October AlphaKit - V and N

Welcome to the 2022 AlphaKIT. This is an unofficial challenge for the 2022 Category Challenge Group. Each month has two letters selected for you to use however you choose.

There are no rules. Just have fun and enjoy reading. October letters are V and N.

and

Please remember to update the wiki with your reading: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2022_AlphaKIT#October:_-_Letters:_V_and_...

My choices for this month are :

Let the Devil Sleep by John Verdon
The Snowman by Jo Nesbo

I am thinking of reading Chilling Effects by Valerie Valdes and The Sudden Appearence of Hope by Claire North.

ETA: I have changed my mind about reading The Sudden Appearance of Hope in October and instead my "N" read will be Falling by T. J. Newman.

I am going to be reading The Five by Hallie Rubenhold, so if nothing else comes up I will count it on the grounds that Five = V.

I keep meaning to read Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino. Perhaps this will be the month I finally get round to it.

For AuthorCAT, I'm planning to read Peder Victorious by O. E. Rølvaag translated from the Norwegian by Nora O. Solum and the author, which works here for V. This is a sequel to the author's Giants in the Earth.

For N, I'm planning to read The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore for my book club.

I'll be reading Vortex and Sabriel by Garth Nix.

>4 Robertgreaves: am going to be reading The Five by Hallie Rubenhold, so if nothing else comes up I will count it on the grounds that Five = V.

Oh, I like that!

oh, what to read!

✔Angel's Verdict
✔ Bookcubbed to Death by V. M. Burns
✔Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont
Lost Letter: A Victorian Romance
Murder on Marble Row by Victoria Thompson
One Last Summer by Victoria Connelly
✔Proposal to Die For by Vivian Conroy
✔Vacation to Die For

My 'V' book will be Vamps and the City by Kerrelyn Sparks. I've got two 'N' books planned--The Neighbors: a gripping psychological thriller by Alex Witcher and Beulah by Christi Nogle.

I know I am going to read Vespertine for V as it is a book group pick. Not sure on N yet.

I am planning to read My Name is Victoria by Lucy Worsley, so I will get both letters in the title.

I might read The Sympathizers by Viet Thanh Nguyen for this one.

Starting "Rockets Versus Gravity" by Richard Scarsbrook

Starting Never Let Me Go (by Kazuo Ishiguro) and expect to finish it over the weekend.

I've started Vortex by Robert Charles Wilson

I have completed the excellent November Road by Lou Berney for an "N" read.

I finished Night Waking by Sarah Moss for N

Finished My Name is Victoria for a "CAT trick" of both letters in one title.

I am dipping into the challenge again after a long time!

And I finished Tauben fliegen auf by Melinda Nadj Abonji and realized that it fits perfectly to AlphaKIT.

I finished How the Dead Speak by Val McDermid.

COMPLETED Rockets Versus Gravity by Richard Scarsbrook

Starting Traces by Patricia Wiltshire, the American title of which seems to be "The Nature of Life and Death: Every Body Leaves a Trace".

Finished Oranges are the not the only fruit for another n

I read Allegiant by Veronica Roth

I just finished Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold, which was an utter delight and my favorite book in the Vorkosigan saga.

I read Falling by T.J. Newman for N.

The pilot of a plane with 143 people on board is instructed to crash the plane or his family, already captured, bound, and wearing suicide vests will be killed. The flight attendants saved the day. Naturally, the author is a former flight attendant.

I didn't enjoy this as much as other readers.

>24 christina_reads: I did enjoy that one.

>24 christina_reads: My favorite Vorkosigan book is either Memory or A Civil Campaign, but Captain Vorpatril's Alliance is a delight.

Starting "Sisters of the Vast Black" by Lina Rather

>27 susanna.fraser: Both very strong entries! I'm also quite fond of Brothers in Arms and Mirror Dance. CVA just struck the right chord with me.

COMPLETED Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather

I have a double: Neues von Elmar und seinen Freunden by David McKee. Read in German.

Reading Sophie Valroux's Paris Stars by Samantha Verant

>24 christina_reads: >27 susanna.fraser: My top 4 too! A Civil Campaign is so funny! And Memory -- just wow! I found that the early books about Mark contained a certain brutality that I didn't enjoy in Shards of Honor (which is the only one I have never re-read), but Brothers in Arms and Mirror Dance were still really good.

I forgot to say COMPLETED Traces (aka "the Nature of Life and Death: Everybody Leaves a Trace") by Patricia Wiltshire

Also currently reading The Art of the English Murder (aka "A Very British Murder") by Lucy Worsley

I've finished The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas.

COMPLETED The Art of the English Murder (aka A Very British Murder) by Lucy Worsley

Finished Stardust by Neil Gaiman for another N.

>36 Robertgreaves: I saw that series on TV and thought it very entertaining.

Read Nevertell by Katherine Orton for N.

November thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/345136

I finally found a book that enabled me to get both of this month's letters with Robots Vs. Fairies ed. by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe.

>40 susanna.fraser: Wow, that sounds.... interesting...

>41 majkia: It's an anthology of science fiction and fantasy short stories, half focused on robots, half on fairies, with short essays by the authors on why they chose Team Robot or Team Fairy. I think only one of the stories had actual robot-fairy fighting.

>42 susanna.fraser: Awww.

I ended up reading two totally different books for this months AlphaKit than I had originally planned on. November Road by Lou Berney and The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe were my final choices.

I read Macbeth by Jo Nesbo, for N.

I just finished The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik, a fitting conclusion to the Scholomance trilogy.

I read Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan for another V.

I read Final Notice by Jonathan Valin for the V and the N.

Finished Vamps and the City by Kerrelyn Sparks. There's no question I prefer her recent works to this earlier series, but honestly, she's so good at blending humor into her paranormal romance, it's hard not to just fall into these books and enjoy every bit of the escape.

The Lake House / Marci Nault
3.5 stars

Victoria grew up in a small community in New England where all the families knew each other. She and her friends all thought they’d grow up, get married, and have their kids there (or in nearby Boston, but eventually make their way back again). Victoria’s plans changed, however, and she went to California to become an actress (which she did), and rarely returned. But now, at 70+ years old, she has returned for good. One friend, Molly, is happy to have her home and is welcoming but the others are not impressed.

Heather is a writer of a travel column in one of Boston’s newspapers. Her relationship with her fiancee and agent, Charlie, has soured, however. When Heather decides to leave, she buys a house in Victoria’s old community. But she doesn’t realize she’ll be the only resident under 70 years old! The houses simply passed down the generations of the older people (but the next generations haven’t stayed). And most of these elderly neighbours don’t want someone young living next to them (the noise, the parties!).

I liked this. It didn’t move quickly, but I honestly didn’t really notice that about it until the end. I liked the relationships Heather ended up having with some of her neighbours and how those evolved (as well as the relationship with the grandson of one of the neighbours).

I just read The Flowers of Vashnoi by Lois McMaster Bujold, a Vorkosigan novella featuring Ekaterin.

And one more N book, Not Quite a Lady by Loretta Chase, an enjoyable Regency romance.

Just read An Eligible Bachelor by Veronica Henry, a decent British chick lit novel.

I read The Lifted Veil by George Eliot, a short novella that is rather unusual for George Eliot because it is gothic.

October N & V reads:

V
The Vicar of Bullhampton, Anthony Trollope (1870)
Eminent Victorians, Lytton Strachey (1918)

N & maybe V
Nicholas Nickleby, Charles Dickens (1839) audiobook read by Simon Vance

I will not finish my V by the end of the day tomorrow, but hopefully within the next few days. I had started it earlier, but other library books were due back sooner, so had to get to those first.

Completed in October, just on the cusp, Our Lady of the Assassins by Fernando Vallejo.

Also The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Main.

Finally finished my V!

The Vatican Princess / C.W. Gortner
3.75 stars

This book follows Lucrezia Borgia from when she was 13-years old and her father became Pope until she was about 20-years old after her second husband died. In that time, she was married twice, may have had two children – possible spoiler here: one possibly via incest/rape (though this is speculation), and had to deal with a power-hungry father who was Pope and two power-hungry brothers, one whom she loved and got along well with (Cesare) and one whom she did not get along with (Juan).

History has not been kind to the Borgias, including Lucrezia, although Gortner states that, in his research, he found that - like many women of powerful families of the time (and (my added comment here) for centuries before and after), she really was just a pawn. His research did not show she was cruel and power-hungry like her father and brothers. I found this very interesting, as the little bit I’ve read about the Borgias, I also had the impression she wasn’t any “better” than the others in her family.

Gortner does a really good job of historical fiction from the viewpoint of a woman, though I’m not sure anything will beat “The Last Queen” for me (his first book). In all honesty, through most of this book, I was ready to give it an ever-so-slightly lower rating, but I upped it in the last ¼ of the book or so, after Lucrezia married her second husband, Alfonso, whom she loved (at least according to Gortner in this book).

The afterword goes a bit further into history after where the book leaves off so we know what happened to all the major players in the book, in addition to talking a bit about the author’s research. I also loved that he mentioned, in the acknowledgements his pets and does a bit of animal rescue promotion.

I'm super-late posting, but finally finished reviewing what I officially considered my 'N' book. And since it's a new book by a little-known author, which I adored, I wanted to make sure to come back to post:

Beulah by Christi Nogle

The fascinating thing about Beulah is how Nogle manages to make ghosts unremarkable--and I mean that in the best way possible.

In another author's hands, 18-year-old Georgie's ability to see ghosts would be the centerpiece of everything, the keystone on which the rest of the story hinged. Instead, Georgie's struggle to simply exist, while being part of her family and taking care of her little sister, are the focus, and the ghosts and hauntings which torment her just as much as they keep her going are, in their own way, simply a part of her reality (and thus the reader's). There's no mistaking this for a coming-of-age story or a family drama, however, because the paranormal aspects of the story live in the cracks of each memory, in Georgie's every hesitation, and in every corner of Beulah that means such different things for the various characters in this book.

From the moment I fell into Nogle's novel, I was stolen into her world and her voice. It's hypnotizing, powerful, and the carrier of a reality that feels deeper than the story she's built. It is, simply put, pretty wonderful, and I hope you'll look it up. Just be ready for the darkness of it, and prepared to lose some days to its pull.

Absolutely recommended.