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Everything I Read in March, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 17:40:00 +0000

March:

28. The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett - PJ is a 63-year-old alcoholic hoarder who has never gotten over the death of his eldest daughter and the end of his marriage. His remaining daughter doesn't want to have much to do with him, although she reluctantly checks in on him. When tragedy strikes and two of his brother's grandchildren are orphaned, he takes them in. He's a kind man, if immature. His ex-wife and best friend have gone to Alaska and are out of touch but he's read that a girl he used to have a crush on has been recently widowed. He's had 3 heart attacks, won a lottery, and done very little besides drink since he lost his job, so PJ decides to go on a road trip to Arizona to ask newly-widowed Michelle if she'll marry him. The kids can probably stand to get out of town. Sophie ends up joining them, as does Pancakes, an orange tabby known for predicting when someone is going to die. A quirky, sad, funny, beautiful road trip novel, my favorite of the year, so far. I absolutely loved it and will be looking for more by Annie Hartnett. Sent by a friend. Thanks, Susan!

29. The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street by Lindsay Currie - 12-year-old Tessa loved her home in Florida and her best friend Rachel, but her father got a job offer he couldn't refuse. Now, they have moved into a very old house in Chicago that's haunted. The lights flicker, a child cries in the hallway, and there are strange crackling noises. Tessa is a pastel artist and a drawing has appeared in her sketchbook. In the park, she meets one of her classmates, who pulls her into his circle of friends. And, they're happy to help her unravel what's happening and why. Who is haunting Tessa's house, especially Tessa herself, and what do they want her to do? Nice and creepy, this middle grade book would make a great fall read. I thought the story lost a little steam toward the end and I didn't understand the point of the character Cassidy, who only showed up a few times, but otherwise a fun read with a nice little ghost mystery.

30. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 2 by Beth Brower - When I read the first volume of the Emma Lion books set in 19th-century London, I thought the price I paid for a 104-page book was a bit much. But I absolutely had to continue reading on. So, I went to Hoopla and checked out the only thing available, the audiobook. Guys, I am not an audiobook reader. I fell asleep 3 times, I kid you not. So, I ordered a copy of Volume 2 and found that I'd fallen asleep 3 times in only 18 pages! Whoa. So, paper it is. At any rate, the story continues with a cat named Tybalt, a Roman ghost, objects that mysteriously disappear from one home and appear in another, Emma's obligation to help her beautiful cousin catch the eyes of the most suitable marriage prospects, a possible growing friendship with her tenant in Lapis Lazuli Minor (a portion of her home that's been sectioned off and rented), and her icy relationship with her cousin-by-marriage, Archibald. Midway through this book, I realized that I am so immensely entertained that I'm giving up the thought of trying to save money. Beth Brower deserves it. I've already ordered the next two in the series.

31. Have Space Suit — Will Travel by Robert Heinlein (ebook) - I think this is only my second read by Heinlein, the first being Stranger in a Strange Land. Have Space Suit — Will Travel is one of Heinlein's "juvenile fiction" titles and apparently a bit of a cult classic. I've wanted to read it for years after seeing numerous references to the book, usually mentioned as a favorite from childhood. I recently discovered that you can buy it at a reasonable price as an ebook (it's out of print and paper copies are expensive). The story is about Kip, who enters a contest to try to win a trip to the moon. Instead, he wins a spacesuit, fixes it up, and just happens to be testing it when aliens arrive and snatch him up. Imprisoned on the moon and then Pluto, Kip meets a young genius named PeeWee and a creature called the Mother Thing and together they will fight to survive, save Earth, and find a way to return home. Some of the science bits went way over my head but I enjoyed Have Space Suit — Will Travel for the action, adventure, and the way it encourages youngsters to study hard.

32. Across the Desert by Dusti Bowling - OK, I would really like suggestions for books as action-packed and edge-of-your-seat as this, but for adults. What is it with middle grade books that there's so much more action than I feel like I get from grown-up novels? Am I looking in the wrong place? In Across the Desert, 12-year-old Jolene spends much of her time in the library, reading about travel and wishing for escape. Addie, also 12, has lost her father and live streams her adventures flying an ultralight aircraft and exploring in the desert. Jo is the only person who watches Addie's live streams and she's gotten to know Addie via email. Jo is an amateur cartographer and likes to follow Addie's adventures on maps. But, because Addie goes by "Addie Earhart," clearly not her real name, when Addie's motor dies and she crashes in the desert nobody believes Jo when she tries to find help. There's no recorded video, she doesn't know how to locate Addie's mother, and she gets a lot of stern warnings that not everything on the internet is as it seems. Jo can't let Addie just die in the desert, so she takes what she thinks she needs and sets off to rescue her. A terrific journey and survival story that's also about life with an addict, friendship, trust, and believing in yourself.

33. James by Percival Everett - Probably everyone knows about this book but just in case . . . it's the story of Huckleberry Finn told from the side of Jim, a slave and Huck's friend. I chose it for the Massachusetts Center for the Book challenge. This month's prompt was, "A book featuring an unlikely friendship," and it definitely fit well as they have to defend their friendship and it's tested during their journey on and off the Mississippi River. A great book for its look at friendship, racism, cruelty and kindness, danger and survival. It kind of throws the idea of cleaning up language in old books in your face by making it obvious that the language (particularly the "n" word, in this case) is of the times and needs to stay in place. It needs to make your skin crawl. You need to be horrified by the way slaves were treated and feel steeled to do your part to stop racism.

But, James is also just a great read. Now, there is one part that's considered controversial but it's a spoiler. If you know what that part is, I can tell you that it did not work for me. But, it's Percival Everett's story, not Mark Twain's, and he took it to a new place that's his own creation so I'm fine with that. James is a 5-star read, highly recommended. To double up on my challenge and fit my slot at book group, I suggested James and led the discussion. Double the fun!

34. Hear the Wind Blow: A Novel of the Civil War by Mary Downing Hahn - Haswell's father died at the beginning of the Civil War and his brother Avery left to join the fight soon after, leaving Haswell, his mother, and little sister Rachel to handle the farm. When an injured soldier shows up near death at their door, they risk their lives taking him in to help him back to health. I think if I say anything more it'll be a spoiler but there's a great deal of danger, a journey, a brief respite, and another journey. Point being, I thought this was a pretty good middle grade Civil War novel but it's about a family and the dangers they encounter rather than a story of soldiers. Mary Downing Hahn typically writes ghost stories for middle graders, so Hear the Wind Blow is a bit of a departure but it's a good one.

35. Blue Pastures by Mary Oliver (ebook) - I got this ebook for free with Kindle points and I'm so glad I happened to see the ad that said the ebook was on sale. Blue Pastures is a book of essays about life, nature, poetry, writing, and a little about Edna St. Vincent Millay and Oliver's connection to her. Like her poetry, the writing is lovely, funny, deeply respectful of nature, thought-provoking, and a little spiritual. There are hints that her youthful home life was not good but that she discovered poetry and nature as escapist retreats early in life. I have her nonfiction book on writing poetry and this book definitely made me want to dig for it.

36. Flight #116 is Down! by Caroline B. Cooney - When a plane crashes on the large estate of a teenager whose parents are out of town on business, Heidi opens up her home and several communities band together to save as many lives as possible. Recommended by a friend who loved this book when she was young and has held onto her copy, the first 50 pages or so of Flight #116 is Down! introduce the reader to a large cast of characters, both on and off the plane. Then, the plane crashes and the action begins. A taut, heart-pounding thriller from that point, mostly told through the eyes of teenagers so I guess this book could be classified as YA. A fun and sometimes harrowing read. The pages absolutely flew. Thanks for the recommendation, Laura!

37. The Flowers' Festival by Elsa Beskow - The next 5 books are from a set of children's books I bought because I like Ollie's Ski Trip by the same author and read it annually with my Christmas pile. In The Flowers' Festival, little Lisa's grandmother has gone on an errand. There's a festival going on in town but Lisa is not allowed to go alone. However, a fairy shows up and offers to let Lisa attend the Flowers' Festival in her grandmother's garden. Basically, it's a bunch of anthropomorphized flowers parading around and keeping the weeds outside the fence (although they're given refreshments). Of the set, The Flowers' Festival was my least favorite because it reads like a bunch of lists of flowers and not much happens besides rudely refusing to let the weeds in. The illustrations are very cleverly done.

38. Woody, Hazel, and Little Pip by Elsa Beskow - Woody and Little Pip are Acorn children (with little acorn caps on their heads). When Mrs. Acorn sends them to collect nuts, they find a leaf and go flying away. They don't mean to fly as far as they do. Squirrel shows up to ask if he can rent the downstairs room in their tree and Mrs. Acorn is rude to him but then he offers to go look for the children when they don't return in a timely manner. Hazel, the youngest Hazelnut child, hides in his tail. Squirrel leaves her on a toadstool and tells her not to move, but Hazel is a child and goes exploring. Meanwhile, Woody and Pip have been through a few adventures and are trying to get home on a sailboat. You can see where this is going. The children are safely returned, the squirrel is rewarded with the opportunity to rent the room he asked about, and all is well. There's a great review of the book by Tyler McGaughey, who gave it one star on Goodreads: "An interminable book about a magic forest filled with complete a**holes." That review made me laugh. I found it an adventurous tale and enjoyed Woody, Hazel, and Little Pip. But, Tyler has a point. There were some rude characters, for sure.

39. Pelle's New Suit by Elsa Beskow - Of this little boxed set of Elsa Beskow's books, Pelle's New Suit is my favorite. It has minimal text but tells a complete story. Pelle is a boy who has his own lamb. When he's in need of a new suit, he sheers the lamb, takes the wool to his mother, and asks her to card it. She says she'll happily do so if he'll do some chores in return. Each step of the process requires Pelle to find someone to help him and he does chores for payment. So, the wool is carded, spun, woven into fabric, dyed, and then made into a suit — all by bartering with labor for payment. It's both educational and heartwarming to see the process through. In the end, Pelle goes to his lamb and thanks him for his new suit, which wouldn't be possible without the lamb's wool. Lovely.

40. Princess Sylvie by Elsa Beskow - Princess Sylvie is about a king and princess who like to go for walks together. One day, Sylvie sees a gate that leads to the forest and asks if they can go through it. The king fumbles around with his keys, having never been through the gate, and discovers that he does have a key to the gate. In the forest, the king is distracted by birds and doesn't see that Sylvie has wandered off. She ends up playing with a lonely bear, who is very happy to have a playmate but the king says the bear can't come back to the castle. However, Sylvie does return to play with the bear. Princess Sylvie is by far the silliest of the books in my boxed set. Elsa Beskow wrote books with each of her children's names in them and I'm guessing she had a Sylvie. It may be silly but it's a book that made me smile so I liked it.

41. Children of the Forest by Elsa Beskow - Another favorite from the boxed set, Children of the Forest tells the story of a family's life under the roots of a tree. They collect blueberries and mushrooms, help prepare the food to last through the winter, play with squirrels and frogs, hide under toadstools when it rains, and wait inside for the long winter to end. It's a very simple and sweet tale that takes you through a single year with a happy little family and it's just a pleasant, restorative read. If I were to choose two from the boxed set to read over and over to children, they would be Children of the Forest and Pelle's New Suit. While I'll probably skip The Flowers' Festival for rereads, I will likely return to those two for fun.

42. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (ebook) - In 1851, Jean Marie Latour is asked to take on the job of Bishop in a new part of America with red desert hills and arroyos, pueblos and people who have inhabited the land for generations. He takes with him his best friend, the Vicar Joseph Vaillant. After a treacherous journey, they arrive at their new home where Latour spends decades quietly performing his duties, often involving travel through hostile weather and land to baptize, perform marriages, and listen to confessions. Both the story of a time and place that no longer exist as they once did and a deep friendship in which the two friends are frequently forced apart in the name of their spiritual duties, Death Comes for the Archbishop is a sweeping tale that begins when the two men head for America and ends with their eventual deaths. It is absolutely lovely, written with such vivid detail that I feel like I just time-traveled to the Southwest in the 19th century. This one was a buddy read!

43. Canyon's Edge by Dusti Bowling - I enjoyed Across the Desert so much that I went to see how much this other desert survival book by Dusti Bowling cost and it was affordable, so I grabbed a copy. Canyon's Edge tells the story of Nora and her father going on a hike and rappelling into a desert canyon. Since tragedy struck, Nora's dad is afraid of people and won't let Nora go to school. Nora has PTSD and is undergoing therapy. Their family has always been into outdoor activities, so rappelling down to hike in a slot canyon is not unusual. When a flash flood catches them off-guard and her father is washed away, Nora has to figure out how to stay safe and locate her father. Quite a harrowing tale, this one is told mostly in verse, although the opening chapters are narrative text. As usual, I loved it. I don't think Dusti Bowling can write a bad book.

Happy April! I had a pretty terrific month with some definite standout reads. Favorites were The Road to Tender Hearts, James, Across the Desert, The Canyon's Edge, Blue Pastures, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 2, and Death Comes to the Archbishop. But, I liked or loved everything else with only a couple of the Elsa Beskow books disappointing me a bit. The Flowers' Festival is the only one I think I'd never reread (given my love of children's books, it's not unusual for me to reread picture books). Other than The Flowers' Festival, there was nothing at all that I actively disliked or found significantly subpar so I'm calling this a fabulous reading month.

The oddity of the month was that I actually read 3 -- THREE! -- ebooks. Normally, I am not much of an ebook reader but when I discovered Have Space Suit — Will Travel was finally accessible to me without breaking the bank, I was excited to dive right in. Blue Pastures . . . well, I'll read anything by Mary Oliver, so I was excited to read it for free. And, I suspect I might have a copy of Death Comes for the Archbishop in paperback but not knowing where it was at a time when I agreed to do a buddy read, I dashed out and found an ebook for a whopping 54 cents. So, I don't have to feel guilty if I discover I do, in fact, already own a copy.

We also had a banner month for books that walked out the door as we donated 10 boxes of books to one of the local libraries (and then I volunteered to help sell them — I'm hoping that works out). The last year's book purge has been a success, although there's still more to be done. But, the biggest victory is that we have dramatically fewer books stacked on the floor or in boxes. There are still some but we're getting close to having everything neatly shelved. After that, the goal is to have actual space on the shelves as we simply have too many books to read in a lifetime.

Hope your March was an excellent one in every way and that April treats you right!

©2026 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Everything I Read in February, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 20:07:00 +0000

February:

18. Star-Spangled Jesus by April Ajoy - April Ajoy grew up the daughter of an evangelical minister who traveled to spread the Word of God to other countries and by RV in the United States before settling into the Dallas area to lead a large church. Like myself, she was a pious little thing, raised to believe that any little sin could end up causing her to be cast into Hell and therefore trying her best to be perfect. But, in spite of the fact that she was mostly homeschooled or taught in private schools, she had questions. And, there weren't always good answers. On January 6 of 2021, she and her Christian husband (they are both still Christians) watched the Insurrection and recognized people they knew. That was when it dawned on her that she was a Christian Nationalist.

Star-Spangled Jesus describes growing up fully indoctrinated in the God-Guns-Patriotism of Christian Nationalism, what exactly Ajoy grew up believing, what changed her mind, and what it's like being a Christian who no longer is a nationalist. Of particular note are the facts that Christian Nationalists consider everything they don't believe "demonic" (something I've heard or seen a lot coming from certain personalities, lately), including voting for Democrats. I was lucky not to be so completely indoctrinated as to believe that everyone else was going to Hell but us Southern Baptists (although I knew people who thought that). But, as Ajoy described, I had a lot of irrational fears and it took me literal decades to deconstruct. The tone is slightly silly and sometimes she's a bit repetitive, but I think Star-Spangled Jesus is worth reading if you're curious about Christian Nationalism and what exactly is going through the heads of people who bizarrely say they're pro-life and then blow off solutions to things like gun control and abortion that don't put people in danger, who support the most braggarty sinner America has ever vomited up, and then go around referring to everyone they disagree with as a demon. A very interesting read.

19. Poetry: January/February, 2026 - I've never even seen this journal, as far as I know. Maybe I just ignored it in the past, but I was in Barnes & Noble after an errand and decided to give it a go. Like short story anthologies, a journal of poetry is always going to have some you like, some you don't. And, that was definitely the case but I found enough favorites that I latched onto a couple of authors whose books I plan to hunt down and one I'll be stalking till he gets a book published (Andy Chen). There were two featured poets who were introduced with nice bios, both of whom intrigued me. And, I closed the journal thinking, "Hmm. I might want to get a subscription."

20. A Lantern in Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich - I would not be surprised if my mother was a fan of Bess Streeter Aldrich when she was alive because she loved reading about Pioneers and was from Nebraska. Bess had Pioneer ancestors (or, maybe even close relatives) and the beginning of A Lantern in Her Hand is based on her own grandmother's story, she being an Irish peasant who married into the aristocracy, lost everything, came to the U.S., and then moved West. Abbie Mackenzie Deal, the main character whose ancestry mimics the author's, knows about her family history and has been promised one of the few treasures salvaged when the Mackenzie wealth was lost. Her greatest desire is to sing and to one day look as classy as the painting of her great-grandmother that she's heard described. But, when she falls for a farmer named Will Deal and they move west to the Nebraska territory, instead of becoming a great singer she ends up living in a sod house, raising children, and working the exhausting job of a Pioneer farmer's wife. As the years go by, Abbie experiences disaster and joy, success and loss. The story is bookended nicely by the story of her death, which begins and ends the novel. I particularly loved reading about the most challenging years in the sod home, before the family moved into a house. The only time I was briefly bored was when Abbie became elderly and started spending a lot of time reflecting on the past. But, I found A Lantern in Her Hand almost impossible to put down, so I gave it a 4.5/5 rating and I'm looking forward to reading more by the author.

21. Source: Poems by Mark Doty - Mark Doty was one of the poets recommended when I asked people on Threads to recommend accessible poets and I would say . . . most of the time, yes. There were moments I didn't follow but I think if you read his poetry aloud (or in your head like you're reading to an audience), doing so clarifies the natural rhythm. I had a few particular favorites but only wrote down two of them. "Essay: The Love of Old Houses" is one (the title reflects the content). The other is about a shop parrot who spends half his time hanging upside down, speaks to customers and has a sign on his cage warning that he bites. One of Doty's poems appears to be about men dealing with AIDS during the early years and is incredibly moving. His poems tend to be very long, pages long so that I didn't feel like there was anything I could photograph to share with friends. But, they don't feel so long when you're reading them to your audience (the cat) and really getting into it.

22. The Cay by Theodore Taylor - In The Cay, it's 1944. Phillip has lived on the island of Curaçao for 4 years and is now 11. His mother hates island life and wants to return to Virginia but Phillip loves his life and his friends. When U-boats start blowing up fuel ships in the area, Phillip's mother decides that she and Phillip must return home; his father must stay for work. Disaster strikes and Phillip ends up on a raft with Timothy, an older black man, their ride to Miami blown out of the water. Phillip was hit on the head during the disaster and has lost his sight, but Timothy is strong-willed. When they reach a small island, he refuses to let Phillip mope and puts him to work. Blind people can work, too, he says. With WWII raging and no rescue in sight, will Timothy and Phillip survive? An adventurous read that I've reread many times since my elementary school librarian read it aloud in class. Rereading it now, I can see why it's the kind of book that restores interest in reading, as it did for both my sons during their aversion to reading phases. I read an extra copy that I bought at the library sale for my grandkids. I can't part with my own.

23. Proverbs of Limbo: Poems by Robert Pinsky - My general feeling about the poetry in Proverbs of Limbo is "too much effort". Also, I frequently agreed with one Goodreads reviewer whose review was a mere three words: "What the f***?" In other words, Pinsky's writing is difficult and inscrutable, so it requires effort to unravel what he's trying to say. I like straightforward, accessible poetry. I don't want to read a maze. Having said that, I had a few favorite poems from this collection but I wanted to get the book over with so I didn't mark them and then I couldn't remember which poems I actually liked. Bottom line: I probably will not read Pinsky again, in spite of occasionally liking a poem.

24. Class Act by Jerry Craft - A companion book to New Kid, a Newbery-winning graphic novel that has been frequently banned, I happened across Class Act and decided it would be worth reading on. Drew has a nice circle of friends as he starts a new school year. Drew still feels a little self-conscious about the fact that he's a scholarship kid in his fancy school. When Drew and his friend Jordan are invited to friend Liam's house, which is extremely large and even has a heated swimming pool, Drew is thrown off-kilter. Additionally, there are reminders at school that he's Black all the time — people wanting to touch his hair, micro-aggressions. He knows he'll have to work harder to get by in life and the size of Liam's house feels like having that thrown in his face. Will he be able to continue being friends with Liam?

Basically, I think the best way to describe this book is "an everyday look at life in an exclusive private school with glimpses of racism and its effects." The scene I liked best is one in which two kids are getting a ride from one of the Black fathers when he's pulled over for a broken light. The father is utterly terrified. The scene screams, "What we know can happen to a person during a traffic stop, merely because of skin color." And, it's extremely effective. Overall, an enjoyable and meaningful read. I like the fearless portrayal of racism, the sweet friendships, the humorous background details, and the budding romance. Has Class Act been banned? Briefly, because some Katy, Texas parents complained that it had "CRT" content. It was eventually returned to the shelf.

25. The Android's Dream by John Scalzi - One of the better Scalzi titles I've read in recent years, The Android's Dream takes place in a future time when Earth has ambassadors from other planets and distant space travel is common. The story begins with trade negotiations in which someone from Earth at the table bears an old grudge against one of the Nidu ambassadors. An incident takes place and sets in motion the potential for regime change on Nidu. But, a Nidu coronation must involve a particular form of sheep. This sets off a hunt for the sheep, the result of which feels like a big, bad spoiler. A lot of hacking of computer systems, murder, attempted murder, escape, and a big furry thing called a Takk eating people leads to the final and very clever Human vs. Nidu negotiations and the ceremony. All of which is rather twisty and spoilery, so I guess I don't feel like I can say much about this book apart from: I liked it; I really really liked it. I have had this book on my shelf for a year or two but read it because of the challenge I mentioned in January. I didn't know who created it but I've found the source. It's the Massachusetts Center for the Book 2026 Reading Challenge. I spun the genre wheel at their site and got sci-fi for my February read. Lucky spin. I definitely recommend The Android's Dream. I keep telling myself I'm going to ditch any challenge that doesn't work for me but here I am, planning my March read.

26. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower - Emma will soon inherit her birthright, Lapis Lazuli House, a 4-story London townhouse previously owned by her deceased father and inhabited by Cousin Archibald, related only by marriage and not a fan of Emma due to past events. Emma has been acting as companion to elderly Mathilde and is waiting for her pay for 3 years' work while Archibald has relegated her to the garret and is refusing to pay her allowance. Completely without funds, she does her best to make the garret look cheery and livable but Cousin Archibald has been up to no good. When Emma finds out, she takes charge in the only way she knows how. I read The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion for book group discussion. The first handful of pages didn't grab me but were pleasant enough that I was pleased when the story really began to unfold and it even became a bit addictive. However, at just over 100 pages, the series is a bit too expensive so I'm having to listen to the second book via Hoopla. Have I ever told you what a terrible listener I am? Also, earbuds hurt my ears. So, I have to hold a phone or prop it nearby on a pillow to listen. Well. We'll see how that goes, but I did love the first book and I'll keep pinching myself so I don't fall asleep through the second.

27. On Drawing and Painting by Paul A. Landry - An older book (1977) on the basics of value, intensity, color mixing, perspective, supplies, etc., with walk-throughs of the steps made to create each of several paintings, On Drawing and Painting is for novices. While I've painted for years, I have mostly taken online follow-the-leader classes (where you copy the steps in a specific project) and lack some basic knowledge, so I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone already knowledgable about beginning art essentials. I personally liked the way Landry starts with very basic concepts and works his way up to showing how he creates a realistic painting. He describes oil painting, but the generalities of building a work of art still apply and he's given me some ideas for completing a pastel landscape. So, it was worth my time. On Drawing and Painting was a library sale purchase.

Well, goodness, not my best month but there were a few jewels. I loved The Android's Dream, especially the clever way Scalzi pulled everything together in the end. I got some good basic information from the drawing and painting book. And, I am totally hooked on The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion (but I still can't stay awake reading audiobooks so I'll be looking for paper copies at the library). Star-Spangled Jesus hit close to home but also contained some interesting information and I was relieved to be reminded that I wasn't indoctrinated into some of the worst of Christianity, although my childhood indoctrination was bad enough.

A Lantern in Her Hand was excellent and I'm certain I will not forget the characters for a long time. Class Act was a good choice for Black History Month as it tackles racism head-on. And, I was pleased to find that The Cay still holds up well. This month's poetry choices all had some poems I loved but I discovered that Robert Pinsky is not for me. At least one of the poets who had more than one poem in the Poetry journal was so exciting that I feel like he should really hurry up and publish a book. And, I feel like it will be worth it to read more by Mark Doty.

So, overall, I'm pleased with what I read in spite of not reading a great quantity. Also, my year of poetry is going very well with 6 books and one poetry journal completed. For the Massachusetts Center for the Book Challenge, March's prompt is, "A book featuring an unlikely friendship." I had to look online for suggestions and found James by Percival Everett, which several friends have been encouraging me to read. I doubled up and made it the book choice for my WhatsApp book group, so hopefully it'll both work for the prompt and be a fun discussion book. We shall see.

Happy Reading and Happy St. Patrick's Day (a wee bit early)!

Everything I Read in January, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 18:31:00 +0000

January:

1. How to Sit by Thich Nhat Hanh - From a small set of 5 Thich Nhat Hanh titles given to me as a Christmas gift, this small volume talks about how it's not necessary to formally meditate but instead to just take a few minutes out of your day to breathe, and how to do so mindfully. He suggests some mantras to use and/or how to clear your mind by simply breathing in and out and thinking, "Breathing in, I breathe in. Breathing out, I breathe out." Illustrated, short, and very digestible. If you read my blog regularly, you know I love Thich Nhat Hanh and usually read several of his books each year to keep myself centered and relaxed. I always, always highly recommend his books.

2. Where Hope Comes From by Nikita Gill - One of the poets recommended to me when I recently asked for "accessible" poetry suggestions, I grabbed a book of hers at random. Where Hope Comes From is actually poetry written and published during the pandemic, and because Gill is British and they had genuine lockdowns, not just the wimpy one-week-and-we-have-to-reopen-everything kind of experience we had in the US, she was legitimately lonely and upset. So, this volume of poetry is both about the fear and loneliness as well as her optimism. Things will get better, keep your head up poetry. My pandemic experience was neither lonely or dull so I prefer the poems that are more generically written — not so much about her pandemic experience as life in general. Having said that, I am quite excited at the prospect of reading more by Gill as she has that upbeat attitude I love in Mary Oliver's poetry.

3. Evidence by Mary Oliver - Speaking of whom, I panic-bought two of Oliver's titles when I realized I had none left that are unread on my shelves and remembered that I have to start the year with Thich Nhat Hanh and Mary Oliver. As in her other titles, there's a great deal of focus on nature and optimism. She talks about aging (she was over 60 and starting to think about death — which rather stopped me in my tracks as I'm now over 60) and faith. My favorite poems were all about trees, including one imagining angels in the trees. You cannot lose with Mary Oliver.

4. The Most by Jessica Anthony - I bought my copy of The Most toward the end of 2025 on a whim, in spite of the fact that it has dramatically polarized reviews (lots of 1-star and 5-star ratings at Goodreads). November 3, 1957. Virgil and Kathleen Beckett have been married for about 10 years. On the day that Sputnik 2 is launched, Kathleen is feeling a little sick until she decides to go swim and soak in the apartment pool. It's unusually warm for the season, so she feels better in the cool water and stays there all day while Virgil goes golfing. As we follow the two throughout the day, their pasts are revealed: how they met, their indiscretions, Kathleen's years as a tennis champion and the shocking end to Virgil's last job. This novella is an understated slice of life and I'm on the positive end of the rating scale. Had it been more heavily focused on the indiscretions (aka, cheating, as I'm not into books about adultery), I would have disliked it but it's more of a big-picture story about a couple on a single day with a lot of reflection on the past so I enjoyed it.

5. How to Eat by Thich Nhat Hanh - The second in the 5-book boxed set mentioned above (after How to Sit), How to Eat talks about being mindful of the food that goes into your body, breathing to stop thinking about other things so you can concentrate on your food, using food as a way to gather community, eating silently, smiling at your companions briefly and then concentrating on your food, and being aware of where the food came from — how the sun, the rain, and the people who grow and deliver things played a part in getting the food to your table. Again, short paragraphs on each page and illustrations make How to Eat a quick read. I plan to read Thich Nhat Hanh's Savor, later this year. It goes into greater depth about nutrition and mindfulness when we eat.

6. We Can Be Brave by Mariann Edgar Budde - I've wanted to read Mariann Edgar Budde's How to Be Brave since I heard about it after her sermon at the National Prayer Service in 2025, where Budde addressed the president, asking him to be merciful and treat the marginalized and immigrants well, basically making the president turn red with anger and conservatives attack her choice of wording. We Can Be Brave is both updated and slightly rewritten as a "youth" version. I didn't realize it was a youth version; I only read so far as to know it was updated and that made me think, "I'll get this one." It may be geared to younger people, with additional blocks of information in the margins, but I'm glad I got this particular version because it contains some interesting thoughts in the introduction as well as the full sermon from the National Prayer Service. The rest of the book talks about milestones where we need to make a personal decision and having the bravery to make a change or stay in place, how Budde has experienced major life changes and ups and downs, including some major failures in leadership. I liked this book but didn't love it, however, I'm glad I found this updated version of Budde's original book about facing change and carrying on despite failure.

7. 3 Days of the Condor by James Grady - I've always loved the 1970s movie version of 3 Days of the Condor that stars Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway, so when I found a copy of the book at a library sale, I snatched it up. While it's different from the movie in many ways, the bones of the story remain consistent. Malcolm works for the CIA in a building labeled as a literary society. His job is to read books and look for any clues or hidden messages in them. But, when he goes out to fetch lunch, his office is hit and everyone is killed. Knowing he must be a target, as well, Malcolm goes on the run while trying to figure out who killed his co-workers and why, with the help of a woman he kidnaps. After figuring out the secret that got his friends killed, Malcolm's bent on revenge. The first chapter is set-up, but then the story becomes rather a heart-pounding, edge-of-your-seat read. It's short at only 182 pages but a genuinely thrilling novel.

8. Geography III by Elizabeth Bishop - I originally planned to read one poetry book per month and here I am, three poetry books into the year. This is partly thanks to my delightful friend Carrie of Care's Books and Pie, who sent me a small pile of poetry books, Geography III among them. And, I have to say that I absolutely loved this thin volume of poetry. In the first poem, "In the Waiting Room," the author, at 6 years old, waited for her aunt while reading a National Geographic from 1918. Wow, would I love to get my hands on a National Geographic that old. But, she died long ago so it was probably not horribly old, at the time. The second poem is told from the point of view of Robinson Crusoe and I loved both so I knew by that point that I was going to love the entire book (I was correct). The bottom line is that this is a very accessible little book of poetry (only 50 pages long) and if there's more poetry out there by Elizabeth Bishop, I'd really like to read it.

9. Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool - Another book I read because of Carrie, this time a buddy read, Moon Over Manifest tells the story of Abilene. 12 years old in 1936, Abilene is being sent by her father Gideon to Manifest, Kansas. Gideon spent time in Manifest with a man named Shady Howard but has since traveled the country as a train worker and till now Abilene went with him. In Manifest, Abilene hopes to find out about Gideon's past. What she finds is a storytelling Hungarian woman, two friends to hang out with over a hot, dry summer, and a very welcoming community heavily populated by immigrants. As the Hungarian "diviner" reveals the stories attached to objects in a box Abilene has found, she continues to wonder why Gideon's name never comes up and works to unravel whether or not there was a spy or a ghost in the woods. What an amazing story. Moon Over Manifest is a middle grade book that won the Newbery Medal, one of two awards that I have long thought are consistently first-rate and it is much deserved. I usually give away my middle grade books because there are so many teachers in need of books for their classrooms but ugh, no way. I'm going to have to reread this one. It has so much depth. Highly, highly recommended.

10. How to Love by Thich Nhat Hanh - The third in my boxed set of "How to" books by the Buddhist monk is about love and how we must first learn to love ourselves or we can't properly love others, how to know when to tell our loved ones that they're doing us harm or making us sad, and how to know when our "flowers" (loved ones) are in need of watering, or special attention/encouragement. For such tiny books with just a paragraph of two of text on each page, plus illustrations, I feel like I'm getting an awful lot out of each small volume. I also think the fact that they're so brief makes them particularly great for keeping by the bedside to use when one is in need of a refresher to remind you how to be mindful of the various topics.

11. How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino - A rather unusual book, this Japanese translation published in 1937 tells the story of Copper (that's a nickname), a young teen whose uncle is trying to teach him about the world by spending time with him, encouraging him to think, and writing to him in a notebook. Copper has some deep thoughts for a youngster. Through the series of essays in his uncle's notebook, interspersed throughout the book, you see how the uncle expands on lessons about science, history, ethics, courage, poverty, and other topics. Meanwhile, Copper has a small circle of friends that expands when he goes to check on a bullied classmate who hasn't shown up for longer than a typical illness keeps children away. He learns that the boy is hard working and admirable and they become friends, as well. When Copper experiences a challenge and fails, how will he deal with it? How Do You Live? is especially interesting when placed in context. The author was imprisoned during a time when Japan was becoming increasingly authoritarian and he and a friend decided to write the book to help youngsters understand certain principles. It's quite an irony that it ends on an upbeat note about uniting the world with WWII just a few years from beginning. A very philosophical read.

12. The Year of Less by Cait Flanders - The Year of Less is a memoir about a 20-something's attempt to declutter and stop buying all but essentials. Before the decluttering and determination to be less of a consumer, Flanders had already done several self-challenges: eating better, becoming sober, and paying down $30,000 of debt in 2 years. Writing a blog to keep herself accountable, the author also relied on friends. But, some friends caused her more grief than aid and this is where I could most relate as I've never been a drinking person and people like to loudly announce that you don't drink at events if you've chosen not to drink alcohol. We both also had a similar experience with swearing off meat. The Year of Less is not a how-to; it's very general. If you're looking for advice on how to do any of the above, you won't get it from The Year of Less. I found it inspiring, though, reading about her determination and occasional failures. It's a light, chatty read. It has terrible ratings, for the most part so I advise reading a sample or checking it out from the library before buying.

13. Here by Wisława Szymborska - This slim volume of poetry contains both the original Polish (on the left-hand pages) and an English translation of her poems. Szymborska was recommended to me when I asked for recommended poets who are accessible on Threads, recently, and ended up with a full 4 pages of suggestions. Thumbs up to this suggestion. Szymborska's poetry is both accessible and often quite witty. I enjoyed it immensely and look forward to reading more of her work.

14. How to Walk by Thich Nhat Hanh - Another book from the set of five by Thich Nhat Hanh that I got for Christmas, How to Walk is about being mindful of your steps on Earth, aware of the fact that you're alive, and learning to enjoy nature as you walk, if possible. He includes some mantras to help you with your breathing and mindful thoughts, and reminds you that even if you can only take a few mindful steps it's worth the effort. Still loving this series. Only one to go!

15. Out of Range by Heidi Lang - Abby, Emma, and Ollie used to be close sisters but since Abby joined Cross Country and has made new friends, Emma has felt left behind. Ollie, the youngest, always felt ignored. So, they start a prank war to try to get Abby's attention and the result is that they're sent to a wilderness camp where they must hike and then sleep in tents; the idea is to try to make the sisters close, again. When the pranks continue and camp owner Dana becomes angry, she makes them pack up their possessions and follow her on a hike for punishment. But, the path becomes harder to follow and when Dana leaves to look ahead at the path's condition, the girls decide to head back to camp. Unfortunately, they become lost. As they face increasing challenges, they also wrestle with the problems that led them to the point of going to camp and becoming lost — and learn a lot about their own lives. My only complaint with Out of Range was that there was no indication of a large-scale search effort. No whirring helicopter sounds, no big deal about being annoyed by the press or getting checked out in the hospital. Since it's a middle grade book, maybe the author thought all that was unnecessary to the story and she might be right but it felt a little off to me. I still loved it and gave it a 4/5 rating.

16. The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck - I've lost track of the little challenge box from which I grabbed a challenge for January with the word "winter" in the title (there's a screenshot of the monthly challenges floating around somewhere) but I'm very glad it prompted me to finally get around to reading The Winter of Our Discontent. Ethan Allen Hawley comes from an old Mayflower family, once wealthy but now the only remaining evidence of their former wealth is the house his family lives in, which is filled with bits and bobs from their whaling years. Ethan works in a grocery store in part of the town that used to be owned by the Hawleys. When his wife's friend sends in a man who tries to bribe Ethan and then that same friend does a tarot reading that says he'll be coming into a fortune, Ethan starts to get ideas about how to make that come true and talks himself into believing it's no big deal if he breaks a law, here or there. A book in which nobody seems to have ethics or morals, I can imagine The Winter of Our Discontent would make a good discussion book. It's a strange, convoluted story and sometimes I didn't understand what the main character was thinking or trying to say but I was still fascinated. It took me forever to read because there were so many beautiful sentences that I felt obligated to stop and reread repeatedly.

17. How to Relax by Thich Nhat Hanh - The last of the set of books my husband bought me, How to Relax is about learning to make space for relaxation, even if you can only find a few minutes to focus on breathing in and out. I was stupidly tense while reading How to Relax and I don't recall why, but as often happens with a Thich Nhat Hanh book, I started out reading in a drifting-off-to-other-thoughts with my shoulders up by my ears way, but he pulled me back in and made me focus. And about midway through the book, I realized that the concepts were starting to sink in, my breathing was slowing, I was reading instead of having that hamster-wheel, running-brain problem. If it hadn't been so cold, I would have plopped down on the floor to try relaxing my whole body as recommended. But, it was in the 20s, so I stayed on the sofa. I loved this entire set of books and highly recommend them, especially if you're looking for simple/quick dips into Buddhist concepts.

So . . . my reading month was a fun one. While I decided to ditch reading goals, I'd originally planned to read at least one poetry book per month and I ended up reading four. Yay, poetry! I read three older novels from the 1930s to 1970s, including a translation from the Japanese, all five of the set of Thich Nhat Hanh books I got for Christmas, a memoir, two middle grade books, a book about bravery, and a novella. And, honestly, I enjoyed them all, even those that were controversial or didn't have the best ratings. I was very happy with my reading, this month. And, that's in spite of all of the horror that's been unfolding. I think it helped to read some lighter books. I know a lot of my friends were struggling to read because of current events.

Our month ended with our niece coming down from Oxford, MS to stay with us for a week while her power and water were off after the big ice storm his North Mississippi and shut down Ole Miss for two weeks. She was a cheerful presence and while I know it was frustrating for her having her routine interrupted, we enjoyed having her around. Fortunately, it's finally warming up. I haven't checked to see if the groundhog saw his shadow but I have a feeling we're done with winter. We usually joke that true winter in MS only lasts two weeks but that's really fairly accurate and this year . . . we had more like three or four weeks of genuine cold. I'm ready for some moderate weather.

Happy Reading to all!

Books Read in 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Everything I read in 2025. I only posted monthly reviews in 2025, apart from maybe one separate review (of The Eights by Joanna Miller, posted in April) so while each book has a link, almost every book's link for a particular month leads to the same monthly wrap-up.

January:

1. Second Best - David Foenkinos

2. Angry Weather - Friederike Otto

3. Peace is Every Breath - Thich Nhat Hanh

4. Twelve Moons - Mary Oliver

5. Cat + Gamer, Volume 5 - Wataru Nadatani (ebook read via Hoopla)

6. Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea - Ashley Herring Blake

7. How the Penguins Saved Veronica - Hazel Prior

8. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (ebook read via Hoopla)

9. Saplings - Noel Streatfeild

10. Charles & Ray: Designers at Play - James Yang

11. McSweeney's #75, Ed. by Eggers, Yeh, and Horowitz

12. The Rainfall Market - You Yeong-Gwang

13. Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude - Ross Gay

14. Ties - Domenico Starnone

15. Walter Anderson for Children - the Mississippi State Historical Museum

February:

16. Fobbit - David Abrams

17. Too Bright to See - Kyle Lukoff

18. Vintage Hughes - Langston Hughes

19. Dataclysm - Christian Rudder

20. Queen of the Falls - Chris Van Allsburg

21. Key Lime Sky - Al Hess (ebook, purchased)

22. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. - Judy Blume

23. Tory Heaven - Marghanita Laski

24. Severance - Ling Ma

25. Cat + Gamer, Volume 6 - Wataru Nadatani (ebook read via Hoopla)

26. Taste - Stanley Tucci

27. The Mezzanine - Nicholson Baker

28. A Winter Book - Tove Jansson

March:

29. The Lost Library - Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass

30. Women - Chloé Caldwell (ebook read via Hoopla)

31. The Ghost Cat - Alex Howard

32. Sweet Bean Paste - Durian Sukegawa

33. McSweeney's #70, ed. by Boyle, Eggers, and Yeh

34. A House in the Country - Jocelyn Playfair

35. McSweeney's #77, ed. by Eggers and Yeh

36. Mare's War - Tanita S. Davis

37. Deenie - Judy Blume

38. My Jasper June - Laurel Snyder

39. The Way of the Househusband, Vol. 11 - Kousuke Oono

40. Lake Life - David James Poissant

April:

41. Meditations: On the Monk Who Dwells in Daily Life - Thomas Moore

42. Cat + Gamer, Vol. 7 - Wataru Nadatani (ebook read via Hoopla)

43. Whose Boat is This Boat? - The Staff of the Late Show, Stephen Colbert, Andrew Boneta, and John Henry

44. The Eights - Joanna Miller

45. Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories - Kate Atkinson

46. Castle of Water - Dane Huckelbridge

47. Becoming Dr. Q - Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa

48. Modern Poetry - Diane Suess

49. The Wartime Book Club - Kate Thompson

50. Wilfred and Eileen - Jonathan Smith

51. This is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

May:

52. The Ice Monster - David Walliams

53. Careless People - Sarah Wynn-Williams

54. Idle Grounds - Krystelle Bamford

55. The Best of Reader's Digest: Timeless Favorites

56. Dust - Dusti Bowling

57. Hedy's Journey - Michelle Bisson and El Primo Ramón

58. Perfection - Vincenzo Latronico

59. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love - bell hooks

60. Room on the Sea - André Aciman

61. The Book of Delights - Ross Gay

June:

62. A Thousand Mornings - Mary Oliver

63. Blubber - Judy Blume

64. The Hunt for Red October - Tom Clancy

65. When We Were Birds - Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

66. Cats on Catnip - Andrew Marttila (ebook read via Hoopla)

67. Tom Swift and His Rocket Ship - Victor Appleton, II

68. Indian Country - Gwendolen Cates

69. The Little Match Girl - Hans Christian Andersen and Blair Lent

70. A Field Guide to Getting Lost - Rebecca Solnit

71. The Emperor of Gladness - Ocean Vuong

72. Under Milk Wood - Dylan Thomas, adapted by Cerys Matthews, Illus. by Kate Evans

73. Letters from Rapunzel - Sarah Lewis Holmes

74. The Full Moon Coffee Shop - Mai Mochizuki

July:

75. Wonder - E. J. Palacio

76. Generation X - Douglas Coupland

77. The Great Unexpected - Sharon Creech

78. Bluets - Maggie Nelson

79. Thieves' Dozen - Donald E. Westlake

80. Eight of Swords - David Skibbins

81. Then Again, Maybe I Won't - Judy Blume

82. Count - Melvin Burgess (ebook read via Hoopla)

83. Musical Tables: Poems - Billy Collins

84. High Wages - Dorothy Whipple

85. Walking Words - Eduardo Galeano

86. Take Me With You - Andrea Gibson

87. A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice - Rebecca Connolly

88. Sea of Rust - C. Robert Cargill

August:

89. Perry Mason: The Case of the Rolling Bones - Erle Stanley Gardner

90. Ask Again, Yes - Mary Beth Keane

91. Miguel Street - V. S. Naipaul

92. And Then, BOOM! - Lisa Fipps

93. Catwings Return - Ursula K. Le Guin (#2 of the Catwings series)

94. The Answer is No - Fredrik Backman (ebook)

95. William, an Englishman - Cicely Hamilton

96. Well Done - Barbara Morrow

97. Crying in H Mart - Michelle Zauner

98. The Fall of Kelvin Walker - Alasdair Gray

99. Catwings - Ursula K. Le Guin (First in the Catwings series)

100. Catwings Return - Ursula Le Guin (reread of #2 in the Catwings series)

101. Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings - Ursula K. Le Guin (#3 in the Catwings series)

102. Jane on Her Own - Ursula K. Le Guin (#4 in the Catwings series)

103. Black Beauty - Anna Sewell

104. The Faceless Adversary - Frances and Richard Lockridge

September:

105. Postcard Poems - Jeanne Griggs

106. Elatsoe - Darcie Little Badger

107. Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child - Thich Nhat Hanh

108. One for Sorrow - Mary Downing Hahn (ebook/Hoopla)

109. The Bletchley Riddle - Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

110. Galápagos - Kurt Vonnegut

111. The Last Dragon on Mars (The Dragonships #1) by Scott Reintgen

112. The Recovery Agent (Gabriela Rose #1) by Janet Evanovich

113. The Day the World Stopped Turning - Michael Morpurgo

October:

114. There Was a Party for Langston - Jason Reynolds, Jerome Pumphrey, and Jarratt Pumphrey (audiobook/Hoopla)

115. Impossible Escape: A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe - Steve Sheinkin

116. Alfred Hitchcock's Stories NOT for the Nervous, ed. by Hitchcock

117. Separation of Church and Hate - John Fugelsang

118. The Magic Fish - Trung Le Nguyen

119. Three More Stories You Can Read to Your Cat - Sara Swan Miller and True Kelley

120. The Fox in the Library - Lorenz Pauli and Kathrin Schärer

121. There's a Ghost in this House - Oliver Jeffers

122. Letters from the Lighthouse - Emma Carroll

123. Alone - Megan E. Freeman

124. Mr. Willowby's Head Over Heels Christmas - Robert Barry

125. Rogue Male - Geoffrey Household

126. Away - Megan E. Freeman

127. Jenny and the Cat Club - Esther Averill

128. Lifeboat 12 - Susan Hood

129. The Complete Flying Officer X Stories - H. E. Bates

November:

130. Hurricane Girl - Marcy Dermansky

131. Ghost Town - Richard W. Jennings

132. I Love You, Michael Collins - Lauren Baratz-Logsted

133. Look Both Ways - Jason Reynolds

134. Repairing the Heartbreak of Pet Loss Grief - C. Jeffrey

135. No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering - Thich Nhat Hanh

136. The Correspondent - Virginia Evans

137. After Kenyon - Jeanne Griggs

138. On Hitler's Mountain: Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood - Irmgard A. Hunt

139. The Night Diary - Veera Hiranandani

140. Despised and Rejected - Rose Allatini

141. A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chambers

142. The Copper Treasure - Melvin Burgess

December:

143. Jane Goodall - Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara and Beatrice Cerocchi

144. Don't Let Them Bury My Story: The Oldest Living Survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre in Her Own Words - Viola Ford Fletcher

145. The School for Cats - Esther Averill

146. Ollie's Ski Trip - Elsa Beskow

147. The Story of the Snow Children - Sibylle von Olfers

148. A Child's Christmas in Wales - Dylan Thomas

149. A Pirate's Night Before Christmas - Philip Yates and Sebastià Serra Bonilla

150. The Polar Express - Chris Van Allsburg

151. The 12 Days of Christmas: A Pop-Up Celebration - Robert Sabuda

152. The Little Reindeer - Nicola Killen

153. How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Dr. Suess

154. The Christmas Owl - G. Sterer, E. Kalish, and R. Kaulitzki

155. The Night Before Christmas - Clement C. Moore and A. J. Caparo

156. A Christmas Memory - Truman Capote and Beth Peck

157. Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree - Robert Barry

158. The Truth Pixie - Matt Haig and Chris Mould

159. The Night War - Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

160. A Lot Like Christmas - Connie Willis

161. The Snowman - Raymond Briggs

162. Journey into Christmas and Other Stories - Bess Streeter Aldrich

163. Poetry for Kids: Walt Whitman, ed. by Karen Karbiener, illus. by Kate Evans

164. When Santa Fell to Earth by Cornelia Funke

165. The Gospel According to James Baldwin: What America's Great Prophet Can Teach Us About Life, Love, and Identity - Greg Garrett

166. The Madness Vase: Poems - Andrea Gibson (ebook/Hoopla)

167. The Wall - Marlen Haushofer

©2025 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Everything I Read in December, 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 20:14:00 +0000

December:

143. Jane Goodall (Little People, BIG Dreams series) by Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara and Beatrice Cerocchi - A picture book for small children, I read this book about Jane Goodall's life specifically to give me an easy/quick overview of her life before I (eventually) move on to reading one of her books. I was surprised how well it was done. There's very little text, obviously, but it was a nice account of Goodall's life, and what motivated her to study chimpanzees and become an activist. The illustrations are great and there's some extra information after the story. Very nicely done.

144. Don't Let Them Bury My Story: The Oldest Living Survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre in Her Own Words by Viola Ford Fletcher - The author of this book just died recently and my friend Carla posted a photo of the cover of this book, which of course I jumped on as I want to know everything about the Tulsa Race Massacre, an event that was so thoroughly suppressed that I heard literally nothing about it while growing up in Oklahoma. Viola Ford Fletcher was 7 years old, living in the prosperous Greenwood district in a nice house with her parents and siblings when the city was firebombed from planes, houses were burned, and residents shot. Her family escaped but was thrust into poverty and sharecropping. Her education stopped in the 4th grade. She had PTSD her entire life and actually slept in a chair with the light on while nobody was punished and the incident wasn't even acknowledged for over 70 years. While this book needed some more editing, her story was vividly told, horrific, and a moving example of how structural racism keeps people stuck in poverty.

145. The School for Cats by Esther Averill - (Accidentally photographed in both stacks, oops). Jenny Linsky is being sent to summer school. There's no teaching of math and English or the usual human subjects. Instead, the cats are taught about good behavior and manners. But, Jenny doesn't know anything about it and she's frightened. She arrives by train in a basket and hides. At night, she's put in a bed with log posts for scratching. Pickles the Fire Cat has brought his little fire engine and he uses it to scare Jenny up the chimney. From there, she ends up running away. But, eventually she returns when she overhears the excited chatter of two other cats who have arrived for summer school . . . and Pickles apologizes. Jenny enjoys the rest of her summer. The only thing I disliked about The School for Cats is that it comes after the others I've read but Jenny appears not to know Pickles, whom she met in an earlier book. Otherwise, another sweet story.

146. Ollie's Ski Trip by Elsa Beskow - Ollie waits and waits for snow to fall and when it finally does, he's able to go skiing with sandwiches in his pocket and a reminder to be home in time for supper. In the forest, Ollie meets Jack Frost, who is keeping things beautiful by breathing frost on them and chasing away the woman who cleans up in the spring. Jack Frost takes Ollie to see King Winter and there he meets the children who make things for Christmas, plays with them during their break, and is escorted home where he receives a pair of ice skates as a gift from the king. I read this one almost every December. It's tiny and charming. I love it.

147. The Story of the Snow Children by Sibylle von Olfers - Now we're cooking on the Christmas reads. I have to wonder if this is the origin of the ceramic Snow Babies. When a little girl sees snow babies, which she thinks are very large snowflakes, she goes outside and is invited to an ice castle, where she parties with a princess till she's exhausted. She is then taken home in a sleigh driven by polar bears. When I first read The Story of the Snow Children, I was dismayed that the mother was gone when the little girl left and could visualize a party of frantic people searching for her. But, in 1905, things may have been a bit different. And, now I just read it for the magic.

148. A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas - One of two books that I absolutely must read without fail every year, A Child's Christmas in Wales is poetic and silly and hilarious and charming and has a boys will be boys (but not in the worst of ways) feel to it. I love when the children throw snowballs into the smoke to try to help put out a fire, love hearing about the gifts that were appreciated and those that weren't, love the descriptions of snow and old uncles and aunts. It's lovely. Christmas is not right without it. Reminder: You can find a video of Dylan Thomas reading A Child's Christmas in Wales online.

149. A Pirate's Night Before Christmas by Philip Yates and Sebastià Serra Bonilla - I have the board book version of this book that I reviewed as a new release, way back when. I loved it and it made me chuckle but since I gave most of my children's review books away (to teachers and young mothers), my husband thought this one was fair game and gave it to a friend. It took quite a while for me to locate another copy but I still love it and have added it to the annual rotation. It's just what it sounds like, a pirate version of The Night Before Christmas with a Santa-like character who comes up from the deep of the ocean in a sleigh driven by sea horses and passes out gifts, the narrator pleased to receive a treasure map.

150. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg - I skipped this one in the 80s, ignored it even though it passed through the store in my bookseller days in the 90s, and have never seen the movie. But, I finally bought a copy, a year or two ago, and I'm happy to own it. I like the ending, in particular, about the bell that people lose the ability to hear when they stop believing. And, the illustrations.Van Allsburg certainly deserved his Caldecott medal.

151. The 12 Days of Christmas: A Pop-Up Celebration by Robert Sabuda - This book has an interesting story. I had one copy of this pop-up that was open and used to death, back in my bookstore days. Oddly, I also bought a second copy that was plastic wrapped and left it in a box. I only recently found and unwrapped it. Everything works fine and the pop-ups are beautiful, mostly white paper with some hints of gold (five golden rings). My only complaint is that the author used "gold rings" instead of "golden". I refuse to go there. It's golden, full stop.

152. The Little Reindeer by Nicola Killen - A book I bought a couple of years ago after seeing it recommended by a friend who has great taste in children's books, particularly in spotting beautiful illustrations, The Little Reindeer is a simple story of a girl who hears bells, goes outside to search for them, finds a collar, helps put it back on the reindeer who lost it, and gets a ride home. That's it. But, the illustrations and the little touches of foil and windows to peek through make the book so lovely that the simplicity of the story just feeds into the joy of reading it for the sake of the visuals.

153. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess - There's not much that hasn't already been said about the Grinch. However, I have to say that I still love this classic and as I was reading it, I thought that it's not only clever and heartwarming but one of the best books I've read in my pile, by far. I will always love how the Whos Down in Whoville sing even after their houses have been stripped of gifts, decorations, and feast, and the way their joy changed the Grinch. Perfect.

154. The Christmas Owl by G. Sterer, E. Kalish, and R. Kaulitzki - This is the true story of a tiny owl whose tree was chosen for display, cut down, and transported to New York City's Rockefeller Center with the owl trapped inside. Rehabilitated, the owl is set loose and then you get a little lesson in wildlife rehabilitation. I like this story as much for the memory of when it happened as the spectacular, colorful, evocative illustrations.

155. The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore and Antonio J. Caparo - Somewhere, I probably still have the childhood copy of The Night Before Christmas that was given to my sister and me, but if so I haven't been able to locate it for decades. This copy comes fairly close, although nothing is quite as beautiful as our original copy (I searched for one that I considered reasonably beautiful for years). I found this copy is most interesting for watching what the pets and the mouse do in each illustration, plus the fact that Santa looks just a little bit cheeky. Originally written in 1823 and beloved for good reason.

156. A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote and Beth Peck - One of the two stories I absolutely must read annually (the other, above, A Child's Christmas in Wales), A Christmas Memory is a bittersweet true tale of Truman Capote's last Christmas with his best friend, an elderly cousin, when he lived in a rambling Southern home. Together, young Truman (whom she calls "Buddy") and his friend gather ingredients, make fruitcake, find a Christmas tree to cut down and drag home, make ornaments, and then create kites for each other and enjoy flying them. This book tugs at my heartstrings like few others. I own a second copy that contains two other stories but this one's my favorite because it's illustrated like a children's book, although it's really a short story.

157. Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry - I used to have my childhood copy of Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree, but it is another book that's been missing for ages. I finally decided to buy a new copy, last year, and I couldn't be happier to own it. Mr. Willowby's Christmas tree is too tall, so a little is lopped off the top. Each time the top finds a new owner, it's a little too tall for their space so it keeps getting smaller and smaller with each new tree owner thrilled to have a tree at all. Finally, it comes full circle with a mouse family saying, "Oh, isn't it grand to have a tree exactly like Mr. Willowby?" The illustration zooms out to show Mr. Willowby beside his tree and a lit-up mouse hole with its tiny treetop bit behind him. Perfect.

158. The Truth Pixie by Matt Haig and Chris Mould - I read this back when it was new and I don't recall what I thought about it, at the time, but I clearly liked it enough to hang onto. The Truth Pixie has been cursed. She can only tell the truth and most of the time, her truth-telling is hurtful. But, when she gets thrown far away by a troll, she encounters someone who is sad. Her life isn't going to go well for a while; the Truth Pixie knows this. But, it will improve and she shares that truth, as well. An upbeat little story.

159. The Night War by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley - SPOILER ALERT -- I gave away a few plot points so please skip to where I say it's safe to read part of the review if you plan to read the book soon.

Miri's family and neighbors in Paris all escaped Berlin after Kristallnacht (which, I have recently read, is no longer being called by that name, meaning "The Night of Broken Glass"). Relocated to a district filled with other German Jews, her home is smaller but the family has been safe. Then, the Nazis load everyone onto buses and take them to a place called the Velodrome. On the bus ride to this biking stadium, her neighbor takes Miri's sweater with its golden star and hands her Nora, a toddler that Miri adores and thinks of as a surrogate sister, telling Miri to escape to Zurich.

Instead, Miri ends up being saved by a nun and transported to a small village on the border of Vichy France, where she must pretend to be a Catholic student to survive the war. But, Miri will not miss her chance if it comes up. After Nora is taken from her, can she locate her and get them to the Vichy side?

OK, it's safe now. You can read this last bit. A ghost, a fairytale castle, and daring night escapes round out this story to make it quite good and I definitely want to read more about Chenonceau. I've been familiar with the castle for ages but didn't know about its history during Nazi occupation. There is a resource list in the back of the book. Yay!

160. A Lot Like Christmas by Connie Willis - I've read some of these stories as the first Christmas book by Willis (title unknown) was absorbed into this one and I read that first book years ago. While I like Connie Willis and enjoy some of her Christmas stories, I had three specific favorites. Two were about aliens: visiting aliens with characters trying to figure out how to communicate with them; and, an invisible alien invasion that two characters were trying to stop. My other favorite was about snow falling all over the world and whether or not it was a scientific phenomenon related to climate change. What I'm saying here is, I'm happiest reading her sci-fi. I may keep this book specifically to reread the favorites. Some, I found a little overwhelming (so much going on — she can juggle a lot of characters and streams of thought) but I'm a Connie Willis fan, in general, so I'm glad I read it.

161. The Snowman by Raymond Briggs - When you're tired, you read board books. OK, yeah, usually I'm not quite that bad but I was super tired one night, and I just happened to have The Snowman on my Christmas stack, which was thinning dramatically by the 17th. The wordless story of a boy who builds a snowman, shows it around his house, and then goes on a magical, flying tour of the city with him is charming. I'm not a big fan of wordless books but this one's lovely and leaves you wondering if it was all real or a dream.

162. Journey into Christmas and Other Stories by Bess Streeter Aldrich - Wow, what an amazing library sale find. I've had this book floating around unread for a while – could not possibly guess how long. During our big summer book purge, I set it aside with the rest of the Christmas books and decided to make reading it a priority. And, now I want to read everything Bess Streeter Aldrich ever wrote. Originally published in the 1920s (my copy, 1963), the characters often reach back to the days of the Pioneers, reminiscing about their first sod houses on the Prairie or how one character or another accompanied Sherman on his March to the Sea. But, in general they're stories of family, life and death, the spirit of Christmas, how things change from one generation to the next, and the frustrations and joys of the season.

At the end of the book, the author talks about her own memories and how a grandmother from Scotland's life is described in one of her books, A Lantern in her Hand. I will definitely be looking for a copy of that book and Journey into Christmas will go on my rotation of Christmas books. A sweet, nostalgic set of stories of Christmases past, during hardship and good times. There's also quite a bit of mention of the Great Depression and various characters losing everything or thriving in spite of hardship, as well as various characters reminiscing about how lucky they were to keep most of their children alive, pre-vaccination.

163. Poetry for Kids: Walt Whitman, ed. by Karen Karbiener, illus. by Kate Evans - When I recently asked for suggestions for accessible poetry, Walt Whitman came up several times. I should be more familiar with Whitman. I found myself saying, "Oh, he wrote that?" a lot while reading this children's book of his poetry. I have a more complete volume but when I'm new (or newish) to a well-known poet, I often like to read a children's book first to dip my toes in the water, so to speak. While the descriptive parts vary in this series, overall I have loved them all and this is a particularly good entry in the series, as the additional info at the end of the book lists absolutely every poem and tells you what was going on in Whitman's life, what he was thinking, etc. There are also vocabulary words beneath each poem or excerpt and a nice introduction.

164. When Santa Fell to Earth by Cornelia Funke - I've had this book for eons and came across it during our big summer book purge, setting it aside to read and determine whether or not it's worth keeping. Niklas Goodfellow is a Santa who flies around the sky until his only remaining reindeer is spooked by lightning. His harness breaks and the reindeer disappears while Santa's caravan falls to Earth. There, Niklas and his elves must repair the broken caravan wheels while preparing for Christmas and trying not to get turned into a chocolate Santa by the bad guy and eaten. When Santa Fell to Earth was unique, I'll give it that much, but it was a little too far out there for my taste and I won't be keeping it. However, I did like the relationship between the two children who befriend Niklas.

165. The Gospel According to James Baldwin: What America's Great Prophet Can Teach Us About Life, Love, and Identity by Greg Garrett - Another book read for the Contemplative Reading Project (which, I believe, has been renamed but I keep forgetting the new name), The Gospel According to James Baldwin is a book I'd been wanting to read so I'm glad friend Buddy gave me an excuse to buy it. Divided into chapters on what Baldwin had to say about various topics like faith, race, and literature, I loved this deep dive into what Baldwin had to say, how frustrated he became over the lack of progress he saw in his lifetime (to justice, to the ability of white people to stop creating and supporting racial division, etc.) and the bottom line: We can do better. A good book to read slowly, highlight, and discuss. Great for fans of Baldwin and people who understand that "justice" isn't an honest word and love isn't being spread widely enough. I plan to reread it with a highlighter pen and hope to read more of Baldwin's work in 2026.

166. The Madness Vase: Poems by Andrea Gibson (ebook/Hoopla) - The Madness Vase is apparently one of Andrea Gibson's early volumes of poetry and it was quite different from the recent release that I read after Gibson's death. The poems are longer and heavier on imagery/metaphor. But, there are similar themes. What I particularly feel like I get out of reading Gibson is the concept of what it's like to not feel like you fit either gender and how painful it is to be bullied and denied your identity. My favorite poem, though, was a poem in which Gibson talks about a homeless person who is ravenous getting chewed out for having bad manners after guzzling down a bunch of creamers at a church dinner. It reminded me of a defining experience at my home church as a pre-teen or young teen in which people in need were thought to have taken too much from the emergency food pantry. I thought that poem was discussion-worthy, as were many others. However, so many poems were too graphic/confessional for me that I considered not finishing the book and have mixed feelings about it. But, I decided to finish. In general, there was a lot of meaning in this book and I'm glad I read it.

167. The Wall by Marlen Haushofer - This was an "Instagram made me do it" book and I think it was the cover image (a cow on a white and blue background) that caught my eye. The narrator has gone to a hunting lodge with friends. Her friends go off for a walk and their dog comes back but they don't. When the narrator goes to see what's happened along with the dog, Lynx, she discovers that an invisible wall has descended and she may be the only person left alive. On the other side, every living creature has turned to stone. Left with a dog and eventually a cow and cat, she goes into survival mode and learns how to care for the animals while trying to also keep herself alive with minimal supplies. As in The Martian, potatoes are one of her main methods of survival. The book, originally published in 1963, takes place in Austria and has no chapter breaks and almost no white space because she talks about talking to the animals but there are never any actual quotations. For a time, The Wall was the book I picked up if I wanted a book to make me sleepy. However, I enjoyed it for many reasons. I love the dystopian concept because it always makes me think, "What would I do?" (in this case, I suspect I'd have died pretty quickly, having no idea what to do with a cow) and while it can be a little tedious, it's also fascinating because it's unique and has a feminist bent plus survivalism, which I always love reading.

Wow, what a way to end a year! I often read a stack of children's Christmas/winter titles in December, but not always. Sometimes, I just read a handful of favorites. This year, I'd read a few that were set aside on a shelf and then Huzzybuns came out of the guest room closet with a stack of Christmas books in his hands and said, "Hey, do you need these?" Of course, I read them all. In the midst of reading all the children's books, I was also reading Connie Willis's Christmas book and then I read the Bess Streeter Ulrich, and finally I finished up the Christmas reading with When Santa Fell to Earth, on Christmas Day. At that point, I declared myself done with Christmas reads entirely. I had some other books that were not Christmas-related going throughout the month, but they were clearly in the minority.

At any rate, I enjoyed reading a big enough stack of books that it had to be divided into two stacks and two flatlay photos (and one ebook image). It was a fun month. The sheer quantity of children's books I read in 2025 makes my numerical total misleading but it is what it is. I had a good reading year and I'm happy about it, although it was otherwise a challenging and often difficult year. I don't know if I'll make a favorites post. Probably not, but if I feel like it I'll get that done before the end of January. My full list of reads for 2025 will be posted in the morning. You should be able to click on each image for a larger view.

Reading Goals for 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 19:19:00 +0000

Image by Nong/Californong from Unsplash

Happy New Year!

I have waffled about this post for a month: pondered ditching it entirely, altering, or leaving as is. In the end, I decided that I don't want to make any goals for 2026, apart from just reading off the shelves and only what calls to me (well . . . there will be book club reads, but that's another story). But, I'm leaving what I wrote a month ago as I wrote it below because I'll have the goals I originally intended in the back of my head and might want to refer back to them, goal-free or not.

For now . . . my only goal is to enjoy my reading — from my home library. I'll still do the monthly wrap-ups here because I like using my blog as an additional recording device (in addition to the monthly calendar on which I record all finished reads). My December, 2025 Reads and 2025 Reads posts will be up as soon as I manage to upload photographs to the December Reads post.

Here are the original goals/post I've decided to ditch, for now, written in early December:

New year, new goals! I always love starting out a fresh year with new reading plans. I will note that while I create specific goals and aim toward them, I have learned that life simply refuses to stop interfering with my reading plans. So, nothing is set in stone. These are just goals that I will aim for. If I don't reach them, I'm not going to be sad. I'll just move on. Without further ado . . .

2026 Reading and Other Goals:

1. Keep reading from my home library only (as much as possible) - Toward the end of the year, when our beloved Isabel sickened and then we had to say goodbye to her (and other things happened), I made some significant stress book purchases. I don't feel guilty; I needed a little bolstering. But, I did revert to reading mostly new books and I want to resume my goal to stop buying and read what I already own.

2. Purchases should be exceptions - This is often a #fail, although I did have one very good book-buying ban year. But I'm going to keep trying. If I absolutely can't bear not to buy a book because my library doesn't have it and/or I need it for book group discussion, fine. But, I want to minimize my purchases. I have a terrific home library and I need to focus on shopping from my own shelves. I leave myself open to the possibility of stress purchasing if needed. Books are my upper of choice.

3. Read specific books I've meant to get to - I have a small stack but my priority book is Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley, which my childhood bestie sent me when I was reading Gone With the Wind. I put it on last year's priority list and then totally forgot about it, even though the book has literally been sitting on a chair in my living room since it arrived. Seriously, it's right there (the chair is decorative; nobody sits on it so the book only moves when we clean the floors). I am ridiculous. Others are the Lord of the Rings series, In the Beginning by Nick Girard, and Skippy Dies by Paul Murray (because my eldest son wants me to read it). I keep thinking about others I might want to add, which is probably a bad idea but I mean to be flexible so I'll stop here.

4. A year of poetry - I am rewriting #4 as I originally planned to keep reading Persephone books as part of my challenge but then I thought, "Maybe I can just do that without making it a challenge item, again?" And, at any rate, I was going to do 1/2 Persephone, 1/2 classics, alternating instead of focusing on one or the other. However, recently I asked for advice on poetry that's accessible and I got literally 4 full pages of suggestions, which led to the purchase of a stack of poetry books. I also have a couple of books about poetry. The reason I specified "accessible" poetry is because it's not something I studied beyond junior high, so I can definitely use a bit of instruction on how to read and understand poetry, although I am of the camp that also believes it's fine taking what you feel from a poem rather than trying to analyze it to death. Anyway. Poetry. Yes.

5. Continue posting monthly wrap-ups to the blog - I doubt I'll ever return to writing full reviews (although I'm not totally ruling it out if I ever feel like returning full-time) but I'm very happy writing the monthly wrap-ups. I keep an open file and write about each book immediately (or very soon) after reading, while they're still fresh in my mind and then all I have to do is photograph my stack and flatlay, et voilà. One exception: If I read something so fabulous I have to talk about it, I may pop in and do a full review. While I am no longer reviewing for publishers, I also leave that option open and will do a review if I ever accept a book from a publisher, again. However, I don't have a NetGalley account (mine ceased to function eons ago, so I finally just canned it) and most offers are for e-books, so it's unlikely I'll do many ARC reviews, if any at all.

6. Numbers - I always set my Goodreads goal a little lower than my mental goal so that I can be assured I'll reach at least one goal. I know, cheating. But, it works for me so I'm going to set my goal at 100 books while really aiming for 150. However, if I don't make it to 150 because I have a couple of very large reads in mind, no biggie. Also, in the grand scheme of things, I just like numbers so I count pages and books and such because of my addiction to math. I'm less concerned about the goal, more about the fun. I will say I think Goodreads absolutely ruined the look of their challenge in 2025; I've only continued at GR because I already have so many records, there. I'll never understand bad updates.

Note on comments: I still screen all comments so don't worry if your comment doesn't appear immediately. I do still check the blog and will approve and reply to legitimate comments, although sometimes I forget to check comments for a few days. I also still delete spam; spam will never show up here. No hinky links allowed, even if your comment sounds reasonable.

Wishes for a Glorious Year to You and Happy Reading to All!

Everything I Read in November, 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 19:52:00 +0000

November:

130. Hurricane Girl by Marcy Dermansky - A totally unexpected story, Hurricane Girl places you in the mind of Allison. Having escaped an abusive relationship in Los Angeles, Allison has bought herself a house with a beach view in North Carolina. She loves the water, loves swimming, but is not expecting anything that's about to happen. And, that's all I can say, apart from the fact that (as the title reflects) there is a hurricane, at some point. I think to say anything else would be to ruin the storyline but it's at times terrifying and often funny. At a mere 230 pages, Hurricane Girl could easily be read in a single sitting if you don't start it too late at night, as I did. I had a terrible time putting it down to close my eyes. Simply written but deceptive, the plainspoken writing style is clearly a stylistic element to show how Allison thinks and it works. I will definitely read more by Marcy Dermansky!

131. Ghost Town by Richard W. Jennings - Spencer Adams Honesty is the 13-year-old narrator of Ghost Town, the story of how Spencer and his mother become the last residents of Paisley, Kansas — unless you count Spencer's imaginary friend, Chief Leopard Frog. Spencer's mother decides he will be homeschooled to avoid the hour-long bus ride back and forth to school. But, then she watches TV after she's done for the day at the Paisley post office. With nothing to do and no library or school nearby, Chief Leopard Frog suggests a hobby and Spence digs up his father's old film SLR. But, there's something strange about the photos he's getting back from the developer. Each roll of film has a photo of someone who is no longer present. Spence decides he needs to take photos everywhere to see if he can capture all of the former residents with his unique camera, but he needs money for film and developing. From this point, the book becomes increasingly absurd. This book has some issues, chiefly that Spence often sounds like an older person — the phrasing is off — and no time period is ever mentioned, which made me mentally switch from one decade to another. However, as it becomes more absurd, it can be pretty funny and I even laughed a couple times, so I gave it an average rating.

132. I Love You, Michael Collins by Lauren Baratz-Logsted - I used to be in a book group with Lauren and we're friends on Facebook. So, one day I thought, "I really ought to read one of her books" and I chose I Love You, Michael Collins, a middle grade book. It sat unread for about a year and I'm happy to have finally gotten around to reading the story. It's 1969 and Apollo 11 is due to launch soon with the first astronauts to walk on the moon. Mamie's class is given an assignment to write to an astronaut and since nobody else has chosen Michael Collins and she's a little off-beat, she writes to him. Then, she just keeps on writing about her daily life, her parents' discussions, her best friend Buster, and Collins himself. I had trouble getting into this book, at first. I wasn't sure this particular story was best told through a series of letters. Maybe a diary or a mixture of letters, dialogue, and diary entries? Well, whatever. I got over it and enjoyed the story and especially the setting. It took me back to 1969. I was younger than Mamie but I have a vivid memory of Tang (revolting orange drink) and the day man walked on the moon, which my family watched during supper on a tiny black and white TV. I particularly loved the friendship between Mamie and Buster and I would definitely read more by Lauren Baratz-Logsted.

133. Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds is a set of interconnected short stories, each with the title of a street. Most of the kids in Look Both Ways attend the same school; one attends a private school. As you get to know these people, you learn about their friendships, their struggles, how they greet each other (one set of boys has a handshake so complex their teacher tells them he doesn't have time to stand around while they say hello via their lengthy handshake), their interactions with teachers and the school crossing lady. And, throughout the book there's mention of a bus falling from the sky. That mystery is cleared up in the final chapter. An interesting book that touches on a lot of interesting day-to-day concerns and shows what it means to be a real friend.

134. Repairing the Heartbreak of Pet Loss Grief by C. Jeffrey - I've had a particularly difficult time with Isabel's death because she was one of two "cats of my heart". I like a smart, talkative, affectionate cat and while Izzy was never a lap cat, she was extremely affectionate and very responsive. And, so, so smart. Repairing the Heartbreak of Pet Loss Grief had high ratings at both Amazon and Goodreads so I ordered a copy and I agree with those ratings. It walks you through the grief of losing a pet (the steps of grief, which aren't always the same from one person to another), whether your pet dies of natural causes, is euthanized, dies from an accident, or simply disappears and never returns. She talks about guilt, regret, anger, depression. The author acknowledges that pet loss is unique and assures the reader that it's not a lesser thing than the loss of a friend or family member. She gives readers suggestions for things to do that will help you memorialize your pet when you're ready, decide when the time is right to get another pet, etc. It's a quick read but a good one and I'm glad I read it. While it also reinforced the fact that only time will heal this wound and the scar will persist, it was a helpful and soothing read that I highly recommend.

135. No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering by Thich Nhat Hanh - No Mud, No Lotus is a book I started reading simply because I like to read Thich Nhat Hanh regularly to keep the principles of mindfulness and interbeing, etc. fresh. Ironically, when I started reading this book about suffering, I wasn't suffering in any way. Then, when my cat started to go downhill, I couldn't bear to read it. It took me weeks to get back to it. When I did, I found it calming and uplifting. There were a couple of sentences that jumped out at me as particularly worth printing out and pasting around the house. One was a mantra I want to see to remind me to think it at the right time: "This is a happy moment." I love that.

136. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans - Every day, Sybil sits down to write letters by hand. She's been doing it for decades and can't imagine stopping. She has a stack of pages written without salutation and never sent, also. Through the letters in this epistolary novel, you get to know Sybil as she is now, a slightly prickly divorcée in her 70s, while she and her correspondents slowly reveal her life story. You also find out how she responds to someone who is writing threatening letters. I gave this book 5 stars, although I think I should probably go back and change it to 4. I loved it but I didn't LOVE it. I did, however, think that it had the perfect ending for the story and I was moved to tears. Definitely worth reading and sharing with a friend.

137. After Kenyon: Poetry by Jeanne Griggs - I read Postcard Poems by Jeanne, earlier this year, and loved it. Jeanne was happy with my review and asked me if I'd like a copy of After Kenyon and I was thrilled. I love her poetry; it's very accessible. In After Kenyon, she tells the story of her time as a literature professor and Director of the Writing Center at Kenyon College in Ohio. It's a bit like reading a memoir through poetry as you get to know the places she walked and worked, the buildings and their hidden passages or rooms and how they've changed over the years, the beauty and frustration of the seasons, and the people she interacted with. Some of the poems are written "after" another poem and I didn't know what that meant exactly — whether they were written to be stylistically or thematically similar or something else. Fortunately, while I'd looked up the meaning of a poem written "after" another midway through the book, she actually dedicates a couple of pages at the end to explaining this concept. Very cool. I chose to just read the poetry and not go in search of the poems she referenced, the first time through (except for a couple, to try to get a grip on the "after" concept), but I do plan to reread specifically to go back and compare both poem and reference, where there is an "after". A lovely read, recommended to poetry and memoir readers.

138. On Hitler's Mountain: Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood by Irmgard A. Hunt - Published in 2005, On Hitler's Mountain is about what it was like literally living on the same mountain where Hitler built his Nazi compound and Eagle's Nest retreat. Irmgard was born in May of 1934 to parents who were true believers in Hitler. Having lived through the economic misery of WWI's aftermath, they had faith that Hitler would solve their economic woes and everyone would soon have a job. Irmgard actually was fully indoctrinated by the age of 3 and even once sat on Hitler's lap. After years of war, hiding from British planes, and realizing that one of her teachers was an informant looking for Irmgard to say something to inform on her grandfather, cracks in her belief system grew.

Later, as an American immigrant, Hunt became an environmental activist and outspoken about totalitarianism. If she were alive and able today, I have no doubt she would be speaking out against our current administration. This book is a fascinating look at what it means to be such a firm believer in a person that nobody can sway you. It's also a good look at what kind of changes are made by fascists (the parallels to our current administration are a punch in the gut) and how propaganda and reduction of rights keep people in line. A book worth reading for the look into how people who literally lived near an evil man went on with their lives and continued to support him through hardship, thinking he was going to fix everything.

139. The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani - This middle grade story is written as letters by Nisha to her deceased mother before and after the Partition of India in 1947. Nisha, her twin Amil, her grandmother, and her father are all Hindu, although her mother was Muslim. When the end of British rule leads to the division of India into two countries, Muslim Pakistan and Hindu (and other religions) India and violence breaks out, Nisha's family must find a way to the Hindu part of the country as they are now in Pakistan. Hearing that violent attacks have been made on train passengers, they start their journey by walking and carrying only what they absolutely must have, including gallons of water. Admittedly, I wanted more from this book. It has a Newbery badge, which means it's been feted for literary excellence and I think it was very well written and a good story. What I didn't get out of it was an understanding of why so many people died during the transition. Why the violence on both sides? I might need to read a nonfiction account of the Partition. If anyone has suggestions for a good one, please drop your advice in the comments.

140. Despised and Rejected by Rose Allatini - Woot! I finished a Persephone book, this month! Despised and Rejected is a very surprising title as it's about a gay man and a lesbian who decide maybe they can settle for each other. But, Dennis is actually in love with Alan and when Alan comes back into the picture, Antoinette's only chance at living with a man she loves may be thwarted for good. The story is also about conscientious objection to war as WWI begins and Dennis is a pacifist who refuses to join up. This is where the words "despised and rejected" come in. He hangs out with other conscientious objectors but at home and in public, he is constantly faced with people who think he's a coward. As each conscientious objector pleads his case, we find out how the British government treated them. I think the fact that Dennis is terrified of telling anyone he's gay because he would be despised and rejected gives the title a double meaning. Antoinette, however, is unfazed by her own desires and the implication is that lesbians were simply overlooked rather than despised. While Despised and Rejected wasn't a favorite Persephone, I think it would make a good discussion book because there's a lot to talk about, including why the book was banned and not printed again until the 1980s.

141. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (Monk & Robot #1) - I've heard so many gushy reviews of this book that I've wanted to read it for years and finally managed to tuck a copy into one of my stress purchases. Dex is a monk on a moon known as Panga, where 200 years have passed since they made the decision to stop being a world built on oil and instead take things in a natural direction. Because of that, their world is run on solar energy. Even in the city, there are gardens on rooftops. Everything is beautiful. But, Dex isn't happy so they become a tea merchant. And, then they tire of that, as well, and decide to seek out a monastery from the time before things changed. On their first day driving their tea cart toward the woods, a robot emerges and the book becomes very philosophical in a tender and heart-warming way. I could not put it any better than Jack Edwards (apparently an author) wrote at Goodreads:

"what was i made for" by billie eilish in book form.

this book felt like a little kiss on the forehead from someone telling you everything is going to be okay.

142. The Copper Treasure by Melvin Burgess (ebook/Hoopla) - I was paging through Hoopla, one day, and decided to see if there were any more books by author Melvin Burgess, whose children's book Count I read, earlier this year. There were several but the only one that appealed to me was The Copper Treasure, the story of three boys who mudlark along the Thames for things to sell — coal, rope, anything of value. It's the Victorian age and two of them are orphans living in a half-sunken barge; the other has a large family that needs his help feeding all of the many children. When a large roll of copper falls into the river, one of the boys comes up with a way to retrieve it so they can get enough money to buy their way onto a ship in the hopes of eventually becoming sailors and earning their keep. TW for a child death in this story. A good adventure that really places you on the scene beautifully. I like Melvin Burgess's writing.

Well. Not a bad month. I read only 3 books that I've owned for more than a year, but I'm happy that one of them met a goal: to read one Persephone title per month. There were no books that I actively disliked and some that I found very surprising. I think if I had to choose one title that really stood out as a favorite, it would be Hurricane Girl by Marcy Dermansky. It had the kind of consistency of voice that you either love or hate because it's easy to get tired of a person who is acting in a way you dislike or find unnerving but I liked both the consistency of that characterization (of the main character/narrator), the creepiness (parts were terrifying), and the uniqueness of voice. I really want to read more by Dermansky.

The Thich Nhat Hanh and Jeanne Griggs' poetry were well-timed reads but not deliberately. Thich Nhat Hanh is always helpful, calming, soothing. Poetry of any kind (if it's accessible) is also a balm. And, I enjoyed peeking into a lifestyle that — if it were possible to go back in time — I might have chosen. I particularly liked descriptions of the old buildings with secret passages and rooms. Fun.

Ghost Town and Look Both Ways were my least favorites and yet I was never tempted to abandon either so I wouldn't call them bad books. I just couldn't relate to Look Both Ways (sometimes not a problem but the distance from my own experience felt vast, in this case) and Ghost Town had an interesting touch of magical realism but the fact that I had no idea when it took place was annoying.

Everything else was great. While I didn't make any attempt to join in on Nonfiction November because I generally have at least one nonfiction title with a bookmark in it (usually, not always), I did manage to read 3 nonfiction titles: No Mud, No Lotus, Repairing the Heartbreak of Pet Loss Grief, and On Hitler's Mountain. All were excellent and I highly recommend them.

Everything I Read in October, 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 19:23:00 +0000

October:

114. There Was a Party for Langston by Jason Reynolds, Jarrett Pumphrey, and Jerome Pumphrey - A children's picture book Carrie of Care's Books and Pie recommended to me, There Was a Party for Langston is about a party with dancing, apparently to open a special wing (or room) named after Langston Hughes. The book has a rhythm and so, in fact, do the illustrations in their own way. That surprised me. I checked the audiobook out via Hoopla, so at first I only got to hear that rhythm. Then, I found many of the illustrations online and I loved them. I don't think it's necessary for younger readers to know who Langston Hughes was in order to enjoy this picture book with its people dressed in words and showing joy. I do, however, think it would be especially enjoyable paired with a children's book of Hughes's poetry. I have one, myself, so I know they're out there. Thanks for the recommendation, Carrie!

115. Impossible Escape: A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe by Steve Sheinkin - I bought a copy of Impossible Escape after reading The Bletchley Riddle and deciding that I wanted to read something by Steve Sheinkin (one of the co-authors). It tells the story of Rudi Vrba, a Slovakian Jew who decided early in WWII that he wanted to escape to Britain to fight against the Nazis. He failed, was jailed and then eventually ended up in Auschwitz then Birkenau, two concentration camps where almost everyone went straight to the gas chambers and those who didn't were worked until they became too weak or ill and ended up there, anyway. It took Rudi years to figure out a way to escape with a friend and, when they did, they were able to get the word out about the massive extermination in progress.

Sheinkin writes for middle grade and young adults, near as I can tell. I wouldn't give this one to a younger (middle grade) child because it is a harrowing, brutal, gut-wrenching story of the cruelty and evil of man, as well as a story of heroism and determination. But, it's a book that literally everyone should read because there are way too many parallels to what's currently happening in the US. Some of the quotes (similar to things said by members of the current administration), the way people lack any empathy at all and talk of those in the camps as vermin or subhuman . . . this is happening right here, right now. And, only that knowledge and the willingness to stand up against it can stop it.

116. Alfred Hitchcock Presents Stories NOT for the Nervous, ed. by Alfred Hitchcock - A collection of short stories published in 1965 with a lot of familiar names: Ray Bradbury, Ellis Peters, Richard Matheson, and Dorothy L. Sayers among them. The writing is high quality. Generally, the stories begin fairly innocuously and then the tension ramps up and you slowly realize what horror is afoot. My favorite was a sci-fi: "Dune Roller" by Julian May (written in 1951). The beginning was so boring that I considered abandoning it. But, I decided to be patient because I knew eventually things would start happening. Sure enough, something sinister was discovered and then it became a life and death race to figure out how to save the day. Bottom line: I will be watching for more collections edited by Alfred Hitchcock. This one was a library sale purchase.

117. Separation of Church and Hate by John Fugelsang - A little background: Fugelsang is the child of a Franciscan monk and a nun. They met, gave up their robes, and married but remained devout Roman Catholics and raised their children in the church. Young John Fugelsang (as he describes himself in his youth) sounds a lot like young me. I was brought up with a strong faith and could be a bit of a snot about it, feeling sorry for people who weren't raised in the church. Fortunately, we both grew out of the young, pious phase and started to analyze what people were saying and doing vs. what we'd been taught in the church. And, the main things that were hammered into both our heads were that we should love and welcome everyone, care for the have-nots, treat people as we would want to be treated, and not judge anybody. Fugelsang analyzes particular verses, usually taken out of context to fit an agenda, and explains what he believes their true meaning is.

He also talks about how Paul's letters are often used to supplant the words of Jesus and why it's important to take the words of Jesus in their context or understand them as parables and learn the meaning behind the images. An excellent book that explains why Christians need to take care to focus on the words of the Christ who is the basis for Christianity and understand that Christian Nationalism is less Christianity than an excuse to hate. A lot of debunking of the way certain verses are used will probably make some people flaming mad but it's worth a read to challenge your viewpoints, even if you don't agree with him.

118. The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen - I chose The Magic Fish for Banned Books Week and it also just happened to be National Coming Out Day on the day I read it. The Magic Fish blends a tale of the main character's immigrant family with fairy tales and the story of main character Tién's difficulty finding the words to tell his parents he's gay. Stunning illustrations are paired with wonderful storytelling. I love how the author/illustrator used his own experience, how his family would read to each other to try to find a common language that ended up a happy mishmash of Vietnamese and English. And, the ending is just lovely. Neither of the reasons for it being banned that I saw were, in my opinion, even remotely valid.

119. Three More Stories You Can Read to Your Cat by Sara Swan Miller and True Kelley - OK, I have to get a copy of the first book because this is a hoot. Each of the stories are small, clearly meant for young readers and directed at the cat, as in: "When you were a kitten, you fell asleep with your entire head in your dry food bowl." (not a quote) If I did buy the first book, it would be for laughs because while my previous two kitties actually enjoyed being read to (I used to read them the children's books I was sent for review), my current cats do not. Highly recommended for little kids who like reading to their cats.

120. The Fox in the Library by Lorenz Pauli and Kathrin Schärer - When a fox chases a mouse into the library, the mouse convinces the fox that it's not a place to go around eating mice. Instead, he should check out the books, which are great for learning and acquiring new ideas. The fox opens a book and sees a chicken. Well. That's a good idea. He goes off to get a chicken. Long story short, nobody gets eaten but the chicken oddly teaches the fox how to read and the fox becomes obsessed with reading, ignoring all of the chickens surrounding him in the final page spread. While I found the writing wobbly and a bit directionless, I suppose the point was that reading can be addictive to the point of forgetting about other things one normally would be doing. I can get behind that. An average read but I liked it.

121. There's a Ghost in this House by Oliver Jeffers - A little girl thinks there's a ghost in the house she lives in but she's never seen one. She takes you on a tour of the house. On the lefthand page is an image (a photograph) of a room and the girl (illustrated). On the right page is text with a slightly foggy transparency over it. When you turn the transparent page, ghosts are overlaid onto the room image. The ghosts are happy, smiling funny ghosts. They jump on the bed, hide behind the banisters, swing on the chandelier. You can't help but smile. A wonderful, non-scary ghost book for young children and weird grown-ups who can't stop reading children's books. I'll be saving this one to pull out in the fall and reread annually. Highly recommended.

122. Letters from the Lighthouse by Emma Carroll - During the Blitz of WWII, Olive and Cliff are living in London with their sister Sukie and their mother, their father having been killed flying over France. When Sukie goes missing after a bombing, the children are evacuated to Dorset and end up living in a lighthouse. Olive, having found a coded message in her sister's coat pocket after the bombing during which she went missing, is convinced that Sukie is not only alive but that if she can figure out what the message means, she'll know what Sukie was doing and why. But, a small village near a lighthouse can be every bit as dangerous as London during the war. There's a lot to this story and it feels like most anything I say would be a spoiler but the bottom line is that it's a solid, middle grade read that I enjoyed and a good war story, as well. It did not turn out to be what I expected at all.

123. Alone by Megan E. Freeman - Yet another middle grade book, Alone follows 12-year-old Maddie's experience after she sets up a sleepover in her grandparents' empty apartment but her friends can't come after all. Emerging from the apartment the next day, she discovers that her city in Colorado has been evacuated and she is totally alone. Nobody answers her texts or calls, she's too young to drive her mother's car, and after a while the power and water go off. Where has everyone been evacuated to and why? Will they find a way to return to Colorado to rescue Maddie? How long will she be forced to stay on her own with only the dog she adopted from an empty house for company? What will she do to survive? Alone is a compelling survival story, written in verse, in which most of the conflict is with nature and part of the challenge of survival is just in dealing with being alone. There's a follow-up book told from the side of evacuees and I'm strongly considering buying it because the explanation about why an entire state was evacuated is vague. I want to know more. And, I enjoyed Alone. Update: Keep reading. I bought the follow-up story. ;)

124. Mr. Willowby's Head Over Heels Christmas by Robert Barry - Another cute Christmas story by the author of Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree, a childhood favorite of mine and a 60s classic. The rhymes are a little awkward in Mr. Willowby's Head Over Heels Christmas, probably because it was a draft that has been made publishable by his son (had he ever found the time, I suspect Robert Barry would have refined it) but it's another fun story in the same vein. This time, Mr. Willowby is mourning the fact that his tree has not yet arrived with just a day left till Christmas. The animals of the original story save the day by finding a tree and bringing it to Mr. Willowby's house with a little help from Santa. I'll add this one to my Christmas rotation. I read it on the day it arrived, hence it landing on my October list.

125. Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household - The unnamed hero of Rogue Male begins his story in Poland, where he has been hunting and now has his sights on someone he calls "the Great Man." It's 1939 and the implication is obvious. But, is he serious about assassination or just using his scope to look at this unknown target? Caught, beaten, and left for dead, the hero must fight the elements and some serious injuries, find his way home to England, and then determine whether or not he's being pursued. When he figures out those who nearly succeeded at killing him are still determined to see him dead, he escapes to the countryside, where there are entirely different challenges from hiding in a city. A story of pursuit and survival that's a bit akin to The 39 Steps and written around the same time period, but with the hero completely on his own. I love this kind of story and really enjoyed Rogue Male.

126. Away by Megan E. Freeman - Companion to Alone (#123, above), Away takes you to the opposite side of the same story. When an unknown threat causes entire cities to be evacuated, Ashanti, Teddy, Grandin, Harmony, and Pax become friends at the encampment to which they're all sent. Told that some unknown and invisible contaminant has made their homes uninhabitable, the children eventually become suspicious. What is this contaminant that's so dangerous? Why has nobody in the camp gotten sick, in spite of claims that there are people becoming ill from contamination? And, when years go by, why have authorities not been able to successfully clean it up? From an abandoned quonset hut on the former military base, the children investigate.

There are some issues with this book, but I chose to just let them go and enjoy the story. For example, after reading Alone, you really want to know what became of Maddie's parents so you can see the other side of Maddie's story. Instead, there are a couple of throwaway lines about her and you get to know an entirely different cast. Ashanti is Maddie's only connection and she just assumes Maddie's fine. Fortunately for readers of Alone, you will definitely get answers about why everyone was evacuated and I for one really liked the new cast of characters. Like Alone, Away is written in verse.

127. Jenny and the Cat Club by Esther Averill - I have no idea how I found out about the Jenny Linsky books but I was unaware of them as a child, with one exception: I had the book about Pickles, The Fire Cat (and I still have a copy that I bought for the kids, covered in clear contact paper to protect it). When I read about Jenny Linsky, I bought a few used titles randomly. Jenny and the Cat Club contains 5 Jenny Linsky stories, beginning with how she was adopted by a former sea captain, who knitted her a bright red scarf. The scarf becomes important to the character, as do various objects and hats to other cats. I'm not going to go into the stories, but they are all sweet stories that are perfect for young readers who love cats, about how the cats have a club, Jenny joins it, makes friends, and eventually helps two other cats in need of a home become part of her family. It's lovely. I have two more of the books to read and I will probably try to track down the entire collection because I'm that way.

128. Lifeboat 12 by Susan Hood - I know, I know. I just needed easy reading, this month. Yes, this is yet another middle grade and a good one. Lifeboat 12 is based on the true story of the S.S. City of Benares, a ship that was taking both paying passengers and evacuated children to Canada during the Blitz of WWII and sank after being torpedoed by a German U-Boat. Yet another book written in verse, the story is told from the POV of Ken Sharp, an evacuated child who ended up on the wrong lifeboat and survived both the sinking of the ship and 8 days on a lifeboat with limited food and water, crammed in with about 50 people. The author was able to interview the real Ken Sharp, who was 88 years old at the time, although the story is fictionalized. There is a great deal of extra info, including photos, at the end of the book. I found Lifeboat 12 fascinating and, at times, gripping. There is a second book that tells the story of the only other lifeboat from which people were rescued (most of the lifeboats were not successfully launched) and I've added it to my wish list.

129. The Complete Flying Officer X Stories by H. E. Bates - This one's also Carrie's fault (Carrie of Care's Books and Pie). She asked me if I knew of H. E. Bates and I said yes, I was pretty sure I had one of his books sitting around unread. But, then I couldn't find it so I decided to order this set of WWII stories written by Bates exclusively for the Royal Air Force. Bates was inducted into the RAF specifically for the purpose of writing stories that would give the citizens an idea of what their RAF was doing. Brilliantly drawn, moving, sometimes edge-of-your-seat and sometimes quiet stories. The characters are sharply written, described as individuals — some cold and hard because of past loss, some cocky and confident, all aware of how war had changed everything for them. In the end, most of the stories are ones in which there are at least some survivors but that's not always the case. They're definitely written with a spark of truth that's unavoidable. Humorously, I read the longest story right after finishing Lifeboat 12 and it is also a story about survivors in a lifeboat as the plane holding the narrator catches fire and has to ditch in the water. Exceptional stories, especially recommended to people who love to read about WWII.

Goodness gracious. This month was something. I made a big stress purchase of mostly middle grade books and some other random purchases as our beloved Isabel suddenly went into decline, the result being that I only read a single book that I've owned for more than a year. I am, however, extremely glad I bought all those books because I was at first very upset about Isabel and then grieving deeply. I needed light reads or I might have stopped reading entirely.

Because I write my little reviews immediately after finishing each book, you will note that I said "my current cats" in one of the early reviews. I don't have the heart to update it to "cat". It's been a difficult adjustment as Fiona is a very quiet kitty and Isabel was chatty, playful, and demanding. Everything in my world feels muted and darker, right now. Escaping into books and art both help a little.

I was quick to ditch anything that didn't suck me in immediately so I liked or loved absolutely everything I read. I honestly can't even choose favorites. It was really a surprisingly great reading month in spite of being an awful one personally.

No attempt was made to work toward any reading goals, whatsoever. I didn't have the bandwidth to bother. Hopefully, November will be a better month for this family. We're taking it one day at a time.

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 14:53:00 +0000

Isabel 2010-2025 Rest in Peace, my sweet angel.

Everything I Read in September, 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 21:06:00 +0000

September:

105. Postcard Poems by Jeanne Griggs - A sweet little book of poems, mostly about travel but some about the difficulty of seeing one's children fly the coop. Charming and made me think of my own travels. I could also, of course, relate to how hard it is to let go of your children as they go out into the world. This is definitely a volume I highly recommend and will keep for rereads.

106. Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger - Elatsoe (Ellie) is a 17-year-old with a special skill that runs in her family. She can call the ghosts of animals from the Underworld. When her ghost dog (formerly a family pet) suddenly begins frantically running through walls, Ellie is concerned. He doesn't act this way unless something is very wrong. When a ghost reaches out to her, telling her the name of the man who murdered him. Ellie knows she must do her best to find justice. With the help of her friend Jay, her own skills, a fairy ring portal, and some snooping around a very strange little town, Ellie will do her best to unravel an untimely family death. A fantasy/mystery with an indigenous (Lipan Apache) heroine, Elatsoe touches on racism and grief in a dangerous magical world where one may have unique skills but they must be used with care or they'll cause harm. Elatsoe was a perfect read for #RIPxx, both genuinely frightening and atmospheric with some unique elements that I really enjoyed. It's the first in a series and I didn't love it enough to read on but I appreciated a lot about the story and would particularly recommend it to fans of books like Mexican Gothic.

107. Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child by Thich Nhat Hanh - OK, first of all, my inner child is fine so I didn't read this book because I have old wounds to heal, although we all do have things that boomerang on us emotionally, now and then. Instead, I read Reconciliation because I was in need of some emotional support reading. The topic didn't matter; Thich Nhat Hanh is comfort reading for me. However, I liked what he had to say about speaking to your inner child, forgiving people who have hurt you (whether or not they're still alive) while recognizing that their own pain may have been the cause of damage done to you, learning how to confront people when they've said or done something to cause you grief, and dealing with your own suffering when old hurts come back to haunt you. My favorite part of Reconciliation was actually the personal testimonies written by people who had been through some sort of experience in dealing with the past through their Buddhist practices and how such practices helped them to move on and let go of the pain. While I didn't read this book out of need for help with past hurts, I thought it was excellent and will return to it if/when some old pain comes back to haunt me.

108. One for Sorrow by Mary Downing Hahn - I've read a couple of Mary Downing Hahn's ghost stories and someone recently mentioned her, so I went to Hoopla to look her up and found One for Sorrow. Annie has moved to a new town. On her first day at her new school, she's latched onto by Elsie. Elsie is determined to be Annie's best friend and even follows her home. But, Elsie is not a nice person. She is destructive, mean, and jealous. Eventually, Annie manages to extract herself from Elsie's literal and figurative grip and make her own friends. Then, the Spanish Flu arrives. Annie and her friends discover that they can pretend to be grieving in order to get into homes where the bereaved have set out a feast for mourners. But, when one of their classmates dies and becomes a vengeful ghost who goes from possessing Annie to destroying almost everything she owns, Annie ends up in a terrible bind. How can she help this vengeful ghost to move on and return to normal life? OK, so . . . I didn't like this one. All of the characters were bullies, at some point. While Annie was mostly a good child, because she resorted to bullying when her friends did, it was very difficult to get behind her when things were going wrong. I'll read more by the author, but probably not right away. Also read for #RIPxx.

109. The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin - 14-year-old Lizzie is half American. Her mother has gone missing in Poland during the German occupation and her brother is working but she hasn't seen him in quite some time. With the invasion of Britain looming, Lizzie's been summoned to Cleveland by her American grandmother. Convinced her mother is still alive and that she must find her, Lizzie jumps ship and then goes to the London address her brother has given her for correspondence. Jakob fetches Lizzie and takes her to Bletchley Park, where he's working to try to figure out how to break the Enigma code. There, Lizzie is put to work but she continues to try to unravel what's become of her mother. Will Lizzie find out what's become of her mother? Will Jakob and the other math whizzes with whom he works crack the Enigma code so that Great Britain can avoid invasion? Absolutely one of the most delightful WWII books I've ever read. Lizzie is a hoot but also a kind and very likable person who happens to be extremely smart and observant. I loved everything about this book. It's upbeat, educational, and just pure fun. Highly recommended!

110. Galápagos by Kurt Vonnegut - I'm a Vonnegut fan from way back, but my eldest son has just recently discovered Vonnegut and Galápagos was his first read by the author. He was so enthusiastic about it that he sent me his copy ("on loan only; I want it back.") Told from a million years in the future, the events of the story take place in 1986. Machines are taking over all the jobs, economies collapsing, people starving, wars starting over food. But, a handful of people have arrived in Ecuador to go on a nature cruise. Some will die and some will be the only people left on Earth, stranded on one of the rocky islands they've come to tour. This is not a spoiler as the narrator keeps telling you about what will happen to everyone and humorously puts an asterisk by the names of each of the people who are about to die. It goes back and forth in time a bit, so you're both waiting for people to die as you read and for other events to unfold while knowing a bit about how it all ends. A ridiculous little riot of a book that makes me want to dig out more of my Vonnegut reads.

111. The Last Dragon on Mars by Scott Reintgen (The Dragonships, #1) - Described as a sci-fi/fantasy mashup, I bought The Last Dragon on Mars after the author posted the thoughts of a child who read this middle grade story. It sounded intriguing and I loved reading about the child's enthusiasm. Good decision. Lunar lives on a very hostile Mars. He's a scrapper, a person who goes out after dust storms to look for salvage he can sell to help keep the other children he lives with fed. Mars is dying and Earth is giving up on Mars, leaving its inhabitants to starve. When Lunar goes on a scrapping mission and he's caught off-guard by other scrappers who know what he's after but not where it's located, he and the other scrapper working with him are attacked and barely escape into the militarized zone, where a young dragon has been hidden. When Lunar is chosen to be the dragon's dragoon, or rider, he must train to ride the dragon into space to save Mars. OK, that kid wasn't wrong. The Last Dragon on Mars is unique and action-packed, with great characters. It does require some suspension of disbelief and that took me a while. I had to let go of the real Mars and accept a planet with life. But, once I managed to block the invasive, "This is so far from actual Mars" and just enjoy the storyline, it was loads of fun, enough to give it 5 stars and pre-order the next in the series.

112. The Recovery Agent by Janet Evanovich - I've read quite a few Janet Evanovich books and, in general, I love her writing. But, The Recovery Agent was disappointing. It has all the right elements, including some very funny side characters, plenty of action, explosions, and moments of kick-ass girl power. But, Gabriela is a surprisingly dull character and Rafer comes off as less sexy than annoying. And, we're supposed to buy into the idea of an MC who gave up a house in the Caribbean to get her ex out of her life? Oof, no. Having said all that, if you can tolerate descriptions and MC dialogue that are about as exciting as reading a grocery list, there is some well-paced action and a very nasty bad guy who is fun to root against. There are some fun bits of homage to Romancing the Stone. And, Pepe is a hoot. I just wish Evanovich had given Gabriela a personality instead of leaving all the fun lines to the secondary characters.

113. The Day the World Stopped Turning by Michael Morpurgo - Another middle grade read, The Day the World Stopped Turning tells the story of Lorenzo and Kazia. Vincent, who is English, is 18 and has traveled to France, lured by a quote about following the bend in the road. When he becomes fiercely ill and collapses, he is saved by Lorenzo after his dog Ami spots Vincent lying in the road. Lorenzo is severely autistic, limited verbally, but he is sweet and his gentleness helps people and animals to heal. When Vincent begins to recover, Kazia tells the story of how Lorenzo and Kazia became friends and ended up living in the farm house in which Lorenzo grew up. It's a story in which WWII eventually features, as it takes place in Southern France, which was somewhat protected by the Vichy French until a certain point. How did Lorenzo and Kazia meet and end up together? What happened when the Germans arrived? And, how did Kazia learn English? All is eventually revealed. While I didn't actually like the manner in which the story was told, with Kazia relating the story rather than the author placing the reader within those events, the ending was pretty perfect and made me a bit teary so I gave it a higher rating than I expected to during most of the reading (4/5).

OK, well. This month was my worst, by far, although I decided to "read harder" toward the end of the month and that helped to make my final book count feel somewhat respectable. While I had good reason for being too tired to read much of the month (nothing awful, just a bit of a challenge), I also wasted time on a book I wasn't enjoying. I went a full week before DNF'ing Silence for the Dead by Simone St. James at p. 123. I wasn't getting anywhere! Once I gave up on that particular read, things picked up a bit but I still had many days that I just didn't feel like reading.

My favorites saved the day. The Bletchley Riddle and The Last Dragon on Mars were both marvelous in their own ways, the former light and informative, the latter adventurous. Galápagos was nutty fun and I loved Postcard Poems. Reconciliation was soothing and Elatsoe was fascinating and unique. I wasn't massively in love with The Day the World Stopped Turning but the ending made it all worthwhile. That leaves two that I didn't love. One for Sorrow and The Recovery Agent were both disappointing. I should have given up on One for Sorrow but I've enjoyed quite a few of the author's ghost stories, so I decided to keep going. Oh, well. At least I didn't spend money on it, as it was a Hoopla check-out. The Recovery Agent improved toward the end but wasn't up to Janet Evanovich's usual standard, in my humble opinion.

As to my yearly challenges, I decided to let them go for the month. I didn't attempt to read any of those challenge reads I've mentioned (books I've meant to read and not gotten around to), nor did I ever open the Persephone book I chose for the month. Only one book was a title I've had for more than a year, the rest either purchased, borrowed, or checked out from the library, and I made a stunning number of stress purchases.

Well. Some months are like that, aren't they? My reading has been picking up as I worked on it toward the end of the month and I have high hopes for October. No need to worry about an imperfect month. Onward! And, Happy Autumn!

Everything I Read in August, 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 18:44:00 +0000

August:

89. Perry Mason: The Case of the Rolling Bones by Erle Stanley Gardner - Ohmygoodness, this one is so convoluted, I'm not sure how to describe it but I'll try. Perry Mason gets a job helping a trio of people who believe a man named Alden Leeds is being blackmailed. Alden is wealthy from a gold strike in Tanana, Alaska, years before. There are lots of complications to this tale: a girlfriend who is lying about her past, a former partner in the Klondike who may be dead or may be pretending to be Alden Leeds, the murder of a con man, and . . . everyone's lying. Even Perry Mason isn't shy about fibbing and misdirecting people. That's what made it confusing for me. So many unreliable characters! Still, I'm glad I read the book. It's been eons since I watched the TV show but friend Ryan mentioned that the Perrys of book and TV are different and I agree. From what little I recall, he seemed more strait-laced on the TV show. The Perry Mason of this book was edgier and deceptive in his own right. Check out the cover in my flatlay, below. It's a 1960 printing, very pulp-fictiony-cool.

90. Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane - Two couples, two generations. Brian and Anne Stanhope move next door to Francis and Lena Gleeson. Brian and Francis worked together early on in their careers so the Gleesons are excited when Brian and his wife move next door. But, there's something very strange about Anne. She's unfriendly, even hostile. And, yet, Peter Stanhope and Kate Gleeson (their children) become friends, until one fateful night changes the trajectory of both families' lives. So . . . I guess this is a family saga? I'm not sure how to mentally label it, but it's very character-driven and touches on all sorts of topics: family, friendship, love, mental illness, alcoholism, abandonment by a parent or both parents, trauma and its reverberations. It took me a week to get through Ask Again, Yes, not because I didn't like it but because I would stay up way too late reading obsessively and then not be able to read for a day or two due to fatigue. I enjoyed it — all the angst, the horror, the good and the ugly made it surprisingly gripping and the ending was very satisfying.

91. Miguel Street by V. S. Naipaul - A fictionalized account of the author's childhood in Trinidad, Miguel Street is told as a series of vignettes, each focusing on a particular character. They are not told in timeline order. You may read the story of a person who ends up in jail or leaves the country in one chapter, for example, and then they show up as a secondary character in other tales. Very entertaining, at once charming, funny, unnerving (there's a lot of misogyny and beatings), and an interesting glimpse into life in an impoverished area. I was most interested in the culture and the patois.

92. And Then, BOOM! by Lisa Fipps - A story in verse about a boy whose life keeps taking more punches. Joe lives with his grandmum (originally from England) in a gingerbread-style house. He has never known his father and his mother occasionally "gets the itch" and disappears. When Joe's mom is arrested, things go from bad to worse. Briefly homeless then living in a trailer, Joe and his grandmum do their best to survive but they're always hungry, always unable to pay all the bills. Then, tragedy strikes again and this time Joe's on his own. OMG, this book made me ugly cry. So good. I love the fact that there were always characters who tried to help, even if it wasn't enough. An excellent book to remind people of the importance of social programs for those who fall on tough times through no fault of their own. The ending is lovely and upbeat. A wonderful middle grade book, highly recommended.

93. Catwings Return by Ursula K. Le Guin - The second in a series of children's books about cats born with wings, I found an ugly old copy of this book on a free books cart at the library when we went to drop off donations. The catwings have been living out in the country where two very kind children feed them; but, now two of them want to return to the city to check on their mother, a regular cat. They arrive to find that her dumpster home is gone and the buildings nearby are being demolished. After finding a kitten who also has wings (their sister), they search for their mother and find that she's now living in a new place and well cared for. The way I described it sounds a bit dull but it's quite an adventurous little book and I'm tempted to buy the entire series for fun. Free books are trouble.

94. The Answer is No by Fredrik Backman - At 68 pages, I'm not sure whether to call this a short story or a novella but it feels like the latter. Lucas just wants to be left alone and he's doing quite well at avoiding people. He works from home, orders Thai food delivery, and enjoys playing video games. He doesn't need the complication of having other humans in his life. Then, someone ditches a frying pan in an inappropriate place and Lucas gets caught up in the neighborhood intrigue as the board refuses to throw away the pan for fear people will see it as an invitation to dump things. But then it happens, anyway, and the pile of refuse grows. A delightful, silly and humorous tale. I particularly loved the fact that a woman staying in a nearby apartment was there while a doctor pretended she was in a coma to give her a break from her exhausting family life. I could have used a coma break a time or two, many years back. This was a free e-book download and my third read by Backman. I've loved everything I've read by him, so far.

95. William, An Englishman by Cicely Hamilton - My Persephone read of the month has a nice preface by Francesca Beauman, the owner (or one of the owners) of Persephone Books. Thank goodness she described the contrast between the first, very placid part of the story and the outbreak of war because I was bored out of my mind for a time and almost quit reading. William Tully is a clerk at an insurance company in London. He's small and rather dull, not a very likable character. When he comes into a small inheritance after discovering a passion for speaking out against the government (particularly against the military and war), he quits his job and meets Griselda, a suffragette who is also a passionate speaker, and they marry.

Just before they leave for their honeymoon in Belgium they see the headlines about the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and think nothing of it. They spend 3 quiet weeks in an isolated Belgian valley cottage, then suddenly the woman who brings them breakfast leaves a note (which they can't read) and doesn't show up to leave food for their evening meal or make their breakfast. With no idea what's happened, they arrive at her farmhouse to find danger, chaos, and a level of cruelty that they never could have imagined. For about 100 pages, the book focuses on what happens to William and Griselda and the horrors they witness and experience. Will they make it out of Belgium alive? Well, there's just not much more I can say without spoilers but I can tell you the story is so visceral and fast-paced for a time that it had my heart pounding. Considering the start, I would never have expected to give the book 5 stars, but once you get past about the 50-page mark, the pages fly.

96. Well Done by Barbara Morrow - A reread, this children's book is one I bought when we were living in Ann Arbor at the scariest library sale, ever. So crowded. I'm a little crowd phobic. Well Done tells the story of a king and duke who don't like each other. If the king tells the duke to do something, the duke will always say, "No". This leads to a war in which the duke's people retreat to his castle grounds, leaving their livestock and fields. The king's siege on the duke's castle lasts so long that the duke's people begin to starve. Finally, the king says he's going to let the women and children go, but then he'll burn the duke's castle down. The duchess comes up with a plan and asks the king to let every woman take what they most value with them. He agrees and they all come out of the castle carrying their husbands. Youngest claims this is a true story. I am skeptical but it's a story I have loved since I bought it and the kids loved it, too.

97. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner - This month's selection for the Contemplative Reading Project is a memoir by the singer in Japanese Breakfast about losing her mother and how she and her mother were most closely connected by the Korean foods her mother cooked and which she also ate on visits to Korea. This one was particularly rough in the middle because that was the point where she went into detail about her mother's cancer and decline. While my mother lasted a lot longer than Zauner's, it brought back some traumatic memories of how brutal a death it was, how exhausting to be a caregiver, and how traumatic to see my mother take her last breath (on a day that I was alone with her). However, I loved the descriptions of food and Zauner's stories about growing up Korean-American, as well as her struggles to become successful as a singer. The final part of the book, after her mother's death, is very uplifting so I'm glad I stuck it out but if I'd known there were details about a cancer death I would have skipped this book entirely. I didn't even bother reading about it; I just bought a copy blind. I'll be more careful in the future.

98. The Fall of Kelvin Walker by Alasdair Gray - The Fall of Kelvin Walker is set in the 1960s. Kelvin Walker is a Scot who has left his father's grocery store in search of a new life in London. Flush with cash, he goes to get something to eat before finding a place to stay and meets Jill. They talk for a while and he invites her to choose the most expensive place she can think of to eat supper, which it turns out he can't afford. Jill invites him home to her grotty flat, where she lives with Jake; and, Kelvin makes himself at home while absurdly trying to get a job by posing as someone well-known to get an interview. He gets kicked out repeatedly but eventually gets a very good job at the BBC based on his sharpness and ability to be adaptable in interviews. He rises rapidly but not everyone is happy about it. The book is wrapped up with the word "GOODBYE" on the final page (I kind of loved that). Kelvin is a strange character who means well and has a unique talent with words. But, too much confidence leads to his fall. An enjoyable, offbeat, very British read. The most common descriptor at Goodreads is "dour". Hmm. Kelvin is stern and unbending but confident so I'm not sure the word "dour" works for me, although when the fall comes, it is harsh.

99. Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin - Yep, I bought the set. The first Catwings book is set in an alley in the poorest part of town, where Jane (a normal cat) and her winged kittens live. It's a rough place and the kittens are always in danger, although uniquely able to escape potential captors, due to the fact that they have wings. After some humans spot them and try to snatch the kittens, mama Jane tells Thelma, Harriet, James, and Roger that they must escape to the countryside to protect themselves. It's a long journey and one of them is attacked by an owl, but eventually they find two kind young humans who are willing to care for them without giving their secret away. A lovely little story. I'm glad I bought this set.

100. Catwings Return by Ursula K. Le Guin (reread) - I reread the second book, this time the volume from the new set I purchased, so that I could read them in timeline order. Nothing has changed from the review above, except for the fact that I love this set so much I'm considering sending it to my youngest granddaughter when I finish and I loved it just as much the second time around.

101. Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin - Third in the series, this time a regular kitten named Alexander goes off on his own through the cat door of his nice house and gets lost then chased up into a tree. Unable to figure out how to get back down on his own, Alexander is surprised when Jane, the Catwing kitten found by her siblings in the second book, flies into the tree and shows him how to get down. Jane only says two words and otherwise refuses to speak. So, Alexander decides it would be a debt repaid and a kindness to help Jane learn to speak by talking through what happened to her that led her to stop speaking. And, then he gets adopted by the farm family that cares for the Catwings kitties. Another great entry, both adventurous and sweet.

102. Jane on Her Own by Ursula K. Le Guin - In this final entry in the Catwings series, young Jane (the cat found hiding in an attic in a building about to be destroyed in Catwings Return) decides that living in the country is too dull for her and she's ready to go exploring. So, she says goodbye and heads for the city. There, she is caught by a man and becomes a sensation, which also makes her unhappy. Finally, she escapes to find her mother. I didn't love this one as much as the others, although the final couple of pages made it more tolerable. I kind of hated that Jane left Alexander. But, in the end it says she stayed with her mother but came back to the farm to visit her siblings and Alexander. OK, whew. I'm better, now. I loved this series. The books are slim, from 42-54 pages, and all beautifully illustrated. I'm so glad I found one for free. I doubt I'd ever have known about them, otherwise.

103. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell - First published in 1877, this classic children's story is narrated by the horse, Black Beauty. I had no idea. All I knew of this book was that "it has horses" when I picked it up at the library sale, a couple months ago. Nor did I realize it was so old! Set in England in the late 19th century, Black Beauty tells the tale of a working horse who is sold repeatedly, sometimes ending up with kind owners and grooms, sometimes with cruel ones who don't know how to treat a horse properly. It's basically a morality tale, probably typical of the time period, and can be a little preachy. But, it's also quite an interesting learning experience about horses — what different jobs they performed and loads they carried or pulled, how important the right food and correct temperature of water were for their health, the different types of bits and reins, how a small stone or an uneven road could lead to disaster without the right kind of experience or care on the part of the driver. The story comes full circle with an early character returning to Black Beauty's life at his final home. Lovely.

104. The Faceless Adversary by Frances and Richard Lockridge - John Hayward was having a great day but now he's in trouble. The police think he killed a young woman and they have proof. But, he's never seen the girl in his life and her identity is hazy. Was John set up? If so, why? Who was the young redhead that was murdered and why would someone choose John as the fall guy? Will John and his fiancée figure it out before it's too late? The "mistaken identity" trope sucked me right in. When John's confused and the police are so sure at the beginning, there were some vague North by Northwest vibes. I loved that and the fact that I never felt lost in plot twists. My copy of The Faceless Adversary, published in 1956, was a library sale find. I'm ranking it as one of my top discoveries from a library sale.

This was an interesting month. I started with the Perry Mason book, which I think I bought at an indie bookstore (either The Strand or Square Books) and then felt slumpy, even though I was enjoying my reads. Crying in H Mart was a difficult read so that may have contributed to the slump problem, although I thought it was excellent and it's pretty typical for me to have a reading slump toward the end of the summer.

Of the books I read, 6 were books that I've had for over a year, 2 came from recent library sales and 1 off a library cart of free books, 3 were recently purchased (one as a set — the Catwings books), and I read one e-book. So, it was a pretty successful month for reading older books I've been hanging onto. Most will not stay in my house. Crying in H Mart was my only book club read. I started another but just wasn't getting anywhere, in spite of enjoying what little I read. And, there was another book I set aside, so I had two DNFs. I'll get back to both; it just wasn't the right time for them.

I also read my Persephone book of the month and enjoyed it. The last photo below is just silly. As I was reading Black Beauty and getting ready to read The Faceless Adversary, I kept thinking they looked like condiments. So, I took a photo of my ketchup and mustard books. I actually don't own any ketchup or mustard, so I had nothing cute to pose them with.

I didn't read any additional books I've been planning to read, as per my yearly goal. And, the book-buying ban has gone totally out the window. I'm giving up on it completely, but will try again in 2026. However, we have been very successful at ridding ourselves of older titles as I've gone through all of the cabinets of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and some bookshelves on a separate wall. So, 8 boxes full of books went to a local library (not my city's library but a nearby library system where I have friends to let me know when they're open to donations). And, we still have at least 8 more boxes of books that we didn't manage to haul there in time. But, they're all ready to go when they open up for the next library sale!

Happy Reading!

Everything I Read in July, 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 22:27:00 +0000

July:

75. Wonder by E. J. Palacio - Well, that was a surprise. I have been aware of this book for many years but I never thought to pick it up until I happened across a copy at the local Goodwill shop, a couple years ago. August Pullman was born with a host of problems and even after many surgeries, his face is quite badly deformed. He's been homeschooled but at 10 his parents have decided it's time for him to go to school. At the new school, his face shocks almost everyone. But, as his fellow students get to know him, Auggie goes from being bullied and only having a few friends to being admired and loved. I laughed, I cried. You can't help but fall in love with the Pullman family. What a great book.

76. Generation X by Douglas Coupland - I have probably had this book since the 90s (blushing). Published in 1991, it tells the story of 3 friends who have gone to live in California to find themselves, having rejected more lucrative but dull jobs (Andy and Dag) and an annoying, rich, somewhat vapid family life (Claire). This book is an absolute time capsule. MTV and CAD! Stereo consoles, K-cars, and leftover decor from the Sixties! Memories of Space Food Sticks! The most fascinating thing about this book, for me personally, was that my Millenial eldest son has the same complaints as the Gen X characters. Life was so much easier for their parents and they screwed it up for us, Andy thinks. You Boomers and Gen X had it easy and screwed it up for us, says my kid. Some things never change. I enjoyed this book mostly for the blast from the past.

77. The Great Unexpected by Sharon Creech - Naomi and Lizzie are both orphans living in Blackbird Tree (no state named, but in the US). When a boy named Finn falls out of a tree, both girls go out of their way to try to figure the boy out. Where does he live and where did he come from? As summer break begins, the two are roped into spending time with the elderly, swept up in tragedy, and transported to another country when unexpected connections lead to a huge surprise. This is a book I found while cleaning the shelves (another one!). It's got some issues. It's apparently contemporary, but the clothing descriptions, the way people talk, and the fact that there's a boarding house all make it difficult to tell whether the book is contemporary or historical. And, the connections in the end are wildly implausible. Having said all that, I read The Great Unexpected in an afternoon (something that seldom happens) because I just couldn't put it down. And, I smiled a lot. I'm glad I didn't discard this book based on the unenthusiastic reviews.

78. Bluets by Maggie Nelson - "Lyric essay or prose poetry" says Wikipedia about the unique writing style of this thin volume of vignettes about or with some connection to the color blue. I listened to the audio while reading the book (a first) and discovered in the process that my eyeball reading and listening ear don't coordinate. I am, by nature, a contemplative reader who latches onto words or sentences or paragraphs, rereading them till I'm ready to move on. Yep, it was a Contemplative Reading Project selection. Eventually, I got tired of backtracking when the two reading methods didn't sync up and just listened. While the author's delivery is flat, I think audio is a great way to read Bluets.What I disliked was all the sexual references. In the book, Nelson says she applied for many grants for this writing project and she described the book as "hedonistic and horny." But, the literary references, the thought-provoking connections to a single color . . . there were a lot of interesting moments. I would have preferred essays so she could have taken some of those thoughts further. There's definitely plenty to contemplate and Buddy's notes were extremely helpful.

79. Thieves' Dozen by Donald E. Westlake - Long ago, during my mystery-gobbling phase, I read an anthology that contained a story about John Dortmunder, a hapless thief. I've never forgotten it. Westlake had a delightful, comedic touch. I came across Thieves' Dozen (a collection published in 2004) while working on my huge, ongoing book purge and the writing is every bit as entertaining as I remembered. Apparently, this book contains every Dortmunder short story ever written, plus a final one in which all of the characters are basically meant to be the same thieves but they have different names as the author was exploring how name changes made the characters different in his mind. Tremendously fun reading, highly recommended.

80. Eight of Swords by David Skibbens - The first in the Tarot mystery series, published in 2005, you will not be surprised to hear that I found this during the book purge. I sense a theme, here. Warren was a member of the Weather Underground during the 60s (a socialist terrorist organization) and he's been on the run for 30 years. Now, he's a tarot reader in Berkeley. When a teenage girl asks for a reading and he doesn't warn her of how ominous her reading is, he feels guilty and begins investigating after she's kidnapped. I thought this book was average; I enjoyed it but felt that it tried to be about too many things at once. Still, I'm glad I read Eight of Swords because I'm always here for changing things up a bit.

81. Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume - Tony loves basketball, has some great friends and a paper route, and is starting to notice girls. When his father sells an invention hoping to get extra money to help Tony's big brother, whose wife is expecting, the family is suddenly wealthy and everything changes. They leave their modest neighborhood for a fancy house on Long Island, Grandma is replaced in the kitchen by hired help and takes to her room, and Tony is stuck hanging out with a rich neighbor who is not a person Tony can respect. I really enjoyed Then Again, Maybe I Won't. Tony is a great character. He's annoyed by the wealth and social climbing and knows right from wrong.

Favorite line:

The three of us stick together. That way if we have trouble finding the right classrooms we look stupid as a group instead of three individual stupids.

82. Count by Melvin Burgess - A middle grade book found on Hoopla when I was looking for a dystopian book by the same author (unfortunately not available on Hoopla or in the US, for that matter), Count is a very silly book about a boastful boy who decides to count to ten million, can't stop, and becomes a sensation until it all comes crashing down. A clever and fun read. I'm glad my British friend Rebecca led me to this author.

83. Musical Tables by Billy Collins - Poetry! In this case, Collins focuses on short poems. I wondered, at first, if he was following some particular type of poetic style or meter but nope. He just has a fascination with short poetry and in the author's note, he quoted two very short poems that he found particularly outstanding. There's a very harsh Goodreads review in which the reviewer makes some very good points about why he gave it a single star and I kind of agree with him in some ways. But, I mostly base my opinion of poetry on feelings. Does it resonate in some way? Did I nod or laugh or smile or feel it like a gut punch? I marked a half dozen poems that made me laugh or smile and took a snapshot of one about insomnia, which I can relate to all too well (below) So, Musical Tables was a winner for me.

84. High Wages by Dorothy Whipple - In 1910, Jane Carter needs a job that pays well and she knows Chadwick's has the best wages, so she applies. As a shop girl in Chadwick's, she helps customers select fabric, ribbon, buttons, and such for dressmaking and home decoration. Jane's boss has a tendency to cheat her out of her commissions and he's not interested in updating his shop to reflect the new, ready-made trends. But, Jane has big ideas. When she's unable to convince her boss to lease a nearby building to open a shop for ready-made clothing and hats, a friend steps in to help. Will Jane be able to make it as a shopkeeper? Jane is a great character. Men have a tendency to try to take advantage of her because she's pretty and innocent, but Jane has strength, determination, and can stand up for herself. Then she falls in love with the wrong man. Her life as a shopgirl and then shop owner is not without challenges but I loved her grit and focus. I adored High Wages. It's definitely my favorite by Whipple, so far.

85. Walking Words by Eduardo Galeano, illus. by José Francisco Borges - Walking Words is Eduardo Galeano's take on folk tales. I had some particular favorites and some I didn't care for, but overall I enjoyed the book. The block print illustrations are wonderful. A find during my book purge. Yet another book I've had since the 90s. Yikes. Took me long enough.

86. Take Me With You by Andrea Gibson - I bought a copy of Take Me With You after hearing the author (who was nonbinary and preferred the pronouns they/them) read from the book in a video clip sent by my friend Susan after Gibson's death. The reviews for this book are wild — quite polarized; most either love the book or hate it. It didn't feel like poetry to me, at first; it felt more like reading Hallmark sentiments. I couldn't relate to a lot of it. But, sometimes I laughed, sometimes I got a little teary. I adjusted to the style. I occasionally cringed at confessional bits (never a favorite). Sometimes the writing was profound or pithy, sometimes just a bit of clever wordplay. Most importantly, I feel like Andrea Gibson has helped me to finally understand what it means to be nonbinary. I'm sorry this tender soul has left the Earth.

87. A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice by Rebecca Connolly - I bought A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice for discussion with one of my online groups. It tells parallel stories that intersect. First, Kate Connolly is a 3rd class passenger from Ireland, traveling on the Titanic to the United States with friends. You get to see what it's like to travel in steerage and the camaraderie between passengers, most of whom were not from the U.S. The other storyline is about Capt. Rostron of the Carpathia, the ship that came steaming to the rescue when they heard that the Titanic was sinking. The first part of the book is slow but when the Titanic begins to sink, the pace picks up with Rostron organizing the rescue and pushing the Carpathia to its limits while Kate is rushing to find a lifebelt and escape the sinking ship. It then becomes a story of how class didn't matter, everyone mixed and even some of the survivors helped others. It's also very focused on trauma and emotion. So . . . the bad. The book is not overly well written. The author has some quirks of language and mannerism that I would expect a good editor to help eliminate. However, I still gave it 4 stars, probably a slightly too-high rating but I liked the different viewpoint of a steerage survivor and the Carpathia captain, having read many books that were mostly told from the Titanic side only.

88. Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill - I read about Sea of Rust when friend Carrie posted an update on Goodreads and immediately added it to my wishlist. Then she encouraged me to read it right away, so I ordered a secondhand copy (which looks good as new, actually). Described as a "post-apocalyptic robot western," it tells the story of Brittle, a Caregiver robot who survived the war between humans and AI (both robots and large databases that have become sentient). Brittle collects and sells parts from dying robots. But, Caregiver parts are becoming scarce. And, when another Caregiver decides to poach Brittle's parts by shooting her, a journey across a desert filled with rusting parts leads to a final shootout in a quest to save the remaining independent robots from CISSUS, a massive Artificial Intelligence mainframe that seeks to turn robots into facets, mindless parts of the whole (much like the Borg of Star Trek: Next Generation). Quite a wild ride, this one. Thanks for the rec, Carrie!

OK, then! This was a pretty terrific month. Of the 14 books I read, 8 were books I've had on my shelves for at least a year, 5 were recent purchases, and 1was checked out via Hoopla. Progress getting through the books I own!

There is thunder and lightning nearby, so I'm not going to dash off to open another window so that I can see how I did on my annual goals, but I did clearly read a Persephone book and plenty from my shelves, so I'm happy. On to August!

Everything I Read in June, 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 20:37:00 +0000

June:

62. A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver - I've been deliberately saving A Thousand Mornings to read in June so that I'd have at least one poetry book to read, mid-year. I didn't mark any of my favorite poems. Instead, I must have been feeling a little poetry deprived because I pretty much slammed my way through it in a single evening. I try to space out the reading of poetry books but I just love her poetry so much that it's hard to put down a Mary Oliver book, although I do take time to reflect while reading. For the uninitiated, Oliver is much like another favorite poet of mine, Robert Frost, in that her focus is often on nature and she has a delightful sense of humor but is also willing to show her anger at how we treat our world or to describe the rawness of nature. Another wonderful read. I will reread many times, no doubt.

63. Blubber by Judy Blume - When Linda does a report on whales, she gets the nickname Blubber because she also happens to be a little overweight. Wendy is the gang leader who gave Linda the nickname and who comes up with all the cruel pranks (tripping Linda, pulling her skirt up so the boys see her underwear, making her say something awful before they allow her into a bathroom stall) but narrator Jill goes along with everything until Wendy goes just one step too far. Then, she rebels and Wendy turns the bullying onto her, giving Jill a demeaning nickname and putting her through similar torturous pranks. This is such a sad book. It's mostly about cruelty and it didn't seem to me that anyone learned a lesson at all. The only way I'd consider this book in any way useful is if it was one that adults and children read together so they could discuss the pain of bullying and why it's wrong to go along with it, even if you're not the instigator.

64. The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy - My copy of The Hunt for Red October originally belonged to my father. I've had it since 1990 and the rest of my immediate family read it long ago but I had not, so I decided to add it to my challenge books for the year. I'm so excited to have finally read it! Parts were edge-of-your-seat, especially the scenes in which the Russian ship is trying to sink the Red October and there's much jockeying about, with characters saying the fun stuff like, "Right full rudder. Ease off on your bow planes," or whatever. It took a while for me to get into the story as I'm not exactly a techie but it's a good book and reading it felt like a little wave toward heaven as it was the one item I stole from my parents' house so I could have something (deliberately without great value) of my father's after he died. We watched the movie after I finished. It still holds up! I think this quote on p. 393 of the book is particularly relevant to our time:

"Mr. Ambassador, any person in the United States, regardless of his nationality or the manner of his arrival, is entitled to the full protection of our law. Our courts have ruled on this many times, and under our law no man or woman may be compelled to do something against his will without due process."

65. When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo - Darwin is Rastafarian and has taken a vow not to go anywhere near the dead or cut his dreadlocks. So, when the only job he can find is digging graves and he needs to get his dreads out of the way, he is horrified but decides that supporting himself and his mother is more important than their beliefs and he moves to the city to work. Yejide comes from a family in which the women have a strong connection to the dead that's passed down the family line. When Yejide's mother dies, she is next in line to receive the gift. Darwin and Yejide dream of each other and seem destined to meet. But, both have challenges to face. Darwin has noticed strange things at the graveyard and getting caught up in them will put him in danger, while Yejide feels her new connection to the dead is more burden than gift. All this takes place in Trinidad, a new location for me, reading-wise.When We Were Birds is a strange story but I enjoyed it. I read it for group discussion and there was a lot to talk about. The discussion was excellent. I definitely recommend it as a group read.

66. Cats on Catnip by Andrew Marttila - Cats on Catnip is a book of photographs of cats playing in piles of catnip, eating it, rolling around, looking crazy-eyed or calm. It feels a little weird listing it as a "book read" because the only text is an introduction and the name and age of each cat pictured. Otherwise, it's just a lot of cat photos. But, whatever. Andrew Marttila is married to the "Kitten Lady" and I've followed the two of them for years. I love his photos of cats and had it in the back of my head that I'd like to see the book someday, but not necessarily buy it. Fortunately, I happened across Cats on Catnip while looking for another cat-themed book on Hoopla. I had to do a good bit of screen pinching to get a closer look at each of the cats. A real upper of a book if you love looking at cat photos. Cats on catnip are pretty funny.

67. Tom Swift and His Rocket Ship by Victor Appleton, II - While going through boxes of books to whittle down my possessions, I found this Tom Swift (the third in the series) in one of the boxes. It was the rocket ship cover that really grabbed my eye. Published in 1954, it tells the story of a race to circumnavigate the Earth in space. Tom Swift is a boy genius who works on a private island with engineers, designers, a cook, a doctor, and others. He and his friend Bud are planning to fly Tom's rocket, soon. But, there's competition and his rivals are willing to do anything to sabotage Tom so that their leader can rule from space. A rollicking adventure, very fast-paced, and also extremely silly. Say, Tom needs a new invention or part? It's ready within days or even hours. The implausibility level is high. There are also Martians communicating with Tom but it's understandable that in the 1950s sci-fi writers knew little about whether there was life in our solar system. Worth enjoying for the adventure but it suffers from the passage of time and the writing is a bit oddly choppy, which also may be a remnant of the era.

68. Indian Country by Gwendolen Cates - Indian Country is a coffee table book in which the photographer traveled around the United States photographing Native Americans. Gorgeous landscape photos (sometimes presented as two-page spreads, which are breathtaking) are interspersed occasionally between the portraits, along with quotes from some of the people pictured. Most focus on things like community, ancestry/history, spirituality, and nature, as well as the memory of colonization and the fact that genocide and history written by the occupiers have rendered a lot of America's first residents invisible but they're resilient and refuse to be silent. A beautiful and very moving book. I got teary reading about descendants of Wounded Knee survivors holding a ceremony in the memory of their ancestors.

69. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen and Blair Lent - Saddest story ever. A little girl who sells matches has a bad day and is afraid to return home without any money to give to her violent father. So, she stays on the street on a freezing night and lights her matches, one after the other, imagining warm things until she runs out of matches and freezes to death. This is another book I found in a box while working on dramatically purging my personal library. It's old and grubby and I brought it home from a library sale intending to use pieces of the illustrations in collage, which I still plan to do. But, I always have to read books before taking them apart. I also can't bear to take a book apart unless it's either a terrible story (this one's obviously a classic so not awful) or in appalling condition.

70. A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit - There's a hilariously accurate review of this book at Goodreads, in which the reviewer says A Field Guide to Getting Lost is like going to a cocktail party where you're stuck talking to an "undeniably smart" person who thinks everything they've done is worth describing in excruciating detail. I agree with that but at the same time, I actually enjoyed this book of essays about many different meanings of becoming lost. Sometimes, I felt like the author started an essay well and then went so deep into the weeds that . . . she lost me. That feels punny but it's accurate. My favorite essay was the most straightforward, about explorers and people who were captured by Indians and how they didn't just become lost; they lost their former selves. Some lost their ability to speak their original language, lost interest in wearing clothing or sleeping on beds. That essay was marvelous. In another, she describes living in the desert and being in love while she was a fledgling writer. But, then she oddly goes way off the tracks. If Solnit had stopped at her personal story, I would have loved it but the change of topic was less a segue than a jolt. At any rate, Solnit kept me busy looking things up online, which is always fun, and I was entertained enough to finish so I rated it 3.5/5.

71. The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong - The Emperor of Gladness is the story of a young man named Hai, whose family immigrated from Vietnam. At the beginning of the book he's on the verge of suicide when an elderly woman shouts to him. She is Grazina, also an immigrant but from Lithuania who escaped from Hitler and Stalin during WWII. She needs someone to care for her and he needs a place to stay. She has dementia and he helps her keep her pills straight, plays along with her memories when the pills don't work, and gets a job at a restaurant called HomeMarket to pay for their groceries. Hai is addicted to painkillers and lying to his mother about what he's doing. The Emperor of Gladness is the June selection for the Contemplative Reading Project. Even when I was only partway into the book, I felt like I needed to reread it because there's some imagery that I began to slowly became aware of and I'd like to reread to explore that imagery. Buddy is a professor and he picks up on things that I miss, so I always enjoy reading his thoughts, which you can find under the group name "Contemplative Reading Project" on Substack.

Side notes: I enjoyed The Emperor of Gladness, although the topics (depression, drug addiction, dementia) are heavy. Toward the end of the month, I went to a Silent Reading Party at a neighboring county library (where I have friends, including former blogger Brittanie) and one of the people I sat next to for the social part said, "I really want to read what she's reading," pointing at my book. When I told my eldest son about the Silent Reading Party he said, "Wow, you really know how to party, Mom!" Anyway, I highly recommend both the book and Buddy's group. And, I'll try to keep my one-paragraph reviews to one paragraph (hopefully shorter) next month. I notice they're getting way too long.

72. Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, a retelling by Cerys Matthews, illust. by Kate Evans - Under Milk Wood is a radio play but this adaptation has turned it into a lively children's book. It's the story of a Welsh town's residents, who rise with the stars and sleep after a hard days' work. The characters are humorously described and colorfully illustrated. What I didn't like was the fact that I could recognize Dylan Thomas's style (since I read his A Child's Christmas in Wales every year) admidst the adapted bits. I wanted more Thomas, less adaptation. But, once I grew accustomed to the author's updated voice, I really enjoyed it. I found that you can find a film version with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton online and I hope to watch that, soon. I'd also like to get my hands on the radio play.

73. Letters from Rapunzel by Sarah Lewis Holmes - I'm guessing this is a middle grade book but I'm uncertain. A one-sided epistolary, Letters from Rapunzel is not what it sounds or looks like from the title and cover. It's about a girl whose father has been hospitalized with clinical depression. After he left, the girl (who calls herself Rapunzel but is otherwise unnamed till nearly the end) finds a torn-up letter tucked next to the cushion of her father's favorite chair. He's been writing to someone who he says is responsible for his best poetry. Rapunzel writes to this person, hoping they will respond and be helpful in some way. But, nobody replies, so you read the unfolding story of her challenges at school and at home while her father is struggling and "Rapunzel" is stuck in after-school homework sessions. I loved this book. It's light with a fairly heavy topic, cleverly written and with a great ending.

74. The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki - A magical café where one can get their astrological signs read and explained shows up only on nights with a full moon. There, customers are served special drinks and desserts by giant cats. The first customer is a screenwriter whose scripts are no longer wanted. When she realizes that her signs indicate that she's doing things wrong, she makes changes to her life. This same pattern continues with other characters, all of whom are tied together as a group that used to walk to school together. Unfortunately, The Full Moon Coffee Shop is not a book I found either magical or entertaining. I thought it boring and disjointed. I read it for my Zoom book group so it will be interesting to see what everyone else thought but it definitely wasn't for me.

Favorites were Indian Country, The Emperor of Gladness, A Thousand Mornings, Letters from Rapunzel, When We Were Birds, and The Hunt for Red October.

Update on my yearly goals:

1. Book-buying ban. Let's just update that one with a photo of recent purchases, most for discussion (in the foreground, some bought in May). Not pictured: The Wall by Marlen Haushofer, a total impulse purchase that arrived yesterday.

2. Read from bedroom stacks: Ditched this goal, but I did manage to read 6 that had been on my stacks for at least a year. Most of the others were discussion books or came from recent library sales.

3. Read some specific books I've been wanting to read: Success! I finished The Hunt for Red October and I'm very happy to have finally broken through that mental block (dead person's book) in order to read it. After finishing the book, we watched the movie. It has held up brilliantly, in spite of some older technology that will make people who lived through the 80s chuckle.

4. Read one Persephone book per month: Alas, no, but I have started reading the book I meant to read in May . . . and then June. And, it's very good, so far.

In other bookish news, I have been doing a major book purge in my home library. Here's part of it (you can click to enbiggen:

I've boxed those all up neatly, now, and it's only a fraction; I have 12 boxes of books ready to go. They haven't made it out the door but we'll start working on that, soon. You can see we're a little messy initially, then we go back and pack things up neatly before taking them to donate. Some we hope to take to McKay's Used Bookstore but that requires a trip to Tennessee. We shall see. At any rate, I don't know what clicked but I'm basically doing Swedish Death Cleaning, keeping only the books I intend to read or that still hold interest for me. Anything even remotely questionable is going. Biggest surprise: My YA collection. I went through a YA phase a few years after starting the blog and kept all my favorites + a few unread titles. I was shocked at how easily they went to the discard piles. I guess my YA phase has ended, at least for now. I did keep a few favorites but not many. It's wild to look at the shelves and see so many open spaces.

Everything I Read in May, 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 17:28:00 +0000

May:

52. The Ice Monster by David Walliams - Elsie is an orphan in Victorian London living in torturous circumstances in an orphanage. After she escapes, she has nowhere to live but the streets. When a woolly mammoth encased in ice is brought to the Natural History Museum, where she occasionally sleeps in a broom closet to avoid freezing outdoors, Elsie is determined to see it. And, when a mad scientist who lives in the basement figures out how to bring the mammoth back to life, Elsie, the cleaning woman (who is hilarious and my favorite character), and the woolly mammoth are in for a wild adventure. If you can get past the extremely gross first chapter, the rest of the book is very fun. But, this is my second middle grade read by Walliams and he has a tendency toward the disgusting in his humor — not surprising if you've seen his adult comedy, but as a child, parts of his books would have given me nightmares. So, while I enjoyed this story, I will not read any more of Walliams' books.

53. Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams - I bought Careless People because Mark Zuckerberg didn't want people to read it, which naturally made me curious as to why. The story of the author's time working for Facebook begins when it was a small company and she, as a diplomat from New Zealand who worked at the United Nations, thought it had potential to become a force for good. She wanted Facebook to be able to become involved in the creation of regulations dealing with this new form of social media and felt that would be a perfect job for her. After Wynn-Williams managed to get hired, she found that the company's founder was painfully shy and disinterested in meeting heads of state and other diplomats. But, once he began to see the benefits of knowing people in high places, exploit them, and even become more powerful than they are — relying, as they do, on reelection while he keeps his position — his greed for expansion, lack of empathy, and underhanded ways of fobbing off government regulation and lying in congressional investigations became too much for the author. Written with clarity, lightness, and precision (either she kept extensive notes or has a memory like a vault). The title is aptly based on the quote from The Great Gatsby that begins, "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy. They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money . . . "

54. Idle Grounds by Krystelle Bamford - At a family gathering, the adults converge on the deck while the children play inside. When the children look out a window and see something inexplicable and spooky in the woods, 3-year-old Abi runs from the room and doesn't return. The children eventually go off to look for her and tell the grown-ups when they're unsuccessful. The adults shrug them off. Mostly told in 1st person plural with the children as the collective "we", the group decides they must find Abi and off they go. But, things go wrong, another child disappears, and they frequently become distracted, frightened, or hurt. Interspersed throughout are chapters about their grandmother "Beezy" and the family history. A book so utterly its own that I'm stunned it's got a fairly low (3.3) rating at Goodreads. I was enchanted, mesmerized, captivated, unsettled, tickled, saddened. There's a tragedy but there's also the humor of little Owen and his eggs (you just have to read it). Creepy, weird, discussable, and a book worth studying, if you ask me. Side note: Idle Grounds is the book I mentioned in April that I ordered because I wanted to read it immediately, if not sooner. I have no earthly idea why. I love the cover and I was interested in the description but I seldom feel so compelled to buy a book now. I felt like the universe was trying to tell me something. A five-star read for me.

55. The Best of Reader's Digest: Timeless Favorites - I've mentioned before that I'm looking for a specific story from Reader's Digest that was the genesis of my interest in WWII. Well . . . it's not in this collection but I found this and one other "best of" type Reader's Digest book while working at the library sale and there appeared to be some WWII stories, so I figured I would at least enjoy those. I didn't plan to read the entire book. But, it really took me back to my childhood days, when I'd read my mother's Reader's Digests from cover to cover. A little murder and mayhem, a bit of humor, and some tear-jerkers rounded out this collection of stories and essays. My absolute favorites were a story about a couple separated during WWII and reunited by a tablecloth hanging over damaged plaster to cover it for a Christmas service, an essay about what actor Danny Kaye learned about parenthood while traveling to help promote vaccination in other countries, and the story of a Medal of Honor recipient. A very enjoyable read.

DNF: I haven't started a book and abandoned it for a while but I thought this one's worth mentioning. The Butterfly Lampshade by Aimee Bender is a book about mental illness and it starts with a gripping phone conversation in which a mother calls her sister saying she thinks her daughter "has a bug in her". The sister is 8 1/2 months pregnant, so she sends her husband to fetch 8-year-old Francie and make sure her mother is hospitalized. You can read more about it at Goodreads. When I left her, Francie was 27 and considering a life change while reflecting on two strange things she saw as a child. I was captivated at first, then bored. I kept putting the book down and not wanting to pick it up, so I gave up around p. 70 or so. But, the book has a wide range of reviews/ratings. Some consider it magical. Some found it dull or middling. I liked Bender's writing enough that I'd like to try reading some of her other work. This one just didn't work for me.

56. Dust by Dusti Bowling - Dust is about a girl named Avalyn who has asthma and nearly died of an asthma attack when she was living in Tulsa, as a toddler. So, her parents moved to a desert town with little wind and surrounded by mountains to avoid dust storms, a place that didn't grow allergens like ragweed. She's now in middle school. When a new boy named Adam arrives at school, dust storms appear at the same time. Avalyn is an empath who can feel someone's emotions by touching them. She knows something is horribly wrong in Adam's life, but not exactly what that is. He's quiet and unwilling to talk about his life, even when they slowly become friends. She's convinced that if she can absorb emotions, Adam has an equal ability to cause dust storms. But, in order to help him, she's going to have to betray his wishes. A story of bullying and sexual abuse, this middle grade book reminds children that it's more important to say something and get help, whether you're being abused or someone you know is, than to keep secrets. I love Dusti Bowling's books; they have heart. Avalyn is a likable character and so are her friends, all of whom are bullied. My only complaint about this book is that Avalyn's preparing for a spelling bee but the lengthy spelling words often aren't defined (a handful are). A glossary would have been a good addition.

57. Hedy's Journey: The True Story of a Hungarian Girl Fleeing the Holocaust by Michelle Bisson and El Primo Ramón - An excellent true story about the author's mother, who escaped Hungary during WWII. Beginning her journey alone by train after her family had fled ahead of her, Hedy traveled to Austria and then flew to Spain. There, she met up with her family and they managed a number of obstacles on their way to life in the US. The book is written for youngsters as it's a picture book but there's additional information, lots of photos of Hedy and her family, and a glossary. A five-star read, in my opinion, very clearly written and gripping with subdued but lovely illustrations.

58. Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico - Anna and Tom are Millenials, digital nomads from Southern Europe who have chosen to live in Berlin. There, they do graphic design from home and hang out with a circle of expats. They first move from one apartment to another and then when they settle, occasionally go on working vacations and rent out the apartment. They collect plants because doing so is an in thing. They go to art galleries and farmers' markets with their group. But, they're always searching for something elusive, a kind of perfection that they can never quite grasp. I read Perfection because my elder son gave it 5 stars and told me I should read it. At first, I found it pedestrian and dry. Reading it was like watching grass grow. But, then my Millenial son and I talked about the first half of the book and seeing it through his eyes made me realize there were scenes I enjoyed. I just had to bluster through the prose bits that didn't thrill me. When I finished, we discussed again and I have to say . . . reading and discussing with your grown children is such a joy. We had latched onto many of the same scenes, finding them hilarious in a subtle/understated way. It took me a week to read 115 pages of Perfection but now I can't stop thinking about it.

59. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks - This month's selection for the Contemplative Reading Project is a book about how patriarchal society does damage to both men and women, how the first feminist movement either overlooked men or treated them with hatred, how we (both men and women) indoctrinate our children into the patriarchy, and what the author proposes to create a healthier society. The most fascinating thing about this book to me was that it's so accurate to what I've seen and experienced that I was noticing the way she describes people talking about the patriarchy/men absolutely everywhere -- in the news, social media, books and movies, even the old letters I've been reading. And, I agree with her about how our societal view of masculinity and how we raise boys needs to change, but I dislike the term "feminist masculinity". There is a growing movement of misogynists/women haters and I think their rage towards women dictates a need to leave feminism out of the terminology. My opinion. An amazing read and one I plan to reread to mark up for future reference. Highly recommended. It would require some major societal buy-in to make change happen so I encourage everyone to read and discuss this book.

60. Room on the Sea by André Aciman - Room on the Sea begins with a man trying to see what the woman next to him is reading. They've been called up for jury duty and are stuck beside each other, so they chat. Then, they start getting coffee together, lunch, breakfast, taking long walks and chatting about their love of Naples, their frustrations. They are charmed by each other but they're also both married and, yes, both feeling adrift from their partners. The question slowly becomes, "Will they or won't they?" Will they ditch their partners or have an affair? Will they take off to Italy together? A very short novel (or maybe novella; I'm not sure) at 158 pages, I liked the simple, straightforward writing and the banter but the answer to the "Will they or won't they?" question . . . I didn't care for the direction it went and that's obviously a personal preference. Still, I'm glad I read it because it was a light, quick read that gave me a little bit of a brain break. Read for Tiny Book Group on the Fable app.

61. The Book of Delights by Ross Gay - I really enjoyed Ross Gay's Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, so when Books & Pie Carrie asked if I'd like her copy of The Book of Delights, I answered with an enthusiastic YES. And, what a delight it turned out to be, a total upper of a book. The Book of Delights is a collection of essays about things that delight the author. One of his biggest delights, which makes frequent appearances, is his love of plants, gardening, and nature. I'm a total tree-hugging, "Protect Our Natural Resources" kind of gal, so those were among my favorites. There were a couple essays I didn't love but so many more that I did that I gave it the full 5 stars. Also, it's worth mentioning that reading The Book of Delights helped me with a writing challenge I've been trying to tackle, so I doubly appreciate getting to read it.

Update on my yearly goals:

1. Book-buying ban - Oopsy, this year's ban is sooo not going well. Having said that, I think the only book I bought this month was Room on the Sea and that was for a book group, so it's acceptable. Still, I count 5 books from this month's reads that were recently purchased, which doesn't help with #2.

2. Read from the bedroom stacks - Sigh. Only two books came from the bedroom stacks: Dust by Dusti Bowling and The Ice Monster by David Walliams. Hedy's Journey is a book I found while cleaning a room, so we'll say it also counts since it's one I already owned and the objective is to read books I already own. The Book of Delights was brought to me recently and promptly added to the bedroom stacks but that's cheating.

3. Read some specific books I've been wanting to read - Not completed, but yes I'm reading one of my planned books, The Hunt for Red October, and it will absolutely be finished by the end of June, so I'll say that's a 1/2-yes on this goal.

4. Read one Persephone title per month - Ah, darn. Nope. This is the first month I've failed to read a Persephone title and it's solely because I had a DNF and a mid-month slump. The beginning of the month was great. I was rolling! And, then . . . nothing. I just couldn't get myself to read or I'd read a few pages of The Hunt for Red October and then either fall asleep or find myself drifting off, thinking about other things and staring at the ceiling like a cat who appears to have spotted a ghost.

So, basically, this month was an utter failure when it comes to my annual goals (apart from the 1/2-yes of my planned read of a book I've put off forever), and yet I just don't feel like that matters. I'll move on and keep challenging myself to complete each of these goals as the year progresses. Plus, I read some terrific books and I absolutely do not regret buying the ones I bought. I loved most of them and one provided a break from heavier reads. And, best of all, one of the books resulted in a couple of terrific conversations with my eldest son. That's always a win. I highly recommend reading and discussing books with your grown kids, if you can!

I didn't read any e-books, this month. Incidentally, that chicken in the top photo was made by my daughter-in-law, who is now selling knitted and crocheted things at festivals and the weekly farmers market. Isn't it cute?

Everything I Read in April, 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Fri, 02 May 2025 22:32:00 +0000

April:

41. Meditations: On the Monk Who Dwells in Daily Life by Thomas Moore - Way back in the 90s, when I had small children and was happy if I could squeeze in a couple books per month, I remember my mother-in-law told me about reading Thomas Moore's Care of the Soul. Maybe I even have a copy, somewhere. I collected books more than I read them, for years. Meditations is one of those I probably bought in that era. Lordy, I do hold onto books. The "meditations" are more like vignettes about meditation than meditations for the reader, but I still enjoyed this book about what it means to be a monk, what Moore's life was like when he was a Catholic monk living in a monastery and how it had an authoritarian structure, why walks in nature and other things like reading and being silent are ways of caring for the soul, and observations about religion — including how hair is cut, curled, or covered to fit religious strictures. A fascinating little book that I sometimes loved, sometimes didn't fully understand, and which is very thought-provoking.

42. Cat + Gamer, Vol. 7 by Wataru Nadatani - I was perusing Hoopla when I discovered that the 7th volume of Cat + Gamer has been released. The 5th and 6th volumes were a little disappointing but I thought #7 was back to the fun of earlier releases. Riko plays hide and seek with her cats and finds that one is better at the game than the other. She must solve a mystery when she hears a crash noise and discovers that one of the cats has made a mess (while she's in the midst of playing a mystery game). And, she is surprised to find that her boss is entertained by the cats climbing all over her or zipping by the screen when she begins working remotely. She also has to learn how to concentrate to avoid letting the cats distract her from her work in her new home office. A great entry in this series!

43. Whose Boat is This Boat? by The Staff of the Late Show, Stephen Colbert, Andrew Boneta, and John Henry - I was watching The Late Show when Stephen Colbert talked about this crazy book. It has hardly any words in it so I almost feel like it's ridiculous to note it as a book "read" but I'm adding it for posterity. At any rate, I didn't buy a copy at the time it was released, although I probably should have because the profits went to hurricane victims. Instead, I happened to find a copy when I was working as a volunteer at our local library sale. It made me laugh so I brought it home to show to my husband and I'll undoubtedly re-donate it in May. The words are actual verbatim quotes by the president and I do recall that he asked about a boat that had been washed ashore during a hurricane. Silly, but a fun read that takes about 2 minutes, max. Great for reading to impatient cats.

44. The Eights by Joanna Miller - Beatrice, Dora, Otto, and Marianne are among the first women allowed to attend Oxford University to obtain a degree in 1920. As they get to know each other, dive into their studies, and learn the strict rules that are meant to keep them from interacting too much with the men of Oxford, secrets are revealed, challenges faced, and yes, there is a little bit of romance and heartbreak. I absolutely loved the friendships, the setting, the challenges each faced as individuals and collectively as women dealing with misogyny, and the historical context (what's genuine and not is described in the author's afterword). Included are a glossary, a map, and a bibliography. An excellent work of historical fiction based on real-life events and favorite, so far in 2025.

45. Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories by Kate Atkinson - An interconnected set of short stories that begins with an apocalyptic tale called "The Void", this quirky set of stories are absolutely my kind of storytelling. It took me a while to become aware of the interconnections — sometimes as little as a word or the brief appearance of a character caught my eye — but once you start to see how things are connected, those connections and the through-line become even more fascinating. Jumping back and forth in time, you read the stories of an old man and his dog, an actress who falls for a prince, a man who takes advice from a talking dog, and a queen whose wish for a baby parallels with the story of a family with six children crammed into a vicarage, among others. And, throughout, there are mentions of The Void, a killing event that keeps recurring. But, why is it happening? Darkly humorous and smart storytelling. I found this book in the library sale and snatched it up so fast anyone nearby probably only saw a blur. It's worth keeping for a reread. Next time, I'll go into it knowing the ending and watching for the connections earlier on.

46. Castle of Water by Dane Huckelbridge - Three passengers and a pilot are en route from Tahiti to a small island in the Pacific when a storm arrives. Only two survive the crash after a lightning strike but they end up on the same uninhabited and isolated island. Barry and Sophie hate each other. Sophie is French architect grieving the husband lost in the plane crash, and Barry an American who has just left his high-paying job. The island they've landed on is small and has limited food and fresh water. Will Barry and Sophie ever figure out how to get along? And, if they do, will they survive and make it off the island? Will someone come to rescue them or will they have to figure out a way to leave their island home? By far one of the best "stranded on a desert isle" books I've read. The author has a lighthearted touch and I thought the character growth was believable. Tragic but with a beautiful, uplifting ending.

47. Becoming Dr. Q by Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa - This memoir provides a fascinating look into how one man left difficult circumstances in Mexico, jumped the fence to the US to work in the fields, and eventually became a brain surgeon. Obviously, he's a pretty brilliant man to be able to learn a new language while studying and arrive at Harvard a mere decade after he arrived in the US. But, he's also impressively driven and upbeat and this helped both Dr. Q, as he's known, and his family to survive the long hours of medical school and residency to become one of the country's foremost brain surgeons, teachers, and researchers. At the time of publication, Dr. Q was working at Johns Hopkins (in 2012) and he had a lab for studying and trying to find a cure for brain cancer. I don't know if the lab still exists as he's moved on to Mayo in Florida and mentioned the importance of both NIH grants and the NIH database in his work. An excellent, clearly written book about a remarkable man, acquired for discussion in one of my book groups.

48. Modern Poetry by Diane Suess - Modern Poetry is one of those volumes of poetry that I've got mixed feelings about. The words that kept coming to me as I was reading were "unflinchingly honest and raw". Friend Buddy calls it "confessional poetry" and that is certainly accurate to the style. I came away from the reading feeling like I understand the poet, her motivations, her frustrations, and some of what life has taught her. But, at times it was a little too raw for me, personally. That's a very individual thing, obviously. In general, her poetry is very accessible, something I appreciated. I particularly liked reading about her visit to the home in which Keats died in Italy and her thoughts about marriage and how she's grown cynical and uninterested in it. I'm glad I read Modern Poetry. It was this month's selection for Buddy's Contemplative Reading Project.

49. The Wartime Book Club by Kate Thompson - The story of two women on the isle of Jersey during WWII: a librarian and a postal worker. Bea and Grace are the best of friends. Bea works at the post office, as the first female postal worker, and Grace has taken over the job of head librarian since her friend and boss, Ash, was evacuated from the island of Jersey. During the occupation of Jersey, they are involved in small but dangerous acts of defiance against the Nazis. While I didn't consider the writing style all that good (it was a bit wobbly, in my opinion), the characterization was terrific and the story gripping. The pages absolutely flew. So, I ended up loving this book in spite of its flaws. There is quite a bit of extra material at the end of the book that explains which bits are true and where the author took creative license.

50. Wilfred and Eileen by Jonathan Smith - Wilfred and Eileen meet on his last night at Cambridge. Wilfred is intending to become a surgeon and Eileen is dating his friend, David. I don't want to give anything away but their story is one of long walks and a love that is not considered appropriate by either set of parents. Wilfred goes off to war in 1914 and is severely injured. He's never the same but Eileen is a strong woman and loves him fiercely; and, Wilfred is an energetic, lively, and determined man. Lovely, gut-wrenching, and heartwarming. A wonderful story of love and determination to survive against the odds, based on a true story told to the author by one of his students and researched with the approval and help of Wilfred and Eileen's descendants.

51. This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone - Blue and Red travel up and down the strands of time, where they are on opposing sides of the time war, altering history for the sake of whatever purpose their leaders prefer. This often means killing characters who originally survived, like stopping the murderers of Caesar and taking the killers out instead of letting Caesar die. The two time travelers cross paths frequently and through notes hidden in ever more obscure places and objects, they will become unexpectedly connected. Read for Tiny Book Group on the Fable app. My thanks to Carrie of Care's Books and Pie, who told me not to worry about the details and instead enjoy the poetry of the book's writing. Yep, that worked.

While I didn't read as much as I'd hoped (there are two books I was trying to slip in before the end of the month and then . . . sigh . . . I was too tired to read for a couple days) but the quality was pretty high. The Eights, Normal Rules Don't Apply, Castle of Water, The Wartime Book Club, and Wilfred and Eileen were my absolute favorites. Becoming Dr. Q was also excellent and particularly relevant as it's about an immigrant; it was my selection for book group discussion and I chose it because it highlights what we lose by deporting people randomly. It was not long after Dr. Q arrived that President Reagan offered amnesty to people who had entered the country illegally. Had he been rounded up and deported like what's happening today, we would have lost one of the country's most prominent brain surgeons. Everything else was very good (although Whose Boat is This Boat? is just silly). I didn't dislike any of the books I read and didn't have any DNFs, this month. So, I consider it a decent reading month.

Update on my yearly goals:

1. Book-buying ban - This month was an utter failure. I decided to toss in a few extra books when I bought next month's book for the Contemplative Reading Project (so . . . 4 books purchased, I think?). Add to that the many I brought home from the library sale, which is allowed, and then . . . oh, darn. I saw an ad that had a book in it that I absolutely wanted to read right now, maybe yesterday, plus there was another book that has been driving me crazy with desire and two others I've been planning to eventually buy. So, another 4. Altogether, I brought home more than I can read in a month. However, I have at least 6 boxes of books, 2 bags (one for Kiddo to go through — entirely cookbooks), and a stack that are all ready to go out the door. So, the failure of my book-buying ban is being nicely offset by a good bit of vigorous weeding.

2. Read from the bedroom stacks - I ditched this goal but still managed to read 3 from the bedroom stacks. Not enough but better than zero.

3. Read some specific books I've been wanting to read - Nope. But, I've picked one for next month.

4. Read one Persephone title per month - Success! I almost missed out on this one because the book I chose for April was not calling to me. Finally, I decided I should go back to the library and find a different title, Wilfred and Eileen. Fantastic choice! It's a quick read, which was perfect since I didn't get around to choosing a new title till the end of the month, and it is also a very moving, beautiful story of love and war.

Not a great month for yearly reading goals but hopefully May will be an improvement.

The Eights by Joanna Miller

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 19:34:00 +0000

Beatrice, Dora, Otto, and Marianne are among the first women allowed to attend Oxford University to obtain a degree, in 1920. Other women have attended but not been allowed to receive degrees and there is still plenty of prejudice against their presence at the university. Their rooms are in the eighth corridor of their building and as they get to know each other, they're quickly labeled "The Eights" because of their lodgings.

As a tight friendship develops, the women dive into their studies, and learn the strict rules that are meant to keep them from interacting too much with the men of Oxford, secrets are revealed, challenges faced, and yes, there is a little bit of romance and heartbreak. They are slightly older than most matriculating students because they did their part during WWI and each is aware that there are far more women than men of their age living in Great Britain due to the war's deadly annihilation of young men.

When I started reading The Eights, I had a little difficulty keeping the characters straight in my head because it takes a little time to get to know them. I set the book aside for a few days and then located a notebook in which I wrote mini-bios of each of the women, which helped me separate them in my mind until their personalities became clear. And, then I enjoyed the reading so much that I took my time and just immersed myself in their world.

I absolutely loved the friendships, the atmosphere, the challenges each faced as individuals and as women dealing with misogyny, and the historical context (what's genuine and not is described in the author's afterword). Included are a glossary, a map, and a bibliography.

Highly recommended - Definitely one of my favorite reads, so far in 2025. The release date is just a few days away, April 15. An excellent piece of historical fiction based on real-life events, great for fans of historical fiction that's immersive, a great learning experience, and features strong friendships, excellent writing (sometimes I'd stop to reread sentences; I loved the author's unique turn of phrase) with a satisfying ending. I did a lot of googling of buildings to get a good look at the scenery and feel like I've just returned from Oxford, England. I can't wait to see what Joanna Miller writes next.

I received a copy of The Eights from the publisher, Penguin Random House (thank you!), in exchange for an unbiased review and it's the first review book that I've requested in almost 2 years. Wow, did I choose well!

Everything I Read in March, 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 19:29:00 +0000

March:

29. The Lost Library by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead - Evan is preparing to graduate from 5th grade and he's a little nervous about middle school. Mortimer the cat guards the last books from the former Martinville library (which burned many years ago), watching over his library cart. When Al, the assistant librarian, decides to build a Little Free Library with the books from Mortimer's book cart, everything begins to change. Evan takes two books from the LFL home and makes some discoveries that make him realize that there's a mystery afoot. A famous author once checked out a book from the Martinville library, all the books in the Little Free Library were checked in on the same date, and one of the books was checked out by his father Why doesn't his father want to talk about the famous author and the library? Who was the "dear boy" beloved by the librarians who perished in the fire? What's the famous author's real name? And, who is in the mysterious Polaroid photo tucked inside one of the books? Ghosts, books, a cat (never did figure out if the cat was dead or alive, although I lean toward alive) and a mystery. I loved everything about this book. Highly recommended. Thanks to Carl (@steel_droppings on Instagram) for the recommendation. I'm keeping this one for a reread.

30. Women by Chloé Caldwell - When an unnamed narrator moves from her mother's country house to the big city, she is at first unsure what she will end up doing but then she meets Finn and gets a job in a local library. The narrator believes herself to be bisexual but she falls hard for Finn, a woman who already has a long-term girlfriend, and they begin a torrid affair. Apparently known as a cult classic amongst lesbians, I read this novella with the Tiny Book Club on Fable as an ebook via Hoopla. Y'all know I'm not into spicy scenes — and there are quite a few for such a short book — but what I liked about the book was the emotional upheaval of the narrator as she became obsessed with her lover while knowing that they could never end up together. Also, while there's plenty of talk about what it means to be a gay woman, the story of a tumultuous affair with no chance of becoming a permanent relationship would have worked regardless of the characters' genders; the writing is strong. I may have skimmed a bit of the spice but this novella is a super quick read.

31. The Ghost Cat by Alex Howard - I bought this book after reading that it was billed as a perfect read for those who enjoyed Before the Coffee Gets Cold and How to Stop Time, both of which I read and enjoyed. I was disappointed with The Ghost Cat. Grimalkin is an old Victorian cat who was rescued by Eilidh, the charlady at 7/7 Marchmont Crescent in Edinburgh. Grimalkin didn't get to live all of his 9 lives, so he's offered the opportunity to return as a ghost and experience those 9 lives or go on to a sort of cat heaven. Grimalkin chooses to live his 9 lives but for most of them he's restricted to the flat at Marchmont Crescent. For 3 of his lives, he may explore. What I liked about The Ghost Cat was that it gives the reader glimpses into the history of a particular building and Edinburgh itself, with occasional historical footnotes. Unfortunately, the book is not cohesive. Each chapter is one cat life, with no real segue between them. There are also some strange anachronisms, like the cat dislikes a man so he deletes his stock purchases on a laptop. I did love the ending, which clearly ties the book to the author's life as a lover of historical buildings, cats, and the final resident in the flat. And, I loved Eilidh (ay-lee) and how her story was wrapped up. But, I repeatedly considered abandoning the book because it felt so jerky and incomplete.

32. Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa - A reread for one of my book groups, Sweet Bean Paste is about Sentaro, who is stuck working at a Tokyo shop that sells dorayaki (pancakes with sweet bean paste) to pay off debt after being released from prison. The shop is not overly profitable, possibly because he uses pre-made sweet bean paste. Then, one day an elderly woman named Tokue asks for a job. She's been making sweet bean paste for 50 years and maybe she can help. The young schoolgirls who come to the shop love Tokue, her sweet bean paste is much better than the pre-made, and business improves until Tokue's secret is revealed. I don't want to give too much away but the story is moving and bittersweet. It's not entirely a "found family" story but it has the feel of one, in that the three main characters become close as they share their pasts and reveal their secrets. But, the author's note makes it clear the book is about everyone having value, regardless of how long they live or what one accomplishes. I gave it 4 stars the first time I read Sweet Bean Paste and then put my copy on the "good shelves" so I knew exactly where to find it for rereading. This time, I loved the story even more. I knew what was coming but it touched me even more deeply and there were even some tears. Highly recommended.

33. McSweeney's #70, ed. by Boyle, Eggers, and Yeh - This volume of McSweeney's started out great. I loved the first story, mostly because of one particularly quirky thing that happens which feels like the kind of thing you normally see happen in real life that nobody would believe (highlight to see the details): a woman comes to the main character's apartment, asks to borrow a vacuum cleaner, and then is never heard from again. The second story, "The Serranos" is excellent. And, I loved the series of photos of lava and coral being sent back to Hawaii with apologies to Madame Pele, which I presume is also a fictional piece. The second half went downhill and I actually couldn't finish one of the stories as I had no idea what was going on. There were bits that were funny or interesting and yet . . . what the heck was it? So, in the end this turned out to be an issue I kind of hated, which I don't think the better stories deserved.

34. A House in the Country by Jocelyn Playfair - My Persephone book choice of the month is a story about a widow who rents rooms to people who are displaced by WWII for various reasons and the characters who are living with her or visiting. Cressida Chance and her son John live on a large country estate in a beautiful Georgian house with gardens, a stable, and a forest nearby. She is generous by nature, a terrific cook, very casual and kind so guests are treated to delicious meals in the kitchen and there are usually beautiful arrangements of flowers around the house. Some of the guests are men who report for duty nearby, one is apparently an Eastern European who escaped the Nazis and had a horrific experience, and at least one has a baby and a husband serving in Africa. This book starts off slowly then picks up around the time Cressida's Aunt Jessie shows up with only a day's warning. There are intermittent reminders of the war — the bombing of a village, people having to slow down their horses to get by the tanks, and the fall of Tobruk, for example, as well as a parallel story about the real owner of the house who is the only survivor of a ship that sank in flames. The title is misleading as it sounds placid but war is all around, even out in the country. It's not surprising that this book is so authentic as it was written in 1943, a year after Tobruk. While I felt like it was a bit too philosophical (lots of long conversations that I found a bit dreary), it is absolutely amazing for the way the author sets the stage and gives you an understanding of how deeply WWII's presence was felt in England.

35. McSweeney's #77, ed. by Eggers and Yeh - A new favorite issue, shorter than usual but with above average stories. Favorites were "Hell is a Thousand Eyeballs" by Icarus Koh and "Cote de Nuits" by James Kaelan. I also enjoyed the (very creepy) surrealist art, inside and out. The cover is probably one of my all-time favorites. It reflects the quirky interior well.

36. Mare's War by Tanita S. Davis - Marey Boylen, aka "Mare" and her two granddaughters are driving from California to Alabama for a family reunion. The girls, both teens, don't really want to go. But, as Mare is driving, she tells the story of her time in the 6888th Postal Battalion of the Women's Army Corps for African American women soldiers during WWII. In the 1940s, at 17, Mare's home life is difficult. Her father is dead, her mother is an alcoholic and has a dangerous boyfriend. When her mom's boyfriend attacks her little sister Josephine (who goes by "Feen"), Mare is determined to protect her. Then, when Feen is sent to live with an aunt, Mare decides she has to protect herself. She lies about her age and joins the army, where she learns new skills and makes friends while dealing with challenges like bombs falling nearby and stormy ship rides, cold temperatures and lots of Spam. While I was reading this YA —which is fiction but we all know African Americans were involved in the war effort and then kept from collecting on the promised GI Bill benefits -- the current US Administration was erasing files containing the history of women, blacks, and other minorities. I didn't hear about the erasure of history till I was well into the book but it certainly felt like amazing timing. I really enjoyed this book because so much happens and I like reading different perspectives of WWII. My only problem with it was the use of vernacular, which was entirely necessary because Mare was telling her own story. It just slowed me down a bit.

37. Deenie by Judy Blume - Deenie is 13, beautiful, and a bit judgmental. Her classmate with excema probably has something worse than she says. Allergies? Pah. The old lady with the hunchback is just gross. And, she can't imagine being singled out to ride on the special bus like the girl who was in an automobile accident. Deenie's mother wants her to be a model. She's the pretty one and her sister Helen is the smart child. So, when Deenie's gym teacher notices something strange about her posture and it turns out she will have to wear a back brace for years, she's bereft. But, now that she's got a deformity of her own, she sees others in a different light. Simple writing but a good story with a great theme about accepting others' flaws. I was most interested in the way the two sisters were labeled (because my parents did the same) and how their relationship changed a bit when Deenie was upset; plus the 7th-grade boy crush took me back to my youth. But I did appreciate the way Deenie came to her senses and realized that people are just people.

38. My Jasper June by Laurel Snyder - It's summer break and for once, Leah isn't going to camp. Instead, she's stuck at home alone while her parents work. At first, she doesn't know what to do with herself. She wouldn't be in this boat if she hadn't made the biggest mistake of her life. But, nothing has been the same since. Then, she meets Jasper at the local farm. Jasper is a ray of sunshine and Leah wants her to be her friend. But, Jasper has a secret and she's a little evasive about her life. When Leah finds out Jasper's secret and reveals her own pain, a bond is forged. But, Jasper's life is complicated and Leah is unsure what to do to help her new friend. Recommended by Carrie of Care's Books and Pie. Thanks! I loved this story, the way the author interwove two real-life stories from her own experience. And, the ending was surprising and perfect. I read this moving middle grade book as an e-book via Hoopla. It made my eyes leak.

39. The Way of the Househusband, Vol. 11 by Kousuke Oono - The 11th in this manga series is every bit as entertaining as the earlier volumes with Tatsu and his wife visiting a theme park and running into friends, with whom Tatsu obviously has to compete while the women look on boggle-eyed. In other stories, kitty Gin gets a bath because it's humid and the cat smells musty, Masa gets a new apartment with surprising extras, and the prospect of a fancy steak meal helps Tatsu and his wife get through a difficult day. Loads of fun. I gave it 4 stars but I think I'll go back and switch that to 5/5 because there was nothing at all I disliked (except perhaps the overuse of the word "product").

40. Lake Life by David James Poissant - The story of a dysfunctional family coming to terms with their heartbreak and flaws but trying to overcome them with love. The characters are mostly unlikeable, flawed people. But, skillful writing made the more uncomfortable scenes tolerable (for the most part — there was one part I skimmed due to the ick) and the story is compelling. I have a feeling the Starling family will stick with me for a long time. Trigger warning for child death.

Not a great month, quantity-wise, but certainly an interesting one. Favorites of the month were A House in the Country, The Lost Library, My Jasper June, Sweet Bean Paste, Lake Life, and Mare's War.

Sweet Bean Paste was my only reread and it's going right back onto the good shelves. My Jasper June was recommended by Carrie of Care's Books and Pie for the #ICT2025 reading challenge (ICT is Wichita; I enjoyed the 2024 challenge, although I didn't succeed at finishing every item but so far so good in 2025). And, while Lake Life was an uncomfortable read, the writing was exceptional and I loved the ending. I read David James Poissant's short stories (some of which are now being made into a film), The Heaven of Animals (link leads to my review), many years ago as an ARC and was mightily impressed so I'm looking forward to future releases by Poissant.

Challenge-wise, I read only 4 off my targeted stacks and my Persephone book of the month. We recently shifted some books out of the bedroom (um . . . cookbooks; they were cookbooks that had overflowed the kitchen shelves) so I did some major book moving and decided something to the effect of screw this about the dresser piles. I don't like reading from specific piles. I will still attempt to read first from the piles on the dresser and the ones I moved to take the place of the cookbooks that I shifted back into the kitchen area, where we added some new shelves. But, if I don't see anything that calls to me, that's fine. I'll look elsewhere. I let books call to me in 2024 and holes opened up on shelves, books were moved from the floor; it was positive. So, I'm returning to that method and kinda sorta halfway abandoning the stacks-on-the-dresser self-challenge. My personal challenges to read a Persephone book each month and a few titles I've meant to read for ages are ongoing.

In other news, I'm still enjoying volunteering at my local library's monthly book sales but I skipped working in March. However, our sales are always held at the beginning of the month and I'm scheduled to work, this weekend. Yippee! I've also been taking an online art summit, painting and doing occasional collage, and had a bit of fun at the Pop Shelf Going Out of Business sale. Favorite purchases were the matching melamine platters, plates, and tiny bowls (meant for sauce but we use them to hold any small serving, like nuts or dates) for use on the patio. Biting and stinging things are out, now, but we're supposed to have a brief cool front coming soon so we may sneak in a few more outdoor days before we're stuck inside for the summer. And, our health-challenged old lady kitties (now 14 and 15 years old) are still hanging in there.

Happy Reading to All!

Everything I Read in February, 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 19:22:00 +0000

February:

16. Fobbit by David Abrams - My first read from the list of books I've been meaning to read for years and not gotten around to, Fobbit is a satire about life on a Forward Operating Base in Iraq. My friend Kookie Michelle said it best: Reminds me of M*A*S*H if every character was like Frank Burns. Pretty much. The main character is stationed in the Public Affairs Office inside Saddam Hussein's former palace, where he writes dispatches about injuries and deaths for the press, which are then whittled down and white-washed by his commanding officers. Bombings, paperwork, sand in everything, heat, and bureaucracy are part of the daily slog. Trigger warning: I would not recommend this book to anyone who has lost someone in a bombing as there's a good bit of gallows humor and some gory descriptions of bombing aftermaths. Otherwise, highly recommended. I enjoyed Fobbit and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it.

17. Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff - The third and last of the middle grade books I bought after reading about a teacher who was suspended for having the books in her classroom, Too Bright to See is about Bug, whose uncle has died. Living in an already-haunted house and unsure about going into middle grade and how she feels, Bug also realizes that the haunting of her house has changed. Why are things different? Is one of the spirits trying to tell her something? While she questions how she feels about herself, she also tries to unravel what's happening around her. A little slow but a book that tackles some heavy subject matter: grief, life and death, and what it means to be yourself. Yep, lots of LGBTQ content but nothing offensive. I am certain that this book is and has been helpful to many youngsters and I certainly found it helped explain a difficult subject.

18. Vintage Hughes by Langston Hughes - A collection of Langston Hughes' poetry along with a handful of his short stories, Vintage Hughes is . . . shall we say, impressive? I'm pretty sure I've read some random poems by Hughes, over the years ("Life for me ain't been no crystal stair" is a set of words that rings a bell) but never a collection and I didn't even know he was such a prolific writer beyond the world of poetry. I found his poetry thought-provoking, moving, horrifying (poems about lynchings), poignant, sometimes almost musical, and at times humorous. His short stories were similar in that they describe the Black experience, which was harsh to say the least, but with great respect for his characters. Somewhere out there is a collection of every poem he wrote and I'd like to read it one day. A perfect read for Black History Month.

19. Dataclysm by Christian Rudder - Dataclysm was published about a decade ago and it's about data compiled from the OKCupid dating site and what it tells us. It's a fascinating book as looking at large chunks of data that people typed about themselves in the privacy of their homes can be pretty revealing. For example, one of the bits of information that intrigued me the most (but didn't actually surprise me) is that males of all ages prefer women in their 20s – it doesn't matter how old the male is in this equation. Women, on the other hand, prefer that the men they date are close to their age. There's a lot of other interesting information and I'm glad I read the book but it was written well before Twitter's demise and functional AI, both of which have thrown us into a different era. The data would likely be much the same, today, but the collection for nefarious purposes without anyone's permission has gone wild. I read Dataclysm for group discussion.

20. Queen of the Falls by Chris Van Allsburg - A children's picture book about the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, Queen of the Falls tells the story of Annie. Annie is 62, widowed, and her charm school is no longer making money so she needs to find a new income stream. She comes up with the idea to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, hoping that she will become famous and make plenty of money from publicity. She has a very strong barrel built to fit her with room for pillows and a way to strap herself in. Annie goes over the falls, surviving with nothing but bruises. But, because she looks like a grandmother rather than a young daredevil, she has no real luck with the publicity and eventually ends up sitting at a table by the falls, selling postcards of herself with the barrel. I knew some of this story because I've been to Niagara Falls but it was interesting to read the details and I love Chris Van Allsburg's art, as well. He's mostly known for his children's fantasy books like Jumanji.

21. Key Lime Sky by Al Hess - A combination queer romance/sci-fi, Key Lime Sky tells the story of a nonbinary, autistic pie reviewer who sees what he thinks is the explosion of an alien ship as he returns to town from a diner where he tasted and reviewed a particularly watery pie. When he asks around and finds that not only did nobody else see the explosion but they're also acting very strangely, he begins to investigate. When Denver meets Ezra, they investigate together. As things go from bad to worse (alien invasion-wise), romance between Denver and Ezra flourishes and flounders with some spicy M/M scenes. Will Denver and Ezra be able to find the alien causing the town of Muddy Gap to fall apart and its residents to disappear before it's too late? I found the alien storyline fascinating, compelling, and fast-paced but the romance scenes bored me so I started skimming them. I am not into spice regardless of gender or genre. I just preferred the sci-fi storyline. I did love what Denver discovered about friendship in the end and that he was not quite as much of a pariah as he suspected.

22. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. by Judy Blume - I've wanted to read this middle grade classic since the Judy Blume documentary. I've read plenty of her books but even though Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret was written when I was a small child, it was not one I ever read as a youngster and it is not anywhere close to my own experience. Still, it was interesting reading about Margaret, her group of friends, and their concerns. My favorite part was Margaret's exploration of religion for a class report.

23. Tory Heaven by Marghanita Laski - My Persephone read of the month, Tory Heaven is about a group of 5 people who escaped Singapore during WWII and then became stranded on an island. 5 years later, they're finally rescued and return to England. But, things have changed. The Tories are in power and now everyone is divided by class. James is an A class, the highest and most desirable, who are given bags of money for which they're not required to work. But, they're not allowed to mix with other classes for fear of being downgraded to a lower class. James is completely oblivious to the discomfort of other A class people, including his parents. He likes having everything handed to him on a platter and thinks it's perfectly fine that some of his friends have ended up in abject poverty. But, just when James thinks things are going swimmingly, everything changes again. A fascinating read as this is what a particular class wants right now in the US, to claim all the wealth and rule over everyone else. A very entertaining read with an excellent ending.

24. Severance by Ling Ma - Candace Chen has been living in New York City for about 6 years when the fever hits. Now, she's traveling to a location in the Chicago area with a group of survivors who "stalk" the homes of the fevered to obtain necessary supplies and then camp out at night. The storyline in Severance goes back and forth in time so you get to know Candace's past as an immigrant from China, her move to New York and how she fell into her job in publishing production, and what happened as the fever spread around the world. As much an immigration story and the tale of how she became a loner who just kept going while the world crumbled around her as a pandemic story, I found this story gripping but ultimately unsatisfying, in the end. And, yet, because it was so hard to put the book down, I gave it an above average rating and I would definitely read more by Ling Ma. Side note: Severance was published before the Covid pandemic and was at times oddly prescient as some elements like masking, trying to hyper-clean to clear away the pathogen (a fungus), Congress shutting down travel from China, etc. were quite accurate to what happened during our real-life pandemic.

25. Cat + Gamer, Volume 6 by Wataru Nadatani - Very little happens in this particular volume of Cat + Gamer. Soboro and Musubi fight after Soboro gets a bath and Musubi doesn't recognize his little sister's scent. Musubi keeps wanting to go through a door and then come immediately back inside. Riko decides the cats need a bed so they're not always on her lap or hanging out on her gaming table but the cats visualize the point of each cat bed in a different way from their person. It's all very everyday. But, again, I absolutely love this Manga series because of the cat art and the sweetness. I love it when Riko is baffled by her cats but takes the time to figure out what she needs to know about cat behavior. It's all just lovely. This is the last of the e-books available via Hoopla, at the moment, but it appears that there are two more in Japanese so now we wait for the English translations.

26. Taste by Stanley Tucci - I watched and enjoyed Stanley Tucci's television show about food in Italy and absolutely everyone seemed to be reading Taste around that time. So I put it on my wish list and bought it when I had the chance but then set it aside for a year or two. Finally, I got around to this delightful memoir of Tucci's life and his love of food. If you're one of the few people who still haven't read it, I can tell you that his story is charming, self-deprecating, and even contains a handful of recipes. You don't have to be a foodie to enjoy it. I'm always left a wee bit envious of books written by someone from an Italian family as their family gatherings always sound so fun and the food so fabulous. A really enjoyable read and one I'm going to try to push on my husband, who does the cooking around here.

27. The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker - At 135 pages, you'd think when you picked up The Mezzanine that you're about to read something light and quick. Instead, when you open it you'll find that it's a dense, stream of consciousness novel in which the narrator ponders the minutiae of his life — shoestrings, escalators, milk bottles versus cartons, vending machines . . . all on a typical workday during which a shoestring has broken. And, the 135 pages are crammed with words, partly because the regular text is supplanted by a number of large footnotes in tiny print—one of which made me laugh out loud when I realized that it continued for 3 or 4 pages. It took me a bit to understand exactly what this book was about: nothing and everything, how time changes things, the discomfort of certain social interactions at work. It's a bit stunning that something so plotless can be so mesmerizing. Brilliant, hilarious, unique, and ridiculous. Definitely a little gem of a book.

28. A Winter Book by Tove Jansson - After reading Jansson's The Summer Book of interconnected stories, along with a couple of the Moomin books, I got a copy of A Winter Book expecting more of the same. A Winter Book is described as "30 years of her stories, finally translated and gathered together" and the introduction by Ali Smith is glowing about her "adult stories". So, I was surprised to find that the earliest stories in the collection were written from a child's perspective. I expected a more mature viewpoint. Still, some were very interesting, particularly "The Iceberg," which is so surprising that I think it's best to say nothing at all about it. If you can only pick up the book to read one story, that would be the one I'd suggest. As it turned out, the stories did have a more grown-up sound the farther you read and the ending was particularly fitting, the story of Tove (maybe fictionalized) and her partner leaving their island home because they've become too old to handle island life. Not my favorite but maybe worth keeping.

I had one DNF, this month: Skim by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki, a graphic novel. I found it too bleak. If I'd held out, maybe it would have eventually improved but I disliked it enough to feel like continuing would be a waste of time. Having said that, it has pretty good ratings so maybe I just wasn't the right audience.

So, not a terrible month, not a brilliant one but I liked or loved everything I finished. Fobbit, Vintage Hughes, Taste, Tory Heaven, and The Mezzanine were the stand-outs and while I didn't care for the ending of Severance, I've continued to think about it a lot so I consider it one of my favorites of the month. I was thrilled to finally get a chance to read Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, a book I found at the dollar store. Which brings me to the fact that I added Dollar Tree books as an exception to my book-buying ban, figuring I'm just going to turn around and donate them anyway, so they won't add to my "too many books" burden for long.

As to the rest, I had very minor issues with Too Bright to See but still enjoyed it. Dataclysm was fascinating and I'm looking forward to discussion, Queen of the Falls nicely filled in some blanks about a story with which I was familiar and I love Van Allsburg's art. Cat + Gamer will always be a favorite manga for its art, if not always the stories. Key Lime Sky was gripping when it focused on the alien invasion and I loved the uniqueness of the world building. And, I was impressed by at least the latter half of A Winter Book although some of it wasn't quite what I expected.

Checking in on my reading goals, Fobbit was one of my goal books for the year so I'm pleased that I finally read it. As mentioned, I've made some tiny adjustments to the book-buying ban but I still plan to keep any exceptions to a minimum. 6 books read were from the targeted bedroom stacks that I hope to read completely by the end of the year, so not bad but I need to work harder at reading down those stacks. I did read one e-book from my collection and one Hoopla e-book. And, I managed to read my one Persephone book for the month.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with my month but I feel like I need to read harder in March. We did have guests (eldest son and family visited from New Jersey!) so there were a few days that we were so busy deep cleaning and then busy hanging out with family that I didn't get around to reading much when I finally fell into bed. Humorously, we worked particularly hard at cleaning cat fur/dander because our daughter-in-law is allergic to cats but the weather was so blissfully perfect that we spent most of their visit outdoors on the patio and even ate several meals there.

Onward to March! Happy Reading!

Everything I Read in January, 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 19:00:00 +0000

January:

1. Second Best by David Foenkinos - An ARC I got in 2023 and managed to bury under a pile of books (oopsy), Second Best is the story of Martin, who almost got the role of Harry Potter and found the loss so traumatic that he's been living in the shadow of his "failure", ever since. Will Martin ever figure out how to move on? Translated from the French, very compelling but not brilliant. The ending, however, is perfect.

2. Angry Weather by Friederike Otto - A total nerdfest of a read, Angry Weather is about how a newish (10-15 years, as I recall) method, attribution of extreme weather events, uses huge amounts of data to model a particular weather event quickly and determine whether or not climate change was a cause or partial cause of the event and to what extent. The objective is to find the answers as quickly as possible in order to get the information out and then go through the peer review and publication process, later. That enables scientists to make the determination about how much impact climate change had on an event a part of the news reports and the decision-making when rebuilding. There's also a bit of history on knowledge and understanding of climate change (which goes back farther than one might think) and the history of how Exxon and others chose to deceive the public about climate change and how successful they were. A fascinating read.

3. Peace is Every Breath by Thich Nhat Hanh - While Peace is Every Breath didn't end up being my first finished read of the year, I like starting the year with a book by Thich Nhat Hanh to help me get the year off on the right foot, thinking positively. As always, an excellent read that encourages awareness in everything you do, even including some affirmations to read or recite while you're doing various (often mundane) things such as bathing, washing dishes, etc.

4. Twelve Moons by Mary Oliver - I meant to stretch this one out a bit because Mary Oliver is my second "first of the year" author who helps me start the year mindfully. But, once I got going, I couldn't put the book down. As the title indicates, there are quite a few poems that reference the moon but otherwise it's her usual look at nature: life and death, animals and trees, moss and rivers and mushrooms. My favorites were, unsurprisingly, poems about trees. I particularly loved the poem about a walnut tree that she and her mother were considering selling to help them pay the mortgage when they were stretched thin. But, they let it go and the tree remained. The budget stayed tight but they were happy with their decision.

5. Cat + Gamer, Volume 5 by Wataru Nadatani - The 5th in this manga series wasn't the best but I still enjoyed it. The first story is about the new kitty, Soboro, getting its first bath. Musubi likes baths and is a little envious that Soboro is getting one. Soboro, however, is not a fan. In another story, Riko is so busy watching the cats and playing with them that she forgets it's her birthday. Fun, as always, and I am besotted with the cat art but this one is a bit less memorable.

6. Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea by Ashley Herring Blake - Hazel had two mothers, but Mum died in a tragic accident, two years ago. Since then, Hazel, her little sister Peach, and Mama (her other mother) have left their house in California and they've traveled from one rental to another, moving on every few months. Mama doesn't want to talk about Mum and the few bits of Mum-related memorabilia are packed away. When the family rents a house in Maine for the summer and Hazel's mother begins to fall for an old flame, Hazel is beside herself. She just wants to go home, to spend time with Mama talking about Mum, and to stay away from the people who stare at her scars from the same accident that killed Mum. Will a new friend and a mermaid legend help Hazel to deal with her grief? This is the second of the books that got a teacher suspended for having them in her classroom. As with the first I read, The Fabulous Zed Watson, there is LGBTQ+ content and I did find an article saying that's what the objection was to the titles. But, it's mostly about trauma, grief, friendship, and healing and it's a good book.

7. How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior - Another unputdownable read, this time a novel about a curmudgeonly 86-year-old named Veronica McCreedy. Veronica lives by herself, with a housekeeper and gardener who help out at her large home. She doesn't like people and she's been pondering what to do with her money as she isn't likely to live much longer, healthy as she is. Then, two things happen. Housekeeper Eileen brings out an old box with a padlock that leads her to look for any unknown relatives; and, she starts watching a show about penguins that intrigues her. On a whim, Veronica decides to go to Antarctica to check out the lab where Adélie penguins are studied to see if that's where she should endow her millions of pounds. The scientists try to discourage her, but Veronica is nothing if not determined. I may have stayed up a bit late finishing this one. Loved it and it's the first in a series so I'm looking forward to eventually reading on.

8. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - This is a reread and I confess that I had no idea what an allegory was or what the author was trying to say when I read it the first time (long ago). So, I no longer owned a copy and checked the book out via Hoopla. Unfortunately, it was a very bad copy — as in, I think someone probably ran it through an online translator. Seriously, it was so awful I considered giving up but The Little Prince is short and I was at least understanding the point of the story, this time. I do wish I'd managed to read a decent translation but I still don't think this particular novella is for me. However, I am a big fan of Flight to Arras by Saint-Exupéry.

9. Saplings by Noel Streatfeild - My first selection for a year of reading Persephone books, Saplings is the story of the Wiltshire family. Alex and Lena live in London and have 4 children. At the beginning of the book, the children are on holiday at the seashore with their nanny and governess when their parents show up. Alex tells them he's going to have to send them to the country because war is coming but Lena is a bit of a narcissist and chooses to stay with Alex. Saplings covers the war years entirely, with a death from a direct hit during the Blitz, the anxieties of the children, a move to a new house, a parent who has a nervous breakdown, and finally, the end of WWII. There's an afterword in the Persephone edition about how the author was a bit ahead of her time in her portrayal of the effects of war on children that I thought wrapped the book up nicely. Published in 1945, you really get an excellent perspective on the time period.

10. Charles & Ray: Designers at Play by James Yang - The story (picture book) of Charles and Ray Eames of Mid-Century Modern design fame, written and illustrated by my high school friend, I chose to read Charles & Ray after reading that Eames House survived the Pacific Palisades fire. It tells about their particular skills and how they worked together through numerous failures, determined to design the perfect, comfortable wooden chair. If you're a fan of Mid-Century Modern, you'll love the illustrations. An afterword by the author says he fictionalized a little bit but the focus is on determination in spite of repeated failure rather than strict biography and in that it certainly succeeds.

11. McSweeney's #75, Ed. by Eggers, Yeh, and Horowitz - The 75th volume of McSweeney's short stories is designed like an accordion file, each story individually bound with a unique cover, and all are by "new" authors. I didn't like the first two I read and was pretty sure #75 was going to end up being an issue I disliked, in general, but then the tide turned and some of the stories were immersive, if not enjoyable. Overall, a pretty good selection.

12. The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang - A translation from the Korean, I read The Rainfall Market for discussion in The Tiny Book Club on the Fable app. Serin has a hard life but when she hears you can change your life if you write a letter and are sent a ticket to the Rainfall Market, which is only open during the rainy season, she decides to try. At the market, a cat named Issha becomes her guide while she seeks to find the perfect life amongst a number of options. But, unbeknownst to her, someone is trying to stop her. A bit weird for my taste but the author's note actually made the book feel more meaningful as it tells about his own struggles, which vaguely mirror those of Serin.

13. Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay - OK, you're totally going to be able to tell which poem was my favorite before I even say a word about this volume of poetry, right? It's one about . . . a tree. Of course. In this case, there's a fig tree and a woman is cleaning up beneath it so people don't slip on the ripe fruits that have fallen. The author comes along and she tells him to take as many as he wants to help prevent more work cleaning the pavement. Then, more neighbors arrive and ask him to pluck some figs for them because he's tall. It's not just about a tree. It's about community and a tree that is growing where it shouldn't even be able to but (so much hope and joy in this poem) the tree didn't know it's not in the correct growing zone. Nor did the immigrants who planted it. Beautiful. A wonderful volume of poetry.

14. Ties by Domenico Starnone - This translation from the Italian is a book I bought after reading author Alex George's glowing recommendation. Ties is about selfishness, fidelity, marriage, family, and — as I believe Erma Bombeck put it — "the ties that bind and gag." Aldo has left to live with another woman and in Book 1 you see the pain from wife Vanda's point of view as she is first hurt, perplexed, then angry and resigned. In Book 2, you read Aldo's perspective on reflection over 30 years later and then in Book 3, that of the now-grown children. A fascinating peek into how each individual responded in the short and long term to an infidelity. The ending was not entirely unexpected but pretty clever, I thought. A solid read.

15. Walter Anderson for Children by the Mississippi State Historical Museum - There may be a few very odd things showing up on my reading list because we've been cleaning our attic and this is one of them. Walter Anderson for Children is technically an activity book but there's plenty of information about the broad variety of mediums he worked in, examples of his line work, watercolors, block prints, and ceramics, etc. The "activity" part comes in filling in open spaces with what the reader has learned. But, my little readers did not fill this in so it's still crisp and clean. Anderson was a Mississippi Gulf Coast artist and I confess that I know about him, have been aware he's important, and paid little attention to him, anyway, probably because I didn't have the time or room for artwork when my children were small. Now, I'm a bit obsessed. His art is fascinating. We may have to take a road trip to his museum on the Coast.

What a month, eh? Speaking to Americans, here, mostly. I know what's currently happening has worldwide implications but, whoa.

Anyway, reading-wise, it was a pretty good month. I read two poetry books, a children's picture book, a children's art activity book, an ARC from last year, a spiritual book, a nonfiction about compiling climate data, a volume of short stories, novels old and new (two of them translations), and a middle grade book, in addition to two e-books (pictured below).

Checking in on the reading goals, I added an exception for banned books or books about things that are being currently banned from government documents as an exception, so a few books walked in the door but I don't plan to add any further exceptions and, apart from the two Hoopla e-books, I read exclusively from my shelves. Go, me! I did also focus on the bedroom stacks, for the most part. The Persephone books are housed in my home library and, yay, that's another goal met. I read my first Persephone book of the year, Saplings. It's a good one. I did not read any of the books I've been putting off and listed as hopeful reads but I started one (Fobbit by David Abrams) and finished it on the 1st of February so you'll see that in next month's wrap-up.

My absolute favorite was How the Penguins Saved Veronica, but I pretty much loved everything else, as well, apart from The Rainfall Market and The Little Prince. I am definitely an outlier when it comes to The Little Prince but I might have appreciated it more if the copy I checked out was readable. I've never come across a translation as bad as the one I borrowed from Hoopla. It was something.

Hope everyone is doing OK, having a good reading year, and (Americans) annoying the heck out of your representatives and senators. Hang in there, everybody!

Reading Goals for 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 01:41:00 +0000

Yes, I know January is already half over. Humorously, I have been thinking about my goals for 2025 since early in December, but I didn't bother to write them down then so here we are. In general, I try to go easy on the goals. Usually, I start to forget my goals halfway through the year but it's nice to go back and see what I planned and how that turned out. Anyway, without further ado . . .

2025 Reading Goals and other bookish plans:

1. Back to the book-buying ban with two exceptions:

a. Books purchased for group discussion are allowable, although I'll check Hoopla to see if an ebook is available and will check any out that I can.

b. One Book Outlet order is allowed mid-year if I feel like I need a break from the buying ban.

I don't know if I mentioned falling off the proverbial book-buying ban wagon, last year. Did I? Well, I lasted till August only buying books for group discussion. When I failed, I failed hard. After I didn't succeed at going back on the ban, I realized I just needed to let go of that goal and my husband even shrugged and said, "You did well." So, that eased my. mind a bit. I think the problem was that I didn't allow myself the possibility of a single order to give myself a break. I needed the break, didn't get it, got stressed, and took that buying break anyway, then kept buying a book here, a book there. Sigh. Better luck in 2025, I hope. Still, I did start to see spaces opening up on shelves in 2024 and that's a huge positive.

2. Read from the bedroom stacks. I have stacks on the dresser (see photo, above) and a couple of floor piles, both in the master bedroom. I've decided to focus on those particular piles of books, this year, as well as the books on my bedside table. But if I decide I want to read something from the floor piles in my home library, that's fine. I won't kick myself. I also did not succeed at reading through the floor piles last year, but I made progress.

3. Read some specific titles that I keep thinking about and not getting around to reading. Among them:

a. The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy - My dad's copy, which I took (technically "stole" because my mother said, "Don't touch anything!") to have something of his that was not valuable when he died. Side note: this is apparently common? I saw someone on a TV show saying, "I took this when he died. I just needed something of his, something to connect me to him." Whoa. Yeah, that.

b. Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley - My childhood bestie sent me a copy of this after I read Gone With the Wind but I was tired of Scarlett, the character, and not in the mood to follow up one chunkster with another so I decided to read it later. It's been a couple years.

c. Fobbit by David Abrams - Ohmygosh, I can't believe I haven't read this. I've been friends with David for years. He writes on Substack, now, but we met through blogging eons ago. I've read his most recent novel and a short story of his that was published in an anthology but for some reason Fobbit just keeps getting carried from room to room and not read. THIS IS THE YEAR.

4. Read one Persephone book per month. I have quite a nice collection from our years of traveling to London (we haven't returned to the UK since Persephone moved to Bath). Since it's already mid-January, I have succeeded in reading my January Persephone book, which was Saplings by Noel Streatfeild.

5. Post monthly wrap-ups to the blog. I've been doing this for a couple years now, I think? It works well for me. I have not felt the urge to return to full-time blogging and short reviews satisfy my need to blab about books a little.

That's it! My reading goal at Goodreads is 100 books but that's pretty much meaningless. It's a minimum goal, not a maximum. Generally, I just try to read as much as I possibly can and I started setting my goal to 100 a few years ago so that I know I'll at least hit the goal mark. Anything read after is gravy but I'm a fairly slow reader so I consider 150 a fantastic year.

Note on the blog: I still check for messages regularly because I'm here to write up my brief reviews after each book I finish. I also still moderate comments. So, if you leave a comment and it doesn't show up for a couple of days, hang in there. It'll show up and I'll reply eventually, unless you're a spammer. I delete spam/anything with a suspicious link.

Happy Reading to all!

Books Read in 2024

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 17:48:00 +0000

Everything I read in 2024. I only posted monthly reviews in 2024 so while each book has a link, every book's link for a particular month leads to the same monthly wrap-up.

January:

1. Owls and Other Fantasies - Mary Oliver

2. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir - R. A. Dick

3. The Unteachables - Gordon Korman

4. The Art of Living - Thich Nhat Hanh

5. In a Flash - Donna Jo Napoli

6. Cats in Hats - Jo Clark

7. I Hope This Finds You Well - Kate Baer

8. Before Your Memory Fades (Tales from the Café #3) - Toshikazu Kawaguchi

9. Siam - Lily Tuck

10. A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr.

11. Once Upon a Tim - Stuart Gibbs

12. Juliàn is a Mermaid - Jessica Love

13. Silence by Thich Nhat Hanh

14. Shubeik Lubiek - Deena Mohamed

15. The Labyrinth of Doom (Once Upon a Tim #2) - Stuart Gibbs

16. Faraway Places - Tom Spanbauer

February:

17. The Way of the Househusband, Vol. 7 - Kousuke Oono

18. How to be Both - Ali Smith

19. The Lilies of the Field - William E. Barrett

20. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout

21. The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa

22. Asleep - Banana Yoshimoto

23. The Loved One - Evelyn Waugh

24. Go Tell It on the Mountain - James Baldwin

25. The Wild Robot - Peter Brown

26. You Are Here - Thich Nhat Hanh (reread)

27. Rabbit-Proof Fence - Doris Pilkington

March:

28. The Actual - Saul Bellow

29. The Bodyguard - Katherine Center

30. The Wild Robot Escapes (The Wild Robot #2) - Peter Brown

31. The Valley of Adventure (Adventure series #3) - Enid Blyton

32. Earthlings - Sayaka Murata

33. The Way of the Househusband, Vol. 8 - Kousuke Oono

34. Clara Reads Proust - Stéphane Carlier

35. Fear - Thich Nhat Hanh

36. Spy School: The Graphic Novel - Stuart Gibbs and Anjan Sarkar

37. One-Two - Igor Eliseev

38. Charlie Thorne and the Curse of Cleopatra (Charlie Thorne #3) - Stuart Gibbs

39. Gaffer Samson's Luck - Jill Paton Walsh

40. The Obesity Code - Jason Fung, MD

41. And Yet - Kate Baer

April:

42. Ruby Parker Hits the Small Time - Rowan Coleman

43. I Will Not Die Alone - Dera White and Joe Bennett

44. Mean Spirit - Linda Hogan

45. The Road to Roswell - Connie Willis

46. Moon of the Crusted Snow - Waubgeshig Rice

47. We Rule the Night - Claire Eliza Bartlett

48. Spy X Family, Vol. 11 - Tatsuya Endo

49. The Family Fang - Kevin Wilson

50. The Bookshop - Penelope Lively

May:

51. Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann

52. The Hopkins Manuscript - R. C. Sherriff

53. Otis and the Kittens - Loren Long

54. Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Little Golden Book - Diane Muldrow

55. Glitch - Laura Martin

56. French Windows - Antoine Laurain

57. Clarice the Brave - Lisa McMann

58. Sipsworth - Simon Van Booy

59. Ordinary People - Judith Guest

60. Arsenic and Old Lace - Joseph Kesselring

61. Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier - Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith

62. Extreme Ownership - Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

63. Vertical Run - Joseph Garber

64. No Better Medicine - Kelly Meister-Yetter

June:

65. 100 Sideways Miles - Andrew Smith

66. Upgrade - Blake Crouch

67. Crazy Brave - Joy Harjo

68. Color of the Sea - John Hamamura

69. Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers - Jesse Q. Sutanto

70. The Way of the Househusband, Vol. 9 - Kousuke Oono

71. Turtles All the Way Down - John Green

72. The Summer Book - Tove Jansson

73. Apartment 713 - Kevin Sylvester

74. Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami

75. Moon of the Crusted Snow - Waubgeshig Rice

76. Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name - Vendela Vida

77. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayamm, translated by Edward Fitzgerald

July:

78. Brat: An 80s Story - Andrew McCarthy

79. Where the Sky Lives - Margaret Dilloway

80. The Woman in the Dunes - Kōbō Abe

81. Anxious People - Fredrik Backman

82. McSweeney's Anthology of Contemporary Literature (74th Edition), Ed. by Claire Boyle

83. The Measure - Nikki Erlick

84. The President's Hat - Antoine Laurain

85. The Watch That Ends the Night - Allan Wolf

86. Earthlings - Richard Kalvar

87. Book Uncle and Me - Uma Krishnaswami

August:

88. The Sea of Adventure (Adventure #4) - Enid Blyton

89. A Quantum Love Story - Mike Chen

90. Black Hearts in Battersea (The Wolves Chronicles #2) - Joan Aiken

91. Wallace the Brave - Will Henry

92. The Truth According to Ember - Danica Nava

93. Nightbirds on Nantucket (The Wolves Chronicles #3) - Joan Aiken

94. The Way of the Househusband, Vol. 10 - Kousuke Oono

95. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick - Chris Van Allsburg

96. Comet in Moominland - Tove Jansson

97. Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet - Thich Nhat Hanh

September:

98. The Love of My Afterlife - Kirsty Greenwood

99. Wool (Silo #1) - Hugh Howey

100. Before We Say Goodbye (Tales from the Cafe #4) - Toshikazu Kawaguchi

101. Three Rivers Rising - Jame Richards

102. Cat + Gamer, Vol. 1 - Wataru Nadatani

103. The Haunting of Maddy Clare - Simone St. James

104. Just a Dream - Chris Van Allsburg

105. Pretty Little London - Sara Santini and Andrea Di Filippo

106. Dark Tales - Shirley Jackson

107. Dial A for Aunties - Jesse Q. Sutanto

October:

108. I'm Glad My Mother Died - Jennette McCurdy

109. Cat + Gamer, Vol. 2 - Wataru Nadatani

110. The Elson Reader, Book Two - William H. Elson and Lura Runkel

111. The Mountain of Adventure (Adventure #5) - Enid Blyton

112. Afterland - Mai Der Vang

113. Antarctica - Claire Keegan

114. Go, Sled! Go! - James Yang

115. Scritch Scratch - Lindsay Currie

116. Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham

117. Whale Day - Billy Collins

118. Cat + Gamer, Vol. 3 - Wataru Nadatani

119. Little Witch - Anna Elizabeth Bennett

November:

120. Assistant to the Villain - Hannah Nicole Maehrer

121. Weyward - Emilia Hart

122. Finn Family Moomintroll - Tove Jansson

123. Hanami: You, Me, and 200 Square Feet in Japan - Julia Cejas

124. The Shelterlings - Sarah Beth Durst

125. Termush - Sven Holm

126. Cat + Gamer, Vol. 4 - Wataru Nadatani

127. The Lost Bookshop - Evie Woods

128. Goblin Market - Christina Rossetti

129. Small Bomb at Dimperley - Lissa Evans

130. The Grift of the Magi - Ally Carter

December:

131. White Cat, Black Dog - Kelly Link

132. The Polar Express - Chris Van Allsburg

133. The Little Reindeer - Nicola Killen

134. Ollie's Ski Trip - Elsa Beskow

135. How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Dr. Suess

136. The Story of the Snow Children - Sibylle von Olfers

137. A Pirate's Night Before Christmas - Philip Yates and Sebastian Serra

138. Sipsworth - Simon Van Booy

139. Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree - Robert E. Barry

140. A Christmas Memory - Truman Capote

141. The Snowman - Raymond Briggs

142. The Christmas Owl - G. Sterer, E. Kalish, R. Kaulitzki

143. A Child's Christmas in Wales - Dylan Thomas

144. The Night Before Christmas - Clement C. Moore

145. Orbital - Samantha Harvey

146. Five on a Treasure Island (The Famous Five, #1) - Enid Blyton

147. Strongmen - Ruth Ben-Ghiat

148. You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, ed. by Ada Limon

149. Kids' Short Story Advent Calendar, from Hingston and Olsen

150. The Fabulous Zed Watson - Basil and Kevin Sylvester

©2024 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Everything I Read in December, 2024

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 19:24:00 +0000

A quick note on my month!

If you've been visiting my blog for a while, you probably know that I reread a pile of children's Christmas books every December. It changes from year to year. Sometimes I sit with a big pile and read one after another. Sometimes I skip some titles and just read a few favorites. Sometimes I stretch the reading out and/or add a couple longer stories like "A Christmas Carol" or a Christmas novel if I feel like it. I've been gradually adding titles to my Christmas pile for years as I've found children's Christmas books help me get into the spirit of the season, even if I'm having a grumpy December. And, in recent years I've also purchased the annual Short Story Advent Calendar from Hingston and Olsen. This year, I chose to read one Christmas or winter story per day (till I ran out) while also reading the Kids' Short Story Advent Calendar, which I bought a year or two ago, and slotting in a bit of regular reading. Because I read so many books this month, I've tried to keep the reviews a bit shorter but fair warning, this is a very long post.

December:

131. White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link - A collection of short stories loosely based on fables, White Cat, Black Dog is one of those books that I have mixed feelings about. I liked the first story, about a young man who is one of three brothers sent on various quests by their father. The wealthy dad says if they fetch him this or that, whoever returns with [whatever] will get the inheritance. But, it's really all a ruse to get them out of the house that leads to another quest, then another. When one of the sons meets a white cat who runs a marijuana farm, he finds himself happy, for once. It only gets weirder after that. The next story I don't recall but I hated it so much that I considered DNF'ing the book. Instead, I let it sit for a couple of weeks and then picked it up and finished. My favorite story was about a man who can only appear when it's snowing and who is saved by a girl who unpicks the embroidered fox on his coat and sets it free. I'm glad I stuck it out for that story. Still, not a book I'll hang onto.

132. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg - Last year was the first year I've read this story in spite of the fact that it was published in 1985 and I'm certain it came through the store when I was a bookseller. I remember flipping through but not reading it. Weird. This story of a boy who goes on a train ride to the North Pole, receives the first gift of the season from Santa, then loses the gift immediately has a lovely ending so I've added it to my annual Christmas/winter children's book rotation. The Polar Express is the first of my annual reads for 2024.

133. The Little Reindeer by Nicola Killen - Another book that was new to me in 2023, The Little Reindeer tells the story of a child who hears jingle bells, goes outside, and hops on a sled to locate the sound. When she finds a collar with bells on it and helps put it back on a reindeer, the reindeer takes her for a ride in the sky and then drops her off at home. While not much happens in this story, the illustrations make it magical. I love the bits of foil and the little windows that allow you to peer through to the following page. A beautiful book.

134. Ollie's Ski Trip by Elsa Beskow - Ollie gets some new skis and then must wait and wait for enough snow to go skiing. When there's finally a thick blanket of snow, his mother fixes him a sandwich for each pocket and tells him to be home by supper. In the forest, Ollie runs into Jack Frost and Mrs. Thaw, whom Jack chases away till spring. Jack Frost takes Ollie to visit the Winter King. Ollie gets a tour of the castle, meets children who make gifts for Christmas, and has loads of fun playing with them during their work break before getting a ride home. I think the main reason I love this book is that it brings back memories of the blizzard of my childhood that dropped enough snow to build a fort (in Oklahoma). Best. Winter. Ever. I would love to find more books by this author, who is known as the "Swedish Beatrix Potter."

135. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess - The Grinch cartoon was one of my childhood favorites and I can still recite a good portion of the book. When I read it, I hear the voice of the cartoon narrator in my head. I doubt anyone is unfamiliar with the story but just in case . . . the Grinch hates Christmas. The noise, the singing, the feast. All of it annoys him till one year he gets the brilliant idea to steal all the decorations, the presents, the food of the people down in Whoville. He'll stop Christmas! But, when he finds that Christmas goes on, the villagers perfectly happy without their toys or their feast, his heart grows three sizes and he joins in on the festivities. It's such a wonderful classic. A mean green curmudgeonly guy who learns his lesson! Christmas is joyful even without gifts! I will always love this story.

136. The Story of the Snow Children by Sibylle von Olfers - When Poppy gets bored after her mother steps out and then she sees snowflakes dancing but they turn out to be snow children, she hops on a sled and goes with them to an ice castle in the woods. There, she meets the queen and princess, joins in on a birthday celebration for the princess, plays with the snow children, and becomes so tired that the queen agrees it's time for her to return home (on a sled pulled by polar bears). Her mother is thrilled to see her. Published in 1905, when there was no such thing as a search and rescue team to comb the woods looking for a missing girl. Funny, this story always strikes me as the tale of a missing child who doesn't know she's missing. I still love it.

137. A Pirate's Night Before Christmas by Philip Yates and Sebastian Serra - A favorite of mine when I reviewed it many years ago, my husband gave the review copy to someone with a young child as we didn't yet have any grandchildren (I had planned to keep it but, oh well). I've been looking to replace it for years and it's finally available as a board book, so I ordered a copy and yep, it made me smile just as much as I remembered. Instead of Santa, there's Sir Peggedy, who comes up from the ocean in a sleigh driven by seahorses, the story told as a rhyme in pirate language. Loads of fun and I'm so happy to finally own a copy, again. I'll be dragging this one out yearly, for sure.

138. Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy - When I first read Sipsworth, earlier this year, I found it difficult to get through the first half because in that first half the main character, Helen Cartwright, is deeply sad and just marking time. She's lost her family, moved home to England, and is waiting to die . . . until the day she decides to bring home an aquarium full of garbage put out by the neighbor and discovers a mouse living inside. She wants to get rid of the mouse, at first. It's a rodent, after all. Instead he becomes a companion to her and his presence brings other people into her life. Quietly, everything changes and Helen acquires both a found family and reason to live. The second reading was even better because I knew great things were coming. This time I read it for group discussion, which I highly recommend. There's a terrific Reader's Guide available online.

139. Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert E. Barry - If I had to pick one childhood Christmas story to keep, Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree would be at the top of my list. Mr. Willowby is a rich man who gets a magnificent tree but it's a wee bit too tall. In rhyming verse, the book tells the story of the treetop that Mr. Willowby has cut off to keep it from touching the ceiling and bending like a bow. Passed to the upstairs maid, the treetop is too tall for her, too tall for the gardener and the fox and the bear, etc. Its top keeps getting lopped off, growing smaller and smaller till the last little bit ends up in a mouse hole, back in Mr. Willowby's house, right next to the original tree. Utterly delightful. I'll love this book forever.

140. A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote - One of the two books I absolutely must read every Christmas season, A Christmas Memory tells a story from Capote's childhood, when an elderly relative damaged by a childhood illness ("she is a child") is his best friend. Together each year, they save up their pennies to buy ingredients to make 30 fruitcakes to give and mail away as gifts. They go to the woods to chop down a tree and then make handmade decorations. Then they make each other kites and fly them together. This bittersweet tale ends with Capote being sent off to military school, never to see his beloved friend again. Beautifully told, of course.

141. The Snowman by Raymond Briggs - Another winter book I missed out on, published in 1978. A little boy goes out in the snow and builds a snowman, returning inside for a warm meal and to fetch various pieces like coal for buttons, an orange for his nose, a hat and scarf. Throughout the night, he watches in the hope that the snowman will come to life and when it does, the boy shows him around his home and then goes on a flying journey with the snowman. But, was it all a dream? I would have been fine with this wordless story being left a fantasy but the dream aspect was good, too. Except, then I had visions of Patrick Duffy in the shower (that's a Dallas reference for the youngsters).

142. The Christmas Owl by G. Sterer, E. Kalish, and R. Kaulitzki - Subtitled "Based on the True Story of a Little Owl Named Rockefeller", The Christmas Owl tells the story of a tiny owl who became trapped in the tree cut down and taken to New York's Rockefeller Center for Christmas. It begins with the owl noticing the beautiful lights being put up for Christmas and wondering what Christmas is. Then, she becomes trapped in the tree, is found by a worker when the tree is put in place, and is taken to a wildlife rehabilitator, who gets her back to full health and releases her so she can return home to her friends. A sweet story with beautiful illustrations and a nice extra section explaining what wildlife rehabilitators do.

143. A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas - The second of my two favorite Christmas reads that I absolutely cannot do Christmas without, A Child's Christmas in Wales is a story of boyhood Christmas mischief with the poetic wording you would expect from a man known for his poetry. A joyful, rambunctious delight full of personalities that reek of a different time and place (uncles relaxing without their collars on, aunts getting into the sherry). I love this book immensely. Recently, a friend took it a bit too literally. When the boys stand around pretending to smoke and then eat their cigarettes in front of a scandalized neighbor, for example, I believe they were pretending with candy cigarettes (sugar fags, which are mentioned by that name later). Wonderful.

144. The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore - You don't need me to say a thing about this classic, but what I will say is that my sister and I had the most gorgeous copy of The Night Before Christmas I've ever seen (a gift from our aunt and uncle) as small children and I've been looking for something comparable for years, decades even. I found a copy with art by Antonio Javier Caparo that I love. While not as eye-popping as the copy we used to own, the illustrations are as close as I've found to my childhood copy.

145. Orbital by Samantha Harvey - Not one, not two, but three of my friends are reading Orbital as I type, so I should have plenty of people to discuss with. Orbital is a slice of life story, completely plotless, about 6 astronauts in the International Space Station. While the ISS travels around the Earth 16 times in a day, the author describes their daily lives: the work and rest, their thoughts and dreams, what they see out of the window and how they feel, as well as their reflections on how they came to be astronauts. The view from both the windows and a space walk is particularly vividly described. My only complaint is that I would have liked to follow along in an atlas and I haven't had a world atlas since my last one was drowned when a room flooded in our old house. Pretty amazing writing. Samantha Harvey clearly did her research.

146. Five on a Treasure Island (The Famous Five, #1) by Enid Blyton - In this first book in the Famous Five series, Dick, Julian, and Anne are sent to stay with their cousin Georgina (who wants to be a boy and goes by "George") and her parents on the coast of England. George's family used to be very wealthy and owned a lot of land, including the nearby island with a ruined castle that's still in their possession. George's father is a writer and doesn't like noise, so the 5th in this group is George's dog, whom she pays a fisherman's boy to keep for her. When the group goes for a visit to the castle ruins and is caught in a massive storm, a wreck from the ocean floor is washed up. The rest is all treasure-hunting adventure and danger, much like what's in the Adventure series by Blyton that I'm still working my way through. Loads of fun.

147. Strongmen by Ruth Ben-Ghiat - My childhood best friend recommended Strongmen to me, a few years ago. It was more up-to-date, then, but it still works as both a historical look at modern authoritarians, how they behave, what causes them to fly into a rage or shut down, and how all of these characteristics have been manifested in the incoming and former President of the United States, whose name I won't bother repeating. Y'all know him. What was particularly interesting to me was the parallels between the President-Elect and two strongmen of the past, in particular. He is closest to Mussolini and Berlusconi. Warning: authoritarians are into torture of all kinds, including sexual torture, "disappearing" people, and are not afraid to have minions kill those who have escaped or been exiled in the nations to which they flee. The part about torture was so miserable that I put the book down for weeks. My favorite part, of course, was reading about how authoritarian regimes end. While some of the strongmen described survived to die natural deaths, the violence they inflicted upon their people was often revisited upon others when they were finally deposed. An excellent book and one that every American really ought to read, right now. It ends at 2021 but is still every bit as relevant.

148. You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, ed. by Ada Limón - A broad variety of styles and approaches to the subject matter are included in this anthology of poetry that is loosely based on nature. I ordered a copy to read for my friend Buddy's Contemplative Reading Project and enjoyed it immensely. Some of the poetry went over my head. That's always true. But, most of my favorites had to do with trees, probably because I'm a person who manages to find a favorite tree in every town. I was also deeply moved by the poem by several Hawaiian authors, which was half written in Hawaiian and not translated but clearly an elegy for the lost community members of Lahaina. An excellent volume of poetry, highly recommended.

149. Kids' Short Story Advent Calendar by Hingston and Olsen - This will be my final short story advent calendar as they're a bit too expensive to buy in retirement. Fortunately, I bought this particular version a couple years ago and meant to read it in parallel with the regular version but decided two advent calendars was one too many, so I saved it. There were some great stories and a variety of well-known and not-known-to-me authors. My absolute favorite was a ghost story told in two parts.

150. The Fabulous Zed Watson by Basil and Kevin Sylvester - A note first about this book: it was 1 of 4 books in a teacher's classroom that drew complaints from a parent (I don't recall where) and for having the four books available to her students, the teacher was suspended from her job. I bought 3 of the 4 books to check out the content for myself. The Fabulous Zed Watson is about a non-binary tween who is a little obsessed with the mystery of what became of a manuscript that was never published. 4 chapters are available online, along with a poem. When Zed and their neighbor Gabe, Canadians, decide the poem may contain clues that lead to the missing manuscript and Gabe's sister has to go to Arizona to return to school, the 3 go on a road trip in search of clues. So, I guess the problem a parent had with this book was simply the non-binary and gay characters. There is no sexual content, whatsoever. But, Zed does explain a bit what it means to be non-binary and you get a glimpse of their experience with being dead-named and misgendered. For an older person like myself, "they, them, and their" are often confusing because I think of them as plural but in this book the pronouns are used sparingly and don't confuse the individual with the collective, so to speak. Zed is a delightful character whose goofiness rubs off on their companions. A really fun little mystery/road trip/adventure. No teacher deserves to have her job put at risk over this book.

Everything I Read in November, 2024

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 22:37:00 +0000

November:

120. Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer - Evangelina Sage (aka Evie) is in a bind. She has lost her job, her father is ill and can't work, and her sister is only 10 so Evie must earn their keep. Dazed and frustrated, she wanders into the forest near her village and gets tangled up in a fight between the king's men and the man known locally as the Villain but she isn't easily rattled. Impressed, the Villain offers her a job as his assistant and Evie accepts. At his hidden compound, Evie gets to work and quickly becomes beloved amongst the many employees. When it becomes clear that there's a spy amongst them and he's trying to kill the Villain, Evie sets out to find out who is betraying her boss. This was my online book group's latest selection. The discussion was fun. Everyone enjoyed it and we all pretty much agreed on its flaws and better points. It's the first in a trilogy, apparently, and I haven't decided if I'll read on. The ending was a cliffhanger and I tend to rebel against cliffhanger endings by refusing to keep reading a series. But I liked the story and there's more I hope the author has elaborated upon so . . . maybe?

121. Weyward by Emilia Hart - Three parallel stories about women in the same family are told in Weyward. In 1619, Altha Weyward is arrested and tried as a witch. Her mother was a healer and Altha has continued the tradition. But, now she stands accused of casting a spell to kill the husband of her former best friend, Grace. In 1942, Violet is kept close to home, knows nothing about her deceased mother because nobody will even speak her name, and hasn't even been to the nearby village. She has a deep connection to insects, birds, and other wildlife. When a cousin comes to visit her home, the Viscount's estate, while on leave from the army, Violet is told that she must be on her absolute best behavior. In present-day London, Kate hastily packs a bag to escape her abusive husband, traveling to Weyward Cottage in Cumbria, which has been left to her by her Aunt Violet. Violet and her brother, Graham (Kate's grandfather) were disinherited by their father, many years ago. But, Kate knows nothing about them and has overcome the pull of nature felt by other women in her family.

What will happen to the women in their timelines? What is the scandal that led to the disinheritance of Violet and Graham? Will Kate succeed at escaping her violent husband? What will Violet and Kate find out about their unknown history? I loved this book. It's beautifully written, atmospheric, and compelling. My only complaint would be the fact that there are so many awful men. But, we're certainly seeing plenty of hideous behavior from men after our recent election so that's easily dismissed. As I read the book I thought, "This story is every reason women need bodily autonomy."

122. Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson - The second in the Moomin series is so much fun I'm having trouble imagining myself passing it on (something that I still need to work on: parting with books I love). A hobgoblin has left his hat on a mountain. When it's found and brought back to Moominhouse, all sorts of wild, magical things begin to happen. Each time something is put inside the hat, the object is transformed, for better or worse. Most fun of all are the clouds that Moomintroll and his friends are able to ride around upon and the jungle that grows in and around Moominhouse, enabling everyone to have adventures inside their home. We are also introduced to Thingumy and Bob, two tiny creatures who have a unique mode of speech and a slight problem with stealing things. So. Much. Fun. I love the sweetness, adventure, and welcoming nature of the Moomins. Anyone who wanders to their home is always given a place to sleep and fed, no questions asked.

123. Hanami: You, Me, and 200 Square Feet in Japan by Julia Cejas - This graphic memoir, which I checked out via Hoopla as an ebook, is about a Spanish couple who decide to go to Japan for a year. He is a civil engineer who has given up engineering to compose music for gaming. She is an artist and the author of the graphic memoir. She says it's mostly true. The book is about their life in Japan, including difficulty communicating, expense, daily shopping for fresh foods, going to language classes, and the side trips they take to see places outside of their home in Tokyo. I liked the book for the peek into what it's like to live in Japan as a foreigner (the rules for trash and recycling sound particularly tedious). Having been to Japan, I did get a glimpse of some important things like not blowing noses in public (considered extremely rude) and slurping soup (acceptable because it shows you're enjoying your food). I liked the color combination of this book but because it's in pinks and purples, it's very hard to read on a phone and I'd recommend locating a paper version if you find zooming in and out tiresome and have eyes that aren't what they used to be.

124. The Shelterlings by Sarah Beth Durst - This middle grade book is about a group of animals who live in the Shelter for Rejected Familiars. Each of them has a magical skill but they're all considered useless magic skills. The main character, for example, is a squirrel named Holly who can conjure pastries. Her best friend is an owl who can turn himself to stone and back. Holly is seemingly the glue of the group as she has a very welcoming and sweet personality. While the animals all have a bit of a complex about their rejection, they have a garden and an orchard and they keep house together pretty happily. While Holly is trying to break through to a new resident, a lemur whose skill is finding lost things (and possibly taking them when she shouldn't), former resident Charlie, a beaver, returns from his wanderings. Charlie has arrived with a quest and says everyone will need to help find 7 objects to reset the Moon Mirror that grants magical gifts. While the animals go on adventures to find the objects, Holly notices that something about Charlie has changed. A bit too adorable and sweet for my taste, but I think I would have absolutely loved this book as a child. As an adult, I liked it more the further I read but it's not a book I'd return to.

125. Termush by Sven Holm - Published in 1967, this post-apocalyptic novel tells the story of a group of people who have survived an apparent nuclear war. Termush is a hotel that they've bought into, knowing that such a disaster was likely. It has its own supplies of food and water, a shelter for when the radiation level becomes dangerous outdoors, security, and a group of people who are sent to explore the nearby towns to see what's left of them and assess the dangers. In spite of what's happened, the residents go about their day without too much stress. The narrator meets a neighbor and they quietly begin to hang out together. Management occasionally disrupts their solitude with announcements or required gatherings. They go outside, but not far. Then, things begin to go wrong. Dead bodies are found on the property and then survivors begin to wander in. Should they be treated by the doctor at Termush or sent packing? What will happen when the number of survivors begins to grow? An unusual post-apocalyptic novel in that most of it is just about life going on for a number of people who had the means to stay safe when most could not. However, things escalate and the tension gradually grows. I read this book for a new book club I joined called the Tiny Book Club on the Fable app. Discussion was unfortunately nonexistent. I am (as of December 1) the only person who has posted my thoughts.

126. Cat + Gamer 4 by Wataru Nadatani - The 4th in this delightful manga series has Riko getting some surprising advice: get a second cat to keep Musubi company. Riko rushes to an event where kittens are up for adoption and ends up with a second cat whose adoption is on a trial basis to make sure the two kitties get along. She is also given advice about how to introduce the second cat gradually. At first, Musubi is freaked out and hisses at the stranger, but then the kittens get to know each other and begin to play, box each other, sleep together, and create general havoc. Anyone who has two cats who were introduced to their home separately will relate. Mine were brought home a few months apart and fortunately they adapted to each other in much the same way. Riko is adorably besotted and fascinated by the differing personalities of her two kitties. I love this series. Once again, I read the ebook on Hoopla.

127. The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods - In 1920s England, Opaline flees her home when her older brother tries to force her into an unwanted marriage. In present-day Dublin, Martha has escaped an abusive marriage, found a job, and is hiding out. Henry is in Dublin to search for a missing manuscript and has had an unusual experience with a disappearing bookstore. Or, maybe he was just hallucinating. Opaline's journey takes her to Paris and then to Dublin, where she opens a store and finds that the building seems to be trying to tell her something. Meanwhile, in the present day, Martha's new basement home is doing something magical and Martha is falling for Henry. But, Henry is taken and is only in Dublin for a short time.

Will Henry and Martha find the missing manuscript and find a way to be together? Is Martha safe in Dublin? Will Opaline's brother find her, again? And, how, in the end, will their stories intersect? 'Cause you know it's going to happen. While that intersection always exists in parallel historical/contemporary fiction, I did keep coming up with theories and then changing them, so The Lost Bookshop kept me guessing. And, it also really sucked me in hard, so I enjoyed it for the fact that I had trouble putting it down. Having said that, I do believe that the story was confusing at times, there were a lot of plot holes, and there was one strand of the story that was not satisfactorily explained. Although, of course, we're talking magical realism so not everything has an explanation. I gave the book 4 stars. I still loved it, flaws and all.

128. Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti - I've never read Christina Rossetti's poetry before so I decided to start with Goblin Market, which sounded like a good title for fall reading. The title poem is especially fascinating, the craving for fruit and indulgence in it obviously symbolizing greed/gluttony and its consequences. Cool, cool. Other things that jumped out at me were her hyper-religious emphasis on death, rest, looking forward to heaven, and . . . thwarted love or resistance to love? After reading her poetry, I think I understand why Rossetti never married as she seemed to have taken on the mantle of a nun without becoming one, putting God over earthly love. There are plenty of references to nature's bounty, as well. Bottom line: At times I was mesmerized by her descriptions and at other times I just felt like, "Get a grip, lady." Mostly about yearning for death/the afterlife. I really liked "Goblin Market" (the poem) because it reminded me of childhood fairy tales and was so vividly written I'm surprised I didn't have goblin nightmares.

129. Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans - Barbara, Lady Vere-Thisset, has chased down the Dowager Lady Vere-Thisset with a telegram saying the eldest son and inheritor of the Baronetcy of the Vere-Thissets (the original Vere-Thisset having been declared the Woodsman to the King in some far-off century) was killed in action in WWII. The war is over and the Dimperley estate, apart from having a bomb go off in its clover field, is intact. However, the place is really falling apart. The middle son is not able to take up the title because he had brain fever as a child and barely speaks. That leaves 23-year-old Valentine, who is quickly de-mobbed and sent home. Valentine is dyslexic, considered the plain/dull child, and not a businessman. With the help of one of the handful of people who work on the estate, an idea is hatched to try to save Dimperley from being sold for its land and the inhabitants turfed out. Will they succeed? A little romance, at least one exciting scare scene, a lot of gossip from the nearby village, and the interaction of various characters in this book make for yet another delightful and entertaining read by one of my favorite authors. I'm convinced Lissa Evans can do no wrong. I love her sense of humor. Side note: this is a very, very British book. I can usually read British English very well but I found myself wishing I still kept a vocabulary notebook so I could write down all the new words I learned.

130. The Grift of the Magi by Ally Carter - This ebook (read via Hoopla) is a seasonal novella from the Heist Society series. I haven't read the series but it's been on my radar so when I was looking for a quick Christmas read and happened across The Grift of the Magi, I checked it out immediately. I'm pleased to say that it stands alone fine. Katarina Bishop, her cousin Gabrielle, and most of her family are thieves. Kat steals in the manner of a Robin Hood, finding stolen art to return to its rightful owners. When a Fabergé egg from a series of which there are only 3 in existence is stolen from the charity to which it's been given to auction off, an Interpol Agent asks her to retrieve it to keep from embarrassing the charity by making the search public. It just so happens that the charity was established by the grandmother of Kat's billionaire boyfriend. The hunt will lead Kat and her team around the world. Will Kat's crew be able to locate the missing egg? I can't say much more without giving away plot points but what fun! I am definitely going to look up the first Heist Society book at some point. Not now, though. I only get 3 borrows per month from Hoopla and I've used them all up (for the first time, actually)! Sad face.

Everything I Read in October, 2024

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 16:10:00 +0000

October:

108. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy - I had not planned to read this memoir because the title put me off, but it was my book group's October selection. I wasn't able to attend the discussion, although a couple of us just answered the questions by WhatsApp so at least we got to chat about it a bit. Jennette McCurdy started acting at 6 and she was one of those children whose mother wanted to act but never was able to, so she pushed two of her children into acting to fulfill her own ambition. McCurdy was successful but never really happy as an actor, although it's worth reading to find out why and how being forced into acting amounted to abuse. What a surprising read. I don't want to spoil anything but I will say that the author had some major challenges to deal with, especially after the death of her abusive mother. I admire her for her dedication to getting her life under control and finding a new path. It was eye-opening to see how trauma and abuse linger long after the abused person is safe. A well-written, honest, and courageous memoir, highly recommended.

109. Cat + Gamer, Volume 2 by Wataru Nadatani - (ebook/Hoopla) The second in the Cat + Gamer series has kitty Musubi growing and becoming an inveterate climber. Unsure of what to do about her climbing cat, Riko goes to ask the local shopkeeper for help and ends up buying a very elaborate cat tree. Then, she goes to the shopkeeper's house (who humorously keeps saying, "Please don't call me 'shopkeeper'") where Riko meets her new friend's 3 cats and 1 dog, sees that even her huge cat tree can look small by comparison to a dedicated cat lover's setup, and gets further ideas. Meanwhile, she's still gaming and Musubi is still getting in the way, but every time it seems she's about to get upset, Musubi does something so cute that Riko has no choice but to pull out the camera. Adorable. I love this series.

110. The Elson Reader, Book Two by William Harris Elson and Lura Runkel - Published in 1920, this little reader is packed with stories, fables, poetry, and even contains a couple short plays. My friend and next-door neighbor (who got me into volunteering with the Friends of the Library) found it while we were working the library sale and asked if she should throw it out because it was so "old and dirty" (add physical shiver for effect). I flipped through it and said I'd take it off her hands. I figured even if the pages were falling out, it would be useful for collaging but I didn't look too hard. The pages were, in fact, intact, although badly stained so I started reading it and this reader is seriously like a time capsule. There's a wake-up story in which animals tell Baby Ray to wake up but he keeps sleeping while Mama goes to pump water for his bath and find wood to warm the water, milks the cow for milk to go with Baby Ray's breakfast, etc. Then, there's a story about two children after the Great War. Their town in France is rubble, Joan is living in a cellar but has a nice new coat and hat and is being well fed. Pierre is cold and hungry. Joan shows him where to get food and clothing, in one of the few buildings standing, where the American Junior Red Cross has sent supplies to help out. Wonderful little book. I'd love to find more like it.

111. The Mountain of Adventure (Adventure #5) by Enid Blyton - In this 5th book in the Adventure series, the children (Philip, Jack, Dinah, and Lucy-Ann) go to Wales with Mrs. Mannering and their good friend Bill. Once they arrive, they get to know their hosts on the farm at which they're staying, the Evanses, and then they make plans to ride donkeys for a camping trip up into the mountains to see the Valley of Butterflies. But, when Mrs. Mannering is injured and Bill stays behind to help, the children are left with a Welsh guide to take them and it turns out he's not so reliable. Plus, he can't read maps well. When the guide is frightened and he runs off with the mules, the children are left to fend for themselves. They end up exploring a nearby mountain, where they get tangled up in yet another adventure in which there are bad guys and a mad King of the Mountain who is making people test one of his inventions. Incredible plotting, as always. But, The Mountain of Adventure was my least favorite of the series, so far, I think because I don't like the idea of being trapped in a dark mountain with twisty passages. I'm still impressed.

112. Afterland: Poems by Mai Der Vang - There's no way to sugarcoat Afterland. It's rough. Mai Der Vang is the child of Hmong immigrants who fled to America during the Vietnam War. I got the sense that she was working through the horrors her parents witnessed through her poetry. Some of the bloody violent images are very, very difficult to read. But, it's not all war and people getting blown up. There are a few other poems lacking the violence but which tackled other subject matter that's difficult. One was a poem about living in a noisy, trashy area with no view and the final line is, "My parents fled for this." My absolute favorite line is from, "This heft upon your leaving":

"Now what century
fell down at your door?

What cold bowl of oats
did you repurpose into blessings?"

113. Antarctica by Claire Keegan - I've read 5 books by Claire Keegan, now. Small Things Like These and Foster were my favorites. The two that were my favorites just blew me away. The others . . . not so much. Her writing never varies from being spectacular. She has a fine skill for creating 3-dimensional characters and settings. But, her stories are often bleak or harrowing. The first story in Antarctica (the title story) was so upsetting that I didn't sleep the night I read it. 3 of the stories in the collection were surprisingly set in the American Deep South. Since I live in the Deep South, you can imagine that I read them with a critical eye. All I can say is, "Write what you know." I often feel a little discombobulated by her Irish settings because there are no dates, but they certainly feel authentic, regardless.

114. Go, Sled! Go! by James Yang - If you've been hanging out at my blog on occasion, you probably know that I attended high school journalism with author and artist James Yang. Every now and then, I buy one of his children's books for fun. Go, Sled! Go! is my latest purchase by James and it is a delight. The story is about an unnamed little boy who is going down a mountain on a sled but creatures keep getting in his way and then ending up on the sled with him (or in the case of a waddle of penguins, getting toppled). They eventually sail over a village and then tip off a cliff and end up head-down in the snow, where they emerge to spot a sign pointing out that there's cocoa nearby. While they're drinking cocoa, the boy asks if anyone wants to go for a second ride and everyone declines but he goes on alone. I particularly loved the part where a single snowflake tips the sled over the cliff and they go on a wild ride, complete with lengthy scream. James has a great sense of humor and kept me laughing in high school. He's still making me laugh. Go, James! Go!

115. Scritch Scratch by Lindsay Currie - I heard this middle grade book was nice and scary, a couple years ago, and onto my wish list it went. Claire wants to be a scientist and thinks like one. So, she's really not impressed with her father's published book about ghosts and she has no interest in his ghost tours around Chicago. Then, one night he needs her to take the place of a regular employee and a ghost follows her home, the ghost of a little boy wearing a white knickerbocker suit who then proceeds to cause chaos in her home and school. Claire quickly tires of sleeping in the closet to stay away from the ghost and isn't willing to tell her parents about the ghost boy for fear her father will simply turn it into fodder for his next book. But, she needs to find out what the ghost wants so he can rest in peace and eventually she gets some much-needed help. There are a few scenes I would avoid reading right before you turn out the light because they're genuinely unnerving but otherwise I found that Scritch Scratch was about perfect for a girl who is prone to nightmares. I may hang onto this one for a future fall reread and will be looking to see if my library has more books by Lindsay Currie.

116. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham - When Tina of Book Chatter decided to have a read-along of this classic, I jumped in because I remembered enjoying it, many years ago. My copy is an abridged version printed in 1965 with a nice note from the author about why his original book was not so sacred (nor is any other, in his opinion) that it shouldn't be abridged. Philip's story begins with a dying mother. He's taken in by his aunt and uncle, who have no children, and eventually sent away to school, where he excels until he grows weary of school and decides not to finish or go on to Oxford. Instead, he tries one profession and then another. He gets tangled up with a manipulative woman who keeps coming back into his life and runs him out of money. Will he ever break free of Mildred and settle on a profession? Will Philip ever be satisfied with his life? Well, I don't want to ruin it but I felt like Of Human Bondage ended on a perfect, uplifting note. No wonder I loved it the first time.

117. Whale Day: Poems by Billy Collins - I've been a Billy Collins fan for some time so I tossed a couple of his books into the cart when I was in a low mood and soothed it with a Book Outlet purchase. Whale Day is much the same as the rest of his poetry but this particular collection was published in 2020 and I have to wonder if that explains the sheer quantity of poems in which he talks about friends who have died and muses about his own mortality. As always, I enjoyed the collection, but I confess that nothing really jumped out at me. I had no particular favorites that I was eager to mark. I did learn a few things. I'd never heard of a frigidarium, for example, a pool with cool water pumped in from outside using aqueducts, which Romans bathed in before moving to the heated pool (or vice versa). And, I looked up a couple of artists who were unknown to me. At any rate, while not my favorite, I enjoyed the book and I particularly liked the way Collins talked about his wife and cat. There's clearly a gentle love going in the Collins household.

118. Cat + Gamer, Volume 3 by Wataru Nadatani - (ebook/Hoopla) In this third entry in the manga series, Riko is excited to get a new game and decides to live on less sleep to give herself more time to work on completing the game. But, kitten Musubi gets the zoomies during her short sleep time, making it even shorter. And, when Riko gets online to play a multi-player game, Musubi keeps getting in the way and messing things up. Really, not all that much happens in Cat + Gamer but it's always about both Riko slowly learning how to be a cat owner and the sweetness of how much she adores her kitty and is willing to overlook all kinds of chaos because he's so cute. My favorite thing, as always, was the cat art. It's so utterly spot-on that I often find myself stopping to admire the perfection of how the artist portrays cat expressions and movement.

119. Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett - (ebook/Hoopla) Published in 1953, Little Witch is the tale of Minikin Snickasnee (aka Minx), a 9-year-old girl whose mother is a witch. Minx doesn't want to be a witch. Her mother is cruel; the 7 children she turned into potted plants are proof enough. Minx has been doing experiments when her mother is out on her broom at night, trying to conjure up a fairy. One day, she decides she's tired of being alone and she's going to go to school like a regular child. There, she immediately makes a friend who invites her home to meet the great-grandmother who cares for her large family. The children agree to visit Minx in her home, even though they know it's dangerous. They, too, would like to try to conjure a fairy. What will come of the brews Minx and her friends cook up? Will Minx's mother turn them into potted plants if she comes home early? I read this book on the patio on Halloween. It was raining heavily and our doorbell only rang twice during a lull in the rain before we gave up on expecting any more little wet children and retreated to the patio. Reading a witchy children's book on Halloween with rain pouring down and a nice cup of coffee was pretty much perfect.

Everything I Read in September, 2024

noreply@blogger.com (Bookfool) — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 18:30:00 +0000

September:

98. The Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood - Delphie is hiding from the world. She's a talented artist but collects art supplies and doesn't use them because of a bullying incident, years ago. She has a downstairs neighbor she considers her enemy and an elderly man across the hall whom she watches out for, fixes breakfast, and checks in on regularly. When she dies and ends up in a very strange afterlife, she meets her soulmate, Jonah, and worries that elderly Mr. Yoon won't be able to live without her. Then, it turns out that Jonah's not really dead so he's sent back. Delphie begs to return to her body, as well, and is given 10 days to get Jonah to kiss her. If he does, she will be allowed to stay alive. But, Delphie doesn't know Jonah's last name or where in London he lives. With the help of her annoying neighbor, Delphie goes on a quest that will take her through a host of romantic tropes and into a large circle of friends and an unexpected fling. But, will she find Jonah and get a kiss in time to continue living or end up dying all over again? What a sweet, funny, inventive story! My friend and former blogger, Brittanie, read this book, loved it, and gave me her copy when we met for lunch. I'm so glad she did because it was just the kind of light-hearted read I needed.

99. Wool (Silo #1)by Hugh Howey - I've had Wool on my shelf for a dozen years and was friends with Hugh Howey at NaNoWriMo in the early years. Since my eldest son has recently reminded me that the Silo series has become a TV program on Apple+ and I happened to find my copy of Wool in the Library Annex (aka, the "closet"), it seemed like the perfect time to read it. And, let me tell you . . . anytime is the perfect time. Juliette is a mechanic in the Down Deep of the silo in which she lives. After the previous sheriff is sent out for "cleaning", a form of the death penalty, the mayor and deputy come all the way down to Mechanical (by stairs—about 160 floors) from Up Top to ask her to take over the job as sheriff because she was helpful in a recent murder investigation and the deputy thinks she's smarter than most. Juliette is curious what happened to Sheriff Holston and his wife. Why did they both go to cleaning willingly? Were they crazy? Is it really toxic outside or is someone hiding the fact that the outdoors is safe? What will happen when Juliette begins to find answers . . . answers that are forbidden knowledge? Wow. Just, wow. What a fascinating, thought-provoking dystopian story. I have the next two books in ebook form and I'm going to try to stretch out the reading like I did with Wool because I enjoyed it so much. Highly recommended.

100. Before We Say Goodbye (Tales from the Cafe #4) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - The fourth book in this lovely time travel series is more of the same. A man wants to say something important to his wife before she falls into a coma. A woman who is distraught that she was unable to stay awake for her beloved dog's last breath thinks about returning to see the dog one last time. A young lady who turned down a proposal and regrets it decides to go back to the day of the proposal, even though her boyfriend later left her for someone else. A daughter who was extremely rude to her father and then never saw him again wants a second chance. As I said elsewhere, the stories are always a bit on the saccharine side but it's a good kind of sweet. Everyone goes into time travel knowing they can't change the present. And, yet they go anyway, often with the hope of saying something kinder and turning a bad moment happy. I love this series and will continue reading them as long as more are released. I read Before We Say Goodbye on ebook via Hoopla.

101. Three Rivers Rising by Jame Richards - A book about the Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood, I think in 1889. I've had this book on my shelf since a friend recommended it and I got a copy from Ye Olde Paperback Swappe (before it was ruined by additional fees and I left). Celestia is wealthy but she has fallen for Peter, a young man who is common. She spends the summer in the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club with her family and he lives in Johnstown, where his father works in the mines. Maura has four small children and another on the way but she's happy living with her small brood while her husband works as a train engineer. There's also another woman whose beloved boyfriend drowned and who is training to be a nurse. When it rains heavily and the dam fails, sweeping away most of two towns, their stories will collide. Written in verse, Three Rivers Rising is a super fast read but I guess I'm just made to drag things out because it could be read in a couple hours and instead I spread it out over several days. The story is fictionalized but, like The Watch That Ends the Night (a book about the Titanic, which I read earlier this year), you get to know the characters long before disaster strikes so it's all the more real when the flood happens. I got a little teary toward the end.

102. Cat + Gamer, Volume 1 by Wataru Nadatani - An ebook I found while perusing Hoopla, the first in the Cat + Gamer series is about a young woman who is considered anti-social because she rushes straight home after work and always turns down invitations to go for a drink or to a party with her work associates. Riko's a gamer and spends every spare minute playing video games. But, when a kitten is found in the parking lot outside her workplace and she agrees to take it, everything changes. Suddenly, she's got to figure out how to care for a small creature and the kitten takes time away from her gaming. But, she's completely besotted with her new friend. I particularly liked this book for the cat art. The artist is extremely good at capturing the expressions and movement of a cat. But, it's also a sweet story.

103. The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James - A nice, creepy ghost story set in the 1920s with a side of romance, The Haunting of Maddy Clare is about a woman who works temporary jobs and has no living family. When Sarah Piper gets a request to go for a job interview, she's not expecting a ghost hunter to be her future employer. Alistair Gellis is a handsome, upbeat man who travels around, trying to prove or disprove the presence of ghostly spirits and then writing books about them. He has a regular assistant, Matthew, but he needs a woman because the ghost in question hates men. In life, Maddy Clare was found muddied and traumatized. Taken in by the elderly Clares and their housekeeper, Maddy stuck close to their home till she took her own life. Now, she haunts the Clare barn and Mrs. Clare says she's become intolerable. The reason for Maddy's trauma is eventually revealed (and fairly predictable) but I thought the author did an excellent job of slowly peeling the onion, so to speak, and writing some genuinely frightening scenes. The ending was also extremely satisfying. A perfect fall read.

104. Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg - A children's picture book, Just a Dream tells the story of Walter. A litterbug who doesn't bother sorting trash from recycling, Walter likes to daydream of a utopian future world in which people own robots. He's perplexed when his neighbor is excited about getting a tree for her birthday. He wishes to see the future but when Walter falls asleep and his dream comes true, what he sees is a ravaged world that changes his opinion of how he should live. I'm surprised I've never read this book since it was published in 1990 but it certainly shows how little progress we've made at stopping such things as clear-cutting of old grown forests. I like the fact that Walter learns his lesson and is excited about planting a tree, in the end.

105. Pretty Little London by Sara Santini and Andrea Di Filippo - Italians living in London, the authors of this book have a very popular Instagram account in which they show little tucked-away places that are must-see London spots. At least, in their opinion. A beautiful book that I bought mostly for the photos and nostalgia (it's been about 7 years since we visited London, maybe longer), it's designed primarily for visitors who want to find places to take Instagrammable photos and divided by the seasons. There were a few things I disliked about this book: 1. There's no index, although there is a map at the beginning of each section. 2. Sometimes the photos are captioned and sometimes not — and I prefer to know exactly what I'm looking at. 3. There's a lot of focus on places to buy drinks, stay in hotels, and eat. Our London visits have primarily involved a borrowed flat, frozen food from Marks & Spencer, and cheap sandwiches from news agents and drugstores. I haven't checked hotel prices but those shown all look very expensive. I especially enjoyed photos and descriptions of places we've enjoyed on past London visits, some of which brought back some wonderful memories. There's no copyright date that I can see in the book but I did notice Pollock's Toy Museum is one suggested place to visit and it's sadly been closed for a couple years. I only know this because I was thinking about it recently and looked it up.

106. Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson - This is the second collection of short stories I've read by Jackson, not including a book that had a hodgepodge of stories and essays. The other was The Lottery. It seemed to focus more on social issues while the Dark Tales stories are very subtly horrifying stories in which Jackson beautifully sets the scene and then ramps up tension. My particular favorite was a story about a girl who is probably what you could call strongly psychic. She knew her parents were going to die in a car accident months before the neighbor came to deliver the bad news and has already finished mourning. Her neighbor just doesn't understand. However, she knows her obligation and takes her in. But, the girl keeps making predictions, they keep coming true, and the neighbor still can't be bothered to pay attention to what's happening all around her. Masterfully written and a book I'll definitely return to.

107. Dial A for Aunties - Meddelin (Meddy) Chan fell in love in college but never could convince herself it was safe to introduce Nathan to her mother and meddling aunts. And, then there's the family curse — all the men leave. Is it even worth it to try to keep him in her life? Now, she's a photographer in her family's wedding business. There's a big wedding coming up but when Meddy's mother sets her up with a hotel manager and things go wrong, she has a body to deal with. Enter her 3 aunties and mother, who will do everything within their power to help a family member in need. A bit on the slapstick side and it took time for Meddy to grow on me because she started out slightly bristly but the further I got into Dial A for Aunties, the more I enjoyed the story. I love Jesse Q. Sutanto's sense of humor and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

I consider this a pretty good month. I didn't read any more than I read last month, but I no longer felt like I was in the midst of a slump and I liked or loved everything I read. I'm particularly enjoying supplementing my home library with ebooks from Hoopla when I need a lighter read. Having run out of new mangas in my house, it's exciting to find something I like through the library. Images of the two ebooks are below the flatlay image. If I had to pick one favorite, it would be almost impossible but . . . I'm going to say Wool because it was the most immersive. Other favorites were The Haunting of Maddie Clare, Dark Tales, The Love of My Afterlife, and Dial A for Aunties, with honorable mention to the Cat + Gamer, which has terrific cat art and made me smile. I'm also still enjoying the Tales from the Cafe series and looking forward to the next release, which friends tell me is coming soon. On to October!