What are you reading in September 2020?

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

It's September already and summer is drawing to an end in the northern hemisphere. I have been rereading some of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, and am currently listening to book 2 of the Once and Future King by T.H. White ("The Queen of Air and Darkness") while trying to use some of my yarn collection to make a baby blanket.

What are you reading?

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5 years ago

I would think you would need a keen interest in the subject to want this book but I'm halfway through 'Dead Doubles' by Trevor Barnes and it's riveting... I pre-ordered from Amazon in the summer and it was released a few days ago.. he writes quite well, enough to make me feel I'm either with the Spies or the Security Services watching them...

..meticulously researched including recently declassified files... Mr Barnes studied espionage at University, has been a crime writer and journalist.. so plenty of experience..

..it's about the infamous Portland Spy Ring of 1960, stealing secrets from a naval base in England... those involved included the well known American communists Peter and Helen Kroger..

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Carolyn Newlen
5 years ago
Good story about Brighton/Hove. On our month-long trip around the British Isles and Ireland, DH and I spent a night in Brighton sans chambermaids.

I have started The Game by Laurie King. Mary Russell and Sherlock are in India beginning a search for Kipling's Kim.
netla
Original Author
5 years ago
I reread Charlie All Night by Jennifer Crusie last night and moved straight on to Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson and finished four chapters. Had forgotten a very funny scene in the first and just how overall funny the second one is - and I really needed those laughs. Then I went and checked if any other novels by Watson had been reissued, and was disappointed to discover it has not. I think I'll go and browse the Persephone Books website to see if I can find similar books.
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I am so far behind that I'll never catch up. I stayed busy towards the end of the week, baking multiple batches of desert from scratch for the luncheon following Chris' funeral and burial, and had to make two birthday cakes for Aurora...because, apparently, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic it is advised to put the birthday candles on a small cake or cupcake for the birthday child, and let them blow out those candles while having a separate cake for people to eat---a cake no one has breathed all over apparently. So, her birthday candle cake was a small confetti cake with pale pink frosting and her official birthday cake was a hot pink colored vanilla cake with sparkly hot pink sprinkles on top of hot pink vanilla frosting from a can. (The candle cake frosting was a buttercream made from scratch though.) am, quite honestly, sick of the kitchen now and don't intend to cook anything today. Either we'll go out to eat or eat cold sandwiches because I'm officially on kitchen strike. After spending a couple of days in the kitchen baking, I don't even want to eat any baked goods myself. : ) Larry, I have had stored sweet potatoes last up to 18 months in the upstairs spare bedroom, and had some like yours that I just let sprout and grow all winter, and then I took slips from them for spring planting. It is amazing how long a well-cured sweet potato can last when stored indoors. Larry, I think the furnace parts of the HVAC system are harder to repair than the AC air compressor type parts. Tim can fix a lot on the AC himself but has to call the repair guy when the heater needs repair. Nancy, It was such a hard week. I am not sure if anything prepares us for losing someone we love who is younger than we are---it feels unnatural. I know you understand that yourself. This summer we've seen two friends in our own age group, one a wee bit older than us and one a wee bit younger pass away rather suddenly and unexpectedly and I found it much harder to bear than when we lose someone a generation ahead of us. I hope you are feeling better and less melancholy. One of the hard parts about aging (and I know it is a privilege to live long enough to acknowledge that we are getting older....) is that we increasingly lose everyone in our age group and older than our age group--first, perhaps, our grandparents and their generation, then our parents and their generation, and then we start losing cousins, siblings and contemporaries from our school days. Perhaps this is why we increasingly find ourselves turning peculiar and talking more and more to our cats and dogs, or to the garden critters like hummingbirds and butterflies, who are great listeners but cannot carry on much of a conversation with us themselves. (grin) Some friends who used to live here in our neighborhood but who moved down to the DFW metro area about 13 or 14 years ago, stopped by our house after the funeral yesterday and we were sitting around the dining table trying to run through a list of all the local friends and neighbors who had died just in the last year or two and it was an alarmingly long list. We've gained new neighbors and friends, of course, but the newer ones tend to be more in Chris' and Jana's age group, or younger, and not so much in ours. I don't understand how Tim and I have gone from being the newest transplants and pretty much the youngest adults in our neighborhood to being among the oldest. It seemed like it happened so quickly, although of course it has been longer than two decades, because we bought our land here in 1997 and moved here in 1999. I wish I could slow down time, or wave a wand and bring back all of our marvelous old neighbors who were so kind to us and so helpful when we moved here and were attempting to turn a fallow cow pasture and accompanying woodland area into a home, garden and yard. I miss chatting with them all. My greenhouse is only a hoophouse, and an unheated one at that, and I don't even use it as much as I thought I would. We built it mainly to give me a way to grow on transplants outside in it in late winter and early spring after they outgrow the light shelf, so it was going to be an intermediate step between indoor seedlings and transplants going into the ground, but I have used it some years to overwinter zone 8 plants in pots, particularly brugmansias and citrus trees, and even to attempt to grow some garden crops in winter. What I learned from that was that my hoophouse could be used to grow cool-season crops like lettuce and other greens in winter if I used shadecloth and opened all the doors and vents daily to keep it from building up too much heat and inducing cool weather plants to bolt, or I could overwinter tomato and pepper plants in pots by letting it get pretty hot during the day time....but I couldn't do both things at the same time, obviously. If I keep the pepper and tomato plants happy and somewhat productive in winter (fruit size remains small and very slow growing in the greenhouse in winter and it isn't really worth the effort) then the lettuce burns up and vice versa with keeping it cold enough for lettuce which kills off the tomatoes and peppers at night. It needs a new plastic cover and I'm toying with the idea of not getting it one. Maybe we'll move it to the garden, which would involve talking it apart and moving one piece at a time through the garden gate, and cover it with something and using it more in there. I've stared at it and its wind-shredded plastic all summer trying to decide what to do with it this fall, and cannot make up my mind. I'm going to have to decide one way or another though. Larry, Going to sleep every time you sit down sounds like a nice goal. I feel like I could take a nap or two daily and maybe then be more energetic for the rest of the day if I did that. I remember when my dad used to come in from work and sit down in his recliner and nod off while mom was getting dinner on the table, and he was only in his 40s or 50s then. Even a brief little cat nap seemed to revive his flagging energy. Hard work wears out a body at any age, though I do think it wears me out more easily as I get older. I am sure you have found the same to be true. Amy, I generally don't like handling any caterpillars bare-handed, but can tolerate picking the broccoli worms off the plants bare-handed when they are small. I hate those things and they are so destructive to seedlings. I hope you can find replacement plants. HU, Technically you can eat Austrian winter peas, and I might do it if it were a matter of life or death, but the peas get tough and fibrous while very young, so if you want to eat them, eat them while they are small like baby peas. Don't expect them to be all tender and tasty like sugar snap peas though. Larry, I find fall planting so challenging in our climate. It seems like it is too hot and the soil is too dry (or, if it has been raining, too soggy wet) to plant in August and sometimes September and to get a good stand of seedlings, and then the day length is getting too short by the time the conditions moderate and plants finally sprout. I think my last really outstanding fall garden was way back in 2012, although I may have had a half-decent one in 2016. More and more, I am so tired of the heat that I don't want to deal with a fall garden at all, although a lot of that is because of the timber rattlers that come out of the woodland adjacent to the garden to plague me. Then, when the weather cools off in October and I think a fall garden would be nice, it is too late to plant much of anything down here except garlic and spinach. Amy, I found Autumn Joy and several other sedums at Lowe's last fall, but all of them were exhausted and half-dead summer plants that hadn't sold....and which clearly hadn't been watered enough and were barely clinging to life. None of them were new plants for fall sales. I bought them off the clearance/almost-dead-plant rack with just a glimmer of life visible in them and planted them anyway, cutting back all the dead parts pretty hard, and now they look great after being in the ground for about a year. Jennifer, This death hurt so much....and not just for us but for a huge number of people. Firefighters from the D-FW metro who had worked with him at various fires, mostly but not all from his three decades as a professional firefighter with the Lewisville TX FD, came to his funeral in droves. Various professional fire departments provided personnel to perform the traditional firefighter funeral tasks, and even an honor guard from D-FW Airport's fire department, where Chris' son works with our son, took part in the ceremony. A man as active and seemingly healthy as him just shouldn't be gone so soon, and that is a widely-shared feeling here. He had just barely turned 60 and seemed to be very healthy until Covid-19 hit him. I hate Covid-19 and hate that it took his life prematurely. His youngest grandchild, still an infant, won't even have first-hand memories of him and I totally hate that fact. I social distanced and stayed home with the grandkids (and though I hated missing his funeral, I have no regrets there because I am so prone to respiratory illnesses) but Tim estimated there were about 1,000 people in attendance. Social distancing was not being practiced, though his family masked up and arranged the services to allow as much social distancing as possible. They could not force people to comply with proper distancing though. Tim did say that virtually everybody present was wearing a mask, which is a shock because you don't see a lot of folks masked up here in our county in general. We've never had a funeral here that big, and it had to be held at the football stadium because no building in town was large enough to contain it, and the family and funeral home did a great job of planning for a large crowd with lots of help from the fire departments and emergency management personnel. Parts of the procession and services were live-streamed and I could watch it at home while helping the girls blow up balloons and decorate for Aurora's birthday party. For a 6-year-old she was extraordinary in accepting that the birthday celebration she was having later in the day was not at all the one we originally planned and she never complained on e, and she told me she thought Capt. Kirk was "a handsome man" and said yesterday that she wished she had known him herself. I'm also grateful to our many friends who took photos and videos and posted them as it enabled me to see as much of it as possible. Now, we all take a deep breath and carry on, and try to support and encourage his family as much as we can while they grieve and adjust to their new reality. For the garden area you feel is underperforming, how about a soil test? Perhaps one nutrient or another is out of kilter there and a soil test would show that. I am looking at my increasingly shaded garden, built beginning in 1999 about 15' from a woodland that now has grown out to its fence, and thinking we need to move the whole thing. I hate this, but it will become inevitable at some point unless we cut down a bunch of gigantic trees, which we'll never do. They are too big to cut down at this point without spending thousands of dollars per tree to pay someone else to do it. I really blame the almost 80" of rain we got in 2015 for this, because that heavy rainfall caused the woodland to explode in growth and suddenly a woodland that was some distance away from the garden was practically in the garden, seemingly overnight. I've been fighting a losing battle to keep the woodland out of the garden ever since then. In some future year, and not too far in the future, we should build a new raised bed garden closer to the house and further from the woodland, but I hate the thought of starting over. Even if we laboriously moved the current beds one wheelbarrow load of soil at a time so we don't lose all the great soil we've spent two decades building, which is what I'd prefer to do, I cannot image starting over in a completely new garden location. So, maybe we'll cut off the northern edge of the garden and let the woods have that back, and try to keep a much smaller garden going in the remaining raised beds in sunnier areas. Already, the front garden is only about 1/4 the size it once was, so I don't feel like we can surrender much more to the encroaching woodland. The woodland growth is so relentless though that it will win in the end. I keep daydreaming about a very selective tornado coming through, missing the house and garden, and taking out the acre of woodland next to the garden, but that is a silly pipedream that's never going to happen. Enjoy the showers and the lead-up to the wedding, and I hope your son returns from Portland healthy and happy. I understand why you aren't happy about him going there. That place is such a hot spot of activity lately. My sister is looking at yet another wedding I guess. Her stepdaughter got married in a beautiful vineyard wedding last month, and then on Friday night, her daughter became engaged to her long-time boyfriend. Love is in the air...apparently. Oh Jen, your poor friend and his fingers! My heart aches when I think of the pain and shock he must have endured. I wish him speedy healing and successful rehabilitation. A part of me agrees with Cliff, but I also agree with you. If woodworking is so vitally important to your friend, the kids won't even be able to make him give it up...nor should they. Perhaps they can help him review his work and ensure safety measures are in place. It often is when folks here have to give up farming or ranching that they quickly decline and then die. I believe being able to maintain their interests, livelihood and regular routines are what keep them going as they age into their 80s and 90s. Fred used to say we'd never see him give up his activities because the alternative was to just sit on the porch until you die. He had to cut back on his farming, ranching and gardening in his 90s, but his nephew and son did a great deal of it for him and around him and kept him mentally engaged in the process long after he no longer could physically engage in much of anything. Farmgardener, Thanks for understanding so well. Our friend mentored literally hundreds if not thousands of younger firefighters over the decades, and it was the most wonderful thing to see so many of them come here for his services and to comfort the family. Some people kept looking at all the fire apparatus and firefighters from a widespread area of Texas and scratching their heads and wondering what they were doing here in this tiny Oklahoma community, but those of us who knew how much he meant to those he mentored and taught understood exactly why all those folks came both from near and far. It now is the responsibility of all those younger firefighters to teach and mentor just like Chris Kirk and Jesse Kirk did for so many decades. No one ever thought we'd lose them both just 13 or 14 months apart, but if there is any comfort in this whole thing, it is that Chris is reunited with his father and mother in Heaven. We do have many accomplished firefighters and emergency management people here in our county who are extremely dedicated to continuing the work that he and his dad performed for decades, training and mentoring younger, newer firefighters and working to maintain unity between all departments and all personnel. That is their legacy that lives on behind them. There are so many virus cases here now that it is getting scary. Our daughter in law said this week that her hospital has 8 Covid patients currently, which is a lot for such a small hospital, and she is somewhat concerned by the rising number of patients. Down here along the river, we kept caseloads and hospitalizations low for months and were so pleased with that, but all that ended a couple of months ago and it has been increasingly bad ever since then. Since the virus spreads asymptomatically, literally any person with whom we interact could be carrying it, and that is what is of great concern. We always wear masks out in public, but I hate wearing one because it makes me feel so claustrophobic, so even if we go to the store, I rush through the experience and just hurry to get what we need and get out of the store so I can take off that mask. Leisurely shopping is a thing of the past. (Tim should enjoy this because the less time I spend shopping, the less money I spend. lol.) Friday night, Aurora said she really wants to go to Red Lobster (we took the girls there earlier in the summer before the virus case load began rising so much again) and eat crab whenever we can safely do to. It cracked me up, as she was munching on chicken strips at Cracker Barrel at the time, and crab seems like a rather exotic thing for a 6 year old to be craving. As far as I know, she hasn't eaten crab except for a bite or two that Tim gave her from his plate the last time we were at Red Lobster, but she must have liked it. She also gravely informed her she'd never eat shrimp because she is allergic to it (but we aren't sure she actually is allergic). Maybe one day we can take her to Red Lobster again once it seems safe to do so. Amy, I hope Ron is okay and is not still reacting to the flu shot. Dawn
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What are you reading? September 2022 Edition
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Comments (123)
I love Atonement. I just finished Fox Creek (Cork O'Connor) by William Kent Krueger, 3 stars. It was basically bad guys chasing good guys through the forest. There was initially some mystery and tension to it, but it just got long and drawn out. Where has tight, edge-of-the-seat storytelling gone? Yesterday, at about the 2/3 point, I went searching online for the ending, because I was tired of the narrative. I couldn't find it anywhere! No spoilers. So I buckled down and finished the darn thing. The character development doesn't amount to much. There's a strong Native American element that runs through it. And the force/thing driving the bad guys, some made up thing that I stopped caring about. I need to go back and read Ordinary Grace to remember why I love this guy's writing.
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What are you reading? September 2024 Edition
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Comments (34)
I am in a hiatus, having frozen all my library holds in anticipation of DD2's wedding (yesterday and it was wonderful, although the airline "lost" my suitcase sending me into panic mode. They found it, sent it on the next plane and expedited it to the hotel. I had to wear jeans and sneakers to the rehearsal dinner, but luckily, not to the wedding itself) plus I am taking an upcoming vacation in two weeks. But , not to worry; I've been knitting. Those baby sweaters aren't going to knit themselves. At the wedding, a number of young moms sought me out to say thanks and to show me pictures of their babies wearing my creations. I loved how the Jeopardy guy said that his wife worried that no one would publish Lessons in Chemistry, but it wound up on the bestseller list for 99 weeks. I loved The God of the Woods as well. I read The Long Bright River, and now I know about The Unseen World. Thank you Bookwoman.
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vee_new
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
netla, I also enjoyed Miss Pettigrew . . . and after I ordered it from Persephone Books I received their twice yearly magazine (free) for a while which always contained several interesting articles.

Persephone Books
annpanagain
5 years ago
I loved Miss Pettigrew, both the book and movie. I read somewhere that the author managed to sell the screen rights twice to the same production company!
kathy_t
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Vee - Thank you for the link to Persphone Books. Somehow, I have remained completely ignorant of this publisher (republisher?). Looks very interesting.

My bag o' books from the library has not yielded a keeper yet. Please let me know if you have read or recommend any of these. (I'm giving each one 20-30 pages to catch my attention.)

Leave Only Footprints by Conor Knighton, is a nonfiction description of the author's year spent visiting every U.S. national park. But in the opening chapters, there is much more about Mr. Knighton's reaction to a lost love than about the parks. And so I'm moving on.

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker - the first 15 pages look very promising.

The Night Visitors by Carol Goodman begins with an attention-getting situation. I can't tell if it's going to turn creepy or heartwarming.

The Other Side of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon. This novel from the 1970's about the murder trial of a bewitching international movie star in Athens has certainly grabbed my attention. This might be the one ... or the first one, at least.
masgar14
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
During my holidays in
August I started reading “Midnight Children”, by Salman Rushdie. that is the
story of children born on the stroke of the beginning of the year 1948 when
India began the story of its independence. They are 1001 children and they are
all telepathically united with each other,there is some magic-reaslism, and
each of them has one power, it is stronger
or less depending on how close he was born to the stroke of midnight. The
narrator is Saleem Sinai, which is the one born at the stroke of midnight, his
memory is omniscient, that is, he can remember events that took place before
his birth. The book is 645 pages, I arrived at page 150, that is to say at Saleem
birth, in the previous pages he told the
history of his family and other characters, I did not find it heavy, but I
struggled to give shape to all the characters of which he tells, besides I have
just read several books-tomes, and I wanted something more agile. So I dropped
it. Maybe during the Christmas holidays
I will pick it up again

So I started “Expo 58” by Jonathan Coe. The story is about Thomas Foley , an anonymous government employed who is sent to Belgium for a trivial work at the World’s Fair, and he is trapped in something bigger then him. The writing is a bit like Graham Green in what he called his divertissment, like “Instanbul Train” and the plot remind me the ones by Eric Ambler. In Ambler, kind of , spy stories, because rarely there is thrill in them, normal people get involved , in play of money, or power or spies, and the main characther have to deal with the situation in order to find a way out.

Expo 58 by
Jonathan Coe - Spies, girls and an Englishman abroad. Trust no one.

London,
1958: unassuming civil servant Thomas Foley is plucked from his desk job and
sent on a six-month trip to Brussels. His task: to keep an eye on The
Britannia, a brand new pub which will form the heart of the British presence at
Expo 58 - the biggest World's Fair of the century.

As
soon as he arrives, Thomas is equally bewitched by the surreal, gigantic
Atomium, which stands at the heart of this brave new world, and by Anneke, a
lovely Flemish hostess. But Thomas's new-found sense of freedom comes at a
price: two British spies are following him.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Expo-58-Jonathan-Coe/dp/0241966906/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2FBM971OA07Z&dchild=1&keywords=expo+58+jonathan+coe&qid=1599752247&sprefix=expo+58%2Caps%2C180&sr=8-1
sheri_z6
5 years ago
I'm nearly through Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World by Laura Spinney. Published in 2017, her story of how the world responded (or didn't) reads like a contemporary account of our own pandemic. I guess human nature is still the same and even with our advanced medical knowledge we are no wiser than we were 100 years ago.

I like her writing style. She cycles through what was happening all over the world as the pandemic took place in three waves over 1918-1919. She argues that the flu's impact was greater than that of WWI, and that the body count was much higher than reported at the time. She also focuses on places other than the US and Western Europe. The toll the flu took on India was shocking to me, as well as the possibility that this flu may have originated in the US (the jury is still out on that one). All in all, a fascinating book.

I also started The Great Influenza by John M. Barry, which is a bit drier. I'm not sure I'll finish it.
Carolyn Newlen
5 years ago
I really enjoyed The Game which got quite exciting before Sherlock and Russell got everything straightened out. They were sent to India by Mycroft to look for Rudyard Kipling's Kim.

After that I read The Day She Died by Catriona MacPherson, and if you don't like creepy, don't read it. You know right away that things won't go well, and I dislike reading with a feeling of dread all the way through, although you have to find out what happened to the poor people. I won't be reading any more by her.

Now I've started March Violets by Phillip Kerr, the first of a Nazi trilogy set in Berlin--speaking of dread--but at least you know the end.
yoyobon_gw
5 years ago
All The Devils Are Here - Louise Penny
netla
Original Author
5 years ago
Vee, that's cool. I love getting newsletters/magazines in the mail - I'm much more likely to read them in physical copies than online. I ordered my copy of Miss Pettigrew... from Amazon, but I have been browsing the Persephone Books website and have found a couple of books I'd like to order.

Annpan, that's quite an accomplishment ;-)
kathy_t
5 years ago
I just finished reading the new autobiography, The Answer is..., by Alex Trebek. For fans of the TV Game Show (that includes me), it's interesting reading. One of my favorite stories in the book is about Alex meeting Queen Elizabeth during her 1967 tour of Canada. The title of that chapter is "The Answer Is... A Lesson in Humility." (Each chapter title begins with "The Answer Is...").
annpanagain
5 years ago
Kathy, I am agog! What happened?
kathy_t
5 years ago
***SPOILER ALERT***
*** ALEX TREBEK AUTOBIOGRAPHY***

DON'T READ THIS IF YOU THINK YOU MIGHT READ THE BOOK!

.

.

.

Only because you asked, Annpan...

1967 was Canada's centennial year (which by the way, surprised me - I had to go to Wikipedia for confirmation) so there were a lot of special programs being held. Alex was asked to host a variety show as part of the festivities. At the end of the show, the performers formed a reception line onstage to greet Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, who were in the audience. As host, Alex was the last in line. When the queen got to him, she said, "Good show. Please tell me your name, and where you are from." As Alex answered, he noticed the queen looking over his shoulder. He looked back and saw that Prince Phillip had fallen behind because he was chatting with a troupe of gymnasts (twenty-year-old blond girls in electric-blue leotards, according to Alex). The Queen had to continue chatting with Alex for 4 or 5 minutes while waiting for Philip to catch up.

That evening, Alex says his phone rang off the hook, with excited friends and relatives, who'd seen the encounter on television, commenting on the fact that the queen spent more time with him than anyone else. They wanted to know why and Alex did not admit to the real reason. Instead he said "Well you know, we just got along."

The very next day, Alex was hosting another big centennial event, again with the Queen and Prince Philip in attendance, and again he stood at the end of the performers' reception line. Alex says, "I was thinking, Here comes my new best friend. I wonder what we'll talk about today? I stood a little taller. My chest swelled up. I smiled. And when she got to me, she said, "Good Show. Please tell me your name, and where you are from."
annpanagain
5 years ago
Kathy, thank you for that!

I enjoy quiz shows but often record them so that I can just get to the questions and zap through the ads and chats with the contestants!
vee_new
5 years ago
I am still plodding through Mirror and the Light possibly the most dense book I have ever read, but am determined to get to the end.

My 'lighter' bed-time read is The Sun King by Nancy Mitford. This has been languishing and gathering dust since 1969 when I bought it at London Airport before a flight to Canada. Needless to say I read about 6 pages on the 'plane and since then it has sat neglected. Has it been worth the long wait? Possibly not, as the reader is expected to already know so much about French history, the Court of Louis XIV, Versailles and the host of French aristocrats who filled the palace. There are several chapters on the many mistresses of the King and his brood of illegitimate offspring and the goings-on of his brother (referred to by Mitford 'the sodomite') Will I reach the end before total boredom sets in? It's doubtful as the pages are coming adrift from the binding and I'm finding the turgid facts mixed with the gossipy aristocratic style of writing "My dear, did you notice His Majesty raised his hat to that pretty little dairy-maid?" are both dated and heavy-going.
annpanagain
5 years ago
Vee, same with me and "Mirror". I skipped to the end and it is gathering dust which has to be whisked off fortnightly before the cleaner comes! She gets pained by my dust as she isn't allowed to do that, Agency rules.

Speaking of Agencies, I have borrowed a couple of Bea Abbot mysteries by Veronica Heley and have just started "False Fire". I find her writing style rather jerky and am wondering if the Fire Investigator should be so confrontational dealing with 10 year old girls she suspects of setting it either with indoor fireworks or a timer built from Internet instructions!

I shall persevere, however I might get too exasperated and give up or I might get to enjoy it. There is the intriguing puzzle of why two little girls were targeted by the arsonist...
yoyobon_gw
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Just found my copy of Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin on my TBR shelf......anyone read it?

"Excellent...a finely wrought portrait of Alice that seamlessly blends fact with fiction. This is book club gold " - Publishers Weekly ( starred review)

Blurb : Part love story, part literary mystery, Melanie Benjamin's spellbinding historical novel leads readers on an unforgettable journey down the rabbit hole, to tell the story of a woman whose own life became the stuff of legend.
msmeow
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I just finished The 18th Abduction, one of the Women's Murder Club series by Patterson & Paetro. I did not like this one so I'm glad I'm done with it. I read #19 a while back; if I remember enough I may not re-read all of it. And I see #20 is on the NYT bestseller list, so I guess the saga is continuing!

On the NYT list I also found a new (to me, at least) Scott Turow novel and a new Amos Decker novel by David Baldacci. I checked out both and will probably start the Turow book tonight.

Bon, how is the new Louise Penny book? As of yesterday I've moved up from 119th to 93rd on the waiting list, so I won't be reading it any time soon. :)

Donna
Carolyn Newlen
5 years ago
My latest was A Fatal Winter, one of the Max Tudor series by G. M. Malliet, and the first one I've read. Max is a very handsome Anglican priest who left MI5 to become one and whose village policeman likes to have him help solve hard cases. It was a delightful read, and I will continue the series. In this one he falls in love with a white witch, so that should be fun.
Carolyn Newlen
5 years ago
Started Louise Penny's All the Devils Are Here last night and can hardly wait to read more. It's good from the very beginning.
annpanagain
5 years ago
I have just finished The Murderer's Apprentice by Ann Granger. It is the only Ben Ross mystery in the library and I had forgotten about her books after she stopped the Fran Varady series, which I enjoyed. I shall request the others in this series through the State library system.

I never realised how bad the atmosphere was in Victorian London but I do recall how begrimed my skin was after going there to a theatre musical or play in the 1950s! I needed to steam my face using a bowl of hot water and my head covered in a towel. Then slather with a cold cream! I believe that coal fires have now been abolished and the air is a lot cleaner there.
vee_new
5 years ago
Annpan, you are right about the air quality in London and other big cities up to the late '50's. John can well remember the terrible winter smogs that used to envelope everything. His grandfather was a train driver out of Waterloo station and the fireman of the engine used to have to get down and place 'explosive devices' on the track which would show up the signals and make their train clear to on-coming traffic. I can remember after a day out in 'Town' ones cuffs and slip-bottoms (does anyone still wear slips/petticoats?) would be grey with grime.

Tiger in the Smoke sums up the feeling of those long winter nights very well.
annpanagain
5 years ago
I don't know if full slips are worn much but I have seen ads for knee-length half-slips in man-made materials in average sizes.

I had to make a couple of cotton ones for my sister around 2005 as she was an "off the charts" large size and also once for myself as I needed to wear an ankle length style to go under a clingy static material evening dress.

The weather here is appalling, wet and windy and very unlike Spring yet!
msmeow
5 years ago
Sadly, there seem to be very few slips in the US! And many young ladies who need them.
Carolyn Newlen
5 years ago
Another indication of my age. My daughter teases me about still wearing half slips under the dresses/skirts I still wear to church on Sundays. One of the stranger sights I've seen was someone wearing a long, sheer skirt under which appeared to be short shorts. Both black, no less.
merryworld
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I am almost finished with Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts. It's historical fiction about Mrs. Frank Baum, Judy Garland and The Wizard of Oz and was a book club book. It's a good story, but for some reason I'm never anxious to pick it up and continue. It's a bit of a slog, more due to my current frame of mind than the book. I have a few other books started, but none of them are completely capturing my attention either. Surprisingly, the one I'm enjoying most is Dreyer's English by Benjamin Dreyer.
sheri_z6
5 years ago
I just finished Jane Austen's Persuasion for my next book group meeting. I hadn't read this one before and it was a sheer pleasure to just sink into it and be transported. All my book buddies are huge Jane fans, so it should be a love fest when we meet next.

I just received the newest Robert Galbraith, Troubled Blood, and it's a door-stopper at 927 pages. I am eager to read it, but it's also a bit daunting. I still have a couple of library books to finish, The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai about a librarian who is kidnapped by a ten year-old, and Pandemic 1918 by Catharine Arnold, a collection of "eyewitness accounts from the greatest medical holocaust in modern history." For some reason I'm finding books on the 1918 flu fascinating and easy to read. Go figure!
msmeow
5 years ago
Thanks, Sheri! I just placed a hold on the new Robert Galbraith book. The library says I'm #132. :O With my luck I'll get it and the new Louise Penny at the same time.

I'm slowly working through The Last Trial by Scott Turow. I'm finding it very dry, but I'm interested enough in the story to keep at it.

Donna
yoyobon_gw
5 years ago
I just finished the last ( #5) Veronica Speedwell mystery.......and after a five book foreplay I was looking forward to a big bang ending ( so to speak).

Well, she handled it very discreetly and we were treated to a "lion mating in the wild" sort of analogy. Funny reading, but not what you expected after the five book buildup. Let's just say it wasn't a " sit back with a smile and light up a cigarette ! " moment. lol.

Now back to Gamache in All The Devils Are Here.
Carolyn Newlen
5 years ago
I have finished The Red Horse, the latest in James R. Benn's Billy Boyle series. We are in the last year of WWII and things are pretty exciting.
Rosefolly z5
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Not reading anything I'm loving, unfortunately. I just finished volume 3 in the Nevernight Chronicle by Jay Kristoff. I was actually pretty much over it -- way too gory -- but I had such a big investment in volumes one and two that I trudged along to the end. I do like resolution. Then I resolutely passed all three books along to a friend who enjoys fantasy at least as much as I do.

Now I'm reading this month's book club selection. Ronan Farrow's Catch and Kill is about his project to track down the Harvey Weinstein story. I had heard Farrow interviewed on public radio and he sounded fascinating. Well, it turns out that he interviews better than he writes, at least by my tastes. I'm just finding the whole book so boring. There is nothing really wrong with his writing style, but there is nothing very exciting about it either. And he had such material to work with!

Time for a re-read of a cozy favorite, then back to the TBR pile. I have over a dozen books in it that I was sure I wanted to read. Surely some of them will turn out to be as engaging as I had hoped. It's just a matter of finding the needles in the haystack.

Speaking of needles, I have taken up knitting again. It's been long enough since my thumb surgery that I feel okay to knit for short periods of time, hurray! I'm sticking to simple stitches.
vee_new
5 years ago
I have just come to the end of The Mirror and the Light which is also the end of Thomas Cromwell. The three books have been a marathon of a read ('though not one after the other). This one takes a more reflective look at what had gone before his 'imagined' brutal childhood and time in the Netherlands and Italy and his final realisation and acceptance that King Henry's need to get his own way overwhelms every rule of natural law.

There were some wonderfully descriptive passages . . . one about plums and another about the long list of so-called 'relics' collected from the monasteries; everything from the 'True Blood' of Christ to pieces of wood from the manger and material from Mary's gown, plus innumerable bones of saints. You paid your money and could gaze on these items and your troubles/illnesses would be blessed or cured.
annpanagain
5 years ago
I have just got "The Killings at Kingfisher Hill", a Hercule Poirot spin off by Sophie Hannah, from the local library. I borrowed an old Olivia Goldsmith novel "Bestseller" from our Village library and am glad I never attempted to write a book. Getting a first effort published sounds harder by far than actually creating it!

I shall stick to writing lyrics for my son who has been touring around Western Australia, picking up work. The pandemic is still closing the State border and creating opportunities for local talent. His act of popular songs with a guitar has gone down well! I am so pleased for him as it was disappointing to have to cut his holiday tour around the continent short.
Carolyn Newlen
5 years ago
I am now reading Purgatory Ridge by William Kent Krueger. It's the third of his series set in Minnesota and featuring Cork O'Connor, off-and-on sheriff, and his wife Jo, attorney, mostly for the Indians on a close-by reservation with all the attendant problems. They are good books, and it's been too long since I've read one of them.
laceyvail 6A, WV
5 years ago
I've been racing my way through Martin Walker's series that begins with Bruno, Chief of Police, a mystery series set in the Perigord. Not gruesome, great atmosphere, good characters and overall very well done. Great escapes from the news.
kathy_t
5 years ago
A couple of days ago, I finished reading The Night Visitors by Carol Goodman. It's about an abused woman and her 10-year-old son arriving on a late night bus in a town where they were seeking shelter from a violent man. The woman who was sent to meet their bus and drive them to a shelter decided instead to take them to her own home overnight (against the rules of the battered woman hotline) because of a snowstorm and icy roads. I've been going over it in my mind, trying to decide how I really felt about the book and whether I would recommend it. Basically, I really enjoyed the story, but when the ultimate scene occurred, it seemed way overdone, much too complicated, and the characters did not react realistically in my opinion. Prior to that, the book seemed pretty realistic to me and I liked the subject matter. There was a long denouement after the big scene which kind of brought me around to liking the book again. I'm conflicted!
rouan
5 years ago
I’m almost finished with re-reading the Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner in preparation for the release of her newest (and final) book in the series which is coming out Oct. 6.
Carolyn Newlen
5 years ago
I just finished Harbinger II by Jonathan Kahn, religious book about warnings to ancient Israel tied to present-day U.S. Not well written but quite interesting.
vee_new
5 years ago
I'm about a third of the way into The Dutch House by Ann Patchett and so far am finding it an enjoyable read, helped in that the book is a new copy from the library. I so dislike books that are falling to pieces or have torn and discoloured pages!

I have never read anything by AP; can anyone recommend anything else by her please?
msmeow
5 years ago
I finished The Final Trial by Scott Turow. I enjoyed it very much, though it was a bit long-winded and dry at times.

Now I’ve started Walk the Wire by David Baldacci, the latest Amos Decker story.

Donna
annpanagain
5 years ago
Our libraries tend to keep nice clean books and regularly sell books that are a few years old, even in good condition. This makes it hard to get early editions of any recently discovered series. I have had to buy them from places that have discarded volumes. I remember borrowing books from London libraries that were almost in pieces, a mindset from WW2, perhaps?

I like to request new publications and be top on the list to savour the fresh glue smell and finger unturned pages for the first time...
vee_new
5 years ago
annpan, our library, and I imagine many others, covers the books in a plastic wrapper. Obviously this keep the dust jacket clean but before long the plastic becomes discoloured and brittle and unpleasant to the touch. Also many paperbacks printed in the UK are made of very inferior paper and go yellow then brown after only a few years . . . and the library now has many more pb's of novels which don't last long.
annpanagain
5 years ago
Vee, I used to cover all the new books in the libraries I worked in with pliable plastic sleeving cut to fit from huge rolls. I even bought one roll from the suppliers for my own use. It was very good quality back in the 70s. I still have some books with the plastic still in good shape even after being in store for over a dozen years when I went to the UK in the 90s.

I skipped through The Killings at Kingfisher Hill, the latest "Hercule Poirot" because it was so complicated with multiple characters and rather boring!

I would have liked to take longer as we have the Queen's Birthday as a Monday holiday (lucky woman to have so many!) so the public library is closed tomorrow. I shall have to see if I can find something in my Retirement Village library. Unless there is a donation of a mystery, I shall mainly have a choice of macho for the male residents or a relationship genre novel, the main Social Club purchases selected by our 90+ librarian!
Carolyn Newlen
5 years ago
Well, Ann, good for the 90+ librarian if she is still interested in romance!

Vee, I haven't read any other Ann Patchett, but I really liked Dutch House. On another forum I read, several people disliked it, one of whom because the narrator was a male, but most liked it a lot. I think it is one of those books you either love or hate.
kathy_t
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Vee - I'm glad to hear you are liking The Dutch House, since I will be reading it for my November book club meeting. I have only read one Ann Patchett book, Commonwealth, and I liked it very much. According to my book journal, I read it in December 2017 and my comments about it start out, "It’s hard to explain why, but I really loved this book. It has a lot to do with how Ann Patchett presents the story." I no longer remember why I said that, but obviously, it's a book I would recommend.

I might add that although I have not read it yet, I've had Ann Patchett's Bel Canto recommended to me by several friends.
vee_new
5 years ago
Thank you Carolyn and Kathy, I'm about two-thirds of the way through The Dutch House and still enjoying it!
sheri_z6
5 years ago
I just finished Troubled Blood, the newest installment of the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith/JK Rowling. It was a terrific story, and I liked this one better than all the previous ones. This book covers a full year in the lives of detective Strike and his partner Robin Ellacott while they tackle a 40 year-old cold case in addition to their usual caseload. Their relationship (which is why I got hooked on these books to begin with) experiences some satisfying growth and development, Robin truly begins to come into her own, and Strike's personal life takes a larger space in the story. I thought that Rowling toned down the triggery/horrifying/ick factor a good bit from the earlier books, though since there's a serial killer involved, there are a handful of truly nauseating descriptions of sexual assault and torture -- as I knew there would be, and so skipped over them when I could.

This was a doorstop at 927 pages, but I couldn't put it down and didn't want it to end. I'm hoping there will be another one.
msmeow
5 years ago
Ooh, Sheri, I can't wait till a copy becomes available! I'm 118th on the list; the library estimates 7 weeks.

I'm about 3/4 through Walk the Wire, the newest Amos Decker story by David Baldacci. I'm enjoying it, though an awful lot of people are dying. There's a lot of murkiness involving CIA (maybe?) and evil plots. I prefer just straight-up murder-solving.

Donna
yoyobon_gw
5 years ago
Half way through All The Devils Are Here , the 16th Gamache series book by Louise Penny. I LOVE IT !!
Carolyn Newlen
5 years ago
I just finished Walk the Wire and maybe liked it less that the others of this series. Too many characters and too much hard trouble.

I finished the day's reading with Unexpectedly Eighty by Judith Viorst. If you have read any of these books (written by decade), you will know they are short and pithy, more or less poetry, some touching and some hilarious. This one was delightful with some offerings hitting close enough to home to bring tears and some others outbursts of laughter.

What are you reading in September 2020?

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