August AlphaKIT: V and J

Welcome to the August 2021 AlphaKIT, an unofficial challenge in the 2021 Category Challenge Group.

The rules are: 1. Use these letters any way you wish to select reading for the month. 2. Enjoy your reading.

and

The letter images are thanks to helenliz ! Thanks so much, they're lovely.

Please remember to update the wiki: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2021_AlphaKIT#August:_-_Letters:_V_and_J

I'm not sure yet because I'll have to see how other challenges fit, but I'm looking at The Languages of Pao by Jack Vance for the double.

I'm tentatively planning on Jagannath: Stories for 'J' and Jeff Vandermeer's Hummingbird Salamander for 'V'.

I'm thinking I'll read The Distant Echo by Val McDermid and The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen.

I'm going to have to figure out what I'll be able to "read" after my Cataract surgery! Well, I found a few Audios as well as others that I hope I'll be able to manage to read during the month!

✔Booked for death by Victoria Gilbert
✔Camp Jupiter Classified AUDIO
✔Cluttered Corpse by Mary Jane Maffini
✔Deadly Edition by Victoria Gilbert
✔Death Loves a Messy Desk by Mary Jane Maffini
Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
Jane Seymour, The Haunted Queen
✔Lost Girls of Foxfield Hall by Jessica Thorne
✔Marsh Madness by Victoria Abbott AUDIO
✔Murder on Mulberry Bend by Victoria Thompson AUDIO
✔Murder on Washington Square by Victoria Thompson AUDIO
✔On thec Corner of Hope and Main by Beverly Jenkins
✔Second Time Sweeter by Beverly Jenkins
✔Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen AUDIO
✔Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder by Joanne Fluke AUDIO

I'm going with Divorce Horse by Craig Johnson which is a between books book/novella/short story but will be ok for next month and Shut Your Eyes Tight by John Verdon to keep up with my series reading.

>5 cyderry: Audiobooks obviously!

>7 majkia: Derfinitely!

I am thinking Jules Verne book and maybe The Grip of It by Jac Jeme for J.

Right now I'm thinking about Flight of the Raven by Jean-Pierre Gibrat and News of the World by Paulette Jiles for J. For V I'll probably go with either A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab or The Velocipede Races by Emily June Street.

I am thinking of reading The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson and The French for Always by Fiona Valpy.

A good combination - my initials!

So far, nothing I've chosen for my other challenges fit here yet. But that might change. I have picked out a couple of V possibilities if I don't have anything for my other challenges that fit, but I'll wait on posting those. Haven't yet perused my Js.

I'm considering The Purity of Vengeance by Jussi Adler-Olsen that would hit both letters. Another possibility is Union Jack by Val McDermid, another one using both V & J.

I will probably read one of the Miss Read "Village" novels, and maybe a Jill Paton Walsh book I just acquired.

I'm planning on a re-read of Velocity Weapon so I can read the entire trilogy, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City - by K. J. Parker, and Still Waters by Vivica Sten

I read The Golden Age of Homespun by Jared van Wagenen.

Currently reading "Wittgenstein: A Very Short Introduction" by A. C. Grayling

I've finished Divorce Horse by Craig Johnson which is one of those short stories in-between two books, but I'm counting it for my "J" for this month just in case I don't get to another one.

My first read of the month is a double hit J and V. Sky Valley Cat Cozy Mystery Box Set by William Jarvis

I completed The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen. Four enthusiastic stars.

Now I'm reading The Distant Echo by Val McDermid.

COMPLETED Wittgenstein: A Very Short Introduction by A. C. Grayling

I decided to also read the next Craig Johnson book in the Walt Longmire series As the Crow Flies

I just finished The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World by Patrick Wyman.

Starting If Only They Could Talk by James Herriot

Finished The Scout Mindset by Julia Galef

COMPLETED If Only They Could Talk by James Herriot

Finished Still Waters by Vivica Sten, Courageous by Jack Campbell, and Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K. J. Parker

Just finished Union Jack by Val McDermid hitting both letters.

And I've just started The Purity of Vengeance by Jussi Adler-Olsen, another one with both letters.

I ended up reading The Velocipede Races by Emily June Street for V (Velocipede) -- then realized it also works for J (June)!

Completed The Distant Echo by Val McDermid. Four stars.

Finished Debts of Dishonor by Jill Paton Walsh and The 1-Hour Van Gogh Book.

September thread is up:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/334401

The Horseman's Graves / Jacqueline Baker
2.5 stars

This is set near the Sand Hills in Saskatchewan near the Alberta border. It starts in 1909, but quickly moves on to the next generation. I wouldn’t have known it from the story, but the majority of the farmers living nearby are German immigrants, (I think) via Russia.

All these things should have been more interesting to me with a German (via Russia) family background, and I grew up in Southern Sask and have been to the Sand Hills.

I feel like 2.5 might even be a bit generous. There was one storyline that was (somewhat) interesting, but mostly this was boring. I wasn’t all that interested, and I was confused by who some of the characters were and how they related to the story. Well, they were all in the same town/area, but otherwise… Drove me nuts the one character was simply called “the boy”. Seriously? He doesn’t have a name? Come on!

V read number 2. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

I've finished Shut Your Eyes Tight by John Verdon for my "V" book this month.

I read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce for J.

Paper Girls. Vol. 1 / Brian K. Vaughan
3.5 stars

It’s the late 1980s. 12-year old Erin is doing her paper route in the early morning hours of Nov. 1, so there are still people wandering about in costumes from Halloween. When a group of boys starts harassing her, three other girls (also delivering their papers – but they are doing so together) come to Erin’s rescue. They stick together the rest of the night, but there are weird things going on… from something that looks like the spaceship from War of the Worlds to other creepy looking monsters roaming about outside. Not only that, the girls’ parents (at least the two whose homes they went to) seem to have disappeared.

I liked this. Nice illustrations (it’s a graphic novel) and I liked the 80s references. It did end on a bit of a cliffhanger and I definitely plan to continue, but it might take me a while to get to the second volume.

I read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas by Jules Verne.

I read two V books this time--Village Diary and The 1-hour Van Gogh Book.

One for each letter this month.

Vultures in the Sky, by Todd Downing
My Remarkable Journey: A Memoir, by Katherine G. Johnson

3 more J reads this month. 2 Lilian Jackson Braun books, The Cat Who Went Up A Creek and The Cat Who Brought Down The House.
And Float by Jacob Peyton (no touchstone)