Laurel's 2022 Book Lists By The Dozen!

[Steve]

So happy for you!

[Laurel]

#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

[Laurel]

#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.

[Laurel]

#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

[Laurel]

#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.

[Laurel]

#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?

[Laurel]

#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

[Laurel]

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!

[Laurel]

#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

[LauraT]

One of the best book I've ever read!

[Laurel]

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.

[Laurel]

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!

[Laurel]

Well, my phone quit syncing to the car, and I haven't had time to reset it! So no audiobook this week.

I did finish completely moving everything as of yesterday. Having a bit of a lazy day today, except I have to get outside and finish planting the plants I brought over from the old place. It's still a big, huge disorganized mess here, and I don't know where anything is, or even what box my dishes are in. So I'm not even going to try and post a November reading plan!

Hopefully I'll get my phone reset, because I have a choir rehearsal an hour away this evening....

[Laurel]

#35 The Ink Black Heart
3.75 red stars, not rounded up.

This one didn't work quite as well as an audiobook, because of all the chatroom transcripts, but it wasn't enough for me to switch formats. Other reviews have said the e-book version is difficult to read, so I guess take your pick, or go with an actual print book. Wonderfully complex as always, and as always, the people that Strike and Robin are dealing with, are very distasteful indeed. The arms-length relationship is getting tedious. But, real life is like that. These are two emotionally wounded characters who need to sort out their feelings for each other. I don't mind complex relationships, but nothing has advanced by the end of the book this time. Galbraith/Rowling has an obvious axe to grind in each of these novels - this time it is the online/social media community. The plot is engaging enough, but it needed serious editing. The online game depicted sounds hilarious. Sure it's a spoof but you'll wish it was real. I'll keep reading this series, because I care about Robin and Strike, and I'll hope that the next book has a better editor.

Cumulative pages read: 11,189

[Laurel]

November update:
Still not reading very much. Even if I wanted to, I don't know where the books I was reading are.... in a box somewhere. Anyway, having just moved to a new house, and it being recently Halloween/Celtic New Year, I want to read new things. Or be planning my reading for next year. Or not to have any goals at the moment...

On audio I'm listening to
READ American Dirt for this month's book club.
I gave up on waiting for the audio for last month's read
The Thursday Murder Club, so I have the print book to read.
I still have the ebook of
The Evening Chorus on Libby checked out, but I'm still craving something new that I have available on Kindle, so I just started
READ A Brush with Death

And that is as far ahead as I can think...

[Laurel]

#36 American Dirt
5 purple stars - Compelling and heart-breaking.

A harrowing story, but so beautifully told. This had me on the edge of my seat. I guarantee it will make you think about the migrant experience. No, the author isn't Mexican, nor is she a migrant. So what? This is fiction. Good fiction writers do research. Sometimes a lot of it. And the end result is a very compelling story. I loved Lydia and Luca, and the two Honduran girls, and Beto, and I could even find some empathy for Lorenzo. I did feel a tad exhausted by the end, with all that these characters go through. Be warned that the author deals with some very difficult subjects here: murder, rape, human trafficking, and more. The novel isn't perfect - there are a few situations that defy credulity, but on the whole - wow!

Cumulative pages: 11,648

[Laurel]

#37 A Brush with Death
3 green stars

This 2nd in the series was a little disappointing, but I'll keep reading the series. The plot was good. But I hope Jodie sorts out her personal life soon. Her preoccupation with all the men in her life might get a little old in another book or two. Okay, she's still recovering from a nasty divorce, and she's not ready to commit to another relationship. Fortunately, because she comes dangerously close to getting involved with a married man. And I'd like to see her mother and her daughter developed a little more. They were pretty peripheral here.

(Republished as The Cornish Village Murder.)

Book Description: When a body turned up at her last catering gig it certainly put people off the hors d’oeuvres. With a reputation to salvage, Jodie’s determined that her next job for the village’s festival will go off without a hitch. But when chaos breaks out, Jodie Parker somehow always finds herself caught up in the picture. The body of a writer from the festival is discovered at the bottom of a cliff, and the prime suspect turns out to be the guest of honour, the esteemed painter Duncan Stovall. With her background in the Met police, Jodie has got solving cases down to a fine art so she knows things are rarely as they seem. Can she find the killer before the village faces another brush with death?

Cumulative pages: 11,954

[Laurel]

#38 Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion
3 green stars

Perhaps I've been reading too many books dealing with social justice, racism, economics, and all the things that are wrong with our country. But I just didn't find anything new here, and nothing much in the way of solutions either. On the one hand, it's all true. And on the other hand it's very one-sided and negative. I'm not convinced by her argument. We ARE a nation of immigrants. I don't disagree with the whole settler colonialism concept. Nor do I disagree that we have a violent and racist history that shouldn't be allowed to be white-washed. Anyway, there is certainly much food for thought here, and topics that need to be discussed.

Cumulative pages: 12,354

[Laurel]

#39 The Forest of Vanishing Stars
4 red stars

4 stars because it is a relatively unique take on all the WWII books out there. Very well researched, but I didn't feel that research was always presented very well. This could have worked very well as a historical novel, OR as a coming of age/romance novel but it tried to be both, AND threw in a paranormal/magical realism element, which I normally enjoy, but seemed at times just odd here. The overall plot was a bit too-contrived, and some things were beyond belief. Perhaps this works best as a coming of age type story, so if you are looking for straight historical fiction you might be disappointed. And as a coming of age story, the ending really should have been fleshed out or left as a cliff-hanger for a second novel about Yona's life after the war. All the stuff at the beginning, with its magical overtones was setting her up to be some sort of saviour/heroine that just wasn't delivered. Nevertheless, I liked Yona, and found it to be a very interesting story. I would read more by this author.

Description: After being stolen from her wealthy German parents and raised in the unforgiving wilderness of eastern Europe, a young woman finds herself alone in 1941 after her kidnapper dies. Her solitary existence is interrupted, however, when she happens upon a group of Jews fleeing the Nazi terror. Stunned to learn what’s happening in the outside world, she vows to teach the group all she can about surviving in the forest—and in turn, they teach her some surprising lessons about opening her heart after years of isolation. But when she is betrayed and escapes into a German-occupied village, her past and present come together in a shocking collision that could change everything.

Cumulative pages: 12,730

[Laurel]

December update:
Thanks to a road trip I have finished two books already in December, and it is on track to be a normal 4-book month, or possibly even a 5-book month. I have some lighter holiday reads lined up and I have my lists for 2023 ("Keeping It Light") ready to go. I am so happy to have my reading mojo back, although there will be a few leftovers carried over. Those books are still in boxes somewhere....

Audiobook (and December book club book) ready to start:
READ All Adults Here

Print and ebooks in progress:
The Evening Chorus - this one might be postponed with the other books carried over. It has been long paused.
The Thursday Murder Club
READ We Gather Together: A Nation Divided, a President in Turmoil, and a Historic Campaign to Embrace Gratitude and Grace - started last year and didn't finish. I picked it up again because "Thanksgiving". It's a bit dry, but I'm determined to finish it this time. I started again from the beginning.

Waiting on Kindle (via Libby):
All About Us - December group read in another group, and a holiday book.

On hold (Libby) and these will probably be 2023 reads:
Murder at Honeychurch Hall - for A Good Yarn (H is for hall, and Honeychurch Hall)
Homer's Odyssey - on my 12 + 4 (read one from each list) challenge
The Month of Borrowed Dreams - a leftover series
A Sprinkle of Sabotage aka "The Perfect Cornish Murder" - next (#3) in the Nosy Parker series. #4 is a Christmas story but I won't get to it before Christmas...
Knit One, Kill Two - A Good Yarn leftover
The Dinner Lady Detectives - 1st in a new series for me. Set in Wales. Sounded fun. And #4 (I think?) is a Christmas story, but there's a long waiting list for this one. Maybe I'll purchase it...

[Laurel]

#40 All Adults Here
4.5 blue stars. I loved it.

Quirky, hilarious, relatable, and even insightful. I had no problem with the plethora of (so-called) "progressive" issues. To me it was just about life. The choices we all make. The mistakes we all make. The regrets we all have. All told with warmth and humor. I could relate to Cecelia (13), Porter (38), and Astrid (60-something) at each of their life stages. This was the perfect light-hearted, feel-good read that I needed for the holidays. And I understand that this is being developed into a limited TV series. That sounds like fun!

Description: When Astrid Strick witnesses a school bus accident in the center of town, it jostles loose a repressed memory from her young parenting days decades earlier. Suddenly, Astrid realizes she was not quite the parent she thought she'd been to her three, now-grown children. But to what consequence? Astrid's youngest son is drifting and unfocused, making parenting mistakes of his own. Her daughter is pregnant yet struggling to give up her own adolescence. And her eldest seems to measure his adult life according to standards no one else shares. But who gets to decide, so many years later, which long-ago lapses were the ones that mattered? Who decides which apologies really count? It might be that only Astrid's thirteen-year-old granddaughter and her new friend really understand the courage it takes to tell the truth to the people you love the most.

Cumulative pages: 13,086

[Laurel]

#41 We Gather Together: A Nation Divided, a President in Turmoil, and a Historic Campaign to Embrace Gratitude and Grace
3 green stars.

A bit dry, but well-researched and full of surprising information about one of our nation's most beloved holidays: Thanksgiving. I grew up in the 60s, steeped in the mythology of the "first" Thanksgiving, how the Indians saved the starving colonial settlers, and then were invited to share in a feast of celebration for their survival. In truth, there was no "first" Thanksgiving, and now 60 years on from my school days, Native Americans have come to view Thanksgiving as a day of mourning. But giving thanks is as old as humankind. Sarah Josepha Hale drew on the harvest traditions of New England in her vision of having a fixed date that would be nationwide. It took decades of writing letters, before Abraham Lincoln made it a national proclamation in 1862. Each president after him continued the tradition, but it wasn't until 1941 that Congress made it a national holiday. Then add in some football traditions, and big department stores throwing parades to kick off the Christmas shopping season.... Perhaps this book can help us break through the myths and reclaim a deeper sense of what it means to come together in gratitude, especially at a time when Covid is still keeping us apart.

Description: From Ancient Rome through 21st-century America, bestselling author Denise Kiernan brings us a biography of an idea: gratitude, as a compelling human instinct and a global concept, more than just a mere holiday. Spanning centuries, We Gather Together is anchored amid the strife of the Civil War, and driven by the fascinating story of Sarah Josepha Hale, a widowed mother with no formal schooling who became one of the 19th century’s most influential tastemakers and who campaigned for decades to make real an annual day of thanks. Populated by an enthralling supporting cast of characters including Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Sojourner Truth, Walt Whitman, Norman Rockwell, and others, We Gather Together is ultimately a story of tenacity and dedication, an inspiring tale of how imperfect people in challenging times can create powerful legacies. Working at the helm of one of the most widely read magazines in the nation, Hale published Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and others, while introducing American readers to such newfangled concepts as “domestic science,” white wedding gowns, and the Christmas tree. A prolific writer, Hale penned novels, recipe books, essays and more, including the ubiquitous children’s poem, “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” And Hale herself never stopped pushing the leaders of her time, in pursuit of her goal.

Cumulative pages: 13,390

[Laurel]

That's a wrap for 2022. 41 books is kind of amazing considering the year I had! I could have finished Pucky, Prince of Bacon: A Breaking Cat News Adventure but decided to make it my first book of 2023. I'll also be continuing The Thursday Murder Club and Cat's Eyewitness. I shall also start a new book today, but I haven't decided what yet...

On to 2023!