Laurel’s Comments (group member since Dec 30, 2013)

Laurel’s comments from the All About Books group.

Mid-October update: As predicted, I have not been successful at getting any reading done this month. I am off now for the rest of the month, and the movers are scheduled for Oct. 24 (packing) and Oct. 25 (moving). The weather has turned cold, but I got a few more plants dug up after work this afternoon. Hopefully, it won't be too cold to get them planted at the new house tomorrow. Then I'll have 8 days or so to get as much stuff taken over as I can. Mostly, the packers will have books left to pack, and things like the TV, and then the heavy furniture and outdoor stuff.

So I do have an audiobook in progress. After finishing the Grapes of Wrath, I tried to find an audiobook of various things on my list - and they all have waiting lists on Libby. My next book club book may be 17 weeks. I may have to purchase it on Audible. In the meantime, I purchased and am listening to
READ The Ink Black Heart
I'll be doing lots of driving between houses in the next week, but at the moment I still have 18 hours to go, so it may be the only book that gets finished by November. I am promising myself lots of leisure time for reading this winter, and if nothing gets unpacked and put away until spring - so be it!

I watched the movie of The Grapes of Wrath tonight, starring Henry Fonda. It's a black and white film which adds to the old-fashioned feel of the movie. Indeed, it was made just a year after the book was published. The acting and cinematography is wonderful. But I have to say, the tone of the movie, while not exactly upbeat, is much less pessimistic and hard-hitting as the book. Compressed into two hours, much of the book is left out, but the omission of the ending is particularly striking. And it put the peach orchard before the government camp, which gives the impression that things are improving by the end of film, with the family setting off with the promise of new work ahead. The book is far more bleak and hard-hitting, nevertheless, the movie does a decent job of depicting the times without too much sugar-coating.

#34 The Grapes of Wrath
5 purple stars

This book is a classic for a reason. Beautiful prose, with vividly-drawn characters, it tells a memorable tale of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl migration. Depressing and tragic, but in its focus on the strength and resilience of family it is also heart-warming. The realities of immigration, poverty, justice and equality are just as relevant now as in the 1930s. "Ma" is the glue that holds this family together, so it is also a tribute to the role that women have played (albeit downplayed) throughout history. I would definitely read more by John Steinbeck. I wish there was a sequel so that we could find out what happens to this family (and their descendants) into the future.

Description: First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize–winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads, driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into haves and have-nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes the very nature of equality and justice in America.

Cumulative pages: 10,165

I never did post September plans, but here's an update and my October plans!

I closed on my house on Friday! Probably I shouldn't be making any new plans because I'll be cleaning, and packing, and digging up plants, and moving... On the other hand, I'm planning to take my time moving over the next month. Plus I have kittens.... I'll take whatever down time I can get, so I have mapped out the rest of the year and we'll see if I can stick with it.

Hoping to still finish in September:
The Evening Chorus

Mapped out to finish by the end of October:
The Summer Queen - One chapter per day
Queen By Right - 6 pages a day
I know those two are very similar, so I hope it won't get confusing, but I want them finished!

Next up on audio:
READ The Grapes of Wrath - it's for next week's book club - I'm way behind!
For October's book club:
The Thursday Murder Club

Moby-Dick or, the Whale and
Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer
are mapped out to finish gradually by the end of Dec. Also
...And Ladies of the Club

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and
Wolf Hall
I am saving until Nov/Dec.

After The Evening Chorus, I may read
READ A Brush with Death to finish my leftover Feb. cover challenge (pink)
I'm also behind on A Good Yarn. Those reads to be spread out over Oct. and Nov. are
The Wild Inside (a G location - Glacier National Park)
Knit One, Kill Two (an F location, but it would also fit the Nov. cover challenge (gold))
READ The Forest of Vanishing Stars - not really needed but it fits both F and G locations, and my star theme...
The Apothecary Rose - my alphabet challenge - an A title - and another gold cover...
At least one of those will get pushed to December.

I'd also like to get to my Odyssey theme in December and read
The World of Odysseus - bonus - it is short!
Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper (about a cat...)

Okay. Wish me luck. Now, I'd better get off this computer and go read my alloted pages!

#33 Every Living Thing
4.5 blue stars

It's always a pleasure to listen to these heartwarming stories. This was just what I needed in the midst of closing on my first house. Amusingly, James tells about his own efforts at house hunting here. I also loved the abundance of cat and kitten stories, since I have recently been blessed with a mother cat and four kittens (found in the garage...) And this book also includes stories about the amusing and singular Callum Buchanan.

Description: As an aging James Herriot begins to see more house pets than livestock, the challenge of treating animals—and reassuring their owners—provides plenty of excitement, mystery, and moments of sheer delight. After building up his own practice, the renowned country vet begins to teach a new generation about a business both old-fashioned and very modern. He watches with pride as his own children show a knack for medicine, and remarks on the talents and quirks of a string of assistants. There is no perfecting the craft, since people and their animals are all remarkably different, but Herriot proves that the best healers are also the most compassionate.

Cumulative pages: 9,414

#32 The Tower of Time
4.5 blue stars - I bumped this one up to 4.5 blue stars. Jolly good fun - a newly discovered twin sister, a mystery, a love story, a rescue, pirates, and a talking cat....

Description: Everyone's favorite knight-in-training is back...to back! Max's twin is public enemy number one, and it's up to the Midknights to find her before time runs out! But dangers loom, including bloodthirsty trolls, murderous pirates, and even a ruthless king--or two. Can Max and her band of loyal friends unlock the mystery of her past?

#31 Max and the Midknights: Battle of the Bodkins
4 red stars

Another fun adventure with Max and her friends from knight school. Read Max and the Midknights first. There is a story arc, and you'll want to be in on all of it.

Description: Max didn't expect knight school to be so tough. Luckily, she has her best friends--the Midknights--at her side. But when Byjovia is under attack, the Midknights will have to face beastly creatures, powerful spells, and their greatest foe yet--themselves? Lincoln Peirce, author of the New York Times bestselling Max & the Midknights, brings more laughs, more adventures, and more silliness to Battle of the Bodkins, book two in the Max & the Midknights series.

#30 The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America's Great Migration
4.5 blue stars, rounded up

This has a much more upbeat feel than her book "Caste." Yes, she talks about the prejudice, and the lynchings, and the injustice and heartbreak, but over all, the focus is on how much things changed in the last 100 years. These people sought better lives, and for the most part, they found it. While we know that we still have work to do, sometimes it is good to remind ourselves how much things have changed. As MLK said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” So this book left me feeling hopeful, rather than depressed like "Caste" did. I liked the stories of the three people she followed - it makes it much more personal - but at the same time she is presenting a microcosm that doesn't reflect the deep complexity of experience of being African American. This gets a blue rating from me, rather than purple, because it got very repetitious at times. And it was confusing how she presented parallel stories, rather than a more chronological approach, hopping back and forth in time. But over all, I liked it very much.

Description: From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves. With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties.

Cumulative pages: 8,787

#29 Max and the Midknights
4 red stars - Medieval silliness and just what I needed.

Half comic book, half prose - encouraging reluctant readers to pick up bigger books and transition to chapter books. Kids will pick up a few facts about the Middle Ages, but really this is intended to be more humorous than educational. The author even states that it originated as a spoof of sword and sorcery tales, and later rewrote it to be about Max, an apprentice troubadour who really wants to be a knight. In fact, all of the kids that make up the Midknights, have dreams of being something other than what is their expected lot in life. I loved the way they all support each other in their adventures. There's a fun twist early on in the book, but I won't spoil it. As an adult reading this, it was just what I needed to dip into at the end of a long day - I purposely didn't read it all in one sitting, enjoying one "chapter" at a time.

Description: Max wants to be a knight! Too bad that dream is about as likely as finding a friendly dragon. But when Max's uncle Budrick is kidnapped by the cruel King Gastley, Max has to act...and fast! Joined by a band of brave adventurers--the Midknights--Max sets out on a thrilling quest: to save Uncle Budrick and restore the realm of Byjovia to its former high spirits! Magic and (mis)adventures abound in this hilarious illustrated novel from the New York Times bestselling creator of the Big Nate series, Lincoln Peirce.

#28 Somebody's Daughter
3 green stars
Book clubs: Daytimers

Not what I was expecting. There is very little here about her absent father, and if she told the readers what she learned about why he was in prison, I don't remember. This is a sometimes raw and honest exploration of growing up with a single parent who was abusive, coming of age dealing with feelings of being unloved, coping with body-image issues, being gay, being raped - a childhood of trauma and the influences and relationships (a loving grandmother) that helped her to overcome these things, go to college, and become a published author. The writing is very good, but nothing that will stick with me. I wanted it to be more.

Audiobook read by the author. She has a wonderfully expressive voice. Also includes an interview.

Cumulative pages: 7,891

Well done, Nancy! I should get back to this some time this winter. I did buy a house! It's not final yet, but if all goes well, I should be moving sometime in October.

My mid-August update has not much to do with books! Except that in about two more months my life might be starting to look like something approaching normal! Good news after a year of being in limbo on the housing situation, and the recent round of water issues and collapsed wall, etc. But all of that gave me the push I needed to make a different decision about staying and hoping that a new buyer would keep me as a tenant. So after my trip to Prague and Vienna in June, I began to explore mortgage options with my credit union. Yes, I could get pre-approved but what I could now afford was looking much more limited than a year ago when rates were much lower. And they did not do first-time home-buyer programs. Also, the down payment would be more money than I had. I was very depressed and discouraged. So I went to Welsh Heritage Week in July to cheer myself up. I had not registered, but planned to go for a day or two since it was being held in Madison (5 hours away) AND I happened to be off that week for vacation. Well, they offered me a scholarship to come for the whole week. That did wonders to cheer me up.

So, last week of July and back home, I contacted a realtor friend of my sister who recommended a mortgage person who was very knowledgeable about first-time home-buyer programs. Yes, I qualified, and it would cover the entire down payment of a house, but knowing how slim the options were at my price level I was still quite in a quandary about what to do. I had seen some wonderful houses at around $200,000 but my price range was more like $150,000. At that rate I could buy some very dodgy looking places, or I could expand my search area and be farther away from the Twin Cities which would mean I would have to give up my women's choir, and church, with the way gas prices were going. Or I could look for a much smaller place to rent and put stuff in storage (not really a price savings over buying) or I could continue to be in limbo (Rick had taken the farm off the market in July while he made a lot of repairs) and all of the stress that went along with that.

Then a week ago, a house that I had quite liked the look of online and with a wonderful yard for gardening, though a little farther out than I wanted to be (but doable), dropped $10,000 in price and was only slightly more than I was thinking I could afford. So A) I had to adjust my thinking on how far out was too far, and B) what monthly mortgage payment was I willing to pay. I contacted a realtor and looked at the house. More adjustments in my thinking - but the bedrooms are so small! but it's on a highway! But it also ticked almost all of my want list buttons, so I went and looked at it again. And made an offer. It was accepted. The house inspection is Monday. I'm in shock!

Now today, the landlord says he is 80% sure he has changed his mind about selling the farm. Hahahaha haaa! Too late, dude! He's also been showing it this week. In fact, just this minute an "investor" came through to look at it who told me "Don't worry, if I bought it you could stay." Yeah, but I'm going to have MY OWN PLACE! For the first time in my 67 years! Getting excited and still pinching myself. It will be above ground (well, there's a finished "family room" in the basement), a lovely new deck on the back, a garden shed, practically new doors and windows, not to mention that yard and I can continue to do the gardening of my dreams. So I'm not going back now!

So now I work on downsizing, and packing and digging up plants to take.... And come November, I am going to be reading up a storm in my own house!

August plans:

I have officially marked Here We Go Again: My Life in Television as a DNF. I never read enough of it to rate it at all. I was attracted to it when Betty White died and I started watching Golden Girls which I had never watched before. Loved it, and I loved her in the Mary Tyler Moore Show. But the moment has passed, and I have been struggling to read anything of late except for book club books. Hard to say if I will ever pick it up again. So many books - so little time....

I think I am also postponing a couple of those chunksters for later in the year, and just focus on finishing
Moby-Dick or, the Whale and
Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer for now.

Book clubs:
READ Somebody's Daughter for Daytimers. Just started this on audio. Then I will start
READ The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America's Great Migration for Perspectives, which won't be meeting until mid-September.
The Evening Chorus for A Good Yarn (set in Germany) and it is also a red cover for the August cover challenge.

Leftovers:
The Summer Queen and
Queen By Right
Would really like to finish both of these sooner rather than later.

Checked out from the library just for fun and an EASY 3 books:
READ Max and the Midknights
READ Max and the Midknights: Battle of the Bodkins
READ The Tower of Time

Postponed (for now):
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - although.... a black cover also fits the August cover challenge...
...And Ladies of the Club
Wolf Hall - also a red cover (August is red or black) hmmmmm.... but who says I have to read them within the month!

#27 The Four Winds
5 blue stars

5 blue stars (which is really 4.5 rounded up). I think Kristin Hannah is really beginning to hit her stride here. Strong women characters fighting to find their voice against social injustice, all the emotions of a desperate time in our history, impeccable research (but with the tendency to throw EVERYTHING at her characters, stopping just short of making them into caricatures). Her style is a bit overwrought, but sometimes a good emotional, heart-wrenching journey is just what you need. I really have to disagree with the knee-jerk reaction of some reviewers over "Communist propaganda." The Communist Party and other left-wing "socialist" groups were influential in the 1930s and 40s. These groups formed coalitions that worked hard to promote programs of social justice, leading to strong labor unions, pensions for workers, and unemployment insurance. In the 1940s their efforts were largely aimed at fighting against Fascism. Seems to me we have the same knee-jerk reaction today against the "socialist" policies of far-left groups. And we have the same dangerous lurch today toward authoritarianism and Fascism among the far-right. Maybe we could use a few strong women to stand up and say "No more!"

Description: Texas, 1921. A time of abundance. The Great War is over, the bounty of the land is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when marriage is a woman’s only option, the future seems bleak. Until the night she meets Rafe Martinelli and decides to change the direction of her life. With her reputation in ruin, there is only one respectable choice: marriage to a man she barely knows. By 1934, the world has changed; millions are out of work and drought has devastated the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as crops fail and water dries up and the earth cracks open. Dust storms roll relentlessly across the plains. Everything on the Martinelli farm is dying, including Elsa’s tenuous marriage; each day is a desperate battle against nature and a fight to keep her children alive. In this uncertain and perilous time, Elsa—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or leave it behind and go west, to California, in search of a better life for her family.

Cumulative pages: 7,667

Nidhi wrote: "Laurel, I hope things will turn out to your benefit soon.... During these times I resort to children classics like I did when we were locked down in March 2020 for the first time."

Ha ha, I'm with you there. I've got Max and the Midknights (children's graphic novel) and two sequels checked out from the library. That's about my level of concentration right now!

Nancy wrote: "Laurel, have you any further notes to share with us?"

Sorry, Nancy. I'm still stalled. It's been a horrible summer and I'm not doing much reading at all right now. I do hope to get back into books, but right now I'm trying to sort out getting approved for a mortgage, and maybe buying my first house at age 67. It's a terrible time to be trying to buy, but rents are sky high as well. My landlord just raised my rent $300, and he'll be putting the farm back on the market probably in the next month. I've been through a year of limbo already with him trying to sell, and me holding out to see if the new buyer would keep me as a tenant (it's a separate unit in the basement of the farmhouse). But long story short, the root cellar wall collapsed in a storm in May (the same day I had my 20-year-old cat put down), Then there were a series of water issues - the water tank had a hole, and then when that was replaced I still had water from the AC because the guy who put in a new furnace didn't hook it up correctly. And it takes my landlord a bloody long time getting things fixed.... Sorry for the long explanation. I hope to get back to it by this winter - maybe in my new house? Got to find a realtor now, and see what is out there that I can afford.

Well, I said at the beginning of the year (see post #1 above) that a goal of 60 books was unrealistic. It might have been doable if this hadn't turned into the year of hell - okay there have been a few bright spots - but all of it entirely too much stress, and I don't need my reading goals to be another source of stress. So I have changed my Goodreads 2022 goal back to 48 books. That puts me only one book behind schedule instead of 5.

I have 4 definitely chunky books on the go, and really have not done much reading this summer at all. I just took a one week vacation, which coincided with Welsh Heritage Week held in Madison, WI this year. It was a much needed break seeing old friends, and having lots of fun with Welsh language classes, singing, and folk dance classes, plus activities every evening. Not a vacation for reading! Anyway, if I get those 4 chunksters finished by the end of the year, I still might reach my page count goal.

I finished one book so far for July, and I will finish my Daytimer's book club book. No idea what August will bring, since I am now investigating mortgage approval, figuring out what I can afford re buying a house versus renting, and beginning the search for a new place to live. My rent was just increased $300 per month, and surely I can find better for what it will now cost me.... Wish me luck. I don't want to spend another winter in this basement of a farmhouse. Would like to be out of here by the end of October.

General plans for the rest of the year

Daytimers book for July (almost finished):
READ The Four Winds
Next up for August:
READ Somebody's Daughter

Next Perspectives book club read (Sept.):
READ The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America's Great Migration

Next up for A Good Yarn (Aug/Sep) - G locations:
Perhaps I shall make an effort to read The Odyssey (Greece) - I had planned to try and get to it by Sept. anyway.

Still reading these chunksters (over several months...)
Moby-Dick or, the Whale
Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
...And Ladies of the Club

Other books I need to get back to and finish:
Wolf Hall
Queen By Right

Various challenges:
To finish off my A titles:
The Apothecary Rose (reread)

B titles planned so far (will add more):
The Book of Joby
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek - reread
The Book Woman's Daughter
READ A Brush with Death

Monthly cover challenge:
July (yellow or fuchsia) - The Fall of Atlantis
August (red or black) - TBD

12 + 4 challenge (not already listed):
The World of Odysseus
The Evening Chorus - ooh that could count as a red cover... AND it is set partly in Germany
Homer's Odyssey
READ Every Living Thing

Checked out from the library just for fun and an EASY 3 books:
READ Max and the Midknights
READ Max and the Midknights: Battle of the Bodkins
READ The Tower of Time

And that right there would be 48 books for the year....

#26 The Prague Sonata
4.5 blue stars. This review may contain spoilers.

Having a graduate degree in musicology, and having just been to Prague, I enjoyed this a great deal. I could picture the places mentioned: Wenceslas Square, Old Town Square, the Charles Bridge, etc. I wouldn't call this a thriller, because it moved too slowly, and the "villain" really wasn't necessarily dangerous, just a bit unprincipled and unethical. Sort of a dual time-frame story, it alternates between the lives of the people involved with the manuscript during and after WWII, and Meta's search for it and for the original owner. I enjoyed the music talk, and now I think I need to read a biography of Beethoven. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more of a "family" connection with the manuscript in the end. I kept waiting for some reveal between the names of Beethoven and Bartova, but it never happened. The love interest was pretty low-key, and the sex scenes (thankfully brief) did nothing to add to the story. I really enjoyed Otillia's story more than the contemporary mystery, moving from Prague, to New York City, to finding new love among the immigrant Czech community of rural Nebraska, and of course, finally being reunited with the music manuscript that she had believed to be lost forever.

Description: In the early days of the new millennium, pages of a worn and weathered original sonata manuscript—the gift of a Czech immigrant living out her final days in Queens—come into the hands of Meta Taverner, a young musicologist whose concert piano career was cut short by an injury. To Meta’s eye, it appears to be an authentic eighteenth-century work; to her discerning ear, the music rendered there is commanding, hauntingly beautiful, clearly the undiscovered composition of a master. But there is no indication of who the composer might be. The gift comes with the request that Meta attempt to find the manuscript’s true owner—a Prague friend the old woman has not heard from since they were forced apart by the Second World War—and to make the three-part sonata whole again. Leaving New York behind for the land of Dvorák and Kafka, Meta sets out on an unforgettable search to locate the remaining movements of the sonata and uncover a story that has influenced the course of many lives, even as it becomes clear that she isn’t the only one after the music’s secrets. Magisterially evoking decades of Prague’s tragic and triumphant history, from the First World War through the soaring days of the Velvet Revolution, and moving from postwar London to the heartland of immigrant America, The Prague Sonata is both epic and intimate, evoking the ways in which individual notes of love and sacrifice become part of the celebratory symphony of life.

Cumulative pages: 7,128

July plans:
Here we go into July. I have some hope that life is going to settle down for awhile. Rick is taking the farm off the market, at least until October (so he says). Barring any new crises I might be able to get my reading mojo back. I revamped my May/June schedule on the 4 chunky long-term reads for July and August. I won't relist them here, but those are my priority.

Still reading:
DNF Here We Go Again: My Life in Television which is kind of stalled and kind of boring. I'm not very far on it and it may get abandonned. We'll see.

Current audiobook:
READ The Prague Sonata
When I finish that, it will be time for my Daytimer's book club book for July
READ The Four Winds

A Good Yarn:
July is still reading F locations.
Currently reading
The Summer Queen (France)
Other selections are
READ The Forest of Vanishing Stars (a forest)
Knit One, Kill Two (Fort Connor - based on Fort Collins, Colorado)

July cover challenge (something yellow or fuchsia)
The Fall of Atlantis

To finish up my A titles
The Apothecary Rose (reread)

Still unfinished, and would like to get to this sooner rather than later
Queen By Right

#25 Awayland
3.5 pink stars

I loved, loved, loved the cover of this book so I really wanted to love the stories, too. It was... interesting. I like quirkiness, so 3.5 pink stars, but a few of the stories were just too weird. My favorites were "You Can Find Love Now" and "The Animal Mummies." Looking a little deeper, I'd say these stories are an exploration of death, loss, longing, and loneliness. Wanting love, wanting children, wanting connection.

Description: Acclaimed for the grace, wit, and magic of her novels, Ramona Ausubel introduces us to a geography both fantastic and familiar in eleven new stories, some of them previously published in The New Yorker and The Paris Review. Elegantly structured, these stories span the globe and beyond, from small-town America and sunny Caribbean islands to the Arctic Ocean and the very gates of Heaven itself. And though some of the stories are steeped in mythology, they remain grounded in universal experiences: loss of identity, leaving home, parenthood, joy, and longing. Crisscrossing the pages of Awayland are travelers and expats, shadows and ghosts. A girl watches as her homesick mother slowly dissolves into literal mist. The mayor of a small Midwestern town offers a strange prize, for stranger reasons, to the parents of any baby born on Lenin's birthday. A chef bound for Mars begins an even more treacherous journey much closer to home. And a lonely heart searches for love online--never mind that he's a Cyclops.

Cumulative pages: 6,609