Chatterbox Prepares to Bid Farewell to 2021: Act III

The image above is "Red Maple", by Canadian Group of Seven artist AY Jackson (1882-1974). I once met him painting away in the ravine that runs through the middle of Toronto, on a walk with my grandfather.

This post's poem is by Rita Dove, an African-American Pulitzer laureate.

November for Beginners

Snow would be the easy
way out—that softening
sky like a sigh of relief
at finally being allowed
to yield. No dice.
We stack twigs for burning
in glistening patches
but the rain won’t give.

So we wait, breeding
mood, making music
of decline. We sit down
in the smell of the past
and rise in a light
that is already leaving.
We ache in secret,
memorizing

a gloomy line
or two of German.
When spring comes
we promise to act
the fool. Pour,
rain! Sail, wind,
with your cargo of zithers!

Wow, a third thread -- just as we head into the final weeks of the year. I'm reading at a (for me) slowish pace, as I grapple with vision problems, my father's declining health and competence, and lots of other stuff. C'est la vie.

Audiobooks and non-fiction have been standouts for me this year. I've had a couple of excellent novels as well, but my "win" ratio on those has been smaller.

The two resident felines keep me going from one day to the next. Sir Fergus the Fat's lifetime ambition is to devour every single cat treat in existence. Minka the Velveteen Kitten has begun to see me as a human hot water bottle now that the temperature is falling.

I'll continue list the books I read here, but I just don't have the bandwidth/energy to do mini-reviews on everything. I'll flag the books I find most entertaining, appealing or compelling -- or disappointing. My ideal book? Anything in which I can completely immerse myself, and at the end, wish I hadn't read it, so that I could read it again for the first time... Which is why I like to re-read some favorites each year. If you want my thoughts on anything I've read, feel free to ask! Every year, I set out to imagine my thread as being a cyber version of my ideal literary salon would be like, and in this year, well, there ARE no real salons. I think of LT as a better kind of Zoom, because I don't need to make sure I'm camera-ready.

A reminder of the existence of the non-fiction challenge!!! You can find links to what our group has been reading on the list Jim assembles of key threads/groups. I'm in the process of coming up with a list of topics for next year, so feel free to weigh in.

As always, the only "rules" of the road for this thread: please treat each other and everyone else's views with courtesy, civility and thoughtfulness, and leave the politics and drama for other kinds of social media. Pretty please and thank you very much.

I always read far more than 75 books a year and so just keep a single ticker to track my total reading. I'll start new threads when possible. I will try to keep the list current but keeping up with mini-reviews of the books I read, with capsule comments, has defeated me. So, once again I will simply acknowledge that it's not possible.

This year I'm setting my goal at what initially felt as if were a relatively modest level: 401. I just topped that in 2020, but this year hasn't been going so well.

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 2021". As I complete a book, I'll rate it and add it to the list. I'll also tag it, "Read in 2021". You'll be able to see it by either searching under that tag, or clicking on https://www.librarything.com/catalog/Chatterbox/booksreadin2021.

I do have some reading objectives -- I refuse to call them challenges or targets or anything else -- ranging from specific books to themes and even authors I plan to re-read. I'll note those down in the coming posts. I'm doing about as well with those as I am with my overall goal!



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!

Here's the list, with the most recent books first...

The October list:

268. The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny (finished 10/1/21) 4.1 stars (A)
269. The Missing Piece by John Lescroart (finished 10/2/21) 3.9 stars
270. Something of His Art: Walking to Lübeck with J.S. Bach by Horatio Clare (finished 10/2/21) 4 stars
271. The Testimony of Alys Twist by Suzannah Dunn (finished 10/3/21) 3.7 stars
272. *The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley (finished 10/3/21) 3.8 stars (A)
273. Mayday 1971: A White House at War, a Revolt in the Streets, and the Untold History of America’s Biggest Mass Arrest by Lawrence Roberts (finished 10/4/21) 4.1 stars (A)
274. Rising Sun, Falling Shadow by Daniel Kalla (finished 10/5/21) 3.85 stars
275. The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge and the Phoenix Park Murders that Stunned Victorian England by Julie Kavanagh (finished 10/5/21) 4.45 stars (A)
276. One More Christmas at the Castle by Trisha Ashley (finished 10/8/21) 3.85 stars
277. Damascus Station by David McCloskey (finished 10/9/21) 3.8 stars (A)
278. The Dockland Murder by Mike Hollow (finished 10/10/21) 3.5 stars (A)
279. The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan (finished 10/10/21) 4.5 stars
280. Sankofa by Chibundu Onusu (finished 10/10/21) 4.6 stars
281. Wildland: The Making of America's Fury by Evan Osnos (finished 10/12/21) 4.8 stars (A)
282. On Hampstead Heath by Marika Cobbold (finished 10/13/21) 3.7 stars
283. Beyond the River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad by Ann Hagedorn (finished 10/15/21) 4.15 stars
284. The Last Correspondent: Dispatches from the Frontline of Xi’s New China by Michael Smith (finished 10/16/21) 3.6 stars (A)
285. Last Girl Ghosted by Lisa Unger (finished 10/16/21) 4 stars
286. Saving Time by Jodi Taylor (finished 10/17/21) 4.2 stars (A)
287. Queens of the Crusades by Alison Weir (finished 10/18/21) 3.8 stars (A)
288. Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning by Timothy Snyder (finished 10/19/21) 4.4 stars
289. Over My Dead Body by Jeffrey Archer (finished 10/20/21) 3.45 stars (A)
290. A Match Made for Murder by Iona Whishaw (finished 10/21/21) 3.9 stars
291. Irena's Children by Tilar Mazzeo (finished 10/22/21) 4 stars
292. Your Inner Hedgehog by Alexander McCall Smith (finished 10/24/21) 3.6 stars (A)
293. Femlandia by Christina Dalcher (finished 10/24/21) 4 stars (A)
294. The Whistler by John Grisham (finished 10/26/21) 4.15 stars
295. A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution by Jeremy Popkin (finished 10/27/21) 4.3 stars (partly A)
296. The Judge's List by John Grisham (finished 10/27/21) 4 stars
297. *Parker Pyne Investigates by Agatha Christie (finished 10/28/21) 3.7 stars
298. Hold Your Breath, China by Qiu Xiaolong (finished 10/28/21) 3.1 stars
299. Article 353 by Tanguy Viel (finished 10/29/21) 4.5 stars
300. When Women Ruled the World; Making the Renaissance in Europe by Maureen Quilligan (finished 10/29/21) 2.7 stars (A)
301. *Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran (finished 10/30/21) 4.2 stars (A)
302. Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History by Alex von Tunzelmann (finished 10/30/21) 4.5 stars (A)

The November list:

303. True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society by Farhad Manjoo (finished 11/1/21) 4 stars (A)
304. *Defectors by Joseph Kanon (finished 11/1/21) 3.8 stars
305. The Correspondents: Six Women Writers on the Front Lines of World War II by Judith Mackrell (finished 11/4/21) 4.3 stars (A)
306. Why Religion? A Personal Story by Elaine Pagels (finished 11/6/21) 4.3 stars (A)
307. The Devil's Handshake by Murray Davies (finished 11/6/21) 4 stars
308. The Mitford Vanishing by Jessica Fellowes (finished 11/8/21) 3.7 stars
309. Justine by Lawrence Durrell (finished 11/10/21) 4 stars
310. *The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie (finished 11/10/21) 3.8 stars (A)
311. Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette (finished 11/12/21) 4.3 stars
312. Agent in Berlin by Alex Gerlis (finished 11/12/21) 3.7 stars
313. Never by Ken Follett (finished 11/13/21) 3.7 stars (A)
314. The Writing of the Gods: The Race to Decode the Rosetta Stone by Edward Dolnick (finished 11/13/21) 5 stars (A)
315. What Happened to the Bennetts by Lisa Scottoline (finished 11/14/21) 4 stars
316. The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer by Dean Jobb (finished 11/14/21) 3.8 stars (A)
317. *Invasion of Privacy by Christopher Reich (finished 11/15/21) 3.45 stars (A)
318. Three Ordinary Girls by Tim Brady (finished 11/16/21) 3.4 stars
319. The Editor by Steven Rowley (finished 11/16/21) 4.2 stars
320. Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy by Larry Tye (finished 11/17/21) 4.2 stars (partly A)
321. The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan (finished 11/18/21) 4 stars
322. Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller by Nadia Wassef (11/18/21) 4.1 stars (A)
323. Footsteps in the Snow and Other Teatime Treats by Trisha Ashley (finished 11/18/21) 2.9 stars
324. Inspector Chen and the Private Kitchen by Qiu Xiaolong (finished 11/19/21) 3.7 stars
325. A Change of Circumstance by Susan Hill (finished 11/20/21) 4.2 stars
326. Watching Darkness Fall: FDR, His Ambassadors, and the Rise of Adolf Hitler by David McKean (finished 11/21/21) 4.1 stars (A)
327. Shed No Tears by Caz Frear (finished 11/22/21) 4.2 stars (A)
328. The Eyes of the Queen by Oliver Clements (finished 11/24/21) 4.2 stars (A)
329. *The Gentle Falcon by Hilda Lewis (finished 11/24/21) 4.65 stars
330. The Anarchy by William Dalrymple (finished 11/26/21) 4.5 stars
331. The Taking of Jemima Boone: Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped America by Matthew Pearl (finished 11/27/21) 4.2 stars (A)
332. *Flashpoint by Michael Gilbert (finished 11/28/21) 4.15 stars
333. Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert (finished 11/28/21) 4.65 stars
334. *Paint, Gold and Blood by Michael Gilbert (finished 11/29/21) 4.2 stars
335. Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe (finished 11/30/21) 5 stars (A)
336. *Be Shot For Sixpence by Michael Gilbert (finished 11/30/21) 3.45 stars

The December list:

337. Midnight Atlanta by Thomas Mullen (finished 12/1/21) 4.3 stars
338. Rachel to the Rescue by Elinor Lipman (finished 12/2/21) 3.75 stars
339. The White Russian by Vanora Bennet (finished 12/3/21) 4.1 stars
340. How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America by Heather Cox Richardson (finished 12/3/21) 4.4 stars (A)
341. Mum & Dad by Joanna Trollope (finished 12/4/21) 3.85 stars
342. The New Map: Energy, Climate and the Clash of Nations by Daniel Yergin (finished 12/4/21) 3.8 stars (A)
343. Virginia Woolf in Manhattan by Maggie Gee (finished 12/4/21) 4.55 stars
344. Spooked: The Trump Dossier, Black Cube, and the Rise of Private Spies by Barry Meier (finished 12/5/21) 4 stars (A)
345. The Man That Got Away by Lynne Truss (finished 12/7/21) 4.2 stars (A)
346. *The Deception of the Emerald Ring by Lauren Willig (finished 12/8/21) 3.8 stars
347. War: How Conflict Shaped Us by Margaret Macmillan (finished 12/9/21) 4.45 stars
348. Rabbit Hole by Mark Billingham (finished 12/10/21) 3.7 stars
349. Murder by Milk Bottle by Lynne Truss (finished 12/10/21) 4.2 stars (A)
350. Mother Land by Leah Franqui (finished 12/11/21) 4 stars
351. Pilgrims by Matthew Kneale (finished 12/11/21) 4.35 stars
352. The Red Horse by James R. Benn (finished 12/11/21) 3.65 stars (A)
353. Austen Years: A Memoir in Five Novels by Rachel Cohen (finished 12/12/21) 4.2 stars
354. Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson (finished 12/13/21) 3.7 stars (A)
356. Writers & Lovers by Lily King (finished 12/13/21) 4.65 stars
357. The Boys From Brazil by Ira Levin (finished 12/15/21) 3.7 stars (A)
358. *Sunrise in the West by Edith Pargeter (finished 12/15/21) 3.85 stars
359. Psycho By the Sea by Lynne Truss (finished 12/16/21) 4 stars (A)
360. On Animals by Susan Orlean (finished 12/16/21) 5 stars
361. 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak (finished 12/17/21) 4.65 stars
362. Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge by Richard Ovenden (finished 12/18/21) 5 stars (A)
363. *The Berlin Spies by Alex Gerlis (finished 12/19/21) 3.45 stars (A)
364. *The Man Who Hated Banks by Michael Gilbert (finished 12/20/21) 4.1 stars
365. Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth by Bryan Burrough et al (finished 12/20/21) 4.5 stars (A)
366. Mission France: The True History of the Women of the SOE by Kate Vigurs (finished 12/21/21) 3.6 stars (A)
367. The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne by Elsa Hart (finished 12/22/21) 3.85 stars
368. The Toast of Time by Jodi Taylor (finished 12/25/21) 4.15 stars (A)
369. Operation Angus by Terry Fallis (finished 12/26/21) 4 stars (A)
370. Sleeper Agent by Ann Hagedorn (finished 12/27/21) 4.15 stars
371. Blaze Island by Catherine Bush (finished 12/29/21) 4.45 stars
372. Resolution by A.N. Wilson (finished 12/29/21) 4 stars
373. Once a Thief by Christopher Reich (finished 12/30/21) 3.9 stars
374. The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books: Christopher Columbus, His Son, and the Quest to Build the World's Greatest Library by Edward Wilson-Lee (finished 12/30/21) 4.5 stars
375. The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (finished 12/30/21) 5 stars
376. Trio by William Boyd (finished 12/31/21) 3.7 stars
377. Matrix by Lauren Groff (finished 12/31/21) 4.2 stars
378. Independence Square by A.D. Miller (finished 12/31/21) 4.2 stars
379. Sovietistan by Erika Fatland (finished 12/31/21) 3.7 stars

(A) -- audiobook
* -- re-read

August list:

209: *Having the Decorators In by Reay Tannahill (finished 8/1/21) 4.1 stars
210. The Stratford Murder by Mike Hollow (finished 8/2/21) 3.6 stars (A)
211. Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy (finished 8/4/21) 5 stars
212. All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner (finished 8/5/21) 4.3 stars (A)
213. *The Deceiver by Frederick Forsyth (finished 8/6/21) 4.4 stars
214. The Museum of Broken Promises by Elizabeth Buchan (finished 8/7/21) 4.25 stars
215. Agent M: The Lives and Spies of MI5's Maxwell Knight by Henry Hemming (finished 8/7/21) 4 stars
216. A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth by Daniel Mason (finished 8/8/21) 4.4 stars
217. 97,196 Words by Emmanuel Carrère (finished 8/8/21) 4.3 stars
218. The Talented Miss Farwell by Emily Gray Tedrowe (finished 8/8/21) 4.4 stars
219. Play the Red Queen by Juris Jurjevics (finished 8/9/21) 3.9 stars
220. Mr. Nobody by Catherine Steadman (finished 8/10/21) 4.2 stars
221. The Cult of the Constitution by Mary Anne Franks (finished 8/10/21) 4.2 stars (A)
222. Checkmate in Berlin: The Cold War Showdown that Shaped the Modern World by Giles Milton (finished 8/13/21) 4.2 stars (A)
223. Priceless by Zygmunt Miloszewski (finished 8/13/21) 4 stars
224. The Love Child by Rachel Hore (finished 8/14/21) 3.2 stars
225. I Saw Him Die by Andrew Wilson (finished 8/14/21) 3.4 stars
226. *The Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Al Sanea (finished 8/15/21) 4.3 stars (A)
227. Virus: Vaccinations, the CDC, and the Hijacking of America's Response to the Pandemic by Nina Burleigh (finished 8/15/21) 4 stars (A)
228. American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst by Jeffrey Toobin (finished 8/18/21) 3.85 stars
229. *The Warehouse by Rob Hart (finished 8/20/21) 4.1 stars
230. A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain by Marc Morris (finished 8/23/21) 4.2 stars (A)
231. Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener (finished 8/23/21) 4.7 stars
232. Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich by Norman Ohler (finished 8/24/21) 4.15 stars (A)
233, See Jane Run by Joy Fielding (finished 8/26/21) 3.75 stars
234. Never Remember: Searching for Stalin's Gulags in Putin's Russia by Masha Gessen (finished 8/26/21) 4.35 stars (A)
235. *Sheer Abandon by Penny Vincenzi (finished 8/30/21) 3.5 stars (A)

September list:

236. *Prince of Spies by Alex Gerlis (finished 9/1/21) 4.2 stars (A)
237. *Sea of Spies by Alex Gerlis (finished 9/2/21) 4.2 stars (A)
238. Icebreaker: A Voyage Far North by Horatio Clare (finished 9/3/21) 4 stars
239. Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge (finished 9/3/21) 3.85 stars
240. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anaparra (finished 9/4/21) 4.6 stars
241. *Ring of Spies by Alex Gerlis (finished 9/5/21) 4 stars (A)
242. It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War by Lyndsey Addario (finished 9/7/21) 4.35 stars
243. A Time Without Shadows by Ted Allbeury (finished 9/8/21) 4.1 stars (A)
244. *Silesian Station by David Downing (finished 9/9/21) 4 stars (A)
245. The Women of Troy by Pat Barker (finished 9/10/21) 4.65 stars (A)
246. Ceremony of Innocence by Madeleine Bunting (finished 9/11/21) 4.35 stars
247. *Stettin Station by David Downing (finished 9/12/21) 4 stars (A)
248. *House of Dreams by Pauline Gedge (finished 9/13/21) 4.2 stars
249. Betrayal in Berlin by Steve Vogel (finished 9/15/21) 4.15 stars (A)
250. *House of Illusions by Pauline Gedge (finished 9/15/21) 4.2 stars
251. Four Princes by John Julius Norwich (finished 9/16/21) 4 stars
252. What Just Happened: Notes on a Long Year by Charles Finch (finished 9/17/21) 4.3 stars
253. Lives of the Stoics by Ryan Holiday (finished 9/19/21) 4.2 stars
254. When I Hit You: Or a Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife by Meena Kandasamy (finished 9/20/21) 4.7 stars
255. The Steel Beneath the Silk by Patricia Bracewell (finished 9/21/21) 3.6 stars
256. Peril by Bob Woodword and Robert Costa (finished 9/23/21) 4.15 stars (A)
257. A Darker Reality by Anne Perry (finished 9/23/21) 3.35 stars
258. Summer of Blood: England's First Revolution by Dan Jones (finished 9/24/21) 4.15 stars (A)
259. Murder in Chianti by Camilla Trincheri (finished 9/24/21) 4 stars
260. Travels With George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy by Nathaniel Philbrick (finished 9/24/21) 4.35 stars (A)
261. The Golden Thread: The Cold War and the Mysterious Death of Dag Hammarskjöld by Ravi Somaiya (finished 9/25/21) 4.2 stars
262. The Churchill Complex: The Rise and Fall of the Special Relationship by Ian Buruma (finished 9/25/21) 4.1 stars
263. Rizzio by Denise Mina (finished 9/26/21) 4.2 stars (A)
264. Constance by Matthew FitzSimmons (finished 9/26/21) 3.8 stars (A) (partly audio)
265. A Fire in the Night by Christopher Swann (finished 9/27/21) 3.85 stars (A)
266. People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn (finished 9/29/21) 4.3 stars
267. Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal by George Packer (finished 9/30/21) 4.7 stars (A)

(A) -- audiobook
* -- re-read

June list:

151. The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris (finished 6/1/21) 4.2 stars (A)
152. *Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition by Paul Watson (finished 6/3/21) 4.8 stars (A)
153. The High Girders: Tay Bridge Disaster 1879 by John Prebble (finished 6/4/21) 4.15 stars (A)
154. In the Shadow of the Empress by Nancy Goldstone (finished 6/5/21) 4.2 stars
155. Mantel Pieces by Hilary Mantel (finished 6/5/21) 4.5 stars
156. The Noose's Shadow by Graham Brack (finished 6/6/21) 3.4 stars
157. Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams (finished 6/6/21) 3.6 stars
158. An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Helene Tursten (finished 6/7/21) 4.3 stars
159. The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey (finished 6/7/21) 3.9 stars
160. The Cover Wife by Dan Fesperman (finished 6/9/21) 4.2 stars
161. *Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (finished 6/9/21) 4.2 stars (A)
162. The Disappearing Act by Catherine Steadman (finished 6/11/21) 4.2 stars
163. Yours Cheerfully by A.J. Pearce (finished 6/12/21) 3.5 stars
164. The Vanishing Museum on the rue Mistral by M.L. Longworth (finished 6/13/21) 3.7 stars
165. *In the Garden of the Beasts by Erik Larson (finished 6/15/21) 4.2 stars (A)
166. A Comedy of Terrors by Lindsey Davis (finished 6/18/21) 4 stars
167. A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich by Lucas Delattre (finished 6/19/21) 3.9 stars (A)
168. Impostor Syndrome by Kathy Wang (finished 6/21/21) 4.1 stars
169. Widowland by C.J. Carey (finished 6/22/21) 4.2 stars
170. The Vanishing Children by Graham Brack (finished 6/24/21) 3.85 stars
171. The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon became a Movement, Cult and Conspiracy Theory of Everything by Mike Rothschild (finished 6/24/21) 3.9 stars
172. *When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Penman (finished 6/25/21) 3.5 stars
173. Black Sun Rising by Matthew Carr (finished 6/25/21) 3.9 stars
174. War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East by Gershom Gorenberg (finished 6/27/21) 4.35 stars
175. Two Women in Rome by Elizabeth Buchan (finished 6/28/21) 4.2 stars
176. *Dominion by C.J. Sansom (finished 6/29/21) 4.3 stars (A)
177. The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths (finished 6/30/21) 4.4 stars

July list:

178. Freedom by Sebastian Junger (finished 7/1/21) 4.5 stars (A)
179. So Much Life Left Over by Louis de Bernières (finished 7/2/21) 3.85 stars
180. Our American Friend by Anna Pitoniak (finished 7/2/21) 4.2 stars
181. The Devil May Dance by Jake Tapper (finished 7/2/21) 3.7 stars
182. Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman (finished 7/3/21) 3.65 stars
183. *The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva (finished 7/4/21) 4.2 stars (A)
184. Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine (finished 7/6/21) 5 stars
185. The Blitz Detective by Mike Hollow (finished 7/6/21) 4.3 stars (A)
186. Exit by Belinda Bauer (finished 7/8/21) 4.6 stars
187. Debutante by Anne Melville (finished 7/9/21) 3.2 stars
188. When My Time Comes by Diane Rehm (finished 7/10/21) 4.35 stars
189. *Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (finished 7/11/21) 4.4 stars (A)
190. The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch (finished 7/12/21) 4 stars (A)
191. The Canning Town Murder by Mike Hollow (finished 7/12/21) 4.1 stars (A)
192. The Fine Art of Invisible Detection by Robert Goddard (finished 7/14/21) 4.1 stars
193. My Grandmother's Braid by Alina Bronsky (finished 7/16/21) 4.3 stars
194. Landslide by Michael Wolff (finished 7/17/21) 4.15 stars (A)
195. Brotherhood by Mohamed Mbugar Sarr (finished 7/18/21) 4.25 stars
196. The Custom House Murder by Mike Hollow (finished 7/19/21) 4 stars (A)
197. *Having the Builders In by Reay Tannahill (finished 7/20/21) 4.2 stars
198. I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year by Carol Leoning & Philip Rucker (finished 7/22/21) 4.35 stars (A)
199. The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore (finished 7/23/21) 4.65 stars
200. Operation Columba: The Secret Pigeon Service by Gordon Corera (finished 7/24/21) 4.5 stars (A)
201. Germania by Harold Gilbers (finished 7/25/21) 4.15 stars (A)
202. *Regeneration by Pat Barker (finished 7/26/21) 5 stars
203. *The Swiss Spy by Alex Gerlis (finished 7/27/21) 4.1 stars (A)
204. Silent Parade by Keigo Higashino (finished 7/28/21) 4.1 stars
205. *Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey (finished 7/28/21) 5 stars (A)
206. Metropolitan Stories by Catherine Coulsen (finished 7/29/21) 4.25 stars
207. *Pied Piper by Nevil Shute (finished 7/30/21) 4.2 stars (A)
208. The Cellist by Daniel Silva (finished 7/31/21) 4.15 stars (A)

The April list:

85. *The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman (finished 4/1/21) 3.6 stars (A)
86. The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale (finished 4/2/21) 4.3 stars
87. The Socrates Express by Eric Weiner (finished 4/3/21) 4.2 stars (A)
88. The Plague Year by Lawrence Wright (finished 4/3/21) 4.1 stars
89. Miss Kopp Investigates by Amy Stewart (finished 4/4/21) 4.1 stars
90. *The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman (finished 4/4/21) 3.5 stars (A)
91. Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy (finished 4/5/21) 5 stars
92. *Queen of Ambition by Fiona Buckley (finished 4/5/21) 3.6 stars
93. *Venetia by Georgette Heyer (finished 4/7/21) 3.7 stars (A)
94. Turn a Blind Eye by Jeffrey Archer (finished 4/8/21) 3.6 stars
95. End of Spies by Alex Gerlis (finished 4/9/21) 3.9 stars
96. Death in Delft by Graham Brack (finished 4/9/21) 3.65 stars (A)
97. Look What You Made Me Do by Elaine Murphy (finished 4/10/21) 3.75 stars
98. Elizabeth & Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters by Andrew Morton (finished 4/10/21) 3.7 stars
99. The Sea Gate by Jane Johnson (finished 4/11/21) 4.1 stars
100. The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray (finished 4/11/21) 4.2 stars
101. You Can Run by Karen Cleveland (finished 4/12/21) 4 stars
102. Northern Spy by Flynn Berry (finished 4/12/21) 4.1 stars
103. Untrue Till Death by Graham Brack (finished 4/13/21) 3.6 stars (A)
104. Every Vow You Break by Peter Swanson (finished 4/14/21) 4.1 stars (A)
105. Another Time, Another Place by Jodi Taylor (finished 4/15/21) 4.2 stars (A)
106. The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB by Milton Bearden & James Risen (finished 4/17/21) 4 stars (A)
107. Triple Cross by Tom Bradby (finished 4/18/21) 3.95 stars
108. The White Ship: Conquest, Anarchy and the Wrecking of Henry I’s Dream by Charles Spencer (finished 4/20/21) 4.35 stars
109. Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age by Annalee Newitz (finished 4/20/21) 4.15 stars
110. Band of Sisters by Lauren Willig (finished 4/21/21) 3.85 stars
111. *Mrs. Pollifax on Safari by Dorothy Gilman (finished 4/22/21) 3 stars (A)
112. The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts (finished 4/23/21) 4.3 stars
113. The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda (finished 4/26/21) 4.75 stars
114. Nowhere Girl: A Memoir of a Fugitive Girlhood by Cheryl Diamond (finished 4/27/21) 4.15 stars
115. The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women's Rights by Dorothy Wickenden (finished 4/28/21) 4.85 stars
116. *Dictator by Robert Harris (finished 4/28/21) 4.35 stars (A)
117. Mudlark: In Search of London's Past Along the River Thames by Lara Meiklem (finished 4/29/21) 4.4 stars
118. *Stormy Petrel by Mary Stewart (finished 4/29/21) 3.75 stars (A)
119. The Left-Handed Twin by Thomas Perry (finished 4/30/21) 4.1 stars

The May list:

120. An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good by Helen Tursten (finished 5/2/21) 4.5 stars
121. *The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey (finished 5/3/21) 4.8 stars (A)
122. Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty by Maurice Chammah (finished 5/4/21) 4.7 stars (A)
123. The Freedom Line: The Brave Men and Women Who Rescued Allied Airmen by Peter Eisner (finished 5/5/21) 4.2 stars (A)
124. Notre-Dame: The Soul of France by Agnès Poirier (finished 5/6/21) 4.15 stars
125. The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis (finished 5/7/21) 4.2 stars (A)
126. A Noel Killing by M.L. Longworth (finished 5/8/21) 3.75 stars
127. Two Old Men and a Baby by Hendrik Groen (finished 5/8/21) 3.85 stars
128. *Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station by Dorothy Gilman (finished 5/9/21) 3 stars
129. City of Schemes by Victoria Thompson (finished 5/9/21) 3.9 stars
130. The Summer House by James Patterson (finished 5/10/21) 3.7 stars
131. Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha by Dorothy Gilman (finished 5/12/21) 3.15 stars (A)
132. The Ravine: A Family, a Photograph, a Holocaust Massacre Revealed by Wendy Lower (finished 5/13/21) 4.2 stars
133. *Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson (finished 5/14/21) 4.85 stars (A)
134. The Spider: Inside the Criminal Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell by Barry Levine (finished 5/15/21) 3.7 stars (A)
135. The Windsor Knot by S.J. Bennett (finished 5/15/21) 4.35 stars
136. *Valentina by Evelyn Anthony (finished 5/17/21) 3 stars
137. The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth (finished 5/18/21) 3.4 stars
138. The Royal Secret by Andrew Taylor (finished 5/19/21) 4.2 stars
139. Nives by Sacha Naspini (finished 5/19/21) 5 stars
140. Dishonour and Obey by Graham Brack (finished 5/20/21) 3.25 stars
141. Death With a Double Edge by Anne Perry (finished 5/20/21) 3.2 stars (A)
142. Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu (finished 5/22/21) 4.3 stars
143. The Happy Traitor: the Extraordinary Life of George Blake by Simon Kuper (finished 5/23/21) 4.15 stars
144. *The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming (finished 5/24/21) 4.2 stars (A)
145. Daughters of Sparta by Claire Heywood (finished 5/25/21) 3.65 stars
146. Middlemarch by George Eliot (finished 5/28/21) 4.3 stars (A)
147. The Dream Weavers by Barbara Erskine (finished 5/29/21) 3.7 stars
148. A Peculiar Combination by Ashley Weaver (finished 5/30/21) 3.4 stars
149. The Anglo-Saxons by Marc Morris (finished 5/30/21) 4.6 stars
150. Not At Home by Doris Langley Moore (finished 5/31/21) 4.4 stars

(A) -- audiobook
* -- re-read

The January list:

1. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (finished 1/1/21) 3.8 stars
2. The Forgotten Kingdom by Signe Pike (finished 1/1/21) 4.1 stars (A)
3. Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis by Jeffrey Jackson (finished 1/2/21) 4 stars
4. Third Girl by Agatha Christie (finished 1/3/21) 3.4 stars (A)
5. *Code Name Hélène by Ariel Lawhon (finished 1/4/21) 4.2 stars (A)
6. Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life by Louise Aronson (finished 1/4/21) 5 stars
7. Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power and History's First Global Manhunt by Steve Johnson (finished 1/6/21) 4.2 stars (A)
8. Away With the Penguins by Hazel Prior (finished 1/7/21) 4 stars
9. The Finisher by Peter Lovesey (finished 1/8/21) 4.1 stars
10. The Last by Hanna Jameson (finished 1/9/21) 4.2 stars
11. *Divine Comedy by Elizabeth Pewsey (finished 1/10/21) 4.1 stars (A)
12. When She Was Good by Michael Robotham (finished 1/10/21) 4.2 stars
13. *Unholy Harmonies by Elizabeth Pewsey (finished 1/12/21) 4.1 stars (A)
14. *Unaccustomed Spirits by Elizabeth Pewsey (finished 1/14/21) 4 stars (A)
15. A Matter of Life and Death by Phillip Margolin (finished 1/14/21) 3 stars
16. *The Ghost by Robert Harris (finished 1/15/21) 4.2 stars (A)
17. When You See Me by Lisa Gardener (finished 1/17/21) 3.7 stars
18. The Great Secret: The Classified World War II Disaster That Launched the War on Cancer by Jennet Conant (finished 1/18/21) 4.1 stars
19. The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World and Globalization Began by Valerie Hansen (finished 1/19/21) 4.3 stars
20. Katharine Parr: The Sixth Wife by Alison Weir (finished 1/20/21) 3.7 stars
21. *Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin (finished 1/21/21) 4.2 stars (A)
22. Butcher's Crossing by John Williams (finished 1/22/21) 4.7 stars
23. A Prince and a Spy by Rory Clements (finished 1/22/21) 4.2 stars
24. The Only Living Witness by Stephen Michaud (finished 1/23/21) 4 stars
25. *The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin (finished 1/23/21) 3.85 stars (A)
26. *Vertigo by W.G. Sebald (finished 1/24/21) 4.35 stars
27. Red Widow by Alma Katsu (finished 1/25/21) 3.15 stars
28. *Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin (finished 1/26/21) 3.8 stars (A)
29. The Silver Collar by Antonia Hodgson (finished 1/27/21) 4.2 stars
30. Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy by Anne Sebba (finished 1/28/21) 4 stars
31. *A Murderous Procession by Ariana Franklin (finished 1/28/21) 4.1 stars (A)
32. Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano (finished 1/30/21) 4 stars
33. Stop at Nothing by Michael Ledwige (finished 1/31/21) 2 stars (A)
34. Dark Salt Clear: Life in a Cornish Fishing Town by Lamorna Ash (finished 1/31/21) 4.3 stars
35. *The Darcy Connection by Elizabeth Aston (finished 1/31/21) 3.8 stars (A)

The February List:

36. *I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes (finished 2/2/21) 4.35 stars (A)
37. The Far Side of the Sky by Daniel Kalla (finished 2/4/21) 3.35 stars
38. *Mr. Darcy's Daughters by Elizabeth Aston (finished 2/4/21) 3.65 stars (A)
39. The Velvet Rope Economy: How Inequality Became Big Business by Nelson Schwarz (finished 2/5/21) 4.1 stars
40. The Nine: The True Story of a Band of Women Who Survived the Worst of Nazi Germany by Gwen Strauss (finished 2/6/21) 4.3 stars
41. *To Shield the Queen by Fiona Buckley (finished 2/7/21) 4 stars (A)
42. The Bad Muslim Discount by Syed Mahmood (finished 2/7/21) 4.7 stars
43. *The Doublet Affair by Fiona Buckley (finished 2/8/21) 3.9 stars (A)
44. The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War by Jonathan Daniel Wells (finished 2/9/21) 4.1 stars
45. Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March (finished 2/10/21) 3.7 stars
46. *Queen's Ransom by Fiona Buckley (finished 2/10/21) 3.85 stars (A)
47. The Mercenary by Paul Vidich (finished 2/13/21) 3.75 stars
48. The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy by Elizabeth Aston (finished 2/13/21) 3.65 stars
49. Hitler: Downfall 1939-1945 by Volker Ullrich (finished 2/14/21) 4.5 stars
50. The Old Enemy by Henry Porter (finished 2/16/21) 4.1 stars
51. *To Ruin a Queen by Henry Porter (finished 2/17/21) 3.5 stars (A)
52. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (finished 2/20/21) 4.3 stars
53. M, King's Bodyguard by Niall Leonard (finished 2/22/21) 4.2 stars
54. *Vox by Christina Dalcher (finished 2/22/21) 4.3 stars (A)
55. You Don't Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War by Elizabeth Becker (finished 2/24/21) 5 stars (A)
56. The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan (finished 2/24/21) 3.3 stars
57. *The Janus Imperative by Evelyn Anthony (finished 2/25/21) 3.4 stars
58. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker (finished 2/26/21) 4.35 stars
59. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (finished 2/27/21) 5 stars
60. *Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst (finished 2/27/21) 4 stars
61. Five Little Indians by Michelle Good (finished 2/28/21) 4.7 stars

The March List:

62. Death and the Maiden by Samantha Norman/Ariana Franklin (finished 3/2/21) 3.7 stars
63. A Beautiful Spy by Rachel Hore (finished 3/3/21) 3.2 stars
64. The Voter File by David Pepper (finished 3/5/21) 3.3 stars
65. *A Place of Execution by Val McDermid (finished 3/6/21) 4.3 stars (A)
66. The Moscow Rules by Antonio Mendez (finished 3/7/21) 3.75 stars (A)
67. Behind Closed Doors by Catherine Alliott (finished 3/9/21) 4.1 stars
68. Citizens of London by Lynne Olson (finished 3/10/21) 4.2 stars (A)
69. Fallen by Linda Castillo (finished 3/13/21) 3.9 stars
70. *The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye (finished 3/16/21) 3.5 stars (A)
71. The Brandons by Angela Thirkell (finished 3/17/21) 3.45 stars
72. The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn (finished 3/19/21) 4.4 stars
73. The Rose Code by Kate Quinn (finished 3/20/21) 4.1 stars
74. Wedding Station by David Downing (finished 3/23/21) 3.8 stars
75. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (finished 3/24/21) 4.45 stars
76. *Pen Pals by Olivia Goldsmith (finished 3/25/21) 3.7 stars (A)
77. *Farthing by Jo Walton (finished 3/26/21) 4.15 stars
78. The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear (finished 3/27/21) 3.6 stars
79. *Ha'Penny by Jo Walton (finished 3/28/21) 4.2 stars (A)
80. Aftershocks: A Memoir by Nadia Owusu (finished 3/28/21) 4.8 stars
81. *Half a Crown by Jo Walton (finished 3/28/21) 3.65 stars (A)
82. Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie (finished 3/29/21) 3.75 stars (A)
83. Stakes Is High: Life After the American Dream by Mychal Denzel Smith (finished 3/30/21) 4.4 stars
84. Travels With Epicurus by Daniel Klein (finished 3/31/21) 3.75 stars

(A) -- audiobook
* -- re-read

My Favorite Books of 2021

Fiction

Possess your soul in patience...

Non-Fiction

Coming soon...

Reading Plans for 2021

Mysteries

The Silver Collar by Antonia Hodgson Read
Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner
A Noel Killing by ML Longworth Read
The Blitz Detective by Mike Hollow Read
Cold Kill – Rennie Airth
Salt Lane – William Shaw
Murder in Chianti by Camilla Trincheri Read
Entry Island by Peter May
Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano Read
The Royal Secret by Andrew Taylor Read
A Match Made for Murder by Iona Whishaw Read
A Million Drops by Victor del Arbol
A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins
Play the Red Queen by Juris Jurjevics Read

Canadian Content

Blaze Island by Catherine Bush Read
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good Read
The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart
The Finder by Will Ferguson
First Snow, Last Light by Wayne Johnston
Reproduction by Ian Williams
Operation Angus by Terry Fallis Read
Lost in September by Kathleen Winter
Consent by Annabel Lyon
The Wagers by Sean Michaels
Greenwood by Michael Christie
Five Wives by Joan Thomas

Non-Fiction

Demagogue by Larry Tye Read
A Sound Mind by Paul Morley
Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World by Simon Winchester
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
The Churchill Complex by Ian Buruma Read
The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books: Christopher Columbus, His Son, and the Quest to Build the World's Greatest Library by Edward Wilson-Lee Read
The White Ship: Conquest, Anarchy and the Wrecking of Henry I’s Dream by Charles Spencer Read
The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science by Seb Falk
Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener Read
Big Dirty Money by Jennifer Taub
Ravenna, Capital of Europe by Judith Herrin
The Anarchy by William Dalrymple Read
The Socrates Express by Eric Wiener Read
Dark, Salt, Clear by Lamorna Ash Read
Austen Years by Rachel Cohen Read
The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts Read
Sovietistan by Erika Fatland Read
The New Map by Daniel Yergin Read
War: How Conflict Shaped Us by Margaret Macmillan Read

More Reading Lists for 2021

New-To-Me Authors

Deacon King Kong by James McBride
White Ivy by Susie Yang
The Talented Miss Farwell by Emily Gray Tedrowe Read
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Pilgrims by Matthew Kneale Read
Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March Read
Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson Read
Red Widow by Alma Katsu Read
Shelter in Place by David Leavitt
Blue Ticket – Sophie Mackintosh
Virginia Woolf in Manhattan by Maggie Gee Read
The Bad Muslim Discount by Syed Masood Read
The Editor by Steve Rowley Read
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam DNF
Red Pill by Hari Kunzru

Historical Fiction

The Honey and the Sting by EC Freemantle
The Mask of Apollo – Mary Renault
The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne by Elsa Hart Read
Damascus by Christos Tsiolkas
The Steel Beneath the Silk by Patricia Bracewell Read
The Women of Troy by Pat Barker Read
Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller
Matrix by Lauren Groff Read
The White Russian by Vanora Bennett Read
Resolution by A.N. Wilson Read
Tsarina by Ellen Alpert
The Forgotten Kingdom by Signe Pike Read

Short Story Anthologies

The Decameron Project by various New Yorker contributors
The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans
Here the Dark by David Bergen
Metropolitan Stories by Christine Coulson Read
A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth by Daniel Mason Read
One Point Two Billion by Mahesh Rao
Pack of Cards by Penelope Lively
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel

Series & Sequels

A Change of Circumstance by Susan Hill Read
You Love Me by Caroline Kepnes
Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith
The Brandons by Angela Thirkell Read
The Man That Got Away by Lynne Truss Read
The Red Horse by James Benn Read
The Cold Way Home by Julia Keller
Midnight Atlanta by Thomas Mullen Read
Hold your Breath, China by Qiu Xiaolong Read
The Mitford Vanishing by Jessica Fellowes Read
A Darker Reality by Anne Perry Read
I Saw Him Die – Andrew Wilson Read
The Prince of Bombay by Sujata Massey Read
The Dockland Murder by Mike Hollow Read

And more reading lists...

The TBR of Shame

Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny
Trio by William Boyd Read
The Charmed Wife by Olga Grushin
The Glass Kingdom by Lawrence Osborne
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Paris Never Leaves You by Ellen Feldman
Mother Land by Leah Franqui Read
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett Read
These Women by Ivy Pochoda
Independence Square by A.D. Miller Read
A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millett
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdich Read
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri
Writers & Lovers by Lily King Read

Reading Globally

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara (India) Read
Transcendant Kingdoms Yaa Gyasi (Ghana/USA)
The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan (Australia) Read
Retour Indesirable by Charles Lewinsky (Switzerland)
Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gappah (Zimbabwe)
Biografi by Lloyd Jones (New Zealand)
Sankofa by Chibundu Onusu (Nigeria/UK) Read
My Grandmother's Braid by Alina Bronsky (Germany/Russia) Read
Nives by Sacha Naspini (Italy) Read
Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huang (Vietnam)
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (Japan) Read
The Death of Comrade President by Alain Mabanckou (Congo)
The Republic of False Truths by Alaa al-Aswany (Egypt)
Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge (China) Read
The Immortals of Tehran by Ali Araghi (Iran)
The Frightened Ones by Dima Wannous (Syria)
Brotherhood by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr (Senegal) Read
The Second Rider by Alex Beer (Austria)
The Good Life Elsewhere by Vladimir Lorchenkov (Moldova)
Red Crosses by Sasha Filipenko (Russia)
The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste (Ethiopia)
The Convert by Stefan Hertmans (Belgium)
2084 by Boualem Sansal (Germany/Algeria)
Priceless by Zygmunt Miloszewski (Poland) Read
10 Minutes 38 Seconds In This Strange World by Elif Shafak (Turkey) Read
Apeirogon by Colum McCann (Ireland)

Lighter Stuff

Escaping Dreamland by Charlie Lovett
Girls of Summer by Nancy Thayer
Flowers of Darkness by Tatiana de Rosnay
The Judge's List by John Grisham Read
The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan Read
Behind Closed Doors by Catherine Alliott Read
A Springtime Affair by Katie Fforde
Band of Sisters by Lauren Willig Read
Mum & Dad by Joanna Trollope Read
The Love Child by Rachel Hore Read
The Museum of Broken Promises by Elizabeth Buchan Read
A Beautiful Spy by Rachel Hore Read

final saved space, in case.

13 for luck?

Happy New Thread, Suzanne! Cuddle the kitties for me.

>14 ronincats: Thanks, Roni! The furry ones send purrs...

Very nice! Peace and anticipation of what you read and what you think of it. I'm off to look at that Maggie Gee about V. Woolf.

Happy new thread, Suzanne!

>2 Chatterbox: My kittens think I am a human hot water bottle too. Chalfont is currently snuggling up on my left side. Mallory was there earlier.

How cool to have met AY Jackson! The only real artist I have met is Robert Bateman. Ravine walks are the best! Once, several years ago, the city was dedicating a parkette to Bateman. It was located just a few doors down from his childhood home and I actually booked off work (saying I had an *appointment*; no one needed to know it was with Bateman!) to go to the dedication. Bateman then took a group of us on a short ravine walk behind the house and the park.

But I have been to the McMichael museum several times to see the works of the Group of Seven. Always impressive!

Happy new one, Suz.

Happy new one!

>1 Chatterbox: Enjoyed this poem very much Suzanne.

Happy to have your words and thoughts in my life

Thanks for the greetings, everyone!

>21 magicians_nephew: Aww, shucks, thanks. What amazes me about that poem is that Dove wasn't even 30 years old when she wrote it...

>18 jessibud2: VERY cool!! And what a great idea for a 'personal day'... I think my grandfather must have encountered Jackson several times before because he just introduced me and we kept on going. It must have been shortly before Jackson died.

I ADORE the McMichael. What I particularly relish is that sometimes it's possible to look away from the works hanging on the wall and glance out one of the biggish windows, and see the 'real life' version of some of those landscapes. Well, not Lawren Harris's icebergs, obviously, but...

>17 alcottacre: Minka spent a chunk of the night curled up under the duvet next to me. She slept peacefully; I don't get to sleep much any more, but having her purring beside me made me relaxed, at least!

>16 LizzieD: One reason I put the Gee novel on my list this year is that I've been meaning to read it for eons -- and haven't. And I STILL haven't. Heavens.

Am now spending the nights listening to the audiobook of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Hoping that this helps me relax and unwind.

Hmmmm. Well, MA will at least teach you how to suck it up gracefully if you'll let him, and I expect that you will.
I used to assign my Latin students a personal list of thanks to people who had been good to them after we read a bit of MA in translation. They enjoyed writing their lists, and I loved reading them.

>22 Chatterbox: - Also, at the McMichael, there is the actual cabin Tom Thompson lived/worked in. It was brought up to Kleinberg and its now permanent home is on the site of McMichael. When Meg (FamilyHistorian) visited me in Toronto a few summers ago, we went there and she peeked in all the windows!

>24 jessibud2: I think I knew that; I can't remember whether or not I saw it on my last visit.

>23 LizzieD: I read MA eons ago, in my 20s, and it helped. Not sure I'm necc prepared for gratitude letters; just the ability to let things go and move on in peace would be v. helpful.

(Not real letters, Suz..... Just, for example: Thanks to --- "my black lab Chester for teaching me to sport a look of innocence in any situation," was one of my favorites.)

Happy Friday, Suzanne!

>26 LizzieD: LOL, Peggy!! Well, I could write a few of those.

>27 alcottacre: Working on having a good Sunday. Dreadful rainy weather up here. I don't mind the chill in the air, but it's gloomy and headache-inducing low pressure, so...

Whenever I'm stressed, I find myself turning back to old favorites and/or children's books (mostly those that I loved when I was younger). Now I've discovered a new favorite aimed at kids from 8 to 11 or thereabouts, by Natalie Haynes (who has written modern novels based on ancient Greek dramas/myths/history and some other excellent non-fiction stuff). The Great Escape has a wonderful set of characters, and a talking cat called Max (he's Belgian, with a very evolved sense of cat self-importance) who escapes from a lab with the help of Millie, the young heroine of the book. But what lunatic sees the potential in developing talking cats? This is fun, thought-provoking and heart-warming, all at once. And it made me wonder what Sir Fergus the Fat and Minka the Velveteen Kitten might have to say about the world...

Let me cancel my previous endorsement of Scribd.

Overnight last night, about half of my "saved" content simply vanished, including three books that I was reading (two audiobooks and an e-book). I will be allowed access to it again on November 20th. One of the disappeared books is a thriller. Now, if you're like me, the last thing you want is to wait two weeks to figure out what happened. They bloviate about "unlimited" reading and then arbitrarily do this. I could understand if the offerings were NOT unlimited -- I could accept that more readily than this nonsense. It's bait and switch. Good thing it's a trial at 99 cents a month; I will be canceling after that. It's cr*p for heavy readers, regardless of WHAT you're reading (2/3 of what disappeared is stuff that isn't new, popular or costly, like an anthology of mystery stories that would cost me $2.99 to buy for my Kindle -- which is what I'm now going to do.)

>30 Chatterbox: I've just started using the library ebook systems and I wouldn't bother with scribd with access to these, particularly on the basis of your experience. The library books are auto returned if I don't do it first at the end of a loan period, and lots are in demand so I will have to wait for them again. But you do get plenty of warning and it's free.

I can get a total of ten e-books or audiobooks each month from Hoopla (the Athenaeum online borrowing portal), for 21 days at a time. I don't have to wait to renew if I haven't finished but I would need to use another of my 10 'borrows' for that renewal. The biggest problem is that their selection is wildly uneven. Scribd's is better -- if it were 'real'.

>30 Chatterbox: Well that is not good news to hear, but thank you for the heads up, Suzanne. Sorry scribd did not work out for you.

Happy Sunday, Suzanne. I hope the headaches stay away!

>30 Chatterbox: I gave Scribd a try 4-5 years ago and found their bait and switch policy very frustrating. I don't recall the particulars of the issue but it was very similar to what you described. I ended up canceling their subscription and never regretted it. I'm able to balance electronic and audiobooks offerings at my local library + Hoppla (although only 4 per month).

I've been approved for a host of exciting-looking new books via Edelweiss and NetGalley -- now I just need to find the time & energy to read them! Including Stewart O'Nan's upcoming Ocean State, which will make the SECOND novel set in Rhode Island that I'll read this year...

Oooh, a new O'Nan! I just looked it up and it sounds excellent.

>35 Chatterbox: Looking forward to your thoughts on Ocean State, Suzanne! Congratulations on getting some new books through Edelweiss and NetGalley. I am pretty sure that the BBs will be flying at me.

I just finished the other Rhode Island novel, Agatha of Little Neon and it was quirky and heartfelt and very well-written.

Now have begun delving into Omar el-Akkad's newest book, What Strange Paradise and so far it's excellent.

Listened to the audiobook of Ken Follett's latest chunskter and found myself with an interesting response. I did end up reading his interminable books about the medieval cathedral town/city and they felt ponderous, artificial and badly written, as well as pretentious. The new book, Never, is a return to political suspense of the kind he did well early on in his career (think, 1970s/80s/early 90s). But LOOONNNGG. So I was wary. Rightfully so, because the plot hops, skips and jumps all over the place, and the characters exist only to move the plot along (as in the interminable cathedral sagas). But what was increasingly fascinating was that basic plot line, which Follett explained in a preamble was shaped by his interest in the events of 1914 and how (in his view) the great powers ended up engulfed in a conflict that none of them really wanted because of a series of decisions and alliances. Now, I'd quibble with Follett's view that no one really wanted war (I think some were quite prepared to fight a war; since there hadn't been a Europe-wide conflict in a century, since Waterloo, and contemporary culture still valorized people like Henry V or Alexander the Great, there remained a sense that war could be glorious and heroic and was a viable way to express national superiority. Intriguingly, that strand of thinking also surfaces in this novel... For all its flaws (and there are many) Follett provides a case study of how a third world war might unfold as a result of a series of apparently unconnected events that keep rippling upwards. For those who don't have the interest or patience to read a book like Essence of Decision by Graham Allison -- a classic that breaks down the geo-strategic thinking underpinning the Cuban missile crisis that was a big part of my Int'l politics studies in the 80s and remains a classic today -- this may be a good way to remind us all (a) that nuclear war is not an impossibility, (b) that apparently welcome events have unpredictable consequences and (c) that when there is a choice between two evils, even 'good' people will still view the greater evil as the only one they see as tolerable.

So, a book that really has no inherent value as a novel, other than to pass some idle time (and then only if you can tolerate indifferent prose and cardboard characters) ends up being a geopolitical primer. Go figure.

I think the role of fiction as a way to understanding is underestimated. I have found that reading mysteries and spy novels has opened my eyes to other interpretations in ways that I would not have managed on my own.

I have Agatha of Little Neon on my reading list. Glad to see that you liked it.

>38 Chatterbox: - And if I'm not mistaken, Omar el-Akkad's book has just won the Giller Prize

>40 jessibud2: You are not mistaken! And I'm enjoying (if that's the right word for a darkish novel) this one as much as I relished How to Pronounce Knife, last year's winner. I have a reasonably good track record in terms of liking Giller winners that I have read. That said, I have struggled with the Ian Williams novel that won in 2019, and didn't like The Sentimentalists by Johanna Skibsrud, back in 2010. But Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill, 419 by Will Ferguson, Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden, Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay and The Bishop's Man by Linden Macintyre, are among the best books I've read in the last decade.

Meanwhile have just wrapped up that rarity -- a five-star book. This one is The Writing of the Gods: The Race to Decode the Rosetta Stone by Edward Dolnick. I was drawn to it because of the history of the Rosetta stone and the Franco-English rivalry in the decoding of it -- but what was still more compelling was the insight into the history of writing, and into the different writing systems, alphabets, etc. For instance, if all Thais and anyone able to read Thai vanished from the earth, how would we set about understanding what their written language means, in all its nuance? Dolnick points out the difference between the original English of Beowulf, and the modern language version, to illustrate the extent to which English has evolved in about half the time that hieroglyphs formed the basis of written ancient Egyptian. Then there's the fact that we'll never know how this language was spoken -- an amusing factoid he threw in is the fact that spoken English is a quagmire for non-native speakers, but in Italy and Finland, there's no such thing as a spelling bee because spelling follows pronunciation almost in lockstep. Fascinating...

>38 Chatterbox: Adding Agatha of Little Neon to the BlackHole.

>41 Chatterbox: I have read one of Dolnick's other books and liked it, so a 5-star read on Champollion and the history of the Rosetta stone is a must have for me. Thanks for the recommendation, Suzanne.

Happy weekend!

I'm seriously wounded with the BB The Writing of the Gods. It has gone onto the official wish list. Thank you, Suzanne. I'll keep the others in mind.

Certainly think that Germany was ready willing and able to fight a war pre-WWI, and that Kaiser Bill felt that war against the "Yellow Peril" (which included Russia) was inevitable and if so the sooner the better.

Follet does do his homework. Pondering if I want to make the investment.

>44 magicians_nephew: I agree with you on willingness to fight. There also was a romance about war -- one that didn't survive four years of horror 1914-1918.

I'd turn to the library before paying real money for this one. I did use a credit for the audio version, but it's a lot of hours so good value.

Sorry Scribd didn't pan out. Very frustrating. Writing of the Gods sounds awesome!

A Thanksgiving to Friends (Lighting the Way)

In difficult times
a friend is there to light the way
to lighten the load,
to show the path,
to smooth the road

At the darkest hour
a friend, with a word of truth
points to light
and the encroaching dawn
is in the plainest sight.

Suz, to a friend in books and more this Thanksgiving

Thanks, Paul!

Just posted this on FB, but I'll share it here as well.

For someone who didn't grow up celebrating "American Thanksgiving", I can look back on some radically different kinds of Thanksgiving events! In Japan, I lugged a 25-pound frozen turkey on the bullet train from Tokyo to Niigata -- then realized that to cook it, we'd have to drive another 15 km to and back a kitchen that had a big enough oven. (It's a Japanese thing.) I've reheated chicken pot pie and stuffing in a microwave (2 minutes at a time max) on a cardiac ICU ward in New York. And while I've had the occasional festive dinner with Americans, the vast majority of my "American Thanksgivings" have been spent with Brits, in the Hamptons or, on one memorable occasion, in Princeton.

All of which underscores the fact that my Thanksgiving celebrations all have been variants of true Friendsgivings. So this year, as I curl up at home with cats and books and some opera and jazz playing in the background (not at the same time...), my greatest thanks go out to the network of friends who support, sustain and encourage me, day after day. Love you all.

I finished an entertaining historical suspense/mystery novel, Eyes of The Queen by Oliver Clement, featuring Francis Walsingham and John Dee. The portrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots as a sex-starved maniac was a bit over the top and unconvincing, and I think the author could have found another way to develop the same plot points, but the rest was an exciting adventure yarn. And the kicker is kind of a nod forward in time to James Bond, which made me chuckle.

Now listening to The Anarchy by William Dalrymple, which is excellent, and reading 1979 by Val McDermid, which is fab in part because that was my senior year of high school/first year of university, and I remember it so vividly. Including the blizzard that whited out northern Europe that December/January -- the first one hit us in Brussels just before Christmas, and then we were in Bristol for part of the new year's holiday, and had to creep back slowly to get the hovercraft back to Ostend. Weird to think that this is now not just the past, but is becoming "history".

Hey Suzanne, I just started following you, better late than never right?

And I am immediately hit by a BB to the noggin. I love Stewart O'Nan, and Ocean State is immediately going on the WL.

>49 mahsdad: I wish I could share it with you! Alas, it was either a NetGalley or Edelweiss e-galley, and those aren't shareable... I'm going to save it to read over the Xmas holiday, I think. Though I may get to it sooner, as Scribd has YET AGAIN cut off my access to all the books I had "saved". I figure they want to cap my reading/listening at about half-a-dozen titles in any month, based on the patterns that are developing. There's a kind of morbid fascination in it. In one case this month, I got to the halfway point in a collection of short stories, only to have Scribd tell me -- midway through a story -- that I had finished the 'preview' of the book, and could finish reading it on December 19. Not yet sure I'm reading/willing to pay $10/month for this kind of 'service'.

A five-star book!

Finished Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe, which is a triumph in terms of a business and family saga that also is the story of a tremendous social and medical issue -- to wit, the Sacklers, Purdue and the opioid addiction crisis. It's a brilliant and thorough takedown of the way that a family (so far) succeeds in hanging onto the profits they make via their family-owned business, while still claiming that it was the company that should be held accountable for any problems. Which is why Purdue filed for bankruptcy and the Sackler family members are still millionaires/billionaires, grumbling about having their name stripped from medical schools and museums.

>50 Chatterbox: Boo to Scribd - that doesn't sound worthwhile at all.

I checked my huge kindle Wishlist on Amazon sorted in price order, and discovered the collection of Soho Crime authors' Christmas stories that was discarded from the library collection a few months ago, down from over £11 to £1.43.

>52 elkiedee: Oooh, so pleased for you!! I should sort my books in price order, although I suspect that would simply cause me to spend too much on books I may not get around to reading, simply because they now look affordable! My years in Belgium and Japan have left a big mark on me, many decades later: I become panicky about even the possibility of running out of books to read!

Amazon offers various wishlist views. And yes, that is a danger of sorting them.

There was a story on the news a few weeks ago about shortages of some materials and distribution issues affecting the publishing industry here - I think I did share it somewhere with a comment about the world wide book famine maybe becoming a slightly more real possibility. So long as my house doesn't burn down I should be ok....touch wood.

I'm having LOTS of fun listening to the audiobooks of the new-ish mystery series by Lynne Truss. Features a very improbable criminal mastermind, a very oblivious inspector with a ridiculous public profile, and a precocious new constable. Set in Brighton in the 1950s, and pretty much pitch-perfect.

>48 Chatterbox: OK, I am going to have to check out 1979 too since like you, that was my senior year of high school/first year of university.

>55 Chatterbox: I will have to seek out that series too.

Happy Thursday, Suzanne!

>55 Chatterbox: I'm on the case!

>16 LizzieD: I finally read the Maggie Gee book about Virginia Woolf accidentally being reincarnated (courtesy of an academic on a research trip to NYC) and loved it. It's quirky, but I really relished the fact that Gee captures Woolf's voice in the segments recounted by her character (there are three narrators -- the academic, the academic's young teenage daughter, who is unhappily ensconced in a boarding school, and Woolf). They go to Istanbul as well as NYC. Some of it is funny, some is poignant, some is thought-provoking. A good book for bookish people.

I found two of her other novels that seem to be a loosely-linked novel & sequel, on sale for Kindle and now have those on my TBR list.

And so it goes -- read one book from the TBR, acquire two more!!

The kinda cool news of the day is that Random House received an offer from a Japanese publisher for the rights to (Japanese) publication of Chasing Goldman Sachs. The money won't be much, it will take months to appear, and the book's Japanese translation won't be available for about 18 months or so, but I think it's kinda cool for a book that celebrated its 11th birthday this year!

Ending the year on a good note, hopefully.

>59 Chatterbox: terrific!

>59 Chatterbox: That is cool! Congratulations!

ETA: I still treasure my copy of the book that everyone signed up in NY.

>61 alcottacre: That's a one-of-a-kind book!! First edition; "association copy", etc. etc. Maybe one day it will be worth more than $1.57 or whatever and you can sell it and go on a cruise!

not selling MY signed copy of that book, no how no way

>59 Chatterbox: Cool!

Or in other words: Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

>65 SandDune: Not sure I'd want to risk trying to pronounce that, Rhian, although my g-grandfather, Llewellyn Thomas, could have done so, I suspect!! And Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année to you...

I finally started reading Blaze Island by Catherine Bush, which was a gift from a RL friend of 40 years' standing. My friend, F, went to have it signed for me during the pandemic and there's a lovely inscription. I almost didn't want to start reading it in case it didn't live up to (a) the enjoyment I've had from those of her books I've already read, (b) the love and friendship of the gesture and (c) the inscription (clearly F told the author a fair amount about me.) Bush is one of those not-terribly prolific novelists (I think this is her fifth novel?) whose writing is crisp and elegant, whose characters are distinctive and well-drawn and who devise intriguing plots. They are very character-driven in the sense that you remember the people who inhabit her landscapes, but not devoid of intriguing plot lines, as too many contemporary novelists whose writing I admire can be. If you are intrigued, see if you can track down Rules of Engagement, one of her early works that was a runner-up for the Triillium Prize when it was published (Ontario's big book award, which has flagged a number of great writers for me...)

I'm planning to try to completely relax between now and Monday -- oh, and do lots of reading, of course!!!

*sigh* I love to come here because I know I'm always going to find new leads.

>58 Chatterbox: I have the M. Gee but haven't read it or any other non-genre fiction this year that I can think of. I think the 2 you must have are My Cleaner and My Driver"? I really enjoyed the first one but never made it firmly into the second. I did win her memoirs here through ER and enjoyed that too.

And I will be looking for C. Bush and L. Truss.

Congratulations on the Japanese deal!!!! Good for you! Good for them!

Merry Relaxation with Books and Cats!

>68 LizzieD: Peggy, I have ARCs of some of the Truss titles -- not sure about the first one but am pretty sure I have #2 and #3 here, if you would like me to send them along. Not parting with the Catherine Bush novels I have!

And yes, the two by Maggie Gee that I added to Mt. TBR are indeed My Cleaner and My Driver.

>67 Chatterbox: - I have read only one book by Bush, Claire's Head. I don't remember much of it other than the title refers to the main character, Claire, and her migraines. And tht she makes maps, for a living. Why that, and nothing else about the story, would stay with me, I don't know!

>70 jessibud2: Aha, an example of a character-driven plot (kinda sorta). Rules of Engagement deals with conflict and how we cope with that -- the plot moves from the protagonist's current study of military interventions to her history as being the young woman two fellow students literally fought a duel over (pistols at dawn...) Claire's Head focuses on a young woman whose sister goes missing (both have migraines!) and her quest to find her sister is a way to explore all kinds of relationships in her/their past.

It's snowing! I haven't seen my landlady in about a week. She left (as usual) for Boston on the weekend, but (unusually) hasn't been here all week. Sent her a text, but (unusally) no response. Hope everything is OK with her. Don't know whether or not she has hired a snow removal service this winter, so I'll go out and shovel the sidewalk later this afternoon. My other neighbors are away in Pennsylvania, for a family emergency of some kind. Usually, I enjoy being on my own in the building, but knowing that the. neighbors on the top floor are coping with issues and not knowing what's up with the landlord has me slightly on edge.

Have a lovely holiday, Suz.

These were our family ornaments this year and, despite COVID, a merry time was had by all. I hope the same is true for your holiday and here's to next year!! Happy reading.

Very very quiet day, mostly. I had a migraine, and my father had more Parkinson's-induced hallucinations, when left him very anxious and confused, I spent much of my time addressing that. He's having dinner with friends today, thank heavens, so I can step down from my remote cross-border monitoring (he's in Canada; I'm in the US). Talked to my ex-SIL today, and arranged a Zoom with the kids (one niece, two nephews) for tomorrow with my father. Tough being part of a fractured family, and I think it probably puts a tremendous burden on them.

>62 Chatterbox: >63 magicians_nephew: I am with Jim on this one. Not ever selling it, even for $1.57!

>76 Chatterbox: Sorry to hear about the migraine, Suzanne. I hope it is gone soon!

I hope you had a merry Christmas. The hubbub is over here and I can now start to relax. I am doing some reading today and will clean out my car so that I can start the return trip to Alabama next week. Glad you had a white Christmas. We had no snow here and the temp was about 70 degrees. I spent most of two days cooking so am glad that Christmas is over. I ended up playing the piano for the church Christmas program. I didn't do a great job but it served the purpose.

Mom and sister went shopping today so things are quiet here and I am working on catching up on the threads and reading.

Forget your stresses and strains
As the old year wanes;
All that now remains
Is to bring you good cheer
With wine, liquor or beer
And wish you a special new year.

Happy New Year, Suz.

And my 2022 thread is now up....

https://www.librarything.com/topic/338216