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2023 Independent Challenges
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Laurel's "Keeping It Light" Choices for 2023
#16
The Lincoln Highway5 purple stars
A Homeric journey of a book, beautifully told. It invites comparisons with The Odyssey and Huckleberry Finn. I won't elaborate on the plot, since plenty of reviews have already done that. I loved it. My favorite characters were Billy and Ulysses. To all the critics who complained of the improbable plot, I will just say this is modern-day mythology -- a Hero's tale. The ending got dragged out a little unnecessarily perhaps - telling the same events from three different points of view. My book club loved this one, too, and we enjoyed the discussion questions from the author. So much symbolism to uncover, I'm sure I would see much more reading this a second or third time. Hard to let go of the characters - it's going to be a difficult task to choose my next book!
Description: In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction—to the City of New York. Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles's third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes. “Once again, I was wowed by Towles’s writing—especially because The Lincoln Highway is so different from A Gentleman in Moscow in terms of setting, plot, and themes. Towles is not a one-trick pony. Like all the best storytellers, he has range. He takes inspiration from famous hero’s journeys, including The Iliad, The Odyssey, Hamlet, Huckleberry Finn, and Of Mice and Men. He seems to be saying that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as an interstate highway. But, he suggests, when something (or someone) tries to steer us off course, it is possible to take the wheel.” – Bill Gates
Cumulative pages: 4,911 (removed the DNF that Goodreads was counting....)
April plans:Haven't picked up Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady since January, so that is a DNF.
Audiobooks:
READ Key of Valor to finish up the trilogy.
READ Jane Eyre - to read along with
READ The Wife Upstairs
Daytimers:
READ Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle
Perspectives:
Lessons in Chemistry
A Good Yarn:
Miss Eliza's English Kitchen: A Novel of Victorian Cookery and Friendship (K location: a kitchen, and also Kent, England)
a group read I may or may not get to, but a series I have wanted to try:
Death at La Fenice
Challenges:
READ The Apothecary Rose - hold is available...
READ The Alice Network - hold is available
Mod
Haven't picked up Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady since January, so that is a DNF.
Audiobooks:
Key of Valor to finish up the trilogy.
[book:Jane..."
The Inspector Brunetti series is excellent; great characters, a great setting, super food and even interesting mysteries.
Bill wrote: "The Inspector Brunetti series is excellent; great characters, a great setting, super food and even interesting mysteries."Thanks for the nudge!
Laurel wrote: "#15 
The Cat Who Saved Books2.5 yellow stars
I didn't dislike it, but I was rather underwhelmed by this little tale. Not sure if it was..."
I read it in March and actually gave it 4*, I liked the morals behind (and did make me slightly guilty at the books I keep on shelves that I'm never going to read again, and someone else could be reading!)
#17
Key of Valor4 red stars.
I think I liked this one the best of the three. Okay, the plot was getting repetitive, but Zoe had some depth to her that I didn't think the other two women had. I loved her backstory, her relationship with her mother, the relationship between Brad and the boy Simon, and of course the friendship of the three women. The love scenes got pretty repetitive as well, and didn't really do anything to advance the plot. The finding of the key was something of a let down. The first book was the best in that regard. And I never really saw what it was that convinced Zoe to let go of her reservations about Brad, especially with her determination up to that point that she had to find the key first. So this wasn't the strongest in terms of plot, but I did feel like I understood Zoe better as a character than the others, and that made this a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy.
Description: This book concludes Roberts's Key Trilogy, in which mortal women quest to unlock the spellbound souls of ancient demigoddesses. The third and last woman to make the attempt is hairstylist Zoe McCourt. Like her friends Malory and Dana-heroines of the previous installments (Key of Light, Key of Knowledge)-Zoe has a single month and a cryptic set of clues with which to find her key. The angry sorcerer Kane fights her efforts as friends both mortal and immortal lend their support. As she searches, Zoe is courted by Bradley Vane IV, the sexy heir to a home improvement empire. She's not sure which is more difficult: accepting that she's magically linked with Brad or trying to quell her suspicions long enough to accept his love in the here and now. When she finds the courage to do both, the souls of all three goddesses are finally released. Smart but struggling single mom Zoe is an appealing heroine whose working-class grit finds a perfect foil in Brad's patrician confidence. Scenes involving her feisty son, Simon, temper the story's mysticism with humor, and the joining together of the trio as a family is genuinely moving.
Cumulative pages: 5,263
Mid-April update:It seems I neglected to list my March Perspectives book, which I am still reading. (I have not yet started the April book, and we are meeting tomorrow!)
READ The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis
Added two books I had on hold that came in. The first one is an ILL, so I can't renew it. But I like it, and might buy it, in which case, I won't have to read it right away... The other book has other holds waiting, so I either read it right now, or put myself back on the waiting list...
READ As Kingfishers Catch Fire: Birds & Books
READ Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater
Checked out on Libby:
The Evening Chorus - this has been long paused. The book was available so I checked it out, but I'm not really ready to resume this yet... too much else to read right now!
READ Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse - looked fun and should be a quick read...
Forgot to add that as I unpacked more boxes this weekend, I have found 3 of the books I was reading slowly last summer. Not sure when I will get back to them, but at least now I can....Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer which I was reading along with Moby-Dick or, the Whale online (http://www.powermobydick.com/) - I hope I remember where I left off on that!
The Summer Queen
Queen By Right
Still to be found:
Wolf Hall
...And Ladies of the Club
Mod
It seems I neglected to list my March Perspectives book, which I am still reading. (I have not yet started the April book, and we are meeting tomorrow!)
[book:The Nutmeg's Curse:..."
Goth Girl is indeed fun. Enjoy
#18
Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater5 blue stars. I think this is a gem of a book, and I can see myself rereading it again. It's not about knitting or the history of knitting, so if you're looking for that you will be disappointed. This is a memoir, about the first year of the COVID pandemic. I could picture myself doing exactly what she does, just for the sake of learning something new in a craft. She shares tidbits of history, and what she has learned about the whole textile industry, women's lives, its impact on the environment, and aspects of her life as it relates to aging, becoming an empty nester, and dealing with the decline and loss of parents. I was especially moved by the last chapter where she talks about her father's struggle with dementia complicated by the isolation of the pandemic. I went through exactly the same thing with my own father doing that time. It made me want to learn more about the topics she covered, and she provides footnotes and a bibliography. I will be recommending this to others, especially women of a certain age.
Description: The COVID pandemic propelled many people to change their lives in ways large and small. Some adopted puppies. Others stress-baked. Peggy Orenstein, a lifelong knitter, went just a little further. To keep herself engaged and cope with a series of seismic shifts in family life, she set out to make a garment from the ground up: learning to shear sheep, spin and dye yarn, then knitting herself a sweater. Orenstein hoped the project would help her process not just wool but her grief over the recent death of her mother and the decline of her dad, the impending departure of her college-bound daughter, and other thorny issues of aging as a woman in a culture that by turns ignores and disdains them. What she didn’t expect was a journey into some of the major issues of our time: climate anxiety, racial justice, women’s rights, the impact of technology, sustainability, and, ultimately, the meaning of home.
Cumulative pages: 5,487
#19
The Alice Network3.5 pink stars rounded up.
Along the same lines as Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale: more chick lit/romance than historical fiction, but it was alright. I liked Finn - he was an interesting character, and who doesn't like a sexy Scotsman? The dual timeline worked okay, though as a plot device I think it weakens both stories. The Eve character was by far more compelling, and it would have made a much better book without the second timeline. The Alice Network was based on the true life of a WWI woman spy, Louise de Bettignies, who does play a role in this book. But this is historical fiction lite, and there could have been so much more about her and the other women spies. The audiobook should have had two different narrators. Eve and Charlie sounded identical (which they were...) and that made it hard to tell when the POV switched. So, a little on the melodramatic, cheesy side, but I would read more of this author. Parts of the book were very good. It just left me wanting.
Description: It's 1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She's also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie's parents banish her to Europe to have her "little problem" taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister. It's 1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she's recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she's trained by the mesmerizing Lili, the "Queen of Spies", who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy's nose. Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn't heard in decades and launches them both on a mission to find the truth...no matter where it leads.
Cumulative pages: 5,990
I think I'm going to have to read Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater. It sounds absolutely fascinating. I lost a dear uncle during the height of the Covid crisis. It was terrible, not to be able to see him when he was ill, nor attend a funeral at the time. A memorial service was finally held months after his passing. Such a sad time for so many.
#20
A Sprinkle of Sabotage4 red stars
Reissued as The Perfect Cornish Murder. I'm kind of hard to please when it comes to cozy mysteries, but I really like the character of Jodie. She is funny, down to earth, curious (nosey), but truly interested in people and has a kind heart. I'll keep reading these because I feel like I'm visiting old friends. That's the key for me. I want to get to know the whole community, and both Tony and Nathan, her two competing love interests get a lot of play here. I felt that kind of was a distraction in the last book, but this time we get a resolution, which I won't spoil. It's a good thing, because I really hate love triangles. And now it becomes apparent that there will be an arc to the series. As for the plot, there were enough twists and turns to keep it interesting, though I did feel the ending was a bit anti-climactic. There are now 7 books in the series, and I not only want to read them all, I want to check out what else Ms. Leitch has written.
Description: A film company is coming to the Cornish village of Penstowan, and the whole community turn up to be cast as extras, even Jodie ‘Nosey’ Parker. Determined to join in with the fun and ignore any dramas, Jodie intends to make the most of this time with her mum and daughter and hopefully see their names in lights … or really small writing on the credits page. But right on cue, the company’s caterer is sabotaged and Jodie must step up. It soon becomes clear that someone is out to spoil the filming… With actors behaving out of character and the house literally being brought down, breaking a leg is the least of their worries.
Cumulative pages: 6,282
It's May! It/s May! The Lusty Month of May...and I am definitely feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the book choices I'm trying to manage at one time. I seem to suddenly have a staggering number of books in progress, an equally lengthy list of books I've postponed that I still want to read, and an even lengthier list of books to be read THIS MONTH.
Currently reading:
READ Sparrow Tree - very short poetry book that I purchased. No rush, but I could finish it in 30 minutes probably...
READ As Kingfishers Catch Fire: Birds & Books - essays about birds, Interlibrary loan due back in 4 days. I shall probably purchase it, as it is beautifully illustrated, and I'm an avid birdwatcher.
READ The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis - a March book club leftover, so no rush to finish, and I've been able to keep renewing it on Libby.
READ Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle - an April book club leftover, so no rush to finish, and I have the book.
READ Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse - borrowed on Libby. I've only read two chapters so far. Due in 4 days, but I should be able to renew it.
READ Jane Eyre - owned on Audible. About 11? chapters to go.
Next up:
READ The Wife Upstairs - a follow on from Jane Eyre. Audiobook available on Libby.
READ A Northern Light - Daytimers book club book for May. So I need to read it by the end of the month.
The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature - Perspectives book club book for May. So ditto.
Miss Eliza's English Kitchen: A Novel of Victorian Cookery and Friendship - for A Good Yarn (letter K - kitchen and Kent)
READ The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek (reread) and
READ The Book Woman's Daughter - another letter K (Kentucky)
READ Murder at Honeychurch Hall - this was for A Good Yarn, the letter H, which was back in Oct/Nov of 2022 and that's how long I've waited for this to become available. Due back in 11 days, so I really need to read it NOW or forget it.
Two more books I'd like to recommend one of them as a summer read for Perspectives, so I need to read at least enough of them to be able to recommend one or the other by the end of the month:
READ The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine
The Prophets
Books already mentioned this year, but have become postponed:
Lessons in Chemistry - Perspectives book club book for April, but I think I'll wait and read this when I can get it on audio.
Ygerna: A Pendragon Chronicles Prequel Novel - started in January and paused
I Will Die in a Foreign Land - returned to library, but I'd still like to read it - perhaps over the summer in conjuction with The Gates of Europe.
Death at La Fenice - This was a group read in some online book group, and is one I've wanted to read forever. Purchased on Audible, but too much going on this month to get to it right now.
READ The Apothecary Rose - an old favorite and a series I want to reread, and this fits my alphabet challenge ("A" titles) - purchased on Audible (but I also found my old paperback copy, unpacking boxes of books)
The Evening Chorus - started last summer and postponed. I keep renewing it on Libby, and lo and behold I found an ARC of this in unpacking books... don't know if I'm going to get to it this month or not. Probably not.....
I could keep going, but I'll stop there...
Mod
Enjoy your lusty may reading.
Thanks, Bill. Glad I'm not the only one! Just started Murder at Honeychurch Hall, and liking it so far.
#21
Jane Eyre4 red stars, 5 purple stars for the audiobook narrated by Alison Larkin.
This is one of those books I would swear I read when I was younger, but since I couldn't say for sure, I decided I had better just read it. As the description below indicates, this is actually a pretty complex novel that isn't easily described. Is it gothic? A mystery? A romance? A coming-of-age story? It has elements of all of those. Certainly the author had a lot to say about the autonomy of women (or lack of it) in her day. But is it really feminist? What does it say about equality between the sexes, when (view spoiler) Or the fact that (view spoiler) Gentle reader, you are free to draw your own conclusions. Your interpretation is as good as mine.
Description: Determined to make her heroine "as poor and plain as myself," Charlotte Brontë made a daring choice for her 1847 novel. Jane Eyre possesses neither the great beauty nor entrancing charm that her fictional predecessors used to make their way in the world. Instead, Jane relies upon her powers of diligence and perception, conducting herself with dignity animated by passion. The instant and lasting success of Jane Eyre proved Brontë's instincts correct. Readers of her era and ever after have taken the impoverished orphan girl into their hearts, following her from the custody of cruel relatives to a dangerously oppressive boarding school and onward through a troubled career as a governess. Jane's first assignment at Thorn field, where the proud and cynical master of the house harbors a scandalous secret, draws readers ever deeper into a compelling exploration of the mysteries of the human heart. A banquet of food for thought, this many-faceted tale invites a splendid variety of interpretations. The heroine's insistence upon emotional equality with her lover suggests a feminist viewpoint, while her solitary status invokes a consideration of the problems of growing up as a social outsider. Some regard Jane's attempts to reconcile her need for love with her search for moral rectitude as the story's primary message, and lovers of gothic romance find the tale's social and religious aspects secondary to its gripping elements of mystery and horror. This classic of English literature truly features something for every reader.
Cumulative pages: 6,814
Mod
Kudos on all of your progress
Thanks, Alondra. As I'm sure you know, I won't actually finish most of those books! Although there's a good chance I will finish 5 more this month, which would be a very good month indeed!
#22
Sparrow Tree4 red dragon stars.
Gwyneth Lewis was Wales’s National Poet from 2005 to 2006, the first writer to be given the Welsh laureateship. She is also known as the composer of the words on the front of the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff, opened in 2004. The connection with birds here inspired me to pick up this little book. I've read through it at least three times now, and really don't know how to sum it up. I'm no judge of poetry. I feel as if there is much that eludes me here. Lewis is clearly a master of language and structure. The images are sometimes playful, and sometimes quite stark and repelling. Other passages draw me in and speak to me directly. There are birds here, but also strong emotions: Love, loss, grief, and things that can't be put into words perhaps.
The book is divided into four sections titled Syrinx, Logos, Feather, and Cry. The first section has the most to do with birds. I'm an avid birder, so I can resonate to passages like "It's no small thing to have lived your life / In cardinals' and tree-creepers' eyes." The second section ventures off into foreign places with a lengthy "Imaginary Walks in Istanbul." The thirds section contains two previously published works: "Quilting for Childless Women" and "How to Knit a Poem." These both spoke volumes to me being childless and a knitter. Indeed, the first poem cycle opens "First, bury ideas of a baby, / Then cover the hill / In juniper, laurel." I found that a bit startling - since my name is Laurel, it seemed as if I was being addressed quite directly. And here's an intriguing thought: "If space is made of superstrings, / Then God's a knitter, everything / Is craft, and perhaps we could darn / Tears in the space-time continuum." The last section is the hardest to describe. Perhaps it's about finding a voice - there are birds, and music, and grief, and stars, and the ocean. My favorite poem Spectrum begins: "Look to the dark, it's full of company, / Though dust obscure the birth of a star. / Waiting creates a wider way to see."
Description: Gwyneth Lewis's highly inventive Sparrow Tree puts nature writing in a spin, presenting a huge variety of birds, both British and American: blue tits, blackbirds, egrets, juncos, starlings, herons and hummingbirds as well as the sparrows of the title. The book explores birds as mouthpieces for inhuman song and the wild inside the mind. Launching flights of avian fancy or fantasy on several levels, Sparrow Tree moves from birdsong as proto-language to birds as decorative beings. The collection includes her already well-known How to Knit a Poem, commissioned by BBC Radio 4, and ends with images of the human word as a form of love. Winner of the Roland Mathias Poetry Award (Wales Book of the Year).
Cumulative pages: 6,878
Mod
As I'm sure you know, I won't actually finish most of those books! Although there's a good chance I will finish 5 more this month, which would be a very good month indeed!"
Yes, 5 is great!! That is all I hope for. LOL
#23
A Northern Light4.5 blue stars
I liked the structure of the book, and how it revolved around vocabulary words. This is a coming-of-age story of a 16-year-old young woman, passionate about writing and seeking a better life for herself, but torn by a promise to her dying mother. Her mother isn't the only influence on her life however. We see a variety of women, the choices they have made, and the circumstances that have dictated their fate - girls who married young and had babies, women struggling to raise families and keep a roof over their children's heads despite crushing poverty, a teacher ostracized for her writing in a time when women didn't push those boundaries, and at the heart of the story, a young woman drowned in the lake, whose letters ultimately reveal the truth about what happened to her. It isn't really a mystery to the reader, since it is based on a well-known murder case, but for Mattie the events of that summer provided the anchor that will determine the rest of her life. While the focus is on women, there is one significant male character (okay maybe two, if you count Royal, who represents the traditional "choice" of love and marriage) and that is Weaver, an African American teenager who also works at the hotel at the lake, and who represents the other "choice" - a chance to go to college against seemingly impossible odds.
Description: Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey has a word for everything, and big dreams but little hope of seeing them come true. She collects words, stores them up as a way of fending off the hard truths of her life, the truths that she can't write down in stories. The fresh pain of her mother's death. The burden of raising her sisters while her father struggles over his brokeback farm. The mad welter of feelings Mattie has for handsome but dull Royal Loomis, who says he wants to marry her. And the secret dreams that keep her going--visions of finishing high school, going to college in New York City, becoming a writer. Desperate for money, she takes a job at the Glenmore, where hotel guest Grace Brown entrusts her with the task of burning a secret bundle of letters. But when Grace's drowned body is fished from Big Moose Lake, Mattie discovers that the letters could reveal the grim truth behind a murder. Set in 1906 in the Adirondack Mountains, against the backdrop of the murder that inspired Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, this Printz Honor-winning coming-of-age novel effortlessly weaves romance, history, and a murder mystery into something moving, and real, and wholly original.
Cumulative pages: 7,274
#24
Murder at Honeychurch Hall4 red stars
This was a lot of fun. I love eccentric characters, and that might be all of them in this cozy mystery. And they all have secrets. Including the house. I wasn't entirely sure whether it was Kat, or her mother, Iris, who was the main character. Nor was I sure whether or not Kat would be staying at Honeychurch Hall. The first half of the book was spent introducing all the characters, and all of the various subplot mysteries: why did Iris buy the carriage house of a dilapidated country estate?, the sacked nanny has gone missing, will Kat's boyfriend ever divorce his wife or is this a doomed relationship?, who is trying to drive Iris away? who is responsible for all the petty thefts? Is it just someone trying to make the countess seem dotty? Not until the middle of the book is the maid discovered dead, possibly murdered. I was certainly kept guessing, and the ending was a surprise. Now going into book 2 we can ask will Iris be able to maintain her secret identity? Will Kat return to her antique business in London? We learn that the government has plans to put a high-speed railway line right through the estate. And there will be a new nanny and a new maid... I can't wait.
Description: Kat Stanford is just days away from starting her dream antique business with her newly widowed mother Iris when she gets a huge shock. Iris has recklessly purchased a dilapidated carriage house at Honeychurch Hall, an isolated country estate located several hundred miles from London. Yet it seems that Iris isn't the only one with surprises at Honeychurch Hall. Behind the crumbling façade, the inhabitants of the stately mansion are a lively group of eccentrics to be sure―both upstairs and downstairs ―and they all have more than their fair share of skeletons in the closet. When the nanny goes missing, and Vera, the loyal housekeeper ends up dead in the grotto, suspicions abound. Throw in a feisty, octogenarian countess, a precocious seven year old who is obsessed with the famous fighter pilot called Biggles, and a treasure trove of antiques, and there is more than one motive for murder.
Cumulative pages: 7,574
#25
The Book Woman of Troublesome CreekThis was a reread, prior to reading The Book Woman's Daughter. I'm glad I did, because I had forgotten that Honey was not Cussy Mary's child, or that Honey was a "blue." I think I would rate this 4.5 blue stars now. The descriptions really are wonderful, and Cussy Mary is a wonderful character. Here is my review from 2020:
I was particularly interested in this book as a librarian wanting to know more about the Pack Horse Project, and as a descendent of the Fugate family from Kentucky. Well-researched, but I think the author tried to put in too many details, having everything that could have happened happen to one family, but also changing the historical timeline to put medical discoveries from the 1960s into the 1930s. I knew about the blue people - yes, they were real - and yes, they were treated as "colored" by their fellow whites. The author also does a good job of portraying the dangers of being a single woman at that time, and the poverty that was a tragic fact of daily life. I do wish there had been more depth to the plot, and the love-story aspect wasn't entirely convincing. But I loved Cussy Mary and her will to survive and overcome everything that life gave her.
Description: The hardscrabble folks of Troublesome Creek have to scrap for everything—everything except books, that is. Thanks to Roosevelt's Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, Troublesome's got its very own traveling librarian, Cussy Mary Carter. Cussy's not only a book woman, however, she's also the last of her kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike most anyone else. Not everyone is keen on Cussy's family or the Library Project, and a Blue is often blamed for any whiff of trouble. If Cussy wants to bring the joy of books to the hill folks, she's going to have to confront prejudice as old as the Appalachias and suspicion as deep as the holler. Inspired by the true blue-skinned people of Kentucky and the brave and dedicated Kentucky Pack Horse library service of the 1930s, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a story of raw courage, fierce strength, and one woman's belief that books can carry us anywhere—even back home.
Cumulative pages: 7,883
#26
As Kingfishers Catch Fire: Birds & Books5 blue stars.
A bit of a hodgepodge of thoughts and memories inspired by British birds, interspersed with quotations showing how these birds have appeared in prose and poetry. This will invite dipping into again and again. Delightful for anyone who loves birds and books, and it makes me want to seek out some of these works to read in their entirety, and/or to start my own notebook of quotations about birds.
Description: When Alex Preston was 15, he stopped being a birdwatcher. Adolescence and the scorn of his peers made him put away his binoculars, leave behind the hides and the nature reserves and the quiet companionship of his fellow birders. His love of birds didn't disappear though. Rather, it went underground, and he began birdwatching in the books that he read, creating his own personal anthology of nature writing that brought the birds of his childhood back to brilliant life. Looking for moments 'when heart and bird are one', Preston weaves the very best writing about birds into a personal and eccentric narrative that is as much about the joy of reading and writing as it is about the thrill of wildlife. Moving from the 'high requiem' of Keats's nightingale to the crow-strewn sky at the end of Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, from Ted Hughes's brooding 'Hawk in the Rain' to the giddy anthropomorphism of Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, this is a book that will make you look at birds, at the world, in a newer, richer light. Beautifully illustrated and illuminated by the celebrated graphic artist Neil Gower.
Cumulative pages: 8,091
June plans: Already a week gone! I've been on a tear the last couple of weeks to make a start on organizing the yard - i.e. getting out fountains, putting yard furniture where it wants to go, sorting out solar lights with new batteries (so far NONE are working! So today I decided I HAD to have some night-time light and color so I went out and got some new ones, and a few more plants to plant. Hopefully that will be tomorrow.
It got too hot to be in the yard last week, so I started on the basement and garage - unpacking dozens of boxes (I found my dishes!! and my LPs, and my tea cozy!). Made a pretty good dent in the backlog of boxes. I got a new storm door put on the back door, and some other little handyman projects that needed doing done. An electrician is coming tomorrow to put a couple of outlets on the back deck.
So June is going to be mainly a catch up month for reading. There's at least 5 books I still need to finish and I'm not going to list them again. Adding
READ The Maid as my next audiobook. I haven't been able to listen to anything for weeks because the SYNC with my car quit working. Finally got it back this afternoon - had to delete the device from the car, get my phone to forget the connection, and then even delete the SYNC program. Very frustrating! Next book will be
READ Salt to the Sea for my Daytimer's Book Club.
Then I want to add some leftovers from last summer:
The Summer Queen and
Queen By Right
We are starting the letter L for A Good Yarn, so I'll need to find some L locations (London? a lake?) and I need a yellow or purple cover for the cover challenge... maybe I'll be ready to add those for a mid-June update.
#27
Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse3 green stars
A very silly spoof of gothic literature, loaded with puns that will go right over the head of most children under the age of 12, but I'm sure they will still enjoy the story, the fantastical creatures, and of course, our dear little ghost mouse, Ishmael, who can't rest until his life story is found and published (included as a little booklet tucked into a pocket in the back cover). It turns out he is rather incidental to the story, which is more about Ada and her new friends working to try and warn her father about the indoor gamekeeper's mysterious plans when they find some rare creatures imprisoned in the "broken wing" of the manor. They are joined by Ada's new governess, Lucy Borgia, a vampire. Other memorable characters include the young novelist, Mary Shellfish, and her "monster", The Polar Explorer. The book itself is gorgeous with it's silver foil on black cover and shiny purple-decked pages. It is not a graphic novel, but it does contain a multitude of intricate drawings on every page.
Description: Ada Goth is the only child of Lord Goth. The two live together in Ghastly-Gorm Hall. Lord Goth believes that children should be heard and not seen, so Ada has to wear large clumpy boots so that he can always hear her coming. This makes it hard for her to make friends and she's rather lonely. Then one day William and Emily Cabbage come to stay at the house, and together with a ghostly mouse called Ishmael they and Ada work together to unravel a dastardly plot!
Cumulative pages: 8,319
Mod
Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse3 green stars
A very silly spoof of gothic literature, loaded with puns that will go ..."
It's a fun series.
#28
Salt to the Sea4 red stars
Based on a true story that is not well known, at least in the US. Given current events of the past week, I couldn't help seeing parallels between the Titanic and the Wilhelm Gustloff, with the submersible Titan and the ship full of migrants that was lost near the coast of Greece. This reads like a story for young adults - but I wouldn't recommend it for younger teens because of some of the graphic scenes. I did find the characters interesting, and the gradual way their stories unfolded, especially Alfred whom I disliked greatly, and it became more and more evident why as the story progressed. Florian remained a bit of a murky character, and I'm not sure the ending redeemed him. I didn't really find the ending very satisfying at all, but the author's ability to drive the story forward with the alternating POVs and short chapters, and her masterful use of language made it memorable.
Description: World War II is drawing to a close in East Prussia and thousands of refugees are on a desperate trek toward freedom, many with something to hide. Among them are Joana, Emilia, and Florian, whose paths converge en route to the ship that promises salvation, the Wilhelm Gustloff. Forced by circumstance to unite, the three find their strength, courage, and trust in each other tested with each step closer to safety. Just when it seems freedom is within their grasp, tragedy strikes. Not country, nor culture, nor status matter as all ten thousand people—adults and children alike—aboard must fight for the same thing: survival. Told in alternating points of view, this masterful work of historical fiction is inspired by the real-life tragedy that was the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff—the greatest maritime disaster in history.
Cumulative pages: 8,710
Mod
Already a week gone! I've been on a tear the last couple of weeks to make a start on organizing the yard - i.e. getting out fountains, putting yard furniture where it wants to go, sort..."
This sounds like my JUNE. I have barely read anything, though. I've only been in the garden. Thank goodness I did it early, because NC is now HOT.
Kudos on your progress, though! Woot!!
Laurel~I love the books you have read! Terrific Picks. Great Job you Are Doing 💕Alondra~I hear you about Gardening as I live in NC. It is HOT today. I moved a few years ago and with the heat the first year killed my plants. Also, different varieties work better here, learning a little each year.
Alondra and Kristine - I can't imagine trying to garden in NC. Bad enough in MN. We've had a couple of very hot weeks in the 90s. And then we've had weeks like this one, where the temps are lovely, but we are getting very bad air quality reports from the wildfires in Canada. And we've had no rain to speak of for weeks. Not usually a problem here, but I had some new plants to plant, and the ground was just too hard, so then I have to spend a day moving the sprinkler around.I wasn't going to plant a vegetable garden yet this year - I have to prepare the ground from scratch - maybe a tomato in a pot or something, but then I couldn't resist. I ended up with 4 tomatoes, several peppers, an eggplant, zucchini, butternut squash, and a pie pumpkin. Also some herbs to plant - basil, parsley, chives, mint, etc. And a pot of strawberries. And here it is the end of June. Talk about getting things in LATE. Still don't have a bed. I think I am just going to put everything along the outside of the fence.
Laurel wrote: "#28 Salt to the Sea4 red stars
Based on a true story that is not well known, at least in the US. Given current events of the past week, I coul..."
That's a great book. I agree about the ending, but the story, wow! How come we've never heard of it???
Mod
Alondra~I hear you about Gardening as I live in NC. It is HOT today. I moved a few years ago and with the heat the ..."
Yes; it is very much trial and error. Learning that full sun in the south is different than full sun up north! LOL
Mod
Laurel, I got tired of the digging and just do raised beds. They're prettier and it makes me look like I'm doing something! hehehehehe
#29
The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis3 green stars.
I finished this book this morning to the news that yesterday was the hottest day ever recorded planet-wide, and we can expect the trend to continue. This is a book full of some very interesting ideas, but they are presented in a somewhat rambling and repetitive style. There are a lot of topics covered: climate change, colonialism, slavery, genocide, the exploitation of natural resources and the native cultures that are "in the way" of Western greed - it's a sad litany of how Western culture has exploited others. The main argument seems to be that we need to return to a more animistic view of nature, and consider the powerful connection of native peoples to a place of origin. This is kind of where he lost me. I would argue that it isn't just Western colonialism that has been guilty of genocide, deforestation, and hunting species to extinction. Humanity on the whole has been very bad for the planet. I do agree that the solution must involve empathy for Mother Earth as a whole, and that we need to regain a sense of connection to the land and "all our relations."
Description: A powerful work of history, essay, testimony, and polemic, Amitav Ghosh’s new book traces our contemporary planetary crisis back to the discovery of the New World and the sea route to the Indian Ocean. The Nutmeg’s Curse argues that the dynamics of climate change today are rooted in a centuries-old geopolitical order constructed by Western colonialism. At the center of Ghosh’s narrative is the now-ubiquitous spice nutmeg. The history of the nutmeg is one of conquest and exploitation—of both human life and the natural environment. In Ghosh’s hands, the story of the nutmeg becomes a parable for our environmental crisis, revealing the ways human history has always been entangled with earthly materials such as spices, tea, sugarcane, opium, and fossil fuels. Our crisis, he shows, is ultimately the result of a mechanistic view of the earth, where nature exists only as a resource for humans to use for our own ends, rather than a force of its own, full of agency and meaning.
Cumulative pages: 9,046
Well, here it is July already! The year is half gone, and I didn't catch up as much as I wanted to in June. In fact I am 1 book behind on my annual goal. On the other hand, I have worked hard in the garden, adding a water feature with a dragon fountain, set up the fairy garden and waterfall fountain, dug up an 18" wide strip on the outside of the backyard fence and put in some vegetables, planted three shrubs (viburnum) to start creating a privacy hedge, AND I spent a week emptying boxes in the garage, set up my bookshelves in the basement "family" room. So all the books are unpacked now (not necessarily organized yet, but unpacked and out of the garage. Also emptied most of the dish packs. Still unwrapping stuff and finding places to put it all. I have two more dish packs left in the garage, and then I will be genuinely "moved in." I now have dishes and mugs, and all my cookbooks and I've actually been using them. So hurrah! I still have another shrub to plant, and a few more herbs and vegetables, and in the next two weeks I have not one, but two, 50th high school reunions to attend. Nevertheless, I plan to read four books and finish two audiobooks...
The Summer Queen - I started this last summer on the plane to Prague. Then moving happened. Now that I have all my books unpacked, I have found it and will start over. I never got very far before anyway.
READ Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle - leftover book club book from April. I'm also starting this month's book
READ Vacationland - happily I can also used this for A Good Yarn, since this month's theme is locations beginning with L, and the setting is both a lake and a lodge.
Miss Eliza's English Kitchen - this is for last month's K setting: a kitchen, and Kent, England (gotta love those twofers!)
On audio, I am halfway through
READ The Book Woman's Daughter - also a K setting:Kentucky
and then will start
READ The Wife Upstairs
#30
The Book Woman's Daughter4.5 blue stars
I liked the story enough to be somewhere between a red or blue rating, but it has the same flaws as the first book: even though the first book was 16 years earlier, the author had advanced the science to the 50s so no change there. It was another variation on the same theme, with too many info dumps. This book was decidedly darker than the first book with prejudice, domestic violence, poverty, etc. and I'm sure all of that was true. The ending was uplifting, but improbable, and too many threads were left hanging, so I'm guessing there might be a third book down the road?
Description: In the ruggedness of the beautiful Kentucky mountains, Honey Lovett has always known that the old ways can make a hard life harder. As the daughter of the famed blue-skinned, Troublesome Creek packhorse librarian, Honey and her family have been hiding from the law all her life. But when her mother and father are imprisoned, Honey realizes she must fight to stay free, or risk being sent away for good. Picking up her mother's old packhorse library route, Honey begins to deliver books to the remote hollers of Appalachia. Honey is looking to prove that she doesn't need anyone telling her how to survive. But the route can be treacherous, and some folks aren't as keen to let a woman pave her own way. If Honey wants to bring the freedom books provide to the families who need it most, she's going to have to fight for her place, and along the way, learn that the extraordinary women who run the hills and hollers can make all the difference in the world.
Cumulative pages: 9,380
#31
The Wife Upstairs3.5 pink stars
This was a decent thriller. Not great, but decent. A twisted, contemporary version of Jane Eyre set in Alabama, it definitely kept me guessing as to whether or not there were any redeeming qualities to the characters, how closely it would follow the outline of the classic, and when the next twist was coming. It did all of that well. Nevertheless, I did not like the characters any better at the end than at the beginning. The ending left a lot of loose threads in the air, and frankly was a bit of a let-down. And must they use profanity in every conversation? I'm not a prude but it got really tiresome. What makes the book work is being a riff on Jane Eyre. I don't think it would have quite the same sense of twistedness if you are not familiar with the original.
Description: Meet Jane. Newly arrived to Birmingham, Alabama, Jane is a broke dog-walker in Thornfield Estates––a gated community full of McMansions, shiny SUVs, and bored housewives. The kind of place where no one will notice if Jane lifts the discarded tchotchkes and jewelry off the side tables of her well-heeled clients. Where no one will think to ask if Jane is her real name. But her luck changes when she meets Eddie Rochester. Recently widowed, Eddie is Thornfield Estates’ most mysterious resident. His wife, Bea, drowned in a boating accident with her best friend, their bodies lost to the deep. Jane can’t help but see an opportunity in Eddie––not only is he rich, brooding, and handsome, he could also offer her the kind of protection she’s always yearned for. Yet as Jane and Eddie fall for each other, Jane is increasingly haunted by the legend of Bea, an ambitious beauty with a rags-to-riches origin story, who launched a wildly successful southern lifestyle brand. How can she, plain Jane, ever measure up? And can she win Eddie’s heart before her past––or his––catches up to her?
Cumulative pages: 9,670
July update:Still working on a bunch of leftovers. On audio I am about to start
READ Bel Canto for an online book club group read.
Midyear goals update:Over all goal of 60 books: 31 of 60. Only one book behind which is pretty good actually, considering how many books I have half-finished...
Themes:
My main theme this year is "Light" and I've only read one. My goal is ~10 a year, so I'd like to read at least one a month for the rest of the year.
I'd like to read The Iliad and The Odyssey by the end of the year so I can do my "Odyssey" theme next year.
Book Clubs:
Daytimer's is a given. I'm one book behind, so 7 to go.
Perspectives is reading The Gates of Europe for September. I have two leftovers, plus whatever we pick for the rest of the year, so 6 books.
The Bookworms list is optional, but I still hope to get to those - another 7 books. Maybe I just commit to the first half of the list which would be 3 books.
And we're already up to 25 books... probably not going to happen...
As for A Good Yarn - I try to find books that I'm already going to read rather than something new... but let's say at least 3 books, since the themes run for two months.
Leftovers:
I have at least 7 I'd like to finish by the end of the year.
Challenges:
Book Cover Colors - Hopefully will be something I'm reading anyway...
A titles - There are at least 5 more I'd like to finish. Some of these are also leftovers.
So here's my "Priority" list for the rest of the year:
A Vision of Light
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Light in August
Hild
A Marvellous Light
READ Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle
READ Vacationland
READ The Island of Missing Trees
READ Horse
READ Matrix
READ The Lake House
READ Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners
Lessons in Chemistry
The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature
READ The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine
READ The Maid
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot
The Seed Keeper
Wolf Hall
Miss Eliza's English Kitchen
The Summer Queen
Queen By Right
READ Bel Canto
Moby-Dick or, the Whale
Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer
...And Ladies of the Club
READ The Apothecary Rose
Optional or Alternates:
The Mirror & the Light (Need to read Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies first)
The Edge of Light (Need to read The Road to Avalon and Born of the Sun first)
The Iliad / The Odyssey - listing these as optional for now...
The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear
The Woman in the Library
Remarkably Bright Creatures
West with Giraffes
Ygerna: A Pendragon Chronicles Prequel Novel
The Evening Chorus
The Fall of Atlantis
READ The Adventures of Alianore Audley
Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle that Made England
Ambrosius Aureliani
The Art of Fielding
3 more books for Perspectives book club - TBD
3 more books for A Good Yarn - TBD
That looks manageable! 27 books on the priority list, with a few additions from the optional list or random shiny new things...
Mod
You've been busy!! No wonder you didn't catch up as much. When I am on full-time gardening, I don't read as much either. It's also been so hot, that I actually have to keep a watch on my veggies.
Kudos on your progress and having that priority list jotted down. Sometimes that helps.... but readers are a finicky bunch. LOL
Good luck
Thanks, Alondra. I actually still have some veggies to get planted! But it's squash and a pumpkin. Having a list at least makes it seem doable, but of course, time and reading moods are always subject to change!
#32
Vacationland5 purple stars
15 exquisitely written short stories, that can stand alone, but taken as a whole is like one of Meg's paintings. At first glance you see the whole place, but look deeper and see a pastiche of time and place and people. Some are integral to the running of Naledi, others come and go. Quintessentially of northern Minnesota, but also of the whole USA with its melting pot of young and old, Native Americans, immigrants from Europe, Russia, and Asia, townspeople, vacationers, drug addiction, infidelity, infirmity, poor people, rich people, LGBTQ people, love and loss, humor and poignancy, regret and redemption. I don't want to let this place or the people go, so I will be reading the sequel immediately.
Description: On a lake in northernmost Minnesota, you might find Naledi Lodge - only two cabins still standing, its pathways now trodden mostly by memories. And there you might meet Meg, or the ghost of the girl she was, growing up under her grandfather’s care in a world apart and a lifetime ago. Now an artist, Meg paints images "reflected across the mirrors of memory and water", much as the linked stories of Vacationland cast shimmering spells across distance and time. Those whose paths have crossed at Naledi inhabit Vacationland: a man from nearby Hatchet Inlet who knew Meg back when, a Sarajevo refugee sponsored by two parishes who can’t afford "their own refugee", aged sisters traveling to fulfill a fateful pact once made at the resort, a philandering ad man, a lonely Ojibwe stonemason, and a haiku-spouting girl rescued from a bog. Sarah Stonich weaves these tales of love and loss, heartbreak and redemption into a rich novel of interconnected and disjointed lives. This is a moving portrait of a place - at once timeless and of the moment, composed of conflicting dreams and shared experience - and of the woman bound to it by legacy, and sometimes longing, but not necessarily by choice.
Cumulative pages: 9,958
Onward to August:Audiobooks: Almost finished with
READ Bel Canto (1 1/2 hours and due back in 3 days) - then I have
A Marvellous Light waiting, and it is due in 9 days, so might involve some marathon listening outside of the car... After that, hoping to start
READ The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine since I am leading the book club discussion in September. My book club book for Daytimers (end of August) is
READ The Island of Missing Trees but Libby is telling me I still have a 5 week wait...
Print books: About to start
The Unbearable Lightness of Being which perhaps should wait because the library has one copy (which I have out) and suddenly there are 4 holds on it. Go figure. Just requested
Laurentian Divide which was not on my mid-year priority list, but I loved Vacationland and I need another L location book for A Good Yarn for August, so why not?
Still working on leftovers:
Miss Eliza's English Kitchen: A Novel of Victorian Cookery and Friendship
READ Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle
The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature
I shall TRY to be good and not start anything else new, until those are finished! But the temptation is strong!!
#33
Bel Canto3.5 pink stars, changed to 4 red stars
We can guess that the unnamed South American country is akin to Peru, since this novel was inspired by an actual hostage situation at the Japanese Embassy there, and several of the terrorists are said to speak Quechua. This was an interesting character study, as the terrorists and their hostages spend several months together. All of the women had been released, except for the famous opera singer, and it is she and the beauty of her music that creates unlikely relationships and even love stories (two of the terrorists turn out to be girls, not boys...) Only one man, a negotiator, comes and goes. We are not privy to anything happening in the outside world, so our book is a bit like an opera playing out within the mansion. Nothing happens except for the "music" until suddenly it is over. I almost rounded this up to 4 stars, but the epilogue was just out of left field. I'm glad I read it finally, but I wanted to like it more than I did.
Update, after watching the movie with Julianne Moore and Ken Watanabe:
This was beautifully done. The movie was perhaps a bit more romanticized than the book, but it changed the ending to a benefit concert rather than a wedding which seemed much more fitting. Ultimately, both the book and the movie did a great job humanizing the terrorists. You can call it Stockholm syndrome, but that doesn't take away from the beauty of what is created under the circumstances and what a tragedy it is in the end. I am raising my rating to 4 red stars.
Description: Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening—until a band of gun-wielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, a moment of great beauty, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different continents become compatriots, intimate friends, and lovers.
Cumulative pages: 10,276
Three days into August, and I already have an update...First, the audiobook situation. Having finished Bel Canto, the next book waiting only had 7 days left before it would disappear because of holds waiting and couldn't be renewed and I didn't want to spend two hours a day on it. My hold on the audiobook of The Gates of Europe became available so I checked that out and started it on the way home from work yesterday. But since it is non-fiction, and I have to prepare discussion questions for it for Perspectives Book Club for September, I decided it's going to need more of my attention, so I can take notes as I read. I do have the print book checked out from the library, so I will send the audiobook back. Everything else I have on hold is a 5 week (or more) waiting list, so I'm looking at what I have on Chirp or Audible....
READ The Apothecary Rose and/or
Death at La Fenice
As for the print books I listed in my August plans above, Trump's newest indictment had me glued to CNN on Tuesday, so no marathon reading of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It is going back to the library, since it is due today. Looking at my leftovers last night, I wasn't feeling the love for any of them, except for an older leftover, which I need to start over:
The Summer Queen
I've also got the Arthurian trilogy by Joan Wolf on my lists. I found my copies of the 2nd and 3rd books, but not the first. I collect Arthurian fiction, so I have ordered the first one from Amazon which will arrive maybe by Saturday...
The Road To Avalon
I still wanted something new to read last night, and didn't want to start [Laurentian Divide] yet. Okay - the August cover color challenge is silver and lavender. What have I got? Ah...
READ The Game's Afoot has a nice silver knight on the cover, and oh look, it's on my list of the shortest books on my list (yes, I have lists of list....) and Goodreads shows that I own it on Kindle. Perfect! Except that it's not anywhere to be found... Kindle giveth and Kindle taketh apparently. But it's free on Kindle Unlimited. Here's my excuse to start a free trial (I opted for 2 months for $4.99). And there are two sequels
READ Harfleur and
READ Agincourt - all short...
Other books on my lists available on Kindle Unlimited:
How many can I read in two months?
The Brighter the Light
The Book of Uriel: A Novel of WWII
The Whaler
The Winter King
Flight of the Wren
READ The Adventures of Alianore Audley: The Chronicles of Yorkist Intelligence
Conrad Monk and the Great Heathen Army
The Crown Jewels Conspiracy
Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Rebecca's Children
Ambrosius Aureliani
Islands in the Mist
State of Treason
A Vow of Silence
READ ALBA IS MINE: The struggle for Kingship in Ancient Scotland
So there you have it - pretty much a complete change in plans!
Mod
Bel Canto3.5 pink stars, changed to 4 red stars
We can guess that the unnamed South American country is akin to Peru, since this novel was inspired by a..."
Glad you liked this book; I myself; loved it. Among a sea of naysayers, I loved it.
Mr Penumbra's was good. I love books about books.
#34
The Apothecary Rose5 purple stars.
I have loved this series for as long as I can remember, and this reread did not diminish that in any way. I found myself wanting to read this to the exclusion of everything else (and I usually have several books going at a time.) I am also going to start it over immediately to follow the clues now that I know the ending. It is not only a good mystery, but it is a good love story and that is probably a spoiler. But I've said it, and I'll also say that it is the relationship between Owen and Lucie that endeared me to this series years ago. It won't take me long to reread it again and then I look forward to reacquainting myself with the rest of the series.
Description: In the year of our Lord 1363, two suspicious deaths in the infirmary of St. Mary's Abbey catch the attention of the powerful John Thoresby, Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop of York. One victim is a pilgrim, while the second is Thoresby's ne'er-do-well ward, both apparently poisoned by a physic supplied by Master Apothecary Nicholas Wilton. In the wake of these deaths, the archbishop dispatches one-eyed spy Owen Archer to York to find the murderer. Under the guise of a disillusioned soldier keen to make a fresh start, Owen insinuates himself into Wilton's apothecary as an apprentice. But he finds Wilton bedridden, with the shop being run by his lovely, enigmatic young wife, Lucie. As Owen unravels a tangled history of scandal and tragedy, he discovers at its center a desperate, forbidden love twisted over time into obsession. And the woman he has come to love is his prime suspect.
Cumulative pages: 10,595
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2.5 yellow stars
I didn't dislike it, but I was rather underwhelmed by this little tale. Not sure if it was aimed at teens or not (my library has it cataloged as an adult book). The writing was flat and repetitive, and nothing was fleshed out very much. It seemed to be just a vehicle for a philosophical diatribe about books. It might have also served as a coming of age tale, except that I'd be hard-pressed to articulate just how the boy changed by the end of the story. The ebook had no illustrations, but this could make a charming graphic novel.... The cat was not very catlike, and didn't have much of a role in the plot, except to indicate that "we aren't in Kansas anymore" and to act as a sort of courier between the real world and the fantasy world. Each "mission" got a little darker, and the last one was much more interesting than the others. It's a quick read, but I didn't find it anything special.
Description: Bookish high school student Rintaro Natsuki is about to close the secondhand bookstore he has inherited from his beloved bookworm grandfather. However, one day, a talking cat named Tiger appears and asks Rintaro to save books with him. Of course, "ask" is putting it politely -- Tiger is demanding Rintaro's help. The world is full of lonely books, left unread and unloved, and only Tiger and Rintaro can liberate them from their neglectful owners. And so, the odd couple begin an amazing journey, entering different mazes to set books free. Through their travels, Tiger and Rintaro meet a man who leaves his books to rot on his bookshelf, a book torturer who cuts books to clips to help people read as fast as they can, and a publishing drone who only wants to create bestsellers. And then, the last maze that awaits leads Rintaro down a realm only the bravest readers would dare enter... Books, cats, first love, fantasy -- THE CAT WHO SAVED BOOKS is a story for those who know books are so much more than words on paper.
Cumulative pages: 4,749