Nickelini's Unfashionable Reading 2022 - 2

Hi, I'm Joyce from Vancouver. My reading is all over the place, but I love lists and tracking things. I have an English Literature degree, and although I still read a lot of literature, I'm trying to read more broadly. In real life I live in a 110 year old Arts & Crafts house with my husband, cat, and sometimes my 21 yr old daughter lives here too (otherwise she's at the University of Victoria). Our 25 year old daughter lives in Luzern, Switzerland. For work I investigate fraud for an insurance company, and I'm also trying to learn Italian and have some art projects that take priority over my reading. So in 2022 I expect to read between 25 and 90 books.


December 1 update - it's full-on (early) winter here in Vancouver. Snow on the ground and -6C (shocking weather! When will it rain?)

Q4 Update It's the last day of September and still very summery here in Vancouver, with summer weather forecast for the next week. But October is here and I need to update my picture. Good bye spring -- see you soon ;-)


Just a random picture I found online that I think is fun. It will be autumn one of these days, I'm sure

***

Q2 Update: Looks like I'll be moving house this quarter*, and also there is a likely quick trip to Switzerland to see my daughter, so I expect my reading will slow down. Unless I get super stressed and need to disappear into books. It could happen.


Spring in Switzerland. This is a view from above Luzern (where my daughter lives), across Lake Lucerne to Mount Pilatus

Also, spring is my favourite season. There is a week in Vancouver, it differs each year but often falls around April 17 (Easter in 2022, also my mother-in-law's birthday) where the cherry blossoms are finishing but whatever is blooming smells amazing, and the light is magical, and tulips are out, and it's my very favourite week of the year.


"Primavera", one of my favourite paintings

*Very exciting and positive move . . . after 26 years in our old Arts & Crafts house, it looks like we are moving on.

December 2022

47. Piranesi, Suzanna Clarke
46. Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan
45. Running Down a Dream, Candy Palmater
44. Bad Wolf, Nele Neuhaus

November 2022

43. The Humans, Matt Haig
42. The Home Edit, Shearer & Teplin
41. The Four-Season Landscape: Easy-Care Plants and Plants for Year-Round Color, Susan A. Roth
40. Men to Avoid in Art and Life, Nicole Tersigni
39. Hex, Jenni Fagan
38. Trouble With Lichen, John Wyndham

October 2022

37. The White Hare, Jane Johnson
36. The Weekend, Charlotte Wood
35. Taste, Stanley Tucci

September 2022

34. Fresh Water For Flowers, Valerie Perrin
33. The Prank of the Good Little Virgin of Via Ormea, Amara Lakhous, 2014; translated from Italian by Antony Sugaar
32. The Other Guest, Helen Cooper

August 2022

31. Because Venus Crossed An Alpine Violet On The Day That I Was Born, Mona Hovring
30. Summer, Ali Smith
29. Always Looking Up, Michael J Fox

July 2022

28. The Secret Lives of Colour, Kassia St Clair,

June 2022

27. Summerwater, Sarah Moss
26. The Couple Next Door, Shari Lapena

May 2022

25. Autopsy of a Boring Wife, Marie-Renee Lavoie

April 2022

24. The Last High, Daniel Kalla
23. The Other Bennet Sister, Janice Hadlow

March 2022

22. My Oedipus Complex, Frank O'Connor
21. The Woefield Poultry Collective, Susan Juby
20. Menno-Nightcaps, SK Klassen
19. Orkney, Amy Sackville
18. Rizzio, Denise Mina
DNF - Troubles, JG Farrell
17. Last Night in Nuuk, Niviaq Korneliussen
16. Audrey in Rome, Sciascia Gambaccini, Ludovica Damiani & Luca Dotti

February 2022

15. One By One, Ruth Ware
14. How To Stay Sane In An Age Of Division, Elif Shafak
13. Happiness, Aminatta Forna
12, Swiss Watching, Diccon Bewes
11. Two Trees Make A Forest, Jessica Lee
10. Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere, Jan Morris
9. How to Pronounce Knife, Souvankham Thammavongsa

January 2022

8. The Darkest Day, Hakan Nesser
7. Borders, Thomas King
6. A King Alone, Jean Giono
5. Comet in Moominland, Tove Jansson
4. The Nesting, CJ Cooks
3. The Testaments, Margaret Atwood
2. The Gustav Sonata, Rose Tremain
1. Twelve Nights, Urs Faes

2022 Reading Stats - updated monthly

Author's Nationality

UK - 17
Canada - 11
United States - 4
Switzerland - 2
France - 2
Italy - 2
Ireland - 2
Finland - 1
Sweden- 1
Turkey - 1
Greenland - 1
Norway - 1
Australia - 1
Germany - 1

Male-Female-Mixed Authors-Unknown-Other

Female - 33
Male - 12
Mixed, Unknown, None-of-the-Above - 3

Year First Published

1946
1947
1960
1994
2001
2005
2006
2009
2011 x 2
2012
2013 x 2
2014 x 2
2016 x 3
2017
2018 x 5
2019 x 4
2020 x 10
2021 x 5
2022 x 4

Where I Traveled In My Reading

Black Forest, ? / Switzerland, around WWII / Gilead, alternate 21st century / Norway, 2018 / Moominland / French Alps, 1840s / Alberta, 1993 / Sweden, 2006 / Lao communities in Canada, 1980 - 2020 / Trieste /Taiwan 1940s - 2010s / Switzerland / London, February 2014 / World, summer 2020 /French Alps, January 2020 / Rome 1950-1979 / Greenland 2014 / Edinburgh March 9, 1566 / Orkney Islands, Scotland 2012 / Rural Vancouver Island 2010 / Ireland 1907 - 1969 / England 1800 - 1830 / Vancouver, 2018 / Quebec City 2016 / fictional city in Upstate New York 2015 / Scottish Highlands 2019 / England 2020 / Norway 2018 / Lake Garda, Italy & Derby, England 2018 / Turin, Italy 2013 / France, 1985 - 2017 / NSW, Australia, 2018 / Cornwall, England, 1954 / England, fictional late 1950s / Edinburgh 1590s / Cambridge 2012 / Frankfurt, Germany 2012 / Atlantic Canada, 1970-2021 / New Ross, Wexford, Ireland 1985 / England & Other World 2018

Author's Nationality 2022


Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

21. The Woefield Poultry Collective, Susan Juby, 2011


cover comments: Great cover. Great typefaces, and I always love a bird on a book cover

Fun note: The Woefield Poultry Collective is the original -- Canadian -- title. For the US editions, they had to change the title to Home to Woefield. I guess "collective" is too communist? (After finishing the book, the US title also fits it very well. I just find it funny when Canadian, Australian or UK books need to be "Americanized")

Comments: Prudence is a 20-something back-to-earther who unfortunately lives in an apartment in Brooklyn, but quickly inherits a farm on Vancouver Island from a long lost uncle. Unfortunately, the farm was never actually farmed, and is mostly rocky land, and the bank is looking for money, and there's some grouchy old guy named Earl living in a trailer on the property. Soon the young alcoholic loser Seth from across the street ends up living there, and then eleven-year old Sara shows up to board her prize chickens. The novel is told in short chapters by these four alternating characters. All have their flaws (some rather nasty for such a light novel), and can be incredibly annoying (although I love Sara and want to adopt her). Prudence's goal is to make this lifestyle sustainable. Can she make it work?

Overall this is a quirky fun novel. Author Juby has a great sense of humour and gift for capturing real human situations in a not realistic novel (but it's not meant to be).

At the back of my edition, the author lists books that inspired this, including one of my all-time favourites, The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollen, and one that is perpetually on my to-read list, Cold Comfort Farm

Why I Read This Now: Great structure and mood to read on my breaks at work

Rating: 3.5 stars. Good, but needed some tightening up. However, I went back to the beginning to reread a funny scene describing a Home Depot shopping trip, and while I was skimming for it I saw that Juby was setting things up that I didn't pay attention to when I first read it . . . I bet if I reread this, I'd rate it higher

Recommended for: Readers who want a sometimes funny, quirky book, that doesn't shy away from bad behavior and the ugliness of life.

How I Discovered This: I bought this when it was published because it was the author's first adult novel. Her YA Alice books were made into a short series on the Canadian Comedy Channel called "Alice, I Think", which I found hilarious at the time. Sadly, it seems to have disappeared and I can't review it to see if it holds up, but in my decade+ memory, it was a cross between "Freaks & Geeks" and "Schitt's Creek", set in northern British Columbia.

Susan Juby has a new book just out, Mindful of Murder, that looks fresh and interesting. I'll track down a copy after I'm settled in my new house

What is the best way to pack up books?

It looks like after 26 years living in our lovely 110 year old house, we are moving to a 5 year old house . . . and I need to move about 800 books out of my house and into a storage locker until summer (we need to declutter before putting our house on the market). This is not something that our movers will handle -- it's all on me. Obviously book boxes get very heavy, very quickly. I have about 7 good boxes now . . . where do I get more suitable boxes?

For those who have moved more often than every quarter-century, how do you handle this?

>3 Nickelini: I use the Small Moving U-haul boxes (16-3/8" x 12-5/8" x 12-5/8") - not sure if that is available up there? They also have the Book box (12x12x12) which do not have handles though so harder to lift when I move them so I prefer the smalls. They stack easily (that's important), they are sturdy enough not to collapse when full of books and they don't get too heavy when full. Even if the movers won't help with that, they may be able to sell you proper boxes?

>4 AnnieMod: We have a company called U-Haul that rents trucks, so I'll check with them. I hadn't thought of that . . . because last time I moved I had a lava lamp and a futon (not quite true, but stick with me). Pretty much 3 friends and family with pick-up trucks got us into this house.

I'm packing up my excess stuff and putting it in storage way before we even put our house on the market, so no movers in the picture yet. And we're only moving about 5 blocks away, so the movers will be for only the big pieces. The rest we can almost walk over . . . but first we have to do a 26-year unclutter.

I was born into a huge house that my parents had recently bought for their big family . . . we moved out when I was 17 and a big Salvation Army truck pulled up empty, filled up to the brim and drove back to where it came from. We have almost 10 years on that, but a much smaller house. And I do like my books.

Anyway, maybe that's all I need to know about moving and storing books. Thanks :-)

They have the trucks here as well - and they also have boxes and other packing materials. So I suspect they have boxes up there as well. :)

I have more books than space (because why not and because I get a bit crazy with books) and my extras live in the same type of boxes - some since before I moved the last time, some since the move). Whatever you do - make sure the boxes are stackable (same size works the best for that - or if you are mixing, make sure the sizes 2/3 (3 boxes take as much space as 2 bigger ones) or something like that so they stack easily) and not too heavy -- that will make your life a lot easier - regardless of who ends up moving the boxes at the end :)

>6 AnnieMod: thank you so much. That’s solid advice

If the boxes are going to be moved more than once I recommend investing in book boxes or heavy duty small boxes. They can be purchased from U-Haul, or Home Depot/Lowes or ordered online. I think I used 20ish 11"x17"x11" boxes for about 800 (mostly) paperback books. I also recommend using heavy-duty garbage bags to line the boxes then tied tightly closed around the books -- just in case the storage facility has bugs or springs a leak.

I like to pack my books vertically and pack books that are the same height together (starting with my nyrb collection) so there is a flat surface for a layer of horizontal oversized books.

Do you live in/near a major city? In NYC there are several companies that provide small storage/retrieval services -- you pack up your seasonal items in boxes and they come pick them up and store for a monthly fee. Then you can request a single box or several or all boxes to be delivered.

Dymon has excellent boxes for books. After using them for a move about half way across the country, as well as using them for storage beforehand, I was really pleased. They are 1.5 cu ft, so slightly smaller than the 2.0 cubic foot boxes that destroy people's backs. They can be lifted when full and stack well.

I'd love an Arts and Crafts house in Vancouver! It will sell in no time.

>2 Nickelini: I'm a USian, and the Canadian title would catch my attention (in a good way) while the USian title would not.
>3 Nickelini: Liquor store boxes are a classic solution.

Joyce, I'm even now in the process of unpacking the boxes of books I packed a few months ago. I found banker's boxes -- the kind with the lid, in the small size, to work well. They are small enough that even fully filled, I could lift them easily enough. Do pack your books by stacking them flat, especially if you are going to store them for any length of time. The spaces left can hold a few books put in edge up, but only if the top of the book sits below the stacks of books. Otherwise, the weight of the books will warp the shape of the book. And stuff the smaller spaces with packing paper. Also, take the time (if you have it) to be specific as to what is in the box so that unpacking is easier, although with the banker's boxes, it's easy to open and replace the lid.

And that's far more information than you wanted! Good luck and I'm wishing you the smoothest of moves.

>11 RidgewayGirl: OK, I'll ask (because I am curious) - which are the small ones - the 15" x 12" x 10" or are there smaller ones? These are just a bit less deep than the U-haul smalls (although with the lid they may or may not be more stable - depending on how you stack them).

>12 AnnieMod: Yes, they are slightly smaller than the small U-Haul boxes so a little lighter when full. I don't know if they are stronger, but the ones I've used make them easy to stack and open and close without damaging the box. And that slight bit smaller does make it easier to move them around. The differences are probably more of preference than anything else.

I’m soaking up all this info! Where do you get bankers boxes? Are they cardboard?

22. My Oedipus Complex, Frank O'Connor, 2005 (stories written between 1931 & 1969)


cover comments: I like the Penguin Modern Classic covers in general, but I guess it hangs on the photo they use. This one works with the title, but not necessarily the collection

Comments: A collection of 30 of Frank O'Connor's short stories, presented not in the order in which they were written, but instead sorted by stories about childhood, then war; peace & adults; old age and death. I found that the stories written later in his life were better than his earlier stories. The best stories were from the childhood selection. Where all the little boys wanted to marry their mothers. Hence the title story. I found the war stories unreadable.

Rating: 3 stars . . . this collection was too long. Thirty stories was a lot for me. When he's good, I love Frank O'Connor. But there was a lot of "okay" here. There were 9 stories that for various reasons I didn't finish reading.

Why I Read This Now: Irish Read-a-Thon. I started on March 1st, finished on March 31st. I just can't read through this many short stories the way I can read a 360 page novel.

Recommended for: readers who want to spend some time in that 20th century period of Ireland, and where the characters are the focus and the suffering and poverty are more of a patina (does that make any sense at all? Probably not)

How I Discovered This: Years ago I read O'Connor's story "First Confession" which was impressive and I wanted to see what else he did.

>13 RidgewayGirl: Yep - I have a few of them as well - and a few short boxes for my comics collection (which are the same idea, just smaller) - I tend to use them for some of the heavier books I have. They also don’t need tape to assemble which may be easier for someone. I tend to default on the Uhaul ones out of habit though. :) Both can get heavy if you put the wrong books in though. :)

>14 Nickelini: The classic/standard ones are cardboard indeed. You can find them in plastic but they are expensive and for the most part unneeded (unless you’d storage has insect or mouse issues of course but I suspect you won’t put your books where that is a problem). :) Most stores that sell paper and other office materials will have them - or you can look online.

>11 RidgewayGirl: Now I'm curious, if books can stand vertical on a shelf for years, why should they be packed flat for a month or two?

>17 ELiz_M: Another flat packer here. If the books are upright, and you are stacking boxes, as >11 RidgewayGirl: says, the weight will press down on the lower boxes and distort them. On a shelf, the vertical books don't have more layers of vertical books on top of them.

I've moved across country twice in the last few years with over 1500 books in tow. For two years most of my books were in storage. My experience:

-banker boxes were not strong enough for my books, they were the first to be crushed.
-I got a bunch of free boxes from a high-end kitchen store. The boxes had held glassware, so the sides were especially thick. Unfortunately they were not a standard size, so didn't stack well. I bought boxes from Lowe's/Home Depot, which stacked like a dream and were very sturdy, but even the smallest size was very heavy fully loaded.
-I did not line my boxes with plastic, as any trapped moisture (think Florida) could cause mildew. I did however pony up the money for climate controlled storage.
-I packed my books flat, with the edges toward the walls of the box (spines toward the center). It minimized pages getting dinged. I occasionally used mass market paperbacks either vertical or spine down in between stacks, but not all of these made it undamaged. I stuffed packing paper into all loose holes to prevent shifting.
-I tried to box books roughly by topic/genre to make both unpacking and finding a book easier. I used marker to label the outside of each box. I found it helpful to write on the side and top.

Good luck!

If you are using a moving company for some of your stuff, you could always ask them about boxes: you might well be able to borrow some for a small fee. Purpose-built moving boxes are designed for re-use and will stack without crushing, and they have hand-holds to make them easier to move around. The ones I had last time stacked three or four high with a single layer of books in each without any problem. You have to use sticky labels rather than marker, which makes >19 labfs39:’s point about multiple labels per box even more important, though, because a few are bound to fall off!

>19 labfs39: Interesting about your banker boxes being crushed. They worked well for me but my boxes were in storage for just a month, so maybe less time to compact? In any case, I'll remember that if I ever need to put books in storage.

>21 RidgewayGirl: Yes, it was quite disappointing. Part of the problem is that in my storage unit, things got stacked quite high. The banker boxes couldn't withstand the weight of several boxes on top of them.

>19 labfs39: Just how high were those stacked? I try not to go more than 4 high on anything (cannot reach them safely otherwise) and I tend to mark up light boxes to never go on the bottom so never had either banker boxes or the Uhauls collapsing on me - and some of them had been stacked for... 5 years now (I really need to switch some books around).

>15 Nickelini: interesting on Frank O’Connor. Did he select his own stories to include?

Also good luck with your move.

>24 dchaikin: thanks! I got 20 of the above mentioned boxes today and I’ve packed 3 full of books and one of DVDs

As for the Frank O’Connor collection, this one was put together 40 years after he died. I think Julian Barnes may have selected and organized the stories. He wrote the introduction

As a side not about moving and books …. We’ve been looking to move on and off for more than a decade, but could never find what we liked in our budget. There is a lot I love about my house, but it’s 110 years old and we’re not starting up another round of renovations and fixes. We did the roof in 2000, and we’re not doing it again.

Anyway, we found a house that checks off most of our boxes and one great thing is that they are book lovers and have books in most rooms. So I can see how my books might look when I move in (they have some very nice Restoration Hardware style book cases that I hope the forget to take )

>26 Nickelini: We did the roof in 2000, and we’re not doing it again. How long do roofs usually last? Our house is 27 years old and it’s never occurred to me to replace the roof. If I had to guess I’d have said at least 50-60 years?

>27 SandDune: Our roof was sold as a 25 year roof, and it was a quality roof, but yeah, it’s time to start looking at it. Shingles and wood don’t last forever in our rainy climate. I think a lot depends on materials and climate. Our neighbors have a metal roof that will never need replacement

Good luck with your move. When will you be in Switzerland?

I'm looking at a roof replacement for our at least 20-year-old roof this spring—it's asphalt shingle and I think came with a 15-year warrantee? I didn't choose the contractors, though—the renovation was part of a package with the city—so I'm glad it's lasted this long. Though at this point I'll need to redo the attic interior finishes and I'm definitely putting off any (very needed) painting until that's done, because with the big weather we've been having there are all sorts of little leaks.

Anyway, not to make this all about me (and my roof)—best of luck with the packing and storage. You've gotten good advice.

>28 Nickelini: >30 lisapeet: I’m assuming that they make roofs of different materials here then. I can’t say I know anyone who’s ever had a roof replaced, except someone who had to have their roof re-thatched (I think thatched roofs last about 20 years or so). Ours are all tiled but to be honest I don’t know what the tiles are made of.

>26 Nickelini: I'm on the hunt for bookshelves and so had to go look at ones from Restoration Hardware and, wow, they'd be pricy even if they dropped a digit from the price. My search continues...

Good luck on the move and I'm sure your old house will end up with someone delighted with taking care of an older home.

>29 Ameise1: When will you be in Switzerland?

My husband is talking about the first 2 weeks of May, but honestly, I can't see how we will have time. I think that's when we have to be selling our house.

My daughter (who lives in Luzern) wants us to go somewhere sunny and hot for part of that. I like that idea but when I think about it I just get tired

>30 lisapeet:, >31 SandDune: I'm loving all this non-book chit chat.

My mother-in-law has a tile roof on a house that was build in 1984. I've never heard anyone talk about doing a single thing to it.

In Vancouver we have a vast array of roof materials and styles because we have a vast array of housing styles. I remember landing in Sydney, Australia 40 years ago and the vast sea of red roofs amazed me. Since then I've flown into various European cities and seeing cities with all one roof style is now common to me.

>32 RidgewayGirl: ...look at ones from Restoration Hardware and, wow, they'd be pricy even if they dropped a digit from the price

Aren't their prices crazy? And even higher in Canada. Some of their stuff is gorgeous though.

>29 Ameise1:, >33 Nickelini:

I should add that whether I go to Switzerland in May or not, I will likely be there in August -September because my other daughter is doing her semester abroad at University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. I'm going to help her get settled and then will go to Luzern to see Nina.

I'll be probaly the first week of May at home and the second week away. I'll write you when I've done the booking of my wellness holiday.

>37 Ameise1: Great!

>32 RidgewayGirl: I have these folding bookshelves from The Container Store all through the house, packed full of books with no discernible sagging after 6 years. The feet can be adjusted for uneven floors so they are quite stable. I got them by mail order, initially just a few as experiments, after multiple rounds with a carpenter attempting to design built-ins for my quirky old house at ever-increasing expense.

>39 qebo: Those are stylish! But the house we've moved to is late Victorian and what I'd really like is bookshelves that mesh with the time period, or at least don't clash.

Oy, the really solid bookshelves are SO EXPENSIVE. I like the ones from Gothic Cabinet Craft, but they're stupid pricey. I actually asked my husband for one as my gift this Christmas... we could use another, too. Maybe I'll get one for him next Christmas.

Sounds like you have received ample recommendations regarding moving your books. We moved our about 8 years ago now --- not something I care to do again. But we did a modest purge at the time. If you will own this house, I recommend having some built-ins constructed if you have the resources to do so. Our current house has 8 ft ceilings, so we had a carpenter build book shelves that run up near the ceiling on two walls of the master bedroom and the whole length of the central hallway. Then we had him cover one end wall in the back "family room", floor to ceiling, and we installed a library ladder (a bit of a fantasy-come-true for both of us). There were two basic floor-to-ceiling bookcases already in the house, one is in that same family room (behind where I am sitting!) and the other, a double built-in, is in my 'studio' filled with fabric, sorted by color. And yes, we did us some of our previous bookcases in M's office and the guest room, but most are in the basement.... We rationalized the expense as a gift to ourselves, we love our books and to have them out of boxes, being looked at, and able to be fondled at any time made it worth every penny.

I rented a storage locker today to store my books and extraneous items that I will still need. Storage is hard to come by in Vancouver. My husband had tried a few and they were all full. Funny, when I drive around and see a new one built, I've wondered "why are there so many of these self-storage places?" And then when I want one, I understand. Anyway, I found one, and the lovely woman who helped me today said that older couples put their stuff in them, and then years later their kids come and empty it out and throw it all in the garbage dump. She said "Save your money! Just get rid of it!" So that's my PSA for the day: get rid of your stuff. Don't leave it to your kids to do. So far my husband and I have done my parents (2x), his aunt & uncle's, and my brother's. Still to come: his mom, with a 5,000 sq ft house that she's lived in for 40 years. Full of lots of stuff Italian-Canadians loved in the 80s. Just venting, anyway ...

>42 avaland:



Love to hear your thoughts. These are the photos from the real estate showing, so current owners/stagers stuff, not mine. This is the formal living room, which is left to the front entrance. I immediately see the wall opposite the windows as a full bookcase (I'll hire the guy who did our lovely fireplace surrounds in this house) . I could go pretty high, I think higher the better. What do you think? I mean, high enough for a ladder would be so cool. I'm also thinking of a gas fireplace where the piano is in these pics, and wrapping the bookshelves around to the windows.

My husband thought of turning it into his office where clients could visit . . . so I think we can merge our two visions, and he can have a minimalist desk for his laptop, and obviously the nice reading chairs could accommodate the business too. (All his work would be during workdays, and my use would be evenings and weekends so a shared space is doable)

ETA: my daughter in Switzerland, who is 25, looked at these photos and said "OMG that room gives me a huge headache! It's hideous" LOL. I imagine something a bit . . . more library like and . . . calmer

>44 Nickelini: So much direct sun light is never good for the books - so make sure you have proper shades and or curtains for when you are not tying to sit in the sun (it at least some UV filters for the windows) Besides that - that will be gorgeous.

>43 Nickelini: I agree somewhat with the woman at the storage place. I remind myself that I will be dead and it won't matter. However, I intend to leave suggestions and names of any persons I think might be interested in the stuff.

>45 AnnieMod: Agree with Annie about all the direct sun (thus the adjective "sunned" applied to book jackets being faded) and adequate shades. But, oh, what a lovely spot to read in! Perhaps a converted armoire/wardrobe to hold books? Of course you wouldn't "see" the books unless you opened the doors, but if you are sharing the room with the hubby....

Interesting staging furniture in the room -- reminds me of the 50s and 60s stuff, very 'cosmopolitan' (I think I'm glad it's not yours)

We have one big bay window in the house and, believe it or not, it's on the back of the house facing into the woods. The wall o' books faces that window but it's far from the bay window and the two skylights in the room only occasionally hit the books in the winter.

>45 AnnieMod: —I hadn’t thought about sun. Both times I was in the house it was overcast and this picture was taken on a foggy day. I guess I’ll have to monitor how much sun hits that wall before I make any decisions. We move in June 30 so that’s pretty much peak sunlit hours. In my house now I do have a bookcase about the same distance from a window with the same eastern exposure and all the books have been fine except some (but not all!) of the Vintage classics. The spines have faded to dull red from a crisp scarlet.

UV filters on windows is not something people in Vancouver think about. I suppose the $20 million dollar new builds overlooking English Bay have them, but otherwise not a thing. Damp and mould are our concerns.

Anyways, yes, good point. I’ll see how much morning sun the room gets before building anything

>46 avaland: yes, when we are dead it won’t matter! As I declutter 26 years of stuff, I must remember that. It shall be my mantra

>47 Nickelini: I live in Phoenix - I see a big window and hear anything about books, I start thinking about the sun. :)

Eastern is probably a better exposure than most - the sun turns away fast enough not to be directly onto everything quickly (my library's windows are facing East - by mid morning, the sun is not direct and the shades can go away if I want them to). My overflow bookcases are in the southern facing living room and if I leave the shades up in there, the sun will hit them much later in the day, especially in the couple of bookcases close to the windows.

It will look gorgeous to have the library there though... sun or not.

>43 Nickelini: Don't leave it to your kids to do.
My mother is an avid declutterer (which also has a negative side) but even so when we had to help her move last year she had a terrible time making decisions and would be flummoxed by trivial tasks such as putting the contents of a desk drawer into a box. So I guess the point is not only get rid of your stuff, but get rid of it while you still have the mental and physical energy. My sister-in-law's mother died suddenly and unexpectedly, leaving a gigantic house with 45 years of accumulation, much of it random junk that even she didn't care about but with ample storage space she didn't have to bother with disposal. A friend's father died, leaving a custom built house in disrepair filled with family heirlooms that the kids had been instructed throughout their childhood were precious and absolutely not to be touched, but it turns out after the kids dutifully had all this stuff evaluated by experts that very little has significant market value so they are now questioning their childhood.

>50 qebo: Yikes to all three of those stories!

23. The Other Bennet Sister, Janice Hadlow, 2020


cover comments: lovely, just lovely

Rating: 2 stars. Most readers like this much more than I did and there are many 5 star reviews

Comments: Awkward, pious Mary Bennet is the other sister here. The first third of this long novel covers Mary's childhood through the events of Pride and Prejudice, all seen through Mary's eyes. Not much P&P, seeing she wasn't in the novel all that much. The next section of the book starts two years after P&P when Mr Bennet has died, Mr Collins and Charlotte have moved into Longbourn, and everyone has married except Mary. She lives with her mother at Jane's Bingly home, which includes the always delightful Caroline Bingly. Joking. She's still a bully. So Mary moves to Pemberley, where things are fine while Darcy was away, but then he returns and his Darcyness sends Mary scurrying off to Longbourn. She's happy there for a bit and picks up some skills but then things go wrong, and she ends up at the Gardiners in Cheapside, London. Mary gets a makeover and grows up a bit and has a bit of a personality change, and lo and behold! Suitors appear.

The rest of the very long novel is relationship angst and a bad love triangle, with one side of the triangle also being pursued by Caroline Bingley. Lots of eye rolling through the last 3rd of the book. Mr Ryder defies credulity. Why is Caroline Bingley anywhere in this novel?, let alone everywhere? Really, this was quite bad. Why do so many love this novel?

The whole Scafell Pike hike was ridiculous. In particular, that Caroline Bingly would have gone along and not whined, bitched, and tantrumed her way through it.

Other things that grated: the language was well done Austen sounding, but had none of her wit, nuance, humour or double-meanings that make Austen the queen that she is. Mrs Bennet here is just plain mean, whereas that's not the Mrs Bennet of P&P. Charlotte Lucas is harsh. And Mary has quite the change. I don't entirely have a problem with this as much as the others. Afterall, in P&P she's late teens, lived in a bubble where she is disparaged constantly, and it's wonderful that she blossoms. She did seem to turn into a little Elizabeth though. Now that I think of it, sure, it could happen. Good that she grew up into a more balanced person, I guess.

Recommended for: I've seen so many comments of "we all like to think of ourselves as Elizabeth Bennet, but really we are Mary Bennet". This novel appeals to those people. Truly, I am nothing like Mary Bennet. I am also nothing like Jane Bennet. I do think I'm most like Lizzy Bennet, but if she's categorically off the table, then Kitty isn't an option as her only personality is following Lydia, and then there is Lydia. Of course I'm nothing like Lydia now, but at 15 I did like boys and fashion, so I guess that makes me Lydia.

So if you feel for Mary Bennet, this is a novel for you

Why I Read This Now: Thought it would be fun. Hmm, not so much

How I Discovered This: I notice the Jane Austen pastiche that people are talking about

23. The Last High, Daniel Kalla, 2020


cover comments: Hey, this looks like a medical thriller

Comments: Author Daniel Kalla is the head of ER at Vancouver's downtown hospital, and writes novels in his spare time. The Last High is a medical thriller where Dr Julie Rees tries to save the lives of 5 teenagers who are rushed into emergency after taking poisonous drugs at a party. Soon other bodies start showing up around Vancouver and it's clear that some very bad, very dirty drugs are circulating. Julie joins up with homicide detective Anson Chen as they race around the city, trying to find the source of the drugs before more people die.

This is a fast paced thriller, with well-drawn main characters and a cohesive plot. It looks at Vancouver's fentanyl crisis from a medical POV, as well as from the eyes of drug users, and the various levels of people involved in selling those drugs. For the past six years, British Columbia has experienced a public health emergency from substance-related harm, most usually fentanyl. The number of deaths far outnumbers the deaths from COVID during the same period. While many are the expected known-drug users and the mentally ill, this epidemic leaves no group untouched because many of the victims did not know they were taking fentanyl or carfentanil. It seems that everyone knows someone who has died from this. Some call it "overdosing," but I think an overdose is when you take too much of a drug you mean to take. If someone has been given these drugs in disguise, or fentanyl with added benzodiazepine, then I call that poisoning.

Rating: Based on entertainment value, not literary merit- 5 stars. Last year I read Kalla's previous novel We All Fall Down which was about the resurgence of plague in current day Italy. It was very good but I liked The Last High even better

Recommended for: Readers looking for a compelling, entertaining read that will also teach you things

How I Discovered This: Daniel Kalla was all the rage last year when people noticed how prescient his last novels were . . . a pandemic burning through Italy, the fentanyl epidemic, and hesitancy over a vaccine for a new disease (with cult connections)

Why I Read This Now: It's been on the top of my TBR since I brought it home last year

I very much enjoyed your last two reviews. The Kalla books sound interesting. I'll keep an eye out for them.

>54 labfs39: Thanks! I enjoyed writing them. Always more fun to write about books I have strong opinions on

>52 Nickelini: The whole Scafell Pike hike was ridiculous She went up Scafell Pike? In a dress? Seriously?

>56 SandDune: Yes! She did have men's boots though. Mary was okay because she was plucky and brave, but Caroline Bingley floated up and back like she ran track for Team GB.

>57 Nickelini: Women ( some, at least) were tough in those days. If you read about some of the treks Dorothy Wordsworth did, often in bad weather or after dark, and in the heavy clothing of the time, you have similar feelings of disbelief.

>58 thorold: my point was…..Caroline Bingley?? It defies credulity

>52 Nickelini: - Too bad that one didn't work for you, but I enjoyed your review! I imagine there's a whole pile of bad Austen sequels. I remember reading something about how the Austen sequels started in the mid-19th century and there were even crossovers where characters from various Austen novels would interact.

>60 DieFledermaus: crossover characters sounds like fun!

Just dropping by to update my April stats. I'm not reading these days, but I noticed that the top picture in >1 Nickelini: is exactly what I was seeing in Switzerland the last 2 weeks. We mostly did day trips out of Luzern, and went up Mnt Pilatus (pictured). It was all lovely. I'll be back when I read something again.

Day trips from Luzern sound wonderful!

>61 Nickelini: - Light Googling of Austen sequels brought up this

https://austenprose.com/jane-austen-sequels-2/an-introduction-to-jane-austen-seq...

Apparently, Austen's nieces tried to finish some of her novels and a grandniece wrote another one. And the Darcy wet shirt moment spurred a new era of many Austen sequels. (According to LT Common Knowledge, Darcy is in 167 works.) An early crossover novel is 1913's Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil Brinton.

>63 DieFledermaus: Ooooh, links! I'll check those out. Thanks :-)

24. Autopsy of a Boring Wife, Marie-Renee Lavoie, 2017. Translated from French by Arielle Aaronson, 2019


cover comments: I like it! (Even if this picture doesn't represent the main character at all)

Rating: 4.5 stars. If I'm only going to read one book this month, this was a good one

Comments: Just before their 25th wedding anniversary, Diane's husband Jacques tells her their marriage is over because she bores him. Also, he has a new, younger woman. Understandably, Diane doesn't take this well. But with the help of her adult children and great friend Claudine, and a lot of humour, Diane moves forward. Kinda.

I'm at a loss to describe this, but I loved it. Heartfelt, real, and sometimes actual laugh-out-loud funny. I also really enjoyed the Quebec City setting. I'm not one to read sequels or series, but I'm definitely going to look for a copy of Boring Wife Settles the Score.

Why I Read This Now: On April 30 I needed a physically light book that I'd also want to read on my trip to Europe. Turns out I didn't really want to read anything in Europe, and only picked this up once on my two week trip. But it wasn't heavy to pack around and back home.

How I Discovered This: It was longlisted for the CBC Canada Reads competition. Honestly, I don't think absolutely everyone in Canada needs to read this, so I can see why it didn't make the shortlist. But! I still think it has wide appeal.

Recommended for: if it intrigues you even a little, give it a try. Also recommended for anyone who wants to read more littérature québécoise

25. The Couple Next Door, Shari Lapena, 2016


cover comments: Whatever. It really doesn't relate to the story very well. The title also doesn't relate all that well either

Comments: Thriller writer Shari Lapena set her first novel, The Couple Next Door, in an nicer-than-average neighbourhood of a fictional city in upstate New York. Anne and Marco have spent the evening with the couple next door while their six-month old baby sleeps at home. They have a baby monitor and check on her every half hour. Yet when they go home at 1:30 AM, the baby is missing.

Lots of twists and turns and a fun, entertaining read. I figured out most of the twists just before they were revealed, and had an idea where this was going fairly early on, but that didn't take away my enjoyment.

Recommended for: readers looking for a quick, interesting thriller

Rating: 4 stars. A great debut novel.

Why I Read This Now: it was the other lightweight book I packed along on my European vacation even though I started it after I came home

How I Discovered This: a friend recommended The End of Her, and I enjoyed it, so when I saw this at a bookstore, I snapped it up

Wow, so much has happened during my absence from LT! How exciting to move house after so many years. I moved three times in the last eight years and I really hope to stay put now! But what I do enjoy is the chance to rearrange my shelves and find new ways to display my books. In fact, I just finished the living room shelves about two weeks ago, but there are still a few boxes with books that have not found a permanent spot yet because I don't want them in the living room (self-help books and many books from my childhood).

I spent two days in Utrecht in 2013 when I still lived near Cologne and the Netherlands were so close from there, just a short train ride away. It's a lovely city and I enjoyed it a lot.

>63 DieFledermaus: What a great website! I bookmarked it.

>66 Nickelini: This was one of the very first thrillers I read when I just started getting into crime novels and thrillers five years ago. I thought it was very gripping and I stayed up far too late to finish it because I couldn't stop reading!

Best wishes for all you have to do now regarding the move etc.!

>67 MissBrangwen: Sorry I haven't responded to your post! I enjoyed it very much when I read it right when you posted it. Yes, I'm pondering over where and how my books are going to fit into my new house. I'm being quite picky, so many of them will remain in boxes until I figure out a good arrangement. It's okay if they are in boxes - Somehow I have a sense of where my thousands of books are, and I never lose one for too long. But I'm excited arranging them, just as you've said. We get the keys in 3 days!

My trip to the Netherlands got real today, as I booked my flights. My first trip to Europe was in 1992 when I was in my mid-20s (landing in Amsterdam, 7 weeks Eurail Passing through western Europe and departing from Amsterdam), and for the next 27 years (this takes us to 2019), I got back to Europe 7 times, which works out to an average of once every almost 4 years. In reality, there were many years between trips. But now this trip will be my 3rd time in Europe in 9 months. How did my life become this? Oh, I know . . . my 20-something daughters have Italian citizenship through their father/my husband, and they are both in Europe. So sometimes I need to go too. It's very stressful to plan but once I'm there I'm very, very happy.

27. Summerwater, Sarah Moss, 2020


cover comments: I waited to buy this in paperback, and when I got this cover I was very "meh", but after reading the book, I like it a lot more. It's actually kinda clever in retrospect. But does it call me off the shelf? No. But, maybe it should. Ruth Ozeki's A Tale For the Time Being used the same arrangement, that I only loved after I read the novel. Maybe I'll look for books with this design in the future.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Comments: Told over a June 21st, at a holiday park on a Scottish loch, this short novel is comprised of 12 vignettes about various people there enduring the relentless rain on what is supposed to be their summer vacation. One they've paid way too much money for, especially since there is no cell phone or internet connection. There are a handful of families, and everyone is bored, slightly angry, and what we call in Canada, experiencing "cabin fever". Making it all worse, there is one family (who never have a character in this novel) who are Romanian, or Bulgarian, or Polish, or Ukrainian, or something, and they keep everyone awake all night with their loud music and laughter. They also seem to be the only people having any fun at all. There is tension in the different stories, and it all comes to a disturbing end. This could make an excellent movie.

Why I read this now: I had slated this to read on June 21 (summer solstice), which was also a very rainy day here in Vancouver (right after that skies cleared and temps shot up into the 30s), but I remembered two days later, and Yes! of all the books I'd packed away for my move, I'd kept this one out.

Recommended for: I'm a big fan of Sarah Moss, so I recommend this in general. If you like stream of consciousness, as I do, this is an enjoyable example.

How I Discovered This: I follow Sarah Moss, and after loving Ghost Wall, this one was high on my TBR list

All my books, with the exception of some reference and crafting books, are unpacked and shelved, except today I found an entire box of trade paperbacks, for which space needed to be made. It really is one of the fun parts of moving -- the figuring out of where the books will go.

>70 RidgewayGirl: Congrats! That's awesome. I know it's going to take a while for me. I had books in baskets (7 baskets) and I want them all in shelves . . . which I need to buy. And I want NICE shelves, so it will all take a while

>68 Nickelini: "I'm being quite picky, so many of them will remain in boxes until I figure out a good arrangement." That sounds like me!

"It's very stressful to plan but once I'm there I'm very, very happy." Oh yes, it's so worth it, isn't it? How great that you booked the flights, I always feel like it's the biggest step!

>70 RidgewayGirl: "It really is one of the fun parts of moving -- the figuring out of where the books will go." I completely agree!

>65 Nickelini: Sounds amusing....

>69 Nickelini: I seem to have a backlog of Sarah Moss books on the shelf to read, including this one. I have very much enjoyed the previous ones I've read. I recently picked up her Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland which is not fiction....

>73 avaland: As someone who also has a sizable Sarah Moss backlog, I didn't know about that one. Do you mean "picked up" as "bought" or "started reading"—and if the latter, how do you like it?

28. Secret Lives of Colour, kassia St Clair, 2016


cover comments: Fabulous

Comments: Moving from (non-colour) white through the rainbow to brown and (non-colour) black, historian St Clair looks at the cultural and technical history of 97 colours. Utterly fascinating. I thought I knew all about "saffron," "cochineal," and "cerulean" (especially after Meryl Streep's fabulous speech about cerulean in "the Devil Wears Prada"), but these colour vignettes had me often thinking "Huh! Who knew?"

Why I Read This Now: Reading is almost impossible for me at this stage of my life, so I thought a switch to non-fiction told in short bits might be a better choice. I was right.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Recommended for: cultural and technical historians, artists, and colour aficionados like me.

How I Discovered this: pretty sure this was a Jen Campbell recommendation

>75 Nickelini: I lost track here, and just catching up. Quite the “Why”. The book sounds terrific. Wish you a good life balance.

>76 dchaikin: Thanks!

Although I think I'm a good month and a half away from any work-life balance, if things go well.

>75 Nickelini: - Sounds really interesting! Hoping you'll have more reading time in the future.

>75 Nickelini: I gave this to my mum! She also enjoyed St Clair's other book, about the history of textiles.

The copy I gave her had coloured edges to the pages, so it was very pretty to flick through.

>79 wandering_star: The copy I gave her had coloured edges to the pages, so it was very pretty to flick through.


Oooooh, very nice. I love how there are more and more books with fancy edges now.

29. Always Looking Up, Michael J Fox, 2009


cover comments: sure, this works for a book such as this

Comments: This is Michael J Fox's follow up memoir to his first, Lucky Man. It covers the period since his Parkinson's diagnosis in the 1990s through the early 2000s when he created his foundation for Parkinson's research, and also his years with his young family. His thesis is "optimism," even when things are going terribly.

I read Lucky Man about 15 years ago and I was really impressed with how well written it was, and then in the acknowledgements at the end, I learned that he had a lot of help with the writing from his brother in law, Michael Pollen, who is one of my favourite non-fiction writers. This time, I didn't find the writing as good, especially the first half where Fox makes friends with Lance Armstrong, who inspires him to start the foundation. I expected the "Politics" part where Fox campaigns for stem cell research to be more interesting, in the most part because I remember Rush Limbaugh's stunning and malevolent mocking of Fox's Parkinson side effects. For me, this memoir really didn't get going until the second half that focuses on his family life. He continues to be intelligent, affable, and yes, optimistic.

Why I Read This Now: I've owned it for 13 years and I thought it was time to finally get to it. Kept it at my desk at work for my breaks.

Michael J Fox continues to be highly admired by Canadians in general. As a teenager, I grew up close to where Fox spent his teen years (he's 2 yrs older than me), so most people I know from those circles has some personal connection to him, which makes him feel like "our guy". For me the vague connection was that family friends sold their fancy house and Fox bought it for his parents. I thought that was nice. I also had a friend who had a friend who used to smoke pot with him before school, but I now look at that story as apocryphal. It may have been a friend of a friend of a friend now since I've forgotten the guy's name. On the other hand, it wouldn't be a stretch for it to be true in South Burnaby in the late 70s. Added only for amusement factor.

How I Discovered This: When it was published, this book was EVERYWHERE in Vancouver stores

Rating: 3.5 stars

Recommended for: People interested in stories of people living with Parkinsons? I think most diehard Michael J Fox fans would have read this already and have moved on to his later memoirs, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Future and No Time Like the Future.

>75 Nickelini: Oh, very, very tempting book...but I think I've read enough books on the subject. I would rather just work with it...and my younger daughter is now painting pastels so has borrowed my copy of Victoria Finlay's Color: A Natural History of the Palette, which the newer book sounds sounds much like.

>81 Nickelini: Another nice review...with a personal touch and things I didn't know. I haven't thought about Michael J. Fox for a long time.

>81 Nickelini: I didn't know he was Canadian. Enjoyed your post.

>75 Nickelini: Added to my list. As a sometimes dyer, I love books on colour, and how it works.

>81 Nickelini: I wonder how much of the mildness of that first section is because the people he talks about are alive (and not immediate family and friends) and some of them are prone to steering controversy and can easily sue back.

>81 Nickelini: I don't know what other roles Michael J Fox has had lately but I really like the "nasty lawyer" character he plays in The Good Wife.

>86 wandering_star: I didn’t know he was still acting. I think he really loves it. I’ll have to watch that show since I’ve already heard good things. MJF = bonus

>87 Nickelini: Do! It's a great show.

30. Summer, Ali Smith, 2020


Cover comments: I like the covers for these editions. Lovely, and they look great together . . . But now that I look at it closer, this looks like the sky I enjoyed during my first evening in the English countryside, along a hedgerow 3 miles outside of Bath. I grew up reading novels set in the English countryside, but somehow I was in my 40s before I actually got to see it in real life. I cried, and my family looked at me like I had 3 heads.

Comments: Summer is the 4th installment in Ali Smith's Seasonal Quartet, which are novels written and published as close as possible to current events in the UK, starting with Autumn and the stupid Brexit vote. I think they are somewhat stand alone novels, but Summer does bring in characters and themes from the other novels. Sometimes.

I have tried to read these as close to the events as possible, but I just didn't get to this one last summer. This year, I think my mind is just off on other things to actually appreciate all the nuances and literary allusions here. Shakespeare, Dickens, all sorts of themes. I did enjoy some of the vignettes, particularly Grace's flashbacks to her trip to Suffolk with the actors. But it was too disjointed and stream of consciousness for my current state of mind, and I didn't much care for the WWII bits (except I did learn about internment camps on the Isle of Man, which I had never heard of so that was interesting)

Rating: Not really a fair assessment, because I think this was wrong book wrong time - 3 stars.

In order of my interest and enjoyment of this series:

1. Winter (loved this one)
2. Autumn
3. Summer
4. Spring

Why I Read This Now: a summer read, the print was large, I had meant to read it last year, I generally like this author

How I Discovered This: a series! I don't read series. I guess I do

Recommended for: Series completists, people who want to read early novels with Covid 19

>89 Nickelini: I read Autumn back when it first came out and have since collected all four books with the intention of reading them in rapid sequence. I should get on that.

>90 RidgewayGirl: yes! It was an interesting project for Ali. I think these are better read while fresh

31. Because Venus Crossed An Alpine Violet On The Day That I Was Born, Mona Hoving, 2018; Translated from Norwegian by Kari Dickson and Rachel Rankin


cover comments: it's fine. The title intrigued me. It's not explained in the book.

Comments: Ella has a fraught relationship with her sister Martha, but agrees to accompany her to stay at a hotel high up in a Norwegian mountain village during winter. Martha has recently been released from a sanatorium after a mental break down. Ella explores her thoughts about her sister, her own sexuality, and the writings of Stefan Zweig.

This Norwegian novella won the 2021 Dobloug Prize and the Norwegian Critics' Prize For Literature.

Why I Read This Now: August is Women in Translation month, and as there was only a few days left in the month, I picked the shortest one on my shelf.

Rating: 3 stars. It was a fine quick read.

Recommended For: people who like to read about sisters

How I Discovered This: not sure -- I thinking I went down an internet rabbit hole one winter night

>92 Nickelini: How annoying that the title isn’t explained!!

32. The Other Guest, Helen Cooper, 2022


cover comments: big chunky sans serif font in a contrasting colour says THRILLER! Behind that, there's a sorta grainy picture of Lake Garda, with water drops on top. Lots of deep blue. For the genre, I like it. The publisher's blurb "HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO FOR THE PERFECT VACATION?" has little to do with the novel

Comments: The chapters switch between Leah and Joanna, with occasional flashbacks to Amy. Leah has gone to her sister's swanky resort on Lake Garda, Italy almost a year after her 21 year old niece Amy drowned in the lake. She is shocked to find that Amy's parents and sister have all but erased traces of her. The other storyline follows Joanna, a university counsellor in Derby, England, who gets involved with a mysterious stranger. Eventually their storylines intertwine. Of course.

I liked this, but I think thrillers or suspense novels have to take off from the beginning, and this one didn't get going until the 50% mark. Up until then, it was more a novel about family dynamics with two women who had no connection whatsoever.

Also, one of the problems with this genre in print or on film, is that for events to occur, the characters have to do stupid things or make ill advised moves ("Don't split up! Don't go in there alone!"). But in The Other Guest the author actually does a decent job of justifying most of the poor choices the characters had to take.

How I Discovered This: I was in the drug store by my office and noticed that the book rack was jammed with shiny new books. I had heard of the author and the cover jumped out at me, and then when I saw it was set in Lake Garda, it was an instant-buy for me.

Why I Read This Now: shiny new book, Lake Garda setting!

Recommended For: novels set on Lake Garda, thrillers that aren't too suspenseful

Rating: 3.5 stars

33. The Prank of the Good Little Virgin of Via Ormea, Amara Lakhous, 2014; translated from Italian by Antony Sugaar, 2016


cover comments: another ugly cover from Europa Editions

Comments: This short novel is about social bubbles colliding. Most of it is told from the viewpoint of journalist Enzo Lagana, but it's occasionally told by a cryptic woman who floats between bubbles in modern-day Turin, including the Roma community. The catalyst here is the reported rape of a young Italian girl by Roma twins. Fueled by xenophobia, the media's story spirals out of control. The journalist Enzo, who is from Southern Italy, soon learns that things are not as reported and there are forces preventing him from telling the truth. And it turns out that many of this Roma community have lived in this area of Italy for hundreds of years, and while many say they must leave, no one cares about immigrants like Lagana's Finnish girlfriend.

A sharp look at prejudice and corrupt media. I will reread this.

Why I Read This Now: It's September and I haven't read a book translated from Italian yet this year

Rating: 4 stars

How I Discovered This Book: I loved the same author's Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio

Recommended for: If it sounds interesting, find a copy

>95 Nickelini: This sounds interesting! I'll see if I can get hold of it...

>96 Dilara86: Ditto

>89 Nickelini: back there a bit. I thought Spring and Summer were more like padded out, maybe rushed out, sketches.

>98 dchaikin: ah, yes. Good point

34. Fresh Water For Flowers, Valerie Perrin, 2018; translated from French by Hildegarde Serle 2020


cover comments: Europe Editions have some of the ugliest covers (see my last book, for example). So for them, this cover is gorgeous, especially when you can see that the fresh green of the tulip stems repeats onto the spine. I love tulips, I love blue covers. So all good. Yet, if they had a budget and an artist who has read the book, I think it could have been wonderful.

Rating: Loved this, read it quickly, gobbled it up . . . yet it wasn't a perfect 5. So I guess that means 4.5 stars. A satisfying, engrossing book.

Comments:: This is one of those books that is difficult to describe without sounding inane. I was looking for an atmospheric, lush book, but one that had an actual story too. Fresh Water For Flowers was perfect. In a sentence: Violette has been dealt a lousy hand in life, but she takes all the manure and makes a beautiful garden.

Love, loss, etc. All set in a French village. It was delicious to get lost in this world for a week or so.

I loved the characters and the setting, and the little vignettes into various lives. In my mind, Violette was played by one my favourite actresses, Juliette Binoche. I hear there is a TV series coming up, so it will be interesting to see the casting. The storyline jumped around a lot, which kept me reading, but sometimes I was a bit lost at who knew what when. And there are two love affairs -- Violette and Julian, and Irene and Gabriel, and I confused the details of their trysts. I'm not sure that mattered though? My last negative comment is that each chapter was introduced by a short blurb of poetic introduction. Mostly these were okay, if a little banal. Easy to ignore, anyway. But some of them were just deepities. What is a "deepity," you ask? It's a phrase that sounds profound, but if you actually look at it and think about it, it says nothing. Pretty much anything said by Deepak Chopra, for example. The example I will give you from Fresh Water For Flowers is: "There's no solitude that isn't shared" (Oh please, and now I've strained my eyeballs rolling them so far back in my skull). Anyway, like I said, you can ignore these, and they aren't all silly. Maybe they're lost in translation.

Recommended for: I recommend it broadly, if it seems like you're kind of thing

Why I Read This Now: 1. It had been on the top of my TBR since it was published in English; 2. My book club chose it for later this year; 3. I was looking for an "Epic September Read." What is an "Epic September Read"? you may ask (if you haven't asked, thanks for stopping by, we will see you next time). September is often the most beautiful, magical month here in Vancouver. The blues and greens of the forests, mountains and water vibrate, and the air shimmers gold. Even if the days are still hot, it's not punishing. There are whiffs of autumn in the air, and I have a sweater close by. I've found these some of the best times to pick up a novel full of atmosphere that I can really delve into, and then have wonderful memories for years. Some Epic September Reads in the past decade or so have been The Story of Lucy Gault, Possession, The Last September, The Children's Book, and Howards End. And now, Fresh Water For Flowers.

And full disclosure: not every September in Vancouver is magical. Some years the rain starts at Labour Day and it's just meh. One recent year would have been wonderful, but smoke blew in from the Interior, or Idaho, or somewhere in the US that was on fire, and it was just smoky and nasty. But this was a gorgeous September (although really much too dry). In those years, there is no point in trying to find an Epic September Read

How I Discovered This: I get notifications from Europa Editions and they publicized this one broadly because it had been a #1 best seller in France and Italy. I like to read best selling books in translation, so it went right onto my must-read list.

>100 Nickelini: I've been seeing this one around, especially as I keep my eye out for Europa Editions, but this one had always seemed a little twee for me. I'll have to grab a copy now.

Enjoyed your review of Fresh Water for Flowers
September in South West France has been more like mid summer with the drought continuing until the final few days of the month. However today the first of October and the sun is warm again.

>102 baswood:
That sounds lovely! I hope one year I can spend autumn in the southwest of France :-)

I’m putting the word deepity in my pocket for later. Fun review. (September stinks in Houston almost every year.)

>104 dchaikin: I didn’t invent “deepity ”. I think it was the philosopher Daniel Dennent or perhaps his teenage daughter. Google would tell me, but it’s late. Anyway, I’m always happy to share the term.

>101 RidgewayGirl: some have found it twee. I didn’t. I hope you like it. :-)

35. Taste: My Life Through Food, Stanley Tucci, 2021


cover comments: very nice textures in real life and Tucci's face makes me smile

Comments: Part memoir, part cookbook, and the memoir part is almost completely about the importance of food in his life. Almost nothing about his acting career, or life as a film star.

The first part of Taste was about Tucci growing up in an Italian household in upstate New York and his memories of the food they ate. I married into an Italian family almost 30 years ago, so I found this part somewhat boring. But it got better after the halfway point, and then it got great by the time he told the story of eating andouillette sausage with Meryl Streep in Normady. I too had a very similar horrific story of trying this Norman delicacy when I was there in 1992, and yes, as Meryl Streep said, "it does have a bit of the barnyard about it." Then he went on to rave about some of the restaurants in my hometown, Vancouver, and in fact, give recipes from a couple of them (the second, Joe Fortes, is a long-time favourite of ours). His tales of March 2020 Covid lock down at home in London was also most entertaining.

There are two or three recipes that I'm definitely going to try, and he introduced me to the authoritative Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, by Pellegrino Artusi, which has remained in print since it first hit the world in 1891.

Rating: Tucci's charm shines through in Taste. The first part was 3 stars, and the last 4.5.

Why I Read This Now: I recently bought it, although I've wanted to read it since it was published. I'm always telling myself I'm going to read more books about food, so I finally did

How I Discovered This: Taste was released to great fanfare last year

Recommended for: foodies. If you enjoy the TV show Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy, this is not the book version of that show. It does have a similar balance of conversation and actual food information.

>107 Nickelini: I listened to the audiobook earlier this year and loved it. He reads it himself and does a fantastic job.

>108 Yells: I imagine that would be great. He's just so charming

Nice review of Taste: My Life Through Food, Joyce. There was an article about him in The New Yorker this summer, which is about one of his favorite pastas, Spaghetti alla Nerano. I plan to give it a try soon, as it sounds scrumptious.

The Secrets of Stanley Tucci's Zucchini Spaghetti

>110 kidzdoc: He included that recipe in the book, along with the story of how he discovered that dish. I might try it one day. The deep frying part makes me hesitate.

36. The Weekend, Charlotte Wood, 2019


cover comments: Love it. Colours, swimming theme, vintage style. Not sure this scene showed up in the book, but there was swimming, so good enough

Comments: For decades, four friends vacation every year at Sylvie's beach house on the New South Wales coast. But since their meet up last year, Sylvie has died and Jude, Adele and Wendy go back to clean out the beach house to be sold. The problem is that Sylvie was the hub of this friend group, and without her there, the threads that join the others are wearing thin. I enjoyed The Weekend immensely, even if I wouldn't ever want to spend a weekend with these three women. Each character was unique and multi-faceted, and it was interesting to see them from their own and the other's viewpoints.

After loving the author's The Natural Way of Things, The Weekend was a must-buy for me. But after I bought it, I saw that the average rating for this novel was pretty low -- 3.5 stars here at LT. Considering this, I was surprised at how much fun I had reading it. The many negative reviews on this were mixed -- some I found just silly, but more than a couple said "I'm in my 70s and this 50-something author has no idea", and there were other solid criticisms. I also had two minor complaints that made no sense to me, but didn't hamper my reading experience:

1. Sylvie's partner gets to take off back to Ireland and just have the profits of the sale sent to her after the three friends do all the work. Who would agree to that?
2. This mega-task of cleaning out the house must be done over the Christmas weekend. Why? Could it have been three days in early December or January? Christmas was used in the plot, but it really seemed a bit far fetched, even though the three 70-somethings didn't have anything else going on.

Why I Read This Now: I like to read seasonally. This year it's still full-on summer here in Vancouver, and reading autumnal books would feel completely off. So I grabbed this off my summer-reads stack. It fit even better than expected, as the Australian summer-Christmas combination was as askew as my current October summer experience. (I did spend one Christmas season in Australia, and I would recommend it. I'd like to do that again).

Rating: 4 stars

How I Discovered This: Penguin-Random House Instagram when it was published

Recommended for: I think because the ratings are all over the place, I'll recommend this to my book club next year. That should make for some good conversation. Especially since most of our members have recently retired.

>112 Nickelini: I bought this book when I saw it in a bookstore last year and kind of set it to one side for the same reasons you did. I'll have to pull it out again because it sounds like something I'm in the mood for now.

>113 RidgewayGirl: If you read it, I'm looking forward to your thoughts

>107 Nickelini: Now I'm regretting not getting a signing from Tucci at the book festival I was at the other week. To be honest I'd never heard of him, but then I got home and asked my husband and realised he's pretty famous....

>115 AlisonY:
LOL - he's so wonderful in The Devil Wears Prada and Julie and Julia, and fun in the Hunger Games movies, but my husband reminds me that he mostly plays nasty villains. He just seems like such a genuinely nice, funny and charming person. And he's BFFs with Colin Firth, who is known to be a genuinely nice guy too. I'd love to hang out with the 2 of them one weekend

>112 Nickelini: I thought this was an interesting read too but whoever designed the cover didn't read more than the first line of the synopsis! The cover does not say "women in their seventies" to me.

I did wonder about the portrayal of the older women, but my mum (who is 86) also read it and thought it was excellent.

>117 wandering_star: Oh, good to know that your mum liked it! And yes, it does not say "women in their seventies" at all. But I still like it.

37. The White Hare, Jane Johnson, 2022


cover comments: My initial reaction is positive, and it did draw me in . . . but then when I look at it, it's absolutely awful. Upon study, every little detail is dreadful. There is a cheesy gilt overlay, the weirdly lit beach and house don't look anything like the descriptions in the book, and the very faint white rabbit in the sky is a weak attempt. Yet at first glance it drew me in with all the hallmarks of a book that might interest me. Ka-ching! They sold a book I'd never heard of, so in the end, for the publisher, this was a entirely successful cover.

Comments: Set in 1954 Cornwall, the White Hare tells a story about Mila, her precocious daughter Janey and her domineering mother Magda, who have bought a dilapidated grand house with plans of restoring it to its former glory and making it a business. But strange things happen, and young Janey seems to have an unusual way of knowing things. The separate traumas that Mila and Magda are escaping in this endeavor are slowly revealed. Shades of Celtic mythology and archaeology.

I see in the book's tags, people have tagged it "supernatural", which is vague in this novel, but probably accurate. I also saw "magical realism", which hadn't occurred to me, but sure, that works too.

I was interested in the story, but kept getting pulled out by so many details that seemed anachronistic. I can forgive a thing here or there, but this was a lot, and also the author edited best selling authors, such as RR Martin. She knows better.

Rating: On reflection, I'm not sure what to think of this. There are aspects I liked very much, but a lot seemed pedestrian and just meh. 3.5 stars.

How I Discovered This and Why I Read This Now: My office is above a drug store that has a small book rack. Mostly they have nothing I'm interested in, but occasionally I find a gem. This caught my eye and I thought it might be a good autumn read. Which it was, although maybe more Christmassy in the end.

Recommended for: I hadn't thought of it, but I see it's been recommended for readers who enjoy Alice Hoffman, and I agree. Also readers of Santa Montefiore. Pretty light read, and interesting.

>119 Nickelini: To me the cover looks overcrowded - too many things! The house and landscape, the hare and the decorated frame all look so different and don‘t really fit.
1950s in Cornwall sounds great, but the rest of your review makes me think that it is not a book I would like to read.

But that beautiful blue on the cover . . .

That's what drew me in, but the lights in the house were the next thing I noticed, and they are ridiculous.

>119 Nickelini: I immediately thought of Rebecca when I saw the cover. Then I read your review and saw it was set in Cornwall, so I guess the cover works on that kind of subliminal level too (if you liked x... then you'll like y).

...maybe more Christmassy in the end Back to the cover again, those boughs and berries suggest that as well.

Anachronisms definitely bother me too.

Maybe it will be a hit on some book club circuits.

38. Trouble With Lichen, John Wyndham, 1960


cover comments: Love this cover. Lichen raccoon masks are not a thing in this book. I guess it's symbolic. Or maybe the artist didn't read the book. See cover comment 2, below.

Comments: Two biochemists discover that a rare lichen can prolong human life to 200 or 300 years. They keep their discovery silent, but one injects the substance into himself and his two children, and the other starts a high-end beauty salon and gives a diluted version to wealthy clients. Eventually the truth comes out, and the novel looks at all sorts of issues that would arise if a substance like this was suddenly discovered. Further, this is a a 1950s white English male's view of a feminist novel.

A couple of the dated lines that made my jaw drop:

1. "It had discovered that Mrs Joseph Macmartin (or Mrs Margaret Macmartin, as it more chummily preferred to call her)" - Really? Being called by your actual, given name is chummy? I was born in the 60s and I remember my mom being called by her actual name way more often than Mrs My-Dad's-Name, although that wasn't unheard of. By the time I was working at a dentist's office in the 1980s, I was super confused when a female patient was named "John" and it turned out all her records were under Mrs Husband's Name, which to me in a dental (medical) environment, seemed utterly bonkers.

2. Talking about the Chinese government taking control of the lichen supply, a character says, "...No need to say anything but velly solly." I had to read that twice before I figured out what was going on.

Wow, casual mid-century sexism and racism are fun. :-(

Rating: Somewhat interesting as a thought experiment, but lacking in tension. 3.5 stars

How I Discovered This: Five years ago I was buying other novels by this author, and I really love the art on these Penguin editions, so I bought a pile of them.

Why I Read This Now: I usually read one of my John Wyndham novels every October. This is number 5, and I have 3 left

Recommended For: John Wyndham fans and readers interested in late 1950s English culture

Cover Comments 2: Here is another cover and it amazed me:



Even though the novel opens with Diana's funeral, I found this cover very spoilerish, as this scene happens with only 50 pages left to the book. Also, here is how her outfit is described: "... Diana, in a semi-evening dress of pale grey peau-de-soie, long white gloves, an emerald pendant at her throat, and a light, fur-collared wrap about her shoulders". The artist seems to have read the book, but chose to ignore most of the description. Hmmm.

>123 Nickelini: Enjoyed your review. Yeah, both of those covers seem questionable for different reasons.

This isn't an author I've heard. Where would you recommend starting with him?

>124 AlisonY: I learned about John Wyndham from the 1001 list, so I'd recommend one of those:

Day of the Triffids
Midwich Cuckoos
Chocky,

or one that was assigned reading in some of my high school's English classes (but not mine): the Crysalids

I believe all of these have been made into movies, at least once

Of those, my favourite was Chocky, but it's probably not the most common favourite. John Wyndham is an author I would have LOVED had I discovered him in my late teens, but even now in my old age I enjoy him

>125 Nickelini: I read and enjoyed The Chrysalids, but it's the only one I've read.

>125 Nickelini: Oddly enough, I was assigned The Chrysalids in grade nine English and I hated it. Years ago, I made it a point to re-read all the books that I remember from high school and found that I absolutely love it now. It was first assigned at a time when I thought literature was Jackie Collins so most of the plot went over my head.

I've read all the ones that you have listed and I think Day of the Triffids is my favourite - the movie scared the pants off me!

>125 Nickelini: Ah - now I realise who he is. Chocky was adapted for TV when I was a tween and I absolutely loved it.

39. Hex, Jenni Fagan, 2022


cover comments: fits well with the story. And I always like a bird on a book cover

Comments: What the novella is about, copied from the book blurb:

“IT'S THE 4TH OF DECEMBER 1591. On this, the last night of her life, in a prison cell several floors below Edinburgh's High Street, convicted witch Geillis Duncan receives a mysterious visitor - Iris, who says she comes from a future where women are still persecuted for who they are and what they believe. As the hours pass and dawn approaches, Geillis recounts the circumstances of her arrest, brutal torture, confession and trial, while Iris offers support, solace - and the tantalising prospect of escape. Hex is a visceral depiction of what happens when a society is consumed by fear and superstition, exploring how the terrible force of a king's violent crusade against ordinary women can still be felt, right up to the present day.”

This is number 2 of the 3 Darkland Tales, which are novellas by current day Scottish authors about events in Scottish history.

Rating: 3.5 stars. This was interesting enough, but mostly it just made me angry. The point of this is to show that things now aren’t as improved as we like to think. The author highlights how many men utterly enjoyed torturing others, which I found true and disturbing. People were horrible to each other back then, and some people today would also enjoy torturing others, and there are still too many horrible people today.

Why I Read This Now: Novella November, and this novella was close at hand. Also, reading about witches seemed fun for a few days after Halloween

Recommended for: readers who want to read more about witches and Scottish history

How I Discovered This: I read the first in the Darkland Tales, Rizzio last spring and was excited that the second one was about witches. The last book, published this autumn, is Nothing Left To Fear From Hell by Alan Warner

Interesting. Geillis Duncan is a character in Outlander, a book also featuring time travel, and she too is accused of witchcraft in Scotland.

>130 labfs39: she was a real person. This book was based on a historic event (as is this series)

I heard she was also in Outlander, but I didn't realize that series used real people (I never got past page 50 of the first book)

40. Men to Avoid in Art and Life, Nicole Tersigni, 2020


cover comments: perfetto!

Rating: 5 stars

Comments: Author Tersigni scoured the collections of museums such as Rijksmuseum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The National Gallery to find 96 pages worth of classic paintings of men talking to women and the women looking unamused. To each of these she added brief dialogue, sometimes of the time period, and sometimes very much 2020s. An example:


The classic: a random male stranger telling a woman to smile. (I am excellent at resting bitch face, so I used to hear this too often when I was young. Now I'm in my 50s and just ignored)

These are divided into themes (funny when combined with the art, but here are a few of my fav blurbs):

The Mansplainer: "If you just ignore your menstrual cramps, they'll go away"

The Concern Troll (my favourite category, I can't pick the best): "I only talked over you all night because I didn't want you to embarrass yourself"

The Comedian: "He's the greatest comedian of all time. You just have to separate the art from the artist"

The Sexpert: "We've been over this a million times: you can't get pregnant if you're on top. It's called gravity" and "Here's a song I wrote called 'If You Can't Orgasm from Vaginal Penetration You're Probably a Lesbian, Linda'."

The Patronizer: "I know I made the mess, but you're so much better at cleaning than I am"

Really though, it's the combination of the blurbs matched with the piece of art that makes this book funny.

The dedication: "For Rob, who is the best kind of man. For Zoe, who is already funnier than I am. And for anyone who could use a laugh."

Recommended for: Anyone who could use a laugh. Also, women. And also, every man.

Normally I think of my husband as one of the best kind of men. But when I read this and laughed, and then showed him some of my favourites, he said "I don't know why you spent money on that." I wish I had an artist to paint that scene, and I'd add it to the book as an addendum.

How I Discovered This: I come across these once in a while on the internet (I'm sure other people make them too), and somehow I started following this author on Twitter. I thought I'd support her. And I knew that my adult daughters and I would find this funny, even if my husband isn't exactly amused.

Why I Read This Now: it arrived at my doorstep and I read it right away

>132 Nickelini: That sounds like a hoot! I have to find it.

I love Tersigni's work.

I had a good chuckle over the matching of art work and sayings!

41. The Four-Season Landscape: Easy-Care Plants and Plans for Year-Round Color, Susan A Roth, 1994


cover comments: the font and arrangement is a bit dated, but a beautiful garden border never gets old

Rating: I first read this book in 1996 and gave it 5 stars. The Four-Season Landscape was life changing for me. On this read, it's still 5 stars.

Comments: "Wow," I imagine you're thinking. "A gardening book changed your life? Seems . . . unusual" (okay, I know you're really thinking "crazy"). But it really did. In 1996 I bought my first house, and I was excited to get into my garden, so I read every gardening book I could find. I first borrowed this from the library, but discovered I needed to highlight it extensively and take notes, so I quickly bought a copy. Gardening has continued to be one of my favourite hobbies over these 25 years, and of all the gardening books I've ever read, this is still my favourite. The principles here haven't changed, even though some plants go in and out of fashion.

The highest level take-away from The Four-Season Landscape is the idea to plant your garden to look good all year around, and so that you always have interesting things going on. In a city or suburban garden, every plant needs to earn its place and have something to show for more than a few weeks every year. Author Roth goes through each season and suggests what to consider when choosing the best plants and how to use them. Her writing is mostly informative and practical, but often lovely and evocative. The last 70 pages of the book are an "encyclopedia" of the plants she recommends most highly.

I'm delighted that for a book that is a quarter-century old, it's still so well done. The graphic arrangement of the pages is logical and helpful (lots of sidebars and tables). It's aged very well and it's a shame that it's gone out of print.

"But you still haven't said how it changed your life . . . ". I'm glad I read this early in my gardening days, and always kept the main principles in mind, even if I didn't always follow them. It changed my approach to gardening, and was the filter that I ran all other information through. Because of this, I took an existing garden that had some fine details and turned it into a garden with layers and nuance, and 12-month interest. It needed landscaping beyond my abilities, and wasn't a show-garden by any measure, but I loved it and it was highly complimented.

Why I Read This Now: I moved. New house, new garden. The plantings are all 5 years old, and were done with some expense and a definite plan. However, it's not a four-season garden! They did very well with repeating textures and colours (and plants) for pleasing continuity. But they ignored "right plant, right place" -- for example, hydrangeas and small hostas planted in full-sun areas. And they are missing so many of my favourites. All good, I have a plan, and so I reread The Four-Season Landscape to remind myself of all the wonderful knowledge I absorbed all those years ago.

Here is an example of what I've been saying: "When planning your garden, keep the lilacs (syringa spp), with their sorry fall color, to a minimum and seek out shrubs that offer color in spring and other seasons. If lilacs or similar one-season shrubs are your favorites, locate them away from center stage, where you don't have to look at them during the rest of the year." This has always stayed with me. Back in 1996 we had a massive lilac shrub at a key spot in our backyard and I hated it. I know most people love lilacs, but the scent reminds me of cheap 1970s bathroom air freshener. This gave me permission to rip it out (quite the chore -- it involved attaching a strong rope to our 1995 Mazda 626 sedan and backing up). But now I've moved into a house with a lilac next to my front porch. Oh the horror! This one has been shaped into a tree, so I'm going to give it a year and see what else happens around it. As for the 2 or 3 lilac shrubs in the backyard, they are going to be out at my first opportunity and replaced with one of my missing lovelies.

Recommended for: any gardener in a temperate climate

How I Discovered This: gardening section of the library in 1996

>136 Nickelini: Well you've found someone here who can certainly understand how a gardening book can change your life. Those are sound principles Roth has there, tried and true.

How shocking that a Vancouver wouldn't be planted with four seasons in mind. Even when I lived in the Ontario snow belt, I always kept that idea in my plans, for there are plants that can look beautiful against snow. Here on the East Coast, it's much easier. My new house also had a newish garden with the shade and sun plants reversed. Maybe the people she employed were confused, but that has all been set to rights now, and much editing and addition has been done.

Just wondering if the lilac by your front porch "shaped into a tree" is actually a Japanese tree lilac, and not a shrub.

What are your"missing lovelies" you'll use for replacements?

My all time favourite garden has to be the Abkhazi Garden, so close to you from where I'm sitting, but not close enough, even in Vancouver.

>136 Nickelini: Definitely noted! I've come into this knowledge late and gradually with my own gardening efforts. So far our best fall plants have been the oak leaf hydrangea and butterfly bush, the knocked-over Mexican sunflowers out front (though they're dying off slowly now), plus the knockout rose that will not die in any season, but I'd like to be more systematic cycling through the seasons.

>137 SassyLassy: How shocking that a Vancouver wouldn't be planted with four seasons in mind. Oh, no one puts any thought to this. Sure, people will have plants with autumn or winter interest, but it's not done in planned, thoughtful manner. More of "this camellia blooms in January. Cool! Let's plant it.

Even when I lived in the Ontario snow belt, I always kept that idea in my plans, for there are plants that can look beautiful against snow. Maybe because we have green 12 months a year, we just take it for granted.

Here on the East Coast, it's much easier. My new house also had a newish garden with the shade and sun plants reversed. Maybe the people she employed were confused, but that has all been set to rights now, and much editing and addition has been done. LOL! You'd think a gardener would know not to plant sun lovers in the shade ;-)

Just wondering if the lilac by your front porch "shaped into a tree" is actually a Japanese tree lilac, and not a shrub. Oh, interesting. I will have to see. There are several trees that I'm unable to identify until they get their spring growth. I never thought of that, probably because I never think about lilacs.

What are your"missing lovelies" you'll use for replacements? I happen to have my list sitting right in front of me! Calla lilies (I'm digging them up from my old house -- these were smuggled in from Italy by a relative, and they have huge white flowers); sedum autumn joy; hens & chicks (I've already planted dozens around my granite steps), clematis, camellia, maidenhead ferns, sword ferns, a herb garden, Japanese maple, Michaelmas daisy, violets (from my old house, this plant comes from my grandfather's farm in the 1940s and my family just keeps transplanting a bit of it whenever we move), lambs ears, sarcocca (a late-winter flowering shrub that grows in shade and smells wonderful), spirea, bleeding heart, and some conifers! There are no conifers at all in this garden. Long list, and there really are many lovely plants here already, so we will see which of these I can fit in.

My all time favourite garden has to be the Abkhazi Garden, so close to you from where I'm sitting, but not close enough, even in Vancouver.

I've driven past there probably 50 times and never thought to go in. So many gardens in Victoria! I'll have to make it a point to go next time I'm over there

>138 lisapeet: That sounds lovely! I love all of those plants

42. The Home Edit: a Guide to Organizing and Realizing Your House Goals, Clea Shearer & Joanna Teplin, 2019


cover comments: gorgeous if you're into organization porn like I am

How I Discovered This: Three weeks ago I'd never heard of "The Home Edit", but then I watched a YouTube video by Audrey at Chapter & Converse on unhauling some of her books. She was dumping her copy of The Home Edit Life, saying "I don't think I'm this person", and from what she showed, I thought that maybe I was that person. So I ordered the first Home Edit book, and watched their show on Netflix.

Comments: This is part educational non-fiction, part coffee table book. I think it's more inspirational than instructional. If you've watched The Home Edit on Netflix, it's very similar, but without the squealing (which I fast forwarded past). It's lovely to look at, if a little light on any actual helpful information. As with the TV show, it's a sales tool for their line of organizational containers. It's easy to see this and get motivated to go out and buy many containers (which can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars), but then you still have to come home and do the work. And the real work is doing the "edit," because you can't display your stuff in pretty clear boxes until you get rid of all the piles of excess stuff. And we have various emotional attachments to all that stuff (often the emotion is simply "I spent money on that!" or "I might need that one day"). The book and TV show skim over this, the hard part.

I grew up with mother who was an organizational goddess, and as an adult I've often lived in small spaces, so I've learned to be very good at organizing. Probably I didn't need this book, which was more on the pretty displays than how to get past your emotional attachments to stuff.

Why I Read This Now: I recently moved for the first time in 26 years, to a home with different arrangements from my last house. I want to go from being functionally organized to the next level of making that function look good too.

Rating: 3.5 stars. A little light on actual instruction, at least for me. Some of their aesthetic is a bit silly, but it sure photographs wonderfully. Their signature look is to sort things into rainbow colours, which they claim is scientific (a child will remember a book is blue and find it; and also know how to put away her blue book with the other blue books). Now I can make cupboards look good, but I'm not going to the rainbow level. Also, they rely a lot on their acrylic containers, which are lovely indeed, but I'm avoiding bringing plastic into my house so that's a non-starter. They are also into labeling everything, which I think looks childish (unless you are billeting students or running an AirBnB or have a large family. A clear container holding spaghetti doesn't need a label, for example). They also don't ever talk about using containers that they don't sell. My mom was a master of re-purposing chocolate and perfume boxes, which is more environmental and can have a sentimental aspect; however, it doesn't have the obvious super-organized aesthetic.

Recommended for: people looking for a lovely distraction while avoiding organizing their stuff

>141 Nickelini: The “Recommended for” made me laugh. Really laugh. ;)

>142 AnnieMod: Always happy to amuse when I can

>139 Nickelini: That's quite a varied list - something for just about every situation. I planted a Sarcococca this year, but the name always puts me off for such a pretty plant: sarcoma, sarcoidosis, you get the drift. There are no conifers at all in this garden - also very strange for Vancouver.

>141 Nickelini: They are also into labeling everything, which I think looks childish (unless you are billeting students or running an AirBnB or have a large family. That one made me laugh, so true. I do love seeing how other people do these things though.

43. The Humans, Matt Haig, 2013


cover comments: it's fine, it makes sense . . . but it wouldn't entice me at a book shop. Also, the dog is my favourite character

Comments: Andrew Martin is a Mathematics professor at Cambridge who has solved an earth-changing mathematical problem, so a superior life force in a galaxy far, far away takes him out before humans can damage more than just their own planet. The unnamed protagonist is an alien sent down to take out the people Andrew Martin may have told about his discovery -- his wife, his son, his best friend. But the alien forces make the mistake of having the alien assume Andrew Martin's life, and that's what makes the story. After his initial repulsion of anything human, he mind-melds with the dog, experiences peanut butter sandwiches, is bewitched by Emily Dickenson, and grooves to the Talking Heads. And love. He feels love, and that is something unknown where the alien comes from.

Why I Read This Now AND How I Discovered This: Book club. I would have never known about this or picked it up otherwise

Rating: 4 stars. A light and enjoyable read. Negative reader reviews talk about how this is facile and trite, and sure, okay. But I just went along for the ride and it was fine. His long list of things to do in life near the end definitely had some deepities (see post >100 Nickelini: above for a discussion about deepity - things that sound profound but are actually meaningless), and I'm sure that list annoys some readers. Overall, though, the novel was a quick, mostly entertaining experience.

Recommended for: people who have read this far and are still interested

>132 Nickelini: That seems hilarious!

>132 Nickelini: >146 avaland: I picked up my library ILL copy of Men to Avoid in Art and Life Tuesday. It is a riot. Then you sigh and shake your head at lines you've heard spoken.

44. Bad Wolf, Nele Neuhaus, 2012; translated from German by Steven T Murray, 2013


cover comments: sure, this is a good cover for a suspense thriller; however, the novel takes place over three weeks in a hot, muggy summer. Also, who is this person? In the end, kinda have to call this a fail

Rating: 4 stars

Comments: Bad Wolf is a thriller that slowly pulls together a slew of separate and seemingly unrelated story lines. Initially I was a bit overwhelmed by the large cast of characters, but they repeated and were distinct enough that it soon became easy enough to follow, especially once their stories moved closer to one another. Bad Wolf is the second in the series translated into English, but sixth in German. I didn't have problems reading this as a stand alone novel. I found the book a bit long, but it was interesting throughout and never boring. I may have wanted to finish it quicker because I didn't feel like reading about a heat wave while I was living in a winter cold snap.

How I Discovered This: I'm always looking for books in translation that are best sellers in their home country. Literary translations are easy, but I'm more interested in everyday culture. I realized that I didn't have anything from Germany (which surprised me, considering what a large country it is) so I asked my LT friend Mirjam (aka Miss Brangwen) to help me out. This is one of the authors she suggested

Recommended for: readers who like thrillers and mysteries. I enjoyed the setting of Frankfurt, where I've been a handful of times, but only to the airport (so no, I didn't recognize anything). The crimes in the novel center around child abuse, but it isn't graphic or salacious. I mention this because I know any mention of child abuse whatsoever is a hard NO for some readers.

Why I Read This Now: I felt like reading something in translation, and I felt like reading a thriller. The cover looked cold and moody. The cover lied.

>136 Nickelini: I've just bought a new house after renting for 16-years but creating a wonderful garden there. Actually, I made plenty of mistakes. It'll be fun to start over. There is a garden here, but seems to be mostly hostas and daylilies. I know it is winter now, but I just requested this from ILL...

>149 WelshBookworm: Actually, I made plenty of mistakes. It'll be fun to start over. There is a garden here, but seems to be mostly hostas and daylilies.

Oh, I can so very much relate to that. I had a lot of loveliness to my last garden, most of it created by me. But any landscaper would tell me a million mistakes I made. I was learning, it was a work in progress. . . I did love the 4-season aspect of it though. And now I have a brand new garden to tackle. And it was obviously done with purpose as well, and many lovely things . . . but also lilacs that I will be pulling out, and so many of the same type of hosta and hydrangeas which were planted in full sun (and were very unhappy this past hot dry summer). Which I why I reread that book.

Daylilies! What's up with those? I planted one at my last house and for about a dozen years until it got dug up when we replaced the fence, it bloomed one day a year. Like, one flower that bloomed for one day. Year in, year out. I thought it was pointless. But then I heard that's not normal?

>150 Nickelini: No love for lilacs, eh?

>150 Nickelini: Poor lilacs. :( My hometown is known as the lilac town - in the spring, when the local varietals are in season, the town and the hills surrounding it are covered in lilac. And nope, not exaggerating: https://www.bulgarianproperties.com/Bulgaria/lovech.html

One of the reasons we are in the process of selling our condo and moving (back) to a single family house is how much we miss our garden. I loved our garden in Seattle (which has a similar climate to Vancouver--very conducive to gardening), and miss it so much. It wasn't perfect, but there was always something going on. Over the years after the kids grew, we transformed it into something with very little grass and lots of shrubbery and flowers. The garden will be important in choosing our new home in Florida, but unfortunately a lot of places just throw in some St Augustine grass and a few palm trees and call it good.

>152 AnnieMod: I'm sure it's spectacular when it's all blooming. I just don't want lilacs in my limited garden.

>153 arubabookwoman: Nice! I hope you find a suitable spot. I guess after living in the Pacific Northwest, you'll have to learn a pile of new info on the best plants to grow. I remember walking around my brother's Southern California neighbourhood on a sunny, warm January day and not recognizing most of the plants (I've only ever gardened in Vancouver)

45. Running Down a Dream, Candy Palmater, 2022


cover comments: looks a bit thrown together, but I like the bright pink with the dark background

Rating: 4 stars

Comments: Candy Palmater was a Canadian comedian, who was also an avid reader, indigenous, queer, an activists, and a recovered lawyer (her term). I knew her from her comedy and from listening to her talk about books on CBC Radio. I was shocked and deeply saddened on Christmas Day 2021 to hear that she had died that day.

This memoir covers growing up in New Brunswick in relative poverty. Even though she's five years younger than me, her upbringing sounded very 1940s-1950s. Her family was generally loving and supportive, although reading between the lines I could see that relationships were often fraught. She goes out of her way to acknowledge the people who supported her and helped her along the way, which is nice but not the most interesting thing to read. The book got more interesting when she graduated from school, attempted to go to university, and partied her way across Atlantic Canada. Eventually she got over that and went on to success and achievements. She did not mention her illness in Running Down a Dream, and the internet tells me she had just recently been treated for Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (a rare disease) before she died. A great loss to Canada. She had so much left in her.

Recommended for: her fans, obviously, but I think anyone who is interested in a person coming from a difficult beginning to go on to unexpected success.

Why I Read This Now: I started it it soon after it was delivered

How I Discovered This: CBC Facebook page, probably

46. Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan, 2021


cover comments: absolutely gorgeous

Rating: 4 stars

Comments: Small Things Like These is a novella set in the days leading up to Christmas 1985 in a small town in SE Ireland. Bill Furlong is a kind, hard working family man who discovers some things about his past and terrible things about the town he's always lived in. His struggle is whether to go along to get along, or to ruffle feathers, risk what he has, and do the right (noble) thing.

Small Things Like These was on the short list for the Booker Prize in 2022

Why I Read This Now: It looked like the most Christmassy book on my TBR pile.

How I Discovered This: probably Jen Campbell, and it was before it was published

Recommended for: lovers of novellas and Irish fiction; people who like to read Booker short listed books

47. Piranesi, Susanna Clarke, 2020


cover comments: another gorgeous cover. I'm puzzled by the figure though . . . for a good chunk of the book I was wondering if this was Piranesi. Even though Piranesi was called "human", he was clearly such an unreliable narrator that I didn't trust him. More likely it's one of the million statues in the book, but not one I remember being mentioned. And it's on most of the other editions of the book too. Hmmm. Oh well, I think it's lovely so I'm all for it.

Also, is this a faun, or a satyr? Twenty seconds with google says the difference between the two is that one is Greek and the other Roman, or another definition says one has a goat bottom and the other a deer bottom.

Rating: 3.5 stars. The first third was 2 stars but then it picked up. This was a book that I easily could have abandoned but I'm glad I didn't, because it did get interesting and fun. It just took a long time to get there. I bought this at Armchair Books in Whistler, British Columbia -- a small bookstore where they really know their stuff. They had it shelved in the Fantasy section. That should have been my first clue. I expect I would have loved this in my 20s when I enjoyed fantasy.

Comments: Piranesi lives in a vast "house" that is made up of infinite corridors and staircases that he seems to have spent a lifetime mapping. The upper floors are often in the clouds, and the lower levels are often filled with tides, which he also charts. These halls and stairwells are lined with hundreds of thousands of classical statues. Piranesi is a naive character living a primitive life, where twice a week he meets for an hour with the only other living person he knows exists, and whom he calls the Other. That's the first boring 1/3 of the story. Then a few more people are introduced, and Piranesi begins to realize there is more to his situation that he had imagined.

I actually tried to read this last year, in December 2021, when I was in Switzerland. I had heard raves about the whimsy and magic within and thought it sounded like a good match for the magic of Christmas in Switzerland. But it was so very weird, and I just couldn't pull myself out my trip and into the book. I finished the first section (page 17). This time, even though my brain had more room for weirdness, that first section was just as much of a dud as the first time.

Why I Read This Now: I thought I'd give it another try over Christmas. This book sounded interesting and there are so many rave reviews. It was a pretty fun read, overall. It's been compared to The Magician's Nephew, which is a lifelong favourite. I don't find it all that much like The Magician's Nephew, but I also heard it compared to Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, which is a strange comparison, but I see it and see the connections. I strongly disliked that book and Piranesi is better.

How I Discovered This: I think this one another one I heard of first from Jen Campbell, but then Piranesi was nominated for the Women's Prize and got a lot of hype before it won the award in 2021.

>157 Nickelini: I agree with you about Piranesi. For me, it was more style than substance, but I understand why people love it.

>150 Nickelini: Daylilies! What's up with those?
You've hit on one of my favourite workhorses in the garden. I suspect your particular one may be an older variety. The cultivars now have multiple flowers on a single stem, but yes, each one does bloom for a day. Plant them in masses and in as many different varieties as you can find, and then just ignore them. They now come in every colour from white through darkest purple, in sizes from about 15 cm to 50 cm tall, with some having salad plate sized blooms. Some are fragrant, some rebloom, they always come back next year. My biggest problem with them is deer, who wait until the night before the bloom will be full, and bite them off at the top of the stem. They have preferences in colour, their favourites here being 'Armed Azerbaijanis', also my favourite. In the summer of 2021 they munched off no fewer than 53 of them.
I know people who have nothing but daylilies in their gardens, along with trees and shrubs. Within an hour's drive from here there is a breeder, and another lives about a half day's drive away (he also breeds Siberian Irises but that's another story). Much restraint is needed.

>155 Nickelini: I always loved listing to Palmater on the radio for her humour and her political insights. There was something in that lawyer mind that always got right to the heart of the matter.

>157 Nickelini: Maybe a book to look for at the library. It sounds interesting, but also as if it might get old very quickly.

>150 Nickelini: The house I bought here in Maine has two types of lilies: the beautiful varied varieties that bloom for about a month (with each bloom lasting a day) and Stella de Oros which bloom all summer and into the fall. Although each bloom lasts a day, they just keep putting out more and more blooms. They are only yellow with relatively small blooms 2-3 inches, but I have my driveway lined with them and they are wonderful. Easy to maintain.

Edited to add: there is another type of Stella called Black-eyed Stella which has a red eye.

>160 labfs39: Stella d'Oro is so cheerful. In addition to it and the Black Eyed Stella, there is Little Grapette, the same size and flowering pattern, but in plum purple.

Have caught up with your recent reading now, hope to stop in from time to time on your new thread!

>159 SassyLassy:
>160 labfs39:
>161 SassyLassy:

All this daylily talk doesn't sound at all familiar so I'm wondering if they aren't popular here, or maybe I just somehow haven't noticed. Probably the second.

Year End Stats

Non-fiction: 8
Memoir: 5
Fiction: 34
----------------
Total: 47

Life really got in the way of reading this year. Not that I didn't have time to read, but there was just no room in my brain for anything other than what I was doing. (Last year I read 83 books)

Female authors: 33
Male authors: 11
Mixed, unknown, etc. : 3
As usual, I read more books by women. I follow my interests, it's not on purpose.

Different authors: 47 (did not read more than one book by any one author)
New to me authors: 30
Reread: 1

Age of books - mostly I focused on more recent books. 40% were published in 2020, 2021 and 2022. The oldest book was 1946

Author's nationality:

UK: 17 books (36%)
Canada: 11 (23%)
USA: 4 (8%) - all non-fiction
Switzerland: 2 (4%)
France: 2
Italy: 2
Ireland: 2
Finland: 1 (2%)
Sweden: 1
Norway: 1
Australia: 1
Turkey: 1
Greenland: 1
Germany: 1
This is a fairly typical number of different countries. There are always lots of UK & Canadian books. The other countries vary. I was trying to focus on books from Italian authors, but I packed them in the spring and didn't find the box until a week ago.

Books in translation:

French: 3
German: 2
Swedish: 2
Italian: 1
Norwegian: 1
Greenlandic: 1

Hi Joyce. For some time I have felt that my reviews are not a long and as well-written as before, due to difficulties with access to LT and having less time. After all, I am not retired and at least prior to August I had a busy job.

So, I have looked for a different format of my posts. When I started posting to Club Read in 2011, I modeled my posts after StevenTX, a member who is now no longer active. With my new model, I follow *your* format Joyce (Nickelini). What I like about your format the way you provide some information why you read a particular author or book at a particular time, and some information about the source.

I wanted to post this on you Club Read 2023 thread, but haven't found it, yet.

>165 edwinbcn: Aw, you're sweet. Glad I could inspire or help, or whatever. I developed my format by including the information that I want to give with the information that I look for in others' book posts. And then I like to arrange it in an easily accessible format (the former technical writer in me coming out)

I haven't had time to set up my 2023 thread yet, but I will soon