AnneDC's 2022 Reading: Second Quarter, Spring

Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin

(This is from a couple of years ago; I didn't actually make it down there this year but they are always beautiful.)

And for the first time in years I have a second thread!

Welcome. I am Anne, I live in Washington, DC, and I've been an LT member and a member of the 75 group since 2010, although I've had a few years of very sporadic participation. 2021 was a great reading year for me but a terrible year for posting (though better than 2020). I hope to be here a lot more in 2022, post comments about books at least occasionally, and if you visit me I will also visit you.

I read very diversely and across most genres, though I lean to literary fiction, crime/police procedurals, classics (19th century fiction), narrative non-fiction, and history. I am a sucker for challenges, and this year will try to do the Asian Book Challenge, the British Author Challenge, the American Author Challenge, and the Non-Fiction Challenge, in addition to the monthly TIOLI challenges.

Aside from books, I have three children but became an empty-nester this fall when my daughter headed to college in California. Still adjusting, and with the pandemic the freedom to do things more spontaneously hasn't really materialized.

July
114. Being Mortal - Atul Gawande
115. The Night Hawks - Elly Griffiths
116. The Mothers - Brit Bennett
117. The Locked Room - Elly Griffiths
118. Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott
119. Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
120. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
121. Light in the Queen's Garden - Sandra Bonura
122. Evelina - Frances Burney
123. Mecca - Susan Straight
124. Miss Mapp - E. F. Benson
125. Game of Mirrors - Andrea Camilleri
126. Rutherford B. Hayes - Hans Trefousse
127. One Step Behind - Henning Mankell
128. Typical American - Gish Jen
129. I Am China - Xiaolu Guo

August
130. Destiny of the Republic - Candice Millard
131. Olga Dies Dreaming - Xochitl Gonzalez
132. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
133' The Nakano Thrift Shop - Hiromi Kawakami
133. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea - Yukio Mishima
134. Why Read Moby-Dick? - Nathaniel Philbrick
135. The Trees - Percival Everett
136. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century - Yuval Noah Harari
137. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
138. Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi

September
139. Unfamiliar Fishes - Sarah Vowell
140. Pathological - Sarah Fay
141. Love Medicine - Louise Erdrich
142. The Vegetarian - Han Kang
143. At Night All Blood is Black - David Diop
144. The Ink Black Heart - Robert Galbraith
145. The River Between - Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
146. Humboldt's Gift - Saul Bellow
147. Leaving Everything Most Loved - Jacqueline Winspear
148. An Artist of the Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro

October
149. The Mountains Sing - Nguyen Phan Que Mai
150. Elderhood - Louise Aronson
151. Celestial Bodies - Jokha Alharthi
152. Coming Into the Country - John McPhee
153. Six and a Half Deadly Sins - Colin Cotterill
154. American Nations - Colin Woodward
155. The Story of My Teeth - Valeria Luiselli
156. Le Petit Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
157. A Shot in the Dark - Lynne Truss
158. The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
159. The Sympathizer - Viet Thanh Nguyen
160. Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri

November
161. Judgment Day - Penelope Lively
162. First Love - Ivan Turgenev
163. How High We Go in the Dark
164. Hospital Sketches - Louisa May Alcott
165. These Precious Days - Ann Patchett
166. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane - Kate DiCamillo
167. The Professor and the Madman - Simon Winchester
168. The Buried Giant - Kazuo Ishiguro
169. Search Sweet Country - Kojo Laing
170. Shrines of Gaiety - Kate Atkinson
171. The Aspern Papers - Henry James
172. Whatever Happened to Tradition? - Tim Stanley

December
173. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
174. A World of Curiosities - Louise Penny
175. A Door Between Us - Efsaneh Sadr
176. Pandora's Jar - Natalie Haynes
177. A Beam of Light - Andrea Camilleri
178. Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader - Vivian Gornic
179. Holidays on Ice - David Sedaris
180. A Dangerous Place - Jacqueline Winspear
181. The Blue Flower - Penelope Fitzgerald
182. The Secret History of Christmas - Bill Bryson
183. The Beet Queen - Louise Erdrich
184. Death Comes as the End - Agatha Christie
185. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
186. Howard's End is On the Landing - Susan Hill
187. The Little Drummer Girl - John Le Carre
188. The Gift of Rain - Tan Twan Eng
189. The Face of War - Martha Gellhorn

Currently reading:

The Republic of Wine - Mo Yan
Gentleman Boss - Thomas C. Reeves
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich - William Shirer

Paused
Friends Divided - Gordon Wood
On Tyranny Graphic Edition - Timothy Snyder

First Quarter Reading:
January
1. Beloved - Toni Morrison (R)
2. The Island of Missing Trees - Elif Shafak
3. Fun Home - Alison Bechdel
4. Five Children and It - E. Nesbit
5. Empire of Pain - Patrick Radden Keefe
6. Intimacies - Katie Kitamura
7. The Chalk Pit - Elly Griffiths
8. New York, New York, New York: Four Decades of Success, Excess, and Transformation - Thomas Dyja
9. Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont - Elizabeth Taylor
10. Life and Times of Michael K - J. M. Coetzee
11. My Name is Red - Orhan Pamuk
12. Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino
13. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
14. Normal People - Sally Rooney
15. The Year of the Hare - Arto Paasilinna
16. Dare to Disappoint - Özge Samancı
17. Mindful Drinking - Rosamund Dean

February
18. The Song of the Lark - Willa Cather
19. Tracks - Louise Erdrich (R)
20. Under a White Sky - Elizabeth Kolbert
21. If Beale Street Could Talk - James Baldwin
22. The Lincoln Highway - Amor Towles
23. On Juneteenth - Annette Gordon-Reed
24. Larry's Party - Carol Shields
25. A Year Down Yonder - Richard Peck
26. Mornings in Jenin - Susan Abulhawa
27. The Stone Face - William Gardner Smith
28. A Tale of Love and Darkness - Amos Oz (audio)
29. Black Skies - Arnaldur Indridason
29. The Fiery Trial - Eric Foner
30. Redemption Ground - Lorna Goodison
31. Sour Sweet - Timothy Mo
32. The Water Will Come - Jeff Goodell (audio)
33. The Road to Lichfield - Penelope Lively (Kindle)
34. Treasure Hunt - Andrea Camilleri (audio)
35. Is, Is Not - Tess Gallagher
36. Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss
37. When We Were Very Young - A. A. Milne (R)
38. Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am - Julia Cooke
39. The Women of Brewster Place - Gloria Naylor
40. Now We Are Six - A. A. Milne (R)
41. Generations: A Memoir - Lucille Clifton

March
42. Deacon King Kong - James MacBride
43. A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win WWII - Sonia Purnell
44. Reveille in Washington - Margaret Leech
45. The Splendid and the Vile - Erik Larson
46. Angelica's Smile - Andrea Camilleri
47. Clouds of Witness - Dorothy Sayers
48. Spring - Ali Smith
49. Moonglow - Michael Chabon
50. The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter (R)
51. The Tale of Benjamin Bunny - Beatrix Potter (R)
52. The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies - Beatrix Potter (R)
53. Blessing the Boats - Lucille Clifton
54. The Fixer - Bernard Malamud
55. Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson
56. Little Mountain - Elias Khoury
57. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore - Robin Sloan
58. A Peculiar Indifference: The Neglected Toll of Violence on Black America - Elliott Currie

Second Quarter Reading

April
59. The Five Wounds - Kristin Valdez Quade
60. Waking Up White - Debby Irving
61. Creatures of Passage - Morowa Yejide
62. Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead
63. The Paper Palace - Miranda Cowley Heller
64. The Fell - Sarah Moss
65. The Dark Angel - Elly Griffiths
66. My Part of Her - Javad Djavahery
67. Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel (Reread)
68. Treasures of Time - Penelope Lively
69. The Yellow House - Sarah M. Broom
70. The Sentence - Louise Erdrich
71. The Final Revival of Opal & Nev - Dawnie Walton
72. Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan
73. Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War - Karen Abbott
74. In the City by the Sea - Khamila Shamsie
75. The Songlines - Bruce Chatwin

May
76. The Fortune Men - Nadifa Mohamed
77. Circe - Madeline Miller
78. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
79. Fascism: A Warning - Madeleine Albright
80. The Bread the Devil Knead - Lisa Allen-Agostini
81. The Stone Circle - Elly Griffiths
82. Surfacing - Margaret Atwood
83. If Morning Ever Comes - Anne Tyler
84. Bartleby the Scrivener - Herman Melville
85. Civil Disobedience - Henry David Thoreau
86. A Pale View of Hills - Kazuo Ishiguro (reread)
87. The Second Founding - Eric Foner
88. The Fifth Woman - Henning Mankell
89. Black Birds in the Sky - Brandy Colbert
90. Hana's Suitcase - Karen Levine
91. Writers & Lovers - Lily King
92. Summer - Ali Smith
93. The Sandman
94. The Dressmaker - Kate Alcott
95. Crusade for Justice - Ida B. Wells
96. Quartet in Autumn - Barbara Pym

June
97. The Book of Form and Emptiness - Ruth Ozeki
98. A Passage North - Anuk Arudpradasam
99. Moth Smoke - Mohsin Hamid
100. She's Not There - Jennifer Finney Boylan
101. Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason
102. The Emergency: A Year of Healing and Heartbreak in a Chicago ER - Thomas Fisher
103. The Lantern Men - Elly Griffiths
104. Last Night at the Lobster - Stewart O'Nan
105. Four Souls - Louise Erdrich
106. All Creatures Great and Small - James Herriott
107. Elegy for Eddie - Jacqueline Winspear
108. The Gurkha's Daughter - Prajwal Parajuly
109. When We Cease to Understand the World - Benjamin Labatut
110. Bewilderment - Richard Powers
111. The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore - Laura Lee Hope
112. War: How Conflict Shaped Us - Margaret MacMillan
113. Violeta -Isabel Allende

April possibilities

Finished:
The Five Wounds - Kristin Valdez Quade
Waking Up White - Debby Irving
---
Reading
✔The Yellow House - Sara M. Broome
✔The Sentence - Louise Erdrich
✔Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead
✔Creatures of Passage - Morowa Yijide (L)
✔The Songlines - Bruce Chatwin
Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson - Gordon Wood
---
Possibilities:
Passenger to Teheran - Vita Sackville-West
✔Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy - Karen Abbott
✔My Part of Her - Javad Djavaheri (L)
A Door Between Us - Ehsaneh Sadr (L)
Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi
An Unnecessary Woman - Rabih Alameddine
✔In the City By the Sea - Khamila Shamsie
A Pale View of Hills - Kazuo Ishiguro
The Copenhagen Trilogy - Tove Ditlevsen
Night Haunts - Sukhdev Sandhu
Search Sweet Country (L)
✔The Fell - Sarah Moss (L)
✔Treasures of Time - Penelope Lively
Elderhood - Louise Aronson(L)
Surfacing - Margaret Atwood (L) (reading)
Rutherford B. Hayes - Hans Trefousset (L)
The Devil's Star - Jo Nesbo (A)
Chronicle of a Death Foretold - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Reread)
✔Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel (Reread)
✔The Paper Palace - Miranda Cowley Heller (L)
✔The Final Revival of Opal & Nev - Dawnie Walton (L)

Which books I actually read will depend on whether I'm more focused on a TIOLI sweep or on the alarming number of library books I have.

Literary Prizes and Awards
Like some others in this group I like to keep track of how many of these I've read, and of course I have a long-term goal of reading them all. The bolded ones are the ones I've read.

Women's Prize (Orange/Baileys)
This is the award I pay the most attention to--I also aim to read the whole short list each year though that's been hit or miss. In 2021 I read all the shortlisted books EXCEPT the winner.
2022 Longlist (Shortlist in bold)
Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith
Careless by Kirsty Capes
✔Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejidé
Flamingo by Rachel Elliott
✔Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Remote Sympathy by Catherine Chidgey
Salt Lick by Lulu Allison
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
✔The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
✔The Bread the Devil Knead by Lisa Allen-Agostini
The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson
✔The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton
✔The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
✔The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
✔The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
This One Sky Day by Leone Ross

1996 A Spell of Winter - Helen Dunmore
1997 Fugitive Pieces - Anne Michaels
1998 Larry's Party - Carol Shields 2022
1999 A Crime in the Neighborhood - Suzanne Berne
2000 When I Lived in Modern Times - Linda Grant
2001 The Idea of Perfection - Kate Grenville
2002 Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
2003 Property - Valerie Martin
2004 Small Island - Andrea Levy
2005 We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
2006 On Beauty - Zadie Smith
2007 Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
2008 The Road Home - Rose Tremain
2009 Home - Marilynne Robinson
2010 The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver
2011 The Tiger's Wife - Téa Obreht
2012 The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
2013 May We Be Forgiven - A.M. Homes
2014 A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing - Eimear McBride
2015 How to Be Both - Ali Smith
2016 The Glorious Heresies - Lisa McInerney
2017 The Power - Naomi Alderman
2018 Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie
2019 An American Marriage - Tayari Jones
2020 Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell
2021 Piranesi - Suzanne Clark

Booker Winners

1969: Something to Answer For - P. H. Newby
1970: The Elected Member - Bernice Rubens
1970: Troubles - J. G. Farrell (Lost Man Booker Prize)
1971: In a Free State - V. S. Naipaul
1972: G - John Berger
1973: The Siege of Krishnapur - J. G. Farrell
1974: The Conservationist - Nadine Gordimer and
Holiday - Stanley Middleton
1975: Heat and Dust - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
1976: Saville - David Storey
1977: Staying On - Paul Scott
1978: The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch
1979: Offshore - Penelope Fitzgerald
1980: Rites of Passage - William Golding
1981: Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
1982: Schindler's Ark - Thomas Keneally
1983: Life & Times of Michael K - J. M. Coetzee (2022)
1984: Hotel du Lac - Anita Brookner
1985: The Bone People - Keri Hulme
1986: The Old Devils - Kingsley Amis
1987: Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively
1988: Oscar and Lucinda - Peter Carey
1989: The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
1990: Possession - A. S. Byatt
1991: The Famished Road - Ben Okri
1992: The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje and
Sacred Hunger - Barry Unsworth
1993: Paddy Clarke - Ha Ha Ha Roddy Doyle (2021)
1994: How late it was, how late - James Kelman
1995: The Ghost Road - Pat Barker
1996: Last Orders - Graham Swift
1997: The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
1998: Amsterdam - Ian McEwan
1999: Disgrace - J. M. Coetzee
2000: The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
2001: True History of the Kelly Gang - Peter Carey (2021)
2002: Life of Pi - Yann Martel
2003: Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre
2004: The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst
2005: The Sea - John Banville
2006: The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai
2007: The Gathering - Anne Enright
2008: The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
2009: Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
2010: The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson
2011: The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
2012: Bring Up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel
2013: The Luminaries - Eleanor Catton
2014: The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan
2015: A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James
2016: The Sellout - Paul Beatty
2017: Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders
2018: Milkman - Anna Burns
2019: The Testaments - Margaret Atwood and
Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo (2021)
2020: Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart (2021)
2021: The Promise - Damon Galgut

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
1918 His Family - Ernest Poole
1919 The Magnificent Ambersons - Booth Tarkington
1921 The Age Of Innocence - Edith Wharton
1922 Alice Adams - Booth Tarkington
1923 One Of Ours - Willa Cather
1924 The Able Mclaughlins - Margaret Wilson
1925 So Big - Edna Ferber
1926 Arrowsmith - Sinclair Lewis (Declined)
1927 Early Autumn - Louis Bromfield
1928 The Bridge Of San Luis Rey - Thornton Wilder
1929 Scarlet Sister Mary - Julia Peterkin
1930 Laughing Boy - Oliver Lafarge
1931 Years Of Grace - Margaret Ayer Barnes
1932 The Good Earth - Pearl Buck
1933 The Store - Thomas Sigismund Stribling
1934 Lamb In His Bosom - Caroline Miller
1935 Now In November - Josephine Winslow Johnson
1936 Honey In The Horn - Harold L Davis
1937 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
1938 The Late George Apley - John Phillips Marquand
1939 The Yearling - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1940 The Grapes Of Wrath - John Steinbeck
1942 In This Our Life - Ellen Glasgow
1943 Dragon's Teeth - Upton Sinclair
1944 Journey In The Dark - Martin Flavin
1945 A Bell For Adano - John Hersey
1947 All The King's Men - Robert Penn Warren
1948 Tales Of The South Pacific - James Michener
1949 Guard Of Honor - James Gould Cozzens
1950 The Way West - A.B. Guthrie
1951 The Town - Conrad Richter
1952 The Caine Mutiny - Herman Wouk
1953 The Old Man And The Sea - Ernest Hemingway
1955 A Fable - William Faulkner
1956 Andersonville - Mckinlay Kantor
1958 A Death In The Family - James Agee
1959 The Travels Of Jaimie Mcpheeters - Robert Lewis Taylor
1960 Advise And Consent - Allen Drury
1961 To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
1962 The Edge Of Sadness - Edwin O'connor
1963 The Reivers - William Faulkner
1965 The Keepers Of The House - Shirley Ann Grau
1966 The Collected Stories Of Katherine Anne Porter - Katherine Anne Porter
1967 The Fixer - Bernard Malamud (2022)
1968 The Confessions Of Nat Turner - William Styron
1969 House Made Of Dawn - N Scott Momaday (2021)
1970 The Collected Stories Of Jean Stafford - Jean Stafford
1972 Angle Of Repose - Wallace Stegner
1973 The Optimist's Daughter - Eudora Welty
1975 The Killer Angels - Jeff Shaara
1976 Humboldt's Gift - Saul Bellow (2022)
1978 Elbow Room - James Alan Mcpherson
1979 The Stories Of John Cheever - John Cheever
1980 The Executioner's Song - Norman Mailer
1981 A Confederacy Of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
1982 Rabbit Is Rich - John Updike
1983 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
1984 Ironweed - William Kennedy
1985 Foreign Affairs - Alison Lurie
1986 Lonesome Dove - Larry Mcmurtry
1987 A Summons To Memphis - Peter Taylor
1988 Beloved - Toni Morrison (R2022)
1989 Breathing Lessons - Anne Tyler
1990 The Mambo Kings Play Songs Of Love - Oscar Hijuelos
1991 Rabbit At Rest - John Updike
1992 A Thousand Acres - Jane Smiley
1993 A Good Scent From A Strange Mountain - Robert Olen Butler
1994 The Shipping News - E Annie Proulx
1995 The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields
1996 Independence Day - Richard Ford
1997 Martin Dressler - Steven Millhauser
1998 American Pastoral - Philip Roth
1999 The Hours - Michael Cunningham
2000 Interpreter Of Maladies - Jumpha Lahiri
2001 The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
2002 Empire Falls - Richard Russo
2003 Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
2004 The Known World - Edward P. Jones
2005 Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
2006 March - Geraldine Brooks
2007 The Road - Cormac McCarthy
2008 The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz (R 2021)
2009 Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout (2022)
2010 Tinkers - Paul Harding
2011 A Visit From The Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan
2013 Orphan Master's Son - Adam Johnson
2014 The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
2015 All The Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
2016 The Sympathizer - Viet Thanh Nguyen
2017 The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead
2018 Less - Andrew Sean Greer
2019 The Overstory - Richard Powers
2020 The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead (2021)
2021 The Night Watchman - Louise Erdrich (2021)
2022 The Netanyahus - Joshua Cohen

Countries and States personal challenge

Countries Visited (settings):
2021

Australia (True History of the Kelly Gang - Peter Carey)
Barbados (How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House - Cherie Jones)
Belgium (A Nail, A Rose - Madeleine Bourdouxhe)
Canada (The Madness of Crowds - Louise Penny, My Darling Detective - Howard Norman)
Dominican Republic (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz)
England/UK (Theater Shoes - Noel Streatfeild, I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith, Autumn - Ali Smith, Unsettled Ground - Claire Fuller)
France (Transit - Anna Seghers, The Great Believers - Rebecca Makkai, In the Cafe of Lost Youth - Patrick Modiano)
Germany (All for Nothing - Walter Kempowski)
Ghana (Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi)
Iceland (Outrage - Arnaldur Indridason)
India (The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra - Vaseem Singh, Burnt Sugar - Avni Doshi)
Ireland(Good Behaviour - Molly Keane)
Italy (The Age of Doubt - Andrea Camilleri, The Story of the Lost Chld - Elena Ferrante)
Japan (Moshi Moshi - Banana Yoshimoto)
Laos (The Woman Who Wouldn't Die - Colin Cotterill)
Netherlands (The Wheel on the School - Meindert DeJong)
New Zealand (Colour Scheme - Ngaio Marsh)
Nigeria (Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)
Norway (Nemesis - Jo Nesbo)
Pakistan (Homeland Elegies - Ayad Akhtar)
Poland (Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Olga Tokarczuk)
Scotland (Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart)
Spain (The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
Thailand (Cockroaches - Jo Nesbo)

2022
1. Cyprus (The Island of Missing Trees)
2. South Africa (Life and Times of Michael K)
3. Turkey (My Name is Red, Dare to Disappoint)
4. Finland (The Year of the Hare)
5. Israel/Palestine (Mornings in Jenin, A Tale of Love and Darkness)
6. Jamaica (Redemption Ground)
7. Lebanon (Little Mountain)
8. Iran (My Part of Her)

50 States List
Alabama (Transcendent Kingdom, Train Whistle Guitar)
Alaska (Julie of the Wolves)
Arizona (Lost Children Archive, The Water Knife)
Arkansas
California (Devil in a Blue Dress)
2022Colorado (The Song of the Lark)
Connecticut
Delaware
DC (Henry and Clara, State of Terror)
Florida (The Nickel Boys)
Georgia (Home, The March)
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois (The Great Believers) (2022 A Year Down Yonder)
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
2022 Kentucky (Beloved)
Louisiana (The Vanishing Half)
2022 Maine (Olive Kitteridge)
Maryland (Kindred)
Massachusetts (The House of the Seven Gables)
Michigan (Song of Solomon)
2022 Minnesota (The Sentence)
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
2022 Nebraska (The Lincoln Highway)
Nevada (The Water Knife)
New Hampshire
New Jersey (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao)
New Mexico (House Made of Dawn)
New York (Jazz, Red at the Bone, The Godfather)
North Carolina (The March)
North Dakota (The Night Watchman) (Tracks 2022)
Ohio (The Bluest Eye, Sula, Beloved)
Oklahoma (Paradise)
Oregon (Henry Huggins)
Pennsylvania - (Seven Guitars, Fences, Jitney, Two Trains Running, King Hedley II, Such a Fun Age) (2022 Fun Home, The Stone Face)
Rhode Island
South Carolina - The March
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas (No Country for Old Men; Bluebird, Bluebird)
Utah
Vermont (Radio Free Vermont)
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

Other Lists

NYRB classics backlog:
These arrive on my doorstep every month and I really really mean to read them right away but as you can see my track record is terrible. This is last year's collection--more will keep coming. I'd like to read at least one a month to keep up.

The Hearing Trumpet - Leonora Carrington
Germs: A Memoir of Childhood - Richard Wollheim
Little Snow Landscape - Robert Walser
Other Worlds:Peasants, Pilgrims, Spirits, Saints - Teffi
✔Good Behaviour - Molly Keane
The Dead Girls' Class Trip - Anna Seghers
✔The Stone Face - William Gardner Smith
Storm - George R. Stewart
Kapo - Aleksandar Tišma
The Open Road - Jean Giono
✔Generations - Lucille Clifton
✔Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont - Elizabeth Taylor

Additional:
✔Reveille in Washington - Margaret Leech

NYT Top Ten Books Every year my husband gifts these to me for Christmas. Every year I aim to read them all before next Christmas.

The Love Songs of W. E. B. Dubois - Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
✔Intimacies - Katie Kitamura
✔When We Cease to Understand the World - Benjamin Labatut
How Beautiful We Were - Imbolo Mbue
Red Comet - Heather Clark
The Copenhagen Trilogy - Tove Ditlevson
Invisible Child - Andrea Elliott
✔On Juneteenth - Annette Gordon-Reed

But then there are the ones I got last Christmas:

✔A Children's Bible - Lydia Millet
✔Deacon King Kong - James MacBride
✔Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell
✔Homeland Elegies - Ayad Akhtar
✔The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett
✔Hidden Valley Road - Robert Kolker
✔A Promised Land - Barack Obama
Shakespeare in a Divided America - James Shapiro
Uncanny Valley - Anna Wiener
✔War: How Conflict Shaped Us - Margaret MacMillan

Asian Books Challenge
JANUARY - Europe of Asia - Turkish Authors

1. The Island of Missing Trees - Elif Shafak
2. My Name Is Red - Orhan Pamuk
3. Dare to Disappoint - Özge Samancı

FEBRUARY - The Holy Land - Israeli & Palestinian Authors

1. Mornings in Jenin - Susan Abulhawa
2. A Tale of Love and Darkness - Amos Oz

MARCH - The Arab World - Writers from the Arab world

1. Little Mountain - Elias Khoury
2. Celestial Bodies - Jokha Alharthi

APRIL - Persia - Iranian writers

1. My Part of Her - Java Djavahery
2. Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi

MAY - The Stans - There are 7 states all in the same region all ending in "Stan"

1. In the City by the Sea - Khamila Shamsie (Pakistan)
2. Moth Smoke - Mohsin Hamid (Pakistan)

JUNE - The Indian Sub-Continent - Essentially authors from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh

1. A Passage North - Anuk Arudpragasam (Sri Lanka)
2. The Gurkha's Daughter - Prajwal Parajuly (India)

JULY - The Asian Superpower - Chinese Authors

1. Sour Sweet - Timothy Mo
2. I Am China - Xiaolu Gao

AUGUST - Nippon - Japanese Authors

1. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea - Yukio Mishima
2. The Nakano Thrift Shop - Hiromi Kawakami
3. An Artist of the Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro

SEPTEMBER - Kimchi - Korean Authors

1. The Vegetarian - Han Kang

OCTOBER - INDO CHINE - Authors from Indo-China

1. The Mountains Sing - Nguyen Phan Que Mai
2. The Sympathizer - Viet Thanh Nguyen

NOVEMBER - The Malay Archipelago - Malaysian, Singaporean and Indonesian Authors
DECEMBER - The Asian Diaspora - Ethnic Asian writers from elsewhere

Nonfiction Challenge
January - Prizewinners and Nominees

1. Empire of Pain - Patrick Radden Keefe

February – *Welcome to the Anthropocene

1. Under a White Sky - Elizabeth Kolbert
2. The Water Will Come - Jeff Goodell

March – *Espionage (and Counter-Espionage)

1. A Woman of No Importance - Sonia Purnell
2. Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy - Karen Abbott

April – Armchair Traveling (in time or space)

1. The Songlines - Bruce Chatwin

May – *From Wars to Peace

1. Fascism: A Warning - Madeleine K. Albright
2. War: How Conflict Shaped Us - Margaret MacMillan

June – Science & Medicine

1. The Emergency: A Year of Healing and Heartbreak in a Chicago Hospital - Thomas Fisher
2. Being Mortal - Atul Gawande

August– *Cross-Genres

1. Destiny of the Republic - Candice Millard
2. Why Read Moby-Dick? - Nathaniel Philbrick

July – Books By Journalists
September – Biography
October – *From the 'Middle Ages' to the Renaissance.
November – Books About Books
December – As You Like It

American Author Challenge
JANUARY Graphic novels, comics and/or non-fiction

1. Fun Home - Alison Bechdel
2. Dare to Disappoint - Özge Samancı

FEBRUARY Tess Gallagher

1. Is, Is Not: Poems - Tess Gallagher

MARCH Bernard Malamud

1. The Fixer

APRIL Jennifer Finney Boylan

1. She's Not There

MAY 19th Century American Author of your choice

1. Bartleby the Scrivener - Herman Melville
2. Civil Disobedience - Henry David Thoreau

JUNE John Dos Passos
JULY Gish Jen

1. Typical American

AUGUST Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
SEPTEMBER Pulitzer Prize Winners

1. Humboldt's Gift - Saul Bellow
2. Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
3. The Sympathizer - Viet Thanh Nguyen

OCTOBER John McPhee

1. Coming Into the Country

NOVEMBER Native American authors, themes and history
DECEMBER Martha Gellhorn

British Author Challenge
January: Children's Classics

1. Five Children and It - E. Nesbit
2. When We Were Very Young - A. A. Milne
3. Now We Are Six - A. A. Milne

February: Mary Renault & Timothy Mo

1. Sour Sweet - Timothy Mo

March: The Interwar Period (11 November 1918-1 September 1939)

1. Clouds of Witness - Dorothy Sayers

April: Kamila Shamsie & Clive Barker

1. In the City by the Sea - Kamila Shamsie

May: Comic Books/Graphic Novels & Audiobooks

1. The Sandman - Neil Gaiman

June: Jackie Kay & E. F. Benson

1. Miss Mapp - E. F. Benson

July: The Georgian Era (1714-1837)

1. Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
2. Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott
3. Evelina - Frances Burney
4. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

August: Espionage
September: Retellings, Continuations, and Non-Series Prequels & Sequels
October: Aminatta Forna & Lawrence Durrell
November: Arthurian Legend
December: Books about books

Wildcard I: Read the movies
Wildcard II: Rereads

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Books Acquired 2022

January
21 Lessons for the 21st Century - Yuval Noah Harari (audio/Kindle)
✔The Song of the Lark - Willa Cather (audio/Kindle)
✔The Chalk Pit - Elly Griffiths (audio)
A Good Provider is One Who Leaves - Jason DeParle (audio)
The Theater of War - Bryan Doerries (audio)
Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott (audio)
Last Bus to Wisdom - Ivan Doig (audio)
Tudors - Peter Ackroyd (audio)
What is Real? - Adam Becker (audio)
The Lost Gutenberg - Margaret Leslie Davis (audio)
The Early Cases of Hercule Poirot - Agatha Christie (audio)
Galileo's Middle Finger - Alice Dreger (audio)
House of Names - Colm Toibin (audio)
✔Mindful Drinking - Rosamund Dean (Kindle)
Street Data - Shane Safir (Kindle)
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie (Kindle)
✔The Road to Lichfield - Penelope Lively (Kindle)

February
Ake: The Years of Childhood - Wole Soyinka (LFL)
Manhattan Beach - Jennifer Egan (LFL)
Last Ditch - Ngaio Marsh (LFL)
✔The Lincoln Highway - Amor Towles (audio)
The Morning Star - Karl Ove Knausgård (audio)
Sankofa - Chibundu Onuzo (audio)
✔Black Birds in the Sky - Brandy Colbert (audio)
Read Until You Understand - Farah Jasmine Griffin (audio)
✔Come Fly the World - Julia Cooke (audio and Kindle)
Skygods - Robert Gandt (Kindle)
The Beginning of Spring - Penelope Fitzgerald (Kindle)
Across That Bridge - John Lewis (Kindle)
✔A Tale of Love and Darkness - Amos Oz
Our Country Friends - Gary Shteyngart (Kindle)
Out of Place - Edward Said (Kindle)
I Saw Ramallah - Mourid Barghouti (Kindle)
The Keepers of the House - Shirley Ann Grau (Kindle)

March
✔Treasures of Time - Penelope Lively
The Enchantress of Florence - Salman Rushdie (LFL)
If Morning Ever Comes, The Tin Can Tree, A Slipping Down Life - Anne Tyler
The Sympathizer - Viet Thanh Nguyen (audio)
The Mountains Sing - Nguyen Phan Que Mai (audio)
✔A Passage North - Anuk Arudpragasam (audio)
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich - William Shirer (audio)
✔Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy - Karen Abbott (audio)
The Fellowship of the Ring - J. R. R. Tolkien (audio)
Assembly - Natasha Brown (audio)
✔Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead (audio)
✔Black Skies - Arnuldur Indridason (audio)
✔The Sentence - Louise Erdrich (audio)
Our Man in Charleston - Christopher Dickey (Kindle)
The Moving Finger - Agatha Christie (Kindle)
Nature's Best Hope - Douglas Tallamy (Kindle)
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club - Dorothy Sayers (Kindle)
Driftless - David Rhodes (Kindle)

April
✔Fascism: A Warning - Madeleine Albright
✔The Final Revival of Opal and Nev
On Tyranny Graphic Edition - Yimothy Snyder
Do Better - Rachel Ricketts
Flights - Olga Tokarczuk
Popisho - Leone Ross
Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason
✔The Book of Form and Emptiness - Ruth Ozeki
Build Your House Around My Body - Violet Kupersmith
South to America - Imani Perry
✔In the City by the Sea - Kamila Shamsie (used)
Passenger to Teheran - Vita Sackville-West (used)
✔The Dark Angel - Elly Griffiths (audio)
The Big Four - Agatha Christie (Kindle)
They Do It With Mirrors - Agatha Christie (Kindle)
Little Scarlet - Walter Moseley (Kindle)
Cinnamon Kiss - Walter Moseley (Kindle)
Poirot Investigates - Agatha Christie (Kindle)
The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Kindle)
The Unexpected Guest - Agatha Christie (Kindle)

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Anne!

Cherry blossoms both banks of the waterways - that is quite the sight.

HAppy new one!

Cherry blossoms are a while away from blooming here. Have a great weekend

Happy new thread, Anne!

Happy new one, Anne.

There is a park a few miles from us that boasts of having more cherry blossoms than Washington - sadly, we have never gone to see them. They are at their peak right now, so we might take a little drive later today or tomorrow. Such gorgeous trees.

Congratulations on your second thread, Anne. You mentioned an 'alarming' number of library books. Aren't libraries wonderful? I really have to watch myself or I can get overwhelmed with those free books. The "freeze" button on holds is my friend. ;-)
Continue with your Happy Reading. Your numbers are impressive.

Happy new thread, Anne. I currently have 14 library books in a stack next to my desk. That doesn't bode well for my goal of reading more books from my shelves.

Love the cherry blossoms.

Happy new thread, Anne!

One of these days I want to get to DC during cherry blossom season. Lovely photo!

My library is moving across the street to a newer, bigger location this summer. They are going to be closed for a few months to pack it all up and move the books. I requested a pile since they are not due until July. Don’t worry! Our provincial library system is all connected so I can still request books from other buildings and pick them up at the next closest library. Just the books physically at the biggest will be unavailable. But I may have panic requested more books than were necessary before I realized there were still lots of books.

I’ve got The Final Revival of Opal & Nev and Sorrow and Bliss on my phone to listen to soon.

Happy new one! We didn't get to the cherry blossoms this year either - family emergency killed that plan. But they are beautiful!

I ran out of time when I was setting up this thread and I haven't had a chance to come back.

>16 quondame: Thanks, Susan for being the first to find my new thread.

>17 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul. Cherry blossoms encircling the Tidal Basin is one of the sights Washington is known for. Unfortunately I didn't make the trek down there to see them directly, but I did get a look at them from a train window on my way to Richmond a few weekends ago. As my friend remarked, "this is probably the closest we're going to get to those blossoms this year."

>18 figsfromthistle: Thanks Anita. We were up in Burlington, Vermont last week and it was amazing how little it seemed like spring. The temperature was alright but the trees were barely budding. How far north or south you are really makes a difference!

>19 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita!

>20 katiekrug: Thanks Katie. It's sometimes hard to go see something that is nearby, isn't it? I'm kind of like that with most DC things. Right before the pandemic my husband and I made a plan to spend our weekends as if we were tourists. Clearly that did not happen. Maybe next year.

>21 Donna828: I love my library Donna! I had gotten out of the habit of using it for a couple of years--I was just buying whatever book I wanted, or reading off my shelves, but I'm back to the library again. I can place holds on any book in the system and pick it up right down the street. They will automatically renew my books up to 10 times if there aren't any holds on them. I wasn't aware of the freeze hold option, but I can see how that would be very helpful. Too bad I didn't know about it before all these books came in.

>22 BLBera: Thanks Beth. I think I had 16 checked out when I last counted. There is a limit of 50 (I had to look it up--I was worried I might get cut off.) Plus there is 1 that I seem to have accidentally borrowed without checking out. I got a notice that it was the last day to pick up a hold book (The Aspern Papers), and when I went to get it it wasn't there. When I talked to the desk about it, they were genuinely puzzled--they said they don't clear the books off until the library closes, and they had no record of the book being either checked out or returned to the home library. However, I found it at home, with the hold notification still in it. I must have just walked off with it. Since I also pick up COVID tests at the library, I think I just got confused. Now I won't get any overdue notices because no one knows I have it. I suppose I should take it back and check it out the normal way, but I think I'd rather just return it anonymously.

>23 bell7: Hi Mary. Cherry blossom season is spectacular but also crowded. Still a lovely time to be here.

>24 raidergirl3: lol I may have panic requested more books than were necessary I can totally see that. At least you can keep them until July. I'm planning to read The Final Revival of Opal & Nev soon and Sorrow and Bliss maybe next month.

>25 drneutron: Thanks, Jim. Family emergency is a good reason, but there are plenty of reasons in my experience. I hope everything is okay!

>25 drneutron: Nothing life-threatening. My nephew-in-law with some learning challenges and epilepsy re-broke his leg and mrsdrneutron went to help take care of him while he healed enough to be more mobile. He lives with his mother, a single mom who works evening shift, so having someone else there while she was working became critical. He's getting home health care set up now.

>27 drneutron: It's good you were able to help. These situations can be so stressful when there's no one to turn to. Those cherry blossoms will bloom again.

The Women's Prize Shortlist is out.

The Book of Form and Emptiness - Ruth Ozeki
The Bread the Devil Knead - Lisa Allen-Agostini
Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead
The Island of Missing Trees - Elif Shafak
The Sentence - Louise Erdrich
Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason

I've read 2 and 1/2 of these (I'm in the middle of The Sentence) and found them worthy contenders. Personally I would have put Creatures of Passage ahead of The Island of Missing Trees, although I did like Missing Trees a lot. I have all of these in my possession currently so might even make my way through the whole list.

The only one I haven't read is The Bread the Devil Knead. I just finished Sorrow and Bliss, and it is my least favorite of the ones I've read so far, so of course I was pretty sure it would end up on the short list.

>30 BLBera: My least favorite so far has been The Paper Palace, which did not make it onto the shortlist. I'm in the middle of listening to The Sentence and reading The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, and am so far loving both. I now have all the others--The Bread the Devil Knead is a library book, so I will probably read that next.

I would have put Creatures of Passage ahead of both Sorrow and Bliss and Great Circle; that one stuck with me.

I have some other library books to read now, so it might be a couple of weeks before I get back to the books on the list. Build Your House Around My Body sounds good to me as well. I do have a library copy so that will probably be the next one I read.

I have seen a fair amount of positivity for plenty of books from that excellent longlist of women's prize fiction this year. There were some rather surprising omissions in particular The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois but that is one of the joys of such awards that it will take you by surprise.

Speaking of which would anyone have picked The Netanyahus to win the Pulitzer yesterday?

Dropping by to keep one of my favourite threads ticking over.

While I am at it congratulations on passing 75 books already!

Congratulations on reaching 75 in April, Anne. I loved The songlines.

Ooof--I'm back to pay a visit to my own thread and do some updates.
Unfortunately, my Mother's Day gift this year was COVID!

My son came by early last week and stayed for dinner. In the middle of dinner he seemed unwell. I broke out my hoard of home rapid tests and sure enough, he was positive. His girlfriend started to feel sick the following day, but took a while for a test to confirm it. (Also, she's a contract nurse and she gets fired if she contracts COVID. Can you believe that's even legal?)
By Friday my husband was down too. I'd been having allergy symptoms for weeks but consistently testing negative and feeling basically okay, until I developed a fever on Saturday. Sunday I finally got a positive test result. At least that meant an end to trying to isolate from one another within the house.

Meanwhile 4 other people on my son's team tested positive for COVID on the same day he did, and 90% of the non-contract staff at his girlfriend's workplace are out sick with COVID.

Since all of us took home rapid tests and didn't report results to the city (it's not very clear how to do this and whether you're expected to), I have a suspicion that the public data is dramatically undercounting the level of COVID infection in the current wave.

Anyway, I'm feeling much better and ready to report on some reading.

>32 BLBera: I think you've influenced me to read The Book of Form and Emptiness ahead of Sorrow and Bliss, although I might not get to either one before they pick the winner. I did read The Bread the Devil Knead before it was due back to the library. It was a very tough read--I'm still deciding what I think about it. My favorite from the short list (so far) is The Sentence.

>33 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul. The longlist was fascinating because I had heard of hardly any of them, and you're right there were some surprising omissions. I've really enjoyed digging into the list, though. Some of the longlisted books I liked more than some of the shortlisted ones, not that I've read more than a handful.

Thanks for noting my 75 books and for reminding me that the Pulitzer winners were announced. I'd heard of The Netanyahus, unlike most of the Women's Prize nominees, but I never spend much time trying to speculate about that award.

>35 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita! I read The Songlines for the non-fiction challenge, Armchair Travelling, but it was so much more than a travel book.

Sorry about your COVID, Anne. A lot of people are getting it these days. I know five people here who have it (luckily vaccinated with mild symptoms). That's why I'm opting out of going to graduation today, which is being help in person for the first time in two years, which I think is foolish, but oh well.

I'd be interested in your take on Sorrow and Bliss. The Sentence is one of my favorites as well. The only one on the shortlist I haven't read is The Bread the Devil Knead. I'll try to get to it soonish.

I am still hoping to get to Summer this month. Interested?

I'm so sorry you and your family got infected, Anne!

Unfortunately I am very familiar with helping friends in DC report their positive test results to the city. If you're not using the DC CAN exposure notification app, you can report online at coronavirus.dc.gov/overthecounter

Contract work really sucks, I'm sorry your son's girlfriend has to deal with that! I'm a contractor too but thankfully the nature of my work means I can work from home, otherwise I would definitely get fired "removed from the contract" if I needed to take a lot of time off due to contracting COVID,

Glad you're recovering!

I’m glad you’re recovering. Anne, but it sure does suck. Sorry you’re having to deal with it all.

Sorry to hear about the covid infection. Hopefully it's mild and will pass quickly!

>37 AnneDC: I really liked Sorrow and Bliss. I am oh so slowly going through The Bread the Devil Knead and finding the language difficult. I picked it up as an ebook on kindle so I am not feeling the library stress of getting through it, which isn't helping, lol.
I have The Island of Missing Trees as my next audio book and then I think I've got through all the short-list. That's unusual for me.
Stupid Covid. I've still escaped it even with two of my kids having it. We locked them right up in their rooms and brought food, and managed to escape it so far. And I teach at a high school. I'm beginning to think I am immune. *knocks wood*

I do hope that the family recover quickly, Anne.

It seems outrageous that someone could lose their job for falling sick, that is surely not right?

>37 AnneDC: The Pulitzer Board are spoilsports and take away the anticipatory joy of the selection in their award process. What is the point of telling us what was shortlisted at the same time as they make the announcement of the winner. The longlist and shortlist announcements for the various major awards do splendid service to the industry by boosting sales for the lucky few and nowadays for a slightly larger number given the speculation and discussions on who might make it.

>38 BLBera: Thanks Beth. It was a pretty mild case I think and at this point I'm mainly suffering from a lot of congestion.
I'd really love to get to Sorrow and Bliss this month but we'll see. I think I'd rather read Summer--when are you thinking of starting?

>39 norabelle414: Thanks Nora. I think I figured out how to report my positive result using the exposure app. I expect most people who are taking at-home tests are not reporting the results, though, so I don't know that I believe our statistics are very accurate.

>40 lauralkeet: Thanks, Laura. I'm glad it was pretty mild. I wish this meant I am now immune but that doesn't seem to be the case.

>41 figsfromthistle: Thank you Anita! I'm definitely feeling much better this weekend than last.

>42 raidergirl3: I definitely know what you mean about the language in The Bread the Devil Knead. It took me a while to get into a flow with it, but I eventually did. The Island of Missing Trees is a good one. I am two away from finishing the short list and I don't think I can do it before the winner is announced. Well, maybe I can finish one in early June.

>43 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul. Yes, everybody's on the mend, mild cases all around.
Apparently contract employees have very few rights--her contract says she can't be sick or the contract is terminated. I don't know whether it's specific to COVID or any kind of sickness. She recently left a staff job at a hospital to take this much more lucrative role as a travel nurse. In her staff role she had reached her maximum promotion level, and the contract role pays her in a week what she was earning in a month, plus no shift work or weekends.
Contract or no contract, it seems like a very bad idea to create incentives for people to lie about an infectious disease. Apparently 90% of the non-COVID staff are out sick with COVID. Gee, I wonder why?
Also health care finances are obviously totally out of whack. Apparently hospitals are hemorraging nurses because they can get paid so much more as contractors (or because they're just done with nursing)--then the hospitals have to replace them with contract staff for way more money, but for some reason aren't able to increase salaries to keep existing staff.

Yes, I don't really see the point of announcing the Pulitzer finalist lists at the same time as the winners. I like a little build-up, and I have been known to go out any buy some books off a longlist.

I'm glad you had a mild case, Anne. I'm thinking of starting Summer in about 10 days, more or less...

Anne, I'm sorry about the Covid outbreak in your family. I was the only one to suffer in my household of two people. I'm glad I came down with it the day before Mother's Day or I would have been loving on granddaughters Haley and Molly and we all would have been sick! My husband must have good immunity because he didn't catch it from me this time nor when I had it in January. We've both been vaccinated the initial two times and had one booster.

I am currently reading Great Circle from the Women's Prize Shortlist. I didn't see it mentioned up there in the conversation. I also have The Island of Missing Trees checked out from the library. They will have to be pretty good to beat out The Book of Form and Emptiness in my opinion. I also have read The Sentence which I liked but not as well as some other Erdrich books. I'm sure the prize will be announced before I can get hold of the other contenders.

I just started it this morning, Anne.

My reading has been slowed a bit by watching tennis, but I have about 100 pages left. Interesting parallels in brothers and sisters and internment camps.

<48 My reading has been slowed down by work, but lucky for you that is not your excuse. I notice that Rilke-Mansfield book makes another appearance. I am about halfway through.

Great Circle, though I'm not sure it needed to be quite as long as it was. I kept having to remind myself that Marian Graves isn't a real person--it had the feel of a fictionalized biography. I'm reading The Book of Form and Emptiness now. So far The Sentence is my favorite, but I know you didn't like it as much. I loved the recentness of it, and the presence of the real life bookstore and appearance of the author as a character. And the book lists!

I loved The Sentence; that is my favorite although I would be happy if The Island of Missing Trees or THe Book of Form and Emptiness win as well. I didn't love Great Circle as much as some did because the present day timeline didn't work for me, and I thought the beginning was slow. I also had some issues with the fact that the brother disappeared for half the book...

I notice the reference as well -- and there are some other great connections. I have about 80 pages left. I'll probably finish it tomorrow. Then I have to think about it a bit.

>46 Donna828: Oops! The second half of post 49 was supposed to be a response to Donna, so I'll repost. I didn't mean to skip you!
I read, and enjoyed, Great Circle, though I'm not sure it needed to be quite as long as it was. I kept having to remind myself that Marian Graves isn't a real person--it had the feel of a fictionalized biography. I'm reading The Book of Form and Emptiness now. So far The Sentence is my favorite from the Women's Shortlist, but I know you didn't like it as much. I loved the recentness of it, and the presence of the real life bookstore and appearance of the author as a character. And the book lists!

Some neighbors appear to be deaccessioning books and a large number of them ended up at my house! The stack on their porch steps is now quite small, and the stack on my floor is very tall. I don't think my husband has made the connection yet. Here's what I picked up:

Iron Curtain - Anne Applebaum
The World is Flat - Thomas Friedman
The Worst Hard Time
Congo - David von Reybrouck
The Island of the Colorblind - Oliver Sacks
Embracing Defeat - John Dower
The Plot Against America - Philip Roth
Liberty's Exiles - Maya Jasanoff
The House of Morgan - Ron Chernow
The Killer Angels - Jeff Shaara
Far From the Tree - Andrew Solomon
The Birth of the West - Paul Collins

Some were on my wish list, some just looked interesting. Mostly nonfiction. I'm happy to give them a good home.

Nice haul, Anne. How's Summer going? After reading it, I ordered London Diaries and will try to get to that soonish.

>53 BLBera: Hi Beth--I finished it last weekend, but got too busy with work and some family drama to even compile my thoughts. I realized, while reading the final section, that I was going to be sad to have the quartet come to an end. And I was.

I'm hoping to comment on some of my recent and not so recent reads today.

Good idea on London Diaries--I'm inspired to read A Winter's Tale, which I've never read, and The Gap of Time.

I loved The Gap of Time. IMO The Winter's Tale is not one of the better plays, but still. If you like, I'll send London Diaries your way when I'm done with it.

>52 AnneDC: I don't think my husband has made the connection yet
Ha! That made me laugh. Looks like a nice book haul, too.

What an impressive reading list (or at least acquiring list). I haven't paid much attention to the prize lists, and haven't read many newish books. Must change that.

Pleased to see you are mostly up to date with your reading records, Anne, but I am missing your posts here!

Hope life is not too frantic at the moment and that it will allow a lovely weekend.

Some jolly good books read since your last update, Anne.
Hope that all is well. xx

>58 PaulCranswick: and >59 PaulCranswick: Hello Paul! Such a faithful friend. I don't know why it's been so difficult for me to post on my thread. In truth, I've not had much time for LT and it seems to be the most I can do to keep my book list up to date, and occasionally drop into some of the challenge threads to say what I'm reading. I'm ever hopeful that the pace of life will slow down a little.

>60 AnneDC: I am always relieved to at least see that your book stats are updated then I know that you are ok. A post from you is a very welcome bonus! xx

Congratulations on reaching 2 x 75, Anne!

Thank you as always for books, thank you for this group and thanks for you. Have a lovely day, Anne.

Happy Christmas from my Christmas gnome!

Merry Christmas, Anne!

Malaysia's branch of the 75er's wishes you and yours a happy holiday season, Anne.