75 or less is a new goal

Taking my inspiration from so many others, wiser in book posting than I'll ever be, I've decided that this is the friendliest, although sometimes costly (all those new books to read), place to be. Like another reader, I think I should try to slow down this year, while still trying to work through my shelves and read more of my collection, remove some of them through mooch or personal giving, and see if I can't get a bit more out of what I read.

I'll try to review book at the book sites, but include a bit here just as a memory jogger.

So:
Number 1: Emma: How could I have avoided this for so long? Admittedly a bit long, Austen still holds the reader's interest and her characters remain remarkably current. This is part of a Modern Library edition of Austen's works in two volumes. My Collection

Number 2: The American Plague is an intriguing account of how Yellow Fever affected the history of the United States, with special emphasis on Memphis, Tennesee. Ship's library

Number 3: DeLuxe was a depressing work detailing the deterioration of some classic-label goods in the interest of---surprise?--profit. Ship's Library

Number 4: Tales of Graceful Aging is a very funny account of what it's like to slowly but surely become part of the Invisible Empire of Older Women in the U.S. Ship's Library

Number 5: Neverwhere was the first book I read for Take It or Leave It Challenge. I'd seriously put it off for sometime, so the TIOLI, designed specifically for those of us who stand before our overstuffed shelves, leaning stacks, and full cupboards, gazing distractedly, saying, "Oh, what shall I read now?" Mooched

Number 6: The Housekeeper and the Professor is a delightful read. Mooched

Number 7. A walk Through the Memory Palace is an unusual, short, Chapbook Winning book of poetry. Deals a lot with issues specific to women, but also includes nature and love. Very nice. My Collection

Number 8: The Violent Bear It Away is an exploration of the bizarre forms that religious fervor can take. Intrguing but not for the faint of heart. Mooched

Number 9: The Tattooed Girl is a book that I hated. Personal Giveaway

Number 10: The Beans of Egypt, Maine: A very odd, kind of disgusting, and yet moving story about the underclass living in rural Maine. Quite realistic, in spite of the exaggerations. Mooched

Welcome back!

Hey, Gail! Glad to see you here.

Thank you both. Certain family circumstances sometimes seem to conspire against my regular participation, except in dribs and drabs on the threads of others---hey, Stasia! In fact, I'll probably not post again after this until Friday or Saturday, as we're taking a brief trip.

Number 11: Into the Wild: Another in Krakauer's fine set of explorations into what makes those people who take serious chances with their lives, do the things they do. This is a sad book. mooched and gone

Number 12: Free for All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangsters at the Public Library: a memoir focusing on all the services (some quite unintended) provided by our, imho, greatest public institutions. Not quite as funny as I had hoped. library book

Number 13: 57764::February House: All you ever wanted to know, and much more, about the lives of the bohemian literary set in New York during the late 1930's and the 1940's. W.H Auden has a starring, and fascinating, role here. library book

Number 14: 4052443::Biting the Wax Tadpole: Oh my. Two months later I have no memory of this book. Uh-oh. library book

Number 15: 1380726::American Bloomsbury: I was disappointed in this book. Cheever makes many assertions completely unsupported by any evidence. Lots of information on Louisa May Alcott, though. library book

Number 16: 7163::Keep the Aspidistra Flying: I loved this very funny, yet quite sad, account of a man trying really, really hard to drop out of system in post-WW2 England. Orwell is one of my favorite authors. my collection

Number 17: 5387420::How to Read Novels Like a Professor: Not a bad book on how to get more out of reading, conversational in tone; fun to read. my collection

Number 18: 169982::Harm Done: no memory of this, except that I liked it at the time and that it had a lot of social commentary worked into the mystery my collection

Number 19: 300244::Eight Modern Essayists A textbook I happened to pick up by chance. Some excelllent choices here, my favorites being Richard Wright, "Notes of a Native Son", and an amazing and amusing entry by Joan Didion on John Wayne. That was a real surprise. disposed of b/c of much damage

Number 20: 33254::Everything that Rises Must Converge: Whoa. You have to be in very special mood to enjoy O'Connor's excellent but bizarre stories, most of which explore the extremely odd varieties of religious exprerience. mooched

edited for touchstones, which aren't working all that well.

#4: I am going to have to find a copy of Eight Modern Essayists. I seem to be drawn to essays these days. Thanks for the recommendation, Gail.

--->5 alcottacre: Yes, Stasia, I'm finding myself more and more intrigued by essays recently. Each author's distinct voice is refreshing, and I always like to find out how others view the things I see every day. Orwell remains my favorite, but David Foster Wallace bears looking into, if only a bit at a time. Gore Vidal can be hilarious and extremely learned and amazingly well-read, if quite literally mad.

Number 21: The Saint Valentine's Day Murders: This is the second in Edwards' Robert Amiss series. The satire of a minor British bureaucracy, so dreadfully like our own, is quite good; the mystery takes a second place here and is, indeed, quite improbable. Fine if you like a lot of laughs with your mayhem. my collection

Number 22: The Haunted Bookshop: Here is proof, if you need it, that even the most erudite expert can be led astray. I bought this solely because Julian Symons recommended it in his Bloody Murder, a long look at murder stories through time. I still admire and respect Symons, but this book is a completely dated, foolish mystery; a sad waste of one's reading time. personal give-away

Number 23: On Chesil Beach: one of the most improbable, anachronistic ideas ever . I don't know what it is with McEwan. His writing is elegant, even beautiful. But some of his plots are truly awful...and not in a good way. borrowed and returned to owner

Number 24: Faithful Unto Death: A most enjoyable entry in Graham's village series starring Inspector Barnaby. A superior effort. my collection

Number 25: Women of the Raj: The title is more or less self-explanatory. This is a well-researched book; many of the footnotes cite primary sources. Very interesting and recommended to anyone interested in feminist/women's history, the Victorian era, or the Raj itself. my collection

Number 26: The English School of Murder: This is one of the three or four funniest mysteries I've read in a lifetime of looking for light-hearted murder. The main character is a delightful young man, not faultless nor particularly brave, but very human. I recommend this to any mystery fan. my collection

Number 27: Matricide at St. Martha's: An English women's college, eccentric characters, a murder or two for good measure: fun for fans of the genre. my collection

Number 28: Corridors of Death: You can see what happens to me when I start on a mystery (or sometimes just any) author's work---I get compulsive. And then I get tired of/slightly bored with the author, through my own fault. So...this is good, but not Edwards's best. Satire is sometimes hard to deal with as a steady diet. I'd recommend reading Edwards in increments, about every six months or so. my collection

Number 29: The Last Dickens: Not as good as Mr. Pearl's first effort, this is nevertheless well-researched, carries a good bit of Victorian ambience, and represents Mr. Dickens realistically. But it just doesn't carry one away. mooched

Number 30: If On a Winter's Night a Traveler: Oh my. What seems to be a novel, then a set of short vignettes loosely held together in an over-arching plot, is actually quite an acute discussion of the relationship between author and reader, and what it means to read a book. Intriguing, if difficult. mooched

#6: I will have to look for The Saint Valentine's Day Murders, The English School of Murder, and Matricide at St. Martha's. They look like ones I would enjoy.

I liked The Haunted Bookshop more than you did, but did not like it as much as Parnassus on Wheels, the first book.

The Last Dickens left me rather 'meh.' I could not recommend that one. I agree with your sentiment - 'it just doesn't carry one away.'

I tried If On a Winter's Night a Traveler a couple of years ago. I could not get into it at all. I will have to give it a try again - but probably not any time soon :)

--->7 alcottacre:: Stasia, I would recommend The English School of Murder, Clubbed to Death, another of the funniest mysteries I've ever read, and Publish and Be Murdered. To me those are Edwards' best efforts.

Looking over my first 30 reads for this year (seems so paltry in comparison to some, but we do what we can), it strikes me that I've mooched/given away/mulched 11, seven came from libraries (of course that's temorarily over, as I self-banned from our locals in a vague, no doubt ill-fated attempt at self-discipline), one was an unfortunate borrow from a friend. This leaves 11 still in my personal collection. That's sort of a good thing, as one goal this year is to clear some shelf space. Right.

Did I mention that I've purchased 70 (yes, that's seven-zero) books so far in 2010? So, am I clearing space? Noooooo. In fact, I'm now working on effeciently stacking books in a large cabinet that was luckily empty at the beginning of the year. The problem is, of course, LT. I find a friendly soul, casually look over his/her posts and shelves, and then my wishlist explodes exponentially. Being an anxious sort, if the title is older or somewhat obscure, I've an almost uncontrollable impulse to jump right to Alibris or AbeBooks just to see if it's available...and dang, if I don't snap up that bargain (or not) copy right this very minute, it will be gone...I'll never find it again...well, I'm sure you all know the drill.

Another problem is that I do a lot of casual hit or miss re-reading, particularly of books about books and essays. This is time that could, perhaps, be better spent in new books.

The bright side of this is two-fold. One, I am reading lots more diverse titles from my owned TBR stacks, thanks to Squeaky Chu and her TIOLI ideas, and all those others who contribute there...by the way, Stasia, I found an ancient copy of Herman Wouk's Inside, Outside, one of my favorite books of all time, for future use in a Title with Opposites self-challenge. The other is that I could be buying and consuming rare vintages or even rarer illegal substances, instead of harmlessly amusing, entertaining, and educating myself. It's just my great good fortune that I can, more or less, afford these indulgences in my, er, mature years.

Best read this year to date would be The God of Small Things, a truly moving, amazing, funny, shocking book.

edited to fix a touchstone

#8: I checked my local library, Gail, and they had exactly 0 of Edwards' titles, so I do not know when I will get hold of any of them, although I have the same ABEBooks/ALibris disease that you have :)

I am going to do the 'Opposites Attract' challenge again in June since I did not finish two of the books in April. You can join me then if you do not get the Wouk book finished in the meantime. I will have to look into that one since I know I have never read it.

--->9 alcottacre:: I am a fan of Wouk. I bought a copy of Youngblood Hawke, a book I'd read some time ago; I just dipped into it for a moment to refresh my memory...several hours later I was still reading. He's one of my favorite authors.

More reading:

#31: Go Down, Moses: I inadvertently started this for a TIOLI short story challenge; of course, I then realized it is a novel! Faulkner being Faulkner, the mistake was understandable, given his disjointed, non-chronological, slightly crazed writing style. This is a a book you need to just keep reading, because eventually it will all (okay, most of it) make sense. A deeply sad story about slavery and its effects on both the enslaved and the slaveholders, Go Down Moses also address man vs. nature and the complete subjection of women. Interesting. mooched

#32: Passages: Twenty-four Modern Indian Short Stories was a terrific collection with some outstanding choices by Anita Desai, Shauna Singh Baldwin, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and more. My two favorites out of the 24 were "The Assignment" by Saadat Hasan Manto, an absolutely chilling tale, and "The Bottom Pincher" by Khushwant Singh. my collection

#33: Clubbed to Death is another of Ruth Dudley Edwards' enjoyable and very funny skewerings of British society. In this case one of those famous men's clubs is exposed as an unsavoury mess. One of her best works. my collection

#34: An Advancement of Learning: This is a fine novel as well as a good mystery story. It has the advantage of my favorite setting: a school. Hill has a good series going here; I'm looking forward to reading more of them. my collection

#35: The Dirty Duck is a subpar entry in Grimes's Richard Jury mystery series. The plot was pretty far-fetched, the characters static. Every so often Grimes will use an obvious Americanism, which is jarring in a book set in England with English characters. On the other hand, her portrayal of rather stock American characters in this book was quite funny. mooched

#36: The God of Small Things is a magnificent book. If you haven't read it, try to get to it as soon as you can. Although described as a love story, it is much, much more than that. Especially moving is Roy's ability to convey the feelings and thoughts of children, without coyness or derision. Highly, highly recommended. my collection

#37: The Coffee Trader: is about the origins of futures trading, and not as good as I thought it would be. Amazingly well researched, it portrays the period well, but the characters are curiously unegaging. Good if you like historical fiction. personal giveaway

#38: Childhood's End is an old science fiction classic. It was just barely okay, but probably fans of the genre would find it a fine book, oddly accurate in some predictions. mulched

#39: A Walk Through the Memory Palace is a slim but compelling book of poems mostly concerning women's issues. Some pretty fine language. my collection ETA: I just realized that I read this book twice this year. Hmmm....my collection

#40: Ex Libris is a marvelous and much too short collection of essays on the wonders of books, book collection, words, and related topics. Highly recommended. my collection

#10: Ex Libris is one of my all-time favorites. I am glad you enjoyed it.

I own The God of Small Things. I just have to get around to reading it!

Hi Gail. Clubbed to Death, The English School or Murder, Publish and be Murdered and Matricide at St Marthas have been duly added to my wishlist: I'm always on the lookout for funny mysteries. And I think you have persuaded me to add The God of Small Things, too.

"Intriguing, if difficult" is a perfect summary of If on a Winter's Night.

--->12 Eat_Read_Knit:: Caty, I'd suggest Peter Lovesey as a new author for you to try...I didn't see him in your library. Two excellent works by him, wickedly funny and good reading are The Reaper, a marvelous send-up of many things, and The False Inspector Dew, one of the most original mystery ideas I've come across in a long, long while. He has quite a few others out, but I've only read those; I have Rough Cider hiding in my "mysteries for those days when you just can't take any more serious literature for a while" pile on a shelf in the garage.

#13 Thanks - those look interesting. I'll add them to the list too.

#10 - I agree with you about The Coffee Trader. Have you read A Conspiracy of Paper, also by David Liss? It has the same well researched feel (it's set in London) and I thought the characters and story were more engaging.

I haven't got around to that yet. I enjoy the historical atmosphere---so nice to be whisked away to a completely different world---and I think I'll put it on my list to check out. Thanks for the recommendation!

Wow, Gail--I'm adding books to the TBR pile as fast as I can write them down. At least I've already read all the Ruth Dudley Edwards books so I've got that going for me.

After reading the P.D. James Talking About Detective Fiction recently, I found my copy of the Julian Symons book, Bloody Murder and now I want to read that one. I think the only Symons book I read was many years ago. The 31st of February was the name of it, I think. Very different from what I've gotten used to.

Mysteries are my thing, Linda; I love them for themselves, for the occasional literary gem among them; for memories of good times in the past, for their ability to relax me when nothing else will.

You see what "Carolyn Keene" and her Nancy Drew and the Dana Girls are responsible for...

I never read Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys. At a relatively young age, I was reading Erle Stanley Gardner (with the lurid covers) and Agatha Christie. On more than one occasion, an elderly woman at the drug store or else a librarian would tsk tsk me for picking out such a book.

My mother had to ride to the rescue, telling the library that I could read whatever I wanted.

Oh, gosh, the same thing often happened to my daughter, especially at school. Finally getting a bit tired of it, I hauled her into the school's library after the regular day, pulled some book at random off the shelf, had her read a bit to the librarian...no more problems.

I well remember reading Perry Mason as a very young child...they were around the house...and going on to Christie and many other "adult" books. But I did love the old Nancy Drews, principally because in those ancient days, they didn't "improve" them by updating them, and thus I learned about roadsters and rumble seats, and young men wearing raccoon coats to football games. Also read Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Jr., several westerns and some science fiction, all courtesy of my older brothers' collections. I think we may have been a bit privileged then, almost being forced into adult reading, because there wasn't too much aimed at the YA market. Which isn't to say I don't like YA books; I read them even now, from time to time.

By the way, what did you think of the James book? I've seen some mixed reviews on it. As I have a high opinion of her, I don't want to lessen it by reading this particular one. On the other hand, I'd be interested in her opinions on the subject. What do you think?

More Reading:

#41: Book by Book: More than the selection of book sketches that I remembered, this is almost a small Guide to Life, using books as counselors, companions, and consolations. An excellent work on the value of reading in living life to the fullest possible extent. my collection

#42: Thunderstruck is the more or less successfully combined lives of Marconi, inventor of wireless communication, and Crippen, the murderer. It takes 330 pages for the stories to merge into one stream. My enjoyment of this was seriously marred by my absolute lack of interest in electricity. mooched

#43: The Robber Bride: I alternate between thinking, "What a potbolier!" and wondering if this isn't a very effective retelling of some important myths, with women in the leading roles. Strange, well-written. mooched

I was thinking of reading Thunderstruck. My only connection to Marconi has come with reading about the Titanic. At some point, I will read it but not sure when.

#21: I think I own Book by Book. One of these days, I will have my library completely catalogued and know for sure!

I love Larson's books and have already read Thunderstruck.

I will have to get to The Robber Bride on of these centuries. I just discovered Atwood last year and am making my way through her books slowly.

Just dropping by to say hi - and bang, my wishlist has suddenly increased by several books... Yet another LT-er who I just KNOW is going to be bad for my bank balance!

--->24 elliepotten:: Ellie, I can assure that our mutual addiction to books will probably be bad for both of us!

---> 21 and 22: Re: Thunderstruck: Larson has written a good book. Don't be put off by my less-than-enthusiastic thoughts. The book is exceptionally well-researched, and depicts the period very well, I think.

#44: Still Life by Louise Penny is the quite amazing first novel in what is becoming a marvelous mystery series. Set in Canada, just over the border from the U.S., these books are a modern, literate, witty updating of the classic Village Mystery genre. The character development is particularly fine, as is Penny's wry musings on the human condition. my collection

Currently reading Make Way for Lucia, My Family and Other Animals, and Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. I'm enjoying them all.

edited because I am Number Challenged.

#25: I am reading through the Lucia series too - I just started it with Queen Lucia the other day.

I loved My Family and Other Animals! I hope you continue to enjoy it, Gail.

--->26 alcottacre:: Oh, Gerald Durell is wonderful, isn't he? Such a delightful book.

Re the Lucia series, I really, really like except for those occasional bits of baby talk; I was heavily chided for this as a four and five-year-old and as a result, can't stand it when adults use it. Ick. Other than that, the book is fun and very worldly wise in an oddly innocent way, if that is at all clear. I was prompted to read it by reading Dirda.

I've been contemplating my book collection for little while now. I'm not sure if it's a hideous example of conspicuous and needless consumption or just my own little hobby, hurting no one. I often buy used books, as I'm not into first editions or anything of that sort. I often feel guilty, but I can't seem to stop myself, not sure why. We can afford what I buy, so I'm not swamping the family budget or anything like that. Still...not sure.

I am with you on the baby talk, Gail.

#45: Make Way for Lucia: It took me about 30 pages to warm up to this, but it's a very funny, pointed observation on village life, or life in any small circle of acquaintances, and the absolute obtuseness of some people. Excellent. my collection

#46: My Family and Other Animals is a wonderful story about an English family living on the island of Corfu. Fantastic; I can't wait to find more of Durrell's work.my collection

Currently reading Elmer Gantry (oh my), The Great Game, and The Early History of Rome. Had to put Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands aside for a bit as it just doesn't suit my mood right now.

edited for numbering corrections

I will be interested in seeing what you think of The Great Game, Gail. It has been in the BlackHole forever now.

#46: Elmer Gantry is not, to put it mildly, a pleasant book. Of course Lewis created an iconic character in Elmer, helped considerably by Burt Lancaster's brilliant performance in the film. Nevertheless, this isn't a book I liked or would recommend to anyone. mooched

Found that I had to restart The Great Game, just to get back in the field and sort of warm up to the extremely complex and to me fairly obscure history involved. However, I can tell it's going to be a great book already.

And just as a self challenge (maybe I mean self punishment), I've been looking at Paradise Lost. Good grief...

And this month I am absolutely going to read Inside, Outside for the TIOLI (thanks, Stasia, for putting the Opposites Attract up again) and am looking at a couple of others. Should be busy!

edited for numbering

No problem! I just hope I manage to finish the books on the Opposites Attract challenge this time around, lol.

Gail....just found your marvelous thread. As a mystery addict, I feel very sympatico, and as a book addict married to a book addict, I feel your pain about finding places to put them. They are our friends, and even after reading them, I very seldom part with them. We too frequent the used book sales, and the public libraries in the area.

replying to #20 Talking about Detective Fiction was well worth the read. James has some interesting insights that spurred me to look for writers I hadn't considered before.

Looking forward to more comments from an obviously astute reader.

-->33 tututhefirst:: *blush*

I wish it were easier for me to part with a book, or books. Surely at my age there is a finite amount of books I'll be able to get to, but still...imagine not having something to suit available! The horror!

Thanks for the info. on James's nonfiction work. She's truly amazing. And speaking of books you haven't considered, if you've not read Trent's Last Case, do see if you can locate it. It's quite a wonder; completely different from anything I've ever read before or since.

Trent's Last case not available at our local library, but i can get it from ILL. Thanks for the tip.

I am adding Trent's Last Case to the BlackHole too, Gail. Thanks for the recommendation.

#47: Enslaved by Ducks is a very entertaining book about life with too many domesticated animals. The humor is great, and the book is not sloppily sentimental, something I can't stand. Recommended for anyone who likes pets, especially birds. my collection

#48: Beautiful Maria of My Soul: oh dear. I read this as an ARC, and so wanted to like it! I loved the author's voice: he's chatty, gossipy, and intimate; funny and insightful...but the book just left me cold. Maybe I'm too old to enjoy continuous soft-porn stuff, but it didn't work for me at all. I'd try another book by him, though, just because I enjoyed the conversational feel of his prose. personal giveaway

Currently taking a day off the self-required reading with The Yellow Room Conspiracy. So far, so wonderful.

ETA: numbering

#37: I will have to look for Enslaved by Ducks. I would probably enjoy that one. Thanks for the recommendation, Gail!

-->38 alcottacre:: I will gladly send you my copy if you'd like.

The Yellow Room Conspiracy is a case in point for giving an author a second chance. The first Dickinson book I read, The Old English Peep Show, was just so-so for me because the plot was fantastic (in an unfortunate way), although I found the ambience and humor engaging. Yellow Room, however, is completely different. More like a spy story, told through alternating voices, male and female, each completely believable. Here's most of the opening paragraph, which made me laugh aloud, as I had spent a hectic, sweaty, tricky hour in the garden engaged in very similar activities, directly before I read it:

"Normally I'd have swtiched the radio off the moment I heard the name, but I was trapped in the middle of the Yellow Border, poisoning bindweed, a tense and delicate process demanding far greater physical control than most other activities that come my way. ... So I was poised in the midst of the late July uprush (I keep my borders pretty crammed) with my feet twisted into two small clear patches and my hands, having disentwined the growing-tips of the bindweed and eased them into the bag and sprayed them there, now trying to withdraw them and at the same time shake any excess poison from them back into the bag so that it didn't drip elsewhere. Disentangled bindweed is intransigently floppy. My left calf was on the verge of cramp. I had left the radio on the gravel path twelve feet away."

This intro. brought me right into the book and gave me a fellow-feeling with the narrator. As you read the book you forget that it's a mystery and just enjoy the slowly unfolding plot complications and the development of some very interesting characters.

#39: That's OK, Gail. The local library has that one. Thanks anyway.

The Yellow Room Conspiracy looks like a good one. I will have to see if the local library has it!

I've been giving some thought to mysteries these past few days. Why do I love them, or some of them?

I think at the beginning it was a mixture of a couple of different things. One was that mysteries provided an easy and agreeable slope from children's books to more adult reading. And closely allied with that was the feeling that at last I'd achieved something sort of "grown-up"; at the age of 11 or so, I was in a tearing hurry not to be considered "the baby"; my mother often introduced me to her friends as such when I was well into my teens. Then too, I have an orderly, not to say anal or pedantic, turn of mind, and I like things which are challenging but tie up neatly, with appropriate punishments/consequences/rewards at the end. Most mysteries fill those requirements admirably.

As an adult, though, I've become more fussy, er, choosy about what I read. For example, I read the Diane Mott Davidson books for about 4 or 5 entries, quite engaged by the conceit of a caterer turned detective, enjoying the recipes and the humor, but then became bored silly. Same sort of thing happened with the Evanovich series. Loved the wild stories, the broad humor...but then got tired of reading the same book over and over. The Spenser series: same plus Susan, or rather Spenser's endless mooning about Susan and her single-lettuce-leaf meals, got really tired.

Now I'm after better writing, more ingenious integration of serious social or psychological issues, and of course more humor. It doesn't hurt if there are lots of literary references, either. I loved the first in the Bookman series, I think it was Booked to Die, and the second one held my interest, but after that...meh. Again, I want good writing, and a book that would hold the interest of most anyone, not just mystery-lovers.

#49: On that note, The Yellow Room Conspiracy is highly recommended to anyone who enjoys well-written, character-driven stories. Turns out Dickinson is not only an award-winning mystery author but has won the Whitbred award as well. An amazing man. my collection

None of this is to be construed as saying that I no longer read Agatha Christie: she ushered me into adult reading, however light, and will probably usher me into the grave as well.

ETA Numbering issues. Hope that's all over now. Sheesh.

I love mysteries too, (It's delightfully maddening to me when a book doesn't give me all the puzzle pieces until the end) but I hate it when I figure out what's going on too quickly. Which, coincidentally, is happening more often lately.

Do you think that maybe the more we read them, the easier they are to figure out, and that's why we get bored with them??

I'll have to check out the Yellow Room book. Thanks.

Mmm. Good point.

Yes, I do think that mysteries become easier to solve as we read more and more of them. But I'm finding that now the mystery has become slightly less important to me than it was; I'm more interested in good writing. For example, Josephine Tey has a somewhat maddening (you put that very well)tendency to leave out salient information vital to the solution of her mysteries, but they are so well-written that I just overlook that.
On the other hand, in one book, can't remember the title...ah, yes, Miss Pym Disposes, she gives all the facts, I solved the mystery very early on, but again I was so beguiled by her excellent writing that I didn't care.
Of course I babble on here about wanting Serious Issues in my 'tec stories, but I can't abide the grimness of Elizabeth George's books. Too bad, too, because I think she's a fine writer. So it is, as always, a very personal matter. Who do you like for mystery authors, especially?

#50: Night Has A Thousand Eyes by Cornell Woolrich is extremely well-written in the noir mode. Somewhat dated, but still enjoyable. The very thin, rather ridiculous plot is made endurable by Woolrich's ability to express the very creepy. I'm going to be on the lookout for Rear Window, another by Woolrich. Of course I loved the movie. mooched

Some interesting points about mysteries here. In my teens, when I first started to read mysteries regularly, I wanted a clever plot and not much more. Now, I want great writing, characters, AND plot. Not too much to ask for, is it?

I am also a mystery lover and think there is a fine line between too much information for the reader and too little. I love Tey's mysteries, always have and always will, so the quality of her writing as you pointed out, Gail, makes me give her a lot more leeway than another writer.

The Louise Penny Three Pines series are a great example (too me anyway) of what Linda is talking about: great writing, characters, and plot.

-->45 lindapanzo:: No, we don't want too much, do we? Just the perfect book, always ready when we're in the mood. Readers can be so demanding. ;>)

-->46 alcottacre:: Yes, Stasia, I certainly agree about the Louise Penny books. She manages to stay in the confines of the Cozy Village Mystery convention and yet turn the whole idea on its head in a wry sort of way. I consider her probably my major new find in the past year. I shamelessly push her books on every mystery lover I know. The Brutal Telling contains some very fine writing.

43- You are absolutely right - the more I read, and the more time I spend here on LT, the more choosy I become. I want "real" characters and writing that just grabs me and pulls me in. (I used to read some series mysteries that would bore me now.) Even if the mystery is secondary, I'll love it if it's well-written.

Coincidentally, the mysteries I'm recommending right now are Josephine Tey and Louise Penny! I'm also reading the Phillip Marlowe series by Raymond Chandler. I didn't like the 'crime noir' style at first because I found it a bit rough and unfeeling (ask Stasia!) but now that I'm used to it I'm really enjoying Chandler.

Oh, and I really enjoyed reading Dickens Bleak House last year, which I considered to be a mystery, in a way...he kept so many details back from the reader until later in the novel!

Oh, now that's a coincidence: I read Bleak House, Dr. Thorne, and Middlemarch all fairly close together and you're right: each had some elements of mystery, with hidden family trees, odd inheritances, and the like.

I've never read a Raymond Chandler book---I'd better start looking! I took a brief trip and read

#51: Rough Cider, which wasn't nearly as good as my two favorites by Lovesey, but nonetheless a slightly above average whodunnit with some great plot twists, a (to me) completely unuexpected perpetrator, and an interesting setting with *too much information* on how hard cider may have been made in England before WW 2. Worth a read if you are a mystery story fan. No detective here. my collection.

I've never read any Trollope (gasp!) but those books are high on my TBR...as is Middlemarch.

Glad we are able to add to each others reading lists!

#50: I will add Rough Cider to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation, Gail.

I hate being so sporadic a poster...well, to be truthful, I don't hate it enough to stop doing it. My RL keeps getting in my way.

One thing that happened recently was that I was Without. A. Book. on a recent brief trip. I brought one book, thinking it would be enough, as we were only gone two nights, and then finished it in one night. Gad! The terror! Fortunately there was a BAM right down the street from our motel, so a quick zip in garnered three or four little tomes to pass the time. Lesson finally learned: Bring along three more books than you think you'll need. And make at least one of them one of those big ol' Victorian doorstoppers.

More recent reading:

#52: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha didn't have enough of either the humor or the horror of childhood to hold me. I mean, I finished it, but it was kind of a snoozer. The 40 or so pages devoted to his feelings about and mental attempts to deal with the separation of his parents was great, though. I wish the whole book had been as sweet, funny, and true-to-life as that section. mooched

#53: Inside, Outside is a marvelous book about growing up in New York in the twenties and onward. Sad, sweet, laugh-out-loud funny in parts, this book has a special place in my heart as it recounts many things my Dad told me about his own childhood in the city. This book is what the previous book should have been. (Just my opinion, remember, which is often out of step with the mainstream.) my collection

#54: The Country of the Pointed Firs is a book in which almost nothing happens. Jewett's character development and her acute observation of small-town life on the coast of Maine is, however, heartwarming (and I don't say that too often), soothing and calming to the soul. my collection

--->message 51: No Trollope?!? My dear, you don't know what a world you are missing!

Currently working on several titles and pondering the next selections.

#53: I bought The Country of the Pointed Firs at least 2 years ago. I really need to get it read!

What a nightmare!! I'd hate to be bookless. In fact, in early 2009, I was on a stalled commuter train and finished my book with more than an hour to go, which prompted me to buy a Kindle. Never again would I be bookless.

I'm fearful that my Kindle might not work so I always take along an extra paperback on a trip, just in case.

Pre-Kindle, I'd typically pack one book per night of trip. Sometimes, I'd need an extra bag just for all the books.

--->55 lindapanzo:: hahahahaha
This sort of thing is leading me slowly but inexorably toward some sort of e-reader. Husband and self are getting older and less able to tote lots of books, what with the more or less complete pharmacy that he needs. I'm thinking that getting one of these here new-fangled machines might help.

I love that you also bring a paperback, just in case...

I've been driven to read phone book yellow pages in strange parts of the country, have read much of the Bible in those dark motel rooms, and once actually read some of the Book of Mormon, as it was the only thing available. Addiction is a somewhat troublesome thing, don't you think?

Immediate update to previous post:

I realized late last night that it could possibly be interpreted through my last post that I lump the Yellow Pages, the Bible, and the Book of Mormon all in the same category. Sigh. Their only shared characteristic is that they are likely to be find in motel rooms.

Let this be a warning to those who post while on pain medication or in great pain: Your little gems don't always say what you think they do.

The Bible, which I started browsing as a child, has been a source of endless, if intermittent, comfort to me, as well as entertainment, moral instruction, and sadly, some confusion. At one point my husband and I travelled a great deal, frequently at very short notice, and I always could rely on the Bible as a book I was iterested in and that would be available everywhere; it helped me through many a nearly sleepless night and taught me a great deal. During this time I managed to memorize large sections of Genesis, Exodus, Psalms, Matthew, John, First and Second Corinthians and First and Second Timothy. Not by a concious effort: after many re-readings, the poetry starts to seep into one's brain synapses.

The Yellow Pages, on the other hand, can provide one a set of clues to the ambience of the place one is staying in: The number and variety of the churches, the number of bookstores, the type and availability of restaurants, and some of the personal services offered, when carefully collated in the mind can give quite a picture of a town or city. My favorite ad in a Yellow Pages was for a spirtual healer who dealt with all the usual issues of love, money, death and loss of loved ones...and a yard service to those in need.

The Book of Mormon was an anomaly I found in a motel in, I think, Idaho, which I read because I was curious. Unfortunately it had been a long day and my eyes drooped before I could glean too much information.

#56/57: I did not take it amiss, Gail :)

Well, good. I thought I was okay and it would be clear to all that I meant that the commonality among the books was the availability of these works in the odd dim hours one can spend in those motels so thoughtfully lit with 30-watt bulbs. But then I thought it over and said, "Uh-oh. Now you've probably gone and offended someone. Fool."

Of course I have more wherewithall now, as well as some degree of planning, so that I can be more prepared. Often I have two mechanical pencils, big ol' crossword puzzle magazines--always start at the back and work forward, skipping all that nasty number stuff--and two or three p.b.'s tucked into the pockets of a good-sized overnight bag. Just in case...

When we both worked and were very heavily involved in civic organizations, many a Friday as I walked in the door, hubby would say, "Gee, pack a bag so we can get out of town for a couple of days, okay? I'll get the drinks ands snacks ready." And off we'd go, destination unknown until we got there. Gee, I sort of miss that spontaneity. Sort of.

#59: I wish my hubby and I could do that! Unfortunately, he works during the week (days) and I work every weekend (nights), which makes spontaneity impossible.

Gail - I got exactly the intention in message 59. Even if you were on meeds, the post was perfectly clear to me!

Gail..
I'm sorry I missed your thread. I found you and starred you and look forward to visiting frequently.

Thanks for the reassurance, all. Sometimes I'm in such a hurry to say/write what I've been thinking that my eyeteeth get in the way and I can't see what I'm saying. Glad to know that it was more or less clear.

-->62 Whisper1:: Linda, so very glad to see you here.

#55: Working IX to V is a fast and funny look at everyday life in the Classical Age. Written in the same style as those "----- for Dummies" books, with lots of nifty illustrations and side notes, but a few notches above that genre intellectually. However, if you ever thought the Ancients were stodgy old sorts roaming around in their togas, pontificating and inventing difficult math and philosophy concepts, this is a book that will open your eyes and make you laugh aloud. A great recommendation from Richard. my collection

#63: I already have Working IX to V in the BlackHole. I just need my local library to get a copy!

I am glad you enjoyed it, Gail.

> I enjoyed the 'bookless' fright! It is a sinking sort of almost frightening sensation......

...>65 sibylline:: Yes, my heart sank right to my shoes as I riffled through the suitcase pockets, hoping that either I or my husband had left something in there to read...Glad to see you here. I stopped by your profile; most interesting. I looked at your threads, but am waaaaaaaaaaaay behind there, obviously, so will get to reading them as soon as time permits, which may be about 10 days from now.

On another note, I checked through my laboriously kept records and found tht I've cleared 21 books from my house, not just my TBR pile, as of June 30. Not bad, not bad at all. I hope that all of you will keep my deep secret about the number of new books: 94, only four of which have been on the move 'em on list. Well, I never said I was going to reduce the number of books I actually own...did I? But I had hoped to do a bit better than this. At least I've been out of the library for months now, trying to read what's on the shelves right here in the house (and garage). And 55 off the TBR pile...wait...um...13 of the books I've read this year were also bought this year, so that's...uh...carry the 7...uh...42 off the longish-term TBR pile. Better than last year. Much better. I sometimes have so many books that, like the OLd Woman in the Shoe, I don't know what to do.

I'm beginning to feel the need for a little mystery banquet coming on. I don't know how long I can hold it off...

#66: I sometimes have so many books that, like the Old Woman in the Shoe, I don't know what to do.

I think that is a common theme here, Gail!

Got a couple of mysteries under my belt/in my head/off the TBR on a recent trip:

#56: Dead Cold is the second in the Armand Gamache series by Louise Penny. I came across these qutie by accident and for a most silly reason here at LT. Of course, thanks to Richard, I now suffer severe Penny Envy of sibyx. Sigh. Never mind. This is a good book with some very sticky character development and a bit more background on the Superintendent. Penny is a really good novelist, not just a genre writer. I had the mystery solved for ten seconds early on but rejected my (correct, as it turned out) idea. my collection

#57: Hag's Nook is an ancient locked-room type from the master of them all: John Dickson Carr. This is the very first Gideon Fell mystery, from the early thirties. Dated romance but generally fun and intriguing. I do get annoyed by Latin quotes, however, as my Latin has considerably decreased over the years. my collection

#68: The Three Pines series improves as you go, IMHO Gail, so you have more good reads ahead of you!

book
#58: Paddy's Lament is an odd book, in three distinct, although linked, parts. The first section is great, if slightly marred by repetition: a factual account of the Irish Potato Famine and the British response to same. Hard-hitting, depressing, thought-provoking. Then you get to parts two and three: "composite" accounts of the immigration and what the Irish found in the U.S. The book loses much of its punch here and becomes somewhat whiney and just off-putting if one has any knowledge of the overall immigrant experience. I need to think a bit more, but I'll be posting a review at the book site soon. Not recommended, unfortunately. mooched

#70: Skipping that one! I hope you are enjoying something else though.

Currently enjoying Chef, a book I got through LT. Has that dreamy and, to me, soothing quality so common in Indian literature. Something about these books just takes me away from current annoyances to another and most interesting world.

And...absolutely loving A Gentle Madness, much thanks to Stasia and Richard for their recommending it, as it had been staring accusingly at me for a couple of years...

#72: I am so glad to hear that you are loving A Gentle Madness, Gail!

Book #59: A Gentle Madness, which is a terrific book on book collectors and their obsession hobby. Basbanes is a charming writer whose knowledge of the world of bibliophily is apparently limitless. The only caveat I would have is that if one reads too much of this at a sitting, one becomes a)jealous, and b)annoyed by soooooo much money being spent on books. Which is not to be construed as saying that I don't think that books are worth what is paid for them. It just seemed, sometimes, that the whole thing is almost too much. That said, this is a book that can be read, put aside, read some more, etc. The chapters, while basically chronological, are not dependent on one another, so that the reader can choose discrete chunks of the book at will. my collection

Book #60: A Study in Scarlet, my first book on an electronic reader. What a fantastic invention! Of course it will never replace actual books, but how marvelous to have access to so many at one time, without moving anything but one's fingers. Of course, you must consider the fatally easy way you can buy books using the thing...hmmm...see immediatley previous review. I guess we're all a bit obsessive about books, or we wouldn't be on this site, in this group, would we? e collection

#74: I am glad you liked A Gentle Madness. It is one of my favorites.

Congrats on the e-reader! I will get one some day :)

(Us, obsessive about books? What makes you think that?)

74- I want that Basbanes book SOOO bad! One day...I have it on all my 'wishlists'!

I love my ereader - my first book on it was 'The Moonstone'. I'm a bit afraid too, of how easy it is to spend money on books - one click, 60 seconds later the book is delivered...BAD for the credit cards! But so far I haven't spent any money on books for it. I download the free ones from Amazon - and I keep my eyes open for specials - where a book is offered free for a limited time only. Some of the ones on my Kindle are currently for sale for $5 or $6 and I paid nothing. But one of these days I'm going to break down and buy some and I'm afraid I won't be able to stop.

Just the other day I read the 'mission statement' from the president of Kindle content. He said the goal of the Kindle was to one day make every book ever printed, out of print or not, accessible within 60 seconds or less! I love the idea and I'm frightened of it at the same time...

Really enjoying certain factors of the Nook. One is that I can easily acquire certain titles that would take some little time to locate in hard copies. Another is that the Nook automatically takes me to the last page read of any work I may be reading. The font size is most helpful for aging eyes reading by the light of the bedside lamp. The light weight and convenient (at least for my hands) size is very important because of arthritis and rotator cuff issues---holding a hard copy of, say, the complete saki, jsut isn't going to happen anymore. And of course the capacity of the thing is marvelous. The only problem I had was getting used to the eensy touch keyboard at the bottom. After thirty minutes of frantic frustration, I finally mastered the durned thing and now use it with frightening ease to order more books.

On a different note, I once again must (hopefully not too boringly) praise Louise Penny. I don't think I've ever read a "mystery" author with more depth and scope to her works. There is a double plot line going on in the first three books coupled with a masterful exploration of human evil...without the endless gore and the dreariness that characterizes Elizabeth George's books. I'm in the middle of her third book, the Cruelest Month, and it's an amazing, complex, and fascinating work.

#77: Glad for your input on the Nook, Gail. Thus far, my experience with it has been nothing but good!

I simply love the Louise Penny books. I am glad you are enjoying them as well.

I'm glad you're enjoying your Nook AND Louise Penny! I've read books 1-4 of hers now and they are SOOOO good...
I really enjoy my Kindle. I think ebook readers are nice tools for avid readers like us to add to our regular books. :)

Book #61: I finished The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter just before the cut-off date for July's TIOLI (the Body Parts Challenge). I had learned a bit about McCullers from February House, and had heard of her, of course.

The book is an awfully sad tale about people striving to make connections with one another, usually with complete futility. It's beautifully written--I don't think there's an extra or unneeded word in the book-- and has a bit of wry humor here and there. It was especially interesting to me because McCullers grew up in, and this story takes shape in a place just like, Columbus, Georgia, about 5 miles from my house. I'm looking forward to finding Reflections in a Golden Eye and The Member of the Wedding soon, as I think she's a fine, fine writer who had a mixed-up, sad, and tragically short life. my collection

Book #62: The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny. Since I'm beginning to sound like a driveling fan-girl when I talk about Penny, I'll just say this: in my life I've read at least 1,000 mysteries. This is the only mystery in which I became so caught up with the character development that I actually cried while reading it--not over a death, or over a perpetrator I had become fond of, but about the relationship between two characters in the series. Astonishing. my collection

I love the Louise Penny books (I've read thousands and these are the top ones, by far) and my Kindle. Still hoping that I managed to snag an ER copy of her forthcoming book but no news on that yet.

I will try to remember to post news of free Kindle books on my thread. They're on Facebook and I get a lot of good info there on free books. Among other places.

#80: It has been too long since I read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I will have to get to it soon.

As far as the Penny books go, I completely agree with you. I cannot wait for the sixth book!

Book #63: Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow. I read this for the TIOLI Challenge Number 1.

When this book first came out, in '83 (good grief, where has that 27 years or so gone?), I read it and loved it. Although one never, of course, forgets that jaw-dropping line and plot development, the author has enough strength in character building; vivid descriptions of political graft and corruption; and the precisely-placed, subtle, misdirecting cues and hints to many different solutions, that the reader is easily drawn again into the mysterious and convoluted world of the Kindle County Prosecuting Attorney. I give this 5 stars for holding its appeal even after the surprise is gone. I'm really looking forward to the sequel, just out.

Book #64: Chef

is an Early Reviewer I was fortunate enough to receive here at LT. My full review is at the booksite, but I'll just briefly note here that I'm bemused and even bewitched by Indian writers, and Jaspreet Singh more than lived up to my expectations.

I'm currently reading Krakatoa by one of my favorite authors, Simon Winchester.

On a related but slightly different subject, I'm so glad that I've found LT and particularly the 75'ers groups. This has been a terrific source of ideas for more books for me to read (because, of course, I didn't have enough of a TBR pile when I got here). What I find refreshing here as opposed to another site which shall remain nameless although most everyone will know who I mean, is that the discussions, while erudite enough to be intriguing, don't get so bogged down with analysis of Every. Last. Detail. that not only does the attention wander, all joy and simple pleasure vanish. My, that was a loooong sentence, but it's clear, I think. Also, on the other site, almost the only alternative to the snoringly boring lectures on obscure historical points is the inane fangirl/fanboy review: "Oh! I loved this! It was really neat!" In simple terms, I've been to school, I've taught school, and now I'd just like to enjoy reading and exchanging a few relatively simple views and ideas about what I've read. LT members fill that niche admirably.

Okay, rant/rave now over for a while. Back to Normal Book Chat Mode.

It's nice of you to share your good feelings about LT. :)

I'm always interested in good disaster books and noticed that you and a few others are reading Krakatoa for this month's TIOLI. I may give it a try, too. I've never read Simon Winchester before, though I've often heard his praises.

I have a giftcard balance re. my Kindle account and was excited to see Krakatoa is available in Kindle format. Unfortunately, not in the U.S. for some reason. I do note that my lib has it so I will pick up their copy today.

#84: I have read several of Winchester's books and enjoyed them all, so I am glad to see another fan of his! I am re-reading Krakatoa for this month's TIOLI challenge too, Gail, so we can compare notes later :)

>77 Matke: re: The Nook - My husband just gave me a Nook this last week, and my experience is nearly identical with what you wrote, even to the initial difficulty with the "eensy touch keyboard." In addition to the ease of acquiring a book, the ability to adjust the font, and the lightweight size, I really like being able to download a free sample of a book before I buy it. The samples, for the most part, seem to be pretty generous, 30 pages or so, and I can determine if I really want to read the whole thing. I also like the word look-up function, although it took a little bit of getting used to.

It is indeed warming to hear that you are loving the 75. What a place! I've read a couple of Simon Winchester books, but not Krakatoa The last thing was the book about the making of the OED, The Professor and the Madman which I listened to - not exactly a disaster! More of a cliffhanger than you might think, though.

--->85 BookAngel_a: and 89: I'm so glad that came through, instead of my crankiness about the other site: I love it here.

--->88 chinquapin:: I've not tried the dictionary function yet. One thing that's a bit more cumbersome than I would like is locating footnotes from the page I'm on...although I'm sure I could fix that by using the "bookmark" feature to mark the starting page of the footnotes.

--->86 lindapanzo: and 87: Winchester is amazing, isn't he? I once bought a book of his, I think The Crack at the Edge of the World, thinking it was the one I'm reading now. I know, it sounds rather stupid, but I was in a hurry and buying quite a few books at once, and lost my train of thought and my to-buy list, and...never mind. You all know how that goes. Though I hadn't planned on reading about the San Francisco quake, he held my interest, even over some heavy scientific going, for the whole book and I was glad I'd read it. But this one is even better.

Oh dear. Somehow I managed to leave out book #65:
Rough Riders by the man himself.

This is an entertaining, if brief and occasionally repetitious (I know, I know, the opposing forces had smokeless powder, thus making the fighting more difficult---enough already!) account of the founding and the fighting of the volunteer force led by Leonard Wood and Roosevelt. Teddy's endearing, if slightly dated, personality shines through, with all of his naive enthusiasm and patriotism. He's very comical and straightforward about things; I didn't notice any particular glossing over of facts or any snobbery or that sort of thing.

One interesting sidelight: T.R. mentions, just as a plain statement of the facts as he knew them, that the U.S. government and the media of the day considerably inflated the casualty counts among the opposing forces. He gives the numbers he actually saw, allows for a very few more that may have been missed, and still comes down on the side of "What has been reported doesn't seem to square with the truth." The more things change, the more they stay the same. e-collection

90: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Boy, isn't that the truth?

Book # 66: Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded

What an oustanding book!

Do you want to read about vulcanology? This is for you!
How about biology and evolution? This is for you!
Maybe you like oddball scientists doing crazy things that later prove to be true and useful? This is for you!
Perhaps you like to read about the seamy, dirty little underside of colonialism? Then this is the book for you, too!

In short, Winchester has written a delightful, informative book that will be of interest to anyone who wants to learn more about natural history. I'm unbelievably fortunate to have secured it from its stay on the remainder shelf... my collection

In other news, I've been lucky also in my Nook purchase. Their (temporary) free offerings every week of varied classics titles under their own B and N imprint has really beefed up and, one hopes, improved my e-library. I've modestly avoided books I don't want (yes, there are few books that I'm not interested in), but some of their choices have been great. In fact, so far, as I look over my e-library list, I notice that it's very heavily weighted toward the classics...including Roman historians.

Interesting to me is the catch-as-catch-can choices ones finds. For example, I ofund two works by Theordore Roosevelt, one of them fairly obscure, but could not find Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara. It's odd, but I'm sure that things will improve/grow exponentially as time goes on.

#92: Glad you enjoyed Krakatoa, Gail!

Like you, I have downloaded a bunch of the free books to my Nook. Maybe some time I will actually read them!

Ha! I have found you, starred you, and will follow you. You noticed that I read mysteries too? How about Dorothy Dunnett's Dolly series? I mention them because they are (or were - I don't think she wrote more than 5 or 6) Peter Dickinson's favorite mysteries. I like him better than her but wanted to justify my presence here.
And how about Deborah Crombie or Margaret Maron?

HI There!

Your book #66 sounds great!

Hello, all. Back at the board, finally having enough time to do a bit of posting on my own thread, sadly neglected thing that it is. Those maddening and unfair normal family crises can really eat up the time. At least I was still reading.

--->94 LizzieD:: Peggy, I'm completely unfamiliar with Dorothy Dunnett's series and will look them up later today. I enjoy Dickinson's work quite a bit. But have you noticed that sometimes an author you like/respect/admire seems to have the most awful taste in books? My mother was a huge fan of Margaret Maron. I've not read Crombie, but again, will look her up. And no need to justify your presence. Always glad to see a visitor.

--->95 Whisper1:: Linda, hey! (As we say here in the south. I was struck almost dumb {yeah, like that will ever happen} when I first heard myself answering the phone with, "Hey, how are y'all today?").

I surrendered to the flush and glow of the TIOLI for August and managed to get in quite a few books for it.

Book 67: Montana 1948
Remember when you were just on the cusp of childhhood's end? There you were, with the endless vista of life in front of you, quietly going about your own business, amusing yourself, discovering the world at leisure, because after all, your entire life was still out there, waiting patiently. You could hear and see all that adult conversation and behavior going on around you, but understanding was just out of your grasp. And then adulthood suddenly came crashing in; all was made clear; and nothing, not one single thing, was ever the same again. Author Larry Watson perfectly recreates that happening in the life of a young boy. An amazing book, well worth reading. Many thanks to Richard for giving this a rave review---the review was well-deserved and pushed me into the book. mooched

Book 68: Kim (touchstone not working)
This is an old, old favorite, perhaps the first spy novel ever written. The character of Kim is a fantastic creation, taking delight in all the varied cultures and customs of India, but always on the lookout for adventure. The relationship between Kim and his guru is touching. Unfortunately, nothing much seems to have changed in terms of the foreign relations that are discussed in the book. That's kind of scary in one way, but a bit reassuring in another---what we're seeing now is certainly nothing new. my collection

Book 69: Home Before Dark
Susan Cheever's memoir of her father is a much, much better book than her American Bloomsbury. John Cheever was obviously a troubled and troublesome man, with a remarkable talent. While his daughter doesn't blink the facts of his life, her love for him gives a picture of him sort of like one of those old movies, with the camera lens's glaring picture softened by gauze or vaseline. An admirable work of a touchy subject. mooched

Book 70: The Brutal Telling
(Not for TIOLI)
I first read this as an ARC last year. This year, seeing that Penny had a new one coming, I decided to go back to the beginning of the series and read the books in order, so that I would be ready for the latest installment.
Well. Penny has a great series going here, a most unusual series in fact. What I loved the first time I read this was the humor; it has some of the funniest lines I've read lately. But this time, having invested quite a few hours in getting to know the characters, I was struck by the author's daring (I mean, this is a mystery series, ya know? Nothin' serious goin' on here.) in her exploration of the dark side of all of us. Not in the Elizabeth George, sort of gratuitious physical cruelty vein, but in what lies under the smiles and jokes and the layers of protection we all put on so that we won't slowly bleed to death internally. This is a great novel. But...in my very personal opinion, having the main plot line unresolved, more or less, or questionalbly resolved, to be continued in the next book, was unsatisfactory to me. I understand that a 700-page mystery might be a hard sell, but still, I was a bit disappointed with that part of it. e-collection, now

Book 71: Bury Your Dead
I had the great good fortune to get this as an ARC. While it's a good novel, it's not the best in this series. That seems to demean it, because it is, in fact, so far above other mystery series that I now think of these as a connected set of novels rather than anything else. Penny's character development remains outstanding. These people really do walk right off the page and become very real to the reader, a hard trick to pull off.
I especially enjoyed Gamache's slow and painful recovery from a crime that takes place completely off-stage; we see it only through his and another character's eyes.
That said, I was put off somewhat by a sort of Conspiracy Theory plotline; I don't like those at all and this one was no better than the rest. It seemed out of place and annoying. my collection

There may be more, but I forget what they are.

ETA: Touchstones are wonky today. Sorry.

I do not think I have ever read Kim. I definitely need to get to it!

Well, I'm still not sure if I've forgotten any books, but here's one I'll not be forgetting soon:

Book 72: Farthing
September's TIOLI bumped this up my list a bit, and I'm surely glad that happened. I don't read alternative history books as a rule (this is possibly my first), but of course I love a mystery.
Jo Walton creates a picture of what England might have been like had the government signed an early peace treaty with Hitler, via Hess's mission in 1940 or '41. Here we see the consequences of that old-fashioned, cruelly casual prejudice, particularly anti-semitism, in their full and awful expanse. What starts out as an entertaining country house mystery soon chills the blood with the unthinking nastiness and inhumanity of a ruling class so entrenched that they can simply crush those who are in their way. Very well-written, thought-provoking, and sobering book. Most highly recommended to all.

N.B.: A working knowledge of Nazi philosophy and WW 2 will considerably aid the reader in getting the most out of this book.

Well, that seals my fate. I'll push Farthing way up Mt. Bookpile when I eventually get it from PBS. Thanks for further insight, Gail.

#98: I already own that one. Now I just need to find where I put it.

In case you are not aware, Gail, Farthing is the first book in a series.

Peggy, you'll lvoe it, I'm sure.

Stasia, yes, I just ordered the second in the series. I'm not sure how the impact will hold up over three books, but it sure hit home with the first volume. I also ordered Tooth and Claw by the same author; I understand she used Trollope's Small House at Allington as the stepping stone for that. See, that will prompt me to read the Trollope book...

And so it goes. One book after another leads to three more and pretty soon we're back to where we started: drowning in books.

#101: One book after another leads to three more and pretty soon we're back to where we started: drowning in books.

You forgot the 'and loving it!' part :)

I have already read the Trollope book, so I miss that part of the fun, although I do still need to finish the Barchester series yet. . .

>98 Matke:: I enjoyed Farthing quite a bit when I read it but I have to say that the first sequel, Ha'penny disappointed me quite a bit. Ha'penny is a thriller rather than a mystery and my main complaint was that the feeling of Fascism creeping in had turned into being whacked by a sledgehammer of Fascism. I wish I had stopped with the first.

>102 alcottacre:: I knew everybody would understand the "and loving it part", ;>)

>103 TadAD:: I'm always afraid that an amazing first book will be followed up by less and less satisfactory sequels.

Book #73: Who Knew?! is an ARC that I seemed to have thought was something quite different from what it turned out to be, which is a series of short (one page or less) sketches of little-known pieces of Jewish trivia through the ages. The author often stretches the significance of the items beyond what is credible, although each item is true within itself. At least it seems so. I thought it pretty lame, as it wasn't particularly well-written in any sense. Not recommended. mooched

I'm not going to count The Man Who Made Vermeers for my total reading this year. I read perhaps one-half of the book. This isn't necessarily the fault of the author. My lack of knowledge of art made parts of this hard going for me, and the author's rather magazine-article style didn't help my understanding. It's an interesting idea, though, about a man who was an excellent forger, and who fooled many experts, as well as just plain greedy folks. The most interesting part of the book was the tie-in with Nazism and Goring. Someone who knows more about art might appreciate this a great deal more than I was able to. I'd rate it 2.5 stars for a good idea but humdrum execution. mooched

Of course, I'm in love with The Library at Night, by Manguel. Terrific! The problem is, though, that these excellent books I've had the pleasure of reading lately make the ordinary book disappointing.

#104: these excellent books I've had the pleasure of reading lately make the ordinary book disappointing

I understand that completely!

Well, as if I needed a prompt or urge to use the Nook: I have an older copy of The Small House at Allington in an Oxford Classics edition that's been hanging around my shelves for, quite literally, years. I made a couple of attempts to read it, but the print is just so danged small...so I put the B and N (I'm not plugging B and N here; I'm sure there are ways and editions to do this for the Kindle and the Sony) Classics edition on my nook; lo and behold, the book has suddenly become an easy, enjoyable read---no longer the absolute chore it seemed in the small print. So, both e books and print have their place in my library: one for portability and ease of changing font size., the other for the sheer joy of owning and reading books on paper.

I'm also reading, along with Maguel's book, Holy Disorders for the TIOLI Pen Name challenge, which, I can see, will be a great and slightly devious way to work in several of my favorite relaxers, old mysteries. How handy, as I was suffering a bit from mystery deprivation/withdrawal.

Mystery, especially old mystery, deprivation is a serious condition. I'm relieved that you're getting immediate treatment, Gail!

>106 Matke: Pen Names challenge...honestly, there are so many that I'm hopelessly lost.

>107 LizzieD:: Thank goodness I've found a sneaky way to get relief!

>108 richardderus:: Why, hello, Richard, it's so very nice to see you here. I think the Pen Name Challenge is Challenge 2, posted by Mike Briggs. It started off with Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but then quite a few mysteries appeared, as so many of them are/were pseudonymously (sp?) written for a variety of reasons. I've got several out in the TBR Mystery bookcase (hey! It's just a small bookcase!), and I'll be relieved to get a few of them moved either to the Read and Keep case or on to other readers who might enjoy them. I'm glad I'm not the only one to be overwhelmed by the number of challenges; I can't keep them straight but occasionally check back to see if I can add to a point value or if I can get at least a few more off the TBR stacks.

Although I've made quite the little pig of myself in the buying of books this year, so far at least I've been able to read only what is here in the house, rather than going to the library. So far...

Oh this is just to say I have greatly enjoyed the recent discussion. I wasn't able to even like Farthing -- I can't even say why -- only that I wasn't engaged, not the fault of Jo Walton at all, but some piece of me that demands something that wasn't there. My husband liked it a lot and even put it on my shelf because he thought I would too.

#106: One of the best things about the Nook for me - the ability to change the font sizes. I have had the same problem as you did, Gail. A trilogy I really wanted to read - Rick Atkinson's - and I checked the first book out of the library and the print was just too small for me to handle. I downloaded it to my Nook and that took care of the problem!

I will never give up print copies for the e-copies, but for the availability of books that I cannot get through my local library, my Nook sure comes in handy.

You are all making that Nook sound like it should be in my stocking on Christmas AM. I am seeing more and more advantages...

#112: Try it, Tina, you might like it!

Hi! Just trying to catch up with your thread. It may take me quite some time though because skimming through just won't work. You've read so many interesting books and I'm finding so many books I'd like to add to my wish list!

(#13) The only Peter Lovesey I've read (or rather listened to) was a short story called Murdering Max. I though it was one of the most original short mysteries I've ever read. Have you read that one?

(#44) Rear Window was based on a short story by Cornell Woolrich but I don't think the story was called Rear Window. It was called It had to be Murder, I think. I read it a few months ago. Have you managed to read it yet?

-->114 Porua:: Hey Porua! Glad to see you here.

I've not snagged the Lovesey short story yet...I didn't know he wrote them. It's definitely going on my list. Also, I've not picked up Rear Window by Woolrich. I think that after the success of the movie, the name of the story changed. That is definitely on my All-Time Favorite Movie List (Isn't it funny? My husband hated it), and I'm dying to read the story it's based on.

And I have the same feeling about your thread: it will take me a while to catch up, as your lists are quite interesting!

Book #74: The Library at Night

What a pleasure. Author Manguel manages a chatty, intimate tone while writing some of the most elegant prose I've seen in a long time. Library is divided into chapters in which libraries are explored from a variety of perspectives: "The Library as Order", "The Library as Power", etc. I was drawn in immediately; I seemed to be having a fine coversation with a kindly, erudite man who understood all my innnermost feelings about books. I put many quotes in my Commonplace Book. Here are just two:

"In any of the pages of any of my books may lie a perfect account of my secret experience of the World." (p. 29)

and
"We pick our way down endless library shelves, choosing this or that volume for no discernible reason: because of a cover, a title, a name, because of something someone said or didn't say, because of a hunch, a whim, a mistake, because we think we may find in this book a particular tale or character or detail, because we believe it was written for us, because we believe it was written for everyone except us and we want to find out why we have been excluded, because we want to learn, or laugh, or lose ourselves in oblivion." (p. 222) my collection

Book # 75 (Woot! I made it!): Holy Disorders by Edmund Crispin is much, much better than The Case of the Gilded Fly, his first work, which I found far too precious and silly. Gervaise Fen, the detective, is still something of a pain in the neck, but the narrator here, no Watson-like dolt, is a fine and interesting character in his own right. The setting, in a Cathedral Close, is one of my favorites. Plenty of humor here, especially a scene revoving around a raven. The downside of the book? I had to keep a dictionary handy (when was the last time you encountered the term "atrabilious" or the vaguely obscene-sounding "pudency"?), and there are too many obscure literary references. Nevertheless, well worth reading and a 3.5 effort. my collection

edited for typos

Oh, my paws and whiskers!
Thanks for those quotations from Manguel, especially the second. I'll be happy when that one shows up for me at PBS.

Congratulations on reaching the 75 challenge goal!

Congrats!

Great achievement! Many congrats on reaching your goal. Hope the rest of your year's reading is equally enjoyable.

-->116 LizzieD:: Peggy, you've put your paw finger precisely on the difficulty with Mr. (Dr.?) Fen. How clever of you. But this book is soooo much better than the first; I laughed aloud in places. And I guarantee you'll love the Manguel. I'll be going back to that many times.

And thanks to all of you for the congratulations on reaching the goal. I think I've read many fewer light-weight books this year, almost entirely because of the marvelous although hideously expensive recommendations from 75'ers, and that engaging Group Within a Group: TIOLI. I've really moved on reading some old and odd shelf-dwellers.

Congratulations on reaching 75 books!

#115 I loved Murdering Max! It has a twin story called Two Little Indians by a French author Max Dorra. Unfortunately I can’t read Dorra’s story as it is in French.

I like Rear Window (the movie) too. That and Rope are my favourite Hitchcock movies. Rear Window (the short story) was nothing great though. I found it kind of dull. But that might have something to do with the fact that I was dead tired that night!

Stasia, thanks! What a cute GIF! I feel very accomplished now.

Porua, I'm afraid that I'll find Woolrich's story a bit dull, after the outstanding movie version, too. And I just got "Rope" from Netflix to watch here at home tomorrow. My daughter told me the whole thing was made in 9 shots, something to do with Hitchcock wanting continuity. I've never watched it without interruption, so I'll be interested in seeing how it works.

Book #76 is Five Children and It. I read this to go along with The Children's Book, as Byatt based her book loosely on Nesbit's life, including her writing style, and I wanted to get a feel for Nesbit's work. It also fit into a TIOLI challenge (paranormal character). It was quite good if a bit short, as we think of children's books nowadays in the era of the l-o-o-o-n-g fantasy tale. I enjoyed it. e-collection
ETA: I bought this as a Nook Combo

#123: I have never read anything by Nesbit. I am currently reading The Children's Book, so I may put it on the back burner and read Five Children and It first. Thanks for the info, Gail.

Congratulations on reaching 75!

I think that Holy Disorders is my favourite Crispin so far, but Fen can certainly be annoying at times!

Happy Sunday to you Gail.

-->124 alcottacre:: Stasia, I had barely heard of Edith Nesbit, just some very casual mentions here and there, before reading The Children's Book. She wrote many, many children's stories, some of them quite dark. As I love children's literature, I was glad to be pushed into further exploration of her work.

-->125 Eat_Read_Knit:: Caty, I have a perfectly divided opinion about Crispin's work, as I really disliked one and then really liked the second. I'll have to give him just one more try to sort it out...

Book #77: The Judas Window by Carter Dickson is one of his patented locked-room puzzles. This one has a solution that makes more sense, and relies less on bizarre circumstance, than some of the others. H.M. (Sir Henry Merrivale) is the 'tec here, but is not as wildly comical as in some other of his adventures. It's a good mystery, and a careful, experienced mystery reader will be able to discern the murderer, although not the method, without too much trouble. I'd probably give this a 3.5 * rating for ingenuity and a well-designed story. my collection

I had a huge craze of reading John Dickson Carr and this pseudonym, his alter-ego, about 30 years ago. I couldn't get enough of them, and they were quite difficult to get, used bookstores being crucial. Now there's something the internet has improved, or made easier, to a huge degree: the ability to secure out-of-print titles at reasonable cost. Anyway, to return to Carr: I don't find his books quite as fascinating now as I did on the first encounter, but that may be because I'm more familiar with his writing. For fans of old mysteries, and fans of locked-room puzzles, these books are must-reads. In one of his books (unfortunately the title escapes me) he pauses at a certain point with a footnote, informing the reader that he has presented the facts and that the reader should be able at that point, quite early on, not only to identify the murderer, but to figure how the "How" as well. I was mightily frustrated as I couldn't do either one. He plays fair, hides nothing, but he had one of the most twisted, convoluted, bizarre minds for mystery that I've ever come across.

Well. I guess I'm still a big fan, after all.

-->126 Whisper1:: Oop, Linda, cross post. A happy Sunday to you as well.

I like the John Dickson Carr/Carter Dickson books though I've never read a bunch at once. Every so often, I get the urge for a locked room mystery and will pick one up.

I was at B&N yesterday and was startled to find a new release of a number of Georgette Heyer mysteries. I think I've read one (though I didn't know which one while I was there) so I didn't pick any up but I think I'll give these another try.

#127 I read John Dickson Carr for the first time last year. I read two of his books. The first one was his famous locked room mystery, The Hollow Man and the second one was The Emperors Snuff-Box. I enjoyed them but found the first one to be a bit overdrawn. The second novel was good but I really disliked the female protagonist of it. Overall, I have mixed feelings about Carr's books.

#129 I have two Georgette Heyer mysteries on my TBR list, They Found Him Dead and Detection Unlimited. Have you read any of them? Are they good?

Belated congratulations on reading 75!

-->129 lindapanzo: and 130: I really, really like the Heyer mysteries except for the very first one, Why Shoot a Butler?. That one is impossibly plotted and quite dated. I think she was just finding her feet in the mystery genre. All the rest are much, much better, especially witty and sharp. My favorites are Death in the Stocks and Envious Casca, each of which I remember well from 30 or so years ago. I was really pleased to find that they had been released in small new editions. I used to laugh aloud while reading them. I've got a few (four? five?) stashed out in the TBR mystery bookcase, saving them for one of those rotten times when I can't concentrate on anything much and just want amusement.

Carr also wrote some really creepy psychological thrillers that could scare the pants off you.

-->131 souloftherose:: Why, thank you, Heather. I'm so glad to see you here!

Why Shoot a Butler? is the one I read, nearly 20 years ago. Time to pick up another Heyer mystery. I like that they're reissuing old traditional mysteries.

- and I'm just stepping in here to say that I enjoyed all of the Heyer mysteries except Penhallow. Since I can't remember what I didn't like about it, maybe it's time for a reread ----LATER!

I think Penhallow was my least favourite Heyer mystery as well, Peggy.

I am due some serious Heyer re-reading, both mysteries and historicals.

-->134 LizzieD: and 135: Age has its (few) advantages. Books one didn't like simply disappear as though erased from one's mind. I disliked Penhallow so much that I removed it from my memory. I thank you both for bringing its shortcomings back to me; now I won't buy the re-issue by mistake!

I read Penhallow and did not dislike the book as much as I disliked the characters.

Just chiming in to say that I want to read The Library at Night, I want to try Crispin, and I also want to try John Dickson Carr! I seriously need more hours in my day, lol! You've been reading some good ones.

Oh, btw, Penhallow was my first attempt at Heyer and I still haven't finished it. I think it was a bad first choice, but it was the first one I got my hands on. :) The characters are quite dislikable.

Still on the Georgette Heyer mystery track: she wrote one called Duplicate Death based somehow on playing bridge. I have it stored, but haven't reread it. It will be interesting to compare it to Christie's Cards on the Table, in which a murder was committed during an evening of bridge, and the solution to the mystery was deciphered by a close study of the scores. Of course, I now play bridge, aging woman that I am, so it all makes a bit more sense to me than when I first read it, when my knowledge of bridge was hazy at best.

I've finished all the TIOLI challenges I'm going to for this month. I think I over-extended myself as I'm exhausted (almost) and can't whip myself up to writing any reviews/comments yet. Maybe tomorrow or Monday. I almost never do reviews on Sunday, as I use that day to catch up on others' threads. (Watch, this Sunday I'll write six reviews...it would be just like me.)

Another old bridge-playing woman - when I have to. And I have to once every three weeks or I wouldn't see my old friends. What I mainly remember about both the Christie and the Heyer is the astronomically high scores that they had in every game.

#139 & 140 Cards on the Table is very possibly my all time favourite Poirot mystery. I’ve read and re-read it many, many times. I re-read and reviewed it earlier this year and thought it was as wonderful as ever!

140--> Oh, yeah, the scores were almost unbelievable; I thought it was me being a not-very-good player! Lots of slams being bid and made; that's not quite so common among the folks I play with. And of course I'm almost a novice, so I still struggle to get the appropriate bid based on my and partner's hands. My spouse has played since he was ten; we're always partners. Fortunately, he's very easy to get along with in a card game---one of the most horrid things I know is partners going on and on and on about what should have been bid, played, etc. Gad.

141-->I loved Cards on the Table and have reread it several times too; it's a fine mystery and the solution makes perfect sense without being obvious in any way. It's a delightful book and one of her best, I think; I believe she thought so as well.

Cards on the Table is one I must track down. I used to play bridge for hours on end (think of the books I could have read in the meantime!!!) and actually have been thinking about trying to get a few people together to revive my interest. This sounds like a great combo of two things I love.

Thanks for thumbing my review of Cards on the Table, bohemima! I appreciate it. :-)

I've always wanted to learn how to play bridge because it was mentioned so much in Agatha Christie novels. That and Mah Jong. Maybe one day.

Now you've hit a chord, Heather. I love the idea of Mah Jong (and GO, but that's another matter). On the other hand, it's another book-time eater. (I always wanted to learn to play the cello too, but I could never justify music time away from the piano. Choices must be made!)

-->138 BookAngel_a:: Angela, I've found that the 75'ers group in general is an endless source of further reading ideas. I'll be dead, surely, before I can finish all these books! (And broke, too.)

-->145 souloftherose: and 146: Heather and Peggy, one of my (almost) life-long wishes is to learn to play Mah Jong. Sigh. Never mind.

Book # 78: The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt. Inside this 700-page monster of a book is a really good 400-page novel, whimpering to be let out. Byatt's original idea, to show that artistic parents may not necessarily be the best parents, is a good one. The Edwardian era, with its fascinating Arts and Crafts movement, makes for an intriguing setting. The saga of Tom, an elaboration of the Peter Pan boy who won't or can't grow up and who doesn't have a shadow, could have been a fine, profoundly sad little tale. And here, as in Possession, Byatt's ability to assume different authorial voices is astonishing. She includes some sections of children's lit. supposedly written by the main character; those sections are really fine.
But.
Apparently Byatt decided that including Every. Single. Artistic/Cultural/Political. Movement and Personality from that period would make the book an even better one. What actually happens is that the central story of a large family, loosely based on Edith Nesbit's, is lost under an ever-rising tide of repetition, scene shifts, and words, words, words cascading across the pages, drowning the reader. Perhaps she was trying to convey the crowded, overpowering effect of some the work of Morris, that artist/furniture maker/wallpaper designer/draftsman. I don't know. And by the end of the book I didn't care.
And it's too bad, too, because I think Ms. Byatt is a fine talent. Why oh why didn't her editor say, "Now looky here, Dearie, you've got a gem of a novel in this book; all you have to do is peel away all those unnecessary layers to get to it." e collection

#146 Less book time, good point.

#147 I still haven't read anything by A.S. Byatt although I have Possession sitting patiently on my shelf. The Children's Book did intrigue me when I heard about it (and I love the cover). So many books!

-->148 souloftherose:: Yes, so many books. Sometimes I find it hard to choose which ones I really want to get to, and pretty quickly, before I go to that Great Library in the Sky. A very pleasant dilemma, but a dilemma nonetheless.

Book #79: The Witch's Guide to Cooking with Childrenis a modern reworking of Hansel and Gretel. Aimed at older children, this is a book easily enjoyed by adults. The voice of the witch, revealed in entries from her "journal", are especially well done. I was very favorably impressed by this book. mooched

Book 80:The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark is a complicated book, not easy to grasp completely on a first read. Of course, comparisons with the unforgettable movie are inevitable. Here Miss Brodie seems only slightly less manipulative than in the film, yet somehow she is much more likable, if quite pathetic. All the characters here (except for the two males) have very mixed motives and uncertain aims. Really an excellent book, with plenty of sharp wit; but beware: it's unsettling as well. 4*s mooched

Book 81: Death in a White Tie was a most refreshing re-introduction to Ngaio Marsh.

I began reading "grownup" mysteries when I was about 10 or so, half the fun of course being the "grown-up" part. I obsessively ran through all of Conan Doyle; all of Christie, Allingham, and Marsh; the old Saint series by Leslie Charteris; and quite a few American authors as well, from Poe to Stout and Gardener. Heaven only knows how many others I went through that don't immediately spring to mind. I re-read most of them, adding several more authors, in my early thirties. I've been dipping in and out of this genre, my favorite form of escapism and relaxation, ever since. But somehow, I'd neglected to get back to the Roderick Alleyn mysteries, so I was only mildly interested when this one turned up in a used book exchange.

How very silly of me. Marsh writes well, much better than, say, Allingham; her plots and character exploration are about equally important to the books. Inspector Alleyn is much less of a caricature than Wimsey seems to be; his private life more interesting and realistically developed. There's plenty of humor; lots of accurate and intriguing background information from the worlds of art and drama help to flesh out the stories; and there are enough "literary" references to satisfy that bit of ego we all have (or maybe it's just me) about being a well-read mystery lover. I'm looking forward to renewing this acquaintance much more fully.

The story involves blackmail among the upper classes which leads to a murder. Just a great read for friends/fans of those Golden Age mysteries. my collection

I need to read more Ngaio Marsh! I've only read book #1 in the series...

She is a most entertaining author. I've mooched a couple and I'm going to check my local library for more titles. She wrote quite a few books, although not as many as Christie, of course.

Hooray for reading Marsh! Her name just showed up in somebody else's thread, and I celebrated and congratulated myself on my good Marsh collection. I understand that her books are hard to come by these days. I feel a groundswell of interest!

Perhaps we can get her brought back in paperback editions, a la Georgette Heyer.

I love the Ngaio Marsh books. I think there are only a very few I haven't read. I need to track down which ones those are and read one.

Count me in as a Marsh fan as well! I have a bunch of hers.

I see, just by idly scanning these posts, that there is a need for a Ngaio Marsh revival! So glad I'm not alone in my liking for her. And note that many of us keep these as part of our own collections; personally I find that after a couple of years I often forget the perpetrator; in those cases where I remember "whodunnit", the author's skill in plotting, scene-setting, misdirection, and characterization can be a good deal of pleasure to the one who rereads.

Book #82 is To the Lighthouse, another of Woolf's amazing journeys into the inner world of the people in her novels. This one explores family life in a microcosm as we meet and slowly learn to love the Ramsays and their friends. I lost track of the number of times I silently thought, "Oh yes, I know that feeling/situation/incident so well!" There is an immediacy to this work, perhaps provided by the shifting interior monologues. A great achievement. my collection

#152 "Her name just showed up in somebody else's thread, and I celebrated and congratulated myself on my good Marsh collection."

That would be in my thread. I went to a book sale a few days ago and found Ngaio Marsh’s Opening Night hidden a behind row of dusty old books. It’s in mint condition and still wrapped in its dustcover. Her books are kind of hard to get hold of so this was quite a find for me. I read my first Marsh earlier this year. It was a collection of her shorter fictions. Opening Night would be my first novel by her.

Porua, I have just discovered that your Opening Night is my 2294901::Night at the Vulcan, a real favorite! (I'm off to do a little research and will be right back!) Yep. She uses the same characters again in Killer Dolphin and Martyn Tarne in Death of a Peer - all delightful!!!!! In fact, these may be my absolute favorite Marshes.

Fixed that doggone Touchstone!

#158 I’m glad to find that you like Opening Night. A little praise from a fellow LT’er goes a long way to push a book up the TBR list for me! I love finding recurring characters in a series of books! I always look for them in my collection of Christie mysteries and am always delighted to find them.

Hand in Glove and Light Thickens are two Marsh books I have yet to read.

I used to hate the varying titles for mysteries. I recall coming back from England as a teen in the 1970s with a tote bag full of Agatha Christie books I'd never heard of. Turns out I'd read most of them already, under their American titles.

Yep, Linda, that's hateful. I think Hand in Glove is supposed to be one of the best; it's an early one. And Light Thickens is a Troy one as well as I remember. One of these long winters I'm going to re-reread them all.

#156: Glad to see you enjoyed that one, Gail. It is on my memorable reads list for the year. I thought Woolf captured the interior monologues of the characters perfectly.

#161 I just put the Ngaio Marsh book Hand in Glove on ILL reserve at the library. Looking forward to reading that one soon.

--->160 lindapanzo:: Man, I hate, hate, despise differing titles. Maddening when I used to buy a book thinking I'd found something new and obscure, only to find I'd already read it. That is a problem on which I hope Louise Penny and her publishers are working.

I've managed to snag couple more Marsh titles from Bookmooch and am so glad they were available. I'm trying hard to limit my buying for the rest of the year, if I can...well, hope springs eternal.

Book #83 is How Reading Changed My Life , a book that made me realize that I do, in fact, have a psychic twin out there. I've never been so immediately struck by multiple, "Oh good grief! I thought I was the only person who felt this way/read like this/loved books in just this fashion." What a tremendous experience this was for me. Most highly recommended to all heavy-duty readers. my collection

#164: I have read How Reading Changed My Life several times. Maybe we can be psychic triplets, Gail? You, me, and Anna Quindlen? Cause I feel the same way you do - I thought I was the only person. . .lol

-->165 alcottacre:: Stasia, didn't we decide we were sisters awhile back--something to do with characters from Austen novels? Well, you see how right we were on that subject. Speaking of sisterhood, I just perused someone's kind posting of your recommendations and saw The Story of Lucy Gault. It's one I'm going to try to get to late this month. Right now I'm so caught up by The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay that I'm pleasantly astonished.

#166: That's right! We took the quiz and ended up as the Dashwood sisters if I recall correctly.

I loved The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay so I hope you continue to do so as well, Gail.

ETA: The Story of Lucy Gault was one of my LT discoveries. Have you read it?

--167: The Story of Lucy Gault is on my nightstand now. I've heard mulitple praises of the author, William Trevor. I like books about Ireland and the Irish, although I'm not Irish myself.

Speaking of which (heritage, not things Irish), I was delighted to finally be able to read a story with my ethnic background (Bohemian) as a feature, a la Kavalier and Clay. I've had this for a couple of years, leaving it to sit while I perused many a less-worthy book. One thing I noted on another site is that the book seems to be a lightning rod: readers either love it or hate it, with very few middle-of-the-road opinions. I'll have to check this out on the controversial book thingie here, if I can find it again...

Gail ma petite Boheme, might one suggest an eerie, atmospheric Bohemia-set tale featuring composer Leos Janacek? On the Overgrown Path, it's called, and it's deliciously creepy. I loved it. Sadly, it's no longer with me or I'd send it to you.

Why, thank you, Richard. I looked up your review and it sounds great. I'm adding it to the wishlist today and will start scouting around for it. I've sadly lost contact with a lot of my own cultural background; I seem to be a peninsula only tenuously connected to the mainland.

Huh. Kavalier and Clay doesn't even make my Controversial Books list here at LT.

I'm still enjoying that one immensely, but have been slightly side-tracked by The Glory and the Dream. Since it's well over 1000 pages, I'm not anticipating an early finish. I'm on the fence with Manchester, who doesn't hesitate to select, slant, and sometimes invent a bit of history to prove his point of view, but this is a marvelous read for anyone interested in the history of the U.S. from 1932 to about 1975. His chatty style makes all those dreary statistics much more interesting. But one has to remember that it's Reader Beware when one gets too caught up in the author's theories and politics.

The current quiz:

On your nightstand now: The nook, which has lots of fun stuff to dip into and dip out of; Bright Star, and Goblin Market and Other Poems.

Your top 5 authors: Gee, you mean today? Um, Trollope; Dickens; Michael Dirda; Saki; and I hate to list one as a favorite when I've only read one book by him, but Alberto Manguel's book just bowled me over and rolled me across the floor.

Book you've faked reading: In high school I read the first three, midde three, and last three chapters of Moby Dick and listened very hard to class lectures, so I could pass the test. I read it a couple of years ago. Never done that before or since.

Book you're an evangelist for: There are several: The Book Thief, The Shadow of the Wind, How Reading Changed My Life, and The Brutal Telling

Favorite line from a book: "Remember that every life is a special problem, which is not yours but another's, and content yourself with the terrible algebra of your own." Henry James
and one more: "Age is just a number, but I'm getting number every day." Roy Blount, Jr.

Book that changed your life Little Men, my first "real" book, as opposed to fairy tales, Little Golden Books or series mysteries, a la nancy Drew

Book you want to read again for the first time: Banner with a Strange Device

ETA: Book you bought for the cover: Possession

I've got get to Kavalier and Clay which, like your own copy, has been languishing on my shelf while I read othere less worthy tomes. I'm off now to check out Banner With a Strange Device which I've never heard of.

Glad to know you are still enjoying Kavalier and Clay. I will be interested in seeing what you think of The Glory and the Dream when you are done with it. I have it sitting on my shelves.

I'm really into Kavalier and Clay, but the reader of this book must like and know comics to appreciate it; a working knowledge of WW 2 (so integral to reading now, I think) and some familiarity with Jewish issues in general certainly wouldn't hurt. Since my brother and I bitterly bemoan Mother's throwing out of our prized comics collections (Fantastic Four and Spiderman No. 1's!!!!!! and some vintage Katy Keene, the Fashion Queen among hundreds of others), I readily became involved in this novel which encompasses quite a few different ideas and facets of American culture. Most interesting and complex.

I estimate about 6 months to finish The Glory and the Dream. I hope Brother doesn't show up at the door to reclaim it before I finish. Hmmm...I must read it more quickly.

Book #84 is My Man Jeeves by Wodehouse. This is a book of short stories, some of which are not about Jeeves but instead feature other stock Wodehouse characters. Amusing, with the occasional brilliant line. Personally I prefer Saki, but P.G.W. is certainly a day-brightener and suitable for light reading occasions. These stories had a certain repetitive quality, which became annoying after three or so. Best read in small doses, I guess.

#174: Well, if I start hunting now, I may be able to find my copy of The Glory and the Dream by the time you finish it.

Re Ngaio Marsh, this was a writer I hadn't heard of before LT (along with a lot of the other mystery writers from that time) but I have found two of her books second hand and am looking forward to reading them so count me in on the revival!

I'll look forward to your review of Kavalier and Clay, that's another one on the wishlist.

-->175 alcottacre:: Lol. You should have seen the slight panic scene around here when Brother mentioned that it was his favorite book and he would like it back some time in the foreseeable future! We lend books back and forth for years at a time. I'd tucked this enormous thing away with the other Big Ol' Books and had a bit of heavy breathing until I located it. Whew!

-->176 souloftherose:: Still forging forward with Kavalier and Clay and several others at the same time. One drawback is that K and C has very, very small print. Hah. When I ordered it I thought it was a graphic novel...'cause, ya know, it's about comics. Sheesh.

I'm so glad folks here are rediscovering Marsh (myself included, of course). She really was good.

One of the things (among the several hundred) I love about LT is discovering both new and old authors who are completely unfamiliar to me.

Hi Gail!! Stopping by so I can find you again!!

Hi, Tammy! Welcome here. I'll be posting more now through the end of the year and into next. Hope you enjoy it.

Well, its easy to see I've been shamefully neglecting my own thread. Sometimes things fall apart (gee, that was a great book) and one just can't get up the energy to do all this thinking after reading.

Right. Whine over. On to

Book 85: Howard's End Is on the Landing
This was almost the last book I bought this year (Wolf Hall being the very end of my purchases). I'd heard about it and read about it and thought, "Gee, I've got to read that, and soon!"

I think it's a great book; not just a set of reviews, but ways of looking at books. Susan Hill describes her own feelings about books and reading and how these have affected and informed her own writing. A must for every book lover and writer's apprentice.

Book 86:The Goblin Market and Other Poems is a slim volume by a poet previously unknown to me: Christina Rosetti. Poetry is the genre in which my reading is the scantiest, something I'm trying to correct at this late date. The poem "Goblin Market" itself is a long one, outwardly a tale of a sort of Farmers' Market inhabited of course, by weird creatures. It is in fact an extremely, alhtough subtly, erotic poem.

Some recurring themes among these poems were death in and of itself; love surviving after death (or not); and several considerations of the meaning of life and death, specifically from a Christian viewpoint.

My favorite was
Sleeping at Last

Sleeping at last, the trouble and tumult over,
Sleeping at last, the struggle and horror past,
Cold and white, out of sight of friend and of lover,
Sleeping at last.

No more a tired heart downcast or overcast,
No more pangs that wring or shifting fears that hover,
Sleeping at last in a dreamless sleep locked fast.

Fast asleep. Singing birds in their leafy cover
Cannot wake her, nor shake her the gusty blast.
Under the purple thyme and the purple clover
Sleeping at last.

This is very, very powerful if read aloud. Rosetti displays a quite astonishing grasp of various poetic elements here. Fittingly, it's the last poem in my tiny Dover Edition.

My other favorite from this volume, in a completely different vein:

Sister Maude

Who told my mother of my shame,
Who told my father of my dear?
Oh who but Maude, my sister Maude,
Who lurked to spy and peer.

Cold he lies, cold as stone,
With his clotted curls about is face:
The comeliest corpse in all the world
And worthy of a queen's embrace.

You might have spared his soul, sister,
Have spared my soul, your own soul too:
Though I had not been born at all,
He'd never have looked at you.

My father may sleep in Paradise,
My mother at Heaven-gate:
But sister Maude shall get no sleep
Either early or late.

My father may wear a golden gown,
My mother a crown may win;
If my dear and I knocked at Heaven-gate
Perhaps they'd let us in;
But sister Maude, oh sister Maude,
Bide you with death and sin.

Whoa! Lots of anger and heart-ache there. Rosetti is an undiscoverd and underappreciated mistress of poetry, although her total output was small. ny collection

ETA spelling

I enjoy Rosetti's poetry too, although I am not much of a fan of poetry. If you are interested in learning more of the lady, Jan Marsh has written a good biography of her (as well as one on her brother, Dante Gabriel Rosetti).

A heartfelt thanks, Stasia---I'm quite interested in these two and will investigate both volumes a.s.a.p.
It's nice to back here and catching up on my sometimes overwhelming number of reads:

Book #87: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
This book is certainly amazing. Michael Chabon manages to weave together very diverse plot and cultural elements: Prague in the 1930's; magic, illusionists, and escapists, with special attention to Houdini and his imitators; Jewish issues; gay issues; wintering over in Antarctica; and the main atmosphere of the book: the creation of the Golden Age Comics.

Typically I'm not a fan of authors who try to crowd too much into one book--I really disliked The Children's Book for example--but somehow this maze of the thirties, forties, and fifties holds together well, doesn't seem disjointed, and is a most enjoyable read. It will be of special interest to anyone interested in comic books from the old era. 4.5 *s mooched only because of the tiny print

Book #88: The Tuesday Club Murders
A revisit to an old favorite by Christie. An oddly-assorted group of people get together weekly and tell a mystery to tale, with only the teller possessing the solution. Miss Marple, of course, beats the others out every time. This is one of the most pleasant, easy-reading books for a time when the stress of life is just getting you down. Very highly recommended to fans of Golden Age mysteries. my collection

Book #89 Johnny Tremain
One of the very few YA books I remember reading in my own youth. This retelling of the Boston Tea Party through the medium of a poor boy holds up well. Author Esther Forbes didn't "dumb down" the history or the language and the result is a most engaging read. It would be a great introduction to historical fiction or to U.S. history for any young person. mooched

Tuesday Club Murders/Thirteen Problems is an Agatha Christie I have never read (or read so long ago that I have completely forgotten it). I shall try to remedy that unacceptable situation! Thanks, Gail.

# 182 I LOVE The Thirteen Problems (UK title for The Tuesday Club Murders)! It is probably my favourite Agatha Christie book and my ultimate comfort read. I re-read and reviewed it earlier this year as a part of my Miss Marple Marathon. I'm so glad you like it too.

#182: I am glad to see you back and catching up again, Gail.

-->183 Eat_Read_Knit:: Caty, sometimes Christie's short stories are better than her novels. This particular collection is a very special one.

-->184 Porua:: Porua, have you tried the Miss Zukas mysteries by Jo Dereske? They're light but literate, quite funny (always a plus in my eyes), and the main character is a librarian in the fictional town of Bellehaven (must be Bellevue) WA. I think you'd enjoy them.

-->185 alcottacre:: Why, thank you, young lady. It's nice to be back, even if somewhat intermittently.

Book#90: Brooklyn
I really enjoyed this, my first book by Toibin. It's the story of a girl who has an opportunity to emigrate to the U.S. from Ireland in the early nineteen-fifties. It's very optimistic, and the main character made a really nice contrast to the less-wise and/or less-pleasant characters in one of my favorites, The Country Girl Trilogy. Toibin creates a realistic portrait of a young woman in sort of modern bildungsroman. I'll be looking for more of his work. Recommended. 4.5*s my collection

Book #91: Dracula
Oh my. I certainly can't say anything about this book that hasn't already been said. Even after all these years, Stoker's work remains the ultimately creepy October read, full of atmosphere and chills. There's a bit of humor here and there, too. Modern readers may find themselves completely put off by the sexist views of women, but if the reader tries to transport him/herself back to those times...it's great! I took off one-half star for too much melodrama, but still would read this again in a few years. 4.5*s e-collection

I've more review to do, but am working on my re-read of Middlemarch, surely one of the very best works to come out of Victorian England.

Book #92: The Uncommon Reader
A terrific novella about how Queen Elizabeth II becomes an avid reader late in life. Most enjoyable for anyone, and especially for someone in the doldrums of not being able to stick to anything in particular.
4*s e-collection

# 186 Thanks for the recommendation!

Glad to know you enjoyed The Uncommon Reader, Gail. I have read it a couple of times now and enjoyed it immensely both reads.

I am working on Middlemarch too and agree with your assessment!

I loved The Uncommon Reader and you have just given me a BFO (brilliant flash of the obvious) My mom claims she is not a reader-- she will bury herself in a pile of magazines and reads her Bible every day--but won't touch a book. She does however love her majesty Liz II, and I think she would really actually read this one. i'm going to tuck a copy into my bag when I take her to Hilton Head in Feb....we may actually get her to read a book!!

#189: Good luck with getting your mother to read it, Tina. I hope she enjoys the book if she does!

Hi Gail. You've done some good reading lately. I'm another person who can't remember whether they've read The Tuesday Club Murders/The Thirteen Problems. I will have to look out for it.

-->188 alcottacre:: Stasia, MM is a loooong book but worth the time, I think. Eliot did some excellent work incorporating topcial issues, such as the Reform Bill and medical advancements, into the plot in a completely natural way, without making either a melodrama or a too-superior satire out of her book. My two favorite books from Victorian Britain are Pickwick Papers and Barchester Towers, each of which is flawed in the ways cited. But in my judgement (such as it is), Middlemarch is a better work of literature. Warning: you may see these opinions in another place.

-->189 tututhefirst:: Tina, I'll bet your mother will read it--it's so short she can just think of it as a long magazine article.

-->191 souloftherose:: Heather, I think this is my best reading year ever in terms of quality, thanks mainly to recommendations that I've picked up here on LT, especially in the 75ers groups.

#192: Warning: you may see these opinions in another place.

I have no doubt :)

I do tend to spread myself all over the place, don't I? Heh.

I've managed to break my own heart, a little. How? Oh dear. For many years my go-to reading when I'm down or busy or just meh has been the detective story. Of course, as my reading list this year indicates, I've not abandoned the genre by any means: still finding new and interesting authors or old ones that I've sadly neglected over the years.

The problem? I just can't read cozies now. I've read a lot (including some of those funny Stephanie Plum and the ones with the cousins and the Bed and Breakfast) and for the most part enjoyed them; not too much thinking required, just an enjoyable way to while away a couple of hours. But I've disliked almost every one I've tried lately. Examples: This Old Souse (and I enjoyed several of those quite a while ago); the new one with the town in New Hampshire full of used book stores; the one with the cat (maybe a Maine Coon Cat?) in the library or bookstore. I did manage to finish Index to Murder, part of a series about a librarian in a fictional Washington state town. It was just okay. I know that I've sort of discussed this before, but it's just sad to me that even the Spenser books, except for the first two, now bore me silly. Sigh. The upside is rediscovering Marsh and H.R.F. Keating, and finding Michael Innes, Peter Lovesy, Peter Robinson, Robert Barnard, and a few others. I'm hoping that my jaded view will not slop over to the very funny books about two sisters who live in Birmingham AL, which were favorites of mine at one time.

Thank heavens for LT, whose members kindly point me toward many intriguing and new-to-me authors of whodunnits.

Book #93: Cranford
Now here's a book that's almost enough all by itself to convince one of the Dead White Male theory. While not a long book, and a bit choppy, it's witty, charming, and quite well-written, especially in the area of character development; it reminds me of a Victorian Mapp and Lucia kind of thing (I'll never write that phrase again without thinking of Mr. Brooke in Middlemarch. Yet it's been relegated to the dreary backwater of "books suitable for women" and somehow less worthy than our other Victorian friends. Too bad. I'ts really pretty good.

Book #94: How to Be an Intellectual in the Age of T.V.
Avoid this book if you can. The author takes a one-note theme (it's accurate, but her demonstration of it is less than successful), that Gore Vidal is a successful manipulator of modern media, and expands on it for many yawn-inducing pages. Several paragraphs and indeed whole pages were indecipherable. It reads like a doctoral thesis that badly needs an advisor's red pencil. She does a serious dis-service to the inimitable Vidal. If you honestly want to know how to do what the title says, read the man himself, and pass by this sad hanger-on. mooched

Book #95: Quiet as a Nun
I throroughly enjoyed this slim mystery by the great historian/biographer, Antonia Fraser. A murder takes place in a convent, which may not be an entirely new plot device, and we learn much about convent life and the nuns and the girls who attend school there. The girls and theire interactions are especially well-developed. Very engaging. lt giveaway

Book # 96: The Nursing Home Murder
is another great entry in the Roderick Alleyn series by Ngaio Marsh. Excellent, but I can't say much without giving away the plotline. my collection

Book #97: The Deer Leap
is probably the last of the Martha Grimes books I'll read. She's interesting enough, and has a lot of humor, but the detective is far too perfect, as is his sidekick with the striking name of Melrose Plant; but the plots are starting to run together, and the occasional lapses into American English in books that take place in England are bothersome. mooched

I added Quiet as a Nun to the wishlist!

#194: I love Cranford!

Gail my dear fellow mysterian, I'd like to make a suggestion for a non-cozy series that's just superb: The Cavalier of the Apocalypse, followed by Palace of Justice, by LT author Susanne Alleyn. I'm almost ready to review the latter, just stewing a few interesting points around, and I can honestly recommend "Cavalier" as one of my more exciting reads of 2010.

She doesn't pay me, I promise, I just really really like her way with a character. And "Palace"...well, it's fearless and it's exciting.

Not that you need my help, but I can't resist nosing in!

>198 richardderus:: Thank you, Richard. You are always warmly welcome here. I would never think of you as being anything but helpful, except when you're being snarky. Mrs. Danvers indeed. *eyeroll* I'll check out Alleyn's books later today.

Book #98: A Wrinkle in Time
An excellent children's story, the first in L'Engle's series about time travel and many other things. There were some terrific notes by a scientist in my edition, detailing how many of the things seemingly completely invented by L'Engle later coincided with discoveries, such as black holes and antimatter. A good quick read, and just the thing for a 10-year-old interested in space, science, or fantasy.

Book #99: Index to Murder
Mentioned above as a cozy I managed to finish with some enjoyment this year. Set on the coast of Washington state in a smallish town, the book features a librarian, very precise and tidy, who teams up with her best friend, a wild and loose artist, to solve a murder. There are about six of these books, any of which would make the lover of cozies happy. Quite a bit of humor and lots of library ambience help to make these a bit above run-of-the-mill.

Book #100: Middlemarch
An amazing, amusing, perceptive, intriguing book. The plot revolves around three young women finding their fates (marriage, of course: this is a Victorian novel) and the fates of many in their circle. I think this is the best novel to come out of the Victorian era, and I've read plenty.

#199: I love, love, love A Wrinkle in Time. I am glad you enjoyed it too, Gail.

Still working on Middlemarch myself :)

Wasn't it great that Middlemarch was my 100th read this year? Talk about a book that repays re-reading! Eliot's masterful hand with diverse characters still applies today. We've all known a Casaubon, a Rosamund, a Lydgate...and on and on it goes. Fantastic book; if you haven't read it, do so as soon as you can.

Book #101: Under the Banner of Heaven
This is one of those books told in alternating sections. In this case half the sections detail Mormon history (I've been informed by LDS members that there are glaring inaccuracies here), and the other half relates the true-crime story of some grisly, bizarre murders committed by a fringe movement called LDS Fundamentalists. The reader should bear in mind that Krakauer is careful to repeat that the fringe is *not* in any way sanctioned by mainstream Mormons, and that they are trying hard to stamp it out.
I was disappointed in this book because I think it indicates a disturbing trend in Krakauer's work toward more and more bizarre subjects for his books.

Book # 102: The Tale of Despereaux
was the perfect antidote to Krakauer's books. Completely charming and full of gentle wit, this story of a mouse who falls in lvoe with a princess and learns to be brave is sweet, but not so much so that it sets your teeth on edge. Some of the characters do very nasty things. This would be a great read-aloud for third or fourth grade, and makes a soothing read for any adult weary of the world and its troubles.

Book #103:The Cat Who Came for Christmas
is not really a Christmas book, except for the first couple of chapters. It's all about cat psychology and being a pet owner. If you like cats, and have enjoyed having them as pets, this would be a most enjoyable light read for a winter evening.

Book #104: The Devil's Dictionary is just barely amusing. Bierce's bitterness comes through much too strongly, making the book quite a drag to read. Not recommended.

#201: Glad to see that you liked the Kate DiCamillo book. I enjoy her books.

I finished up Middlemarch today! What a great book.

#199 I really enjoyed Middlemarch but I'm not sure whether I'd say it was the best Victorian novel. In fact, I'm not sure whether I'd be able to decide which was the best Victorian novel - there are so many!

Fascinating about your 'cozies' shift - so far I've managed to shift genres when that happens -- for the last five or six years, for ex, fantasy has been my 'cosy' genre with the occasional mystery - but my mystery standards have risen -- and like you I tire of authors in the mystery genre after a certain number, no matter how good they are --- although there are a few exceptions, there isn't one Tony Hillerman I haven't loved, for one!

#204: I'm becoming a fantasy fan, within certain idiosyncratic (or just idiotic) parameters. They make a nice alternative to my old cozies. For example, I've read a couple of fairy tale sorts of things that were quite engaging. Of course, I've always loved the quirky memoir genre: Gerald Durrell being a new find in that area for me this year, thanks to Stasia.

#203: I think Middlemarch, despite certain plot foolishness and a tiny bit of vocabulary annoyances, to be really the best Vic. novel I've come across. Still, I've a lot of Trollope and Dickens to go yet, so I may change my mind. For that matter, I haven't read any other Eliot. So, let me rephrase that to: within my reading, MM was the best. That may hold up, or it might not. It will be fun to find out!

Book #105: A Christmas Carol
What can I say? Most of it's been said already. I didn't enjoy it quite as much this year, but that was me, not the book.

Book #106: Hogfather
I loved this slightly naughty take-off on not just A Christmas Carol but the entire Christmas season. Very funny and pointed. Pratchett isn't for everyone, but if you like his skewed view of things, do give this a try. Also good, I would think, for anyone who is just sick to death of the seasonal stuff right now.

Book # 107: The Magnificent Ambersons was really disappointing. We're given a terrific picture of a midwestern city growing up with the coming of the automobile and the modern machine age, some pointedly accurate minor characters, and at the same time saddled with a despicable main character and very poor, inadequate ending. I wish Tarkington had been able to be a bit more realistic with the plotline.

*waving* as I head through the threads. Happy holidays, Gail.

#206: The threads at this time of year are almost unmanageable. Or actually unmanageable. Things will settle down in late January, I bet.

Reading The Bloody Chamber (talk about weird) for the Thinster Challenge and All That Glitters for the Old Favorite Challenge. Which reminds me, I have to get going on the reading of, ya know, books, or I won't get anything done...

#207: The threads at this time of year are almost unmanageable.

I kind of double team them at this time of the year - I keep 2 windows open, each with a separate group in them, and then go back and forth between the two. Keeps me on my toes :)

Merry Christmas, Gail! I look forward to the day we can meet in person.

Merry Christmas Gail! I've just finished Hogfather for the Christmas read and really enjoyed it too.

I am not even looking at the 2011 threads yet.

Merry Christmas to you both, as well. I wish I could meet my LT friends in person...it must be so much fun: you never run out of things to talk about!

Still reading the same two books. I did manage to finish

Book #108: We Were Europeans
Werner Loval used an interesting concept: he followed the fortunes of his own family from the late 1800's through today. Even with the Holocaust factored in, the family has spread all over and some members have been influential people in the U.S. and in Israel, as well as other countries. The only drawback to this intriguing story is its length; the book is huge.

Merry Christmas, Gail!!!

#210: We Were Europeans looks right up my alley! Thanks for the recommendation, Gail.

Hi! Saw your message on my thread and wanted to thank you for your wishes. Merry Christmas to you too! :-)

Edited to fix typo.

I've been pretty good about book-buying for the last 5 months of this year; I think I bought 2 a while back.

Today I made my first foray with the gift cards in hand:

Chasing Goldman Sachs Yay! I've been wanting this all year.

People's History of the United States because Mr. Zinn died this year and I should have read this years ago

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie Richard liked it

An Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England--not sure about this one, but why not?

A History of God I need something new and different in my reading stack

The Lacuna I'm fascinated by Frida Kahlo; she's so odd and intriguing

Howl's Moving Castle because I've wanted to try a Wynne Jones book for quite a while

1776 because I'm interested in the Revolution and I like McCullough, although John Adams seemed to never end

The very pleasant fellow at the store who helped me find a couple of these seemed somewhat bemused by my choices, especially since the first one, which was unavailable, was Asterix the Gaul. Ha! He should just visit this site and see what people are really reading!

#214: Nice haul, Gail!

I do hope you like Suz's book, as well as The Lacuna, which is on my memorable reads list for the year.

Hey, Stasia.

One of the reasons I bought The Lacuna was your very strong recommendation! It was a BB for me one Sunday.

I get another crack at new books right after new years and then that will be it, I believe, unless I get another gift card.

Well, I can try, anyway.

Dear Sad-not-to-love-cozies-anymore Sister. I am in the same place. I have read a few mysteries this year, but I'm afraid that I'm growing away from the whole genre. That would be unfortunate since a full quarter of my book holdings are mysteries, and I probably haven't read more than a third of them. Oh dear. Oh dear.
Really great pile of books for the new year! (Wishing you a happy one!) I have Brooklyn to look forward to when I finally finish The Children's Book - maybe today if I leave here and READ! I like it more than you did. In fact, the digressions into social history have been some of my favorite sections. Otherwise, I've been very entertained but not enlightened or surprised.
How can you not love The Lacuna? You will love The Lacuna!

#217: Peggy, your greeting really made me smile! Who would have thought we'd come to this? I used to devour mysteries as though they were m&m's or chips--which goes a long way toward explaining that other problem: lack of thin-ness. My little old bookcase, overstuffed with unread mysteries, haunts me. Maybe once every two months or so I feel like delving into them, but my preferred authorial style now includes really bizarre humor or exceptional character development. Sigh. Perhaps as I approach my dotage, somewhat more rapidly than I'd like to have widely known, I'll develop a taste for them again.
If the Brooklyn you're going to read is the Toibin one, I think you're in for a treat. If it's the Auster one, I'm not so sure; I'm not much of an Auster fan. I think I'd have liked The Children's Book better if I had less on my mind when I read it, although even looking back it seems just not one of her best.
I'm dying to read The Lacuna, but I'm holding off until January 1. And a happy new year to you, too.

Book #109: All That Glitters
is a book I read over and over in my teens, foolishly thinking that it was in some way a realistic novel. When reading any book by Frances Parkinson Keyes, one must keep in mind that many of her most appealing female characters commit sexual sins, for which they are then heavily punished, perhaps by death, perhaps by other personal, life-long tragedy. For Keyes, sexual sin includes sex before marriage; sex outside of marriage; marrying the wrong, always much older, man and then meeting the true love of one's life when it's too late. In addition to this personal quirk, her books include endless oceans of interior decorating, fashion, and food details. They are overblown and grandiose. All of them contain the most casual racial and class prejudice in very blatant ways. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone under 50, certainly. They're really only for women who are past a certain age and who still can enjoy a truly mindless romance. One plus is that you learn a great deal about a variety of subjects in her books; another is that she is really quite funny, sometimes intentionally; and a third positive would be that she can accurately skewer a character type. You pay your money and you take your chances.

one must keep in mind that many of her most appealing female characters commit sexual sins, for which they are then heavily punished, perhaps by death, perhaps by other personal, life-long tragedy
This was also true for almost all queer characters in literature up until...oh wait...very often still used! The rotten sleazy Puritans and their stupid religion continue to bitch-slap us Murrikins from waaay beyond the grave.

I watched "Breakfast at Tiffany's" with The Divine Miss and her gentleman caller last night...has there ever been a woman as spectacularly beautiful as Audrey Hepburn?...and was irked afresh at the Hollywoodization of George Peppard's character from a kept queer boy to a kept straight boy, and the grafted-on upbeat ending.

Still, it's pretty amazing just as a movie. ...wait...was there a point to this? I've forgotten...that whole dotage thing...I know you *already* know.

Not me. I still love cozies, though I'm tending to read more noncozies. More historical mysteries, for instance.

Actually, I think I'm probably reading the same number of mysteries as I did pre-LT but I'm now reading far more nonmysteries.

Great list of books! I just bought People's History of the United States recently, since I'm ashamed to say I've never read it. Hope to get to it soon.

Can't believe that this is the last post of the old year. I've read some great and not-so-great books this year and enjoyed chatting and lurking all over the 75ers group.

Book #110: The Bloody Chamber Good grief, what a surprise this little gem is! The old tales, Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, Beauty and the Beast, etc., are recast into creepy, artful, elegantly written and ever-so-slightly obscene stories that leave one a bit breathless. Highly recommended, but definitely for adults only.

Book #111: A Diary from Dixie was kind of disappointing, but that was the fault of this reader: I was hoping for a sort of Ken Burns's Civil War series in print. Foolish of me. What is here is the faithful record of a southern lady during the extremely difficult and heart-wrenching days of that war. As a native New Englander I find it hard to empathize with some of the attitudes expressed here, which aren't nasty but simply whole-hearted. It's worth reading if you would like to get an idea of the war seen from an upper-crust female point of view. This has been on my TBR pile here at home since January 5, 2001, so I regard it as a good thing that I've finished and can now give it wings to fly to someone else.

>>220 lindapanzo:: Linda, I wish I could join you in enjoying the cozies. I do find, like you, that historicals still hold my interest, but I've lost a bit of patience with the flimsy romance angle that's so often thrown into some of these, too.

Happy New Year to all, and please join me in 2011 at these two places:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/104798

and

http://www.librarything.com/topic/105369

Happy New Year, Gail! I am glad you were a part of the 75ers this year and am looking forward to a terrific 2011!