Laytonwoman3rd's Fourth 2018 Reading Riot Thread

Hi! I'm Linda, a retired paralegal living in Northeastern Pennsylvania with my husband flamingrabbit (a retired broadcast engineer), and our sweet kitty, Molly O'Del, who we rescued from The Barn. Our daughter, lycomayflower, hangs around this group as well.

For toppers this year, I decided to feature photos of places that are important to me. On this thread, it's the coast of Maine with its rocks and pines and inlets and artist colonies...the location of many special vacations for our family.

My goal is always to read more of the books I already own, and to acquire fewer books than I remove from the house. As you will see from subsequent posts where I keep track of that kind of thing, I'm rubbish at it. I just like browsing and buying books. Besides, in June of 2016 I became a board member of the Scranton Public Library, so now I'm duty bound to attend ALL their book sales and bring stuff home, eh? They also have a nifty little independent bookstore/library branch which gets the best donations of used books, like art books, Folio editions, and such.

I've been keeping track of my reading here on LT since 2007. If you want to explore my reading backwards from here, take a look at my profile page, where I have linked to all my earlier threads.

TOTAL BOOKS COMPLETED in 2018:




BOOKS CULLED FROM THE HOUSE in 2018:




and, BOOKS FROM MY SHELVES READ in 2018 (otherwise known as "ROOTS")

In this post I'll keep monthly lists of my completed reads, from October forward. (First three quarters of the year are documented in >3 laytonwoman3rd: below.)

I use some shorthand to help me keep track of my reading trends: ROOT identifies a book that I have owned for at least a year at the time I read it. CULL means I put the book in my donation box for the library book sale after finishing it. DNF means I didn't finish the book, for one reason or another, usually explained in the related post. ER means I received the book from LT's Early Reviewer program. GN refers to a graphic novel (don't expect to see a lot of that one!) An *asterisk indicates a library book; LOA means I read a Library of America edition; SF means the book was a Slightly Foxed edition, (NOT science fiction, which I so rarely read); FOLIO, of course, indicates a Folio Society edition. AUDIO and e-Book are self-explanatory, and probably won't appear very often. AAC, BAC and IAC refer to the American, British and Irish Author Challenges. (See more on those below) NF indicates a non-fiction read.
Clicking on titles in this post will take you to the message in which I reviewed or commented on that book.

DECEMBER

110. Becoming by Michelle Obama
109. The Christmas Day Kitten by James Herriott ROOT
108. The Upright Piano Player by David Abbott ROOT, CULL
*107. C is for Corpse by Sue Grafton
106. Cinnamon Kiss by Walter Mosley CULL
105. Christmas at Eagle Pond by Donald Hall
104. Sarah and Simon and No Red Paint by Edward Ardizzone
103. *Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric Kimmel
102. Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson ROOT
101. The Tender Bar by J. R. Moehringer ROOT

NOVEMBER

100. Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
99. Mycroft Holmes /by Kareem Abdul-Jabar ROOT, CULL
98. The Songcatcher by Sharyn McCrumb ROOT
DNF Huck Out West by Robert Coover ROOT, CULL
97. The Colossus of New York by Colson Whitehead NF
96. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers ROOT
95. Paper Moon by Peter David BrownROOT

OCTOBER

94. Mr. Pip by Lloyd Jones ROOT, CULL
93. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith CULL
92. Open City by Teju Cole ROOT, NF
91. The Long-Shining Waters by Danielle Sosin ROOT
90. *Theodore Boone: The Abduction by John Grisham
89. Long Upon the Land by Margaret Maron ROOT
88. Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King AAC, ROOT

My completed reads for the first three quarters of 2018:
(See >2 laytonwoman3rd: above for codes, etc.)

SEPTEMBER

*87. A Parchment of Leaves by Silas House
*86. Miss Hazel and the Rosa Parks League by Jonathan Odell
85. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell ROOT
84. The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser ROOT, CULL, NF
83. Hawk Moon by Sam Shepard ROOT, CULL
82. The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle ROOT, IAC
81. Three Houses by Angela Thirkell ROOT

AUGUST

80. Accent on Murder by Frances and Richard Lockridge
79. Clay's Quilt by Silas House ROOT
78. True Grit by Charles Portis ROOT
77. August Heat by Andrea Camilleri CULL
*76. Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan
75. As Kingfishers Catch Fire by Alan Preston and Neil Gower NF
*74. Sackett by Louis L'Amour AAC
73. Taking Chances by M. J. Farrell (Molly Keane) ROOT, CULL, IAC
72. Blue Horses by Mary Oliver
*71. Seven For a Secret by Lyndsay Faye
70. Little Brown Bear by Elizabeth Upham
69. Sharyn McCrumb's Appalachia by Sharyn McCrumb NF
68. Cotton Top by Jean O'Neill
67. The Daybreakers by Louis L'Amour AAC
66. Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo ROOT

JULY
Really trying to concentrate on ROOT reads this month. (Also, switching back to most recent on top in my lists, which I abandoned during the first half of the year, for some reason.)

Some Miscellaneous short selections: short fiction reads

*65. The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje
64. Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson ROOT, NF
63. Corpus Christmas by Margaret Maron ROOT
62. This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash ROOT
DNF * Where the Past Begins by Amy Tan AAC, NF
DNF * Shelter by Jung Yun
61. Everything in This Country Must by Colum McCann ROOT, IAC
60. Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham ROOT
59. The Weather in Africa by Martha Gellhorn ROOT

JUNE

49. March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell GN
50. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively ROOT, BAC 2015
51. When the Thrill is Gone by Walter Mosley AAC, ROOT
52. Fox and Raccoon by Lesley-Anne Green ER, CULL
53. The Ballad of Frankie Silver by Sharyn McCrumb
*54. Tangerine by Christine Mangan
55. The Rosewood Casket by Sharyn McCrumb
56. Darktown by Thomas Mullen
*57. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo NF
58. The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

MAY

*39. Circe by Madeline Miller
40. A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell BAC, ROOT
41. Once Upon a Memory, Vol. 1 ROOT, NF
42. Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers ROOT, BAC
43. A Charm of Goldfinches by Matt Sewell
44. Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart ROOT
45. New Boy by Tracy Chevalier CULL
46. Hedge Hog! by Ashlyn AnsteeER, CULL
47. Snow in August by Pete Hamill AAC, ROOT
48. The Piano Lesson by August Wilson

APRIL

32. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann NF
33. The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley CULL
34. West by Carys Davies
35. The Hounds of Spring by Lucy Andrews Cummin
36. Fear and What Follows by Tim Parrish ROOT, NF
37. The Color Purple by Alice Walker ROOT, AAC
38. Kittyhawk Down by Gary Disher

MARCH

23. Old School by Tobias Wolff. AAC, ROOT
24. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight translated by Simon Armitage BAC
25. The Romanovs and Mr. Gibbs by Frances Welch ROOT, CULL, NF
26. Last Will and Testament by Elizabeth Ferrars CULL
27. The Dragon Man by Gary Disher
*28. Camino Island by John Grisham
29. Hank and Jim by Scott Eyman NF
*30. Down the River Unto the Sea by Walter Mosley
31. A Dark Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine ROOT, BAC

FEBRUARY

8. Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline ROOT, CULL
*9. Kinsey and Me by Sue Grafton NF
*10. B is For Burglar by Sue Grafton
*11. Blood Flies Upward by E. X. (Elizabeth) Ferrars
12. The Dressmaker by Beryl Bainbridge BAC, CULL
13. 14. and 15. I, Crocodile by Fred Marcellino, The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward and The Story of Little Babaji by Helen Bannerman and Fred Marcellino.
16. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey ROOT
17. No Time to Spare by Ursula LeGuin NF
18. and 19. My Friend Mac by May McNeer, Illustrated by Lynd Ward and The Silver Pony by Lynd Ward
20. Hedgie's Surprise by Jan Brett
21. A Bit on the Side by William Trevor IAC
22. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead AAC

JANUARY

1. Period Piece by Gwen Raverat FOLIO, NF
2. A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton
3. First Time Ever by Peggy Seeger ER, NF
4. Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart NF
*5. South Toward Home by Margaret Eby NF
6. She Walks These Hills by Sharyn McCrumb ROOT
7. Puss in Boots by Charles Perrault, Ill. by Fred Marcellino

CHALLENGES

This year, I'm going to follow 3 challenges, without committing to participation in any but the American Authors Challenge. I enjoy meeting new authors, and often have picked up a book I'd been meaning to read for ages because the author was one of the Challenge selections at a given time. But I don't like to plan my reading too strictly. It just doesn't work well for me.

AMERICAN AUTHOR CHALLENGE hosted by msf59. This is my heart's darlin', and these are this year's selections:

January- Joan Didion read 3 essays "Goodbye to all That", "In Bed" and "Black Panther"

February- Colson Whitehead Finished The Underground Railroad
March- Tobias Wolff Finished Old School
April- Alice Walker Finished The Color Purple
May-Peter Hamill Finished Snow in August
June- Walter Mosley Finished When the Thrill is Gone
July- Amy Tan DNF Where the Past Begins
August- Louis L'Amour Finished The Daybreakers and Sackett
September- Pat Conroy I started My Losing Season, but put it aside, as it was too much basketball and stuff I've read in Conroy before.
October- Stephen King Finished Mr. Mercedes
November- Finished The Tender Bar by JR Moehringer, albeit a few days into December.
December- F. Scott Fitzgerald Read 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Pearl-ruled Tender is the Night

IRISH AUTHOR CHALLENGE hosted by PaulCranswick

January : EDNA O'BRIEN Gave O'Brien's The Country Girls a try; not taken with it
February : WILLIAM TREVOR Finished A Bit on the Side
March : DEIRDRE MADDEN will skip her, as I read One By One in the Darkness last year, and have nothing else on the shelf.
April : Samuel Beckett Gotta say he tempts me about as much as James Joyce does, or maybe less...I think I will skip him.
May : IRISH CRIME WRITERS Skipped
June :ANNE ENRIGHT Skipped
July : COLM TOIBIN OK...I like this guy...I may get to him. ETA But I didn't.
August :MOLLY KEANE Finished Taking Chances
September : RODDY DOYLE Finished The Woman Who Walked Into Doors
October : POETS & PLAYWRIGHTS
November : EMMA DONOGHUE, JENNIFER JOHNSTON, MAGGIE O'FARRELL
December : JOHN BANVILLE, SEBASTIAN BARRY, COLUM MCCANN Finished Everything in This Country Must

BRITISH AUTHOR CHALLENGE Also hosted by Paul. This challenge will be themed this year, with 10 authors suggested in each month, and that will either make it easier or harder to fill!

JANUARY - DEBUT NOVELS - Having already read 3 of the suggestions, and having none of the others on my shelves, I passed.

FEBRUARY - THE 1970s - Not books about the '70's, but books
published in the '70's. Finished The Dressmaker by Beryl Bainbridge, which I believe fits the category.

MARCH - CLASSIC THRILLERS - http://www.librarything.com/topic/276329#6266669
Not much for spy thrillers, which seems to be the preponderance in this category, but psychological thrillers...now that's something else again. Finished Barbara Vine's A Dark Adapted Eye.

APRIL - FOLKLORE, FABLES AND LEGENDS - https://www.librarything.com/topic/276329#6264065
Finished Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Simon Armitage

MAY - QUEENS OF CRIME -Finished Ruth Rendell's A Judgement in Stone Also Finished Dorothy L. Sayers' Clouds of Witness

JUNE - TRAVEL WRITING - http://www.librarything.com/topic/276329#6266685
Started Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time of Gifts and will continue with it in short doses.

JULY - THE ANGRY YOUNG MEN - http://www.librarything.com/topic/276329#6266706
Don't need angry young men in my life right now...will skip

AUGUST - BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION - http://www.librarything.com/topic/276329#6265570 I'm as unlikely to read any British sci-fi as I am unlikely to read any other kind.

SEPTEMBER - HISTORICAL FICTION - http://www.librarything.com/topic/276329#6266539
Possibly I, Claudius? Didn't get to it.

OCTOBER - COMEDIC NOVELS - https://www.librarything.com/topic/276329#6266707
NOVEMBER - WORLD WAR ONE - https://www.librarything.com/topic/275745#6258461
DECEMBER - BRITISH SERIES - https://www.librarything.com/topic/276796#6268684

WILDCARD - THE ROMANTICS - https://www.librarything.com/topic/276796#6271176

Not so much a challenge as an intention, but I hope to read some from this list of books by women of color in 2018
Finished So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Not on the list, but it should have been: Finished Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

as well as some of these essential works by Native Americans.

I'm calling this post .

This is where I will keep a running tally of the books that come into the house in 2018. (I may break LT trying to load all these touchstones at once!)

January Yikes. Lookit, already.

1. Reconstruction: Voices from America's First Great Struggle for Racial Equality (Library of America)
2. Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart
3. The Fleet Street Murders by Charles Finch
4. The Great Leader by Jim Harrison
5. Absalom's Daughters by Suzanne Feldman
6. Fools Crow by James Welch
7. Carrying Albert Home by Homer Hickam
8. Darktown by Thomas Mullen
9. Under the Bamboozle Bush by Walt Kelly
10. Breath by Tim Winton
11. Puss in Boots by Charles Perrault, illustrated by Fred Marcellino

February

1. Hank and Jim by Scott Eyman
2. The Story of Little Babaji by Helen Bannerman, illustrated by Fred Marcellino
3. The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward
4. Last Will and Testament by Elizabeth Ferrars
5. Frog in the Throat by E. X. Ferrars
6. Something Wicked by E. X. Ferrars

March

1. The General's Wife by Ishbel Ross

April

1. Mornings Like This: Found Poems by Annie Dillard
2. Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehman
3. Those Turbulent Sons of Freedom by Christopher Wren

May

1. Silent Spring & Other Writings on the Environment by Rachel Carson
2. The Piano Lesson by August Wilson
3. Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night by Barbara J. Taylor
4. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
5. March, Book One by John Lewis
6. Famous Women by Giovanni Boccaccio
7. A Charm of Goldfinches by Matt Sewell
8. Macbeth by Jo Nesbo
9. Hedge Hog! by Ashlyn Anstee

June (This is getting pretty embarrassing.)

1. Albert Murray Collected Novels &. Poems
2. Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson
3. Joe Turner's Come and Gone by August Wilson
4. Circe by Madeline Miller
5. So Brave, Young and Handsome by Leif Enger
6. The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama
7. The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama
8. Walking With the Wind by John Lewis
9. Ballad of Frankie Silver by Sharyn McCrumb
10. Blue Horses by Mary Oliver
11. Fear of the Dark by Walter Mosley
12. Cinnamon Kiss by Walter Mosley
13. Down By the River by Edna O'Brien
14. The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett
15. The Distant Hours by Kate Morton
16. Lightning Men by Thomas Mullen

July

1. Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance
2. Finders Keepers by Stephen King
3. The Trouble I've Seen by Martha Gellhorn
4. Chesapeake by James Michener
5. The Daybreakers by Louis L'Amour

August

1. Cotton Top by Jean O'Neill
2. Ghost Riders by Sharyn McCrumb
3. Sharyn McCrumb's Appalachia by Sharyn McCrumb
4. Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
5. Little Brown Bear by Elizabeth Upham

September

1. Hondo by Louis L'AMour
2. On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin
3. The Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
4. All our Names by Dinaw Mengestu
5. The Coal Tattoo by Silas House
6. The Lake of Darkness by Ruth Rendell
7. Just As I Am by E. Lynn Harris
8. And This Too Shall Pass by E. Lynn Harris
9. If This World Were Mine by E. Lynn Harris
10. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
11. War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
12. Southernmost by Silas House

October

1. A Crown of Feathers by Isaac Bashevis Singer
2. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
3. July's People by Nadine Gordimer
4. The Witch Elm by Tana French
5. Candide by Voltaire
6. Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett
7. How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill
8. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
9. Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko
10. The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty
11. Disturbing the Peace by Richard Yates
12. Mother of Pearl by Melinda Haynes
13. The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
14. Love Songs from a Shallow Grave by Colin Cotterill
15. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
16. Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
17. Desertion by Abdulrazak Gurnah
18. The Virginian by Owen Wister
19. Cactus Cafe by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
20. A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
21. Missing Soluch by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi
22. Theodore Boone: The Accused by John Grisham
23. We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates

November

1. The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
2. Dear Ijeawele by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
3. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
4. Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
5. Pogo: Out of This World at Home by Walt Kelly
6. The Sport of Kings by C. E. Morgan

December

1. The Chimney Sweeper's Boy by Barbara Vine
2. Lycoming College 1812-2012 by John F. Piper
3. Silver Ley by Adrian Bell
4. The Cherry Tree by Adrian Bell
5. Christmas at Eagle Pond by Donald Hall
6. Taking What I Like by Linda Bamber
7. Bear by Marian Engel
8. We Don't Live Here Anymore by Andre Dubus
9. The Winter Father by Andre Dubus
10.The Cross Country Runner by Andre Dubus
11. The Kings and Queens of England by Jane Murray
12. Daniel Boone by John Mack Faragher
13. Gudrun's Kitchen by Sandvold and Baugh
14. How to See Fairies Charles van Sandwyk
15. Becoming by Michelle Obama
16. The New Yorker Encyclopedia of Cartoons Ed. Mankoff
17. The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson

The ongoing struggle to purge books I'll never read, or never read again...



CULLED:

January
1. The Country Girls Trilogy by Edna O'Brien
2. Night by Edna O'Brien
3. We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg

February
4. Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
5. The Dressmaker by Beryl Bainbridge
6. The Lion in the Living Room by Abigail Tucker (JCK)

March
7. Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig
8. A is for Alibi Grafton duplicate
9. B is for Burglar Grafton duplicate
10. Last Will and Testament by Elizabeth Ferrar
11. The Romanovs and Mr. Gibbes by Frances Welch
12. The Anatomy of Violence by Adrian Raine (JCK)
13. Eternal Darkness by Robert Ballard (JCK)
14. "C" by Sir Stewart Menzies (JCK)
15. The Mind of Adolf Hitler by Walter Langer
16. and 17. Two more JCK books whose titles I failed to note down
17. The Diary of a Catholic Bishop by Edward Carden
18. This is My God by Herman Wouk (duplicate copy)
19. Incidents in the Life of John H. Race
20. The Oxford Pocket Dictionary
21. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

APRIL

22. Oscar & Lucinda by Peter Carey
23. First Light by Peter Ackroyd
24. The Terror by Dan Simmons (JCK)
25. Reign of Iron by James L. Nelson (JCK)
26. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin (JCK)
27. The Dancing Dodo by John Gardner (JCK)
28. In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson (JCK)
29. Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks (JCK)
30. War As I Knew It by George S. Patton (JCK)
31. Jim Cramer's Real Money (JCK)
32. Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye
33.-45. LOA volumes of Philip Roth, Philip K. Dick and Saul Bellow
46. The Tangled Web by Michael J. Cain (JCK)

MAY

47. New Boy by Tracy Chevalier

June

48. Old Devils by Kingsley Amis
49. Hedge Hog! by Ashlyn Anstee
50. Fox and Raccoon Leslie-Anne Green

July

51. The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley
52. Night of January 16th Ayn Rand
53. The Fountainhead Ayn Rand
54. Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand
55. The Romantic Manifesto Ayn Rand
56. The World is Flat Thomas L. Friedman
57. Down By the River Edna O'Brien
58. Paradigms Lost by John Simon
59. Tennessee Williams: An Intimate Biography by Dakin Williams

August

60. Taking Chances by Molly Keane
61. Washington Square by Henry James (duplicate copy)
62. August Heat by Andrea Camilleri
63. The Paper Moon by Andrea Camilleri
64. Tamarind Mem by Anita Rau Badami
65. The Hero's Walk by Anita Rau Badami
66. Passage to India by E. M. Forster (duplicate copy)
67. Excursion to Tindari by Andrea Camilleri
68. The Patience of the Spider by Andrea Camilleri
69. Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill
70. The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
71. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
72. The All True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley
73. Thirty-Three Teeth by Colin Cotterill
74. The Bird Artist by Howard Norman (duplicate copy)
75. Voss by Patrick White (duplicate copy)
76. My Bright Abyss by Christian Wiman
77. Gilgamesh by Joan London
78. A Test of Wills by Charles Todd

September

79. Marcella Cucina
80. Cucina Povera: Tuscan Peasant Cooking
81. Hawk Moon by Sam Shepard
82. The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser
83. Underboss by Peter Maas
84. I Have Lived in the Monster
85. The Sweeter the Juice by Shirley Haizlip

October

86. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (exchanged one copy for another)
87. Uncivil Seasons by Michael Malone
88. My Losing Season by Pat Conroy
89. Democracy in America abridged edition
90. Murder at 75 Birch Pienciak
91. Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow (duplicate copy)
92. Gunman's Rhapsody by Robert B. Parker (duplicate copy)
93. Ghost Story by Peter Straub
94. In the Bleak Midwinter Julia Spencer-Fleming
95. A Fountain Filled With Blood ""
96. Out of the Deep I Cry ""
97. To Darkness and to Death "
98. All Mortal Flesh "
99. The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler
100. Earthly Possessions by Anne Tyler
101. Will Rogers; Wise and Witty Sayings of a Great American Humorist
102. Brothers by William Goldman
103. The Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll
104. One Monday We Killed Them All by John D. MacDonald
105 New Orleans Requiem by D. J. Donaldson
106. Plot it Yourself by Rex Stout
107. The One From the Other by Philip Kerr
108. The Word by Irving Wallace
109. Map of Bones by James Rollins
110. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson (duplicate)
111. Seeking Palestine ed. by Penny Johnson
112. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith

November

113. Huck Out West by Robert Coover
114. Life on the Road by Charles Kuralt
115. The Patient Has the Floor by Alistair Cooke
116. Mr. Pip by Lloyd Jones

DECEMBER

117. Cinnamon Kiss by Walter Mosley
118. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
119. Bird Cloud by Annie Proulx
120. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (duplicate)
121. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams (duplicate)
122. Mycroft Holmes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Just to prove the truth of one of the statements I made above, this is my book haul from today's Friends of the Library sale at the Abington Community Library:



I took a rather small sack, thinking that might limit my acquisitions. It didn't work. But I justify a good many of these as being representative of authors who are being considered for the American Authors Challenge in 2019. I have to have them on hand, right?

Happy new thread. Great book haul!

>8 laytonwoman3rd: Ha! Yes indeed, quite a haul and I notice some good ones. I'd love to see Pearl Buck in the AAC and I think The Good Earth is an amazing story. I have several of her books on hand I want to read one day.The Cactus cafe book looks like a delight. Madame Bovary is one of those classics my friends have told me I should read. Have fun, esp with Dr Siri - I recall that was one of the better (but darker) ones.

and Happy New Thread!

>9 figsfromthistle: Welcome, Figs!

>10 RBeffa: OK...you need to post your Pearl Buck love on the AAC planning thread. I know you know where it is! I have one more Dr. Siri to read before I get to Love Songs From a Shallow Grave, I think. I'm going to peruse the Cactus Cafe right now; the illustrations are really fine.

Ooo, shiny new thread Linda.

>8 laytonwoman3rd: nice haul too.

Thanks, Caroline. Good to see you.

Love the thread topper, Linda. Where in Maine is that, if I may ask? I love the places in Maine that I’ve been.

The first and last pictures were taken from Ocean Point, in East Boothbay, Maine. The one with the lobster pots and roses is on Monhegan Island, about 12 miles off the coast, accessible only by boat. It's tiny, and has no paved roads--very popular with painters. The picture of boats was taken somewhere on Townsend Gut between Southport and Boothbay Harbor.

Happy new thread! I love the Maine pictures.

>15 laytonwoman3rd: My daughter has a house on Great Diamond Island, which is off Portland. We spend a lot of time there in the summer. You get there by ferry, and walk or use golf carts once there. I love it. We always make a trip to Boothbay for the day. We have lunch at the Boothbay Lobster Wharf, and then browse all of the little shops. Thank you for sharing your pictures.

Happy New Thread, Linda. Love the toppers. I really want to visit Maine, especially Arcadia National Park.

Nice book haul up there too.

Happy new thread, Linda. I love the Maine photos.

Nice book haul, too. And you are doing pretty well with the culling. I like that you keep a running tally of them, while you start counting over with the acquisitions each month. That is a great system.

Happy new thread, Linda!

The scenery is beautiful in your toppers.

>16 drneutron: Thanks, Jim!

>17 NanaCC: Robinson's Wharf in Southport was always our go-to for lobster; we also loved the Chowder House in Boothbay Harbor.

>18 msf59: Ahh...Cadillac Mountain...we never got that far north.

>19 BLBera: Thanks, Beth. Maine seems to be making a hit with everybody!

>20 FAMeulstee: Hi, Anita. Thanks for dropping by. I have a great fondness for rocks, and Maine's coast is a perfect place to indulge that.

Coastal Maine is beautiful, Linda. I wish we lived closer to any coast. We are in the heartland which makes the nearest coast over 12 hours away by car (probably Galveston). I have fond memories of Maine from our trip to New England about a decade ago.

I think your reasons behind your latest book haul are very sound. You remind me that I must stop by the planning thread for next year's AAC. Thank you for your leadership. That is one challenge I would hate to see fall by the wayside. Perhaps I will be a better contributor next year.

I'm so far behind! Just finished reading about culling your books on your old thread and then got caught up in Roddy Doyle -- I LOVE The Commitments one of my favourite movies! Just the other day I was thinking I have to get our daughter to see it, she'd really love it.

I'm always always culling, but somehow more books seem to come in than go out!

>22 Donna828: Thanks for backing up my rationalizations, Donna! And I hope you'll be able to participate in the AAC next year. There's a lot under consideration right now, so we need plenty of input to narrow our choices.

>23 sibylline: Well, I was doing pretty well with the cull-to-acquire ratio, before this latest haul. I'm afraid I'm back in overrun territory again now! I have not seen The Commitments yet, but so many people have praised it, I must try to fit it in soon.

88. Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King King is the AAC author for October. I have read a few of his novels in the past, and he's popular with my husband, but I don't seek him out these days. I was intrigued to learn he had tried his hand at detective fiction with the Bill Hodges trilogy, though, so I had the first two of those on hand. Although I am really fairly well done with spending time inside the head of a psychopath, King kept me engaged with Brady Hartsfield, turning some of the things we think we know about such people sideways (for instance, Brady is a single guy living at home with his Mother, and their relationship is downright icky, but he is fairly self-aware; he isn't driven by either abnormal obsession with or hatred for Mommy). And, mercifully, the Brady sections of the novel do not predominate. Mr. Mercedes was a page turner, and the suspense is palpable---King set me up a couple times for a really nasty thing that didn't happen, but something else nasty happened instead. Knowing that there are two more books in this trilogy gave me some confidence that King wasn't going to bump off Det. (Ret.) Hodges in this one. But the last book is called "End of Watch", which suggests he might be saving that wallop until his faithful readers are REALLY invested in the character. I just don't trust the man, who also likes to sneak damned clown masks in to so much of his fiction. (He understands our my fears too well.) Still, there's no question about his ability to get and keep a reader's attention, so he's got me hooked on Hodges and company now.

89. Long Upon the Land by Margaret Maron Down with a cold and spent Monday on the couch with this comfort read---the last of Maron's Deborah Knott series, which I've been hoarding because I knew there would be no more. It was a good one, since the author planned to end the series and obviously gave a lot of thought about how to do it. There's the requisite mysterious death, and the usual family stuff, but in this one Deborah sets out to learn a bit more about her parents' first meeting and courtship than she has ever known before, prompted by contemplation of an engraved cigarette lighter her mother had kept since WWII. Why did her dying mother tell Deborah that the man who gave her the lighter at a USO dance saved her life? Who was he, and who was his lost love? How DID a widowed bootlegger with 8 young sons persuade the daughter of a prominent lawyer to marry him?

Hey, thanks to you I just picked up The Sparrow, which is $1.99 on Kindle today!

>27 lauralkeet: I have my husband reading it now, Laura. (He's got the cold that laid me low earlier in the week, so it's a reading day for him.)

I have been doing an inventory of a small cabinet where I've kept a lot of mass-market paperbacks for years. Partly to have a list of what's in there, and partly to cull some oldies I'll never read again. Not quite finished, and already I've zero-summed the pile I brought home from the library sale by putting 25 books into the box I will donate back to the library. I win. They win.

We are running par today Linda. I exited 11 to the community box this morning, and have 14 to go out the door next week to charity bookshop.

>29 laytonwoman3rd:, >30 Caroline_McElwee: quite impressive!

>30 Caroline_McElwee:, >31 lauralkeet: And NOW...(wait for it)...there's room in there for a few more, should that ever be necessary!

90. Theodore Boone: The Abduction by John Grisham I think Theo Boone, Kid Lawyer (or as the covers of the paperbacks have it "Half the Man, Twice the Lawyer") is my Flavia de Luce. I didn't take as well to Flavia's personality as others have, but Grisham's 13-year-old legal fanatic is just my cup of tea. In this one, Theo's good friend April has disappeared in the middle of the night, and he was the last one to speak to her. He knows something about her troubled home life that could be important, but he promised April he wouldn't tell anyone...so how can he help find her without betraying her confidence? Lots of irresponsible adult behavior gives Theo a chance to do what the police are unable to manage...track down April's ne'er-do-well Dad and figure out what really happened to her.

>32 laytonwoman3rd: should that ever be necessary
oh come on, who are you kidding?

*snicker* OH, so you saw what I did there?

>32 laytonwoman3rd: :=)

91. The Long-Shining Waters by Danielle Sosin A stunningly beautiful read. We meet three strong, challenged women whose stories are woven together around the central character of this novel, Lake Superior. Grey Rabbit is an Ojibwe woman living with her family along the shores of Gichigami, the big water, in a time before anyone in her ken had seen a white face. She is plagued with disturbing dreams which she cannot understand, but which make her fearful for the safety of her sons. Nearly 300 years later, Berit tends home and hearth along the same shores, while her husband Gunnar makes a living casting his nets into the Great Lake's unforgiving waves, and working for weeks at a time in a distant lumber camp. She too has dreams...waking dreams in which she stares across the water, or into its depths seeking the faces of her own children...children who have never materialized. And at the beginning of the 21st century, Nora, a widow, suffers the loss of her livelihood when her bar burns to the ground, seemingly taking all her memories with it. As she sets out to document each lost sunken ship painting, bit of driftwood, sign and nautical ornament in a notebook, she drives aimlessly around the lake, looking for the answer to the big question that heads her last page---"What next?". Serving as a sort of grout between the mosaic tiles of these three stories are the lyrical observations of a drowned man who sees the timeless world above him through a watery lens. Common images grace each section---dragonflies, wolves, white butterflies, the northern lights, agates. It's nearly impossible to convey the overall effect of this marvelous piece of writing. There isn't a lot of action, and none of the stories comes to a definitive resolution, but Life carries forward. "Water circles from sea to sky and back. It lifts through tree roots, releases through leaves, and all the animals make their paths. To the water, always changing, always wholly receptive."

I wonder how long it will take for that extra book room to be filled? Good job getting to that state, Linda.

>38 Familyhistorian: If I say I intend to keep on top of it and cull routinely in the future, will you believe me? I do think I have become more inclined to give books away after finishing them lately. I used to just keep everything unless I found it abysmal. Now I seriously try to evaluate whether I or anyone else in my immediate circle is likely to want to read a book when I'm done.

A poetry-loving friend (who may have introduced me to this guy's work) posted on FB last night that Tony Hoagland died yesterday. The internet is quite silent on the subject, but Wikipedia's entry for him has been edited sometime in the last couple hours, to reflect his death. No details, but it was reported that he was under treatment for cancer recently. His bio on Poets.org also notes that he died on October 23, 2018.

ETA: Imagine me scooping the NY Times by several hours. In any case, here is Hoagland's obituary as published there. I'm sure he left us way before he had shared all he had to offer.

I love the poem he read in the video, so funny. Wry indeed. Off to you know where to click.

92. Open City by Teju Cole

Those of you who remember rebeccanyc will know that she was a particularly astute and sophisticated reader, as well as a sharp reviewer. She may be one of the people who brought this novel to my attention shortly after it was published. (There are a couple other likely culprits, but they do not seem to have reviewed this work.) Having finished Open City over a week ago, pondered over it off and on since, and read several LT reviews in lieu of having anyone to discuss it with in person, I find that Rebecca and I had remarkably similar reactions to it. Here is a portion of her review from 2011:

"I have been puzzling over what to say about this widely and enthusiastically reviewed debut novel, partly because I was a little puzzled by it myself, partly because I didn't warm up to it as much as I hoped I would, and partly because I found it unsettling, and still do so a day after I finished reading it.

Very little happens in this novel. The narrator, a 30-ish psychiatrist resident in New York City, the son of a German mother and Nigerian father, wanders around New York City and Brussels, thinks about his childhood in Nigeria, encounters people of all sorts, meditates and converses on a wide variety of topics from literature and cultural theory to history, current events, and the horrors of the past and the present. Through this, the author explores alienation, immigration, war, racial and other oppression and prejudice, and memory and its illusions. Some mysteries are never resolved; one startling revelation at the end seems out-of-place."

I would add that Julius, our narrator, also explores the bonds that exist, or fail to form, between individuals.

The book reads more like non-fiction than novel...there is no plot, as most reviewers have pointed out. There is much to learn on a historical basis, from Julius's peripatetic wanderings through the neighborhoods of New York City. (His Brussels interlude, however, was as useless to me as it seemed to be to Julius, who was ostensibly there to see whether he could find his grandmother, but actually did next to nothing in aid of that. I thought of so many avenues he might have pursued if he really wanted to learn whether the woman was alive or dead.)

Several of the reviews posted here are insightful, and I've linked to a couple of them. Mainly, we all agree that Cole's writing is entrancing, his musings often worth sharing, but his ultimate "point" a bit hard to fathom. Oh...and a second reading is almost inevitable, because I can't seem to put the book out of my mind. I expect the author would call that a success.

http://www.librarything.com/work/10577676/reviews/101263256

http://www.librarything.com/work/10577676/reviews/71816608

93. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith The long-awaited fourth installment of the Cormoran Strike series from J. K. Rowlings' authorial alter-ego may be the last on of these I read. It failed me on a couple levels, despite being a page-turner. I read this sort of thing for escape, R&R, because I want to be with the recurring characters and become invested in their personal stories. Somehow, I've pretty much lost sympathy for Strike and Robin and their persistent toxic relationships. I'm fairly sure we've all wanted Robin to dump Matthew since very early on. Well, Reader, in this book, she marries him. And eventually, after finding evidence of a particularly bastardly betrayal, dumps him. I'll say it's for good, because if it isn't I don't intend to learn about it. And despite the fact that Strike's long-time love, Charlotte, is always referred to as stunningly beautiful, the actual physical descriptions of her don't sound beautiful to me, and her actions certainly never are endearing...so what's the attraction? Why is he still subject to her "charms" when she shows up in his life? Like I said, it's toxic. And so is the new, short-term relationship Strike gets himself into this time. I want these characters to have personal lives, but not tedious ones. They are both, otherwise, much too smart to be carrying on the way they do. And let's face it, 650 pages is too long for a gripping suspense novel. I've read shorter generational sagas, and closed the book wishing for more. I'm pretty sure Rowling could have told this story in 350 pages. Every aspect of it seemed unnecessarily drawn out. Oh, so what's the story? Here...

Strike is hired to dig up dirt on a cabinet minister's husband, who is suspected of being behind a blackmail threat to another cabinet minister. He is also consulted by a mentally disturbed young man who insists that, as a boy, he witnessed another child being strangled and buried on the property where his family lived--property owned by...you guessed it...the family of one of those cabinet ministers. Immediately after telling Strike his story, though, Billy drops out of sight. And then one of the major players is found dead, a purported suicide, totally changing the course of Strike's investigation. Robin gets to go undercover, and to show off how much more she knows about horses than Strike does. We meet a good many nasty individuals of all classes. We peek behind the scenes at the House of Commons. Some of this is very good reading; at half the length it would have been a ripping good story.

Uh oh, that doesn't bode well. I should be getting this from my library soon. I hope it's more gripping than Moby Dick LOL.

>43 laytonwoman3rd: It suffers from a similar affliction, Laura---too much extraneous stuff outside The Story. (Note I've added a bit to my review since you posted.)

There is something to be said about reading books for escape, Linda. Sometimes they are just what a girl needs! I plan to start reading the Cormoran Strike series soon, although soon may be early 2018. I think I have the first two books in the TBR pile. I have been making the decision to retain or cull books right after I read them. I have two rather large stacks now to let my son go through. The rest will go to my librarian friend who has started a traveling bookstore on wheels. I'm eager to see it and want her to succeed with an inventive way to use an old RV and further the love of reading.

I liked your comments on The Sparrow. I have read it twice now and may read it again because I keep putting off reading the sequel, Children of God. Next year I am seriously going to tackle those unread books on my shelves.

>43 laytonwoman3rd: Gosh, Linda, I think this may be the first time we haven’t agreed on a book. I quite enjoyed it. I do think that it was too long, so there we can get along. ;-)

I look forward to Laura’s reaction.

>46 Donna828: I really enjoyed the first two Cormoran Strike books, Donna. The third one, not quite so much, and this one, as you can tell, didn't quite give me the escape I was looking for. My daughter and my husband have both read The Sparrow now. He and I had quite good discussions of it; she read it so long ago she didn't remember some of the specifics I wanted to get her opinion about, but we all certainly were impressed with it to one degree or another.

>47 NanaCC: Well, Colleen, we certainly CAN get along! And I don't say I didn't enjoy it at all. The quibbles did rather get in the way of my sinking into it. I get very tired of the device at the end...Robin keeping the killer talking while he tells her everything and she stalls waiting for rescue at the last possible moment. That's been done so much, in books and in TV particularly. It hurts the credibility, and I expect better from Rowling..

>48 laytonwoman3rd: Yes, that my main objection, Robin, every single time.

Woo, you had a much more negative reaction to Lethal White than I did, Linda. I loved every minute, and didn't want it to end. I guess I just buy into the relationships, and really enjoy time spent with Cormoran and Robin. Oh well, that's proof once again that we don't all come from the same cookie cutter.

>50 jnwelch: Well, it was a pretty fast read, length notwithstanding. And I never considered Pearl-ruling it. Who knows...when the next one comes out, I may have changed my mind and give Corm and Robin another shot. (I won't pre-order the book though!) Surely they're not going to keep making the same mistakes...or ARE they?

LOL! We'll see.

Hi, Linda. I posted the NNF thread. I am glad I decided to go with it, because it looks like it will be a lot of fun. Stop by and give a couple of suggestions.

I have Lethal White saved on audio. I hope I can bookhorn it in, by the end of the year.

>52 jnwelch: Indeed we will.

>53 msf59: Thanks Mark. I'm looking forward to this one.

94. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

"I do not know what you are supposed to do with memories like these. It feels wrong to want to forget. Perhaps this is why we write these things down, so we can move on."

In this relatively short novel, we are told the story of what happened in a small island village in Papua New Guinea during the Bougainville Civil War in the early 1990's, from the point of view of Matilda, a 14-year-old girl.

When the story begins, most of the younger men, including Matilda's father, were absent, having left to work in the copper mine years before, or to join the rebels (known as "rambos"). Their island is under a blockade, the PNG army (the "redskins") hoping to force the rebels into submission by cutting off all supplies to the island. No fuel for generators so no electricity; no canned food, no medical supplies; no way to get off the island. All white people, including teachers, had left on the last boat allowed out. All, that is, except one strange white man known as "Pop Eye", who remained, with his equally enigmatic black wife, in the big house formerly occupied by a German minister. Eventually, Pop Eye takes over the children's education, mainly by reading to them from "the greatest novel by the greatest English writer of the nineteenth century", Great Expectations; and by asking their parents to visit school and share little life lessons, such as the proper way to kill a pig, how a heart seed grows into a glorious flowering vine, or all about the color blue---"Blue...has magical powers...You watch a reef and tell me if I am lying. Blue crashes onto a reef, and what color does it release? It releases white! Now, how does it do that?" The children learn to call him by his proper name, Mr. Watts, and they respect him while becoming quite engaged with the adventures of Mr. Dickens' orphan, Phillip Pirrip, who came to be called Pip. The war intrudes from time to time--the villagers hear helicopters and watch them flying out to sea where, just before they disappear completely, they turn around and return. It is believed the redskins are taking captured rebels out to sea, and throwing them out of the helicopters. Sometimes the redskins visit the village, looking for rebels. Through the course of the novel the consequences of these visits escalate from inconvenience to destruction to unimaginable horror.

I had trouble seeing where the story was going to lead for a while; I feared it was going to be a “white savior” kind of tale, but it turned out not to be that, except on a superficial level. I had trouble remembering that the narrator was a girl, not a boy, for a good bit of the book. It didn’t really matter most of the time, and I wasn’t sure whether to blame myself or the author for it, but by the time it came to be important in the context of the story, I had programmed my brain to remember. I had no frame of reference for the setting and therefore found it a bit difficult to form a true picture of the villagers and how they fit into the 20th century, so I had to go outside the book to educate myself. As the book was first published in Australia, I assume its primary audience in 2006 was more familiar with the underlying politics and history. The thrust of the novel is the methods people use cope with hardship and tragedy...faith, denial, escape through the imagination...and how one fictional character’s experience gave both Pop Eye and Matilda permission to change their lives. Powerful and worthwhile.

“...you know, Matilda, you cannot pretend to read a book. Your eyes will give you away. So will your breathing. A person entranced by a book simply forgets the breathe.”

I've had this on my shelf for years Linda. Glad it was a hit for you.

Love the quote, too true.

>55 laytonwoman3rd: This book was making the rounds of certain LTers and I'm wondering: did I send it to you after I read it?

>56 Caroline_McElwee: It was a difficult read, Caroline, which I did not exactly anticipate. I've had it for a long time too. But I'm glad I got around to it.

>57 lauralkeet: That is entirely possible, Laura. I know I heard about it here, long ago. I entered it in my catalog in 2009, but I did not make any note of where it came from at the time.

>58 laytonwoman3rd: oh, nope, wasn't me then. I read it in 2016 and sent it along to someone after that.

>55 laytonwoman3rd: Mr. Pipp has drawn blood, I fear. Prompted by a too literal interpretation of your comment about forming a picture of the villagers (you actually said forming a true picture), I used Google Images to "see" what it looked like. Aerial views of the open-pit mine in the center of a green panorama. Clusters of sweaty, bare-chested, exhausted men holding automatic weapons. A number of images of the book itself.

>60 weird_O: An interesting article about the conflict, and the 2012 movie starring Hugh Laurie (which I did not know about when I read it). If you're inclined to read it, don't fail to click through to the full download.

Adding Mr. Pip to the wish list.

Glad you liked Mr. Pip. I had it on my shelves for a while and read it two years ago and loved it .

>56 Caroline_McElwee:, >57 lauralkeet:, >60 weird_O:,>62 EBT1002:, >63 figsfromthistle: It's always interesting to me to see which reads prompt the most response...this one definitely fell into the "outside my comfort zone" category, and it worked for me. I wasn't sure its appeal would resonate, though.

95. Paper Moon by Joe David Brown I think my copy of this book has been around since it first came out in paperback with the "Soon to be a major motion picture" cover featuring Ryan and Tatum O'Neill in character as Addie and Moses "Long Boy" Pray. Two more loveable con artists would be hard to find without looking to Newman and Redford. Addie is the daughter of a good-time-girl who can't be sure which of several men might be the child's father; Long Boy is perhaps the most likely, and apparently the only one who cared to show up for her funeral. His reward for that bit of devotion is an unlikely 11-year-old partner for his "business" ventures, one who proves to have a greater talent and instinct for the game than her Daddy.

The novel was originally titled Addie Pray, and the title isn't the only thing the movie changed. In fact, except for the general concept, not much of the book made it onto the screen at all. I loved the movie when I first saw it----still do. Both versions are pure unadulterated entertainment, but the book is rather better. More complex, with some character growth on Addie's part, and some off-the-page soul-searching by Long Boy. There are two big scams, one of which eventually got turned on its head in a most satisfying way, neither of which were even hinted at in the movie. Despite having had it around for something like 45 years, I can't recall whether I read the book before or not; it seems unlikely I would have forgotten how different it was from the movie. But hey----45 years---it's possible.

HI, Linda! Just trying to catch up. I love your Maine photos!

>66 tymfos: Thank you, Terri! I'm behind on threads myself.

96. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers Dandy Lord Peter Wimsey outing, with a spot of bother over who died first. Just what the doctor ordered.
ETA: I see I read it out of order....should have read Unnatural Death next. *sigh*

>65 laytonwoman3rd: A rare case of a film that exceeded its source material (IM never-humble O). Have a lurvely Saturn's day.

>69 richardderus: Ha! And I thought you were Oh-So 'Umble.

Best quote of the day (although it's not of THIS day, but from a January 2018 NYT By the Book piece with Robert Coover:

"If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?

He’s basically illiterate, can’t handle more than 140 characters at a time, and is tied up now with “Mein Kampf.”

Happy Sunday, Linda. Good review of Paper Moon. I never realized the film was based on a book. I was a big fan of the film.

>70 laytonwoman3rd: *snort*

>71 laytonwoman3rd: *snort* (in a different key)

>55 laytonwoman3rd: I loved Mister Pip when I read it a few years back.

>72 msf59: The film was definitely more fun, and also more touching, than the book.

>73 richardderus: *fist pump* Made Richard snort TWICE!!

>74 thornton37814: I remember there being a lot of positive talk about it around here years back---I'm sure that's why I had a copy of it.

The first and nearly final cut has been made for the 2019 American Authors Challenge, so if you're interested, pop over to the discussion thread and help choose the last couple names for next year.

Your review is a lovely revisit with Mr Pip for me. I think I may have read it the first year on LT, what seems like a zillion year ago.

>77 avaland: Thanks, Lois. You may be one of the people who brought it to my attention way back when.

97. The Colossus of New York by Colson Whitehead I read this in anticipation of hearing Whitehead speak tonight as part of the Lackawanna County Library System's American Masters Lecture series in Scranton. The lecture has been postponed due to the impending wretched weather, but the book was a treat. (And I'm still hoping to catch Mr. Whitehead when the event gets rescheduled.)

The Colossus of New York sort of did for me what I thought Teju Cole's Open City was going to do....take me on an insider's tour of the incomparable metropolis and make me feel like I am right there. It's short on specific landmarks, but long on the heart and soul of the city. It's a rapid transit ride, with vignettes of the people and places flashing by through the window; or maybe an extended jazz composition with riff after riff after riff just taking your breath away; or a cocktail party with really interesting people where you just can't decide which conversation to follow. I've only been an occasional visitor to NYC over the years, never a resident nor a hopeful immigrant with an address on a crumpling piece of paper clutched in my pocket, but still I recognize so much of essential Gotham in Whitehead's musings---the magic, the tragic, the grime and the beauty, the hopes and the failures, the excitement and the ennui; it's all part of the music, and not just in New York. This is the kind of book that makes me want to meet the author over drinks or dessert.

>79 laytonwoman3rd: - Nice review! I've got this one on my shelf waiting, waiting, waiting....

Good review of The Colossus of New York. I was not even familiar with this Whitehead title. Sorry, to hear the lecture was postponed. Boo, to the weather!!

>80 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie. It's a quick read.

>81 msf59: It's a good one, Mark. I'll hope for better weather on the re-scheduled date. At the moment we have about 8 1/2 inches of snow on our patio, and it's not over yet. It may convert to some sleet or freezing rain overnight, as the temps are supposed to rise.

DNF Huck Out West by Robert Coover I could not engage with this one. After Huck lit out for the territories, he had a bunch of pointless adventures; found out Jim had been sold back into slavery; watched a mass hanging of native Americans where he serendipitously met up with Tom Sawyer again (Tom hasn't changed a bit, except for being less likeable as an adult); worked for Custer (referred to only as "Gen'l Hard Ass") for a while and couldn't stomach his brutality; ran across Ben Rogers who promptly got himself killed; lost another new friend; drove cattle for a while; and contemplated helping a captive girl escape her father, who she said intended to sell her to the Mormons as an "extry wife". And that's all in the first 85 pages or so. Huck's voice doesn't feel quite right, and he's not particularly interesting now that's he's grown up and lost his innocence. In fact, the whole thing was boring me senseless. I quit.

>79 laytonwoman3rd: I liked the Cole more than you did Linda. And the Colson sounds good. At least the lecture will be rescheduled. I wish the weather would be more cooperative when you have booked and are looking forward to something.

>29 laytonwoman3rd:, Yes, yes, yes. I plan to do just what you did in going through books located in a specific area and seeing which ones to keep and which to give away. I really need to do this. I have more than 3,000 books in this space. Some in the basement, some located in the first floor, and then I even have many in a closet upstairs...oh, and there are boxes under the bed as well.

I think I will start with the boxes under the bed, and do this slowly, a box at a time so I don't have increased pain from my efforts.

I really enjoy your reviews!!!

>84 Caroline_McElwee: I may have short-changed the Cole because it wasn't what I expected it to be...I hope I do re-read it one day.

>85 Whisper1: It can be a liberating process, Linda. Sometimes I think it is possible to have too many books....but please don't tell ANYONE I said that!

I remember seeing Paper Moon with my mom decades ago and loving it.

>76 laytonwoman3rd: I had completely missed the development of the 2019 American Authors Challenge. I'll go check it out.

I love this time of year. I'm a fan of Thanksgiving (it's my favorite holiday) but I especially love all the book-planning we LTers do for the coming year!

>87 EBT1002: I'm very glad you caught on to AAC2019 in time to add your voice to the process, Ellen. And I love Thanksgiving too----especially since I don't have to HOST it...just get myself to the Farm with kielbasa and wine in hand, and grandmothers in tow.

98. The Songcatcher by Sharyn McCrumb This is the sixth of Sharyn McCrumb's ballad novels, and although I've loved them all, this is the best so far. (It's actual the 7th title of hers I've read, and the 8th read overall, since I read a couple of them out of order long ago, not realizing they were part of a series. I re-read The Rosewood Casket in its proper place in the sequence earlier this year, and when I get to The Ballad of Tom Dooley I expect I'll re-read that one as well.)

As usual, an ancient song is at the heart of the story. Lark McCourry, a famous folksinger who has left the mountains and her difficult relationship with her father behind, takes a notion that there was a song she heard sung as a child that would be quite perfect for her next album...a song she does not fully remember, and which she thinks she might introduce to the world. In order to track the song down, and reluctantly to visit her dying father, she plans a trip back home. There are multiple stories intertwined in this novel, as it follows generations of Lark's family, and that elusive song, through the centuries from the time her ancestor Malcolm was kidnapped from a Scottish beach at the age of 10 and pressed into service at sea in the 18th century, through the American Revolution, and the Civil War, to the recent past. Every time I put the book down I was amazed at how much Story was contained in the relatively short segment I had finished. It's a compressed generational saga that doesn't feel rushed or hurried, a sprawling historical novel that's somehow perfectly told in under 300 pages. I am in awe of the amount of research that goes into all of McCrumb's novels, but here she has outdone herself, and it all fits seamlessly into the narrative without ever feeling like a lesson. (In an author's note she explains how much of this story is based on her own family history, and also how she learned some of the historical details included in it--for instance, she found someone who could teach her how to load and fire a Springfield muzzle-loader such as her Civil War ancestor would have used. "That experience gave me an entirely new perspective on war.' I'll bet it did.) Naturally, Sheriff Arrowood and Nora Bonesteel play significant roles in the modern framework of the story, and Deputy Joe LeDonne has some interesting experiences that help him put his own past to rest. I don't often give this type of work 5 stars, but this one deserves every one of them.

I really really need to get started on this series. I guess now that I've abandoned one series I can start another ... right?!

Of course right.

Jeez you're a reading machine this year Linda. I tried McCrumb years ago with Tom Dooley and one other and just didn't get into the groove. Clearly I need to give her another try. i have a nice autographed collection Foggy Mountain breakdown and other stories that I picked up a few years ago. Seems like I should give it a try sooner rather than later. She didn't make the cut for the AAC, right? Hmmm I guess she might fit into a generic genre category of carefully selected authors ...

>92 RBeffa: I haven't dealt with the genre bonus category for the AAC yet, Ron. I'm toying with selecting a couple authors to recommend, rather than just leave it all up to random selection. If I do that, McCrumb will definitely be one of my choices. I just don't know a better storyteller. Interestingly, I also started with The Ballad of Tom Dooley, and as I look back at my review, it appears it is not one of her strongest entries. I'll be interested to see how it strikes me when I re-read it in its proper order in the series.

Read your comment on my December challenge at Joe's Cafe. Stop by and see the list of 15 books/authors. If you have sampled any of them, and if you want to recommend one over another, say so. I deliberately blacklisted any of the writers that you've listed for the 2019 AAC.

>94 weird_O: Thanks, Bill. Done commented.

99. Mycroft Holmes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse This is by way of a back-story for Sherlock's older (possibly smarter?) brother, Mycroft. Sherlock himself appears only briefly, as a schoolboy in this one. Mycroft's dear friend and tobacco merchant, Cyrus Douglas, hears disturbing news from back home in Trinidad to the effect that young children are being lured to their bloody deaths by douen, the lost souls of unbaptized dead children. When Mycoft's fiance hears of this, she is terribly distressed and determined to sail to the islands where her family owns a prosperous sugar plantation, fearing that there is unfettered evil loose. When Mycroft and Douglas announce their plans to accompany her, she discourages them, but they follow, unbeknownst to her. Many mysterious things happen aboard ship, and it appears that Mycroft's lovely Georgianna is not what she seems. The rest is sheer swashbuckling adventure, which isn't really my thing, but it was fairly well done if you like that stuff, I guess. Our protagonists ultimately outwit the devils behind a scheme to bring back slavery in the guise of "benevolent" (but involuntary) indentured servitude, after a few too many desperate fights and nearly fatal encounters for my taste. Mycroft's powers of deduction are rather harder to believe than I ever found Sherlock's to be. Nevertheless, the ending was quite satisfying in a "we won but no one can ever know what happened here" kind of way.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is an author now?!

>97 lauralkeet: Oh, he's written several books. https://www.librarything.com/author/abduljabbarkareem

Huh. How about that?!

100. Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Perfect little pocket-sized handbook for bringing up children without ingrained, socially conditioned notions about gender roles and expectations. This book originated as a letter from the author to a friend who had asked her how to raise her newborn daughter to be a feminist, but the advice in it is pretty easily molded to avoid raising sons with nonsensical ideas about gender roles as well. Wise and humorous.

>100 laytonwoman3rd: Funnily enough I nudged that to the top of the pile a week ago, maybe I'll read it in the next few days Linda.

>100 laytonwoman3rd: I loved "Dear Ijeawele"! So sensible, and lovely writing. I'm glad you liked it, too, and that it was your 100th (I like those round numbers (base 10)!)

Have a great weekend!

Karen O.

>101 Caroline_McElwee: It is a very quick read, Caroline.
>102 klobrien2: I love her sane, honest, no-baloney way of looking at things. And I confess to reading it today so I could get to 100 by the end of November!

101. The Tender Bar by J. R. Moehringer A memoir of a young man whose mother struggled to raise him alone after leaving his abusive father. In place of the man he never really knew, JR (it doesn't STAND FOR ANYTHING!) latched on to his Uncle Charlie and a motley assortment of bartenders and patrons at "The Bar", the neighborhood watering hole in his hometown of Manhasset on Long Island. Throughout his teenage years, these men took him under their collective and individual wings, took him to the beach, discussed books with him, gave him advice (of varying degrees of usefulness), encouraged him to dream of and eventually apply to Yale and made him feel he had a home beyond the bedlam of his grandparents' house, where he and his mother most often lived. Later, they supported him through failed love affairs, demoralizing attempts at novel-writing and dead-end jobs, taught him by example (mostly how to drink and survive hangovers), and gave him unconditional love. The story could be depressing as all get-out, but it's not. There is so much humor and tenderness in it--and after all, here is this supremely well-written memoir you're reading, as proof that it all turned out OK in the end. I've read Moehringer before; his novel Sutton was a 4 1/2-star entry on my 2014 list.

>104 laytonwoman3rd: - I have that one on my shelf! I forget how it got there, but I am definitely moving it to the Read Soon! list.

>104 laytonwoman3rd: Hmmm. This is one of those memoirs I've long avoided, afraid it would be depressing as all get out. But you make it sound like sommat I want to read.

>105 katiekrug: >106 lycomayflower: You both oughta pick it up---I think you'll be hooked. The bit where he's working in Home Fashions at Lord & Taylor is such a hoot!

Well done Linda on passing 100 books - my own target for the year!

100 books? Wow. I'm impressed. I'll barely clear 60 this year.

>108 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. I'm rooting for you to make it.

>109 lauralkeet: Well, you HAVE had a few other things on your hands...

>104 laytonwoman3rd: Good Tuesday, Linda3rd, and thanks for that book bullet. It sounds like a great read.

>111 richardderus: Great...I love to spread the love.

>110 laytonwoman3rd: You're right. Knitting needles, for one. 😀

Nice review of The Tender Bar, Linda. I read that in the prehistoric era, before I joined LibraryThing, and I absolutely loved it; it would have earned at least 4-1/2 stars from me.

>114 kidzdoc: Thank you, Darryl. I had it waiting for me for several years before I got to it. It was a treat.

The list for the 2019 American Authors Challenge has been announced!! (OK, so I announced it.) It's on the planning thread, and it's also here:

January: Chaim Potok

February: Louisa May Alcott

March: Jon Clinch

April: Jesmyn Ward

May: Jay Parini

June: Pearl Buck

July: Founding Fathers (and Mothers)

August: Ernest J. Gaines

September: Leslie Marmon Silko

October: DRAMA

November: W. E. B. DuBois

December: Marilynne Robinson

BONUS/WILD CARD: Genre Fiction. My recommendations for this category are Sharyn McCrumb and James Lee Burke, but it's a wild card. Use it for whatever you like.

Oooh, that's a GREAT list, Linda.

>117 lauralkeet: Thank you, Laura. I hope there's a general agreement on that!

>117 lauralkeet: Jay Parini! At last an impetus to read Empire of Self! TYVM Linda3rd.

>119 richardderus: I haven't read that one myself, RD. His biography of Faulkner is very fine, as is Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America. He's one of my favorites. OH, and YAVW.

Nice AAC list, Linda. I may join you in reading W.E.B. DuBois in November, and Ernest Gaines in August. Jesmyn Ward is high on my list of favorite contemporary American novelists, but I've read four of her five books, save for her debut novel Where the Line Bleeds, so unless she publishes something new next year I probably won't participate that month.

>121 kidzdoc: I'm looking forward to some great discussions in 2019, Darryl. Hope you'll pop in when you can and contribute! I've only read Ward's Salvage the Bones, but it made me want to read everything she has written and will write.

>122 laytonwoman3rd: I hope to do so, Linda. In addition to Salvage the Bones I've read her latest novel Sing, Unburied, Sing, along with her memoir Men We Reaped and The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race, a collection of essays which she edited and contributed to.

Good American Authors Challenge list, Linda. I'm not good at following challenges over a whole year, but I'll try to dip in on occasion. Starting with Potok is a great idea.

>123 kidzdoc: I have noted that new collection of essays, Darryl. Maybe Santa will note it as well.

>124 jnwelch: Thank you, Joe. I'll hope to see you around!

>89 laytonwoman3rd: Have you ever seen the film, The Songcatcher? I saw it at an arts theater in Asheville years ago and I just loved it. I doubt it's easy to find but it's a fun film and the soundtrack is sweet.

>116 laytonwoman3rd: Hmm. You have me thinking about giving the AAC another go. That is a great list!

>126 EBT1002: I actually have that film on DVD. I love that movie. It is not related to the McCrumb novel, however. And please DO join us for the AAC as much as possible.

>116 laytonwoman3rd: Great list, Linda. We'll see how the year goes.

It has been pointed out to me that I've lumped all the authors of color in a bunch at the end of the year. I did not intentionally do that, nor did I realize I had. I hope no one has any strong objection to a slight re-ordering. I have switched Jesmyn Ward and Marilynne Robinson, and the list as it appears above reflects that.

Hi, Linda. sorry, to hear you had to DNF, Huck Out West. I have had that one saved on audio, for awhile now. It looked really good. Oh, well...

But hooray for The Tender Bar. I LOVED that book and I have Sutton on shelf, glad to see you highly recommended it.

>130 msf59: Maybe you'll like Huck, Mark. Listening to it on audio might be a better way into it---and it might have worked for me, without the connection to that other Huck.

102. Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson A book that has been on my TBR stacks for a long time. It was a slow, satisfying read; a story without much plot but with a lot of depth. A man who has recently lost his wife takes himself to a relatively remote farm in Norway similar to the one where he spent summers as a boy, determined to live alone and be as independent as possible for the time left to him. As he prepares for his first winter his mind takes him back to scenes from his childhood, and we learn very gradually about the days he spent with his father in the woods, the life lessons, both intended and not so, that he learned back then. It's a very Scandinavian sort of story, with cold and loneliness almost palpable, and the theme of abandonment threads through both past and present. It could have been depressing, but it struck me as simply realistic. Recommended.

>132 laytonwoman3rd: I remember really liking the tone of that novel Linda. I think I have a more recent novel of his, not yet read, somewhere.

103. Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric Kimmel, Illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman A Caldecott Honor Book, and for good reason. The illustrations are better than the story here, and the story is pretty neat itself. In what appears to be a 19th century village, Hershel of Ostropol (a Ukrainian folk hero of sorts, who is based on a real person) finds that Hanukkah celebrations have been forestalled by goblins who blow out the candles in the menorahs as fast as they can be lit by the villagers. Hershel promises to overcome the goblins and to have the synagogue's menorah fully lit by the final night. He easily outwits the first tiny goblin to appear, but the task gets progressively harder with each night of the holiday.



Hershel manages nevertheless to light the candle each night, until on the last night he must face the King of the Goblins (who looks remarkably like a Nazgul) and trick HIM into lighting ALL the candles.



You should read it.

104. Sarah and Simon and No Red Paint by Edward Ardizzone Sarah and Simon live with their parents in one big room, part of which is their father's studio where he paints. Money is very tight, but Father has a prospect of a big sale, if only he can finish the painting on time. Of course there's a difficulty---he has run out of red paint...and the merchant he buys his supplies from is tired of extending credit to him. And naturally the children save the day, albeit inadvertently. I received this book as a freebie with an order from David R. Godine Publishers (which has some really nifty stuff, btw...you should try to get your hands on their catalog). I didn't love this story, and it's full of some fairly common elements that others have treated better, I think. But the illustrations have a simple, sepia charm to them.



OH, and there is a kindly book dealer in it, so there's that.

>132 laytonwoman3rd: I remembered really liking that one and sho nuf, I rated it 4.5 stars. Here's a little excerpt from my review:

Petterson's writing is terrific; the language is beautiful. He weaves the stories of Trond's present and past together seamlessly. The language has a particular rhythm to it, like waves lapping on the side of a boat. And yet it's also impossible to put down and has a strong emotional pull: I felt extreme sadness for losses in Trond's life, and at the same time I felt the peace and acceptance he had achieved.

ETA funny thing: I read this in 2007 and I can see in my review that I put two spaces between sentences. Nowadays, either I no longer do that automatically and/or my devices remove the second space.

>136 lauralkeet: Yes, Laura, I agree completely about the loss and acceptance...it was moving in a gentle sort of way.

As for the two spaces thing...I'm pretty sure the techno-gods no longer favor this practice and will, in fact, override any attempt to carry on in such an antediluvian fashion. (This is NOT to imply that I am OK with this.)

F. Scott Fitzgerald is the selection for the American Authors Challenge for December. Having read The Great Gatsby more than once, I decided to give Tender is the Night a try, but the style put me off, and the characters were uninteresting. I felt I could see where the story was going, and had no desire to follow along. It seems I've read several versions of this tale over the years, and just don't have time to invest in it again, so it gets a DNF from me.

Last night I read "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". I have not seen the movie, but of course had the general idea of the story of a man who lives his life backward, being born at a great old age and getting younger as time goes by. It surprised me by being funny in spots. As a fantasy idea, it's intriguing, but Fitzgerald's rendition has a lot of holes in it; he simply skips over the tricky question of how a woman could give birth to a full grown man. In fact, Benjamin's mother does not enter into the story at all; she is never referred to as an individual, let alone by name, and only in 2 or 3 places as part of the collective "parents" or "the Buttons". Nevertheless, I enjoyed it, as its tone is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, and it was fun to see certain life situations set on their heads. I may read a couple more short stories from the collection I have.

>127 laytonwoman3rd: I love that you have it on DVD. Most people have never heard of it. I love it, too.

Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins sounds wonderful!

>139 EBT1002: Isn't it fun to have discovered a gem that not everyone knows about?

105. Christmas at Eagle Pond by Donald Hall One of the books I purchased from David R. Godine Publishing, this goes into the category of lovely pieces of childhood nostalgia that I find essential reading at this time of year---Capote's A Christmas Memory, Dylan Thomas's A Child's Christmas in Wales...you know the kind of thing. This one, written by the former Poet Laureate of the United States, is actually the least poetic of the bunch, but it is warm and comforting just the same. As a child, Hall spent a lot of time at his grandparents' farm in New Hampshire, and he heard many stories from his mother about growing up there, particularly about how they celebrated Christmas. But Donnie never got to BE there at Christmas time. So based on what he knew personally of the place and the people, and what his mother had shared with him about Christmas at Eagle Pond, Donald gave himself a present...he wrote this story in which he sent his 12-year-old self on the train to spend his Christmas holiday with his grandparents. It is lovely, and the woodcut illustrations by Mary Azarian are exquisite. This one is especially poignant for me, as I did get to visit my grandmother on the farm at Christmas...and often, I still manage to go there when the snow is on the ground and the tree is lit.

>134 laytonwoman3rd: I absolutely love Trina Schart Hyman. I definitely recommend seeking out more of her stuff, especially Saint George and the Dragon.

Hi, Linda.

We love Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, too. (Goofy touchstones this morning!) I didn't know about Donald Hall's Christmas at Eagle Pond; I'll add it to the WL.

>142 scaifea: Well, if I can find the time....I am SO in love with Mary Azarian now....*wink*

>143 jnwelch: Search isn't working at all this morning, Joe. People are getting very grumpy because it's interfering with the scavenger hunt (or maybe vice versa).

Hall also wrote Seasons at Eagle Pond, which I have to find now. Godine has it, I'm sure.

ETA: Touchstones working again now.

106. Cinnamon Kiss by Walter Mosley Easy Rawllins struggles to come up with the money to send his adopted daughter Feather to Switzerland for treatment of a deadly blood disorder, without losing everything he has worked for including a respectable job, a beautiful woman he loves, his home and possibly his life. Tough, brilliant and heart-breaking.

Oh, I love that Easy Rawlins series, Linda. I'm glad you enjoyed Cinnamon Kiss.

>146 laytonwoman3rd: Yeah, Mosley is pretty much a never-fail for me, Joe.

Me, too!

Happy week ahead, Linda3rd, as the yawning chasm of Yuletide jollifications looms ever larger.

>150 richardderus: Thank you, Richard. It will be a busy one...

I've been giving some thought to my "best reads of 2018"...as I don't expect anything to really blow me away between now and New Year's, here's how it shakes out.

Top Fiction Reads (not ranked in any particular order)

Circe by Madeline Miller
The Long-Shining Waters by Danielle Sosin
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
Clay's Quilt by Silas House
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Mr. Pip by Lloyd Jones
The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash
The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

Top Non-Fiction Reads

ETA: Becoming by Michelle Obama
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
The Colossus of New York by Colson Whitehead
Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin
Fear and What Follows by Tim Parrish
As Kingfishers Catch Fire by Alex Preston and Neil Gower

Poetry Prize:

Simon Armitage's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

ETA: I was wrong up there...I received Michelle Obama's Becoming for Christmas, and finished it today. It's my top non-fiction read of 2018.

107. C is for Corpse by Sue Grafton I started a re-read of this series some time ago, and then got off track. In this 3rd installment, Kinsey Millhone saves her landlord from being swindled and takes a young man's death (was it murder?) personally. She also handles an encounter with an ex-lover she still finds dreadfully attractive without going all stupid or doing anything embarrassing to either of them. These are even better than I remember; I think Kinsey is who I imagined myself growing up to be when I was 13 or so. It never occurred to me then that I couldn't be lady-like, sexy, smart and kickass all at once, despite the absence of females like that in the stuff I was reading at the time. Even when I met Kinsey in my 30's, I don't think I quite realized what a ground-breaker she was. Thirty-five years later, she is still worth emulating, and one of the most interesting characters in genre fiction.

Find the Light—Reflect the Light—Be the Light

Happy Yule 2018!

Thank you Richard. A perfect sentiment for the time of year...and for the times in general.

Rather than making the rounds of threads with a holiday greeting, I'm taking the lazy route, and will just post a general one here, for all my visitors. May your days be merry and bright, and may your celebrations be stress-free and memorable.

156 - Lovely message and picture, Linda. I will also be taking the lazy (or, as I prefer to think of it, the less cluttered) route :-)

Have a lovely Christmas!

>156 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, Linda! I'm wishing the same for you and yours. Your tree is beautiful!

>158 scaifea: Thank you, Amber. I wish you could embiggen the picture so you could see some of the ornaments up close, especially the birds. There are many many birds. I have so much fun getting reacquainted with each one of them every year.

>157 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie! "Less cluttered" does sound much better...

>156 laytonwoman3rd: Lovely tree and lovely wishes, Linda3rd. Happy happy!

>157 katiekrug:, >159 laytonwoman3rd: ::side-eye::

>159 laytonwoman3rd: I wish you could embiggen the picture
You can, on an iPhone or iPad! That's a beautiful tree, Linda, and I love all the birds.

>161 lauralkeet: Of course, Laura....I didn't think of that, as I never look at LT on my phone, except to check my catalog in bookstores.

108. The Upright Piano Player by David Abbott Wonderful. With a caveat.

The writing in this novel is exquisite, which is fitting, because for most of it the characters bear the exquisite pain of loss--disappointment, disillusionment, divorce, death. It should be very depressing, and some readers have found it so. But there's a bit of distance between the reader and the characters that makes it all bearable...not quite clinical, but not heart-breaking either. The book begins with a funeral, and we soon learn of a senseless, guilt-inducing tragedy that has befallen Henry Cage and his family. From there we sail back and forth in time to the early years of Henry's career and marriage, to his estrangement from his wife and son, in fact to a life seemingly dominated by sadness and loneliness. There are moments of grace and reconciliation in it, but they take us only so far. The future events of that first chapter, scarcely mentioned again, hang over the rest of the book like a shroud ready to settle down over the family. What are we to take from it all? I'm not sure. But I am not at all sorry to have read it. What does the title mean? I can't answer that one either. There are two passing references to Henry's piano, which don't suggest anything to me. And the music of jazz pianist Bill Evans creeps into the story from time to time, but again, not enough to warrant the title. This is one of those books that parks itself in your head and won't move out, despite being very difficult to describe.

Have a wonderful holiday with the family, Linda. And good luck with the AAC launch.

>163 laytonwoman3rd: I loved this novel Linda. Sadly the author has never written anything since.

>165 Caroline_McElwee: I noticed that you had reviewed it favorably, Caroline. I bought this a couple years ago without knowing anything about it, and it was a hit with me. It is too bad Abbott hasn't written anything more.

>164 msf59: Thank you, Mark. I hope to put up a general discussion thread for the AAC later this week, as well as the Chaim Potok thread. ETA: Of course it will depend on when the 2019 group gets started, won't it?

Hi Linda. Wishing you and yours....



>152 laytonwoman3rd: I so want to get my hands on a copy of Circe.

>167 EBT1002: Awww...sweet. Thank you, Ellen. Circe was such a treat...if I were going to rank my 2018 reads, I think it would be at the top.

To Linda, Merry Christmas. May the new year bring health, joy and new adventures.

Here is something for your Christmas tree.

>160 richardderus: - *grin* and *smooch*

>163 laytonwoman3rd: - I look forward to your thoughts on The Upright Piano Player. It's been on my shelves since it came out, I think,

>169 Caroline_McElwee: Thank you, Caroline....that is perfect for my tree. I suppose Santa is sailing somewhere over London about now.

>170 katiekrug: I hope I can corral my thoughts into some sort of coherent statement, Katie. I am very glad I read it.

109 The Christmas Day Kitten by James Herriot A gentle story about a kind woman who didn't want a cat...until a dying stray brought her tiny kitten to the safety of the farm's hearth. Just the kind of thing you expect from Yorkshire's most famous vet....and the wonderful illustrations make you long for the warmth of a farm kitchen too.

Happy holidays, Linda

Merry Christmas from Philadelphia, Linda!

>173 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul. I hope you and your family are enjoying some good times together.

>174 kidzdoc: Merry Christmas, Darryl. And love to your parents for bringing you among us to spread your special blessings.

Thanks for those holiday wishes upthread, Linda, and also the good review on Christmas at Eagle Pond. I must look for a copy to add to my must-reads at Christmas list.
>152 laytonwoman3rd: Speaking of lists, that's a great one! This is my favorite time of year when people list their memorable reads.

Merry Merry!



I'm glad you enjoyed the Galbraith. I've noticed that many folks found it too long. I hope I'll be all right with it.

See you in the New Year!

>176 Donna828: Thank you, Donna. Putting together my best-reads list is always fun to do.

>177 sibylline: Aw, Lucy...Thank you! I love all the corgis!

Hey, everybody! Come on over to the General Discussion Thread for the 2019 American Authors Challenge. Tell us what you're thinking of reading.

Hope you had a great Christmas, Linda. Not much of this year left. All the best for 2019.

Happy Saturday, Linda. Slowly making my last LT rounds for 2018. I hope you were happy with your reading year. I definitely had a good one and looking forward to a repeat in 2019.

Enjoy the weekend.

RL is imposing on end-of-the-year reading. The township dump is accepting pretty much anything today, and I have a lot to give.

I have a couple of Chaim Potok books on the shelf...some shelf somewhere. So I must search out the appropriate thread and sign in.

Happy new year, Linda.

Hi Linda. I hope your holiday was a good one. There was Christmas morning snow in Beavercreek, Ohio. I spent a lovely week there with my daughter and family.

>138 laytonwoman3rd: Like you, I don't enjoy the writings of Fitzgerald. I recently read a few books regarding Ernest Hemingway. The Paris Wife described the hedonism of the group of writers that included the Fitzgeralds, Ezra Pound, the Hemingways and others. They seemed to be so very selfish and nasty to each other.

All good wishes for a wonderful New Year!

>179 Familyhistorian: Thank you, Meg. Happy New Year! I hope you'll enjoy great reads in 2019.

>180 msf59: I'm pretty satisfied with my 2018 reading, Mark. I tried not to let too many challenges bog me down, so there seem to be gaps when I look at those lists, but I'm OK with that.

>181 weird_O: Yeah, Bill...I know about those RL intrusions. That was supposed to stop when I retired, but I was silly to expect it. I hope you find your Potoks...he's definitely a good read.

>182 Whisper1: Happy New Year, Linda! I read The Paris Wife, and enjoyed it quite a lot. It actually made me feel a little sorry for Ernest, whom I've never much cared for. He missed a grand opportunity to build on a pretty good foundation with Hadley; if he had encouraged her a little she might have come out of her shell earlier and their marriage might have grown stronger. I'm in a minority camp of those who don't think his life's work justifies the human sorrows he left in his wake.

I'm in a minority camp of those who don't think his life's work justifies the human sorrows he left in his wake. I join you in your assessment of Hemingway. He seemed to be a very selfish, nasty man. He always had another woman waiting in the wing before he divorced his current wife. I wonder what his sons thought of him.

>184 Whisper1: Both Gregory Hemingway and Jack Hemingway have written autobiographies/memoirs about life with "Papa". Gregory's life was tragic in many ways; he was a terribly confused man who had gender issues that were never fully resolved; he married multiple times, remarrying one of his former wives after he had undergone sex change surgery. He suffered from mental illness and alcoholism. He was estranged from his father for many years, but reconciled to some degree before Ernest's death. If you want more, his memoir is Papa: A Personal Memoir. Jack's book, which I haven't read, is called Misadventures of a Fly Fisherman. He worked with Ernest's widow, Mary, to put A Moveable Feast into publishable form; it's Ernest's view of the period covered in The Paris Wife. It makes good reading, but may not be reliable as memoir.

>184 Whisper1: I'll join you both. I just can't deal with him.

>185 laytonwoman3rd: Wow, I didn't know all that stuff. I picked up a copy of A Moveable Feast at Shakespeare & Co (Paris), in a moment of tourism weakness. Note to self: I should read it back-to-back with The Paris Wife.

Happy Holidays Linda. I see you added a Daniel Boone book to your library. Can we count Daniel as a founder for the AAC? I know surprisingly little about Daniel. I don't think I can rely on old TV for the true story. What I do know is that he is my wife's 7th great uncle. So I should learn about him.

You may recall that I loved both A Moveable Feast and the Paris Wife and they were a great pair to read close together.

Thank you for adding to my wishlist this year, Linda.

Wishing you a happy, healthy, and peaceful new year.

>186 lauralkeet: Back to back reads of those two titles is a very good idea. I might suggest reading the Hemingway first, as you might not want Ernest's perspective after reading The Paris Wife.

>187 RBeffa: You know, Ron, I was just thinking about that this morning. I think we can include Boone as a Founder. My initial thought was we need to get a better handle on what the framers of our Constitution and government structure were thinking back in the 18th century, but the men who broke the physical frontiers of the continent are integral to who we are as well. My brother passed this book on to me in a box of returns and pass-ons, without comment (I think he read it nearly 10 years ago, going by the gift inscription that's in it), so I don't know how good it is. I've not got around to checking for reviews of it here. How cool that you have a connection to Ol' Dan'l.

>188 NanaCC: Always happy to know I'm building someone else's TBR piles, Colleen. But I imagine we're about even in that respect!

Hi Linda - I hope you're having a wonderful holiday season. Happy New Year! I hope to see you around in 2019.

>135 laytonwoman3rd: These illustrations are lovely. Too bad the story isn't as good.

>141 laytonwoman3rd: This definitely goes on the list. It sounds like it would be a good Scout book, along with Christmas Day Kitten.

>152 laytonwoman3rd: Nice list - some of those have also been my favorites, especially The Daughter of Time and The Underground Railroad.

>153 laytonwoman3rd: I've been meaning to read Grafton as well, I only ever got up to C, so I feel like I should just start from the beginning.

>190 BLBera: Hi, Beth! You know, I find with children's books that the illustrations can carry a weak story (as long as it isn't rife with attitudes or bias that I can't accept). And you never know what's going to capture a child's imagination. Sometimes they love stuff that just seems meh, but can't be coaxed to get interested in one of your own favorites.

I highly recommend starting at the beginning and tearing through everything Grafton wrote.

>189 laytonwoman3rd: that's a very good suggestion, Linda.

110. Becoming by Michelle Obama Simply the best non-fiction book I've read this year. How anyone can not admire this woman, aspire to be like her, wish to know her and learn from her is a mystery to me. She made me laugh, and cry and yearn for the good old days of the last decade. We didn't know how lucky we were.

I have read 110 books this year, 52 by male authors, 53 by female authors, and the rest by some combination of both. 22 were non-fiction, the rest mainly fiction, with 3 volumes of poetry tucked in. 14 were illustrated children's books. 3 or 4 were re-reads, and there were an additional 3 DNF's (did not finish). I won't try to compile any other statistics, 'cause I'm just that lazy. I've sort of reviewed The Upright Piano Player in >163 laytonwoman3rd: above, and I've finished the year's reading with Michelle Obama's wonderful Becoming. I'll start something else in a few minutes, but it will carry over into next year, so now, please follow me to my new 2019 digs.

I also loved Becoming, Linda. What a great way to end the year's reading.

>193 laytonwoman3rd: a very fine autobiography indeed Linda. And I'm glad people are reading it. I've only heard one person not as enamoured, but that seemed to be because she felt Michelle too good to be true, but that friend is also from the opposite side of the political fence, which I suspect has an impact.

>193 laytonwoman3rd: WOOT!!

>193 laytonwoman3rd: I just downloaded this one from Audible, Linda. I’m looking forward to it.

>185 laytonwoman3rd: Many thanks for the information regarding the children of Hemingway. I quickly added those you mentioned and hope to find them at a local library.

I hope your day is lovely! And, I hope that 2019 brings lots of time to read.

>195 BLBera: I agree, Beth. It was a Christmas present, and I dove right in.
>196 Caroline_McElwee: I'm surprised at the "too good to be true" comment (although if it came from someone not inclined to admire Mrs. O to begin with, then it's a pretty mild criticism). I thought she was a fairly open about showing us some of her rough spots.
>197 scaifea: As you say.
>198 NanaCC: I think she reads it herself, doesn't she? That must add to the pleasure.
>199 Whisper1: Glad to share, Linda. I want to read Jack's book myself one of these days.

>200 laytonwoman3rd: yes, I thought she gave a pretty rounded view of who she is, good and less so Linda. I'll have to follow up with my friend when I see her next, she had been only about a third through when she made that comment.

>201 thornton37814: Thank you, Lori. And Miss Molly Cat thanks you as well...she thinks your graphic is the best she's seen yet.

I just posted my Ten Faves from 2018 reading. And I'm close to having my December/Year's Reading Roundup ready to post. I can get into the niggly bits. Helps me with my drinking problem...the problem being that I don't do enough of it.

My wife got Becoming for Christmas and has been reading it. Daughter Dear boosted the copy of Lethal White that was on the shelf. I do have a few other books I could read instead; it'll come back to Pennsylvania eventually.

See you next year. Or tomorrow. Whichever comes first.

>204 weird_O: Well, I'll have to go check out your favorites, etc. As for that drinking problem, I can help you with that. Here....there should be enough to go around.



Happy New Year, Everybody!

>203 laytonwoman3rd: I just searched Google images for ones that were free for reuse. I guess I did specify cat with "happy new year".

Please follow me to my new 2019 digs, if you haven't already found the path.