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2016-19 Activities & Challenges
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Trim the TBR—November Planning and Reporting
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November #28The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple by Jeff Guinn - 4 stars
Hardcover 531 pages
Fits the monthly tag American History
On November 18, 1978, 918 people committed mass suicide in a remote cult settlement named Jonestown. Still the largest mass suicide in American history.
But this book begins long before that day. Starting with Jim Jones early life in Indiana, this book chronicles the full arc of Jones' life, the church he founded (Peoples Temple) and ultimately it's sad end.
I learned a lot about Peoples Temple. Building on Jones' desire to see religion take action, his church provided a great deal of real help to real people, openly endorsing socialism at a time when socialism was virtually a dirty word in America. Starting in Indianapolis, he eventually moved his church to Northern California where it truly flourished. He had large congregations in LA and San Francisco, as well as a commune in the rural area north of San Francisco.
Jones was extremely grandiose, eventually claiming to be God. He was also highly paranoid, a flaw that was exacerbated by heavy drug use. His paranoia lead him to feel he and his church were being persecuted by the American government. He felt he and his church needed to leave America and start over somewhere else to create socialist utopia.
After a failed effort in Brazil, he managed to secure a large amount of land in the jungle in Guyana - and moved about 1000 of his followers to build the "Promised Land". Once in Guyana, Jones took complete control of the lives of his followers. He believed there might come a day when they would need to kill themselves to make a grand statement to the world, and they practiced suicide drills.
Over time, family members and former church members became concerned over conditions in Jonestown, leading Congressman Leo Ryan to visit and see conditions for himself. He let the church members know if they wanted to leave, then he would take them back to America with him. A small number of people took him up on his offer.
This was the final straw for Jones who had been spiraling out of control. He ordered the murder of Congressman Ryan, and then the mass suicide of his followers and himself.
I knew the bare outlines of this story, but this book took a deep and sympathetic look into the people who participated in the Peoples Temple as well as Jones deterioration over time.
Trim the TBR - November #28
11/22/63 by Stephen King - 5 Stars
Fits the Tag American History
866 pages
Jake Epping is a 35 year old divorced English teacher, who loves to eat at Al's Fatburgers. On the last day of the school year, he's urgently summoned by Al, who informs him that inside the diner there is a rabbit hole that enables one to be instantly transported to 11:58 a.m. September 9, 1958. Even though he recently ate lunch at Al's, the Al he sees once he arrives has aged seemingly overnight and is now suffering from cancer. It turns out Al is trying to use his rabbit hole to keep John F. Kennedy from being assassinated on 11/22/63 by Lee Harvey Oswald. Al is now too ill to continue his task and wants Jake to take it over. Al wants him to promise that he won't kill Oswald until he finds out that there wasn't a greater conspiracy involving others. If that's the case, then killing Oswald won't really stop the assassination. “Save Kennedy, save his brother. Save Martin Luther King. Stop the race riots. Stop Vietnam, maybe… Get rid of one wretched waif, buddy, and you could save millions of lives.”
Jake takes the challenge and settles down as a teacher in a small Texas town for four years. In between tracking Oswald's movements, he falls in love. He worries about how changing one aspect of history will change what happens in the future, ala The Butterfly Effect. As I read my way toward the finale I wondered if it would be disappointing when I got there. As Jake races through the streets of Dallas on November 22 trying to avert the killing he knows is minutes away, King’s storytelling skills take the reader right into the moment.
King did a fantastic job of putting the reader into the culture of the late 50's and early 60's. At first I wondered how the story would be filled out to cover the almost 900 pages. Leave it to King to infuse every page with suspense, nostalgia and historical insight. I was so captivated it was impossible to stop reading. You have to suspend belief whenever you read a time travel novel but this is one of the best I've ever read. I purchased it shortly after it was published in 2011 but kept putting it off. When the opportunity came to get it on the Trim list for the challenge, part of me hoped I would read it and another part dreaded it. I'm so glad #28 was called. This was an utterly brilliant book and I highly recommend it.
These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 5 stars and a heart384 pages
Fits the Monthly Tag
Loved it! This is right up my alley, I do enjoy a good historical fiction. I started with the print edition but the print was so small I struggled a bit with it. I was able to get the Kindle edition from the library and then I just sailed right through it with the larger, clearer print.
The story starts with the Prine family moving to a new destination in the Western Territories in the late 1800 before there were any states out there. Sarah is a very strong young pioneer woman and she faces many hardships with strength of will and body.
The story is told in diary/journal entries. She is very much self-educated and her writing starts out very choppy with a lot of misspellings but clearly in her own voice. As the entries go on though the 20 years of the journal, her efforts to educate herself are very obvious in the improvement in her journaling, though she rarely uses quotes for the dialogues she includes. Books of letters or journals have never been my favorite form, but this was perfect.
This is an adventure, a sweet love story along with moments of heartbreak and terror. Some of the entries are almost daily and, as time goes on, there are gaps of weeks, months, and once even a gap of 4 years. Each character is unique and well-described. It was a hard life Sarah lived but she will be one of my favorite strong female characters.
Nov #28 - The Hate U Give by Angie Thomashardcover 464 pages
does not fit the monthly tag
I've put off reading this for so long, and even now that its number came up in a challenge I was a bit reluctant to get into it, knowing I was in for some depressing moments. And yes, those moments were there, but it was also not as bad as I was expecting.
The story is told in the voice of 16-year-old Starr, who sees her friend gunned down by a cop after being stopped for DWB - "driving while black". We go through the aftermath of that with Starr, and see all the ways it ripples through the community and families. It's heartbreaking because you know that although this is fiction, this sort of thing happens for real.
But the ending was not your rah-rah uplifting feel-good cliche that I was half afraid it would be. The author keeps it real, and yes, she chose a more upbeat ending than she could have, but it's a YA book, it has to be. And she did it very, very well. I am so very glad I was finally pushed into reading this, even though it was almost as difficult to get through as I expected it to be.
I don't know why, but something holds me back from giving it a full 5 stars, but I'm giving it 4.5, and I can't round down. Highly recommended.
October - #32496 pages
Fits American History
The Alienist by Caleb Carr
3 stars
It's tagged 16 times as American History and although it's Historical Fiction, it does have a lot of real history elements.
The story follows a team of people led by an Alienist, a Dr who studies the mentally ill, a journalist, and several people from a police force. The police force at the time was led by Teddy Roosevelt. They use a new field, profiling, to figure out who and catch a serial killer that is on the loose in Manhattan, killing young boys that are selling themselves in house of ill-repute.
I enjoyed the story but the writing was a struggle for me. It was thick and dense and it felt like it took me forever to read this book. It seemed like the only time that I made any progress on it was when I was on an airplane.
I'm not sure I'll be reading an more Caleb Carr. Or if I do it'll have to be at the right time when I'm planning a trip to India and will be on lots of planes or something.
The Purity of Vengeanceby Jussi Adler-Olsen
3 stars
Trim the TBR #28
500 pages
Department Q # 4. This was a long book for a crime fiction series. It went quite deep into the thoughts and feeling of the characters, the main trio as well as this story's characters. They can be quite dark, as can the whole series. This story revolves around a woman who suffered abuse and neglect through her teen years, turned her life around and after a tragedy sees an opportunity for revenge. One of the main perpetrators is nearing life goals of his own. Their histories and crimes are both part of cold cases Department Q is investigating.
The plot lines of this series are getting more unusual, and perhaps improbable, but are very compelling.
Has the number for December been drawn yet? I may have missed it. Been so busy lately...
MargieD2017 wrote: "Has the number for December been drawn yet? I may have missed it. Been so busy lately..."Yes the number is 2
November - #28
The Mitford Murders - Jessica Fellowes
4 stars
448 pages
Louisa Cannon, 18, hopes for a future other than helping her washerwoman mother and avoiding her unscrupulous uncle's clutches. A chance introduction to an aristocratic young women, Nancy Mitford, leads to a job as nursery maid and chaperone. Guy Sullivan, railway policeman, meets Louisa when she is escaping her uncle and trying to get to her job interview. At the station where they meet a war nurse is discovered with a fatal wound and the investigation of this murder keeps Guy and Louisa and Nancy connected.
Very interesting mystery with the type of characters not usually hero and heroine. And the refreshing thing is that they remain true to their character throughout. Will definitely read more.
November 2019 - #28Title:
Bitter OrangeAuthor: Claire Fuller
Date Read: 11/10/2019
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
The story is set in the jail and starts in the medical ward of the jail. The entire book is narrated from the POV of Frances who had been sentenced with the murders of her friends Cara and Peter. Both Frances and Cara had been ruled by their respective mothers. While Cara escaped her mother by eloping with Peter, Frances gets released only after her mother’s death. Frances, Cara and Peters come into contact in the Lyntons mansion, a dilapidated English country house. Frances and Peter have their assignments from the rich American who bought the property to look into the antique aspects of the inner and outer parts of the property. The entire book revolves around the three characters whose personalities are totally different in addtion to the vicar, Victor. Though the book tends to become dark at times, I could not put it down and continued till the end due to the powerful narration. The end has a surprise twist. The elequent prose brings the graphic picture of the property and almost makes it as a character in the book. Though it makes one’s heart a bit heavy at the end of the book, I enjoyed it and am glad I continued and finished reading it.
Shoot! Bitter Orange is high on my list and I own it! But I am not sure I am compelled by the plot. Yet it’s gets such high reviews. Wait for a tag to call it out I suppose.
Nov TBR #28PP = 224
Does not fit Nov TAG
The Case of the Missing Marquess: Enola Holmes 1 by Nancy SpringerMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
Enola Holmes is the much younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes. When her mother walks out the door, never to return, 14 year old Enola sends to her estranged brothers for help in finding her. She soon discovers that her mother may have left home of her own accord for reasons that are becoming more clear to her. She purposes to discover the truth for herself and to follow the clues her mother left to her disappearance.
This was a strange read. Obviously aimed at the younger teenage reader, I found it an odd mix of gritty historical reality and mythical, fantastical pantomime. The characters were not particularly appealing, the plot badly paced. The beginning of the book up to the halfway mark had the feeling of a completely differently paced and traditionally styled mystery read for a young teen, the second half was fast paced, abrupt and difficult to reconcile to the first. As this was written as the first in a series, I’m assuming the second half will be more typical of the mystery themed story that Enola will be participating in each time-possibly future books will then be better paced, but I’m not sure I care enough for any of the characters to try and read further into the series.
View all my reviews
#28Martinis and Mayhem by Donald Bain 2.5 stars
pages: 287 for paperback It doesn't seem to have been released in hardcover.
Does not fit monthly tag
Jessica Fletcher (yes from the Murder she wrote tv show) is on a book tour in San Francisco. While speaking at a woman's prison she is given a journal by one of the inmates. Jessica decides the woman is innocent of killing her husband and sets out to get her released from jail. The book reads more like a travelogue of San Francisco than a mystery novel. The character also doesn't entirely ring true compared to the television show. I own a few more books in the series which I'll probably read but I doubt I'll read any more after that.
November Trim #28Doesn't Fit Tag
285 pages
I got this book for a buddy read that I never got to, so it's sat on my IRL TBR ever since. I'm really glad that it came up as one of the Trim option although I didn't love it.
I gave it 3 stars because I really, really struggled through the first part of the book. I think it was more the story than the writing. I just kept getting bored and had no issue putting it down or doing something else.
The story follows Nathaniel as he grows up, confused by what is going on in his life. His mom and dad left him with someone he and his sister nicknamed the Moth and he the confusion hits when they find their mother's trunk that she packed in the basement.
As the story moves into Nathaniel's adulthood and clarity is brought to the earlier stories, it gets more interesting and holds my interest a whole lot more.
Overall I enjoyed the story and am glad that I read it. I didn't think it was the best ever and was kind of glad when it ended so I could move on to something else.
Charlotte wrote: "November Trim #28Doesn't Fit Tag
285 pages
I got this book for a buddy read that I never got to, so it's sat on my IRL TBR ever since. I'm really glad that it came up as one of the Trim option al..."
Charlotte whst is title of book?
Porter's Lodge (Sins of the Father Book One) Lt. Brady 3*'s
November Trim #28
Doesn't Fit Monthly Tag
344 pages
This is a mash-up between magic and a murder mystery. The magic is introduced as if it were an every day normal for one to be able to do spells and as a result took a while to catch on to what was happening. It was also confusing with all the characters introduced in this first book of the series, both people alive and dead. Once you get into the story it carries you along with a bit of suspense and wonder but it is not the best of this type that I have read. Not a page turner, in other words. It also doesn't end well but instead is a cliff hanger. I am not a fan of this style since I may not carry on with a particular series so it is disappointing to be hung out to dry. So without repeating the synopsis of the story that has been written several times in reviews before me, let me simply say, I was only briefly enchanted.
Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness2 stars. 584 pages.
Does not fit monthly theme.
Squeaked this in ...barely!
The second in the All Souls Trilogy, I am quite disappointed. While Diana and Matthew successfully time travel back to All Hallow's Eve in 1590, Elizabethan England, the purported reasons for doing so, finding the book and a witch to train Diana, are shoved to the side and treated as occasional afterthoughts. This very long volume was mostly a vampire/witch romance novel, and not a particularly compelling one.
It also lacked what brought the first book in the series to life for me: colorful places that were full characters along with the creatures and people.
There were several moments that were captivating...but not enough.
Glad I read it, but time will tell whether I finish the series. As of this moment, I don't feel any compelling need to reach the end.
Hi all! I will be tallying participation points bright and early Wednesday morning, so be sure to get your lingering reviews posted by Tuesday night!
#28The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox
Pages 176
Does not fit tag
3 stars
A boy is kidnapped to play music to make the slaves dance on a slave ship. I found it interesting as I imagine that it is fairly accurate as to what probably happen during that time in history.
Robin wrote: "#28Pages 176
Does not fit tag
3 stars
A boy is kidnapped to play music to make the slaves dance on a slave ship. I found it interesting as I imagine that it is fairly accurate as to what probably ..."
Hi, Robin. What is the title and author of the book? :-)
The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish1 terrible star
Trim Book #28 for November
From stand-up comedian, actress, and breakout star of Girls Trip, Tiffany Haddish, comes The Last Black Unicorn, a sidesplitting, hysterical, edgy, and unflinching collection of (extremely) personal essays, as fearless as the author herself.
Growing up in one of the poorest neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles, Tiffany learned to survive by making people laugh. If she could do that, then her classmates would let her copy their homework, the other foster kids she lived with wouldn’t beat her up, and she might even get a boyfriend. Or at least she could make enough money—as the paid school mascot and in-demand Bar Mitzvah hype woman—to get her hair and nails done, so then she might get a boyfriend.
None of that worked (and she’s still single), but it allowed Tiffany to imagine a place for herself where she could do something she loved for a living: comedy.
The Last Black Unicorn is a perfect example of the fact that no reader should believe the press regarding a book. The little snippet makes this book sound amazing, but in reality it is easily the worst book I have read this year and one of the worst I have read in many years.
The book has no thread lacing it together, the language is beyond vulgar, and sadly, there is no redeeming value. I am honestly surprised any one was willing to put their name on this book as a ghost writer.
I do not put books down once I start them. So I finished this book, but I finished it as fast as I could because that was the best way to just be done with this book.
Oops! Almost didn’t add my Trim for November. Closely Watched Trains by Bohemil Hrabel
93 pages
(I’ll add a real link to the book when I’m near a computer)
I feel like the translation is not ideal and takes away from the reading experience
This Czech book is a bit of a gem
It’s very much like a crazy disrupted dream.
It’s a story of a young train dispatcher in the end of the war in Europe.
The petty life mixes with the big horrors of the war that are hinted on by the trains filled with dead animals, wounded soldiers, that drive by.
It’s a strange book but there’s something magical about it and some beautiful and very funny passages but also some very disturbing and sad ones.
My trim book for November was Seven Stones to Stand or Fall by Diana Gabaldon. - Pages 544. Average rating 4.5*
Seven Stones to Stand or Fall is a collection of short stories and novellas from the Outlander series and from the Lord John series (yes, the delicious Lord John has a series of his own!). Most have been previously published in other collections, but two are new for this book. The author provides a chronology of the entire Outlander / Lord John series, and I highly recommend following it. These stories will mean much more to you.
The stories included are:
- Virgins - 4* (Outlander novella that is actually set before the first book when Jamie and Ian were mercenary soldiers in France.)
- The Space Between - 5* (a VERY mysterious Outlander story featuring Master Raymond and a surprise character. This story answers a lot of questions - and creates some more!)
- A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows - 5* (Outlander - a short but extremely poignant story about Roger's parents. I defy you not to cry after reading it.)
- The Custom of the Army - 5* - This Lord John novella. I love this novella set in Quebec during the French and Indian war because it says so much about who Lord John is - honorable, a military leader and warrior who keeps a calm head when others are losing theirs, a gentleman who is not afraid to shed his armor when needed or wanted (such as when he meets a man he desires), and extremely loyal to his friends and family (friends like Jamie Fraser).
- A Plague of Zombies 4* - Lord John novella set in Jamaica. Ever wondered how to make a zombie? This short story will tell you.
- Besieged - 3* - Lord John novella. One of the new stories written for this collection. I love Lord John, but this story was just , eh.
- A Fugitive Green - 5* - This novella about Lord John's older brother Hal and how he met his very colorful wife, Minnie. 5* and a Heart for this one! Hal is so so much more than he seems on the surface.
I was SUPER delinquent in calculating the November Trim scores! But, I finally got it done. You can double check the spreadsheet at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...If you see a discrepancy, then drop me a PM!
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Seven Stones to Stand or Fall (other topics)The Slave Dancer (other topics)
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These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901-4 stars
384 pages
Fits the Tag
This is the story of Sarah, beginning in childhood as she travels with her family across the U.S. Western Territories. The adventure and hardship hooked me immediately. Sarah, raised with only male siblings, becomes a strong, determined young woman.
Where Sarah ends up, and how she gets there-well you will have to read the book to find out. I will say-this book has a bit of something for all readers. A Family Saga, Romance,(Note to Nicole: I believe Capt. Jack would make you drool-lol) a history of the Southwestern States, before they were States.
While reading, I discovered there is a second book-however the reviews on it are no where near the praise this one got. I will put on the TBR though, I loved Sarah enough to re-visit at some point.
The book is not for everyone-it is written in diary form. Each entry dated, some long some short. At the beginning of the book Sarah's writing is choppy and uneducated-but the words grow with Sarah and you cannot help respecting the woman Sarah becomes.
My Favorite Quote:“Taking up marriage is a good excuse for taking up cursing, I think.”
― Nancy E. Turner, These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901, Arizona Territories