BLBera's Beth's Reading in 2021 - Chapter 2

My name is Beth. I love books – talking about them, writing about them, reading about them. I also love to read with my granddaughter Scout.

I am an English instructor at my local community college, so I am always looking for books I can use in my classes. I like to discover new writers.

I tend not to plan my reading, other than for my book club, which meets once a month.

Currently reading

Read in 2021 - Second Half
July
79. The Dictionary of Lost Words
80. The Night Hawks
81. Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians but Were Afraid to Ask*
82. Night Waking*
83. In the Company of Men
84. Red Knife*
85. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House
86. American Sublime: Poems
87. God Help the Child* REREAD
88. An Inventory of Losses
89. An Old, Cold Grave*
90. Magpie Lane
91. Seven Guitars
92. The War I Finally Won*
93. The Clothing of Books*
94. Autumn* REREAD

August
95. Burnt Sugar
96. Intimations*
97. The Secret to Superhuman Strength
98. Vacationland* REREAD
99. The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
100. Two Trains Running
101. Postcolonial Love Poem
102. Great Circle
103. B Is for Burglar*
104. Consent
105. Heaven's Keep*

September
106. Light Perpetual
107. It Begins in Betrayal
108. Fences*
109. The Bone Code
110. The Woman Who Smashed Codes*
111. The Life of the Mind
112. Averno
113. Ariadne
114. Mary's Monster
115. C Is for Corpse*
116. The Heron's Cry
117. Matrix
118. The Women of Troy

October
119. The Performance
120. Deep Pockets*
121. Death Comes to the Nursery
122. The Language Warrior's Manifesto
123. An Unhallowed Grave*
124. Poet Warrior
125. A Good Man Is Hard to Find* REREAD
126. Martita, te recuerdo
127. Bewilderment
128. The President and the Frog
129. Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum for Archaic Media
130. Harlem Shuffle
131. The Window Seat

November
132. The Vanished Collection*
133. Station Eleven* REREAD
134. Conditional Citizens
135. Fight Night
136. The Sentence
137. Jitney
138. Still Life

December
139. Agatha of Little Neon
140. Intimacies
141. D Is for Deadbeat*
142. When God Was a Rabbit* REREAD
143. The Reading List
144. The Madness of Crowds
145. Five Tuesdays in Winter
146. All Systems Red
147. How the Word Is Passed
148. Kingdome of the Golden Dragon*
149. Heating & Cooling*
150. The Vixen
151. The Temptation of Forgiveness*
152. Burntcoat
153. The Bridge to Sharktooth Island*
154. Shunning Sarah*
155. King Hedley II

*From my shelves

Read in 2021 - First half
January
1. Jazz* 💜
2. News of the World* REREAD
3. Those Who Knew
4. Square Haunting 💜
5. The Boy in the Field
6. Glass Town
7. A Running Duck*
8. Faces on the Tip of My Tongue*
9. Perestroika in Paris
10. When You Reach Me*
11. Earthly Remains*
12. Pride
13. Teaching about Race and Racism in the College Classroom*
14. The Skeleton Road*

February
15. The Death of Vivek Oji
16. My Time among the Whites* REREAD
17. The Nickel Boys*
18. Las mujeres en la química*
19. Paradise* REREAD 💜
20. Devil in a Blue Dress*
21. So We Read On*💜
22. Banned Book Club
23. The Vanishing Half*

March
24. Outlawed
25. Sing, Unburied, Sing* REREAD
26. Summerwater 💜
27. The Jewels of Paradise
28. Love*
29. The Historians
30. Even as We Breathe
31. Hidden Figures*
32. American Delirium
33. Hardcore Twenty-Four*
34. Freeheit!*
35. What's Mine and Yours
36. How Beautiful We Were 💜
37. Infinite Country 💜

April
38. Beheld
39. The Seed Keeper*💜
40. She Walks in Beauty*
41. The Trouble with Goats and Sheep
42. The Liar's Dictionary
43. The New Jim Crow*
44. Faithful and Virtuous Night
45. The Western Wind
46. Death Comes to the School*
47. I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf
48. Death Comes to Bath

May
49. Klara and the Sun
50. The Dutch House REREAD
51. Exciting Times
52. Death and the Maiden
53. The Searcher
54. The War that Saved My Life* 💜
55. Whereabouts
56. Ocean Prey
57. Jacob's Room Is Full of Books* 💜
58. The Carrying*
59. To Die But Once
60. Gem of the Ocean
61. One Two Three*
62. Death on Tuckernuck
63. Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars*
64. Secrets of Happiness 💜

June
65. A Is for Alibi*
66. Life in the Garden*
67. The Arsonists' City
68. The Scholar*
69. Of Women and Salt
70. Joe Turner's Come and Gone
71. Piranesi
72. The Feast of Love*
73. Unsettled Ground 💜
74. All My Pretty Ones*
75. Castle Shade
76. No One Is Talking About This
77. The Center of Everything 💜
78. The Blood Promise

*from my shelves

I'm in awe at this amount of reading. I'll be lucky to read half of that by year's end!

I'm interested to find out what you think of Inventory of Losses.

>6 AlisonY: Hi Alison. I have a few audiobooks in the mix, which helps, and I do spend a lot of time reading. No little kids at home to distract me.

>7 RidgewayGirl: I'm enjoying it, Kay. I usually try to read an essay in the morning with my coffee. I love the amount of research she does. That was my favorite part of grad school, and it makes me a little nostalgic.

79. The Dictionary of Lost Words is a well-researched first novel that centers on the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. This is also the coming-of-age story of Esme Nicoll. Her father is an editor of the OED, and she grows up in the Scriptorium, surrounded by the scraps of paper with the words and their definitions.

She later works on the dictionary. What is remarkable about Esme is that early on, she realizes that all words are not equal, that the vernacular and words used by women are often excluded. She begins to collect these forgotten words.

Even though Esme is fictional, this story is fascinating. Williams has obviously done her research about both the creation of the OED and the time period. I would like to know more about the real women who worked on the dictionary.

>9 BLBera: Wasn’t Esme a great character, Beth.

Yes, she was Colleen. I shed a tear or two at the end.

>9 BLBera: You can find a list of the main contributors to the first edition at: https://public.oed.com/history/oed-editions/contributors/biographical-informatio.... Fun fact - JRR Tolkien was a contributor!

Thanks Rhian! There's minimal information about the women.

>13 BLBera: Yes I noticed that. Sigh.

>9 BLBera: My mother just bought this for me! I'm looking forward to reading it.

>14 rhian_of_oz: The way of the world. :(

>15 wandering_star: I'll watch for your comments.

>9 BLBera: oh, that's a must read for me. On the list it goes!

80. The Night Hawks
This is a satisfying mystery in the Ruth Galloway series. I love Ruth, but this is also a well-plotted mystery, unlike some of the previous novels in the series.

The Night Hawks are a group of amateurs who look for ancient treasure. One night, while searching on the beach, they find a dead body washing in, just as they find some armor buried in the sand. As the police try to solve this death, there are more deaths. Could they be related?

Ruth has been promoted, and she has a new employee. It will be interesting to see what happens next in her personal life.

Fans of the series will like this, and I think it would even work as a standalone.

>17 japaul22: Hi Jennifer - I think you will like it.

>9 BLBera: Dictionary of Lost Words is a book bullet for me. Sounds wonderful. And thank you >12 rhian_of_oz: Rhian for the link, it's providing some fun browsing while trying to tune out the fireworks.

>20 labfs39: I'll watch for your comments. Overall, comments have been pretty favorable on LT; maybe because a book about language and words is naturally a winner with this group?

81. Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians but Were Afraid to Ask

This book is written in a Q&A format, and according to the author, is a collection of questions he commonly hears when speaking. Partly because of this, I would say the level is that of a young adult reader.

Treuer covers a lot of topics, from treaties to casinos. He lives near Bemidji, Minnesota, and teaches at Bemidji State University. He uses his personal experiences in answering questions.

I've heard Treuer speak, and he is an engaging speaker. There is a newer, revised audiobook that he reads, and if you are interested in the topic, it's very easy to listen to.

I've read quite a bit on this topic, so there wasn't a lot of new information for me, but this is a great starting point for people interested in the topic. Treuer also includes a list of resources at the end of the book.

One of his answers that did surprise me and made me laugh was the answer to the question: "Are there any good Indian movies?"

Treuer: " I like some of the old spaghetti Westerns because the Navaho extras they hired spent the entire time talking smack about the actors in the Diné language. With proper translation, it's incredibly entertaining."

BTW: Anton and David Treuer are brothers. I highly recommend Rez Life and The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee if you are looking for additional resources about indigenous life.

>9 BLBera: The Dictionary of Lost Words does sound really great. I felt burnt by The Madman and the Professor years ago when it came highly recommended by my copyeditor group. I found it pretty boring. But this sounds like the twist will make it. I think it's already on my TBR list, but I'll make a note.

I loved The Madman and the Professor, Joyce, but the novel may be something more to your taste.

>23 Nickelini: I read both The Dictionary of Lost Words (February) and The Surgeon of Crowthorne (May) this year and they are very different books. I found some parts of 'Madman' boring, but mostly I found it interesting, possibly because I had read 'Dictionary' first.

>25 rhian_of_oz: Great observation, Rhian. In fiction, the writer has the ability to skip over the dull parts.

I just finished The War That Saved My Life based on your review and I loved it. Now to find the second one!

I'm glad you liked it, Rhian. Is there a sequel? I didn't know. I will look for it.

82. Night Waking is a novel filled with ideas about gender roles, class, colonization, and history. Moss creates a number of story lines that come together in a satisfactory way with great characters and a little humor as well. Above all, the novel looks at motherhood and its demands and complexities.

In Anna Bennet, Moss creates a realistic character who shows the challenges of modern motherhood.

Anna Bennet is a historian living on a small island off the coast of Scotland with her husband Giles and two small sons. While her husband spends his days counting puffins, Anna takes care of the children and tries to write her book on Victorian parenting. She's sleep deprived because her toddler wakes up every night.

When bones are found in their garden police come to investigate. Anna is sure the baby has been long dead. Yet she worries about the identity and becomes interested in the history of the island.

As the novel progresses, we learn more about the history, both distant and more recent, and learn that the past is never really past.

We had a great discussion of the various elements of the novel, talking about the different mothers in the novel and how they were portrayed. While some didn't like the character of Anna at first, by the end of the novel, most could identify with her. "Realistic" was a word that came up over and over as we discussed Anna and her children.

There is so much to think about in this novel, which I found extremely satisfying.

Great review of Night Waking, Lisa Beth. I'll buy and read it soon.

Hi Darryl: Thanks. It's Beth, but that's OK. :)

>31 BLBera: Duh! I knew that. I was thinking of labfs39. Please accept the humble apologies of a semi-senile 60 year old man.

>28 BLBera: There is indeed a sequel - The War I Finally Won. I have requested it from the library and will hopefully have it in my hot little hands next week.

>32 kidzdoc: No apology necessary, Darryl.

>33 rhian_of_oz: Thanks, Rhian. I will also look for a copy. Ada is such a great character.

>18 BLBera: I downloaded this one from my audible account, Beth. I love this series, and I’m glad to see it still holds up.

It's a good one, Colleen.

83. In the Company of Men is a short novel about the outbreak of the ebola virus in Africa. The baobab tree narrates and frames the stories of various people affected by the virus. The language, especially in the tree chapters, shows Tadjo's poetic prowess: "We, the trees. Our roots run all the way down to the heart of the earth, and we can feel the beat of her pulse. We inhale her breath. We taste her flesh. We live and die in the exact same spot, never moving from the land we occupy."

A doctor, a nurse, a researcher, and various survivors all tell their stories about ebola. My one complaint is that the voices aren't really distinct -- the mother from the village sounds very much like the doctor. This may be due the translation?

Still, overall, this is a lovely book, beautifully written, and one certainly can't ignore the parallels to COVID.

I'm glad I picked this up.

Nice review of In the Company of Men, Beth. I saw that the Kindle version of it is on sale for $4.99, so I just purchased it.

Hi Darryl - I think as a physician, you will appreciate it. It's a quick read.

84. Red Knife

It's been a while since I read one of the Cork O'Connor series, but it was easy to pick this one up. I've always enjoyed the setting in these novels, the fictional town of Aurora in northern Minnesota, close the Ojibwe reservation. In this novel, Cork has been asked to mediate between a leader of an Ojibwe band of youth and a white man whose daughter has recently died. The white man blames the Ojibwe for his daughter's death, and Cork is afraid that if something isn't done, violence will erupt. When the Ojibwe man and his wife are brutally murdered, it seems that war will break out, if the culprit isn't found rapidly.

The solution is not what anyone expected.

>37 BLBera: I picked this up a few weeks back; I think it was part of a small press display. Now I'm looking forward to it even more!

It's a good one, Liz. The cover is great, and I'm glad I browsed the new arrival section at the library. Often I just pick up the book I have on hold.

85. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House
Set on a fictional Barbadean beach, How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House reveals the stark contrasts between the tourists and the people who live there. Lala, a woman who braids the hair of tourists, is at the center of the novel, but her story represents those of all women suffering from domestic abuse. Soon after her marriage, her husband Adan begins to beat her:

"Of course she did not leave him. What woman leaves a man for something she is likely to suffer at the hands of any other? ... Hadn't she seen the evidence on one or another woman she had known of worse beatings than these? Had her own mother not tolerated such beatings?"

Jones focuses on the lives of people who live on the margins and what they do to survive. The characters are not always admirable, but we can see them and understand that they don't have a lot of choices.

It makes one think about the real life on these paradises.

The Millions Most Anticipated for the second half of 2021:
https://themillions.com/2021/07/most-anticipated-the-great-second-half-2021-book...

>44 BLBera: I knooooow! I went through the list in great detail this morning.

I love this, Lisa. What is calling to you most?
For me, the new Lauren Groff, Louise Erdrich and Lily King, to start with.

86. American Sublime: Poems
This is a wonderful collection of poems from Alexander, the inaugural poet for Obama's first inauguration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vLBnFk-OFc

The collection focuses on the African American experience, with one part dedicated to the reimagining of the experiences of the slaves on the Amistad. Another section that I really liked, was her series of ars poetica poems.

A couple that I really liked:

Smile

When I see a black man smiling
like that, nodding and smiling
with both hands visible, mouthing

"Yes, Officer," across the street,
I think of my father, who taught us
the words "cooperate," "officer,"

to memorize badge numbers,
who has seen black men shot at
from behind in the warm months north.

And I think of the fine line--
hairline, eyelash, finger paring --
the whisper that separates

obsequious from safe. Armstrong,
Johnson, Robinson, Mays.
A woman with a yellow head

of cotton candy hair stumbles out
of a bar at after-lunchtime
clutching a black man's arm as if

for her life. And the brother
smiles, and his eyes are flint
as he watches all sides of the street.

Ars Poëtica #100: I Believe

Poetry, I tell my students,
is idiosyncratic. Poetry

is what we are ourselves
(though Sterling Brown said)

"Every 'I' is a dramatic 'I'"),
digging in the clam flats

for the shell that snaps,
emptying the proverbial pocketbook.

Poetry is what you find
in the first in the corner,

overhear on the bus, God
in the details, the only way

to get from here to there.
Poetry (and now my voice is rising)

is not all love, love, love,
and I'm sorry the dog died.

Poetry (here I hear myself loudest)
is the human voice

and are we not of interest to each other?

>44 BLBera: I was just happily settling in to read my backlist. Oh, well.

Enjoy, Kay.

American Sublime sounds very interesting, Beth; I'll add it to my wish list.

>46 BLBera: I loved Groff's new one—I think it will be right up your alley.

I have a big pile of those in e-galley format, but the one that I don't have that I most want to read is Kristen Radtke's Seek You—I've been listening to a few interviews with her and it sounds like exactly what I want to read, plus she's a gardener and talks a lot about the overlap between gardening and writing, which I like.

Some others that will probably gravitate to the top of the virtual pile:

Anthony Veasna So's Afterparties (he died suddenly at the end of 2020, and the pieces of his I've read in the New Yorker were terrific)
Claire Luchette's Agatha of Little Neon (I'm a sucker for a nun story)
Colson Whitehead's Harlem Shuffle
Anthony Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land
Claire Vaye Watkins's I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness
Lily King's Five Tuesdays in Winter
Rebecca Solnit's Orwell's Roses
Laurent Binet's Civilizations

But seriously, there are another 20 on that list that I'm stoked for.

>50 kidzdoc: It's a good one, Darryl.

Hi Lisa - That's right. I'd forgotten that you already read Groff's new one.

I'm not familiar with So's writing, but all of the others are on my list; some of them are already reserved at my library. :)

87. God Help the Child
"I always knew she didn't like touching me. I could tell. Distaste was all over her face when I was little and she had to bathe me...I used to pray she would slap my face or spank me just to feel her touch."

In her final novel, Morrison revisits the themes from her first one, The Bluest Eye. Once again, she shows the vulnerability of children and the lasting effects of childhood trauma. But while Pecola has no chance to recover from her trauma, in God Help the Child, Morrison gives us some hope that Bride will be able to overcome it.

Morrison complicates the issue of beauty by introducing the commodification of blackness. However, even this is no guarantee that Bride will escape the effects of her mother's distaste.

It's interesting to read this as a culmination of Morrison's work. It may not be my favorite, but it is still thought-provoking and a very good novel.

88. An Inventory of Losses
This collection of essays makes me nostalgic for graduate school. I always thought research was fun. Schalansky writes about animals, places, and artifacts that have disappeared. The amount of research she has done is amazing.

My favorite essays are both about writing: "The Love Songs of Sappho" (only about 600 lines exist) and "The Seven Books of Mani." The latter are books of revelations that served as the basis for the global religion of Manichaeism. The books were mostly destroyed. Not all of the essays interested me, but I soldiered through them.

The writing is dense. I'm not sure how much of this is due to the translation, but I suspect that this is not easy reading in the original German either.

I read one essay at a time, over a month.

Hi! I've just caught up with your interesting reading and concise, informative reviews. Also, I very much enjoyed the poems you posted in >47 BLBera:

>55 rocketjk: I'm glad you enjoyed them. Alexander is a gifted poet.

89. An Old, Cold Grave is the third in the engaging Lane Winslow series. In this novel we learn more about the history of the King's Cove community. When the roof of the root cellar of Lane's neighbors caves in, they find the skeleton of a child. Inspector Darling ask Lane's help in discovering the identity of the child and when he or she was buried.

Lane also meets and sympathizes with a young girl who wants to to to university instead of getting married. Lane is forced to look at her own desires and asses her willingness to enter into a relationship.

Entertaining series with a great setting.

90. Magpie Lane
A nanny, Dee, narrates Magpie Lane. As we learn how Dee came to be the nanny for eight-year-old Felicity, child of an Oxford Master, we soon realize that Dee is telling her story to the police, that Felicity has disappeared.

There are many mysteries in the novel (is the house haunted, where is Felicity, what happened in Dee's past), but I don't feel this is primarily a mystery. Instead, it is a meditation of parenthood. What sacrifices should parents make for their children? Are Nick and Mariah bad parents? In Dee's eyes, they certainly are -- but is she a good judge of this?

I loved this novel -- the character of Dee is interesting and layered, and the setting of Oxford is wonderfully described.

Recommended.

>58 BLBera: Sounds interesting. And from the cover, I knew right away this is a British suspense/crime novel.

>54 BLBera: An Inventory of Losses was such a great love letter to falling down research rabbit holes. I very much liked the same two you did... could barely get through the one about the Roman circus, but that's probably more my own lack of tolerance for animal in peril narratives. I also didn't read more than an essay a night—this was not a book I wanted to (or could) plow through.

>58 BLBera: I've been looking forward to that one since before it was published, but I'm waiting for it to come out in paperback. Great to hear that you recommend it!

>58 BLBera: Another added to my list….

>59 RidgewayGirl: I am still thinking about it, Kay.

>60 lisapeet: Yes, I should have given you credit for bringing this one to my attention, Lisa. I found the Garbo one a little tedious as well.

>61 Nickelini: Hi Joyce. It was a lucky pick for me from the new books shelf in the library.

>62 NanaCC: You're welcome, Colleen. :)

91. Seven Guitars is set in 1948 and centers around the life of Floyd Barton, a musician. However, this is really an ensemble piece. The play starts at Floyd's funeral, then flashes back so we see what happens. Floyd has a hit record but just came out of the workhouse. He is supposed to go back to Chicago to record more music. The play's action centers around Floyd's efforts to find money to go. We see his frustration at how difficult it is to be successful; no one is particularly helpful.

Women play a more prominent part in this play than in many of the other Wilson plays. In Louise, Vera, and Ruby, we see how limited their choices are.

I've been reading the Theatre Communications Group editions of Wilson's plays, and I really like them. Each edition has a foreword; Tony Kushner wrote the one for Seven Guitars. The production history of the play is also present.

My next one is Two Trains Running; I'm skipping over Fences, which is the next one chronologically because I've read it many, many, many times.

93. The Clothing of Books is an essay based on a lecture that Lahiri gave. In it, she considers book covers in general, and her own covers. While she considers that the cover should serve as a visual representation of the contents, she has had little input in her covers, something she regards as regrettable. She says she has really disliked some, but she doesn't say which ones; I'd like to know that.

Booker Longlist
A Passage North, Anuk Arudpragasam

Second Place, Rachel Cusk

The Promise, Damon Galgut

The Sweetness of Water, Nathan Harris

✔️Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro

An Island, Karen Jennings (couldn't find a touchstone for this one)

A Town Called Solace, Mary Lawson

✔️No One is Talking About This, Patricia Lockwood

The Fortune Men, Nadifa Mohamed

Bewilderment, Richard Powers

China Room, Sunjeev Sahota

Great Circle Maggie Shipstead

Light Perpetual, Francis Spufford

There are a few here that I would like to read. I've read two, No One Is Taking about This and Klara and the Sun.

94. Autumn
"I'm tired of the news. I'm tired of the way it makes things spectacular that aren't, and deals so simplistically with what's truly appalling. I'm tired of the vitriol. I'm tired of the anger. I'm tired of the meanness. I'm tired of the selfishness. I'm tired of how we're doing nothing to stop it."

Smith takes on Brexit, bureaucracy, and misogyny, to name a few things. And she does it with wit and style. The account of Elisabeth trying to renew her passport will resonate with anyone who has ever had to deal with a government office.

This was published in 2016, and my reading of it is very different after enduring four years of a Trump presidency. Smith is more than a little prescient. Yet this is not just a political novel. The story of Elisabeth's and Daniel's friendship is lovely. Now as he sleeps and dreams in a care facility (he's 101), Elisabeth sits and remembers their conversations. He taught her that there is more than one way of looking at things, something it doesn't hurt to remember.

Wonderful novel that is a rewarding reread. I plan to finish the quartet this year, but I wanted to reread the first two before I continue with Spring.

>67 BLBera: I too loved the friendship between Daniel and Elisabeth. And the passport renewal bits are iconic. I was not as captivated by Winter and decided not to continue on with the series. I'll look forward to what you think of them.

I did quite like Winter, although not as much as Autumn. I wonder if the reread will be as rewarding?

I have three of the quartet and definitely want to at least start them this year.

Hi Lisa: I read Autumn and Winter when they first were published and then didn't get to the other two. Some have commented that they wish they had read them together, so I decided to reread the first two before I continue. It's no hardship to read -- or reread -- Ali Smith!

>67 BLBera: I also plan to read the quartet in one go, beginning with a reread of Autumn.

I need to get to Autumn. I attended Ali Smith's highly entertaining and enticing talk about it at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2018 (2019?), but it has been sitting unread in my library since then.

I find it hard to become an Ali Smith fan (but I know I'm in the minority on that one). There's a particular grey British grittiness to her writing that I just find it hard to enjoy.

I enjoyed The Accidental more than Autumn, but still - there's a particular atmosphere she conjures up in her writing that just doesn't sit well with me for some reason.

>72 RidgewayGirl: Great minds, Kay...

>73 kidzdoc: Hi Darryl. How fun to see her. I would be interested to see what you think of it.

>74 AlisonY: I can easily see that Smith is not for everyone, Alison. I have The Accidental on my shelves. I will get to it eventually.

95. Burnt Sugar is a story about mothers and daughters and the complicated relationships they have. At the start of the novel, when Antara, the narrator, tells about the mother's increasing forgetfulness, it seems that the novel will center on the effects of dementia on a mother-daughter relationship. However, this turns out to be mainly a device that Doshi uses to frame the story. It's a shame because my favorite parts were the ones about the dementia and the questions about what do to with her mother.

Sections like her time at the boarding school made the novel seem oddly unfocused. So while I liked the writing, overall the novel failed to be one I loved.

96. Intimations is a brief collection of personal essays, Smith's response to the pandemic. "Screengrabs," a group of portraits of people she is vaguely acquainted with is a showcase of her descriptive skills. She also comments on George Floyd and unequal access to medical care. Perhaps not her best collection but very topical.

>37 BLBera: I am slowly catching up on your thread and your review of In the company of men caught my eyes.
I had seen this book when it was published in France and hesitated to read it, your review convinced me I should, so onto my list...
I remember this epidemic. I was not in France at the time, but remember the paranoïa in French media. And I've thought about this parallel with Covid, but Ebola seems so worse, with a likelihood to recover so low that I think it would change a lot on our collective willingness to adopt some measures to avoid being contaminated.

Coming back to the book, as I won't read it in translation and keeping in mind your commentary, I'll probably try to pay attention to the different voices.

I'll be interested in your observations about the different voices. It was interesting to read it in the context of COVID; at the time of the outbreak, Ebola seemed very far away. Now, not so much.

97. The Secret to Superhuman Strength is another winning memoir from Bechdel, honest and emotional. The graphic format really works well here; the drawing enhances her text.

Bechdel arranges it by decades, starting as a child and ending with the present. The thread that runs through it is her quest for strength and fitness, but it's about more than fitness trends through the years. Basically, Bechdel is searching, through activity, for some kind of peace and enlightenment. And as with all lives, there are missteps along the way.

She's done some research as well, looking at the lives of some of the romantic poets, Margaret Fuller, and Jack Kerouac. Many of them also searched for inspiration through activity.

I hope Bechdel is not done; this memoir is every bit as good as Fun Home and Are You My Mother?. Thanks to Ellen for bringing it to my attention.

>80 BLBera: Another for my wishlist, Beth. I wish there were more hours in the day.

Yes, Colleen, we all need more reading time.

Well, Magpie was fairly inexpensive ($6.99) for Kindle so I bought it. I'm finding I need to be distracted by crime/mysteries and Sci-fi nowadays, rather than purely literary fiction.
I was one who read Ali Smith's Winter first, and wasn't all that impressed with it, at least not enough to read the entire series. Then for some reason I ended up reading Summer, and loved it! So I had to go back and read the other two. Overall, I liked the Quartet a lot, but I think I would have liked it more had I read them in order.

I'll be interested in your comments on Magpie Lane, Deborah. I still think about it. Dee was an interesting character.

I read the first two and then stopped, so Winter is my next one. I didn't like that one as much as Autumn, but I still thought it was very good. I suspect most of what Smith writes, even the less-good ones, are better than most other books.

Vacationland is a reread from last summer when we read it for our family reunion book group. My comments were pretty brief: While at the lake, I also finished Vacationland, a wonderful novel of related stories set at a resort in northern Minnesota. I loved the characters and the description. It was our family book club selection, and while the overall opinion was positive, many didn't like the connected stories and the jumping back and forth in time.

It's set in fictional Hatchet Inlet in northern Minnesota. Each chapter is more or less about a different member of the community, or a guest at the resort, Naledi. Having spent many summers at northern resorts, I found the descriptions convincing. I really liked the way the novel was constructed. I may have liked it even more after rereading it.

It's supposed to be the first book of a trilogy. I have the second Laurentian Divide on my shelf and have been meaning to get to it.

My book club meets today to discuss it. It will be interesting to see how the comments match with those of my family.

>85 BLBera: What a great idea to have a family reunion book group. How many family members participate? I'm afraid I wouldn't get enough buy-in to make it work for my extended family.

There are about eight of us, Lisa. I am lucky to belong to a family of readers. After we discuss the book, we share our recent favorites, so we leave with a nice WL. It is a lot of fun.

99. The Secret Lives of Church Ladies is a very good short story collection. I listened to it, and the reader was expressive and captured the tone of the voices very well, with the exception of one story, "Jael," which had two narrators. It took me a while to catch on. The collection covers a wide variety of relationships, but my favorite stories were the ones about mothers and daughters, especially, "Peach Cobbler" and "When Eddie Leveret Comes."

I look forward to Philyaw's next work.

100. Two Trains Running is set in 1969, in a diner. In the patrons, Wilson show the various ways people struggle to survive and the systemic racism they fight against. Memphis, the owner, is fighting with the city, which wants to buy his property; Wolf runs numbers; Sterling, just out of prison, is looking for a job. West, the undertaker, brings the constant presence of death to the diner. And in the background, is Aunt Ester, the spiritual adviser.

I really liked this play. While in the background, Wilson has Black Power rallies, he shows the daily life of the neighborhood, and how little it is affected by the protests. He touches on issues of gentrification, mass incarceration, and unemployment.

The next play is Jitney.

101. Postcolonial Love Poem is an intense collection of love poems, filled with desert and water imagery and mythology. My favorites include "That Which Cannot Be Stilled," "The First Water Is the Body," and "Snake-Light." The poems are long, but some of my favorite excerpts:

From "exhibits from The American Water Museum"
11.
Art of Fact:
Let me tell you a story about water.
Once upon a time there was us.
America's thirst tried to drink us away.
And here we still are.

From "Snake-Light"
Let's say it's all text -- the animal, the dune,
the wind in the cottonwood, and the body.

Everything book: a form bound together.
This is also book: the skeleton of a rattlesnake

Sheathed tightly in its unopened flesh.
Apex of spine and spur, the wet-black
curves of unlit bone, dark parentheses-letters

flexed across a mica-like gulley, a line.
What is a page if not a lingering, an opaque
waiting -- to be marked, and written?

Even the rattlesnake is legible
through the muscled strike of its body.
A sentence, or a spell, a taut rope of emotion --

serpentine signal against the surface of the eye's
moon-stroked desert floor.

*****************************
When a snake swallows its prey,
a row of inner teeth help walk the jaw
over the prey's body -- walking like reading.

Walking over a word with the teeth of our mind.

To write is to be eaten. To read, to be full.

>90 BLBera: Did you read her first collection, When My Brother Was an Aztec? It was excellent. I have this one, bought on the strength of the first, but haven't read it yet. Soon, though.

I had to check, Lisa. I think I read parts of it, but it isn't in LT, so I suspect I had to return it to the library unfinished. It happens.:)

>89 BLBera: I need to read more August Wilson...

I think his plays are very readable, Annie.

>94 BLBera: I loved The Piano Lesson a couple of years ago when I read through most of the drama available in the local library - I just never got around to either buying or requesting ILL for the rest. :)

I'm lucky that my library has the entire series.

102. Great Circle is a sprawling novel that spans the twentieth century. There's a lot to love about it, especially the characters of Marian, Jamie and Caleb. I thought about them a lot in the days I spent with this novel and I think they will stick with me a while.

Marian and Jamie Graves are twins, rescued from a sinking ship when they are infants. Sent to live with an uncle in Montana, they mostly raise themselves. Their uncle Wallace has a drinking problem. Caleb, a neighbor boy who is also largely unsupervised, becomes close to the twins. There's a framing device of a movie being made about Marian as well.

At 600 pages, the novel is too long. Marian's childhood, with repetitive details takes up the first couple hundred pages. Jamie is hardly mentioned. Shipstead would have been better showing more of their relationship and less of Marian. The framing device of the movie about Marian's life is unnecessary and distracts from the main characters. There are also other unneeded digressions.

Still, great characters. This book would have been almost perfect with a couple hundred fewer pages.

103. B Is for Burglar is a well-plotted puzzle. In it Kinsey Millhone accepts a case to look for a missing woman. Elaine Boldt's sister wants her to sign some legal documents, and no one seems to have seen Elaine for months. Kinsey's search is entertaining and the solution is ingenious.

The audiobook was well done. I'll listen to more of these.

>97 BLBera: I’m about 90% done with this book, and I am enjoying it. But your comments are right on point. It could have been a great book instead of just a good one.

Hi Colleen: There seem to be two schools of thought about Great Circle. Lots of five-star ratings for those who loved everything about it, and then there are people like me who liked it a lot but saw some room for improvement.

>97 BLBera: I want to read this book, but I've decided to wait until I run across a copy at a booksale or at the used bookstore.

I had a library copy, Kay. It is very good, great characters. Just a tad too long.

104. Consent is a novel about two sets of sisters: Sara and Mattie and Saskia and Jenny. Sara is a few years older than Mattie who is developmentally delayed. Saskia and Jenny are twins, but Jenny is emotionally unstable.

Lyon portrays the complex dynamics of sisterhood well, with feelings of guilt, resentment, and love mixed together. When Sara becomes Mattie's caretaker, she is torn between love and responsibility and resentment and impatience. Saskia, as a twin, also has a complicated relationship with her sister.

Saskia and Sara meet because of a surprising connection between their sisters, and the novel takes a dark turn towards the end. I'm not sure how I feel about it; in some ways it seems too dramatic for the story Lyon is telling. All in all, though, this is a compelling story.

105. Heaven's Keep is, as usual with Krueger, a page turner. I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed it, so this is a series that I might continue on audiobook.

This novel begins with the loss of the small plane that Jo O'Connor is on, along with some of her Native American clients. They are on their way to a conference in Seattle when their plane goes down in Wyoming during a blizzard. Most of this novel takes place in Wyoming, which is a departure for this series, mainly set on a fictional lake in northern Minnesota.

Jo's husband Cork goes to Wyoming to be near the search. Of course, this isn't simply a plane lost in a snow storm, and along with Cork, we learn what really happens.

>104 BLBera: you’ve added the Krueger series to my wishlist, Beth. Not that I need another series. But….

>105 NanaCC: Ditto. And ditto!

>105 NanaCC: I'm always happy to add series to others' attention, Colleen. I think this one improves as it goes on; the first two were not great. The audiobooks I've listened to have been pretty good.

>106 rhian_of_oz: Hi Rhian. See above.

>104 BLBera: >105 NanaCC: >106 rhian_of_oz: >107 BLBera:

I am not adding any new series to my list. I am not adding new series to my list... Oh see, the library has the first one. Never mind - I will just try not to add too many new series...

It is a rare series where the first is its best (and then in these, that first great book is followed by a few decent ones before we get into good and great again). So that rarely bothers me - if the story works and the style is not too annoying, I'd stay with the series for awhile to see if it gets better (and they tend to - usually because you know the characters).

Very true, Annie. And if I like the characters in a series enough, I might even forgive weaker books, just to spend time with the characters.

>109 BLBera: Yeah - a story can work even with a lot of gotchas - as long as it does not slide into stupidity too much, I can forgive a lot in a series I like. And deep into a series? It is like meeting old friends again. So I'd stay with some series long after their high point - because at this point I look at it as part of the overall story and not as a standalone book - and with the backstory in there, even weak books sound better sometimes.

Had I mentioned that I am a serial series reader? :)

>110 AnnieMod: I have read my share of series as well, Annie.

>111 BLBera: Yeah, figured you may have. :)

Yes, at the topic of my homepage, it says that I have 600+ series in my catalog!

106. Light Perpetual follows five people through one fictional part of London from WWII to the beginning of this century. Supposedly Vern, Ben, Alec, Jo, and Val were all killed in the Blitz by a bomb. This happens in the first pages of the novel, and supposedly the rest of the novel explores the lives they could have lived. But the novel never really returns to this idea, so I'm not sure Spufford really needed it.

It was a slow start for me, but as I read on and learned more about the lives of the characters, I started to care about each one and wondered what would happen. Spufford also captures certain moments in time in London: the clothes, the music, the real estate trends. The characters are very much of the place.

Spufford also has some lovely descriptions: "...the bare trees...each stands in a ragged oval of leaf-fall, summer's discarded yellow petticoat. A few last leaves, small as halfpennies or candle flames, cling on to twigs..."

His writing is quite exquisite. I will read more of his work.

107. It Begins in Betrayal is another well-plotted story that returns to Inspector Darling's war years. He is recalled to England to face charges related to a plane crash during the war, accused of killing one of his crew. Lane, concerned, follows Darling to England and becomes involved in trying to clear his name. All kinds of twists and turns involved.

Meanwhile, Ames is left in Canada to investigate the murder of an old woman hermit.

The solutions to both cases lie in the past, and Whishaw keeps us guessing until the end.

108. Fences is one of my favorite plays by Wilson. I've taught it many times, so this is a reread for me, but I realized that I've never commented on it.

This play is set in 1957, and Troy Maxson, a garbage collector, is the main character. He was a good baseball player, but he never got the chance to play in the major leagues because baseball wasn't yet integrated. Troy is bitter about that and refuses to allow his son Cory to meet with a college football recruiter, something that creates even more of a barrier between father and son.

The characters, as always with Wilson are finely drawn. This play is not only about missed opportunities, it is also about the limitations of the American dream and fathers and sons. The Denzel Washington film is also very good.

110. The Woman Who Smashed Codes was my book club selection for this month. People liked the book and appreciated the amount of research and the coherent way Fagone told Elizebeth Friedman's story. He used her own words from letters and diaries to give us a clear sense of what she was like. For example, she was concerned "about the importance of choosing the right words for things, even if those words offended people. She didn't like it when she heard a friend say that a person who had died had 'passed away' or that a staggering drunk at a party was 'a bit indisposed.' It was more important to be honest."

We talked a lot about the kind of mind needed to break codes. Both Elizebeth and her husband William worked to break Enigma codes during WWII. While William was well known in the world of code breakers, Elizebeth's contributions were buried. Together, they really started cryptology in the US.

The book is a good introduction to a remarkable woman.

111. The Life of the Mind

Generally, I like novels set in academia, and the description of this one sounded promising. Dorothy is an adjunct faculty, trying to finish her book so she has a chance at a tenure-track position. The descriptions of the classroom, a conference she attends, her printer woes, all add up to someone whose life is in crisis. After being chastised by a librarian for printing in the library, she realizes" how naïve she had once been to believe there was anything glamorous about the life of the mind."

The novel begins just as she has suffered a miscarriage. Her life is literally in the toilet. The novel begins in a toilet stall with Dorothy examining her bloody pad, and let's just say there is way too much information about body secretions and way too much time in toilets in this novel.

So, unless this sounds appetizing to you, I wouldn't recommend this novel.

112. Averno
Averno is a small lake in Italy that the Romans believed was the entrance to the underworld. This place, with its aura of endings, is an apt title for this wonderful collection of poems by Louise Glück. In "October," the speaker considers how quickly time passes, while other poems explore the Persephone myth. All look at the transience of life. Glück's poems are long, but here are some of my favorite snippets:

From "October"
3.
death cannot harm me
more than you have harmed me,
my beloved life.

From "Omens"
To such endless impressions
we poets give ourselves absolutely,
making, in silence, omen of mere event,
until the world reflects the deepest needs of the soul.

This is a collection I will return to. It is beautiful.

113. Ariadne

I loved this novel. Ariadne imagines one version of Ariadne's life, beginning with her childhood on Crete, and the story of the Minotaur. Ariadne's sister Phaedra is also a part of the story, but the main focus is on Ariadne.

Following other recent novels like Circe and The Silence of the Girls that retell stories from mythology, this also focuses on the women's point of view. Early on, Ariadne understands, "...a truth of womanhood: however blameless a life we led, the passions and the greed of men could ring us to ruin, and there was nothing we could do."

I enjoyed following Ariadne; one of the things that Saint does well is flesh out the character in a way that makes us want to follow Ariadne on her journey, even if we know how it ends.

I have a copy of Poems 1962-2012 by Louise Glück on my Kindle, including several poems from Averno, so I'll take a look at this book soon.

I've been meaning to read a full collection of Glück's—that sounds like a nice place to start. And yes, Ariadne was really engaging. I'm imagining a whole new generation of teens and young adults taken in by mythology because of this spate of retellings—never a bad thing.

Oh, I'm a sucker for these Greek myth retellings from a female POV. Ariadne is definitely going on the list!

>120 kidzdoc: Hi Darryl. I've never tried reading poetry on my e-reader. I wonder if the formatting changes? Glück doesn't really do weird things with spacing, but her poems are long, and I like to look back, so it might be a challenge.

>121 lisapeet: I think Averno is a good selection; I've heard that Glück tends to be a little difficult, but I didn't find that here.

>122 japaul22: Me too, Jennifer. I will be reading Pat Barker's new one soon. What is interesting about Ariadne is that there are different versions. I think Saint's choices are pretty interesting. I don't want to say more because I don't want to spoil it.

>123 BLBera: Some of the poems I have on my Kindle are in a format to emulate the author's intent in the print version of them, although I'm not sure how well the two versions compare.

>123 BLBera: >124 kidzdoc: I'm thinking that at this point in the ebook life cycle, most publishers have gotten a handle on formatting poetry correctly. Probably not all, and maybe not in galleys, but I bet the bigger publishers and imprints do it right. They're too big a business now not to.

>125 lisapeet: It depends on the poetry sometimes. There are poems that use very weird spacing and formatting, requiring more characters per line and alignments that simply do not work on an eReader.

>126 AnnieMod: You'd think they'd reproduce those as images... Well, I don't really know anything about e-publishing, so I imagine there are definitely gaps in what they can accomplish.

>127 lisapeet: Well, it depends on where you read the poetry. On a tablet or something else supporting image zooming and so on - that will work. On a eInk eReader? If the problem is the width, you won't be able to see anything that way.

So yes - it is possible - but not on a classic eReader - it is really designed for reading ;) Same issue you have with books relying on coloring words/sections or a lot of images and/or diagrams.

It would make sense that the technology is getting better. I'll have to check out some e-poems.

114. Mary's Monster is a graphic biography in verse about Mary Shelley's creation of Frankenstein. The art is wonderful and enhances her story. She was a remarkable woman. I will look for more biographies of her.

115. C Is for Corpse
In this third novel of the series, Kinsey Millhone begins by saying she is working for a dead man. The dead man is Bobby Callahan, a young man who survived a horrific car accident but has lost a lot of his memory. The only thing he is sure of is that someone had tried to kill him. He wants Kinsey to find out who.

Well plotted, as I have come to expect in this series. The audiobooks have been really good, so I will probably continue to listen to them.

>131 BLBera: I’m glad you like the audio, Beth. I’ve never tried that.

>132 NanaCC: Hi Colleen: They are short and the reader does a good job. There's enough action that it keeps my attention. Also, my paper copies of the books are old mass market paperbacks with teeny print, so the audiobooks seem like a good option. :)

116. The Heron's Cry
The second in Ann Cleeves' Two Rivers series continues in Devon with Detective Matthew Venn. The characters are fleshed out a little more, and the mystery is a well-plotted puzzle.

When the father of a glass blower is found dead, there seem to be plenty of leads but no real evidence. Nigel, the victim, headed a non-profit watchdog group for the NHS and was investigating the suicide of a young man. When there is another death, this time of an artist who is a neighbor to the victims's daughter, the plot thickens. There are lots of suspects and twists, and I certainly didn't figure it out. The solution may seem a little convenient, but the setting and characters will keep me coming back.

Also, a note at the end says that this series is also being developed for TV! Yay!

>116 BLBera: The Woman Who Smashed Codes has been on my wishlist for ages. Did you read Between Silk and Cyanide? If you like WWII cryptology, I thought it was great.

Making note of Averno (I like the excerpts you include) and Ariadne

Do you want my copy of The Woman Who Smashed Codes, Lisa. It's sitting on my give-away pile. Just PM me your address and I'll send it your way.

I'm becoming a huge Louise Glück fan. I've read a couple of her collections in the past year, and they were both wonderful.

I'll look for Between Silk and Cyanide.

117. Matrix is another good novel from Lauren Groff. Even if Matrix doesn't have the interesting construction of Fates and Furies, Groff shows her versatility in this very good historical novel with her remarkable imagining of Marie de France.

Marie de France lived in the twelfth century, and nothing much is known about her. Some of her writing remains, so Groff was at liberty to create the character of Marie. And she creates a remarkable woman.

As a young woman, Marie was sent away from the court of Henry II to become abbess of a poor abbey. The descriptions of the cold, hungry nuns, in the dark and dirty times were so well done, I needed a blanket as I read. Marie grew to love and feel protective of the nuns, realizing that "Women in this world are vulnerable; only reputation can keep them from being crushed."

At first I was skeptical that a relatively short novel could do justice to a life, but Groff manages the passage of time well, choosing to focus on select times of Marie's life, then skimming over the intervening years.

I think fans of historical fiction will appreciate this one.

>137 BLBera: I appreciated but didn't love Fates and Furies, but I can't pass up this time period! I already purchased Matrix for my kindle with a sale price and will probably get to it before the end of the year.

Jennifer: One of the fascinating things about Fates and Furies are the diverse opinions about it. I know many found both characters unsympathetic, but I thought the way she structured the story was brilliant. And one of the things I admire about Groff is how different each of her novels is. She is willing to try new things. I can't wait to see what she does next.

>137 BLBera: Lauren Groff is attending the Brooklyn Book Festival as part of a virtual panel titled I’ve Found a Reason with Viet Thanh Nguyen on Oct. 3

Thanks Liz! I'll check it out.

They have a really good lineup this year. I'm going to try and catch some of what they have online.

After enjoying the Library panels, I will check it out.

118. The Women of Troy follows Barker's wonderful The Silence of the Girls. Once again, the focus was on the women of Troy, this time after the fall of Troy. The action is set in the camp as the Greeks are waiting for the winds to change so they can go home.

Briseis appears again. I didn't find this novel as compelling as The Silence of the Girls, maybe because the secondary characters aren't as interesting and because it doesn't seem like there's much new here.

I didn't know she was doing another like Silence of the Girls. I've put this on my wish list, but I think I'll read Ariadne that I found on your thread first.

I liked Ariadne better than this one, Jennifer. The Women of Troy was OK, but perhaps it suffered because I had recently read Ariadne.

119.The Performance is an original novel set during the performance of a Beckett play. I was surprised by how much I loved this novel. I'm not familiar with the play, but it doesn't matter. The author gives us enough details to make us feel as if we are also attending the performance.

Thomas focuses on three women attending the play. Margot, in her seventies, is a professor. She is freezing in the air con and develops a tickle in her throat that makes her cough and leads her to look for throat lozenges in her purse. The young man in the seat next to her is monopolizing the armrest. Summer, a student, is an usher and worried about the wild fire that approaches her partner's parents' home. She does breathing exercises to calm her anxiety. Finally, Ivy is a Beckett superfan. She has seen the play before and lets her mind wander. The man in the seat next to hers is snoring and she is strongly tempted to kick him.

Little details like this make the characters live.

The first part of the novel takes place during the first act of the play. Then, there's an intermission section, written as a script, when the characters leave their seats and interact. In the final part of the novel, the characters return to their seats, and the play ends.

The structure is interesting, and the characters are great. I will look for more by this author. Theater-goers will enjoy this novel. I'm glad I picked this up.

Ah but which Beckett play? I hope it is Happy Days so this novel can be compared to The First Garden, in which the narrator is an actress in that Beckett play.

>147 BLBera: That looks like fun. Thanks for the review.

>148 ELiz_M: It is Happy Days, Liz. Ooh, I will look for The First Garden. Thanks for the rec.

>149 rocketjk: I really liked it; Thomas is great with characters.

>147 BLBera: Oooh, that looks terrific. I missed it when it came out somehow, because that's right up my alley. I will library it up one of these days... thanks!

I think you will like it, Lisa. I picked it up from the new books shelf at my library. I hadn't heard anything about it, and I am not familiar with Thomas although I think she has written another novel.

120. Deep Pockets is one of the last books in the Carlotta Carlisle. I've been following this series for years and enjoy the adventures of this six-foot-plus redhead private investigator.

In this book, Carlotta is hired by a Harvard professor to find out who is blackmailing him. He had an affair with a student and things he might get fired if the story gets out. Carlotta finds the blackmailer, who is then murdered, and the plot thickens.

I never guessed the solution, and the last chapters are real page turners. There are a couple left in this series, and I will read them, if only to see what happens with Carlotta's personal life.

122. The Language Warrior's Manifesto
Anton Treuer is passionate about Ojibwe and has spent huge amounts of time and energy working to revitalize the language. In this book, he writes about his personal history and explains how he became a language warrior.

He discusses the various programs and approaches he has worked with and mentions a LOT of names of people; giving tips for starting and maintaining programs. One of my favorite stories was how people came together to create children's books in Ojibwe.

I just saw him speak at the Carlton College convocation, and he emphasized the importance of not losing languages. When we lose a language, we lose another way of looking at the world.

He's an engaging speaker, and if you get the chance to see him, don't hesitate. He does have a TED talk for those interested in this topic.

This book is for people interested in revitalizing languages. There is quite an extensive "how-to" section, so it won't be for everyone.

>154 BLBera: That looks really good. The whole idea that languages are dying is so wrong, and I'm deeply impressed by anyone who works that hard to keep them vital.

>155 lisapeet: If you're interested in languages, you might like this, Lisa. There is quite a large section on tips for people trying to set up a language revitalization program, so that might not be quite as compelling. Just a warning. I find it fascinating; the data on the Ojibwe immersion schools looks good for the kids as well. Their scores on the state tests are amazing. He talks a lot about the Hawaiian program. They've gone from 1000 fluent speakers to many thousands and now in Hawaii, kids can do all their schooling, through college in Hawaiian.

123. An Unhallowed Grave

In this third book of the Wesley Peterson series, Ellis again blends history with the present. A woman is found hanging from a tree in a cemetery, while nearby Wesley's friend Neil finds a skeleton of a hanged woman in his excavation. As Wesley investigates the present-day crime, Neil looks for clues to what happened to the skeleton.

Ellis cleverly blends the plot lines and further develops the characters. Wesley and Pam have a newborn and are struggling to find reliable care for him when Pam goes back to school.

I look forward to the next book in the series. Fans of the Ruth Galloway series who like archeology mixed with their crime might like this series. There are twenty plus books in the series, so I have some good reading ahead.

124. Poet Warrior
In this memoir, Harjo travels through key moments of her life and looks ahead to the next step. Events are scattered among dreams and poems, so if you are looking for a chronological telling of a life, Crazy Brave might be a better choice. But if you want to read more of Harjo's poetry, this is rewarding.

125. A Good Man Is Hard to Find
The stories are not all perfect, but most of them are pretty close. O'Connor is a skilled short story writer. The book description says she has an "apocalyptic vision." Her stories are filled with misfits and outcasts, and terrible, tragic events. Yet, she also has a dark, unexpected humor. Her writing is so descriptive that she captures the essence of her characters in a couple of sentences.

Not everyone will appreciate these troubling stories. I look forward to a lively book club discussion this week.

>159 BLBera: I read this a couple of years ago. I found the title story and "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" to be particularly affecting. Which were your favorites?

I love "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," "Good Country People," and "The Displaced Person."

"A Good Man is Hard to Find" is one of the most chilling short stories I've ever read.

>162 rocketjk: It's widely anthologized, and I've taught it many, many times. Students are freaked out. It gets their attention. Billy Collins says that to study English literature is to study death. :)

126. Martita, te recuerdo is a novella published in a bilingual edition. I got some practice reading in Spanish, as I read the first half in Spanish and then switched.

In this Corina looks back at a time she spent in Paris with Marta. It was a time in their lives when both had dreams of rising up beyond the poverty of their youth. After finding letters from Marta, Corina looks back on that time with nostalgia for the young woman she was. Cisneros gives us a clear sense of those bittersweet feelings.

Lovely and poetic.

Our discussion of A Good Man Is Hard to Find was lively. People had been looking for the moment of grace in the stories. We discussed where it could be found. We talked about O'Connor's sense of the sinfulness of people and her great descriptive writing. One of the people agreed that O'Connor has a strange and wonderful sense of humor that not everyone can appreciate.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find may be my all time favorite short story collection. I would give it 6 stars if I could.

Hi Darryl! Thanks for stopping by. Yes, O'Connor is a great short story writer.

>147 BLBera: I've made note of The Performance. It sounds fantastic.

>159 BLBera: Yeah, she's dark, but oh, so good.

I loved The Performance, Kay. I'd be interested in your comments. I'm happy to see another O'Connor fan.

127. Bewilderment
I love the portrayal of the father-son relationship in Bewilderment. Robin, the nine-year-old son, and Theo, the dad, are great characters. Robin is struggling after the death of his mother, while Theo is trying to help his son cope. Robin has always had problems, with possible diagnoses of ADHD or autism, but Theo and his wife always resisted the labels and medications. However, with his mother's death, Robin is finding it harder and harder to function in school. When a friend working on experimental neurofeedback offers to enter Robin in a trial, Theo agrees.

If the story were focused on Theo and Robin, it would be easy to write comments. But I find it hard to describe the novel. Some questions raised: Is there live on other planets? Can we save our environment from catastrophe? Is our democracy failing? Do we over diagnose autism? Overmedicate kids? Powers packs a LOT into this short novel, and for that reason, the amount of ideas and questions, I find it loses focus. All he really needs are Theo and Robin.

128. The President and the Frog
This novel first caught my eye because of the title. Then, when I saw that De Robertis was the author, I picked it up; I loved her Cantoras. The novel is set in an unnamed country that could very well be Uruguay, inspired by the life of former Uruguayan president, José Mujica, aka el Pepe.

The action takes place during two time periods, one when the former president, unnamed, is a political prisoner and one in present day while he is being interviewed by a Norwegian reporter.

This is a quiet novel about survival and resilience. It asks how does one suffer torture and not become hate-filled. The tone is philosophical as the former president remembers events while the reporter questions him. There are references to our former president among discussions of leadership. Oh, and there's a frog.

129. Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum for Archaic Media

Description: "Many of her poems engage ekphrasis around the visual work of contemporary artists who, like Erdrich, make art around concepts of survival and apocalypse and are also Anishinaabe. Poems in this collection curate unmountable exhibits in not-yet-existent museums devoted to the ephemera of communications and recent but archaic technology."

This is another title that caught my attention. Many of the poems are inspired by visual arts, and Erdrich also includes QR codes that lead to what she calls "poemeos," animated poems. There are also poems in Ojibwe and English.

This unusual collection probably isn't a good introduction to Erdrich, but I found it an intriguing, if not totally successful, attempt to combine various art forms. In some ways, I think this attempt takes attention away from the words on the page.

If you are interested in checking out some of the "poemeos," you could visit Erdrich's website, www.heiderdrich.com.

>171 BLBera: I will keep an eye out for The President and the Frog. Thanks for the review.

I enjoyed it, Lisa. I'd be interested in learning more about Mujica.

Good run of books there, Beth. At this point I'm fascinated by Bewilderment on the strength of the incredibly wide range of reviews alone—people love it, people hate it, people like it OK. That in itself makes me want to read it. And The President and the Frog sounds interesting, so I'll keep my eye out for it. As for the Erdrich, I'd be inclined to pick it up for the title alone, and because I'm a deep sucker for anything labeled "ekphrasis"... though it also sounds like a big maybe for me, so we'll see. I'm more interested in New Poets of Native Nations, which she edited.

Hi Lisa. I really liked the New Poets of Native Nations collection. I found some great new-to-me poets. I liked Bewilderment but the lack of focus was annoying. He has like four novels in one. I've liked both books I've read by De Robertis, and I'm not that familiar with Uruguayan writers, so there's that.

130. Harlem Shuffle
I had high expectations for this latest novel by Colson Whitehead, so although I was disappointed, I'm sure many will love it.

I did appreciate the detailed description of Harlem; Whitehead depicts Harlem in the early 1960s in such a way that I felt I knew it. I think the character of his protagonist is well developed as well; the problem is that I never really came to care too much about Ray Carney. I felt as though I was dropped into the middle of a boy's club.

131. The Window Seat

I loved, loved, loved this collection of essays by Forna. She's had an amazing life and with a stepfather who worked for the UN, has had the good fortune to live all over the world.

The topics are varied, from discussion of urban wildlife in "Wilder Things," in which I see the inspiration for her wonderful novel Happiness to insomnia, the meaning of home, and dogs in Sierra Leone.

>178 BLBera: well that’s lovely. I bought her novel Happiness today but I don’t know this author, so sounds like I have an interesting read ahead

>179 Nickelini: I loved Happiness, Joyce! I will watch for your comments. I need to read her other novels.

>178 BLBera: The only one of Forna's books that I have read is Memory of Love, which I found good, but not great. Happiness is described as akin to Anil's Ghost, one of my favorite books, so perhaps I'll give that a try, although I already have one of her memoires on my tbr.

Hi Lisa - Hmm. I also love Anil's Ghost, but I don't know that I would compare it to Happiness... Still, you should give it a try. I hope to read Memory of Love and Forna's other novels soon. A lot of people have raved about The Hired Man.

I have Happiness, but haven't read it... I've heard good things about Forna though. That one is noted now, thanks!

Hi Lisa - I need to read more Forna. I've loved both her essays and Happiness.

I am going to DNF Palmares - I'm about 350 pages in but it is becoming such a slog that I think I'll return it to the library and maybe try again another time.

My avid book reading partner who I share a workstation with wasn't overly keen on Harlem Shuffle, and because of her comments I haven't rushed out to buy a copy of it.

OTOH, I'm thrilled that you loved The Window Seat. I was looking at my copy of it last night, and contemplating when I should read it, which now will be very soon. Aminatta Forna is high on my list of favorite British writers, as I've given at least 4½ stars to the three novels of hers I've read, Happiness, The Hired Man, and The Memory of Love. She's certainly deserving of greater attention.

Anil's Ghost was very good, but I agree that it isn't all that comparable to Happiness, and I liked Forna's novel slightly better than the Ondaatje.

For whatever it's worth, I liked The memory of love and The hired man. I remember The hired man best, and liked the quesion I thought it asked about culpability and how to go on when neighbors had been on both sides of a conflict.

I'm also a Carolina de Robertis fan. I didn't get into Perla, but have enjoyed her other three novels (The invisible mountain, The gods of tango, and Cantoras), so The president and the frog is on my list. I may need to buy a copy of the book of essays she edited, Radical hope: letters of love and dissent in dangerous times, as I desparately need some hope in these trying times.

132. The Vanished Collection

This is the story of Pauline Baer de Perignon's efforts to find out about her great-grandfather's art collection. Her great-grandfather, Jules Strauss, was a noted collector, who survived WWII in Paris. Baer de Perignon describes her journey from the moment a cousin first mentions that there was something shady about the sale of a number of Strauss' paintings. As she begins her research, she realizes that the family never talks about the war experience of Strauss and his wife and she finds that they didn't survive as unscathed as the family stories indicate.

If you're looking for a story of looted art, this is not that story. This is a very personal story, told in a rather scattered way, jumping from one topic and time to another with no transitions. This is Baer de Perignon's first book, and it shows. The writing is not great; how much of this is due to the translation, I'm not sure.

>186 kidzdoc: Hi Darryl - I have heard only good things about Forna's novels. I hope to get to them soonish. I'll probably read The Hired Man first. You may like Harlem Shuffle more than I did. In some ways, I think it suffers from the high expectations I had.

>187 markon: I've only read Cantoras and The President and the Frog; I will look for the others as well. I do have the book of essays on my WL. I agree, I am not very hopeful these days.

133. Station Eleven

I love this novel. The portrayal of life after the pandemic that has killed 99% of the world's population is just lovely.

>190 BLBera: The portrayal of life after the pandemic that has killed 99% of the world's population is just lovely.


That's quite the sentence. I didn't realize you had such a dark side ;-)

It's remarkably hopeful, Joyce. :)

>133 BLBera: It is though, isn’t it? One of the very few apocalyptic books that made me feel hopeful for humanity.

Hi Rhian - Yes, it does give us hope. We see how resilient people can be. I look forward to my book club discussion tomorrow.

134. Conditional Citizens is an excellent collection of essays in which Lalami discusses white privilege, sexual harassment, and treatment of immigrants, among other topics. She talks about checkpoints in the US that stop people to check their citizenship status. I had no idea something like that existed. In fact, Lalami's essays reveal that immigrants, even naturalized citizens, live very precarious lives here. Yet, she doesn't despair. Her final essay is a call to action. As she says, "What I want is freedom, not better conditions of subjugation." We can do better.

I haven't loved Lalami's novels, but her essays have made me a fan.

135. Fight Night
Swiv is the nine-year-old narrator of Fight Night. She is currently suspended from school for fighting: "I don't understand adults...Grandma was the one who got me kicked out of school in the first place because she was the one who told me that people sometimes have to be punched in the face to get the message to leave you alone and not bully you, but only after double-digit times of trying to use words to no avail and only up to the age of ten or eleven."

At first, I found her amusing, as she parrots what her mother and grandmother say, but as the novel progresses, we begin to see that Swiv is an anxious little girl trying to hold on to her family and trying to understand difficult issues like depression and aging. The humor lightens the serious issues. I did laugh out loud with some of her comments: "Grandma said there are no winners or losers when it comes to bladder control."

Swiv's mother is pregnant, and Swiv worries that her mother will try to kill herself, as her sister and father did. While her mother works, Swiv is left with her aging grandmother, who takes a lot of medication, and who Swiv worries is about to die.

If you are not a fan of child narrators, this probably isn't for you, yet I find myself hoping that Swiv will be able to continue to fight and survive and thrive.

>196 BLBera: Thanks for reviewing this. It's on the Tournament of Books longlist so I was curious.

The ToB longlist is out already!?

As of yesterday:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/328101#7653526 - RidgewayGirl announcement
https://themorningnews.org/article/the-year-in-fiction-2021 - the list itself.

Thanks Annie!

Nice reviews of Conditional Citizens and Fight Night, Beth. Both books sound interesting.

Thanks Darryl. They are good ones.

Hi, Beth. I've been gone for a while, but I'd like to start up again. I skimmed your list and cadged a few recommendations.

Great to see you back, Sally.

137. The Sentence
I love this book. The Sentence is a love letter to books, readers, and bookstores. There is also a ghost, COVID, and the George Floyd murder, making this a novel firmly set in the present. This novel most resembles The Round House in its concern for justice.

Tookie, the narrator, sells books, and is one of the memorable characters who work in the bookstore. She is haunted by the ghost of a customer who died. This is also her story. She says, "I was hardened when I first started selling books. I resented those who came into the store, disturbing my communion with the books on the shelves. But the people who love books softened me." She is a "city Indian," has never lived on the rez and has lost some of her history. Yet she is still part of an indigenous community in Minneapolis.

The bookstore is very much a character in this novel. Though the name is never mentioned, it is Birchbark Books, the store that Erdrich owns, and she, as the owner, also appears. When COVID hits, and the store closes to in-person customers, the store, like many businesses, changes to curbside pick-up and online orders -- and thrives. The employees soon realize that people need books to survive, that they really are "essential workers." After the death of George Floyd, orders increase even more, as people try to understand what is happening.

This is the first "COVID" novel I've read, and it's a good one.

>205 BLBera: Definitely looking forward to this one.

>205 BLBera: I also have this on my to read list, but am not sure when I'll get to it. Would it be good in conjunction with A diary of the plague year by Elise Engler?

>206 lisapeet: I really liked it, Lisa. There's a lot to think about. I thought it was interesting that Erdrich wrote herself in.

>207 markon: I think that would work. The Sentence isn't just about COVID.

137. Jitney is set in an office for a car service; the characters come and go as rides are requested. Becker, who runs the station, tries to keep the peace and uphold rules for the drivers. Becker's son has just been released from prison, and the rest of the drivers are in varying stages of their lives, including a couple of veterans, one from the Korean War and one from the Vietnam War. Set in 1977, the play shows the failed promises of urban renewal and the continued lack of possibilities for Blacks during a time of prosperity.

What really strikes me about this play is how Wilson is able to take a bunch of drivers and through dialogue, give them distinct personalities. When I saw the cast list, I thought I would never be able to keep them straight, but from the beginning, Wilson made them individuals.

I'd really like to see this one.

I'm almost through the century; I have two plays left to read.

138. Still Life
"It's what we've always done. Left a mark on a cave, or on a page. Showing who we are, sharing our view of the world, the life we're made to bear. Our turmoil is revealed in those painted faces-- sometimes tenderly, sometimes grotesquely, but art becomes a mirror."

Winman is good at creating characters we care about. In this novel that covers about forty years, we get to know Ulysses Temper and his friends and family well. We celebrate and grieve with them. If the endings to some of the stories seem a little contrived, well, I forgive Winman. The setting, Florence, is the real star here, though. I want to move there tomorrow, despite the riveting portrayal of the 1966 flood.

A few minor things kept this book from being perfect. The last chapter about Evelyn seems out of place, and I found the references "if only the character had done this..." tiresome. But these are minor annoyances, and if you love a sprawling character-driven novel, this is one you might enjoy.

>210 BLBera: I've been waiting for that one to come out in paperback for about 8 months, and now I believe it's been delayed until spring. One day . . .

>211 Nickelini: I hope you enjoy it when you get to it, Joyce. It will be a big paperback. I got tired from holding it as I read.

>212 BLBera: Ooooh, I really don't like big books. Hmmm.

I have to set the big ones on my lap after a while.

139. Agatha of Little Neon
Agatha is a nun, one of four sisters who were novitiates together. When their diocese goes bankrupt and the convent closes, they are sent to a small town in Rhode Island to work at a kind of halfway house. None of the nuns has any background in addiction counseling or social work. Luchette paints a portrait of energetic women who are at the mercy of the men in the patriarchal church and who have little say over what they do.
Their energies and talents are wasted. Still, Agatha paints a picture of day-to-day simple joys and the rewards of sisterhood.

These were different from the nuns I have known, who were formidable women who got things done. Nuns built Saint Marys Hospital after a tornado leveled this city in the late nineteenth century. They built it with the agreement that Dr. Mayo would staff it. Sisters administered the hospital into the late twentieth century.

But I have no knowledge of the inner workings of the convent, so Luchette's portrait may be accurate. And, it is a nun story. There were some funny moments.

140. Intimacies
"...there were great chasms beneath words, between two or sometimes more languages, that could open up without warning. As interpreters it was our job to throw down planks across these gaps."

The narrator of Intimacies is an interpreter at The Hague. She moved a lot as a child and is rootless and fluent in several languages. She is working, deciding whether she wants to continue interpreting at the Court and stay in The Hague. Interpreting for war crimes tribunals is stressful; as she describes her work, we understand the challenges involved in interpreting stories of atrocity.

Kitamura's style reinforces the gaps between languages. The narrator reports what happens in her daily life, what others say and do, with no direct quotations, distancing us from the events. I'm not sure I am a fan of the style, but the story surrounding language and interpreting is interesting.

I was a medical interpreter, so it was interesting to see the conversation around language. Anyone fluent in more than one, understands the "chasms" that exist.

>216 BLBera: - I just read this novel a few days ago and may have liked it better than you. But I understand why you're lukewarm about it. It's probably a book you need to be in the mood for or maybe even create a mood for. Because otherwise it might just be a boring summary of events and I like to think it wasn't. Maybe I'm deluded :-)

>217 Trifolia: I did find a lot to think about in this novel.

Even during this busy time of the semester, we do get to laugh occasionally. One of my colleagues just sent this excerpt from a student essay.

While Gertrude Stein was an American author and poet best known for her modernist
writings, extensive art collection, and literary salon in Paris in the 1920s, she was also was Hamlet's mother. After the murder of King Hamlet, Gertrude Stein married his brother, Claudius, and had a son with him. The death of King Hamlet and the wedding of Gertrude Stein to Claudius occurred immediately.

>219 BLBera: I can just picture it...

At least we can smile about something in the midst of grading, Lisa. One of my colleagues said she was curious about the source...

And I'm also curious . . . about what the essay topic was.

I'll have to ask.

>216 BLBera: I love that slightly remote style. I can't explain why I do, but somehow it makes me feel closer to the story.

>219 BLBera: LOL. Someone told me once that at least one student every year would confuse Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr. and it was never not funny.

>222 markon: The prompt asked for a response to an essay by Gertrude Stein.

>224 RidgewayGirl: I think I have to be in the mood for Kitamura's style. In this case, it really worked to emphasize the distance created by translation.

It's going on my colleague's wall -- we have been laughing about it all week.

141. D Is for Deadbeat
In this fourth installment, Kinsey Millhone is hired to deliver a cashier's check by a man who pays her with a bad check. When she tracks him down, she finds that the man's real name is John Daggett and he has just been released from prison after killing five people while driving drunk. After Daggett dies, his daughter hires Kinsey to investigate his death.

I didn't like this one as much as the previous entries; the plotting seemed pedestrian and the "victim" was so unlikeable even Kinsey has a hard time drumming up enthusiasm for the investigation. Much of the action was Kinsey going from one person to the next, looking for a clue, which doesn't make for a page turner.

I might give the series a rest; now that I know they make for good audiobooks, I can return to them later.

143. The Reading List is a novel that will appeal to readers. It follows a group of people from North London who find a list of books. Through the list, they form friendships, and as the novel progresses, we see the importance of books and libraries in building community. It was interesting to see that even the widower Mukesh could appreciate a book like Little Women.

This was an enjoyable light read.

142. When God Was a Rabbit was a reread for me, and I still loved it. It was interesting to read it in conjunction with Still Life. Winman is good with quirky characters. We discussed it today in my book club, and people did like it. They liked the characters and the description. One moment that stood out to a couple of people:

"...we saw again what our life here had been. There was the sledge our father had made, the one we took to school, the envy of all, and the ghosts of swings and climbing frames that had held us, and dropped us; the sounds of our tears. And we saw again the cricket and football matches that had scuffed the grass bare at the bottom lawn. And we remembered the tents we had made and the nights spent within: imaginary countries, us the explorers. There was suddenly so much to say good-bye to."

One member compared it to The Dutch House, how it is the story of siblings. Another person commented how Winman uses real events in her stories. This member had actually seen the Vermeer exhibit Elly referred to.

Our January book will be The Glass Hotel; people loved Station Eleven and wanted more Mandel.

144. The Madness of Crowds
Armand Gamache and his family are back in Three Pines in this novel. His children and grandchildren are visiting to celebrate Christmas. In the middle of the holiday celebrations, Gamache is asked to provide security for a speaker at a nearby university. He soon understands why he, a senior police officer, is asked to do this; the speaker is controversial and there was violence at a previous speech.

The novel addresses the pandemic and extremism and shows what can happen when good people remain silent.

Fans of this series will appreciate this one and enjoy being back in Three Pines. I listened to it, and the audiobook was very good.

I’m just trying to catch up Beth. I see a few books that might pop onto my wishlist. As for big books being heavy, my daughter bought me a reading pillow years ago. I found one like it on Pinterest called a book buddy. It’s great for “taking the load off”. I love it.

Hi Colleen - A reading pillow sounds brilliant. I will look for one.

145. Five Tuesdays in Winter is a great short story collection about the stories that define us, and each of the stories is good, without a weak one in the bunch. One of my favorites is "Timeline." The narrator is a writer who ponders the power of stories: "...I thought about words and how, if you put a few of them in the right order, a three-minutes story about a girl and her dog can get people to forget all the ways you've disappointed them." King really does know how to put words in the right order.

>229 BLBera: Glad to hear you enjoyed this one. I hated the last third of All the devils are here and am not sure if I'll pick this one up or not.

>233 markon: It was interesting to see what she did with the pandemic. This newest one pays more attention to current events than the others; I liked that.

146. All Systems Red is entertaining science fiction narrated by the self-named "Murderbot." Murderbot has an engaging personality, and I found myself laughing as I listened to this.

147. How the Word Is Passed is a much-needed exploration of how we talk about our history in the United States. As Smith says, "The history of slavery is the history of the United States. It was not peripheral to our founding; it was central to it...It must be a collective endeavor to learn and confront the story of slavery and how it shaped the world we live in today."

Smith visits various landmarks in the US and Gorée Island and discusses what he discovers as he tours the sites and interviews people involved with the education. When he talks to his grandparents, both of whom grew up in the South, he finds that though progress has been made, it's not enough.

I have one minor quibble about his writing style; he overdescribes the people he interviews, almost as though someone told him he has to include more description. But that was very minor.

This collection is thought provoking and worthwhile.

>235 BLBera: I think I'm three books into the Murderbot series and really enjoyed them. Just techy enough, just human enough.

>237 lisapeet: Lisa, they are fun. My library has them, so I reserved the next two. They seem to be pretty popular.

>238 BLBera: Yes, and the series won this year's Hugo for best series, and the most recent book (the first novel in the series) won best novel for 2021.

Favorites from 2021
Fiction
The Sentence
The Performance
Night Waking
The Seed Keeper
Secrets of Happiness
Unsettled Ground
Paradise

Nonfiction
The Window Seat - essays
Square Haunting - biography

Poetry
Averno

153. The Bridge to Sharktooth Island is a good book for second or third graders.

Daniel and his cousin Joy are building a snowman when they hear drums and are magically transported to a rock just off the coast of a tropical island. They are joined there by Kimani, another girl with a similar story. Each of the children has different strengths and they have to work together to find a way off the rock and onto the beach.

I read this with my eight-year-old granddaughter who gives the book a thumbs up. She says kids will like it because it is exciting and it's fun to see how the kids figure things out and what they will try next. She also likes the magic parts. She liked Kimani the best because she is smart.

After the story ends, there are various projects kids can try. My granddaughter says she will try them. She hopes the kids have more adventures.

>241 BLBera: that’s sweet! Thanks for your post

It was really fun to read this with her, Joyce. I hope to collaborate more in the future.

Brief comments from recent books:

149. Heating & Cooling - Memoir written as a series of vignettes. I frequently laughed out loud as I read.

150. The Vixen Disappointing novel from Francine Prose, set mainly in the McCarthy era right after Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed. I thought the setting would be vividly portrayed with parallels to the present day. Instead, I read the adolescent fantasies of Simon Putnam, the narrator, a twenty-something Harvard graduate who falls in love with any attractive woman who is nice to him. I expected more of Prose

151. The Temptation of Forgiveness Another Guido Brunetti mystery. Plot wasn't compelling, but it's always fun to visit Venice.

152. Burntcoat A dying artist considers her past and the place art and literature have in coping with the pandemic. Lovely writing. Lots of pandemic sex.

154. Shunning Sarah follows investigative TV reporter Riley Spartz as she looks into the case of a murdered Amish woman. The author is a TV reporter, and says the newsroom in real life is very similar to the cut-throat setting of her novels. Fun setting. In this book, Riley does a lot of stupid, dangerous things that made me lose patience with her.

I'll finish King Hedley II tomorrow, and that will wrap up my 2021 reading.