Chatterbox Welcomes 2021: Act II

The image above is of a painting by one of Canada's Group of Seven painters; "Lone Lake" by Franklin Carmichael.

Why I Wake Early
by Mary Oliver

Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and crotchety–

best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light–
good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.

So, I've finally made it to (a) a second thread and (b) a post-vaccination life, such as it is. The jury is still out on the latter!

I'm "reading" a lot of audiobooks as I grapple with migraines and other stuff, but also reading a lot of non-fiction in recent weeks; I hope that continues. I've had a couple of excellent novels as well, but am still struggling to find the attention span required to devote to literary/imaginative worlds. Fingers/toes crossed.

While I am still reading a lot, I had a very slow month in March (which I blame on the first dose of the Moderna vaccine, which knocked me for a loop, and on having to have some surgery to remove moles from my back.) So I'm not terribly confident I'll meet my (admittedly ambitious) goal for 2021.

The two resident cats continue to enliven my existence. Sir Fergus the Fat's lifetime ambition is to devour every single cat treat in existence, while Minka the Velveteen Kitten is (sadly) following in her adoptive brother's pawsteps on that, jumping up beside my head at 4 a.m. to cry for treats. I have created two feline monsters.

The new ghostwriting business is slowly getting off the ground, which is wonderful. Two projects on the go right now, and I've got a third client in my sights...

The Athenaeum is slooowwwly reopening; people can book individual desks to work at, and we can go in and browse to pick up books. Woot!

I'll continue list the books I read here, but I just don't have the bandwidth/energy to do mini-reviews on everything. I'll flag the books I find most entertaining, appealing or compelling -- or disappointing. My ideal book? Anything in which I can completely immerse myself, and at the end, wish I hadn't read it, so that I could read it again for the first time... Which is why I like to re-read some favorites each year. If you want my thoughts on anything I've read, feel free to ask! Every year, I set out to imagine my thread as being a cyber version of my ideal literary salon would be like, and in this year, well, there ARE no real salons. I think of LT as a better kind of Zoom, because I don't need to make sure I'm camera-ready.

A reminder of the existence of the non-fiction challenge!!! You can find links to what our group has been reading on the list Jim assembles of key threads/groups.

As always, the only "rules" of the road for this thread: please treat each other and everyone else's views with courtesy, civility and thoughtfulness, and leave the politics and drama for other kinds of social media. Pretty please and thank you very much.

I always read far more than 75 books a year and so just keep a single ticker to track my total reading. I'll start new threads when possible. I will try to keep the list current but keeping up with mini-reviews of the books I read, with capsule comments, has defeated me. So, once again I will simply acknowledge that it's not possible.

This year I'm setting my goal at what for me is a relatively modest level: 401. I just topped that in 2020, so hopefully will succeed in doing so once more in 2021

If you want to see what I have been reading in real time, your best bet is to go to my library on LT, and look at the dedicated collection I've established there, under the label "Books Read in 2021". As I complete a book, I'll rate it and add it to the list. I'll also tag it, "Read in 2021". You'll be able to see it by either searching under that tag, or clicking on https://www.librarything.com/catalog/Chatterbox/booksreadin2021.

I do have some reading objectives -- I refuse to call them challenges or targets or anything else -- ranging from specific books to themes and even authors I plan to re-read. I'll note those down in the coming posts.



My guide to my ratings:

1.5 or less: A tree gave its life so that this book could be printed and distributed?
1.5 to 2.7: Are you really prepared to give up hours of your life for this?? I wouldn't recommend doing so...
2.8 to 3.3: Do you need something to fill in some time waiting to see the dentist? Either reasonably good within a ho-hum genre (chick lit or thrillers), something that's OK to read when you've nothing else with you, or that you'll find adequate to pass the time and forget later on.
3.4 to 3.8: Want to know what a thumping good read is like, or a book that has a fascinating premise, but doesn't quite deliver? This is where you'll find 'em.
3.9 to 4.4: So, you want a hearty endorsement? These books have what it takes to make me happy I read them.
4.5 to 5: The books that I wish I hadn't read yet, so I could experience the joy of discovering them again for the first time. Sometimes disquieting, sometimes sentimental faves, sometimes dramatic -- they are a highly personal/subjective collection!

Here's the list, with the most recent books first...

The May list:

120. An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good by Helen Tursten (finished 5/2/21) 4.5 stars
121. *The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey (finished 5/3/21) 4.8 stars (A)
122. Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty by Maurice Chammah (finished 5/4/21) 4.7 stars (A)
123. The Freedom Line: The Brave Men and Women Who Rescued Allied Airmen by Peter Eisner (finished 5/5/21) 4.2 stars (A)
124. Notre-Dame: The Soul of France by Agnès Poirier (finished 5/6/21) 4.15 stars
125. The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis (finished 5/7/21) 4.2 stars (A)
126. A Noel Killing by M.L. Longworth (finished 5/8/21) 3.75 stars
127. Two Old Men and a Baby by Hendrik Groen (finished 5/8/21) 3.85 stars
128. *Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station by Dorothy Gilman (finished 5/9/21) 3 stars
129. City of Schemes by Victoria Thompson (finished 5/9/21) 3.9 stars
130. The Summer House by James Patterson (finished 5/10/21) 3.7 stars
131. Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha by Dorothy Gilman (finished 5/12/21) 3.15 stars (A)
132. The Ravine: A Family, a Photograph, a Holocaust Massacre Revealed by Wendy Lower (finished 5/13/21) 4.2 stars
133. *Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson (finished 5/14/21) 4.85 stars (A)
134. The Spider: Inside the Criminal Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell by Barry Levine (finished 5/15/21) 3.7 stars (A)
135. The Windsor Knot by S.J. Bennett (finished 5/15/21) 4.35 stars
136. *Valentina by Evelyn Anthony (finished 5/17/21) 3 stars
137. The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth (finished 5/18/21) 3.4 stars
138. The Royal Secret by Andrew Taylor (finished 5/19/21) 4.2 stars
139. Nives by Sacha Naspini (finished 5/19/21) 5 stars
140. Dishonour and Obey by Graham Brack (finished 5/20/21) 3.25 stars
141. Death With a Double Edge by Anne Perry (finished 5/20/21) 3.2 stars (A)
142. Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu (finished 5/22/21) 4.3 stars
143. The Happy Traitor: the Extraordinary Life of George Blake by Simon Kuper (finished 5/23/21) 4.15 stars
144. *The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming (finished 5/24/21) 4.2 stars (A)
145. Daughters of Sparta by Claire Heywood (finished 5/25/21) 3.65 stars
146. Middlemarch by George Eliot (finished 5/28/21) 4.3 stars (A)
147. The Dream Weavers by Barbara Erskine (finished 5/29/21) 3.7 stars
148. A Peculiar Combination by Ashley Weaver (finished 5/30/21) 3.4 stars
149. The Anglo-Saxons by Marc Morris (finished 5/30/21) 4.6 stars
150. Not At Home by Doris Langley Moore (finished 5/31/21) 4.4 stars

June list:

151. The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris (finished 6/1/21) 4.2 stars (A)
152. *Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition by Paul Watson (finished 6/3/21) 4.8 stars (A)
153. The High Girders: Tay Bridge Disaster 1879 by John Prebble (finished 6/4/21) 4.15 stars (A)
154. In the Shadow of the Empress by Nancy Goldstone (finished 6/5/21) 4.2 stars
155. Mantel Pieces by Hilary Mantel (finished 6/5/21) 4.5 stars
156. The Noose's Shadow by Graham Brack (finished 6/6/21) 3.4 stars
157. Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams (finished 6/6/21) 3.6 stars
158. An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Helene Tursten (finished 6/7/21) 4.3 stars
159. The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey (finished 6/7/21) 3.9 stars
160. The Cover Wife by Dan Fesperman (finished 6/9/21) 4.2 stars
161. *Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (finished 6/9/21) 4.2 stars (A)
162. The Disappearing Act by Catherine Steadman (finished 6/11/21) 4.2 stars
163. Yours Cheerfully by A.J. Pearce (finished 6/12/21) 3.5 stars
164. The Vanishing Museum on the rue Mistral by M.L. Longworth (finished 6/13/21) 3.7 stars
165. *In the Garden of the Beasts by Erik Larson (finished 6/15/21) 4.2 stars (A)
166. A Comedy of Terrors by Lindsey Davis (finished 6/18/21) 4 stars
167. A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich by Lucas Delattre (finished 6/19/21) 3.9 stars (A)
168. Impostor Syndrome by Kathy Wang (finished 6/21/21) 4.1 stars
169. Widowland by C.J. Carey (finished 6/22/21) 4.2 stars
170. The Vanishing Children by Graham Brack (finished 6/24/21) 3.85 stars
171. The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon became a Movement, Cult and Conspiracy Theory of Everything by Mike Rothschild (finished 6/24/21) 3.9 stars
172. *When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Penman (finished 6/25/21) 3.5 stars
173. Black Sun Rising by Matthew Carr (finished 6/25/21) 3.9 stars
174. War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East by Gershom Gorenberg (finished 6/27/21) 4.35 stars
175. Two Women in Rome by Elizabeth Buchan (finished 6/28/21) 4.2 stars
176. *Dominion by C.J. Sansom (finished 6/29/21) 4.3 stars (A)
177. The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths (finished 6/30/21) 4.4 stars

July list:

178. Freedom by Sebastian Junger (finished 7/1/21) 4.5 stars (A)
179. So Much Life Left Over by Louis de Bernières (finished 7/2/21) 3.85 stars
180. Our American Friend by Anna Pitoniak (finished 7/2/21) 4.2 stars
181. The Devil May Dance by Jake Tapper (finished 7/2/21) 3.7 stars
182. Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman (finished 7/3/21) 3.65 stars
183. *The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva (finished 7/4/21) 4.2 stars (A)
184. Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine (finished 7/6/21) 5 stars
185. The Blitz Detective by Mike Hollow (finished 7/6/21) 4.3 stars (A)
186. Exit by Belinda Bauer (finished 7/8/21) 4.6 stars
187. Debutante by Anne Melville (finished 7/9/21) 3.2 stars
188. When My Time Comes by Diane Rehm (finished 7/10/21) 4.35 stars
189. *Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (finished 7/11/21) 4.4 stars (A)
190. The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch (finished 7/12/21) 4 stars (A)
191. The Canning Town Murder by Mike Hollow (finished 7/12/21) 4.1 stars (A)
192. The Fine Art of Invisible Detection by Robert Goddard (finished 7/14/21) 4.1 stars
193. My Grandmother's Braid by Alina Bronsky (finished 7/16/21) 4.3 stars
194. Landslide by Michael Wolff (finished 7/17/21) 4.15 stars (A)
195. Brotherhood by Mohamed Mbugar Sarr (finished 7/18/21) 4.25 stars
196. The Custom House Murder by Mike Hollow (finished 7/19/21) 4 stars (A)
197. *Having the Builders In by Reay Tannahill (finished 7/20/21) 4.2 stars
198. I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year by Carol Leoning & Philip Rucker (finished 7/22/21) 4.35 stars (A)
199. The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore (finished 7/23/21) 4.65 stars
200. Operation Columba: The Secret Pigeon Service by Gordon Corera (finished 7/24/21) 4.5 stars (A)
201. Germania by Harold Gilbers (finished 7/25/21) 4.15 stars (A)
202. *Regeneration by Pat Barker (finished 7/26/21) 5 stars
203. *The Swiss Spy by Alex Gerlis (finished 7/27/21) 4.1 stars (A)
204. Silent Parade by Keigo Higashino (finished 7/28/21) 4.1 stars
205. *Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey (finished 7/28/21) 5 stars (A)
206. Metropolitan Stories by Catherine Coulsen (finished 7/29/21) 4.25 stars
207. *Pied Piper by Nevil Shute (finished 7/30/21) 4.2 stars (A)
208. The Cellist by Daniel Silva (finished 7/31/21) 4.15 stars (A)

August list:

209: *Having the Decorators In by Reay Tannahill (finished 8/1/21) 4.1 stars
210. The Stratford Murder by Mike Hollow (finished 8/2/21) 3.6 stars (A)
211. Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy (finished 8/4/21) 5 stars
212. All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner (finished 8/5/21) 4.3 stars (A)
213. *The Deceiver by Frederick Forsyth (finished 8/6/21) 4.4 stars
214. The Museum of Broken Promises by Elizabeth Buchan (finished 8/7/21) 4.25 stars
215. Agent M: The Lives and Spies of MI5's Maxwell Knight by Henry Hemming (finished 8/7/21) 4 stars
216. A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth by Daniel Mason (finished 8/8/21) 4.4 stars
217. 97,196 Words by Emmanuel Carrère (finished 8/8/21) 4.3 stars
218. The Talented Miss Farwell by Emily Gray Tedrowe (finished 8/8/21) 4.4 stars
219. Play the Red Queen by Juris Jurjevics (finished 8/9/21) 3.9 stars
220. Mr. Nobody by Catherine Steadman (finished 8/10/21) 4.2 stars
221. The Cult of the Constitution by Mary Anne Franks (finished 8/10/21) 4.2 stars (A)
222. Checkmate in Berlin: The Cold War Showdown that Shaped the Modern World by Giles Milton (finished 8/13/21) 4.2 stars (A)
223. Priceless by Zygmunt Miloszewski (finished 8/13/21) 4 stars
224. The Love Child by Rachel Hore (finished 8/14/21) 3.2 stars
225. I Saw Him Die by Andrew Wilson (finished 8/14/21) 3.4 stars
226. *The Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Al Sanea (finished 8/15/21) 4.3 stars (A)
227. Virus: Vaccinations, the CDC, and the Hijacking of America's Response to the Pandemic by Nina Burleigh (finished 8/15/21) 4 stars (A)
228. American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst by Jeffrey Toobin (finished 8/18/21) 3.85 stars
229. *The Warehouse by Rob Hart (finished 8/20/21) 4.1 stars
230. A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain by Marc Morris (finished 8/23/21) 4.2 stars (A)
231. Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener (finished 8/23/21) 4.7 stars
232. Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich by Norman Ohler (finished 8/24/21) 4.15 stars (A)
233, See Jane Run by Joy Fielding (finished 8/26/21) 3.75 stars
234. Never Remember: Searching for Stalin's Gulags in Putin's Russia by Masha Gessen (finished 8/26/21) 4.35 stars (A)
235. *Sheer Abandon by Penny Vincenzi (finished 8/30/21) 3.5 stars (A)

September list:

236. *Prince of Spies by Alex Gerlis (finished 9/1/21) 4.2 stars (A)
237. *Sea of Spies by Alex Gerlis (finished 9/2/21) 4.2 stars (A)
238. Icebreaker: A Voyage Far North by Horatio Clare (finished 9/3/21) 4 stars
239. Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge (finished 9/3/21) 3.85 stars
240. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anaparra (finished 9/4/21) 4.6 stars
241. *Ring of Spies by Alex Gerlis (finished 9/5/21) 4 stars (A)
242. It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War by Lyndsey Addario (finished 9/7/21) 4.35 stars
243. A Time Without Shadows by Ted Allbeury (finished 9/8/21) 4.1 stars (A)
244. *Silesian Station by David Downing (finished 9/9/21) 4 stars (A)
245. The Women of Troy by Pat Barker (finished 9/10/21) 4.65 stars (A)
246. Ceremony of Innocence by Madeleine Bunting (finished 9/11/21) 4.35 stars
247. *Stettin Station by David Downing (finished 9/12/21) 4 stars (A)
248. *House of Dreams by Pauline Gedge (finished 9/13/21) 4.2 stars
249. Betrayal in Berlin by Steve Vogel (finished 9/15/21) 4.15 stars (A)
250. *House of Illusions by Pauline Gedge (finished 9/15/21) 4.2 stars
251. Four Princes by John Julius Norwich (finished 9/16/21) 4 stars
252. What Just Happened: Notes on a Long Year by Charles Finch (finished 9/17/21) 4.3 stars
253. Lives of the Stoics by Ryan Holiday (finished 9/19/21) 4.2 stars
254. When I Hit You: Or a Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife by Meena Kandasamy (finished 9/20/21) 4.7 stars
255. The Steel Beneath the Silk by Patricia Bracewell (finished 9/21/21) 3.6 stars
256. Peril by Bob Woodword and Robert Costa (finished 9/23/21) 4.15 stars (A)
257. A Darker Reality by Anne Perry (finished 9/23/21) 3.35 stars
258. Summer of Blood: England's First Revolution by Dan Jones (finished 9/24/21) 4.15 stars (A)
259. Murder in Chianti by Camilla Trincheri (finished 9/24/21) 4 stars
260. Travels With George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy by Nathaniel Philbrick (finished 9/24/21) 4.35 stars (A)
261. The Golden Thread: The Cold War and the Mysterious Death of Dag Hammarskjöld by Ravi Somaiya (finished 9/25/21) 4.2 stars
262. The Churchill Complex: The Rise and Fall of the Special Relationship by Ian Buruma (finished 9/25/21) 4.1 stars
263. Rizzio by Denise Mina (finished 9/26/21) 4.2 stars (A)
264. Constance by Matthew FitzSimmons (finished 9/26/21) 3.8 stars (A) (partly audio)
265. A Fire in the Night by Christopher Swann (finished 9/27/21) 3.85 stars (A)
266. People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn (finished 9/29/21) 4.3 stars
267. Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal by George Packer (finished 9/30/21) 4.7 stars (A)

The October list:

268. The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny (finished 10/1/21) 4.1 stars (A)
269. The Missing Piece by John Lescroart (finished 10/2/21) 3.9 stars
270. Something of His Art: Walking to Lübeck with J.S. Bach by Horatio Clare (finished 10/2/21) 4 stars
271. The Testimony of Alys Twist by Suzannah Dunn (finished 10/3/21) 3.7 stars
272. *The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley (finished 10/3/21) 3.8 stars (A)
273. Mayday 1971: A White House at War, a Revolt in the Streets, and the Untold History of America’s Biggest Mass Arrest by Lawrence Roberts (finished 10/4/21) 4.1 stars (A)
274. Rising Sun, Falling Shadow by Daniel Kalla (finished 10/5/21) 3.85 stars
275. The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge and the Phoenix Park Murders that Stunned Victorian England by Julie Kavanagh (finished 10/5/21) 4.45 stars (A)
276. One More Christmas at the Castle by Trisha Ashley (finished 10/8/21) 3.85 stars
277. Damascus Station by David McCloskey (finished 10/9/21) 3.8 stars (A)
278. The Dockland Murder by Mike Hollow (finished 10/10/21) 3.5 stars (A)
279. The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan (finished 10/10/21) 4.5 stars
280. Sankofa by Chibundu Onusu (finished 10/10/21) 4.6 stars
281. Wildland: The Making of America's Fury by Evan Osnos (finished 10/12/21) 4.8 stars (A)
282. On Hampstead Heath by Marika Cobbold (finished 10/13/21) 3.7 stars
283. Beyond the River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad by Ann Hagedorn (finished 10/15/21) 4.15 stars
284. The Last Correspondent: Dispatches from the Frontline of Xi’s New China by Michael Smith (finished 10/16/21) 3.6 stars (A)
285. Last Girl Ghosted by Lisa Unger (finished 10/16/21) 4 stars
286. Saving Time by Jodi Taylor (finished 10/17/21) 4.2 stars (A)
287. Queens of the Crusades by Alison Weir (finished 10/18/21) 3.8 stars (A)
288. Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning by Timothy Snyder (finished 10/19/21) 4.4 stars
289. Over My Dead Body by Jeffrey Archer (finished 10/20/21) 3.45 stars (A)
290. A Match Made in Murder by Iona Whishaw (finished 10/21/21) 3.9 stars
291. Irena's Children by Tilar Mazzeo (finished 10/22/21) 4 stars
292. Your Inner Hedgehog by Alexander McCall Smith (finished 10/24/21) 3.6 stars (A)
293. Femlandia by Christina Dalcher (finished 10/24/21) 4 stars (A)
294. The Whistler by John Grisham (finished 10/26/21) 4.15 stars
295. A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution by Jeremy Popkin (finished 10/27/21) 4.3 stars (partly A)
296. The Judge's List by John Grisham (finished 10/27/21) 4 stars
297. *Parker Pyne Investigates by Agatha Christie (finished 10/28/21) 3.7 stars
298. Hold Your Breath, China by Qiu Xiaolong (finished 10/28/21) 3.1 stars

(A) -- audiobook
* -- re-read

The January & February lists:

The January list:

1. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (finished 1/1/21) 3.8 stars
2. The Forgotten Kingdom by Signe Pike (finished 1/1/21) 4.1 stars (A)
3. Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis by Jeffrey Jackson (finished 1/2/21) 4 stars
4. Third Girl by Agatha Christie (finished 1/3/21) 3.4 stars (A)
5. *Code Name Hélène by Ariel Lawhon (finished 1/4/21) 4.2 stars (A)
6. Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life by Louise Aronson (finished 1/4/21) 5 stars
7. Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power and History's First Global Manhunt by Steve Johnson (finished 1/6/21) 4.2 stars (A)
8. Away With the Penguins by Hazel Prior (finished 1/7/21) 4 stars
9. The Finisher by Peter Lovesey (finished 1/8/21) 4.1 stars
10. The Last by Hanna Jameson (finished 1/9/21) 4.2 stars
11. *Divine Comedy by Elizabeth Pewsey (finished 1/10/21) 4.1 stars (A)
12. When She Was Good by Michael Robotham (finished 1/10/21) 4.2 stars
13. *Unholy Harmonies by Elizabeth Pewsey (finished 1/12/21) 4.1 stars (A)
14. *Unaccustomed Spirits by Elizabeth Pewsey (finished 1/14/21) 4 stars (A)
15. A Matter of Life and Death by Phillip Margolin (finished 1/14/21) 3 stars
16. *The Ghost by Robert Harris (finished 1/15/21) 4.2 stars (A)
17. When You See Me by Lisa Gardener (finished 1/17/21) 3.7 stars
18. The Great Secret: The Classified World War II Disaster That Launched the War on Cancer by Jennet Conant (finished 1/18/21) 4.1 stars
19. The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World and Globalization Began by Valerie Hansen (finished 1/19/21) 4.3 stars
20. Katharine Parr: The Sixth Wife by Alison Weir (finished 1/20/21) 3.7 stars
21. *Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin (finished 1/21/21) 4.2 stars (A)
22. Butcher's Crossing by John Williams (finished 1/22/21) 4.7 stars
23. A Prince and a Spy by Rory Clements (finished 1/22/21) 4.2 stars
24. The Only Living Witness by Stephen Michaud (finished 1/23/21) 4 stars
25. *The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin (finished 1/23/21) 3.85 stars (A)
26. *Vertigo by W.G. Sebald (finished 1/24/21) 4.35 stars
27. Red Widow by Alma Katsu (finished 1/25/21) 3.15 stars
28. *Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin (finished 1/26/21) 3.8 stars (A)
29. The Silver Collar by Antonia Hodgson (finished 1/27/21) 4.2 stars
30. Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy by Anne Sebba (finished 1/28/21) 4 stars
31. *A Murderous Procession by Ariana Franklin (finished 1/28/21) 4.1 stars (A)
32. Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano (finished 1/30/21) 4 stars
33. Stop at Nothing by Michael Ledwige (finished 1/31/21) 2 stars (A)
34. Dark Salt Clear: Life in a Cornish Fishing Town by Lamorna Ash (finished 1/31/21) 4.3 stars
35. *The Darcy Connection by Elizabeth Aston (finished 1/31/21) 3.8 stars (A)

The February List:

36. *I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes (finished 2/2/21) 4.35 stars (A)
37. The Far Side of the Sky by Daniel Kalla (finished 2/4/21) 3.35 stars
38. *Mr. Darcy's Daughters by Elizabeth Aston (finished 2/4/21) 3.65 stars (A)
39. The Velvet Rope Economy: How Inequality Became Big Business by Nelson Schwarz (finished 2/5/21) 4.1 stars
40. The Nine: The True Story of a Band of Women Who Survived the Worst of Nazi Germany by Gwen Strauss (finished 2/6/21) 4.3 stars
41. *To Shield the Queen by Fiona Buckley (finished 2/7/21) 4 stars (A)
42. The Bad Muslim Discount by Syed Mahmood (finished 2/7/21) 4.7 stars
43. *The Doublet Affair by Fiona Buckley (finished 2/8/21) 3.9 stars (A)
44. The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War by Jonathan Daniel Wells (finished 2/9/21) 4.1 stars
45. Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March (finished 2/10/21) 3.7 stars
46. *Queen's Ransom by Fiona Buckley (finished 2/10/21) 3.85 stars (A)
47. The Mercenary by Paul Vidich (finished 2/13/21) 3.75 stars
48. The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy by Elizabeth Aston (finished 2/13/21) 3.65 stars
49. Hitler: Downfall 1939-1945 by Volker Ullrich (finished 2/14/21) 4.5 stars
50. The Old Enemy by Henry Porter (finished 2/16/21) 4.1 stars
51. *To Ruin a Queen by Henry Porter (finished 2/17/21) 3.5 stars (A)
52. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (finished 2/20/21) 4.3 stars
53. M, King's Bodyguard by Niall Leonard (finished 2/22/21) 4.2 stars
54. *Vox by Christina Dalcher (finished 2/22/21) 4.3 stars (A)
55. You Don't Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War by Elizabeth Becker (finished 2/24/21) 5 stars (A)
56. The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan (finished 2/24/21) 3.3 stars
57. *The Janus Imperative by Evelyn Anthony (finished 2/25/21) 3.4 stars
58. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker (finished 2/26/21) 4.35 stars
59. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (finished 2/27/21) 5 stars
60. *Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst (finished 2/27/21) 4 stars
61. Five Little Indians by Michelle Good (finished 2/28/21) 4.7 stars

(A) -- audiobook
* -- re-read

The March & April lists:

The March List:

62. Death and the Maiden by Samantha Norman/Ariana Franklin (finished 3/2/21) 3.7 stars
63. A Beautiful Spy by Rachel Hore (finished 3/3/21) 3.2 stars
64. The Voter File by David Pepper (finished 3/5/21) 3.3 stars
65. *A Place of Execution by Val McDermid (finished 3/6/21) 4.3 stars (A)
66. The Moscow Rules by Antonio Mendez (finished 3/7/21) 3.75 stars (A)
67. Behind Closed Doors by Catherine Alliott (finished 3/9/21) 4.1 stars
68. Citizens of London by Lynne Olson (finished 3/10/21) 4.2 stars (A)
69. Fallen by Linda Castillo (finished 3/13/21) 3.9 stars
70. *The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye (finished 3/16/21) 3.5 stars (A)
71. The Brandons by Angela Thirkell (finished 3/17/21) 3.45 stars
72. The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn (finished 3/19/21) 4.4 stars
73. The Rose Code by Kate Quinn (finished 3/20/21) 4.1 stars
74. Wedding Station by David Downing (finished 3/23/21) 3.8 stars
75. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (finished 3/24/21) 4.45 stars
76. *Pen Pals by Olivia Goldsmith (finished 3/25/21) 3.7 stars (A)
77. *Farthing by Jo Walton (finished 3/26/21) 4.15 stars
78. The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear (finished 3/27/21) 3.6 stars
79. *Ha'Penny by Jo Walton (finished 3/28/21) 4.2 stars (A)
80. Aftershocks: A Memoir by Nadia Owusu (finished 3/28/21) 4.8 stars
81. *Half a Crown by Jo Walton (finished 3/28/21) 3.65 stars (A)
82. Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie (finished 3/29/21) 3.75 stars (A)
83. Stakes Is High: Life After the American Dream by Mychal Denzel Smith (finished 3/30/21) 4.4 stars
84. Travels With Epicurus by Daniel Klein (finished 3/31/21) 3.75 stars

The April list:

85. *The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman (finished 4/1/21) 3.6 stars (A)
86. The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale (finished 4/2/21) 4.3 stars
87. The Socrates Express by Eric Weiner (finished 4/3/21) 4.2 stars (A)
88. The Plague Year by Lawrence Wright (finished 4/3/21) 4.1 stars
89. Miss Kopp Investigates by Amy Stewart (finished 4/4/21) 4.1 stars
90. *The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman (finished 4/4/21) 3.5 stars (A)
91. Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy (finished 4/5/21) 5 stars
92. *Queen of Ambition by Fiona Buckley (finished 4/5/21) 3.6 stars
93. *Venetia by Georgette Heyer (finished 4/7/21) 3.7 stars (A)
94. Turn a Blind Eye by Jeffrey Archer (finished 4/8/21) 3.6 stars
95. End of Spies by Alex Gerlis (finished 4/9/21) 3.9 stars
96. Death in Delft by Graham Brack (finished 4/9/21) 3.65 stars (A)
97. Look What You Made Me Do by Elaine Murphy (finished 4/10/21) 3.75 stars
98. Elizabeth & Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters by Andrew Morton (finished 4/10/21) 3.7 stars
99. The Sea Gate by Jane Johnson (finished 4/11/21) 4.1 stars
100. The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray (finished 4/11/21) 4.2 stars
101. You Can Run by Karen Cleveland (finished 4/12/21) 4 stars
102. Northern Spy by Flynn Berry (finished 4/12/21) 4.1 stars
103. Untrue Till Death by Graham Brack (finished 4/13/21) 3.6 stars (A)
104. Every Vow You Break by Peter Swanson (finished 4/14/21) 4.1 stars (A)
105. Another Time, Another Place by Jodi Taylor (finished 4/15/21) 4.2 stars (A)
106. The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB by Milton Bearden & James Risen (finished 4/17/21) 4 stars (A)
107. Triple Cross by Tom Bradby (finished 4/18/21) 3.95 stars
108. The White Ship: Conquest, Anarchy and the Wrecking of Henry I’s Dream by Charles Spencer (finished 4/20/21) 4.35 stars
109. Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age by Annalee Newitz (finished 4/20/21) 4.15 stars
110. Band of Sisters by Lauren Willig (finished 4/21/21) 3.85 stars
111. *Mrs. Pollifax on Safari by Dorothy Gilman (finished 4/22/21) 3 stars (A)
112. The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts (finished 4/23/21) 4.3 stars
113. The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda (finished 4/26/21) 4.75 stars
114. Nowhere Girl: A Memoir of a Fugitive Girlhood by Cheryl Diamond (finished 4/27/21) 4.15 stars
115. The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women's Rights by Dorothy Wickenden (finished 4/28/21) 4.85 stars
116. *Dictator by Robert Harris (finished 4/28/21) 4.35 stars (A)
117. Mudlark: In Search of London's Past Along the River Thames by Lara Meiklem (finished 4/29/21) 4.4 stars
118. *Stormy Petrel by Mary Stewart (finished 4/29/21) 3.75 stars (A)
119. The Left-Handed Twin by Thomas Perry (finished 4/30/21) 4.1 stars

(A) -- audiobook
* -- re-read

Room for lists

Reading Plans for 2021

Mysteries

The Silver Collar by Antonia Hodgson Read
Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner
A Noel Killing by ML Longworth Read
The Blitz Detective by Mike Hollow Read
Cold Kill – Rennie Airth
Salt Lane – William Shaw
Murder in Chianti by Camilla Trincheri Read
Entry Island by Peter May
Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano Read
The Royal Secret by Andrew Taylor Read
A Match Made for Murder by Iona Whishaw Read
A Million Drops by Victor del Arbol
The Budapest Protocol by Adam LeBor
Play the Red Queen by Juris Jurjevics Read

Canadian Content

Blaze Island by Catherine Bush
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good Read
The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart
The Finder by Will Ferguson
First Snow, Last Light by Wayne Johnston
Reproduction by Ian Williams
Operation Angus by Terry Fallis
Lost in September by Kathleen Winter
Consent by Annabel Lyon
The Wagers by Sean Michaels
Greenwood by Michael Christie
Five Wives by Joan Thomas

Non-Fiction

Demagogue by Larry Tye
A Sound Mind by Paul Morley
Water, a Biography by Giulio Boccaletti
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
The Churchill Complex by Ian Buruma Read
Mythos by Stephen Fry
The White Ship: Conquest, Anarchy and the Wrecking of Henry I’s Dream by Charles Spencer Read
The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science by Seb Falk
Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener Read
Big Dirty Money by Jennifer Taub
Ravenna, Capital of Europe by Judith Herrin
The Anarchy by William Dalrymple
The Socrates Express by Eric Wiener Read
Ghostways by Robert Macfarlane
Dark, Salt, Clear by Lamorna Ash Read
Austen Years by Rachel Cohen
On Corruption in America by Sarah Chayes
The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts Read
Sovietistan by Erika Fatland
The New Map by Daniel Yergin
War: How Conflict Shaped Us by Margaret Macmillan

More Reading Lists for 2021

New-To-Me Authors

Deacon King Kong by James McBride
White Ivy by Susie Yang
The Talented Miss Farwell by Emily Gray Tedrowe Read
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Pilgrims by Matthew Kneale
Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March Read
Nightshade by Annalena McAfee
Red Widow by Alma Katsu Read
Shelter in Place by David Leavitt
Blue Ticket – Sophie Mackintosh
Virginia Woolf in Manhattan by Maggie Gee
The Bad Muslim Discount by Syed Masood Read
The Editor by Steve Rowley
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam DNF
Red Pill by Hari Kunzru

Historical Fiction

The Honey and the Sting by EC Freemantle
The Mask of Apollo – Mary Renault
The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne by Elsa Hart
Damascus by Christos Tsiolkas
The Steel Beneath the Skin by Patricia Bracewell Read
The Women of Troy by Pat Barker Read
Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller
Matrix by Lauren Groff
The White Russian by Vanora Bennett
Resolution by A.N. Wilson
Tsarina by Ellen Alpert
The Forgotten Kingdom by Signe Pike Read

Short Story Anthologies

The Decameron Project by various New Yorker contributors
The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans
Here the Dark by David Bergen
Metropolitan Stories by Christine Coulson Read
A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth by Daniel Mason Read
One Point Two Billion by Mahesh Rao
Pack of Cards by Penelope Lively
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel

Series & Sequels

A Change of Circumstance by Susan Hill
You Love Me by Caroline Kepnes
Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith
The Brandons by Angela Thirkell Read
The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King
The Red Horse by James Benn
The Cold Way Home by Julia Keller
Impolitic Corpses by Paul Johnston
Hold your Breath, China by Qiu Xiaolong Read
Hammer to Fall by John Lawton
A Darker Reality by Anne Perry Read
I Saw Him Die – Andrew Wilson Read
The Prince of Bombay by Sujata Massey Read
The Dockland Murder by Mike Hollow Read

And more reading lists...

The TBR of Shame

Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny
Trio by William Boyd
The Charmed Wife by Olga Grushin
The Glass Kingdom by Lawrence Osborne
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Paris Never Leaves You by Ellen Feldman
Mother Land by Leah Franqui
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett Read
These Women by Ivy Pochoda
Independence Square by A.D. Miller
A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millett
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdich
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri
Writers & Lovers by Lily King

Reading Globally

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara (India) Read
Transcendant Kingdoms Yaa Gyasi (Ghana/USA)
The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan (Australia) Read
Retour Indesirable by Charles Lewinsky (Switzerland)
Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gappah (Zimbabwe)
Biografi by Lloyd Jones (New Zealand)
Sankofa by Chibundu Onusu (Nigeria/UK) Read
My Grandmother's Braid by Alina Bronsky (Germany/Russia) Read
Nives by Sacha Naspini (Italy) Read
Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huang (Vietnam)
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (Japan) Read
The Death of Comrade President by Alain Mabanckou (Congo)
The Republic of False Truths by Alaa al-Aswany (Egypt)
Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge (China) Read
The Immortals of Tehran by Ali Araghi (Iran)
The Frightened Ones by Dima Wannous (Syria)
Brotherhood by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr (Senegal) Read
The Second Rider by Alex Beer (Austria)
The Good Life Elsewhere by Vladimir Lorchenkov (Moldova)
Red Crosses by Sasha Filipenko (Russia)
The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste (Ethiopia)
The Convert by Stefan Hertmans (Belgium)
2084 by Boualem Sansal (Germany/Algeria)
Priceless by Zygmunt Miloszewski (Poland) Read
10 Minutes 38 Seconds In This Strange World by Elif Shafak (Turkey)
Apeirogon by Colum McCann (Ireland)

Lighter Stuff

Escaping Dreamland by Charlie Lovett
Girls of Summer by Nancy Thayer
Flowers of Darkness by Tatiana de Rosnay
The Judge's List by John Grisham Read
Sunrise by the Sea by Jenny Colgan
Behind Closed Doors by Catherine Alliott Read
A Springtime Affair by Katie Fforde
Band of Sisters by Lauren Willig Read
Mum & Dad by Joanna Trollope
The Love Child by Rachel Hore Read
The Museum of Broken Promises by Elizabeth Buchan Read
A Beautiful Spy by Rachel Hore Read

Final reserved post...

Saved just in case

Happy new one, Suz.

Nice reminder of the sure and gentle touch of the late Mary Oliver above. x

Happy new thread, Suzanne!

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread! and I'm glad you're getting traction on the ghostwriting.

Your book lists are mind-boggling to me. Very impressive.

Found and starred!

I love the lake picture...

Book on sale in Daedalus catalogue or online:

ON THE CLOCK What Low Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane...

I liked your review of Let the Lord Sort Them from your previous thread so I took a Book Bullet. I had seen other reviews of the book, but they didn't strike me as something I would be interested in reading. Your review changed my assessment so I added it to the book list.

I thought the jobs report that was released on Friday was very interesting. I am also reading and listening to assessments of that job report and like the experts, wondering what it means for the country. I think that some it is caused by the fact that wages are too low and businesses of all kinds don't want to increase wages in order to get people to work. We are having trouble at UA with retention among employees. The University pays $10.00 per hour to start and we haven't had a pay raise since 2016 and a pay raise is not in the works for this year either. Even with good benefits we have had lots of people retire early or quit because the pay isn't keeping pace with child care needs.

>17 m.belljackson: That was a good one -- I think I gave it five stars or nearly.

>18 benitastrnad: A friend of mine who's an economist posted quite a sarcastic and pointed critique of those who get annoyed by the failure of folks now collecting unemployment (which translates to about $26k a year maximum, a princely sum) in exchange for earning about half that through work. Her point being that consumers and companies are profiting at the expense of the working poor, but that the former really haven't thought through the fact that they are paying as well, indirectly, via higher state taxes to pay for everything from Section 8 housing to food stamps -- things that are going to people who still fall below the poverty line while working all the hours they can, often at two or even three jobs. Basically, her point was that our system is NOT fair and it's not even a "free" market because companies are able to outsource part of their potential wage costs to government via the benefits system, which taxpayers must fund. So returns are privatized and costs are made public, one way or another. Also as she points out, when wages and products are priced fairly, we can at least then have the choice of what to consume and how often. We can decide, nope, I'm going out for dinner twice this month, not four times; I don't need three versions of this sweater, just one, and I'm going to look after it. And be glad that the folks around us are being properly compensated for their work and productivity.

OK, rant over.

Had a Zoom call with my father, my ex-SIL and my niece and nephews today. It was a joy to see the teenagers, who all are so grown up. Julie will be starting college for public relations; Connor -- the most outgoing and curious of them -- wants to become a history teacher, and is applying to university. Jamie, who had his 16th birthday today, is finishing grade 10 and very into photography and art. My father is not doing that well; the Parkinson's is very visible now.

Oof. My final shift at my retail side hustle is done, thank heavens. Was supposed to put in another 4 hours plus today, but someone else was looking for hours and I knew that today was going to be tricky. By the time I wrapped up the day yesterday, my right ankle (arthritis...) was so bad all I could do was shuffle and I had a migraine. Ho hum. Now, 24 hours later, I'm finally doing a bit better, but walking up and down stairs is not fun. Whine whine whine.

On the plus side, I'm about halfway through an absolutely delightful and whimsical mystery, The Windsor Knot, featuring the Queen and her Nigerian/British assistant private secretary. Turns out that the Queen has always been a sleuth (she's learned over the decades to pay keen attention to people and has good judgment) and has gotten involved in stuff previously. Now she's 89 and after one weekend gathering at Windsor, a promising young pianist ends up dead. Was it really a deep-cover Russian FSB agent planted among the royal household? Her Majesty thinks not...

This has been such a frothy and entertaining (while well-written) novel that even while reading it, I set out to see if I could get book #2. Turns out it's not due until NOVEMBER, and I can't even locate an e-galley on either NetGalley or Edelweiss. Grrrr. I actually had trouble even locating either book on either the US or UK Amazon sites. If anyone needs/wants a link, let me know. The follow-up in the series is The Three Dog Problem. (no touchstone available; sigh).

>20 Chatterbox: Sorry, but I absolutely hated The Windsor Knot - so did Mr SandDune, although he only got to about page 15 whereas at least I finished it. We read it for my RL book club and we had the author join us via zoom (her husband does some volunteering with one of our members) so I did feel obliged to finish the book so I could ask educated questions. I’m an ardent anti-royalist though - so probably not the target audience. But you’ll be pleased to know that there are going to be lots more. I can’t remember the exact number, but she had a book deal to write quite a few.

>20 Chatterbox: and >31 Chatterbox: The Windsor Knot was on Kindle offer recently - it was one of the few books I've resisted. I've got so many books I really really want to get to and of course I'm still looking at new books by lots of authors whose other work I've read and liked. I really hate the way every book now has to have a tagline - the one for this book is for fans of The Thursday Murder Club.

>22 elkiedee: Well Mr SandDune enjoyed The Thursday Murder Club but hated The Windsor Knot ...

>23 SandDune: have you or he tried Elly Griffiths at all? Sorry if you have and I don't remember but I thought The Postscript Murders was delightful at the end of last year - it was one of a batch of books which helped me get back to more regular reading, which is important as I feel better when I'm reading a bit a day. Anyway, Elly Griffiths is a much more relevant recommendation. The setting is a retirement complex with home carers coming in rather than a residential home.

I'm not a rabid anti-royalist, but I'm definitely NOT in favor of hereditary monarchy and the cult that surrounds it, although in some ways I kind of appreciate having some kind of (nominally) apolitical ceremonial head of state. (For instance, until our recent problems with the governor general of Canada, I liked that institution, post-repatriation of the Constitution; it means, I think that loyalty to a country can be divorced more from loyalty to a head of state; I can't see Commonwealth members succumbing to Trumpism or Putinism, for instance.) On TV, I just find "The Crown" boring and depressing. I did like the character of the assistant private secretary in The Windsor Knot. I bogged down with The Thursday Murder Club but I think that may be because of the narrator (I got the audiobook) and I do intend to try again. I LOVE Elly Griffiths as a writer -- she captures complex characters well, gives them distinctive voices and does a more-than-decent job of plotting and world-building.

And oh yes, I absolutely LOATHE the "for fans.of this book and that author" added to a book's title. At least 75% of the time they are wrong, and it's battening on to the fame of some other writer/book. It's reasonable for a reviewer to do that, but when publishers do it, it makes me a bit crazy. And it happens more and more. I have to look past that on Amazon in order to make a decision.

I think I got The Windsor Knot via KIndle sale, too. Doubt I would have paid full whack for it. (Which is why I was looking for e-galley of book #2...) My pet loathing recently is a series of books featuring two female matchmakers in post-WW2 London. Read book #2, then tried the debut to see if it was sophomore slump. Sigh; it wasn't.

The books that I really haven't liked as much on re-reading this year have been the Mrs. Pollifax novels by Dorothy Gilman. They are free to me on Hoopla, a saving grace, but while I still enjoy a handful of her stand-alone books (although they too strike me as dated now), the references to "Oriental" eyes and other such nonsense is so passé and offensive. Clearly my critical instincts have been sharpened over the last 35/40 years! I've got one more freebie audiobook borrowed via Hoopla and may finish it during my next migraine since it requires little attention, but meh.

For now, I'm finishing Nives by Sacha Naspini; Europa Publishers just released this Italian novel/novella, about a women who essentially adopts one of her chickens as a companion after her husband's death, and realizes that Giacomina is better company than her husband. At least, until the hen becomes hypnotized/stunned while watching a Tide detergent commercial, which prompts a phone call to her old friend/town vet to diagnose the symptoms, which leads into revisiting complex memories of old times and uncovering possible hauntings by women mistreated by the town's menfolk, etc. etc. It's complex and lovely.

>26 Chatterbox: Clarice Lispector has a nifty short story, 'Chicken', of a family making a pet of a chicken after the hen's desperate bid for escape from the kitchen.
Nives sounds interesting.

>27 avatiakh: I think you'd enjoy the Italian novel; I've never read anything by Lispector, and am clearly overdue...

>26 Chatterbox: do not get the appeal of the Mrs. Polifax series though some of the movies have been watchable. (though NOT the Roz Russell one)

Dated as a dodo and Mrs. P. is not half as clever or half as charming as she (or the author) thinks she is.

>26 Chatterbox: >29 magicians_nephew:
I haven't read any of the Mrs. Polifax books, but they were highly recommended to me by several faculty members in the College of Education. Usually, I have liked the books that they recommended but since I haven't read Mrs. Polifax I can't say the professors are infallible. I may have to read the first two books to find out for myself.

>29 magicians_nephew: I hadn't even known that they had been made into a TV series...

Some books age well and I'm delighted to revisit them. Others... not so much!

>25 Chatterbox: I would go for a sort of Irish solution, where the head of state is elected but is ceremonial, rather than part of the political process. Left to me, I’d let the Queen serve out her days and then abolish the whole thing.

>24 elkiedee: >25 Chatterbox: I have read Ellie Griffiths but only the Ruth Galloway books. We were talking about The Thursday Murder Club book with my mother who has also recently read it. She didn’t enjoy it - a little too close to home perhaps - but at least she’s still reading at 99.

>26 Chatterbox: Nimes sounds great. I’ve added it to the wish list.

>32 SandDune: The other series of books that might be too close to home for the elderly elderly (word repetition intentional, vs the merely mildly elderly in their 60s and 70s) consists of books by a Dutch writer, Hendrik Groen. I just read the galley of his newest one, in which the author's best friend accidentally kidnaps a baby. It appears to be a prequel to The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen and On the Bright Side, both of which involve Hendrik and his buddies in a senior's home doing battle with aging, nursing home staff and people who disrespect older folks. Two Old Men and a Baby wasn't as good, but still entertaining.

I worry about an elected/ceremonial head leading us to someone like he-of-the-orange-skin. But I agree with you re the aftermath of the Queen. It's not terribly encouraging. I do look at the smug young generation of royals and want to send them out to earn a REAL living (versus glamor jobs and/or peddling their titles and connections...) that said, in some way I feel sorry for them -- they are indeed in a bind, born into a world where they'll struggle to be anonymous. Which is a pity. Suspect the kids and grandchildren of Princess Anne and Princess Margaret get away with it a bit better.

>28 Chatterbox: I'm doing a year long listen to Clarice Lispector: complete stories. Meant to listen to 1 or 2 each week but don't, every few weeks I binge on 5 or 6. The book uses different narrators for the stories and they are in publication order, so you follow her development as a writer from late teens through to old age. The introduction was really good too.

>34 avatiakh: Thanks for the suggestion! I'm always eager to find ideas for books that really WORK on audio -- it's a good book, the narrator is perfect for the task, etc. It's tough! I could listen to Juliet Stevenson or John Lee forever and ever (in fact, I sometimes will add something to my wishlist/library just because it's read by Stevenson.

One of the reasons I consume more via audiobook (something that really has surprised me...) is that my eyesight has been getting steadily worse in the last year. Finally went in for an eye exam last week, and hope to pick up my glasses (first pair ever...) by the end of the month. There literally have been books that I want to read or re-read that I physically can't now -- the print is too small, or the lines of type set too closely together. And when I try, I can spend less time reading "real" books because of eyestrain. Glad I finally acted on this.

>35 Chatterbox: I know the woes of not being able to reread books. A few weeks ago I tossed a bunch of books, some of which had that mysterieously shrinking, tiny print. To think I read Moby Dick in a typical small paperback all those years ago!

I listened to the last Sue Grafton book this past week, read by Judy Kaye, who was excellent, I thought. I don't know what else she has recorded, but I would be confident getting an audiobook she has recorded.

>36 ffortsa: Yes, it's the type that's shrinking! Nothing to do with our eyes at all... *grin*

Out front currently are three boxes full of books unsold during this weekend's yard sale. All are mass market paperbacks I'll never read again, because, well, small typeface. Many were Agatha Christie -- some from my grandfather, some that I bought in the early 1970s, etc. Speaking of good narrators, I found that I really like Hugh Fraser's narration of the Poirot books, to the extent that I tracked down several of them to listen to for the first time.

Another fab narrator is Kobna Holbrook-Smith and his version of The Rivers of London and its sequels by Ben Aaronovitch. I actually prefer the audiobooks to the "real" versions. Also like Bronson Pinchot's voice for reading books like Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. And some just grate on me. I wanted to "relisten" to Connie Willis's time traveling novels set against the background of the Blitz, but the narrator is so deeply annoying that I just can't.

I generally don't notice a narrator unless I find then annoying and if they annoy me that's it. I stop listening almost immediately. They can ruin a good book.

Oh well... After a few excellent fictional retellings of the siege of Troy from the POV of the women affected (The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker and A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes), I probably hoped for far too much from Daughters of Sparta by Claire Haywood. I should have waited for Barker's next book... or read Pandora's Jar by Haynes. Or just read Euripides.

This new novel (just released in the US; out earlier in the UK) ascribes language, thoughts and ideas to Klytemnestra and Helen that are simply too modern and jarring (lotsa relationship angst!) and offers too rapid and glib a canter through the events leading up to the Trojan War. (OK, some things are unavoidable -- since we're seeing the story through through the eyes of the two sisters, it's plausible that we might not know what Heywood thinks the whole Trojan Horse thing is about, but to end the book where it did? With Elektra leading a funeral procession? Sigh.

It's just a pale imitation of Homer, or more talented novelists. So you can probably live without it.

>39 Chatterbox: I have both Daughters of Sparta and The Women of Troy on my Netgalley TBR.

>40 elkiedee: I'm very very much looking forward to the Pat Barker sequel! I was turned down for the NetGalley, but have a lot more to read anyway, so it won't kill me. I think publication date is next month?

Meanwhile, have been listening to Middlemarch on audiobook, read by Juliet Stevenson. I'm still struggling to read, and it's another week or so until I pick up my glasses, so audiobooks and Kindle stuff will dominate.

Reading Hilary Mantel's collection of essays -- Mantel Pieces. Avoid this on kindle, as it includes facsimiles of handwritten postcards, letters, e-mails, etc., all of which are in terribly small print that can't be enlarged (I'm just skipping those...) They're very good, although diligent LRB readers may well have already consumed at least some of the more recent ones. A reminder of what a great stylist Mantel is as an essayist, and the intellect that underlies all her writing.

Are you able to access Natalie Haynes Stands up for the Classics in podcast form? She's just started a new series on BBC Radio 4.

>42 elkiedee: Yes! Found it on Spotify. There's also a version I could buy on Audible if I like it enough. And I can stream Radio 4 if I know what time it's on in the UK and figure out the time difference correctly, LOL. Thanks!!

OK, who else has discovered/read any books published by the imprint with one of the most delightful names imaginable: Furrowed Middlebrow? I stumbled across them when they (re)published a novel for adults by E. Nesbit, and then read some of the books by Elizabeth Fair. Some of the titles by D.E. Stevenson (author of Miss Buncle's Book are published by them, and I've found one or two other fun books. A whole bunch just landed in Kindle Unlimited, so I plan to chomp my way through a few. Books by women, mostly English, mostly set in the 1920s to 1960s. As the imprint suggests, very middlebrow but also entertaining. Period pieces, but with above-average writing.

>43 Chatterbox: I've been reading these for a while and haven't found one I disliked (yet?). There is a new batch due to be published on 7th June, which I'm looking forward to very much. They've been just the right sort of book for me over the pandemic period as I read more but didn't feel up to anything 'challenging' and these are usually light (and humourus) enough but still worth some effort. So far my favourites have been: The House Opposite, Much Dithering, Not at Home (and all the others by Doris Langley Moore), Miss Carter and the Ifrit and all the Margery Sharps. I'm just about to start on some Stella Gibbons.

Furrowed Middlebrow (as you say, delightfully named) has a big following on the Virago \Modern Classics group. I've got a few including some that were offered as freebies, but need to start actually reading some.

A lot of Radio 4 programmes are on 2 or 3 times over a week, plus a lot of the comedy gets taken over to R4 extra as well. I'll try to find the Natalie Haynes times for the current series.

>43 Chatterbox: wow! Love all of E. Nesbit's books for children never knew she ever wrote for adults.

Making a beeline

>46 magicians_nephew: This one isn't a fantasy -- The Lark.

>44 CDVicarage: The one that I'm reading at present (thanks to Kindle Unlimited...) actually is Not At Home by Doris Langley Moore. I was fascinated to read the biographical note in the intro, about her career in fashion/design! The novel itself thus far (I'm 50 pages into it) is a real hoot. I can't wait to see how Mrs. Bankes fulfills our main character's worst possible fears about sharing a home with her... (And I like the details about botanic prints, since I have a very very small collection of 18th century prints, by Trew, Ehret and William Curtis, as well as more recent versions of some Redouté prints)

Still listening to Middlemarch. I'm not enraptured, though I find Eliot's authorial voice sometimes very compelling and with timeless "messages". I do find it a bit repetitive. For instance, we KNOW that Rosamund Lydgate is an acquisitive, witless beauty from the time we meet her, and the point is hammered home to an extent that I find irksome. Some of the most intriguing characters are the secondary ones, IMO.

For some reason, Kindle Unlimited now lets me download more than 10 books (no idea why... or what the new limit might be). So I added two more titles by Doris Langley Moore from Furrowed Middlebrow, the final book by Graham Brack the historical mystery series I've been reading, and The King of Warsaw, set in 1937 Poland, in translation. It has a compelling cover...

As always enjoy peering into your reading life. I've put a few things on my WL. In particular the Osman.

>49 sibylline: The Osman is still on my TBR list, Lucy, so we'll see which of us manages to get to it first! I started it, but stalled early on.

I did finish Not At Home by Doris Langley Moore, and it was absolutely delightful. Lots of character development, and while very much of its era (published in 1948), it was still very accessible and human. No stereotypes here -- or rather, Moore set up stereotypes only to demolish them. A great pleasure, and I'll pick up more by her...

>3 Chatterbox: Congratulations on reaching 2 x 75, Suzanne!

>51 FAMeulstee: Thanks, I just realized that I had done so!! :-)

Woot, just won a SECOND ER book in a row. Now I just need to wait for them both to show up here... *grin* (April AND May batches...)

I'm a frequent visitor here when I'm looking for a new book to read. I always find something. I'm adding Not at Home to my must read list. Thank you!

>54 Oregonreader: So glad to add something to your TBR list! Seriously, Not At Home was a delight. Sure, it's of its time, but then again, not really. Just the same kinds of people we know today, but transported back in time to 1945/1946. I plan to read more by this author.

For now, however, I'm stuck on a nonfiction & audio binge. I've started "re-listening" (listening to an audiobook version of a book I've already read), Ice Ghosts by Paul Watson. It's simultaneously the story of an attempted discovery (of the Northwest Passage in the Arctic by Sir John Franklin in the 1840s) and the actual discovery of the fates of the 129 men who sailed into Canada's Arctic waters never to be heard from again, and the discovery, more than 150 years later, of the fate of their ships, the "Terror" and the "Erebus". It's great, both in the history of the doomed expedition but also in the knowledge that the author has of the Inuit and the history of their encounters with these European explorers, as well as the way those hunting for Franklin discounted Inuit stories about the whole expedition. Just as compelling on audiobook.

My nonfiction binge also has taken me to the new group bio by Nancy Goldstone, In the Shadow of the Empress, about Maria Theresa and three of her daughters (Maria Christinia, Maria Carolina and, of course, Marie Antoinette). I knew relatively few of the details of Maria Theresa's life beyond the outlines, so even the geopolitical and military manoeuvering has been intriguing, and while I knew a bit about Maria Carolina (queen of Naples, buddy of Nelson during the Napoleonic wars), had little knowledge of her other daughters with the glaring exception of Marie Antoinette. The only problem I have with the book is that I can only read it on my phone, which until Glasses Day (hopefully soon?!) is a struggle. It's an advance copy via NetGalley that isn't available on Kindle, annoyingly. I dislike it when publishers do this!!

Oh, and my first ER book arrived, from the April batch. It's The Raging 2020s by Alec Ross.

At a friend's suggestion, I'm adding Romola, by George Eliot to my Hoopla audiobook download list, though I'll probably wait a week or two to get it (Hoopla gives loans for 3 weeks only, which isn't a lot for loooong audiobooks.)

I was looking up a book by Canadian author Margaret Laurence for reasons I can't remember - and I can't get an affordable replacement for my damaged copy of A Bird in the House which is a series of linked short stories about the same characters and is the least known part of the Manawaka series, which includes her best known works. I have the 4 novels in the series in Virago Modern Classics but they didn't publish this book either. Anyway, I noticed that the novels are available to Kindle Unlimited subscribers here, so I'm thinking they're likely to be on your side of the Altantic too?

>56 elkiedee: Nope, in fact the handful of titles available by Laurence for Kindle in the US are actually quite pricey. Did you find A Bird in the House? I see secondhand paperbacks available; if you want me to ship one on to you that doesn't deliver to the UK, just let me know. The Kindle version is a whopping $16, which is very costly for a Kindle book here. I go to Canadian Amazon for Canadian titles on Kindle when I can, and it has some additional titles not available here (such as A Jest of God and The Diviners); most are only C$14, or about $10 US. This kind of discrepancy has always been a problem. Canadian titles can be hard or impossible to get here; US editions have become increasingly expensive in Canada.

That's a pity: this is the ASIN for the edition of the Stone Angel offered free through Kindle Unlimited here, published Apollo Library 2016. Maybe someone else has the US rights. Actually, the purchase prices aren't bargain basement but they are perfectly reasonable - I just can't justify buying more copies of the novels, whereas The Bird in the Hand doesn't seem to have had the same level of reprint interest. My copy is NEL but I don't know quite how I came by it as I think I got it pre-Amazon or visits to North America (only one holiday in Canada - Toronto, Niagara Falls and Montreal, with lots of long train trips on Amtrak and ViaRail, even a sleeper train from Toronto to Montreal).

Thanks for the offer, but no, I didn't find a reasonable edition of The Bird in the House. I have Virago and New Canadian Library editions of most of her 4 Manawaka novels - I think I found the Canadian editions in a secondhand bookshop in a suburb of Montreal which I don't think is a tourist haunt (we travelled there in 2004, staying iwth a friend in Westmount, and walked out along the main road where we found a couple of secondhand bookshops and a Korean internet cafe), and in addition, a rather nice (US) university press edition of The Diviners. In 2004 the exchange rate was rather extraordinary in our favour in Canada - more than $2 to £1. it was good in the US but not quite as good as in September 2005.

>98 Chatterbox: Under the link to the paperback edition here, click on the used copies for sale. There's one copy for less than $2, plus $3.99 shipping. If you mail a copy here, I'll simply pop it into a new envelope and mail it on to you, if you want...

https://www.amazon.com/Bird-House-Stories-Phoenix-Fiction-ebook/dp/B00SOK9BFI/re...

NEL had a lot of inexpensive paperbacks in Canada in the 70s/80s.

Oof, it's hot here. And we're having thunderstorms. WHAT a change from a week ago.

Glasses are here. And I've been having weird bouts of vertigo. Had one pre-glasses that was more severe, so I'm not sure if there's a link. Frustrating, as between that and the ankles being obnoxious (arthritis) I'm kinda relying on my walking stick. The good news is that it can double as a weapon if needed!

Does Fanny Price annoy anyone else as much as she does me (re Mansfield Park). Actually, there are only a handful of characters who I don't want to hit with my stick in that novel. I suppose it's a tribute to Austen's prowess that (a) I care what happens to them and (b) I believed so much that they existed that they got me as irritable as I became!

>60 Chatterbox: "Emma" in Emma is like that - someone i want to give a good talking to , err, to. But she is such a likable ditz too

Mansfield Park was one of my A level set texts, and yes, she's annoying. I prefer Emma Woodhouse's brand of silliness to Fanny being so pathetic all the time.

>60 Chatterbox: With new glasses- you might try to begin wearing them one hour a day and then building up more time. ( instructions that I got when I had a new pair of glasses that were stronger than the last pair) If that doesn't work= speak to your eye doctor to see if you have the right prescription.

>63 torontoc: Presumably that depends on what you're prescribed them for? I have reading glasses, and everything else looks a bit odd through them (not as much so now after 8 years and I need them more for reading than I used to, and probably need a stronger pair). I certainly wouldn't have started off wearing them an hour at a time, unless I was reading in a very solid block.

>63 torontoc: >64 elkiedee: Yes, this pair is readers. So they only will work with something that is 15 to 18 inches from the end of my nose; maybe 24 inches in a pinch. I have to remember to take 'em off if I look up from what I'm reading.

Can't believe I've been googling "getting used to your first pair of glasses" all weekend...

Jim, Luci -- yes I've moved on to Emma now, LOL. It's the only Austen novel that I've never read/finished. I think one of my faves remains Persuasion.

Sometimes, with Austen characters, I think they are overdrawn. For instance the silliness of the younger Bennet sisters and their mother. There's no nuance, in the way there is with Jane, Elizabeth and even the father. Julia Bertram has a late chance at redemption, as does her oldest brother, but while I think the Crawfords are drawn as interesting characters, the degree of moral repulsion evinced in response to them sometimes boggles my mind. It's been a little while since I revisited S&S or Northanger Abbey, so I'll refrain from comment on those, other than to say that the main character in the latter is goofy, but in a kind of logical way. She's young and she reads all those damn novels...

I really like {Northanger Abbey.

Have you read any of Paula Byrne's biographies? Her book, Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things? I really enjoyed reading it and would defintely recommend it to anyone who still has to study a Jane Austen novel for school, as it's a really good social history of the society (as in social class as well as period) that Austen grew up and wrote her novels in.

Soon you will be looking like most of us Old Lady Librarians. Your glasses will be on a chain around your neck because after almost 10 years of having reading glasses that is the easiest way to deal with the problem of using them up close and having to take them off to see far away.

You can also wear the glasses on the end of your nose.

I do both. hang the glasses from the chain and sit them on the end of my nose.

Yes - readers are different than prescription glasses!
I bought a whole lot of inexpensive readers and put them in every room where I would read-didn't have to search for them when I needed a pair!

>67 benitastrnad: Yep, that's me. Even more than the white hair, it's a true indication of oldladyism. (I don't, however, use Oil of Old Lady, so named by my DH years and years ago.) Since the cataract surgery turned my visual world upside down, I've had a bit of trouble with balance when I forget and try to walk looking through the reading glasses. Maybe in a couple of years I'll get it right. Hope your issues clear up much, much sooner!

Off to pick up the DL Moore, to research the *Maries*, and to check again to see what I may have missed.

>68 torontoc: These are prescription readers? It's so that I can read smaller print, but I can't use the readers you can just buy in the store as I also need to have it do more than just magnify; I need it to focus.

>67 benitastrnad: I don't think putting them on the end of my nose will work; I get a weird dizzy-making sensation, as I still see a bit through the glasses and also see around them. My eyes are set very close together -- I can always see a bit of the bridge of my nose, for instance -- so this may be part of the problem. I got the best frames I could find, but... Oh, I just bought a braided leather thingummy for the glasses. I'm paranoid about losing them.

>70 Chatterbox: No- I was told to buy readers at the drug store- mine are not prescription

I can get along with the readers from the drug store (though curiously New York State does not allow drug stores to sell lenses over 2.5 with a prescription) but they give me a headache.

I have prescription readers and (recently) prescription distance glasses too. Spend my life flipping from glasses(a) to glasses(b).

I havs resisted getting the librarian's chain around the neck the hang my readers on but it's only a matter of time.

>72 magicians_nephew: I will gift you one of my braided pseudo leader chains. It's not quite like a lariat but there are no sparkly bits or pink bits!!

ETA: I'm very excited; just got approved for a review audiobook of the upcoming novel by Charlotte McConaghy, whos Migrations currently is one of the best novels I've read so far this year.

A friend of mine's wife was killed by a lunatic on an electric scooter, who ran her down while she was crossing the road by Lincoln Center in NYC earlier this month. She died in hospital this week, having never regained consciousness. Kathryn is bereft and I'm furious about these reckless assholes who run amok all over major cities.

Just venting.

>74 Chatterbox: That’s horrible. I’m so sorry this happened.

Tropical Storm Claudette is visiting Tuscaloosa even as I write. It has rained here all day. Flash flood warnings out and the streets are flooded. Residents are warned to stay at home and not get out on the streets due to the flooding. Contrast that with Munden, KS (where my mother lives) and it was 105 degrees F today with the winds 25 MPH out of the north northwest. Or in Bozeman, MT where my sister lives and it has been in the 90 degree F rainge for a month. Fire season has started there already and that usually isn't until August. Non of this is a reckless person riding a scooter but it is a disaster.

>74 Chatterbox: So sorry to hear that Suzanne. Such a terrible thing to happen.

>76 benitastrnad: Everyone faces their own disaster, and we don't get to pick which one we'd prefer to have, so there's no hierarchy... I would rather be grappling with migraine issues (is Claudette already making its way north?? certainly, it's overcast and muggy) and an inability to sleep more than 2.5 hours at a time than with losing a life partner. It's just horrid that almost everyone I know seems to be dealing with something simultaneously. And when I do bump into someone for whom life is going swimmingly, I have to resist the urge to demand "why did YOU do/who did YOU pay off to get a sooth ride???" And of course, stuff is rarely perfect.

Listening to the audiobook of Vanished Kingdoms by Norman Davies. The subtitle, the history of half-forgotten Europe, kinda captures the whole point of the book and it's Absolutely Fascinating. The Visigoths, the people of the Rock in the Clyde (Dumbarton; they were Picts and featured in Signe Pike's series of historical novels that I read recently),and the Burgundians -- that's so far. I'm intrigued by the various aspects of identity/loyalty to nations and other groups, and this is a big part of what's addressed via the histories of each place and group. Plus, it's the history that we know relatively little about or have chosen to let fall by the wayside.

>74 Chatterbox: We saw that news. Terrible.

Sometimes it's fun to re-read/re-listen to books you've really enjoyed. And sometimes those books just really don't measure up at all. The latter is happening to me now with Sharon Penman's historical novels. I've always hated her tendency to write "forsoothly" -- her characters like to call each other "lad" and "lass" a lot, and say things like "certes" -- but now it's the way she uses dialog as exposition. One character says to another, I'd heard that xyz had happened, only to have character 2 pick up his cue, nod solemnly, and say, did you now that abc also happened? It's a lazy way to present what is going on out of the view of the main characters. And since she doesn't shy away from introducing stray characters who pop up in isolated spots to describe unique events and then never reappear, I'm baffled by this.

It all makes me highly irritable. Especially in an audiobook.

The Providence Athenaeum will be imposing a new limit on book borrowing and I suspect I may be responsible. I now have 58 books out, and the new limit is 50. And actually, I've had north of 60 at times during the pandemic. Ho hum. They probably wouldn't be piling up had I not been trying to nail down books I really wanted to read when I didn't know whether the place would be open or not. And of course, the growing problems with my eyes in the last 6/12 months have made reading "real" books far, far more difficult and arduous. It's still tricky, but for different reasons (getting used to the glasses -- my eyes feel a bit as if they are bulging out of my head, which is weird.)

Always disappointing when an author you loved doesn't continue to measure up.

Oh, glasses! Even when my prescription is changed slightly it takes time and is (sometimes literally) a headache. Also have to be very sure that the 'fit' is right or that can cause even more problems.

Put the Davies in the WL and a novel -- er -- oh yes -- Migrations. So dangerous over here!

Do you still have your UK Kindle? Most of Diana Norman's older books are on offer at £1.99 each.

>82 elkiedee: I do -- shall rush off and check it out!

ETA: I was able to add four to my library -- two that I've read, The Morning Gift and Blood Royal, and two that I haven't, The Vizard Mask and Daughter of Lir. Hurrah.

>83 Chatterbox: I love The Morning Gift!

>84 fuzzi: the Ibbotson title (which is in your touchstone) or the Diana Norman novel? Just clarifying... *grin*

>85 Chatterbox: argh. I forgot to check the Touchstone, thanks!

>86 fuzzi: LOL, with books with identical titles, it's tough. I really hate it when I dutifully put the square brackets around the title, only to see a completely different title pop up in the touchstones, requiring me to run down a list of 30-odd other books (all with different titles to the one I'm reading) to find the "correct" one. This shouldn't be rocket science??? Sorry, I'm too hot, I'm headachey and thus more grumpy than usual.

I use the search function for these but it is annoying having to do it so often for some books.

On some books I can understand - I'm reading another volume of collected stories at the moment (Carol Shields) and I can sort of understand why those cause problems. But at the moment what comes up for one of my books seems to bear no relation whatsoever - Murder By the Minster becomes Target Underwear and a Vera Wang Gown. And it's very annoying that it comes up wrong repeatedly and seems to take no account of changes, eg for books which have won or been listed for awards and are really popular at the moment.

>88 elkiedee: Yes, the results seem to be uncorrelated both to the precise name of the book and to the # of people who have it in their libraries (a proxy for popularity). At least Emma produces the Jane Austen title as default...

I've found this annoying as well. And it's not only here on LT - sometimes my library searches look just as haphazard. Very annoying. It makes me want to say - Look, I have technical skills. Can I look at your search criteria?

>90 ffortsa: LOL. Or just -- get out of the way so I can do it PROPERLY!

Well, it's now down to just below 80 F (from nearly 100 F) but still muggy. At least I can breathe outdoors again!

Finished The Postscript Murders, the most fun I've had reading a novel by Elly Griffiths since early on in her first series.

>91 Chatterbox: I really enjoyed The Postscript Murders too.

Shout out to two new-to-me mystery authors. I really loved Exit by Belinda Bauer -- the first novel by her that I've read. The characters are lively personalities, the twists are great and in spite of the bleak concept (an assisted suicide that goes awry) the narrative itself relies on whimsy. A delight.

Also really enjoyed The Blitz Detective, a classic police procedural yarn and first in a series. Mike Hollow avoids some of the usual tropes of "crime on the WW2 home front" and instead finds different ways to incorporate the reality of life in the Blitz's early days into the plot, from chronic sleeplessness on the part of the police and the impact of avoiding bombs by sheltering in a muddy trench on one's best suit, to the demand for better shelter on the part of Eastenders.

I'm already listening to book #2 in the Blitz Detective series, and plan to bump up books by Bauer on my TBR list.

I'm also listening to Emma, and really enjoying the way Austen handles character in this. In contrast to Mansfield Park, where we're expected to find the main characters to be role models but they end up sounding boringly priggish, in Emma she seems to feel an affection for the flaws of her heroine and is honest and sympathetic. Her Mr. Woodhouse is as flawed as Mr. Bennet (in different ways, of course) but we're invited to chuckle both with and at him, and to understand his quirks. I'm enjoying this.

Diana Norman looks to be a marvelous find, thank you!

>94 sibylline: Hope you enjoy them! I'm now indulging myself in re-reading two whimsical novels by Reay Tannahill set in the 14th century (a bit later than Norman's preferred era) about the daily headaches of managing a castle and household -- Having the Builders In and Having the Decorators In. Tee hee.

I really liked Reay Tannahill's novels when I read most of them too, but I hadn''t realised those two books had a medieval setting! Some of Diana Norman's books were set later, I think - my memory of The Vizard Mask is a later era, and I think Grainne aka Grace O'Malley was a contemporary of Queen Elizabeth I.

>95 Chatterbox: I had forgotten how much I enjoyed *Builders*, and I have *Decorators* too! Tee hee yourself!

Yes, The Vizard Mask is Jacobean, I think and there's one that's early 18th century. The Makepeace Hadley trilogy is set around the American & French revolutions.

It's kind of entertaining to read these two Tannahill novels as the idea of getting builders in is so contemporary -- and in this case, the main character is dealing with many of the same issues (workers who wander off, etc.) but instead of home renovations it's all about, well, castle renovations. (And of course, no one takes a tea break...) I think my fave Tannahill remains The World, The Flesh and the Devil, although her novel about Mary, Queen of Scots, also is pretty good.

I'm having to read books about 9/11 for an article I'm working on. Not good for PTSD, it turns out. Whoops.

>99 Chatterbox: - See if you can find *Come From Away* online, the musical that originated in Toronto's Sheridan College, that took the world by storm. Not sure if the musical itself is online but there was a documentary called The Making of Come From Away and it's terrific. Definitely about 9/11 but gives you a different perspective.

>100 jessibud2: I have wanted to see that musical forever!! But Broadway was simply too pricey. Harumph. Will look online...

>101 Chatterbox: - The only way I got to see it was it was part of my season subscription at the Royal Alex Theatre in Toronto some years back. Fabulous. But seriously, even if you don't find it online, see if you can find the doc. It was really well done and loads of fun. The stories behind the story.....

Just finished listening to Germania by Harold Gilbers, a suspense/mystery novel set in WW2 Berlin. Would have been excellent, but the translation/copy-editing was dire. For instance, instead of "more complex", the publishers have gone with "complexer" on several occasions -- it's a word/phrase that doesn't exist in English. A number of other adjectives and adverbs got similar treatment.

However, another WW2 book, non-fiction, ended up with some delightful wordplay. Operation Columba by Gordon Corera is about the use of pigeons in WW2 intelligence and military operations, and combined with an intensely grim story about individuals caught up in resistance in Belgium, there are plenty of tongue in cheek references to pigeons. For instance, the intelligence officers comment about the Germans being "pigeon conscious". That, plus the juxtaposition of the bizarre "pigeon politics" in England at the time with the deadly serious narrative of what was happening in Belgium, made this fun to read.

>99 Chatterbox: Don't know if Lawrence Block's Small Town has blipped on your radar.

It's a terrific little moody mystery story set right after the towers collapse and shows how people react when the rug is quite literally pulled out from under them.

It's also Block's best book, IMHO

>104 magicians_nephew: Hmmm. I'm wary of 9/11 content, by and large. I might take a look if it's not full of details of the day itself. Working on this piece has given me nightmares and I've had to pace myself.

>93 Chatterbox: I also recently discovered Belinda Bauer, I think from DeltaQueen. I got all that the library had and bought the two they didn't! They are all fantastic!

>105 Chatterbox: - If you are still working on it, then here is a more positive spin. I know I mentioned it up-thread somewhere, about *Come From Away*, but I just heard today that it was live-taped and will be streaming on Apple tv+, if you get that (I don't but many people do). Here is the announcement. If you can manage to find it, or maybe know someone who has it, it's got to be cheaper than seeing it live, on stage:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/come-from-away-premiere-apple-tv-1.6129294

And here is also a link to the doc I had also mentioned, about the making of the show, and it is just an excellent doc and I don't think you necessarily have to see the musical before seeing this one. It's good as a stand-alone, I think (though it will really make you want to see the original!):

https://www.crave.ca/en/movies/you-are-here-a-come-from-away-story

Certainly, these will give you a break from the grim-ness of it all, especially as the 20th anniversary approaches. Still, very 911 focussed but from a totally different perspective.

I don't get Apple tv plus, but you better believe I'm going to track down whether I can test-run it on my MacBook air!! (have a Roku, and am in the Android universe, otherwise...)

I saw a stage production of *Come From Away* in Seattle when it was but a new play. The performance prompted the most spontaneous and enthusiastic standing ovation I have ever seen. Every person in that theater simply leapt to our feet when the final curtain fell. It was magnificent (and uplifting).

>109 EBT1002: We had the joy of seeing "Come From Away" in New York in a joyous and glorious production. Might try a month of Apple+ just to hear it again.

Hamilton is coming to Providence. Seat prices here hover at around $700. EACH. Welp, I'm clearly never going to see THIS one.

Disney+ is about our speed… 😀

>3 Chatterbox: I just noticed you passed 3 x 75, Suzanne, congratulations!

>111 Chatterbox: That’s ridiculous! I looked up London prices for comparison as I remember Jacob saying it was expensive. Top price tickets were £165 each, cheapest (probably with a lousy view though) £35.

I hope you are going to weather the storm OK this weekend. I have been following the progress of Hurricane, and now Tropical Storm Henri, simply because I see that it is aiming right for Rhode Island. I hope that you and the cats are hunkered down with a supply of good books and watchable on your TV or computer material.

I spent my morning drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. In case you haven't heard Alabama is in a bad way due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 variant. That is not good news for me as we almost have record enrollment this fall at UA and the kids are ready to party. I am spending this weekend recovering from the previous week. It was the startup of classes for the fall semester and I am once again in classrooms doing teaching and orientations. I am also not feeling well. I hurt my back somehow and am in enough pain that it is hard to sleep at night. As a result, I find myself with less patience at work. That isn't good as I need to be helpful and understanding of all the problems people new to campus are having.

My connectivity issues here at the house seem to have straightened out so I am hoping that last weekend was just a blip. We will find out for sure if it was a blip on September 4 - the first home football game.

>114 SandDune:, and that's London, which equates to NYC NOT Providence, Rhode Island, LOL. Important as we would like to think we are... *eyes roll*

>115 benitastrnad: We really dodged back-to-back hurricane bullets here. Listening to the horrible state of affairs in NYC and the surrounding areas, where people literally were drowned in basement apartments. That, plus the new Texas laws, are depressing me.

On the plus side, the weather is finally cooling off. Today is delightful, temps in the low 70s, sunny, no air con needed so I can listen to the wind blow through the trees.

My reading has fallen off a cliff. Partly it's insomnia. I'm either struggling to sleep or trying to stay awake to do some work in the context of lack of sleep. I am unable to sleep more than 2.5 hours at a go (so sez my Fitbit watch) and last night I was wide awake from midnight until 8 a.m. when I finally got up. But I've not yet adjusted to my glasses, either, so reading 'real' books is difficult for me. The Kindle is a blessing, but I am gravitating to "re-listens" of audiobooks, where it doesn't matter (too much) if I doze off for an hour. I'm not bothering to log some of those -- the ones that provide background noise, and that I turn to precisely because I know them so well that I don't need to pay attention. But I've got lots of books to read that I WANT to read and that i haven't been able to get to. Blech.

So sorry about the insomnia. Thank heavens for audio books, eh?

I am really loving the cooler temps!

>117 sibylline: Insomnia is a ridiculous thing. I slept for 1 hr 56 minutes last night (Fitbit is pretty accurate -- if anything it overcounts, counting as light sleep periods in which I'm immobile and TRYING to sleep. Have been awake since 5 a.m. and up since 7:30. Budget doesn't allow for a lot of audiobooks, so I try to be careful about what I listen to. Eventually, I will have finally finished Emma! The Providence Athenaeum offers me some audiobooks via Hoopla but it's a limited three week rental, and I get a finite # per month, so I have to be very careful and use my judgment...

Ugh, sorry about the insomnia, Suz. I also suffer from it and it can just be miserable.

You might try a Benadryl tablet, plus one Tylenol, about an hour before sleeping.

>120 m.belljackson: Yup, have tried that! Not terribly helpful. It gets me to sleep a bit, but I'm awake again in 2 to 3 hours, and even if I take a second one then, I don't fall asleep again for several hours. Also have a prescription for Lorazepam, ditto. But thanks for the suggestion!

>121 Chatterbox: Lorazepam has not helped me at night either.

When an incoming migraine is also involved, I take the Benadryl, 1 and 1-1/2 Tylenol, and a half or more tablet of Hydrocodone,
more if I wake up. Also add a probiotic or two and a Vitamin C to offset Hydrocodone side effects.

Hydrocodone RX can be hard to get with doctors all jumping on the anti-opioid bandwagon.

>122 m.belljackson: Yup, there's no WAY that anyone will prescribe hydrocodone. I take Fioricet, and my PCP physician has told me she 'disapproves'. I just know that without an effective way to manage breakthrough pain (anything that gets through the Aimovig), I probably would end up killing myself one day. I take what I need, and then go for days without the Fioricet, but without something to treat the pain? I hope that the next generation of CGRP antagonist drugs are even more effective and I might need painkillers more than once a month, but... I do combine Benadryl with ibuprofen sometimes, for a minor breakthrough pain. That's part of the 'cocktail' I'd get if I went to the ER with a migraine -- Benadryl, toradol and Reglan, supplemented by a microdose of morphine if the first IV isn't enough. It doesn't completely zap the damn thing, but gets me to a point where I don't feel as if I have bulldozers trying to drive through the right side of my skull.

I used to take Fiorinol (like Fioricet?) and though it killed the migraine, it also made me dizzy. As I was working full time back then (and was at least 35 pounds lighter than I am now), I needed to move to something else. I have now taken Zomig ever since and it has no side effects at all (for me) and works really well I'd say, 95% of the time. It isn't cheap but my coverage helps; not sure if that would apply for you, in the US. But it's been a life saver

>124 jessibud2: Sadly, I think Zomig is a triptan, and that drives my blood pressure so low that it actually has caused me to faint. Now that my bp is slightly higher, maybe I should try again, LOL! Srsly, though, the CGRP antagonists have been miraculous. But they seem to be less effective on weather migraines, so I need to figure out a way to tackle those. My doc wants me to try Ubrelvy, but it's $1,000 per month and insurance won't cover. Ho hum.

Suzanne, do you know about the Migraine World Summit? It's free, online and brings together dozens of experts from a wide variety of perspectives regarding migraine. I discovered it a few years ago and last year, I watched a number of talks. I found them very informative and interesting. Here is the link. I personally would never purchase the package after the fact as I find it rather pricey but if you can find the time to watch them online during the actual summit, they are free. Create an account and you can get the schedule and newsletters via email. There is a lot of good info out there and someone always knows more than we do!

https://migraineworldsummit.com/

And yes, Zomig is a triptan. You may need to go a different route.

>126 jessibud2: Thanks for the link! Yes, my neurologist and I work to figure out what's going on, and what the best option is. Prior to the CGRP antagonists, the best route was Topamax, which I tolerated quite well (although I know a lot of people struggle with that).

I don't really suffer much from headaches, Suz, other than those self-induced whisky-fuelled ones, but I can sympathise with them as I have a close friend who has them and she basically needs to shut herself away in a darkened room when the migraine strikes her. She seems to manage her pain much better these days and for her cutting out dairy from her diet completely seemed to help her quite a lot.

Have a pain free weekend, dear lady.

>129 Chatterbox: At least with whisky, you know you're inflicting it on yourself! (And that presumably you have enjoyed the process ahead of time...)

I consume v. little dairy anyway. I am hyper-vigilant about avoiding all my food triggers (wine, nuts, avocado, processed meat with nitrites, stuff with tyramine in it -- although I'm OK with most fruits except for avocado...)

Hey, Suzanne! We were in the Strand today with Kim (Berly), in NYC for a flying visit, and I asked about the book for the photography exhibit you saw at the Met. The guy on the second floor desk said it wasn't in house but 'on order', and in the meantime I found it on Amazon for about $58. I"m not about to buy it just yet, but thought I'd let you know.

We did find the Julie Mehretu book from the Whitney exhibit!

>50 Chatterbox: Added Not at Home to the BlackHole. Unfortunately my local library does not have it.

>91 Chatterbox: I still need to read Elly Griffiths at some point. I think I own at least one of her novels but have never gotten it read.

>93 Chatterbox: Adding both Exit and The Blitz Detective to the BlackHole.

>103 Chatterbox: OK, "complexer" would drive me batty, I admit. Operation Columba sounds right up my alley though.

Happy weekend, Suzanne. I hope the migraines leave you be!

>131 alcottacre: Do you have a Kindle, Stasia? If so, it's v. v. cheap -- I think $2.99. Some of the "Furrowed Middlebrow" titles are free on Kindle Unlimited (tho obv. there's price to pay for that...) I wish I could send either of the other "black hole" books to you, also, but they are Kindle books. I"m reading much less in the way of "real" books now that my vision is falling apart.

>130 ffortsa: So glad you found the Mehretu catalog!! Yes, I found the Met catalog on Alibris and am marking it down for my Xmas gift to self. For now, I'm mostly buying things for my father that he can't organize himself. (Today's arrival was a radio, but he's still trying to tune it.)

Thank heavens for my lovely cousin Ian, who is helping me with the planning re my father. He has been a sane rock of Gibraltar in recent weeks.

I've had a lot of luck with non-fiction books recently, especially the new tome by George Packer and a book about Ireland and home rule and the rise of "dynamite terrorism" (think, Joseph Conrad...) in the late 19th century, in the context of Charles Parnell. Fascinating -- The Irish Assassins by Julie Kavanagh. Am now reading a new book by Evan Osnos, who returned to the US from China on the eve of Trump's election, and uses three places where he has lived (W. Virginia, Chicago and Greenwich, CT) to look at our political rift. It's fascinating because he has honed in on similar topics that I tackled in my book more than a decade ago, but has moved the ball forward.

On the fiction front, Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo is a compelling read (I loved her previous novel) and wow, Richard Flanagan does despair and nihilism perfectly -- he won the 2014 Booker for The Narrow Road to the Deep North -- and I've been reading The Unknown Terrorist, an earlier novel, which leaves one equally wrung-out emotionally.

Stasia, just finished listening to book #5 in the Blitz Detective series. They are all solid if not spectacular.

>131 alcottacre: I am the opposite where it comes to "real" books. I hate reading on electronic devices and will avoid at all costs if possible. This goes back to when I was in school and forced to read on my laptop. I hated it then and still despise it now. I really have to watch reading on such devices after having so many eye problems in the past couple of years.

My local library has a copy of Sankofa so I will be checking that one out at some point in future. Thanks for the recommendation, Suzanne.

>133 alcottacre: For me, it's the backlighting on a tablet/computer that messes with my eyes. I like being able to increase the typeface size and dial back the backlighting on my Kindle Oasis. It's also sooo easy to hold and read. I don't have to wear my glasses (and I can only read for an hour or two at a time with the glasses, ironically.)

Reading a great book about the Underground Railroad by Ann Hagedorn, Beyond the River.

>134 Chatterbox: Wow, that is ironic. I am sorry to hear about the problems with your eyes, Suzanne. I know from personal experience how tought that can be.

I will have to see if I can track down a copy of Beyond the River.

>135 alcottacre: They aren't that bad now, and the glasses help, but they are NOT perfect. They are readers, as the problem is basically that the eyes are getting old and crotchety and I find it hard to read smaller print like those in 'real' books. But after a period of time, my eyes get tired of using the glasses, and start to water or feel strained, so... Hopefully next spring I will get a better prescription and better options re glasses.

>136 Chatterbox: Well, I hope spring gets here sooner rather than later!

On my Facebook feed, I spotted a promo for Scribd, a mobile app that has not just e-books (which I don't see myself ever reading on my phone, see my discussion with Stasia, above) but lots and lots of audiobooks that I want to listen to. 99 cents a month for the first two months, and there are dozens of books that I otherwise might spend money to own, that I can just borrow instead (and that aren't available on Hoopla, which rations me to 10 books a month...)

Although I'm not as into audio books as much as you, partly because there is so much on Radio 4/Radio 4 Extra (which has a focus on archive material including lots of old dramatisations, book serials and other programmes of literary interest). But I have realised that in the gaps in the schedule where I'm not that interested in what's on, or if I'm in the bath/doing something other than reading a book, it's really easy to listen to library e-audio loans on my phone. Sadly one book which I'd really quite like to read rather than listen to got discarded or the licence ran out and I'd run out of time to listen. It was a Soho Crime anthology, Too Many Santas and it sounded really good but not altogether seasonal in August.... at least with these books, I can't be fined. Hoping to make time to explore e audio books more effectively.

>139 elkiedee: I think Audible now carries some of those dramatizations from Radio 4 as audiobooks (at a price). I always promise myself to check out the Radio 4 streaming stuff, but the time difference makes it trickier and outside the UK, accessing the archive seems difficult. I did check to see whether "Too Many Santas" is available here, but not a sign of it, even a second-hand hard copy.

Yes, when I find an audiobook I really like or an author's oeuvre I want, I now make a point of adding it to my permanent library. In the last several years, I've seen books like Derek Jacobi reading Josephine Tey's "Daughter of Time", and many of the Michael Kitchen-read books by Robert Goddard that I had on my wishlist simply evaporate. On the other hand, the Michael Gilbert mysteries (which I love) are NOT available (with few exceptions) for Kindle any more but I just realized that all of the latest reissues by House of Stratus are available as e-books on Scribd! That alone will save me a bundle. I bought those as mass market paperbacks in the 1980s and early 1990s, and they are falling apart (and the acid paper feels nasty to the touch).

Audiobooks are great for when I just can't read or when I'm doing something else or am out for a walk, or on the train heading somewhere. But increasingly I find some I want to listen to, but don't necc. want to buy/own, so having the option at an affordable price is great.

What still strikes me as odd is when Audible has something Scribd doesn't or vice versa (and the item in question isn't a proprietary recording.) Oh well, c'est la vie.

I got the title of the discarded Soho Crime anthology that I mentioned earlier wrong - it's The Usual Santas, foreword by Peter Lovesey according to the pictured cover.

>138 Chatterbox: Cool beans! I hope Scribd works out for you, Suzanne.

>141 elkiedee: That one is available -- I can find you a used one here and send to you?? Let me know.

>142 alcottacre: There's a lot there, and I CAN read the 'real' books on my laptop, just not on an e-reader (which is soooo much easier for me...)

That's a very generous offer but I would worry about how much it will cost you.

>140 Chatterbox: I am heavily into the audio now as my eyes have deteriorated slightly. I just need to be doing *something* while I listen, otherwise my mind wanders :)

>144 elkiedee: I don't know -- let me look at weight & size. It may be possible for me to have it sent directly to you, as well.

>145 LovingLit: I don't think it's a coincidence that audiobooks have taken off as baby boomers approach/reach retirement age, and even those of us who've had great vision and taken it for granted most of our lives find that (horrors) we now must struggle more.

Audio books and e-readers both seem to lead into the older readers wheelhouse - i love being able to enlarge the font and i love just laying back and listening to a reader too.

Wowza, I've started reading a book that is set in RHODE ISLAND. To be specific, Woonsocket. It's entertaining and rather well written so far -- Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette.

>147 magicians_nephew: My son loves audio books and has been trying with a singular lack of success to convert me to them. Adjusting font size is something we over fifties do tend to enjoy rather.

>150 PaulCranswick: My ex-bf finally succeeded in converting me to audiobooks circa 2012, by giving me access to his entire audiobook library. (I think I miss the audiobook library more than I do him, at this point...) Until then, I had tried a couple, but it really didn't work. The Audible format helped a lot, and now that I can stream them on my Amazon Echo/Alexa device, it's a big win. That said, it is a very different experience from reading, which I find more immersive. Having a narrator can be great, mediocre or appalling. I've learned to avoid audiobooks that contain sentences or phrases in French, since too many narrators mangle the pronunciation, and wow, do I notice. (That doesn't matter much for Chinese, say, or even Spanish, on the contrary!) A great narrator can take a book to a new level. Early standouts for me were Derek Jacobi reading "Daughter of Time" by Josephine Tey, and Patrick Tull reading the series of nautical adventures by Patrick O'Brian -- eg Master and Commander. The latter I had struggled to read in print format but devoured as audiobooks. I've also found other books/series that I prefer as audiobooks -- Kobna Holbrook-Smith does a bloody amazing job narrating Ben Aaronovitch's series, Rivers of London. I actually will not read these, as he brings them to life better than the author does... *grin* Audiobooks narrated by Hugh Fraser have helped me deal with the rather plodding writing style of Agatha Christie and focus on the characters and plot.

Nice info on the current state of Scribd. I've been debating taking up the offer of an annual membership on Audible rather than the rather expensive monthly, but I don't think I listen enough to warrant that. I'm always accumulating credits. If I use them all up, I will think about dropping Audible for a while and trying Scribd. Annoying that Scribd won't work on my Paperwhite, according to their latest info, but I can read on my tablet, or whatever tablet I buy to replace the increasingly cranky one I have now. (Unfortunately, both my phone AND my tablet are krechtzing (in poor health - closest spelling I could come up with) at the moment and replacing them both in the same year will be mucho dinero.)

I'm due back at my optometrist soon, which is good, because I've been having more and more trouble with these progressives I wear. Here's hoping he can find a better prescription, otherwise, I'll need readers and progressives for different tasks.

>152 ffortsa: If you do move to Scribd, be aware that once you bump up against some kind of limit (they don't tell you what it is), they won't let you 'save' any more books, and you end up with weird gaps in what is available. So, for instance, Agatha Christie? They used to all be visible but won't be available again to me until midway through November. I think it's still a good deal but the lack of transparency really annoys me.

Re Audible -- I find I more than exhaust my credits (although I also have a big TBR audiobook pile...) I've learned that if I see something I know I will want to listen to, it's better to snap it up than to run the risk that suddenly it won't be available. Some of my fave books are no longer out there, which is a pain. Also, some that I wanted to get 'later' and now aren't available.

It's interesting/frustrating to see that all my fave Michael Gilbert mysteries are available to read/borrow on Scribd -- but I can't buy them from Amazon for my Kindle. I'd rather read on my Kindle than try to read on a phone or other device.

Really, really hope you solve the prescription problem. Juggling multiple pairs of glasses may be something that's necessary, but what a pain. And one more thing to misplace (at least in Suzanne-land...)

****

On a different note -- I finally got my father connected to my Audible library on his laptop in Canada. Oy vey. Had a friend drive over to help tutor him.

Then, this morning, he suddenly forgot how to prepare his morning oatmeal. One thing after another. My ability to duck the incoming rounds is severely impaired!

Found out this morning that I lost out on a dream job (editing a books segment for an online zine) to someone with more reviewing experience and a job at a literary journal. Oh, and someone younger, needless to say. Second time in 10 days that's happened. (the younger thing; the other gig was NOT a dream job for me.)

Going to go find something to read to cheer myself up. Will more French Revolution stuff do the trick? I confess I didn't know until I started reading Jeremy Popkin's new history that our terms of people being on the "right" and "left" actually can be traced back to the National Assembly of 1789. Go figure.

>153 Chatterbox: Sorry to hear that you lost out on your dream job, Suzanne! I do hope something turns up for you.