that most people have never heard of. We haven't seen it in person yet, though.

>38 witchyrichy: I had forgotten that you were birding in my neighbourhood, Karen. Thanks for reminding me.

Stopping by to wish you a lovely weekend, Karen.

>41 atozgrl: Happy to help! We are already planning a December AND January trip for 2026.

>42 vancouverdeb: We absolutely adored our trip to Vancouver, Jasper and Banff. We bought a fire road map on the ferry and probably would have shocked the rental car agency if they saw some of the places we drove. Beautiful country.

>43 PaulCranswick: Happy weekend to you, too.

I am hoping to finish my analog and audio books today:

Studies at the School by the Sea by Jenny Colgan (audio: love the Scottish accents!)
Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force That Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War by Jon Grinspan (fascinating history of a now little known group that played an outsized role in getting Lincoln elected)

Then, it's on to The Correspondent for my RLBG and The Queen Who Came in From the Cold that I picked up from the library ast week.

But first, I have to finish cleaning out the attic in anticipation of returning the Christmas tree. I do it every year and am amazed at how the space seems to fill up from clean out to clean out. I got a good start the other day but wore myself out.

This year, I am donating several boxes of educational electronic gadgets to a colleague in Richmond as I don't anticipate doing large scale workshops anymore. The best find was an analog electronics kit still in the shrink wrap that I bought at a conference at some point. There were a few robots as well as programmable displays called micro:bits*. I also have several trash bags to fill with accumulated stuff that isn't worth donating. I found a big bag of t-shirts that I may try to turn into a crocheted rug.

I plan to listen to my Jenny Colgan book while I work. i would love to end the day with Christmas packed away for another year.

*Some nerdy history: micro-bits were designed by the BBC and distributed to 10 and 11 year olds to support computer programming in the UK. If you want to see how it works and play a bit yourself, makecode has a simulator.

Hi Karen and happy new year! I'm just now getting around to joining the 75ers fun for another year.

Maine looks like a good one. Noted.

I finished reading The Correspondent a couple of days ago and I absolutely loved it. I hope you enjoy it as well.

>46 EBT1002: Welcome! Happy to share the reading life with you in 2026.

I have a couple things to do to make today "productive" and then plan to get started on The Correspondent. The most crotchety (I mean discerning ;-) member of our book group evidently loved it so I am looking forward to digging in.

Ken Burns has spurred much of my interest in history. The Civil War was one of his first epic series, and I taped it each evening when it was on and wore out the tapes watching it. Then, I moved to Virginia and found myself in the middle of it all. Fortunately, my DH loves being outside so was willing to visit battlefields. He was the one who encouraged me to buy a tiny piece of the Cedar Creek battlefield.

That being said, I had never heard of the Wide Awakes until Jon Grinspan's book describing this organization created by working-class young men in Hartford, Connecticut that spread rapidly across the North in the run up to the war. They were not necessarily abolitionists; instead, they wanted to curtail the Slave Power of the Democrats, stop the spread of slavery and keep the union together. They also strongly supported free speech, something that was being challenged in the South as anti-slavery papers were attacked with their presses destroyed and editors beaten and killed.

They would march at midnight, dressed in black capes and brandishing torches. Their symbol was an eye and their main purpose was to wake people up to injustice. They supported Republicans, Lincoln especially, and were themselves financially supported by wealthy, older Republicans who had no interest in marching but could fund uniforms, travel and food expenses for these young rebels. They were largely meant to be anti-violent but as the country inched closer to war, they found themselves frequently met with resistance from Democrats, particularly when they ventured south of the Mason Dixon line. After the election, many of the groups transformed into militias that eventually fought in the war. While white men made up the bulk of the membership, there were Black Wide Awake organizations.

The book was fascinating. Grinspan made a strong case for how important this movement was in getting Lincoln elected. He showed how these young men were connected to the major players from William Seward to Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They marched along with Lincoln when he visited Hartford in 1860. Grinspan followed them into the post-war period when many moved away from their idealism as they gained power, including limiting free speech amongst those they hated including the labor movement. Funny how that happens.

Grinspan does credit them with understanding the importance of show and seeing what was happening in front of them. He suggests that our current situation helps us understand why they were important:

"Among the uncanny elements of their movement, the most recognizable to us today may be the conception of American democracy as a noisy, confrontational, symbolic performance, just on the edge of a fight" (p. 254)

There is a contemporary wide awake movement with the slogan "the past is present." There was much in this book that connected past and present.

If I have an complaint, it is that there were A LOT of names. I could have used an organizational chart and roster.

Grinspan is a curator of political history at the Museum of American History and the museum has a webpage dedicated to them with commentary from Grinspan, images of the artifacts and links to other resources.

Your birding trip sounds like it was great fun!

I read Saints For All Occasions not too long ago and really liked it. I have a copy of Maine to get to.

It’s always an adventure taking cats to the vet. My Boomer sounds like an angry wild cat in her carrier but is just a sweet purring lump when we take her out.

>49 Copperskye: Looking forward to more J. Courtney Sullivan this year.

I googled cat behavior and evidently the purring is self-soothing in stressful situations.

I began The Correspondent last evening and finished it this morning. I am ready to reread it as well as sit down to write a few letters.

Sybil Van Antwerp, the feisty 78-year-old main character, is a trip! A letter writer all her life, the story unfolds through the letters she sends and receives. She is a woman who tells the truth even if it might be a bit too pointed. Yet, I loved her even when she was at her worst, mostly because she learned from those moments and tried to do better. There were poignant moments as she worked to repair relationships and face up to her mistakes. In a way, she reminded me of Alice, the matriarch in Maine also confronting her past as she tries to explain herself to her friends and children.

>46 EBT1002: This was recommended by lots of people including you and I loved it. I can't wait to talk about it with my RLBG next Tuesday.

>48 witchyrichy: Well, you got me with this one! It's also interesting, isn't it, how the past colors much of the present. I only wish we could learn from it.

>52 Storeetllr: Indeed. The cycles are fascinating but maybe each go around, things get a little better? For instance, now marginalized groups have the same tools as others to organize and do outreach. Until, of course, the government shuts it down. Freedom of speech has always been in the eye of the powerful.

Not sure if you saw it on my other thread but consider Wounded Knee: Politics and the Road to an American Massacre by Heather Cox Richardson. Written in 2011 about an event in 1890 that could speaking about today in many, many ways.

>51 witchyrichy: Such a treat! I want to reread it, too. And write some letters.

The finale to Jenny Colgan's School By the Sea series was written some years after the first three books. It makes an effort to tie up loose ends but leaves us with more, while also seemingly ignoring one important plot from the earlier books. It took me awhile to get through the audio as I just found I wasn't as invested in the story as I had been in the earlier editions. The two main characters--Maggie and David--couldn't seem to figure out their relationship and kept going through the same arguments. The students were busy preparing for their exams and participating in an Outward Bound event. There were a few surprises, but I found Felicity, one of the students, to just be tiring with all her issues.

The important part of the finale was the tension Colgan created between the two very different school systems in England: the posh private school and the impoverished public school. In this book, they partner together and find points of contention but also moments of connection.

>55 witchyrichy: The ending Outward Bound episode delivered great dialogue!

(Mention of Elon Musk was way odd.)

>51 witchyrichy: I really enjoyed The Correspondent and it seems to be very popular here on LT, Karen.

>56 m.belljackson: I agree on both counts.

I have kept up with S.J. Bennett's series in which Queen Elizabeth II works behind the scenes to solve mysteries with the help of her assistant Joan. The Queen Who Came in from the Cold finds us in early 1960s Britain at the height of the Cold War and in the run up to the Kennedy visit in 1961. The death of a photographer leads to the discovery of a plot to get a scientist out of Russia. Joan and the Queen do what they can to help even as they reveal a major twist.

Bennett paints a loving portrait of the Queen and Prince Philip, with the latter never in on the secret but always willing to be supportive.

>59 witchyrichy: This sounds like fun. I am not familiar with this series.

I picked up The Correspondent as an ebook and want to read it soon. Although generally my e-reader seems to be a place where books go to gather dust and remain unread forever. I need to start cataloging them so I remember they are there.

>51 witchyrichy: Well you have done a fine job of plugging that one Karen. I am actively looking for it here!

>60 BLBera: I agree: I have been using an ereader since they first came out and have a ridiculous number of books, mostly unread on mine. I am making an effort to scroll down and find the oldies. But I also get distracted by the shiny new things. Cataloging is a good idea.

>61 PaulCranswick: My RLBG is this afternoon, and I am anticipating a lively discussion. I sat down on Sunday afternoon and wrote a letter to a friend who recently moved out of state.

I scrolled down through my ereader library and found On the Rez by David Treuer. It was an interesting book, combining several genres as Treuer wove his own story as well as those of others into the larger history of Native Americans with a focus on reservations. Treuer is an enrolled Ojibwe and is actively working, along with his brother, to preserve the language.

I have done a fair amount of reading about Native American history but wasn't familiar with how the reservation system continues to be part of the discussion. Treuer grew up on Leech Lake Reservation in Minnesota, and many of the stories revolve around fishing rights and the walleye industry in particular. He spends a fair amount of time on the how the past history, particularly the boarding schools, were designed to force assimilation and the eradication of Native Americans. But, he also explores the complicated relationships among Native Americans and the difficulty of defining who is a Native American at all.

I wasn't familiar with Treuer but plan to explore his books, particularly The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present, which was a National Book Award finalist in 2019.

It's the first day of school! I am teaching two classes for Old Dominion University, both online and asynchronous. While I do like being in a classroom with students, I hate commuting even more. So, online is the compromise, I guess. I have been doing it for many years now and found that if I take the time, I can build strong relationships and community amongst myself and the students.

Today is my RLBG, and we are discussing The Correspondent. Looking forward to the conversation.

I leave for Pennsylvania on Thursday to celebrate my parents' 71st anniversary. The snow storm arrives over the weekend so I may be snowed in at my Mt. Gretna cottage. I am hoping I can get home on Tuesday as planned but may reach out to the owner to see if another night is a possibility. Bob and I are discussing renting an apartment that I can use so I have my own digs ready for me whenever I want to go and then stay as long as needed. The monthly rent isn't much more than I pay for a week at Mt. Gretna. One of the beauties of teaching online is I really can do it from anywhere!

>64 witchyrichy: I loved both Rez Life and The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee. The Treuers are a gifted family. Anton has also written several good books; he works on keeping the Ojibwa language alive. I really liked The Language Warrior's Manifesto.

>66 BLBera: I have added all of them to my sooner-rather-than-later TBR list.

Tucked into my cottage at Mt. Gretna waiting for the storm to arrive. My sister and I had a lovely anniversary celebration with my parents on Friday. I hung out with mom and dad today. Mom and I made valentines.

Central Pennsylvania is supposedly mostly snow, with a 12 - 18 inch potential. My parents sent me back with plenty of food. I am trying to plan for power outage: I scored a battery powered radio at the thrift shop this morning and hit up Dollar General for a battery powered lamp and flashlight along with extra batteries, a couple candles, and plenty of snacks. I am going to make cold brew coffee. I don't really like it, but it will be better than nothing. Checking in online with LT and my online students as well.

My snow day(s) plan is to work on my granny square afghan. I will listen to my current audiobook: Caroline Bingley, Private Detective while I work. I am in the middle of The Something Girl by Jodi Taylor. My RLBG book is Mad Honey, and I picked up my copy as I left town.

>68 witchyrichy: Enjoy the snow day. Hope the power stays on!

It sounds like you have lots planned for your snow day, Karen. Enjoy your books and working on your afghan.

The forecast was accurate: we got at least a foot of snow. It was tempting to go out. A couple people worked on opening the walking paths at least a little although they were still snow covered. I have outerwear, boots and ski poles. But, I am also staying by myself in the middle of a walking only neighborhood, and I really, really didn't want to fall.

I took pictures from my porch. The album has pictures of the interior of the cottage, too. Don't miss the big bottle of wine on the dining room table. I also captured some video of two men cleaning the roof of the Tabernacle, which is right across from my cottage. It is historic and has a twin in the playhouse located in the Chautauqua neighborhood next door. During a storm in 1994, the roof of the playhouse collapsed. It was restored but at great expense. So, two men roped themselves to the pinnacle and then shoveled the snow down the roof. Then, they pulled themselves back up and did it again. Click the picture to see the whole album.



The power stayed on, the heat in the cottage worked well, so I enjoyed my day. A lot of crocheting and a bit of junk journaling. Watching the evening news coverage and waiting for the Madison Keys/Jessica Pegula tennis match.

What great challenging and fun photos!

How are the Doorway Gnomes made?
(daughter is a fan)

ps. I did a Search for the word pinnacle awhile back and was led to Pinnacles Park in California -
their free brochure is fascinating.

Here's a closeup:



They look pretty simple: yarn pulled together with a felt cap. They each have a carrot appliqued to their caps and a felt nose. I may give it a try when I get home.

Mt. Gretna has a spiritual and artistic history so the cottages are often decorated with arts, crafts and antiques.

I checked out the Pinnacles brochure: I didn't *know* there were 500 species of bees!

The Something Girl by Jodi Taylor may count as the "difficult to categorize" square on my Bingo card. The sequel to The Nothing Girl, we reconnect with Jenny Checkland, nee Dove, as she works with her husband and friends to make a success of their small farm. At its heart, it is the story of a young woman who finds love and friendship. It is also a psychological thriller as Jenny's evil cousin, Christopher, reappears and terrorizes Jenny and her friends. There is also a fantasy element as Jenny's childhood invisible friend, a large golden horse named Thomas, also reappears, bolstering Jenny's confidence and showing her that she can be happy.

I enjoyed both books: Taylor writes with her usual exuberant style, humorous, sometimes sarcastic, bouncing along. She uses a fair amount of foreshadowing: letting us know that something bad or bizarre (the book includes Patagonian Attack Chickens) will be coming.

The Time Hop Coffee Shop by Phaedra Patrick is another book that is a little difficult to categorize. It has the basic bones of a typical women's fiction book: a middle aged married woman who feels disconnected from her husband and daughter, possibly facing a divorce in the new year. A former famous face for a coffee company, Greta is no longer getting the offers she feels she deserves even as her husband seems to doing quite well, possibly with the help of her exclusive agent. She finds herself drawn to a coffee shop where the proprietor, a mysterious woman named Iris, provides her with a chance to reconsider her life. But when Greta breaks the rules, she finds she may have altered history forever.

The book is a mix of magical realism, contemporary fiction and family drama. I enjoy Patrick's books, usually listening to the audio as I did with this one. The narrator was fine, with just the right tone of frustration, confusion and compassion that Greta experienced throughout the book.

It turns out I have read all of her books now, having just listened to The Year of What If last year.

I loved The Correspondent too, Karen. What did your book club think?

>76 AMQS: We all loved it. Next month is Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult, another one that got good reviews, I think.

Yellowface pulled me in and kept me riveted until the end. R.F. Kuang's satirical novel takes us into the competitive world of publishing and explores questions of who is allowed to tell stories, especially those of marginalized or oppressed people. Narrator June Hayward is the perfect guide to this world as her thirst for success overwhelms her ethical and moral compass. June's first novel was not successful even as her sometimes friend Athena Liu has enjoyed great success. When Liu dies, Hayward makes a decision that will come to define her life. Social media plays an outsized role as conspiracies and secrets run rampant.

I loved Kuang's storytelling style. She mostly writes fantasy so not sure I will pursue the rest of her books.

Stayed up late last night to finish The Briar Club by Kate Quinn. Quinn places her thriller in the midst of the Korean War and McCarthy hearings. Briarwood House, a boarding house located in Washington D.C., is home to an assortment of tenants and overseen by Mrs. Nillson, a mean-spirited, selfish woman who treats her children like servants. The story is told through the eyes of the women who live in the house, a house that itself comes to life in interstitial chapters. Quinn has mastered the art of foreshadowing as she covers a four-year period culminating on Thanksgiving Day 1954 when two murders occur in the house. She also provides a major twist at the end; I really never saw it coming. Excellent read with lots of historical references including the Pillsbury Bake Off.

>78 witchyrichy: I'm reading that one right now!

>79 witchyrichy: I thought this was a terrific read (audio, actually, and considering the cast of characters it was an amazing performance). I also listened to >78 witchyrichy: and squirmed the whole time. Which was likely the point.

I thought Yellowface was well done as well. Kuang is a talented writer.

>80 mstrust: Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

>81 AMQS: I am trying to work more audiobooks into my day now that I don't commute. This would be an interesting one with the various characters. My complaint about my latest audiobook (see review below) is that it was hard to distinguish between the two main characters at points.

Interesting about the squirming. The narrator reminded me of a line from The Big Chill:

Michael (Jeff Goldblum): I don't know anyone who could get through the day without two or three juicy rationalizations. They're more important than sex.
Sam Weber (Tom Berenger): Ah, come on. Nothing's more important than sex.
Michael: Oh yeah? Ever gone a week without a rationalization?

>82 BLBera: Have you read any of her fantasy? It isn't my usual jam but I might give it a try as her prose was lovely to read.

>73 witchyrichy: He’s adorable!

You’re reading so many good books, Karen. Some of them are on my list but I just haven’t gotten to them yet. I really need to read faster!

That snow!! Holy smokes!!

>79 witchyrichy: I enjoyed The Briar Club very much when I read shortly after it came out, Karen.

Mad Honey is my RLBG book for February. I just couldn't stay awake to finish it last night, but it was the first thing I did this morning. What a story. A mystery wrapped in a legal drama that managed to get beyond those to focus on the impact of human beings when life turns ugly. I was prepared for the shocker in the middle as I had read enough reviews. But this story is just so much more than that: the struggle to find your place in the world as a young person and the struggle to make sense of what happened as an adult.

It is interesting that all three of the Picoult books I have read were legal dramas, and it seems as though she uses that plot feature in many of her novels. She seems cynical about how courts are organized and yet justice seems to be done.

Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Investigator by Kelly Gardiner and Sharmini Kumar is the first in what I am sure will be a new mystery series. Caroline Bingley, of course, has ties to Pride and Prejudice. Her best friend, Georgiana Darcy, kicks off the mystery when she heads to London on her own to find her missing maid. The two of them, along with the butler, move from drawing rooms to dingy alleys as they look for the maid and soon find themselves investigating a murder.

I listened to the audio and had trouble distinguishing between the two women sometimes. And the mystery was less than compelling. I don't think I will add this to my series list.

I haven't read anything else by Kuang, Karen, although i will probably give Babel a try at some point.

>87 witchyrichy: Thanks for taking one for the team. I can cross this off my list.

The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford's semi-autobiographical novel of life in the English upper classes at the start of WWII is funny and sad at the same time while feeling surprisingly contemporary. We follow the love life of Linda Radlett through the eyes of her cousin Fanny, whose life follows a more traditional path. Linda, much like Fanny's mother in the previous generation, balked at the restrictions of her upper crust life, leaving husband and children behind to pursue her own pleasure. I was completely drawn into the story. Mitford's prose is carefully crafted; her observations on the oddities of life at Alconleigh, ancestral home to the Radletts, are revealed in bits and pieces of offhand comments or pointed descriptions.

I dove right into the sequel, Love in a Cold Climate.

Adding the Women's Prize for Nonfiction via @BLBera

Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: China’s Stolen Children and a Story of Separated Twins by Barbara Demick
The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan by Lyse Doucet
Don’t Let It Break You, Honey: A Memoir About Saving Yourself by Jenny Evans
Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health by Daisy Fancourt
With the Law on Our Side: How the Law Works for Everyone and How We Can Make It Work Better by Lady Hale
To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Creativity and Race in the 21st Century by Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason
Artists, Siblings, Visionaries: The Lives and Loves of Gwen and Augustus John by Judith Mackrell
Ask Me How It Works: Love in an Open Marriage by Deepa Paul
Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry
The Genius of Trees: How Trees Mastered the Elements and Shaped the World by Harriet Rix
Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War by Jane Rogoyska
Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy (published by Hamish Hamilton, Penguin General, Penguin Random House UK)
Finding Albion: Myth, Folklore and the Quest for a Hidden Britain by Zakia Sewell
To Exist As I Am: A Doctor’s Notes on Recovery and Radical Acceptance by Grace Spence Green
Nation of Strangers: Rebuilding Home in the 21st Century by Ece Temelkuran
Indignity: A Life Reimagined by Lea Ypi

>90 witchyrichy: Which ones are calling to you, Karen?

>90 witchyrichy: Great question!

I went right for Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health. I have been making arts and crafts a priority in my life for the past year, helping to create two different monthly craft groups. Making can be a kind of meditation once we get past the voices that say we aren't creative or artistic.

A good friend highly recommended Lea Ypi's memoir Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History, which I bought but haven't read yet so maybe a dual read with Indignity: A Life Reimagined.

England and trees are always of interest as well.

How about you?

My reading has slowed down as I love watching the Olympics. Getting caught up on the US versus GBR in curling right now before getting started on the day. I may make Josie happy with a walk. This afternoon is the monthly library board meeting. We also have a finance committee meeting scheduled. We meet in a town about 45 minutes away, but there is a UPS store for mailing a package and a Starbucks for getting a latte so I don't mind.

I may download an audiobook for the drive. My RLBG is reading Remarkably Bright Creatures for March. Hoopla has the audiobook.

We chose this book over Shark Heart, a fantasy about a woman whose husband is slowly becoming a shark that includes a character who is pregnant with twin birds. My group is very open to reading (just about) anything but decided this was a little too much fantasy for us. The librarian heard it was very good. I haven't added it to my TBR list.

The Southern Bookseller Review awards three prizes each year. This year, the winner are

Fiction: Dolen Perkins-Valdez for Happy Land
Nonfiction: Silas House for All These Ghosts
Young Readers: Christy Mandin for Millie Fleur Saves the Night

I have added Happy Land to my sooner rather than later list as it meets a Bingo square and sounds like a fascinating story. The historical fiction novel is based on the true story of an egalitarian community of formerly enslaved people in the North Carolina mountains.

>94 witchyrichy: The Silas House collection would be one that I would be interested in, Karen. Strange that poetry is considered as "Non-Fiction" for the purposes of this award.

>92 witchyrichy: So many, Karen! The art book is calling, as well as the hotel books, so interesting that there are two on the list. I got a copy of Indignity from the library; it was on the shelf, so it seemed like a sign. The tree book also sounds great. My nonfiction is limited to one or two per month, so I don't know how far I will get with the list.

Happy Land does sound fascinating.

>95 PaulCranswick: It seems as though they have collapsed their categories over the years. Perhaps for lack of entries, especially in the poetry/nonfiction categories? Wikipedia has a list of all the winners since the award started in 1999.

>96 BLBera: Meanwhile, the Olympics have been taking up my reading time. Go ahead...ask me anything about curling!

Ha! We don't watch sports at all, other than Mike catching drag racing when he can. But for some reason, we both got wrapped up in the couples figure skating for two nights. I hadn't watched the Olympics in at least a dozen years before that.

>99 mstrust: I love figure skating, so beautiful and dangerous at the same time. We are not hard core sports fans but have always liked the Olympics. We even went to Atlanta for the summer Olympics in 1996.

I read Love in a Cold Climate right after Nancy Mitford's first book, The Pursuit of Love. Fanny narrates again and tells the story of the Montdore family. Polly, the only daughter of the Earl and his narcissistic wife, scandalizes the family and the social world with her marriage. A distant relative is secured as heir and his move into the family home changes the family's lives.

Mitford continues to be merciless in the way she pillories the upper classes. Her stories were often based in her own experiences. I did not like this book as much as the first volume. Perhaps the story lines were to similar?

I am reading Marie Benedict's historical fiction about the Mitfords called The Mitford Affair. It focuses on Nancy's sisters who were famously connected with fascists and communists.

I look forward to Steve Berry's annual offering in his Cotton Mather series. International thriller crossed with historical conspiracies makes for a fun read. In this iteration, Cotton and his crew end up in Sweden where they are tasked with quietly locating a kidnapped Princess and protecting the Codex Gigas, the world's largest surviving medieval manuscript. Created in the 13th-century Bohemian monastery of Podlažice and currently housed in the National Library of Sweden, the manuscript is popularly known as The Devil's Bible, as it features a striking illustration of Satan. It was rumored that the monk who created it, as experts are sure it was written by one person, sold his soul in order to finish it in one night. The manuscript is a compendium of all knowledge. The National Library of Sweden has
a website devoted to the Codex including illustrations.

The Bible is being used as a bargaining chip in Sweden's bid to join NATO. The Princess, married to a former Russian spy given a new life in England, has unwittingly participated in her own kidnapping as part of a larger plot by the Russians. Cotton and his colleagues seem to be a step or two behind but eventually catch up.

Along with drawing on historical conspiracy theories, Berry uses historical locations for his gunfights and chases. This time, they take place in the National Library and the Vasa Museum. The latter houses a 16th century warship, which becomes the centerpiece for a gunfight.

This is the 20th book in the series and Berry includes a major shock. So major that he has to include an author's note to explain himself.

The Mitford Affair is Marie Benedict's historical fiction novel about the Mitford family during the run up to World War II. Chapters move between Nancy and her younger sisters Diana and Unity, both of whom embraced fascism and were fixtures in Hitler's Germany in the late 1930s. The family interactions were fascinating, and I learned more about Chamberlain's policy of appeasement.

Diana divorced her society husband and connected with Oswald Mosely, the UK's face of fascism. Nancy's novel Wigs on the Green was a satirical send up of the fascists, painting unflattering pictures of Mosely and her sister. Benedict uses this conflict as a central theme in the novel.

The Wager showed up on several people's threads as a good read. I picked it up at the library, started reading it that afternoon and finished it the next morning, pulled into David Grann's tale of, as the subtitle suggests, shipwreck, mutiny and murder. The Wager was part of an expedition to capture a Spanish galleon laden with treasure. Eventually, it lost its companion vessels, and after a harrowing trip around Cape Horn, became shipwrecked on an uninhabited island in Patagonia. The caption and crew struggled to survive, but hardships led to a breakdown of discipline. Separate groups made their way home and began to shape their own narrative about what happened.

Fascinating book that details life on the ship, daily struggles on the island and the almost superhuman effort these men made to get home to their families. At least one continued his life in the Navy. That is the piece that amazes me. I felt the same way about In the Heart of the Sea, the story of the Essex. The men barely survived but almost immediately headed back out to the sea.

Recommended.

Via several friends here on LT::

The Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist 2026

Gloria Don't Speak by Lucy Apps
Paradiso 17 by Hannah Lillith Assadi
Moderation by Elaine Castillo
Flashlight by Susan Choi
Dominion by Addie E. Citchens
The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
The Mercy Step by Marcia Hutchinson
The Others by Sheena Kalayil
Kingfisher by Rozie Kelly
Heart the Lover by Lily King
Audition by Katie Kitamura
A Guardian and A Thief by Megha Majumdar
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
The Best of Everything by Kit de Waal
A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing by Alice Evelyn Yang

Another great read this year: Remarkably Bright Creatures was as good as everyone said. I listened to it and the voices were very well done, especially the voice of Marcellus the Octopus. Shelby Van Pelt did a great job weaving the stories of the humans and Marcellus together with surprises all along the way. I am looking forward to talking with my fellow readers in a few weeks.

>105 witchyrichy: I must live under a rock, because I haven't heard of any of these books, much less their authors. I am ashamed of myself, because I don't, actually, live under a rock and should at least have heard about them.

>106 witchyrichy: I really liked Remarkably Bright Creatures too when I listened to it a couple of years ago. I take it you read it for book club?

Happy almost Friday!

>107 Storeetllr: The only one I've heard of and read was The Correspondent so don't feel bad. I also don't live under a rock. Maybe I need to subscribe to more literary newsletters or read the literary supplements? Do they still have those in newspapers? Meanwhile, others in our group were guessing the list and getting some of them right. I'm not ashamed really but just aware that even without the rock, I seem to be disconnected from the larger, contemporary literary world. Might be time to reconfigure the algorithm.

I did read Remarkably Bright Creatures for book club and was glad I did. I am not always a fan of books with animals as they often die. I stopped reading the Bruno, Chief of Police series after two books in a row had an animal killed in a horrible way. It's the same reason I avoid following animal accounts on Instagram. I don't need the vicarious grief when bad things happen. I know it's odd as I am less worried about books in which people die but there you have it.

And...it is Friday and I am home for the whole day! The weather has turned into summer so there will be dog walking and porch sitting and light gardening.

I finished up chores yesterday and headed to our back porch and my neglected rocking chair. Glorious day to read and relax. I finished Proving Her Claim: On The Dakota Frontier. It was the story of Anna who left Wisconsin for the Dakotas in 1867 as a homesteader after her fiancé was killed in the Civil War. I was surprised that women were permitted to stake claims as part of the Homestead Act of 1862. The National Park Service has a detailed website about these women including extensive biographies.

I think the story was a bit optimistic about life in the Dakotas with all the pieces falling into place for her without much struggle. Van Dam also sugarcoats the relationship between white settlers and the Lakota. The book probably registered a 2.5 on Owlcrate's spicy meter with sweet, tender but explicit love scenes.

Despite all that, it was a fun read, like an old western including forbidden love and a gang of outlaws. There was a major twist, too.

It looks like there is a sequel as well as several other books with similar themes of women staking their claims or otherwise living free lives.

Oh! I missed seeing The Correspondent on the list. (Hmm, Touchstones not working today?) I have that one on my Holds at the library.

I know it's odd as I am less worried about books in which people die but there you have it. It is not odd. Not at all. I feel the same. Animals, both domesticated and wild, are lovable, even the predators, while many people...

>105 witchyrichy: Are any calling to you, Karen? I wouldn't be embarrassed about not being familiar with them. I think about half are debut novels. I like the list because it gives me the chance to discover new writers.

>108 witchyrichy: Maybe I need to subscribe to more literary newsletters or read the literary supplements? Do they still have those in newspapers?
I was recently out driving around running errands when I heard a report about this very issue on 1A on NPR. Their discussion was triggered by the recent demise of the Washington Post's book section. I bookmarked the segment on my browser because I didn't hear all of it and wanted to get back to it (which I haven't managed to do so far). If you're interested, you can find it at: https://the1a.org/segments/what-the-loss-of-literary-criticism-means-for-book-lo...

>107 Storeetllr:

>108 witchyrichy: I didn't really have any predictions for the Women's Longlist, but I had a some titles in mind because I listen to a couple of youtubers who make prediction videos for various book prizes. But many of the titles were completely unknown to me. I wouldn't feel badly at all about not knowing about the books.

I have not been living under a rock when it comes to the wildly popular Heated Rivalry television series. I decided to give the first book in the series, Game Changer, a chance. And, I was already interested when the publishing company promised HEA and HFN, which I did have to look up: happily ever after and happily for now.

I enjoyed it overall. The story of Kip, a historian who is mixing smoothies and happens to make one for Scott Hunter, the very famous hockey player who is having a rough patch. When the smoothie and Kip seem to bring some success and joy to his life, Scott decides to take the leap into a relationship. However, it is one that needs to be secret. Kip is thrilled until he isn't and decisions about privacy and publicity have to be made. At the heart of her very sexy romance, Reid manages to address serious social issues particularly around public expectations for famous people.

I have a read a few reviews and feel like I should comment on the sex: it was explicit but, for the most part, it was part of the story. Kip and Scott had very different experiences of growing up gay and that fed into their lovemaking.

I have Heated Rivalry on hold.

>113 vancouverdeb: Please share those YouTubers and any other literary folks you find useful. I am trying to refine my algorithm.

>112 atozgrl: I am interested! Thanks for sharing. I will give it a listen. Most of my book recommendations come from LibraryThing, actually. I do know NPR also has some book podcasts.

>117 witchyrichy: Yeah, it seems like NPR is one of the few places left. I guess everything has to move from newspapers to YouTube or elsewhere on the web to get eyes anymore.

>116 witchyrichy: Here are links to my favourite book tubers, Karen. https://www.youtube.com/c/EricKarlAnderson and https://www.youtube.com/user/SavidgeReads and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYaEzF1HghMIPm7d226gjIQ/videos . There are certainly a few more, but those are my fav's.

>119 vancouverdeb: Thank you! This will be a good starting point. I don't think about YouTube as a place for things like this.

>111 BLBera: I opened new tabs and checked out the summaries and reviews. Here's what I saved to my TBR list:

The Best of Everything
Wild Dark Shore
Heart the Lover
The Mercy Step
Paradiso 17
Gloria Don't Speak

I think I will start with Paradiso 17. It comes out March 17. It doesn't look like my library owns a copy.

I put a hold on Heart the Lover. There is a 26 week wait.

I haven't kept up with Fredrik Backman but My Friends showed up on a few people's lists as a good read. And, I was not disappointed. I was hooked from the first page as Louisa meets the Artist and begins a journey of a lifetime. I counted it as a road trip book as Ted tells Louisa much of the story of the friendships that led to the painting as the two journey by train to the small town where Ted, the Artist and the other friends grew up. Beyond the story itself, which has a few unexpected twists, Backman evokes the nostalgia of those perfect summers of childhood.

Wonderful story!

I read Helene Wecker's first book, The Golem and the Jinni, when it first came out. The sequel, The Hidden Palace, has been on my shelf for some time. I did have to get a summary of the first book as I had forgotten the details. In this sequel, the Golem and the Jinni continue to find ways to exist in the world of men in turn of the century New York. Each one must face the consequences of their past actions and consider their futures. The story carries elements of historical fiction with the sinking of the Titanic and the Lusitania providing background to events in the novel.

>121 witchyrichy: Good list, Karen. I loved Heart the Lover, but that is a long wait. Wild Dark Shore is great as well.

>124 BLBera: Thanks for the tip. It looks like my library has multiple copies of Wild Dark Shore. Trying hard to read books that either I or my library owns.

I have had Writers and Lovers on my shelf forever so maybe I'll do a Lily King readathon.

You could read Writers and Lovers first although I don't think the order matters all that much. Plus, if you read Writers and Lovers and hate it, you can not read Heart the Lover!

>126 BLBera: Good to know. For some reason, Writers and Lovers has not called to me. I can always read it after I love Heart the Lover.

Right now, I dropped everything to read I See You've Called in Dead. Highly recommended here and at my library when I picked it up.

I See You've Called in Dead was just a lovely, perfect book. It was about life with all its ups and downs and joys and sorrows. The prose style was comforting somehow even when delivering surprises. John Kenney tells the story of obituary writer Bud Stanley whose life at 40-something is not going the way he thought it would. His wife has left him, his job is on the line, and he is just trying to figure out how to get off the sidelines and live his life. I don't want to tell much more as the story unfolds so neatly.

Highly recommended.

Oh! So glad you enjoyed I See You've Called in Dead so much! It was a 5-star read for me, and I'm pretty stingy with 5-star ratings.

Hope your week is going well, Karen!

>129 Storeetllr: I highly recommended it to my book group, too!

Spending time in Pennsylvania with my parents. They are moving from their townhouse to an apartment in the same retirement community. It is about half the space so they are busy downsizing. My sister and I are taking a few things but not much as we are both looking at our own need to downsize at some point! Today is chapel in the afternoon. My dad plays in the bell choir.

It is a little vacation for me as I am renting a cottage in Mt. Gretna. Mornings and evenings are mine. I brought The People's History of the United States along as I have lots of time to read on the beautiful big porch. Today is going to be particularly beautiful.

I finished up Death of a Wild Swimmer on my way up. It's the latest in Peter Boland's charity shop detective series. Then I started listening to The Wedding People. The story is good but I wonder how it reads in print. The author uses the main character's name a lot, it seems to me, perhaps deliberately. But in audio it gets repetitive and not necessarily in a good way. I'm keeping with it.

>130 witchyrichy: Yes, that's one book I wished I'd had someone to talk about it with.

>131 witchyrichy: Sure wish Mr. Zinn could update his book to the new "Present!"

>131 witchyrichy: Moving is so stressful, but I hope your parents enjoy their new home. And I get it about them wanting to give you their stuff; my mom has been trying to get my sister and I to take her holiday decorations for years. This seems to be her plan for cleaning the garage.

I hope you enjoy your time in Pennsylvania , Karen. Enjoy your time in the cottage.

>132 Storeetllr: He offered life lessons without being preachy. I am going to check out one of those "what should I read next" sites to see what it might lead to.

>133 m.belljackson: I agree. What can be discouraging, however, is how little our country has changed over history. Government and business working together, motivated by greed and corruption, with little thought for the working class unless it suited their narrative.

>135 vancouverdeb: Thanks! Last year, I rented different cottages each time I went up. This one, called Wooded Wonder, was one of my favorites so it will be my first choice from now on.

I got home Tuesday, played bells Wednesday, went to a doctor's appointment Thursday and attended my monthly craft group today. I am ready for a day off tomorrow!

My MacBook Pro gave up the ghost yesterday. I may take it in to see if it can be resurrected, but I really can't live without a laptop for any length of time. (I tried to do some online grading using my iPad and a keyboard, and it was less than satisfying.) I ordered a Neo, the inexpensive new Mac, from Walmart, and it was delivered today. I had it up and running and was posting to LibraryThing in less than 10 minutes.

>134 mstrust: It is stressful, especially at their age. They are sorting through a lifetime of memories. I came home with lots of photo albums that I hated to see just get thrown out. I think I am going to cull a few pictures from each and put them in one album. I can also do a digital slideshow. I have enjoyed sitting with my parents and talking about their travels and our family adventures.

Yay for the new Mac and doubly so as it is inexpensive.

Have a great weekend, Karen. Since my daughters have been here we have also spent a fair amount of time sifting through old photo albums.

>141 PaulCranswick: Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy those times together! I don't mind hearing the same stories over and over again.

I decided to drop everything and finish A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. I read the last few chapters this morning. I knew a fair amount about the history he describes through my own reading and experiences but to see it laid out in one long timeline brings it all together.

I think I was fortunate to come of age in the 70s when the people were finding their voices. Looking back, it felt like there were real possibilities for a more inclusive country where everyone could succeed. Civil rights, environmental laws, and workers' rights were all in the spotlight as people organized and fought back against the machinery of what Zinn calls the Establishment. While Zinn sees this time as one of positive change, he also undermines the optimism as he describes how the supposedly liberal Jimmy Carter catered to business and continued to build up the military.

That's the theme throughout the book: for all our talk of democracy, and life, liberty and happiness for all, the history of our country has been one of command and control at the highest levels. When uprisings do threaten the balance of power, those in control make concessions--think mine safety rules or desegregating schools--to get the people off the streets. Often those expected to enforce the rules simply ignore them. Brown v Board passed in 1954, and the last segregated school was ordered to desegregate in 2016 in Mississippi.

Starting wars to distract the public is also a fairly standard practice throughout our history. So much about what is happening right now has roots in our past. Certainly there are differences that are both positive and negative. The average person has access to much more information than in the past. And the current regime is much more transparent about what they are doing. But the mix of religion and militarism and patriotism has been part of our national identity since the beginning.

In the end, it was a worthy read. I have the 20th anniversary edition that was published in 2000 and takes us through most of the Clinton presidency. Zinn answers some of the criticism he received about his book, particularly related to his obviously biased presentation of history. He basically suggests that everyone has a point of view that is hard to suppress. I had to write a lengthy researcher statement as part of my education dissertation.

I wonder if Zinn chuckled at the very Establishment he was criticizing doing exactly what he said they did: shutting down any version of history that questions their concern for American ideals and the American people and shows they may be more concerned about wealth and power. I think we need Zinn now more than ever to combat the move towards a white-washed version of American history that we are seeing in several states.

I followed a Reddit thread that recommended Jill Lepore's These Truths: A History of the United States as a possibly less biased view of American history. It is on my shelf so I may read it sooner rather than later. For now, I need a break from the past.

>143 witchyrichy: Good review. I guess I need to read this, though it may not be in the next week or so. I also need a break from the past. And the present. Especially the present. I think we all do.

>144 Storeetllr: Thank goodness Spring has arrived! Josie and I take two walks a day, and I spend time in the garden.

My RLBG is reading How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix. It is one of the library's book kits. I loved The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires and was not disappointed by this novel. I am not sure how the others will react. We read a variety of books but tend towards psychological thrillers rather than horror.

Louise and Mark are shocked to hear of the death of their parents. While Mark has stayed in Charleston, Louise travels back from San Francisco, leaving her daughter Poppy with Poppy's father. Almost immediately, strange events begin taking place in the house, focused on her mother's dolls and puppets. There is no love lost between Louise and Mark; she left home before her senior year to distance herself from Mark and her mother, who doted on her son. They begin as antagonists but find themselves thrown together in order to fight the forces of evil.

Hendrix does not hold back from explicit violence as part of the horror. That would be my only reservation in recommending the book.

I generally don't read psychological thrillers unless it is a book group book. (The librarian that lead the group LOVES them so we read a few every year.)

However, a friend highly recommended His and Hers by Alice Feeney. Reading this back to back with Hendrix gave a clear distinction between horror and psychological thrillers, I think. There was nothing supernatural in Feeney's book: all the violence and terror are caused by human beings. And, as with many of these books, it hinges on lots of twists. It did have a surprising similarity to Hendrix: each book includes a body in the back yard as a major part of the plot.

I think, if I need to be scared, I prefer horror. Feeney goes on my "not sorry I read it" list but probably won't pursue more of her catalog.

Compared to some of my LT friends, I am a terrible record keeper! I like a paper planner, and this year bought one that included book tracking. I worked on the stats page in the planner today and discovered two books that I never posted to LT for the month. Maybe having the backup is a good thing.

March Stats:

Number of Books: 10
Number of Pages: 2,968
Number of Hours: 19 hours
Format: Analog: 4; Digital: 4; Audio 2
Number of Authors: 9
Male: 4
Female: 5

Top Three Books:

Remarkably Bright Creatures
The Wager
I See You've Called in Dead

Quote:

"The greatest wonder is that every day, all around us, people die, but we act as if it couldn't happen to us." John Kenney, I See You've Called in Dead

I have kept up with Peter Boland's charity shop detective agency mystery series and enjoy listening to the audio. The series focuses on three senior citizens who work in the Dogs Need Nice Home charity shop when they aren't tracking down murderers. In this installment, Death of a Wild Swimmer, the mystery involves a member of the local "wild swimming" group who brave the frigid waters of the ocean of the English Channel each morning. Fiona joins the group both for investigative and personal purposes. She suffers from depression and wants to explore the health aspects.

The mysteries are always well paced. But, I really like the series because of the characters. Fiona, along with Daisy and Sue, are older women who are often overlooked. They have their own stories that sometimes intersect with the series.

Cozy and easy.

Heated Rivalry was my second gay hockey romance. Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov are enemies on the ice but have shared a secret, passionate love off the ice for years. We learn more about Ilya and the struggles with his father and his life in Russia. Shane, much like Scott Hunter in Game Changer, has a supportive family and a solid foundation in his community. I am not sure I will read the rest of the books but they offer a fun insight into pro hockey. And, as I mentioned before, I like the publisher's approach of happily ever after or happily for now.

The Wedding People was my road trip book. As I mentioned above, I wondered how it would read in print. Alison Espach has a particular prose style, at least in this book, in which she often needlessly repeats the main character's name rather than using a pronoun. I got used to and it may have helped with distinguishing the characters on the audio.

I enjoyed the book although it seemed awfully cavalier about suicide. The novel opens with Phoebe, the main character, checking into an upscale resort in Newport, Rhode Island, with a firm plan for killing herself. Instead, she finds herself in the midst of a week-long wedding celebration where she befriends both the bride and the groom. The story unfolds from there.

Phoebe is a thoughtful but somewhat impulsive adjunct professor who can't seem to advance in her career. Meanwhile, Lily, the bride, is young, rich and really unlikable. She connects with Phoebe as a way to escape having to play the role of the bride. Her mother is no saint, either, and Lily is dealing with the recent death of her father. Lily's fiancé, Gary, is older, an established doctor, whose first wife died. They had a daughter who may not be responding well to the marriage. Other family members bring their own baggage and a wedding is the perfect place to unpack it.

This was good contemporary fiction with a bit of literature mixed in. I enjoyed it.

Hi Karen my dear, thanks for stopping by my thread, dear friend. Hope all is well with you, Bob, Josie and Circe, we are both well and the last week or so has been quite good for us.

Sending love and hugs from both of us.

Hi Karen, You’ve read some good ones lately! We have a copy of the Zinn book somewhere in the house. I should find it. I’m right in the middle of I See You’ve Called in Dead and I love the prose style. I loved Remarkably Bright Creatures, too!

It looks like you have had a lot of good reads lately, Karen. I hope you had a great Easter Weekend.

Happy Wednesday, Karen!

A couple of your favorites (Remarkably Bright Creatures, I See You've Called in Dead) were also my favorites! I may have enjoyed The Wedding People more than you did. I started off disliking ALL of the characters, including Phoebe whom I thought was whiny, but I ended up really liking all of them, especially Phoebe and Lily.

I enjoyed The Wedding People as well, Karen. I found things to think about, and there were laugh-out-loud parts for me.

>133 m.belljackson: Howard Zinn is not updating his history to the present. He died in 2010. I don't know—couldn't tell from the comments—whether or not that was known.

>133 m.belljackson: >157 weird_O: I was aware but sorry I didn't make it clear. I read the 20th anniversary edition that covered through the Clinton presidency. Those later chapters were not nearly as detailed, it seemed to me. More like overviews that showed the same patterns and themes he had highlighted in the first edition.

>152 johnsimpson: I am always happy to checkin with your family. Bob, Josie, Circe and I are enjoying the beautiful spring weather! Circe loves using the dog door to go outside.

>153 Copperskye: >154 vancouverdeb: I am excited about my reading so far this year. It's been fun to just see where the books take me.

>155 Storeetllr: >156 BLBera: I think the only likable character from the beginning might have been Gary. I did recommend this to my book group as I think it would make for a good discussion.

I read and listened to Lincoln in the Bardo and loved it. Vigil, the latest novel from George Saunders, shares a similar plot with characters from both the real world and the afterlife playing roles. The main character, Jill "Doll" Blaine, comes to serve as a comfort and guide to a dying oil tycoon, helping him sort out his past and his contributions to climate change. Over the course of the novel, they are visited by others from the afterlife who want the man to repent of his sins. Jill delves into her own death as part of her visit to our world.

The novel is short and compelling. The narrator is engaging from the very first as she describes her descent to earth. The other characters from the afterlife had a fantastical sort of Dickensian feel.

But the novel never seems to get to the emotional depths of Lincoln in the Bardo. The grieving family is only glimpsed from afar. The dying man shows little desire to repent. It really is, as some reviewers have described it, an allegory. In that way, K.J. Boone, the oil tycoon, represents corporate greed, using stale, superficial arguments to rationalize his life's work.

I enjoyed the book and have found myself thinking about Jill's eventual conclusion that human beings may not have as much free will as they think as they are defined by the circumstances of their birth.

>159 witchyrichy: Haha, I had to google Gary because I had totally forgotten the groom's name. To give me a little leeway, it's been more than a few months since I read The Wedding People, and names have never been my strong suit.

>160 witchyrichy: I've got this one on my TBR list. I think I may need to get around to it sooner than later.

>161 Storeetllr: No leeway needed: I am trying to write reviews sooner rather than later as I lose details even of books I really enjoyed. I do think I remember the stories better when I listen, perhaps because I hear every word. I listen at regular speed and can't skim.

I final came up with the word for Vigil: atmospheric.

I requested C. Arthur Ellis Jr's historical fiction account of the Civil War, In The Belly of the Anaconda, as I am always happy to explore new details about the war that continues to be fought in many ways. I wasn't quite prepared for the hefty book as I missed the note about the length; however, the story flowed along easily, accompanied by historical and AI generated images.

Ellis sets his story in New Orleans after its occupation by the Union. Rachel Durand, widowed after the Battle of Shiloh, finds herself in the position of providing for her family in a town with few options for women. We experience the war largely through the experiences of Rachel and her family and friends. Women played important roles in the city, spying and transporting contraband. They often paid the price with imprisonment or banishment. Rachel and her family were Jewish, which added a spiritual element to the story. Ellis fills in historical gaps with side stories about various other players including John Wilkes Booth and Nathaniel Banks.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Ellis expertly wove historical facts into an engaging story and included a surprising twist. He manages to summarize the reasons for the war in a few succinct paragraphs. And, I learned a few bits I didn't know, especially about how the war played out in Louisiana. Short chapters centered around particular vignettes helped move the narrative along.

I received an early reviewer copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Zig zag counts as onomatopoeia so I chose this first book in a new-to-me series by Elly Griffiths that has been sitting on the Kindle for some time to fill a bingo square. I read and enjoyed a few of the Ruth Galloway novels but haven't kept up.

This series features two former members of a secret WWII group called the Magic Men. Now, five years after the war, two members--Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens and world renowned magician Max Mephisto--team up to solve the murders of the other members of the Magic Men before they themselves are dead. I had sort of figured out who the murdered was but the ending still came as a surprise.

I may dive back into Griffiths. I like having a mystery series to turn to when I need a break. Comforting, somehow, despite the murders and violence.

>160 witchyrichy: >161 Storeetllr: >162 witchyrichy: Vigil is finally coming in for me at the library! I loved Lincoln in the Bardo and other things I’ve read by George Saunders (Tenth of December, Fox 8). I’m looking forward to reading Vigil.

Karen O

>165 klobrien2: I wasn't aware of Saunders' other books. I'll put them on the TBR list along with Vigil. Thanks!

>165 klobrien2: >166 Storeetllr: I was also not aware of his many books until I did a bit of googling. I think he mostly writes short stories, which I rarely read, but I might give him a try.

Thanks for the reviews!
Several that you've mentioned are starting to bubble up to the top of my reading list:Yellowface, Remarkably Bright Creatures, The Briar Club and The Hidden Palace. Last month I read Nnedi Okorafor's The Death of the Author. I think it might be an interesting companion piece to Yellowface, based on the description.

>168 rhondak101book: Thanks for the recommendation. Lots of five-star reviews for The Death of the Author. It has been added to the TBR list.

>164 witchyrichy: You’ve reminded me that I need to get back to that series. I’ve only read the first two but they were fun.

I plan on reading Vigil one of these days. I enjoyed Lincoln in the Bardo but prefer his short stories.

>170 Copperskye: I would like to add more short stories and poetry into my reading life so Saunders is probably a good place to start.

Well...my real life book group HATED How To Sell a Haunted House. We spent less then 30 minutes talking about it as they had no interest in finding anything good. I guess I wasn't surprised. We haven't read any real horror books. I think the genre requires readers to suspend their disbelief, something that my somewhat practical-minded group members were not willing or able to do.

I like Hendrix's style: darkly comedic and sometimes wildly implausible. In this book the evil was more immediately apparent while in The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, evil slowly infiltrated the community. My only real complaint was the use of puppets and dolls as they seem somewhat cliche but Hendrix gave them some interesting twists as part of a ghost story.

I recommended The Haunting of Hill House and did get a little discussion going about Shirley Jackson but I don't think any of them plan to read horror again.

And now for something completely different: We are reading The Road to Tender Hearts for next month. It looks like a heartwarming tale of finding love and family.

My librarian loves psychological thrillers so pressed Dear Debbie on me the last time I was at the library. It was my first Frieda McFadden. I thought is was very funny for a thriller and reminded me of An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good in a way. Debbie is an advice columnist. We never get to read her published letters but we do get to see her drafts, most of which include inventive ways to kill your husband. And, unlike many thrillers, we are under no illusion about who is doing all the bad things. The twist, when it comes, is surprising.

I may try another McFadden at some point but I am still not a huge fan of the psychological thriller.

>173 witchyrichy: I think my sister likes reading Frieda McFadden, but I have not read anything by her. Too bad about your book club book.

Time for a new thread but will finish out the April reviews since I have been doing a decent job keeping up this year.



Debra Magpie Earling has imagined the inner life of Sacajewea, the Soshoni girl famed for her participation in the Lewis and Clark expedition. We know little about her: a few anecdotes of her heroic efforts to save the records and the lives of the explorers even as she carried her newborn baby to the Pacific Ocean and back.

The journals have a mystical quality as Sacajewea records her life on the Plains where she and her people have lived and thrived through their deep connection to the natural world and later, the violence and chaos she confronts. Earling uses what she calls "shattered prose" throughout with unconventional sentence structure and punctuation that tries to capture Sacajewea's inner world. In many ways, the novel is a long form poem.

Earling confronts the historical record by reminding us that Sacajewea was essentially a slave for all the talk of her marriage to Charbonneau. The book ends with her family reunion even as Earling foreshadows the future of the baby who is eventually adopted by William Clark.

Excellent, atmospheric book: highly recommend.

I listened to The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife and was completely engaged from the very beginning. Fred Fife is not sure he has much left to live for as he struggles with the death of his wife and his unstable financial situation. Then, an unfortunate accident involving a dead man in a wheelchair lands Fred in a lovely nursing home where everyone seems to think he is named Bernard. Any attempts to explain are met with smiles and knowing nods as Bernard has a bit of dementia. Fred plays along, after all the food is good, and begins to become an integral member of the community. From there, the story plays out with twists and turns.

The tone of the novel is bittersweet and sometimes downright sad. There are laugh out loud scenes. However, Anna Johnston is not afraid to deal with the ravages of old age, dementia and grief in sometimes stark ways.

The story is set in New Zealand and I loved the narrator's accent and the various NZ idioms.

I seem to have quite a few books on the sooner-rather-than-later pile due to a few holds coming in at the same time. And, while I normally try to read one at a time, it seems I am now in the midst of five books!

Currently Reading:

Braiding Sweetgrass: This is from my own library and a perfect follow up to The Lost Journals of Sacajewea: A Novel
Paper: This is on my Kindle and is filling the micro-history square on the Bingo card.*
Everyday Sacred: Sue Bender's collection of meditations on life after living with the Amish
Heart the Lover: The 26-week library hold came through much more quickly as they bought more copies
Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife: Audio book also via a library hold that came through earlier than expected

On the TBR Pile:

The Road to Tender Hearts: my May RLBG read
The Bookshop Below: checked out on a whim after my last RLBG

I suspended my hold for This Book Made Me Think of You until mid-May so I can clear the decks.

*Mark Kurlansky's book along with Modern Papermaking by Kelsey Pike inspired me to pull out my paper making supplies. I made some lovely, green-tinted paper and had extra pulp that went into the freezer for the next round.

>177 witchyrichy: Just borrowed Modern Papermaking. I've never made paper before. Do you have pics of the paper you made? Sounds lovely! What are you planning to do with it?

>179 witchyrichy: Cool! I do collaging and junk journaling type art and use the paper for that. At my craft group last week, a friend watercolored on some she had made with me, and it worked better than I thought it would. I know some people make it with seeds embedded and make greeting cards that people can plant!

Here is a quick shot of my first batch: this is just shredded white paper with some extra cardstock chopped in. The texture is pretty rough and the sheets are thicker than I wanted. My second batch is a bit more finely woven and thinner but it is still drying.

Last book for this thread: I finished Mark Kurlansky's micro-history, Paper: Paging Through History. It was a fascinating look at all the ways different societies chose to record their lives. I did get bogged down a bit in the level of detail but reminded myself that there wasn't going to be a test. The history of paper making is intertwined with the development of literacy and printing technologies.

Kurlansky's main theme relates to how technologies like paper develop: no one created paper, and then said, what should we do with it? As societies became more complex, the need to record things like contracts forced the development of something that could be used to do that recording. As literacy rates rose, demand also grew so new machines and methods were developed.

Bottom line: the world uses A LOT of paper! I was particularly interested in his description of Japanese washi paper. It is made from different ingredients and can sell for $20 a sheet. I was tempted by the book binding kit offered by Hiromi Paper.

>180 witchyrichy: This sounds fascinating. I love that you make paper.

>177 witchyrichy: Good luck with the reading. Heart the Lover is a pretty fast, engaging read.

>175 witchyrichy: This was an unforgettable book.

>179 witchyrichy: What a unique hobby! Very cool!

How to Sell a Haunted House wasn't my favorite Hendrix, but I'm surprised a book group would hate it.

>177 witchyrichy: That is a lot of books on the go, Karen , at least for me. I didn't care for Heart The Lover, but I know many did.

>179 witchyrichy: Thanks, Karen! I read partway through the book but stopped when it came to the descriptions of what is necessary for the process. I barely have room to turn around in my tiny tiny basement lair, and my bathroom is miniscule, so papermaking is not going to happen anytime soon. I love the look of the paper though, and would love to try watercolor painting on it. I bet it would make some gorgeous paintings!

>181 BLBera: >183 vancouverdeb: I finished Heart the Lover yesterday but am determined to get a new thread going here so will review it in the next one. I enjoyed but it wasn't a five-star read for me as it was for others.

>182 mstrust: >184 Storeetllr: It is fun! But making paper is a mess no matter how hard you try to keep it contained. I am fortunate to have the space I need. I tend to get all the supplies out for a month or so at a time and use it multiple times then clean up and put it away. Right now, I have pulp in the freezer. I also want to try out adding paint to the water as a friend did.