Dogearedcopy's 22 in '22

___________________________________
________________________________________ Wasco Cut, Klamath Falls, Southern Oregon________________________________________

Hi! Welcome to my thread! This year's theme will be the US Pacific Northwest, an area I've lived in for 15 years and where I've raised my daughter. Many of the photos that will appear on this thread will be from Southern Oregon where I actually reside, others in Portland, Seattle and other places that I may wander to this year :-)

INTRODUCTION

I've pulled 22 books from my stacks and divided them into 12 categories, matched them up with various CATs & KITs, and a calendar-- to come up with a fairly flexible reading plan :-)

THE 22
_________

1. The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike #1 by Robert Galbraith) - 21DEC2021
2. Under the Empyrean Sky (Heartland Trilogy #1 by Chuck Wendig) - 31DEC2021
3. The Two Faces of January (by Patricia Highsmith) - 04JAN2022
4. Tess of the D'Urbervilles (by Thomas Hardy) - 12FEB2022
5. 13-1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear (Zamonia #1 by Walter Moers) - 22FEB2022
6. Rosemary's Baby (by Ira Levin) - 08MAR2022
7. Bad Marie (by Marcy Dermansky) - 17MAR2022
8. Running the Rift (by Naomi Benaron) - 27MAR2022
9. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (by Seth Grahame-Smith) - 29MAR2022
10. “Henry VI, Part I" (by William Shakespeare) - 12MAY2022
11. Smila's Sense of Snow (by Peter Høeg) - 20MAY2022
12. Murder on Nob Hill (Sarah Woolson #1 by Shirley Tallman; narrated by Anna Fields) - 21JUN2023
13. Normal (by Graeme Cameron) - 02JUL2022
14. Zero History (Blue Ant Trilogy #3 by William Gibson) - 06JUL2022
15. The Last Stand (by Nathanial Philbrick; narrated by George Guidall) - 02AUG2022
16. Kraken (by China Mieville) - 12AUG2022
17. Delta Blues (by Ted Gioia) - 24NOV2022
18. Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla (Pink Carnation #11 by Lauren Willig) - 27NOV2022
19. Mademoiselle Chanel (by C.W. Gortner) - 29NOV2022
20. Pet Sematary (by Stephen King; narrated by Michael C. Hall) - 29NOV2022
21. The House of Special Purpose (by John Boyne) - 08JAN 2023
The Kills (by Richard House)
_________

THE 12 CATEGORIES
_________

#Africa
#AlphaKit
#Asia
#Audio
#Classics
#HistoricalFiction / #HistoricalNonFiction
#Horror / #ScaredyKIT
#Romances
#SFF / #SFFkit
#Shakespeare / #ShakespeareCAT
#Suspense / #Thrillers / #Mysteries / #MysteryKIT
#TBR

________________________________________

___________________________________ Mount McLoughlin from Mount Ashland Ski Area, Southern Oregon___________________________

JANUARY

AlphaKit: H & R
📚 The Two Faces of January (by Patrica Highsmith)
🎧 The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (by Peter Hopkirk; narrated by Alex Wyndham)
📚 Roadwork (by Stephen King)
📚 The Wrong Kind of Love (by Lexi Ryan)

Asia
🎧 The Strangler Vine (Avery & Blake #1; by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham) #India #SouthAsia
🎧 The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company (by William Dalrymple; narrated by Sid Sagar) #India #SouthAsia
🎧 The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (by Peter Hopkirk; narrated by Alex Wyndham) #India #Afghanistan #CentralAsia
🎧 Kim (by Rudyard Kipling; narrated by Sam Dastor) #India #SouthAsia

Audio
🎧 The Strangler Vine (Avery & Blake #1; by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham)
🎧 The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company (by William Dalrymple; narrated by Sid Sagar)
🎧 The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike #1; by Robert Galbraith; narrated by Robert Glenister)
🎧 The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (by Peter Hopkirk; narrated by Alex Wyndham)
🎧 Kim (by Rudyard Kipling; narrated by Sam Dastor)

Classics
🎧 Kim (by Rudyard Kipling; narrated by Sam Dastor) - Text published 1901

Historical Fiction & Non-Fiction
🎧 1599 - 1803 - The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company (by William Dalrymple; narrated by Sid Sagar) #NF
📚 1803 - The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (Pink Carnation #1; by Lauren Willig) #HistoricalFiction
📚 1803 - Ivy & Intrigue (Pink Carnation #2.5; by Lauren Willig) #SpyThriller
🎧 1830 - 1907 - The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (by Peter Hopkirk; narrated by Alex Wyndham) #NF
🎧 1837 - The Strangler Vine (Avery & Blake #1; by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham) #HistoricalFiction
🎧 1840 - The Infidel Stain (Avery & Blake #2; by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham) #HistoricalFiction
🎧 1893 - 1898 - Kim (by Rudyard Kipling; narrated by Sam Dastor) #PeriodFiction
📚 1981 - Roadwork (by Stephen King) #PeriodFiction

Horror
📚 Roadwork (by Stephen King)

Suspense / Thrillers / Mysteries / MysteryKIT: Series
🎧 The Strangler Vine (Avery & Blake #1; by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham) #SpyThriller
🎧 The Infidel Stain (Avery & Blake #2; by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham) #InquiryAgents
🎧 The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike #1; by Robert Galbraith; narrated by Robert Glenister) #PI #MysteryKit
📚 The Two Faces of January (by Patrica Highsmith) #Suspense
📚 The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (Pink Carnation #1; by Lauren Willig) #SpyThriller #MysteryKit
📚 Ivy & Intrigue (Pink Carnation #2.5; by Lauren Willig) #SpyThriller #MysteryKit

SFF
📚 Under the Empyrean Sky (Heartland Trilogy #1; by Chuck Wendig) #YA #Dystopia
📚 Alpha and Omega (Alpha & Omega #.5; by Patricia Briggs) #ParanormalRomance #Werewolves

TBR
🎧 The Infidel Stain (Avery & Blake #2; by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham)
🎧 The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike #1; by Robert Galbraith; narrated by Robert Glenister)
📚 The Two Faces of January (by Patrica Highsmith)
📚 Roadwork (by Stephen King)
📚 The Wrong Kind of Love (by Lexi Ryan)
📚 Under the Empyrean Sky (Heartland Trilogy #1; by Chuck Wendig
📚 The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (Pink Carnation #1; by Lauren Willig)

________________________________________________________________________________

__________Chinese lanterns on a historic building in Jacksonville, OR-- a mining town that employed Chinese labor; Chinese New Year 2018________

FEBRUARY

AlphaKit: A & B
🎧 Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond (by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand; narrated by Leighton Pugh)
📚 Cry Wolf (Alpha & Omega #1; by Patricia Briggs)

Asia
🎧 Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond (by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand; narrated by Leighton Pugh) #India #SouthAsia

Audio
🎧 The Devil's Feast (Blake & Avery #3; by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham) #HistoricalFiction
🎧 The Moonstone (by Wilkie Collins; narrated by: Ronald Pickup, Sean Barrett, David Timson, Jamie Parker, Jonathan Oliver, Fenella Woolgar and, Joe Marsh)
🎧 Hard Times (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Anton Lesser)
🎧 Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond (by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand; narrated by Leighton Pugh)

Classics
🎧 The Moonstone (by Wilkie Collins; narrated by: Ronald Pickup, Sean Barrett, David Timson, Jamie Parker, Jonathan Oliver, Fenella Woolgar and, Joe Marsh) - Text published 1868
🎧 Hard Times (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Anton Lesser) - Text published 1854
📚 Tess of the D'Urbervilles (by Thomas Hardy) - Text published 1891

Historical Fiction & NF
🎧 1628 - 1849 Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond (by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand; narrated by Leighton Pugh)
🎧 1842 - The Devil's Feast (Blake & Avery #3; by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham) #HistoricalFiction
🎧 1848 - 1850 The Moonstone (by Wilkie Collins; narrated by: Ronald Pickup, Sean Barrett, David Timson, Jamie Parker, Jonathan Oliver, Fenella Woolgar and, Joe Marsh) #PeriodFiction
🎧 1854 - Hard Times (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Anton Lesser) - #PeriodFiction
📚 1870s - Tess of the D'Urbervilles (by Thomas Hardy) #PeriodFiction

Romances
📚 Cry Wolf (Alpha & Omega #1; by Patricia Briggs) #ParanormalRomance #Werewolves

Suspense / Thrillers / Mysteries
🎧 The Devil's Feast (Blake & Avery #3; by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham) #Mystery #whodunnit

SFF / SFFkit: Time Travel
📚 Cry Wolf (Alpha & Omega #1; by Patricia Briggs) #ParanormalRomance #Werewolves
📚 The 13-1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear (Zamonia #1; by Walter Moers) #Childrens #Absurdist #Fantasy

TBR
🎧 The Devil's Feast (Blake & Avery #3; by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham)
📚 Tess of the D'Urbervilles (by Thomas Hardy)
📚 The 13-1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear (Zamonia #1; by Walter Moers)

________________________________________
____________________ Bald Eagles hunting a flock of ducks; Marshes of the Klamath National Wildlife Preserve, Northern CA; 2020____________________

MARCH

Africa
📚 Running the Rift (by Naomi Benaron) #Rwanda

AlphaKit: P & S
🎧 Pickwick Papers (by Charles Dickens; narrated by David Timson)
📚 Sea of Poppies (Ibis Trilogy #1; by Amitav Ghosh)

Audio
🎧 Death in Delft (Master Mercurious #1; by Graham Brack; narrated by Alex Wyndham)
🎧 Pickwick Papers (by Charles Dickens; narrated by David Timson)

Classics
🎧 Pickwick Papers (by Charles Dickens; narrated by David Timson) - Text published 1836

Historical Fiction & NF
🎧 1670 - Death in Delft (Master Mercurious #1; by Graham Brack; narrated by Alex Wyndham) #HistoricalFiction
📚 1803 - The Masque of the Black Tulip (Pink Carnation #2; by Lauren Willig) #HistoricalFiction
🎧 1836 - Pickwick Papers (by Charles Dickens; narrated by David Timson) #PeriodFiction
📚 1965 - Rosemary's Baby (by Ira Levin) #PeriodFiction
📚 1981 - Cujo (by Stephen King) #PeriodFiction
📚 1984 - 1998 - Running the Rift (by Naomi Benaron) #HistoricalFiction

Horror
📚 Cujo (by Stephen King) #ScaredyKit #Switched
📚 Rosemary's Baby (by Ira Levin) #ScaredyKit #Switched

Romances
📚 The Masque of the Black Tulip (Pink Carnation #2; by Lauren Willig) #RegencyRomance

Suspense / Thrillers / Mysteries
🎧 Death in Delft (Master Mercurious #1; by Graham Brack; narrated by Alex Wyndham) #Mystery
📚 Bad Marie (by Marcy Dermansky) #DomesticThriller
📚 The Masque of the Black Tulip (Pink Carnation #2; by Lauren Willig) #SpyThriller #Mystery

TBR
📚 Running the Rift (by Naomi Benaron)
📚 Bad Marie (by Marcy Dermansky)
📚 Cujo (by Stephen King)
📚 Rosemary's Baby (by Ira Levin)
📚 The Masque of the Black Tulip (Pink Carnation #2; by Lauren Willig)

________________________________________
________________________________________ Pear orchards in the Rogue Valley, Oregon ________________________________________

APRIL

AlphaKit: J & L
📚 Lady of Devices (Magnificent Devices #1; by Shelley Adina)
🎧 The Jungle Books I & II (by Rudyard Kipling; narrated by Ralph Cosham)

Asia
📚 Sea of Poppies (Ibis Trilogy #1; by Amitav Ghosh) #India #SouthAsia
🎧 The Jungle Books I & II (by Rudyard Kipling; narrated by Ralph Cosham) #India #SouthAsia

Audio
🎧 Robinson Crusoe (by Daniel Defoe; narrated by Andrew Cullum)
🎧 The Black Tulip (by Alexandre Dumas pére; narrated by Peter Joyce)
🎧 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (by Seth Grahame-Green; narrated by Scott Holst)
🎧 The Jungle Books I & II (by Rudyard Kipling; narrated by Ralph Cosham)

Classics
🎧 Robinson Crusoe (by Daniel Defoe; narrated by Andrew Cullum) - Text published in 1717
🎧 The Black Tulip (by Alexandre Dumas pére; narrated by Peter Joyce) - Text published in 1850
🎧 The Jungle Books I & II (by Rudyard Kipling; narrated by Ralph Cosham) - Text published in 1899
🎭 Henry V (by William Shakespeare) - Text published in 1599

Historical Fiction & NF
263 BCE - 6970 CE 📚 About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks (by David Rooney) #NonFiction
1415 - 🎭 Henry V (by William Shakespeare) #ShakespeareHistoryPlay
1651 - 1687 🎧 Robinson Crusoe (by Daniel Defoe; narrated by Andrew Cullum) #PeriodFiction
1672 - 🎧 The Black Tulip (by Alexandre Dumas pére; narrated by Peter Joyce) #HistoricalFiction
1803 - 📚 The Deception of the Emerald Ring (Pink Carnation #3; by Lauren Willig) #HistoricalFiction
1818 - 1865 🎧 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (by Seth Grahame-Green; narrated by Scott Holst) #HistoricalFantasy
1838 - 📚 Sea of Poppies (Ibis Trilogy #1; by Amitav Ghosh) #HistoricalFiction
1899 - 📚 Lady of Devices (Magnificent Devices #1; by Shelley Adina) #HistoricalSFF
1899 - 🎧 The Jungle Books I & II (by Rudyard Kipling; narrated by Ralph Cosham)

Horror
🎧 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (by Seth Grahame-Green; narrated by Scott Holst) #HistoricalFiction
📚 The Running Man (by Stephen King) #Dystopia

Romances
🎧 The Black Tulip (by Alexandre Dumas pére; narrated by Peter Joyce) #Melodrama
📚 The Deception of the Emerald Ring (Pink Carnation #3; by Lauren Willig) #RegencyRomance

SFF / SFFkit
📚 Lady of Devices (Magnificent Devices #1; by Shelley Adina) #HistoricalFiction #Steampunk
🎧 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (by Seth Grahame-Green; narrated by Scott Holst) #HistoricalFantasy #SFFkit #Lifespans
📚 The Running Man (by Stephen King) #Dystopia

ShakespeareCAT / Shakespeare
🎭 Henry V (by William Shakespeare) #ShakespeareCAT #ShakespearesKings

Suspense / Thrillers / Mysteries
📚 The Deception of the Emerald Ring (Pink Carnation #3; by Lauren Willig) #SpyThriller

TBR
📚 Lady of Devices (Magnificent Devices #1; by Shelley Adina)
📚 Sea of Poppies (Ibis Trilogy #1; by Amitav Ghosh)
🎧 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (by Seth Grahame-Green; narrated by Scott Holst)
📚 The Running Man (by Stephen King)
📚 The Deception of the Emerald Ring (Pink Carnation #3; by Lauren Willig)

MAY
________________________________________
______________________________ Table Rocks, mesa formation in White City, OR; Image enhanced to bring out detail ______________________________

AlphaKit: D & O
🎧 The Dark Tower (Gunslinger #1; by Stephen King; narrated by George Guidall)
🎧 Different Seasons (by Stephen King; narrated by Frank Muller)

Audio
🎧 The Dark Tower (Gunslinger #1; by Stephen King; narrated by George Guidall)
🎧 Different Seasons (by Stephen King; narrated by Frank Muller)

Classics
🎭 Henry VI, Part 1 (by William Shakespeare) - First performance in 1592; Text published in 1623

Historical Fiction & NF
1412 - 1920 📚DK Biography: Joan of Arc (by Kathleen V. Kudlinski) #NF
1422 - 1453 🎭 Henry VI, Part 1 (by William Shakespeare) #ShakespeareHistoryPlay
1803 - 📚 The Seduction of the Crimson Rose (Pink Carnation #4; by Lauren Willig) #HistoricalFiction
1809 - 1865 📚 DK Biography: Abraham Lincoln (by Tanya Lee Stone)
1970s 🎧 Different Seasons (by Stephen King; narrated by Frank Muller) #PeriodFiction
1991 - 📚 Smilla's Sense of Snow (by Peter Høeg) #PeriodFiction
2002 - 📚 Pattern Recognition (Blue Ant #1; by William Gibson) #PeriodFiction

Horror / #ScaredyKit
🎧 The Dark Tower (Gunslinger #1; by Stephen King; narrated by George Guidall)
🎧 Different Seasons (by Stephen King; narrated by Frank Muller)

Romances
📚 The Seduction of the Crimson Rose (Pink Carnation #4; by Lauren Willig) #RegencyRomance

SFF / SFFkit
📚 Pattern Recognition (Blue Ant #1; by William Gibson) #Technothriller
🎧 The Dark Tower (Gunslinger #1; by Stephen King; narrated by George Guidall) #AlternateUniverse #Fantasy

ShakespeareCAT / Shakespeare
🎭 Henry VI, Part 1 (by William Shakespeare) #Shakespeare #ShakespeareCat #ShakespearesKings

Suspense / Thrillers / Mysteries
📚 Pattern Recognition (Blue Ant #1; by William Gibson) #Technothriller
📚 Smilla's Sense of Snow (by Peter Høeg) #Thriller #Mystery #MysteryKit #DetectivesInTranslation
📚 The Seduction of the Crimson Rose (Pink Carnation #4; by Lauren Willig) #SpyThriller

TBR
📚 Smilla's Sense of Snow (by Peter Høeg)
🎧 Different Seasons (by Stephen King; narrated by Frank Muller)
📚 DK Biography: Joan of Arc (by Kathleen V. Kudlinski)
📚 The Seduction of the Crimson Rose (Pink Carnation #4; by Lauren Willig)

________________________________________

_____________________________________________ Heceta Head, Oregon Coast_____________________________________

JUNE

AlphaKIT: C & Q
📚 Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories (by Stephen Crane)
📚 “Mr. Klein is Fine” (by Meghan Quinn)

Asia
📚 River of Smoke (Ibis Trilogy #2; by Amitav Ghosh) #China

Audio
🎧 The Old Curiosity Shop (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Anton Lesser)
🎧 Murder on Nob Hill (Sarah Woolson #1; by Shirley Tallman; narrated by Anna Fields)

Classics
📚 Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories (by Stephen Crane) - Text published in 1895
🎧 The Old Curiosity Shop (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Anton Lesser) - Text published 1840-1841
🎭 Henry VI, Part 1 (by William Shakespeare) Text published 1623

Historical Fiction & NF
🎭 1445 - 1455 Henry VI, Part 1 (by William Shakespeare) #Histories
🎧 1800 - Murder on Nob Hill (Sarah Woolson #1; by Shirley Tallman; narrated by Anna Fields) #HistoricalFiction
📚 1803 - 1804 - The Temptation of the Night Jasmine (Pink Carnation #5; by Lauren Willig) #HistoricalFiction
📚 1838 - 1839 River of Smoke (Ibis Trilogy #2; by Amitav Ghosh) #HistoricalFiction
🎧 1840 - 1841 - The Old Curiosity Shop (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Anton Lesser) #PeriodFiction
📚 1863 - Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories (by Stephen Crane) #HistoricalFiction
📚 2005 - Spook Country (Blue Ant trilogy #2; by William Gibson) #PeriodFiction

Romances
📚 “Mr. Klein is Fine” (by Meghan Quinn) #ContemporaryRomance
📚 The Temptation of the Night Jasmine (Pink Carnation #5; by Lauren Willig) #RegencyRomance

Shakespeare
🎭 Henry VI, Part 1 (by William Shakespeare) #Histories

SFF / SFFkit
📚 Spook Country (Blue Ant trilogy #2; by William Gibson) #TechnoThriller

Suspense / Thrillers / Mysteries
📚 Spook Country (Blue Ant trilogy #2; by William Gibson) #TechnoThriller
🎧 Murder on Nob Hill (Sarah Woolson #1; by Shirley Tallman; narrated by Anna Fields) #Mystery
📚 The Temptation of the Night Jasmine (Pink Carnation #5; by Lauren Willig) #SpyThriller

TBR
📚 Spook Country (Blue Ant trilogy #2; by William Gibson)
📚 “Mr. Klein is Fine” (by Meghan Quinn)
🎧 Murder on Nob Hill (Sarah Woolson #1; by Shirley Tallman; narrated by Anna Fields)
📚 The Temptation of the Night Jasmine (Pink Carnation #5; by Lauren Willig)

__________
______________________________Dijon grapes starting to show at Dancin Vineyard, Medford, OR______________________________

JULY

AlphaKit: E, T & Z
📚 Silence (by Shūsaku Endō)
📚 1755 - 1756 These Old Shades (Alistair-Audley #1; by Georgette Heyer)
📚 Zero History (Blue Ant Trilogy #3; by William Gibson)

Asia
📚 Silence (by Shūsaku Endō) #Japan #EastAsia
📚 The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (Pink Carnation #6; by Lauren Willig) #India #SouthAsia

Historical Fiction & NF
🎭 1455 - 4775 Henry VI, Part 3 (by William Shakespeare)) #Histories
📚 1639 - Silence (by Shūsaku Endō)
📚 1755 - 1756 These Old Shades (Alistair-Audley #1; by Georgette Heyer) #HistoricalFiction
📚 1804 - The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (Pink Carnation #6; by Lauren Willig) #HistoricalFiction

Romances
📚 These Old Shades (Alistair-Audley #1; by Georgette Heyer) #GeorgianRomance
📚 The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (Pink Carnation #6; by Lauren Willig) #Melodrama

Shakespeare
🎭 Henry VI, Part 3 (by William Shakespeare) #Histories

SFF
📚 Zero History (Blue Ant Trilogy #3; by William Gibson) #Technothriller
📚 Nettle & Bone (by T. Kingfisher)

Suspense / Thrillers / Mysteries
📚 Normal (Normal #1; by Graeme Cameron) #Suspense
📚 Dead Girls (Normal #2; by Graeme Cameron) #Suspense
📚 Zero History (Blue Ant Trilogy #3; by William Gibson) #Technothriller
📚 The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (Pink Carnation #6; by Lauren Willig) #SpyThriller

TBR
📚 Normal (Normal #1; by Graeme Cameron)
📚 Silence (by Shūsaku Endō)
📚 Zero History (Blue Ant Trilogy #3; by William Gibson)
📚 These Old Shades (Alistair-Audley #1; by Georgette Heyer)
📚 The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (Pink Carnation #6; by Lauren Willig)

______________________________

______________________________ Harris Beach Marine Gardens, Brookings, OR, Oregon Coast______________________

AUGUST

AlphaKit: F & M
🎧 The Siege of Krishnapur (Empire Trilogy #2; by J.G. Farrell; narrated by Peter Wickham)
📚 Flashman (Flashman #1; by George MacDonald Fraser)
📚 The Mischief of the Mistletoe (Pink Carnation #7; by Lauren Willig)

Asia
🎧 The Siege of Krishnapur (Empire Trilogy #2; by J.G. Farrell; narrated by Peter Wickham) #SouthAsia #India
📚 Flashman (Flashman #1; by George MacDonald Fraser) #SouthAsia #India

Audio
🎧 The Siege of Krishnapur (Empire Trilogy #2; by J.G. Farrell; narrated by Peter Wickham)
🎧 The Storm of the Century: Tragedy, Heroism, Survival, and the Epic True Story of America's Deadliest Natural Disaster: The Great Gulf Hurricane of 1900 (by Al Roker & William Hogeland; narrated by Byron Wagner)

Historical Fiction & NF
📚 1337 - 1485 Shakespeare's Kings: The Great Plays and the History of England in the Middle Ages: 1337-1485 (by John Julius Norwich) #NonFiction
🎭 1471 - 1485 Richard III (by William Shakespeare) #Histories
📚 1803 - 1804 The Mischief of the Mistletoe (Pink Carnation #7; by Lauren Willig) #HistoricalFiction
📚 1804 - Away in a Manger: A Very Turnip Wedding Night (Pink Carnation series) #7.5); by Lauren Willig) #HistoricalFiction
📚 1831 - 1890 Who was Sitting Bull? (by Stephanie Spinner) #NonFiction
📚 1839 - 1843 Flashman (Flashman #1; by George MacDonald Fraser) #HistoricalFiction
🎧 1857 - The Siege of Krishnapur (Empire Trilogy #2; by J.G. Farrell; narrated by Peter Wickham) #HistoricalFiction
🎧 1876 - The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn (by Nathaniel Philbrick; narrated by George Guidall) #NonFiction
🎧 1900 - The Storm of the Century: Tragedy, Heroism, Survival, and the Epic True Story of America's Deadliest Natural Disaster: The Great Gulf Hurricane of 1900 (by Al Roker & William Hogeland; narrated by Byron Wagner)
📚 1991 - The Night Manager (by John Le Carré)

Romances
📚 Ransom (by Loki Renard) #Erotica
📚 The Mischief of the Mistletoe (Pink Carnation #7; by Lauren Willig) #GeorgianRomance #Melodrama
📚 Away in a Manger: A Very Turnip Wedding Night (Pink Carnation series) #7.5); by Lauren Willig) #GeorgianRomance #Melodrama

SFF
📚 Kraken (China Miéville) #NewWeird
📚 Ransom (by Loki Renard) #SpaceOpera

Shakespeare
📚 Shakespeare's Kings: The Great Plays and the History of England in the Middle Ages: 1337-1485 (by John Julius Norwich)
🎭 Richard III (by William Shakespeare)

Suspense / Thrillers / Mysteries
📚 The Night Manager (by John Le Carré) #SpyThriller
📚 The Mischief of the Mistletoe (Pink Carnation #7; by Lauren Willig) #SpyThriller

TBR
📚 The Night Manager (by John Le Carré)
📚 Kraken (China Miéville)
📚 Shakespeare's Kings: The Great Plays and the History of England in the Middle Ages: 1337-1485 (by John Julius Norwich)
🎧 The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn (by Nathaniel Philbrick; narrated by George Guidall)
📚 Away in a Manger: A Very Turnip Wedding Night (Pink Carnation series) #7.5); by Lauren Willig)

SEPTEMBER
__________
__________Dijon grapes ripening to deeper shades of purple at Dancin Vineyard, Medford, OR (cf July's photo)__________

Africa
🎧 King Leopold’s Ghost (by Adam Hochschild; narrated by Geoffrey Howard) #CongoFreeState

AlphaKit: I & K
🎧 King Leopold’s Ghost (by Adam Hochschild; narrated by Geoffrey Howard)
📚 The Kills: Sutler (by Richard House)
🎧 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (by Washington Irving; narrated by Anthony Heald)

Asia
📚 Flood of Fire (Ibis Trilogy #3; by Amitav Ghosh) #China
📚 The Kills: Sutler (by Richard House) #Iraq #WesternAsia

Audio
🎧 King Leopold’s Ghost (by Adam Hochschild; narrated by Geoffrey Howard)
🎧 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (by Washington Irving; narrated by Anthony Heald)
🎧 News of the World (by Paulette Jiles; narrated by Grover Gardner)
🎧 Simon the Fiddler (by Paulette Jiles; narrated by Grover Gardner)
🎧 The Dispatcher (The Dispatcher #1; by John Scalzi; narrated by Zachary Quinto)
🎧 Murder by Other Means (The Dispatcher #2; by John Scalzi; narrated by Zachary Quinto)
🎧 Travel by Bullet (The Dispatcher #3; by John Scalzi; narrated by Zachary Quinto)

Historical Fiction & NF
🎧 1483 - 1908+ King Leopold’s Ghost (by Adam Hochschild; narrated by Geoffrey Howard) #NonFiction
🎧 1790 - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (by Washington Irving; narrated by Anthony Heald) #HistoricalFiction
📚 1804 - The Orchid Affair (Pink Carnation #8; by Lauren Willig) #HistoricalFiction
📚 1839 - 1841 Flood of Fire (Ibis Trilogy #3; by Amitav Ghosh) #HistoricalFiction
🎧 1865 -1866 Simon the Fiddler (by Paulette Jiles; narrated by Grover Gardner) #HistoricalFiction
📚 1867 - 1950 Black Elk’s Vision: A Lakota Story (by S. D. Nelson) #NonFiction
🎧 1870 - News of the World (by Paulette Jiles; narrated by Grover Gardner) #HistoricalFiction
📚 2002+ The Kills: Sutler (by Richard House) #HistoricalFiction

Romances
📚 Ruthless Stranger (Mafia Wars #1; by Maggie Cole) #Mafia
📚 Caged Rose (Aminoff Bratva #1; by Naomi West) #Bratva
📚 The Orchid Affair (Pink Carnation #8; by Lauren Willig) #GeorgianRomance #Melodrama

SFF
🎧 The Dispatcher (The Dispatcher #1; by John Scalzi; narrated by Zachary Quinto)
🎧 Murder by Other Means (The Dispatcher #2; by John Scalzi; narrated by Zachary Quinto)
🎧 Travel by Bullet (The Dispatcher #3; by John Scalzi; narrated by Zachary Quinto)

Suspense / Thrillers / Mysteries
📚 The Kills: Sutler (by Richard House) #Thriller
🎧 The Dispatcher (The Dispatcher #1; by John Scalzi; narrated by Zachary Quinto) #Mystery
🎧 Murder by Other Means (The Dispatcher #2; by John Scalzi; narrated by Zachary Quinto) #Mystery
🎧 Travel by Bullet (The Dispatcher #2; by John Scalzi; narrated by Zachary Quinto) #Mystery
📚 The Orchid Affair (Pink Carnation #8; by Lauren Willig) #SpyThriller

TBR
🎧 King Leopold’s Ghost (by Adam Hochschild; narrated by Geoffrey Howard)
📚 The Kills: Sutler (by Richard House)
📚 The Orchid Affair (Pink Carnation #8; by Lauren Willig)

OCTOBER

__________________________________________________________________________________
Hosmer Lake, Deschutes National Forest, Central Oregon. The water is so clear you can see masses of rainbow trout moving through the slow currents. Mount Bachelor on the left.

AlphaKit N & V
📚 Never Let Me Go (by Kazuo Ishiguro)
📚 Velvet Devil & Velvet Angel (Vorobev Bratva Duology; by Nicole Fox) #Bratva
🎧 No One is Talking About This (by Patricia Lockwood; narrated by Kristen Sieh)

Audio
🎧 Sea of Rust (by C. Robert Cargill; narrated by Eva Kaminsky)
🎧 No One is Talking About This (by Patricia Lockwood; narrated by Kristen Sieh)
🎧 The Proud Tower (by Barbara Tuchman; narrated by Wanda McCaddon)

Graphic Novels
📚 The Labyrinth (by Simon Stålenhag) #SciFi #PostApocalyptic

Historical Fiction & NF
📚 1804 - The Garden Intrigue (Pink Carnation #9; by Lauren Willig)
🎧 1890 - 1914 The Proud Tower (by Barbara Tuchman; narrated by Wanda McCaddon) #NonFiction

Romances
📚 Velvet Devil & Velvet Angel (Vorobev Bratva Duology; by Nicole Fox)
📚 The Garden Intrigue (Pink Carnation #9; by Lauren Willig) #GeorgianRomance #Melodrama

SFF /SFFkit
🎧 Sea of Rust (by C. Robert Cargill; narrated by Eva Kaminsky) #PostApocalyptic
📚 Never Let Me Go (by Kazuo Ishiguro) #Dystopia
📚 The Labyrinth (by Simon Stålenhag) #SciFi #PostApocalyptic

Suspense / Thrillers / Mysteries
📚 The Garden Intrigue (Pink Carnation #9; by Lauren Willig) #SpyThriller

TBR
🎧 Sea of Rust (by C. Robert Cargill; narrated by Eva Kaminsky)
🎧 No One is Talking About This (by Patricia Lockwood; narrated by Kristen Sieh)

NOVEMBER
____________________
______________________________Mount McLoughlin, East from Roxy Ann Peak in Medford, Oregon ______________________________

AlphaKit G, U, X
🎧 The Guns of August (The Coming of the Great War #2; by Barbara W. Tuchman; narrated by Wanda McCaddon)
🎧 North to Paradise (by Ousman Umar; narrated by Kwesi Busia)
📚 Aunt Bessie Assumes (Isle of Man Cozy Mystery #1; by Diana Xarissa)

Audio
🎧 Pet Sematary (by Stephen King; narrated by Michael C. Hall)
🎧 The Guns of August (The Coming of the Great War #2; by Barbara W. Tuchman; narrated by Wanda McCaddon)
🎧 North to Paradise (by Ousman Umar; narrated by Kwesi Busia)

Graphic Novels
📚 Squirrel Do Bad (Trubble Town #1; by Stephan Pastis) #Childrens #Humor

Historical Fiction & NF
📚 1863 - 1871 The Color of Lightning (by Paulette Jiles)
🎧 1914 - The Guns of August (The Coming of the Great War #2; by Barbara W. Tuchman; narrated by Wanda McCaddon)
📚 1920s - 1960s Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music (by Ted Gioia)
🎧 2001 - North to Paradise (by Ousman Umar; narrated by Kwesi Busia)

Horror/ScaredyKit
🎧 Pet Sematary (by Stephen King; narrated by Michael C. Hall)

Romances
📚 Alpha's Temptation: A Billionaire Werewolf Romance (Bad Boy Alphas #1; by Renee Rose & Lee Savino) #Billionaire #Werewolf #Shifters
📚 Tarnished Tyrant & Tarnished Queen (Zhukova Bratva duology; by Nicole Fox) #Bratva
📚 Corrupted Chaos (Tarnished Empire #2; by Shain Rose) #Bratva

Suspense / Thrillers / Mysteries
📚 Aunt Bessie Assumes (Isle of Man Cozy Mystery #1; by Diana Xarissa) #CozyMystery

TBR
📚 Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music (by Ted Gioia)
🎧 Pet Sematary (by Stephen King; narrated by Michael C. Hall)

DECEMBER

AlphaKit W & Y
📚 You Better Not Cry (by Augusten Burroughs)
🎧 The Wright Brothers (written & narrated by David McCullogh) #NonFiction
📚 The Passion of the Purple Plumeria (Pink Carnation #10; by Lauren Willig)
📚 The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla (Pink Carnation #11; by Lauren Willig)

Audio
🎧 A Christmas Carol (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Anton Lesser)
🎧 The Wright Brothers (written & narrated by David McCullogh)
🎧 Christmas Eve, 1914 (by Charles Oliver; performed by a full cast)
🎧 The Zimmermann Telegram (by Barbara W. Tuchman; narrated by Wanda McCaddon)

Classics
🎧 A Christmas Carol (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Anton Lesser)

Historical Fiction & NF
📚 1805 - The Passion of the Purple Plumeria (Pink Carnation #10; by Lauren Willig) #HistoricalFiction
📚 1806 - The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla (Pink Carnation #11; by Lauren Willig) #HistoricalFiction
🎧 1843 - A Christmas Carol (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Anton Lesser) #PeriodFiction
📚 1895 - 1945 Mademoiselle Chanel (by C. W. Gortner) #HistoricalFiction
🎧 1899 - 1909 The Wright Brothers (written & narrated by David McCullogh) #NonFiction
📚 1914 - The African Queen (by C. S. Forester) #HistoricalFiction
🎧 1914 - Christmas Eve, 1914 (by Charles Oliver; performed by a full cast)
🎧 1917 - The Zimmermann Telegram ( by Barbara W. Tuchman; narrated by Wanda McCaddon)
📚 1970 - 2009 You Better Not Cry (by Augusten Burroughs) #Memoirs

Romances
📚 Some Like It Charming (It's Only Temporary #1; by Megan Bryce)
📚 Some LIke It Ruthless(It's Only Temporary #2; by Megan Bryce)
📚 Some Like It Perfect (It's Only Temporary #3; by Megan Bryce)
📚 Some Like It Hopeless (It's Only Temporary #4; by Megan Bryce)
📚 The African Queen (by C. S. Forester)
📚 The Plight Before Christmas (by Kate Stewart) #ContemporaryRomance #SecondChance # RomCom
📚 The Passion of the Purple Plumeria (Pink Carnation #10; by Lauren Willig) #Melodrama #GeorgianRomance
📚 The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla (Pink Carnation #11; by Lauren Willig) #Melodrama #GeorgianRomance

Suspense / Thrillers / Mysteries
📚 The Passion of the Purple Plumeria (Pink Carnation #10; by Lauren Willig) #SpyThriller
📚 The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla (Pink Carnation #11; by Lauren Willig) #SpyThriller

TBR
📚 You Better Not Cry (by Augusten Burroughs)
📚 Mademoiselle Chanel (by C. W. Gortner)
📚 The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla (Pink Carnation #11; by Lauren Willig)

_________________________

Currently Reading

📚 1915 - The House of Special Purpose (by John Boyne) #HistoricalFiction
📚 2002 - 2005 The Kills: The Massive (The Kills #2; by Richard House) #HistoricalFiction

Looks like you are ready for 2022, Tanya! Oregon is one of my favorite states to travel through and since I doubt if we will be doing much travelling this year, I am looking forward to doing so on your thread.

Flexible plans are good! Enjoy your reading year :)

Have never been to the Pacific coast, I'm sure it's beautiful! Good luck with your 2022 reading.

Flexible is always a good plan! Happy reading!

Wow, all set and picked. Good for you! Good luck with the challenge and with the year.

Hope you have some good reading.

Good luck and good reading in 2022.

Enjoy your reading! Looking at your list, I did smile when I saw Captain Bluebear, I really enjoyed that one.

Excellent reading plan! I like your organized approach!

Have a great year of reading!

January's Stack!

The first two titles are one that I definitely intend to read/complete in January.
The second grouping is a list of books I hope to get to, but could start later in the year in order to reach my goals.
And the third list contains those titles that I hope to get to if I have time.

📚 The Cuckoo's Calling (by Robert Galbraith; narrated by Robert Glenister) #Mystery #MysteryKit #Series
📚 Roadwork (by Stephen King) #Horror #AlphaKit_R

📚 The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (by Lauren Willig) #PinkCarnation
📚 Under the Empyrean Sky (by Chuck Wendig) #SFF
📚 Two Faces of January (by Patricia Highsmith) #Thrillers / #Suspense #AlphaKit_H
📚 13-1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear (by Walter Moers) #Zamonia #SFF
📚 Running the Rift (by Naomi Benaron) #HistoricalFiction #AlphaKit_R

📚 King Lear (by William Shakespeare) #ShakespeareCat #KingLearAndItsThemes
📚 Slaughterhouse 5 (by Kurt Vonnegut) #VEE
📚 Venus on the Half Shell (by Kilgore Trout) #VEE

Great reading plans!

I loved "13-1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear" as a teenager and have wanted to reread it for a long time.
Captain Bluebear was also my favorite part of "The Show with the Mouse" which I used to watch every Sunday after returning home from church during all of my childhood years. He tells a story in the end of each episode. I still get emotional whenever I hear the music.

Happy reading in 2022! You've already chosen some good books!

>26 MissBrangwen: I had no idea there was a cartoon? live action? iteration of Captain Bluebear! I just looked up "Die Sendung mit der Maus", but at first glance, it doesn't look there's a US DVD or streaming option. I'll have to investigate further :-)

>28 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I'll try and link a clip here, I have no idea if you can access this from the US, though!

Käpt'n Blaubär on YouTube

"Die Maus" is such a classic in Germany! :-)

>29 MissBrangwen: Oh, wow! Thank you! My German is okay, but not great... but this is a perfect way for me to re-ground myself! Now that I know specifically what to look for, there are a lot of Käpt'n Blaubär episodes to soak in! (And the animation is charming!) :-)

Well, I accidentally started early! The plan was for me to to start an audiobook now and finish it up over the New Year's weekend; but I started and finished my planned listen in four days! A couple of nights where I couldn't sleep or a day where I had to wait in line for get my COVID booster shot is all it took...

The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike #1; by Robert Galbraith; narrated by Robert Glenister) - Cormoran Strike, ex military police has set up shop in the London, England area as a private detective. Robin, a young temp, is thrilled to be assigned a secretarial position despite the rundown conditions and low pay. When John Bristow, an upper class attorney approaches Strike in regard to a suspicious suicide, Comoran & Robin work out their professional relationship as they resolve whether or not the suicide was actually murdered or not; and if murdered, by whom. The narrative arc, scenes and, characters are all solid; but as a mystery that fully or actively engages the reader, it falls a little short in the last 10% of the novel. Cormoran Strike knows what has happened before the reader does, extrapolating from evidence that is not shared with the reader. It feels like a bit of a cheat to bring the reader along for the ride, but then deny the epiphany. The audiobook narrator, Robert Glenister does well with character delineation even if I don't personally agree with the choices made for various characters (e.g. a character described as "Byronic" in the text was rendered with a rather nasal, grating voice). The audio itself seems to run a bit fast-- so much so that I slowed it done a touch. Overall, I was pleasantry surprised with this mystery, being richer in atmosphere and character than I was expecting from the author of the Harry Potter series; but I am not hooked enough to proactively seek out other titles in this (Cormoran Strike) series.

>31 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I'm also starting a CAT early as I requested it from the library and they said 2 weeks and I got it in 2 days.

>31 Tanya-dogearedcopy: You got Kim (by Rudyard Kipling), IIRC? I was thinking about that one myself and even started a the first minute or so in audio (narrated by Sam Dastor) but it didn't grab me. I'm thinking about getting a print version myself and joining the Reading Through Time discussions actively (Right now I'm just lurking...)

>33 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Yes, I did! However, mine is narrated by Ralph Gosham. I'm not liking it either.....it's not grabbing me at the mo! Seems like a Dickens, only the writing is not as good.

Yay for an early start!

I'm going to start the day after tomorrow, on Christmas Eve! :-)

The Cuckoo's Calling is on my tbr, too, but I'm not sure if I'll get to it this year. I've owned it for a long time, but there are so many other great series that seem to be of more interest!

Oh, wow, the COVID booster shot laid me out for a day! My first round was the adenovirus-based Johnson & Johnson shot and while, I felt "off" for a day or two, it wasn't a deterrent to my moving through the world. This time, I took the MRNA-based Moderna shot and I am grateful that I had the time off from work! I spent the day dozing, eating a little bit, and listening to The Strangler Vine (Avery & Blake #1; by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham). I'm glad to have taken the opportunity to have re-listened to this title as I was able to pick up much more detail and nuance in this story about British Colonialism in India and Thugee culture/propaganda as well as the melodramatic overtones of the adventure itself (tiger hunts, a Raj, fabulous jewels...)! This is a spy thriller/mystery featuring a young, naive officer in the employ of the British East India Company who, together with with the older "Inquiry Agent", Blake, set out to find a controversial poet whose work has been adding to the tensions between the Indian natives and the British. Alex Wyndham reigns in his usual exuberance in narration, but does a nice job in telling the story and embodying the characters. I was about to queue up the second in the series, hoping it would take place in Afghanistan, but a peek at the publisher's summary tells me it is set in Victorian London.

I'm not quite ready to return there myself, so I've started Kim (by Rudyard Kipling; narrated by Sam Dastor). I've just started so there isn't much to tell yet: Kim is an English boy raised in India as an Indian. Right now, he's eavesdropping on a conversation between a Buddhist lama and a museum curator... I'm lurking over on the Reading Through Time group for a bit and this will fit their January theme of "Eastern Religion".

>36 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Hi Tanya, sorry to read that your booster shot affected you in that way. All I ever got from all three of my shots was a sore arm. I am happy that I have been protected as much as possible, as things are being to look a little bleak again.

Last night I finished reading, Roadwork (by Stephen King) - Bart Dawes is a middle-aged married man living in suburbia, but a road extension is being built through his neighborhood and has destabilized his already precarious mental state. Lashing out in rage at perceived tyrannies, he perpetuates a series of self- and other destructive acts. King, who often populates his novels in the past with characters who own a sort of pop-psychology that gives shape to Everyman philosophy (e.g. Glen Bateman in The Stand) twists this a bit in Roadwork: Bart rationalizes his behavior in a series of reflections & retorts that reflect the ugliness of his character, and possibly that of the 1970s male ethos as perceived by the author. This is a problematic book to like or even appreciate as King doesn't give the 21st-century reader a character or cause to root for. Personally, of the dozen King novels I have read, my least favorite and would have difficulty recommending in any context.

ETA:
I got through the two titles that I definitely wanted to read in January-- so now I'm heading into the second grouping-- which I'm calling my "Hopefuls" (Books I hope to get to get to sooner rather than later) :-)

Next: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (Pink Carnation #1; by Lauren Willig)

I just finished listening to Kim (by Rudyard Kipling; narrated by Indian-born British narrator, Sam Dastor) and, despite a false start and a certain ambivalence about the beginning chapters (eponymous character as a rather glib and sly street urchin), I ended up marveling at how it all the worked out. The aforementioned street urchin becomes attached to a Buddhist Lama on the streets of Calcutta and so begins the spiritual journey of the Lama to find a river and, the bildungsroman of a Eurasian child into a spy taking part in "The Great Game". Some of the voice characterizations that Dastor renders seem a little over the top and it's easy to miss the humor in a couple of situations, but the same character delineations are strong and he keeps the pace steady throughout to the end. Still, I think that if I were to re-read or recommend, the print version might be the way to go if only to see some of the Hindi & Afghan words and/or make some passages a bit clearer. There's a Norton Critical Edition that I've got my eye on...

Next: The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (by Peter Hopkirk; narrated by Alex Wyndham)

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (Pink Carnation #1; by Lauren Willig) - Part romance, part historical fiction, part spy thriller, the question that makes this melodrama part mystery is the question, "Who is the Pink Carnation?" Eloise, a 21st century scholar hopes to find out who this contemporary of The Scarlet Pimpernel is and heads to London to find out. Granted access to the Selwick family papers, she and the reader are immersed in a fun tale of adventure and intrigue, as well as some classically cliché lines like '"Unhand her," Richard snapped' which can be met with both a roll-of-the-eyes and a giggle without irony. Napolean's court, moonlight gardens, the grimy alleys of Paris and, a super-secret interrogation room are some of the many dramatic settings serving as the backdrop against which men in black capes & masks and women in ripped bodices cavort... The is the first-in-series and I'm looking forward to seeing what other stories are in the Selwicks' possession :-)

Next: Under the Empyrean Sky (Heartland Trilogy #1; by Chuck Wendig)

Hi, Tanya!

>40 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Welp, I think that's the first new addition to my wishlist of the new year! It sounds really good!

>40 Tanya-dogearedcopy:
>41 scaifea: What she said!

It's New Year's Eve and we're just now winding up the day and starting up our at-home NYE plans: a roast beef and salmon dinner with cocktails, a Viennese Waltz on the stereo and, maybe a Classic movie yet to be determined :-)

I spent the afternoon reading the YA dystopian novel, Under the Empyrean Sky (Heartland Trilogy #1; by Chuck Wendig) - The earth has been taken over by non-edible genetically-modified crops and, the elite live in floating flotillas in the sky while the farmers toil away in the fields. On the ground, amidst pollen storms, The Blight and, aggressive corn, Cael and his family & friends struggle against the system (The Empyrean) to survive. Taken to scavenging, Cael and his crew discover an unsanctioned garden out in the fields and the impossible starts to look possible... The settings, characters and plot points are all sketched in; but seem to lack full development or color, which in turn enervates the action or drama of any given scene. Overall, a bit of a disappointment if you're looking for something dark or edgy (cf Blackbirds (Miriam Black #1)).

Next: The Two Faces of January (by Patrica Highsmith).

>43 Tanya-dogearedcopy: What a great evening! Happy new year!

>40 Tanya-dogearedcopy: So glad you enjoyed The Secret History of the Pink Carnation! That series is such fun. I almost included it in my series challenge this year, but I couldn't quite fit it in. Maybe in 2023!

>40 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I should try that series. I read a stand-alone by Willig (at least I think it was a stand-alone) a couple of years ago that vied for my top read of the year.

Last night, I stayed up a bit later than usual to finish Patricia Highsmith's mystery/suspense novel, The Two Faces of January. Rydal Keener is an American living the life of a flaneur in Greece when he spots a man sho strongly resembles his father. And so begins the fateful cat-and-mouse course of events for Rydal and an American couple on the lam in Athens. The narrative unfolds with plot twists and the inner machinations of the two men in what I can only describe as a sort of mesmeric style not unlike watching a car wreck happen in slow motion: You know it's going to be bad, but you can't tear your eyes away! Inasmuch as I consider Shirley Jackson the master of horror in her ability to inject psychological suspense into her stories (cf The Haunting of Hill House), so too I view Patricia Highsmith in regard to the thriller genre.

Next: The 131/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear (Zamonia #1; by Walter Moers)

>46 thornton37814: I went over to StopYoureKillingMe.com to see what else Lauren Willig had written and discovered there’s a novella-length sequel to The Secret History of the Pink Carnation— Ivy and Intrigue— so I know what I’m reading this weekend!

If you happen to remember what the book is that you read a couple years ago, I’d very much like to know :-)

Last night, I read, Ivy & Intrigue (Pink Carnation #2.5; by Lauren Willig) - This novella is set at Uppington Hall, the English country estate of the Selwicks in the early 19th century (1804). Richard & Amy are hosting Christmas with family, friends & neighbors-- which include Richard's first amour, Dierdre. Jealousy, intrigue and of course, the pre-requisite dash of melodrama are packed into this interstitial tale. I mistakenly thought this was a direct follow-up to the first-in-series (it's actually meant to be read after the second book in the run) so I had a couple things spoiled for me; but it didn't ruin the fun :-) There's a framing story set in the 21st century when an American researcher doing work on the Selwick family visits Uppington Hall. This part is less resolved and satisfactory... I can't wait to get back into the series to see how all this works out!

>49 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Intriguing ;-)
I'll check this out to add to my series TBR.

_____________________________________________
_________________________ Mount Shasta (top wreathed in clouds) from a Scenic Vista Point on I-5, Northern California____________________

I didn't take my personal days off in 2021, so I have to take them all this month! Today, I headed to Mt. Shasta, CA (Ski Park)-- so I had a total 3-hour round-trip drive during which I got to finish the audiobook I was listening to, The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (by Peter Hopkirk; narrated by Alex Wyndham). This is non-fiction, but reads like an adventure tale with massacres that made me weep (Kyber Pass 1842) and, amazing feats of strategy, leadership &, courage; but more importantly, an overview of the geopolitics then that still have ramifications today. The narrator, a British reader who has become one of my favorites, related tales with his signature touch of controlled exuberance that engages without sensationalism. The only reason I'm not giving this a full five stars is because I still have to go buy the book for the maps! (I did a quick internet search for various places, but still...) 4.5 stars

ETA: Next: The Infidel Stain (Avery & Blake #2; by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham)

How beautiful and nice that you get some time off--enjoy!

_____________________________________________
_________________________ Jacksonville, OR -- an old mining town. The bookstore used to be a blacksmith's shop in the late 19th century.____________________

First hike of the year! 2-miles-in/2-miles-out in sunny, mid-fifties-degree Fahrenheit weather. The trail was in the Sterling Mine Ditch Trail system and while there were some amazing views of Pilot Rock from the Bear Gulch Trail, I thought I would do something besides another mountain shot! Jacksonville is an old mining town and, for those who have read The Sisters Brothers (by Patrick deWitt), it's one of the places where the brothers stop en route... You can enjoy a salad at the local saloon/bar, but most of the town as it stands today was built about twenty to forty years after the events in the book.

I took a break from reading and listening to an audiobook today but will probably start another audiobook tomorrow and continue to read The 13-1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear (by Walter Moers). I had planned on crashing through the latter over the weekend, but as I dug in on Friday, I realized it's not that kind of book where you "page-binge". It's an absurdist's fantasy adventure where this thing happens and the next thing happens; but it doesn't have a particular narrative arc. It's more like a catalogue of interesting things as Captain Bluebear moves through different stages in his life. It's not a boring book but one that I realize that I'll be nibbling at for a while. I'm moving the next two books, Rumo: And His Miraculous Adventures and The City of Dreaming Books off of my 2022 reading plan. They are not part of "The 22" and I can come back to them at another time without feeling a loss of continuity.

I did finish listening to The Infidel Stain (Blake & Avery #2; by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham) - Avery & Blake "inquire" after the death of two printers in 1841. The Chartist Movement, classicism and poverty are the backdrop against which the gruesome, ritualistic murders take place and which the two former soldiers in the East India Trading Company race against false accusations and red herrings. M.J. Carter has indulged in her love of research and brings into focus the rich/poor divide, industrialization and urbanization that lead to it and, the efforts of many to eradicate it. Though I'm disappointed that the author didn't set this in Afghanistan, there was a summary account of Avery's three-year stint there. I had only one quibble with the audiobook narrator's performance in that his Irish character didn't sound so much Irish as a much as something just terribly strained; but character distinctions were never lost (and there were many!)

Next: Tess of the D'Urbervilles (by Thomas Hardy) and The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company (by William Dalrymple; narrated by Sid Sagar)

>53 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Hardy, one of my top 5 fav authors! Love, Tess.

As to Dalrymple, I loved his White Mughals. I will look forward to your review of your read.

>51 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I really need to begin that series. I read a stand-alone by Willig a couple years ago, and it was one of my favorites of the year.

_____________________________________________
Ponderosa Pine & Madrone are 2 trees that are common in Southern OR. The tree trunk on the left/back belongs to a Ponderosa, while the peeling bark on the right belongs to a Madrone.

On Friday, a day spent at Mt. Shasta skiing and today, a 4.25-mile hike in Cathedral Hills near Grants Pass (Southern Oregon) - I have to admit that after spending time outdoors, it's often difficult for me to settle down to reading or be at the computer, so this will be a brief update:

Last night, I did manage to finish reading, The Wrong Kind of Love (The Boys of Jackson Harbor #1; by Lexi Ryan) - Nic's wedding day ends in disaster and she ends up in Jackson, IL-- a lake side community with a OB-GYN doctor/single dad, Ethan in need of a nanny for his daughter. The title comes from a line within, "Love born in a lie is the wrong kind of love." Well, there is a lot of lying in this book: lies by commission, lies of commission, white lies, self-deluding lies... but the underlying theme is how clinical depression is the biggest liar of all. Kudos for Ms Ryan for tackling a complex issue in a small town contemporary romance; but I'm not sold that it made this a good, much less great romance. A lot of joy and humor was subverted in service to the theme which made the pre-requisite HEA somewhat rote and dull. Ordinary sex graphically depicted, again somewhat rendered prosaic by the tension and issues at hand.

I'm currently reading:
• The 13-1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear (by Walter Moers) - As I mentioned, a little goes a long way so I'll be chipping away at this for the rest of February!
• The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company (by William Dalrymple; narrated by Sid Sagar) - Love this, love this, love this! I really had no idea of the scope of the EIC on the global scale and this has been really eye-opening! My only regret is that I don't have the pictures/illustrations in front of me. I'm tempted to get a print or e-copy when I'm done, which should be by the end of the week. From there, I hope I can squeeze in The Devil's Feast (Blake & Avery #3; by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham).
• Tess of the D'Urbervilles (by Thomas Hardy) - This is a Classic set in Wessex (Fictional name given to South England, though interestingly, it is now recognized by a lot of British people.) Tess is a country girl whose parents have delusions of grandeur based on their ancestry. Sent to look up her better-off kin, she runs afoul of Alec, her "cousin". I'm reading the Penguin edition-- which is the 1891 text with footnotes from others MSS (Hardy reworked the text several times for his satisfaction or those of magazine publishers/editors). I don't think "enjoying" it is the right way to express my appreciation for the story, so I will leave it at "really into it". I curl up in a quiet place in the house and read a few chapters at a time. This is from my February stack, but I started early as I expect it will take me a bit to finish. After that, I'll dig into the rest of my February list:

1st Priority:
📚 Finishing Tess of the D’Urbervilles (by Thomas Hardy)
📚 Cujo (by Stephen King)

2nd Priority:
📚 Finishing The 13-1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear (Zamonia #1; by Walter Moers)
📚 The Masque of the Black Tulip (Pink Carnation #2 by Lauren Willig)
📚 Bad Marie (by Marcey Dermansky)
📚 Running the Rift (by Naomi Benaron) (rolled over from January stack)
📚 Henry V: The Warrior King of 1415 (by Ian Mortimer)

3rd Priority:
📚 Slaughterhouse-Five (by Kurt Vonnegut) (rolled over from January stack; but a great fit for the SFFkit February challenge of "Time Travel"!)
📚 Venus on the Half Shell (by Kilgore Trout) (rolled over from January stack; Kiligore Trout is a character on Slaughterhouse-Five and the pseudonym of the author of this pulp tale.)

It will be a short month, but I think I can get most of these in! :-)

>56 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Love to hear the praise for The Anarchy. I think I'll move this up the pile for February.

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Manzanita is a wild shrub in Southern OR that can actually grow to about 12' high or more! We've hit a warm patch (~ 50-degrees-F) which has forced some early blooms.

Another 2-in/2-out mile hike today in the Applegate Valley. The warmish weather makes for beautiful clear skies; but also waaay too many other hikers, dogs (some unleashed), and bikers. The trails are narrow so it added to the overcrowded effect. Still, it was nice to get out!

I finished listening to The Devil's Feast (Blake & Avery #3; by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham) this morning. This final installment in the series has Blake & Avery in a Victorian Era club kitchen investigating the death of a member. Poisoning is suspected, but accidental or murder? Carter takes a look at the kitchen and life of the first celebrity chef, Alexis Soyer and the reader/listener has a fully realized depiction of his flamboyancy and the workings of his trade. The author's research is heavier here than in The Infidel Stain, and the actual mystery suffered a little more. There are a lot of characters and red herrings to keep track of and; the ending didn't land as solid as I would have liked. But I still regret that Carter did not continue this series.

Next: I need to really drill down on finishing Tess of the D’Urbervilles (by Thomas Hardy) and The 13-1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear (Zamonia #1; by Walter Moers). They've been lingering too long and I'm afraid if it goes on much longer, I'll "lose" them to attritional function: a gradual lessening of presence and attention in my reading world... So, no distracting audio this week!

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_____________________________________________ Buck Rock Tunnel, Ashland Oregon_____________________________________________

Today we were back in Ashland, OR, hiking the Buck Rock Trails. Today, it was a 5+ mile hike though new growth forests of Ponderosa, clear skies and only one other couple :-) In the 1880s, the Oregon & California Railroad surveyed the area and started a tunnel-- but the effort was abandoned, leaving the beginnings of the tunnel from both sides as is! You can walk in to about 100 feet before you hit some sort of high ledge, and it's a little spooky in there (and very, very dark); but there's no risk of collapse.

Yesterday, I finally finished, Tess of the D'Urbervilles (by Thomas Hardy)! This Classic (originally published in 1891) is the tragedy of a young country girl/woman in Wessex during the 1870s who tries to make her way through the world with love and a sense of dignity, even as her world is corrupted by outside influences. There is plenty of fodder for literary criticism and discussion, but what cannot be rendered equivocal is the richness of the text and the vivid, painterly portrayals of the settings and characters. This edition contains endnotes that compare other MSS of the text (Hardy made revisions/redactions to accommodate himself and various publications, most notably Graphic in the latter case), as well as references to paintings that the author was influenced by; Biblical citations & notes and; song attributions... all of which are in equal measures tedious and enlightening.

Next: Bluebear's twelfth life is a bit longer than I was expecting, but I will finish The 13-1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear (by Walter Moers) this coming week! Then, The Moonstone (by Wilkie Collins; narrated by Ronald Pickup and others) and Cujo (by Stephen King).

ICYMBI, This 2016 article from The Guardian about Tess of the d'Urbervilles (by Thomas Hardy), "Bones found at prison may belong to real-life Tess of the d'Urbervilles" (by Steven Morris):
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/19/thomas-hardy-tess-of-the-durbervil...

>59 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Tess is the next Thomas Hardy novel for me after I read Far from the Madding Crowd in January (my first one by this author). I'm looking forward to it and hope to get to it this summer!
I will read the article after I have read the novel.
And I'm looking forward to your thoughts about The Moonstone - it was on my list last year, but I didn't make it, so it's still waiting on the shelf.

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Cattle ranch, vineyard & Siskiyou foothills in Southern Oregon along I-5 on Sunday: In the valley, blue skies prevailed while the landscape beneath was frosted w/graupel

After a "False Spring", the area experienced a little bit of the "Polar Plunge" and we got 13" of snow up on the mountain! It was very exciting and I was eager to get up to the slopes today; but I left after just a handful of runs. I couldn't quite get my groove in and; poor visibility and (poor) trail definition didn't help... I thought about hanging out in the lodge next to one of the fireplaces with my "emergency book" , but I was a little bit disgruntled that they weren't serving my favorite lunch up there (a homemade tomato basil soup with a grilled cheese sandwich)--- so I came back to house for some naps and light reading :-)

As for reading this past week, I finished The Moonstone (by Wilkie Collins; narrated by Ronald Pickup, Sean Barrett, David Timson, Jamie Parker, Jonathan Oliver, Fenella Woolgar and, Joe Marsh). Published in 1868, this mystery is set in the country house belonging to the Verinders. A rare and large diamond has passed into the hands of a young woman and, before the night is out, the gem is missing! Told in epistolary form from eight (?) POVs, this leaves you guessing up until the very end as to who, how and why. Though there is one "loose-ish" end (How is it that Dr. Candy recovers?), I found it entertaining and am looking forward to picking up The Woman in White in the future. My only quibble with the audio (which had so many amazing narrators) is that there didn't seem to be any overall directorial guidance-- so sometimes the steward's daughter is Irish and sometimes not!

I spent the afternoon with hot chocolate, napping and reading, Cry Wolf (Alpha & Omega #1; by Patricia Briggs) instead of the other couple of books on my nightstand. “Alpha & Omega” is a paranormal romance series featuring werewolves, a spinoff from the popular Mercy run of titles which are not required reading for this one. Ann & Charles are two werewolves who have met and are taking things slow as they try to figure out their relationship-- all while trying to deal with a rogue wolf attack that poses a threat to the pack's security. I was actually hooked after reading the prequel last month (where Ann & Charles meet), and while this has a pretty good action line that keeps the plot moving, I did find myself glossing over a few places where the person speaking or what was going on isn’t 100% crystal clear. I'm okay with stopping here; but if the next title in the series were to show up as a Kindle deal or whatever, I would probably pick it up. Maybe I'll give the Mercy series another try one of these days too.

I am sooo close to finishing The 13-1/2 Live of Captain Bluebear (by Walter Moers)! The twelfth life is quite a bit longer than the other chapters and it didn't help, that I actually lost the 700-plus-page-novel-with-a-bright-yellow-cover-featuring-a-big-blue-bear for a few days! (It slipped between my bed and the wall, landing on its spine).

I'm currently listening to Koh-i-Noor (by Anita Anand & William Dalrymple; narrated by Leighton Pugh). This is a narrative NF title about the famed diamond that is the basis for The Moonstone and which currently sits in the British Royal Crown. The first part is written by Dalrymple (the Scottish historian who wrote The Anarchy) and delves into the history of the gemstone. A lot of this material is replicated in The Anarchy-- so, a little disappointing because "been there, done that" but I'm looking forward to Anand's section which delves into the more recent issues around the "cursed" jewel.

I'm dragging my feet a little bit with Cujo (by Stephen King), not because it's horrific, but because I feel sorry for the dog...

Setting up my March reading! I've been tweaking my lists a little bit. So far, I haven't succeeded in reading any of my "Tier 3" or "3rd Priority" reads. They weren't part of "The 22" so I've deleted those titles from my reading ambitions. "The 22" plus whatever else catches my eye seem to be filling up my dance card quite nicely! Similarly, there were a couple of categories, #VEE (for the 22nd letter of the alphabet) and #LitsyTBR that weren't working out so they have been replaced with #TBR (books acquired before January 1, 2022) and #Audio.

For March:
📚 Cujo (by Stephen King) - If I don't wrap this one up before the end of this week, I'll be carrying it over into the first week in March

1st Priority
📚 Rosemary's Baby (by Ira Levin) #ScaredyKit #Switched
📚 The Masque of the Black Tulip (Pink Carnation #2; by Lauren Willig)

2nd Priority
📚 Bad Marie (by Marcy Dermansky)
📚 Running the Rift (by Naomi Benaron)

🎧 In addition, I've got Hard Times (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Anton Lesser) queued up.

I love that March is a long month. It's the perfect antidote to the short reading month of February! :-)

Ah! I finished reading The 13-1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear (by Walter Moers) yesterday afternoon! This is a children’s absurdist fantasy tale of a big blue bear and his adventures through the stages of his life thus far. The author has built an extraordinary world, Zamonia in which anthropomorphic animals, inter-dimensional aliens and, even a few humans roam! Pen & black ink drawings pepper the pages and underscore the detailed descriptions of people and places. This tall tale is as elaborate as it is long: 700+ pages filled with lists and encyclopedia entries and, admittedly it sometimes gets a bit tedious. One can imagine this as more of a story that a parent might read to their children at bedtime, a little section at a time—for months on end! (As an adult, I might appreciate it more if it were read to me!) Bronson Pinchot narrates this first-in-series as well as a couple of the sequels. His ability to handle this type of material (cf The League of Princes series by Christopher Healy) are persuasive arguments in favor of listening to the next book in the series, Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures in audio.

Next: Finish Cujo (by Stephen King) - Usually I avoid books with dogs on the cover as I always feel like it’s a cheap, manipulative trick to get me to respond emotionally, i.e. cry. Somehow, this being Stephen King, I didn’t think I would develop a sympathetic response to Cujo; but 75 pages in, here we are! LOL, My husband is like, “I don’t think it supposed to work that way…”

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Medford, OR; public access land adjacent to a private farm: DH & The Triple Dog Dare Pack (You can see our Newfie/lab mix in the irrigation ditch)

I wasn't feeling 100% this past week and, in fact took most of Tuesday off! I'm wicked tired with a little bit of a headache; but no fever, no chills, negative COVID at-home tests... Though I went back to work and did alright for the rest of last week, today we decided to basically do a glorified dog walk instead of an all-out multi-mile hike. Even that was a bit much and we turned back early. Then, I was on the phone with my mother and she was like, "You go through this every year! Take your allergy meds!" Oh, duh. The False Spring and wet weather forced a lot of things into bloom when I would ordinarily be just looking at crocuses poking through the snow! I grabbed some more Zyrtec at the pharmacy so the week ahead should go a lot better! Anyway, not much to inspire a "postcard" today-- so I grabbed a photo from a dog walk in 2016 when we still had three dogs! (LOL, As a "bonus" you get a rare photo of my husband!) :-)

This past week, I finished The 13-1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear (by Walter Moers) (see #64 above) and also finished the whole of Hard Times (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Anton Lesser)— a satirical anti-industrialism work and the shortest Dickens novel in his oeuvre. One of the first characters we meet is Josiah Bounderby, a man who boasts of his origins in poverty. At this point, all I could think of was the absurdist sketch, "The Four Yorkshiremen" from "At Last the 1948 Show"; and from there, imagining all the characters in the novel as Monty Python comics. From the ridiculous Mr. Bounderby to the Queen of Passive Aggressiveness, Mrs. Sparsit, they were all vividly and evocatively drawn.

https://youtu.be/DT1mGoLDRbc

I did not finish Cujo (by Stephen King but I am determined-- so I am not picking anything else up until this horror tale about a dog is done! But once it is done (by the end of the week/before the weekend?) I've got Rosemary's Baby (by Ira Levin) for the ScaredyKit, "Switched" theme. Hmmm, I'm thinking Cujo could work here too!

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_____________________________________Bald Eagle, Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, Northern CA_____________________________________

Every year for the past couple of years (February or early March), I trek out to the marshes of the Klamath National Wildlife Refuge in Northern California to the eagles! The first year, I saw the most, but didn't really have the camera lens to get a decent shot. And of course, now that I have a zoom lens, the eagle sightings have been fewer; but there were a half dozen this time around! When I first came to this area, I wondered if I would be able to tell if I saw an eagle or not; but then when you see one in the wild, there's no mistaking it! That white feathering is like a beacon!

We followed up today's Eagle Sighting with a 4+ mile hike (2+ mile-in/2+ mile-out) through rocky and muddy trails next to Howard Bay (Spence Mountain, Oregon). Sparkling water and some leftover snow patches... Gorgeous day if a tiny bit on the cold side!

This past week, I finished two titles and started two more:

• Cujo (by Stephen King) - This is a horror story ostensibly about a rabid dog who goes on a killing spree. Imbued with uncanny intuition/intelligence, his victims sense that he is "something more than a dog"; but this is not really about demonic possession as it is about the monsters at large that make us afraid everyday. After Roadwork, I was afraid that I was heading in to "Bad King Writing", but this was up there with 'Salem's Lot in terms of solid and nuanced writing.

• I've started Rosemary's Baby (by Ira Levin). This novella is about a young couple who move into a "cursed" building. It's clear that the young wife is being drugged and that, as confused as her thoughts are, something nightmarish is going on! I expect to finish early this week and maybe watch the movie next weekend.

• I also listened to Death in Delft (Master Mercurius #1 by Graham Brack; narrated by Alex Wyndham). This is a historical fiction mystery set in the Netherlands in 1670. Three girls have disappeared and the Protestant Minister/Roman Catholic priest (This duality is explained in the novel) is called in to help with the inquiry. Johannes Vermeer (Master Painter) and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (Father of Microbiology) appear as a sort of police sketch artist and forensic lab technician respectively. During Audible's site-wide sale last week, I purchased this one and listened to it quickly with the idea that if I liked it, I would go ahead and get the other two titles in the series. Unfortunately, it's pretty clear up front what has happened; the personal theology professed by Mercurious is slippery at best; the research was laid in a bit artlessly and; even one of my favorite narrators managed to disappoint in being overly actorly and sounding a bit too much like Simon Vance at times (Nothing wrong with Simon Vance! But if I wanted to hear SV, I would pick up an audiobook narrated by him!) Anyway, needless to say, I did not pick up the other two titles in the series.

• In The Devil's Feast (by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham), the story lifts a bit from Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers. (The "lift" is part of the story and fully acknowledged so it's not plagiarism). Not having read The Pickwick Papers before, I decided to get the audio (narrated by David Timson). The conceit is that a few well-meaning but naive gentlemen form an amateur social science club. They go around England collecting & recording stories. This is longer that I had anticipated at 31+ hours so I expect this will carry over into April.

Next Up: The Masque of the Black Tulip (Pink Carnation #2; by Lauren Willig)

>66 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I hope to complete The Pickwick Papers this month, also.

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________________________________________ Oregon Fawn Lily, Woodland Park, Jacksonville, OR ________________________________________

Last week, we opted for a "matinée hike" near the Britt in Jacksonville, OR. A matinée hike is what I call those low-impact/easy trails that patrons of the arts often take after brunch and before the Sunday showing of whatever's being offered at the local venue. In this case, the Britt is an outdoor concert venue where I've seen both orchestras and The Hollywood Vampires play! The Britt is closed right now but will be opening with a limited lineup of shows this Summer. However, the trails in the surrounding area are open. We saw the first "true" Spring Wildflowers of the year: Hound's Tongue, Shooting Stars and, Fawn Lilys...

I finished my First Priority reads for the month:

• Rosemary's Baby (by Ira Levin) - It's 1965 and the cultural zeitgeist declaims that "God is Dead", the Pope is touring the US and, Rosemary and Guy move into a cursed apartment in NYC. The times are a crucial factor in the story: The re-defining of religious paradigms and women's roles play into the uncertainty and fear that fuel the horror. But even fifty-plus years later, the shock value is still sharp in the nightmarish scenes that Rosemary experiences and in the manipulations of those around her. It's a period piece that holds up well.

• Bad Marie (by Marcy Dermansky) - Marie is an ex-convict cum nanny who reminds one of the Russian fable about the scorpion and the turtle: Promising not to sting, the scorpion overcomes the turtle's better judgement and scores a ride across the river. Reaching the other side, the scorpion stings and kills the turtle anyway saying in defense, "I am sorry, but I couldn't resist the urge. It's in my nature." There are a few turtles in this story, including Ellen, the childhood friend who hires Marie on; Benoît Doniel, Ellen's husband who has written Marie's favorite book; an Oscar-Award nominated actor who provides Marie a taste of life on the French Riviera... What becomes clear however, is that as Marie goes on the lam, is that these "turtles" have natures and stingers of their own. The only innocent of the story is Marie's charge, the toddler Katy, who attenuates Marie's proclivities. Still, there is a harrowing scene in which it becomes clear that even Katy cannot redeem "Bad Marie" however much we may root for Marie.

And started my Second Priority titles for March:

• The Masque of the Black Tulip (Pink Carnation #2; by Lauren Willig) - More melodrama, romance and, intrigue on the heel of the first-in-series, The Pink Carnation! Fun tales of clichéd dialogue, spies running around in cloaks, and the looming threat of Napoleon make this perfect for fans of the Scarlet Pimpernel, Regency Romance and/or those who just need some "mental floss" between heavier reads. I also went back and re-read Ivy & Intrigue which is a Christmas-themed novella that falls chronologically after this one.

I'm currently reading the other Second Priority March read on my list which has been rolling over since January!

• Running the Rift (by Naomi Benaron). - A historical novel set in Rwanda in the 1980s & onwards, this is about an aspiring Olympic runner. I've only read a few chapters so far: lots of banana beer being drunk, but the tensions against the Tutsi are starting to escalate.

I've also started reading Sea of Poppies (by Amitav Ghosh) - Taking place in 1837 against the backdrop of the East India Company's opium trade with China, the Ibis is heading to Calcutta to be inspected by its new owner before it is refitted from being a slave ship to a spice/cargo vessel.

I'm continuing with The Pickwick Papers (by Charles Dickens; narrated by David Timson) - Listening to a little bit every day, I look forward to "Wellerisms"-- the analogous quips Sam Weller comes up with (e.g., "Vich I call addin' insult to injury, as the parrot said ven they not only took him from his native land, but made him talk the English langwidge afterwards.") I just finished with the Christmas/skating party scene a couple days ago-- the quintessential Anglo holiday and the heart of much of Dickens' future writings, IMO. It is lovely.

I'm on track to finish Running the Rift, Sea of Poppies and, The Pickwick Papers by the end of the month-- but probably not any room for anything else!

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____________________ Pear blossoms in the Rogue Valley, Oregon (Market of Choice (Oregon grocery store chain) parking lot)____________________

Just a month ago, I posted a picture taken from a moving car on I-5 showing a cattle ranch, soft-hail frosted vineyards, mountains and blue sky (#62 above). Today, the orchards are free of frost, but the the pear trees are still white, this time with blossoms of True Spring! There are a lot of pear orchards here in the Rogue Valley which supply Harry & David (headquartered here and of "Fruit of the Month" and Fruit Basket fame)-- though in the past couple of years some of the orchards have been converted to hemp crops. There are still enough orchards though to make driving the back roads a pretty idyllic experience: It's like you're moving through a snow of petals and this incredible scent. But if you suffer from allergies , remember your Zyrtec!

I finished The Pickwick Papers (by Charles Dickens; narrated by David Timson) last night! I listened to a little bit every day, and looked forward to "Wellerisms"-- the analogous quips Sam Weller comes up with (e.g., "Vich I call addin' insult to injury, as the parrot said ven they not only took him from his native land, but made him talk the English langwidge afterwards.") Some scenes/characters are absolutely charming, hilarious and/or tense, e.g. the the Christmas Party/skating sections and the aforementioned Sam Weller respectively and; everything is detailed to the extent that a very clear picture is painted in the listener's mind. That said, I also found a web-site that carries the original illustrations which is "icing on the cake!" (https://www.charlesdickenspage.com/illustrations-pickwick.html). The British audiobook narrator, did a yeoman's job on this one: delineating dozens of characters with pitch and accent. Many of the secondary characters sounded very much like the vegan contestant on the last British Bakeoff- which made me think Timson had a Yorkshire background-- but it turns out he's from Leicester. Granted less than a hundred miles away, but I just don't know enough about the regional variations to know if I'm listening to a Leicester accent or an affected Yorkshire one. Either way, the performance was engaging and entertaining; but those who find non-RP English a challenge may have trouble with this audio as well.

From 19th century England to America, I'm now listening to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (by Seth Grahame-Smith; narrated by Scott Holst). I ripped this from CDs all those years ago when these mashups were the rage; but am only getting around to it now! It's more horror than silliness than I expected and I find the audiobook narrator a bit too Midwestern-bland for my taste but I'll roll on with this one and expect to have done with it by this time next week :-)

I'm now wrapping up both Running the Rift (by Naomi Benaron) and Sea of Poppies (Ibis Trilogy #1; by Amitav Ghosh). Running the Rift has taken the lead and I expect to finish it either tonight or tomorrow; And it looks like I'll be finishing Sea of Poppies on or around the 31st. I had a dream a few nights ago where I was arguing with a zemindar-- so I guess you could say the book has gotten under my skin!

I've put together my April stack:

1st Priority
📚 The Running Man (by Stephen King)
📚 The Deception of the Emerald Ring (Pink Carnation #3; by Lauren Willig)
🎭 Henry V (by William Shakespeare)

2nd Priority
📚 About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks (by David Rooney)
🎧 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (by Seth Grahame-Green; narrated by Scott Holst) - Ah, well... I started on this one early as I had just finished The Pickwick Papers and was searching for my next listen! Even though it a "Priority 2" title, it is one of "The 22" (and the only one of "The 22" on the list for this month) so I think it will all work out!

I had a wall of text at the top of this thread in which I had started to put the titles read/listened into the twelve categories; but it was getting difficult to manage. So, I cleared the titles out and will put cumulative lists up at the end of the year with my favorites from each cat then :-)

The pear blossoms are beautiful and signal the "hope" of warmer weather. In central-Ohio our pears (and most ornamental/fruits) don't blossom till the end of April. Unfortunately my (stupid) lilac bloomed when we had three 60-70 degree days and tonight it will be down to 14. That means no or very few lilacs this spring.

You have been reading a lot and with such great variety! I read the Pickwick Papers via Serial Reader and wasn't really enamored of it. I understand it was Dickens' first full-length novel (somebody else on LT posted that fact) and if so, I feel that he definitely improved over time.

I,too, found the keeping of my CATS too onerous and am still trying to read "from" them, such as Asian authors, etc., but did away with them and am just listing my reads by month.

I finished reading Running the Rift (by Naomi Benaron) on Sunday night. Spanning the years 1984-1998, this is a bildungsroman of a Rwandan boy, Nbuktu Jean Patrick who aspires to become an Olympic runner. The government is Hutu and there are escalating tensions with the minority population of Tutsi which play out in the fabric of Jean Patrick's life despite his ambitions. Swept up in events beyond his control, Jean Patrick must reconcile his grief, fear, hopes and optimism even as the assassination of the Hutu president becomes the flash point for genocide. Benaron provides a Tutsi protagonist and a details of the atrocities, but there is an odd narrative remove from the events. We hear of the violence; but don't really experience it to any degree and some of it is glossed over in poetic phrasing. It's a solid story but not particularly engaging. Its merits lie in invoking a desire in the reader to learn more about what really happened.

I also finished listening to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (by Seth Grahame-Smith; narrated by Scott Holst) this morning. This is a Historical Fiction + Fantasy Horror mashup which fills in the gaps of Lincoln's life with tall tales of vampire slaying. The core history is actually solid and the scenes of predation, whether from the vampires' or the hunters' parts, pretty gruesome; but the whole lacked cleverness or humor which would have made this alternative narrative really sparkle. As is, it's a bit heavy feeling. The audiobook narrator is from the Midwest and delivers a very sincere, if directionless, reading.

Next: Committed to finishing Sea of Poppies (Ibis Trilogy #1; by Amitav Ghosh) as close to March 31 as possible!

>71 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Interested in seeing your review of Sea of Poppies, which is languishing on my shelf!

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____________________"Scarlet Fritillary" (Fritillaria recurva Calflora), native to California but often found in Southern Oregon____________________

Last weekend, we headed out looking for Gentner's fritillary, (Fritillaria gentneri), rarest native plants in the world and local to this area; but only found its more common cousin, the Scarlet Fritillary. Gentner's has a flatter petal and I thought I knew where to find them; but either I was mistaken, it's too early for them yet and/or they are no longer where I remembered!

Things have been rather low-key for the past couple of weeks. My sister, who is terminally ill, had a set back-- so my attention has been split between that, the boredom of work, my daughter in college (who is self-isolating after testing positive with a rapid test) and, my husband who had some sort of cardiac event in the midst of all of this. Both husband and daughter are fine; but when I didn't know that, I have to admit, the psychic load of it all was enervating.

To keep myself on an even keel, so to speak, I'm taking care to read at my own pace and I'm rather pleased that the "plan" I set up at the beginning of the year where I participate in those challenge months when it matches up with my reading, is working out well. I've been able to contribute to at least two challenges each month and I still have plenty of room to read whatever else catches my eye!

That said, there have been a few reading-related disappointments at the beginning of April:
• Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (by Seth Grahame-Smith; narrated by Scott Holst) - See comment 71 above;

• About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks (by David Rooney - I have to confess it is a pretty big disappointment despite this caveat in the introduction:

"...this is not a conventional history of clocks and watches; nor does it deal with the more abstract concept of time itself... Nor is this a broad, sweeping account of civilizations... Instead it is a personal idiosyncratic and above all partial account."

By the end of the book, I realized that the above statement is really an excuse for poor writing and editorial oversight. Fraught with conjecture, unresolved digressions, padding/filler text, poor research (despite the number of footnotes and bibliography), low-resolution black-and-white illustrations and, lack of charisma and liveliness in the first-person passages, I cannot recommend this to anyone. I wanted to dig out my red pencil and mark this one up even though it's a first edition hardback. Instead I'll either be donating this to one of the Little Free Libraries around here or; using it as a spacer to prop something up;

• Robinson Crusoe (by Daniel Defoe; narrated by Anrew Cullum) - I decided to pick this title up because it features heavily in The Moonstone (by Wilkie Collins) and is mentioned a couple of times in The Pickwick Papers (by Charles Dickens); but "Oh boy." I had been culturally brainwashed into a "Disney-fied" version of this character so I wasn't quite prepared for the reality. Written in the early 18th-century about a figure in the late 17th-century, Crusoe is definitely a man of his times... and not in a good way. As a 21st-century reader, there is a lot here that is difficult to process. As for the narrator, he is perfectly fine-- sounds a bit like John Lee at times!

However, I ended up loving, Sea of Poppies (Ibis Trilogy #1; by Amitav Ghosh! This is the story of several figures who board the Ibis-- a ship heading to Mauritius before the beginning of the First Opium War. The descriptions are so very vivid in color, texture and even "smell", that I felt like I was there! (I even had a dream where I was arguing with one of the characters!) There is a quite of bit of local and sea-faring vernacular-- which the glossary at the end of the book doesn't really cover completely; but the reader can easily get the gist of things. I'm looking forward to the second book in the trilogy, River of Smoke.

But first, I've decided on a re-read of Henry V (by William Shakespeare). It's been a few months since I've read anything of Shakespeare and I would like to get my feet wet before I dive into Henry VI, Part 1 next month! Years ago, I discovered, The Shakespeare Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained when volunteering at my daughter's middle school library. Though I bought it for her, I've snagged it and find the concise summaries and discussions excellent reading to prime myself before jumping in to a play. I also re-read an essay in France in the World (edited by Patrick Boucheron and Stéphane Gerson) about the Treaty of Troyes which concluded the Battle of Agincourt and; an old BBC podcast episode ("In Our Time" hosted by Melvyn Bragg) about the battle— to get some historical perspective about the event portrayed in the play itself.

I'm currently listening to The Jungle Book I & II (by Rudyard Kipling; narrated by Ralph Cosham) which I am enjoying immensely. Speaking of being "Disney-fied", the text is so much richer and gorgeous than the singing bear version, but darker too. Kipling doesn't shy away from the matter-of-factness of death. Also, there are actually only a few Mowgli stories! The rest are other anthropomorphized animal stories and all so far hypnotic. Ralph Cosham tells the story and disappears until all you hear is the jungle. :-)

>73 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Beautiful flower! I love the Shakespeare book--I read it before I read a Shakespeare, if it's contained within. I have ordered Sea of Poppies as an ebook from my library and am on a waiting list--can't wait to get it!

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________________________________________Rain sweeping over Upper & Lower Table Rocks, White City, Oregon________________________________________

Erg. Rain, though welcome in this high desert area, reminds me of every bone I have ever broken! Plus, the barometric pressure take turns with my allergies in beating up my sinuses. Last week, I went to go get my COVID booster and I took the above picture while waiting my fifteen minutes afterwards. Though I had no reaction to the shot, I've been somewhat off my feed for a bit, a situation exacerbated by developing tension headaches replete with photophobia. I know, I know, tiny little violins are playing somewhere! (I am actually very grateful that I'm not in a hospital or in a war zone!)

The Upper & Lower Table Rocks are two mesa formations in Jackson County, OR that have something called vernal pools on the top surface. This is apparently is a big deal and one of the reasons the Nature Conservancy & the Bureau of Land Management protect it from development. I have to be honest though, it just looks like puddles to me! :-D

Since last I posted, I've read/listened to five books:

• The Jungle Book I & II (by Rudyard Kipling; narrated by Ralph Cosham) - (See post #73 above) - I don't really have anything to add other than I miss the late Ralph Cosham and that I gave the title 4.50 stars. I'm definitely a Kipling fan and am looking for my old copy of Just So Stories and, Jack London's Call of the Wild/White Fang. (There are a couple of Kipling's stories set in the Arctic that made me think of Jack London!)

• The Running Man (by Stephen King) - A fast moving story set in a dystopian future, it features a man who enters a televised hunt where he is the prey. The winner takes home an obscene amount of cash; but the game is rigged. Shades of The Island of Doctor Moreau (by H.G. Wells) and a forerunner of The Hunger Games (by Suzanne Collins) and the Mark Burnett franchises on TV, King's story seems to have lost it's mojo as anything above the ordinary; but it still had a rather satisfying, if violent end. 3.5 stars

• The Deception of the Emerald Ring (Pink Carnation #3; by Lauren Willig) - Letty tries to stop the elopement of her sister Mary-- which would result in a family scandal and, ends up eloping and scandalizing the family herself! This is my favorite of the four stories I've read so far: Plenty of the melodrama, fun, intrigue (spies!) and mystery; but also, a refusal on the author's part to take the easy way out of/into the romance: Willig doesn't rush the HEA with insta-love or hearts & Cupids. Looking forward to the next title in the series which features the "jilted" sister, Mary. 4.0 stars

• The Black Tulip (by Alexandre Dumas pére; narrated by Peter Joyce) - More melodrama! An amateur tulip grower in the Seventeenth Century unknowingly becomes the object of envy from his neighbor. There is a substantial prize for growing an absolutely black tulip and, as the innocent and clueless horticulturist makes progress, he finds himself caught up in politics and prison! I have to admit, I did not find this as much fun as I had hoped and things weren't helped by having an older gentleman audiobook narrator read the role of a much younger man. It made the romance between the prisoner and the jailer's daughter a little creepy. 3.0 stars

• Henry V (by William Shakespeare) - A History play of England around 1415; the drama centers around the Battle of Agincourt. I followed up the play and ancillary materials by watching the 1944 film starring Laurence Olivier - a production meant to incite patriotism as the original play had done for its contemporary audience. I did find it interesting that the Olivier version took out the less noble parts of the story. Anyway, I found a 1951 Heritage hardback edition in my Shakespeare stacks. It's dedicated to Olivier and includes some color drawing derived from the film. This weekend, I'll see if I can fit in the 1989 Kenneth Branaugh film and maybe even the Hollow Crown episode. The Bard always gets an automatic 4.0 stars from me!

I was going to start River of Smoke (Ibis Trilogy #2; by Amitav Ghosh) this week; but I just didn't have the energy for it. Instead, I'm doing a re-listen of Stephen King's The Dark Tower (Gunslinger #1; narrated by George Guidall) - The Gunslinger pursues The Man in Black across an Old West-style landscape… I listened to it years ago and admit I was more than a bit bemused by it; but now I marvel at the mix of fantasy, The Old West and, Horror. It's very surreal and intriguing, mesmerizing in its own way.

Setting up my May stacks:

1ST PRIORITY
• Henry VI, Part 1 (by William Shakespeare) #ShakespeareCat #ShakespearesKings #MedievalHistory
• Smilla's Sense of Snow (by Peter Høeg) #MysteryKit #DetectivesInTranslations

2ND PRIORITY
• Different Seasons (by Stephen King) #HorrorKit #ShortsAndAnthologies
• The Seduction of the Crimson Rose (Pink Carnation #4; by Lauren Willig) - The story of Mary, the jilted sister!
• Pattern Recognition (by William Gibson)

Looks like some great reads in April! I may have to give the Jungle Books a try--didn't really like Kim, but always give authors a second chance. I love Jack London. I've got Ghosh's 1st book in the trilogy, Sea of Poppies. I may have to get it out!

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___________________________________Early springs buds, Vineyard at 2Hawk Vineyard & Winery, Medford, OR ___________________________________

The fields of Southern Oregon have soil terroir similar to that of the Loire region in France and on a related note, world class vines are produced here. The local wineries often have tasting rooms with a limited menu, subscriptions wherein you pick up cases of wine at appointed times and for a discount, and offerings at local markets that are a bit overwhelming at times! Unlike the local craft breweries which produce mostly IPAs, the grape varietals here run the gamut so you can get local chardonnays as well as merlots!

I've started mood-reading three books:
• Different Seasons (by Stephen King; narrated by Frank Muller) - This is an anthology of four King novellas: Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, The Body and, The Breathing Method performed by the late narrator, Frank Muller. "Shawshank Redemption" is about a banker, Andy Dufresne who is convicted of killing his wife and her lover. He's now serving life in the Shawshank penitentiary in Maine. It's a little bit of a disappointment in not being as tight plot-wise as the movie (yes, this is an instance where the movie is better!) and oddly, Frank Muller, who recorded this before the movie came out, sounds like Morgan Freeman! Muller adds a little Maine accent, but otherwise the resemblance is a bit uncanny. (For the other stories, he sounds more like another audiobook narrator, Malcolm Hillgartner - almost mid-century in style and tone.) Anyway, "Apt Pupil" is about a young boy who becomes fascinated with a former-Nazi living under an alias in a small town in Maine. It's a grotesque story without heroes. I'm in the middle of "The Body" right now and not really liking it either. It's about a group of boys who head out to see the remains of a dead boy on the edge of town (The movie, "Stand by Me" is based on the story). It's basically a flashback to a writer's past and every time the writer in the story brings the reader's attention to the present, it's an annoying interruption. I'm close to finishing it though and then "The Breathing Method" looks to be relatively short so I should finish the whole in a couple of days. Right now, this is looking to be a three-star book.

• Henry VI, Part 1 (by William Shakespeare) - The History play about H6's disastrous campaign in France where the forces of England come up against Joan of Arc and; roses are picked in a garden denoting the loyalties of the Houses of York (white) and Lancaster (red). Even the Folger Library, a preeminent authority in Shakespearean "exegesis", acknowledges that Shakespeare probably only wrote two scenes in this (the rose scene and the Talbot father-and-son scene) but honestly, I don't care. It's entertaining and, I've been going down a rabbit-hole of Joan of Arc-related material as well. I should wrap up the play itself today/tomorrow but then I want to look at a couple of other things lit-crit-, film- and music-wise before I move on to Henry VI, Part 2.

In other Shakespeare-related news, I really wanted to watch Kenneth Branagh's Henry V but it wasn't available to stream! Annoyed, I actually bought a Blue-Ray DVD and a Blue-Ray player. I know, a bit of an overreaction, but I hate being captive to streaming services. Anyway, I watched it yesterday afternoon, and it was a lot less sanitized than the Laurence Olivier version and; also without any of the humor that the 1944 film interpreted. Fascinating in its own right so worth the expense. :-)

• Smilla's Sense of Snow (by Peter Høeg) - This is about a young Inuit/Greenlander woman living in Copenhagen who questions the accidental death of her neighbor's little boy. One gets the sense that Smilla is perhaps autistic and interestingly, she also feels like a prototype for Lisabeth Salander in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy. I'll probably finish this one over next weekend.

>77 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Beautiful scenery! Again, you are reading some very good books! I rather liked The Apt Pupil, from an educational and historical perspective; but you are correct, no heroes there! I have the Hoeg book on my TBR.

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______________________________White Water Rafting on the Rogue River, Class 4 rapids, Southern Oregon ______________________________

I tried something new! Southern Oregon is high desert territory and the past 15 years or so have been hit hard with drought; but this Spring has brought rain! Water levels are up and, the Spring Salmon and Steelhead Trout runs are "All Good"! I've been wanting to try this for decades and I finally used by Personal Day off to check it off of my Bucket List :-)

Whenever I head out hiking, skiing, kayaking... I always stash a book in my gear. It's sort of like a "Good Luck" thing. If I bring it, I won't need it; but if I forget it, I'll be stuck somewhere with only five-year old magazines and a dying cell phone... This time, I packed Smilla's Sense of Snow (by Peter Høeg) and, sure enough, didn't need it! (But of course, I forgot my water bottle...) I had planned on finishing Smilla's Sense of Snow at home this weekend, but I'm still a couple days behind-- so I should finish it and Abraham Lincoln (DK Biography by Tanya Lee Stone) by mid-week. The latter book is a Middle Grade book I picked up at the book store after staring hard at Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals for a good two minutes and realizing my reading brain is too broken to handle 950 pages of Civil War history right now!

I've had good luck this year in keeping my reading expectations modest and realistic. While I'm not reading anywhere near my usual volume, I am happier with what I'm reading. :-)

I did finish to Different Seasons, an anthology of four novellas written by Stephen King and narrated by Frank Muller: Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, The Body and, The Breathing Method. Of the four stories, only the last one, "The Breathing Method", about a pregnant woman who does Lamaze-style breathing exercises in the days before Lamaze was a thing, qualifies as a horror story. "The Body", about a group of boys who head out to see a dead body out by the railroad tracks (and which is the basis for the film, "Stand by Me"), has a horrific element in it; but is more of a nostalgia piece. Apt Pupil is hero-less tale about a boy who becomes fascinated with a Nazi living under an alias in a small town in Maine. Terrible things happen and as a study of warped psyches and the monsters men can become, maybe a horror story? Psychological thriller? And finally, "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" is about a man sent to prison for murdering his wife. A good story made great by the movie. Overall, I'm giving this collection 3.5 stars: Just not the best of King's writing and; the audio production quality was poor (tape hiss, booth noise, mispronunciations, bad editing). The fun thing about "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption", "Apt Pupil" and "The Body" is that they are all set in the fictitious town of Castle Rock and, there are little references to other stories within. :-)

I also finished reading Henry VI, Part 1 (by William Shakespeare! This is the play noted for a couple of things: It's one of the earliest, if not the earliest play in the First Folio and; It lacks "dramatic unity" (lots of scenes and very episodic) and has an abundance of anachronisms— and the worse off for it all— so much so that its authorship has been questioned since 1735! Nonetheless, it's still Canon and in the play itself there are a few highlights: the scene set in the Inns of Court wherein red and white roses are picked to denote sides in "The War of the Roses"; the scene in which Talbot and his son are surrounded and fight together and; the incredible slander against Joan of Arc. While of course she would be the villain from the English point-of-view, I was still a bit surprised at the viciousness of the attacks against her. She is basically reduced to a lying witch and whore in the play, reflecting contemporary thought. True, she would not be made a saint until 1920 but still, I can see why late-twentieth and twenty-first stages don't really groove on this play so much.

Along the way, I also picked up another DK Biography, Joan of Arc (by Kathleen V. Kudlinski) -- which is how I thought to get the one about Abraham Lincoln. There are short, direct and illustrated with photos, art, and other graphics. I didn't want to read a big biography about the French Saint; but I wanted something other than a Wikipedia article (trying to spend a little less time with screens!) So, just the right speed for me! :-)

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________________________________________Belfiore Vineyards, Jackson County, Oregon ________________________________________

The weather has been improving, slowly but surely. We're experiencing what feels like a very late Spring-- but are truly grateful for the rain and pleasant weather! The vineyards are busy and the fields are starting to show the new green of early leaves. Over the fields, hawks and eagles can be spotted hunting in teams and, rabbits below scurry for cover! After a hard week it was good to get out!

• I didn't get much reading done but I did finally finish off Smilla's Sense of Snow (by Peter Høeg; translated by Tiina Nunnally)! Something about the death of a little boy who has fallen form a Copenhagen rooftop while playing, doesn't sit right with Smilla-- so she starts asking questions. One thing leads to another and the story escalates from being a mystery to being a thriller playing out against the background of the Arctic ice and sea...
Written in 1997, it definitely became the model for much of the Scandinavian Noir that followed, including the Millennium Trilogy: an odd female protagonist who probably registers on the autism spectrum who becomes fully engaged, nearly obsessed with resolution and, experiences rather high-octane events in that pursuit. I like the bulk of the novel for the atmosphere, deft descriptions and pacing; but the last two sections seemed a bit less developed and the ending could have been better fleshed out. I've given three-and-a-half stars; but also planning on holding on to my copy. I have a feeling I'll want to come back to it again.

• I'm a bit off in my reading "schedule", having just picked up and started The Seduction of the Crimson Rose (Pink Carnation #4; by Lauren Willig). In the third book in the series, Letty intervenes in the elopement of her sister, Mary... This is the story of Mary! She has been approached by Lord Vaughn on an espionage assignment, to serve as "bait" in the hopes of attracting the attention of A French spymaster. Where the other titles in the series had "underdogs" as the heroines, Mary is a "Diamond of the First Water" whose thwarted marriage has cast her into financial and social jeopardy. Dialogue is wittier and the comic aspects are not as strong in this one; but still plenty of intrigue and melodrama!

My May reading will carry over into June: I've barely made a dent in The Old Curiosity Shop (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Anton Lesser) and I have yet to start Pattern Recognition (Ant Trilogy #1; by William Gibson) - but the long US Memorial Day weekend may provide an opportunity to catch up a bit!

After that, my June reading:

1ST PRIORIITY
• Murder on Nob Hill (by Shirley Tallman; narrated by Anna Fields)
• Spook Country (Ant Trilogy #2; by William Gibson)

2ND PRIORIITY
• Henry VI, Part II (by William Shakespeare)
• The Temptation of the Night Jasmine & Bunny & Biscuits (Pink Carnation #5 and an interstitial short story by Lauren Willig);

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_________________________________Gold Winged Blackbird, Chiloquin, Klamath Falls, Oregon_________________________________

Bah, the weather over the past two weekends has been blergy-- so not much going out-and-about. I'm posting this still from a video I made while on a canoe trail in Klamath Falls in 2020 (apologies for the poor resolution). The marshes were full with gold- and red-winged blackbirds, swallows under bridges, and even a pelican!

I did manage to finish all my May reading over the US Memorial Day weekend by wrapping up The Seduction of the Crimson Rose (Pink Carnation #4; by Lauren Willig). Mary's plan to elope with Lord Pinchington has been thwarted in the third book in the series, but she gets her own story here when she is asked to act as bait in a scheme to attract the attention of a French spymaster. This scheme involves the rather suspect Lord Vaughn, a man with ties to Irish politics of the 18th century ("Bonnie Prince Charlie"). I wasn't as keen on the heroine in this one-- a bit too snobbish as far as I was concerned, but it was good to wrap up the "Black Tulip" story arc.

I'm still fussing with The Old Curiosity Shop (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Anton Lesser). This is the story of Nell, an orphaned girl of fourteen who lives with her grandfather. Her grandfather, however, has a gambling addiction and they lose the curiosity shop where they also live to a scheming dwarf. Nell and her grandfather are now out on the roads, begging... I'm not sure why I'm dragging my heels with it; but if I don't finish it before this weekend, I've got a road trip on Saturday that should pretty much take care if it!

I'm in the middle of The Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories (by Stephen Crane), realizing that after all these years I've been confusing RBOC with Ambrose Bierce's The Coup de Grace! "The Red Badge of Courage" and its follow-up short story, "The Veteran" deal with the fears a soldier faces during the Battle of Chancellorsville (May 1863). The imagery and internal dialogue are evocative and painterly in description.

I've also started Spook Country (Blue Ant Trilogy #2; by William Gibson). This does not feature the characters from the first-in-series, Pattern Recognition; but is interesting in its ideas about how technology alters our perception of the past, present and future. I think I'll write review of the full trilogy once I've read, Zero History.

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_________________________________Great Blue Heron, Upper Deschutes River, Oregon _________________________________

So. much. rain! The rivers are running white and the skies are pale grey; but the sun came out this morning and it was a perfect day for a hike! We took a trail in/out for a little more than 4 miles round-trip and, as we were heading out, we saw this guy! I'm not an ornithologist or even a bird watcher per se, but I have to admit I geek out a little bit when I see something like this! :-)

Since I last posted, I finished:

• The Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories (by Stephen Craine) -"The Red Badge of Courage" and "The Open Boat" are two amazing shorts with painterly descriptions of the settings, on-point interior monologues and, and ear for dialect in the dialogues. "RBOC" is about the fear a young man faces as he engages in the Battle of Chancellorsville (1863) and; "TOB" is about four men on a dinghy after the main ship has sunk... The other short stories and selected bits of poetry (the latter slapped in at the end of the book) didn't impress me as the two I mentioned; but the there is no denying Crane's talent.

• Spook Country (Blue Ant Trilogy #2; by William Gibson) - Hollis, the lead singer in a now-disbanded music group is trying her hand at reporting for a "Wired" magazine knockoff and finds herself donning VR headsets and running all over the place chasing a shipping container... The second in the techno-thriller "Blue Ant" series from the man who coined the term, "cyberspace" isn't as strong as the first-in-series, Pattern Recognition in terms of delivering a message; but does keep the reader in the world of Hubertus Bigend, the head of the Blue Ant marketing firm which collects information ostensibly to sell shoes, but whose R&D tends to hew closer to international espionage. "PR" got 3.5 stars from me and, this one 3.0; but it may all change after I finish the last book in the set, Zero History next month and have a picture of the whole.

• I also picked up what I thought was going to be a full-length novel, "Mr. Klein is Fine", a contemporary romance by Meghan Quinn only to discover that it's just a short story. And a short that seems like it's a prequel or the start of another longer story, but from what I can find out, it's not. So, basically a sex scene and a conflict that appears to be on the right track to being resolved, but no arc to land the HEA squarely. The premise is that two teachers (H/h) who have a sexual history meet up again at a convention in Colorado and sparks fly again; but she has a secret... Disappointing to say the least, but I did get a "Q" title in for the month.

• I'm currently reading The Temptation of the Night Jasmine (Pink Carnation #5; by Laura Willig) - Set in 1803-04, Robert, Duke of Dovedale, has returned from service in India, averring justice/vengeance on behalf of a fallen comrade. He finds himself engaged in a distasteful subterfuge. The scales even start to fall from the eyes of his distant cousin, the lovely but naive, country innocent, Charlotte Landsdowne. I'm half-way through and hope to finish before the weekend.

• I've been frustrated in my attempts to get some listening time in lately-- so I still haven't finished The Old Curiosity Shop (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Anton Lesser) much less started Murder on Nob Hill (Sarah Woolson Mystery, #1; by Shirley Tallman; narrated by Anna Fields) bit I'm just rolling with it all and trusting that it will all work out!

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_____________________________________________ Pacific Ocean, Gardiner, Oregon Coast _____________________________________

We spent a couple of days out on the coast and the very first day, we hiked 8+ miles through shoreline forest (so lush and green!), beach, and towering dunes. It's impossible to get all of it into one photo -- unless maybe by drone? Anyway, the day was gorgeous and it was great to roam untethered from screens and work!

• I did finish The Temptation of the Night Jasmine (Pink Carnation #5; by Laura Willig) - Touching on the madness of King George, Hellfire clubs and a little bit of the British military presence in India, this is a spy thriller/romance with melodrama á la Evelina (by Frances Burney). This series continues to be fun even though I’m less enamored of the modern story wherein a Harvard doctoral candidate (Eloise) digs into the past while sorting out a personal relationship with the descendent of one of her research subjects. I always feel like these modern day chapters aren’t as interesting and interrupt the main plot; but to be fair, it’s only a few chapters and overall, a minor quibble.

• I'm finally on track to finish The Old Curiosity Shop (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Anton Lesser) by the end of the month! Way back at the beginning of the year, I had been listening to a The Devil's Feast (Blake & Avery #3; by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham) wherein there is trick pulled by a shopkeeper on a street urchin and, it's indicated in the story that the trick was from Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers. I must have mis-heard, because the trick isn't in The Pickwick Papers but apparently in The Old Curiosity Shop. Here's the crazy thing; Even knowing that this stunt is in this book, my anxiety levels are way up! This is why I've been dragging my feet with the story. Anyway, Daniel Quilp is one of the nastiest villains I've encountered in awhile. I absolutely loathe the man...

• I've also started Murder on Nob Hill (Sarah Woolson #1; by Shirley Tallman; narrated by Anna Fields), cozy historical mystery set in San Francisco in 1880. Sarah is an attorney who brazenly party-crashes an established (all-male) law firm and proceeds to snag a client: A young woman is accused of killing her wealthy husband; but Sarah doesn't believe it... I'm not sure if it's the way the story is written or the way the story is performed, but the whole of it seems rather artless. Still, I ripped this from library CDs years ago and it's one of "The 22" so I will persevere and write a review, most likely by next weekend.

• In print, I've started River of Smoke (The Ibis Trilogy #2; by Amitav Ghosh) - This is a follow-up to the first-in-series, Sea of Poppies and tracks the fates/destinies of the nine main characters from the initial book. It’s 1838, and tensions are rising between England and China over the opium trade. Specialized language in regard to maritime activities, horticulture and, the Creole & pidgin spoken by various characters, make some passages a bit slow to work through; but the story overall is so far engaging. I probably won't finish this one until sometime during the first week in July.

• And finally, I'm reading Henry VI, Part 2 (by William Shakespeare. Though written before "Part 1", this picks up where H6P1 left off... Margaret of Anjou, the "She Wolf" and wife of Henry is entering the picture. I’ll be reading an act per day and then wrap up with some literary criticism (Isaac Asimov & John Julius Norwich) over the weekend.

JULY STACK
Wrap up:
• River of Smoke (The Ibis Trilogy #2; by Amitav Ghosh) - Author Cat /Asian Authors

Core Stack:
• Normal (by Graeme Cameron) - "The 22"
• Zero History (Blue Ant Trilogy #3 by William Gibson) - "The 22", AlphaKit (Z)
• The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (Pink Carnation #6; by Lauren Willig)
• Henry VI, Part 3 (by William Shakespeare)

Would love to be able to fit in (but now that I'm listing it out, it seems rather ambitious!):
• Silence (by Shūsaku Endō) - Author Cat /Asian Authors, AlphaKit (E)
• The Woman in White (by Wilkie Collins) - Reading Through Time/Monthly Challenge/Mental Health
• Warlock (Legends West #1; by Oakley Hall) - Reading Through Time/Quarterly Challenge19th Century/US/Old West
• TBD Something for AlphaKit (T)

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__________Lost Creek leading into the Rogue River, Cascades, Oregon: Rocky gorge outcropping on the left and Mount Thielson in the distance (center)__________

This Spring has been wet and cold; but this past week, Summer came in like a furnace blast! Temperatures were in the nineties (Fahrenheit) until today when it hit 106-degrees! We headed out to Lost Lake for our first kayaking venture of the day; and I admit we probably overdid it a bit; but it’s hard not to with clear, sunny skies and lakes that are finally at non-drought levels!

In reading news, I finished my June stack!
• Murder on Nob Hill (Sarah Woolson #1; by Shirley Tallman; narrated by Anna Fields) - A cozy mystery set in 1880, San Francisco, Sarah Woolson is a strong-willed and determined attorney who decides to find out who really killed her client’s husband. The author’s research was kluged in rather artlessly; the main character’s personality is so unrelentingly self-righteous as to be off-putting and; the late Anna Fields couldn’t pull off the Scottish and Chinese characters with credibility. Overall, a disappointment and I will not be continuing with the series.

• Henry VI, Part 2 (by William Shakespeare) - This the first of the H6 plays that Shakespeare wrote and in which he telescoped events from the English King’s reign so much that he really had painted himself into a corner when he then wrote the “prequel”, Part 1 and the “sequel”, Part 3! Historical events and people’s lifespans are all out of order; but all in the service of great drama. In this H6 play, the full force of Margaret of Anjou (H6’s wife, Queen of England) is brought front and center and propagandized as the “She-Wolf”. The misogynistic targeting of Margaret finds its parallels with Joan of Arc in Part 1 and interestingly, many Shakespearean directors cast the same actress for both roles! Anyway, I cannot not think of Cersei Lannister from the Game of Thrones when I read this play and indeed, when GoT was running, there was quite a bit of comparison between Margaret & Cersei!

• And I finally finished The Old Curiosity Shop (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Anton Lesser)! - This Classic tale of the orphan Nell and her grandfather follows them from their curiosity shop in London through the travails of living the life of beggars on the road. Daniel Quilp, a nasty bit of business, pursues them out of avarice and the sheer delight in tormenting them (and everyone else!) Despite dragging my feet on this one, I still give it 4 solid stars for a tension filled story arc and incredibly detailed descriptions of the time, place and people.

I’ve started a couple books to wrap up in July:
• River of Smoke (Ibis Trilogy #2, by Amitav Ghosh) - I’m in the middle of this one but should wrap it up before the US Independence Day weekend. This fits the AuthorCAT challenge for the month of July (Asian Authors);

• And I’ve started The Woman in White (by Wilkie Collins; narrated by Glen McCready, Rachel Bavidge and others) for the Reading Through Time group’s monthly challenge, “Mental Health — Then and Now”. A young man runs into an escapee from an insane asylum in 19th century England and is destined/fated to run across her again in Cumberland where he has taken up the post of a drawing master/instructor. TBH, everyone behaves so oddly that I wonder at times if the big house in the country isn’t a madhouse itself! Anyway, this is just a bit shy of 28-hours long and will probably take me until the end of July to finish.

Next: Normal (by Graeme Cameron) - One of “The 22”!

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Fish Creek in the foreground; marsh, Ponderosa pines and black lava rock on the horizon line; Two eagles' nests either side of the center line (in the treetops, look like knobs!)

My daughter is doing an internship with the Fisheries Department (surveying waterways and fish) this summer and paid us a surprise visit last weekend! Though I got some reading in, I did not spend much time at the computer so this post will be a bit of a catch-up for those who are still reading along! Since I last posted, I finished:

• River of Smoke (Ibis Trilogy #2; by Amitav Ghosh) In the first book in the series, Sea of Poppies, Indian author Amitav Ghosh introduces the reader to nine indentured servants aboard the Ibis, a ship bound for China. In this follow-up, tensions are rising between England and China over trade, particularly that of opium and; the destinies/fates of the nine play out against this backdrop. Sometimes, the specialized and untranslated language of the Eastern sailors and seafarers gets in the way, but the reader can get the idea of what’s what from context. This second title in the trilogy suffers a bit from rather artless kluging of research in the first sections; but by the end, the exposition of the political dynamics in play on the eve of the First Opium War and; the underscoring of themes from the first-in-series, Sea of Poppies elevate this to a 4.5 star read.

• Normal (by Graeme Cameron) - This is a suspense thriller told from an unnamed serial killer's point of view. Preying on young women in England, the narrative unfolds when he is surprised by his latest victim's best friend, Erica happening on the scene. Soon, Erica is also missing.... The author is great at writing "psyche-outs"-- leading the reader into jumping to conclusions and ratcheting the tension up high and then, turning the scene in an unexpected direction. The dark humor rests in the release of that tension, even as the story builds up more. Cameron's skill however, fails at the end with, not quite a cliffhanger; but an unsatisfying note.

• Dead Girls (by Graeme Cameron) - This is a follow-up novel to Normal, though oddly neither is listed or marketed as having any relation to the other! Told from the investigating officer's point-of view, it has its own surprises though the tension & dark humor doesn't run as high. The novel's chief merit lies in closing the narrative arc of Normal. The two novels together are stronger than the sum of their parts. Recommended for those who like Dexter (series by Jeff Lindsay, Joe (from You by Caroline Kepnes) and are prepared for some graphic descriptions of violence and bodily harm in the course of things.

Ah, I have to go.... Heading out for a hike and both my husband & dog are champing at the bit! I will be back later with pictures and a couple more book notes!

ETA: OK, so we're back! 5.75-mile RT hike up at Fish Lake! The weather was hot, the forest cool, and, our lab-mix loved the water!

To pick up where I left off, I also finished:

• Zero History (Blue Ant Trilogy #3; by William Gibson) - Hollis Henry, whose financial security has eroded since Spook Country (the second book in the series) returns to do another job for the head of Blue Ant, a marketing company whose modus operandi is not unlike that of high level spy craft. In this story, Hollis needs to discover who is mimicking Blue Ant's unique marketing techniques and finds herself being shuttled between surreal hotels as she tries to unravel who is behind a secret brand of clothing. As mundane as the assignment sounds, this techno-thriller quickly escalates into a fast-paced action adventure tale. Gibson brings all the various threads togethers, updating the technology (iPhones are now in the picture!)and keeping it relevant. A great finish to an otherwise somewhat-mediocre series.

Currently reading:

• The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (Pink Carnation #6; by Lauren Willig) - Penelope has been caught in a scandalous situation, forcing her into marriage. Her newly minted husband is assigned to India as a Special Envoy and brings her along… The previous books in the series were very melodramatic romance spy thrillers set in the Napoleonic Era (English agents literally around in cloaks and with daggers); but the setting has now changed to India and the politics are a bit less straightforward than “Napoleon vs The World”. Less lighthearted then I was expecting, but still engaging. Hope to wrap this up up in the next couple of days.

Next up: Henry VI, Part 3 (by William Shakespeare) to wrap up my July stack and then onto some elective reading! :-)

The hike sounds wonderful as well as the Ghosh series!!

>85 Tanya-dogearedcopy: That is a beautiful picture - very inviting!

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_________________ Vivid blue/green water from Crater Lake running through a basalt/old lava bed at Rogue River Natural Bridge Trail, near Prospect, OR __________________


Since I last posted:
🥾 Hiked 1.75 miles RT at China Creek (Merlin, OR) - Short hike as I was feeling "off"; but recovered by napping the rest of the weekend away!
🌊 White water rafting trip on the upper Klamath River run - 13-14 miles of Class III to IV+ rapids, Great Blue Herons, osprey, Bald Eagles, pelicans...
🥾 Hiked 2.5 miles at Rogue River Natural Bridge - Gorgeous; but I was still a little stiff muscle-wise from the rafting trip so we didn't push it. Plus, the temperatures have started to rise...
☀️ We're currently sitting in daytime temps bouncing between 104- and 110-degrees Fahrenheit. Not much moving around at all...

Book-wise:
📚 The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (Pink Carnation #6; by Lauren Willig) - Penelope and her new husband are sent to India to ride out the scandal of their hasty marriage. The post could be the making, or the breaking of their marriage. Intrigue, betrayal and true love in unexpected places are vividly set against the exotic climes of the Deccan. Less melodramatic and frivolous than the predecessors in the series, there are still some "cinematographic" moments. There's a quite a bit of "relative morality" (euphemism for adultery) that serves Penelope; but it ironically makes for the happy ending. 4 STARS

🎭 Henry VI, Part 3 (by William Shakespeare - Four battles from the War of the Roses played out over 5 scenes! Lots of retributive justice, broken promises and shifting allegiances (Oh, Clarence!) set the stage for one of histories greatest villains, Richard III. 4 STARS

📚 Silence (by Shūsaku Endō) - Two young Portuguese Jesuit priests head to Japan to serve the occult Roman Catholics natives and to discover what has happened to their former mentor who has apostatized the Faith. Far from the romance of serving and the hagiography of martyrdom, the reality of the suffering and the harshness of the conditions have one priest question God's silence. Beautifully written. 4 STARS

📚 These Old Shades (Alastair-Audley #1; by Georgette Heyer) - Léon is a French boy picked up in the streets of Paris by Justin Alastair, the Duke of Avon. Avon decides to employ Léon first as a page, but his secret agenda is to exact revenge upon his social enemy, the Comte de Saint-Vire. How the vendetta is played out is the meat of the story against which we discover Léon is actually Léonie and, the May-December romance blooms. Well researched in terms of fashion and language, it lacks sexual tension. 3 STARS

📚 Nettle and Bone (by T. Kingfisher) - An occult fairy tale that hypnotizes from the opening lines. Quite, convent-raised Marra sets out to rescue her sister from the depredations of the Prince. There is magic and mystery and a bit of humor and a tiny bit of romance and it's all woven together with lyrical words. I cannot adequately describe this book, but "5 STARS"

I'm in the middle of three books now:
🎧 The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn (by Nathanial Philbrick); narrated by George Guidall) - Subtitle says it all. It's one of "The 22" so I'm committed to finishing it; but it's pretty "meh" so far. I feeling the lack of maps (so a bit of googling while I'm listening) and; the audio narrator is a bit long in the tooth and just barely survives criticism in his voicing of the Native Americans quoted in the book.

📚 Warlock (Legends West #1; by Oakley Hall) - Probably going to DNF this one. It's a Pulitzer Award finalist from 1958 that re-seats Tombstone and its citizens in the fictional town of Warlock, AZ. It's not bad, I just feel like I've "seen this movie" already!

🎧 The Woman in White (by Wilkie Collins) - I've read quite e bit of Dickens this year and was feeling a little burnt out after three or four titles-- so perhaps picking up Wilkie Collins wasn't the best idea. They have their distinctive styles, true; but there is a certain sameness I can't quite out my finger on... Anyway, I will probably table this one for a later time (I like it, just not enough right now).

Glad to see Nettle and Bone was a winner for you -- I loved that one too! And I was also not a fan of the spoiler you mentioned for The Betrayal of the Blood Lily, though I did enjoy the book overall. I'm hoping to reread the whole Pink Carnation series next year!

A lot of reading and nature, even in the heat! I've penciled in The Pink Carnation series for next year. Also, interested in your take on the Philbrick book as I've read his book on the Whaleship Essex. I'm currently collecting the Bard's Henry books, but nor sure if I will get to them this year or next. I'm glad you are enjoying 4 and 5 star reads!

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Monterey, CA: The setting of many of Steinbeck's stories, home of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and, every year around the first week in August, host to car shows, rallies, auctions.... (Note the white MacLaren just sitting in front of the building!)

Since I last posted

☀️ Record breaking temperatures from 106- to 155-degrees Fahrenheit for a whole week here in Southern Oregon
🔥 The McKinney Fire (currently at 60K+ acres) + the China 2 fire (now disappeared but "replaced" by the Yeti Fire) all raging across the border, less than an hour away
🌊 One white water rafting trip (Upper Klamath River Run) to beat the heat, smoke and, because it's extraordinarily fun 😀

Book-wise:
🎧 The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn (by Nathanial Philbrick); narrated by George Guidall) - Non-fiction title covering General George Armstrong Custer and the Hunkpapa Lakota leader, Sitting Bull against the backdrop of the Battle of Little Bighorn-- With an even-handed approach to both leaders, the author takes a new look at the iconic battle waged in Montana. Philbrick attempts to mitigate both the hagiography and the propaganda surrounding Custer & Sitting Bull respectively and; tries to reconstruct the motivations and movements of the battle about which there is a lot still unknown. Listening to this in audio does a disservice to the work: The lack of having corresponding maps at hand is keenly felt and; the narrator barely survives criticism in his voicing of Native American people.

📚 The Caiman (by María Eugenia Manrique) - An illustrated children's book about a man who domesticates a caiman (an alligator-like reptile) - Based on a true story, this a picture book with sophisticated, but seeming simple, illustrations (by Ramón París). Translated from the original Spanish, it's a slightly sad story; but nicely done.

📚 Flashman (Flashman #1; by George MacDonald Fraser) - I'm really torn about this book: On one hand, the protagonist is a lying, cheating, misogynistic, rapist & philanderer. On the other hand, the descriptions of the battle scenes are clearly, vividly described to the point that the reader may feel they are reading an eye-witness account. The latter elevates this to a fine historical fiction; but the former discourages from pursuing the series further.

Currently reading:
🎧 The Siege of Krishnapur (Empire Trilogy #2; by J. G. Farrell; narrated by Peter Wickham) - I'm loving this historical fiction set in India in 1857. The Sepoys are in revolt and laying siege to the Residency. This is a satire about the Classism of the British Empire and creates striking and detailed moment in time in which the Empire falters. Peter Wickham has an Old School British style of narration that I gravitate towards.

📚 Krakan (by China Miéville) - A giant squid has been stolen form a British museum. How? Why? This is a thriller that borders on New Weird and Horror that is proving to be rather challenging to get through despite the short chapters which would ordinarily have me turning pages faster: The deconstructed patter & cadence of the British vernacular are sometimes difficult to decipher and; The esoteric flights describing the arcane are mystifying. Perhaps I'm just not smart enough for this; but I will persevere until the end (It's one of "The Twenty-Two" I chose for this year).

DNF:
📚 Warlock (Legends West #1; by Oakley Hall) - Most likely truly novel in 1957 in in era where Zane Grey's works were canon in regard to the Old West, this has been eclipsed by more modern retellings of Tombstone, Arizona.

🎧 The Woman in White (by Wilkie Collins; narrated by Glenn McCready, Rachel Bavidge and others) - I loved The Moonstone but some reason, this just failed to engage me. I grew bored about halfway though and then looked up a plot synopsis online. This is a "soft dnf" though. I will probably try again, maybe in print next time.

Images
📷 Looking for something fun... Stay tuned!

>91 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Yikes, those are intense temperatures! Glad you were able to go rafting to beat the heat. Hope it's more temperate soon!

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________________________ Wooldridge Creek Vineyard, Winery, Creamery & Charcuterie, Grants Pass, Oregon _________________________

🥾 Temperatures dropped to the mid-nineties (degrees Fahrenheit) so we headed out for a ~5-mile hike on the Applegate Trail system
🍷 Afterwards, we stopped at the Woolridge Winery, sat on the lawn and, sipped away the afternoon :-)

Finished:
🎧 The Siege of Krishnapur (Empire Trilogy #2; by J. G. Farrell; narrated by Peter Wickham) - The antidote to Flashman! Four solid stars!

📚 Kraken (by China Miéville) - A giant squid preserved in formaldehyde has been stolen from the British Museum and, the curator specifically associated with the Architeuthis dux, a.k.a. "Archie" is swept up in the search & (if possible) recovery. This starts out with an "X-Files" vibe and, dips a little into the horror of New Weird; but mostly, it's a discursive plot as the author runs with arcane topics & thoughts. It also doesn't help that the cadence & vocabulary of the British vernacular that Miéville employs is rather abstruse-- not impossible, but without contextual clues as to tone, it's challenging enough. 3 flat stars and a reluctance to read anymore of the author's works.

Just started:
The Mischief of the Mistletoe (Pink Carnation #7; by Lauren Willig) - Set in 1803, it takes its inspiration from Jane Austen’s unfinished novel, The Watsons. I'm hoping to finish this one before Friday when my daughter comes in for a brief visit! :-)

August stack remaining:
🎭 Richard III (by William Shakespeare)
📚 The Night Manager (by John le Carré)

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🥾 Started out for a trail on the California side of the border; but thankfully, before we got too far along, remembered that it is closed owing to the McKinney fire damage-- so we turned around and hit part of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in Ashland, Oregon instead. The Ashland Meadows/Grouse Gap trail (4.2-miles) still holds wildflower color this late in the Summer, though it doesn't really show in photos. Above is a classic PCT trail marker with Mount Ashland in the background. This is the same Mt. Ashland in January's pictures--sans snow and on the gentler approach!

📚 The Mischief of the Mistletoe (Pink Carnation#7) & Away in a Manger: A Very Turnip Wedding Night (Pink Carnation series) #7.5); by Lauren Willig) - A Georgian Romance/Napoleonic spy thriller, this Christmastime story is about a young woman who has taken on a position as a junior teacher at an all girls academy. While there, she inadvertently intercepts a message definitely not meant for her… Based on Jane Austen’s unfinished novel, The Watsons, this features Ms Austen herself as a secondary character and touches on boarding school life for girls in the early 19th century. The novel has more of a slapstick comedy touch than the author's prior books in the series and is overall a lot of fun with French spies running around, powdered wigs, layered cloaks, Christmas puddings and a dorky guy nicknamed "Turnip" who is not as dumb as he appears... The intersticial story is a Romance short and you can skip it without feeling like you've missed anything.

📚 The Night Manager (by John Le Carré) - Set in the days of the First Gulf war, Jonathan Pine is a hotelier who gets ensnared in the world of arms trafficking. This novel is more “Bondesque” with its outsized nemesis, women and, exotic locales than I’m used to from this author, but it still remains within the world of credibility. While reading, I dreamt that I was in a small aircraft landing on a small island—all the while filled with dread and nerves… so yeah, 5 stars for the book in getting under my skin!
📺 The television series (BBC One & AMC) has moved the timeline up to the Arab Spring; but preserves the style & tension of the original. Really well done. Also, Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie and, Olivia Coleman are in it ❤️❤️❤️

📚 Who was Sitting Bull? (by Stephanie Spinner) - a Middle Grade book about the Hapapunk Lakota Sioux leader who faced off against Custer in the infamous, "Custer's Last Stand". The "Who Was..." series are not has lavishly written & illustrated as the DK biographies and so suffer by comparison; but in and of themselves work well as inexpensive primers.

🎭 Richard III (by William Shakespeare) - Richard of York is making his moves: discrediting and killing his enemies, manipulating his allies and, going for the crown… Based on historical chronicles and mashed up with Tudor-appeasing propaganda, Shakespeare gives us one of the greatest dramatic villains of all time.

📚 Shakespeare's Kings: The Great Plays and the History of England in the Middle Ages: 1337-1485 (by John Julius Norwich) - After two years of correlative reading with Shakespeare's History plays, I have finished! Easily accessible language covering the actual history of Shakespeares kings from Edward III through Richard III and comparing it to the plays' timelines. My only quibble is that it doesn't cover Henry VIII; but still a great reading companion to the History plays.

🎧 The Storm of the Century: Tragedy, Heroism, Survival, and the Epic True Story of America's Deadliest Natural Disaster: The Great Gulf Hurricane of 1900 (by Al Roker & William Hogeland; narrated by Byron Wagner) - A mix of both expository & narrative non-fiction, the beginning chapters set up the factors that played into one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, the hurricane that pretty much wiped out Galveston, TX in 1900. Al Roker is an American weatherman who duly describes some meteorological things that went above my head sometimes, but I think that really says more about me than his accessible writing style proves to be in the latter parts. The subsequent sections of the book adroitly relate the accounts of people who managed to survive the storm. The audiobook narrator was okay: His cadence and sound reminded me of Bronson Pinchot; but there was a certain... je ne sais quoi missing-- so 3.50 for the book and; three for the narrator.

I finished reading my August stack and have started reading Flood of Fire (Ibis Trilogy #3; by Amitav Ghosh). After that, I'll be hitting the September stack:

• The Kills: Sutler (The Kills #1; by Richard House)
• Henry VIII (by William Shakespeare)
• The Orchid Affair (Pink Carnation #8; by Lauren Willig)

So glad you liked The Siege of Krishnapur. Troubles is also worth a read, but The Siege is my favourite. History, humour, compassion - everything you need, really.

Happy hiking.

Looks like a very successful reading month. I've got in the back of my head reading the Pink Carnation Series as well as the Ibis trilogy for 2023. I also need to finish up/catch up with my Shakespeare kings.

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It's been a few weeks of "Last Summer Things" as nightfall approaches a little bit earlier and more noticeably every day now...

🍷 Last al fresco dining at a local vineyard. Sipped a Chardonnay while looking over pre-harvest fields where the grapes are ripening into deeper shades of purple.

🥾 Last Summer hike at Roxy Ann Mountain. It was a short one-- more of a glorified dog walk than a bona fide hike; but since it was on a trail, I'm counting it! We can-- and certainly will-- go on other hikes, but we'll have to be more careful now that the hunters are out (Roosevelt elk is in season now) by wearing orange and; switching out to warmer gear.

🚣‍♀️ Last kayak trip of the year. We headed back up to Lost Creek Lake and, from the bridge (where we stopped last time), took it all the way up the gorge and met the the Rogue River! The water is crystal clear and icy cold! The picture above doesn't do it justice, but it is absolutely gorgeous. You can see where the lake and river meet at the Class II rapids.

🌊 Last white water rafting trip. This was my third time running the Upper Klamath (IV & IV+ rapids) and it was not nearly as hot or bright as expected. Under grey skies and 82-degree (Fahrenheit) temperatures, I had a blast; but it was definitely chilly. I might be able to take this run again early next Spring; but I'll be sure to wear a a wet suit!

I've been a little slow in my reading lately; but I did listen to News of the World and Simon the Fiddler-- both written by Paulette Jiles & narrated by Grover Gardner:

🎧 News of the World is the story of Captain Kydd, a Civil War/Confederate veteran who goes from town to town in Texas reading the news to paying audiences in 1870. While en route to one of his engagements, he is charged with returning a girl who had been kidnapped by the Kiowa to her surviving family. Just a great story (This is my third time through and second time in audio!) :-)

🎧 I then picked up Simon the Fiddler. Simon is featured very briefly in NOTW but the story is set in a little earlier (1865-66) and follows Simon as he makes his way from the last battle in the Civil War and on to his life thereafter. Jiles details much of the Texan sociopolitical/legal environment at this time which slows the pace down a bit; but it builds a stronger platform from which the climax of the story is launched.

In print:

📚 Black Elk's Vision: A Lakota Story (by S. D. Nelson) - A children's book and biography of Oglala Lakota Medicine Man, Black Elk. He was a cousin of Sitting Bull's and was present at the Battle of the Washita and at The Battle of Little Big Horn... This NF title explores Black Elk's guiding vision in the context of the disappearing way of life for the Lakota in the 19th-century. The illustrations are beautiful and the story includes contemporary photos. My only quibble was that I read this on an old mini-iPad and it took a few seconds for each page to load. I'm thinking of getting a hard copy of the book plus a couple other of Nelson's biographies (i.e. Sitting Bull, Red Cloud) and switching over to a more up-to-date iPad!

I'm still reading Flood of Fire (Ibis Trilogy #3; by Amitav Ghosh) and The Kills: Sutler (by Richard House)! I'm not sure what's going on in my reading brain right now; but hopefully, I'll be done with both books this weekend.

You've done some amazing things lately - what a wonderful way to say "goodbye" to summer!

Jealous of your beautiful vistas!

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______________________________Double Falls, Deschutes National Forest, Central Oregon.______________________________

Just got back from a week away in Bend, Oregon: kayaked, hiked, ate at breweries and excellent restaurants and, of, course, stopped at the indie bookstore up there, Dudley's Bookstore and Café!

At Dudley's picked up:

📚 Never Let Me Go (by Kazuo Ishiguro) - Backlist that's been on my mind for the past few weeks and am now reading :-)
📚 The Woman in White (by Wilkie Colins) - Used copy for when I decide to pick this up again. Earlier this year, I dropped it, but it was a "soft" DNF-- meaning that I plan on coming back to it.
📚 A Passage to India (by E. M. Forster) Backlist title that I recall reading decades ago; but that I don't really remember; but I'm pretty sure I didn't appreciate it at the time.
📚 Trout and Salmon of North America (by Robert J. Behnke) - Impulse purchase! TBH, may have been a little buzzed from a high ABV beer at lunch at the Bend Brewery ;-) Coffee table book that I may end up sending to my daughter.

Since I last posted:

🎧 I re-listened to The Dispatcher and Murder by Other Means before l picked up Travel by Bullet. The Dispatcher is a series of three short audio stories by John Scalzi and narrated by Zachary Quinto). The time is in the present, but one in which murdered people are inexplicably resurrected! The dispatcher is basically a sanctioned killer whose works enable the dying to return for the chance of a cure from that which killed them. These are detective mysteries set in Chicago and as much as I loved the first one which set everything up, I was less impressed by the newest offering: It had to do with crypto-currency and everyone, for various reasons is after possession of a thumb drive. Relationships are convoluted and I'm not sure I really was able to understand motives or, even why anyone in this day and age is carrying around a thumb drive, but whatever. 5, 4 and 3 stars respectively.

📚 The Kills: Sutler (The Kills #1; by Richard House) - A contractor in Iraq (200-2005) is bought off with $250,000. He can access the money via a series of four codes which he carries with him inscribed on dog tags. He makes his way across the Middle East, ostensibly heading for home or, at least an internet café where he can access the accounts. Not a particularly satisfying ending to the first part; but I'll withhold judgement until I've completed the 4-title omnibus.

🎧 King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa (by Adam Hochschild; narrated by Geoffrey Howard) - Much like William Darymple's book, The Anarchy, that opened my eyes to British Colonialism and its effects in Asia, this NF title illumined the extent of Belgium's role in the Congo Free State. The commercial interests for elephant ivory and rubber basically depopulated and destroyed indigenous cultures on the African continent in the nineteenth century. Solid 4 stars.

📚 Flood of Fire (Ibis Trilogy #3; by Amitav Ghosh) - An excellent ending to truly great historical fiction trilogy. The opening salvos of the Opium Wars have been launched. England and her allies are forcing opium into China in the great and glorious cause of Free Trade. I think that when you see the words "force" and "free" in the same sentence non-ironically, you can see the problem... 4.5 stars

📚 Velvet Devil (Vorobev Bratva Book #1; by Nicole Fox) - A variation of the Mafia Contemporary Romance sub-genre, this features an alpha male from the Russian Bratva and a woman who inadvertently tangled with him six years ago. She is sent off into WITSEC; but now, just has she is about to exit the program into a new life... and he has caught up with her. This runs along the lines of the Beauty and the Beast story with explicit sex. The first half of a duology, it ends on a cliffhanger. Lots of angst.

🎧 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 9by Washington Irving; narrated by Anthony Heald) - Classic short story set in the Fall of 1790 about the Headless Horseman! I listened to this narrated by another narrator a few years ago; but decided to pick this one up for a "re-" listen. I had forgotten how amazingly deft Irving is in painting a picture, character and mood. 4 fun stars!

📚 The Orchid Affair (Pink Carnation#8; by Lauren Willhg) - Laura Grey has been a governess for sixteen years and, before she is forever cast in the caricature of the unsmiling, uninteresting demi-servant, she seeks a little adventure. After having enrolled in Selwick's Spy School, her first assignment sends her to France in the Spring of 1804. There, she assumes the role of governess (natch) in order to get close to a government official who persecutes Royalists. Nothing is as it seems, of course.... Willig uses some material from Sabbatini's Scaramouche as inspiration for the melodrama; but the chemistry between Laura and a politically disillusioned André just isn’t there. A little disappointing. 3 stars.

Currently reading:

🎧 The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 (by Barbara W. Tuchman; narrated by Wanda McCaddon - A little misleading in that it's really the world according to the Anglo perspective; but Tuchman does makes her disclaimers in the Introduction so you can adjust your expectations accordingly. So far, Tuchman has covered the concretized nobility of Great Britain, anarchism and, the beginnings of American Imperialism. There are lots of names to try and keep track of; but I'm focusing on the general sweep of things. Very enlightening.

📚 Never Let Me Go (by Kazuo Ishiguro) - A dystopian SF novel set in the late 1990's. Three students at a boarding school in the English countryside work out their relationships against the backdrop of their pre-determined fates. Short book at 225+ pages or so; but one to read carefully.

October Stack:
📚 Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music (by Ted Gioia)
📚 Christine (by Stephen King)
📚 The Kills: The Massive (The Kills #2; by Richard House)
📚 The Garden Intrigue (Pink Carnation #9; by Lauren Willig)
📚 Velvet Angel (Vorobev Bratva #2; by Nicole Fox)
📚 Klara and the Sun (by Kazuo Ishiguro)

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______________________________Muir Creek, Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest ______________________________

🥾 Over the US Columbus/Indigenous Peoples Day weekend, we went on a 5.75-mile hike up the Muir Creek trail. It seems like no one has been up there in a while so conditions were pretty rough; but it was definitely worth the effort! The creek wanders though open meadows & marsh and, we made it to a magnificent cascade of falls ("Muir Creek Falls"). The weather was gorgeous and on the way home we stopped at the historic café, Becky's and indulged in a bit of homemade apple pie :-)

Finished:
🎧 The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 (by Barbara W. Tuchman; narrated by Wanda McCaddon) - This is a collection of an introduction and eight essays, each covering a topic relevant to the zeitgeist of the years running up to WWI form the Anglo perspective. At first, I was a little overwhelmed by all the names to keep up with and had trouble seeing the forest for the trees, but when I pulled back my focus, I was able to see and appreciate the trends being discussed. I did have a moment of confusion in listening to the audio when the narrator kept referring to the "Carkey" elections in England. It's turns out she was talking about English Khaki elections! So maybe print might be better for those who want to more dutifully track the people involved in the various movements (The Dreyfus Affair in particular is a tangle of people with various fealties and alliances) or; those unaccustomed to undiluted British accents. Still, in either print or audio, an enlightening work that can serve as touchstone for further inquiries, in particular the topics of British nobility, Anarchism, US Imperialism/Spanish-American War, The Dreyfus Affair, The Hague, Richard Strauss, British Parliament and, Jean Juarès.

📚 Never Let Me Go (by Kazuo Ishiguro) - I'm going to repeat what I wrote last time:

A dystopian SF novel set in the late 1990's. Three students at a boarding school in the English countryside work out their relationships against the backdrop of their pre-determined fates. Short book at 225+ pages or so; but one to read carefully.

I'm not sure anything else can be said without spoiling it; but I will say I'm still processing it a bit-- and, IMHO it's not as elegant as The Remains of the Day.

🎧 No One is Talking About This (by Patricia Lockwood; narrated by Kristen Sieh) - Short, brilliant, moving book about how social media shapes our time, thoughts, actions and even identity. A woman who spends a lot of time online via The Portal is brought to earth (metaphorically speaking) when she receives a phone call from her mother... I see there are quite a few people who don't like it; but once you "get it", it's a marvel. It reminds me of the spreadsheets in A Visit to the Goon Squad (by Jennifer Egan) in that words are being wielded in a new way to tell a story.

Currently reading:
📚 Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music (by Ted Gioia) and listening to what I can grab from our (my husband's and my) music libraries. Love the blues :-)

📚 I've sort of started reading The Garden Intrigue (Pink Carnation #9; by Lauren Willig); but haven't committed to it whole-heartedly yet. I need to sit down and dig in this weekend :-)

I'm hosting the "Robots & AI" challenge for the SFFkit this month, but I'm not happy with the couple of titles that I've tried so far: Klara & the Sun (by Kazuo Ishiguro) and Sea of Rust (by C. Robert Cargill.) This may be one of those times where I don't read for my own reading party!

2023 reading plans are under way-- so remaining disciplined in finishing off my 2022 stacks is a challenge! I've pulled my 23 books that will form the core of next year's reading; but I'm not sure how much I'll be engaged next year in the group overall (but I say that every year!) I do know that the more time I've been spending outside, the harder it has become to come inside. I've been calling it "Broken Reading Brain Syndrome"-- I don't know if it's the result of the pandemic or asymptomatic COVID or what; but I do know that I need to manage expectations and not pretend otherwise ;-)

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Muir Creek, Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest : Hummingbird Meadow trailhead: Early afternoon sunlight streaming through young-growth Ponderosa

🥾 This past weekend, we went back to Muir Creek and found a trailhead close to where we had reached last time; and then went in a little further for a 5.2-mile RT hike. This is designated wilderness area, which means that there is no trail maintenance. We had to go over, under and around fallen timber (some trunks were as large as 12-feet in diameter!) and forge creeks. This particular trail features mountain meadows which in the Spring are seas of wildflowers reaching waist-high. In the fall though, there's less color; but still, it was a great way to spend the day.

🎧 I finished listening to Sea of Rust (by C. Robert Cargill; narrated by Eva Kaminsky) - Brittle is a sentient robot and a veteran of the war that annihilated the humans from the face of the earth. Plagued with memories, existential questions and dwindling resources, she scavenges the former Rust Belt and gets caught up in a cause greater than herself… Years ago, when book blogging was a thing, I had asked a couple of my online friends for their audiobook recommendations. “The Guilded Earlobe” had listed this post-apocalyptic tale about a robot who looked for magic in the flash of green at sunset, as one of his all-time favorites. So, I dnloaded the book but it never quite made it into rotation until now. I liked it. It had an interesting premise, action sequences, character development, vivid, descriptive language that enabled the reader to easily imagine the scenes… There was absolutely nothing wrong with it— So I’m a little bemused as to why I don’t like it more. A fun 3.5 stars.

I'm still picking at:
📚 Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music (by Ted Gioia). I've also started putting together a playlist of some of the songs mentioned in the book. There's a list in the back of Delta Blues which helps though some are OOP so I'm substituting with contemporary selections and;

📚 The Garden Intrigue (Pink Carnation #9; by Lauren Willig) - This features the outrageously bad poet Augustus Whittlesby and a widowed American ex-patriot living in Paris during the Napoleonic Era. There's also a 2004 storyline featuring a Harvard researcher and the heir to the Selwick family that has served as the framework for the series so far. In this book, Selwick Hall has been rented out to a film crew, escalating family tensions.

Started:
🎧 The Guns of August (The Coming of the Great War #2; by Barbara W. Tuchman; narrated by Wanda McCaddon) - This is a companion piece to The Proud Tower and both books are about the run-up to WWI. This volume is more focused on the months leading up to the war as things are tightening up geopolitically in Europe. Technically this is in my November stack; but at the rate I'm going, it'll be November before I finish!

I'm behind in my October stacks:
📚 Christine (by Stephen King) and;
📚 The Kills: Massive (by Richard House)

I may end up shuffling things around in the next few weeks to make sure I get the remaining 2023 titles in before the end of the year. I might go in a Pink Carnation binge for the rest of the month and leave Stephen King for next month. We'll see!

Current November Stack:
📚 Mademoiselle Chanel (by C. W. Gortner)
🎧 Pet Sematary (by Stephen King; narrated by C. Michael Hall)
🎭 Henry VIII (by William Shakespere)
📚 The Kills: The Kill (by Richard House)
📚 The Passion of the Purple Plumeria (Pink Carnation #10; by Lauren Willig)

Current December Stack:
📚 The Kills: The Hit (by Richard House)
📚 The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla (Pink Carnation #11; by Lauren Willig)
📚 The House of Special Purpose (by John Boyne)

Every year, my reading energy tends to flag right about now. I think I need to factor that in when I'm making plans for next year!

I am dealing with flagging reading interest right now as well. I realize that I won't be able to finish all the books that I was planning to read in October and most likely need to whittle down my stacks of November and December reads as well. Right now I am trying to read books that will count toward the various challenges that I have taken on.

______________________________
_________________________Little Illinois River Falls, Selma, OR. Falls are approximately 16-20 feet in drop_________________________

🥾 So it's salmon spawning season here in Southern Oregon, but maybe a touch early as we went out to the Little Illinois River; but didn't spot any yet! We'll check back there and in a couple of other places though November. Once so numerous that you could reputedly walk across a river on the backs of the fish swimming upstream, now the fish are endangered. Nonetheless, not all hope is lost. Next year, the largest dam removal in US history will commence and it is expected that it will help in returning the fish runs.

I finally finished:
📚 The Garden Intrigue (Pink Carnation #9; by Lauren Willig)! - Description is in last week's post; so just the rating remains, only 3.0 stars. It's late in the run of the series and the storylines are beginning to feel rather less "sparkly" than they did in the beginning. And too, I've never really enjoyed the framing story of a 21st century Harvard graduate student doing research into the Georgian period. I find the interludes when we're popped in to the relative present disruptive. Still, now that I'm close to reaching my goal of getting to the eleventh book in the series, I'll keep going!

I'm committing to:
📚 Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music (by Ted Gioia). Subtitle explains it all. The author is a musician, researcher and enthusiast of the Blues (and of Jazz) and their talents are on display in this work: They dig into the murky histories of the artists featured and admit the lack of concrete answers in many cases; speculations are well-informed (and clearly labeled as such); critique of the work bears out when you listen to the works cited... Even if it's not narrative non-fiction, it makes for easy enough reading as they progress though the decades. There's some, but not too much musical theory in the text.

In the middle of:
🎧 The Guns of August (The Coming of the Great War #2; by Barbara W. Tuchman; narrated by Wanda McCaddon) - Bookmarking 1914 maps of Europe online has proven to be absolutely essential in listening to the audio! Unlike The Proud Tower which covered the cultural zeitgeist of the years running up to the Great War; this is very much about military stratagem. The audio not incomprehensible, but knowing where rivers like the Maas/Meuse are in relation to the German flank (and even what a flank is), is helpful in visualizing what's-what as things start to congeal on two fronts and across four armies.

I'm "off schedule" by two weeks so I've combined the remaining reading lists from mid-October through December into one End of Year Stack:

📚 Christine (by Stephen King)
📚 The Kills: Massive (by Richard House)
📚 Mademoiselle Chanel (by C. W. Gortner)
🎧 Pet Sematary (by Stephen King; narrated by C. Michael Hall)
📚 The Kills: The Kill (by Richard House)
📚 The Passion of the Purple Plumeria (Pink Carnation #10; by Lauren Willig)
📚 The Kills: The Hit (by Richard House)
📚 The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla (Pink Carnation #11; by Lauren Willig)
📚 The House of Special Purpose (by John Boyne)

I'm just going to go down the list and, and maybe fit in something for the one of the challenges (Reading Through Time and/or AlphaKit) When/If I Can:

🎭 Henry VIII (by William Shakespeare) #RTT #Endings
🎧 North to Paradise (by Ousman Umar; narrated by Kwesi Busia) #AlpahKit_U
🎧 You Better Not Cry (written & narrated by Augusten Burroughs) #AlpahKit_Y
📚 Aunt Bessie Assumes (Isle of Man Cozy Mystery #1; by Diana Xarissa) #AlpahKit_X
📚 The Color of Lightning (by Paulette Giles) #RTT #ReadersChoice

______________________________
__________________________________________________Rogue River, Trail, OR__________________________________________________

I headed over to known salmon spawning grounds up near the Cole Rivers Fish Hatchery; but the even though there were fly fisherman out and I'm sure there were fish out there, I didn't actually spot any. I suspect the low numbers and the calm waters (no need to jump out of the water like with a waterfall or fish ladder) kept them out of sight. Sadly, I don't think I'll see any this year; but I have made my way to some amazing riverside spots in the effort! The sky is truly white in the picture above as it started snowing while I was out there! Winter came early over the weekend of November 4 and, there's been quite the bite to the air. This is more than a little unusual as we live in high desert territory and are more accustomed to drought conditions-- but if this keeps up, we'll have a nice wet spring and a green summer! :-)

Finished:
🎧 The Guns of August (The Coming of the Great War #2; by Barbara W. Tuchman; narrated by Wanda McCaddon) - Interestingly, this focuses on the German sweep through Belgium and up to the First Battle of the Marne-- which she counts as the first battle of The Great War rather than the one at Tannenberg. Also, there's no coverage of the Balkan theater, which is a bit odd all things considered. So, ultimately, limited in scope; but what she does write about is pretty clear. Online maps and The Great War YouTube video channel helped significantly with visualizations and added details. 4 stars.

🎧 North to Paradise: A Memoir (by Ousman Umar; narrated by Kwesi Busia). This is the story of a young teen from Ghana who decides to migrate North to Barcelona.The writing is a bit rough so I thought the audio would enhance the book experience-- which it did and didn't at the same time. There's no disguising that the writing needs a bit more editorial oversight; but it was nice to hear a native Ghanian give voice to the work, though admittedly there were a couple times when a pronunciation would snag me out of the story (e.g., "Arabic" pronounced ah-RA-bik). I wanted this to be better than this actually was. 2 stars.

📚 Aunt Bessie Assumes (Isla of Man Cozy Mystery #1; by Diana Xarissa) - Aunt Bessie is an older resident on an island in the North Sea and on her usual morning walk over the strand, she literally trips over a dead man's body! Who? What? and How? are the questions that drive the plot forward against a landscape that reminds me of the settings of the Hamish MacBeth TV series. A tight-knit community with quirky characters... This seems to be a popular series here on LT (perhaps because of the "X" prompt in the AlphaKit?) so I'm not going to throw shade on it; but it really wasn't my cup of tea.

📚 Squirrel Do Bad - (Trubble Town #1; by Stephan Pastis) - This is a children's graphic novel featuring Wandering Wendy, a little girl who is tightly monitored by her over-protective father. Forced to go away on a business trip, he leaves his daughter in the care of a negligent babysitter and, Wendy takes advantage by slipping out to discover the town in which she lives. Havoc ensues when she gives a squirrel a sip of her Mooshy... This is as fun and clever as you would expect from the comic strip artist who writes and inks "Pearls Before Swine"-- but this is not that universe where goats, pigs and crocodiles riff on puns, so you may need to adjust your expectations accordingly. I did find the actual drawing of Wendy to be weird and bit off-putting; but maybe it'd appealing to the target audience of 8-12 year-olds?

Almost finished:
📚 The Passion of the Purple Plumeria (Pink Carnation #10; by Lauren Willig) The Pink Carnation and her chaperone, Miss Gwendolyn Meadows return from France to England in search of the Pink Carnation's little sister. Colonel William Reid has arrived in England to visit his daughter-- only to find that she is also missing, apparently having disappeared with the other girl! This is a romance featuring an older couple (Miss Meadows is 40-years old and the Colonel is retired and in his mid-fifties)-- which is a nice counter to the forever-young crowd that populates most romances. There is still plenty of melodrama, a bit of adventure and of course, espionage involved... I should finish this one this evening. :-)

📚 Delta Blues (by Ted Gioia) - I've only got two chapters to go; but I'm parsing out the remaining chapters between this weekend and the next. I've been combing through our (my husband's and my) music collections and assembling playlists. This weekend will be about B.B. King and the next about Mississippi John Hurt :-)

Started/in the middle of:
🎧 I just finished the first of three parts (but roughly more than half of the actual book) in Pet Sematary (by Stephen King; narrated by Michael C. Hall.) This is a story about a doctor's family who moves to an old neighborhood somewhere near Castle Rock, Maine (reference to Cujo early on.) In the back of the lot, there is access to a pet cemetery built on old Native American burial grounds. As the doctor discovers the magic and horror of his new surroundings, King ruminates on death, writes about sex a little more graphically than in previously published works and, has indulged in some rather explicit descriptions of gross things-- but also painted pictures of heart-breaking idylls and raw emotion. This feels like the best mix of Cujo and the novellas in Different Seasons. The narrator, star of cable TV's "Six Feet Under" and "Dexter," nails the Maine accent of a key figure in the book; but otherwise seems pretty deadly neutral. I really, really wish celebrity narrators were not a thing. Anyway, taking this one slow as there are lots of triggers.

As the year winds down, I'm trying not to panic read! I feel like I'm in grade school and I have one line at the bottom of a ruled paper sheet left-- and one word I need to get in that might be too long to fit! I just have to remember not to push it and, it I don't finish everything I want to by the end of the year, I can carry it/them over to the New Year! The Gods of Gutenberg will not be revoking my library card!

I've been shuffling the stacks around:

📚 The Color of Lightning (by Paulette Giles) Starting this one this weekend :-) #RTT #ReadersChoice (Might re-tag this one as #Endings as it's the last of three companion books)
📚 The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla (Pink Carnation #11; by Lauren Willig) - Thanksgiving holiday read :-)
🎧 You Better Not Cry (written & narrated by Augusten Burroughs) - Queuing this one up after Pet Semetary - Maybe in a week or so-- perfect timing for the holidays! #AlpahKit_Y
📚 The Kills: Massive (by Richard House) - Time to jump back into the omnibus and run it to the end! This will be my December project :-)
📚 The Kills: The Kill (by Richard House) - See above
📚 The Kills: The Hit (by Richard House) - See above

📚 Mademoiselle Chanel (by C. W. Gortner) - Iffy; but if I don't get it read in 2022; I'm pretty sure there's space for it in the Reading Through Time challenge next year.
📚 The House of Special Purpose (by John Boyne) - Set in 1915, if I don't get 'er done by the end of this year, it will fit for the first quarter of the RTT challenge (WWI: 1914-1918)
📚 Christine (by Stephen King) - Highly unlikely I'm going to be able to make it; but it's not one of the 22-- so no big deal. But I would like to read it soon while I'm still in Castle Rock so to speak.

🎭 Henry VIII (by William Shakespeare) - Oddly, I'm not in the mood for this one right now. I'll probably pick this one up when I'm back in the Tudor/Elizabethan groove. We'll see... #RTT #Endings (If I have time, I'll re-tag this one as #ReadersChoice).

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________________________________________Medford, Rogue Valley from Roxy Ann Peak ________________________________________

There's a 2.7-mile loop trail around Roxy Ann Peak, Prescott Park in Medford. It's not particularly challenging; but it's a great dog walk, something different than the neighborhood sniffs my lab mix has grown somewhat bored with. It's also remarkable for the views, especially South into the Rogue Valley and East to Mount McLoughlin. The thing that's truly remarkable is that not two days I have ever been up there have the views looked exactly the same! One day, one hour, one minute can mean a dramatic change in weather or look! In this past month of November, we've have cerulean blue skies with flocks of robins coming in; The next hour you could see cirrus clouds feather the sky; and the next minute, you could be driving down the mountain in white-out conditions as snow starts falling!

I got a bit more reading done this past week than expected as I got the flu :-(
Thankfully, my husband & I tested negative for COVID, RSV and, chest x-rays came back clear (pneumonia); so we've been bundling up, dozing and reading through the start of the holidays:

📚 The Passion of the Purple Plumeria Pink Carnation (Pink Carnation #10; by Lauren Willig - This is actually a pleasant surprise in the lineup as it features an older couple, the retired Colonel Reid from the East India Company and, the middle-aged and daunting chaperone, Miss Gwendolyn Meadows. Both arrive in Bath, England at a boarding school and end up on the trail of two missing students (One is Reid's daughter and the other is the sister of Miss Meadows' charge). There is still plenty of fun, action and melodrama and for once, the interstitial chapters that take place in Sussex 2004 didn't annoy me (a quest for missing jewels related to the Napoleonic Era story being told). 4.0 solid stars.

📚 Delta Blues (by Ted Gioia) - I've been living with this one for two months and finally put it to bed! It's not boring; I just wanted to take my time with it and explore the music that author talks about :-)
The author traces blues history from its murky beginnings in Africa to the Mississippi Delta region where it spawned notable figures and influenced future musicians worldwide. Gioa creates a dozen profiles of seminal blues musicians from Son House to B.B. King and wraps it up with a chapter on the Blues Revival in the 1960s. Gioa is a noted music historian known for his work in the field of jazz (the fraternal twin of the blues) and in the area of the blues, his love of the genre and his analytical discernments are evident and unparalleled. Where the writing suffers is in the speculations he makes where there is no evidence and in a prophesy about the future of the blues that, fourteen years after the publication of the book has yet to pass. Nonetheless, his astute insights about the music itself, coupled with the Recommended Listening List at the back of the book, make for a richly rewarding experience. 4.0 stars.

📚 The Color of Lightning (by Paulette Jiles) - A historical fiction based on the real life personage of Britt Johnson, who was a Black Freedman who settled in Texas while the Civil War was winding down in the East. His family would be taken from him in a Comanche-Kiowa raid and; he would go on a legendary search for them. The Color of Lightning is very different from her subsequent novels, News of the World and Simon the Fiddler which take place in the same "universe" and in which Britt makes brief appearances.The Color of Lightning opens with a rather shockingly graphic description of the Elk Creek Raid in 1864. It starts off intense; but it pulls you into the time and place immediately and the atmosphere is carried throughout the story with painterly descriptions of the land and people. 'The Color of Lightning' is very much a masterwork of the author's and her subsequent works pale by comparison, even as good as they are. 4.25 stars

📚 The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla (Pink Carnation #11; by Lauren Willig) - The penultimate novel in the Pink Carnation series, this features the stupid/brave heroine Sally Fitzhugh and Lucien, Duke of Belliston and is set in 1806 against rumors of vampirism. Sally has run off from boarding school, anticipating the excitement of the Season, but has quickly grown bored. Lucien has returned after a number of years abroad and now seeks to discover who murdered his parents. Plenty of melodrama and action, but lacking the humor of other installments in the series. #FakeBetrothalTrope 3.5 stars

🎧 Pet Sematary (by Stephen King) - I had to put this one aside for a couple weeks before I decided to sit down and finish it off. It's not bad, in fact, it's some of King's better writing; but there are plenty of triggers here that made me pause: Animal abuse and killing of; Child death and killing of; Interfering grandparents. I'm glad I read it as King's writing appreciably matures in this novel; but am not eager to re-visit it in either re-reading it or watching any film adaptation. 4.0 stars

📚 Mademoiselle Chanel (by C.W. Gortner) - I'm more of a Christian Dior fan myself, but I was eager to read this after having, in Paris a number of years ago, had an epiphany about fashion as art. This, however, was a disappointing novelization of Coco Chanel's life with cursory descriptions of the clothes and rather uninspired writing overall. Mlle. Chanel's life and times were so extraordinary, that I'm not sure why the author chose to create a historical fiction of it, much less so poorly. It rather felt like a wikipedia article with created dialogue. Anyway, I'm not so sure I want to read more about Mlle. Chanel (gold digger, n'est-ce pas?), but if I do, I will probably pick up a non-fiction work. 2.25 stars

Currently reading:

📚 I've now returned to the omnibus, The Kills (by Richard House) and have started 'The Massive' (the second book in the collection). There are six contractors/workers in Iraq (2002-2005) who have something to do with the reconstruction project introduced in the first book, 'The Sutler'-- but it's not clear yet as to where this section is going.

🎧 I've also started The Wright Brothers (written and narrated by David McCullogh) - The interstitial period between 1900 and the beginning of WWI is not one I am overtly familiar with but this serves not only the time period (RTT challenge) but will work as a run-up to The Great War in which planes would become a major factor.

What I have left in the stacks:

📚 The Kills: Massive (by Richard House) - Reading now :-)
📚 The Kills: The Kill (by Richard House) - December stack
📚 The Kills: The Hit (by Richard House) - December stack

📚 You Better Not Cry (by Augusten Burroughs) - I thought I had the audio for this on hand; but just found out why I got rid of it: The reviews for the author's narration are terrible. It's not available in print/ebook at my library, so I'll probably dnload this one next week. This is for the "Y" prompt in the AlphaKit Challenge.
📚 The House of Special Purpose (by John Boyne) - Set in 1915, if I don't get to it by the end of this year, it will fit for the first quarter of the Reading Through Time challenge (WWI: 1914-1918)

📚 Christine (by Stephen King) - Probably going to be a 2023 read
🎭 Henry VIII (by William Shakespeare) - Probably going to be a 2023 read

Going to give Jiles another chance, based on your review. I read News of the World and was not impressed.

My daughter's flight is cancelled so we're waiting to see what the new travel details are. I'm beyond anxious right now. I really want to see her; but more than that, I want her safe! In the meantime, I might as well start the end-of-year wrap up!

Since I last posted:
📚 You Better Not Cry (by Augusten Burroughs) - A collection of short stories about a few of the author's more memorable Christmases from the time he was five until his most recent essay in 2008, these were funny, poignant and overall charming. Some may find his alcoholism, homosexuality & promiscuity a bit dark or disturbing; but it all rings true with excellent writing. Perfect for those who aren't into the saccharine of Hallmark Holiday movies.
🎧 The Wright Brothers (written and narrated by David McCullough) - Some interesting bits of trivia about the brothers contributions to aerodynamics and flight; but ultimately they come across as strange, unknowable people. Not sure if it's the writing or the subject matter (Other commentary on various threads lead me to believe it might very well be the latter); but narration doesn't help: Author sounds tired and his French a bit suspect.
📚 The African Queen (by C. S. Forester) - Oh, Wow! This is amazing! Adventure! Romance! Fiction as Truth! Rose finds herself alone in a mission after the Germans have raided the village (people and stuff for the Great War which has just begun). Charlie, the captain of a supply launch shows up and off they go on a mission that rose has cooked up as vengeance for the death of her brother and in the name of British patriotism. Charlies humors her and they find themselves running the Ulanga River and getting shot at... The movie follows a lot of the plot points; but has a very Hollywood ending. Some may find the chapters where Rose & Charlie shoot the rapids a bit tedious, but I find them breathtaking.
🎧 The Zimmermann Telegram (by Barbara W. Tuchman; narrated by Wanda McCaddon) - In 1917, a telegram from the German diplomat, Zimmerman to contacts in Mexico was intercepted. Once decoded, it revealed a plot by the Germans to re-direct the US's attention away from the European concerns who were dug into thier third year on the trenches of WWI, to a threat on North America American soil. The German plat completely... Tuchman gives an overall pictures of how this happened and McCaddon confidently tells the story. You don't need maps or to dig into extra material for this one (unlike The Coming of the Great War duology).
🎧 "Christmas Eve, 1914" (by Charles Oliver and performed by a full cast) - The first Christmas on the French front found parties from both sides calling for a truce in order that the dead might be recovered from No Man's land and buries, songs to be song, souvenirs & addresses exchanged and, even soccer matches played! This is a dramatization based on archived letters& documents and uses the voice of a young countertenor as the vehicle for the Christmas Magic that happened that year. It's cute; but has no emotional arc-- so it's doesn't pack any punch. I watched "Joyeaux Noel" which is about the same event-- but this once uses a pair of opera singers as the catalysts for action rather than a young boy. Kinda over-the-top; but a sweet story for the holidays.
🎧 "A Christmas Carol" (by Charles Dickens); narrated by Anton Lesser) - The Classic story of a miser who is visited by four ghosts before Christmas. It's a good story and the narrator is once of my favorites. Also, this seemed like a fitting audio for the close of the year in which I read quite a bit of Dickens :-)
🎧 Einstein's Dreams (by Alan Lightman; narrated by Grover Gardner) - I picked this one up a couple days ago admittedly because it is short (2.50 hours audio) and I was looking for a "filler listen" before the holidays. My husband had recommended it but I couldn't get him to tell me what it was about-- so I went in blind. It turns out to be a historical fiction featuring Einstein in 1905 when he wrote the four annus mirabilis papers (I'm sure I've committed egregious errors on redundancy with that last sentence...) which became the foundation of modern physics. The more grounded chapters feature Einstein in context of his imagined life while the meat of the book consists of the dreams that inspired him in his work on Time. The dreams are actually little narrative expositions of some/many theorems of temporal physics. While this may sound dull, they are actually fascinating, poignant, sometimes heartbreaking vignettes. This is one I am stacking for a later, more leisurely re-read.

I'm mired in:
📚 The Kills (by Richard House) - This is an omnibus of four thrillers set in Iraq after the war in 2002. Contractors and money and a large Halliburton-like company... It's okay, just not very exciting. I'm carrying it over into 2023.
📚 The House of Special Purpose (by John Boyne) - An 81-year old man sits with his wife in the hospital in London and he flashes back through the years to 1915-1918 czarist Russia. Very disappointing so far, as Boyne has telegraphed the major plot twist early and clearly in the story. There's no real tension at any point, no "What's next?" I'll let it sit for a couple more days and then polish it off in one sitting. Looking like a 3-star rating. Boyne is going to have to really pull a rabbit out of the hat to get me to rate this higher than that!

So, I've pretty much wrapped up 2022 reading and have started in on my 2023 stacks.

Of the twelve categories I set up for myself at the beginning of the year:

#Africa - Four titles - Running the Rift was on my list of 22 books, so happy to check that one off! But my favorite is The African Queen. My reading travel took me to Rwanda, German East Africa, Congo Free State as well as Ghana & Libya :-)

#AlphaKit - For the first time in all the years I've been doing the AlphaCat/Kit challenge, this was the first year that I hit all the letter prompts! :-)

#Asia - It started off with Kim (by Rudyard Kipling); narrated by Ralph Cosham) and went on from there! I became fascinated by the topic of British Colonialism in the 19th century and it should be no surprise that most of my favorite titles literally and figuratively had a British accents (nods to audiobooks)! I spent most of this prompt in Central & South Asia, in India specifically and learned a bit about the First Opium War and trade. I don't think I'll look at a cup of tea, a set of old indigo-dyed blue jeans, or even the jewels set in the British Royal crowns...... quite the same:
🎧 Kim and The Jungle Books I & II (by Rudyard Kipling; narrated by the late Ralph Cosham reading as Geoffrey Howard);
🎧 The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (by Peter Hopkirk; narrated by Alex Wyndham);
🎧 The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company (by William Dalrymple; narrated by Sid Sagar);
🎧 The Siege of Krishnapur (by J.G. Farrell; narrated by Peter Wickham);

#Audio - 42 titles and 428+ hours of listening! In addition to the titles above in #Asia, I found a new-to-me British narrator that I'm eager to hear more of in Julian Elfer:
🎧 Four Princes: Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent and the Obsessions that Forged Modern Europe (by John Julius Norwich)

#Classics - Mostly Shakespeare and Dickens this year! I continued to read through the Bard's Histories as well as quite a bit of 19th-century British literature. In addition to The Moonstone and Rudyard Kipling's, Kim & The Jungle Books I & II, I really enjoyed re-reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles (by Thomas Hardy). It had been decades since I read Hardy's Classic (and I'm pretty sure what I read had been heavily redacted as a Scholastic/Junior edition)-- so it was all new-to-me!

#HistoricalFiction / #HistoricalNonFiction - The Reading Through Time Group aided and abetted me on a year of really interesting reading. So yeah, British lit and colonialism... My favorites can be found under #Asia and #Classics :-)

#Horror / #ScaredyKIT - I ended up reading five Stephen King novels this year, four of which solidly land in this category (Different Seasons, a collection of four novellas, isn't really horror at all.) Pet Sematary was the only one which gave me pause: I had to stop for a few days to get the mental energy up to finish it! Things happen to children and pets and, there's a nasty piece-of-work in the father-in-law in the story... (He's not a boogeyman, just a terrible, destructive person). It's some of King's best writing but a mediocre performance by Michael C. Hall in the audio format dings the rating on this one a little bit.

#Romances - This category was dominated by the Pink Carnation series (by Lauren Willig)! Part Spy Thriller, part Mystery, part Historical Fiction (Napoleonic Era) and part Romance, these are fun! I have to say though, that the very first one, the one that got me hooked, is my favorite, The Pink Carnation :-)

#SFF / #SFFkit - Quite a few titles from my original 22 were listed under here (and I did get them all read!); but my favorite was a surprise that hadn't been on my radar at all this year, Nettle & Bone (by T. Kingfisher). It starts out seemingly a little dark; but it quickly moves into a charming fantasy.

#Shakespeare / #ShakespeareCAT - I read the histories from Henry V through Richard III. I love the Histories, so it's all good to me! My only disappointment was that I didn't get to Henry VIII and, I didn't participate more in the #ShakespeareCat.

#Suspense / #Thrillers / #Mysteries / #MysteryKIT - I could be lazy about this and let The Pink Carnation series lay claim to my favorites in this category; or fall back on The Moonstone; but surprisingly, it was Smilla’s Sense of Snow (by Peter Høeg; translated from the Danish by Tiina Nunnally) that was the most memorable. I'm not sure I'm happy with the ambiguous ending; but I love the setting (pre-Climate Change ice & snow!) and the action sequences. It's like reading a better version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo :-)

#TBR In the end, I pulled & read 50 titles from my stacks. The 22 are counted in there (so technically I finished a total of 48 titles as there are two in limbo right now that I'm carrying over to 2023.) I still have an obscene number in the neighborhood of 1375+ books in the TBR pile though, so maybe in about 12 or thirteen years I'll get through them? HAHAHAHAHA! Yeah, my reading totals are overall down from 2018 (200+ books) to about 125 a year now. And I 'm still buying books. And re-reading others... So maybe thirty years? :-D

And I just heard that my daughter is stuck in Seattle until at least Friday. So quite a few things that we had been planing on to do together between now and then will have to be cancelled. I'm disappointed, but she's safe. Tomorrow, I'll find a couple more pictures to wrap this thread up! :-)

Sorry to hear that your daughter is having so much trouble getting home to you. I hope she'll arrive in time for the holiday ceremonies!

Yes, I hope your daughter is able to get to you soon and safely! Also, congrats on a great reading year...I'm going to reread the Pink Carnation series next year, and your posts about it have made me even more excited to do so!

Congrats on a great reading year! I’m sorry your daughter is stuck in transit—hope she gets home soon!

My fingers are crossed for you, Tanya. Hopefully she gets there soon and you have a wonderful Christmas!

Reading 50 books from the tbr pile is very impressive.

I also liked The African Queen. I thought that in the film, compared to the book, Rose was more Patrician, Charlie tougher and more determined, and that the class consciousness was missing. C. S. Forester was quite patronising towards Rose and Charlie. I really liked the film, but as you say, Hollywood made changes.

I hope your daughter arrives soon.

So sorry to hear about your daughter. Glad she is safe. Seems like you had both a fruitful and interesting reading year! I've taken a few BB's and hopefully can get to them in 2023! I would agree with your assessment of McCullough's reading---I love him as an author, but not as a narrator. But then, also, as you mentioned, the topic doesn't sound appealing--to me!