A Work in Progress

The Joy of New Library Books

It's always exciting to find yourself finally at the top of the queue at the library for books you are anxious to get your hands on.  I have been waiting for these three (I generally have my holds maxed out--we can get in line for 40 books and yes, I am in line for that many, though many are not yet published titles).  Top to bottom:

Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan -- "When a 10-year-old child is suspected of a violent crime, her family must face the truth about their past in this haunting, propulsive, psychologically keen story about class, trauma, and family secrets."

The Road to Belhaven by Margot Livesey -- I have wanted to read her for ages and this is my first foray into her writing and I am already completely engrossed in this book.  "Growing up in the care of her grandparents on Belhaven Farm, Lizzie Craig discovers as a small child that she can see into the future. But her gift is selective—she doesn’t, for instance, see that she has an older sister who will come to join the family. As her “pictures” foretell various incidents and accidents, she begins to realize a painful truth: she may glimpse the future, but she can seldom change it.  Nor can Lizzie change the feelings that come when a young man named Louis, visiting Belhaven for the harvest, begins to court her. Why have the adults around her not revealed that the touch of a hand can change everything? After following Louis to Glasgow, though, she learns the limits of his devotion. Faced with a seemingly impossible choice, she makes a terrible mistake. But her second sight may allow her a second chance."

Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang, and Leuyen Pham -- I am a great fan of graphic novels.  I am pretty picky about them, however (much like audio books).  I am particular about the type of illustrations and storytelling, but this one looks quite promising.  "She was destined for heartbreak. Then fate handed her love.Val is ready to give up on love. It's led to nothing but secrets and heartbreak, and she's pretty sure she's cursed--no one in her family, for generations, has ever had any luck with love.But then a chance encounter with a pair of cute lion dancers sparks something in Val. Is it real love? Could this be her chance to break the family curse? Or is she destined to live with a broken heart forever?"  This sounds delightful.

The Livesey is underway and I will be dipping into the graphic novel as soon as tonight!

Weekend Notes: Listening, Reading & Watching

For me weekends mean reading (especially at the gym--where my only focus is walking and reading), catching up on newsletters and other bookishness and especially moviegoing.

Some things that caught my eye this week (I like to listen to podcasts at work when I can or at home when I am cooking or doing busywork).  

Listening:

Otherppl with Brad Listi interviewed Margot Livesey whose new book, The Road from Belhaven, is waiting for me at the library right now.

Two movie-oriented podcast episodes from NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour include highlights from the Sundance film festival (really want to see The Outrun when it comes out as I read the book, and an interesting conversation about The Zone of Interest, which I saw recently and found well done but darkly menacing even as there is nothing violent shown on screen (but you imagine it in your mind!).

Reading:

Joining the Livesey novel is Megan Nolan's Ordinary Human Failings (needless to say a visit to the library is on the list of things to do this weekend) wrote a column over at CrimeReads: "Literary Works in which Crimes are a Means to Understanding Complexity"--complete with more book recommendations.

Watching:

My favorite indie cinema is screening a repertory series called "It's Complicated" with a nod towards Valentine's Day.  If I'm lucky I'll squeeze in all three films: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Le Bonheur, and Happy Together.  However, first up tonight is one of the Oscar contenders, The Teacher's Lounge.

Reading Sets, Series and Authors

I'm not much of a completionist in any sense of the word.  I chip away at mystery series, but only a very few have I actually kept up with or completed.  Sometimes I begin books and then let them linger on my nightstand and then let them go back to their piles or shelves.  I am a firm believer in not pushing myself to finish something I am not enjoying it or if it is just not the right story at the  moment (which means it happens a lot since I am very much a mood reader).  And there are books that are duos or trilogies or quartets that I look at and mean to read in their entirety.  Oh, and then there are all the many authors who I collect because I read one of their books, fell in love and then wanted to read all of them.  I have lots of collected authors waiting to be revisited.

So in the last couple of years I have been trying to pick up a set of books or an author to try and read (and complete) over the course of the year.

In 2022 I read all of M.M. Kaye's "Death in ..." series.  I had read one or two many years ago and felt like revisiting one of the books.  I had managed to collect the five she had published, so what the heck, I would try and read them all and indeed, I did.  Most I loved and some a little less so, but it was fun reading my way through them.  I have a couple saved on my Audible wishlist for later listening.  And they are keepers for maybe another reread.

Last year I picked up (again ... I had read the first volume at least twice, and the second once, but never the whole set) Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicles.  I loved what I had read, but somehow just run out of steam each time to continue on.  However, I managed to read the original four volumes by the end of the year save for the fifth volume, All Change, which is currently on my nightstand and I am slowly enjoying chipping away at.  Since she published the last book many, many years after the first four, I have given myself a break and consider it a tying up of the stories.  (By the way, she is an author I have read and would like to read all of her books eventually).

I felt it was an accomplishment I am pleased with still, that I read Elena Ferrante's quartet of books beginning with My Brilliant Friend.  I admit the read was at times challenging, and the politics occasionally seemed over my head, but it was a really wonderful experience and I loved the stories.  There was something very raw and real about them and I was constantly conflicted by what I felt about the characters and their interactions, but there was a complexity in them that felt so real to me and I loved them for that.

In the last few years I feel like I am looking back more and more and appreciating books published earlier in the last century (aside from my ongoing love of interwar year novels) almost more than contemporary fiction (though there is a lot of great books out there and I have a constantly maxed out library queue of forthcoming books).  When I was young, maybe middle school age, I read some of Constance C. Greene's Al books.  I remember saving my allowance and going to the mall where there was a newsstand with many magazines and a variety of mass market books (oh, those were the days!) and I recall buying A Girl Called, Al.  The books are set in 1970s NYC and narrated by Al's best friend.  The series begins when they are in 7th grade and the story has stayed with me.  I decided to revisit the books and read all of them, and they were a delight.  Maybe a little dated for today's middle schoolers, but I loved going back in time.

So, what to choose to work on this year?  I have many sets of books.  Perhaps I will add a tab up top and begin a list of sets and series (though not mystery series, since that is a rabbit hole to dive down into and I dabble in a lot of different mystery series), but groups of related books or authors I collect.

At the moment I am considering reading Martha Grimes's Emma Graham books, which begins with Hotel Paradise (a favorite book of mine that I have read several times and am happy to revisit again).  Grimes manages to present a young girl in a small town just pitch perfect in my opinion.  There are four books.  I have read the first two, but never read the whole set together.

I've also got the Habits of the House trilogy by Fay Weldon, which is her nod towards Downton Abbey (which I thoroughly enjoyed). The first book is Habits of the House, and is an upstairs/downstairs story, which I am fond of and have not read in a while but it might just match my mood.

I think I will likely add other possibilities later, but if you have a favorite set or series, do share!

Moving Forward in 2024 - Books & Blogging

I took this photo at a local botanical garden before the holidays (this was part of the holiday display, though you can't really tell from this angle).  This was before the really awful weather we had.  January, here, like many other places, was pretty dismal weather-wise.  I think we are over that particular hump and are enjoying a nice respite from winter, so I am trying to enjoy it while it lasts.  Seeing the hanging vines and green leaves makes me happy.

I knew that as soon as February arrived, I had to decide what to do about this little place on the web that I, in the past, spent so much time at.  I have been absent for some time--nearly all of last year and a good portion of the year before.  Right before covid and then during, life was pretty awful in a variety of ways, and I just stopped doing things that I enjoyed and never seemed to go back to some of them (here included).  And after that hiatus I find many people have moved on to other places, other social media platforms perhaps, but I haven't felt the pull of them.

I am hoping to track my reading here, once again, in some regular fashion.  I won't make any promises or resolutions.  If I can share my reading adventures here and track my ambitions (of which I have plenty when it comes to reading), it might help with the funk I have fallen into.  If I haven't been here, I have still been reading a lot and am in the middle of several really wonderful books.

I have started a little cleaning and weeding process here.  Eventually I would like to move to a different (maybe free? do such places exist still?) service.  I believe Typepad no longer allows new people to use their service and I feel like they have not, perhaps, moved with the times.  Some things feel clunky to me and I really do not like their partnership with Amazon to provide links/cover images.  I have started to cull links that appear to be dead (and hopefully none that are active were removed accidentally).  Maybe I'll change the template and remove some of the tags and try to keep them tidier.  It'll hopefully be an ongoing process.

For now, however, let me mention a few of the books I have on my reading pile at the moment.

I am rereading Colm Toibin's Brooklyn. I loved it the first time I read it and liked the movie equally as well.  (I am a great fan of Saoirse Ronan).  I picked it up in anticipation of his forthcoming novel, Long Island, which is a sequel to Brooklyn.  I'm very curious about the new novel, but a little wary since I loved Brooklyn so much.

Have you read Nicci French?  She (or they, since I believe this is a wife/husband writing team) is amazing.  I loved (!)  Blue Monday.  I waited a while before picking up Tuesday's Gone (again, would the second book possibly be as good as the first?--this is a set that takes the day so of the week for each book).  I love mystery and crime novels and am a fan in particular of psychological crime, but somewhere along the line in the last few years suspense can almost be too much for me to take.  I want to read, but I don't want bad things to happen, if that makes sense.  The books are so well written and tightly plotted, it is easy to turn the pages.

Someone here, some time ago, recommended this book, Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea, by Morgan Callan Rogers, to me and whoever you were ... thank you!  I Love this story.  It is beautifully written and a little heartbreaking.  It is a coming of age story told from the POV of a thirteen-year-old girl whose mother one day just disappears.  The setting is a small Maine town on the coast in 1963.  I think it might be the author's only book and it came out back in 2012.  I love the setting, the time period, the voice of the girl.  

These three books are just stellar for me right now.  I find that I am attracted to older books lately than newer.  In some cases the writing just feels different to me.  It's really good, really thoughtful.  Maybe the times feel gentler (though they were not, perhaps).  Of course, that is not to say I have been finding very good, very recent novels, too.  But more about those later.

It's been a minute (or a few thousand)

Hello friends.  It's crunch time here as my renewal has just come up and I must decide whether to stay or let the blog go.  Ideally, I would like to migrate somewhere (maybe free) and in a format that is super easy to work with, but I am hesitant to move and lose the content here that might be worth saving.  Some of my lists exist only here and I would be sorry to lose the lists of books I have read.  

I feel very outside the online reading community these days, and I do miss it and am sorry to have lost that connection.  But I have also found I am just not very motivated to post regularly here and am not sure how to fix the issue.  I am not generally on social media these days--occasionally on Instagram and I do track my reading on GoodReads, though I have mixed feelings about that site since it is at times klunky in my experience.  

It's time for some very serious thinking on what to do and where to go.  If I decide to renew here, will I make use of the space and get my money's worth, is the question.  I have the most basic plan.  

On a happier note, I have been very pleased with my reading lately.  I would have a lot of catching up to do here.  Maybe create an entirely different design to make it all much simpler.

Is there still anyone out there who was a visitor in the past?  Or have most people moved on elsewhere in the virtual world?

Thinking about Second Half of 2023

Hello friends.  It has been a long while.  Longer than I realized actually.  I'm here and reading away, as many books on the go as usual.  (Which for me can be a pile).  It's so easy to be offline when you start (or maybe stop is the better word).  I've got a bit more than half a year of my Typepad subscription left and it seems a shame to ignore it when it has been paid for.  I guess it's time to think about whether to try and be more present or just let things go (here that is).  My intentions are always good and the idea of a semi- or even just weekly post seems manageable, but then it never seems to materialize.  I wonder how many of my virtual book blogging friends are still around (feel free to raise your hands and say hello).

While I ponder these questions, I do keep up my bookishness in the background (or rather, in real life).  I am not very present in general on social media, though I do read a lot of online newsletters and newspapers/magazines.  I keep an occasional eye on Twitter by way of a daily digest.  When I think about things or reach out and click on an outside link I do quite enjoy being a lurker at least.  So, one more try, and I'll see how it goes.  I have not wanted to let things go entirely and lose all the content (some of the reviews and many of the lists) from my previous postings here, but as I seem to refer to them less and less, maybe it would not matter to let them just disappear from the ether?

As I contemplate whether to discontinue blogging, I can finish out this year and share a little of what I have been up to; or rather today, I will share some ideas of where I hope my rest of 2023 reading will take me.  Last year I read/reread M.M. Kaye's romantic suspense novels, her "Death in . . ." series of books.  This year I am rereading/reading Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicle series of five books.  I have read the first two multiple times (usually thinking I need to read the series through but not quite completing the task), but this year I am finally into volume three, Confusion, so I am about halfway through with two volumes left.

I love Sue Grafton's alphabet mysteries, but the last couple of years have not seen me pick up more than a book or so a year.  I am at letter V (V is for Vengeance) and I feel it is time to see Kinsey through to letter Y.  I have all the books, and I can (and just may) revisit them later, but I want to finish out the series.

This year is definitely one to try and complete or make progress (okay, and maybe start) some favorite series.  I have been spending time with Ruth Galloway (Elly Griffiths) and solicitor Ben O'Keeffe of Inishowen (Andrea Carter).  I plan on getting back to Alan Parks's Harry McCoy novels and read the second and third Vera Kelly books by Rosalie Knecht.  I've been keeping up with Jacqueline Winspear (has Maisie finally retired?) and Ashley Weaver's newest Electra McDonnell novel is one of my current reads.  I've tried a Deborah Crombie mystery (and hope to read more) and now am trying something entirely different, the first Falco mystery by Lindsey Davis!

I have this loose plan on reading all of Annie Ernaux's memoirs/novels, but that may carry over to another year.  I like her writing very much.  And I have been revisiting a series of childhood favorite books by Constance C. Greene featuring "Al"-Alexandra.  They are just as delightful as the first time around.  

That's a few highlights.  I do want to read more literary fiction in general and much more literature in translation, too.  

However, I have finally planned a short real, away from home, vacation and will be traveling to New York City in August.  I would love any New Yorkers or those familiar with the city to share any must-sees and must-dos particularly that have to do with books, bookstores, library, literary-related places and also places for film lovers (next to books I am a film lover and spend most weekends seeing as many movies (old and new) as I can at a local indie cinema.  

I am also in need of a really good quintessially-NYC novel to read this summer.  (Well, maybe more than one, but at the moment I am thinking I will pick up a Betty Green novel--I have already read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, so maybe another of her books).  I want a book that is as much about the place as the people and the plot.  Suggestions welcome.  

I know I say this every time I post (which is hardly never these days), but I do want to check in here more often.  If nothing else, there is a lot of clean-up and catching up that must be taken care of.  

Happy reading everyone.

Short Stories: The 2022 Advent Calendar

A very nice, hopefully inspiring end of the year splurge.  It has been several years since I have ordered the Short Story Advent Calendar.  I love short stories, but I have been a lapsed short story reader in the last few years and I keep trying to get back to my old habit.  I hope this helps and I am able to keep up with a short story a day through the individual stories that come in this boxed set.

Advent begins today and ends on Christmas Eve.  The first story is by Caroline Kim, whose collection of short stories (The Prince of Mournful Thoughts) about the Korean Diaspora won the 2020 Drue Heinz Prize in Literature and was shortlisted for a few other prizes is called "Bread of Lifers".  I am going to just pull the next story out each morning and read it during the day.  Each will be a daily treat, so no peeking ahead of time.  

I hope to check in occasionally and share something about my reading, but my first focus will be just to read each story and not fall behind.  I will be thrilled to discover new to me voices and perhaps add more titles to my wishlist to explore next year.  Mostly this will be a pleasant way to finish out the rest of the year while I tidy up my reading piles and prepare for the coming year.  

Nine More (or maybe 13) Left to Go!

Time is quickly slipping away, isn't it.  I wonder if I will be able to meet my Good Reads goal this year.  I have nine books left to make the goal I set, but if I can manage 13, I will reach the goal I have in the back of my mind.  Perhaps wishful thinking?  I applaud my friends who have not only made their goals but in several cases have even surpassed them (Bravo, I say to you all!).  Of course it is not a good idea to compare myself--it has once again been a wonky year with a lot of stress, so to manage even what I have is a success.  

But meeting my goal is there, but more I would like to try and clear off my reading pile that is seriously weighing down (okay not literally) my nightstand.  I am working on completing at this point.  If I begin any new books, I set my sights on carrying those over to the new year, save a few potential graphic novels that might easily be squeezed in this year yet.

The 'clean up pile' (to reach my goal) in no particular order:

1. The Wonder Spot, Melissa Banks
2. Dying Fall, Elly Griffiths
3. The Outrun, Amy Liptrot
4. Bobby March Will Live Forever, Alan Parks
5. Death in the Andamans, M.M. Kaye
6. Zorrie, Laird Hunt
7. Malice, Keigo Higashino
8. Shattered Silk, Barbara Michaels
9. Knots and Crosses, Ian Rankin
10. The Electricity of Every Living Thing, Katherine May
11. The Cut, Chris Brookmyre
12. After the War is Over, Jennifer Robson
13. Graphic Novel?

Whew. Yes, this has been a year of lots of mystery and crime novels and far too many starts without finishing a book first.  Must work on that.

And you?  How are you all doing friends. Are you at a leisurely point in the year where you are just reading and relaxing?  Trying to finish to meet a goal?  Not worried at all and just cruising along (a good idea) without setting expectations on yourself.  Why count, really?  I ask myself that every year, but it never quite stops me from doing it over and over again.  Goals are really just suggestions, right?

Reading Notes: Autumn Inspiration

An (almost) new month (is upon us), a new season and cooler weather.  All good reasons for (another) fresh start.  How long does it take to form (or reform) a new habit?  I make no promises, but I would very much like to post somewhat regularly (more than once a season, maybe?!), so we'll see how it goes.

Since finishing the novel, Three by Valerie Perrin, I have read more than a dozen or so books, many very good, others pretty good (and a few 'discards' along the way), and now I am set to pick up some books with a little seasonal atmosphere.  I think autumn is my favorite time of the year and the weather is finally very comfortable and enjoyable to be outside or inside with windows open.  I hope it lasts and of course I have a stack of books that I pulled out to choose from to match the mood. Possibilities:

A Sleep and a Forgetting, William Dean Howells -- The story centers on a young alienist--a psychologist--who meets a young woman who, at subsequent encounters, has no recollection of him. 

The Quickening, Rhiannon Ward -- For fans of The Silent Companions, The Little Stranger and The Familiars, an exquisitely crafted and compelling mystery that invites the reader in to the crumbling Clewer Hall to help unlock its secrets.

House of Glass, Susan Fletcher -- June 1914 and a young woman - Clara Waterfield - is summoned to a large stone house in Gloucestershire. Her task: to fill a greenhouse with exotic plants from Kew Gardens, to create a private paradise for the owner of Shadowbrook. Yet, on arrival, Clara hears rumours: something is wrong with this quiet, wisteria-covered house. Its gardens are filled with foxgloves, hydrangea and roses; it has lily-ponds, a croquet lawn - and the marvellous new glasshouse awaits her. But the house itself feels unloved. Its rooms are shuttered, or empty. The owner is mostly absent; the housekeeper and maids seem afraid. And soon, Clara understands their fear: for something - or someone - is walking through the house at night. In the height of summer, she finds herself drawn deeper into Shadowbrook's dark interior - and into the secrets that violently haunt this house. Nothing - not even the men who claim they wish to help her - is quite what it seems.

O Caledonia, Elspeth Barker -- Author Elspeth Barker masterfully evokes the harsh climate of Scotland in this atmospheric gothic tale that has been compared to the works of the Brontës, Edgar Allan Poe, and Edward Gorey. Immersed in a world of isolation and loneliness, Barker's ill-fated young heroine Janet turns to literature, nature, and her Aunt Lila, who offers brief flashes of respite in an otherwise foreboding life. People, birds, and beasts move through the background in a tale that is as rich and atmospheric as it is witty and mordant. 

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.

You'll Never See Me Again, Lesley Pearse -- Betty is running for her life.  When Betty's husband returns from the war broken and haunted, she knows her marriage is doomed.  Taking a fleeting chance to escape, she goes on the run armed with a new identity. Yet penniless and alone, Betty quickly finds that starting again is much harder than she thought.  And she never imagined it could end in murder . . .  But sometimes you have to keep running if you want to survive.

A Tidy Ending, Joanna Cannon -- ...a delightfully sinister novel about a married woman living a nice, quiet suburban life--but things aren't always what they seem...

The Drowning Kind, Jennifer McMahon -- A woman returns to the old family home after her sister mysteriously drowns in its swimming ​pool...but she's not the pool's only victim.  (Not in the photo--but in my stack).

I am starting with Susan Fletcher's novel as I have read and enjoyed her work, but I am sure I will be reaching for other books in this pile.  Have you read any of these or have any good recommendations of autumn spooky reading?

A Few Summer Reading Notes

It's too hot where I live (and maybe where you live, too) for reading in the garden, but it is a nice idea.  Maybe closer to fall, which I am looking forward to greatly!  My porch chair has sat empty all summer. 

I guess we are officially into the dog days of summer.  And maybe time to catch up a bit on what I have been reading, or trying to read.  As is my current trend, my reading is all over the place with more than a few misses but a number of hits as well and plenty of books in progress.  My reading continues to be motivated mostly by my mood, which seems to change daily.  But I have not given up on the very few reading plans and projects on which I set forth a month or so ago.  

First a mention of a book kindly sent to me from Europa Editions that I thoroughly enjoyed and found pretty captivating last month, Valerie Perrin's Three.  Last year I read and loved her novel Fresh Water for Flowers, and had I shared a 'best of' list (I don't think I ever got around to it) it would have made it high on the list.  I was thrilled to see another book translated and being published this year (and I hope another will be coming next year?).  I have been wary of big, chunky books of late.  Not through their fault, but if there is such a thing as a 'long hauler' 'my reading is still off kilter' mode of being--I am still there.  I was assured, however, that this was a perfect summer read that I would find engrossing and indeed I found that to be the case.

The novel follows the friendship of three young people as they navigate growing up in a small French town.  Nina, Adrien and Etienne are inseparable growing up.  They are as close as siblings and nothing can come between them until one summer tragedy strikes in ways that will mark them all for life.  There is a bit of a mystery to the story and twists that you don't expect, that are more about growing up and becoming an adult and recognizing the person inside rather than unraveling the puzzle always hovering in the background.  It was a story that I became completely involved in.  The characters are not perfect, but they felt so real and I became invested in their lives in a way I have not in a long time in my reading.

Yes, friends, I started this post in the heat of summer and am now revisiting it in the coolness of a fall morning.  Maybe it was the draining humidity of the summer or dealing with family issues, or just a lack of energy, but I am sorry I have been so absent for so long.  (I seem to say that quite often here, don't I).  And I expect I am talking aloud to an empty room (all on me, sadly).  I have been absent so long that I only discovered that Typepad is no longer (since 2020?) accepting new subscribers and next month will be migrating data, which somehow does not seem to bode well.  I need to get my (not really empty) room in order and decided what to do, whether to move on or move elsewhere.  Are blogs a thing of the past now?  Maybe everyone has left me for TikTok?  

I will do some cleaning up while I decide.  I have a little time left on my subscription.  I have read a number of good books, set aside quite a few that were not working for me.  Summer has turned to fall and I am happy with cooler mornings and sunny afternoons.  My (see post below) summer reading plans started okay, but I did not manage as well as I had hoped, which is okay.  It is always nice to have a stack of books that appeal and choose some to see if they click or not.  I have made a pile of autumn books that I will share, too.  I am sorry this sat so long in draft mode.  I wonder where my online bookish friends are hanging out these days?