Sally Lou's reading in 2022

Once again, I don't have a clever topic. I planning on reading books I enjoy plus participating in BingoDOG (I like the topics this year), CATWoman, AuthorCAT, possibly some KITs, my book club, and any class reading. I hope to make a big dent in by TBR books; unfortunately, this year I acquired (mainly through purchase) around twice the number of books I've read.

Hosting responsibilities:
January: CATWoman: Biography/autobiography/memoir by women
June: CATWoman: Books set in cities or about cities by women
December: AuthorCAT: Favorite Author

January: host for CATWoman: (biography, autobiography, memoir by and/or about a woman)

Reading in January:
1. Taken Too Soon: a Quaker Midwife Mystery by Edith Maxwell -- MysteryKIT -- finished reading January 5th -- 5 stars
2. An American Sunrise: Poems by Joy Harjo -- AuthorKIT and BingoDOG --finished reading January 6th -- not rated
3. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell -- BingoDOG (long book, 632 p.), Northside Library Book Club -- finished reading Jan. 19th -- 3.5 stars
4. Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout -- BingoDOG -- Finished reading Jan. 20th -- 4 stars
5. Crazy Brave: a memoir by Joy Harjo --AuthorKIT, CATWoman, BingoDOG -- finished reading Jan. 21st -- unrated
6. Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli -- CATWoman and BingoDOG -- finished reading Jan. 31st -- 4 stars.

Reading in February:
1. (7) The Soul of a Woman both written in Spanish and translated into English by Isabel Allende -- CATWoman, BingoDOG, and AlphaKIT -- finished reading Feb. 3rd -- 4 stars.
2. A Guinea Pig Pride & Prejudice by Alex Goodwin -- Bingodog -- read Feb. 4 -- 4 stars
3. Recitatif by Toni Morrison -- BingoDOG -- read Feb. 5th -- 4.5 stars
4. (8) Beloved by Toni Morrison -- BingoDOG and Northside Library Group -- finished reading Feb.13th -- 3.5 stars
5. (9) Lorraine Hansberry: The Life behind A Raisin in the Sun by Charles J. Shields -- LTER and BingoDOG -- finished reading Feb. 16 -- 3.5 stars
6. Song of Myself by Walt Whitman (final edition, 1892) -- AuthorCAT -- finished reading Feb. 17th -- unrated.
7. (10) Claws for Alarm by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown -- RandomKIT and BingoDOG -- finished reading Feb. 19th -- 3 stars
8. A Modern Lear by Jane Addams --- essay -- read Feb. 20
9. (11) The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear -- BingoDOG -- finished reading Feb. 23rd -- 4 stars

Reading in March:
1. (12) A Changing Light by Edith Maxwell -- for AuthorCAT and MysteryKIT -- finished reading Mar. 5th -- 4 stars
2. (13) The Gambler Wife: a True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman who Saved Dostoyevsky by Andrew D. Kaufman -- OLLI Community Read, BingoDOG -- finished Mar. 6th -- 4 stars
3. (14) Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom by Carl Bernstein (Washington, DC) -- BingoDOG -- finished reading Mar. 11 -- 4.5 stars
4. Endless Sea: Poems and Drawings by Barbara Grandis -- author a friend who recently died -- read Mar. 12th -- unrated
5. (15) We Are Not Free by Traci Chee -- Same page community book read, BingoDOG -- finished reading Mar. 24th -- 4 stars
6. (16) King Lear by William Shakespeare, edited by R. A. Foakes -- OLLI class, BingoDOG -- finished reading Mar. 29th
7. (17) An Unfinished Life by Mark Spragg -- OLLI class beginning Apr. 1st -- finished reading Mar. 30th -- 4 stars

Reading in April:
1. (18) Bone Fire by Mark Spragg for OLLI adult education class -- finished April 13th -- 3 stars
2. (19) Blindness by Jose Sarmago, translated from the Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero -- Northside Library Book Group -- BingoDOG -- finished reading Apr. 18th -- 3 stars
3. (20) Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose -- Nikki Giovanni -- BingoDOG, CATWoman, RandomKIT -- finished reading Apr. 21st -- 4.5 stars
4. Something happened in our town : a child's story about racial injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard; illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin -- CFM Big Read -- read Apr. 22nd -- not rated
5. (21) The Last Day the Dogbushes Bloomed by Lee Smith -- AuthorCAT -- finished Apr. 25th -- 3.5 stars
6 (22) Of Mutts and Men by Spencer Quinn -- BingoDOG -- finished Apr. 29th -- 3 stars

Reading in May --- Set up CATWoman for June

Titles read in May:
1. (23) Montpelier and the Madisons: House, Home, and American Heritage by Matthew G. Hyland -- BingoDOG -- finished reading May 7th -- 3.5 stars
2. (24) In the Arena: A Memoir of Love, War, and Politics by Chuck Robb -- AuthorCAT -- finished reading May 12th -- 4.5 stars
3. (25) Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick - by Zora Neale Hurston -- CATWoman, AuthorCAT, AlphaKIT -- finished reading May 21st -- 3.5 stars
4. (26) Eastern Shore Shorts by Gail Priest -- AuthorCAT -- finished reading May 27th -- 4.5 stars
5. (27) Whereabouts : a Novel written in Italian and translated into English by Jhumpa Lahiri -- finished reading May 28th -- 4 stars

Reading in June. --- host for CATWoman

Titles read in June:
1. (28) Standing Her Ground: Classic Short Stories by Trailblazing Women edited by Harriet Sanders -- May CATWoman -- finished reading June 2nd -- 3.5 stars.
2. "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell -- Colonnades short story group -- read June 2nd.
3. "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin -- Colonnades short story group -- read June 2nd.
4. (29) Murphy's Law by Rhys Bowen -- first volume of the Molly Murphy Mystery series --CATWoman (set in a city) and MysteryKIT (historical mysteries) -- finished reading June 5th -- 4 stars
5. (30) Caste by Isabel Wilkerson -- book club and AuthorCAT -- finished reading June 9th -- 4 stars
6. (31) The Women's March: A Novel of the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession by Jennifer Chiaverini -- BingoDOG, AlphaKIT (C) -- finished reading June 13th -- 4 stars
7. (32) The Barbizon: The Hotel that Set Women Free by Paulina Bren -- (CATWoman and AuthorCAT) -- finished reading June 17th -- 3 stars
8. (33) Still Water: Poems by Jewelle Gomez -- (LT ER and BingoDOG, finishing card) -- finished reading June 21st -- 4.5 stars
9. (34) A Sunlit Weapon by Jacqueline Winspear -- Maisie Dobbs (MysteryKIT and BingoDOG, card 2) -- finished reading June 26th -- 4 stars
10. (35) Old New York: 4 Novellas by Edith Wharton -- CATWoman -- finished reading June 29th -- 3.5 stars

Reading in July
1. We Cry Justice edited by Liz Theoharis -- selections for conference workshop -- finished July 7th
2. (36) Voices in the Dead House by Norman Lock -- LT ER and BingoDOG (2nd card) --finished reading July 9th -- 4 stars
3. (37) Dog Friendly by Victoria Schade -- RandomKIT and BingoDOG card (2nd card) -- finished reading July 12th -- 4 stars
4. (38) The Secret History of Home Economics by Danielle Dreilinger -- CATWoman and BingoDOG card (2nd card) -- finished reading July 19th -- 4 stars
4.a The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben -- read first two chapters for book club but did not like main text -- enjoyed introductory material and "Note from a Forest Scientist at back of book (i.e. not sections written by author)
5. (39) Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson -- CATWoman for Aug. (childen's), AuthorCAT for Aug. (award winning author) -- 5 stars
6. (40) In Dublin's Fair City by Rhys Brown -- BingoDOG (card 2) -- finished July 22nd -- 3 stars
7. (41) Sooley by John Grisham -- finished reading July 27th -- 5 stars
8. (42) Wild Irish Rose by Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles -- finished reading July 29th -- 4 stars

Read part of: Overground Railroad by Candacy Taylor

Reading in August:
1. (43) Puss 'n Cahoots by Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown -- BingoDOG 2022 (card 2) -- finished reading Aug. 2nd -- 3 stars
2. Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan -- CATWoman and AuthorCAT -- read Aug. 4th
3. (44) Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor -- CATWoman and AuthorCAT, BingoDOG card 2 -- finished reading Aug. 5th
4. (45) Terrible Typhoid Mary: a True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti -- CATWoman -- finished reading Aug. 9th
5. (46) The Stranger by Albert Camus, translated by Matthew Ward -- AuthorCAT, Northside Library Book Group -- finished reading Aug. 16th
6. (47) Growing Up Biden: a Memoir by Valerie Biden Owens -- BingoDOG card 2 -- finished reading Aug. 18th -- 4.5 stars
7. (48) A Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O'Neill -- AlphaKIT -- finished reading Aug. 23rd -- 3 stars
8. (49) Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro -- RandomKIT (Canada), AlphaKIT (letter M), AuthorCAT (award winning author, Nobel Prize in Literature, 2013) -- finished reading Aug. 25th -- 3.5 stars
9. (50) Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker -- OLLI class -- finished reading Aug. 28th for early Sept. class-- 4 stars
10. (51) The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty -- Colonnades book club, AuthorCAT -- finished reading Aug. 29th for Sept. club meeting-- 3.5 stars

Decided to stop reading the large heavy book Overground Railroad by Candacy Taylor. Read approximately half of it and looked at all the numerous pictures and lists.

Reading in September:

1. (52) Born to be Soldiers: Those Plucky Women of World War II by Kayleen Reusser -- CATWoman -- finished reading Sept. 1st -- 2.5 stars
2. (53) Shroud for a Nightingale by P. D. James -- OLLI mystery novels class -- finished reading Sept. 5th -- 3 stars
3. (54) Misjudged by James Chandler -- OLLI mystery novels class -- finished reading Sept. 14th -- 4 stars
4. (55) Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje -- Northside Library Book Club -- finished reading Sept. 17th -- 3 stars
5. (56) Durable Goods by Elizabeth Berg -- was for an OLLI class but class was cancelled the week it was supposed to start -- had read half of this book and finished it -- BingoDOG (card 2) -- finished reading Sept. 19th -- 4 stars
6. (57) Angels Flight by Michael Connelly -- OLLI mystery novels class and RandomKIT-- finished reading Sept. 26th -- 3 stars
7. (58) Out of Hounds by Rita Mae Brown -- MysteryKIT -- finished reading Sept. 28th -- 3 stars

Reading in October
1. (59) For the Love of Mike by Rhys Bowen -- CATWoman and RandomKIT -- finished reading October 5th -- 4 stars
2. (60) The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore -- Colonnades Book Club and AlphaKIT -- finished reading Oct. 9th -- 3.5 stars
3. "I Will Follow You," short story by Roxane Gay found in Difficult Women -- read Oct. 21st
4. (61) March 1917: On the Brink of War and Revolution by Will Englund -- BingoDOG (card 2) -- finished reading Oct. 24th -- 3.5 stars
5. (62) Stormy, Misty's Foal by Marguerite Henry -- BingoDOG (card 2) reread -- finished reading Oct. 30th -- 4 stars

DNF (Did not finish)
Dracula by Bram Stoker -- book club book, but just not my kind of book -- read part of introduction and beginning of text.
Peder Victorious by O. E. Rølvaag -- Very dark small print -- smell of ink bothered my allergies -- apparently not available as electronic book, etc.
Storm in the Mountains: A Case Study of Censorship, Conflict, and Consciousness by James Moffett -- book published in 1988 about conflict in WVA in early 1970s concerning primarily textbooks -- out of date and too narrow a focus and print very small

Reading in November:
1. (63) Joy School by Elizabeth Berg -- for pleasure -- finished reading Nov. 7 -- 4 stars
2.(64) Lady Director by Joyce Chopra -- pleasure and CATWoman -- finished reading November 16th -- 4 stars
3. (65) Dinners with Ruth by Nina Totenberg -- BingoDOG 2nd card, CATWoman, AuthorCAT -- finished reading Nov. 23rd -- 4.5 stars
4. (66) True Compass: a Memoir by Edward M. Kennedy -- BingoDOG 2nd card -- finished reading Nov. 30th -- 4.5 stars

DNF (Did not finish)
Mother of Pearl by Melinda Hayes for book club and BingoDOG (second card) -- very long (for me) book -- read 120 of 445 pages -- book just too confusing for me, even with a list of characters from the web ---author sometimes uses an alternate name for a character and then gives the real name later on (example Judy Tucson for Joody Two Sun)

Reread part of Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie by Lisa Napoli for book club but got involved watching election results, listening to UVA Women's Basketball games, etc.

Reading in December

1. (67) Bless the Bride, a Molly Murphy Mystery by Rhys Bowen for AuthorCAT -- finished December 3rd -- 4 stars
2. (68) All In: an Autobiography by Billie Jean King with Johnette Howard and Maryanne Vollers -- BingoDOG card 2 -- finished reading Dec. 7th -- 4.5 stars
3. Foster by Claire Keegan -- CATWoman -- finished reading Dec. 9th -- read 2nd time Dec. 10th -- 2009 Davy Byrnes Short Story Award {Irish writing}) -- 3.5 stars
4. (69) Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid -- finishes BingoDOG card 2 -- finished reading Dec. 12th -- 4 stars
5. "Mrs. Podgers' Teapot" by Louisa Louisa May Alcott from Mistletoe and Holly: Classic Christmas Stories edited by Julia Livshin -- read Dec. 12th
6. (70) The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories by P. D. James -- read Dec. 12th -- 3 stars
7. (71) The Great Escape: A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America by Saket Soni -- LTER -- Finished reading Dec. 15th -- 4 stars
8. (72) The Twelve Clues of Christmas, (A Royal Spyness Mystery) by Rhys Bowen -- finished reading Dec. 19th -- 3 stars
9. Short Christmas stories from American Christmas Stories edited by Connie Willis -- read Dec. 21st
"Kate's Choice" by Louisa May Alcott (pp. 3-15)
"A Little Pilgrim" by Stephen Crane (pp. 75-78)
"According to Solomon" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (pp.106-113)
"A Visit from Saint Nicholas" by James Thurber (pp. 166-168)
"No Room at the Inn" by Edna Ferber (pp.205-211)
From "Raising Demons" by Shirley Jackson (p.262-269)
"The Big Rock Candy Figgy Pudding Pitfall" by Joan Didion (pp. 287-289)
"The Christmas Kid" by Pete Hamill (pp. 305-314)
"Fish Cheeks" by Amy Tan (pp. 364-365)
10. (73) Murder in Tinseltown by Earl Hamner and Don Sipes -- pleasure -- finished Dec. 24th -- 2.5 stars
11. (74) The Great Stewardess Rebellion by Neal McShane Wulfhart -- pleasure, AlphaKIT -- finished Dec. 30th -- 3.5 stars
12. (75) No Direct Evidence: the Story of the Missing Sodder Children by Bob Lane Bragg -- finished reading Jan. 1, 23 but read all but 18 p. in December -- 3 stars

BingoDOG card



Second BingoDOG card at https://www.librarything.com/topic/336821#7869671

BingoDOG reading:
1. Award winner: Beloved by Toni Morrison -- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1988 -- finished reading Feb.13th -- 3.5 stars
2. Year ending in 2: Recitatif by Toni Morrison -- read Feb. 5th -- 4.5 stars
3. Modern retelling: A Guinea Pig Pride & Prejudice by Alex Goodwin -- read Feb. 4 -- 4 stars
4. Love to see movie: An Unfinished Life by Mark Spragg -- finished reading Mar. 30th -- 4 stars; changed to The Gambler Wife: a True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman who Saved Dostoyevsky by Andrew D. Kaufman, finished Mar. 6th; this book has not yet been made into a movie
5. Features a dog: Of Mutts and Men a Chet and Bernie mystery by Spencer Quinn -- finished Apr. 29th
6. Title contains a Z: Crazy Brave: a memoir by Joy Harjo -- finished reading Jan. 21st -- unrated
7. Published year you joined LT (2007): Montpelier and the Madisons: House, Home, and American Heritage by Matthew G. Hyland -- finished reading May 7th -- 3.5 stars
8. By a favorite author: Edith Maxwell for the Quaker Midwife Mysteries -- read A Changing Light -- finished reading March 5 -- 4 stars. (first bingo)
9. Long for you book: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell -- 632 p. -- finished reading Jan. 19th -- 3.5 stars
10. Gift: Claws for Alarm by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown -- Birthday gift 2021 -- finished reading Feb. 19th -- 3 stars
11. Title contains a month: The Women's March: A Novel of the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession by Jennifer Chiaverini -- finished reading June 13th -- 4.5 stars (9th and 10th bingos)
12. Weather word in title: Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose -- by Nikki Giovanni -- finished reading Feb. 21st -- 4.5 stars
13. Read a CAT: An American Sunrise: Poems by Joy Harjo -- for AuthorCAT -- finished reading Jan. 6 -- not rated.
14. Travel or a journey: Endless Sea: Poems and Drawings by Barbara Grandis (journey through old age) -- read Mar. 12 -- not rated.
15. About brothers and sisters: King Lear by Shakespeare, edited by R. A. Foakes -- OLLI class -- finished reading Mar. 29th
16. Book club read: The Gambler Wife: a True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman who Saved Dostoyevsky by Andrew D. Kaufman -- OLLI Community Read -- finished Mar. 6th -- 4 stars (second bingo). -- changed to Blindness by Jose Saramago on 4/18/22, finished 4/18, first part particularly hard to read
17. Flowers on cover: Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout -- tulips on cover -- Finished reading Jan. 20th -- 4 stars
18. In translation: The Soul of a Woman both written in Spanish and translated into English by Isabel Allende -- finished reading February 3rd -- 4 stars
19. Nonfiction: Lorraine Hansberry: The Life behind A Raisin in the Sun by Charles J. Shields -- finished reading Feb. 16 -- 3.5 stars
20. Character shares name with a friend: Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli -- finished reading Jan. 31st -- 4 stars
21. Set in a capital city: Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom by Carl Bernstein (Washington, DC) -- finished reading Mar. 11 -- 4.5 stars
22. Children's or YA: We Are Not Free (YA) by Traci Chee -- finished reading Mar. 24th -- 4 stars; changed to Something happened in our town : a child's story about racial injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard; illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin read for CFM Big Read 4/22/22
23. Set in another country: The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear -- finished reading Feb. 23rd -- 4 stars (England, particularly London and Kent)(possibly change to square 25, gold on cover)
24. LGBTQ+ author: Still Water: Poems by Jewelle Gomez (lesbian of Native American and Black descent) -- finished June 21st (and finished BingoDOG card) -- 11th and 12th Bingos -- 4.5 stars
25. Silver or gold on cover: We Are Not Free (YA) by Traci Chee -- finished reading Mar. 24th -- 4 stars -- two silver labels on cover -- had used this for Children's or YA square until 4/22/22

Finished card on June 21st.

CATWoman reading:
January (biography, autobiography, memoir): Crazy Brave: a memoir by Joy Harjo -- finished reading Jan. 21st -- unrated
January (biography, autobiography, memoir): Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli -- finished reading Jan. 31st -- 4 stars

February (translated): The Soul of a Woman both written in Spanish and translated into English by Isabel Allende -- finished reading Feb. 3rd -- 4 stars

March (pioneer): The Gambler Wife: a True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman who Saved Dostoyevsky by Andrew D. Kaufman --- finished Mar. 6th -- 4 stars (second bingo) (counted it even though it was written by a man)

April (women of color): Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose -- by Nikki Giovanni -- finished reading Feb. 21st -- 4.5 stars

May (Classics by women): Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick by Zora Neale Hurston -- finished reading May 21st -- 3.5 stars
May (Classics by women): Standing Her Ground: Classic Short Stories by Trailblazing Women edited by Harriet Sanders -- finished reading June 2nd -- 3.5 stars

June (set in a city): Murphy's Law by Rhys Bowen -- first volume of the Molly Murphy Mystery series -- finished reading June 5th -- 4 stars
June (set in a city): The Barbizon: The Hotel that Set Women Free by Paulina Bren -- finished reading June 17th -- 3 stars
June (set in a city): Old New York: 4 Novellas by Edith Wharton -- finished reading June 29th -- 3.5 stars

July (women in science): The Secret History of Home Economics by Danielle Dreilinger -- finished reading July 19th -- 4 stars

August (children's): Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan -- CATWoman and AuthorCAT -- read Aug. 4th
August (children's): Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor -- CATWoman and AuthorCAT -- finished reading Aug. 5th
August (YA lit): Terrible Typhoid Mary: a True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti -- finished reading Aug. 9th

September (women during war): Born to be Soldiers: Those Plucky Women of World War II by Kayleen Reusser -- finished reading Sept. 1st -- 2.5 stars

October (women and crime): For the Love of Mike by Rhys Bowen -- finished October 5th -- 4 stars.

November (women's issues): Lady Director by Joyce Chopra -- finished reading November 16th -- 4 stars
November (women's issues): Dinners with Ruth by Nina Totenberg -- finished reading Nov. 23rd -- 4.5 stars

December (Prize book): Foster by Claire Keegan --2009 Davy Byrnes Short Story Award {Irish writing} -- finished reading Dec. 9th.

AuthorCAT reading:
January -- by indigenous author: An American Sunrise: Poems by Joy Harjo -- finished reading Jan. 6th.
January -- Crazy Brave: a memoir, also by Joy Harjo -- finished reading Jan. 21st -- unrated

February -- 19th century author: Song of Myself by Walt Whitman (final edition, 1892) -- finished reading Feb. 17th -- unrated

March -- author at least 40 when first book published: A Changing Light by Edith Maxwell who was almost 60 when first book was published -- finished reading Mar. 5th -- 4 stars

April -- debut novel: The Last Day the Dogbushes Bloomed by Lee Smith -- finished Apr. 25th -- 3.5 stars

May -- author from your own country: In the Arena: A Memoir of Love, War, and Politics by Chuck Robb -- finished reading May 12th -- 4.5 stars
May: Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick by Zora Neale Hurston -- finished reading May 21st -- 3.5 stars
May: Eastern Shore Shorts by Gail Priest -- finished reading May 27th -- 4.5 stars

June -- nonfiction: Caste by Isabel Wilkerson -- finished reading June 9th -- 4.5 stars
June -- nonfiction: The Barbizon: The Hotel that Set Women Free by Paulina Bren -- finished reading June 17th -- 3 stars

August -- award winning: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan -- CATWoman and AuthorCAT -- read Aug. 4th --
Newbery Award 1986.
August -- award winning: Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor -- CATWoman and AuthorCAT -- finished reading Aug. 5th -- Newbery Award 1992.
August -- award winning: Albert Camus won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957 -- I read his The Stranger translated by Matthew Ward for my book club
August -- award winning: Alice Munro won Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 -- She is a short story writer; I read her only novel, Lives of Girls and Women -- finished reading August 25th -- 3.5 stars
August -- award winning: The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty -- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1973 -- finished reading Aug. 29th -- 3.5 stars

November -- women's issues: Dinners with Ruth by Nina Totenberg -- finished reading Nov. 23rd -- 4.5 stars

December -- a favorite author: Bless the Bride, a Molly Murphy Mystery by Rhys Bowen -- finished reading Dec. 3rd -- 4 stars

KIT reading:

January MysteryKIT: Taken Too Soon: a Quaker Midwife Mystery by Edith Maxwell -- finished reading January 5th -- 5 stars

February AlphaKIT (A and B): The Soul of a Woman by Isabel Allende -- finished reading Feb. 3rd -- 4 stars
February RandomKIT (read about cats): Claws for Alarm by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown -- finished reading Feb. 19th -- 3.5 stars

March MysteryKIT: (small town): A Changing Light by Edith Maxwell -- finished reading Mar. 5th -- 4 stars

April RandomKIT (April showers): Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose -- by Nikki Giovanni -- finished reading Feb. 21st -- 4.5 stars

May AlphaKIT (Z): Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick by Zora Neale Hurston -- finished reading May 21st -- 3.5 stars

June MysteryKIT (historical mysteries): Murphy's Law by Rhys Bowen -- first volume of the Molly Murphy Mystery series -- finished reading June 5th -- 4 stars
June MysteryKIT (historical mysteries): A Sunlit Weapon by Jacqueline Winspear -- Maisie Dobbs -- finished reading June 26th -- 4 stars

June AlphaKIT: (C) Caste by Isabel Wilkerson and The Women's March by Jennifer Chiaverini

July RandomKIT: (dog days of summer -- read about dogs): Dog Friendly by Victoria Schade -- finished reading July 12th -- 4 stars

August RandomKIT (Canada) and AlphaKIT (letter M): Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro -- finished reading Aug. 25th -- 3.5 stars

September RandomKIT (harvest, angels, etc.): Angels Flight by Michael Connelly -- OLLI mystery novels class and RandomKIT- -- finished reading Sept. 26th -- 3 stars

Sept. MysteryKIT (animal mystery): Out of Hounds by Rita Mae Brown -- MysteryKIT -- finished reading Sept. 28th -- 3 stars

October RandomKIT (name in title): For the Love of Mike by Rhys Bowen -- finished reading October 5th -- 4 stars.

December MysteryKIT (holiday mysteries): The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories by P. D. James -- read Dec. 12th -- 3 stars
December MysteryKIT (Holiday mysteries): The Twelve Clues of Christmas, (A Royal Spyness Mystery) by Rhys Bowen -- finished reading Dec. 19th -- 3 stars

Assigned reading (book club, classes, etc.):
1. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell --- Northside Book Club-- 632 p. -- finished reading Jan. 19th -- 3.5 stars
2. Beloved by Toni Morrison -- Northside Library Group -- finished reading Feb.13th
3. Lorraine Hansberry: The Life behind A Raisin in the Sun by Charles J. Shields -- LTER -- finished reading Feb. 16 -- 3.5 stars
4. The Gambler Wife: a True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman who Saved Dostoyevsky by Andrew D. Kaufman -- OLLI Community Read -- finished Mar. 6th -- 4 stars
5. We Are Not Free by Traci Chee -- Same page community book read, book club -- finished reading Mar. 24th -- 4 stars
6. King Lear by William Shakespeare, edited by R. A. Foakes -- OLLI class -- finished reading Mar. 29th
7. An Unfinished Life by Mark Spragg -- OLLI class beginning Apr. 1st -- finished reading Mar. 30th -- 4 stars
8. Bone Fire by Mark Spragg -- OLLI class -- finished reading Apr. 13th -- 3 stars (if that)
9. Blindness by Jose Sarmago, translated from the Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero -- Northside Library Book Group -- finished reading Apr. 18th -- 3 stars
10. Something happened in our town : a child's story about racial injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard; illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin -- CFM Big Read -- read Apr. 22nd -- not rated
11. Caste by Isabel Wilkerson -- Northside Library Book Group -- finished reading June 9th -- 4 stars
12. The Stranger by Albert Camus, translated by Matthew Ward -- Northside Library Book Group -- finished reading August 16th
13. Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker -- OLLI mystery novels class in September -- finished reading Aug. 28th -- 4 stars
14. The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty -- Colonnades Book Club in September -- finished reading Aug. 29th -- 3.5 stars
15. Shroud for a Nightingale by P. D. James -- OLLI mystery novels class -- finished reading Sept. 5th -- 3 stars
16. Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje -- Northside Library Book Club -- finished reading Sept. 17th -- 3 stars
17. Misjudged by James Chandler -- OLLI mystery novels class -- finished reading Sept. 14th -- 4 stars
18. Angels Flight by Michael Connelly -- OLLI mystery novels class -- finished reading Sept. 26th -- 3 stars
19. The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore -- Colonnades Book Club and AlphaKIT -- finished reading Oct. 9th -- 3.5 stars

Short works (stories, essays, etc.):
1. A Guinea Pig Pride & Prejudice by Alex Goodwin -- read Feb. 4 -- 4 stars (adult picture book, 50 pages)
2. Recitatif by Toni Morrison -- read Feb. 5th -- 4.5 stars (approximately 80 p.; introduction and short story each approximately 40 pages)
3. Song of Myself by Walt Whitman (final edition, 1892) -- AuthorCAT -- finished reading Feb. 17th (approximately 63 p.)
4. A Modern Lear by Jane Addams --- essay -- read Feb. 20 -- 16 p.
5. Endless Sea: Poems and Drawings by Barbara Grandis -- author a friend who recently died -- read Mar. 12th -- unrated (99 p.)
6. Something happened in our town : a child's story about racial injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard; illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin -- CFM Big Read -- read Apr. 22nd -- not rated -- picture book, unpaged.
7. "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell -- Colonnades short story group -- read June 2nd.
8. "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin -- Colonnades short story group -- read June 2nd.
9. "I Will Follow You," short story by Roxane Gay found in Difficult Women -- read Oct. 21st
10. Foster by Claire Keegan -- finished reading Dec. 9th (92 p.) -- read second time Dec. 10th
11. "Mrs. Podgers' Teapot" by Louisa Louisa May Alcott from Mistletoe and Holly: Classic Christmas Stories edited by Julia Livshin -- read Dec. 12th.
12. Short Christmas stories from American Christmas Stories edited by Connie Willis -- read Dec. 21st
"Kate's Choice" by Louisa May Alcott (pp. 3-15)
"A Little Pilgrim" by Stephen Crane (pp. 75-78)
"According to Solomon" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (pp.106-113)
"A Visit from Saint Nicholas" by James Thurber (pp. 166-168)
"No Room at the Inn" by Edna Ferber (pp.205-211)
From "Raising Demons" by Shirley Jackson (p.262-269)
"The Big Rock Candy Figgy Pudding Pitfall" by Joan Didion (pp. 287-289)
"The Christmas Kid" by Pete Hamill (pp. 305-314)
"Fish Cheeks" by Amy Tan (pp. 364-365)

Welcome to my thread!

Good luck with your reading in 2022. I see you chose the same BINGO card I did!

You have some great cats. Happy 2022 reading!

Glad to see you set up here! Have a great reading year :)

I am also planning on both Beloved and perhaps North and South for next year as well. North and South has been proposed for a group read over at the 1,001 Group for either December of this year or January of 2022. I hope if chosen it's January.

Happy reading in 2022!

Have a great reading year in 2022.

Good luck with your 2022 reading. And life in general. :)

Happy reading in the New Year!

One of these days I'm going to take the easy way out with categories and just go by the month, but this time I did come up with a theme. Best wishes on your reading.

Happy reading in 2022! Hope you enjoy North and South, and Blindness, personally I liked them a lot!

Enjoy your 2022 reads! Looks like you have some good organization.

I just read North and South last year, and I loved it. Also Whereabouts, which I thought was very good. Looking forward to following your reading in 2022.

Thanks to everyone who welcomed me on my thread. Hope that all of you enjoy your challenges.

My first book read for 2022 is Taken Too Soon: a Quaker Midwife Mystery by Edith Maxwell for MysteryKIT. I wanted to start out with something relaxing, and really enjoy these Quaker Midwife Mysteries. Unfortunately, this is the next to the last volume of the series; there just is not a big enough market for Quaker mysteries to make publishing them financially feasible.

In this story, midwife Rose Carroll has finally married her long-time lover David Dodge whose mother had kept trying to prevent. However, at the wedding reception, Rose is notified that her elderly aunt's teenage ward, Frannie Isley has been murdered, and she is requested to go at once to the aunt's house. David and Rose go. This story features a number of suspects including David's estranged older brother, an elderly male member of the local Friends Meeting, a young Native American, and young woman who works at the same factory at which Frannie worked, etc. Included are family mysteries. I particularly liked the portrayal of the Native American family, which included a female midwife (and mother of the suspect); the prejudice of people against Native Americans (and Irish immigrants), and females is shown. In this mystery which takes place on Cape Cod, Rose assists a different detective than in the earlier novels; Detective Edwin Merritt welcomes any help Rose can give him.

5 stars

>35 sallylou61: Can't turn down a 5 star read. On my WL is goes.

>35 sallylou61: Somewhere in my TBR stack is the first in that series. I'm glad you enjoyed them. Maybe I'll dig it out and read it this year.

>37 thornton37814: Although I enjoyed it (rating it 3.5 stars), I think that Delivering the Truth is one of the weakest in the series.

I read Joy Harjo's An American Sunrise: Poems for the AuthorCAT challenge. Ms. Harjo is the first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate. Although this volume is called poems, some of the offerings are prose text, and a few offerings are not by Ms. Harjo herself although she does give the source in the Acknowledgments. The volume traces the story of her ancestors including their experience on the Trail of Tears. I found "Washing My Mother's Body" describing Ms. Harjo's doing it and relating the life and hardships of her mother particularly moving.
Unfortunately, I am not familiar enough with the Native American culture to understand all the poems. I'm planning to read both of Joy Harjo's autobiographies: Crazy Brave and Poet Warrior. I hope after reading those, I will understand some of the poems better.

Unrated so far.

>35 sallylou61: I have this series on my virtual TBR as one to start. Then I read that it was discontinued. If I start will I find it unfilling to read only the 7 that exist or will it feel wrapped up enough? We have Quakers in our family tree so the setting and characters interest me greatly.

>39 sallylou61: I read An American Sunrise and found a number of the poems very moving. I had her memoir Poet Warrior out of the library in the fall, but failed to get very far into it before the due date. I was intrigued by the beginning so I will get on the hold list again. I'll be curious to hear your comments in the future.

>40 beebeereads:. I have read all except the last volume of the Quaker Midwife Mysteries. It's hard to answer your question without reading the final volume. As a Quaker, I'm generally sorry when Quaker mystery series end. I'm enjoying this series, but feel that Rose Carroll {now Dodge} always manages to do something careless which gets her into trouble. Volume 6 was the first volume in which she is married (and this occurred at the beginning of the book). I don't know how this is going to impact the last volume. So far though, I am sorry the series is ending.

Joy Harjo appears to be a woman of many accomplishments. She is a musician in addition to being an author. I have just begun reading her first memoir, Crazy Brave and just got Poet Warrior from the library a couple of hours ago. I noticed that in the Notes at the end of Poet Warrior, she talks about terms to use for indigenous peoples in the United States. She does not use the term "Native Americans" which the academic community embraced in the late 1980s. She says that some Indians prefer "Indian," "American Indian" or colloquially "skins" (although I doubt non-indigenous people should use that term). She prefers "Native Nations," or "Indigenous" or even just "Native" to the term used by the academics (p.219).

>41 sallylou61: Thanks for your insights...I've put poet warrior on hold.

>41 sallylou61: I was raised as a Quaker but when I moved from my hometown there was no meeting within 50 miles.

TY for your note on what "we" should be calling Native Americans. Yes, I'm an academic and that is all I have heard. At our next staff meeting, I'm going to ask what they think is now the correct term.

For my January book club discussion last evening I read North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, which also fits my long for you book BingoDOG square. I enjoyed much of the book although I thought parts of it dragged. There was too much conversation concerning labor theory for my taste. The North and South were the industrial North of England at the time of the industrial revolution and the agrarian South (including the city of London); two different cultures were portrayed. The book also illustrated class differences between the more wealthy aristocrats and factory owners and the very poor mill workers, who hardly made enough to feed their families. The heroine, Margaret Hale had a lot of responsibility thrown upon her including preparing and packing for the journey when her father decided to move from the South to Milton, an industrial Northern city, and taking care of both parents plus trying to help some poor families she befriended in Milton. I was disappointed with the ending of the book which was a letdown concerning a love affair .

3.5 stars

For pleasure and for the cover contains flowers BingoDOG square I've read Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout. In this book, narrated by Lucy Barton, Lucy is trying to figure out the personality of her ex-husband, William. In the process, she is actually learning more about herself and various family members. There is as much if not more information about Lucy as about William. The story goes back and forth in time; there are a lot of Lucy's reminiscences. I found the book hard to put down.

4 stars

For both AuthorCAT (indigenous authors) and CATWoman (biography, autobiography, memoir), I've read Crazy Brave: a memoir by Joy Harjo. This is, to me, an unusual memoir since it includes telling about spirits, etc., which are part of the Indian culture. (In this memoir, the author uses the term Indian). This memoir covers the early years of Joy Harjo's life up through her being a young mother with very young children. She suffered a lot of fear and brutality from her white stepfather. Fortunately, she was able to get away and go to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico to high school. During the period of her life told in this memoir, her creative endeavors were primarily in studio art. It was before her adult career in music and poetry. She is currently the poet laureate of the United States and has recently published a second memoir, Poet Warrior.

I've finished reading Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli. The subtitle is a bit misleading; although Ms. Napoli gives background biographical information about the four women and describes their work for NPR, the book is actually a history of NPR (U.S. National Public Radio). The book describes how hard it was for women to break into broadcasting, and how they still do not receive the level of salaries the men do.

The women's names: Susan Stamberg, Linda Wertheimer, Nina Totenberg, and Cokie Roberts are listed in the order in which they began working at NPR.

4 stars

I read The Soul of a Woman both written in Spanish and translated into English by Isabel Allende for CATWoman (and BingoDOG and AlphaKIT). Allende, a longtime feminist who founded a foundation helping women and children following the death of her daughter, is well aware of the conditions women live under worldwide. She also talks about her life and aging. She is very optimistic about young people improving conditions of women in the future.

4 stars

I just read Recitatif by Toni Morrison for the published in a year ending in 2 square. The year of publication is 2022 for this short story which was written in 1980 and has appeared collections; 2022 is the first time it has been published as a book, and has an introduction by Zadie Smith. The introduction and the story itself are nearly the same length; approximately 40 pages each. I enjoyed the story of Twyla and Roberta who roomed together in a shelter for four months when they were 8 years old, and see each other occasionally as adults. One is black and the other white, but Ms. Morrison never tells which is which; it's an experiment for readers to figure out.

4.5 stars

Last weekend I finished reading Beloved by Toni Morrison for my book group and prize-winning BingoDOG square (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1988). I had purchased this book in August 2019 shortly after Ms. Morrison's death, and had tried reading it both in 2019 and 2020 but had not gotten very far. This time for the book club, I read the whole book, and after getting past the places where I had stopped earlier, enjoyed it although at times I found it hard to follow. I think a large part of my difficulty was cultural; I am white and I do not believe in ghosts or coming back from the dead, and the character Beloved was both. The story showed the brutality of slavery and its effects on AfroAmericans particularly even after slavery was over.

3.5 stars

For LTER, I just finished reading Lorraine Hansberry: The Life behind A Raisin in the Sun by Charles J. Shields. I am disappointed that we were sent the Advance Reader's edition of this work since I received my copy approximately four days after the book appeared on the market. This is the edition being reviewed; it lacks pictures and an index.

In my opinion, the very best part of this book tells the story of the production of A Raisin in the Sun including all the complications of getting it performed on Broadway. That part was fascinating. The story of Lorraine Hansberry's life is interesting; it shows the many conflicts which she felt. She experimented with Communism and lesbian, and she and her white husband were codependent on each other. However, in my opinion, there was much too much information on her family in the early part of the book which describes in detail her father's business dealings. He was a slum landlord as was the rest of her family following his death. Ms. Hansberry wrote a powerful play showing the lives of a poor black family living in a small kitchenette apartment in Chicago at the same time she owned a couple of such buildings.

3.5 stars

For the AuthorCAT I read the final (1892) edition of Walt Whitman's Song of Myself. I bought a volume containing both the first (1855) and final editions last summer thinking I might take a workshop on it, which I did not. I'm disappointed that this volume does not contain any commentary on the poem; I missed the underlining meaning discussed in some online posts. However, I enjoyed reading the lyrics of the poem, some of which were beautiful. It was also interesting reading the language of the 19th century as used by Whitman.

Unrated

I read Claws for Alarm by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown for the February RandomCAT. This book barely qualified because it did not feature cats as much as most of the Mrs. Murphy Mysteries do; dogs were actually more helpful in solving the mystery than cats were this time. This mystery featured three deaths, of which one of an elderly woman was initially thought by officials to be natural. This latest Mrs. Murphy Mystery once again included a story from the late 18th century since its setting was on land featured in the 21st century. This time the 18th century story was not a mystery and really had nothing to do with the current story; I found it very annoying.

3 stars

I'm taking an adult education case on King Lear by Shakespeare this semester, and noticed a weekly reading from Books of America to be A Modern Lear by Jane Addams. This is an interesting essay by Ms. Addams comparing George Pullman of the Pullman car workers strike (1894) and the strikers to King Lear and Cordelia. The essay originally was published in 1912.

I have finished reading The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear. Place is extremely important in this book, set during WWII; the copy I read, a Barnes & Noble exclusive, even contained an essays concerning place. The story is mainly set in London and a lesser degree in Kent, but sending personnel to France in the war effort is also important. War is constant in this story; a main mystery is about whether a young teenage message runner who ran delivering messages as bombing was occurring in London really saw a man murdered. The effect of war is stressed with several war damaged characters. In addition to her investigating, Maisie Dobbs also is a mother (via adoption) who finally marries her American agent lover. There are few too many threads for my taste.

4 stars

I've just read A Changing Light, a Quaker Midwife Mystery by Edith Maxwell which fits for the AuthorCAT, MysteryKIT and BingoDOG challenges. Ms. Maxwell was around 60 when her first novel was published; the book is set in Amesbury, MA, near the end of the 19th century, and the author is one of my favorite mystery writers.

This is the seventh and last book in the Quaker Midwife Mystery series; unfortunately, the books did not sell well enough to be profitable. This is by far the shortest book in the series, and serves as a goodby. Midwife Rose Carroll was married in the previous volume, and in this one she has her first child. Many characters who appeared in other volumes are brought back, at least briefly. The mystery is weaker than in many of the earlier books; the murderer is the character I suspected from early in the story. At the end, Rose decides she is not going to be involved in solving any more murders; she wants to devote her time to her family and midwifery. The book is a quick and pleasant read.

4 stars

>56 sallylou61: The first in that series is in a TBR box downstairs. I'll get to it sometime because I think it will appeal to me whenever I do get around to it.

>56 sallylou61: I added this to my TBR when you first mentioned it. I am looking forwward to getting to it soon.

>57 thornton37814:, >58 beebeereads: I hope you both enjoy the series.

For BingoDOG I've finished reading The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman who Saved Dostoyevsky by Andrew D. Kaufman for our adult education community read which I'm counting as a book club read. Mr. Kaufman and this book will also be featured at the Virginia Festival of the Book later this month. The woman is Dostoyevsky's wife, Anna Dostoyevskaya. I thought the title was odd, being Gambler Wife instead Gambler's Wife. However, the book makes clear that Anna herself was a gambler, not at roulette table, but in the chances she took in her support of her husband, including marrying him in the first place and founding her own publishing company to publish his works -- the first woman in Russia to start and maintain such a company by herself (i.e. doing most the work and not having any partner in the enterprise). The Dostoyevsky family lived in poverty during much of their life together, and through her management of money, Anna managed the survival of the family. She also supported her husband in his writing as a stenographer and understanding and managing his disposition which allowed him to write.

4 stars

For the capital city square of BingoDOG, I read Carl Bernstein's Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom about the author's working at the Evening Star, a daily Washington newspaper, from the ages of 16 to 21. This is the same Bernstein who later worked as a journalist at the Washington Post, and, along with Bob Woodward, was heavily involved in solving the Watergate crisis. However, this story takes place earlier, between 1960 and 1965, a very exciting time with the election, administration, and murder of John F. Kennedy and the civil rights unrest. Bernstein was the right person in the right place at the right time; he was a native of Washington who had grown up in that area, and knew his way around. He started out at the very lowest level as a copy boy, went on to the dictation bank, and on to reporting stories. Although Bernstein's was an excellent reporter for the Evening Star, his career there ended because he was not a college graduate, and the Evening Star decided its reporters should be college graduates. Bernstein was uninterested in school, barely graduated from high school, and flunked out of the University of Maryland. He found newspaper work much more exciting than school work as is shown in this excellent autobiography.

4.5 stars

I've just read Endless Sea: Poems and Drawings by Barbara Grandis. For approximately half a century, Barbara was an accomplished artist who held shows. A few years age, at the encouragement of our senior citizens poetry leader, Barbara started writing poetry. Endless Sea was published in 2018 when Barbara was in her mid-80s. She died earlier this month within a month of turning 90. Her poetry is primarily about aging although she includes poems in memory of a young University of Virginia student who was murdered at the age of 18. Barbara was a joy to be around; she asked interesting questions which made one think. We will miss her.

Unrated

For our community read and public library book group I read We Are Not Free by Traci Chee. This is a ya novel featuring 14 Japanese-American teenagers who were forced by the American government into incarceration camps during WWII. The families could take very little with them, and lived in two-room barracks in camps surrounded by barbed wire fences and guard towers. Ms. Chee featured 14 main characters to show that the situations were different for different families. Each chapter told the story of one teenager and his/her family although many of the teenagers were friends and are mentioned in various chapters. Fortunately, a list of the main characters appears in the Character Registry in the front of the book, and a picture supposedly drawn by one of the teenagers appears in the back. This book describes a very sorry event in U.S. history.

This book was a National Book Award Finalist and an honor book for the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature


4 stars

For an OLLI adult education class I read King Lear by William Shakespeare. Although I had heard a little about the play prior to reading it for class, I don't think that I had ever read it. I was surprised by how many of the characters were killed in the play. Although Lear was the main character, the play featured siblings (three sisters and two brothers) who hated each other enough that they wanted to kill each other.

At my age (late 70s), I find Shakespeare hard to read; I don't plan to take any additional classes on his plays.

unrated

Tomorrow I start taking an OLLI adult education class on Mark Spragg. We'll be studying An Unfinished Life and its sequel, Bone Fire. For An Unfinished Life, we will both read the novel and watch the film based in it. I enjoyed reading An Unfinished Life about family relationships featuring Einar, a 70-year old white man and Mitch, a crippled black man who has been his friend of many years and was mauled by a bear, who are unexpectedly visited by the Jean, the man's daughter-in-law (widow of his son whom he blames for his son's death) and Griff, his granddaughter. Griff helps heal the family.

4 stars

It's great that you're taking these adult-education classes. They sound interesting.

>65 sallylou61: Sounds like a great class. I'll watch out for your comments. I'm taking a BB for An Unfinished Life.

>66 mathgirl40:, >67 VivienneR:. I'm enjoying taking the class. The OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) has programs connected with approximately 120 universities and colleges in the United States; the programs, which feature classes with no exams, are geared toward older adults. Most of the OLLI at UVA classes are held during the daytime.

I'm looking forward to watching the movie An Unfinished Life in class this week. Next week we will discuss the movie and possibly Bone Fire. Our instructor usually plans too much for a course; she does not know how the much the class members will participate in the discussions, and does not want to run out of material. We're looking into extending the class to more sessions.

I've read Bone Fire by Mark Spragg for our OLLI class. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with this sequel to An Unfinished Life. The story takes place approximately 8 to 10 years later than An Unfinished Life. Mitch, one of my favorite characters, has died and Einar and Griff, although prominent, are not as heavily featured. Two of the other main characters, Jean and Crane, have what I find as unpleasing personalities. The writing in this book seems choppy; the going back and forth between the stories of the various characters does not run as smoothy as in An Unfinished Life. Sometimes I had a hard time figuring out what characters were being discussed; the characters portrayed sometimes changed within a chapter. Also, I thought that the ending was more unresolved than in the earlier book. I hope we do get time to discuss this book in some depth in class.

3 stars (if that)

For my book group read, I read Blindness by José Saramago, translated from the Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero. I was among the majority of the group who did not like this novel. Almost everyone in an unnamed city goes blind. The characters are never call by name but referred to by phrases such as the doctor, the doctor's wife, the girl with dark glasses, the man wearing an eye patch, etc. The sentences run on and on, and there is relatively little punctuation in the book. I had to read some passages more than once to figure out who was talking. The first part of the book is especially unpleasant where the blind and the partially blind are placed in a jail-like institution where they are cruelly treated. Our group leader asked us what the blind represented, something which I had not tried to figure out since I tend to read novels for the stories they tell instead of underlying meanings.

3 stars

I've just read Make Me Rain, a beautifully written collection of poems and short essays by Nikki Giovanni for pleasure, BingoDOG, CATWoman and RandomKIT.

4.5 stars

>5 sallylou61: I am so glad you enjoyed "Make Me Rain" enough to give the poetry a 4 star rating. I'm still making my way through it, as I had already started reading a book of poetry by another author.

As for your 2022 challenges, I think starting off the year without having any clever formal plan is a fun way to approach your reading. Wishing you good luck with your few remaining BingoDOG squares. Excellent progress!

For our Friends' Meeting Big Read discussion on Sunday I read Something happened in our town : a child's story about racial injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard; illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin. We usually read a young adult book so that teens and adults can both read and discuss it. This is the first time we have read a picture book, but we have several families with young children coming to our Meeting. It is amazing to realize that this book was among the top ten books on a banned book list recently! However, it is about explaining prejudice to children. A young white girl and young black boy talk to their families about why a white policeman in their community would shoot a black man. Then an immigrant child who does not speak their language comes to school, and they include him on their team at school. The book was written by three PHDs in psychology, and includes approximately 10 pages of suggestions for parents and caretakers when talking to their children about race, language, etc. relations.

Unrated; I have never been a parent or had a job dealing with children

For AuthorCAT (debut book) I've read The Last Day the Dogbushes Bloomed by Lee Smith which she wrote when she was still a student at Hollins College in Virginia although it was published a little later. It's the story of a summer for Susan, a 9-year-old girl, and her friends, and involves a lot of fantasy. During the summer a boy, a nephew of a neighbor, comes and demands that the children do cruel things his make-believe friend says they should. In addition to this, Susan experiences the breakup of her parents' marriage.

For the features a dog square of BingoDOG, I read Of Mutts and Men, a Chet and Bernie mystery by Spencer Quinn. Chet, a dog who works as a partner with private investigator Bernie Little is the narrator of this mystery. He not only describes the way Bernie works to solve mysteries with his help, but also describes clues he tries unsuccessfully tries to give Bernie. Bernie and Chet get out of a number of difficulties caused by Bernie's mistakes. There are several murders and deaths in this mystery.

3 stars

I just finished reading Montpelier and the Madisons: House, Home, and American Heritage by Matthew G. Hyland for the published the year you joined LT bingoDOG square (2007). I received this as a birthday gift two days after joining LT. Probably the reason I had not read this entire book before now is that the beginning chapters are very uninteresting talking about the inventory of property (including slaves) that the various generations of Madisons before the President had. The main part of the book describes the interests in architecture and farming which President James Madison had in his adult life. He was very much involved in the design and construction of the house he remodeled and considered himself a gentleman farmer. Madison is compared to both Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe in these endeavors. The story is "padded" with discussing the estates of other men including relatives. As Madison was aging Montpelier became rundown; Madison could not afford caring for his slaves, many of which were too young or too old to work, and maintaining the house. The Madisons' dealing with the slaves is more in their philosophy of treating them; not with their interaction with the slaves or how the slaves lived. The history of Montpelier after Dolley was forced to sell it for financial reasons is not discussed in any detail although the restoration of Montpelier to the way it was during the Madisons' time is mentioned. That included taking off the duPont additions. {Marian duPont Scott was the last owner who gave Montpelier to the National Trust; in addition to additions to the house, Ms. Scott was a horse woman and the property includes a race tract which is still being used.}

3.5. stars

For my own interest (and AuthorCAT) I just finished reading a memoir, In the Arena: A Memoir of Love, War, and Politics by Chuck Robb, a Virginia politician, who was both a governor and a U.S. Senator. Outside of Virginia he might be primarily known as the husband of Linda {Bird} Johnson, LBJ's oldest daughter. Mr. Robb has accomplished a lot in his life; since his elected public life ended over 20 years ago, he has served on numerous commissions and boards. Foremost, he considers himself a Marine. This memoir primarily covers his life through his elected life.

Although I've lived in Virginia since the end of his governorship, I had thought of him as a Senator mainly as being in a sex scandal. This is an area of his life which he really regrets; according to him, it was a one-time event in which he made a mistake. Also, I was not keen on his military background. I was not aware of his progressive outlook concerning such topics as women's rights, same sex marriage, etc.

I attended a program at the Virginia Festival of the Book in March at which Mr. Robb was interviewed concerning this book. The interview was very interesting; a retired judge who he had appointed to the Virginia Supreme Court interviewed him. They talked a lot about the book, but Mr. Robb also spoke about his recent personal life. His house had burnt down last December, and Linda was still in the hospital. His daughter, Catherine, has brought him to the event, and lovingly looked after him there.

4.5 stars

I've read Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick by Zora Neale Hurston, edited by Genevieve West, which contains 21 short pieces, mainly stories, which Hurston wrote during the Harlem Renaissance. Most of the pieces are set in either Harlem or in Easton, Florida, where Hurston grew up. They feature a lot of dialect, and many have religious connections. Some are numbered lists; this is why I'm calling them pieces instead of stories. Ms. West discovered these stories in publications, mainly magazines, of the period or in manuscript form in archives.

3.5 stars

My husband and I enjoy going to Chincoteague on the eastern Virginia shore to see the wild ponies and beach on Assateague Island, and usually buy some books as souvenirs. We went earlier this week, and I purchased Eastern Shore Shorts by Gail Priest, an author I had never heard of. I really enjoyed this volume of 9 short stories set in various towns on the eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia. The stories are tied together with main characters from one story making cameo appearances in other stories.

4.5 stars

Whereabouts, both written in Italian and translated into English, by Jhumpa Lahiri has "A Novel" as its subtitle on the book jacket. However, in my opinion, it is numerous (over 45) vignettes told by the same unnamed narrator about her thoughts and experiences in an unnamed location in Italy. Many of the vignettes are beautifully written although I became rather tired of them by the end of this short (157 p. of text) book. (Perhaps I tried to read the book over too short a time period.) Also, I was disappointed with the ending which seemed abrupt.

4 stars

Update: For CATWoman I have read all the stories in Standing Her Ground: Classic Short Stories by Trailblaziing Women, edited by Harriet Sanders. The stories included "The Mortal Immortal" by Mary Shelley, "The Manchester Marriage" by Elizabeth Gaskell, "A Pair of Silk Stockings" by Kate Chopin, "Sister Josepha" by Alice Dunbar Nelson, "The Other Two" by Edith Wharton, "A Society" by Virginia Woolf, "The Daughters of the Late Colonel" by Katherine Mansfield, and "The Resurrection Morning" by Winifred Holtby. I had already read "Paul's Case: A Study in Temperament" by Willa Cather at least twice in the last two years for classes and did not reread it. I personally would not have chosen "A Pair of Silk Stockings" for the Chopin story or "The Daughters of the Late Colonel" for the Mansfield story. As with many collections of stories, I enjoyed some more than others.

3.5 stars

For CATWoman and MysteryKIT I just read Murphy's Law by Rhys Bowen, the first volume in the Molly Murphy Mystery series and enjoyed it. It's about Molly Murphy, using an assumed name, accompanying two young children to find their father in New York City. Molly, an Irish country girl, runs into a lot of problems in that large city at the turn of the 20th century. A good description of city life there.

4 stars

For our book club I read Caste by Isabel Wilkerson. Ms. Wilkerson discusses the caste system in 3 countries: India, Nazi Germany, and the United States. She considers the whole racial situation to be part of caste. Ms. Wilkerson, who is black, explained situations in which she was judged on the basis of her skin color. She also gives interesting examples of experiences of other people based on caste. Although Ms. Wilkerson talks about all three countries, her emphasis is on the United States.

4 stars

I've just read The Women's March: A Novel of the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession by Jennifer Chiaverini for the month in the title square in BingoDOG. I had planned to read this for BingoDOG as one of my first books, and now it turns out to be the next to last! It's a story concerning the suffrage march in Washington, DC, the day before Woodrow Wilson's inaugural. Although as a whole I enjoyed the book, unfortunately it was focused on three suffragettes, Alice Paul, Maud Malone, and Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and kept switching between their stories which made the novel choppy. By including Mrs. Wells-Barnett, it featured a black woman and showed the problems of nonwhites in the suffrage campaign, which was primarily white.

4 stars

For the CATWoman and AuthorCAT, I just finished reading The Barbizon: The Hotel that Set Women Free by Paulina Bren. It's the story of a 20th century hotel for women in New York City which catered to young single women. Many young women, particularly from the midwest who were not used to cities, came there to find jobs (and husbands). However, the focus of the book is on several programs such as the Katharine Gibbs secretarial school which housed its students there, young women who came hoping to be models or actresses, and particularly on the Mademoiselle guest editors (GE) program in which chosen young college women spent a month working as a guest editor under the supervision of a department head. Many names of famous women were mentioned in the book. However, the most attention is focused on some writers such as Joan Didion, Gael Greene, and particularly Sylvia Plath whose The Bell Jar is based on her experiences at the hotel.

The Barbizon could be a very lonely place for many women. A chapter describes these women and shows how the hotel tried to hide information about suicides.

There is much repetition in the book, and no index.

3 stars

I have recently read a LibraryThing Early Reviewer book, Still Water: Poems by Jewelle Gomez. Ms. Gomez, a lesbian of Native American and Black descent, has written powerful poems about people who have been discriminated against. Many of the poems are for particular people or mention people by name in their text. Such named people can be looked up on the web which makes the poems especially meaningful. Other people for whom poems are written are identified only a first name. Ms. Gomez features such topics as lesbianism, skin color, interracial marriage, gay marriage, observing people on public transportation, her own childhood and family relations, and aging plus many other subjects.

4.5 stars

Was definitely not planning to start another BingoDOG card, but decided to go ahead with one, which I probably will not complete. In my June reading, I have already read some books to fill squares.

Books read for BingoDOG card 2:

1. Published Year joined LT (2007): Puss 'n Cahoots by Rita Mae Brown -- finished reading Aug. 2nd -- 13th -- 3 stars
2. Modern retelling: Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid -- Villette by Charlotte Bronte-- finished reading Dec. 12th -- 4 stars
3. Gift: Dinners with Ruth by Nina Totenberg --(birthday gift 2022) -- finished reading Nov. 23 -- (22nd) -- 6th Bingo -- middle vertical line -- 4.5 stars
4. Features a dog: Dog Friendly by Victoria Schade -- finished reading July 12th (8th) -- 4 stars
5. Set in another country (Ireland): In Dublin's Fair City by Rhys Bowen -- finished reading July 22nd (11th) -- 3 stars
6. About brothers and sisters: Growing Up Biden: a Memoir by Valerie Biden Owens -- finished reading Aug. 18th (16th) -- 4.5 stars -- third bingo (left vertical)
7. Children's: Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson -- finished reading July 21st (10th) -- 5 stars
8. silver or gold on cover: Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro -- winner of Nobel Prize in gold circle on cover -- finished reading Aug. 25th (17th) -- 3.5 stars -- 4th Bingo -- 2nd horizontal line
9. Nonfiction: The Secret History of Home Economics by Danielle Dreilinger -- finished reading July 19th (9th) -- 4 stars -- 1st Bingo (fourth vertical line)
10. Shares name with a friend: In the Arena: A Memoir of Love, War, and Politics by Chuck Robb (Lynda) -- finished reading March 12th (the first but counting it as the 12th when I decided to add it) -- finished reading May 12th -- 4.5 stars
11. Year ending in 2: A Sunlit Weapon (2022) by Jacqueline Winspear -- finished reading June 26th (5th) -- 4 stars
12. Weather word in title: Stormy, Misty's Foal by Marguerite Henry -- finished reading Oct. 30th. (21st) -- 4 stars
13. Read a CAT (August AuthorCAT; award winner): The Stranger by Albert Camus, translated by Matthew Ward -- finished reading Aug. 16th (15th) second Bingo, upper left to lower right diagonal
14. Book club read: Caste by Isabel Wilkerson -- finished reading June 9th (3rd) -- 4 stars
15. Long for You Book: True Compass: a Memoir by Edward M. Kennedy (507 p. of text)-- finished reading Nov. 30th (23rd) -- 4.5 stars (7th and 8th bingos, left vertical row and middle horizontal row)
16. Set in a capital city: Voices in the Dead House (Washington, DC) by Norman Lock -- finished reading July 9th (7th) -- 4 stars
17. LGBTQ+ author: All In: an Autobiography by Billie Jean King with Johnette Howard and Maryann Vollers --finished reading Dec. 7 (24th) -- 4.5 stars -- 9th and 10th bingos, diagonal lower left to upper right, 4th horizontal row.
18. Title contains a month: March 1917: On the Brink of War and Revolution by Will Englund -- finished reading Oct. 24th (20th) -- 3.5 stars
19. Title contains a Z: The Barbizon by Paulina Bren -- finished reading June 17th (4th) -- 3 stars
20. Award winner: Shilo by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor -- 1991 Newbery Award -- finished reading Aug. 5th (14th)
21. Flowers on the cover: Old New York: 4 novellas by Edith Wharton -- finished reading June 29th (6th) -- 3.5 stars
22. Like to see as a movie: Misjudged by James Chandler -- finished reading Sept. 14th (18th) -- 4 stars
23. Travel or a journey: Durable Goods by Elizabeth Berg -- finished reading Sept. 19th (19th) -- 4 stars -- 5th Bingo -- bottom horizontal row
24. By a favorite author: Rhys Bowen wrote Murphy's Law -- finished reading June 5th (2nd) -- 4 stars.
25. In translation: Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri -- finished reading May 28th (1st) -- 4 stars

Finished card Dec. 12th.

Good luck with your second card! Sometimes the right books just come along.

>89 MissWatson:. Thanks. I really was not planning to try a second card again this year, but BingoDOG is one of my favorite challenges. I like being able to read Books when I want to rather than in specific months as for the CATs and KITs.

For MysteryKIT and my second BingoDOG card I recently read A Sunlit Weapon by Jacqueline Winspear the most recent Maisie Dobbs mystery. Initially I found this book hard to get into until Maisie Dobbs appeared. This novel features several mysteries including the death of a female pilot during WWII and protecting Eleanor Roosevelt from harm during her trip to England (there are some right wing activists from the U.S. trying to get rid of her). Maisie is working on the solving of the murder and her husband, Mark, on protecting the First Lady. Different agencies are involved in these cases, and there is a lot of "red tape." Also, Maisie and Mark must deal with the problems her adopted daughter is having being bullied in school. This novel gives a good description of life around London during the war (especially with residents going to the country to avoid the bombing). Also, prejudice against blacks, women, and people who speak with a different accent are shown. This book also deals more with women in "male" occupations such as being pilots than many others in the series. However, there are too many threads in the story for my taste.

4 stars

I read Old New York: 4 Novellas by Edith Wharton. The novellas included: "False Dawn", "The Old Maid", "The Spark", and "New Year's Day", and were labeled as being about the Forties through the Seventies (1840s through 1870s) respectively. Two of the stories, "The Old Maid" and "New Year's Day", featured women and the other two featured men. The labeling of the decades seemed unnecessary and was not very accurate. For example, in "The Spark" (1860s) the Civil War was continually talked about as being many years ago although it had occurred in 1860-1865. The stories showed how characters were breaking away from the customs and practices of "Old" New York, as portrayed by the upper classes.

"False Dawn" -- a young man is sent to Europe by his father with the instructions to buy a collection of original art works. Instead he buys works which he likes by unknown artists. Upon his arrival home, his father disowns him, leaving him a small amount of money and all the art works in his will. The son opens a gallery which very few people visit.

"The Old Maid" -- two female cousins raise a young girl who is the illegitimate daughter of the unmarried one by a man both the women loved. They tried to keep the father's name a secret. There is conflict between the cousins as to which one is really the mother.

"The Spark" -- Narrated by a young man who takes an interest in an Hayley Delane, older man who is mistreated by his wife. He admires Mr. Delane, who strikes an owner who beats his own horse, and who later cares for the father of his absent wife until the father's death. He discovers that the Mr. Delane was injured in the Civil War and who he was cared for in the hospital. (I could not make the spoiler feature work.)

"New Year's Day" -- a woman, who enjoys being with men, is unfaithful to her ill husband. The story shows why she behaves this way.

Unfortunately, the edition which I read, published by Simon and Schuster, lacked an introductory essay or any kind of notes.

3.5 stars

I love the 1939 film "The Old Maid" starring Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins. I will have to track down the novella.

>93 DeltaQueen50: I'll need to try to get the film. Thanks or mentioning it.

>91 sallylou61: I'm so far behind on the Maisie Dobbs series. I fell out of love with her, but I liked the last one I picked up. I'm just behind and keep getting further behind when a new one comes out.

>95 thornton37814: I'm not sure if I will be reading many more Maisie Dobbs books. I think that Jacqueline Winspear is trying to track too many different topics with Maisie's being married and having an adopted daughter in addition to solving mysteries. I'm wondering whether Ms. Winspear is going to write Maisie out of the series or end the series entirely; Maisie has just made her assistant, Billy, her partner at the end of A Sunlit Weapon.

My review for LT ER:
Voices in the Dead House is a novel by Norman Lock about Walt Whitman and Louisa May Alcott working in hospitals for the Civil War wounded in Washington, DC, in December 1862 and January 1863. Although it is fiction, it is based on facts. The novel is basically in two parts telling about Whitman and then Alcott with a very short section about Whitman at the end. The hospital working experiences of these two authors are described, plus their thoughts about the conditions and literature. They both have some interactions with Negroes; Alcott even attends a church service with a Negro woman. Both sections talk about other literary authors, whom Whitman and Alcott know. The reader would most appreciate this novel if he/she was familiar with Whitman and Alcott and their lives. I found the section on Alcott especially appealing since I already knew a great deal about her life.

The novel covers such a short amount of time since Alcott was only there for a few months before she became seriously ill. Reading this novel makes me want to read her Hospital Sketches, her nonfiction book about her experiences there.

Fortunately, in the Afterword, Mr. Lock tells what is fact and what is fiction in his novel. With historical novels about people, this is something I always wonder about if the author does not give this information.

4 stars

For RandomKIT and BingoDOG card (2nd card) I recently read Dog Friendly by Victoria Schade. This is a novel featuring Morgan Pearce, an overworked veterinarian having trouble working for new management in a veterinary clinic which stresses quantity over quality of care. At the request of two of her clients, she takes a two month break caring for their senior dog on Nantucket. She does not reveal to the community her real identity, pretending she is a dog sitter. She gets involved with pointing out to dog owners health problems with their dogs. She has a number of problems including an estranged brother with whom she wants to connect again. Her particular joy on Nantucket is falling in love. This creates a serious problem. I enjoyed the story but feel that the ending is very unrealistic.

4 stars

For CATWoman (women in science) and BingoDOG card 2 (nonfiction square) I read The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Lived by Danielle Dreilinger. Home economics is much, much more than cooking and sewing; it involves science and business and society. Ms. Dreilinger covers its history from the 19th century with the contributions of Catharine Beecher to the present. She includes various influential people in the field including home economics in middle and high schools and colleges. She points out home economists in business including Penney's educational program. Home economics has undergone changes in scope including child care, and has had various name changes.
Many men are now home economists. Ms. Dreilinger believes that home economics is essential and should be taught under the name home economics in middle and high schools. "Home economics is, can, and should be an interdisciplinary, ecological field that explores the connections between our homes and the world with an eye to addressing the root causes of problems such as hunger, homelessness, isolation, and environmental devastation" (p. 293). Throughout the book she includes both black people and white.

4 stars

I recently read Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson, which I had bought for the August CATWoman, but it was so appealing that could not wait to read it. This is a very sad but lovely written story in verse about a black football player and his family; the player is a hero until he is attacked by what is later is determined to be CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) caused by repeated head injuries. The story takes place in 1999 before the disease was diagnosed. The story is narrated by the player's 12-year-old son who repeatedly describes his father's behavior, his mother's taking his father to doctor after doctor to try to get treatment, and the son's torment. Fortunately the son has a support group of his three best friends who suffer along with him, and the mother has the support of another football wife whose husband is still playing. The story ends with the father being hospitalized, and the son only able to see him when accompanied by an adult.

2nd BingoDOG card -- children's/ya square

5 stars

I just read In Dublin's Fair City, a Molly Murphy mystery by Rhys Bowen, which I used for the another country square on my second BingoDOG card. This was a disappointing story for me; Molly returns to Ireland to do find the status of a sister of a rich man who employs her for this detective work, but she is tricked into switching cabins and identities with an actress who is in first class and has a lot of luggage. The actress disappears and her maid, who was taking care of Molly, is murdered on the ship. Throughout her time in Ireland, Molly is under the watch of the Irish police who, regardless of evidence to the contrary, believe that Molly is the murderer. The story takes place during the early stages of the Irish revolution against the English to become a free country, and Molly is pressured into action. Molly escapes to France, but the story does not tell whether she get back to the United States. (We know she does since the series continues).

3 stars

I read Sooley by John Grisham for pleasure. This is the story of Sooley, a basketball player who is brought from war-torn South Sudan to play basketball in a tournament in the United States. After the tournament he ends up at North Carolina Central in Durham where he makes tremendous progress and leads the team deep into the NCAA tournament. Sooley is selected in the NBA draft after playing college basketball for only one year. Throughout the novel, the scene goes back and forth to the life of his mother and brothers who are refugees in a crowded refugee camp in Africa.

5 stars

I've just finished reading Wild Irish Rose: a Molly Murphy Mystery by longtime series author Rhys Bowen, this time with her daughter, Clare Broyles. This latest Molly Murphy mystery has a number of things in common with the first book in the series in which Molly comes from Ireland to New York via Ellis Island accompanying two young children to be with their father. In Wild Irish Rose, the daughter, Bridie is now Molly's ward; the father is remarried and going back to Ireland where Bridie does not want to go. This story also features Ellis Island where Molly and Bridie accompany two of their friends to pass out clothing to newly arrived immigrants. The first murder occurs on Ellis Island. Molly takes an interest in immigrant Rose who is being held as a possible suspect in the murder; she finds that Rose shares many of her circumstances coming to America. In this novel Molly and her husband, Daniel, have a young son, and Daniel's mother is living with them. Molly has trouble adjusting to being a mother and housewife; she had been a detective. She does detective work concerning the murder which Daniel has forbidden. By the end of the novel, there are two other murders and the kidnapping of Bridie.

4 stars

For the "published year you joined LT" square on my second BingoDOG card, I read Puss 'n Cahoots by Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown, her cat. The two books published in 2007 which I own and have not read did not appeal to me so I looked for a book published that year in some of the mystery series I read. Unfortunately, this book was a disappointment. The locale is a saddlebred horse show in Shelbyville, Kentucky, instead of in Crozet, Virginia, a local locale which I enjoy reading about. Ms. Brown also writes the "Sister" Jane Mysteries about horses; I felt she did not need to deal with horses here. There is a lot of detail about various equipment used with horses, and minute details of description of the horses. The main characters, human and animal, who appear in many of the books in Mrs. Murphy series are interesting to read about; however, there are several unsavory characters including a monkey in this novel. In the story two people are murdered and a valuable family heirloom pin is stolen. A social issue which is included is undocumented immigration.

3 stars

For both CATWoman and AuthorCAT, I read the 1986 Newbery Award winner, Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan. Sarah, who lives in Maine, answers an ad from a man living with his two young children on the prairie advertising for a wife. Sarah agrees to try it for a month. The novel shows how concerned the children are whether Sarah will like them, and then whether she will stay. She obviously misses living by the sea.

The edition I read is the 30th anniversary edition and contains Ms. MacLachlan's award acceptance speech, suggestions for teachers using the book in the classroom, etc.

Very short book. Story much more interesting than the speech.

Unrated but probably around a 4. I'm not rating children's books publicly unless I read them as a child or they are truly excellent.

For both CATWoman and AuthorCAT, I read the 1991 Newbery Award winner, Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. I was particularly interested in reading this novel because it is set in West Virginia, my husband's home state and because it was a book my nephew enjoyed when he read it many years ago when he was a child. This is the story about a boy, Marty, who finds a mistreated dog who follows him home. Marty ends up hiding the dog on his family's property, and keeps it a secret. This causes Marty to lie to a number of people. The story tackles the questions of honesty, poverty (the family is poor), and cruelty to animals.

Unrated but probably at least a 4.5. I'm not rating children's books publicly unless I read them as a child or they are truly excellent.

For CATWoman I read a YA book, Terrible Typhoid Mary: a True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. This is the story of Mary Mallon, a cook for the wealthy, a very healthy Irish woman, who was discovered to be a carrier of typhoid fever. She was caught and quarantined on an island near New York City. When she was caught, she put up resistance, which the doctors and police did not like. She fought for her freedom. She was not treated as other carriers were, who were not quarantined in an almost inhabitable place. I personally wonder if it was because she caused rich people to get the disease.

I found the first part of the story more interesting than toward the end of the book. Ms. Bartoletti made a case for Mary's being unfairly treated even though she could not understand how she could be a carrier. Mary is known in history as Typhoid Mary. However, I do not like the title of the book which is uncomplimentary calling her "Terrible Typhoid Mary" and claiming she was the "deadliest cook in America" which might be an exaggeration.

3 stars

For my book club this month I read The Stranger by Albert Camus, translated by Matthew Ward. I kind of struggled reading this book; I had read it back in 2015 for a class and basically knew the story. I found the main character, Meursault, who is the stranger or outsider in this story unappealing. He seemed a very weak character who was not interested in change (refusing a job promotion which would be leaving Algeria and going to Paris) or in relating to other people. He just seemed to go along with things until the very end when he refused to listen to the priest who came to visit him in jail. In our book group we have several biologists who wondered if Meursault had something physically wrong with him. We also realized that Camus wrote this book during World War II, and that the sun and heat played important roles.

3 stars this time around

For pleasure reading with no requirements (i.e. book clubs, challenges, etc.), I have just read Growing up Biden by Valerie Biden Owens, which immediately became an excellent fit for BingoDOG sisters and brothers square. Valerie, Joe Biden's only sister, is the author of this story of family life. Valerie and Joe were very close growing up with Joe's taking her along with him to many of his out-of-school activities. The close relationship continued into adulthood, and still exists today. Valerie participated in all of Joe's political campaigns, and was the campaign manager for all except the last one. Moreover, after Joe's first wife and daughter were killed in a tragic accident and his two sons severely injured, Valerie acted as a substitute mother until Joe married Jill. However, this is much more than the story of Joe and Valerie's relationship; the story includes the whole Biden family: Joe and Valerie's parents and their other siblings. They all came together to support each other during the hard times, and enjoy the good times. Although Ms. Biden Owens discusses how she and her husband did not like each other until they got to know one another, she does not criticize any member of the family; she barely mentions the controversies concerning Hunter Biden, Joe's son.

4.5 stars

I've just read A Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O'Neill, which will be taught as an OLLI adult education course this fall. I was lukewarm about taking this course, but feel that the instructor is very good. However, after reading the play, I will not be taking the course. I could certainly see how this was a sequel to Long Day's Journey into Night. However, once again there is just too much drinking and the play is too gloomy for me to enjoy.

3 stars

I read Lives of Girls and Women by the Canadian author, Alice Munro, who won the 2013 Nobel prize for Literature for RandomCAT and AuthorCAT. This is the only "novel" which Ms. Munro has written; some people do not consider it really a novel since it is like a group of long short stories tied together around one central character, Del Jordan. I was disappointed in this book;
I felt that Del made some poor choices (both in people and in actions), and found her mother and at least one of Del's boy friends very unappealing characters.

Usually I enjoy Ms. Munro's short stories.

3 stars

In September/early October I'm taking two OLLI adult education classes for which I will be reading 7 books, plus I'm now in two book clubs so that I'll be reading a book each for them. Therefore, I have started my September reading early. I've just finished reading Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker for my mystery OLLI class. In this class we will be focusing on the society and culture displayed in the novels. I'm glad that I read Bruno, Chief of Police, but feel that I would understand it better if I knew more about French history, particularly as it relates to the Resistance, and also the structure of the various police units and how they relate to each other. This novel shows life in a small French town where people know each other, and Bruno teaches the young children tennis so that he gets to know them, and hopes to keep them from violence and joining far right or left political groups as teenagers and adults. I like the way that women are portrayed in this novel, which includes professional women, important normal female citizens, and women involved in crime. Although a murder is the first crime being investigated, during the investigation drug trafficking is also discovered and solved.

4 stars

For the September book for one of my book clubs and the August AuthorCAT, I’ve read The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty, which won the Pulitzer Prize of Fiction in 1973. This is a good discussion book since its ending especially is open to interpretation. This is the story of Laurel, a middle aged professional woman working in Chicago, who returns South to New Orleans where her father, retired widowed Judge McKelva, is having serious eye trouble. Judge McKelva has relatively recently married a second wife, Fay, who is younger than Laurel. Unfortunately, Fay is a very self-centered woman who is mean to other people. Laurel must deal with both her ill father, who dies after an eye operation, and Fay. Both Laurel and Fay go back to the Judge’s home town in Mississippi after his death for his funeral and burial. Laurel is alone in the house where she grew up for several days, finds correspondence from her father to her mother, and learns more about both of them and herself. This is the part which could use better explanation in my opinion.

3.5 stars

(PS This book received a number of very low ratings and reviews in LT.)

For CATWoman I've read Born to be Soldiers: Those Plucky Women of World War II by Kayleen Reusser, which was a disappointment. I had purchased the book after noticing that our OLLI adult education program is sponsoring an author talk on this particular book in October, and that it would fit the September CATWoman challenge. However, when I started reading this book, I wondered whom the audience is supposed to be, YA or adult. Also, in my opinion, the title is very misleading by calling these women soldiers; they are mostly nurses, pilots (who did not finish their training until the war was nearly over), and code breakers. I think of soldiers as being fighters out in the field. 13 women are covered in approximately 140 pages. The backgrounds of the women are briefly told with most of the text being about their time in the military even if it was relatively brief. Very little is told about the women after their military experiences; usually the name of their husband and the number of children they had. A photograph of each woman in her military uniform is included; however, it appears at the end of her section instead of the beginning, and often is facing the beginning of the story of another woman.

The book also includes a two-page history of American women at war -- from the Revolutionary War through World War II but nothing more current.

2.5 stars

I should have mentioned that the author lives in Indiana, and all except one of the women included were from that state. None were from other parts of the country or from any large city who may have had different experiences.

I have been reading some mystery novels for my adult education class on that topic. Tomorrow we will be discussing Shroud for a Nightingale by P. D. James, which takes place in Nightingale House where student nurses live. Although this novel was published in 1971 and was supposed to be in current times then, it appears dated. Early on in the story, two student nurses are killed -- one in a class demonstration and other found dead in her bed. The nursing school is rather isolated; the murders appear to be an "inside" crime. Detective Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is called in to solve the murders. There are many female nurses and nursing students mentioned in the novel in addition to a doctor. Clues point to several of them. I did not guess the perpetrator/s in advance ; my "candidate" did not do it.

3 stars

>115 sallylou61: I read that one in 2020 and agree that the setting felt older than 1971.

>115 sallylou61: I'm listening to that one right now. I want to see if I'm correct. (So far I haven't changed my mind on "whodunnit.")

>116 rabbitprincess:, >117 thornton37814:. I was disappointed with our class discussion of Shroud for a Nightingale last week. The session started with too much time spent on discussing the difference between murder and killing and the philosophy of thinking of the greater good when making certain decisions. We briefly talked about some of the characters in the book and their relationships with others. The key to the discussion was whether we felt that Dalgliesh made the correct decision re his dealing with the murderer.

My OLLI class, which was scheduled to begin this Friday, was cancelled today for too low an enrollment. I'm disappointed but not really surprised since OLLI staff in the last few weekly emails had been trying to drum up support for it. This takes some pressure off me since I will not have book discussions three days straight (bookclub and then two seminar classes) this week.

For my bookclub I've read Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje. This novel is about four people -- a father, two daughters, Anna and Claire (one of whom was adopted), and a young man, Coop, helping on the farm. These four people live together until an instance of violence occurs and everyone except the father leaves. The daughters, who were the same age and considered themselves almost to be twins, never see each other again although sometimes they think of each other. The story is about what happens to Anna, Claire, and Coop usually in different chapters although Claire's and Coop's stories overlap. Also featured. towards the end of the book is an author who Anna is researching and his close relationships. The book keeps switching between California, Nevada, and southern France and also in time.

3 stars

This week's novel for our mystery novels class is Misjudged by James Chandler, the first of his Sam Johnstone series. I think that the book started out kind of slowly, but a large part of it is the murder trial which was fascinating. It seemed as if nearly everything was going wrong for the defense. It is hard to tell who was misjudged in this book: the war injured defendant, the war injured defense attorney (who had lost a leg), the prosecuting attorney, one or two judges, several of these? This ought to be a good discussion book; I hope that we spend most of class actually discussing it.

4 stars

Last week I read Durable Goods by Elizabeth Berg, which I purchased for an OLLI adult education class which was cancelled at the last moment due to low enrollment. I enjoyed this light-reading novel about Katie, a twelve-year-old girl who lives with her father and older sister, Diane; their mother has died. Katie is concerned that she is not developing; she is waiting for her breasts to show and her period to start. The father is in the military, which mean the family has often moved. Moreover, he is mean, especially to Diane. When the father announces another move, Diane leaves with her boy friend, and Katie goes with them for a while. Katie decides she wants to go home and phones a neighbor, how tells her father where she is. Diane and Dickie (the boyfriend) travel on, leaving Katie at a restaurant where her father picks her up. At the end, he is trying to become a more understanding father.

4 stars

For my last mystery novels class session I read Angels Flight, a Harry Bosch novel by Michael Connelly. This is a complex novel which gets involved with investigating an earlier case in which a young girl is murdered in addition to the two murders in Angels Flight, a funicular railroad in Los Angeles. A main theme in this novel is the corruption in the L.A. Police Department in which officers are expected to keep reporting how solving crimes is coming along instead of being allowed to actively work to solve them. Also, police from different units are expected to work together, even when some have had bad relations in the past. Moreover the police are being watched as they try to solve the crimes. The book contains a lot of violence including riots, and five deaths (mostly murders) occur in addition to the original three deaths as the investigation is being carried out.

3 stars

For MysteryKIT (animals) I read Out of Hounds by Rita Mae Brown. This is in her Sister Jane series about fox hunting, and is the first book I have read in the series. I decided to read it since it is about fox hunting which is popular here in Virginia. The novel contains numerous characters -- people, foxhounds, horses, foxes, birds, and pets -- all with names (and listed in the front of the book with brief descriptions). Some hunts are described, but much of the talk (of which there is a lot) concerns stolen paintings by Alfred Munnings of women riding side-saddle. There are also a number of deaths, mainly of men who were involved in transporting the stolen paintings. At the end, the mysteries are solved although none of the animals are really involved in solving them (as in Rita Mae Brown's Mrs. Murphy cat books where the animals play a larger role).

3 stars

I read For the Love of Mike by Rhys Bowen for CATWoman and RandomKIT. This is the third book in the Molly Murphy mystery series; Molly is beginning her practice as a detective in an agency in which her former supervisor has died, leaving her as the only detective. In this book, she is involved in following a woman's husband (in a divorce case), discovering who is stealing fashion drawings for the upcoming season and supplying them to a competing company (which means working in two clothing mills under terrible conditions), and finding a young woman who has run away from her home in England with her unsavory boy friend/husband. In all of these cases, Molly runs into real danger.

4 stars

For our retirement community book club, I read The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore. This book is a fictional account of the struggle between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse concerning the electric light bulb and the best kind of electricity for distribution (direct current according to Edison or alternating current according to Westinghouse). Edison had patented a light bulb and sued Westinghouse. Westinghouse hired Paul Cravath, a young attorney recently out of law school as his lawyer. The story is told from Paul's point of view.

I didn't like the technical explanations at the beginning of the book. However, the story became more interesting as it went along. Other major characters included Nikola Tesla, another inventor with Westinghouse, and Agnes Huntington, a beautiful opera singer who helped the eccentric Tesla and later married Cravath.

3.5 stars

For the title contains a month square of my second BingoDOG card, I read March 1917: On the Brink of War and Revolution by Will Englund. This is a detailed by interesting story of that particular month with primary emphasis on the United States and to a lesser extent Russia. Of course, World War I was raging in Europe. In the United States, there were pressures both to get involved militarily in the war, and to stay out of it. In Russia, the "February Revolution" (using the Julian calendar; March using the Gregorian calendar) occurred with the abdication of Czar Nicholas II.
Although much of the book discusses foreign affairs, Mr. Englund also includes a considerable amount of social history including the labor unrest in the United States, and the early career of Jeannette Rankin (the first female representative in Congress which occurred prior to women throughout the United States getting the vote). Ms. Rankin wanted to push for suffrage, and heard from numerous women on both sides of the issue concerning how she should vote on going to war. This, of course, was a minor part of the story, but particularly interesting to me.

3.5 stars

October has been the least satisfying reading month so far this year for me. I did not feel like reading Dracula for my book club, and ended up reading/skimming some shorter very unsatisfactory versions of it. I have joined a second book club and read a book for it which I would not have read otherwise and could have done without. I tried several books for my second BingoDOG card, which I gave up on for one reason or another.

However, I have enjoyed following the discussion of the plans, voting, etc. for the 2023 CATs and BingoDOG. Also, yesterday I finished (re)reading Stormy, Misty's Foal by Marguerite Henry for BingoDOG (and pleasure). John, my husband, and I enjoy going to Chincoteague and Assateague Islands; we're planning to go there right after Thanksgiving this year. The taxidermy remains of both Misty and Stormy are located in the Museum of Chincoteague.

Stormy, Misty's Foal is the fictionalized story of the birth of Stormy immediately following the 1962 Ash Wednesday storm. The storm and the birth both occurred and were owned by the featured family. I'm not sure what was fictionalized -- probably the ages of the children who could not have been featured in both Misty of Chincoteague and Stormy, Misty's Foal because of the number of years between the rescue of Misty and the birth of Stormy.

It's definitely fun to be able to read books you want to read -- something I should certainly be aware of.

Keeping my rating at 4 stars.

Today is my 15th Thingaversary. I have gotten past the point where I buy books. My husband and I just have too many books accumulated; it is too difficult to find a collection of short stories with the correct number of stories; and I do not want to buy cheap or used books since I'm allergic to poor quality paper, the ink from too dark printing, and dust, etc. I will soon be receiving books as gifts for my birthday (in two days), Christmas, and our anniversary in January. John and I give each other gifts of books.

I still enjoy recognizing the anniversary though. It only comes once a year.

Happy Thingaversary, no matter how you celebrate it!

Happy Thingaversary - and an early Happy Birthday wish as well. :)

Happy Thingaversary and Happy Birthday, Sally Lou. Do you put in a list of requests for the book presents?

Happy Thingaversary

>130 christina_reads:, >131 DeltaQueen50:, >132 pamelad:, >133 lowelibrary: Thanks to all of you.

>132 pamelad: I gave my husband a list of requests since he is the one who buys me gifts for all three occasions. We have a very small family.

>129 sallylou61: Happy Thingaversary!

>135 MissWatson: Thanks.

Joy School by Elizabeth Berg is the second book in the Katie Nash series. We were planning to read all three books in this series for an OLLI class which was cancelled at the last minute because of low enrollment. This is the story of a 13-year-old girl who has just moved to St. Louis with her father who is in the military. She has trouble adjusting to school, but falls in love (she thinks) with a 23-year old married gas station owner who is kind to her but does not mean to lead her into thinking of a romantic relationship. Her other friends include a girl whose mother does not approve of Katie, and a lovely model who leaves restaurants without paying the bill (leaving a tip but putting the bill in her pocketbook), is heavy into shoplifting, and takes Katie on a couple of double dates which end up with Katie's date molesting her. The story ends on a hopeful note concerning her father.

4 stars

For pleasure and CATWoman, I read Lady Director: Adventures in Hollywood, Television and Beyond by Joyce Chopra. Joyce is now in her 80s and wrote this memoir as a project during covid. She tells of her experiences as a film director starting when many men did not want women directors. She was not taken seriously, and experienced men fondling her or worse. She was fired as a director of one feature film because she was a woman and the producer did not want her from the beginning. Although she made some feature films most of her films were documentaries. She helped break the ground for future women directors.

This book is to be available on November 22nd, the release date. I was in a few OLLI classes with Joyce, and attended a program in which she discussed this book. The bookstore had it available for attendees of the program.

4 stars

For BingoDOG (card 2), CATWoman, and AuthorCAT I've read Dinners with Ruth by Nina Totenberg which features both Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second women appointed to the Supreme Court, and Nina Totenberg, one of the women pioneers at NPR. The book emphasizes friendships, and the chapters pertain to various aspects of friendships instead of being chronological. Ginsburg and Totenberg were friends long before Ginsburg was appointed to the court; it started when Totenberg was new to journalism and wanted to find out more about a legal brief which Ginsburg had written. All through their friendship, they respected each others careers, and did not interfere with them. Totenberg also discusses friendships she had with other justices; much of the book is about Totenberg's career.

4.5 stars

Congratulations on the hat-trick!

>129 sallylou61: - Happy Thingaversary! Just catching up - already the holidays are throwing off my reading and LT time.

>137 sallylou61: - I read the first two books a while ago and still haven't managed to get to the third. Oh well - maybe next year.

>139 sallylou61: - This sounds interesting and would work for one of the Bingo blocks for next year.

Happy belated Thingaversary!

>140 pamelad:, >141 dudes22:, >142 mstrust:. Thanks.
>141 dudes22: I'm planning to wait until next year to read the third Katie Nash book for the 2023 bingo dog square for next in a series you started square.
I Will have several memoirs to choose from for that square. For the journalism square, I'm tentatively planning to read Little Lindy is Kidnapped: How the Media Covered the Crime of the Century by Thomas Doherty. As you can tell, I start planning ahead.

For the long book for me square on my second BingoDOG card, I just finished reading True Compass by Edward M. Kennedy. Although this book is long (507 p. of text), it was a pleasure to read. I was a senior in high school when John F. Kennedy was elected president, and thus have lived through Teddy Kennedy's career. This is the story of Teddy Kennedy's life and career. I enjoyed reading about his views of his relationships with his family members both when he was growing up and as an adult. Teddy Kennedy was a relatively powerful force in the Senate, especially when the Democrats were in power. He describes his career in more detail during those times; when a Republican was president, his description was much briefer, but he tells the main challenges which are still interesting.

4.5 stars

For a relaxing read, I just read Bless the Bride, a Molly Murphy Mystery by Rhys Bowen for AuthorCAT (a favorite author). This novel is set just a couple of weeks before Molly's wedding to NYPD Captain Daniel Sullivan, who has asked Molly to stop her detective activities after their wedding. He discovers her working on another case, this one in the very dangerous Chinatown section of the city, instead of visiting with his mother and helping to prepare her trousseau. Molly, who is not familiar with the Chinese culture, makes damaging mistakes during her activities. There is tension in this novel as both Molly and another young active woman who both plan to marry wonder how they will adjust to marriage. Also, the Chinese marriage customs are displayed since Molly's case turns out to be finding a young Chinese girl who a rich old Chinese man has bought to be his concubine (or another wife) whose duty is to bear him a son.

4 stars

I read All In: an Autobiography by Billie Jean King with Johnette Howard and Maryanne Vollers for the LGBTQ+ square on my 2nd BingoDOG card. This is a very interesting autobiography by a remarkable woman. The first part is primarily about Billie Jean's tennis playing including the difficulties being a female player -- not being welcomed or accepted by many men in the male dominated sport in which women earned much less than men. Early on Larry King, Billie Jean's husband, was more of a feminist than Billie Jean was!

Both Billie Jean and Larry were instrumental in promoting women's sports including starting a journal for women's sports. They were often physically in different places, both being on the road, Billie Jean at tennis tournaments and Larry working on various projects. While she was still married to Larry, Billie Jean and Ilana Kloss (a South African tennis player whom Billie Jean helped instruct) lived together and fell in love. The book discusses in much less detail Billie Jean's career after playing tennis including being a sports newscaster. Both Billie Jean's abortion and later her lesbianism were announced to the public by other people -- the first by Larry King and the second by a woman with whom Billie Jean had a very brief affair. Billie Jean describes her feelings about wanting a better world where men and women are equal, and her work toward that goal.

During her life Billie Jean interacted with many people, both in sports and media (and government), whom she mentions by name.

The book is written by topic rather than chronologically which can be confusing at times.

4.5 stars

I considered reading Villette by Charlotte Bronte for the BingoDOG square, long book for me. However, I read the nonfiction book, True Compass instead. However, in the Wikipedia article for Villette, I noticed that Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid was credited as being an adaptation of it. Thus I read Lucy for my last BingoDOG card 2 square. It is a coming of age story of Lucy, a teenage girl who leaves her home in the West Indies to be an au pair for a New York City couple who have four daughters. In addition to adjusting to a new culture, Lucy is becoming aware of her own sexuality; there are some explicit sex scenes in the novel. After the end of Lucy's job as an au pair, she takes a position with a photographer, and becomes interested in taking pictures of people.

4 stars

Today I read The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories by P. D. James, four short Christmas murder mysteries for MysteryKIT. I personally enjoy Ms. James nonfiction writing better than her fiction. I found these mysteries to be unmemorable.

3 stars

For LT ER I read The Great Escape: A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America by Saket Soni.
The subtitle, "A True story of forced labor and immigrant dreams in America," accurately tells the subject of this book. The laborers involved were recruited from India to repair and replace destroyed oil rigs following Hurricane Katrina; they were skilled workers who were led to believe that they would be well paid. Instead, they were charged large sums of money to come over, and then were subjected to horrible living conditions after arriving to the United States. Only the men could came; they could not bring their families. The author, Saket Soni, was helping them to escape this appalling situation. After escaping from the Signal Corporation for which they were working, some of the men were optimistic that they would receive justice. However, during the escape ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was following them and turned out to be the agency in charge of the investigation instead of the FBI. Finally, in this case after much hard work on the part of Mr. Soni and others, ICE was investigated. The recruiters of the men were found guilty as was the Signal Corporation although the leaders of Signal were not tried. The book ends on a happy note for some of the key immigrant workers, but not for others.

This review is based on an advanced reading copy. There is no index or glossary briefly identifying the main characters, which would have been useful.

4 stars

For MysteryKIT I read The Twelve Clues of Christmas, a Royal Spyness Mystery, by Rhys Bowen. I much prefer her Molly Murphy Mysteries to these Royal Spyness ones. In The Twelve Clues of Christmas, there were too many unexplained deaths with very little progress in solving them until the end of the book.

I read ten short Christmas stories prior to Christmas. "Mrs. Podgers' Teapot" by Louisa May Alcott is from Mistletoe and Holly edited by Julia Livshin. When I was looking on my shelves for another book, I discovered that I had American Christmas Stories edited by Connie Willis published by Library of America! Then I remembered that I had bought it last year but it had not arrived in time for Christmas. Fortunately, I did not buy it again. I read nine stories from that volume of which one of my favorites was another Louisa May Alcott story, "Kate's Choice." (https://www.librarything.com/topic/336821#7657593) I plan to read more next year.

When I was visiting the local Walton's Mountain Museum commemorating The Waltons TV show, I purchased Murder in Tinseltown by Earl Hamner (author of The Waltons plus several books) and Don Sipes. This mystery takes place during the filming of a pilot TV show, and it describes a lot about the filming process. Several famous movies were mentioned; fortunately, I was familiar with them. I did not really enjoy the book very much, but later discovered some clues to the murderer in the story. I think I may sometime in the near future reread this book to see how it fit together.

2.5 stars

I took my first airplane ride the summer after 8th grade when our family went back to Missouri while my father taught summer school at the the University of Missouri. I became fascinated with the stewardesses; for a while I thought that was what I wanted to do when I grew up. It would have been a very unsuitable occupation/career for me. However, I still enjoy reading about stewardesses (of flight attendants as they are now called). For Christmas I received The Great Stewardess Rebellion: How Women Launched a Workplace Revolution at 30,000 Feet by Nell McShane Wulfhart. This is a nonfiction book about stewardesses' struggle in the 1960s and '70s to change the very discriminatory workplace. This fight included such regulations as an age limit (usually 32 or 35 years of age), needing to be single with no children, an unhealthy weight limit with numerous weight checks, needing to share a room while on overnight stops, and not being respected by the largely male management, pilots, maintenance workers, etc. This book really gets into labor law and regulations, union activity, and the struggles of a relatively few stewardesses to better the lives and working conditions of them and their colleagues. Not surprisingly, different women felt that the situation should be approached different ways (or not at all).

The way the book was written following a couple of different women, it was difficult to know what time period was being described.

3.5 stars

No Direct Evidence: the Story of the Missing Sodder Children by Bob Lane Bragg -- finished reading Jan. 1, 2023 but read all but 18 p. in December. Balanced discussion concerning what happened to 5 of the 10 Sodder children who were missing after their home burned down Christmas eve 1945. Number of "odd" incidents occurred prior to the fire, fire company did not come promptly to put out the fire (arrived many hours later), and almost useless investigation of the fire.
Book marred by poor punctuation; author consistently used apostrophes incorrectly, making words possessive which should not be possessive.

3 stars

Ps Five of the children were missing; 4 escaped and one was not home at the time of the fire.

The popular true crime podcast "My Favorite Murders" covered this case just a few days ago. I'd never heard of it.