A Work in Progress

Adventures in Basketmaking, Take Two!

Earlier in the summer I took my first basketweaving class and loved it so much I signed up for a couple more.  About a week ago I took a Friday off to learn more basketweaving skills and spent a great afternoon in a newish Makerhood part of Omaha making an Autumn basket.  This is the starting point.

What I love about these classes is you can literally make and take--the supplies are ready and the teacher walks us through the steps.  This basket was less labor intensive than the first, slightly smaller and no handle which meant constructing this one went very smoothly.  

Last time my basket had a more rounded feel to it as I was still learning and had not quite figured out how to square my edges very well, bu this one was easier to form into a nice square shape.

We used variegated, dyed reeds for some of the weavers and spokes (the horizontal and perpendicular reeds) to add a little color.  This side has more green and the red is red darkens into purple.

The other side is lighter green, browns and more reds.  I plan on tea staining it, and I have my box of tea bags (the "recipe I found calls for 50 tea bags!), but I need some pure ammonia that is used for the fixative.  I have not been able to find ammonia yet in any of the stores I have been to, so I will have to broaden my search.  I also have a few little embellishments that will attach to the basket with a wire, but if I like the tea stain look, I might just leave them off.  I am not sure what I will use the basket for yet--maybe to keep some of my favorite postcards?

I have since, taken yet another class, but it has a very distinct Halloween theme and a totally different style, so I think I will share it when October rolls around!  I plan on taking more basketweaving classes and if I can manage it, I hope to squeeze one more in yet this year!  Wouldn't it be nice to have a studio space to keep all sorts of crafting supplies and projects at the ready.  I tend to not want to pull out all my things at home as the setting up of work takes almost as much time as I might spend on the actual "doing".  In any case a little creative release is always welcome.  

Rule Britannia by Alec Marsh

What do you get when you mix one part Harrison Ford's charisma (think Raiders of the Lost Ark) and one part John Hannah's humor (think The Mummy), add a dash of the suspense and intrigue á la Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes?  You get a rollicking romp of a story in Alec Marsh's debut Drabble and Harris thriller, Rule Britannia.  The story is a whirlwind of action and adventure from the outset to the very end of this mystery that unravels with an ever quickening pace.  There is a little something for everyone including a touch of romance, alchemical machinations and a lengthy and charged chase cross country (by way of a sporty Alvis motorcar).  What's not to love?

As I was reading the story I was seeing it all play out as one of those old B&W Saturday matinee movies where you just let yourself go and allow the excitement to wash over you.  This is a story that has at its center, very curiously indeed, a head.  A head that at one time belonged to Oliver Cromwell, which has resurfaced and will cause more than a few people a few problems and a few more rather serious injuries.  It isn't just what the head stands for that has both the British government, in particular Winston Churchill, as well as the pro-Fascist faction clamoring for possession of it.  There is a mystery and aura that surrounds the head--can the secrets of that famed brow confer on to others riches and power?    

Enter Ernest Drabble.  Scholar and historian and formerly a mountain climber of some renown, Ernest unwittingly sets off on a simple task of retrieving the head for purely academic purposes, but finds himself getting involved in murderous intrigue.   Harris, his best friend, offers some comic relief all the while being manhandled, mangled, bashed and generally the object all sorts of other ignominious physical indignities by way of being the man closest to Drabble.  Drabble's enemies prod Harris for information, and for his efforts he'll receive a knighthood, but it is an at times cringeworthy way to get it.  Poor Harris, I could only feel, while Drabble got a few tender moments with the lovely Miss Honeyand as well as a few bruises and wounds of his own.

It begins on a train journey to the home of Professor Wilkinson who has the coveted head.  Drabble sets off on his task a cheerful fellow but barely a few hours into his journey he is attacked.  What do you do when you become entangled in an assault that results in the death of a man?  If you are Ernest Drabble you might have to push him out a window.  He is soon to learn that it isn't just the police that are looking for him.  He's met with a murdered Wilkinson and a rifle aimed straight at him when he arrives at his destination.  Miss Kate Honeyand is a force to be reckoned with until she realizes they are on the same side.  It's nonstop from there once a group of nefarious Fascists set their sites on the head and anyone who stands in their way of it.

Some stories work best when a dose of willing suspension of disbelief is applied, and I admit this is one that will be enjoyed all the more when approached as a charming, if deadly, entertainment.  Drabble and Harris are entirely likable fellows who get mixed up in suspenseful situations.  I only wonder how their next adventure can possibly top this one?  

Many thanks to the folks at Midas Public Relations and Accent Press for sending this book my way and introducing me to the two newest heroes in the sleuthing and adventure game.  What will they get mixed up in next?

New Books on the Near (and far) Horizon

There is a new crop of books springing up again--it is the new books season!  Fall always seems particularly promising when it comes to forthcoming new books.  I am continually aware that I will never be able to read all the books I want to, but that never slows down my desire to look, borrow and try and squeeze in as many books as I can.  

Here is a sampling of what I have been taking note of:

When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father's War and What Remains, Ariana Neumann -- "In this remarkably moving memoir Ariana Neumann dives into the secrets of her father’s past: years spent hiding in plain sight in war-torn Berlin, the annihilation of dozens of family members in the Holocaust, and the courageous choice to build anew."

The Light After the War, Anital Abriel -- Yes, I know--so many WWII books these days and I tend to pass them by, but this one sounds more unique.  "Inspired by an incredible true story of two Jewish friends who survived the Holocaust, this sweeping novel of love and friendship spans World War II from Budapest to Austria and the postwar years from Naples to Caracas."

My Dark Vanessa, Kate Elizabeth Rusell -- "Exploring the psychological dynamics of the relationship between a precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and manipulative teacher, a brilliant, all-consuming read that marks the explosive debut of an extraordinary new writer."

A Long Petal of the Sea, Isabel Allende -- It has been ages since I have read an Allende novel.  There was a time when I read everything she published.  This one sounds good!  "n the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires." 

Fabulous: Stories, Lucy Hughes-Hallett -- I am in need of a good short story collection and this looks very promising!  "Set in modern Britain, the startlingly original stories in Fabulous draw from Greco-Roman myth, bible stories, and folklore. The biblical stories of Mary Magdalene and Joseph are retold with a sex worker and an immigrant, Orpheus is reimagined through the eyes of an elderly musician battling dementia and grieving the death of his wife, and Cupid and Psyche gain new relevance in the tale of a young librarian so decorous her parents worry she’ll never find love."

A Bookshop in Berlin, Francoise Frenkel, Patrick Modiano -- "In 1921, Françoise Frenkel—a Jewish woman from Poland—fulfills a lifelong dream. She opens Berlin’s first French-language bookshop, La Maison du Livre, attracting artists, diplomats, celebrities, and poets. The shop soon becomes a haven for intellectual exchange as Nazi ideology begins to poison the culturally rich city. But as the occupation intensifies and politics darken, Frenkel’s bookshop is frequently visited by police officers who confiscate her beloved books."

The German House, Annette Hess, Elisabeth Lauffer -- "Set against the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials of 1963, Annette Hess’s international bestseller is a harrowing yet ultimately uplifting coming-of-age story about a young female translator—caught between societal and familial expectations and her unique ability to speak truth to power—as she fights to expose the dark truths of her nation’s past."

Snow, Giles Whittell -- "Go on an extraordinary journey across centuries and continents to experience the wonders of snow; from the prehistoric humans that trekked and even skied across it tens of thousands of years ago to the multi-billion-dollar industry behind our moving, making, and playing with snow. Blending accessible writing with fascinating science, Giles Whittell explores how snow dictates where we live, provides us with drinking water, and has influenced countless works of art and more."

Three Hours in Paris, Cara Black -- "Kate Rees, a young American markswoman, has been recruited by British intelligence to drop into Paris with a dangerous assignment: assassinate the Führer. Wrecked by grief after a Luftwaffe bombing killed her husband and infant daughter, she is armed with a rifle, a vendetta, and a fierce resolve. But other than rushed and rudimentary instruction, she has no formal spy training. Thrust into the red-hot center of the war, a country girl from rural Oregon finds herself holding the fate of the world in her hands. When Kate misses her mark and the plan unravels, Kate is on the run for her life—all the time wrestling with the suspicion that the whole operation was a set-up.

The Glass Hotel, Emily St. John Mandel -- I'm not sure this is for me, but then I thought the same thing about her last book and loved it, so I am sure I will give this a try as well!  "From the award-winning author of Station Eleven, a captivating novel of money, beauty, white-collar crime, ghosts, and moral compromise in which a woman disappears from a container ship off the coast of Mauritania and a massive Ponzi scheme implodes in New York, dragging countless fortunes with it."

Jut throwing a few books your way.  Is there something you are really looking forward to checking out this fall/winter?

September 17: Reading Notes

Last weekend was a local Lit Fest--it was a most welcome event since author visits tend to be few and far between here.  The last Litfest was years ago, so I've been looking forward to this one for months.  The theme was "Give a Damn: The Difference Literature Makes" and while the festival was fairly small, there was a nice variety of authors with novels and nonfiction writers in the morning and poetry in the afternoon.  I wasn't able to stay for the whole event unfortunately but I was happy to listen to the conversations, readings and Q&As.  Both local and national authors were on hand and as much as I wish I could have bought everyone's books, I managed to restrain myself and took away just two of the most recently published books as well as a couple of copies of a regional literary magazine I had not previously come across.

There were two panel discussions, the first was facilitated by Ilana Masad who has a book coming out in the coming year.  Authors Carson Vaughan, Andrea Wilson (she is an editor now) and Sarah Elgatian spoke about their work, about what influenced their writing and the process they went through in writing and publishing.  I finally got my hands on Carson Vaughan's Zoo Nebraska, which my library bought early on but then went into circulation and hasn't been on the shelf long enough for me to grab it and which has gotten a lot of good reviews.  Now I have my own signed copy.  I believe the book started as a thesis project, which in the end took something like a decade to research and write.  The inspiration for his writing came from a small news event that was covered nationally but only a small mention in the big papers--four chimpanzees escaped a small town roadside menagerie that resulted in three of the animals being killed.  It's the story behind the story that Vaughan undertakes in this book.

The second panel was a discussion between Jennie Melamed and Kassandra Montag facilitated by Lydia Kang, a local YA novelist who has a number of books on her backlist and another coming next year.  Jennie Melamed is an author from Washington and whose book has received a string of awards.  My library has a copy and it would be fun now to read it in tandem with Kassandra's just published, After the Flood which is a dystopian novel set in the near future and in a now flooded Nebraska.  Both books sound somewhat eerie, though appealing with more feminine slants to them.  Lithub published an article last week about the myths that have inspired Kassandra Montag's novel.

Rounding out the weekend was Hamilton, which I have been literally waiting years to see.  I bought my ticket well over a year ago!  And poof, in just a weekend it is over.  I loved it and want to see it again.  Is it a surprise that now I want to read about Hamilton and his wife and that period in general?

Weekend Ho: Reading and Other Notes

This is going to be a busy weekend for me.  I have a ticket to see Hamilton on Sunday.  This is actually part of last year's Broadway season's offerings (they tacked it on, I think to sell more season tickets), so I have been waiting for what seems like forever and finally the performance is almost here.  I had wanted to read something about the Hamiltons, but maybe I will (likely actually) be inspired to pick up a book after the fact.  I really should read more about early America--maybe that will be my next reading project!

Tomorrow is a local Lit Fest.  It has been several years since a literary festival was organized so I am excited there is a day of readings and literary conversations.  The lineup of authors looks really interesting with lots of local writers and some national writers thrown in the mix.  I am hoping not to succumb too much to temptation and buy a stack of books, though I am very interesting in a new released and first book by Kassandra Montag, After the Flood.  I was hoping the copy my library ordered would have arrived by now, but it is apparently still en route.  Her novel has been generating a lot of discussion and press, so I can't wait to hear her speak.  I fear I am going to listen to wonderful author talks and then want to read all their books.  In any case, it will be a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  

And just a few bits and bobs and other good things for the weekend--shorter things I want to catch up on reading and listening to:

I really need to read Lolita and am planning on getting a copy of Sarah Weinman's The Real Lolita now that it is in paperback.  I plan on listening to this interview in anticipation.

I don't tend to spend a whole lot of time online, and when I do it is not primarily social media, so that is s world out there that I am unacquainted with and maybe it is okay to stay that way.  However, every so often I will read something or be in a class and will get a peek at that other world and am always amazed who big that virtual world is.  I am a little fascinated by how people became famous and maybe even wealthy and becoming trendsetters via these platforms (like YouTube and Instagram)!  So this article caught my eye.

Hooray--the rise of spy novels about and by women.  Hear hear, it is time indeed.  I have read two of the books and own one of the others and now may have to add the rest to my wishlist.

I like to listen to music or podcasts as I am preparing my dinner or making my lunch for the next day, so this conversation about women and true crime is going into my listening queue.  The nice thing about podcasts like these is the one-off commitment.  I don't need to keep track and return to the series later.

I admire Jhumpa Lahiri who has not only learned to speak Italian (I think she lives there now or maybe spends part of her year there?) but also writes in the language and has translated books from Italian into English.  I read about her experience learning Italian, In Other Words, last year or so.  She has edited a new collection of stories, The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories, that I would love to get my hands on.  You can read about it here.

Margaret Drabble is on my night stand (no, not literally, one of her books, of course), so I was interested to see (and look forward to reading) this article about one of her earlier novels, which is called her 1977 Brexit novel.  Maybe that will shed some light on what is going on in the UK these days for me.

I am interested (and more than a little scared by) "fake news" and want to read more about it.  Of course, it seems, it is not a new thing (just a popular one these days--do we really live in a post-truth era?  So, just today, I came across this list of books about fake news that I think I am going to look at more closely.  Lots of older books and novels.  Interesting.

On a happier and maybe lighter note--the new book by Tracy Chevalier is very close (finally-something else that I have been looking forward to that seemed far off in the distance) to being released.  To get in the mood a little something about the book--yay.

I have a few library books to pick up and I have actually pulled a couple of needlework projects out that I might possibly start working on (wishful thinking?  But I am in the mood to stitch!).  As for reading, I will squeeze in whatever I can.  I picked up the next Kinsey Millhone mystery (I could not resist and was feeling a little sad not to be checking in with her every day, so, on to letter N), and as there is a huge line of readers waiting for Lara Prescott's The Secrets We Kept, I think I will be spending time with my copy since I cannot renew it and don't want to get back in line for it.  

Summer is holding on where I live, but I am ready for more fall-like weather.  I will try and be happy to soak in the warmth as soon enough I will be complaining about the cold, right?  Happy weekend everyone!

A Quiet August in Stillmeadow

Where did August go (and more, where is September going--speeding by already and I am only now tardily catching up in Stillmeadow).  August faded quietly into almost fall, though it feels not a bit like fall yet.  So much so that I had to be reminded of a little seasonal reading that I am usually contemplating well before the end of summer.

Do the dog days of summer happen in August?  Maybe that is why the month passed by so silently.  Much like the ladies in Stillmeadow I have been enjoying some early harvest veggies, and corn is a favorite (what else . . . living in Nebraska at Iowa just across the river).  That is where the chapter starts, "corn stands silken in the field, chicory stars the roadside, and goldenrod mints her coin."  (Goldenrod is the Nebraska state flower by the way).  I like to roast my corn in the oven (grilling is nice but not so easy for me), but lately I have been giving it a gentle boil and then shaving the kernels of the cob and giving a nice shake of pepper and parmesan cheese.  Yum.  Here is what Gladys suggests:

" . . . when Jill experimented with hybrid corn, she would come in with a bushel of perfect ears while I kept the kettle boiling and our children stood around with open mouths.  Don once ate twelve ears, but the girls settled for six apiece.  In those days, we felt corn was inedible unless it took only five minutes from garden to kettle.  Since Jill's death, I have had to use store-bought corn.  If you add a little milk, a little sugar and seasoned salt to the boiling water, even store corn is good.  And I cut the kernels from the cob afterward ad brown them in butter for the next meal.  It helps."

I have heard of adding sugar to the pot, but never milk.  I wonder if it works.  So many variations on cooking corn.  Do you have a favorite way of preparing it?

She also ruminates on letter writing in this chapter, which I am always happy to read about.  In her case she received letters from many of her fans and readers.  (Imagine if she was writing today--do you think she would have an Instagram account and we could see Stillmeadow?).

"The spirit of friendship contained in the many letters I receive has filled many hours over the years.  Now, in August, I wait until evening to answer my mail, for the house has cooled off and I can write without mopping my face every other minute.  I try and answer all the letters, except those that do not have the sender's addresses.  (My own family puts their house, or apartment, and street numbers on every letter!)  Sometimes the name of the city or town on the postmark is clear, and I take a chance on it and always get the letter right back."

***

"Occasionally I receive letters addressed to Gladys Taber, Writer, Connecticut, and am always amazed at the postal department,  One Sunday the postmaster from the nearest big city came with his wife to call because, he said, he wanted to meet the woman who got all the poorly addressed mail!"

***

"If postal rates keep jumping, the time will come when it is cheaper to send day telegrams!  I found some dear old one-cent postcards when I was cleaning out my desk not long ago and eyed them wistfully.  There were also some two-cent stamped envelopes.  Oh, the lovely bygone days!"

Indeed.  Lovely very Bygone days.  Imagine a one- or even two-cent stamp!

Reading Harder this Year? Not Sure . . .

I had this idea that this year I would be diverse, I would read much much harder than last year at least.  I even created a special tab for keeping track.  Then, like I am want to do, I forgot all about it (maybe not quite forgot but just turned my attention elsewhere).  So, perhaps a little accounting now.  Am I anywhere near completing the 24 tasks?  Is it worth trying at this point or should I just quietly abandon the idea and think about it next year.  Maybe I can pick a few to concentrate on for the remaining quarter of the year.  

I am bolding the tasks I would like to try and complete. 

Tasks that I have completed are italicized and asterisked and noted the title.

1. An epistolary novel or collection of letters
2. An alternate history novel
3. *A book by a woman and/or AOC (Author of Color) that won a literary award in 2018 - An American Marriage, Tayari Jones (Women's Prize Winner for this year--cheating here).
4. A humor book
5. *A book by a journalist or about journalism - Death in the Air, Kate Winkler Dawson
6. A book by an AOC set in or about space
7. An #ownvoices book set in Mexico or Central America
8. An #ownvoices book set in Oceania
9. *A book published prior to January 1, 2019, with fewer than 100 reviews on Goodreads - A Spring of Love, Celia Dale
10. *A translated book written by and/or translated by a woman - Moshi Moshi, Banana Yoshimoto
11. *A book of manga - Emma, vol. 1, Kaoru Mori
12. A book in which an animal or inanimate object is a point-of-view character
13. A book by or about someone that identifies as neurodiverse
14. *A cozy mystery - To Davy Jones Below, Carola Dunn
15. A book of mythology or folklore - If I ever finish Circe I will count that one for a mythological retelling.
16. An historical romance by an AOC
17. A business book
18. A novel by a trans or nonbinary author
19. A book of nonviolent true crime
20. A book written in prison
21. A comic by an LGBTQIA creator
22. A children’s or middle grade book (not YA) that has won a diversity award since 2009
23. A self-published book
24. A collection of poetry published since 2014

Six out of 24 tasks completed is probably not a very good showing, but if I look at the list as suggestions on ways to broaden my reading, that is still a good thing, and maybe I can read books for the other six tasks that look most interesting to me at the moment.  

I think at the moment the tasks most appealing and interesting to me are an alternate history novel and an epistolary novel and perhaps an #ownvoices novel set in Oceania.  I am thinking of Jo Walton or Robert Harris or maybe something by Daphne du Maurier?  It seems I have a YA novel or two, including one set in WWI that would work.  I will have to give my shelves a scan.

It is better to think small and manageable and choose a few tasks to read from rather than stress out, thinking I need to do them all at this point in the year.  And even better to just start with one and not overwhelm myself, right?  Have you been working on the Read Harder Challenge?  Since I think this is all about expanding your reading and discovering new stories, have you found any notable books from your reading?

Midweek Mishmash: Reading Notes

Just a few notes to end the week on things catching my eye lately and my weekend (hopeful) reading.

I am nearing the end of M is for Malice, which is yet another great Sue Grafton Kinsey Millhone story.  What should have been a simple search for a "missing" man named as a beneficiary in a family will turns out to be murder for Kinsey.  There is something bittersweet about this story since Kinsey becomes attached (not quite the right word) to the murdered man and there is a sense of an almost ghostlike presence--maybe more a matter of unfinished business and a life cut too short.  I have N is for Noose already waiting but I have been interspersing my Kinsey stories with some other crime novel or mystery.  I'll have a little peek at what is sitting on the top of my mystery/crime novel piles for a little palate cleanser.

I also hope to make progress and get closer to finishing last month's reading prompt ("something borrowed"--in this case a library copy of the book), which is Agatha Christie's Miss Marple case of The Mirror Crack'd.  I saw a movie adaptation of this many  years ago and vaguely remember it and think I know the plot twist, but am still enjoying the unraveling of the story.  This is one of Miss Marple's post-war stories that sees her aging and the community growing and expanding in interesting ways.

For this month's prompt ("swinging sixties") I am rereading (though it has been so very long the story is fresh and like I am reading it for the first time) Elizabeth Berg's Durable Goods.  It is a slim paperback with easy to read print and I am flying through it and expect to finish it this weekend as well.  It is the first of three novels that follows the same character and I would like to revisit all three (a heartbreaking story of adolescence--at least in this first book), but I may first pick up another book from my list of reading possibilities since there are so many tempting choices.

I have started reading Sarah Perry's Melmoth for RIP 14.  I have heard so many good things about her and am intrigued by the plot.  I like how it feels like a story within a story and the atmosphere Perry creates.  Melmoth is a she, and I was thinking it might be a Golem story (what with the story being set in Prague), but the blurb describes Melmoth as a "dark legend found in obscure fairy tales and antique village lore".  She is a hunter through the ages "damning her prey to itinerant solitude"!  One of the characters writes about his childhood and how he saw a farmer who had a habit of leaving a seat or chair of some sort in his field yet never appeared to actually sit in it.  He asked the farmer what it was for and the man replies--"Why, it is for she of course".  There is a spookiness and a feeling of the unknown, which makes me feel uncertain yet compels me to keep reading!

Needless to say I want to find some sunny spot this weekend where I can curl up with my books and lose myself in these stories for a long afternoon or two.

*****

And now for some other reading that I want to do and maybe some of these will pique your curiosity, too.

The Giller Prize Longlist was announced (Margaret Atwood's book is, not surprisingly, on the list.  I will have to check out the books as many of them are new to me.

Are you going to read Margaret Atwood's Testaments?  I suspect I will get to it eventually but so far am just in line at the library for a copy.  A little glitch (?) meant that some readers got their copy early despite a release date of September 10 for the book.  Seems very sloppy to me and while I totally understand the impatience for a much anticipated book, it's pretty shoddy of Amazon to allow this when smaller brick stores play by the rules.

One of my own much anticipated books, The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott, I just got from the library a few days ago and if I want to actually manage to read it before the due date I need to get going on it now!  I have only heard very good things about it!

I came across this during the week, and what perfect timing for my ongoing reading project: The Many Literary Landscapes of Tokyo.  This is an excerpt from Anna Sherman's The Bells of Old Tokyo: Meditations on Time and a City, which I have out from the library (and may have to invest in a copy for my own shelves).

You know I am a great fan of both novels with and about strong female leads and spy stories, so here is a list that combines the two!

I am, I am, I am going to read Attica Locke this year.  Maybe one of her books will be the next crime story I pick up after I finish letter M.  For now, here is her most interesting By the Book answers from the NYT series.

I want to read this On Dark Tourism article about Australia.

Let me end with this (something to look forward to when it comes out next week!).  Want to see what my most recent purchase is?  This is right up my alley!

Reading for R.I.P. Season (Take 14!)

I knew I would not be able to resist.  Even though September slid in so very quietly (I was thinking more about that extra day off from work than anything else), it did not take me long to come across the R.I.P. announcement via Iliana at Bookgirl's Nightstand.  Although I will just be reading along in spirit (pun intended . . .), there is an official page for a few guidelines and suggestions and a place to share links and reviews, if you are so inclined.  How can this possibly be the 14th year?!  I think I have probably read along each and every year, so I can't not pick out a book or two to read for the season.

It was my intention to just grab a very few books off my reading piles at hand, but the pile ended up about twice the size I was planning.  If I can read two of these books by the end of next month I will be very satisfied.  One for each month surely must be manageable?  I tried to choose books that are not the usual books I select each year.  

These seem like perfect fall choices:

Strangers, Taichi Yamada -- From my Reading Japan stack!  Must have at least one ghost story in the pile.  "Middle-aged, jaded and divorced, TV scriptwriter, Harada returns one night to the dilapidated downtown district of Tokyo where he grew up. There, at the theatre, he meets a likable man who looks exactly like his long-dead father. And so begins Harada's ordeal, as he's thrust into a reality where his parents appear to be alive at the exact age they had been when they had died so many years before."

The Brimstone Wedding, Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell) -- This would be a reread, but I am ready to revisit her work.  "When a superstitious nurse in a rural old-age home reveals her relationship with a married man to a patient, she is given the key to a secret cottage that also unlocks a door into the patient's terrifying past."

Deja Dead, Kathy Reichs -- "In the year since Temperance Brennan left behind a shaky marriage in North Carolina, work has often preempted her weekend plans to explore Quebec. When a female corpse is discovered meticulously dismembered and stashed in trash bags, Temperance detects an alarming pattern—and she plunges into a harrowing search for a killer. But her investigation is about to place those closest to her—her best friend and her own daughter—in mortal danger…"

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, R.A. Dick -- "Burdened by debt after her husband's death, Lucy Muir insists on moving into the very cheap Gull Cottage in the quaint seaside village of Whitecliff, despite multiple warnings that the house is haunted. Upon discovering the rumors to be true, the young widow ends up forming a special companionship with the ghost of handsome former sea captain Daniel Gregg. Through the struggles of supporting her children, seeking out romance from the wrong places, and working to publish the captain's story as a book, Blood and Swash, Lucy finds in her secret relationship with Captain Gregg a comfort and blossoming love she never could have predicted."  Another ghost story, but maybe not a terribly frightening one!

The Crime Writer, Jill Dawson -- "From acclaimed novelist Jill Dawson comes this imaginative psychological thriller—a dark and compelling snapshot into the life of Patricia Highsmith that immerses readers into the intoxicating, nightmarish psyche of this brilliant, complex author."

The Uninvited, Dorothy Macardle -- "A gothic, bone-chilling Irish ghost story first published in 1941 and now brought back into print. The title benefits from an introduction by well-known academic Professor Luke Gibbons and Martin Scorsese and various critics, including William K. Everson and Leonard Maltin, regard The Uninvited as one of the best ghost stories ever filmed."   I think this is going to be a 'must read' and then 'must see' story one way or another this year!

Melmoth, Sarah Perry -- "It has been years since Helen Franklin left England. In Prague, working as a translator, she has found a home of sorts—or, at least, refuge. That changes when her friend Karel discovers a mysterious letter in the library, a strange confession and a curious warning that speaks of Melmoth the Witness, a dark legend found in obscure fairy tales and antique village lore. As such superstition has it, Melmoth travels through the ages, dooming those she persuades to join her to a damnation of timeless, itinerant solitude. To Helen it all seems the stuff of unenlightened fantasy.  But, unaware, as she wanders the cobblestone streets Helen is being watched. And then Karel disappears. . . ."

I think I am in for a good story whichever book I choose.  Are you going to read along, or just read a scary story or two this season?

September Prompt: The Swinging Sixties

According to the 'goal' I set in Goodreads about how many books I want to try and read by the end of the year, I am not only on track but two books ahead of schedule.  I seem to interpret this as a--no worries, so you are currently two books behind in finishing previous prompts, let's go ahead and choose this month's book!  It's okay.  It is my own project and had I disclosed this fact, no one would be the wiser.  Only, I am nothing if not (desirous anyway) a wannabe tidy reader.

I have an especially tempting pile of reading possibilities for this month's reading prompt: the Swinging Sixties.  Honestly I am not sure how many of these stories will have much "swinging" in them, but they are all set somewhere in the 1960s, and I see that I forgot a book, but will tack on the title at the end of my list.

Durable Goods, Elizabeth Berg -- I read this one years and years ago but am up for a reread!  "On the hot Texas army base she calls home, Katie spends the lazy days of her summer waiting: waiting to grow up; waiting for Dickie Mack to fall in love with her; waiting for her breasts to blossom; waiting for the beatings to stop. Since their mother died, Katie and her older sister, Diane, have struggled to understand their increasingly distant, often violent father. While Diane escapes into the arms of her boyfriend, Katie hides in her room or escapes to her best friend’s house—until Katie’s admiration for her strong-willed sister leads her on an adventure that transforms her life."

Living on Air, Anna Shapiro -- "In 1966, longing to escape Levittown and her self-absorbed artist father, fourteen-year-old Maude secures a scholarship to a prestigious prep school. As family tensions surface, she struggles to find a morally acceptable place in the worlds of high art and social privilege."

Park Avenue Summer, Renée Rosen -- "New York City is filled with opportunities for single girls like Alice Weiss, who leaves her small Midwestern town to chase her big-city dreams and unexpectedly lands a job working for the first female editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, Helen Gurley Brown."

A Visit from the Good Squad, Jennifer Egan -- "Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs. With music pulsing on every page, A Visit from the Goon Squad is a startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption."

The Millstone, Margaret Drabble -- "Margaret Drabble’s affecting novel, set in London during the 1960s, about a casual love affair, an unplanned pregnancy, and one young woman’s decision to become a mother."

A Sport and a Pastime, James Salter -- "Set in provincial France in the 1960s, James Salter's A Sport and a Pastime is the intensely carnal story―part shocking reality, part feverish dream ―of a love affair between a footloose Yale dropout and a young French girl. There is the seen and the unseen―and pages that burn with a rare intensity."

Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson -- "Winner of the Whitbread Prize for best first fiction, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a coming-out novel from Winterson, the acclaimed author of The Passion and Sexing the Cherry. The narrator, Jeanette, cuts her teeth on the knowledge that she is one of God’s elect, but as this budding evangelical comes of age, and comes to terms with her preference for her own sex, the peculiar balance of her God-fearing household crumbles."

Summer of '69, Elin Hiderbrand -- "Welcome to the most tumultuous summer of the twentieth century. It's 1969, and for the Levin family, the times they are a-changing. Every year the children have looked forward to spending the summer at their grandmother's historic home in downtown Nantucket. But like so much else in America, nothing is the same: Blair, the oldest sister, is marooned in Boston, pregnant with twins and unable to travel. Middle sister Kirby, caught up in the thrilling vortex of civil rights protests and determined to be independent, takes a summer job on Martha's Vineyard. Only-son Tiger is an infantry soldier, recently deployed to Vietnam. Thirteen-year-old Jessie suddenly feels like an only child, marooned in the house with her out-of-touch grandmother and her worried mother, each of them hiding a troubling secret. As the summer heats up, Ted Kennedy sinks a car in Chappaquiddick, man flies to the moon, and Jessie and her family experience their own dramatic upheavals along with the rest of the country."

The Girls, Emma Cline -- "Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960s. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park, and is immediately caught by their freedom, their careless dress, their dangerous aura of abandon. Soon, Evie is in thrall to Suzanne, a mesmerizing older girl, and is drawn into the circle of a soon-to-be infamous cult and the man who is its charismatic leader. Hidden in the hills, their sprawling ranch is eerie and run down, but to Evie, it is exotic, thrilling, charged—a place where she feels desperate to be accepted. As she spends more time away from her mother and the rhythms of her daily life, and as her obsession with Suzanne intensifies, Evie does not realize she is coming closer and closer to unthinkable violence."

So I am faced with a small dilemma.  Two actually.  The first is that I want to read all of these, of course.  So how to choose.  Then I thought with so many good books I will try and squeeze in several this month as a number of them are short reads.  But the second dilemma and how did I overlook that we are now in RIP season?  Iliana reminded me that it is time for scary stories to welcome in Fall (and I am all for that).  Although I won't formally join in the challenge I always like to pick a book or two for the season (so expect another list in a day or so).  There is plenty of time yet, but I feel like I have lots of "catching up to do" with my reading!