Chatterbox Reads and Reads and Reads in 2018... Part the Third

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Chatterbox Reads and Reads and Reads in 2018... Part the Third

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1Chatterbox
aug 28, 2018, 11:49 pm

September 1, 1939
by W.H. Auden
(1907-1973)

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.

Accurate scholarship can
Unearth the whole offence
From Luther until now
That has driven a culture mad,
Find what occurred at Linz,
What huge imago made
A psychopathic god:
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.

Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.

Into this neutral air
Where blind skyscrapers use
Their full height to proclaim
The strength of Collective Man,
Each language pours its vain
Competitive excuse:
But who can live for long
In an euphoric dream;
Out of the mirror they stare,
Imperialism’s face
And the international wrong.

Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.

The windiest militant trash
Important Persons shout
Is not so crude as our wish:
What mad Nijinsky wrote
About Diaghilev
Is true of the normal heart;
For the error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have,
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.

From the conservative dark
Into the ethical life
The dense commuters come,
Repeating their morning vow;
“I will be true to the wife,
I’ll concentrate more on my work,"
And helpless governors wake
To resume their compulsory game:
Who can release them now,
Who can reach the deaf,
Who can speak for the dumb?

All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

2Chatterbox
Redigerat: dec 31, 2018, 9:52 pm

Somehow this feels like "a low dishonest decade" full of "waves of anger and fear". This poem by Auden, written in NYC on the occasion of the outbreak of war back in England, is, I think, one of the best political poems I know.

My reading remains desultory, with sparks of "wow"! here and there. I've been battling various illnesses of my own and friends, struggling to get enough work and (horrors) have just lost a ready supply of ARCs (advance review copies), as Amazon Vine has purged me from its ranks (no reason given or apparent; a lot of other people have also been purged, so whatever. It was a good nine or ten year run, with lots of free books...)

While I always read far more than 75 books a year and have now passed my third 75 (!!) it doesn't look as if I'll reach this year's arbitrary goal of 430, which has been my average for the last eight years. So be it. Nor have I been great about doing my usual capsule reviews. Too much stress. I may try to go back and pick out some highlights and lowlights.

If you want to see what I have been reading in real time, your best bet is to go to my library on LT, and look at the dedicated collection I've established there, under the label "Books Read in 2018". As I complete a book, I'll rate it and add it to the list. I'll also tag it, "Read in 2018". You'll be able to see it by either searching under that tag, or clicking on https://www.librarything.com/catalog/Chatterbox/booksreadin2018.

My TBR mountain is pretty much out of control. Last year, for every book that I read, I acquired two. This year, I'm quite a bit worse... I think it's 3 to 1. While I spend full price for only a fraction -- usually only about 10%, with most of them being ARCs, digital ARCs, from the publisher, or Kindle sale books, the book stalagmites continue to grow. And in another barometer of my reading: I'm not doing as well as I'd like on my list of reading objectives (listed below...) -- books, themes, authors, I plan to read or re-read.




My guide to my ratings:

1.5 or less: A tree gave its life so that this book could be printed and distributed?
1.5 to 2.7: Are you really prepared to give up hours of your life for this?? I wouldn't recommend doing so...
2.8 to 3.3: Do you need something to fill in some time waiting to see the dentist? Either reasonably good within a ho-hum genre (chick lit or thrillers), something that's OK to read when you've nothing else with you, or that you'll find adequate to pass the time and forget later on.
3.4 to 3.8: Want to know what a thumping good read is like, or a book that has a fascinating premise, but doesn't quite deliver? This is where you'll find 'em.
3.9 to 4.4: So, you want a hearty endorsement? These books have what it takes to make me happy I read them.
4.5 to 5: The books that I wish I hadn't read yet, so I could experience the joy of discovering them again for the first time. Sometimes disquieting, sometimes sentimental faves, sometimes dramatic -- they are a highly personal/subjective collection!

Starting with my reads in August, here is the list. If you want to see what I have read earlier this year, check the next few posts.

The October List:

312. Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia by Peter Pomerantsev (finished 10/2/18) 4.55 stars (A)
313. Force of Nature by Jane Harper (finished 10/2/18) 3.8 stars
314. Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America by Alissa Quart (finished 10/3/18) 3.85 stars
315. Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy by Eric O'Neill (finished 10/4/18) 4.2 stars
316. City of Ink by Elsa Day (finished 10/5/18) 4.6 stars
317. A Christmas Revelation by Anne Perry (finished 10/5/18) 3.25 stars
318. The Endless Beach by Jenny Colgan (finished 10/7/18) 3.65 stars
319. The Fatal Crown by Ellen Jones (finished 10/8/18) 3.4 stars (A)
320. Fell Purpose by Cynthia Harrod Eagles (finished 10/8/18) 3.5 stars
321. *Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart (finished 10/9/18) 4.15 stars (A)
322. Educated by Tara Westover (finished 10/9/18) 5 stars
323. Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World by Suzy Hansen (finished 10/12/18) 4.4 stars
324. The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry (finished 10/13/18) 4.75 stars (A)
325. Mr. Darcy's Daughters by Elizabeth Aston (finished 10/13/18) 3.75 stars (A)
326. From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty (finished 10/13/18) 4.15 stars
327. The True Darcy Spirit by Elizabeth Aston (finished 10/14/18) 3.5 stars (A)
328. The Man Between by Charles Cumming (finished 10/15/18) 4.1 stars
329. The Turn of Midnight by Minette Walters (finished 10/15/18) 3.75 stars
330. The Second Mrs. Darcy by Elizabeth Aston (finished 10/16/18) 3.6 stars (A)
331. The Darcy Connection by Elizabeth Aston (finished 10/17/18) 3.8 stars (A)
332. Christmas on the Island by Jenny Colgan (finished 10/17/18) 3.45 stars
333. Mr. Darcy's Dream by Elizabeth Aston (finished 10/19/18) 3.25 stars (A)
334. *Here Comes Harry by Hilda Lewis (finished 10/20/18) 4.1 stars
335. I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes With Death by Maggie O'Farrell (finished 10/20/18) 4.4 stars
336. A Sorrowful Sanctuary by Iona Whishaw (finished 10/22/18) 3.5 stars
337. The Moscow Sleepers by Stella Rimington (finished 10/23/18) 3.9 stars
338. *This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart (finished 10/23/18) 4 stars
339. Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises (and Essays) by Rebecca Solnit (finished 10/26/18) 5 stars
340. *The Black Seraphim by Michael Gilbert (finished 10/26/18) 3.9 stars
341. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith (finished 10/28/18) 4 stars (A)
342. Bone on Bone by Julia Keller (finished 10/29/18) 3.75 stars
343. *The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer (finished 10/30/18) 3.75 stars (A)
344. Mary B. by Katherine Chen (finished 10/31/18) 3.5 stars
345. *Mirage by Soheir Khashoggi (finished 10/31/18) 3.8 stars

The November List:

346. The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon (finished 11/2/18) 3.65 stars
347. The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse by Alexander McCall Smith (finished 11/2/18) 3.45 stars
348. *Madam, Will You Talk? by Mary Stewart (finished 11/3/18) 3.7 stars (A)
349. Gallows Court by Martin Edwards (finished 11/3/18) 3.6 stars
350. Into the Fire by Alexander Fullerton (finished 11/4/18) 3.8 stars
351. The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump by Michiko Kakutani (finished 11/6/18) 4.2 stars
352. Burmese Days by George Orwell (finished 11/7/18) 4.2 stars
353. First Person by Richard Flanagan (finished 11/8/18) 4.6 stars
354. The Golden Tresses of the Dead by Alan Bradley (finished 11/10/18) 4.15 stars
355. Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny by Witold Szablowski (finished 11/10/18) 3.7 stars
356. *Murder is Easy by Agatha Christie (finished 11/11/18) 3.6 stars (A)
357. The Witch Elm by Tana French (finished 11/11/18) 4.4 stars (A)
358. *The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan (finished 11/12/18) 4 stars (A)
359. Escape From Paris by Carolyn Hart (finished 11/12/18) 3.4 stars (A)
360. The Invisible Emperor: Napoleon on Elba from Exile to Escape by Mark Braude (finished 11/12/18) 4.5 stars
361. A Family Recipe by Veronica Henry (finished 11/13/18) 3.4 stars
362. The Soldier's Curse by Meg Keneally and Thomas Keneally (finished 11/14/18) 4.3 stars (A)
363. The Banker's Wife by Christina Alger (finished 11/15/18) 3.8 stars
364. City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong (finished 11/16/18) 3.6 stars
365. *The Feast of Roses by Indu Sundaresan (finished 11/17/18) 4 stars (A)
366. Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor (finished 11/17/18) 4.1 stars
367. Return to the Field by Alexander Fullerton (finished 11/18/18) 3.75 star
368. *84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (finished 11/18/18) 4.25. stars (A)
369. Final Settlement by Linda Davies (finished 11/19/18) 4.35 stars
370. The Black Ascot by Charles Todd (finished 11/19/18) 4.2 stars
371. What Truth Sounds Like: RFK, James Baldwin and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America by Michael Eric Dyson (finished 11/20/18) 5 stars
372. Honeysuckle House by Christina Jones (finished 11/20/18) 1.6 stars
373. *Shadow Princess by Indu Sundaresan (finished 11/21/18) 3.8 stars (A)
374. *Miss Silver Comes to Stay by Patricia Wentworth (finished 11/22/18) 3.4 stars
375. Displaced by Stephan Abarbanell (finished 11/23/18) 3.1 stars
376. The Marriage Bureau: The True Story of How Two Matchmakers Arranged Love in Wartime London by Penrose Halson (finished 11/23/18) 3.35 stars
377. In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History by Mitch Landrieu (finished 11/24/18) 3.65 stars
378. The Unmourned by Meg Keneally & Thomas Keneally (finished 11/24/18) 4.3 stars
379. The Hopkins Manuscript by R.C. Sherriff (finished 11/25/18) 4.4 stars
380. Listen to the Nightingale by Rumer Godden (finished 11/26/18) 4.1 stars
381. Tombland by C.J.Sansom (finished 11/28/18) 4.7 stars
382. Bright Young Dead by jessica Fellowes (finished 11/29/18) 3.8 stars (A)
383. *Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchy (finished 11/30/18) 3.6 stars (A)

The December List:

384: *Mosaic by Soheir Khashoggi (finished 12/4/18) 3.8 stars
385. The Revolution of Marina M. by Janet Fitch (finished 12/5/18) 4.1 stars
386. Memento Mori by Muriel Spark (finished 12/6/18) 4.2 stars
387. Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul by Jeremiah Moss (finished 12/7/18) 4.3 stars
388. Erebus: One Ship, Two Epic Voyages, and the Greatest Naval Mystery of All Time by Michael Palin (finished 12/8/18) 4.15 stars
389. The Hellfire Club by Jake Tapper (finished 12/8/18) 3.4 stars
390. I Am Shakespeare by Mark Rylance (finished 12/9/18) 4 stars
391. Savage Liberty by Eliot Pattison (finished 12/10/18) 4.1 stars (A)
392. The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker (finished 12/10/18) 4.25 stars
393. The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World by Maya Jasanoff (finished 12/12/18) 5 stars
394. The Frangipani Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu (finished 12/12/18) 3.75 stars
395. In the Enemy's House: The Secret Saga of the FBI Agent and the Code Breaker Who Caught the Russian Spies by Howard Blum (finished 12/14/18) 4.4 stars (A)
396. The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware (finished 12/14/18) 4.2 stars (partly A)
397. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (finished 12/15/18) 4.65 stars
398. City of Secrets by Victoria Thompson (finished 12/16/18) 3.85 stars
399. The Betel Nut Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu (finished 12/16/18) 3.65 stars
400. The Huntress by Kate Quinn (finished 12/17/18) 3.85 stars
401. In Extremis: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie Colvin by Lindsay Hillsum (finished 12/18/18) 5 stars
402. The Winters by Lisa Gabriele (finished 12/18/18) 3.7 stars
403. The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey (finished 12/19/18) 4.15 stars
404. An Unknown Welshman by Jean Stubbs (finished 12/19/18) 3.4 stars
405. Berlin: City of Stones by John Lutes (finished 12/20/18) 4.1 stars
406. The Blue by Nancy Bilyeau (finished 12/21/18) 4.4 stars
407. Berlin: City of Smoke by John Lutes (finished 12/22/18) 4 stars
408. The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson (finished 12/22/18) 4.4 stars
409. Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley (finished 12/24/18) 4.2 stars (A)
410. Madame Fourcade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler by Lynne Olson (finished 12/25/18) 4.5 stars
411. The Sea Queen by Linnea Hartsuyker (finished 12/27/18) 4.2 stars
412. Singing in the Shrouds by Ngaio Marsh (finished 12/27/18) 3.7 stars (A)
413. Into the Black Nowhere by Meg Gardiner (finished 12/29/18) 4.15 stars
414. Transcription by Kate Atkinson (finished 12/29/18) 4.5 stars
415. Patriot Number One: American Dreams in Chinatown by Lauren Hilgers (finished 12/30/18) 3.9 stars
416. Enchantress of Numbers by Jennifer Chiaverini (finished 12/30/18) 3.45 stars (A)
417. Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovich (finished 12/30/18) 4.1 stars (A)
418. The Lubetkin Legacy by Marina Lewycka (finished 12/31/18) 3.6 stars
419. Divided: Why We're Living in an Age of Walls by Tim Marshall (finished 12/31/18) 4 stars

* Re-Reads
(A) Audiobook

3Chatterbox
Redigerat: sep 2, 2018, 1:10 am

The January list:

1. The Feast of Artemis by Anne Zouroudi (finished 1/2/18) 3.7 stars
2. *Children of Chance by Elizabeth Pewsey (finished 1/3/18) 4 stars (A)
3. Admissions: Life as a Brain Surgeon by Henry Marsh (finished 1/5/18) 3.8 stars
4. *Divine Comedy by Elizabeth Pewsey (finished (1/6/18) 4 stars (A)
5. Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff (finished 1/7/18) 4.3 stars
6. Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin (finished 1/7/18) 5 stars
7. Travelers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism: 1919-1945 by Julia Boyd (finished 1/9/18) 4.3 stars
8. Maid of the King's Court by Lucy Worsley (finished 1/9/18) 2.75 stars
9. The Radicals by Ryan McIlvain (finished 1/10/18) 4.2 stars
10. Love in Idleness by Amanda Craig (finished 1/10/18) 3.7 stars
11. *Unholy Harmonies by Elizabeth Pewsey (finished 1/11/18) 4 stars (A)
12. The Black Hand by Will Thomas (finished 1/12/18) 3.7 stars
13. The Way of the Writer: Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling by Charles Johnson (finished 1/12/18) 4.1 stars
14. The Necessary Angel by C.K. Stead (finished 1/13/18) 4.2 stars
15. The Spy Across the Table by Barry Lancet (finished 1/14/18) 3.9 stars
16. Thale's Folly by Dorothy Gilman (finished 1/15/18) 3 stars (A)
17. *Volcanic Airs by Elizabeth Pewsey (finished 1/16/18) 3.9 stars (A)
18. The Last Hours by Minette Walters (finished 1/16/18) 4 stars
19. Death Comes to Lynchester Close by David Dickinson (finished 1/17/18) 3.7 stars
20. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann (finished 1/18/18) 4.45 stars
21. *Unaccustomed Spirits by Elizabeth Pewsey (finished 1/19/18) 4.1 stars (A)
22. Blue Madonna by James R. Benn (finished 1/20/18) 4 stars (A)
23. The Library at the Edge of the World by Felicity Hayes-McCoy (finished 1/20/18) 2.5 stars
24. Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic by David Frum (finished 1/21/18) 5 stars (A)
25. The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn (finished 1/22/18) 4.4 stars
26. The Templars' Last Secret by Martin Walker (finished 1/22/18) 4 stars
27. The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler (finished 1/23/18) 4.5 stars
28. *Brotherly Love by Elizabeth Pewsey (finished 1/23/18) 4 stars (A)
29. The Girl on the Velvet Swing: Sex, Murder, and Madness at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century by Simon Baatz (finished 1/24/18) 4.15 stars
30. The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash (finished 1/25/18) 4.2 stars
31. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (finished 1/26/18) 4.3 stars
32. *Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey (finished 1/27/18) 4.5 stars (A)
33. *The Old Man by Thomas Perry (finished 1/28/18) 3.7 stars (A)
34. The Third Victim by Phillip Margolin (finished 1/29/18) 3.4 stars
35. Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Golden Samovar by Olga Wjotas (finished 1/29/18) 3.85 stars
36. Hitler, My Neighbor: Memories of a Jewish Childhood, 1929-1939 by Edgar Feuchtwanger (finished 1/30/18) 4 stars
37. The Hound in the Left-Hand Corner by Giles Waterfield (finished 1/30/18) 4.3 stars
38. The Penalty Area by Alain Grillot (finished 1/31/18) 4.1 stars
39. The Judge Hunter by Christopher Buckley (finished 1/31/18) 4.2 stars

The February List:

40. Fatal Enquiry by Will Thomas (finished 2/1/18) 3.85 stars
41. The Take by Christopher Reich (finished 2/3/18) 3.8 stars
42. Coming Home to Island House by Erica James (finished 2/4/18) 3.3 stars
43. The Wife by Alafair Burke (finished 2/4/18) 4.15 stars (A)
44. *The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (finished 2/5/18) 4.8 stars (A)
45. Death in St. Petersburg by Tasha Alexander (finished 2/6/18) 3.7 stars
46. Twenty-One Days by Anne Perry (finished 2/6/18) 4.1 stars
47. Only Child by Rhiannon Navin (finished 2/8/18) 4.2 stars
48. Two Sisters: A Father, His Daughters, and Their Journey into the Syrian Jihad by Asne Seierstad (finished 2/10/18) 4.2 stars
49. The Rooster Bar by John Grisham (finished 2/13/18) 3.5 stars (A)
50. How to Stop Time by Matt Haig (finished 2/14/18) 4.3 stars
51. Year One by Nora Roberts (finished 2/15/18) 3.45 stars
52. Republican Like Me by Ken Stern (finished 2/16/18) 4.35 stars
53. Fools and Mortals by Bernard Cornwell (finished 2/17/18) 4 stars
54. A Death in Live Oak by James Grippando (finished 2/18/18) 4.2 stars (A)
55. The Storied City: The Quest for Timbuktu and the Fantastic Mission to Save Its Past by Charlie English (finished 2/18/18) 4.4 stars
56. Faith Fox by Jane Gardam (finished 2/19/18) 4 stars
57. Queens of the Conquest by Alison Weir (finished 2/20/18) 3.1 stars (A)
58. Circe by Madeline Miller (finished 2/21/18) 5 stars
59. Most Dangerous Place by James Grippando (finished 2/21/18) 3.85 stars (A)
60. The King's Witch by Tracy Borman (finished 2/23/18) 4.2 stars
61. Anatomy of Evil by Will Thomas (finished 2/24/18) 3.9 stars
62. Oriana Fallaci: The Journalist, the Agitator, the Legend by Cristina De Stefano (finished 2/24/18) 3.25 stars
63. The French Girl by Lexie Elliott (finished 2/25/18) 4.1 stars
64. *Katherine of Aragon: the True Queen by Alison Weir (finished 2/26/18) 4.1 stars (A)
65. Hell Bay by Will Thomas (finished 2/26/18) 3.65 stars
66. Futureface: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging by Alex Wagner (finished 2/27/18) 4.65 stars
67. A Crime in the Family: A World War II Secret Buried in Silence--And My Search for the Truth by Sacha Batthyany (finished 2/27/18) 3.85 stars (A) in part
68. Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce (finished 2/28/18) 4.2 stars
69. The Revolution of the Moon by Andrea Camilleri (finished 2/28/18) 4.25 stars

The March list:

70. *Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession by Alison Weir (finished 3/1/18) 4.15 stars (A)
71. Jane Seymour, The Haunted Queen by Alison Weir (finished 3/2/18) 4 stars
72. Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost (finished 3/2/18) 3.85 stars
73. First Night by Jane Aiken Hodge (finished 3/3/18) 3.45 stars
74. An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn (finished 3/4/18) 5 stars (A) in part
75. *Fidelity by Thomas Perry (finished 3/4/18) 3.4 stars (A)
76. *The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey (finished 3/5/18) 5 stars (A)
77. Last Act by Jane Aiken Hodge (finished 3/5/18) 3.3 stars
78. Ike and Kay by James MacManus (finished 3/6/18) 2.7 stars
79. The Last Man in Europe by Dennis Glover (finished 3/7/18) 4.5 stars
80. Beau Death by Peter Lovesey (finished 3/8/18) 4.15 stars (A) (mostly)
81. The House of Hopes and Dreams by Trisha Ashley (finished 3/9/18) 3.8 stars
82. *Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (finished 3/10/18) 5 stars
83. The Birdwatcher by William Shaw (finished 3/10/18) 4.35 stars
84. *Dead Aim by Thomas Perry (finished 3/11/18) 3.65 stars (A)
85. The Songs of the Kings by Barry Unsworth (finished 3/11/18) 4.4 stars
86. Old Scores by Will Thomas (finished 3/12/18) 3.65 stars
87. The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes (finished 3/13/18) 3.45 stars (A)
88. Love of Country: A Hebridean Journey by Madeleine Bunting (finished 3/15/18) 5 stars
89. Small Country by Gaël Faye (finished 3/15/18) 4.2 stars
90. Light in August by William Faulkner (finished 3/17/18) 4.5 stars
91. The Shakespeare Requirement by Julie Schumacher (finished 3/17/18) 3.9 stars
92. The Summer Seaside Kitchen by Jenny Colgan (finished 3/18/18) 3.6 stars
93. The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story by Christie Watson (finished 3/19/18) 4 stars
94. You by Caroline Kepnes (finished 3/20/18) 4 stars
95. Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes (finished 3/22/18) 3.9 stars
96. Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley (finished 3/22/18) 3.8 stars (A)
97. *Calico Captive by Elizabeth George Speare (finished 3/23/18) 3.75 stars
98. Beloved by Toni Morrison (finished 3/24/18) 5 stars
99. Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam by Mark Bowden (finished 3/25/18) 4.15 stars (A) (mostly)
100. To Die But Once by Jacqueline Winspear (finished 3/27/18) 4 stars
101. The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere by Pico Iyer (finished 3/27/18) 3.65 stars
102. The Cutting Season by Attica Locke (finished 3/28/18) 4.3 stars (A)
103. The Punishment She Deserves by Elizabeth George (finished 3/29/18) 4 stars
104. One Brother Shy by Terry Fallis (finished 3/30/18) 3.65 stars
105. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (finished 3/30/18) 4.4 stars
106. *Lonesome Road by Patricia Wentworth (finished 3/31/18) 3.45 stars (A)

* Re-Reads
(A) Audiobook

4Chatterbox
Redigerat: sep 2, 2018, 1:06 am

The April list:

107. *City of Gold and Shadows by Ellis Peters (finished 4/2/18) 3.75 stars (A)
108. The Grave's a Fine and Private Place by Alan Bradley (finished 4/2/18) 3.9 stars
109. Safe Houses by Dan Fesperman (finished 4/4/18) 4.25 stars
110. *Rainbow's End by Ellis Peters (finished 4/5/18) 3.7 stars (A)
111. Disappointment River: Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage by Brian Castner (finished 4/6/18) 4.5 stars
112. Fall of Angels by Barbara Cleverly (finished 4/6/18) 4 stars
113. Two Nights by Kathy Reich (finished 4/7/18) 3.9 stars
114. The Partnership by Barry Unsworth (finished 4/7/18) 3.85 stars
115. *The Key by Patricia Wentworth (finished 4/7/18) 3.4 stars (A)
116. Miss Kopp Just Won't Quit by Amy Stevens (finished 4/8/18) 4.1 stars
117. Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck (finished 4/8/18) 4.75 stars
118. *The Benevent Treasure by Patricia Wentworth (finished 4/9/18) 3.4 stars (A)
119. *The Officers' Wives by Thomas Fleming (finished 4/12/18) 3.9 stars
120. A Tokyo Romance: A Memoir by Ian Buruma (finished 4/14/18) 4.15 stars
121. Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen (finished 4/15/18) 4.2 stars
122. *Mila 18 by Leon Uris (finished 4/16/18) 3.4 stars
123. Daughters of the Winter Queen: Four Remarkable Sisters, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Enduring Legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots by Nancy Goldstone (finished 4/18/18) 4.2 stars
124. Ecstasy by Mary Sharratt (finished 4/18/18) 4.1 stars
125. Bilgewater by Jane Gardam (finished 4/19/18) 4.2 stars
126. The Man Who Snapped His Fingers by Fariba Hachtroudi (finished 4/19/18) 4.3 stars
127. Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris (finished 4/20/18) 3.85 stars
128. Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh (finished 4/20/18) 3.65 stars
129. The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth Winthrop (finished 4/21/18) 4.5 stars
130. *A Good Heart is Hard to Find by Trisha Ashley (finished 4/22/18) 3.45 stars (A)
131. Florence of Arabia by Christopher Buckley (finished 4/23/18) 3.7 stars (A)
132. The New Neighbors by Simon Lelic (finished 4/24/18) 3.9 stars
133. Memento Mori by Ruth Downie (finished 4/25/18) 3.7 stars (A)
134. Impossible Views of the World by Lucy Ives (finished 4/25/18) 1.8 stars
135. Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic (finished 4/26/18) 4.3 stars
136. Radio Free Vermont by Bill McKibben (finished 4/27/18) 3.65 stars
137. How to Be Safe by Tom McCallister (finished 4/28/18) 5 stars (A)
138. Chosen Country: A Rebellion in the West by James Pogue (finished 4/28/18) 3.8 stars
139. A Perilous Path: Talking Race, Inequality, and the Law by Sherrily Ifill et. al. (finished 4/29/18) 4.3 stars
140. *The Empty House by Michael Gilbert (finished 4/29/18) 3.9 stars
141. A Double Life by Flynn Barry (finished 4/30/18) 4.2 stars

The May list:

142. The Dark Clouds Shining by David Downing (finished 5/1/18) 4.1 stars
143. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler (finished 5/2/18) 4.35 stars
144. The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic by Benjamin Carter Hett (finished 5/3/18) 4.6 stars (A)
145. The Fire Court by Andrew Taylor (finished 5/4/18) 4.3 stars
146. Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik (finished 5/5/18) 4 stars
147. A Killer in King's Cove by Iona Whishaw (finished 5/6/18) 3.85 stars
148. The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer (finished 5/7/18) 3.6 stars
149. The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers (finished 5/7/18) 4.7 stars
150. Death in a Darkening Mist by Iona Whishaw (finished 5/8/18) 3.8 stars
151. Amnesia by Michael Ridpath (finished 5/9/18) 4 stars (partly A)
152. An Old, Cold Grave by Iona Whishaw (finished 5/9/18) 3.65 stars
153. Denmark Vesey's Garden: Slavery and Memory in the Cradle of the Confederacy by Ethan Kyle (finished 5/11/18) 4.7 stars (A)
154. *Cue for Treason by Geoffrey Trease (finished 5/12/18) 4.5 stars (A)
155. It Begins in Betrayal by Iona Whishaw (finished 5/13/18) 4 stars
156. *Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie (finished 5/14/18) 3.9 stars (A)
157. My Name is Venus Black by Heather Lloyd (finished 5/15/18) 3.6 stars
158. Appointment With Death by Agatha Christie (finished 5/15/18) 3.6 stars (A)
159. Tangerine by Christine Mangan (finished 5/16/18) 3.75 stars
160. *Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea (finished 5/17/18) 3.9 stars (A)
161. High Rising by Angela Thirkell (finished 5/18/18) 4 stars
162. Brothers of the Gun: A Memoir of the Syrian War by Marwan Hisham & Molly Crabapple (illustrator) (finished 5/19/18) 4.2 stars
163. *The Night of the Twelfth by Michael Gilbert (finished 5/21/18) 3.8 stars
164. It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America by Donald Cay Johnston (finished 5/22/18) 4.5 stars
165. Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell (finished 5/22/18) 3.65 stars
166. This Could Hurt by Jillian Medoff (finished 5/23/18) 3.1 stars
167. The Trial and Execution of the Traitor George Washington by Charles Rosenberg (finished 5/25/18) 3.85 stars
168. *Forty Thieves by Thomas Perry (finished 5/25/18) 3.65 stars (A)
169. A Howl of Wolves by Judith Flanders (finished 5/26/18) 4.1 stars
170. Bannerless by Carrie Vaughan (finished 5/26/18) 2.9 stars
171. Death Has Deep Roots by Michael Gilbert (finished 5/27/18) 4.1 stars
172. Star of the North by D.B. John (finished 5/27/18) 4.2 stars
173. Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller (finished 5/28/18) 4.2 stars (A)
174. A Nantucket Wedding by Nancy Thayer (finished 5/28/18) 3.2 stars
175. The Demon in the House by Angela Thirkell (finished 5/28/18) 3.45 stars
176. Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King (finished 5/30/18) 4.35 stars

The June list:

177. Jacob's Room is Full of Books: a Year of Reading by Susan Hill (finished 6/2/18) 4.3 stars
178. *Painting the Darkness by Robert Goddard (finished 6/2/18) 4.2 stars (A)
179. Shelter in Place by Nora Roberts (finished 6/3/18) 3.7 stars
180. The Devouring by James R. Benn (finished 6/3/18) 3.65 stars
181. The Wardrobe Mistress by Patrick McGrath (finished 6/3/18) 4.4 stars
182. The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman (finished 6/5/18) 4.35 stars
183. Black Water Rising by Attica Locke (finished 6/6/18) 4.4 stars (A)
184. I'll Keep You Safe by Peter May (finished 6/6/18) 3.8 stars
185. The Butcher's Daughter by Victoria Glendinning (finished 6/7/18) 3.9 stars
186. Aunt Dimity and the Widow's Curse by Nancy Atherton (finished 6/8/18) 3.8 stars
187. *Game Without Rules by Michael Gilbert (finished 6/9/18) 4 stars
188. Well, That Escalated Quickly: Memoirs and Mistakes of an Accidental Activist by Franchesca Ramsey (finished 6/10/18) 3.75 stars
189. The Museum of Lost Art by Noah Charney (finished 6/11/18) 4.35 stars
190. The Quiet Side of Passion by Alexander McCall Smith (finished 6/12/18) 3.9 stars
191. Aunt Dimity and the King's Ransom by Nancy Atherton (finished 6/13/18) 3.9 stars
192. The Shadow District by Arnaldur Indridason (finished 6/13/18) 3.7 stars
193. *The Rich Are Different by Susan Howatch (finished 6/14/18) 3.65 stars (A)
194. The Queen's Mary by Sarah Gristwood (finished 6/14/18) 4.15 stars
195. Map of a Nation: A Biography Of The Ordnance Survey by Rachel Hewitt (finished 6/15/18) 4.1 stars
196. The Assize of the Dying by Ellis Peters (finished 6/17/18) 3.45 stars
197. The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch (finished 6/18/18) 4.5 stars
198. *Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens by Michael Gilbert (finished 6/19/18) 3.85 stars
199. The Fourth Monkey by J.D. Barker (finished 6/19/18) 3.9 stars (A)
200. The Poison Bed by E.C. Fremantle (finished 6/20/18) 4.1 stars
201. Rain: Four Walks in English Weather by Melissa Harrison (finished 6/20/18) 3.9 stars
202. The Librarian by Salley Vickers (finished 6/21/18) 4 stars
203. The Quantum Spy by David Ignatius (finished 6/22/18) 3.9 stars
204. The Outcasts of Time by Ian Mortimer (finished 6/23/18) 3.75 stars
205. *Hornet Flight by Ken Follett (finished 6/23/18) 3.65 stars (A)
206. The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World by Catherine Nixey (finished 6/24/18) 5 stars
207. *The Piper on the Mountain by Ellis Peters (finished 6/25/18) 3.45 stars (A)
208. Poison by John Lescroart (finished 6/27/18) 3.8 stars (A)
209. The Secrets of the Bastide Blanche by M.L. Longworth (finished 6/28/18) 3.55 stars
210. *Figures in Silk by Vanora Bennett (finished 6/29/18) 3.85 stars (A)
211. Life in the Garden by Penelope Lively (finished 6/30/18) 4.2 stars

5Chatterbox
Redigerat: dec 22, 2018, 7:20 pm

The July list:

212. We Begin Our Ascent by Joe Mungo Reed (finished 7/1/18) 4.35 stars
213. The Phantom Tree by Nicola Cornick (finished 7/2/18) 3.35 stars
214. The Summer House Party by Caro Fraser (finished 7/2/18) 4.1 star (A)
215. Moskva by Jack Grimwood (finished 7/3/18) 3.8 stars
216. Best of Enemies: The Last Great Spy Story of the Cold War by Gus Russo & Eric Dezenhall (finished 7/4/18) 4.4 stars
217. The Game of Hope by Sandra Gulland (finished 7/4/18) 3.35 stars
218. The Romanov Empress by C.W. Gortner (finished 7/6/18) 3.75 stars
219. Vox by Christina Delcher (finished 7/6/18) 4.45 stars
220. Quicksand by Malin Persson Giolito (finished 7/7/18) 4.3 stars (A)
221. God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza (finished 7/8/18) 3.8 stars (A)
222. Firefly by Henry Porter (finished 7/8/18) 4.4 stars
223. The Library Book by Susan Orlean (finished 7/10/18) 4.65 stars
224. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (finished 7/10/18) 4.15 stars
225. *Sins of the Fathers by Susan Howatch (finished 7/11/18) 3.45 stars (A)
226. A Gathering of Secrets by Linda Castillo (finished 7/12/18) 4 stars
227. *Magic Flutes by Eva Ibbotson (finished 7/13/18) 3.5 stars
228. Our Friends in Berlin by Anthony Quinn (finished 7/14/18) 4.4 stars
229. The Gate Keeper by Charles Todd (finished 7/14/18) 4 stars (A)
230. The Middleman by Olen Steinhauer (finished 7/15/18) 4.65 stars
231. The Foreign Correspondent by Alan Furst (finished 7/16/18) 4.1 stars (A)
232. Song of a Captive Bird by Jasmin Darznik (finished 7/17/18) 4.35 stars
233. Testimony by Anita Shreve (finished 7/18/18) 4.5 stars
234. The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz (finished 7/19/18) 3.7 stars
235. *The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst (finished 7/20/18) 4.1 stars (A)
236. Mad Scenes and Exit Arias: The Death of the New York City Opera and the Future of Opera in America by Heidi Waleson (finished 7/20/18) 4.2 stars
237. The Governor's Ladies by Deryn Lake (finished 7/22/18) 3 stars
238. The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors by Dan Jones (finished 7/23/18) 3.9 stars
239. Don't Eat Me by Colin Cotterill (finished 7/24/18) 4.3 stars
240. Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win by Jo Piazza (finished 7/25/18) 3.75 stars
241. The Other Woman by Daniel Silva (finished 7/27/18) 4 stars
242. The Incurable Romantic: and Other Tales of Madness and Desire by Frank Tallis (finished 7/28/18) 4.2 stars
243. The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Blythell (finished 7/30/18) 3.85 stars
244. Who is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht (finished 7/30/18) 3.7 stars (A)
245. *Holiday With Violence by Ellis Peters (finished 7/31/18) 3.85 stars

The August List:

246. The Burglar by Thomas Perry (finished 8/2/18) 3.5 stars
247. From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan (finished 8/2/18) 4.75 stars
248. The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook (finished 8/3/18) 4.1 stars
249. Murder on Union Square by Victoria Thompson (finished 8/4/18) 3.55 stars
250. The Never-Open Desert Diner by James Thompson (finished 8/5/18) 4.45 stars
251. Day of the Dead by Nicci French (finished 8/8/18) 4.6 stars
252. Interior States: Essays by Meghan O'Gieblyn (finished 8/9/18) 3.9 stars
253. The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason (finished 8/10/18) 4.65 stars
254. *The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie (finished 8/11/18) 3.5 stars (A)
255. In Prior's Wood by G.M. Malliet (finished 8/13/18) 3.2 stars
256. *The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers by Margaret George (finished 8/15/18) 4.35 stars (A)
257. The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone (finished 8/15/18) 4.2 stars
258. Last Stories by William Trevor (finished 8/17/18) 4.35 stars
259. *The Bell Ringers by Henry Porter (finished 8/17/18) 4.15 stars (A)
260. The Potter's Hand by A.N. Wilson (finished 8/18/18) 4.65 stars
261. *Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf (finished 8/18/18) 4.85 stars
262. Prague Spring by Simon Mawer (finished 8/18/18) 4.35 stars
263. The Seabird's Cry by Adam Nicolson (finished 8/18/18) 5 stars
265. Fatal Inheritance by Rachel Rhys (finished 8/19/18) 3.8 stars
266. The Fifth to Die by J.D. Barker (finished 8/21/18) 3.3 stars (A)
267. Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding by Rhys Bowen (finished 8/22/18) 3.7 stars
268. Do This For Me by Eliza Kennedy (finished 8/23/18) 3.4 stars
269. Season of Darkness by Maureen Jennings (finished 8/24/18) 3.55 stars
270. The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre (finished 8/26/18) 4.6 stars
271. Rendezvous with Oblivion: Essays by Thomas Frank (finished 8/27/18) 3.7 stars
272. A Casualty of War by Charles Todd (finished 8/28/18) 3.85 stars
273. War of the Wolf by Bernard Cornwell (finished 8/28/18) 4.25 stars
274. Reckless: Henry Kissinger and the Tragedy of Vietnam by Robert Brigham (finished 8/30/18) 3.9 stars
275. The World Broke in Two: Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, E. M. Forster and the Year That Changed Literature by Bill Goldstein (finished 8/31/18) 4.3 stars

The September list:

276. Broken Ground by Val McDermid (finished 9/1/18) 4.2 stars
277. Pandora's Boy by Lindsey Davis (finished 9/1/18) 4.1 stars (A)
278. One Day in December by Josie Silver (finished 9/2/18) 3 stars
279. Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (finished 9/2/18) 4.65 stars
280. The Wind in My Hair: My Fight For Freedom In Modern Iran by Masih Alinejad (finished 9/3/18) 4.1 stars
281. Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella (finished 9/4/18) 3.5 stars
282. *Munich by Robert Harris (finished 9/4/18) 4.2 stars (A)
283. The Friend by Sigrid Nunez (finished 9/5/18) 4.65 stars
284. Once We Were Brothers by Ronald Balson (finished 9/6/18) 2.9 stars
285. The Only Café by Linden Macintyre (finished 9/7/18) 4.4 stars
286. City of Lies by Victoria Thompson (finished 9/7/18) 3.4 stars
287. Godsend by John Wray (finished 9/8/18) 4.1 stars
288. The Rule of Law by John Lescroart (finished 9/10/18) 3.9 stars
289. Among the Ruins by Ausma Zehanat Khan (finished 9/11/18) 3.7 stars
290. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (finished 9/12/18) 4.35 stars
291. The Fox by Frederick Forsyth (finished 9/13/18) 3.7 stars
292. Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward (finished 9/13/18) 4.5 stars (A)
293. The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis (finished 9/14/18) 3.6 stars
294. The Girl in the Glass Box by James Grippando (finished 9/14/18) 4 stars
295. Ragged Company by Richard Wagamese (finished 9/15/18) 5 stars
296. *After the Fine Weather by Michael Gilbert (finished 9/16/18) 3.75 stars
297. *The House of Green Turf by Ellis Peters (finished 9/17/18) 3 stars (A)
298. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin (finished 9/17/18) 4 stars (A)
299. A World Ablaze: The Rise of Martin Luther and the Birth of the Reformation by Craig Harline (finished 9/18/18) 4.5 stars
300. Wild Fire by Ann Cleeves (finished 9/21/18) 4.2 stars
301. The Geography of Genius by Eric Weiner (finished 9/22/18) 4.1 stars
302. Early Riser by Jasper Fforde (finished 9/22/18) 3.85 stars
303. A Death at Fountains Abbey by Antonia Hodgson (finished 9/22/18) 4 stars
304. The Other Wife by Michael Robotham (finished 9/23/18) 4.2 stars
305. The Waiter by Matias Faldbakken (finished 9/23/18) 3.45 stars
306. Not That Bad: Dispatches From Rape Culture edited by Roxane Gay (finished 9/24/18) 4.5 stars
307. Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire by Kurt Andersen (finished 9/25/18) 4.3 stars (A)
308. Blood is Blood by Will Thomas (finished 9/26/18) 3.9 stars
309. Left Bank: Art, Passion, and the Rebirth of Paris, 1940-50 by Agnes Poirier (finished 9/28/18) 5 stars
310. Guilt by Association by Susan B. Sloan (finished 9/29/18) 3.7 stars
311. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman (finished 9/30/18) 4.4 stars

6Chatterbox
Redigerat: dec 19, 2018, 12:52 am

As I mentioned above, I do have some reading goals/objectives. I don't want to call them targets, because they are purely aspirational -- I will not be heartbroken or feel that I have failed if I fail to check off every book on these lists! It simply means that I found something else that grabbed my attention more insistently, and that I felt I needed to read more urgently. Or that the book that I planned to read simply wasn't worth my time or energy and I stalled reading it for now.

Overarching goals:

* To read more by Virginia Woolf, from her essays to her novels (Not done very well on this -- I have read Three Guineas but that's about all!)

* To read Paul Theroux’s travel books

* To Finish up some mystery series that I’ve started and stalled on; start reading Robinson’s “Inspector Banks” mysteries, Ian Hamilton’s “Ava Lee” books, combining a re-read of Ngaio Marsh/Agatha Christie and Margery Allingham with a read of books by them that I’d never encountered. (I've done some re-reading of Ngaio Marsh, Agatha Christie, and Michael Gilbert.)

* To direct a lot of reading to the US Revolutionary War and the French Revolution, and related characters. (Have tiptoed in this direction)

* To read more short stories, with particular attention to Alice Munro and Mavis Gallant (NO progress...)

My re-reading plans: Michael Gilbert’s mysteries; mystery series by Staynes & Storey, aka “Susannah Stacey” (long out of print, alas… published 1987-1998), books by Laurie Colwin, listening to the Mountjoy novels by Elizabeth Pewsey on audiobook (COMPLETED!!), and re-reading more of Patricia Wentworth’s “Miss Silver” mysteries as and when the mood strikes me. Finishing up my re-reading of Georgette Heyer novels.

Books in French

L’homme qui regardait la nuit by Gilbert Sinoue
L’art de perdre by Alice Zeniter
Un aller simple by Didier van Cauwelaart
La vie des elfes by Muriel Barbery
Le cuisinier de Talleyrand by Jean-Christophe Duchon-Doris
Merveilleuses by Catherine Hermary-Vieille
Le tour du monde du roi Zibelline by Jean-Christophe Rufin
Les enfants d’Alexandrie by Francoise Chandernagor
Retour indésirable by Charles Lewinsky
Le dernier des nôtres by Adelaide Clermont-Tonnerre
Les mots du passé by Jean-Michel Denis

Tower of ARCs

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Tangerine by Christine Mangan Read
The Maze at Windermere by Gregory Blake Smith
Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane
Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King Read
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
The Leavers by Lisa Ko
Paris in the Present Tense by Mark Helprin
The Revolution of Marina M by Janet Fitch Read
The Quantum Spy by David Ignatius Read
The Hot Country by Robert Olen Butler
The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook Read
A Burnable Book by Bruce Holsinger
The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz Read
West of Sunset by Stewart O’Nan
The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Canadian Content

The Lonely Hearts Hotel – Heather O’Neill
Creation by Katherine Govier
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler Read
Ragged Company by Richard Wagamese Read
The Diviners by Margaret Laurence
Barometer Rising by Hugh Maclennan
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje Read
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies
One Brother Shy by Terry Fallis Read
The Break by Katherena Vermette
The Only Café by Linden MacIntyre Read

Classics

Kim by Rudyard Kipling
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
Vanity Fair by Thackeray Read
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Read

7Chatterbox
Redigerat: dec 31, 2018, 9:58 pm

Audiobooks

The Soldier’s Curse by Tom & Meg Keneally Read
The Cutting Season by Attica Locke Read
The Lost Pages by Marija Percic
When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro
Boomsday by Christopher Buckley Read
Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdich
The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes Read
Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovich Read
Lethal White by Robert Galbraith Read
The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry Read
The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Harsuyker Read

Neglected NetGalley Offerings...

The Melody by Jim Crace
Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella Read
The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers Read
Gateway to the Moon by Mary Morris
The Bookworm by Mitch Silver
The Vineyard by Maria Duenas
The Spy Across the Table by Barry Lancet Read
The Radicals by Ryan McIlvain Read
Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig
Enchantress of Numbers by Jennifer Chiaverini Read
The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst
The Parking Lot Attendant by Nafkote Tamirat
Radio Free Vermont by Bill McKibben Read
Macbeth by Jo Nesbo

Mystery Mania

The Birdwatcher by William Shaw Read
The Other Wife by Michael Robotham Read
The Appraisal by Anna Porter
Amnesia by Michael Ridpath Read
In Prior's Wood by G.M. Malliet Read
Displaced by Stephen Abarbanell Read
Force of Nature by Jane Harper Read
Season of Darkness by Maureen Jennings Read
City of Ink by Elsa Hart Read
A Death at Fountains Abbey by Antonia Hodgson Read
Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh Read
The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware Read
I'll Keep You Safe by Peter May Read
Bone on Bone by Julia Keller Read
Soul Cage by Tetsuya Honda
The Dark Clouds Shining by David Downing Read

New to Me

The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash Read
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson
Beloved by Toni Morrison Read
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin . Read

Climbing Mt. TBR

Barkskins by Annie Proulx
The Never-Open Desert Diner by James Anderson Read
From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty Read
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
The Outcasts of Time by Ian Mortimer Read
The Potter’s Hand by A.N. Wilson Read
Moskva by Jack Grimwood Read
The Lubetkin Legacy by Marina Lewycka Read
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor Read

8Chatterbox
Redigerat: dec 31, 2018, 9:55 pm

The Wonderful World of Nonfiction

The Unruly City: Paris London and New York in the Age of Revolution by Mike Rappaport
Be Like the Fox by Erica Benner
The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn by Margaret Willes
Left Bank: Art, Passion and the Rebirth of Paris by Agnes Poirier Read
A Crime in the Family: A World War II Secret Buried in Silence – and My Search for the Truth by Sacha Batthyany Read
Hue 1968 by Mark Bowden Read
Oriana Fallaci by Cristina de Stefano Read
A World Ablaze: the Rise of Martin Luther and the Birth of the Reformation by Craig Harline Read
Nothing is True and Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev Read
The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve by Stephen Greenblatt
Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire by Kurt Anderson Read
Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities by Paul Bettany
The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World by Maya Jasanoff Read
Divided: Why We're Living in an Age of Walls by Tim Marshall Read
Patriot Number One: American Dreams in Chinatown by Lauren Hilgers Read
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann Read
The Seabird's Cry by Adam Nicolson Read
Daughters of the Winter Queen by Nancy Goldstone Read
Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in in a Post American World by Suzy Hansen Read
The Geography of Genius by Eric Weiner Read
The Library Book by Susan Orlean Read
Educated by Tara Westover Read
The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World by Catherine Nixey Read
Leningrad: Siege and Symphony by Bryan Moynahan
The World Broke in Two by Bill Goldstein Read
Making the Monster: the Science Behind Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein by Kathryn Harkup
The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexeivech
The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson Read

Around the World (Kinda) in 34 Books

This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Indonesia)
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata – (Japan) Read
More by Hakan Gunday (Turkey)
Time Ages in a Hurry by Antonio Tabucchi (Italy)
Three Floors Up by Eshkol Nevo (Israel)
First Person by Richard Flanagan (Australia) Read
I Hear Your Voice by Young-ha Kim (S. Korea)
Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck (Germany) Read
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (Finland)
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi (Ghana)
The Waiter by Matias Faldbakken (Norway) Read
The Man Who Snapped His Fingers by Fariba Hachtroudi (Iran) Read
Measuring Time by Helon Habila (Nigeria)
Skylight by Jose Saramagao (Portugal)
The Penalty Area by Alain Grillot (France) Read
The Necessary Angel by C.K. Stead (New Zealand) Read
The Widow Killer by Pavel Kohut (Czech Republic)
A House for Mr. Biswas by VS Naipaul (Trinidad-UK)
The Life and Times of Michael K. by J.M. Coetzee (South Africa)
Azazeel by Youssef Ziedan (Egypt)
Like a Fading Shadow by Antonio Munoz Molino (Spain)
Salt Houses by Hala Alyan (Palestine)
Small Country by Gaël Faye (Burundi) Read
The Gardener From Ochakov by Andrey Kurkov (Ukraine)
From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan (Ireland) Read
The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin (Russia)
Music of the Ghosts by Vaddey Ratner (Cambodia)
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (India) Read
Fish Have No Feet by Jon Kalman Stefansson (Iceland)
Explosion Chronicles by Yan Lianke (China)
The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler (Austrla) Read
The Same Night Awaits Us All by Hristo Karastoyanov (Bulgaria)

9Chatterbox
Redigerat: okt 23, 2018, 5:26 pm

Books Purchased Or Otherwise Permanently Acquired 2018
Part I

1. Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World by Laura Spinney (Kindle Sale, $) 1/1/18
2. The Walworth Beauty by Michele Roberts (UK Kindle sale, $) 1/1/18
3. Vindolanda by Adrian Goldsworthy (UK Kindle sale, $) 1/1/18
4. Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay (Kindle sale, $) 1/2/18
5. Find You in the Dark by Nathan Ripley (NetGalley) 1/2/18
6. Alternative Remedies for Loss by Joanna Cantor (NetGalley) 1/2/18
7. Demi-Gods by Eliza Robertson (NetGalley) 1/2/18
8. The Queen's Embroiderer: A True Story of Paris, Lovers, Swindlers, and the First Stock Market Crisis by Joan DeJean (NetGalley) 1/2/18
9. Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It by Richard V. Reeves (NetGalley) 1/2/18
10. The Bad Daughter by Joy Fielding (NetGalley) 1/2/18
11. The Necessary Angel by C.K. Stead (Gift) 1/2/18 Read
12. All the Names They Used For God by Anjali Sachdeva (NetGalley) 1/2/18
13. Maid of the King's Court by Lucy Worsley (Kindle, gift certificate) 1/2/18 Read
14. Like a Fading Shadow by Antonio Muñoz Molina (Kindle, gift certificate) 1/2/18
15. Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? by Graham Allison (NetGalley) 1/3/18
16. Mr. Flood's Last Resort by Jess Kidd (NetGalley) 1/3/18
17. Force of Nature by Jane Harper (NetGalley) 1/3/18 . Read
18. Travelers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism: 1919-1945 by Julia Boyd (Edelweiss e-galley) 1/3/18 read
19. The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman (NetGalley) 1/3/18 Read
20. There There by Tommy Orange (NetGalley from Publisher) 1/5/18
21. The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir (NetGalley from Publisher) 1/5/18
22. A Taste for Vengeance by Martin Walker (NetGalley from Publisher) 1/5/18
23. Good Trouble: Stories by Joseph O'Neill (NetGalley from Publisher) 1/5/18
24. The Common Good by Robert Reich (NetGalley from Publisher) 1/5/18
25. Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff (Kindle, $$) 1/6/18 Read
26. Pursuit of a Parcel by Patricia Wentworth (Kindle, $$) 1/6/18
27. The Ocean Liner by Marius Gabriel (NetGalley) 1/8/18
28. Paris Still Life by Rosalind Brackenbury (NetGalley) 1/8/18
29. The War on Normal People: The Truth About America's Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future by Andrew Yang (NetGalley) 1/8/18
30. Blown by Mark Haskell Smith (NetGalley) 1/8/18
31. Do We Need Economic Inequality? (The Future of Capitalism) by Danny Dorling (Amazon Vine ARC) 1/9/18
32. I'll Stay by Karen Day (Amazon Vine ARC) 1/9/18
33. Gun Love by Jennifer Clement (Amazon Vine ARC) 1/9/18
34. Barbed Wire Heart by Tess Sharpe (NetGalley) 1/9/18
35. Limelight by Amy Poeppel (NetGalley) 1/9/18
36. My Name is Nobody by Matthew Richardson (UK Kindle, $$) 1/9/18
37. The Principle by Jérôme Ferrari (Kindle, gift certificate) 1/10/18
38. Love in Idleness by Amanda Craig (Kindle, gift certificate) 1/10/18 Read
39. Exhibit Alexandra by Natasha Bell (NetGalley) 1/10/18
40. Star of the North by D.B. John (NetGalley) 1/10/18 Read
41. Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics Is Destroying American Democracy by Jonah Goldberg (NetGalley) 1/10/18
42. The Third Victim by Phillip Margolin (NetGalley) 1/10/18 Read
43. Coming Home to Island House by Erica James (UK Kindle, $$) 1/11/18 Read
44. I'll Keep You Safe by Peter May (UK Kindle, $$) 1/11/18 Read
45. Circe by Madeline Miller (NetGalley) 1/11/18 Read
46. The Verdun Affair by Nick Dybek (NetGalley) 1/11/18
47. Death Comes to Lynchester Close by David Dickinson (UK Kindle, $$) 1/13/18 Read
48. Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker (UK Kindle, sale $) 1/14/18
49. Collected Stores by Bernard MacLaverty (UK kindle, Sale, $) 1/14/18
50. The Lake District Murder by John Bude (UK kindle, sale, $) 1/14/18
51. Un aller simple by Didier van Cauwelaert (UK Kindle, $$) 1/14/18
52. Les cinq quartiers de la lune by Gilbert Sinoue (Kindle, $$) 1/14/18
53. Le dernier des notres by Adelaide de Clermont-Tonnerre (UK Kindle, $$) 1/14/18
54. A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn (UK Kindle, sale, $) 1/14/18
55. The Killing Site by Caro Peacock (NetGalley) 1/14/18
56. Second Wind: A Sunfish Sailor, an Island, and the Voyage That Brought a Family Together by Nathaniel Philbrick (NetGalley) 1/16/18
57. Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic by David Frum (Audiobook; $$) 1/16/18 . read
58. Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce (NetGalley) 1/17/18 read
59. Nothing is Forgotten by Peter Golden (NetGalley) 1/20/18
60. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder (gift) 1/20/18
61. What Is Russia Up To in the Middle East? by Dmitri Trenin (Amazon Vine ARC) 1/20/18
62. The Song of the Kings by Barry Unsworth (Amazon Vine ARC) 1/22/18 Read
63. Rainbirds by Clarissa Goenawan (Amazon Vine ARC) 1/22/18
64. Eden Gardens by Louise Brown (Amazon Vine ARC) 1/22/18
65. The City Where We Once Lived by Eric Barnes (Amazon Vine ARC) 1/22/18
66. The Stranger in My Home by Adele Parks (Amazon Vine ARC) 1/23/18
67. History Teaches Us to Resist: How Progressive Movements Have Succeeded in Challenging Times by Mary Frances Berry (Amazon Vine ARC) 1/23/18
68. The Dragon Queen by William Andrews (NetGalley) 1/23/18
69. The Storm by Arif Anwar (NetGalley) 1/24/18
70. The Only Café by Linden Macintyre (Kindle, gift certificate) 1/24/18 Read
71. The Ghost Notebooks by Ben Dolnick (hardcover, from publisher) 1/24/18
72. Ritz and Escoffier: The Hotelier, The Chef, and the Rise of the Leisure Class by Luke Barr (Amazon Vine ARC) 1/24/18
73. Seven Days in Summer by Marcia Willett (UK Kindle, sale, $) 1/25/18
74. The History Thieves: Secrets, Lies and the Shaping of a Modern Nation by Iain Cobain (UK Kindle sale, $) 1/25/18
75. Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Golden Samovar by Olga Wjotas (UK Kindle, $$) 1/25/18 read
76. Eagle & Crane by Suzanne Rindell (NetGalley) 1/25/18
77. Twenty-one Days: A Daniel Pitt Novel by Anne Perry (Amazon Vine ARC) 1/25/18 read
78. The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton (NetGalley) 1/25/18
79. Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano (Amazon Vine ARC) 1/27/18
80. Anatomy of a Miracle by Jonathan Miles (Amazon Vine ARC) 1/27/18
81. Bay of Secrets by Rosanna Ley (Amazon Vine ARC) 1/27/18
82. The Judge Hunter by Christopher Buckley (NetGalley) 1/29/18 Read
83. In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin (UK Kindle, sale, $) 1/30/18
84. Coffin, Scarcely Used by Colin Watson (NetGalley) 1/30/18
85. The Same Night Awaits Us All by Hristo Karastoyanov (ARC from publisher) 1/30/18
86. There Are No Dead Here: A Story of Murder and Denial in Colombia by Maria Mcfarland Sánchez-moreno (Amazon Vine ARC) 1/30/18
87. 1947: Where Now Begins by Elisabeth Åsbrink (Kindle, gift certificate) 1/31/18
88. Lullaby Road by James Anderson (Amazon Vine ARC) 1/31/18
89. Timekeepers: How the World Became Obsessed With Time by Simon Garfield (NetGalley) 2/2/18
90. Sal by Mick Kitson (NetGalley) 2/2/18

10Chatterbox
Redigerat: okt 8, 2018, 6:45 pm

Books Purchased Or Otherwise Permanently Acquired 2018
Part II

91. What Would Virginia Woolf Do?: And Other Questions I Ask Myself as I Attempt to Age Without Apology by Nina Lorez Collins (Amazon Vine ARC) 2/2/18
92. The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America by Timothy Snyder (NetGalley) 2/3/18
93. Invitation to a Bonfire by Adrienne Celt (NetGalley) 2/3/18
94. Milk!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas by Mark Kurlansky (NetGalley) 2/3/18
95. The Rooster Bar by John Grisham (Audiobook, $$) 2/4/18) Read
96. The Wife by Alafair Burke (Audiobook, $$) 2/3/18 Read
97. Faking Friends by Jane Fallon (Audiobook, $$) 2/4/18
98. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (UK Kindle, sale, $) 2/3/18
99. Righteous by Joe Ide (Kindle sale, $) 2/4/18
100. Every Last Lie by Mary Kubica (Kindle sale, $) 2/4/18
101. Two Sisters: A Father, His Daughters, and Their Journey into the Syrian Jihad by Asne Seierstad (NetGalley) 2/6/18 Read
102. The Romanov Empress by C.W. Gortner (NetGalley) 2/6/18 Read
103. A Death in Live Oak by Jack Grippando (Audiobook, $$) 2/6/18 Read
104. Orchid and the Wasp by Caollin Hughes (NetGalley) 2/6/18
105. The Winter Station by Jody Shields (NetGalley) 2/11/18
106. Lady be Good by Amber Brock (NetGalley) 2/11/18
107. Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer by Barbara Ehrenreich (NetGalley) 2/11/18
108. Upstate by James Wood (NetGalley) 2/13/18
109. Just a Breath Away by Carlene Thompson (NetGalley) 2/15/18
110. The Reluctant Assassin by Fiona Buckley (NetGalley) 2/15/18
111. The Girl in the Woods by Patricia MacDonald (NetGalley) 2/15/18
112. The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics by Salena Zito (Amazon Vine ARC) 2/15/18
113. Futureface: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging by Alex Wagner (Amazon Vine ARC) 2/15/18 Read
114. The Endless Beach by Jenny Colgan (UK Kindle, sale, $) 2/15/18 Read
115. Nucleus by Rory Clements (UK Kindle, sale, $) 2/15/18
116. Down the River unto the Sea by Walter Mosley (Amazon Vine ARC) 2/17/18

All books from here to the bottom of this page are ARCs acquired from ALA Midwinter in Denver, Feb 9-12

117. The Honey Farm by Harriet Alida Lye
118. All the Beautiful Girls by Elizabeth J. Church
119. Paris Metro by Wendell Steavenson
120. Varina by Charles Frazier
121. The High Season by Judy Blundell
122. The Optimistic Decade by Heather Abel
123. Chicago: a Novel by David Mamet
124. To Die But Once by Jacqueline Winspear Read
125. 84k by Claire North
126. House Witness by Mike Lawson
127. How it Happened by Michael Koryta
128. Blood & Ivy: The 1849 Murder That Scandalized Harvard by Paul Collins
129. Social Creature by Tara Isabelle Burton
130. How Hard Can It Be? by Allison Pearson
131. Send Down the Rain by Charles Martin
132. A Dangerous Crossing by Ausma Zehanat Khan
133. Fall of Angels by Barbara Cleverly Read
134. Undiscovered Country by Kelly O'Connor McNees
135. Texas Ranger by James Patterson
136. All That is Left Is All That Matters by Mark Slouka
137. Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York by Stacy Horn
138. April in Paris, 1921 by Tessa Lunney
139. Ike and Kay by James MacManus Read
140. The King's Witch by Tracy Borman Read
141. The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth Winthrop Read
142. Still Lives by Maria Hummel
143. The Life to Come by Michelle De Kretser
144. Searching for the Amazons: The Real Warrior Women of the Ancient World by John Man
145. Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax
146. Tyrant by Stephen Greenblatt
147. The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths Read
148. My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan
149. Sharp: The Women Who Made An Art of Having an Opinion by Michelle Dean
150. Summer Hours at the Robbers Library by Sue Halpern
151. The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders by Stuart Kells
152. All the Beautiful Lies by Peter Swanson
153. The Overstory by Richard Powers
154. The Wind in My Hair: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran by Masih Alinejad Read
155. Warning Light by David Ricciardi
156. Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India by Shashi Tharoor
157. Impossible Saints by Clarissa Harwood
158. The Real Michael Swann by Bryan Reardon
159. Disappointment River: Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage by Brian Castner Read
160. The Magnificent Esme Wells by Adrienne Sharp

11Chatterbox
Redigerat: dec 24, 2018, 10:38 pm

Books Purchased Or Otherwise Permanently Acquired 2018
Part III

Books listed, to the bottom of the page, are ARCs acquired from ALA Midwinter in Denver, Feb 9-12

161. T Singer by Dag Solstad
162. For Two Thousand Years by Mihail Sebastian
163. Eventide by Therese Bohman
164. All These Beautiful Strangers by Elizabeth Klehfoth
165. Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan by Ruby Lal
166. Census by Jesse Ball
167. Never Anyone But You by Rupert Thomson
168. The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman
169. The Map of Salt and Stars by Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar
170. Love and Ruin by Paula McLain
171. Midnight Blue by Simone van der Vlugt
172. After Anna by Lisa Scottoline
173. The Lost Family by Jenna Blum
174. The Imam of Tawi-Tawi by Ian Hamilton
175. How to Be Safe by Tom McAllister Read
176. The Break by Katherena Vermette
177. Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
178. The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll
179. The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
180. The Last Cowboys: A Pioneer Family in the New West by John Branch
181. Berlin 1936: Sixteen Days in August by Oliver Hilmes
182. The Devil's Reward by Emanuelle de Villepin
183. Other People's Houses by Abbi Waxman
184. The Beekeeper:Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq by Dunya Mikhail
185. The Darkling Bride by Laura Andersen
186. No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria by Rania Abouzeid
187. Living with Leonardo by Martin Kemp
188. Another Side of Paradise by Sally Koslow
189. Ecstasy: A Novel by Mary Sharratt Read
190. A Lady's Guide to Selling Out by Sally Franson
191. A Reckoning: A Novel by Linda Spalding
192. The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
193. The Elimination: A survivor of the Khmer Rouge confronts his past and the commandant of the killing fields by Rithy Panh
194. Freebird by Jonathan Raymond
195. Providence by Caroline Kepnes
196. Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
197. To the Edges of the Earth: 1909, the Race for the Three Poles, and the Climax of the Age of Exploration by Edward Larson
198. The Fox Hunt: A Refugee’s Memoir of Coming to America by Mohammed Al Samawi
199. Jane and Dorothy: A True Tale of Sense and Sensibility:The Lives of Jane Austen and Dorothy Wordsworth by Marian Veevers
200. The Spy of Venice by Benet Brandreth
201. A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
202. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World by Steve Brusette
203. The Dependents by Katharine Dion
204. The Husband Hour by Jamie Brenner
205. Cave of Bones by Anne Hillerman
206. Property: Stories Between Two Novellas by Lionel Shriver
207. Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover Read
208. The Island that Disappeared: The Lost History of the Mayflower's Sister Ship and Its Rival Puritan Colony by Tom Feiling
209. Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao
210. Let Me Lie by Clare Mackintosh
211. When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors
212. Every Note Played by Lisa Genova
213. You Think It, I'll Say It: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld
214. The Hush by John Hart
215. The Away Game: The Epic Search for Soccer's Next Superstars by Sebastian Abbot
216. No One Ever Asked by Katie Ganshert
217. The Ensemble by Aja Gabel
218. The Great Stain: Witnessing American Slavery by Noel Rae
219. Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley Read
220. This is What Happened by Mick Herron
221. Wicked River by Jenny Milchman
222. How to Stop Time by Matt Haig Read
223. The Dark Clouds Shining by David Downing Read
224. Southernmost by Silas House
225. Lying in Wait by Liz Nugent
226. Campaign Widows by Aimee Agresti
227. A Million Drops by Victor del Arbol
228. My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray
229. The Little Clan by Iris Martin Cohen
230. The Cactus by Sarah Haywood
231. Look Alive Out There: Essays by Sloane Crosley
232. Furyborn by Claire Legrand
233. Kill the Farm Boy by Kevin Hearne
234. Traitor by Jonathan de Shalit

12Chatterbox
Redigerat: dec 15, 2018, 1:29 am

Books Purchased Or Otherwise Permanently Acquired 2018
Part IV

235. You Are Dead by Peter James (UK Kindle, sale, $) 2/19/18
236. An Argumentation of Historians by Jodi Taylor (Edelweiss e-galley/ARC) 2/19/18
237. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin (paperback, $$) 2/21/18 Read
238. Beloved by Toni Morrison (paperback, $$) 2/21/18 Read
239. Light in August by William Faulkener (paperback, $$) 2/21/18 Read
240. Go: A Coming of Age Novel by Kazuki Kaneshiro (Kindle First freebie) 2/21/18
241. The Wildflowers by Harriet Evans (UK Kindle, sale, $) 2/21/18
242. An Unsuitable Match by Joanna Trollope (UK Kindle, $$) 2/21/18
243. The Kremlin's Candidate by Jason Matthews (Kindle, $$) 2/22/18
244. Red Gold by Alan Furst (Kindle Sale, $) 2/22/18
245. The Middleman by Olen Steinhauer (NetGalley) 2/22/18 Read
246. Blood Moon: An American Epic of War and Splendor in the Cherokee Nation by John Sedgwick (NetGalley) 2/22/18
247. Wallis in Love by Andrew Morton (NetGalley) 2/23/18
248. The Red Hand of Fury by R.N. Morris (NetGalley) 2/23/18
249. The Escape Artist by Brad Meltzer (Amazon Vine ARC) 2/23/18
250. A Crime in the Family by Sacha Batthyany (Audiobook, $$) 2/23/18 Read
251. East of Eden by John Steinbeck (UK Kindle, sale, $) 2/25/18
252. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck (UK Kindle, sale, $) 2/25/18
253. The French Girl by Lexie Elliott (Amazon Vine ARC) 2/25/18 (actually earlier, but not logged) Read
254. Paper Ghosts by Julia Heaberlin (Amazon Vine ARC) 2/25/18
255. The Swordfish and the Star: Life on Cornwall's most treacherous stretch of coast by Gavin Knight (UK Kindle, sale, $) 2/25/18
256. The Chains of Heaven: An Ethiopian Romance by Phillip Marsden (UK Kindle, $$) 2/25/18
257. Levelling Sea: The Story of a Cornish Haven and the Age of Sail by Philip Marsden (UK Kindle, sale, $) 2/25/18
258. Measuring Time by Helon Habila (UK Kindle, $$) 2/25/18
259. Islander: A Journey Around Our Archipelago by Patrick Barkham (UK Kindle, $$) 2/25/18
260. A Country Escape by Katie Fforde (UK Kindle, $$) 2/25/18
261. The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai (NetGalley, from Publisher) 2/25/18
262. No Good Alternative: Volume Two of Carbon Ideologies by William Vollman (NetGalley, from Publisher) 2/25/18)
263. The Gardener From Ochakov by Andrey Kurkov (UK Kindle, sale, $) 2/26/18
264. After Hannibal by Barry Unsworth (Kindle, $$) 2/26/18
265. Denmark Vesey’s Garden: Slavery and Memory in the Cradle of the Confederacy by Ethan J. Kytle (Amazon Vine ARC) 2/26/18 Read
266. Death of a Novice by Cora Harrison (NetGalley) 2/26/18
267. Big Guns: A Novel by Steve Israel (NetGalley, from Publisher) 2/26/18
268. Small Country by Gaël Faye (NetGalley) 2/27/18 Read
269. Chosen Country: A Rebellion in the West by James Pogue (Amazon Vine ARC) 2/27/18 Read
270. A Tokyo Romance: A Memoir by Ian Buruma (e-Galley, First to Read) 2/27/18 Read
271. The Reservoir Tapes by Jon McGregor (Edelweiss, e-galley) 2/27/18
272. Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly (Audiobook sale, $) 2/28/18
273. Women in Sunlight by Frances Mayes (Amazon Vine ARC) 2/28/18
274. The Language of Kindness by Christie Watson (Amazon Vine ARC) 2/28/18 Read
275. My October by Claire Holden Rothman (Audiobook, $$) 2/28/18
276. Jane Seymour, the Haunted Queen by Alison Weir (NetGalley) 2/28/18 Read
277. Gnomon by Nick Harkaway (NetGalley) 2/28/18
278. Time Pieces: A Dublin Memoir by John Banville (NetGalley, from publisher) 2/28/18
279. Digging In: A Novel by Loretta Nyhan (Kindle First, Kindle freebie) 3/1/18
280. The Last Man in Europe by Dennis Glover (Kindle, $$) 3/1/18 Read
281. The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers (UK Kindle sale, $) 3/1/18
282. Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik (UK Kindle, $$) 3/1/18 Read
283. The Draughtsman by Robert Lautner (UK Kindle, $$) 3/1/18
284. The Year That Changed Everything by Cathy Kelly (UK Kindle, $$) 3/1/18
285. Sunburn by Laura Lippmann (UK Kindle sale, $) 3/1/18
286. The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer (UK Kindle sale, $) 3/2/18
287. To Love and Be Wise by Josephine Tey (UK Kindle sale, $) 3/2/18
288. Flesh and Blood by John Harvey (UK Kindle sale, $) 3/2/18
289. District VIII by Adam LeBor (Edelweiss e-galley) 3/2/18
290. Joe Hill by Wallace Stegner (Amazon Vine ARC) 3/2/18
291. Recapitulation by Wallace Stegner (Amazon Vine ARC) 3/2/18
292. The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind by Barbara Lipska (Amazon Vine ARC) 3/2/18
293. When Life Gives You Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger (NetGalley) 3/2/18
294. First Night by Jane Aiken Hodge (NetGalley) 3/2/18 Read
295. That Great Lucifer: A Portrait of Sir Walter Ralegh by Margaret Irwin (NetGalley) 3/2/18
296. Last Act by Jane Aiken Hodge (Kindle, $$) 3/4/18 Read
297. The Gabriel Hounds by Mary Stewart (Kindle sale, $) 3/4/18
298. Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart (Kindle sale, $) 3/4/18
299. Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic (Amazon Vine ARC) 3/5/18 Read
300. Time is a Killer by Michel Bussi (Amazon Vine ARC) 3/5/18
301. Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny by Witold Szablowski (Kindle, $$) 3/6/18 Read
302. The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss (Audible, $$) 3/6/18
303. Sorority by Genevieve Sly Crane (NetGalley) 3/6/18
304. theMystery.doc by Matthew McIntosh (publisher freebie for Kindle) 3/6/18
305. My Name is Venus Black by Heather Lloyd (Amazon Vine ARC) 3/6/18 Read
306. The Shadow Killer by Arnaldur Indridason (NetGalley) 3/7/18
307. The House of Hopes and Dreams by Trisha Ashley (UK Kindle, $$) 3/7/18 Read
308. A Different Class of Murder by Laura Thompson (Kindle Sale, $) 3/8/18
309. In Prior's Wood by G.M. Malliet (NetGalley) 3/8/18 Read
310. The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware (NetGalley) 3/8/18 Read
311. River Road by Carol Goodman (Kindle, Kindle sale, $) 3/11/18
312. Safekeeping by Jessamyn Hope (Kindle, Kindle sale, $) 3/11/18
313. American by Day by Derek B. Miller (Amazon Vine ARC) 3/12/18
314. Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller (Audiobook, $$) 3/12/18 Read
315. Istanbul Letters by Eliot Ackerman (Kindle Single, $) 3/12/18

13Chatterbox
Redigerat: okt 31, 2018, 5:52 pm

Books Purchased Or Otherwise Permanently Acquired 2018
Part V

316. Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero by Christian Di Spigna (NetGalley) 3/12/18
317. Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World by Annie Lowrey (NetGalley) 3/12/18
318. Silver Wedding by Maeve Binchy (Kindle Sale, $) 3/13/18
319. Coming Home by Rosamund Pilcher (Audiobook, $$) 3/13/18
320. Whisky Galore by Compton Mackenzie (Audiobook, $$) 3/14/18
321. The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes (UK Kindle/Audiobook, $$) 3/14/18 Read
322. Queen's Progress by M.J. Trow (NetGalley) 3/14/18
323. A Sharp Solitude by Christine Carbo (NetGalley) 3/14/18
324. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh (NetGalley) 3/15/18
325. The New Neighbors by Simon Lelic (First to Read freebie) 3/15/18 Read
326. The Banker's Wife by Cristina Alger (NetGalley) 3/15/18
327. The Shakespeare Requirement by Julie Schumacher (NetGalley) 3/15/18 Read
328. Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris (NetGalley) 3/16/18 Read
329. A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (Amazon Vine, hardcover) 3/17/18
330. Nantucket Wedding by Nancy Thayer (Amazon Vine ARC) 3/17/18 Read
331. Rendezvous With Oblivion: Essays by Thomas Frank (NetGalley) 3/18/18 Read
332. The Best American Mystery Stories 2017 edited by John Sandford (Kindle sale, $) 3/19/18
333. The Untelling by Tayari Jones (Kindle sale, $) 3/19/18
334. The Punishment She Deserves by Elizabeth George (Kindle, $$) 3/20/18 Read
335. Panic Room by Robert Goddard (UK Kindle, $$) 3/21/18
336. Last Letter Home by Rachel Hore (UK Kindle, $$) 3/21/18
337. Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi (UK Kindle, $$) 3/21/18
338. Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh (Audiobook, $$) 3/21/18 Read
339. Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh (Audiobook, $$) 3/21/18
340. Firefly Summer by Maeve Binchy (UK Kindle, sale, $) 3/21/18
341. At Freddie's by Penelope Fitzgerald (UK Kindle, sale, $) 3/21/18
342. From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan (UK Kindle, $$) 3/21/18 Read
343. The Island Dwellers by Jen Silverman (Amazon Vine ARC) 3/22/18
344. Sail Away by Celia Imrie (Amazon Vine ARC) 3/22/18
345. No Man Dies Twice by Michael Smith (Amazon Vine ARC) 3/23/18
346. Sweet Little Lies by Caz Frear (Amazon Vine ARC) 3/23/18
347. No Place to Call Home by J.J. Bola (Amazon Vine ARC) 3/22/18
348. Between Earth and Sky by Amanda Skenandore (Amazon Vine ARC) 3/25/18
349. Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck (Kindle, $$) 3/25/18 Read
350. The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl (Audiobook, sale, $) 3/25/18
351. Stickle Island by Tim Orchard (Amazon Vine ARC) 3/25/18
352. From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds by Daniel Dennett (UK Kindle, sale, $) 3/27/18
353. Miss Kopp Just Won’t Quit by Amy Stewart (NetGalley) 3/27/18 Read
354. Black Water Rising by Attica Locke (Kindle, $$) 3/28/18 Read
355. Pleasantville by Attica Locke (UK Kindle, sale, $) 3/28/18
356. The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution by Yuri Slezkine (Audiobook, $$) 3/28/18
357. Believe Me by JP Delaney (NetGalley) 3/29/18
358. Lost in September by Kathleen Winter (Canadian Kindle, $$) 3/29/18
359. One Brother Shy by Tarry Fallis (Canadian Kindle, $$) 3/29/18 Read
360. Serial Monogamy by Kate Taylor (Canadian Kindle, $$) 3/29/18
361. The Far Side of the Sky by Daniel Kalla (Kindle, $$) 3/29/18
362. The White Angel by John MacLachlan Gray (Canadian Kindle, $$) 3/29/18)
363. The Emperor of Shoes by Spencer Wise (NetGalley) 3/30/18
364. Hate: Why We Should Resist it with Free Speech, Not Censorship by Nadine Strossen (Amazon Vine ARC) 3/30/18
365. We Begin Our Ascent by Joe Mungo Reed (Amazon Vine ARC) 3/30/18 Read
366. A Revolution of Feeling: The Decade that Forged the Modern Mind by Rachel Hewitt (UK Kindle, $$) 3/30/18
367. Mary B: A Novel: An untold story of Pride and Prejudice by Katherine Chen (NetGalley) 3/31/18 Read
368. Albert Einstein Speaking by R.J. Gadney (NetGalley) 3/31/18
369. No Such Creature by Giles Blunt (Canadian Kindle, $$) 4/2/18
370. Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston (Canadian Kindle, $$) 4/2/18
371. Woman of the Ashes by Mia Couto (NetGalley) 4/2/18
372. In the Garden of the Fugitives by Ceridwen Dovey (NetGalley) 4/2/18
373. Safe Houses by Dan Fesperman (NetGalley) 4/2/18 Read
374. Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar (NetGalley, from publisher) 4/2/18
375. Notes From the Fog by Ben Marcus (NetGOnalley, from publisher) 4/2/18
376. Red, White, Blue by Lea Carpenter (NetGalley, from publisher) 4/2/18
377. Clock Dance by Anne Tyler (NetGalley) 4/2/18
378. Brother by David Chariandy (NetGalley) 4/2/18
379. Brothers of the Gun: A Memoir of the Syrian War by Marwan Hisham (Amazon Vine ARC) 4/2/18 Read
380. The Mandela Plot by Kenneth Bonert (Amazon Vine ARC) 4/2/18
381. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker (NetGalley) 4/3/18
382. The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India's New Gilded Age by James Crabtree (NetGalley) 4/3/18
383. Ticker: The Quest to Create an Artificial Heart by Mimi Swartz (NetGalley) 4/3/18
384. Sight: A Novel by Jessie Greengrass (NetGalley) 4/3/18
385. The Sapphire Widow by Dinah Jefferies (NetGalley) 4/4/18
386. One Day in December by Josie Silver (NetGalley) 4/4/18 Read
387. The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels by Jon Meacham (NetGalley) 4/4/18
388. Necessary Evil: How to Fix Finance by Saving Human Rights by David Kinley (Amazon Vine) 4/4/18
389. Map of a Nation: A Biography Of The Ordnance Survey by Rachel Hewitt (Kindle, $$) 4/4/18 Read
390. The Fire Court by Andrew Taylor (UK Kindle, $$) 4/4/18 Read
391. Pandora's Boy by Lindsey Davis (UK Kindle, $$) 4/4/18 Read
392. Painter to the King by Amy Sackville (UK Kindle, $$) 4/4/18
393. March Violets by Philip Kerr (UK Kindle, sale, $) 4/4/18
394. The Glovemaker's Daughter by Leah Fleming (UK Kindle, sale, $) 4/4/18
395. Icon by Frederick Forsyth (UK Kindle, sale, $) 4/4/18
396. Dublin: Foundation by Edward Rutherfurd (UK Kindle, sale,$) 4/4/18
397. The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles by Gary Krist (Amazon Vine ARC) 4/4/18
398. Through the Wall by Patricia Wentworth (Kindle, sale, $) 4/4/18
399. Blake's Reach by Catherine Gaskin (UK Kindle, sale, $) 4/4/18
400. Impossible Owls by Brian Phillips (NetGalley) 4/5/18

14Chatterbox
Redigerat: sep 14, 2018, 9:58 pm

Books Purchased Or Otherwise Permanently Acquired 2018
Part VI

401. Rainbow's End by Ellis Peters (Audiobook, sale, $) 4/5/18 Read
402. The Removes by Tatjana Soli (NetGalley) 4/6/18
403. The Dark Interval: Letters on Loss, Grief, and Transformation by Rainer Maria Rilke (Amazon Vine ARC) 4/6/18
404. The Human Advantage: The Future of American Work in an Age of Smart Machines by Jay Richards (Amazon Vine hardcover) 4/6/18
405. Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman (Amazon Vine ARC) 4/6/18
406. Greeks Bearing Gifts by Phillip Kerr (Audiobook, $$) 4/6/18
407. Blood Safari by Deon Meyer (Audiobook, $$) 4/6/18
408. Quick on the Draw by Susan Moody (NetGalley) 4/6/18
409. The Queen's Promise by Brenda Rickman Vantrease (NetGalley) 4/6/18
410. Hiding in Plain Sight by Mary Ellis (NetGalley) 4/6/18
411. In the Presence of Evil by Tania Bayard (NetGalley) 4/6/18
412. Living Dangerously by Katie Fforde (UK Kindle sale, $) 4/10/18
413. Loyalties by Thomas Fleming (Kindle, $$) 4/10/18
414. Miracle Cure by Harlan Coben (UK Kindle, sale, $) 4/14/18
415. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler (Kindle, $$) 4/15/18 Read
416. Among the Ruins by Ausma Zehanat Khan (Audiobook, $$) 4/15/18 Read
417. Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal (Kindle, sale, $) 4/15/18
418. The Girl Before by JP Delany (NetGalley) 4/15/18
419. My Mother. Barack Obama. Donald Trump. And the Last Stand of the Angry White Man by Kevin Powell (NetGalley) 4/16/18
420. Less by Andrew Sean Greer (Kindle, $$) 4/16/18
421. Spring by Karl Ove Knausgaard (Amazon Vine ARC) 4/16/18
422. A Perilous Path: Talking Race, Inequality, and the Law by Sherrilyn Ifill (Amazon Vine hardcover) 4/16/18 Read
423. The Baghdad Clock by Shahad Al Rawi (LT Early Reviewer) 4/16/18
424. The Wolf by Alex Grecian (UK Kindle sale, $) 4/16/18
425. The Prodigal Spy by Joseph Kanon (UK Kindle sale, $) 4/16/18
426. The Immeasurable World: Journeys in Desert Places by William Atkins (NetGalley) 4/17/18
427. The Smiling Man by Joseph Knox (NetGalley) 4/17/18
428. What If This Were Enough? by Heather Havrilesky (NetGalley) 4/17/18
429. The Last Palace: Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House by Norman Eisen (NetGalley) 4/17/18
430. Only to Sleep by Lawrence Osborne (NetGalley) 4/17/18
431. My Dead Parents: A Memoir by Anya Yurchyshyn (Hardcover, $$) 4/17/18
432. The Infinite Blacktop by Sarah Gran (NetGalley) 4/18/18
433. Shell: A Novel by Kristina Olsson (NetGalley) 4/18/18
434. Ohio by Stephen Markley (NetGalley) 4/19/18
435. Last Train to Istanbul by Ayse Kulin (Kindle Freebie) 4/19/18
436. Those Wild Wyndhams: Three Sisters at the Heart of Power by Claudia Renton (NetGalley) 4/20/18
437. The Washington Decree by Jussi Adler-Olsen (NetGalley) 4/20/18
438. The King's Sister by Anne O'Brien (UK Kindle, sale, $) 4/21/18
439. Whistle in the Dark by Emma Healey (Amazon Vine ARC) 4/23/18
440. Sirens by Joseph Knox (Amazon Vine ARC) 4/23/18
442. The Very Marrow of Our Bones by Christine Higdon (Amazon Vine ARC) 4/23/18
443. A Good Heart is Hard to Find by Trisha Ashley (Audiobook, $$) 4/23/18 Read
444. Severance by Ling Ma (NetGalley) 4/24/18
445. The Man of Gold by Evelyn Hervey (NetGalley) 4/24/18
446. The Rain Watcher by Tatiana de Rosnay (NetGalley) 4/24/18
447. There Are No Grown-ups: A Midlife Coming-of-Age Story by Pamela Druckerman (Amazon Vine ARC) 4/25/18
448. A Murder of Quality by George Le Carré (UK Kindle, Kindle sale, $) 4/26/18
449. A Double Life by Flynn Berry (NetGalley) 4/26/18 Read
450. The Killing Habit by Mark Billingham (NetGalley) 4/26/18
451. Seven Types of Atheism by John Gray (NetGalley) 4/26/18
452. What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City by Mona Hanna-Attisha (Amazon Vine ARC) 4/26/18
453. The Darker the Night, the Brighter the Stars: A Neuropsychologist's Odyssey Through Consciousness by Paul Broks (Amazon Vine ARC) 4/26/18
454. Visible Empire by Hannah Pittard (Amazon Vine ARC) 4/26/18
455. Island of the Mad by Laurie King (Amazon Vine ARC) 4/26/18
456. Cold Bayou by Barbara Hambly (NetGalley) 4/27/18
457. My Husband and I: The Inside Story of 70 Years of the Royal Marriage by Ingrid Seward (UK Kindle, sale, $) 4/27/18
458. In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware (Kindle sale, $) 4/28/18
459. The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis (Edelweiss e-galley) 4/28/18 Read
460. Hidden Lives by Judith Lennox (UK Kindle, sale, $) 4/29/18
461. Before the Storm by Judith Lennox (UK Kindle, sale, $) 4/29/18
462. The Dark-Eyed Girls by Judith Lennox (UK Kindle, sale, $) 4/29/18
463. The Librarian by Salley Vickers (UK Kindle, $$) 4/29/18 Read
464. Slave Old Man by Patrick Chamoiseau (Amazon Vine hardcover) 4/29/18
465. The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic by Benjamin Carter Hett (Audiobook, $$) 4/30/18 Read
466. Beware of the Trains by Edmund Crispin (NetGalley) 5/1/18
467. Waiting for Eden by Eliot Ackerman (NetGalley from publisher) 5/1/18
468. Love Is Blind by William Boyd (NetGalley from publisher) 5/1/18
469. American Dialogue: The Founding Fathers and Us by Joseph Ellis (NetGalley from publisher) 5/1/18

15Chatterbox
Redigerat: nov 13, 2018, 10:55 pm

Books Purchased Or Otherwise Permanently Acquired 2018
Part VII

471. Debussy: A Painter in Sound by Stephen Walsh (NetGalley from publisher) 5/1/18
472. The Night Ferry by Lotte & Søren Hammer (NetGalley from publisher) 5/1/18
473. Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future by Mary Robinson (NetGalley from publisher) 5/1/18
474. The Splintering of the American Mind: Identity Politics, Inequality, and Community on Today’s College Campuses by William Egginton (NetGalley) 5/1/18
475. Salt Lane by William Shaw (UK Kindle, $$) 5/2/18
476. Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains by Yasuko Thanh (Canadian Kindle, $$) 5/4/18
477. A Long Island Story by Rick Gekoski (NetGalley) 5/4/18
478. The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason (NetGalley) 5/4/18 Read
479. Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy (NetGalley) 5/4/18
480. Money in the Morgue by Ngaio Marsh and Stella Duffy (UK Kindle, $$) 5/4/18
481. The Diviners by Margaret Laurence (Canadian Kindle, $$) 5/4/18
482. Ragged Company by Laurence Wagamese (Canadian Kindle, $$) 5/4/18 Read
483. Little Sister by David Hewson (UK Kindle, $$) 5/4/18
484. Dazzle Patterns by Allison Watt (Kindle, $$) 5/4/18
485. The Dragon Man by Garry Disher (Kindle, sale, $) 5/5/18
486. 19099927::The Vimy Trap: Or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Great War by Ian McKay (Canadian Kindle, $$) 5/5/18
487. The Cornish Trilogy by Robertson Davies (Canadian Kindle, $$) 5/5/18
488. Babylon Berlin by Volker Kutscher (UK Kindle, sale, $) 5/5/18
489. Divided: Why We're Living in an Age of Walls by Tim Marshall (UK Kindle, $$) 5/5/18
490. A Killer in King's Cove by Iona Whishaw (Canadian Kindle, $$) 5/5/18 Read
491. Death in a Darkening Mist by Iona Whishaw (Kindle, $$) 5/5/18 Read
492. American Pharoah: The Untold Story of the Triple Crown Winner's Legendary Rise by Joe Drape (Audiobook freebie) 5/5/18
493. Body and Soul by John Harvey (UK Kindle, $$) 5/6/18
494. The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield (Kindle, sale, $) 5/6/18
495. The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer (Audiobook, $$) 5/7/18 (but bought earlier) Read
496. An Old, Cold Grave by Iona Whishaw (Kindle, $$) 5/7/18 Read
497. It Begins in Betrayal by Iona Whishaw (Kindle, $$) 5/7/18 Read
498. An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma (NetGalley) 5/7/18
499. The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry (NetGalley) 5/8/18 Read
500. What My Sister Knew by Nina Laurin (NetGalley) 5/8/18
501. City of Ink by Elsa Hart (NetGalley) 5/8/18 Read
502. The Lost Love Letters of Henri Fournier: A Novel by Rosalind Brackenbury (NetGalley) 5/9/18
503. Thomas Paine's Rights of Man: A Biography: Books That Changed the World by Christopher Hitchens (Audiobook, $$) 5/9/18
504. Estoril by Dejan Tiago-Stankovic (UK Kindle, $$) 5/9/18
505. And Fire Came Down by Emma Viskic (Edelweiss e-galley) 5/9/18
506. Kafka's Last Trial: The Case of a Literary Legacy by Benjamin Balint (Edelweiss e-galley) 5/10/18
507. Mad Scenes and Exit Arias: The Death of the New York City Opera and the Future of Opera in America by Heidi Waleson (NetGalley) 5/10/18 Read
508. Pan Tadeusz: The Last Foray in Lithuania by Adam Mickiewicz (Edelweiss e-galley) 5/10/18
509. The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook by Niall Ferguson (UK Kindle, sale, $) 5/11/18
510. The Library Book by Susan Orlean (NetGalley) 5/11/18 Read
511. They Eat Puppies, Don't They? By Christopher Buckley (Audiobook, $$) 5/13/18
512. Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver (NetGalley) 5/14/18
513. Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie (Audiobook, $$) 5/14/18 Read
514. Why Didn't They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie (Audiobook, $$) 5/14/18
515. The Trial and Execution of the Traitor George Washington by Charles Rosenberg (Amazon Vine ARC) 5/15/18 Read
516. Exit Strategy by Charlton Pettus (Amazon Vine ARC) 5/15/18
517. Appointment With Death by Agatha Christie (Audiobook, $$) 5/15/18 Read
518. Mrs. McGinty's Dead by Agatha Christie (Audiobook, $$) 5/15/18
519. Maulever Hall by Jane Aiken Hodge (NetGalley) 5/16/18
520. The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton (NetGalley) 5/16/18
521. The Most Dangerous Branch: Inside the Supreme Court's Assault on the Constitution by David A. Kaplan (NetGalley) 5/16/18
522. Burden: A Preacher, a Klansman, and a True Story of Redemption in the Modern South by Courtney Hargrave (NetGalley) 5/16/18
523. The Summer Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick (Kindle, sale, $) 5/16/18
524. The Family Tabor by Cherise Wolas (Amazon Vine ARC) 5/16/18
525. A Family Recipe by Veronica Henry (UK Kindle, $$) 5/16/18 Read
526. The Butcher's Daughter by Victoria Glendinning (UK Kindle, $$) 5/16/18 Read
527. The Land of Green Ginger by Winnifred Holtby (UK Kindle, sale, $) 5/16/18
528. Feared by Lisa Scottoline (NetGalley, from publisher) 5/16/18
529. The Wedding: Savages by Sabri Louatah (UK Kindle, $$) 5/16/18
530. The Valley at the Centre of the World by Malachy Tallack (Kindle, $$) 5/16/18
531. Drama Teacher by Koren Zailckas (NetGalley) 5/17/18
532. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (UK Kindle, kindle sale, $) 5/17/18
533. Barometer Rising by Hugh Maclennan (paperback, $$) 5/17/18
534. The Night of the Twelfth by Michael Gilbert (paperback, $$) 5/17/18 Read
535. The Black Seraphim by Michael Gilbert (paperback, $$) 5/17/18 Read
536. Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea (audiobook, $$) 5/17/18 Read
537. A City of Bells by Elizabeth Goudge (UK Kindle, sale, $) 5/20/18
538. Towers in the Mist by Elizabeth Goudge (UK Kindle, sale, $) 5/20/18
539. Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves (Amazon Vine, hardcover) 5/20/18
540. House of Gold by Natasha Solomons (ARC, Amazon Vine) 5/20/18

16Chatterbox
Redigerat: okt 15, 2018, 9:01 pm

Books Purchased Or Otherwise Permanently Acquired 2018
Part VIII

541. Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier (ARC, Amazon Vine) 5/20/18
542. Us Against You by Fredrik Backman (NetGalley) 5/21/18
543. All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin (NetGalley) 5/22/18
544. The Pisces by Melissa Broder (Amazon Vine ARC) 5/22/18
545. OK, Mr. Field by Katherine Kilalea (Amazon Vine ARC) 5/22/18
546. The Accident on the A35 by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Edelweiss e-galley) 5/22/18
547. The Golden Hour by Todd Moss (audiobook, $$) 5/22/18
548. In the Grip of It by Sheena Kamal (Kindle Single, $) 5/22/18
549. How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them by Jason Stanley (NetGalley) 5/23/18
550. The Kinship of Secrets by Eugenia Kim (NetGalley) 5/24/18
551. The Pasha of Cuisine by Saygin Ersin (Edelweiss e-galley) 5/25/18
552. Spindrift by Phyllis Whitney (Kindle, Kindle sale) 5/25/18
553. The Golden Unicorn by Phyllis Whitney (Kindle, Kindle sale) 5/25/18
554. Seven Tears for Apollo by Phyllis Whitney (Kindle, Kindle sale) 5/25/18
555. A Howl of Wolves by Judith Flanders (Kindle, $$) 5/25/18 Read
556. After the Fine Weather by Michael Gilbert (paperback, $$) 5/26/18 Read
557. Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win by Jo Piazza (NetGalley) 5/27/18 Read
558. The Quiet Side of Passion by Alexander McCall Smith (First to Read) 5/29/18 Read
559. The Game of Hope by Sandra Gulland (First to Read) 5/29/18 Read
560. Shelter in Place by Nora Roberts (Kindle & audiobook, $$) 5/29/18 Read
561. The Girl They Left Behind by Roxanne Veletzos (NetGalley) 5/29/18
562. We All Love the Beautiful Girls by Joanne Proulx (NetGalley) 5/29/18
563. Days of Awe by A.M. Homes (NetGalley, from publisher) 5/31/18
564. Ghosted: A Novel by Rosie Walsh (NetGalley, from publisher) 5/31/18
565. The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan (NetGalley, from publisher) 5/31/18
566. The Late Bloomers' Club by Louise Miller (Netgalley, from publisher) 5/31/18
567. Aunt Dimity and the King's Ransom by Nancy Atherton (NetGalley, from publisher) 5/31/18 Read
578. Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary by Louis Hyman (NetGalley, from publisher) 5/31/18
579. Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World by Adam Tooze (NetGalley, from publisher) 5/31/18
580. A Passionate Man by Joanna Trollope (UK Kindle, sale, $) 5/31/18
581. Firefly by Henry Porter (NetGalley) 6/1/18 Read
582. The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey (NetGalley) 6/1/18
583. Melmoth by Sarah Perry (Edelweiss e-galley) 6/1/18
584. The Sideman by Caro Ramsay (NetGalley) 6/1/18
585. The Angel in the Glass by Alys Clare (NetGalley) 6/1/18
586. Dark Queen Rising by Paul Doherty (NetGalley) 6/1/18
587. Aunt Dimity and the Widow's Curse by Nancy Atherton (Kindle, $$) 6/1/18 Read
588. She Was the Quiet One by Michele Campbell (NetGalley) 6/1/18
589. Priceless by Zygmunt Miloszewski (NetGalley) 6/1/18
590. Boundless: Tracing Land and Dream in a New Northwest Passage by Annabel Winter (Kindle, $$) 6/2/18
591. The Queen's Mary by Sarah Gristwood (Kindle First, freebie) 6/2/18 Read
592. I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara (Kindle, $$) 6/3/18
593. Rain: Four Walks in English Weather by Melissa Harrison (UK Kindle, $$) 6/3/18 Read
594. The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford (paperback, $$) 6/4/18
595. The Department of Missing Persons by Ruth Zylberman (hardcover, $$) 6/4/18
596. The Man Between by Charles Cumming (UK Kindle) 6/5/18 Read
597. Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, its Chaotic Founding... its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-class Metropolis by Sam Anderson (Amazon Vine ARC) 6/5/18
598. Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment by Francis Fukuyama (Netgalley) 6/6/18
599. My Purple-Scented Novel by Ian MacEwan (NetGalley) 6/6/18
600. Smoke and Ashes by Abir Mukherjee (UK Kindle, $$) 6/7/18
601. Well, That Escalated Quickly: Memoirs and Mistakes of an Accidental Activist by Franchesca Ramsay (Amazon Vine ARC) 6/7/18 Read
602. Paris in the Dark by Robert Olen Butler (Edelweiss e-galley) 6/8/18
603. Solemn Graves by James R. Benn (Edelweiss e-galley) 6/8/18
604. Blood Money by Tom Bradby (UK Kindle, sale, $) 6/8/18
605. The Intrusions by Stav Sherez (Kindle, $$) 6/9/18
606. The Unmourned by Thomas Keneally (Kindle, $$) 6/9/18
607. Last Stories by William Trevor (Kindle, $$) 6/9/18 Read
608. Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect by Mick West (Edelweiss e-galley) 6/11/18
609. The Court Dancer by Kyung-Sook Shin (Edelweiss e-galley) 6/12/18
610. Life in the Garden by Penelope Lively (Kindle, $$) 6/12/18 Read
611. The Phantom Tree by Nicola Cornick (Amazon Vine ARC) 6/13/18 Read
612. Best of Enemies: The Last Great Spy Story of the Cold War by Gus Russo & Eric Dezenhall (Amazon Vine ARC) 6/13/18 Read
613. The Story of a Marriage by Geir Gulliksen (Amazon Vine ARC) 6/13/18
614. The Poison Bed by E.C. Fremantle (UK Kindle, $$) 6/13/18 Read
615. The Dinner Guest by Gabriela Ybarra (UK Kindle, $$) 6/13/18

17Chatterbox
Redigerat: dec 29, 2018, 7:08 pm

Books Purchased Or Otherwise Permanently Acquired 2018
Part IX

616. Like a Sword Wound by Ahmet Altan (Edelweiss E-books) 6/14/18
617. The Second Rider by Alex Beer (Edelweiss e-galleys) 6/14/18
618. Last Woman Standing by Amy Gentry (Edelweiss e-galley) 6/14/18
619. Bramton Wick by Elizabeth Fair (UK Kindle sale, $) 6/14/18
620. The Lark by E. Nesbit (UK Kindle sale, $) 6/14/18
621. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett (audiobook, $$) 6/14/18
622. The Theban Mysteries by Amanda Cross (Kindle, $$) 6/15/18
623. The Beach House by James Patterson (Kindle sale, $) 6/15/18
624. Three Little Lies by Laura Marshall (NetGalley) 6/15/18
625. Fifth to Die by J.D. Barker (Amazon Vine ARC) 6/15/18 Read
626. The Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy (Kindle sale, $) 6/15/18
627. The First of July by Elizabeth Speller (Kindle sale, $) 6/15/18
628. The Beautiful Visit by Elizabeth Jane Howard (Kindle Sale, $) 6/15/18
629. The Hearth and the Eagle by Anya Seton (Kindle Sale, $) 6/15/18
630. City of God: A Novel of the Borgias by Cecelia Holland (Kindle Sale, $) 6/15/18
631. Judgment Day by Penelope Lively (Kindle Sale, $) 6/15/18
632. Assize of the Dying by Ellis Peters (Kindle sale, $) 6/15/18 Read
633. When the Devil Drives by Chris Brookmyre (Kindle sale, $) 6/15/18
634. The Smiler With the Knife by Nicholas Blake (Kindle sale, $) 6/15/18
635. Mourning Raga by Ellis Peters (Kindle Sale, $) 6/15/18
636. The Grass Widow's Tale by Ellis Peters (Kindle sale, $) 6/15/18
637. The Flight of a Witch by Ellis Peters (Kindle sale, $) 6/15/18
638. Icebreaker: A Voyage Far North by Horatio Clare (UK Kindle, $$) 6/17/18
639. The Harder They Come by T.C. Boyle (Kindle, sale, $) 6/17/18
640. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Hariri (NetGalley) 6/18/18
641. Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper (NetGalley, from publisher) 6/18/18
642. Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller (Edelweiss, E-galley) 6/19/18
643. Real Tigers by Mick Herron (UK Kindle sale, $) 6/20/18
644. Transcription by Kate Atkinson (NetGalley) 6/21/18 Read
645. White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America by Margaret Hagerman (NetGalley) 6/21/18
646. Rush: Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father by Stephen Freid (NetGalley) 6/21/18
647. The Other Sister by Sarah Zettel (NetGalley) 6/21/18
648. We That Are Young by Preti Taneja (Amazon Vine ARC) 6/21/18
649. Algiers, Third World Capital: Freedom Fighters, Revolutionaries, Black Panthers by Elaine Mokhtefi (Amazon Vine) 6/22/18
650. Chariot on the Mountain by Jack Ford (Amazon Vine ARC) 6/23/18
651. Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement by Janet Dewart Bell (Amazon Vine ARC) 6/23/18
652. Sight: A Novel by Jessie Greengrass (Amazon Vine ARC) 6/23/18
653. To the Bridge: A True Story of Motherhood and Murder by Nancy Rommelman (Kindle First, Freebie) 6/24/18
654. Marathon Man by William Goldman (Kindle sale, $) 6/24/18
655. Hitler's American Friends: The Third Reich's Supporters in the United States by Bradley Hart (NetGalley) 6/25/18
656. The Piper on the Mountain by Ellis Peters (audiobook, $$) 6/27/18 Read
657. The Race to Save the Romanovs: The Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue the Russian Imperial Family by Helen Rappaport (NetGalley) 6/27/18
658. Don't Eat Me by Colin Cotterill (Edelweiss e-galley) 6/27/18 Read
659. All the Lives We Never Lived by Anuradha Roy (NetGalley) 6/27/18
660. The Other Wife by Michael Robotham (UK Kindle, $$) 6/27/18 Read
661. The Mechanical Devil by Kate Ellis (Kindle, $$) 6/27/18
662. The Conjuror's Bird by Martin Davies (UK Kindle, $$) 6/27/18
663. Lake Success by Gary Shteyngart (Amazon Vine ARC) 6/27/18
664. This Could Change Everything by Jill Mansell (Kindle, $$) 6/27/18
665. The Bell Ringers by Henry Porter (audiobook, $$) 6/27/18 Read
666. Bone on Bone by Julia Keller (NetGalley) 6/28/18 Read
667. Button Man by Andrew Gross (NetGalley) 6/28/18
668. The Imposter: A True Story by Javier Cercas (First to Read 6/28/18
669. Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson (Amazon Vine ARC) 6/29/18
670. The Summer of Ellen by Agnete Friis (Edelweiss e-galley) 6/29/18

18Chatterbox
Redigerat: okt 4, 2018, 12:18 am

Books Purchased Or Otherwise Permanently Acquired 2018
Part X

671. Godsend by John Wray (NetGalley) 6/29/18 Read
672. Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders (Edelweiss e-galley) 6/30/18
673. Red by John Logan (Audiobook, sale, $) 7/1/18
674. God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza (Audiobook, sale, $) 7/1/18 Read
675. The Savage Shore by David Hewson (NetGalley) 7/2/18
676. Beautiful Exiles by Meg Waite Clayton (Kindle First, Freebie) 7/2/18
677. A Face to the World: On Self Portraits by Laura Cumming (Kindle, $$) 7/3/18
678. Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster by Stephen L. Carter (NetGalley) 7/3/18
679. The Necessary Beggar by Susan Palwick (Kindle sale, $) 7/3/18
680. Death and the Joyful Woman by Ellis Peters (Kindle sale, $) 7/3/18
681. Holiday With Violence by Ellis Peters (Kindle, $$) 7/3/18 Read
682. How to Leave: Quitting the City and Coping with a New Reality by Erin Clune (NetGalley) 7/3/18
683. A Shot in the Dark: A Constable Twitten Mystery by Lynne Truss (NetGalley) 7/3/18
684. Little Dancer Aged Fourteen by Camille Laurens (ARC from publisher) 7/3/18
685. Prague Spring by Simon Mawer (ARC from publisher) 7/3/18 Read
686. Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz (NetGalley) 7/3/18
687. Hellbent by Gregg Hurwitz (NetGalley) 7/3/18
688. The Nowhere Man by Gregg Hurwitz (NetGalley) 7/3/18
689. Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran (Kindle sale, $) 7/3/18
690. City of Devils: The Two Men Who Ruled the Underworld of Old Shanghai by Paul French (Audiobook, $$) 7/4/18
691. Testimony by Anita Shreve (Audiobook sale, $) 7/4/18 Read
692. The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes by Ruth Hogan (UK Kindle sale, $) 7/4/18
693. The Honeymoon by Tina Seskis (UK Kindle sale, $) 7/4/18
694. Never Alone by Elizabeth Haynes (UK Kindle sale, $) 7/4/18
695. The Party by Elizabeth Day (UK Kindle sale, $) 7/4/18
696. Versailles by Colin Jones (NetGalley) 7/5/18
From ALA (via Benita!); almost all ARCs
all 7/5/18
697. Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
698. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata Read
699. The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker
700. The Dutch Wife by Ellen Keith
701. Find Me Gone by Sarah Meuleman
702. Wild Fire by Ann Cleeves Read
703. Vox by Christina Dalcher Read
704. Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough
705. Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Authorized Biography by Andrea Warner
706. Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction by Alec Nevala-Lee
707. The Collector's Apprentice by B.A. Shapiro
708. These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore (sampler only)
709. Ordinary People by Diana Evans
710. Putney by Sofka Zinovieff
711. Elsey Come Home by Susan Conley
712. Seaweed Chronicles: A World at the Water’s Edge by Susan Hand Shetterly
713. The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh
714. The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell Read
715. Interior States: Essays by Meghan O'Gieblyn Read
That's the end of the ALA listings!
716. A Mind Unraveled: A Memoir by Kurt Eichenwald (Amazon Vine ARC) 7/5/18
717. The Sword of Justice by Leif G. W. Persson (Amazon Vine ARC) 7/5/18
718. The Caregiver by Samuel Park (NetGalley) 7/5/18
719. Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson (Edelweiss e-galley) 7/6/18
720. Caroline's Bikini by Kirsty Gunn (Edelweiss e-galley) 7/6/18
721. Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know: The Fathers of Wilde, Yeats, and Joyce by Colm Toibin (NetGalley) 7/9/18
722. The Forbidden Place by Susanne Jansson (NetGalley) 7/9/18
723. A Cloudy Day on the Western Shore by Mohamed Mansi Qandi (Edelweiss e-galley) 7/9/18
724. Horseman of the Sands by Leonid Yuzefovich (Edelweiss e-galley) 7/9/18
725. The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah (Audiobook, $$) 7/9/18
726. Who is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht (Audiobook, $$) 7/9/18 Read
727. A Gathering of Secrets by Linda Castillo (Kindle, $$) 7/10/18 Read
728. November Road by Lou Berney (NetGalley) 7/11/18
729. The Waiter by Matias Faldbakken (Edelweiss e-galley) 7/11/18 Read
730. Our Friends in Berlin by Anthony Quinn (UK Kindle, $$) 7/11/18 Read

19Chatterbox
Redigerat: dec 12, 2018, 8:29 pm

Books Purchased Or Otherwise Permanently Acquired 2018
Part XI

731. Palaces for the People: How To Build a More Equal and United Society by Eric Klinenberg (Amazon Vine ARC) 7/11/18
732. Death Notice by Haohui Zhou (Kindle, $$) 7/11/18
733. The Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World by Abigail Tucker (Kindle, $$) 7/11/18
734. Virgil Wander by Leif Enger (Amazon Vine ARC) 7/14/18
735. The Gate Keeper by Charles Todd (Audiobook, $$) (Actually acquired 2/18/18, not logged then...) Read
736. The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World by Robert Kagan (NetGalley) 7/15/18
737. A Death in Eden by Keith McCafferty (NetGalley) 7/15/18
738. Bitwise: A Life in Code by David Auerbach (NetGalley) 7/15/18
739. Daemon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling by Phillip Pullman (NetGalley) 7/15/18
740. The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures by Antonio Damasio (NetGalley) 7/15/18
741. The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle (NetGalley) 7/16/18
742. The Girl in the Glass Box by James Grippando (NetGalley) 7/16/18 Read
743. Love in a Mist by Sarah Harrison (NetGalley) 7/16/18
744. As the Crow Flies by Jeffrey Archer (Kindle Sale, $) 7/16/18
745. Blood Money by James Grippando (Kindle Sale, $) 7/16/18
746. The King Tides by James Swain (Kindle First freebie, Kindle Days freebie) 7/17/18
747. Boomer1 by Daniel Torday (NetGalley) 7/17/18
748. The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre (First to Read, e-galley) 7/18/18 Read
749. The Empty Throne: America's Abdication of Global Leadership by Ivo Daalder (NetGalley)
More From ALA (via Benita!); all ARCs 7/18/18 (books 750-755)
750. Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs
751. The Fall of Wisconsin by Dan Kaufman
752. Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter
753. Whiskey When We're Dry by John Larison
754. Presidents of War by Michael Beschloss
755. The Sea Queen by Linnea Hartsuyker
end of final ALA list
756. The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker (Audiobook, $$) 7/18/18 Read
757. The Poems of T.S. Eliot by T.S. Eliot, read by Jeremy Irons (Audiobook, $) 7/21/18
758. Into the Fire by Alexander Fullerton (UK Kindle sale, $) 7/21/18 Read
759. The Fallen Architect by Charles Belfoure (NetGalley) 7/23/18
760. A Christmas Revelation by Anne Perry (NetGalley) 7//23/18 Read
761. The Cut Out Girl: A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found by Bart van Es (Amazon Vine ARC) 7/24/18
762. The Incurable Romantic: and Other Unsettling Revelations by Frank Tallis (Amazon Vine ARC) 7/24/18 Read
763. What's Left of the Night by Ersi Sotiropoulos (Edelweiss e-galley) 7/25/18
765. The Dinosaur Artist: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Quest for Earth's Ultimate Trophy by Paige Williams (Amazon Vine ARC) 7/25/18
766. Broken Ground by Val McDermid (NetGalley) 7/25/18 Read
767. The Skin of the Lion by Michael Ondaatje (Audiobook, sale, $) 7/25/18
768. The Other Woman by Daniel Silva (Audiobook, $$) 7/24/18 Read
769. The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life Is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store by Cait Flanders (Audiobook, sale, $) 7/27/18
770. Uneasy Lies the Crown by Tasha Alexander (NetGalley) 7/27/18
771. The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump by Michiko Kakutani (Kindle, $$) 7/28/18
772. Shakespeare and the Resistance: The Earl of Southampton, the Essex Rebellion, and the Poems that Challenged Tudor Tyranny by Clare Asquith (ARC, Amazon Vine) 7/30/18
773. Reckless: Henry Kissinger and the Tragedy of Vietnam by Robert Brigham (ARC, Amazon Vine) 7/30/18 Read
774. Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition That Is Shaping the Next Economy by Nathan Schneider (ARC, Amazon Vine) 7/30/18
775. War of the Wolf by Bernard Cornwell (Edelweiss E-galley) 7/30/18 Read
776. The Burglar by Thomas Perry (NetGalley) 7/31/18 Read
777. Elsewhere, Home by Leila Aboulela (NetGalley) 7/31/18
778. Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist by Eli Saslow (NetGalley) 7/31/18
779. In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne (UK Kindle, $$) 7/31/18
780. The Great Level by Stella Tillyard (UK Kindle, $$) 7/31/18
781. Why I Am a Hindu by Shashi Tharoor (Edelweiss e-galley) 7/31/18
782. Mr. Campion's War by Mike Ripley (NetGalley) 8/1/18
783. A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne (NetGalley) 8/1/18
784. The Lost Night by Andrea Bartz (NetGalley) 8/1/18
785. In Miniature: How Small Things Illuminate the World by Simon Garfield (NetGalley) 8/1/18
786. A Spy in Exile by Jonathan de Shalit (NetGalley) 8/1/18
787. No Time to Cry by James Oswald (UK Kindle, $$) 8/1/18
788. The Leopard by Jo Nesbo (UK Kindle, sale, $) 8/1/18
789. The Romanovs: 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore (UK Kindle, sale, $) 8/1/18
790. The Thirty-One Kings: Richard Hannay Returns by Robert J. Harris (UK Kindle, Sale, $) 8/1/18
791. An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden (UK Kindle, sale, $) 8/1/18
792. Thursday's Children by Rumer Godden (UK Kindle, sale, $) 8/1/18
793. Biografi by Lloyd Jones (UK Kindle, $$) 8/2/18
794. The Moscow Sleepers by Stella Rimington (NetGalley) 8/2/18 Read
795. The Independent Woman by Simone de Beauvoir (NetGalley) 8/2/18
795. A Savage Order: How the World's Deadliest Countries Can Forge a Path to Security by Rachel Kleinfeld (NetGalley) 8/2/18
796. Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami (NetGalley, from publisher) 8/2/18
797. God in the Qur'an by Jack Miles (NetGalley, from publisher) 8/2/18
798. The Great Stink by Clare Clark (Kindle, sale, $) 8/3/18
799. His Right Hand by Mette Ivie Harrison (Kindle sale, $) 8/3/18
800. Run! by Patricia Wentworth (Kindle sale, $) 8/3/18

20Chatterbox
Redigerat: nov 20, 2018, 12:52 am

Books Purchased Or Otherwise Permanently Acquired 2018
Part XII

801. Lake Isle by Nicolas Freeling (Kindle sale, $) 8/3/18
802. Prayer of the Dragon by Eliot Pattison (kindle sale, $) 8/3/18
803. Passion and Affect by Laurie Colwin (Kindle Sale, $) 8/3/18
804. Pack of Cards by Penelope Lively (Kindle sale, $) 8/3/18
805. Murder at Cape Three Points by Kwei Quartey (Kindle sale, $) 8/3/18
806. Dogs Bark, but the Caravan Rolls On: Observations from Then and Now by Frank Conroy (Kindle sale, $) 8/3/18
807. The Florentine Emerald: The Secret of the Convert's Ring by Agustín B. Palatchi (Kindle sale, $) 8/3/18
808. The Wives by Lauren Weisberger (Kindle sale, $) 8/3/18
809. Fatal Inheritance by Rachel Rhys (UK Kindle, $$) 8/3/18 Read
810. One Point Two Billion by Mahesh Rao (Kindle, $$) 8/4/18
811. A Question of Proof by Nicholas Blake (Kindle Unlimited) 8/4/18
812. I Should Have Honor: A Memoir of Hope and Pride in Pakistan by Khalida Brodi (Amazon Vine ARC) 8/5/18
813. The Distance Home by Paula Saunders (Amazon Vine ARC) 8/6/18
814. As Wide As the Sky by Jessica Pack (Amazon Vine ARC) 8/6/18
815. The Latecomers by Helen Klein Ross (Amazon Vine ARC) 8/6/18
816. A Paris Life, A Baltimore Treasure: The Remarkable Lives of George A. Lucas and His Art Collection
817. Day of the Dead by Stanley Mazaroff (Amazon Vine hardcover) 8/6/18
818. Annelies by David Gilham (NetGalley) 8/7/18
819. Chroniques: Selected Columns, 2010-2016 by Kamel Daoud (from publisher, ARC) 8/7/18
820. The Little Snake by A.L. Kennedy (NetGalley) 8/8/18
821. The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye (ARC from Benita) 8/8/18
822. Tell Me You're Mine by Elisabeth Noreback (Edelweiss e-galley) 8/8/18
823. League of Spies: Fortunes of France: Volume 4 by Robert Merle (Edelweiss e-galley) 8/8/18
824. How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide by Crystal Marie Fleming (Edelweiss e-galley) 8/8/18
825. When Death Becomes Life: Notes from a Transplant Surgeon by Joshua Mezrich (Edelweiss e-galley) 8/9/18)
826. Friend of the Family by Tasmina Perry (UK Kindle, $$) 8/10/18
827. Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems by Mary Oliver (Kindle Unlimited) 8/12/18
828. Death to the Landlords by Ellis Peters (Kindle, sale, $) 8/12/18
829. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Kindle, sale, $) 8/12/18
830. Perfidious Albion by Sam Byers (UK Kindle, $$) 8/12/18
831. The Escape Artists: A Band of Daredevil Pilots and the Greatest Prison Break of the Great War by Neal Bascomb (NetGalley) 8/13/18
832. An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago by Alex Kotlowitz (NetGalley) 8/13/18
833. The Class: A Life-Changing Teacher, His World-Changing Kids, and the Most Inventive Classroom in America by Heather Won Tesoriero (Amazon Vine ARC) 8/15/18
834. The Hour of the Fox by Kurt Palka (Audiobook, $$) 8/15/18
835. 55, Underemployed, and Faking Normal: Your Guide to a Better Life by Elizabeth White (NetGalley) 8/15/18
836 A Forgotten Place by Charles Todd (ARC, LTER, from publisher) 8/15/18
837. American Heroin by Melissa Scrivner Love (NetGalley) 8/15/18
838. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (UK Kindle sale, $) 8/15/18
839. Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (Kindle & Audiobook, $$) 8/16/18 Read
840. Suicide Club: A Novel About Living by Rachel Heng (Kindle, $$) 8/16/18
841. Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger by Rebecca Traister (NetGalley) 8/17/18
842. Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President What We Don't, Can't, and Do Know by Kathleen Hall Jamieson (Amazon Vine ARC) 8/17/18
843. Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey (Audiobook, $$) 8/17/18
844. Walking the Woods and the Water: In Patrick Leigh Fermor's Footsteps from the Hook of Holland to the Golden Horn by Nick Hunt (UK Kindle, $$) 8/18/18
845. Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf (Kindle Unlimited) 8/18/18 Read

21Familyhistorian
aug 29, 2018, 1:50 am

Happy new thread! Now I feel so much better about my own 2018 acquisitions.

22Chatterbox
Redigerat: dec 19, 2018, 3:21 am

And eventually, I know I will need:

Books Purchased Or Otherwise Permanently Acquired 2018
Part XIII

846. Early Riser by Jasper Fforde (UK Kindle, $$) 8/20/18 Read
847. Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal (NetGalley) 8/21/18
848. See You in the Piazza: New Places to Discover in Italy by Frances Mayes (NetGalley) 8/22/18
849. Summer by Karl Ove Knausgaard (Amazon Vine, ARC) 8/22/18
850. Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism: My Journey as a Vaccine Scientist, Pediatrician, and Autism Dad by Peter Hotez (Amazon Vine ARC) 8/22/18
851. The Ghost Tree by Barbara Erskine (UK Kindle, $$) 8/23/18
852. Glory and the Lightning by Taylor Caldwell (Kindle sale, $) 8/23/18
853. Hotel Sacher by Rodica Doehnert (Kindle First freebie) 8/24/18
854. The Olive Tree by Lucinda Riley (UK Kindle, sale, $) 8/24/18
855. The Beautiful Dead by Belinda Bauer (UK Kindle, sale, $) 8/24/18
856. Behind her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough (UK Kindle, sale, $) 8/24/18
857. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor (UK Kindle, sale, $) 8/24/18
858. A Train of Powder by Rebecca West (Kindle, sale, $) 8/26/18
859. The Bookshop Book by Jen Campbell (Kindle sale, $) 8/26/18
860. The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd (Kindle sale, $) 8/26/18
861. On Grand Strategy by John Lewis Gaddis (Hardcover, $$) 8/27/18
862. Chopin's Piano: In Search of the Instrument that Transformed Music by Paul Kildea (Kindle, $$) 8/27/18
863. The Wolf and the Watchman: A Novel by Niklas Natt och Dag (NetGalley) 8/27/18
864. Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield (NetGalley) 8/28/18
865. War Cry by Wilbur Smith (UK Kindle, $$) 8/28/18
866. Watching You by Lisa Jewell (NetGalley) 8/28/18
867. Northbridge Rectory by Angela Thirkell (UK Kindle, $$) 8/28/18
868. Newcomer by Keigo Higashino (NetGalley) 8/28/18
869. The Rule of Law by John Lescroart (NetGalley) 8/29/18 Read
870. Wunderland by Jennifer Cody Epstein (NetGalley) 8/30/18
871. Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro (NetGalley, from publisher) 8/30/18
872. The Weight of a Piano by Chris Cander (NetGalley, from publisher) 8/30/18
873. The General's Cook by Ramin Ganeshram (Amazon Vine ARC) 8/30/18
874. Never Ran, Never Will: Boyhood and Football in a Changing American Inner City by Albert Samaha (from publisher, unsolicited hardcover) 8/30/18
875. Auschwitz Lullaby by Mario Escobar (Amazon Vine ARC) 8/31/18
876. 99 Ways to Die by Ed Lin (Amazon Vine ARC) 8/31/18
877. A Winter's Promise: Book One of The Mirror Visitor Quartet by Christelle Dabos (hardcover from publisher, unsolicited) 9/1/18
878. Sea Lord by Bernard Cornwell (UK Kindle, Kindle sale, $) 9/3/18
879. The City in Darkness by Michael Russell (UK Kindle, sale, $) 9/3/18
880. The Black Ascot by Charles Todd (Edelweiss e-galley) 9/4/18 Read
881. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (NetGalley) 9/4/18
882. Gallows Court by Martin Edwards (Kindle Unlimited freebie) 9/6/18 Read
883. Bear No Malice by Clarissa Harwood (Edelweiss e-galley) 9/6/18
884. The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson (Edelweiss e-galley) 9/6/18
885. Downhill from Here: Retirement Insecurity in the Age of Inequality by Katherine S. Newman (Netgalley, ARC from publisher) 9/7/18
886. The Heavens by Sandra Newman (NetGalley) 9/7/18
887. Bloodline by Mark Billingham (UK Kindle, sale, $) 9/8/18
888. Buried by Mark Billingham (UK Kindle, sale, $) 9/8/18
889. From the Dead by Mark Billingham (UK Kindle, sale, $) 9/8/18
890. All the Lives We Ever Lived: Seeking Solace in Virginia Woolf by Katharine Smyth (NetGalley) 9/9/18
891. Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett (Audiobook, $$) 9/9/18
892. Nightfall Berlin by Jack Grimwood (UK Kindle sale, $) 9/9/18
893. Black Swan Rising by Lisa Brackmann (audiobook, $$) 9/10/18
894. Golden Child by Claire Adam (NetGalley) 9/10/18
895. Such Good Work by Johannes Lichtman (NetGalley) 9/10/18
896. Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg (NetGalley) 9/10/18
897. The Fox by Frederick Forsyth (NetGalley) 9/11/18 Read
898. Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward (audiobook, $$) 9/11/18 Read
899. Normal People by Sally Rooney (NetGalley) 9/12/18
900. The Storyteller's Secret by Sejal Badani (NetGalley) 9/12/18
901. Into the Night by Sarah Bailey (NetGalley) 9/12/18
902. What to Read and Why by Francine Prose (Kindle, $$) 9/12/18
903. In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein by Fiona Sampson (Kindle, $$) 9/12/18
904. After the Party by Cressida Connolly (UK Kindle, $$) 9/13/18
905. The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives by Jesse Eisinger (Kindle, $$) 9/14/18
906. The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar (Audiobook, $$) 9/14/18
907. Disclosure by Michael Crichton (Kindle, sale, $) 9/15/18
908. Rome: A History in Seven Sackings by Matthew Kneale (UK Kindle, sale, $) 9/15/18
909. The Coming Storm by Michael Lewis (Audible Original -- free) 9/16/18
910. Emma by Jane Austen (Audible Original dramatization . -- free) 9/16/18
911. Northland: A 4,000-Mile Journey Along America's Forgotten Border by Porter Fox (Kindle, $$) 9/16/18
912. The Mirror of Beauty by Shamsur Rahman Faruqi (Kindle, $$) 9/16/18
913. The Golden Tresses of the Dead by Alan Bradley (NetGalley) 9/18/18 Read
914. Blood is Blood by Will Thomas (NetGalley) 9/18/18 Read
915. Time's Convert by Deborah Harkness (Audible, $$) 9/18/18
916. Couleurs de l'incendie by Pierre Leimaïtre (Paperback, Albertine, $$) 9/18/18
917. L'art de perdre by Alice Zeniter (paperback, Albertine, $$) 9/18/18
918. Le suspendu de Conakry by Jean-Christophe Rufin (paperback, Albertine, $$) 9/18/18
919. Le train d’Erlingen ou La métamorphose de Dieu by Boualem Sansal (paperback, Albertine, $$) 9/18/18
920. Les cigognes sont immortelles by Alain Mabanckou (paperback, Albertine, $$) 9/18/18
921. L'exercice de la médecine by Laurent Seksik (paperback, Albertine, $$) 9/18/18
922. Beirut Hellfire Society by Rawi Hage (Canadian Kindle, $$) 9/18/18
923. Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese (Canadian Kindle, $$) 9/18/18
924. Nostalgia by G.M. Vassanji (Canadian Kindle, sale, $) 9/18/18
925. Le tour du monde du roi Zibeline by Gilbert Sinoué (UK Kindle, $$) 9/18/18
926. The Plotters by Un-su Kim (NetGalley) 9/19/18
927. Necessary People by Anna Pitoniak (NetGalley) 9/19/18
928. The First Wife by Emily Barr (UK Kindle, Sale, $) 9/20/18
929. The Long Afternoon by Giles Waterfield (UK Kindle, $$) 9/20/18
930. A Treachery of Spies by Manda Scott (UK Kindle, $$) 9/20/18
931. Seventeen by Hideo Yokoyama (NetGalley) 9/20/18
932. Songs for the Cold of Heart by Eric Dupont (paperback, $$) 9/21/18
933. The Night Stalker by Robert Bryndza (NetGalley) 9/21/18
934. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith (Audiobook, $$) 9/21/18 Read
935. The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border by Francisco Cantu (Kindle, credits -- free) 9/22/18
936. The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Kindle, $$) 9/23/18
937. Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall (NetGalley) 9/23/18
938. Collecting the World: The Life and Curiosity of Hans Sloane by James Delbourgo (UK Kindle, $$) 9/23/18
939. That Churchill Woman by Stephanie Barron (NetGalley) 9/24/18
940. The Splendor Before the Dark by Margaret George (Edelweiss) 9/24/18
941. The Winters by Lisa Gabriele (NetGalley) 9/24/18 Read
942. The Rule of One by Ashley Saunders (Kindle First freebie) 9/24/18
943. The White Book by Han Kang (NetGalley) 9/24/18
944. Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy by Eric O'Neill (NetGalley) 9/23/18 Read
945. Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?: Alice Paul, Woodrow Wilson, and the Fight for the Right to Vote by Tina Cassidy (NetGalley) 9/25/18
946. The River by Peter Heller (NetGalley) 9/25/18
947. The Girl in the Fog by Donato Carrisi (UK Kindle, sale, $) 9/25/18
948. Women Warriors: An Unexpected History by Pamela Toler (Edelweiss) 9/26/18
949. The Current by Tim Johnston (NetGalley) 9/28/18
950. Guilt by Association by Susan R. Sloan (Kindle, $$) 9/29/18 Read
951. Where the Wild Winds Are: Walking Europe's Winds from the Pennines to Provence by Nick Hunt (UK Kindle, sale, $) 9/29/18

23figsfromthistle
aug 29, 2018, 7:41 am

Happy new thread!!

24jnwelch
aug 29, 2018, 8:44 am

Happy New Thread!

I re-read Agatha Christie pretty regularly, and enjoy Ngaio Marsh. I should give Margery Allingham a try.

25Chatterbox
aug 29, 2018, 9:50 am

>21 Familyhistorian: Happy to be of service!!

>24 jnwelch: It's been a long, long time since I re-read any Agatha Christie and the result has been a mixed bag so far. The Ngaio Marsh, which is going slowly, has been more interesting. Haven't embarked on the Margery Allingham project yet, although a new "homage" novel is coming up (I got an ARC via NetGalley) of a Mr. Campion novel set during a gap during the books that Allingham did write. For that matter, I also got a copy (on sale) of a new novel based on a draft (I think) by Marsh of a novel set during the war years about Alleyn in New Zealand, finished by Stella Duffy, a novelist I like. There seems to be a lot of literary homage to golden age detectives happening right now??!!

26Oberon
aug 29, 2018, 10:49 am

>6 Chatterbox: Have you ever tried of I.J. Parker's Akitada mystery series? They are set in Heian era Japan and I have enjoyed the few that I have read.

27benitastrnad
aug 29, 2018, 1:38 pm

This might be somewhat of a rant - but I am feeling aggrieved. The Honor's College has just announced the common book that they are reading for the fall semester. The book is American War: A Novel by Omar El Akkad. Early in October they invite the author of the book to come to campus and give a lecture and spend the day with the students. I have tried to participate in this event throughout the years. However, this is a book in which I have no interest. My question of the day, prompted somewhat by reading the ProQuest blog posting about the current American love affair with dystopian novels (I read that this morning and it was depressing), is Why do people love this type of novel so much? It took me ten years to read Handmaid's Tale and then I only did it because it was required reading for a course I was taking at the time.

Have you read this novel - American War - and if so what did you think of it? What do you think of the current dystopian novels? I read the reviews of this one when it came out and decided it wasn't for me because I think it is a polemic masquerading as a novel.

28FAMeulstee
aug 29, 2018, 2:01 pm

Happy new thread, Suzanne!

With your rate of aquisitions, my library would be filled within two years ;-)

29Chatterbox
aug 29, 2018, 10:50 pm

>27 benitastrnad:
Well, here's my take on dystopian books, which I quite like as long as they are well written. What I think these authors -- from Orwell onward -- are trying to do is to draw attention to issues that concern them in society or politics today, and then argue, hey, if this is taken to its logical and most extreme form, we could end up with something as absurd as this. So when Atwood wrote The Handmaid's Tale in the 1980s, we were in the midst of a backlash against feminism and women's rights. The ERA had been defeated. The character of Serena Joy is clearly a woman like Phyllis Schafly or someone like her who, ironically, derived a sense of meaning from being a professional crusader for women returning to the home, but found she didn't like it much there herself. So Atwood was painting a dark picture of what might happen -- in an absurdly exaggerated way -- if these folks on the margins got there way. I think the book's enduring popularity tells us that many women still see the link in it to the way that women get pushed back into "their place" whenever they do the wrong thing, speak the wrong way, ask for "too much." Orwell, concerned about fascist dictatorships from the left, and the way they abused language, wrote a very dark tale of one man's life inside a state where reality has vanished. This, he was warning us, is where we could end up. So in a way, they are parables -- or fantasy novels written as parables. In each and every one, there is a kernel of a critique of our world today. I just read Vox by Christina Dalcher, which tackles women's right to speak out -- being published in the aftermath of the #metoo movement, when some women were threatened for speaking up publicly, in an environment where women journalists get exponentially more hateful and threatening comments on their articles (there was a Guardian study demonstrating this) just for doing their work and writing, it was fascinating to read a book about a world where women are denied access to language. It's the "what if??" that is fascinating. I just don't feel that they are polemics masquerading as novels (any more than historical novels are history books masquerading as novels...) They take a premise and say, "what if?" And then set some characters against that backdrop, develop a plot and... It's little different from many other kinds of fiction, and in many ways, can be far more powerful a way to make a point than yet another plodding suburban novel.

So, Omar El Akkad's novel. I thought it was very well written and very imaginative. His issues appear to be several: the way that the US intervenes in other countries (he imagines a scenario in which other countries are able to interfere in a civil war between what are, essentially, Red and Blue areas of the USA); the way we are allowing our differences to become more and more serious; and environmentalism and environmental protection. (The catalyst for the conflict is the banning of fossil fuels by one side.)

But ultimately -- while we all have books, genres, authors that aren't to our taste, I'm still puzzled, I confess, as to while you feel so aggrieved and affronted. It's unfortunate that this book doesn't interest you, but... ? My book circle chooses books that I have zero interest in reading; the Athenaeum schedules lectures and events I would run a mile rather than attend. It's dismaying when that happens, perhaps, but affronted feels like you've got a lot invested in this. Maybe find some other book-ish events you can attend in the region instead? No one says you have to like dystopian books -- we all have our tastes. But equally, they weren't under any obligation to pick a book that you would like! You'd definitely have something to gripe about if they picked the same type of book/author year after year after year, but based on what . you said, that doesn't seem to be the case.

>26 Oberon: I have not heard of these, to the best of my knowledge. Will take a gander when I can. Meanwhile, just got an e-galley of the newest book by Keigo Higashino to be translated into English -- a contemporary mystery. I REALLY liked the last book of his that I read, A Midsummer's Equation. This one features a different detective, however.

>28 FAMeulstee: Yes, I clearly have a book problem...

30LizzieD
Redigerat: aug 29, 2018, 11:23 pm

What a thread, Suzanne! Hope you get to inhabit it often in good health!
a new novel based on a draft (I think) by Marsh of a novel set during the war years about Alleyn in New Zealand, finished by Stella Duffy - Wowzer! I'm headed to check it out if I can.
ETA: I could; it's Money in the Morgue and scheduled to come out in November according to Amazon.

31Chatterbox
aug 30, 2018, 7:12 am

>30 LizzieD: I think I got my copy from Amazon UK, since I have been re-reading the Marsh mysteries and at that time, there was no release date given for book. Glad it's now going to become available here!

32benitastrnad
aug 30, 2018, 1:37 pm

#29
I think I feel aggrieved because I have been one of the stalwart supporters of this program in the past and have attended most of the lecture events (I think I only missed one so far due to conflict in schedule) and have been one of the voices for others to attend this event. Aggrieved might be the wrong word, as I am now afraid that if I don't attend it will be a mark against me due to the fact that I have been a vocal proponent of the idea and the event. I guess I am afraid that my absence will be noted and perhaps held against me? This in turn makes me angry because by now, twenty-five years, into my tenure here, you would think I wouldn't have to worry about perceptions of loyalty and support for various library projects.

I have enjoyed participating in this in the past and find the students and what they have to say about the books to be very interesting. Sometimes their opinion and mine are very far apart, but that makes it interesting. In general, that is why I participate in book groups - I like to hear what other people have to say about books and make the connections to other titles that I have not read. A group often forces me to read things that I don't find interesting but with other groups I don't feel pressured to go along. I think the problem here is the deep connection to my job and if I don't participate it will be noticed.

I agree with you about the use of dystopian novels being a vehicle for prompting discussion and the point about historical fiction is well taken. Strangely, this is not a campus noted for the promoting of reading literature. The reading of nonfiction - yes. Literature - no. That is why this one program was something that I participated in and prodded other library employees to attend as well. It is just that I have zero interest in this title and didn't even when it first came out and the reviews were good.

You are correct. This is something I can let go of and I shouldn't have to worry about how my absence it interpreted. I can and should let this go. But as somebody said to me this morning, about a totally different matter, "you are two years away from retirement, you can get away with that. The rest of us can't." That in a nutshell may be why I find myself in a quandary about this event. I don't want my superiors to perceive me as old and out-of-touch, let alone unengaged and uninterested in library projects. It might be the pressure to preform. Even at this stage of my career.

As an aside - I liked your defense of the dystopian novel. I don't feel that way about them myself. I like fantasy, but am not a particular fan of the dystopian novel. This is not a genre that I choose to read very often. To me they are so transparent that they are polemic. When I read Handmaid's Tale I thought to myself, Margaret Atwood, why didn't you just write a good essay on this subject? I get it that others don't think the same way and an essay on the subject wouldn't have reached the same audience. In fact it would have probably limited the audience and never had the impact that the novel had. I read Atwood's novel Oryx and Crake for my book discussion group, even though it was not a title that I would have selected on my own. I thought it full of witticisms and puns that made me laugh, but I have not read another of the Mad Adam books, and probably won't.

33Chatterbox
aug 30, 2018, 3:11 pm

>32 benitastrnad: Thanks for the clarification -- I have more understanding of your emotions about this now. It's unfortunate that ANYONE might feel obliged to attend an event like this -- although, that said, it's always fun now and then to push our boundaries a bit. Unless it's a book that is actively offensive or violates our ethical standards in some way, one book a year isn't a tremendous hardship. You may learn something or you may not. Still, there shouldn't be any consequences in NOT attending if someone makes a bona fide effort tackle the book and finds it not to their taste at all. I'd have the same reaction to a graphic novel. I know these have merit and are very popular, but I find them very difficult to read, physically. So I might attend discussions, out of curiosity, but not read the book.

There just always will be books that we don't want to read. And enthusiasm for a program shouldn't be conditional on enthusiasm for each specific book chosen. The organizers and everyone else should grasp that. You'll never achieve that, and if you want everyone to show up for everything, well it turns into a duty. Which is counterproductive. So much for my ramblings on the subject.

I'm on a train, going home to Providence. Hurrah!

34ffortsa
aug 30, 2018, 3:13 pm

Interesting discussion above!

35LizzieD
aug 30, 2018, 11:52 pm

Hooray for Providence!
I just note that it's a sad thing when something intended for pleasure turns into an unhappy duty.

36ChelleBearss
sep 1, 2018, 9:37 am

That's quite the acquisitions list! My list looks tiny compared!

37Chatterbox
sep 5, 2018, 6:17 pm

Reading The Friend by Sigrid Nunez. There's a whole tradition of "grief memoirs", but Nunez has managed to create a "grief novel" -- and it's eloquent modernism and quite compelling. I'm about two-thirds of the way through the short book... You can't read this one rapidly.

38brodiew2
sep 5, 2018, 7:37 pm

Hi Chatterbox!

>29 Chatterbox:>32>33 Fascinating discussion. I have been a long time fan science fiction and, whether is call dystopia or Imperial or some or something else, there is theme of tyranny or subjugation that provokes a rebellion. Written for teens or adults, the subject usually will have the tyrannical leader or government deposed. The question of whom is being subjugated, or why, can change over time, or even be cyclical. I don't know why I wrote all that but I did. Have a good day. :0)

39Chatterbox
sep 7, 2018, 3:40 pm

>38 brodiew2: There's a certain appeal about making questions of good versus evil as stark as they can be in a dystopian novel, I suspect. In real life, it can be a little bit more difficult. We can slide slowly into repressive times, with people rationalizing each incremental move, or reluctantly accepting that it's in the "best interest" of the country or society. And yes, I think you're right that there are cyclical trends in all this, as authors respond to what is happening in their world, or what alarms them the most.

I'm beginning to think I'm completely out of sync with what other LT readers think of the same books I'm reading. I just finished The Only Café by Linden Macintyre, and really relished the way the author moved in a kind of sideways direction to address questions of culpability, of history, of accountability, and of course, the question of the limitations of the media. I'm going to give it 4.3 or 4.4 stars, but the average rating was about 3.4 stars or something. Did other people read the same book?? I also finished (late last night) an exceptionally mediocre legal "drama"/mystery about whether or not an elderly man was correct in calling a Chicago millionaire philanthropist (Jewish survivor of Auschwitz) a perpetrator -- an ethnic German who had been his foster brother and who had stolen from his family and assisted in the deportation and murder of his community. It was clumsily plotted (so much so that I could see "twists" coming from 150 pages away) and awkwardly written and yet the average rating was 4 stars. I gave it 2.9 stars and was generous at that... The characterization of the alleged evildoer was so exaggerated and undeveloped it was unbelievable. Well, after reading Once We Were Brothers, I know not read anything else by Ronald Balson. Finally, there was The Friend by Sigrid Nunez, which I loved, and which I think anyone who loves books about reading and animals would love: the narrator's friend has died, and she is lumbered with his Great Dane, who seems to embody his spirit. She slowly begins to feel for this grieving, immense animal what she once felt for her bosom friend. Interwoven in the text is why she turns to the wordlessness of her bond with the animal -- her struggles with teaching and students. I found it compelling, in a modernist style that reminded me of Virginia Woolf's approach to exposition. Again, however, LT readers didn't seem to like or "get" what the novel was doing. Sigh. I'm out of step with the world.

40katiekrug
sep 7, 2018, 3:56 pm

>39 Chatterbox: - Outside of a few dozen people in a few groups on LT, I don't find that a lot of users are all that discriminating or engaged with what they read. Which is fine - there is nothing wrong with wanting to read for escape or entertainment - but it means that if they read something that makes a Suzanne think hard and really engage with the text, then they might not respond positively to the read.

I'm not explaining this well and don't mean to sound snotty or judgmental about other readers. I just tend to ignore aggregate ratings (whether here or on Amazon or elsewhere) because they are virtually meaningless to me as a reader.

41klobrien2
sep 7, 2018, 4:03 pm

I want to laugh when I read a review by someone who says that they had a hard time getting involved with a book and then it turns out that they were listening to it while sewing or driving or something, and then it makes a lot of sense. Some books just demand full attention and concentration.

And my ratings of books are often out of sync with others on LT...oh well. I have to say that I would be a little leery of starting a book that others had rated less than 3.5 stars, I guess.

Chatterbox (and Katiekrug!), I depend on your ratings--you've never failed me yet!

Karen O.

42katiekrug
sep 7, 2018, 4:34 pm

>41 klobrien2: - That's a great point, Karen. We can have no idea how others are coming to a book - are they distracted? Is this their first exposure to a particular author or genre? Are they familiar with, or even at least interested in, the context of, say, the Biafran war that informs Half of a Yellow Sun?

I'm actually thinking of not assigning a numerical rating to my reads next year - not just for the reasons talked about here but because they are so "of the moment" that over time I find them somewhat misleading.

43vivians
sep 7, 2018, 5:15 pm

Ooh I know exactly how you feel about Once We Were Brothers. Somebody raved about it to me but I was totally turned off by the mediocre writing, the complete plot predictability and the ridiculous excuses the author used to lecture the reader. At one point a highly educated, cosmopolitan lawyer asks her client "what's a ghetto?" WTF?

44Chatterbox
sep 8, 2018, 1:54 am

Thank you all for bringing me back to my senses. I just have to realize that I'm a different kind of reader, and live with that reality! And not expect other people to understand what I see in books I like, and don't see in books that I dislike -- like overly simplistic, stupid ones. I definitely understand the urge to read for escapism and guess what, I do it too! But even then, I want the writing to be good, or the plot to be intriguing and tricky and twisty enough for me to be engaged, and the characters to be intriguing. It doesn't have to all be uber-literary, like Sigrid Nunez. A lot of the books I rate 3.5 stars to 4 stars would fall into that category; I read a lot of mysteries and many of them are well written and have interesting plots or characters.

>41 klobrien2: I think your point about being wary of a low-rated book is kind of the point -- I am cautious of those, too, and yet when I read something by an author I know I like, or a book that sounds interesting and that I then enjoy, only to discover that other readers have rated it quite low, I wonder, hmm, if this were my first encounter with the book or author, would I take a chance on it? For all that I am absolutely in favor of everyone having a right to an opinion, I am starting to worry that people will just steer clear of low-rated books. And since sometimes people will down-vote books on Amazon for reasons not related to the content (it's about a subject on which they disagree with the author, or the author has said something on Twitter that they hated, for instance) or rate the books mistakenly thinking they are rating the vendor (bizarre but true... and Amazon won't even delete those "reviews"), the relationship between value and ratings can be wide for many readers. But how many readers miss out on stuff that they might enjoy? How many never even try to read something different?

>42 katiekrug: I think/fear that having to be aware of a context like the Biafran war or anything more challenging than, say, the American Revolution, the Tudors, or the Civil War, is enough to cause many readers to avoid reading some books. As is the name of some authors -- if they sound too "foreign" or unpronounceable. Seriously. I overheard someone say that at the Athenaeum a few months ago and was left standing there, my jaw hanging open. (the unpronounceable names, I mean: this woman actually said she didn't read books by anyone whose names she couldn't pronounce.)

I will keep rating my reads simply because it's a way of capturing my immediate reaction to a book that I read. That said, I have altered ratings when I've re-read a book and found it either better or less appealing on a second read.

My chief concern with respect to books that are "of the moment" is that people become so obsessed with certain books -- The Goldfinch, say, or Lincoln in the Bardo or Manhattan Beach, that everything is about THAT book. It's assumed that it is a work of great merit that will certainly endure. But that's what people thought of Quo Vadis, or the novels of Pearl Buck. And countless other books. I'm not going to argue that book A won't survive but that book B will -- who knows? Merely that when we obsess over book A, we lose the chance to think seriously and talk about books B, C, D, E, and so on. So I'm wary of "off the moment" books, which I find may be good but that rarely live up to the hype. I enjoyed the George Saunders novel for his creativity, but once past that, I find that nothing that was SAID in the book has really stuck with me. Manhattan Beach was simply a much better-written version of the kind of suspenseful dramas that are a dime a dozen. Etcetera.

Listen to me, Ms. Judgemental!

>43 vivians: I think someone had recommended it to me too, and since it was at the Athenaeum, I picked it up. Ouch. Utterly unconvincing and a waste of good plot potential. At least with "ghetto", I picked up some trivia that I hadn't known before, should I ever make it onto Jeopardy and find that as a question -- that whatever origin of the word one chooses, it unquestionably derives from the Italian (either for foundry, or for "little neighborhood.") Ironically, that was one of the only useful bits in the whole book, for me. The rest of the time, I wondered how this guy got the book published -- and then answered it for myself: combination of reader fascination with legal books and with Holocaust novels. We have gone from not wanting to read or hear about the Holocaust in the 1950s and 1960s, to making it the centerpiece of novels all over the place by the 1980s/1990s.

45ffortsa
sep 8, 2018, 9:02 pm

Suzanne, as long as you're thinking about books, have you read Marguerite Duras's novel The Vice-Consul? If so, I'd love to hear what you think of it. I've just read it, after it languished many years on my shelf, but there's very little that I can find that is written about it in English. I found it quite consuming, but I'm not sure how to describe it to others.

46Chatterbox
sep 9, 2018, 1:12 pm

>45 ffortsa: No, I haven't, but now you have piqued my curiosity... I'm sure I will be able to find a copy in the Athenaeum library and will check it out. I have already heard things that intrigue me about Duras, and I think her name came up in Nunez's novel.

47benitastrnad
sep 11, 2018, 5:53 pm

I have been absent for a while due to traveling to Kansas to care for my ailing mother, but I enjoyed reading the comments about reading, rating, and quality of writing that I see today.

I almost always rate books at a 3. Some lower but only a few higher. For me exceptional is a 4 and I can think of only a few that I have rated at 5. Most books I read are of only average quality. That doesn't mean that I don't enjoy them, but most novels are average.

I rarely look at Amazon reviews. That might be because I have access to reliable reviews from Publisher's Weekly or Booklist. I rarely post reviews here on LT or anywhere else. I do write my opinion about books and will often post them in those, but I don't consider them to be book reviews. They are merely opinions. I read the threads and sometimes book bullets strike home, but even then I am cautious. I find that many of the reviews here on LT are like what librarians said about School Library Journal in the past. (SLJ is a source for book reviews that can be found in many school libraries.) SLJ never met a book it didn't like, so it was hard to get a real comprehensive book review from that journal. That is not so true now. SLJ is much more objective in its book reviews now than it was in the past. From time-to-time I even see recommendations with the words like "if you already have books on this subject in your collection don't bother with making a purchase of this book."

There are some topics I don't want to read. I avoid Holocaust novels because most of them are maudlin and don't deal with the real issues of the Holocaust. The nonfiction works are depressing and I just can't put myself through that emotionally any more. I have already stated that I am tired of many of the dystopian novels and so don't want to spend my time reading them.

Rarely do I find popular novels as wonderful as many readers say. I think experience makes many readers more critical and have higher expectations.

48avatiakh
sep 11, 2018, 11:44 pm

Hope all is well with you today, Suzanne.

49Chatterbox
sep 12, 2018, 10:12 pm

>47 benitastrnad: My starting point is somewhere between a 3.5 and 4 stars, depending on the book. If it's a book by a good author or one for which I have high expectations, well, it will be 4; if it's light reading -- chick lit, a so-so mystery writer, etc. -- then the starting point is 3.5 stars. From there, a book can gain or lose points. This isn't scientific, by the way -- I'm not consciously thinking about ANY of this when I'm reading. But subconsciously, I'm kind of aware of which way things are going while I'm reading, so when I finish, it's not really that hard. I would say a knock-down 5 -- straightforward 5 -- is more rare than say, a 4.7 or even 4.8. Yes, I'll parse the ratings that finely! But most of what I read I expect will come in between 3.7 and 4.2 stars. And anything north of 3.5 stars is worthwhile. Coming closer to 3 and it's problematic, as I note up top...

>48 avatiakh: I just staggered home to Providence again and will be here until Monday. Attended the first meeting of the only Athenaeum book group I've joined this year -- but there are 50 PEOPLE in it!!! I'm reserving judgment. It feels more a lecture (led by a former Brown professor) than a real group thus far. We started discussing Frankenstein.

I'm listening to Bob Woodward's book about Trump, and will launch into the NetGalley of Frederick Forsyth's new book -- speaking of readable mindless books! But my head has started to bang away again today, after having a bad time yesterday. ARGHHHHHH.

Maybe early warning of the hurricane? Certainly, we're stuck in a big low pressure system -- not that warm (70s) but VERY muggy/humid and unpleasant.

50avatiakh
sep 12, 2018, 11:54 pm

Have to mention an Australian debut novel I read a couple of weeks ago, Boy swallows universe. Based partly on the author's own story, it's a great yarn. Dalton's a journalist at The Australian. Now reading another Australian one, The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted. Both published this year.

Yikes, 50 people! I read Frankenstein earlier this year and was happy to leave the book behind me.

51Chatterbox
sep 13, 2018, 7:12 pm

>50 avatiakh: Thanks for the suggestions!!

Yes, 50 people is far, far too many for any kind of reasonable discussion. It felt more like a discussion. And there's a kind of cult-like feeling to the whole group, with 2/3 of them having been part of the last multi-year group led by this former professor, who is clearly determined to turn this into another multi-year vanity project. I'm not feeling warm and fuzzy about it yet, as it feels more like a seminar than a discussion group -- and how can you have a discussion group with 50 people? Absurd. Sigh. But I did want to discuss chunky Victorian novels.

52brodiew2
sep 13, 2018, 7:53 pm

For the sake of absurdity and, in relative conjunction with the dystopia, conversation, have you ever read any TV tie-in novels? If so, have you found any high quality writing?

53Chatterbox
Redigerat: sep 15, 2018, 3:48 pm

I just finished the latest by Frederick Forsyth, The Fox -- it's not out, but will be late this year. It's a far cry from the days when he turned out really complex thrillers; now they are just novels that get bogged down in exposition. Oh well.

But Bob Woodward's "Fear" is excellent. I think he bends over backwards to be fair to Trump and to be reflective on why he behaves the way he does.

54klobrien2
sep 15, 2018, 12:56 pm

Speaking of "Fear," at my library there are now 311 requests for the book, 14 for the audio version. Yesterday, if you put a hold on the ebook, you'd wait a stupendous 690 days (today, it's only 19 days!) I really want to read the book! I mentioned that fact to my husband, and he said, "well, you do have a birthday coming up..."
:)

Karen O.

55Deedledee
sep 15, 2018, 7:17 pm

I tried to buy more copies for my library but they're back ordered.

56Chatterbox
sep 18, 2018, 9:35 pm

Two excellent books.

I finished Ragged Company by Richard Wagamese, the late Ojibway Canadian novelist and journalist and loved it. It moved me and touched me, without ever really toppling over into sentimentality. It's the tale of four homeless people on the streets of Toronto (never named, but it's clear) who find a tossed-out lottery ticket and discover they have won $13 million. But it's about people, really, from "Square Joes" to "rounders". Highly recommended, if you can find a copy; Wagamese's last novel (he died last year) has just been published and it's on my TBR list. This one was 5 stars, for the writing, characters and the fact that I was so moved by it. Others may find it a bit too feel-goody, but...

Also (and I'm cross-posting this with the non-fiction challenge thread), I have finished A World Ablaze by Craig Harline, a book that combines being a bio of Martin Luther during the critical early years of his theological revolution, and the entire context of the religious world in Europe at the time he hammered his theses to the door of that Wittenberg church. There was sooo much that I learned here that I had no idea of prior to this -- from the fact that nailing theses (which would then be the basis for a kind of debate called a disputation) on church doors was rather routine, and that not intended to be revolutionary or assertive or provocative behavior, to the fact that Luther himself hated the idea of people calling themselves "Lutheran" and insisted they should just call themselves "Christians", pointing out that he wasn't God's son, hadn't died on a cross, etc. etc. And who knew about the impact of Luther on the printing business in Germany and more broadly in Europe (as many as 20% of all books in print by 1521 were by Luther in Germany...)? Not I... So, an excellent read, and definitely written for the general, interested reader. My only qualm is that with all the attention devoted to the evolution of his theological thinking to the Diet of Worms, and his excommunication, it's as if Luther himself isn't interesting enough to chronicle his later life in greater detail. I have to say I found him a more interesting and appealing individual than I expected, and the book is well worth it. 4.5 stars.

I'm in NYC, and I used the last of my credit at the French language bookstore, Albertine, and spent a bit more besides. Oh well...

57Chatterbox
sep 20, 2018, 1:44 pm

So, I took Molly-cat to the vet today to deal with what I suspected was probably some kind of unpleasant dental infection. She has a cancerous mass under her tongue. Surgery to remove would cost $2k, which I don't have. She has two to three months to live. This really, really is being ANOTHER crappy year.

58thornton37814
sep 20, 2018, 5:17 pm

>57 Chatterbox: I'm so sorry! Hugs!

59Copperskye
sep 20, 2018, 5:46 pm

>57 Chatterbox: My kitty woes have shrunk in comparison. I’m so sorry.

60benitastrnad
sep 20, 2018, 7:08 pm

I am sorry to hear about this. I have had to deal with this kind of problem with a pet and it isn’t easy. You have my sympathy.

61ronincats
sep 20, 2018, 7:42 pm

Oh, Suz, I'm so sorry. I've lost three cats to cancerous tumors (one in the throat) and they are nasty, nasty things. Make her last time as good as possible for the two of you.

62The_Hibernator
sep 21, 2018, 10:57 am

Awww. I'm so sorry about Molly. Cancer is hard to watch.

63Chatterbox
sep 21, 2018, 5:49 pm

At the urging of friends, I've created a GoFundMe page, which is doing well at raising the $$ I need. So perhaps there is a ray of hope. The vet said surgery is what he would do if Molly were his cat, so I'm going to at least give it a shot.

Posting the link here, but please do NOT feel obliged to contribute. Just in case anyone wishes to. (Though it does have a lovely pic of Molly-cat...)

https://www.gofundme.com/help-get-molly-cancer-surgery

64Chatterbox
sep 22, 2018, 3:19 pm

Have done amazingly well on the GoFundMe, with an astonishing array of people contributing (an ex and his wife, LOL; my first boss from the WSJ contributed $100, and some lovely LT people have chipped in too -- THANK YOU!). Molly goes to see the surgeon for an evaluation on Monday. She got her antibiotic shot today, but is distressed and uncomfortable. I think she feels this in her mouth more, and it's affecting her ability to drink (but not eat, thankfully...)

65calm
sep 22, 2018, 3:58 pm

Best wishes for Molly and you. It is difficult to see a furkid in pain and feel helpless so I hope that you raise enough to cover her surgery.

66figsfromthistle
sep 22, 2018, 10:18 pm

I'm sorry to hear about your cat. I hope the antibiotics make her feel a little more comfortable.

67Fourpawz2
sep 23, 2018, 9:07 am

So sorry to hear about Molly, Suzanne. Hope she gets her surgery and the two of you have significantly more time together. You've had far too much crappy stuff happen to you.

68Chatterbox
sep 23, 2018, 4:49 pm

Still waiting for the antibiotics to kick in. This clearly IS fast moving as already there are things she won't try eating or drinking that she would eagerly have tried only a week ago. The vet had said by tomorrow we should start seeing signs of improvement from the infection. It is so tough.... I did find a Lyft driver who will take us down to Greenwich RI tomorrow to the vet who I hope will do the surgery. Fingers and paws all crossed...

>67 Fourpawz2: Yes, I feel as if I have lurched straight from dealing with my friend's latest heart/hospitalization stuff to this... Well, I did. Molly and I went to the vet the morning after I got home from my latest/final NYC visit, with all of those duties discharged at last. I'm trying to figure out how to get focused on work, and.... ARGH.

69Chatterbox
sep 25, 2018, 8:02 pm

So, the vet is lined up to do the surgery, but poor Molly is having a tough time...

I "distracted" myself by reading Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture, an anthology edited by Roxane Gay. Very triggering, if you'll pardon my use of jargon... That said, big kudos to Gay for ensuring that a wide range of experiences and perspectives are included -- female and male and trans; different kinds of assault or objectification, etc. The types of articles vary widely as well, from illustrated content (a graphic non-novel...) to prose poems to polemics or straightforward essays. This was particularly timely to read in the context of the debate over whether/how Christine Blasey Ford should be heard by the US Senate Judiciary Committee about her accusations on the behavior of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. It's a reminder that for someone who confronts the aftermath of a rape or assault, the trauma is never just perpetrated by the individual in question but by the whole infrastructure of society around him/her -- which is precisely why many choose not to "speak out" publicly, while GOP legislators seem to assume that this is so simple to do...

Some new books came in to the Athenaeum for me, and I've been approved for some NetGalley and Edelweiss e-galleys, including the sequel to Margaret George's historical novel about Nero -- hurrah. While the next ten days will be very stressful, and I have some work to do, I would like to get more reading done.

70Chatterbox
sep 27, 2018, 1:49 pm

Molly-cat had her surgery on a quasi-emergency basis this week instead of next week, as she had started bleeding from the mouth and the lovely vet took pity on me. The cancer had NOT spread. For now, all looks good...

71calm
sep 27, 2018, 2:03 pm

I hope Molly-cat recovers quickly from her surgery.

72katiekrug
sep 27, 2018, 2:06 pm

Good to have some positive news!

73LizzieD
sep 27, 2018, 2:10 pm

That is wonderful, wonderful news! May it continue to be so!!!

74Fourpawz2
sep 27, 2018, 8:07 pm

Such wonderful news about Molly. So happy that it was possible to get it done earlier than scheduled. Hope she makes a quick recovery with many happy days ahead of her.

75Copperskye
sep 27, 2018, 8:14 pm

Glad to hear of Molly’s good surgical outcome! And what a relief for you!

76ronincats
sep 27, 2018, 9:31 pm

Go, Molly, go! Good news so far--keep it up. Hugs for both you and Suz.

77Chatterbox
Redigerat: sep 28, 2018, 3:01 pm

>76 ronincats: Love that t-shirt...

Now, someone needs to send out the vibes that will persuade Molly to come out from wherever she is hiding, terrified, so that I can give her her medication. She did sleep on the end of my bed last night, but vanished at dawn. She needs a painkiller and her steroids.

Sigh. She did this when we moved to Providence, so I am trying not to panic, but it's tough. That said, it also was noisy around here today. The landlord's staff banged out the wall in a hallway cupboard to get at a leaking pipe to replace it, which took five hours of drilling and banging and general traipsing back and forth. Even Fergus squeezed under the (very low) small Kashmiri octagonal wood table that serves as a de facto coffee table. I thought he was going to get stuck there. Cassie just re-emerged from where SHE has been hiding all day.

78ChelleBearss
sep 28, 2018, 6:27 pm

Sorry to see your cat has been ill but that's so amazing that you were able to raise the funds for the surgery. Hope she does well!

79LizzieD
sep 28, 2018, 11:28 pm

Sheesh. Strategic timing in a bad way.
I'm trusting that you found Molly, gave her the meds, and that you're all sleeping the sleep of the just tonight.

80Chatterbox
sep 29, 2018, 1:28 am

Molly is indeed now sleeping at the end of my bed! Still not back to her old self, but that's not to be surprised.

81ronincats
sep 29, 2018, 1:33 am

Good to know!

82Chatterbox
sep 29, 2018, 12:55 pm

And now she is hiding again -- and has been for about 9/10 hours. This is making me anxious and stressed beyond words. I am going to go and do my grocery shopping and hope that she re-emerges when I'm gone...

83Chatterbox
sep 30, 2018, 3:05 pm

Molly is safely in her new cage, which is on top of my queen-sized bed, taking up about a third of the space. I suppose this officially means I'm a crazy cat lady. She is reconciled to it, now that she realizes that I am not planning to take her anywhere, and since the bottom has fleece blanket (big and soft) and my old t-shirts that smell like me. But she's still not eating much at all or drinking, though she tries a little. She got VERY excited about the smell of soft Blue treats -- as if they were catnip -- but not enough to actually open her mouth and trying eating them (I had chopped them into miniscule bits first.)

Meanwhile, I can't read much because of horrible loud music yesterday at neighboring house (finally cops dealt with it -- they retaliated by blasting songs by the Chipmunks for an hour, then took it down to a normal level) and now a migraine today. This month -- wow. Enough. October HAS to be better.

84The_Hibernator
okt 4, 2018, 11:37 am

I'm glad you found Molly and have her safely stuck in a comfy cage so that you can give her medicine. I'm also glad that you were able to get the surgery, since I know there was a question about the price at first. I hope everything goes well from now on. :)

Sending good vibes.

85libraryperilous
okt 4, 2018, 5:15 pm

Auden is my favorite poet. I love his cheeky earlier poems, his sublime middle period, and his late wranglings with difficult questions. Interestingly, he disavowed "September 1st, 1939." I agree with you that it's a beautiful, meaningful poem.

I hope Molly continues to recover.

>83 Chatterbox: The Chipmunks? Waaaaay harsh. Your neighbors are v. good at being petty.

86Chatterbox
okt 4, 2018, 6:29 pm

So, I read Squeezed by Alissa Quart, and I should have been warned by the sub head: "why our families can't afford America." She is very, very concerned about income inequality -- but NONE of the people she talks about are anything but families with children. None are people caring for elderly/aging parents. None are homeless veterans. None are childless couples. Nope, her only definition of a family is one with children. I guess you don't really suffer economically -- or you're not allowed to complain? -- unless you have kids? Don't misunderstand me: I realize that trying to raise a child increases your economic burden significantly. But it also comes with some kinds of assistance not accessible to the childless, and to a willingness and sympathy not extended to the childless. She writes about discrimination against older workers -- but again, only in the context of parents of children, which is absurd, since for the most part those children have left the nest and aren't even in college any longer. It was exasperating, and left me frustrating with what could have been a thought-provoking book. I would have flung it at the wall, but it belonged to the Athenaeum. And since some very nice person at the Athenaeum has subsidized my membership for the next year, I'd better not hurt their books.

87Chatterbox
okt 4, 2018, 6:32 pm

>84 The_Hibernator: All the wonderful and amazing people who contributed to the GoFundMe made the surgery possible. It would not have happened otherwise.

Molly is now out of her cage and doing fine. She has recovered her voice, and meows indignantly when she wants to sleep curled up against me and I want to move around. Or when she wants more treats, etc. She still has some discolored drool, but the vet thinks this is still likely to be normal post-op stuff. (paws crossed.)

In fact, with my long week of headaches and work FINALLY over (filed three separate pieces in spite of headache...) I am going to go hunker down alongside Molly-cat and read. I have LOTS to choose from!!

88libraryperilous
okt 4, 2018, 6:37 pm

>86 Chatterbox: This is one of my pet peeves. I also have a slight pet peeve, as a leftist, that framing everything as "the working class" implies that people who can't/don't/won't work are unworthy of a social support system. It's not dissimilar to the kind of framing re: immigration that liberals do.

89benitastrnad
okt 4, 2018, 7:16 pm

I have long railed against the inequities of the definitions of "family." Everything from "family" plans for cell phones to income tax breaks.

90ronincats
okt 4, 2018, 8:48 pm

I am SO glad to hear that Molly has lost her lethargy and found her voice, Suz! That must be a huge relief.

91Chatterbox
okt 4, 2018, 11:41 pm

>90 ronincats: It is... She is chirping and purring and meowing nonstop, looking up at me earnestly. I'm still too stupid to grasp what she's trying to say, though...

92LizzieD
okt 5, 2018, 11:09 pm

She is saying, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

93Chatterbox
okt 6, 2018, 12:48 am

>92 LizzieD: It's a possibility... :-)

94ronincats
okt 7, 2018, 12:53 pm

She just wants reassurance from her mom that everything is okay.

95ronincats
okt 7, 2018, 6:13 pm

Do you know anything about Daughters of the Winter Queen? It's on sale today as an ebook.

96Chatterbox
Redigerat: okt 7, 2018, 6:16 pm

>95 ronincats: It's very good, and especially if it's on sale. A fascinating story. A bit oversold, perhaps, as only two of those daughters really had compelling lives, but the overall family story -- it's through this line of descent that the Hanoverians and thus the current queen base their claim to the throne -- is intriguing and little know. I would go for it!!

Oh, and you learn a fair amount about the Dutch Golden Age, the final spasms of the religious wars that led to the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 and the foundation of the current nation state, etc.

97ronincats
okt 7, 2018, 7:42 pm

Thanks for the info, Suz. $2.99 and it is now on my Kindle.

98LizzieD
okt 7, 2018, 11:19 pm

>97 ronincats: - and on mine. Yay!

99Chatterbox
okt 8, 2018, 6:43 pm

Cool beans!

Happy Thanksgiving (Canadian version) to all...

100Familyhistorian
okt 9, 2018, 8:26 pm

Thanks for the Thanksgiving wishes. Great to hear that Molly is doing so much better.

101Chatterbox
okt 10, 2018, 10:29 am

Molly is doing a LOT better, but still have some discolored drool when she sleeps (eg long periods, overnight.) Nothing visible, and not as before, no odor, etc.) But it's getting toward the point when it's a bit long to say hmm, this is still post-op. So I may have to do another vet visit. ARGH.

102benitastrnad
okt 10, 2018, 12:09 pm

What did you finally decide about Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down? I am curious about your opinion. It was on our Teacher Ed Program reading list for several years. After reading it I can understand why.

103m.belljackson
okt 10, 2018, 9:41 pm

>101 Chatterbox:

Your recent post about Molly on the October NF Thread was the first I'd heard about her surgery.
So happy that she got through it so well and hope that the next Vet appointment is routine.

Please let us know about Gofund updates on NF Thread!

104The_Hibernator
okt 11, 2018, 9:16 am

I hope that you find that the discolored drool is not important. I'm glad to hear Molly is doing so well. :)

105Chatterbox
okt 11, 2018, 6:18 pm

>102 benitastrnad: I really liked "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" (touchstones not working today apparently...) but I wish I had read it when it first came out. By now, it felt slightly dated, and I kept wondering, well what has happened since this first was published (about 20 years ago!!) to the people, the community, etc. When it first was written, many of the Hmong had been there only a decade to 15 years, after long periods in refugee camps.-- By now, the younger generation must be becoming the adults, forming families of their own. How different is that? It's definitely a very balanced picture, though, and a brilliant example of how the best intentions on all sides completely failed a specific family; a reminder that communication is about language but about more than language, and that listening doesn't mean hearing. Intriguingly, across the park that is cater corner from my house is a Hmong church, catering to that part of the Hmong community deposited here in Providence. It made me more curious than I already was about this group. FWIW, I wasn't unfamiliar with the Hmong; I first encountered them (as "Meo") on my first visit to Thailand in 1981, when they were being exploited by Thai tourist companies. Nonetheless, it was clear that they had their own world in their villages and despised the Thais. For a long time I owned a beautiful jacket that I bought there -- black with panels of embroidery covering everything except the upper arms. The embroidery looked like the panels in this picture:



>103 m.belljackson: Molly is doing better, and I'm only slightly out of pocket on her care, thankfully! I thought it would break even, but not after the meds. Oh well. STILL some discolored drool, which means I'll have to fund trips to and from the vet and another vet appointment in the next week or so. I just added up my income for this year and it's less than I have ever earned in my life, including when I was in grad school. It's terrifying. I pursue opportunities and they evaporate. And of course, the migraines aren't helping. Still no sign of the trial doses of Aimovig. And I'm not sure I'll be able to afford ANY kind of health insurance next year. Sorry, I'm venting...

I am getting approved for several good books (at least, I hope they will be!!) on NetGalley, which is great. Just finished an ARC of "Educated" by Tara Westover, which is worth all the fuss. Got it last January at ALA Midwinter. Can't figure out a way to go to this year's Midwinter, as it's in Seattle. Can afford the airfare, if I scrimp and buy a ticket soon, but not 3 or 4 nights in a hotel, even shared. Blech. Depressing. I think the cost of entertaining my father will eat up that part of my budget. BUT Molly is OK. I have books to read -- include the NetGalley version of Andrew Roberts' new Churchill bio, which clocks in at 1,100 pages. Eeeek. I really hope that includes lots of pages of notes and appendixes, etc. Penguin sent me, unsolicited, a hard copy of Johanna Basford's new coloring book, with lots of flowers!! So there will be lots of fun there, while I listen to audiobooks.

The other books to flag so far this month are:

"Nothing is True and Everything is Possible" by Peter Pomerantsev. This also has been kicking around for a while -- his view of today's Putin-esque Russia, told through his eyes and encounters with a very intriguing assortment of characters, ranging from women trying to exploit the new rich men (hey, it's a career) to women who find themselves in jail when those men run afoul of Putin and escape to the west, leaving the book keepers and accountants (usually women) to pay for their "sins". (usually the sin of not giving Putin what he wanted, financially.) Also the portrayal of a woman whose business was made illegal overnight, when trading in industrial chemicals was redefined as drug dealing. A glimpse into a kind of surreal world...

"City of Ink" by Elsa Hart --- the third in a mystery series set in 18th century China, which I really am relishing and want to shout out about. It really captures the historical setting and the character -- a scholar, disgraced and wandering, then brought back to Beijing in this third book -- is compelling. She really gets inside the mindset of the era, to the extent that someone who isn't Chinese and not a scholar, can in a work of fiction, while still making the book readable. Read these, if you are a mystery lover!

106benitastrnad
okt 12, 2018, 12:21 pm

#105
I wondered the same thing about the Hmong of today. I taught school in Southwest Kansas for 6 years and the Hmong were the second largest ethnic group to work in the huge beef packing plants located out there. It was in that area that I first became acquainted with Vietnamese food. (Pho shops were popular in Garden City, Kansas long before it hit the East Coast) The group was large enough that signs in the local hospitals were written in three languages, English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. At the time the Hmong were classed as Vietnamese because they had come as a result of that war. I don't think the locals thought that the Hmong were a separate ethnic group. They just saw them as Vietnamese.

Nowadays the second largest ethnic group in Garden City are Somalis who work in the packing plants.

Anyway, I read the Wikipedia article about the Hmong to get an update on what they are doing now, and it turns out that Merced, California and in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area are still the places with the greatest Hmong concentration. The article did say that the Hmong tend to have low rates of college graduation and that for girls there is still a very low high school graduation rate. In many ways it was still a depressing picture that was painted.

107katiekrug
okt 12, 2018, 12:28 pm

I finished How To Be Safe this morning. Wow. 5 stars!

108Chatterbox
okt 12, 2018, 3:07 pm

>106 benitastrnad: That's kind of depressing news. I suspect that the Hmong here might be doing better, but (a) that's just based on me getting a glimpse of some quite nice cars by the church and (b) a subset -- Christian converts -- that may not represent the mainstream. And yes, these are hill tribes that exist in Vietnam and southern China and Thailand -- but their first language is their variant of Hmong. Sigh. Mind you, there are lessons in this book for how we interact with ANY immigrant group that comes from a very different background, especially (since you mention Somalis) in many parts of the world someone's tribe may be more significant than their nominal nationality.

>107 katiekrug: So glad you thought this book was as good as I believed it to be! I was urging it on another friend of mine today...

109LizzieD
okt 12, 2018, 11:18 pm

I find this hard to believe, but when I was teaching I had one Hmong student here in SE NC. He had a hair-raising tale about his grandfather's escape from Vietnam (I guess), swimming across a river in a hail of bullets to safer territory. I'm reminded yet again of how complacent I am in my privileged little world.

110Chatterbox
okt 14, 2018, 2:21 pm

>109 LizzieD: He was almost certainly swimming the Mekong. And yes, there are descriptions of that escape route here.

It has always amazed me that here in the US, we have people from all over the world, who have had (or their immediate families have had) such incredible personal stories of endurance and survival, encounters with all the major geopolitical events of the 20th (and now 21st) century. And yet we are, without a doubt, the most ignorant country when it comes to those peoples and events. I just finished reading Notes From a Foreign Country by Suzy Hansen (sigh, touchstone still not working), a reporter who moved to Istanbul a decade ago and realizes (gasp) how naive, simplistic and foolish her preconceptions of Turkey, the Middle East and the Muslim world had been. That's the basis for the entire book. (I've reviewed it, so search her name and it should pop up, sorry about the touchstone.) Her observations are trenchant, but she NEVER seems to enquire about the "why" of it: she assumes Americans are incurious (at least, that's my takeaway), which I think is flawed or simplistic. And because of her inability to wrestle with the "why", her personal epiphanies are painful to read about. They are the sort of thing you should encounter in your teenage years (sometimes by traveling -- I was fortunate to go to India at 15 and encounter real poverty for the first time, passing by what I thought were cattle sheds on the road from the airport to the hotel in Mumbai/Bombay at night and then realizing people were living in them, and then finding people sleeping all over on the street outside our modest hotel, watching them roll up their beds and saunter off in the morning. But you could go to places in Central America and see that, or encounter different ways of thinking about all this.) You should be curious; you should be interested; you shouldn't be rabidly patriotic without understanding the impact of your patriotism on others (eg, understand how Iranians, too, can be patriotic even if they aren't totalitarian or ultra-religious, and that that patriotism was squashed by the Brits and Americans in the 1950s when the shah's regime was forcibly imposed on them, supported by US-trained torturers of SAVAK -- it explains a lot about our "clash of patriotisms.")

I give this book points for making me think and codify my own ideas, but for every step that I found interesting, there were others that infuriated me, because Hansen believes now in her own virtue and her own ability to understand the source of the issue and really hasn't come to grips with it, but only addresses the results. Argh.

OK, I have another migraine so it's back to listening to mindless stuff on audiobooks.

111charl08
Redigerat: okt 14, 2018, 3:12 pm

I've added Jade Dragon Mountain to my wishlist, sounds like a great series.

I've searched in vain for an online version of the essay Fadiman wrote for the 15th anniversary edition of The Spirit Catches You... if possible to pick it up, I really would recommend it. She discusses how much has changed in the area (and for the family) since the book was written.

112Chatterbox
okt 15, 2018, 1:18 pm

>111 charl08: I will look for that essay. My own copy is a paperback I bought back in the 90s, shortly after it was published, always meaning to read it...

Hope you like the Li Du mysteries!!

So, with a migraine I have been listening to audiobooks from my free trial (one month and then I will cancel it...) of Audible's "Romance Package". There's relatively little on there that I'm interested in -- they include several Georgette Heyer books, but not all of them, and many of the ones they DO include are the abridged versions, which is VERY annoying. But I did see Elizabeth Aston's series of Jane Austen homage books, and am now listening to the third of those, The Second Mrs. Darcy. There are some books by Jill Mansell, some of which I read 15 or more years ago, but will "re-listen" to for free if I'm headachy between now and November 10. And The Fifth Queen by Ford Madox Ford, about Catherine Howard, which I wouldn't have classified as a romance, but whatever... :-) The Aston books are fun; I enjoyed her "Mountjoy" series more (written under the name Elizabeth Pewsey) but these are light and whimsical -- the next generation of P&P characters.

It's freezing cold here today. Came back from an appointment to find Molly and Cassie curled up TOGETHER on the bed. In 14 years, that's a first. Time to turn up the thermostat.

113The_Hibernator
okt 16, 2018, 10:02 am

I'm not too impressed by the Romance Package at Audible, either. My sister-in-law loves the Kindle romance package, but I haven't even looked at that one.

114libraryperilous
okt 16, 2018, 10:47 am

I love the Li Du mysteries, although the second one was the weakest. And Lady Chen is back in this one! I'm glad the mentor subplot was resolved. That sets Li Du and the author free.

115Chatterbox
okt 17, 2018, 10:56 pm

It seems like Molly's cancer has come back -- already. We are all going to the vet on Saturday afternoon. I am heartbroken. I had been really hoping that the discolored drool was just some kind of post-operative symptom, but on the phone with the vet, he thinks almost certainly not. Antibiotics to control infection; steroids to manage the growth of the the tumor, inflammation and pain. Basically, palliative care.

She is curled up right next to me, like a velcro kitty attached to my side. I have told her that in a few weeks, she'll be able to go and see her beloved Jasper, who we lost to diabetes six years ago. (The picture on my profile page is of the two of them; Jasper being the tuxedo kitty kind of bemused and upside down after Molly knocked him over; Molly being the beautiful pastel tortie on top of him...)

116Chatterbox
okt 17, 2018, 10:59 pm

>113 The_Hibernator: yes, I'll finish listen to the handful of books that I have and then call it a day. I wish they would come up with an Audible Mystery package!! The problem is that I don't read too many mysteries, just some books that end up being defined as such.

>114 libraryperilous: The third book was a bit slow to get going, although some of the setting (the imperial exams, being set in Beijing) was automatically more interesting. And great point about Li Du being "set free" -- literally he now gets to choose his investigations!! That said, I did like his mentor's family as characters and hope they make guest appearances; ditto the Lady Chen, who is FAB.

117LizzieD
okt 17, 2018, 11:23 pm

Oh, Suzanne, I could weep for you and Molly. That's just totally unfair. I wish for magic words, and there are none.
As to books, I got a couple of the Aston Darcy books from PBS for fun, and they're O.K. but not Mountjoy, which I've yet to progress in.
As to ignorance of the world, yes. I'm sure you read Beyond the Beautiful Forevers (still no Touchstones) that explores the slums on the airport road that you encountered at a young age. I have some experience from living in this very poor county. When I spent a couple of summers at home after college, I visited the children in the reading program where I worked. The worst I saw was a house built on the dirt - no foundation, no floor - with cardboard in the windows. My coworker, just home from the Navaho reservation had not seen worse there. These are the folks who have once again been flooded out.
I have ordered the first Li Du, so I'm looking forward to its arrival.
I do hope you're feeling better.

118Copperskye
okt 17, 2018, 11:38 pm

Oh Suzanne, that sucks, I’m so sorry. Know that you did all you could and love on little Molly as long as you can.

119libraryperilous
okt 18, 2018, 1:29 pm

Oh, Suzanne, I am so very sorry.

120figsfromthistle
okt 18, 2018, 7:25 pm

Oh man. I'm sorry to hear about your cat. I was hoping that Molly would make a full recovery!

121Chatterbox
okt 18, 2018, 7:58 pm

I am very sad, but will focus on making Molly's last weeks as good as possible. It will be very hard to make this decision, as this won't affect her overall wellbeing -- she won't lose weight, or even necessarily lose energy, for a while -- but her quality of life will deteriorate slowly. I wanted her to live to celebrate her 17th birthday next year.

122klobrien2
okt 18, 2018, 9:34 pm

I'm so sorry, Chatterbox, I know how deeply those felines can embed themselves in one's heart. Molly will know she is loved, and she will continue to get such comfort from being close to you.

Karen O.

123Chatterbox
okt 19, 2018, 10:43 am

Adding to the weirdness of life... Got an e-mail this morning from my father's oldest friend. He is a retired physician (a former gastroenterologist, but a good doc for all kinds of things). He was e-mailing me assuming that I knew that my father -- who arrives in Boston tomorrow evening from Mexico -- had suffered a TIA a few weeks ago, and that when they talked on the phone yesterday, Grant (friend) thought it sounded as if it was a little more serious than a TIA, that he wasn't speaking easily or fluently, had a monotone voice, etc. (Reading between the lines, I think Grant believes my father had a minor stroke.) So, they will be in Boston for six days and then here in Providence for four days. And my father didn't tell me about ANY of this. (He is traveling with his latest female companion, Ellen.) ARGH. And I can't help remembering two years ago, when my mother was visiting and SHE had a TIA and ended up in hospital in Boston.

Aren't Fridays supposed to be calm??

Tomorrow is vet day for Molly-cat, so that she can get an antibiotic injection.

On a separate note -- about BOOKS! -- Go Went Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck is one of today's Kindle deals, for only $2.99. If you haven't read it yet, this is your chance!! It probably will be my best novel of 2018.

124ffortsa
okt 19, 2018, 11:36 am

So sorry about Molly. We were hoping our combined efforts and wishes would do the trick for both of you.

And thanks for the book alert. Snagged it.

125SandDune
okt 19, 2018, 3:57 pm

So sorry about Molly-cat, Suzanne. And can appreciate your frustrations about your father not keeping you informed. I’ve had similar things with my mother before now

126Chatterbox
okt 19, 2018, 5:16 pm

Molly-cat certainly doesn't feel loved when I squirt liquid Prednisone down her throat -- she splutters and then gives me the evil eye.

>124 ffortsa: Thank you ALL for those combined efforts. If they could have worked as intended, Molly would have lived to be 27, I suspect.

My father is insisting on making this trip even though I can tell he is not well. I am very anxious about this. Thank heavens Ellen will be traveling with him. This, combined with Molly, is more than I feel able to cope with at the moment.

127LizzieD
okt 19, 2018, 11:00 pm

I fear that I'd have trouble coping with a father and Molly at once any time at all. Courage, friend, and patience and love to you!

128m.belljackson
okt 20, 2018, 11:36 am

>121 Chatterbox:

It is the Last Love we can give them - to hold them close and keep them free from pain.

Sending comfort to you and your Beautiful Cat Family.

129Chatterbox
okt 20, 2018, 4:32 pm

Thank you all, for your kind words and support.

Molly and I went to the vet this afternoon, and as a result I am the evil demon human who shoved her into a carrier and subjected her to great humiliation. The upshot? Perhaps a month to go before the tumor (growing on the site of the incision) is too bad for us to manage the discomfort and for her to eat and drink. The vet gave me an Rx for pain meds as well as the steroids.

More later, when I feel up to it.

130ffortsa
okt 20, 2018, 5:09 pm

>129 Chatterbox: Oh dear, that's not much time.

131Chatterbox
okt 20, 2018, 8:06 pm

Well, my father is NOT coming. They got as far as checking their bags after clearing US customs at Mexico City, after their first flight, and Dad had another TIA at the airport. My Spidey sense telling me something was amiss definitely was correct. I'm just relieved that he sounds OK now -- I talked to him on the phone -- and that it didn't happen mid-air, forcing the plane to land somewhere in Texas or wherever. I just knew that this was a bad idea, but he was so determined to do it... Sigh.

>130 ffortsa: No, that's not much time, but this is an INCREDIBLY aggressive tumor. Without surgery to "debulk" it, without chemo or radiation to shrink it, it will simply grow to the point that she can't eat or drink. It had already gotten to that point just before the surgery three weeks ago, when she couldn't/wouldn't extend her tongue to drink -- it was too painful -- within a week of the diagnosis. At that point, she would eat, using her mouth and teeth, but not drink. I can give sub-cutaneous fluids when that happens, but once she no longer eats, then there's no point in maintaining food AND liquids artificially, knowing that the tumor is growing to fill more of her mouth. It also will become more difficult to manage pain and discomfort. At that stage, it would be a matter of keeping her alive for my sake and not for hers. Knowing that this isn't treatable, or a long-term condition to be managed like diabetes or renal failure or Cassie's IBD, is very hard to cope with, but it is what it is. And there is no way I will put her through more procedures, much less chemo or radiation, to address this. it would simply be cruel.

132LizzieD
okt 20, 2018, 11:32 pm

I'm sorry about your father, Suzanne, and sad about your lovely Molly. However much it hurts, we can at least do better by our animals than we can by our humans. Love her while you have her and love her enough to let her go - that's what you're doing.

133Chatterbox
okt 21, 2018, 3:36 pm

I just added a bunch of Paddington Bear titles to my UK Kindle -- they are on sale for 99p. Yes, I'm regressing to early childhood, but my, how I loved those books. And I just re-read Here Comes Harry by Hilda Lewis, another childhood fave. Comfort food for the brain.

134libraryperilous
okt 21, 2018, 6:21 pm

>133 Chatterbox: Oh, Here Comes Harry looks good. I reread the Paddington books every two-three years. I love them. I don't think we ever get too old for children's books. :)

135Chatterbox
okt 21, 2018, 8:41 pm

>134 libraryperilous: The Amazon description of Here Comes Harry is slightly wrong. It suggests that the boy king in question is Edward VI, but actually it's Henry VI, the son of the victor of Agincourt, who is born on the 10th birthday of the narrator, the son of a knight who died at Agincourt and heir to a barony, but whose family is impoverished. It's a great adventure story of how the young king's life becomes entangled with that of this older boy, and takes the reader right up to the king's marriage to Marguerite d'Anjou.

136SandDune
okt 22, 2018, 3:57 am

Paddington Bear is a great comfort read.

137Familyhistorian
okt 23, 2018, 2:30 pm

>131 Chatterbox: Sorry to hear about your father but it sounds like a good thing that he is not travelling both for him and your peace of mind. Hugs to Molly cat.

138Chatterbox
okt 23, 2018, 3:07 pm

>137 Familyhistorian: I will hug Molly when she wakes up. She is currently snoozing on the armchair across the way, guarded by Cassie, snoozing on the ottoman. Yes, I'm relieved my father isn't coming. I'm overwhelmed right now.

139The_Hibernator
Redigerat: okt 23, 2018, 4:19 pm

Sorry to hear about Molly! And about your dad's TIA. Life is so stressful right now! Hugs!

140Chatterbox
Redigerat: dec 21, 2018, 12:55 am

Books Purchased Or Otherwise Permanently Acquired 2018
Part XIV

952. Theft by Finding: Diaries: Volume One by David Sedaris (UK Kindle, sale, $) 9/30/18
953. The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson (Kindle sale, $) 9/30/18
954. The Wanderer by Michael Ridpath (Audiobook, $$) 10/1/18
955. The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry (Audiobook, $$) 10/1/18 Read
956. The Pianist from Syria: A Memoir by Aeham Ahmad (NetGalley) 10/1/18
957. Women Talking by Miriam Toews (NetGalley) 10/1/18
958. Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St. Vincent (Edelweiss e-galley) 10/1/18
959. The Victory Garden by Rhys Bowen (NetGalley) 10/2/18
960. A Far Horizon by Brenda Rickman Vantrease (NetGalley) 10/2/18
961. Psychotopia by R.N. Morris (NetGalley) 10/2/18
962. Headlong by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles (NetGalley) 10/2/18
963. The Long Take: A noir narrative by Robin Robertson (NetGalley) 10/2/18
964. Landfall by Thomas Mallon (NetGalley) 10/2/18
965. Goulash by Brian Kimberling (NetGalley) 10/2/18
966. Vanished in the Dunes: A Hamptons Mystery by Allan Retzky (Edelweiss e-galley) 10/2/18
967. A Sudden Death in Cyprus by Michael Grant (NetGalley) 10/2/18
968. Foursome: Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury by Carolyn Burke
969. Dragonfly Sea by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (NetGalley) 10/02/18
970. Stalker by Lars Kepler (NetGalley) 10/02/18
971. A Sorrowful Sanctuary by Iona Whishaw (Kindle, $$) 10/2/18 Read
972. The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton (UK Kindle, sale, $) 10/2/18
973. Stalin's Englishman: The Lives of Guy Burgess by Andrew Lownie (UK Kindle, sale, $) 10/2/18
974. The Wanderers by Tim Pears (UK Kindle, sale, $) 10/2/18
975. Benjamin Franklin in London: The British Life of America’s Founding Father by George Goodwin (UK Kindle, sale, $) 10/3/18
976. Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald (UK Kindle, $$) 10/3/18
977. The Turn Of Midnight by Minette Walters (UK Kindle, $$) 10/3/18 Read
978. The Lost Daughter by Gill Paul (UK Kindle, sale, $) 10/4/18
979. How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don't by Lane Moore (NetGalley) 10/7/18
980. Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller (UK Kindle, $$) 10/7/18
981. The Comforts of Home by Susan Hill (UK Kindle, $$) 10/7/18
982. The Murder of Harriet Monckton by Elizabeth Haynes (UK Kindle, sale, $) 10/8/18
983. Talent by Juliet Lapidos (NetGalley) 10/9/18
984. The Witch Elm by Tana French (Audiobook) 10/9/18 Read
985. Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland's Glory by Lisa Jardine 10/9/18
986. The Victorian and the Romantic: A Memoir, a Love Story, and a Friendship Across Time by Nell Stevens (Kindle, Credit/sale, $) 10/10/18
987. Heads You Win by Jeffrey Archer (NetGalley) 10/10/18
988. The Light Over London by Julia Kelly (NetGalley) 10/11/18
989. Churchill: Walking With Destiny by Andrew Roberts (NetGalley) 10/11/18
990. Blood and Silk: Power and Conflict in Modern Southeast Asia by Michael Vatikiotis (Kindle credit/discount) 10/11/18
991. No Dancing, No Dancing: Inside the Global Humanitarian Crisis by Denis Dragovic (Kindle, $$) 10/11/18 (touchstone doesn't work...)
992. The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths (NetGalley) 10/11/18
993. The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies (Kindle sale, $) 10/11/18
994. The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey (Edelweiss e-galley) 10/12/18 Read
995. The Mystery of Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah (Audiobook, $$) 10/14/18
996. Daughter of Moloka'i by Alan Brennert (NetGalley) 10/15/18
997. Thou Shell of Death by Nicholas Blake (NetGalley) 10/15/18
998. Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline by Darrell Bricker (NetGalley) 10/15/18
999. The Stolen Boys by Joy Ellis (NetGalley) 10/16/18
1000. Christmas on the Island by Jenny Colgan (Kindle, $$) 10/16/18 Read
1001. Those Who Go By Night by Andrew Gaddes (NetGalley) 10/17/18
1002. Tombland by C.J. Sansom (UK Kindle, $$) 10/17/18 Read
1003. The Hiding Place by C.J. Tudor (NetGalley) 10/19/18
1004. The Farm by Joanne Ramos (NetGalley) 10/19/18
1005. A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond (UK Kindle sale, $) 10/20/18
1006. More About Paddington by Michael Bond (UK Kindle sale, $) 10/20/18
1007. Paddington Helps Out by Michael Bond (UK Kindle sale, $) 10/20/18
1008. Paddington Abroad by Michael Bond (UK Kindle sale, $) 10/20/18
1009. Paddington at Work by Michael Bond (UK Kindle sale, $) 10/20/18
1010. Paddington Goes to Town by Michael Bond (UK Kindle sale, $) 10/20/18
1011. Paddington Takes the Air by Michael Bond (UK Kindle sale, $) 10/20/18
1012. The Road to Urbino by Roma Tearne (UK Kindle, sale, $) 10/21/18
1013. Watcher in the Woods by Kelley Armstrong (NetGalley) 10/21/18
1014. The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books: Christopher Columbus, His Son, and the Quest to Build the World's Greatest Library by Edward Wilson-Lee (Edelweiss e-galley) 10/22/18
1015. Merchant Adventurers: The Voyage of Discovery that Transformed Tudor England by James Evans (UK Kindle, sale, $) 10/22/18
1016. Slade House by David Mitchell (Kindle, sale, $) 10/22/18
1017. The Ash Family by Molly Dektar (NetGalley) 10/23/18
1018. After Anatevka by Alexandra Silber (Audible freebie) 10/23/18
1019. Where Reasons End by Yiyun Li (NetGalley) 10/23/18

141magicians_nephew
okt 27, 2018, 7:42 pm



soon Molly-cat will be free to walk again as a cat should without pain or fear

“I am the Cat who walks by (her)self, and all places are alike to me.”

Rudyard Kipling,

142Donna828
okt 28, 2018, 5:42 pm

Suzanne, I am so sorry to hear about your precious Molly. I know you will give her lots of love as long as you can and do the right thing when she is in pain. We recently lost our Labrador Retriever and are trying to get used to an empty house. That's too bad about your father's visit, but he definitely doesn't need to be on a long airplane trip at this point in time. It sounds like life is particularly difficult for you now. Paddington Bear sounds like good compny. In fact, I may take out my Paddington Treasury for some feel-good reading.

143elkiedee
okt 28, 2018, 6:14 pm

They're not really adaptations of the books, as much as new stories with the characters in a more modern setting than the 1950s/60s when most of them were originally written, but the recent films are also very lovely and feelgood.

144ronincats
okt 28, 2018, 11:43 pm



I read your news last week, but had to retreat for a space, as this is exactly what happened with my brother and it's still hard to deal with. My love and support for you both.

145thornton37814
okt 29, 2018, 7:37 am

Sorry to read about Molly. I hope your father's health improves as well. I was devastated when I lost Brumley four years ago. It took me awhile to be able to get used to him not being there. By the time my brother's cat had a litter of three, it was time for me to consider another cat--and I'd already decided I needed two so the cat would have company and be used to other cats. I couldn't bear to leave one alone--and ended up with all three. It was the right decision. These three play together so well, and they are so loving (when they are in the mood to be that way). They entertain me. I know how hard it will be when you lose Molly, but one day you'll be ready to bring another cat into your life. Don't rush it. Leave yourself time to grieve. Then sieze the opportunity to allow another cat to love you and have a good home.

146Chatterbox
Redigerat: okt 29, 2018, 2:51 pm

Thank you, all... i'm going to repost that image & saying on FB, but it perfectly captures how I feel...

Molly is OK -- still eating and drinking -- but she is clearly deteriorating. I think she actually was grinding her teeth with pain yesterday, or there was something else in her mouth that was crunching. I gave her the painkiller and she was MUCH better, so I will have to stay on top of the pain. She has good times and bad times. When there are few to no good times -- well, as Jim notes above, it will be time to release her to "walk again as a cat should without fear or pain." And she will rejoin her beloved Jasper, her adoptive brother, whom I adopted with her when they both were six weeks old. She worshipped him blindly, and when he died, I became a kind of proxy.

When Molly leaves us, I will still have Cassie, who has ridden out some of her IBD problems but is still too skinny (but full of energy), and Sir Fergus the Fat, who I adopted two years ago, a year after Tigger the Terror Cat died. They loathe each other. So, I won't be adding any more cats to the menage for the forseeable future. It wouldn't be fair to Cassie, who probably has waited her entire life to be alpha cat (when she was eight weeks old and weighed a total of a pound, she boxed the ears of Tigger, who then weighed 13 pounds. He was so stunned, he couldn't figure out how to retaliate against this hissing furry whirlwind.) We'll see what happens.

Went to a high school reunion (the International School of Brussels!!) and saw people I hadn't seen in 40 years. Only one or two of my close friends were there, and people that I would have said were NOT people I had anything in common with were there, but I had a great time anyway. And I spent some quality time with my first editor (Kevin, on the right in this pic) and Brian, who was part of our editorial team on the school paper. In fact, this is half of the editorial staff, 40 years later... :-)



And yes, I have my eyes closed. And yes, this is me with my new, completely white hair.

147ChelleBearss
okt 29, 2018, 4:19 pm

Sorry to see that you've been having a rough go with Molly and your dad. Hope you get some good news soon!

148LizzieD
okt 29, 2018, 4:59 pm

I think that your totally white hair is stunning!
I'm glad that you had a good time. Having lived in one place virtually all my life, I've found that high school classmates with whom I had very little relationship at the time are now a lot closer than a lot of other people with whom I would apparently have more in common.
Love to you and Molly....and Cassie and Sir Ferg.

149benitastrnad
okt 30, 2018, 12:45 pm

I love your white hair. I have salt and pepper hair and sadly, it appears that it is going to remain that way for some time.

150Chatterbox
okt 30, 2018, 2:39 pm

I have booked Molly-cat's former vet, who does house calls, for the at-home euthanasia next Monday afternoon...

151SuziQoregon
okt 30, 2018, 3:24 pm

I'm so sorry about Molly

152ronincats
okt 30, 2018, 3:30 pm

(((((((Suzanne)))))))

(there are no words)

153avatiakh
okt 30, 2018, 4:18 pm

Sad news. I hope this last week gives her some good days.

154katiekrug
okt 30, 2018, 4:21 pm

Hugs to you, my friend.

155Chatterbox
okt 30, 2018, 4:35 pm

Thanks, all. It's the right thing to do, I know. I can tell that she is not doing as well, and that the only direction will be downhill. Any treatment will only forestall the inevitable, at the cost of stress of taking her out of her home and to the vet -- it's traumatic for her at the best of times. I'm going to let her curl up on the bed and sleep and purr next to me and manage her pain and discomfort and try to see if she can still eat any of what she loves. Last night she literally climbed into my dinner plate to try and eat hoisin pork stir fry (bad choice) but if I slice up/mince some fresh turkey and mix it with some warmish water, that might work. Molly-cat LOVES her turkey

156SandDune
okt 30, 2018, 5:16 pm

>150 Chatterbox: So sorry Suzanne.

157Fourpawz2
okt 31, 2018, 1:02 pm

I am so sorry about Molly, Suzanne. I lost Willie on the fifth, four years ago and I still miss him so very much.

But - I am happy that you two have these last days together at home. I hope that they are good ones insofar as they can be.

158Chatterbox
okt 31, 2018, 3:08 pm

>157 Fourpawz2: Thanks... It's very painful... perhaps worse to anticipate and know that this is inevitable. But it is and it's the kindest thing I can do for her.

159FAMeulstee
okt 31, 2018, 6:15 pm

So sorry about Molly, Suzanne. Even if you know it is the kindest thing to do, it still is hard emotionally :'(

160LizzieD
okt 31, 2018, 11:52 pm

I'm sorry, Suzanne. Love to you and Molly.

161libraryperilous
nov 1, 2018, 9:14 am

I'm sorry, Suzanne. I hope your memories of Molly will help sustain you in this difficult time and that your last few days together are the best they can be.

162m.belljackson
nov 1, 2018, 9:49 am

Rest in Peace, Little Molly.

163Copperskye
nov 1, 2018, 4:06 pm

Adding my condolences, Suzanne. The most loving thing we can do for our pets is also the most heartbreaking. I’m sorry.

164brodiew2
nov 1, 2018, 4:50 pm

Hi Chatterbox. I am so sorry to hear about Molly's decline and the decision you had to make. I have been in your position and I know how hard it is.

165Chatterbox
nov 1, 2018, 9:18 pm

Thanks, everyone... Waiting and knowing there is no alternative are so hard...

166Chatterbox
nov 2, 2018, 12:56 pm

Just finished reading The Incendiaries, by D.O. Kwon. It falls into the category of the books that I find most annoying. There are fascinating plot elements and characters, and some truly elegant writing. But -- and it's a big but -- the writing is so artificially structured and convoluted and self-conscious that it transcends everything else. I could never immerse myself in the narrative; the characters in the book never became real and vivid; their plight and miscommunications and the ironies of their paths in life were muted as a result of the author's obsession with the Perfect Literary Style. Eg, when the narrator goes back home for the first time after attending a college on the East Coast: "Outlines softened, salt in liquid; I felt how easily I could dissolve into the life I'd left behind. Ripped flip-flops still held the stain of old footprints." I get it, but it's over-writing to the max. It's also unconvincing for a 20-year-old guy to THINK in these terms. This is the writing of a women in her late 20s, or whatever. Add to this, the fact that her acknowledgments pages is two solid pages of NOTHING BUT A LIST OF NAMES, and feels like name-checking every well-known contemporary US novelist she may have had contact with at an MFA program (as well as listing her residencies.) There is a lot of good stuff here that is memorable, but it's suffocated by this self-conscious pretentiousness that deeply annoys me. Now, there are writers who are so good at their craft that they end up taking a similar approach, but you don't notice it because they simply are so damn good at what they do. Kwon isn't. I felt as if I was being beaten over the head by her painstaking word-by-word, phrase-by-phrase decisions throughout. I'll still rate it 3.65 stars for what IS in here, at the base -- the ideas at the heart of it -- but this is an example of MFA-ication of literature in this country. No, we don't need to read junk or genre fiction. But we don't need to read stuff like this, either, that ends up feeling like Leonardo da Vinci using a paint by numbers kit...

167cushlareads
nov 3, 2018, 5:14 pm

Hi Suz - just wanted to leave you a message about Molly. I'm so sorry. I hope she has some nice turkey today and isn't in too much pain.

168figsfromthistle
nov 3, 2018, 9:06 pm

I'm so sorry to hear about Molly :(

169LizzieD
nov 3, 2018, 11:13 pm

Another friend here, thinking of you and your Molly.

170Whisper1
nov 3, 2018, 11:36 pm

This is a time when words seem so difficult to express emotion. I am ever so sorry for all you are going through. I grieve with you. I know the feeling of a loss of a beloved pet. There is a space missing, yet still there...it is the sound and the feel of someone you love so very dearly.

171Chatterbox
nov 4, 2018, 1:15 am

>167 cushlareads: Unfortunately, she isn't able to eat any longer. I don't think she is even hungry any longer. I have stopped giving her the steroids that had propped up her appetite, as she loathed them, and I think it has been three days since she last had any real food. That said, when she did, it made her mouth bleed badly. When she drinks -- which she still is doing -- it causes her mouth to bleed, as happens when I give her the liquid painkiller via syringe. The vet called late this afternoon, and I asked about this; she says it's probably because her mouth is so ulcerated now that when she moves her tongue it triggers a bleed. In a way, it's a kindness that she doesn't want food, because trying to eat would be so painful for her...

She still wants to cuddle up to me and purr, so that's what we will spend tomorrow -- her last full day -- doing.

I hate this feeling of the clock ticking down. But it's better than facing a crisis with an animal in pain and distress.

172Chatterbox
nov 5, 2018, 6:57 pm

My beloved Molly-cat moved on to better things this afternoon. It was very, very difficult, with a particular bad moment when she reacted to the sedative, but that passed quickly, and she was at peace. I kept my promise that she would never have to leave her home again, and that she would stay in my arms until the very last second.

173ronincats
nov 5, 2018, 7:19 pm

I am so sorry for your loss, Suzanne.

174libraryperilous
nov 5, 2018, 7:24 pm

I'm sorry, Suzanne.

175thornton37814
nov 5, 2018, 8:31 pm

Sorry, Suzanne!

176vivians
nov 5, 2018, 8:51 pm

Thinking of you this evening and so very sorry for your loss.

177bell7
nov 5, 2018, 9:57 pm

So sorry, Suzanne.

178LizzieD
nov 5, 2018, 11:46 pm

I'm sorry too. There's peace for valiant, loving Molly and some peace for you too.

179avatiakh
nov 6, 2018, 12:18 am

Also sorry. Sounds like a calm and dignified closing of her 16 years for both of you.

180torontoc
nov 6, 2018, 1:51 pm

So sorry to hear of your loss.

181The_Hibernator
nov 6, 2018, 5:31 pm

I'm so sorry for your loss.

182LizzieD
nov 7, 2018, 11:12 pm

Just want you to know that I'm thinking about you.

183klobrien2
nov 10, 2018, 4:57 pm

Oh, Suzanne, I'm so sorry. It's such a hard thing, but you were there for Molly at the end, and she was comforted.

It has helped me to keep something of the beloved pet nearby, at least for a while. I wore the collar of my "first-born" as a bracelet and it did comfort me. If that is any help...

Karen O.

184Whisper1
nov 10, 2018, 5:03 pm

I am thinking of you during this very difficult time. I know that words cannot express your feelings of loss and sadness. I care!

185ronincats
nov 10, 2018, 5:05 pm

Just dropping in to leave you a hug...

186Whisper1
nov 10, 2018, 9:05 pm

Suz, I am thinking of you a lot.

187Chatterbox
nov 12, 2018, 6:57 pm

Thank you all so much.

I've been listening to audiobooks, as I can't face reading. Partly my brain and partly a migraine.

Just finished Escape from Paris by Carolyn Hart, set during World War II, which has the dubious distinction of being narrated by one of the worst possible narrators EVER. If there was a Parisian location, the author mispronounced it. The Tuileries -- pronounced TWEE-le-ree (roughly) -- emered as Twill--ERR---eee. With a flat midwestern American accent. The rue de Rivoli? Becomes the rue de Ree-VOH-lee. Argh. Half the time I didn't understand what she was saying. It was a kind of 1950s book, good versus evil, black versus white, that works better as a Hollywood action movie.

188Chatterbox
nov 13, 2018, 7:05 pm

Got a freebie from Penguin today -- I'm on an eccentric kind of list that gets me a book every five weeks or so, but I have NO idea what kind of list it is, based on the types of books that show up here. The last one, a month or so ago, was an adult coloring book -- Johanna Basford's latest, so it is wonderful, with lots of fabulous flowers, etc. Today's book is one that I had eyed on the Amazon UK website but thankfully not purchased -- The Salt Path. It's the tale of a middle-aged couple who lose absolutely everything and set out with what little remains to walk the SW Coast Path (Devon and Cornwall, roughly) in the UK.

I've been listening/reading to the first in a series of historical novels/mysteries by father/daughter duo, Meg and Thomas Keneally, set in the Australian penal colonies in the early 1820s and featuring Hugh Monsarrat as an almost gentleman convict/sleuth, transported for forging a license to practice law. Prompted to pick up The Soldier's Curse, the first of these, by the fact that #3 is now available on NetGalley and #4 will be out in Australia in February. By February, I may have to figure out a way to lay my mitts on it... (Nope, BD won't work -- they no longer ship books that haven't been released elsewhere to the US... It's very tough.) Wonder if I can commission my friend Jess to buy a copy and send it to me once it's out there? Oh well, I have two and a half books to read, still, before I get to that point!

189ffortsa
nov 14, 2018, 10:36 am

Interesting that Keneally is now working with his daughter. He's one of the authors I'd like to read more of, based on Jim's recommendation.

190rosalita
nov 14, 2018, 10:46 am

I loved Keneally's The Daughters of Mars when I read it a few years ago. Like Judy, I've been meaning to seek out more of his work.

191Chatterbox
nov 14, 2018, 11:10 am

I loved Daughters of Mars, also Napoleon's Last Island. His most recent book, about sexual abuse scandals in Australia among priests, was good but a bit didactic. I also LOVED Gossip From the Forest, a novel revolving around the final days/hours of WW1, which was utterly brilliant and atmospheric, and so poignant. A must-read. Yes, I will be reading more by him -- somewhat hampered by knowing relatively little about Australian history beyond the Botany Bay stuff and some of the mining rushes there, and being perhaps a little less interested (I confess) than in some other areas of the world. (What can I say???)

Speaking of which, apparently A.N. Wilson's new novel is about the Christchurch earthquakes, only disguised -- and is attracting some flak, as he hasn't spent time there, isn't a Kiwi, etc. etc. Thoughts, anyone??

192libraryperilous
nov 15, 2018, 5:30 pm

they no longer ship books that haven't been released elsewhere to the US

I just ordered four UK-only titles from them and they all shipped. All of them were also available on Amazon's US site through third-party sellers, so maybe that was the difference.

I believe The Salt Path was shortlisted for the Wainwright.

193Chatterbox
nov 15, 2018, 5:59 pm

>192 libraryperilous: Hmmm, I have had problems with this in the recent past. Maybe it's the Amazon link that is the issue? That said, I've had my share of problems with BD, too -- about a third of my orders had been cancelled, with them telling me books were "not available" due to copyright restrictions. Meanwhile BD was selling them on Amazon US, sometimes at higher prices, and with the hefty shipping prices (always higher than the actual COST of shipping...) I know I have griped about this in the past, so I will stop now. But I WILL be hunting for this book!!

Reading a thriller, The Banker's Wife, right now. Not bad. It's about to snow, and this is "snow weather" reading. I'm not in the mood for serious reading, or cleaning the apartment, or anything much else.

194libraryperilous
nov 15, 2018, 6:05 pm

>193 Chatterbox: Hmm, maybe the restrictions are set by publishers? I've had a couple of issues with BD recently, as well, though not copyright restrictions. In both cases, a CSR returned my e-mail very quickly. But, in neither case did they answer the specific question I had asked. Oh well. Sigh.

We had a light dusting of snow here yesterday, so I'm going to curl up with an espionage novel tonight.

195Chatterbox
nov 16, 2018, 8:50 pm

Are there any writers who you just can't wait to hear from again? I keep checking to see whether Francis Spufford, author of Golden Hill, a wonderful historical novel about 18th century colonial New York City, has penned a new novel (that was his first work of fiction, but he has written some non-fiction); I would buy it without even waiting to see what it's about. I am eager to read the concluding volume of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy. And why isn't Thomas Mullen following up Darktown and Lightning Men with another intriguing and sensitively-written mystery set in the late 1940s in Atlanta, involving the city's first African-American cops and the issues they confronted? Also -- please, more by Attica Locke, a brilliant African-American mystery writer, whose four books have won all kinds of awards. Sadly, brilliance seems to take time to produce...

That list is just off the top of my head and is fiction only. Phillip Blom, a fave historian, has a new tome out next year, so I can't gripe about that.

196LizzieD
nov 16, 2018, 11:33 pm

>195 Chatterbox: C.J. Sansom! Susan Hill & Serrailler! I know they're coming; I just can't wait. And, of course, H. Mantel #3!

197Chatterbox
nov 17, 2018, 4:25 am

I have Tombland on my UK Kindle, as well as the new Seraillier. I am saving the former for my Thanksgiving binge-read!!

198libraryperilous
Redigerat: nov 17, 2018, 2:23 pm

Amor Towles, definitely. I could always use more Greg Egan, especially in the vein of Incandescence or the Orthogonal trilogy. I'll read anything Sean B. Carroll writes.

I wish Elizabeth Marie Pope had left us more than two novels.

I more frequently wish for books like a particular title, rather than more things to read by a favorite author. I like both successfully finding readalikes and also rereading favorite titles.

I am looking forward to Tombland, although I soured on Sansom after some homophobia in an earlier Shardlarke. I'm willing to give the series another chance, though, especially because I've been waiting for the tyrant to kick off.

Edited to remove touchstone

199benitastrnad
Redigerat: nov 17, 2018, 6:06 pm

Attica Locke is a screen writer and producer in Hollywood. Writing mysteries is her second job. She was one of the writers and producer for the series Empire and one other recent show. I think there will be more books by her, but they are going to be slow due to her day job.

For me, it isn’t about authors. It is just that there are so many books to read out there. I can spend all my time reading and getting lost in the worlds those authors create and still not have enough time to read. Although, I was surprised earlier this month to learn that I have read 79 books this year. This is the first time since joining LT that I have made it to 75.

200benitastrnad
Redigerat: nov 17, 2018, 6:10 pm

I am listening to Scythe by Neal Shusterman for the Barnes & Noble book discussion tomorrow and I hate it. It is dystopian YA and is another book about children killing children. This book won the Printz award and I don’t understand why this type of book is so popular.

OK. I can understand why it is popular, but why do these books win awards? I keep listening in hopes that some great message or words of wisdom will come out of the book, and so far - Nada!

And there is even a sequel to this book! Well, that’s just peachy.

201avatiakh
nov 17, 2018, 7:40 pm

I mostly look forward to the latest crime fiction, my current favs that I keep up to date with are Ian Rankin, Garry Disher and Andrea Camilleri. Lee Child is also there but I'm reading from habit.

The longest wait for me seems to have been Markus Zusak, after his The Book Thief in about 2005 he's finally just published Bridge of Clay which is sitting on my 'to be read next' pile.

>200 benitastrnad: Shusterman's books always seem to have a dark edge to them. I haven't read that many and have Scythe on my tbr pile. Have you read anything by Sheryl Jordan? Her latest is The Anger of Angels which might be hard to find outside New Zealand/Australia yet, but her Winter of Fire and The Raging Quiet are fairly well known in the US. Sally Gardner is also very good, her Maggot Moon is excellent. Her battle with dyslexia can be read here - https://www.sallygardner.net/about-sally/sallys-story/

202Chatterbox
nov 17, 2018, 9:52 pm

I think that the "children killing children" didn't really come home to me in The Hunger Games until I saw the film. And then it was really very startling, because the setup was that this was for the entertainment of adults, and not just for survival. In the books, it felt more as if the characters were fully realized actors (to the extent that any of the "victims" of the system were) and that they led the rebellion.

>198 libraryperilous: Ha, I hadn't picked that up in the earlier Shardlake novels.

>199 benitastrnad: I didn't know that about Attica Locke! I do hope that she becomes successful enough and interested enough to make novel writing her full-time gig (she said, selfishly... Though I also am glad that African American women are making headway in screenwriting...)

>198 libraryperilous: Yes, I understand you wish for a book "like" a particular other title. I've just finished The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry, and not only is there not only another book by this author (a good way to get a book like it, ideally) but I can't think of a book "like" it that I haven't already read. M.J. Carter's trio of mystery novels, starting off in 1837 India and continuing in Victorian London, remind me of it, but I've read them, TOO, and SHE doesn't seem to be adding to that series, either. Piffle.

Which is why I like re-reading.

>201 avatiakh: Thankfully, yes, there is new fiction -- and new discoveries in favorite genres, too!! Every year or so, I probably add half a dozen new "favorites" to my list and one or two new "WOW" authors. I've been picking up the Ian Rankin books for my UK Kindle when they come available on sale -- right now, several are only 99p -- and then I'll read my way through a bunch of them.

I've been "re-listening" -- in other words, re-reading via audiobook -- to the trilogy of books set in the Moghul empire by Indu Sundaresan. Nice to have a change of pace beyond the dratted Tudors and Plantagenets when it comes to historical novels!! And very good narration, too. Recommended...

203LizzieD
Redigerat: nov 17, 2018, 11:17 pm

*sigh* for a UK Kindle!
Many thanks for the nod to I. Sundaresan. I've ordered the first two. I loved White Mughals and look forward to some fiction.

204thornton37814
nov 18, 2018, 6:57 am

>195 Chatterbox: Isn't the Wolf Hall trilogy great? As far as "can't waits", I don't think I have many of those these days. I've learned writing quality varies. I'm behind--even on some of my favorite authors and series. I will probably catch up with two or three of them in 2019. There are just so many books I want to read!

205EBT1002
nov 18, 2018, 2:42 pm

Suz, I've been following you some on FB but haven't checked in here for a while. You know, I hope, that I have been thinking about you as you have been in the final stages of loving and letting go of Molly-cat. Our Abby continues to do fairly well but we also see signs of her heading downhill. She is 17.5 years old. While we are traveling to NC/TN, and having our floors refinished, she is at the "spa" (aka the vet) and we worry about how she'll do. At least they will continue to give her the subcutaneous fluids every day.

I am also anxious for Hilary Mantel's next installment in the Wolf Hall trilogy. The Mirror and the Light? I don't know when it's supposed to be published. And yes to more Attica Locke!

Keep taking good care, Suzanne. I hope you have a good Thanksgiving ahead of you.

206Whisper1
nov 18, 2018, 7:01 pm

I'm simply dropping by to say I am thinking of you.

207Chatterbox
Redigerat: nov 19, 2018, 1:59 am

>204 thornton37814:, Yes, my mouth is bigger than my stomach, in book terms!!:-)

>205 EBT1002: I shall keep your Abby in my thoughts. I hope your vet is as kind and gentle as Molly's are/were; I'm glad that you are able to do this, so that she has easy access to a professional who can administer fluids. Fingers are crossed that she doesn't get too stressed out and that you will be able to speed your way back to her...

I am setting aside a few books to read for Thanksgiving as I have no plans to go anywhere or do anything. I have Sansom's Tombland to read, and also the ARC of the new novel by Lyndsey Faye, thanks to Benita, which I have been hoarding for a special occasion. Then the next two books in the Monserrat series by Keneally (see above) AND the new Margaret George novel about Nero (I had an e-Galley of it, though it's now out officially.) Finally, I think I'll save Michaael Palin's book about the Erebus (the Franklin expedition to the Arctic) for that weekend, and my audiobook will be the new Ben Aaronovitch book, FINALLY released on audio, narrated by Kobna Holbrook-Smith. (I will NOT read these books, only listen -- the narrator is that good.) This should keep me busy, in spite of the lack of more Wolf Hall books and more Attica Locke.

>206 Whisper1: Thanks for the visit....

Listened to the audiobook version of 84, Charing Cross Road. There are some books that just stay with you... I remember VERY vividly when and where I first read this one -- on a school trip to Majorca at Easter, 1978. (Don't remember when I bought it, but either somewhere/sometime in Brussels -- most probable -- or else in London after visiting friends during the New Year's holiday that winter. But I think WH Smith on blvd d'Anspach is most likely.) And it introduced me to SO MANY other books. I read Virginia Woolf because of this. Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt and the Essays of Elia. Oh, and the prose writings of Donne (sermons) and Stevenson's essays, my affection generally for the essay as a literary form. And oh, how I wanted my own relationship with my own 84 Charing Cross Road. For a while I did, when Christine, the woman who owned Bookends in Fowey would help me track down books I couldn't find in Toronto.



But then the Internet arrived, and Christine sold the bookstore, and the book business completely changed, and somehow it's harder to form relationships like that with book people -- except here on LibraryThing...

All that aside, I never understood Helen Hanff's aversion to fiction. With the exception of Pride and Prejudice and Tristram Shandy, I don't think she ever requested a novel.

If you read this, you'll obviously want to read the book that chronicles her trip to London, The Duchess of Bloomsbury. But I actually prefer Q's Legacy, which explains how she trips over a book of lectures by Arthur Quiller-Couch when trying to educate herself. Now, here is where weird coincidence comes in again. My favorite place in the world happens to be the twin Cornish towns of Fowey and Polruan. I fell in love with them before I completely realized that they are Daphne du Maurier's "home" territory (and at the time I first started going there, in the mid 1980s, not quite such a fuss was made about her...) BUT, Fowey ALSO was home to Quiller-Couch in the late 19th and very early 20th centuries. (He was a scholer/academic.) In fact, my favorite walk, the Hall Walk, has the most amazing view over the Fowey Estuary from the "Q" memorial to him -- a place where he would sit with a thermos of tea and read or just watch the world go by, on his own walks.



I will just say that I am happier when I am there than I have ever been anywhere else, any time else, in my life. And I don't think it's just "holiday-itis", and it predates Poldark (and anyway, it's the south coast of Cornwall, NOT the north coast!!)

208thornton37814
nov 19, 2018, 8:45 am

>207 Chatterbox: Cornwall is lovely--not only in that photo but in most of the ones I've seen.

209brodiew2
nov 19, 2018, 3:20 pm

Hello Chatterbox

>195 Chatterbox: For me, that author is Michael Harvey. He started out with his Michael Kelly detective series in Chicago, but he has written three indivual novels, the last two of which I have ravenously devoured. They are Brighton: A Novel and Pulse: A Novel.

On the nonfiction front, I have greatly enjoyed Candice Millard; Destiny of the Republic being my favorite.

I also echo your love of Thomas Mullen's Boggs and Smith novels. I'm listening to Lightning Men at the moment. Darktown was last year.

210Chatterbox
nov 19, 2018, 3:50 pm

>208 thornton37814: I have taken lots of pictures of Cornwall and could flood this thread with them. Indeed, perhaps I'll put a thread topper of Cornish pics by me on all my threads (yeah, so many of them, LOL, threads that is...) next year.

>209 brodiew2: Oh, my, yes, those Mullen mysteries are SO GOOD. As mysteries, as well-written books, as thumping good reads, as books that give insight into a time and place... they just hit all the buttons for me. I only have one niggling caveat, which is that they are written by a white man. I keep wondering how differently they might be written had an African American tackled the same subject, the same kind of characters and the same plots/themes. Which is why I'm glad I also read Attica Locke's books shortly thereafter, because her main characters DO explore some of these themes from inside the African-American mind, in a way no white writer could ever do, and she writes brilliantly and thoughtfully. I'd urge you to seek them out if you haven't seen them already. Based on your other recommendations to me, I'd think Bluebird, Bluebird would be most up your alley.

211benitastrnad
nov 19, 2018, 4:22 pm

Attica Locke won the 2016 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction with Pleasantville. This prize is given by the University of Alabama Law School. You would think that the UA Libraries would own a copy of books that WIN that particular prize, but NO! Because trade books are not available to university libraries in digital format (and if they are the prize is three times what it is in paper) and because we have a digital only book purchasing policy now, we don't have any of the winners of this prize.

My real life book discussion group is reading Pleasantville for our December book. That is why I discovered that the UA Libraries doesn't have this book. Or any of the other winners of this particular prize.

212brodiew2
nov 19, 2018, 4:25 pm

>210 Chatterbox: I have had the same thought about Mullen being white, but there is not doubt that his books are excellent novels, crime stories or not. I will look into Bluebird, Bluebird. Black Texas Ranger definitely caught my eye, but alcohol and marriage issues are familiar tropes.

All of this talk of historical racism and crime reminds me of Stuart Wood's Chiefs. Although I know that race is not the main topic, it definitely plays a role in the final phase of the novel. Did you ever read this one or see the brilliant tv miniseries?

213Chatterbox
Redigerat: nov 19, 2018, 7:47 pm

>211 benitastrnad: Good grief.

>212 brodiew2: No to both. I will keep my eyes open. Perhaps will be able to find it at the library.

*****

So, I am lining up my books for my Thanksgiving reading binge. I plan to do NOTHING BUT READ (well, perhaps watch one or two things on Netflix) from Wednesday afternoon until Sunday night. Here is the lineup.

Tombland by C.J. Sansom
November Road by Lou Berney
The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye (e-galley)
The Unmourned by Thomas & Meg Keneally
Erebus by Michael Palin
The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson
The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World by Maya Jasanoff
The Splendor Before the Dark by Margaret George
Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch (audiobook)
In the Shadow of Statues by Mitch Landrieu
The Winters by Lisa Gabriele

214elkiedee
Redigerat: nov 21, 2018, 12:02 am

I have a netgalley of The Winters.

I am reading Revelation in the Shardlake series at the moment. The library has a copy of Tombland so when I've finished this and the other two I'll join the reservation queue at the library. I have far too many library reservations out at the moment. I think I'm going to have to return most of them unread and then rejoin the queue, and hope that some of them take a couple of months - then I can look forward to them in January and February.

Am interested to hear about The Paragon Hotel - hoping it will be published in the UK soon as currently Amazon UK only shows a US hardback edition.

215torontoc
nov 20, 2018, 8:51 am

A new C.J. Sansom!!!!!

216ffortsa
nov 20, 2018, 12:21 pm

Suzanne, if all I did was read books and series mentioned on your thread, I still wouldn't have time in my life to read them all. Consider me peppered with book bullets.

Your Thanksgiving plans sound just right. Jim and I are taking ourselves out for a restaurant dinner, my family being spread out and his having appeared for much of the last two months. I don't know if I can read that much these days - my eyes get really tired if I don't watch the light very carefully, but your enthusiasm for some audiobooks may save me. Have fun on your reading rambles this coming holiday.

217Chatterbox
nov 20, 2018, 1:38 pm

>214 elkiedee: I can send you my ARC when I finish reading it... Merry early Christmas!!

>215 torontoc: Yes, something to celebrate!!! I read the first few words, and then firmly shut the UK Kindle. Not until tomorrow evening. Don't you admire my self-restraint??

>216 ffortsa: I'm not even going out for Thanksgiving dinner. I have goat cheese and mushroom strudel from Whole Foods, bought last Saturday, which will keep until Thursday. It's a seasonal thing done here and it is DELICIOUS. Only thanksgiving and Xmas. With a salad. I may make an apple pie, or simply slice up some apples and eat them with ice cream??

Audiobooks are the only thing of value (OK exaggerating slightly) my most recent bf introduced me to. Some books work on audio; some don't. But when I have a migraine or a bad cold, they save my sanity. Also, with my Kindle and my Alexa, I can time the audio book to play and turn off after a certain number of minutes or an hour or so, so I'm not always falling asleep and struggling to find my place. I find that some of my faves are books I already know (eg The Franchise Affair), which are wonderful to "re-read" on audio. I have several Georgette Heyer books on audio. New books require more listening, but for some favorite readers or books, I make an exception. Lies Sleeping, the new book by Ben Aaronovitch in the "Rivers of London" series, just landed in my Audible library, and WOW that reader is bloody amazing. I won't even think of buying those books in physical form; I want the audio. I've listened to Boomsday by Christopher Buckley, and to Testimony by Anita Shreve; both excellent audiobooks. How to Be Safe is one of my best books of 2018, and was an audiobook. Juliet Stevenson is a WONDERFUL narrator; her version of The King's General by Daphne du Maurier is excellent. I listened to the whole Patrick O'Brian series, non-stop almost, narrated by Patrick Tull. That was in 2012, so it may be time to revisit them...

218m.belljackson
nov 20, 2018, 2:06 pm

>217 Chatterbox:

If you lived closer to Wisconsin, my daughter and I would invite you to our Vegetarian Thanksgiving:
homemade Vegetarian Pie (new recipe with butternut squash & pizza dough crust), mashed potatoes, salad,
cornbread, apple crisp, and pumpkin pie (from local co-op).

219Chatterbox
nov 20, 2018, 3:26 pm

>218 m.belljackson: Sounds delish, and I appreciate the invite anyway! I'm not a vegetarian, and also have a piece of salmon in the fridge that I need to eat tonight (phew, remembered it in the nick of time...) and some sausages that will be good for tomorrow night. I have not been doing well on the eating/cooking front of late. In fact, I think all I had to eat yesterday was a bowl of soup with some bread and butter. Sigh.

220elkiedee
nov 21, 2018, 12:01 am

>217 Chatterbox: Thank you for the kind offer but I'm worried about the cost of shipping. Hopefully it will actually come out here in the not too distant future - it's not as though her books, especially the Gotham series and Jane Steele, haven't succeeded over here.

221m.belljackson
nov 21, 2018, 1:04 pm

>219 Chatterbox:

Change of plans =
looks like Thanksgiving will be a solo event out here - my daughter (who lives 20 miles south) went yesterday for a high dose Migraine/RA shot
and today will be taxied to the hospital for a Magnesium injection.

One more time - why can't our tax money go for Cures and not wars, weapons, and politicians...

222Chatterbox
nov 21, 2018, 7:09 pm

>221 m.belljackson: Oh, I'm so sorry... Has she been able to try Aimovig for migraines yet? If her neurologist is OK with it, the Aimovig Ally program (it takes some paperwork) gives you two free doses. That's what I'm trying now. Fingers crossed, and I'm religiously avoiding drawing any conclusions this soon (first dose was Oct 30, of two monthly doses; the next one arrives next week) but I'm finding that my migraines are somewhat easier to manage. I haven't (touch wood) had a single multi-day killer migraine since taking the first shot.

I hope you have as good a Thanksgiving as possible -- a good book, something fun on Netflix?

I am hunkered down here as it is going to be very, very cold. So being bundled up with books and cats sounds pretty damn good.

223EBT1002
nov 21, 2018, 8:26 pm

Hmm, your kindle and Alexa combined so you can program your audiobook to shut off at a certain point. That sounds beneficial for an insomniac, of which I am one. I assume you have seen the SNL skit about Alexa Silver, yes? It's hilarious!!!

224Chatterbox
Redigerat: nov 21, 2018, 9:27 pm

>223 EBT1002: Oh my -- I had not seen that and it is HILARIOUS!!

Sometimes when my audiobook has an "alex" word in it, it wakes up the Alexa, which then says, "I'm sorry, I didn't get that", after which I respond, "That's OK, you weren't SUPPOSED to..." Then Alexa says "I apologize." Alexa may be the only "person" in my life who apologizes. The cats sure don't.

Thanks for sharing -- I got a good laugh. That said, Alexa finds my cell phone for me 8 or 10 times a week...

Meanwhile, here's a photo of Miss Cassie, the deli-rescue kitten (well, I rescued her in 2004, but whatever...) seizing her place in my bed. Force majeure....

225Chatterbox
nov 22, 2018, 12:22 am

My UK Kindle appears to have stopped being willing to download new purchases. I can still read them on my laptop, but can't get them onto the device. I can't even transfer them via USB, because I had already set up a US Kindle app on my laptop apparently. Unless I don't have that established on my backup Windows laptop? That's my last hope. It seems as if Amazon UK has twigged to the fact that geographically, my Kindle device is NOT accessing the site from the UK. I can place orders, but it won't allow me to put them on my device -- GRRRRR. Thankfully, it doesn't affect already-purchased content (I've got a total of 1,500 items, total, mostly purchased on sale), but why did this have to happen just before the year-end sales, and ahead of the release of new books by Peter May and Robert Goddard early in the new year?? ARGH.

226elkiedee
nov 22, 2018, 8:40 am

>225 Chatterbox: Boo to that. I expect you've tried everything? Does that include using the Content and Devices screen on your PC, or asking for books to be delivered to x device (ie UK Kindle) from Amazon on your PC?

227Chatterbox
nov 22, 2018, 11:40 am

>226 elkiedee: Yup (she said grimly.) Using content and devices screen is usually my first option. Using USB is my last one. Nothing works. I'm getting an error message. I'm even not able to open them if I return them and then repurchase them using the Kindle. Nor can I do a workaround by calling them because I can't call a tollfree # in the UK from the US. Bugger, bugger, bugger. Something for which I am NOT giving thanks.

228m.belljackson
Redigerat: nov 22, 2018, 12:00 pm

>222 Chatterbox:

Thanks for the update on Almovig - I sent all information to my daughter.

Though we are not together for Thanksgiving, we plan to meet on the weekend or next week
and are
SO
grateful that we will never again reprise the worst Thanksgiving entree we ever tried to serve = Tofurky, dear gods.

Today, I'll be sharing the couch with my little 17 year old black rescue cat and Wuthering Heights,
Emerson and Yeats poems,
The Book on the Bookshelf
(almost pitched it because it was so slow-moving and repetitive in early chapters, then got to The Saints where pace has picked up a bit),
and VACATIONLAND, which is turning out a lot stranger than expected.

229Chatterbox
Redigerat: nov 22, 2018, 5:24 pm

>228 m.belljackson: Little black cats and books are a great combo, especially sans Tofurky, which should be a banned substance, IMHO. Enjoy the tranquillity. I'm a bit headachey, and the cold temps here have smashed records, so I'm under a duvet and bribing cats with treats to act as additional warmers. Trying hard not to bummed about the UK Kindle and focus on what i AM grateful for -- a TBR stack the size of Mt. Everest and lots of people who don't think I'm crazy for my love for my cats and my books.

230Chatterbox
nov 23, 2018, 2:45 pm

My migraine was pretty bad yesterday and kept getting worse all day and into the evening AND all night. Thankfully it's clearing up now. So I'm going to spend TODAY reading. Yesterday, I just couldn't focus.

231m.belljackson
Redigerat: nov 23, 2018, 3:17 pm

>230 Chatterbox:

Really sorry to hear about new headache.

I woke up with my usual low-level start of migraine - treated with Naratriptan,
which my daughter flipped out about after I told her about the double vision...
so, I have a new RX request for next month, with a combination of preventatives
that her Migraine Clinic recommends.

It appears that I mentioned Almovig to her awhile back when you first mentioned it.
She was told that she could not try it until she was off Fioricet for three months.

And (you will love this), they said she should be admitted to the hospital as an inpatient
to be certain the drug was gone.

She returns to clinic on February 14th.

232Chatterbox
nov 23, 2018, 5:50 pm

>231 m.belljackson: Oh, what nonsense. I'm still taking Fioricet AND I'm on Aimovig. In fact, I specifically asked if there was any counterindications at all, and everyone, from my neurologist, to the pharmaceutical company folks, to the pharmacist, looked at me as if I was demented. Sorry, but what bollocks. The Fioricet for me is for breakthrough migraines -- if you want me to go three months without it and without an effective preventative you're guaranteeing my suicide. I think the Aimovig is working for me -- reducing frequency and severity (this was the first multi-day migraine I've had since I took the first Aimovig dose on October 30). Do I still take the Fioricet for breakthrough pain? Yup. Am I taking less of it? Significantly less. This is a good thing, and along with less pain overall, is one of my goals. I'd suggest your daughter maybe try to find a second opinion on this??? Or at least get the logic explained to her? I've had ZERO negative side effects from taking the Fioricet on an as-needed basis; indeed, taking fewer pills seems to help faster/more in controlling pain. For the first time ever, if I've woken up with a migraine, I've gotten rid of it by late afternoon, in at least two cases, taking a few capsules of Fioricet. In fact, your daughter's doctors make me extremely angry on her behalf. If X works, and Y might work, and there's no medical reason not to take them together, then anything else is just someone saying ooooh X is an opioid and they all are deeply evil. And that make me so irate. I take less Fioricet now than I did 5/10 years ago; more than I did 30 years ago. It's all in response to what the need is, NOT to anything else. When I don't feel pain, I don't think about it. OK, rant over. (As is my migraine, thankfully, but I'm tired from lack of sleep over the last two days, so I'm alternating reading and dozing off.)

I'm finding Displaced by Stephan Abarbanell to be more boring and slow-paced than I had anticipated, unfortunately -- I was hoping for a combination mystery/adventure story set in the aftermath of WW2, like those written by Graham Greene, Joseph Kanon, and Christopher Reich all wrapped up together. But it lacks the intensity of the latter two, and the writing quality of the first name on that list. I'm about halfway through The Unmourned, the second in the series by Tom and Meg Keneally, and it's excellent -- I keep on wondering how on earth they managed to give such a compelling sense of time and place as well as create intriguing characters and a thumping good plot Go read these Monserrat novels! (they're inexpensive for Kindle, too...)

Finished Shadow Princess by Indu Sundaresan on audio, and realized why it was rather frustrating. A good novel has characters that grow and develop and change over the course of the plot: this one simply has characters who utter dialogue that fits into the plot, as dictated by history. They don't seem to change much; history happens to them. No self knowledge. A lot of major stuff happens offstage, including the murder of a major character that could have been the climax of the book, which is sort of a "oh, by the way, this happened..." Instead of dramatizing it and Jahanara's response to it, the author says, oh this happened during this period of time and then that happened, etc. Which is absurd, as the all the tensions in the relationships between characters kind of lead up to this event. ARGH.

Still haven't started Tombland, but find myself reading The Revolution of Marina M, an equally long novel, by Janet Fitch, set against the Russian Revolution. It has been lurking around here for a while...

233cushlareads
nov 23, 2018, 11:03 pm

Hi Suz - happy Thanksgiving! Sounds like a lovely reading binge. I'm sitting here cranking through Tombland now that I'm 400 pages into it - I read the first 300 pages very choppily but am hoping to make good progress this weekend.

Funny you say that about your UK Kindle. Something similar's happened to mine. I've had Tim's (mine but his email) set to a UK address for about 5 years and hadn't tried buying anything for ages. They seem to have reset it to the international store or something. It just means I won't be buying much... had already been sticking to hard copies from the local bookstores much more this year even before this happened, and the UK Kindle store was much better than the international one. I hope you can sort yours out.

234LizzieD
nov 23, 2018, 11:34 pm

>232 Chatterbox: That's GREAT news in the migraine department. I hope that it gets better and better.
I bought the first Monserrat for my Kindle, so thanks for that BB.
So sorry that Kindle UK has the wild hair. I wish you may find a way of getting around them. Why should they care where you are?
I do hope that Cassie and Sir Ferg are purring to you. My Tully purrs like a good'un, but his sister Hilfy's purr is audible only with a stethoscope.
I hope to join you in reading tomorrow!

235Chatterbox
nov 24, 2018, 1:54 pm

I am agonizing about going to ALA in Seattle in January. Marianne has offered to share her hotel room with me, so all I would have to do is pay the airfare (about $250), but do I risk forking out for that?? Well, and some cat-sitting, but I think my cat-sitter will give me a break on fees. I really want to go; I want to have something to look forward to, most of all. But there is still so painfully little income (still waiting for my first check from Money magazine, for the piece that ran in August...) What should I do??? ARRGH. Seem to be a lot of ARRGHHs in my life lately.

>233 cushlareads: I've decided to save Tombland until I really NEED a good read (which may not be long, the way life is going.) Especially since the dratted UK Kindle is now hors de combat. I can read anything I get on my laptop, at least, but just can't put it on my device. Which is kind of the point of it all. So there may be one or books that I want to get and I can read on my laptop -- books that won't be available here unless I want to pay twice as much plus shipping, and then have to find a place to store the book, or aren't available at all. I can think of a very convoluted, creative and somewhat costly alternative to update my existing content and add any new content, but it would require having a new Kindle sent to a friend in the UK, who would then do all the heavy lifting of getting the content loaded, and then shipping it to me. Add another "ARGH". I strongly suspect that Amazon is cracking down on people like us that a geographic location different than our stated address, and are taking advantage of the fact that publishers don't get their act together and make books readily available everything -- that rights are not automatically global but still region by region. I know with my Canadian kindle, outside the country I can only order five books at a time, then I must contact them and ask for permission to purchase another five books. (it's registered to my mother's address.) But while there are relatively few books that I get there, a handful of Canadian books may become eligible. And I may be able to ask a friend in Canada to simply log into my account and make the purchase there? Which gives me another idea about the end run around my UK account. Sigh.

>234 LizzieD: So yes, the above is why they care where I am. Sir Fergus does have a rumbly purr, which I very much enjoy. But he doesn't cuddle. Cassie cuddles (occasionally), or at least curls up right next to me, but her purr is very tiny and muted. (To compensate, she mews and vocalizes a lot, so we have interesting conversations. At least, I ASSUME they are interesting?)

Am nearly finished the second Monserrat book by Keneally and I THINK I know whodunnit. But it's still excellent. Speaking of Amazon restrictions, I tried to place a pre-order for book #4 via Amazon Australia -- but nope, they won't deliver it to me here in the USA. Are three ARGHHs in one post too many?

Read a modestly amusing little book about matchmaking agency in London that grabbed my eye at the Athenaeum. Emphasis on the word "modestly". (you can see it listed in my November list, above.) Not worth spending money on or going out of your way for. Neither, alas, is the Mitch Landrieu book about pulling down statues of Confederate leaders in New Orleans. I'm only a third of the way in, and tired of a book that is so self-consciously worthy and virtuous that I want to scream. You heard it here first: he will be running for president in 2024. It's just so clearly a book aimed at positioning him and saying all the right things. Gah. (You see, I can say something other than "argh".

OK, back to Monserrat, and the wacky world of Ben Aaronovitch's London, although I think he's kind of lost control of his characters and plot. It used to be that the idea that the demi-monde and spirits and ghosts and suchlike "weird bollocks" were secret; now everyone seems to know. Hmmm. Lazy writer, perhaps, running out of ideas? There are other hints of that. But parts of it are still amusing, and as ever, the narrator does wonders for it.

236libraryperilous
nov 24, 2018, 5:22 pm

Yes, Cornwall is lovely. It's very high on my travel spreadsheet. I really need to read Q's Legacy.

Hope your migraine has lessened.

237Chatterbox
nov 24, 2018, 7:45 pm

Migraine is taunting me.

But I did finish the second book in the Keneally "Monserrat" series, The Unmourned, set in and around Parramatta, where a women's "factory" was based and female convicts confined. Hugh Monserrat must save a female convict unjustly seen as a probable murderess, even as he struggles to find his feet in a society where everyone looks askance at anyone with "convict" in their background. One misstep and his ticket of leave could be revoked and he could be back doing free labor... And there are plenty of people who don't like the fact that an educated man could end up as a convict... Very good.

Also finished the Landrieu book. It didn't really come into its own until he finally got to the bit about the statues, which was fascinating. That should have been the whole book, with flashbacks for context, not a long windup to lead to a single chapter about the removal of the four statues, which was the intriguing part of the tale. Should have been better. And I still think he'll be running for higher office next November, followed by a presidential bid. But part of this book oozed "I'm such a nice white man because I always saw black Americans as real people." He doesn't say it literally in those words, but comes awfully close to it, making me wince. I don't question the fact of it, just that the way he presents this story is "look at the nice thing I did for black people" rather than "let's all ask ourselves about the ways our society still enshrines prejudice and privilege and work with others to change it." Or perhaps that's just me, over-reacting? Sigh, I dunno.

238PaulCranswick
nov 24, 2018, 8:11 pm

I wish I could banish the migraine for you for even just a little while, Suz.

Notwithstanding I hope you'll have a lovely Thanksgiving Weekend.

239LizzieD
nov 24, 2018, 11:32 pm

I'll echo your ARRGHH, which seems well-placed to me. As for Landrieu: oh well.
Take care of yourself and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

240Chatterbox
nov 24, 2018, 11:46 pm

>238 PaulCranswick: Thank you for the good wishes... Sadly instead of it disappearing, the battery in the smoke/fire alarm in the spare bedroom decided to begin the process of dying. We've been through this party before. It has stopped, for now, but it will resume at some point and send shrieking noises through my skull. I have the property manager's mobile phone #, however, so shall be able to share the pain...

>239 LizzieD: Merci beaucoup! Am trying to decide what to move on to read. The Revolution of Marina M is very long and feels like a big climb. Perhaps it WILL be Tombland??

Both cats still (relatively) peacefully sharing the bed. 'Tis a Thanksgiving miracle.

Oh, my father's oldest friend has informed me he now considers me to be the head of the family. Erm, WTF? Does this come with obligations?? I don't remember applying for the job? (My father is in the midst of a continuation of the health crisis that derailed his trip up here at the end of October...)

241Chatterbox
nov 25, 2018, 4:05 pm

I read The Hopkins Manuscript by RC Sheriff last night -- literally didn't stop reading -- and couldn't help wondering why on earth this isn't better known. I don't think it's even in print in the US. His play, Journey's End, is fairly well known, but this witty and poignant apocalyptic novel is NOT -- I literally stumbled over it on Amazon UK and it will probably be one of the last books I read from there -- I had to read it on my laptop because I couldn't get it onto my Kindle, but I didn't mind. I just kept turning pages. It's a variant on Nevil Shute's On the Beach, but written in the late 1930s and there is no nuclear war -- the moon is going to hit the earth. We are told that there was some kind of apocalypse by people who have searched in vain for written legacies from what used to be Britain and have found a road marker and a commemorative plaque from the opening of a swimming baths -- but paper, they note, degenerates in the damp English climate... Then they found "the Hopkins manuscript", which they note disapprovingly, is representative of the narrow self-regarding thought of many Europeans of the era, as best as they can determine. It turns out that Edgar Hopkins was a poultry hobbyist, taking immense pride in Broodie, his hen, as she is on the verge of winning her 50th victory in a local show. He's a little snob, physically above the village where he lives and holding himself aloof from it, too. Only late in the day, weeks before the arrival of the moon, will he finally get to know his nearest neighbor, a lovely old gent and the local squire, along with his niece and nephew, 20 and 17 or thereabouts. He is instantly drawn to them and days before the moon-strike (about which he has known from the first, being a member of the "Lunar Society"), spends a wonderful evening, the best of his life, with them. I won't spoil the suspense, but the plot revolves around things like how people absorb and react to the idea that this might be the end -- really -- and government plans to solve things and the ways they backfire. What happens to Edgar, too -- how hope becomes despair (we know from the outset that he is in his final days, and is despairing -- is as thought-provoking, in its way, as any other piece of post-apocalyptic literature. This is England in the 1930s -- there are no evil men against one whom must arm oneself, nobody is tramping the countryside in tatters. But -- as one character points out -- human nature hasn't changed, and that spells trouble. 4.3 stars, not for its skill in writing, but for Sherriff's ability to create the character of of Edgar Hopkins and so clearly anticipate how people react to a crisis and a post-crisis environment.

242avatiakh
nov 25, 2018, 10:40 pm

>241 Chatterbox: That sounds great. My library has bought only one copy and there are several holds on it, so I've joined the queue.
I'm a amazon australia customer for kindle and I don't think there are as many good deals as the UK or US.

243LizzieD
nov 25, 2018, 10:56 pm

Hmmm. *Hopkins* is available in used hb for $1.99 + shipping. It sounds good, but I just can't order another book right now. Nor would I get to it anytime soon. Hope you are enjoying your evening.

244Chatterbox
nov 26, 2018, 2:25 am

>243 LizzieD: Well, for $1.99, if the shipping isn't too horrible, I'd add it to my list for the next time I can afford to buy. Or try an inter-library loan? I bet that there's a copy out there in some library, somewhere...

>242 avatiakh: I agree with you re good Kindle deals. I think the best I have found are on the UK Kindle site, sadly. the US site's deals seams to be devoted to books I already can read for free for with Kindle Unlimited and/or their own imprints. Very occasionally there will be something remarkable and I'll pounce on it, but not so frequently. I've picked up many of the Ian Rankin mystery books, all of the Brother Cadfael books, all of the Anne Zouroudi mysteries, for anywhere from zero to 1.99 pounds. Few of them have ever been on sale in the US. Plus, they are releasing books for Kindle by favorite authors that I loved in my teens, like Catherine Gaskin, for about 1.99. I've picked up Jung Chang's bio of Cixi for about that price, and books like Hitch 22 by Christopher Hitchens and A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews; The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh.

245libraryperilous
nov 26, 2018, 11:03 am

Sherriff's The Fortnight in September has been on my radar for a few years. It's quite well-reviewed. The Hopkins Manuscript sounds worthy of an add to the TBR list, too.

246Chatterbox
nov 26, 2018, 12:35 pm

>245 libraryperilous: I also have had The Wells of St. Mary's on my Kindle (UK version, sigh) for a while now, and this has prompted me to bump it up the TBR list.

Another book that I dug out (in case my whole Amazon UK archive just evaporates one evening) was Listen to the Nightingale by Rumer Godden. It's one of her lesser-known books, never available when I first started reading them (starting with discovering The Peacock Spring back when I was 14) and not available when Thursday's Children became available. Then Virago decided to release it for their Virago Modern Classic series -- it's definitely a children's book, and apparently a sequel to the better-known title A Candle for St. Jude, which I had heard about but not read (I think I had assumed it was aimed at younger readers? not sure...)

Like Thursday's Children, this deals with a lonely child with a passion for ballet, although in this case, the child's aunt and those around her encourage her talent -- perhaps too much, because it comes at the expense of everything else in her life. I can see why this isn't as well known as some of her best works, like The Greengage Summer but for readers with a passion for ballet, it's a lovely little tale. It's less subtle than Thursday's Children, which follows a family over several years as two of its youngest members, a boy and a girl, move into the rarefied atmosphere of classical ballet training at "Queen's Chase", preparing for professional careers, but here, too, Lottie, the orphaned main character, is destined for a life at Queen's Chase, too, and when the book starts, she is about to participate in a special audition, which she seems likely to win -- a relief to her aunt, who yearns for her to dance, but also can't afford the fees and the cost of shoes, etc. much longer.. But Lottie herself yearns for something more -- affection and warmth, which comes her way unexpectedly from a Cavalier King Charles spaniel whom she "acquires" accidentally, and whose role in her life turns out to be far, far more than simply that of providing affection to his young human. Because it is Prince, the spaniel, as much as her admission to Queen's Chase, that will open doors to new relationships and new ways of viewing the world for Lottie, and for her aunt, and those around her. This truly deserves the descriptor of "heartwarming" -- in a good way. For those who have read Godden's other novels, although the target audience is definitely younger readers -- perhaps originally YA, but these days I would say a reader as young as 8 or 9 would love this book. (Lottie herself is 10) and still tolerate/overlook the slightly old-fashioned tone and characters, and the warmth surrounding the whole "good will triumph" plot, fit with the age of the characters and target readers. This was a delight to discover, as a fan of Godden's best work, who finds some of her lesser known novels a bit hit or miss.

Godden really seems to have three distinct sets of books for three very different age groups: the very young readers, these books for readers who are anywhere from 9/10 up to YA age, depending on their level of sophistication and their interest in the plot, some of which can be adult crossover books (like The Battle of the Villa Fioirita or the wonderful The Greengage Summer, and a handful of which are clearly for adults, like In This House of Brede, Black Narcissus, China Court and A Fugue in Time, the last of which really didn't work for me.

247Chatterbox
nov 26, 2018, 3:40 pm

Just finished a post about all the good cheap US Kindle deals for cyber Monday, when this page decided to close on me. I'm soooo tired of this happening with LT; it happens very frequently when I'm working on lists of books, and is a major headache when I create new threads. Piffle.

So I'll just say -- go check out the sale. The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason is a wonderful novel, worth grabbing. I picked up a novel by Mary Wesley for 99 cents. There are some anthologies from Open Road. If you liked The Handmaid's Tale, there is Vox by Christina Dalcher. I got Tracy Borman's bio of Thomas Cromwell. You can also find discount/sale copies of Love and Ruin by Paula McLain (Hemingway & Gelhorn) and The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish, for $2.99 each, and if there is anyone left who hasn't read Hillbilly Elegy, it's in the sale too.

248katiekrug
nov 26, 2018, 4:03 pm

>247 Chatterbox: - I nabbed 14 from that sale today. I was tempted by the Wesley because it's a favorite and may still grab it later today. FYI, a few of her other novels are only $1.99 - A Dubious Legacy, The Vacillations of Poppy Carew, and Jumping the Queue. I've only readl the last of those but I quite liked it. I have all her novels in paperback and while I am trying to exchange paper copies for Kindle editions when things are on sale, I can't seem to part with my Wesleys...

249benitastrnad
Redigerat: nov 26, 2018, 4:25 pm

I noticed that The Muralist by B. A. Shapiro is on sale for Nooks today for $2.99. Have you read that one? Usually if they are on sale for Nook they are also on sale for Kindle.

250elkiedee
nov 26, 2018, 5:15 pm

Glad that there are some good US Kindle offerings for you at least (though a bit jealous of the Mary Wesleys).

251Chatterbox
nov 26, 2018, 5:52 pm

>248 katiekrug: ARGH do NOT tempt me. I had to ration my picks as it was. I have The Vacillations of Poppy Carew picked up via another Kindle sale.

>249 benitastrnad: I have already read The Muralist and while intriguing, it wasn't good enough that I feel the need to have a copy permanently available to me. Would rather save the $$ to put toward something I really want to read.

>250 elkiedee: The Mary Wesleys are courtesy of Open Road Media, which is one of the handful of publishers to offer really good sale prices for Kindle quite frequently. They also are bringing back OOP titles of authors like Wesley, and when Robert Ryan began writing his Dr. Holmes mysteries set in WW1, they brought back his entire backlist. Some authors they roll out interest me; others leave me completely cold.

I am mourning the loss of my UK Kindle, though. It's the second blow to my book acquisitions this year, after being axed from Amazon Vine. Now I'm trying to figure out how on earth to fund the purchase of a $250 plane ticket to Seattle for ALA in January (I have an offer of free accommodation, and it probably won't be any more pricey to eat there than here), which would help offset some of those losses, but am not sure. It's not impossible that my landlord won't decide to sell the building, leaving me stranded with no place to live or move to, in a far worse situation than I was five years ago (not even with the $$ to pay movers...) Add to the mix my father, who, having decided to move to Mexico and give up free healthcare, now that he NEEDS healthcare, is realizing that his insurance that he told us all would cover everything, doesn't. There are days I want to sit in the middle of my floor and just howl.

252The_Hibernator
nov 27, 2018, 1:38 pm

I didn't know they axed people from Amazon Vine! Do they do that if you get behind in reviews or something? What a shame.

253Chatterbox
nov 27, 2018, 2:25 pm

>252 The_Hibernator: I have no idea why they canned me. I just opened the site one day and there was a message saying something like "at this time, we don't need/want you any more." I e-mailed asking for clarification -- but nope.

254m.belljackson
nov 27, 2018, 5:23 pm

>232 Chatterbox:

Thanks again for Migraine Alerts. I read this to my daughter and she asked for it to be printed out to take to her doctors. Always fun!

255Whisper1
nov 27, 2018, 6:26 pm

>232 Chatterbox: Couldn't agree with you more regarding Fioricet. Even though I've taken heavy-duty painkillers for nine years, I told Will that of all the medications, this is the one I cannot do without.

I'm thing of you are hoping December will be a better month for you.

256Chatterbox
nov 27, 2018, 7:49 pm

>254 m.belljackson: Let me know how you/she fare with this. I'm still angry about this. I will be seeing my own neurologist at the end of next week and will ask this question explicitly of him, once again, and let you know what he says, recounting your daughter's case. I'll pass along what he says, together with his name & credentials, via a PM. While obviously she isn't a patient, unless there are specific medical risk unique to your daughter, the generalities of these medications together should still be relevant.

>255 Whisper1: I agree with you. It seems to combine just enough codeine with other ingredients to make the delivery work. It does still make me groggy sometimes, so I don't like taking it, and when the pain is at its worst, it probably doesn't help all THAT much, but I simply don't want to start taking morphine derivatives or stronger opiates. That said, I'm aware that it is a barbiturate and as such, probably less than ideal to be taking. But if it keeps the pain from breaking through at all -- well that is a Good Thing. And there are damn few Good Things in my world right now, alas.

At least Kat, the property manager, says she isn't aware that the landlord has any plans to sell the house. That is a possibility that has been tormenting me, as I know I would literally end up homeless at this stage.

So tired of trying to drum up work and failing. Now I don't even have the energy and motivation to do it.

Oh well. I'm halfway through reading Tombland, the latest Shardlake mystery. At least I didn't live in THAT England? It's fascinating, and Sansom's depth of knowledge of the era, as always, is astonishing.

257m.belljackson
nov 29, 2018, 12:18 pm

>256 Chatterbox:

Have you read Sick Idiot by Ashley Boynes-Shuck?

Touchstones won't acknowledge it, but it rates 4-5 stars for many!

258Chatterbox
nov 30, 2018, 12:39 pm

>257 m.belljackson: No, I haven't. I'm sure for some readers, that's a great approach, and helpful, to read about others coping with their own chronic conditions. For me, I've always reacted (perhaps absurdly) to memoirs of this kind by feeling as if I'm being told how I "should" be coping better or differently, and that I am somehow failing as a "coper". I'm probably reading too much into it, but...

I finished Tombland yesterday and it was EXCELLENT. Sansom somehow manages to combine the best of both historical fiction and mystery in what some may find is an overly-long, overly ambitious novel, but that I found fascinating and a rich and suspenseful look at a little-known part of the reign of Edward VI, and turns it into a compelling chapter in the personal journey of Matthew Shardlake. Unputdownable.It will be out here in the spring.

Migraine day today. Argh.

259m.belljackson
nov 30, 2018, 1:43 pm

>257 m.belljackson:

You and my daughter had the same initial reaction to the book, notably with the off-putting title;
then she started reading it and could not stop laughing.

260torontoc
nov 30, 2018, 6:56 pm

I am reading Tombland but am just at the beginning and I can't put it down- it is available in Toronto now- I bought it at Indigo.

261LizzieD
nov 30, 2018, 11:42 pm

I. Can't. Wait. for Tombland. I will, of course, but I think it will be one of my few must-buys at new book price. Sansom is so good, and I do love Matthew S.

262ronincats
dec 1, 2018, 1:04 pm

Suz, The Mapmaker's Daughter by Katherine Nouri Hughes is on sale today (ebook $1.99) and it looks interesting. It's historical fiction--do you know anything about it?

Hope the migraine has abated.

263Chatterbox
dec 1, 2018, 3:55 pm

>262 ronincats: It does look like an interesting novel -- or at least an interesting subject. I think it's one I've seen flash by a lot on recommended lists, but none of the HF people I know have mentioned it. I will ping one of them and see if I can get you an answer by end of day?

Migraine has gone and instead I have a probable dental abscess, or at least acute dental pain. I did go yesterday (when it wasn't as bad) and get antibiotics, but they haven't kicked in yet. If they don't, I don't know what I'll do. I didn't get any sleep at ALL last night (thank heavens for an audiobook of an old Maeve Binchy novel -- comfort listening...)

264m.belljackson
Redigerat: dec 1, 2018, 4:50 pm

>263 Chatterbox:

Pliers?

or emergency dentist NOW!

You are not alone in this, having spent hours locating an emergency dentist in the middle of the night on the south side of Chicago -
it was my long-suffering roommate, the kind African American dentist, and me meeting on the dark streets.

Almost as much fun as finding a doctor to dispense pills to treat amoebic dysentery in the middle of Guadalajara.

265Chatterbox
dec 1, 2018, 6:07 pm

Pliers may be an option. I don't have money for an emergency dentist so that is not a possibility. It needs either root canal or removal. The former I simply can't afford -- and I can't stand being yelled at by a dentist who doesn't know me. And yes, they do yell, because (a) since my 30th bday, my teeth -- which used to be very strong, only two or three cavities total, started collapsing on my courtesy of lots of medicine that triggered dry mouth (only now is this a warning sign that dentists know to watch for...) and (b) I have PTSD and it's very difficult for me to have someone's hand over my face and partly cutting off my airway. I end up with severe panic attacks.

>262 ronincats: No word yet from my friend Sarah, who is the ultimate historical fiction guru. (she has edited magazines on this topic.) If you are in doubt, get it -- you can always return it (I think Amazon now gives you a week?

266Chatterbox
dec 1, 2018, 8:16 pm

>252 The_Hibernator: OK, this from my friend who edits the HNR Review (historical fiction).

"The HNR reviewer thought it was a mixed effort - beautiful use of language, but distant characterizations. The less typical setting is a plus."

She hasn't read it.

267m.belljackson
dec 1, 2018, 8:31 pm

>265 Chatterbox:

Dental pain is surprisingly common in hospital Emergency Rooms.

They have to treat people, money or not.

268Chatterbox
Redigerat: dec 2, 2018, 12:43 am

But they don't have dentists at the local ER, and they can and will hit you with massive bills for doing nothing so... I have antibiotics and some painkillers and Orajel.

My last hospital ER bill was for $2,000 for a migraine. They billed me $1,250 for doing NOTHING after I got whacked in the face on Amtrak several years ago at New Haven Station by some idiot getting his suitcase down, and knocked some crowns out/askew. I went to the ER, and they sent me away -- and billed me $1,250. I was incandescent.

269ronincats
dec 1, 2018, 10:57 pm

I'm dealing with the same dental situation, Suzanne. One of the internet solutions worked for me when I woke up crying from pain the other night--peppermint oil on a cotton ball stuck over the tooth. Now I have invested in some orajel as I wait for my appointment to remove the filling and find out which it will be, removal or root canal and crown. But it looks like the first.

Thanks for checking the book out for me!

270Chatterbox
dec 2, 2018, 12:47 am

>269 ronincats: Oh no... I'm so sorry. Viva Orajel. Please, if you pray, pray hard that the antibiotics will kick in. For my part, I will really been hoping that it's a root canal & crown for you. More costly than removal, but if you lose the tooth, it's like one of those geopolitical games of dominos... I had been saving for implants that I was going to get, with help from a friend's dentist husband. Since the Great Guardian Layoff at precisely the same time my friend G was in hospital exactly two years ago, I've been living off those savings, so god knows what will happen. I can't afford a dentist, and I can't face the dismissive and hostile attitudes of many . Too bad my window is on the ground floor -- can't throw myself out and do any damage!! A friend called me this afternoon to discuss a book I had recommended, and caught me in tears, alas. When I confessed why, he gold me about this piece he had just run across, by Susan Smarsh, author of a book that is getting a LOT of buzz: Heartland. Reading the comments, description, reviews, etc., it sounds like a progressive's version of Hillbilly Elegy (i.e. not just about go join the Marines and shape up, but focusing on the systemic causes of the wealth gap.

https://aeon.co/essays/there-is-no-shame-worse-than-poor-teeth-in-a-rich-world

271benitastrnad
Redigerat: dec 4, 2018, 1:29 pm

I have a good start on Pleasantville by Attica Locke and am both listening - when I am in the car - and reading, when in the house. This book was the 2016 Harper Lee Legal Fiction award winner and is the December selection for my book discussion group. I am to lead the discussion and so I am double timing trying to finish it by next Sunday when the group meets. So far her style has remained the same. Very hard hitting, and very gritty. Nothing fancy in her writing so far. But very well done. She is now describing local politics and how it affects a community.

272Chatterbox
dec 7, 2018, 1:12 am

Well, I have lost two teeth in this mess, and have a partial root canal on a third and am still in pain. NOT a good situation. Not a happy camper.

On the good side, just approved for some good NetGalley and Edelweiss e-galleys, which is encouraging.

On the downside, there's no way I'll make my reading targets for 2018, either in # of books or in the specific books I set out for myself to read. Oh well. Still better than 2015 or 2016, I think.

273ffortsa
dec 7, 2018, 5:29 pm

>272 Chatterbox: ouch. I didn't realize you'd lost the teeth. That's tough. I hope this resolves soon.

274Chatterbox
dec 7, 2018, 11:18 pm

I FINALLY finished reading Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul by Jeremiah Moss, which I've had out of the Athenaeum for most of 2018! I bogged down reading it about a third of the way through when I got fed up with the author's repetitive ranting about the kinds of things lost in hyper-gentrification of NYC, but luckily when I got back to it, found more here to like. I don't share Moss's affection for the tawdry peep shows of Times Square with its live sex shows (look, it wasn't my scene, any more than the leather parades or the transexual sex workers in the Meatpacking District, driven out by gentrification.) But the broader themes --especially the incredible manipulation of eminent domain by city hall (under pressure of billionaire developers) -- are timely and important. It's a micro view of what we see happening nationwide. Moss writes of NYC, the newly bland city filled with chain stores and the Disney-fied Times Square, wondering "what surprises are left for us now? What will shake us from our everyday lives, shocking and thrilling us with the unusual, the ambiguous, the fleshy, the loose? In a city so tightly curated and constrained, we are daily deprived of wonders hardly imagined." I witnessed and felt the changes Moss describes -- I arrived in 1994, left in 2013, and lived two blocks from where the Atlantic Yards project was built, one of the big and controversial eminent domain projects -- and the feeling he describes of "being unwelcome in your own town" is one that I had felt too often (along with the financial pressure.) Providence isn't my town, but New York doesn't feel "right" any longer, either. Moss writes eloquently about why he stays in the final paragraph of the book -- but he is younger than I am, and possesses more energy to combat these trends, perhaps. In any event, while the book could have been 100 pages shorter, and while you may find yourself rolling your eyes about the stuff he cherishes/cherished about the city, it's a worthy look at the impact of gentrification. Give it a whirl. 4.3 stars.

275SandDune
dec 8, 2018, 5:33 pm

>272 Chatterbox: Sorry to hear that you are still suffering your tooth problems.

276Whisper1
dec 8, 2018, 11:26 pm

It is an understatement to say that I hope 2019 is a better year for you. Yikes, so many nasty things hitting you consecutively.

277LizzieD
dec 8, 2018, 11:36 pm

>276 Whisper1: Exactly, Linda. Love to you both!

278Chatterbox
dec 10, 2018, 11:45 pm

Thanks my friends...

Have finished another fascinating book about the doomed Franklin expedition in search of the Northwest Passage, which set off from London in 1845, and not a man of whom was ever seen alive after they left Greenland for the Arctic. I'm fascinated by this story, which contains everything -- hubris, exploration, hardship, etc. But Michael Palin's version focuses on one of the ships, HMS Erebus, and its previous voyages, including four tremendous and successful years of Antarctic exploration. Which begs the question: how/why did those go so well and then everything fall apart during the Franklin venture? Was it the different destination and climate? Was it different leadership and men? Was it poor decisions, or other random, unique factors? So many of these are unanswered and unanswerable, but it's fascinating to ponder. Palin doesn't try to venture beyond what IS known, so the section on what happened is the slimmest of all, but it's all the one best discussed in other books, and I was fascinated by the Antarctic explorations, and Franklin's first encounters with Erebus when he was Governor of Van Dieman's Land. Had he not been forced out of that position, what would have happened???

I am finishing the first volume of what are, so far, two books in a trilogy of novels set in 8th/9th century Norway, about Vikings. Since I've run out of Bernard Cornwell's novels set in the same era, The Last Kingdom and its sequels, this is a good alternative, although it's clear that they are written by a woman -- one of the protagonists is female, and there is as much attention here to internal dramas as to shield walls, battles and adventures. This is The Half-Drowned King, and I'll probably move directly on to the ARC of The Sea Queen. Big thanks owed to Benita, who picked up that ARC for me at ALA in New Orleans; without that I probably wouldn't have discovered these books.

Have also started (finally!!) seriously reading Vanity Fair. The first meeting of two monthly discussions of my (overly large) Athenaeum book group to discuss this is Wednesday evening, and I'm reading it so rapidly I should manage to finish the first 36 chapters or so by then. It's great entertainment, and I'll probably move straight on and finish it. Personally, I think it's ridiculous to divide the discussion of a novel in half in this way, but that's just me... Once we finish this, I'll probably opt out of the group. I've no interest in discussing Jane Eyre, and while I might want to re-read Middlemarch, I have the same objection to dividing the discussion into two monthly installments. I had thought that the plan was to read different books, eg Villette. Oh well.

I really should start a new thread, shouldn't I???

279benitastrnad
Redigerat: dec 12, 2018, 9:30 pm

I haven’t started my reading of Half-Drowned King and Sea Queen. i am hoping to get some reading done over my winter break. I just got registered for ALA in Seattle. The Library usually pays my registration and this year they kept us all on tenterhooks about paying the registration. I still have to get a plane ticket and there will be three of us in the hotel room so that should be reasonably priced - but crowded.

280Chatterbox
dec 13, 2018, 11:18 am

>279 benitastrnad: Maybe I can divide my wish list between you and Marianne?? LOL... I can't remember, do you have a Kindle? If so, I can send you some e-mails with links to preapproved ARCs in exchange. I was pleasantly surprised by the first of the Viking novels (which I had to seek out and read before reading the ARC you so kindly sent.) But I recommend... And I'm going to put in the mail the two books that you wanted sent back to you, possibly as soon as tomorrow, or Saturday at the latest. Sorry it has taken so long to get to book #2...

My tooth has flared up again and the dentist is about to phone in a Rx for MORE antibiotics. It's the one on which he did a partial root canal. Meanwhile, no sleep last night and lots of pain.

The good news? I got a Christmas present from a lovely person at Audible.com. I called to return a book (impossible narrator who sounded like a valley girl) and the sales rep was one of the really good ones -- we were chatting about what makes someone a good narrator, and how to find them, etc. And she suddenly tells me that she is going to gift me with three extra credits for audiobooks. Which she did. Which I have in my account, as well as the one for the returned book. And I used one of them last night to get In the Enemy's House, a book I was eyeing yearningly about the Venona decoding program, the results of which were used to catch and convict early Cold War spies. By Howard Blum -- I really liked his first book, about WW1 espionage in the US, though his second was meh. This one is shaping up to be good, and one on which I haven't read a dedicated book before.

281Chatterbox
Redigerat: dec 19, 2018, 2:59 pm

My third effort to put this list together. The page keeps closing on me, as happens whenever I try to put together a list together...

Books Purchased Or Otherwise Permanently Acquired 2018
Part XV

1020. The Lines We Leave Behind by Eliza Graham (Kindle First) 10/24/18
1021. In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History by Mitch Landrieu (Kindle sale, $) 10/24/18 Read
1022. A World on Edge: The End of the Great War and the Dawn of a New Age by Daniel Schönpflug (Kindle, $$) 10/24/18
1023. Proust's Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siecle Paris by Caroline Weber (Audiobook, $$) 10/26/18
1024. The Korean Woman by John Altman (Edelweiss e-galley) 10/26/18
1025. The Facility by Simon Lelic (Kindle, $$) 10/26/18
1026. Vimy: The Battle and the Legend by Tim Cook (Kindle sale, $) 10/28/18
1027. The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis (Kindle, $$) 10/28/18
1028. Where Poppies Blow: The British Soldier, Nature, the Great War by John Lewis-Stempel (UK Kindle, sale, $) 10/28/18
1029. Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age by Stephen Platt (Kindle sale, $) 10/28/18
1030. Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road by Kate Harris (Kindle, sale, $) 10/29/18
1031. Hear our Defeats by Laurent Gaude (Edelweiss e-galley) 10/30/18
1032. I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella (NetGalley) 10/30/18
1033. Mother Country by Irina Reyn (NetGalley) 10/30/18
1034. A People's History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian (NetGalley) 10/30/18
1035. Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel by Matti Friedman (NetGalley) 10/30/18
1036. Cousin Kate by Georgette Heyer (Audiobook loan) 10/30/18
1037. Dawn: Stories by Selahattin Demirtas (NetGalley) 10/31/18
1038. Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao's Revolution by Helen Zia (NetGalley) 10/31/18
1039. Good Riddance by Elinor Lipman (NetGalley) 10/31/18
1040. Lost and Wanted by Nell Freudenberger (NetGalley, from publisher) 10/31/18
1041. The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught In Between by Michael Dobbs (NetGalley, from publisher) 10/31/18
1042. Crossing: A Novel by Patjim Statovici (NetGalley, from publisher) 10/31/18
1043. Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells by Pico Iyer (NetGalley, from publisher) 10/31/18
1044. Tragedy, the Greeks, and Us by Simon Critchley (NetGalley, from publisher) 10/31/18
1045. Revolutionaries: A novel by Joshua Furst (NetGalley, from publisher) 10/31/18
1046. The Other Americans by Laila Lalami (NetGalley, from publisher) 10/31/18
1047. Kaddish.com by Nathan Englander (NetGalley, from publisher) 10/31/18
1048. The Promise of Elsewhere by Brad Leithauser (NetGalley, from publisher) 10/31/18
1049. Horizon by Barry Lopez (NetGalley, from publisher) 10/31/18
1050. Unquiet Women: From the Dusk of the Roman Empire to the Dawn of the Enlightenment by Max Adams (UK Kindle, $$) 10/31/18
1051. In the Shadow of the Enemy by Tania Bayard (NetGalley) 11/1/18
1052. Forgotten Murder by Dolores Gordon-Smith (NetGalley) 11/1/18
1053. Safe Haven by Patricia MacDonald (NetGalley) 11/1/18
1054. Whispers of Betrayal by Michael Dobbs (UK Kindle, $) 11/1/18
1055. Bleak Harbor by Bryan Gruley (Kindle First) 11/1/18
1056. Madam, Will You Talk? by Mary Stewart (Audiobook, $$) 11/1/18
1057. Hard to Love: Essays and Confessions by Briallen Hopper (NetGalley) 11/2/18
1058. Snap by Belinda Bauer (Kindle, sale, $) 11/3/18
1059. Snobs by Julian Fellowes (Kindle, sale, $) 11/3/18
1060. Have a Nice Day by Billy Crystal (Audiobook freebie) 11/3/18
1061. A People's Tragedy by Orlando Figes (Audiobook, $$) 11/3/18
1062. The King's Justice by E.M. Powell (Kindle Unlimited) 11/4/18
1063. The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan (Audiobook, freebie) 11/4/18
1064. Do Not Disturb by Tilly Bagshawe (Audiobook, $$) 11/4/18
1065. Ghost Variations: The Strangest Detective Story In Music by Jessica Duchen (UK Kindle, $) 11/4/18
1066. Fiona by Catherine Gaskin (UK Kindle, $) 11/4/18
1067. The Memory Palace by Christie Dickason (UK Kindle, $) 11/4/18
1068. The Lady Tree by Christie Dickason (UK Kindle, $) 11/4/18
1069. Capital Crimes: A Sister Agnes Omnibus by Alison Joseph (UK Kindle, $) 11/4/18
1070. The Hygge Holiday by Rosie Blake (UK Kindle, $) 11/4/18
1071. Return to the Field by Alexander Fullerton (UK Kindle, $) 11/4/18 Read
1072. In at the Kill by Alexander Fullerton (UK Kindle, $) 11/4/18
1073. Single to Paris by Alexander Fullerton (UK Kindle, $) 11/4/18
1074. Waisted by Randy Susan Meyer (NetGalley) 11/5/18
1075. Breathe by Dominick Donald (UK Kindle, $$) 11/5/18
1076. Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe (NetGalley) 11/5/18
1077. Murder by the Book: The Crime That Shocked Dickens's London by Claire Harman (NetGalley) 11/6/18
1078. What We Did by Christobel Kent (NetGalley) 11/8/18
1079. Out East: Memoir of a Montauk Summer by John Glynn (NetGalley) 11/8/18
1080. Between Silk and Cyanide by Leo Marks (Kindle Sale, $) 11/8/18
1081. The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders by Stuart Kells (Kindle Sale, $) 11/8/18
1082. A Fragile Peace by Teresa Crane (Kindle Sale, $) 11/8/18
1083. The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West by Peter Cozzens (Kindle sale, $) 11/8/18
1084. Night Flight to Paris by David Gilman (Kindle sale, $) 11/8/18
1085. La disparition de Josef Mengele by Olivier Guez (paperback, $$) 11/8/18
1086. Les mots du passé by Jean-Michel Denis (paperback, $$) 11/8/18
1087. The Last Englishmen: Love, War, and the End of Empire by Deborah Baker (Kindle/Audiobook, $$) 11/10/18
1088. The Power Game by Meg Keneally & Tom Keneally (NetGalley) 11/12/18
1089. The Agitator: William Bailey and the First American Uprising against Nazism by Peter Duffy (NetGalley) 11/12/18
1090. The Growing Pains of Jennifer Ebert, Aged 19 Going on 91 by David Barnett (UK Kindle, $) 11/12/18
1091. The Frangipani Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu (Kindle, $$) 11/12/18 Read
1092. The Perfect Alibi by Philip Margolin (NetGalley) 11/12/18
1093. Rites of Peace: The Fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna by Adam Zamoyski (Kindle, $$) 11/12/18
1094. Mr. Brading's Collection by Patricia Wentworth (Kindle sale, $) 11/13/18
1095. Miss Silver Comes to Stay by Patricia Wentworth (Kindle sale $) 11/13/18 Read
1096. The Clock Strikes Twelve by Patricia Wentworth (Kindle sale, $) 11/13/18
1097. The Escape Room by Megan Goldin (NetGalley) 11/13/18
1098. The Salt Path by Raynor Winn (paperback, from publisher) 11/14/18
1099. Agatha Christie Investigates Omnibus by Alison Joseph (UK Kindle sale, $) 11/14/18
1100. The Last by Hanna Jameson (NetGalley) 11/14/18
1101. We Came Here to Forget by Andrea Dunlop (NetGalley) 11/14/18
1102. Thin Blue Lie: The Failure of High-Tech Policing by Matt Stroud (NetGalley) 11/15/18
1103. Night of Camp David by Fletcher Knebel (NetGalley) 11/15/18
1104. Tooth and Nail by Ian Rankin (UK Kindle, sale $) 11/16/18
1105. Strip Jack by Ian Rankin (UK Kindle, sale, $) 11/16/18
1106. Mortal Causes by Ian Rankin (UK Kindle sale, $) 11/16/18
1107. Let it Bleed by Ian Rankin (UK Kindle sale, $) 11/16/18
1108. All the Wrong Places by Joy Fielding (NetGalley) 11/16/18
1109. The Quick and the Dead by Alison Joseph (UK Kindle sale, $) 11/17/18
1110. Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely by Andrew S. Curran (ARC, from publisher) 11/19/18
1111. Sixteen by Auguste Corteau (Edelweiss e-galley) 11/19/18
1112. What Could Possibly Go Wrong by Jodi Taylor (UK Kindle sale, $) 11/20/18
1113. A Second Chance by Jodi Taylor (UK Kindle sale, $) 11/20/18
1114. The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell (NetGalley) 11/20/18
1115. Soul of the Border by Matteo Righetto (NetGalley) 11/20/18
1116. Pride and Avarice by Nicholas Coleridge (Kindle, $$) 11/20/18
1117. The Tango War: The Struggle for the Hearts, Minds and Riches of Latin America During World War II by Mary Jo McConaughey (Kindle, Kindle Credit, $) 11/20/18
1118. Honeysuckle House by Christina Jones (UK Kindle, sale, $) 11/21/18 Read
1119. Stealing the Show by Christina Jones (UK Kindle, sale, $) 11/21/18
1120. The Undone Years by Murray Davies (UK Kindle, $$) 11/21/18
1121. Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts by Jill Abramson (NetGalley) 11/21/18
1122. The Huntress by Kate Quinn (NetGalley) 11/21/18 Read
1123. The Adventuress by Nicholas Coleridge (Kindle, $$) 11/21/18
1124. A Dead Man in Trieste by Michael Pearce (Kindle sale, $) 11/22/18
1125. The Hopkins Manuscript by R.C. Sherriff (UK Kindle, $$) 11/22/18 Read
1126. The Best American Short Stories 2018 (Kindle sale $) 11/23/18
1128. The Best American Essays 2018 (Kindle sale, $) 11/23/18
1129. The Best American Mystery Stories 2018 (Kindle sale, $) 11/23/18
1130. Star-Crossed by Minnie Darke (NetGalley) 11/26/18
1131. The Shortest History of Germany by James Dawes (NetGalley, from publisher) 11/26/18
1132. The Avenue: The Complete Series by R.F. Delderfield (Kindle sale, $) 11/26/18
1133. Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant by Tracy Borman (Kindle sale, $) 11/26/18
1134. A Sensible Life by Mary Wesley (Kindle sale, $) 11/26/18
1135. The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames by Kai Bird (Kindle sale, $) 11/26/18
1136. Trackers by Deon Meyer (Kindle sale, $) 11/26/18
1137. Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny (Audiobook, $$) 11/27/18
1138. The Moon Sister by Lucinda Riley (NetGalley) 11/27/18
1139. Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates (Audiobook, $$) 11/27/18
1140. The Art of the City: Rome, Florence, Venice by Georg Simmel (Edelweiss e-galley) 11/27/18
1141. Alice's Island by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo (NetGalley) 11/28/18
1142. Golden State by Ben Winters (NetGalley) 11/28/18
1143. Homeland by Fernando Aramburu (NetGalley, from publisher) 11/30/18
1144. The Parade by Dave Eggers (NetGalley, from publisher) 11/30/18
1145. Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century by George Packer (NetGalley, from publisher) 11/30/18
1146. The Book of Dreams by Nina George (NetGalley) 11/30/18
1147. Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg (NetGalley) 11/30/18
1148. D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II by Sarah Rose (NetGalley) 11/30/18
1149. Vessel: A Novel by Lisa Nichols (NetGalley) 11/30/18

282LizzieD
dec 15, 2018, 11:42 pm

As always, I favorite your lists and will look at these bit by bit. Thanks, Suz!
I do wish your teeth would submit to treatment. That the dry mouth should bother you so adds insult to injury. I'm sorry.

283Chatterbox
dec 17, 2018, 2:29 pm

The antibiotics (dose #2) seem to be working. Now I have a migraine instead. One has to laugh, really...

So, I've noticed something interesting. A crop of new(ish) mystery writers, focusing on settings that are fairly conventional for historical mysteries, but with a POV that definitely isn't. First of all, I ran across Abir Mukherjee, whose A Necessary Evil is a great introduction to what is now a trilogy (only two available in the US) of novels set in 1920s Calcutta. Then, Sujata Massey (a novelist I was already familiar with thanks to her mostly excellent books about Rei Kimura, a Japanese/American antiques dealer moving between Tokyo and the US in the modern day and getting caught up in mysteries -- not quite American and only half Japanese, so definitely not really Japanese) began writing a new series of novels about a Parsi Indian woman in 1920s Bombay/Mumbai, with the debut title for Soho being The Widows of Malabar Hill. I have an e-galley of book #2, The Satapur Moonstone. Finally, I picked up (inexpensively, for my Kindle), two novels by an Asian-born writer, Ovidia Yu, who has written a few mysteries set in contemporary Singapore, but who turned to historicals, set in the 1930s, with The Frangipani Tree Mystery. The plots are pretty plain vanilla, but the main character isn't: a feisty Straits-born Chinese young woman, crippled by polio with connections to a powerful local family who nonetheless think she's cursed because her parents are dead and she limps because of polio. They'd like to quietly marry her off; she has very different ideas for her life and ends up working for the "ang moh" (white, or actually 'red face') police detective. What all these books share is an outsider's view of colonial rule, while adhering to the conventions to the classical "Christie-esque" mystery, historical version. In Mukherjee's books, while the main character is a Britisher, he's an outsider, partly because his addiction to opium pushes him to interact with the Indian and Chinese communities in different ways -- and partly because he comes of a lower class. Also, there is a strong second character, a local-born policeman, and we end up seeing their shared world through his eyes. In Massey's novels, again, the tale is told via a member of the local society -- but she's not Hindu. She was educated at Oxford, is a trained solicitor, but struggles to define her identity. All of these characters view the world they inhabit critically, rather than accepting it as a "given". The mysteries vary in caliber -- I would say the first book by Mukherjee (I think born in England to Indian parents?) would be my favorite of those I've read; Yu's are weakest in terms of the plots, but entertaining in terms of Su-Lin, the character who narrates them. And I LOVE the fact that it's not just about white Europeans/Americans writing novels set in these regions and looking at the historical context through rose-colored glasses.

284benitastrnad
Redigerat: dec 17, 2018, 6:27 pm

I don’t have a Kindle, but e-mail me the list and I will get what I can off of it. USPS does deliver to Providence.

I finally got registered and got a plane ticket. I waited just a bit to long to get a good flight so now I will be leaving at 5:30 a.m. and arriving in Seattle at 12:30 p.m. I will have more time in Seattle but will be exhasted when I get there. Coming back is a little better as I don’t have to leave Seattle until 9:30 a.m.

My boss is getting pickier about giving permission to go to these. She thinks I am going just to get free books, but so far I have been able to confound them with great reports about relevant presentations and workshops I attend.

285Chatterbox
dec 17, 2018, 11:09 pm

>284 benitastrnad: I actually have a spare basic Kindle, to pass along to you if you are interested? Let me know, in exchange for your generosity scouting freebie ARCs!

286Chatterbox
dec 19, 2018, 12:50 am

In Extremis: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie Colvin by Lindsey Hillsum is a powerful, emotional rollercoaster of a biography of a woman who succeeded triumphantly in emulating her model, Martha Gelhorn, but at a tremendous cost. Hillsum, a British TV journalist, is able to draw on Colvin's diaries as well as the memories of all who knew her, making for what feels like an authoritative biography of a powerful, driven and yet tormented woman, who achieved a tremendous amount and who still succumbed to self doubt, PTSD, alcoholism and other demons. It probably didn't help that for her editors, Colvin's "brand" became her reckless self-endangerment, which first cost her her left eye (covering the Tamil Tigers) and later, her life in Syria. She drove herself, but it's hard to tell how much her eagerness to prove herself was fueled by the demands that she constantly do better and more and risk more and more. Reading this was devastating: Colvin, so powerful and accomplished, was also increasingly fragile in ways I can identify with. (No, I've never been a war correspondent, but know many people who have been.) I remember meeting her when she received a journalism award in NYC in the fall of 2000, just before she lost her eye, and being fascinated by her charisma and intellect, while slightly perturbed by the fact that she was pickled to her gills. Then I remember vividly watching her final TV interview, with CNN -- an interview that, it seems, may have confirmed for the Syrian government precisely where the media center in the Baba Amr district of Homs was, and resulted in her death. There are anecdotes that Hillsum captures here that make me think she truly didn't care, in some ways, whether she died, as long as the story was told. It's a heartbreaking tale of the high personal cost that journalists pay to bring us the news -- while being denigrated as "fake news" and enemies of the people or just the mainstream media, inherently corrupt. It's good to read this and be reminded that people like Marie Colvin, who fought to remind us of the cost of war and its ultimate idiocy by telling us stories that otherwise would have been ignored utterly -- and there's evidence here that her tales altered the course of events -- existed. What is sad is the coda that Hillsum provides, suggesting that since Colvin's death, and the other murders of journalists in Syria, editors have been so wary about sending reporters into dangerous areas that they are leaving coverage to "citizen journalists", whose possible/probable agendas remain unknown to viewers/readers. That's a real loss, too. 5 stars for this bio.

287Chatterbox
Redigerat: dec 29, 2018, 7:14 pm

Sigh, one more page of acquisitions, for the month of December. It will HAVE to be the final one!!

Books Purchased Or Otherwise Permanently Acquired 2018
Part XVI

1150. I've Been Meaning to Tell You: A Letter to My Daughter by David Chariandy (NetGalley) 12/1/18
1151. The Blue by Nancy Bilyeau (Kindle sale, $) 12/3/18 Read
1152. The Girl at the Border by Leslie Archer (Kindle First freebie) 12/3/18
1153. The Chef's Secret by Crystal King (Edelweiss e-galley) 12/3/18
1154. The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse (NetGalley) 12/4/18
1155. Bright Young Dead by Jessica Fellowes (Audiobook, $$) 12/5/18 Read
1156. The Guy Who Died Twice by Lisa Gardner (NetGalley) 12/5/18
1157. Wrecked by Joe Ide (NetGalley) 12/9/9
1158. I Know You Know by Gilly Macmillan (Audiobook sale, $) 12/9/18
1159. Barons of the Sea: And their Race to Build the World's Fastest Clipper Ship by Steven Ujifusa (Audiobook sale, $) 12/9/18
1160. Singing in the Shrouds by Ngaio Marsh (Audiobook sale, $) 12/10/18 Read
1161. Christmas, 1914 by Charles Olivier (Audiobook original freebie) 12/10/18
1162. Diary of a Hounslow Girl by Ambreen Razia (Audiobook original freebie) 12/10/18
1163. China Dream by Ma Jian (Edelweiss e-galley) 12/10/18
1164. The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Rick Atkinson (NetGalley) 12/10/18
1165. Savage Liberty by Eliot Pattison (belated addition, acquired earlier in the year, Audiobook & Amazon Vine ARC, $$) 12/10/18 Read
1166. Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa by Paul Kenyon (UK Kindle sale $) 12/10/18
1167. Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally (UK Kindle sale, $) 12/10/18
1168. Death is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa (NetGalley) 12/11/18
1169. The Woman in the Blue Cloak by Deon Meyer (NetGalley) 12/12/18
1170. Red Birds by Mohammed Hanif (NetGalley) 12/12/18
1171. Deep River by Karl Marlantes (NetGalley) 12/12/18
1172. The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs by Katherine Howe (NetGalley) 12/12/18
1173. In the Enemy's House: The Secret Saga of the FBI Agent and the Code Breaker Who Caught the Russian Spies by Howard Blum (Audiobook freebie, gift from Audible) 12/12/18 Read
1174. The Betel Tree Nut Mystery by Ovidia Yu (Kindle, $$) 12/13/18 Read
1175. Madame Fourcade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler by Lynne Olson (NetGalley) 12/13/18 Read
1176. In Putin's Footsteps: Searching for the Soul of an Empire Across Russia's Eleven Time Zones by Nina Khruscheva (NetGalley) 12/13/18
1177. Defying Hitler: The Germans Who Resisted Nazi Rule by Gordon Thomas (NetGalley) 12/14/18
1178. The Unnamable Present by Roberto Calasso (NetGalley) 12/14/18
1179. The Girl from Kathmandu: Twelve Dead Men and a Woman's Quest for Justice by Cam Simpson (Kindle, $$) 12/14/18
1180. Welcome to Lagos by Chibundu Onuzo (Kindle sale, $) 12/15/18
1181. The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang (Kindle sale, $) 12/15/18
1182. The Parisian by Isabelle Hammad (NetGalley) 12/16/18
1183. Correspondents by Tim Murphy (NetGalley) 12/16/18
1183. The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted by Robert Hillman (NetGalley) 12/18/18
1184. Turbulence by David Szalay (NetGalley) 12/19/18
1185. The Good Detective by John McMahon (NetGalley) 12/19/18
1186. Dear Laura by Jean Stubbs (Kindle sale, $) 12/19/18
1187. Lost You by Haylen Beck (NetGalley) 12/19/18
1188. The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas (NetGalley) 12/20/18
1189. The Winter Sister by Megan Collins (NetGalley) 12/20/18
1190. The Real Wallis Simpson: A New History of the American Divorcée Who Became the Duchess of Windsor by Anna Pasternak (NetGalley) 12/20/18
1191. The Parting Glass by Gina Marie Guadagnino (NetGalley) 12/20/18
1192. The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth (NetGalley) 12/20/18
1193. The Alchemist of Netley Abbey by Cassandra Clark (Kindle Unlimited freebie) 12/20/18
1194. Murder at Meaux by Cassandra Clark (Kindle Unlimited freebie) 12/20/18
1195. Vindolanda by Adrian Goldsworthy (Kindle Unlimited freebie) 12/20/18
1196. The Encircling Sea by Adrian Goldsworthy (Kindle Unlimited freebie) 12/20/18
1197. The Air Raid Killer by Frank Goldammer (Kindle Unlimited freebie) 12/20/18
1198. A Thousand Devils by Frank Goldammer (Kindle Unlimited freebie) 12/20/18
1199. The Girl in the Woods by Camilla Lackberg (UK Kindle sale, $) 12/20/18
1200. Small Island by Andrea Levy (UK Kindle sale, $) 12/20/18
1201. Play to the End by Robert Goddard (Kindle sale, $) 12/21/18
1202. The Town in Bloom by Dodie Smith (Kindle sale, $) 12/21/18
1203. A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the struggle that shaped the Middle East by James Barr (UK Kindle sale, $) 12/23/18
1204. Bring Out the Banners by Geoffrey Trease (Kindle, Xmas Gift Card) 12/23/18
1205. No Known Grave by Maureen Jennings (UK Kindle sale, $) 12/24/18
1206. The Secretary by Renée Knight (Kindle sale, Xmas gift card) 12/25/18
1207. Iron Gold by Pierce Brown (Kindle sale, Xmas gift card) 12/28/18
1208. Mad About the Mekong: Exploration and Empire in South East Asia by John Keay (UK Kindle sale, $) 12/28/18
1209. Legendary by Stephanie Caraval (Kindle sale, Xmas gift card) 12/29/18

288avatiakh
dec 19, 2018, 5:22 pm

>287 Chatterbox: I managed to read The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted by John Hillman a couple of months ago. Not one of my favourites for the year.
The Marie Colvin book sounds very interesting.

289Chatterbox
dec 20, 2018, 12:24 am

>288 avatiakh: That's unfortunate... Still, I won't have to pay real money for it if it's a dud! It has been getting a lot of advance buzz here.

Finished another advance e-galley, The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey. If you liked the early mysteries by Barbara Cleverly (not her later ones, which got a bit weirder), and enjoy Abir Mukherjee's books set in 1920s Calcutta (see my post above), this is set in roughly the same era, but in Mumbai instead, with a Parsi woman as protagonis/POV character. I liked that, even if this adventure is a wee bit improbable. Perveen Mistry visits a princely state and tangles with poisoners and murderers...

290Chatterbox
dec 20, 2018, 12:02 pm

So, I retrieved my old, original UK Kindle device -- and it will still download content from Amazon UK's Kindle site! All is not lost... It's clunkier, as it doesn't have easy to use features for searching or page turns, and a tiny capacity, but hey... if the Voyage doesn't want to work, so be it. I'll survive. There are two books that I won't be able to get any other way than UK Kindle, possibly three (but the third isn't a "must read", so I could survive that... So, rather pleased.

291elkiedee
dec 20, 2018, 4:01 pm

Glad to hear the Marie Colvin bio was good, as it's likely to be next up from my library books, as it's due back on New Year's Eve and in a reservation queue.

292avatiakh
dec 20, 2018, 10:02 pm

>289 Chatterbox: It was the most expensive book I bought when in Australia back in July. I came home with a couple by Jane Harper, one by Trent Dalton and a Lynn Moriarty. There were some really good deals on paperbacks that I couldn't resist. Dalton's Boy swallows universe was worth every penny & more.

293Chatterbox
dec 20, 2018, 10:49 pm

>292 avatiakh: Well, doubly ouch if it was pricey and didn't pay off in terms of reading rewards. I doubt it's a book I would pay for. Had the e-galley not been approved; had someone not been able to find an ARC for me at ALA Midwinter -- then I would have asked the Athenaeum to buy a copy. I suspect they would have done so -- it's the kind of middle-brow novel that does well with some of the readers there.

Generally speaking, I think I have had more excellent reads among my non-fiction book choices this year, although there have been some standout novels as well.

Meanwhile, I now have two Kindle devices working well with my UK account -- just not the Voyage with the large capacity and smooth page turns. Oh well. I can access Kindle UK books again, if I want to and if I have the budget to do so!

294avatiakh
dec 20, 2018, 11:50 pm

Compared to retail book prices in NZ it was relatively cheap. I rarely pay full price, just if I want to support an NZ writer.
I don't think I've had that many great reads this year at all.

Glad to see that you have UK kindle again.

295EBT1002
dec 21, 2018, 7:09 pm

Suzanne, I'm just skimming through. I will add to the supportive sentiments hoping for 2019 to be a better year for you. I'm glad you got some galleys with NetGalley and Edelweiss e-galleys.... And that you have your UK Kindle again.

>283 Chatterbox: I recently read A Rising Man, which I think is the first in the trilogy by Abir Mukherjee and I quite liked it. It's a series to which I want to return.

Hang in there, Suzanne. And Happy Winter Solstice to you!

296The_Hibernator
dec 22, 2018, 1:41 pm

Happy Holidays Suzanne

297SandDune
dec 22, 2018, 4:20 pm



(Or in other words, Happy Christmas, to you and yours!)

298Chatterbox
Redigerat: dec 22, 2018, 4:40 pm

Thanks for the holiday greetings!!

>297 SandDune: The great-granddaughter of Llewellyn Thomas says a hearty diolch!

>283 Chatterbox: Yes, the Abir Mukherjee books are good. Not great, but very good for genre novels. I am hanging in there -- fingertips, sometimes, but... Hey, I still have a roof over my head, and should have until summer, at least. Perhaps longer. We'll see.

299ChelleBearss
dec 24, 2018, 11:35 am

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

300Chatterbox
dec 24, 2018, 2:19 pm

>299 ChelleBearss: Thank you, Chelle, and the same to you and your family, especially the two adorable girls, BOTH of whom are now old enough to really appreciate the season and make it infinitely more fun for you as well!!

301Chatterbox
dec 24, 2018, 2:21 pm

Alas -- it is snowing and I have a weather migraine. Trying to banish it in time for Xmas. Meanwhile, my reading has slowweeed dowwwwn.... Oh well. I clearly won't make my target. But then, targets are arbitrary thingamajigs anyway.

Off to curl up with icepacks. Sir Fergus the Fat is sulking because while I was out buying urgent grocery items, he found and devoured the ENTIRE stack of Greenie treats. Now he wonders why there aren't any more....

Book notes (a few of 'em) to come when I'm feeling human again.

302paulstalder
dec 24, 2018, 4:36 pm



the light is born (a nativity scene from Riehen)
Wish you a happy Christmas time

I just finished 84, Charing Cross Road and saw that you listened to it last month.

303EllaTim
dec 24, 2018, 6:41 pm

Wishing you a happy and restful Christmas!

304Chatterbox
dec 24, 2018, 10:33 pm

>302 paulstalder: What a beautiful, stunning image, Paul -- thanks so much for sharing it. I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas with your girls, and find a way to look forward to a new year that I hope will be easier for you than 2019 has been. Yes, I listened to "84 Charing Cross Road" -- it was fun, but the real delight was discovering it for the first time when I was 16 and on holiday in Majorca. I was commenting just a day or two ago to a friend that there are some books that hit you so forcibly, you will always remember where you where, and when it was, that you first read them -- and this was one. It was a school trip from Brussels, and everyone else had gone off on an expedition. I opted to go down to the sea and read -- and was so caught up in this book when I read it that I ended up with sunburn. I owe my love of Hazlitt, the essayist, to these letters.

>303 EllaTim: And to you!! My landlord put swags of holly and pine boughs on our front doors that look like this decoration a bit (only considerably larger!) and I smile whenever I see them. I have a can of pine-scented airspray that is wonderfully evocative and really good quality (it's "Frasier Fir" by Thymes) which I save for this time of year since if I had a real tree in the house, the cats would destroy it. But I love the scent of real trees -- walking past tree stands in New York, I always wanted to bottle the scent. There's a good reason whoever it was chose this time of year for Christmas, and bless whoever it was (Prince Albert?) for the tradition of bringing whatever is still green and wonderfully smelling indoors.

A very merry Christmas to all of you who are celebrating, and a joyous holiday to all.

305LizzieD
dec 24, 2018, 11:45 pm

Merry Christmas, Suzanne! I hope it is and that it leads to a better year for you.
Ah - the scent of the tree! My DH broke down and brought in a little one for us yesterday. We keep our trees out near a side door and enjoy the scent into July in a typical year. Our gift $ for Christmas and birthdays and vacations and heaven knows what else has gone into Elle, who has a mouth cancer, and Hilfy, who had a UTI that finally cleared up after 2 antibiotic shots. Elle is in hospice care here, receiving painkillers and feeling better than she has in months. It's lovely to see her eating and purring and playing for as long as that lasts.

306PaulCranswick
dec 25, 2018, 2:40 am



Happy holidays, Suz.

See you are close to beating my personal best of 1,215 book purchases in a calendar year. Mine were all paper books though.

307cushlareads
dec 25, 2018, 12:15 pm

Hi Suz - I hope your migraine is easing a bit. Just wanted to say hello and I hope you have a merry Christmas. All over here - we are onto Boxing Day already!

308Chatterbox
dec 25, 2018, 1:15 pm

>305 LizzieD: Oh no, not the dreaded mouth cancer.... I'm glad you have it at bay and there is purring and eating for the time being, however. May it last a very long time, and that is indeed a very good use of any holiday $$. The best, IMHO. Because it means you get the purrs over the holidays...

>306 PaulCranswick: Hi, Paul! Happy holidays to you as well -- I hope you are enjoying the time with family! At some point I'll have to figure out how many of this year's acquisitions were actually PURCHASES, but I think it's somewhere around 15% to 20%, with most of those being at sale prices (under $4 or under 3 pounds), so I'm doing pretty well. 80% of my acquisitions were free to me, and of the remainder, the bulk I only paid a sale price for? Heck, I'll take that... Next year, the number will plunge, as there will be no Vine ARCs, and I won't have the $$ to go to Seattle for ALA Midwinter. I do have a place to stay, but without the airfare *shrug* that is academic.

>307 cushlareads: Alas, while the migraine is not as bad as yesterday, it is still here, so I have had to cancel plans to have Xmas dinner with friends. Noise would kill me dead, I fear. Movement isn't good. C'est la vie. They understand. So I will curl up here and spend (more) quality time with cats.

309Chatterbox
dec 28, 2018, 12:25 pm

Dental pain back again... Luckily I have antibiotics.

I had the most ridiculously absurd 36 hour trip to NYC (had to run some errands for a friend, pick up a small check for myself, hurrah, so I can pay rent.) The trip there, usually slightly under 4 hours, took 8 HOURS. The first bus caught fire (the engine) but the driver kept saying "I don't smell smoke" and refusing to pull over. We eventually did, but then we were further away; took 45 mins for the replacement bus to reach us. Then, when I suggested he count heads before we pulled away in the new bus, he flipped his hand at me -- and two people almost got left behind (they had been using washrooms in nearby urgent care center.) He then took very, very long route, full of traffic (the logical route was showing green and orange for traffic), which took us across Westchester, crossing the Hudson River twice (unnecessarily), with hour-long lineups at both the bridge and tunnel we used. We staggered off at the other end at 7:30 p.m. instead of 2:45 p.m.

Last night's trip back was only 5 hours long. We were an hour late loading the bus and 90 mins late leaving; they had overbooked the bus (how does one DO that?) so about 30 people were left just standing there with no new bus until the morning.

Peter Pan Bus, for those who care.

I'm reading, but slowly. Today, I'm curled up in bed with cats.

310m.belljackson
dec 28, 2018, 12:39 pm

>309 Chatterbox:

Hope you find a dentist today since otherwise nothing is open until next Wednesday!

Hope also that you are finding comfort going into this New Year without your beloved Molly.
It's a hard time for people who just want the Love back from our dogs and cats.

Thank you again for ALL your LT hard work in 2018 - your site is so strong and welcoming.

311Chatterbox
Redigerat: dec 28, 2018, 4:00 pm

Well, I have antibiotics. The dentist I see is in Westchester. And even if he were around and had time to see me, there is no way on God's green earth that I am going to do ANOTHER of those hellish trips on I-95, in holiday traffic, to NYC, and then get on a train north to Westchester, and then reverse it all after dental surgery. Plus, I actually have work to do.

Thank you for your kind words. I sometimes feel that all I do is whinge and grumble! There certainly has been far too little book-related content this year...

So I will throw out the fact that I finished book #2 in a proposed trilogy -- The Sea Queen by Linnea Hartsuyker. All about Vikings, well, about the Norse in Norway in the 8th or 9th century. I got the ARC courtesy of Benita, from ALA in June, which made me go and read book #1, which I really enjoyed. Would never have discovered these otherwise!

312LizzieD
dec 28, 2018, 10:48 pm

The NYC trek sounds like a nightmare to me. I do wish that your antibiotics may kick in with strength and clear up the problem SOON. Meanwhile, hooray for both a check and work!
I find that I have both Hartsuyker books on my wish list. That's thanks to you.
Since I may not get back, I wish you a better 2019 than this year has been. Tully, son of Elle, sends purrs and "Myak"s to you and Cassie and SFtheF.

313Chatterbox
dec 28, 2018, 11:46 pm

>312 LizzieD: Just typed out a reply and LT did one of its odd quirky little jumps and annihilated it. Sir Fergus the Fat would send purrs, I'm sure, except that he is confining those purrs to pleas for treats. Sigh. Cassie has just trotted back into the room, in quest of same. Not purring. Very suspicious that Sir F. might get preferential treatment. Oy vey.

I'm reading/listening to lightweight stuff. Trying to ignore reality until antibiotics kick in. Have horrid feeling that isn't going to happen.

314Familyhistorian
dec 30, 2018, 12:30 am

>278 Chatterbox: I really liked The Half-Drowned King and The Sea Queen. It was refreshing to see a strong female protagonist in Viking times. I also enjoyed The Way of All Flesh and can't wait to get to the sequel.

I hope you are feeling better soon, Suzanne.

315vivians
dec 30, 2018, 1:33 pm

Ugh, pain again. SO sorry to hear and hoping it resolves soon.

316Chatterbox
dec 30, 2018, 2:20 pm

>315 vivians: The antibiotic refill has helped a bit and it's now sore rather than painful, thank heavens. Same place on jaw, though. ARGHHHH. I did text Gary.

Still reading nonsense stuff. Except for Transcription by Kate Atkinson, which is haunting and eerie, but also rather oblique and indirect, and slightly frustrating in spots. Very good, but not a favorite for the year.

317thornton37814
dec 31, 2018, 10:57 am

318brodiew2
Redigerat: dec 31, 2018, 3:02 pm

319ChelleBearss
dec 31, 2018, 3:11 pm

Sorry to see your bus trips were so terrible! I would have been pretty mad!

320benitastrnad
jan 1, 2019, 7:39 pm

I am currently in a Starbucks in Nashville on my way back to Interenet access. Even the doggone phone wouldn't work properly in Munden. I have to work in the morning and it is going to be midnight before I get back to my little house. At least there won't be students.

321Chatterbox
jan 1, 2019, 11:20 pm

Happy New Year to all!! I have shifted my base of operations to:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/301432#6681716