September AlphaKIT - V and E

Welcome to the 2023 AlphaKIT.
This is an unofficial challenge for the 2023 Category Challenge Group. Each month has two letters selected for you to use however you choose.

There are no rules. Just have fun and enjoy reading. September letters are: V and E

and

Please remember to update the wiki with your reading:
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2023_AlphKIT#September:_-_Letters:_V_and...

I am thinking of reading Remarkable Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt and The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens.

Will have to see how many I can get read!

✔Body on Baker Street by Vicki Delaney
Cat of the Baskervilles by Vicki Delaney
✔Cryptic Clue by Victoria Gilbert
✔Elementary, She Read by Vicki Delaney
FDR by Jean Edward Smith
Modiste Mishap by Erica Ridley
Murder Checks Out by Victoria Gilbert
Murder in a Cup by Lauren Elliott
✔Murder's No Votive Confidence
Rake Mistake by Erica Ridley
Scandal in Scarlet by Vicki Delaney
✔Verity

V: Planning: Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan and/or The Fig Tree by Goran Vojnovic

E: The Trust by M. H. Eccleston

Currently planning on Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman and The Shadow Docket by Stephen Vladeck.

I plan to read The Valentine Visitor by Emily Thomas for a "CAT trick."

I am planning on The Virgin Suicides and Earth's The Right Place For Love.

My "V" book will either be The Art of Baking Blind by Sarah Vaughn or Seeking Whom He May Devour by Fred Vargas and my "E" book is probably going to be The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich.

I am considering "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" by Mary Wollstonecraft and The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

I'm planning to read Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann as my 'V' read. I'm a bit more up in the air for 'E', but loosely settling on Elephant Destiny: Biography of an Endangered Species in Africa.

Starting "Vita Brevis" by Jostein Gaarder

Read Remarkable Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt.

I read Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I for an E.

And also The Broken Vow for a V!

I finished Guiltless by Vivica Sten.

COMPLETED Vita Brevis by Jostein Gaarder

Currently reading "Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction by Damian Keown

V & E : The Villa in Italy by Elizabeth Edmondson

First September read is an "E"!

The Red Shoes by Eleri Glass, a Book Bullet from Whisper1.

COMPLETED Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction by Damien Keown

Starting The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

I just read Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper, which works for both letters. A fun, tongue-in-cheek read for British mystery lovers!

I have read Down Among the Dead Men by Geraldine Evans.

E: Ms. Demeanor, Elinor Lipman.

For V I just finished The Vicious Vet by M.C. Beaton an early book in the Agatha Raisin series. I have found the older ones to be more fun. Agatha's cats have a small part in this one.

Just read The Duke's Wicked Wife by Elizabeth Bright, an enjoyable Regency romance.

COMPLETED The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

Crows: Genius Birds / Kyla Vanderklugt
4 stars

This is a graphic novel aimed at kids, this one with a focus on crows. Crows (along with other corvids) are extremely smart. They are also very social creatures. The “story” in this graphic novel has a crow breaking a dog out of his yard. As the crow tells the dog all about crows, the dog helps the crow get to food in the green bins along the street.

This is so well done and I think anyone can learn from these. There are things crows do that remind me of humans. And that is commented on in the book. One thing I didn’t know that crows are very good imitators (with sounds!). It’s part of a series called “Science Comics” and it is so good. This is the 2nd book I’ve read in the series (and I plan to read more) and they’ve both been very good and I have learned things! The illustrations are also very well done, including images of a couple of things in their actual size.

For E I read The Engine House: A Black Beacons Murder Mystery by Rhys Dylan
Set in Wales, Dylan's novel provides a dark twist on the murder mystery. A landslip reveals the remains of a couple who went missing eight years previously. Ex-DCO Warlow is brought back from retirement to take up the investigation again, offering him a second chance to solve the crime. My interest was captured at the beginning and although the story flagged somewhat it regained my attention by the end. This is the first book in a series that interests me enough to keep an eye out for the second.

E : Engaging the Enemy by Nora Roberts

V: The Shadow Docket by Stephen Vladeck.

October thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/353604

I have completed my read of Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt .

Currently reading Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie in preparation for seeing the film version "A Haunting in Venice" on Saturday.

I've finished Seeking Whom He May Devour by Fred Vargas.

Another E book, Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie. I like this one and have reread it several times. Set in ancient Egypt!

Starting Death Before Bedtime by Edgar Box aka Gore Vidal

I hit both letters with Elementary She Read by Vicki Delany.

Delany writes the Molly Smith mystery series that I enjoy, set in Nelson, a town near where I live. However, I was unfamiliar with this series or I might have tried them sooner. The setting is a bookshop and emporium at 222 Baker Street, West London, Cape Cod run by English expat Gemma Doyle (no relation) who is as smart and introverted as Sherlock himself. I borrowed this one as a trial and am glad to report that I enjoyed it a lot even though I've never been a particular fan of Holmes. There were plenty of Sherlockian references and humour and a hint of possible romance. I look forward to reading more.

COMPLETED Death Before Bedtime by Edgar Box aka Gore Vidal.

Currently reading the same author's Death Likes it Hot

COMPLETED Death Likes It Hot by Edgar Box aka Gore Vidal

Finished Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann last night--full review written!

The Stranger Diaries / Elly Griffiths
4 stars

Clare is a high school English teacher and has a teenage daughter, Georgie. Clare works at a school where a short story writer used to live. Clare is quite obsessed with this writer, R.M. Holland, and his gothic short story, “The Stranger”. When Clare’s best friend, and fellow English teacher, Ella, is murdered, there are parallels to “The Stranger”, including a note left behind with a quote from the story. Things become even stranger when someone starts writing more quotes in Clare’s diary!

I quite liked this. It was slow moving (as gothic stories tend to be), and I considered rating it just a bit lower, but the end definitely caught me by surprise! The book was from multiple different points of view: Clare’s, Georgie’s, and Harbinder Kaur, the main detective on the case. I was least interested in Harbinder’s POV; unfortunately, that’s where the series will continue, but I’ll give the next one a try, anyway. I’m not a big fan of “stories within a story”, though, so I tended to skim over the excerpts of “The Stranger”. I paid a bit closer attention at the end of the book when it was written out in full, however.

Finished An Exorcism of Angels by Stephanie M. Wytovich (a poetry collection) for my 'E' book. I'm not sure it was as even as I'd have liked, but I enjoyed it enough to seek out more of her work. Full review written.

I finished The Lady Vanishes by Ethel Lina White, for both the V and the E.

Another V: Starter Villain by John Scalzi.

I should be able to finish The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich before the day ends.

Surprised at how many E-books (and two of them were actually ebooks) I read this month!

V
Volkswagen Blues, by Jacques Poulin, translated by Sheila Fischman

E
Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor, Vol. 1: After Life, by Al Ewing
Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor, Vol. 2: Serve You, by Al Ewing
A Man and His Cat, Vol. 5, by Umi Sakurai, translated by Taylor Engel

Read The Virgin Suicides for V

V & E reading this month:

V
Tales from a Village School, Miss Read (1994)

E
Behind the Scenes, or Thirty Years a Slave, Elizabeth Keckley (1868)
Excellent Women, Barbara Pym (1952)

Forgot to post: The Ride of Her Life by ElizabethLetts.

Forgot to post: The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts

I read The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths. It was one of my favourite books of this series so far.